Topic: What are you playing?

[ejamer]

Dang... I forgot just how smooth the presentation is in Clubhouse Games (DS).  None of the individual games are particularly noteworthy, but as a collection they have some weight and the whole experience just feels polished. Great game!

[ejamer]

Hmm... not sure what to say about Castlevania: Order of Ecclesia (DS).

It's a great game from a technical standpoint, but I don't really like the small, distinct areas that you explore and jump between. This structure reminds my of Portrait of Ruin in some ways, and wasn't something I enjoyed in that game either.

Difficulty seems relative high, which I'm ok most of the time. But sometimes I hitting a tough spot and wonder if my approach to the game is wrong. Am I supposed to go out and grind instead of consistently pushing forward? Did I miss one (or more) glyphs that I'm supposed to have for this point of the game? Right now there is a boss that I'm dying at... checking online said he was "easy" but the recommended strategies were all things that aren't even possible for my character, so maybe I'm not supposed to be in this area yet? It's not really clear...

I like the game and enjoy playing, but so far it's not my favorite Castlevania.

[MagicCow64]

Hmm... not sure what to say about Castlevania: Order of Ecclesia (DS).

It's a great game from a technical standpoint, but I don't really like the small, distinct areas that you explore and jump between. This structure reminds my of Portrait of Ruin in some ways, and wasn't something I enjoyed in that game either.

Difficulty seems relative high, which I'm ok most of the time. But sometimes I hitting a tough spot and wonder if my approach to the game is wrong. Am I supposed to go out and grind instead of consistently pushing forward? Did I miss one (or more) glyphs that I'm supposed to have for this point of the game? Right now there is a boss that I'm dying at... checking online said he was "easy" but the recommended strategies were all things that aren't even possible for my character, so maybe I'm not supposed to be in this area yet? It's not really clear...

I like the game and enjoy playing, but so far it's not my favorite Castlevania.

Yeah, I've said before, it was time to retire the SOTN clone approach, but the Portrait of Ruin style is weirdly unsatisfying. I don't get the raves for Ecclesia, particularly. A good chunk of the game is mirrored content.

[oohhboy]

Portrait is very much on the easy side. There is also little reason to use the brother unless you like the play style as the sister with magic is far more powerful with one boss defeated in seconds due to it's multi segmented nature. It makes for a very casual speed run in NG+.

The only time you will face any real difficulty is the very last of the post story end game content. The enemies do so much damage and have so much health raw magic doesn't cut it anymore.

Ecclesia is an actual challenge and the powers not really powerful with far more restricted utility so you play the game in a more traditional style. I found it more about personal skill instead of grind due to the more traditional nature. The flip side is that it unintentionally encourages you to find ways to cheese it to get past those difficulty spikes.

[Adrock]

Yeah, I've said before, it was time to retire the SOTN clone approach, but the Portrait of Ruin style is weirdly unsatisfying. I don't get the raves for Ecclesia, particularly. A good chunk of the game is mirrored content.

Do you mean for Castlevania or in general? At that time, yeah, I can get behind that. Now though? It’s been so long since I’ve played one that I really want a Symphony of the Night-style game which is convenient because Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night is due this summer.

If anyone wants a challenge in Order of Ecclesia, try defeating the bosses without taking damage. You get an unequipable medal for bragging rights. I’m never doing that again.

[MagicCow64]

Ha, I meant for the time, after five go-rounds. But they pivoted to making Shantae-style games for the next two, which I don't think quite works.

And then Ecclesia did take-backies with that "end game".

[broodwars]

I've reached the end of Sekiro, having killed every boss & mini-boss that can be killed on a 1st playthrough except the final one. I expect I'll have more to say about this game once I've completed my time with it (I do have a NG+ run in mind for the final ending and platinum trophy), but suffice it to say that I don't think it's as good as some of FromSoftware's previous work.

As a pallet-cleanser from the absurd difficulty of Sekiro, I did pick up Yoshi's Crafted World and got through most of it, collecting 4 out of the 5 gems & collecting all the junk along the way. However, I was so bored by the time I reached that point that I just traded the game in. It's not just that the game is so mind-numbingly easy that even a Games Journalist can beat it. It's just so flat and lifeless, especially after having played Woolly World. Aside from the dedication to theming, I didn't see any creativity in the scenario design, and the music is just plain godawful.

