What are you playing right now?

Post Reply New Topic

In Shield I had a bit of an impasse moment, found this game's Ralts, something cute and I would totally add it to my team, but in terms of psychic Pokémon I already have Meowstic, one of my favourites, and still planning on a specific psychic type. And it looked like most of Hatenna's moves are support, which is already covered by Alcremie, which I plan to keep using for however viable.

Many months of trying and failing paid off, and I beat the true last boss of Touhou 6 Embodiment of Scarlet Devil. I'm a little disappointed I came so close to capturing some difficult spellcards, like Maze of Love and Secret Barrage "And Then Will There Be None?", but it wasn't a bad run either, having finished with two remaining lives.



I also finished the true last boss of Touhou Fantastic Danmaku Festival today. It's a fan remake of sorts for Embodiment of Scarlet Devil that I bought back in March of this year. It's a freaking hard stage, and it took me about as many months to complete.

I'm playing The Beginner's Guide

Terraria

Civilization 6

I've been playing Sekiro, I'm on NG+6 without Kuro's charm. Walking in on Lady Butterfly and killing her easily with relentless aggression feels really good when my first playthrough was a huge struggle. Still haven't managed to kill a (non-aquatic) Headless though, I hate those guys.

Also reading Umineko (up to the last episode of Questions Arc) and I hate it. There's so much of this interminable, repetitious text where characters rephrase the same thing over and over, pretentious meta commentary, meaningless subplots that interject with the actually interesting central mystery with increasing regularity to the point that by the fourth episode you get like ten minutes worth of actual story happening for every few hours of completely tangential scenes that you are led to believe are not real anyway. I'm going to at least finish this one but I'm never taking the internet's advice again.

I have been meaning to go back after I beat it the first time and got the return ending, I plan to go after the other endings. I planned to do so after was not as in the groove of I as was after beating Sword Saint Isshin, so it might be a bit of a growth after I pretty much beat everything, except the missable past battles and bad endings bosses, which are connected to the other endings. There is certainly a satisfaction with those sorts of games in dominating where you struggled before. Such that Genichiro can even be an obstacle at first, before just being an opening act

I would wonder how I would fair against Lady Butterfly when I play again, since she was the first major roadblock the first time I played, and taught me the value of being aggressive in the game of building up the meter to, later I got really good at technique for parrying, which would probably do a number on her multi-hit attack. Turning it into actually into a weak part of her attacks.

I'm impressed that you read to the fourth arc if you didn't like it that much. That's a a lot of reading. As someone who loved Umineko, I'll be honest and don't think you'll find the rest that interesting if you haven't liked it so far. What you refer to as the subplot is really an integral part of the main plot that's interwoven with the central mystery both narratively and thematically. Episodes 5 & 6 by far have the most meta elements in the entire series and to me include some of its high points.

As a whole the structure of Umineko reminds me of the Charlie Kaufman film Adaptation, in that they're both about writing, and feel like explorations of an author's trials and tribulations. And they both use another story, in Umineko's case Agatha Christie's And Then There Were None, subverting conventions as a means to explore the mind of a writer. Both are absolutely self indulgent at times, showing more style than substance and leaving a reader confused as to what to make of its plot threads. It's its biggest flaw.

If you really just want to get the answers to the 'central mystery' then you could skip to Episode 7. This would get you the who, why and how you likely seek. But while satisfying in its own way, reading it in this manner would miss the point Umineko tries to make.

I was sort of hoping the end of the Question Arc might conclude to some extent on the murder mystery part and move on, but since that's not the case I'll just quit here.

I'm not exaggerating when I say that probably 3/4 of the text if not more could be removed without impinging on the story in any way. This isn't a translation issue because the translation is, if anything, literal to a fault. The guy needs an editor.

Episode 1 spends about 20 hours' worth of reading on developing characters and motives, which is apparently all a bait-and-switch for a story about little girls playing with their imaginary friends. I think it's supposed to be working towards some trite point about how like, all fiction is just a fantasy, yeah? Which would be fine if it stayed at the 'unreliable narrator' stage, I don't mind that part at all, I don't mind Battler's game with the witch, but everything beyond that is miserable.

