What are you playing?

[tiesto]

I liked the BD battle system but (beyond the awful repetition towards the end) it had the same problem that so many modern day RPGs have - generic by-the-numbers dungeons that all have the same structure, just with a different tile/texture set.

Back in the old days, a lot of RPGs (especially the older FFs, which BD is obviously so inspired by) had different gimmicks in the dungeons - some were extremely vertical where you may need to head back down a floor or two to progress back up; some had damage tiles where you had to decide whether or not to risk taking more damage in the lava for a shorter route (with less chance of getting into battle); some were short and linear affairs as a 'breather', others were long and elaborate mazes; some puzzle-focused, others more cinematic/narrative focused...

[Himu]

I also resent that any time we have some "we are going back to our roots!" for FF it's also some crappy looking cutesy game like FFIX, 4WL, or BD when the most famous game in the franchise are VI, VII, and X.

Continuing the legacy of FF when FFX-2 had the best ATB system and has yet to be reiterated. I frankly wish they'd stop sucking the 2D FF's cock because any time they do (cue FFIX) it's a pale imitation to the real thing. Nothing about Bravely even reminds me of Final Fantasy regardless of era and people demanded I play BD if I wanted anything approaching classical FF.

We are on a cursed page.

[Bebpo]

Played like 6 hours of BD last night and another 2 this morning.
Didn't have any fun. Felt like a total slog. But couldn't stop playing because I keep hoping it will get better.

I think BD1 has never clicked for me and I've never enjoyed it. My rpg backlog of rpgs I quit midway and keep telling myself I'll pick up and finish for completion some day are:

Bravely Default 1
Dragon Quest 7 3DS
TWEWY2 NEO

All three have the same thing in common. They're slow and full of a ton of backtracking.

DQ7 is great, I don't disagree it's a quality great game. But it's just too damn slow for me with the pacing.

BD1 has so much fucking world map backtracking and I don't have an airship yet and you walk so fucking slow on the map. Chapter 3 with the shieldbearers/swordmasters, go get Egil kid, take him here, take him there, go halfway across the world to meet his grandpa, go back and grab him, go back and bring him to his grandpa. Oh you want the Performer job? Go to the ship in the center, then revist every fucking town in the world again, then revist the ship in the center, then go back to the shieldbearer bridge and then you can fight. Dungeons are super long and a trek.

...and all of this is in Ch.3 and the game isn't supposed to get to be a drag until the backhalf!

TWEWY Neo the combat is so much slower than the first game/turn-based games and has ZERO depth and you just mash buttons. The story has a lot of backtracking and filler.


In DQ7 I like the story, the art, the music, the job system, everything other than the pace.
In BD1 I like the job system, well the jobs (I don't like the job system implementation. It actually feels like the one of the worst job systems I've played in how your character levels are useless and jobs are shit and useless until higher levels and they don't level that quick to catchup so you're always playing one hand tied behind your back if you're trying to level a new job)
In TWEWY2 I like the style and I'm interested in the story since I liked the original's story and its a sequel

But...I have trouble with sloggy rpgs. They just feel tedious and frustrate me and I'm not having fun and I keep thinking why I am playing games that are not fun when I could be spending this time on other games that are fun.

...and yet, I'll probably end up beating all three of those eventually.

[Himu]

DQVII 3ds is a slog? they made the pace better than the original. I consider it a top 5 rpg and the best DQ overall.

[Bebpo]

DQVII 3ds is a slog? they made the pace better than the original. I consider it a top 5 rpg and the best DQ overall.

7 in general has pretty bad overall pacing and lacks momentum since each island arc is pretty self-contained. Easy to finish one arc and put the game down and not come back for years.

[Himu]

While true, I'm not seeing how it's a slog. The original, yes. I agree it's a slog. The 3ds remake? I'm not sure how. Different strokes I guess.

I really dislike how in XI all the town stories connect. I prefer self contained vignettes.

[Bebpo]

While true, I'm not seeing how it's a slog. The original, yes. I agree it's a slog. The 3ds remake? I'm not sure how. Different strokes I guess.

I really dislike how in XI all the town stories connect. I prefer self contained vignettes.

That’s fair, but yeah I found DQ7 difficult to stick with and I’ve cleared 4-11 otherwise.

The other thing that hurts the pace of 7 for me is that you have to do all the islands twice in a row. Yeah it’s different seeing the future version but it still loses momentum of finishing and arc and moving forward to some place new.

[Polident Hive]

Coco Ichibanya PS2

Had it on my steam deck and it’s the only game the scraper won’t catch. Tried it to see if I should delete it, for aesthetic consistency.

Actually pretty cool. If anybody happened to have the PS1 demo disk with Ore no Ryori hidden on it, it’s a light version of that. But a couple levels in it becomes like Overcooked where you’re controlling the staff to take and serve order. You can switch back to the kitchen and let the AI (or player 2) handle the other role. There are occasional distractions from the regular flow like manning the cash register.

