What game are you playing?

[Bhaalspawn Jr]

Baldur's Gate 3

Started playing it for the first time two months ago and have been hooked ever since. Wish I found this website's anti-woke mods before starting it though. The game becomes such a wokefest in Act 3 that I just want to go full Dark Urge despite this good guy playthrough I'm doing.

I'll do another run with all the fantastic mods that this website offers. With those, it will probably be one of my favourite games of all time.

[Nemesis]

Kingdom Come: Deliverance, then Hallow Knight or Loop Hero when I want something mindless.

[rusty_shackleford]

I am still in the castle of wizardry 6. This is going to take time.

[KnightoftheWind]

Beat The Last Story and The Chronicles of Riddick: Escape from Butcher Bay. The Last Story, overall, is a decent but forgettable action JRPG. My compliments to the pacing in the beginning eventually led to repetitive dialogue and tedious back-and-forth sessions between the bar your friends are staying at, and the castle. The game also has a lot of the typical melodramatic romance you find in these games, and by the end I just wanted the game to be over. I'd give the game a 5/10 overall, and I think I'll be swearing off JRPGs from this point forward aside from a potential Dragon Quest and Final Fantasy VII playthrough down the line.

Escape from Butcher Bay is another game I've heard about but never played for myself, and so I gave it a shot. It's also a decent but forgettable cinematic FPS, with stealth elements. The voice acting in this game is below average to just plain bad, which seems oddly typical for games starring highly paid Hollywood actors. As a fan of Pitch Black and the 2013 Riddick film, it was interesting playing through a game set in that universe, but it boils down to your typical prison drama with Sci-Fi elements, and the gameplay is unremarkable. The shooting is imprecise, and the melee combat feels like a pre-alpha prototype of a Condemned game. I'd also give it a 5/10 overall.

Update: Also beat "Assault on Dark Athena", the direct sequel to Escape from Butcher Bay. I believe the game is significantly better than the first, with a better plot, better voice acting, better characters, and improved visuals and character animations. The character animation is so good during cutscenes in fact, that it puts some modern games to shame. Both games REALLY use a lot of bloom however, so if you're not a fan of 7th gen-era bloom you're not going to like either game. This game focuses less on melee combat compared to the first, which is good, but the times there are melee combat it really shows how poor the mechanics are. One encounter early on really ****** me off because of it, and I question if the devs playtested through it or not. The final boss ****** me off even more, not because of the melee combat but don't even get me started on that right now. You also spend more time outdoors during the second half, which is a very nice change of pace from the grimy interiors you had been experiencing before, and there are some light climbing sections too. I was going to give the game a low 7/10, but those two encounters dropped it an entire point so it's gonna be a 6/10 from me. I'd say these are good little expanded universe stories set in the Riddick universe, and it's very consistent thematically with the films. If you could call them "movie tie-ins", they are among the better ones despite their shortcomings.

[methoxetamine]

Finished Triangle Strategy. It was very good but hard to recommend due to how story heavy it is. I didn't mind, but you gotta be in the mood for what is essentially 50/50 VN and SRPG gameplay. I'll probably check the true ending out on youtube tho because I cbf'd to do another run

Picked Stranger of Paradise back up, I started it a couple times in the past year but always got sidetracked by something. Trying to finish it this time. Also started FF5 on my 3DS

[J1M]

The Riddick game was never praised as a shooter. In it's time it was acknowledged for three things:
1. Vin Diesel's direct involvement in development.
2. First person melee/brawling being significantly above average.
3. A movie tie-in game that was quality, not simply a retelling of the film, and considered equivalent to the films in terms of official canon.

[Tangerine]

Finished Triangle Strategy. It was very good but hard to recommend due to how story heavy it is. I didn't mind, but you gotta be in the mood for what is essentially 50/50 VN and SRPG gameplay. I'll probably check the true ending out on youtube tho because I cbf'd to do another run

Picked Stranger of Paradise back up, I started it a couple times in the past year but always got sidetracked by something. Trying to finish it this time. Also started FF5 on my 3DS

Stranger of Paradise was much better than I expected. I received it as a joke gift, but ended up going through it in co-op and had a blast. Jack is one of the better Final Fantasy protagonists and there's a bit more to him than the memes suggest.

[Norfleet]

Jack is one of the better Final Fantasy protagonists and there's a bit more to him than the memes suggest.

Is he the spike-haired kid with the oversized or exotic weapon that literally no one else on the entire planet seems to use, yet somehow every store carries them?

