Done with the Nioh DLCs. Date Masamune and Toyotomi Hideyori took me the longest to beat and Date bordered on bullshit with his damage output and KI reserves but overall the extra chapters were really, really solid. Best thing is getting to fight an ancestor of Ryu Hayabusa as a secret boss but he's damn tough and I haven't beaten him yet. Really want that armour set and Dragon Sword for my ninja, hmmm.
Oddworld: Soulstorm is out and it looks pretty damn good! I'll probably grab it today when I finish up the championship I'm currently doing in Dirt Rally 2.0. Was thinking about renewing my PS plus membership to get Oddworld but since the game is actually 50 bucks on PS5 I think I'll just buy it outright.
Oddworld: Soulstorm is absolutely brutal. Since it's Oddworld I expected this but I suspect that a good number of PS5 owners who are playing an Oddworld game for the first time thanks to this game being one of the monthly games (on PS5 only, so if you only have PS4 or PC you'll still need to pay) are in for a pretty brutal introduction to the series.
The game in general is really good. Graphics and soundtrack are definitely on point and I'm really liking the story so far. The gameplay is absolutely fucking nuts sometimes though. What doesn't help is that there seems to be a few bugs, ran into a very annoying issue in one level where you're supposed to hide yourself and the other mudokons in lockers, but 9 times out of 10 there'd be 1 or 2 that just stood there like idiots and got themselves killed. I'm sure things like that will get patched, but what I'd also really want to see in a future patch is a quicksave feature. They probably figured that it wasn't needed in this game because there's quite a few checkpoints and if you don't mind going back and forth a bit in a few spots you can actually reuse them. With that said, the part I'm on right now where I'm trying to save two mudokons and can only do so one at a time is definitely one part that really would benefit from a quicksave feature.
Brutally difficult and it's one of those games that I'll have to take breaks from when it really pisses me off, but I'm loving this so far. If I don't get the good ending (I'll probably get one of the bad ones, most likely) I'll make use of level select and youtube videos to finish it up.
Played some Code Vein, I'm currently on the labyrinth-ish white cathedral. I knew beforehand that it was a confusing place, so I kept my surroundings in mind and it hasn't been difficult to navigate. If I'm being honest, it's the best location so far - partly because the bar has been so low. Ruined urban area followed by ruined urban area followed by awful swamp area followed by ruined hill area.
Last night I finished Persona 5 Royal, and I have, some grievances! (but mostly praise)
With how the character of AKECHI was handled. It seems like the writers were just fine with not resolving his character arc despite bringing him back in royal, to me. Just dying again, and coming back to life in the post credits scene, does not a satisfying character arc make. I was just waiting in the epilogue for the whole "oh remember when I 'died' offscreen twice? Turns out I never actually died, big shocker, because just dying like that, right after I revealed I was the shittiest human being of all time but still redeemable, was the worst thing that could have happened writing-wise, and now I can finally conclude my character arc in a satisfying way"
But that never came. It was pretty disappointing honestly. If they were going to add so much to his character in the Royal section of the game they might as well have gone all the way and flesh him out. But they didn't.
Other than that, I enjoyed the game. I have a lot of things to poke at with it, but it's such a huge game that it would take A LOT of typing.
M0rgana is the best phantom thief. That's just the truth, for me. I love the little guy. He was my absolute favorite from palace 1 to 89 or how ever many I had to do. Yusuke is up there too, with his quirky ass self. Haru is as well. Those are like, top three for me. They're the only ones to really elicit an emotional response from me
(besides Futaba but that's just because the 4th palace is objectively the best one in the game. her confidant sucks and is creepy as hell. I WONT FUCK MY SURROGATE LITTLE SISTER, ATLUS. YOU CAN'T MAKE ME.)
But the phantom thieves are honestly kind of low on the list of things that made me enjoy the game. All the other interesting characters like Kawakami, Iwai, Takemi, Sojiro, ect are a lot more fun to hang out with and feel like interesting character studies. Akechi as well, and Maruki even. Not to mention Sae, who is just straight up best girl.
The day-to-day things you can do in the real world are always fun to do time management with, there's a lot more charm and personality in the side-stuff in the game than there is in the mainline story, which is unfortunate because it forces you to sit through SO MUCH phantom thieves main story content, barking plot points at each other like it's a goddamn visual novel.
