What are you playing this weekend? 2023-11-17
Phelpssan @ Phelpssan @lemmy.world Posts 14Comments 347Joined 2 yr. ago
Phelpssan @ Phelpssan @lemmy.world
Posts
14
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347
Joined
2 yr. ago
I always thought VNs are more suited to handheld. I don’t think I have played Ace Attorney on TV even once.
I think they work great in handhelds, but I don't find the Switch very confortable/ergonomic to hold on long play sessions.
Maybe I should pick up a grip for it.
Still have Witch on the Holy Night on hold due to personal reasons - too tired and lacking the focus to play dense, story-focused games, plus I got new glasses this week and I'm still adapting to them, so reading on the TV for a long time was not very confortable.
But I did start Super Mario Bros. Wonder and this game is amazing, I'm not usually a huge fan of the 2D Mario games, but this game got me hooked immediately. Started playing on saturday and I'm almost finished with World 4, so I guess I'm halfway through?
The "Wonder Seed" mechanic is a great twist. I love how some of the changes feel like fever dreams, others alter how the game plays, others just put you into a immediate danger situation. I also like how not only the "theme" of each world changes, but they also play with the structure of the world itself - like one world not having a castle+boss or another having a lot of hidden stages making you spend more time exploring the overworld.
I read some chapters from the manga, it's one of those "popular girl x unpopular guy" stories. Slightly better than the usual because the MC leans towards "capable yet unmotivated" rather than "bland".
I'd say give it the usual 3-episode trial if you enjoy this genre.
The plan was to continue Witch on the Holy Night, but I was extremely tired after the long trips I mentioned last week, and had a ton of things going on at work so I could not find the energy for it.
I did however play a little bit of Radiant Silvergun, been trying to get to the end even if only on Very Easy. Rotating between Arcade and Story modes. not sure which one I'll be able to finish first.
Big post this time, since I'm combining updates from the last two weeks and I've been getting good progress - had to take two 16h trips last week which gave me a lot of use of my Switch.
Finished Anonymous;Code!
A sci-fi visual novel with great presentation and interesting themes. It's fairly short, fast-paced and action-packed, making this a good starting point for players players new to this genre.
However, it lacks some of the emotional depth that makes the games in this series shine. There's very little slice-of-life content which helps the pacing, but at the same time it makes the characters feel underdeveloped - even the protagonists suffer from that, in particular when compared to protagonists from older games in this series like Takumi from Chaos;Head or Okabe from Steins;Game.
But despite these flaws it's still an excellent VN that I can easily recommend to others.
Finished Master Detective Archives: Rain Code!
It's very clear from the start that this a game from the same people who did the Danganronpa series. The designs use a similar style, the cast is very colorful and unique, and it's a dark mystery story revolving around murder investigations. But it does change things enough to stand on its own and not be just "Danganronpa 4".
In this game you play an amnesiac member of the World Detective Agency (WDO) - an organization of super-powered detectives - which after a bumpy train ride arrives at Kanai Ward - an isolated region under control of a corporation where there's been constant rain for many years, and is tasked to work with other detectives in finding out the secrets of this region.
My favorite thing about this this game is the overall "mood" of Kanai Ward. The constant darkness and rain, tall buildings with neon lights, all this combined with the excellent OST does a really great job in creating the oppressive feeling of a dystopian city under corporate rule.
The first half of each case is an investigative segment where you talk to people and collect clues, followed by something called "Mystery Labyrinth" - a surreal dungeon created from the mystery itself that the MC is able to access thanks to a supernatural entity called Shinigami that aids him. There's several minigames involved in exploring this labyrinth, the main one being the "Reasoning Death Match", a RPG battle-like segment where you have do dodge the enemies attacks until you can find the right statement to "counter". I found it a lot more fun than the class trials from Danganronpa, and while the first dungeon is kinda bland, with you spending a lot of time running through a corridor, they keep changing and improving the formula for the subsequent dungeons making them way more interesting to explore.
Overall I had a ton of fun with this game and I'm hoping to see we'll see more of this series in the future.
Started Witch on the Holy Night!
AKA "Mahoutsukai no Yoru" or "Mahoyo". I believe this is the first VN from Nasu Kinoko (Tsukihime, Fate Series) to get an official english release.
So far I'm impressed. This is another VN with exceptional presentation, but while A;C shined on the technical aspects, with animated characters and cool interface details, this one just keeps throwing you a non-stop stream of beautiful artwork.
