#I'm pretty impressed with the gameplay for this skill so far

[jasminesilk]

Tristan has been getting into the new gemology skill and even made his first pair of earrings!

I've decided to go with gemology for his second creative skill mostly because it's new but also because I think it'll go really well with spellcaster gameplay.

[qsmp-yaoi-island]

Now that Purgatory (round 1??) is over I wanna do a more concise review on it. Warning for possible neg and long post, I just wanna talk about my personal opinion with it:

The event itself: I wanna say first that the most fun part of this event was the CCs. The event itself was... the least fun part. I understand the point of purgatory was to suffer, but from a content creator point you have to take your audience into account. To spend your limited time running back to your body for 30 minutes - 2 hours to get back to your body was just one part of the frustration and then pile people hunting you for points on top of that, it's bound to get people upset. People have already talked about how the biggest problem was the lack of testing for the event, so it they had to balance the event as it was ongoing. The constant changing rules made every victory feel less about skill and more about exploiting the rules/Who had the most people on that day.

Meta vs. Lore: This has been a problem with the qsmp for a while now, but it's never been more apparent with purgatory. All of the hints that were thrown around vague or not about the cursed team caused so much confusion. Cellbit said a really good point about it early on: "Why would they have an event where one team was bound to win? You're grinding for 10 hours each day just to give up and let one team win." <- paraphrased. So we were faced with a conundrum where we're unsure if we take the hints as something to consider in the competition of the game, or just play what the admins intended. And the balancing having to be done by the players for no enchants, lead to a lot of anger over disagreeing with that rule was in rp or not.

Was it worth it the reward?: First impressions, I want to say no. The coming days will probably change my mind but for now to justify two weeks of ten hours a day of grinding for a cliffhanger is pretty defeating. Multiple cc's have said they want a break after how intense this event has been and now they don't really get a reward for it, and will probably have to do it again. The drama was good, the emotions were high, but you cannot keep a story going on hopelessness forever. And now that they're going back to the island it's undetermined how this is gonna effect the characters in lore and feels like again, everything is put on hold for now.

I loved this event, the admins did so well despite it's flaws. My only hope is from here is that things start to get solved, the Eye being introduced at this point has really muddled with all the current mystery of the Fed and Resistance already had going on, and it's spreading out the focus far too much. We need answers not more villains.

That being said I'm excited to see where they take it from here. It really jumpstarted my love for the server all over again: it had tons of good interactions we wouldn't have gotten otherwise, intense gameplay, and tons of good character driven content. But man, I want off this wild ride.

[kurenaicrush]

Omega Quintet first impressions and a rant about it's character Takt

So I just started playing Omega Quintet and I've got about 5 hours into the game. I'm enjoying it so far, so I'd like to give my first impressions. It's a game I've been thinking about getting into for a while and a recent sale finally persuaded me. I was really interested by the premise of it, it sounds very similar to Symphogear, an obscure anime I really like. 

Omega Quintet is a half jrpg, half visual novel game. The world is thrown into chaos by an entity known as Blare (or Beep in the JP ver.) Blare produces monsters called MAD that cause mass destruction. Blare can be destroyed by a special girl known as a Verse Maiden, one who can use the power of song to defeat them. Otoha is a young girl who always dreamed of becoming a Verse Maiden like her idol Momoka. Her dream finally comes true when a certain incident gives her a chance to step up to the plate. 

Other than this I won't go into much detail about the story since I'm not that far in yet, but it's a good premise so far! I'd mostly like to give my thoughts about the gameplay itself and a certain critique I have about the game so far.

Early thoughts about the gameplay:

The battle system feels very complex and they throw a lot of information at you that you won't digest right away. I don't fully understand how it all works yet, but it's at least fun so far! I'll explain what I do understand for now. The game features the same combo type system that other Compile Heart games like Death End re;Quest and Neptunia have. You can pick multiple skills to chain together in a combo and it feels pretty satisfying. The animations are decent too! The battlefield seems to have different layers/rows to it that make certain attacks effective at a particular range. There are many different weapon and element skills, some having different effects like knockback. 

There's a character named Takt that I'll talk more about later. He's basically like this game’s Jack if you've played Mary Skelter. He supports the Verse Maidens in combat by adding an extra attack in the girl's combo chains and can also block an attack for a party member. He also has other supportive abilities that I don't quite understand yet. 

Now this wouldn't be a Compile Heart game without some kind of fan service. I don't quite fully understand this mechanic yet either, but Omega Quintet features an outfit break system. If a party member receives too much damage, their clothes will start to tear off and you'll lose any buffs you had applied to that particular outfit. I know it's really silly, but I honestly love it. I've always personally thought that battle damage in stuff like Dragon Ball Z or Senran Kagura was the coolest most epic thing. It just adds an extra sense of drama and intensity to fights, despite the intent to show off some panties. 

These are the main points I wanted to mention, but there's so much more to the battle system, including Voltage. Like I said, it's very complex. I hope to get a better understanding of it as I progress.

I'd briefly like to mention the game's art. This Compile Heart game has a different artist that I'm not familiar with, but I really like the style! It's all really cute and pretty and I think it really fits the characters. It's hard to describe, but everything just feels super girly and I love it. The character designs are so good! It's cuteness overload for me! There's also a few visual novel illustrations too!

The rant about this game's negative:

Sadly though there is one negative I have about this game so far that I feel the need to criticize. Do you ever consume a piece of media that has a character so badly written and integrated that it almost ruins the experience of the whole thing for you? Well for me that character is Takt. Takt is this game's male secondary protagonist support character that Compile Heart games commonly have. Takt and Otoha are childhood friends who grew up together. They're the closest thing each other has to family since they both had no parents.

I have a couple problems with Takt. Firstly is his personality, or lack thereof. Really his only personality trait is being cold and disinterested and he really doesn't contribute anything significant. It feels like he only stays friends with Otoha out of obligation, again always acting cold and disinterested when interacting with her, even being a little mean to her at times. The story wants you to think that deep down he genuinely cares for her, but they haven't shown much to make it convincing. Aside from that, he has his moments where he acts recklessly heroic, but only because the plot needs him to be. I'm curious to see if maybe Takt will have any character development that will make me think better of him, but I have my doubts about that due to my secondary reason for not liking him. We're really off to a rocky start for this one.

My second reason for hating Takt is how the game needlessly pushes him as being a self insert character. A lot of the game's story feels like it is viewed through Takt’s perspective. He also doesn't have a visual novel portrait in cutscenes, I assume because he's supposed to represent you viewing the story. You also control Takt instead of Otoha when exploring the Verse Maiden headquarters before accepting a mission. I just feel like a self insert for this kind of story was really forced and unnecessary. The game would've been so much better without him. Takt has no likable qualities and doesn't contribute much to anything. He just feels shoehorned into the game because the developers wanted the game to be more appealing to the male audience I assume. He literally just has no reason for being present, once again he barely contributes anything to the plot. Even some of the actual characters in game make comments about his useless presence, almost as if the game is self aware. The game's excuse is that Otoha gets nervous without him being there, so he always has to be following her around. This eventually leads to Takt becoming the Verse Maiden’s manager and he supports their team in combat. The worst part about it is how uninspired and indifferent he is about everything. He's not even interested in helping the girls, he's only there to keep Otoha company because he's got nothing else better to do I guess.

Speaking of him helping in combat, I've got another thing to rant about! For the gameplay he just gets a big ass anime sword and powers for literally no reason. I kid you not, the game gives absolutely no explanation as to how he obtained all that. I don't know if it'll get explained later, but so far the game hasn't acknowledged it. His abilities have no story relevance so far. The characters just comment on having an uplifting energy when being supported by him. 

