Games you are playing

[zamisk]

@Sigma and PLA

DQIX is one of my very favorite games, but I just played through the original for the first time and I'm amazed at how well it holds up! You have to talk to random people when you get stuck to find out where to check out next, it feels very much like an old D&D game. It's crazy how much it established back then on a first attempt. DQ is amazing and it's a shame it's not big here. (And it's a shame that the DQ-themed Pokemon Go thing in Japan will never come here, it looks like a blast!)

I'm also playing Ocarina of Time (Master Quest) on the 3DS again, since I haven't played in a few years it's really a challenge again, but still nostalgic and I'm having a blast!

And Borderlands 3 comes out Friday, so my friend is coming over after work to play all night. Anybody else getting it for PS4? I'll get it on PC eventually but wanted to do couch co-op at launch with my buddies.

[Sigma]

Dragon Quest 11

Currently in what is considered Act 2 of the game, having just made it back to Arboria.

One of the first thing I did with one of the characters was mess with their Fisticuff-line*. Much to my surprise they seemed to have strengthened the base skills and they are somewhat keeping up in damage in Act 2. Just recently unlocked the final ability in them and it is capable of being on par in damage with the Hero. On top of that, the individual hits seem to be capable of crits, easily surpassing the damage of the Hero's Unbridled Blade skill. The downside is that I don't know if I will be testing this much further since they were not a character I was initially planning on having in my main party... They're in it for now though.

*Even better is that they are capable of wielding a weapon and are not being required to take it off to use the Fisticuff skills.


The Rectification option is one of my favorite additions to this entry. This allows you to reset spent skills points in the cost of gold. However, it does require to take out the entire tree. I've been messing around with this a lot more frequently in Act 2 than Act 1. Much to my surprise, I've discovered that this can be abused to get to skills further down a tree instead of going from the base... Provided that there is a parallel run or intersection point from another tree.

I was hesitant at first about the Forge system, but it has really grown on me. I'm finding I enjoy this much more than what they attempted with in Alchemy in 8 and 9. They seemed to have fixed the problems that 9 introduced and is more heavily balanced, in acquisition of gear, than Alchemy was. The one really nice feature is the re-work option. This allows you take any gear (acquired, bought, forged, or failed in forging) and turn them into +3 versions (from base to +2) via use of Perfectionist Pearls instead of the item's ingredients. Those pearls can be acquired in one of two ways: forging gear or bought from a town later on.

[Lumnaya]

[Lumnaya]

Soma
A bit overrated, but good! It's a survival horror game and a thought experiment about what it means to be a person and what it means to be human. Avoiding the big monsters was stressful but less scary than the story itself, which is the game's strong point. Would have been better with more puzzles. It reminded me of The Swapper, which deals with very similar themes but as a 2D platform puzzle game — Soma is better written, more immersive, altogether better but The Swapper has more interesting gameplay. (Also I found Soma sadder and The Swapper more disturbing.)

Dust City
Really liked this one! It's an extremely short, low budget, amateur indie game with a very cool oniric atmosphere. More like exploring someone's dreams (or nightmares) and part of her diary than a “full” adventure game. First game I got on itch.io but I just downloaded a bunch of others!

Obduction
It's by Cyan and is a lot like Myst again — a beautiful open world with lots of machines and little guidance. Fewer worlds to explore this time but the scenery still gets really impressive at times! The difficulty is also more reasonable than in Myst or Riven; I solved a good part of it without a walkthrough. Some parts can get annoying though, you can easily get stuck because of one little detail that requires you to backtrack in complicated ways for a while. I definitely recommend making a copy of your game (via the load screen) when you reach (not really a spoiler) in case you need to use a walkthrough. All in all though, I liked it.

Soul Bubbles
A nice, relaxing little game for DS in which you move spirits in a bubble. You can inflate/deflate it, cut it into smaller ones, protect it from enemies, find hidden stuff in each world, etc. I haven't finished it yet but I've got nothing but good things to say about it so far!

Picross 3D Round 2
It's great! I bought an import physical version only because it was €10 instead of €35 for digital. It's like they're paying me to store the useless plastic box on a shelf.

Strawberry Cubes
I have no idea what's going on but I like it.

[North_Wolf]

Right now I'm not playing a lot because i have a lot of things to study but when I have some free time, I take back some old sonic games throught the "SEGA Mega Drive & Genesis Classic".