What [not shmup] game are you playing now?

[Immryr]

i've heard of it but not played it. there are so many retro styled metroid type games out there that it's easy to ignore them, and to be fair most of them deserve to be ignored.

is ESA full of a lot of riddles like la mulana? that's always put me off playing la mulana.

[ZacharyB]

I bought Environmental Station Alpha because of the past few posts. The style seems familiar... I wonder if this is the guy who made that Minitroid demo many years ago, and went and did something with that engine.

[Leandro]

The best Metroidvania I've ever played was Environmental Station Alpha.

First time I'm hearing about this game. Will give it a look.

By the way, what did you think of Axiom Verge?

Axiom Verge was good. The map is simple, the game is not that challenging, but I enjoyed the solid gameplay, the great music and the narrative. I remember I cleared it twice consecutively, the second time speedrunning it.
I recommend it and I'll buy the sequel if it ever comes out.

is ESA full of a lot of riddles like la mulana? that's always put me off playing la mulana.

No, the main game has puzzles but the cryptic stuff is optional. Là Mulana also put me off but ESA was so engaging that I had to keep investigating the unsolved mysteries after beating the final boss.
It's not like Hollow Knight where the post game stuff (collect a thon) locks the "true ending"; in ESA the riddles open up bizarre hidden bosses (they are really worth it) and funny alternate endings. The regular ending is the canon one iirc

[Marc]

Picked up Zupapa on Switch. Excellent stuff, doesn't seem to have quite the depth of Bubble Bobble, and it's a bit on the easy side, but still great fun. Also picked up Whip! Whip! while I was browsing but didn't get around to playing that.

Finally started Shadow of the Colossus on PS4... playing on a base machine and goddamn it looks nice. Gonna have to get my brother to bring his pro around - he's got the pro, I've got the 4k TV. Still have the same problem with the PS4 version as I had with the original - I don't wanna kill the beasties. It's the first game I've ever played where I need a bit more justification than 'monsters. Stab'.

[Sumez]

Zupapa is a fun game. You need to device a strategy for each individual stage to get the maximum bonus (where you kill more than X number of enemies in one combo).
It's quite easy, and I made it to the final boss on one credit one of the first times I played the game, and once you get the strategy down for maximizing the scores there's not much extra depth, no.

[Steamflogger Boss]

Octopath Traveler. It's pretty damn good.

[Sumez]

I only just picked up my fourth character in Octopath, and I'm already tiring of it. Hopefully it evolves, but right now the game consists entirely of following a mountain path while keeping a watch out for off-shoot paths leading to chests with healing grapes.

[kaicooper]

so after beating NFS hot Pursuit
-----
and got HITMAN GOTY EDITION to enjoy the hell out of it
cus reminds of Blood Money in every way..just finished Paris level (ep1)
had a break to play some WWE games

so for first time tried 2k games like WEE 2K16 - 2K19 too
all same and boring slow shitty call it realism shit..

back to Here comes the Pain and SvR 06
milion times better and story mods are amazing

[Seyriuu]

The best Metroidvania I've ever played was Environmental Station Alpha. That one was compelling enough to do all the post game stuff that had La Mulana levels of difficulty enigmas.

Wow same opinion here, this game is so underrated that it hurts =(. The developer is making ESA2 btw. Axiom Verge gets so much more attention, while its an ok game for me, the lack of polish and the amateur vibe is so strong that distracts me from the immersion... ESA in the other hand is so polished even with those huge pixels.

