What game are you playing?

[CTID]

Picked up Pacific Drive on friday. The concept of it really interested me: a STALKER-like exclusion zone in the Pacific Northwest (ie, where I live) where you're basically maintaining a shitbox station wagon while scavenging for supplies, so that you can repair the car from wear and tear (or otherwise - lots of STALKER-like anomalies) and have enough left over to research new parts so that you can scavenge more shit and survive longer and deeper treks into the zone from your garage. Think Subnautica-like advancing through the tech trees, except in this case it's adding racks on the sides/roof to attach anything from storage racks, gas tanks, wind turbines to charge your car battery, etc.

BUT ALSO it's a roguelike where the junctions (levels) you go to are procedurally generated (though I'm like 99% sure that there are definitely handmade levels mixed in there for story quests - because it does have a story) and have different modifiers like pitch black skies even during the day, electromagnetic interference draining your batteries faster, etc. and if you die on a run, you lose everything you looted on that run and are sent back to the garage (so almost like there's a little Escape From Tarkov stakes on your runs?).

All that said, so far I really like it. It's also probably a hard sell to recommend people because with all of those comparisons to STALKER and EFT, there is no combat in the game. There are no "enemies" in the traditional sense, either. There are "things" in the games like abuctors and bunnies that will come after your car and can damage it, but most anomalies I've run into just "exist" and their mere existence is harmful to you. Regardless, I could see a lot of people thinking it's boring and on some level I kind of understand that because the activities you perform are pretty repetitive, but imo the tension of losing everything in my car on death and the mad dash at the ends of runs to get to your "gateway" before the (oddly Battle Royale-like circle on your map) radiation storm closes in and melts you is plenty exciting.

Oh, also the soundtrack is really good.

Spoiler: Pictures

Pitch black modifier on a level - you can see it's 8:04 AM on the screen in the car



Last one isn't mine, but I actually haven't thought to stop long enough to take any pictures during the day.

 

[MFB]

I need to get a LOT better at phase 1 if I'm gonna have a chance at finishing phase 3 for Slave Knight; Jesus Christ, the change from phase 2 into 3 is horrifying, and the repeating crossbow bullshit wasn't a nice surprise either.

He's a good fight, but god damn if I don't feel like I'm just hitting a sponge that punches me back twice as hard.

 

[rokket2005]

I started playing Tokyo Xanadu after hearing everyone rag on it for years. It's basically Cold Steel Persona with worse action combat than any Ys game and I don't understand why it's not at least as good as prior Ys games.
I don't generally drop games unless I'm super bored while I'm playing them, and after like 15 hours or so I'm still playing so I guess that's as glowing of a recommendation as I can give just yet. The 2nd boss is the most bullshit unbalanced garbage I've experienced in gaming in years, and everything since has been an absolute joke. Definitely the great filter for most players I'd assume. It came out right after Cold Steel II and before Ys 8 and the MC is undoubtedly Falcom wanting to put Rean in more games without having Rean in more games.

At least they put actual Towa in the game.

 

[MFB]

OK, well, I got pretty damn good pretty damn fast since I killed him, this is up there with some of the best kills I've had in any From Soft game. Ranking the DS3 fight alone:

Twin Princes
Slave Knight Gael
Sister Friede
Soul of Cinder
Demon Prince
Nameless King
Dragonslayer Armor
Abyss Watcher
Aldrich of the Deep
Oceiros

I THINK thats a safe listing for a top 10, and it's wild that two of my top 5 are the final for each DLC. Oceiros reminded me a lot of a Bloodborne fight, and I'd say SKG is what I WANT Maliketh's fight to be but he's even faster and with bullshit bleed or whatever effect he has.

 

[wankerness]

That Pacific Drive game looks cool. I saw it plugged on the jimquisition recently, it sounded interesting.

