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

[Zevox]

Sekiro beaten! Have to say, that was a pretty darn good final boss fight. And I guess since it is the final boss, I'll go ahead and put that part in spoilers.

Spoiler

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The rematch with Genichiro was fun, though a lot easier than I remember him being in the mid-game. Which isn't to say that I didn't have some attempts where I screwed up and died to him, but I did beat him on the first try, and later after a few runs of dying to Isshin I was even getting some runs where I got past him without taking any damage at all. Probably helps that I've had all those attack ups since the original fight I guess, but it probably also just reflects me getting better at the game over time.

As for Isshin himself, I was a little surprised by how relatively easy his first phase is - I actually did get past it on the first attempt, and rarely lost to it in subsequent ones. That second phase makes up for though, because damn, once he pulls that spear and gun from straight out of nowhere, he becomes a terror. The second phase was the majority of my deaths, without question - and I'm not sure how many of those I had, lost count. The most annoying part though was that he would sometimes do two leaping attacks in a row, and for some reason when he jumped for the second my lock-on just stopped working and the camera didn't follow him into the air, so I could not see what he was doing to time a parry or dodge. That just ticked me off, feels like a bug that needs fixing.

The third phase is kind of a blessing in disguise after the second, since it's just the second plus the lightning move - and like with Genichiro's final phase earlier, Lightning Counter is easy and effective. I actually beat him on a run where I wasn't expecting to (had to use a resurrection early against phase 1 Isshin, then another in phase 2) because he basically spammed that lightning move. Started the phase doing it twice in a row, then did one normal sequence of attacks, then did it twice in a row again. Lightning countered all four, and between that, quick hits while he was shocked, and some parries on the regular strikes, dude was done in probably under a minute after I hit that phase.

Honestly, after all of that, I'm not sure who the hardest boss in the game was. In terms of number of deaths I had against them it's likely that mid-game Genichiro and Hirata Estate Owl take the cake, but Isshin is really rough, and if he hadn't been stupid enough to spam lightning like that I might easily have wracked up enough deaths against him to rival those two. Owl is probably at least somewhat harder than Genichiro even accounting for how much more health/healing/attack you have when you reach him, so I guess it's between him and Isshin, but it's really hard for me to pick there.

Oh, and I also did kill the Demon of Hatred bonus boss. Also tough, but partially just because he's that rare boss that you want to treat more like a Dark Souls boss and dodge instead of going for parries. Had to learn that and figure out which dodge/jump/run directions were good when, which is a big change compared to most of the other bosses in the game (I think the Giant Ape, when not undead, is the only other one like that). Still probably harder than most of the game's bosses, but not as much as I would've expected for a special end-game bonus boss.

Oh, and is it just me, or is that "best ending" basically sequel bait? Sure feels like it to me. Not that that's a complaint, mind you, I'd take a sequel to this.

Honestly, Sekiro is hands-down my favorite FromSoft/"Souls" game at this point. I think it's a lot more fun that Dark Souls (1 and 2, I never played 3), or what I played of Bloodborne (didn't finish it), and it earns its reputation for difficulty much more than I feel Dark Souls ever did. Gameplay-wise I think the fighting style it encourages is a lot more fun than the slow-paced, overly-cautious "dodge everything and whittle the enemy's health down with stray hits when you can get them" style of Dark Souls, and the stealth approach to non-boss enemies is fun to have as another way to play that helps make the difficulty more tolerable early on and ease what could be some absolutely nutty fights later on. It's also a lot more visually pleasing, with some areas like the Fountainhead Palace or Senpou Temple being actually colorful and beautiful to see, as opposed to drab darkness of absolutely everything in the other FromSoft games. And wow, does it make a big difference in my personal enjoyment that it actually has a clear narrative, and I know what I'm doing and why at any given point in the game.

I feel like gameplay-wise my only complaint is the "seals" mechanic that limits the use of tools and some special moves - it felt very restrictive in some cases, and basically completely scared me off using any special moves that had it attached, since I felt like tools were almost certainly the best use of those. Granted, some tools should definitely have a limitation like that attached (Firecracker would be way too good if it were unlimited, for an obvious one), but I question whether it's necessary on the special moves, which tend to pay for power by being slow, or even some of the weaker tools (would unlimited shurikens break anything? They're handy, sure, certainly my most-used tool, but I'm not seeing a way they'd be OP if they were free). Or perhaps the number of seals you get should just be bigger - I was very put off when I purchased an upgrade to my maximum early on, and found it to be only a +1. I was expecting like a +3 or +5 per upgrade when I first saw that, but +1 is barely even noteworthy, not all worth the skill points compared to other upgrades you can buy.

