What are you currently playing? V4

[Pyrax]

Alternating between Like a Dragon Ishin, Pokemon Scarlet and Pokemon Violet.
In Ishin, I've just completed the first chapter. Feels refreshing to be playing Yakuza's old brawler combat again. In Scarlet I've been prepping for the Walking Wake raid after beating the main story. And in Violet I've just beaten Tulip and Atticus - it's off to Ryme next.

 

[RadEmpoleon]

I just played through the last part of the main story in Arcaea (rhythm game). There was a multi-step process to unlocking the final song and the climax of the story, and I just had one last step to do. Obviously I won't spoil what happens in the story (unlike the people in the discord server who spoiled it without any warning), but I still was surprised by what happened even though I (regrettably) already knew.

 

[HollowMoth]

Mostly Pokemon Y and Geometry Dash, but I also always check in on the Nintendo Badge Arcade. I've also been enjoying Pokemon Hellgirl

 

[BlissyMKW]

I've been flipping between Trails of Cold Steel IV and Hyperdimension Neptunia Re:Birth 3, but I'm trying to get Cold Steel IV done before the next game releases in July.

...and then there's the rest of the backlog. Blue Reflection: Second Light still weeps in the corner where I stopped playing after Chapter 1 for no good reason and haven't gotten back to it.

 

[Soaring Sid]

I've been flipping between Trails of Cold Steel IV and Hyperdimension Neptunia Re:Birth 3, but I'm trying to get Cold Steel IV done before the next game releases in July.

How did you find the Cold Steel saga? Will you play Reverie next?

What's Blue Reflection?

 

[ソラ]

Kingdom Hearts 2 on my PS2, well the Japanese version. Also Tales of Destiny Directors Cut.
Also got Persona 3 Portable on PC so i can play it fully in Japanese without spending any more money on import.

 

[BlissyMKW]

How did you find the Cold Steel saga? Will you play Reverie next?

What's Blue Reflection?

If I remember correctly, which I'm probably not, I believe I got Cold Steel 1 and 2 on Steam during a sale. I played through Cold Steel 1, had a fantastic experience getting blown away by C in Chapter 6 because of his S-Craft on my first try, and because I wanted to know what happened next, I started Cold Steel 2. However, after getting stuck on getting the AP bonus from Xeno and Leo, I ended up going back and playing Sky FC, which I'll admit I wasn't totally into until that cutscene happened at the end of the game, and from there, the series sank it's hooks into me. The rest is history, I played the Crossbell games thanks to the Geofront patches (may Scott rest in peace), and then started on the second half of Cold Steel. Yes, I will be playing Reverie when it releases after I finish Cold Steel IV.

As for Blue Reflection, how do I explain this. The most I can say is "it's an RPG made by Gust," and the first game is sort of hit and miss. Good luck getting a PS4 copy these days, though. Apparently, there was an anime, and now there's Second Light, which apparently fixes a lot of the problems from the first game. I'm only past Chapter 1 and I'm one of those people who have no real problems with the first game, so I'm not sure what exactly they fixed between games.

 

[Pyrax]

Playing Fallout 4 right now. Just reached Diamond City, but I haven't met this Brotherhood of Steel faction I've heard about yet so that's next on the to do list. Also need to help a settlement for Preston, so many things to do in this game lmao
It's very fun nonetheless, only need to get rid of my radiation damage because half my health is currently permanently gone lmao

 

[Janp]

Gave a try to Monster Crown, since it looked like interesting Pokémon-clone. But it didn't leave a good first impression and I put it down only after 30 minutes and I'm not sure if I want to return to it right now. It's way too grindy right from the bat and I don't feel like wasting several minutes beating slowly beating one of three random monster to grind up to the level the game let's me continue.

 

[DerickLars]

I got Red Dead Redemption 2 yesterday, so I play it. Pretty interesting game.

 

[The Mega Champion]

At long last... I FINALLY finished Tales of Xillia 2 last night. I'm sorry it took me so long. I really am. But it's hard to play games when you have a job. It really is. Sometimes I can play it... sometimes I can't. Plus sometimes I feel like I just don't have enough time to play it or other things come up that prevent me from playing it.

