What have you been playing recently?

[Karkashan]

Penny's Big Breakaway

A modern take on a Sega Saturn esque 3D platformer.

The prior experience of these devs with creating Sonic Mania shines through in the fun sheer momentum based traversal that's so integral to the game. Challenging enough to be engaging but not frustrating due to the fact that if you don't care about your score being docked 10k points every time you run out of lives (health) (they're the same thing in this game) you have basically infinite continues. However getting a high score is encouraged as it is tied to unlocking things in the extras menu (and you can collect little hexagons to unlock truly challenging bonus stages). Throw in a time attack mode and you have a game suited for players of many skill levels.

 

[Camelsruler]

Beat My Hero One's Justice 2.

This game improves on the first game for sure. The controls are tighter and just controls much better than the first game. New characters and new story mode takes it to maybe season 3 or so of the anime.

Sort of a shame we will probably never get a third game for this but for what it's worth the second game is a definite improvement. New cosmetics and new characters are an obvious plus but sort of disappointed with the same-sy levels not anything really new or standout. Mainly just the game's controls and some new characters and that's really what matters most in this sort of game tbh.

 

[mr_chun]

Just really haven't been interested in playing the new hotness, so I've gone back and played some older games instead.

Beat Assassin's Creed Rogue (PS3). My wife and I both loved Black Flag, so we passed the controller on the sequel.

Beat Excite Truck (Wii). Played this with my son. He's great at it, cleared most of the levels himself.

Replaying Monster Hunter World (PC), this time on Steam Deck. Will be hitting the Iceborne expansion for the first time.

 

[SenexBeast]

Injustice 2
Killer Instinct
Mortal Kombat 1
Street Fighter VI
Tekken 8
Ultimate Marvel vs Capcom 3

 

[Karkashan]

Beat Excite Truck (Wii). Played this with my son. He's great at it, cleared most of the levels himself.

I remember playing this so much as a teenager my dad was worried that I would want an actual pick up for my first car lol.

I have no recollection of the original soundtrack to the game, however, as I'd play Carameldansen, NSync, or something from random anime OST like Cardcaptor Sakura via the SD card connectivity.

 

[Kamurocho_Freak]

Tomb Raider: Unfinished Business. An expansion for the original game, it features 4 pretty lengthy missions that provide a worthy challenge for returning players. The first two cover Lara’s escape from Atlantis as she exterminated every last mutant, and escapes from the Hive before it destructs. Pretty cool, very combat heavy, and a nice way to put a final bow on that adventure. The other two see Lara return to the City of Khamoon, now flooded presumably as a result of her actions when swiping the Scion. These two were definitely the highlight, being way more puzzle and platforming oriented, as well as giving us more original looking areas to explore thanks to the heavy focus on the cat motif in the new temple.

Took just shy of six hours to finish everything. The Atlantean stronghold level took me 1 hour 30 minutes to complete, but I noticed one of the trophies is for clearing it in under 5 minutes, so I’ll definitely have to lookup a guide to see what sorcery is at play here, lol.

 

[mr_chun]

I remember playing this so much as a teenager my dad was worried that I would want an actual pick up for my first car lol.

I have no recollection of the original soundtrack to the game, however, as I'd play Carameldansen, NSync, or something from random anime OST like Cardcaptor Sakura via the SD card connectivity.

My son had really only played Mario Kart 8 as a Kindergartner, but has since expanded to a lot of different racing games over the past couple of years. I'm amazed at how fast he's getting good at them. His favorites are Excite Truck and Motorstorm, which I think are perfect because they both have "crash forgiveness" in a way haha.

Yes! I need to try the SD card music thing. Endless Ocean has it too, iirc. You actually have me very curious to see what music I put on my SD card back in like 2007 lol.

 

[Dead2009]

Been pushin through Shadow of the Tomb Raider here lately and I dont know why I didnt start them sooner. Beat Rise and now Shadow is proving to be a fun time.

