Topic: What are you playing?

[Adrock]

Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night (Switch)

ArtPlay/505 Games released Version 1.04 last Wednesday. I believe this was the second of two promised Switch updates meant to bring the game’s performance closer to the other versions. Admittedly, Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night never should have released on Switch in the state it was in. As a backer, my opinion was essentially: I already waited four years so as long as you fix it, I’ll be back when you do.

Finally put some time into the game this weekend. I’m having a lot of fun so far. I haven’t played a Metroidvania in this style since Castlevania: Order of Ecclesia. I’ve really missed the genre. I normally don’t like grinding and I’ve done a ton of grinding so far for shards/items, but it weirdly doesn’t feel grindy.

Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night is still pretty blurry on Switch though there are noticeable graphical improvements from launch. Still won’t win any beauty contests; it’s more than passable though.

The performance is night and day. The input lag was fixed in release 1.03 in October. I tested it back then but opted not to put time into the game until the next update. I’m not sure how much of an improvement 1.04 is over 1.03 in terms of load times and stability. The important thing is that the Switch version doesn’t suck anymore. At the same time, play the game on another platform if you can/don’t care about handheld mode. Considering the Switch version apparently sold more than the PS4 and Xbox One versions combined, my hope is Switch will be the primary platform for an inevitable sequel.

[Order.RSS]

Started playing The Kore Gang (Wii), and got to stage 9 before calling it a night.  This is a weird little Wii platformer that feels released in 2010... but reportedly started development a decade earlier than that. That age shows in the design, but it's still perfectly playable.

Is this based on a license or something? Never heard of it. It does seem very reminiscent of Mushroom Men, Psychonauts and the like.

[ejamer]

... The Kore Gang (Wii), ...

Is this based on a license or something? Never heard of it. It does seem very reminiscent of Mushroom Men, Psychonauts and the like.

As far as I can tell, it's an entirely original IP, but Psychonauts does seem influential. (Mushroom Men less so, since it came out much later.) Sadly the world isn't fleshed out very well; from the opening cut scene, things just kind of happen without much explanation or development. So you don't really get a strong sense of the world you are in - instead it's just a lot of weird experiences with each new stage. That's not terrible, but despite being in development for over a decade it still kind of feels like there could have been more attention to detail if they wanted this to be a truly memorable game.

[ejamer]

Went back to play through MadWorld (Wii), as it's a game I never actually finished earlier.

Back in the day, I really liked it. The art direction seemed really well suited to Wii, and gave the whole game a dark comic vibe. The music was on-point, and the "color commentary" provided while playing is still obscene and ridiculous enough to be a good fit for the game (despite being too repetitive).

However, this time around the weaknesses are poking through. The combat/combo system is too limited; this works just fine for low-skill play, but kind of puts a ceiling on how much replay value the game has. The excessive violence also become a bit rote over time (although they try to keep things moving with regular mini-games and the occasional special weapon thrown into the fray).

So my current impression is less positive than initial impressions many years ago, but still positive overall. I'll have to wait and see if things get too repetitive as the game goes along... but since my gaming time now is pretty spread out that probably won't be a big deal even if it happens.

[Adrock]

I tried a few times to go back to MadWorld and recently considered trying again since PlatinumGames has been in the news with The Wonderful 101 port.

How long did it take you to get through the game?

[ejamer]

I tried a few times to go back to MadWorld and recently considered trying again since PlatinumGames has been in the news with The Wonderful 101 port.

How long did it take you to get through the game?

I haven't finished yet; just playing in small fits and bursts. Not sure how long the whole thing will take...  probably between 5-8 hours? Almost certainly not longer than that, judging from the map progress.

You could probably push through the whole game in a few nights if you wanted to. Might start to feel stale if you take that approach though.

[Order.RSS]

Sounds about right regarding MadWorld's playtime. I think my system time was just over 7 hours, which includes loading times/pausing/etc. I liked the game, but it definitely grew stale before the end arrived. It's kinda neat how some PlatinumGames traditions trace back to it, particularly the Bayonetta motorcycle stage.

[NWR_insanolord]

I said in the New Years Resolutions thread that one thing I'm trying to do this year is to play through some of my backlog, and one game I've been going back to a lot lately is SteamWorld Heist. It's a great, unique take on turn-based strategy, and it's making me want to also go back and finish SteamWorld Dig 2.

Also, as Neal's review indicates, Voxelgram is basically Picross 3D on Switch and I'm completely hooked on that right now too.

