So I've been playing this recently...

[Skull]

Vampyr had the potential to be really good, but in my experience it was just ok. It was lacking something gameplay-wise, and the choices didn't feel like it mattered in the end

I should clarify that when I said "choices" I didn't mean getting the different endings, but rather interactions with the Citizens of London since there's some cool scenes if you chain certain actions together. For example, if you manage to save the MC's mother but then afterwards kill your butler, he won't be there to stop your mother from succumbing to her dementia and wondering outside at night which causes her to be bitten and turn into a high level optional boss. That's just a simple example of many ripple effects because of the "Social Circles" mechanic.

This is why I mentioned the forced autosave works against the game since you can't experiment to see how your actions affect things and it's not worth sabotaging the ending you want just to see what would happen if you did X action.

But yeah, other than that I agree with you that Vampyr had the potential to be a classic but it was clearly a case of "vision beyond ability" since iirc this was only their second RPG game.

[Mattias]

I decided to try the demo for the latest Monster Hunter after it crashed Nintendo's servers when it went live. It's pretty fun, this might be the one that gets me in, even if the lack of a proper lock on button and buried move lists irk me. But smashing the hell out of a giant Badger I found while wondering around with a stone guitar was really satisfying.

[LegalLoliLover]

https://play.aidungeon.io/main/landing This is amusing. I just went with fantasy. Yes, you can do "brothel activities", and yes, the AI GM "refuses to score this". After a few "turns", the game asks to subscribe, and no, I didn't.

[Mattias]

Wow these Yakuza 0 main minigames are not balanced at all. Kiryu maxes his out and get 1.5 billion every five-ten minutes. Majima has to actually play a minigame and only gets 100 mill or so per run, but if you fuck it up, way less than that. Sure Majima's skills cost half of Kiryu's, but that's less than a tenth of the gains. Sure Majima makes it easier to hunt down Shakedown with weapons, but you know what else does that? A maxed out skill tree.

[weeblord]

I played Rance 5D. Being the first game in the soft reboot universe, you'd think they'd go for a more ambitious game but nope, Alicesoft really released a 5 hour Rance game that takes place in none of the big countries and with gameplay thats almost purely RNG. Reading up on trivia on the game it seems that releasing an ambitious title worthy of being the successor of the epic Kichikuou was their original plan but they went through production troubles and had to start from scratch 3 times, and in the end were just desperate to get the game out. The D in 5D comes from it being the 4th attempt at a Rance 5 (A, B, C and D)

Wack gameplay, OK but very small scale and not that exciting story. Probably the worst Rance game.

If there's something I gotta praise its this BGM:

[Nikiri]

Wow these Yakuza 0 main minigames are not balanced at all. Kiryu maxes his out and get 1.5 billion every five-ten minutes. Majima has to actually play a minigame and only gets 100 mill or so per run, but if you fuck it up, way less than that. Sure Majima's skills cost half of Kiryu's, but that's less than a tenth of the gains. Sure Majima makes it easier to hunt down Shakedown with weapons, but you know what else does that? A maxed out skill tree.

just make kiryu send some cash to majima

or do cat fight arena, saving before betting

I don't remember if I maxed the skill tree, probably not

[Mattias]

I've still got a few chapters before I can send unlimited cash, and Majima doesn't have that many good revenue sources. I can farm Shakedown a lot better now that I got the Zap Gun, but that still feels like it doesn't give enough to be worth it.

[Deathhappens]

Gave Kenshi a whirl. Managed not to end up bleeding on the ground the first five minutes in, which is by all accounts a smashing success. Had some fun wandering around, collecting a couple of companions and getting in (and out) of trouble via judicious applications of "quicksave/quickload" and "run for it, lure it to the guards, rhen backstab it when it's busy". These brief periods of excitement aside, my main source of income has been making my aspiring warrior cadre mine rocks in the desert (which rather inexplicably doesn't raise your Strength stat, while running back to town loaded like a mule does) and not really improving their weapon skills on anything (brief attempts to take down wild animals ended up in moderate maiming and a couple of quickloaded deaths). Still, there's definitely something worthwhile in this game, despite its multitude of flaws.

[LegalLoliLover]

I love how Vampire the Masquerade Bloodlines subverts the "end racism" trope where siding with Ming Xiao results in a bad end, compared to Daggerfall's orcs or Claude from Fire Emblem 3 Houses.

