What game are you wasting time on?

[gabel]

I figured I should finally get around to playing Mass Effect 2 & 3 [...]

Why?

 

[Zlaja]

I figured I should finally get around to playing Mass Effect 2 & 3 [...]

Why?

To see what the fuss is about, regardless of quality.

 

[Cat Headed Eagle]

I felt like Anvil of Dawn was nowhere as good as people made it to be. Like they get caught up in the metal aesthetics but that's it.

 

[octavius]

I had very little expectations. I guess that helped.

 

[Squidhead]

Finally got around to Nier Automata and got the A ending.

Also I hate this game and having to play it 2 more times to get the entire story feels like a nightmare. The great soundtrack isn't going to be enough to get me through the tedious half-baked gameplay. This is one of those games where people tell you "Hey man at hour 40 it's gonna get really good!"

 

[Zlaja]

I'm now playing Mass Effect 2, and man, the game really is throwing Miranda into your face. When she said the line "my body is genetically modified" I was half-expecting porn music to kick in in the background.

Not that I'm complaining. I'm a pervert, after all.

 

[Cat Headed Eagle]

Finally got around to Nier Automata and got the A ending.

Also I hate this game and having to play it 2 more times to get the entire story feels like a nightmare. The great soundtrack isn't going to be enough to get me through the tedious half-baked gameplay. This is one of those games where people tell you "Hey man at hour 40 it's gonna get really good!"

You don't play it again per se, every ending shows a different path, and only B is somewhat of a repetition, C and D/E are different and you even get to control a different character.

 

[Erebus]

Back to playing Portal 2. So far, the game is really a pretty decent sequel, and I haven't yet discovered everything it adds to the original formula (I'm reaching the first test involving one of the gels).

The writing is perhaps even better than in the first game. Glados is of course great, but even the rest is full of memorable lines.

Those of you helping us test the repulsion gel today, just follow the blue line on the floor. Those of you who volunteered to be injected with praying mantis DNA, I've got some good news and some bad news. Bad news is we're postponing those tests indefinitely. Good news is we've got a much better test for you : fighting an army of mantis men.

 

[Zed Duke of Banville]

Finally got around to Nier Automata and got the A ending.

Also I hate this game and having to play it 2 more times to get the entire story feels like a nightmare. The great soundtrack isn't going to be enough to get me through the tedious half-baked gameplay. This is one of those games where people tell you "Hey man at hour 40 it's gonna get really good!"

You play through the main quest of NieR: Automata up to Ending A a second time (except controlling a different character) to achieve Ending B, but there are a variety of side quests, which remain completed from the first time around if you already finished them, and you'll continue to advance your levels/powerups. After Ending B, the plot of the game advances, and this leads to Endings C, D, and E (after completing C or D, reload to complete the other, then reload a third time to complete Ending E).

Granted, if you detest the gameplay then don't bother playing through it.

 

[mediocrepoet]

Finally got around to Nier Automata and got the A ending.

Also I hate this game and having to play it 2 more times to get the entire story feels like a nightmare. The great soundtrack isn't going to be enough to get me through the tedious half-baked gameplay. This is one of those games where people tell you "Hey man at hour 40 it's gonna get really good!"

You play through the main quest of NieR: Automata up to Ending A a second time (except controlling a different character) to achieve Ending B, but there are a variety of side quests, which remain completed from the first time around if you already finished them, and you'll continue to advance your levels/powerups. After Ending B, the plot of the game advances, and this leads to Endings C, D, and E (after completing C or D, reload to complete the other, then reload a third time to complete Ending E).

Granted, if you detest the gameplay then don't bother playing through it.

Are these linear endings? Like you play once to get A, twice to get B, etc. or are they like branching win conditions where you need to do certain things to achieve the other endings?

 

[Cat Headed Eagle]

Finally got around to Nier Automata and got the A ending.

Also I hate this game and having to play it 2 more times to get the entire story feels like a nightmare. The great soundtrack isn't going to be enough to get me through the tedious half-baked gameplay. This is one of those games where people tell you "Hey man at hour 40 it's gonna get really good!"