 

[Kamurocho_Freak]

A truly remarkable sequel, Tomb Raider 2 builds upon its predecessor in every way, upping the action and scope of Lara’s second adventure significantly. The first level is insane, and felt like an immediate follow up to the difficulty found at the end of the previous game. It lulls you in with a slow build, but it won’t be long before you’re dodging an insane gauntlet of chopping blades, spiked walls closing in, and the usual pits and boulders. The Venice level that follows is a nice change of pace here, somewhat more relaxing in how you’re able to navigate the waterways via speedboat, though upping the combat by offering up plenty of shootouts with the Italian Mafia. This is the one change I have mixed feelings on, as while the combat itself is pretty fun, Marco’s goons are a persistent nuisance for the rest of the game, and part of me really misses that sense of isolation, where you jetted around the world but only ever saw five other souls the entire game.

From there we explore an Opera House, Oil Rig, the ocean depths and wreck of the Maria Doria…a very cool moment, with inventive level design given that you’re exploring a ship that rested on the ocean bed upside down. Finally, a Tibetan Monastery, and then back to China for the finale. To somewhat contradict my previous critique, I will say that I didn’t mind the more modern environments Lara explores here. There are some cool set pieces, and the variety is appreciated, I just really wish they either scaled down the human encounters in the Maria Doria/Tibet entirely, or at least gave us a few longer stretches without.

The Temple of Xian itself…holy shit that is one incredible level. As Lara approaches her prize, the dagger of Xian, she falls into an ancient trap that see’s her fall right to the bottom of the temple, and must work her way back up. What follows is an insane gauntlet…very little combat at all, but plenty of traps and puzzles intricately designed, with some clever backtracking and all round just fantastic level design. It took me just shy of 3 hours to complete, which is an eternity compared to most levels in the game, and I felt exhausted afterwards, but goddamn was it satisfying. By far my favourite level in the series so far!

The final boss fight with Marco’s Dragon form made for a suitably epic finale, though you also get a cute epilogue level, where Lara fights off the remnants of her foes as they stage a home invasion at Croft Manor. Now this was one time where I loved being able to blast away on random dudes. Bonus points for how different the Manor feels when exploring at night too!

Took around 18 hours to finish this game, so definitely much longer than the first. There are elements to both games that I prefer so far, though I do think I lean slightly more toward the first game being my favourite. I was actually surprised how little of this one I really remembered. I did play it back in the day, watched older family members complete it, but never did it legitimately myself. Beyond the speedboat in Venice, big dragon fight, and Home Sweet Home, most of what was here felt completely new to me.

I continue to be having an absolute blast with these remasters, and absolutely cannot recommend them enough. Probably gonna be a while before I get to part 3 though, due to FF VII coming out.

 

[SenexBeast]

Final Fantasy XIV Online

 

[Camelsruler]

Beat Snoopy's Grand Adventure.

Very easy 2D platform game. The animations are beautiful though as is the soundtrack. Very simple 2 player co-op adventure.

The game can be completed solo and is fairly easy to do with multiple paths. The different costumes scattered throughout the world provide some variety to the platforming. A second player can play as Woodstock and can help stun enemies, grab hearts and jellybeans and even provide shortcuts for Snoopy.

The levels are very basic and repetitive which is the pitfall of the game regardless of the targeted age range. The levels are too simple basically left to right for EVERY single level. To make things worse the controls are not always responsive IN A PLATFORMING GAME. This is the bread and butter for its genre and the ball was largely dropped here.

Highlights are a couple of the boss battles are genuinely fun and original. This also provides a break in the gameplay. Also a few of the levels are memorable particularly the Beethoven levels and the space levels.

I found myself often skipping most of the costumes and some light collectathon items and bee lining it straight for the exit however which is not a good indicator of a fun time.

 

[1CreditBlades]

My focus has been clearing ESP Ra.De. I have made it to the TLB several times now. I think I am almost there.

Other than that, beat Ratchet & Clank (2002) a couple of weeks ago, and it's great. Way better than that shitty 2016 remake. No-damage'd the final boss. Same with Crash 1, all Plat relics and no damage'd each boss.

