What are you currently playing?

[Mal]

Time for FE Three Houses. I used to be a TA you know! I dreamed of kicking my student asses and taking their heads. 

 

Edit: It's really fucking good. 

Edited September 8, 2019 by Mal

[FMW]

I've purchased both FE 3 Houses and Dragon Quest 11.  On one hand that's a dumb decision.  Two turn based, slow paced, million hour long JRPGs at the same time?  That's enough to fill the schedule for the rest of 2019!  But actually I'm finding that they're a killer 1-2 punch.  Fire Emblem is a pretty demanding and granular game.  You need to manage the allocation and durability of every item in your army, every units current class and future class pathing, motivation, support rankings, etc.  And I'm playing on hard/classic so I need to pay close attention on the battlefield.

 

Meanwhile Dragon Quest 11 is the opposite.  The combat is VERY simple, the world is vibrant and pleasant to spend time in, the story is simple, the game literally reminds you where you are and what you're supposed to be doing every time you boot it up.  If I've had a rotten day at work or am low energy, Dragon Quest is the "easy listening" game option in my life.  And I have Fire Emblem for when I have a block of time and I'm like "all right, I'm fired up and gonna put some quality time into a video game and beat that sucker".

 

...the play hours thing is still a problem though.  At my current pace these two games are literally going to be the only things I play until January.

[TheMightyEthan]

@FMW If it makes you feel better, FE3H only took me 45 hours on my first playthrough. It's only millions of hours if you feel compelled to play all paths (which I do...).

[TheMightyEthan]

[Mister Jack]

My god, Iceborne adds so many improvements to Monster Hunter World that I don't know if I could ever go back to playing the vanilla version on another platform. That's not even getting into all the new content. There are QoL improvements in here I never even realized I wanted. Why the hell are actual expansions like this such a rare thing now? It may have cost more but there is way more bang for the buck here than almost any 15-20 dollar DLC chapter I've played in other games.

[MetalCaveman]

Halo Wars 2.

 

Fucking kill me, two of these "defend your base from endless waves of enemies" missions, fucking hate these kinds of missions, and two in a row is just torture. I'll happily take 10 tank missions from VC over this BS. 

 

Other than that, the rest of the game is pretty fun.  

[TheMightyEthan]

Fire Emblem: Three Houses Golden Deer path.

 

Once more unto the breach...

[Mal]

Okay... Time for a third go of Three Houses. That was a much needed break. And Ethan, I'll address your comment from the other thread soonish.

[Mr. GOH!]

I'm about 20 hours into Disco Elysium and loving it. It's among the best RPGs I have ever played and has one of the most interesting character building systems in any game. It is tough to get into how it is so special without spoiling it; it is built around you and the your character discovering the world and game systems at the same time. This is not a combat-heavy game - I believe all combat is simply a skill check, though I haven't had any combat yet, so I could be wrong. It is the bastard child of visual novels, 80s text adventures, Sierra/Lucasarts 90's adventure games, late 90's/early 00's Western RPGs like Planescape: Torment, Fallout, and Baldur's Gate 2. If you don't like reading in games, then DE is not for you - this is a game that revolves around conversations and text encounters, though the actual writing is fantastic and hilarious. The narrative and NPCs are very reactive, more so than any game I've ever played in the sense that there is a ton of freedom of choice as to how you deal with most problems and NPCs actually remember what you've done and said in ways other similar games. The narrative doesn't appear to railroad you with false or limited choices, a la Telltale games; I replayed a couple of sequences to see if different approaches yielded different outcomes and holy shit did they ever yield different outcomes. There is also a good amount of "fail forward" opportunities in which if you fail a skill check or fuck up a task, new and different potentially beneficial opportunities may reveal themselves, which you would not have seen if you had "succeeded." 

 

It's an isometric game evocative of Baldur's Gate with a beautiful oil-painting-like art style that contrasts nicely with just how decrepit, corrupt, and degenerate the world and its inhabitants are. The art style throughout is consistent and excellent.

