And now I'm done with the Donkey Kong Adventure DLC for Mario + Rabbids Kingdom Battle. Overall, it was good and I enjoyed my time with it for the most part. It started off fun but then some enemy types really took the fun away for me. One of them runs away as soon as you hit them, but you need to get close to them and defeat them to collect necessary parts in order to finish the battle. The problem is that they run away to the other side of the map each time you hit them. Then you have one that constantly respawns and in battles where you have to reach an area in order to finish the battle, they would always show up and shoot you with their bounce weapon, which pushes you away from the area you need to reach. At that point I was almost ready to just quit the DLC altogether because I wasn't enjoying myself anymore, but I decided to just continue playing and utilise the game's 'easy mode' feature in order to get through it quicker. It did get better later on as you discover the characters' unique features and how to combine them with each other for maximum damage output. And the variety of the battles were great compared to the main game. So ultimately, I liked the DLC and I'm glad that I got to experience it.
However, this DLC brings up an issue that I'm starting to have with DLCs in general nowadays, which is that I don't really feel like playing more of the same game after I've finished the main story. Most of the time I'm just ready to move on to the next game, so I kinda get unmotivated to play DLC. The reason why I play the DLC despite this is because I tend to buy the packs during sales as I don't want to buy them at full price in case I want to experience them. But now I feel like I should just avoid buying DLCs until I've finished the main story and then decide if I want to play more of the game. Because there are games that I want to play more of even after I've finished the story, e.g. Assassin's Creed Origins. Played it for around 20 hours now and I just can't stop playing it. I've bought both expansions and I'm confident I'll play through both of them because this game is just so addicting.
It definitely depends on the game, but yeah I'm starting to lose interest in getting DLCs in general.
I "beat" Triangle Strategy after roughly 40 hours. That is, I got one of the endings. But the game is structured in such a way that you're encouraged to restart on a NG+ file and try for different endings and recruit more characters by making different decisions throughout the game. In addition to the three main endings, there's also a longer "golden route" that offers the game's "true ending." But it splits up your party into three units near the end, which means it's best to go for it after at least one NG+ cycle so that you have close to the maximum number of optional units to pad our your army.
So I'll probably be playing it alongside other games for months. I don't usually care to replay games to get alternate endings, but Triangle Strategy has one of the better NG+ modes I've seen (enemies are scaled up to match the levels of your units, you continue to acquire new characters as your alignment points increase, the game actually makes it really easy to manage your alignment stats with new UI features only available in NG+, harder optional battles are made available, you naturally encounter new maps and story sequences as you make different decisions, etc.), and it all feels like an extension of your first playthrough, but with a greater emphasis on the game's tactical battles.
Will definitely be reviewing it once I feel like I've experienced enough of it to write about it in a complete and educated manner, but it's very much the best game I've played this year.
That's some damn high praise for Triangle Strategy there @Ralizah 😄
It does look rather nice in that 2D-HD style I think it's called? Not only got the style but the gameplay was good and you enjoyed the story as well?
Never actually played a strategy game like that myself. It's probably not gonna come to the PS4 either but there's that awfully named Diofield Chronicles (or whatever it was) in the last State of play I could try eventually...
Previously known as Foxy-Goddess-Scotchy
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"You don't have to save the world to find meaning in life. Sometimes all you need is something simple, like someone to take care of"
The combat can get a bit too complex with combos being a bit hard for me to pull off effectively (I'm not that good at fighting games at all) but I really ended up enjoying the story mode for each charcter (Though some clearly had more effort put into them then others) and I liked how you pieced together the overarching story, found out how the characters related to one another and such.
Plus I really enjoyed the character designs. I really like how weird they all are and the horror tinged elements to most the characters. Reminds me of that capcom horror fighting game Darkstalkers.
Though it is a heavy on the fanservice. Looks fantastic either way though with how well it's animated.
Digimon World: Next Order was unfortunately a bit of a mixed bag.
