What Are You Playing, Part 3: The Assassination of my Wallet by the Cowardly Sale

[warty goblin]

The new Doom games might scratch your itch. There's very minor "progression" mechanics (you can pick one of two upgrades for each weapon that add a bit of extra versatility to your arsenal beyond the basics), but that's it.

I very much enjoyed the central combat loop in Doom 2016, and the general feel of the game great. Could have used a bit more variety in encounter design though. Really should re-install on the new and more powerful PC and see how it looks and runs on settings above "underpowered toaster"

[Zevox]

I am still playing Them's Fightin' Herds. At this point I'm fully convinced that it has bar none the best online experience of any fighting game I've ever played. Matches below 100 ping don't even feel like they're online at all, and I've had perfectly playable matches up around 200 ping. Haven't even had the opportunity to test anything worse so far, either, so thus far, I haven't found an opponent with a connection so bad that I'm unwilling to play them, which is astonishing. Even other games I've played with rollback netcode haven't been that good - I definitely had some frustrating experiences from time to time in MvC Infinite and MK11, and I didn't even play those for all that long.

Granted, I do have one criticism, which is that when I've got matchmaking going while in training mode, I'd like it to drop me back into training mode after the match completes and we decide not to rematch, not return me to the main menu. But honestly, with how quickly things load in this game, even that isn't bothering me too much - it's mostly just annoying to re-select my colors, since there's so many of them to scroll through.

But yeah, I didn't think I'd actually stick with this game for very long, what with the small roster, original characters I don't have a pre-existing attachment to, and how much I love certain other fighting games that I keep going back to, but I could see this becoming another regular for me just based on the quality of the online alone. Other fighting game developers really need to look at this one and take notes, because if the rest of the genre played this well online, that would be amazing.

[factotum]

I think I'm about 12 hours in to Persona 4 now, and I'm enjoying it fine--but there are definitely niggles. For a start, it's not generally easy to figure out if what you're about to do will result in using up your actions for the day and forcing you to go home--I visited the shrine and got told there was a new thing that would allow me to improve my Social Links without actually meeting up with the people in question, but that uses up the day, and I was in the middle of something I really didn't want to interrupt! A related issue is that sometimes the game will take control for what seems like no good reason--for instance, why was I not allowed to do anything after school for three days during the midterm tests? It feels sometimes like I'm playing one of those old Fighting Fantasy gamebooks, where the attempts to give you the illusion of choice often fell hilariously flat (like, I'm coming up to a building, and it gives me a choice of going in or walking past--but if you walk past, a ghost appears and says "You should totally go in that building you just walked past" and the book forces you to go back).

[Anonymouswizard]

I think I'm about 12 hours in to Persona 4 now, and I'm enjoying it fine--but there are definitely niggles. For a start, it's not generally easy to figure out if what you're about to do will result in using up your actions for the day and forcing you to go home--I visited the shrine and got told there was a new thing that would allow me to improve my Social Links without actually meeting up with the people in question, but that uses up the day, and I was in the middle of something I really didn't want to interrupt! A related issue is that sometimes the game will take control for what seems like no good reason--for instance, why was I not allowed to do anything after school for three days during the midterm tests? It feels sometimes like I'm playing one of those old Fighting Fantasy gamebooks, where the attempts to give you the illusion of choice often fell hilariously flat (like, I'm coming up to a building, and it gives me a choice of going in or walking past--but if you walk past, a ghost appears and says "You should totally go in that building you just walked past" and the book forces you to go back).

There is a logic to when the game takes control (it uses up three days for tests and new cases, and a few days for school events), but if you've not played it before it can happen randomly. Basically your choices boil down to which subplots you want to follow, and how you fail to avoid the Bad Ending. My favourite moment is when Yosuke and Chie try to make you leader, you can refuse twice before they force you into it anyway.

Persona 3 had more actual choice, because it was possible to mess up your social links. Do not hug Yukari.

And as I remember pretty much anything other than shopping takes up your day, this is why on my first time playing I'd save every single chance I had and reload if the benefits weren't what I wanted (which I think I only did when I used the capsule machines?). As I remember going to the toilet takes up your afternoon slot for some reason, I still haven't worked that one out.

[factotum]

That's the thing, though, up until that point only going into the TV completely ended my day--I could visit other parts of town without an issue. It's not enough to put me off the game, it's just a very Japanese design choice!