 

I will put the rest of my impressions behind a spoiler tag for any spoiler fanatics out there, but I won't discuss anything that isn't revealed within the first ten minutes of gameplay. 

 

Spoiler

The basic setup is that your character awakens in a destroyed hotel room after what appears to have been an epic bender of drugs and alcohol that has apparently erased his memory of himself and the world. He, however, has 26(or more) voices in his head to help guide him and recover his memory or become someone new. 24 of these voices are internal personifications of each of your character's skills. These voices converse with you and each other throughout the game based on your skill points. The more points in a skill, the more often it will pipe up in your head or highlight objects or points of interest in the world and the more likely you are to pass the many, many skill checks in conversations and the world. Skills are heavily affected by the many pieces of clothing you can find or buy, most of which affect two or more skills, oftentimes adding to once skill and subtracting from another. Skills are also affected by the game's very good but very odd perk system in which your character is confronted with an idea that he can think about for a period of time and then adopt as a permanent thought that may give bonuses and penalties to skills, among many other effects I won't spoil. It is impossible to overstate just how large an affect your skill point allocation affects the game and how you are best able to approach various problems. The writing for each skill is great; each has its distinct personality, interests, and quirks. There are some surprises with how this system works when you invest a lot of points in a skill or lean heavily and successfully on a skill, too.

 

At character creation, you can allocate 12 points between four attributes, each of which governs six related skills that begin with the same value as the governing attribute but which you can improve as you gain xp throughout the game. The attributes are Intellect, Psyche, Physique, and Motorics. Intellect is how smart your character is and governs skills that include your ability to analyze clues, use logic, reconstruct events from looking at a crime scene, and use your brains when interacting with others. Psyche is your emotional intelligence and sensitivity, with skills that let you understand NPC's motivations and thoughts, persuade others, understand the culture of your police precinct and cops in general, and other more vague things. Physique governs your body's health and physicality, though it affects your sensitivity to the city itself in a strange way. It also governs a skill that represents your drive to consume drugs and alcohol as well as your tolerance to drugs and alcohol. This is a game in which you can take a *lot* of amphetamines if you want to. Motorics is your perception, dexterity, ability to use technology, and your overall composure.

 

My favorite skill is the Psyche skill Inland Empire, which involves being aware of the weirdness in the world. My character is heavy in Intellect and Psyche, with a few boosted Motorics skills like Perception so I can find more hidden doors and objects. 

 

 

I am having a huge blast with the game and suggest it to anyone who likes the role-playing aspects of RPGs. 

[Mal]

It's time for Cold Steel 3 for my game when I'm at home. This is going to take a while. Anyhow, kind of funny the game starts on my birthday. Also funny how it for sure have an oppressive feeling to it. This localization sure have a lot to live up to. Doesn't help I spotted a typo already but it's minor... 

HOPEFULLY THIS WILL BE GOOD AND THAT IT REVIVES THE SERIES FOR ME SO I CAN GO CONQUER ZERO AND AO. 

 

Alternatively, my mobile away from home games will be FE Three Houses (truth be told, it's kind of a grind to start a third time) as a long burner and River City Girls. YEAAAAAAH! 

[TheMightyEthan]

Yeah, FE3H definitely takes a while to pick up, but I'm working my way through my third playthrough and I'm not sick of it yet.

[TheMightyEthan]

@Mr. GOH! I'm pretty sure you've said each of the last three games you've played is GOTY 

[Mr. GOH!]

@TheMightyEthan Indeed! because each has been better than the last.

[toxicitizen]

Put a couple hours into The Outer Worlds thanks to Game Pass. If you like Fallout but not what it's become under Bethesda, then definitely don't sleep on this one, guys. So far it's basically Fallout in all but name, except good and actually funny. It also doesn't look gray/brown and depressing as fuck. I'm definitely excited to put more time into it over the week-end.

 

Also, I can't help but notice the irony in how Epic turned me off of ever using their store by taking games away from Steam and having a garbage launcher. Meanwhile, Microsoft is doing basically the opposite by committing to putting their games on Steam and offering a great service with Game Pass. And that's earned them enough good will for me to be willing to use their shitty Xbox app. Funny how that works...

