Author Topic: What Are You Currently Playing? (Do NOT Just Make a List)  (Read 52843 times)

VidKid369

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Re: What Are You Currently Playing? (Do NOT Just Make a List)
« Reply #465 on: June 27, 2022, 02:00:20 am »
Hey sorry for the dbl post.

I just beat Breath of Fire IV. 38:54. (again, PS1 on PS3) It felt good to finally knock this one out as it’s always been nagging at me to finish it for so so many years now. I’ve always liked the Breath of Fire series it’s constantly-consistently been there with me as a kid. Overall I enjoyed II and III the most although 4 was really fun too.

Right now, I guess I’ll try popping in BoF: Dragon Quarter and see how I like it. Cheers everyone!!

Toreadore

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Re: What Are You Currently Playing? (Do NOT Just Make a List)
« Reply #466 on: July 01, 2022, 04:03:54 pm »
Finished Eiyuden Chronicle: Rising (aka a spiritual successor to the Genso Suikoden series). It's a short-to-medium length prequel game to Eiyuden Chronicle: Hundred Heroes, which is coming out next year. I wasn't a fan of the combat system at first (I am not so good with the in-real-time combat and the fast reflexes) but I think it's starting to grow on me. Which probably doesn't mean much since it looks like the combat system will be different in Hundred Heroes.

The story works for a prequel, nothing too deep, a nice preview of what is to come. I enjoyed the characters and their interactions. The soundtrack is wonderful of course. The quests... well, I'm mixed on them. I'm just tired of way too many quests in games in general. On the one hand, some of the quests can get repetitive, but on the other hand, the quests do stop after a while AND there is a way to make them go faster: Hit Start to access your quest, mark it as active, then go to the location. Once you're at the location, hit Start to access your map. If the quest is active, it'll show where you actually need to go. (The only exception is if you're gathering generic materials like lumber or ore, since those are scattered across dungeons.)

Forgot to mention I also finished Xenoblade Chronicles 2 and its prequel game Torna ahead of Xenoblade 3. The blade system was interesting, but I wish they didn't make certain access points dependable on the blades you rolled for. And I know some people like Tiger Tiger but that was a hard pass from me. The combat system was mostly the same in Torna with the exception of switching between blade and driver, but I liked it better in Torna. I did enjoy the story in both games. I know we know what happens between Torna and the main game, but I do wish we had gotten to see a little more post-battle with the, ah, blade eater and random ambushes I will not mention.

I was thinking of trying the FF7 remake next, or at least the part that's available now. (I do have other games in the backlog, but when has that ever stopped me?  :? )

VidKid369

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Re: What Are You Currently Playing? (Do NOT Just Make a List)
« Reply #467 on: July 12, 2022, 06:50:15 pm »
Hullo. I beat Breath of Fire: Dragon Quarter. It was a really short game I was surprised. Overall, I really enjoyed it. Combat was cool and the story was decent-ok. I liked the ending. Apparently it seems the game is so short cause they want you to re-play it but once is good enough for me right now. Officially I have finished the Breath of Fire series yay!

I actually dunno what I’m gonna play next. I’ll have to rummage through my PS1-PS2 collection. Probably something like Suikoden V or Growlanser III.

Boo the Gentleman Caller

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Re: What Are You Currently Playing? (Do NOT Just Make a List)
« Reply #468 on: July 18, 2022, 12:09:26 pm »
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I beat Breath of Fire: Dragon Quarter. ... Officially I have finished the Breath of Fire series yay!

Dang! That's awesome. I remember when Dragon Quarter came out thinking it looked awesome -- unique industrial setting and a unique twist on the series as a whole. I still need to go back and play BoF 3/4/DQ. One of these days... They're in my growing, never-ending backlog.

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I actually dunno what I’m gonna play next. I’ll have to rummage through my PS1-PS2 collection. Probably something like Suikoden V or Growlanser III.

I keep eying Growlanser Generations....... What did you end up landing on?

I've been playing Dragon's Dogma on the Switch. About 6 or 7 years ago I played through it on PC, got about 75% through, and then quit. Haha. It's a common problem for me -- I get to the late-game content in RPGs and it tends to get grind-y, so I get bored and end up losing steam.

