I'm in the middle of Dragon Quest VI for the DS. Awesome remake.
Dante's Inferno for the X360 here.
Finished Umineko no Naku Koro ni Chiru Episode 6 yesterday. Well, I finished the main game ages ago but I read Tea Party and Ura Tea Party yesterday.
Going to start playing Project Diva 2 today, the first game was great even though I don't really like Miku nor her "voice."
I'm also playing Kanon and SHUFFLE!, but those have taken the backseat lately.
Resident Evil 5
The game is actually massively better when you have infinite ammo for your strongest weapons. It's fun to blow through, not so much fun to play cautiously.
Either Castlevania: Order of Ecclesia or Castlevania: Dawn of Sorrow.
Civ 4 and Thief: Deadly Shadows.
Mother
Never really got into it before, but I'm loving it this time. Probably going to grab an repro cart so I can play it (again) on my NES.
But before that I really want to do a full playthrough of Dragon Warrior. I never finished it before, but if I can get through Mother I think I can finish DW.
I've got a couple of 360 games that are untouched too but I'm sure they can't compare to slow paced grindfest eight bit RPGs
Quote from: HVL on August 02, 2010, 12:12:26 PM
Finished Umineko no Naku Koro ni Chiru Episode 6 yesterday. Well, I finished the main game ages ago but I read Tea Party and Ura Tea Party yesterday.
I am only up to Episode 3 in Umineko no Naku Koro ni :-[ Another thing I wish I checked out sooner..
Also playing Saya no Uta and Nier (on 360).
I've been picking up discount 360 games lately. Several things that I passed up but decided were worth it in the sub $30 range.
-Blur
-Split/Second
-Darksiders
-Dirt 2
Been playing the Lego games with my kids too.
just picked up BlazeBlue CS. it's sort of a nice change from SSFIV. I don't have to tediously link something in a matter of 1 or 2 frames anymore, not that i could accurately do that to begin with. some of the combo challenges are almost a minute long!
also been playing Pump It Up NXA and Rival Schools :cool:
Gemini Wing (PCB). It's like Mushihimesama, but from 1987. :righton:
Quote from: emphatic on August 18, 2010, 04:53:21 PM
Gemini Wing (PCB). It's like Mushihimesama, but from 1987. :righton:
HAHA.. this game or R-Type was the very first shmup I ever played. (Outside of Space Invaders clone)
currently playing Plants vs. zombies since it finally came to xboxlive
Sonic 4, NBA Jam, L4D2. Good times all round.
About half way through Dead Space - Very good so far, the levels are a bit similar but that's the only gripe. Also, Transformers Cybertron Adventures on the Wii - one of the worst reviewed games, but I like it. Sedate pacing with the focus on accuracy. Looks like Tron.
K-ON! Hougako Live!! Uhh, yeah.
Eternal Sonata, and yesterday I found a cheap copy of Tales of Vesperia. So, looks like I'll be busy for some time!
Samurai Shodown, Raiden fighters Aces, and my absolute favorite, Black Tiger.
Quote from: thestreetzking on October 13, 2010, 07:12:22 PMmy absolute favorite, Black Tiger.
One of my favorites as well. Have you ever tried Rygar?
Quote from: emphatic on October 13, 2010, 08:15:28 PM
Quote from: thestreetzking on October 13, 2010, 07:12:22 PMmy absolute favorite, Black Tiger.
One of my favorites as well. Have you ever tried Rygar?
Havent played much Rygar but I also have a rastan pcb I play as well. Also into magic sword
I just finished Resonance of Fate (excellent game by the way), now I'm wondering if I should go back to FFXIII or try something new (I've got Nier, Star Ocean 4 and Eternal Sonata)
Bayonetta - completely over the top mental.
Deadly Premonition. Easily dismissed as a budget title, but give it a couple of hours and it's got a great plot, great characters, loads of interesting gameplay elements, plenty of longevity, yadda yadda I could rant for a while. Jim Sterling's review at Destructoid, as well as being funny, is pretty accurate.
If you are open to the darkly comic / ridiculous, are not an complete A/V snob, and like good games, I cannot recommend it enough.
Quote from: kernow on October 15, 2010, 11:00:51 AM
Bayonetta - completely over the top mental.
Magnificent isn't it. Best combat system this side of DMC too.
I'm not usually a fan of these 3rd person hack n slash em ups with 10000 different button press combos (I usually end up just furiously mashing them) - but this does seem a strange world, and story - as well as being a solid game with some epic ass boss battles.
Thumbs up from me :righton:
Edge 10/10? Nah, maybe an 8 or something, but it is fun for the money I paid (got the climax edition cheap, although I can't bring myself to care about a game soundtrack CD ever, let alone some art book).
