Whatcha play'n?

[SidneyF]

Anyone here playing Rocket League?

[Tehwilburforce]

Hey Sidney. I don't have Rocket League, but I definitely wanna get it once it comes out on Nintendo Switch. I'm super hype!!!

[Adol The Red]

I do like Rocket League, though I'm not very good and only play on and off. Gotta stop watching Cosmic Aftershock videos and then playing - it only leads to inevitable frustration.

Played Nier Automata after debating for a while, and ended up loving it. Only two main endings to go, and it got me in the mood to go back and play the original again. I mean, I know most of the spoilers, but it still would be cool to experience it.

This seems to be my pattern lately. I played Tales of Berseria without realizing it was a prequel to Tales of Zestiria. Figured it out fairly quickly and of course spoiled some things for Zesteria, but again, I don't mind. It's kind of interesting to see the story that way, to be honest. Of course, I still have yet to finish Zesteria, but I did beat Berseria, which I also found to be a lot of fun.

[Adol The Red]

Ys VIII. I mean, it should be obvious, right? I'm playing Ys VIII. The thing is, of the three Ys releases that have multiple party members instead of just Adol, I haven't finished a single one of them. That's not to say they're bad games, I certainly want to play them, but I get caught up in leveling everyone's attacks and then get sick of the grind. So this time I said screw that, and have played most of the game as Adol even when other characters might be better against certain types of enemies. Usually, you can rely on those characters to apply a quick guard break and have at the monster anyway, so its no big deal. Only recently have I been switching to other characters, and that's because all of Adol's skills are maxed, so why not? It helps that each skill only goes up to level three this time around. I can't remember what the cap is for the other two (Ys VII, Memories of Celceta[IV]), but I'm sure it was higher. I will go back to them eventually. But for now, its all Ys VIII.

Honestly, I find this game fantastic. I love the characters, and the resolution and understanding for the one party member that got on my nerves was well done. I'm a good way through the game, between half and three quarters, and I still have no idea who the final enemy will be because this is a survival story and not some great fight against an evil. At least not yet. But that's one reason I love Ys. Adol's family is alive, and he's not dark and troubled. His father was an adventurer, and his thirst for adventure is even greater. So he hears rumors, finds out about places where interesting things might be happening, goes there, and ends up saving the day from something eventually. As a side note, nearly every boss is a giant monster of some sort, and over these games Adol has almost singlehandedly destroyed an apocalyptic army's worth of giant monsters. But he's excited, and wants to learn about the lore and history of his world, and many other things that may be my own conjecture because Adol is more or less whatever you want him to be.

So there will be some big enemy, but what has happened so far has kept me more than interested. There have been a few storylines I did not see coming, and the game always has something to throw at you in order to keep it from feeling like a grind. I'm slowly mapping the island, but then our survivor's village might get attacked (we survived a ship wreck. Adol was on board, so of course the ship sank). These things are introduced gradually, and for the first time ever, I don't hate fishing in an RPG. Okay, I didn't hate the fishing in Mana Khemia, but I only did it when I absolutely had to. All they did was give you ingredient items along with the fish, and make the interface simple while still allowing for the occasional challenging fish battle. Since you're on a deserted island there's no money - the economy is all crafting and ingredient based, so getting ingredients from fishing is great. And I never felt like I had to work all that hard to get the next batch of necessary ingredients to enhance my equipment.

And... I have gone on for way too long. Look, I love Ys. Its my favorite RPG series so I'm biased, but if you like exploration and action RPGs, then I would suggest checking this one out. My only complaint applies to all the Multi-member party Ys games, and simply put, the bosses aren't quite what I expect from an Ys game. I do understand. When you're Adol by yourself, with very limited options, then a challenging boss fight can be molded to that skill set. And challenging boss fights are a staple of Ys. I don't even play games for challenge, but I love the bosses in Ys. The problem with the multi-member party games is that its a boss designed to fight three people, so its more difficult for the designers to make them truly challenging in the same way a one on one fight can be. Its not a huge complaint. There have been a ton of bosses which at least do interesting things, and I have even fought a few that gave me that Ys boss vibe, but when you can item spam your way through them instead of relying on that one item you can bring to the boss fights in days of old, it does steal some of the draw.

