Topic: What PS4 Games Are You Currently Playing?

@JohnnyShoulder rofl <3 the simpsons, the eyes are the best part!

@RogerRoger Kudos for sticking it out for the good ol’ college try. I know there is a general sentiment we often adhere to which encourages ditching a game if it doesn’t grab you in the opening few hours, and I can support that mentality sometimes, but when a game is deemed a seminal classic in the industry, I think there is something to be said for trying to see it through to the end if possible. I’m sorry that you didn’t enjoy FF7 as a whole, but maybe there is some kind of comparative experience you gleaned which will serve you well on future gaming endeavors. Plus, I’ve always been of the mindset that you earn the right to be openly critical when you’ve actually played through the entire game. (The same would apply here to movies, books, etc) Hash criticism of a piece of media that one has never even fully experienced is empty indeed. You have now earned the right to blast the game to bits, if you please. 😄 And I know you aren’t going to, based on your post above, but if you are ever discussing and debating the greatest games of all time you can rightfully speak on FF7 from a strong position of real experience.

@RogerRoger Haha, of course. One person’s garbage is another one’s treasure, and vice versa.

I would be interested to see if the modern iterations of the series sit better with you. If your major complaints revolve around the random battles, the endless grind, or the blandness of the turn-based combat, then some of the more modern games do things a little differently. If it’s the story telling or the overall feel and ‘JRPGness’ of it all, then you’ll not be escaping that with any of the follow up titles.

I know the topic of which FF is best has been beaten ad infinitum but I think my favorites have been FFX and FFXII, but I quite like VII too, so probably these two entries might not be any better for you. Depending on the exact parts of VII that didn’t care for then XIII might actually make the most sense to try since it veered the furthest away from the gameplay styles established in the PS1 era FF games. The fans of the older games were very critical about the linearity and storytelling of XIII, but I think it’s actually held up a little better over time.

But most likely, the series is just not going to be your cup o’ tea, which is fine of course. No shame in that. 😄

@RogerRoger I'm guessing you didn't spend endless hours raising and racing chocobos to get Knights of the Round materia then?

As for me, I've just started on DOOM Eternal having finally finished Two Point Hospital (well, the base levels anyway; I might go back to the DLC levels at some point).

@RogerRoger I love the final disc of FF7. In all honesty, I much much prefer the post-Aerith stuff as the tone of the game shifts somewhat. My favourite area in the game is probably the snowy place just after that cutscene. At least it wasn’t a total bust, I really do love the game but I’m a JRPG nut and I just think it’s a fun game from after Midgar to the end.

@RogerRoger Yeah, as far as personalizing the protagonist and the interactions and direction of the narrative, I don’t recall any FF games that really do that. Lightning brings some diversity to the lead role in XIII, so it’s a bit of fresh air and I personally quite liked her as a protagonist, but you’re still locked into a narrow set of interactions and the usual JRPG-type storylines. Although the setting of XIII is closer to a Sci Fi setting than most of the others, which are more fantasy-like.

In the gameplay realm, I just really loved the gambit system of XII. The story and characters aren’t particularly notable, but the gameplay for me was very addictive. Suffice it to say that the combat works like programming your system to fight the battles for you and there’s something strangely satisfying about doing that and I’ve not played a game before or since that has a combat system quite like it. With the remaster Zodiac Age available on PS4, it’s worth keeping in mind in the remote chance you happen to get a Final Fantasy itch somewhere down the road.

It’s been really interesting to read your impressions of one of PlayStation’s beloved! And thank you for reading my boring and unsolicited recommendations! 😄

@RogerRoger It does seem strange at times that people can call themselves fans of FF as a series because, like you point out, the story, cast, and mechanics are so different game to game that there is almost nothing (other than an obligatory Sid/Cid character) that ties them together.

Myself, I've played VI, VII, VIII and then the remake but nothing else!

And yes, I do enjoy a good tonal shift between my games so I don't get fatigued with the same game type. This is certainly one of the more extreme shifts I admit

@Th3solution XII has a fairly bad and nonsensical plot but the gameplay is just so good. Especially with the high speed option in the remake. Plus Fran and Balthier are two of the best characters in the series, love them. It always irritated me that the names almost all rhymed, Vaan and Fran, Basch and Ashe, Penelo and... Balthier. I can’t decide whether Benny Low or Paul Tier sounds better.

