Now Playing - Video Games

[Skellingtor]

i'm playing the system shock remake! i pre-ordered it two years ago to get SS2 enhanced whenever it comes out, and i was starting to think the game itself never would lol

so far it's been pretty fun, i had to turn down the puzzle difficulty because my brain is too small but everything else has been smooth sailing. combat is fair and challenging (when it's not kind of annoying), but the exploration is the highlight for me

[turnwrighthere]

Started playing Techtonica. It's like 3D Factorio + Cave exploration. There are some UI refinements I think it could use, but it's really fun.

[Fruitality]

Techtonica looks super cool, though I always give up on that style of factory/automation game when it starts to feel too much like Work trying to build the base and make it all work properly.

[turnwrighthere]

I have 859 hours in Factorio, and I am very glad you do not suffer the same affliction as me.
I don’t see myself falling into Techtonica like Factorio thankfully. Having everything in 3D adds a degree of difficulty in building everything that just isn’t the fun part of the logistical challenge you’re trying to solve. Still though, a breath of fresh air in many other ways!

[Fruitality]

Not a 'now' playing, but a 'hopefully will be' playing:

I've had a hankering for a Fantasy RPG to get into after Tears of the Kingdom, but I'm not sure which I should jump in to. So I'm looking for some recommendations of your favourites!

I'd like to play something with:

• Old-school fantasy setting with knights and goblins and stuff
• A class or job system. Would be cool to advance/grow my dudes through subclasses to customise them. I've never been a big fan of the Diablo style 'you are the Barbarian and that's that'.'
• Action RPG rather than turn based/strategy (this is the hard part and really limits options, so I'm not set on this)

SO. My shortlist is the following. I've never really played any of these games before:

• Final Fantasy (I've basically only ever played Final Fantasy X, should I just start from 1?)
• Dragon Quest/Warrior (love the vibes of DQ, but always get put off by their length. Is this one worth starting at 1?)
• Seiken Densetsu 3 / Trials of Mana (I played Sword of Mana on GBA years ago and enjoyed that.)
• A Fire Emblem (played Awakening, it was pretty good. haven't tried any others)
• Final Fantasy Tactics (always seen spoken of very highly)
• Tactics Ogre (love the look of the art for this. plus there's something so appealing to me about the name Tactics Ogre)

Those are obviously some very highly regarded games so I could probably start anywhere, but I thought I'd check in for some thoughts!

Now that I've typed those out I think I might be leaning towards a Final Fantasy or FF Tactics. Should I play one before the other? Does it matter?

[andrewelmore]

Oh man I need to write a longer response to this when I have time because there are specifics I want to address but not it kinda sounds like you want to play FFXVI

[andrewelmore]

Okay let me try to address these:

I played through Final Fantasy I on PSP last year and absolutely loved it. But I want to see if we can narrow in on what you're looking for a bit. The kind of aesthetic you're talking about really only stuck with the series up through VI. After that, they went for a much more futuristic sci-fi take on fantasy, all the way up until XVI, which is rooted much more firmly in that more classic 1970s D&D kind of mood. Your first fight is a band of goblins in a marsh, and afterwards all the soldiers raise their flagons if ale at the tavern singing drinking songs and telling exaggerated war stories. It's firmly an action game, but the way you balance different elemental powers on the fly leaves a lot of room to experiment. No real concept of "builds", though, I'm afraid. You'll want to turn to Souls games if that's what you're looking for. Final Fantasy Tactics has a ridiculously crunchy job system for Real Sickos, but it also has a few extreme difficulty spikes in the first few hours that a lot of people never really get past. It's always been a problem for me and I've never been able to get very far. I did play that Tactics Ogre remaster last year nearly to completion, and it was WONDERFUL. I absolutely adored it. It's effectively (and in many ways indeed quite literally) the direct predecessor of FFT. And the music is phenomenal, but of course it is, it's Hitoshi Sakimoto. If you want a more squad-based action RPG with excellent combat designed by Team Ninja and an absolutely hilarious sense of personality and tone, Stranger of Paradise: Final Fantasy Origins was my GOTY last year. Playing that and FFI alongside each other was actually fascinating, the way they intertwined was super interesting. My favorite Final Fantasy is XIII (as noted by the header image lol). It's super linear, there are no towns or anything, it just goes. If you know that going in, you'll be fine. You'll find it more similar in aesthetic to FFX then the kind of swords-and-boards aesthetic I fear you may be looking for, but it is absolutely enthralling to behold. To this day it's my favorite execution of holistic art direction in a video game. But the real thing that sold it for me was the battle system. By all means let me know if you want me to gush about it cause I will. It's fascinating and I found it to be ridiculously fun throughout.