Started 素晴らしき日々～不連続存在～ / subarashiki hibi ~furenzoku sonzai~. My vocab/kanji isn't that impressive but I'm managing ok so far, AGTH is a lifesaver since you can easily lookup unknown kanji and put them down for future. Fun and educational. :righton:
Decided to finally pick up the first Professor Layton game on DS, got a bit of catching up to do with that series, but the game seems great so far.
Started to play Batsugun (Special Version) in MAME. MY GOD it's awesome! :righton:
Been playing a lot of GBA games recently, including: Aria of Sorrow, Warioland 4, Drill Dozer , Scurge: Hive and Metroid Zero Mission.
I also rebought a copy of one of my all time favourite games for the Famicom.... Kyatto Ninden Teyandee/ Samurai Pizza Cats =D I seriously don't know why, but i'm freaking addicted to that game.
just found a bunch of snes and nes games so I picked up an FC twin after my snes decided to be gay. Im playing Ghosts n Goblins, and the first final fantasy!
My Strikers 1999 board came Saturday, so I've played that a bit. Haven't yet gotten past the 1-7 boss or broken 846,300 >_> Highest medal chain is 29.
got my n64 goldeneye 007 in the mail!!! and super ghouls and ghosts for GBA so I can play it on my ds
Demon's Souls. I'm really appreciating how damn hard this game is. Currently about halfway through my first playthrough.
Alan Wake and Limbo.
kof2002UM on 360. so glad they revamped and tweaked this game. really glad they loosened the moves a little. double half circles use to be really hard in this game for some reason. now it feels perfect. nice to see a lot of these characters again (vice, shermie, yamazaki, etc)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ghost_Trick:_Phantom_Detective
Anyone else excited about this game? Mine shipped from Amazon yesterday so it should be here today or tomorrow. Can't wait!
Woo, just got this!
Also got the soundtrack via MP3. I'll share if I can figure out easy hosting.
Fate of the World: http://www.fateoftheworld.net/
Turn-based strategy game about trying to stop global warming and all that jazz. Incredibly difficult - either the whole world melts down, or everyone starves to death, or something. Some people on the Steam forums claim to have beaten its beta scenario (oil suddenly ceases to exist).
Quote from: NR777 on December 27, 2010, 06:03:32 PM
Demon's Souls. I'm really appreciating how damn hard this game is. Currently about halfway through my first playthrough.
I absolutely love Demon souls, fing awesome ps3 exclusive. Lately i've been playing monster hunter freedom unite at work, games hard as balls.
Been playing Bulletstorm for the past few days. I'm not a fan of first person shooters at all but it's really fun with the exaggrerated weapons, dialog and skillshots. :righton:
Soldier Blade and Kyuukyoku Tiger on the PC-Engine. I've already cleared Kyuukyoku Tiger, but I'm eager to get 3 million points so it's not over yet. Soldier Blade seems pretty solid with lovely BGM, a tad easy maybe and I liked Super Star Soldier's space atmosphere a bit better.
I've been playing Mega Man X2 recently. Trying to get a 100% run in less than an hour; I keep getting very close but I always do something absurdly stupid and lose it.
Never really done speedrunning but I'm having fun with this little challenge. It's also reignited my fondness for Mega Man games - I might have to scrounge up a copy of Rockman and Forte; I've never played it.
Downloaded Qix++ from Xbox Live. It's nice when you get the DLC for it, otherwise I think you actually get less than half of the game. It's more like that Volified game on the Mega Drive than Qix though, as you have to surround boxes to get the points and power ups. They got rid of the two speeds from Qix too (going slow gave you more points), so it's a bit of a step back in some way. At least they added pretty butterflies.
i just got the Streets of Rage remake; it's a fanmade project lasted 8 years, and got released yesterday
too bad Sega is a bunch of assholes and blocked the project (it's complete though, and it's a very good game)
Lost odyssey...awesome rpg,the best this gen for me
Yeah, Lost Odyssey was pretty great. I wish they'd make more games like that.
Just bought my copy of Portal 2 and played through about 15 of the test chambers tonight. This game feels so much more thrilling than the first one and I'm only about an hour and a half into it. So far the new mechanics I've seen are the light bridges, the jump pads, and the laser bending cubes. I've heard there are some crazy gels you can spray on stuff to alter the surfaces in ways that give you more momentum or let you bounce things off of the walls.
Just got my copy of Mortal Kombat yesterday from play-asia! Loving the whole package as there's so much content to keep one busy!
Not to mention the combo system which lets you pull off some pretty major damage once you get the timing down!
Plus being able to do some of the old school combos from MK2 makes this game that much sweeter!
Hacha Mecha Fighter by NMK. My God this game rocks! :righton: I've got 7.8 million so far and made it to stage 5 or 6 (can't remember, but it's at night, at sea and insane). :laugh:
Been playing Fallout: New Vegas for about 15 hours. Haven't run into any bugs yet, which is just swell. Fallout 3 is really boring to me now, but for some reason NV is a lot of fun.