OK, well, I got pretty damn good pretty damn fast since I killed him, this is up there with some of the best kills I've had in any From Soft game. Ranking the DS3 fight alone:

Twin Princes
Slave Knight Gael
Sister Friede
Soul of Cinder
Demon Prince
Nameless King
Dragonslayer Armor
Abyss Watcher
Aldrich of the Deep
Oceiros

I THINK thats a safe listing for a top 10, and it's wild that two of my top 5 are the final for each DLC. Oceiros reminded me a lot of a Bloodborne fight, and I'd say SKG is what I WANT Maliketh's fight to be but he's even faster and with bullshit bleed or whatever effect he has.

oh, I’m surprised you didn’t include ludex gundyr or whatever the late game version is called. That’s a pretty fun fight, especially if you parry!

Guess you haven’t tried Midir, huh? Good job with Gael. And yeah, a lot of complaints I saw about late game Elden Ring would refer to him or the Sekiro bosses as examples of hard done right, as opposed to malenia/maliketh.

 

[MFB]

That Pacific Drive game looks cool. I saw it plugged on the jimquisition recently, it sounded interesting.

oh, I’m surprised you didn’t include ludex gundyr or whatever the late game version is called. That’s a pretty fun fight, especially if you parry!

Guess you haven’t tried Midir, huh? Good job with Gael. And yeah, a lot of complaints I saw about late game Elden Ring would refer to him or the Sekiro bosses as examples of hard done right, as opposed to malenia/maliketh.

Man, I came close to beating him on the bridge, but between bullshit runs thru fire to get TO him, his ability to actually attack under himself, and my ability to just constantly roll off that bridge? It wasn't worth it for something that doesn't have an achievement. And that's just to unlock the REAL fight, so pointless!

I almost included Champion Gundyr, but I felt like there were other versions of "guy with a shield" that warranted being on the list more; Soul of Cinder is actually a couple spots to high in hindsight, I'd drop him to right above Abyss Watchers, since he doesn't have anything too crazy move wise. I suck at parrying still with shield, so for me it's more of a constantly dodge/roll fight on his, and that serpent thing can fuck off (99% sure he has one like Iundex did, but maybe not?)

Needless to say, after the 80 hrs I put into, I'm thoroughly hollow feeling having beaten it and knowing I really didn't leave anything major undone. I'm at 67% on trophies but the other ones require new game playthrus and following guides, so eh.

Onto Elden Ring for a new build I guess?

 

[spudmunkey]

Anybody have any mindless, simple, one-handed mobile games you like to play to waste time? Even if it's old and riddled with pay-to-win mechanics.

I'm talking, like, one or two small steps more complicated than Galaga.

I've been playing Falcon Squad because I liked the pixel art style.. basically Galaga, but with a dozen upgradeable ships, side drones, and weapons. It'a clear the devs are not super proficient in English, and every update makes the game more and more of a rip off if you spend any money (I don't), and there's a huge update coming that sounds terrible.

I was playing Apocalypse Meow for a long while until an update broke it on my phone I had then.

One reason I like vertical shooters is that they are fun to play with a stylus, and I have a Note 9 and enjoy playing with that. Some tower defense games are fun to play that way, too...but not looking for anything to to strategy-heavy. I remember enjoying the humor if Radiant Defense, a very stylized tower defense game. I think I kinda like Robotek from the same publisher, Hexage.

In my 20-ish years of mobile gaming, I've never once paid for a game, but am willing to pay up to $10 for the right game.

 

[TedEH]

Anybody have any mindless, simple, one-handed mobile games you like to play to waste time?

Maybe Thumper? It's a straightforward rhythm game.

A long time ago I used to keep Tilt-to-Live on my phone just to kill short bits of time. I dunno if that one's still around.

 

[wankerness]

Man, I came close to beating him on the bridge, but between bullshit runs thru fire to get TO him, his ability to actually attack under himself, and my ability to just constantly roll off that bridge? It wasn't worth it for something that doesn't have an achievement. And that's just to unlock the REAL fight, so pointless!

