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What are you playing?
Topic Started: Feb 20 2011, 11:04 PM (24,723 Views)
cscrocker
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Ang tanging Pilipino sa forum na ito
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DarkFlashlight
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it will take a toll
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*hides that post from dwest*
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dwestfan13
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cscrocker
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Ang tanging Pilipino sa forum na ito
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I'm obv not ditching Dota for Overwatch (I didn't buy that Battle Pass for nothing), at least until my internet decides to stop d/c'ing me every 2 minutes but until then CAVALRY'S HERE.

Also, fuuuuuuuuuuuck Bastion.
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Romanticide
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In the department of launches that got overshadowed by Pokemon Go, Final Fantasy Brave Exvius.

It's better than Record Keeper, but this doesn't say much. Record Keeper was extremely simple, the missions cost far too much stamina for what they were, and pulling for weapons/armor was not hype. Pulling for characters is hype. You bet your ass I'll be excited to pull Vanille when she comes to global (or if/when I move to the JPN version), but not so much for Excalibur or whatever 5* weapons/armor exist in Record Keeper now.

Speaking of pulls, the rates for the highest rarity (5*) are kind of ass at ~1% (compare to Dokkan Battle, which hovers around 7-8% for both versions, and Record Keeper guarantees a 5* equip per multi-summon), but they're also less important when almost anyone can reach 5*. It's far more important to get good characters than high rarity cards, which is a positive for F2P players/those who put minimal money into a game.

As with any gacha game, I recommend rerolling for high tier units. For the love of god, do this on an emulator. This game is tied to your Facebook account, but you can reroll by logging in and out of a dummy account and then tying it to your main when you've rolled a good one. It's pretty damn easy. But yeah, you'll probably be rolling for at least one of Vaan, Chizuru, Cecil, Bartz, Cloud of Darkness, Firion, or Exdeath. I got Cecil and Bartz (before Chizuru's release rip me) and decided that was good enough. I could still be rerolling if my goal were three or more high tier units, but that's a pain in the ass.

If you want to ignore this sage advice and jump right in, game's apparently easy enough to where any team of scrubs can beat it. So far I'd agree with this; little outside of the area bosses has given me a challenge. So it's like almost any RPG, and certainly any FF, in that aspect.

Movement in towns is beyond frustrating, but mobile devices and traditional movement schemes don't play nice together. It's far easier to just use the Town Menu and warp wherever you need to go. Easily the game's biggest flaw, but you can reduce the amount of movement you have to do, so it's not all bad.

Second biggest flaw is 5 min/stamina refresh time. Right now it's not that bad; it's about a two hour wait to play more. However, once I reach ~105 stamina, a night's worth of sleep won't max the bar anymore and that kind of sucks. I generally like waiting until max/near-max stamina so I can play for more than five minutes, but there's still a bit of gameplay you can do without stamina. Sure, it's mostly fetch quests in towns, but it's something.

Story sucks thus far, but nobody gives a fuck about story. In a game like this, it's far more important just to have more content, if only so there's always something to do and more premium currency for those who put no/minimal money into the game to gather. I do like the interactions between the three main characters though; they're usually good for a chuckle.

All things considered, I'd give it a try if you like FF/can deal with the bullshit of a gacha game. If you like it, move to the JPN version; they always treat us better. So far I think it's decent, but I'm not sure if I'll move to JPN.
Edited by Romanticide, Jul 13 2016, 02:51 AM.
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Romanticide
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Muv-Luv. Finally. I was expecting at least a demo like months ago, but I guess shit happens. It always does because #videogames.

So was it worth the wait? I'd say yes. The first VN, Extra, is pretty much a rom-com with the com part of it turned up to 11. You'd think this would dilute the rom part of the term because it's rather hard to imbue gravitas into something this utterly insane, but surprisingly the game knows when it's time to get serious and doesn't let humor get (too much) in the way of that. The drama works a lot better than you'd think, in large part because the craziest shit comes before you start a girl's route.

How you feel about Extra (and to a lesser extent, Unlimited) depends on how well you can handle the zaniness of the game. If you want more serious romances, this is probably not the VN for you. I prefer my comedy to be batshit insane, so I loved it.

The only bad thing about Extra IMO is that there are essentially four routes. SURE, there are five girls and thus five routes, but the two main girls share the same route until the very last fifteen minutes. Luckily this is the best route in the game, but even so, it's lazy to have your two main heroines share one route until the very end. Playing as an indecisive MC will allow you to choose between these two girls at the end of that route, which saves a wee bit of time. I'd estimate maybe twenty minutes because you're probably going to auto-skip nearly everything, so it's inconsequential in the long run.

