What are you currently playing?

[koifish | 556]

WildCard on Wonderswan. It's a weird game, but kind of interesting. The hardest part is that it is full of extremely compressed kanji, and they are really hard to read. I remember a translation project attempt where somebody took the entire kanji sprite table and converted it to plaintext. Despite being highly capable in reading Japanese, they said it took them hours to do and that their eyes hurt for two days after they finished. So as someone quite junior, it is naturally pretty tough for me to get through. Fortunately, many things also are in katakana, so I can more or less get the gist.

I am convinced that a translation project of this game would be an incredible challenge. The game is heavily reliant on kanji to make the text fit within some very small fields (as well as convey a decent amount of information). You would have to use some creative systems to squeeze in text and to fit lengthy descriptions into narrow spaces. Would be fun to hack through, I bet.

[Alder | 243]

Finishing up Tears of the Kingdom now. Loved it.

[DarkTone | 985]

Gonna try out kid Dracula. 

[Webhead123 | 675]

About to start up Psychonauts 2 but on the side I'm planning to knock out several indie side-scrollers that have been sitting in my Steam library for a while, including Alien Splatter Redux, Biolab Wars, Blasphemous, Clash Force, Huntdown, Insanity's Blade, JumpJet Rex and Super Cyborg.

[DefaultGen | 5,405]

Omori. Oh my god, this game has no idea why it even has combat except that Mother has combat and it wants to be a “Motherlike”. The story bits are fun, the art is great, but everything in between feels like a chore I have to get through to continue the story, especially the battles.

Undertale really cut the chaff in this genre, made the combat unique and fun, and really didn’t waste your time. It feels like such a regression to play such a similar game with all the boring chaff added back in.

Edit: Slogged through it, man. This is a good trauma/horror VN with a 20+ hour Earthbound RPG shackled onto it where 90% of the lolsoquirkyrandom Earthbound stuff is complete filler without advancing the plot or characters you actually care about in the real world. One of the most frustrating, poorly paced games I’ve ever played and a case of an amateur dev thinking more content = better value at the expense of the game. The best 5 or so hours of this game are great.

Edited July 17, 2023 by DefaultGen

[Sumez | 2,952]

On 7/16/2023 at 10:00 AM, DefaultGen said:

Omori. Oh my god, this game has no idea why it even has combat except that Mother has combat and it wants to be a “Motherlike”. The story bits are fun, the art is great, but everything in between feels like a chore I have to get through to continue the story, especially the battles.

The battles didn't annoy me as much, but I agree they are completely pointless. It's so easy to just cheese the emotion system and mash through every fight with zero challenge.

I kinda do agree with most of the stuff you said, full write-up here: 

Funny thing is the person who originally recommended the game to me allegedly really disliked Undertale because they see it as an ironic parody, while Omori is actually a "real game". Honestly, the opposite feels true to me. Undertale actually has really entertaining battles, while everything that's implemented to fill the role of gameplay in Omori seems like superficial filler.

Edited July 17, 2023 by Sumez

[DefaultGen | 5,405]

8 hours ago, Sumez said:

The battles didn't annoy me as much, but I agree they are completely pointless. It's so easy to just cheese the emotion system and mash through every fight with zero challenge.

I kinda do agree with most of the stuff you said, full write-up here: 

Funny thing is the person who originally recommended the game to me allegedly really disliked Undertale because they see it as an ironic parody, while Omori is actually a "real game". Honestly, the opposite feels true to me. Undertale actually has really entertaining battles, while everything that's implemented to fill the role of gameplay in Omori seems like superficial filler.

I guess it’s not the battles themselves so much as… the game should just entirely remove Space Boyfriend, Princess Pink Donut, Casino Shark, and Humphrey (let alone the even more pointless side quests) and keep the parts of Headspace that most flesh out Sunny’s feelings. Headspace should be a rare treat that gives insight to Sunny, but instead returning to reality was the rare treat. The memorable fights in this game aren’t mechanically uninteresting random RPG bosses after dungeons, it’s the more scripted story advancing fights like encountering Aubery in the park for the first time.

I even feel like the game knows this because there’s no Headspace final boss. Your Headspace party is just kind of done after Humphrey then the game ends with cool story-focused encounters.

Edited July 17, 2023 by DefaultGen

[Sumez | 2,952]

You know there's a path through the game where you never really leave headspace? 

Or, rather, you can make the main character never leave their house which makes them retreat into headspace more often, which gives you more areas, characters and boss fights. 

It's an interesting aspect. But I'm not sure why I'd go for that path though. To my knowledge there is no way to do it without starting over entirely.

[DefaultGen | 5,405]

2 minutes ago, Sumez said:

You know there's a path through the game where you never really leave headspace?

When I beat Undertale I immediately played through it again multiple times. The other routes are like a revelation! Both of them highlight the best feature of the game, the combat system. The story and tone change, it fast forwards you through the pointless stuff (IIRC on the genocide route you just skip a lot of puzzles because everyone's dead) and you get the best boss fights like Undyne and Sans.

The I can't imagine clicking through all the hide and seek and recycling cans in the junkyard and making Humphrey bridges again to play an Omori path that doesn't open the door for my boy Kel

[Sumez | 2,952]

IMO the Genocide run in Undertale is more of a novelty since it, like you're saying, is really skipping the majority of the game. Undertale is also a much shorter game. 

Aside from it, there's really no reason to play through undertale more than once

[DefaultGen | 5,405]

I've been playing Cruelty Squad too while working through my Steam Sale stuff, another game only Sumez has mentioned here. Sumez always has good taste in games.