Not sure what else I'll pick up in the interim. Perhaps Ratchet: Deadlocked, Wanted: Dead or Rhythm Heaven Fever. Gunvein is on hold for now.

 

[1CreditBlades]

AND IT HAS BEEN 1CC'D.

FUCK YEAH.

 

[SenexBeast]

WWE 2K24

 

[-Troopa-]

A whole ton of Helldivers 2.

I'm downloading WWE 2K24 as I type this, so will play that soon.

 

[Redfield64]

As we wait for the Dawntrail expansion to release in the summer, I've continuing playing one of my alt characters in Final Fantasy XIV and today finished the main quest in Shadowbringers.

Shadowbringers has remained my favourite expansion in FFXIV, and it was great experiencing it all again. I'm still blown away by how impressive it is regarding it's epic story, it's god-tier music, the visuals and atmosphere of it's environments and the superb character writing.
The sassy and laconic puppetmaster Emet-Selch continues to be one of my favourite villains in FF history (possibly even pushing Sephiroth off my top spot) and I'm not surprised to see him rank so highly in character popularity polls. The magnificent bastard.

 

[Kamurocho_Freak]

People…like…Wakka?

[insert Scanners exploding head gif here]

 

[Redfield64]

People…like…Wakka?

[insert Scanners exploding head gif here]

From what I heard back when that poll came out, Wakka is a massive meme character in Japan, which would explain his popularity. The JP community really likes to meme.

I was more surprised about Bartz beating Sephiroth by about 5 places.

Spoiler

1. Emet-Selch (FFXIV)
2. Wakka (FFX)
3. Cloud Strife (FFVII)
4. Tifa Lockhart (FFVII)
5. Zidane Tribal (FFIX)
6. Aerith Gainsborough (FFVII)
7. G’raha Tia (FFXIV)
8. Vivi Ornitier (FFIX)
9. Tidus (FFX)
10. Haurchefant Greystone (FFXIV)
11. Squall Leonhart (FFVIII)
12. Terra Branford (FFVI)
13. Yuna (FFX)
14. Lightning Farron (FFXIII)
15. Bartz Klauser (FFV)
16. Noctis Lucis Caelum (FFXV)
17. Celes Chere (FFVI)
18. Zack Fair (FFVII)
19. Locke Cole
20. Sephiroth (FFVII

This other Japanese poll seemed to be a more recent one (7 months ago). Wakka didn't make it.

Spoiler

 

[Kamurocho_Freak]

I’d be interested to see where Lightning and Noctis ranked if the poll was held today. I feel like Lightning was a lot more popular worldwide a decade ago, and wonder if she and Noct would fall further as we move further away from their era. Lightning also likely suffers from being in the one mainline game aside from XI that can’t be played in any form on either PS4/PS5.

Would also be interesting to see what lasting impression XVI left upon the fan base. I did like Clive and Jill a lot personally, but still aren’t sure myself how I’d rank them against so many iconic characters.

I looked into the Wakka fandom, and that’s hilarious!

 

[mr_chun]

Beat Monster Hunter World main game, went a lot faster this time around.

Started Iceborne and HOLY JESUS the monsters are so much stronger than anticipated lol. Loving the challenge.

 

[SenexBeast]

DC Universe Online
WWE2K24

 

[SenexBeast]

Fortnite
Palworld
TMNT: Shredder's Revenge

 

[Karkashan]

Final Fantasy VII: Rebirth

This was fantastic. As I was playing through it I kinda thought to myself "I hope after they do FF7-3, the team behind this uses what they've learned from this to make a new mainline FF game".

Probably just the right amount of fluff in terms of open world map design for each area, side quests, and activities. Not only providing meaningful player power progression but also giving insight into the world and characters. But at the same time they're completely skippable if you, perhaps, get a little too invested in the mainline story and get swept along for the ride and then I realized I forgot to finish all the available Queen's Blood opponents

So yeah I still have quite a bit of game to go back to but I plan to save that for a rainy day cause there are other games I wanna get around to. Had 45 hours of fun though so I can't complain.