[weeblord]

Ryza 2 baby, lets go.

[AmADo VII]

Ryza 2 baby, lets go.

it's good that the battle got more dynamic but I'm not good at doing just guard.

well it's atelier so, alchemy will solve everything.

[Mattias]

Well, I finished Yakuza 0. It really is a normal RPG isn't it? I grinded out all the sidequests, beat the secret bosses (only because they had a sidequest attached to them) and then entered the endgame and fought a string of bosses half the strength of the guy I used to grind EXP, and who unlike him, actually had hitstun. It was a cakewalk. Only slowed down by the fact once Kiryu murdered all the moooks he didn't have enough heat gauge to shrug off bullets in Beast mode anymore.

All in all a solid RPG, that I've heard is the pinnacle of the series until it reinvents itself at 7. I'll play Kiwami and the remasters eventually, but right now I've got Control sitting on my dashboard and only a few days until Persona 5 Strikers steals my attention.

9/10, wish it had more combat variation like a Platinum game, but the story was 100% better so call it even.

[Mattias]

Control: I think that the only reason I lost it at "the director is a poophead" is becasue I'm three sheets to the wind, but still having a low rent Punch and Judy explain to kids that their parents were lost to extra dimensional horrors cracks me up. Particularly because o children would be allowed to see such a video in the first place, due to Men in Black coverup-ness.

[Skull]

"Well, slap my arse like I was a newborn yet again."

Yeah, I played the "Triangle Strategy" demo since I'm a huge fan of SRPGs. Man, that has got to be the longest demo I've ever played at what had to be well over three hours. But I enjoyed the lot of it.

The combat felt like a slightly watered down version of FF Tactics, but that could just be them not showing everything at once. Definitely the most intriguing thing was the whole "Scales of Conviction" mechanic whereby you have to use the information you've gathered to persuade your allies to side with your desired outcome in the vote. Definitely curious to play through the demo a second time to see how different the plot plays out if you sacrifice Roland to save your own skin.

The main gripe I do have is the dialogue. Aside form the fact that everyone sounds like they're on their first take, they're definitely leaning heavily into the "Ye Olde Ænglisc" which definitely isn't for everyone, especially if you aren't familiar with feudal terminology like "demesne" and the like.

Overall I enjoyed it a lot and would definitely recommend it to any fans of the genre.

[LegalLoliLover]

In Eiyuu Senki Gold, finishing off a unique enemy with a special for them to strip. However, for Rasputin, it's a clean cut through... And she enjoys every minute of it. Most RPGs would have you believe that the best healers are kindly physicians and pious clerics. However, because Dies Irae and Eiyuu Senki, the best healers are clearly sadists and masochists, respectively.

[AmADo VII]

I think I know why Uma Musume is so popular, it's basically 'Fate' but for horses.

[Deathhappens]

Quarantine leads to lots and lots of sitting around on a computer, therefore, more games:

Finally managed to pick up Halo:MC Collection at a reasonable price on Steam and put it through the paces. Wanted to do a 'classic' run starting from a CE replay onward to 2 and the ones I hadn't played, but was forced to play Reach first because for some reason that's the only one actually loaded when the game fimishes downloading and you have to download the others separately (strike 1). Reach was... honestly, mediocre. It tried to move away from the one-man army that is Master Chief and tell a story about a tight-knit squad of Spartans that aren't as cool as he is but try and do their best, framed around an endeavour the player knows is doomed from the start (Fall of Reach). Few major problems with that:

a) The player is going to be a one man army regardless of who they're supposed to be controlling (and encounter design very much reflects this). Minor nuisances such as only being able to carry 2 grenades of each type rather than 4 or being knocked out of ADS when you take damage are just that, nuisances, and it doesn't help when you also get a superpower the original Chief didn't that you can swap at will (the original one being the ability to Sprint, amusingly enough).

b)The game gives zero fucks about actually making you CARE about these characters. You get something like two scenes that show off any kind of humanity or character about one of Noble Team's members... total. There are six of them. Then they start dropping like flies because you hit the endgame. You do the math.

Lots of other nitpicks (like whoever thought driving a vehicle with the mouse, which is also what you use to aim YOUR GUNS, was a good idea needs to be shot, or the comically atrocious AI that ensues if you let an NPC drive so you can use the turret, or the fact that the Warthog's turret accuracy has been nerfed to oblivion) but mainly just resoundingly meh.

