What video games are you playing now?

[chocovelvetcake]

I can name a few games I play on my switch at the top of my head:

• Super Smash Bros. Ultimate
• Cuphead
• Deltarune
• Kirby Fighters 2

Smash Ultimate is one of my all time favorite video games and is the 2nd Smash Bros game I've played after Melee (sadly, I don't have the game anymore). So far, I've managed to unlock every single Smash Bros fighter (except for the DLCs). I normally make little rounds and tournaments to play with CPU players all by myself (I'm such a loner), but I do occasionally play online with other players.

I started hyperfixating on Cuphead back in 2017 when it was first released. I remember my 14 year old self wanting to play the game so badly, but I didn't have the money to buy it. As soon as I bought Cuphead for the switch, I started playing the game. So far, I haven't been able to beat not one boss in Cuphead. As much as I like Cuphead, I wish it wasn't so goddamn hard.

When I first downloaded Deltarune on my switch, I was able to beat chapter 2 in less than a day. The chapter 2 final boss wasn't really hard imo, but it wasn't easy, either, but the chapter 1 final boss took me forever to beat, but it was worth it. I can't wait for chapter 3 to come out.

Kirby Fighters 2 was one of my first Kirby games. I first played the demo version of the game until I was eventually able to buy the full version on the Nintendo Switch shop. I'm on the final chapter of story mode right now which has 50 chapters. I'm so looking forward to beating this chapter.

 

[CynthiaLover]

Still playing Digimon Story Cyber Sleuth (PS4). I've completed both helping Nokia form her Rebels hacker team and Arata with the Digital Shift/Labyrinth missions, along with taking on a few side cases. Also did the "Living Doll, Dead Person" case, and it's as creepy and nightmarish as always. Though because I forgot about him I missed the chapter's Victory Uchilda at the start of the chapter, thus missed out on a Mental Melon and Barbamon Medal (that Mental Melon would've been useful...). Now I'm moving onto Arata's newest quest. My party consists of Angewomon, Gaiomon, Lotusmon, Digitamamon, and Shakkoumon.

Yes, I finally got my Shakkoumon. Interesting Mon, though it's gonna take a lot to get him to Digivolve, as all his Digivolutions require 130 ATK and... Shakkoumon is a magical/INT attacker, so his ATK stat goes up slowly. Though a few Power Pines (as in pineapples) gave it a decent boost to shorten the process. And I got my first two Megas: Gaiomon from MetalGreymon (Blue) and Lotusmon from LadyDevimon. Both are not going to be permanent Megas for my team, as I wanted BlackWarGreymon and Lilithmon, but in Lilithmon's case I still need to build up her ABL, so I Digivolved her into the one Mega form she could reach at this point so I can level her up before Dedigivolving her and hope I get enough ABL from it to reach 80. And Gaiomon was the earliest Mega I could get, who proved to be very useful against the Eater boss in the Digital Shift/Labyrinth. But at least having two Megas at this stage in the game is nice. And Angewomon was previously Dedigivolved into Frigimon then Digivolved back up because her ABL wasn't high enough to Digivolve into Ophanimon. Also, on the DigiFarm, I'm working on getting another Angewomon and LadyDevimon so I can get Mastemon for the first time, along with working on getting a Beelzemon since I've never used either. Though, again, getting them to 80 ABL isn't easy.

 

[TheCapsFan]

Picked up a few new games recently:

Depixtion - A really neat take on the Picross style of puzzle games that expands upon the gameplay without making things too complicated.

Fire Emblem 7 - The first release in the West, I'm replaying this now since it got put on Switch Online for GBA.

Still playing Fire Emblem: Three Houses (Blue Lions) and Persona 5 Royal as well.

 

[Stratelier]

Skyrim survival summary to this point:

Spoiler: Day 12

Starting in Solitude, I defeated Potema's spirit down in her catacombs, then received a random letter from Calcelmo back in Markarth about an enchanted Dwarven battleaxe I picked up as loot. I eventually traveled (via carriage) to Markarth to deliver it to him, even though I only received a leveled amount of gold -- not necessarily "twice what it's worth" if I had sold it to a merchant myself. (Besides, I was planning to disenchant it. Hrm.)

Did I mention getting the Rueful Axe for Barbas's quest? Because my next stop is to drop off this dog. At the inn in Morthal I ran into that random NPC (this one an Orc) who insults you and you can provoke into fighting. Beat them to within an inch of their life, but didn't deliver a killing blow, instead sheathing my weapon and ... for once, the NPC actually stopped fighting! This doesn't happen often enough (nor did it change the character's disposition towards me, I could've just gotten into a "round 2").

