What video games are you playing now?

[Lone_Garurumon]

FFX-2: Finished the story. It's a pretty good game. Spherechange actually ended up being a really cool mechanic. Lotta cool ways to take some of the benefits from one dress into another.

Horizon Zero Dawn: Finished up the Hunting Lodge series of quests. Given that we took down the most powerful machine in the setting by all account, I'm pretty sure I'm just objectively the best now. I also started up on the area north of Meridian, wince that's where all of my questinations are now. Hacked the Tallneck, got the area revealed, time to just do shit around the place.

Dragon Ball the Breakers: Started the other day. It's pretty fun so far actually. Current Dragon Tier is 9. Definitely enjoy playing as Survivor more than the Raider. It just feels like they have better options for objective. Though, maybe it's just because I'm a lot more used to Survivor because it's just fucking impossible to get the chance to play as one so I just categorically never get the chance to practice, and let's be real, the practice mode doesn't actually help you learn anything.

 

[PokéSean]

Pokémon HeartGold: I’m still training up my team. They are like at least Lv. 45/46 and thought to take on the league right away but I’m going to train to somewhere in between Lv. 55-60. It’s hard to get the best items so I sold some of my Poké Balls. I’m not going to sell held items because they can help me. It is hard because it’s pre-Gen VI and there are no rustling Pokémon and I can’t be given a Lucky Egg.

HG UPDATE: I trained my team to Lv. 50 because it’s the biggest level Lance has on his team. So here it is:

1. Pokémon: Crobat
Nickname: Dracus
Lv.: 50
Gender: Male
Ability: Inner Focus
Held Item: Amulet Coin
Moves: Air Cutter (25 PP), Poison Fong (15 PP), Fly (15 PP), and Dark Pulse (15 PP)

2. Pokémon: Slowbro
Nickname: Caitlin
Lv.: 50
Gender: Female
Ability: Own Tempo
Held Item: Twisted Spoon
Moves: Whirlpool (15 PP), Zen Headbutt (15 PP), Surf (15 PP), and Rock Smash (15 PP)

3. Pokémon: Jumpluff
Nickname: Garkyla
Lv.: 50
Gender: Female
Ability: Chlorophyll
Held Item: Occa Berry
Moves: Bounce (5 PP), Mega Drain (15 PP), Giga Drain (10 PP), and Stun Spore (30 PP)

4. Pokémon: Jynx
Nickname: Elsa
Lv.: 50
Gender: Female
Ability: Forewarn
Held Item: NeverMeltIce
Moves: Mean Look (6 PP), Perish Song (5 PP), Headbutt (15 PP), and Avalanche (10 PP)

5. Pokémon: Dragonair
Nickname: Dragis
Lv.: 50
Gender: Male
Ability: Shed Skin
Held Item: Exp. Share
Moves: Dragon Rush (10 PP), Waterfall (15 PP), Dragon Pulse (10 PP), and Surf (15 PP)

6. Pokémon: Typholsion
Nickname: Combusted
Lv.: 50
Gender: Male
Ability: Blaze
Held Item: Charcoal
Moves: Strength (15 PP), Cut (30 PP), Blast Burn (8 PP), and Flamethrower (15 PP)

Pokémon Legends Arceus: Am still at the Colbalt Icelands and am aiming to reach star 10 and find all the wisps before continuing the outbreaks with Mai.

Pokémon Emerald: I hope I can change my battery in the cartridge and cure the Pokérus. I also am at the Battle Frontier and am get BP for Rare Candies to train my team to Lv. 75-80 to take on Steven.

 

[CynthiaLover]

Completed the next hub world in Sly Cooper and the Thievious Raccoonus, beating the boss. Boy, that was a rough area. Took a couple of attempts to complete it but I got it done. Got all the safe clues, getting many more pages from the Thievious Raccoonus.

On another note, I picked up MegaMan Battle Network 4 Red Sun (Wii U VC) again, since I got lazy and didn't continue with the plot. As stated a while ago I'm on my second playthrough of the game. Battled in the Den Tournament against Normal Navi, SparkMan, and FireMan, getting the Fire Soul in the process... which I haven't used yet. Did the events in getting Mayl the Free Passes and chased after the Heel Navi into Park Area. Now it's time for Lan's and Mayl's date. But first I've been grinding for Guard1 A chips so I can use them as Chip Trader fodder (regular Mettaurs can be found in Lan's Doghouse Comp despite the fact that this is a New Game+ mode, as viruses only get stronger in story/main internet-based areas). So after grinding, stuffing the two Chip Traders (one at Higsby's and one in Electown) with dozens of Guard1 A chips, rinse and repeat I'm finally going to move on with the plot. MegaMan has 1080 HP and his Buster Stats are 2/2/2. I also completed the TimeBomb+ and LifeSword PAs, along with modifying my folder to become an S and * Coded folder, now that I have access to better chips.

