What game are you playing?

[Kaura]

Literally spent the whole day at work having a two man LAN party playing ye olde Quake on a web browser. It was actually my first time ever playing it. For the first 15 minutes I thought it was kinda hectic but then I got hooked. Can't wait for our next Sunday shift.

 

[Ralyks]

Finished the Stellar Blade demo, and I'm trying to convince myself to wait on buying it since I still have 2 massive JRPGs to knock out.

 

[Werecow]

Finished BG3 at last, after waiting for Act3 to be patched at first, and then two restarts... first one because i didn't want to stop playing it while i waited, and second one because of the big endings content patch they released. It'll definitely be one of my games i replay every couple of years.

I'm still in the mood for DnD, so probably gonna replay Neverwinter Nights 1 for the umpteenth next.

 

[wankerness]

Finally starting to hit the point where FF7 Rebirth is making me mad almost as often as it's making me enjoy it. Chapter 10, Cosmo Canyon. The problem with this game are the minigames all scale in difficulty along with everything else in the game, but the minigame skills have nothing to do with anything else in the game, so you're confronted with some new kind of bullshit that's WAY too hard for what it is. Here I'm talking specifically about the awful "fly chocobo through rings" minigame, and the monstrous difficulty spike in the piano minigame with "two legs." The first requires near pixel perfect execution on some of its bullshit (shades of that chocobo racing course in FFX!!) and the second is just mindboggling compared to all the earlier piano songs, all of which I got As on in 1-2 tries. This took about 10-12 times and felt like I almost lucked out when I got an A.

I'm absolutely dreading the return to the Golden Saucer in chapter 12 - I got the highest reward tiers on everything in Chapter 9, and it sucked, but I've read that they add higher tiers to all of them in chapter 12, making all of them much harder. Gah.

The game itself is still great, but wow, do some of these minigames need a nerf, BADLY. And this is coming from Mr. Fromsoft Fanboy.

 

[gabito]

I gave away my PS3 to a friend, so I installed on my ROG Ally the few games that are on PS3 and nowhere else (God of War remasters, MGS4) or that I don't feel like buying again (MGS 1 / 2 / 3), so... I've been playing a lot of NBA Jam On Fire Edition.

It's a really fun game. Not really sure about the story though... Nah, it's a really fun game.

I've also been playing Mafia III. But, I don't know... It's like a mix between GTA V (drive a lot while listening to people talk and then shoot people when you get to some place they tell you to go) and Assassin's Creed (map filled with collectibles and that kind of stuff). Not super compelling so far. It's the story that's supposedly good, but I've played it for like 5 hours I guess and I'm yet to see when it gets good.

I'll keep playing for a bit and uninstall it if it doesn't.

 

[wankerness]

On chapter 12 of FF7 rebirth, just did the big "opera"/date scene. This is the best Final Fantasy game I've played, there's no question. FFVI is second I guess. It's too bad about the IMMENSE amount of padding with minigames (like, I just did the Chocobo races - there's almost 25 of them!!!) mainly cause it distracts from the character stuff, which is absolutely the most invested I've been in characters since like, Mass Effect 2/3. Baldur's Gate 3 has better writing especially considering all the paths that you can take, but as far as linear stuff goes, this is pretty much tops. Even though I find Yuffie annoying and don't like the Red XIII twist.

Too bad this game seems to have sold well below expectations (not that they should have been surprised considering remake wasn't that great and few people are going to buy this that didn't finish that, and half as many people have a PS5 as had a PS4 when that came out). Hopefully part 3 is up to the same standard! Even though I have a feeling I'm going to be mad about the end of this one and not get as invested in the story for 3.

The music in this is probably the best game soundtrack of all time, though I think I personally prefer some of the weirder ones like Nier Automata. They just went all out. Like, the stupid chocobo racing minigame has some really great variations of chocobo music like one that sounds like Italian Giallo music and a surf guitar version. Or there's the bizarre boopy little songs that accompany fights where you're a frog (voices going kero kero over and over) or escorting a dog (voices sound like they're saying LOL LOL) that are nonetheless wildly catchy. EVERYTHING has its own music! And none of it sounds half-assed!

 

[gabito]

Are the minigames mandatory?

 

[wankerness]

Are the minigames mandatory?

The minigames tend to have reward tiers. You never have to ace them to progress the game, but you do have to be able to get the lowest tier of rewards. In general you will probably get all of those on your first try, but there are a couple that I did fail a few times (frog jumping, 3d brawler, and chocobo glide come to mind). A few of them are completely optional but generally you're made to do most of them once at least.

It also depends what you consider "mandatory," often they're tied to sidequests. You can just skip the sidequest if you want - I'd say probably only like 1/3 to 1/2 of the minigames are actually required for the main story. But you'll end up underlevelled if you skip all the sidequests, and you also build reputation with your other party members through doing sidequests, and there are some things in the game that are dependent on having a good relationship with party members. So, I consider them more or less mandatory unless you're on easy difficulty, but I'm usually an RPG completist. Or another thing that's technically "optional" are the minigames to unlock chocobos in open world zones. You CAN skip those, but then you are stuck walking everywhere in that zone.

