Played and finished Stick it to the Man. It’s an old game from 2013 (2017 on Switch) by Zoink games, which later merged with Image & Form to make Thunderful games.
It’s a side scroller platform, where you have a giant hand coming out of hand, which you can use to jump around or read other people mind. You need to solve some puzzle and bring people things to move forward.
A small game, can be completed in 4-5 hours, very humorous though. Highly recommended to anyone who like weird / funny games.
After that, played and finished Metro 2033 Redux, oldest PS4 game on my wishlist. While I enjoyed the story and narrative, I didn’t like the game much, maybe because I am not a fan of survivor horror.
I watched the story of the next game Metro Last Light but didn’t play it. Will probably try Metro Exodus since I have heard it has switched to more action gameplay.
After all that, I am back to Trails in the Sky: SC, this is now my primary game, though it’s a long one so going to take me couple of months at least to finish it.
Since that is on PC, I also needed a game on Switch and PS. For Switch, I started Atelier Ryza: Ever Darkness & the Secret Hideout. It’s my first Atelier game, and I have pretty much just started it, but it seems nice. Very chill, cozy crafting JRPG, without any doom and gloom (yet).
For PlayStation, I started Dust: An Elysian Tale, had it from PS+ ages ago. It’s a 2D metroidvania JRPG. Also, only started it, but it gives me a bit of Vanillaware vibes.
So, it may seem like I played a lot, but basically just finished 2 small games and started 2/3 games. And since all these games are pretty long, I’ll probably be playing them for next 2-3 months.
What about all of you? What have you been playing
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For Switch, I started Atelier Ryza: Ever Darkness & the Secret Hideout. It’s my first Atelier game, and I have pretty much just started it, but it seems nice. Very chill, cozy crafting JRPG, without any doom and gloom (yet).
I’m a huge Atelier fan, Ryza is definitenly a nice starting point for those new to the series.
One thing worth mentining is that the beginning of the game is a bit slow, and I recommend focusing on the main plot until you unlock the fast travel option as it makes doing the side quests a lot more enjoyable.
Playing Harvestella!
Since I don’t have any games in my wishlist for the next few weeks (next one is Ys X at the end of the month) I decided it was a good time to play a longer RPG.
Despite this game’s marketing focusing on the farming/slice-of-life aspects that doesn’t seem to be a huge part of the gameplay loop - sure, there’s plenty of things you can do to build/expand your farm, but I’m only spending a small portion of the game’s day/night cycle doing some chores on the farm and after that it’s going out into the world for quests and monster killing.
That would not be a bad thing, weren’t for the fact that combat in this game is rather mediocre. It’s not horrible, but it’s slow, lacks some things that seem obvious in an action RPG like a dodge button, and has some serious issues with the enemy lock-on system. I’ve seen people argue that it’s more of an “Offline MMO” battle system like Xenoblade instead of a real Action RPG, which I don’t think is what the developers were aiming for but may be a good approximation of what the game really plays like. There’s some good ideas at least, like the idea of having multiple jobs equipped and hot-swapping between them based on the situation, which offers good customization for different playstyles - I’ve been enjoying to focus more on ranged combat with the mage class and letting the NPC allies do the tanking for me.
There’s also some technical annoyances, one being the performance which is usually tolerable but had some pretty massive framerate drops in one boss, and other being the visuals - I’m not usually picky about that, but at least on the Switch it looks incredibly blurry - reminds me of Xenoblade 2 on portable mode, only it’s like that even when docked.
Those two are rather big issues making it hard to recommend this one, which is unfortunate because I’m loving several other aspects of this game. The worldbuilding is great and unique, the story is slow but doing a good job keeping me interested, I love the character designs, and there’s plenty of activities to do if you need a break from combat.
I just unlocked fast travel, about 7-8 hours in the game. The game is pretty chill even now. Enjoying it quite a bit.
Harvestella is on my wishlist. Maybe the combat isn’t that great cause they were going mainly for farming side, and didn’t pay too much attention to it. Sad to heard about the performance and visuals, specially cause it’s console exclusive to Switch, so it’s not like they made it for more power consoles and then ported it to Switch.
The game is pretty chill even now. Enjoying it quite a bit.
Older titles have time limits to add a bit of pressure, but plot-wise those games stay chill 90%+ of the time.
It’s one of the reasons I like them so much, I find the mix of a chill atmosphere, addictive gather->craft loop and fantastic OSTs incredibly relaxing.
I think I might check out Inscription.
Never heard of it until recently. It looks like Slay the Spire, and just hit Gamepass, so we’ll see if it’s any fun.
I have heard great things about it. Let us know how you like it.
So, I’m a few hours in. I beat the first boss, but the second one took me out.
If you ever played Murder Trivia Party by Jackbox, the opponent gives me similar vibes. He’s obviously a serial killer, but he’s got a “hey, were just friends goofing around and playing games” kind of personality, until, of course, he tortures you to death.
So, the progress board is VERY similar to Slay the Spire. There are battles, and elite battles, as well as special spaces to gain equipment, power up your cards, trade with merchants and many surprises.
But unlike Slay, where the matches feel like turn based RPG battles, these matches feel more like a puzzle. In Slay, you have stats and abilities, and your opponent has theirs, and you each face off following the same rules. In inscription, you see what the opponents next move will be, and you need to find a solution before you are overpowered. If you play the right cards in the right positions, you “solve” the puzzle and eventually win the match.