That one fish from SpongeBob: “Oh brother, this guy stinks!” I'm so sorry reader, but the rant doesn't end here I'm afraid. Sadly there’s still more! So I'm not too far in to really see where this goes, but there's also a relationship mechanic. You can increase your affection with certain characters. Not sure what this does yet though. I'm just mad because of course the writers have to make all the girls like him too, because he totally deserves it (sarcasm). 

To top it all off, let's talk about his design. He's even got that cookie cutter boring protagonist anime boy look to him. His design feels very uninspired compared to the rest of the game's characters. Takt just feels like an insult to an otherwise good game, which is why I felt the need to criticize his unnecessary inclusion. The only redeeming quality about him is his role in the gameplay is a neat mechanic, but this easily could've been replaced by a different supporting character instead of forcing a self insert.

Alright so that's all my thoughts for now. If I continue to put a lot of time into the game I may give an update to how I'm enjoying it. Thanks for reading and I'm sorry this turned into a big rant. I didn't originally plan for that lol, but Takt was just too insufferable for me. But when I criticize something, it's because I like that thing and think it deserves better. Omega Quintet is so cool so far, it really didn't deserve to be held back by this character. Takt’s existence is negatively affecting the experience for me.

[wandringaesthetic]

Thoughts on FFXVI so far (Jill is awake and she and Clive are on the way to Rosaria) (spoilers to that point)

The game is beautiful. I've been taking a lot of screenshots like "man this pretty"/"man this almost looks real." I saw a few "this looks like a PS3 game" comments from earlier demo/gameplay footage, and I think I understand that, because the zones from the demo (the barren mountains where Titan and Shiva fight and the blighted village) are somewhat empty and have fewer/more muted colors. The story takes place in a dying world, and has the look and lighting of somewhere far north. You can quibble with the aesthetics if you like but not the graphics.

The thing that impresses me most in this generation in graphics is lighting, so. I keep being like "woa" and taking screenshots of water.

There is no minimap, and in "dungeon" zones, no map at all. I like this a lot, because I feel like I stare at the map if it's there instead of the very beautiful pictures in front of me, and I think it's appropriate to feel a little lost and disoriented and nervous about it in, say, the enemy castle you are infiltrating. But I imagine some people will not like this. Areas so far have been fairly linear, though I did get a little turned around in the first forest area (the greatwood?)

Bosses and midbosses are fun and very beautifully animated. Average field enemies feel like a bit of a waste of time and should either be a little easier or a lot tougher. I feel like, with skill, one could absolutely blaze through boss fights, and with either more caution or less skill they're a bit of a slow grinding down. Feel like I'm generally falling somewhere in between on these.

I'm playing on "action" mode and am not using any of the "timely" accessories. I have played some action-y games but am by no means a real pro gamer. I've had to retry some boss fights (when you do this, the game lets you restart the fight with a full inventory of potions (4 potions and 3 hi potions)) but I haven't felt like I've been "stuck" on anything yet. I feel like the "reward" of increasing your skill isn't necessarily just getting through the game (which you can probably do regardless of skill if you just grind at it) but feeling like a bamf as you do.

(there is a kinship with FFVIII in this regard)

I've done....4? Sidequests so far. They are very reminiscent of FFXIV sidequests. Go rescue this girl and grab the supplies she was supposed to gather. Be Valisthea's surliest waiter. Not too exciting but they fulfill what I think is their primary function of fleshing out the world building.

The intuition I had regarding the "bearer" tattoos from the trailers and the demo was that they were magical and either sedated or memory wiped the bearer or somehow made it impossible to escape (need to the spell renewed so often or they kill you or something like that). And it turns out, no, the system of slavery is so ingrained and the odds of being cast out and then hunted down are so high that they don't need to be magical. The mark is enough.

I ALSO thought the bearers were generally POW slaves acquired through conquest and weren't necessarily people who can use magic. THEN I thought they were ALL people who could use magic, but no and no. They are ALL people who can use magic WITHOUT a crystal (excepting dominants, which are special) and Clive was actually a weird cultural exception as the first shield of Rosaria BEFORE he was branded and then fell into the general norm after. Which makes a terrible sense! We do not like what we can't control! Also makes Annabella's weird disgust towards him make more sense!

I think probably part of the reasoning behind that awkward Yoshi-P statement saying "everyone in this game is white because we didn't want it to be about race" is probably BECAUSE slavery is a major plot and world-building thing in a system that in some ways mimics but mostly doesn't real world chattel slavery. Whether making it all be white on white crime is effective or worth it is something I'm going to reserve judgement on for now.

Oh Cid. Cid. What are you doing, Cid? I didn't understand what he wanted at all at first, and now I get the idea that he is good intentioned but has no coherent plan. Free as many bearers as possible and then eventually we'll have a revolution? But you don't want to say that because you're already pretty sure you'll fail. a lot of the people you're freeing are old or infirm you're not exactly forming an army. This is only working because the powers that be are too busy fighting each other to notice you. What are you going to do when they do, Cid? I'm going to do what I think is right until they come kill me and then God can judge me??

I enjoy Cid. He is just some guy who is trying and not at all an inspirational figure.

This game is pretty brutal, huh? I keep thinking about the guy who ended up as a blood spatter under a rock in the first few minutes of the game and the blood pooling under some of Shiva's ice later.

(the ice and the rocks creaking and the subtle controller vibration as you walk through the aftermath of Shiva and Titan's fight really sold the scale and also that this is all about to come crashing down)

I feel it's more tasteful, if you're going to do violence, to have semi-realistic violence rather than bloodless violence. Also I just personally like it. I like bones crunching. I like the post battle blood on your heroes clothes and armor. Enough to be slightly gross but not Dragon Age style ridiculously drenched in blood. Just right.

There are a weird number of surprise lethal axe throws though.

Alas, Benedikta. We hardly knew you. She has a kinship to Yotsuya. I actually wonder if there is a Japanese trope both of them fall under with the long pipe.

None of the soldiers in this game seem to be women. The only women we see fight are Jill and Benedikta, who are both dominants and therefore exceptional. Which... I will reserve judgement on whether that adequately makes sense later. Valisthea is in other ways not a nice place.

I get the idea that the eikons/dominants aren't always passed down via blood. It seems maybe each eikon has its own rules? I wonder if they always have a gender preference for their host.

I like the little overlay arrows showing where you can climb up or under something. It feels like that breaks immersion less so than all Horizon Forbidden West's foot and handholds being yellow, for example. Or all the walls you can run on having a certain texture, or w/e.

The music is good, ofc. Maybe my new favorite main character theme? I have to meditate on it.

Oh, the one huge awkward guy is named Goetz, which is speculated to be what Guts Berserk's name is "supposed" to be. Or Gotz, some Germanic shortening of Gottfried or similar via translation party shenanigans. I don't think this has any significance but it might be a nod. (Which make me wonder whether FFV's Bartz/Butz was supposed to be something like that now. Hmm.) Also I lay like 50% odds he's going to end up as Titan's dominant by the end of the game.

I am also on High Berserk Fan Alert due to the eclipse in the one live action trailer/advertisement.

I have NO IDEA what we're heading for here in terms of overarching plot or what the final showdown is going to be, and since I don't have enough freedom to just dick around in the game I'm getting a little antsy about that. And where's that second time skip gonna land?

(oh man I just happened to encounter the shortened version of that commercial in the wild in the break room on tv FATE WILL FALL that music aaaaaa)

There's a shot in the very beginning of the game that's a Gandalf versus Balrog visual reference and Clive opens double doors by dramatically throwing his arms wide. There are a lot of small details that feel a near copy to Game of Thrones. Clive grows up in the castle with his father's ward who is like a sibling to him. He's second fiddle to his brother. His mother figure hates his face. He has a loyal doggo. He's Aragorn. He's Jon Snow.

