What games are you currently playing?

[coyotecraft]

While my computer was updating I was playing Breath of Fire IV.

I'm 15 hours in. Chapter 3. My party is mid 20s, and I've seen on youtube people fighting the final boss at level 30. So I must be getting close to the end.
Compared to the other rpgs I've been playing, it's really refreshing to see a story with a theme. I mean a lot of games touch on human nature and how we can be both selfish and generous. But this game explains it so neatly with the perspective of immortal beings a.k.a "dragons".

In the world of BoF4, humans summon "the endless", gods from another realm, and task them with shaping the world. When that task is complete (or their power runs out) they turn into dragons and continue to watch over the world. Of course, the ability to summon and command Gods to shape the world is incredibly dangerous. And the question keeps coming up, "why do they need gods? Why can't mortals do things for themselves? How can they want both peace and destruction?" And it's beautifully explained by a simple farm woman - they're mortal. For the gods that haven't been given a purpose yet, they haven't learned what it means to leave a legacy or mark on the world. They see moral lives as pointless beings, but a few of them have started to learn that a thing isn't beautiful because it lasts forever.
Interestingly, I just watched Avengers: Age of Ultron which had the exact same theme.

 

[coyotecraft]

Finished Breath of Fire 4 and completed the last chapter of The Guided Fate Paradox.
My backlog is a little smaller now. But I have so much other stuff to do I don't feel like playing games that often.

I'm not compelled to finish the Idea Factory games: Cross Edge and Record of Agarest War

Yikes, I got Xenogears in 2011 but my save file only has 6 hours on it. : I should probably just restart from the beginning.
I still haven't touched The Last Remnant or made any progress in the Mass Effect Trilogy.

 

[Spoo]

Finally got The Witcher 3 for PC and experience is sooo much better.

 

[coyotecraft]

I played Kingdom Hearts in one sitting last night. Obviously skipping the worlds that I could and taking shortcuts. I'm so compelled to fight every heartless that pops up, it's weird just running past everything. I was pretty low level at the end, and the final bosses took the most time because I had no HP ,healing more than attacking, and had to watch the same scene 4-5 times in a row. You can't skip in the original ps2 version.

Going to try the same thing with KH2 tonight. Should go faster with scene skip. But I haven't played it that much, I know I can skip the lion king world entirely, but I'm not sure what else is skippable.

 

[coyotecraft]

Ok, it took 2 nights to finish Kh2. I ended up watching the cutscenes because there was a lot I didn't remember.
There's some stuff at the end I struggled to understand. I used to think, wow this is must be really deep, what does it all mean? And now I just think, it was written in Japanese, the English writers had stretch it.

It's hard not to drift off during some of the speeches at the end.
Ansem at the end of the first game just blabbers on about Darkness and Hearts, but the voice actor had really good cadence. Unlike the actors in the second game who just sounded flat, on top of having a lot of nothing to say. There are parts where I'm thinking "why are they still talking?"

I'm going to look up the added scenes that were only in the final mix versions, as well as any scenes from the Nintendo games I'll probably never play.

 

[coyotecraft]

Picking up Record of Agarest War, again.

I finally made it to the second generation (out of 4 or 5 I think). It's a little easier to stomach at this point. Apparently there is a monster capture/fusion system, but you have to unlock certain achievements or spend points on a certain thing to make the skills available in stores, and have a weapon with a dark skill slot. And then you have to weaken monsters, without killing them, and even at 1HP it could take a couple turns for it to work.
I'm still playing with Animations and Movement off, 'cause battles would last forever otherwise .

The Story for gen2 is, idk, it's a little better because now the characters from Gen1 have a history and a propose. But they all still have flimsy reasons for tagging along and being unnaturally accepting to move the story forward. Gen2 isn't leading an army or explaining politics while tossing out names and places like any of it is relevant.
Turns out, none of that stuff in Gen1 was really important. All the talk about army sizes and battle plans, it was all non-edible decoration on a very dry cake. It felt like I was slogging through gen1's story (besides playing it on and off over a couple years) because I was trying to follow who's fighting who, their reasons for fighting, and there were no visuals. It's just sliding portraits of the main characters and a few big wigs, every town and forest uses the same map icon and background.
The title of the game is "Agarest War", so naturally I thought the war on-goings was the war and I assumed it was going to continue for a few generations. Nope. By the end of the first generation they pretty much settle everything, and they magically move on to a different continent and flash forward some 18 years to play as the Gen2 guy.

 

[Mega Flare]

With the announcement of The Legend of Heroes Trails in the sky Tc yesterday, im finally gonna to finish the first game!

