_Lory98_
@_Lory98_@discuss.tchncs.de
- Comment on Weekly “What are you playing” Thread || Week of July 13th 1 week ago:
Finished Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 and found it really disappointing.
I did like the idea of the whole story, but overall I didn’t really care about anything. The prologue and the initial parts of act 1 where really strong, but after a while it wasn’t really doing it for me. It picks back up right at the end, but the events there feel rushed, and while I do like where it goes, it didn’t really vibe with me.
The combat on the other hand is a mess. The real time defensive actions are overpowered, as they completely prevent damage, so the only meaningful stats and equipment become the ones that increase the damage you deal. Before the end of act 1, I reached the damage cap on and very quickly after that I reached it on multi hit moves. The enemies also follow the nonsensical animation design of Elden Ring where they twitch and feint, trying to get you to react earlier, which I just don’t find fun.
Music was great tho, and I like the aesthetic even if after a while the environments got samey.
- Comment on Weekly “What are you playing” Thread || Week of July 7th 2 weeks ago:
I’m occasionally playing Fantasy Life i, but mostly played Xenoblade Chronicles 2’s DLC. I think I liked it more than the original game, although it could not exist without it.
I started Claire Obscur: Expedition 33. I really like the setting, presentation and aesthetics. I’m not entirely sold on the real-time defensive mechanics in combat, I think they remove more than they add, but I do really like how each character has their own unique gimmick, which is something that’s sorely lacking in JRPGs.
- Comment on Weekly “What are you playing” Thread || Week of June 29th 3 weeks ago:
Finished playing the Futures Connected extra story of Xenoblade Chronicles. It was OK as a short epilogue, but I wish the story explored more of
spoiler
Fiora’s situation instead.
I’ve started the Torna DLC for Xenoblade Chronicles 2. I’m not sure sure if I wanna play it right now as it looks really bad in handheld, especially on Switch 2, where there’s both the bad resolution (I think it’s like 540p or less?) and the colors are fucked. I might wait a bit hoping a patch is released.
I’ve also started Fantasy Life i. It’s pretty fun, it kinda reminds me of FFXIV with how the job system works. I do wish there was a bit more complexity in crafting, but it’s still fun and there seems to be a lot to do.
- Comment on Weekly “What are you playing” Thread || Week of June 22nd 4 weeks ago:
That’s true! I hadn’t though about it, but it does feel a lot like when I tried optimising City Escape in Generations. Probably even faster paced since, you rarely need to slow down when driving.
- Comment on Weekly “What are you playing” Thread || Week of June 22nd 4 weeks ago:
Finished Xenoblade Chronicles, I’m playing the extra story now. I enjoyed it this time around. It’s nowhere close to a masterpiece, but the setting is pretty unique.
Playing a bit of Mario Kart World. The new systems (rails, wall riding) seem fun, but I’m not a fan of the constant straight roads. Grand Prix is not great and Knockout Tour is fun but is starting to get stale. The most fun I’m having is in Time Trial, as it seems like the best way to play with the new mechanics.
- Comment on Weekly “What are you playing” Thread || Week of June 15th 5 weeks ago:
I’m playing Xenoblade Chronicles. I started it years ago and dropped because I was disappointed by the writing. Now I’ve been playing the other games in the series and gave it another shot. I am enjoying it now - the combat is more interesting than the one in 2 or X and the world is fun to explore. I do still find the characters a bit shallow tho and the story fails to create mysteries, as it spoils them immediately in an attempt to do foreshadowing.
- Comment on Mario Kart World | Review Thread 1 month ago:
I’ve had fun playing it with friends, especially Knockout Tour, but I’m not really sold on it: I’m not sure if it’s because of the increased player count, but items feel overtuned to the point that getting to first place seems meaningless or even detrimental to winning the race, as you’ll often get thrown back 10 places. Besides that, there is too much time spent driving on the roads between tracks, which are not as fun as the actual tracks.
Haven’t played Free Roam since I mostly played with friends and I don’t find it interesting, but it seems like a decent extra mode.
Also yea obviously it’s overpriced and not worth 80 €.
- Comment on Weekly “What are you playing” Thread || Week of June 8th 1 month ago:
A friend got a Switch 2 with Mario Kart World, so we too played that for a bit. Knockout Tour is really fun, while I didn’t like that Grand Prix races have only one lap. I think the highways are better for KT since there’s 6 tracks and there’s more risk due to the elimination. Fun game tho not worth 80 € (or 90), nor a system seller for me.