Battlefield: Bad Company 2 multiplayer. I purchased it on Steam Summer Sale and I've clocked almost 20 hours in the few days I've had it.
having my annual perfect dark fix if anyone's interested in some co-op or combat simulator battles. i'm not talking about Zero, that game sucks. the n64 xbla version. this is the one and only fps i can still tolerate.
also been playing me some EDF. why is this stupid game so much stupid fun :o
been playing dead island like crazy. this game is awesome!
Gave in and purchased Bayonetta for 20$. This game has some serious class.
Quote from: jyumi on November 25, 2011, 12:16:23 AM
Gave in and purchased Bayonetta for 20$. This game has some serious class.
Yesssssssssssss, the only game that I got 100% trophies/achievements on two systems. That's how much I love Bayo
Skyrim. Hands down the best PC game this year.
Finished all the routes for the free version of Hatoful Boyfriend
Now working on Mirror's Edge, which is an absolutely brilliant game.
I'm playing Ni no Kuni II on my PS4. I've played about 4 hours and I'm really enjoying it. The first game was great on the PS3. This is a bit different, but so far equally fun. It is very fast-paced, and reminds me a lot of Secret of Mana in its simple story and battle system.
I'm still buying IIDX, in fact 2 years ago I bought a cabinet.
AAA'ed Quell [a] about a month or two ago so it's been going well.
Picked up Rise of the Tomb Raider on PS4 for £12. Only played for a couple of hours but so far it's satisfying that single player tps itch. A ton of stuff to scavenge and craft, simple puzzles to progress so far and head shots go with a pop so there's a good balance of stuff.
Shame there are so many cut scenes that keep getting in the way of gameplay. Triple A gaming... It's good to have a break from TLOU multiplayer every now and then.
I got Prehistoric Isle 2 for Nintendo Switch and have only played it a few times. It's a lot of fun and the pre-rendered graphics are quite impressive and I imagine they would have been even more impressive around 1999, which is when the game came out.
I finished Ni no Kuni 2 a few weeks ago. Mostly played it with my son in short bursts over several weeks, he really loved it. I thought it was pretty fun too.
Now I'm trying to finish up Xenoblade 2, which I've been working on since December. :laugh: Almost there though (I think). Nearing the end of Chapter 9.
Xenoblade 2 completed! Great JRPG, highly recommended. I finished it in about 55 hours spread over 9 months. :laugh:
I have several other unplayed games on the shelf, not sure what to play next over the next several months in my dwindling free time. Perhaps Octopath Traveler on my Switch. :)
Please play Octopath. I loved the game a lot, and I still don't know a single other person who has seen a credit roll in that game. Most people just post articles about it and talk about how cool the sprites look. They do look cool, but holy crap that battle system is great and the classes are super fun to synergize.
Speaking of RPGs, did you ever play any of the Etrian Odyssey series?
Re: Etrian Odyssey, I tried one or two on my Japanese 3DS but never finished them. Not a big fan of the manual mapping. I do enjoy a lot of DRPGs, though, and have finished many over the years.
Sounds like Octopath is a good one. I really loved Bravely Default, and I think this is by the same team? Not sure which character to start with. Perhaps Ophilia!
Etrian Untold 1 and 2, and then Etrian 4 and 5 on the 3DS all had some pretty awesome automapping options, if you're willing to give those another try.
Automapping! Okay, I'll look into those some day, thanks. (My backlog is pretty large though.)
Aero Blasters - Mega Drive. Such an awesome little game.
The last several months have had me just balls deep in RPG after RPG. July was Octopath. August was Demon Gaze II, then Darkest Dungeon - both were on sale at Best Buy so I finally picked up both. I was so enthralled with Darkest Dungeon that I spent my first 10 hours of Dragon Quest XI wishing I was playing Darkest Dungeon instead.
Then DQ sucked me in and it was totally amazing... but then when I was done with it I went running back to Darkest Dungeon.
Just like a true eldritch horror, this game sucks me in with obsessiveness only to drive me completely insane. I love it.
What did you think of Demon Gaze II? I really liked the first game, but I'm sort of burned out on first-person DRPGs and I have a few in my backlog I haven't even touched yet (Mary Skelter is one).
I've taken a break from Octopath to play through Captain Toad (Switch) with my son. It's a lot of fun!
I bought the (rather expensive digital) Japanese versions of DQXI on both PS4 and 3DS last year, played each for a few hours, and settled on the 3DS version, which I very much enjoyed playing to completion. I think I will wait for the Switch version to play through it again, I suspect it will have some bonus features or upgrades.
