Currently Playing chat thread

deathofcows wrote:Kuru Kuru Kururin on GBA switch app.

Fun! Gets surprisingly hard surprisingly quickly!

That was one of the GBA games I bought alongside the console and one of my favourite for it despite being terrible at it, my sister (around 6 at the time) was far better at it

Just finished Super Mario RPG like an hour ago, got Like a Dragon Infinite wealth on preorder thanks to my misses and cant wait to play that so need to sort something small out to cover me between now and then.

55 hours in to Like a Dragon. Have just passed a very very grindy section which had slowed things down. Not sure why the felt the requirement to do that.

Have been enjoying the English dub (awaits abuse), but the VA for Kiryu was pretty awful. Has me thinking I might have to switch back to Japanese for The Man Who Erased His Name and Infinite Wealth. I think it’s because I have spent about 250 hours hearing a very different voice tone in the previous games.

Some of the shine is starting to come off of Dave the Diver, although I'm still enjoying my time with it.

I'm 9 hours in, and it still feels like I'm going through a tutorial at times, with all the new elements slowly being drip fed to me as I progress. It's also becoming clear that with so many elements, resources to gather and manage, and the exponential cost increases for upgrades, that this is likely to require some grinding/farming not too far down the line, which kind of takes away from the initial chilled out, easy appeal it had initially, but I'm also hopeful that some of the new features will also allow a level of automation that will ensure I can keep a steady flow of basic resources to at least keep everything operational.

There was also a rubbish escort mission, which, when I reached a roadblock in there, required me to return to the surface, so I now need to commence on another 230m+ dive in order to finish that escort section, which I'm not exactly itching to do.

Has anyone played both Dave the Diver and Spiritfarer and, if so, how do the two compare?

Lego Batman. Fun enough in a turn your brain off kind of way.

Knoyleo wrote:Some of the shine is starting to come off of Dave the Diver, although I'm still enjoying my time with it.

I'm 9 hours in, and it still feels like I'm going through a tutorial at times, with all the new elements slowly being drip fed to me as I progress. It's also becoming clear that with so many elements, resources to gather and manage, and the exponential cost increases for upgrades, that this is likely to require some grinding/farming not too far down the line, which kind of takes away from the initial chilled out, easy appeal it had initially, but I'm also hopeful that some of the new features will also allow a level of automation that will ensure I can keep a steady flow of basic resources to at least keep everything operational.

There was also a rubbish escort mission, which, when I reached a roadblock in there, required me to return to the surface, so I now need to commence on another 230m+ dive in order to finish that escort section, which I'm not exactly itching to do.

It's gonna get worse before it gets better

It kind of feels like someone added a game to cookie clicker at times. Or rather, it feels very focus group led. This is what's popular atm so let's make cobble together all the bits and make a decent game out of it. It has a charm and character but even that feels a little by-the-numbers and rote. I'm being harsh but you very much feel the "hamster in the wheel"-ness later on. I've just unlocked the final boss and I feel like extra stuff never stopped getting thrown on to me.

I would suggest splitting dives between making money and furthering the story. It is tnepting to keep picking up everything but the game I think wants you to start streamlining at this point. That white spotted jellyfish and sea grapes dish scales pretty well so keep focusing on that, and once marlins and sailfish start spawning it is very worth farming the sailfish for it's kelp soy sauce dish. Also don't upgrade to the next chefstar rating unless you know you can make more money from the extra customers than you'd spend. Going from gold to diamond incurs an extra 2000 gold per night, so only do it if you'll get an extra 2k from those extra customers.

I'm gonna do a few more cycles to make a load of money then see it off.

Zilnad wrote:Has anyone played both Dave the Diver and Spiritfarer and, if so, how do the two compare?

Not played spirit farer, but I reckon that will be the chiller, more emotional experience. DtD is very much a treadmill game with a power creep, I think Spiritfarer has more story and soul to it.

Getting back into Street Fighter 6 now i've done things that makes it more smoother to play and picked up Luke as my second main to play with mates, modern controls are great. Makes it much more enjoyable even though I'd have put up with classic controls like I did in SF4. I'm just happy it's better than SFV as whole, even though microtransications are naff

Badlurs Gate 3 is taking up most of my time, before that it was various farming games. Coral Island and Faefarm took great chuck of my time but I've put Coral on break for time being and Faefarm story is done so I'm playing other games (BG3, to name one) to chill before I try out Story of Seasons GBA remake.