The Switch 2 feels like a huge improvement over the original, the new joycons are much nicer and the 1080p screen looks much better. My only complaints are that the screen is an LCD without HDR (not a dealbreaker since it’s good enough, but still disappointing when considering the price). The other complaint I have is the battery, as it’s too small for the system. Playing Mario Kart in portable drained at least 50 % in around an hour.
I’ve finished Xenoblade Chronicles X DE and I kinda wish I didn’t. The chapter added with the remaster was terrible, it was completely unnecessary, a waste of potential and ruined everything the original story did. It felt like the writers didn’t have a plan so they just forced these 3 quests because they had to.
Still tho, the Wii U part of the game was good, as were the other DE changes, so I enjoyed it.
- Comment on Weekly “What are you playing” Thread || Week of June 1st 1 month ago:
I’m finishing Xenoblade Chronicles X. I finished the original Wii U story, which was alright but
spoiler
A bit disappointed it ended on a cliffhanger and the unexplained stuff was the thing I was most interested in.
I’m now doing a few of the remaining side quests and I might try fighting some higher level tyrants before continuing with the new chapter.
I tried a couple of roguelikes, it’s a genre I haven’t played much so I was curious to try it:
I tried Hades. The story is probably good, but I just can’t stand the gameplay. I didn’t find the combat to be particularly engaging, it’s too button mashy and none of the weapons feel good to use. I consistently get to Elysium in 25-30 minutes, then die at the boss and end up having to redo everything just for an attempt at fighting them.
Similarly for One Step From Eden, it takes me almost an hour to reach the final boss, for which I’m not ready since it takes so long to get to it. I do prefer the gameplay of this one, there’s more variety in the bosses and there seem to be more options for builds, although I haven’t had success in deviating from the one strategy I found.
I didn’t really find the gameplay of either interesting enough to justify the grind, so I have dropped them.
- Comment on Weekly “What are you playing” Thread || Week of May 25th 1 month ago:
I’m continuing Xenoblade Chronicles X. I’ve slowed down a bit, since last time I played like 45 hours in a single week and I’ve gotten a bit burnt out. The game has also become a bit stale since since I’ve unlocked all the (main) mechanics and the mechs were disappointing.
I’m not saying the game’s bad or that I’m disliking it, but it feels too simple and repetitive for what the setting and mechanics could allow.
- Comment on Weekly “What are you playing” Thread || Week of May 18th 2 months ago:
I’ve been playing Xenoblade Chronicles X.
The combat is pretty fun. It’s a bit more complex than the other two Xenoblade games I played (1 and 2), as there are more support skills you can use and overdrive requires a bit of planning. Enemies also have breakable parts, which add a bit of decision making during combat, although it does still feel a bit passive as there aren’t many enemy mechanics to interact with.
Very minor progression spoiler
I have unlocked the Skell after ~30 hours and it was pretty underwhelming. Grounded combat feels more fun and it’s pretty disappointing that you can’t customize much of the mech’s aesthetics apart from color (and I’m not a huge fan of the designs).
The main story is fine and the sidequests are pretty good. They are very short, but they have interesting stories. The “affinity” quests feel like they are the focus of the game instead of the main story.
- Comment on Weekly “What are you playing” Thread || Week of May 11th 2 months ago:
I played a bit of Phantasy Star Portable, but my PSP’s battery is half dead and I’m waiting for a replacement, so I didn’t play long. Seems like a fun game tho.
I finished Xenoblade Chronicles 2 and I have a few thoughts about it.
The gameplay starts slow, too slow to be interesting, but after around 20 hours you unlock all the main systems and it gets really fun. It is however dragged down a bit by how bad the blade gacha and how grindy other secondary mechanics are (affinity charts and region development/mercenary missions).
The story was fine, it was pretty standard for a JRPG. I felt like the main characters were more interesting than the ones in the first game, but the overall plot and themes were a bit weak.
Various (minor) story spoilers
I did find the theme of death and remembrance interesting in this setting, but I didn’t feel like it was explored deeply enough. Same for the ethical issues of using blades, which the story acknowledges, but never really deals with it. The blade gacha system also goes against what the story is trying to say, as it forces you to treat common blades as expendable or just workforce for mercenary missions.
