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

[Gnoman]

My favorite design combo:

Pants of the Titan: Jump 100 for 2 seconds (or 1-5 secs, depending on ease of use vs. cheapness)
Ring of Cushioning: Levitate 1 for 1 second

This is backwards. It should be Ring of Jumping and Parachute Pants.

[Zevox]

Finished up my first full run of XCOM2. (Would've done so last night, but man, that last mission is long.)

All in all, fun game. I've already brought up the parts that annoyed me plenty, so I'll skip that. I liked the angle of playing a guerilla resistance faction against aliens that have already conquered earth and the kind of missions that leads to - though admittedly story-wise it still feels strangely like the first game: discover things with sinister implications about the aliens, find out they have frightening plan for humanity, figure out way to launch desperate final mission to defeat them. Different story, same story beats, if you will. I did tend to like the new gameplay changes compared to the first game, such as the addition of the sword secondary weapon to the assault/ranger class' arsenal, or psi operatives becoming their own class. Though I did kind of wish I could convert a soldier who is already above rookie rank into a psi operative, and that psi operatives got something for gaining experience in missions rather than having everything just tied to how long they spend in the psi lab. Everybody generally got some cool new abilities that I enjoyed, though, especially Psi operatives, and I liked the new enemy types - though the standard soldiers get a bit over-used, but eh, I guess there's an obvious story reason for that. It was weird that high-rank aliens didn't include another that could threaten you with mind control like Elders could in the first game, though; very strange to be worried about that early on from Sectoids, but not in the late-game (barring the one plot enemy type you face only twice, anyway).

Solid game, slight improvement on its predecessor. Guess now I'll be checking out War of the Chosen and seeing how it is with that. ...or in a little while, because holy ****, War of the Chosen has a huge file size! That sucker takes up more space than the base game. Gonna be a long download.

[heronbpv]

Get ready for the photoboot, Zevox. The best ideia ever in a strategy game!
Jokes aside, never really understood the size of WotC, but boy if it isn't a overall improvement to the base game experience.
Still not Long war levels of better, but a lot better.

[Dire_Flumph]

Solid game, slight improvement on its predecessor. Guess now I'll be checking out War of the Chosen and seeing how it is with that. ...or in a little while, because holy ****, War of the Chosen has a huge file size! That sucker takes up more space than the base game. Gonna be a long download.

Be interested to see your take on War of the Chosen, it's another evolutionary step, but one I enjoyed. Although I will admit that a lot of that was that it was practically a Star Trek: TNG reunion.

[Eldan]

Into the Breach was free on Epic yesterday and I gave it a spin.
Got two islands done yesterday, though it cost me a lot of timelines. Definitely liking it, but so far, I really wish there were more ways to customize your squad early on. I got some weapons and other gear after the first island, but there's still not much actual choice. I assume you get more later.

[IthilanorStPete]

Into the Breach was free on Epic yesterday and I gave it a spin.
Got two islands done yesterday, though it cost me a lot of timelines. Definitely liking it, but so far, I really wish there were more ways to customize your squad early on. I got some weapons and other gear after the first island, but there's still not much actual choice. I assume you get more later.

You do; as you progress through the game, you unlock different starting squads, similar to how FTL worked.

[Cespenar]

I'd love to play morrowind, but the sheer jank of its movements and the graphics repel me from it every time I try. I've heard of its lore and I think its awesome, I just wish that either that skywind project gets finished or a remaster is done so that I can enjoy it, because Morrowind needs and deserves one.

Yeah, if you didn't get into it when it came out, it's harder to get over the graphics now. The lore and worldbuilding is just bonkers, though. Oblivion and Skyrim basically use a pinch of what was written back in Morrowind, and it makes those two games seem lore-heavy. It's pretty silly.

This is backwards. It should be Ring of Jumping and Parachute Pants.

But mine has innuendos and stuff!

You do; as you progress through the game, you unlock different starting squads, similar to how FTL worked.

More so than FTL even, really, since a) you can pick pilots as well, and b) FTL's randomness downgrades the impact of your ship choice somewhat, whereas in ItB, the differences between squads are like "do you want two knights and a rook; or one bishop, one queen and one pawn?"

