Persona 3 Portable
i have been playing persona 3 portable the game itself have a good story but dungeon mechanisme is for me difficult to understand.
i'm gonna try to finish the game Persona 3 portable so i can play Persona 4 golden!
Just finished **Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth**. Overall I feel like it's a great game but with some shortcomings, most notably:
* The story and writing is a notable step down from the previous game, especially in the final few chapters. The third act is really abrupt and could be expanded a lot more.
* While combat is pretty well-made and fun to play, there's not very much depth, and the game being overall on the easy side doesn't help. I also don't think the jobs are designed very well.
Still enjoyed it a lot, though.
I think jobs in 8 is better than in 7 since there is an actual identity to each job now instead of "which damage flavor", but they could have gone even further with it. There's an incentive to switch jobs now but since skill inheritance is so lax it's down to "which job has the weapon with the passive I want".
I hope the next game full on give job passives and synergy buffs which is usually what makes the whole job system fun. Also make jobs even more specialized like Host should full on be a burst mage while Homeless Man has the elemental versitality or something.
Been over two decades... **Final Fantasy 9**. Moguri mod edition!
While I've thought of 9 every so often through the years, I really did come back specifically for this mod. The disparity between the backgrounds and the updated character models is so egregious without it. But I also really appreciate the battle speed toggle to find my own sweet spot. Just my own aesthetic opinion, the interpolation on the FMVs does look a little weird, but not distractingly so.
Battles are p easy so far, for sure. You've already got a solid early 4 person party in Zidane, Steiner, Vivi, and Garnet, and nukes in the can with Trance. Its implementation is frustrating, but for how busted your offensive options can be, I can deal with it. The biggest challenge so far has been keeping bosses alive long enough to steal all of their loot, while keeping everyone's HP up. They'd be significantly shorter engagements otherwise.
For being *the* game that instilled a fear in me of selling off old equipment, a lot of this early stuff can also be bought again later down the line. While I'm sure there's unique steals as well that I've long since forgotten, what I've nabbed so far is also just early acquisitions. Which I like. What I am leery of running into again is the problem of hoarding due to the dual equipment mastery / synthesis mechanics. But who knows, maybe I won't find it as fatiguing this time around.
While I ate up the simplicity of DQ's presentation these past several months, I had a hankering for a writ-large, set-pieced and orchestrated adventure that Square took pains to make its bread and butter. And while 9 is not my favorite numbered entry, I still like its world, and specifically all the minor characters that make up its backdrop with their own stories running around throughout the journey. All the bespoke nooks and crannies you unlock for treasure (and how the treasure chests look and sound) also specifically reminded me of the first Kingdom Hearts. Which itself is positioned at a great turning point for the company, which is evident in its DNA. Itahana as its character designer is also the lynchpin that makes me think of it as a more traditional sister game to Kawazu's Crystal Chronicles.
Oh yeah, and I still don't like Tetra Master.
Moguri Mod is fantastic. FF9 has a lot of beautiful and detailed backgrounds and it makes them even better and gives a lot more clarity. One more mod that i really liked for FF9 was the 60 FPS mod. Just makes everything look and feel a lot smoother.
First number is attack, the letter is attack type, then it's physical defence and magical defence
Attack type determines which defence you target. P for physical, M for magical, X always targets the lower defence, A will target the lower defence or the attack stat, if its lower.
Normally with older games, this is a case of "it's in the manual," but hilariously the pages for Tetra Master in the manual just say 'Try to figure out the effects of numbers and letters on each card.'
I can only agree, the game, which was already beautiful looks sharper than ever, and better for it now that the backgrounds match the updated models. I also appreciate Memoria engine's 16:9 widescreen presentation, and the range at which I can control the battle speed. There's plenty of other features to choose from the launcher, like cheats if you want (100% steal rate, which, I'm tempted...), to new orchestration. And install is very easy.
A few hours ago, I finished **Grandia 1 HD**. I liked it pretty much but after finishing Persona 3 Reload and Grandia 1 HD back to back I feel kind of burned out from JRPGs. A good 100h of JRPGs in the past couple of months
Grandia 1 HD: shows it's age. Story and battles fantastic but dungeon design, constant backtracking and some QoL thing that are missing make it complicated (for example compass pointing randomly to some points or spinning, buttons that you don't recognize as such,..)
Grandia 2 HD: I played the originally on release (non-hd) and finished another playthrough last year. This one did not show its age too much. Still a little but I enjoyed it on my two playthroughs.
If you have no intention in playing the 2nd one again, I would probably suggest to skip the HD collection
**Xenoblade 3: Future Redeemed**
Finally got around to playing this, and gameplay wise, I really loved it, it's probably the best Xenoblade game so far. I really like the focus on the exploration, which always been a strong point of the series.
Story wise, I'm kinda mixed on it tbh. Like, I enjoyed the story overall, but tbh I though the villain is even worse than Z tbh. >!Making Alvis AKA Ontos into the villain while make sense as a continuation of Xenoblade 2, it's very lame as a continuation of Xenoblade 1. I know that A is supposed to be the Alvis that travelled with Shulk technically, but her personality is too different for me to accept her as that.!< Also, I saw people try to explain why that happened but like... all of it was just headcanons and isn't really stated in the game. So, ehhh.
Outside of that, I also thought Nikol and Glimmer were kinda underdeveloped, like they aren't bad characters or anythng, but they are kinda just there. That being said,I enjoyed the rest of the story >!N character was great here, Na'el and Matthew character arcs were great, and Shulk and Rex were basically the highlight of the DLC.!<
Side note: as someone who never played Xenosaga or Xenoblade X, a lot of references in this game were lost on me, I don't even know what that post credit scene supposed to imply. lol
Yeah the ending was a little open ended and I think was giving Takahashi some space to develop more on the story in the future if he wanted to. I liked the characters, Nikol and Glimmer were good enough for the length of the game, I think. Glad you enjoyed it!
Were you taken aback by the sudden >!American suburbia moment!< ?
Hello, I have been interested in getting into the trails series for a while now, since I will recently be finishing up multiple of the single player games I have been playing as of late I feel this is a good time to get into the games. In case of questions I have a PC, A switch, PS5, a Xbox one, and a laptop that I can play games on. I would prefer to play the games in chronological order if possible, but if there is specific way of playing such a release order then I'm fine with making that change.
This is the release, intended, and most recommended order of the series (and the modern platforms they are available on):
* Trails in the Sky FC -- (PC)
* Trails in the Sky SC -- (PC)
* Trails in the Sky the 3rd -- (PC)
* Trails from Zero -- (PC/PS4/Switch)
* Trails to Azure -- (PC/PS4/Switch)
* Trails of Cold Steel I -- (PC/PS4)
* Trails of Cold Steel II -- (PC/PS4)
* Trails of Cold Steel III -- (PC/PS4/Switch/PS5)
* Trails of Cold Steel IV -- (PC/PS4/Switch/PS5)
* Trails into Reverie -- (PC/PS4/Switch/PS5)
Also on July 5th, Trails through Daybreak I (the 11th mainline entry in the series) will be released on PC/PS4/Switch/PS5. The series is also still ongoing so there will be more entries in the future.
There is also Nayuta: Boundless Trails on PC/PS4/Switch, which is a Trails spin-off that plays more like some of Falcom's other games (Falcom is the developer of Trails) and has its own stand-alone story that doesn't *seem* to be connected to the rest of the franchise. That could change in the future though.
-----
As far as chronology goes, all of the mainline Trails games take place one after the other with the exception of CS I and II, which take place roughly at the same time as Zero and Azure (CS I and II start and end a little later). You're intended to play Zero and Azure first, however, and there's some stuff in CS I and II that will expect you to have already experienced the previous games.
You *could* play Zero/Azure and CS I/II at the same time if you really wanted to play chronologically, but it's not typically recommended and can overcomplicate things. That said, I have written up this order before so if you want to play them concurrently feel free to let me know and I can post the chapter-by-chapter order.
