So I've been playing this recently...

[Orange]

Decided to mix it up and play Destiny 2. I got it free during the giveaway. I enjoyed the gunplay, wasn't a big fan of the long cool downs and thought the story was pretty dull. This might be because I never played Destiny 1 and so don't have any prior attachment to the characters. I hit the level cap and decided to buy Forsaken but the Asian servers seem to be empty. So still not sure about that.

[pinetree]

So, I got a Switch. Currently playing Breath of the Wild and Hollow Knight.

Any recommendations? I mostly bought it for Zelda, the eventual Etrian Odyssey and Pokémon that are going to come out, and to play Transistor once again (in an actual console this time).

I don't care about Mario, Mario Kart or Smash, so those are out.

[Deathhappens]

Bayonetta 2, I think?

[pinetree]

Sadly, I didn't play the first one.

[Mcjon01]

Bayonetta 2 Switch version comes with a download code for the first one for free

[Deathhappens]

I played the first one and I can tell you whatever the story of 2 might be it probably doesn't really matter anyway.

[Historia]

Playing more Warhammer II (with overhaul mods) now that I can run it on all Ultra settings at a consistent high fps, but, the DLC is more than the base game altogether -- no thank you.

Also excited for Total War: Three Kingdoms. I'm only truly familiar with the Spring and Autumn period of Chinese historical fantasy, so it'll be fun to dive into a new era. It looks beautiful. Though, I'm worried that once again the DLC will be a rip-off.

[pinetree]

Exploration in Breath of the Wild is so incredibly unrewarding. Every apparently unreachable peak you climb, every hidden crevice you stumble upon, every landscape you scavenge going from one place to another, contains little more than another Shrine and another Seed. No matter how much you dedicate yourself to reach a place or explore a new area, you reward is always a fourth of the way to a Health/Stamina upgrade or a tenth (or less) of the way to an inventory upgrade.

If at least getting those "rewards" were fun, then it would be worth it, but Seeds require basically no effort to get once you find the Korok, and the Shrines are home to the simplest of puzzles.
Zelda usually doesn't have clever and fun puzzles in every room of a dungeon, but when the most easy and bland puzzle is all you get, repeated 50 times, it starts to actively bother you.

Specially because, if my exploration of the first two divine beasts so far are any indication, the quantity of Shrines exists in detriment of the actual dungeons. Instead of 7 or so actual fun and interesting locations to explore and solve, they put in a hundred easy rooms scattered around the world and four quick, equally easy (but at least more inspired) dungeons to top it off.

The weird insistence in mechanics that mimic realism is also incredibly annoying, because they only exist as annoyances. See Rain and Weapons as examples.
I think their intention with Rain was to add a random chance of anything becoming more challenging just because of the world itself, but they completely fail. Things do get more challenging, but not in a good way. Rain ruins your ability to climb and forces you to unequip any metal items, and that doesn't make me think more about how to solve any problem, it makes me curse and teleport away because "overcoming the rain" is not fun and it's much easier to just wait until it stops.
The durability is also just a hindrance dressed up as challenge. There's no feeling of accomplishment in finding any weapon because you know it'll break after 10 or so uses, it forces you to constantly get into battles to keep you stock of weapons so you don't get caught off guard without them when it really matters, and those battles aren't fun. There are 5 or so different common monsters populating the entire landscape, meaning you're basically fighting the same thing over and over and over again with no visible benefit whatsoever.

This, I believed, was partially intentional, as it would make getting the Master Sword all the more rewarding since, obviously, it wouldn't break and would probably be better than anything else in the game.
To my surprise, after working my ass off finding Shrines to increase my health so I could wield the sword, it is just a regular sword. Not only the damage is average but IT DOES "BREAK" BY JUST CEASING TO WORK FOR A WHILE and you have to wait 10 minutes to use it again. I later found out it did have special abilities, but they are only available against certain enemies, meaning the endless battling for good gear continues on. Even more frustrating is hearing that apparently the DLC fixes this last part by giving you the Master Sword powered mode permanently.

