Snake Recommends Vidjagaems

[Solid Snake]

As I no longer have a job and have been ruled unworthy of continued existence as a functioning adult in society, I've been playing a fairly eclectic mix of videogames lately and I thought I'd compile a list of intriguing titles to recommend to y'all.

Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel:

So far, it's basically Persona 4 at a military academy with a bit of communist / socialist commentary on the side; also, the game is slightly less heteronormative than Persona 4 was, as you ultimately can choose to spend your lovey-dovey romance time with a guy or girl (unfortunately, you don't actually dance in public if you choose a guy, and the same-sex undertones are downplayed into vague possibly-platonic possibly-more territory...though the mood does vary slightly depending on the guy or gal you choose.) Still, the underlying formula is similar: You're building social links with your team, getting benefits from those links in battles and studying throughout the year as you deal with conspiracies and political machinations and monster-slaying on the side.

I do appreciate that the combat and dungeon-crawling aspects are a bit faster-paced than Persona 4; it's less time-consuming to make progress. Unfortunately, the game is marred with less-than-ideal voice acting, no Japanese VA option, and inconsistent writing. (Fortunately, the soundtrack is stellar and has been a pleasant surprise.) If there's incredibly objectionable content here from a social justice perspective, I haven't run into it yet (though I do wish the game's token lesbian character wasn't given such an overt 'sexual predator' vibe...and this game does follow Persona 4's lead of including an unrealistically and inappropriately flirtatious teacher.) All in all, it's a fun RPG that isn't revolutionary, but does the basics well enough to merit a playthrough.

Assassin's Creed Rogue:

Surprisingly, Rogue is my favorite Assassin's Creed since the Ezio trilogy; this is likely because it's the most stripped-down since Assassin's Creed II. There isn't an excessive amount of extra stuff to do beyond some interesting story missions and bits and pieces of the ship-improving, town-improving formulas from previous Creeds. It's shorter and more compact, which is a good thing, as this Assassin's Creed title doesn't overstay its welcome. It also presents a nice twist on the AC formula, insofar as you're exposed to shades of grey -- the Assassins aren't as great as they've been presented in previous titles, the Templars aren't quite as evil, and you witness a different perspective on the eternal struggle between the factions.

In terms of gameplay, it's basically Black Flag all over again -- if you enjoyed the naval combat there you'll like it just as much here. There are slight improvements in the formula, but nothing ground-breaking. Personally, I actually prefer the Arctic setting here over the Caribbean -- I'm not really sure why -- and watching Shay betray the Assassins felt practically cathartic after so many terrible Assassins Creed III memories, insofar as you're basically destroying much of the cast of that game, Kill Bill style. The soundtrack integrates all the previous PS3-era titles in a way that proves fitting for the finale of its era; I particularly enjoy the new take on the Main Theme from Assassin's Creed 2, which makes a well-deserved reappearance here.

Rogue Galaxy:

I'll say this much; from an aesthetic perspective, the cel-shaded graphics have aged incredibly well; you could have told me this was a PS3-era title (circa 2010) and I would have believed you.

Unfortunately, from a social justice perspective, the game has been a miserable slog, in large part because the first planet you visit after the tutorial section (and some beautiful-but-brief space exploration) is a stereotypical Jungle Planet Full of Hostile, Primitive Brown People Who Hate Technology, and said natives include misogynistic creeps (complete with 'jokes' at the poor heroine's expense, who's repeatedly nearly sexually assaulted by these douchebags, with little more than an amused "Haha aren't these primitives weird?" reactions from the nonplussed guys.) Oh, and the women in the tribes -- including the tribeswoman who joins your party -- seem to wear very unrealistic clothing that basically amounts to bikinis, complete with the necessary dosage of male gaze applied to all kinds of cutscenes to ensure we see copious cleavage. It is annoying and frankly, it feels really out of place for a sci-fi RPG that takes place in outer space.

Fortunately, I have escaped that hellhole and gone to the planet that is basically this galaxy's Coruscant. Hopefully things improve, as this is a game that I want to like a lot more than I've been liking it -- it's got a fairly interesting battle system that's aged gracefully and the soundtrack is pleasant, if a bit unmemorable.

Life is Strange:

If you choose Warren over Chloe YOU ARE DEAD TO ME.

Anyway, Life is Strange is kind of a second-rate Steins;Gate, which is actually a compliment in a sense, because Steins;Gate was so incredible (more on it in a moment) that even a second-rate version of it is still thoroughly worth playing. My main criticism of Life is Strange is that its relatively short length prevents it from really exploring the consequences of alternative timelines to the extent it should (in fact, you really only see one completely new timeline; the rest of the time shenanigans you pursue have comparatively small-scale implications.) This is largely because, compared to other time-traveling protagonists, Max is just so damned responsible in refusing to abuse her powers.

Max is a great lead, though, and there's a great inner story told within her characterization where you basically watch her learn, within the context of her gaining powers, to become more assertive. This is one of those narratives where all the crazy and outlandish time-shifting powers really merely serve as tools to explore the relationships among relatively mundane, real-world people; the clashes among personalities are more interesting than all the bullshit about storms and Armageddon. There's also some great social justice commentary in here, whether it was explicitly intended or not, about male privilege and how men exploit it -- either as active assholes (Nathan) or as passive parasites (Warren.) Most of the men in this story -- even most of the relatively decent men in this story -- are pretty unlikable, insofar as nearly all of them seek to strip Max of agency on some level.

Chloe is a great supporting character, as well -- you and Max are both driven to question her life choices and her morality on some level before you're both shamed by the context of what fuels her rebellious streak, and once you grow to understand both her and the shitty town she lives in, you'll be throwing stones right alongside her. She's great in that she's selfish and has her own agenda -- she doesn't just unconditionally support Max for ulterior reasons like a certain paper-thin White Knight -- but she truly cares for Max, and was even hurt by Max. It's rare to see a friendship (or something more, should you choose something more romantic) so convincingly portrayed in a videogame, particularly one between two women, so kudos to the developers for that.

Oh, and the soundtrack is superb. It's introduced me to a lot of folky HYYYYYYPPPPPSST-TUR music I'd never have heard of otherwise, and I dig it.

Steins;Gate:

So, first of all: The visual novel is long. It's better than the anime by a sufficient amount to justify recommending the visual novel on its own credentials (I'd suggest watching the anime only after playing through the VN, personally) but by the standards of the genre you will be up a few late nights before you even reach the Chapters where the time-travel mechanics start to get interesting.

But, boy, is Steins;Gate worth it. It's an extremely dense visual novel with such attention to detail that it really rewards a second playthrough to understand the nuances of each timeline and exactly what you've unknowingly changed to get from Point A to Point B.

There are, to be blunt, social justice issues. Perhaps to Steins;Gate's credit, there's never really a moment where it endorses certain characters' bad behaviors, but Daru's a bit too perverted (and, worse still, he seems to get away with said perversions largely because he's ugly and non-threatening to the girls he's ogling; he's basically treated as a joke, but I'm often not laughing along with the game when the misogynistic comments come fast and furious.) Okabe's unreliable narrator routine is simultaneously fascinating and annoying, up until you receive the context that justifies the charade. Kurisu often has the thankless task of the Only Sane Person in the Room, and I have to say I'm fond of her relationship with Okabe, even though it often follows some tired gender cliches. And I feel that Luka should've been presented unequivocally as a transgendered woman, but like many Japanese games with Japanese narrators, Okabe seems hellbent on defining Luka by biological sex.

There's a certain amount of these problematic elements that I desperately want to forgive because Steins;Gate does so many other things so damned well. It's probably the best time-travel story I've ever encountered in terms of the consistency of its time-travel mechanics, and the plot twists are so juicy and full of emotional resonance and impact. Steins;Gate develops its characters methodically, to the point where you truly care about them, and then it repeatedly punches you in the gut, forcing you to make heartbreaking choices and forcing you to watch as Okabe's health and sanity is stretched to its limit. I don't know if I've ever witnessed a story where watching so many tragic emotional breakdowns was so satisfying -- yet I use the word unironically here -- it was actually a genuine treat to become teary-eyed as I realized how much certain sacrifices meant to me.