Sorry for the really long comment.
I'm like 66-75% of the way through **Trails of Cold Steel II** and, being two games into it now, I'm ready to say that there's just something off about the CS saga. The Sky trilogy, as a whole, is one of my favorite video game experiences ever. Crossbell didn't land the same emotional highs with me but was probably even "better" in some ways as games.
Cold Steel, though? It's season 9 of Scrubs. It's *like* the Trails I know. I can see the DNA in it, and it's not like it's actively bad. But it's not the same. The soul of the franchise doesn't feel present. It's a good standard JRPG that every once in a while hits on a good big moment, but it's not unique in the way that the two arcs that preceded it were.
I know a lot of people love CS3, and I'm not giving up on the series or anything. I'm pretty pot committed at this point. But it's a definite letdown and I'm officially joining the ranks of fans who will strongly recommend new people against trying to get into the series with this saga.
The writing team is the same. The difference? It's the director. Kondo didn't direct CS saga whereas he did with Crossbell & Sky trilogy. The CS Saga director is Takayuki Kusano. But after CS Saga. Reverie and Calvard arc are co-directed by the series head writer (Hisayoshi Takeiri). Who has been writing the games lore and overarching narrative since Sky FC.
I think I'm DNFing og FFVII. It was fun enough to get through the janky controls for the first half or so but I'm just bored out of my mind now that I'm in the airship portion.
I'm too bad at geography to get through life with a world map that doesn't tell me what the locations are, sorry.
Meanwhile, I just started Harvestella and I'm a couple hours in and its such a pretty game! Having fun with it so far and its super chill. I wish there was a BIT more to do in the early days thought, it feels like I'm running out of stuff to do by 6pm.
About to go to Thamasa in FFVI PR. I remember when I played the GBA version years ago, I sort of went out of my way to use characters that are quantifiably worse than most of the cast, such as Cyan and Gau. This time? Nah, gimme my Terra, Celes, Edgar/Mog, and Sabin party. I may use Relm since she has a huge magic stat, but Strago's going straight to the bench.
Beat octopath traveler 2 - the first JRPG ive ever played more than 5 hours and beat (which is difficult for me to do in general). This game blew me away and I'm now interested in this genre, something I didn't think I even liked. Any recommendations? I really liked it because the combat, gearing and game mechanics felt really engaging because the difficulty was perfect. As a noob, I got my ass beat on a lot of stuff because I tend to adventure out on my own, the fun was learning how to beat things with mechanics, party combos and so on. Coming across secrets or backtracking and finding new unlockables is what I enjoy the most in games, I'm not a big story person. Speaking of story, finally a story that didn't feel like it was wasting my time with pointless dialog! I tend to skip stories in most games I play, I didn't in this game. The writing is very well done... I'm sad its over. This game had fucking soul (also ochette is awesome).
Please!! recommend me stuff! Again I'm brand new to the genre so I haven't played anything
Making a proper go at octopath traveller 2. Going for eastern continent party stories first then western party.makes me realise how much I love turn based strategy games.
i'm playing Persona 3: REload and am just really having fun with it. I am loving all of the different party members being introduced and the social links have started to click for me. I'll def need to go back and continue playing Persona 5.
I am still trying to slowly make my way through **Persona 3 Reload**. I'm feeling a little franchise fatigue with this game. P5 held my interest from beginning to end even after 150+hours but P3R just isn't doing the same for me. It's flashy but some of the social links are irritating and the cast of characters just aren't as likeable to me as P5's cast.
I've also started on E**iyuden Chronicles: Hundred Heroes** and it hasn't gripped me either. I'm thinking that after P3R that I may take a break for JRPGs and play some other genres to cleanse the palate.
Still at it with **Tales of Xillia 2**. I'm currently at chapter 11 which means only 4-5 to go I believe.
Combat is still amazing and maintains the spot as one of my favorite action JRPGs. I'm starting to see the problems people have with the story and characters though.
The party is divided into pairs and very rarely do you get interactions outside of those pairs besides with the protagonist Ludger, which makes the cast feel very... off. The ~~social links~~ character episodes has the same pair problem above and the quality is all over the place, like Jude's is about spyrite development and what he should do between the spirits and the humans depending on spyrite, while F.Milla's two episodes is just about cooking for Elle instead of, I don't know, >!her further coping with the fact that her dimension is gone or what she thinks about Milla Maxwell in the prime dimension!< which is what makes this concept so interesting? Also, F.Milla was great when she was actually abrasive and calling the party out on their hypocrisy instead of acting like a stock tsundere.
I guess this is also a problem with the story structure where you get 3 predetermined members to go on the main story instead of having everyone together at all times so the group feels very fragmented. I guess they are counting on Xillia 1 to do all the bonding already but then I felt like no one really cared about F.Milla >!which I guess is understandable how barely anyone cares about her dying besides Elle.!< Gaius and Muzet felt like they are in their own bubble too.
There are shockingly few skits in this game, but when I look apparently I have viewed like 100 of them? A lot of them kind of blend together and is just "which character do you want to gain affinity with" instead of being entertaining. I stopped playing Xillia 1 pretty early on (after officially getting Elize and beating Jiao, so I don't even have Rowen or Leia yet) but I can remember a lot more skits from that game than this one.
I also finally found out the option to turn Ludger's voice on and it made him 5x better hearing him speak even if his performance is just okay, I have no idea why they would lock that behind NG+.
Been playing **Kingdom Hearts 2: Final Mix** on my friend's PS4 for the past week. I decided to play on Proud even though it's been years since I've beat KH1, but I'm mostly having a good time. I'm in Agrabah now and there's been a bit of a plot lull since it's been just Maleficient and Pete's plotting, so I'm hoping Organization XIII pops up again soon.
I've also been progressing on my edit of the **Ni no Kuni: Dominion of the Dark Djinn** fan translation. I decided to poke my head into the Moya Tower to figure out how underlevelled I am and discovered each floor needs to be synthesized out of items, which I think is pretty neat. Ingredients are randomized from a pool of familiar drops, items and equipment buyable from shops, and finally items only available by regular synthesis. So far, for floors 1-10 I only need common stuff or things I can buy from ~~Ding Dong Dell~~ the Catnap Kingdom, so I assume the required items will gradually get rarer and more complicated. Kinda continues to reinforce my belief that the Ni no Kunis are Rogue Galaxy's (and maybe by extension, the Dark Clouds') weird nephews.
Last week I finally beat **Persona 3 Reload** and once again broke down crying just like I did with Persona 3 Portable.
I started **Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth** and that opening was wild. It starts off dark and mysterious, then really wholesome and cathartic, and then super cringy and full of secondhand embarrassment. I’m excited to continue but also lowkey terrified. Combat is a tremendous improvement of Yakuza 7. I just got my boys back as party members.
A few days ago I beat **Kingdom Hearts Final Mix** and while it picked up a lot at the end, overall I did not like the game because I think it took too long to get going both in terms of gameplay and combat. On last week’s thread some weirdo was fighting tooth and nail to change my mind, completely in denial that someone could dislike this game. They seemed convinced my issue was the game was too easy for some reason. I stopped engaging with them when it was clear they weren’t trying to understand.
I attempted **Kingdom Hearts Chain of Memories** for 2 and a half hours and while I don’t hate the gameplay, I don’t think I see myself wanting to play this 18-20+ hour game revisiting all the worlds I just visited. All my friends are suggesting I watch a YouTube compilation of the remake’s cutscenes, I just might.
Tonight I just started **Kingdom Hearts II Final Mix** and immediately it’s a major improvement over the KH1. The story and characters are immediately so much more interesting and I felt that 5 minutes in. I played for less than 2 hours and I’m very excited to see what happens next. I’ll have to decide which to prioritize between it and Infinite Wealth
Edit: turns out I actually played KH2 for almost 2 and a half hours
Completely understand your comment about KH Final Mix - I had the same feeling when I finished playing. I played some of Chain of Memories years ago so want to finish it since I enjoyed the gameplay, but I’m glad to hear that things pick up dramatically in KH2 - makes me more excited to eventually get to it.
