Finished Mafia: Definitive Edition !
I didn’t mention it last week but I started Mafia after dropping Returnal, was about halfway through already, finished the rest this week.
The game doesn’t get great reviews but I loved the game. The story was interesting, even though the ending felt kinda sudden, and the game didn’t have any useless bloat. The visuals also felt good, though I am not really a good judge of these things. The shooting controls feel a bit dated, but nothing too bad and you can get used to it easily.
This has actually make me look forward to Mafia: The Old Country, as they have supposedly gone back to their roots. I’ll highly recommend this to anyone who likes linear 3D narrative games.
Started Ys IX: Monstrum Nox on PS5. Switch is generally my preferred platform for all RPGs but all reviews recommend to play it on another platform, if you have access to it. So I went with PS5 version.
Not much to say about it yet, I am in Chapter 3 and thoroughly enjoying the gameplay. This will be my primary game for now, but since I am trying to spend time more productively, will probably be playing it for quite a while.
Playing Garage (Garage: Bad Trip on other platforms) on Switch.
It’s a top-down action game like Hotline Miami, but with Zombies. The games isn’t as good, and has multiple difficulty spikes, specially when people with guns show up, but still a fun game and scratching that itch.
I am a few hours in, and shouldn’t have too much game left.
What about all of you? What have you been playing and/or plan to play?
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Nothing on my Switch right this moment, and given that I’ve just started a rather large game it may stay that way for a little while!
The game in question is Baldur’s Gate 3. I’m quite late to the party, but I’m finally getting around to playing it. I’m not that far in yet, but I’ve been enjoying it so far (and slowly getting my head around the mechanics). I’ve never played D&D so a lot of it’s quite a lot to take in - but playing other RPGs has given me some idea of the basics.
Relatedly, I finished Disco Elysium the other day (which has a character sheet and ability checks like D&D). It was just surreal and beautifully written, with some really memorable characters. Some of the interactions you can have with people are great.
I usually have a small game going on with a larger one, to keep things fresh. Though, that depends on the game too.
I plan to play Divinity: Original Sin, Divinity: Original 2 before playing Baldur’s Gate 3, so you are still at least 2-3 years earlier than me.
Started Ys IX: Monstrum Nox on PS5. Switch is generally my preferred platform for all RPGs but all reviews recommend to play it on another platform, if you have access to it.
Monstrum Nox performance is quite bad on the Switch. It’s “playable” but there’s some nasty framerate drops in some parts, in particular during the tower defense segments, though according to this video this is fixed if you’re playing on a Switch 2.
At least the they moved to a new engine in the following game, which runs miles better even on Switch 1.
Finished Super Robot Taisen Y!
The previous game in the series (SRT30) is seen by most as the weakest entry on recent years. It had some interesting ideas, in particular with its approach with the mission structure - older games had linear missions with occasional “branches”, while 30 (and now Y) give you a big list of mandatory and optional missions and you can tackle them in any order you want. However, the first attempt at this structure in 30 turned out bad - story felt disjointed, character interactions were limited, and they completely failed in balancing difficulty, that game was so ridiculously easy that it became mind-numbing boring. It also had some other issues (like weak story and uninspired “original” characters/mechs), but I think the ones I mentioned above are the biggest problems.
So I’m happy to say that Y drastically improved in almost all aspects over its predecessor. Story is much better, provides enough challenge to make veterans like me play carefully, “original” units are great. I have a ton of praise for the characters interactions, they really nailed them in this game - having the story revolve around a “flying city” was a brilliant touch, the characters are no longer just members of the same army but also neighbors and friends living in the same city. This added a lot of options for cross-series interactions and they made good use of it.
As for negatives, there’s two: First is the the UI - it’s not bad, and if this is your first game in the series you might not even notice it, but they re-did it for this game and it’s significantly lacking compared to the old ones. I heard they migrated just to a new engine so this may be a temporary setback, but I really hope they do review and improve it for future games.
The second is the big one, and it’s one of the issues from 30 that Y didn’t fix: The ballooning amount of missions. A play through of 30 or Y is at least double the length of older games, and this makes one of the biggest weaknesses of the series very visible: The lack of mission diversity. The large majority is simply “defeat all enemies” or “defeat the boss”, and with this many missions it’s easy to get bored or burned out from this game. Since I’m familiar with most of the anime series present the character interactions helped “carry” the game, but if you’re not in the same position you should consider playing it slowly to avoid this burnout.
Overall I had a ton of fun with the game and it got me a lot more hopeful about the future of the series after 30. I’ll also be coming back to it in the future when DLC2 is released since I already preordered it.
Finished Sheepo!
This was the first game released by Kyle Thompson, and the most unique of the three. It’s a “no weapons” metroidvania where you play as a small alien who goes around collecting eggs of different species and gains the ability to shapeshift into different forms. It’s more puzzle and platform focused than the other two and also significantly shorter (but also cheaper), taking less than 5h to finish.
Overall I prefer the other two (my ranking is Islets > Crypt Custodian > Sheepo), but I had a good time with all of his games and I’m now anxiously waiting for the release of Well Dweller.
Playing Witch on the Holy Night!
With SRTY finally done I’m now focusing more on this one, currently midway through Chapter 7. This chapter and the previous one slow down after the big battle and go back to more slice-of-life content as the three leads have to adjust to a new lifestyle.
Didn’t check the video, but did read a review for Switch 2 performance, that said it is better than Switch 1, but still recommended to play on other platform, if you have access to those. Either way, already started it, so not going to buy it again. 😀
Hopefully they will learn from the feedback and improved the the next games even more in Super Robot Wars series. I tried looking up some mecha animes to watch, but then taking the time “investment” to account, I realised I don’t really have enough time to add another thing in my screen-time / entertainment list. So, I’ll probably play these games with basic knowledge of a couple of animes I have watched. Do you think they will still be fun for me?
I’ll probably play these games with basic knowledge of a couple of animes I have watched
Knowing/liking the original anime series helps, but it’s not mandatory. You may get a bit overloaded due to the huge amount of characters, but they are introduced gradually and the game has a big encyclopedia to help remember who is who.
Do you think they will still be fun for me?
Will you like it for the first 10-20h? Almost certainly yes if you like strategy games and big robots.
Will you like it enough to play the whole 80h+ (assuming you go for Y)? That’s a much harder question to answer, it will depend a lot on how much you enjoy the gameplay loop.
Ahan. Thanks. Will keep it in mind.
