What Game/s are You Playing? Daily / Whenever Check :) (GAMEPLAY)

[Aussie2B]

Clearing the final boss of Star Ocean: Integrity and Faithlessness on PS4 wasn't any big deal, especially considering I had all the weapons earned from the Cathedral of Oblivion save for Fidel's, which are the second strongest weapons for each character in the game. After that I did the tedious task of defeating the final boss four more times after fiddling with affinity boosting/decreasing items to see the other four endings. Miki was the one I got without changing anything, and I also got Relia's, which is independent from the rest. It's hardly worth it, as the character endings are pathetically short. Not that they aren't in something like Star Ocean 2 as well, but at least there you could get as many as 8 solo endings or 4 paired endings in one go. Here it's just one single ending + Relia's if you qualify for it. I also discovered another annoying thing about the game. I assumed all cutscenes in the game were unskippable, but they actually *did* program in the ability to skip some scenes. I was able to skip most of the ending sequences to relatively quickly get to whatever character ending I earned. I don't know why that isn't available the vast majority of the game. The biggest time waste was the stuff before beating the boss. It's got like 5 different forms, 2 of which are invincible so you just have to stay alive until a certain length of time passes, and there's cutscenes before and after all of those, which can't be skipped.

After I finished with the endings, I cleared the hardest rendition of the final iteration of the Cathedral of Oblivion and then started up the Maze of Tribulations (which I still prefer calling the Cave of Trials). Thank goodness I have the strategy guide because, like the Cathedral of Oblivion (which is completely straightforward), you get no map, and with the dungeon areas all looking the same, it's really easy to get disoriented after doing a battle and having the camera swing all over. You can use the blank map like a compass at least and take note of which direction you're pointed, but it's still nice to have the guide's maps to refer to. There are 3 tiers to the dungeon, each with 5 areas (and a boss for each of those) In the first tier (Chasm of Repose, I think it's called), I cleared three sections, defeating Ted, Victor's subordinates, and a weird group of 5 Pavines, haha. Now I'll have to take a break from the game as my mom is staying with us a few weeks, and I want to leave the TV free for her. So I guess I'll have to pick out a handheld game to play in the meantime.

[YoshiM]

Here's a twist: played Skyrim but on the Steam Deck. I pulled my PC character out of digital moth balls to see where he was at. I decided to put him back on the main quest like my Switch character. He's like 6 or so levels higher than Chazelle, so he's got more things going for him. I set up the gyro controls and now this version has taken my Skyrim time. I'm now on my way to Riften.

I did some rearranging of my gaming area in the basement and I now have some of my retro stuff hooked up and powered up! I downloaded the demo of "Galagon" from Champ Games for the Atari 2600 and have been playing that here and there. This game just blows my mind and I am soooo not used to using a joystick anymore. I was having a problem with my TV being too low (I moved my file cabinet over to my metal shelving so I could have the TV at the same level as my Color Computer roll-ee table) so I took some leftover wood from the porch project (phase 1), stacked it to be about 6" high and now it's literally at eye level as I sit. it didn't help my score any.

[Aussie2B]

I decided to start htoL#NiQ: The Firefly Diary on my Vita. (The way the title is stylized is so annoying and completely counterproductive to getting sales, when people can't even read or remember it.)

I can see why most people aren't crazy about the controls. Even the control scheme that doesn't require touch controls doesn't feel great. There's one maze clearly inspired by Irritating Stick (or the game show it's based on, rather), so I tried switching to the touch controls for that, but then my finger was blocking my view. The game does have a lot of atmosphere, and I'm interested in learning more about what exactly is going on with Mion, the protagonist, and the world, though my rate of finding the sprouts that trigger Mion's memory scenes has dropped off. The actual puzzle platforming seems middle-of-the-road. Plenty of trial and error as you die over and over before you figure out how to progress, so it's a bit more challenging and frustrating than I was expecting. There's a trophy for hitting 100 deaths, and I've already done so in the third area. Between the controls and how time sensitive a lot of parts are, the game kind of feels less like the average puzzle platformer and more like Lemmings, where you're just trying to lead Mion to an exit before she wanders off to her doom. I'd prefer more direct control in a game like this, rather than what feels like a sloppy implementation of the controls you'd expect in a point-and-click adventure. Then again, the design of the controls does add to the feeling of vulnerability and highlights that Mion is just a little girl who has no idea what's going on and isn't particularly skilled at anything these circumstances are requiring of her.