Took me ~20 hours to read, so I'd estimate it would take you 20-30 hours.

Girl power ranking: Sumika > Ayamine > Meiya > Tama > everyone else > Chizuru. Tsunderes are still the worst. Would have liked a Tsukuyomi, Marimo, and/or Yuuko route, but what can you do.


Unlimited suffers from mood whiplash. It wants us to take the alien invasion (BETA is still the dumbest term, always will be) seriously, but by and large this VN has thus far focused on various training escapades and played the same lighthearted music as in Extra. It's hard to take this threat seriously when it feels like the game itself is not taking it seriously. I suppose this VN is about getting to know this version of the cast though, and I expect the character routes to get a bit more serious than what I've been presented with thus far. Alternative will probably kill me with the feels though I'm not ready.

I didn't think the body armor could get any dumber than what was in Schwarzesmarken, but... It did. I was prepared for it to be fanservice-y because anime and all, but this level of fanservice is just absurd. We really did not need transparent/flesh-colored bodysuits (I'm still not entirely sure which it is) on the girls. That aside, it doesn't even look good; it's a completely incoherent color scheme.

I'll probably wind up liking Extra more than Unlimited. Unlimited's comedy works well enough given that it takes place in a more serious setting than Extra, but that also makes it more normal comedy. I would have preferred the story to be a bit more serious; it would have been more befitting of this setting and this version of the cast.

Alternative best be better than both though. I'll be disappointed if it isn't.
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Romanticide
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Can't believe it took three years for the West to get another Ace Attorney game. Fuck Capcom for not releasing The Great Ace Attorney/AAI2 over here. Series is always going to stay niche if you can't even localize every fucking game in it/release physical versions.

AA6 introduces us to the country of Khu'rain and, as the series always does, brings us a new gameplay mechanic in the form of Divination Seances, which allow you to see the victim's final moments of life. This being AA, it's never that straightforward - You have to interpret the visions and find out what they *really* mean by pointing out the contradictory sensations/statements. For example, you're led to believe that one murder victim was stabbed while he was praying in a public place, but the truth of the matter is that he was neither stabbed nor praying in public at the time. I'll leave it at that, spoilers and all. I'm not sure how many more mechanics the series needs (at this point it's hard to squeeze them all in, even for an obligatory appearance), but this is a good one that I wouldn't mind seeing more of.

The setting/story of Khu'rain are surprisingly interesting. The tl;dr is that Khu'rain is an extremely religious country, think in the vein of a theocracy like Iran or Saudi Arabia. Their queen is a direct descendant of their deity, so needless to say she's totally beloved by everyone ever. Thanks to a certain incident 23 years before the events of this game, the previous queen was assassinated, and a lawyer was convicted of the crime. This results in a totally bullshit law being passed that makes the lawyer who defends a criminal equally as guilty and deserving of the same punishment. There is a group of rebels who want to overturn this law and restore the legal system to what it previously was, and the conflict between these rebels and the state is the driving force of this game's story. There are no deep insights concerning religion or revolution, which is to be expected because it's fucking AA, but the game nails how absolute power can corrupt absolutely. AA has always been good at showing that, in large part because your real foe has almost always been someone who wields outsized power and has been corrupted by it/was corrupt to start with.

I'd probably rank the cases like so: 5, 3, 2, 1, 4. 4 is the game's only filler case and it's still pretty funny, but story-wise it contributes nothing and it's one of the easier cases. I wish Athena got a harder/longer (hurr) case than this; I enjoy her character a lot. Might be my favorite assistant overall, actually. Simon felt like a better character in this one case than in all of Dual Destinies, but that might be because I don't remember jack shit that he did in that game. 1 is the tutorial case, so you know it's going to be easy. Which it is, I'm pretty sure I only took one penalty. However, it's a really fun tutorial case and the person who actually did it is a glorious character, with some amazing music and an incredible breakdown. It's something you have to hear. I like 2 story-wise more than 3, but the gameplay is some bullshit. The two video comparisons suck ass and are what puts this below 3 for me; it's a pain in the ass to find what you need to find in those videos. 3 and 5 are both locked-room mysteries and are both extremely fun cases, but 5 is the better case both story and gameplay-wise (lots and lots of spoilers here, so I think I'll abstain), so it gets the nod here.

Apollo Justice is no longer optional. You could play this without playing AA4, which is acknowledged to be the weakest, but the emotional scenes won't have as much of an impact, and I don't think the very last scene will make any sense at all since I'm fairly sure it involves a pivotal character from that game. I wouldn't say this is the culmination of Apollo's or Trucy's development as characters, but there's a good bit of development and I don't think it'll resonate unless you play AA4.