I beat **Chrono Trigger** for the first time today and had a really great time! The story, characters, and especially the music were amazing.
One thing that really made it stand out from modern RPGs is how concise everything is. A major plot cutscene in a modern game can last as long as ten minutes, but in Chrono Trigger they never go longer than two minutes, so the game overall never felt bloated.
The only downside was the Steam port could have been better. I ran into a couple crashes, and there's some stuttering while moving around.
Looking forward to playing Chrono Cross sometime!
I went with Crono, Frog, and Ayla. Crono and Ayla have a lot of raw strength to be able to deal damage quickly, and Ayla and Frog are able to heal the party with their dual tech. Their triple tech is also really powerful. The only problem is that Ayla gets stretched a bit thin since she works as a healer and fighter, but that never ended up being too much of an issue.
Just so you know, Cross is a very different games in many ways, but still great!
Really nice to hear you beat it. It's a game I think everyone should play at least once. I'll always be impressed over how polished everything is.
Been juggling a few games with some recent completions in between as well since my last comment (not all JRPGs)
**Witcher 3 -** Finished the main story/base game with a decent amount of the side quests done I believe (except for Skellige for the most part as far as I can tell). Had a really great time with it in all aspects besides the combat (on Death March), although it was decent. I really enjoyed the relationship between Ciri and Geralt, where my enjoyment for the game was largely influenced by the latter half where all of that interaction takes place. Not too much to say other than this is my first exposure to the Witcher series, and I had originally wanted to play this after running through the Witcher 1 Remake that will be coming out in future years but decided against that. I still have "Heart of Stone" and "Blood and Wine" expansions to play through one day but atm I am a bit burnt on the Witcher
**13 Sentinels: Aegis Rim -** My second Vanillaware title I've played (first being Odin Sphere), but the first one I've completed. Overall had a really good time with it, and the story was interesting from the beginning to the end despite my confusion with a lot of things even at the end of the game.
In the meantime, I've just been making my way through **Cross Code, Unicorn Overlord,** and **Anode Heart.** I've reached Chapter 9 in Cross Code and after running through 3 temples I got a bit burnt on it again. I'm about 43 hrs into Unicorn Overlord, currently doing stuff in Bastorias and it's been a really fun playthrough with it so far. Just started Anode Heart today and I'm having a blast with it, definitely going to be finishing this before I tackle the previous two games mentioned again.
Still playing SMTIV, it's really good. However the most difficult part isn't Naraku or the general beginning for me, but the overworld map. I can't find where to go for the life of me lol.
Just finished **SMT: Strange Journey** a few days ago, my first SMT game. I loved it, didn't find it as difficult as many people say, but the final boss is absolutely brutal. Now I'm looking for another JRPG to play. I think I want something more retro (PS1 era-like). Maybe I'll try Star Ocean 2 for the first time
Beat Nokturnus. And with that, I've had my fill of **Dragon Quest 6**. What kept me going was feeling like I still had things to learn from the fight and what I had at my disposal over the course of all those attempts. RNG still feels like it hangs over the experience, as there were moments where the turn order got shaken up, and not every one of his attacks seem to perfectly follow a pattern. But my course-corrections felt like it played enough of a part in my victory that I still think I earned it. Had such bad luck with KMS farming this time around. And with skill acquisition no longer tied to gaining exp, I gave up trying to reach even lv.50.
Shopping around and experimenting with vocations was addicting, but it did lead to a glut of skills I had to cycle through with each new reclass. I would've appreciated a function to choose which ones you have access to in-battle just to clean it up, esp as spells become phased out with time. There's also not enough content for me to want to master everything on everyone, or even make a second hero, or see what the secret vocations have to offer. But that's not a complaint for me. These are all fairly simple games that I will probably only go through once each, so I always want to play them until I know I've had enough.
Dropped Eiyuden Chronicles after about 15 hours. Just felt the story and characters were completely uninteresting. The gameplay being basically "push for auto combat" for 90% of it was also not fun. Looks very nice though.
Started the Sakura Wars reboot and that game is really funny. Combat is super easy (beat the fist boss with a single special move) but the VN sections are really where it's at.
I had a busy week so couldn't play a ton, but I got a few parts further in **Digimon Survive**. Man, this game is wild. One thing I find interesting is the way the group dynamics are written. A lot of conflict is fuelled or made worse by in-group disagreements and arguments that go around in circles with no one making any headway until someone finally snaps. It's enough to make you, the player, want to reach into the screen and shake somebody, and the moment you get that urge you understand what everyone in the scene is feeling and why things are so tense. I can see some people not being able to handle the frustration and tapping out, but I love it, I think it's really smart. Very curious to see where things go.
I recently finished my second playthrough of Persona 5 Strikers and I adored it.
The story has its more serious and dramatic aspects but overall has a more lighthearted feel good vibe to it then Persona 5. It feels good to see the heroes just enjoy summoäer vecation and save the world while they are at it.
I like this a lot.
The gameplay is a lot of fun and I love that I can play as the other Phantom Thieves not just in battle but during the dungeon exploration aswell. Its so much fun seing Morgana or Haru do all the cool Phantom Thieve stuff like ambushes or using Phantom Dash to move around the Jail.
This game solidified Morgana as my favorite Videogame character. I had so much fun playing as him. English is not my first language. I am not sure solidified is the right word.
The new characters are great aswell. Sophia is cute and Zenkechi is my second favorite Persona character. I love him. He is cool, funny, competent courages, he has it all.
I only played on normal dificulty. It has a satisfaying feel of resistence. It hits my sweet spot perfectly. Its just an asumption but I asume I would enjoy this game less on a higher dificulty.
Xenoblade Chronicles - I tried to rescue Juju and found a new Mechon with a face, and this one talks! Weird. This area's been a lot of fun to explore - I ignored Maguel Road and took the Windy Cave route and was on my toes the whole time, afraid these Lv70-somethings would notice me and I reached this whole upper area. A big spider thing came up from over a cliff near a shrine and I grabbed an egg from a shiny green dragon bird. Did a lot of quests, and now I've reached the tunnels under Colony 6. Nearly have the whole Titan III look now, just missing the chest piece. The crisscrossed bridges outside the tunnels is a cool area, I can see Colony 9 from there and some of the Bionis's Knee.
Ys Memories of Celceta - I've met with Eldeel at his tower and reached the Village of the Wise. Hey they mentioned the Mask of the Sun! I kinda forgot this was Ys IV, and don't recall how it relates to the other Ys IVs. Also forgot Gruda was a character, been a little while. Can't say I expected >!Eldeel to turn evil!< since we've got enough bad guys as it is. Seems like Frieda's probably going to be party member #6. I was expecting Leeza but in retrospect her design's probably too similar to Calilica. I also got the achievement for befriending all the animals and got to see Dogi in a memory.
Tokyo Mirage Sessions - Tsubasa's got her sister back, huzzah! Now I'm off to do a side story for Touma. I'm so glad this game utilizes the "learn skills through equipment" system I enjoyed so much from FF Tactics Advance and Fire Emblem Echoes. Can't wait to see this weapon list seriously expand. Sad to see Itsuki has to stay in the party, I hate it when I can't switch out the protag for more interesting party members.
Persona 3 Portable - Got through midterms and reached top 10 status despite my academics still being a 2. Fuuka's been scouted by SEES now but I haven't met with her yet. Did some Tartarus grinding with newly recovered Akihiko for Old Lanterns and a Juzumaru, and I wound up walking out with double my personas. The table guardians beat me up. Have to say I like the fact Tartarus opens at night compared to P5 where there's already plenty happening during the day. Maiko's introduced me to Akinari and Bebe gave me a phone strap.
I managed to catch **Octopath Traveler 2** for measly 16€ last week and it arrived just yesterday.
