What Games are you Playing 2017?

[Niu]

Kawazu is the SaGa guy
Why did his games keep selling

Taro likes to change and try new things, that's why.
But his ways of hurting his layers never change.

Kawazu? Because he is a truly creative game maker, and we SaGa fan has undying love for him. SaGa Scarlet Grace truly is a master piece and what U.SaGa should have been.

[The Duck]

Yakuza 0: I lost a dance battle to not!Michael Jackson. who has some fuckin' moves, man.

The disco mini-game makes no intuitive sense to me and I'm fairly decent at rhythm games (I think). I don't know about you but when I got access to the Hostess club I spent like ten hours doing just that. Yakuza 0 is wonderful.

[Sierra]

Started Nier: Automata. Fenrir, you can say what like about Taro changing, maybe it's true, but 2B's opening line is still the most Taroesque intro possible.

Ran first mission, immediately died to first boss. Okay, that's a game over screen. I already have a list of small details I don't feel it's right to say anything about and none of them are story-related.

I just landed on Earth and immediately had a near-death experience with a moose.

[Niu]

Started Nier: Automata. Fenrir, you can say what like about Taro changing, maybe it's true, but 2B's opening line is still the most Taroesque intro possible.

Ran first mission, immediately died to first boss. Okay, that's a game over screen. I already have a list of small details I don't feel it's right to say anything about and none of them are story-related.

I just landed on Earth and immediately had a near-death experience with a moose.

Taro torture his players not just by story, but by gameplay as well.
Like the intro that has no save point! Which you must start over everytime if you die! Etc.

Oh, remember to hit the self destruct button when you are on the bunker.

[Fenrir]

Started Nier: Automata. Fenrir, you can say what like about Taro changing, maybe it's true, but 2B's opening line is still the most Taroesque intro possible.

Yes.

I got the first proper ending. (I got three non proper ones earlier) Reaction was "okay"
Obviously nothing makes much sense so far but as usual I'm guessing the game will start becoming really cool afterwards.
This game has some AMAZING setpieces. Sorta like Uncharted if it wasn't a generic boring Indiana Jones ripoff but a weird as fuck Taro game. This is not something you usualy see in japanese games.

Combat is broken despite Platinum, but pleasant.

Sidequests are often the most boring fetchquests you can imagine, but the writing makes them worth it. My favourite one so far is the 10 stamps one, though obviously I like the one about the Jean Paul Sartre robot too. And the one in which you eat a fish. someone asks you to eat a fish but says it might be dangerous. You eat the fish and die. ENDING K UNLOCKED

[Sierra]

Fenrir man I know you're playing on Very Hard.

[Grefter]

Obviously nothing makes much sense so far but as usual I'm guessing the game will start becoming really cool afterwards.

Always be you.

[Fenrir]

I tried Very Hard but getting OHKOed by a random in the prologue and losing 20 minutes of progress wasn't great.

Instead I played on Hard and got OHKOed by bosses in the prologue and it took me like 3 hours to finish it. Then the game got me to sit on a black screen until the install was complete (I couldn't save)

Cavia

[NotMiki]

Yakuza 0: I lost a dance battle to not!Michael Jackson. who has some fuckin' moves, man.

The disco mini-game makes no intuitive sense to me and I'm fairly decent at rhythm games (I think). I don't know about you but when I got access to the Hostess club I spent like ten hours doing just that. Yakuza 0 is wonderful.

Agreed about the disco thing being unintuitive. I'm beating 8.5s (sometimes) in Future Tone and getting rekt by this. Haven't unlocked the hostess club because I'm busy becoming a slumlord respectable real estate investor (but I need to improve my Outrun skillz to make it happen).

[The Duck]

Nier 2 is great but so far it's been nothing like Drakengard really - Yako Taro has changed a lot.
A lot of Nier elements are there - finishing sidequests seem to make the world worse, you move like a fucking cheetah around the world, combat is a wash (even with Platinum) and there's a lot of variety. But the atmosphere is so different! This also means I won't possibly be as disappointed with the endgame in this one.

It's weird to see obscure guys I liked for a long time, mostly for being obtuse, confusing and inexplicable (Kawazu, Taro, Souls guy) get so much traction lately

http://www.glixel.com/interviews/qa-nier-automata-director-taro-yoko-w472664

[Grefter]

If there's one element that ties the Nier and Drakengaard games together it's the constant sense of surprise they offer. Is subverting your audience's expectations important to you?