[Tangerine]

Jack is one of the better Final Fantasy protagonists and there's a bit more to him than the memes suggest.

Is he the spike-haired kid with the oversized or exotic weapon that literally no one else on the entire planet seems to use, yet somehow every store carries them?

The best way to describe him would be as a ~2010 edgy Western short-haired soldier man protagonist who has neither the time nor the patience for JRPG monologues.

[Norfleet]

The best way to describe him would be as a ~2010 edgy Western short-haired soldier man protagonist who has neither the time nor the patience for JRPG monologues.

But the typical JRPG protagonist monologue is often something along the lines of "...".

[Val the Moofia Boss]

Honkai Star Rail

I have completely finished Penacony, from the 2.0 base expansion to the 2.2 final boss patch. I am now on an interlude patch story until I reach the 3.0 Amphoreus expac.

The Penacony story is mediocre. It is bad both on a micro level as in the moment-to-moment experience of going through the scenes, and bad on a macro level when you step back and try to evaluate what happened. Not the worst JRPG experience I have had to sit through but definitely near the bottom. There is some neat stuff in here, but it is buried under so many issues that I won't be able to diagnose them all in this post, lest this become a paper when I really just want to finish typing this up so I can hurry on to Amphoreus. I am overall enjoying the game still. I will just go after the chief offenders.

► Show Spoiler

As I mentioned in a prior post. Penacony makes a good first impression with the enlargened initial city area. But then it turns out that is pretty much almost the entire city. After that you just get one alleyway district of castaways, and then a few random dungeons areas - none of them particular memorable aside from the final dungeon, and maybe when you are gallivanting on the rooftops with Firefly - and that's it. It is disappointing coming off of Xianzhou where we got to see several different sections within the ship. We had the cargo docks, then the first town area in the bright daylight, another town area in a different Delve at night time, the ministry area in that same delve, and then another town in the oceanic delve, and then the Vidyadhara underwater ruins area. And then you had the several dungeons on top of that. So while the Xianzhou story was a drag, at least you were being ushered from place to place and having new locales to see quite often. Whereas here I spent an even longer amount of time in Penacony, but just running around the same city district section or through samey hotel dungeon corridors. I didn't get sick and tired of it like spending hundreds of hours in Crossbell city in the Trails games, but it was not very engaging.



IIRC I posted this earlier, but as a refresher this is the one main playable city district of Penacony.


The minigames did spruce up the pacing. I particularly liked the orthogonal puzzles.

The story did have a couple brief moments of interest, namely the beginning when you arrive at the hotel and first enter Penacony as I was still giving the game time to prove itself, and then the first Aventurine POV chapter where you are playing as a much more invested character accompanied by Dr. Ratio, and then the confrontation with Sunday at the end of that chapter.

The rest of the experience has been overall mediocre, ranging from boring to mild aggravation. You have the usual issue of it being an extremely dry, low energy story in which you go many, many hours with zero tension. You are meandering around not really accomplishing anything while people are talking at you. There is no urgent threat. The biggest issue probably is that you are once again mainly playing as an unvoiced outsider who can leave at any time and has zero stake in what is going on here. Worst is the amount of pretentious, incomprehensible mumbojumble conversations and monologues, all of which delivered by young beautiful teenagers and 20 somethings as if they are 70 year old Buddhist philosophers or something. Towards the end, there were convos where I could not parse what they were trying to say. It's like that popular Evangelion meme criticism about fake deepness, but here you get a 30+ hour long visual novel of it. Nasu VNs can be often obnoxious but are nowhere near as severe as this.


The second Aventurine POV chapter is just 2 to 3 hours of him meandering around talking to himself.


We get some mumbo jumbo thrown at us such as "find the truth behind Penacony", or "uncover the Watchmaker's legacy", or "find out the answer to 'why does life slumber?'", etc. Which means absolutely nothing to me, but the narrative keeps pretending that it does.

There were also I think two or three prerendered cutscenes of what was ostensibly a "dramatic" betrayal, but I don't even know what the sides represent or what is at stake. Aventurine has me teleported away from Acheron, says Acheron is an emanator (???) as if this is a shocking reveal and wants me to go with him, and I am sitting here thinking "who cares?" and "idk that lady didn't kidnap me, I am more inclined to trust her than you". At the end of Aventurine's first POV chapter, he apparently tries to convince Sunday to give him a case and his bag (that he did a switcheroo with some magical relic called a Cornerstone... so is this actually Aventurine's stuff that was confiscated from his room by Sunday?), and then Aventurine loses some sort of bet and gets a death curse placed on him... I am at a loss as to what exactly is going on here and what these cornerstones are.

