@LtSarge FES’s battle soundtrack is so deeply rooted in a specific subgenre of 00s weird J-rap/sorta nu-metal that most of the remixes of those songs just sound bizarre and disjointed in that game. The remixes of the field music are great though, they were always my favourite part of 3’s soundtrack. Just can’t believe you can’t dance to the dorm music, that’s a tune. You should definitely play FES down the line if you were ever going to play 3 again, I prefer it but most of all it’s just a different experience. Portable’s female route is decent though.
@nessisonett At this point, I'm just holding out for a remake of Persona 3. The game as a whole just has so many issues, like not being able to hang out with most of your team mates and the ones you can hang out with unlock much later in the game. It would be nice if they could just make everyone available to you as you recruit them throughout the story. Then there's the issue of Tartarus, which is one single dungeon with 250+ floors. It would also be nice if they could at the very least add some changes here. Make each set of floors different, maybe add some story elements, just anything to make each run feel less like a chore.
So unfortunately, I don't think I'll ever play FES just because it's still too similar to Portable. Hopefully Atlus will release a remake of P3 in the future because I really want to give this game another chance if they can improve it.
@LtSarge That's similar to my thoughts in Persona 3 Dancing. There's some great remixes in there, but others aren't quite as good. Though, I personally liked that there were quite a few unrecognisable songs, either from FES or from the female protag route of P3P. It means there's some great songs that I otherwise wouldn't have heard.
Hitman: Contracts, the third of the classic Hitman games. It's still going to feel somewhat clunky compared to the modern trilogy, but it carries over a lot of the QOL improvements from Hitman 2: Silent Assassin.
It's got a weird narrative style, mostly told through flashbacks. The levels are a mixture of original levels, and remastered levels from the original Hitman: Codename 47. This approach actually works quite well due to how tedious the gameplay was in the original game. It gives those remastered levels a new lease of life, whilst also having a bunch of new levels to enjoy.
There's less levels here than in the previous Hitman games, but it takes a step up in terms of level design. The levels generally feel more fun to play, making the levels more geared towards stealth, and giving the player more options in terms of how to eliminate a target. The standouts include the rather cursed early level The Meat King's Party, and a remaster of the Budapest hotel mission from the first game.
I enjoyed my time with this, though I'll warn it could be tricky for modern gamers to get into this game. I'll definitely continue with the classic Hitman games and try out Blood Money at some point.
@AgentCooper
Fair warning: the plat is easy enough but way more time consuming than I was expecting it to be - as in much longer than just completing the game again. I just checked some guides to reaffirm my vague memories and it seems around 10 hours for the main game and around 35 if you're going for all trophies. Just so you know what you would be getting yourself into.
“We are what we pretend to be, so we must be careful about what we pretend to be.”
Trails of Cold Steel 1. I was going for platinum and put over 120 hours and still only had 50% of the trophies. What a grind! Loved the game and it was my first in the series, not sure I will ever get that platinum though as I'd rather move on into more games in the series than replay this one over again.
Beat a sort of final boss in Vampire Survivors. Lasted 42:15, teaching level 174 and killing 37866 enemies. Insane. Now there’s a whole load of secrets to chase!
Just finished Abzu on PS4. Short but sweet (and relaxing) game! Definitely needed a palate cleanser after having finished Returnal.
I think what's cool about games like this and e.g. Stray (since I recently played it) is that they are so much more than what you think when going into them. I've seen people say that Abzu is just a game about swimming and Stray is just a game where you play as a cat. But they actually have very cool settings that you don't expect in games like these. That's what makes them so special and memorable.
In short, I really enjoyed my time with Abzu. I highly recommend playing it after having played a more demanding game.
@LtSarge I agree. I have to be in a certain mindset to play those types of games, but usually really enjoy them when I do. The Pathless is also highly recommended, but is a bit more substantial than Abzu. Amazing soundtrack too by the same person Austin Wintory, and I believe some of the developers too.
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.
Cold Steel 2 is finally over. Finally. One of the most bloated messes I’ve ever played but in amongst that was some solid stuff. The opening was great, with the initial areas being fresh and exciting. Then the first of the many different ways they can shoehorn repetition comes.