Can only assume this was some promo release like those Burger King Xbox games.

[Bebpo]

While true, I'm not seeing how it's a slog. The original, yes. I agree it's a slog. The 3ds remake? I'm not sure how. Different strokes I guess.

I really dislike how in XI all the town stories connect. I prefer self contained vignettes.

Anyhow, if it makes you feel better Himu, I didn't mean to imply that DQ7 is a slog. At least not on the level of BD1 which is worse than the level of TWEWY2.

DQ7's a good game, it's just slower paced and one of the only jrpgs I've haven't finished because of it. Maybe I'll finish it this year, idk. Just need to get back to it.

[Himu]

Coco Ichibanya PS2

Had it on my steam deck and it’s the only game the scraper won’t catch. Tried it to see if I should delete it, for aesthetic consistency.

Actually pretty cool. If anybody happened to have the PS1 demo disk with Ore no Ryori hidden on it, it’s a light version of that. But a couple levels in it becomes like Overcooked where you’re controlling the staff to take and serve order. You can switch back to the kitchen and let the AI (or player 2) handle the other role. There are occasional distractions from the regular flow like manning the cash register.

Can only assume this was some promo release like those Burger King Xbox games.

I actually bought and own Ore no Ryori

[Bebpo]

Ok, so during the 6-8 hours of BD1 I played on my old save, I thought I refreshed on everything but I somehow missed the fucking AUTOBATTLE button which makes normal mob encounters take 5 seconds after load instead of having to re-input 16 commands every fucking battle and make every normal mob fight take 1-2 mins.

This probably changes my opinion of BD1 a lot, since now I don't mind encounters, and now I don't mind grinding, and now that I can grind and get job levels up, maybe won't mind the jobs being underpowered for a long while in job levels, and maybe with more viable jobs I'll have more fun experimenting with party setups.

[Bebpo]

Yeah, that was what was a missing. With auto-battle and speed x 4 can watch a movie and just rotate the analog stick and press A and will grind out a ton of job levels. Was able to get a bunch of support skills and build my team better tonight thanks to that.

Now I have a more decent team with better options and game is fun. May actually finish up BD1 which will just leave DQ7 and TWEWY2.

[Himu]

Thinking of DQVII 3ds has me crying about Toriyama again. No more Toriyama and DQ

[Svejk]

Speaking of DQ, wasn't DQXII announced over 3 years ago?   

[Joe Molotov]

Dragon Quest Versus XII

[Bebpo]

Bravely Default - Got kind of into this and the grind and before finishing the first half ch.4, pretty much maxed out every job, got all the blue mage spells, summons, 999999999 money and all the gear/accessories. Was just missing final two jobs and got Dark Knight when I finished ch.4. Top floors of vampire castle with JPx 2 egg was giving me like 700+JP every 15 seconds with auto-battle on and two valkyries just hitting all party and killing everything first turn.

Started the 2nd half with chapter 5. Don't mind the repeat since at least you kept your airship. If you didn't this was going to drag, but flying from spot to spot doing boss fights is fine.

Not sure if I'm going to bother with repeating the sidequest asterisk bosses. I did a couple and they're piss easy with my OP party of 4 vampires and all the blue mage spells and all I get is a few lines of banter about them and 999 JP which is nothing at this point.

What I'm reading online is that you can skip all these bosses and just blow through the main scenario in chapter 5/6 quick, picking up the final job sidequest in ch.6 and the few new blue mage spells.

Then these sidequest asterisk bosses become worthwhile in ch.7/8 with lots of story and challenging tactics. So maybe I'll just wait and fight them in 7/8.

Or maybe, since I don't care about any of these boss characters and their stories, I'll just blow through the main scenario and get to the true end bit.



All in all, not sure what I think of BD1 at this point. I don't love it, but don't hate it. It's interesting and a broken mess of mechanics, but I kind of want to see where the story goes. I don't think I'm a huge fan of having to cheese certain bosses because that's the only strategy that works and the designers want you to be setting your commands up, turning on auto-battle and walking away and coming back when the battle is done. It's just weird and not the most satisfying combat to me.

I'm actually more interested in Bravely Second, because a more refined version of these mechanics and encounters and without the repeat second half could be a better game.

[Bebpo]

So since it's looking like I'll finish up BD1 pretty soon, I booted up Dragon Quest VII 3DS to see where my save was since I kind of want to knock this one out after Rebirth.

Took a while to figure it out since I'm playing the Japanese version and none of the town/scenario names match up, but figured it out.

At 30 hours in, lvl.21 party, I'm at the start of the

El Ciclo Scenario

in Chapter 2. Which is 2 arcs after the Alltrades Abbery scenario, so jobs are still pretty newly acquired. I don't remember anything about how the job system works, but I guess if I get back to this I can re-learn it along with reading a plot summary of what's occurred to this point. From the walkthrough, looks like maybe 1/3rd into the game?

