What games are you currently playing?

[ForceStealer]

looks like circuit boards

 

[Wanderer]

Finally finished Expedition 33, and what a game it truly is, something special, and having something like this come out in 2025 is a miracle and an achievement on its own. I give it a 10/10, but I have some grievances, but it is not with the game itself, but the conversation around it. People are giving it high praise for being a JRPG without actually being one, meaning according to them it doesn’t have all the "anime slop" they hate about JRPGS, I feel like we have circled back to the 2000s's hatred of JRPG, seeing comments from western devs saying that it moves JRPGS forward in a mature direction acting like we never had JRPGS that were deep and had mature themes, If I remember correctly almost 2 years ago FFXVI was heavily criticised for being too dark and too western at times but now those critics have turned around and praising Expedition 33 for the same thing, it is almost like JRPGS are being held to a different standard and the goal posts are constanly being moved or new ones are created out of thin air.

Yeah, the conversation around this game has somehow gotten even worse. People are angry that IGN Japan and Famitsu did not give it high enough scores, and worse, that it flopped in Japan despite being a "JRPG." Apparently, to some idiots online, Japanese people are xenophobic for buying and preferring JRPGS made in Japan instead of Western RPGS pretending to be JRPGS.

 

[Strangelove]

finished the callisto protocol and just started the dlc

ngl it's been a let down. i had just finished the dead space remake before this. i was apprehensive about when the original came out and i played the demo but i got a second hand copy for like a fiver and it was one of my favourite games of that generation. and i was a bit apprehensive about a remake but i had a good time.

i'd heard a mixed reception for tcp but i went in with an open mind and hoping to be pleasantly surprised, but it didn't really live up to it. the thought that went through my head as i went on was that it felt like a parsed-down dead space in a bunch of little ways. there's weapon upgrades, but it's 4 upgrades per weapon and that's it (except the baton and glove thing). you get a suit upgrade, but you get one and you're stuck with 12 inventory slots max. i guess there's 6 firearms based on the menu, but i never made any except the ones you have to get because i struggled with managing the inventory with just two weapons. you have Legally Distinct Not-Kinesis, but you can do less with it than you could in dead space (can't pick up items, can't pick up enemies after they're dead). you've got your familiar audio logs, but they're mostly just 2-3 lines. i didn't find all the logs but from what i did, i didn't get as much a sense of the world compared with dead space 1. being able to vault over stuff opens up exploring more but i'm not sure if it was used to its fullest and it felt clunky at times.

combat was probably the biggest disappointment for me. by the end i am just dreading when enemies pop up. mechanically all the fights feel the same and start to drag. this is perhaps down to me not taking advantage of the systems fully or something, but i never really had to do much different for any of the enemies. being able to dodge is an interesting idea, but if you're fighting multiple enemies and they're all attacking you i'm just standing there dodging for like 30 seconds before i get a hit in. then you get to the boss fights and they're... functionally the same as regular fights but now the enemies has even more health. i don't think dead space was the most cerebral combat ever but there were at least times when you've fighting in zero-g, where you had to aim for a certain point on enemies. i was probably enjoying it the most during the section with blind enemies but maybe that's because you could sneak up on them and avoid combat easily.

i've only played maybe 30 minutes of the dlc so far, but it did add some minor unlocking mechanism which is a change of pace. but then i had to travel a short distance and had to fight like 8 enemies and by the time i was half way through the room was saying "god, not again" out aloud to myself. it reminds me of my least favourite parts of uncharted or the last of us, where you'd get to a clearing with some cover and it'd make you find multiple waves of enemies and i just wanted to move forward.

also, the suit just isn't as cool as dead space's.

 

[Wanderer]

Replayed Persona 5 Royal, and I did not enjoy it all. I remember liking the Vanilla version of the game, it seems like my tastes have changed, and I don’t have the patience to sit through 30 hours of dialogue, which seem to be appealing to a completely different age group from me, I found it very stereotypical and basic, I dropped the game after being done with the second palace, I might go and return it tomorrow. I'm not going to invest 30 hours in a game that seems slow and lethargic at times. It's a shame, cause I remembered it to be a great game, now it is less appealing than having diarrhea while sitting on a white couch.

