The "Currently Playing..." Topic

2015-10-24 08:49:53 am

Quote from Opium:

Has anyone been playing Triforce Heroes? How is it?

Just got input from friends who played it yesterday. Apparently the game isn't much fun on your own, local multiplayer is fun but one of my friends found the stacking gimmick annoying. Online multiplayer doesn't sound fun since people apparently tend to just leave midgame.

arkarian

2015-10-24 12:01:19 pm

red chamber dream

tooz afaik the equipment system is one of the best things about that game

might want to give it another look - i haven't played it but i mean what do you expect, tales games have always been about managing that sort of shit

Toozin

2015-10-24 05:18:34 pm

Not impossible

just highly unlikely

Yeah, maybe I'd be more into it if they eased you in a bit more gradually. But it's like as soon as you open your inventory for the first time you get slammed with like 10 consecutive tutorial messages trying to cram the whole mess down your throat all at once, and I just completely tuned it out.

Like I said, I'm ignoring it completely and still having fun and doing alright in battle. It's nice that it's there for people who want to get into it, but I'm fine passing on it.

Toozin

2015-10-24 05:20:42 pm

Not impossible

just highly unlikely

The game is also very poor at communicating how a new item's skills will interact with your current skills in a lot of menus, you have to dig in pretty deep sometimes to find out exactly what's going on. So that's another turn off.

Idkbutlike2

2015-10-24 08:35:26 pm

Never could get into Tales games. I played Phantasia, Eternia, and Xillia for like 20+ hours each but never finished any of them.

Toozin

2015-10-24 09:59:32 pm

Not impossible

just highly unlikely

To be fair, Phantasia is really rough to get into. It depends what version you play, but most have an absurdly high encounter rate. Makes it very frustrating to slog though. I've never managed it.

arkarian

2015-10-25 12:17:49 am

red chamber dream

several stages into tri force heroes and liking it a lot

similar but different to four swords adventures

arkarian

2015-10-25 12:18:57 am

red chamber dream

in a weird way it reminds me of resident evil zero only more chaotic

Opium

Edit history:

Opium: 2015-10-25 09:07:38 pm

Opium: 2015-10-25 09:06:40 pm

2015-10-25 09:05:01 pm

I'm halfway through yoshi's woolly world and I have to say I'm pretty disappointed. The level design forces you to rely on memorization if you want to collect all the items. They present you with choices, and if you make the wrong choice then you end up passing the items you want to collect with no way to go back except to kill yourself, and sometimes killing yourself isn't even possible or if you do then you have to replay a huge area. I spent almost 45 mins on one level because it does this cheap trick to you 5 times in one level (and of course I made the wrong choice the first time every time). They usually offer no clue beforehand, so it's basically trial and error. Like an enemy will come at you so you kill it, only to realize that you needed to jump off the top of the enemy to reach something, and there's no respawn. Or they'll present you with 2 doors. One door goes to the end of the level and the other one goes to the last flower you need, and if you choose the wrong door you can't go back. Cheap shit like that just has me wanting to throw the gamepad out the window. I wanted to play all the way through and then go back to get items I missed, but you kind of can't do that unless you have an amazing memory because you will likely make the wrong choice again unless you just played through the level a few minutes ago and it's fresh in your mind.

I'm halfway through yoshi's woolly world and I have to say I'm pretty disappointed.  The level design forces you to rely on memorization if you want to collect all the items.  They present you with choices, and if you make the wrong choice then you end up passing the items you want to collect with no way to go back except to kill yourself, and sometimes killing yourself isn't even possible or if you do then you have to replay a huge area.  I spent almost 45 mins on one level because it does this cheap trick to you 5 times in one level (and of course I made the wrong choice the first time every time).  They usually offer no clue beforehand, so it's basically trial and error.  Like an enemy will come at you so you kill it, only to realize that you needed to jump off the top of the enemy to reach something, and there's no respawn.  Or they'll present you with 2 doors.  One door goes to the end of the level and the other one goes to the last flower you need, and if you choose the wrong door you can't go back.  Cheap shit like that just has me wanting to throw the gamepad out the window.  I wanted to play all the way through and then go back to get items I missed, but you kind of can't do that unless you have an amazing memory because you will likely make the wrong choice again unless you just played through the level a few minutes ago and it's fresh in your mind.