Liked Rayfa, which surprises the hell out of me. I normally hate tsundere types, and Rayfa has a good amount of the trope's characteristics. I don't think she has a crush on Phoenix or Apollo, which is normally a defining trait of the archetype, but she has the same mood swings most tsunderes do. I think it's the emotional dishonesty that gets to me with the archetype, but in Rayfa's case it's totally understandable. She lived a sheltered existence and grew up believing in the righteousness of her Divination Seances/her family/the kingdom, and all of that gets shaken by Phoenix and Apollo. The new prosecutor is at least more memorable than Simon was in his own game, which... doesn't say a lot, but he has a dry sense of humor beneath the overly religious exterior. All things considered, I guess I like him, but I'm not sure any of the new prosecutors are as interesting as those from the first three games and I don't know if they'll ever write one that interesting again. The rest of the new cast members are pretty good too, but it's Rayfa who steals the show. Sarge is pretty damn funny though, and that character's bit of development in case 5 is more touching than it has any right to be.

Overall this is a competent entry in the series as usual, but there's nothing as epic as in Dual Destinies or Trials and Tribulations, or even Ace Attorney. The antagonist of this game is one of the most underwhelming antagonists in the series, if not the *least* underwhelming, which doesn't help matters. I'd probably go AA5 > 3 > 1 > 6 > 2 > 4. Worth buying if you're already a fan, but if not, I'd recommend 1 or 5 first.
Edited by Romanticide, Sep 14 2016, 08:18 PM.
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Romanticide
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Pretty sure this list has almost everything I played this year but whatever. Too lazy to rank them. /shrug


Favorite gaems:

-Tokyo Mirage Sessions
I did a whole review on this; it's hard to say more. Unless Nintendo convinces Atlus to bring this to Switch, it may well go down as one of those forgotten gems, kind of like The Last Story or Pandora's Tower did on Wii. (It's hard to say Xenoblade was "forgotten", with a sequel and all.)


-Fire Emblem Fates
I think the major (gaming, anyway) reason I bought/played so few games this year is that Fates exists. It's not just *one* Fire Emblem; it's three full games. Each game took me at least a couple weeks, and the ones you don't already own cost $20, so I wasn't exactly chomping at the bit to buy new games/play other ones in ye olde backlog. More surprisingly, they don't feel like a rehash of one of the other two games. They each feel pretty distinct in terms of gameplay because they're balanced for different sorts of players, and Nintendo isn't just re-selling you the same levels you just beat. A fair number of maps are re-used, but in terms of story and gameplay they're different enough to be worth your money.

If you put a gun to my head, I'd probably rank them like so: Conquest > Revelation > Birthright. Conquest is far and away the hardest game of the three, which makes it feel more like older Fire Emblem than the other two do. Also something about Camilla being sexy and OP. I like the children aspect of newer Fire Emblem a lot (waifus/husbandos are great too but support convos are cringe-worthy) and Revelation gives you access to all kids, so it's an easy #2. I just wish there were DLC that would let us use these overpowered rapscallions to the fullest. Birthright is the easiest game, but even it has a tough map or two if you crank the difficulty up. Chapter 14 comes to mind, with promoted units in an open field kill me now.


-Pokemon Sun/Moon
Easily has the best story since gen 5, but, well, that's one of the lowest bars on earth. Pokemon stories are pretty meh at best, no matter how you look at them. More importantly, the game feels somewhat fresh. Trials are basically Gyms by another name, but they don't boil down to *just* fighting a Gym Leader and their underlings, which is nice. It adds sorely needed variety and it feels a little more like an actual world. There's still a long way to go, but at this point I doubt that Nintendo cares about making the player feel immersed in the world of Pokemanz. New Alolan forms were a great idea, but they feel included to pander to fucking genwunners/Pokemon Go players because there are no Alolan forms from any other gen. Kind of justified in-game, but who cares about justification in Pokemon?

Totem Pokemon were an interesting idea, but one that was kind of flawed. The Totem Pokemon are already more powerful than what you'll be rocking at the time; adding auras on top of that is overkill. Defense auras aren't so bad, but attack/speed auras may well fuck your shit up. Lurantis especially was kind of overpowered: Had a speed aura, a Power Herb for a one turn Solar Blade, and brought friends for coverage. After the final trial, there was a definite spike in difficulty, which I don't mind because most of the main game was easy. The Elite Four/Champion battles felt somewhat challenging compared to the rest of the game.