But yeah, that criticism aside really good game, definitely enjoyed it. Part of me is even tempted to start a New Game+ run to see one of those alternate endings (probably the "Side with Owl" ending), but I've had Persona 5 Royal waiting around for too long now, and while I needed that action game intermission between RPGs, I think it's time to get started stealing some hearts once again.

[Balmas]

This is why I have Conjuration early. Daedric Dagger covers a multitude of sins.

Yep. Bound Dagger lasts until you hit Balmora, at which point you buy Levitate and Bound Spear and don't look back.

Seriously, the ability to sit just out of range and either hit them with his pointy stick or spam fireballs has saved Nonesuch more than a few times so far. Currently, alchemy and speechcraft have gotten him to level 20ish, and he's working through the Mage's Guild questline.

[Archpaladin Zousha]

I'm currently splitting my time between grinding Mastery Rank in Warframe and trying to reach at least basic competency at strategy in Stellaris.

While trying VERY HARD to resist impulse-buying Surviving Mars and Age of Wonders: Planetfall on Steam Sale...

[Kareeah_Indaga]

I've also played Subnautica a bit recently. I find it quite relaxing, except for those times something I can't see comes up behind me and one-shots me when I dive too deep. I suppose I'll find out how to get around that eventually.

Keep your ears open while you dive. The various monsters have their own cries, and the Reapers in particular have two: one is the ‘this is my turf, player character, stay on your toes’ call which lets you know when they’re nearby. The other is the ‘I see you player character, and I’MMA EAT YOU!!!’ roar. Hopefully you don’t hear that one as much.

Re: Seamoth, there’s an upgrade later on that zaps anything nearby at the push of a button. I don’t recommend going into Leviathan territory without it.

[PoeticallyPsyco]

Keep your ears open while you dive. The various monsters have their own cries, and the Reapers in particular have two: one is the ‘this is my turf, player character, stay on your toes’ call which lets you know when they’re nearby. The other is the ‘I see you player character, and I’MMA EAT YOU!!!’ roar. Hopefully you don’t hear that one as much.

Re: Seamoth, there’s an upgrade later on that zaps anything nearby at the push of a button. I don’t recommend going into Leviathan territory without it.

Also, those marker buoy things are your friends. They're super cheap to make (one titanium and one copper) and let you permanently tag a spot so you can return to it later or just keep your bearings more easily.

Between using those to avoid leviathan territories and the Seamoth I haven't been eaten by anything in my playthrough. (Still managed to drown a couple of times, though).

[warty goblin]

I'm currently splitting my time between grinding Mastery Rank in Warframe and trying to reach at least basic competency at strategy in Stellaris.

While trying VERY HARD to resist impulse-buying Surviving Mars and Age of Wonders: Planetfall on Steam Sale...

Surviving Mars is a decent-to-good city builder, but safely skippable unless the genre and theme are super appealing to you. Planetfall is excellent, and keeps getting better. I'm not quite sure it's up to AoW 3's level yet, but fully patched and DLC'd AoW 3 is so completely excellent that's a super-high bar to clear, and it's getting closer all the time.

[Kareeah_Indaga]

Also, those marker buoy things are your friends. They're super cheap to make (one titanium and one copper) and let you permanently tag a spot so you can return to it later or just keep your bearings more easily.

Also also, you can customize the beacon icon colors (for example I made all my base beacons orange so they stick out more, made my vehicles green, and normal points of interest blue) and turn them on and off if your surroundings start getting too busy.

[LibraryOgre]

Realized I had been avoiding Daggerfall because I hated the interface, so I downloaded Daggerfall Unity. I've been really enjoying it, though the dungeons remain a total pain in the ass. You think Skyrim's donuts are annoying? Try wandering a Daggerfall dungeon for a while, looking for a person.

Currently, beelining through the Mage's Guild. Then I will do Stendarr, because someone has to take them seriously in Tamriel, since Bethesda refuses to.

[Anteros]

Surviving Mars is a decent-to-good city builder, but safely skippable unless the genre and theme are super appealing to you. Planetfall is excellent, and keeps getting better. I'm not quite sure it's up to AoW 3's level yet, but fully patched and DLC'd AoW 3 is so completely excellent that's a super-high bar to clear, and it's getting closer all the time.