 

[SenexBeast]

Doom Eternal

 

[MatthewGavin10]

I am not far in FFVII Rebirth. I am really enjoying it. I just opened the map with Chadley. I am going to get to some of the places on the map then move to finish chapter 2.

I started Unicorn Overlord but am.not far in that either....maybe 45 minutes of game time.

 

[SenexBeast]

Chivalry II

 

[Camelsruler]

Beat The Adventures of Tintin (2011).

Pretty fun 2D/2.5D game that loosely follows the movie of the same name.

This game does some new/experimental things with the gameplay such as just the mix of 2D to 2.5D it feels very unique. They weren't afraid to take some risks with the style and it pays off pretty well it feels fresh even by today's standards.

The gameplay never feels dull as like I mentioned it switches between the 2D platform puzzles and 2.5D sections. It also throws in Snowy portions/Captain Haddock portions...plane levels and motorbike levels creating very good flow and pacing.

Soundtrack is a little repetitive but still good instrumentation, the story does differ from the movie mostly for creative purposes though.

The boss battles leave a little to be desired and it is a bit on the shorter side. The amount of variation and solid gameplay in this game can overlook most of the downsides and overall this is a great little gem and a top-notch licensed game done right.

 

[-Troopa-]

Helldivers 2 is mostly what I’ve been playing. Have around 70 hours of playtime now. Such a fun game.

 

[OneBigClam]

Solitaire

 

[SenexBeast]

Grand Theft Auto Online
Killer Instinct

 

[OneBigClam]

 

[mr_chun]

I've had the collection for a while, so finally decided to boot up the GBA Castlevania games. I know Circle of the Moon is the weaker entry, but I think I'm gonna play all three so I'm going in order.

 

[Karkashan]

World of Warcraft Classic: Season of Discovery (Phase 2)

Outside of my main Hunter who I've been running the brand new Gnomergan raid with over the past two months, I also managed to get a Paladin to level 40 as well thanks to the exp boost they added for level 1-39 characters part way through the phase.

Phase 3 starts on April 4th, with level 50 being the new cap and Sunken Temple being a brand new 20-person raid that will be very interesting to go through.

Dead By Daylight

DBD currently has the mother of all Bloodpoint events going on right now until the 31st, with the community having unlocked a permanent increase of what I believe is a 5x modifier to the base amount of BP gained during a trial, before offerings, that lasts until the event ends. Thanks to that and the 1 million BP they were giving out this week to compensate for bugged event offerings (that they've killswitched) and it took me like, 9 games across survivor and killer to Prestige 3 my The Unknown to get all his perks unlocked.

I won't be able to whole hog the event before it ends due to work and shit but at the very least I should be able to get enough games in to possibly P3 the new survivor Sable as well.

 

[Auron99]

Been replaying Dark Souls Remastered off and on the past week or so. I dunno what it is but I really don't get the intrigue of this game other than "hey it was the first Dark Souls".

I know the first time I played the game I basically had an issue with the entire game after Anor Londo, but looking back I feel like the game has issues well before then. If I'm not fighting off 9 million death traps in Sen's Forest I'm dealing with the most uninspired boss runback in history in the Lower Undead Burg. Divide and conquer a bunch of fast moving enemies inside a confined space to get to... a boss fight where you're fighting in another confined space with two more fast moving enemies.

Honestly thinking at this point I should have just replayed Bloodborne instead. Would have likely been a much better usage of my time.

 

[deuce985]

Rise of the Ronin a super underrated game. Will probably be my sleeper of the year.


Once I have my fill on this one not sure if I'll try P3 Reloaded on GP or Unicorn Overlord which I absolutely loved the demo of that game. After that it's Eiyuden Chronicles then I'll probably focus on Tekken 8 for awhile. I see nothing else in the near future for me unless I snag something like Helldivers 2.

 

[deuce985]

I’d be interested to see where Lightning and Noctis ranked if the poll was held today. I feel like Lightning was a lot more popular worldwide a decade ago, and wonder if she and Noct would fall further as we move further away from their era. Lightning also likely suffers from being in the one mainline game aside from XI that can’t be played in any form on either PS4/PS5.