The soundtrack was pretty good, though the Orchestrated version of the soundtrack you'll find online is even better. But the real treat here is the Japanese voice acting, which is phenomenal -- Okabe and Kurisu's voice-actors in particular are just incredible to listen to, with real chemistry in their bickering. Luka, Suzuha and Shining Finger also turn in memorable performances. (Suzuha's voice actress does a sublime job with my favorite scene in the game, which simply involves her speaking a single word repetitively, but each utterance is a fatal punch to your psyche.)

I can't recommend Steins;Gate enough...if you can make it through a slow first eight hours or so, you're in for a real treat through the finish line.

[mauve]

Oh yeah, I remember liking Rogue Galaxy. I don't think I ever finished it; pretty sure I gave up at the last boss years ago.

I liked the combat system of the game, with its weird localized real-time fighting mixed with Final Fantasy-esque special moves and teammate strategy prompts. I also liked the different team-up attacks; they encouraged me to use parties I didn't normally run with in order to see what damage they did.

Story-wise, the game was okay. The space-war plot was fairly meh-- it was kind of a Final Fantasy 12 In Space ripoff with an undercurrent of anti-Iraq War sentiment (Did you get to the cutscene with Totally Not George W Bush yet?), and it eventually decided it didn't want to do any more of the war stuff and instead decides to focus on space prophecies and legendary space hero-kings and swords made from the emotions of your friends. That said, I liked some of the character development and sidequests for the main team.

Oh, as a heads-up, there's a few costumes for Lilika that are slightly less revealing, if I remember correctly. A few armor sets will actually change the character model outfit, and one or two of Lilika's qualifies as Not A Bikini. Can't remember what the specific outfit was called though.

Also no the game treats most (but not all) female characters as Typical Anime Girls, in one way or the other. (Either A) LOLBOOBS, B) Flirty All the Time/ Using FLIRT To Get What She Wants, or C) Too Sweet and Innocent For This World, Look At These Magical Flower Petals That Appear Whenever She Smiles). But to be fair there's quite a few Anime Male stereotypes going on too, albeit not as much.

I think combat-wise, Lilika, Jupis and Zegram were my favorites, and character-wise, it's Simon (I think that was the masked guy's name?), Jupis, Zegram, Lilika and Steve.

[Solid Snake]

I have not yet seen George W. Bush in space, but I'm looking forward to it.
As for Simon, he appears to be an alligator-alien who can't breathe oxygen or something, so he wears some sort of masked outfit. Cool concept, and a more intriguing character than the majority of the cast I've met so far.

Firewatch:

I can't recommend this one.

First off, the game is only three to four hours long, and there's absolutely no replay value, as there's no alternate endings or drastically different outcomes to be achieved. This is disappointing in light of the fact that the game was basically advertised as a bit of a branching dialogue simulator -- there are copious choices you can make that appear to affect your relationship with the character you communicate with, so you might assume that things you choose to say or not to say will, at the very least, influence how said character sees you.

Instead, the game is an exercise in nihilism -- the entire point of the experience seems to be that, no matter what you do or say or how you act, you are driven towards a particular outcome that can't be avoided. There's something to be said for an intriguing social justice angle here -- namely, Delilah makes up her mind about you and retains her agency regardless of how you act or whether you pursue her romantically, which is rare given that video games prefer to strip supporting characters of said agency around the eternally desirable hero, but my problem with this conceptually has less to do with Delilah and more to do with the complete lack of agency Henry has to decide anything for himself, or to reach any kind of conclusion or finality to his own story; this isn't just a story that is 'tragic', it's a story that ultimately feels meaningless insofar as there's no character development, no sense of progression, or any real sense that anything's been learned or achieved by Henry or Delilah. This is a story full of deliberate red herrings, and some of the red herrings are never fully explained or articulated once the 'mystery' is solved, which is just annoying.

Aesthetically, the game is incredibly beautiful; I'd be tempted to recommend it for the visuals alone if the game cost about half as much as it does, but at $20 it's an extraordinarily hard sell.
Delilah and Henry have fun chemistry together at moments, but honestly, even the supposed selling point of their banter fell short for me; I've seen other Visual Novels and similar relational stories handle this much better.

I'd suggest investing in Life is Strange if you're looking for something with similar 'point-and-click adventure' style mechanics, similarly lovely aesthetics and a far more interesting storyline about a far more meaningful relationship.

[greed]

I've been putting off Cold Steel until I finish TiTS Second Chapter. Really gotta get around to that.

Oh Snake you gonna play Digimon?

[Solid Snake]

No, I haven't heard anything about Digimon. I'm not a fan of the anime, though. Pokemon, Digimon, all the 'mons' are a bit beyond my ability to appreciate.

But Fire Emblem!!! I'm going to play Conquest first because I hate myself.

[greed]

No, I haven't heard anything about Digimon. I'm not a fan of the anime, though. Pokemon, Digimon, all the 'mons' are a bit beyond my ability to appreciate.

But Fire Emblem!!! I'm going to play Conquest first because I hate myself.


Ah well I'll do a mini review then.

It's a pretty damned fun JRPG even if you never got into Digimon. The main fault is the translation is uneven, some bits are great but a lot of it is pretty, mid 90s PSX RPG. The evolving and fusing is addictive and it's a lot of fun trying to find monsters that look cool and are useful.

Also I'm playing Birthright first because I do not hate myself.

[greed]

They really fucking doubled down on the creepy incest stuff. Wow.

Reina, Rinkah and Mozu rule though. Mozu especially "I just don't think I'm cut out for this, I'm nowhere near as good as the rest of you" HAS THE HIGHEST KILL RATE IN THE DAMNED ARMY. SHE PROBABLY SAID THAT ATOP A MOUNTAIN OF CORPSES.

[Solid Snake]

I kind of expected the pseudo-incest in Conquest, given you're both working for the Evil Empire and also adopted and unrelated to your siblings.
If it's also present in Birthright...I'd be surprised.
Anyway, my Amazon package with Conquest arrives tomorrow afternoon. I am looking forward to dying repeatedly and screaming like a crazy person.

...I may even play Conquest on that hardcore Classic 'everyone permadies' mode, which would be hysterical and also very, very bad for my health and well-being.

[greed]

I kind of expected the pseudo-incest in Conquest, given you're both working for the Evil Empire and also adopted and unrelated to your siblings.
If it's also present in Birthright...I'd be surprised.
Anyway, my Amazon package with Conquest arrives tomorrow afternoon. I am looking forward to dying repeatedly and screaming like a crazy person.

...I may even play Conquest on that hardcore Classic 'everyone permadies' mode, which would be hysterical and also very, very bad for my health and well-being.

So mild spoilers
I'd taken Hinoka to S-Rank wondering what they'd do. So the S rank starts and you dramatically confess your love to each other and Corrin starts the "but we can't we're siblings" angst. Then Hinoka reveals that she recently found a letter from your mother revealing you were actually from a different father and that you're step siblings not half siblings like everyone thought. Then they get married. It was fucked the hell up.

Also you can marry your genetic cousin Azura.

On the marriages at least the two "can only be romanced by Corrin" characters rule. Seriously Scarlet and Reina are ace, both as units and as characters. Especially Reina. Love that mix of domestic and matronly with death fetishist sadomasochistic killer.

Oh and aside from the creepy shit according to the devs you're not actually meant to keep playing after someone dies, and never have been in the series, you're meant to reset, it's too encourage you to plan better and not use risky strategies. The game isn't balanced for hemorrhaging people.

