What video games are you playing now?

[Arylett Charnoa]

• Pokemon SoulSilver - Playing with team where nearly every Pokemon has a gem on its body in some form [Flaaffy, Dratini which will evolve into Dragonair and stay there, Staryu, Meowth destined to become Persian, and Espeon. Also Ninetales. She's just there because I love her.]
  
  
• Tales of Arise - Really enjoying this one. Just wish it were multi-player like all the other Tales games so I could play with my husband. Mostly, I just watch him play, but I'll have a go at it every now and then on his journey. Also wish the camera wasn't so zoomed into the character in the overworld - it gives us both a big headache.
  
  
• Final Fantasy XIV - Pretty much always playing this in one form or another, though I'm not playing much at the moment as I'm awaiting the new expansion.

 

[TheCapsFan]

I have dropped everything for Metroid Dread. :U

...and Pokemon Sword, since the Spooky Cup is this week and seems like a fun little introduction to how the metagame looks like today.

 

[Tactician Karina]

I've mostly just been playing (read binging) Castlevania Advance Collection. Finally completed Circle of the Moon, forgot how hard that one is among the GBA installments, and some bosses making me die constantly lol (especially Necromancer and Dragon Zombie, the latter I especially hate); also I never got all the cards.. again, maybe I'll make another file and do the tedious grind for them (I don't mind grinding in games, but this one is one of the worst for BS drops; otherwise the DSS mechanic is cool). Also completed Dracula X again since it's not too long, mainly replaying it for the soundtrack, otherwise this version of Rondo of Blood isn't the best (but still an okay game on it's own). Almost done with Harmony of Dissonance as well, I know this one is somewhat underrated but I always quite liked this installment after SotN and AoS (of course it helps that I really like Juste lol). Speaking of AoS, I started that one a few nights ago; still very early on since I want to beat HoD first, but I went ahead and beat the first two bosses anyway.

 

[Emmy]

I too have been playing Metroid Dread. It feels really weird playing a new Metroid game that's in 2D again but as much as I love the Prime series, the 2D platforming of the classic style was always my preference. Anyways, it's really good - classic Metroidvania gameplay with a fresh coat of paint.

Now if we can just get Prime 4 before the world ends...

 

[PokéSean]

Pokémon Emerald and just beaten Team Magma at Moodseep Space Center.

 

[MegaPod]

Super Smash Bros. Ultimate

I used to think I sucked entirely at Smash Bros. But now I realize…I only mostly suck at it! I’ve been playing it somewhat frequently now in recent months, with my dad and three of my brothers. Tonight marks the second ever time I’ve actually won a match! In both instances, I was using King Dedede, who I guess is officially my main now. I play as him in pretty much every match now!

 

[Ihsan997]

Total War: Warhammer II with the Chaos Dwarves mod

I love my grumpy dwarves so much, and blasting their fortresses to bits with magma and mortar is so much fun. If only I weren’t so bad at playing the game, I might get more out of it.

Now that I think of it, my Pokemon in Sword should be finished with their jobs by now. I need to go get my Switch too and check on them.

 

[Lone_Garurumon]

Neo: The World Ends With You: We beat the Ruinbringers and won The Game! But then we got disqualified from the mission because we got help from an outside source, and now we've gotta go again. Also Sho ditched us. What the fuck, Sho? I thought you were cool! And now we're trying to add the person who saved us last week, who is apparently Neku despite not really looking like him, so we can add them to our team to restore our ranks after Sho bailed.

Minecraft: More mining, this hole is very large, profitable, and complicated. It also has diamonds in it, so that was pretty rad. I did get a librarian with Mending, but also I was only able to get one book from them because they must have died or something? Because the next time I went to them they had completely different trades and no job experience so I suspect that something must've happened. However there is a desert village not too far from my own, which had a librarian that also sold Mending books, so I was able to get another one. Both the diamond axe Aximum and the mighty Lonecalibur are now self-repairing, which is always just a wonderful thing to have.

Pokemon Ranger: Shadows of Almia: The situation at Puel Town has been resolved, and Team Dim Sun and their gigaremo units were driven out. I dived underwater to retrieve the key to Norward Bridge from the stomach of a Sharpedo, and traveled to the Ranger Union to demonstrate Gigaremo demolition. Also, the underwater gameplay kinda sucks? Since every Pokemon they use underwater has the exact same water type assist, which all the Pokemon underwater are resistant to. Which kinda makes underwater captures pretty samey and not particularly interesting. They definitely should've leaned into the secondary types of the underwater Pokemon more than the Water typing.

 

[MegaPod]

Since every Pokemon they use underwater has the exact same water type assist, which all the Pokemon underwater are resistant to. Which kinda makes underwater captures pretty samey and not particularly interesting. They definitely should've leaned into the secondary types of the underwater Pokemon more than the Water typing.