[LibraryOgre]

This is backwards. It should be Ring of Jumping and Parachute Pants.

I lol'd.

I am missing parts of Daggerfall. Like, the ability to climb. Sure, I can fly everywhere, and often do, but climbing had a certain flair to it.

[MCerberus]

Finished up my first full run of XCOM2. (Would've done so last night, but man, that last mission is long.)

All in all, fun game. I've already brought up the parts that annoyed me plenty, so I'll skip that. I liked the angle of playing a guerilla resistance faction against aliens that have already conquered earth and the kind of missions that leads to - though admittedly story-wise it still feels strangely like the first game: discover things with sinister implications about the aliens, find out they have frightening plan for humanity, figure out way to launch desperate final mission to defeat them. Different story, same story beats, if you will. I did tend to like the new gameplay changes compared to the first game, such as the addition of the sword secondary weapon to the assault/ranger class' arsenal, or psi operatives becoming their own class. Though I did kind of wish I could convert a soldier who is already above rookie rank into a psi operative, and that psi operatives got something for gaining experience in missions rather than having everything just tied to how long they spend in the psi lab. Everybody generally got some cool new abilities that I enjoyed, though, especially Psi operatives, and I liked the new enemy types - though the standard soldiers get a bit over-used, but eh, I guess there's an obvious story reason for that. It was weird that high-rank aliens didn't include another that could threaten you with mind control like Elders could in the first game, though; very strange to be worried about that early on from Sectoids, but not in the late-game (barring the one plot enemy type you face only twice, anyway).

Solid game, slight improvement on its predecessor. Guess now I'll be checking out War of the Chosen and seeing how it is with that. ...or in a little while, because holy ****, War of the Chosen has a huge file size! That sucker takes up more space than the base game. Gonna be a long download.

If you got the "everything" version, the mini campaigns give you some pre-modded weapons that are pretty good and upgrade through the game. You also discover the fate of the single most powerful artifact humanity has created.

[Anteros]

Finished up my first ever 15 rune run of Dungeon Crawl Stone Soup. It turns out that gargoyles really trivialize the late game.

[LibraryOgre]

I have reached that point in Morrowind where, frequently, if I need something magical done often enough, I just enchant something to do it. I will savescum to enchant things. So my Dreugh helmet is enchanted to cast Water Breathing. I have an adamantine bracer that will Absorb Health. I have pants that have Feather (one use) on them.

Why do my casting scores remain ****ty? Because I can enchant something to do the jobs I need.

[factotum]

I just completed The Legend of Heroes: Trails in the Sky first chapter, and I'm downloading the second chapter as we speak because I really want to see where this story goes. The way it ended was amazing. There was *one* really irritating moment, though: developers, if you're going to include a "meant to lose" fight, don't make it seem like I actually have a chance so I burn through loads of healing items and what-have-you before the boom gets dropped. I had basically given up on this fight because I'd got the guy down to about 1/6th health at one point but he'd managed to get all the way back up to full, and was expecting the usual "Retry" menu when the fight ended, not a cutscene!

[tonberrian]

I just completed The Legend of Heroes: Trails in the Sky first chapter, and I'm downloading the second chapter as we speak because I really want to see where this story goes. The way it ended was amazing. There was *one* really irritating moment, though: developers, if you're going to include a "meant to lose" fight, don't make it seem like I actually have a chance so I burn through loads of healing items and what-have-you before the boom gets dropped. I had basically given up on this fight because I'd got the guy down to about 1/6th health at one point but he'd managed to get all the way back up to full, and was expecting the usual "Retry" menu when the fight ended, not a cutscene!

Man I should finish that. You planning to go after Trails of Cold Steel after the Trails in the Sky trilogy ends? Supposedly they're linked.

[Cespenar]

Man I should finish that. You planning to go after Trails of Cold Steel after the Trails in the Sky trilogy ends? Supposedly they're linked.

They are... moderately linked. You don't continue the same direct plotline as Trails in the Sky, but join the overarching story from another country with another character.

More than "more of the same", though, ToCS really amps things up, worldbuilding and story-wise.