Additionally, in typical JRPG fashion, the actual RPG combat and gameplay is much more fun when you're just fucking around than when you're participating in the main story, most of the time. I found Mementos much more fun to traverse on my own time than most of the Palaces, because you get to use your full arsenal. So many moments in palaces that SHOULD be more fun than just fighting normal enemies, e.g. bosses, mini-bosses, don't let you do status effects, baton passes, technicals, you know... the shit that makes the fights fun. They think more health = hard, so It ends up just being a jolly round of chip damage and staying alive. Which, folks... is not fun. And fun is what GAMES should be.
Don't even get me started on the 5th boss. God hell, I wanted to burn my disc.
There were entire sections of the game that had me enraptured as well though, in spite of the annoyances.
The 4th palace was genius. I shouldn't have to explain why. It was just amazing. It broke formula while also being engaging, it was the best story-wise, the best layout-wise and puzzle-wise, just everything about it was fun and awesome. Besides the final boss. But bosses suck most of the time. We know this.
A close second was the 6th palace. And I won't even say anything about that, it just speaks for itself. It's great. Even the boss battle didn't suck for once.
The 2nd palace also deserves a mention due to how it's where the game finally started becoming fun for me. The first was a boring slog and I just felt like I was finally getting the gist in the 2nd one.
The calling card to shido was awesome, it felt like everything was building up to it.
The big finale and killing god using a demon king bullet, was pretty epic. The whole everyone getting discouraged part really got me too, before that.
Maruki's whole thing was just awesome. I never thought of writing a villain like that, one who's basically more "heroic" than the main characters, but still has to be stopped because their righteousness is just a big lie and detrimental to human civilization. It's an interesting thing, while his palace wasn't the best in the game, his story and role in the third semester was definitely thought provoking.
But yeah, good game. I ended up liking it more than I thought. And had more to say about it than I thought.
Just when I think it can't get any harder, Oddworld: Soulstorm manages to get harder. Finally reached the Old Trellis... only to discover that this is another "event" style stage where you have to defend hundreds of mudokons from getting shot at. It's a bit more complicated this time too, there's these sodas you can buy and give to the four mudokons you find earlier in the stage, then from what I can tell you're supposed to position each of them in the right position to fend most of the sligs off then throw rock candies at the remaining sligs yourself and tie them up. I think I'm starting to get the hang of it since I got past the first section with minimal casualties but I'm too exhausted from frustration to continue at the moment. Doesn't help that the fight against the missile-firing "Slig Mama" mech drove me absolutely nuts in the level prior to this before I finally grasped how to beat it. Scares me to think about what the future levels are bound to be like...
As much as this difficulty makes me want to pull my hair out sometimes I'm still enjoying this quite a bit despite my relatively slow rate of progression through the levels.
Apparently there's a remake of The Last of Us in development for PS5 and I can't comprehend why they'd bother with a remake other than wanting to tie it into the upcoming HBO series. The PS4 remaster isn't that old, and can play perfectly on a PS5 with a full 4K resolution. If it's a remake with TLOU2 graphics? Okay sure maybe I'll play it then but I still don't think this is needed. IMO they'd be better off putting their resources towards a third game and a PS5 upgrade for the second.
On a roll in Soulstorm today! Managed to get past that defense segment in the Old Trellis level and shockingly I managed to meet the 80 percent requirement for good quarma. After all the shit that level was giving me yesterday, this felt satisfying as fuck to accomplish. The next few levels, while still challenging have actually felt like more of a breather so far. Necrum went particularly smoothly outside of one section that I can only describe as old-school brutal where I had to lead a mudokon BACK through rapidly moving sawblades (that I had just got through on the way to the guy!) with pinpoint accuracy. I couldn't help laughing my ass off and thinking "Yup, this is definitely an Oddworld game!" The story is also starting to really ramp up too.
The "Project Soulstorm" tape was some seriously chilling shit with the way it describes how the Soulstorm Brew is designed to ensure that the mudokons can't rebel by causing lethal withdrawal symptoms. And following that comes the realization that more mudokons are going to attempt escape after hearing about Abe's actions and wind up falling victim to the lethal withdrawal as a result... holy fuck.