[Solid Snake]

...Apparently you can download Birthright immediately once you own Conquest, which is something that I did. I may just take the same character down both paths with separate save states and see what happens. I dunno, I'm gonna kind of let the story play itself out and see which side appeals more in the moment. (This will inevitably be Nohr, because I love the idea of the moral complexity of fixing a corrupt Empire from within and staying with the only family you've ever known, but the fact that I will inevitably side Nohr is going to be problematic when the difficulty spikes.)

Also: Pseudo-Incest sure is a popular fetish in JRPGs these days. I'm still dealing with the fact that a major love interest in Cold Steel is your (adopted) sister, who still calls you her 'brother', and who is so transparently and desperately infatuated with you that all of your friends are like "Woah, dude, it's weird to watch a sister want to marry her brother so badly."

...Aaaannnddd of course her best friend is both the Princess of the Realm and also a gigantic pervert who's turned on by the squicky pseudo-incest to such an extent that she's desperate to pair the two together.

Cold Steel seems to enjoy the similarly popular concept of the JRPG Hero who is completely and utterly oblivious to the fact that every other man and woman in his daily life is utterly infatuated with him, including the aforementioned Princess, his teacher, a military officer, pretty much all his male and female classmates, and some random supporting characters who fawn over him for a scene and then completely disappear after Rean misinterprets the signals.

That all being said, one thing that Cold Steel does infinitely better than Persona 4 is the school festival sequence. In fact, one scene in particular strikes me as Cold Steel's writers taking a social justice potshot at Persona 4's shitty writing for the girl's beauty contest shenanigans. It feels like that moment was directly inspired by my criticism of that scene in Persona 4 (though it obviously wasn't.)

All in all I'd still strongly recommend Cold Steel -- it's gripped me more than the other games I've been playing lately, but that's probably just because it borrows so heavily from other JRPGs I love -- but it still falls into all these bizarre JRPG tropes that drive me nuts. Why do all the protagonists have to be completely oblivious about other characters' feelings? Why does that seem to be some huge joke for Japanese audiences? The constant artificial tension that stems from the protagonist's selective stupidity just drives me nuts.

Anyway, if there's one net positive about moving onto Fire Emblem, it's that I'll be able to play matchmaker in that game and actually see positive results. Unlike Cold Steel, where nothing I choose to say or do changes the irrevocable fact that Rean is the most oblivious person. "You can stay with me in my bed if you'd like," says one of the fifteen trillion characters in this game who clearly fantasizes about him every night. I'm paraphrasing, but Rean's response is basically: "That's a weird request and also against the rules." "I hope you consider going to the dance with me, Rean." "I wonder what strange and indecipherable motive she'd have in asking me to the dance? And why is she smiling at me like that?!?" REAN. REAN.

[BB]

The Trails series seems to have a real thing for that 'brother/sister BUT THEY AREN'T REALLY SO IT'S OK' thing. Trails In The Sky does it too (which isn't a spoiler because it beats you over the head with it pretty much every time anyone speaks to anyone else) and presumably the sequels explore that further. It's a real shame, because there's a lot of opportunity for family-type bonding between Estelle and Joshua who set off to become bracers together and explore the world independently for the first time. The romance between them feels very tacked-on, like someone said "hey wait, we can't publish this game yet, the two heroes didn't fall in love" and someone else had to go back and add all of that in.

Then again, I actively dislike Joshua and think the game would be more enjoyable if he wasn't in it at all, so that might be tainting my opinion a bit.

Cold Steel has the better princess, though.

[Solid Snake]

...Goddamn, Conquest is kicking the crap out of me.

[Solid Snake]

After an eternity of struggles, I'm finally getting the hang of Conquest.
...And I'm never playing Birthright. Do you know why, Hoshidan scum?!? BECAUSE NOHR IS AWESOME AND THE BEST and my allies are amazing. Why would I ever go through a playthrough that involved betraying the best characters in the game for assholes like Takumi and weaklings like Ryoma? There is no good answer to that question because all the best characters are your Nohr buddies.

Are you going to play Fates? If so do yourself a favor and play Conquest, the real Fire Emblem for excellent people, and not the other Fire Emblem, which is grotesque trash as it involves you betraying Leo, Camilla, and Elise, you heartless jerk. Also you get to fight alongside the best retainers in Arthur, Effie, Charlotte, Peri, Beruka, NILES, and some returning faces from Awakening.

And you still get Mozu...who will quickly grow into the slaughterer of armies if you raise her right. Mozu's all excited to pile up hordes of Hoshidan corpses. I'm pretty sure she's a serial killer on the side.

So, don't play Birthright. Don't chicken out and take the easy path in life. Don't be like Greed. Stick with the only family you've truly known. FOR NOHR.

[greed]

The Nohrians are a pack of war criminals lead by a literal crazy person. Also your older sister is definitely not allowed near schools. The only ethical action is to fight the good fight and play Birthright.

Lead an army of valiant heroes consisting of surly oni ladies built like brick shit houses, surly ninjas, xenophobic tailors, ladylike sadomasochistsic battle loving older ladies, surly wizards, more ninjas and a pair of gleefully monstrous foxes that are perfectly friendly until they decide it's time to hunt humans.

Don't let be weak like Snake. Don't fall for the Stockholm Syndrome and fight with your kidnappers. Fight the good fight.

[Solid Snake]

Don't listen to Greed's lies and propaganda. Hoshido is, canonically, basically a privileged first-world country who's indirectly oppressed Nohr for generations. It's only natural for Nohr to fight back for wealth and land redistribution. Would you rather let your people starve just because you all happen to be on the wrong side of a bottomless crevice?

Anyway: I just respec'd Mozu from a LV 20 Villager into a Dread Knight.
Even with the weakest bronze-quality swords and daggers -- I didn't realize she wouldn't retain her lance affinity -- she's doing over 40 damage on many enemies. Her speed and strength are ridiculous. There are just piles of limp Hoshidan bodies everywhere. Mozu, you are a goddess among us.

[Loyal]

Nohr has Odin, Arthur, Laslow, Ophelia, Soleil, and Beruka. Niles is also a much better character than I'd have expected. Hoshido has Hinoka, Oboro, and ... Saizo. Actively working against Hoshido is the fact that it also has not!Tharja.

Really, the choice is clear.

Anyway, cleared Conquest Normal last night, it was a blast. Odin's kind of a mediocre unit, stat-wise, but a Nohrian caster who can learn Astra without marriage or anything is just too much fun to pass up.

I'm now on Chapter 11 Hard with a new FeMU, and she'll be focusing on magic. I need to decide who to husband.

Snake, fite me.

[Solid Snake]

Snake, fite me.

We're on the same side, bro. Greed is the Hoshidan terrorist.

[Loyal]

Nah, I mean put together a team (Extras -> Wireless Battle) and gimme your friend code and we'll have battles and shit.

[greed]

So anyone heard of Momodora Reverie Under Moonlight?

The game is a really hard Castlevania/Metroid style game. Very open ended, once you beat the first boss you can basically tackle the rest in any order until the end.

It also looks gorgeous. Easily worth the $8-10 they're asking for it.

We're on the same side, bro. Greed is the Hoshidan terrorist.

Freedom Fighter.

[Grandmaster_Skweeb]

Screw all that fighting and political hulubaloo. Dig up some crops in the valley of Stardew.

[Loyal]

I can't even watch videos of Stardew Valley without wanting to take a nap.

[Arcanum]

So anyone heard of Momodora Reverie Under Moonlight?

The game is a really hard Castlevania/Metroid style game. Very open ended, once you beat the first boss you can basically tackle the rest in any order until the end.

It also looks gorgeous. Easily worth the $8-10 they're asking for it.


Saw it because I saw someone on my friend list added it to their wishlist. I have no idea where this game came from but I plan on buying it when I get some free time. Also apparently you can get the first 2 for free on their website (http://www.bombservice.com/games.html) and the third is like $5 on steam, if anyone is inclined to play all of them.

