Community MetaSteam | June 2019 - Microsoft does what Epican't

[Deleted member 113]

Does anyone know a good Japanese adventure game (not VN or hybrid, pure adventure game)? I remember playing Glass Rose a couple of years ago, and while it's a terrible game, it has a distinctive feel to it that is very different from the Western made games. Would be interesting to try more of it.

Well, there aren't many good Japanese "pure" adventure games that are not VN, or a hybrid.
Most I can think of are at the very least a hybrid with, say, a JRPG.

If you haven't played them already, you have the Touch Detective (Osawari Tantei) series, for the Nintendo DS.
These are light, quirky, adventure games. Nothing essential, but enjoyable enough.



You're probably well aware of this series already, but you also have the Clock Tower series:

 

[SRossi]

Quality list my friend

well, if you take c and d rank and dump them into poo, then yes, quality list.

 

[ZKenir]

But do you think it has good pacing?

I thought it was fine back then, the only issue I had with it was

Spoiler

the god thing that seemingly appears out of nowhere as a final boss

 

[Knurek]

And I hate VIII with a passion.

Weird, it's the strongest mechanically, I'd assume you'd like it best.

 

[Durante]

If you had to recommend ONE Final Fantasy title to someone (me) who has played only VII and VIII, which would it be?

XII is very different from all the other ones, and has the best English voice acting in any JRPG by a huge margin. I'd go with that.

 

[Dinjoralo]

Speaking of XIII, I really want to be able to play through the trilogy. I was partway through the first when I upgraded my CPU and it started running like ass because of it. You'd think Square Enix would have made some kind of trilogy package for consoles by now and fixed up the PC versions of 1 and 2 alongside that.

 

[bobnowhere]

AC Origins is CPU bound right?

Probably, my Ryzen 1700 ate it for lunch. Constant 60+ fps at 1440p on Ultra without a hitch and it wasn't pushing the GPU that hard. Performs much better than Syndicate for one.

 

[Hektor]

Weird, it's the strongest mechanically

It had the draw system tho.

If you had to recommend ONE Final Fantasy title to someone (me) who has played only VII and VIII, which would it be?

Since i know you like CRPG's i'd recommend XII (apart from my personal bias towards the game anyways).

The combat is heavily inspired by western RTWP games, the class system also resembles CRPG's more than other final fantasies and the gambit system was an influence to Dragon Age Origins and Pillars of Eternity 2.

 

[BlueOdin]

cracks knuckles

SSS Rank: Tactics, XII, IX

Ma Man!

 

[Digoman]

I was also going to ask which Final Faantasy you experts recommend after I was underwhelmed by XV, but I guess XII it is then.

Let's see how low it goes on the Steam sale (bad regional price over here).

 

[Rosenkrantz]

Just remember, XII is offline MMO and gets progressively worse the more you play it. Shame SE didn't trust Matsuno's vision to the end.

 

[Tizoc]

Just remember, XII is offline MMO and gets progressively worse the more you play it. Shame SE didn't trust Matsuno's vision to the end.

? I enjoyed it quite thoroughly all throughout my last playthrough of it.

 

[Rosenkrantz]

? I enjoyed it quite thoroughly all throughout my last playthrough of it.

I mean, I enjoy it as well, but I think the second half of the game is noticeably worse than the first.

 

[Knurek]

It had the draw system tho.

Which is a good thing, unless you're OCD and positively need to have 100 of each spell.
It brings another risk-reward factor to the whole game - do you use up your spell charges and make your characters weaker (well, since you obviously Junctioned magic to their stats) or do you try to use other ways of dispatching enemies/curing.

XII is very different from all the other ones, and has the best English voice acting in any JRPG by a huge margin. I'd go with that.

I'd argue Mass Effect 2 had better voice acting.
(And if that doesn't count for some reason, Digital Devil Saga duology was the only other PS2 game I didn't download UNDUB for).

 

[Tizoc]

Ff12's final boss being

Spoiler

the incredible hulk will never not be funny to me

 

[Deleted member 113]

I know that there are some Draugen Steam coupons around.
Do these apply to the collector's edition, or just the regular edition of the game?

thanks

 

[Hektor]

Which is a good thing, unless you're OCD and positively need to have 100 of each spell.
It brings another risk-reward factor to the whole game - do you use up your spell charges and make your characters weaker (well, since you obviously Junctioned magic to their stats) or do you try to use other ways of dispatching enemies/curing.

