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

[tyckspoon]

That was Ascension... 3, I think? Only just started doing Ascension. I'm actually really annoyed with myself because I lost an Ascension run by 2HP because I forgot the Time Eater gained 2 strength when its thing activated. I could totally have played one less FoB and Finesse instead for the two block I needed, and the Time Eater was probably a bigger threat to my build than anything in the Final Act other than bad luck.

Yeah, Time Eater's basically there entirely to mess with infinite-turn decks. The ones I've gotten up to him usually still haven't had significant problems with him, but you do have to change your order of plays and remember to get enough Block up for when he's going to interrupt you.

[MCerberus]

There's a moment in Persona 4 Golden that makes my brain hurt.

On a social link you meet up with 2 party members shopping for clothes. They are physically incapable of choosing anything other than their default color scheme. Then they try and pick something else out to prove a point and the store is out of everything their size.

Too meta for me.

[tonberrian]

There's a moment in Persona 4 Golden that makes my brain hurt.

On a social link you meet up with 2 party members shopping for clothes. They are physically incapable of choosing anything other than their default color scheme. Then they try and pick something else out to prove a point and the store is out of everything their size.

Too meta for me.

I like the part where Chie (Green) picks up a yellow top with blue shorts. At least I think those are the items, I know the colors are right.

[Zevox]

Started playing through original FF7, and got up to the end of Midgar. Honestly, it makes me appreciate FF7 Remake that much more. Cramming all of that into about six hours of play time really makes it feel rushed - the game throws so many characters and plot developments at you during that period that it becomes very difficult for many of them to stand out much. Plus the moments that should be dramatic and have real weight to them just don't have nearly as much as they do when given the time to breath that Remake allows them. And overall the writing (or possibly translation) is just a lot more natural sounding, and events feel a lot more realistic. I spotted a fair few points where Remake made outright changes for the better (as opposed to just expansion on what was already there), too.

Spoiler: Midgar/Remake spoilers

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The sector 5 Reactor: the trap being sprung by Heidegger via hologram rather than President Shinra popping up right in front of your face is a big one. It gives Heidegger more to do (he's barely in like two scenes in the original), and doesn't make one of the (at that point) main villains look like a complete moron by exposing himself to his enemies - one of whom, you know, has a gun for an arm. Also, using that trap to try to make Avalanche look bad makes Shinra come across as much more competent manipulators of the public.

Getting rid of the scene where the party gets captured in Remake was a good move. It served no purpose other than to have President Shinra reiterate things we'd basically already learned.

Rufus' personality seems quite different in Remake than in the original, and he's a lot better off for it. In Remake he makes a pretty serious impression as a confident, skilled combatant legitimately capable of taking on Cloud one-on-one even after you beat his dog, and comes across as a very competent leader for Shinra. In the original he feels like a completely generic villain and his boss fight is laughably easy.

Making the Mayor already an Avalanche collaborator makes his role in your infiltration of Shinra HQ make so much more sense than just handwaving him as helping you because he decides on the spot that he's upset enough at how Shinra treats him to betray them.

Oh, and of course, Wall Market and the way they handled a lot of the characters there is just massively better - I'll take Andrea Rhodea and Cloud's dance as the Honeybee Inn's event rather than that weird scene Cloud bathing with a bunch of very creepy older men any day.

Oh, geez, and speaking of Wall Market, the whole point about how the characters get up to the upper plate for Aerith's rescue makes so much more sense in Remake. I mean come on, even excusing the conveniently-placed wire to climb, the whole thing with needing to get batteries from that random guy is weird and pointless. I'll take grapple guns over that happily.

Oh, and of course there's the matter of the combat, where Remake has a lot about it that I can praise, from the general mechanics to great boss design, and the original... doesn't. Aside from the materia system having some interesting elements to it, the original's combat is just standard old-school RPG combat, but worse because of using the ATB system rather than normal turns, and is extraordinarily easy - I have yet to have a fight I even thought I had a chance of losing, despite the many bosses the game has already thrown at me. It was really sad to see the early enemies in the game doing single-digit damage to my health when I started with over 300 hit points out of the gate, and I'm still not sure I've ever seen anything hit for triple digits despite that having grown to around 500 on everyone but Aerith now.

