PS4 Software recommendations

[Steamflogger Boss]

Dragon Ball FighterZ is the best Dragon Ball fighter imo.

Celeste and Dead Cells are both fantastic games.

[kitten]

Nier Automata, every time I decide to buy it, I don't. Is it really good?

no. i will say more in spoilers, as it contains some spoilers (that i think are harmless, but ymmv)

Spoiler

i really hated it. what surprised me as being poor more than anything was the narrative, which was super duper hamfisted, transparently manipulative, and just stupid. goes from "ah man yeah robots are mindless and evil" to "wait, robot do thinky??? no, no, can't be" almost immediately after the prologue but keeps that up like it's a meaningful emotional well for the entire duration of the game. the amount of times "oh my god is this robot doing a thing that conscious individuals do? but... they CAN'T think!!" is revisited is genuinely shocking and stretched thin even beyond the very low expectation you'd hold for a jrpg to do better. i'm a sucker for sad robots and stories that heavily reflect on the nature of identity and adore stuff like casshern: sins (please just watch this instead) and kikaider: the animation, so i had gone into it expecting it to be of value on at least that front if nothing else and found it utterly dreadful and extremely predictable.

the boy toy is not only the secret protagonist but feels like an author self-insert about how he wants a hot gf to crush his balls with high heels instead of paying his dominatrix $2,000 an hour to keep up the visits. at least when kamiya makes a game about his sex fantasies, he doesn't wreathe is in the flimsy and false pretense of deep philosophical thinking. this is spoilers, but what what you're tricked into initially believing is the protagonist only gets to express agency in the story in the form of wanting to spare the boytoy and is otherwise Just Following Orders and unable to make a decision for herself. boytoy gets to be mouthpiece for both her third of the story and his, then this half-righteous, sympathetic pseudo-antagonist for the last third. if yoko taro doesn't top from the bottom without realizing, i'd be genuinely shocked.

deeply vacant but nearly ubisoft-sized overworld, constant and excruciatingly slow fetch quests, an upgrade system that trivializes combat with a little minmaxing unless you put yourself on one-hit kill mode (and then that mostly just becomes about performing constant i-frame dodges that you can just chain together or cancel into at any time), combat being Extremely Platinum in that it's all flash and little substance, shmup segments so toothless, reptetitive, and uninteresting that they will make you envious you're not playing an xbox live indie game instead, bosses that take like five+ minutes of just wailing on them to kill and hordes of spongey enemies (huge incentive to say fuck it and play on easy on sheer time it will save you), visuals that all went straight to the T&A. eugh. if you're not leveling constantly you will start dealing extremely little damage to enemies, too - the hardest secret boss is a joke after proper leveling but impossible to damage until you hit a certain threshold.

you also straight repeat the entire first third of the game in the second third with very little deviation other than getting rid of the boss fights for worse sub-XBLIG top-down shooter segments. it's very much one of those games where you have to pretend half of the mechanics don't exist and selectively use your imagination to pick favorites to pretend there is a designed action game in there. play on this difficulty, restrict yourself to these upgrades, don't abuse this sub weapon, don't level beyond this point, skip this and that sub-quest - and then somehow the true brilliance of mindlessly attacking and then pressing the i-frame dodge on time will reveal a perfect action masterpiece.

the single thing i found worth any amount of my time in nier: automata was the soundtrack, which was genuinely enchanting. i wish it had been in a better game.

still, though! you might get something out of it, even enjoy it if you:

1. really like platinum's other games
2. enjoyed the first nier and have a penchant for yoko taro's storytelling
3. find yourself invested in extremely long set-ups for incedental and cruel ironies no matter how badly they're told (see: 2.)
4. are very horny for generic anime babes dressed as combat maids (the bridge that has made this popular both in and out of social justice culture)
5. are a self-described "incel" boy (or other being comfortable with projecting themselves onto one) waiting for the right domme to love you and live vicariously through japanese media
6. listen to jrpg music with delightful nonsense-language vocals as asmr and frankly want to turn your brain off while doing so
7. are romantically invested in the idea that "japanese gaming is back, baybee!"

still almost certainly more sophisticated than detroit if you are very desperate for a robot story and don't want to watch casshern sins (again)

[Squire Grooktook]

Nier Automata, every time I decide to buy it, I don't. Is it really good?

