January 2025 General Game Discussion

[isleepinabed]

Also, do you consider Yakuza 0 a JRPG? I don't think it really shares much lineage with them, especially the fact that you're playing a singular character (though that is also the case for DQ1) and combat isn't even remotely turn based. Same goes for Dragons Dogma, really. But again, I'm not much of an aficionado.

I actually have played a good amount of Valkyria Chronicles both on PSP and on my Steam Deck (So 1 and 2 respectively); they definitely feel more akin to a JRPG than something like Dragons Dogma or Yakuza 0. Feels like it shares a lot of DNA with Persona.

Because the first one wasn't that popular in the West, because everyone wanted it be something else (a Shenmue/Streets of Rage hybrid) which led to the series name change and the use of voice actors like Mark Hamill in the west, and because of the Kiwami remake, I think it's become forgotten how much the original Yakuza was like a PS2 era JRPG.

It had fixed camera angles and loading everytime you entered an area,
it had equipable weapons,
it had healing items,
it had stats upgrades,
it had silent NPCs and a lot of text scrolling,
it had random battles with loot rewards,
it had sidequests.

BUT it was set in (then) modern day Japan and combat was real time with no real "party".

Sequels strayed further from the JRPG tenets as they became their own thing, until the Like a Dragon games, which employed a very enjoyable and dynamic turn-based combat with combos.

As such, while invariably silly, it also played high on nostalgia and tended to appeal to older gamers, which is why it was so successful initially back in Japan - of course not everybody likes adolescent dramas or cutiesy presentation. At a time when western games were starting to make inroads into Japan and the generation that grew up on Famicom was growing into their twenties, it was a breath of fresh air.

Shin Megami Tensei was for many years the flagbearer for mature JRPG, with dark, theological and philosophical themes in its games. Curiously, it was with its sideseries set in high school (Persona) that it really exploded in popularity in the West, arguably becoming the most popular current JRPG series. Not at first, but eventually, much like Final Fantasy before.

Now, would anyone care to argue that Demon's Souls is also a JRPG?

 

[DXCHASE]

Im looking to sell my 4080super so i can upgrade to a 5080. Im goin to sell for a modest price because i dont mind paying some out of pocket to upgrade. Hopefully ill find a buyer.

As for gaming, i started playing a game called Beyond Citadel, its a boomer shooter where you are some defrosted anime protagonist. It looks fun and right up my alley (i love boomer shooters).

 

[BeardyHat]

perhaps the FF7 remake might be a better option? i haven't played FF7 myself and i'm more inclined to play the remake so that its more playable.

I'll probably stick with the original for a couple of reasons, first of all being I don't need to buy it. Second is that I have my emulation handhelds and I usually like to have a game I can play on there in bed and around the house if I'm not feeling or don't have access to my PC.

Im looking to sell my 4080super so i can upgrade to a 5080. Im goin to sell for a modest price because i dont mind paying some out of pocket to upgrade. Hopefully ill find a buyer.

I accept donations. I'll even write you a receipt so you can write it off on your taxes, you won't find a better deal.

I think I might have learned about this from @Hveðrungr. Just last night I was looking for something to play, as I'm not kind of bored with Dragon Quest 3 for the time being; I wanted to start something on my Deck, but I just got the battery replacement and with all my other projects and things, I haven't had a chance to tackle it yet, but I want to knock it out before I charge the Deck back up for use.

Anyway, was looking at my desktop on my laptop and found the .exe for Star Trek: The Next Generation - A Final Unity, so I installed it and gave it a go. A little janky on Windows 11, it would lose the mouse pretty frequently, especially if a notification popped-up. But then it occurred to me that it's running in Dosbox, so after some fiddling, I got it up and running on aforementioned Emulation handheld.

https://imgur.com/a/tT3q4o2

Ended-up playing for a bit last night, finished the first away mission, but failed to rescue the trapped woman before beaming away. What I'm loving about it so far is that it feels very authentic, like it was written and made by TNG lovers, there's just so much going on with the Astranavigation(?), the Computer (Codex) and then the away missions where I'm trying to figure a puzzle out, rather than blowing away Romulans or something. I'm thinking I'll probably need to consult a guide or something, as after that away mission I'm kind of just wandering the system aimlessly and hoping something pops-up, which it hasn't yet. Though I could probably also stand to spend a little more time with the manual, as I definitely don't understand all the systems yet.

