Happy New Year everyone!
How were your holidays? And how is your new year starting? Any resolutions for this year?
My gaming resolution for last year was to play through some of the oldest games in my wishlist, specially smaller indies and JRPGs. Cleared (completed or dropped) some 42 games last year, so that was a big success.
For this year, I plan to catch up on all first party Nintendo games (the ones that are on Switch). I am generally a patient-gamer, but I make exceptions for Nintendo games, even then, I have many games that I missed, like Astral Chain, Donkey Kong Tropical Freeze and Captain Toad Treasure Tracker to name a few. Other than that, also want to catch up to latest installment of the some series I am playing, like Yakuza or Ys.
So, what I played over last two weeks:
I got stuck at the second dragon boss in Atelier Ryza: Ever Darkness & the Secret Hideout, and after looking it up online, it seems I was rushing through the story and should slow down and work on alchemy, as there are quite a few things that I should have at this point that I don't. So, putting it on backburner for a bit, will just play it slowly as a cozy game.
Started Astral Chain, always meant to play it finally getting around it. The game is really fun. Love the urban environment and the fast paced combat. I have unlocked all but one legions, and am probably somewhere around halfway through. This is currently my primary game. Will probably finish it over the weekend or the next week. Let's see.
Over at PS side, started and finished Yakuza 6: Song of Life. I played Yakuza 0 last year (23), and was originally planning to replay 1-5, but then just gave up on that and watched a recap to refresh my memory, and started 6 directly.
What a game! This was probably my favourite story in the whole series (yet), though I played older games a long time ago, so it could be some recency bias, but even then, great story and character development! Combat was a bit simplistic from older entries as there's only one combat style this time around, other than 3 in some of the previous one. I enjoyed it though, and won't mind if they keep it like this.
Tried Saints Row, the new one, it was one of the free monthly game for PS+ Essential a few months back. Dropped it soon enough though. I had very low expectations so was enjoying the game in the start, but the combat is pretty meh, failed a mission few times because of this and just gave up.
Started Nier Replicant , love the fast paced combat, and the world building, but the fetch quests are too much. I am trying to do most of them, but some of them require some rare items which are not easy to come by, so not completing all of them.
Still on my first play through, just started the second part. This is my secondary game, for when I don't have access to Switch.
Epic gave away Vampire Survivors, so downloaded it when I was a bit bored and Switch was busy. Playing it a bit here and there, unlocking stuff. Really enjoyed it when I unlocked weapon synergies, makes you almost invincible. Just going to play a run or two when I get time, nothing serious though.
Phew! That was a long post. I didn't realise I played that much. Until I wrote all this down, I was under the impression that I didn't really play much over the holidays.
So, what about all you? What have you been playing?
I've been completely sucked into the warm embrace of Kingdom Come: Deliverance. I absolutely adore this game. Think Morrowind (with just a touch of Skyrim) plus player skill-based combat, lockpicking, etc.
And the sequel comes out next month, so I think I'm going to be busy for a while.
My only complaint about that game is that the pace of the main story doesn't match the pace of the game world. Everything else about the world, particularly in hardcore mode, really suits roleplaying but the main quest doesn't give Henry enough opportunies to do other stuff. You are forced to play out of character and ignore the urgency of the main quest if you want to take your time and enjoy the slow and relaxing atmosphere. Still a great game though, I will complete my second playthrough this year in preparation for the sequel.
EDIT: (As this is a Nintendo community, I should point out that I am playing on PC.)
As you can guess by my list of games, in this weekly threads, we don't care about the platform. This is just a general discussion of what we are playing on whatever platform.
About KC: D, I agree with you, but that's a problem with most RPGs, you are either a "cozy" game, or there's doom and gloom going on.
I kind of disagree, I think it's definitely possible to write a mainline story in a way that it allows for downtime for exploration and/or side quests. Cyberpunk 2077's quests often have breaks where you need to wait for an NPC to contact you or you are required to meet them at a time and place that allows for some flexibility. Even just in terms of the way dialogue is written, you can have a quest assigner ask you to meet them in a certain spot when you're ready with a warning that you shouldn't take too long, rather than just instantly progressing the quest. I think Kingdom Come: Deliverance actually did this at some points, where characters would meet you at a different location if you took too long to join them for the journey there. There are ways around it through clever writing, though obviously most RPG's will also have urgent moments where it doesn't make sense to wander off.
I agree 100% with this and have thought the same thing. They built a huge sandbox full of interesting things to do and see, then put an enormous amount of pressure on you to play their story urgently.
By the way, I'm playing on Xbox. I don't think platform matters for this particular recurring thread; I've asked about it before.
I think it's awesome that game is actually playable on Switch. The port looks pretty good too, all things considered. Hopefully it meant a ton of people who wouldn't otherwise have played it got to experience (what I consider) one of the best RPGs of the last decade.