So I'm about 10 hours in Xenosaga Episode 1 and boy, this game starts pretty slow uh? I don't mind the lengthy cutscenes but I feel like all I've been doing so far is running around two giant spaceships with not much happening in between. The battle system is cool though and the overarching story sounds interesting. I just wish it was a bit... faster paced maybe?
Community MetaRPG | Hurting. Longing. Dancing to disco music.
- Thread starter Arulan
- Start date
Shin Megami Tensei V is sublime so far. Most fun I had with a game this year. Probably the (new released) RPG I enjoyed the most since Disco Elysium
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OP
- Thread Starter
- #304
I started my first SaGa game recently. I've heard a lot of good things about the series over the years.
I'm a few regions in with Urpina at this point, and I think I'm getting a good grasp of the combat system thus far. It's really the highlight here. It's difficult enough where you've having to use everything at your disposal to win, especially the Hard fights. The limited action points (BP), meaning you can't act with all of your characters every turn, or use the best abilities, combined with having to manipulate turn order to your advantage, and using status effects to your advantage makes for an interesting system.
I recently made it to the Teach Na Macha fight, which is perhaps the best one so far. I feel like it's a solid check against your understanding of several mechanics. Using disable spells (Sleep) to handle overwhelming numbers, prevent (Stun) or brace (Protect) against devastating AoE incantations, reading the tips to effectively use attack types, using Poison against high HP creatures -- Macha's Toy, and general timeline manipulation (Delay especially).
Does anyone have any RPG plans for the holidays?
I'm a few regions in with Urpina at this point, and I think I'm getting a good grasp of the combat system thus far. It's really the highlight here. It's difficult enough where you've having to use everything at your disposal to win, especially the Hard fights. The limited action points (BP), meaning you can't act with all of your characters every turn, or use the best abilities, combined with having to manipulate turn order to your advantage, and using status effects to your advantage makes for an interesting system.
I recently made it to the Teach Na Macha fight, which is perhaps the best one so far. I feel like it's a solid check against your understanding of several mechanics. Using disable spells (Sleep) to handle overwhelming numbers, prevent (Stun) or brace (Protect) against devastating AoE incantations, reading the tips to effectively use attack types, using Poison against high HP creatures -- Macha's Toy, and general timeline manipulation (Delay especially).
Does anyone have any RPG plans for the holidays?
No RPGs plans for the moment, been on too much of a Halo and racing game kick. But I do love Scarlet Grace. I played the Uprina route too and it was a lot of fun. I love how stylish this game is. I'd have done another route but my backlog list is way too big for replays of recently played games to occur.
Here's the video I recorded of my final boss fight. Don't watch it til you're at the end though. I was impressed with how well things came together to beat him, but apparently with the order of the quests you do there's a hidden value that determines 4 different difficulties the boss can have.
Here's the video I recorded of my final boss fight. Don't watch it til you're at the end though. I was impressed with how well things came together to beat him, but apparently with the order of the quests you do there's a hidden value that determines 4 different difficulties the boss can have.
OP
- Thread Starter
- #307
There are a few good older ones:Playing No Man’s Sky reminded me of the big question. Why the fuck don’t we have Space Crpg, like Space Op or maybe Space Fantasy ?
There were rumors about Owlcat doing Starfinder. Better be true
Star Control 1 & 2
Planet's Edge
Starflight
That said, I agree it hasn't been explored very well recently. I certainly enjoyed Mass Effect for its first two entries, but then BioWare went full EA.
I am really looking forward to Space Wreck, but it's going for something more like Fallout.
Star Control II is a classic everyone must play at least once.
SaGa Scarlet Grace is a classic everyone must play at least once.
Speaking of SaGa, I was tinkering with my PS2 on the weekend and the Romancing SaGa Minstrel Song OP track is a banger.
SaGa Scarlet Grace is a classic everyone must play at least once.
Speaking of SaGa, I was tinkering with my PS2 on the weekend and the Romancing SaGa Minstrel Song OP track is a banger.
I'll try to finish at least one from this list.
Such a pity there's no English version of Wild Arms 2...Star Control II is a classic everyone must play at least once.
SaGa Scarlet Grace is a classic everyone must play at least once.
Speaking of SaGa, I was tinkering with my PS2 on the weekend and the Romancing SaGa Minstrel Song OP track is a banger.
I'll try to finish at least one from this list.
I have sunk 10 hours into Wild Arms Alter Code F already. I am taking it in slowly and surely. The writing is really good.