Yeah, the type variety of assists in the underwater areas suffered for the most part, especially since the only marine Electric-type family at the time was given the recharge assist. Useful, of course, but not great for type variety. If the Tynamo line, Stunfisk, and Dhelmise had existed then, then there’d have been more options for assists that hit Water-types super effectively. They could even have given Stunfisk the Ground type but with an Electric type assist, allowing Stunfisk and Water-types to hit each other super effectively!

 

[CynthiaLover]

Decided to play something different and picked up Digimon World: Next 0rder for the first time in a while. Started a new file. I'm up to the point where Taomon gives the PC the Illegal Seed in order to plant it and report back the results in 24 in-game hours. My partners are Greymon and Garurumon, both obtained from the talking Digiegg DLC, as the other file I have had beaten the game. That way I can get easy Megas to give me a leg-up on obtaining more powerful Digimon partners later when they die and are reborn. I've also gotten a few Tamer Skills, as I'm Level 7 now, most notably HP/MP Regen when walking and Second Attack (or whatever they're called, but you get it). I've also obtained a fair few attack skills from wild Digimon, which has allowed me to outfit Greymon and Garurumon with more powerful skills.

 

[CynthiaLover]

Forgive the double post but I've been making progress in Digimon World Next 0rder. I now have a WarGreymon and MetalGarurumon and my Tamer Level is 17. I beat the Machinedramon in Dead End Town (and watched Kouta's confidence crash harder than Yukimura getting bodied by said Machinedramon), but only just, as I had to invoke an ExE Omnimon (or Omegamon in this game) to turn a curb-stomp battle against me into a curb-stomp battle against Machinedramon. This is another reason why I started with the talking DigiEggs DLC, as it meant getting easy Megas and an easy ExE Omnimon to make the battles against Machinedramon easier, as well as acting as stepping stones for later generations. I then did the necessary recruiting to trigger the next event and met "Mameo", fighting another Machinedramon and, again, invoking ExE Omnimon to level the playing field (and level Machinedramon). Then it was time to meet the Enforcer: Omegamon Zwart D, along with Mirei. Now it's back to more Mon recruiting but I'm going to wait until my next generation before moving ahead with that, although I will recruit GrapLeomon and Gargomon, as they're no-effort recruits (as in no battling needed) before my first gen Mons kick the bucket.

 

[RetroPokeFan]

Super Monkey Ball: Banana Mania and god, it's just so much fun.

It's a remake of Deluxe with content from both 1 and 2 and the newer levels from Deluxe but it's so nice just seeing an entry like the originals again instead of the weird gimmicks they tried pulling off with the other more recent entries.

Adventure had the story mode, Banana Blitz with the motion controls, Step and Roll with the Wii balance board, 3D with the um.... 3D on the 3DS and Banana Splitz being released on a console no one cared about.

 

[Lone_Garurumon]

Neo: The World Ends With You: Well, I was correct that Hoodie was not Neku. However I what I did not predict was the fact that it was actually Beat. Y'all I'm so happy to see Beat in this game. If any of the TWEWY1 crew had to show up I'm glad it was him. My delightful himbo son. Anyway, it's Week 2 Day 3 and it's the middle of the Second Scramble Slam. I'm really hoping the Purehearts are gonna take a piece of my territory once I'm done with the Variabeauties. I'm about 3/4 of the way to the top prizes and I don't think I can rack up enough points with just two more territories left.

Minecraft: Y'all know the deal by now. Hunting around through that god damn maze of a cave system (of course I never get lost 'cause I've got a system with torch placements that'll always tell me the important ways to go), got coal, got iron, traded for emeralds. Conveniently, enough emeralds to purchase two more Mending books from that other village's librarian who fortunately had not reset trades. I now have Varatha the Eternal Spear (Forma Trident) equipped with self-repair and Loyalty III granting instant auto-return on throws, as well as the self-repairing Hatsune Twintail diamond pick. No additional enchantments on the Hatsune Twintail yet, I'm gonna need to put together an enchanting table with some of those diamonds I picked up and see what I can put onto some fresh books.

 

[colours]

i finished Xenosaga I, so now onto Xenosaga II!

 

[Tactician Karina]

Still playing Castlevania Advance Collection. Beat Harmony of Dissonance with the worst ending, I almost always forget to equip the JB and MK bracelets in order to get the canon ending. Tonight I'll be going back to Aria of Sorrow to really start progressing after beating the first two bosses last time. Might also go ahead and start a new file in Circle of the Moon tomorrow cause I really want to collect all the cards for once, though knowing my luck it'll probably take forever.

 

[Emmy]

So, I managed to rush through "Metroid: Dread" before getting spoiled on anything...not like I really needed to as thinking about it Metroid has never been super plot heavy but whatever.