It is nice that Welt and Himeko are fighting with us rather than staying back on the train. Just missing Dan Heng. Maybe one day we will get the whole crew fighting together. On the other hand, it is infuriating that I am supposed to be adventuring with these people, but Welt and Himeko aren't given to you like with March and Dan Heng. I haven't gambled for them, so they are in the cutscenes but not in the actual battles.

Why are we fighting each other again?


It is frustrating how I beat Aventurine in gameplay, but then in the following cutscene he is still up and about and is raining down destruction on the city and we need someone to step in and beat him for us.

Neat visual, but Aventurine kept hyping up Acheron as if she was a destroyer of worlds. So how did he survive that slash? And why is she shedding a tear of blood?


Cool scene, but can you two shut up about your nonsense?


Characters do not talk like normal people. Almost every single conversation, people are talking in riddles or trying to be poets. Time after time, random people who have never met each other before walk up to each other reveal that they know the other guy's full life history, rap sheet, and start psycho analyzing their character and predicting their subconscious desires and agenda. What are you on about? The arc winds up feeling very self aggrandizing. We had hints of this in the prior Xianzhou arc with Kafka, Fu Xuan, and Jing Yuan, but here it's happening with many more characters. This is on top of the basic moment-to-moment dialogue problem where every single conversation takes 10x as long as it should because everyone keeps beating around the bush and going into philosophical tangents rather than just laying out what is going on and what needs to be done next.


On the upside, it is nice that the two guys staying back on the Astral Express got to do something, and their subplot actually amounted to something in the end. Typically Pom-Pom and whoever else stays behind is forgotten until the arc is over.



Acheron gets an usually high number of drawn flashback CGs about her waxing poetic about vague stuff, as if this is some sort of meaningful backstory. Cool imagery with the hands but it has zero to do with what is going on in the present.



This flashback CG of Sunday acting as some sort of pseudo Catholic priest performing in a confessional booth was actually okay. The dialogue isn't about extremely abstract vagueness for once but is about the concrete deeds of what people had done and how Sunday recognizes a need to save people beyond just saying "you are forgiven".



Meeting Argenti again was a pleasant surprise.



Goodness gracious lady. You are what? 18? 20? 22? Talking like you're in a bitter mid 30s woman in a noir movie? It might be hard to convey this in a forum post without audio, but ingame this is presented as being super serious. I am not saying I want ironic modern Hollywood subversion slop where there is no sincerity. I like serious stuff and contemplation about life and the nature of sin. But in HSR this just comes off as ridiculous. Also, more satanic "immortality bad! Death and suffering good!" messaging.


During the first confrontation with Sunday, he says he knows we are here to fight him, and then starts playing this little game where he gives us three hypothetical scenarios and forces me to pick between two choices. It is obvious either outcome will be a sad ending. "There is a bird with a broken wing. Do you take care of it inside your house until it heals and then release it? Well actually its death was predetermined, because when you released that bird it tried to fly and then crashed into the ground!" "Do you build a nest for it in the yard? Well it got eaten by predators like snakes!". "Do you help this stowaway/illegal immigrant who got into our dreamworld? Well he didn't get the correct sedative injection so he's going to die an agonizing death anyway!". **** off dude. I miss how Sakura Wars just allowed you to remain silent and not dignify the villain with an answer.




The Dreammaster was introduced really late into the arc. He was kinda cool, being this old man and the shadow leader of Penacony whose body had long since decayed, having become some sort of disembodied spirit that bodyjacks random people or uses a raven as his avatar. But then all of these birds fall over dead and he vanishes. I am not sure what happened to him. Did he release his spirit to empower Sunday and turn him into the final boss?






The final dungeon was visually neat, though not quite as spectacular as a similar final dungeon from 16 years ago.

Recorded some footage of what the walking on walls mechanic introduced in this arc is like.

One thing that did irk me a little while going through the final dungeon is how Sunday is narrating an origin story about Ena (re)created the HSR universe that is clearly using Genesis 1 as a model, which the ends with mortals rebelling and overthrowing Ena. You have Sunday being played up as this not-Catholic priest who does confessionals, but there is no one true God to forgive people and it's this new age feel good mumble jumbo about muh harmony and such. And then ofcourse he becomes a final boss monster with classical aesthetics, and you have the heroes giving the usual satanic JRPG spiel about the power of man and how they don't need and shouldn't have any god over them, and yadda yadda. A bit worrying that this messaging has been wrapped up in a nice package to be distributed in one of the most globally popular videogames today. Propagandizing people and turning them away. And ofcourse, no Christians are interested in funding high production value projects like these to distribute their values on a mass scale.









