Media Videogame thread

RODAN

Banned deucer.
the game is lacking no substance, the bosses are incredibly difficult and incredibly varied. if you think of it more like a touhou/rhythm game thats all about muscle memory than a true run and gun you will enjoy the game a lot more. it doesn't really fit itself into any boxes.

also its my goty so far.
 

Mr.E

unban me from Discord
is a Two-Time Past SPL Champion
I agree with Pilo, but the general sentiment I've heard around is that they should've done the opposite and cut out the platforming levels entirely.

OH SHIT COLD STEEL 3
 
I think Hollow Knight is honestly my favorite metroidvania. It's just such a solid package all around, it's got the visuals, the combat, the lore, a world that's big and open enough to give you a real sense of freedom and enough powerups or other game elements (loved the Dream Nail stuff) to keep exploration interesting, a good enough challenge level that searching for goodies feels worth it, etc. I have some minor niggles like the difficulty of finding maps or the lack of health bars making it possible to try to fight a boss who's way too strong for you without realizing it or how obtuse the true final boss is but its strong points easily overcome those.




Trails of cold steel 3 was recently released in Japan and I finally got my copy of it. Came with a cute Juna strap : )

Goodbye world as I drown myself in the game.
Nice, Cold Steel 3 looks really good. I finished 3rd (not the worst thing, but easily the low point of the series so far) and moved onto Ao recently (which seems to be the best yet, conversely) since I already played Zero awhile back. Looking forward to CS3 but it won't be for awhile, I'm still kinda hoping they'll do a PS4 release of CS 1/2 with enhanced graphics and more voicing.
 

Mr.E

unban me from Discord
is a Two-Time Past SPL Champion
If ya'lls ain't heard by now, ya'lls should be playing DOKI DOKI LITERATURE CLUB by ya boi Dan Salvato, best known by his contributions to the Melee scene (P:M player-dev, 20XX TE dev) or as developer of FrankerFaceZ. It's free to play and only takes a few hours to play through. It releases on Steam tomorrow if for some reason you don't want to direct download.

It's quite the experience. also this Twitch clip
 
Danganronpa V3: Killing Harmony came out in the west a week ago and it's uhh hard to describe. When I went through the first two games half a decade ago I thought the second game was a straight upgrade to the first, but this one's a lot weirder than that. While the graphics and aesthetics got a boost, you could kinda tell that the creator struggled to find new stuff for the killing game formula. Oh boy though, the end result kinda explodes in your face, no spoilers. It's a game that probably won't hold up well over time, but I'd totally recommend it just for the trip.
 
Honestly, I think Danganronpa V3 is probably the best direction the series could've taken. It's basically impossible to explain why without getting heavily into spoiler territory though. Story stuff aside, the cast was the weakest of the three main games imo, Kokichi was great and there were a couple other decent characters like Maki and Miu and K1-b0 but overall there definitely weren't as many I liked compared to 1 or 2. The cases were generally all good too, you could tell they were recycling ideas with some of them (particularly 4 and 5) but there was enough of a new spin on them that it still felt fresh.

full spoilers (for all 3 games):
The killing game being some sort of futuristic game show is honestly a much more reasonable explanation for it than 1 or 2 had. I hugely enjoyed the long chain of hinting, twists, and reveals up until that point too, after they stated that this game is unrelated to the previous ones but then they had it take place in a world where 1 and 2 were just previous seasons of the same game show. The final chapter itself did kinda drag on at the end but I also liked the way that they finally moved away from the old hope vs despair theme.

Anyways, it seemed to be hinting that this will be the last Danganronpa and I'm fine with that. I love the series but better to go out with style while things are still good than to drag on and get stale. Honestly, there's probably a lot more potential for the killing game part, but the meta part (ie why the killing game is happening and how to stop it) has always been the finale of each game and idk that they can do better than v3 in that respect. Or maybe they can, only time will tell I suppose.

Probably would've preferred Kaede as the protag over another wimpy-looking short haired guy, but Shoe1 wasn't bad. This game also had a low number of legitimately villainous culprits which tied in with the need to get over his fear of finding the truth, only really Kiyotaka and to a much lesser extent Kirumi (and I guess Miu, though she failed).

Not-Kokichi gesturing from inside the robot in the ch5 trial was one of my favorite things.
 

tcr

sage of six tabs
is a Tutor Alumnusis a Team Rater Alumnusis a Smogon Discord Contributor Alumnusis a Tiering Contributor Alumnusis a Contributor Alumnus
speaking of cute A Hat in Time is out and is absolutely adorable.

