Ashtear
@Ashtear@lemm.ee
- Comment on How Clair Obscur’s Composer Created An Incredible Soundtrack 2 days ago:
It’s fairly one-note at first, but you will get options later that will allow you to soak some hits. Make sure you’re keeping your pictos updated.
That said, yeah, in a game with a fully developed dodge and parry system, you’re going to be expected to at least dodge almost everything when playing on high difficulty.
- Comment on How Clair Obscur’s Composer Created An Incredible Soundtrack 2 days ago:
LT: I knew pretty early the scope of the universe, the level, and the script, so I made my dream soundtrack. For example, I would take a level and would want to write three environment tracks, two battle themes, and one boss theme. I do that for the whole game and — one by one — I’d write the track for five years until the end.
This is what’s so nuts to me about this soundtrack. It’s not only quality; it’s quantity too. Those who have played the JRPGs that inspired this game know: for the entire game, you get a few regular battle themes, a few boss themes, and a final boss theme. Some of the consensus top soundtracks in the genre aren’t this big. Yet this single composer did multiples for each level. Only the biggest projects in the genre get this kind of treatment.
I’m glad Broche gave Testard so much run for this game, and gave him the tools to make it sound great, too.
- Comment on Survey for curiosity: How many readers are in a library network that holds video games? 3 days ago:
Mine does, yes, and it has a great inter-library loan system, too. As long as it hasn’t come out recently, I have access to a big chunk of the Switch library.
Unfortunately, it looks like going forward that it’s not software costs that are going to be the biggest problem, it’s hardware. Adjusting for inflation, hardware has never been this expensive this late in a generation in my country. Not even the PS3.
- Comment on What is your favorite indie game? 4 days ago:
For me, FTL: Faster than Light still hasn’t been topped. *Hades II might get there, though. Disco Elysium, Ikaruga, and Papers, Please are also high on the list.
- Submitted 5 days ago to games@lemmy.world | 118 comments
- Comment on Chrono Trigger Remake Seemingly Confirmed By Yuji Horii 6 days ago:
Per Gematsu (and others by now, I’m sure).
- Comment on Future of Giant Bomb website in doubt following prominent staff departures 1 week ago:
The irony is outlets have never been more transparent about review process, embargoes, disclosures, etc. because of all that, and yet…
Can only lead a horse to water, though. A staggering amount of people can’t tell the difference between independent reviewers and paid influencers.
- Comment on Do you think Square Enix should remake other Final Fantasy entries? 1 week ago:
Like you said yourself, it’s risky.
That said, I think SQEX is one of the better large publishers out there about giving ideas some leeway. Hell, they let Yoko Taro make really fucking weird shit for far longer than was reasonable until it finally paid off with NieR: Automata.
- Comment on Do you think Square Enix should remake other Final Fantasy entries? 1 week ago:
If by capital “R” Remake you mean the full three-game treatment FF7 received, Kitase’s already said they’re not planning on doing that again. Future remake projects, should they happen, will be smaller in scope. An FF9 project was leaked twice and is heavily rumored, so it’s most likely next (if it wasn’t quietly cancelled, anyway). We also don’t know exactly where it would fall on the spectrum between remaster and remake, but the Epic leak suggests it’s more of a remake.
FFT is the one I’d like to see the most, and it has even more rumors around it. But, I would expect that would look something like Tactics Ogre Reborn, mostly a remaster. It could really use some modern features, like a move undo and some UI enhancements, like a helper for zodiac signs. What I want the most from it is an orchestrated soundtrack. It’s a gorgeous work that deserves the full treatment. I’d also love to see more content, like extra side quests, but I’m not holding my breath on that.
FF6 is the most logical next step after those in terms of enduring popularity, especially if they want to target the Western market. It would probably be super controversial in the fandom, though.
- Comment on Blizzard reportedly taps Nexon to publish Overwatch mobile and a new StarCraft game 1 week ago:
I’ve actively tried not to be a Blizzard doomer, but Nexon? I guess wealth extraction is where these IPs are now. Bleh.