Would also be interesting to see what lasting impression XVI left upon the fan base. I did like Clive and Jill a lot personally, but still aren’t sure myself how I’d rank them against so many iconic characters.

I looked into the Wakka fandom, and that’s hilarious!

I felt like Jill deserved more content to flesh her character out. It was very obvious they cut a massive chunk of her content out in FFXVI. If you look at the northern section you can see where the cut content is. I think she falls into a problem of the Japanese stereotype where the man protects the lady despite how incredibly powerful she is.


Clive I think is easily in a conversation for one of the best protagonist in the IP for me. The performance of the VO was fantastic and his dialogue made him highly likable. He's also a completely selfless character that defies stereotypes of princely types.


I never had major issues with Lightning personally. My biggest problem with XIII was the game itself. I just did not like it. I never played the sequels because I disliked XIII. I always said this they need to remaster all 3 of those games so I can give them a second chance. I think the PC versions use WS or something so they're kinda ass.


Noctis is a completely forgettable character to me but he seems to have a lot of appeal. When he was released in Tekken 7 they had a lot of surprise sales among DLC and he's a large reason or at least part of the reason T7 got much more DLC than was ever expected by Namco. Personally, I thought his character was good in the linear sections of XV but completely forgettable in the first half. I still think if XV maintained the back half section through the entire game or even had Kingsglaive's consistency on story it would've been a much better game.

 

[deuce985]

As we wait for the Dawntrail expansion to release in the summer, I've continuing playing one of my alt characters in Final Fantasy XIV and today finished the main quest in Shadowbringers.

Shadowbringers has remained my favourite expansion in FFXIV, and it was great experiencing it all again. I'm still blown away by how impressive it is regarding it's epic story, it's god-tier music, the visuals and atmosphere of it's environments and the superb character writing.
The sassy and laconic puppetmaster Emet-Selch continues to be one of my favourite villains in FF history (possibly even pushing Sephiroth off my top spot) and I'm not surprised to see him rank so highly in character popularity polls. The magnificent bastard.

I still have not even completed Shadowbringers in my game yet lol. I have Endwalker but I'm not past Shadowbringers yet. Always years journey for me in FFXIV.

 

[mr_chun]

Finally replaced the laser in my PS4. I think I'm gonna start with FFXII: The Zodiac Age -- first time (!!) I've ever played it!

 

[SenexBeast]

Star Wars: Battlefront II

 

[deuce985]

Been replaying Dark Souls Remastered off and on the past week or so. I dunno what it is but I really don't get the intrigue of this game other than "hey it was the first Dark Souls".

I know the first time I played the game I basically had an issue with the entire game after Anor Londo, but looking back I feel like the game has issues well before then. If I'm not fighting off 9 million death traps in Sen's Forest I'm dealing with the most uninspired boss runback in history in the Lower Undead Burg. Divide and conquer a bunch of fast moving enemies inside a confined space to get to... a boss fight where you're fighting in another confined space with two more fast moving enemies.

Honestly thinking at this point I should have just replayed Bloodborne instead. Would have likely been a much better usage of my time.

So I'll comment on this. I think for many people and for myself the reason DS is praised so highly even now is it has arguably the best level design of any of the modern Souls games. It has very masterful interconnected world or at least I thought it did.

 

[Auron99]

So I'll comment on this. I think for many people and for myself the reason DS is praised so highly even now is it has arguably the best level design of any of the modern Souls games. It has very masterful interconnected world or at least I thought it did.

I'd agree that the interconnectivity is really well done. Probably the best feature of the game.

To be fair, I think my biggest issues with the game stem from having played DS2 first and DS last (even after Bloodborne). Had I played the games in order it would be easier to appreciate the improvements from game to game, but instead I'm left with "oh God I gotta go all the way back to the firelink shrine to get some healing items before I traverse the depths or I'm going to be wandering into a pit of poison, toxicity and curse if I press forward."

 

[deuce985]

I'd agree that the interconnectivity is really well done. Probably the best feature of the game.