 

[gabito]

Hm... I'm not a fan of JRPGs, but after playing LAD 7 / 8 for so long (and liking them) I thought I might give the last FF remakes a try. They also seem to be well regarded.

I'm OK with doing sidequests and even some mindless grinding, but... yeah, I'm not sure if what you're describing sounds too compelling.

 

[wankerness]

Hm... I'm not a fan of JRPGs, but after playing LAD 7 / 8 for so long (and liking them) I thought I might give the last FF remakes a try. They also seem to be well regarded.

I'm OK with doing sidequests and even some mindless grinding, but... yeah, I'm not sure if what you're describing sounds too compelling.

Well, FF7 Remake (which I didn't like that much) is super linear and has way fewer minigames than Rebirth. I also did most of the achievements including all sidequests in about 40 hours, so it's pretty short. While Rebirth, I'm at 65 hours or something and am only like 3/4 of the way through the story, let alone finishing all the side content.

My problem with Remake was largely awkward voice acting. If english isn't your first language it probably wont' bug you nearly as much as it did me. It's like, the voice actors are good, the dialogue is just very clunky, and the game asks you to care too much about characters that just don't really matter in the grand scheme of the plot. And then the levels get pretty samey with a ton of gray/green hallways and stuff, but again the game isn't that long and if you're someone that doesn't like open worlds and sidequests you might view it as a good thing.

The combat is somewhere in between a turnbased RPG and an action game. On easy you can pretty much mash the attack button (square) and cast spells or special attacks whenever you generate enough "ATB." Then there's blocking and dodging and positioning all in realtime. And you can switch between your three party members at any time and control them instead, but the AI on your party members is REALLY bad. But, it definitely has a lot of tactical aspects if you're on higher difficulties. It's not the mindless action spamfest of FFXVI.

I remember the Dunkey review of Remake largely complaining that they took what was originally a goofy game with some serious moments and turned it into an overly serious game with some goofy moments, and also rightly mocked how much the game asks you to care about the likes of Jessie. I feel like they solved the tonal issue with Rebirth and also since there are more party members it's mainly only asking you to care about characters that "matter" instead of padding out the side characters so much. But yeah, Rebirth introduced a ton of open world bloat, too, which doesn't bug me cause I've played many ubisoft games and it's not nearly as bad as them.

 

[CannibalCricket]

Carrion, ultros, and soul reaver 2. Why is it that my memories of ps2 are high def but the sad reality is so fuzzy?

 

[wankerness]

Carrion, ultros, and soul reaver 2. Why is it that my memories of ps2 are high def but the sad reality is so fuzzy?

Probably because you had a CRT so it looked better, and you were used to staring at a tiny screen so it looked big.

 

[CannibalCricket]

Probably because you had a CRT so it looked better, and you were used to staring at a tiny screen so it looked big.

Yup. 4:3 aspect looks awesome streched to 16:9!! Lara Croft never looked so fuzzy and triangular

 

[wankerness]

It's not just the stretch thing, it's that a lot of those graphics legitimately look a lot better with a CRT filter on than they do with a modern TV showing every pixel in all its gory glory. It's less jarring with PS2 than it was with SNES, but it's still something.

 

[gabito]

Well, FF7 Remake (which I didn't like that much) is super linear and has way fewer minigames than Rebirth. I also did most of the achievements including all sidequests in about 40 hours, so it's pretty short. While Rebirth, I'm at 65 hours or something and am only like 3/4 of the way through the story, let alone finishing all the side content.

My problem with Remake was largely awkward voice acting. If english isn't your first language it probably wont' bug you nearly as much as it did me. It's like, the voice actors are good, the dialogue is just very clunky, and the game asks you to care too much about characters that just don't really matter in the grand scheme of the plot. And then the levels get pretty samey with a ton of gray/green hallways and stuff, but again the game isn't that long and if you're someone that doesn't like open worlds and sidequests you might view it as a good thing.

The combat is somewhere in between a turnbased RPG and an action game. On easy you can pretty much mash the attack button (square) and cast spells or special attacks whenever you generate enough "ATB." Then there's blocking and dodging and positioning all in realtime. And you can switch between your three party members at any time and control them instead, but the AI on your party members is REALLY bad. But, it definitely has a lot of tactical aspects if you're on higher difficulties. It's not the mindless action spamfest of FFXVI.

I remember the Dunkey review of Remake largely complaining that they took what was originally a goofy game with some serious moments and turned it into an overly serious game with some goofy moments, and also rightly mocked how much the game asks you to care about the likes of Jessie. I feel like they solved the tonal issue with Rebirth and also since there are more party members it's mainly only asking you to care about characters that "matter" instead of padding out the side characters so much. But yeah, Rebirth introduced a ton of open world bloat, too, which doesn't bug me cause I've played many ubisoft games and it's not nearly as bad as them.

Well, maybe I'll buy FF7 Remake next time it's on sale and if I like it I'll try Rebirth...