I can literally feel my blood was slowly rising to the brain. These dialogues feel painfully human, thus making them very impactful.
In the first village, our protagonist Rudy saved a village kid but other villagers were terrified by him because he was wielding an ancient weapon that is known to bring destruction. Before the event they are friendly and grateful, but they did a 180 and decided to ask Rudy to leave. If you come back to the village after progressing the main story, their dialogues changed and continued talking shitty stuff about event in other places.
About to (finally) finish Xenosaga Episode 1 (I'm at the last dungeon). Then after that I'll probably try out the FF1 pixel remaster.
Should be fun! My last playthrough of that game was on GBA in like 2005 lol
In other news, I'm supposed to receive my Bitmap Books JRPG compendium thingy today. Really looking forward to checking that out!
Alright, after spending half a day finishing the final dungeon, I've finally completed Xenosaga Episode 1. My thoughts:
EDIT: And I forgot to say: this game REALLY needed at least one boss theme. Every fight in the game (except for the final boss) had the exact same battle theme. I mean sure the song was good, but goddamn lol
EDIT 2: I'm relistening to the OST right now and it's a shame that you barely hear most of these songs because they're excellent. It makes you wonder why the decision to have absolutely no music in any of the dungeons/spaceships/towns/etc was taken.
The good:
The less good:
- The battle system was really cool. The boosting mechanic combined with the event slot forced you to plan your turns ahead so your enemies wouldn't end up getting the critical bonuses. It helped to keep you engaged in your fights as opposed to just having to mash circle button for 30+ hours.
- The tech system was a net improvement from Xenogears. You had way more control on which abilities you wanted to level up. The AGWS system was also an interesting way of integrating the mechs into the normal battle system.
- Even though I have a lot of criticism for the story (as I shall describe below), I still think that the main plot is pretty interesting. There's a lot of mystery to it and I liked all the nods to Xenogears (the Zohar, the little girl that looks like Elly...). Shion is an actually pretty likable main character which seems to have quite the backstory.
The less good:
- Most of the rest of the cast is pretty meh honestly. Ziggy is relevant for like 2 hours in the story at the beginning. Chaos is... someone? MOMO is a bit too "classic jrpg trope of the little anime girl who is the most important being in the universe but is innocently unaware of it". Jr is okay I guess, he's the most original of them all. And KOS-MOS is a promising character that unfortunately gets like 15 total lines of dialogue in the game. Which brings me to my second point...
- I get that this was built as a trilogy (and even more than that originally), but holy crap does nothing get resolved at the end of the first game. There are way too many "nonono, you are not ready to know yet" moments and it makes staying interested in the plot difficult. I still have no clue who Albedo is, or who the orange haired girl in the encephalon is, or what happened on Miltia, or the goal of the gnosis, or the purpose of the Zohar, and I could keep going on. I'd like to know for sure, but knowing that the second game has a very bad reputation it's gonna be difficult to gather the motivation to keep going.
- That final dungeon was a pain (the enemies had so much HP holy crap) and the final boss was one of those "I have an attack that will one-shot your party that I might use or not, who knows" kind of monster.
EDIT: And I forgot to say: this game REALLY needed at least one boss theme. Every fight in the game (except for the final boss) had the exact same battle theme. I mean sure the song was good, but goddamn lol
EDIT 2: I'm relistening to the OST right now and it's a shame that you barely hear most of these songs because they're excellent. It makes you wonder why the decision to have absolutely no music in any of the dungeons/spaceships/towns/etc was taken.
Reason: more to say
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I think I’ll tackle Sorcery part 2 over the holidays. I was a bit cold on the first chapter initially, but then I got roped into saving an orc princess from some goblins and it came together quite nicely. The second chapter is apparently a bit longer and all takes place in a city. Sounds cool.
Does this belong here?
Free Gothic II Total Conversion - Overwhelmingly Positive on Steam.
Free Gothic II Total Conversion - Overwhelmingly Positive on Steam.
I saw it this morning. Tempted but I haven't even played Gothic 2 haha. I played a tiny bit of it a long time ago but dropped it because it was even more difficult than Gothic 1.
After only 4 attempts I am finally clicking with Bloodborne. Just needed to stick to a strength build instead of pivoting to a dex build. The axe remains lots of fun.
All the way to the Forbidden Woods now and that area is not fun. Like, probably top 5 least favorite areas in the series
All the way to the Forbidden Woods now and that area is not fun. Like, probably top 5 least favorite areas in the series
Yeah it took me a while to click with BB too. The absolutely brutal beginning of the game doesn't help to be honest lol. But once I did click, it was smooth sailing from there.