The game chugs like shit when you're fighting more than two Pokemon/when trainer sprites are on-screen. After gen 6, this doesn't surprise me in the least. What does surprise me a little is that gen 7 didn't ignore 3DS and come out on Switch. Then again, Nintendo wasn't going to let this anniversary go without a new mainline Pokemon game, and even if Switch were out, the 3DS has a far bigger install base.

I wasn't hyped for this gen, but I'm glad I picked it up. It turned out to be pretty good. May well be the last one, because as it is I don't plan to pick up Switch.


-Civilization VI
I mean, it's new Civ? It was going to make my list unless it was runny fecal matter. Well, one can argue Beyond Earth was runny fecal matter, but I think that boils down to good ideas executed not particularly well (especially in the expansion) and feeling like a lifeless affair all around. Civ games need memorable leaders, which Earth has in abundance and which Beyond Earth lacked, and maps that don't feel like a mishmash of various things, which Beyond Earth maps always did.

Anyway, Civ VI. This game's biggest idea is the unstacking of cities, which changes how you play the game. Instead of building, well, just about anything, you now have to determine which districts you want/need. Obviously if you're going for a Religion victory, to name one example, you'll want Holy Zones in your cities, so you'll want to place cities in places that will net you the most religion. Building cities feels less like "eh, find a good enough spot and everything will fall in place" and more like "eh, I don't need a super great spot, but I do need to be close to my other cities/a certain type of terrain, and I do need to decide what districts will go in this city". Combined with Happiness (Amenities) being a local system now, the wide playstyle is far more viable if not optimal, and I think the change is for the better.

There are a lot of other changes, but I went into more detail on those in the Civ thread. This is better than Civ V vanilla was, but there's still work to do to reach Civ V post-BNW, especially in the departments of politics/democracy and modding. Since this is a main Civ game, I imagine this will get at least two expansions, which should help flesh out the game. Whenever I've gotten around to this, I've enjoyed trying to learn the game. It's now winter and I now have sweet fuck all to do, so hopefully I'll play more.


-Ace Attorney: Spirit of Justice
It's more Ace Attorney? There is no universe in which this is a bad thing. Well, unless in said universe Konami is making these games, #FucKonami and all. The series may be pretty formulaic, but luckily that formula still works. At this point I wish they'd stop making up new characters, locales, and systems, and use/further develop what they already have, but video games I guess. Gotta have something new, otherwise you're stagnating and rehashing!

I liked it. Was fun. You could begin here, but I would strongly recommend playing Apollo Justice first. This is Apollo's game in the end, not Phoenix's.


-Muv-Luv
I preferred Extra to Unlimited, which apparently isn't popular opinion?

Extra knew what it wanted to be at all points. This is pretty important; I tend not to like mood whiplash. You might think going from over the top comedy to feelsy routes is the very definition of mood whiplash, but the game knew when it was time to get serious. It helps that each girl had a route dedicated to her, with the exception of the main heroines, who share the main (and best) route. You got to see what made these girls tick and then resolve it.

Unlimited may as well have been a kinetic novel. The only choice that affected anything (to the best of my knowledge) was who you go to see before the Christmas party, which determines the girl you wind up with. I don't understand the purpose of choices if all they do is affect the dialogue; it's just boring and inconsequential. The whole point of playing a choice-driven game is to see how those choices play out, but here they seem to have little effect. It defeats the purpose. I also didn't care for this version of the cast as much. I get that at their cores, they're basically the same as their Extra counterparts; it just manifests itself differently in a world with giant fucking alien bugs. However, nothing feels like it ever got resolved here, in large part because they tried to compress a "route" for every girl into relatively short chapters and because the endings were meaningless tripe with few differences. I can only hope Alternative resolves things for this group, or that it's so good that I don't care about Unlimited's shortcomings. Either works.



Other cool stuff:

-Undertale
I don't know how to feel about Undertale.

On one hand, it has an incredible OST, a great cast, LGBT+ representation that is lacking in video games in general, a sense of humor and an artstyle that are both extremely reminiscent of Earthbound, and plays like Shin Megami Tensei, Earthbound, and bullet hell games had a child. The idea of limited monsters/encounters is quite frankly one I wish other JRPGs would use more; it feels kind of jarring to kill monster #2348345 and for it to mean nothing story-wise. On the other, the story is... Kind of lacking (the revelations in Genocide didn't do a whole lot for me), one entire route is no fun to play outside of two fights, said two fights are extremely difficult and can comprise a third or more of your time with the game, the puzzles are fairly easy, and the fanbase is one of the more off-putting fanbases in vidya, largely because it/the Tumblr demographic feel like they're almost the same fucking group.

