#but xenoblade 2 is also fun to play so is it really a gacha game

[catgirltoofies]

my problem with gacha games is they just aren't usually fun to play. i like looking at pretty characters and reading cool stories and i LOVE gambling with fictional currency

[hazelplaysgames]

all right Blue Archive gacha pulls. like i have said repeatedly, there was a banner lined up in time with my birthday, this being the Cleaning & Clearing bunny outfits. the girls infiltrated a casino in a yacht, and maid outfits aren't up to dresscode there. mortifying, i'm aware.

and i'm particularly fond of those girls! though, yeah, i'm mostly doing this because of Neru, who i thought was awesome in the story. and, like, the JP server is six months ahead, i knew this was coming since February, and bunny Neru and bunny Karin are both limited to their own banners- point is, i plan around the pity pull in limited banners, timing just worked out great. i can talk a lot, i'm slapping a Keep Reading on this so you can just scroll past.

you clicked the shiny blue button! since Neru and Karin were both limited, i figured the obvious plan was to pull on one of theirs, as long as i could get one, i could just P-pull the other. bunny Asuna and bunny Akane aren't limited, so i could consider them lower priority.

so naturally, first two ten pulls saw me get bunny Neru. funny enough, the story this is tied to has Asuna hittin' it big in 20 pulls too.

then i had this fun idea, since the timing was a little bit off, to not do every pull on the same day. in the past, i just blitzed through all the pulls at once, but i figured to just go through it several pulls a day, maybe on different banners. i do not think it worked out.

and there's bunny Asuna in the bottom right, 104 pulls in with no 3 stars between her and Neru. right next to her usual maid outfit too.

the lowest yield pull is 9 one stars, and one two star, the tenth pull has a raised minimum. so, none of them are the literal memed weakest pull. after that though, no one new came to me. i'm keeping it phrased like that.

repeat pulls of Hoshino, Megu, and Aris on the three star front, and aside from that. ah, 16th pull is the memed 9B1Y. ninby. decent enough amount of 2 stars total, it's an all right 200 pulls right there.

that said, i was feeling a bit upset about not getting bunny Akane, i got 3 out of 4, it's like not having a full set, y'know? so i double checked the upcoming banners, and i felt like i could splurge some more gems in a hail mary. i gave it thirty pulls.

it didn't pay out. lesson learned, always plan around the pity pull, and never take unnecessary gambles.

fun number stats, not counting the pity, that is 5/230 3 stars, 68/230 2 stars, and the rest... think 157? 157 1 stars. not the best banner i've ever had, but also not the worst. i'll take it!

oh, back to somethin', i only feel like i need to accrue, like, 100 pulls within the next six months, if the JP banners to global banners is accurate. there's only about four limited banners coming up i care about, and one of them is for the anniversary event that's finally hitting, so that's a free 100 pulls on one of them. i got a lot of freemium stacked up.

i feel like playing all the gacha games i have has just kinda shown me that, for as predatory as these ones are, who i am would make Xenoblade Chronicles 2 WAY worse. like, i plan around failure here, with the pities being all that i truly expect, but XC2 is telling me that, to get a 100% file, i have to practically find, what, four or five shinies in gen 2? no way to raise the odds in the rarest case scenario? and you're tellin' me there IS a finish line?

in a retrospect idea, i actually think this whole thing's a zonk. it'd be better if i could record it, but the sum of all factors makes that infeasible right now. also, like, it might well be the case that gacha pulling only really is a fun show for those who also play a gacha game? that's a consideration i hadn't hit until now.

i've done enough rambling, i got buns. i was thinking about capping this off with a little panorama of their live 2Ds... eh, well, hell, it's for my birthday. i don't think i can get away with the full one for Karin, though.

[veebs-hates-video-games]

I was talking to @dragonsbutalsorabbits and Zelda 2 came up. I declared it to be my least favorite of the Zelda games I’ve played, while I’m undecided on which of Majora’s Mask or Breath of the Wild is second and which is third (I do not care that they’re many people’s favorites, and they should stop doing so many aggressively anti-fun things on top of all the neat stuff they do really well). drabbits said Genshin Impact was more fun than BotW "and that has gacha shit in it”, to which I said:

If I wanted to deal with gacha crap I'd just play more Xenoblade Chronicles 2, where it's all free and is mostly there just to randomize the order you get stuff in.

Then a day or two later:

Nope, apparently what I'd do is install Fire Emblem Heroes on my phone...for some reason. Which amusingly is the highest resolution FE game I've ever played. Awakening is like 240p or whatever the 3DS is, and the last one I played before that was back in the 480p days (Path of Radiance/Radiant Dawn). Technically FE Warriors has a 1080p30 mode but why would I do that when there's also a 720p60 setting?

