Discussion What are you currently playing? (Week 39: Sep 25th - Oct 2nd, 2022)

[Cacher]

We have a "What are you currently playing?" thread but there is no new post since June. So I thought maybe we can have a weekly thread instead so people can post a regular update. Feel free to write lengthy impressions or just drop the name of the game here.

Enough of the talking. What are you playing?

Lately I am mostly playing Judgment. Just finished chapter 6. They probably toned down all the minigames because of Kimura Takuya's involvement, but the main story so far is pretty good. Combat is awesome. The fights are very fast-paced so I don't mind the frequency of random encounters. Going to stop progressing the main story and try investing more time into the side content soon because I aim to get all cheevos.

On the other hand, I have been abandoning Xenoblade 3 for a few weeks. Still at chapter 7 but I feel burnt-out after 85 hours. This game simply has too much content. Let's see when I will return to it in the future.

 

[Li Kao]

Oh boy !

Main games
Persona 4 Golden
Nioh 2

Side Game
Dusk

On ice
Hitman 3
XCOM 2

Frozen
GTA V

I may develop but I wanted to up this great thread. Thank you Cacher

 

[thekeats1999]

Currently got 2 games on the go.

My main game is FFXIV. This is a long term game and I am currently trying my hand at the current Extreme and Savage tiered content. Not very good at it, but my static is fairly laid back and I am enjoying that additional layer of difficulty at the moment. Think it took us something like 8-10 hours of regular raiding to beat the most recent Extreme and get the weapon so we can move on to the most recent Savage. Also trying to get better at tanking.

My side game, when I fancy a break from Final Fantasy is... Final Fantasy VI. This is mainly getting played on the Deck. Enjoying it so far and plays extremely well on the Deck. Just the annoying issue of having to activate the virtual keyboard everytime I enter a new characters name, well confirm the existing one at anyrate.

I have a couple of other bits installed as well to either finish off or start. FF7R and Atelier Ryza. But they will wait till after I complete VI.

 

[Parsnip]

Currently playing Deliver Us The Moon. It's alright so far, kind of a slightly different game than I was expecting.

 

[Gamall Wednesday Ida]

Nioh 2

Me too. Sadly I don't get it. I played the first 3 missions until, like Nioh 1 before it, I lost all interest.

The randomness and quantity of loot make exploration worthless. Thankfully I quit before I had a pressing need to manage my inventory but I can scarcely imagine how fun it would have been to sort through literal hundred of items.

The levels are drab, and so sameish that during the first level, I was at times genuinely unsure whether I was playing Nioh 1 or 2 -- watery village at night, with unnecessarily convoluted ladder placement. I'd swear the assets are the same as in Nioh 1. Now I'm in a forge village which is basically the same, but by day and fire themed. Yay.

Oh, and if you set foot in the wrong place in the level, you fight a boss and can't go back to the rest of the level if you kill it. Locked door, of invisible wall. If you weren't done exploring, too bad. Why ? Fuck you, that's why. And it was the same in Nioh 1.

The character feels as sturdy as wet tissue paper, while random soldiers take 3 full stamina (I mean, er, "ki") bars to kill. And there are a lot of them. Can't roll when staggered. No dodge attack. Nothing special after blocking. Our attacks are flashy (I used splitstaff) but hit like wet noodles and take a full bar.All this adds up to extremely passive combat, constantly retreating to regen stamina at snail's pace, get a hit or two in, and retreat again. Anything else gets you killed, and the density of enemies is such that in some zones you can't run past them. And what the fuck is the purpose of ki pulse as a gameplay mechanic, except adding tedium (it's basically mandatory to pulse after every attack given how much stamina you need) and taking up a button that could have gone to something useful and fun?

It's like they took the worst parts of Souls and Diablo-style looters and mashed them together in a very low budget package. I know there are people enjoying these games, but I don't get it

 

[Le Pertti]

I'm mostly playing Like A Dragon and Deathloop. I do try out some odd games. Trying to not get too into a game before Persona 5!