I almost included Champion Gundyr, but I felt like there were other versions of "guy with a shield" that warranted being on the list more; Soul of Cinder is actually a couple spots to high in hindsight, I'd drop him to right above Abyss Watchers, since he doesn't have anything too crazy move wise. I suck at parrying still with shield, so for me it's more of a constantly dodge/roll fight on his, and that serpent thing can fuck off (99% sure he has one like Iundex did, but maybe not?)

Needless to say, after the 80 hrs I put into, I'm thoroughly hollow feeling having beaten it and knowing I really didn't leave anything major undone. I'm at 67% on trophies but the other ones require new game playthrus and following guides, so eh.

Onto Elden Ring for a new build I guess?

I have beaten bridge Midir on every playthrough, but sometimes I've spammed him with greatarrows from really far away. I hate that fight. The real one is a lot harder but at least there are no environmental hazards!!

DS3's platinum is awful cause you have to grind 30 of most of the covenant items to get all the spells. If you aren't playing online, most of them are extremely low drop rates. Like, the worst two are killing red eyed skeletons in the catacombs and killing silver knights - I think average time for grinding each mob is like 3-5 hours depending on how lucky you get.

The additional rings on each playthrough are at least giving you some variety and having you go through the game again, but yeah you have to look up a guide. You have to play through and beat Nameless King on NG++, so functionally almost three whole playthroughs for that. Plus all that grinding which is way way worse if you don't do it on NG.

I'm guessing the elden ring DLC won't have trophies, cause they never have DLC trophies except when sony forced them to for Bloodborne. So, maybe you won't clear that either?? Though didn't you give up on Malenia even though she has one?? Elden Ring's platinum is way, way easier than any of their other games cause it's the only one that does't require NG+ or any sorts of online stuff.

I heard that the Elden Ring DLC is going to have a power reset on your characters. Like, the new zone has some sort of debuff that makes you wimpy, and the only way to increase your damage is through killing bosses in the new zone (like Sekiro, with the remembrances you get off bosses). I think that's a good idea for not making the bosses totally insane, but it also probably means that if you have a level 300 character you won't be able to faceroll through it.

 

[BlackMastodon]

Anybody have any mindless, simple, one-handed mobile games you like to play to waste time? Even if it's old and riddled with pay-to-win mechanics.

I'm talking, like, one or two small steps more complicated than Galaga.

I've been playing Falcon Squad because I liked the pixel art style.. basically Galaga, but with a dozen upgradeable ships, side drones, and weapons. It'a clear the devs are not super proficient in English, and every update makes the game more and more of a rip off if you spend any money (I don't), and there's a huge update coming that sounds terrible.

I was playing Apocalypse Meow for a long while until an update broke it on my phone I had then.

One reason I like vertical shooters is that they are fun to play with a stylus, and I have a Note 9 and enjoy playing with that. Some tower defense games are fun to play that way, too...but not looking for anything to to strategy-heavy. I remember enjoying the humor if Radiant Defense, a very stylized tower defense game. I think I kinda like Robotek from the same publisher, Hexage.

In my 20-ish years of mobile gaming, I've never once paid for a game, but am willing to pay up to $10 for the right game.

I've heard a lot of people give praise to Vampire Survivors and am pretty sure it's on mobile. Otherwise I got nothing as I haven't really done mobile games since Robot Unicorn Attack 2.

 

[wankerness]

Well, finished Like a Dragon: Gaiden, except for one particular achievement I don't know if I can handle. There's this awful trick-shot pool minigame, and you have to set angles up like, pixel perfect and there are no sorts of numbers or anything other than guesses, and you have to do three shots in a row with the same bank of tries, so it's just infuriating. The rare times I get to the third shot of three, I usually have like 1 attempt left, but the vast majority of the time I just can't perfectly line up the second one. This is the worst minigame since the advanced rock stacking in Assassin's Creed: Valhalla!!! But at least that one had checkpoints!