no. i will say more in spoilers, as it contains some spoilers (that i think are harmless, but ymmv)

Spoiler

i really hated it. what surprised me as being poor more than anything was the narrative, which was super duper hamfisted, transparently manipulative, and just stupid. goes from "ah man yeah robots are mindless and evil" to "wait, robot do thinky??? no, no, can't be" almost immediately after the prologue but keeps that up like it's a meaningful emotional well for the entire duration of the game. the amount of times "oh my god is this robot doing a thing that conscious individuals do? but... they CAN'T think!!" is revisited is genuinely shocking and stretched thin even beyond the very low expectation you'd hold for a jrpg to do better. i'm a sucker for sad robots and stories that heavily reflect on the nature of identity and adore stuff like casshern: sins (please just watch this instead) and kikaider: the animation, so i had gone into it expecting it to be of value on at least that front if nothing else and found it utterly dreadful and extremely predictable.

the boy toy is not only the secret protagonist but feels like an author self-insert about how he wants a hot gf to crush his balls with high heels instead of paying his dominatrix $2,000 an hour to keep up the visits. at least when kamiya makes a game about his sex fantasies, he doesn't wreathe is in the flimsy and false pretense of deep philosophical thinking. this is spoilers, but what what you're tricked into initially believing is the protagonist only gets to express agency in the story in the form of wanting to spare the boytoy and is otherwise Just Following Orders and unable to make a decision for herself. boytoy gets to be mouthpiece for both her third of the story and his, then this half-righteous, sympathetic pseudo-antagonist for the last third. if yoko taro doesn't top from the bottom without realizing, i'd be genuinely shocked.

deeply vacant but nearly ubisoft-sized overworld, constant and excruciatingly slow fetch quests, an upgrade system that trivializes combat with a little minmaxing unless you put yourself on one-hit kill mode (and then that mostly just becomes about performing constant i-frame dodges that you can just chain together or cancel into at any time), combat being Extremely Platinum in that it's all flash and little substance, shmup segments so toothless, reptetitive, and uninteresting that they will make you envious you're not playing an xbox live indie game instead, bosses that take like five+ minutes of just wailing on them to kill and hordes of spongey enemies (huge incentive to say fuck it and play on easy on sheer time it will save you), visuals that all went straight to the T&A. eugh. if you're not leveling constantly you will start dealing extremely little damage to enemies, too - the hardest secret boss is a joke after proper leveling but impossible to damage until you hit a certain threshold.

you also straight repeat the entire first third of the game in the second third with very little deviation other than getting rid of the boss fights for worse sub-XBLIG top-down shooter segments. it's very much one of those games where you have to pretend half of the mechanics don't exist and selectively use your imagination to pick favorites to pretend there is a designed action game in there. play on this difficulty, restrict yourself to these upgrades, don't abuse this sub weapon, don't level beyond this point, skip this and that sub-quest - and then somehow the true brilliance of mindlessly attacking and then pressing the i-frame dodge on time will reveal a perfect action masterpiece.

the single thing i found worth any amount of my time in nier: automata was the soundtrack, which was genuinely enchanting. i wish it had been in a better game.

still, though! you might get something out of it, even enjoy it if you:

1. really like platinum's other games
2. enjoyed the first nier and have a penchant for yoko taro's storytelling
3. find yourself invested in extremely long set-ups for incedental and cruel ironies no matter how badly they're told (see: 2.)
4. are very horny for generic anime babes dressed as combat maids (the bridge that has made this popular both in and out of social justice culture)
5. are a self-described "incel" boy (or other being comfortable with projecting themselves onto one) waiting for the right domme to love you and live vicariously through japanese media
6. listen to jrpg music with delightful nonsense-language vocals as asmr and frankly want to turn your brain off while doing so
7. are romantically invested in the idea that "japanese gaming is back, baybee!"

still almost certainly more sophisticated than detroit if you are very desperate for a robot story and don't want to watch casshern sins (again)

I think it was a massive mistake for me to play NieR:A immediately following Trails in The Sky. After coming off of what is the warmest and best written jprg/rpg/video game I've ever played, Taro's half-baked existential masturbation was a lot less enthralling. I couldn't finish it.

It's part of the reason why I've pretty much transitioned towards Table Top RPG's, since I couldn't find anything else on the horizon on par with Trails and (with good roleplayers and a gm with a knack for storytelling) TRPG's can provide the deeply personal character driven narrative games that I crave.