Planetfall just seemed like AoW3 but less complex to me. I did a few of the campaigns, but I already have a few hundred hours in AoW3, and there wasn't enough new in Planetfall to keep me invested.

Also, those marker buoy things are your friends. They're super cheap to make (one titanium and one copper) and let you permanently tag a spot so you can return to it later or just keep your bearings more easily.

Between using those to avoid leviathan territories and the Seamoth I haven't been eaten by anything in my playthrough. (Still managed to drown a couple of times, though).

I hate carrying Beacons, or anything that eats inventory space. I usually use the Beacons that you get naturally, and the compass to navigate. Then again, I have a pretty good memory for where things are in the game, so I mostly don't need them. If I do need to mark something I like to use scanner rooms and cameras. They're a little more expensive, but they're just so incredibly useful once you have the hud upgrade for the scanner room. It trivializes the grind aspect of the game, and also can be used to mark leviathans.

[Eldan]

Also, those marker buoy things are your friends. They're super cheap to make (one titanium and one copper) and let you permanently tag a spot so you can return to it later or just keep your bearings more easily.

Between using those to avoid leviathan territories and the Seamoth I haven't been eaten by anything in my playthrough. (Still managed to drown a couple of times, though).

I know beacons are theoretically a thing, but I now have a quite substantial base, a cyclops and a seamoth, and I still haven't found a blueprint for a beacon. I'm mostly making improvised beacons by dropping cameras everywhere right now.

[Anteros]

I know beacons are theoretically a thing, but I now have a quite substantial base, a cyclops and a seamoth, and I still haven't found a blueprint for a beacon. I'm mostly making improvised beacons by dropping cameras everywhere right now.

The blueprint for them is very easy to find in the

Spoiler

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shallows by wreckage sites

if you want it. Spoiler tags in case you want to find it naturally.


I'm trying to get into MHW Iceborne. There's a really good game buried in here, but Capcom makes you jump through so many tedious hoops to get to it that it's almost not worth it. No one cares about your awful bare bones plot Capcom, just let me hunt monsters. At least let me skip cutscenes, and stop with the boring hour long fetch/escort quests.

[Cespenar]

So, I've been playing Trails of Cold Steel 3, the umpteenth game of the "Trails" series, and it's proving to be just as fun as its predecessors still. It's surprising how little recognition the series gets, though, as it's the best written (and best translated, which is pretty key in my opinion) JRPG I've ever seen.

I mean, apart from fixing the eternal problem of "what is everyone doing while the protagonists are wandering around", it's tackling quite heavy subjects of nationalism and politics with more poise than most. Sure, it's covered in a shonen anime veneer, and does occasionally resort to that sort of campiness, but those moments are then often drowned by the sheer quality of the game's worldbuilding and plot.

The only other "downside" would be that its plot has accrued so much so far that it would probably do no good for a newcomer to jump in midway. So the best place to start would be Trails in the Sky 1, which is 5-6(?) games back.

[Sermil]

So, I've been playing Trails of Cold Steel 3, the umpteenth game of the "Trails" series, and it's proving to be just as fun as its predecessors still. It's surprising how little recognition the series gets, though, as it's the best written (and best translated, which is pretty key in my opinion) JRPG I've ever seen.

Eh...

I played Trails of Cold Steel 1, and generally enjoyed it. It was kinda fun, kinda silly. A little light romance, some good battles, but nothing heavy. The villains were all Team-Rocket-level; they make lots of grand speeches and have complex plans that seem designed to allow the hero to step in and stop them, and then they disappear in a puff of smoke despite there being no other teleport magic in the game. Every time the hero gets in over his head, someone way more competent swoops in and protects him. But it's OK -- they're just high-school students, of course there are more-competent adults around protecting them, of course the serious villains of the world aren't going to bother them, of course things are never that serious or dangerous. I liked it.

And then I played Trails of Cold Steel 2. Ugh. The same over-the-top silly villains, the same way-more-competent protectors always showing up at exactly the right moment -- but now set against the backdrop of a civil war. A horrible civil war, which by all rights should have been killings thousands of people. Tens of thousands. People should have been **** starving in the streets, with atrocities and dead bodies around every corner. Entire neighborhoods bombed out. That's a civil war. That's what it really looks like. Putting the cartoonish villains with nonsense plans against that backdrop... the tonal whiplash was just too much. I have zero interest in playing any more of that series.