I will say this though for the original: I'm not finding the mini-games as unbearable as I recall finding them the first time I played them. Hell, the motorcycle one worked surprisingly well, and I actually prefer the original version of the squats mini-game to the Remake (because it's easier and I don't actually like either version, but still).

But anyway, far enough in that I'll start seeing the parts of the story that Remake hasn't covered now, so I've got that to look forward to at least.

[factotum]

But man, four wheel drive is weird! Not as nightmarish as rear wheel drive, but I have no idea why these cars are spinning so much.

They really shouldn't do? Rear wheel drive cars will spin if you give them too much throttle in a corner because it'll cause the rear end to break away, but in a four wheel drive what should happen is that the car loses grip at both front and rear, causing it to slide toward the outside of the corner without spinning. Unless, maybe the car is doing that and you're reacting by braking, which is about the worst thing you can do in that situation?

[Anteros]

I started up another Terraria run on the "For the worthy" seed. It's slightly harder, but knowing the game makes things easier overall. I'm pretty bored with it already though and only playing due to a lack of other games that interest me.

I've been gaming a lot more than usual lately due to the quarantine. Especially since I've been working on a covid unit, so I feel particularly compelled to quarantine. I'm probably just getting burnt out on video games in general...but other than that, spending time with my girlfriend, and watching TV there's not much to do. I've burnt through so many bad novels lately. Quarantine sucks, and I miss the sun and water.

[PoeticallyPsyco]

Ugh just did an Ironclad run on Ascension 3. Either I'm getting seriously unlucky lately or I'm usually luckier than normal when fighting The Heart. I had what I though was a solid deck; with Barricade and multiple Demon Forms, I regularly got above 100 block and 100 str in each fight. I still had 3 potions going into The Heart, including a Cultist and Strength potion for even more infinite str, I got a Demon form right out of the gate, Disarmed it so that first x12 attack did no damage, got a Limit Break to shoot my strength up even further... and the damn thing still stomped me into the ground like two turns later. I can only have so many Imperviouses in a deck.

I hadn't even made it to the Ascension difficulty where bosses get harder yet (unlocked with this one); why is this thing kicking my ass so hard?

[Anteros]

Ugh just did an Ironclad run on Ascension 3. Either I'm getting seriously unlucky lately or I'm usually luckier than normal when fighting The Heart. I had what I though was a solid deck; with Barricade and multiple Demon Forms, I regularly got above 100 block and 100 str in each fight. I still had 3 potions going into The Heart, including a Cultist and Strength potion for even more infinite str, I got a Demon form right out of the gate, Disarmed it so that first x12 attack did no damage, got a Limit Break to shoot my strength up even further... and the damn thing still stomped me into the ground like two turns later. I can only have so many Imperviouses in a deck.

I hadn't even made it to the Ascension difficulty where bosses get harder yet (unlocked with this one); why is this thing kicking my ass so hard?

Well, it's hard to say without seeing you play, but it sounds like you're trying to be too diverse. Barricade works best when you trim your deck to focus on defense and rely on bodyslam for damage, while demon form obviously relies on strength stacking and damage cards. They don't synergize very well together at all, and running them both makes your deck too bloated. I typically pick a strategy fairly early and then remove cards I don't need.

[Rodin]

I consider The Heart to be a bonus boss. A successful run does not require fighting it, and even a really OP deck can lose to it via a bad draw. Heck, just being the wrong kind of deck can work against you - decks that focus on alpha striking the Heart will run into its damage gates and get killed on the backswing.

Don't sweat losing to The Heart. You're supposed to.