To put NieR in a tabletop roleplaying analogy, 2B is that one guy who plays an edgy, "stoic" assassin and thinks that his/her lack of emotional reaction to anything makes them "cool", when in reality their lack of heart or personality makes them both unsympathetic and boring as fuck. Meanwhile, 9S is the dude who doesn't know how to roleplay, envision, or give voice to a character to save his life, and so he just plays himself. A totally featureless and bland audience/author surrogate with little internal consistency, who's only remotely likable in comparison to his unsympathetic partner but is otherwise utterly unconvincing in his role.

Also the combat in NieR was what made me realized I'm burned out on the whole "press I-frame button to not die" character action, and then you get to the grindy rpg elements layered on top, errugh.

Speaking of character action though...

Furi: Definitive Edition - absolutely excellent top-down action game that blends of hack n' slash action with danmaku patterns almost flawlessly. truly unique with the only comparison i can think of even coming close being the somewhat-middling (but still rather interesting) the red star, furi carves itself a spot in my heart as a serious standout amongst a dearth of innovative or interesting pure action titles in this generation. features stunningly colorful visuals, a somber and reflective narrative, character designs by takahashi okazaki (of afro samurai fame), and a synthwave soundtrack the likes of which you'll never forget (featuring such talents as carpenter brut, toxic avenger, etc.).

Really glad you enjoyed this one Kitten ^_^ was my goty on release.

The sheer variety of the combat (stuff you have to do the typical i-frame timing dance against, stuff you have to dash and maneuver around, etc.), and it's uniquely snappy handling made it feel a lot more vibrant to me then anything else in the character action market right now.

That and I loved the story, aesthetic, and atmosphere. I wasn't expecting to become as attached to the characters as I did. A real adventure.

[Immryr]

add me to the list of people who think nier automata is shite. the combat just feels really poorly thought out and badly balanced. why does pressing attack once send you half way across the screen? playing on normal the game feels like it plays itself, playing on hard everything one, or at the very most two shots you. as kitten said the shmup sections are awful. i found things like mid section cut scenes ending and instantly spawning enemies who one shot you behind you or on top of you and sections where the camera angle severly limits your range of motion particularly egregious.

the story and the characters are somehow even worse than the original nier, which was also shite

[kitten]

To put NieR in a tabletop roleplaying analogy, 2B...

more spoilers

Spoiler

i can't... find her analogous to a person because i fundamentally can't consider as being rooted as one. in any analogy i could conceive for the two of them, 2B is always an object, illusion, fantasy, or projection. she was made to be put on a dakimakura or sculpted as an obscene toy, not function as a character in a story. i read 9S very much as an author insert because of how much of the narrative focuses on him and how nearly every significant defiance is given to him. he is the only character who really experiences conflict and develops at all (don't make me laugh at A2's instantaneous turnaround and complete absence of character before it), and his development is very much that of a self-insert - from 'humble' mouthpiece, to anti-hero filled with righteous fury, to the reveal of his sympathetic torture at the hands of 2B and the implied nobility of his accepting it and loving her, anyway.

he makes nearly every significant choice in the narrative while 2B is otherwise following orders until killed (minus finally being too emotionally torn up to keep killing him, which again focuses him at the center and as of the highest importance) and A2 is saddled with rescuing him from himself. both the deuteragonist and the tritagonist revolve around him as if he were the center of the universe and the narrative treats his innocence and subsequent loss of it as extremely precious. although ostensibly the most sympathetic character of the bunch because of his repeated tortures at the hand of his love, this is a super fucking flimsy facade put up to cover that this is exactly both what he wants and what the author desires in a relationship. he wants someone who is guilty and obligated to him, but he wants them to punish him because it gets him off.

this is an incredibly common relationship ideal for people into light bdsm and it's what i meant when i said "topping from the bottom." 2B is never actually in control, even though the illusion is up that she is and that's what is erotic to the author (and subsequently, 9S - it is everything he has ever wanted). everything is so carefully cultivated to present an ideal (and implicitly very sexual) relationship between 2B and 9S. although it positions the idea that 2B is a powerful woman, it's ultimately only in service of her One True Love, the Very Special Boy Whomst Deserves It. it's unhealthy, one-sided, objectifying, and if we're going to be frank, nearly as fucking banal as it gets.

i feel like the only reason nier automata doesn't get pegged as a boy's sexist little sexual fantasy more often is because society still thinks bdsm is super taboo and has not seen this relationship dynamic play out. they have no frame of reference for which to compare it and no context to understand how boring and in favor of the submissive's ideal it is. it's porn and it's not even good porn, people have more complex relationship dynamics with a fucking hitachi or onahole.