The entire game can be summed up as: do one pretty fulfilling thing. Now do it 2 or 3 more times. In between these, get a limited amount of character development to encourage replays. Even then, I could point to about 3 party members who get any significant growth at all. I swear, Gaius just meanders about and goes on about the wind and God like some sort of Native American but written by a middle-aged Japanese man. And then at the end of the game, when everyone has their own stuff to get on with, HE JUST GOES HOME AND THAT’S IT! The guy is pleasant enough but just like Elliot, Machias and to an extent, Laura if you don’t try to bonk her, there’s a vast emptiness where a character should be. What’s infuriating is that there’s some great character work with Fie, Jusis, Emma and Millium, with Alisa having a decent arc too if you go down the bonking route which I have just decided is canon to avoid the harem crap. The kicker though? Almost every single NPC in the game is given more development than the party members. Solely due to the fact that you don’t have to choose to interact with them during a set period of time. So they get all the time in the world to talk to you and interact with the whole party and generally benefit from the sometimes great writing. Whereas you pals seemingly only talk to the MC, never each other, and treat you as if you really are the main character of the world. It’s a far, far cry away from Sky and Zero/Azure, where you’re basically a small cog in a larger machine and your party members often are more interesting than you.
Combat is serviceable. Laughably easy to break though, Laura is basically the Terminator and she just wipes the floor with everyone else. Pretty easy the whole way through the game.
Everyone’s least favourite predatory lesbian is back, with even more underage crap written off as humour (woah, isn’t having a wacky name for a group of underage girls you m*lest really funny???) although thankfully the overall tone is for the most part either darker or incredibly unintentionally homoerotic. The entire main conflict between you and the baddie is supposed to be that whole ‘rival’ thing like Sasuke and Naruto but comes off as… well a bit more Brokeback Mountain instead.
The final chapter is alright, the final dungeon is kinda interesting and the bosses are a Trails classic of making you fight the different baddies in separate areas before the final boss. Which leads me to the worst name of all time. One of the baddies is called…. McBurn. McBurn. He’s on fire, you get it? McBurn. I’m really hoping that O’Puddle comes into the next game. McBurn. The more you say it, the more it rankles. Doesn’t help that he’s a mess of early 2010 aesthetic decisions. Look, I get the series is tropey, that’s part of why the other games are comforting. McBurn is just dropping below a low bar. F***ing McBurn.
Also a bit funny that in a civil war that spans the country, three people die. One, that minor villain from the first one who blows himself up and then the most minor of NPCs the market manager guy. Obviously Crow dying was a bit rubbish but then they managed to turn him being a literal terrorist into him just being a silly billy who needs the power of friendship.
This leads me to the postgame. The first bit, I really enjoyed because it’s a direct sequel to Zero/Azure… which just got translated. Now, I played their unofficial translations but can you imagine if you played this game when it released and had literally no clue what was going on? That applies across the whole story by the way, there are parts where the entire main crux of Azure happens on screen and no additional context is provided. For me, I can fill in the gaps and marvel at the interconnectivity of the world but for others it must have been a nightmare. Now absolutely on the side that Cold Steel must not, by any means, be played before at least the Crossbell games. Anybody who tries to say that they understood what was going on without consulting a wiki or YouTube is lying. I did have my problems with the characterisation of the returning characters too, Lloyd behaving like some sort of horndog was bizarre considering that he’s mostly a stand up guy and Randy’s the bad influence, plus irritating that the Elie pairing which is surely canon considering there’s a kiss and everything, is just straight up ignored in favour of harem crap. Rixia gets given one of the worst outfits I have ever seen in a game. Which immediately gets perved on by Lloyd. She had an outfit in Azure. Why did you have to sex it up? She’s a dancer, she was already wearing a cool outfit that clearly allowed to her to move without restriction.
If the game is trying to make me hate Rean then it has kinda succeeded. The first postgame bit, I was like yeah, what a jobbie. So I assumed that we’d see his POV next and it would be ok. I was wrong. Going down the whole broody route just isn’t fun to play as in a series like this and is a bit of an annoying turn.
