Random video game news... the critical eyes have it

[Humanoid]

FF7 was fine, I finished it and had a reasonably good time doing so despite it being the horrible PC port. But it never was enough to make me curious about playing any other games in the franchise, and when reviews of the next game came out saying it was clearly not as good, that was pretty much it for me.

Well, until I played FF14 for a bit, but being an MMO that doesn't really count. That, and the storytelling pretty much devolved into standard single-player game fare almost immediately. The game teases you with freedom to be your own person for what, 10-20 levels, and then you're just forcibly recruited into the standard good guys club where you're nothing but a pawn following orders for the rest of the game. Blergh. It was the same feeling I had in my extremely brief time with Secret World, in their silence, the player character ends up feeling like a doormat.

[Keyrock]

1 hour ago, Humanoid said:

It was the same feeling I had in my extremely brief time with Secret World, in their silence, the player character ends up feeling like a doormat.

Secret World is one of my all-time biggest gaming disappointments. I wanted to love that game so much. It's like the game world was created specifically for me. Secret society conspiracy theory stuff is my jam and the writing was quite good, even if it was cliche as ****. Voice acting was solid, it looked good, for the time it came out. *sigh* You know, good writing and an interesting setting can get me through mediocre gameplay, perhaps even bad gameplay, but the combat in Secret World was so terrible and mind-numbingly boring that I just couldn't do it. I wanted to power through it to experience the game world, Lord knows I tried, but the combat was so off-putting that I lost the will to continue. Everything about it just felt wrong. There was ZERO feedback. Characters just floated around like they were skating on ice, everything had an input delay. Just awful.

Edited June 25, 2023 by Keyrock

[melkathi]

I managed to get through the zombie infected fishing village with two characters. It was one of the best done lovecraftian villages in any game. But the gameplay *shudder*

The demon infected motel I never got past. Just couldn't force myself.

If they turned it into a Netflix show, I'd watch it.

[InsaneCommander]

My favorite was FFVIII. But VI, VII and X were good too. The last I played was FFXII, which I didn't even finish.

[MrBrown]

On 6/25/2023 at 8:51 PM, Hurlshort said:

FF seems like they created the 'standard jrpg'. They certainly popularized it. FFIV was my favorite, I think. Which is the one where you take part in an opera?

That's 6.

Funnily enough, the Japanese don't seem to consider the FF-series a typical JRPG. For them Dragon Quest is more that. For FF, I remember reading they think there's more melodrama and everyone looks like a rock star.

[Keyrock]

19 minutes ago, MrBrown said:

Funnily enough, the Japanese don't seem to consider the FF-series a typical JRPG. For them Dragon Quest is more that. For FF, I remember reading they think there's more melodrama and everyone looks like a rock star.

Yeah, I agree with the sentiment that Dragon Quest (originally Dragon Warrior in North America) was the first of what we would later call JRPGs. There were games before Dragon Quest before it that we might call JRPGs, but DQ is the game that popularized the genre. Interestingly, it was a western RPG that heavily shaped what JRPGs would become, that game was Wizardry. There were some kinda sorta RPGs in Japan before Wizardry arrived on the island nation ,but Robert Woodhead's seminal blobber changed everything when it took the country by storm.

Edited June 26, 2023 by Keyrock

[LadyCrimson]

On 6/24/2023 at 8:51 AM, Wormerine said:

Relative lack of gameplay is what would worry me more

My reaction to that is sorta "what gameplay?"

If one is the type that likes games to be almost literal movies 80% of the playtime, it could be the game for you. Seriously ... watching Asmongold (and some others) it's like

NPC's - gotta fight tyranny, lets go beat them up - Asmongold - "Let's go, I'm ready!"
---melts into another cutscene
NPC's - "blahblah, over there." - Asmongold - "Let's go, I'm ready."
**repeat two more times*
--fight lasts 50 seconds.

---tons more cutscenes. And on and on. edit: yes I'm aware jrpg's can like this kind of storytelling, but 16 is extreme. That reviewer in the video is not wrong on the ratio.

In depth cutscene story telling/watching may appeal to some ... but it's not my style. 
But! you can jump-stomp-attack enemies with your chocobo while mounted! That's almost better than petting the dog!

Edited June 27, 2023 by LadyCrimson

[bugarup]

On 6/25/2023 at 10:09 PM, Keyrock said:

Secret World is one of my all-time biggest gaming disappointments. I wanted to love that game so much. It's like the game world was created specifically for me. Secret society conspiracy theory stuff is my jam and the writing was quite good, even if it was cliche as ****. Voice acting was solid, it looked good, for the time it came out. *sigh* You know, good writing and an interesting setting can get me through mediocre gameplay, perhaps even bad gameplay, but the combat in Secret World was so terrible and mind-numbingly boring that I just couldn't do it. I wanted to power through it to experience the game world, Lord knows I tried, but the combat was so off-putting that I lost the will to continue. Everything about it just felt wrong. There was ZERO feedback. Characters just floated around like they were skating on ice, everything had an input delay. Just awful.

