What game are you wasting time on?

[Catacombs]

This thread has inspired me to re-install Dying Light.

Same. I put a ton of hours into it, and now I'm motivated to revisiting. Several years have pass, and I'm interested to know if things have improved.

 

[octavius]

Finished Act II of Hell Diablo 2, 1.09 with my seven characters.

The only one having problems with Duriel was my Sorceress. The others just entered melee and whacked away until the big bug was dead. I found out that entering melee with my Sorceress was least tiresome too. As long as he can't charge he's not that dangerous.

The Necromancer has become more interesting on Hell difficulty for some reason. His minions seem too be relatively more effective on Hell difficulty.

I've grown to hate those PISS (Physical Immune Stone Skin) Apparatitions, especially when they are in packs of 5+ and my melee characters are almost stunlocked.

Disappointed by the loot from the tombs in the Canyon of the Magi. I think I got a couple of Rares from the boss chests, otherwise all mundane or blue. I've got more Uniques and Set items from some random urns and stuff, several of which I almost missed, which is quite maddening.

 

[Puukko]

Juggling some JRPGs trying to find one that sticks my current, quite specific mood. I've given Vagrant Story, Xenogears, Majin Tensei 2 and Shadow Hearts Covenant each a brief go. I think I'm looking for a story and character/party driven, fairly linear RPG not unlike Final Fantasy, of which several are still on my backlog, but also with a darker tone which I presume Shadow Hearts might offer. I think having finished Xenoblade Chronicles recently left me wanting for more and X didn't follow that same structure so it didn't scratch that itch despite being an equally enjoyable game in its own right. It is a tad irksome that I can't quite figure out what it is that simultaneously makes me interested in trying out Final Fantasy but then causes me to postpone the idea every time it comes back to me. Perhaps I should just stop overthinking it and dive in.

 

[flyingjohn]

Juggling some JRPGs trying to find one that sticks my current, quite specific mood. I've given Vagrant Story, Xenogears, Majin Tensei 2 and Shadow Hearts Covenant each a brief go. I think I'm looking for a story and character/party driven, fairly linear RPG not unlike Final Fantasy, of which several are still on my backlog, but also with a darker tone which I presume Shadow Hearts might offer. I think having finished Xenoblade Chronicles recently left me wanting for more and X didn't follow that same structure so it didn't scratch that itch despite being an equally enjoyable game in its own right. It is a tad irksome that I can't quite figure out what it is that simultaneously makes me interested in trying out Final Fantasy but then causes me to postpone the idea every time it comes back to me. Perhaps I should just stop overthinking it and dive in.

Have you maybe tried the xenosaga series on the ps2?

 

[J_C]

Finished Darwinia. I loved this game. It has simplistic graphics, simplistic music and sound, and simplistic game mechanics, but it perfected its simplicity. Loved going around with my figher units, decimating hordes of enemy units with granade barrage, air strikes and lasers. The only thing which sucked is the UI, I struggled so much with it. Not because it is complex, but because it didn't register the mouse clicks properly. I had to click on the buttons several times, or leave the control menu and enter it again. But even with this annoyance, the game was a lot of fun.

 

[Puukko]

Juggling some JRPGs trying to find one that sticks my current, quite specific mood. I've given Vagrant Story, Xenogears, Majin Tensei 2 and Shadow Hearts Covenant each a brief go. I think I'm looking for a story and character/party driven, fairly linear RPG not unlike Final Fantasy, of which several are still on my backlog, but also with a darker tone which I presume Shadow Hearts might offer. I think having finished Xenoblade Chronicles recently left me wanting for more and X didn't follow that same structure so it didn't scratch that itch despite being an equally enjoyable game in its own right. It is a tad irksome that I can't quite figure out what it is that simultaneously makes me interested in trying out Final Fantasy but then causes me to postpone the idea every time it comes back to me. Perhaps I should just stop overthinking it and dive in.

Have you maybe tried the xenosaga series on the ps2?

I literally just booted up 1 today but I think it'll go further down my list. Shadow Hearts seems to be what I'm going with for now.

 

[Jack Of Owls]

This thread has inspired me to re-install Dying Light. I have like 15 hours played but I was ill when I played it and barely remember it at all. Also Necrovision, which I don't even remember buying and haven't touched. I must have got that in a bundle or something

I'm re-reading the first 6 Farseer books and have 7, 8 and 9 still unread, so that will be some fun gory nonsense to accompany them

I urge people to play Dying Light and its expansion The Following if they haven't. I don''t know why I waited so long. It's a very long game but fun and always compelling. Even the expansion keeps things fresh after 50+ hours of the original campaign by almost completely changing the game's central mechanic from parkouring to car race simming, but with equally excellent design, a design that forces you to actually focus on your vehicle upgrades, but offers first rate (imo, at least) driving mechanics, and even goes so far as to make you map out your distant routes to quest locations so you can drive to them. No more 30 second zip lining and Peter Parker-esque spider hopping to get from here to waaaay over there. Dying Light: The Following has just the right amount of depth for me, though some might not like the sudden shift from parkouring to racing mechanics in the expansion, however well-presented they may be.