Which finally brings us to the most superfluous chapter in JRPG history. Initially, it’s just a nice way to say goodbye to certain characters and stuff. All cosy. Then the final dungeon rolls around and it’s basically a series of randomly generated corridors with an MS Paint background. That’s it. When the final boss just outright says that it’s all pointless and there’s no reward, it sinks in that your time was wasted. The class leave, you get a crap cutscene and the game is over. A colossal waste of time. Why couldn’t the game have just ended after the first final boss???
So in all, there are definitely positives and the overall quality is still decent, albeit a long way away from Sky and Crossbell. We’re fully into late-Fire Emblem brand assassination with dumbing down political conflicts in favour of boob jokes and toothpaste-haired bloody McBurn. There’s fun to be had but it irritates because this is the continuation of an ongoing story which seems to be losing its direction. Here’s hoping Cold Steel 3 picks things up.
@HallowMoonshadow Well I’ve ranted so feel free to attempt to get anything from my thoughts 😂
@JohnnyShoulder Yeah I remember you recommending The Pathless to me some time ago. I was considering buying it during the latest sale but I have so many games to play now that I think I'll wait a bit. It does look really good though and I'm glad that I can play it on PS5 now instead of PS4.
Just finished Spyro 2: Ripto's Rage on PS4. It took me around 9 hours to get 100 percent in the game as well as all the trophies. Not the longest 3D platformer but it was really fun and like with Abzu, it was a chill game to play after having played the challenging Returnal.
I think I like Spyro 2 more than the first game. I remember the first one having challenging levels from time to time, while the second one had a consistent moderate difficulty level, except for the boss fights. Speaking of which, I kinda wish the the second game had more boss fights. If I recall correctly, the first one had a fair amount of them but not this one, which is too bad. But overall, I enjoyed Spyro 2 more.
Now that I have played two Spyro games, I think I can say that I prefer this series over Crash Bandicoot. It's not as challenging as Crash, the levels are more open and there are tons of collectibles, which I love. Would love to see Activision make a Spyro 4 like they did with Crash.
@LtSarge I think I missed Spyro 2 when I was a young un but I really enjoyed it as part of the remakes too. It was nice not to have to listen to a load of dragons repeating the same stock phrases like they did in the first game! The mini games in 2&3 are good fun too and help mix things up as well.
And I agree that having played the remakes of both trilogies that Spyro is more fun than Crash.
Did you manage to beat the toad boss without being hit easily enough though? I think I spent more time getting a no hit victory on that boss than I have on some Dark Souls boss fights
So sorry ness. I didn't get your tag at all so something must've happened to your post cus I did look here the other day but nothing was here so it must've been made invisible for some reason!
The entire game can be summed up as: do one pretty fulfilling thing. Now do it 2 or 3 more times. In between these, get a limited amount of character development to encourage replays. Even then, I could point to about 3 party members who get any significant growth at all. I swear, Gaius just meanders about and goes on about the wind and God like some sort of Native American but written by a middle-aged Japanese man. And then at the end of the game, when everyone has their own stuff to get on with, HE JUST GOES HOME AND THAT’S IT! The guy is pleasant enough but just like Elliot, Machias and to an extent, Laura if you don’t try to bonk her, there’s a vast emptiness where a character should be. What’s infuriating is that there’s some great character work with Fie, Jusis, Emma and Millium, with Alisa having a decent arc too if you go down the bonking route which I have just decided is canon to avoid the harem crap. The kicker though? Almost every single NPC in the game is given more development than the party members. Solely due to the fact that you don’t have to choose to interact with them during a set period of time. So they get all the time in the world to talk to you and interact with the whole party and generally benefit from the sometimes great writing. Whereas you pals seemingly only talk to the MC, never each other, and treat you as if you really are the main character of the world. It’s a far, far cry away from Sky and Zero/Azure, where you’re basically a small cog in a larger machine and your party members often are more interesting than you.