I've only started it so I can't comment much on the story, but I'm already hooked thanks the protagonist - Aoko is the type of strong, confident and sarcastic female lead that I always enjoy reading. I'll try to comment more about the plot of this game next week, assuming I don't get stuck playing Mario Wonder - I got home yesterday from my trip to find my physical copy waiting for me.
That's also a VN, but a very different one. That's a romance+fantasy "otome" game (=aimed at a female audience).
I actually have that one in my backlog too. :D
It's a new game from the "Science Adventure" franchise (aka the ";" games):
- Chaos;Head
- Steins;Gate
- Robotics;Notes
- Chaos;Child
- Steins;Gate 0
- Robotics;Notes DaSH
- Anonymous;Code
Started Anonymous;Code!
The last VN I played from the "Science Adventure" series was Robotics;Notes DaSH which was a complete disaster and one of the worst VNs I've ever played.
Thankfully, this new entry is a huge improvement. The presentation is gorgeous, with nicely animated characters, tons of illustrations including some comic-book like sections and lots of cool interface details. Unlike most entries of the series the plot is action-packed and very fast paced, as it follows a hacker named Pollon and a mysterious girl called Momo as they try to solve a series of strange events.
There's also an interesting 4th-wall breaking mechanic, which is your main way of interacting with the game.
Had some rough time last week but things already improved, even started Anonymous;Code yesterday (and it's great).
Going to have a lot of time to play now since this is a short week - Thursday is a holiday around here, then I'm using some day offs I had available to rest until the 23rd.
Sadly nothing. :(
But I should be able to get back to gaming since there's a holiday this week, either going to start The Legend of Nayuta: Boundless Trails as mentioned before, or maybe go with Anonymous;Code since my copy just arrived.
Finished Persona 5 Strikers!
I was extremely impressed with the game - a fantastic spinoff to P5 that manages to be faithful in both style and themes with the original game.
Not sure what I'm going for next, but leaning towards the recently released The Legend of Nayuta: Boundless Trails which looks like a fun action JRPG.
Ah, if it's just the two of you then Forgotten Land also has 2-player coop. :D
If you do play it before me (99.9% that’s how it will happen), do let me know how it is when playing solo.
Will do!
Though, from your description, it looks like this isn’t actually a musou game, is that right?
I'm not very familiar with the musou series, but I've seen people describing P5S as "musou lite". You have those sections where you are hacking at hundreds of enemies that people associate with musou, but in PS5 that is mixed with a lot of investigation, exploration and story sections.
Which one would you recommend I start with?
Forgotten Land is a better game IMO, unless you want the 4-player coop in which case you should go with Return to Dream Land.
Finished Kirby’s Return to Dream Land Deluxe!
This was exactly what you'd expect from a Kirby game: Fun, easy and relaxing. It's very similar in structure to the 3DS games, so if you enjoyed those you'll probably like this one as well. I was also surprised by how fun are all those minigames included, I spend quite some time messing around in the theme park.
Finished Cat Quest!
I didn't expect I'd enjoy this simple hack-and-slack game with a ton of cat puns as much as I did. It's somewhat repetitive in nature, but short enough that I never got bored of it. Definitely worth picking up on a sale, and I've already bought the sequel to play later.
Started Persona 5 Strikers!
Trying to transition back to story-focused games, so I picked up something that seemed like a middle ground.
So far I'm impressed. The developer really tried to keep the same "feel" as P5, with a lot of RPG elements, mechanics and themes adapted from the source game, and way more cutscenes and story sections than I expected.
Speaking of story, I'm loving it. It's sorta derivative from P5, "go into the metaverse, beat the villain's shadow and make them change their ways", but adds a lot more interactions between the party as a whole which is one of the main things I missed when going from P4 and P5. The "road trip" plot also adds a good variety of locations and situations.
Biggest issue I have with the game is the lack of some obvious QOL features. Worst one is the checkpoints - if you can go back to the real world and get a "refill" of HP/SP or access the shop from any checkpoint without any drawbacks... then why not just make that option available on the checkpoint itself and spare me going through a bunch of loading screens?
I've played the first one, it's not bad but it's too simple and somewhat repetitive. Felt to me like a game where the team working on it had a lot of ideas and ambition, but lacked the budget or skills to put them in pratice. At least the OST is amazing.
The second one is a major improvement in almost all aspects.
Finished Atelier Marie Remake: The Alchemist of Salburg!
Most of my notes about this game are on my comment from last week, I finished it shortly after posting that and got the "Legendary Pair" ending. Pretty fun game, even it was kinda short and simple. Also, the time limit was no issue at all for me - I ended up running out of things to do way before I ran out of time.
Started Kirby’s Return to Dream Land Deluxe
I was originally planning on starting a new VN, but had a rough week and wasn't really up to doing a lot of reading.