You play through the main quest of NieR: Automata up to Ending A a second time (except controlling a different character) to achieve Ending B, but there are a variety of side quests, which remain completed from the first time around if you already finished them, and you'll continue to advance your levels/powerups. After Ending B, the plot of the game advances, and this leads to Endings C, D, and E (after completing C or D, reload to complete the other, then reload a third time to complete Ending E).

Granted, if you detest the gameplay then don't bother playing through it.

Are these linear endings? Like you play once to get A, twice to get B, etc. or are they like branching win conditions where you need to do certain things to achieve the other endings?

They are linear. Ending A follows 2b's perspective of the events. Route B follows 9s, and you'll not only get his opinions and POV, you'll get to hack robots (which gives you more lore and story), and in those parts where 9s and 2b were separated, you'll follow him.
Along the way, you will get to play as A2 as well as 9S. Events leading to the endings C and D happen at the same time, but you alternate between A2 and 9S, sometimes in real time. The endings are a difference of a choice you have to make. Ending E gives you yet another choice after you've gotten one of those endings.

There's no need to unlock anything, nor getting special items and whatnot. It's the most accesible Taroverse game for a reason.

BTW DrakeNier bros, in true Taro fashion, the mobile game Nier Reincarnation has dropped a heavy lorebomb that has SERIOUS implications for the game's universe. I mean, it already has done some fucking HUGE reveals, but this one takes the cake. Spoilers ahead ofc.

From what I'm gathering, it's implied that there's a time twist and the Watchers from Drakengard are entities created when the machines from Automata fucked around with the seeds of resurrection. In fact the dragons themselves are said to be a product of this too, but they've been gone by the time the events of Automata happen. Accord is a YorHa agent and there's so much alternate timeline fuckery. Basically, the city that appears in Drakengard 3 and 1 is some city from Nier Automata?? and the impact of this city makes the timeline diverge between the existance of the Drakengard series and another where it goes straight to Nier?

 

[Squidhead]

Granted, if you detest the gameplay then don't bother playing through it.

I don't detest it, I just find it mediocre. Just when I was about to tinker with my weapons the game is over.

Also what the fuck is up with the 2d sections? It's just one thing in a list of annoyances like the pacing of certain missions and letting me save whenever the game feels like it. Lots of wasted time between events this piss poor map which is basically one big tile with jack shit in between. The carnival is the only good thing in it.

Anyway I'm gonna trudge through it anyway just because I want to understand why exactly this game is/was so popular aside from 2B.

 

[mediocrepoet]

Granted, if you detest the gameplay then don't bother playing through it.

I don't detest it, I just find it mediocre. Just when I was about to tinker with my weapons the game is over.

Also what the fuck is up with the 2d sections? It's just one thing in a list of annoyances like the pacing of certain missions and letting me save whenever the game feels like it. Lots of wasted time between events this piss poor map which is basically one big tile with jack shit in between. The carnival is the only good thing in it.

Anyway I'm gonna trudge through it anyway just because I want to understand why exactly this game is/was so popular aside from 2B.

I've been meaning to get back to Automata. At least that intro section felt like it was a love letter to all video games to me. Just the number of styles and genres it basically blended and fairly well at that.

 

[Cat Headed Eagle]

Granted, if you detest the gameplay then don't bother playing through it.

I don't detest it, I just find it mediocre. Just when I was about to tinker with my weapons the game is over.

Also what the fuck is up with the 2d sections? It's just one thing in a list of annoyances like the pacing of certain missions and letting me save whenever the game feels like it. Lots of wasted time between events this piss poor map which is basically one big tile with jack shit in between. The carnival is the only good thing in it.

Anyway I'm gonna trudge through it anyway just because I want to understand why exactly this game is/was so popular aside from 2B.

The game ain't over until you get ending E. There's numerous endings because Taro wanted players to feel like they could have a point where they felt they were done with the game and not the other way around, like the devs telling them when it was over. The constant switching is a Taro thing too. His reasoning is that most games you get one basic loop and then that's it. For instance, in an rpg you make a quest. The rest of the game is a stretched out version of that. So he likes to change things around a bit to keep it all fresh.