I played Mary Skelter briefly and did not enjoy it much. There's definitely a time and place for first person dungeon crawlers, so if you feel like you want a really good one, you would love Demon Gaze II. I think it was significantly better than the original. If you get the physical western release, it comes with all of the DLC. So you beat it, then there's post-game, but then there's post-game DLC, but then there's post-DLC post-game too. It's incredible.
Thanks for the info! I bought Mary Skelter during a PSN sale for $3.99. So no big loss if I don't like it.
I will probably go with the Japanese release of DG2, if/when I play it, as I played through the first in Japanese and I like to keep things consistent.
They definitely streamlined some stuff for II. As an example, you don't have to pay rent every single time you go back to your home base, which I thought was something that I enjoyed seeing the change. The PS4 western release also has a major money bug where you get insane amounts of money - the battle winning screen will say you got 42G or something but if you open your menu it could end up being 10,000G. Wasn't an issue on the vita, but I also don't think money really does that much for you that you could break the game. Except in the way post game stuff where you can buy stat uppers I guess.
I've started on Tokyo Xanadu on my Vita. Really liking it so far. I have the EX+ PS4 version too but I prefer playing JRPGs on portables.
Still working my way through Tokyo Xanadu, but I've started Sega Ages Phantasy Star on my Switch today and I've gotten hooked on Ages mode with the automapping. What a game! To think it is about 30 years old...
I have Dragon Quest Builders 2 (Switch) on the way, but that won't arrive until the 27th. I really liked the demo and I played through the first game on my Vita, which was fun but had some issues (many of which have been fixed in the sequel).
I finished Phantasy Star. Nice to finally play through that one. :righton: I don't think I would have bothered without the automap, though.
Just starting out on DQB2, which fortunately arrived early on Christmas Eve.
I put DQB2 on hold for now. Just starting the last chapter of Tokyo Xanadu, and also playing New Super Mario Bros U Deluxe on my Switch. :righton:
I finished up Tokyo Xanadu Vita and New Super Mario Bros U Deluxe last week. TX was pretty average. But NSMBUD was quite fun (I still like NSMB2 3DS better, though).
(https://i.imgur.com/MRhIvOn.jpg?1)
Next I'm moving on to God Wars The Complete Legend (Switch), which so far is quite good.
Sorry I completely fell off the face of the earth. Haven't been updating my spreadsheet either, mostly thanks to life commitments but also in big part due to Enter the Gungeon, Resident Evil 2, and Etrian Odyssey Nexus. I still have big stack of games to play from around the holidays. It's great but I also feel like I haven't done anything productive for a couple months...
Nice to have you back!
Back on topic, I gave up on God Wars about halfway through. It just got a bit too repetitious, the inventory management/method of equipping is terrible (and annoying), and the story is rather bland. I'd rather re-play Stella Glow on my 3DS!
Time for a thread daifukkatsu!
I recently finished Fire Emblem Three Houses on my Switch. Good game, but I skipped all the "relationship" stuff (I find this stuff extraordinarily boring in any game, tbh) and just blazed through to the end. Cleared it in under 30 hours.
Now I'm playing the Link's Awakening remake on Switch and really loving it (my son loves it too)! Almost finished. Only bummer is the weird framerate that stutters every 5 seconds or so. It goes from 60 to 30, or somewhere in between. I'm surprised they released it in such a state.
I'm mainly playing the Langrisser I & II remake on the Switch. Working my way through I with the original character graphics option and I'm loving it! Easily the nicest surprise of the year for me thus far, as I wasn't expecting to like it this much.
I've also been playing through Dragon Quest VII on my Japanese 3DS. I played about 27 hours of this five years ago, abandoned it (and lost my save). Starting fresh, I want to finish it this time, and I'm enjoying it a lot more than the first time. About 10 hours in.
Quote from: EOJ on May 24, 2020, 01:27:25 AM
About 10 hours in.
So you got to the first battle? =D =D =D
jk, I finished that one pretty recently too and had fun making my party of Champions and Druid and Hero. Beating up God is amusing. Still, some of the stuff in that game just moves very slow - I can see why people dropped off of it on the PS1 version.
I'm currently splitting my time between Sakura Wars (PS4), Brandish (PSP, on my Vita), and Star Ocean First Departure R (on my Switch lite). Really enjoying all three games. Brandish is particularly awesome. I'm nearly finished with Sakura Wars, and the next game in my PS4 queue is 13 Sentinels: Aegis Rim.
And no, I haven't finished DQ7 on my 3DS yet! :laugh: Planning to get back to that soon.
I finished Sakura Wars PS4. I think it's a good game, with some of the most beautiful graphics I've ever seen, but it's diminished by a rather cliched, tropey story and quite shallow gameplay. As a Sakura Taisen fan who played through and loved ST 1-4, I really hope they go back to an SRPG for the next game. This brain-dead button-masher action stuff isn't much fun, and there's no real challenge (at least not in this game). At least Koi Koi is fun!