But the issue with that is that the system inherently encourages you to have max units of every spell, OCD or not if you want to play efficiently.
Of course you can also just not draw max but then you're passing on free stats, and quite a lot as well.
Thus, i also wouldn't consider it a risk/reward system, because there is only a risk involved if you didn't draw until you're full.
Simultaniously, if you DO draw max you are essentially an unstoppable force for most of the game.
It's a system that's essentially exploitable to a breaking point just by using it normally.

 

[lashman]

I know that there are some Draugen Steam coupons around.
Do these apply to the collector's edition, or just the regular edition of the game?

thanks

i believe coupons always only apply to the base version of the game when the deluxe/complete/collector's one is a bundle

 

[Recrees]

I know that there are some Draugen Steam coupons around.
Do these apply to the collector's edition, or just the regular edition of the game?

thanks

I have one and it only seems to work with the regular edition. If you want the coupon anyway let me know, I have no use for it.

 

[Knurek]

It's a system that's essentially exploitable to a breaking point just by using it normally.

That's Final Fantasy (from V onwards) in a nutshell.

 

[PossiblyPudding]

I also have a coupon for Draugen if anyone wants it. I'd use it myself but I really want to pick up SteamWorld Quest and after that I'll be broke again so I'd rather see it get used by someone who wants the game before it expires.

 

[Ascheroth]

Shining Resonance Refrain is Fanatical's Star Deal right now.
Calling it a Star Deal is a bit amusing when it's just 1€ cheaper then it was yesterday in the regular sale, but for 14€ I might bite.
I'm running low on animu games at the moment, so this should keep me occupied until the summer

 

[Deleted member 113]

i believe coupons always only apply to the base version of the game when the deluxe/complete/collector's one is a bundle

If I'm recalling correctly, at least some could be applied to more than one product.
I seem to recall using one in which, after I clicked the button that displays the titles it applies to, the regular and collector's edition of a game were both listed.

But, maybe it no longer works like that, considering you are right, pretty much all coupons I see only apply for the "regular" edition.

I have one and it only seems to work with the regular edition. If you want the coupon anyway let me know, I have no use for it.

Thanks, but considering it's significantly more expensive to buy the game + the two DLCs, compared to just getting the collector's edition, I won't use it either.

 

[lashman]

If I'm recalling correctly, at least some could be applied to more than one product.
I seem to recall using one in which, after I clicked the button that displays the titles it applies to, the regular and collector's edition of a game were both listed.

But, maybe it no longer works like that, considering you are right, pretty much all coupons I see only apply for the "regular" edition.

that might've been because the collector's edition wasn't a bundle ... sometimes publishers do bundles, sometimes separate packages

i don't think you can apply coupons to bundles AT ALL - that's why they don't work if it's a bundle

 

[BlueOdin]

The double jump in Gato Robo is pretty fun. And the game crashed and froze my computer.

 

[Durante]

for some reason

Like not being a JRPG by any stretch of the imagination?

Digital Devil Saga duology was the only other PS2 game I didn't download UNDUB for).

Not nearly as good as FF XII IMHO.
Of course, the quality of FFXII's VA is a combination of the acting and direction itself and the excellent English dialogue writing.

 

[TheLetdown]

If you had to recommend ONE Final Fantasy title to someone (me) who has played only VII and VIII, which would it be?

FFIX is kinda of a return to the fantasy basics of the earlier games after the more sci-fi dabbling VII and VIII, and it has the benefit of being slightly more modern than going back to FFIV (which is the best in the series.)

I should probably check out XII. I sort of stopped with the series at X back when it came out.

I also have less and less time these days for an involved complex epic, which is why Octopath's bite-sized story segments were perfect for me.

 

[Durante]

Shining Resonance Refrain is Fanatical's Star Deal right now.
Calling it a Star Deal is a bit amusing when it's just 1€ cheaper then it was yesterday in the regular sale, but for 14€ I might bite.
I'm running low on animu games at the moment, so this should keep me occupied until the summer

I was actually positively surprised by that -- to be fair though I didn't expect much from it. It's certainly very anime, so it fits the bill.
Good port too.

