What Video Games Are You Playing Right Now?

[Jun Inoue]

6 hours ago, Vokoca said:

Looking at all the hype here.... I should probably finish Trails of the Cold Steel and play the second one, which has been sitting on my account for over a year now... I like the gameplay and the music, but I can't say the same about the story. I've been playing Cold Steel for like three quarters of a year now with all the breaks in between, the extremely slow pacing is killing me. I've decided to stop bothering with doing every single (hidden) quest at around chapter 4-5, but it still feels so slow. I get that this is the first game in a trilogy, but all that really ever happens is world building, more world building and hints at a plot that might sometimes even happen - but it never really does, and I'm almost in the last chapter. I suppose I'm just not a fan of RPGs that focus on the world more than anything else, I feel like the amount of story I've gotten is disproportionately low compared to the 50-60 hours I've spent on the game already.

The thing is that the Trails games focus their story to actually work thorough all the games. So the first game might feel slow (although not to me cuz I loved a lot the field studies style, and felt it would have benefitted from a few more chapters and travels around Erebonia), since the story will span thorough all the games, and not start and finish in each of them.

So yeah, story wise, the first might feel a lot like a huge introduction. But you need to realise that it feels like this cuz it truly is. The "main" part of the story, introduced at the end of the first game, would make 0 sense unless you had done and seen the other things during the game.

[Lucius]

Devoted tons of hours into Persona 4: Golden (as explained in my Persona thread) and also Digimon Story: Cyber Sleuth over the past month. Both games are 'alright', and they do kinda merit my purchase of Vita. I think P4G was definitely worth my money more so than Digimon: CS just due to the lackluster story alone of "Digimon Story". Ironic. I mean, Cyber Sleuth's story wasn't terrible, but it felt like the same ol' stuff, a mishmash of the Royal Knights and Yggdrasil from Digimon Savers, and your typical Digidestined story that we're all so familiar with by now with every Digimon release. It's nice that they tried to incorporate certain philosophical/existential crisis elements into the story, but it just doesn't feel like anything special, especially with its price tag of $69.90 on PSN.

The most atrocious part of the game, however, isn't the story itself. The story was mediocre, but I could suck it up regarding that. My real gripe is an ongoing problem a lot of video games suffer from today: F***ing. Pre-order. DLC. And not just any pre-order DLC. I mean, if it's just skins and extra content, I have not much justification for complaining about this since I wouldn't be forced to buy them. However, the DLCs here are exclusive Digimon that are probably some of the most powerful Digimon you're gonna get in the game, including but not limited to Beelzemon Blast Mode and BlackWarGreymon. Oh, but that's not all! Some of the bosses in the game REQUIRE these powerful Digimon to beat them! What the actual f***?! How low can you get?! I had an impossible time unlocking a Royal Knight (Duftmon) on Hard Mode because I don't have those DLC Digimon that would have made my life a little easier, so I had to give up and turn down the difficulty to Normal, which is pretty much "Easy Level" (there are only two difficulty settings in the game).

The last time I played the game a few days ago, I was pretty much at the final chapter of the game, but I lost tremendous interest because of this dirty, dirty move where I couldn't beat the 'end-game' bosses because of a lack of those DLC Digimon, particularly BlackWarGreymon that will definitely help you out a lot due to his solid balance of defense and attack. So instead, I've switched back to playing P4G.

Now, my experience with P4G was better expressed in my Persona thread, but one thing I would like to point out is that I got spoiled by a YouTube video regarding the bad end, and it's probably the most important spoiler in the entire game. The thing is, I didn't intentionally go out and search for "PERSONA SPOILERS" on Google like an idiot. The video was placed on my "Recommended Videos" list on YouTube, and I didn't even need to click on it because the thumbnail itself, combined with its spoiler title, were more than enough. What a jerk.

Aside from that incredibly frustrating aspect of my experience, the game is, like I said, definitely worth the money. That being said, I wouldn't call it "Game of the Year" material. It's one of those "it's a good experience, just not great" kind of thing. The gameplay is my least favorite part of the game, but not unenjoyable (not any more than Digimon CS definitely), especially on Safety Mode. The alternate outfits are a lot of fun though, and I can't wait to unlock that Power Ranger one.