I just completed The Legend of Heroes: Trails in the Sky first chapter, and I'm downloading the second chapter as we speak because I really want to see where this story goes. The way it ended was amazing. There was *one* really irritating moment, though: developers, if you're going to include a "meant to lose" fight, don't make it seem like I actually have a chance so I burn through loads of healing items and what-have-you before the boom gets dropped. I had basically given up on this fight because I'd got the guy down to about 1/6th health at one point but he'd managed to get all the way back up to full, and was expecting the usual "Retry" menu when the fight ended, not a cutscene!

You may want to skip the third chapter and go directly into Trails of Cold Steel, though, if you reach that point. 3 is almost not really a complete game, just an excuse to tie some loose ends in the story, one at a time.

[Zevox]

I've gone back to playing DBFZ in the evenings lately - sort of a warm-up for the arrival of Master Roshi and the new balance patch next week. It's taken a few days of getting beat on, but I feel like I'm getting back into the swing of things. Playing UI Goku, Kefla, and Goku Black - which is perhaps a touch ironic since it's an all Dragon Ball Super team, and I've never watched Super, just most of Z and part of the original. But hey, they're all very fun characters. Kefla's becomes one of my favorites period since she came out, Goku Black has always been my preferred beam assist, and UI Goku I'd say is now my favorite version of Goku. Still, thinking I'll switch to my Gogeta/Videl/Yamcha team in the next few days, since the first team I intend to play Roshi on is with Videl and Yamcha for an all-human team. Always pretty happy playing this game, as long as I can avoid the people with bad connections. Even two and a half years later there's still plenty of people at or below my skill level around, so I don't only face people way better than me, which is rare in fighting games I like this much.

But besides that, XCOM 2: War of the Chosen. Wow, yeah, they threw in everything and the kitchen sink into that, didn't they? Guess I should start with impressions of the early game, since I was so worried about it: I was very relieved to see that WotC has you start with more soldiers than the original, 12 instead of 8, which helps a lot. Also helps that this time I didn't have any of my first few missions turn into total disasters, so I didn't lose any of those starter soldiers either. The "willpower" mechanic is also not as bad as I'd feared from how it was described - it seems like, from full at least, I can take any soldier on at least two missions before they reach "tired" status, and it doesn't take that long for them to come off it, so it's really not interfering with me much. Though it does feel like the wounded status is a bit more punishing than it was in the vanilla version - off the first mission I had someone who was out for 28 days, which is more than I ever saw anyone be wounded for in my entire previous run (14-16 days felt typical for someone who lost most of their health there, with the absolute max I think I saw being in the low 20s). Still, more troops to work with made that work out.

Geez, where else to start with everything? I guess I should say that I kind of agree with a comment that I think Warty Goblin had made about how it feels like they if anything threw in too much here. Willpower, the Chosen, faction units, covert missions, faction orders, bonds, learning abilities via skill points in addition to when promoting, earning those skill points for random things you can do in battle and promoting and having both individual and shared pools of skill points, new enemy types, new facilities, new types of missions, some things that were removed in their previous form and worked into parts of those new additions - it feels almost like they added or changed more going from XCOM 2 to War of the Chosen than they did going from the first XCOM to 2.

That said, by and large, they seem to be good additions. I think the changes to the actual missions might be my favorite overall. Having more missions that aren't on a timer, variations on existing missions (i.e. I had a VIP rescue where, instead of booking it for the evac zone as soon as I got the VIP, I had to hold out against enemy reinforcements for a couple of rounds before the evac zone spawned, which was a nice change), the extra conditions the missions can have, new types of missions that covert ops can cause (I like the stealth missions to rescue captured soldiers - they're pretty easy, but a fun change of pace), there's plenty to like that just makes the fights feel more varied and interesting. On that note though... The Lost. I'm in a weird position with them. Gameplay-wise, I like them - they bring a very different dynamic to fights, especially with the mechanic where loud sounds attract more of them, giving you reason to hesitate to use explosives when those are otherwise pretty much the best thing in the game short of mind control. Flavor-wise... they're zombies. Why are there zombies in this game about fighting aliens? I just... ugh, they're so lucky they make for good gameplay, because I do not really like the whole "zombie hordes" thing, except when they're minions for a necromancer in a fantasy game, so I could easily have hated them.