I agree for pretty much everything you've said here (Poor Kaiji Tang. He's so much better then what he gets to VA as Gaius). Like you say Gaius, Macchias & Elliot are pleasant enough (I don't like Marisha Ray who voices Laura and even without that I found Laura to be incredibly dry and uninteresting to be honest) but don't have a whole lot to them.
I really quite liked Millium and Emma myself with Fie being pretty good and Jusis was decent.
I'm surprised you didn't mention anything about... Crap I forgot her name but the other Millium like character and how creepy everything is about her including her fetished outfit that makes my skin crawl.
Combat is serviceable. Laughably easy to break though, Laura is basically the Terminator and she just wipes the floor with everyone else. Pretty easy the whole way through the game.
... And I never used Laura at all
I remember liking the quartz system but... I admitedly can't remember much about it either aside from you set spells and the likes like materia. Can't say I recall finding it difficult or changing my tactics all that much so I guess It was fairly easy/serviceable.
The overall tone is for the most part either darker or incredibly unintentionally homoerotic. The entire main conflict between you and the baddie is supposed to be that whole ‘rival’ thing like Sasuke and Naruto but comes off as… well a bit more Brokeback Mountain instead.
I have the opposite opinion to you in this sense regarding the tone it was trying to be darker but fell rather flat or came across as a bit edgelordy at times (especially anything involving Rean and his wangst).
The literal first words out my mouth about the baddie and the relationship that forms was "Wait... This is just Naruto and Sasuke?!?!"
Can't say I got homoerotic tones like yourself though from what I recall 😅
Yeah Mc Burn is also a pretty silly name for one of the antagonists I know.
Also a bit funny that in a civil war that spans the country, three people die. One, that minor villain from the first one who blows himself up and then the most minor of NPCs the market manager guy. Obviously Crow dying was a bit rubbish but then they managed to turn him being a literal terrorist into him just being a silly billy who needs the power of friendship.
... See now this. THIS was the most annoying thing about the game to me.
There was a brilliant set up towards the end of the first game I thought with the whole mechas and Civil war with the nobles but I thought it was absolutely wasted in this game.
It didn't really feel much different to me in tone from the previous game. You have the stupid creepy lesbian having a stupid wrestling match with her stupid father in stupid mechas for some stupid daddy issues bullcrap when half the country is supposed to be under martial law?!?! What is this nonsense?! Or how about "liberating" the school from the terrors of Derek Stephen Prince? Pffft... He's no Hippy Jesus Takaya here that's for sure
It just really got on my pip that you're goobering about going after the four shrines of the elements and supposedly all the cool stuff is happening offscreen!
I've been playing The Legend Of Dragoon recently and the entire first chapter of that game is about a civil war and it's a night and day difference with how TLoD handles this compared to Steel 2. You're only in Serdio for 15 hours max and yet it's so much more believable and accurate represenation of that. On the bloody PS1! With a dodgy translation to boot!
Ugh! It's utterly infuriating! Was it a budget issue that made them have to servely limit the scope? It feels like it should've been way more impactful and grandoise then it actually was. I'm not some bloodthirsty maniac and wanted bodies lining the streets or anything but... I dunno it just felt really neutered to me.
Like you mention the deaths that do occur in Steel 2 and it's utterly laughable. Like seriously? The market guy? I would've completely forgot that person ever even existed if I didn't play 2 right after the first and yet they treat him like he was with you the whole time. I'll admit Crow's scene was alright and I really like the ending song and the visuals with the 50 mira coin and whatnot. I don't even remember the minor villain guy though.
