What are you playing right now?

[Keyrock]

Disgaea 2 finally unlocked on Steam, so I'm playing that, dood.  What's there to say about it?  It's Disgaea.  It's a completely silly game with a ridiculous story, wacky, over the top characters, and it doesn't take itself seriously at all.  It also happens, at its core, to be a really excellent sRPG with some of the deepest mechanics in the genre.

[Eumaios]

What's the s in sRPG mean?

 

I'm still kind of in minecraft, but it's losing luster again. I might go back to Tyranny, but I never made it past the first few scenes. I should at least play it long enough to know more of the NPCs, I guess.

[Keyrock]

What's the s in sRPG mean?

 

Strategy.  They're also commonly called "tactics games" as they rely very heavily on tactical positioning of your characters on a grid.  Fire Emblem, Tactics Ogre, etc.

Edited January 31, 2017 by Keyrock

[Vaeliorin]

Disgaea 2 finally unlocked on Steam, so I'm playing that, dood.  What's there to say about it?  It's Disgaea.  It's a completely silly game with a ridiculous story, wacky, over the top characters, and it doesn't take itself seriously at all.  It also happens, at its core, to be a really excellent sRPG with some of the deepest mechanics in the genre.

I had a Disgaea game back on the PS2 (I think it was called Symphony of Darkness or something similarly silly) and I recall it being, in my mind, overly complex.  It was fine up until they started introducing different colored ground that (if I'm remembering correctly) effected different characters differently.  It was just way too much to remember without having any sort of tooltips to remind me what did what exactly.

[Tale]

Root Double

 

The After route was pretty interesting, but overwhelmed with cliffhangers. The Before route that supposedly answers this stuff is a lot less interesting.

[Raithe]

Made another attempt at re-playing PoE.

 

Made it through to the city, got myself into the inn, and then hit that "Right....where's my enthusiasm?" moment.

[Katphood]

The first Infinite Warfare DLC is out and I want to play Rave in the Redwoods but man, it's a friggin 11 GB update! Oh well, I payed for it, might as well play it, eh?! 

[Wrath of Dagon]

Made another attempt at re-playing PoE.

 

Made it through to the city, got myself into the inn, and then hit that "Right....where's my enthusiasm?" moment.

Toward the middle of the game, I finally got into the stride, just going through checking off quests. The key is to have it in rotation, but not play it every day, it can't sustain that.

[Rosbjerg]

Made another attempt at re-playing PoE.

 

Made it through to the city, got myself into the inn, and then hit that "Right....where's my enthusiasm?" moment.

Toward the middle of the game, I finally got into the stride, just going through checking off quests. The key is to have it in rotation, but not play it every day, it can't sustain that.

 

 

I thought it was a little daunting getting into, I didn't quite grasp the combat and felt like it was quite a slog. I think I ended up restarting 3-4 times.. Found out the problem was I had taken classes that I just did not like. I just could not enjoy either Rogue, Priest, Barbarian or Cipher - they require a lot of imo redious micromanagenment, which sapped my spirit whenever I played.

 

Then I tried druid and the game just opened up for me- the class can quite easily be played as both caster and melee, but my favorite playthrough was probably Paladin.

[Wrath of Dagon]

Why does it make a difference which character your PC is? Unless you're playing solo. Edit: I made a wizard, and almost immediately met another wizard, who is almost exactly the same as the PC. I thought the game was doing that on purpose.

Edited January 31, 2017 by Wrath of Dagon

[Fenixp]

Why does it make a difference which character your PC is? Unless you're playing solo. Edit: I made a wizard, and almost immediately met another wizard, who is almost exactly the same as the PC. I thought the game was doing that on purpose.

You can easily avoid classes for companions too considering all are represented - if all fails, you can create custom ones in an inn.

Edited January 31, 2017 by Fenixp

[Raithe]

I'm not sure what it is, it kind of bugs me. I've completed the game before, and that first time I got into it from the get go and could sink large stretches of time playing it at a time. Just the return to it and doing it once more seems to be leaving me cold. Which is annoying because I want to get through so I can finally get around to playing the White March expansion.

 

One minor point that does seem to bug me is all the highlighted characters you can interact with only to find out they're just in for reading their soul and getting the flavour text. So it's almost wading through them while trying to remember who you have to click on to find side-quests and such.

[Gfted1]

Sounds like quest markers would be helpful.