The Chosen, so far, I tentatively like. They add some challenge to things, no question there. The first fight with one being against the assassin one who can go into a stealth mode, doesn't trigger overwatch, and can hit you for guaranteed melee damage and a daze effect while still having the mobility to put some serious distance between you and end behind full cover was annoying though. I honestly feel like you can only beat that one early on because she ends up screwing herself and stupidly leaving herself open to attack at some point or another, and then her weakness to any attacks that are close enough to her causes her health to melt. I've also had one fight with the Hunter, but it was much later into the game, so by that point he wound up going down relatively easily - just summoned one mech, then I killed him before he got a second turn. Kind of hoping they don't all become that easy all the time as time goes on. Anyway, my reservations are more flavor-wise with them. Part of me does like that they give a face and personality to the enemy in this game... but another part of me thinks, doesn't that defeat the flavor the series seems to be going for? The aliens as a faceless menace you can't really communicate with, a figuratively as well as literally alien set of enemies, seems to be the whole tone that both games have been going for, so making these very chatty aliens who serve as at least major lieutenants of the enemy force seems a bit off.

As far as the factions go, I do like the new units, though it feels like the Reaper and Templar ones are kind of overpowered. The Reaper unit allows you to give the middle finger to the whole fog-of-war mechanic because it's such a perfect scout, and the Templar, good lord. High-damage melee attacks that never miss and gain higher-damage as they score kills, the ability to move after a melee kill from the get-go, a very early ability that lets you trade that extra move for immunity to the first attack made against you - they're nigh-immortal killing machines early on, and if you get to upgrade those blades of theirs as you go, I don't see that changing. And that's ignoring their extra psionic abilities... because honestly, so far, I've no need to use them. By contrast, the... Skirmisher, I think it is (that faction's name is so generic compared to the other two...), is alright. The grappling hook stuff is cool and good. The mechanic of being able to shoot-move or even shoot twice a turn, by contrast, is actually kind of underwhelming compared to what the other two get, and really does make you wonder why the developers of this game are set against allowing all units to do that.

I do like the covert ops, though it would be nice to have a clearer idea of how long each option is available. I've had a couple I wanted to do disappear on me and not reappear yet.

The skill point system, faction orders, and bonds are probably where they overdid it, IMO. They already had a nice, elegant system for gaining abilities as you rank up, and the skill points thing just seriously over-complicates it, and makes it possible to make characters significantly more powerful by giving them every ability their class can get (that's worth getting, at least) and then some. Faction orders feel the most tacked-on and uninteresting addition. Bonds... some of the mechanical things they're allowing are nice, but they just wind up making me wish the game's characters had actual personalities, so the system could include developing relationships between them ala supports in Fire Emblem or Social Links in Persona. Yes, I know some of the series' fans really like things as they are in that regard, but personally I'll never be one of those. (I'm also aware that Chimaera Squad has changed that, but it's not on consoles at this point and there's no way my PC is playing a game that new, so I just have to wait there.)

I think that covers most everything there is to be commented upon? I don't know, there's so much that I could be forgetting some things. So far, I'm kind of into the mid-game, I'd say. I've got my magnetic weapons and tier-2 armor, took out the blacksite, just skulljacked a captain, and am working on blowing some facilities to set back the Avatar timer that was getting a little too close for comfort for a minute there. Also currently have troops deployed on covert op 2 towards locating the Assassin Chosen, who will almost certainly be the first Chosen I try to finish off. I'll be interested to see how that goes, and what the third Chosen is like.

[factotum]

Man I should finish that. You planning to go after Trails of Cold Steel after the Trails in the Sky trilogy ends? Supposedly they're linked.

I actually started this game because somebody on Reddit said that the first Trails of Cold Steel game was very similar to Persona, and all the online advice was to go into Trails of the Sky first...I'm certainly not regretting my decision! And yes, you *totally* need to finish the game, the twist (and cliffhanger) at the end is probably among the best I've ever seen in a video game.

You may want to skip the third chapter and go directly into Trails of Cold Steel, though, if you reach that point. 3 is almost not really a complete game, just an excuse to tie some loose ends in the story, one at a time.

I'll see what I feel like at the end of 2--if the story is all nicely wrapped up then I might do as you say.