It's one of the reasons I love Lunar so much -- the series doesn't give me too much to do, and the plot keeps moving until the very end. The only bad part of those type of games is that there is often missable content (ie bromides), which for a collector like me can be frustrating.

Mr Bekkler

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Re: What Are You Currently Playing? (Do NOT Just Make a List)
« Reply #469 on: July 18, 2022, 02:09:19 pm »
I've been playing PC games mostly these days, and some VR. I'm hungry for a JRPG in VR and coincidentally one came out called Ruins Magus. I tried the demo, will probably buy it on sale.

I don't know why but Rocket League has become one of my staples. Something about how the car controls feels so good and intuitive to me. Have also dipped my toes into competitive multiplayer shooters, tried a few but settled on Apex Legends. I play with a friend mostly. And I'll tell you what, I am not good at Apex Legends.


VidKid369

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Re: What Are You Currently Playing? (Do NOT Just Make a List)
« Reply #470 on: July 22, 2022, 03:32:42 am »
I keep eying Growlanser Generations....... What did you end up landing on?

You should definitely check out Growlanser Generations I know it took me years to pick it out of my collection and actually play it. I finished Growlanser II and it was really short so if you're looking for a quick romp around it should be up your alley. I have to go back someday and do all the character branches! I'm 8 hours into Growlanser III just mindlessly grinding.

I'm actually doing a bit of something right now. So I got a new Sony Bravia T.V. which's 4k and my god! games look so nice on it. The previous T.V. I had been using I kinda pressed down too hard on while I was cleaning it and it kinda I think broke the screen so it had this fuzziness on it it didn't deter me from playing games but it was nice to replace it with a brand-new one. I dunno too much about hardware how-to's but this 4k T.V. looks really nice when playing even older games on it!

So right now I'm playing Ni no Kuni: Wrath of the White Witch for PS3. It's suuuper fun so far, I was kinda hesitant about using monsters in battle but it's not even an issue it's fun. It reminds me of Lufia 2 how you can feed items to your capsule monsters to help them grow stronger. Totally cool!

I ordered a PS2toHDMI converter which I'm waiting on the delivery on this afternoon cause the new T.V. doesn't have the composite switches for the PS2 - I was looking to hook that up as well and maybe play some games on it.
« Last Edit: July 22, 2022, 04:44:40 am by VidKid369 »

Boo the Gentleman Caller

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Re: What Are You Currently Playing? (Do NOT Just Make a List)
« Reply #471 on: July 22, 2022, 10:19:27 am »
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So I got a new Sony Bravia T.V. which's 4k and my god! games look so nice on it. The previous T.V.

Congrats on the new television! I haven't made the 4k transition yet, but I know it's in the near future for me. Now that we no longer have satellite internet, I don't have to throttle our data with 360p and 720p streaming.

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So right now I'm playing Ni no Kuni: Wrath of the White Witch for PS3.
Oh man, great game. I played through about 1/4 of the game two or three years ago and when we moved I put it on hold and never picked it back up. I really need to; I liked the story and the world and I'm a big fan of Ghibli and Level 5, so it was a match made in heaven for me. I actually just picked up the Nintendo Switch version so I can play it on the go and will restart it!

I have put I am Setsuna on hold briefly and am playing Dragon's Dogma. Yet another RPG I started but never beat. I actually really like the Souls series, even if they're too hard for me, but Dragon's Dogma is more my speed -- large monsters, open world, fun class system. With the announcement of Dragon's Dogma 2, I decided it's time I finish the first one. :)

I'm also still playing Final Fantasy 7 Remake, but can only play it on PC, and my time for console and PC gaming is very limited (compared to on-the-go gaming).

VidKid369

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Re: What Are You Currently Playing? (Do NOT Just Make a List)
« Reply #472 on: August 13, 2022, 01:09:24 am »
@Boo the Gentleman Caller Hey duuude! I just beat Ni no Kuni. It was really fun. I'm doing post game right now and trying to collect more trophies.

But I really wanted to tell you that - I was so excited about playing Lunar this Christmas that I'm playing The Silver Star right now on my laptop I had laying around. I decided to try it out and go for it, not much of a PC gamer, since my Sega CD hasn't been working for years and hey I bought and own the game already! I got it to work and watched the intro yesterday and it got me so excited! Lunar has always been my favorite game and I haven't played the Sega CD versions in years!

