Started playing Split/Second on the PSP after I couldn’t get the main PC version to work fully with my controller.
Also Typing of the Dead Overkill since I just got a new keyboard it seemed like the perfect time to play it.
I’m on Backlog Cleanup Duty this week. I’ve started playing some games that I never went around to finish and I need to actually do that, my disk space is getting concerning.
EDIT: This ended up almost as a full scale Rise of the Ronin review, so I’ll spoiler tag it in order to not take up too much space in the thread.
spoiler
First up was Rise of the Ronin. Eagle-eyed readers of these weekly threads will know I never gave a final opinion on it, because I played it months ago and then burned out on the open world and never picked it up again. Well, I did finally push through and get to the credits this week. And my first thought is: this game is way too long. There is too much game in this game. Actually, more like too much filler. I think a more sensible approach that doesn’t try to clear the whole map would be much better, although that is rarely how I play open world games. I guess this game does regularly emphasize that you can go back to previous areas at any time, and that seems to include the post-game. So maybe that’s what all those enemy bases and fugitives and whatever are meant for. Something to do after you’ve finished the story.
Which, speaking of the story - the story is an absolute mess. This is Team Ninja so nobody is expecting Shakespeare, but what strikes me is that the story is both somehow interesting and awful at the same time. It’s interesting because the game is based on the Bakumatsu period - which is fascinating - and everything is anchored in real events and real historic characters. The intrigue and factions and characters do genuinely have interesting elements and moments. And some characters end up being quite charming, like Ryoma.
The problem is that the way the story is told, and the way the protagonist is incorporated is truly horrendous. I’ve never seen anything more confusing and disjointed honestly. This is a game that was screaming out for actually picking sides and having branching storylines (which I guess was just too much work - which is fair, it’s why we rarely see it in games). But what ends up instead is that the protagonist just plays all sides of the conflict constantly, and everyone is just magically okay with it? You betray someone, then you’re friends the next mission. You build up a friendship with someone over several missions, then suddenly they’re the boss in the next mission. Then back to being friends! You fight someone as an end boss in one mission, then go back to giving them gifts in the extremely rudimentary relationship system in the hopes of dating them. You “pick a side” in the main story, then go back to the other side’s base in the open world and continue doing side missions for them and they barely comment on you having sided with their enemy. And this “picking a side” in the main story happens often, and always with zero consequences or permanence. You side with the shogun one main mission, then side against him the next and the rebels just welcome you with open arms.
And on top of this is grafted the story of the protagonist and their Veiled Edge counterpart, which is highly mediocre and contrasts very clearly with the historically based intrigue, and also resolved very abruptly and anti climactically in the ending (although maybe the time gap between me starting and finishing the game had an impact here). But it definitely felt to me like so much focus narratively was put on the conflict between Japan and the west and the shogunate and the rebels, and very little time was actually spent on your Blade Twin’s personal beliefs and motivations. So he ended up feeling very weak as an antagonist.
Also I have to mention graphics, simply because I found them profoundly strange. Ronin is not a bad looking game, but it’s also not a good looking game - it’s actually both at the same time. Sometimes it looks like absolute shit, sometimes it looks genuinely pretty great. I think something is wrong with the lighting in this engine, particularly outdoors, and this leads to a lot of places in the game looking very flat, uninspiring and just ugly. Indoor areas generally look better, and cutscenes and dialogue often look pretty good, despite being rendered in-engine. This again leads me to believe it’s mostly a lighting issue rather than textures and models.
Furthermore on the subject of this being a very strange game: the protagonist. This is the weirdest implementation of speaking/silent protagonist I have ever seen. It’s not a silent protagonist, but… it’s not really speaking either. For like 90% of the game it’s a classic silent protagonist - your dialogue choices are unvoiced and in cutscenes you mainly communicate in nods and grunts. Standard silent protagonist stuff. And then in like 5% of the cutscenes the protagonist actually… speaks? I don’t know, maybe they really didn’t have the budget to fully voice the protagonist but it gave me whiplash every time it happened.
Anyway, I have wasted enough of your time. Would I recommend Rise of the Ronin? It’s a weird one, this. If you’re a combat junkie, I would say yes. Especially since it’s often for sale at around €20. The combat here is absolutely excellent, and it will give you more than your fill. The parry-centric fighting works well to fullfil that samurai fantasy of standing your ground and clashing blades, while all the martial skills and the ability to chain them together and mix and match fighting styles and weapons give you a lot of creativity and ability to style when you’re on the offensive.
If you just want a pretty, cinematic open world game with a coherent narrative and good production values then you might get frustrated here. Sure, the open world is big and the checklists have a lot of items on them, but they’re more tedious than anything else. There is a reason Ghost of Tsushima took off in popularity and this didn’t, even though I personally had more fun playing Ronin than I did Ghost.
I’m playing Withering Rooms again. It’s such a work of art.
It’s one of my favourite games I’ve played this year. I still think Titanium Court edges it, but Withering Rooms is surely second. It’s unbelievable to me that it isn’t more of a household name. I truly cannot wait for Withering Realms in September.
What build are you doing this time?
I missed that question earlier. I generally go for health + speed + physical strength, but put a few points on each of the other attributes too.
I did the Luck build and it was super busted. Also nice to get tons of items and resources from all the Luck. Next run I’m planning on trying the ranged build, I feel like it could be powerful (although takes a while to come online). I also want to try a full caster build, especially in NG+ with the extra spells. Harvest Field was still crazy strong even with like 0 spell power investment.
Domina
Its a gladiator simulator sandbox game. It is possible to control individual gladiators but I find it more fun to let the cpu do it for me and watch the fights instead. You can choose a fighting style, equipment and stats to train and it’s a lot of fun.