Even the boss journals are verbose.


This final boss fight was a little disappointing. The gimmick is that he has multiple break/stagger bars. I just unlocked a new class that amplifies damage you deal to enemies who have been broken/staggered. But you can only deplete that break bar if you have a character of one of the three elemental weaknesses that the boss and his adds are vulnerable to. There was no UI preview like with the prior two arc final bosses that tells you what elemental weakness the boss has, so the only character who could deal break bar damage to him was my MC who had just become a buffer with weak damage. It took him several minutes to finally break the bar, after which the amplified damage caused the boss to fall over dead.

Once again, I beat a boss in gameplay only for him to be still standing in the following cutscene, and someone else has to bail me out. At least this time it's from characters I like, though. The shot of the Xianzhou fleet in the background is cool.

The arc is severely bloated by half a dozen subplots that do not amount to anything.

• The arc begins with Aventurine and Dr. Ratio being sent by the IPC to Penacony to try to reacquire it for the IPC. Dr. Ratio sells out Aventurine on the promise of getting Stellaron info from Sunday, but we never see that happen. Aventurine just vanishes after his boss fight. The IPC has seemingly vanished with no followup on their goal of taking Penacony.
• Sparkle is meandering around trying to hand out a nuke button for no reason.
• Acheron gets several flashback CGs about her pondering mumbo jumbo that has nothing to do with what is currently going on. At least the other tangentially related subplot about the galaxy rangers tracking her down has led to Dan Heng and Pom Pom doing something on the Astral Express.
• Firefly is talking about how she was sent by Ellio here and must experience three deaths and then she flies away... what does this have to do with the plot? It amounts to nothing in the end.
• The Misha and Gallagher stuff was incoherent and boring. Why did Gallagher kill Robin and Firefly again? How did those two come back? Misha and Gallagher's subplot could have been cut while retaining the part where an old Trailblazer Mikhail gives his hat to the MC.

Even if you cut out these subplots, most of the main plot itself is actually filler. Once you go into the dreamworld, you don't actually spend any time investigating the objectives that were laid out on the train and in the hotel lobby. You don't go investigating the three Trailblazers who decided to live here, don't go snooping around for info on the family, etc. You are just getting yanked around by other characters like Firefly, Acheron, Aventurine, and Sunday until the last 3 hours when Gallagher walks up and tells you everything, and then after that Sunday decides he wants to become a JRPG big bad so the only thing left to do is go fight him and that's it.

If you cut out all of the scenes where characters posture and talk about meaningless fluff, and cut out the filler subplots, the entire Penacony story could have been told in 2 or 3, maybe 4 hours max. This did not need to be 30+ hours.

[BlueMemphis]

Games played within last 2 months/summer:
-Cyberpunk 2077, it's not much of an rpg imo because i only ever feel like i have 2 choices at best to do in a mission so not much thinking required, but still ok as an immersive sim/deus ex like.
-Xcom 2 (modded to the gills, at some point they improved the launcher so i found i was able to run a 200+ mod list with little issues)
-Cursed Treasure 2/Kingdom Rush frontiers/vengeance/alliance. For whatever reason i went on a newsground era flash game nostalgia rush and rediscovered these games then purchased them on steam. Cursed Treasure 2 seriously underrated imo and the peak of TD games but kingdom rush is the one that actually seemed to have found mainstream success.
-Umasume Pretty Derby, the manliest choice of them all. It's a gacha game but based around rogue like management sim runs of like an hour so is easy to get hooked into it. There is so much rng involved that it naturally frustrates whales so as far as gacha games go, so far it seems peak.
-Darkest hour: Italy update came out, normally my issue with this game is it's full of vets who have been playing this game for 20+ years so can pull off bs that goes against why you would be playing this game, but italy update kinda brings everyone to an even playing field
-Dawn of War soulstorm: i was back into it because of the unification mod so been playing lots of themed games with friends, that the remaster is coming out is 100% coincidental and honestly from what i've seen it looks more like a cashgrab then anything but we will see

[gerey]

Finished Ender Magnolia: Bloom in the Mist over the weekend.

While it is mechanically more fleshed out, it didn't really have the same emotional impact as the first game. The narrative also felt oddly disjointed, and like there were several characters and plot threads missing.