The story itself is the second best part (the mystery stuff is alright, but the drama and heavy themes of the game are far more interesting), right after the best part of the game, the characters. Nanako is adorable,

Spoiler

(which makes the aforementioned spoiler all that atrocious)

and her "Welcome home, big bro" is practically a ear-worm. Seriously, someone needs to make a mix-tape of Nanako sayings. "We've got veggies!" "C'mon, grow!" Seriously, she's definitely the best dub voice in the entire game. "Everyday is great at your Junes!" I'm not that attached to the main cast aside from Chie though. I mean, Yukiko is too much of a normal girl for me, and Yosuke, while a bro to the end, just didn't stand out much from the 'anime sidekick textbook'. Teddie gets points for being adorable as well. And as for Kanji... well, I would have picked him for best gurl if he had came earlier in the game. 

However, I can't really imagine replaying this game now that I've followed a walkthrough, so the NG+ is pretty much pointless unless I fail to max out my slinks on the first try or something. I'm not that interested in the NG+ bonus boss or the dungeon aspect of the game, to be honest, so there really isn't much merit going for me. As far as the dialogue is concerned, most of the dialogue in the story is going to be the same, so there's, again, not much merit for replaying the story for another 30 hours. There's some slight variety, but not much. I'm beginning to see a trend in JRPGs where the NG+ don't really have that much of a 'plus' (both Digimon Story: Cyber Sleuth and Digimon World Re:Digitize suffer from this as well). Whereas with a visual novel or even Mass Effect, there are quite significant amount of different outcomes you can explore, including the different waifu scenarios you can play out in all three Mass Effect games, something that's reduced to a 5 minute clip in Persona 4 whenever you max someone's slink. Honestly, I'm just disappointed I didn't get to pork Chie.

Overall, I give the game a solid 8/10, maybe even 8.5 by the time I finish the game. It's got so much content in the first playthrough (AFAIK), so it's definitely a huge bang for your buck. The only complaint I have is that Persona 5 might not be ported to Vita so this might be my first and final Persona experience, and the very popular P3 FES, claimed to have a better story than P4G, will never be ported to Vita either.

Closing Thoughts: Cyber Sleuth was kinda a waste of money, and P4G was money well-spent.

Slightly Off-Topic Note
I might also buy Trails of Cold Steel in the near future. More slice of life story-driven goodness. I initially wanted to play Trails in the Sky, but being the graphicwhore that I am, the 8-bit isometric top-down perspective just put me off. Thankfully, Trails of Cold Steel was said to be playable on its own for newcomers, albeit remaining ignorant of the references to previous games. Here's hoping Trails of Cold Steel will be as satisfying as Persona 4 is so far.

Aside from that, there's also Danganronpa 2 on Vita, which I had began to be on the fence less than a month ago when I was reminded of the story from the first game. I gave Danganronpa 1 a replay a few weeks back (this time on PC via Steam), and it was rather unpleasant because I found myself not really enjoying the writing. The comedy fell flat, the characters were not engaging. I remember that my first playthrough of Danganronpa a few years ago wasn't really satisfying either. Not only was the ending lackluster, but by the end of it, most of the characters just aren't that great, reduced to generic anime archetypes. So by the time I had wanted to buy Danganronpa 2, this distressing memory just put me off.

That being said, I am still somewhat interested in this whole business about 'Despair Academy'. I read that there's a third game, and even an anime tie-in for that game. I read up on some of the lore, and it did catch my interest a little bit. At this point though, it's Trails of Cold Steel > Danganronpa games > Toukiden on Vita, maybe, the 'Monster Hunter copy'.

[Fred the Barber]

After a very long hiatus, I got back into Tales of Zestiria. I just now got to the big, completely unsurprising reveal of Rose (seriously, I figured that out at her second appearance, and I'm dense as a stone when it comes to these kinds of things), and I couldn't be happier about it. Anybody who's upset about trading Alicia out for Rose has even shittier taste than I do.

TBH, I don't get why this game didn't get a warmer reception. I'm enjoying it quite a bit, certainly more than either Xillia game. It's a Tales game; they're never great. But they're usually pretty good, and this one is no exception.

[Mkilbride]

Because Rose is rather boring. Alicia was at least interesting. The only interesting one, at least. I made it like 20 hours in the game and quit. It's the worst Tails game I ever played. It's almost like they put zero effort into the characters, usually Tales strongest point.

 

That and the story is as cliche as you can get.

 

 

Also finding Trails in the Sky vastly overrated. 5 hours in and I've had a few moments that made me smile, but the combat is pretty boring, the story is below average, characters are great, and art is great.