[broodwars]

So, I'm about halfway through Nioh 2, and...yeah, this game is kind of astoundingly disappointing. I'm a big fan of that 1st game, having dumped over 100 hours into it completing the main game & DLC, as well as most of a New Game +. It took the gameplay of something like Dark Souls, sped it up, broke progression into levels, and threw in a dose of Diablo loot grind for an incredibly addicting experience.

However, Nioh 1 wasn't without its flaws. The script, partially penned by famed Japanese filmmaker Akira Kurosawa, was borderline incoherent and exceptionally dense in Japanese history no one outside Japan would know. The game was also extremely bad when it came to recycling environments and enemies, including bosses. These were things I was hoping a sequel with a larger budget would address.

They were not. Geralt of Rivia cosplayer William Adams' journey to recover his lost spirit guardian amidst a war-torn Japan in Nioh 1 may have been hard to follow, but it was at least interesting and William was allowed to voice some personality. Nioh 2 decided that what we really needed was a Silent Create-A-Character Protagonist tagging along on Yet Another Retelling of the tired Nobunaga story. I know Japan loves to idolize this guy (which is odd since they also always seem to acknowledge that he was psychopath), but I just don't give a damn. It didn't help that this is a prequel to Nioh 1, and I already fought a resurrected Nobunaga in THAT game so it's not like there's any drama in the sequel. And having your character just silently nod along to the plot during cutscenes is boring.

Oh boy, if you thought they recycled enemies & environments in Nioh 1, you ain't seen nothin' yet in Nioh 2! It recycles enemies and environments from BOTH games! Yes, including bosses!  They also recycle music, art assets, etc.

As far as gameplay's concerned, it's absolutely identical to the 1st game aside from some minor quality of life improvements and some new attack options like the Mega Man-esque Yokai Abilities. I do really dig the "Dark Realms", areas of the environment corrupted with monotone, stamina-sucking Yokai energy where you sneak around until you can find and kill the one special enemy maintaining the corruption. Other than those, though, you're going through the same motions with mostly the same weapons and mostly the same strategies you did in the 1st game, just with incredibly longer levels.

This isn't Nioh 2. It's a Nioh 1 $60 Expansion Pack that was rushed out the door.

[ejamer]

Tallowmere (Wii U)

So this game looks pretty ugly and controls seem kind of janky when you start playing. Honestly, my first impressions aren't great. It's also got the typical roguelike feature where you will die quick and foolish deaths often when not used to the game.

However, if you stick with the game for an hour or two then things start to come together pretty nicely. Controls are odd, but consistent and responsive. Understanding the environments and enemies allow you to progress deeper into the game and see some of the non-randomized events and bosses. Everything becomes a bit more enjoyable.

At this point I've probably played for close to 2 hours an am rather enjoying the game. It's still not the best** roguelike you can get... but it's unique and interesting and the whole package works pretty well. Not a game for everyone, but I'm pretty happy with it.


**For what it's worth, The Swindle is one of my favorite roguelikes on Wii U - but that game had serious crashing issues in later levels that made it almost unplayable.

[Order.RSS]

**For what it's worth, The Swindle is one of my favorite roguelikes on Wii U - but that game had serious crashing issues in later levels that made it almost unplayable.

Swindle is a great game. The port was super shoddy though, crashes, bugs, interminable slowdown. Super addictive loop. I'll put Tallowmere on the list based on that comparison, although I gotta agree it looks hideous.

[ejamer]

**For what it's worth, The Swindle is one of my favorite roguelikes on Wii U - but that game had serious crashing issues in later levels that made it almost unplayable.

Swindle is a great game. The port was super shoddy though, crashes, bugs, interminable slowdown. Super addictive loop. I'll put Tallowmere on the list based on that comparison, although I gotta agree it looks hideous.

The sale price right now is quite attractive; something like $1 USD? 
If you don't like it, you really aren't out much.

That said, don't give up on it too quickly. Most people who enjoy roguelikes probably don't mind dying a bunch of times and understand that's part of the learning process... but not everyone does, for sure. If I judged the game after my first 5 or 10 deaths it wouldn't have gotten so favorable an opinion.

[broodwars]

I finished my 1st playthrough of the Resident Evil 3 remake, and overall I really enjoyed it. I think Adrock is going to be very happy with how they updated Jill, especially her dialogue. I'm really happy that (unlike the Resident Evil 2 remake), the RE3 remake is confidant enough to acknowledge that the events of RE1 actually happened and Jill has residual mental scarring from it. I can't remember the last time an RE game actually allowed a main character to be anything less than superhuman.

I really don't understand where all the complaints about the game's length are coming from. The game's exactly as long as it needs to be, and there is a reward system baked into the game's challenge system that gives a lot of incentive to replay it in different ways.

