Topic: Games you've recently beat

@Foxy-Goddess-Scotchy Glad to see you back and that you enjoyed Cold Steel. I finished off Sky the 3rd so I’m only a couple of games behind you and could catch up if I had even less of a life and idk, you had your hands in casts for a couple of months 😂😂

@Foxy-Goddess-Scotchy Separate, aside from Ys I and II, which are connected. They all, to my knowledge, take place in the same universe/timeline, and there are small references to previous games and returning character cameos dotted throughout the series, but they can be played in any order, for the most part, without losing much of anything when it comes to appreciating the experience.

@Ralizah Don’t forget Ys Origin! Great game and very much related to 1 and 2.

@nessisonett I mean, it's a prequel to the series as a whole and is set hundreds of years before even the first game, right? My understanding from discussions with fans is that, aside from small references (which exist throughout the series), it can also be appreciated as its own thing.

Using the Geofront translation patch for Zero? I hear it's fairly high quality. I'll probably wait for them to finish with Ao no Kiseki as well.

@Ralizah Yep, the translation’s been great so far. I’m really missing the turbo button for battles though, Sky Evo made battles a breeze being able to speed up.

Ys Origin does tie directly into and somewhat spoils the first Ys game though, in terms of characters not being who they say they are. It’s definitely more related than for example, Ys 2 and Memories of Celceta. I’d recommend to play Ys 1&2 and then Origin afterwards for maximum impact.

Oh that's good to hear @Ralizah (Not to mention Ness's input) of the Ys series. I'll definitely give 'em a look.

Cold Steel does mention Crossbell a few times and I think there's a particular nod to a character from those games but otherwise the first at least is mostly just focused on Erebonia. The second might have a few more ties to Crossbell from the looks of things.

Ha ha I am gonna have a little break @nessisonett between the first and second Cold Steel games (So you do have some time to catch up ) but I do wonder what I'm gonna do regarding the third if that does indeed bring the games together...

@Foxy-Goddess-Scotchy Welcome back! So, as someone who never finished ToCS, how long do you figure you spent on it? And at what point in the game did you feel like it clicked from “pretty good” to “can’t wait to play again and can’t stop thinking about it between gameplay sessions.”?

Glad to be back Sol!

There is a nice a little timer on the menu (That never stops ticking) so I can tell you @Th3solution I've spent about 85 hours on it. And I did use the PS4 version's turbo function in a number of places too to zip up my walking round places and speed through a few battles against weaklings.

As for your second question...

Chapter 1 & 2 was the nice little set up, easing you in and I was appreciating the world building but was merely sitting on "good".

It was after the 3rd chapter and started dropping some more intriguing developments where it was getting pretty good to me.

By the end of the 4th was where I was quite taken by it.

I'd already ordered the sequel by the time the 6th chapter came along and... Well I can't say too much more without dropping spoiler tags

@Foxy-Goddess-Scotchy Okay - thanks. That’s consistent with what I’ve heard. And the word out there is that the series even gets better and better with each installment. So my being stuck on Chapter 2 sounds like I’m not far from a threshold of when it starts to really hook you, if I can push forward just a little more.

Just beat the main campaign of DOOM 3: BFG Edition, although I still need to go through the two short expansion campaigns included with the game.

I can't wait to talk about this.

Beat Cuphead on PS4, don't think I will be torturing myself with the Plat, but want to get the trophy list over 50%.

... Is that a good can't wait to talk about it @Ralizah? Or a rip and tear it a new one kinda talk?

@Foxy-Goddess-Scotchy Kinda half and half? I do kind of want to laugh at various aspects of it (and plan to), but there's also some cool new monsters/redesigned monsters/interesting new weapons/interesting level design choices, etc. I'm keen on talking about.

There are also changes to the BFG Edition I want to explore, because I feel like they lead to the game having a bit of an identity crisis.

Oooooh ok then @Ralizah it sounds like an interesting one. I look forward to reading the eventual review then!

Does that mean you're going to do DOOM 2016 next whenever you decide to tackle another DOOM? Or are you going to play the DOOM mobile RPG's first? (They're real!)