Da Dood

Edit history:

Da Dood: 2015-10-25 09:39:52 pm

2015-10-25 09:39:25 pm

Dood Trigger™

I beat Fatal Frame 2 a couple days ago (blind) and I'm starting FF3 tomorrow (also blind).

FF2 is now one of my top favorite survival horror games. The atmosphere is just right with good scares that don't feel super cheap (freaking doll ghost scared the shit out of me, and there were no loud sounds or scary faces involved... just something you catch in the corner of your eye as the camera angle changes). Setting is great, all the houses and the village to explore. The game is actually smaller than it looks, but there's still some cool things to see and find when you go out of the intended path. And the story is quite intriguing.

Combat is improved compared to FF1, with more attack options and even an evade command. It is also a lot easier. However, to me it seems like there's more chances at hitting a ghost in FF1, while in the sequel they seem to be invulnerable for a larger period until you can land any type of shot. That said, FF2's ghost patterns are much easier to recognize and to deal with. The first game throws floaters and teleporters at you since hour zero, while FF2's first few enemy types are literally villagers who walk stupidly in your direction.

Heard FF3 isn't nearly as good as 2, but I'm still excited to play. :)

I beat Fatal Frame 2 a couple days ago (blind) and I'm starting FF3 tomorrow (also blind).

FF2 is now one of my top favorite survival horror games. The atmosphere is just right with good scares that don't feel super cheap (freaking doll ghost scared the shit out of me, and there were no loud sounds or scary faces involved... just something you catch in the corner of your eye as the camera angle changes). Setting is great, all the houses and the village to explore. The game is actually smaller than it looks, but there's still some cool things to see and find when you go out of the intended path. And the story is quite intriguing.

Combat is improved compared to FF1, with more attack options and even an evade command. It is also a lot easier. However, to me it seems like there's more chances at hitting a ghost in FF1, while in the sequel they seem to be invulnerable for a larger period until you can land any type of shot. That said, FF2's ghost patterns are [i]much[/i] easier to recognize and to deal with. The first game throws floaters and teleporters at you since hour zero, while FF2's first few enemy types are literally villagers who walk stupidly in your direction.

Heard FF3 isn't nearly as good as 2, but I'm still excited to play. :)

Opium

2015-10-26 07:02:56 pm

Quote from arkarian:

several stages into tri force heroes and liking it a lot

similar but different to four swords adventures

Still liking the single player mode? Have you tried multi?

arkarian

Edit history:

arkarian: 2015-10-26 08:12:58 pm

2015-10-26 08:12:45 pm

red chamber dream

i have no interest in the multiplayer like i said, but yeah i'm still liking it a lot. only on the second world now, but i skipped ahead and played some of world 4 to get some cool costume parts.

sometimes managing the controls can be a little annoying, but overall it's fine playing solo

Da Dood

2015-10-28 01:44:55 pm

Dood Trigger™

So Fatal Frame 3 is kind of weird so far.

I'm halfway through, and that first half took as long as the entirety of FF2. You go back to exploring only one (massive) haunted house, and you constantly jump between that area and your own house in the real world, where you investigate clues. The real world parts are actually pretty interesting and danger-free. You can develop film (pics taken inside the haunted mansion), listen to tapes and find out about the lore.

The haunted mansion is standard FF stuff, except for one thing. Every time you do something to progress the game in the real world, you're taken to the mansion where it resets the full maze (all exploration progress) and sends you on a new mission. Usually you get to explore new rooms in a new chapter, but the actual maze is changed, so doors that were unlocked may be locked now, and vice-versa. You gotta check every single door all over again. Gets old super fast, and it doesn't look like it's going to change in the latter half. The previous games did that to some extent, but not nearly as often as FF3.

