What [not shmup] game are you playing now?

[Mischief Maker]

I just picked up Darkest Dungeon.

This is EXACTLY what I've been wanting for a while. A big thing that has annoyed me about post-infinity-engine WRPGs is they almost never let you create a custom party from scratch.

I also love the art style.

[broken harbour]

Tales of Zestiria.

I was looking for something that had a "big adventure" feel, and Steam listed this one as a "similar game" for the modern Ys titles, so I figured I'd give it a shot.

Enjoying a jRPG this much makes me feel dirty and wrong. Or, at least enjoying it now; I do like the game, but was it really necessary to drag the tutorial out for fifteen freaking hours?!?!

Is this game any good? The internet seems to hate it, and it looks really bland. People generally like the Tales games but a quick glance it looks like one to skip.

[Obscura]

Like I said, aside from the overlong tutorial, I'm enjoying it.

I haven't played any of the other Tales games, so I can't compare it to them.

[Squire Grooktook]

Tales of Zestiria.

I was looking for something that had a "big adventure" feel, and Steam listed this one as a "similar game" for the modern Ys titles, so I figured I'd give it a shot.

Enjoying a jRPG this much makes me feel dirty and wrong. Or, at least enjoying it now; I do like the game, but was it really necessary to drag the tutorial out for fifteen freaking hours?!?!

Is this game any good? The internet seems to hate it, and it looks really bland. People generally like the Tales games but a quick glance it looks like one to skip.

An anime freak friend I know who's a big fan of the series says it's good too. Not necessarily the best in the franchise, but good. I haven't heard anyone else speak negatively of it.

Haven't played it yet or any Tails games, though IIRC I have some of the better ones (according to the fanbase, I think) downloaded onto my ps3 from a sale a while back.

[Blinge]

I just picked up Darkest Dungeon.

This is EXACTLY what I've been wanting for a while. A big thing that has annoyed me about post-infinity-engine WRPGs is they almost never let you create a custom party from scratch.

I also love the art style.

Awesome game, I'm interested to know what you think of the bosses.

I played the early access builds but havent looked in a while, Now it's finished I should probably get back into it.

[Immryr]

i just finished my first campaign on Xcom enemy within. really, really love this game. I had played enemy unknown before - but despite the fact I put quite a lot of hours into it I don't think I ever completed it. I seem to remember quitting and restarting a lot. I bought this one when I got a ps3 last month. pretty pleased with how the whole campaign went. only lost 4 soldiers, although I admit I did save scum twice, one of those times I was fighting a sectopod in a room and two others which hadn't been triggered just decided to stroll in and help out. I got murked.

definitely one of my favourite games of the last console generation. I really hope they bring xcom 2 to consoles as well as it might be a while before I upgrade my ancient pc.


I've also been playing yakuza 4. it's my first time playing a yakuza game and I'm enjoying quite a bit. the characters and story are good so far. I did find the part where you force lily to be a hostess and train her up pretty cringe worthy though. one thing I am disappointed with in this game is the arcades. not a patch on the ones in Shenmue, though I hear this is better in yakuza 5. so yeah, I'm not blown away by this game or anything - but it's an "enjoyable romp".

[Ed Oscuro]

Still on RE:revelations 2, dunno what it is but im fast losing interest in gaming lately

Games like RER2 will do that

I'm still partway to my third level100 raid character, haven't finished the crummy campaign past episode two though, lol.

[Ruldra]

Still on RE:revelations 2, dunno what it is but im fast losing interest in gaming lately

I've been feeling like that for some years now, but there's always a handful of games that keep me busy. I have little interest in new releases and find myself trying out classics I missed back in the day.

Case in point, I'm currently playing Master of Orion and have Alpha Centauri in my backlog. Was too young at the time to understand how to play them, now I can appreciate them fully.

[cicada88]

Playing through Rockman 1 right now on Famicom. Plan to go through all 6 of them in sequence.

[mamboFoxtrot]

You gonna try to Buster-only the bosses?

Speaking of Capcom games, I just finished Demon's Crest. Cool looking game with some interesting bosses and stages (thankfully more hit than miss), but man fuck that true final boss. Those randomized platforms are top-tier trolls, and the slowdown messing with, if not straight-up eating your inputs does not fucking help. Also, the audio-cues for the boss using homing orbs or fuck-you lasers when off screen are nearly identical. The icing on the cake? The most reliable strategy I came up with (my winning attempt ended with me taking maybe 5 hits at most) is slow, boring, and still slightly reliant on luck.
For salt on the wound, I spent the whole game disliking having to go into the menu to switch crests all the time, thinking about how all the abilities could just be piled on the main character, and then find out that the secret Ultimate Gargoyle you get after beating the game with 100% completion DOES EXACTLY THAT. I mean, god dammit Capcom, you should've just made that how the game normally works!
I'd still recommend giving the game a go, especially since you can get it on Wii U's Virtual Console for, like, $7. It ain't perfect but it is definitely more than worth that.

[Squire Grooktook]

I love the true final boss. That mega rng platforming is intense. Never had an issue with audio cues, since I usually don't use them. I think the laser is actually somewhat baitable/manipulatable, though it's been a while.