[ejamer]

Re: Castlevania Order of Ecclesia - having pushed through a pretty significant portion of Drcula's castle (is that a spoiler? I'm saying "no" since this is a Castlevania game) a lot of my concerns have lessened. But it still raises a bunch of questions.

Why did I have to push through so many small, disjointed areas early in the game instead of getting something larger that creates a  sense of continuity and adventure? Why did they hide the Mercury Boots so far into the game instead of speeding thing up much earlier? Why did you have to seek out all of the villagers (some of which were relatively well hidden) before getting to the "good part" of the game?

So I'm coming around on the game... but it's still got issues.

...
If anyone wants a challenge in Order of Ecclesia, try defeating the bosses without taking damage. You get an unequipable medal for bragging rights. I’m never doing that again.

Ah, didn't expect to get any of these medals until stumbling across the Wallman boss. Nice of them to throw in a tease about what's possible though!

[ejamer]

Having polished off one DS game, I'm jumping into another right away as the NWR Retrospective is covering Legend of Zelda: Spirit Tracks over the next couple of weeks.

I enjoyed playing Phantom Hourglass more than most seemed to. The game conceits worked pretty well, and I really liked how it was an extension (sort of) of the Windwaker world. Early impressions of Spirit Tracks aren't so kind. It feels like they are keeping a lot of the traits I didn't care for while dropping some of the unique features that I did enjoy in this game.

Dead Zelda doesn't feel cool early on, although maybe there will be some cool puzzles later? I don't know though... it feels like a mix of bad escort mission and weak attempt to hammer two-player puzzles into a single player experience.

Driving trains is actually fun. I like this conceit mostly... but it also feels very limited. Maybe I'm just too early in the game to see the value.

Time will tell. I'm just at the start, about to enter the first real dungeon, so assume that I haven't seen most of what the game will offer yet.  Future posts will be in the retroactive discussion instead of here.

[MagicCow64]

I, too, am playing Sekiro (PC).

I dragged myself through Dark Souls back in the day, and while there's obviously something compelling in there, I mostly found it be a joyless slog and was relieved when it was over. I hadn't intended to play another one of these From games, but it sounded like Sekiro stripped out a lot of the obtuse bullshit and sadistic punishment, and I'm glad I relented.

I like this game much more than Dark Souls. Just on a moment to moment basis it feels much better to play, and the grappling hook makes it fun and easy to get around the game world and avoid and escape fights as you please (often including bosses). And boy is it a relief not to have to worry about fiddly loot and builds and potentially screwing yourself over.

As for the difficulty, I initially found it overwhelming, and got destroyed by the early ogre miniboss. I put it down for a few weeks, and when I came back I dusted that goober on my second try. After that I was pretty much gliding through the game, though I tended to bolt from boss encounters and keep digging through to new areas. I finally hit a wall, though, at the bridge knight, because I hadn't actually learned the parry system and was relying on juking and jumping around, which did not work at all here. After like two hours at this chokepoint (and turning the settings down to make it snappier), I finally had a handle on the core mechanics, and realized this boss was not hard at all.

After that, I returned to the flashback estate, and killed the drunk guy on my first try. Shortly after was the apparently infamous butterfly woman, who I beat in 15 minutes. After more hours of dinking around and finding most of the health gourds, I went back to the castle and hit Genchiro, the biggest difficulty jump so far. This gave me some trouble, but after an hour I became numb to the intimidation of his final phase, and just rode the motherfucker and busted him in like 40 seconds.

I'm sure some true horrors await further in the game, but I'm feeling pretty chuffed about how I'm riding the curve. I have not hit a point as in Dark Souls with the gargoyles or Smough and Orstein where I gave myself another couple tries before I just gave up on the game entirely because it was making me miserable.

[ShyGuy]

I'm currently playing Grim Dawn with some people online.

It's similar to Diablo, mainly a loot game. It seems a little more complex. Multiplayer is fun, but the story seems somewhat throwaway.