This is how they get you to put up with their gacha crap though.I got two free random five star heroes as a new player and pulled one of the best tanks in the game and apparently the strongest mage. It's like the exact opposite of my RNG in No Man’s Sky (which gave me shithole planet after shithole planet until I gave up and stopped playing).

Conclusion: it's eerily similar to Final Fantasy Brave Exvius (aside from the battle system) despite being made by an entirely different company. I swear there's just one mobile game out there that's been released by dozens of different companies with a different skin on it. They're very good at "number get bigger" and funneling you through a bunch of quick and easy things that are low investment but provide lots of number get bigger, and these ones are also good at "oh hey, that's a character I know and like, yay for them", even if they have weak stories and writing and not really much to them beyond number get bigger.

I do not expect to keep playing all that long. I always uninstall stuff like this when it gets to the point where it’s not enough fun or too annoying unless you spend money, which is usually fairly quick. The stamina system is already irritating, and I hear that’s after they increased the cap and reduced the cost per level at some point. I do appreciate the optional tutorial training levels though. Those are done rather well and are set up like little puzzles that can only be solved by correctly using the mechanic they’re trying to teach you.

[macuilsung]

@armatization​​ asked via munday asks!!! (open!):

1 and 12 for the munday meme 👁️_👁️

———

1. at what age did you start RPing?

To put a number on it... I think I was either 13 or 14 years old? For reference I’m turning 28 soon, so... yikes, that’s almost half a lifetime ago for me! It was around then I really started exploring the internet on my own and came across some video game-centred forums. I started RPing by that time!

To no surprise of anyone who knows me... yes, it was the Sonic fandom. No, the site in question doesn’t exist anymore, so GOOD LUCK FINDING MY (retroactively speaking, now that I’m not a teen) SHAME WRITING ANYWHERE, SUCKERS-

———

12. what do you think about AUs?

the short of it: THEY’RE FUN AND I OUGHT TO EXPLORE THESE MORE, WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU WAITING FOR, ME?!

the long of it: Kinda like what I answered for 30, I feel AUs are prime ways in exploring new sides to a muse you likely wouldn’t get otherwise, though like crossovers, what I’m willing to write comes down to how familiar I am with the source material or setting. Something like “college AU”, “coffee shop AU”, “reincarnation AU” or what have you? Sure, simple is fun and I wouldn’t mind digging into it more if my muse is into it! But bear in mind my reply speed is... inconsistent, sometimes being YEAH HI HERE’S SIX REPLIES in one sitting to a ghost town in my brain for the next.

AUs based on other franchises though... WELL-

Granted, I know I did a shit job of advertising this one at all (given I’ve only spoken about it with Sylph at length a long while ago, MY BAD GUYS) but I’ve actually got a fully written About page for a Persona 5-centred AU on the blog? Yes, your boy has a competent amount of knowledge on the series as I’ve played both vanilla P5 and Strikers, and watched the original P4 anime. TL;DR, Forwin’s Persona is based on the titular character from The Count of Monte Cristo and in this setting, he’s the son of the diplomat who got murdered in the subway incident at the start of the game bUT YES YOU CAN READ ALL ABOUT IT HERE (link ordinarily found at the bottom of the Verses page)!

Thus far, I’m also considering AUs set in...

Bleach (as a Fullbringer because of his aptitude for magic, or a Quincy because of his archery skills and nobility/bloodline? still unsure but I’m leaning on the latter)

Xenoblade Chronicles 2 (you can’t tell me he wouldn’t have the torigonda-playing Ursula as his Blade, but which Titan would he hail from, I wonder...)

Pokémon (maybe with a whole team of sound- and music-themed Pokémon like Primarina, Rillaboom, Exploud, Meloetta, etc.?),

...but I’m not committing to anything super concrete as of yet and I’m also open to ideas for other settings, so who knows?

Might as well get this one out of the way right now: I know Genshin Impact is hot at the moment and a fair few of my mutuals are super into the game, but as much as I’d like to join in on the fun, I try to avoid playing too many gachas because I know how I can get at times with those types of games... so instead I’m just sitting here completely lost over the lore I’m seeing sprinkled on the dash but hey, at least everyone else is enjoying themselves-

[bearpillowmonster]

KH: MOM Review (Gameplay)

Every Kingdom Hearts game feels different. It's always innovating and always adding new types of gameplay. This is no exception. Rhythm minigames are no stranger to the Kingdom Hearts series but a whole game based on it is new.

I don't play a lot of rhythm games but I have played the infamous Atlantica section in Kingdom Hearts 2 as well as the Symphony of Sorcery in Dream Drop Distance and the Ice Cream Beat of Birth By Sleep, Guitar Hero and I'll even throw in the Honeybee Inn rhythm game in FFVII Remake. Out of all of those, Atlantica has been my favorite, that's right, I actually didn't mind it.