Next stop was Labyrinthian, namely Shalidor's Maze. It's cold, and has Ice Wraiths too, so I had to take a few breaks to warm up near the large bonfire torches, and mistakenly tried using the Restoration staff for the Illusion gate (not realizing why it wasn't working). Eventually I did reach the boss, killed him fairly easily (no armor just robes?) and claimed the Diadem of the Savant, one of my favorite pieces (aesthetically) because it doesn't cover up Khajiit ears (or Argonian horns) but it's for some reason also classed as Light Armor.

Spoiler: Day 13

After dropping off Barbas, it was back to Riften, with a stop at Avanchnzel along the way. Somehow I am carrying too many things. It's a shame you can't use the adventurer's camp down there to rest (all the bedrolls are flagged as "owned"), but I didn't have too much trouble -- even found a nifty shield with 60% Shock Resistance on it.

Also along the way back to Riften is the Orc stronghold of Largashbur, and the quest "The Cursed Tribe". It might take a bit to find a Daedra Heart, but I'll be back to do that one at some point. Mjoll gave me the quest objective to find her sword, and Isran asked me to recruit some of his friends while he gets the fort in order. Didn't have a problem infiltrating Goldenglow this time (though I missed the unique collectible on the upper floor -- will have to return for it later), and two Potions of Invisibility were used in the process. After that, a trip to Whiterun to visit Honningbrew Meadery, take out that nutcase in the tunnels under the cellar, and continue the Thieves Guild questline. Khajiit were in Whiterun so I asked them about the Saints and Seducers camps, then made a quick return to Riften to finish up that quest, before departing back to Solitude. Carriage drivers were definitely getting paid today!

Spoiler: Day 14

Scoundrel's Folly. Tailing Gulum-Ei was easy enough, though my little side trek up to find the optional collectible got me spotted by just one patrolling guard (which I was able to take down without drawing wider attention). It's a shame that there's almost no way around fighting the various bandits in Brinewater Grotto (despite having a few alternate paths around some of them), but I have my next quest now. And as long as I'm in Solitude I may as well do Sheogorath's quest. Turns out that the lack of default Health regeneration CAN be a problem for this quest (during the phase where you need to deal with Pelagius's "night terrors"), but I made it out alive.

As of now, I'm thinking of completing a few more quests around Solitude before heading back to Riften.

 

[ZekromMahDad]

Fortnite and I just bought the new battle pass so Im lowkey kinda hype

 

[CynthiaLover]

Still playing Digimon Story Cyber Sleuth (PS4). Crusadermon has executed the Paradise Lost Plan and now Tokyo is in a massive Digital Shift. Also rescued Yuuko from Eater Eve, the PC met the real Yuugo, Kyoko is missing, and Arata should be called mint jelly 'cause he's on the lam. badum tish hears Kricketots Anyway, now I'm moving onto the next few story cases. My party is the same as it was before: Angewomon, Gaiomon, Lotusmon, Digitamamon, and Shakkoumon, but now that I have more memory space in my Digivice I can start adding in more teammates again.

 

[PokéSean]

Made it Santalune City and will eventually take on Viola.

 

[Stratelier]

Picked up Cassette Beasts, and ... when they say it's good, it is.

Story is basically you washed up on this unknown island inhabited by strange monsters. A friend-to-be tosses you a cassette player and a tape (of your choice, "spooky" or "sweet"), then BAM you transform into a monster to defend yourself against the local monsters. Nobody really knows what this place is, why it exists or how people wind up there, but it's an open world to figure out and explore.

The bestiary has 128 species of monsters, most of which are organized in evolutionary families, and after the first boss you get a "Fusion" command where you can combine literally any two monsters (even two of the same type) to yield ... over 12,000 potential combinations (the bestiary even keeps track of these, too!). Can't say I've seen many monster designs that I really like (compared to Pokemon, Digimon, Monster Hunter, etc) but they do have an overall consistent feel to them (especially paired with the battle themes) and it's not difficult to pick favorites from there (like "Wooltergeist" or "Palangolin", evolved forms of "Bansheep" and "Squirey").

There are also boss entities called "Archangels" which feel like something that should belong in an SMT or Persona game -- the first one, "Morgante", is listed as (legitimately) "Lv.100" (at a point where you are probably only Lv.10!) BUT it is also described as having been left mortally wounded after a prior battle (its HP meter starts off at 10%) making it possible to take down. Yes, it is sort of your "tutorial boss" but DANG it made quite the impression.

I also like the elemental type chart in this game -- you can even receive the chart as a key item for your reference (not spoiling how to unlock it, which isn't hard but was lovely to discover firsthand).

Spoiler: Diving deeper into the mechanics....

Like Pokemon, this is a round-based battle system where every participant gets 1 action per round, executed in order of highest Speed first (and yes, there is a "Flinch" debuff which precludes a monster from using its action during that turn). You accumulate +2 AP per turn and stronger moves require more AP to perform.