[PoeticallyPsyco]

I just completed The Legend of Heroes: Trails in the Sky first chapter, and I'm downloading the second chapter as we speak because I really want to see where this story goes. The way it ended was amazing. There was *one* really irritating moment, though: developers, if you're going to include a "meant to lose" fight, don't make it seem like I actually have a chance so I burn through loads of healing items and what-have-you before the boom gets dropped. I had basically given up on this fight because I'd got the guy down to about 1/6th health at one point but he'd managed to get all the way back up to full, and was expecting the usual "Retry" menu when the fight ended, not a cutscene!

Bit of a tangent, but one of the fun things about DMC V is that you actually can win those fights. Doing so ends the game and unlocks the next difficulty level (the two next, if you beat the very first one on your first playthrough). It does go to cutscene before giving you a chance to waste your single-use resurrection items, though, which is nice of them.

[Anonymouswizard]

Bit of a tangent, but one of the fun things about DMC V is that you actually can win those fights. Doing so ends the game and unlocks the next difficulty level (the two next, if you beat the very first one on your first playthrough). It does go to cutscene before giving you a chance to waste your single-use resurrection items, though, which is nice of them.

To be fair that fight is so early in the game you'll only have the free Gold Orb, and wouldn't have had the chance to buy Vital Stars if the game still had them. And the rest of the series does Heads I Win Tails You Lose fights at worst, the only one I can really think of being the first Vergil fight in DMC3 (although I suspect there's maybe one or two in DMC5, need to get a more powerful PC before I can check).

[Cespenar]

I actually started this game because somebody on Reddit said that the first Trails of Cold Steel game was very similar to Persona, and all the online advice was to go into Trails of the Sky first...I'm certainly not regretting my decision! And yes, you *totally* need to finish the game, the twist (and cliffhanger) at the end is probably among the best I've ever seen in a video game.

I had tried to mention the series here as well, but was shot down quite heavily, so I'm glad someone else tried and liked it.

Oh, and if you liked that twist, wait until you see the ones that ToCS pulls off.

[factotum]

Bit of a tangent, but one of the fun things about DMC V is that you actually can win those fights.

After looking things up online, apparently it *is* possible to win the fight in question--it's required to achieve the best score in the game. I assumed it was a meant-to-lose because the game continued after I, y'know, lost, but presumably what happens if you win is about the same (since the guy you were fighting takes a swan dive off a balcony and escapes).

Does have to be said that sometimes the combat in the game can be frustrating. When you've got everything set up just so to kill all the enemies without taking a hit and one of your characters misses a crucial shot, or somebody gets hit with a status ailment that takes them out of the fight for a couple of turns and scuppers your chances, for instance. It's possible to get into a position where all your characters are helpless for one reason or another and you have to watch while the enemy beats them into pulp, because you can't do anything (even run away) when it isn't your turn.

On the plus side, the "run away" option *always works*. There are some other games I can think of (looking at you, Persona 1!) where that's not the case. I mean, c'mon, the reason I'm selecting the run option is either because the fight it too tough for me or because I think it's a waste of time, having it fail is just annoying!

[heronbpv]

I had tried to mention the series here as well, but was shot down quite heavily, so I'm glad someone else tried and liked it.

Oh, and if you liked that twist, wait until you see the ones that ToCS pulls off.

So, people here don't like the Legend of Heroes series? Strange. I usually only hear good things, and memes, about it.
That, and people disliking it for being a typical JRPG. Which is fine by me.

XCOM 2 Stuff

Just a pointer: the chosen vulnerabilities are randomized per game. I don't remember if they can remove said weakness later on, by training.
And yeah, WotC is overloaded with stuff, that makes you really overpowered. But that's what they were going for with this game (and the Enemy Unknown/Within): the awesomeness of turning the tables on the ayys, this time extra hard, and with propaganda posters to help with the sandbagging! :p
Too bad you're on console, the mods for this game are nuts!

[Thomas Cardew]

XCOM 2 stuff

Glad you're enjoying it so far. Out of curiosity, what difficulty do you play on and do you save-scum, if so how frequently? (No judgement implied, just lack of a better term)

Again the willpower system is more annoying at the end IMO since it stops you from reusing your otherwise uninjured favorites. I've generally got teams formed and sometimes bondmates can end up on different timers force you to either split them or bench both when only one needs it. Wounding is definitely harsher, mostly because it's balanced around the late game 50% reduction.