- Comment on Ace Attorney became a hit IP only because Capcom pushed past the “failure” of first game, according to former dev 1 week ago:
Pains me to hear it called a failure, it’s such a delightful game. While the Western release years after was not part of initial development, it’s also a landmark game in English localization history. The script brilliantly handles the puns and other specific quirks of the original Japanese while also setting a standard tone for this series and similar games that followed. For example, I don’t know if Kansai-ben was translated into a US Southern accent in a video game before this one, and now it’s a common shortcut.
- Comment on Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 hits 500k sales in one day 1 week ago:
I think this one’s going to sell quite well once word-of-mouth spreads.
I’ve played several hours of this already and the deeper I get, the more it makes me think of Dark Souls. It has that same sort of cadence in the dungeons, just turn-based instead, with a party. What’s wild is even with how derivative the concept is, it’s a brilliant, fresh-feeling idea for dungeon design. I’ve been feeling like JRPG dungeons have been stale for a while now, and I’m loving both how dangerous the dungeon trash is and how there isn’t a ton of it. Normally by this point in a more traditional Japanese-style RPG I’m starting to skip around in boss rush mode. Not here. I’m wanting the challenge.
It’s nowhere near as difficult as a Souls-like though. I’ve seen many complaints about how not-optional the dodge/parry system is, but at least so far, I think there are ways around it. I’m not even through Act 1 and there are already enough tools that even people that miss most dodges can find busted builds to offset with (and I’m sure I’ve missed a lot of helpful Pictos and other loot already).
I have some nits to pick, but it’s been a great game on the whole so far. The soundtrack and voice acting in particular are top-notch.
- Comment on Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 | Review Thread (92/100 OpenCritic) 2 weeks ago:
Really curious about how well this game does. Being at a significantly lower price point, if it ends up a major GotY contender, that will make waves.
Depending on just how JRPG the game feels, it could also have a big impact there, too. The genre doesn’t have a regular, clear market leader anymore.
- Comment on What are you watching and, what do you recommend this week? 2 weeks ago:
Just finished Castlevania: Nocturne (not bad) and am watching The Last of Us season 2.
I’m also watching DOTA: Dragon’s Blood, which has been such a very pleasant surprise for me and I never see anyone talking about it. I know next to nothing about DOTA, so I had zero investment in the world ahead of time. It feels like an R-rated Avatar: The Last Airbender, with similar pacing, episode runtime, and occasional silly bits. I’ve loved the voice cast (although ironically, my favorite character is mute), and it’s kinda bizarre but fun how many of the actors are Star Trek alumni.
- Comment on What are you watching and, what do you recommend this week? 2 weeks ago:
Season 1 was a high water mark for TV in general, so anything that followed had an impossibly high bar to clear anyway. That said, I’d still say just skip season 2.
I thought season 3 was good, not great. It fits the themes well, but the talent and cast chemistry simply do not compare. Still worth a watch down the line, I think.
- Comment on ‘Andor’ Season 2 Completes the Best ‘Star Wars’ Story of the Disney Era: TV Review 2 weeks ago:
Ohh man, the reviews for this are glowing. I’m trying not to get overhyped for this, but the first season was some of the best TV I’ve ever seen.
- Comment on Useless rant about Witcher 3 romance 2 weeks ago:
Highly recommend the sitting in the character’s shoes approach. I ended up
spoiler
killing Keira on the island on my first playthrough because I didn’t pick up on how desperate she was,
and really kicked myself for missing that cue after. Still one of my most regretfully memorable gaming moments.
- Comment on Useless rant about Witcher 3 romance 2 weeks ago:
I really do think they should have flipped the timeline for the two. Even players of the first two games don’t really know Yennefer that well, so her proper introduction to the player comes very late, all things considered.
Not being immersed in their backstory also doesn’t really convey how messed up it is that Triss got together with an man who lost the memories of the woman he was in love with.
