What video games are you playing now?

[Trainer Gabriel]

Pokémon: Violet and Icewind Dale: Enhanced Edition - both of these I have been broadcasting live on my Twitch channel, and the latter of which I have been playing with five others in a six-party multiplayer game through the adventure.

I also started Solasta: Crown of the Magister the previous night. Played this game before but never finished, so I started over with the intention to play through to the end this time.

 

[TheCapsFan]

Still in the ooze of FF7 Rebirth, which is my main priority at the moment. I'm at Chapter 11 right now. But - I've started a few other games recently:

• Unicorn Overlord: Started this one after finishing Valkyria Chronicles a couple of weeks ago. I'm not very far (only about 3 hours in) but enjoying it so far. I like the depth of the strategy, despite not knowing much about it yet, and really just enjoy watching my units do their thing automatically lol.
• Okami HD: Started this one on stream last week at the behest of one of my friends, who grew up with the game and absolutely ADORES it. With Catch A Million going on this week, unfortunately I won't be able to play more until Monday, but I did enjoy the first 2.5 hours despite it being a very...long...tutorial. The game is positively gorgeous.
• The Legend of Heroes: Trails in the Sky: I actually picked this one up a few months ago, but just started getting into it recently. I've heard LOTS of good things about the Trails series, and also that the best place to start is at the beginning, so I decided to heed everyone's words & start playing it. I'm using it as a test game to see how well it will run on my Bootcamped 2017 Macbook Pro.

And then of course, I'm still playing through Fire Emblem: Path of Radiance on stream in Ironman, and Baldur's Gate 3 in multiplayer with some friends, as well as the occasional Hades run before I sleep.

 

[Pigrider09]

Just started a realm with some friendos.

 

[Lapidot Matoi]

Started a new playthrough of Pokemon black to prepare for playing white 2 soon. Got to the first gym before I decided to stop for now

 

[guzmania]

Playing VA-11 HALL-A again after setting it down for a few months (I think I got distracted by the release of Indigo Disk and simply forgot about it after only meaning to put it on hold...). It's embarrassing to admit that I only made it to the middle of the 3rd day, but I've been enthralled since resuming it yesterday evening. Though I am moving at a relatively slow pace since I want to savor it. It's not often I play a game completely unspoiled, after all.

I've also picked SSBU back up after shelving it for nearly a year in favor of more traditional fighters. I completely forgot how much I actually enjoy it. While I know I have a reputation as a Street Fighter loyalist, Smash is just plain relaxing in a way far more satisfying than pretty much any other brawler I can think of.
Used to play Pythra a lot, but I've decided to take Snake for a whirl. He's a lot of fun, but I may eventually drop him in favor of Kazuya (again).
I'm never this indecisive with mains outside of Smash, which is a contributing factor to my weird relationship with it... though in my defense, it's rather difficult to pick just one person to dedicate yourself to when there's nearly 90 characters, yeah? No? Please tell me I'm not alone...

 

[Pigrider09]

I'm never this indecisive with mains outside of Smash, which is a contributing factor to my weird relationship with it... though in my defense, it's rather difficult to pick just one person to dedicate yourself to when there's nearly 90 characters, yeah? No? Please tell me I'm not alone...

For real! I once considered maining lucina, little mac, captain falcon, ganondorf... now I stick to Terry with link as my second

 

[Insanish Danish]

I've never really had a main in Smash (aside from Smash 64, where I almost always played as Kirby as a kid). Like sure there are certain characters I have more fun playing as than others, but for me part of the fun of this series is having such a large variety characters to use (especially in Ultimate's case). I get bored playing as the same few characters and enjoy the experience a lot more using all the fighters.

As for what I'm currently playing...still Dual Destinies lmao...it's taking me so damn long to get through this trilogy and even though I'm having fun I just keep getting distracted thinking about all the other games on my backlog. But I really can't focus on more than one story-heavy game at a time so I can't start any of them until I've finished Spirit of Justice...which considering how long it's taking me to get through Dual Destinies probably won't be for a while lol

 

[guzmania]

As for what I'm currently playing...still Dual Destinies lmao...it's taking me so damn long to get through this trilogy and even though I'm having fun I just keep getting distracted thinking about all the other games on my backlog. But I really can't focus on more than one story-heavy game at a time so I can't start any of them until I've finished Spirit of Justice...which considering how long it's taking me to get through Dual Destinies probably won't be for a while lol