I played about 3 hours of 13 Sentinels: Aegis Rim, but I think that's enough for me. Looks great, but the story isn't pulling me in and the "strategy" parts are rather dull.
On to Metal Max Xeno! I played an hour a few weeks ago and loved it. It's low-budget, but it has a charm and uniqueness to it, and none of the usual same-old, same-old that infects so many games these days. It reminds me in some ways of Tengai Makyou Ziria for the X360, which is still one of my all-time favorite JRPGs, and, IMO, one of the best games on the X360.
I've been playing some RPG/Adventure games on my Switch recently. I completed Oceanhorn 2, which was a lot of fun. The story is nonsensical and it ends too soon with too many loose ends, but the gameplay and exploration are superb. I was a big fan of the first game, and the Finns did not disappoint me in the sequel. Good job, Finland!
Now I'm playing Xenoblade Chronicles Definitive Edition. About 8 hours in (in Chapter 6) and it's an interesting story but the battle system is pretty mediocre. There's just this inherent sloppy/janky feel to it. I completed XB2 awhile back and that battle system wasn't too great either. The games are still appealing to me due to their 'grand adventure' vibe, which I've enjoyed since I played through Grandia on the Saturn in 1998.
Still need to complete Famicom Detective Club (both games) and I just got Skyward Sword HD in the mail so that's up next. I played a few minutes of the latter but already I frowned when I discovered you have to hold L to use the right stick to control the camera (of course, I won't use crappy motion controls to play through the game, which is why I skipped it on the Wii). Maybe I'll get used to it.
I finished Xenoblade Chronicles DE the other day. Took me 35 hours. Overall I enjoyed it. The story is great, the JP voice acting is great, the music and graphics are really good, and it is a fun world to explore. I still don't really like the battle system, and I skipped all of the sidequests except those that unlock as you just go about killing enemies in the field. Way too much fluff and filler in the game, but thankfully you can just skip most of it.
Now I'm focusing on Skyward Sword HD. A couple hours in. So far, I'm pretty impressed by this game.
Quote from: EOJ on July 31, 2021, 08:50:28 PM
Now I'm focusing on Skyward Sword HD. A couple hours in. So far, I'm pretty impressed by this game.
I absolutely loved this game and contrary to the majority of people who played the original version on the Wii, i had no motion sensor problems. In fact (although i understand the purists) i think this is what made this game stood apart.
Besides, you will find some very clever dungeons and good storytelling.
A must play game!!!
I played a few more hours of Skyward Sword HD and I may just quit and move on to another game. :( The button controls are really annoying, they are sucking the joy out of the experience. Instead of getting use to it, my anger at using the right stick to swing the sword and having to hold L to move the camera around just increases with every hour. I finished the first dungeon but most of the time I was fighting the controls rather than the enemies. I might try motion controls before I quit for good. I've heard they were better on the Wii than with the joycons, so I don't have much hope for enjoying them.
Such a shame as I really like everything else about the game (well, except the stamina meter, which is also annoying). Just gimmicky Nintendo controls (yes, even the button controls in this game are gimmicky!) ruining the experience for me.
Really sad to hear that. I might add that the original game (Wii version) brought back the game enjoyment i hadn't feel in many many years. It's a game that i will remember in years to come.
Quote from: _rm_ on August 03, 2021, 03:28:15 AM
Really sad to hear that. I might add that the original game (Wii version) brought back the game enjoyment i hadn't feel in many many years. It's a game that i will remember in years to come.
I sold the game yesterday and I don't regret it. It's just not for me. Not the first time Nintendo's control schemes have ruined a game for me. If they made the button controls such that A is a horizontal sword strike, X is a diagonal strike and Y is a vertical strike, with the R stick for the camera and hold L to use the R stick for more specialized sword strikes, it would have been perfect. Or at least give the player the OPTION to configure the controls this way! Oh well.
I bought Tales of Arise (PS4) today and couldn't stop playing for about 3 hours. Just really awesome, all around.
I finally finished Tales of Arise. Took me 36 hours. Great JRPG! Even better than those Xenoblade games.
After Arise I played through Secret of Mana on the PS4. Just cleared it today, total play time was around 12 hours. I've cleared every version of the game now (even the iOS version on my ipad, which isn't bad actually!). I really liked this 3D remake, even more than the Trials of Mana remake. The best thing about this SoM remake is all the voice acting and new story scenes at the Inn with the three characters. Overall the game felt (and looked) like some long lost PS1/Saturn remake, which was pretty cool. With that said, I still prefer the original SNES game.