On another and kind of depressing note, I'm noticing that so far the game is getting fairly mixed reviews, at least on metacritic and some fans have had mixed feelings too depending on where you look. Metacritic scores don't really dictate if I get a game or not, but I do worry a bit as to if this could impact the series going forward. It still hasn't been that long since release of course so the score could change a bit but it does make me kinda sad. On one hand I do understand where some of the mixed reviews are coming from since the game as I've said many times is brutally difficult and people have ran into some nasty bugs. On the other hand the bugs are very frequently being patched and the difficulty isn't too far off from what I'd expect from a game in this series (with that said I've only fully played Abe's Oddysee and it's remake). I've also seen a few complaints about the controls but I haven't had too many issues with them. If anything it takes some time to get used to them which for an Oddworld game is to be expected, at least in my opinion. At the very least I don't think Oddworld Inhabitants has to worry too much since they self-published the game along with having deals like the ones with Epic Game Store and Sony for the Playstation Plus deal on PS5. I just want them to be able to keep making games since I don't really see games like this very often. I tend to overthink these things though, so I'm going to stay positive!
Well crap, looks like I'm going to have to play a different game for a bit since I've now ran into a game breaking bug in Soulstorm. I'm completely unable to progress in The Yards level because there's a point where Abe will "slide" backwards and if I jump past this point, he'll slide backwards and fall through the floor.
My opinion of the game is still very positive but this is seriously not good. Good thing the devs are patching the game rapidly, I'm working on sending a bug report to them and hopefully it'll be fixed soon!
(apologies for triple post)
Since Soulstorm still isn't fixed for me yet (still no new patch) I played through Stranger's Wrath over the past few days! Gameplay was a lot of fun once I got used to it and holy crap so many explosions... I really loved how they tried something radically different from previous Oddworld games and it worked really well! Real shame that it didn't sell well back in the day, fuck EA's marketing practices.
That final fight with Sekto was really simple yet kind of frustrating at the same time. It was like the rocks you're supposed to hide behind would sometimes drop just before the instant kill laser would fire... though I'm not at all surprised cause it's an Oddworld game after all! The Stranger's progression in the second half of the game where he gets badass new armor and ammo types was great shit!
Today I decided to try out Munch's Oddysee since I've wanted to play it ever since I was a kid and saw the Oddworld Windows Media Player visualization with Munch that came with Windows XP's Plus pack. Right now I'm not sure how to feel about the game. I was playing the PC version and it felt extremely janky even with a controller, jumping around as Abe was especially bizarre feeling. At first I was chalking this up to the game being an early 2000s platformer by a company that was specialized in 2D games up to this point, but then I noticed thanks to youtube videos that the music wasn't playing in the levels. After doing some research I found out that the PC port is a bit fucked which surprised me since I'm playing what's supposed to be the better PC port. Among other things apparently the game speed/timing is messed up in the PC version as well, so that might explain why I'm having trouble. I'll have to see if I can play the PS3 version of the game or find a fix.
In other news, it really made my day that there's going to be news on Oculus games this month including Lone Echo 2! I'm really happy that we're finally getting more info on that game. Of course I'm still seeing people screaming that they're going to be downgrading the game and making it an Oculus Quest exclusive only, but I doubt that'd be the case. I can see a separate Oculus Quest port of this along with the first game, but if you go to Oculus's own blog post about this upcoming event, if you click on the Lone Echo 2 link in there it takes you to the downloadable trailer which is only available on PC. The other two links in there are specifically Quest games and Pistol Whip in particular links to it's Quest port and not the Rift/PC one, and it'd be really strange that they'd link to something promoting the PC release of Lone Echo 2 if they were planning to scrap it. That and the developers of the game still reply with gifs from said trailer to people on Twitter. I'm keeping my expectations in check of course, but I'm sure either way it's still going to be on PC.
So my best friend has been telling me about Stardew Valley, and how it's so similar to Harvest Moon, etc. I haven't watched any gameplay videos yet, but yesterday she showed me her farm and animals on her Switch. While the game itself looks difficult to play, (imo) I LOVE the GBC/GBA style graphics, and the music.
As a Harvest Moon fan, I AM interested in possibly playing it in the future, but I can see myself struggling with certain things, particularly fishing, which my best friend said she also struggles with...
Apparently (to her) Stardew Valley is better, but I'm not sure that I agree. Maybe I'll change my mind, but we'll see.