This leads me to the postgame. The first bit, I really enjoyed because it’s a direct sequel to Zero/Azure… which just got translated. Now, I played their unofficial translations but can you imagine if you played this game when it released and had literally no clue what was going on? That applies across the whole story by the way, there are parts where the entire main crux of Azure happens on screen and no additional context is provided. For me, I can fill in the gaps and marvel at the interconnectivity of the world but for others it must have been a nightmare. Now absolutely on the side that Cold Steel must not, by any means, be played before at least the Crossbell games. Anybody who tries to say that they understood what was going on without consulting a wiki or YouTube is lying. I did have my problems with the characterisation of the returning characters too, Lloyd behaving like some sort of horndog was bizarre considering that he’s mostly a stand up guy and Randy’s the bad influence, plus irritating that the Elie pairing which is surely canon considering there’s a kiss and everything, is just straight up ignored in favour of harem crap. Rixia gets given one of the worst outfits I have ever seen in a game. Which immediately gets perved on by Lloyd. She had an outfit in Azure. Why did you have to sex it up? She’s a dancer, she was already wearing a cool outfit that clearly allowed to her to move without restriction.
... I really didn't think much of this part thanks to not really having context. I could follow the main game's surface level plotline well enough... But yeah like I said before this did nothing for me beyond an iniitial "Oh that's neat". I felt like I was here forever (both here and the next part) and I was already waiting for the game to end in the first place before the Vermillion Castle stuff. That's probably the main reason it did nothing as I was already bored and wanting it to end.
If the game is trying to make me hate Rean then it has kinda succeeded. The first postgame bit, I was like yeah, what a jobbie. So I assumed that we’d see his POV next and it would be ok. I was wrong. Going down the whole broody route just isn’t fun to play as in a series like this and is a bit of an annoying turn.
... I was already a bit on the fence with him thanks to his wangsty nonsense in the first game and after the first hour of Steel 2 when you arrive back home I was already getting sick of him 😅.
Which finally brings us to the most superfluous chapter in JRPG history. Initially, it’s just a nice way to say goodbye to certain characters and stuff. All cosy. Then the final dungeon rolls around and it’s basically a series of randomly generated corridors with an MS Paint background. That’s it. When the final boss just outright says that it’s all pointless and there’s no reward, it sinks in that your time was wasted. The class leave, you get a crap cutscene and the game is over. A colossal waste of time. Why couldn’t the game have just ended after the first final boss???
Hard agree. 1,000,000%. The cherry on top finale was exceedingly pointless. (Which was really annoying as I REALLY enjoyed that fight in the first game. The lazy reskin here though of that boss was eyeroll inducing).
So in all, there are definitely positives and the overall quality is still decent, albeit a long way away from Sky and Crossbell. We’re fully into late-Fire Emblem brand assassination with dumbing down political conflicts in favour of boob jokes and toothpaste-haired bloody McBurn. There’s fun to be had but it irritates because this is the continuation of an ongoing story which seems to be losing its direction. Here’s hoping Cold Steel 3 picks things up.
I had a much more negative opinion of this then you but I agree on the writing being generic anime then the "amazing writing" the previous series are supposed to have. (Haven't played them so til I do it'll remain in snarky quotes )
I did play the demo of Cold Steel III (which is the prologue/opening hour or two) and honestly? I thought it was much better that anything II did and I enjoyed the new cast well enough.
Just finished the campaign on Diablo 3 and thought it was really good to be fair. Maybe a little short and a little easy… but I’m sure that is where Adventure Mode and a Hardcore playthrough will come in to play. Still a lot of work to do if I want that platinum… but am quite excited to try all of the other charcuterie classes etc.
@HallowMoonshadow@nessisonett I’ve been interested with your comments on the Cold Steel games, since I have a nagging in my brain to go back and finish the first game. Now I’m thinking it might not be worthwhile unless I really have the time and energy to devote to playing Azure/Zero and then ToCS 3 and 4. It sounds like ending with #2 would leave a bad taste in my mouth for the series.
“We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them.”
@HallowMoonshadow I must have completely forgot to mention the literal child in bondage gear, you know it’s bad when that slips your mind trying to cover the rest! Unfortunately, she seems to be staying around in 3 so far, but I guess they’re trying to give her some sort of character arc at least. 3 feels like a different game at least (not just due to it running like ass on Switch compared to 1+2 on PS4) and the new cast is smaller which helps massively in terms of them not having a Gaius. Although I did have a flashback to a scene from 2 which I didn’t remember so I looked it up and apparently crucial plot details about one of the teachers are only given out if you play New Game Plus and collect all of a new type of item 😂
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