[Webhead123 | 675]

1 hour ago, DefaultGen said:

I've been playing Cruelty Squad too while working through my Steam Sale stuff, another game only Sumez has mentioned here. Sumez always has good taste in games.

I've been curious about Cruelty Squad as every description I'm given of it sounds like it would be appealing...but every time I see the gouge-your-eyes-out color palette, I wonder if maybe it's a little too garish for even my sensibilities. I'm totally open to being convinced, however.

Edited July 18, 2023 by Webhead123

[DefaultGen | 5,405]

8 hours ago, Webhead123 said:

I've been curious about Cruelty Squad as every description I'm given of it sounds like it would be appealing...but every time I see the gouge-your-eyes-out color palette, I wonder if maybe it's a little too garish for even my sensibilities. I'm totally open to being convinced, however.

The weird aesthetic and themes are a big part of the appeal, but also just kinda big levels full of different passages and secrets and a bunch of dumb high jumping, Spiderman-swinging abilities to explore with. I'm replaying levels just because it's fun. I don't remember the last FPS where I just kept replaying individual single player levels for the sheer joy of it. Goldeneye??

[Gloves | 11,779]

I started up a new save file on Dissida Final Fantasy on PSP. Been a long time since I last played, but looking at my old save file I put about 70 hours into it, more than I'd have expected. I do recall really loving the gameplay a lot, and man that roster of characters. Like, literally all of them. 

[Kguillemette | 1,544]

Family game night tonight! The only rule was to pick a game nobody has ever played before(including me). The choice was Monopoly Streets for wii. There are some good quality of life modes to speed the game up and make it more fun, and the 3d street view board is fun to look at. We played the speed mode where all players start with 3 random properties and of course my daughter started with 2 light blues. And rolled my son chose to auction Connecticut Ave because he wasn't paying attention it would give her a monopoly, so she ended up with a monopoly before either one of us even had a turn! She is hyper competitive with her brother, so this made the game much more fun for her(and thus, everyone, even though I eventually won).

If you like monopoly games and are looking for a video board game for game night, you could do a lot worse than this one. I recommend it.

An added bonus is that all the Miis you have made on your wii will just be walking around town. It's neat looking at 7 year old miis of yourself and your kids you forgot you made just chillingon the sidewalks!

[Kguillemette | 1,544]

Finally giving the Retro Trio a try. This machine is hardware based instead of emulation like the retron. It plugs right into HDMI and I'm not noticing signifigant input lag that would make platforming extra difficult, though there is the slightest bit after looking hard to see if i could find it. It's actually been close to 20 years since i played Aladdin, and I managed to defeat the pots section of the Abu bonus stage on the first try, which shows the slightest bit of lag on a simple platformer like this one is adaptable. I'm curious how the other systems fare, though I need an NES controller to truly get a good feel. The included controllers with the system feel cheap, though I haven't tried them yet. They may well be the bees knees for all I know. Either way it doesn't matter as there are ports for all 3 systems. After doing a bunch of research for what multi clone console I should get to plug I to my game room hdmi TV, I went with this one, and so far I am not disappointed. I might miss the extra ports of the retron 5, but this is adaptable if I break down and spring for a good old fashioned gba player for the GameCube.

The picture is a little blurry, but the display is nice and bright. It looks great and sounds exactly like I remember it. Very happy so far and I look forward to reexploring cartridge libraries again with the Trio.

[Sumez | 2,952]

Honestly that insane aspect ratio looks like it would make some games harder to play

[Nintegageo | 582]

Zelda Oracle of Seasons. With both games on the Switch, I decided it was finally time to beat both properly and fight the true boss. I wonder who it is!

[Webhead123 | 675]

4 hours ago, Nintegageo said:

Zelda Oracle of Seasons. With both games on the Switch, I decided it was finally time to beat both properly and fight the true boss. I wonder who it is!

I'm finally making a serious attempt to get through them myself but on the Analogue Pocket. Unfortunately, I'm making the tasking unnecessarily difficult on myself because, as I'm playing on a GB Everdrive, I keep forgetting to bop the cart's reset switch before I turn off the console and keep losing hours worth of progress. I've already played the first two dungeons of Seasons what feels like a half dozen times. Still, great games from what I've experienced thus far.

Edited August 2, 2023 by Webhead123

[Sumez | 2,952]

Anyone playing the Oracle games for the first time now, remember to start with Seasons and do Ages second. You're gonna get the best experience out of Seasons that way, while the best parts of Ages are mostly uneffected by which order you play it in.

[Gloves | 11,779]

12 minutes ago, Sumez said:

Anyone playing the Oracle games for the first time now, remember to start with Seasons and do Ages second. You're gonna get the best experience out of Seasons that way, while the best parts of Ages are mostly uneffected by which order you play it in.

I swear one day I'll play them, so thanks for this.

[Webhead123 | 675]

Well...it's officially happened. I've installed Baldur's Gate 3 and finished character creation. Let's see where this takes us.

[DefaultGen | 5,405]

Ughh me and my wife have to finish Diablo 4 before moving onto BG3. We're so bored with it neither of us are motivated to boot it up but you know, $140 spent on it

[ScaryD | 237]

Recently moved and had to put a variety of items in temporary storage so I have been getting into my GameBoy collection. Currently playing Final Fantasy VI Advance.

[DarkTone | 985]

Zelda oracles.