Screw all that fighting and political hulubaloo. Dig up some crops in the valley of Stardew.

And this is why I don't have spare time. Stardew is actually the first Harvest Moon type game I have ever played, and I can't stop. Abigail is the best and any other romance option is actually also a pretty solid romance option because all the characters are pretty great.

I can't even watch videos of Stardew Valley without wanting to take a nap.

Before Stardew I couldn't comprehend the Harvest Moon games. You spend your time planting, watering, and picking crops? How could that be fun? But the months leading up to Stardew's release date I had a friend who would constantly hype up the game to me. He was a Harvest Moon fanatic, and his excitement for the game bled into me and despite myself I was excited for it too even though I didn't know how it could possibly be fun.

So I bought it and went in with an open mind, and it sunk its teeth in deep. There are a couple of reasons for that. First it has the same addictive power of Civ (or other 4X games), just instead of "one more turn" it's "one more day." You also get a nice dopamine rush when it's harvest day and you're rolling in gold when you sell your crops. But other than farming there's also a pretty fun fishing mini-game, delving into mines and fighting monsters (and mining), and interacting with the townsfolk and building your relationships with them (and ultimately romancing one of the bachelors/bachelorettes and potentially having kids). That last one is a pretty big deal since the writing is pretty good (if repetitive after an in-game month or two of talking to them every day), and every character has their own little arc that you can discover as you build your relationship with them

It's also extremely satisfying seeing the steady growth of your farm. You start with an overrun field of trees and weeds and you turn that into a single field, which evolves into two fields, and now you've got a coop, and now three large fields, one of which is watered entirely by sprinklers, and before you know it you're growing ~500 crops at once, a bunch of farm animals on the side, and the beginnings of a slime ranch, all while simultaneously planning the aesthetic layout of your farm.

If that doesn't appeal to you then hey I guess the game's not for you, but those are just my ramblings as someone who never understood those types of games and finally gave one a chance.

[Solid Snake]

I can't really start my Stardew playthrough in earnest until Emily is a genuine love interest.

[Krylo]

I've been sick as shit the last week and a half (started with just a cough, then cellulitis on my shoulder--which, btw, is painful as fuck--then full on cold just as that was going down), so I decided to give this Stardew Valley game everyone on my steam list has been playing all the time a shot figuring it'd be a nice low stress way to pass time when I'm not feeling well enough for any games that require intense or fast reflexes.

Suffice to say I was correct in that assumption.

It's a surprisingly robust and enjoyable game with more to do every day than you really have time for (at least during 3/4th of the seasons), which means you're never bored, but, at the same time, there's no real stress involved. It's just a very calm game.

I started out doing some farming because obviously, and quickly decided that I liked Robin during the intro only to find out she's already married. But that was okay because Abigail spoke to that part of me that's had a huge thing for goths and punks since the earliest beginnings of my puberty, and then I found out that she sneaks away to practice swordplay at night so she can explore dangerous caves, and basically ended up married to her pretty quickly. Whiiiich I sort of regret? As that I've had a few festivals now and it seems like your wife/husband just say the same thing every time about hoping you're enjoying the time off instead of having lines specific to their character. Which is kinda shitty. Same thing on married life in general, really. A lot of the lines don't really seem to have her personality to them (some definitely do, though). Plus there's the fact she no longer leaves the farm ever to go play flute in the rain or whatever, and, basically, I kind of feel like you decide you like x character so that's the one you'll marry and then that character essentially stops existing.

As for the farm, it became a thing where I just built a bunch of sprinklers and ignored it outside of harvest and planting time. I spent most of the first year exploring the mines and getting all the way down to the bottom, while also taking breaks from that for fishing and finishing up the non-bulletin board quests (and some bulletin quests as well). It wasn't until winter when I finally cleared away all the trees and rocks and logs in my yard and built some proper fences and a proper farming area.

Currently I'm level 8/9 in everything and about half-way through the first winter with five apple saplings, five pomegranate saplings, and five maple saplings growing in an area I set off for trees. I'm looking to buy five of all the other tree types as well, which will probably happen about halfway through spring, followed shortly by finishing the vault, and then upgrading my house.

[greed]

I started out doing some farming because obviously, and quickly decided that I liked Robin during the intro only to find out she's already married. But that was okay because Abigail spoke to that part of me that's had a huge thing for goths and punks since the earliest beginnings of my puberty, and then I found out that she sneaks away to practice swordplay at night so she can explore dangerous caves, and basically ended up married to her pretty quickly. Whiiiich I sort of regret? As that I've had a few festivals now and it seems like your wife/husband just say the same thing every time about hoping you're enjoying the time off instead of having lines specific to their character. Which is kinda shitty. Same thing on married life in general, really.

This is huge problem for the genre really the only games I've seen avert this to a reasonable degree were Rune Factory 3 and 4. But those games both had absolutely absurd amounts of dialogue (as in talking every day I didn't hit repeats for three seasons and they still had new dialog for story and season progression beyond that). So that wasn't unexpected.

Also if anyone here enjoyed Stardew Valley and haven't played Rune Factory 4 you should definitely get that. It's the the best game in the genre. Though fair warning it's at the far other end of Stardew in how down to earth it is. It is anime as fuck.

[Loyal]

Plus there's the fact she no longer leaves the farm ever to go play flute in the rain or whatever, and, basically, I kind of feel like you decide you like x character so that's the one you'll marry and then that character essentially stops existing.If you love them, you must let them go.

[Arcanum]

I can't really start my Stardew playthrough in earnest until Emily is a genuine love interest.

Probably won't happen since there are some cute moments between her and Clint. I haven't maxed out their relationships yet so I don't know how it might end, but I'm really hoping they hook up.

As for Emily, I only ever see her at the bar so I don't know anything about her.

I popped into her house once and she blasted some techno music and danced. I'm not sure if she made the music herself, or just made the dance, or both, but that's the extent of my knowledge on her character.

As that I've had a few festivals now and it seems like your wife/husband just say the same thing every time about hoping you're enjoying the time off instead of having lines specific to their character. Which is kinda shitty. Same thing on married life in general, really. A lot of the lines don't really seem to have her personality to them (some definitely do, though). Plus there's the fact she no longer leaves the farm ever to go play flute in the rain or whatever, and, basically, I kind of feel like you decide you like x character so that's the one you'll marry and then that character essentially stops existing.

The lack of dialogue is a bit of an issue, especially as you get into your second year and do the festivals again. Everyone just says the same thing as they did last year.

To be fair, everything in the game was done by one person, so writing pages and pages and pages of dialogue was probably not as high on his priority list.

As for the farm, it became a thing where I just built a bunch of sprinklers and ignored it outside of harvest and planting time. I spent most of the first year exploring the mines and getting all the way down to the bottom, while also taking breaks from that for fishing and finishing up the non-bulletin board quests (and some bulletin quests as well). It wasn't until winter when I finally cleared away all the trees and rocks and logs in my yard and built some proper fences and a proper farming area.

Currently I'm level 8/9 in everything and about half-way through the first winter with five apple saplings, five pomegranate saplings, and five maple saplings growing in an area I set off for trees. I'm looking to buy five of all the other tree types as well, which will probably happen about halfway through spring, followed shortly by finishing the vault, and then upgrading my house.

Yeah I have most of my crops all on sprinklers too, which gives me more time to tend to my animals (have a fully upgraded barn and coop), harvest more slimes to turn into slime eggs to expand my slime ranch, go fishing, and get upset at RNG for not giving me the artifacts I want to complete the collection.

Actually, decided to take a bunch of screenshots and stitch them together. http://i.imgur.com/e98B9ay.jpg

In hind sight I should've gone top-to-bottom on the left side as well, but oh well, the toolbars don't obscure too much. Also sorry for the awful quality, my upload speed is garbage (and currently acting up and being even worse right now), so I had to resize the original patchwork image from a 16MB .png to a 1MB .jpg.

