What game are you wasting time on?

[soutaiseiriron]

Still Saga Frontier.
Crazy how every single fucking JRPG ever made just completely conditions you to ignore any spells or items of the "blocks enemy magic" variety, because 99% of mobs and especially bosses just end up invulnerable to it, or their spells/abilities are just in some special weapon skill class and not in the spell class, which you can't fucking tell at all 9/10 times.

 

[Zero CHAR]

I finally finished Death Mark 2... It was okay, but it was clear that they had a smaller budget even by Experience Inc standards, even after all the kickstarter money.

You practically spend the whole game in the same location, the school, unlike the two first games where you changed location after every chapter with a few exceptions. The twist is no twist, you can pretty much figure out who The Departed are from the first chapter. It was so obvious that I thought it was a red herring, but it wasn't.

The game references past games in the series, so I wouldn't recommend it for newcomers, just for fans of the series.

 

[Damned Registrations]

Still Saga Frontier.
Crazy how every single fucking JRPG ever made just completely conditions you to ignore any spells or items of the "blocks enemy magic" variety, because 99% of mobs and especially bosses just end up invulnerable to it, or their spells/abilities are just in some special weapon skill class and not in the spell class, which you can't fucking tell at all 9/10 times.

SaGa Frontier is pretty well known for being unfinished, I'd imagine tidying up the categories was low on the todo list. FWIW, it's a lot easier to figure out which sort of counters/protections work on what after a few playthroughs. They're all fairly niche, but also extremely crippling when used in that niche. I assume you're complaining about Psycho Prison? Enemies will have the same animation of a ring of coloured prisms whirling around them as party members do when they cast magic.

 

[Ezekiel]

I told someone that indies can't even do what studios did twenty to twenty-five years ago. Because I named Banjo Kazooie in my list, another person recommended the platformer Corn Kidz 64 on Steam. Played it for an hour.

Some of the platforming ideas are a little weird (like jumping into a bubble, headbutting with this automatic and somewhat finicky homing system up to the next bubble and then jumping off), which I imagine would have been play-tested and changed within a studio.

Progression too. I've done enough in this world now that I want to move on, but can't see how, which would have been taken care of within a studio.

Music is not as melodic as the old studio games I named, sounds more indie.

I don't get the point of the 240 line render. The scan lines probably don't look the same as a 240 line analog signal on CRT standard def TVs.

Seems like a nice game, but will need to go deeper to see if it's really up to the level of an old studio game. Doesn't seem so.

 

[Damned Registrations]

I told someone that indies can't even do what studios did twenty to twenty-five years ago. Because I named Banjo Kazooie in my list, another person recommended the platformer Corn Kidz 64 on Steam. Played it for an hour.

Not at all my jam, but wasn't there an indie sequel to Banjo kickstarted a while back? I recall A Hat in Time being pretty well received as well.

 

[Ezekiel]

I told someone that indies can't even do what studios did twenty to twenty-five years ago. Because I named Banjo Kazooie in my list, another person recommended the platformer Corn Kidz 64 on Steam. Played it for an hour.

Not at all my jam, but wasn't there an indie sequel to Banjo kickstarted a while back? I recall A Hat in Time being pretty well received as well.

Yooka Laylee? Did not have the same charm. I can't say how close its scope, music, polish and characters came to Banjo Kazooie because I did not play it for very long.

I played A Hat in Time. Didn't finish it. Can't remember if it felt like a studio game overall. I do remember that portions of it felt more sterile than what studios did.

 

[soutaiseiriron]

Still Saga Frontier.
Crazy how every single fucking JRPG ever made just completely conditions you to ignore any spells or items of the "blocks enemy magic" variety, because 99% of mobs and especially bosses just end up invulnerable to it, or their spells/abilities are just in some special weapon skill class and not in the spell class, which you can't fucking tell at all 9/10 times.

SaGa Frontier is pretty well known for being unfinished, I'd imagine tidying up the categories was low on the todo list. FWIW, it's a lot easier to figure out which sort of counters/protections work on what after a few playthroughs. They're all fairly niche, but also extremely crippling when used in that niche. I assume you're complaining about Psycho Prison? Enemies will have the same animation of a ring of coloured prisms whirling around them as party members do when they cast magic.

The point extends to other games though. It feels like I see this shit in 1/3 JRPGs I play. I ignore the block magic spell because it's not useful and I find a workaround where it might be useful, but doesn't work, then I suddenly just have to use it on one specific enemy that will two turn me if I don't. So fucking annoying.
But yeah, Psycho Prison. I didn't pay attention at all to attack animations because they're never going to be in perfect congruent sync with everything else where I can deduce information from them in a game like this. I can't think of anything other than Kylin or Rouge that had those prisms. Maybe the trash mob mages that you can just one turn that deal zero damage, not sure why I'd ever use it against them.