[tyckspoon]

As I remember going to the toilet takes up your afternoon slot for some reason, I still haven't worked that one out.

It doesn't, at least in Persona 4; you just get some internal reflection from Main Character. I think it might actually be there as a 'remind me what the current story beat is' option. The capsule machines in the rain are probably the most obnoxious "why does this use up time??" thing for me, especially because there's so many other rainy-day-only/has special effects during rain activities you would want to do. (There is an achievement/trophy associated with using the capsule machines. If you want it, save, use the machines, then reload and go do whatever you wanted to do in the first place.)

Personally, all the 'you're tired, go sleep early' and 'you have to watch the TV tonight!' evenings are more frustrating, especially on the ones where you didn't do the dungeons. It's the Midnight Channel, there's no in-world reason you shouldn't be able to study or read a book or something to pass the time until midnight, and if you're 'tired' then maybe you study shorter so you don't get the chance for the bonus Knowledge point or whatever..

[Anonymouswizard]

That's the thing, though, up until that point only going into the TV completely ended my day--I could visit other parts of town without an issue. It's not enough to put me off the game, it's just a very Japanese design choice!

Just wait, soon there will be about three straight days of plot that rob you of afternoons and evenings, and then after you've got the fifth party member it's school trip time!

It doesn't, at least in Persona 4; you just get some internal reflection from Main Character. I think it might actually be there as a 'remind me what the current story beat is' option. The capsule machines in the rain are probably the most obnoxious "why does this use up time??" thing for me, especially because there's so many other rainy-day-only/has special effects during rain activities you would want to do. (There is an achievement/trophy associated with using the capsule machines. If you want it, save, use the machines, then reload and go do whatever you wanted to do in the first place.)

Okay, to be fair I haven't used the toilets in ages since I remembered them being practically useless, maybe I just conflated them with something else.

The capsule machines are just terrible though, especially as they're so close to Aiya (useless item or grinding three stats, it's like the devs wanted to highlight their uselessness).

Personally, all the 'you're tired, go sleep early' and 'you have to watch the TV tonight!' evenings are more frustrating, especially on the ones where you didn't do the dungeons. It's the Midnight Channel, there's no in-world reason you shouldn't be able to study or read a book or something to pass the time until midnight, and if you're 'tired' then maybe you study shorter so you don't get the chance for the bonus Knowledge point or whatever..

Seconded, especially as they're almost always after a day that stole your afternoon slot.

Although my biggest annoyance is not getting an additional daytime slot on Sundays. Are you telling me that the main character sleeps in until like three every Sunday?

[factotum]

Capsule machines? Aiya? Haven't found either of those...

[tyckspoon]

Capsule machines? Aiya? Haven't found either of those...

Capsule machines are outside of Shiroku store. They only work on rainy days and are largely not worth your time, mainly because for some silly reason they eat up time. Aiya is the first store on the Northern Shopping District screen, right before the town bulletin board and the steak skewer shop. You can eat meals there to increase your social stats; the most noteworthy thing is their rainy day option, where you can increase a random selection of 3 out of 4 stats (you can't get.. Expression, I think, here.) If you're trying to do a 100% game a lot of your available afternoons on rainy days will be spent here, because it's a very time-efficient way of raising stats.

[Anteros]

So my friend gave me Last of Us 2 for free because it was bad and he didn't want it. I feel like I overpaid for it.

The gameplay is bad, boring and repetitive. Every fight plays out the same, and the vast majority of the game is just a walking simulator. However, in the first game the story made up for the bad gameplay. In this game the characters and the story are both awful. I eventually gave up and just watched the ending online and man I'm glad I didn't devote any more time to this hot piece of garbage. The ending is probably the most unsatisfying thing I've ever seen in my entire life. The story is basically a 14 year old's idea of being "deep".

I will say that the ambiance was pretty good, and the animations were top tier. Other than that the game is one of the worst I've played in a long time. I absolutely don't recommend it to anyone. Especially if you liked the characters and story from the first game.

[Battleship789]

So, with recently discussing of Star Wars Squadrons putting me in the mood for a Star Wars game, I had been thinking about getting out my old copy of Empire at War and doing a run through that before proceeding to the next game I'd planned to play - but then I remembered another old Star Wars RTS I haven't played in forever, Galactic Battlegrounds. Found it on Steam nice and cheap, so I grabbed it and started playing. And wow, I'd forgotten what a generic RTS it is. So many units are basically identical between all of the factions, whether you're the Rebellion, Trade Federation, or even the Wookiees. There's a few, mostly those you make out of the Fortress structure, but that's a higher-tech one. And I'm pretty sure there's no such thing as a faction-specific building - in fact, I think most of the faction differences will come from upgrades, with things like Wookies getting an upgrade to let their non-mech units auto-heal.