Hope you're doing good man! Just thought you'd enjoy a little update on what I have been doing. :)

Toreadore

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Re: What Are You Currently Playing? (Do NOT Just Make a List)
« Reply #473 on: August 15, 2022, 12:41:57 am »
Currently playing through Xenoblade Chronicles 3 (I suspect I am either at the end dungeon or the dungeon before the end dungeon, but at this point, I'm doing so many hero/side quests and exploring that I can't really tell). I know spoilers might be hard to avoid, but if you're interested in playing anytime soon, I would greatly recommend avoiding the hell out of spoilers.

All I can say is that I appreciate the sheer amount of work that has obviously gone into this game. I haven't enjoyed a JRPG this thoroughly since maybe Xenosaga Episode 3 (and not just because it has "Xeno" in the title). It has consumed every minute of my free time these last couple of weeks, and will until I've beaten the game, and I am good with that.

Boo the Gentleman Caller

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Re: What Are You Currently Playing? (Do NOT Just Make a List)
« Reply #474 on: August 16, 2022, 05:34:18 pm »
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But I really wanted to tell you that - I was so excited about playing Lunar this Christmas that I'm playing The Silver Star right now on my laptop I had laying around.

I'm ready, too, man! I'm excited. I've had a hankering to play it several times since we first talked about it.

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I just beat Ni no Kuni. It was really fun. I'm doing post game right now and trying to collect more trophies.

Dang it, I never beat it. I put maybe 20 hours in but didn't get super far. I really need to go back and play it, especially now that I have a version of it for the Switch. Maybe after Dragon's Dogma and I am Setsuna.

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Currently playing through Xenoblade Chronicles 3

I loved the first two, and I bought XC3 on day one. I just wish I could have nabbed a Collector's Edition! I'm waiting a while to play it, though. I generally like to play a game after all the patches and mainline DLC have released. For example, I didn't play XC2 until after Torna came out.

Lennis

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Re: What Are You Currently Playing? (Do NOT Just Make a List)
« Reply #475 on: August 27, 2022, 02:16:17 am »
I am currently playing through the Star Ocean series.  I beat Second Story many years back, when the PS1 was in its heyday, but had neglected the series since then.  With the recent announcement of Star Ocean: The Divine Force, I decided the time had finally come to play through 'Till the End of Time, The Last Hope, and Integrity and Faithlessness to get caught up with the series and the underlying lore of its universe.

To avoid spoilers for those who haven't played these games, I'll just say that 'Till the End of Time has a rather... interesting plot twist that casts the entire series in a strange light that generates controversy to the present day.  I also found Star Ocean 3, as it's otherwise known, to be remarkably unfriendly to the player in the way the game is structured.  Most aspects of the game, outside of the excellent combat, seem almost tailor made to frustrate the player and waste his or her time.  There are no quick travel options from region to region, and the crafting system is an RNG nightmare that practically demands a strategy guide to make any meaningful progress.  As a whole package, I liked the game more than I disliked it, but 230 hours of investment made me painfully aware of the PS2 game's shortcomings and questionable design choices.

The Last Hope really upped the presentation values, as you would expect from a PS3 generation game, and the combat was perhaps even better than in Star Ocean 3.  I also liked the fact that TLH was more grounded in science fiction, and didn't just rehash the spaceman crash lands on primitive world and saves the day trope.  Unfortunately, avoiding that trope didn't prevent the game from taking other tropes into overdrive and creating some truly cringe-inducing moments with its colorful cast of characters.  More than once I questioned how the MC ever became a military officer after the way he dealt with a certain mid-game crisis, to say nothing about how the game's main healer (which you get very late in the story) is written to be as air-headed as possible.  I like lighthearted moments as well as the next guy, but this girl is little more than a trope on two legs, she is so dumb.  The story was a bit hit and miss, starting strong, straying into some existential issues in the mid-game that are never adequately explained, and then evolving into almost predictable metaphysical preaching at a blistering pace near the game's end.  The ending itself is pretty strong, but I felt the whole narrative to be a bit disjointed.  The Last Hope is a decent enough game, but not something I would consider top-tier among JRPGs.  I spent roughly a hundred hours on it.