[kaicooper]

Wow same opinion here, this game is so underrated that it hurts =(. The developer is making ESA2 btw. Axiom Verge gets so much more attention, while its an ok game for me, the lack of polish and the amateur vibe is so strong that distracts me from the immersion... ESA in the other hand is so polished even with those huge pixels.

oh man this game...beat it already 2 years ago..such a great pixelated metroidvania
and yea this game is overlooked and underrated hidden gem

[Immryr]

weirdly i have been playing the open beta of magic the gathering arena. mtg is something i was interested in as a teenager, and i bought a couple of preconstucted decks and tried to get a friend of mine who was into the star trek tcg interested in it, but he wasn't, so i never really took it any further.

the game itself is fun, but it feels like it will be insanely grindy to try and make decent new decks in this game as a f2p player, or even if you pay a bit each month for card packs. for some reason they decided on using a wild card system where you can craft any card for a wild card of the same rarity. this sounds great is theory, but in practice it just means when you open packs most of the cards are completely useless and of little value to you. unlike with the card game, and from what i understand magic the gathering online, there is no way to trade or sell your unwanted cards towards cards you actually do want.

you get one rare and one uncommon wild card for every six packs you open, plus some random ones within the packs themselves. you can earn about a pack a bit every day through playing, and if you want to pay $20 will get you about 15 packs, which is only 2 and a half rare/uncommon wild cards and probably a load of stuff you don't want. they are pretty good in your first six days as they give you 5 mono colour and 10 dual colour decks to get you started, but as you can imagine they're not that great and you will want to build your own decks.

if this is their attempt at joining the f2p market it doesn't really seem like they have the balance right..... but i've still been playing it a lot....

[Steamflogger Boss]

I only just picked up my fourth character in Octopath, and I'm already tiring of it. Hopefully it evolves, but right now the game consists entirely of following a mountain path while keeping a watch out for off-shoot paths leading to chests with healing grapes.

Having to do 8 character intro chapters is definitely a bit unfortunate. I like battles though, stuff gets fairly rich eventually for a traditional JRPG, on par with some dungeon crawlers. And yes it does get more interesting. Jmo of course. This and DQXI are both really good.

@immryr: F2P is for kids with more time than money. When Arena is actually ready I'll just dump money into it to have all the cards I want.

[Immryr]

as i said, even paying money is not satisfying. because you can't trade or sell your unwanted cards, and they have no way of compensating you when you have more than four copies of a card you are just left with loads of unwanted junk and half finished play sets.

[Steamflogger Boss]

Yeah this is how a lot of digital card games work. If you want to be able to cash out easily, there is Magic online. Hopefully both products coexist.

[Sumez]

Having to do 8 character intro chapters is definitely a bit unfortunate. I like battles though, stuff gets fairly rich eventually for a traditional JRPG, on par with some dungeon crawlers. And yes it does get more interesting. Jmo of course. This and DQXI are both really good.

Wait, you have to do all 8? I thought you just picked 4 dudes/dudettes and went with that.

[Steamflogger Boss]

You don't have to exactly I don't think. I'm doing it because I just want to play the game once.

[BurlyHeart]

Windjammers.

A lot of fun!

[guigui]

@immryr: F2P is for kids with more time than money. When Arena is actually ready I'll just dump money into it to have all the cards I want.

Unsurprisingly, you seem to know what you are talking about MTG. I was also really into the game (physical) some years ago : Urza, Mercadia, Torment and so on. I won several local tournament, once went for national championship, lost. Dropped it when real life took over.

Do you know what cards set are available in Arena ?

[Immryr]

all of the expansions in standard. ixalan, rivals of ixalan, dominaria, core set 2019, guilds of ravnica.

-edit- https://mtg.gamepedia.com/Standard

[Steamflogger Boss]

Yep, what Immryr said.

Also, there will be a new non-rotating format (Rosewater I believe said it was when not if) and I bet it will involve Arena. If it doesn't personally I would want it to start with Amonkhet at the furthest back to differentiate itself from Modern. It needs to not have fetches, and energy is a rancid mechanic as well.

[Blinge]

Holy shit Ys: Oath in Felghana is fun

I mean, I always knew I'd enjoy it but man
Valstein Castle is Sen's Fortress on crack!!

Adol confirmed best cardio in the business.

[soprano1]

Valstein Castle

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HSzaK_ueHY4
I came.