Unlike Pokemon, elemental matchups aren't a damage modifier but apply a secondary effect (typically a buff/debuff) to the target whenever a move hits. For example, "Plant" attacks are super effective on "Water" and "Earth" and will stack 3 turns of "Leech" (think Leech Seed) with every hit landed. Some elemental matchups transform the target's type (temporarily), which in turn changes future matchups against that monster -- e.g. Fire attacks will melt an Ice monster, transforming it into a Water type, but Fire attacks on a Water monster will create steam that regenerates its HP. There's apparently also a rare element called "Glitter" which imbues its type onto any monster it hits, or (conversely) absorbs the type of any attack that hits it.

Moves can either have a specific elemental type, or will inherit the type of the user. Moves also double as TMs, in that while monsters learn new moves as they level up, you can de-equip the moves and give them to a different (compatible) monster at any time. You can also buy moves from merchants, and basically any item can be "recycled" into raw materials (used as currency for buying other items).

A common type of move is a "Wall" move that (like Substitute) consumes a portion of the user's HP to create a wall that can absorb up to 3 hits (compare Substitute). It can be stacked repeatedly, but will break immediately if hit by a supereffective move.

Although 99% of fighting utilizes your monsters, your base character has their own HP pool; when a monster is KO'ed. any excess damage is applied to your base character, and if they are KO'ed you lose the battle instantly (otherwise, you are prompted to send in a new monster). This likewise applies to NPC battles; if you can KO the person directly, you don't have to fight any additional monsters they may have on hand.

Catching a new monster is done by "recording" (copying) them onto a blank cassette tape item. This is RNG based, but the capture system discloses the probability of whether or not it will succeed. Generally, you have one party member hit "Record" (which requires them to transform back to normal, leaving their HP susceptible to attack) while your other party member fights as normal. All damage dealt to the target monster increases the probability, while any damage dealt to the party member recording reduces the probability. At end of turn the Recording either succeeds or fails. If a monster would be KO'ed (or flee) during the turn you try to record it, the Recording gets resolved first so you don't have to worry about accidentally KO'ing it.

"Shiny" monsters also exist. They're called "bootlegs", and have a different elemental type (including different moves) from the normal coloring.

When a monster levels up enough, you can "remaster" its cassette, evolving it into a new (typically stronger) form. Sometimes you are allowed to choose its new form yourself, other times it's decided automatically based on certain factors.

One of the funnier little elements in this game is that your basic curative item (called "Rewind") resembles a pencil. Anyone who lived during the cassette era knows how this works.

 

[PokéSean]

Am now on the part where I have to deal with the Snorlax on Route 7 in X. Got Charmander as my Kanto starter to defeat Serena. Will also go back to Black.

 

[beryllium]

currently doing a blind run of omori. pretty sure i've still got a ways to go though.
i was playing totk but i've been on hiatus ever since street fighter vi dropped

 

[PokéSean]

Currently am on X near Parfum Palace and turned Exp. Share off for the team to reach Lv. 25.

 

[Insanish Danish]

I started playing Ghost Trick a couple of days ago and omg I'm already addicted, the gameplay is so much fun and the art style is amazing and the characters, much like in Ace Attorney, are quirky and wonderful. I've heard so many good things about this game and I'm so happy to be finally experiencing it for myself. Shu Takumi is a true genius.

 

[PokéSean]

I now am at Cyclage City.

 

[Herbizarre]

Shotgun King : The Last Checkmate. It's addicting and it makes you think before applying boom stick effects on other pieces !

 

[Catz]

Went on a bit of a nostalgia trip yesterday and played some Mario Kart DS, Sonic Colors DS, My Sims Party DS, and Mario vs DK using the DS's GBA emulator. Might play some more tomorrow.

 

[beryllium]

i have officially returned to stardew valley after taking a break from it for like, a year

 

[ZekromMahDad]

I started playing terraria again even though I beat it a long time ago

 

[PokéSean]

Made it to Geosenge Town though I don’t know who was blocking the entrance to Rte. 11 but I’m now on the said route.

 

[Lone_Garurumon]

New Pokemon Snap: Finished up with the ocean island courses, now moved on to the Sands course. I've actually been levelling that one a lot faster than I expected? I guess the biodiversity of that course is just a bit better than average.

TMNT Shredder's Revenge: Been playing this some more thanks to the Dimension Shellshock DLC. New characters Karai and Usagi are both an absolute blast to use, and Survival mode is... Fine. It's a decent enough mode to play, but I dunno, it doesn't have the same kick that arcade mode does imo. I've been playing a decent amount of it though, beat Shredder with everybody except Mikey and Splinter, even maxed out the level on Leo.

 

[kiwichu]

Pokémon Shuffle :3 god damn I freaking love it, especially on the bus to and from work. Does anyone else here play it much? I find it more addictive then benzodizepines.