Also, wow, the pathfinding and AI on these units. I really need to babysit my armies to get them to do things competently - hell, even when I tell them to shoot something, sometimes some of them just pick another target seemingly at random anyway. And for some reason they're set up to auto-shoot buildings that are strictly cosmetic and I gain nothing from destroying if they're in range - except walls, which I do need to tell them to shoot manually. I do not understand that.

Plus, I've noticed my own tendency to just turtle up and max out everything before trying to do any combat in this kind of game rearing its head and causing me to play rather slowly. That especially is making me think I probably shouldn't play through the whole series of single-player campaigns before moving on, it'll definitely take too long, particularly for a game that just isn't as good as I thought I remembered it being. Probably should've just gone with Empire at War after all.

*snip*

Considering Battlegrounds is literally a reskin of Age of Empires 2, I'm not surprised by your comment. I recall feeling rather annoyed by the same issues you have when I played the game a long time ago.

As for me, I've completed FE12 and I'm still torn on how much I like the game. Maybe I need to replay some of the other games again to see how they compare, it's been a while.

On the KH3 side of things, I've defeated the secret boss (took me ~5 tries to win after I started again, so I was very close before) and completed the "story" portion of the DLC, which was rather disappointing (both in terms of gameplay and story). Only one (and a half) fight was new, three fights allowed you to play as different characters (which was, admittedly, pretty fun) and the other 6? were exactly the same as in the base game. The story was...not good, though the ending is marginally better than the base game, to the point where I feel this DLC was actually designed to be the end of the game in the first place but they ran out of time before the game had to be shipped. All that is left is to complete the 14 super boss fights, which are the real reason to get the DLC. I haven't tried any of them yet, but I hope they will be fun.

[Zevox]

Considering Battlegrounds is literally a reskin of Age of Empires 2, I'm not surprised by your comment. I recall feeling rather annoyed by the same issues you have when I played the game a long time ago.

Oh really? I've never played Age of Empires, so I would never have known. Huh, that definitely explains some things - such as why everyone gets a random type of mounted unit with a flamethrower that for some reason is effective against mech units. Or why one of the anti-building units is some kind of ridiculously slow energy battering ram that you need to get into melee range with to use. I imagine those were cavalry and a literal battering ram in the original game, which would make a lot more sense than they do in a Star Wars game.

[Rynjin]

So my friend gave me Last of Us 2 for free because it was bad and he didn't want it. I feel like I overpaid for it.

The gameplay is bad, boring and repetitive. Every fight plays out the same, and the vast majority of the game is just a walking simulator. However, in the first game the story made up for the bad gameplay. In this game the characters and the story are both awful. I eventually gave up and just watched the ending online and man I'm glad I didn't devote any more time to this hot piece of garbage. The ending is probably the most unsatisfying thing I've ever seen in my entire life. The story is basically a 14 year old's idea of being "deep".

I will say that the ambiance was pretty good, and the animations were top tier. Other than that the game is one of the worst I've played in a long time. I absolutely don't recommend it to anyone. Especially if you liked the characters and story from the first game.

As I took it, it's basically the "cycle of revenge" plot from Naruto (and a billion other things), except somehow the series written for literal children managed to handle it with more finesse and consistency.

[Dire_Flumph]

As I took it, it's basically the "cycle of revenge" plot from Naruto (and a billion other things), except somehow the series written for literal children managed to handle it with more finesse and consistency.

Sigh. I'm not that far into the game, but it seemed like that's where we were headed. I still do enjoy the actual gameplay (Though it feels like hitting the brakes hard after finishing DOOM Eternal), but the writing really seems more impressed with itself than it should be.

[warty goblin]

So since EA just released a bunch of stuff on Steam, I jumped back into Titanfall 2 online since it probably has players again. Is Titanfall 2 the best shooter I've ever played online? Yes, by several country miles. How high is the skill ceiling? Mt. Everest gets queasy thinking about something that tall. Have my skillz atrophied horribly? Yes. Did I ever really have teh l33t skillz in the first place? Let's not answer that.