[Anteros]

I consider The Heart to be a bonus boss. A successful run does not require fighting it, and even a really OP deck can lose to it via a bad draw. Heck, just being the wrong kind of deck can work against you - decks that focus on alpha striking the Heart will run into its damage gates and get killed on the backswing.

Don't sweat losing to The Heart. You're supposed to.

I don't think that's true. The heart just penalizes aggressive playstyles. It's basically impossible to lose to it if you have a deck that can build block easily.

I don't think it's very well designed though. It penalizes high card volume aggressive styles too much while being trivial against lower volume defensive ones. There's already one boss in the game that penalizes using a lot of cards. It didn't need a second. Especially since it's a lot harder to overcome than the time eater is. If I'm building a deck to beat the heart, I basically just make sure I can build a bunch of block every turn, and have a way to dump bad status cards. You can't really lose if you do that.

I don't enjoy that playstyle though. I'm another player that enjoys the glass canon build, so the heart boss is a real buzz-kill. Especially since it's the only one that you're guaranteed to face, so you feel obligated to build for it.

[Rodin]

I don't think that's true. The heart just penalizes aggressive playstyles. It's basically impossible to lose to it if you have a deck that can build block easily.

I don't think it's very well designed though. It penalizes high card volume aggressive styles too much while being trivial against lower volume defensive ones. There's already one boss in the game that penalizes using a lot of cards. It didn't need a second. Especially since it's a lot harder to overcome than the time eater is. If I'm building a deck to beat the heart, I basically just make sure I can build a bunch of block every turn, and have a way to dump bad status cards. You can't really lose if you do that.

I don't enjoy that playstyle though. I'm another player that enjoys the glass canon build, so the heart boss is a real buzz-kill. Especially since it's the only one that you're guaranteed to face, so you feel obligated to build for it.

You're only guaranteed to face it if you go out of your way to gather the keys. Which, again, is not required. The Heart didn't exist until near the end of Early Access, and was the last thing added to the game (prior to The Watcher DLC, that is). Not facing The Heart does not penalize you in any way. It doesn't stop you from building Ascension levels, or from unlocking cards. A run where you beat Act 3 is considered a win. Literally the only benefit to beating it is bragging rights and seeing the "true" ending. It's the very definition of a bonus boss.

And yeah, it's badly designed. It feels tacked on because it is. All the love and care went into the main portion of the game.

[Anteros]

You're only guaranteed to face it if you go out of your way to gather the keys. Which, again, is not required. The Heart didn't exist until near the end of Early Access, and was the last thing added to the game (prior to The Watcher DLC, that is). Not facing The Heart does not penalize you in any way. It doesn't stop you from building Ascension levels, or from unlocking cards. A run where you beat Act 3 is considered a win. Literally the only benefit to beating it is bragging rights and seeing the "true" ending. It's the very definition of a bonus boss.

And yeah, it's badly designed. It feels tacked on because it is. All the love and care went into the main portion of the game.

I'm fully aware of how the mechanics work. I agree that it's tacked on, and I expected a lot more from the final chapter of the game. Nevertheless, it's clearly the last boss of the game, and the game goes out of its way to taunt you if you don't beat it. I don't personally consider it a win if I don't beat it, but if you do then that's fine. It's a single player game after all.

[Cespenar]

So, after enjoying Cultist Simulator, I went "why not" and decided to try Sunless Skies since they apparently added a "non-roguelike" option to it unlike Sunless Seas. Eh. Again, as expected from their developers, the writing is top-notch, but after the first several hours, I just had enough of the brain melting pace of all the port-to-port travel. Fortunately, reddit had the answer, and its name is "Cheat Engine".

Now, normally I dislike installing third party programs or even modding games before tasting the vanilla "experience" at least once, but, yeah, this one had it coming. I don't know what kind of minds govern Failbetter Games, but having such high-quality writing clashing with dumb, grindy mechanics in such a consistent manner is probably only possible by their hands in the gaming market.