 

[Tizoc]

I also have a coupon for Draugen if anyone wants it. I'd use it myself but I really want to pick up SteamWorld Quest and after that I'll be broke again so I'd rather see it get used by someone who wants the game before it expires.

How much is the discount coupon offering?

 

[Knurek]

Like not being a JRPG by any stretch of the imagination?

Yeah, that would be about right.
Although, ME2 is way closer to Anachronox than to Arcanum in my books..

 

[NarohDethan]

According to the Cyberdimension Neptunia forums, some major bugs have been fixed, time to reinstall!

I guess you can never defeat anime

 

[BO7AMMOOD]

FF13 is fun

FFXIII is good, though ...

Final Fantasy XIII IS great. Haters can do one

XIII can be a lot of things, but oh boy, the OST is godly.

Absolutely!


It's scientifically impossible for a game to have such soundtrack and not be great. Scientifically!

If you had to recommend ONE Final Fantasy title to someone (me) who has played only VII and VIII, which would it be?

Final Fantasy IX. This is a fantastic series with so many entries worth playing but I'd suggest starting with IX since it's a classic and one of the most well rounded Final Fantasies. For the record I have played and finished I, VII, Tactics, VIII, IX, X, X-2, XIII, XIII-2, XIII-LR and XV.

 

[Line]

Final Fantasy tier lists taking too much thread space?
I'm in!
S tier: Tactics
A tier: 4, 6, 9
B tier: 5, 7, 10, Tactics Advance 2
C tier: 8, 10-2
tier: 1, 2, 3, 11, 12, 13, 13-2, 13-3, 14, 15

 

[PossiblyPudding]

How much is the discount coupon offering?

15% off.

 

[Amzin]

If you had to recommend ONE Final Fantasy title to someone (me) who has played only VII and VIII, which would it be?

Tactics is my favorite gameplay wise, but really has nothing in common with any of the FFs besides the names. I will defend 6 as the best FF until I die because they sure aren't trying very hard to match it anymore The world, characters, story, are all great and the gameplay is a bit simple by today's standards but it's super classic RPG and offers enough variety to screw around.

I thought it was fine back then, the only issue I had with it was

I'm playing through it now on Steam and have to agree that the pacing is terrible. I've got 4 hours into it so far and that really should have been like, 1 hour at most. It's not bad or anything, it just is a bit of a mess so far.

The double jump in Gato Robo is pretty fun. And the game crashed and froze my computer.

It's so rare to see games totally freeze computers anymore, that's almost impressive.

 

[teezzy]

FFX doesn't get nearly enough love, best FF after FFVI

The cast rules, and I adore the leveling system.

Also... Otherworld \m/

 

[Ascheroth]

I was actually positively surprised by that -- to be fair though I didn't expect much from it. It's certainly very anime, so it fits the bill.
Good port too.

Yeah, I'm not expecting anything amazing. I just need a comfy B-tier JRPG romp and it sounds like it fits the bill.

 

[sauce]

All this FF talk reminds me that I have to figure out when I'm going to marathon the XIII trilogy.

The developer of the Dungeon Dice Monsters (fan)remake hasn't posted anything in the last 15 Months. I suppose the project is dead.
Oh well, wish a commercial indiedev would pick up the idea and make a non-licensed version of it at some point.

Do you mind explaining the concept of that game to me? I looked up a video and was pretty confused about what was going on. Looked neat though.

 

[「Echo」]

I don't understand why people get so worked up about FF, especially to the point of condescension. People who do nothing but sit on their horse and spit at others just for different tastes belong in a pit so they can spit at others like them. It's especially annoying with older FF fans. Consider the following: FF isn't made for you anymore. The audience has changed. You either change with it or become a bitter little raisin ... which actually seems to be the preferred choice by older fans.

Since we're doing lists:

S Rank: IX, Lightning Returns, Type-0
A Rank: VI, XIII-2, WoFF, XIV
B Rank: XIII, XV, Crisis Core
C Rank: II, VII, IV
D Rank: I, V, III
Not Played Yet: VIII, X, X-2, XI, and XII.