 

[Tk8305]

Currently playing Legend of Zelda: Triforce of Terror for ZC (Zelda Classic). It's the LP I'm on atm for my channel. Quite fun and challenging. :3

 

[coyotecraft]

I made it to generation 3 in Agarest War.

There is no in-game clock on the ps3 version, but the steam version for the reviewers that have completed the game are up in the 140-180 hour range. :dead: :dead: :dead:
It's not hard game, it's just a long boring game.

 

[StrawberrySmiles]

it's just a long boring game.

I forgot, why are you playing again? O_O

 

[coyotecraft]

Because I bought it digital on the PSN. I can't sell it or anything. The icon is there every time I turn on my PS3 reminding me about it.

It's kinda like Sonic06, I know it's bad but I'm going to finish it anyways. Like many of the reviews have said "it's a test of willpower".

 

[Mega Flare]

Because I bought it digital on the PSN. I can't sell it or anything. The icon is there every time I turn on my PS3 reminding me about it.

It's kinda like Sonic06, I know it's bad but I'm going to finish it anyways. Like many of the reviews have said "it's a test of willpower".

You can delete it

 

[LaDestitute]

Been playing A Link Between Worlds on my 3DS XL. I've always been a huge fan of A Link to the Past, so this is a super-great sequel to the SNES classic, and also wonderfully subverts most of ALttP's tropes.

I've gotten up to finishing all of the Lorule dungeons, so I'm in the final stretch of the game and am just currently set on fully obtaining all of Link's heart containers. I just have one left, but I'm stuck with that bloody Octoball Derby game. I'm sort of getting the hang of it after learning the inner mechanics of late/early swings and which direction the circle pad is in, but I still haven't gotten the heart piece yet. Getting there, scored about something like 61 in one of my previous attempts.

 

[coyotecraft]

You can delete it

I will when I need to make space.

I downloaded an android game "Machine Knight" by Kemco/hit-point to play on my android tablet while traveling over the weekend. It was better than what I thought it would be. Really felt like I was playing an rpg maker game. Easy to play. Good map design. The graphics are well made, but some parts were underused while others were overused, too many forests and caves while sandy deserts and snow areas were short one-time visits.

The Skill-grid is kinda unwieldy, but the game is easy enough you only need to open the menu at certain points to dump your points and change equipment. That's pretty much the whole strategy of the game. Use your upgrade items and level up your best skills from time to time, and most battles will be won in a few turns. That made the Elemental attributes, Buffs, and status effects negligible.

The story wasn't very clear. It had a clunky beginning. At one point I thought it might actually be good, but towards the end it tripped over it's shoelaces.
Starts off with a guy who goes through an experimental portal in hopes of finding another world to help sustain his. You don't actually see his world, but he explains it as a polluted and over-populated world running out of resources. Shortly after arriving and visiting a castle, machine soldiers from his world start invading. He gets accused of being a spy and invader but after making new friends he clears his name. Seems the machines were after *sigh* the elemental spirit stones that imbue the world with magic and can be used as an energy source, which means the other 3 kingdoms are targets as well. So you begin a quest to these other kingdoms and fight off the machines.

Spoiler

The plot details get a little muddy here because the main character quickly drops any notion of going home or saving his own world. It's inferred that the main character was just a test subject to find this world for a mad scientist who wants to use the spirit stones to power his giant machine. For Science! That's the final boss.

There's also a side-story tower that you can gradually go up after certain story points and read ancient stone tables that recorded someone else long ago came from another world in a ship but didn't have the means to go home.
This also wasn't explained very well since it's in a language that main character doesn't know, and can be understood as either coming from a world different from the one he came from, or maybe they are from his world but from a different time.
It also suggest the world they're in now exists in hyperspace.
But if you finish the game and choose to use a portal to go home, the main character ends up in a black void that he calls hyperspace. It doesn't make much sense and might just be a poor translation or possibly alluding to another kemco game.

 

[Hybrida]

I'm currently playing Streets of Rage 2, Sonic 2, and Puyo Puyo 2.

I'm also happy to hear a lot of 4x games are coming to PC this year. Looking forward to Master of Orion

 

[Xhukari]

So I finally got around to finishing Dragon Age Origins for the first time. When playing it, I was surprised that the Landmeet quest was the penultimate quest; I thought the fight against the Darkspawn would take longer, and that I was around 50% through the game. The lead up to last battle was good, but the final boss battle was a big disappointment.

It sort of reminds me of Fable 2: gather 3 allies / armies, then a bad boss fight.