[Adrock]

I think Adrock is going to be very happy with how they updated Jill

I’m surprised by this comment. I feel as if I’ve been extremely subtle with my Jill fandom.

I can't remember the last time an RE game actually allowed a main character to be anything less than superhuman.

No idea what you’re talking about.

[MagicCow64]

Google Stadia (Whatever!)

I saw that Google is giving out two free months of Stadia Pro to juice the moribund platform, so I signed myself up. It comes with 10 or so free games out of the gate, most of which I have no interest in or have already played. In general, it's pretty slick, and seems to perform significantly better than the Assassin's Creed beta. It's genuinely neat to just pop open Chrome and click play and just immediately be in a game. I have the Switch Pro controller hooked up through a USB converter on Xbox settings, and Stadia recognized it with no hitch.

As for the games:

Gylt:

It's baffling that this is the major exclusive game for the service. It's a kid-friendly take on the horror-stealth formula (the true horror is bullying!), that is too cartoony and easy to be effective for adults, and probably too scary/stressful for actual kids. It demonstrates no features unique to a streaming service, and in fact has mostly dark environments that show off the glaring streaming compression.

Stacks on Stacks (on Stacks):

I'd never heard of this, but I played a few levels and don't like it at all. It's kind of a 3D Tetris, but focused on the physics of balancing pieces. Will not be booting this back up.

Thumper:

This is my first experience of the game, and it's really grabbed me. Reminds me of Rez on the PS2. I ended up playing an hour without noticing it. Very fun, great DMT-trip presentation, but even as someone who 100%ed the first two Bit Trip Runner games, it's hard as hell. This is not aided by the noticeable Stadia input lag. It doesn't matter at all in something like Gylt, but here it definitely feels like the timing is off, and I'm basically learning to play it "wrong" to account for it. At least I don't have a basis of comparison! I'm reminded of when I set up Rhythm Heaven on the Wii U pad instead of the TV, and couldn't re-play the levels at all because I'd had the wrong delayed timing burnt into my neurons. 

[azeke]

I am actually very interested in Stadia and basically all other similar game streaming platforms.

My interest is a bit more from technological point of view, because i just think that the concept is just so cool and has many interesting upsides. And it's own unique downsides too -- but these are very interesting to me as well.

Seeing how Stadia is likely not to launch in my country until 2030 (if ever), i am more hopeful about trying out Microsoft's streaming platform. Me having a library of games on Xbox helps, and one can stream from their own Xboxes to say PC in my workplace without having to wait until Microsoft deploys their servers.

Thumper:

This is my first experience of the game, and it's really grabbed me. Reminds me of Rez on the PS2. I ended up playing an hour without noticing it. Very fun, great DMT-trip presentation, but even as someone who 100%ed the first two Bit Trip Runner games, it's hard as hell. This is not aided by the noticeable Stadia input lag. It doesn't matter at all in something like Gylt, but here it definitely feels like the timing is off, and I'm basically learning to play it "wrong" to account for it.

AFAIK Stadia version of Thumper has massively relaxed timings compared to regular versions.

[MagicCow64]

I am actually very interested in Stadia and basically all other similar game streaming platforms.

My interest is a bit more from technological point of view, because i just think that the concept is just so cool and has many interesting upsides. And it's own unique downsides too -- but these are very interesting to me as well.

Seeing how Stadia is likely not to launch in my country until 2030 (if ever), i am more hopeful about trying out Microsoft's streaming platform. Me having a library of games on Xbox helps, and one can stream from their own Xboxes to say PC in my workplace without having to wait until Microsoft deploys their servers.

Thumper:

This is my first experience of the game, and it's really grabbed me. Reminds me of Rez on the PS2. I ended up playing an hour without noticing it. Very fun, great DMT-trip presentation, but even as someone who 100%ed the first two Bit Trip Runner games, it's hard as hell. This is not aided by the noticeable Stadia input lag. It doesn't matter at all in something like Gylt, but here it definitely feels like the timing is off, and I'm basically learning to play it "wrong" to account for it.

AFAIK Stadia version of Thumper has massively relaxed timings compared to regular versions.

Azeke, do you have any ability to do a Stadia trial through VPN, or is that a no-go with the distances involved in any case?

Also, did not know that about Thumper. I may just be terrible at the game. Although, today I got to the multi-track levels, and something really seems off. It tends to either not register the track hop, or it'll do two in a row. I guess this could be the fact that I'm using a joystick, but I really don't like how this feels to play with a D-pad.

[azeke]

Azeke, do you have any ability to do a Stadia trial through VPN, or is that a no-go with the distances involved in any case?

My interest in streaming platforms in almost entirely academic and from technology geek standpoint. I aint jumping through hoops just to try it out.