I'm the type that gets bored easily, so I lose any motivation to work if I know what the end product will be like. Actually, I can't even fill in any official government documents because I lose all motivation to do so the second I understand what I'm about to write. As such, I can only create a product that constantly betrays my own imagination.

Somehow not Fenrir. or is it under the mask

[Niu]

Nier 2 is great but so far it's been nothing like Drakengard really - Yako Taro has changed a lot.
A lot of Nier elements are there - finishing sidequests seem to make the world worse, you move like a fucking cheetah around the world, combat is a wash (even with Platinum) and there's a lot of variety. But the atmosphere is so different! This also means I won't possibly be as disappointed with the endgame in this one.

It's weird to see obscure guys I liked for a long time, mostly for being obtuse, confusing and inexplicable (Kawazu, Taro, Souls guy) get so much traction lately

http://www.glixel.com/interviews/qa-nier-automata-director-taro-yoko-w472664

Yet this guy persist.
He had already ran out of new things to do since DoD3 went on sales.
And NieR2 having more shadows of his former entries really is a sign.
You start to wonder if his own persistence of staying in game directing field, even after his creativity has gone dwindling, is a part of his "betraying my own imagination."

[Fenrir]

Man I disagree hard. Nier Automata is definitely Taro's best game, even if it ends up reusing some of his classic themes. Somehow it has become more streamlined and pleasant to play, but without really losing becoming less weird. The weirdness has just gone in another direction (-> beginning of NG+, Romeo and Juliet play, "THIS CANNOT CONTINUE", etc)

And that's like the best OST. Cid is going to love this


Have I mentioned that one of the best thing in OG Nier and this is that you move like a fucking puma. In this one you move even faster. You're faster as a humanoid than Mario Kart 64 karts at 200cc

[Grefter]

Speaking of moving 600mph

DOOM - Finishes, been an ongoing thing every now and then since Christmas Sales.  This game is good but super fucking intense.  It was actually hard to sit down and play for extended periods because of the fairly unrelenting pace it sets.  Is it a constant crescendo turned into a game.  I finished it to clear up some hard drive space.

Her a Story - so to finish up other things HS I started a while back, I had poked at this lightly one night before raid, mostly discovered the last interview first.  Had a rough idea what was going on.  Just did lame stuff to view it all in chronological order tonight. Twisted in directions I didn't predict with some stuff, but had the basic framework.  The final dialogue that frames the game threw me and I did t expect that.  It is as good as people lead you to believe.

Dr. Langeskov, The Tiger, and The Terribly Cursed Emerald: A Whirlwind Heist - speaking of things I should have done months ago.  Take some of the central conceit out of Stanley Parable and instead just explore the themes of being inside a game and focus on humour.  Not bad for free and 15 minutes, but very diminished compared to Stanley Parable.

[MasterLemon]

Pokemon Red: I ended up finishing the Red part of the binge very easily. I had to catch Mewtwo because tradition, and I also had to fight MissingNo because tradition. Jolteon ended up being my MVP for the Elite 4 because it had both Thunderbolt and Pin Missile to take care of Lorelei's team, and 5 members of Blue's team (who I named Brit for this run).

The final team:


Jagens:


Pokemon Silver: The one out of the GSC trio I decided to play. I did Gold as a Nuzlocke challenge and I do Crystal most of the time anyway, because Suicune is just too damn awesome. I've currently got to Blackthorn and just caught Lugia, I decided to wait until I got to Blackthorn because that's when they started selling Ultra Balls.

The current team:


Jagens:

[LordDirtyBrit]

Spyro: A Hero's Tail: Out of the first five Spyro games, this was the only one I haven't beaten (glitching Enter the Dragonfly does count as beating it). Quite strange considering how it was one of the earliest games I owned for the PS2. I can see why it took me so long. Even as a kid this game seemed unpolished to me. The camera is awkward placed so that Spyro/Hunter are susceptible to back attacks, the music is pretty lacklustre asides from Crocovile Swamp and the bosses are the worst I have seen in a platformer. Every boss is placed inside a circular arena which makes avoiding their attacks monotonous very quickly, the entire fight is centred around waiting for their weak spot to be exposed and after a couple of hits a cutscene occurs to show them taunting you which slows down the pace of the battle. They are a test of your patience and not your skill. Also, you know you have a bad game when the developers forgot to write an ending. Overall, just avoid this one.