 

But a poor story and poor gameplay make me not want to contineu.

[Lucius]

2 hours ago, Mkilbride said:

Also finding Trails in the Sky vastly overrated. 5 hours in and I've had a few moments that made me smile, but the combat is pretty boring, the story is below average, characters are great, and art is great.

 

But a poor story and poor gameplay make me not want to contineu.

Well, considering what was said about the story in the 'Trails' franchise setting itself up over other games,

9 hours ago, Jun Inoue said:

The thing is that the Trails games focus their story to actually work thorough all the games.

I could somewhat understand why it might be boring in the first five hours.

That being said, it would require a really amazing story to get me to play an isometric game.[/filthycasual]

[Eclipsed]

42 minutes ago, Lucius said:

Well, considering what was said about the story in the 'Trails' franchise setting itself up over other games,

I could somewhat understand why it might be boring in the first five hours.

That being said, it would require a really amazing story to get me to play an isometric game.[/filthycasual]

its k brah, i also 'skipped' Sky cuz of the isometricness

 

[Vokoca]

Haha, I really tried hard to like Cold Steel - and I mean I am in like the second to last chapter or so (haven'T checked in a long time), so hopefully I will actually finish it eventually and see if the second game is any better when it comes to the story. The focus on story progression through games leads to a different problem, though - Cold Steel is supposed to be a trilogy, and as far as I know the third game hasn't been even announced yet. 

Other than that, I am slowly making my way through FF: Type-0. The ridiculously overleveled side-content is still quite baffling (there are missions you need to do to unlock certain side-quests, but the missions are at least 25 levels over your current level, for example - and the game gets extremely punishing when the level difference goes over 4), but I just assume they have these for NG+ and decided to ignore them. The main missions are loads of fun so far, we will see how far I can actually get without dying in the grind-loop.

I'm also slowly making progress through Fate/extra CCC. I think I've mentioned here previously how much I've disliked the gameplay in Fate/extra (the original), to the point where I just cheated through the entire game just to get the story - well I am happy to say that CCC does enough little things that actually make the game enjoyable. A little bit over halfway through the game with the yandere-wife, and I'm enjoying my time a whole lot.

[Fred the Barber]

13 hours ago, Mkilbride said:

Because Rose is rather boring. Alicia was at least interesting. The only interesting one, at least. I made it like 20 hours in the game and quit. It's the worst Tails game I ever played. It's almost like they put zero effort into the characters, usually Tales strongest point.

 

That and the story is as cliche as you can get.

Wow, not my experience at all. I'm loving all of Edna, Rose, Lailah, and Mikleo as characters, but thought Alisha (I remembered how to spell her name now...) was a little boring. Sorey's probably the lest interesting Tales protagonist I recall seeing, but really nobody has ever held a candle to Vesperia's Yuri, who was enough of a character to basically carry the whole game himself. But seriously, I've usually got a manic grin on my face any time either Edna or Rose is speaking. Edna's skits especially usually have me in stitches.

[Jun Inoue]

10 hours ago, Eclipsed said:

its k brah, i also 'skipped' Sky cuz of the isometricness

 

So you skipped the better Trails? Huh

4 hours ago, Vokoca said:

Haha, I really tried hard to like Cold Steel - and I mean I am in like the second to last chapter or so (haven'T checked in a long time), so hopefully I will actually finish it eventually and see if the second game is any better when it comes to the story. The focus on story progression through games leads to a different problem, though - Cold Steel is supposed to be a trilogy, and as far as I know the third game hasn't been even announced yet. 

The third game of Cold Steel is already being made.

[havoc]

On 10-9-2016 at 5:09 PM, Jun Inoue said:

The answer is OW, and then to play it with me.

Btw, the micro transactions on Deus Ex are some weird extra shit. You don't need anything to play the campaign (except maybe the game itself).

Bought overwatch in the end, been interested in the game for a while and Mirrors edge wont be going anywhere anytime soon as its a single player game.

[ChaosRaven]

Currently playing Mass Effect 2.

First I wasn't sure if I should be waiting when the rumours about the advanced edition came up, but since EA decided against it I gave it a go. Maybe I can finish the trilogy before Andromeda gets released. As annoying as the Mako could sometimes get, I somehow miss the bigger scope of the first part. Everything in Mass Effect 2 seems a bit smaller, and that's coming from someone who gets tired of huge open world games pretty soon. So I guess I'm not too unhappy that it will return in Andromeda.

