Community MetaSteam September 2022 | You were expecting Kingdom Hearts, but it’s me Dio(field)!

Status
Not open for further replies.

Aaron D.

MetaMember
Jul 10, 2019
1,013
4,710
113
If Circus Electrique was made by any else other than Zen, it would be an insta buy. But, fuck Zen and the Epic horse they rode in on.
And it's published by Saber Interactive, a company that really loves taking the Epic bribe.

Oh and for good measure, they hiked up the regional pricing of the game one day after release.

Used to be that my default demeanor towards all developers was one of goodwill. The fuckery of the last 3 or so years has gotten me to do a full 180 on that stance. Not everyone deserves goodwill or the benefit of the doubt. This game does not seem to be doing all that well... 280 peak CCU and 47 reviews as of right now. Still early days of course. A few years ago I would have thought "That's a shame". Today I'm thinking "LOL fuck them".



Yeah, it's a shame that the production comes with such baggage attached behind the scenes.

Because from a design perspective the game itself is truly something special.

The visuals are arresting with a unique style and sense of place. It can look busy on the surface but the language is parsing a lot of info to the player in an intelligent manner, all with convenient mouse-over info pop-ups.

You can just tell there was a lot of thought & TLC put into it. Like how the tutorial is spread over the initial hours of gameplay, not throwing everything at you all at once, but rather getting the player comfortable with the myriad of systems a bit at a time. Unlocking & introducing new concepts only after the previous have been test-driven for a bit. Plus there's a fully fleshed out Codex explaining all the nuances that you can access anytime in-game complete with cool "Fallout Valut-Boy"-like animations on each page. Even that little magnifying glass on top-left opens a full infographic explaining unique concepts of whatever screen your currently on.

There's just so much going on between circus management...upgrading facilities, recruiting & upgrading performers (15 unique classes!). Setting up daily circus acts and synergizing performers for better payouts. The board game-like map progression where you cruise nodes in divergent paths to main quest goal markers. The way time of day & weather affects the battle system kinda like Divinity: OS. The VN cutscenes between battles with legit great voice acting and character art. All that and I haven't even unlocked the crafting systems yet, lol.

I've read some criticisms like that story is flat or circus event planning can feel grindy. So it's not like GOAT(!!!) or anything. But man, as a $20 package it feels fresh af and dense with content. I think the setting goes a long way as well. I punched up Darkest Dungeon for a quick moment just to compare/contrast my thoughts. And while there's not doubt DD is masterclass in this tactics subgenre, it was just so freakin' bleak & dour, the whole vibe felt nihilistic & depressing. In contrast Electrique is like a color explosion while oddly still having a bit of bite with that Victorian London steampunk thing that feels kinda Burtonesque, kinda We Happy Few. A more welcome balance of grim & fantastical was my quick takeaway.

So we'll see where it goes. I've only got 4 hours in, so it could just be the honeymoon-period talking. But either way I already feel like I've gotten my money's worth and can't wait to discover more.
 

Li Kao

It’s a strange world. Let’s keep it that way.
Jan 28, 2019
7,867
15,893
113
Your feedback is appreciated, and very much needed as I can't stand the whole robotic circus aesthetic. But some reviews complain about it being easy to enter a fail state where you can't beat a boss and have no other choice that fighting him again, no turning back from it. What do you think about that ? Overblown ?
 
  • Eyes
Reactions: Tomasety

Arc

MetaMember
Sep 19, 2020
2,960
11,160
113
Sad how soul Hackers 2 is not there but at least P4G is

SH2 is simply not in a pleasant state right now on the Deck. Outside of crashes at startup, there are a wide variety of graphical bugs including missing particle effects. I knew something was up when Hell Biker didn't have any wheels. I'm on the last dungeon and have spent probably 90% of my time on the Deck, but it's been a rough experience.
 

Aaron D.