Edited to Add: A tip for newcomers -- play on Hard difficulty, not Normal. You won't be able to change in game once you start, and I was forced to play Normal with the main campaign and found it too easy to be fully satisfying, I'm playing the expansion at Hard and it's more fun. And remember this equally important tip: demolishers -- the second most feared zombie enemy in the game for me after volatiles -- have destructible armor.

 

[Ivan]

Unavowed
Feels great to play another Dave Gilbert project. Great characters and art style drive this point and click, somewhat let down by easy puzzles.

God of War
I'm satisfied with the new combat: it opts for an over the shoulder brawler style, e.g. Revengeance, God Hand, and does so successfully. My biggest gripe is that the exploration and the gameplay behind that is almost always boring: slow ass climbing, slow ass boat rowing, load screens upon load screens to fast travel. My hope for the PS5 entry is a fully open and explorable 3D space. I'm tired of invisible walls and being able to jump off ledges. Biggest surprise: the writing and character was very well done, as were the no-cut cutscenes. Currently wrapping up some post-game stuff and having fun fighting the end bosses (Valkyries)

 

[octavius]

Took my first character - the Amazon - past Hell Mephisto in Diablo 2.

I think I may have got lucky with the mods on the Council bosses since they presented little problems. Worse was the Sexton bosses and their minions casting Blizzard and constantly healing each other. Mephisto was mostly harmless.

 

[Biscotti]

I have done nothing but play Thief/2 FMs and Quake maps/campaigns for the past two weeks, and I don't see myself stopping that anytime soon.

 

[Ivan]

Circling back to God of War 2018 - The Valkyrie Queen was one of the best boss fights I've ever experienced, up there with Senator Armstrong, Sir Alonne, and Isshin Ashina. I still take issue with how the general combat is too easy, especially with spammable runic powers but I do appreciate the new brawler, over the shoulder approach. Really looking forward to them flexing the combat system next time around. As I said before, the exploration and ARPG elements are the weakest parts of the game, but the combat was nicely transformed.

 

[Daze]

These wtf-moments in TOEE.
What? Spears and polearms have really more reach and can attack an enemy standing a level above you?
Where am i? Is this still a computer game?

 

[newtmonkey]

Demon's Winter C64

This was a childhood favorite of mine, but I never finished it. I'm playing the C64 version because the Amiga/ST/DOS versions look horrible (completely bizarre color choices), and I can't find an original working copy of the Apple II version.

DW offers some unique classes. The Visionary is basically an explorer/mapper class that allows you to view a large portion of the surrounding area (when camped outdoors) or peek into adjoining rooms (when in dungeons). The Scholar is for identifying things: equipment, items, monsters, etc. I'm playing the game "straight" and, since the game never came with any maps, I decided the Visionary would be a good way to make sure I don't miss anything while exploring. I passed on the scholar, since Elves can detect magic items and then you can just have the item identified at a store when you head back to town.

My party:
Dwarf Ranger
Human Paladin
Human Visionary
Elf Wizard (concentrating on damage spells)
Elf Wizard (concentrating on healing spells)

One interesting thing about character generation is that you seem much more likely to roll high attributes when you choose a human. I would have gone all human for my front line, but I wanted the ability to see in the dark that the Dwarf provides.

It's tough going at first, but gaining just one level for the party makes a huge difference in power. The most annoying thing I guess is spell point regeneration. It seems the only way to regenerate SP is to rest, and then you only get 5 points each time. You have to wait until night to rest, and it also uses up some of your provisions, so you can't just repeatedly rest over and over to max your spell points. There's got to be another way, because I can't imagine what the end game must be like when you have 100+ SPs and need to max them up before a tough fight or whatever.

 

[newtmonkey]

Demon's Winter C64

Disaster has struck! I'm using the Ultimate ii+ floppy emulator cart on my actual C64, and it flipped out while writing to my save disk (the menu showed no usb drive attached, so I am pretty certain my USB drive is dying). Unfortunately, it wiped the disk image...


Luckily I had another party already rolled up from a previous attempt saved to another disk image...


Just to be safe, I ordered a new USB drive and ALSO backed up my save disk image just in case. The Ultimate ii+ actually makes it very easy to backup disk images, so I'll be sure to do that every night after I'm done playing. Lesson learned! Imagine if something like this happened half way through something like DEATHLORD...

I didn't feel like raising my whole party up to level 2 again, so I went straight to investigate the nearby kobold camp, which was very doable even for level 1 characters. I cleared that out and am only a few battles away from reaching level 2, so I was was able to make some progress!