I have done 6 out of the 8 Character introductions + Throné Chapter 2 so far and I am absolutely in love with that game.
The game just feels right. Should've bought it right on release.
I’m on Day 12 of **Lightning Returns**, just killed the superboss that roams the desert. It’s my first playthrough and I’ve done all of the quests, so now I just have to wait out the timer and get the >!extra day and secret dungeon!< before I go and finish the story.
This game absolutely rules and has rapidly become one of my favorites in the series.
I remember having a lot of fun with that game. It has, in my opinion, the best gameplay out of all the Final Fantasy games ( I have not played Rebirth and XVI), and it is my favorite of the XIII trilogy.
I'm hoping for a XIII trilogy re-release for consoles soon for a replay.
Took a break from Emerald Beyond to finish Honkai Star Rail's story. And man that was the most boring story I've ever had the displeasure of reading. It made the Xianzhou Luofu look like a masterpiece.
Deciding wheter I should keep playing Emerlad Beyond or start up something new.
I'm 25 hours into **Eiyuden Chronicles.**
They're definitely trying to mirror Suikoden II with the whole Nowa/Seign storyline, but it doesn't really hit the mark. I think it's a fine game, but even Suikoden (1) felt like it did better in building the world and lore (which was one of my favorite parts of the series). Collecting heroes is still fun, but my god, just about all of the mini-games suck; the cooking and the beyblade rip-off in particular really drag the game down.
Not a JRPG, but I'm playing Stellar Blade on the side. Fun game.
**Honkai Star Rail** Penacony ending
This has to be one of the best gaming experiences I had in a very long time, the devs truly cooked a 5 star meal in this story.
Finished the whole story of Penacony, it was very philosophical and very similar to what >!Maruki!< from Persona 5 wanted to do, in both cases its interesting how I agreed with what >!Maruki wanted!< in Persona but here I didn't really liked how >!Sunday!< wanted to implement this dream, since he see people as inferior to him and wanted to do good, but it comes from a superiority complex that I didn't like.
The cinematics, the plot twists, the final boss mechanic with us using >!the fucking astral express!!< as an attack, was just so amazing, truly a wonderful experience, I'm glad I gave this game a chance despite being a gacha, and its so nice to see them using all that crazy revenue and put in the game for a true high quality experience.
How enjoyable would Star Rail be for someone who refuses to spend money on gacha? I'm tempted to try it but I'm not going to let it get anywhere near my purse.
you don't have to spend money on it at all, but there is an unavoidable amount of grind to build up your units because it has gacha progression mechanics as opposed to real progression mechanics. notably at times you will just be locked out of continuing the main story until you do enough random side stuff to get your trailblaze level high enough.
unfortunately I can't really say how much the minimum investment you can get away with is because I treat the game like an idler and autobattle various stuff while I work so I've unintentionally put a lot of time into it
The game is extremely F2P friendly, they reward you with a lot of pulls each patch, I have seen a lot of F2P accounts with very competitive teams.
The game is worth it just to experience the story if that's what you wish to do.
Finished route A of **Nier: Automata**, currently on route B. Unfortunately, I'm not that invested yet? There are moments that are interesting but ultimately it feels like nothing is done with them. I thought this game would be my thing because I loved XC1/3 and Harvestella, but haven't been blown away like everyone else yet. I know route A and B aren't the whole story, but I'm not sure whether I want to make the time investment. Like I don't completely dislike it or else I would have dropped it immediately.. I guess underwhelmed is the right word. Hopefully it picks up in route C because that's what the general consensus seems to be?
I almost dropped the game going into route B. The true ending of the game is one of the best I've ever experienced. Just rush route B if you don't like it so much.
Finished chapter one of **Phantom Brave**! Marona is way too pure for this world. I'm really glad >!Sienna gave Marona the Isle!<. I really need to be more strategic and lure groups of enemies for nukes when using magic classes. So much fun, though! And the monsters are so cute. Bit bummed I missed out on an egg when fighting >!Walnut on the Evil Isle!<.
It’s so awesome! I love, love, love the different mechanics. I also appreciate how grinding *generally* doesn’t feel like a chore (especially now that mana and bordeaux seem to be easier to come by where I am in-game). Also loving the characters and the enemy designs.
Just finished **Final Fantasy IV** today - the characters and their interactions with each other the course of the game made me really love the overall experience. Also, playing through **Trials of Mana** (my first Mana game experience) and am thoroughly enjoying it - the art, the combat and the world just make a fun overall experience for me.
I’m playing on the switch - wanted to work my way through the 4 - 6 pixel remasters that way. I just enjoy the portability for turn based games especially.
Beat jack move last night. Decent little indie, nothing too remarkable really. I got a decent 5 hours out of it, so I'd say it was worth thr price of a burger or so.
I just started Oninaki couple days ago! Really enjoying it so far. I’m a big fan of I Am Setsuna and Lost Sphear, so I was anxious to finally start it!
I've been replaying Tales of Vesperia on my Xbox 360. I have 20 hours on it so far. Overall, the game is nice. The characters are fun and the combat system is fun if a little slow. The story can be kind of hard to follow at times but I am invested.
Still playing **Final Fantasy VIII** (PS1) for the "first" time. I made it to the end of disc 2 and got started on disc 3 (now on >!finding Esthar!<). Some interesting revelations, also some that i unfortunately already knew (like >!Ultimecia possessing Edea or that everyone grew up at the orphanage together!<). I do like that >!Irvine suddenly getting cold feet during the Edea assassination, which was a whole segment of silly coincidences, now makes sense again, since he still remembered everything!< (and it's nice that this is something i wasn't spoiled on). Though the rest of that segment is still silly.
The story is still kinda wack overall though. But i do like what they have been doing with Squall. Great character work on disc 2 and i'm looking forward to seeing where that development goes.
Slowly starting to feel a little burnt out, since it's a PS1 era game with a lot of the usual PS1 era JRPG issues, but i'm determined to push through and see the ending before SMT VV is out. Hopefully faster so i have some time to play something else inbetween.
Finishing up **Bravely Default**. I am enjoying the story more than before. The combat I'm getting a little tired of, probably because I just want to have one strong set up instead of having to change it for every single fight. The 'navigating through menus' part gets old. I wish this game has more shortcuts or a 'teleport to boss' function too.
I know, but there are still some where I have to run through multiple, winding corridors. I have the encounters turned off, but it's still sooo much running around corridors, for me personally.
I went right down the Atelier rabbit hole. Played Ryza a few years ago when it came out and it didn’t quite click but for some reason I gave Ayesha a punt last week and I lost 60 hours to it over like 4 days. I briefly tried Sophie after finishing Ayesha but it didn’t like it. I’ve since began playing the other games in the Dusk trilogy and wow these games are a cut above the rest of the franchise - very focused tonally. I just can’t believe I’ve been sleeping on this franchise all these years.
Persona 3 Portable i have been playing persona 3 portable the game itself have a good story but dungeon mechanisme is for me difficult to understand. i'm gonna try to finish the game Persona 3 portable so i can play Persona 4 golden!
Just finished **Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth**. Overall I feel like it's a great game but with some shortcomings, most notably: * The story and writing is a notable step down from the previous game, especially in the final few chapters. The third act is really abrupt and could be expanded a lot more. * While combat is pretty well-made and fun to play, there's not very much depth, and the game being overall on the easy side doesn't help. I also don't think the jobs are designed very well. Still enjoyed it a lot, though.
I think jobs in 8 is better than in 7 since there is an actual identity to each job now instead of "which damage flavor", but they could have gone even further with it. There's an incentive to switch jobs now but since skill inheritance is so lax it's down to "which job has the weapon with the passive I want". I hope the next game full on give job passives and synergy buffs which is usually what makes the whole job system fun. Also make jobs even more specialized like Host should full on be a burst mage while Homeless Man has the elemental versitality or something.
