I beat Venba in one sitting. It is not much of a game but it is a quick gamerscore run. The story is kinda depressing and I don't feel like it is very real but for like an hour or so is passable
@Balta666 Definitely not trying to sound rude, but Venba sounds like the most uninteresting game I've read about in recent memory. Even though it's on GP, I'm not sure I'd bring myself to play it. I will be trying a short hike at some point which also came out recently.
I beat a short hike on gamepass. Not a bad little title. Just relaxing and climbing a mountain while finding little trinkets and activities along the way. Only an hour long though, but worth it on GP.
@NintendoByNature I played s short hike before. Although short (even the name says it all ) I also like it quite a bit as it has a good pacing and the gameplay is pretty enjoyable
Blue Reflection (Steam)
On her first day of high school, Hinako discovers that she (as well as a couple of mysterious classmates Lime & Yuzu) is a magical girl called a Reflector that can enter the subconscious of others in order to connect with them & resolve emotional turmoil. Across the events of the game she'll bring her class together, perhaps save the world, and if she plays her cards right may even realize a dream she thought shattered.
Gameplay:
You'll split your time between the real world where you'll go about your day around school hanging out with friends & chatting online, and delving into the "Common", a dungeon built by the connected subconscious of humanity, where you'll battle monsters in turn based fashion.
It actually has some pretty unique systems. The big thing is the Ether gague in the lower left corner. Managing it can be important as if it's full enough you can expend it to give a character extra moves via the "Overdrive" command (up to four moves in one turn if it's full enough). However in-between each character (& enemy) turn you can expend some Ether in order to regen party HP/MP, guard against the next attack, or advance your turn order. A few of a character's skills may deplete (or charge!) Ether in addition to their MP pool, and you can choose to have a character bypass their turn to charge Ether as well (I believe this also regens some of their HP/MP). Unfortunately all this management only becomes relevant during boss battles, as regular enemies become pushovers after the first couple hours. By the endgame I could one shot most mobs with Yuzu's Grapevine attack (this eats up a lot of MP, however HP/MP are fully restored after each fight, meaning there's no incentive to hold back during normal encounters).
Other oddities include not being able to use items during combat (all usable items either permanently or temporarily increase a character's stats), you don't level up by obtaining EXP from battles (rather, you earn skill points at set points or from building affinity with your classmates that can be spent on certain stat profiles for your party members. While all stats increase during level up, you can choose if you want a character's attack, HP, MP, or defense to get an extra boost), and there is no gear to equip (in place of this, you'll obtain emotional "Fragments" from your classmates that you can equip to a character's individual skills, which alter or enhance that skill's effect. For example you can give an attack the ability to inflict a status ailment, or add HP regeneration to a support skill that buffs it's target's stats).
Boss battles are pretty fun (and the only time you really need to get to grips with the unique battle system quirks) and see you facing off against giant Kaiju like foes with some absolutely killer visual design. While you don't gain extra party members throughout your journey, all the new friends you meet along your journey do assist (exclusively) in boss fights providing buffs to your party or attacking the boss. Only annoying thing is that boss phase transitions nullify any extra damage (for example, let's say a boss transitions to it's final phase once it's down to 5,000 HP. If you hit it with an attack that does 5,000 damage while it still has 6,000 HP, instead of starting the final phase with only 1,000 HP left, it'll only take the first 1,000 damage, and still start the final phase at 5,000 HP).
Most chapters have the same gameplay loop and start out with you taking on sidequests (9/10 times just basic stuff like "take out X number of this monster" or "pick up X number of materials in a dungeon") and hanging out with friends in order to build affinity, and once you hit certain thresholds (in affinity points & character level) you can report your progress to Yuzu & Lime to progress the story. Unlike other similar games there is no day or time limit, so as long as you don't report your progress to Yuzu & Lime as soon as the threshold is hit, you can spend as many days as you want hanging out with friends & building affinity. Friends who are located outside won't appear on rainy days, and everytime you go home at the end of a day you are given a few different prep options (take a bath, study, or make lunch) which will occasionally give you a small random stat increase.
Otherwise there is a little Tamagotchi like minigame called "Dark Cave" (although I played it a bit, I'm not sure what if any reward it grants in the main game), a Jukebox where you can listen to music, and once the game is complete you unlock art & cutscene galleries. One of your classmates will also hide a pink bear plush somewhere around the school every other chapter or so, but I'm not sure if there's a point to it (even when found there's no way to interact with it that I discovered), or if it's just for fun.
Visuals:
There's not a lot to the game world, with the largest environment being the school grounds (and even then there are a few rooms like the music room you can't access), and only 4 dungeon environments (though the environments can mesh together, creating more), however it looks lovely all around. The school has a kinda grounded lived in look, while the dungeons are all very fantastical & magical. I'm not even sure how many rooms each dungeon has, as 99% of the time you can complete your objective by simply clearing out whichever room you're dropped in at the beginning (there is some sort of warp point at each end of a dungeon room, and sometimes it'll just send you to the other side of the same room with all enemies respawned, & sometimes you'll go to a different room. I don't think they're procedurally generated though as you'll see the exact same room like 3 or 4 times repeatedly on your dives. You exit the Common from the menu, so I don't think there's even an official begining or end to them either).