- Comment on Almost 19% of Japanese people in their 20s have spent so much money on gacha they struggled with covering living expenses, survey reveals - AUTOMATON WEST 2 weeks ago:
Headline doesn’t match what’s in the report. It’s not just gacha; the question in the survey is inclusive of other games that offer in-game purchases (課金 in Japanese). So we’re talking about skins and boosts in MMOs, MOBAs, and shooters, hints in games like Candy Crush, etc.
The report posted here last week showed just how much MTX spending there is on PC, of which gacha is still a small part. I suspect there is a higher rate of gacha spending in Japan than there is globally (outside of China, perhaps), but I’d be surprised if gacha even made up half of the spending SMBC is reporting on here.
- Comment on The Triple-i Initiative 2025 - Indie games for 2025 3 weeks ago:
The Eternal Life of Goldman is visually stunning. Plus Yasunori Nishiki? He’s had some amazing music lately. I’m definitely in for this one.
- Comment on Switch 2 Tutorial Game Welcome Tour Costs $10, Nintendo Explains Why It's Not a Free Console Pack-In - IGN 4 weeks ago:
I think this money grab wouldn’t have gotten as much run if it hadn’t been front and center in the Direct. Feels like a misstep, but then, so does €90 Mario Kart…
- Comment on I really need these games ported to Steam. What do y'all have on your lists? 4 weeks ago:
Rumors abound for a remaster of this one, but I’m gonna start thinking it was a casualty of SQEX’s recent restructuring if it doesn’t surface this year.
- Comment on The Switch 2 Rollout Was So Convoluted It Made Us Want A Steam Deck. 5 weeks ago:
Pure speculation here, but I’m pretty sure the reason Nintendo significantly ramped up their legal hiring in the past few years is because they figured it was cheaper to chill the development of custom firmware and emulation than it was to tighten up their hardware.
I’m sure they still made an effort, but I’d be very surprised if the security isn’t broken fairly quickly.
- Comment on Magic: The Gathering devs unban cards as ‘an experiment’ 5 weeks ago:
Lord of the Rings was massively successful, and I’ve been seeing even more buzz for Final Fantasy than there was LotR. Universes Beyond is certainly here to stay.
- Comment on GOG seems to be considering paid membership option 5 weeks ago:
Steam’s investment in UI and store features are part of the onus of hardware platform growth. Steam isn’t just a storefront anymore. GOG has no such interest.
I do think indicators are good for the future of Linux gaming, but it’s just not good business right now to go chasing it.
- Comment on What are some old games that are hard to revisit, because a more modern and superior version exists? 1 month ago:
Action RPGs, especially the ones with a heavy focus on loot, suffer the most for me. Trying to play through Vagrant Story now is brutal. MP for fast travel!
- Comment on Chrono Trigger Is Timeless 1 month ago:
It’s tough because I’m sure people that grew up playing games with map markers could certainly get lost in it, but at the same time Chrono Trigger is one of the most straight-forward games of its era/genre. There are JRPGs that came out two generations later that had a real rough time with the “find the NPC to advance the story” problem.
Depending on the version you’re playing, the post game content isn’t quite as sharp as the original stuff (it was added years later by a different team). The New Game+ mode, on the other hand, was in the original and is good stuff.
- Comment on Chrono Trigger Is Timeless 1 month ago:
At this point it’s one of those things that comes down to taste rather than authenticity. Pixel-art games have continued on and had their own development arc between indie gaming and the remastering trend, and they’ve all had different approaches to it. Even people like me that grew up with CRT displays have had their tastes shaped by years of gaming on different tech.
I haven’t gotten my hands on a CRT since I left my last one behind 15-ish years ago, but I do get a bit of a nostalgia buzz from the CRT-Royale package on a 4K display. When that’s not available I tend to use one of the scalers because I really don’t like aliasing, and high resolution displays really bring out the blockiness. That sort of thing is sacrilege to some people. Everyone’s a little different.
- Comment on Square Enix will be revisiting Chrono Trigger in several projects in 2025 to mark game's 30th anniversary 1 month ago:
Album seems likely considering how have Mitsuda has been on that with Xenogears lately.
- Comment on [deleted] 1 month ago:
Could also try crossposting in !jrpg@lemmy.zip.