The gameplay is fun, the setting is incredible, and the ambiance is marvelous. The story is fine even if few characters left strong impressions so far, but the way they chose to present it and the addition of voice acting really works in favor of the overall feeling of bleak wonder and burdened adventure that the game is trying to convey.

I can only hope they keep many of the ideas used here but go back to a more traditional style of Zelda in the next game, even if it pains me to say this after talking so much about how I wanted more change.

I've played about 40 hours by now, and, to be fair, the world only started to lose its shine after about 30 hours in. So I'll try to stick to the main quest for now so the game doesn't lose its brilliance completely to me, like the Master Sword after 5 swings.

[Sesto]

Still finishing up the Epilogue but man, RDR2 is a really great game. Dutch and Arthur (especially if you play him with high Honor) are 10/10 characters and their voice actors did such a great job.

It's kind of crazy this came out the same year as GOW, both were such phenomenal games.

[Deathhappens]

Playing more Warhammer II (with overhaul mods) now that I can run it on all Ultra settings at a consistent high fps, but, the DLC is more than the base game altogether -- no thank you.

Also excited for Total War: Three Kingdoms. I'm only truly familiar with the Spring and Autumn period of Chinese historical fantasy, so it'll be fun to dive into a new era. It looks beautiful. Though, I'm worried that once again the DLC will be a rip-off.

The pirate DLC is the one I think is the most worth it- unfortunately, it's also the most expensive one, so... yeah. Tomb Kings aren't bad, but they aren't really all that unique gameplay wise either.

[Historia]

I recently picked all DLC (both Warhammer I and II) for 65 USD during a winter sale on Fanatical.

Warhammer III looks like it'll be Chaos-focused.

Ogre faction when.

[Deathhappens]

Was playing Trails in the Sky FC on the side via phone when I couldn't be arsed to farm FGO instead. I have to say, it really is a standout among JRPGs, even compared to the 'big name' console ones; a vibrant and 'lived in' world with tons of NPCs that keep advancing their personal storylines over the course of the game, a strong protagonist duo that, while not precisely breaking from the cliches, manages to fill them in with a lot of real character, and a blessed lack of "required grinding" to proceed really push it ahead. The combat system isn't really original, but it's at least not the typical FF-style command system and it does bake in some nuances here and there. Was really hyped to continue the storyline in SC, but apparently I had the EU version of FC and I can't load the clear save from there...

[Spartacus]

Has been into Fire Emblem lately, mainly because my old 2DS only have Pokemon games and friend of mine offers me both Awakening and Fates for 20$.
I thought it's going to be hard, but it's simply baiting and aggro the AI one by one.
Thought it is going to be character-centric games, I honestly didn't see it, but admittedly it was fun to ship people.
Only played Awakening so far tho

[Deathhappens]

Which Fates did you get?

[Spartacus]

Conquest. Though he said it already includes other routes.

[Deathhappens]

Huh, nice. I actually bought Birthright myself yesterday although I'd completely forgotten about this conversation, lol (originally went to get Hacker's Memory).
Probably gonna have to buy the other two paths separately too...

[Deathhappens]

My experience with Birthright so far: If I have to hear one more "Big brother!" I'm going to get Rapture City on their asses.

EDIT FROM A FEW HOURS LATER: I think the way the MC pronounces Sakura's name might be legitimately be a war crime.

[Spartacus]

Awakening: Poor girl is so stressed out and tried to kill her own mother.

Shouldn't play a female MC with a male name though it kinda ruin the immersion.

[Deathhappens]

Eh, Robin and Corrin are both sufficiently androgynous that it doesn't bother me. Although I regret choosing a female MC for Birthright because unlike Awakening I don't want to marry them to any of these dudes.
Oh well, Silas will have to suffice, just to break the cliche that childhood friends never win.

[Spartacus]

I didn't know how the marrying system works beside it exist since this is the first time I play a Fire Emblem game, and I didn't use their default name.
So I just max her and Chrom conversation because I can, then they get married all of a sudden and I just roll with it.
But apparently, I can marry Lucina as the Male MC so I will try it out if I decided to play the second times since the idea of marrying your best buddy's daughter is funny (and most characters besides the three MC didn't have actual depth anyway).