[BulletMagnet]

Finished a very incomplete playthrough of Wario Land: Shake It for the Wii, and get the feeling that certain folks around here would enjoy it more than I did: I like the presentation, and the tilting/shaking gimmicks are generally not too obtrusive, but while just getting to the end of stages is pretty easy, the real focus is on puzzling out how to access all the nooks and crannies where extra stuff is hidden, improving completing times, that sort of thing. Which is fine and dandy, but this game is also a big fan of "oh, destroyed that random block the same way you destroyed two dozen others earlier in the level? Too bad, you just cut yourself off from a major treasure, and won't get another shot at it until you start the stage over (and this goes double for missing a jump or the like while trying for a quick stage exit time). It's not bad overall, but I get the feeling that the only ones who will really love it are people who enjoy replaying and memorizing stage layouts more than I do.

Also been tooling around with the latest update of Touhou: Luna Nights, an early access fangame by the same outfit that did the KonoSuba and Strange Journey freebie promo games as well as Pharaoh Rebirth: this one is set up in similar fashion to the latter, as it's got "metroidvania" elements but each area is largely self-contained and must be completed in a set order. You play as Sakuya, and thus toss knives around and both slow and stop time; the latter abilities in particular can seem overpowered at first, and kind of are, but then again after the first area enemies can whomp you pretty hard so if you're like me you'll find yourself using them more frequently than you thought. Neither baddies nor save points offer health refills (they do exist, but usually a ways off from save stations), so if you want to refill health (and energy/time too) you need to "graze" enemies like in the shooters; it's a bit awkward at first, but it is satisfying to be in bad shape and slowly watch the life meter build back up as you dance carefully around enemies before you off them. The overall balance still needs work, but the controls feel pretty good and the spritework is lovely as always, so I'm keeping an eye on this one as more stuff is added in.

[Steamflogger Boss]

Holy shit Ys: Oath in Felghana is fun

Oath is awesome, still one of my favourite Ys games.

[Mischief Maker]

Heat Signature just got a huge free expansion!

I don't know if I'd say it's the best indie game of the last year, but it's certainly the one I've sunk the most hours into. It's kinda like a randomly generated Hotline Miami mixed with Gunpoint.

It also has one of the best (by which I mean most informative) trailers of any videogame I've ever seen: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ifgjEMIqRO4

[Marc]

Pac Man CEDX2. I knew this couldn't be as perfect as the original CEDX.
The original CE didn't go far enough and simply felt like a flashier Pac Man. DEDX nailed it, possibly the best modern update that will ever exist, it kept the core of what made Pac Man still fun after all these years, and managed to add a bunch of stuff that altered the way it played fundamentally, while still feeling like Pac Man. This.... it just doesn't flow as well, there are a few too many ideas thrown into the mix. Doesn't help that some of the visual effects have now crossed the line into plain distracting. I'll play more later but all this has really made me want to do is fire back up the 360.

[kaicooper]

waited long time to play Hitman goty edition 2016
never though i gonna like it..it plays exactly like the best BLOOD MONEY
i liked Absolution but its dissapointed too..i mean this time it has huge levels
and tons of plans to assassin targets

[Steamflogger Boss]

So apparently you do need all 8 characters for some true final boss post game shenanigans in Octopath. I'm pretty deep into the game now and still enjoying it.

[theclaw]

Poking around Zero no Kiseki. Let us hope technical and translation roadblocks don't turn me away from this part of the story. (a total departure from where The 3rd left off? we'll see.)

Three games down is no place to quit!

[BurlyHeart]

Still playing Fight N Rage, and it's quickly becoming one of my favourite games. It's really well designed, from the scoring to extends, to combos to killing opponents to stage progression. You can see the passion (and knowledge) that's gone into making the game.

Finished all of Ricardo's stuff (S in both Time Attack & Score Attack; Black Belt in training; 1cc on normal; all endings). Got a 2cc on hard, but no ones cares about a 2cc. Another time I'm sure. Anyway, time to move on to Norris.

Initial impressions suggest he's more technical (which makes me wonder how hard Gal is to play). I do like the Guy move set, which leads me to believe he has more potential than Ricardo, though I haven't actually played Arcade mode with him yet (just training).