Yes, that area is really tough. It's not up there with bullshit levels like Blighttown or Ritual Path, but it's not terrible once you work it out. It's actually pretty fun if you summon.
OP
- Thread Starter
- #320
I think it's time to check out Pokemon Blue again after a couple decades.
The series that defined my childhood!I think it's time to check out Pokemon Blue again after a couple decades.
I remember all those summer days being with my pals in the backstreet behind my home, sitting on a bench and playing Pokémon for hours. Good times!
OP
- Thread Starter
- #322
I finished Pokemon Blue a couple weeks ago. It was nice to revisit it after so long, and make good use of my Pocket. Tauros with Hyper Beam is pretty ridiculous. I made a point to use some Pokemon I didn't use very often (Poliwrath, Magneton, Tauros, Dodrio, etc.).
I also just finished SaGa: Scarlet Grace (as Urpina). This was my first SaGa game, and I enjoyed it. More than I thought I would.
The combat system is pretty addictive. For something that is essentially a character-ordered list executed in a phase, it works pretty well. It would all be for naught though if the difficulty didn't consistently stay just hard enough where you're motivated to obtain any advantage you can. Sparking skills, upgrading your equipment, and recruiting new characters is enjoyable because of the combat. I generally dislike enemy-scaling, especially when world consistency and immersion are priorities, but it works well here.
The world, quests, and writing generally make a poor first impression. It all feels very... simple. That said, as I kept playing it started to grow on me. There is a charm to its presentation. Over time you can start to see some world reactivity of earlier events to tell a story. The dam collapsing followed by an invasion of crabs when I returned later, and then re-building one of the damaged towns. I suspect this would be even more pronounced on subsequent playthroughs. I find Mondo's cryptid obsession pretty hilarious. His reaction's during the Bigfoot hunt, and the cursed jar quest were great. The Wishing Tree quest was fun as well.
I swapped around the companions a lot, but I eventually settled on using Urpina, Mondo, Ogniana, Elysed, Lewis Darling, Kahn, Tissisaaq, and Camelia/Tsubaki. Dual-wielding is very powerful. I need to step into a giant cocoon myself. I gravitate towards spears a lot in other games, and they're good here. For the most part I used everything except clubs, which I gave up on when I stopped using Beatrice. Urpina + Ogniana were my early powerhouses. I used the Momentum formation most of the time.
I'm done with Scarlet Grace for now, but this has left me interested in exploring more of the series. Maybe SaGa I next to play on my Pocket.
I recently tried out Conglomerate 451 which I got in a bundle a year or so ago.
Initial impression was that it seems quite fun! A bit XCOM-y in that you handle a base and upgrade your agents outside of the missions. Nice graphics too!
However, the UI was a bit obtuse, maybe because I was playing with a controller?
During the tutorial mission, when you use prerolled characters, there was zero explanation of what the different combat abilities actually did, you only had fancy icons to go on, and they didn't tell you anything. Also, each character and enemy has like 3 different bars (health, battery and?) and it doesn't really explain which bar is which.
Also, there was some hacking minigame that is both timed, and if you mess up the QTE you lose time as well, and the QTE was super quick, so it was totally possible to botch the tutorial, and you cannot restart the hacking tutorial, so good luck doing them out in the main game!
Initial impression was that it seems quite fun! A bit XCOM-y in that you handle a base and upgrade your agents outside of the missions. Nice graphics too!
However, the UI was a bit obtuse, maybe because I was playing with a controller?
During the tutorial mission, when you use prerolled characters, there was zero explanation of what the different combat abilities actually did, you only had fancy icons to go on, and they didn't tell you anything. Also, each character and enemy has like 3 different bars (health, battery and?) and it doesn't really explain which bar is which.
Also, there was some hacking minigame that is both timed, and if you mess up the QTE you lose time as well, and the QTE was super quick, so it was totally possible to botch the tutorial, and you cannot restart the hacking tutorial, so good luck doing them out in the main game!
OP
- Thread Starter
- #324
So I decided to install Kenshi again...
Instead of jumping right into my previous campaign, I decide to start a new one that I don't expect to last very long. More of a warm-up really. So I choose the slave start -- you start as two characters recently enslaved by the Holy Nation. They force you to mine every day. Barely feed you anything, but just keep your healthy enough to keep working without the strength to really fight back, even if you could.