@nessisonett Never really thought about the rhyming. Perhaps the names don’t rhyme in Japanese. And if we get a Final Fantasy game with characters Benny and Paul, I think it’s officially jumped the shark.

I'm still playing Kingdoms of Amalur: Re-Reckoning! There's so much content and I love it! Also started Doom Eternal the other day. It looks amazing and plays so smoothly. If the game had faster load times and ray tracing it would pretty much meet my expectations for how all PS5 games should be!

@Bentleyma- I really like the array of starting options you get with DOOM Eternal too, and the removal of condescending difficulty names/descriptions.

I decided to play with the old school system of having finite lives but on the standard difficulty.

I did, however, dislike having to sign in to a Bethesda account to simply play the campaign. That said, it doesn’t need to be verified so apologies to [email protected] for receiving the verification link.

Well done on finally beating Final Fantasy VII @RogerRoger!

I know most sonic games are on the short side of things but it's still quite impressive you got through 11 sonic games on the side whilst trying to beat it 😅

Good to see you ended up with some good thoughts about FFVII too by the end!

I ended up doing both @Draco_V_Ecliptic. I went for New Londo first and opened the floodgates.

I was a bit too weak to be taking on the Darkwraiths (And the quick go I had at the four kings fight went very badly) so I left to do Ash Lake before venturing into Sen's Fortress.

I'm level 57 or so now (30 Vitality, 20 endurance and 30 dexterity being the main improved stats) with a +15 Scimitar. Didn't mean to have a fully upgraded weapon yet I just got really lucky with the drops on the titanite chunks from the Darkwraiths and I already had a titanite slab

I haven't played the dlc before. I only had the vanilla version of the game on ps3 and never bought the dlc for it... so this will be the first time I have it and I'll be sure to play it.

Ha you're more then welcome Rog! I'm in a similar position in being somewhat gratified though a little disappointed you didn't enjoy it more so then myself (My reaction to big plot developments was more "That was it?" I believe... Though the Slap fight with Tifa and the Shinra lady was just a full on wtf moment that completely took me out the game 😅)

There is a demo still up on the ps3 psn store I believe for lightning returns @RogerRoger if you wanna give it a go. I will say that one of the main protagonists of Snow in the XIII trilogy is voiced by Troy Baker so your mileage on that series may vary (And not many people like Snow as a character anyway... )

@Foxy-Goddess-Scotchy Urgh, Snow. Urgh, Hope. Urgh, Vanille. Ok, pretty much the entire cast of XIII. I did like the sequel though, it was silly but fixed some of the issues with the first one.

@RogerRoger Do you plan on picking up FF7-R at any point?

@RogerRoger After trudging about a mishmash of reactor textures for what felt like the 14th time, I decided to put the Remake down. I’d totally play the second one cause it covers parts of the original I prefer, although the plot changes are Kingdom Hearts levels of absolute nonsense.

@RogerRoger I can appreciate what it did right, but for a game so heavily hyped and one that seems almost drawn out artificially, it just did my head in on too many occasions for me to not feel totally bummed while playing it. And that’s why I barely buy games on release!

@RogerRoger No, I never played Lightning Returns but I did play XIII-2 although I never quite completed it.

Lightning Returns was an unfortunate victim of its release timing. Coming out at the bitter end of the PS3 era, I moved on to PS4 and never looked back. If a remaster came to PS4 I probably would have played it though because it did look really good.

As for the gambit programming system of XII, it’s probably not for everyone but all it’s really doing is making the mundane decisions you would normally make into automated AI decisions. It’s a nice compromise between the satisfying feeling of total control over every party member during a fight (which runs the risk of feeling tedious) and the convenience of an AI controlled set of companions (which inevitably costs several victories that are due to party members doing inexplicable random actions during a fight). Giving a set of prioritized instructions like “if HP < 30% then heal”, “if poisoned use an antidote”, “if enemy then guard”, “if Foe flying then cast wind magic”... etc. So it’s fun to strategize the party to be ready for any scenario and for some reason I was really good at it. It felt like doing geometry proofs.
And if you did make an error in your program logic I think you could regain control of the characters and jump in to save the day, but I might be misremembering. It’s been a while.

@Arugula Which do you think you will receive first, PS5 or the games you are downloading?

@Foxy-Goddess-Scotchy It seems like you have a bit more leveling up to do. When I last left Dark Souls my stats were: 50 Vitality, 40 Endurance, 40 Strength, 40 Dexterity, out of the ones I leveled up, and I moved from a Guts build to a GiantDad one.