I am now part-way through Awakening. And feels like almost none of my decisions in Origins has any effect here; so much for travelling with my romance character, they don't even appear. Awakening feels very jarring for an expansion; mostly replaced cast of companions, new map (I don't even know where I am in relation to the Origins map). And it feels like there is less of those one-on-one conversations.

I am not enjoying Awakening anywhere as much as Origins. And I am struggling to continue.

 

[LaDestitute]

I'm missing one final heart piece in A Link Between Worlds and it's driving me fucking crazy

 

[Byron]

I started using my Vita a lot recently. Been playing MGS HD.
I've always loved the story telling in this game, the intense moments get really stressful, and the comedy is the perfect release to ease you back into the game after prolonged intense moments. The only issue I have with MGS, and this is pretty much all MGS games, is the controls. Especially on the Vita. I've never really thought the game was intended for shooting, like, it feels like despite the amount of guns the game hands you, you're not supposed to shoot. But on the Vita, there's no D-Pad control, it's either super sloppy left analog stick, or slightly less sloppy right analog stick. I will admit, I like the way they integrated touch controls in the game, but just movement in general is horrid and clunky. It's not enough to make me stop playing though :P

I've also been playing Persona and Persona 4, which is fun. The first is very reminiscent of Shin Megami Tensei, which y'know... The game is a part of SMT, so it makes sense, but it seems P3 was where they really revolutionised the Persona series. With that being said, I don't like P4 too much. I mean, it's certainly interesting, and it's cool the whole TV thing, but the entire game feels like a slightly less enjoyable P3. The characters weren't as fun, Nanako was ANNOYING as all heck, and "Chie is best girl" is a terrible meme. I also don't like the easy out the characters get. Like, "I don't accept myself!" you fight their shadow, "I accept myself!" In P3 the characters all had huge flaws, right until the end. They made many mistakes and there was a lot of conflict. P4 is like, once everyone gets their persona, they become a mary sue. Though the game still plays slightly better than P3, like, I enjoy the fact that you can control all the characters.
Persona, heck, Shin Megami Tensei as a series is one that I expect a lot from. SMTIV is amazing, and I'm expecting a lot from Tokyo Mirage Sessions ♯FE, Persona 5 and Shin Megami Tensei IV Final but I just think amongst such great titles, Persona 4 didn't really stand out.

 

[StrawberrySmiles]

Almost beat Atelier Shallie. Yay!

Hate that I need Surf in Pokemon Y for Victory Road. Dead weight. ><

 

[Jason]

I started using my Vita a lot recently. Been playing MGS HD.
I've always loved the story telling in this game, the intense moments get really stressful, and the comedy is the perfect release to ease you back into the game after prolonged intense moments. The only issue I have with MGS, and this is pretty much all MGS games, is the controls. Especially on the Vita. I've never really thought the game was intended for shooting, like, it feels like despite the amount of guns the game hands you, you're not supposed to shoot. But on the Vita, there's no D-Pad control, it's either super sloppy left analog stick, or slightly less sloppy right analog stick. I will admit, I like the way they integrated touch controls in the game, but just movement in general is horrid and clunky. It's not enough to make me stop playing though :P

I've also been playing Persona and Persona 4, which is fun. The first is very reminiscent of Shin Megami Tensei, which y'know... The game is a part of SMT, so it makes sense, but it seems P3 was where they really revolutionised the Persona series. With that being said, I don't like P4 too much. I mean, it's certainly interesting, and it's cool the whole TV thing, but the entire game feels like a slightly less enjoyable P3. The characters weren't as fun, Nanako was ANNOYING as all heck, and "Chie is best girl" is a terrible meme. I also don't like the easy out the characters get. Like, "I don't accept myself!" you fight their shadow, "I accept myself!" In P3 the characters all had huge flaws, right until the end. They made many mistakes and there was a lot of conflict. P4 is like, once everyone gets their persona, they become a mary sue. Though the game still plays slightly better than P3, like, I enjoy the fact that you can control all the characters.
Persona, heck, Shin Megami Tensei as a series is one that I expect a lot from. SMTIV is amazing, and I'm expecting a lot from Tokyo Mirage Sessions ♯FE, Persona 5 and Shin Megami Tensei IV Final but I just think amongst such great titles, Persona 4 didn't really stand out.

You're wrong, Persona 4 is brilliant... don't agree? Take off your pants and let's fight! :box:

But seriously, it IS a brilliant game, it just has a very different tone compared to the third game, which is by far the most "serious" of the series... and if you're not a fan of Persona 4 and are looking for something more along the lines of Persona 3 in the next game in the series (Persona 5), you're gonna' be disappointed...