Video Games- At least 2023 looks like a banger

[polishgenius]

I thought we're in a Metroidvania bonanza now, but I'm not sure I have enough money to be a genre fan in the next couple of years. Hell, there's still some I missed from earlier this year to catch up on.

 

Obviously a lot of Hollow Knight influence and a couple outright clones, but it's interesting how much influence Celeste has had on the genre too. Risky move, because typically precision platformers need more checkpoints than Metroidvanias. For me at least, but while I'm an outlier in bad-coordination terms, I'm sure it's true to some extent of most players.

[RumHam]

I can't imagine keeping up with all the metoridvania games. Emulating the three nintendo DS Castlevanias is very high on my "to play" list though. I haven't played them in over ten years. 

[Poobah]

With all the leaks from the upcoming Pokemon games I'm starting to get, if not actually excited, then certainly interested, though I will eternally detest the 25 year and counting scam of releasing two versions of the same game with a few differences.

[polishgenius]

3 minutes ago, Poobah said:

though I will eternally detest the 25 year and counting scam of releasing two versions of the same game with a few differences.

 

I understand not liking it, but does it count as a scam when their intent isn't to force users to buy both and the advertising has never encouraged us to? 


But yeah, graphics look rocky but it looks like they might finally have genuinely moved the game on a bit otherwise.

 

[Mr. X]

1 hour ago, polishgenius said:

I thought we're in a Metroidvania bonanza now, but I'm not sure I have enough money to be a genre fan in the next couple of years. Hell, there's still some I missed from earlier this year to catch up on.

Obviously a lot of Hollow Knight influence and a couple outright clones, but it's interesting how much influence Celeste has had on the genre too. Risky move, because typically precision platformers need more checkpoints than Metroidvanias. For me at least, but while I'm an outlier in bad-coordination terms, I'm sure it's true to some extent of most players.

Not only do I not have enough money to be genre fan, I don't really have the time to watch 40 minutes of previews of the upcoming games (did a lot of skipping ahead there). 

Looks like some good stuff, though. I already have Lucid, Bo: Path of the Teal Lotus, and Crowsworn on my Steam wishlist.  (Well, those and Silksong, of course.)

Neon Moon looks gorgeous.

[polishgenius]

8 minutes ago, Mr. X said:

(did a lot of skipping ahead there). 

Me too, to be fair...

I've got my eye on Seige and the Sandfox and on Savior coz the movement mechanics in both look interesting. And Sandfox has an almost HD-2D artstyle which I really like. Savior has a Switch released planned but Sandfox not yet, so I've got my fingers crossed. 

 

[RumHam]

Dome Keeper is really fun and kinda scratches that Metroid itch. I made the mistake of worrying too much about the defense part at first. I could easily imagine a sequel where the period between waves is expanded and it becomes metroidvania. Especially if you make it a co-op lobby of say four people. 

*

[IlyaP]

Been making my way through Bioshock Infinite, which I've greatly enjoyed thus far - in part due to the fact that the protagonist is voiced, which makes for some great banter between Booker and Elizabeth. Also, those vistas and designs: DAMN. 

[Poobah]

15 hours ago, polishgenius said:

I understand not liking it, but does it count as a scam when their intent isn't to force users to buy both and the advertising has never encouraged us to? 

Maybe scam is the wrong word but it's certainly shady and while they may justify gating the complete content of the game behind having access to the second version as encouraging social gameplay, use of trading, etc. it definitely also creates fomo, and there're plenty of people I know who've bought both games in many generations so it's definitely profitable. 

[Fez]

I've been playing the remaster/redesign of Tactics Ogre Reborn that came to Steam last week. I never played the original SNES game or the PSP remake, this is my first exposure to it, no nostalgia at all. And it's really good! Similar to FFT, in a lot of ways (which makes a ton of sense considering Yasumi Matsuno made both of them) and better than pretty much all of the indie FFT-like games on Steam that I've played over the years. Other than the voice acting (and I assume the character portraits), I don't know what's new (or from the PSP remake) compared to the original SNES game. But I would think the combat maps and the game script are basically the same (though I understand that combat itself has been reworked each iteration), and I'm shocked at just how good they both are for a game that old.

I'm only 10 hours in, but the story might even be better than FFT (which might primarily be a function of having a well-done translation) and it appears to have a branching narrative. I don't know precisely how much things might change, but I appear to have made a couple pretty large choices and one enormous choice. The characters aren't quite as developed yet, and the game relies on a lot of shorthand, but it's fun. I also really appreciate that the two story characters who've joined my party have still had a few lines here and there even though they could perma-die in any battlle. In FFT almost every character stopped saying anything after joining.

The combat system itself isn't as good as FFT, with a lot less character customization. No cross-class skills exist, each character only gets what their class has. And there is no class level, only character level, so if you switch classes you auto have everything unlocked up to your current level. So basically there's almost never a good reason to switch classes, just hire a new character instead. And each character appears to only be able to have 4 active skills equipped at a time, which is a big problem for magic users. But the fights themselves are good fun!

[dog-days]

Pentiment reviews are appearing. Here's one from The Guardian and another from Eurogamer. They seem favourable. I haven't looked at them in detail because I'd rather experience it first. Think I'm going to crack and buy it on release (tomorrow).   

[IlyaP]

17 hours ago, dog-days said:

Pentiment reviews are appearing. Here's one from The Guardian and another from Eurogamer. They seem favourable. I haven't looked at them in detail because I'd rather experience it first. Think I'm going to crack and buy it on release (tomorrow).   