 

[Damned Registrations]

Still Saga Frontier.
Crazy how every single fucking JRPG ever made just completely conditions you to ignore any spells or items of the "blocks enemy magic" variety, because 99% of mobs and especially bosses just end up invulnerable to it, or their spells/abilities are just in some special weapon skill class and not in the spell class, which you can't fucking tell at all 9/10 times.

SaGa Frontier is pretty well known for being unfinished, I'd imagine tidying up the categories was low on the todo list. FWIW, it's a lot easier to figure out which sort of counters/protections work on what after a few playthroughs. They're all fairly niche, but also extremely crippling when used in that niche. I assume you're complaining about Psycho Prison? Enemies will have the same animation of a ring of coloured prisms whirling around them as party members do when they cast magic.

The point extends to other games though. It feels like I see this shit in 1/3 JRPGs I play. I ignore the block magic spell because it's not useful and I find a workaround where it might be useful, but doesn't work, then I suddenly just have to use it on one specific enemy that will two turn me if I don't. So fucking annoying.
But yeah, Psycho Prison. I didn't pay attention at all to attack animations because they're never going to be in perfect congruent sync with everything else where I can deduce information from them in a game like this. I can't think of anything other than Kylin or Rouge that had those prisms. Maybe the trash mob mages that you can just one turn that deal zero damage, not sure why I'd ever use it against them.

Yeah very few enemies in the game use proper magic, it's mostly Kylin/Time Lord/Rouge, and some mystics in Asellus' route. Basically only characters that would really obviously be using magic.

And yeah, silence (and status effects in general) tends to be garbage in most jrpgs. The worst is when you try it on a boss it could work on but the spell has like a 50% hit chance anyways so you think the guy is immune. Quite often you can kill something faster than you can get a useful status effect to land. Final Fantasy 7/8 actually came up with a decent solution to the problem: it eventually gives you powerful spells that just inflict most status effects in the game all at once. With the shotgun approach, you'll probably hit whatever the boss is weak against. Infuriatingly, the series also came up with 'Scan' magic that reveals weaknesses, but it often doesn't work for status effects.

Part of the issue is that most status effects are tantamount to instant death if they can land even half the time. Sleep, Paralysis, Blindness, Silence... these all basically mean the boss can't hurt you any more and becomes a punching bag. Confusion and Slow aren't much better, generally cutting effective turns in half.

If you want a jrpg combat system that lets you use status ailments on bosses reliably, Crystal Project would be the way to go. They're balanced to not be overpowered so doing stuff like sleep/blindness/silence actually works pretty much all the time. I wish it were more popular, the genre as a whole would improve a lot if it took cues from that combat system.

 

[Beggar]

 

[Ezekiel]

another person recommended the platformer Corn Kidz 64

Buried with her favorite cheese grater? What's the humorous connection between spider and cheese grater? This isn't even as funny as Banjo Kazooie.

 

[Beggar]

Update, lol

 

[CthuluIsSpy]

The tism must flow.

 

[Beggar]

Can't get past Deep Caverns. Thinking of reloading and going for the DLC instead

 

[jackofshadows]

Update, lol

Careful, that shit is addictive

Can't get past Deep Caverns. Thinking of reloading and going for the DLC instead

What exactly is the issue?

 

[CthuluIsSpy]

Can't get past Deep Caverns. Thinking of reloading and going for the DLC instead

Eye of Tchort, I'm assuming? There are hatches throughout Hollow Earth that you can duck inside of to reset the counter. They also will never attack you in Cytosine, even though you still get affected by the Eye.

 

[Beggar]

Update, lol

Careful, that shit is addictive

Can't get past Deep Caverns. Thinking of reloading and going for the DLC instead

What exactly is the issue?

Playing blindly so had no idea where I'm going with that elevator. Had all the bandages and health packs with me, but by the time I started having a clue what to do and what to search for, I was almost empty. Brutal area, 20 hours down the toilet. You need to know what are you doing because exploring and vagabonding will take its toll.

 

[CthuluIsSpy]

Update, lol

Careful, that shit is addictive

Can't get past Deep Caverns. Thinking of reloading and going for the DLC instead

What exactly is the issue?

Playing blindly so had no idea where I'm going with that elevator. Had all the bandages and health packs with me, but by the time I started having a clue what to do and what to search for, I was almost empty. Brutal area, 20 hours down the toilet.

Go to Arke power station first to restore power.
You can get one of the hydraulic fluids from Leo's shack, and there's another at the warehouses that you'll need to power up.
The valve is at tiphonus lab or the labyrinth.
You get the myocardia poison or whatever from the fungal forest.

 

[Beggar]

Can't get past Deep Caverns. Thinking of reloading and going for the DLC instead

Eye of Tchort, I'm assuming? There are hatches throughout Hollow Earth that you can duck inside of to reset the counter. They also will never attack you in Cytosine, even though you still get affected by the Eye.

Figured that out pretty quickly. But I'm missing some keycards so running back and forth occasionally stumbling on faceless or respawning spiders

 

[jackofshadows]

Playing blindly so had no idea where I'm going with that elevator. Had all the bandages and health packs with me, but by the time I started having a clue what to do and what to search for, I was almost empty. Brutal area, 20 hours down the toilet. You need to know what are you doing because exploring and vagabonding will take its toll.