The story feels overall a bit rushed towards the end (especially the ending comes abruptly, I was expecting it to be a fakeout) and weirdly unfocused before that, but still engaging enough.
- Comment on Open World Games: yay or nay? 2 months ago:
Nay, but I have a few exceptions:
FFXV really benefits from the open world and never felt copy pasted like most others.
Outer Wilds (if that counts) could obviously only exist with a continuous map.
While I dislike most open world games, I don’t think it’s an issue with the open world itself, but with how shallow the games end up being as they all copy the same formula and they all seem afraid to hide “content” from you, so exploration gets trivialized.
- Comment on Weekly “What are you playing” Thread || Week of May 4th 2 months ago:
After La Mulana I wanted to try more Metroidvanias, so I tried Castlevania: Symphony of the Night but found it incredibly dull and dropped it after a couple of hours.
I understand the historical significance of its level design, but the combat was so easy that traversal became boring, as enemies respawn every time you change rooms. Also, the sprites are beautiful and detailed, and the game looks great, but Alucard’s movement feels off due to the animation.
I then switched to Touhou Luna Nights, which was really short but fun. The time stop gimmick was fun to use and I liked the bosses. The metroidvania aspect was a bit shallow, probably due to the length of the game, as it’s mainly used for optional powerups.
I started playing Stranger of Paradise Final Fantasy Origin. It seems like a fun game, the writing seems really cheesy (but enjoyable) and the combat is fun. A big problem tho is a bug that keeps triggering a slowdown at random times, which is really annoying and got me killed in a bunch of encounters.
Finally, I wanted to play Infinity Nikki, but I kinda lost interest with how the developer has been behaving lately. Can never trust gacha games.
- Comment on Weekly “What are you playing” Thread || Week of April 27th 2 months ago:
I’m finally free from La Mulana. It took me 50 hours, and I had to look up hints for a couple of puzzles that I couldn’t figure out towards the end (and I’m still not sure how you were supposed to solve them without guessing).
The puzzles were manageable for the most part, although not knowing what solving a puzzle did made it needlessly more confusing and IMO a bit unsatisfying.
I found the combat to be too hard and unfair in boss fights and the hitboxes were really bad as they often didn’t match the graphics.
I’m conflicted on if I enjoyed it or not - the experience was quite unique (for good or bad), and the game being hostile and designed to waste as much time as possible is a big part of that identity.
The weird controls grow on you and navigation never got boring, as you plan a safe path through the screen. I found the story to be surprisingly interesting, the puzzles were memorable and while I disliked most boss fights, I did enjoy the final one and the previous quite a bit.
Probably gonna play the sequel sometime and also other metroidvanias, as it’s a genre I haven’t paid much attention to.
- Comment on Weekly “What are you playing” Thread || Week of April 20th 2 months ago:
Understandable, yea.
The puzzle part feels like Outer Wilds, but without the log to help you and it’s also a bit less linear, which I’m personally enjoying but I can see why it could be boring.
The platforming/navigation is a bit janky but usable.
The combat is IMO absolute garbage (the bosses in particular are pretty bad fights that waste your time and the hitboxes are terrible) and wouldn’t be surprised if this is what makes most people quit.
For now at least, the exploration and puzzles overshadow the negatives, but they are pretty big negatives that are hard to ignore.
- Comment on Weekly “What are you playing” Thread || Week of April 20th 2 months ago:
I’ve been playing Under Night In-Birth II. I had bought it last year but never actually played it. After this first week of matches I’d say it’s my favorite in this latest “generation” of figthing games.
I randomly bought Azure Striker Gunvolt on Switch, since I rememberd hearing good things about it when it came out, but it’s not much fun to play. It feels really unpolished, the levels and bosses are a bit on the annoying side and the combat gimmick, where you need to tag enemies with projectiles to be able to damage them, feels really bad to use as it’s slow and unsatisfying.
Everyone playing Blue Prince reminded me of La-Mulana, which I’ve been playing in the last few days. I’m a bit conflicted on it, since I like most of what the game does except for the combat which I find rather bad and unfairly punishing when considering how imprecise it is. I am enjoying the game tho, although I’m a bit worried it might be too long.
- Comment on Weekly “What are you playing” Thread || Week of April 13th 3 months ago:
Played Splatoon 3. The different modes are really fun, except for Turf War which kinda sucks. It’s the first time I’m trying to learn how to play a team game and I’m confused on how to improve, but I’m having fun with it.