 

[fantomena]

My mains right now are:
Grindstone
Cursed to Golf

although I do sometimes mix it up with a bunch of min in different roguelikes, Stardew Valley, sandbox games, strategy games and such at times.

 

[FeedMeAStrayCat]

Haven't been playing much of anything lately, unfortunately! A little bit of Sunset Overdrive on the Deck and uhhh.. that's about it.

 

[Mivey]

Currently playing through Cold Steel III and Guardians of the Galaxy.

 

[C-Dub]

Just Finished
Soul Hackers 2

Really enjoyed my time with this. Not the best game ever and nowhere near Atlus’ best, but a solid release. I like that it wasn’t too grindy and the time playing felt like time well spent with a great cast of characters.

While there are a lot of issues with the game keeping it from greatness, my biggest one is how bad it runs on Steam Deck. Even with “fixes” from ProtonDB a lot of visual effects are broken. Had to resort to streaming from my PC to the Deck instead of playing natively.

Just Starting
Return to Monkey Island

This’ll probably be all I have time to play this week. I’m about 2 hours in and really enjoying the humour and the puzzles. It feels like a slice of my childhood has been returned to me for a few hours, and I’m really grateful that we’ve got this game.

 

[Kvik]

Nice idea for a thread!

I just finished my replay of FF XIII-2 on the weekend. More impressions later in the Blitz thread, but my impressions of barely changed since my first play through.

Started Lightning Returns soon after, and the time limit system reminded me of Atelier Arland for a bit. While I feel there's quite a bit of leeway since I think you can do things out of order, I can't help thinking that I shouldn't spend my time talking to every NPC. It cost precious time (much like you shouldn't harvest everything in Atelier Arland), and the active ability to stop time is very limited.

I returned to Yakuza 3 after about 10 months absence and the story is convoluted as ever. Luckily, we can review all the cutscenes to get up to speed again. Also got reminded why I rather dislike the combat. The side stories are pretty simple too. I don't hate the slice-of-life chapter though, it's a welcome distraction from all the other drama that is happening in the background.

Trails from Zero will be next in the agenda since it's releasing in two days.

 

[curi0usBystander]

I'm mainly playing Soul Hackers 2, after a few weeks barely touching any game.
I wasn't really sold on the combat, felt that fights took too long. But now that I can do more powerful sabbath and have better skills It has the right pace.

 

[Mivey]

I returned to Yakuza 3 after about 10 months absence and the story is convoluted as ever. Luckily, we can review all the cutscenes to get up to speed again. Also got reminded why I rather dislike the combat. The side stories are pretty simple too. I don't hate the slice-of-life chapter though, it's a welcome distraction from all the other drama that is happening in the background.

Y3 was easily the weakest of the PS3 games I played so far, but it does return to form in Yakuza 4. It's not quite at the height of Yakuza 0, but both the combat and especially the side stories were really strong in that one. Combat is especially helped since three of the four characters you get in that game feel very different from Kiryu. I like Tiger Drops as much as anybody, but it does get a bit stale when you can nearly instantly wipe the floor with every enemy once you figure out the timing needed to pull it off reliably.

 

[「Echo」]

I've been playing Cyberpunk 2077. Like so many others, the Edgerunner's anime finally pushed me to give the game it's chance.
... And it's actually good and fun? It's also a constant visual treat. There is something interesting to see in nearly every square foot of the city.

I feel like I'm gonna put hundreds of hours into this. Multiple character builds, and seeing all the endings of course.

Nice idea for a thread!

Started Lightning Returns soon after, and the time limit system reminded me of Atelier Arland for a bit. While I feel there's quite a bit of leeway since I think you can do things out of order, I can't help thinking that I shouldn't spend my time talking to every NPC. It cost precious time (much like you shouldn't harvest everything in Atelier Arland), and the active ability to stop time is very limited.

To the absolute best of my knowledge, this guide I'm about to link has never been topped for Lightning Returns.