The game overall was definitely at the bottom of the Yakuza games for me, besides Judgment. I just didn't care about the plot. The whole concept seemed weird and nonsensical. You don't interact with any characters you're familiar with till the very end of the game, the new characters aren't very interesting, there's lots of boring grindy busywork, the main minigame is just another coliseum but with having to tediously level up all your teammates, etc. It makes me retroactively appreciate Yakuza 6 a lot more, cause at least that one's abandoning of all previous games introduced some likable new characters and stuff.

The ending, though! Jeez. That was the most emotional a video game has ever made me with the possible exception of the end of Uncharted 4. Just ridiculous gutpunch and almost worth playing the whole game for. I really like that this game and Infinite Wealth have gone back and made Yakuza 3 sort of the core of Kiryu's character. I'm going to have to replay that someday. I basically rushed through it cause I hated the gameplay so much (combat was really bad thanks to the enemy behaviors, and most of the minigames were bad news thanks to ridiculous consumable requirements and inventory space limits and all that kind of stuff).

But yeah, I guess the strongest condemnation I can give of this game is I felt like I played it as long as Infinite Wealth, yet the time played on this is at like 26 hours, and infinite wealth was like 150.

 

[MFB]

I have beaten bridge Midir on every playthrough, but sometimes I've spammed him with greatarrows from really far away. I hate that fight. The real one is a lot harder but at least there are no environmental hazards!!

DS3's platinum is awful cause you have to grind 30 of most of the covenant items to get all the spells. If you aren't playing online, most of them are extremely low drop rates. Like, the worst two are killing red eyed skeletons in the catacombs and killing silver knights - I think average time for grinding each mob is like 3-5 hours depending on how lucky you get.

The additional rings on each playthrough are at least giving you some variety and having you go through the game again, but yeah you have to look up a guide. You have to play through and beat Nameless King on NG++, so functionally almost three whole playthroughs for that. Plus all that grinding which is way way worse if you don't do it on NG.

I'm guessing the elden ring DLC won't have trophies, cause they never have DLC trophies except when sony forced them to for Bloodborne. So, maybe you won't clear that either?? Though didn't you give up on Malenia even though she has one?? Elden Ring's platinum is way, way easier than any of their other games cause it's the only one that does't require NG+ or any sorts of online stuff.

I heard that the Elden Ring DLC is going to have a power reset on your characters. Like, the new zone has some sort of debuff that makes you wimpy, and the only way to increase your damage is through killing bosses in the new zone (like Sekiro, with the remembrances you get off bosses). I think that's a good idea for not making the bosses totally insane, but it also probably means that if you have a level 300 character you won't be able to faceroll through it.

That's the other part I forgot for the platinum is that they require covenant rewards which is just as bad as online trophies, because convenants ARE online so its a roundabout way of getting to the same point. So yeah, I'll probably never be able to do it at this point besides insane farming which isn't worth it for that miniscule level.

 

[gabito]

Well, finished Like a Dragon: Gaiden, except for one particular achievement I don't know if I can handle. There's this awful trick-shot pool minigame, and you have to set angles up like, pixel perfect and there are no sorts of numbers or anything other than guesses, and you have to do three shots in a row with the same bank of tries, so it's just infuriating. The rare times I get to the third shot of three, I usually have like 1 attempt left, but the vast majority of the time I just can't perfectly line up the second one. This is the worst minigame since the advanced rock stacking in Assassin's Creed: Valhalla!!! But at least that one had checkpoints!

I don't remember if the 2nd or 3rd shot was really difficult (I think it was the 2nd one). Just use a guide, it still takes a few tries, but it's doable.

I think I used this one here https://www.gamerguides.com/like-a-...l/1-shot-challenge-guide-like-a-dragon-gaiden and still spent like half an hour until I got it.