For some reason tho Nintendo thought it was a good idea to do two day events (“Splatfests”) periodically which lock you out of any mode beside Turf War for their entire duration, so I went looking for other competitive games:
I went back to Guilty Gear Strive after dropping it for more than a year, but after playing it for a few hours, I still don’t like how sluggish the game feels and I’m not too happy with the modern design trends in fighting games (or in general the curent state of them). The biggest issue that stops me from playing tho is the terrible online experience which still hasn’t been fixed after 4 years.
- Comment on Weekly “What are you playing” Thread || Week of April 6th 3 months ago:
Not much this week, been looking a lot at the Switch 2 trailers.
I’ve played Heavenly Bodies with a friend. We liked it, although it wasn’t really designed for two people.
I’m back to Fire Emblem Engage, played chapter 16 which took me ages.
- Comment on Nintendo Switch 2 Direct Megathread 3 months ago:
I feel like that kind of price increase would encourage illegal downloads too. Especially for countries with weaker currencies
I wonder if that’s why they’ve been more aggressive against emulators lately.
But yea, same for me: there’s very few games I’d spend that much money on, and I can’t imagine myself paying 80$ for something I don’t even know if I’ll like. I hope it doesn’t become the new standard.
- Comment on Nintendo Switch 2 Direct Megathread 3 months ago:
The +$10 for physical games worries me they might be trying to push more people to digital games, to
- Comment on Nintendo Switch 2 Direct Megathread 3 months ago:
Quite disappointed with how they are now going for $90 (physical, $80 digital) games, the upgraded versions are paid DLCs and even the tech demo is a digital purchase.
The console looks good, but everything looks overpriced and that has kinda killed my interest.
- Comment on Weekly “What are you playing” Thread || Week of March 30th 3 months ago:
I’ll probably wait a bit to play III, but I’ve heard it’s alright from people who hate I and II. Although I’ve also heard that IV is not good.
Azure and Zero are definitely the best ones, I really liked FC and SC, although they do have some problems (the first half of SC is pretty bad, and the same problem with ouroboros I mentioned before) and I think 3rd has an interesting story, but bad gameplay and pacing.
- Comment on Weekly “What are you playing” Thread || Week of March 30th 3 months ago:
Randomly trying games on my phone, I downloaded Infinity Nikki and I’ve been hooked for the past few days.
I like the customization, especially when compared to the more limited one in FFXIV, although I wish it had dyeing (and more jackets). Compared to other gacha games, I like how “the grind” is more focused on crafting clothing instead of just leveling up, although resources (and by that I mean the timed energy) feel a bit too scarce.
Screenshot from Infinity Nikki of the titular Nikki wearing a pink dress with a black jacket.
I finally finished Trails of Cold Steel II, or more accurately I watched the final story cutscenes because I gave up towards the end of the final dungeon (Which I’m glad I did because it otherwise would have been a waste of time).
The duology was really bad, I don’t think there’s anything positive I can say about it, other than that it’s finally over (hopefully III is actually better as I’ve heard). I’ve already complained about the characters in previous, so I’ll now complain about the rest.
rant + various potential spoilers up to and including CS2
The overall story felt pointless, at best it added nothing to what was already established, at worse it made the civil war feel like a joke. I think it would have been better to just skip to the end as what was mentioned in Azure felt bigger than what actually happened in CS. The writing is childish and really doesn’t fit the setting it’s trying to build. The supposed war doesn’t feel like an actual conflict. This was an issue with the previous games too, but this time it feels like it’s done to a ridiculous amount: the bosses either escape because the were “holding back” or a more powerful ally comes in and solves the situation. The game doesn’t want to remove anyone from the story, so everyone just leaves every fight and no one ever dies (I’m pretty sure there are 3 deaths in the whole war, and one of them I’m sure is another fakeout). I don’t find Ourobororos that interesting of an enemy, their motivations are too vague and I find the current active enforcers boring characters. Crow feels like a waste of a character. He’s the only one I feel had any potential, but he has barely any screentime (in both games) and the way Class VII is obsessed with him feels really weird and unmotivated.
Overall I think the two games were bad in the worst way possible: it was a boring waste of time.
- Comment on Weekly “What are you playing” Thread || Week of March 24th 3 months ago:
Trying to finish Trails of Cold Steel II.
