toxicitizen

So there was a Dragon Quest 35th anniversary livestream and they announced a bunch of games including Dragon Quest XII. But also a remake of Dragon Quest III done in the Octopath Traveler HD-2D art style! I was hoping for something like this from basically the second they initially revealed Octopath so I can't wait to get my hands on this! I mean, look at it! It's perfect! And I hope S-E understands that this means I now expect a Final Fantasy VI remake done in this style.

Halo: Combat Evolved - Anniversary Edition I've never owned an Xbox so I've never really paid much attention to (or had any interest in) Halo. I wouldn't say I went into this with low expectations, but I definitely went in with no expectations. So it was kind of a shock to see just how much this 20 year old game holds up. Now, like I said, I went in basically blind. I had tried a mission or two and a little bit of multiplayer with friends back in 2001 but that was it. So I didn't know anything about Halo other than it's the guy with the green helmet. At first I thought the shooting felt kinda weightless but I got over that pretty quickly because the combat is actually pretty fun. So I was enjoying the campaign just fine until halfway through it starts getting all creepy and suddenly I'm being swarmed by little Cthulhu monsters. And it's at this point that I'm starting to wonder: Why did no one ever tell me Halo was good?!? Some levels with the Flood were a little frustrating (I swear sometimes these motherfuckers would spawn infinitely until I died and on reload they just kinda didn't? I never really got what was going on there) but overall this is just a solid campaign. You can definitely tell it came out in 2001 but I'd honestly rank it up there with the first Half-Life. It's just that good. And man, that soundtrack! I knew the main Halo theme was great but this is such a blatant example of how forgettable and unexceptional game soundtracks have become. I can't remember the last time I actually noticed the soundtrack in a game. Like, literally stop and go "woah this kinda slaps!" Actually, no, that was Witcher 3 last year but other than that my point stands. Some tracks could be right out of a sci-fi movie epic while others gave me Deus Ex flashbacks Oh and how great is it that you can switch between the original and remastered graphics in real-time, at the press of a button? All remasters should have this! And while on the subject of graphics, the remastered ones do a good job of making the game feel a bit more modern because some areas in the original can feel bland and textureless. But there's also moments when the remastered textures feel overly busy and take away from the original art direction. Mostly when it comes to the alien architecture within the Halo. I always found the bare concrete look to be kinda visually striking. I mean, like I said, I only played the early missions briefly but I still remembered the look. If that's not strong art direction then I don't know what is. For all I know, maybe the remastered graphics are more consistent with future games but there were some areas where I felt the new ones to be a little busy visually in a way that made it less awe-inspiring. So yeah, I've officially taken the first step on my MCC journey and it's off to a pretty strong start!

@Mister JackThanks for the tip! It definitely made that section more manageable. And I got that fight I was stuck on pretty easily when I tried again today. I think I had just been playing for too long and was getting frustrated too easily. Wrapped up Village of Shadows today and immediately after did a full speedrun+no heal+no merchant run. I considered adding knife only to this but I figured I might wanna use healing items for that. Think I need a break from the game now. I really don't feel like jumping into mercenaries right now, at least.

Is it just me or does Village of Shadows gradually turn into complete bullshit? At first it's fine and the way it messes with enemy placement or throws in a late-game enemy where you're not expecting one is kinda great. It keeps you on your toes. But then you get near the end of the game and suddenly normal enemies can take a blast from a fully upgraded automatic shotgun and not even stagger. I was trying to avoid using my infinite ammo wolfsbane as much as possible but once I realized how unfair things had become I just said fuck it and started using nothing else. And then there's two boss fights in a row where you start in a super tight spot and can't easily get out of it. I actually rage quit on the second one, it just seemed random and unfair. I'll try again tomorrow, I guess. And after that one comes and I don't even want to imagine what kind of nightmare it's going to be. It was already frustrating on hardcore...

Yeah, they look great and I still really want them. It's just that the last time I read a good chunk of Berserk was so long ago (over a decade, probably closer to two) that I've forgotten basically everything about it. Except for the Golden Age because that's all they keep adapting lol. So given the likelihood that it'll remain unfinished, I'm thinking I may be better off leaving it alone... I was in the middle of typing something about assistants completing the story for him when Jack's reply popped up. I read on reddit that Miura had started a studio to train assistants to better replicate his style. Do you guys know if there's any truth to that? I'm also wondering if Miura was the kind to have everything planned out with copious notes like Robert Jordan had for Wheel of Time. That seems necessary for anyone to realistically step in to complete the story in any kind of satisfactory manner, I think.