Zilnad wrote:Time to start another Metroidvania

This time it's Lone Fungus.

I'm only 90 minutes in but I'm really enjoying it so far. Movement and abilities are giving me Hollow Knight vibes (except that Lone Fungus explains downward bounce attacks immediately! ) and it has a bright and colourful aesthetic that's reminiscent of The Messenger. Very satisfying to play so far and the platforming feels great.

6 hours in now and this has some really challenging platforming sections which are very reminiscent of Celeste's hardest levels! Luckily these super hard bits are only needed for optional collectibles but I will try to get as many as I can. Although I doubt I'll be able to 100% it.

Got a good amount of the map unlocked now so almost at a point where I feel ready to head back to the starting area and look for passages and items that I've missed before I got all of my current abilities.

Might start Ori 2 after this Metroidvania.

Not wanting to jump back in BG3 yet, I started Story of Seasons Friends of Mineral Town which is GBA remake, though I've never played the original GBA. Liking it so far, it's quite simple compared to Stardew Valley and like but I think it's nice break from putting objects on my farm just so they can turn ores into bars, and just straight up pure farming. The seasons are quite short despite 30days instead of usual 28 days, as I'm already on Autumn in my first year after 10hrs.

It's not deep but hey, doesn't need to be. Gonna be good mix with SF6 and BG3.

Seven wrote:Not wanting to jump back in BG3 yet, I started Story of Seasons Friends of Mineral Town which is GBA remake, though I've never played the original GBA. Liking it so far, it's quite simple compared to Stardew Valley and like but I think it's nice break from putting objects on my farm just so they can turn ores into bars, and just straight up pure farming. The seasons are quite short despite 30days instead of usual 28 days, as I'm already on Autumn in my first year after 10hrs.

It's not deep but hey, doesn't need to be. Gonna be good mix with SF6 and BG3.

I'd recommend Pioneers of Olive Town over FoMT, even though I do have fond memories of playing the GBA version during a cold and rainy holiday in Scotland.

Ironhide wrote:

Seven wrote:Not wanting to jump back in BG3 yet, I started Story of Seasons Friends of Mineral Town which is GBA remake, though I've never played the original GBA. Liking it so far, it's quite simple compared to Stardew Valley and like but I think it's nice break from putting objects on my farm just so they can turn ores into bars, and just straight up pure farming. The seasons are quite short despite 30days instead of usual 28 days, as I'm already on Autumn in my first year after 10hrs.

It's not deep but hey, doesn't need to be. Gonna be good mix with SF6 and BG3.

I'd recommend Pioneers of Olive Town over FoMT, even though I do have fond memories of playing the GBA version during a cold and rainy holiday in Scotland.

I played fair amount of Pioneers, really liked it a lot! Would like to play it again, I just wanted to play through GBA version as to some people it's best one. (I don't agree myself, but I am enjoying my time with it). I have Gamecube remake to play after I want break from this one.

I just finished Dave the diver and Dredge.

Dave the Diver was a lot of fun and quite a lot of fun to just chill. There are some grindy aspects at times but you can break those sections down. I loved the visuals and the music but the surprise rhythm game elements (which I am gooseberry fool at) were a bit annoying.

9/10

Dredge

I went in completely blind and I am glad for it. That was some dark story. I was thinking it was a simple game based on the visuals then the night comes and you see the Leviathan in the ocean. The panic starts, and you wonder if you can get to safety.
9/10

Seven wrote:.

I say the last line, I ended up just playing the game for ages. I'm close to Winter Year 3, and I have year 4 planned out in terms of gathering what I need for cooking, and right now I'm working on getting every single fish (I'm close to that, got all 50 normal fishes and 2 out of 7 guardian fish caught) and also doing breeding process of getting a cow with max hearts of ten (as well sheep/alphca), already got all four chicken and rabbits with 10 max hearts each.

So yeah, it's taking up lot of my time. lol

Ironhide wrote:

deathofcows wrote:Kuru Kuru Kururin on GBA switch app.

Fun! Gets surprisingly hard surprisingly quickly!

That was one of the GBA games I bought alongside the console and one of my favourite for it despite being terrible at it, my sister (around 6 at the time) was far better at it

Awesome to see folks discovering Kururuin It was a great game to launch the GBA app with, a nice hidden gem likely missed by many.