The left side going to be my "wild tree" orchard (maple, oaks, and pines) where I'll have taps on a bunch of them and have a nice organized source of wood if I need it. I also plan on putting in more beehives above the small pond. Oh and the mess of tilled ground above the cabbages is just because I had some off-set crops that were harvested 2-3 days before, and I decided to wait until the cabbages were ready to plant more stuff there so I could harvest them all at once.

And finally the only reason my house isn't fully upgraded is because I don't need the extra rooms until I get married to Abigail, and the only reason I haven't done that yet is because I hit 10 hearts with her in winter of year 1, and I want to marry her in fall because that's her favorite season. No it doesn't make any difference, but I'm enjoying the roleplay aspect.

[Solid Snake]

The worst part of Fire Emblem Fates is, by far, the relationship grinding.

Oh, I don't mean level grinding. There's actually more or less an artificial cap on level grinding in Fates, unlike in Awakening, that stifles you a bit there in terms of overall customization. (Similarly, it's harder to play at eugenics and engineer crazy-skilled kiddos in Fates, but at least that feels like a natural byproduct of the differences in the kids' backstories between Fates and Awakening.)

I mean relationship grinding. As in, if you want characters (aside from Corrin) to have any hope of getting anywhere near a viable S-rank, let alone having A-ranks with several other friends, you're gonna be stuck replaying the same bullshit over and over until you get there.

It took me forever and a day to get my first S-rank for a guy who wasn't Corrin. (Meanwhile, my Corrin has S-ranks with about a half-dozen ladies, but I refuse to pair him until I've met all the viable love interests, because I'm silly like that.) This was Silas and Camilla, and it took me an absurd amount of grinding to get them there.

Then I watched their S-rank scene...and I was underwhelmed. As for why I was underwhelmed: I suddenly felt Silas honestly deserved better than settling for the girl he crushed on as a kid...a girl who still clearly has feelings for her adopted brother, and who settles on Silas only after Corrin basically tells her he'll never see her that way. Silas is my best bro! He deserves someone better!

...Then I saw Sophie with purple hair and I was like, meh, yeah, probably need to pair Silas up with someone else.
Problem is, Silas has an A-rank with Corrin and...a couple B-ranks with suitable partners, including Elise. No, I am not going to partner Silas up with my younger sister who is waaaay too young for him. (No, I do not care that the game repeatedly tries to make the case that Elise is somehow an 'adult.' An 'adult' by outrageous medieval standards, maybe.)

So now I have to grind a relationship for Silas again, but it takes much longer than it should to advance ranks, and you can only utilize a fraction of your cast on each map, and with most maps on Conquest you can't even level-grind as you're relationship-grinding, and the one exception to that rule is the most boring map of the bunch.

So yeah, the combination of the absurd repetition in advancing relationships, as well as the sheer repetitive of the available replayable missions, and your inability to know how well a couple matches together until you've invested a shitload of time into the process...those are my big criticisms of Fates so far.
(For some reason, Awakening didn't feel like nearly as much of a grind.
...Also, Awakening's soundtrack (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x-NBfQOAdRI) was so much better than Fates'. I'll stick my neck out on that one.)

Still, always choose Nohr over Hoshido.

Nohr has:

1: The far better sassy dance cutscene. (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8xHmFAlvK3Y) I feel bad for whoever forced themselves to witness the boring Hoshido version instead.
2: Actual interesting and challenging mission objectives.
3: Yuri Lowenthal as Niles. (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vfJ3LsRpUlo)
4: INIGO. (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6N5TetLxVgE) SEVERA. (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jBVQMwbXI_k) OWAIN. (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Al4dknZ-q3I) (Look at how fuckin' sexy Owain is now, why the fuck can't my guy romance him.)
5: Odin can meet Lissa! (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-kkEOR2AfCo)
6: There is no Caeldori and no Rhajat in Conquest. You are spared.
7: More importantly, you get to beat the crap out of this asshole. (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iS4nRI1A1sU)
8: You should never romance Elise. BUT LOOK HOW ADORABLE SHE IS. She is the best little sister. If you fight against her you have no soul. You are soulless like Greed, who is a meanie. (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AROnTtqIhOI)
9: ARTHUR. (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=68gbPJ6023U) Oh my God, Arthur is the best character. I utterly adore him. His voice acting, his personality, the way he stands up against Nohrian oppression and for the common man, the incredible secret sacrifice he made for Azura that you only learn if you advance their relationship. If you let Arthur die in your playthrough, or if you kill him while playing as Hoshido because you're an awful human being, I will not forgive you.
10: Hoshido's royalty are actually misogynists, as women can only inherit the throne if there are no eligible male candidates. By contrast, in Nohr, the eldest inherits regardless of gender. SOCIAL JUSTICE.
11: The vast majority of the Hoshido cast comes from the uppermost echelons of their nobility. By contrast, your Nohr crew comes from diverse socioeconomic backgrounds. SOCIAL JUSTICE.
12: There are frequent food shortages in Nohr because their land is crappy tundra where the sun rarely shines; by contrast, the first-world Hoshidans live in posh luxury with all their pretty fields and an excess of wealth. Your conquest of Hoshido is actually an elaborate social engineering scheme to ensure true equality across the continent. SHARE THE WEALTH, HOSHIDAN SCUM.
13: Meet Beruka, a woman who is essentially this game's Solid Snake, complete with the bandana! (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4aBQWTSJeGw)
14: Xander was inspired by Alexander the effin' Great. Alexander the Great. Do you seriously want to go up against Alexander the Great? No you do not. Do not be silly.
15: You don't have to witness the single worst scene in all of Fates, which is near the end of Birthright. I will not spoil it. I will not even link to it, because even watching it should be banned. If you are an awful human being, by all means, scour Youtube for it and then burn your eyes in acid.


What about Revelation, you say? Fuck that goody-two-shoe Marty Stu shit, choose a goddamn side.
(Choose the right side. Nohr.)

EDIT: BONUS REASON 16: My favorite song in Awakening? The best song, by far, in Awakening?
"What's it called?" You might ask.
But you already know the answer, for it irrefutably proves the superiority of Nohr. (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RUKr66uRS7M&index=44&list=PL58D398750F1219D8)

[BB]

W-wait wait wait!

Why is Lissa in this game at all? Is she in Birthright? Because, like, that's a decision MADE right there if she's only in one of them.

[Solid Snake]

W-wait wait wait!

Why is Lissa in this game at all? Is she in Birthright? Because, like, that's a decision MADE right there if she's only in one of them.

She's in a DLC, but the DLC is much better if you're playing Conquest and have Odin along with you as you play through the mission.

[Loyal]

Odin's daughter can also speak to Lissa. It's cute. Ophelia in general is a precious gem and she also looks spectacular with purple hair. (http://i.imgur.com/r8niDQ5.jpg)

Also, I'm only 11 chapters in but Revelations' map design seems pretty garbage so far. I'm told it gets better, but nothing really measures up to some of Conquest's strongest.

Also, while Awakening generally has the better OST, Fates does (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KA6IVBtUx1w) have (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5LCQ3N4a4fg) some (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XCa1Vl8deYA) really (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ah_n2aYQpVo) strong (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tq0bxkvKVDI) contenders. (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CKOEvNOM4DI) (last one is endgame music, so ... spoilers?)

If you fight against her you have no soul. You are soulless like Greed, who is a meanie.At no point do you get to fight Elise, in BR or otherwise, but considering what DOES happen... you might wish you had.

[Solid Snake]

You see, I partnered Owain and Severa in Awakening, so for continuity's sake, Ophelia's going to have red hair in Conquest. In order to even get that far, though, I'm going to have to invest a lot more into 'Selena' than I have so far in the game...she's one of my weakest units.