I was planning on starting to collect these sick looking deluxe editions in the near future. But if it's not going to be finished... I don't know if I wanna do this to myself.

Aww man.

Hahaha, no.

Wait, so each game has its own separate trophy list and then the collection itself also has one? Huh. Stuff like this kinda makes me miss Platinum trophies sometimes. On Steam there's nothing at the end, you just have all the achievements. A lot of games don't even have an equivalent achievement for the Platinum itself, Steam just has one less achievement. Like when I lost my 100% on RE7 after the DLC came out. There was no indication that I had ever completed the game. It just stopped being at 100% overnight without any distinction from having never done it.

Resident Evil Village I finished it a few days ago but I wanted to sit on it a bit before doing this write up because I have some thoughts. The game overall is simply fantastic. It's Resident Evil 7 but bigger and better. The obvious RE4 inspirations are a very welcome addition to the point where it honestly detracted from the horror a bit lol. It reminded me of Evil Within 2 where the core gameplay loop was so engaging that I was just having too much fun to be scared. I don't know what it is about a hub-based game structure but it just ticks all my boxes. Coming back to the Village able to unlock a new section to explore and loot is the kind of stuff that makes me never want to stop playing. I've also noticed that Village does the exact same thing RE7 did with front-loading its best content, although what constitutes best is really down to personal preference. The first main area is Castle Dimitrescu and, much like the main Baker house, it's classic Resident Evil through and through. Puzzles and emblem keys and everything. It's great! I kinda wished the entire game had been like that but, sadly, it's the only section that is. And I'm starting to think that Capcom either doesn't know what it wants these games to be or it wants them to be many things at once. The different areas of RE7 each had their own gameplay style and Village continues that trend. The last main area is a clear RE4-style gauntlet where you're just fighting off hordes and hordes of enemies and it's a blast to just unload all you have on these motherfuckers after everything you've gone through. But the other two main areas in-between feel like little more than glorified boss fights, which was a bit disappointing. This isn't meant to be a length complaint, though. The in-game timer said it lasted me just shy of 12 hours (Steam's more accurate one said 17h), which is pretty damn good for Resident Evil. I got my money's worth and then some. And I'm certainly not faulting Capcom for experimenting with stuff like House Beneviento. Those two sections are really good set pieces but I kinda wished there had been more "mansion bullshit" preceding them. But that's probably just me. So as far as the gameplay goes, Village is definite homerun for Capcom. The story is where basically all of my criticism is aimed. It's fine for like 90% of the game but that last hour or so... lol some choices were made. I'll spoiler tag my thoughts from here on out but the non-spoilery TL;DR of how I feel about the ending is best summarized by this pic: Man, I just can't help myself with these wall-of-text posts lately. ? So yeah, overall Village is probably the best one since RE4 and I loved it despite having mixed feelings about the ending. I wonder if it'll get the same DLC treatment RE7 did. Having just recently gone through all of it, that was honestly an insane amount of extra content. RE2 barely got anything by comparison.

Yeah, the one thing that I feel has aged a bit is the lack of ADS and the feel of the gunplay. It feels weightless and floaty in a way that feels like a huge step down after having played a bunch of Destiny 2 like a year ago. Probably not a fair comparison to make but that was my only point of reference for what a Bungie shooter played like, so my expectations in that regard were probably a bit high. That soundtrack is god tier, though. Holy shit. I honestly can't remember the last time a game soundtrack blew me away like this.

Been meaning to do this ever since losing my 100% when the DLC released, so it's good to finally be done. Some of the DLC was better than I expected, especially End of Zoe. And upon replaying Not a Hero to unlock some stuff for my professional run, it was actually better than I remembered. I thought I was being slick in doing Ethan Must Die before doing my Professional/Joe Must Die runs of Not a Hero/End of Zoe and that it would be a breeze to clean up the last two achievements but they actually turned out to be much harder than I expected. Definitely way harder than the main game on Hardcore. I used video guides for tips and optimal strategies and I don't even feel bad about it. A lot of this bullshit is honestly unfair and specifically designed to fuck you over lol. If I had gone in blindly, I most likely would've ended up stuck in an unwinnable scenario somehow. Especially in Not a Hero. Now on to Village to do the same!