[Eldan]

They are the makers of a dumb, grindy, extremely slow browser game with excellent writing, and it shows. All their games are like that. They've always been bad developers and great writers. Their artists are improving too. Now if only they could hire some good game makers.

[Cespenar]

They are the makers of a dumb, grindy, extremely slow browser game with excellent writing, and it shows. All their games are like that. They've always been bad developers and great writers. Their artists are improving too. Now if only they could hire some good game makers.

Yep, I tried Fallen London quite some time ago as well, but the sheer consistency and depth of that clash still strike me as pretty interesting. Most teams would get better game designers, or get better as game designers. Or go bankrupt. Kudos for their writers for carrying the team, I guess.

[Man_Over_Game]

Well, it's hard to say without seeing you play, but it sounds like you're trying to be too diverse. Barricade works best when you trim your deck to focus on defense and rely on bodyslam for damage, while demon form obviously relies on strength stacking and damage cards. They don't synergize very well together at all, and running them both makes your deck too bloated. I typically pick a strategy fairly early and then remove cards I don't need.

That's been how I run it, too. Try to see what my first 1-2 important cards are and then devote my playstyle entirely around them. Seems like Barricade was the outlier in his deck, though. Heart naturally shuts show alpha-strike decks, which sounds like what his strategy was. Not sure what Barricade was doing for him without an armor build.

[PoeticallyPsyco]

Well, it's hard to say without seeing you play, but it sounds like you're trying to be too diverse. Barricade works best when you trim your deck to focus on defense and rely on bodyslam for damage, while demon form obviously relies on strength stacking and damage cards. They don't synergize very well together at all, and running them both makes your deck too bloated. I typically pick a strategy fairly early and then remove cards I don't need.

That's been how I run it, too. Try to see what my first 1-2 important cards are and then devote my playstyle entirely around them. Seems like Barricade was the outlier in his deck, though. Heart naturally shuts show alpha-strike decks, which sounds like what his strategy was. Not sure what Barricade was doing for him without an armor build.

Yeah, maybe that's the problem. I always try to have two shticks/archetypes (unless I'm running a really well-supported one like Stance Dancer) so that I'm twice as likely to get a card I need for at least one of them, and so if one gets shut down (either by the opponent or by an unlucky draw in a single turn) I'm not totally screwed, which works great for the most part but is perhaps not the move against The Heart. I would have thought Barricade and Demon Form were a natural synergy, though, with Barricade giving you enough block to survive long enough for Demon Form to get working. The main problem was too many expensive cards to play in a single turn, which I mitigated by adding a couple of Enlightenments to the deck (which proved to be surprisingly consistently helpful). That said, perhaps I would have been better off just relying on Body Slam for scaling damage; maybe adding an Exhume to the deck to pull back an Impervious.

Thinking back on that playthrough, I think I should have forgone that first-turn Demon Form in favor of preserving my buffer from Fossilized Shell (which for some reason the Tungsten Rod didn't stop from getting wasted by the Beat effect). With Disarm killing its x12 attack and buffer eating the 60 damage single attack I probably would have had enough breathing room to survive at least a bit longer, and maybe to actually beat it.

EDIT: So, to recap what I've learned. Body Slam renders Demon Form redundant in a Barricade deck. In a similar vein, Barricade craves a thin deck, to keep those Imperviouses, Entrenches, and Ghostly Armors flowing faster. Playing mostly Watcher has given me some bad habits, I think, since a Stance Dancer deck actually benefits from being thicker as long as you keep the proportion of Flurry of Blows up (longer cycle means more rounds where you can recall all/most FoBs).

[factotum]

Well, just finished Persona 4 Golden. According to Steam, playtime 103 hours, but my post-credits save was 99 hours and 52 minutes. I maxed out all my companion Social Links apart from Kanji--I didn't realise for the longest time that he hung out in the Practice Building and so missed a lot of opportunities to level that up. Saved Marie and thus got the True Golden ending.