Now this system is entirely different than any of those, at least to me. It's definitely the most complex though but just hold on because I know how the word 'complex' can be triggering for a game, I just mean in comparison to the others is all. It's not a DDR right, left, up or down. So without further ado...(Nonspoiler for this part, it’s just gameplay)

This game begins with a stage. You're thrown into it without any notice, there were things that I didn't grasp until near the end of the stage, luckily it doesn't count towards a score yet, and after it is the tutorial but that's just the opening so if you're clueless and want to be prepared, I would say to try out the demo, I didn't even realize how much it helped me until I played the actual game. 

I wanted to say at just how friendly this game is to newcomers, it's literally all laid out for you. Nomura came out with HD remasters and collections of the previous games then a recap of the franchise on YouTube then put it IN Kingdom Hearts 3 and people still complained because they don't know the story and are too lazy to play the other games. Now Nomura's packed it all into one whole game to sum it up, explained from the perspective of Kairi herself so that you're still entertained while catching up. If there was ever an easy path to get into Kingdom Hearts, this is the answer. If I hear complaining about it from this point forward, I will be pissed. Now, as you can see, I didn't make it to story yet but that's not entirely what I'm talking about. All the buttons and functions are the same as a regular game, you basically have it all but the different keyblades (well you can collect them but not use them because they're cards). You can play as casually as you want, a song here and there. There are even options for a shuffle and sort function if you want to just jump to track selection but you'll need to unlock them individually in World Tour first. This may sound complicated but that's where the clean and accessible the menu comes in, I have to give props for that.

You're on a set track, it runs on its own, does its own thing except when you're gliding which is just moving left and right to collect notes. You use the normal KH abilities to your advantage because some enemies will be high in the air so you need to jump and slash at the same time but you can't just button mash any more, there's timing involved now. Once you get used to the gameplay, it's quite enjoyable, you may even get a song that you hit every note, my first one was 'Another Side', the first try too, I didn't hit all excellent though.

How do party members work? Well let's say you have Sora, Donald, and Goofy in a party. You have 3 buttons you can press to attack, Sora's the only one that can jump and the only one that can use the reaction commands so you need to pay attention to all three because there could be enemies on the floor and in the sky at the same time. The one thing I will say is a little bit of a complaint and that's that it doesn't tell you which buttons to press except on specific stages, it just has the symbols, I guess that's what makes it more combat oriented but it's definitely different and a little bit harder. But I guess it gets to be muscle memory, after a while. If you already know the themes, it gets easier for you to manage because you focus more on what you hear and less on what you see, that's how I started getting better with timing. I experimented with pretty much everything I could think of so I tried it with low volume and found that I missed a whole lot more because I couldn't hear it, which might be obvious because it's a rhythm game, but it just goes to show how important sound is. I even tried using headphones, I suppose that's up to you, it definitely made the music clearer but my performance was about the same. 

What do songs net you other than progress? Well you get materials. Also similar to KHUX, you get crafting materials except these ones you can use for potions and stuff, I did a potionless run because I didn’t feel the need (but I also didn’t do it all proud either) but I used a few summons and item boosts just for fun. You can also craft cards, which are really just for looks to see in the Museum after you finish one of the memory dives (which I'll get into) but the way you get the cards, grinds my gears because it's gacha, you craft them and it's a surprise what you're going to get...so it's essentially a loot box that you don't pay money for?? What the-

(notice how it says KH2 or Days at the bottom, you don’t even know. Of course I have Writhing Shards rn but that’s because I beat the game and didn’t open a whole lot of keyblade cards but the memory and scene ones are the annoying ones for me)

You don't even have to "finish" the song, just get it most of the way before you die then you'll still get credit and still get a ranking, just no exp. Now, there are also stars, stars are from 'missions' for each stage, if you play KHUX, it’s kind of like how it says “get this amount of Lux” or “use this type of medal” or “don’t use continue” so most stars are just “get this many points” and you need to collect enough stars to get to the next area. With that, so long as you have enough stars, you don’t “have” to play every stage, just like regular Kingdom Hearts and skipping worlds, I did though, just for sport, except Let it Go, just for spite. I could see plenty of fans going after those A+++ Proud Performer 3-Star rankings, I can't wait to see the hype it generates, same with the co-op.  

They went all out when they didn't have to. The Museum is where everything is collected, so all the cards you collect and craft. You can also just play the song on its own without gameplay through the Museum, so if you want headphones to just chill, it's really nice. You can also play the cutscenes and memory dives on their own without the gameplay. There are "feats" or missions such as finishing a certain number of songs, like Nook Miles or the ones they had in Re:Mind. You can collect profile pictures for your co-op or versus account, mine is Simba (even though I don’t really use it). But the co-op can get pretty intense as you can “sabotage” each other, which seems similar to a Smash or Mario Kart match, adding that much more to the gameplay.