[Bebpo]

Bravely Default - So I spent 8 hours today doing a full 100% run of the first loop, redoing every boss. That was not bad, but too much of it felt like a waste of time. Only a few asterisk bosses are an interesting part of the story like Edea's dad the templar/paladin dude. At least half of them are total filler and who cares about giving them more backstory.

The actual earth/wind/fire/water shrine stuff was super quick. Probably can do it in a bit over an hour. And the main scenario is 10x more interesting than the little tidbits of lore these side bosses give.

Probably just do the main scenario for ch.6 loop and maybe templar dude and maybe vampire dude since both had the most to talk about. The whole desert bit with thief/merchant/time mage/sword mage filler zzz can fuck off.

Will give some of these bosses another shot on loop 7 since apparently there's a big change for them between 5/6 -> 7/8.

[Bebpo]

Bravely Default

So when people said for years this game subverts expectations of standard "go save the crystals, defeat evil" FF stories, I thought it just meant all the dumb grimdark stuff.

I didn't realize that the real subversion of the game's writing/story is

spoiler (click to show/hide)

Starting off all stupid edgy grimdark in the first half where everyone sucks and you murder everyone
...and then every loop make it happier and sillier and lighter until it basically is your average Tales game full of silly skits between all the Asterisk characters and everyone is friendly with your team and love & peace yay yay

Since I thought the grimdark stuff was dumb, I've turned around a lot on the game in the back half as it got silly and now I like the asterisk holder cast and they are basically the heart and soul of BD1 and why it works.

Did the fake ending so I already know the twist stuff. Will do the true end bit soon as I'm finishing the final chapter 8 boss rushing, and will see if I enjoy the true end.

[close]

The gameplay is so incredibly busted, for all that this game is "hard", it basically became a visual novel once I found a broken busted combination I could use to one shot every boss for for multiple chapters straight with very minimal adjusting for a few fights. I feel like the bones of the job system and abilities and synergy between jobs and subjobs is there, but it's really only the midgame where lots of stuff is viable (but you also have very limited access to the good high end abilities to mix and match because you're not getting enough Job Points in battle to hit the final job levels for multiple jobs), whereas by the endgame it's easy to max rank all the jobs and get all the abilities, but only a couple setups are really viable so everything else is worthless. Kind of a shame tbh. My one shotting every one of these final chapter hard optional boss groups is not really satisfying but I just don't feel like bothering trying other setups when I can one shot them and watch the cutscenes and move on.

To be fair, even Octopath 1 got pretty broken by like midway and I could buff and one shot most bosses and was just watching the visual novel cutscenes play out in the back half. Maybe that's all these Asano produced games. Once you figure out how to break stuff you just sit back and watch the story until the credit roll outside a big superboss or two. Kind of the downside of giving the players so many possibilities for builds.

[chronovore]

Finished IMMORTALS: Rise of Fenyx last night. The game's final level changes it from a very chill, open-world, player has complete freedom of movement model to instead having exactly one path up the final mountain, loads of fall-to-death, freeze-to-death (path related, not gear), required puzzle solutions, and forced fights.

Everything the player could previously CHOOSE to engage are instead MANDATORY and must be addressed in the presented order.

The path "up" the mountain also features several roads which lead down the mountain, so I almost checked an online guide to make sure I hadn't missed something. Previous 40 hours of gameplay was one thing, final 2-3 hours are punishment-enforced fixed path.

Final vault is a review of previous ones, but with untuned mechanics and poorly designed Checkpoint markers, leading to a couple spots where the game left me with no way out, including no way to die and reset to last checkpoint. I had to re-load from Save Data.

Finished, then deleted before I had to waffle on a clean-up pass of remaining Trophies. For some reason, Playstation Trophies don't compel me like Xbox Achievements did; maybe it's that also-ran flavor to them?

[Bebpo]

Ok, finished Bravely Default 1 out 100%, I was surprised the true ending superboss was tougher than the command tower boss rush gauntlet, since everyone just talks about the latter. Had some close calls with some of the phases of the superboss even with all my broken stuff like stillness.

Overall the main story was ok, combat was kinda fun, totally busted, side characters were enjoyable, good music, somewhat poorly paced.

Interesting game, solid B+, the first person teaser for Bravely Second after you beat it was actually kind of cool, so yeah will play Bravely Second and even Default II which everyone seems divided on.

But now time to start playing Rebirth...

[demi]

Wrapped up the new Alone in the Dark

This game is super mid. Alone in the Dark on 360 was better..............

It's a THQ game so it will go on sale very quickly or wind up in some bundle for cheap.

Thankfully it's very, very short (you can speedrun it in 2 hours)

I do want to play the OG Alone in the Darks though now

[bork]

Finished IMMORTALS: Rise of Fenyx last night. The game's final level changes it from a very chill, open-world, player has complete freedom of movement model to instead having exactly one path up the final mountain, loads of fall-to-death, freeze-to-death (path related, not gear), required puzzle solutions, and forced fights.