On another note, I've been playing Crash Bandicoot: Wrath of Cortex, and I FINALLY got the Yellow Gem.
I admit Stardew is one i want to try due to its harvest moon like elements but i always find a excuse not to, which is a shame as i would love me another harvest moon style game!
Same. I've been trying to find something similar to the PS2/Gamecube era Harvest Moons, since that's what I grew up on/they were what got me started, but so far haven't found any that I thought would be easy for me to learn. (I do love Light of Hope for the Switch, and a couple of the Wii ones, but A Wonderful Life? My absolute favorite hands down.)
Hopefully once I'm able to play it, I'll be loving Stardew Valley. I have a funny feeling that my friend will be giving me my own copy for my birthday, so we'll see!
My God. After three months of playing furiously almost every day I'm within a hair's breadth of finally catching up to all the current content in Honkai Impact 3. Three years of content speed-run in three months. Fuck me. This is the last time I dive head-first into a long-running gacha game. It's even eaten into my Arknights time, which is annoying. Maybe next month I'll finally have the time to watch anime or play other games again in between shifts.
Same. I've been trying to find something similar to the PS2/Gamecube era Harvest Moons, since that's what I grew up on/they were what got me started, but so far haven't found any that I thought would be easy for me to learn. (I do love Light of Hope for the Switch, and a couple of the Wii ones, but A Wonderful Life? My absolute favorite hands down.)
Have you checked out any of the Story of Seasons games?
This is actually the real Harvest Moon series developed by the original developers. They had to rename it to Story of Seasons after the split with Natsume because Natsume owns the name "Harvest Moon". The newer Harvest Moon games recently released by Natsume like Light of Hope and the recent One World were actually made by a whole new development team and aren't really well-received by fans and are considered Harvest Moon in name only.
So yea if you're looking for an authentic Harvest Moon experience then Story of Seasons is the series to go.
The latest SOS was released last month and it's been pretty damn good so far.
Also, if you're picking up Stardew Valley (and you should) I greatly recommend getting it for PC. Not that there's anything wrong with the Switch version but modding really takes it to a whole new level.
Have you checked out any of the Story of Seasons games?
This is actually the real Harvest Moon series developed by the original developers. They had to rename it to Story of Seasons after the split with Natsume because Natsume owns the name "Harvest Moon". The newer Harvest Moon games recently released by Natsume like Light of Hope and the recent One World were actually made by a whole new development team and aren't really well-received by fans and are considered Harvest Moon in name only.
So yea if you're looking for an authentic Harvest Moon experience then Story of Seasons is the series to go.
The latest SOS was released last month and it's been pretty damn good so far.
Also, if you're picking up Stardew Valley (and you should) I greatly recommend getting it for PC. Not that there's anything wrong with the Switch version but modding really takes it to a whole new level.
I don't like playing online, (LONG story) and I suck with computer stuff, so that's a nope... Much rather play console games/console versions.
I've tried some Story of Seasons, but don't like them as they're too difficult for me to play. Ironically I love Light of Hope, and am thinking about getting One World, but for $65 bucks, I'd rather wait.
Got the platinum for Code Vein. I thought it was an alright Souls-like overall, no more no less.
By far my biggest criticism of it is that the world/locations are very dull to both look at and explore - especially when I had to play through the thing three whole times. Very uninspired design in this regard. I also failed to feel much for most characters because the writing's not really up to the task for the most part. I did think the relationship between Eva and Jack was cute, Emily was pretty endearing and... that's about it. Mido also riled me up enough to genuinely want to kick his ass, so decent villain.
On the other hand combat was entertaining enough throughout (although also quite easy with an AI partner), the OST has some outstanding themes and I liked quite a few of the bosses' designs. I also don't have a problem with the anime aesthetic and playing as a redheaded badass wielding an axe bigger than herself never got old.
I heard the DLC was rather underwhelming, so maybe I'll buy that in the future if the Season Pass goes on sale, if only to check out the extra bosses and all.
EDIT: Oh yeah, and that part near the end reminded me that I should probably get into God Eater.
Next up I'll finally start South Park: The Fractured But Whole, which is long overdue for me. I'm just going to pretend it's the third special because boy do I miss the show.
I have a funny feeling that my friend will be giving me my own copy for my birthday, so we'll see!