Topic: PS4 recommendation thread

@Foxy-Goddess-Scotchy Yeah, @Ralizah said it perfectly — GR1 was a pleasant surprise, and GR2 is a bigger, more expansive, and better game by all accounts ... but for some reason I never finished it either. I think in some ways maybe it’s too big. I also got sidetracked, except not by BotW; I think it was a combination of Shadow of the Colossus remake and then a couple random distractions like Inside and then finally Bloodborne, and let’s face it — I was clearly in a dark and dreary gaming mindset at the time and I couldn’t muster the interest for the light-hearted and colorful affair of Kat and Raven. I always told myself I’d go back and complete it. I’m probably over half way through the story missions, but there is quite a bit of side content. Now it’s just been so long that I’m not sure I could get the hang of the controls without a really significant investment of time retutoring myself. Like Rali said, the controls are a bit quirky, but work about as good as you could expect for what the game is actually accomplishing — that being full 3D / 360 degree movement in all spatial planes. It’s quite a feat to make that possible, while also trying to make it possible to target enemies while floating in the air not knowing which way is up or down (of course you’ve always got Kat’s hair to tell you which way is down). Talking about it makes me want to return to the game. Maybe I will pull it from my graveyard of mostly dead backlog material where it lies next to Batman Arkham Asylum, Persona 5, and The Witcher 3.

@Th3solution I think the awkwardness of gravity shifting is a big part of why I like it so much. Between the controls and the way Kat's body reacts to it, it really feels less like some sort of standard superpower and more like you're manipulating the forces of nature themselves.

Good to see I'm not the only person who gets sidetracked while playing long games. Aside from Breath of the Wild and Shin Megami Tensei IV: Apocalypse (which took me 75 and 105 hours to beat, respectively), I almost always take long-ish breaks in the middle of long games. Currently, I'm breaking from Dragon Quest XI S after playing for 40+ hours and have yet to head back to my 60+ hour playthrough of Fire Emblem: Three Houses to finish it after breaking over a month ago.

@Th3solution @Kidfried @Foxy-Goddess-Scotchy

Played GR1 quite a lot on Vita, but didn't finish it either. Always fancied going back to it.

How are GR Remastered and 2?

@Ralizah I’m so bad about getting sidetracked during larger games (and even some smaller ones). For some games it works out fine for me if there isn’t fast-twitch input and complex controls required. But if I’m gone from a more complicated game too long then I have that virtual obstacle of having to relearn controls and it puts me off from picking it back up. Persona 5 and Valkyria Chronicles 4 have been really nice for their drop in-drop out ability since things are turn based and it’s more about planning and strategy. But especially with GR2, it’s not like it’s a shooter where the control scheme is basically the same as a million other games. It’s unlike any other game in its traversal and combat, so I’d have to dust off my skills if I try to get back into it.

@Kidfried Yes, I will say that Gravity Rush is it’s own thing. I’ve not seen anything quite like it in any other game. For the uniqueness alone it’s worth experiencing.

@KALofKRYPTON Can’t say as I played the remastered version of the first game, only the Vita one, but if GR2 is any indication, it ports over to PS4 quite well. If you had trouble finishing the first game, then you’ll probably have a challenge to complete the second one since it’s much larger and about 2-3 times the length. There’s a lot more side distractions like quests and such. With the online off now then it’s not going to be as hard to stay on track but when I played with the servers still active I spent a lot of time running after people’s Time Challenges and Treasure Hunts collecting tokens, as well as taking photos and uploading them for other people to see in the map and score. Apparently those things are gone now, but the game will still be full of side activities and searching for things in the world if you want to spend the time doing it. It’s much more open world after the initial chapters and free roaming from town to town is a pretty cool mechanic. The overall Japanese feeling of the characters and quirky world with the gibberish language is certainly a personal taste and won’t appeal to all Western players, but Kat is a fun character and the second game really gives you so much more time to have her interact with other NPCs in the world and it develops her personality more deeply I felt. The world feels more alive and interactive than the first game, although don’t expect something like Red Dead 2 level of interactivity in the world.
The powers are expanded a bit in GR2. The basic gravity shifting is the same so it will feel familiar, but she has different power modes she accumulates over time where she can manipulate gravity to enhance combat and traversal in different ways, and can switch between these modes on the fly.

It’s been a while so I’m not sure but I don’t really think it’s absolutely essential to finish GR1 before playing GR2, but the story is dependent on the first game so certainly it makes more sense to finish the first if possible. But for me, it had been a while between the two games and I didn’t really remember much about the story from the first game anyway, although it came back to me after a while.

@Th3solution Cool. I don't think I got stuck - I just had quite a lot to play at the time and just never went back to it.
It's long been on my list of Vita physicals to pick up again - I'll check my Vita storage situation though, if I've enough space I might just download it as I remember it being on Plus.

@KALofKRYPTON Yeah, it’s been a while ago, but it was a PS Plus IGC game back early on. A Vita physical copy might be hard to come by, as most physical copies are now. The PS4 remaster is probably easy to find in a second hand shop.

It probably didn't help that I was sort of secretly resentful that GR2 wasn't a Vita game. I get that it allowed GR2 to be a bigger and more ambitious game, but GR was, first and foremost, a portable series to me.