I've often thought that the storytelling of FFXIV feels more like doorstopper fantasy novel storytelling than video game storytelling (or movie or tv show storytelling for that matter). FFXVI seems to be continuing that. Opening up the active time lore menu (I love this feature, BTW?) feels like flipping to the glossary.

Alexander O. Smith cites A Song of Ice and Fire as inspiration for the style of Vagrant Story and FFXII. And I'm glad he did, because when I played those games in a world pre Game of Thrones television show, I was like "is anybody else seeing this???" It turns out the Venn diagram overlap of "people who play epic fantasy video games" and "people who read epic fantasy novels" is SURPRISINGLY SMALL. Smith overdoes it but just occasionally, imo. By which I mean, if you use the phrase "mummer's farce" there had best be some fucking mummers in your story. It took a long time for anyone to hit approximately this correct tone in video games again but.

I'm digressing.

ANYWAY. I THINK IT'S INTERESTING THAT WE INITIALLY ADDED THIS FLAVOR IN EX POST FACTO IN THE LOCALIZATION AND NOW WE'RE GOING FOR IT INTENTIONALLY THE WHOLE TIME. Because this was written simultaneously in English and Japanese. I find it interesting that we started by being inspired by the tabletop gaming heirs of fantasy literature and now we're taking after fantasy literature itself.

We're also seeming to go for the Game of Thrones thematic thing where the nobles are squabbling amongst each other when everyone ought to be banding together against the oncoming climate apocalypse.

But we will (most likely. Hopefully.) Be reaching a conclusion in 40-80 hours of action RPG instead of leaving me hanging for the rest of my natural life. And I would be shocked if we have some sort of red wedding situation in the works.

I'm having a good time, overall. Hesitant to quantify how much of a good time at this juncture.

Sometimes I feel like we need to put the F-word privileges back on the shelf for a minute, but mostly the swears are effective.

Oh gosh, I glanced upon this subject in tags, but I do love Clive's post accepting he killed Joshua freakout. And how Cid's all "well, why don't you just track this guy down anyway, and if he wasn't involved THEN you can kill yourself ;D" because it comes right after a moment Clive was standing on a bridge, and there's not any attention drawn to it but you KNOW he's thinking about jumping. And then Torgal bounds up to him and the moment passes.

And Cid's "welp, you're alive so you may as well make yourself useful" attitude is not the BEST but it's also not the WORST, you know?

Anyway, like I said, having a good time. Having a good time having a bad time.

[fragmentofmemories]

(Longpost) Shining in the Darkness: Early Impressions.

I mentioned it offhand once, but I was going through Shining in the Darkness for the Sega Genesis/Mega Drive. Just beat the first floor (I think), so I'd figured I'd talk about how I'm currently feeling about it (Tl;Dr I'm liking it).

It's the first game in Sega's Shining series, but rather than an SRPG like its more known Shining Force games, SitD is a first-person DRPG.

Meaning of course I had to go and try it. As if I don't have like 4 or 5 other DRPGs in my backlog (give me a break i just like the genre...).

And overall, I can say it's a neat game so far. Although the earlygame might put some people off.

Storywise, it's simple: You are tasked with rescuing a princess who, alongside your father, disappeared within a nearby labyrinth. I do recall the Shining series' plots becoming more complex the further you played. But if it's as simple as it looks, I can't say I mind much.

Similarly, the gameplay is pretty standard for the genre. You explore large mazes in a first person perspective along your two teammates - fitting the Fighter/Mage/Priest archetypes each.

Rather than learning multiple spells, it seems that your party members instead upgrade the few skills they do have, with the option of choosing which version of a spell you'll use.

For example: Milo, the healer, can cast a Lv2 or Lv1 Heal spell depending on which is more convenient. It's a pretty neat mechanic, which I'm pretty sure was later used in Shining Force.

So far it's good: The main character can tank hits and retaliate with normal attacks. Your priest can heal as well as equip heavy weapons. And your mage can cast ailments, debuffs and elemental spells.

The one caveat with the earlygame is that your teammates don't show up at the start.

Instead, you have to explore throughout most of the first floor on your own, up to fighting the first boss.

There is an escape item, as well as another that lets you see your current location. And by all means, the main character can survive on his own once he gains a few levels. But he learns no magic whatsoever, so the only healing available will be via items, and the only way to deal damage will be via normal attacks.

So basically, the earlygame will be spent on farming until you have enough money for better equipment. The first boss makes sure you do that, as it will kill you and receive no damage in return.

Thankfully, as soon as you beat the first boss and finally get access to your teammates, the game runs much smoother. As per usual with the genre, the mage happens to learn a sleep spell early on - making the larger encounters much more manageable.

While on the topic of encounters: apparently, the game changes what you find depending on your level.

At first, fights often had just one to two slimes. but after level 8 it was pretty common to see up to four or five of them at once - mixed in with other, more powerful enemies. It's a really cool concept, one I haven't seen in other DRPGs.

Overall I'd say the game is pretty fun so far. There's a lot of charm to the spritework, the music is great, and I would recommend it. Provided you can handle the earlygame grinding/soloing. Unlike EXP, it will take a while before you can afford better equipment.

[blueberry-lemon]

Persona 5 Tactica non-spoiler First Impressions

I'm honestly pretty burned out on Persona, specifically the P5 cast, at this point, BUT...I figured I'd give them one last rodeo with Tactica. Especially bc I like seeing different takes on tactics RPG gameplay.

I'm liking it so far! Its closest parallel game is definitely Mario+Rabbids, but I think I prefer this game more than that series.

If you're wondering if you can play this game without playing Persona 5, I would say yeah probably. Maybe read like a 1-sentence synopsis of who the Phantom Thieves are so you know who the cast is?

Non-spoilers impressions below:

Love the art style. Love the dialogue portraits and the 3D cutscenes, which I honestly like more than their counterparts in actual Persona 5. I was unsure of the character designs when Tactica was first teased, but I grew to love them. Everyone's really expressive.

New character, Erina, is great. Love her.

Fun tactics gameplay. Definitely leans slightly in the direction of "puzzley tactics" rather than "all-out brawl" tactics if that makes sense. What I mean is that like, battles can take a hard swing for the good or the bad depending on whether you made a huge mistake. I did one side quest that definitely felt like a "puzzle", in that there was a specific way to beat in the required amount of turns. The main story missions are a nice blend so far. I guess I would call Final Fantasy Tactics an "all-out brawl" tactics game.

If you play this game, definitely make sure you digest the main mechanic of the game: knock an opponent away from cover, then hit them when they're out in the open. That gives you an extra turn. This is absolutely crucial to surviving.

But on that note...the game generously offers, like, 5 different difficulty choices!

Character customization is nice and streamlined. I don't think the game cares at all if you're a nerd about Persona fusion, you can kind of just go with the flow. Your choices are a combination of equipping Personas and also leveling up a character skill tree.

I honestly like how the Personas themselves are handled in this more than in Persona 5. Each character has their signature Persona at all times, PLUS equips one of your homemade fused Personas. So Joker can have Arsene + Jack Frost, for example. To account for this, I think each Persona only has 2 Skills each.

Each party member has their own, like, "Ultimate" ability and Passive ability that's unique to them, so that's nice.

No hub world to run around in, which for me is a HUGE plus. Just a pleasant hub menu with things to do in between battles.

The game does a GREAT job of slowly unraveling the mechanics so that it doesn't overwhelm you all at once in the beginning

The story is whatever so far, if I'm being honest. But it's inoffensive and you can easily skip a few cutscenes without missing any crucial information.

I don't think the game is gonna blow any Persona fan or tactics fan's mind, but I think it's successful so far. It feels like an alternate choice to Mario+Rabbids, with a slightly different take on how to make a similar game.

Good job Atlus!