Thankfully there's enough new players running around that it isn't just me and the 5,000mph death gods who have really mastered the movement system. I'm still below average, but I don't feel completely owned or like I'm embarrassing myself. Weirdly I seem to be performing better as a Pilot than in my Titan, even though generally I consider the Pilot to be the harder (or at least higher ceiling) portion of the game.

All in all, if you have any interest in shooters and haven't picked it up yet, this is a perfect time to grab Titanfall 2. The campaign is genuinely ace, the multiplayer is just fantastic, and they've added a co-op wave defense mode which I think is also pretty good. I've hardly played that though, so can't really say much about it. There really isn't anything else that comes close to how good the movement in this game is.

[Battleship789]

Oh really? I've never played Age of Empires, so I would never have known. Huh, that definitely explains some things - such as why everyone gets a random type of mounted unit with a flamethrower that for some reason is effective against mech units. Or why one of the anti-building units is some kind of ridiculously slow energy battering ram that you need to get into melee range with to use. I imagine those were cavalry and a literal battering ram in the original game, which would make a lot more sense than they do in a Star Wars game.

It's incredibly obvious if you've played AoE 2 before, even looking at screenshots of AoE 2 will probably feel a little familiar to you. While the game isn't a 1-to-1 reskin (for instance, there aren't any air units in AoE2), the two games are incredibly similar. Not just in the engine (since the games use the same one), but the way the tech is structured, the number of different resources, the minimal differences between factions, the correspondence between units in the two games (as you've already noticed), etc.

[Rodin]

Sigh. I'm not that far into the game, but it seemed like that's where we were headed. I still do enjoy the actual gameplay (Though it feels like hitting the brakes hard after finishing DOOM Eternal), but the writing really seems more impressed with itself than it should be.

That's a shame. I was looking forward to the sequel even though I didn't feel the first game really needed one. The writing is what made the first game stand out so much, and hearing that they've botched that means I may not pick it up at all now.

It's incredibly obvious if you've played AoE 2 before, even looking at screenshots of AoE 2 will probably feel a little familiar to you. While the game isn't a 1-to-1 reskin (for instance, there aren't any air units in AoE2), the two games are incredibly similar. Not just in the engine (since the games use the same one), but the way the tech is structured, the number of different resources, the minimal differences between factions, the correspondence between units in the two games (as you've already noticed), etc.

*googles*

Oh. Oh my.

That is pretty shameless, isn't it? Some of the blurrier screenshots are actually indistinguishable from AoE 2.

[Aotrs Commander]

It was obvious enough that I coukld see it even only (at the time) having played AoE 1.

I never finished it, because after playing a couple of the campaigns, it all felt very samey, with AoE's problem that all the factions were more or less the same with more cosmetic tweaks and slight differences to the tech tree.

Oddly, I never had that problem with AoE 2 itself when I played it on steam some years back; I might have completed that, but they broke the AI half-way through the Dracula campaign with an update and took so long to fix it I could never be arsed to restart or carry on. I think in SW it was just way more obvious and felt like the differentiation was being skimped on.

Battlegrounds wasn't a BAD game, as AoE 2 itself was good, but, eh.




I think the best game using that or a clone of that sort of engine was Empire Earth 1. (The second one was... compleltely forgettable (I played it once, don't remember a thing about it) and the third was trash (quickly disowned) whose only mildly redeeming feature was that some of the silly unit comments actually made me laugh once or twice. ("I ride with the wind! It must be the beans.") The first one is very solid though, and stands as one I've played more than once. (Expansion was a bit bleh, since they'd taken away the big fun of the base game that you earned XP throughout the campaign and bought your nation upgrades.)

[Man_Over_Game]

I just started getting into Breath of the Wild.

I was not expecting it to be so HARD. I can't really remember the last time I played a Nintendo game and thought, from difficulty alone, "This should not be for kids". Metroid Prime is the first that comes to mind.

The Tutorial area alone takes like 1-2 hours, has about 8 different reasonable ways to kill you, and barely gives you any information at all. You can freeze to death unless you improvise a way to heat yourself. There's a climbing segment that requires you to take about 5 or so breaks on cliffs or you'll fall to your death. Enemies are not pushovers, and you will be using their fragile and weak weapons CONSTANTLY. Heck, they even decided to put GUARDIANS in there (nearly indestructible laser turrets that kill in one hit, very obvious) just to screw with you and to teach you the harsh lesson that the best strategy is the one where you survive. I knew it was a tutorial level, but god damn did it not feel like one. I think I died about 4 times total before being able to leave.