A few more complaints, one is that certain enemies from a stage, (say, the Wyverns) won't have the same attacks as the other stages, sometimes they'll have it so that you jump to hit them and sometimes they'll just have them take a normal hit without the jump so you can't memorize what each enemy requires (there are too many to really do that anyway). The other thing is more just opinion based, particular enemies such as Large Bodies tend to carry a weight so you need to hit them more than once even if its just one enemy. How it does this is that you hit it and then the enemy gets knocked back as your next note so you hit them again. There were definitely times where I struggled because I knew I was hitting the buttons but nothing was happening, I would guess timing was the problem in some of those cases but the indicators can be difficult to keep track of because it has to be “just right”. I think even just a line on the floor to tell when you’re supposed to hit would be a major help but in a way, I feel like that’s on purpose. Also, in the Museum, you can view all the cards EXCEPT the Keyblades which is pretty shotty if you ask me, what's the point in grinding to get my favorite Rumbling Rose, if I can't even look at it properly?

(also new names for some keyblades (this is a zoom-in))

There will be a lot of things happening at once which can be daunting, I do appreciate that they included the easy, standard, and proud modes though. Keep in mind, each of those are used for individual songs, not playthroughs so if you want to change, go ahead, at least as far as World Tour goes. On top of that, there are different modes that also gauge at how good you are (to use on the track selection). There's the basic mode which I already explained, then there's the one button mode which should be self explanatory, and then there's the performer mode which is quite a lot to put on your plate all at once because on top of normal gameplay, you're adding new buttons and things in the middle of your attacks, I would probably only recommend that after you've got a decent amount of experience because I tried it day 1 and it seems like you would need a good understanding of the game and to be on the same wavelength before even attempting it. You can view a playthrough of each stage called a "demo" which is the little play symbol button next to the "play" button, it shows you how you should be playing to get an A+++ rank and giving you a heads up of what's to come, all excellent all the time. On top of that, when I was playing Xenoblade, one thing I proposed was flicking the analog stick in a certain direction for each move, that’s present here in the form of bosses and memory dives but if you want it to, you can go into the menu to enable it for regular gameplay. You'll find out if you want it on the very first stage, again, I would only recommend it after a lot of experience.

Your characters level up but it mainly just has to do with HP so you don’t die so easily but at the same time, you have potions so I don’t see much of a point for normal gameplay. All three of the party members only have one health bar, so leveling does come in handy for the bosses. However, I don't understand how each party member has a different level, maybe it's just based on the amount of notes you hit with that character but it's kind of weird because I don't think it matters. Even on the team selection part of the play screen, it has one compilitive level so why would they be different on the menu?

For bosses, you only encounter a few. If it were me, I would've made one per game but it is what it is. You don't worry about jumping anymore, it's just holding the attack button down instead and the amount of "dodge" notes that you hit will work in your defense whenever the boss attacks. Once the dodge section is over, it actually tells you how you did with the dodging section. The first time I ever did it, it said "Oh No." it has a sense of humor, it took me a while to nail those ones you hold down which is odd because I rock the gliding sections most of the time. 

There's only one more type of gameplay type I can think of, memory dives. It's similar to a boss but you're flying and there's a scene playing in the background, also some of the directional notes will have doubles, so you need to point the analog stick in different directions which is as difficult as can be because you have to use BOTH analog sticks (took me forever just to figure that out). You 'mainly' gain the memory dives from crafting which is a bit odd but you unlock the recipes and items as you go through World Tour and then play them separately in Track Selection, until you get to KH3 at least. 

Keep in mind that I played the demo on both PS4 and Switch and compared the two, my performance was about the same, though I will say this. With Switch, you can take it on the go and just do a few levels here and there as well as remove the joy-cons. The thing about that is that I feel the need to shake the joy-cons but there's no function that uses that in the game, I really wish there was though. And those directional ‘slide’ notes have to be way easier on PlayStation because the analog sticks are right next to each other.

[joshhhhhhhhhhhhhhh]

I’ve not really been giving much updates on Xenoblade 2 as I’ve been playing through it, so since I’m at like 103 hours or something maybe now’s a good time to do that.

Last story thing I did was the big Amalthus boss fight where Jin sacrifices himself, and so my next objective is to hop into an elevator. The story stuff’s picking up really nicely, ngl I didn’t pay full attention during one of the bigger backstory cutscenes so I’ve sorta been losing myself, but everything that’s happening is honestly pretty cool and we’re getting decently solid character moments from everyone involved. Never thought I’d like Zeke but here we are.