I really want to play Persona 5 now, but in order to do that I'd have to shell out £250 for a PS4...the fact I'm even seriously considering that shows that I *really liked* this game! It had its flaws, and it's the first game I've played in ages where I probably should have bumped up the difficulty a bit because it really wasn't that hard, but the characters and storylines are definitely top notch.

Anyone who hasn't bought it--do so now! The more people buy it the more it's likely Atlus will do a PC port of Persona 5, and I really want that to happen...

[MCerberus]

Well, just finished Persona 4 Golden. According to Steam, playtime 103 hours, but my post-credits save was 99 hours and 52 minutes. I maxed out all my companion Social Links apart from Kanji--I didn't realise for the longest time that he hung out in the Practice Building and so missed a lot of opportunities to level that up. Saved Marie and thus got the True Golden ending.

I really want to play Persona 5 now, but in order to do that I'd have to shell out £250 for a PS4...the fact I'm even seriously considering that shows that I *really liked* this game! It had its flaws, and it's the first game I've played in ages where I probably should have bumped up the difficulty a bit because it really wasn't that hard, but the characters and storylines are definitely top notch.

Anyone who hasn't bought it--do so now! The more people buy it the more it's likely Atlus will do a PC port of Persona 5, and I really want that to happen...

Here's how transparent Atlas has been to the US market lately:

Fans: hey a new version of P5, how about a switch port
Atlas: *just got Joker into Smash* I have no idea what you're talking about
Fans: but... I already own the PS4 version, and would gladly buy it on Switch
Atlas: No what we're doing is a Warriors game in the Persona universe
Fans: Cool, can we get that released in the US?
Atlas: What are you talking about, *sits on top of money pile* Persona doesn't sell in the US
Atlas: Now buy P4.
Fans: Fine, I did, can you at least do something?
Atlas: Hey, we ported Catherine like you wanted.

[Zevox]

Here's how transparent Atlas has been to the US market lately:

Fans: hey a new version of P5, how about a switch port
Atlas: *just got Joker into Smash* I have no idea what you're talking about
Fans: but... I already own the PS4 version, and would gladly buy it on Switch
Atlas: No what we're doing is a Warriors game in the Persona universe
Fans: Cool, can we get that released in the US?
Atlas: What are you talking about, *sits on top of money pile* Persona doesn't sell in the US
Atlas: Now buy P4.
Fans: Fine, I did, can you at least do something?
Atlas: Hey, we ported Catherine like you wanted.

I must admit I am very confused by the continued lack of any information about Phantom Strikers getting a US release. I mean, sometimes they take a while with US releases, but it's been nearly half a year since the Japanese release, so normally we really ought to have heard something by now. If they're genuinely not planning to do that, it'd be the first Persona spin-off game that hasn't been brought here (aside from some minor online and mobile games). Which makes no sense now given the series has only gotten more popular here over time, particularly since Persona 5 came out.

Also, I'm still waiting patiently for a Persona 5 Arena. Really hoping it's only taking so long because of how many other projects Arc System Works has had on their plate these days, and not because there's actually no plans to make one. I mean, with how well Persona 4 Arena sold, and how both the franchise and ArcSys as a developer have only gotten more popular since, it only makes sense to do it... right?

[Man_Over_Game]

Been playing the BlazBlue Tag Team game for the Switch, which has the Persona 4 characters in it.

They're pretty dang close to their original concepts, although I have complaints about the main character (Yu):

Yu: Uses melee attacks that occasionally utilize lighting shots at range. It basically feels like a mixture of a mid-ranged combatant with the potential for kiting. The problem is that he's so easy to play that he feels...generic? It's hard to play him wrong, since most whiffs end up shooting a lighting shot or the length of his sword prevents any major counter attacks. What bothers me is that they saw Yu's concept from the Persona 4 game and thought "Versatile", so they made that into a fighting character that has a long reach and can almost always hit you.