Yeah, when I try to recall SW's combat the only thing I can think is "chores".  I still loved the first part of the game, the one in Stephenkingland, because it was very story-rich and it was possible to run away from a lot of fighting. Then Egypt was less story, more combat and it eroded my will to play really fast.

[the_dog_days]

On 6/26/2023 at 2:35 PM, MrBrown said:

That's 6.

Funnily enough, the Japanese don't seem to consider the FF-series a typical JRPG. For them Dragon Quest is more that. For FF, I remember reading they think there's more melodrama and everyone looks like a rock star.

That's a long roading way to say 'cringe'.

[ComradeYellow]

It all started in the early 1990's with the Soviet collapse and the collapse of the Japanese economy, Sony executives knew that the winds were shifting towards the West and that's why Sony came out on top and traditional minded Sega took a back seat.  It was at that pivotal moment when we started receiving a massive deluge of Japanese games with American Characteristics like 'Resident Evil' 'Final Fantasy VII', and 'Metal Gear Solid'.

I don't know the future of Japanese games, but fear of China taking revenge on them after their atrocities towards the Chinese in the 1930's is kinda forcing them into the arms of the Americans even tighter, despite wishing for strategic autonomy.  Let's hope for a future scenario where Chinese, Japanese, and American products can be seen as their own unique brands w/o bloodshed!

[melkathi]

Coming back to silent protagonists.

The one that worked surprisingly well was the player character in Defiance. You had 0 agency and were just following orders, but because even in quite a few cutscenes your character was kinda silently looming, it worked out really well as you being the leg breaker who got things done.

[MrBrown]

https://arstechnica.com/gaming/2023/06/major-sony-playstation-budget-figures-leaked-because-of-poor-sharpie-redactions/

[Wormerine]

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1086940/Baldurs_Gate_3/

Baldur's Gate3 PC release got moved to the beginning of August, and reveal some solid info on what we will get at release.

[Lexx]

25 minutes ago, Wormerine said:

Baldur's Gate3 PC release got moved to the beginning of August

I bet they are fixing the bridge where the boat didn't fit through.

[Sarex]

29 minutes ago, Lexx said:

I bet they are fixing the bridge where the boat didn't fit through.

It's coming out earlier than the original date. Because of Starfield.

[Wormerine]

3 minutes ago, Sarex said:

It's coming out earlier than the original date. Because of Starfield.

According to the devs they were holding back the PC release waiting for Console. As packed as end if August is, they decided to release PC early and PC5 will get a consolation price when Starfield releases

[MrBrown]

Meant to post this here, but accidentally posted in the other thread... 

https://www.videogameschronicle.com/news/nintendos-next-console-shareholders-ask-about-backwards-compatibility-and-more/

[Lexx]

23 minutes ago, Sarex said:

It's coming out earlier than the original date. Because of Starfield.

Oh, I thought it was moved into the future. Welp, guess that bridge will stay broken then. 0/10, not gonna play.

[uuuhhii]

still not sure why there are so much hype for starfield

didn't remember fallout 4 get this much attention

[Wormerine]

4 hours ago, uuuhhii said:

still not sure why there are so much hype for starfield

didn't remember fallout 4 get this much attention

I suspect it's combination of multiple things - Starfield being a step up in ambition and size from Bethesda previous titles, it being a "return to RPG" after trend of streamlining, it being a game after Fallout 76 and many people hoping it will be glorious return to form, it being THE Xbox first party release and years and years of nothing making it important for them to land this one.

[melkathi]

I am worried about badly written space vampires and space werewolves.

Bethesda has a fetish for those things.

[HoonDing]

No matter what class you pick in Barrel's Gate, you'll always end up a barrelmancer.

[Wormerine]

2 hours ago, HoonDing said:

No matter what class you pick in Barrel's Gate, you'll always end up a barrelmancer.

Eh, push and broken stealth are bigger concerns for me. Abusing barrels takes active effort.

[the_dog_days]

11 hours ago, melkathi said:

I am worried about badly written space vampires and space werewolves.

Bethesda has a fetish for those things.

Says the guy who loves VtM.

[Hawke64]

6 hours ago, Wormerine said:

Eh, push and broken stealth are bigger concerns for me. Abusing barrels takes active effort.

Chests, not barrels. Barrels are single-use, chests last for the whole game.

Spoiler

My PC and my stalwart companion, Chester.

From what I've heard, there should be less surface effects than in D:OS, though, as you've said, meta is still recommended (getting everyone into stealth and on the higher ground before starting combat). I guess, there should be less obvious exploits in a year of active updates. Then again, they might be features, not exploits.

Edit. The Dungeon of Naheulbeuk is free on EGS.

Edited June 30, 2023 by Hawke64