[soundofseclusion]

54. Trek to Yomi

Release: 2022, PC/PS4/PS5/Xbox One/Xbox Series Beaten: October 8th, Xbox Series S (Game Pass) Playtime: 5h 53m

Trek to Yomi doesn't break any new ground or do anything spectacular. Its biggest strength is the fact that it's a very visually impressive game, with compelling cinematography and framing, a lot of visual flair, and some extraordinary set pieces. But everything else it does is just done well. Combat is enjoyable and interesting, albeit somewhat repetitive. For the most part, I didn't get bored of combat, but I recognized that there wasn't a huge amount of depth to it. You unlock new combos and skills throughout the game, but they don't change up the moment-to-moment gameplay in a substantial way and are mostly just fun to collect. The story is not particularly deep, but I enjoyed it nonetheless. I felt like the main character's narrative and evolution was pretty strong, though not so much so for the other characters, of which there are really only a few. The story doesn't have any outright faults as far as I'm concerned, and the overall plot is interesting. So, combat and plot are both good, but not exceptional. And really, I think that's okay. Not every game needs to blow my mind to qualify as an enjoyable experience, nor does it need to be exceptional to be "good."

[risu5waffles]

Thirty TENs Is Better Than One 300.

i'm pretty sure i never expected i would play a sperm in an LBP level, but here we are. Now, i understand the US education system is pretty pants when it comes to health/reproductive ed, but i don't remember them ever mentioning that my doings were full of monsters and strawberries. i feel like someone should have mentioned that at some point. i was ill-served as a child. The level is fantastic, tho'. A delight to look at, even if at times a bit distracting to navigate. Holds together mechanically, as well, which is nice for an LBP1 level wiv so many moving parts. Poms really was a special creator, and i hope they're still getting a chance to put their skills into practice wherever life wound up taking them.

This was a neat little bit of kit; similar in some ways to Trindal's Heart of the Flip-Side we looked at a while back. More broken up into sections, tho'; nothing grand-scale where the whole level is moving. i feel like it makes the actual play a bit better, tho'. A little more thought could be put into making each individual bit work. Also it doesn't feel quite so open-empty, which was a thing in one or two of Flip-side's quadrants. All-around a good time, this one.

i really like how much is done wiv so little in the way of decorations in this one. It's got a really nice look wiv hardly any stickering at all. The level itself is a straight-forward play, nothing that ought to leave anyone feeling confused, and that can be nice sometimes. Another one i feel like i could easily recommend to folx.

This is another real charmer wiv an awful lot going on it it. There's that whole-ass multi-stage boss wiv a weakpoint you actually have to reveal to shoot? Like, i was not expecting any of that when i fired up the level. And the level keeps going after that. Not so much that i was rushing to get it done, but it's definitely a full meal as far as these things go.

A much better take on the theme of music than we got fromm Symphony of Destruction in the last batch. The look of the level is great, and tripleking really worked to make the instruments into platforming elements, even if it made some of the gameplay a touch awkward at times. i've always had a fondness for connectors as purely decorative elements, and it was super-cool seeing winches getting used for guitar strings here. This whole level is just neat.

We talked about this the other day, and it still is exactly what it is. Is that good? Yeah, i think good is a word that could be used here.

This is a updated repub of a level i actually reviewed for Alpi ages back. i'm glad he still has a video of the original (link in the video description), because it's real cool to see them side-by-side. Even tho' it did look good before, the amount of polish in the new version is quite impressive, and really makes it feel like a whole new bit of kit. There's been some tightening on the gameplay as well, and it plays an awful lot smoother. Real good work from a real good creator.

This one's fine. It really is. Definitely very pretty, if a little washed out by the lighting. The underwater bits were good, and don't overstay their welcome. It's all fine. It's just... like, it feels so drifty. There's no real oomph to push you through the level. i wrapped it up, and felt like, "yeah, that was cool, but i'll probably forget it by next month." To be fair, i forget a lot of things in a month's time, so maybe that's not saying all that much.

This was pretty cool. It's nice to see levels that just use the one layer sometimes, as a reminder that that's totally a thing that can be done, and still make for a fun level. The gameplay is a bit run-of-the-mill , but it's fun and keeps it's momentum, and i don't need more than that a lot of times. And it is well put-together, i don't want to give the impression that because it's straight-forward that i think VenomoX was being a slack-ass or anything. The presentation, i feel like it's going to work for you or not. All the stickering can be a bit of a distraction, but i feel like the colours work together well enough in each section that it never got over the top (at least to me). i know the title page mentioned the level had to be shortened some, because the stickers were playing merry hell wiv the thermo, which, yeah, that's a whole thing. i feel like the length is just right for what it needs, tho'.

Honestly, this is not what i wanted the 300th episode to be. i mean, i knew i wanted it to be one of my levels, because... i mean c'mon, it's my own show, i get to indulge myself sometimes. But the nature of the level means it can't really be honestly archived. Most of what i was transferring in the lockbox i'd have no problems sharing, but some of the costumes were things i'd made for folx on stream wiv their input, and it just felt like it would be weird, and rude, to just put those out in the wild for anyone to use? The message as well, like, it's nothing i wouldn't, or haven't, said to those folx in public, but... there's something a little special about receiving something that's just for you, or for you and a small group of others. i don't know. i have a lot of feelings here. At the end of the day tho', i just don't really have any other published levels to share. i mean, there's the ActBot Matsuri one, and that one's fine, but... it's not cherry, you know?

----------------------------------------------

Damn... just... 300episodes already. You know, i still haven't covered a level from anyone wiv a Q-starting name. i'm starting to think that's just going to be a thing, and i low-key hate it? Y'all know any solid creators wiv names what start wiv Q, you let me know, alright.

i've been plugging away at that alt-account level, and it's almost shocking how smoothly it's been going. i'm doing everything in a no-deco base cardboard build, and i'm going to do material swaps when i do the decoration passes. i'm trying to do as much as i possibly can wiv LBP1-era logic, and that's been a whole trip. i was never one to look down my nose at logic gates and selectors, i love those little buggers, and will always appreciate their addition in LBP2, but... holy shite do i ever love them now. Setting things up wiv actual, physical logic, it's a good workout for my brainmeats, but gods and fish it is such a pain in the arse. It's a fun pain in the arse, but even then. i worked out how to get a winch to switch directions depending on when it was going to be used (basically, the first time you encounter it, you're riding it up, so it needs to reset to down if you die mid-trip; but the next time you're riding it down, so it has to do the reverse). This would be no problem no issue wiv current tech, but when i got it to work here, let me tell you i felt like king shit of turd mountain.

[efangamez]

Hm. So I've played two new games today! Lemme give you a teeny review of them both so far.

Barony:

Barony is a first person rogue like dungeon crawler with pixelated graphics and combat reminiscent of the old Elder Scrolls games. I played about an hour of this game and sadly couldnt get into it. The amount of content was overwhelming to me, and the way the tutorial handled these explanations wasn't too hot. The combat was also not very smooth. I do appreciate the devs putting in time into this game as people seem to really love this game, but it just didn't *feel* good to me, so I refunded it. Still waiting for a simple, fun, single player FPS Fantasy Rogue like that has really fun Melee combat (I'm looking at you, Elderborn: your combat is fucking awesome).

Terminator: Resistance:

Now this is a shockingly fun game. I had heard some great things about this game, so I went ahead and dove in, and I'm pretty impressed. The visuals are great, the gunplay matches the tone of the game (this is so under-utilized in games) and some of the characters have really great personalities. I also dig the Skills, barebones as they are, to help with gameplay variety. I also love how threatening the Terminators are and the music that plays.

Now some critiques. The sound design, save for the laser and Terminator sounds, is very lackluster. You can hear certain sound fonts from games like Halo (the shotgun sound AND the sniper rifle sound, sometimes not even edited). It does kinda take me outta the immersion, and I really wish they'd change it. The voice acting and character modeling could also use a pretty decent buff (WAIT. THE WITCHER VA IS IN THIS. WHY ISNT HE THE MC???? AHHHHH).