[Archpaladin Zousha]

Surviving Mars is a decent-to-good city builder, but safely skippable unless the genre and theme are super appealing to you. Planetfall is excellent, and keeps getting better. I'm not quite sure it's up to AoW 3's level yet, but fully patched and DLC'd AoW 3 is so completely excellent that's a super-high bar to clear, and it's getting closer all the time.

*shrug* Well, the sale's over now, so it's a moot point anyway, but I'll keep your recommendation of Planetfall in mind for the next Steam Sale that rolls around, especially as it appears it's not quite "done" yet, with one last DLC forthcoming. Thanks for the recommendation!

[Anteros]

Sekiro beaten! Have to say, that was a pretty darn good final boss fight. And I guess since it is the final boss, I'll go ahead and put that part in spoilers.

Spoiler

Show

The rematch with Genichiro was fun, though a lot easier than I remember him being in the mid-game. Which isn't to say that I didn't have some attempts where I screwed up and died to him, but I did beat him on the first try, and later after a few runs of dying to Isshin I was even getting some runs where I got past him without taking any damage at all. Probably helps that I've had all those attack ups since the original fight I guess, but it probably also just reflects me getting better at the game over time.

As for Isshin himself, I was a little surprised by how relatively easy his first phase is - I actually did get past it on the first attempt, and rarely lost to it in subsequent ones. That second phase makes up for though, because damn, once he pulls that spear and gun from straight out of nowhere, he becomes a terror. The second phase was the majority of my deaths, without question - and I'm not sure how many of those I had, lost count. The most annoying part though was that he would sometimes do two leaping attacks in a row, and for some reason when he jumped for the second my lock-on just stopped working and the camera didn't follow him into the air, so I could not see what he was doing to time a parry or dodge. That just ticked me off, feels like a bug that needs fixing.

The third phase is kind of a blessing in disguise after the second, since it's just the second plus the lightning move - and like with Genichiro's final phase earlier, Lightning Counter is easy and effective. I actually beat him on a run where I wasn't expecting to (had to use a resurrection early against phase 1 Isshin, then another in phase 2) because he basically spammed that lightning move. Started the phase doing it twice in a row, then did one normal sequence of attacks, then did it twice in a row again. Lightning countered all four, and between that, quick hits while he was shocked, and some parries on the regular strikes, dude was done in probably under a minute after I hit that phase.

Honestly, after all of that, I'm not sure who the hardest boss in the game was. In terms of number of deaths I had against them it's likely that mid-game Genichiro and Hirata Estate Owl take the cake, but Isshin is really rough, and if he hadn't been stupid enough to spam lightning like that I might easily have wracked up enough deaths against him to rival those two. Owl is probably at least somewhat harder than Genichiro even accounting for how much more health/healing/attack you have when you reach him, so I guess it's between him and Isshin, but it's really hard for me to pick there.

Oh, and I also did kill the Demon of Hatred bonus boss. Also tough, but partially just because he's that rare boss that you want to treat more like a Dark Souls boss and dodge instead of going for parries. Had to learn that and figure out which dodge/jump/run directions were good when, which is a big change compared to most of the other bosses in the game (I think the Giant Ape, when not undead, is the only other one like that). Still probably harder than most of the game's bosses, but not as much as I would've expected for a special end-game bonus boss.

Oh, and is it just me, or is that "best ending" basically sequel bait? Sure feels like it to me. Not that that's a complaint, mind you, I'd take a sequel to this.

Honestly, Sekiro is hands-down my favorite FromSoft/"Souls" game at this point. I think it's a lot more fun that Dark Souls (1 and 2, I never played 3), or what I played of Bloodborne (didn't finish it), and it earns its reputation for difficulty much more than I feel Dark Souls ever did. Gameplay-wise I think the fighting style it encourages is a lot more fun than the slow-paced, overly-cautious "dodge everything and whittle the enemy's health down with stray hits when you can get them" style of Dark Souls, and the stealth approach to non-boss enemies is fun to have as another way to play that helps make the difficulty more tolerable early on and ease what could be some absolutely nutty fights later on. It's also a lot more visually pleasing, with some areas like the Fountainhead Palace or Senpou Temple being actually colorful and beautiful to see, as opposed to drab darkness of absolutely everything in the other FromSoft games. And wow, does it make a big difference in my personal enjoyment that it actually has a clear narrative, and I know what I'm doing and why at any given point in the game.