Everything the player could previously CHOOSE to engage are instead MANDATORY and must be addressed in the presented order.

The path "up" the mountain also features several roads which lead down the mountain, so I almost checked an online guide to make sure I hadn't missed something. Previous 40 hours of gameplay was one thing, final 2-3 hours are punishment-enforced fixed path.

Final vault is a review of previous ones, but with untuned mechanics and poorly designed Checkpoint markers, leading to a couple spots where the game left me with no way out, including no way to die and reset to last checkpoint. I had to re-load from Save Data.

Finished, then deleted before I had to waffle on a clean-up pass of remaining Trophies. For some reason, Playstation Trophies don't compel me like Xbox Achievements did; maybe it's that also-ran flavor to them?

No interest in the DLC?  Some of it changes the setting and/or play style up completely, IIRC.

[demi]

Finished My Friendly Neighborhood - the "Sesame Street" horror game

Game is not very horror, uninteresting, boring, and stupid easy. Also it locks your save when you finish it, so you can't go back and do alternate endings.

Meh

[Bebpo]

Finished My Friendly Neighborhood - the "Sesame Street" horror game

Game is not very horror, uninteresting, boring, and stupid easy. Also it locks your save when you finish it, so you can't go back and do alternate endings.

Meh

Yeah, that horror humble bundle with it and Amnesia sounds like a skip (can get Amnesia cheaper on its own when it’s on sale).

[chronovore]

Finished IMMORTALS: Rise of Fenyx last night. The game's final level changes it from a very chill, open-world, player has complete freedom of movement model to instead having exactly one path up the final mountain, loads of fall-to-death, freeze-to-death (path related, not gear), required puzzle solutions, and forced fights.

Everything the player could previously CHOOSE to engage are instead MANDATORY and must be addressed in the presented order.

The path "up" the mountain also features several roads which lead down the mountain, so I almost checked an online guide to make sure I hadn't missed something. Previous 40 hours of gameplay was one thing, final 2-3 hours are punishment-enforced fixed path.

Final vault is a review of previous ones, but with untuned mechanics and poorly designed Checkpoint markers, leading to a couple spots where the game left me with no way out, including no way to die and reset to last checkpoint. I had to re-load from Save Data.

Finished, then deleted before I had to waffle on a clean-up pass of remaining Trophies. For some reason, Playstation Trophies don't compel me like Xbox Achievements did; maybe it's that also-ran flavor to them?

No interest in the DLC?  Some of it changes the setting and/or play style up completely, IIRC.

Right now, the game went from an eight of 10 experience to a five of 10 experience, so I am done with it. There is every chance I will be interested in revisiting it in a couple of years, because I just restarted watchdog Legion after rage quitting it two years ago. I am immensely enjoying Legion now to my surprise.

So I can see myself going back to FENYX at some point, just not right now.

[demi]

Dusted off the PS3 to finally play some games I haven't yet to throw this thing in the garbage forever

Sly 3: Honor Among Thieves - twitch: https://www.twitch.tv/videos/2106965243

Last played in 2015, I finally got the Platinum trophy in like 2 days lol

https://i.ibb.co/tMD2B86/IMG-4710.jpg

Next will play:

- Sly Cooper Thieves in Time (Sly 4)
- Puppeteer
- Time and Eternity....

[Bebpo]

Puppeteer is good outside the slowness.

[Himu]

Beat TRII, started TRIII. It’s fantastic.

[Himu]

My thoughts on Tomb Raider II: it’s a really great game that improves on some aspects of TR1 but ultimately I feel the original is the better game and the true timeless classic. TRII feels like more Tomb Raider which as someone that loves the original is a great thing but it’s not something I would recommend to someone that hasn’t played the original game. TRII has extremely high highs (Tibet, China) and pretty meh lows (ship underwater although the level 40 Fathoms is incredible). TR1 is more consistent and polished. It also has a more boding atmosphere due to the isolation which TRII mostly lacks. If I were to compare the two I would say Tomb Raider 1 is Alien and II is Aliens.

I guess a way to put it in that TR1 for me is a top 10 game. TRII is more of a top 30 game.

Hopefully TRIII stays consistent because what I’ve played so far is TR1 quality.

[Polident Hive]

Vice City Stories (PS2)

Never really played it beyond messing around with the PSP release. Of the handheld GTAs, I only finished Chinatown Wars. But booting up on PCSX2, it’s preconfigured with 60fps and true wide screen patches plus 3x resolution bump. Thinking I’m gonna give it a go. Just driving around, it’s amazing how Vice City’s layout is burned in my memory, the way no other open worlds are.

tbh the only learning curve in returning to PS2 games is using X to accelerate. Steam Deck has options to quick swap controller mapping. Press a button to swap whenever you get on a car. Too lazy to do all that.