[ejamer]

Has anyone played Big Bang Mini (DS)?  Giving that a go again. It's a neat genre mashup, that feels like puzzle-bobble crossed with some kind of shooting gallery where you have moving targets, then mixes in some bullet hell elements for good measure. The soundtrack sounds pretty cool early on, and it's very satisfying from a visual standpoint.

[Adrock]

Final Fantasy XII: The Zodiac Age (Switch)

I played the first three hours at regular speed before turning on 2x speed which makes this a far better experience. I’ll probably turn on 4x speed once I’m more comfortable with the game. I haven’t completed an RPG in almost 15 years. I’m aiming to finish this in the next month or so.

This feels like a 13 year old game. The voice acting and animations are both pretty stiff. The world could use more color though I expect that later in the game. I haven’t gotten many spells so the combat is pretty basic so far. I don’t have too many comments on gameplay yet. There are some quality of life things like the ability to jump down a small ledge/cliff that make the game feel aged. The inability to use the analog stick while in the battle menu is baffling because the action pauses while the battle menu is up. There may be an option to turn that off and have menu selecting happen in real-time, and if that’s the case, that’s when the analog stick should remain mapped to movement while the D-pad controls the menu even though both can’t be used simultaneously. It’s a minor criticism. I’m mostly used to it.

[ejamer]

Has anyone played Big Bang Mini (DS)? ...

Oh cool - found a random (literally) retro-styled Easter egg in this game. Unfortunately I didn't really understand what was happening in the moment, and either died or got kicked out pretty quickly... but it was very cool!

Doesn't sound like anyone else has spent much time with Big Bang Mini, but I'm really impressed overall. It's been a nice dose of arcade-like action to break up the run of longer RPG/adventure games I had been playing recently.

[MagicCow64]

The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild (Switch):

So I've had this for four months, but only really started it this week. I was apprehensive, because Zelda games are my manna, and I was afraid the the open-world scourge had eaten its soul.

I was wrong, it's incredible. I never read much about it and only saw gameplay in trailers, but I was worried I would hate the weapon system and lack of form. But the game is completely enchanting in a way that far surpassed my diminished expectations. It somehow manages to be brush shoulders with overplayed open-world design trends, while completely reinvigorating this approach in a way that joyously communes with the very first game in the series (which is also one of the very first games I ever played). The total interrelation between landscape, control, tools, and progression is absolutely captivating, and I'm frequently delighted by the audio-visual design. The world is gorgeously realized, the characters are fantastically modeled and animated, and the minimalist piano soundtrack is perfect. 

I'm only about 12 hours in, so maybe I'll become jaded, but as of now this game is breathing into my soul. Love the shrines, love finding Koroks, love organically collecting information and environmental awareness. And I just unlocked the camera, which is yet another layer of interactivity and observational reward.

I don't mind the weapon system at all, and find it adds well-tuned risk and pressure to the massively variable path you can take through the game. It's also well balanced with the permanent nature of the stamina, health, rune, and armor upgrades.

Only quibble so far is that it really feels like there should be a dedicated recipe book/progression system, which I gather is not in the cards. But even then, the cooking system is generally freeform and intuitive enough.

I could go on and on, but I'll save energy for the game itself.

[kaijugamer]

I tried playing NBA 2k19 on Nintendo Switch with my younger brother. Nice way to pass some time.

[ejamer]

Started playing Mega Man 10 (WiiWare).

When this first came out, I was kind of disappointed as some of the sport-themed levels felt pretty weird, and it just didn't leave a strong first impression like Mega Man 9 did. However, this time playing through it's felt pretty good. (Granted, I started with some of the more "normal" enemies: Pump Man, Solar Man, and Chill Man.)

Even "not as good" Mega Man games are usually pretty decent, so I'm having fun. Not sure how long it will last, but as this is essentially my first time through it's nice to see some interesting surprises so far.

[Luigi Dude]

Started playing Mega Man 10 (WiiWare).

When this first came out, I was kind of disappointed as some of the sport-themed levels felt pretty weird, and it just didn't leave a strong first impression like Mega Man 9 did. However, this time playing through it's felt pretty good. (Granted, I started with some of the more "normal" enemies: Pump Man, Solar Man, and Chill Man.)