To be fair, I think my biggest issues with the game stem from having played DS2 first and DS last (even after Bloodborne). Had I played the games in order it would be easier to appreciate the improvements from game to game, but instead I'm left with "oh God I gotta go all the way back to the firelink shrine to get some healing items before I traverse the depths or I'm going to be wandering into a pit of poison, toxicity and curse if I press forward."

What I never understood is the hate Souls players direct towards Dark Souls 2. It actually has a lot of design decisions that never made it past that game that are still arguably better with a different director. It's the weakest Souls game overall no doubt because areas like level design/bosses/etc. just weren't as good. It still has a lot of design decisions I wish Dark Souls 3 used like the flask system alongside how it treated dual wield builds.


Some people hated the attribute changes in Dark Souls 2 because there was too many but it provided the most build variety of any Souls game. I'm a player who loves to dual wield I don't use shields in Souls games I hated dual wielding in Dark Souls 3. It's in fact, imo, horribly designed because they're item sets now so you get like what, 6-7 dual wield weapon sets in the entire game? DS2 allowed you to dual wield any weapon you wanted in the game even if it was 2 greatswords. The build variety was amazing.


I know it caused balance issues but that's the thing no Souls game has good balancing here. It's very easy to get OP in any of their games even with attempts to handicap it so why handicap it? Almost feels like Miyazaki's ego got in the way to design Dark Souls 3 not wanting to acknowledge any of the better design decisions 2 had in it.


I think a lot of players probably feel Dark Souls 3 has the best design but I personally don't think it does. I can look at different elements in 2 and 1 that were done better than 3. It's a fantastic game but I just wish they kept building off the biggest strengths to the previous 2 which I think it did try to do mostly. Also, Dark Souls 3 has the weakest DLC and Dark Souls 2 has the best DLC of the 3 Souls games, imo.

 

[mr_chun]

Finally replaced the laser in my PS4. I think I'm gonna start with FFXII: The Zodiac Age -- first time (!!) I've ever played it!

I lied. Beat Tetris Effect first, now halfway through Ratchet and Clank (2015).

 

[SenexBeast]

Fifa 23
Madden NFL 24
MLB: The Show 24
NBA 2K24
NHL 23

 

[Camelsruler]

Beat Kung Fu Panda.

Sort of got nostalgic for this with the recent Kung Fu Panda 4 so watched some videos and it looked decent so thought to give it a go.

First of all this game has some problems mostly technical and the controls can often feel clunky. Which is not really a good sign going into this. Thankfully they sort of meant for it to feel unbalanced as you progress you unlock more moves/techniques and Po feels stronger and has more mobility. Sometimes the controls still feel a bit clunky though even as you become a stronger Kung Fu Master.

The story is pretty basic but fine. Sort of loosely based on the original movie. Going back to the upgrades they are pretty cool actually and there is a lot of variety to your moveset. You definitely feel Po getting stronger as you progress which is good as it is sort of central to the overall character. The gameplay is pretty good. Once you start to become stronger, Kung Fu-ing through waves of baddies feels great and never becomes too tedious.

The game mixes up some of the gameplay elements by adding some "rolling Panda" levels, some boat levels and being able to play some of the other Furious Five characters such as Master Monkey and Master Shifu along with custom movesets for the new characters is also a welcome addition.

The music is good pretty standard fare but the multi-player modes are very fleshed out. Sort of an evolution of the Shrek Superslam games some of the better Smash clones available. These multi-player games became standalone entries later on so the fact it was included as an extra in this original game was great service to the fans. Lots of unlockables in this game add to the replay value and round this game out as being a run-of-the-mill licensed game done right.

 

[Kamurocho_Freak]

This is definitely the most old school rpg I’ve played in a very long time. When an otherworldly labyrinth materialises in modern day Japan, a gold rush of sorts takes place as all manner of groups try to monopolise its resources. A few decades after its discovery, the game follows a ragtag group of Undernauts, citizens of Tokyo desperate enough to take a job mining the depths of Yomi in hope of striking it rich.