Pokemon Silver: I reckon everyone is pretty sick of Pokemon sprites by now. Like Lemon, I have just caught Lugia. Fighting legendaries that know healing moves is a chore. Not helping things is how Lugia knows Safeguard, which protects it from status which is useful when catching Pokemon. Like Lemon said; GSC has a laughably bad level curve and barely any of the new Pokemon, a unique selling point of the game I might add, are present. Some are even restricted to Kanto such as Houndoom and Murkrow, both of which are meant to be promoting a new type. What Lemon didn't point out was how the Johto region is painful to backtrack through. I swear every area is blocked off by a dungeon, HM obstacles or a combination of both like Ilex Forest.

Team so far:


Damn, even me and Lemon's teams are similar. I'll try harder with RSE.

[Niu]

Man I disagree hard. Nier Automata is definitely Taro's best game, even if it ends up reusing some of his classic themes. Somehow it has become more streamlined and pleasant to play, but without really losing becoming less weird. The weirdness has just gone in another direction (-> beginning of NG+, Romeo and Juliet play, "THIS CANNOT CONTINUE", etc)

Well, my point is not about the quality of the game. It's more about what's troubling Yoko Taro himself.
He has openly admitted on he's starting to run out of new things to do since DoD3. And his confession in that interview above only shows that problem got worse. I was struck pretty hard when I saw he pretty much declared himself to be an antique of the past now or simply a 老害 now.
He might became more skillful at what he's been doing now because he has done it many times now, but he is accomplishing less than before when it comes to his own philosophy as a writer and game director.

[Captain K]

Overwatch:  Hit 50 hours played on Symmetra, 66% win percentage.  Welcome to my reality.

[Grefter]

Mass Effect Andromeda - Yeah it is a Mass Effect game.  It feels like Mass Effect 1 story beats updated to Mass Effect 3 polish on the gameplay.

I don't think it will be earth shattering on anything, but really neither was Mass Effect 1.

[SnowFire]

Trails of Cold Steel
That idiot Fidelio will show Rex's skeevy pictures at the photo exhibit, but not mine?  Well I'll just link them here then:

https://goo.gl/photos/hLqL9MUWZry9TRWh8
Fie is familiar with reptilian infiltration techniques.

https://goo.gl/photos/VzpWf2iyFSbbZYUY9
No sweat, C.  (Please ignore the Bag of Tricks x6, aka "you resorted to heavy item spam.")

https://goo.gl/photos/g4abgXbpTDWiqArj6
That's a good point.  It is weird that people don't get mad at me for this in the daytime.

So, after some excitement last night (pretty sure it was just a bad dream), we finally have our awesome concert.  I'm thinking that something real weird is going on still, though.  Everyone knows that the third song and encore has got to be a sing-along, right?  Get some crowd participation?  Except...  it was blatantly a solo.  Okay, a solo backed by piano and drums, so Laura & Elliot have an excuse...  although Elliot was still on what seemed like a keyboard...  so...  what was everyone else doing?  What was *I* doing?  Fie & Millium in particular were still doing drunken swaying and mouthing, but maybe they were lip-syncing.  Kinda weird for a "sweet" song.  I was...  playing the guitar/lute...  I think?  I didn't hear anything that sounded remotely guitarish though.  And lastly, I figured we were gonna do some Erebonian folk song that everyone knew.  Y'know, like, say, the Whereabouts of Light, also known as the only Erebonian folk song that exists.  Instead we did a song that...  uh...  not really sure where it comes from, might be Liberlian?  It clearly existed, but not sure it existed in *our* world, if you get what I mean.  Sometimes I get a weird sense that some music is happening here, like Amber Amor, and other music is happening in some great screen above.  It's kinda creepy.

Also I'm not 100% sure why Crossbell merits THIS level of freakout.  Apparently their government and police force is incompetent enough to let their big bank get blown up, so I really can't see them being too big a deal.  They're just side characters in the real story, after all, like Class I's operetta, which was really good but I somehow only remember the applause at the end.

Also also, I'm having both Angelica and Gwyn, like, arrested or something.  Seriously.  A healthy libido is all well and good, but there are limits to decorum.