Game could have used a Mega Man Style "choose crest on fly with shoulder triggers" type thing. I don't mind the various abilities being limited to seperate forms, since they all have strengths and weaknesses, but yeah pausing is a bit awkward...although you shouldn't have to do it too much since most of the time one crest is good for one good long stretch of time.

Ultimately I think I just love the atmosphere and art in Demon's Crest the most though. I feel it rivals SOTN in that regard.

[cicada88]

You gonna try to Buster-only the bosses?

Not sure how far I'm going to go with it, but I will probably at least try to no continue everything. So far in the first one I could individually beat every regular stage boss Buster only, but I'm not sure I could 1CC the game that way.

[mamboFoxtrot]

I think the laser is actually somewhat baitable/manipulatable, though it's been a while.

Kind of. If you hang out at the top of the screen, he just never does it. However, I don't think you can actually bait him into doing the laser more often. It seems to actually coincide with the platforms instead, since pretty much every time I was ready to shoot him, a platform was in my way. That's what prompted my strategy of just hanging out in the top left and waiting for the highest platform to spawn. Ride that, jumping some to bait the orbs upwards to shoot them out of the way, and at least 2/3 of the time he'll start to laser by the time you get to him. At that point the platforming aspect of the boss is completely irrelevant, as is worrying about getting surprised by the laser. I said it was a slow strategy, but if my hunch about his lasers being tied to the platforms is correct, then it probably isn't actually slower.

I don't mind the various abilities being limited to seperate forms, since they all have strengths and weaknesses, but yeah pausing is a bit awkward...although you shouldn't have to do it too much since most of the time one crest is good for one good long stretch of time.

I don't feel their pros and cons are really balanced enough to be worth separating them like they are. Aerial Gargoyle doesn't even have a weakness compared to the Fire Crests beyond stupid stuff like not being able to damage certain bosses, headbutt doors, light torches, etc. I don't think there's any point to playing Tidal Gargoyle outside of water, and the Ground Gargoyle seems to only exist to damage a few early game bosses and break some stuff. I think that's the real kicker to switching -- I was always doing it just to do one little thing and then immediately switch back.
It reminds me of this goofy game called Wonder Rabbit where you switch between forms with the select button, and one of the forms literally exists only to climb ladders and vines, and another form exists only to swim, and another to fly AND WAIT NOW THAT I TYPED THAT IT IS ALMOST EXACTLY LIKE DEMON'S CREST HOLY SHIT.

Ultimately I think I just love the atmosphere and art in Demon's Crest the most though. I feel it rivals SOTN in that regard.

Oh yeah, this might be my favorite SNES game now, graphically. The music isn't the greatest but it suits everything fine and dandy.

You gonna try to Buster-only the bosses?

Not sure how far I'm going to go with it, but I will probably at least try to no continue everything. So far in the first one I could individually beat every regular stage boss Buster only, but I'm not sure I could 1CC the game that way.

1CC a Mega Man game? Can't say that's anything I tried before. Wouldn't the random and grindable health and 1-up drops kinda mess with that, though?

[Squire Grooktook]

Ha ha, yeah, I guess the Crest's are kind of not well handled.

I have an old video I recorded a while back of a no damage run on all 3 forms of the last boss. I'll have to take a look at that to see. I could swear there was a consistent timing or way to bait it or something. Either way I enjoy the improvisation of the fight, and how it pushes your wall jumping and flight skills to the limit.

Also I looooove the music. Beyond The Colosseum, Caverns of Ice, The Infinite Demon, The Crests Are Hidden Forever, and Requiem for The Fallen, are all gorgeous tracks.

[BIL]

Mechanically I think the Red Arremer trilogy hit its peak with the second game. Doesn't have the crazy transformations, but there's accordingly less menu fiddling, and stages feels more tightly-wound around the hover+wall-cling. My favourite SFC stage is that thorny temple, where you're simply grappling your way to the top while negotiating around hazards... FC's like a game's worth of that. The GB debut is similarly no-nonsense but flicker+slowdown intrudes, and the random overworld battles will drive many to the clarky cat. ;3

No arguing with the SFC's gorgeous aesthetic though. Not the game's most ornate scene, but it was the funereal tranquility of the valley beyond the opening coliseum that hooked me. World looks enviably at rest. As an inveterate geekmaterialist I am glad I picked it up for relative peanuts years back, though. Mechanically I think it's "only" upper mid-tier, which is totally fine with such beautiful production, but less so since the price abruptly blew up. And there's no way I could settle for two-thirds of such a neat little multiplatform trilogy.

Does anyone else get a big Damnd (Final Fight) vibe from the shopkeeper? I could swear they were going for that with his shades, shaggy mane and unflappably shit-eating grin.

[malik11]

Right now I'm playing Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater. I finished it fairly recently and have been playing MGS 1, 2, and 3 more lately.

I used to hold MGS 1 as my favourite, but I now see how the storytelling technique has changed over the games.

I might say that overall MGS3 is my favourite, though I haven't played anything other than those 3 games, Twin Snakes, and Metal Gear for MSX and NES.