Played a few minutes this evening after work and loved what I experienced. The ambient sound in particular is wonderful. The UI is quite minimalistic and harkens back to LucasArts and Cyan games. This is also the first time that I can recall playing a game where fonts are used in funny and clever ways. 

[Luzifer's right hand]

Really enjoying my playtrough of Dragon Age Origins I must say. I mostly run with the same party I have ever used as I just dig Alastair, Morrigan and Leliana. I never really liked the other party members much. Wynne is the only one I like from the rest but she does not often fit in. Although a 3 arcane warrior playtrough I did years ago was maybe the most OP thing ever after I got level 14 but that is just because that specialization is incredible powerful.

 

[Fez]

I'm into Chapter 2 now of Tactics Ogre, and one more point I want to make is that I am shocked at how tanky everyone has become; both my units and the enemy. It takes an average of probably 7 hits now to take a unit down, and knights and beasts can take far more than that.

Combine that with how large the battles are, I started at having 8 party members per battle and am up to 10 now, and how plentiful healing is, and it turns everything into a slugfest. Alpha strikes, which are the key strategy in so many other  tactics games, are non-existent; everything has too much health. It's makes for a very interesting time, and has led me to actually status effect spells regularly.

From what I've read, this is a big change at least from the PSP version, due to archers being significantly nerfed from what they had been. Apparently they had been death machines who would alpha strike regularly. Now they can do a decent hit against unarmored units (though no better than a melee attacker, just at range) and often will do literally 1 damage against knights and other high defense unit (for context, I'm at level 11, out of 50 I think, and a knight generally has about 650 health). 

[RumHam]

1 hour ago, Fez said:

 

From what I've read, this is a big change at least from the PSP version, due to archers being significantly nerfed from what they had been. Apparently they had been death machines who would alpha strike regularly. Now they can do a decent hit against unarmored units (though no better than a melee attacker, just at range) and often will do literally 1 damage against knights and other high defense unit (for context, I'm at level 11, out of 50 I think, and a knight generally has about 650 health). 

Yeah archers were amazing in the PSX and PSP versions. Presumably in the SNES version too but it never came out in America.

I meant to warn you when you first posted thatmany characters can be recruited and it's rarely clear how without a guide. Maybe don't worry about it for your first playthrough but I always keep a character recruitment guide from gamefaqs open when I'm replaying one of the Ogre games.

Have you played Ogre Battle? Different type of game but shares characters like Warren and Canopus. The GBA game is the only other Ogre game with this kinda combat. It's also very good.

[Week]

About 2 hours into GoW Ragnarok -- so far it feels like an expansion pack. Everything is largely the same with a few differences ... Starting in a new zone now, which I hope will add some spice. I am enjoying it though as it has been long enough since I played GoW that it's still relatively fresh.

[dog-days]

4 hours ago, Luzifer's right hand said:

Really enjoying my playtrough of Dragon Age Origins I must say. I mostly run with the same party I have ever used as I just dig Alastair, Morrigan and Leliana. I never really liked the other party members much. Wynne is the only one I like from the rest but she does not often fit in. Although a 3 arcane warrior playtrough I did years ago was maybe the most OP thing ever after I got level 14 but that is just because that specialization is incredible powerful.

 

The last companion you can acquire is my favourite, though I also liked Shale a lot. Shale would definitely be the one I'd want to go out for drinks with. For most of the game I kept Alastair and Morrigan as the core of my party - it always felt right from a story perspective - then switched the final spot around. 

I hope Dragon Age 4 manages to get back some of the magic that was mostly missing in Inquisition. No word yet on to what extent it'll be open world. (I hope they go for something more focussed.) 

[Luzifer's right hand]

39 minutes ago, dog-days said:

The last companion you can acquire is my favourite, though I also liked Shale a lot. Shale would definitely be the one I'd want to go out for drinks with. For most of the game I kept Alastair and Morrigan as the core of my party - it always felt right from a story perspective - then switched the final spot around. 

I hope Dragon Age 4 manages to get back some of the magic that was mostly missing in Inquisition. No word yet on to what extent it'll be open world. (I hope they go for something more focussed.) 

Shale is indeed fun and has great voice acting.

[Fez]

7 hours ago, RumHam said:

Yeah archers were amazing in the PSX and PSP versions. Presumably in the SNES version too but it never came out in America.

I meant to warn you when you first posted thatmany characters can be recruited and it's rarely clear how without a guide. Maybe don't worry about it for your first playthrough but I always keep a character recruitment guide from gamefaqs open when I'm replaying one of the Ogre games.

Have you played Ogre Battle? Different type of game but shares characters like Warren and Canopus. The GBA game is the only other Ogre game with this kinda combat. It's also very good.

That doesn't surprise me at all. I kinda suspect I've already messed up my chance of recruiting at least character I met. I'm going to try staying guideless though, and just see where it takes me.

I've never played any Ogre games. I'd heard about them way back when, but never looked into them. And then kinda forgot they existed. It was only the announcement earlier this year of this remake that put it back on my radar.

[Ramsay B.]

7 hours ago, Week said:

About 2 hours into GoW Ragnarok -- so far it feels like an expansion pack. Everything is largely the same with a few differences ... Starting in a new zone now, which I hope will add some spice. I am enjoying it though as it has been long enough since I played GoW that it's still relatively fresh.

Yeah, I’m like 15 hours in and for the most part it’s more of the same(which is not an insult), but way more linear.

It seems like they added a lot of attacks and I like that you can upgrade the shield now. I also feel like there’s more boss fights too. Good shit so far.