And then outside of main story content I’ve just been questing and levelling and shit, I’ve had really shit gacha luck even from legendary orbs because this game is fucking garbage, so I’ve not really had the opportunity to do many Blade Quests, but I mean other sidequests are going pretty well, I’ve done all the like Bana related sidequests and Poppi QTπ and the fuck off long Nopon Murals chain, the school in Fonsett, just general shit like that. And god as I do more sidequests do I really feel how dramatically improved these are from 1, there’s just so much more attention given to the writing and creating quest chains that are actually worth giving a damn about, it’s fuckin great.

Between doing all those sidequests I’ve done as well as going out of my way to uh, look at a guide so I could get every location and fast travel point as possible, I’ve managed to level my party a fair bit as well. We’ve got Morag and Tora at 76, Rex at 75, Zeke at 77, and fucking bizarrely, Nia at 80. I’ve not been playing as Nia, and in fact I’ve pretty much just got her Blade form on Rex at all times since hey that fits thematically. And yet here she is at level fucking 80?

My usual part configuration’s been Morag, Rex and Tora for a good bit now. Morag I just have the most fun playing as, dual whipswords are sick as hell, I’ve actually maxed Brighid’s affinity chart, and I also keep Aegaeon as my 2nd blade because hey story stuff. Blade 3′s generally just whatever rare blade I need at that moment. Between giving him exclusive access to Nia, Nia and Pyra getting a cool level 4 special together, being able to use every other blade, and of course Pneuma or whatever’s entire existence, the game very obviously wants you to be playing as Rex, and I mean he can be pretty fun, but like, eh, Morag’s more fun. I played as Tora a little bit in the early game plus when I got QTπ, and he seems kinda cool, but he leans more into the slow side than Morag and Rex so he’s not totally for me. Also I literally cannot be fucked with Tiger Tiger so my Poppis are all kinda shit but oh well. Zeke was cool to play as, felt like a fast and solid damage dealer, I really was just so deep into Morag at that point that I can’t be bothered with Zeke. And then Nia doesn’t even get a unique weapon lmao fucking fag, I don’t play healers byeeeeeeeeee.

God, uhhh, I beat Territorial Rotbart, that was pretty cool. Certainly combat’s sped up quite dramatically at this point in the game, building up and using specials to fill out blade combos and then fucking shredding enemies apart with chain attacks is a pretty damn satisfying system, ends up making battles feel like they could go in more different places than those of 1 honestly. I don’t think I can say I prefer this to 1′s combat but at least on paper it does seem better, and execution’s still pretty good, even if it took like 70 hours to really get there.

One thing I do really like over 1 is the area development, it’s arguably just area affinity but easier to cheese since you can just bulk buy and bulk sell gold cylinders, but since I like the conventional shops more than I like trading, and getting discounts is cool, and merc missions are fun also, and most of all buying deeds that give you permanent buffs is just super fucking sick, it feels significantly more rewarding and like there’s less busywork involved with area development. Cause yeah the other thing I’ve been doing is buying every deed I can to the best of my ability, and that’s really rewarding to do also. 

Anyway I mean, I think I’m pretty close to beating the game, I know that there are only 10 chapters after all and I’m in chapter 10 so. I’m not really sure how ng+ works in this game with its only 1 save file as far as I know, and I mean maybe I should be doing DLC stuff before I start ng+ (if I even do ng+?) and uhh, we’ll fuckin see. Need to buy the DLC first ofc.

Quick question for anyone reading by the way, when it comes to Shulk, Fiora and Elma as Blades, if I were to equip those to Morag, Rex can still do his “borrowing your blade” thing, yeah? Cause I wanna equip them to Morag since she’s my main, but then I think it’d be fitting for Rex to be able to use them also since like, hey MC, and perhaps I’ll start playing as him a bit more anyway. Idk.

Anyway I can’t think of anything else to say.

[xenoblade]

2018 in gaming

I played very few games in 2018 (reee), and some were even remakes/remasters?? What a disgrace lmao...

Super Mario Odyssey

SMO was a good game! I don’t think it’s really fair to say it wasn’t as GOOD as SMG2, because, well, I love SMG2.................. that game really, really grew on me. I still have a lot of things to collect so maybe I’ll keep playing this eventually...

