The "What Are You Playing Today" Thread

[MonCapitan2002]

Dragon Quest 11

I'm just about to head to Octagonia for the first time. I've finally found my groove, and while I have a lot of quibbles and critiques about the game, I'm having fun now. I feel like the game could have been so much more, but it's still a fine enough game so far.

I thought Dragon Quest XI was a fine game, but it went one act too long.  My favorite characters were Sylvando and Veronica as I found them the most entertaining.  Jade was gorgeous, but too flat a character to be interesting beyond being a very pretty face.

On another note, I think the game would've been better served with a voiced protagonist.  I feel like with the games of today with their much more immersive worlds, silent protagonists no longer work.  Having the hero be silent is mostly a nod to nostalgia and to an audience (in Japan) that is extremely resistant to changes to the Dragon Quest formula.

[Anastasia]

Dragon Quest 11

I'm just about to head to Octagonia for the first time. I've finally found my groove, and while I have a lot of quibbles and critiques about the game, I'm having fun now. I feel like the game could have been so much more, but it's still a fine enough game so far.

I thought Dragon Quest XI was a fine game, but it went one act too long.  My favorite characters were Sylvando and Veronica as I found them the most entertaining.  Jade was gorgeous, but too flat a character to be interesting beyond being a very pretty face.

On another note, I think the game would've been better served with a voiced protagonist.  I feel like with the games of today with their much more immersive worlds, silent protagonists no longer work.  Having the hero be silent is mostly a nod to nostalgia and to an audience (in Japan) that is extremely resistant to changes to the Dragon Quest formula.

Yeah, I'd believe that. I'm normally one for long games, but I'm at 50 hours and I just got access to the outer sea.

I think some games can work with a silent protagonist can work, but not this one. Especially not this one, moreso because they show him talking in an early game flashback. That merely makes the entire premise more absurd and more irritating.

So yeah, pretty much agree with what you said. No comments on the characters yet, I'll give them more time.

[MonCapitan2002]

Which version of the game are you playing?  Switch?

[Anastasia]

PC.

Got it as a gift, wasn't planning on playing it for awhile (likely until it's cheap and preferably in the event they backport a few of the Switch version's improvements) but I'll play it for free.

[MonCapitan2002]

I played the PS4 version.  I managed to even get the platinum trophy for it.

[Jason_Miao]

Jupiter Hell

It's a roguelike with emphasis on face-pace games.  It's like Rogue but with an emphasis on firearms and cover-mechanics, and without an identification mechanic or (alas!) ASCII.

Random (not by me) Youtube Video of gameplay: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SsoeF_LoniU&list=PLm2EwWJQPvCG-LQLcUL2TEitFGJ7tzx0C&index=40

[Anastasia]

Dragon Quest 11

I stalled out on this when I hit the Hawaii-alike island right after getting the boat. I'll come back to this game sometime, but it's not the right game for me right now.

Tales of Berseria

It's a Tales game and is a lot of fun. I haven't played one since Graces (and to be honest, it's closer to Abyss since Graces didn't make a big impact on me) and it's a mixed bag. I don't like the soul system in battle thus far, I think it's a big step back and the entire battle system suffers for it. On the other hand, the character work's good so far. We'll see how it shakes out. I've just visited Loegres, so I don't think I'm that far in yet.

[Anastasia]

Tales of Berseria

I dropped this shortly after the last post. Fundamentally the battle system soured me further and further, and it seemed like all it did was combine the worst aspects of various Tales of battle systems. It's definitely a big let down.

[Kaldrak]

I found a private server for an old addiction of mine called Rusty Hearts.

Someone help....

[Anastasia]

It is nice when you find something like that - these days, it's all too easy for a game to fade into the ether.

[KLSymph]

I've been getting into Granblue Fantasy while practicing the ol' social distancing. Gameplay-wise it's not much, but it has nice art and the goofy JRPG story is fun as a way to pass the time.

[Dracos]

Going through a replay of all of breath of fire (prolly not).  Finished 1 and 5, in the middle of 3.

Hate the master system.  Love the art, and some of the simple but with depth story telling.  The wink to the player as the characters make in character mistakes.  The art style that really didn't show up outside of BoF4 I think?

At the fishing city at the moment.  Ways to go.  Not gotten to the nightmare desert of fail yet.

[Kaldrak]

I've beaten the Resident Evil 3 remake five times and have all achievements but two.

[Anastasia]

Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night

I've given this a hard mode replay, I'm around halfway or so. There's no hurry to this, plenty of time to smell the roses. It's a leisurely play through where I'll stop to gather shards, items or altogether meander instead of going for the plot. I also included a few mods for the sake of convenience: A 10% or so boost to item drop rates, an uncapper that removes the limit of nine of an item in your inventory and a few miscellaneous mods (begone scarves!). The drop boost is pure ease of play on a replay and the second makes the game flat better.

Now maybe it's just me, but why do you make a game that's all about item collection and cap the inventory like that? I've easily gathered heaps and heaps of items that would've been wasted with the cap still in place. It does make it a easier to gather high value items and sell them, but it's also a gigantic quality of life improvement. It does let you cheese the game with piles of potions though, so if that matters to you I'd suggest observing that cap. Not that it matters since food items heal and you can stack up a bunch of those.

Anyway, hard mode is a mixed bag. I like that there's more monsters and at times earlier. With a few glaring exceptions these are improvements to the better. The increased monster spawns generally aren't a gigantic deal too, so it isn't worth getting too worried over. Flip side, I don't feel the added damage from hard mode adds much to the game. With the exception of the first area and a little bit beyond that, it's not meaningful. The game's not structured for that sort of difficulty, it's not going to be an old NES Castlevania for challenge unless you put in a 1 HP mode.

All of that aside it's still an excellent game. 9/10 for sure, great music, fun gameplay, tons to do and just a few odd wrinkles that hold it back.

Brigandine: Legend of Runeseria

A sequel I never expected. Brigandine (and Brigandine: Grand Edition) are PSX era RPGs that have had a cult following for a long time. Fun games and they finally made a sequel. I'm about halfway or so with Guimoule and it's still a ton of fun. It's essentially Brigandine with a new coat of paint and some tweaks. It's ultra faithful to the previous game. My only quibble is that a few of the changes (less hit all magic being easily available, rulers who feel weaker (Rudo aside)) are ones that I don't personally don't like.

It's still awesome that it finally got a sequel. Good enough for me.

Disgaea 4 Complete +

I just got and started this. No comments yet, it's Disgaea so I know what I'm getting into. I already miss a few upgrades from Disgaea 5 but the base game looks great.

Here's hoping Disgaea 6 turns out awesome.

[Anastasia]

Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night

Finished. Well, not quite, I have to finish the last bits of the Den of Behemoths and the last area, which I may or may not bother. They're the weakest parts of the game by a lot as far as I'm concerned. Game is still excellent, no big changes from what I wrote before.

Disgaea 6

So it turns out they're going from sprites to 3d models. I am not impressed and the early images of it live down to those expectations. They're faithful to the original art, it's just that they're highly unappealing compared to the beautiful, vivid sprites of Disgaea 5. What a shame.

My anticipation for this game has taken a sharp nose dive.