What Video Games Are You Playing Right Now?

[Eclipsed]

42 minutes ago, Lucius said:

Well, considering what was said about the story in the 'Trails' franchise setting itself up over other games,

I could somewhat understand why it might be boring in the first five hours.

That being said, it would require a really amazing story to get me to play an isometric game.[/filthycasual]

its k brah, i also 'skipped' Sky cuz of the isometricness

 

[Vokoca]

Haha, I really tried hard to like Cold Steel - and I mean I am in like the second to last chapter or so (haven'T checked in a long time), so hopefully I will actually finish it eventually and see if the second game is any better when it comes to the story. The focus on story progression through games leads to a different problem, though - Cold Steel is supposed to be a trilogy, and as far as I know the third game hasn't been even announced yet. 

Other than that, I am slowly making my way through FF: Type-0. The ridiculously overleveled side-content is still quite baffling (there are missions you need to do to unlock certain side-quests, but the missions are at least 25 levels over your current level, for example - and the game gets extremely punishing when the level difference goes over 4), but I just assume they have these for NG+ and decided to ignore them. The main missions are loads of fun so far, we will see how far I can actually get without dying in the grind-loop.

I'm also slowly making progress through Fate/extra CCC. I think I've mentioned here previously how much I've disliked the gameplay in Fate/extra (the original), to the point where I just cheated through the entire game just to get the story - well I am happy to say that CCC does enough little things that actually make the game enjoyable. A little bit over halfway through the game with the yandere-wife, and I'm enjoying my time a whole lot.

[Fred the Barber]

13 hours ago, Mkilbride said:

Because Rose is rather boring. Alicia was at least interesting. The only interesting one, at least. I made it like 20 hours in the game and quit. It's the worst Tails game I ever played. It's almost like they put zero effort into the characters, usually Tales strongest point.

 

That and the story is as cliche as you can get.

Wow, not my experience at all. I'm loving all of Edna, Rose, Lailah, and Mikleo as characters, but thought Alisha (I remembered how to spell her name now...) was a little boring. Sorey's probably the lest interesting Tales protagonist I recall seeing, but really nobody has ever held a candle to Vesperia's Yuri, who was enough of a character to basically carry the whole game himself. But seriously, I've usually got a manic grin on my face any time either Edna or Rose is speaking. Edna's skits especially usually have me in stitches.

[Jun Inoue]

10 hours ago, Eclipsed said:

its k brah, i also 'skipped' Sky cuz of the isometricness

 

So you skipped the better Trails? Huh

4 hours ago, Vokoca said:

Haha, I really tried hard to like Cold Steel - and I mean I am in like the second to last chapter or so (haven'T checked in a long time), so hopefully I will actually finish it eventually and see if the second game is any better when it comes to the story. The focus on story progression through games leads to a different problem, though - Cold Steel is supposed to be a trilogy, and as far as I know the third game hasn't been even announced yet. 

The third game of Cold Steel is already being made.

[havoc]

On 10-9-2016 at 5:09 PM, Jun Inoue said:

The answer is OW, and then to play it with me.

Btw, the micro transactions on Deus Ex are some weird extra shit. You don't need anything to play the campaign (except maybe the game itself).

Bought overwatch in the end, been interested in the game for a while and Mirrors edge wont be going anywhere anytime soon as its a single player game.

[ChaosRaven]

Currently playing Mass Effect 2.

First I wasn't sure if I should be waiting when the rumours about the advanced edition came up, but since EA decided against it I gave it a go. Maybe I can finish the trilogy before Andromeda gets released. As annoying as the Mako could sometimes get, I somehow miss the bigger scope of the first part. Everything in Mass Effect 2 seems a bit smaller, and that's coming from someone who gets tired of huge open world games pretty soon. So I guess I'm not too unhappy that it will return in Andromeda.

Anyway, Shepard is as great as he was in Mass Effect 1. Really love his calm voice. Always gives me the impression to have everything in control and things will go well. Would be great to get a protagonist like that in a VN. Maybe in a huge space opera setting like Mass Effect. But I guess the times of epic big budget productions like MuvLuv Alternate are over.

[Kurisu-Chan]

25 minutes ago, ChaosRaven said:

Currently playing Mass Effect 2.

First I wasn't sure if I should be waiting when the rumours about the advanced edition came up, but since EA decided against it I gave it a go. Maybe I can finish the trilogy before Andromeda gets released. As annoying as the Mako could sometimes get, I somehow miss the bigger scope of the first part. Everything in Mass Effect 2 seems a bit smaller, and that's coming from someone who gets tired of huge open world games pretty soon. So I guess I'm not too unhappy that it will return in Andromeda.

Anyway, Shepard is as great as he was in Mass Effect 1. Really love his calm voice. Always gives me the impression to have everything in control and things will go well. Would be great to get a protagonist like that in a VN. Maybe in a huge space opera setting like Mass Effect. But I guess the times of epic big budget productions like MuvLuv Alternate are over.