My opinion hasn’t really changed on it from last time, it still drags and most of the game feels like padding, the characters are uninteresting and the combat is a downgrade from the older games. The tone of the writing also really doesn’t fit the setting and that bothers me a lot.
As with CS1, the bond system feels unnecessary and it’s not really used for character growth (which would have probably been fine if they were interesting in the main story). I’m still playing only because I really liked the previous games, otherwise I’d have dropped them early into CS1.
Borrowed Nine Sols and tried it for a few hours. It seems quite good, I really enjoy the art and parrying feels really satisfying.
- Comment on Weekly “What are you playing” Thread || Week of March 16th 4 months ago:
Played a bit more Library of Ruina, but couldn’t focus so I ended up looking for something else to play.
Tried Ninja Gaiden (Sigma, from the Master Collection), but while I do like the gameplay I just can’t stand the controls and the camera.
Next I tried Daemon X Machina, it’s fine but it feels rather lacking when compared to AC6.
I tried Final Fantasy X again, and I do find the general story and themes interesting but I can’t care about the characters and the gameplay is mind numbingly boring.
I ended up settling on Final Fantasy V (Pixel Remaster) because of the job system. I don’t really like how the pixel remasters look, but it’s fine.
- Comment on Weekly “What are you playing” Thread || Week of March 9th 4 months ago:
Finished Chants of Sennaar. It was pretty good, altho it got a little bit repetitive towards the end. I did enjoy the
spoiler
translation puzzles in particular.
Played a bit of Shenzhen I/O. It’s fun, but I’m a bit annoyed at how logic gates are (not) used and overall it makes me want to work on actual hardware projects.
Started Library of Ruina, hopefully it’s less painful than Lobotomy Corporation, which I had to drop as I couldn’t figure it out even tho I liked it.
- Submitted 4 months ago to gaming@beehaw.org | 0 comments
- Comment on Weekly “What are you playing” Thread || Week of Feb 23rd 4 months ago:
This week I played Xenoblade Chronicles 2 which I started a while ago. Compared to the first one which I did not like at all, both story and gameplay are a huge improvement. I actually am interested in the characters now and the combat is pretty fun, altho I still haven’t had a chance to experiment much with it.
I have however a few minor complaints: the blade gacha is a terrible concept and I can’t understand why it was put in the game; on handheld, performance is generally good but the graphics are ruined by a really strong sharpening filter; Pyra’s outfit is dumb and doesn’t fit the character.
I’m also playing Chants of Sennarr and it’s really good! I especially liked the design of the first three languages. The artstye is also really nice.
I’m back to Trails of Cold Steel 2. It is better than the first one. It still feels a bit like padding but it doesn’t feel as pointless. The game structure doesn’t feel as formulaic and repetitive, there’s less quests and it moves much quicker. The characters also finally look different from eachother, as they are no longer in uniform.
The issues tho are still mostly the same: the combat is a downgrade from the Crossbell game (the orbment system in Cold Steel is basically materia from FF7, instead of the much more interesting previous implementation) and I don’t care about any of these characters as they barely have a personality (I blame this on the social link-style mechanics and bloated cast).
- Comment on Weekly “What are you playing” Thread || Week of Feb 23rd 4 months ago:
Bad week this time:
I got a bit tired of Trails of Cold Steel 2, so to take a break I tried playing Wolfenstein 2, but it gave me motion sickness (not sure why, as the game is running fine and I tried increasing the fov, which usually works for me). I started looking for other games to play, but I can’t find anything that clicks.
I tried CrossCode again, restarting it after stopping a while ago at the first real dungeon (the mines).
I really like the art, the characters are charming and the premise is interesting enough.
The puzzles are alright, altho they’ve already started getting repetitive (I’m after the halfway point of the second dungeon). The combat too seems alright, but the enemies are really annoying to fight, as they all force you to wait to hit them, which I find really boring.
Overall I don’t like it and will very likely drop it now. After like 10 hours the actual story hasn’t advanced much and the MMO’s story is not at all interesting. I tried doing a few sidequests as I had heard they were good and I felt I was underleveled, but I ended up being disappointed by what I found. Same for the exploration, mostly because it was unrewarding and the graphics lack depth, making telling apart different heights for puzzles and platforming really hard. I could probably keep ranting, but I’ll end it here.