[Aussie2B]

I kinda, sorta beat htoL#NiQ: The Firefly Diary on my Vita, in that I got the "bad" ending (which I believe one would have to get before being able to get the "true" ending). The trophy for "completing" the game doesn't pop until you get the proper ending, though. Right now, I'm on Chapter X, on what I assume is the "final boss". It's basically a tower defense mini game. So I should have the proper ending soon, unless this battle ends up giving me a lot of grief. The requirements to access Chapter X are pretty ridiculous, though. Needing all the Memory Fragments is fine, and I picked off the few I missed without much trouble, but having to go back to a random event to do something different and then a random stage with barely anything in-game to clue you in on that is a bit much. I would've probably had no idea what to do to fully complete the game if I hadn't already read a post about the requirements. I feel bad for all the people who saw all the memories and then refought the super annoying boss battle of Chapter 4, thinking that was the way to earn the other ending. That battle is basically the shell game + picking out an image you only get a quick flash of over and over and over. The shell game parts aren't too bad if you're decent at following the movements, but the other part basically requires mashing the start button to pause the game repeatedly to get a glimpse of what you need to see. In the end, you're probably going to rely on luck a little, and you can only screw up so many times before you have to start the long sequence all over. (I believe I read there's 25 instances of having to pick an answer.) Some people even film the game while they're playing and review the footage before they pick. There's a trophy for getting through the battle without making a single mistake, which is a huge thorn in the side for trophy completionists. Between that and another particularly irritating trophy, I doubt I'll bother with the platinum.

Honestly, I'm not sure how I feel about the game in general, which seems to be a common sentiment among people who play through it. I don't think it's a bad game, but I'd hesitate to call it good either. Most of the time, I'd just have a feeling of relief when completing a stage, glad that I was done with it and hoping I wouldn't have to return to it. It doesn't help that the pace is so plodding. Even when you know exactly what to do and can do it without issue, it feels like Mion takes all eternity to go through the motions. It kind of feels like playing a game in slo-mo, which often makes it feel like a chore. I just hope the true ending is satisfying because, even after seeing all the memories, I feel like the story is still extremely vague. I can take some guesses at what's going on, but I'd love to see something a little more concrete.

[Aussie2B]

Though the tower defense final battle in htoL#NiQ: The Firefly Diary on Vita was a pain, I did end up clearing it a day later. Unsurprisingly, the true ending of the game is just as ambiguous as every other cutscene in the game. I read some fan theories after I finished, and I also learned there are additional story details that, annoyingly enough, aren't given in-game or even in the limited edition's art book but are in Japanese trailers, which have been fan-translated. I seemed to have completely misinterpreted one of the main plot points, which made everything after more confusing. That said, it's all speculation, so there's no real "right" or "wrong" interpretation. Just some theories seem to make things fall into place better than others. But some speculation I'm not buying at all, like people who think the boss of Chapter 2 is the corgi. Some people love these kinds of cryptic stories, but I find them underwhelming, as if there's no real story to begin with. When I get into a story, I much prefer for there to be a lot I can sink my teeth into and then speculate on the deeper meanings of things and psychoanalyze the characters. I'm way more inclined to speculate profusely on a good visual novel than the story of an intentionally unclear game where you not sure about what happened at all.

Anyway, I picked off a handful of trophies after earning the true ending but stopped at three left (not counting the platinum, or "platinium" as the trophy list spells it). The remaining ones are just too time-consuming and tedious for my tastes. The game did end up being the perfect length for me. I wanted something to play while my mom was staying with us, and I got the true ending the night before her flight back home.

My plan was to resume Star Ocean: Integrity and Faithlessness on PS4, but then I came down with a cold. I always use headphones when I play games on our HDTV, as I play after my daughter is down for the night and the TV is right outside the bedroom. But I don't like the pressure of headphones on my head while sick, so I picked out a short game I could play through on my SP. I decided on Sailor Moon R, and I'm already up to the fifth and final stage. I'm playing the main mode, which includes a lot of walking around, interacting with other characters and playing optional mini games, but there's another mode that cuts out the story and is only the action segments. The game has you select your gender, and I picked that I'm a boy, haha, as that's actually the difficulty selection. Go figure that a series that many people hold up as female empowerment has a sexist difficulty selection where picking you're a girl gets you the easier difficulty. I get the mentality behind it, though. There were probably a lot of girls who got the game just because they were fans of the manga and/or anime but weren't very experienced with video games, whereas the boys who got the game were likelier to have more gaming experience. Both modes are quite easy anyway. The game roughly tells the story of the Black Moon arc, and it's got anime-exclusive characters, like Yuichiro. The game isn't at all anything special, but it's not bad either. It was a good choice for something relatively mindless to play while sick.