I did like the worldbuilding more than in the first game. Ender Lilies was set in a bog-standard medieval kingdom, with knight and mages facing an onslaught of mutated, undead foes. Magnolia takes place in a magitek kingdom where they make heavy use of homoluciai, defacto sentient androids, while the whole kingdom is protected from the Rain of Ruin by a magical shield.

Sadly, not much is done with the setting, and I genuinely think it would have been better served if the game had been a more traditional (j)RPG. Interestingly, while Ender Lilies takes place a while after things have basically crossed the point of no return, in Ender Magnolia the city still has places where the government is still in power and humans have managed to survive, and the threat to the kingdom is not as dire since they have the means to keep disaster at bay for a while longer.

The plot doesn't center on stopping the apocalypse, but on the moral and ethical ramifications of what people in the past have done to keep it at bay, and what choice the protagonist will make too.

Gameplay-wise, this is basically a God Hand metoridvania. Over the course of the game you will "tune" homoluciai and have them join your retinue, after which you can assign their attacks to one of four buttons. Each homoluciai has three different attacks, and they all have their uses, though some are vastly more useful than others, and in general you will only really change your team composition when facing a boss or needing to perform some of the trickier platforming.

Itemization and character builds are not particularly deep - there is a linear progression to the carapaces (items that allow you to guard against enemy attacks) and bracelets (general stat raising items), while totems do offer a few unique mechanics and you will be switching them around often (at least until you find the ultimate one).

Relics are another set of items that directly affect your attack, defense, resistance to status effects, gained money or EXP etc., but most only grant a 10% or 15% increase and never really felt worth the bother.

Another disappointment is that status effects are very underwhelming. Not only do they not have much of an impact on bosses, but they also develop resistance to them after they saddled with one, meaning that you're better off focusing on pure damage or filling up the special attack bar (to dish even more damage), rather than trying to come up with clever builds.

All that being said, much like Ender Lilies, the sequel is also a pretty solid game, with great art direction and a very nice soundtrack, and doesn't really require having played the first game to understand the plot.

[Oyster Sauce]

Finished A Short Hike. It was short, boosted my natural estrogen levels.

[Tinky Winky]

Finished Return to Krondor, game is actually quite okay (far better than Eternal Senia for sure), but it doesn't really age well with it's janky fixed resident evil camera angle and confusing 3D grid. Mages are also too OP especially in the late game since you can just spam firestorm and watch every enemies die.

[methoxetamine]

Finished Ender Magnolia: Bloom in the Mist over the weekend.

While it is mechanically more fleshed out, it didn't really have the same emotional impact as the first game. The narrative also felt oddly disjointed, and like there were several characters and plot threads missing.

I did like the worldbuilding more than in the first game. Ender Lilies was set in a bog-standard medieval kingdom, with knight and mages facing an onslaught of mutated, undead foes. Magnolia takes place in a magitek kingdom where they make heavy use of homoluciai, defacto sentient androids, while the whole kingdom is protected from the Rain of Ruin by a magical shield.

Sadly, not much is done with the setting, and I genuinely think it would have been better served if the game had been a more traditional (j)RPG. Interestingly, while Ender Lilies takes place a while after things have basically crossed the point of no return, in Ender Magnolia the city still has places where the government is still in power and humans have managed to survive, and the threat to the kingdom is not as dire since they have the means to keep disaster at bay for a while longer.

The plot doesn't center on stopping the apocalypse, but on the moral and ethical ramifications of what people in the past have done to keep it at bay, and what choice the protagonist will make too.

Gameplay-wise, this is basically a God Hand metoridvania. Over the course of the game you will "tune" homoluciai and have them join your retinue, after which you can assign their attacks to one of four buttons. Each homoluciai has three different attacks, and they all have their uses, though some are vastly more useful than others, and in general you will only really change your team composition when facing a boss or needing to perform some of the trickier platforming.

Itemization and character builds are not particularly deep - there is a linear progression to the carapaces (items that allow you to guard against enemy attacks) and bracelets (general stat raising items), while totems do offer a few unique mechanics and you will be switching them around often (at least until you find the ultimate one).

Relics are another set of items that directly affect your attack, defense, resistance to status effects, gained money or EXP etc., but most only grant a 10% or 15% increase and never really felt worth the bother.

Another disappointment is that status effects are very underwhelming. Not only do they not have much of an impact on bosses, but they also develop resistance to them after they saddled with one, meaning that you're better off focusing on pure damage or filling up the special attack bar (to dish even more damage), rather than trying to come up with clever builds.