Yosuke: A ninja that has a few mind-game options and is one of the better aerial combatants in the game. They managed to make his aerial maneuvers really easy to chain into and they feel very fluid. You can even cancel one move to teleport and chain into another. He bounces a bit all over the place, and he can really get punished if he gets reckless as his attack range is pretty short to compensate for his speed, but he's still a lot of fun.

Chie: A ninja/brawler, she hits hard and fast while chaining multiple moves that send you flying into the other side of the screen. She has a lot of speed and she hits hard. Not quite as chaotic or air-oriented as Yosuke, but she's just as fast on the ground and hits a lot harder.

Yukiko: A ranged-zoner that is probably the most difficult of the 4 to play. She doesn't dish out a lot of damage, and she's a bit slower than most other ranged characters in the game, but she does have a means for healing and leveling up her powers, getting stronger as the fight continues. It's not a great fit in this game, as there are many complaints about how fast characters die if you're not blocking effectively, but she manages to do very well against predictable/slow opponents (like Tager).

[IthilanorStPete]

Jumping into the Slay the Spire conversation: I almost just beat the Heart following this thread's advice, with a defensive Ironclad deck. Got it down to 54 HP, which is the closest I've ever gotten. The most painful part of the climb was the first two acts, actually; I didn't get any Body Slams or Juggernaut until the end of act 2, so it made for some slowwwww games.

Deck/relics:

Spoiler

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[Zevox]

Got a little further in FF7 today. Starting to get pretty annoyed by how frequently people are leaving and re-joining my party, the fact that I can't change party members except at save points or on the world map, and the fact that I can't change their equipment unless they're in my active party. I don't recall party management being that big of a pain in other RPGs from this era - though granted I think most earlier RPGs didn't ever have more party members than you could use at once, so it may have been a new-ish thing at the time. Still really irritating though.

Also, mini-games are really starting to pile up and irritate me. Having that pointless one to perform CPR, followed shortly by two more annoying ones to fake doing military drills, yeesh.

Been playing the BlazBlue Tag Team game for the Switch, which has the Persona 4 characters in it.

They're pretty dang close to their original concepts, although I have complaints about the main character (Yu):

Yu: Uses melee attacks that occasionally utilize lighting shots at range. It basically feels like a mixture of a mid-ranged combatant with the potential for kiting. The problem is that he's so easy to play that he feels...generic? It's hard to play him wrong, since most whiffs end up shooting a lighting shot or the length of his sword prevents any major counter attacks. What bothers me is that they saw Yu's concept from the Persona 4 game and thought "Versatile", so they made that into a fighting character that has a long reach and can almost always hit you.

Yu is basically the "shoto" of Persona 4 Arena, so of course that playstyle transfers to how he is in BB Tag. He's got the fireball (lightning shot), the uppercut (though everyone does in some form or another), the tatsu (lightning slide), and a very generalist, mid-range set of normals that don't excel at any one thing*. The idea behind the archetype is that it's fairly easy to use for newcomers, so it's become kind of the default play style of most fighting game main protagonists. Serves as the "jack of all trades, master of none" style, which is fairly fitting for Persona protagonists.

*Relative to other P4A characters, anyway. He has longer range than the ones that are intended to be close-range monsters (like Chie, Yosuke, or Akihiko), but shorter range than the ones oriented more on poking or zoning (i.e. Mitsuru, Elizabeth, Yukiko), and comparable range to others that aren't especially oriented either way (i.e. Labrys, Teddie, or Naoto). Against the characters from other franchises it can be a bit different - especially UNIEL, which apparently has pretty long-range normals as something of a norm, as it's shorter to list the UNIEL characters in BB Tag whose normals aren't longer than Yu's than those who are (I think it's basically Mika and Seth; even Linne has that enormous 5B). You want a character who really has long range that can almost always hit you? Try Hilda from that franchise. She has the most insane range in that game, bar none.