 

[wankerness]

I don't remember if the 2nd or 3rd shot was really difficult (I think it was the 2nd one). Just use a guide, it still takes a few tries, but it's doable.

I think I used this one here https://www.gamerguides.com/like-a-...l/1-shot-challenge-guide-like-a-dragon-gaiden and still spent like half an hour until I got it.

I used a few guides, the problem is they don't really help when they just show a video because you need a pixel perfect angle and there's just not enough identifiers to exactly duplicate anything. Like, with what you linked, you can see what that looks like, but there's about 5 positions that functionally look near-identical along with the janky "shot strength" thing that also has no actual numbers or graphical feedback that allows you to duplicate it every time (other than shooting it as hard as possible, of course). I can get the first shot every single time, but the second? I've gotten it like, twice and it felt like dumb luck since with the way the shots need both the exact force and angle it's impossible to tell which one is wrong when it slightly misses. It's infuriating! Since it's the only thing I need for the platinum I'll probably grit my teeth and grind it out but I'll expect it to take at least another hour of frustration. Once I got to the third shot with 7 attempts remaining, tried duplicating the guides, missed all 7 slightly (the ball would go over the ramp but then bounce off the corner just next to the pocket).

That said it has like 26% completion on PS5 at least so it's obviously doable. I just might break something.

That's the other part I forgot for the platinum is that they require covenant rewards which is just as bad as online trophies, because convenants ARE online so its a roundabout way of getting to the same point. So yeah, I'll probably never be able to do it at this point besides insane farming which isn't worth it for that miniscule level.

Yeah, like with DS2 enemies drop them offline, but it's at like a 1-2% drop rate for some of them (Silver Knights in particular is awful droprate) and when you need 30 of them, that's a LOT of grinding. DS1 was good cause IIRC you only needed 10 of the sunlight medals and eyeballs for the platinum and you could get 3 of each item out of a chest every playthrough so you basically only had to get lucky a couple times to get all the items necessary - the only mob you had to grind for a while were those harpies in the painted world for souvenirs of reprisal, but they had a pretty high drop rate. DS2, the only thing you needed to grind was falconers, which was absolutely miserable and took a few hours with maxed out item discovery, but it was only one item (sunlight medals). DS3, it was 30 items off silver knights, 30 items off red-eyed skeletons, 30 items off the ghru, and 30 items off lothric knights. Oh, and 10 off the deacons and 10 off the darkwraiths, but those are tame in comparison. It was nuts. I'd say 8 hours is about the minimum time and that's if you use the mimic helm and the +3 gold ring and whatever else increases item drop rate.

Here's a guide from an optimist:

Spoiler

Covenant Farming: Offline Mode :: DARK SOULS™ III General Discussions

I'm making a list of the best ways to farm covenant items, for those who either A: don't like PvPing, or B: Have bad internet connections and cannot PvP. Every covenant item is dropped by enemies in-game, to make sure people like you can actually get covenant ranks without having to play online...

steamcommunity.com

1: Mound-Makers
Covenant item: Vertebre Shackle. Enemy who drops it: Skeletons in the Catacombs of Carthus.
Best way to farm: Catacombs of Carthus bonfire. Head backwards past the ball of bones and kill the two sword-and-shield skeletons. Return to the bonfire and repeat.

2: Watchdogs of Farron
Covenant item: Wolf's Blood Swordgrass. Enemy who drops it: Ghru enemies in the Farron Keep
Best way to farm: Farron Keep Perimeter. The 3 Ghru nearby, leading to the shortcut to the Cruxifiction woods. Kill them, then rest at the bonfire and repeat.

3: Warriors of Sunlight
Covenant item: Sunlight Medal. Enemy who drops it: Lothric Knights in Lothric Castle.
Best way to farm: Lothric Castle bonfire. Head back toward the way you enter the castle, and kill the two knights roaming, then kill the third in the chapel room. Repeat as needed.