The game has an insanely oppressive vibe for an RPG. It begins with your created protagonist barely escaping from a monster assault, in which a cute little girl with a freaky leech arm eats the rest of your team. Events take an even darker turn, and upon returning to base camp you realise there is no longer any means of returning to the surface. Now you must assemble a new team and find a means of escape.

Every member of your team is created by the player, and there are a ton of artwork options and job classes to choose from.

This was what I went with for my main protagonist. Really liked the mix of Yakuza girl boss meets badass samurai. A lot of the designs mix modern day style with fantastical elements, and I really like the aesthetic of this.

Exploration is handled via first person dungeon crawling. This very much feels like the kind of game that would require you to make your own maps on grid paper if it released 30 years ago. Thankfully you get a convenient map to pull up anytime, and I must admit that this game definitively triggered my gamer ocd, because I was compelled to fill every square. The environments are very cool as well. Initially starting you off in a dark mine, but with human limbs strewn about all over the place, you’ll eventually uncover gothic graveyards and castles, ancient forests and stunning cathedrals. It’s varied, but all with a consistent horror feel to it.

Combat is pure turn based. I’m a big fan of the enemy designs throughout, though alas many of the best ones I can’t post here because there is a lot of nudity. It’s never sexy, but often very creepy. A few hours into the game, you even get a stalker mechanic where the earlier mentioned leech girl comes back to finish the job.

Even though it mostly plays like a traditional rpg, the story, atmosphere and enemy design all combine to give Undernauts an incredibly oppressive feeling. Shin Megami Tensei might flirt with horror on occasion, but this game goes all in, and is easily the most enjoyable classic rpg I’ve played in years.

 

[deuce985]

This is definitely the most old school rpg I’ve played in a very long time. When an otherworldly labyrinth materialises in modern day Japan, a gold rush of sorts takes place as all manner of groups try to monopolise its resources. A few decades after its discovery, the game follows a ragtag group of Undernauts, citizens of Tokyo desperate enough to take a job mining the depths of Yomi in hope of striking it rich.

The game has an insanely oppressive vibe for an RPG. It begins with your created protagonist barely escaping from a monster assault, in which a cute little girl with a freaky leech arm eats the rest of your team. Events take an even darker turn, and upon returning to base camp you realise there is no longer any means of returning to the surface. Now you must assemble a new team and find a means of escape.

Every member of your team is created by the player, and there are a ton of artwork options and job classes to choose from.

View attachment 1159063


This was what I went with for my main protagonist. Really liked the mix of Yakuza girl boss meets badass samurai. A lot of the designs mix modern day style with fantastical elements, and I really like the aesthetic of this.

Exploration is handled via first person dungeon crawling. This very much feels like the kind of game that would require you to make your own maps on grid paper if it released 30 years ago. Thankfully you get a convenient map to pull up anytime, and I must admit that this game definitively triggered my gamer ocd, because I was compelled to fill every square. The environments are very cool as well. Initially starting you off in a dark mine, but with human limbs strewn about all over the place, you’ll eventually uncover gothic graveyards and castles, ancient forests and stunning cathedrals. It’s varied, but all with a consistent horror feel to it.

View attachment 1159073

Combat is pure turn based. I’m a big fan of the enemy designs throughout, though alas many of the best ones I can’t post here because there is a lot of nudity. It’s never sexy, but often very creepy. A few hours into the game, you even get a stalker mechanic where the earlier mentioned leech girl comes back to finish the job.

Even though it mostly plays like a traditional rpg, the story, atmosphere and enemy design all combine to give Undernauts an incredibly oppressive feeling. Shin Megami Tensei might flirt with horror on occasion, but this game goes all in, and is easily the most enjoyable classic rpg I’ve played in years.

I looked this up a little. It seems to have a lot of similarities to Shin Megami Tensei with the atmosphere and the weird story similar to Persona. I think this look kinda interesting from a horror vibe. I'm going to add it to my Steam wishlist.

 

[SenexBeast]

WWE 2K24

 

[deuce985]

Unicorn Overlord which will be awhile unless I put it down for something else. Excellent strategy gameplay.

 

[SenexBeast]

Ark: Survival Ascended
The Quarry