It's like the original PS1 title and all about the monster raising/tamagotchi like aspects of Digimon's beginnings rather then Digimon Story's turn based jrpg leanings.
I actually thought it was a remake of the first game as it started up pretty similarly and even had music from the PS1 title but it turned out to be a sequel of sorts!
There's a lot of quality of life improvements over the PS1 title that it make so much easier to play...
... But this game is a bit too easy for the most part compared to how complex and vague the PS1 game is and the ways to recruit digimon are rather uninspired and limited as well. Plus the story nose dives after the first chapter and becomes incredibly rushed and lacklustre.
I did enjoy myself with it though in the moment (nostalgia admitedly helping out quite a bit) but as a whole?
@HallowMoonshadow Gameplay and story totally trump the art-style, IMO. HD-2D is fine, but this one isn't quite as hyper-stylized as Octopath Traveler, which can be a good or bad thing depending on your preferences. In general, my issue with the art-style is that there are so many post-processing effects applied to the image that it ends up making everything look a little soft. With that said, the majority of my gripes were solved when I turned off the depth-of-field effect and switched over to my Switch Lite. The smaller screen does just enough to sharpen up the image that it ends up looking quite fetching.
Gameplay is way better than I expected. The game's map design is superb, and combined with the unique character mechanics (every character is basically their own unique class and many play wildly differently from each-other), you wind up with a game that requires actual tactical thinking to master. It's not quite as masterful on that front as Advance Wars is (the gold standard as far as turn-based tactics series go, IMO), but it rarely feels like the solution to defeating a hard map (and this game gets pretty brutal even on the normal difficulty) is grinding. Especially considering enemies scale up to your level anyway. The game's aggressive level scaling also means that it's both easy to power-level underleveled characters and fairly difficult to overlevel them.
The story is pretty engaging. High fantasy, but in a very grounded sense. It keeps the usual JRPG nonsense to a minimum. You're not fighting gods or defeating your enemies with the power of friendship. You're fighting to liberate your kingdom after it's invaded by a hostile foreign power, and that frequently means making morally questionable decisions if you want to achieve the best ending in the game.
The music is fantastic, too.
I've liked the producer's previous games, but this one pole-vaulted over my expectations. Super happy with it.
Beat the story mode in Tony Hawk Underground 2 Remix for PSP. It’s a weird one. Great gameplay, fantastic port which is genuinely better than the PS2 version but the same problems persist. Since it’s annoyingly based on Jackass, the super cringey jokes are littered through it, making it one of the most obnoxious games I’ve ever played. Ranges from childish crass jokes to just blatant, astoundingly racist stuff. Forgot how unbearable the mid 00s actually were.
If it ever graces the PS4 Ral (Which I doubt given Octopath still isn't on there) I'll be sure to pick it up as I do think it looks rather interesting!
I look forward to the eventual review you'll no doubt pen as well! 😁
@HallowMoonshadow I don't fully understand putting a game on Switch, Xbox, and PC, but not on Playstation. What possible benefit is there to arbitrarily cutting out one of the manufacturers? Especially when, sorry, its base is probably still much more inclined to purchase JRPGs than people who play on Xbox.
If I had to guess, it was always intended as a Switch console exclusive, since this division's games are usually at least console exclusive to Nintendo (Bravely Default 2 comes to mind as well), but, as we all know from their deals with Sony (Final Fantasy VII R/XVI/etc.) and Microsoft (Rise of the Tomb Raider), Square-Enix will do anything you want if you're willing to throw some money at them. I'm guessing Microsoft paid to get a bunch of Squeenix's games on Game Pass and Xbox, whereas Sony is content to pay millions to keep just Final Fantasy locked down, so you end up with a weird situation like this.
All the better for me, I guess, considering I love TS enough I'd be heavily inclined to repurchase it on PS4 and get the platinum trophy, and I'll have played this on Switch three times over when all is said and done, so I'm inclined to move on and play other games at that point.