I feel like gameplay-wise my only complaint is the "seals" mechanic that limits the use of tools and some special moves - it felt very restrictive in some cases, and basically completely scared me off using any special moves that had it attached, since I felt like tools were almost certainly the best use of those. Granted, some tools should definitely have a limitation like that attached (Firecracker would be way too good if it were unlimited, for an obvious one), but I question whether it's necessary on the special moves, which tend to pay for power by being slow, or even some of the weaker tools (would unlimited shurikens break anything? They're handy, sure, certainly my most-used tool, but I'm not seeing a way they'd be OP if they were free). Or perhaps the number of seals you get should just be bigger - I was very put off when I purchased an upgrade to my maximum early on, and found it to be only a +1. I was expecting like a +3 or +5 per upgrade when I first saw that, but +1 is barely even noteworthy, not all worth the skill points compared to other upgrades you can buy.

But yeah, that criticism aside really good game, definitely enjoyed it. Part of me is even tempted to start a New Game+ run to see one of those alternate endings (probably the "Side with Owl" ending), but I've had Persona 5 Royal waiting around for too long now, and while I needed that action game intermission between RPGs, I think it's time to get started stealing some hearts once again.

If you try Sekiro on new game plus make sure you return the charm to Kuro when you get the chance. Being unable to block and forced to parry changes difficulty dramatically. It's more satisfying in my opinion.

[Cespenar]

And then I played Trails of Cold Steel 2. Ugh. The same over-the-top silly villains, the same way-more-competent protectors always showing up at exactly the right moment -- but now set against the backdrop of a civil war. A horrible civil war, which by all rights should have been killings thousands of people. Tens of thousands. People should have been **** starving in the streets, with atrocities and dead bodies around every corner. Entire neighborhoods bombed out. That's a civil war. That's what it really looks like. Putting the cartoonish villains with nonsense plans against that backdrop... the tonal whiplash was just too much. I have zero interest in playing any more of that series.

Eh, I mean, "correct", but grossly unfair. Though it's obvious that even war games don't handle war to such a degree. I can barely think of... maybe Spec Ops: The Line and a few indie games that sort of do it well, and expecting that from a JRPG with a shonen chassis is, as I said, grossly unfair.

Also, while the villains, yes, put on garish clothes and take on bombastically translated nicknames; they have much more complex motives and relations than 90% of the RPGs out there. There are, like at least 6-7 factions, with maybe a hundred named characters at clash with one another, and everyone's actions can be traced (if you're so inclined) during any time period of the stupidly dense timeline of the game. Juggling such an amount of characters, their actions and consequences alone is a feat I've rarely (if ever) seen in a game, and if the cost to that is them shouting out the name of their ultimate attack, I think I can make do with that.

Even the setting alone: being naive and idealistic military academy students in an aggressive and invading country. Compare that with the black and white morality of RPGs that we enjoyed despite lacking such distinctions.

[endoperez]

Subnautica, huh?

I have the hardest time stocking up on Copper, so I've been very wary of using beacons. I've had to give up on some of my earlier beacons, collecting them and moving them elsewhere, instead of just leaving them be. I've been taking a bit of a break now, but I think Copper is still the resource I'm happiest to see.

I had both Seamoth and Cyclops way, WAY longer than I had Scanner Room. I was surprised at how easy it was to make the vehicles, I felt like I got them super early and very easily. That might be because I had a proverbial fallen tooth factory right next to my life pod, though. The seafloor was so full of them I thought they were supposed to be an early game resource with tons of uses!
You know how the things like to play with the metal scrap, floating scrap up and letting it fall back down? Whenever they're doing that, they're dropping teeth. It might be hard to see that in the kelp forests, but if you have one in the sandy areas, just go below there and you'll find lots of teeth. At least I did - theoretically it's possible the game is only doing the tooth generation check if you're able to see them or are otherwise close enough, so if you don't have any near your base, and they only occassionally generate teeth, they might be more rare.

[Anteros]

Cold Steel just seems like too much of an investment to me. There are so many games, and the cost of even the earliest and most outdated ones in the series is sky high. At this point, the games would have to be really excellent to be worth it...and given the fact that it looks like it plays like a dating sim with scantily clad schoolgirls and emo edgelords it doesn't seem like something I'd ever be interested in even as someone who likes JRPGs.

Subnautica, huh?