If you're a fan of games like Super Mario Sunshine, Super Mario 64, and enjoy the spritework of games like Wind Waker then you will really enjoy AHiT. It is easily one of the best platformers out there right now with a fluid control system, so far very unique and entertaining level designs, and a whole plethora of random shit to collect (and stuff that actually has value and can be used, not just collectathons for the sake of collectathons like Sunshine's blue coins gimmick). I've only put in a couple hours into the game and already I'm having a ton of fun with memorable experiences. Basically the plot (from what I can gather) is you're a girl in a spaceship who is trying to get back to her homeworld when suddenly you pass over a world and the stuff that powers your ship gets scattered all across different worlds. You have to go retrieve that stuff; sounds simple right? It is. I can't exactly say that the plot is all that exciting, but its one of those games that has a really cool aesthetic. People always go on about "CGDCT shows" (cute girls doing cute things) and this is something like that. The main character and main supporting character (mustache girl) basically spend the whole game playing one giant game of tag / make believe, and it really nails that "I'm a 6yo girl just doing pretend shit for fun" aesthetic. The jokes are on point, almost Undertale levels funny but not as grating (just dumb humor. The first level in particular is my favorite). On top of that the controls are what really nails the game for me. This game can be compared to Yooka-Laylee, another recently released collectathon reminiscient of old Banjo-Kazooie games that flopped hard due to a ton of issues (namely controls + camera). This game doesn't have any real issues with either camera or controls as far as I can tell. Movement is heavily accentuated, with Hat Girl having a double jump, a dash mid air that can be canceled, the ability to wallclimb for short distances, and tons of different "hats" that give you different powerups (so far I've found one that lets you sprint, one that gives you hints to where to go, one that lets you turn into ice thats used for some puzzles, and one that lets you throw "concoctions"(bombs)). The sandbox type areas you are introduced to allow a lot of platforming fun. I spent almost an hour in the first level alone just fiddling with the controls and moving the character lol.

Some flaws I've noticed though have been stuttering at times. This game runs pretty easily but even with capped 60 fps it randomly slowed down during one or two cutscenes. It seems to have some visual glitch as well where if you to confined in an area the camera might start shaking and stuff. Hard to explain without actually showing a clip of it happening. Luckily that doesn't happen often due to the nature of your environments. The game also seems really easy, but then a lot of collectathons are. Not many of the missions seem to be difficult, you start off with hint hat that tells you where to go so you're never lost, and even then the missions themselves are really fucking easy (go here and turn off these valves thats a little platforming challenge, navigate this level without being seen, mini boss fight that isn't really all that difficult). The real fun comes in the environments you're in though, and the jokes and dialogue you hear. Mini nods to other series, like a badge you can equip to your hat that turns all voice acting into Banjo Kazooie mumbling, are welcome. I do however think that the novelty of the game affects my playthrough personally. Not sure if it will be as charming on a second playthrough, but then I'm not too much a fan of platformers in general. The only real platformers I liked were Sunshine and Jak and Daxter, games like Spyro / Crash / etc never really held my attention that well for me to replay them over and over
 
Really looking forward to Mario Odyseey, the game looks incredible. Picking up a Switch soon, going to get the aforementioned Mario along with Mario Kart 8 Deluxe, Sonic Mania and Fast RMX. Already got the Wii U Breath of the Wild
 

Pyritie

TAMAGO
is an Artist
I've been meaning to pick this up but I'm debating on just waiting till MH Worlds, I get tired of MH games fairly quickly.
There's a demo on the eshop that's just the first couple hours of the game. If you end up buying the full game later, you can transfer your demo progress directly to the full game, so you don't have to repeat anything.
 

OLD GREGG (im back baby)

old gregg for life
Dropping in to hype a seriously under rated series. Etrian Odyssey V has been in my possession since last week and so far I am enjoying it very much. This game takes the old adage "if it isn't broke don't fix it" quite literally and that is just fine with me. Atlus has formulated an enjoyable and challenging dungeon crawler that hearkens back to a simpler time. This isn't your typical dialogue heavy extra linear role-player. The objective is quite linear-enter the labyrinth, explore, collect treasures to sell, return to town, rinse and repeat ad nauseam. Where the game truly shines is the open sprawling environments that you are tasked to map yourself, the lush character plus enemy designs, the challenging game play with good enemy A.I. , and the extremely ambient music to accompany your journey into the depths of the labyrinth. If you are already a fan of these games you should definitely pick this one up.