 

[Johnway]

What do we think of this month's humble bundle? Got to say there are a few games i'm mighty tempted in ALL the games, although it falls into the "nice to have, not absolutely essential category". Maybe fort solis and pegasus expedition being runt of the picks, but still plenty of games to choose.

So much for saving money and buying more games... Starting the year +8 already is a bit embarrassing.

 

[Pifanjr]

What do we think of this month's humble bundle? Got to say there are a few games i'm mighty tempted in ALL the games, although it falls into the "nice to have, not absolutely essential category". Maybe fort solis and pegasus expedition being runt of the picks, but still plenty of games to choose.

So much for saving money and buying more games... Starting the year +8 already is a bit embarrassing.

€10 for Against the Storm is a great deal. Getting Jagged Alliance 3 with it plus a roguelike deckbuilder makes it an awesome deal.

If my backlog didn't keep growing faster than I can play I would've considered it.

 

[Colif]

The wrestling glitches made me wonder how long they have been making those games and why are they this bad still.

 

[BeardyHat]

What do we think of this month's humble bundle? Got to say there are a few games i'm mighty tempted in ALL the games, although it falls into the "nice to have, not absolutely essential category". Maybe fort solis and pegasus expedition being runt of the picks, but still plenty of games to choose.

So much for saving money and buying more games... Starting the year +8 already is a bit embarrassing.

I was very tempted by Jagged Alliance 3 and Against the Storm seemed like a nice bonus, though I'm skeptical if I'd like it or not. I was actually going to pick it up, but then I remembered my New Years Resolution and realized I really don't need more games right now and managed to stave myself off.

If anything, I'll give Jagged Alliance 2 a go, given I just picked it up a couple of weeks ago.

 

[Zloth]

In spite of my dislike of the Final Fantasy series, I've actually been meaning to give 7 on PSX a go, just because it's so widely lauded. Though, that didn't pan out for my complete playthrough of 6, so...

I'll be curious to hear how it goes.

Also, do you consider Yakuza 0 a JRPG? I don't think it really shares much lineage with them, especially the fact that you're playing a singular character (though that is also the case for DQ1) and combat isn't even remotely turn based. Same goes for Dragons Dogma, really. But again, I'm not much of an aficionado.

I don't see either of those as being a part of it. If it's an RPG made in Japan, it's a JRPG. I don't like defining a genre that way, but that seems to be the way it was set up. What if there's joint development with Japan doing some things and another nation doing others? What about the rising Korean and Chinese gaming studios?

I actually have played a good amount of Valkyria Chronicles both on PSP and on my Steam Deck (So 1 and 2 respectively); they definitely feel more akin to a JRPG than something like Dragons Dogma or Yakuza 0. Feels like it shares a lot of DNA with Persona.

Well, you don't play a single character and it's turn based, so that checks out with your definition. The reason I don't include it is because I don't see it as an RPG. The RPG elements seem small to me compared to the tactics, so I think hit has gone beyond a tactical RPG to a flat-out tactical squad game, very much like XCOM. There's more story than in XCOM, but I try to forget VC1's story - ugh! 4 did better there, but that isn't saying much.

If it helps it was those 2 guard hounds at the end of chapter 2.

Nah, I don't remember them at all. Though I do remember some huge gorilla thing attacking in the woods. That one gave me some real trouble.

 

[Hveðrungr]

What I'm loving about it so far is that it feels very authentic, like it was written and made by TNG lovers

Yes, it was me who mentioned it. I believe the plot is based on an unused episode script of the TNG TV show that they didn't get around to filming. They also had a TNG show writer oversee the game's writing and of course the entire main cast contributed their voices. So yeah, it's fully authentic. It's really an episode of the show in game form. Just be aware that the combat is quite janky when you get to it. As a kid it took me a long time to get past one fight in particular, about two-thirds of the way through I think.

(If you reply, be sure to reply directly or tag me so I see the message.)