Don't get me wrong: It's a wonderful experience. I wouldn't argue too vehemently against someone claiming it's a classic, even. I think my biggest gripe is the idea that somebody could be locked out of finishing what will likely be the final route of a great game because they can't react fast enough or they can't/won't figure out (I don't blame them. It can take hours!) the final boss's attacks. This game's selling point isn't the crushing difficulty; it's the cast and what happens to them. Essentially locking lesser skilled players out of seeing what happens to these characters is unconscionable to me. Yes, it's satisfying to triumph over an incredibly challenging boss. I was elated to beat those two assholes, even if mentally exhausted after the ordeals. Not everyone derives satisfaction from that, nor should they have to in such a character-driven game. There should have been an option to make those two fights easier after X deaths, or alternatively the game could have been better balanced. They're such an insane difficulty spike compared to everything else in the game, and one of the worst difficulty spikes I've ever encountered.

If I were to redo my 2015 list, this would probably clock in at #3 or #4, and I'd move Xenoblade Chronicles X down and Life is Strange up. Still cannot beat Clannad or Grisaia, but being the best "traditional" game is pretty good.

But hey at least AGDQ won't spoil me now. I can do my usual "watch the last day of runs and get hammered" thing.


-Ori and the Blind Forest
It's the shit?

I mean, I dunno what to say. I guess the most obvious thing is that this game is simply breathtaking. It won't push your rig (or console) to the max, but the artstyle and the music are both glorious. No matter where you are in this game, it'll be a treat for your eyes and ears. Game got difficult in a hurry after the Ginso Tree (maybe I just suck, which isn't wholly inaccurate), but it was still fun and never felt like bullshit because you can save practically anywhere and try something until you get it right.

Storytelling is alright. Not every game needs cutscenes every ten minutes. I think this genre is especially well-suited to minimalist storytelling, which imo is one of the few areas where video games can compete with more "traditional" stories. No other form of media can replicate that feeling of being trapped on an alien world with nothing, struggling just to survive and access any area, and then returning later on in the game and breezing through stuff that was once a challenge, and I don't think any other genre of game captures that feeling as well either. A large part of that is that more thought is put into world design and how it'll play in Metroidvanias than in many other types of games.

Kinda counts as a 2016 game because Definitive Edition, but eh. That technicality doesn't matter to me much.


-Tomoyo After/Clannad Side Stories
Haven't played them yet, but I intend to very soon and it's my list so I'm including them. It also conveniently brings me to ten. I'm like 99.9% sure I'll at least like most of the side stories, and Tomoyo is best girl so I'll probably love her route. If I enjoy the RPG in Tomoyo After, it's a bonus.
Edited by Romanticide, Dec 9 2016, 08:33 AM.
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Snowman
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I like reading these kinds of things from people I know. I'll try to do one later or this weekend or something. Anyway Civ VI sounds pretty interesting, but I haven't played much Civ V so I'll probably just go back to that if I want to play Civ for now. Ori sounds cool. Your description sounds like what I thought about Trine. Trine isn't a Metroidvania game or anything, but it has the same "beautiful indie game with minimal storytelling" kind of vibe. Might try it out sometime.
Edited by Snowman, Dec 9 2016, 05:14 PM.
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Mafia III. I mean, most of us use Discord. You can see that much.

Where to begin. I guess technical issues would be the easiest place to start? Even though I rock an i5-3570k and a 1070, I never once saw 60 FPS at 1080p, even after turning some of the more intensive settings down. I eventually found a series of... good enough... settings, but the entire point of buying a 1070 (or 1080/Titan X/Z, if you have more money to burn than I do) is so you don't have to settle for anything but max settings at 1080p/maybe 1440p. If that were all, I would say the hullabaloo surrounding the PC port was overblown, but there were times (mainly in one locale) where shit wouldn't render right and it made the game nigh-unplayable until I moved out of that area. Maybe I should have screenshotted because it's hard to describe, but think of it like a kaleidoscope and you'll have some idea of what it looked like.

Whatever. It's not Arkham Knight levels of broken, seeing as I got above 30 FPS most of the time so it's *playable* by most standards, but it's still an unacceptable port. I say this after 2K got my (well, Steam's) $40, but the point remains. If this game didn't take place in New Orleans and I didn't want to send a tiny message to encourage game developers to try and tackle more substantial fare than they usually do, I doubt I'd have gotten this game. I probably would have picked up Rise of the Tomb Raider or a VN or some other weeb fare.