It has a lovely "Shojo" looking art direction, which makes the pretty prevalent fan service feel kinda out of place. From a personal standpoint I don't mind it (just look at the outfits I chose to wear in my Fatal Frame & Ys IX review screenshots, lol), but the vibe in general seems much more Sailor Moon and less Senran Kagura, so the fact that the rain makes school uniforms transparent & there's a pretty common amount of bathing/shower scenes as well as shots of the cast mostly undressed in the locker rooms feels kinda random, like I don't know exactly who they were aiming this at. Apparently the sequel tones this aspect down though.
Story:
Story kinda picks up towards the end with a few decent twists & lore revelations, however overall I wasn't too engrossed with it. It's probably 80-90% "cute girls doing cute things" and it's looking more & more likely that it's just not my jam (I felt similarly after playing Atelier Lydie & Suelle years ago, so maybe Gust as a whole isn't for me).
Kinda annoying that the one "gamer girl" archetype in the cast is all about mobile games. I know it's a Japanese game but c'mon, lol. This isn't a serious complaint (or really a complaint at all), but are there really people THAT into mobile games?
Conclusion:
It's by no means a bad game, but I don't think it was exactly for me although it had some cool parts. I understand the sequel is apparently a lot better so I may look into that in the distant future.
Currently Playing:
Switch - Blade Strangers
PS4 - Kingdom Hearts III, Tetris Effect (VR)
Picked up Tomb Raider Definitive Edition for $5. Took about 12 hours to complete. Great game!
I'm the hero of a thousand stories. I'm a superhero, an assassin a soldier. I've slain dragons and traveled through portals. I am a spartan, a commander. A king. I've saved a thousand worlds and countless more lives. What am I? I'm a gamer.
I've been mostly nintendo since the 360 days, but picked up a series X back in March and I've been catching up on 12 odd years of great games!!! Since I've stopped playing in bands i have loads more free time.
In the last few months I've finished / got my fill of Skyrim, GTAV, all the modern warfare CODs, ori and the blind forest, what remains of Edith finch, gears 4, halo reach, FH3-5...
Just started Assassins creed origins.
Enjoyed them all. Boss rushes in ori were fantastic. Loved the campaign to MW 2019. And finally got round to GTAV, lots of fun. For everybody that comments on GTAV still being in the charts, yes, there were still some of us that hadn't played it!!
I was blown away by the backwards compatibility on series x. As somebody who paid full whack for mario kart on the wii u and then again on the switch, and has bought sonic about 25 times, it really made me smile seeing all my digital 360 games available when I set up the new console.
I've been a little quiet over here this past few months. However, I am playing a little more lately, so here I go with some impressions of the last games I have beaten recently.
Devil May Cry 2
I must admit, this one was one of my favorite games back in the day, so I used to see this game with rose-tinted glasses. I even liked it a lot, despite the unfavorable reviews it got at release.
However, I must admit too that this can be viewed as the "worst" entry in the whole series. Let me explain.
Replaying this one, almost 20 years later, was very, veeery dull. Even if I cannot say it is "horrible" or "unplayable" (there's some quality, after all), the worst thing that comes to my mind when thinking about DMC2 now it is blandness in almost every aspect.
Bland enemies. Bland art design. Bland level design. Bland (and almost non-existent) story.
And the whole confusion of it. Why do enemies stand there only to be butchered? Why they don't value their lives at all to, you know, show some resistance? Why the game is divided into 2 playable characters if they almost share the same levels?
Speaking about the levels, the devs decided to reuse some levels across the missions, so, even if there are 18 missions with Dante (and13, if my memory serves right, with Lucia), I got a frequent sensation of déjà vu during my playtime.
And, as I said earlier, the story is almost non-existent. The bad guy, an evil CEO who seeks demonic powers (as almost all CEOs tend to do ) which I hardly remember his name, is bland and boring, it never represents a true challenge to the player and...and...that's all, there's not so much I can say about this one or the story overall.
On the positive side, the animations are cool, the controls are pretty responsive (although the camera is a great problem in certain areas), and the combat is fluid even if limited (I don't know for certain, but I think DMC2 offers the most limited move set of the whole series).
As a side note, I am looking at the total playtime in the save file...and it is 2.5 hours with Dante and 2.5 hours with Lucia. 5 full hours to "beat" the game (without going full completion and without the playthrough with Trish)! Those were the days, uh?
blue fire. Is an indie 3d Zelda like with focus on the platforming. At start is a bit frustrating but as you get spirits (works like in hollow knight where you have to choose what to use for each section that suits it best) you have longer dashes and more jumps, etc..
Combat is not fantastic but for a 10h campaign it was fairly enjoyable.