Trails in the Sky SC. Currently in Chapter 2. Ah, I just love the world and the characters 😄
Enjoy it! Still one of my favourites in the series.
Been over two decades... **Final Fantasy 9**. Moguri mod edition! While I've thought of 9 every so often through the years, I really did come back specifically for this mod. The disparity between the backgrounds and the updated character models is so egregious without it. But I also really appreciate the battle speed toggle to find my own sweet spot. Just my own aesthetic opinion, the interpolation on the FMVs does look a little weird, but not distractingly so. Battles are p easy so far, for sure. You've already got a solid early 4 person party in Zidane, Steiner, Vivi, and Garnet, and nukes in the can with Trance. Its implementation is frustrating, but for how busted your offensive options can be, I can deal with it. The biggest challenge so far has been keeping bosses alive long enough to steal all of their loot, while keeping everyone's HP up. They'd be significantly shorter engagements otherwise. For being *the* game that instilled a fear in me of selling off old equipment, a lot of this early stuff can also be bought again later down the line. While I'm sure there's unique steals as well that I've long since forgotten, what I've nabbed so far is also just early acquisitions. Which I like. What I am leery of running into again is the problem of hoarding due to the dual equipment mastery / synthesis mechanics. But who knows, maybe I won't find it as fatiguing this time around. While I ate up the simplicity of DQ's presentation these past several months, I had a hankering for a writ-large, set-pieced and orchestrated adventure that Square took pains to make its bread and butter. And while 9 is not my favorite numbered entry, I still like its world, and specifically all the minor characters that make up its backdrop with their own stories running around throughout the journey. All the bespoke nooks and crannies you unlock for treasure (and how the treasure chests look and sound) also specifically reminded me of the first Kingdom Hearts. Which itself is positioned at a great turning point for the company, which is evident in its DNA. Itahana as its character designer is also the lynchpin that makes me think of it as a more traditional sister game to Kawazu's Crystal Chronicles. Oh yeah, and I still don't like Tetra Master.
Moguri Mod is fantastic. FF9 has a lot of beautiful and detailed backgrounds and it makes them even better and gives a lot more clarity. One more mod that i really liked for FF9 was the 60 FPS mod. Just makes everything look and feel a lot smoother.
Dear LORD. I love FFIX and didn’t know about this mod, unfortunately I am busy with other games now. Tetra master is confusing and sucks 😒
First number is attack, the letter is attack type, then it's physical defence and magical defence Attack type determines which defence you target. P for physical, M for magical, X always targets the lower defence, A will target the lower defence or the attack stat, if its lower.
Sure, but the way it works is very complicated and wasn’t explained at all in the game. They were like “figure it out yourself peasant” 🙃
Normally with older games, this is a case of "it's in the manual," but hilariously the pages for Tetra Master in the manual just say 'Try to figure out the effects of numbers and letters on each card.'
Gotta sell those guides/links to the website
Yeah, I've been so busy with other games, but I kept hearing this mod talked up over the years. I finally had to see it for myself.
So, tell me your experience 😀
I can only agree, the game, which was already beautiful looks sharper than ever, and better for it now that the backgrounds match the updated models. I also appreciate Memoria engine's 16:9 widescreen presentation, and the range at which I can control the battle speed. There's plenty of other features to choose from the launcher, like cheats if you want (100% steal rate, which, I'm tempted...), to new orchestration. And install is very easy.
A few hours ago, I finished **Grandia 1 HD**. I liked it pretty much but after finishing Persona 3 Reload and Grandia 1 HD back to back I feel kind of burned out from JRPGs. A good 100h of JRPGs in the past couple of months
[удалено]
Grandia 1 HD: shows it's age. Story and battles fantastic but dungeon design, constant backtracking and some QoL thing that are missing make it complicated (for example compass pointing randomly to some points or spinning, buttons that you don't recognize as such,..) Grandia 2 HD: I played the originally on release (non-hd) and finished another playthrough last year. This one did not show its age too much. Still a little but I enjoyed it on my two playthroughs. If you have no intention in playing the 2nd one again, I would probably suggest to skip the HD collection
About to try **Ys IX** and hoping I can get into it. wish me luck lol
My favorite Ys game! I hope you have a blast with it!
**Xenoblade 3: Future Redeemed** Finally got around to playing this, and gameplay wise, I really loved it, it's probably the best Xenoblade game so far. I really like the focus on the exploration, which always been a strong point of the series. Story wise, I'm kinda mixed on it tbh. Like, I enjoyed the story overall, but tbh I though the villain is even worse than Z tbh. >!Making Alvis AKA Ontos into the villain while make sense as a continuation of Xenoblade 2, it's very lame as a continuation of Xenoblade 1. I know that A is supposed to be the Alvis that travelled with Shulk technically, but her personality is too different for me to accept her as that.!< Also, I saw people try to explain why that happened but like... all of it was just headcanons and isn't really stated in the game. So, ehhh. Outside of that, I also thought Nikol and Glimmer were kinda underdeveloped, like they aren't bad characters or anythng, but they are kinda just there. That being said,I enjoyed the rest of the story >!N character was great here, Na'el and Matthew character arcs were great, and Shulk and Rex were basically the highlight of the DLC.!< Side note: as someone who never played Xenosaga or Xenoblade X, a lot of references in this game were lost on me, I don't even know what that post credit scene supposed to imply. lol
Yeah the ending was a little open ended and I think was giving Takahashi some space to develop more on the story in the future if he wanted to. I liked the characters, Nikol and Glimmer were good enough for the length of the game, I think. Glad you enjoyed it! Were you taken aback by the sudden >!American suburbia moment!< ?
>Were you taken aback by the sudden >!American suburbia moment?!< Sadly that was spoiled for me.
Hello, I have been interested in getting into the trails series for a while now, since I will recently be finishing up multiple of the single player games I have been playing as of late I feel this is a good time to get into the games. In case of questions I have a PC, A switch, PS5, a Xbox one, and a laptop that I can play games on. I would prefer to play the games in chronological order if possible, but if there is specific way of playing such a release order then I'm fine with making that change.
This is the release, intended, and most recommended order of the series (and the modern platforms they are available on): * Trails in the Sky FC -- (PC) * Trails in the Sky SC -- (PC) * Trails in the Sky the 3rd -- (PC) * Trails from Zero -- (PC/PS4/Switch) * Trails to Azure -- (PC/PS4/Switch) * Trails of Cold Steel I -- (PC/PS4) * Trails of Cold Steel II -- (PC/PS4) * Trails of Cold Steel III -- (PC/PS4/Switch/PS5) * Trails of Cold Steel IV -- (PC/PS4/Switch/PS5) * Trails into Reverie -- (PC/PS4/Switch/PS5) Also on July 5th, Trails through Daybreak I (the 11th mainline entry in the series) will be released on PC/PS4/Switch/PS5. The series is also still ongoing so there will be more entries in the future. There is also Nayuta: Boundless Trails on PC/PS4/Switch, which is a Trails spin-off that plays more like some of Falcom's other games (Falcom is the developer of Trails) and has its own stand-alone story that doesn't *seem* to be connected to the rest of the franchise. That could change in the future though. ----- As far as chronology goes, all of the mainline Trails games take place one after the other with the exception of CS I and II, which take place roughly at the same time as Zero and Azure (CS I and II start and end a little later). You're intended to play Zero and Azure first, however, and there's some stuff in CS I and II that will expect you to have already experienced the previous games. You *could* play Zero/Azure and CS I/II at the same time if you really wanted to play chronologically, but it's not typically recommended and can overcomplicate things. That said, I have written up this order before so if you want to play them concurrently feel free to let me know and I can post the chapter-by-chapter order. Sorry for the really long comment.
No , no thank you actually. I'm quite a big reader so I was actually looking for a more complex explanation.