Since my last post I've been going through some other JRPGs. I played Shin Megami Tensei V for 10 hours, but then dropped it and sold the game. I generally don't like Pokemon-style monster collection games, and this one wasn't great. I quickly tired of the whole "collect demons > fuse demons to make new demons", rinse and repeat over and over. Story was pretty blah too.
Next I tried Caligula Effect Overdose. Big mistake. I played this for about 10 hours too, determined to find some redeeming qualities. I liked Kotono, but that's about it. Another game dumped for good!
Ah, and then I began Trails of Cold Steel III on the Switch. Here we go! Finally a great game. I'm 45 hours in, up to Chapter 4. Hoping to finish it before the year's end.
I also bought Bravely Default II, so that's up next.
I just finished up Shining Force, played on the Nintendo Switch Online Genesis service. It's a game I had been meaning to play through for years (I think I rented it back in 93 or 94, but I definitely didn't finish it back then). I found it to be an excellent game, a true classic of the SRPG genre, somewhat similar to Street Fighter II in its accessibility, innovation and lasting impact. It has also aged very well, outside of the clunky shop and item management system. I see they have just added Shining Force II to the service, which I am eager to play through in the near future.
In the mid-90s I played through Shining the Holy Ark on the Saturn, which was an amazing game at the time. I'm hopeful they'll add its predecessor Shining in the Darkness to the NSO service soon, as I've never tried that one.
(https://img.game-news24.com/2022/01/Natsume-introduces-new-characters-to-the-Undercover-Title-Pocky-and-Rocky-Reshrined.png)
Pocky & Rocky Reshrined ! Absolutely amazing and gorgeous in term of graphics, really fun and with some major new gameplay features and new characters.
I'm currently playing through the new Live A Live remake for the Switch. Pretty great game! This is one I didn't play back in the day. I love the "HD-2D" visual style in the game, it really reminds me of Sega Saturn games with how some of those looked (2D sprites, 3D backgrounds). I know Octopath Traveler had it too, but it looks a lot better here IMO.
This week I also bought Triangle Strategy and Xenoblade Chronicles 3. I will play through TS in Japanese (text & voice), but will probably choose English for Xenoblade 3.
I also preordered the new Mega Drive Mini 2 (JP version), but it's a long wait until October 27. I owned a Sega CD back in the early-mid '90s, and I'm looking forward to replaying favorites like the Lunar games, Silpheed, Final Fight CD and others. I hope the US version includes Snatcher (if so, I might buy one of those too)!
I finished Live A Live, which took me about 20 hours. Good game, but I wasn't super impressed with it overall. Some of the chapters were rather drab and/or a drag. Some parts of the game were really great, though.
Trying to decide between Triangle Strategy and Xenoblade 3 for my next Switch JRPG. In the meantime I've started Actraiser Renaissance on my PS4, which I'm enjoying so far!
I decided to go with Xenoblade 3. I played it for about an hour last night and it's good stuff so far!
Before that I went back to Trails of Cold Steel III (Switch), which I dropped early in the year at around 54 hours, because it was getting a bit boring. Well, I pushed through to finish the game (at 66 hours) this week, but I have to say that whole last chunk of 12-15 hours was so drawn out and boring I just didn't care anymore at the end. This is a great example of a game being too long and bloated for its own good, to the point that it ruins the overall experience. I already bought part IV digitally when it was on sale, but if it's more of the same I doubt I'll ever bother.
I'm really enjoying Actraiser Renaissance on my PS4, though. About 4 hours into that. Only problem is the frame stuttering in the action parts, which is pretty annoying, but the rest of the game is ace.
I finished Actraiser Renaissance (took me 13 hours). Fun game!
I played a bit more of Xeno 3 and decided to shelve it. Just not really in the mood for it right now, and I see online it takes 50+ hours to beat it just by rushing through, and I'm pretty burned out on long games after Trails III. So I moved on to Triangle Strategy, which is great so far, and it looks like it only takes about 25 hours to beat.
Still playing through Triangle Strategy, but in the meantime I've started Ys IX (Switch) and am about 8 hours in to that, plus Dragon Quest X Offline (Switch), which I've played for about two hours. Not hard to juggle these three since they're so different, so I just pick up whichever one I feel like on a particular day. Hope to have them all finished by the end of the year!
DQX Offline is really good, by the way. Nice old school DQ gameplay. :righton:
I bought a PS5 mainly to play the new Star Ocean: The Divine Force. But I also picked up a couple other games, including Yakuza Like A Dragon. The Star Ocean game is really awesome! I'm going to focus on finishing that before I move on to the others.
I also tried Deathsmiles on the PS5 and it feels even more responsive than on the PS4 (though maybe that's just my imagination and the input lag is the same?). I hope the other PS4 STGs are like this on the PS5.