It did teach me all of the most important lessons I'd need for the rest of the world, though. Once I escaped, I felt like I was prepared for it. Even when I died past the tutorial, it was always something like "I let those damn goblins surround me, shoulda just kited them" or "so how about I don't press the Bomb button again after spawning one this time?", or other stupid stuff like that.

The two important lessons I've learned so far:

• The only wrong answer is no answer. The game is robust enough to have already considered whatever your crazy-ass plan is as an option. I've chopped down a tree and rolled it onto a goblin camp for an easy monster chest. I tried using Stasis on a boulder then pounded on it to launch at a group of unsuspecting badguys (it didn't work, still not good at Stasis launching yet). I created an ice block from a nearby pond to create cover from a bastard that was shooting at me, and then I trapped him in with two more! I wanted to try feeding my horse, so I decided to just wing it and held out an apple for him (and it worked!). Even cooking food is very intuitive and rewarding and doesn't require much more than common sense.

• Be observant. Seriously, that's it. All of the enemy attacks are usually very telegraphed. Some of the best stuff you can get can just be found in random shrines as bonuses. One of the early ones you can get after the tutorial is a hat with 3 armor that makes you climb faster, and coming from a situation where I had no hat and it almost doubled my previous armor, it was a serious upgrade. So now I die in 3 hits instead of 2!

I'm sure the game has a lot more in store, but I'll deal with those in time. I will say that I HATE THE CONTROLS:

• Swap from melee or range weapons by pressing the aim or the swing button.
• Hold the Left-L button to view your arrows or shields, or the Left-R button for bows and melee weapons, depending on the last weapon type you drew.
• Use the right stick to shuffle between the current menu you're opening with the Left button to select the ammo/shield/weapon/bow of your choice.
• You have now replaced the ammo/shield/weapon/bow that you just broke.

That's before determining things like "Is a charged attack worth it on damage, durability, stunlock, all/none?", "Same question, but with jump attacks?", "Should I learn to aim with the stick or the motion controls?" "Hold ZR to Lock onto an enemy, which is how you draw your shield, or dodge (by jumping), and tap ZR to swap targets" "How much falling is enough to hurt me?", or "Can I throw a bomb while in the air and then explode it?" (found that one out the hard way, the throw button drops it at your feet if you're in the air, then the Bomb button blows you up).

I'm not deterred, it just might be that the controls are the biggest hurdle for me right now.


One neato trick I found by accident is that activating the vision for Stasis will highlight objects in your vision. Even objects that can't get picked up, like mining sites or forage items, will be highlighted in your vision, great for treasure hunting. That, and, uh...don't step on her flowers.

[Cespenar]

So, Desperados III was out on Steam since last week, and it's just a boatload of fun. There weren't enough games in the Commandos-genre as it were anyway -- the last one was Shadow Tactics: Blades of the Shogun, and this is from that same developer. It plays fairly similar to Shadow Tactics as well, but everything seems to be polished up a half notch. Oh, and also, apparently it can run on potatoes like the one I have, so there's that too I guess.

[factotum]

Yeah, I got interested in Desperados III as soon as I saw it was basically an updated and reskinned Shadow Tactics, because that game was fantastic. Enormously frustrating as well, admittedly, but one of the few games that's just so much fun that I don't care.

[Dire_Flumph]

That's a shame. I was looking forward to the sequel even though I didn't feel the first game really needed one. The writing is what made the first game stand out so much, and hearing that they've botched that means I may not pick it up at all now.

I'm holding off the "botched" label until I finish it, but I'm very disappointed with the Last of Us 2 so far. There are so many ways to explore this world and it's characters that I'm more than a little depressed we've focused on "the endlessly destructive cycle of revenge" when I thought that was already covered fairly well in the first game and in many, many, *many* other stories across all media recently (at least to my perception). It's also a tricky thing to pull off a narrative of empathy and remorse for killing in a game where you are required to rack up a huge body count and given no choice to choose anything else, causing me a major disconnect with the characters I'm playing. I can't empathize with any of them when it seems obvious from the get go that everyone would be better off if they just all went home. Since the characters and the story aren't as compelling to me this time, the long stretches of narrative between gameplay are pretty rough to get through. I actually started checking my email while a long cutscene was running and had to restart it because I looked up and realized that I had zoned out to the point where now all the characters had changed and I had no idea what was going on.

