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Joined 3 years ago
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Cake day: July 10th, 2023

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  • This week I started Final Fantasy Tactics, but I’ve played it only for a few hours (a bit less than 10h). I think I prefer Fire Emblem’s gameplay, this one feels too grindy and the combat seems a bit shallow.

    Finished Raging Loop, the first ~20h were great, but I’m shocked at how bad the finale is. It was still worth it for the rest of the story tho.

    Played through Resident Evil 4 Remake during the weekend. I think Village realized the action horror gameplay better, I found neither the action to be good nor the horror to be scary in this one (I have never finished the original RE4, but from what I played of it, it seems the same). I am excited for Requiem tho, which I’ll play next.

    Finally, I just started Utawarerumono Prelude to the Fallen, but I’ve played too little to say anything.




  • I’ve mostly been playing Arknights Endfield. After a while I got my team set up and it’s become a bit too repetitive. For some reason I expected better from this one than other gachas but it ended up being as shallow and boring as all others.

    I’ve played a bit of Deadlock, I couldn’t try any of the new characters tho. I’m trying to get back into Rabbit&Steel. I haven’t played in a while so it feels like starting from zero.

    I’ve also tried the demo for Magenta Horizon. It’s not my style of game, it feels inspired a lot by Ninja Gaiden, which I can’t get into, but it seems really well made and the artstyle is pretty interesting.



  • That said, it’s possible I misunderstood what you mean because I haven’t played older MH games or Xenoblade.

    I realize I’m being a bit too vague, as I’m not sure how to describe clearly what I’m thinking about.

    You mentioned both DMC3 and Dark Souls and while I don’t remember very well either fight, I do think that DMC3-5 (and Bayonetta too sometimes) allow you to do what I’m thinking about with most bosses, while normal encounters I feel are more about crowd control. On the other hand, Dark Souls and the other soulslike I played feel more focused on reacting to attacks, like the newer MH games.


  • It’s less important in the newer games, since the monsters are less predictable and their attacks track a lot, and the hunters get parries or other options (in GU and Rise in particular), but you often need to position yourself defensively to preemptively avoid attacks and usually keep attacking. For example: the Rathian charge is instant, so you should keep to her side to avoid it and her other frontal attacks like the fireballs.

    Pretty often you could just walk out of attacks if you knew they were coming.





  • I’ve been slowly finishing Xenosaga 3, I think I’m nearing the end. I’ll hold my judgement for when I actually finish it, but I mostly enjoyed the series even if I’m a bit mixed on it.

    I saw Haste while scrolling through Steam and decided to try it. I was sold on it from the demo, it looks and sounds really good and the movement is a lot of fun. The full game tho was quite the disappointment. It feels incomplete like a vertical slice, more than a full release.

    The main game is composed of different levels, but each of them is structured as a roguelike and you don’t keep items you buy between each level except upgrades you can buy (a la Hades). The items themselves change very little and the stages are fully randomly generated so they get repetitive very quickly. There’s also an endless mode which is more fun to play, as you keep stacking items, but it suffers from the same lack of level design.

    Now I’m playing Arknights Endfield and I’m enjoying it. I hate that it’s a gacha, but it’s pretty fun. The combat isn’t the deepest but it’s enjoyable; it kinda reminds me of Xenoblade. The same goes for the base/factory building: it’s a very simple implementation of the system, but it’s fun to set it up. Storywise, the writing isn’t great and the translation is at times of dubious quality, but I wasn’t expecting much.



  • I’ve picked up a few games with the sales, among which Atelier Yumia and Star Ocean: Second Story R. Atelier Yumia is pretty decent, it has the usual issues of open world games, but the crafting is fun (although I think it’s a bit less interesting than in previous games, but I haven’t played them enough to judge). On the other hand I found Star Ocean to have incredibly dull combat, so I’ve dropped it after a few hours.

    I’ve also been playing Xenosaga Episode II and Episode III. Episode II was disappointing, it’s clearly unfinished and rushed. I think the story had potential, the plot and characters could have been interesting, but the execution is lacking. The combat system is interesting and you can start seeing ideas that will later reappear in the blade games, but the implementation is really slow and repetitive. I’m currently mid-way through Episode III (just finished disc 1), which is a clear improvement, although it plays it a bit safer with more conventional combat. The story is good so far and I’m curious about how it’s gonna evolve.


  • I did end up trying it for a few days, but it doesn’t seem to be what I was looking for.

    Other players don’t seem to be interested in the progression (which is understandable and expected due to the age of the game), but I don’t want to invest the time to reach level 99 just to then risk not enjoying it (looking at videos I don’t think the combat is what I was expecting, as I thought the mechanics would be closer to what XIV is now).



  • I got to chapter 12 of Final Fantasy VII Rebirth and can’t be bothered to finish it. I really don’t like how so much of the game feels like padding. There are parts that flow naturally, but they get interrupted by long wastes of time that usually force you to play really bad minigames. At some point the dungeons too started to feel samey. The open world is also Ubisoft-level bad, so I’ve been ignoring it.

    The story also feels like a downgrade from the original version in some ways. I though some sequences had less impact (specifically Dyne’s story and Red’s trial. Shinra Mansion too I thought was ruined).

    I’m not really a fan of remakes in general. I think they are usually unnecessary and a wasted opportunity to do something new, and it bothers me how they often try to “erase” the original’s gameplay. This one in particular feels like an excuse to sell a single game split in three parts. I doubt I’ll be playing the third one.

    I’ve been trying The Last Remnant. Its gameplay is kinda weird and unique, although a bit too opaque. Not sure if it’s good, but it’s at least interesting.


  • I did play for a bit in HorizonXI and liked it, but couldn’t find many players around (which made it even grindier than it should be), which is why I was wondering about retail.

    I don’t mind the difficulty, that’s kinda why I’m tired of FFXIV. Outside of the endgame “high-end” trials/raids, I find its gameplay a bit too easy to the point of being boring. The jobs in XI also look more interesting and varied, instead of FFXIV’s that feel too samey.