The gameplay is every bit as repetitive as the reviews made it out to be. Every mission comes down to interrogate/kill this person, steal this vehicle, or destroy this thing. There's also a set of racing missions that unlock some cool vehicle customization options, but eh, I'm not sure that's really worth your few hours. I'm not sure how difficult these races are since I won the one I attempted first try with a meh vehicle, so I'll go with "a few hours". Outside of that, wow collectibles. At least they're awesome. Smut (VIEWABLE and readable smut, at that) is always great, and vinyl covers aren't bad either. The vinyl covers should have allowed you to add that song to a custom playlist or something; I'd have had far more incentive to go out of my way to collect those things.

Whistle is OP. Once you get it, the game becomes pretty easy. It's a trivial affair to go into an enemy stronghold, take cover behind something, hit left on the D-pad, and take out the enemies as they come to you. It doesn't always go that simply, but when it does it's pretty satisfying. Problem is it's the slower approach, and...

The game's biggest problem is that this is really a 25-30 hour title that's somehow stretched out to 50-60 hours, probably 40-45 if you do little to no optional content. The beginning is fucking amazing, hooking you almost immediately with its documentary style of storytelling and an incredibly fun heist. The end, or at least how I tackled the end, was almost as amazing, with a series of missions focused on this game's KKK equivalent and another series of missions focused on the game's equivalent of the French Quarter. The problem is the long and extremely dull middle.


There's little to love about the PC port's performance/the gameplay. Luckily those are my biggest issues with the game and not at all what I bought it for. Moving on to things that I actually like (for the most part) now...

The soundtrack is low key awesome. My antipathy for classic rock is not a secret to y'all, but I enjoyed the hell out of most of this soundtrack. Probably because it's not all, or even mostly, classic rock. Say what you will about the use of "classic rock" as a genre, but it's an easily enough understood idea. Some of these songs are too recent to exist in the late 1960s, but whatever. "I Fought the Law" is a perfect track for the story event it's prominently featured in. I don't think the Misfits or the Ramones are 1960s/New Orleans acts either, but I didn't mind their songs so yay for good music I guess.

There aren't that many songs I'd say are outright *bad*; it's just that I felt some were played a lot more than others. Course, that might just be because I recognized them pre-Mafia III. I don't mind CCR and all, but holy fuck I got sick of them towards the end of the game. If I ever hear "Born on the Bayou" again, it might be too soon. Same can be said for Johnny Cash, who feels like the only country artist people can name, and I like "Folsom Prison Blues" and "I Walk the Line". Every time I heard that turrible "Eve of Destruction" song, I changed it. I get that it's a great fit for the game given its overt political themes, but most political music sucks a fat one. Most types of music that sacrifice the music for the message do, in fact.

I wish there were more obvious New Orleans acts on the soundtrack, but that might be a tall order given the setting, recording technology, Katrina (wonder how many master tapes that destroyed), and everyone's favorite, licensing issues. All things considered, the soundtrack wonderfully captured the era and was an enjoyable listen, even if it feels light on the N'Awlins fare.

The setting is absolutely brilliant. I love New Orleans and all, but I'm not even speaking about that. I'm speaking of the 1960s. Of all the eras in human history, the 1960s might be the most relevant to what we're going through today. We think we've made progress on racism, sexism, homophobia, and all the other types of hatred, but this election cycle should have shown us all that we haven't made anywhere near as much progress from the 1960s as we previously thought. Seems to me that all we really did was push these ideas out of acceptable discourse; we didn't kill them off. What's old is new again. Those who don't learn from the past are doomed to repeat it. Insert your cliche about how history repeats itself; it's applicable to this game, and it's a thought I had SO MANY TIMES while playing.

I love that the writers were willing to tackle challenging subject matter such as racism and homophobia. That's not something that's done much in the AAA space, and if it is, it's usually done with fictitious peoples as obvious stand-ins for real world races. It really says something for gamers (and arguably for gaming as a whole) that we're willing to accept something like Dragon Age or whatever is a hard-hitting, supr srs about real world issues franchise, despite having no races that exist in real life except for humans, but dismiss something that dares to portray human minorities as "SJW progaganda" or whatnot. Course, in our cowardly new GG/"alt-right" world, *anything* that tackles topics like these gets called "SJW propaganda".

On the other hand, when the game is getting close to being truly critical of these ideas, it veers away from challenging them. There's an exchange between Lincoln and Nicki in Nicki's sidequest about her seeing a woman, and how her father is disappointed in her for this. Lincoln basically says that he doesn't care who Nicki is dating as long as she's happy. On one hand, this is *huge*: This is a game set in 1960s New Orleans, a few years before Southern Decadence became a thing, and this is a black character. Even today, black communities struggle with homophobia. It's somewhat progressive to have a black man in that time and place say "whatever, do what makes you happy". On the other hand, that's as far as it goes. There's no sidequest that lets you see how Nicki's sexuality affects the rest of her life, the idea of homophobia isn't even broached beyond one conversation, etc. I can forgive the lack of intersectionality; I don't think that was an idea that was even mentioned until the 70s.