If you are new to the series and uncertain weather it would appeal to you then I suggest you instead go for Etrian Odyssey Untold: The Millenium Girl as a good place to start. The difficulty is more forgiving but honestly these games aren't really that difficult. Just requires some determination and a decent attention span.
 
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Dropping in to hype a seriously under rated series. Etrian Odyssey V has been in my possession since last week and so far I am enjoying it very much. This game takes the old adage "if it isn't broke don't fix it" quite literally and that is just fine with me. Atlus has formulated an enjoyable and challenging dungeon crawler that hearkens back to a simpler time. This isn't your typical dialogue heavy extra linear role-player. The objective is quite linear-enter the labyrinth, explore, collect treasures to sell, return to town, rinse and repeat ad nauseam. Where the game truly shines is the open sprawling environments that you are tasked to map yourself, the lush character plus enemy designs, the challenging game play with good enemy A.I. , and the extremely ambient music to accompany your journey into the depths of the labyrinth. If you are already a fan of these games you should definitely pick this one up.

If you are new to the series and uncertain weather it would appeal to you then I suggest you instead go for Etrian Odyssey Untold: The Millenium Girl as a good place to start. The difficulty is more forgiving but honestly these games aren't really that difficult. Just requires some determination and a decent attention span.
Kinda funny, I feel almost the opposite. Throughout most of the series, progressing through the game and leveling up your characters more usually means unlocking skills from other classes and looking for ones that synergize with your existing abilities to create versatile, powerful characters, but in 5 they took it in the opposite direction and the more advanced customization that replaces Subclassing/Grimoires from the previous games instead just makes your characters better at one specific thing. It makes your characters feel artificially limited for the first part of the game since there are so few abilities pre-2nd name, and a lot of the skill trees feel kinda gimmicky and overall you have a lot less abilities to play with regardless of your specific choices.

Aside from that it was a fun game though, and I can appreciate them wanting to try something a bit different. I also like that they expanded on the summon system from 3 and it had some pretty cool classes, Dragoon is probably my favorite tank class and Warlock is an interesting enough spin on the standard caster archetype, my party was Reaper/Dragoon/Cestus Herbalist/Warlock. Voice acting was a nice addition too, even if the amount of voiced dialogue in the story was probably all recorded during a single session.

Overall though I like the series a lot, as much as I enjoy my games like Persona 5 it's refreshing to have an RPG with very solid, refined mechanics that isn't weighed down by lengthy dialogue. In particular I've always really liked the way that it handles status effects, in most games they're either mostly useless or overpowered, EO has the simple, elegant solution of increasing status resistance after a boss has been afflicted (which then slowly goes back down) so they can still be effective you can't just spam them and keep a boss locked down forever, I'm actually a little disappointed more games haven't tried to copy it there.
 
Nice, Cold Steel 3 looks really good. I finished 3rd (not the worst thing, but easily the low point of the series so far) and moved onto Ao recently (which seems to be the best yet, conversely) since I already played Zero awhile back. Looking forward to CS3 but it won't be for awhile, I'm still kinda hoping they'll do a PS4 release of CS 1/2 with enhanced graphics and more voicing.
You playing the JP version of Ao? I know there is an emulator version for zero, don't believe Ao was done last I heard. This might have been from the interview with falcom's ceo, but I could have sworn I heard they were planning on doing something with CS1/2 on PS4. Not sure if an english version is involved for that. There is a version on PC that fits the bill. With the PC version I doubt Xseed would do another on PS4.


A few spoilerless thoughts on my playthrough of CS3 so far (currently in CH2):

The game is definitely harder compared to previous CS games, and I say that with a positive tone. Mainly referring to Hard mode since that is the only mode I play. Delay isn't as crazy, S-Crafts have been weakened (of course the bosses still hit hard), and most boss encounters will require customization or strategy unless you want to grind for a level advantage. Personally don't like the mech battles still, but a bit more was added in this front to improve it slightly.

I really like the new class 7. I thought it might be hard to create a standout cast with the old class 7 and all the other characters we have through CS2, but they have done a great job imo. <3 Juna

New battle tools keeps it from going stale. The battle points add a whole new dimension to strategy, probably the biggest change to me. Double master quartz, new artes, guard break (sort of a new meaning in CS3) are all new additions that I like.