Lightning Returns had a great emotional payofff, and the best battle system of any JRPG in the PS3-Era. Plus the time limit was constant pressure which I liked. FF IX was my first and still favorite, it's romantic and slow, but I like the way it unfolds. Type-0 is a roller-coaster, but I loved the militaristic brutality of it and how the lore stuck much more to the original intents of Fabula Nova Crystallis. Also I think it's the only M-rated FF.

 

[BlueOdin]

Some bossfights feel like they drag on too long in Gato Robo. Even with rockets.

What I like about the game that so far it tells you where hidden rooms are. Always hated invisible walls in Metroidvanias. Sometimes you are glad because it contains a health upgrade, sometimes you are kinda downed, because you find a cartridge to unlock a new palette. They don't necessarily look bad (though some hurt my eyes like the Virtual Boy one) and they are linked to upgrades but still would've prefered damage or some other upgrades over a few of them because a lot of them change just one color.

Fighting enemies is pointless, too, since you don't need rocket drops and health drops are non-existent either. Other than rooms where they block you off until you killed every enemy or they straight up block your way your better off just jumping over them where I almost think it maybe would've been better to put spikes or some other obstacles in there.

My three main gripes with the game. Overall still enjoying it. Is probably ~ 3-5 hours long for first time through depending on skill and if you want to go for the 100% or not. Hope to see it at a GDQ because it has quite a bit of speedrunning potential.

 

[SRossi]

All this FF talk reminds me that I have to figure out when I'm going to marathon the XIII trilogy.

If you are lucky, never. It's shit.

Blah

You have bad taste, youngling.

 

[TheLetdown]

The FF talk actually accomplished the weird goal of making me re-install Nier:Automata.

I was playing it, relatively enjoying it, and then suddenly moved on to the next game. Decided I needed to go back.

 

[Hektor]

Do you mind explaining the concept of that game to me? I looked up a video and was pretty confused about what was going on. Looked neat though.

It's a turn based strategy game with a deckbuilding aspect. Except you use dices instead of cards.
Essentially you build a deck out of dices and each dice has a make-up of fields where the eyes usually are, like an attack field or a move field.
Some also have a monster side.
You throw dices and add the tokens you get to your token pool. So whenever a dice lands on "attack" you get an attack move added to your pool etc.

When a dice lands on a monster field, the dice "opens" into a grid of 6 fields like these which you can then place on the actual board.
The board starts out empty itself and has both players on it at opposite ends. Your goal is obviously to kill that opposing player. So when you throw a monster dice, you get to place such a 6 grid field and slowly build a way towards your opponent and he does the same.

Whenever you spawn such a field via monster side, you also get said monster on one of the 6 fields. That monster you can then move across the field via move tokens and use to attack other monsters via attack tokens.

Each monster also has unique properties in the form of Attack-power, defense-power and occasionally also special effects that activate under specific circumstances.

There's also other dices that instead of a monster side have other features like the ability to place a warp hole and such, but that'd go too much into details.

 

[teezzy]

Since we're doing lists:

S Rank: IX, Lightning Returns, Type-0
A Rank: VI, XIII-2, WoFF, XIV
B Rank: XIII, XV, Crisis Core
C Rank: II, VII, IV
D Rank: I, V, III
Not Played Yet: VIII, X, X-2, XI, and XII.

You forgot S+ Rank:

Kupo.

 

[RionaaM]

I enjoyed FF XIII a lot, and grew up to like all of the main cast. Yes, including Hope.

Haven't played the sequels, nor other FFs except for the beginning of a few old ones. Oh, and one of the Wii Crystal Chronicles whatever and the Theatrhythms. Curtain Call is an absolute masterpiece, and deserves to live beyond the 3DS.

I don't understand why people get so worked up about FF, especially to the point of condescension. People who do nothing but sit on their horse and spit at others just for different tastes belong in a pit so they can spit at others like them. It's especially annoying with older FF fans. Consider the following: FF isn't made for you anymore. The audience has changed. You either change with it or become a bitter little raisin ... which actually seems to be the preferred choice by older fans.

Since we're doing lists:

S Rank: IX, Lightning Returns, Type-0
A Rank: VI, XIII-2, WoFF, XIV
B Rank: XIII, XV, Crisis Core
C Rank: II, VII, IV
D Rank: I, V, III
Not Played Yet: VIII, X, X-2, XI, and XII.