So I picked up something simpler and relaxing. So far it's great, it's very similar in structure to the 3DS games which I loved. Finished the first two "Worlds", then spend a lot of time playing those silly minigames at Magoland.
How forgiving are these limits?
On Marie they are very, very forgiving. I have more than one year left with Marie at almost max level, max knowledge and reputation, only one item left to craft (the Philosopher's stone, which requires an item that I can only get in one specific day later this year), already killed two special bosses, already made an Elixir to cure Schea.... I haven't checked the ending requirements but I'm pretty sure I already fulfill some of them.
Generally speaking from my experience with Atelier the time limits are only a problem in two situations:
- You want to 100% the games, in particular if you don't want to use a guide or go into NG+
- You are playing Atelier Totori
Time limits in Totori are rough, the only game I had to reload an earlier save because I ran out of time and could not get at least a "good" ending. It's still one of my favorite games in the series though.
Worth mentioning that Marie also does have an "unlimited" mode you can choose at the beginning, but given how forvinging the limit is it's probably not necessary.
And what do you suggest I play first Marie Remake or Ryza?
Between those two, Ryza.
Marie is cute and fun game, but it's lacking in depth compared to other entries in the series. If it was $20 it could be an interesting entry point to the series, but for $10 more than what they're asking for that game you can get a far more complete experience by going with one of the recent games like Ryza or Sophie 2.
As for older ones, while I don’t mind retro games, they feel a bit too retro. How would you say those older games are, if you don’t have any nostalgia for it?
I'd say 5 and 6 are worth playing even without the nostalgia factor. The job system in 5 is really fun to play with and the plot is solid, and 6 is one of the classics everyone should play once.
As for the earlier games, they are surprisingly decent despite their age but I'd say they are best played as a history lesson to the genre.
Finished Super Mario 3D World + Bowser’s Fury!
Needed a break from story-focused games so I decided to pick this one.
Considering it's originally a WiiU game it's surprising how well 3D World fits in the Switch - the ~5min levels are very friendly to short playing sessions, so you can just pick it up and get a couple stars whenever you stop for a coffee break. I only played it casually until I finished the main story with ~210 stars, but will probably to back go it from time to time to get the remaining stars and the work on the post-game content.
Also had a ton of fun with Bowser's Fury, which I think has more in common with Odyssey than 3D World due to its more open-world nature. It's fairly short and not as polished as the usual Mario games, in particular when talking about the camera work, but definitely worth playing.
Started Atelier Marie Remake: The Alchemist of Salburg!
I don't think I've mentioned this on Lemmy before, but I'm a huge fan of the Atelier games, having finished all that were released in the west. For those unfamiliar with the series, it's a long-running JRPG franchise centered around slice-of-life stories, with a huge focus on crafting - I've spend countless hours in these games just playing in the workshop trying to get the perfect bomb, or optimizing iron ingots to make stronger gear.
This one is a remake of the very first game in the series, from 1997. It's a fairly simple game compared to the recent entries, but has the same relaxing feel, and the remade visuals are adorable, looks like they tried to keep the same "chibi" look as the original PS1 version.
Like most of the older games in the series, this one features a time limit - you have 5 years to complete assignments, explore the world and make friends, at which point you get an ending based on your achievements. Exploring, crafting and battling constantly move the clock forward, making "time" one of the resources you have to manage. This mechanic was always divisive and has been largely abandoned in recent entries of the series, but it's never really bothered me.
The main thing preventing me from recommending this game is the price tag - at its core it's a 25-year-old game, and while the improved graphics and QOL changes are quite good, it's fairly short (I expect to finish it in 10h or so), and it's too simple in both story and mechanics to justify the $50 they are asking on the eShop. That being said, if there's a good sale it might be a fun game to pick up.
Finished Super Mario Bros. Wonder.
Absolutely amazing game, my favorite 2D Mario since the SNES era. Must-play for anyone who enjoys platform games.
Playing Radiant Silvergun.
I've been slowly progressing on Story Mode/Very Easy, which is still pretty damn hard. Made to what I think is the last boss yesterday, so hopefull I'll be able to at least clear this one at least on the lowest difficulty soon.
This is a fairly old game, originally released for the Saturn, but it's said to be one of the best of this genre - and the more I play, the more I think it deserves all the praise it gets. There's so much variety in stages and interesting boss designs that I just keep restarting every time I get a game over to see more.
Story mode also has a nice progression system where you can keep your powerups and get more lives after restarting, which makes it much easier for people not experienced in bullet hell games to move forward and see more of the game.