Yeah, I'm already working on the beginnings of a review! Trying not to use hyperbolic language, though. I'd prefer to give this the proper critical examination it deserves instead of just drooling on the keyboard and calling it a day.
I ... Didn't realise Octopath was on Xbox @Ralizah... Like at all. I thought it was still just a switch exclusive to be honest
That's a bummer. I saw the opening of that with the dancer character (Primose I think?) and it was a lot darker then I was expecting it to be.
In a similar sort've situation I'm surprised Soul Hackers 2 is coming to Xbox and not switch tbh. Like you for Octo I can't see Soul Hackers doing gangbusters on Xbox at all... Especially as Atlus' only presence on the platform in recent memory is... The Persona 4 fighting games?
But that's just Atlus typical behaviour of them being weird as all hell 😅
Wow. I know you're not one to replay a game unless it's been forever or you never initally finished it so the fact if it came to PS4 you'd buy it all over again for the trophies REALLY speaks volumes of how much you enjoyed it!
I'm really looking forward to this review now! (And I wouldn't expect anything less then for you to be proper about it!)
@HallowMoonshadow Octopath was Switch exclusive for a year before it went to PC and Xbox. The Xbox version launched on GP, so I fully believe the port was motivated by a Microsoft payout. Bravely Default 2 went to PC after a year, but not Xbox or GP, so I guess they didn't pay for that. We'll see what happens with Triangle Strategy, but a PC version is almost guaranteed.
A lot of Team Asano's games get weirdly dark. The original Bravely Default got pretty bleak at times, and I'm still shocked that a certain antagonist in that game was engaging in something eerily similar to date rape, as I recall. You don't see sensitive subject matter like that tackled in games very often.
I was actually surprised by how restrained Triangle Strategy was in that respect. Which isn't to imply that there isn't some pretty heart-rending stuff in the story, but it's largely missing that impulse to shock the player you see in some of their games.
Yeah, Soul Hackers 2. sigh I'm guessing it's because an Xbox version is a simple thing to port, even if it's not the target platform, but a Switch conversion would require some level of optimization, and Sega has been pushing Atlus away from developing exclusives for Sony/Nintendo and toward multiplatform releases. I wouldn't even mind if it looked ambitious enough to justify skipping the Switch, or was a platform exclusive, or something, but it is a little offensive when the game skips the Switch despite looking less demanding than Shin Megami Tensei V was.
Also, they Persona-fied it. Demons aren't your party members like in the original, menus/shop functions are designed to look overtly stylish, and the cold cyberpunk aesthetics have been replaced with a setting that looks ripped straight out of those Digimon: Cyber Sleuth games.
How do you feel about Soul Hackers 2?
Haha, yeah, I almost never replay games. A few things make Triangle Strategy different in that regard. First, unlike a lot of modern JRPGs, it's actually a modest length. My first playthrough will probably be my longest, and it took me 38 hours to beat. Secondly, the branching nature of the storyline means a pretty huge amount of in-game content is hidden behind NG+ runs. And, finally, it has one of the best-designed NG+ modes I've seen in a game.
I can't wait to talk about it at length!
Currently Playing: Metroid Prime 4: Beyond (NS2); Corpse Factory (PC)
A lot of Team Asano's games get weirdly dark. The original Bravely Default got pretty bleak at times, and I'm still shocked that a certain antagonist in that game was engaging in something eerily similar to date rape, as I recall. You don't see sensitive subject matter like that tackled in games very often.
... Well damn... That wasn't what I was expecting to read. I never did play Bravely Default. I don't recall seeing it anywhere or hearing much about it at the time which might be why I never picked it up...
Haha, yeah, I almost never replay games. A few things make Triangle Strategy different in that regard. First, unlike a lot of modern JRPGs, it's actually a modest length. My first playthrough will probably be my longest, and it took me 38 hours to beat. Secondly, the branching nature of the storyline means a pretty huge amount of in-game content is hidden behind NG+ runs. And, finally, it has one of the best-designed NG+ modes I've seen in a game.