What I'm really struggling with is who to partner Camilla with, though. What's weird is that I actually like Camilla as a character a bit more than I anticipated I would based on what I read about her...but all her Supports are kind of crappy. She doesn't strike me as a great match for anyone, unlike other characters in the game who have surprisingly compatible Supports with certain individuals (I've been surprised certain pairings I've enjoyed seeing with characters like Peri, Nyx and Mozu.)

I've only played a bit of post-Chapter Six Birthright with a different Corrin and I haven't tried Revelations out at all, but everything I read suggests Conquest has the best gameplay of the three...but you'll need to invest in DLC in order to see much in terms of Supports. Hell, I have invested in DLC -- and spent copious amounts of time relationship grinding -- and as of Chapter 21, Corrin, Silas, Niles and Arthur are the only four guys on my team with available S-rank options (I'm not actually progressing with S-ranks until I basically mass-select 'em for everyone.)

Also, I did find it funny that, given Birthright's reputation as the 'good guy' route, it includes the most genuinely soul-crushing scene in the game. (I spoiled myself, but I won't spoil you, because no one deserves to watch that horrific sight.)

As for Revelations, I personally just am kind of 'Meh' about it because the possibility of a perfect third-route just feels too good to be true, and it mars the concept of consequences with the difficult decision between the original two routes. It almost feels like the real Corrin, having canonically chosen Nohr or Hoshido, decides in his old age to write fanfiction of his own past, and retcons everything to give himself a 'Happily Ever After.' (Note: This isn't a spoiler because, having not finished any of the routes or watched any of the endings myself, I'm only speculating as to Corrin even being alive at the end of it all...for all I know he'll be writing his imaginary Fanfiction in heaven.)

[greed]

Oh Snake quick thing. Sophia's mother should have silver or platinum blonde hair. She looks great with silver hair. Her mum was Rinkah in my game and it looked cool.

[Solid Snake]

Oh Snake quick thing. Sophia's mother should have silver or platinum blonde hair. She looks great with silver hair. Her mum was Rinkah in my game and it looked cool.

...I've been grinding Silas / Effie and Silas / Charlotte, so she'll probably either have silver or blonde hair. I could also go with Peri, but I'd feel bad for setting Silas up with a sociopath. At one point after I decided against Silas / Camilla I thought about marrying Silas to Elise just so he could be part of the royal family, but I dislike their Support.

I may romance Sophie myself, though, so I have to keep in mind which hairstyle I want to pass down to the kiddo.
...Or I might wait until my Revelations playthrough to romance Sophie.
Of all the kid characters, Sophie's definitely #1 on my list. Her or maybe Niles' kid?

I've been disappointed so far with the Supports. In general, I'd say most the ancillary characters have better Supports than in Awakening, but Robin's 'main-character' Supports in Awakening were better fleshed out than Corrin's. And while your siblings in Nohr are hella awesome, when it comes to the Nohr retainers, the men are more interesting than the women, who seem to come in varying degrees of sociopaths. I actually almost regret rolling with male-Corrin, as if I was playing female-Corrin there are at least four guys I'd S-rank in a heartbeat.

If I don't marry one of the children characters this run I'll probably marry whoever I don't have Silas marry, as Effie and Charlotte are probably the two most tolerable options in the bunch.

In spite of all my praise for Conquest, if there's one reason I may end up forcing myself to play through Birthright, it'll be because Birthright has Rinkah, and dammit, she's the best. >.>

[greed]

Huh Birthright was the reverse. The men were all boring as fuck but the women were pretty cool and no sociopaths. I mean Reina is very bloodthirsty but only to her actual enemies.... wonder if that was deliberate and setting up Revelations for you to pair the best on both sides.

In general I found the supports good until the S-rank and the sudden romance out of nowhere. It very rarely made any goddamned sense. Orochi and Hinata was one that worked as it was flirty as hell from the start I guess.

---------- Post added 03-20-2016 at 07:46 PM ---------- Previous post was 03-19-2016 at 09:52 PM ----------

Anyone else play Salt and Sanctuary?

It's pretty much 2D Dark Souls to the point of shamelessness and it works.

The character are ugly as sin though. Some of the worst art design I've ever seen for the humans.

[Solid Snake]

Anyone want to share with me what Dark Souls III is like?
My only point of reference is the original Dark Souls.

[Revising Ocelot]

As a Dark Souls 1 and 2 veteran I am getting my shit wrecked.
I love it.

Many callbacks to the first two games, although the DS1 references are far more omnipresent, especially in setpieces. Although I'm not far in the game, having only encountered the fourth boss so far. I have a feeling I'm going to end up in Blighttown 2.0, populated by Artorias wannabes next.

[Solid Snake]

I don't have to play through DS2, right? I can skip ahead to DS3 and not miss much?
I don't really care one iota about Dark Souls' egregiously ambiguous lore, I'm much more interested in getting back into some complex combat.

[Bard The 5th LW]

Dark Souls 1 and 2 essentially stand independent from one another so I imagine Dark Souls 3 is the same even if I haven't played it yet.

[Arcanum]

Yeah you can definitely skip DS2. All the references to previous games are solely lore, and most of them are references to DS1 (I get the feeling that Miyazaki isn't a fan of where they took DS2 without him at the helm).

But even completely ignoring the references, the game is great. Just because you don't know about thing X from previous game doesn't mean thing X in DS3 is any less great.

I just beat the game earlier today and it's my favorite Souls game in the series.

[Solid Snake]

I just beat the game earlier today and it's my favorite Souls game in the series.

You've beaten Dark Souls III already?!?!?!?!?!?!
Hasn't it only been out for two days?

[Arcanum]

You've beaten Dark Souls III already?!?!?!?!?!?!
Hasn't it only been out for two days?

I put 30 hours into it, according to my save file. I may have neglected some school in order to do so...

edit- it was also out at 6pm eastern on monday, if that helps (it doesn't)

[BB]

Hey FE Fates peeps, are there any moments in the game that are as perfectly crushing as this (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iWO4ff1HXYY)? Because that mission from Awakening ranks as one of my favourite gaming moments of all time for how expertly arranged the whole set up was.

[Solid Snake]

Hey FE Fates peeps, are there any moments in the game that are as perfectly crushing as this (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iWO4ff1HXYY)? Because that mission from Awakening ranks as one of my favourite gaming moments of all time for how expertly arranged the whole set up was.

Not that I'd recommend playing Birthright over Conquest, because Birthright involves choosing the more inferior side by far, but it has the better sucker-punch moment.
However, that sucker-punch moment is awful and deplorably tragic and I wouldn't wish it on anyone.

Overall, and on a slightly more objective note, Awakening is just plain better than Fates. Sorry, I said it. The 'MyCastle' elements of Fates include some great implementations but the customization options are only skin-deep. Fates earns a lot of its merits with its emphasis on two families competing for your allegiance, and the families in Fates are well developed, but Hoshido's storyline is a paper-thin, stereotypical quest against evil with flat characters, and while I love my Nohr team, to be brutally honest it skims over a lot of the implications of supporting a despot in order to potentially change a corrupt system from the inside. And neither team really has a perfect allotment of supporting characters; there's a few great guys on Nohr, a few great girls on Hoshido, and a lot of sociopaths and cliches to weed through to get to the great stuff. From a gameplay perspective, Conquest has the best maps of the bunch but requires a bit of grinding, while Birthright's maps are just awful, making it virtually impossible to appreciate if you sided with Nohr first like I did.

I have much fonder memories of Awakening, which prospered with a better soundtrack, had more fun DLC missions (at least, as of now), had a better balance of Goldilocks style 'just right' difficulty in terms of strategy with its maps, had a better implementation of the Parent-Child system and marriage because it was more integral to the plot, just plain better characters overall, and genuinely made me cry more than I'd like to admit. I think Fates actually tried to be a tad too ambitious with its branching storylines and, in trying to write three separate cohesive plots, concocted something that's fine individually but it just can't match Awakening's depth.