FemShep is better.

FemShep was awarded for the whole 3 games. 

[Riku]

2 hours ago, Fred the Barber said:

Wow, not my experience at all. I'm loving all of Edna, Rose, Lailah, and Mikleo as characters, but thought Alisha (I remembered how to spell her name now...) was a little boring. Sorey's probably the lest interesting Tales protagonist I recall seeing, but really nobody has ever held a candle to Vesperia's Yuri, who was enough of a character to basically carry the whole game himself. But seriously, I've usually got a manic grin on my face any time either Edna or Rose is speaking. Edna's skits especially usually have me in stitches.

No, nobody can beats Ludger. I mean, the guy is just Link in a Tales of. XD

[ChaosRaven]

14 minutes ago, Kurisu-Chan said:

FemShep was awarded for the whole 3 games. 

Oh, I didn't know that. I never tryed a female Shepard so I've no clue how she is. I guess if I ever find the time for a second playthrough I'll pick her.

* Goes and checks all lesbian romance options *

[Vokoca]

3 hours ago, Jun Inoue said:

The third game of Cold Steel is already being made.

All I can find is them mentioning that it exists, but they don't really have anything to show for it so far. Considering Cold Steel 1 and 2 were only one year apart (2013 and 2014), this is pretty worrisome.

Put some more time into FF: Type-0 - and while I really liked the gameplay a lot at first, I am starting to see the glaring flaws. Even if you stick only to three characters instead of leveling all 14 of them (who the hell has time for that?), the character you control seems to be getting more XP anyway, leaving the other two behind. Worse yet, the Summons, which you have to sacrifice a party member for to even use, have their own level as well - and as it stands, the character I play the most outclasses the Summons in pretty much every way to a ridiculous extent, making the Summons completely useless. By far the worst part about the entire game, though, is the AI. Oh god the AI... At all times you have two more characters running around with you, controlled by the AI - and to say that they are bad would be an understatement of the century. This wouldn't even be a problem if the characters weren't your party members you can switch to at any time - but as it stands, the AI literally handles your reserves and puts them all to waste. The AI will die a lot, killing the characters you had as back-up. You brought a long-ranged character along with you so you can switch to him/her when needed? Too bad, they will be dead by the time the opportunity to switch to them arrives. Bringing characters along with you is like sending them to die, yet the game is clearly meant to be played with other characters for you to switch to at any time. And don't even get me started on the bigger bosses that require you to dodge a lot - the AI doesn't seem to know what dodging even is...

Other than that I am still enjoying the game, but the whole thing just feels like a really unfair escort mission.

[Jun Inoue]

Just now, Vokoca said:

All I can find is them mentioning that it exists, but they don't really have anything to show for it so far. Considering Cold Steel 1 and 2 were only one year apart (2013 and 2014), this is pretty worrisome.

It really isn't. They have been really straightforward with their games. They have the Trails in the Sky series, the series about the Crossbell Arc, and Trails of Cold Steel. Apart from the 3rd game of the latter, they completed their series without a hitch. This, apart from the fact that the Legend of Heroes series actuallty started in 1989 and has yet to stop. I very much doubt Falcom would just go and kill one of their most popular franchises right in the middle of a trilogy.

Spoiler

So, trust me on this, it's a very unrealistic worry ;D

[Eclipsed]

Well I'll finally have some spare time to start up Cold Steel II as I vanpool 2 hours for work later, I'm really interested in seeing if they managed to come up with 60 hours of main plot vs 60 hours of field studies and world building of the first game   

I'm feelin' it'll be half n' half, 30 hours of more world building and 30 for main plot pls

[Fred the Barber]

Vokoca's musings on FF Type-0 reminded me of one huge advance in Tales of Zestiria, vs. all other Tales games I've played: the AI is amazing now. The Tales of Zestiria AI is about as good at playing the game as I am, and in some areas far outclasses me, especially in regularly using Burst points in the assorted possible ways for maximum benefit. I didn't really notice this until Rose joined the party, but a party member with Mystic artes and Armatization is an absolute beast. I'll be surprised if I ever lose a fight again at this point (well, unless I either turn the difficulty back up to Hard and start getting my head handed to me, or I go after one of the still-obscenely-powerful world bosses while they can still one-shot me).

5 hours ago, Riku said:

No, nobody can beats Ludger. I mean, the guy is just Link in a Tales of. XD

Ludger's pretty great, I'll give you that. But I still give Yuri the edge.

[Riku]

4 hours ago, Fred the Barber said:

Ludger's pretty great, I'll give you that. But I still give Yuri the edge.

No, I meant that he is less intersting than Sorey as a character. In the story and all he is good, but as a character, just being Link in a Tales of makes him really boring. :/

I also think Yuri is the best Tales of protagonist.