The modern AA trilogy can be kinda like that. Ironically, it took me considerably less time to beat than any of the other "sagas" (OT, Investigations, TGAA), but a lot of that was probably because I had a lot more free time on my hands than usual when playing it. I love it, don't get me wrong, because I love AA in general, but there are some... very sloggy parts of DD especially (while AJ has some dry moments, mostly in the two middle chapters, I at least found myself wanting to find out what happened next; for all its faults, Turnabout Corner had a pretty entertaining premise for a filler case and did a good job nailing the metaphorical coffin of AJ's theme shut -- a majority of the cast is presented as morally grey, and just in case the first case's culprit didn't prove that to you, the next defendant being a yakuza heir really twists the knife in, even if they were innocent... despite their repeat claims that they were guilty just because they wanted the "street cred," which adds to the effect imo, and Turnabout Serenade at least kept me on my toes a bit... trying to find out who was enough of an ass to frame a blind little kid who couldn't even speak English, to the discovery that said little kid ISN'T blind and clearly knows way more than they've let on, and whatever the hell was going on with Trucy and Valant, to the whole deal with Lamiroir and the victim and finally how the smuggling ring tied into everything.)
Oh, and there's Klavier's guitar getting set on fire. Top five moments in the entire series.

Without spoilers, I promise SoJ is much better at grabbing one's attention and keeping it (or at least I found it so). The plot can be messy, and the main rival isn't the best-written (though I do believe he's very overhated)... and I won't lie, probably the worst part of the game is its kind of lackluster opening case (which mostly serves as an excuse to introduce Khu'rain and its main trial gimmick), but everything past that was a total blast to play.
Yes, even the fourth case. Could be considered a very minor spoiler: it serves as a mini-love letter to DD, but it's unironically executed very well. Short though it may be, it's basically everything good about that game in one case.

DD though has severe pacing issues, I'd argue actually more so than Investigations 1 (but not as bad as Adventures). Simon's introduction is literally the only nice thing I have to say about the second case, the third case... it's very "high school anime," including some of its less savory tropes, and I'm still honestly mad that the 4th and 5th chapters were like... literally just the same case. And the main villain is pretty much just a watered-down (MAJOR INVESTIGATIONS 1 SPOILER) Shih-na. It had some very high points, though, so by no means do I hate the game (Athena is awesome, though I think she was introduced way too early in the series; Simon is easily my favorite character in the franchise as well as my third-favorite video game character ever; the fifth case was overall pretty damn solid and Aura is a rather tragic antagonist all things considered (not that it excuses that person's actions); there are some definite comical parts as well). The early parts of the game can be difficult to make it through, though, and I was hardly having a good time until the final chapter.

(...I also can't forgive it for the way it shelved Trucy, but that's a rant for another day.)

Hopefully you'll enjoy the ending. In any case just stick with it to reach SoJ. It's very rewarding (or at least I thought so; I apologize in advance if you end up not liking it). And don't forget to play Dual Destiny's DLC case (completely free if you're playing the trilogy collection)!! It's arguably the best in the whole game. (I can't say the same about SoJ's, though. I admit that I can be a major sucker for nostalgia bait, but what you might have seen about the flanderization of the characters involved is unfortunately true. Phoenix himself gets the brunt of it, sadly. The case is honestly terrific aside from that, so if you can get past that I would absolutely play it, but the way it treats Phoenix, Larry, and Maya... Edgeworth is fine though tbh. Phoenix's treatment of him is terrible, however is kinda rough.)

 

[Stratelier]

Decided to pick Pokemon Platinum back up and see what condition I left my save in....

Turns out the last thing I did was trade my "A-team" over to HeartGold (for reasons I can't be entirely certain of, given it's been several years), so of course I needed to charge up a second 3DS to trade them back. Wow, the way Gen V overhauled the trading interface (namely, letting you trade directly from PC boxes instead of solely party Pokemon) is really something you can't just give up.

Regardless, apparently I'd left off just after entering Victory Road. It had all of those usual old school shenanigans with minor Strength puzzles, some Rock Smash targets, Surf, Waterfall, and Rock Climb -- quite the workout, and definitely annoying with the (also old-school) bias of Rock/Ground types, with a few Golbats and Floatzels for good measure.