Yukiko: A ranged-zoner that is probably the most difficult of the 4 to play. She doesn't dish out a lot of damage, and she's a bit slower than most other ranged characters in the game, but she does have a means for healing and leveling up her powers, getting stronger as the fight continues. It's not a great fit in this game, as there are many complaints about how fast characters die if you're not blocking effectively, but she manages to do very well against predictable/slow opponents (like Tager).

Yeah, Yukiko has always been one of the weakest characters in BB Tag, just because her zoning style doesn't translate well into the game. The presence of far better zoners and the way that fast-paced team games always lend themselves to aggressive play rather than most zoning just does her no favors. She was buffed multiple times, so she at least has some tricks up her sleeve now, but even now she's still near the bottom of most tier lists.

[Anonymouswizard]

So resumed Castlevania: Lords of Shadow: Mirror of Fate HD, and then dig my controller out because I kept jumping when I meant to block/dodge. I remember both why I enjoyed this and why I got so annoyed at it, it's a legitimate 2D Spectacle Fighter with the challenge that comes with that, but some of these enemies are just annoying (I'm looking at you Hunchbacks).

What does get on my nerve is the boss fights. Not the difficulty, although I don't tend to clear them without dying, bit rather the transitions between phases being cutscenes instead of happening in gameplay. It breaks the flow of the battle somewhat, and I'm not sure the latter stages evolve the boss at all, but rather the same two stages get repeated with minor variations that don't affect my strategy. If that, I'm sure three of the Daemon Lord's stages are exactly the same, with him only having a few attacks in each stage.

It's enjoyable though, even when I sometimes have to do the same fight four times due to mistiming a jump.

[tyckspoon]

Got a little further in FF7 today. Starting to get pretty annoyed by how frequently people are leaving and re-joining my party, the fact that I can't change party members except at save points or on the world map, and the fact that I can't change their equipment unless they're in my active party. I don't recall party management being that big of a pain in other RPGs from this era - though granted I think most earlier RPGs didn't ever have more party members than you could use at once, so it may have been a new-ish thing at the time. Still really irritating though.

Also, mini-games are really starting to pile up and irritate me. Having that pointless one to perform CPR, followed shortly by two more annoying ones to fake doing military drills, yeesh.

The random minigame breaks are a mostly FFVII thing; even the other classic Final Fantasies that go heavy on minigames generally don't force you to do them for plot progression (there's like.. one particularly annoying instance in FF8.) It's one of the things I suspect even the fans that hold up FF7 as an all-time benchmark would prefer got removed or reduced. As for the party changes, yeah, this is a pretty common structure for older Final Fantasies; in the first part of the game you wander the world meeting a bunch of people that float in and out of the party as your goals intersect with their plotlines. Later on you get more freedom of movement, they all gather in one place, and you can more freely choose who you want to use (in Final Fantasy, this tends to be when you get access to an airship.) I think 7 let you start swapping people more or less freely almost from the moment you leave Midgar, tho? Just didn't have the quality-of-life improvement for letting you manage party members that weren't in the active group.

[Man_Over_Game]

The random minigame breaks are a mostly FFVII thing; even the other classic Final Fantasies that go heavy on minigames generally don't force you to do them for plot progression (there's like.. one particularly annoying instance in FF8.) It's one of the things I suspect even the fans that hold up FF7 as an all-time benchmark would prefer got removed or reduced. As for the party changes, yeah, this is a pretty common structure for older Final Fantasies; in the first part of the game you wander the world meeting a bunch of people that float in and out of the party as your goals intersect with their plotlines. Later on you get more freedom of movement, they all gather in one place, and you can more freely choose who you want to use (in Final Fantasy, this tends to be when you get access to an airship.) I think 7 let you start swapping people more or less freely almost from the moment you leave Midgar, tho? Just didn't have the quality-of-life improvement for letting you manage party members that weren't in the active group.

Yeah, FF has always had a bad habit of not asking themselves "Is this fun?".