Lightning Returns had a great emotional payofff, and the best battle system of any JRPG in the PS3-Era. Plus the time limit was constant pressure which I liked. FF IX was my first and still favorite, it's romantic and slow, but I like the way it unfolds. Type-0 is a roller-coaster, but I loved the militaristic brutality of it and how the lore stuck much more to the original intents of Fabula Nova Crystallis. Also I think it's the only M-rated FF.

We need an equivalent term to Pokemon's genwunners for FF fans who still refuse to accept that the series moved on from the PS1 games. Not that I personally care; the constant complaints about XIII were what got me interested in that game in the first place, as everything they criticized sounded very appealing to me.

If you are lucky, never. It's shit.

You have bad taste, youngling.

I know you're being facetious right now, but this post proves Echo's post perfectly

 

[texhnolyze]

Yummy, Capital Wasteland (Fallout 3 remake in Fallout 4) is shaping up nicely.



At least the places are already there, judging by the trailer. I imagine they're currently busy designing the quests atm.

 

[PossiblyPudding]

Woohoo! One run of Void Bastards complete! I'm not someone that usually tries to get all of the achievements but I might give it a shot with this one.

I had no idea that Cara Ellison voiced the pirates in the game until I saw the credits. She did a great job!

 

[Tizoc]

Steam Developer: INTICREATES

 

[Dinjoralo]

FFX doesn't get nearly enough love, best FF after FFVI

The cast rules, and I adore the leveling system.

Also... Otherworld \m/

I liked the story and cast, but the gameplay systems bugged the bugger out of me.

 

[BO7AMMOOD]

I don't understand why people get so worked up about FF, especially to the point of condescension. People who do nothing but sit on their horse and spit at others just for different tastes belong in a pit so they can spit at others like them. It's especially annoying with older FF fans. Consider the following: FF isn't made for you anymore. The audience has changed. You either change with it or become a bitter little raisin ... which actually seems to be the preferred choice by older fans.

Well said. It's perfectly fine to have a strong opinion about a game, but frankly I don't get why it's necessary to be... well... an asshole about it. I mean there has been plenty of times where I'd play a game and still not get what people love or even like about it. But I still never felt the need to look down on people for their opinions on games ffs.

As for Final Fantasy XIII, I was a little late to the party with it. I only played it 3 years after its release since I was on a gaming hiatus, and despite being warned to stay away from it, I still had to play it since Final Fantasy was one of my favorite IPs in gaming ever since I played VII on the PS1. So I gave it a shot, and what do you know, I ended up loving it! I get that it's structured pretty differently from classic Final Fantasies, and that this is probably what turned off many older fans off it, but I l still enjoyed for what it is. It might not be my favorite Final Fantasy, but honestly, it's not too far! Would it have been a better game if it was more open like older Final Fantasy games were? Maybe. But a game being linear (Yes, even THAT linear) has never negatively affected my enjoyment of it.

Since we're doing lists:

S Rank: IX, Lightning Returns, Type-0
A Rank: VI, XIII-2, WoFF, XIV
B Rank: XIII, XV, Crisis Core
C Rank: II, VII, IV
D Rank: I, V, III
Not Played Yet: VIII, X, X-2, XI, and XII.

Lightning Returns had a great emotional payofff, and the best battle system of any JRPG in the PS3-Era. Plus the time limit was constant pressure which I liked. FF IX was my first and still favorite, it's romantic and slow, but I like the way it unfolds. Type-0 is a roller-coaster, but I loved the militaristic brutality of it and how the lore stuck much more to the original intents of Fabula Nova Crystallis. Also I think it's the only M-rated FF.

Agreed! The one thing I was worried about going into LR was the time limit. I really love to take my time in games and explore every single nook and cranny, so I rarely speed run games or play ones that restrict my ability to progress at my leisure. To my surprise though Lightning Returns was super lenient about its time limit. If I'm not mistaken I remember having about a few days worth of spare time by the time I got to the final act. All in all I still prefer XIII over XIII-2 and LR, but that LR ending really was fantastic, especially with that sublime track they used in the credits!