Integrity and Faithlessness (PS4) is considered by many to be the worst game in the Star Ocean series, and I was always curious as to why it got such bad word of mouth among fans.  Having just started the game, being about fifteen hours in, I'm kind of getting an inkling.  The combat feels like it has taken a step down from the often glorious carnage we saw in The Last Hope, and you generally feel less formidable than the previous casts of characters.  More ominously, the story starts slow, and the characters are presented in a less cinematic way than in the previous two games.  Though it's still early, I'm much less emotionally invested in this group of characters than I was with the previous group at the same point of the story.  Never a good sign.  I'm also wary of the crafting system.  You can increase your skill easily enough, but you never seem to be able to find the materials you need to make even low-level equipment, let alone things that make you feel like you have gear suitable to your level.  You gain levels fast in this game, and that is because enemies seem to scale to your level of strength, sometimes banishing a particular enemy you need for material drops in favor of something that can last more than five seconds against you.  Maybe the overall experience will get better, but the early signs are not promising.

Anyone else have an opinion on the Star Ocean series of games?

Boo the Gentleman Caller

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Re: What Are You Currently Playing? (Do NOT Just Make a List)
« Reply #476 on: August 27, 2022, 05:54:01 pm »
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I am currently playing through the Star Ocean series.  I beat Second Story many years back, when the PS1 was in its heyday ...

Great series! I did the same. Caught SO2 when it was released for the PS1, then went and played SO1 (hacked ROM translation) on an emulator. Played 'Till the End of Time on day one, then the SO1 and SO2 re-releases when they came to the PSP. I didn't play SO4 until a few years ago and have yet to play SO5.

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I'll just say that 'Till the End of Time has a rather... interesting plot twist that casts the entire series in a strange light that generates controversy to the present day.


I have such a love-hate relationship with SO3, for all the reasons you mentioned.

The plot was great until about 2/3 and then divetails into some weird territory -- especially the spoiler you mentioned -- and I both admire their guts to go so existentially depressing, but also hate it, as it somehow cheapens the entire series for me. I think this could easily be redeemed with a new game further in the timeline after that, showing perhaps more about the 3D versus 4D realities and ultimately rectifying the controversy without taking it back.

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I also found Star Ocean 3, as it's otherwise known, to be remarkably unfriendly to the player in the way the game is structured.  Most aspects of the game, outside of the excellent combat, seem almost tailor made to frustrate the player and waste his or her time.  There are no quick travel options from region to region, and the crafting system is an RNG nightmare that practically demands a strategy guide to make any meaningful progress.

Yes yes yes yes yes! The combat felt good, but the whole '0 MP = game over' and crafting system was probably the weakest of the entire series. So frustrating.

SO3 also had some really bad difficulty spikes. At least for me. I got really discouraged and had to put the game down for a while more than once.

I literally don't think I could play SO3 again for all of the reasons you've mentioned. There are much better games waiting to be played out there.

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The Last Hope really upped the presentation values, as you would expect from a PS3 generation game, and the combat was perhaps even better than in Star Ocean 3.  I also liked the fact that TLH was more grounded in science fiction, and didn't just rehash the spaceman crash lands on primitive world and saves the day trope.  Unfortunately, avoiding that trope didn't prevent the game from taking other tropes into overdrive and creating some truly cringe-inducing moments with its colorful cast of characters.

Yes yes yes yes yes! Great worldbuilding and character design (although I thought the time travel / parallel universe was sort of cheap), but the hard lean into anime tropes were pretty abysmal. Welch is an abomination in this game, and some of the voice acting just thrust me out of and away from the story rather than pull me. All in all it was a good game, but man, they made some really weird choices when they put this one together.

Like SO3, I also don't think I'd be interested to play it again.

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Integrity and Faithlessness (PS4) is considered by many to be the worst game in the Star Ocean series ...

I haven't played SO4 and would love to, but I stopped the console wars with the PS3, so I no longer play unless it's on Switch of PC. I've heard the same complaints, though. I hope SO5 ends up on the PC; if so, I'll definitely be playing it.

Did you play Star Ocean: Anamnesis? I did for a while out of respect for the series, but ultimately got frustrated and quit -- gacha games are not for me.

