toxicitizen

Also, I'm really digging Grailknights and Wind Rose! I guess the easiest way to find cool new metal bands is to pay attention to what @MetalCaveman posts in here.

No idea but they certainly seemed to have less marketing budget/capabilities than NISA. I still remember the launch trailer for the Steam release of TiTS FC. It was pretty rough. IIRC, it was edited by Hatsuu and she was basically having to learn how to edit a trailer on the job. You bring up an interesting point about Kondo running a fansite but I imagine he's super busy these days. Like, NISA had him for like a week and the reddit AMA they did was such a disaster due to time that they had to come back hours later to answer more questions. Kondo answered like 3 questions during the actual AMA and it was still only like 20 questions or so when all was said and done lol.

Easy Allies interviewed Kondo. I have to admit, getting him talking to western press isn't something XSEED ever managed to pull off, as far as I'm aware... Still watching but at the 4:15 mark he basically confirms that the Crossbell games are in the early stages of being ported to modern platforms. It could be a mistranslation but the answer sounds uncharacteristically definitive for Kondo. Remasters/rereleases would pretty much be the biggest chance for localization we've had yet. It would be a fucking NISA translation of course, but whatever, I'll take what I can get at this point. On that note, the patched translation for Ys VIII actually seems serviceable so far. I'm admittedly not the most qualified person to really appraise it but the only things that have really stood out to me were typos. There hasn't been anything as weird or stilted as the screenshots I've seen from the initial release. If they can get Cold Steel III-IV to at least this level (ideally above it) AND maintain consistency with the previous games, then my only real concern would be port quality. I've been lucky with Ys VIII in that I've only experienced one crash (so far, in ~16h of play) although I hear for some people it remains essentially unplayable. There was one weird bug where a cutscene before a boss fight played twice, for some reason. The framerate is all over the fucking place in some areas but between this and Durante having to rewrite the entire rendering pipeline to get Cold Steel I and II to run like you'd expect them to, I'm starting to think at least part of the blame here is on Falcom having shitty programming/optimization practices. We can only hope NISA have the common sense to hire Durante's company...

The short answer is because I hate myself.

Sane people that value their time: Me:

I dunno about that. I just finished Yooka-Laylee last night and I feel like I was pretty miserable the entire time.

I don't follow. Is that not the entire point of buying video games????

Lol for some reason, at some point I forgot that Ys VIII was originally a Vita game. I thought that what we've seen of Monstrum Nox looked super underwhelming but that's because I was mistakenly expecting a graphical bump in Lacrimosa of Dana. But in reality it looks only slightly better than Celceta. Also, in my first two hours of play I've already spotted two blatant typos. ?

Yooka-Laylee Ugh, it's fine. I mean, I guess? Obviously, it was fun enough for me to finish it and for the first couple worlds I was really enjoying it and wondering why the reception was so mixed. But if you're like me and must collect all the things, then you're gonna have to fuck with the minigames and they're almost all trash. The bosses are trash, too. So that leaves only the platforming and collecting that's actually fun but even then it's not exactly the best that's available out there. I found the platforming in A Hat in Time to be much more satisfying once I started to get a feel for the controls. The only thing Yooka-Laylee has over Hat in Time is the graphics. Hat in Time looked kinda basic and generic but Yooka-Laylee has a nice cartoony visual style that looks pretty good. The soundtrack is also really good. That's about it. If you're going to be playing just one indie 3D platformer, Snake Pass is still the GOAT. Play Snake Pass instead.

You're better off that way. This metagame was such a convoluted mess that I don't think they could've made it any more confusing if they had tried. It took them like a week to finally update it to a state where it was comprehensible by normal human beings...

Ended up getting these two a few days ago: And today, with the 6$ coupon I earned from the grand prix thing + selling a few more cards, I ended up finally taking the plunge on this: I'm mildly hopeful the "fixed" translation won't bug me too much, since I never really had any problems with NISA's work in Disgaea or Danganronpa. Either way I'm gonna have to make my peace with this shit because it doesn't look like the situation is gonna change anytime soon... Anyway, that should probably be it for me. I'm still tempted to get Battletech but that expensive season pass really makes me want to wait and get the complete edition for much cheaper in a year or two.

Yeah, I like Alestorm and I've been digging deeper into their stuff recently. It always seemed like this fun but silly pirate thing with a few fun drinking songs but turns out they actually have some serious bangers. GloryHammer, though, is just the right kind of stupid that speaks directly to my idiot brain. I can't help but love everything about it. I'm heavily invested in the tale of Angus McFife at this point lol. Those videos you posted are something else, though...

I've been listening to entirely too much GloryHammer for the past month (which might become its own lengthy post if I get around to it because whew!), so in an effort to not get completely burnt out on it I've been looking for other similarly non-shit power metal bands. And I think I found the next best thing? So there's this band called Beast in Black that makes synth-infused heavy metal inspired by bands like Judas Priest and whatnot. Good shit, but it gets better. See, they have another non-musical but very obvious inspiration. A little known Japanese manga that- well just look at the fucking art in these videos and it should be pretty damn obvious.

Yeah, I'd probably do the same if it was an option. I'm still hoping they'll announce a port before the console launch but I'm not holding my breath.

Between everything that's gone down and the uncertainty of PC releases going forward, I can't say I'm really concerned about spoilers right now. Kinda feels like I won't be playing CSIII-IV for a good long while (if ever). Also, did they actually say it's the next arc? I've seen people theorizing that it's going to be more of an expansion to CS kinda deal. And the Gematsu article on it had this bit: Plus, one of the screenshots shows a very familiar location.