 

[PokéSean]

Now in Kanto and got my first badge. Mt. Silver Rival battle had my newly caught Nincada and an Egg with my Jynx, Dragonite, and Typholsion. I have a lot of eggs why not expand my Dex a bit and train some. I had to evolve Nincada with extra Poke Balls and extra space to get Shedninja.

 

[Lone_Garurumon]

Horizon Zero Dawn: Explored almost all of the area north-west of Meridian, except for that one area that the mysterious voice from my Focus told me not to go so as not to reveal myself to the Eclipse who still think I'm dead, as well as the ruins right at the tippy-top as the destination of my next story quest. I also cleared out the final cauldron, granting me the power to override any machine I care to attempt it on.

Dragon Ball the Breakers: Cleared out the current weekly tasks, as well as all my daily opportunities. Current Dragon Tier is something around... 22-ish? Progress is gradual but theoretically I should be making decent time.

 

[Kung Fu Ferret]

I've been feeling nostalgic lately, so I've been playing Zoo Tycoon Complete Collection

 

[CynthiaLover]

I picked up Breath of Fire 4 again. I've been procrastinating long enough because I didn't want to do the event where Zig and his sexist crew give Nina and Ursula such a hard time. But if I want to beat the game I knew I had to face the music. So I did. After much frustration and dealing with one of, if not probably the most annoying minigame in the game (Nina vs Iggy: who can knock who off the mast within the time limit) I finally completed the dreaded event. Now the party can go out to sea. After dealing with the fake god monster the party finally makes it to the western side on the trip to the Empire. But I'm gonna have to go back out to sea in order to take care of some of the little areas where treasure, the Sea Dragon, and a new fishing spot lurk. Ryu is Level 28, Nina is Level 29, Ershin is Level 28, Cray is Level 27, Scias is Level 27, and Ursula is Level 27.

 

[PokéSean]

HeartGold: Am training my Donphan and renamed my Shedninja. Discovered the Week Siblings's house for the first time. I have a lot of eggs and am repelling so they can hatch faster.

 

[Norzan]

Finished the Live a Live remake for the Switch and i really enjoyed it.

Combat, well not being all that deep, is enjoyable with the whole weakness system where attacks deal a specific damage type and most enemies have one or more weaknesses to a damage type means you don't just spam the same over and over to win all battles. Attacks also have ranges and area of effects, so some moves are more useful than others depending on the situation because the battles happen on a grid.

The game's story is divided into chapters (meaning if you want a long journey where a group of people travel the world, you are not getting it here) where each has their own main character. At first i wasn't exactly a fan of this, but each chapter focusing on a single character led to each character being more developed if the entire adventure was everybody together in a single journey, because the entire plot of the chapter is focused on a specific character instead of just being a part of a bigger plot, which a lot of the time leads to specific characters being underdeveloped (their portion of the story is just too short or the game just flats out ignores the character).

The graphics are great and the sprite work is amazing.

The music is amazing with the boss battle theme being one of the best in gaming history.

My criticisms are how some chapters are longer than others (some can go for like three hours, while others can go for literally one hour) and how some characters are just flat out better than others in battle. Two of them are completely busted with each having one of the best skills in the game.

I think the game is great and every fan of JRPGs should pick this up eventually. It's also not very long, at least for RPG standards, with the game lasting around 30 hours.

 

[Lone_Garurumon]

Horizon Zero Dawn: Finished the questline to avenge Ersa's death and protect Meridian from Darvahl's plans to destroy it with Erend, as well as the visit to the Grave-Hoard to try and learn a little more about what Project Zero Dawn was that stopped the machine apocalypse in the ancient past. And with that I've actually explored pretty much the entire base-game map at this point. Still a ton of collectibles I don't have, since they're very non-obvious in the environment, but I can buy maps to them, I'll get to it eventually.

 

[Snowy.ninetales]

Animal crossing new horizons: A fun open world game where small animal like creatures called villagers. You can chop wood, plant flowers, craft, get in debt, be forced to get a 5 star island, and spend hours upon hours of hunting for your dream villager. It’s a fun experience and a lot of things to to so that you won’t get bored easily, and I would recommend it to someone that has never played a animal crossing game before (Unlike the older game cough cough sue e cough cough).

 

[Pyrax]

Progress in Yakuza LAD slowed down a bit after reaching Chapter 12. Levelling Sotenbori Battle Arena turned out to be less of a grind than I thought - up to floor 26 and my party's already between lv.40-42. Might go to the Yokohama Underground later after for job grinding (2-3 jobs at lv.20 for each character), maybe when everyone reaches lv.45.

 

[Crisbee Donut]

I'm playing Sword, Legends: Arceus, and Youtube. Gotta get those leaks for S/V

 

[UxieLover1994]

Asides the daily gameplay for Animal Crossing: New Horizons, I've replayed both Kingdom Hearts II Final Mix and Spyro Reignited Trilogy while awaiting SV. Alas, Australia does not have the Sly Cooper trilogy available through the PS+, otherwise I'd be playing that, too.