[TheMightyEthan]

Game pass is a sweet ass deal.

[toxicitizen]

Put some more time in Outer Worlds today and yeah, this is pretty much New Vegas 2 in all but name. The first fucking main quest of the game already hit me with a choice like

 

[MetalCaveman]

Days Gone, it just did that thing where it goes "You know all the stuff you've done so far? That was just the first half of the game!", except that unlike some other open world games *cough*Ubisoft*cough* this time I'm actually happy about it, I'm looking forward to exploring this new area and seeing what stuff I can find here. It also looks like the camps here have some pretty cool upgrades for the bike and weapons so I assume there'll be new/stronger enemies to deal with.  

[TheMightyEthan]

I remember playing Tales of Destiny on the PS1, and playing for like 10 hours, and defeating the up-till-then Big Bad, and thinking I'd beat the game, and then the opening credits started...

 

(I was young and it was my first JRPG, I had no perspective on how long to expect it to be.)

[Baconrath]

Cold Steel 3 is pretty dope

[TheMightyEthan]

Played a couple hours of The Outer Worlds. It definitely feels like a New Vegas spiritual successor. I'm really enjoying it so far.

[Mister Jack]

I got Jedi Fallen Order from Redbox. Remember game rentals? Anyway I'll give my full thoughts when I finish it but so far it's definitely the best Star Wars game since EA got their grubby hands on the license.

[MetalCaveman]

Ace Combat 7, mission 6 made me miss the Nosferatu from AC6, that thing would have been awesome for that mission.  

[TheMightyEthan]

I also have been playing Ace Combat 7, and man I got frustrated Mission 6. It seemed completely impossible until I finally googled it and learned that at the very beginning you can kill a few fighters and several bombers while they're still on the ground, and that provides a few thousand points right off the bat. Even with that though I still barely won, I only had like 1000 points to spare.

 

I only mention all that because Metal brought up Mission 6. Aside from that mission so far the game is fantastic and I've been absolutely loving it. And even Mission 6 was fun to actually play, it was just frustrating to lose repeatedly because I didn't have enough points, but it hasn't affected my overall view of the game at all.

[MetalCaveman]

Yeah, I ended up with 22-23K once I switched to the F-14 with long-range missiles and just stuck close to the ground shooting everything and ignoring AA gun damage as I learned they aren't that dangerous (on Normal, I assume they'll shred you in higher difficulties).  

 

Spoiler

For the second half I ignored the drones and focused on ground targets.  

 

[Mal]

Got two games at home that I will be working on... not sure if I should go handle these two in small chunks or find time to sink me teeth into them.

 

Trails of Cold Steel 3

I just got to Chapter 3 and decided that it will be a good point to stop for next time when I am able to play. Part of me want to stop and go through the Crossbell games so I can understand completely what is going on. Like, sure, the Crossbell games aren't required, even Rean and company are scratching their heads to what I assume to be concepts introduced in the Crossbell games but they would help out quite a bit. I'd argue they would help far more than the Sky games since Crossbell and CS are far more linked together than say Sky and CS/Crossbell. One thing for certain though, things are all coming together.

 

As for CS3 itself, I actually do like it better than the first two games. Having a more concise core cast helps a ton with character development. Combat concepts introduced (early or late game) in CS1/2 are far more fleshed out in CS3 making it a more fulfilling experience. Structurally, CS3 isn't that different from its predecessors but Rean's role helps spice up the school based roundup, I think. 

 

Overall, I think this is a good sequel. Not sure if it required two games before this to get to this point. I do like the first two games but they have their issues like with pacing and character development. CS3 is in some ways a recovery from those two games' weaknesses.

 

Gravity Rush

This game had me with poking the apple. I'm like the main character, Kat, I don't even know what is going on. I'm just going with the flow, saving an ungrateful kid in a strange land while floating all over the place. I was hoping for no combat but it's actually kind of fun when you can float around and do flying kicks.