[MagicCow64]

Stadia Trial Continued:

Gylt:

I finished this one this morning, and as I indicated above, I couldn't really recommend it to anyone. The core stealth gameplay is extremely simple and gets old almost immediately. The later buildings have bit more going on in the level-design department, but the last stretch of the game is truly lousy, with one of the worst bosses I can recall encountering (this and a few other late-game sequences feel like they weren't even playtested).

Thumper:

I'm up to level 7, and I honestly don't know how much further I'll make it. The mushy timing window for this streaming port seems to actually be working against it the further I get; there are so many inputs that it's increasingly difficult to parse the game's feedback. This is almost assuredly the worst way to play this game.

Serious Sam Collection:

I've never tried any of these before, and booted up the first game. Made it three levels in before I tapped out. I think I just strongly dislike this arena wave style, but it also plays like **** on Stadia. It hitches frequently and fails to read strafing inputs, which makes this nearly unplayable on even medium difficulty.

Grid:

I have zero interest in realistic racing games, but it's free, so why not give it a shot? I immediately hated it and didn't finish the first race.



Aaaaand that's it. I think I'm done with the Stadia service as of now. I'm a little bit tempted to pull the trigger on Red Dead 2, as I have no idea when I'll have a computer or console that could run it, but then I remember the six or so hours I played while staying at a friend's place, which I pretty thoroughly disliked.

Scrolling through the catalogue right now, and boy is this a crappy roster.

[MagicCow64]

Back to the Switch!

I scrolled through the whole sale list this morning, and picked up these two titles at a steep discount:

Unraveled 2:

I've been interested in these games, but never enough to pay more than ~$4 for one. And that day has come! I completed the first two levels, and I'm enjoying it so far. It's a bit more physics dependent than I would prefer, but unlike most of these indie puzzle platformers, it actually feels fun and snappy to control. The 2D slice-of-life presentation is top notch, and flows well with the gameplay. On the other hand, the obligatory indie game "actually this is about emotions" thing is one of the most eye-rolling I've come across. Luckily it's literally in the background. I'm definitely interested to see how the level design develops, though I think I remember Iansane or someone saying it's just a lot of yarn swinging all the the way through.

Severed:

I don't love the Guacamelee games, but I had flagged this one on initial release given some pretty strong reviews. I had no idea it was on Switch, and from what I understand this really needs to be played on a touch screen. ~$4? Hell yeah! I put an hour in, and I'm really digging it so far. It reminds me of a Labyrinth game I was obsessed with as a kid on some early DOS modem gaming platform. I enjoy the touch combat, and it seems like it'll develop in kind of a rhythmy direction, which I am down with. I kind of want more environmental interaction, but I'm hopeful the game will develop more nuance as it goes. Visuals and overall vibe are very engaging.

[Order.RSS]

Have you played the Wii U version or plan to play it? Would be interesting to see how you think it compares.

Haven't played it (yet), but might give it a shot. From what I can tell, the 3DS/Wii U versions include some loot-esque stuff, semi-permanent item upgrades which are more temporaneous in the Wii version, and the colours seem a bit more washed out too.
That said, if the levels are largely similar, I don't really care enough to go through the same game twice. Getting the impression the Wii version is probably the better one; at least, Yuji Naka appears to think so.

Just to follow up on this 6 months down the line, I popped in the Wii U version of Rodea The Sky Soldier today to cull another one from the pile. There's some differences, particularly in the flight and camera controls. Rodea on Wii U gives you more camera control options, but curiously they're all worse options. No instant snap-behind-character button which has been a staple of 3D games since uh, Ocarina of Time, and if you hate an inverted Y-axis the options menu will not be your friend either.

The upgrading of stats seems mostly tacked on to encourage collecting more doodads. Annoyingly, you now have a flight meter too, so you can no longer soar forever as long as there's an object in sight. Not sure why that was added. What is a clever addition is the ability to launch yourself pretty high. That's useful and should've been in the original. Cut-scenes seem identical, and the environments are a bit less bright. Framerate is a bit worse too, though not disastrously so.

So yeah, very few worthwhile new features, and a much more annoying camera make this one an easy skip. The Wii version is better, but still just okay.

[ejamer]

So being stuck at home, we've gone back and are playing a lot of Wii Sports and Wii Sports Resort as help make gaming slightly more active. We've also thrown some Wii Play mixed in just for kicks. All are still enjoyable, and it's fun to play through these games together with my kids.

Thinking about pulling out Wii Fit again, or maybe trying Skyward Sword if the "stay home" recommendations don't let up before long.