 

[Cthulhu]

Replayed Persona 5 Royal, and I did not enjoy it all. I remember liking the Vanilla version of the game, it seems like my tastes have changed, and I don’t have the patience to sit through 30 hours of dialogue, which seem to be appealing to a completely different age group from me, I found it very stereotypical and basic, I dropped the game after being done with the second palace, I might go and return it tomorrow. I'm not going to invest 30 hours in a game that seems slow and lethargic at times. It's a shame, cause I remembered it to be a great game, now it is less appealing than having diarrhea while sitting on a white couch.

Yeah I get that, one thing I noticed early on is how the game really tends to drag on, every plot point shown, then talked about, then repeated in text messages. I think it's a great game overall, just very, very long. I never finished it, even though I'm sure I was getting to the end (I got to the casino dungeon iirc)

 

[Wanderer]

Yeah I get that, one thing I noticed early on is how the game really tends to drag on, every plot point shown, then talked about, then repeated in text messages. I think it's a great game overall, just very, very long. I never finished it, even though I'm sure I was getting to the end (I got to the casino dungeon iirc)

I would rather have a game be vague and let me figure out the plot rather than doing exposition dumps every 5 minutes.

 

[Lulcielid]

Shin Megami Tensei III

Played it years ago but never finished it, should be done with by the weekend.

 

[Wanderer]

Replaying FFVII(OG) in Disc 3 right now, gonna grind for Level 99 tomorrow, This game is still so good actual masterpiece, still gets me emotional, the music is still amazing, the story, the characters and everything else still top notch and the materia system and limit breaks are still so fun, the combat is still great, No JRPG and No game will ever surpass it.

 

[ViolaaFox]

Started playing FFVI a few days ago.

It's my first time playing it but I enjoy it a lot, might as well go for platinum here.

 

[LunarTarotGirl]

Started Expedition 33. So far loving it. This is the definition of art. I really think it might be one of my new favorite games. We'll see.

 

[ViolaaFox]

Started Expedition 33. So far loving it. This is the definition of art. I really think it might be one of my new favorite games. We'll see.

Fully agree, this game is impressive.
I hope you'll share your thoughts after beating it.

 

[LunarTarotGirl]

Definitely. I might write an essay at this point lol. There's just so much in this game to discuss. I'm glad I went in blind.

I hope you enjoy FFVI!

 

[ViolaaFox]

Definitely. I might write an essay at this point lol. There's just so much in this game to discuss. I'm glad I went in blind.

I hope you enjoy FFVI!

That sounds good! There are so many design elements and story parts that would work well for an analysis.

As for FFVI, I've reached the

Spoiler: location

floating continent

. I had to play with a guide because I tend to get lost quite often in older games, haha. But it's still fun to play, there were even some parts in the story that surprised me.

 

[LunarTarotGirl]

That sounds good! There are so many design elements and story parts that would work well for an analysis.

As for FFVI, I've reached the

Spoiler: location

floating continent

. I had to play with a guide because I tend to get lost quite often in older games, haha. But it's still fun to play, there were even some parts in the story that surprised me.

I played it a very long time ago. I got far but I know I didn't beat the last area. I should go back and replay one day. But yeah it's in my opinion one of the best FF stories. And one of the best FFs in general.

And I hear you about needing a guide. In a lot of the older FF games it was too easy to just end up in the wrong area or walk into a place where the monster levels were significantly higher.

Hope to hear more of your thoughts. ^^

 

[Ryushikaze]

I've been replaying the Lunar Duology and damn is Eternal Blue so good. Silver Star is fairly straightforward except for a few specific items whose requirements are so arbitrary and time sensitive you wonder how they ever got found in the first place, but EB hits JUUUUST right.

 

[ViolaaFox]

So I completed FFVI last Friday and it was great, I really liked it. But that also means that I finally played all main line FFs (minus XI and XIV, I don't play MMOs). The character writing in VI was much fun to experience, I'll probably come back for a replay in serveral years.

And I started playing the Raidou Remaster, but I'll probably have to pause it soon because Shuten Order, Trails in the Sky Remake, and Atelier Resleriana are coming out very soon, and I'm really looking forward to all three games.