There was a point in FFX-2 where you're required to play this card game tournament, and you're required to do well if you want this permanently-lost bonus. There were a lot of things in FF games that you could miss out permanently.

Heck, in FFXII, there was a chest next to one of your first main areas that locked you out of the hardest boss in the game, and several more chests that did so. Unless you had a guide, you basically had to be paranoid and never open a chest if you wanted to play all of the content. That's before trying to start the endgame phase where enemies jumped 20 levels and you had to kite them out 1-by-1 to have a chance in order to start leveling, or trying to take on a random Esper that you missed and having it either annihilate you in seconds or being able to sleep through the fight.

I think they're learning, though. Finally.

[Razade]

Picked up Xenoblade Chronicles: Definitive a while back and just got around to playing it. Just got to the Nopon Forest and I've realized something.

The combat sucks.

I've played JRPGs for years and Xenoblade Chronicles is just a strange departure with its MMO style aggro system, placement mapping and auto attack. The more I play the happier I am that there's a casual mode because I have no real desire to go back to the regular mode after a few minutes with the handicap on. I've enjoyed the story, the setting is interesting and the characters are...not annoying...but the combat is a slog. Every fight feels like it drags on forever, the constant equipment mini-game of switching out for minuscule upgrades makes Diablo look handsome in comparison and the boss monsters verge on frustrating.

The combat would be better if there was more direct control over the NPCs rather than leaving their AI to try and be as tight as talking to a team in WoW over teamspeak would be. The fun, and I spent a lot of time in MMORPGs, in MMOs is that it involves other human beings you can coordinate with and help one another out. Taking that aspect out completely and then hoping an AI can fill its shoes has gone about as well as I'd ever guess and probably only marginally better if I'm honest. But I see no reason, with a team of three, why I would ever break the Tank/DPS/Healer paradigm for some of the stranger characters I know are coming. Why would I trade out the only viable healer in the game, where monsters can do half my health unless I'm severally over leveled and geared, for an additional DPS? Why would I take the only person who can take aggro and has a good defense to bring in a debuffer? You can't take out the main character, he's the only way you can even deal damage to certain enemy types. The design concept boggles my mind. I was hoping for some sweet JRPG/Mecha action, this is a spiritual successor to Xenogears after all.

Giving some more leeway against boss monsters would go along way to helping too. With all the tools you need to block their big attacks all tied to a universal cooldown it just feels like you're wasting damage in the fight by not using that cool down to hit hard. Every enemy has a million HP to start with so every big hit counts. It'd be nice also if all the boss mobs didn't have a multi-character stun/sleep/etc type attack that dead half you health and then also taking the time you're stunned to do more damage. When I loss a fight I want to know it's because I didn't do my best. Xenoblade Chronicles doesn't make me feel like that. It just feels like I lost because the dice rolled badly.

[DeTess]

I really want to play Persona 5 now, but in order to do that I'd have to shell out £250 for a PS4...the fact I'm even seriously considering that shows that I *really liked* this game! It had its flaws, and it's the first game I've played in ages where I probably should have bumped up the difficulty a bit because it really wasn't that hard, but the characters and storylines are definitely top notch.

It went the other way around for me pretty much. Persona 5 was my entry in the series, and I actually got a second hand vita to eb able to play 4. The funny thing was that the second hand vita and P4G together cost less than tracking down a copy of the PS2 version of persona 4 would have. And the vita also played P3P, so it gave me access to all the entries in the series.

[LibraryOgre]

Well, moving into the endgame of Pathfinder: Kingmaker, only to learn that I've lost one of my best and favorite characters because of something that happened HOURS ago. Like, several chapters. Considering restarting, because at least this is still fun, but, ugh, that's a blow.

[Narkis]

Well, moving into the endgame of Pathfinder: Kingmaker, only to learn that I've lost one of my best and favorite characters because of something that happened HOURS ago. Like, several chapters. Considering restarting, because at least this is still fun, but, ugh, that's a blow.

Well, who did you lose?