 

[Damned Registrations]

Discovered Infinite Doom a few days ago and it's hooked me good. Honestly I'd probably end up dropping the LP to play it all day if it didn't eventually jack up my hands after playing for a few hours. I've always liked the concept of roguelite FPS, and Doom's enemies, maps and most importantly movement systems are still top notch to this day. I think the only thing I'd enjoy more would be a roguelite version of Warframe, but sadly that's pretty much unmoddable and so will never happen.

 

[HansDampf]

Anyway I'm gonna trudge through it anyway just because I want to understand why exactly this game is/was so popular aside from 2B.

A2, obviously.

 

[ghostdog]

Finished Koudelka. Horror-Themed PSX RPG. Liked it. It's basically a prequel to Shadow Hearts (PS2).

I was pleasantly surprised with the writing, the characters where well written, with good dialog. Definitely the strongest point of the game, along with the atmosphere. The game takes place in Wales, late 1800s. The story is about a group of characters stumbling upon each other as they investigate a mysterious abandoned monastery that seems has been tainted by black magic. It uses various historical facts to give flair to the story. Highlight: Lord Francis Bacon appears as a helpful 100 yo Litch. Koudelka, the main character is a witch with psychic powers and is prone to polygonal fanservice.

(best scene of the game, where the 2 drunken characters are spilling their guts figuratively and literally)


The meat of the gameplay is Resident Evil 1 style exploration and puzzle solving along with random TB RPG battles. Combat starts somewhat challenging, but if you don't make weird choices building your characters, it becomes pretty easy. Magic is OP and only in the end some difficulty reappears, that is until you find the enemy weaknesses. Puzzles are easy. Exploration is atmospheric but also clunky, since fixed camera angles and strange pathfinding can become a pain. Thankfully not too much backtracking is required. Weapons are breakable, but from a point on you'll probably use 2 characters as full-fledged mages, so they are more than enough for one character. Don't be afraid to use them (I threw away many weapons that were just clogging the inventory.)

If you liked Shadow Hearts, you’ll like this one too. It’s a (mostly) serious, somewhat grounded atmospheric RPG, that’s free of the usual jrpg tropes (has less jrpg tropes than its sequel). It took me about 15 hours to finish it.

It also has excellent voice acting and some impressive boob-physic FMVs:

 

[AdamReith]

I also loved Koudelka. It seems they left the combat system implementation to last because everything else is incredibly high quality.

 

[AdamReith]

Kings Field 2 completed. Very satisfying, very excellent.

Not much more to add to what I said before. It was a little frustrating at the beginning but once the game started throwing interesting locations and items at me I was hooked start to finish.

Probably lots of secrets I missed but don't give a shit about that stuff. Onto the next game soon.

 

[Abu Antar]

Nox Archaist 35ish hours. Just randomly exploring places, mapping out the world, but I lost the paper. Going from island to island, killing stuff to find new trainers, new gear, and see new places. I'm progressing through the story, but I have no feeling for how much I have left. I like the quick battle option. They didn't actaully make the goal on Kickstarter, but it is in the game. The AI isn't always the best, but it gets the job done if it's a battle that you are sure you will win, but don't want to waste your time on.

 

[Valestein]

This.



If you like Mega Man games then you MUST play this.

 

[Caim]

Looks like a mix of the 8-bit games and Mega Man Zero. Might check it out.

 

[Puukko]

Finished Koudelka.

Did you happen upon my writeup in the general horror thread I made in October? In any case, I agree on everything you wrote.
I like this off-key live rendition of one of the battle themes:

 

[Sigourn]

Battle for Esturia. It's a little RPG meant to mimic old skewl cRPGs, but it can get very repetitive and the game appears to be very short. There's a lot of dialogue dump when it comes to talking to NPCs, and the game's radial menu for combat can be very annoying to deal with if you misclick an option.

I've also installed Realms of Antiquity, and I'm very surprised at how pleasant the moment to moment gameplay is. I'll definitely give it a proper spin after I'm done with BfE.

 

[Glop_dweller]

Dawn Of War