The game is better about racism, but I kind of think that it was more focused on a simplistic version of racism. When most people think racism, they think the KKK white hoods, cross burnings, lynching, segregation, and of course the use of slurs. All of these things are present in Mafia III, and the deeds of this universe's KKK are godawful. The story arc related to this group features the most disgusting, abhorrent thing I've ever seen in a video game. Not disgusting as in "gross", disgusting as in "how the fuck can human beings do this to each other". You bet your ASS that it was satisfying to kill the fuckers responsible for that. There's a reason this game starts out with a disclaimer. But for all of that, the game doesn't approach structural racism. This is a game in which the head of the New Orleans mafia, a federal judge, an influential radio host, and other rich fucks are all unapologetic racist assholes. Racism didn't entwine itself with our systems by accident; it did so because powerful people held racist beliefs and propagated them for centuries, both because they believed them and because they wanted to divide and conquer us in the pursuit of power. Maybe Lincoln Clay's story, at its core a story of vengeance, is the wrong avenue to explore this subject matter, but John Donovan's would not be: He did the actual investigating of these people in-game, even if you don't see it. It might make for dryer subject matter and less killing/less action, but I don't think it would be any less compelling.

It's frustrating. Video games have the potential to make these issues more *real*, more tangible, than any other medium. You can watch or read something that features such subject matter, but none of that can capture the feeling that video games can. They can make you ask yourself "how would I react", but they can't put you in the middle of the action. Video games don't *ask*. They make you react. And yet pretty much every game shirks the opportunity and goes for simple platitudes.

I liked this cast. As always, some characters could stand to be further developed, but I still liked what development there was. It made these characters feel less like a means to my ends and more like people with their own lives, aspirations, and problems. It even succeeded in making me feel sympathy for the *antagonist*. Sure, I hated him most of the time, rightfully so, but there were a couple moments where I was like "damn, I feel for this guy".

On the whole, I enjoyed the story. As mentioned earlier, the beginning is as good a hook as any in video games. You start out with a robbery of the Federal Reserve, which is indisputably badass. You're working with a man who you think is your friend and who you think is looking out for you/your crew, but two hours later, SURPRISE: Him and his family are all fucking racist pricks who betray you. Spoilers, yes, but I saw the betrayal coming. You should too; mafia stories and betrayal go together like peanut butter and jelly. I just expected it to be business, not racism. Getting capped and hearing your character/his friends called the n-word before the screen fades to black is a pretty big gutpunch.

The documentary style is great too. These scenes tell you the essence of what's going to happen, but they don't spoil everything and they serve to make you look forward to the next mission. You could argue this presentation means it might work better as a movie/series of movies, and I wouldn't argue the point all that much, but hey, it works.

The conclusion was a nice change of pace. It eschews the traditional boss fight in favor of a conversation between Lincoln Clay and the antagonist. Afterwards, you get to decide his fate: Will you let him live (I presume you can walk away at this point) or not? I killed him immediately; there was no way I could forgive what went on in New Orleans under his watch, all so he could make more money/become more powerful. But wait! There is at least one more choice after that, possibly two. The only bad thing is you're locked into all of these choices. Post-game is literally post-game, instead of sending you back to the point before the final mission. I would have liked to do things differently without replaying the entire game, just to see what happens. As it is, YouTube exists.

It's hard to recommend this game when the middle exists. After the first 5-10 hours, it falls off and doesn't recover until you get to the Southern Union/French Quarter/the ending. As much as I enjoy everything that... isn't... this difficult to define "middle", telling people "yeah it's great except for these bad to mediocre 20-30 hours" is always going to be a tough sell. There's just a lot of killing, a lot of stealing, a lot of destroying, and it doesn't go anywhere. If there's anyone I don't care about, it's the people who run the rackets in this ambiguous middle. They had little to no characterization beyond working for the antagonist, and I just didn't feel as invested in killing these people/ruining their shit as I did others.

I felt the ending I got was very fitting. Over 50 hours, Lincoln Clay and I built an empire. It started with a few rackets and neighborhoods in New Orleans, then it encompassed all of New Orleans, and in the ending spread across the South. In spite of all of that, it seemed like Lincoln Clay didn't entirely lose himself and still managed to give back to the community, though I obviously don't know that for sure.