Really glad you enjoyed this one Kitten ^_^ was my goty on release.

The sheer variety of the combat (stuff you have to do the typical i-frame timing dance against, stuff you have to dash and maneuver around, etc.), and it's uniquely snappy handling made it feel a lot more vibrant to me then anything else in the character action market right now.

That and I loved the story, aesthetic, and atmosphere. I wasn't expecting to become as attached to the characters as I did. A real adventure.

ah, yeah, it's probably my goty for 2016, too, which is nice because my 2015 and 2017 goty's were both heavily narrative focused games and 2018 is looking to be the same case. i need me some solid action :'[

however, i also found furi's narrative to be really satisfying, too! though i mostly love it for the action, i also love the interludes and audio/visual experience of them, and i really dug the story and narrator. had some chills running down my spine during the interactive credits roll! furi's a pretty complete package and it's why i consider it a big favorite of mine.

- - - - - - - - - -

edit:

ah heck! i forgot to mention, furi is hitting switch tomorrow with a physical limited edition via limited run games. has fresh art for a poster not even revealed yet, too! not necessarily thread relevant because the ps4 version came and went ages ago, but i imagine a lot of you still have a switch, anyway.

[Squire Grooktook]

To put NieR in a tabletop roleplaying analogy, 2B...

more spoilers

Spoiler

i can't... find her analogous to a person because i fundamentally can't consider as being rooted as one. in any analogy i could conceive for the two of them, 2B is always an object, illusion, fantasy, or projection. she was made to be put on a dakimakura or sculpted as an obscene toy, not function as a character in a story. i read 9S very much as an author insert because of how much of the narrative focuses on him and how nearly every significant defiance is given to him. he is the only character who really experiences conflict and develops at all (don't make me laugh at A2's instantaneous turnaround and complete absence of character before it), and his development is very much that of a self-insert - from 'humble' mouthpiece, to anti-hero filled with righteous fury, to the reveal of his sympathetic torture at the hands of 2B and the implied nobility of his accepting it and loving her, anyway.

he makes nearly every significant choice in the narrative while 2B is otherwise following orders until killed (minus finally being too emotionally torn up to keep killing him, which again focuses him at the center and as of the highest importance) and A2 is saddled with rescuing him from himself. both the deuteragonist and the tritagonist revolve around him as if he were the center of the universe and the narrative treats his innocence and subsequent loss of it as extremely precious. although ostensibly the most sympathetic character of the bunch because of his repeated tortures at the hand of his love, this is a super fucking flimsy facade put up to cover that this is exactly both what he wants and what the author desires in a relationship. he wants someone who is guilty and obligated to him, but he wants them to punish him because it gets him off.

this is an incredibly common relationship ideal for people into light bdsm and it's what i meant when i said "topping from the bottom." 2B is never actually in control, even though the illusion is up that she is and that's what is erotic to the author (and subsequently, 9S - it is everything he has ever wanted). everything is so carefully cultivated to present an ideal (and implicitly very sexual) relationship between 2B and 9S. although it positions the idea that 2B is a powerful woman, it's ultimately only in service of her One True Love, the Very Special Boy Whomst Deserves It. it's unhealthy, one-sided, objectifying, and if we're going to be frank, nearly as fucking banal as it gets.

i feel like the only reason nier automata doesn't get pegged as a boy's sexist little sexual fantasy more often is because society still thinks bdsm is super taboo and has not seen this relationship dynamic play out. they have no frame of reference for which to compare it and no context to understand how boring and in favor of the submissive's ideal it is. it's porn and it's not even good porn, people have more complex relationship dynamics with a fucking hitachi or onahole.

I'll be honest. I did not play far enough to get a good perspective on the "romance" (if you can call it that) element. I quit midway through the initial route. The game was simply doing nothing for me and becoming very offputting, on top of a tightening schedule that left me less time to indulge such things.