Actually, that sort of irritation about a thing I played on a portable going home console only might also explain why I've not been in a rush to play Monster Hunter: World, despite having owned a copy for a while.

It's a real pity we'll never get more Gravity Rush, considering how poorly it sold. It was the last really Japanese first party property Sony was involved with. Now, aside from a game made by Westerners about Japan (Tsushima), it's all very Western, AAA stuff. Spider-Man. God of War. Horizon: Zero Dawn. etc. We do occasionally get a smaller first-party thing from Sony like Concrete Genie, but they just sort of send those out to die on the vine while continuously driving hype for the next big blockbuster.

@Th3solution Persona 5 is absolutely fine to stretch out over a year or so of playtime so long as you break between story arcs, I've found. VC4 is probably a great one in this regard as well, but that was another game where I just sort of played it from start to finish, come to think of it. Pumped 60ish hours into it, but never quite completed all of the post-game content. I think I'll revisit it when I pick up my Switch Lite.

I personally liked Gravity Rush over GR2. It's the perfect length. The second one is a bit too big IMO; it overstays its welcome to a certain extent, and can become quite tedious if you're going for 100%. Story is all over the place as well. I have more questions after the playing the second one than answers.

Didn't expect Gravity Rush to inspire such a huge conversation!

Thanks @Ralizah, @Th3solution , @Kidfried , @RogerRoger , @Octane , @KALofKRYPTON for all the info and responses even if it was I liked the first better or something

Turns out there's a little demo on the store for the second Gravity Rush i didn't know about soooo... I can have a little go myself (Well maybe two or three times) and keep in mind all the lovely info you guys gave too

Dude I go full Berserk if this site freaking trolled me , i posted a question in the forum , created a topic , where is it ? Does it take to be confirmed by admin or what?

@sorineduard99 Most likely because it is against forum rules to post duplicate topics. That kind of stuff just post it in this thread and it will be all good.

Any recommendations for a light RPG/Adventure game? I don't have much time these days to sink 100+ in games any longer. Something I don't need to invest a ton of time in? Do games like this still exist?

@dd8900 - How small a time-frame are you thinking? 30-40 hours? Or smaller than that?

@dd8900 GreedFall and The Outer Worlds are supposed to be a bit shorter than your typical RPG. I've not played either so can't comment on how good they are.

@dd8900 I’m assuming by “adventure” you mean “full of action and plot” rather than an “Adventure” point and click style game in the truest sense of the the term.
Yeah, short RPGs seem to be more rare these days. Depending on your preference, the 3 Tomb Raider games are certainly adventuresome with light RPG, and the other they comes to mind is Marvel’s Spider-Man. You level up and assign skill points and have a limited customizable equipment. Those games are more action oriented with very light RPG elements and last in the neighborhood of 15-30 hours depending how much time you explore and do side activities. It’s quite a bit longer, but Horizon Zero Dawn is also light on the RPG, very adventuresome, and shorter than say a Red Dead 2, Persona 5, or Assassin’s Creed Odyssey 100 hour marathon. HZD is more like 40-60 hours, so still long, but very engaging.

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On a separate note, I had my own question:
So with Nioh coming next week to PS Plus, I’m curious about it.
For the veterans out there — for a relative Soulsborne novice, what’s the recommendation of Dark Souls vs. Nioh?
I just read the Push Square review of Nioh and it sounds good and maybe a tad more approachable than the Dark Souls games. The Borderlands style loot finding sounds great and it looks like there is more opportunity to make up for poor skill by grinding and finding superior loot and crafting equipment. Is this true?
Also the ki recovery system sounds a little like the Bloodborne mechanic of being able to get back a little health by being aggressive which makes for a more action oriented gameplay.

Thanks everyone. I think I'll give The Outer Worlds a try. I suppose for me it's less about the overall games length and more about the complexity (if that makes sense). Old Zelda games, Fable; sit down and play for an hour and make progress and advance the story. Complex open world games seem daunting to me these days.

@dd8900 I have been enjoying The Outer Worlds the past few days. It's not a long RPG (Nothing like say Dragon Quest XI in length) but it has a great story. And really it's only as long as you want to make it by exploring and such.

@Th3solution I had a harder time with Nioh, presumably because I'm used to the slightly slower nature of Dark Souls, so you'll probably be all right. The loot is good, although there is a heck of a lot of it, and you end up selling loads off at the end of each mission, making it a game of inventory management at times. Thankfully the menu system is good - you can 'favourite' your preferred items so you don't accidentally sell them off, and you can break armour down and take the buffs to apply them to a different piece of armour instead.

The only thing I'd say - make sure you meet the stats required to wear armour. It's easy to miss the fact that you don't have enough vitality/dexterity/whatever to match the item - the number simply shows up red instead of white, but because you can still equip it, it's easily overlooked. This will make sense when you play it. I went for quite a while without realising that I wan't getting the benefit of the armour I was wearing because I didn't meet the stat requirements. It let me wear it anyway, but it turned out that looking like a badass wasn't enough to stop the enemies killing me.

@dd8900 if you've never played it and like south park, the stick of truth is a great 15-20hr hilarious rpg. Maybe worth a pop after outer worlds.

@Gremio108 Ok, it sounds good. I’m not sure when I’ll get the itch for a Soulsborne style game again. Every time I think I want to start one, I second guess myself.