All that being said, much like Ender Lilies, the sequel is also a pretty solid game, with great art direction and a very nice soundtrack, and doesn't really require having played the first game to understand the plot.

I started this game recently, I'm glad they removed contact damage. Not sure how I feel about the switch to cooldowns from the charge system, it feels bad now but is probably better lategame when you're not running out of your charges. I need to finish Lilies too, I got distracted by some new release when I was playing it and never went back to finish it

The aesthetic of both of these games is great

[Oyster Sauce]

Finished A Short Hike. It was short, boosted my natural estrogen levels.

Also tried Inspector Schmidt - A Bavarian Tale. Didn't care for it. Then I gave Pacific Drive a go. Not really interested in a single player survival crafter. On to the next one.

[DemoGraph]

Recently I've finished a harem VN I've randomly stumbled upon. The game is in permanent beta, the plot has traditional ERP cliches (everyone is sexy and ********) but it was convoluted enough for me to keep playing. Boobs also helped, I agree with Rusty here.

I suspect that including visual imagery in a book would actually improve rather than hinder retention

Also this.

► Show Spoiler

[Boontaker]

Starting a new run in knights tale, old ways tyrants this time. I got my ending SS for if an actual adventure badge is available for it, but I was captured by the tism of team building finishing my Christian run.

Final team for killing Arthur was
MorD
Galahad
Lady Big D inraine
Sir ector

Everything was on fire or dead

"Sinners shall....burn"

[KnightoftheWind]

Attempted Dirge of Cerberus: Final Fantasy VII. I heard it was an action RPG, so I thought "why not". It turned out to be a very average game with fantastic visuals and an excellent soundtrack, and a very anime-esque story. I'll just leave it at that. I've heard a lot of negative opinions on the game, which I feel are undeserved, although this is coming from someone who isn't a Final Fantasy fan or a fan of turn-based JRPGs. It's not a great game, perhaps not even a good one, but it is decent and entertaining enough for what it is and it has very high production values. It could seriously pass as a Wii or original Xbox title with how good it looks. My biggest gripe with the game though is it's autoaim, a result of it being a console-only third-person shooter, and the camera perspective itself. A lot of the level design seems like it was made to be played in first-person, not in third. With tight corridors and claustrophobic environments that seem to fight you every step of the way, and the camera begins to get uncomfortable as a result.

There are also a LOT of cutscenes, which drag on unnecessarily with long and awkward pauses, and it's about as melodramatic as you'd expect being a Square title, and given what I've read online a lot of FF7 fans seem to despise the plot and feel it ruined the original. A sentiment I cannot comment on as I haven't played the original yet. Another big problem with this game is it's checkpoints, or lack thereof. You 'are' given an extra life via Phoenix Downs, which regenerate you to full health instantly upon death, and you can buy more via the shops you find scattered across the level, but if you don't have any on hand and bite the bullet, you are forced to replay the entire level from the beginning. I recently experienced a bug that prevented me from continuing a stage, and faced with the prospect of having to re-do everything 'again' I decided to just shut the game off and leave it on the backburner for a while. I may finish it, but I might not. It doesn't do anything that other games haven't done better, and that's what would probably kill it for the vast majority of people today. I think the game is ripe for a remake or a high quality remaster, with proper mouse and keyboard controls on PC and perhaps a dedicated first-person option. A remake would be more likely since it conflicts with the new remake/rebirth canon Square Enix seem to be going for lately, but it's a hard sell when the game is so divisive.

[Oyster Sauce]

Sigh, there's simply nothing to play

[Jordy]

Mages are also too OP

Fits the theme of the books then

[Val the Moofia Boss]

Attempted Dirge of Cerberus: Final Fantasy VII. I heard it was an action RPG, so I thought "why not". It turned out to be a very average game with fantastic visuals and an excellent soundtrack, and a very anime-esque story. I'll just leave it at that. I've heard a lot of negative opinions on the game, which I feel are undeserved, although this is coming from someone who isn't a Final Fantasy fan or a fan of turn-based JRPGs. It's not a great game, perhaps not even a good one, but it is decent and entertaining enough for what it is and it has very high production values. It could seriously pass as a Wii or original Xbox title with how good it looks. My biggest gripe with the game though is it's autoaim, a result of it being a console-only third-person shooter, and the camera perspective itself. A lot of the level design seems like it was made to be played in first-person, not in third. With tight corridors and claustrophobic environments that seem to fight you every step of the way, and the camera begins to get uncomfortable as a result.