I'm often told that I have a knack for knowing when something "gets better" or not, and NieR:A was not making my "meaningful slowburn that actually gets good" sense tingle. I remember a critical review of Drakengard 3 saying that the game's characterization gets better...after the third fucking route. And to be honest, as much as Taro gets away with being kooky, I simply don't consider that good storytelling on any level.

Anyway, about your analysis...normally I don't really see things through the sexual/object lense, and I often find those words frequently missaplied. However to clarify my statements, this how I see her (simply as a character) based on my playtime:

Spoiler

2B

From the beginning, we are given no reason to like her, empathize with her, or simply root for her as the audience should for its protaganist.

She's completely stoic, singlemindedly dedicated to her mission, and barely talks. To put it another way, she has barely more personality than the non-sentient mecha she initially fights. It's obvious from the last two female leads in Drakengard 3 and NieR that Taro has a hard-on for hard-ass edgy feisty gals, and that's okay! But at least Zero's chronic grumpiness gave her some marginal character (as thin as it wore). 2B feels like an utterly empty blank slate.

Now, strong and silent, Clint Eastwood types can work, but they need to show us early on that they *care* and that they have some vulnerability. Usually this is through small moments of humanity shown to other characters, or the hardships they face for the sake of something that matters to the audience. Which brings us to the next problem.

As you said, it's clear from the first 5 minutes (or before you even put the disc in the console, if you're familiar with Yoko's games) that some of the machines CAN THINK *gasp*. Yet despite evidence piling up from the beginning, characters continue to think this is impossible and ignore the obvious. The end result is that our protagonists both come off as morons, and also fighting on the wrong side of a war that we have little reason to care about.

So the question is...why am I supposed to like her? Why am I supposed to root for her? Besides the obvious (being hot), I'm drawing a blank.

So although I'm not able to factor the sexual element into it, I do see where you're coming from.

9S is obviously supposed to be the more human and emotional character, to be set up as a classic character contrast with 2B. But without going into as much detail, he simply wasn't selling that role to me and I felt no real humanity or warmth from him. The game seemed like it was trying to set up some gradual chemistry between the two, but it simply fell flat in my opinion.

In short, the game gave me no reason to care about the characters, and so I couldn't bring myself to tramp through the idiot plot for the brazenly obvious twists it was building up to. As for the gameplay, I mentioned that already.

[kitten]

Why am I supposed to root for her? Besides the obvious (being hot), I'm drawing a blank.[/spoiler]

gonna be completely honest with you, i think this is it. boil it all down and i seriously think the story operates on the default assumption you care about them and that's the only thing there is to connect with.

[evil_ash_xero]

Normal Retail

Bloodborne
Dark Souls III
DOOM
Dragon Quest XI
Valkyria Chronicles 4 (coming out next week!)
Evil Within (if you can stand the slowdown. Runs better on Pro, with boost on)
Gravity Rush 2 (avoid side quests)
Nioh (avoid side quests)
The Last Guardian (bad camera, even after the patches...but it's gotten tolerable. Good game though)
Monster Hunter: World
Metal Gear Solid V (has it's issues)
Nier Automata
Odin Sphere Leifthrasir (sort of a remake)
Dragon's Crown Pro (just a port, with slightly better visuals and orchestrated music)
Shantae: Half Genie Hero
Raiden V (yeah, I liked it!)
Street Fighter V: Arcade Edition
Shadow of the Colossus (Remake)

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

PSN

The Iconoclasts

[evil_ash_xero]

caladrius blaze (i think this has an asian physical release)

It has a limited edition US release too.

[Immryr]

caladrius blaze (i think this has an asian physical release)

It has a limited edition US release too.

yeah i think most of the digital stuff i listed has some kind of physical release. i don't really pay attention to limited physical releases, i only really buy physical releases this gen for two reasons: 1) it's usually cheaper once the game has been out a while and 2) it gives me the option of selling if i want to (although i never do).


back on topic and a kind of crossover from the wizardry thread:

demon gaze 2
labyrinth of refrain

both have physical releases, both look anime as fuck, but if you like 1st person dungeon crawlers you might want to check them out.

[Steamflogger Boss]

The first Demon Gaze had some really good gameplay stuff. Never got around to playing the 2nd.

I decided I will get Labyrinth of Refrain but I am waiting for a price drop. In the mean time I picked up Etrian Odyssey 5. Going to be weird turning my 3DS on again.