A Game Journal Reborn

[Klyde Chroma]

Hyper Light Drifter - FINALLY beat this masterfully designed labyrinth of a game. Final boss was somewhat brutal. Far more satisfying an experience than I had anticipated.

Gravity Rush 2 - Figured now was as good a time as any to get to this considering the servers are being shut down soon. Pacing is a bit sluggish but that is partially my fault for indulging too many side-quests.

[Aeolus]

RS2: Dusted off Dartang, six more heroes left to punk. Now on my third generic Emperor. And also felled the Giant in the South Straight Ruins (before Dartang even, both with my second generic Emperor; although I was pretty much running out of LP by the end of da Tang).

[Frostillicus]

I got Minecraft on PSN for my son because he had a great year in Kindergarten.

This morning was the first time I had ever played Minecraft myself, ever.

...I fear I may have a problem.

[Klyde Chroma]

@Aeolus -- Your posts keeping turning my attention to the RS2 icon taunting me on my PS4 home screen. Problem is, soon as I tried it I realized I still have turn based burn out from Persona 5. The Saga series in general is the one franchise I really want to devote time and have not sadly.

FFXV Ep. Gladiolus -- I don't care if anyone thought it was too short. Any more would have felt grindy and padded to me. Perfecto. Quickly reminded me of why I adore this game.

[Aeolus]

@Aeolus -- Your posts keeping turning my attention to the RS2 icon taunting me on my PS4 home screen. Problem is, soon as I tried it I realized I still have turn based burn out from Persona 5. The Saga series in general is the one franchise I really want to devote time and have not sadly.

I know I've been enjoying it thus far. It doesn't seem to be as rife with Guide Dammit moments as other SaGa games are. Like the GameFAQs walkthrough I'm using is missing quite a bit of information in regards to scenarios and side-tasks (like what to do with the Stone Boat, since its generally useless once you cool down the Volcano) but they're easy enough to spot. That said, its not completely without hazards (like losing an Emperor on the Stone Guardian boss fight during Rocbouquet's quest, Cumberland, or missing out on sleeping with the fishes), but its not like you have to follow a play-by-play guide to do everything (although that's generally because SaGa games infamously do not allow you to do everything in one playthrough). It helps that RS2 in particular has pretty clear cutoff points for the most part.

[Klyde Chroma]

@Aeolus -- Your posts keeping turning my attention to the RS2 icon taunting me on my PS4 home screen. Problem is, soon as I tried it I realized I still have turn based burn out from Persona 5. The Saga series in general is the one franchise I really want to devote time and have not sadly.

I know I've been enjoying it thus far. It doesn't seem to be as rife with Guide Dammit moments as other SaGa games are. Like the GameFAQs walkthrough I'm using is missing quite a bit of information in regards to scenarios and side-tasks (like what to do with the Stone Boat, since its generally useless once you cool down the Volcano) but they're easy enough to spot. That said, its not completely without hazards (like losing an Emperor on the Stone Guardian boss fight during Rocbouquet's quest, Cumberland, or missing out on sleeping with the fishes), but its not like you have to follow a play-by-play guide to do everything (although that's generally because SaGa games infamously do not allow you to do everything in one playthrough). It helps that RS2 in particular has pretty clear cutoff points for the most part.

That is actually super-reassuring to hear. Trying to play RS3 untranslated and Saga Frontier on the PSX left me scared of being shoe-horned by the obtuse into looking up crapohla constantly. The series has such a unique and "mature-albeit-charming" presentation it is hard to not be attracted to for me regardless of flaws.

[Der Jermeister]

I sort of wish Square-Enix would more look to the original SaGa games (the remakes, specifically, 3 being my favorite of the series) for inspiration as to how to continue the series instead of having obtuse mechanics and having potential unwinnable situations with points of no return (specifically in the Frontier games). I haven't played any of the Romancing games, but will eventually get to them someday.

I'm still working on Resonance of Fate, and am in Chapter 9. I gained a shitload of levels in an optional dungeon a few chapters earlier, but many of the bosses just pwn me, although I've beaten them after a few tries.

I have five hearts and two stamina upgrades in Breath of the Wild, and am at the tower surrounded by a bog where I have to stack metal crates in the mud to cross to the tower itself.

[Frostillicus]

HZD - Level 20-ish. Recently arrived at Meridian. Currently helping Erend look for his sister.
I haven't bothered with the tripcaster, or sling, or the shotgun-style thingee much. The three different bows have proven to be all I need. Then again, I prefer to play this game super sneaky sniper style. Especially now that I have (what I believe to be one of) the best Sharpshot bow(s), and can shoot components off with ease (reminds me, I should take up some of the hunting quests now).