Here we've got Sato and Ribs, our characters. They've already beaten us up a little, and chained us up. They bring us out later to do some manual labor. The camp is massive. Fortified gates at all visible ways out, but even if you could make it to one, it's a long stretch.
Here we go. It's night, and most of the guards appear to have gone to sleep. Time to practice lockpicking. A few hours later and I finally manage to free Ribs. Sato is in another cage somewhere, but he's not getting very far picking locks. I decide I'll play nice and free my caged neighbor here, Jakku.
We make a break for it, but it's close to morning already and the guards catch us coming down. Jakku somehow managed to grab a weapon and hold his own for a little while, but they knocked me down pretty quick. While this is going on, Sato has a little better luck getting out of the building, but doesn't fare much better. I did get a better look at the camp, and have some ideas for where may be easier.
Another day of running around doing what obedient slaves do, and more mining. All of this for some statue of Okran. The Holy Nation aren't a fun bunch. They also hate woman, so there's that. Even more reason to get out of here.
Something unexpected happens this night. Instead of taking us to our cages in those buildings, they chain us up to poles out in the courtyard. And soon enough, the guards are off to sleep. I don't expect to get very far, but as far as opportunities go, I'll take it.
Sato and Ribs manage to free themselves when all of a sudden I catch the glimpse of another prisoner already freed and joining us for our escape -- it's Jakku again! Okay, three is better than two, but how about more? For the next two hours I try desperately to free as many prisoners as I can, but I've only gotten one more. I can't seem to pick this lock, and it's getting closer to morning. The guards will be up soon, and this will have amounted to nothing.
Fuck it. Let's get out of here while we can. I decide to take a route to the higher elevations of the camp. It looks like there may not be as many patrols up there, and maybe a way out that doesn't involve a suicide attempt through one of the gates.
The light is coming out... Run!
Move those bug legs!
Much to our dismay, upon reaching the top of the cliffside there isn't an easy way out. The other side of the cliff is too steep to traverse, and the only way out anywhere nearby is a gate guarded by five Holy Nation guards. The only thing we can do at this point is stay hidden up there at wait for an opportunity. Despite waiting all day, it's clear we're going to have to gamble running through that gate at night. On the bright side, we're in a secluded part of the camp that doesn't get patrolled, but we're also running out the clock as starvation kicks in.
Night comes a long and we make our attempt. We sneak as far up as we can, and go into a mad sprint. No looking back from this point on.
We dash past the gate as the guards scramble to beat us back down. Sato and one of the other prisoners take a hit, but we keep going. One goes down, then they catch up to Sato. His leg takes a nasty hit and he's down. There is no use going back. We've managed to get a little down this road, but not far enough. Jakku gets captured, and one of the guards swipes Ribs' leg clean. It's bad. They put chains on us, and start to bandage the severe wounds.
No. No. No! I'm not going back. Left leg may be useless, but I'm crawling. They're going to need to drag me back. And I keep crawling. It looks like the guards are still busy patching up Sato and the other guy, and securing them. Did they not see me crawl away? I just manage to get enough around this corner that I think I'm outside of their line of sight. I don't know about the odds of survival for someone who can't even stand up, but I'm taking it.
Then out of nowhere Jakku comes up behind me. I have no idea how, but he managed to escape as well, and he joins me. At least he'll be able to carry me...
Or not. His left arm is useless right now. Not much else to do then than get as far away as possible. I'm not taking any chances if they come back looking for us.
Jakku scouts the way ahead looking for anything -- bandages, food, something that will help, but finds nothing. These Floodlands are a wasteland of rusted metal and marsh.
I make my way to a forest, hoping I might come across something. Anything.
A village!
Help? Not the warmest of greetings.
I can't even afford a rice bowl, and I'm too scared to risk getting caught stealing after everything I've gone through.
The Floatsam Ninjas wage a war against the Holy Nation? You don't have to ask me twice, I'll join.
And they patched me up. We're actually going to make it. I just need to go back for Ribs. Sato on the other hand...
Just one more complication. Those Floodlands I ran through with Jakku -- it looks like they weren't as empty as I thought. Crawl your heart out Ribs.
Re-united at last. The last stretch to freedom and safety!
Something is out there in the night, but I don't have time to find out. I just need to get Ribs to that village.
We made it. Not all of us, but we're actually free!
The face of true freedom and the promise of a good rest.
Did I mention I love Kenshi?
Instead of jumping right into my previous campaign, I decide to start a new one that I don't expect to last very long. More of a warm-up really. So I choose the slave start -- you start as two characters recently enslaved by the Holy Nation. They force you to mine every day. Barely feed you anything, but just keep your healthy enough to keep working without the strength to really fight back, even if you could.
