I never really stopped playing StS, so I don’t have an unbiased take on this question. I still think the original is wonderful and worth my time if I want to play on mobile. And deckbuilding roguelikes are probably my favorite type of games. I’m on my Steam Deck 99% of the time.
I haven’t seen much out of two runs through StS2 that’s entirely new. I gained a companion/familiar with its own attack in one run–cool wrinkle, but something I’ve seen before. Multiplayer is an interesting feature that’s new to StS, but is it much different than, say, Pathfinder Adventures Card Game or Sentinels of the Multiverse? I’ll need to find some friends to try that, I guess. Hopefully Mega Crit brings single-player, multi-hero play to StS2 like the two games I just mentioned, so I don’t have to coordinate with other people to see that game mode.
The game feels very, very polished for an early access title, so I do wonder what changes they’ll make along the way. I know I’ll hit 100 hours regardless; people on the fence probably want to find a video or two to get a look at the gameplay before buying.
Day 37 of Blue Prince. I’ve made great progress imho, no cheats at all except the occasional calculator for the dartboard cause who has time for that. I also watched a video on the fuse box, because despite having all the clues and understanding it, fuck that thing.
I digress. This was a great run. Got the pump room to empty the F and reveal the E. Did the fuse box. Discovered the GC. Lit the fourth brazier to make an E pop up. Opened a safe. Had the K to get into a different entrance to the U and move the OC to work on the puzzle there.
Had to put the Legion down to go family, not realizing the battery was low, and yes, dear reader, you guessed it, the rat bastard died on me. Day 37? Nope, welcome to Day 38. Only thing that carried over was the safe.
It’s a good story also, I kind of really liked how each of the leveling quest stories were about faith in one way or another and it was kind of an exploration of what faith means - it was really enjoyable.
I took a break for the new PoE season but finally today from the vault was able to get the last piece I needed to get high enough gear to try one of the LFR queues, was fun, it was the first part of Voidspire. Only one wipe, and I managed to only die once on a first time LFR…and that was to a trash mob.
Currently playing Ni no Kuni 2 (a 2018 jRPG) on Nintendo Switch 2: „Hmm?“ ™
Needed something more cozy right now. Cute game but hot damn did this game teach me something new about me. I seem to have nourished a rampant hate for „classical“ orchestral OST in games as of late.
Melancholic/sad Piano only in „I am Setsuna“? Meh!
Mostly low key orchestral/piano in „Harvestella“ by L.E.G.E.N.D.A.R.Y Go Shina? Yawn!
Classic Orchestral OST in „Ni no Kuni 2“? Man I hate this! Time for some background Podcasts….
makes me fear for my eventual romp trough Dragon Quest 2D-HD 1,2,3 as well as 7 reimagined, 11 and potential remakes of 4,5 and 6….I heard some things about the TRUE oldschool jRPG masterpiece music in DQ games…
What’s funny is I remember the score to Ni No Kuni 2 quite fondly, very much in keeping with my general appreciation of orchestral scores, but I can’t absolutely understand how others might get very turned off by it.
From listening to Liberi Fatali (FF8) and One-Winged Angel (FF7) on repeat until getting regular interventions from the Family Unit Overlords in my teens to this quite strong antipathy now to any music wind- or wood-Instrument produced? Cannot be my difficult growing up-phase, does this happen in mid-life-crisis years as well?
Needs further testing - it seems I need to progress a bit in Theatherrhythm Final Bar Line FOR SCIENCE!
I cannot help here much, what is your history with this series, or Atlus games on a whole? I slightly lean more on the Persona side of the Scales, but only just slightly. I am not a big fan of the core SMT/Persona gameplay loop and favor the surrounding factors more (setting/story/lore/personal interactions) and so not much for SMT (finished SMT3 ages ago but haven’t progressed far in SMT4/SMT4A).
Still haven’t tried Metaphor ReFantasio (burned to many times by Atlus rererereleasing Royal versions so I wait it out until it makes it switch debut, either in a Royal or definite version).
If you played SMT4 (SMT4A) (both 3DS games) I believe it is more of the same but shinier.
The older Persona games (mainly P1 and P2IS and P2EP) play more like the older SMT games while from P3 on they went all in on the Teenager Drama/Angst with the Demon-gotta catch em all of older SMT/Persona games.