4: Rosaria's Fingers
Covenant item: Pale Tongue. Enemy who drops it: Dark Wraiths.
Best way to farm: Abyss Watchers bonfire. Exit toward the Farron Keep, then kill the two Darkwraiths there, who are fighting enemies. Return to the bonfire and repeat.

5: Blue Sentinels and the Blades of the Darkmoon.
Covenant item: Proof of a Concord Kept. Enemy who drops it: Silver Knights
Best way to farm: Anor Londo bonfire. Go up the stairs and kill the 3 Silver Knights outside the building. Return to the bonfire and repeat.

6: Aldrich's Faithful
Covenant item: Human Dregs. Enemy who drops them: Deacons of the deep within Anor Londo.
Best way to farm: Aldrich's bonfire. Rest at it, then run out into Anor Londo and kill the Deacons. Return to the bonfire and repeat.

Finally, the best way to farm these items: Equip the Symbol of Avarice, Crystal Sage's Rapier, and the Gold COvetous Serpent Ring, and use Rusted Coins to increase your item discovery rate as high as possible while farming these enemies. It will still take a while, but hopefully not too long.

 

[gabito]

It's infuriating! Since it's the only thing I need for the platinum I'll probably grit my teeth and grind it out but I'll expect it to take at least another hour of frustration.

Yeah

The third shot is kind of easy IIRC (or at least somewhat forgiving), it's the second one that's a bitch. The key to me was to use about half power in the second shot and... get lucky.

Just keep trying until you get it, maybe there's video or something with a better explanation now.

 

[TedEH]

Taking a complete left turn after the 150hr marathon that was Baldur's Gate, I spent a handful of hours playing Unpacking.

Spoiler

It's kinda interesting, and I think I see why some people like it, but I think I'm glad with it being over quickly. It does some things very well, but also some things not as well. The usual list of random thoughts:

- The music is good. Very chill most of the time. There's one moment where the music changes to reflect the tone of the scene in a way that was very well executed.
- The music though sometimes just kinda stops. It doesn't loop cleanly, instead you get silence for a while, then it just kicks back in later. That's.... not the end of the world, but kinda not very polished feeling.
- I'm sure a lot of details went over my head, but it's pretty clever to tell a story entirely through the stuff being unloaded from boxes. It mostly works.
- The ending is pretty anticlimactic though. It just kinda ends. You finish the last scene, and congrats, there's nothing else.
- I know I'm reading into it in a way that was never intended, but there's a bit of a "tradition bad, lesbians good" vibe at one point, which entirely tracks with it being an indie darling kind of a game. For some reason, the indie space really loves lesbians.
- Jebus, this person moves way too often.
- While the mechanic of unpacking stuff is clever, after the first scene or two, it's kinda mechanically tedious. I no more want to spend time organizing my own sock drawer than a strangers.
- Sometimes, the game would just refuse certain item placements but never tell you why. Like why can't the laptop be in the office? Why can't this one random bottle be on a shelf?
- Some of the pixel art isn't super clear what an item is. There's a wooden dish rack thing that I thought was for shoes or something, and I had to google why the game wouldn't let me leave it where shoes go, or put shoes on it.

 

[Bloody_Inferno]

I'm not as fast as completing games as I used to, but up to chapter 4 of Like A Virgin Gaiden, The Man Touched For The Very First Time, just after the part with what has to be one of the hilariously dumb and goofiest plot schemes to come out of the Yakuza series, and that says a lot.

I do enjoy the Agent fighting style a lot though. Since it was birthed from Amon in Y6, I can only imagine it as a proof of concept for latter games with gameplay going for augmented superpowers of sorts.

I didn't realise the pool minigame was absent since Y0 and while I'm not really good at it, I at least appreciate that its back.