I'm enjoying parts of it, and there are definitely cool ideas here (love the references to FF1 and 2), but I usually have to take a good break after I beat one chapter. Let's see if I can make better progress tonight.

So Fatal Frame 3 is kind of weird so far.

I'm halfway through, and that first half took as long as the entirety of FF2. You go back to exploring only one (massive) haunted house, and you constantly jump between that area and your own house in the real world, where you investigate clues. The real world parts are actually pretty interesting and danger-free. You can develop film (pics taken inside the haunted mansion), listen to tapes and find out about the lore.

The haunted mansion is standard FF stuff, except for one thing. Every time you do something to progress the game in the real world, you're taken to the mansion where it resets the full maze (all exploration progress) and sends you on a new mission. Usually you get to explore new rooms in a new chapter, but the actual maze is changed, so doors that were unlocked may be locked now, and vice-versa. You gotta check every single door all over again. Gets old super fast, and it doesn't look like it's going to change in the latter half. The previous games did that to some extent, but not nearly as often as FF3.

I'm enjoying parts of it, and there are definitely cool ideas here (love the references to FF1 and 2), but I usually have to take a good break after I beat one chapter. Let's see if I can make better progress tonight.

Toozin

2015-10-31 09:43:00 pm

Not impossible

just highly unlikely

So Tales of Zestiria was ultimately disappointing. The plot started out with a lot of promise but ultimately fizzled out into a bunch of trite nonsense. Some stuff happened that should have been quite heavy and compelling, but was all brushed aside in one way or another and ultimately felt meaningless. The protagonist, Soray, was so unfailingly perfect throughout the narrative that he was pretty much a Gary Stu. And absolutely no one developed as a character. I know Tales games are generally known for their bubblegum plots, but even so I'd have to call this a series low point.

The battle system saves it from being a complete disaster, at least. Basically once you have the gang together, you have in your group two humans and four seraph (basically humanoid spirits not everyone can see) characters, and each seraph is associated with one of the four elements. Each human character can attach one seraph at a time, but you can hot swap them freely during battle with the d-pad. Essentially you have full access to your entire party in every battle, and that is very cool. You can also do a DBZ fusion dance and merge with your seraph, trading off more battlefield coverage and longer combo strings for more powerful hits and more advanced spells. It really adds a lot to the combat and makes it stand out from the pack.

But ultimately, as good as the combat is, it's hard to feel good about an RPG with such a garbage plot and bland characters. They really need to wow me with the next one because I'm really starting to lose faith in this series.

So Tales of Zestiria was ultimately disappointing. The plot started out with a lot of promise but ultimately fizzled out into a bunch of trite nonsense. Some stuff happened that should have been quite heavy and compelling, but was all brushed aside in one way or another and ultimately felt meaningless. The protagonist, Soray, was so unfailingly perfect throughout the narrative that he was pretty much a Gary Stu. And absolutely no one developed as a character. I know Tales games are generally known for their bubblegum plots, but even so I'd have to call this a series low point.

The battle system saves it from being a complete disaster, at least. Basically once you have the gang together, you have in your group two humans and four seraph (basically humanoid spirits not everyone can see) characters, and each seraph is associated with one of the four elements. Each human character can attach one seraph at a time, but you can hot swap them freely during battle with the d-pad. Essentially you have full access to your entire party in every battle, and that is very cool. You can also do a DBZ fusion dance and merge with your seraph, trading off more battlefield coverage and longer combo strings for more powerful hits and more advanced spells. It really adds a lot to the combat and makes it stand out from the pack.

But ultimately, as good as the combat is, it's hard to feel good about an RPG with such a garbage plot and bland characters. They really need to wow me with the next one because I'm really starting to lose faith in this series.

Toozin

2015-11-01 02:13:57 am

Not impossible

just highly unlikely

My disappointment in Zestiria is being alleviated by Divinity Original Sin Enhanced Edition, however. I mean, a crazy deep PC style RPG on a console with freaking split screen couch co-op? How does this happen? The wife and I are loving it.