Though yeah, proper stressful

Had another attempt at Diablo IV, this time seasonal mode as a Necromancer and I'm enjoying it a lot more due to the survivability of the class (has an attack that regains hp and the summoned skeletons really help tackle large groups of enemies).

Jazzem wrote:

Ironhide wrote:

deathofcows wrote:Kuru Kuru Kururin on GBA switch app.

Fun! Gets surprisingly hard surprisingly quickly!

That was one of the GBA games I bought alongside the console and one of my favourite for it despite being terrible at it, my sister (around 6 at the time) was far better at it

Awesome to see folks discovering Kururuin It was a great game to launch the GBA app with, a nice hidden gem likely missed by many.

Though yeah, proper stressful

It is very stressful game But honestly, still one of my favourite Game Boy Advance games. I don't think I've ever done it on Expert though, it gets brutally hard in later stages.

I've got a few games on the go at the moment...

Resogun
Finally got around to having a proper crack at this on the intermediate difficulty, and made good progress up until the final level, which I just couldn't get past. It's a bit annoying that you have to complete all levels in one sitting for the game to consider you having beaten it. Would be much better if it just ticked off the individual stages and let you resume any time. I can probably do the final level with enough practice, but having to beat all the previous levels before trying again to actually complete the game is a bit frustrating.

I ended up downloading the season pass as well and getting the extra ships, modes, and the soundtrack (which is brilliant). The new modes are a mixed bag. I like some, not others, and feel indifferent about some too. I think it was £6 though, so not horrendous, and I think this will be a game I keep coming back to for a good while.

Pro Evo 2018
Enjoying Master League on this and chipping away at that. Love having a football game to dip in and out of. There are a few little quirks from previous Pro Evo games (almost any tackle you make is a foul, sometimes you get 'caught' on opposition players after a tackle and are unable to reach the ball, etc) but for the most part it's great.

Flower
I completed this quite quickly and am now trying to get all the Trophies. Pretty relaxing game, quite unique, and quite satisfying to make all the flowers bloom and affect other aspects of the environment. Nice to play something a bit different.

Driveclub
Really impressed with the visuals on this. I like the variety of events and the range of cars (and bikes, but yet to play with those), but I wish there was a bit more progression in the cars you drive. I'd like to have started out with a banger and work my way up, but instead you're just immediately thrown in Zondas, Ferraris, Aston Martins, etc. Not a huge issue by any means, but it detracts slightly from the experience of driving some of the flashier cars. I like the range of objectives in different races and events too, but so far at least, it rarely seems like you actually need to win any of them - just getting top three or top five is enough, along with other criteria. I'm also not sure how much of the game I actually have access to now that they've blocked downloads of additional content (seems odd that you're not even allowed to buy it) but if it's purely multiplayer content (in which case it would make sense that you can't buy it, as the servers are off) then it doesn't bother me. Hopefully all the single player and offline modes are still accessible. I like it overall though.

Tomb Raider: Definitive Edition
Started this last week and have only put a couple of hours into it so far. I like the visuals (again, looks really impressive) and the general gameplay loop is fun so far. The UI and menus are a bit of a mess, but otherwise, little to complain about. Hopefully I'll get more stuck into it this weekend.

Toree 3D
Not sure how to describe this. It's like a PS/N64-era platformer with speed running elements. It's very short (think I completed it in less than half an hour) but the idea is that you keep replaying levels to complete them in as quick a time possible and therefore get the best ranking. It looks fine, the soundtrack's great, and it controls reasonably well. I like the bizarre, slightly horror-esque elements to it as well, but some of the levels are more annoying than fun, and I'm not sure I'm that desperate to get the best rankings on each level. It's good, but I'm slightly confused by all the 'Overwhelmingly Positive' reviews on Steam. For what I paid though (79p) I can't really complain.

Tried out Story of Seasons A Wonderful Life on PC/Steam (I also streamed it on Twitch) and it's taken me a bit to get used to it as it zooms in people I talk to outside of buildings like Fallout/Elder Scrolls which bugs me a little, and the fact that there's only 10 days a season which I've completely forgotten about from the original on Gamecube. But I'm liking it a lot - while the farming is still main focus, it's encouraging me to go into valley and get to know people / do other activities which it usually took me while in other games but here it does go into "there's more to life than farming" aspect, which I like.

I'd say I do prefer OG's look but that might be memory playing tricks on me, it still looks stunning enough and I'm having fun with it.