The chosen are very much an enemy snowball mechanic. If you beat them early, they go from medium to easy since you tend to outpace their growth. If you can't handle them or they get good traits and do some training events, they can get out of hand quickly. The traits and events are RNG. The tone criticism is pretty common. And can get more grating as time goes on and they constantly monologue or threaten you after you routinely kill them in the round they spawn...

If memory serves Covert Ops cycle with the monthly supply drops so you can plan accordingly. Of course, if you start one with 2 days left, you won't get to see new missions until it finishes.

The skillpoint system allows you to make insane supersoldiers. It's fun and over the top, and I love it. Especially, since it lets your standard trooper equal/replace psi troopers since psi troopers could eventually unlock all their skills. Plus being able to 1-2 man missions with a stacked covert-action bonus stat and all skills ranger can be amazingly broken. And fun.

I've been playing a lot of Total War: Warhammer 2 lately. Although, I've been playing the older races for the steam achievements and it's been getting tedious. They all have to play on the mortal empires map and have similar start zones so I feel fighting the same enemies over and over each campaign. I'm either slogging through endless waves of orcs, empire, or skaven before the inevitable chaos invasion. My last run was vampire counts which was even more tedious than usual. Their lack of ranged units meant all battles and armies had basically one strategy.

I also just found a website that replicates the old Lord of the Rings trading card game Decipher made before it went out of business. I played a TON of that back in school when the movies were coming out and it was the hot thing. I've been having a LOADS of nostalgia fun remaking old decks and getting creamed. Making new decks I never could because I lacked the cards. Sadly, I'm not in contact with many friends from back then or I'd pester them into playing again. That said, I haven't really struggled to get games.

[Cespenar]

So, people here don't like the Legend of Heroes series? Strange. I usually only hear good things, and memes, about it.
That, and people disliking it for being a typical JRPG. Which is fine by me.

Yeah, could be some vocal outliers, I don't rightly know. Ironically, I like it because it's not like other JRPGs, to be honest. At least story and writing-wise.

On the plus side, the "run away" option *always works*. There are some other games I can think of (looking at you, Persona 1!) where that's not the case. I mean, c'mon, the reason I'm selecting the run option is either because the fight it too tough for me or because I think it's a waste of time, having it fail is just annoying!

Yeah, the retreat option in most RPGs is the one place you shouldn't really try to "balance" with a roll/item/etc., in my opinion. Unless your game is especially about gritty roguelike survival or something.

[darkdragoon]

Cuphead- I know it's supposed to be really tough but part of me just feels really rusty. I also think there's a couple things I have to unlearn too.

[Zevox]

Glad you're enjoying it so far. Out of curiosity, what difficulty do you play on and do you save-scum, if so how frequently? (No judgement implied, just lack of a better term)

The normal difficulty, whatever they call that. Don't feel like amping it up, personally, I just suspect that'd make me hate the RNG stuff that much more.

And yes, though infrequently. With rookies I'm willing to lose soldiers if it happens; once they get promoted I give them names and appearances based on characters from something else (Fire Emblem: Three Houses in my previous run, the Persona series in the current one), and at that point I'm no longer willing to lose them, so if something happens that causes that, I reload. That tends to be very rare outside of the early period though - for instance, I just had a mission where it did happen, but only because the mind control I got on an Andromedan via the Insanity power wore off after only a single turn, so it got to surprise me with a flanking shot on one soldier which crit and killed him from full health. Otherwise, I'll tend to play out even scenarios that look like they might disastrous to see if I can get out of them, and surprisingly often I can.

Again the willpower system is more annoying at the end IMO since it stops you from reusing your otherwise uninjured favorites. I've generally got teams formed and sometimes bondmates can end up on different timers force you to either split them or bench both when only one needs it. Wounding is definitely harsher, mostly because it's balanced around the late game 50% reduction.

Eh, I don't tend to make entire teams that are always together, I just pick who I want on each mission (and try to bring one of each class). The bond system has made me more likely to use certain pairs together, but I still use them individually sometimes if need be, and it doesn't bother me.