This game is kinda what I wished Fallout's gameplay was gonna be for 4 (with some improvements of course) because I just got HEAVY fallout 3 inspo from this game and it really is awesome.

Okay enough writing. I'm sleepy. I need to do this more often; this is fun! Also, feel free to reply or reblogs with game recs!

[dumbfinntales]

The year is finally coming to an end. How fast it went by, especially with school the months just passed by. But starting next year we'll really get into the meat of things and start learning different kinds of programming. Should be interesting! Also per my yearly tradition I'll also look back at some games I've played and choose my personal GOTY. So more below.

At that start of this year I played through Beyond Good and Evil which was a fun game with some annoying stealth sections. It really reminded me of PS2 era games and it was fun. I also bought a game called Darkwood when I was drunk and still haven't played it. I really don't like having a "backlog" of games, but now they're building up. Maybe I'll start 2024 with Darkwood?

Early this year a game that absolutely blew me away was released. Pizza Tower. There's nothing I don't love about this game. The characters, art style, humor, the vibes, gameplay, music etc... Everything beyond immaculate. And the game reached quite the popularity, didn't it? Never expected Pizza Tower of all things to get a fandom like Undertale. Pizza Tower is in fact so ridiculously popular and connected with annoying little kids that I almost feel guilty enjoying it as much as I do. But, I'll stay true to myself. I loved the game when I played it and I won't let little kids ruin it for me.

A new Zelda game was also released this year, but quite frankly it failed to impress me like Breath of the Wild did. Mainly because everything that Tears of the Kingdom did was already done by BotW, and the few unique things ToftK did have weren't really my thing. I'm kinda craving for a more traditional 3D Zelda.

Racing towards the end of the year I played a ton of good and fun games back to back. Just to name some: My Friendly Neighborhood, Blasphemous 2, Remnant 2, Lies of P, The Last Faith, Lords of the fallen (2023). The new LoftF is an extremely flawed game that I can't call "good" with good conscience, but I can't deny that I still enjoyed it in a weird guilty pleasure type of way. It is the only game in existence that I hated upon beating it, but still went back to make another character.

And of course as it seems like a yearly tradition now, in December I fell back into a Path of Exile addiction. I've been playing it for a couple weeks now and made a splitting steel build. I wanted something "melee", but melee builds in this game are scuffed so I compromised. Splitting steel is a hybrid melee and ranged skill that shoots metal shards that split. It's pretty fun, and dopamine for days! Seriously PoE is a dangerous game with just how good it feels to play.

Now it is high time for me to choose my GOTY. Is it Pizza Tower that I oh so much praised earlier on? I thought about this a lot. And honestly? My personal GOTY goes to Lies of P, a game I only briefly mentioned. It is the closest that any game ever has gotten to that sweet Fromsoftware game quality. In fact I'd go as far as to say that it did reach that quality, with flying colors. I can't believe that a game loosely based on the story of Pinocchio would be this good. The characters, story, level design, atmosphere, bosses, combat, EVERYTHING is so good. You can check my review on the game for extended thoughts, but Lies of P is an absolute gem of a game. Of course I had to give my GOTY to a game in a genre I love above all else. Pizza Tower is still amazing, but action RPG's will always have my heart. Lies of P was also one of the most challenging games I've ever beat, can't wait to see what they'll cook up with the DLC!

Happy new year to anyone reading! Have a good 2024.

[letstalkassassinscreed]

Ubi Forward Part 1

Ubi Forward has officially finished streaming and in the stream, we were shown some fantastic trailers and gameplay, in this first of two blogs I'm going to unpick some of the most incredible moments in the show Avatar Frontieres Of Pandora 

The first big game title was Avatar Frontiers of Pandora, the game was shown as a mix of trailer and gameplay, and from what we've seen the game is shaping up to be a fantastic title. Not only did the world like vibrant and alive it also invoked the same amount of wonderment that the movies give, the game also features a lot of fat movement and verticality. They also showed a few mounts and mounted combat but the highlight for me was the character leaping off a high floating island and summoning their flying mount, it looked like a lot of fun and something I want to try. The gameplay showed a lot of 3rd person movement and also intractable environments, but also action gameplay from guns to bows and arrows. This mix could allow us to tailor our combat experience, there was a skill tree briefly shown but I'm unsure how that will play. The game officially launches in December this year 

Xdefient The next title was the amazing free-to-play FPS Xdefient which I did a small write-up about the closed beta here:https://www.tumblr.com/letstalkassassinscreed/719949858963881984/xdefiant-by-ubisoft?source=share   they did announce some news like an open session on June 21st, this open session will feature a good amount of content from; 14 maps, 4 factions with a 5th unlockable and that is the dedsec faction, 5 game modes and 24 weapons. We were also shown their ambitious year 1 plan which featured 4 new factions 12 new weapons and 1w new map. I'm very excited and hoping to make this my main competitive shooter. Prince Of Persia The Lost Crown The next trailer shown was one of the 3 titles I was hoping to see and that is Prince Of Persia The Lost Crown, this new title is a 2d Metroidvania combing the acrobatic and fun combat of the action Rpg Sands of Time Trilogy. The trailer started as a cinematic highlight of bosses' anime types and combat and it looked amazing. But the ending showed more gameplay that highlighted the fun traversal and puzzling features, there is also a time mechanic which I cant wait to test out, I don't want to say too much now as I'm currently writing more detailed thoughts and impressions. But safe to say on January 18th 2024 I will be playing this. Captain Lazerhawk I don't have much to say on this as it wasn't a game title but more an animated show by the creator of Castlevania based on the far cry 3 blood dragon expansion, it did not get my attention as I don't have Netflix. The Divison Resurgence A mobile title based on the division is all I can say on this, it does look cool and I have had my eye on it since the announcement but I'm waiting for a full reveal and a chance to play before I update my thoughts on it. The trailer we did show was cinematic and fun and there was some gameplay mixed in which is always a nice touch. We had some smaller updates here with a song from the Skull and Bones game, brawlhala and Mario Rabbid's Sparks of Hope. The Crew Moterfest I'm not a big racing fan but this game looks amazing and I did try The Crew 2 and enjoyed it, so I'm excited to see what's next for this franchise. This section showed some amazing visuals and gameplay on the isle of Hulu. it featured some cool biomes from beaches and rainforests. The cars also looked cool, I will be paying attention to this title over time. The biggest announcement was the ability to port your The Crew 2 collection into Motorfest for free. This title will also be launching on September 14th 2023 Assassins Creed Nexus 

This was a very surprising title as it's a Vr exclusive, as someone who has 0 experience with Vr it may be a title I miss. From what we did see it looked pretty fun and it showed to have 3 characters to choose from which is a cool detail. I'm excited to see how this game develops Assassins Creed Jade

Mixed into the Nexus segment was Jade a title im excited to play as im an avid mobile gamer, the game will be free to play which is a great starting point for all fans to test it and hopefully enjoy it. The gameplay shown blew my mind I want this game and hope my phone can run it haha im still sceptical of the free-to-play model and if it'll have a pc port, but im signed up for the beta so I have more news soon I hope. Assassins Creed Mirage 

I could talk for hours about how excited I am for this game haha the showcase featured a phenomenal story trailer you have to see it, I like the mix of old and new and the callbacks to AC1.  there is a lot more I want to say but I am leaving that to an upcoming podcast episode where me and James can fully unpick it, but the story does look to be very gripping, emotional and amazing. The gameplay was perfect if im being honest there is a strong sense of parkour in this game with a lot of paces to move, there was also a destructible environment that helps break the line of sight to get away which is a great feature to see. Tools being back is much needed if im honest, I cant wait to do a few more updates on the gameplay trailer as there is a lot to unpick 

[gascon-en-exil]

I'm up through Chapter 9 on my first, Morality-aligned playthrough.