Even "not as good" Mega Man games are usually pretty decent, so I'm having fun. Not sure how long it will last, but as this is essentially my first time through it's nice to see some interesting surprises so far.

To me Mega Man 10 is a very uneven game.  You have some great levels like Solar Man and Sheep Man, but then some terrible ones like Knife Man and Strike Man.  It feels like Inti Creates used up most of their good idea's with MM9, and was just seeing whatever sticks for this one.  Notice how some levels in this game really feel the need to drag out their gimmick, while MM9 had no problem introducing several new ones each level.

Still an overall enjoyable game but I'd definitely put it in the lower half of the Classic Mega Man series.

[Mop it up]

Personally, I think that's what makes Mega Man 10 more interesting, it got pretty creative with its themes and ideas. One of the better games in the series, I feel.

[ejamer]

Personally, I think that's what makes Mega Man 10 more interesting, it got pretty creative with its themes and ideas. One of the better games in the series, I feel.

Just opened up the Wily stage (so all main bosses have been defeated) and would probably put it somewhere on the low end of "better games"?  It's got some creative ideas, but also a few areas that seem kind of janky - not outright bad, but weirdly balanced or just not as fun as other areas. Of course, that's probably subjective on both points. Or maybe I'm enjoying this game so much just because it's been a while since picking up a Mega Man game and my memory is hazy about the others.
*shrug*

After finding the first boss I could beat without any special weapons, it's been pretty quick progression as I only made 2 errors guessing which boss should be next in the sequence. (Sheep was successfully beaten out of order, Strike beat me so I had to come back and battle after getting a different weapon.) I kind of like it when you can guess which weapons might work - it seems like you waste less time that way, at least.

Wow, do I ever miss the mega buster charge shot though!

[broodwars]

Now that Square Enix is finally done making it, I've sunk 40 hours into Final Fantasy 15 and...I don't...dislike it, but man is it the most pointless game in the franchise. I'm in Chapter 3, and basically all I've done for 40 hours is screw around the open world doing sidequests. Perhaps that's not what the game intended, but if you're going to stick a continually escalating series of sidequests right in my face, I'm going to do them and if that means I'm level 50 doing a Level 19 story quest, so be it.

Not that the main plot is anything remotely interesting anyway. So far, I've seen my homeland destroyed in a mediocre tie-in movie, so I've set off on my mystic quest to scour the legendary Public Storage Units of Old to find the mystical **** my ancestors cleaned out of their garage. Hooray. -_-

The combat is fun and the music (when it's present) is nice, but man am I not feeling the "Final Fantasy" here. Say what you will about the FF 13 trilogy, but at least they kept things moving and didn't let the player just waste time doing meaningless side content for its own sake. This is basically how FF 12 played out, too, and I didn't like that one, either.

[ejamer]

With each new Final Fantasy release, I appreciate Dragon Quest more.
(Yes, this is equivalent to saying that I'm old and grumpy and set in my ways. I'm ok with that.)

[Stratos]

Well, that puts a damper on my Final Fantasy plans. I've found that I am less and less fond of side quests in games outside of Zelda (because those are just so fun and bizarre), so these sound less appealing to me now. I just seem to prefer getting to the point in story-driven games sooner as opposed to derping around a big empty world doing meaningless side stuff.

[broodwars]

Well, that puts a damper on my Final Fantasy plans. I've found that I am less and less fond of side quests in games outside of Zelda (because those are just so fun and bizarre), so these sound less appealing to me now. I just seem to prefer getting to the point in story-driven games sooner as opposed to derping around a big empty world doing meaningless side stuff.

What's funny is that I've read ahead: just doing the side quests available in JUST chapter 3 (of 14) of the game set me at the level you need to beat the entire game. I'm just coasting through the game at this point.

I'm in Chapter 8 now. These chapters are REALLY short if you're just critical path-ing it. This game still hasn't presented an actual story yet.

[broodwars]

Got my Kickstarter backer copy of Bloodstained: Ritual of the Moon in today.

Guys...yeah, this game's the real deal, especially if you like Aria of Sorrow-style Igavania. All that extra time in development and Wayforward's additional expertise seems to have really paid off. I think you guys are going to like this one.