I really do not get Umineko's popularity at all. I'm struggling and obviously I really wanted to like it else I wouldn't have read it for eighty hours, but I can't understand at all.

Edit: the most frustrating thing is that the writer clearly demonstrates the capability to write a good mystery, and there are just enough interesting, thoughtful elements there that hint at something great, so the fact it's all a bait-and-switch is especially egregious. I've spoiled myself on the culprit now anyway. And a little of the final episode which honestly sounds so stupid that I cannot believe it.

I think the point of Umineko isn't what you thought, but that how we think about the world, our outlook and perspective are formed from the truths we create for ourselves. That sometimes in times of trauma we can create a distortion of the truth as a defensive mechanism, or to simply make us feel better about ourselves. And that sometimes other people might distort the truth to protect another, because having them learn the actual truth might break them.

I'm not sure how much I'd consider the story a bait and switch. I think that'd the case if you came in blind. Anyone who's read the first in the series would likely be anticipating many of its twists.

The past about needing an editor, that's very true. It's very indulgent but for me it didn't cross the line to excess until the last episode. I don't think editors exist though for visual novels, I've rarely read one that felt lean. Song of Saya would be one, it's fairly dense but only takes a few hours to read.

The other would be The House in Fata Morgana. I'd recommend the latter if you didn't like Umineko but wanted a more conventional story and three act structure. It's well written and edited, with a mystery that's satisfyingly resolved, likable characters, and features some great unique visuals and audio.

Spacestation 13

Attempting to beat Soul Master in Hollow Knight.
Note the word: attempting.
I just want a Spell to get to Crystal Peak and find secrets

I've been playing Boneworks. A lot of hype has been around this game based on Youtube footage over the last year or so, but I've been a bit cautious since I didn't find their previous games that engaging, even if they've always been very technically impressive. I'm glad that I had no reason to be hesitant about the purchase because it is an awesome game.

It's very clearly inspired by Half Life 2 and Portal, with a tutorial section that feels just like Portal, with its boxy sterile appearing rooms with stick figure images, and mix of bright colours against grey. The levels immediately after feel a lot like the streets of City 17.

The physics are maybe not the most realistic, but they're a joy to play with; the environments are absolutely chock full of physics items, and even your player avatar is a physics object. Melee weapons are tons of fun to mess with because of how the game handles two handed object interaction. Much of the gameplay revolves around these physics interactions and there's just so much emergent gameplay that comes from it.

One early example comes from the city streets where you fight zombie like creatures, where your only weapons are a hammer and debris including bricks scattered around. But you can pick up a garbage can lid and it works handily as a shield. There's nothing in the game that's specifically programmed to have it act as a shield, but as just another physics object that can block attacks it works. You can thus use objects to block attacks or to perform a shield bash.

Other smaller interactions include how the hammer can work as a blunt object, but you can also flip it around to remove boards from doors and such, just like you'd use a hammer. Or how you can physically assault enemies in creative ways, like pushing them into hazards. One fight had me roll a garbage can down the stairs, causing enemies to stumble so I could close in safely to push them head first into a wall. Another had me catch a robotic headcrab as it launched at my face, holding it down against the floor so I could more effectively smash it with my hammer in my other hand.

The game design is pretty tight, with a good mix of action and combat. A lot of these games can be very physically taxing to the point where you stop playing because you've overexerted yourself. Maybe that's a sign I need to increase my fitness but in this instance I found that the game regularly has downtime which features as engaging gameplay as its more taxing parts.

I've yet to finish it but the two sessions I've had I stopped only because the batteries on my controllers were about to run out. This game is the best by far from the developer, and the first that's really nailed the overall package beyond its basic gameplay loop. For me even having not played yet to completion I'd say this is my VR game of the year.

Kirby triple de luxe, had almost forgotten how fun these games are

Life is Strange: Before the Storm

Kirby.