There are also a LOT of cutscenes, which drag on unnecessarily with long and awkward pauses, and it's about as melodramatic as you'd expect being a Square title, and given what I've read online a lot of FF7 fans seem to despise the plot and feel it ruined the original. A sentiment I cannot comment on as I haven't played the original yet. Another big problem with this game is it's checkpoints, or lack thereof. You 'are' given an extra life via Phoenix Downs, which regenerate you to full health instantly upon death, and you can buy more via the shops you find scattered across the level, but if you don't have any on hand and bite the bullet, you are forced to replay the entire level from the beginning. I recently experienced a bug that prevented me from continuing a stage, and faced with the prospect of having to re-do everything 'again' I decided to just shut the game off and leave it on the backburner for a while. I may finish it, but I might not. It doesn't do anything that other games haven't done better, and that's what would probably kill it for the vast majority of people today. I think the game is ripe for a remake or a high quality remaster, with proper mouse and keyboard controls on PC and perhaps a dedicated first-person option. A remake would be more likely since it conflicts with the new remake/rebirth canon Square Enix seem to be going for lately, but it's a hard sell when the game is so divisive.

I remember Dirge of Cerberus being confusing like a lot of EU Star Wars games are, as it takes place in the equivalent of the FF7 EU after the original game, with a lot of new factions from nowhere like the Deepground. The Deepground wound up getting a cameo in FF7 Remake Intergrade, but it isn't the center focus of the plot so it is mostly ignorable.

[KnightoftheWind]

Attempted Dirge of Cerberus: Final Fantasy VII. I heard it was an action RPG, so I thought "why not". It turned out to be a very average game with fantastic visuals and an excellent soundtrack, and a very anime-esque story. I'll just leave it at that. I've heard a lot of negative opinions on the game, which I feel are undeserved, although this is coming from someone who isn't a Final Fantasy fan or a fan of turn-based JRPGs. It's not a great game, perhaps not even a good one, but it is decent and entertaining enough for what it is and it has very high production values. It could seriously pass as a Wii or original Xbox title with how good it looks. My biggest gripe with the game though is it's autoaim, a result of it being a console-only third-person shooter, and the camera perspective itself. A lot of the level design seems like it was made to be played in first-person, not in third. With tight corridors and claustrophobic environments that seem to fight you every step of the way, and the camera begins to get uncomfortable as a result.

There are also a LOT of cutscenes, which drag on unnecessarily with long and awkward pauses, and it's about as melodramatic as you'd expect being a Square title, and given what I've read online a lot of FF7 fans seem to despise the plot and feel it ruined the original. A sentiment I cannot comment on as I haven't played the original yet. Another big problem with this game is it's checkpoints, or lack thereof. You 'are' given an extra life via Phoenix Downs, which regenerate you to full health instantly upon death, and you can buy more via the shops you find scattered across the level, but if you don't have any on hand and bite the bullet, you are forced to replay the entire level from the beginning. I recently experienced a bug that prevented me from continuing a stage, and faced with the prospect of having to re-do everything 'again' I decided to just shut the game off and leave it on the backburner for a while. I may finish it, but I might not. It doesn't do anything that other games haven't done better, and that's what would probably kill it for the vast majority of people today. I think the game is ripe for a remake or a high quality remaster, with proper mouse and keyboard controls on PC and perhaps a dedicated first-person option. A remake would be more likely since it conflicts with the new remake/rebirth canon Square Enix seem to be going for lately, but it's a hard sell when the game is so divisive.

I remember Dirge of Cerberus being confusing like a lot of EU Star Wars games are, as it takes place in the equivalent of the FF7 EU after the original game, with a lot of new factions from nowhere like the Deepground. The Deepground wound up getting a cameo in FF7 Remake Intergrade, but it isn't the center focus of the plot so it is mostly ignorable.

Nothing is more confusing than the Star Wars EU. With dozens of novels, comics, video games and TV shows it's a wonder anyone could wrap their heads around the entire thing. The information on Wookiepedia regarding the EU could probably fill multiple textbooks. But I suppose that goes a long way to making a fictional universe feel expansive and living.