The Sexy Brutale It's alright. By the end of it, the story gets pretty interesting and there's some neat ideas here. It also has a pretty strong aesthetic and a killer soundtrack. But the gameplay didn't really do anything for me. There's almost never anything to actually figure out for yourself, you usually just gotta follow people around and eavesdrop until they give you the solution. Sometimes you'll be missing a key piece of information and get stuck because what you think you need to do isn't working but that usually just means you stopped following someone too early and missed out on some info. I probably would've loved it if it had been more of a puzzle game. That soundtrack is pretty damn good, though!

FTFY. Speaking of torture, really tempted to finally get Ys VIII in the sale...

First round of purchases in the Steam sale. This ended up only costing me like 20 bucks because of that Sekiro refund I was able to keep + selling a bunch of trading cards over the last couple weeks. Also got an expansion for FFXIV as well as these in anticipation for Halo MCC! Might end up getting more but the other things on the list are a bit pricier so I might hold off.

Finally gave Final Fantasy XIV a serious shot after buying it like 3 years ago. I'm still on a free trial account but I'm like 2 levels away from hitting the trial's level cap, so I'll be activating my key and free month soon to keep going. I'll also get the Stormblood expansion next week during the Steam sale, I think. Anyway, yeah the game is actually pretty fun. I was curious because I kept hearing that the story puts recent single-player FFs to shame and that it was feasible to play solo for the most part. There's some forced dungeons that you have to run as part of the main story and I was actually expecting them be what killed the game for me. But they turned out to be the most fun aspect of the game by far, which really came as a surprise. Also I have my own chocobo now, so that's pretty cool. This is the first traditional MMO I manage to really get into and it actually helped me understand why I could never get into WoW. Main story quests are clearly marked as such in FFXIV and at this point there's exp boosts to help you get through the first 60 levels faster. So you end up overleveled just by doing the main story, which means you're better off ignoring side-quests (unless they unlock something you want). IIRC WoW doesn't really have a main questline driving you forward, so I'd just end up doing side-quests aimlessly due to my completionist nature. It was boring as fuck and I could never stick with it for more than a few hours before dropping it. At the time I just kinda figured that MMOs weren't for me because CLEARLY everyone else was seeing something in WoW that I wasn't but I guess it's just WoW that wasn't for me because I'm enjoying the hell out of FFXIV.

Yeah, the best way I've seen it described is that it feels like someone was following a plot outline and never added any of the connective tissue to make the story flow properly. The last third of the game is basically just going through a checklist of plot points one after the other. There could have been a truly great game here, like you said the main party is pretty fun to hang with and the world is gorgeous. I had the most fun when I was just doing road trip stuff with my bros, like camping and doing hunts. The fact that those basic as fuck side-quests were the best part of the game says a lot about how awful the story is lol.

Okami Well, it only took me like 10 years (pretty sure I bought it when they ported it to PS3) but I can finally scratch this one off the backlog! I'm really glad I finally got around to it because it's far from perfect but there's a lot to love here. The music and story are both pretty good but that art style was a stroke of genius (no pun intended) because for a PS2 game it still looks absolutely gorgeous. Even the blatantly 2D vegetation that rotates with the camera doesn't look bad or out of place. It's crazy to me that they had to go with this simpler look due to technical limitations because I can't imagine the game would still look anywhere near this great if they had kept the originally intended more realistic look. It's tempting to say that the game is too long but ultimately I can't really point to a single part that felt like padding. It's definitely way too easy, though. The only two challenging things in the entire game were some optional combat arenas and the fucking fishing mini-game, and the arenas were mostly just annoying to deal with. The trials weren't interesting or challenging in a fun way, they just threw way too many enemies at you at once, to the point where it often became a visual clusterfuck where I couldn't even tell wtf was going on. Also, for a game that's clearly going for a Zelda thing, it sure could've used more actual dungeons. A lot of them are really small and have basically no puzzles in them. Even the final one is basically just "Uh... fight these 5 bosses again, I guess?". That's probably the one aspect I'd say was genuinely weak. Even the combat, despite being way too easy, was fun due to the way it incorporates the brush mechanic. Oh and I love it when a game doesn't waste your time by needlessly requiring multiple playthroughs! And with that my Japan-themed gaming streak comes to an end because I don't think I have a fifth game to keep it going. No idea what the hell I'll play next, though. After the last few, probably something short...

Oh right, that's vaguely familiar. Guess I'm due for a replay before Eternal comes out!

Was that hinted at in the original or something? If so, I guess I was paying attention to the story about as much as the Doom Slayer himself because it never occurred to me that he could be anyone other than the Doom guy lol. Also, just ended up on the Doom wiki and apparently the Doom guy (or at least someone in the Doom universe?) is called B.J. Blazkowicz III??? Yes, that B.J. Blazkowicz. So Doom is a canonical sequel to Wolfenstein?!? ?

Dear God, Okami just won't fucking end. I mean, it's not overstaying its welcome or anything (at least not yet) but today it pulled the whole "Shit's getting real! Gotta be close to the end-PSYCH! Here's a whole new area you gotta go explore!" thing again. I had heard there was a moment where the game looks like it's ending but ends up opening up even more but that was like 15 hours in, I didn't expect it to happen a second time lol. I have to say, though, I'm really glad I played this at a time when I was actively looking for something nice and relaxing (to follow up Nioh), because I feel like at any other time I would've bounced off of it a while ago. It's a beautiful game and kinda scratches that Zelda itch but it's ultimately way too easy. Especially when you remember it's a Kamiya game. I knew to be careful not to die more than 5 times for a missable achievement but no joke, 35 hours in I haven't died a single fucking time. There's a food pouch that, IIRC, when you fill it up you get a free revive upon death. Can't say for sure though because even after upgrading it 3 times it still hasn't activated even once lol.

Oh my god, yes! This and VA-11 Hall-A both getting sequels is just the best thing. Now to do a replay of the first one to finish getting all the achievements.