I have the hardest time stocking up on Copper, so I've been very wary of using beacons. I've had to give up on some of my earlier beacons, collecting them and moving them elsewhere, instead of just leaving them be. I've been taking a bit of a break now, but I think Copper is still the resource I'm happiest to see.

I had both Seamoth and Cyclops way, WAY longer than I had Scanner Room. I was surprised at how easy it was to make the vehicles, I felt like I got them super early and very easily. That might be because I had a proverbial fallen tooth factory right next to my life pod, though. The seafloor was so full of them I thought they were supposed to be an early game resource with tons of uses!
You know how the things like to play with the metal scrap, floating scrap up and letting it fall back down? Whenever they're doing that, they're dropping teeth. It might be hard to see that in the kelp forests, but if you have one in the sandy areas, just go below there and you'll find lots of teeth. At least I did - theoretically it's possible the game is only doing the tooth generation check if you're able to see them or are otherwise close enough, so if you don't have any near your base, and they only occassionally generate teeth, they might be more rare.

The scanner room is available super early, so it sounds like that's just a luck thing on your part. Most people should unlock the scanner room at the same time as the seamoth and laser cutter...well before the cyclops. You may have just had unlucky blueprint spawns though since they're somewhat random. I had a run once where it took me hours to find the laser cutter blueprint even though I know what biome they spawn in because almost all of them had spawned inside wrecks that I needed the cutter to get into. I've played the game probably 10 times or so though and only had that problem once.

[Lynam III]

Cold Steel just seems like too much of an investment to me. There are so many games, and the cost of even the earliest and most outdated ones in the series is sky high. At this point, the games would have to be really excellent to be worth it...and given the fact that it looks like it plays like a dating sim with scantily clad schoolgirls and emo edgelords it doesn't seem like something I'd ever be interested in even as someone who likes JRPGs.

Sir, this is Japan.

[Cespenar]

Cold Steel just seems like too much of an investment to me. There are so many games, and the cost of even the earliest and most outdated ones in the series is sky high. At this point, the games would have to be really excellent to be worth it...and given the fact that it looks like it plays like a dating sim with scantily clad schoolgirls and emo edgelords it doesn't seem like something I'd ever be interested in even as someone who likes JRPGs.

More like, it looks like a dating sim (at very first glimpse, maybe), but its plot runs like a political drama series, dotted with some shonen moments. I'd prefer it that way rather than it looking grim and gritty, and playing nothing like it.

For people who absolutely detest shonen tropes and anything close to it, though, I'd admit that it's not a game for them.

[DaedalusMkV]

Eh, I mean, "correct", but grossly unfair. Though it's obvious that even war games don't handle war to such a degree. I can barely think of... maybe Spec Ops: The Line and a few indie games that sort of do it well, and expecting that from a JRPG with a shonen chassis is, as I said, grossly unfair.

Also, while the villains, yes, put on garish clothes and take on bombastically translated nicknames; they have much more complex motives and relations than 90% of the RPGs out there. There are, like at least 6-7 factions, with maybe a hundred named characters at clash with one another, and everyone's actions can be traced (if you're so inclined) during any time period of the stupidly dense timeline of the game. Juggling such an amount of characters, their actions and consequences alone is a feat I've rarely (if ever) seen in a game, and if the cost to that is them shouting out the name of their ultimate attack, I think I can make do with that.

Even the setting alone: being naive and idealistic military academy students in an aggressive and invading country. Compare that with the black and white morality of RPGs that we enjoyed despite lacking such distinctions.

Speaking as someone who's played quite a bit of it, the Trails series is kind of a weird one and I totally understand Sermil's gripe (if not necessarily the degree to which it turned him off the game). Trails has this weird mismatch between setting and story that causes me plenty of cognitive dissonance as well. It has a nuanced and gritty setting filled with realpolitik where wars ravage countries, but within the story of the games a single terrorist dying in a mech's reactor explosion is treated as a terrible failure on the part of the main characters and causes angst in the hero for the rest of the game. Fie and Laura can present themes on the difficulty of bringing a martial arts tradition into modern warfare and reconciling different views of what it means to be a soldier, and then less than an hour later go 'hehe, look at Laura, she can't even use a vacuum cleaner despite being a woman! So funny!'