(If anything, rather than continuing a Birthright playthrough or starting a Revelations one, I really feel like replaying Awakening in the wake of Conquest.)

I'll have my reviews for the latest games I've been playing here shortly, including my revised thoughts on Cold Steel, Assassin's Creed Syndicate, new thoughts on Uncharted one through three after playing the Remastered editions, Total War Rome 2, and If My Heart Had Wings, maybe one more mystery title too. I'm sure you're all dying with anticipation.

[Aerozord]

I am trying to finally finish up Awakening (I didn't realize how freakin long this game was) and have started getting bits and pieces of Fates from people. It seems the general consensus is, meh. I have difficulty thinking of characters I wasn't too fond of and TONS that I loved. Which also made some of those acceptable loses missions alot harder. You know where a character you love dies but you gotta press forward because its the fifth time you did the map and usually lose half your people.

Fates they mostly seem bland, I hear the sides are pretty clearly good vs evil despite the game trying to tell you otherwise and the child system is a blatant "it was popular in the last game so we are including it even though it makes absolutely no narrative sense."

[greed]

Dark Souls 3 is actually a pretty good entry for the series. There's callbacks, a lot of them, but it's perfectly understandable without the older games, and mechanically it's by far the best to jump into.

Just don't start as Deprived. That's a kick in the teeth this time round thanks to the first boss.

[Overcast]

Eh the first boss isn't so bad Deprived. I'd say though still not to do it unless you want to force yourself to learn the mechanics properly from the start(except parrying), armor is definitely much more important this time around. Not even the exact kind of armor you are wearing, inasmuch as you are wearing some at all. If you are naked you have significantly less defense than if you are clothed.

[greed]

Eh the first boss isn't so bad Deprived. I'd say though still not to do it unless you want to force yourself to learn the mechanics properly from the start(except parrying), armor is definitely much more important this time around. Not even the exact kind of armor you are wearing, inasmuch as you are wearing some at all. If you are naked you have significantly less defense than if you are clothed.


It's much harder than starting as deprived in the other games though I'd say.

Also holy shit Irithyll is beautiful.

[Overcast]

I'd say only because of phase 2. If he were all phase one he'd be about as hard as any of the others, but that is also a teaching experience since most bosses these days have a second phase to them.

Also hell yes it is. I'd link it but I feel like most people should be allowed to take it in for a moment. Then walk across the bridge...

[greed]

Had great fun there today. Got invaded, beat the guy down to his last slithers of health with the Drang hammers (which rule, fucking maracas of death) so he ran to the second coming of the silver knight bridge to heal and taunt me.

Then I used the Seed of the Tree of Giants.:3:

[Overcast]

I got married. Not sure I liked the process.

[Solid Snake]

I got married. Not sure I liked the process.

Wait, wait, wait.
Stop the presses.
Stop everything.

...You can get married in Dark Souls 3?

[Overcast]

To one specific NPC yes. It is a traditional Londorian wedding, specifically with rituals tied to the creation of a Monarch.

[Solid Snake]

Aww yeah
...If there's one thing Dark Souls desperately needed, it's an NPC who I'd care half a damn about.
My spouse and I are totally going to wreck bosses together if that's a thing you can do, we're gonna take 'em all down

[Overcast]

I would uh, keep your hopes a smidge lower. Learn a bit more about Londor and perhaps embrace the Dark.

[Solid Snake]

...Heh.
Well, I won't spoil it for myself, but...

...Hmm.
You know, I think my dream action-RPG at this juncture would basically be: Give the Dark Souls team the gameplay and give Bioware the story.
I mean, can you even imagine that game? The combination of Dark Souls gameplay and an actual supporting cast to interact with and genuinely care for?!?

I know there's an underlying logic for the Dark Souls team keeping their lore all abstract and ambiguous, but even with such a vague backstory, they could actually write personalities into their characters. And give me dialogue options and let my character live and breathe in the world. I'm just saying, if I actually cared more about the story in Dark Souls and it had epic fights like that, I'd practically have a heart attack every time I played. In a good way! I'd be so thoroughly invested in the characters and the adventure that it'd be exquisite anguish to make it through every fight.

[Overcast]

Heh, well there is a bit more power to the NPC's this time. But as always there is a methodology to how the game is written. Everything is somewhat secondhand knowledge and piecemeal considerations. You may learn to love our current version of the Onion Knight, Seigward of Catarina. He's a great story to follow, in its own way so is the story of Anri of Astora and the machinations of the Londorians. Everyone has a piece here, and it feels stronger than any other souls before it in that regard, but it doesn't change to anything easier to achieve it.

[greed]

...Heh.
Well, I won't spoil it for myself, but...

...Hmm.
You know, I think my dream action-RPG at this juncture would basically be: Give the Dark Souls team the gameplay and give Bioware the story.


We can go bleaker.

YOKO TARO on the writing.:dance:


Serious talk Bioware has always been junk food writing to me, I'll take Souls style anyday. If I wanted a more expansive style Obsidian would be preferred.

Or Yoko Taro. Get some NieR up in here.

[Solid Snake]

Obsidian would be great too, but I still think Bioware writes the best NPC companions, and Inquisition was a huge step up for them in the writing department overall.

But you really can't go wrong with anyone involved with NieR.

[Arcanum]

I still think Bioware writes the best NPC companions, and Inquisition was a huge step up for them in the writing department overall.

Could you elaborate on why you think Inquisition's companions are so good? I tried the game close to launch (so a long while ago) and the only companion I remember liking was Iron Bull. I remember seeing people on here (I think) talking about how good Sera was, but when I met her I just found her annoying. I think I stopped playing shortly after that.

I feel I should give the game another chance, but every time I think of booting it up I remember how little I cared about the companions and don't do it.

[Revising Ocelot]

The problem with DA:I is that it isn't The Witcher 3.

That said... I haven't played any of The Witcher games, nor DA2 and DA:I. I own them all. A lot of backlog to get through. A backlog that cannot possibly be started yet, because I only -just- finished first playthrough of Dark Souls 3 and there's now NG+, NG++, DLC later in the year, a complete replay of the series...

[Solid Snake]

The problem with DA:I is that it isn't The Witcher 3.


I find that this is a common statement from folks who actually haven't played DA:I and/or Witcher 3.

Anyway, while the Witcher 3 is certainly the better looking and better polished game, there's a lot of things I think DA:I actually does better. The supporting cast, for one. I also found the story in DA:I was more engaging from the start (whereas W3 takes a bit more time to get rolling.)

Witcher's sidequests are more involving, but DA:I has better character interactions throughout those sidequests, depending on who you bring along with you.
Witcher is more overtly subversive of the fantasy genre, but I think I actually appreciate DA:I more because it adopts even more high fantasy cliches...but more subtly succeeds in subverting those cliches through telling a very different story than what you might have expected.

As for what Inquisition does really well, I think the best thing I can pinpoint is the independent agency of your supporting cast -- the Inquisitor isn't quite the unifying symbolic figure Shepard was, and the result is that while all your followers respect you to some extent, you really have to work hard to earn trust (and even after you do earn trust, that doesn't necessarily translate to insurance that the characters who trust you also trust each other.)

There's a certain joy in DA:I to just listening to your supporting cast bicker with each other -- with genuine antagonistic intent. Several of the characters (Blackwall and Dorian immediately come to mind) actually rather dislike each other, and the game is riddled with constant companion dialogue between each other -- your character barely even plays a role aside from overhearing it. I love it. It makes you feel as if the world is real around you -- that not everything revolves around the Inquisitor, that just as the Inquisitor can't perfectly solve every huge war issue on his/her plate, s/he also can't even micromanage the relationships of the people s/he cares for. Because they're also people. They don't just fawn over the Inquisitor and they have their own roles and agendas and their own perspectives and if you fuck up they'll be angry and it's actually very difficult to convince everyone simultaneously that you're a swell leader because there's no one perfect decision to make that resolves everything handsomely.