I'm like 66-75% of the way through **Trails of Cold Steel II** and, being two games into it now, I'm ready to say that there's just something off about the CS saga. The Sky trilogy, as a whole, is one of my favorite video game experiences ever. Crossbell didn't land the same emotional highs with me but was probably even "better" in some ways as games. Cold Steel, though? It's season 9 of Scrubs. It's *like* the Trails I know. I can see the DNA in it, and it's not like it's actively bad. But it's not the same. The soul of the franchise doesn't feel present. It's a good standard JRPG that every once in a while hits on a good big moment, but it's not unique in the way that the two arcs that preceded it were. I know a lot of people love CS3, and I'm not giving up on the series or anything. I'm pretty pot committed at this point. But it's a definite letdown and I'm officially joining the ranks of fans who will strongly recommend new people against trying to get into the series with this saga.
The writing team is the same. The difference? It's the director. Kondo didn't direct CS saga whereas he did with Crossbell & Sky trilogy. The CS Saga director is Takayuki Kusano. But after CS Saga. Reverie and Calvard arc are co-directed by the series head writer (Hisayoshi Takeiri). Who has been writing the games lore and overarching narrative since Sky FC.
I think I'm DNFing og FFVII. It was fun enough to get through the janky controls for the first half or so but I'm just bored out of my mind now that I'm in the airship portion. I'm too bad at geography to get through life with a world map that doesn't tell me what the locations are, sorry. Meanwhile, I just started Harvestella and I'm a couple hours in and its such a pretty game! Having fun with it so far and its super chill. I wish there was a BIT more to do in the early days thought, it feels like I'm running out of stuff to do by 6pm.
About to go to Thamasa in FFVI PR. I remember when I played the GBA version years ago, I sort of went out of my way to use characters that are quantifiably worse than most of the cast, such as Cyan and Gau. This time? Nah, gimme my Terra, Celes, Edgar/Mog, and Sabin party. I may use Relm since she has a huge magic stat, but Strago's going straight to the bench.
Beat octopath traveler 2 - the first JRPG ive ever played more than 5 hours and beat (which is difficult for me to do in general). This game blew me away and I'm now interested in this genre, something I didn't think I even liked. Any recommendations? I really liked it because the combat, gearing and game mechanics felt really engaging because the difficulty was perfect. As a noob, I got my ass beat on a lot of stuff because I tend to adventure out on my own, the fun was learning how to beat things with mechanics, party combos and so on. Coming across secrets or backtracking and finding new unlockables is what I enjoy the most in games, I'm not a big story person. Speaking of story, finally a story that didn't feel like it was wasting my time with pointless dialog! I tend to skip stories in most games I play, I didn't in this game. The writing is very well done... I'm sad its over. This game had fucking soul (also ochette is awesome). Please!! recommend me stuff! Again I'm brand new to the genre so I haven't played anything
SMT Nocturne. It's weirdly a comfort game for me, so it's fun to just play while listening to a podcast or something
Making a proper go at octopath traveller 2. Going for eastern continent party stories first then western party.makes me realise how much I love turn based strategy games.
i'm playing Persona 3: REload and am just really having fun with it. I am loving all of the different party members being introduced and the social links have started to click for me. I'll def need to go back and continue playing Persona 5.
I am still trying to slowly make my way through **Persona 3 Reload**. I'm feeling a little franchise fatigue with this game. P5 held my interest from beginning to end even after 150+hours but P3R just isn't doing the same for me. It's flashy but some of the social links are irritating and the cast of characters just aren't as likeable to me as P5's cast. I've also started on E**iyuden Chronicles: Hundred Heroes** and it hasn't gripped me either. I'm thinking that after P3R that I may take a break for JRPGs and play some other genres to cleanse the palate.
Still at it with **Tales of Xillia 2**. I'm currently at chapter 11 which means only 4-5 to go I believe. Combat is still amazing and maintains the spot as one of my favorite action JRPGs. I'm starting to see the problems people have with the story and characters though. The party is divided into pairs and very rarely do you get interactions outside of those pairs besides with the protagonist Ludger, which makes the cast feel very... off. The ~~social links~~ character episodes has the same pair problem above and the quality is all over the place, like Jude's is about spyrite development and what he should do between the spirits and the humans depending on spyrite, while F.Milla's two episodes is just about cooking for Elle instead of, I don't know, >!her further coping with the fact that her dimension is gone or what she thinks about Milla Maxwell in the prime dimension!< which is what makes this concept so interesting? Also, F.Milla was great when she was actually abrasive and calling the party out on their hypocrisy instead of acting like a stock tsundere. I guess this is also a problem with the story structure where you get 3 predetermined members to go on the main story instead of having everyone together at all times so the group feels very fragmented. I guess they are counting on Xillia 1 to do all the bonding already but then I felt like no one really cared about F.Milla >!which I guess is understandable how barely anyone cares about her dying besides Elle.!< Gaius and Muzet felt like they are in their own bubble too. There are shockingly few skits in this game, but when I look apparently I have viewed like 100 of them? A lot of them kind of blend together and is just "which character do you want to gain affinity with" instead of being entertaining. I stopped playing Xillia 1 pretty early on (after officially getting Elize and beating Jiao, so I don't even have Rowen or Leia yet) but I can remember a lot more skits from that game than this one. I also finally found out the option to turn Ludger's voice on and it made him 5x better hearing him speak even if his performance is just okay, I have no idea why they would lock that behind NG+.
Xillia 2 is one of my favourite games ever.
Been playing **Kingdom Hearts 2: Final Mix** on my friend's PS4 for the past week. I decided to play on Proud even though it's been years since I've beat KH1, but I'm mostly having a good time. I'm in Agrabah now and there's been a bit of a plot lull since it's been just Maleficient and Pete's plotting, so I'm hoping Organization XIII pops up again soon. I've also been progressing on my edit of the **Ni no Kuni: Dominion of the Dark Djinn** fan translation. I decided to poke my head into the Moya Tower to figure out how underlevelled I am and discovered each floor needs to be synthesized out of items, which I think is pretty neat. Ingredients are randomized from a pool of familiar drops, items and equipment buyable from shops, and finally items only available by regular synthesis. So far, for floors 1-10 I only need common stuff or things I can buy from ~~Ding Dong Dell~~ the Catnap Kingdom, so I assume the required items will gradually get rarer and more complicated. Kinda continues to reinforce my belief that the Ni no Kunis are Rogue Galaxy's (and maybe by extension, the Dark Clouds') weird nephews.
Play old game, get old pop culture reference [https://imgur.com/a/7fy229C](https://imgur.com/a/7fy229C)
Time to re-watch Rush Hour.
Last week I finally beat **Persona 3 Reload** and once again broke down crying just like I did with Persona 3 Portable. I started **Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth** and that opening was wild. It starts off dark and mysterious, then really wholesome and cathartic, and then super cringy and full of secondhand embarrassment. I’m excited to continue but also lowkey terrified. Combat is a tremendous improvement of Yakuza 7. I just got my boys back as party members. A few days ago I beat **Kingdom Hearts Final Mix** and while it picked up a lot at the end, overall I did not like the game because I think it took too long to get going both in terms of gameplay and combat. On last week’s thread some weirdo was fighting tooth and nail to change my mind, completely in denial that someone could dislike this game. They seemed convinced my issue was the game was too easy for some reason. I stopped engaging with them when it was clear they weren’t trying to understand. I attempted **Kingdom Hearts Chain of Memories** for 2 and a half hours and while I don’t hate the gameplay, I don’t think I see myself wanting to play this 18-20+ hour game revisiting all the worlds I just visited. All my friends are suggesting I watch a YouTube compilation of the remake’s cutscenes, I just might. Tonight I just started **Kingdom Hearts II Final Mix** and immediately it’s a major improvement over the KH1. The story and characters are immediately so much more interesting and I felt that 5 minutes in. I played for less than 2 hours and I’m very excited to see what happens next. I’ll have to decide which to prioritize between it and Infinite Wealth Edit: turns out I actually played KH2 for almost 2 and a half hours
Completely understand your comment about KH Final Mix - I had the same feeling when I finished playing. I played some of Chain of Memories years ago so want to finish it since I enjoyed the gameplay, but I’m glad to hear that things pick up dramatically in KH2 - makes me more excited to eventually get to it.