Story is amazing, everything starts to weave together now. Gives me chills and surprises throughout.

No more mashing for fishing and super hidden recipes, thank god. They even upgraded the card game to add more depth instead of pure luck. The game was good enough to get it's own portable game lol.


A bit early to say but CS3 might be better than Ao imo.
 

OLD GREGG (im back baby)

old gregg for life
Kinda funny, I feel almost the opposite. Throughout most of the series, progressing through the game and leveling up your characters more usually means unlocking skills from other classes and looking for ones that synergize with your existing abilities to create versatile, powerful characters, but in 5 they took it in the opposite direction and the more advanced customization that replaces Subclassing/Grimoires from the previous games instead just makes your characters better at one specific thing. It makes your characters feel artificially limited for the first part of the game since there are so few abilities pre-2nd name, and a lot of the skill trees feel kinda gimmicky and overall you have a lot less abilities to play with regardless of your specific choices.

Aside from that it was a fun game though, and I can appreciate them wanting to try something a bit different. I also like that they expanded on the summon system from 3 and it had some pretty cool classes, Dragoon is probably my favorite tank class and Warlock is an interesting enough spin on the standard caster archetype, my party was Reaper/Dragoon/Cestus Herbalist/Warlock. Voice acting was a nice addition too, even if the amount of voiced dialogue in the story was probably all recorded during a single session.

Overall though I like the series a lot, as much as I enjoy my games like Persona 5 it's refreshing to have an RPG with very solid, refined mechanics that isn't weighed down by lengthy dialogue. In particular I've always really liked the way that it handles status effects, in most games they're either mostly useless or overpowered, EO has the simple, elegant solution of increasing status resistance after a boss has been afflicted (which then slowly goes back down) so they can still be effective you can't just spam them and keep a boss locked down forever, I'm actually a little disappointed more games haven't tried to copy it there.
Well I've spent considerably less time with it than you as I remember you imported the Japanese, I believe. That was just first impressions and despite minor adjustments to the character development it is overall pretty par and course for the series. While subclass and grimoires are nowhere to be seen there are skills specific to the individual races, so I guess that is something. The addition of Union Skills is interesting too and I'm excited to unleash their true potential later on. I just really hate that this might be our last EO game realistically. The dual screen set-up is a huge part of the series and I don't know how Atlus will address this in any possible future installment. I don't have a party set in stone atm as I like to gauge my options but I never leave town without my Botanist and Dragoon, the other three slots are a toss up depending on what I need... I dislike that you basically now have to bring a Shaman to make full use of the Fencer's link skills. The Necromancer and Rover are really fun so far as you said the summoning system is really helpful in most cases. The Pugilist now deals Binds which is always a very good strategy imo. Harbinger appears to be a less potent Nightseeker. I haven't reached a point where I can get a second name yet though. I just wanted to hype the game up because I think they don't get the attention they deserve and I hate to think this will be the last one...but it probably will be.
 
Well I've spent considerably less time with it than you as I remember you imported the Japanese, I believe. That was just first impressions and despite minor adjustments to the character development it is overall pretty par and course for the series. While subclass and grimoires are nowhere to be seen there are skills specific to the individual races, so I guess that is something. The addition of Union Skills is interesting too and I'm excited to unleash their true potential later on. I just really hate that this might be our last EO game realistically. The dual screen set-up is a huge part of the series and I don't know how Atlus will address this in any possible future installment. I don't have a party set in stone atm as I like to gauge my options but I never leave town without my Botanist and Dragoon, the other three slots are a toss up depending on what I need... I dislike that you basically now have to bring a Shaman to make full use of the Fencer's link skills. The Necromancer and Rover are really fun so far as you said the summoning system is really helpful in most cases. The Pugilist now deals Binds which is always a very good strategy imo. Harbinger appears to be a less potent Nightseeker. I haven't reached a point where I can get a second name yet though. I just wanted to hype the game up because I think they don't get the attention they deserve and I hate to think this will be the last one...but it probably will be.
Yeah, that makes sense and I did play the Japanese version, I forgot that they tend to change the names of a lot of classes. Harbinger is basically Nightseeker yeah. Shaman seems like they'd run low on stuff to do given EO's limited buff slots and the fact that they can't use abilities from other classes, though I don't tend to use the buff-focused classes too much anyways. Chain Fencer seemed fun but like the sort of thing you'd have to build your party around which is also something I don't like doing. Necromancer I'm disappointed I didn't get a chance to use though.