Guide for Lightning Returns: Final Fantasy XIII - Walkthrough overview

Page 1 of the full game walkthrough for Lightning Returns: Final Fantasy XIII. This guide will show you how to earn all of the achievements.

www.trueachievements.com

1: It's spoiler free
2: It will detail how to complete LITERALLY everything on your first playthrough, AND with time to spare
3: You will net all the achievements by following it

I bought a Hardcover guidebook for the entire FFXIII Trilogy, and when it came to Lightning returns, the official guide was absolute trash compared to this one.

I would swear by this guide on my grave lol. I used it to 100% the Xbox and PS3 version of the game. I will use it again when I go for Steam completion.

 

[bobnowhere]

Little Orpheus: Decent but overly long and drags, could easily be half the length.


Subnautica Below Zero:


Deathloop on Gamepass - finally managed to get it working, RTSS (rivatuner) was stopping it working)

 

[tetel]

I'm playing Judgment too - glad that it dropped since I wanted to play some Yakuza but the next one for me is Yakuza 5 and that one is a bit too big considering all the upcoming releases. Currently in chapter 9 and have been enjoying it so far although I have some nitpicks. Combat is pretty fun to play around with, but (similarly to Kiwami 2) there's no difficulty in this game at all - I'm not playing these games for the challenge but it would be nice if hard difficulty didn't allow me to do literally whatever and still win. Tailing/chasing missions are a bit rough too - the former just goes on for too long and just isn't particularly interesting while the latter became basically a QTE fest, pretty awkward how little freedom you get there so they can force you into QTE prompts.

Also playing Geometry Wars 3, almost done with getting 3 stars on every campaign level. It's a type of a twin stick that I always tend to enjoy - one hit to die, enemies die quickly too and almost zero fluff like choosing your builds/items. Good game.

 

[Ascheroth]

My main focus is currently on Underwater Ray Romano Utawarerumono - Prelude to the Fallen. I'm like 15 hours into the game and am liking it a lot. It's the one game I definitely want to finish before shifting my attention primarily to something else.
Dabbling in Yakuza 4 on the side as well.

And Genshin as the habitual ambient noise. Next update with another new region gonna drop this week as well, so I'll be busy.

Which is why I'm most likely not starting with Trails from Zero right away (it releases tomorrow), though I will be buying it.

 

[Kvik]

Y3 was easily the weakest of the PS3 games I played so far, but it does return to form in Yakuza 4.

I've considered dropping the Coliseum stages and Hitman missions altogether, since the constant blocking in combat irritates me a lot. I have half a mind to download a moveset mod that removed/dial down the blocking just so I can power through it. Luckily, I'm in chapter 10 now and almost maxed Kiryu's heat bar, so I probably won't be screwed (I hope) for the final boss fight.

To the absolute best of my knowledge, this guide I'm about to link has never been topped for Lightning Returns.

Thanks for this. I had a quick skim of the guide, and it recommends the Easy difficulty for best results. I suppose I can just restart, since I've only spent about 4 in-game hours so far.

My main focus is currently on Underwater Ray Romano Utawarerumono - Prelude to the Fallen. I'm like 15 hours into the game and am liking it a lot.

The Venn diagram of Trails fans and Uta fans continues to form an overlapping circle.

 

[Parsnip]

Started playing Draw Puzzle.
It's delightful.

 

[Futaleufu]

Telling Lies: good idea, bad execution

 

[Ascheroth]

The Venn diagram of Trails fans and Uta fans continues to form an overlapping circle.

It's why I went all in with buying the entire trilogy without having known anything about it other than "most people who like Trails also like it" to begin with.

 

[Cacher]

Telling Lies: good idea, bad execution

I felt the same for Her Story. Understand the high praise that game got because of the interesting mechanics, but at the end the story was still divided into a lot of pieces and this honestly made the pacing worse.

 

[Futaleufu]

I felt the same for Her Story. Understand the high praise that game got because of the interesting mechanics, but at the end the story was still divided into a lot of pieces and this honestly made the pacing worse.

Her Story works because it's a better designed cohesive single subject. Telling Lies has many threads and a lot of filler.

 

[Stevey]

A few hours into Days Gone, enjoying it so far, although I get the feeling it's going to be pretty repetitive.