Tomorrow I wake up to the presidency of a man whose ersatz empire is based upon the value of his name and his "celebrity", the presidency of a man who has only ever given back crumbs off his table through a sham organization with his name appended to it. It was a nice fantasy for 50 hours, living in a world where a qualified black man could build an empire and not be reviled for it, where he and his organization wouldn't be pushed out for a mediocre white man. But the thing about fantasies is they eventually come crashing down, and what is left is cold, unfeeling reality.

For all the criticism of this game I have, I'm also grateful that I got to experience it. It's a type of experience that not many AAA developers would bring to us, and it's sorely needed. Not just to prove that video games can have the same storytelling chops as their counterparts in other mediums, but because it's incredibly relevant to the time we're living in.
Edited by Romanticide, Jan 20 2017, 06:08 AM.
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DucksFAN93
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I'm just starting up Tales of Berseria on PS4. So far (just two hours in), I'm enjoying it. Way better than Zestiria (which was a turd). We will see if it can match the majestic Vesperia though..
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Romanticide
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DucksFAN93
Jan 26 2017, 05:25 PM
I'm just starting up Tales of Berseria on PS4. So far (just two hours in), I'm enjoying it. Way better than Zestiria (which was a turd). We will see if it can match the majestic Vesperia though..
What did you not like about Zestiria, out of curiosity?

I bought it for the free Tales of Symphonia port, and... Yeah. That was legitimately broken on release, so I spent about $20 more than I would have wanted to on it, all for a broken port of my favorite Tales game. I think it's fixed now but that was still inexcusable.

Anyway, I hope for better things from Berseria. Played the demo and that was alright, but I don't feel like it was enough to determine if this will be a good game. Seems to be checking all the right boxes insofar as PC ports go though, so I'll wait for the verdict on that and then maybe for it to hit $30 or so.
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DucksFAN93
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Tales of Zestiria, to me, was really just a whole lot of unacceptable padding. The amount of backtracking (which is present in all Tales games for the most part), was out of control. Enemies ran faster than you could, so you ended up fighting virtually all battles as you aimlessly wandered the huge map, because the game didn't always label where exactly you were supposed to go. Sure, there was fast travel but it was disabled 75% of the time for whatever reason. Enemies had too much health so fighting (which was fun at first) became a horrendous chore in the final parts of the game where I begged for it to finish.

I cared about none of the characters; their motivations were beyond cliche, so it was hard to care. I don't know, i feel like a Tales game NEEDS its characters and if that part is missing, then the game just really really isn't very compelling.
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Romanticide
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Definitely understand these criticisms, especially the ones surrounding fast travel. Who the FUCK thought it was a good idea to not only lock it much of the time, but to *charge money to use it*? It boggles the mind. I don't mind efforts to make fast travel more immersive, like adding wagons or whatever, but this is a shoddy effort.

My big criticism is the stupid armor system. It's not intuitive at all, getting the skill you want practically requires a guide, it encourages min-maxing, which I don't find all that fun, IMO the best perk of the entire system is very early (+10/20 to all stats, whichever it is), and it's just another fucking thing to manage in a series where you already manage so much. I already have to set my artes, my strategy, decide what armor/weapons I'm going to use, and for me that's enough. I don't need or want that level of management lol.

I liked the cast, but casts are a fairly subjective thing. Edna is the best, probably a T5 Tales character for me, and everyone else I'm alright with. I value the interactions more in Tales because the skits are so consistently funny and the stories are all cut from a similar cloth, so you can kinda guess what motivates most characters. But yeah, you're right in saying that a Tales cast is what carries the game because by and large you know what you're getting otherwise. That's not a bad thing; knowing that you'll (usually) get a solid product has its worth.

All this said, I'm not sure if or when I'll play Zestiria again. The anime exists and it's better.

How is Berseria so far though?
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DucksFAN93
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All of those are good points. I don't know if I'll ever play Zestiria again when I could and would rather play Vesperia, Xillia, Symphonia, etc.

Berseria (I'm now 7 hours in) has been an awesome experience so far. Velvet is my favorite lead since Yuri (Vesperia). She has completely fresh motivations and purpose, and is far more interesting than I thought she would be. The game has done very well in the opening hours setting up the plot and characters and their personalities. I'm so curious to know how they will change and develop, a feeling I haven't felt since Vesperia.

The battle system is also far more interesting, and the combos are super easy to pull off. The depth is staggering. The game really can be as easy and accessible to play or deep, complex and rewarding for experimentation. It all depends on the player.
Edited by DucksFAN93, Jan 30 2017, 03:56 AM.
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