[MasterLemon]

Castlevania: Portrait of Ruin: Finished the game. This title is pretty damn good and a huge step-up from Dawn of Sorrow. I was very fond of the duo system and how the game gave both characters new equips at similar times. It gives you a chance to experiment with these new items with the characters to see which one you prefer at that point. I also liked how this is one of the first titles to actually feel difficult. The NES titles aren't well designed when being hard, ditto for Bloodlines, IV was mainly difficult near the end, SOTN doesn't put up a challenge, COTM is hard due to dodgy design choices, HOD is pathetic, going after all the summons made me overleveled in AOS, and DOS used the Magical Seals as a way of pretending to be difficult. This game makes you think carefully about your equipment, items, and money without feeling forced. The bosses always pack a punch and the game is nice enough to always provide a save point before each fight, unlike something such as Metroid Prime 2 where you lose half an hour of game progress when you lose a fight, my favourite boss fight was the Dracula and Death fight. I don't need to explain why this fight is so good.

The main issues I have with the game are how the Sandy Grave forces you to use Jonathon, the way how you get the good ending, quests, and some of the designs for the later parts. The game doesn't give you a clear indication of where you get that one spell for Charlotte to use, and even then it has a long wind-up time during the one fight where you use it. Meaning you'll be getting bombarded by Loretta and Stella's attacks half of the time. SOTN at least gave you some kind of clue as to where to go to get the glasses from Maria, and you just needed to attack a floating orb to save Richter. I liked the idea of quests for the most part, even though they become reliant of random drops during the later half, and by then you'd be better off with you got whilst exploring anyway. I could imagine this being an excellent concept if given some fine tuning. My problem with the later half of the game is rather minor; the areas mainly seem like rehashes of the some portraits you entered earlier on, e.g. 13th Street was very similar to Forgotten City. Even though SOTN did something similar so why am I even talking?

Overall, this game is a solid A-rank game which makes for the disappointment which was Dawn of Sorrow. Though I don't believe this title is quite as good as the likes of SOTN or AOS in terms of exploration and the customisation options available to you.

[NotMiki]

"Jonathan!"
"Charlotte!"
"Tetsuo!"
"Kaneda!"

[MasterLemon]

I've dabbled on the Richter and Maria mode for a bit, bad habit with NG+ Castlevania, at least they're nice and quiet when they change who the leader is.

[SnowFire]

Richter & Maria mode is p. cool.  I played it on Hard; since there's no items, it's a really strong "no excuses" for learning the bosses and making it really rewarding when you beat them.  Sisters mode was a pass, ugh, Stylus abuse 24/7 not my thing, and I'm not even a DoS seals whiner.

I don't recall any part of the game really "forcing" you to use someone (forcing you to learn enemy elemental weakness, sure, but Charlotte has a wide variety of crap to equip - even spellbooks which hit different defenses, too), but I do agree that if you're playing "optimally", you are incentivized to use Jonathan over Charlotte, because his skills require usage to level up and hers don't.  So if you want sweet upgraded Axe throwing, you should be using Jonathan all the time, at least until you've maxed any skill you care about.  I would have been happy if they'd nixed that idea entirely, and just have some late-game artifact that upgrades all your skills.

I found SOTN's true-ending puzzle the hardest of any, myself.  PoR requires a bit of completionism to find the spell, but otherwise isn't so bad.  (I might just be salty that the clue in SOTN talks about the Clock Tower in a game where there is a section called "The Clock Tower" but it means a different clock tower.)

Good times though.

--

Also, random note: XSeed has a big sale on all their PSN titles going on this week:

https://www.facebook.com/XSEEDGames/photos/a.207802608353.129865.163718093353/10154436990378354/?type=1&theater

[MasterLemon]

The problem with Sandy Grave is how most of the enemies there don't take much damage to Jonathon's whip. Meaning it's kinda geared towards Charlotte. I never said that the rest of the game did this, but yeah I personally prefer maining Jonathon. Mainly because he has a more interesting weapon draw; the AI is more than capable of handling Charlotte.

I will agree that the description for the Gold and Silver rings are really stupid. "Clock Tower" will indicate that the titular area is the next port of cool. But nope, it turns out to be the area in the Marble Gallery where you first met Maria. I like SOTN a lot but this one part doesn't deserve the rose-tinted spectacles treatment.

Also, "DoS seals whiner"? I prefer the term constructive criticism!