Marathon. I’m having a lot of fun with it and even getting some kills, though I do feel the visual flair is fucking me up more than anything else. Especially after playing a lot of Arc Raiders, I can barely parse the environment, I think clutter is loot, I get disoriented during heavy firefights by all the effects, and I regularly forget I have special abilities. The basic gameplay is good, I’m busy re-mapping a bunch of controls (crouch is CTRL?! What?), and the weaponry is nice to play around with and improve. I think the UI is needlessly obtuse, but everything is smooth compared to the intentional clumsiness of Arc Raiders. I’m just old fashioned and want to shoot people and take cover, I’m not sure air dashing into a melee kill is my sort of thing.
So I caved…if you remember my barely coherent Rant about the actual pretty great rerelease of many Warhammer (40k) classic games on steam. I lamented the obvious missing Warhammer 40k Deathwatch by Rodeo games. Well, in my epic lamenting about my current™ first world problem I stumbled down a rabbit hole. PHYSICAL copies of Deathwatch for the PS4 are still valid says Reddit. And Reddit is always right! Right?™
Bought one copy for a pittance of Amazon.de (only one copy left - lucky me). My first physical game purchase since before the pandemic - feels weird. Even got the physical Switch Sega Megadrive collection (Sega Genesis on the American Continent) as a early birthday present as well. Same situation, digital delisted but physical purchases still valid. Why? Not all Phantasy Star and Shining Force games are available on the NSO subscription, and I missed the announcement of the digital delisting - booo.
Anyways, can report: Physical Megadrive/Genesis collection still works on Switch. Deathwatch physical still works on PS5 (4). Got a jumpscare that the disc wasn’t recognized first, but eject/reinsert fixed the problem. Even downloaded an hefty update file automatically. Finished the prologue and everything is fine…aside from missing controller layout and the usual lazy mobile-to-console port shenanigans (small scrolling speed-no customizable options, etc). Obviously all IAP removed. You get fixed formerly real-world-money Ressource per mission as a reward (for purchasing gear/marine card packs). A bit sad that the Enhanced Edition exclusive chapters (White Scars, Black Templars, Dark Angels, Raven Guard and Imperial Fists) are a bit underrepresented (no tier 3/4 Marines boo).
Ok, now to the obligatory Murphy‘s law shoutout:
Hear ye, hear ye! I dare nay CHALLENGE you to rerelease a steam version now that I have jumped trough these fiery hoops….FOR SCIENCE!
Free game in which you uncover the writings of a royal family to fill in the names and titles of everyone in the family tree and find the true heir to the throne. The archive searching is Her Story-esque (click on a Trevosan word and get the first three documents containing it), and there are shades of Return of the Obra Dinn in there as well. I’ve seen comments that it’s also inspired by Chants of Senaar and The Roottrees Are Dead, both of which I need to play.
Me, an apparently crazy person(!) replaying Yakuza Zero (Director’s cut wohooo) a remaster of a 2017 game playing in the late 80s:
„Hmm? Gangster were build different back then….“
Man this game…man this FRANCHISE!
I pretty much abandoned my re-play of the Final Fantasy franchise which I started a decade ago halfway trough (with 3 mainline titles not even played once yet). But starting a new Yakuza franchise run due to the release of Yakuza Kiwami 3? No prob, even if I played half of them already three times to completion. This time with feeling!
Also…apparently I just missed it - the time disco was unironically cool! Being born in 1980 I was just to edgy for that kind of experience in my teens.
Despite all the games being half brawler and half cuckoo crazy…AHEM…crime drama™ and knowing all the big twists already they keep the ugly cries coming.
Who really needs some pretty anime boys fighting a literal god with friendship™ when you can have 2 shirtless dudes in their 40s duke it out on a cruise ship( a skyscraper/ a underground coliseum below a river/ inside Osaka castle/ a helipad/ a hospital roof/ Tokio Dome/ Supreme Court/ a fishmarket) ….FOR FRIENDSHIP?
Classic Murphy….I dare the powers that be to screw me over and rerelease Deathwatch:Tyranid Invasion on steam…now what happens on my birthday (Skulls for the Skull throne day)?