Radiant Historia: Perfect Chronology

I’M LOVE RADIANT HISTORIA!!!! What I wasn’t a fan of was the new anime portraits (the og portraits fit the game’s aesthetics very well... why...) and the occasional fan-service art (RAYNIE WTF)... BUT the new storyline and the final wrap-up of the game were A++++. I don’t feel like this game REALLY needed an explanation for it, but the original ending DID feel a bit rushed and left some threads unresolved so... I recommend this version but really, this game is AMAZING no matter which you play ✨✨✨ PLAY RADIANT HISTORIA

Xenoblade Chronicles 2 

YEET!!! A great game. Not to be That One Person, but out of XB, XBX and XB2, the latter is definitely the one I feel more mixed about (maybe because it’s the more recent one? idk). Some of the cast is very great (Mythra, Mòrag/Brighid, Nia), but somehow Rex never really grew on me throughout the entire game :/ Villains were really good though and so was the music (not on XB levels though). The anime look was fine all things considered, and so was the idea of making different artists draw all the Blades 🔥🔥🔥 The gacha mechanic was absolutely awful and I’m so very glad the DLC (more on that below) fixed that. This game is absolutely recommended also for its combat, probably the only part I have very little to complain about lol

Xenoblade Chronicles 2: Torna ~The Golden Country~ 

To put it bluntly, Torna is almost all XB2 can offer in a packed 20-to-40 hour adventure. The switch system works GREAT and they got rid of the annoying gacha blade system (thank GOD)... I’m sad everyone will probably play this after beating XB2 (NINTENDO RECOMMENDS OTHERWISE-- WHY WOULD YOU DO THIS TO YOURSELF), the DLC has been fixed and improved since the original game ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ play Torna and be ready to SUFFER

Final Fantasy IX 

Finally beat my Steam copy of this MASTERPIECE. go play if u haven’t yet or be ashamed of urself

Muramasa Rebirth

Had this on my backlog for a while and finally managed to play it 👀 Also a great Vanillaware game, granted it doesn’t play as well as Leifthrasir does (duh) and I had some minor issues with combat controls but overall it was pretty great! I missed the food/seed/exp combo from Odin Sphere tho... The Vanillaware aesthetic though was 💯. This game didn’t grow on me as much as OS did though... I remember really liking the protagonists’s stories though, so totally play this if you’re into Vanillaware ✨

The Legend of Heroes: Sen no Kiseki III 

HOLY SHIT I FINALLY BEAT THIS. BEHEMOTH OF A GAME. FEELIOS. EVERYWHERE. HD class 7 has never looked so good. Everything looks 💯 💯 💯 💯  and the old characters look so stylish, I’m flying HIGH. The new characters (including New Class 7) really grew on me, and I’m so glad for Altina’s growth as a character, protect my daughter!!!! ;_; This game becomes a roller coaster of events starting the end of Chapter 1 and by the end of Chapter 3 it becomes very very very obvious the game is obviously out for OUR HEARTS. I still haven’t started IV (how), but the ending leaves your screaming and crying. What a fucking cliffhanger

Persona 4: Dancing All Night

Played this game too fast and forgot almost everything about it lol... Maybe I was used to Theatrhythm too much (which was a JOY to play over and over again) and I found myself having some real issues with the way P4DAN did things, especially the audience meter... >_> There weren’t as many songs as I thought (maybe I’m too spoiled on Theatrhythm, again) and some of the remixes were.................. Um. I had fun unlocking everyone and so were the different handicaps/different ways to play ✨✨✨

Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney - Dual Destinies 

FINALLY GOT TO PLAY DUAL DESTINIES!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I love Ace Attorney and I’m so glad for all the references the put in them..... Blackquill was great (samurai puns in English were a bit forced, I can’t deny lol) and so was Apollo... I’m love Apollo... I didn’t especially like his depresso moment in the Cosmic Turnabout @_@ Turnabout Academy was great and SO WAS THE ORCA DLC CASE. AW YIS CAN’T WAIT TO START SPIRIT OF JUSTICE

Portal 2 

Recommended if you liked the first Portal :D I really, really liked the fluids/slimes in this one, especially the moon one............. Portals everywhere bitches

[videogametim]

My Top 10 Games of 2018

2018 was a solid year for video games. There were a lot of games that I ended up liking a lot more than I thought I would, and a couple of indie surprises as well. I think 2017 was a very hard act to follow and as such I’ve had a tough time deciding the order this time around, but in the end I still feel very good about the 10 games on this list.

10. Return of the Obra Dinn (Lucas Pope)

What a surprise this turned out to be. I bought Obra Dinn based solely on the fact that it was Lucas Pope’s next game and much like Papers, Please, it’s a very unique type of game. In Obra Dinn you are charged with investigating the mysterious return of a ship thought to be lost at sea, whose crew had all mysteriously perished or disappeared. You walk around looking for dead bodies of the crew, and using your magic compass you are able to view a tableau pinpointing the moment of their death. Using this information it’s your job to fill in the journal and figure out how each and every member of the 60-person crew died and who or what killed them. There’s a lot of guesswork involved since you aren’t given a lot of detailed information, but thanks to the fantastic audio cues it was one of the most satisfying and rewarding games I played all year.

