Topic: What (Non-PS4) game are you playing??

I think I've discovered one of the coolest indie games ever. It's called Signalis. I saw a review of it on NintendoLife and the reviewer gave it a 9/10, which piqued my curiosity as I thought it looked like nothing more than another one of those retro-styled indie games. I recalled that the game is also available on Game Pass, so I decided to give it a shot there. It's basically a mix between top-down survival horror and point-and-click. It looks retro-styled initially but it's like a mix between retro and modern graphics as the characters are 3D. On top of this, the game's characters come from a country that has been apparently combined, which is Germany/China. So the in-game texts consist of both German and Chinese languages, which is really cool. The overall presentation is also very cool. I'm super impressed by this game, if you're looking for a refreshing indie survival horror game that's heavily inspired by Resident Evil, then give this game a try!

@LtSarge Signalis looks super dope. You just don't see a lot of indies attempting to replicate the look and feel of early 3D console games very often. It's apparently also modeled after early survival horror gameplay, which is cool.

PS reviewed it as well, and scored it an 8/10.

https://www.pushsquare.com/reviews/ps4/signalis

It's probably my next Switch purchase before Fire Emblem Engage.

@Ralizah Yeah it plays a lot like the early Resi games, which I absolutely love! Something I forgot to mention in my post is that the level design is kinda like the first Zelda on NES, i.e. you're moving from screen to screen. Lots of great inspiration in other words. It's one of those games that you can clearly tell which titles inspired it but it does enough things on its own to stand out.

I'm tempted to buy the game on Switch just to support the devs but I've bought so many games lately that I need to simmer down a bit. Definitely worth getting from what I've played so far. Unfortunately, it does feel like a lot of people will miss out on this game. Haven't heard anyone talk about it, especially when considering that it's on Game Pass. It certainly deserves more attention.

@LtSarge Not saying it should be overlooked, as if I wasn't already playing something else, I would have considered playing Signalis to end October (either that or Resident Evil 8 in 3rd person). It's definitely on my list at some point after seeing that it turned out so well, but with the onslaught of releases already beginning, it likely won't be for a while. That is also probably why it is getting overlooked. I understand the release date being as close to Halloween as possible, but unfortunately for it delays and such have made the last portion of this year and even into next year pretty cluttered with releases.

I do think there's a chance it catches on at some point once releases slow down if word of mouth can keep going. I want to support the developer, so I will probably end up getting it on PlayStation, but it may end up working out in the end since it may be on sale by the time I am able to get to it. Not saying it's not already cheap, but a sale sometime down the road could also help resurrect it a bit at some point next year.

@KilloWertz For sure, it's definitely a crowded period to be releasing your game. I'm still playing the latest A Plague Tale but playing Signalis on the side makes for some good variety. I think I'll be focusing on these two games (along with RE5 and The Somnium Files) for the foreseeable future.

I actually decided to vote for Signalis as next month's title for Pure Xbox Game Club. It's only two days left but I figured what the heck, I'll throw a vote for it lol. It deserves more love.

@LtSarge Nothing wrong with that if you play more than 1 game at a time. I tried that in the past and really can't do it, but that's a bit beside the point. I'm playing Mass Effect 3 for the first time now. First time I'll have played much of it at least, as I never finished it on the Xbox 360.

I don't usually participate much anymore with that, but if I did, I wouldn't have a problem with that being the monthly choice. I guess in a way, the two games could have been flipped since this is much more of a horror game than Immortality, but oh well.

@Kairu Nier Automata is one of my favorite games from last generation, and my personal GOTY for 2017, beating out juggernauts HZD, Persona 5, and UC Lost Legacy. It’s a treat to experience for the first time and hopefully translates well to the Switch.

Not sure how in-the-know you are about the way the game is organized, but sure to see it through to the true ending. The narrative construction of the game is quite different from what you might be accustomed to and if you just put it down after the first ending you’re missing out on a lot of its best parts, imo.

@Kairu I picked up Nier Replicant on sale a few months ago and just haven’t got around to it.

For Automata, probably the most common complaints I’ve seen relate to the second playthrough, where things get a little repetitive. But if you push past that it really ends with a bang! Honestly one of my favorite endings of all time and nothing has ever been done quite like it in any game I’ve played before or since.

@Kairu One week will be a bit of a stretch, but definitely achievable. Seems like my complete playthrough (including the platinum) took about 40-50 hours…? If you’ve got 4-5 hours per day then you can probably make it by the time GoW drops.

You might find some of the discussion interesting on yonder thread:
https://www.pushsquare.com/forums/ps4/nier_automata

There’s plenty of spoilery discussion there though, so beware, but myself and others talked extensively over the last couple years about the game and it’s impact on us. It’s a very fun game to not only play but also to discuss! 😄

@Kairu LoL, you might need to come down with a sudden illness and have to stay home from work for a week. Too bad there’s not a highly contagious pandemic going on. 😜

Started up Professor Layton and Pandora's Box yesterday. Played for about an hour and I'm really liking it so far! Despite my mixed feelings about the first game, it feels nice to be playing another game in the series. It's just such a chill series, you solve puzzles and enjoy a story. It's definitely a product of its time thanks to it being on the DS. We just don't see many games like this today. So I think I might keep my eyes out for the sequels and get them eventually as well.