I finished Star Ocean The Divine Force at about 29 hours. Best JRPG I've played in a long time. I've since moved on to Horizon Zero Dawn, and I'm nearing the end of that one. I didn't get far into it on the PS4, but the super smooth 60fps is a game changer. I'm loving the PS5!
I've finished Horizon Zero Dawn and Yakuza Like a Dragon on PS5. I enjoyed both games quite a lot. I'm currently playing through Final Fantasy VII Remake Intergrade. About 7 hours in and this is probably the best game I've played on the PS5 yet!
The PS5 is easily the best home console I've owned since the X360. 60fps on most games + state-of-the-art graphics + very quick or nonexistent loading times reminds me of the golden years of cartridge games in the early '90s. After buying my PS5 I've sold my PS4, PS3, and PSP, though I've kept my two PS Vitas (one for my USA account, one for my JP account). ;)
I also installed a 1TB M.2 SSD in my PS5 to hold my PS4 games and extra PS5 games. :righton:
I haven't touched my Switch since I bought my PS5, but I'll save that to play during my next overseas trip.
I finished Cosmic Fantasy 1 yesterday, played in the Cosmic Fantasy Collection for the Nintendo Switch. Took me around 10 hours. Quite an enjoyable early JRPG. One thing that surprised me is how similar the basic story is to the Star Ocean games. It is pretty clear the Star Ocean creators sorta "borrowed" the game's premise from Cosmic Fantasy. Anyway, I'm looking forward to playing the second game which is also included in the Switch Collection! However, that will have to wait as I'm moving on to play Snatcher (Sega CD). I rented it once in 1994, but I didn't finish it then.
BTW I used an excellent walkthrough/guide (in Japanese) for CF1, which really helped keep me on track. Here it is, if anyone is interested:
https://rko.jp/cosmic_fantasy-bouken_shounen_yuu/index.html
I also plan to finish up FFVII Remake on the PS5 this week. I'm currently in the middle of Chapter 17, so nearing the end.
I finished FFVII Remake, and then also went on and played through the Intergrade DLC. I really enjoyed both. Took me about 29 hours to do FFVII, then a bit over 4 hours for the DLC. Looking forward to FFVII Remake Part 2!
I've been playing several games over the past month:
-Knack 2 (PS4 on PS5). Finished this, it took about 12 hours. Really fun game with some amazing graphics, and even some STG stages (Star Fox/Goemon style)! Highly recommended.
-Bravely Default 2 (Switch). I've played about 29 hours and am up to the end of Chapter 4, but I don't have much motivation to continue on. The story and characters are boring and uninspired, the world feels bland and small, the side quests are a waste of time, and the battle system is not very fun or well-balanced. Either too hard, or too easy, depending on how you set up your jobs. I still love the first BD, but the second 3DS game was mediocre at best and BD2 is not much better.
-Star Ocean 4: The Last Hope HD (PS4 on PS5). Played for about an hour then dropped it. Annoying (and weird-looking) characters and gameplay seems bland. Also you can't pause during the long cutscences, which is bizarre. I gave this a try because I loved the recent Star Ocean Divine Force. Oh well.
-Breath of Fire (SNES, on Switch's NSO). I rented this back in the mid-90s but didn't finish it. I'm about 6 hours in and I'm really enjoying it. A real breath of fresh air after BD2 and Star Ocean 4. Definitely going to finish this one!
I played through Shadow of the Tomb Raider and Rise of the Tomb Raider recently, both on my PS5. I really enjoyed both games, though I think Rise was better overall (Shadow has better graphics, though).
This month I bought a Switch OLED and Zelda: TOTK, so I've been playing that the past few days. So far, so good. I thought BOTW was a good game, but I prefer the more traditional Zelda games. I don't like playing games like this on my Switch Lite, and I gave my OG Switch to my son, so I had to spring for an OLED so I could mainly play on my monitor.
I finished TOTK. Took me a bit over 60 hours***. I did 76 shrines, got two extra Stamina wheels and 18 hearts. Great game worth a play-through, but not really better than BOTW, imo. Both games are 8/10 for me. Just way too bloated (especially TOTK), and I still don't like the breakable weapons/shields. I hated the Depths too, just drab and dark (and endlessly huge) with that annoying gloom everywhere -- not very enjoyable. Dungeons were pretty good overall, but I didn't like the last one at all, and the lead-up to the final boss was more annoying than fun. No real challenge in the game once you upgrade your armor and cook a bunch of stuff. I did like the shrines in this game, though.
I still strongly prefer the classic Zelda games: Zelda II, A Link to the Past, Ocarina of Time, Link's Awakening, and Wind Waker. All of those are 9/10 or 10/10 in my book.