 

[octavius]

The most annoying thing I guess is spell point regeneration. It seems the only way to regenerate SP is to rest, and then you only get 5 points each time. You have to wait until night to rest, and it also uses up some of your provisions, so you can't just repeatedly rest over and over to max your spell points. There's got to be another way, because I can't imagine what the end game must be like when you have 100+ SPs and need to max them up before a tough fight or whatever.

The most hard core feature of Demon's Winter was the spell regeneration. IIRC you have to pray to get full spell points back, and I think you could only pray at certain places. So don't rely too much on magic.
Been eight years or so since I played it, so my memory is hazy. But I do remember it was a good game, with decent combat and pretty good encounter design and items. If you don't grind, there will still be new items to find and new enemies to face until the very end, so it doesn't get stale.

 

[cosmicray]

Edited to Add: A tip for newcomers -- play on Hard difficulty, not Normal. You won't be able to change in game once you start, and I was forced to play Normal with the main campaign and found it too easy to be fully satisfying, I'm playing the expansion at Hard and it's more fun. And remember this equally important tip: demolishers -- the second most feared zombie enemy in the game for me after volatiles -- have destructible armor.

You can change game difficulty from main menu when save isn't loaded.

 

[flyingjohn]

Playing through sakura taisen recent translation.
The game is so close to being solid,but alas it just mediocre.

It is mostly a visual novel with srpg battles.

The good:

-Character chemistry works even through the cliche
-Raising affection for specif characters effects their stats
-Battle scenarios always offer some surprises to not make it too boring
-Each character has unique elements(teleportation,range,damage,etc).
-Visual novel scenarios mini games are not bad,especially the yakuza flower card game.
-Some responses are actually funny
-A very similar nuxcom like system where you can do two actions per turn as long as the categorizes are different.
So you can move out and defend or move out heal/attack,etc.

The bad:
-The srpg elements are terrible.
There is no leveling,no customization,no inventory.
-The game is piss easy.The enemies can focus,but they just don't do enough damage and if you defend most of the time they are useless.
The ai is stupid as well.Most of the time only one group will move in unity,the others will stand idle until you reach them.This makes you feel like you are fighting small arena instead of a actual battle.
-Some gimmicks like exploring the mansion for a antidote get annoying very quickly.
-Maps are quite boring.They are mostly some urban areas and some hill areas with small pathways.
-Each map contains healing vents which make the game even easier.

If the game had actual difficulty then the no customization thing would not have been a issue because the systems in the game are solid.But,it is just boring this way.
What a shame.

 

[Draconis]

RE2 Remake, trying to S+ rank hardcore but it's hard as fuck I'm not good enough nor have the patience for this so I'm about to give up

 

[Azalin]

Finished Ghostbusters: The game Remastered I remember reading that this was essentially Ghostbusters 3 and wanted to try it but since it's an Epic exclusive I had to get a not removed from inventory version.It's not bad,graphics are ok for a remasterof a 10 year old game,the story is written by Aykroyd and Ramis and the cast is back,so it feels like a real ghostbusters story.The gameplay on the other hand is that of a mediocre third person action game. Recommended only if you want to scratch that itch

 

[Kitchen Utensil]

RE2 Remake, trying to S+ rank hardcore but it's hard as fuck I'm not good enough nor have the patience for this so I'm about to give up

It's not that hard. If you optimise the route a bit and don't pick up unnecessary trash, you have plenty of time to waste in some key sections that could screw your run. Watch a good speedrun or two to get an idea of just how much time you really have.

 

[ERYFKRAD]

Finished the main plot of Sunset Overdrive. This might be the most goofy-ass-pants-on-head-retarded game I played.
But it's fun. Damn fun.

 

[CuckMasher]

All I play lately is out of the park baseball 20. Its basically sports management sim for every imaginable aspect of a baseball team from front office to in game decisions. You get tactics, strategy, and even the feel of a party based rpg with the player development. Im playing a fictional league with promotion/ relegation. Im only a casual baseball fan, so no love of the sport is required, and you can have the ai handle anything you dont want to deal with. Highly recommended.

 

[curds]

Ironic that you've been a member here at RPGCodex for almost three years, with very few posts, and now you've started posting to talk about a sport management game

 

[CuckMasher]

Ironic that you've been a member here at RPGCodex for almost three years, with very few posts, and now you've started posting to talk about a sport management game

Ha ha, yeah I probably lurked for like three years before that. This is my first sports sim that I've really gotten into, but I think it does have aspects that are appealing to non story-fag RPG fans. You get to make a lot of strategic and tactical decisions, and you get growth/improvement of your team and individual players over time. In game management of a baseball game is akin to a combat encounter in a turn based rpg.

I think the last hardcore rpg I played was knights of the chalice a few months ago. I am also currently playing nu God of War.

 

[J_C]

Started playing Might and Magic VI. Again. This is the n-th time I started this game, but I never actually finished it, despite loving it to death. This time, I will get to the end. The locations, the atmosphere, the level design of this game is just amazing.