The story so far: From both demos it's pretty easy to build a lot of points in the desired conviction if you're only going for one of them, so up to a point manipulating the story splits was very easy. The Chapter 7 vote is now Morality (protect Roland) vs. Utility (surrender Roland), instead of the former being Liberty as in the first demo, which makes more sense although it does lead to the odd situation of Roland himself initially wanting to vote against his own conviction. This led into voting to believe Silvio in Chapter 8 and then foiling his attempt at a Red Wedding, but then I actually lost the Chapter 9 vote because it's Liberty vs. Utility and I didn't have enough points to convince anyone of anything. I'd wanted to go the Utility of route on engaging in the illicit salt trade, but that got narrowly outvoted sending the story to Hyzante to expose Sorsley's illegal trade. I just finished the fight against his retainer, who ambushes the party on the way to the Hyzantian capital.

Impressions on the story: Actually quite good so far, with much of the promised political complexities. Nobody comes out of this looking perfect, not even Roland's family or the ambitious (and amusingly voiced) early plot sacrifice Dragan. As I'm aiming to go down what is effectively Roland's route I'm pleased to see him going through a decent amount of development. He has to deal with the deaths of his father, brother, and master in short order before going on the run and then later fake his own death to get Aesfrost to back off. I assume that last bit is also to help the plot converge again for Chapter 9 since I know it does that, although I'm curious to see how effectively that's pulled off considering there are four separate versions of the previous chapter. This is also, I presume, why Avlora kills Landroi if your army doesn't.

I assume that Silvio is going to die at some point, but I think it'd be funny if he didn't. He's entertainingly slimy, and I have to appreciate a man so into wine that grapes are his house sigil.

Side characters: I have the blacksmith Jens, Julio from the first demo, and the barrel robot singing and dancing automaton Decimal. Jens and Decimal were much puzzled over when they were datamined, the first because one of his starting abilities is building a ladder (yes, really) and the second because...it's a barrel robot, which is just about on the same level of random weirdness as some of Chrono Cross's recruitable cast, or maybe like a less developed fantasy version of Robo from Chrono Trigger. So far I've found Jens more useful (and funny) for his spring trap and net skills, although his ladders came in very handy for the Liberty version of Chapter 9. Decimal's attacking abilities are random in a sense, but extremely broken if you can use them just right as they cover a massive range and attack all enemies with certain HP or TP values. Using it is dumb but oddly fun.

Gameplay: TS is indeed more visual novel than tactical game, but when you do get around to combat it's quite fun and engaging. There's a good sense of character progression despite it being fairly linear, and the rhythm of gameplay keeps all the exploration and voting segments in between from feeling repetitive. Even playing on Very Easy the enemies aren't complete pushovers, and the battles have a lot of variety in terrain and to a lesser extent objectives.

[bryan360]

My reactions through my Nintendo E3 2021’s highlight picks

Hey guys! You know me from what been checking on E3 announcement last week. I even did my other posts to mention it of 🐰Mario + Rabbits sequel game and 🏁🏎Forza Horizon 5 as my interests picks.

June. 13th, 2021 - Link Here

June. 14th, 2021 - Link Here #2

Now it's finally time that I can talk through Nintendo E3 2021's announcement of games and content; after reveals back in June 15th that I should've bring this sooner, but due to working on my other tasks that I'm gonna save it til today. Hoping that I had time for free time to explain of what I feel for Nintendo E3 2021 Direct reveal for this month of June; especially which one that I finding most interested so I could added through my wishlist on eShop app. So today, here's my interesting picks for Nintendo E3 reveal this year; whether you agreed or disagree of how it goes when you suggest other was. I know if everyone so close to look forward the Switch Pro reveal, but it seems that it didn't happen anytime soon. Anyways, now get into my picks that I screenshot and edited through last week's Nintendo Direct I've managed.

First top left - ✊😈Kazuya Mishima joining Super Smash Bros Ultimate

First off, I knew that there will be at least one Super Smash Bros DLC Fighter reveal; before saving the last one for coming months this year soon. What's really unexpected to see though is a second Bandai Namco fighter after 👻PAC-MAN, but sadly its not Lloyd that if everyone hoping he would've upgraded from a Mii Costume to a true fighter yet. (Like we ever getting another sword fighter once again. 😒) No, it was actually ✊😈Kazuya Mishima from the Tekken series. My reaction was caught my attention since it started when he carrying Ganondorf to the lava pit and so does other fighters that is really dark. Except for Kirby that thankfully knows how to get away, but still. If I remember his origin through reading wiki site though, at time he used to be good until his father Heihachi sees him as his weakness. Later when Heihachi kills one of the family members that Kazuya been fond of and being thrown by his father in the cliff until he eventually climbs back up when his devil gene activates. Ever since then, Kazuya is now antagonist for the recent Tekken games so far and seeing him to match fight against Smash was an unexpected sight. I remember the time after hearing Masahiro Sakurai's interview where he consider Heihachi to be playable for Smash 4, but pass over due to implement his moveset to be difficult. But here we are seeing for Kazuya instead that it really sure takes time to deliver. After his moveset through his reveal could be challenging to work it out on command. Let's just wait to figure out once Sakurai will finally bring us his next presentation next week, but for now knowing this Tekken fighter joining Smash was a unique idea that Sakurai managed to work it out.

Second top right - 🌟Mario Party Super Stars

How about that when where seeing the next Mario Party game brings us? Despite the recent 2018 Super Mario Party, this will be the twelfth installment to be heading Nintendo Switch this year's 🎃October 2021; this time having 100 remastered minigames like I've seen them before on previous Mario Party games. My reaction was good to see how it continues on, but sure miss that time I remember from my childhood for the original first Mario Party game on the N64 console. So what's get me attention is the recognized boards such as 👑🎂Peach's Birthday Cake makes a comeback! It looks the way that I remember from playing the N64 game when the layouts off frosting goodness and the song to match as well. It was really something when it comes from Nintendo and their past N64 games I have memories fond of. 🙂👍🏼

I give this Nintendo a good move when trying to bring back Mario Party again as a E3 reveal, but maybe just maybe if it will be this good from previous Mario Party games in terms of selling copies. Who knows? *Shrug*

Third middle left - Metroid Dread

However, if you really looking forward a new Nintendo game coming to October 2021 early is a most recognized franchise making a return....meanwhile Metroid Prime 4 is still in development. At least knowing this game can take us time before the fourth prime game can be finished, but man that everyone went crazy after the reveal of Metroid Dread! It the return of 2D Metroid game in action after the success of Samus Return for 3DS back in September 2017. My reaction was surprised and impressive for the looks and feels about this game's tone; especially the haunting part where the robot named "EMMI" (but don't be confused with the word Emmy as an Emmy Award like if would funny. 😅) trying to catch up with Samus and it's game over....😵 I think I could add this into my wishlist and it would be the first time I'll be owning this Metroid game for my Switch system. Fact: Metroid Dread was originally plan as a Nintendo DS title way back in mid 2000s, but sadly being cancelled due to technical limitations.