[Jun Inoue]

Since I'm well into Trails of Cold Steel II, and people is also starting to play it now that it's out, it's made me remember this pretty cool video about Mother's Basement explaining why the world-building in the Trails sub-sub-franchise is so insanely good companies like Bethesda can only dream of ever approaching it. And no, I'm not trying to taunt, world-building is just one of the strongest assets of Falcom and especially the Trails series. So, yeah, go play it you silly willies!

Also, the video for anyone curious about the whole explanation and comparisons:

 

[havoc]

5 hours ago, Jun Inoue said:

Since I'm well into Trails of Cold Steel II, and people is also starting to play it now that it's out, it's made me remember this pretty cool video about Mother's Basement explaining why the world-building in the Trails sub-sub-franchise is so insanely good companies like Bethesda can only dream of ever approaching it. And no, I'm not trying to taunt, world-building is just one of the strongest assets of Falcom and especially the Trails series. So, yeah, go play it you silly willies!

Also, the video for anyone curious about the whole explanation and comparisons:

 

What do you play it on?
I want to play the series, but i own neither a playstation three or a psvita.

[Thunderbro]

34 minutes ago, havoc said:

What do you play it on?
I want to play the series, but i own neither a playstation three or a psvita.

Trails in the Sky First Chapter and Second Chapter are available in English on both PC (via steam) or PSP, with a localization of the 3rd game for PC on the way. There are two my trails games between the Trails in the sky trilogy also for PC that are not yet localized and then the Cold Steel games are only for PS3 and PsVita. 

The trails in the sky games are definitely worth playing through. 

[havoc]

7 minutes ago, Thunderbro said:

Trails in the Sky First Chapter and Second Chapter are available in English on both PC (via steam) or PSP, with a localization of the 3rd game for PC on the way. There are two my trails games between the Trails in the sky trilogy also for PC that are not yet localized and then the Cold Steel games are only for PS3 and PsVita. 

The trails in the sky games are definitely worth playing through. 

I have them, just wondering if it was possible to use a emulator to play the cold steel games on pc without to much hassle.

[Thunderbro]

1 minute ago, havoc said:

I have them, just wondering if it was possible to use a emulator to play the cold steel games on pc without to much hassle.

At the current moment there isn't a stable ps3 or psVita emulator you could use. Hopefully Xseed decides to port the Cold Steel games to PC some time down the road. 

[havoc]

2 minutes ago, Thunderbro said:

At the current moment there isn't a stable ps3 or psVita emulator you could use. Hopefully Xseed decides to port the Cold Steel games to PC some time down the road. 

Yeah, PC games tend to have a much longer life span to than console games.
Biggest disadvantage of gaming via pc is that a lot of jrpg are ps exclusive because the japanese have no pc gaming market.

[Darklord Rooke]

12 hours ago, Jun Inoue said:

it's made me remember this pretty cool video about Mother's Basement explaining why the world-building in the Trails sub-sub-franchise is so insanely good companies like Bethesda can only dream of ever approaching it. 

Bethesda emphasises exploration and character freedom, they're not great at (nor are they well known for) the world building part. Oblivion especially was terrible at world design, it was just a lifeless, generic, medieval world. But (luckily for Bethesda) that's not what people play the game for.

[Jun Inoue]

1 hour ago, Rooke said:

Bethesda emphasises exploration and character freedom, they're not great at (nor are they well known for) the world building part. Oblivion especially was terrible at world design, it was just a lifeless, generic, medieval world. But (luckily for Bethesda) that's not what people play the game for.

Pretty much, but you can still take most points from the video, since it draws a few comparisons of AAA titles and "indie" ones. How Bethesda and many companies put so many resources into making stunning worlds that they end up forgetting they should also make those worlds interesting and feel alive. It says Bethesda, but you can put so many names instead.

Maybe we should also consider it as one of the biggest differences between RPGs and JRPGs.

[Riku]

Decided to stop being stubborn and started to play Sora no Kiseki/Trails in the Sky FC. At first I wanted to wait to have the level in japanese to play the Evolution versions on Vita, but because it won't be before a few years, after thinking a little, I thought I could just play the Evolution versions as second playthhoughs.

The only thing I still don't want to do is play Sen no Kiseki/Trails of Cold Steel before Zero and Ao no Kiseki.

So yeah, in the end waiting would be better to do everything in one go. But I don't know, right now I just want to play Trails in the Sky, so I play it.

[Jun Inoue]

48 minutes ago, Riku said:

Decided to stop being stubborn and started to play Sora no Kiseki/Trails in the Sky FC. At first I wanted to wait to have the level in japanese to play the Evolution versions on Vita, but because it won't be before a few years, after thinking a little, I thought I could just play the Evolution versions as second playthhoughs.

The only thing I still don't want to do is play Sen no Kiseki/Trails of Cold Steel before Zero and Ao no Kiseki.

So yeah, in the end waiting would be better to do everything in one go. But I don't know, right now I just want to play Trails in the Sky, so I play it.

The Trails in the Sky in particular aren't too short, so you'll be spending a bit of time on them anyway, probably ;o

[Vokoca]

Soon... soon...

*HEAVY BREATHING*