[KnightoftheWind]

Playing through "The Darkness II" now, as well Final Fantasy VII on-and-off. The Darkness II is a very enjoyable FPS, with an entertaining plot and cast of characters, including some attractive female ones, back when western devs were SHOCKINGLY allowed to include such things. It's a very visceral game, with you controlling a demonic entity with tentacle or hydra-like appendages that you use to slash at enemies and eat their hearts to regain health or ammo, as well as snatch various objects from the environment to act as makeshift shields or to throw at enemies. You are also forced to shoot out lights to ensure the "darkness" won't go away, and leave you vulnerable to enemy gunfire without a way to heal yourself. Typical two-weapon limit like most FPS titles of the era, but like the Halo Trilogy you can also dual wield them which is cool. It's a solid experience all around so far, and has a cozy comic-like aesthetic and tone that you never see anymore. So far it's a 7/10 for me, definitely recommend it.

As for Final Fantasy VII, it's...surprisingly **** enjoyable so far, and that's something I thought I would never say. I HATE turn-based JRPGs, but something about this seems to intrigue me so far. Maybe it's the pre-rendered environments and how dynamic and funny the characters are. There's always something happening around you, which is such an improvement on all the 16-bit JRPGs I've attempted in the past, which were very static and dull aside from Chrono Trigger and Super Mario RPG. There's very clearly a generational leap between this and what came before, and I as the most casual of players of this particular genre can see it. It reminds me a lot of Paper Mario 64/TTYD in some ways, which is why I'm enticed to play. I like games with a lot of personality, even ones in genres I normally dislike.

[Tweed]

Finished Return to Krondor, game is actually quite okay (far better than Eternal Senia for sure), but it doesn't really age well with it's janky fixed resident evil camera angle and confusing 3D grid. Mages are also too OP especially in the late game since you can just spam firestorm and watch every enemies die.

Terrible ending. Finished the game in like, two days.

[Val the Moofia Boss]

Maybe it's the pre-rendered environments and how dynamic and funny the characters are. There's always something happening around you, which is such an improvement on all the 16-bit JRPGs I've attempted in the past

The fun on the PS1 Final Fantasy games is frontloaded. They have stellar first discs (or in the case of FF9, first 2 discs out of 4). You are constantly being swept from setpiece to setpiece and exploring these baroque looking crazy fantasy cities/kingdoms which then blow up while Uematsu's music is playing. After the first disc (or 2 for FF9), they begin to lose steam as crazy stuff starts happening less frequently and you aren't discovering new amazing looking cities anymore. Nobody's favorite part of FF7 is meandering around aimlessly in disc 2. When people think of FF7, they think of the cool dieselpunk dystopia on disc 1. FF10 and FF13 retain the crazy visuals, but the story is not as fast paced and high energy, but the experience is more even throughout.

[methoxetamine]

Nobody's favorite part of FF7 is meandering around aimlessly in disc 2. When people think of FF7, they think of the cool dieselpunk dystopia on disc 1.

There's where you're wrong. I'm a disc 2 chad.

[Classix]

Nobody's favorite part of FF7 is meandering around aimlessly in disc 2. When people think of FF7, they think of the cool dieselpunk dystopia on disc 1.

There's where you're wrong. I'm a disc 2 chad.

Yes sir...

[DrSneed]

Playing through "The Darkness II" now, as well Final Fantasy VII on-and-off. The Darkness II is a very enjoyable FPS, with an entertaining plot and cast of characters, including some attractive female ones, back when western devs were SHOCKINGLY allowed to include such things. It's a very visceral game, with you controlling a demonic entity with tentacle or hydra-like appendages that you use to slash at enemies and eat their hearts to regain health or ammo, as well as snatch various objects from the environment to act as makeshift shields or to throw at enemies. You are also forced to shoot out lights to ensure the "darkness" won't go away, and leave you vulnerable to enemy gunfire without a way to heal yourself. Typical two-weapon limit like most FPS titles of the era, but like the Halo Trilogy you can also dual wield them which is cool. It's a solid experience all around so far, and has a cozy comic-like aesthetic and tone that you never see anymore. So far it's a 7/10 for me, definitely recommend it.

As for Final Fantasy VII, it's...surprisingly **** enjoyable so far, and that's something I thought I would never say. I HATE turn-based JRPGs, but something about this seems to intrigue me so far. Maybe it's the pre-rendered environments and how dynamic and funny the characters are. There's always something happening around you, which is such an improvement on all the 16-bit JRPGs I've attempted in the past, which were very static and dull aside from Chrono Trigger and Super Mario RPG. There's very clearly a generational leap between this and what came before, and I as the most casual of players of this particular genre can see it. It reminds me a lot of Paper Mario 64/TTYD in some ways, which is why I'm enticed to play. I like games with a lot of personality, even ones in genres I normally dislike.

Darkness 2 is fun, but aside from being on PC it's inferior to Darkness 1 in every way.
Darkness 3 never ever.