Anyway, Shepard is as great as he was in Mass Effect 1. Really love his calm voice. Always gives me the impression to have everything in control and things will go well. Would be great to get a protagonist like that in a VN. Maybe in a huge space opera setting like Mass Effect. But I guess the times of epic big budget productions like MuvLuv Alternate are over.

[Kurisu-Chan]

25 minutes ago, ChaosRaven said:

Currently playing Mass Effect 2.

First I wasn't sure if I should be waiting when the rumours about the advanced edition came up, but since EA decided against it I gave it a go. Maybe I can finish the trilogy before Andromeda gets released. As annoying as the Mako could sometimes get, I somehow miss the bigger scope of the first part. Everything in Mass Effect 2 seems a bit smaller, and that's coming from someone who gets tired of huge open world games pretty soon. So I guess I'm not too unhappy that it will return in Andromeda.

Anyway, Shepard is as great as he was in Mass Effect 1. Really love his calm voice. Always gives me the impression to have everything in control and things will go well. Would be great to get a protagonist like that in a VN. Maybe in a huge space opera setting like Mass Effect. But I guess the times of epic big budget productions like MuvLuv Alternate are over.

FemShep is better.

FemShep was awarded for the whole 3 games. 

[Riku]

2 hours ago, Fred the Barber said:

Wow, not my experience at all. I'm loving all of Edna, Rose, Lailah, and Mikleo as characters, but thought Alisha (I remembered how to spell her name now...) was a little boring. Sorey's probably the lest interesting Tales protagonist I recall seeing, but really nobody has ever held a candle to Vesperia's Yuri, who was enough of a character to basically carry the whole game himself. But seriously, I've usually got a manic grin on my face any time either Edna or Rose is speaking. Edna's skits especially usually have me in stitches.

No, nobody can beats Ludger. I mean, the guy is just Link in a Tales of. XD

[ChaosRaven]

14 minutes ago, Kurisu-Chan said:

FemShep was awarded for the whole 3 games. 

Oh, I didn't know that. I never tryed a female Shepard so I've no clue how she is. I guess if I ever find the time for a second playthrough I'll pick her.

* Goes and checks all lesbian romance options *

[Vokoca]

3 hours ago, Jun Inoue said:

The third game of Cold Steel is already being made.

All I can find is them mentioning that it exists, but they don't really have anything to show for it so far. Considering Cold Steel 1 and 2 were only one year apart (2013 and 2014), this is pretty worrisome.

Put some more time into FF: Type-0 - and while I really liked the gameplay a lot at first, I am starting to see the glaring flaws. Even if you stick only to three characters instead of leveling all 14 of them (who the hell has time for that?), the character you control seems to be getting more XP anyway, leaving the other two behind. Worse yet, the Summons, which you have to sacrifice a party member for to even use, have their own level as well - and as it stands, the character I play the most outclasses the Summons in pretty much every way to a ridiculous extent, making the Summons completely useless. By far the worst part about the entire game, though, is the AI. Oh god the AI... At all times you have two more characters running around with you, controlled by the AI - and to say that they are bad would be an understatement of the century. This wouldn't even be a problem if the characters weren't your party members you can switch to at any time - but as it stands, the AI literally handles your reserves and puts them all to waste. The AI will die a lot, killing the characters you had as back-up. You brought a long-ranged character along with you so you can switch to him/her when needed? Too bad, they will be dead by the time the opportunity to switch to them arrives. Bringing characters along with you is like sending them to die, yet the game is clearly meant to be played with other characters for you to switch to at any time. And don't even get me started on the bigger bosses that require you to dodge a lot - the AI doesn't seem to know what dodging even is...

Other than that I am still enjoying the game, but the whole thing just feels like a really unfair escort mission.

[Jun Inoue]

Just now, Vokoca said:

All I can find is them mentioning that it exists, but they don't really have anything to show for it so far. Considering Cold Steel 1 and 2 were only one year apart (2013 and 2014), this is pretty worrisome.

It really isn't. They have been really straightforward with their games. They have the Trails in the Sky series, the series about the Crossbell Arc, and Trails of Cold Steel. Apart from the 3rd game of the latter, they completed their series without a hitch. This, apart from the fact that the Legend of Heroes series actuallty started in 1989 and has yet to stop. I very much doubt Falcom would just go and kill one of their most popular franchises right in the middle of a trilogy.