Not, however, enough to make me dislike this game. It's really only a minor complaint, and I'm sure the final bosses will be on a different level. Either way, I love this game and I'm not stopping any time soon.

[Pie]

That's great Adol! XD I'm happy to hear that you're enjoying Ys VIII. =) I heard some music earlier this week while I was working and got interested/curious. I've known some old Ys games as having some really awesome audio tracks and I've known about the series for a long time, though.. I've only played a few hours of Ys: The Ark of Napishtim. I was curious, the story is continuous thoughout all the Ys games, right? Sucks to feel that I'll miss out on a ton of important plot points I jumped into one that's mid-series. '_' -though I guess even if it did great as a stand alone game, I'd miss out on the feeling of it being an epic. =x

[Adol The Red]

Well, each game has it's own story, but they're all in the same world and all surround Adol. Essentially, Adol is an adventurer who gets caught up in the goings on wherever he goes. Honestly, you could play them in any order since the games aren't even chronological. Ys I and II are essentially the first and second halves game and come packaged together (I suggest the PSP Ys I & II chronicles), and they are the first. The next game in the timeline is actually Ys: Memories of Celeceta, the remake of Ys 4 (there have been a couple of versions of Ys 4, but so far as I know this is now the official one). Then comes Ys: The Oath in Felghana, the remake of Ys 3, which is one of the best and most difficult action RPGs I've ever played. Timeline wise, Ys 5 would be next, but there has yet to be a western port of it. The game was received poorly, only saved by its story, and nearly killed the franchise. Hopefully they'll bring it over, since its the last one that needs to be ported. Ys 8 comes directly after 5, and sometime after that is Ys: The ark of Nipishtim, which is the sixth game in the series (and also a lot of fun). Ys 7 takes place six months after Ys 6 and is the latest in the timeline.

Essentially, Adol went on over a hundred adventures during is life, and these games are the chronicles of his individual adventures. What you do get through each game, and its very subtle, is the backstory about an ancient land called Atlas (i.e. Antlantis) where humans and other races once lived. They spread across an alternate universe Europe (and Afroca where sits Altago, this universe's version of Carthage), and there are lots of hints about the nature of the ancient Eldeen race. It's fun to put it all together, and in fact, The Ark of Nipishtim has a huge clue. But all of this is in the background, and if I understand it correctly, learning about these things is Adol's primary goal. Of course, Adol is open enough that he can be whatever you want him to be.

Most of the games are solo quests, with 7, Memories, and 8 introducing a three person party mechanic with multiple members. Ys I & II have a rather unique control style where you run into the enemy to damage them (I believe you hit off center in I and diagonally in II, but I'm not 100%), and Ys II also has a magic element. Also, Ys II is one of my all time favorite games, so much so that I bothered to play it on hard mode. The later games (the remakes of course, I have never played an original) are 3D and tend to have more traditional sword attacks with some kind of special feature, along with either a jump or a roll. Ys 8 answered my prayers, giving me a jump and a roll (I prefer the jump).

All in all, I love this series, and though I do tend toward the solo adventures, the rest are still really good. I highly recommend at least giving them a shot. Just one thing, and I'm going to try and avoid spoilers. If you play Oath in Felghana, keep a save outside the Illburns ruins, just in case.

Oh, I almost forgot, there is also Ys Origin, which is set 700 years before the series and deals with the backstory of the first two games. I would play the first two at lest before tackling this one, just to understand everything. Suffice it to say, there is no Adol in Origin.

[The Lich Tree]

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[The Lich Tree]

Been playing a few things actually.

First up is monster hunter world, although as good as that game was I got bored after hunter rank 46 and didn't want to keep grinding out my hunter rank, I only really care about charge blade as a weapon. I come back and play for like events and will certainly be hunting the deviljho when it drops! but after playing almost 150 hours, i think i'm good.

Next up is Warframe, ho boy. This game is absolutely fantastic, as far as free to play games go this game actually reigns more of king than path of exile. the developer digital extremes are literal gods. they are absolutely amazing and I would throw money at them for days if I could. Gameplay wise warframe is hella grindy but that's to be expected in a free to play game, nothing content wise is locked behind a paywall just cosmetics and boosters, which is always fine for a free to play game but even better they're not super overpriced and daily logins come with discounts on premium currency sometimes, ranging from 20%, 50% and ultra rare 75% off. and it's usually well worth it and can take you quite a ways in terms of cosmetics and other things. i think my only gripe is inventory slots and frame slots, you get very little to start with but they're manageable, frame slots put me on edge with two to start but im pretty positive they give you starting plat and if i was you its best to buy frame slots. they're both really cheap in terms of the plat you spend and the plat amount doesn't increase as you buy slots so thats nice. really though once you start playing nothin they do to try to make money is a deal breaker and its all really fair. you can also trade prime parts for plat with people on the third party trading website so if you never want to buy plat, that option is there too. I could keep talking about this one all day, so time to move on.