Today, on a whim, I finally got around to starting Halo Master Chief Collection. This is something I'll probably be playing on and off for a long time cause I don't wanna get burned out on it but yeah, I played the first couple missions of Halo CE. Seems pretty fun so far. Oh and on a definitely unrelated note, I got my first COVID shot today!

I really want to get it too but I know I'm not gonna play it anytime soon so that makes it easier to hold off.

@TheMightyEthanThis has to be a super early announcement with the game being pretty far off but there you go.

I just finished Village and, uh, welp...

Going back and forth between Village and RE7 cause I wanna make my first playthrough last and I don't like playing horror games during the day. And holy shit, Ethan Must Die mode fucking sucks. It's just manageable enough that you wanna keep trying but it's so fucking unfair at times. If you don't get certain drops you might as well just restart because certain sections just won't be possible. It genuinely feels like it's deliberately wasting your time and I fucking hate it. Update: Ethan has, in fact, survived. It still sucked, but I did it. And it was on a run I thought was doomed, too. Didn't have anywhere near enough ammo to fight Marguerite so I ran out of my hidey-hole to try and find supplies (which of course I didn't) but I got lucky and she got fucked by turrets while I was running around so my last 4 meager pistol shots were miraculously enough to finish her off.

At the info you posted, not at you personally. I didn't realize CoD had bounced back so much. Like I said, last I heard it was in decline but it's been a few years since I paid any attention to the franchise.

Yeah, I also saw that 12h figure floating around. That's why Jack's playtime surprised me so much. I was hoping 12h was on the lower end of things. I looked at my spreadsheet for that year and I have RE7 logged with 12h of playtime, which has to be the Steam timer and not the in-game one. I'm a pretty slow player so hopefully Village will last me even longer lol.

Not there yet, so good to know! I just got out of uh... the first big area, to keep it vague. You mean beyond the typical RE stuff? I'm assuming there's the usual unlockables for speedruns and stuff, and I know this one has mercenaries mode and an extra difficulty beyond hardcore. So yeah, I'm planning to do multiple runs but still. I was really hoping game length would be one of the things it borrowed from RE4 lol. ----- Oh and while I'm here... Resident Evil 7 I did a replay of it this week and finally got around to playing the DLC. The main game is still so good but man is its quality front-loaded. The starting bit in the main house is still the best part of the game by far. I was actually nervous all over again for the first hour or so until I started remembering everything about it lol. And once you leave the main house it never quite reaches the same level again. As for the DLC, I had only done the Chris one, Not a Hero, and it wasn't exactly amazing. And I tried the Nightmare mini-game and got frustrated with that (not super into that kind of horde mode gameplay) so I bounced off the game at the time. But this time I did all the banned tapes as well as played End of Zoe for the first time. Nightmare was still annoying but the other banned tapes were actually pretty fun. The escape the room one, the demented poker game and the one where you play as Zoe when the Bakers first got infected were all great. The one where you have to bring food to Jack was alright but I was getting short on time (and patience), so I said fuck it and watched video guides to get the S ranks for the achievements. I might've spent more time with it if I was starved for more RE7 but with Village just a day away I didn't really feel like memorizing the levels and figuring out optimal food routes on my own. Finished things with End of Zoe, which was surprisingly good. Playing as a swamp redneck that gets into fist fights with zombies, gators and the fucking Swamp Thing is the kind of silly bullshit I can get into. I'm actually kicking myself for waiting this long to play it. It was way more fun than Not a Hero. I still have 3 achievements left, though. I wanted to get it all done before Village, but I ran out of time. So I'll just get back to it after, I guess. I need to do Ethan Must Die and play both story DLCs on their hardest difficulties.

Jesus. And here I was thinking I made too much progress tonight and stopped because I don't want it to end too quickly hahaha. I kinda hope you rushed though, cause that playtime is short. Pretty sure my first run of RE7 took me longer than that... And it would mean I'm almost at the halfway point which...

Fuck, that looks good. Why have I not played the original yet? Oh right....

Jesus Christ... ?