All that really matters... is I finally finished it. There's A LOT I could say. There really is. But I don't want this to turn into a text wall. So I'll try to just discuss key points. First of all... this game isn't as good as the first game. I'm sorry but it's just not. Is it bad? Not really. However... the story drags once you hid the midpoint of the game and becomes incredible repetitive. Luckily, for me at least, it wasn't as bad as the repetitiveness that occurs in Tales of Graces and is actually a little better and makes things a bit more unique and interesting than that game. But it definitely plateaus and feels unnecessarily padded. But I'm unbelievably persistent. So I point myself through it. But not everyone can do that obviously. In the end... it was worth it due to a major story point that happens later. Which got me interested and invested in it again. But it does take to long. Not only that... but things are massively contradicted from the characters in this game from what happened in the last game. I'd have to give spoilers to delve futher, and I won't, but just know that things that were story points in the main game are contradicted in this game and it seems like hypocrisy. The game tries to justify it and I suppose it does so and it's one of those 'but thou must' situations but things are still massively contradicted.

Also... silent MC's don't work for this franchise. I'm sorry but they just don't. For me at least. That's what the MC (Ludger) is. A silent MC. For the most part. He's not silent for 100% of the game. I'd put it more around the 90% range in terms of his silence. Have I been babied with the other games and the MCs always talking? Sure you could say that. But it just becomes really obvious with this game that silent MCs just don't work for Tales of. Also... the other major character... the child... (Elle) is honestly and probably the most annoying character I've ever experienced in the entirely of the Tales of franchise and I'd even go as far as to say the most annoying character I've seen in games in quite a long time. She's a brat. I'm sorry but she just is. She has her moments and I'll give her that and some of the battle victory stuff with her is great and hilarious but that doesn't make up for how annoying and how much of a brat she is. Sorry this is just how I feel. It's no wonder I got the first ending that I got.

I liked the 'mini Social Links' this game did though. I even feel like this game gave better character development for the characters than the first game did because of this. It makes me feel like this should have been in the first game. So better job there.

Overall... there are definitely A LOT of problems with this game. But it's also very similar to Final Fantasy 13-2. So if you liked that game then you'll more than likely like this game too. At the end of the day it's up to you what you do. Do I recommend it? I would still say yes but I'm the type of person who feels obligated to play sequels when they are made. I don't really think it's something you can just ignore and act like it doesn't exist. You can do that if you want obviously but the game does have good moments and better character development than the first game while being harder than the first game (at least for me anyway. Or I was just **** at the game. Assume the latter for now I guess)

But it's up to you at the end of the day obviously. I would still say it's worth a look. Here's my updated Tales of list. Just know that I'm done with this franchise until Arise. Oh and it's an overall list. If I was to do, say, a list for the stories of the game... it would be a completely different list. Same for gameplay, etc.

Abyss
Berseria
Xillia
Xillia 2
Graces f
Symphonia
Zestiria
Symphonia 2
Vesperia

Next up... I'm finally back to current gen (sort of) with PS4. I'm finally getting around to pandemic games. Persona 5 Strikers is next and I'm hoping to begin it tonight but we'll see.

 

[bobandbill]

A mix of things. Beat Super Mario Sunshine recently (first time playing it), so I started on Xenoblade Chronicles 3. Enjoying it so far and plot is slowly ramping up. No tune has quite grabbed me as the standouts in XC1 or XC2 as yet though.

Also started a weekly weekend session thing with a couple friends of Elden Ring, after installing the seamless coop mod. Enjoying it so far! We got wrecked by the first boss. :v

 

[Frequency]

I've gotten my hands on Strangers of Paradise and I gotta say....wow.

I'm a big, BIG fan of Nioh as it is, and SoP is a pretty alright spin on the Nioh formula. I'm really enjoying it. The story was a bit goofy, but I was quite captured by the ending stretch.

Game is sick.