9. Tetris Effect (Monstars Inc./Resonair)

Tetris Effect is easily the coolest edition of Tetris made to date. In addition to being a wonderful VR experience on the same level of Rez Infinite or Thumper, Tetris Effect features almost everything a good Tetris game ought to have. Plenty of different game modes are included such as classics like Marathon or Sprint to the weirder ones like new Purify or Mystery modes. But the standout is definitely Journey mode. Functioning as a campaign, this mode takes you across almost 30 unique stages each featuring its own incredible dynamic music that progresses as you clear lines, and beautiful visuals that are greatly enhanced in VR. I expect this will be the game I keep coming back to from this year to play every now and again, and will definitely be my go-to Tetris game.

8. HITMAN 2 (IO Interactive)

A follow-up to 2016′s HITMAN (and my personal #2 game of that year), HITMAN 2 expands upon it in almost every way. The briefcase is back. Blending mechanics have been added for big crowds and bushes. The levels are orders of magnitude larger and while there’s only 5 of them, they’re all of the quality of 2016′s Sapienza level. There are also a couple of new modes too. One of which is a Sniper Assassin level where you are perched in a sniper’s nest overlooking a wedding and given many targets to take out, and the other is a multiplayer versus mode where you race against another player to take out a target faster. 

But perhaps the most pleasantly surprising improvement has been in the quality of writing, specifically for 47′s character. You can tell they spent a lot more time ensuring he has lines for some of the more whacky scenarios he can end up in, especially when he gets the chance to talk directly to his targets. HITMAN 2 is ultimately more of the same, but it’s a lot more and definitely the game worth picking up if you’re a fan of the series or stealth games in general. 

7. Yakuza 6 & Yakuza KIWAMI 2 (SEGA)

Unlike last year with 0 and KIWAMI, I feel very similarly about the two Yakuza games that came out this year so I thought they should occupy the same spot. The main thing that sets these new releases apart from previous entries is the new Dragon Engine. It’s a pretty big departure in feeling from the previous combat engine, but it allows for a lot more freedom since street battles are no longer constrained to an arena. You can run as far as you like, you can drag enemies into nearby shops and restaurants, and the new ragdoll physics are utterly hilarious. Both games also feature a new side activity (a tower defense style game in Kiwami 2 and a reverse tower defense style game in 6) that ties in with well known members of NJPW. 

As far as story goes, I think both of them are pretty good. Having never played 2 back in the day, it definitely holds up to and even surpasses some of the later games’ stories with one of the best antagonists of the series in Ryuji and an even better partner character in Kaoru. KIWAMI 2 also incorporates the cabaret club minigame from Yakuza 0 with a whole new storyline, and some great new substories. Yakuza 6 on the other hand is a pretty decent finale for Kiryu’s story. It makes some callbacks to previous games (especially 0 and 2) and some fun new characters along with the vibrant new location of Onomichi. It’s sad that Kiryu’s story is over now, but I still have a strong hope for the future of the series.

6. Deltarune (Toby Fox)

Certainly the biggest surprise of the year was Deltarune. A new project from Undertale’s Toby Fox, Deltarune most notably features a new party system for battles and more detailed graphics. It’s got all the writing and music I’ve come to expect and love from Toby, a new cast of characters, and a promising story. Deltarune isn’t finished yet and it will be a long time before we see its conclusion, but Chapter 1 is an incredible start.

5. God of War (Santa Monica Studio)

I didn’t expect to like the new God of War as much as I did. I grew up with the series and I wasn’t sure how to feel about this completely new over-the-shoulder direction. My worries were quickly put at ease however, with how much fun Kratos’ new axe was to use and all of the abilities you could unlock throughout the game. Perhaps my favourite part is the map itself; while it is an open-world game, it is the exact right size. It respects your time and you never take long to get somewhere interesting, and your exploration is rewarded adequetly. This design philosophy seems to be lost on a lot of modern open-world developers and its refreshing to see it done right in God of War. As for the story, it goes in a very interesting direction and the dynamic between Kratos and his son Atreus unfolds in some satisfying ways, managing to give Kratos some real character development beyond angry bald man. They are definitely using this one to setup more God of War games, and they have revitalized my excitement for the future of this series for the first time in a decade. 

4. Xenoblade Chronicles 2: Torna - The Golden Country (Monolith Soft)

The Golden Country takes place 500 years before XC2 and outlines the events leading up to it. There are many familiar faces, and the story expands upon many events Rex and his party learn about in the base game. Much of the game takes place on Torna and its a varied location with lots of different environments and enemy types. The biggest improvement from XC2 is the battle system. It’s a lot more straightforward this time around because there’s no more core crystal system where you have to do gacha pulls to get new random blades. There’s just the 3 party members and their two main character blades which makes for guaranteed combo and chain attack potential throughout the game, whereas before you would have to get lucky and try to optimize for it. Clocking in at about 30 hours, I think one could definitely make the case for playing this expansion either before XC2 to see the story setup, or playing it after for appreciating the character development. You can tell a tremendous amount of love and care went into making this expansion, and being included in the XC2 season pass makes it a tremendous value.