This is a series where half of the protagonists have parents or friends killed by the ravages of war in their backstory, yet a large-scale artillery strike on a major city somehow doesn't kill anybody. I do quite like the series, myself, but I can totally see how the inconsistency of how the setting and characters are presented and what actually happens in the story turning someone off. Trails has spectacular worldbuilding and a dedication to exploring and developing characters that any other game would never bother to present beyond a cardboard cutout that's almost unique outside of print literature (and rare even there), but the actual plot is a bit childish on a not-infrequent basis. Again, in a series which features multiple large-scale military conflicts, Cold Steel manages, what, 3 actual on-screen deaths (it doesn't count if they don't stay dead) in games 1-3? And I'm counting Gideon in that number!

[Anteros]

More like, it looks like a dating sim (at very first glimpse, maybe), but its plot runs like a political drama series, dotted with some shonen moments. I'd prefer it that way rather than it looking grim and gritty, and playing nothing like it.

There's a whole lot of other options besides those two though. I'd prefer neither of them personally.

[Zevox]

If you try Sekiro on new game plus make sure you return the charm to Kuro when you get the chance. Being unable to block and forced to parry changes difficulty dramatically. It's more satisfying in my opinion.

If I were starting New Game+ now I might try that, but I feel like it might be a bad idea when I come back to it sometime later. Seems like the type of thing I'd want to do while I'm "in practice" at the game, so to speak.

[Anteros]

If I were starting New Game+ now I might try that, but I feel like it might be a bad idea when I come back to it sometime later. Seems like the type of thing I'd want to do while I'm "in practice" at the game, so to speak.

The muscle memory comes back a lot faster than you'd think, but I get your point.

[Rynjin]

IME being "out of practice" is the best way to start those kinds of challenges; you'll have an easier time unlearning habits you formed in the first, normal playthrough.

[Triaxx]

Honestly the two last things I found in Subnautica were the Scanner Room and the Cyclops the first time around. I beat the game before I found the Cyclops.

[PoeticallyPsyco]

Honestly the two last things I found in Subnautica were the Scanner Room and the Cyclops the first time around. I beat the game before I found the Cyclops.

That's legitimately impressive. EDIT: Hang on, gonna spoiler this for minor endgame content.

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Did you explore the lava caverns by building new bases to act as recharge points?

[Sermil]

Eh, I mean, "correct", but grossly unfair. Though it's obvious that even war games don't handle war to such a degree. I can barely think of... maybe Spec Ops: The Line and a few indie games that sort of do it well, and expecting that from a JRPG with a shonen chassis is, as I said, grossly unfair.

Except that half the time Trails wants you to take it super-seriously, and the other half, it's ridiculous. I didn't object to Red Alert 2 or Advance Wars, because those know they are silly and never try to be serious.

Also, while the villains, yes, put on garish clothes and take on bombastically translated nicknames; they have much more complex motives and relations than 90% of the RPGs out there.

Really? One of the primary antagonists of Trails of Cold Steel II is Bleublanc a.k.a. Phantom Thief B. Who constantly gives the heroes clues so that they can figure out what he is about to steal. Can you see, say, Michael Corleone carefully giving the FBI clues that he was about to kill Sollozzo? Just so he can "feel superior" about it? No, of course not. Michael Corleone is in a serious (if somewhat melodramatic) work of fiction. I'm sorry, Bleublanc is an Adam-West-Batman villain, not a villain in a serious work of fiction.

And can you really tell me what Ouroboros' big plan IS? Not even the fan wiki can do that. I'll bet you dollars to donuts that the writers have no idea what Ouroboros' "master plan" is either; they just do whatever they need to move the plot along. And this is main antagonist group of the whole series.

Again, if Trails had been willing to just be silly and lean into the silly, I would have been fine with that. I was fine with Bleublanc in Trails of Cold Steel 1. The problem was that ToCS2 kept claiming to be deep and realistic, but then they have these 0-death wars and over-the-top villains and that's not how real life works. It's the contrast between the attempt to be serious and the inability to actually do it that soured me.

[Knaight]

I broke my rule on no entertainment spending in quarantine a bit for Tametsi, on the basis of it being one dollar and "Hexcells but meaner" being basically a perfect pitch to me.

It's Hexcells but meaner, so I'm happy with it. Plus, mean as it is it's still no late series DROD game or Spacechem.

[Anteros]

Honestly the two last things I found in Subnautica were the Scanner Room and the Cyclops the first time around. I beat the game before I found the Cyclops.

That's a real shame. I'd consider those 2 things to he the best upgrades in the game. It's a completely different experience without them.

The Cyclops in particular...

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what other open world game gives you a mobile base that you can build inside?