[Himu]

Vice City Stories (PS2)

Never really played it beyond messing around with the PSP release. Of the handheld GTAs, I only finished Chinatown Wars. But booting up on PCSX2, it’s preconfigured with 60fps and true wide screen patches plus 3x resolution bump. Thinking I’m gonna give it a go. Just driving around, it’s amazing how Vice City’s layout is burned in my memory, the way no other open worlds are.

tbh the only learning curve in returning to PS2 games is using X to accelerate. Steam Deck has options to quick swap controller mapping. Press a button to swap whenever you get on a car. Too lazy to do all that.

Underrated GTA. Play LCS too.

[Polident Hive]

Played a couple hours of LCS on PSP and never finished it. Some 18 years ago or whenever it came out. Might revisit it at some point. Vice City is the game and city I have the strongest memories and nostalgia for. To this day I have tracks on my mp3 player. Literally yesterday I was listening to Atomic in the gym.

Excited for GTA6 going back, even if it’s modern day.

[demi]

Stuff I played recently:

- Ad Infinitum

Walking sim based on WW1 horror. Meh

- Bendy and the Ink Machine

Surprised by this, enjoyed it! It's basically a spooky game based on Walt Disney

- Bendy and the Dark Revival

It's like the devs looked at BioShock and went "dude lets do that". Its dank

- Sly 4: Thieves in Time (twitch: https://www.twitch.tv/videos/2111985625)

The load times are horrendous... apparently its shorter on digital but holy moly. Anyway it was ok. Probably not my fav Sly Cooper.

[Polident Hive]

Immortals of A-something is on PlayStation gamepass. Played about an hour or so and it’s fine enough. An FPS with magic in place of guns.

What stood out to me is of all the PS5 games I’ve played, image quality and performance is noticeably bad. Seems it’s running at 720p using FSR upscaling. There’s this shimmering from jaggies on top of the blurry look.  Frame rate is infrequently at 60, choppy feeling all around. Ignoring all that, this is meant as some showcase for Unreal Engine 5? Doesn’t look the part to justify all the concessions.

[tiesto]

Well, since I cleared IW and Star Ocean: Blue Sphere, I've been playing a lot of Rebirth. Currently just started Ch 11 and hoping I can put in some serious time this weekend to make further progress. I'm really impressed with Rebirth, sometimes the minigames get a bit too overbearing and their quality is mixed, but everything else is just awesome... best FF since 9. I think they really nailed the mix of open world and more linear, focused exploration, which really helps with the pacing. You never feel bogged down. There's a lot to see and do, the game also captures the wackiness and "soul" of earlier FFs, and the amount of music/remixes in this game is ridiculous.

I also won an auction for a cib copy of Knight Quest for Game Boy. It was a LOT of money but a good deal less than I've seen it go for over the years. I had this game as a kid and recall making it to the final area but never finishing it. I started playing it again and it's pretty basic and quite grindy (at least at the onset) but has some nice things going for it. I currently made it to what the instruction book calls chapter 3 (of 5), and it seems like a game you can finish in 5-10 hours (considerably less if you use an emu to speed up the grinding). I'm playing on a mix of Analogue Pocket and Super Game Boy.

It's a one on one RPG where you can select from 4 different attacks to use against enemies, and every enemy type has its own weakness. The overworld graphics are very simple but the in-battle graphics really shine. Animated characters/monsters, nice backgrounds. Also it's cool that there are multiple battle themes.

And as for non-RPGs, well I've been continuing with Super Mario All Stars - finished 1, 2, and 3, and up to 8-4 in Lost Levels. Finished Demon's Crest, including the hidden ending which you get a password for if you collect everything in the main game. It's an excellent almost-Metroidvania style game although some of the secrets feel a bit obscure and it definitely requires a guide to 100%... the graphics and art direction are also stellar, it's one of the best looking SNES games IMO, oozing with atmosphere and perfectly-selected palette choices. Also tried a bit of Super Adventure Island and made it reasonably far in my first shot. It's not that great of a game, it feels extremely basic in terms of gameplay and level design, like comparable to the original Adventure Island. Even the NES sequels of 2-4 (especially 4) felt more advanced than this with world maps, more exploration, dinosaur partners and more than 2 weapons. The Koshiro soundtrack kicks ass however.

[demi]

Puppeteer is good outside the slowness.

Just finished Puppeteer, what do you mean by slowness? This game was great (twitch: https://www.twitch.tv/videos/2118255661 )

Felt like a nice whimsy Kirby game, shame more people won't/don't know about it

[Bebpo]

Puppeteer is good outside the slowness.

Just finished Puppeteer, what do you mean by slowness? This game was great (twitch: https://www.twitch.tv/videos/2118255661 )

Felt like a nice whimsy Kirby game, shame more people won't/don't know about it

I just remember it being one of the most 30fps feeling games I ever played. Movement felt slow. But it's been a long time.