Dragon Quest is a different beast, that series has carried the banner if the traditional core of JRPGs since it began. It's gotten more and more friendly over the years, but it is still very much That Game. I mean that as a high compliment. Just noting it might not be what you're looking for necessarily.

Before I forget, you absoLUTELY need to check out Vagrant Story. Holy heck you should look into Vagrant Story.

[Fruitality]

Holy shit. Okay.

Thank you so much Andrew. You are an infinite wealth of knowledge.

I think, based on all of this, that what I might do is jump into FFI to scratch the classic RPG itch, and familiarise myself more with the roots of Final Fantasy, and then after a little while, jump into SOPFFO and see what the fuck is up with that game. It always looked absolutely fascinating.

Then I can pivot into FF Tactics or FFXVI depending on what I'm feeling up for next.

Dragon Quest might be a journey for another time. Same with Vagrant Story, whose combat looks super nuts!

[andrewelmore]

Also, give a classic Wizardry-style Dungeon Crawler a shot! My friend Surt just released a game on steam called Demon Lord Reincarnation that has incredible art and music. It's one of my personal high points of the year, release-wise.

[breakfastcowl]

Just having FF Tactics mentioned makes me want to play a few battles again. Maybe one day I'll finally beat it

[Skellingtor]

i finished system shock 2023 last monday, and it rules! i never played the original (nor do i really intend to tbh, just looking at it seems like i might not have the best time with it), but what they came up with for this remake was really good in my view.

it's more survival horror than immersive sim since there aren't any real approaches to combat other than hit with stick, shoot, or run away. and exploration is also pretty set in stone and puzzle solutions are mostly set in stone. but i still had a great time trying to manage my resources early on as i tried to weave and dodge cyborgs and mutants with my wrench, then getting progressively more powerful (once i got the laser rapier it was over for those bitches).

i'll admit i used a guide for some sections since it turned out i had forgotten some pretty important items for progression and i got lost in some floors but i tried not to rely on it too much, i let myself explore and feel lost before consulting it.

now i guess i'll wait until whenever system shock 2 enhanced edition comes out, or i'll try to enhance it myself one of these days

[andrewelmore]

i finished system shock 2023 last monday, and it rules! i never played the original (nor do i really intend to tbh, just looking at it seems like i might not have the best time with it), but what they came up with for this remake was really good in my view.

it's more survival horror than immersive sim since there aren't any real approaches to combat other than hit with stick, shoot, or run away. and exploration is also pretty set in stone and puzzle solutions are mostly set in stone. but i still had a great time trying to manage my resources early on as i tried to weave and dodge cyborgs and mutants with my wrench, then getting progressively more powerful (once i got the laser rapier it was over for those bitches).

i'll admit i used a guide for some sections since it turned out i had forgotten some pretty important items for progression and i got lost in some floors but i tried not to rely on it too much, i let myself explore and feel lost before consulting it.

now i guess i'll wait until whenever system shock 2 enhanced edition comes out, or i'll try to enhance it myself one of these days

Yeah dude I hit a weird block with that game where an update broke it on my machine so it wouldn't run, then I tried to come back to it weeks later after they fixed it and I realized I had zero idea where I was or what I was doing, so I called it quits. It's extremely cool though!! I like it a lot. I also recommend checking out the Nightdive "enhanced edition" from a few years back if you're curious, it turns the original version of the first game into something that's much easier to parse and navigate, haha.

[Skellingtor]

i had a lot of crashes in the security level, maybe that had something to do with it? and i know all about the enhanced edition of the first game too, but i'm still unsure of whether i'd like it. i own it tho, so i should give it a shot some day.

[Fruitality]

Also, give a classic Wizardry-style Dungeon Crawler a shot! My friend Surt just released a game on steam called Demon Lord Reincarnation that has incredible art and music. It's one of my personal high points of the year, release-wise.

This looks cool as shit. Will for sure pick it up and give it a go.

[Kacey]

Been playing Star Wars Republic Commando multiplayer the last couple nights with friends. Found a discord with a small community too, however they're pretty nasty folks looking at the politics channel in there so I won't be back.

Still, having a good time with the game. It's essentially UT2k4 modded to feel like Halo CE, and not that successfully. But Republic Commando was my shit back in like, 2007, when all the big kids were playing Halo 3.