whatchu playing now

i don't think the enemies scale with your level though its been a while so i might be wrong

its got jrpg style consumables and character statting with the chips

its got 'gathering points'

its got fishing

the main issue with n:a us that levels actually matter too much, to the point of being impossible to beat certain enemies (as in, you do 0 damage with your attacks) if the lvl difference is too large. most people don't notice because like you said they've balanced it enough to be somewhat invisible to many people

they should have dropped exp altogether and rely on equipment upgrades only. you can change diffculty at will mid-game, no one would need to grind anyway

i mean, try to fight the superboss while you're at level 60 and tell me how it goes. character action game skills are meaningless, you either grind and level up or you're fucked

don't get me wrong if someone specifically asked me for JRPG recommendations it's not one of the first games i'd push on them since its gameplay appeal is closer to the platinumgames side than the square enix side, but let's be real it's popular because of the story, and it's a JRPG-ass story

i mean, try to fight the superboss while you're at level 60 and tell me how it goes.

My best effort against this boss was lasting 5 seconds, but it's an optional boss!

I can agree that the story is similar to ones you'd find in conventional JRPGs, but as far as game mechanics? I guess you can think of the chips as materia or w/e.

its also, like, the 5th game in a long running action-rpg series so it gets some benefit of the doubt with rpg-ness though i still think it passes the bar on its own

the jrpg umbrella has included action games since at least like secret of mana if not going all the way back to ys 1 and dragon slayer and such

Spiderman!

Edith Finch: Not that you should never play it, but I found it to be pretty inessential. The story is cool, but I wasn't like WHOOOOOOOOOA MAN. I'd suggest The Witness if you like puzzles, or Life Is Strange if you like Choose Your Own Adventure books.

Cities: This is fun if you have Excel open in another window, but on a console? I dunno. Even among sims by that developer, I'd suggest Surviving Mars instead.

just got gungeon and it's fun! Think Smash TV roguelike

Yakuza 0 is super fun

Karl Malone otm about loot box bullshit. Who wants stickers for their in game bags?

sadly it only takes a small % of people willing to pay for including that stuff to be profitable

yakuza 0 is river city ransom for the new era

that's a potent dog whistle for me.

i hope you mean that in a good way and not the bad way!

very much good! the one yakuza game i played (can't remember the number) was a bit of a disappointment so i don't think i even tried this when it was a freebie on the PS+ but it is on my hard drive, so...

probably yakuza 4? i have that one lying around on my ps3 from a ps+ freebie. i only played it for a few minutes before saying "meh, maybe later" and not touching a yakuza game until 2018, when i played kiwami and zero. i fell in love with those two. while i played kiwami first (remake of 1) i can also see the appeal of playing 0 first. far more "hooky" than Y4, especially out of context and on ps3 and with the "it's a free game so who cares" mentality. (y'all know this is real)

alright, on the docket.

i have Kiwami unopened - better to get through that before tackling Zero, right?

Most of what I've read online sez that starting with 0 is the way to go. I'm buying it this week, too!

play 0 first if you're planning to play both imo

if ya'all start playing 0 maybe i'll go back i quit pretty early on (there was too much other stuff to play!)

It’s awesome

The side stories are terrific but so is eating okonomiyaki

true out of game, assume it must be so in game

EastShade is a perfectly charming itinerant painter "puzzler".

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_WZ_LMqEMkY

yeah that's been on my wishlist for a bit

Enjoyed ‘The Letter’, a big horror visual novel. Must have got one of the worst lines through it, though will go back to it.

I bought Yakuza 0 last night! Still going to be some time before I play it.

I’m playing the Talos Principle which I got from that PS4 humble bundle, it’s well-written but the world feels uncomfortably arid.

talos principle was a dud for me, played it because a bunch of people compared it to the witness but that turned out to be super misleading

I didn't like it either. I only played it for a couple of hours, but it kind of felt like portal without the portals! Just logic puzzles mapped onto gates and buttons in an English garden

felt like a 2d puzzle game that was arbitrarily built in 3d instead, it didn't do anything with the perspective like the witness at least in the first however many hours i played.

the talos principle is like a fun version of the witness

drama!

talos principle was a dud for me, played it because a bunch of people compared it to the witness but that turned out to be super misleading

otm

it's not like the witness at all, and it was not fun

however just to rekindle an old argument, i also don't think nier automata is a jrpg so what do i know

Was it here that someone recommended Slay the Spire? It's got its hooks in me. I wish the art was a little less, I dunno, first edition monster manual? But whatever it's a good time.

the rerelease of the first Valkyria Chronicles for the Switch

not hard enough imo

tempted to pick that up in the sale

was smooth sailing in wargroove until i hit act 3 side 1, yeesh

Yeah, I hit that wall too.

xxxp I'ce been enjoying Slay the Spire a lot, but the artwork sure looks shitty after staring at the same monsters for 30hrs.

I like the art! But if you're interested in a placeholder while you wait for it to be released on iOS, Night of Full Moon is pretty great, and nicer art.

ok i shelled out for 3 mo of ps4+, enough to pick up Hitman and try Red Dead Online.

RDO first impressions are... not good. the early reactions of really miserable grind+paid currency economy seem right to me. a stranger mission pays out $7 and using the fast travel can cost $10. people have already figured out that *hunting* is the most lucrative thing you can do. there's nothing to rob on trains, even.

it's too bad, i got a huge amount of enjoyment out of GTA online, but the draw there, for me, was how fun and varied the racing was. racing horses (ie buttonmashing) is less of a draw. and as a pure shooter, rockstar games are kind of sub-par so i'm not psyched about the deathmatch or battle royale clone gametypes either.

i have not experienced rampant griefing yet, except why trying to complete a job delivering something to a place, only to find a crew killing every NPC in the destination town. why? farming their honor down maybe? who knows. anyway, it bugged the mission out for a while until clearing.

i'd like to at least complete the story stuff in RDO, because hey more content. but literally every time I try, either it hangs on the matchmaking screen, or i get loaded in with a posse who immediately kick me. or maybe they don't like my female avatar! again, who knows.

at least you can't hear people talking on headset unless they're close to you on the landscape. small mercies.

but, HITMAN looks cool as hell (thanks Karl!). it may drive my OCD completionism up a wall, we'll see.

Plus the community blows.

there's a great youtube channel with someone who does walkthrough vids levels in hitman with the best troll assassinations

new Trials is good, i love how visually distinct all the tracks are and the bullshit ubisoft progression/lootbox layer is easy enough to ignore i guess

trials is straight crack right down to 'fuck this! fuck this shit! i'm never doing this again!' & twenty seconds later i'm trying the same stupid jump another 400 times. dangerous imo.

HITMAN is indeed cool as hell (thanks Karl!). there is an alarming amount of content stuffed into these half dozen areas

I’m playing the Mad Max game which I got as a PS4 freebie ages ago and it’s…not terrible? It’s a standard ubisoft-ish open world thing with too many repetitive little chores to do, and it’s definitely no Fury Road, but I love that the whole point of the game is to take a beater and turn it into a tricked out deathmobile. It’s very satisfying giving my car new shocks or the latest anti-warboy spike technology. Someday I hope to install flamethrowers on the doors.

Been goofin' around with some shooters ... The Division, Rainbow Six Siege, Apex Legends... Division is the standout for me so far.

I've solved 30 fates in Obra Dinn -- is there any reason to not try for all 60 at this point?