Anyways, I can see why people are praising it so highly as one of if not the best game in the franchise. It pretty much perfected the 2D formula whilst only carrying over one thing from "Other:M" that being the cool boss finisher interactive cutscene thingy. It's nice that we're finally moving forward past "Fusion" in the timeline after it being this wall for so long. Speaking of Fusion, one of my only complaints about Dread would be that it's a shame they didn't have the Samus soliloquies every time you move to a new area from Fusion, it would have made the emotional plot points hit a bit harder if we could get inside Samus' head more than just the occasional sad or angry close up of her face. The other issue being the final boss was a bit tedious - with four and a half phases it felt like something out of Final Fantasy rather than Metroid.

Regardless, I really enjoyed it and am glad to see that it's selling real well. Hopefully this will revive the franchise proper and Prime 4 will come out before the world ends.

 

[charlycicero]

I am currently re-discovering Xenoblade Chronicles X for the Wii U. Well, partially re-descovering, because I bought it in 2018 but I didn't get into it at first and left it after a few hours of playing; at that time I found the gameplay confusing and bewildering and I was just craving a new but similar Breath of the Wild experience, with its simple moving and battling mechanics. But I got curious again very recently and I am LOVING it. I didn't realize back then just how amazing and beautiful this game really is, and how expansive.
The world map is freaking huge and there is just a LOT to do in the game aside from the main story and in general the gameplay and missions are quite fun. And the landscapes are just breathtaking, the monsters are incredible and some are the size of literal buildings. The graphics are also amazing, even considering I am basically playing a 7-year-old game by now, on a "dead" console; they have aged well so far. Heck, I can still play online eventhough I lose the connection quite often. But I prefer solo play anyways.

It has easily climbed up to my personal top 10 videogames of all time, honestly. It is just that good, for me at least. If anyone here likes open world and JRPG games, I highly recommend it if you manage to still grab it (I wish it had a Switch port). I am really glad I didn't shelf this one for eternity without actually enjoying it, as I sometimes do with some games I don't get into.

Only catch, I've been playing it so much it has given me wrist pain on the left one (which is also a lovely leftover from my bass player days, carpal tunnel syndrome or such). I might have to rest from playing videogames altogether for a day or two so the damn thing can heal.

P.S. Something similar happened also recently with Mortal Kombat 11. When I bought it I barely completed the main story and left aside, then recently I re-discovered it and so far I have poured like 1300 hours total into it (farming skins and other goodies, playing online, unlocking stuff for my mains), but I am already losing interest on it because I have unlocked most of what I care about, and because frankly the online sucks. It is so buggy and unbalanced and it forces you to watch a slow-mo version of the freaking fatalities for the upteenth time so you can get your rewards. Still a great game.

 

[charlycicero]

Sorry for another recent and long post, but I'm also playing Monster Hunter Stories 2, but it is kind of in stand-by because of my aforementioned current obsession with Xenoblade Chronicles X. MHS2 is a very beautiful game and very fun both due to the story and gameplay, but if I am sincere here, I am disappointed it is not really an open world game (it is like Pokemon Sword/ Shield, with isolated patches that function partially as "open world" maps), as I really was looking forward to having the flying mechanic for the longest time as I played the first hours of the game, but as soon as I got it, I realized I was very limited in what I could explore with it, and I found those very annoying (but necessary, I guess) invisible walls. They should have made it so you can fly back and forth freely between the "open world" patches, and over the linear routes, without the load screens and the artificial invisible walls. It felt very choppy to me and a wasted potential for such an amazing mechanic.

Still enjoyable. And I love that it is sort of like Pokemon, with the Monstie system and all. Almost a perfect mix of Legend of Zelda and Pokemon.

Sorry I make my posts too long, but I have plenty of games in line for playing for the remainder of 2021 (most are games I haven't played): Pokemon Shining Pearl, The Witcher III, Mario Party Superstars (maybe), Spirit of the North, and that Switch double pack of Assassin's Creed games I bought a while ago and have barely touched (I can't remember the names, both are set on the ocean and with pirates, I think).

 

[PokéSean]

Training my Emerald team to Lvs. 65-70 to beat Rayquaza before post-game. I never know why they made a Pokémon pre-game in the wild Lv. 70?

 

[Tood]

I have been doing my best at trying to clear an easy mode run in The Binding of Isaac. I got up to Mom's Heart yesterday mostly by spamming a P2W item on bosses, and died there. It's still the farthest I've gotten yet, so I'm happy. I've also been playing Greed Mode, since I get to try some items out and practice avoiding hordes of enemies. I got up to the second-to-last level before dying to the boss. This has been the least productive 30 hours of gaming I've ever had, but I'm enjoying it nonetheless

I also returned to Genshin Impact for a bit to catch up on the latest story chapters. I just cleared the Inazuma chapter and am currently exploring the last two remaining islands of the region.