Train gladiators -> fight gladiators -> repeat!
Forza Horizon
The first game is my favourite so went back and played a bit. Currently on the orange wristband.
I recently finished playing through Itorah, a side scrolling action platformer. It’s been on my list for a while. The game is beautiful, the story and art are influenced by Aztec, Incan and Mayan art and culture. There’s no voice acting, but each NPC feels different. There’s little backtracking, and in the areas you do travel a lot there’s usually a new path you can take through it.
I enjoyed my time with the game. The mechanics are fun and varied, and the boss fights are all different and challenging. My playtime was about 20 hours and I didn’t rush it. There are achievements for speed running the game too. I didn’t get all the achievements on my first play through, so there would be more to do for achievement hunters.
Platformers aren’t my genre unfortunately but I love seeing more games using a mesoamerican setting! It’s so underutilized.
Just picked up the remastered version of Final Fantasy 8 for cheap. One of the few Final Fantasy’s I never got around to playing myself
I’m playing Arc Rise Fantasia, as part of the Wii RetroAchevements event. I never even heard of it but 15 years later, I think it might be my favorite “Tales Of” game while not being an actual Tales Of game (the scenario writer did Symphonia and Abyss but was allowed to go darker and more serious with this).
It flopped tremendously because of a terrible English dub and being a JRPG on Wii. The English VAs are practically reading from a script in one take and the hundreds of skits aren’t voiced. The undub patch is a must, as the Japanese VAs are phenomenal and most of them are still working so you might recognize them.
Its IP is under Marvelous but developed by a defunct developer so it’s probably never going to see a rerelease… though, I guess anything is possible. Even if it did, I’d wait for a sale, hehe.
I’ve been playing some Minecraft lately, both solo and with my wife. On my own, I’m mostly doing creative mode, currently building a village. I don’t have a ton of time for games but I’m having a blast when I find time. It’s coming very slowly though. With my wife, she’s played the game lots, always survival, but never actually beat the game before, and I haven’t beat the game since probably 2012 ish if I were to guess, so I’ve been looking forward to seeing Ms Ender Dragon too. It’ll probably be a while for that though, we don’t get to play together much.
My kid learned about Stardew Valley from a friend, so we’ve been into that. The split screen co-op has turned it into a great family activity.
I spent about a year eyeing Gori: Cuddly Carnage from afar until I picked it up a few days ago thinking I’ll just beat it in about 8~10 hours and go back to playing Homura Hime… I’m 17hrs in… beat the game and going for the 100% because it seemed very doable and the game is fun.
I don’t even know who to recommend it to… technically speaking it is an action game, but does not play like any other action game I know. The platforming isn’t exactly Tony Hawk Pro Skater/Jet Set Radio either… it’s not even Rollerdrome… so IDK. It is fun though… just requires some suspension of belief and embracing it for what it is.
Okay, my curiosity is piqued. Indie games with Overwhelmingly Positive reviews that you can buy for a couple of dollars is like catnip to me. Probably won’t play it any time soon but might snap it up on a future sale. I do like action games.
+1 for Gori I’ve just finished. It’s really fun and quite pleasant gameplay with a good feeling of progression.
Also playing Metronomicon this week. Good game too. And star*vaders. Also great and challenging. What I like about these is you can play 5 minutes and continue later.
Kenshi. Did that one start where you’re missing an arm. Was able to start making some money scavenging the dead for weapons and valuables, and selling them. Got enough to start a modest wheat farm. Unfortunately the tax man arrived, and I was in no state to pay, so I’ve been on the run. Don’t know where I’ll end up at this point.
Last week I mentioned wanting to play Project Wingman campaigns in VR so I did just that. I started a new campaign on hard, as usual, and with the “Budget Cuts” modifier (less ammo, more damage to everyone and reduced handling) for additional challenge. Difference in ammo counts was a bit shocking at first (I didn’t expect it to go THIS low) but it’s still doable and fun. Each mission requires more precision and patience, other than that, it’s not that different.
I also tried playing one of the missions on the “Mercenary” difficulty (without the modifier) to give it another shot but… yeah, it’s just not for me.Since I’m in a flying mood I decided to try a little experiment as well. I set up my flight-stick as a controller for PCSX2 and started playing Ace Combat 04 with it. It was alright.
It obviously isn’t as fun as playing a game created with HOTAS support in mind - controls feel a bit stiff and the cockpit view is rather limited but I don’t hate it. That said, I’m not the biggest Ace Combat fan (never grabbed me as much as PW) so I’m sure someone more dedicated could have more fun with this setup.
I only did 2, maybe 3 missions so far so I’ll play a bit more before deciding whether I want to continue or not. At the very least, playing it like this is an interesting experience.Portal Stories: Mel
Going through all the Portal 2 mods recently
What I liked a lot from Mel was that it really focused on exploring the existing mechanics deeply rather than introducing new mechanics.
I’ve started playing Kingdom Come Deliverance 1 the other day because I am eager for the Gothic 1 Remake (where I won’t be patient) and people have often compared the two franchises for their freedom and immersive mechanics. And of course the inherent Euro-jank.
I really like it so far and can handle it much better than I expected.
And incidentally for this community it is currently on sale on GOG. I’m playing the free version I got on Epic a while ago.
Subnautica
I already played it through once, but with a Phenom quadcore (and a gtx 970, but heavily bottlenecked). The difference is refreshing: from around 720p 20ish fps I went to 1080p 60.
A great crafting game, but I won’t waste words on a 10 year old fan-favorite, unless prompted (and then I can gush!).