Poision Envy

2015-11-01 03:14:38 am

Club 27 Goals

hmm, I wonder if the PC Steam version got that upgrade as well. I picked it up quite awhile back, but was almost too much of a "raw" classic RPG. If it has co-op, the waifu and I might have to try it out.

ryu

2015-11-01 03:50:50 am

Quote from Toozin:

But ultimately, as good as the combat is, it's hard to feel good about an RPG with such a garbage plot and bland characters.

So it's even worse than Graces?

Toozin

2015-11-01 04:04:51 am

Not impossible

just highly unlikely

Quote from ryu:

Quote from Toozin:

But ultimately, as good as the combat is, it's hard to feel good about an RPG with such a garbage plot and bland characters.

So it's even worse than Graces?

I actually liked Graces, so if I say it's worse than Graces that might not be worth much. But I will freely admit that Graces was overly syrupy sweet with one dimensional characters. But even Asbel has more development than Soray does.

Toozin

2015-11-01 04:07:15 am

Not impossible

just highly unlikely

Quote from Poision Envy:

hmm, I wonder if the PC Steam version got that upgrade as well. I picked it up quite awhile back, but was almost too much of a "raw" classic RPG. If it has co-op, the waifu and I might have to try it out.

I'm fairly sure it upgrades to the Enhanced Edition for free and includes all of the console improvements, including local co-op.

ryu

2015-11-01 05:51:42 am

Quote from Da Dood:

So Fatal Frame 3 is kind of weird so far.

Sounds like missed potential. A mission based horror game with a properly randomized dungeon might be interesting if pulled off well.

Quote:

I actually liked Graces, so if I say it's worse than Graces that might not be worth much. But I will freely admit that Graces was overly syrupy sweet with one dimensional characters. But even Asbel has more development than Soray does.

Me too, actually. The plot was complete shit, but I liked a good portion of the cast and the battle system was great.

Too bad they didn't get back to form with Zestiria. I was really hopefull we'd get another quality title like Symphonia, Abyss and Vesperia.

arkarian

Edit history:

arkarian: 2015-11-01 11:03:08 am

2015-11-01 11:01:45 am

red chamber dream

Quote from ryu:

Quote from Toozin:

But ultimately, as good as the combat is, it's hard to feel good about an RPG with such a garbage plot and bland characters.

So it's even worse than Graces?

lol, graces is by far my favorite tales game ;(

the story blows in all of them, all i care about in tales is the combat system and rpg mechanics. i'm hoping zestiria's are good

Toozin

2015-11-01 11:21:35 am

Not impossible

just highly unlikely

For the most part, the combat is excellent I would say. There are camera problems that have never been present in a Tales game however, due to you fighting in the actual environment instead of a special battle field. If you end up fighting near some walls or trees, the camera has a tendency to freak out and get stuck. I've spent more than one fight staring at some enemy's ass while I mash buttons and hope somebody hits something. It doesn't happen every fight but it's frequent enough to be notable. Co-op makes it worse.

If that issue was fixed it could easily be my favorite Tales combat to date though.

Opium

2015-11-01 08:29:32 pm

Just when I was regretting getting RE:Revelations for WiiU instead of 3DS, I discover that 3DS ver is on sale for $4.99 through 11/02. Nice!

Da Dood

2015-11-03 07:21:55 am

Dood Trigger™

I beat FF3. Story was great, plus all the references to FF1 and 2. Game's kind of a pain in the ass to play, though. Still, it was fun.

Beat Double Dragon 2 and Ninja Gaiden (NES) a couple times last weekend. DD2 still kicks my ass (especially the final boss) but it is great. One day I'll be good at this game. NG1 killed me a few times in the first run, but then the second run was deathless.

I'm starting Metroid Prime later tonight. Really excited, it's been at least a year since I played this. I wonder if I can still do the sequence breaks!

tomatobob

2015-11-03 07:54:07 am

One shall stand, one shall ball.

I was playing Prime the other day for the first time in years and I could still do the breaks I usually do. Still terrible at jumping the Great Tree Hall bars!