***In contrast, BOTW took me about 45 hours.
For a change of pace I played through Famicom Detective Club: Ushiro ni Tatsu Shōjo (The Girl Who Stands Behind) on the Switch. I played through the first game (Missing Heir) two years ago when it came out, but put off playing the second one until now. I really enjoyed both games. This one only took me about 5-6 hours to beat, but it was great. I hope they make another one of these in the future. I played both in Japanese, as I have that limited edition boxed set. Pretty easy games to play in Japanese even if your knowledge of the language isn't at a high level, because there is full voice, furigana, and the vocabulary isn't too advanced.
In the mood for some platformers or Metroidvania games, I recently played through Kirby's Return To Dreamland Deluxe and Monster Boy in the Cursed Kingdom on my Switch. Got 100% in both. Kirby was a breeze, but still fun, and the bonus Magolor Epilogue game was really cool. Monster Boy was generally very good, but some of the sections were frustrating due to inconsistent controls, and the solutions to a few puzzles were quite obscure and I had to look them up. Took me a little under 21 hours to clear Monster Boy, here is my end game screen:
(https://i.imgur.com/FHh60uul.jpg)
I beat Metroid Fusion today, played on the NSO GBA service. Pretty fun little game, my clear time was 5:06. I think that's enough Metroidvania games for now, so I'm going to move on to a different genre.
After finishing Sea of Stars I moved on to Trinity Trigger (PS5), which I bought on sale recently for $30. I finished it today at about 17 hours, and it was a decent, low-budget Secret of Mana-ish action RPG.
Now I'm playing Mortal Kombat 1 (PS5), focusing on the Story Mode, which is quite enjoyable thus far.
I'm still playing through Ys X: Nordics on the PS5, but I took a break recently to complete Super Mario Wonder. I got 100% in the game except for the "final-final" level. I've played that many times but keep dying on the invisibility part at the end, which is just not any fun, so I think I'll give up and move on. The game is pretty great outside of that, though it only took me 8-10 hours to do everything, so I feel it is a bit light on content. After that I did a 100% clear of Super Mario 3D World on the Switch (except for finishing each stage with all 5 characters, because that would take me dozens of hours and be quite boring), which was fun.
After finishing Ys X: Nordics (which was great), I went back and played through Ys IX (PS5). I had played the Switch version for about 9 hours, but the framerate and graphics were so bad I dropped the game about a year ago and didn't feel like returning until I cleared Ys X. I decided to try the PS5 version of Ys IX, and this time I really enjoyed playing it. Took me about 30 hours to clear it with 100%. Really good Ys game, but I felt the extensive story scenes and large number of characters in the city made it feel like a Trails/Kiseki game at times, which I'd rather not have in my Ys games. Ys X was better in this regard. However, I preferred the gameplay of Ys IX.
Next up on my playlist are Soul Hackers 2 (PS5) and Super Mario RPG (Switch), when it releases later in the week. I've played the first hour of Soul Hackers 2, and so far it's great.
I finished Super Mario RPG (Switch) recently. It only took me 10 hours, but it was fun. Currently working through Soul Hackers 2 (PS5), which should take me a week or two to finish.
I finished Soul Hackers 2 about a week ago. Took me around 19 hours. OK game, nothing special in the end. I liked the characters, overall story, graphics, and turn-based battle system (my fave), but the gameplay loop wasn't that great and the sidequests were so boring I soon stopped doing them. Also the demon fusion got pretty old after awhile. Tokyo Mirage Sessions on the Switch is much better in comparison, but I enjoyed Soul Hackers 2 enough to finish it.
Now I'm switching gears and playing through The Great Ace Attorney Chronicles on the Switch and Castlevania Legends on the Game Boy (NSO version).
I've played through the first three episodes of The Great Ace Attorney Chronicles, and it's really enjoyable. I'm interspersing some other games in between episodes. I cleared Castlevania Legends, which I had never played before. Pretty good Game Boy game. I then cleared Super C (NES) and Operation C (Game Boy). I hadn't played Super C in about 33 years, but it's just as awesome as I remembered. I played Operation C for the first time and was really impressed by it, though it did feel quite similar to Super C in many regards.
I played through Golden Sun (GBA on the NSO) for the first time. Really fun, old-school JRPG. Took me about 19 hours. I don't think I'll play through the sequel for awhile though, as I'm keen to move on to something else.
I played through Ys Origin (PS4 on PS5) last week, and it was a fun little game. Only took me 6.5 hours to beat with Yunica. I've now cleared all canonical games from Ys Origin - Ys X except Ys 5 because it's not on a modern console.
Now I'm playing through Tales of Vesperia (PS4 on PS5), for some reason. It was on sale on PSN for ten bucks, so I thought I'd give it another shot. I had the JP X360 version soon after it first came out but got bored with the game after 5-10 hours and never went back. So far I'm enjoying the consistent 60fps gameplay on the PS5, faster loads, and other perks in this "Definitive Version". I'm also finding the game itself more enjoyable this time around!