So far, I feel like resources are always scarce. Most cards require you to kill other cards to play them, and I never seem to have enough. I’m still getting a feel for the strategy though.
There are a few little escape room puzzles that you can deal with in between sessions at the progress board. Solving these will add new cards to your deck. Everything Ive encountered so far required no deduction or could just be “brute-forced” open by guessing combinations.
I’m not sure if it’s grabbed me yet or not, but I’m willing to give it a few more runs to find out.
Is this the weird one in the cabin? I think I have actually played it. Sounds challenging
It is weird and in a cabin, so I think it’s likely. It punishes you hard for making a mistake, but some overpowered cards and abilities can instantly win the match for you. It’s a good balance that keeps me trying.
Nice, I’m glad you are enjoying it. I think it didn’t quite click for me, but I’m not opposed to giving it another shot down the line
Ooh, please report back! I love Slay the Spire
I reported back under another comment here if you’re still interested!
Shit got weird. Real weird.
If you decide to play this game, (you should) don’t give up on it at least until shit gets weird.
Get out of the cabin!
Halls of Torment. It just released for Android. Another Survivors-Like, with just enough Diablo 1 to set it quite a bit apart. I haven’t gotten far, it is really challenging, but I am very happy to be able to play it again
Oh, I’m also playing this (on Steam)! It’s really challenging at times, but once you survive to get to a certain level it feels really good and your character becomes really powerful. Very fun!
Hell yeah! I’m still trying to figure out all the basics. What stats are good for which characters, what all the different skills do, things like that. I haven’t even done a run with equipment yet. I was afraid it was one time use, but looking for a few beginners tips I get the feeling it may be permanent
Just looked it up, it has Overwhelmingly Positive reviews on steam. Nice.
Yeah, I had it on Steam but my PC is in storage. It is super good! One of few that stands on its own as a bullet heaven. Brotato is another
Yeah, Brotato is pretty good.
I’m getting back into Hades.
Nice! Have you finished it before?
I haven’t because I suck at games like this but I’ve already gotten further than I had before. Consistently getting to Elysium but getting bad boon rolls really hurts. But the music, writing, and art style keep me interested. Especially with the sequel on the horizon. I know it’s in early access right now, but I can wait.
Nice. Elysium has a difficulty spike from previous world, and the boss is pretty difficult too. I found it more difficult than the last boss.
I’ve noticed. My damage is nowhere near as effective within the first few encounters. But I’ve learned not to take it so seriously. Bad boon buckets happen. Grab the best I can, go as far as I can. Repeat. I need to check some guides on which synergies work best so I can keep an eye out for those while I get more ambrosia for keepsakes.
Which weapons are you using? Sometimes changing weapons helps, for instance I wasn’t all that great with close range weapons, I did best with long range ones. Bow was good, but that gun (forgot the name) was the best.
I’m bouncing between the weapons that give me the bonus darkness but the fists and the railgun are probably my favorites.
I think I’m at the end or very close to the end of Echoes of Wisdom. I will probably finish that on the weekend.
I’ve been playing Halls of Torment on Linux and it’s quite addictive. I don’t think I had played anything similar before, but my first impression was “a mix between original Gauntlet and Diablo”. Pretty fun!
How are you enjoying Echoes of Wisdom? Would love to hear you detailed thoughts once you are finished with it.
Cadeillac mentioned Halls of Torment too today. Is this some new release that everyone is playing?
I finished Zelda shortly after I posted my original comment. It was pretty good! There are some minor things that could be improved (an update hopefully?) but all in all it was quite fun. The puzzles are great, using the echoes and Tri opens up a lot of possibilities to solve them. It’s very much a Zelda in essence, but with lots of new experiences and it does bring in some of the stuff from BotW and TotK into 2D Zelda. Feels like a great new title in the Zelda franchise and maybe it’ll allow for Four Swords/Tri Force Heroes co-op kind of game where you can play with both Link and Zelda in the future. It’s great to see Zelda evolving with the times, still providing fun games, although the story forces us to have our suspension of disbelief full on. It makes absolutely no sense to have a new rewrite of the story each game 😅 (What? Zelda didn’t know who Link was?!?!).
I went back to explore after I beat the final boss. I was not even close to finding all the heart containers! And I need to see how many echoes I’ve missed (gotta catch 'em all!).
Halls of Torment came out of Early Access recently. Just a coincidence that I randomly ended up playing it to be honest. It’s not the kind of game I usually go for, but it’s been really fun!
For me, these Nintendo games (Legend of Zelda, Mario etc) are not a continuity, they are just set pieces used by Nintendo to tell different stories. Like actors playing different roles. Zelda in one game has nothing to do with Zelda in another game (unless it’s a direct sequel) .
I was same with heart containers. I think I had 14 or maybe 16 hearts by the end. Didn’t count the echoes though, but I am sure I had many that I missed.
In Other Waters. Wonderful atmospheric indie with minimalist visual style and a wonderful chill soundtrack. It’s beautiful and relaxing, but never boring.
Yeah, someone mention it before too. Looks very minimalist, but have good reviews.
Selaco.
This looks pretty good. Hope the finished games comes to consoles too!