[cicada88]

Finished Rockman 1 and started Rickman 2. I had never really played the first game, and it was enjoyable. I do think the difficulty is overrated. Do you not get unlimited continues on the US version or something?

[BIL]

Nah, you get them in the US version too.

If anything I think the original game is just more concentrated. Less harmless filler between the touchy pitfall/spike hazards. It's why it's the only OG Rockman (edit: for Famicom) that I really like.

[EmperorIng]

I admit a soft-spot for Rockman 8. Awful English voice acting (and incessant voice clips) aside, I like how it forces you to get comfortable with your weapons and abilities in the first half before unlocking the next 4 Robot Masters and ramping up the difficulty.* I guess it moves away from the "pure" shooting action of earlier Rockmans, but there are 8+ other games just like each other if I want that. Plus, neat gimmick stages, even if the "shmup" stages are pretty tame and uneventful. Over all the game's easy but a lot more imaginative than the last several Rockmans.

It reminds me that I bought Mega Man ZX, but barely got anywhere in the game. It's a little too hard.

*this idea was half-baked in MM7, but I think they got it down much better in Mega Man 8, and is a change I actually liked in light of the improved level design.

[Squire Grooktook]

I admit a soft-spot for Rockman 8. Awful English voice acting (and incessant voice clips) aside, I like how it forces you to get comfortable with your weapons and abilities in the first half before unlocking the next 4 Robot Masters and ramping up the difficulty.*

You'd like Mega Man Zero and Shovel Knight. They all do that, and it's a massive improvement to the formula IMO.

[BrianC]

started Rickman 2

Went for a bootleg over the real thing?

As far as I know, the US versions of MM games are mostly identical, though Capcom was often inconsistent with name translations. I don't know where MM gets it's hard rep from. One time I commented on how a comparison between the MD and NES Mega Man 2 was inconsistent because the comparison used normal difficulty for NES, despite difficult being the original difficulty (and the one the MD version is based on), and someone said something along the lines of "why make the NES version harder, it's already super hard", despite how the game isn't even hard on the original difficulty.

The GB b/w Mega Man/Rockman World games were the first games to split the robot masters with four first and four more later. IV and V are especially good.

[BIL]

Isn't that the Korean boot of Splatterhouse 2? Rickman Tsuu: Scary Mask Man Daibouken

[ColonelFatso]

Mega Man games are, in general, not hard to clear casually, but they're incredible speedgames because of the variety of weapons at your disposal (some of the speed strats in the X trilogy, in particular, are really weapon-intensive due to instant swaps) and, as games go on, numerous ways to increase your speed (the Balloon weapon in 4 and the Super Arrow in 5 are particular favourites). Running Mega Man games has been a big part of my gaming life for a long time now, and I wouldn't have it any other way.

Zero series has some okay ideas but SERIOUSLY suffers from a cramped viewing area and stage designs that utterly fail to take that area into account.

[Squire Grooktook]

\Zero series has some okay ideas but SERIOUSLY suffers from a cramped viewing area and stage designs that utterly fail to take that area into account.

Yeah, biggest mistep for sure.

[Marc]

More Spelunky. Got to a point where I was confident of a clear every play and was looking to tackle a he'll run. Had two weeks off.over Xmas and went a hundred games without a clear. Every skill I'd developed fucking abandoned me and it was frustrating as hell. Managed a few consecutive clears last night, so will start attempting hell this weekend.

[PowerofElsydeon]

Im Playing Nigths Into Dreams and Panzer Dragoon Zwei

[EmperorIng]

I admit a soft-spot for Rockman 8. Awful English voice acting (and incessant voice clips) aside, I like how it forces you to get comfortable with your weapons and abilities in the first half before unlocking the next 4 Robot Masters and ramping up the difficulty.*

You'd like Mega Man Zero and Shovel Knight. They all do that, and it's a massive improvement to the formula IMO.

Zero 2 is my favorite of the 4. It felt the most fleshed-out and entertaining. Zero 3 is close behind with a solid re-serving of what made Zero 2 good. By Zero 4, maybe because I had played three previous MMZ games, everything felt pretty tired and the game's gimmick (weather... wow) didn't hold me. I never finished it.

Zero 1 is all right, but too unforgiving in punishing your death. Once you learn the charge saber attack the game's bosses become pretty trivial, but zipping around all those insta-death spikes made for some unhappy occurrences.

[professor ganson]

Trails in the Sky SC - I believe I'm at the boss of what they call the first chapter (not the prologue), a very large metallic robot, and he's the real deal. I guess I wasn't spending near enough time in battle so far.

[Leandro]

Legend of Heroes - TitS. 10 hours in and I just completed the prologue. I'm glad I'm enjoying it, the game was a bit expensive

[Mischief Maker]

Question for the Ys fans here:

I already own Ys Origin through a bundle, but haven't had a chance to really get into it, but what I did play I enjoyed. Oath in Felghania (sp?) is on sale for a short while. I've found myself in a situation for the next month or two where time is at more of a premium than money.

If I don't really care about plot and just want fast-paced action, which game is the better choice?

I've heard people say Oath is the hardest at the highest difficulties, is this true?