English is not my first language but I can tell when the voiceover is bad. I've been listening to people speak english in all kinds of media since forever, but that's not the case for japanese or other languages. Is there a japanese voiceover? I'm guessing there is one since it's a japanese game, and I almost always choose the original language for voiceovers anyway.

 

[wankerness]

Well, maybe I'll buy FF7 Remake next time it's on sale and if I like it I'll try Rebirth...

English is not my first language but I can tell when the voiceover is bad. I've been listening to people speak english in all kinds of media since forever, but that's not the case for japanese or other languages. Is there a japanese voiceover? I'm guessing there is one since it's a japanese game, and I almost always choose the original language for voiceovers anyway.

There IS a japanese voiceover but honestly the VAs they got for the US dub are really good. There are a couple recognizable people from TV and movies, and the leads are all very legit voice actors with a ton of credits. The first game seems like it was written and tracked in Japanese because the characters have some of that "vocal punctuation" that is omnipresent in Japanese that sounds weird with English, but Rebirth's localization was so good that it feels like English is its native language. Additionally, the Japanese voice acting (from what little I checked out) is actually more annoying. Like, Aerith, one of the main characters, has got that obnoxious Japanese anime girl thing going where she is trying to sound like a high pitched child, where the English VA actually sounds like an adult. People say the guy who does Sephiroth is better in Japanese, but the amount of time you hear Sephiroth talking vs Aerith is like...1/20th as much, if that. I'd say maybe play Remake in Japanese and Rebirth in English, just cause the dialogue can be kind of cringe in Remake.

These are not even remotely in the same boat as something like the Yakuza 7/8 dubs, where it's just embarrassingly bad. In general I'll always flip Japanese games to Japanese audio, but that's cause the English voiceacting is usually bad. Nioh, Wo Long, Zelda TOTK, etc. Here, it's arguably better. It's about on par with the likes of Baldur's Gate 3 or the classic Bioware games.

I have not listened to Yuffie in Japanese, but I could see her being even more obnoxious with one of those Japanese child style vocal performances than she is in the US track, where she's already annoying. Probably the same deal with certain other childlike characters. In Zelda: TOTK for example all the Japanese voices were RADICALLY better besides that one goron kid who had the most annoying high pitched voice imaginable in the Japanese track.

 

[KnightBrolaire]

I'm pretty sure I'm never going to escape Dominator rank in Tekken 8 playing as Azucena. When games go well, I whoop ass, but most of the time I get rolled because I suck at juggling. Guess I gotta work on my aerial juggles.

 

[CannibalCricket]

I'm pretty sure I'm never going to escape Dominator rank in Tekken 8 playing as Azucena. When games go well, I whoop ass, but most of the time I get rolled because I suck at juggling. Guess I gotta work on my aerial juggles.

ever play old tekken tag on ps2? Either way yoshimitsu is my shit on tekken and soul calibur!! Hari kari dance baby

 

[p0ke]

Tried that boss in the Dragon's Rest in DS2 again, and my bad luck just continues. I tried both solo and with summons, I always die of the boss teleporting behind me while I'm fighting Velstadt or similar.
So I decided to try the other DLC's and go back later. I went into the one at the smelter and damn, what an annoying bunch of mobs here! The enemies only take 2-3 hits each from my hammer, but they also kill me in a matter of hits, and they're basically impossible to agro one by one. Making steady progress though. On my last attempt today I got pretty far, but then my wife came to charge her phone in front of the TV. She was there like 5sec and immediately I got pushed off a cliff by some lightning spell casting bastard. And she goes "why didn't you just pause the game?" Yeah, go figure...

 

[wankerness]

The beginning of the Iron King DLC was really demoralizing. But yeah, just try and be very methodical about killing the closest mob as fast as possible so you're never dealing with more than one for long. There's a lot of weird stuff in that level, too, which calls for bows and sniping things around corners (like, guys that walk around with exploding barrels in areas with fire everywhere).

Just wait until you meet the most infamous NPC in dark souls history! He's in both the iron king and the ivory king DLC. He's so great. MALDRON!

I beat FF7 rebirth today. The second to last chapter goes on WAY too long and the last chapter is your average final fantasy last section with like 45 minutes of cutscenes, but yeah, overall it's kind of a masterpiece. I'm going to maybe play through the original now to see what the heck it was they blew up into this. I bet it will actually improve it, since I'll be able to look at those featureless blocks of polygons and badly translated text and ascribe to them the rich characters they were in this.

I got a lot of the completionist stuff done already (ex, finished all the sidequests including the extra bonus high scores on everything in the golden saucer, beat sephiroth in the infamous 3d brawler minigame), and am at least going to level to max and do all the regular difficulty trials and take out Gilgamesh for endgame. I don't see myself replaying some of these chapters on hard. The last one, especially. They completely remove almost every method of MP regen on hardmode, disable all items, and then stick you in what I think was actually about a 45 minute boss fight - no way am I doing anything like THAT without some super cheese build I get off the internet.