Now that I've finished Cold Steel 1 I think this is a good time to go through DOOM 64 as a nice little palate cleanser. That way I'll finally be able to read your Doom 64 review properly too!

@Foxy-Goddess-Scotchy LOL I've heard about the DOOM RPGs, although I think they're iphone exclusive, and I'm an android user. Not that I'm keen on playing phone games anyway. I've tried, but... I need buttons!

My current plan for the rest of the year is:

• DOOM 3 expansion content
• Paper Mario: The Origami King (I'm probably 2/3rds of the way through it, although I'm playing it with my nephew, so it's a bit slow-going)
• Astral Chain
• Digital Devil Saga 2
• DOOM 2016
• Xenoblade Chronicles: Definitive Edition
• DOOM Eternal

I'll also probably nab Cyberpunk, but, like with The Witcher, I expect that playthrough to be months long.

Those are my prioritized games for the rest of the year, so other than Final DOOM, I should be fully caught up on the series by the end of the year. I'm generally not a huge fan of playing multiple games in one series over a short period of time, but DOOM games aren't terribly long, and I do like seeing how they evolve over time.

I think you'll probably dig DOOM 64. One of the only games I've ever immediately replayed after finishing.

Is Cold Steel 2 your next stop after DOOM 64?

Oh are they Apple exclusive? I'll admit I only knew that they existed and that was basically it @Ralizah 😅

I did play through six (maybe seven) levels of DOOM 64 when I went through it a little and I did enjoy what I'd tried so far. I'll probably restart it though when I play it in earnest.

As for Cold Steel 2... I might actually tackle Danganronpa 2 as well before diving into that. Depends on how quickly I get through DOOM 64 I think but it'll be soon for sure because of the free time I have at the moment.

September is going to be really hectic...

-EDIT-

Oh and a very good lineup on your part there Ral. Really looking forward to see what you think of Digital Devil Saga 2 but all the others sound quite interesting too!

I finished off Strider 2014 there, it was really quite good. A proper retro experience from beginning to end, difficult without feeling unfair and with plenty of collectibles. The final boss even inexplicably turns into a monster at the end. You then ride his burning corpse from space back down to Earth. Now that’s rad.

Woah, I got the under 4 hours trophy by the absolute skin of my teeth!

@Foxy-Goddess-Scotchy Pretty sure. They're not on the Play Store, as far as I can tell. The one area where Apple dominates is in terms of the mobile games you can play on its platform. They also have access to Tanto Cuore, and a mobile port of Shin Megami Tensei. All of which never come to Android because of exclusivity agreements. -_-

Oh? What's happening in September?

Yeah, I'm looking forward to playing through the other half of DDS. I originally also wanted to fully beat Nocturne on my PS2 before SMT V arrived, but with the HD port coming, I can just play it through on my Switch.

@RogerRoger Yeah, I'm especially keen to see how our experiences compared.

Did you play through both expansions, or just RoE?

DOOM RPG was released in 2005 apparently! So... it might not actually be on any store now. There could be a port I suppose to more modern phones but I doubt it as it was done by EA and some other company.

I'm back in work at the start of September @Ralizah. The new school year is going to be... "Fun" 😅

I wonder if they're going to bring the DDS duology to Switch and PS4? Seems like an equally good fit to bring back and I'd totally repurchase those. Though that probably won't be for a while if it was.

... Not quite sure I'd want Raidou Kuzunoha though. That was a little ho-hum to me personally. Granted the second's supposed to be better but we never got that over here. Some nice music though as always!

Polished off L.A. Noire with my mum tonight. The ending was a little strange and rushed but we both really enjoyed playing it, it’s just a proper detective game despite us being crap at reading people. It’s a shame there’ll probably never be a follow-up, it had a lot of good ideas that just needed some more polish. The facial animations are better than any game I’ve ever seen as well, and this is a 9 year old game. The tech they used definitely holds up and the cast did a stellar job. Absolutely a game I would recommend as an experience.