MetaMember
Jul 10, 2019
1,013
4,710
113
Your feedback is appreciated, and very much needed as I can't stand the whole robotic circus aesthetic. But some reviews complain about it being easy to enter a fail state where you can't beat a boss and have no other choice that fighting him again, no turning back from it. What do you think about that ? Overblown ?
Haven't faced off with any bosses yet, so I can't comment.

I did see a vid review that mentioned Normal difficulty was actually Hard in practice, and that it might be wise to start off on Easy.

Since I'm an geriatric Boomer, I typically play all games on Easy so I was leaning in that direction anyway. :p
 

freshVeggie

almost there
Sep 7, 2018
1,039
2,908
113
I've been seeing hidden and dangerous duology popping up on steamgifts, but upon checking their steam pages enhanced steam didn't show any current bundle they're in.
Is there a good deal happening for those two games atm because they're one of the few worksheet games of mine on GOG.
 
  • Eyes
Reactions: Tomasety

Recrees

Junior Member
Dec 31, 2018
137
448
63
Czechia
I've been seeing hidden and dangerous duology popping up on steamgifts, but upon checking their steam pages enhanced steam didn't show any current bundle they're in.
Is there a good deal happening for those two games atm because they're one of the few worksheet games of mine on GOG.
Both are currently included in the first tier of the 2k Megahits Humble bundle: 2K Megahits
 
OP
Mor

Mor

Me llamo Willy y no hice la mili, pero vendo Chili
Sep 7, 2018
7,109
26,224
113
SH2 is simply not in a pleasant state right now on the Deck. Outside of crashes at startup, there are a wide variety of graphical bugs including missing particle effects. I knew something was up when Hell Biker didn't have any wheels. I'm on the last dungeon and have spent probably 90% of my time on the Deck, but it's been a rough experience.
This right here, they only took verified games, nor even playable (which would have been wise to tell people that even in that case they run) but also surprisingly they didn't include things like SRW which is huge in Japan.

The Switch store page for Persona 5 Royal is up. Maybe the Steam page will come fairly soon. :unsure:
Potentially at night. Although that's Japanese Eshop, so I kind of expect it to follow a different set of rules, western pages might be up at a later date.
 
  • Eyes
Reactions: Tomasety

Blu

MetaMember
Mar 12, 2019
1,029
3,130
113
I just noticed your Steam friends list has an option when you right click a friend you can choose "Find Games to Play Together." It doesn't seem to work with any of my friends but I'm curious is there any more info about this feature and how it's supposed to work?
 

mastemas

truman doctrine (actual norwegian guy)
Apr 15, 2021
607
2,161
93
here's one of my life lessons
yeah, i know i'm nobody to give out life lessons, i'm a 19 year old guy, but i recently discovered that the Great Teacher Onizuka was 22 years old when he did his first line, so i declared yesterday that if I'm not as cool of a guy as him in 2-3 years, my life's for nothing and tokyo bay gains another visitor (THIS IS A JOKE, MIND YOU, I AM NOT GOING TO TOKYO BAY)

the art of overcomplicating; the most common, yet least talked about form of manipulation

what ever happened to the simple fact of merits and beliefs?
these days, you have these nerds who have to overcomplicate everything, so it looks like something fits their own narrative or something, make something look good or bad, so much that they try to hide away from a simple and objective conclusion

you have these nerds which bombard you with "Um, akshually"'s if you say some crap like "ai art isn't real art", who tell you this and that while they can't accept the simple merit that "ai art isn't real art because it wasn't made by a real guy"

overcomplicating shit by ignoring simple merits and instead pulling up shit like statistics that mean jack or whatever is just a loser move

if not from me, take it from what the legend himself said:
 

Censored

I didn't delete that post!. Get my post back!.
Oct 8, 2021
1,221
4,511
113
20% sale ^^ got it:
It was on my wishlist. I’ve bought the first one too which is 3,49 euros on cdkeys.

I’ve got HimeYoku: A Sacrifice of Lust and grace too (uncensored patch is on johren). That said I noticed one nsfw metroidvsnia indie game released this july on Steam it’s just released on another wellknown nsfw japanese site even more not safe for work and new subtitle.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.