The chosen are very much an enemy snowball mechanic. If you beat them early, they go from medium to easy since you tend to outpace their growth. If you can't handle them or they get good traits and do some training events, they can get out of hand quickly. The traits and events are RNG. The tone criticism is pretty common. And can get more grating as time goes on and they constantly monologue or threaten you after you routinely kill them in the round they spawn...

Hm, interesting. I don't think I've had any of them do any training as yet, and I'm getting close to the point where I might be able to take out the first one.

I have encountered the third, the Warlock, who is at least harder to deal with than the Hunter. Surprised that he's the only one of the trio smart enough to use that summoning ability of his while he's still off somewhere away from me, but it makes him a better challenge, so cool.

[Rynjin]

When they start training and show up with traits like "immune to bullets" things can start going downhill fast.

[Man_Over_Game]

Yeah, could be some vocal outliers, I don't rightly know. Ironically, I like it because it's not like other JRPGs, to be honest. At least story and writing-wise.

You might like the Battle Chasers: Nightwar game. It does a good job with the writing being fairly self-contained, fast-paced, with some mild humor and circumstantial banter between badguys and players mid-combat.

I also thought the combat was well-made. Doesn't do anything too extravagant, like come up with its own weird nonsensical mechanics or anything, it does a good job of making stereotypical combat feel interactive and decisive with only mild modifications (like how making a basic attack gives you temporary mana to spend in that same combat).

[Thomas Cardew]

The normal difficulty, whatever they call that. Don't feel like amping it up, personally, I just suspect that'd make me hate the RNG stuff that much more.

-snip-

I have encountered the third, the Warlock, who is at least harder to deal with than the Hunter. Surprised that he's the only one of the trio smart enough to use that summoning ability of his while he's still off somewhere away from me, but it makes him a better challenge, so cool.

That's part of it then. On normal, you're given some xp gain, aim, and health boosts. When you bump up the difficulty, you lose those and the enemies gain health so it becomes harder to kill enemies.

The chosen training goes faster if they capture some soldiers or use it as one of the dark events. They start with 2 strengths can get up to 5. You can run into some bad situations on things like retaliation maps with the right sets of traits. Blast shield makes the Chosen immune to explosives. While kinetic plating gives the Chosen extra shield HP when your soldiers, or the resistance members miss. You can end up unable to punch through its armor while the 'friendly' ai tosses it a maximum heal every turn by taking 40% shots.

[Zevox]

That's part of it then. On normal, you're given some xp gain, aim, and health boosts. When you bump up the difficulty, you lose those and the enemies gain health so it becomes harder to kill enemies.

The chosen training goes faster if they capture some soldiers or use it as one of the dark events. They start with 2 strengths can get up to 5. You can run into some bad situations on things like retaliation maps with the right sets of traits. Blast shield makes the Chosen immune to explosives. While kinetic plating gives the Chosen extra shield HP when your soldiers, or the resistance members miss. You can end up unable to punch through its armor while the 'friendly' ai tosses it a maximum heal every turn by taking 40% shots.

I have one Chosen who started with each of those traits, actually - the Assassin has immunity to explosives, the Warlock will gain shields if I miss him. So far they haven't mattered too much. The Assassin's explosive immunity was annoying the first time I fought her, but the Warlock's shields benefit has never yet triggered.

I did just have the Hunter become the first one to do some training, though, and now he's immune to melee attacks, which worries me more. Still, he's been the easiest one to deal with so far. Still, guess it's time that I get on with dealing with them.

[Anteros]

I picked up Trails in the Sky since people in this thread are high on it. I've actually owned it since 2015 but never got around to playing.

I forgot what a slog older JRPGs can be. In about 3 hours of play time I've spent approximately 15 minutes actually playing the game and the rest either walking around town, or listening to slight variations of the same dialogue about how quirky the girl main character is and how reliable the guy is.

I get it. Can I please just play the game at some point? It's to the point where I'm just clicking through the dialogue as fast as possible and skimming rather than reading. I know a lot of JRPGs start slow, but if nothing changes soon I'm going to go ahead and drop the series.