Pretty busy week.
I have realised I have too many games going on right now. It was kinda simple with just PS5 and Switch, but by adding PC in the mix, and starting a game on all 3 is a bit too overwhelming for my busy schedule. It’s one thing to have a smaller game going on with a big one, but I ended up starting pretty long game on all of them. So, would have to do something about it.
Just played some Spider-man 2 and few matches of WWE 2K24.
Plan to continue with Spider-man 2 and finish the first, before switching to PC / Switch game. WWE 2K is just some fighting so may continue it for a while.
What about all of you? What have you been playing?
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Finished My Girlfriend is a Mermaid!?!
Of the three VNs I played from COSEN this is definitely the weakest. It’s not terrible, but also doesn’t have any particularly strong or memorable points.
It was also another fairly obscure game with no english-language guides, so I once again ended up writing one myself so others will be spared the trouble of going through korean guides using Google Translate to find out how to unlock all endings. 😅
Playing Ys X: Nordics!
So far this game is great. It’s cool to see an adventure set early the Ys chronology (this one takes place right after Ys 2), and I’m loving Karja’s relationship with Adol, they’re pushing towards a more sibling-like relationship instead of a romantic one and it works really well with the themes of the game.
The combat is fun and fast-paced, with two “styles” - solo and duo. The former gives you more movement and evasion, while the latter has the two characters working together to block strong attacks and dish serious damage. However, I feel the balancing between modes is kinda off, there’s almost no reason to use solo mode on bosses as duo mode auto-blocks most of their attacks and makes those battle a breeze. Though solo is still quite useful while exploring or fighting a lot of enemies.
Speaking of exploration, the overworld of the game is a large ocean you transverse with a ship, with several islands you can explore. Exploration on foot is really fun, even more after you unlock some skills like the grappling hook and the hoverboard. However, the ocean part is easily the worst part of the game, and for a very simple reason: The boat is way too slow! If there’s one thing I want from a patch to this game is a drastic improvement of the initial speed, or at least a much faster recharge for the ability to “ride the wind” that gives you a short speed up. This does improve as you get some boat upgrades, but it’s still a major oversight in a game as fast-paced as this one.
Performance on Switch is a huge improvement over Ys 9. I think this is running on the same engine as Trails through Daybreak, and framerate is very stable without any significant hiccups so far. The only issue I have is that some areas have significant object and texture pop-in, which can be distracting but that doesn’t cause any gameplay issues.
Playing Vampire Survivors!
Still playing this as a side-game. Not much to add to the, still unlocking new weapons/stages/characters.
Nice work on the guide! Very succinct and to the point. Exactly what I look for when I just want to see specific ending (or get specific trophy).
Hope they fix the sea exploration, but the game has been out in Japan for a while, so I doubt there would be any changes to gameplay now.
How was Ys IX’s performance? I played VIII on switch and loved it, but I was wondering if I should get IX on PS5 instead, to get better performance, though I like to play longer / JRPG-ish games on Switch, can play more that way.
How was Ys IX’s performance?
Been a long time since I finished the game, but from what I recall it’s “definitely playable, but has issues”.
Most areas including dungeons run fairly well with a stable framerante, but there’s a lot of fluctuation when exploring the main “hub” which is this huge open-world city. Since you don’t do a lot of fighting in the city this doesn’t hurt gameplay too much, but it’s definitely annoying.
But there are some “tower defense” stages similar to Ys 8, and and performance can tank hard there. It doesn’t happen very often, and usually only lasts a few seconds, but it’s another thing to keep in mind.
Hope they fix the sea exploration, but the game has been out in Japan for a while, so I doubt there would be any changes to gameplay now.
They probably expect you to stick to the main story for the early parts of the game and go exploring the map later, when you have enough boat upgrades to make it less frustrating… but my OCD doesn’t let me progress without checking every corner of the map first. 😅
Ah, well, will take a look at some performance videos and decide where to get it. Thanks for the info!
OCD doesn’t let me progress without checking every corner of the map first. 😅
lol, I can understand, that’s the most basic thing in RPG, always go everywhere except where you have to go first.
I’ve been playing the Retrorealms Halloween/Ash vs. Evil Dead games. Mostly Halloween. They’re pretty fun so far!
I got Atari 50: The Anniversary Cellebration Expanded Edition on Friday, and I’ve been really enjoying it. I love the format of interactive videogame documentary, it’s amazing and there’s so much interesting content. I’d love to get Llamasoft: The Jeff Minter Story too in this same format, but as of March 2024, physical was in planning stage with platforms to be determined. I haven’t found any news since then :(
Also looking forward to being able to get Tetris Forever, another an interactive documentary videogame, physical version apparently next year…
Oh cool, Atari anniversary was in my wishlist, but I am kinda 50/50 on it. Never even heard of Llamasoft game, will check it out.
I watched the video about Tetris Forever, they did some fun things with (local?) multiplayer. Well, at least it looked fun in the trailer, don’t know how fun it is when actually playing it.
Retrorealms game look pretty good. Hope they release more such games.
I didn’t grow up with Atari, I was born a bit later. So I don’t have any memories attached to it. But I really liked the format and I think you can really enjoy the games more in the context of the interactive documentary. And some of them are just timeless classics. Llamasoft is the story of Jeff Minter, one legendary game developer who’s developed so many games. It must be great to learn about his career and play the games in this doc format.
I hope Retrorealms is doing well, because the game hints at new games in the future. I can imagine Freddy Krueger being next…
I don’t have too many memories of Atari either, but I do recall playing some when I was very young, so could be interesting.
After finishing the main story of The Witcher 3 last week, I’m now playing the Hearts of Stone DLC. Surprised by the jump in difficulty (looking at you toad!) but I’m loving it. I used to play a lot of games at the same but almost never finished one. A year ago I made a rule to play one story-game at a time and I finished a lot more games now. I do sometimes have to resist the urge to start another one while the current game is still not finished…🙂
Yeah, that’s generally my plan too. I stick it to a while, but then for some reason end up starting multiple games and end up like now 😀
Good luck with the DLCs.
I decided to finally stop twiddling my thumbs and buy Oxenfree II, and Hades. So far I’ve been having a blast with both
Nice. Hades is a great game. Have also heard great things about Oxenfree games, though haven’t gotten around to playing them yet. They are on Netflix so may just play them there.