[Wrath of Dagon]

I'm not sure what it is, it kind of bugs me. I've completed the game before, and that first time I got into it from the get go and could sink large stretches of time playing it at a time. Just the return to it and doing it once more seems to be leaving me cold. Which is annoying because I want to get through so I can finally get around to playing the White March expansion.

 

One minor point that does seem to bug me is all the highlighted characters you can interact with only to find out they're just in for reading their soul and getting the flavour text. So it's almost wading through them while trying to remember who you have to click on to find side-quests and such.

The backer characters have gold hued name plates, the ones you need to talk to are plain. A little difficult to tell them apart, but you get used to it.

 

Btw, can anyone tell me at what point in the game I can do White March?

[HoonDing]

Automapping was the quest marker of the 90s.

 

God forbid people want games that don't waste their time.

Edited January 31, 2017 by HoonDing

[marelooke]

Sooo, finished SOMA. And damn, the PC is dense...

[Fenixp]

Sooo, finished SOMA. And damn, the PC is dense...

"Wait... Are you... Are you telling me that the exact thing you kept saying will happen to me... Will actually happen to me?"

[Blodhemn]

Splitting time between Arcanum, Stick of Truth and popping pain pills, zoning out to Bloodlines. 

[Blarghagh]

Excitement for Pillars 2 got me to play Pillars 1 again. I've never actually finished it due to my birth defect of serial character creation, but I'm hoping my Death Godlike Ranger will make it through. Chunked Durance for talking to me, though. **** that guy.

 

EDIT: Damn, looks like I'm not the only one. I second WoD's question - when can I actually access White March stuff? Last time I played was pre-expansion. I'm currently lacking both DPS and Mechanics, so I'm looking to pick up that construct Rogue ASAP.

Edited January 31, 2017 by TrueNeutral

[ManifestedISO]

You can start White March as early as Level 6 I believe, but I prefer 7-8-9 ... before finishing Act II of the main game. The soulbound weapons and new companions help a lot with fun factor and getting through Acts II and III.

[Eumaios]

One thing to keep in mind about Pillars, which is like a lot of old school games, including Baldur's Gate, is that the order in which you attempt different areas has a tremendous impact on the difficulty. The game itself isn't super hard. It has some tough fights, but I think most of them are reasonable. However, by judiciously deciding where to go and when, you can either make everything a lot easier for nice smooth run or create more challenge. I would go take a look at the white march when it opens for you, and you'll know, but I would give it a few levels before you make a determined foray. Then, if you finish the White March, some areas of the main path will also be a bit easier, and that will be true whether you go early or not.

 

I should do another Pillars run.

[Oner]

 

Sooo, finished SOMA. And damn, the PC is dense...

"Wait... Are you... Are you telling me that the exact thing you kept saying will happen to me... Will actually happen to me?"

To be fair, he is brain damaged.

[Keyrock]

I won't get a lot of time to play Disgaea 2 until the weekend so I've made very little progress so far. Mainly, I'm grinding the very early areas a bit to create a decent team of characters and get them some basic equipment. Newly created characters start out at lev 1 and naked, so I'm getting them cheap weapons and armor and a level or two, just so they won't get 1 shotted. It's not that big a deal since I'll be able to make better characters later on, but I do want a solid team before I get into the thick of things.

[Fenixp]

Yesterday, I have finished Resident Evil 7.

 

I've had a blast with that game. It's a true return to form for Capcom, by far the best RE game since the 4th one. By returning to many design principles of the very first Resident Evil game and PS1/2 era Japanese horror games in general, yet mixing this with its own twists on the formula and taking some cues from games like Alien: Isolation or Outlast, Capcom has created a refreshing blend that works exceptionally well. And from every nook and cranny, it's obvious that developers have enjoyed the hell out of making this game, bringing us an extremely confident Japanese horror with just the right ratio of creepy and cheesy. Thank you, Capcom, for not trying to appeal to western audiences anymore and just doing what you're good at - we'll appreciate this a lot more than your previous pandering.

 

The ending could be a bit divisive (I loved it), the game could be a bit shorter as it does drag on a bit at the end, stealth mechanics could be a bit more fleshed out and puzzles could be a bit more difficult. Protagonists could also be a bit more interesting, but antagonists are so great so that I don't even care.

Edited February 1, 2017 by Fenixp

[Oner]

Running around Mordor constantly avenging Flouride and Labadal. Dammit guys. Just.. just dammit.