I am done with my completion playthrough of Celeste as I have just finished Farewell (after almost 11 hours and over 3000 deaths...). It is a shame that the achievement for C sides bugged on me but I am not doing that again lol.
What a game though!!!
I just finished Venba......and then msgd my Mum to tell her I loved her (you'll get it if you play the game). Very, very light in game mechanics but with impactful story and well matched art style/use of music (much like Florence). As an exploration of how food is linked to our memories and relationships, it's really successful. No brainer to try out on gamepass and can play the whole game in 90 mins.
Timespinner that I bought a few days ago as it was 50% off. I had my eye on it for a while since as I played a demo ahead of its release on Switch. It is a fairly standard Castlevania Symphony of the night clone. The combat is quite easy in comparison and I beat to first final in one sitting (although a bit of a long one in nearly 6h).
Nobody will believe this, but just now (half an hour ago) I finished the original “Red Dead Redemption” for the first time ever. Very good, but having played RDR2 several times, I did not think that RDR1 was the masterpiece everybody claimed it was.
But then it is nearly fifteen years old, I suppose.
In preparation for Starfield, I've beaten Skyrim!
I have 1000+ hours of Skyrim across Xbox 360, Xbox One, PS4 and Xbox Series X.
But I only finished the main story twice. The fist time was a few years ago on the PS4 and now I've defeated Alduin for the first time on an Xbox console. And I've finished the Civil War quest for the fist time... after ten years of neutrality, I finally sided with the Stormcloaks and gave Ulfric his crown.
Though, I hate to say that the Civil War questline was a letdown. The main story is way more interesting.
Earlier this year I've beaten Fallout 4 as well, for the second time. First I sided with the Railroad, now I went with the Brotherhood. Even though I hate the Brotherhood's ideology in this game, the Power Armor + Jet Pack combo is pure joy...
@Matthewnh I finished it for the first time in 2021 I believe and I do adore it though . I tried rdd2 last year but fell off after a few hours I am not sure why and I never felt compelled to go back (I will some day for sure)
Beat Planet of Lana recently. Really enjoyed it. Looks gorgeous and is great with headphones on. Think it took about 4 hours or so to beat. If you liked Inside you'll like this I would imagine
This is my third Atlus game. I loved Tokyo Mirage Sessions (Wii U) and Soul Hackers 2 (Xbox), so I decided to play the Persona series, too. There are awesome and jarring things about Persona 5 Royal, so I decided to be more specific and objective than ever.
It's impressive how the game connects gameplay, story and simulation masterfully. Now, I'm discovering that it's just the evolution of the series. A ton of mechanics are interconnected and there are characters with different personalities and personal evolution. Doubts and contradictions are real and acknowledged throughout the story. You even learn things in class. The generous story content and deep combat are fun and addictive. Palaces and random dungeons are all good and somewhat unique. Compared to Soul Hackers 2, you can't teleport anywhere and that does make combat much more strategic and interesting. The strategy gets deeper and more interesting as you progress and learn more about the world, covering every aspect of a coherent universe. Persona 5 Royal is a gameplay masterpiece. Furthermore, some but not all of the music is good, there is much graphical detail and visual quality, all the user-friendly features you could ask for are included and a long and deep story with most of the dialogue dubbed.
The negative side is the heavy conditioning and lack of choice for the most part. The most logical romance option is developed naturally yet forbidden, as explained here:
Additionally, the only openly gay characters are effeminate and sexually predatory. I'm playing Persona 4 Golden and it's way worse, like an early 20th century conversion therapy. These issues are more shocking since the full story behind this game is unexpectedly deep and tackles everything about mankind. As Makoto said, "Victory against a single criminal is meaningless... The true enemy is society itself." Most characters are great and likeable. Looks are deceiving.
Annoying issues about this game include the vocal music that plays every time you get dozens of group text messages and the opera-like song that plays endlessly while plotting new persona fusions. Fusion is not properly explained in Soul Hackers 2 nor Persona 5, e.g. you have to find out that it's useful to register your personas before fusing them. Fusions are explained in a proper way in Persona 4 Golden, the game I'm playing now.
Another annoying audio issue is related to the doctor, who won't shut up for a second while you're browsing her store and will repeat a couple of useless comments indefinitely. There is more of that, like Morgana's hyper-repetitive and redundant dialogue and commentary inside and outside battles and Futaba's finisher animation which is the only one that can't be skipped.
Another failure, in my opinion, is not naming the main character which results in very odd dialogue. The idea doesn't work as well as in other games. The only serious gameplay failure I found was the battle against Kunikazu Okumura.
It's very difficult to rate the game because most of it is excellent, but I can't ignore the interactions, audio and gameplay glaring flaws.
Final Fantasy 16. Utter garbage. I’m sad I actually fell for the reviews the game got and spent hours of my life playing it. No other game has rubbed me the wrong way in some time. I’m only here because it was being mentioned in the Starfield review score thread and I proceeded to have to rant about how bad it is there.
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