Fourth middle right - 💣WarioWare Get It Together

I was hoping if Warioware could come back for the lastest Switch system and they finally called. However, this game will take a different approach than doing minigames of yourself, but with your characters do it for you. For this latest Warioware game of picking noses, it'll be having one of the characters such as Wario, Mona, Jimmy T, 9-Volt, and others to do on all minigames with their strengths and skills they can managed. My reaction was pretty good knowing that Nintendo is making this a unique idea than doing a same microgame gameplay style from previous ones, but in a fun way. Cross my fingers if I'll be saving this as a digital download version. Like that time I actually got "Warioware Touched!" for my 2DS/3DS handheld system back in April 2016, but sadly lost it of deletion unfortunately....😧 Link Here #3

Fifth middle bottom - Game & Watch The Legend of Zelda

And finally is something that we're hoping to expect during almost halftime of their E3 direct reveal. Knowing this year is The Legend of Zelda 35th Anniversary, you probably hoping they can bring something to celebrate one of the most recognized series run. While it was shocking to know they won't be having plans to do; even for me that I finding baffling for Nintendo would do this. At least they wanted to make up for it by having to released the HD remastered version of Skyward Sword coming next month and giving us a second look for the upcoming Breath of the Wild sequel until it'll be released next year....eventually. What's my pick though is the Game & Watch version for The Legend of Zelda; the same thing of what it made for Super Mario and during its 35th Anniversary run last year. For this next one will have 3 related Zelda games: 1987 original, Zelda 2: The Adventure of Link, The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening, and a special Game and Watch version of Vermin, but playing as Link as he trying to clobbered the octoroks instead of moles. Looks like it'll be a different take from what the Super Mario version have, but hoping it won't be the limited edition once maybe I could get one of those a try. So for my reaction was pretty alright. 🙂👍🏼

Overall:

Man that is the list for my interests picks I gotten, but after watching Nintendo E3 Direct for this year sure worth it at the end. It was very impressive direct despite of absent games not being showed like Bayonette 3 or Metroid Prime 4, but with other announcements such as Metroid Dread and Mario Party Super Stars does give us something for the win.

What did you think about this list of my interesting picks for Nintendo E3, though? Give yourself some likes and reblogs for this post I bring. Anyways, I'm just gonna check on my P-Pal's secret art trade part for me that I should've done it early. Sorry about making this post that I took hours to finished, @murumokirby360

[bearpillowmonster]

Neo: The World Ends With You

I'm invested in the original game and its characters, I'm invested in this game and its characters. I've had a lot of time for the original game to marinate and I can say that I enjoy pretty much every character and their arc and while I don't exactly feel the same with this one, that's not disappointing to me and this was my most anticipated game of 2021 so I mean that. This is a sequel, I expected as much and it didn't let me down, it's even better than I thought.

This is a NONSPOILER review because I think it's best experienced by actually experiencing it so I'll keep a lot of character, story, and even gameplay details out other than how the very VERY beginning of the game starts out with Rindo and Fret.

Let me give credit where credit is due, Rindo is voiced by Paul Castro Jr. who is a new voice actor and I was honestly impressed by his voice more than anyone else in the game, I love his voice and while Rindo has some pretty big shoes to fill as the main, I think he does it. Rindo seems to act pretty accordingly to the situation he's put in. He's not as edgy as Neku but he has enough push to him to where he would be considered the "negative" of the group but I would rather call it "rational" because he brings up some valid points, stuff that I myself was asking. Putting yourself in his shoes, that seems pretty accurate.

Fret on the other hand is a bit of the opposite, an optimist if you will. He's not really a "bad" character, just in comparison to the others, he's not my favorite. I think that there needs to be someone in his position who tries to uplift the team, but he's just a little annoying about it sometimes. Also get ready to hear "Galaxy Brain, ACTIVATE!!" literally hundreds of times, as much as he talks, you'd think he'd add more variety.

IMPROVEMENTS:

I'm not going to complain about certain gameplay elements or limitations that carried over from the last game except one. The camera. It's fixed to where you have no control over it in the city areas and therefore can't get a proper look at everything, whether that works in its favor, I'm not sure because you get used to it but it's just a small peeve you start out with.

The combat is pretty loyal to the first game which is surprising. I personally didn't like the original gameplay because it was so limited on the DS, a lot of room for error, but having it on console expands the system and lets you use buttons rather than mashing a touch screen, improving on almost, if not all, gameplay fronts. However, because it's based on a game from 2007, the system may seem a little outdated to some, it's really up to you, it made a fan out of me, making it more fun.

I played the original in bites, not because of lack of enjoyment but because I felt like it was a game I could only get into for so long at a time but with this game it's the complete opposite. Maybe it was the DS hardware that hampered the original but I say it's a decent success on this game's part. I also felt that Persona 5 seemed a bit formulaic in its story context and gameplay layout with each castle but this game, while having patterns, it changes before you get the chance to really catch on. I could predict P5 but I couldn't predict this, each day was a mystery, I knew you'd fight people but I didn't always know who or when which is crazy considering that P5 had all the choices!

A small improvement that I'll suggest for combat is having short rhythm based moves or even QTEs, like how in the original Shiki had the directional pad moves which were annoying but still varied from the rest of the gameplay. There are definitely new things that you can do, but there are a few aspects worth complaining about. You can unlock certain abilities and once you enable them, you can't disable them. The only one that it personally applies with is the ability to enable individual health bars for enemies, rather than an overall one. Which sounds good but-

I personally don't like that it's always floating above their heads, if it was on the side screen, that'd be one thing but constantly above their heads? No deal. I actually had to go back and load up an old save to get rid of it. But with unlocking certain abilities comes with quality of life aspects so if you're not in love with the gameplay at first, give it a little bit because you might be able to unlock whatever piece you're missing.

There's also "soundsurfing" that adds to your groove meter that you can use when running around and it said that you press (in my case "X" on PS4) to the beat of the song which is a cool concept but it really isn't clear how to use it because I try matching the beat and I get nothing and have more success just button mashing. The groove meter can drop when it's not supposed to, like when you literally can't attack during the buffering of a special or switching between battles in a chain (The "Get Ready" screen) And if you're in a proper boss battle, you HAVE to fight, it's like a trainer battle in Pokémon which is especially annoying when you accidentally press "retry". It has no reason to be there when I already know that I'm not prepared for the boss and can't back out.

Do the trailers spoil it?

Originally, I only saw the first and or second trailer and knew I wanted it so there was no reason to see any more but it was kind of overwhelming with all the characters they were showing off in just a single trailer. I don't think they needed to go that far but I understand why they did. I understand why they showed a lot of things that they did but I think it's a bit easier to SWALLOW when it's introduced in-game. I even found myself doing all the side-quests and being engaged in the side-stuff in-game. But I knew about people pointing out spoilers so after I finished it, I went back and looked at the other trailers and OH BOY. The final trailer shows some stuff and I'm SO glad I didn't watch it. They straight up show some out of context death scenes as well as different alliances and betrayals, not to mention parts of the freaking ending. The launch trailer is no better, it's just like that trailer but cut down. You may not have context but you can draw some hefty conclusions and that alone makes me question, why? I'm not sure if there are many reveals that they DIDN'T tease, it's like they went out of their way to hit every single one. Whether it's Square or Nintendo, they need to figure out how to cut a trailer, heck, hire me, I at least have the editing skills and know what's interesting enough to show and what's too spoilery not to show, come on!

Is it newcomer friendly?

I heard a lot of things like "it drops you in without mercy so pay very close attention" (in terms of story, that is) so only people who played the original game will be able to get it. But I beg to differ, I think it does a pretty good job of filling you in while putting you in the shoes of a new player (both in the game and out) AND keeping the mystery of whatever happened since the last game coming in small pieces. Most of the dialogue text boxes are voice acted so it's not really a slog to read. To prove my point further, the premise starts out very similar so it should be easy to clue in what exactly happened in the last game. Of course you're going to get more enjoyment out of it if you played the original but I don't think you'd be totally lost if you started with this one and played to right before the ending because then it kinda has to do stuff without preface, so you're going to be confused by much of the emotional weight that it carries. But it still gives you plenty of time to catch up on the original, whether through the game, videos, or lore, this game has you ask the questions, so fill in the blank. It has a nice length to it so you'll have until the ending to figure it out. Also, Final Remix teased stuff that this game makes clarity on but I wouldn't call FR mandatory. (Except maybe no numbers on the hand? Maybe even I missed something there.)