[Ian Sane]

Recently got back into Mario's Picross on the Game Boy, which I'm playing on the Super Game Boy.  It's, uh, Picross, which is really it's own thing and I don't really want to go into a detailed description of how it works.  It's very addicting and it works well in short spurts.  Each board has a 30 minute time limit and I usually can complete two of them in a half hour block so I'm playing it at lunch or in the morning before I start work.  I just wrapped up the Mushroom courses today and unlocked the Star ones.  It's too bad that the sequels to this stayed in Japan but I just realized that there isn't really much of a language barrier.  Maybe I should keep an eye out any imports at future retro gaming expos, if there ever are any again.

[Ian Sane]

Currently playing Ys on the TurboGrafx Mini.  It's a dated game but it's charming and pretty fun to play.  Right now I'm in The Darm Tower and hitting a bit of a wall.  Once you enter the tower you can't leave it.  The game tells you this in a cut scene that puts you in the tower.  It warns you but doesn't say "are you sure?"  I have a save from outside the tower if I need to go back (which would lose like two hours of progress).  There's a part in the tower where your top gear is stolen from you and you need to retrieve it as you go.  Here's the problem - I didn't obtain the mid-tier armor and shield because I found the top gear so quickly.  Why would you assume you would need the mid-tier gear if you already have the top stuff?  So I'm stuck with the lowest level armor in the game which is putting me at a big disadvantage.  I'm at a boss that takes off a lot more health from me than I do of him.

The combat is the game is frankly idiotic.  You run into enemies.  No attack button, you just walk into them and it's vague what situation will result in you inflicting damage or getting hit.  The d-pad in the TG Mini isn't that great either, suffering from the old "Nintendo patented the good d-pad" problem from the time, and you need to be precise with your movement in fighting bosses.  The game has a potion item to regenerate health but it doesn't work in boss fights.  That's the only time you really need it!  What I likely have to do is grind so that I hurt the boss more than he hurts me.  You gain a level every 200 exp points but non-boss enemies only give 1 exp point each.  Yes, that means that the weak enemies at the start of the game and the harder enemies where you're currently at are worth the same.  So naturally if you need to level up you go back to the beginning and plow through the weakest enemies which you can defeat in one hit with no risk to yourself.  This was not well thought out.  Can't do that in the tower, though.

Stopping to grind isn't fun and I've had to do it a few times but I always enjoy myself after I get past the road block so hopefully I have the patience to keep at it because it's still a good time.

[MagicCow64]

Stadia Trial: The Conclusion (?)

So my trial carried over into one more month of free games, so I've jumped back in.

Power Rangers: Battle for the Grid:

I didn't really know what this was, but played it for about 45 minutes. A budget fighting game with a repetitive and non-sensical story mode (why am I randomly playing as bad guys immediately after playing the same fight as the good guy?). Not my genre in any case, so I'll let this lie.

Steam World Heist:

I'm not much of a fan of the Dig games, so I was reluctant to try this, but it was a free chance, so what the hell. I got hooked pretty quick, but like the Dig games, despite getting snared by the gameplay loop, I'm not sure it's actually good.

I'm a weird case where I tend to enjoy strategy games, but also in general hate endless spawning enemies, which is pretty endemic to strategy games. I didn't mind it so much in Codename Steam, for instance, where it was more universal and part of the general "push forward to objective" pressure design. In Heist, though, with the randomly generated but claustrophobic levels, it tends to twist my tail, as the placement of the spawn doors can really put you at an arbitrary disadvantage. And the specifically harder levels heavily lean on the spawns.

Speaking of the randomly generated levels, I really fail to see the point here, as it seems to fly in the face of the whole "strategy" thing. Like, the potential layouts for any given level aren't that different, and just mainly serve to put you at an annoying random disadvantage without altering any actual fundamental approach. I don't see how this game wouldn't have been better with tightly crafted bespoke levels. Which also plays into a weird oscillation between levels feeling trivially easy or punishing.

Character progression is also kind of whack, I think? I feel like there's very little reason to sub in new underleveled characters when I have a tight three-person team from almost the get-go with short, medium, and long-range skills. I think there's only been one four-character level, as well, and I think I'm over halfway through.

Abort penalties are irritating, as I'm going for three-star runs on each level (don't have much time left on this Stadia trial), but also, I seemed to quickly run out of stuff worth buying from the shops.

Maybe I'm just missing it, but it also seems like you can't scope out the enemy movement grids; it's pretty difficult to maintain a sense of what ranges are in play, particularly with all the ladders (Rabbids Kingdom battle has a similar issue, I think, but you can at least preview the senselessly large movement grids).

I'm still playing it though, so . . .