First, there's a huge warehouse to loot on the way to Ark Station iirc (west side) and second you can restock at chortists on the east way. But yeah, of course it's easier just to reload and stock up some supplies beforehand. Also try to talk to faceless - maybe they turn friendly and won't annoy you anymore (tbh unlikely in your blind playthrough case, I had to wipe them out the very first time).

 

[Beggar]

Playing blindly so had no idea where I'm going with that elevator. Had all the bandages and health packs with me, but by the time I started having a clue what to do and what to search for, I was almost empty. Brutal area, 20 hours down the toilet. You need to know what are you doing because exploring and vagabonding will take its toll.

First, there's a huge warehouse to loot on the way to Ark Station iirc (west side) and second you can restock at chortists on the east way. But yeah, of course it's easier just to reload and stock up some supplies beforehand. Also try to talk to faceless - maybe they turn friendly and won't annoy you anymore (tbh unlikely in your blind playthrough case, I had to wipe them out the very first time).

Yeah, that storage made my eyes pop. Too bad there wasn't too much for me as I'm playing with spear

 

[The Decline]

Taking a break from Sekiro (watching horror movies and building model kits)

I did buy Forza Horizon 4 and played for a bit. It's fun, but I wish someone would run with the open world racing concept and set it in a scifi setting.

 

[Raghar]

I'm wasting my time by trying to find why chess engine doesn't see more figurines that can do mate in 1.

 

[Necrensha]

Pathologic 2 is a goddamn masterpiece.
I just wish there was LESS running!

Spoiler

First of all I just love how there is no answer to the town's true nature, it's a:

A physical space
A living organism
A magical construct
A theatrical performance
A children's game
A giant bull's body

All of these at the same time. Some characters refer to themselves as actors in a play, others break the fourth wall to talk to you directly, you see somebody else interpret the Haruspex every night at the theater, at one point there is even somebody following your steps because he claims to be your future replacement. If there's anyone who played the first game, you can even see that particular duo of children at certain points, observing you...

The unique folklore and culture that it's perfectly nailed into every aspect of the city, down to the way that the buildings are constructed to the rituals that you must follow to receive Kin's approval, this is something that I cannot think of a single game matching, not even close. Stuff like: random woman being accused of being a shapeshifting golem, the town refusing to install pipes because it would mean digging under the earth, Capella randomly sending you a telepathic message to visit her through the map's screen...

The grim, almost apocalyptic nature of the plague leaves me speechless: people jumping from roofs, covered up victims shambling towards you while moaning in pain, the Termitary having gigantic bags full of corpses hanging form the ceiling, the streets being filled up by robbers at first and later with actual flamethrower teams trying to clean up the endless piles of bodies, it all truly screams about the world itself dying in real time.

I noticed how the guy that arrives with you on the train exits a coffin, later is responsible for the dead shop that only accepts death-related stuff, and leaves exactly when everything ends.

Ths story is fascinating, how it starts as a thriller but evolves into a full on end of times story as you try to keep the children alive while fighting the local's murderous tendencies. There is no grandiose resolution, just one man's attempt to fix what his home is becoming. And regardless of your choice, Soviet Russia seems to be looming in the horizon all the same.

Some of the characters are totally underdeveloped, this is by design since each of the protagonists is supposed to interact with different npcs. Although, more than one time I found myself wondering why can't I ask more questions. Like the architect guy who created the Polyhedron, he has basically nothing to say through the entire game? His creation is one of the most important parts of the setting.

The music? Otherworldly and spooky at equal rates, the Steppe's theme it's my favorite.

Gameplay... it's complete bullshit. The only way of actually saving everybody is by extreme amounts of savescumming, which I refuse to do. In my latest playthrough, Notkin decided to get infected every single goddamn time he had the chance, had to use 3 fucking schmoders on him alone. The Abbatoir sequence is complete bullshit too, having to fight a line of enemies without items is pure pain, specially when they can just kill you in 2 punches. And the punishment over dying is just a huge middle finger.

Overall: Murky you're such a stupid idiot, I hate you!

 

[Kabas]

Just completed Felvidek, a very stylish jrpg about 15th century Slovakia.

Superb art direction and entertaining plot, dialogue is genuinely fun to read, etc. Can see why people were saying good things about it.
Felvidek is only 4,5 hours long but i am actually glad that it's pretty short. While combat is not bad at all for a rpgmaker title i don't feel like it's strong enough to sustain a longer playtime.

 

[Late Bloomer]

Taking a break from Sekiro (watching horror movies and building model kits)

Cool. Horror movies are a favourite of mine. Got any pics of the models you build?

I have taken a break from playing games for a couple of days. Might do the Power Wash Simulator Halloween map they released (free). Going to get settled into a long RPG for November. Have my eye on a few from the backlog.