Spoiler

So, trust me on this, it's a very unrealistic worry ;D

[Eclipsed]

Well I'll finally have some spare time to start up Cold Steel II as I vanpool 2 hours for work later, I'm really interested in seeing if they managed to come up with 60 hours of main plot vs 60 hours of field studies and world building of the first game   

I'm feelin' it'll be half n' half, 30 hours of more world building and 30 for main plot pls

[Fred the Barber]

Vokoca's musings on FF Type-0 reminded me of one huge advance in Tales of Zestiria, vs. all other Tales games I've played: the AI is amazing now. The Tales of Zestiria AI is about as good at playing the game as I am, and in some areas far outclasses me, especially in regularly using Burst points in the assorted possible ways for maximum benefit. I didn't really notice this until Rose joined the party, but a party member with Mystic artes and Armatization is an absolute beast. I'll be surprised if I ever lose a fight again at this point (well, unless I either turn the difficulty back up to Hard and start getting my head handed to me, or I go after one of the still-obscenely-powerful world bosses while they can still one-shot me).

5 hours ago, Riku said:

No, nobody can beats Ludger. I mean, the guy is just Link in a Tales of. XD

Ludger's pretty great, I'll give you that. But I still give Yuri the edge.

[Riku]

4 hours ago, Fred the Barber said:

Ludger's pretty great, I'll give you that. But I still give Yuri the edge.

No, I meant that he is less intersting than Sorey as a character. In the story and all he is good, but as a character, just being Link in a Tales of makes him really boring. :/

I also think Yuri is the best Tales of protagonist.

[Jun Inoue]

Since I'm well into Trails of Cold Steel II, and people is also starting to play it now that it's out, it's made me remember this pretty cool video about Mother's Basement explaining why the world-building in the Trails sub-sub-franchise is so insanely good companies like Bethesda can only dream of ever approaching it. And no, I'm not trying to taunt, world-building is just one of the strongest assets of Falcom and especially the Trails series. So, yeah, go play it you silly willies!

Also, the video for anyone curious about the whole explanation and comparisons:

 

[havoc]

5 hours ago, Jun Inoue said:

Since I'm well into Trails of Cold Steel II, and people is also starting to play it now that it's out, it's made me remember this pretty cool video about Mother's Basement explaining why the world-building in the Trails sub-sub-franchise is so insanely good companies like Bethesda can only dream of ever approaching it. And no, I'm not trying to taunt, world-building is just one of the strongest assets of Falcom and especially the Trails series. So, yeah, go play it you silly willies!

Also, the video for anyone curious about the whole explanation and comparisons:

 

What do you play it on?
I want to play the series, but i own neither a playstation three or a psvita.

[Thunderbro]

34 minutes ago, havoc said:

What do you play it on?
I want to play the series, but i own neither a playstation three or a psvita.

Trails in the Sky First Chapter and Second Chapter are available in English on both PC (via steam) or PSP, with a localization of the 3rd game for PC on the way. There are two my trails games between the Trails in the sky trilogy also for PC that are not yet localized and then the Cold Steel games are only for PS3 and PsVita. 

The trails in the sky games are definitely worth playing through. 

[havoc]

7 minutes ago, Thunderbro said:

Trails in the Sky First Chapter and Second Chapter are available in English on both PC (via steam) or PSP, with a localization of the 3rd game for PC on the way. There are two my trails games between the Trails in the sky trilogy also for PC that are not yet localized and then the Cold Steel games are only for PS3 and PsVita. 

The trails in the sky games are definitely worth playing through. 

I have them, just wondering if it was possible to use a emulator to play the cold steel games on pc without to much hassle.

[Thunderbro]

1 minute ago, havoc said:

I have them, just wondering if it was possible to use a emulator to play the cold steel games on pc without to much hassle.

At the current moment there isn't a stable ps3 or psVita emulator you could use. Hopefully Xseed decides to port the Cold Steel games to PC some time down the road. 

[havoc]

2 minutes ago, Thunderbro said:

At the current moment there isn't a stable ps3 or psVita emulator you could use. Hopefully Xseed decides to port the Cold Steel games to PC some time down the road. 

Yeah, PC games tend to have a much longer life span to than console games.
Biggest disadvantage of gaming via pc is that a lot of jrpg are ps exclusive because the japanese have no pc gaming market.