And finally

*drumroll please*

I've started playing final fantasy 14 free trial

yup.

Now I'm the guy who doesn't like mmos, i'm always in search of that one that can change my mind.
I also don't care for final fantasy, never liked the games.

so one begins to ask the question at this point, why ff14 then?! WEELLLLL
thats cause people just kept talkin about it, I had always heard postive things about it and even from people who don't like final fantasy so I figure if it had a free trial, fuck it, why not? I give every other mmo a chance. and well heres my thoughts.

So far my absolute favorite thing about it, is the gestures. holy fuck they're lively as hell. you got some sick poses that make you think they're direct references to jojos bizzare adventure, you even got a sick pose that makes you go holy shit super sentai/power rangers? whaaat.
combat is alright, monsters are another huge drawing factor for me, some of them seem really cool. I don't know if final fantasy will be anything for me but as I delve deeper past the start I may find a reason to buy it and actually play, but we'll see.
one thing i'm really against with ff14 is an in game store, i haven't gotten to check it out cause it's not available to free trial users. I've heard it's only cosmetics but I'm against all kinds of in game purchases for paid or pay to play games. quite frankly it's bullshit and always will be in my opinion (it only belongs in free to play games). but i won't let that deter me from this experience because the game seems interesting so far.

[Pie]

Hey KainRogers. Everyone seems to be playing Monster Hunter World. ^^ A highschool friend, who I haven't talked to in yeeaaars contacted me and has been trying to get me to play too. XD I have no real experience with MH other than the demos, but I've always been curious of the franchise because of all the hype. =) Cecilia's played a bit, which led to that one piggy comic a bit ago. ^^

I've heard a lot of really good things about Warframe for a long time, but I just never checked it out. XD My brother was really into it for, but quit simply because he wanted more frames, but ran out of slots and didn't want to get rid of the current ones he has.

I hope you end up liking FF14. It's sooo goood! XD It kinda sucks though that I really feel that lvl30 and below content isn't a good gauge of how the game becomes. >.< I hate saying this, but it's true, the game get's so much better, especially at the end of ARR. Dungeon game play mechanics don't really get interesting until level 30 and get increasingly so. The more class/job defining skills also don't start appearing until around lvl30 either. A lot of the main story quests in the beginning kinda feel like more basic quests, but I guess it makes sense since, at that time, you're a nameless wandering adventurer. As you get further in the story, the quests become a lot more focused on the story line.

-oh yeah, and if you end up doing instanced content with super high level people, even though the content is level synced, if your gear is super high, it will be synced to the most powerful gear at that level so things still die much easier than they would naturally, though there IS an option you can mark to enter dungeons at the intended difficulty of when the content was freshly released, but you need a pre-made party for that; it's fun and can get suuuuper tough. XD

Anyway, I hope you end up enjoying it and the experience. =)

[The Lich Tree]

sorry for the late reply, i forgot to xD been seriously into warframe and stuff.

but monster hunter is great, i really enjoyed the game and clocked well over a hundred hours. although after that hundred hours i didn't find much motivation to keep going. maybe there will be in the future but for now im done with that beast and have been for awhile. just try it out is all i can say.

for warframe, your brother could of got prime parts from relics and sold them to other players for plat, or outright bought plat on sale, the limitations of two slots is a huge dealbreaker at the start.

i haven't had the best time with ff14, i have some overall gripe with mmos and thier combat systems, and to me just starting out and trying different classes of caster and the monk class.. im not sure its for me. im sure the story is great (even though im not a fan of final fantasy) but idk it doesn't seem leap and bounds to me, i wanted to try out a dungeon or two but i mean idk, i just wasnt getting into it. i think the beginning of ff14 just falls flat and seems like any other old mmo. that and i'd just rather play warframe :/