CE Enhanced Edition and Halo 2 Enhanced Edition:

Ah. finally, the good stuff! The pillars of my youthful experience!
Eeeexcept not quite. You see, this isn't Halo 1 and 2, this is Halo 1 and 2 "Enhanced Edition". Which means a lot of things, from the story changing in small but significant ways (to better set up the overall plotline, but still changed and changed needlessly), to 'Terminals' that dispense lore hidden in every level (lore which will be utterly incomprehensible to you if you haven't played the newer games and/or read some of the surrounding material, like the novels), to the nuisances from Reach making a second appearance (mouse driving a Scorpion is torture, to the point where in Halo 2 they fixed it for this vehicle and no other in the game, the turret on the Warthog is again all but decorative but the difficulty hasn't been changed to reflect that, and ADSing breaks if you get popped by a single needler shell that doesn't even tickle your armor). On the plus side, the ability to switch from the new graphics to old school mode with just a push of a button is a great little feature, especially seeing live how much darker and claustrophobic Halo 1's Flood levels were. And of course, these games are still classic for a reason- going around the Silent Cartographer island, ascending the Index Library with Flood popping out of every nook and cranny, listening to Gravemind's rhyming, chasing the Heretic as the Arbiter in his first mission, all brought back fond memories. Currently going through Halo 3, though I had to put it on hold to avoid burnout.

- - - Updated - - -

Nope. It's fairly easy to just avoid him by running around while he gets clipped by geometry, but you can also figure out a way to kill him iirc.

- - - Updated - - -

For my part, nabbed Divinity: Original Sin 2 while it was on sale, because I really needed more unfinished single player games in my backlog. Only got a couple hours in, fresh from the tutorial, but I really appreciate the way they chose to fix the first game's issue of "just stack status effects t1 and win everything". Granted, that makes fighting bosses a little more difficult, but hey.
I DON'T appreciate how they once again made a single player game assuming I have the will or the patience (or the friends) to play with 4 people, but I guess some people out there must've liked it, so there it is.

Also, gave Divinity 2 a second whirl after having it sit on the backburner for a while. The game is actually a LOT of fun, with a ton of well-written NPCs to do quests for and a map full of encounters to just run into that all feel well-integrated into the overall story while also being distinct (no skeleton/animal/spider spam, for example). Only problem is the game leaves you very free to explore around and find different ways to sccomplish your objective, at least in the first two chapters, and with the Journal being rather lacking in information it can be easy to end up like a chicken running around with its head cut off trying to figure out where you're supposed to go next.

Dog NPCs are just the best. Get Pet Pal at character creation, I DEMAND IT. All animal NPCs are amazing, but dogs are the absolute best.
Also, the game seems to be going for a bit more serious tone than the previous DOS' tongue in cheek humor, which is kind of a shame.

[weeblord]

Playing Rance Quest right now, its great.

[Oz1337]

Playing Majikoi right now (Steam version), with all the voice restoration patches of course. I'm glad I can finally buy the official game, the DRM Minatosoft uses for all the digital versions of their games is honestly shit, so I'm glad I don't have to suffer it with Majikoi. Now to wait ten or more years before Majikoi S comes out including delays, never change JAST and your long delays (then again Minatosoft does the same things, so very accurate LOL).

I wonder how many times have I played each Majikoi game btw. I'm sure I've played them more than ten times.

[weeblord]

Playing Majikoi right now (Steam version), with all the voice restoration patches of course. I'm glad I can finally buy the official game, the DRM Minatosoft uses for all the digital versions of their games is honestly shit, so I'm glad I don't have to suffer it with Majikoi. Now to wait ten or more years before Majikoi S comes out including delays, never change JAST and your long delays (then again Minatosoft does the same things, so very accurate LOL).

I wonder how many times have I played each Majikoi game btw. I'm sure I've played them more than ten times.

Ten times? Damn! I think the only VN i've played more than once is... i guess FSN? Ive replayed UBW and HF before the ufo anime adaptions. Kikokugai if you count playing both original and remake. Planning on replaying the entire Muvluv trilogy if Muvluv Alternative 2 actually does come out and its not some stupid fucking phone game.

I bought majikoi to support jast and minatosoft but dont think im gonna replay it, too much stuff already sitting on my desktop.