 

[Bloody_Inferno]

I started playing Tokyo Xanadu after hearing everyone rag on it for years. It's basically Cold Steel Persona with worse action combat than any Ys game and I don't understand why it's not at least as good as prior Ys games.
I don't generally drop games unless I'm super bored while I'm playing them, and after like 15 hours or so I'm still playing so I guess that's as glowing of a recommendation as I can give just yet. The 2nd boss is the most bullshit unbalanced garbage I've experienced in gaming in years, and everything since has been an absolute joke. Definitely the great filter for most players I'd assume. It came out right after Cold Steel II and before Ys 8 and the MC is undoubtedly Falcom wanting to put Rean in more games without having Rean in more games.

At least they put actual Towa in the game.

I was one of those who said a few hundred or so pages earlier in this thread, that it was a mashup of Cold Steel, Persona and latter day Ys but doesn't live up to any of them. The game and the characters were charming enough for me to see it through the end. Each character is unique enough to add some variety in the usual hack and slash gameplay. I do like that some of the side bonding moments doesn't involve Kou at all, so it doesn't have the Cold Steel problem where everyone is so dependent on the protagonist. And speaking of which, wait until you get to the shopping mall/arcade sections of the game. It makes that Space Harrier knockoff in Reverie not so out of place.

 

[rokket2005]

I was one of those who said a few hundred or so pages earlier in this thread, that it was a mashup of Cold Steel, Persona and latter day Ys but doesn't live up to any of them. The game and the characters were charming enough for me to see it through the end. Each character is unique enough to add some variety in the usual hack and slash gameplay. I do like that some of the side bonding moments doesn't involve Kou at all, so it doesn't have the Cold Steel problem where everyone is so dependent on the protagonist. And speaking of which, wait until you get to the shopping mall/arcade sections of the game. It makes that Space Harrier knockoff in Reverie not so out of place.

Yeah, it's not as bad as others have made it out to be, but it's just fine. I do wonder how development of it came about though. Like, was it everyone in the room just spitballing and they used all of the first ideas that anyone had? It really is like every Cold Steel meme thrown together with P4 dungeons. Making Magical Alisa a whack a mole game is just, I don't have words for the the thought that must've went in to that. I was thinking that the concert scene was straight out of Tokyo Mirage Sessions, so I had to go look but it seems like TX actually came out first. I don't mind Kou, mostly cause he looks just enough like Joshua to not be exactly Rean. I just hit the onsen scene about ~22 hours in I think. I'm kind of sad that's it's been holding my attention better than XCX.

 

[Bloody_Inferno]

Yeah, it's not as bad as others have made it out to be, but it's just fine. I do wonder how development of it came about though. Like, was it everyone in the room just spitballing and they used all of the first ideas that anyone had? It really is like every Cold Steel meme thrown together with P4 dungeons. Making Magical Alisa a whack a mole game is just, I don't have words for the the thought that must've went in to that. I was thinking that the concert scene was straight out of Tokyo Mirage Sessions, so I had to go look but it seems like TX actually came out first. I don't mind Kou, mostly cause he looks just enough like Joshua to not be exactly Rean. I just hit the onsen scene about ~22 hours in I think. I'm kind of sad that's it's been holding my attention better than XCX.

I'm speculating that the conception is much simpler than expected. Since Falcom's Xanadu games are just like Legend Of Heroes; that they're all just spun off from their main Dragon Slayer series, they probably needed a new Xanadu game. And since the Cold Steel series was tooled to target the 'anime' demographic, it seemed natural for Tokyo Xanadu to do the same when developed in the same time period. And as a small company, I can see how reusing assets can just let them churn out games at a speedy rate. And the cross promotion of putting Cold Steel 2 ads in the game is free advertising. Whether we agree with such practices is a different story altogether.

The story and the characters do keep you invested long enough so I'm not surprised that it's kept your attention. Again, I negatively criticised it myself during my earlier playtime as Persona / Ys / Trails lite mix, but eventually won me over.