What [not shmup] game are you playing now?

[vol.2]

I'm revisiting Might and Magic 1 in my grand scheme to play them all in order up to VI probably.

I started M&M1 years ago now, and I got frustrated after going to the second town and trying to walk around. I was already at level 5, but the game will Wizardry-style insta-kill your whole damn party so quickly that it feels super cheap. Even at level 5, there are a number of beginning area monsters that have one-hit whole party kill abilities. The Swarming Locusts are possibly the worst as they tend to come in large groups and will kill you off immediately if they are given initiative in battle. And levelling is slow in M&M1, and you have to pay for it; you have to pay A LOT for it actually. I guess that amount will become less important as the game moves on, but this is a game where the guides all recommend buying better equipment before investing in levelling your characters. Also, there are two levelling paths where your "weaker" characters level more quickly than you "stronger" characters. The weaker characters are like the Robber, where you just have one to open locks and doors without instantly killing your whole party. And that is a real and immediate concern in M&M1; locks and doors can wipe out an entire low-level party in one foul swoop and, even after you are much stronger, they continue to be a huge annoyance as they can severely reduce your health and cast status effects that you must cure for money at a temple. You don't get cure poison until your Cleric reaches level 7, and that's going to take you a very, very long time.

But I got back at it yesterday, and I'm at level 6. I did get my ass handed to me several more times, but that's just how this game is played. You have to expect to get wiped out and lose a bunch of progress every so often. I feel like things will get a little more fun when I've finally got cure poison and my people all have more than 30 hit points. But damn if isn't hard enough without all the insta-kills. There are plenty of monsters close to the second area that will do 15 damage in one hit to a level 6 party member with 22 hit points. After the first round, your Cleric basically has to heal someone every turn or someone will die. There are some chumpy monsters out there you can easily wipe out, but all areas are populated with a mix of them, and there's nothing stopping an unbeatable fight from finding you in any area.

Not sure if I'll do the Heroes of M&M series as well. I was a big fan of King's Bounty upon it's initial release, and I like turn-based strategy, but I often find it hard to get into the mixture of the two when it leans more heavily on the strategy. I never played FF Tactics for example, and I stalled on Shining Force after really loving Shining in the Darkness and feeling disappointed they didn't do a direct sequel. Honestly, my favorite incarnation of RPG themed turn-based is forever Warlords 1 and 2. I bought the first Warlords game from a computer store in Rockville as a kid, and dammit if I didn't squeeze every last drop out of that game. I love how it fits on a single 720k floppy, but it's addictive and fun, and it's got a lot of cool secrets to find. Turn-based doesn't need to be a lot more complicated than that to be fun.

[Steven]

Done with Death Stranding 2. It was okay, I guess.

[vol.2]

Done with Death Stranding 2. It was okay, I guess.

It looks pretty. I probably won't have a chance to play it until it comes out on PC and I get a new PC. Maybe in a few years.

[Steven]

Done with Death Stranding 2. It was okay, I guess.

It looks pretty. I probably won't have a chance to play it until it comes out on PC and I get a new PC. Maybe in a few years.

It definitely is. I'm not sure how I feel about the rest of it yet and probably won't be for some time. I do have various jumbled thoughts, but after everything was over, my impression was "huh" and that was it.

[Starfighter]

Battlefield 2042. Wanted to try a modern online FPS again (last one I played at any length was Infinite Warfare) and it was on sale for like 3 dollars. It's pretty fun, but I'm spending more time dead than alive.

[XoPachi]

Battlefield 2042. Wanted to try a modern online FPS again (last one I played at any length was Infinite Warfare) and it was on sale for like 3 dollars. It's pretty fun, but I'm spending more time dead than alive. :D

I heard this game did very poorly and I wonder what the issues were. It kind of just didn't get talked about other than "it sucks". I remember being interested because when it comes to modern FPS's, BattleField is one of the games I usually have an interest in. I still think I want to try it.

[ryu]

Been binging the platformer RPG Castlevania games. I only got Symphony of the Night on PSP (the one that came with Dracula X Chronicles) so I bought a cheap psp-component cable off ebay and plugged it into my OSSC. Can't believe how simple this is and how well it works. Should have purchased this cable years ago, omg.

Anyways, SotN is really basic. I played it first after Dawn of Sorrow and PoR back in the day, didn't like it as much then and still feel the same about it. It's good but far from a master piece of game design.

[vol.2]

Been binging the platformer RPG Castlevania games. I only got Symphony of the Night on PSP (the one that came with Dracula X Chronicles) so I bought a cheap psp-component cable off ebay and plugged it into my OSSC. Can't believe how simple this is and how well it works. Should have purchased this cable years ago, omg.

Anyways, SotN is really basic. I played it first after Dawn of Sorrow and PoR back in the day, didn't like it as much then and still feel the same about it. It's good but far from a master piece of game design.

I like the flow of SOTN better than any of the GBA or DS games. It's also worth noting that it predates those games by a long time, and that it's closest relative is Rondo. SOTN was coming from more of an arcade place and expanding that with RPG elements, whereas the DS games were more of a follow-up to the GBA games which took elements from SOTN and made a different kind of game out of those elements.

There is also a Castlevania thread btw some folks check that more for this stuff.