 

[moon]

hello so I just started playing Breath of the Wild six years after everybody else. it's SO much fun.

plan is to get Tears of the Kingdom sometime in the autumn or whenever I've finished this game. I was gonna wait with playing alltogether until the time comes when I can't move comfortably or do much else later in the year, buuut i I booted the game up to try and I just got hooked. never been much of a Zelda or Nintendo fan, but this is just so entertaining.

of course, I also game on my PC c: I've currently paused a run of Mass Effect 2, because I got hooked on Stellaris again, which I aaaalmost finished a run of before I spotted a space shooter/rpg on Steam I had never seen before (an impressive indie title called Spacebourne that gives the finger to Star Citizen since that one person could do so much when SC isn't even out yet..) so naturally I had to try that. and then the Switch arrived. yeah, my attention span is not superb.

 

[The Mega Champion]

I finished Persona 5 Strikers last night. Decent game for the most part really. Is it as good as Persona 5? Well... the answer to that... is obviously no. But I feel like it's a little unfair to compare it to an outstanding game like that. The game... accomplishes what I feel like it set out to do. Which, IMO at least I guess, is for a decent sequel to an outstanding game. Yes the gameplay loop gets repetitive really quickly and no character development outside of the new characters and maybe Haru but it is a 'Warriors' game so maybe that's just what these games are like? I don't honestly know because this was my first 'Warriors' game so feel free to educate me on this matter if it bothers you that much. Either way... I still enjoyed my time with this game and still feels like it was a decent sequel to Persona 5 overall.

I already started my next game. Which is... Balan Wonderworld. Oh boy. So far... there's only one thought I have so far. Is this game what it's like to be on drugs? 😵

Will I survive this game? Who knows. Place your bets now I guess.

 

[mothman]

i'm halfway through persona 3, it'd been a fun experience, especially when compared to the later games. also playing OMORI for the first time, and i'm deciding whether to collect all the hangman pieces or not

 

[moon]

definitely haven't finished BotW yet, and just acquired and tested Scarlet, but started a playthrough of Crystal on my 3DS before that and I wanna finish that first of all now. making good progress!

 

[The Mega Champion]

It is with a heavy heart... that I announce that I have officially dropped Balan Wonderworld. This piece of shit game (which is putting it nicely) really is as bad as everyone claimed it to be. It really is.

I hate having to do this too. I really do. Because this is just not something I do. It really isn't. I tend to finish what I start. But I just couldn't with this. I really couldn't. I don't even remember the last time I did this... it's very possible I've never done this. EVER. So what does that tell you? Exactly.

I could go on and on about how bad this game is. But to make this as short as possible... nothing in this game makes sense. Period. It really doesn't. This is not how platformers are supposed to work. It's an absolute NIGHTMARE for collectibles, especially for someone like me who likes to get, or try to get, them. I hate it when people are right. I really do. I hate being in the 'majority' but clearly everyone is right. Doesn't make the situation or make me feel any better.

So whose to blame? It's not 100% Square Enix like everyone wants to point to. Yuji Naka is known to be unbelievably nitpicky and difficult to work with. So, for me at least, it's 50/50 between him and Square Enix. So I don't want to hear that it was fully Square Enix. That's BS. But whatever. The fact that this finally happened to me, and with this, tells you all you need to know really.

Last time this happened... I found a replacement. But I had money to do so at that time. I don't now. So everything just moves up. I took a little bit of a 'break' to recover from this. Nier Replicant is up next for me and it may start as soon as tonight. If I feel like it I guess. I may need more time. We'll see.

 

[Megan]

Smash Ultimate. I got back to it and am currently going through the World of Light mode. I got it way back when I got my Switch. But I never played very far. So, I'm still busy unlocking all the non-DLC characters. At least I managed to get all the characters I like playing, though, so far.

 

[Pyrax]

Wrapping up the Verdant Wind route on Fire Emblem Three Houses today, then it's onwards to Blue Lions. I've already finished Crimson Flower so that's 2/4 routes done. Considering taking a break after Azure Moon to avoid burning out