 

[Colif]

Some alien black cube has inserted itself on my Motherboard

Maybe I should swap to blue again

swaps to blue just to find the light on cooler is green?

its a very blue green as this is Green on my PC and Blue on camera

Funny, buy a cooler so I can still see my RGB Ram... cooler so big it blots out the sun, or very least most of my ram from where I sit.

 

[isleepinabed]

Yesterday I started Obduction, a game I had sitting here for over a year, had just started to see how it was but not got into it.
I was spurred on by the fantastic looking Riven remake. First impressions are very good. There's just something quite satisfying in how the world is built and how you progressively get ahead.

However, as I'm playing it in free movement, I started getting motion sickness. The game only uses a crosshair when still..
So I thought I could ask here..
Do you usually get motion sickness with first person games?
What quick fixes do you use to resume playing in the same session when it starts to kick in?
What to do to prevent it?

 

[ZedClampet]

It had fixed camera angles and loading everytime you entered an area,
it had equipable weapons,
it had healing items,
it had stats upgrades,
it had silent NPCs and a lot of text scrolling,
it had random battles with loot rewards,
it had sidequests.

Can these really be key features of JRPGs when they all preexisted JRPGs, often in cRPGs like Bard's Tale and others?

 

[ZedClampet]

It amazes me when a game goes into early access and gets mediocre "mostly positive" reviews and then comes out of early access 3 years later with mediocre "mostly positive" reviews.

They had 3 years of players telling them how to make the game better and somehow managed not to improve. Usually, from talking to developers, this is because the lead developer is determined to make the game he wants regardless of what anyone else thinks.

 

[isleepinabed]

Can these really be key features of JRPGs when they all preexisted JRPGs, often in cRPGs like Bard's Tale and others?

The key feature of being a JRPG is that it's an RPG and that it's made in Japan (some argue that western-made games made in a japanese style - whatever that may mean - should also count).
JRPG have very well documented origins on computer RPGs, particularly Wizardry, Ultima and The Black Onyx. Naturally they share a lot of traits.

The argument was rather that the presence of those key features in Yakuza made it closer to a JRPG than an "action adventure" game, not that those features would define the JRPG genre as a whole.

 

[ZedClampet]

The key feature of being a JRPG is that it's an RPG and that it's made in Japan (some argue that western-made games made in a japanese style - whatever that may mean - should also count).
JRPG have very well documented origins on computer RPGs, particularly Wizardry, Ultima and The Black Onyx. Naturally they share a lot of traits.

The argument was rather that the presence of those key features in Yakuza made it closer to a JRPG than an "action adventure" game, not that those features would define the JRPG genre as a whole.

I disagree that it has to be made in Japan. It's just the style of RPG that came from Japan. It's like I can eat Japanese food without getting food from Japan. It's just food in the style of Japanese food. Mexican food? Just the style of food from Mexico. JRPG? The style of RPG from Japan.

It's like Anime. People do anime all over the world. It's not called anime only if it originates in Japan. Once a human creation crosses borders, it loses its exclusivity to the origin location.

 

[isleepinabed]

I disagree that it has to be made in Japan. It's just the style of RPG that came from Japan. It's like I can eat Japanese food without getting food from Japan. It's just food in the style of Japanese food. Mexican food? Just the style of food from Mexico. JRPG? The style of RPG from Japan.

It's like Anime. People do anime all over the world. It's not called anime only if it originates in Japan. Once a human creation crosses borders, it loses its exclusivity to the origin location.

These days when development teams are large and usually multinational, even in Japan, I guess that's become a moot point.

I would still call it "japanese-style RPG" rather than "japanese RPG". The same with food. Cultural sensibility is important so is the choice of ingredients.
I can make something that I can call spaghetti bolognese by myself at home but an italian would certainly consider it a misnomer to call it that..

 

[BeardyHat]

Success! Finished my Steam Deck battery replacement (mostly, anyway. It's running on its own power now, just need to finish the battery calibration) and I must say, it wasn't as bad as I had feared. I've read a few horror stories of it taking people hours to get their old battery out, as the original Deck like mine has a glued battery. Mine was pretty painless, after hitting it with my heat gun for a minute or so, I was able to fairly easily pry the battery up and out, then clean-up all the remaining glue/adhesive. The longest part was waiting for the initial charge to 100% and now trying to drain the battery completely before charging it again to 100%.