Minecraft - Finished building my glass sky house. Now trying to mine deeper then I have dared to before. Got lost on the last excursion. Didn't know if I was going to be able to dig back to the surface alive... Thankfully, I did. Brought back a lot of gold with me, too.
Good times.

[Frostillicus]

BoF IV : That dungeon where you have to put apples on stumps to lure out the elephant/apteryx creature to chase it around narrow trap-filled ramps while constantly being attacked by the same 3 annoying enemy types?
... REALLY don't like that dungeon.

Enjoying the game otherwise.

[Aeolus]

RS2: And that's Bokouhn strings cut. Just five Heroes left to go. Turns out that you don't need your Emperor to be a Tactician, you just need the class unlocked. Also did a bunch of shit like collecting all of the Bard's Instruments, beat up a bunch of disloyal pirates, and stop a Volcano, so now I'm currently on my fourth generic Emperor. I probably should go after Rocbouquet or Noel next (probably Noel since my current party is a bit of a sausagefest atm and I lack a Moleman).


Edit: Welp. I'm fucked. I triggered the Final Emperor one generation too soon (should've left Noel or Rocbouquet alone, went after both since I failed to trigger a timeskip and wanted Selmet as a territory) so now my Empress has crappy SP and mediocre combat stats (lotsa MP and magic though, about the only good thing that came from having a Tactician Emperor), and there's no way to trigger enough time skips to finish up on the remaining Fusion Spells (on the plus side I funded Quicktime; on the minus, I didn't fund Elixir).

[Rucks]

BoF IV : That dungeon where you have to put apples on stumps to lure out the elephant/apteryx creature to chase it around narrow trap-filled ramps while constantly being attacked by the same 3 annoying enemy types?
... REALLY don't like that dungeon.

Enjoying the game otherwise.

BoF IV is best BoF, stick with it.  The payoff is one of the most gut wrenching scenes in the history of JRPGs. I literal teared up. 


My own play log: Tales of Vesperia is the 2nd best Tales game after Eternia and it's no one's fault but my own that I waited so long to get this deep into it. 
Darkest Dungeon is perfect for Switch (and handhelds in general) because it's so easy to pick it up, play one dungeon and then go do other things. 

[Der Jermeister]

The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild - I've found a few of the memory locations, and am working on the shrines topping the Dueling Peaks.

Resonance of Fate - Ugh. Have to fight a boss in Chapter 12 with just one character, and while I've been able to get far, a combination of the helicopter boss itself and the ground troops get me. I sold a lot of materials I don't need to get a new machine gun, and purchased a crapload of upgrades, maxing out my best pistol and machine gun, and will give it another go. Can't wait for this game to be over.

[Aeolus]

LoZ:TH. By some twist of fate, I was able to find other people playing this thing online so I'm actually making progress in this again. I've been clearing a boatload of challenges in certain regions (namely the Forest, Castle and Ruins), with a couple elsewhere as well and I even got the Ruins done (still need to do the Desert and the Sky Palace).

[Der Jermeister]

The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild - Moving along smoothy and am progressing to the Zora's Domain, after getting another stamina upgrade so I can scale higher areas.

Resonance of Fate - Encountered a difficulty drop in Chapter 13 where I simply had to give presents to children, but it shot straight back up even more in Chapter 14, where even normal encounters in the next story dungeon are kicking my butt. I am slightly racking up breakable items and to a lesser extent levels, and when I get enough hexes of a certain color I might link them to the arena and try it again (I'm stuck on a battle with four ailment-inflicting ogres).

BTW, @Aeolus, what's LoZ:TH?

[Jimmy]

I collected enough Koroks to finish upgrading my various stashes in BotW, and decided to finally call it quits after 14 months of playing it almost exclusively. I clocked 250 hours into it, though I think the last 60 or so have been just dicking around and finding Koroks and chests. After I finished all the main and DLC content, I found it to be a pretty relaxing game to play, so it was nice to just play it and unwind after a long day at school/grading freshman comp papers. Nevertheless, I finally decided to put it down and turn my attention elsewhere.

And elsewhere is finally getting around to Bravely Second! I got it shortly after it came out a couple of years ago, but haven't had a chance to get to it until now. I'm about ten hours in and finding it pretty enjoyable so far. The humor has been pretty fun again so far, and battles are fun. Not sure where it's going story-wise yet, but hopefully it won't get as infuriating and repetitive as its predecessor. I'm not really impressed by the Charioteer and Wizard classes yet, but I'm looking forward to the other new classes to mix things up since the first game was mostly classic FF classes.

After Bravely Second is finished I'll turn my attention back to No Man's Sky.