But yeah, it's a great game. Kirby is an apt comparison since it's not exactly hard.

[Polident Hive]

Came out a month before the PS4. Twilight of the PS3 and no backwards compatibility. Overshadowed by Knack. Puppeteer could’ve had a second wind with a PS4 port.

[demi]

Played through Tokyo Jungle's story mode (which requires to play Survival every other time....). Neat little game. twitch vod: https://www.twitch.tv/videos/2120258804

[Himu]

Tokyo Jungle is great.

Taking break from Tomb Raider 3 and playing Tony Hawk games. I have THPS 1+ 2 on Switch and for whatever I feel like it’s not the same games. I mean, I know they’re universally acclaimed and everything but it lacks the original games soul, from the complicated menus, to how much they changed in THPS1. I just find myself wanting to pop in the originals instead.

[Joe Molotov]

Been playing Disco Elysium, this game is goated.

[demi]

Played through Siren: Blood Curse, even bought it off the PS3 store in 2024 ($20).

My first Siren game, which admittedly is probably the worse choice, but I wanted to stay on PS3 for a bit. This game is so mid I dont even know what to say. Extremely difficult to see (was it my TV? was it the horrible grain filter?), navigating was horrible, and each "episode" was like 2 small gameplay segments with cutscenes the rest of the way. Just annoying throughout. I'm not writing off Siren just yet, I will play Siren 1 & 2, which are probably better games in comparison.

[Bebpo]

Played through Siren: Blood Curse, even bought it off the PS3 store in 2024 ($20).

My first Siren game, which admittedly is probably the worse choice, but I wanted to stay on PS3 for a bit. This game is so mid I dont even know what to say. Extremely difficult to see (was it my TV? was it the horrible grain filter?), navigating was horrible, and each "episode" was like 2 small gameplay segments with cutscenes the rest of the way. Just annoying throughout. I'm not writing off Siren just yet, I will play Siren 1 & 2, which are probably better games in comparison.

Idk, I don't think you'll like Siren PS2.

I played the PS2 games and a bit of Blood Curse but never finished Blood Curse. Honestly Blood Curse seemed pretty similar but with better gameplay/graphics/quality of life.

[Bebpo]

I'm not the biggest Siren fan. They had cool vibes and some interesting structure with the timeline jumping, but they were super jank to play and you couldn't see much.

Then the guy goes on and makes Gravity Rush, which again has great vibes, but is kinda so-so playing.

I just don't think the director makes very good gameplay tbh.

[demi]

Tomorrow I will start Time and Eternity. I will see how bad this game is. I did see it has Yuzo Kushiro music???? So that might be tight

[Himu]

Knew I wasn’t nuts. Popped in THPS3 for ps2 and it’s so much better than 1+2. The modern thing does so much wrong. No blood text when you miss a trick, no get up animation. These things added so much personality to the originals. The menus are awful and a pain to navigate in the modern game. Looking forward to playing the PlayStation originals because damn.

Thps3 is amazing btw.

[Bebpo]

Playing Samus Returns - a Metroid 2 remake and I can't tell, since I never played the original (never had a gameboy so missed all those titles), if the bad level design is from the original or, like Dread, MercurySteam just sucks at designed well flowing levels.

I keep getting stuck and having to google a video walkthrough to figure out how to make progress and then I see the youtuber also get stuck and be confused until they figure it out. Every time so far it's been some hidden normal looking blocks that you're supposed to shoot to make progress.

I guess the idea is that they give you this scanner ability to see hidden blocks so they think it's fair game to block progress through them. But I never really use the scanner ability because it feels like cheating as it uncovers the map before you've found the spots. Idk, weird game. I'm on the 3rd area, hopefully it grows on me. 3DS controls aren't that great for twitchy melee countering and free aiming combat either.

Coffee Talk - Was ok. Worth playing, but I watched a trailer after of the other bartending game VA-11Hall-A and that game was so much better in every single aspect. Definitely hurts this one which feels a bit bland in writing/art/music/gameplay. Maybe play the sequel at some point.

Dusk - Almost done with Episode 2 The Facilities. Episode 1 was a great run n' gun FPS. Episode 2 is way more ambitious and sometimes confusing, but the middle stride of Episode 2 has been awesome. This level was soooo good:



Still playing Rebirth and it's going well. Like 40 hours in now at Corel.

[Bebpo]

Finished Dusk
It was good stuff.

May actually get me back into playing FPS games again. At least starting with all the retro/boomer good ones.

[Polident Hive]

Finished Dusk
It was good stuff.

May actually get me back into playing FPS games again. At least starting with all the retro/boomer good ones.