@LtSarge I think the first one’s probably my favourite even after so many other games came out. I do have a soft spot for Spectre’s Call and Lost Future is definitely brilliant but the series as a whole is really great to be honest. Fun fact, I found my Pandora’s Box cartridge literally lying on the ground in a theme park. Finders keepers, I’d say.

@Kairu I hope you’re still enjoying Nier Automata!

The one thing that is never well explained with the game is that the multiple endings don’t mean playing the game through multiple times particularly, and that the “replays” of the game are actually completely different as you take control of different characters in parallel or different timelines. It makes the idea of needing to complete the game multiple times make more sense then!

The “final” ending is brilliantly bizarre though. Oh, and you can actually buy any trophies you’re missing when you are properly done with the game too!

@nessisonett I did enjoy the story of the first game, but not the puzzles overall sadly. Too many tricky ones that left me frustrated. So far the puzzles are fine in Pandora's Box but I've obviously only played one hour of the game. The tricky ones could be coming up for all I know lol.

But yeah, I definitely want to check out Lost Future and Spectre's Call as well.

Haha, very interesting how you found Pandora's Box! I guess it was just meant to be.

FIFA Street is ridiculously good fun. Can’t believe I didn’t have it growing up, I would have been obsessed with it.

@Kairu FIFA 2005 being a bit annoying with how the career mode works means that I’ve been playing both that and FIFA Street alternately. So it’ll probably be my next review, if I can stop playing it!

Beat the Taurus Demon boss in Dark Souls Remastered on my first go... with literally the tiniest sliver of health left. Still, a victory is a victory.

Too bad I spent the next three hours dying over and over and losing 7000+ souls in the process of finding the bonfire in the Undead Parish. What particularly hurts is that I lost my biggest load of souls when I went into the church instead of the opposite direction, which led to the bonfire. Practically right next to it, but I went the wrong direction.

@Ralizah If only the game had a map… 😜

Are you following a build guide? One thing I’ve come to grips with is that the FromSoft games are so cryptic (apparently Elden Ring less so) and have the high difficulty that I began using online build-guides with Bloodborne and Demon’s Souls. For me it made the games enjoyable and less frustrating.

Of course I’m less bothered by spoilers than most people, unless they are major story spoilers. A simple build guide doesn’t really spoil things and is a fairy tame loophole to help you feel less like you’ve just wasted hours of time. Losing thousands of souls is a pretty inevitable occurrence, but at least with a blueprint of how you want to level up the character you don’t end up pouring endless hours of soul-collecting into a dead-end build. There are soft caps to the point allocation of character attributes in the FromSoft games I’ve played, so I assume the same here; you get less bang for your buck once an attribute reaches a certain level. And I think I read somewhere that in DS1 spending souls on weapon upgrades goes further than using it on your character, but I’m not sure.

Congrats on beating Taurus Demon though. You’re probably well on your way to being an expert already! 😄

Edit: Incidentally, if it helps I can commiserate with you since I had a similar thing happen to me yesterday in Resident Evil 4. I made a long trek through a couple areas with bunches of enemies and completely missed a save point before the place where you have endless hordes of enemies swarm the cabin, where I of course died and had to repeat all the areas beforehand. If only I’d consulted the map! 😅

@Th3solution I don't even need one that detailed! Just a vague reference to the layout of the world would suffice.

Build guide? Nah. I took a peak at some recommendations for stat distribution for the pyromancer, but since pyro flame damage is upgraded independently from your stats, it seems like I can build her like I would a warrior. So now that I've upped my stats enough to be able to wield a halberd (amazing weapon!), I'm focusing on endurance for the stamina/weight limit gains and dexterity, since my current weapon scales more with that stat.

I was struggling to defeat these gargoyle bosses, but succeeded after upgrading my weapon a few times, which caused it to inflict dramatically higher damage. I've upgraded it as high as it'll go now, and it shreds most enemies like paper. Thankfully, it seems like you can farm the resource you need for weapon and armor upgrades from knights.

Oof, sorry to hear about your RE4 troubles. Dying close to safety ALWAYS strings, man.

@Ralizah Yeah, RE4 isn’t quite Souls level difficulty, but sometimes the resource management part of things makes me replay sections if I burn through too many health items or ammo, and it ends up feeling very Souls-like with repeat runs being easier when you have the enemy placement memorized. Thankfully typewriters and save rooms are pretty generously spread throughout, but there’s definitely some hard sections between saves.

If/when I eventually boot up DS1 I’ll compare notes with you. Glad you’ve found a good rhythm, it seems.