 

[LEANIJA]

for me – Hitman 3: trying for the Elusive Target Arcades (usually ending in "killing all guards on the map"... I wonder if thats normal )
Return to Monkey Island: well I just finished it, see the "finished games" thread about my thoughts. ( or click this )
Zachtronics Solitaire Collection: does what it says on the tin: just a collection of fun Solitaire games always up for a game, or ten.
most likely gonna play Kena now, since that just released.

 

[Parsnip]

After finishing Deliver Us The Moon the other day I haven't started a new "main" game yet, can't decide what to play.
Games like Draw Puzzle are more of background games for me, jumping in and out of them. I still also have Tametsi and a replay of Voxelgram in that spot.

I installed Lords of the Fallen, will probably play that next.

 

[Ibuki]

Finally started playing Trails in the Sky. I'm absolutely loving it. Just finished Chapter 1 and I'm glad I didn't skip ahead. The fomo for Trails from Zero and the endless debate about if it's a good starting point is what really pushed me over the edge. I've got plenty of time, just need to get there at my own pace.
As far as the game itself goes, the dialogue and humor is absolutely incredible, but the main story still has hints of drama and interesting mysteries going on. Every time a new character is introduced, I am so excited. Olivier's introduction actually had me laughing out loud.
Protect Estelle at all costs.

 

[Kvik]

Finally started playing Trails in the Sky. I'm absolutely loving it. Just finished Chapter 1 and I'm glad I didn't skip ahead.

Glad you're enjoying it. You won't be disappointed.

Also, consider grabbing Trails SC if you haven't done so already. You'll thank me later.

 

[Le Pertti]

If persona 5 wasn’t around the corner I would have started trails too!

 

[Cacher]

Judgment's drone race is surprisingly fun and well-made. I really feel the thrill of racing in busy streets. Pretty difficult, too, which is another plus in my book. Meanwhile, the stuttering becomes much more noticeable. Not ideal but it still feels better than playing at 30 fps on the PS4.

 

[Dandy]

Slowly playing through Return to Monkey Island(I'm loving it), and messing around with my Island Sanctuary in FFXIV.

 

[Ibuki]

Glad you're enjoying it. You won't be disappointed.

Also, consider grabbing Trails SC if you haven't done so already. You'll thank me later.

I'm going to try to play the whole Sky trilogy before I play Zero. I know it's a big undertaking, but I've got time. I'll continue chipping away at the games on my Deck. I've always wanted to play this series, and there is no better time than the present.

 

[Mivey]

I'm going to try to play the whole Sky trilogy before I play Zero. I know it's a big undertaking, but I've got time. I'll continue chipping away at the games on my Deck. I've always wanted to play this series, and there is no better time than the present.

It's a bit of work (nothing too complicated, just involves moving around a few files) but you might want take a look at the voice over mods:
This enables the Japanese voice overs from the Vita ports on the PC version too. Zero on Steam actually comes with voice overs already included.

You can follow the same instructions as for Windows PC, but you need to set the following command line to make them work when launching the game from the Deck: WINEDLLOVERRIDES="dinput8=n,b" %command%

 

[Li Kao]

Are there voice over patchs for 1 and 3 ?

 

[Ibuki]

It's a bit of work (nothing too complicated, just involves moving around a few files) but you might want take a look at the voice over mods:
This enables the Japanese voice overs from the Vita ports on the PC version too. Zero on Steam actually comes with voice overs already included.

You can follow the same instructions as for Windows PC, but you need to set the following command line to make them work when launching the game from the Deck: WINEDLLOVERRIDES="dinput8=n,b" %command%

I was able to install this for FC on both Deck and PC already, but I appreciate it! I will definitely install it when I get to SC as well.

 

[Mivey]

Are there voice over patchs for 1 and 3 ?

Yeah. The guide I linked references a Github repo with patches for FC and 3rd as well, as well as the voice files for those games. It used to be that you could simply download them from Sony's servers (and then use some quasi-legal scripts to decode them), but I think Sony shuttered the Vita store, so there's basically no legal way to get them.
Mind you, that doesn't mean that you can't find them, or that it's even hard to get them. Ho ho ho.