HROT is another quake style one like Dusk. Ion Fury is build engine, like Duke 3D and Blood. Amid Evil’s really good. Powerslave Exhumed is sort of a new game, insofar as it’s a modern PC port of a PS1 and Saturn FPS, remixing both. Then there’s all the fan made Doom total conversions available for free. Blade of Agony. Ashes.

There’s no shortage. One I played recently is a Quake mod called Episode Enyo. A prequel to Slave Zero X, a Strider 2 inspired game… which is itself a prequel to a Dreamcast third person mech shooter.

[HardcoreRetro]

Played through Siren: Blood Curse, even bought it off the PS3 store in 2024 ($20).

My first Siren game, which admittedly is probably the worse choice, but I wanted to stay on PS3 for a bit. This game is so mid I dont even know what to say. Extremely difficult to see (was it my TV? was it the horrible grain filter?), navigating was horrible, and each "episode" was like 2 small gameplay segments with cutscenes the rest of the way. Just annoying throughout. I'm not writing off Siren just yet, I will play Siren 1 & 2, which are probably better games in comparison.

Blood Curse was meant to be like a Hollywood adaptation of the first game. It's why the western characters are in there. These games play pretty horribly but I find them incredibly charming.

Be sure to open up the manual of the first game if you own it. There's a section with hints you basically need to beat the game. The puzzles in the game are extremely convoluted.

There's also ARG stuff around the games. They had like fake forums where people would talk about the village from the game and the mystery going on. Flash horror sites with extra lore. Weird tie-in media like this song for Blood Curse.

[Bebpo]

Siren was a really weird IP. To be honest I never finished 1/2 or Blood Curse. They just weren't fun to play. I also never finished any of the Fatal Frame games for the same reason. But the Siren games were very creepy in that Japanese horror unsettling way and I respected that. They were really obtuse though. I played the PS2 ones on the Japanese release and I don't think the internet was in the best shape at that point for easy walkthrough access (basically you had gamefaqs forum of the few importers) and I'd get stuck a lot and give up.

Obtuse isn't necessarily bad. Just furthers the weird uniqueness of the games that make them unlike other horror games. They're interesting games as curiosities and to be unsettled.

I feel like P.T. was kind of a spiritual successor to the Siren vibe but more modern playing.

I'd be down for a new Siren game but I have no idea how they'd make it more accessible while not being "dumb down" and more bland. Blood Curse was already a step in that direction and I feel like they can't go much further.

[Svejk]

Finished Dusk
It was good stuff.

May actually get me back into playing FPS games again. At least starting with all the retro/boomer good ones.

HROT is another quake style one like Dusk. Ion Fury is build engine, like Duke 3D and Blood. Amid Evil’s really good. Powerslave Exhumed is sort of a new game, insofar as it’s a modern PC port of a PS1 and Saturn FPS, remixing both. Then there’s all the fan made Doom total conversions available for free. Blade of Agony. Ashes.

There’s no shortage. One I played recently is a Quake mod called Episode Enyo. A prequel to Slave Zero X, a Strider 2 inspired game… which is itself a prequel to a Dreamcast third person mech shooter.

Really, REALLY want to get HROT.  It takes place in the pseudo-80's part of CZ where I spent allot of Summers as a kid.  They even kept the old name of the town on the the old city hall/train station area sign (Gottwaldov, nka Zlin).  Love the silly vibe and nonsensicle violence it shows in the trailer.  Wish something like this they could just dump on a console.

[demi]

Put some time into Time & Eternity (twitch vod: https://www.twitch.tv/videos/2126001020 )

Definitely worth the "yeah this game sucks" title. Just very basic... in fact I think Yuzo Kushiro only did like one song - the battle theme, which sounds weirdly like an Etrian Odyssey song.

Anyway, game is pretty basic. You mostly just go from node to node, do random fetch quests....

Battles are 1v1, but you can face multiple opponents, except you fight them one at a time.

All the enemies are recolors, nothing really unique.

They did a cum joke at one point.

[bork]

Finished Dusk
It was good stuff.

May actually get me back into playing FPS games again. At least starting with all the retro/boomer good ones.

HROT is another quake style one like Dusk. Ion Fury is build engine, like Duke 3D and Blood. Amid Evil’s really good. Powerslave Exhumed is sort of a new game, insofar as it’s a modern PC port of a PS1 and Saturn FPS, remixing both. Then there’s all the fan made Doom total conversions available for free. Blade of Agony. Ashes.

There’s no shortage. One I played recently is a Quake mod called Episode Enyo. A prequel to Slave Zero X, a Strider 2 inspired game… which is itself a prequel to a Dreamcast third person mech shooter.

Really, REALLY want to get HROT.  It takes place in the pseudo-80's part of CZ where I spent allot of Summers as a kid.  They even kept the old name of the town on the the old city hall/train station area sign (Gottwaldov, nka Zlin).  Love the silly vibe and nonsensicle violence it shows in the trailer.  Wish something like this they could just dump on a console.