3. Monster Hunter World (Capcom)

It’s been awhile since I got so obsessed with a specific game that I wanted to do nothing else but play it when I wasn’t at work or asleep but Capcom did it. Having only played 4U previously on the 3DS for about 60 hours, it cannot be overstated how much work they put into making this series more palatable. Whether it’s through streamlining weapon upgrades by showing us the weapon paths, or getting rid of consumable whetstones, or just showing us the direction the monster is in after collecting a couple of tracks, or finally upgrading from god damn PS2 models, or just putting it on a proper console again so I don’t have to get carpal tunnel from the 3DS. The list goes on and on about all the things that made this Monster Hunter the one that got me hooked. They’ve supported the game with a ton of free post-launch content too including new monsters and fun crossover skins. If there is any game to point to and say Capcom has cleaned up their act these last couple of years, this is it.

2. Super Smash Bros. Ultimate (Sora Ltd./Bandai Namco)

There are a lot of things I could say about Ultimate, but I think the most important thing to remember is that it is an incredible collection of fighting game content. There are a ton of characters, stages (with 3 variants of each!), and almost a thousand songs. Sakurai has gone to even greater lengths to ensure that this game can be enjoyed by players of any inclination. Whether you like to play with stocks or stamina, or if you wanna use all items/no items/whichever items you like, there’s probably a rule setting for you. This is finally the Smash game that has gotten me interested in the competitive side, fighting one on one without items and as such I have an appreciation for it now. New characters like Incineroar, Simon/Richter, and K. Rool are a blast to play, and characters I missed in Smash 4 like Corrin, Ryu, Cloud, and Duck Hunt have been a blast too. The game has really rekindled my enjoyment of the series and I’m trying all sorts of characters I never would’ve before. I would be totally okay if this was the last Super Smash Bros. game, and I look forward to seeing what the future DLC characters end up being. 

1. Valkyria Chronicles 4 (SEGA)

VC4 is assuredly my favourite game of 2018. I’m a big fan of the fantasy alternate-universe WWII setting established in the first Valkyria Chronicles, and VC4 takes place around the same time. It follows the tale of the Federation Army’s Squad E led by commander Claude Wallace. Nearly every character is likeable in some way and all of them get some meaningful character development; the main characters through the story and the side characters through their own events where they interact with other members of the squad. The english voice actors really do a tremendous job selling these characters and their weird quirks. The gameplay is very similar to the first game with some new features like the Grenadier unit class or the halftrack APC you could use to quickly move multiple troops around the battlefield. If you are a fan of turn-based strategy, alternate history, or just straight up great characters I cannot recommend this game enough. 

That’s all for my 2018 list. There are a few more games that I’d like to acknowledge from the year that didn’t quite make the top 10, but I’ll do that in a seperate post next week. If you’ve read this far, thank you so much for doing so. I’m very excited about the upcoming year in games!                                                   

[maryse127]

Xenoblade 2 gives me such conflicted feelings. Cause on the one hand it is a really fun game with beautiful environments and music and a fun battle system (once you unlock chain attacks cancelling arts) and great characters (apart from Tora)

But then on the other hand it has some really problematic characterdesign. Way too many sexualised women with unrealistic boobs and little clothing just designed for the male gaze. And then there is Tora who is literally just a horny pervert with a maid fetish who builds a robot girl who develops from a child to a maid to a grown women with big boobs and a skimpy outfit.

It's like everytime you are enjoying the game, something just hits you in the face and reduce enjoyment.

I feel like I could like Pyra a lot as a character, but each time I see the front or side of her i am filled with disgust.

And when you think: at least they didn't sexualise Nia. Just wait. It'll come. Just wait.

Also gacha sucks

Torna dlc is a lot better in this regard because somehow Mythra bothers me way less than Pyra and the other girls are fine in that game (Brighid's design is sexy but not extremely horny)

Sadly Chuggaaconroys let's play mostly brings up my issues with game. Also the game does have bad tutorials but Chugga really likes to shit on the game in that regard then act as if he is xenoblade god. He is shitting on "bad blades" like maybe it's not always about killing enemies as effectively as possible, maybe it's just about having fun sometimes. And the whole "Tora is so precious how can anybody dislike him" and blushy crushy drama has me really annoyed with him lately

Which makes me sad because I love Xenoblade 2 and was excited for daily Xenoblade videos but it's pretty dissapointing so far