Lennis

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Re: What Are You Currently Playing? (Do NOT Just Make a List)
« Reply #477 on: September 06, 2022, 03:50:51 am »
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Did you play Star Ocean: Anamnesis? I did for a while out of respect for the series, but ultimately got frustrated and quit -- gacha games are not for me.

I only just heard of Anamnesis the other day.  Gacha games don't interest me in the least.  I already spend too much time and money on the few MMOs I'm invested in.

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I haven't played SO4 and would love to, but I stopped the console wars with the PS3, so I no longer play unless it's on Switch or PC. I've heard the same complaints, though. I hope SO5 ends up on the PC; if so, I'll definitely be playing it.

It's actually Star Ocean 6, not 5.  Five was Integrity and Faithlessness.  Yes it is coming to Steam, as well as PS5, PS4, and XBox.  October 27th is the release date.  I can understand not wanting to have the higher-end consoles if you already have a decent computer that will get most of the console games eventually.  The drawback is that the games are often not optimized for PC on release and cause numerous crashes before patches come out.  I don't have the patience to fix broken games with my limited programming knowledge, and I prefer consoles for action-based games anyway.  Much better controllers.

As for Integrity and Faithlessness, you really aren't missing much.  I finished it yesterday and the experience was disappointing to say the least.  It was inferior to The Last Hope in almost every way, and it was obvious the game was made on a shoestring budget on account of Square-Enix having other priorities for their development dollars.  (A sadly familiar tale, isn't it?)  The story in particular was a letdown, both in the core plot and in the boring way it was presented.  It's a shame, because the characters had an interesting visual design that felt (mostly) more grounded than the cast from The Last Hope.  If you need to catch up with Star Ocean lore, just look for YouTube playthroughs on the game.  It's unlikely SO5 will ever get a PC release unless it's part of a compilation.

Redline57

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Re: What Are You Currently Playing? (Do NOT Just Make a List)
« Reply #478 on: October 25, 2023, 01:14:11 am »
I finished Terranigma (or Terrigama as its sometimes called) a month or so ago.

I understand this was never released in America. Knowing nothing about it, I was told after I beat it that it was like 2 of 3 in a series. The ending was open ended, and it didnt start as a typical RPG, it started with another world, which was different but also cool, but again very very different. I can see how some people didnt vote for it to get sold in America, but had some extremely unique and to this day, still rare and original things about it. The physical gameplay was somehow lacking with the moves, so its an action game like Zelda far more than an RPG like Chrono Trigger. It has its flaws, and they are big ones, but they make it memorable. Difficulty was I'm sure pretty high for its time, making it tricky by modern standards, but aggrivating if you were a novice in the 90s, especially if you didn't have the internet to help you. Its best feature was the soundtrack, different, but on par with Chrono Trigger at times, yes its that good. The oddball stuff was it references...the whole world. but not entirely right. You have the basic continents, labeled Australia and North America and such. Some cities are analogous like when you go to South America and end up in Rio (called Carnival I believe) and yet in America you have a destiniation simply called Colorado.

The other interesting plot point is how in many games you collect items to get a special one, in this game you travel around the world and the actual goal is promoting global free-trade via your learned knowledge of economics and capitalism. Interesting plot for a 90s game huh? at one point you meet someone studying a new thing called Electricity, the man's name is "Eddy", a reference to Eddy lines (if your not in the electrical field, just look it up). And another time you help the invention of the camera, go to other cities and take pictures and spread em around to encourage vacationing. As a result, cities actually grow, buildings get bigger, like you go back to an old city, but on the map now its two buildings instead of one, and when you walk in, the entire city map is twice the size and nothing is in the same place.

Very different and unusual game, but I liked it.

Boo the Gentleman Caller

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Re: What Are You Currently Playing? (Do NOT Just Make a List)
« Reply #479 on: October 29, 2023, 04:28:30 pm »
Terranigma is one of the GOATs. Along with Secret of Mana and Chrono Trigger.

I thought it was a complete package: the graphics, soundtrack, and especially the plot (which was dark and more mature than most of it's contemporaries). It was the first video game to make me really emotional, as I actually cried during the end credits.

Glad you got to experience this one, Redline! What's next for you?