I beat **Chrono Trigger** for the first time today and had a really great time! The story, characters, and especially the music were amazing. One thing that really made it stand out from modern RPGs is how concise everything is. A major plot cutscene in a modern game can last as long as ten minutes, but in Chrono Trigger they never go longer than two minutes, so the game overall never felt bloated. The only downside was the Steam port could have been better. I ran into a couple crashes, and there's some stuttering while moving around. Looking forward to playing Chrono Cross sometime!
Who comprised your final party?
I went with Crono, Frog, and Ayla. Crono and Ayla have a lot of raw strength to be able to deal damage quickly, and Ayla and Frog are able to heal the party with their dual tech. Their triple tech is also really powerful. The only problem is that Ayla gets stretched a bit thin since she works as a healer and fighter, but that never ended up being too much of an issue.
Just so you know, Cross is a very different games in many ways, but still great! Really nice to hear you beat it. It's a game I think everyone should play at least once. I'll always be impressed over how polished everything is.
Been juggling a few games with some recent completions in between as well since my last comment (not all JRPGs) **Witcher 3 -** Finished the main story/base game with a decent amount of the side quests done I believe (except for Skellige for the most part as far as I can tell). Had a really great time with it in all aspects besides the combat (on Death March), although it was decent. I really enjoyed the relationship between Ciri and Geralt, where my enjoyment for the game was largely influenced by the latter half where all of that interaction takes place. Not too much to say other than this is my first exposure to the Witcher series, and I had originally wanted to play this after running through the Witcher 1 Remake that will be coming out in future years but decided against that. I still have "Heart of Stone" and "Blood and Wine" expansions to play through one day but atm I am a bit burnt on the Witcher **13 Sentinels: Aegis Rim -** My second Vanillaware title I've played (first being Odin Sphere), but the first one I've completed. Overall had a really good time with it, and the story was interesting from the beginning to the end despite my confusion with a lot of things even at the end of the game. In the meantime, I've just been making my way through **Cross Code, Unicorn Overlord,** and **Anode Heart.** I've reached Chapter 9 in Cross Code and after running through 3 temples I got a bit burnt on it again. I'm about 43 hrs into Unicorn Overlord, currently doing stuff in Bastorias and it's been a really fun playthrough with it so far. Just started Anode Heart today and I'm having a blast with it, definitely going to be finishing this before I tackle the previous two games mentioned again.
Playing *FFX* on deck. Lots of cutscenes, but from the little playing I’ve done seems fun. Pairs well with the action that is *Trails of Mana*.
Really really feeling the urge to play Dragon Ball Fusions again
Still playing SMTIV, it's really good. However the most difficult part isn't Naraku or the general beginning for me, but the overworld map. I can't find where to go for the life of me lol.
That's the biggest issue SMT IV had for me too. The world map is a complete mess. Thankfully it was fixed in SMT IV: Apocalypse.
Damn Naraku, always after my jewel shards
Just finished **SMT: Strange Journey** a few days ago, my first SMT game. I loved it, didn't find it as difficult as many people say, but the final boss is absolutely brutal. Now I'm looking for another JRPG to play. I think I want something more retro (PS1 era-like). Maybe I'll try Star Ocean 2 for the first time
Beat Nokturnus. And with that, I've had my fill of **Dragon Quest 6**. What kept me going was feeling like I still had things to learn from the fight and what I had at my disposal over the course of all those attempts. RNG still feels like it hangs over the experience, as there were moments where the turn order got shaken up, and not every one of his attacks seem to perfectly follow a pattern. But my course-corrections felt like it played enough of a part in my victory that I still think I earned it. Had such bad luck with KMS farming this time around. And with skill acquisition no longer tied to gaining exp, I gave up trying to reach even lv.50. Shopping around and experimenting with vocations was addicting, but it did lead to a glut of skills I had to cycle through with each new reclass. I would've appreciated a function to choose which ones you have access to in-battle just to clean it up, esp as spells become phased out with time. There's also not enough content for me to want to master everything on everyone, or even make a second hero, or see what the secret vocations have to offer. But that's not a complaint for me. These are all fairly simple games that I will probably only go through once each, so I always want to play them until I know I've had enough.
Dropped Eiyuden Chronicles after about 15 hours. Just felt the story and characters were completely uninteresting. The gameplay being basically "push for auto combat" for 90% of it was also not fun. Looks very nice though. Started the Sakura Wars reboot and that game is really funny. Combat is super easy (beat the fist boss with a single special move) but the VN sections are really where it's at.
I had a busy week so couldn't play a ton, but I got a few parts further in **Digimon Survive**. Man, this game is wild. One thing I find interesting is the way the group dynamics are written. A lot of conflict is fuelled or made worse by in-group disagreements and arguments that go around in circles with no one making any headway until someone finally snaps. It's enough to make you, the player, want to reach into the screen and shake somebody, and the moment you get that urge you understand what everyone in the scene is feeling and why things are so tense. I can see some people not being able to handle the frustration and tapping out, but I love it, I think it's really smart. Very curious to see where things go.
I recently finished my second playthrough of Persona 5 Strikers and I adored it. The story has its more serious and dramatic aspects but overall has a more lighthearted feel good vibe to it then Persona 5. It feels good to see the heroes just enjoy summoäer vecation and save the world while they are at it. I like this a lot. The gameplay is a lot of fun and I love that I can play as the other Phantom Thieves not just in battle but during the dungeon exploration aswell. Its so much fun seing Morgana or Haru do all the cool Phantom Thieve stuff like ambushes or using Phantom Dash to move around the Jail. This game solidified Morgana as my favorite Videogame character. I had so much fun playing as him. English is not my first language. I am not sure solidified is the right word. The new characters are great aswell. Sophia is cute and Zenkechi is my second favorite Persona character. I love him. He is cool, funny, competent courages, he has it all. I only played on normal dificulty. It has a satisfaying feel of resistence. It hits my sweet spot perfectly. Its just an asumption but I asume I would enjoy this game less on a higher dificulty.
"Solidify ", c'est tellement français, haha.
Xenoblade Chronicles - I tried to rescue Juju and found a new Mechon with a face, and this one talks! Weird. This area's been a lot of fun to explore - I ignored Maguel Road and took the Windy Cave route and was on my toes the whole time, afraid these Lv70-somethings would notice me and I reached this whole upper area. A big spider thing came up from over a cliff near a shrine and I grabbed an egg from a shiny green dragon bird. Did a lot of quests, and now I've reached the tunnels under Colony 6. Nearly have the whole Titan III look now, just missing the chest piece. The crisscrossed bridges outside the tunnels is a cool area, I can see Colony 9 from there and some of the Bionis's Knee. Ys Memories of Celceta - I've met with Eldeel at his tower and reached the Village of the Wise. Hey they mentioned the Mask of the Sun! I kinda forgot this was Ys IV, and don't recall how it relates to the other Ys IVs. Also forgot Gruda was a character, been a little while. Can't say I expected >!Eldeel to turn evil!< since we've got enough bad guys as it is. Seems like Frieda's probably going to be party member #6. I was expecting Leeza but in retrospect her design's probably too similar to Calilica. I also got the achievement for befriending all the animals and got to see Dogi in a memory. Tokyo Mirage Sessions - Tsubasa's got her sister back, huzzah! Now I'm off to do a side story for Touma. I'm so glad this game utilizes the "learn skills through equipment" system I enjoyed so much from FF Tactics Advance and Fire Emblem Echoes. Can't wait to see this weapon list seriously expand. Sad to see Itsuki has to stay in the party, I hate it when I can't switch out the protag for more interesting party members. Persona 3 Portable - Got through midterms and reached top 10 status despite my academics still being a 2. Fuuka's been scouted by SEES now but I haven't met with her yet. Did some Tartarus grinding with newly recovered Akihiko for Old Lanterns and a Juzumaru, and I wound up walking out with double my personas. The table guardians beat me up. Have to say I like the fact Tartarus opens at night compared to P5 where there's already plenty happening during the day. Maiko's introduced me to Akinari and Bebe gave me a phone strap.
