Topic: What PS5 Games Are You Currently Playing?

@lotan666 maybe that was part of it. The beginning is just a little corridor area and I was trying to explore and find things on my own, but it was just dead ends and felt like bad design, but I suppose it is just a tutorial area in a way, even though it's a sequel.

Overall the series is one I like for it being its own unique concept, but it always lacked a bit of depth for questing and exploration and I have a love hate relationship with the combat 😅 (the dualsense sensory bow aiming I've tweaked to be quite nice for my own style, I used that method alot in DD2 when using a bow, forget what its actually called, but you use the motion sensor to tweak aim to varying degrees and I had to boost the sensitivity up)

But It's a game I don't mind if I don't finish it, I might go back to it and play some more (weekend is quite busy anyway) and get to a part where it opens out to more exploration, and see how long it keeps me involved. And if it doesn't grab me, just play it from time to time. And even if it does, I'll likely get a bit bored of the progression and have to come back to it at another time after playing other games, like I did with the first game

@Th3solution @Jimmer-jammer Well boys, I have finally bested Allant, got him on my first try with my complete max build. He drained one of my levels though, which I will have to farm to get back, but I still came out as the victor. Now it's on to the rest of World 4. Adjudicator awaits!

N.B Although admittedly much easier than it should be with the max strength level I still reckon it was challenging, I had to keep getting away from him in order to heal up regularly, and couldn't just wail on him sort of thing.

N.B II I usually go for the max build in these games sort of thing, but, yeah, it felt to me, even though I know I've made my character op, that this boss fight was more like a boss fight in a standard action RPG, than something out of Dark Souls Remastered or Dark Souls III , where, even though I've made my character op again, the boss fights were still significantly more challenging than in Demon's Souls , but then again, the easiest FromSoft game is still going to be significantly harder than the average game.

How are your games going?

Still grinding away on Granblue which is why I haven't been posting much.

Finished the core campaign, and have been working through the end game (which also continues the campaign too).

The game is fairly easy all the way through the campaign and for really most of the first two tiers of end game. However, by the third tier the difficulty and grind expectation does shoot up pretty significantly - at least by comparison.

This is mostly due to how the system handles resources, and it all being one shared pot. I was constantly trying new characters, and rotating new characters into my AI slots, not realising how much I was gimping myself in the process by doing this. The end game curve seems very much built around you picking a main, and three main companions, and mostly disregarding everyone else until the end, so you can focus all your resources into them and keep up with the escalation.

Thankfully a content drop landed the other day which introduced a ranged bow user and much like with Monster Hunter, she sorta circumvents so many of the things that can make a battle particularly difficult and so I went from feeling like I hit a wall to absolutely blazing through the end game again. I think I have a couple more quests before I unlock the final tier of end game difficulty.

Got my level back in Demon's Souls , the one that Allant drained away from me earlier, and now I am making my way through the first area of the Shrine of Storms level, on my way to Adjudicator!

Started Stellar Blade and I like it a lot
My favorite part is the monster design but overall it's fun and very pretty with only a couple downsides so far (janky platforming, which luckily there isn't a whole lot of, and the bulletin board quests being as basic as they get)

@Jimmer-jammer Thanks, man. I appreciate your words and yeah, it is great to finally have all that farming pay off. Congratulations for finishing Echoes of the Fallen with the extra difficulty of FF mode to contend with. I've got Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown on my Gaming Wishlist as well, if that is the same one? Hope you get the plat for RotR, apparently it's not actually that hard to get, so I was thinking of platting it as well after finishing DeS, planning to plat RE2 Remake at some point soon too as well.

As I say, I don't think the RotR plat will be hard, just time-consuming, as it is, obviously, an open-world game, plus there's that mandatory single mission on 'Midnight' difficulty to contend with.

Playing Powerwash Simulator and Dave the Diver, both games I feel I can only play two or so levels/runs before having enough for the day. There is nothing terrible about them per say, just that there is not a great deal of game there to keep me interested for longer.

Although there is something strangely therapeutic about getting everything clean in Powerwash Simulator! 😆

I might actually finally try the Stellar Blade demo I've had downloaded since it was available 😅 (i'm surprised there is no chat thread for the game on here considering all the articles and hype)

I just feel like I'm in gaming Limbo since DD2 and nothing is grabbing me or calling out to me to play it. Horizon and it being bow based just doesn't scratch that combat itch for me atm, and Stellar Blade is just sitting their with swordplay waiting to be tried out.

@Ravix Most of the conversation I've seen for Stellar Blade has been about people being offended by Eve or Sony's 'censorship', and very little about the actual game unfortunately.

I probably would have got it, if the Elden Ring DLC was not round the corner.

I liked the demo of Stellar Blade but I have one question. I haven't really played that type of games before. If I were to try - is Stellar Blade a fairly unique game or is it heavily inspired by some classics which I should maybe play first to get more familiar with the genre and also not to spend $70 on something I may end up not enjoying in the end?

@lotan666 It's a fairly unique mix of things it borrows heavily from, if that makes sense
The closest thing I can think of would probably be the Jedi games (Fallen Order and Survivor).
I believe the first one was on PS+ a while back.

@Voltan Oh, that's a bit surprising. Certainly not a comprison I was expecting I liked Fallen Order quite a lot and Survivor is also on my list for this year. Thanks.

@lotan666 It's mostly that the next map after the one from the demo is significantly more open and there's a lot of optional activities (even if they're rather simple) and nooks and crannies to explore - made me think of the main planets in those games.
And they both are inspired by Souls games in some ways but aren't quite the same thing.

Just beat Adjudicator in Demon's Souls (2020) this morning, took three hits with the Dragon Bone Smasher+2 and 52 Str.

@Black_Swordsman Well done!

I platinum'd DeS (2020) during the pandemic and ultimately enjoyed my time with it. Still (IMO) one of the most graphically gorgeous games on PS5, and remains a solid showcase for what the machine is 'capable of'.

Currently replaying Elden Ring (ahead of Erdtree launch) and I must say though that the QoL elements in From's later offerings are well received. Those obnoxious run-backs to bosses in DeS are brutal at times!

@CJD87 Thank you! It is a great-looking game on the Ps5, and ,I agree, whole-heartedly demonstrates the console's full capabilities.

Hope you are enjoying your Elden Ring 'replaythrough' and, yeah, the DeS runbacks can be brutal, but, idk, to me, each stage is still quite short. But then again maybe that's just because I'm now op. 🤣

I started Tales of Kenzera: Zau, as I was in the mood for a Metroidvania and I liked what I heard of the how the game was made. I see the director has been doing the media rounds, I just watched his appearance on Play, Watch, Listen which I can recommend. He comes across as a genuine and humble guy, and was interesting to hear his journey from a voice actor to creating a video game as a process to deal with his grief.

Only played an hour or so, but the presentation is very good and combat I have no issues with so far. Feels quite slick to play.

Still playing through DeS. Just beat Old Hero this morning on my first try. I used the Thief Ring and Curse Weapon on my Dragon Bone Smasher +2. He died in a few hits with that build, but he still hit me a few times and I was a hit or so away from death, but so was he, so it turned into a real duel but after I got greedy and took a chance to keep hitting him I managed to finish him off before he could do the same to me. Risk/reward. Classic Souls.

Edit: Just beat Storm King as well, using the Storm Ruler weapon that you find in the boss arena.

I am now one trophy away from Stellar Blade's platinum.
Unfortunately for this one I have to play the game from the beginning again

@Voltan how long did it take for you to beat the game the first time around?