Taking a break from Breath of Fire 4 to try out a game I've never played before: Sly Cooper and the Thievous Raccoonus (I hope I spelled that right). I've heard of the Sly series but never actually played it when it first came out (exposure issues strike again). Since I can play it for free on the PS4's PS Plus network I decided to give it a try. Normally, I'm good with platformers, but man, Sly is a tricky game. Doesn't help that he's a one-hit wonder like Crash. I died several times in the first few levels (not counting the very first level), but I completed all the levels in "Tide of Terror", got all of the safe codes to get several pages of the Thievous Raccoonus, and beat the boss (on one try, too, though having two Lucky Charms certainly helped). Whew, I need to take a break, but I won't deny I can see Sly's appeal.

Completed the next hub world in Sly Cooper and the Thievious Raccoonus, beating the boss. Boy, that was a rough area. Took a couple of attempts to complete it but I got it done. Got all the safe clues, getting many more pages from the Thievious Raccoonus.

My advice: Don't play Thieves in Time. The gameplay is good, but the story is a serve disappointment with the nearly 10-year unresolved cliffhanger and the plot twist that shamelessly copied Prince Han's betrayal in Frozen.

But I'd definitely recommend the original trilogy. It does pick up from Band of Thieves, where you instead get a HP bar and Bentley and Murray become fully playable. You'd be surprised as to how good the games are with interesting villains and the complex morality, especially since you play as an honorable thief, and the recurring villain is a violent cop with serious black-and-white vision (to the point where she's the main antagonist of Honor Among Thieves until the last chapter).

 

[prog rocker]

My advice: Don't play Thieves in Time. The gameplay is good, but the story is a serve disappointment with the nearly 10-year unresolved cliffhanger and the plot twist that shamelessly copied Prince Han's betrayal in Frozen.

Didn't that game come out before Frozen?

 

[ReturnofMCH]

final fantasy origin because I got it for my birthday that's literally in 48 minutes in my timezone/

 

[UxieLover1994]

Didn't that game come out before Frozen?

By eight months, yes, but it didn't stop complaints from fans saying Sanzaru Games stole a plot twist from an unreleased Disney film (eg: someone working for the former had ties to the latter), especially with the strong comparisons between Hans and Penelope. It could've been a coincidence, or it could've been plagiarism; this isn't the first time where someone had their feelings cruelly toyed with by a sociopath with strong ambition. We'll probably never know.

That would only be the start of all the endless controversies that piled on Sanzaru until they were bought out in 2020, and they remain a pariah to this day.

 

[ReturnofMCH]

Asides the daily gameplay for Animal Crossing: New Horizons, I've replayed both Kingdom Hearts II Final Mix and Spyro Reignited Trilogy while awaiting SV. Alas, Australia does not have the Sly Cooper trilogy available through the PS+, otherwise I'd be playing that, too.


My advice: Don't play Thieves in Time. The gameplay is good, but the story is a serve disappointment with the nearly 10-year unresolved cliffhanger and the plot twist that shamelessly copied Prince Han's betrayal in Frozen.

But I'd definitely recommend the original trilogy. It does pick up from Band of Thieves, where you instead get a HP bar and Bentley and Murray become fully playable. You'd be surprised as to how good the games are with interesting villains and the complex morality, especially since you play as an honorable thief, and the recurring villain is a violent cop with serious black-and-white vision (to the point where she's the main antagonist of Honor Among Thieves until the last chapter).

Sorry but I massively disagree regarding thieves in time, just because it has a similar plot twist and an unresolved cliffhanger doesn’t make the story bad otherwise a lot of megaman games would be poorer recieved then they are (X8, legends 2, ZX advent)

Also I really think the game gets a bad rep when 2 has horrible pacing issues that thieves in time just doesn’t have

 

[UxieLover1994]

Sorry but I massively disagree regarding thieves in time, just because it has a similar plot twist and an unresolved cliffhanger doesn’t make the story bad otherwise a lot of megaman games would be poorer recieved then they are (X8, legends 2, ZX advent)

Also I really think the game gets a bad rep when 2 has horrible pacing issues that thieves in time just doesn’t have

I do admit that the game has a good story in spite of the cliffhanger, and had Sly escaped the blimp at the end, it would've been just as beloved as the original trilogy. All four games have their own ups and downs, with some more noticeable than others (pacing issues, difficult missions, inconstant characterization or in Penelope's case character derailment). But a cliffhanger is often a letdown if no sequels or DLC are released even after 10 years, and many fans hate Thieves in Time for the ending even if they otherwise loved the story and gameplay.

But it is up to CynthiaLover to decide on whether to play the other games or not.

 

[Lone_Garurumon]

Horizon Zero Dawn: The metaphorical sword and shield with which I shall complete the story have been acquired. HADES' master override kill-switch mounted on Sylens' lance, as well as the sealed-off ancient armour salvaged and transformed into Aloy's Shield Weaver armour. All known sidequests and optional collectibles have been cleaned out, with the final two story trophies being the only one left. Time to head to Meridian and fight off the assault of the Eclipse.