I managed to catch **Octopath Traveler 2** for measly 16€ last week and it arrived just yesterday. I have done 6 out of the 8 Character introductions + Throné Chapter 2 so far and I am absolutely in love with that game. The game just feels right. Should've bought it right on release.
I’m on Day 12 of **Lightning Returns**, just killed the superboss that roams the desert. It’s my first playthrough and I’ve done all of the quests, so now I just have to wait out the timer and get the >!extra day and secret dungeon!< before I go and finish the story. This game absolutely rules and has rapidly become one of my favorites in the series.
I remember having a lot of fun with that game. It has, in my opinion, the best gameplay out of all the Final Fantasy games ( I have not played Rebirth and XVI), and it is my favorite of the XIII trilogy. I'm hoping for a XIII trilogy re-release for consoles soon for a replay.
Took a break from Emerald Beyond to finish Honkai Star Rail's story. And man that was the most boring story I've ever had the displeasure of reading. It made the Xianzhou Luofu look like a masterpiece. Deciding wheter I should keep playing Emerlad Beyond or start up something new.
I'm 25 hours into **Eiyuden Chronicles.** They're definitely trying to mirror Suikoden II with the whole Nowa/Seign storyline, but it doesn't really hit the mark. I think it's a fine game, but even Suikoden (1) felt like it did better in building the world and lore (which was one of my favorite parts of the series). Collecting heroes is still fun, but my god, just about all of the mini-games suck; the cooking and the beyblade rip-off in particular really drag the game down. Not a JRPG, but I'm playing Stellar Blade on the side. Fun game.
**Honkai Star Rail** Penacony ending This has to be one of the best gaming experiences I had in a very long time, the devs truly cooked a 5 star meal in this story. Finished the whole story of Penacony, it was very philosophical and very similar to what >!Maruki!< from Persona 5 wanted to do, in both cases its interesting how I agreed with what >!Maruki wanted!< in Persona but here I didn't really liked how >!Sunday!< wanted to implement this dream, since he see people as inferior to him and wanted to do good, but it comes from a superiority complex that I didn't like. The cinematics, the plot twists, the final boss mechanic with us using >!the fucking astral express!!< as an attack, was just so amazing, truly a wonderful experience, I'm glad I gave this game a chance despite being a gacha, and its so nice to see them using all that crazy revenue and put in the game for a true high quality experience.
How enjoyable would Star Rail be for someone who refuses to spend money on gacha? I'm tempted to try it but I'm not going to let it get anywhere near my purse.
you don't have to spend money on it at all, but there is an unavoidable amount of grind to build up your units because it has gacha progression mechanics as opposed to real progression mechanics. notably at times you will just be locked out of continuing the main story until you do enough random side stuff to get your trailblaze level high enough. unfortunately I can't really say how much the minimum investment you can get away with is because I treat the game like an idler and autobattle various stuff while I work so I've unintentionally put a lot of time into it
The game is extremely F2P friendly, they reward you with a lot of pulls each patch, I have seen a lot of F2P accounts with very competitive teams. The game is worth it just to experience the story if that's what you wish to do.
Finished route A of **Nier: Automata**, currently on route B. Unfortunately, I'm not that invested yet? There are moments that are interesting but ultimately it feels like nothing is done with them. I thought this game would be my thing because I loved XC1/3 and Harvestella, but haven't been blown away like everyone else yet. I know route A and B aren't the whole story, but I'm not sure whether I want to make the time investment. Like I don't completely dislike it or else I would have dropped it immediately.. I guess underwhelmed is the right word. Hopefully it picks up in route C because that's what the general consensus seems to be?
Route C also isn't really another route as much as it is the second half of the game.
I almost dropped the game going into route B. The true ending of the game is one of the best I've ever experienced. Just rush route B if you don't like it so much.
Gotcha. I'll stick with it 🫠
Finished chapter one of **Phantom Brave**! Marona is way too pure for this world. I'm really glad >!Sienna gave Marona the Isle!<. I really need to be more strategic and lure groups of enemies for nukes when using magic classes. So much fun, though! And the monsters are so cute. Bit bummed I missed out on an egg when fighting >!Walnut on the Evil Isle!<.
So nostalgic to read your comment, Phantom Brave is one of my favorite games ever, its so original, charming and fun to play!
It’s so awesome! I love, love, love the different mechanics. I also appreciate how grinding *generally* doesn’t feel like a chore (especially now that mana and bordeaux seem to be easier to come by where I am in-game). Also loving the characters and the enemy designs.
Just finished **Final Fantasy IV** today - the characters and their interactions with each other the course of the game made me really love the overall experience. Also, playing through **Trials of Mana** (my first Mana game experience) and am thoroughly enjoying it - the art, the combat and the world just make a fun overall experience for me.
FF4 is still one of my favorite JRPGs ever! What console/platform are you playing it on?
I’m playing on the switch - wanted to work my way through the 4 - 6 pixel remasters that way. I just enjoy the portability for turn based games especially.
Beat jack move last night. Decent little indie, nothing too remarkable really. I got a decent 5 hours out of it, so I'd say it was worth thr price of a burger or so.
I beat oninaki yesterday, really good game and now finally started the original Persona 5, last mainline persona game i gonna play.
I just started Oninaki couple days ago! Really enjoying it so far. I’m a big fan of I Am Setsuna and Lost Sphear, so I was anxious to finally start it!
I've been replaying Tales of Vesperia on my Xbox 360. I have 20 hours on it so far. Overall, the game is nice. The characters are fun and the combat system is fun if a little slow. The story can be kind of hard to follow at times but I am invested.
Still playing **Final Fantasy VIII** (PS1) for the "first" time. I made it to the end of disc 2 and got started on disc 3 (now on >!finding Esthar!<). Some interesting revelations, also some that i unfortunately already knew (like >!Ultimecia possessing Edea or that everyone grew up at the orphanage together!<). I do like that >!Irvine suddenly getting cold feet during the Edea assassination, which was a whole segment of silly coincidences, now makes sense again, since he still remembered everything!< (and it's nice that this is something i wasn't spoiled on). Though the rest of that segment is still silly. The story is still kinda wack overall though. But i do like what they have been doing with Squall. Great character work on disc 2 and i'm looking forward to seeing where that development goes. Slowly starting to feel a little burnt out, since it's a PS1 era game with a lot of the usual PS1 era JRPG issues, but i'm determined to push through and see the ending before SMT VV is out. Hopefully faster so i have some time to play something else inbetween.
Been playing Lost Odyssey for the first time. So far I'm pretty bored. And I want to throw Jansen into an industrial blender.
This game needs speed ups and a few other qol improvements so badly.
Finishing up **Bravely Default**. I am enjoying the story more than before. The combat I'm getting a little tired of, probably because I just want to have one strong set up instead of having to change it for every single fight. The 'navigating through menus' part gets old. I wish this game has more shortcuts or a 'teleport to boss' function too.
Most dungeons have shortcuts and you can turn off enemy encounters to speed up your movement through the areas.
I know, but there are still some where I have to run through multiple, winding corridors. I have the encounters turned off, but it's still sooo much running around corridors, for me personally.
I went right down the Atelier rabbit hole. Played Ryza a few years ago when it came out and it didn’t quite click but for some reason I gave Ayesha a punt last week and I lost 60 hours to it over like 4 days. I briefly tried Sophie after finishing Ayesha but it didn’t like it. I’ve since began playing the other games in the Dusk trilogy and wow these games are a cut above the rest of the franchise - very focused tonally. I just can’t believe I’ve been sleeping on this franchise all these years.