Of all the RPGs I've played, Inquisition arguably comes closest in my mind to portraying the true costs and consequences of being a leader. It's actually almost a repudiation of Origins in a sense, as the first DA was a much more cookie-cutter traditional approach to the genre.

Actually, both DA2 and Inquisition refute flawed aspects of Origins, which is probably why I love both DA2 and DA3 much more than the first game, but they both go about their realistic reassessments in different ways. DA2 takes the scope of the story as a whole and shrinks it -- you're in a single town in a single region of the world, and everything is local, not global. Inquisition, on the other hand, keeps the world-encompassing scope of Origins but burdens the characters with the actual responsibilities associated with the administration of their world-changing movement. It's not just epic fantasy, jump from one place to the next geographically, let's go on an adventure bullshittery. It's watching your headquarters get absolutely wrecked and rebuilding, it's dealing with the insane complexity of familial politics, it's settling for incremental as opposed to revolutionary change, and it's constantly trying to placate people who dislike each other and who initially distrust you, too. It's awkward and it's uncomfortable but it's all the more rewarding when, by the end of the game, you've built something out of nothing. It doesn't skip a lot of the legwork and it feels meatier with your involvement.

[pochercoaster]

I second everything Snake said.

I'm playing through Witcher 3 right now and I've barely scratched the surface, so I guess my opinion isn't yet fully informed, but it seems kind of... wanky? Especially compared to DA:I. The characters seem a lot blander in comparison.

Sera is an annoying character. She's amusing because of how annoying she is, but IMO she's not the most interesting character to have in your party, except for certain moments (like the ball. Well, minus the transphobic joke that was written into her dialogue.)

I found the companions' sidequests enriching. Particularly enjoyed Dorian's. And I liked seeing Cassandra struggle with cognitive dissonance. No character is really one-dimensional and you see that moreso later in the game. And as Snake said, you get the feeling that your companions have their own agency and opinions and legit reasons for those opinions.

As a sidenote, one of the reasons I really enjoyed DA:I's writing is because I felt like all the female characters were realistic and believable (just as the male characters are) As in, I wish I saw more female characters like those in DA:I. It was very nice to play a game that didn't obviously just include female characters to be wank material. 'Cause they set out to create a game with well-written believable characters, and it turns out just treating female characters like they're human beings with agency is really all you gotta do to make a relatively progressive game. And I enjoy that, not because "yay progress for the sake of progress" (which is still good, but anyways), but because "oh good I can see a member of my gender having their own well-developed opinion about something in media and doing important things, yay."

There are very few games/pieces of media that make me feel that way.

[Solid Snake]

I briefly interrupt Poch's excellent Inquisition points to articulate that I've just learned that Emily will, in fact, become a marriage candidate in a future Stardew Valley update.

Stardew Valley!!! I'll be able to play it finally!!!

[greed]

Give us a heads up when you do.

Haley is the better sister though.

[greed]

Persona 5 trailer has dropped. Loving the design aesthetic for everyone and everything so much. So much. Especially short haired angry knight girl.

http://i.imgur.com/q74GRvD.gif

Also Overwatch is fun and so many people still don't know to shoot supports.

Edit: Also http://i.imgur.com/0iT5c5T.webm

[Solid Snake]

...It'd be hysterical if Atlus actually announced a worldwide September release for Persona 5, if only because between that, Cold Steel 2, and FFXV, I'd officially never leave my room in the months of September and October.

...Fortunately for my sanity, it'll likely be early 2017 here. (And even later in Europe. I feel so, so awful for you poor Europeans.)

[greed]

At least PS4 is easy to get the American versions of.

Sucks if you don't English though.

Also laughing that the upcoming Paradox space strategy game has a random event called "Crystalline Entities are Unbreakable".

[Arcanum]

Man I'm not even usually a fan of JRPGs but FFXV and Persona 5 are making me seriously contemplate getting a PS4 in September.

[Solid Snake]

Dammit EA, your interest in an oft-neglected period of military history is actually going to force me to buy a Battlefield for a change.

[greed]

So theory I've seen for Persona 5.

http://i.imgur.com/syg8mZ9.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/1Di8lU4.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/SNT7UB9.png

It will never happen, but now you will hate me for giving you the idea!

[Solid Snake]

ARE YOU READY FOR SOME MUSIC FROM THE PERSONA 5 SOUNDTRACK?!?!?

OF COURSE YOU ARE


WZEjCIg2lEg


H9j1QHSdo5I


aa8DZpKZlB8


nkpwUoEUcv4


VdZBp4iJ-7s


_R1LILb5ilk


aLdorvd5Nzw


eBSHulTdoN8


I WANT THIS GAME NOW
IMMEDIATELY
IN MY FUCKING HANDS

[greed]

So more details on P5. Sadly awesome student council president who is repressing all the rage is not Nanako but actually called Makoto Nijima. She is however also related to a cop (the lady running the MC's interrogation is also called Nijima. The MC is also apparently in legal trouble for maiming a guy for sexually harassing someone? Sounds like a fucking rad dude).

Makoto is still very much the best character however

http://i.imgur.com/CuGbnxY.png

So angry. Everything is going to die.

Also apparently she is NUCLEAR element. Which is back. Not fire or ice or wind or any of those lame ass elements. She is fucking NUCLEAR.

[Solid Snake]

Nuclear is an element, now? I didn't even know it ever was an element, or maybe I just forgot about it.

Makoto and curly-haired restaurant owner's daughter both feel at first glance like they've taken Mitsuru from Persona 3 and split her into two different characters encompassing two different components of her personality, and our new navigator reminds me of Fuuka, so it'll be interesting to see how the characters differentiate themselves from their ancestors.

[Overcast]

I feel like this Botanical remix is more fitting now.

Nm4BjRYrsoo

[Solid Snake]

Man, Botanical is so good with those remixes. This recently replaced the Fire Emblem one as my favorite. (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UfFqXmwkMJE)

[Revising Ocelot]

I picked up Final Fantasy X + X2 Remaster from GMG for £10. I haven't played the game for approximately 15 years? I remember nothing beyond being stuck at a Seymour boss somewhere.

I'm immediately confronted by choosing between Standard and Expert Sphere Grids, with no option to change midway.. There is also the choice between Arranged and Original Soundtrack, with possibly the option to change?

I'm already baffled and I'm not even in the game proper yet to rename Tidus as Teedus, or MegRyan.

[Solid Snake]

I'd recommend the Standard Sphere Grid, which was the option I chose; there's less flexibility but the characters end up more or less playing the roles you'd expect them to play based on your original FFX playthrough.

If I recall correctly the arranged soundtrack is basically updated versions of FFX's OST. I preferred some of the originals but also enjoyed some of the arranged tracks more, so it's kind of a wash.

[mauve]

Seymour

Oh jeez, was that the boss fight where the boss took two turns back-to-back every round and spammed Zombie + Full Heal to insta-kill people? Man, I hated that fight.

I don't think I ever finished FFX. Pretty sure I was at the last area and then quit. A boss or overpowered enemies kept killing me and I wasn't invested enough in the plot to want to level farm.

[Solid Snake]

I don't think I ever finished FFX. Pretty sure I was at the last area and then quit. A boss or overpowered enemies kept killing me and I wasn't invested enough in the plot to want to level farm.

Strangely, I had the exact opposite experience every time I've played FFX, where I've been ludicrously over-leveled by the time I've reached the final boss, making those final fights a matter of just hitting 'X' a few times and watching Auron and Tidus and the gang deal grotesquely high numbers of damage.

Then there's that annoying mechanic where you have to Summon every Summon, hit that Summon once, kill it immediately, and keep Summoning every Summon.