I can't wait to talk about it at length!
Oh really? Only 38 hours? And a really good implimentation of new game plus? You really have me curious now!
Went back and finished off the first Mass Effect. I quite enjoyed it in the end. The first half of the game I was trying to do every side activity and search every outpost. Then the second half I mostly main-lined it through just the main story missions and it was a little more enjoyable. It meant that I missed out on some opportunities, but there was a little too much trivial time wasting between the occasional good side content. The main missions were really good throughout though. I was pleasantly surprised at the quality of the story. Made me want to immediately boot up ME2, which I have actually played before but without the context of having played ME1 at the time. I think I’ll wait though.
“We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them.”
@Th3solution I too played this a few months back having not played any of the ME games previously. I’m glad I did as it was I great experience even though it’s still quite dated in places.
The side content does get samey and most of it is totally forgettable but the main quest more than makes up for it. I’m going to get into the next 2 instalments this year and oddly I’m most intrigued as to how it all wraps up as I know it’s quite divisive.
Looking forward to hearing how you get on with them.
@Th3solution Yeah I recall being the same when I played the game on 360, and eventually really resented going back to The Citadel or doing any scanning, which didn't get any better with the 2nd game iirc. Like others have said the main campaign and DLC was great though.
Life is more fun when you help people succeed, instead of wishing them to fail.
Better to remain silent and be thought a fool than to speak and remove all doubt.
@JohnnyShoulder@RogerRoger@render It was very different experiencing the story and making decisions naturally through the course of the game, as opposed to reading a summary of it and quickly making the handful of major choices that carry over to ME2. Back when ME2 came to PS3, I appreciated the ability to play it that way, but it’s infinitely better to have actually played and made choices based on context, such as whether to to spare of exterminate the Rachni Queen, which was a really wonderful gaming moment, despite the clear inspiration from Orson Scott Card’s Ender Series novels.
The issue with the side content in these games is that you do need to trudge through some mediocrity to get to the important stuff, which I suppose is true of most open styled RPGs. The difference here is the game’s intricate pathways of even small decisions affecting larger decisions later. So skipping some of the side content locked me out of a few options even in the main story. Apparently there’s a way to intimidate or reason with Saren during the final battle that I was not able to utilize because of either prior decisions, lack of enough leveling in my character, or both.
And yet, some of the side content was clearly filler with no impact on the main story, nor much added narrative significance. Because yeah, when returning to the Citadel I knew there was a laundry list of quests out there and I just couldn’t bring myself to do them all. I did have to smile though when I was approached by the reporter to do an interview, and fearing that agreeing to do so would only end up in her asking me to do a wild goose chase of some sort, I told her to shove off and then later when I was riding an elevator there was a disparaging news cap “Commander Shepherd was asked to interview and refused to comment…” 😅
There is a really amazing patchwork quilt threaded together in this series, and it’s quite an achievement for it’s time. It really hasn’t been matched yet in the arena of epic longitudinal choice based RPGs.
And no, in my laser focus of streamlining the game at the end, I must have missed the DLC. I’m not even sure how you unlock it.
@Th3solution That's a shame if you missed both the Stolen Memory and the Lair of the Shadow Broker DLC. Stolen Memory was both a very nice change of pace for the game and included one of my favorite characters of the whole game (Kasumi). The Shadow Broker DLC is also some great stuff, and is the only way to have Liara in the game at all. I would imagine you can still go back and do both if you wanted.
My mum finished AC Revelations and I think she was a little disappointed. It’s quite a strange game anyway, being quite stop/start with the story not exactly being very interesting. She did love the hookblade though, it’s a great addition. I think she’ll prefer AC3, although the HDR is absolutely borked on PS5 so we turned it off.
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