Anyway, I made it to the Pokemon League proper with a team just cresting an average of Lv.50. Among my mainstays:

• Infernape (starter), with a +Sp.Atk nature, looking at a Calm Mind + Flamethrower combo
• Luxray, physical attacker with mainly Charge+Thunder Fang (also Crunch and Leer)
• Floatzel, HM specialist (Surf and Waterfall), apparently can learn Ice Fang so I'll have to do that before taking on a certain Garchomp
• Staraptor, fast-travel access (and Aerial Ace) but no specific moveset otherwise
• Umbreon, running a flinch combo with Confuse Ray + Bite
• Bibarel, other HM specialist (Strength, Rock Smash, etc)
• Lucario, running Swords Dance + Drain Punch and Foresight because I definitely want to see an "It's super effective!" appear on a certain Spiritomb

Thanks to some contemporary trading, I also have access to Turtwig and Piplup, but I can also actively trade others in from HG if needed.

 

[mastermind lissi]

Finally picked up my copy of legend of Zelda breath of the wild again

Apparently I have save data in it, but it was from almost exactly a year ago and not very far. I got through what I think is the first shrine and then climbed the tower, forgetting I could teleport lol

 

[JamieIsBored]

Finally finished The Great Ace Attorney Chronicles on Saturday, I really enjoyed it and would 100% recommend it to anyone who hasn't played it, super good characters and an amazing story. Also made my way to Yakuza 4 which has been a blast, up to Part 4 in that, Part 3 was actually really good, definitely the best part of the game. Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown is likely going to be the next game that I pick up, it'll be my first proper metroidvania so super excited to try it out!

 

[Caprizant]

Persona 5 Royal - My first time playing any Persona game. Currently in late October. It's the first time I've played something this long since I got a job, and I was a little worried I wouldn't have the stamina for it, but I'm still enjoying it a month in. I really like the atmosphere of the game, especially when just wandering around the city, doing social links and other things. It's a very relaxing game, and the music is lovely.

Super Mario Sunshine - Playing this on the weekends. It's been awhile since I replayed a game from my childhood in full. Don't know if I'll make it all the way through it, but it's fun just to play around for a bit every weekend and revisit the missions that gave me trouble as a kid.

 

[Die-Hard Dragon Devotee]

Super Mario Sunshine - Playing this on the weekends. It's been awhile since I replayed a game from my childhood in full. Don't know if I'll make it all the way through it, but it's fun just to play around for a bit every weekend and revisit the missions that gave me trouble as a kid.

The Super Mario 3D All-Stars version, or the original GameCube version?

 

[Lapidot Matoi]

Pokemon black: I've made some decent progress and beaten the first gym and have begun preparations for the second. I've also added my 3rd member of my planned final team in a tympole
Splatoon 3 Side order: So apparently you get extra details on the chips by having more collected in a run, now I have the sudden urge to max out all of them. I've already finished all the drone chips and almost all the power chips so I'm almost 1/3rd of the way there

 

[CynthiaLover]

Picked up Breath of Fire 3 again after putting it down for a while. I'm heading to Junk Town to meet up with Beyd regarding a ship to cross the ocean so Ryu and co can meet "God" after we freed Deis. Been spending a bit of time grinding and working on the Faerie Village, like using the Copy Shop to duplicate some rare/hard-to-find items and buying some new equipment. Also been trying to complete certain Master's so I can move on to new ones. Ryu is Level 37, Nina is Level 34, Rei is Level 27, Momo is Level 28, Garr is Level 27, and Peco is Level 23.

 

[FelipePR]

I am playing Trials of Mana (Remake) and I'm close to completing it, I believe.

To be honest, the game surprised me. I expected way less from it, but I can't help but say it's a letdown. That is to say, while playing it, I could feel that the game had great potential. It could easily compare to a game like DQ 11 if Square Enix had truly wanted to make a great game and invested accordingly. In the end, the only thing that's great about it is the price.

Nevertheless, I'm excited about the new Mana game, which seems to have received more attention and a slightly bigger budget from the developer.

 

[CyanLaser]

Picking up Fire Emblem Awakening (Classic Normal difficulty) as my first game in the franchise! On chapter 5 rn and having a lot of fun, although I have no clue how to unlock the support convos (or how to let Robin use the Dark Magic tome I bought for him).