I think I remember hearing somewhere that they had at least one more currently planned for 3DS, not including Persona Q2. Not sure if it's 6 or a remake of 3, and honestly I'm not even sure which I'd prefer, 3 is the only non-remade one I haven't properly played but it has a lot of things that I like and seems like it could be the best in the series with another layer of polish and content.

I'd love to see the series continue on Switch. 2 screens isn't possible any more, but maybe they could split the screen and include a stylus accessory with the game? idk

You playing the JP version of Ao? I know there is an emulator version for zero, don't believe Ao was done last I heard. This might have been from the interview with falcom's ceo, but I could have sworn I heard they were planning on doing something with CS1/2 on PS4. Not sure if an english version is involved for that. There is a version on PC that fits the bill. With the PC version I doubt Xseed would do another on PS4.


A few spoilerless thoughts on my playthrough of CS3 so far (currently in CH2):

The game is definitely harder compared to previous CS games, and I say that with a positive tone. Mainly referring to Hard mode since that is the only mode I play. Delay isn't as crazy, S-Crafts have been weakened (of course the bosses still hit hard), and most boss encounters will require customization or strategy unless you want to grind for a level advantage. Personally don't like the mech battles still, but a bit more was added in this front to improve it slightly.

I really like the new class 7. I thought it might be hard to create a standout cast with the old class 7 and all the other characters we have through CS2, but they have done a great job imo. <3 Juna

New battle tools keeps it from going stale. The battle points add a whole new dimension to strategy, probably the biggest change to me. Double master quartz, new artes, guard break (sort of a new meaning in CS3) are all new additions that I like.

Story is amazing, everything starts to weave together now. Gives me chills and surprises throughout.

No more mashing for fishing and super hidden recipes, thank god. They even upgraded the card game to add more depth instead of pure luck. The game was good enough to get it's own portable game lol.


A bit early to say but CS3 might be better than Ao imo.
I'm playing the Vita version, all the extra voicing is a huge help since my Japanese is still far from perfect. Won't be playing CS3 for a long time yet but I'm looking forward to it.
 
There was a Playstation conference with a bunch of trailers and announcements, the one that interests me the most is Ghost of Tsushima. It's the game Sucker Punch has had under wraps since their last game in 2014, there's only a cinematic trailer but it looks to be an open world action/stealth game where you play as a Samurai in feudal Japan during the Mongol invasion of 1274.


Now if only we know the game that Retro has been working on since 2014 when they released Tropical Freeze...

Also, Guacamelee 2.
 
I've been thinking of getting into the Kingdom Hearts series. What would be a good game to start with? I have a PS2, Wii-U, Switch and 3DS. I do own a laptop, but it struggles to emulate anything post SNES - trying to play Spyro the Dragon at about 8 frames per second is not a fun experience.
 

Karxrida

Death to the Undying Savage
is a Community Contributor Alumnus
I've been thinking of getting into the Kingdom Hearts series. What would be a good game to start with? I have a PS2, Wii-U, Switch and 3DS. I do own a laptop, but it struggles to emulate anything post SNES - trying to play Spyro the Dragon at about 8 frames per second is not a fun experience.
Play the games in their release order, so basically start with I. You can probably find a used copy of the original PS2 version somewhere or just buy a PS4 and get the HD collection with the entire series on it. I'd recommend the latter option if possible since the PS4 collection has the Final Mix versions of I, II, and BBS.
 
Play the games in their release order, so basically start with I. You can probably find a used copy of the original PS2 version somewhere or just buy a PS4 and get the HD collection with the entire series (and the best versions of I and II) on it.
I just bought a Switch and don't have the money for a PS4. Ill take your advice regarding the PS2 version. Thanks
 
I've been contemplating getting a switch but I've been putting it off as I've been binging overwatch when I've had time to game lately but I have a question: is it possible to get reasonably priced nintendo games? They never seem to go on sale or drop in price at all, which means practically everything is perpetually around $80 AUD which is more than I'd like to pay for a game. Admittedly I haven't looked too hard, but I'm not optimistic tbh
 

Sondero

Don't you dare say you'd rather lose!
is a Top Social Media Contributor Alumnus
Also, Guacamelee 2.
Guacamelee 1 was pretty fun, so I'm greatly looking forward to Guacamelee 2. I'd prefer to have it on Switch, but since it's on PS4, I won't mind it too much if it's exclusive for it.
 

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