Think I may now try to get back to Yakuza: Like a Dragon given that my save is on my Deck, but I may also download GTA V and see if I can get it working properly. But I've also been thinking about picking Wizardry 8 back up again, which also has the Save currently stuck on my Deck. Decisions, Decisions...

At any rate, it's just damn nice to see my battery health now reported at 100% rather than 70% which it had been. I also only put the double sided tape/adhesive on on one portion of the battery this time and simply shimmed the other side, so if I need to do this again anytime soon (hopefully not, it's been two and a half years since I got the thing...) it should be even easier than it was.

 

[Johnway]

€10 for Against the Storm is a great deal. Getting Jagged Alliance 3 with it plus a roguelike deckbuilder makes it an awesome deal.

If my backlog didn't keep growing faster than I can play I would've considered it.

Don't forget blasphemous 2 and in total all those games is like 1.12 per game. that is as cheap as if i get for those games. its like 95% off. The thing is that i intend to get some of those games and it seems like the best time to get it. its not that i can't afford it (i have a huge amount of paypal credit and money in the bank), its just becoming a black hole and its like getting gout (having too much of the good stuff) and becoming a habit... Meh i'll get em sometime later... Unless someone wants to give them to me for free...

Nah, I don't remember them at all. Though I do remember some huge gorilla thing attacking in the woods. That one gave me some real trouble.

That was in the nature reserve? i thought it was going to be difficult but i lucked out. I believe they had an elemental weakness (fire) and it made life easy. Plus a bit of luck and i succeeded. I think it helped having laura in the group helped a lot.


So another run of Resident evil 2 completed. thats both Scenarios with leon/claire. Clocked 3hours and 2 minutes. S rank is under 3 hours. 2 mins off. honestly i could have shaved the time if i decided to cut a few seconds here and there. Now how to get S rank on hardcore mode? 2 hour 30 is a tall order. perhaps time to cut my losses and run?

 

[ZedClampet]

but an italian would certainly consider it a misnomer to call it that..

Nah, as an Italian, I can tell you we're pretty easy going on such things. As long as you own up to being the one who made it, we're good

 

[JCgames]

Yea played it and liked it, but the last boss was frustrating and after failing to beat it maybe twice I stopped playing a while ago. The music was especially good.

Btw The Last Spell is by Ishtar games who made Dead In Vinland, I remember you liked that one.

Dead in vinland is amazing, and it's challenging, but now you peaked my interest!

FtL is on my list to try one day I grabbed it on a 2 dollar sale but it seamed complex and you know how it goes learning games, I need to be in the mood. I think that's why I like point and clicks so much. You jump in and play and not need to spend 3 hours figuring things out. Not that doing that is bad, but I just really need to be in the mood.

 

[Zloth]

For a second, I thought that was a screenshot from Cyberpunk.

However, as I'm playing it in free movement, I started getting motion sickness. The game only uses a crosshair when still..
So I thought I could ask here..
Do you usually get motion sickness with first person games?
What quick fixes do you use to resume playing in the same session when it starts to kick in?
What to do to prevent it?

I got some motion sickness from Obduction - but I played it in VR. Fix was to stop playing for so long with VR going.

People try all sorts of crazy things to deal with motion sickness. Turn up your Field of View. Turn down your Field of View. Move the screen closer/further. Make sure the refresh rate is fairly fast (at least 40fps).

 

[ZedClampet]

Had a good birthday! Yay for me. Still alive.

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qM0zINtulhM

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y6ljFaKRTrI

 

[Frindis]

Hmmmm,

https://twitter.com/x/status/1877407095710167515

From my Gaming Predictions - https://forums.pcgamer.com/threads/gaming-predictions-2025.147102/post-402622

3. Ubisoft gets bought up, hopefully turning things around while eliminating those tainting the company with dumb decisions.

 

[Colif]

I smell more NFT games.

 

[Frindis]

Colif from the future is never wrong!