[forgotten-valley]

Do you recommend pioneers of olive town? I haven’t seen a lot about it

I would definitely recommend it a lot more now compared to a few weeks ago. The 1.0.5 update (which I believe has been released for the Japanese and Chinese editions of the games so far) seems to fix a lot of the issues the game has had since launch in terms of quality of life and gameplay.

The farmer customization at the beginning of the game is great! I was impressed by it. The basic plot is pretty typical of Story of Seasons games where you move from the city and inherit your grandpa's farm. What's interesting is that your grandpa, along with the villagers Simon, Jessie and Nguyen, founded Olive Town! As you work to improve your farm, you'll also be able to fulfill requests to improve the town and turn it into a tourist destination and unlock new shops! The town design reminds me a lot of Animal Parade.

A big complaint from players (including myself) has been repeating dialogue from characters and how tedious the maker system is. The new update apparently fixes almost all of that, so I would say if you're interested in getting the game, maybe wait a week or two for that update to be out in the Americas and Europe.

Still, I have enjoyed playing Pioneers of Olive Town! There's DLC which I think is pretty interesting, but Olive Town itself is charming, and I love how much you can customize your farm! I also think the clothing system is a big improvement from Trio of Towns, where there were dozens of different types of wool and dyes you needed to make specific outfits, whereas with this game, that aspect's been a bit condensed.

Farming is made easier with access to sprinklers once you reach certain skill levels! I love the skill levels and how certain crafting recipes, seeds, animals and other perks are unlocked. It makes me feel like I'm working toward something more. You'll definitely end up spending more time exploring your farm as opposed to the town, but the DLC unlocks new areas and characters from other Story of Seasons games.

The villagers and love interests are cool, in my opinion! The dialogue does cycle pretty quickly, and it's odd that when you start dating/get married to one of the love interests their dialogue doesn't change that much, but I think the new update fixes that. There are tons of cutscenes with the villagers as well, so it's nice to see what their relationships with each other are like. I like the festivals, but I do miss the livestock and produce contests and cooking festival.

Overall, I would recommend Pioneers of Olive Town, but if you're not getting the Japanese/Chinese version, I'd wait a bit until the 1.0.5 update comes out for the other versions! Luckily, the team behind Pioneers of Olive Town has said they want to continue updating the game based on player feedback, so that's super promising!

[ubercharge]

So I depression quit overwatch for a while and since then updates changed how well my mains work (Dva and Moira) and now I'm stuck not knowing what characters to use and constantly loosing bc people at my level are used to it already, it's becoming stupidly frustrating. Got any advice on character selection and how to get gud again? ;3;

if you’re talking about comp it depends on what elo but bc of GOATS, sub-GM has been more or less the same ...... i usually play low plat to high dia depending on the SR of who i’m queueing with

the current meta is GOATS (rein, zarya, d.va, brig, zen, lucio) bc those heroes synergise well together but this comp is virtually nonexistent below high GM. bunker is more prominent in lower tiers (orisa, usually with bap, mercy, hog, DPS) but classic 2-2-2 is still the name of the game (2 tanks, heals, DPS) everywhere. the key is that some heroes work together better than others. with many people watching OWL (and GM player streams), concepts and strats that used to be more reserved for the high tier trickle down to the community quickly.

orisa: surprisingly(?) being used more especially in bunker comps where everyone huddles behind her shield and sticks together. i’m more of a rein person but she works better in low ELOs than rein since she requires less team support to play. if you’re plat or below and want to learn a MT, she’s a good pick. (OT pair: roadhog)

rein: idk how rein mains do it but they’re masochists. he gets bopped around and requires a lot of team support so it’s easier to play him when people actually support you. you’d think people would follow the big blue rectangle, but.. (OT pair: zarya)

winston: his mobility makes playing him less painful than rein. the mechanics of his ult make his skill ceiling surprisingly high (look up pro winston juggles, they’re nuts) but i have fun playing him so i think he’s fun. like rein though you might suffer more in low ELOs where you lack support (OT pair: d.va)

ball: welcome to the SHITSHOW. you play him like a flanker so there’s plenty of disruption you can do, run in, knock people around, roll back out. hit or miss (usually miss) in terms of getting value with him until you’re actually good (the most prominent comp involving him actually involves 4 DPS and mercy, but he works well with d.va and winston since they all have mobility)

hog: self-sufficient but also an ult battery for the enemy team. still just a big dps, not very good right now though he pairs well with orisa (MT pair: orisa)

d.va: god tier, basically meta proof. idk when you last played but it doesn’t really matter bc she’s still OP & can still be played in many situations. between missiles and no reload, she can do a lot more DPS + shield bust than ppl expect, plus she can reposition frequently. DM is still OP, you just have to time it more mindfully than before. (MT pair: winston)

zarya: i fuckin love zarya. so much DPS at high charge, and well-timed bubbles can make for the most clutch plays. requires more aim ability than dva/hog imo (MT pair: rein)

ana: very good if you can play her well. if your team isn’t running GOATS (and if you’re not in GM you should almost certainly not even be trying to run GOATS), she’s a much better + useful main heal than mercy or moira thanks to high utility

baptiste: works well with bunker comps, otherwise not impressive but not terrible either if you remember you have to heal. i’ve only played with one really good bap so far personally.

brig: tends not to do enough healing with just one other healer, but effectiveness depends on your team and the enemy’s comp. you can do a lot with her and a 4 year old could play her but pharah for example destroys her

lucio: good. better on attack. his ult is very useful, and booping players away/out of position is more powerful than you might expect

mercy: better in lower ELOs, pairs well with pharah. rez is still useful. works well when your team is spread out, especially if they’re on high + low ground so you can fly around and stay alive. works with bunker comp

moira: i like her less as a main heal than mercy but she has her uses. works better with a team that sticks together and/or is very tanky and needs a lot of healing. diamond and above though i’d never choose her over ana

zen: great especially if you can aim. he can do it all, really. probly the best ult in the game.

ashe, mccree, s76: s76 is solid and very forgiving. imo mccree is better but requires better aim, also flash is useful af. ashe is okay, good against bunker comps since you can toss dynamite into the entire enemy team and farm ult.

widow, hanzo: widow is more map-dependent whereas hanzo can be played anywhere. both require good aim to get full value out of but hanzo is easier thanks to storm arrow

tracer: she’s okay. she’s the highest skill ceiling hero being VERY aim and gamesense dependent but against a soft comp, esp one without a brig/mccree, she can do a lot of work

reaper: mostly sucks in higher tiers, okay or good in lower tiers depending on how shitty the enemy team is at countering you. sometimes you can walk in and shoot and they just let it happen

sombra: good if you can play her - you can deny the enemy team of abilities at crucial times, combo EMP with many ults, pick off healers and squishies, etc. but a bad sombra is not doing anything ever

doom: not bad but also pretty hit or miss. you need to learn doom-specific strats and rollouts to play him well though

genji: sucks right now

junk, pharah: okay in lower ELOs. pharah can do a lot with a pocket but is easily countered when people can aim

mei: good if you can play her

torb: surprisingly good right now but i don’t endorse playing torb 

symm, bastion: meh. can be strong if your team works around you

as for how to improve it depends on what you need to improve on. sometimes people don’t know what they have to work on (gamesense, positioning, timing, ability usage, etc) so if you’re serious about improving then record your gameplay and review your VODs to catch mistakes (or get someone else to review them). otherwise just be mindful while you play and constantly ask yourself if you’re making the best decisions, standing in the optimal spot, what you did wrong, why you died, etc.

if you want to improve aim or a specific DPS hero, check out FFA lobbies in the custom game browser. there are widow HS only lobbies as well for widow practice. healers and tanks require non-mechanical skills in a different way from most DPS, so improving on them = playing the game more. or you can look up tip videos on youtube since people are constantly churning those out

GLHF