In short, I'd rather play as someone rebuilding in this world, with any kind of positive goal rather than just the latest in a long line of "Humans are the real zombies" narratives.

[Gnoman]

One neato trick I found by accident is that activating the vision for Stasis will highlight objects in your vision. Even objects that can't get picked up, like mining sites or forage items, will be highlighted in your vision, great for treasure hunting. That, and, uh...don't step on her flowers.

If you haven't yet, ride the main quest hard until you get your Sheika Slate fully repaired. That's potentially a massive Quality Of Life improvement, depending on your playstyle.

[MCerberus]

I don't need to buy the episode 1 pod racer port.
I don't need it
I don't need it
I don't need it
I mean it's not like it was my first n64 and the nostalgia would go straight into my veins.
I don't need it.

[Man_Over_Game]

If you haven't yet, ride the main quest hard until you get your Sheika Slate fully repaired. That's potentially a massive Quality Of Life improvement, depending on your playstyle.

I asked someone about what you meant by that, and they said you can take pictures of stuff that you're looking for, like foraging supplies, and it'll be highlighted around you to find.

However, when I asked, they didn't know if they could drop the item and THEN scan it. Does that work?

[Cespenar]

Yeah, I got interested in Desperados III as soon as I saw it was basically an updated and reskinned Shadow Tactics, because that game was fantastic. Enormously frustrating as well, admittedly, but one of the few games that's just so much fun that I don't care.

Yeah, it's already pretty tough at higher difficulties, but the quickload speed takes a lot of its weight off my nerves.

[Anonymouswizard]

So I'm just under fifteen hours into Persona 4 Golden.

Spoiler

Show

So I've just rescued Kanji, and why aren't him, Yousuke, and Teddie gay options? Not only is Kanji clearly a 4 or 5 on the Kinsey scale, but Yousuke was originally intended as bi and I'm not certain if Teddie even has a concept of gender.

Also Kanji has by far the best of the story arcs, due to it being entirely about overcompensation in the face of prejudice. The entire 'is Kanji gay' argument just obfuscates his actual problems being overcompensation for not matching up to expectations.

[factotum]

22 hours here, just did the school camp and I believe the sixth member has just showed up--leastways, she's the person who's dancing immediately after Kanji in the opening titles, so I assume she's next. Mind you, this is one heck of a long game, it started on April 12th and I've only done about 3 months in game time--I believe the whole thing lasts all year?

I do wonder just how important increasing those Social Links are, though. For the members of your investigation team, yes, because that gives you direct benefits in battles, but for everyone else it just gives a couple of levels to any persona you Fuse, which just doesn't seem all that exciting. Does anything interesting happen once you get it to max, or something?

[tyckspoon]

Maxing a Link gives you an item that unlocks fusing that Arcana's max-level Persona (If you do a second run/New Game Plus, this item carries over, allowing you access to that Persona without having completed the S-Link again.) I believe that and the bonus levels on fusion are the only significant gameplay impact for the non-party ones, aside from the obvious stat levels for attending the clubs, understanding from doing the day-care, etc.

Spoiler: Some other minor items

Show

You can also get some variance by choosing to spend some days with different links; on Christmas, for example, you can choose to spend it with a number of different people if the link is sufficiently advanced, and you'll get a different gift from each one, and any of the romance options that you've gotten far enough with will give you a chocolate on Japanese Valentine's Day. Oh, and the Fox at the shrine gives you better rates on healing in the TV world based on his S-Link level.. although unless you're playing with reduced cash from battles in your difficult settings you'll probably be swimming in yen anyways.

.. don't underestimate those bonus levels, tho? Manually leveling personas takes forever, unless you get super lucky with the bonus level cards in Shuffle Time; the bonus on fusion is the only really sensible way to unlock some of the higher-level skills on a persona.

[Knaight]

I just started getting into Breath of the Wild.

I was not expecting it to be so HARD. I can't really remember the last time I played a Nintendo game and thought, from difficulty alone, "This should not be for kids". Metroid Prime is the first that comes to mind.

That's funny, because Metroid Prime was my jam as a small child; I adored it. I still do, but I wouldn't classify it as a hard game anymore, whereas the challenge was a core part of the fun at age 7.