Play it on your PC

[demi]

Definitely worth the "yeah this game sucks" title. Just very basic... in fact I think Yuzo Kushiro only did like one song - the battle theme, which sounds weirdly like an Etrian Odyssey song.

I was right - found this on youtube. He even says its similar to Etrian

[demi]

About 50-60%? Done with Time & Eternity... this game was made on a shoestring budget, lol. I get excited when I see SOMETHING new. Otherwise its the same colored enemies... the same NPCs asking the same quests (how many hamsters have I had to find now?).

Very, very mid. Less than mid. Honestly not awful, but... not good

[Polident Hive]

Finished Dusk
It was good stuff.

May actually get me back into playing FPS games again. At least starting with all the retro/boomer good ones.

HROT is another quake style one like Dusk. Ion Fury is build engine, like Duke 3D and Blood. Amid Evil’s really good. Powerslave Exhumed is sort of a new game, insofar as it’s a modern PC port of a PS1 and Saturn FPS, remixing both. Then there’s all the fan made Doom total conversions available for free. Blade of Agony. Ashes.

There’s no shortage. One I played recently is a Quake mod called Episode Enyo. A prequel to Slave Zero X, a Strider 2 inspired game… which is itself a prequel to a Dreamcast third person mech shooter.

Really, REALLY want to get HROT.  It takes place in the pseudo-80's part of CZ where I spent allot of Summers as a kid.  They even kept the old name of the town on the the old city hall/train station area sign (Gottwaldov, nka Zlin).  Love the silly vibe and nonsensicle violence it shows in the trailer.  Wish something like this they could just dump on a console.

Play it on your PC

Bit of a tangent, but I’ve noticed some friends who aren’t into PC gaming bought a Steam Deck and use it to play PC games. If that makes any sense. I get the reasoning that people don’t want to work on a computer all day, only to play games on that same setup. Steam Deck simplifies a lot of that in a dedicated gaming device.

[Bebpo]

Finished Dusk
It was good stuff.

May actually get me back into playing FPS games again. At least starting with all the retro/boomer good ones.

HROT is another quake style one like Dusk. Ion Fury is build engine, like Duke 3D and Blood. Amid Evil’s really good. Powerslave Exhumed is sort of a new game, insofar as it’s a modern PC port of a PS1 and Saturn FPS, remixing both. Then there’s all the fan made Doom total conversions available for free. Blade of Agony. Ashes.

There’s no shortage. One I played recently is a Quake mod called Episode Enyo. A prequel to Slave Zero X, a Strider 2 inspired game… which is itself a prequel to a Dreamcast third person mech shooter.

Really, REALLY want to get HROT.  It takes place in the pseudo-80's part of CZ where I spent allot of Summers as a kid.  They even kept the old name of the town on the the old city hall/train station area sign (Gottwaldov, nka Zlin).  Love the silly vibe and nonsensicle violence it shows in the trailer.  Wish something like this they could just dump on a console.

Play it on your PC

Bit of a tangent, but I’ve noticed some friends who aren’t into PC gaming bought a Steam Deck and use it to play PC games. If that makes any sense. I get the reasoning that people don’t want to work on a computer all day, only to play games on that same setup. Steam Deck simplifies a lot of that in a dedicated gaming device.

Yeah, Steam Deck is a good way to PC game without having to build a PC or get a GPU.

[Svejk]

Finished Dusk
It was good stuff.

May actually get me back into playing FPS games again. At least starting with all the retro/boomer good ones.

HROT is another quake style one like Dusk. Ion Fury is build engine, like Duke 3D and Blood. Amid Evil’s really good. Powerslave Exhumed is sort of a new game, insofar as it’s a modern PC port of a PS1 and Saturn FPS, remixing both. Then there’s all the fan made Doom total conversions available for free. Blade of Agony. Ashes.

There’s no shortage. One I played recently is a Quake mod called Episode Enyo. A prequel to Slave Zero X, a Strider 2 inspired game… which is itself a prequel to a Dreamcast third person mech shooter.

Really, REALLY want to get HROT.  It takes place in the pseudo-80's part of CZ where I spent allot of Summers as a kid.  They even kept the old name of the town on the the old city hall/train station area sign (Gottwaldov, nka Zlin).  Love the silly vibe and nonsensicle violence it shows in the trailer.  Wish something like this they could just dump on a console.

Play it on your PC

Bit of a tangent, but I’ve noticed some friends who aren’t into PC gaming bought a Steam Deck and use it to play PC games. If that makes any sense. I get the reasoning that people don’t want to work on a computer all day, only to play games on that same setup. Steam Deck simplifies a lot of that in a dedicated gaming device.

About nailed it there for me.  As soon as I get on my laptop to game, I feel I need to be working (on my game/art projects), and not be playing something, nevermind the setting up for gaming. 
If my kids would let me dump our switch collecting dust, I'd love to switch it for a steam deck without batting an eye.  Things would be different then.