Here we've got Sato and Ribs, our characters. They've already beaten us up a little, and chained us up. They bring us out later to do some manual labor. The camp is massive. Fortified gates at all visible ways out, but even if you could make it to one, it's a long stretch.
Here we go. It's night, and most of the guards appear to have gone to sleep. Time to practice lockpicking. A few hours later and I finally manage to free Ribs. Sato is in another cage somewhere, but he's not getting very far picking locks. I decide I'll play nice and free my caged neighbor here, Jakku.
We make a break for it, but it's close to morning already and the guards catch us coming down. Jakku somehow managed to grab a weapon and hold his own for a little while, but they knocked me down pretty quick. While this is going on, Sato has a little better luck getting out of the building, but doesn't fare much better. I did get a better look at the camp, and have some ideas for where may be easier.
Another day of running around doing what obedient slaves do, and more mining. All of this for some statue of Okran. The Holy Nation aren't a fun bunch. They also hate woman, so there's that. Even more reason to get out of here.
Something unexpected happens this night. Instead of taking us to our cages in those buildings, they chain us up to poles out in the courtyard. And soon enough, the guards are off to sleep. I don't expect to get very far, but as far as opportunities go, I'll take it.
Sato and Ribs manage to free themselves when all of a sudden I catch the glimpse of another prisoner already freed and joining us for our escape -- it's Jakku again! Okay, three is better than two, but how about more? For the next two hours I try desperately to free as many prisoners as I can, but I've only gotten one more. I can't seem to pick this lock, and it's getting closer to morning. The guards will be up soon, and this will have amounted to nothing.
Fuck it. Let's get out of here while we can. I decide to take a route to the higher elevations of the camp. It looks like there may not be as many patrols up there, and maybe a way out that doesn't involve a suicide attempt through one of the gates.
The light is coming out... Run!
Move those bug legs!
Much to our dismay, upon reaching the top of the cliffside there isn't an easy way out. The other side of the cliff is too steep to traverse, and the only way out anywhere nearby is a gate guarded by five Holy Nation guards. The only thing we can do at this point is stay hidden up there at wait for an opportunity. Despite waiting all day, it's clear we're going to have to gamble running through that gate at night. On the bright side, we're in a secluded part of the camp that doesn't get patrolled, but we're also running out the clock as starvation kicks in.
Night comes a long and we make our attempt. We sneak as far up as we can, and go into a mad sprint. No looking back from this point on.
We dash past the gate as the guards scramble to beat us back down. Sato and one of the other prisoners take a hit, but we keep going. One goes down, then they catch up to Sato. His leg takes a nasty hit and he's down. There is no use going back. We've managed to get a little down this road, but not far enough. Jakku gets captured, and one of the guards swipes Ribs' leg clean. It's bad. They put chains on us, and start to bandage the severe wounds.
No. No. No! I'm not going back. Left leg may be useless, but I'm crawling. They're going to need to drag me back. And I keep crawling. It looks like the guards are still busy patching up Sato and the other guy, and securing them. Did they not see me crawl away? I just manage to get enough around this corner that I think I'm outside of their line of sight. I don't know about the odds of survival for someone who can't even stand up, but I'm taking it.
Then out of nowhere Jakku comes up behind me. I have no idea how, but he managed to escape as well, and he joins me. At least he'll be able to carry me...
Or not. His left arm is useless right now. Not much else to do then than get as far away as possible. I'm not taking any chances if they come back looking for us.
Jakku scouts the way ahead looking for anything -- bandages, food, something that will help, but finds nothing. These Floodlands are a wasteland of rusted metal and marsh.
I make my way to a forest, hoping I might come across something. Anything.
A village!
Help? Not the warmest of greetings.
I can't even afford a rice bowl, and I'm too scared to risk getting caught stealing after everything I've gone through.
The Floatsam Ninjas wage a war against the Holy Nation? You don't have to ask me twice, I'll join.
And they patched me up. We're actually going to make it. I just need to go back for Ribs. Sato on the other hand...
Just one more complication. Those Floodlands I ran through with Jakku -- it looks like they weren't as empty as I thought. Crawl your heart out Ribs.
Re-united at last. The last stretch to freedom and safety!
Something is out there in the night, but I don't have time to find out. I just need to get Ribs to that village.
We made it. Not all of us, but we're actually free!
The face of true freedom and the promise of a good rest.
Did I mention I love Kenshi?