PWB November 2022

Started by Garwoofoo
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Garwoofoo

Play

Marvel Snap - along with half the world it seems. It really is genuinely very very good though, especially considering it's a free mobile game. It's generous with what it gives you, uses the licence to excellent effect and there's a pretty great card battler underneath it all.

The Lord of the Rings Online - back on this, casually dipping in every couple of days and slowly plodding my way through Middle-Earth. I've been playing this game on and off for over 12 years now and still haven't made it as far as Moria - the sheer size of the thing, and the slowness with which you progress, is quite remarkable really. It's also very fun to roll new characters and experience all the different starting areas, so I've had a number of false starts. I'm up to level 44 now though so I might actually make it this time…

A Plague Tale: Requiem - I enjoyed the first one and this is more of the same really. Its insta-fail stealth sections are a bit old-fashioned and the character Hugo who you're supposed to be protecting is an irritating little shit who deserves to be punted into the nearest burning haystack, but the production values are stellar and these kinds of linear action-adventures are always good fun.

Want

Genuinely can't think of anything, I have a massive backlog of stuff to get through and just need more time to play it all! Persona 5 is looking at me every time I turn my Xbox on.

Bin

Ditched Andor after four episodes. Everyone said to give it three episodes - and while the third episode took it from very boring to fairly boring, the fourth episode is back to very boring again so I'm out. If they cut out all the shots of people just walking from one place to another then each episode would be about ten minutes long. Star Wars should be about the grand sweep of good versus evil, crazy aliens and bumbling droids, tense battles and asteroid field chases and unexpected betrayals - how they turned it into the story of a bunch of men with beards being miserable on the planet Shittix is beyond me. Although I did like the bit where

Spoiler - click to showTim died. No-one in Star Wars should be called Tim. Fuck you, Tim.

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Brian Bloodaxe

Play
Celeste - I'm playing through this again to unlock secrets and collect strawberries. Still love it.

Persona 4 - Barely started, but not that I've started it after all these years I'm going to find the time for it.

Want
Is the new Mario & Rabbids game out.

Bin
Binning things. There's too many and it's both hard to choose and depressing.

Un-Bin
Andor. It's just so good. Apparently it's getting 24 episodes too!?

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aniki

Play

Obviously, Marvel Snap. It's great, even when I'm on a losing streak (though I've not seen any of the batshit magic combos that Twitter has surfaced yet).

It's been long enough since the PS4 original release that Persona 5 Royal is feeling pretty good; there's a lot of it I'm moving through quite fast, plot-wise, but the little bits of new story for the Royal edition are keeping things interesting.

Want

Looking forward to P4G hitting Game Pass next year(?) so I can not finish ay replays on a third system.

Bin

I would say the Tories, but they seem to be making a pretty good job of that themselves these days.

Andor. It's just so good. Apparently it's getting 24 episodes too!?

I think I read somewhere that it's two 12-episode seasons, leading directly into the start of Rogue One, which I'm very happy about. That last episode was spectacularly great, from the environmental design to Diego Luna's mute panic to Andy Serkis' barely-restrained power trip.

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Garwoofoo

Want
Is the new Mario & Rabbids game out.

It is! My son has played a bit of it and seems to like it so far but has been sidetracked by Easy Come Easy Golf. I've yet to start it but it's on The Pile.

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Alastor

Bin
Binning things.

Wait a second…

@aniki no spoilers but if you want to do the new semester I think you have to prioritise the new confidants, or at least the councilor which is good because his perks are amazing

Persona 5 Royal's changes are great, and the buff to status effects and getting a Technical are actually important in one bit, there's other stuff too like the refilling ammo and instant Baton Pass as a mechanic that just make P5 combat feel so much better now.

Play
Bayonetta 3 - If anything proves that Kamiya actually gets action games beyond a surface level imo it's the fact that without him in the lead role they simply couldn't make the sequels to his games better (Look at what happened with DMC1 to DMC2, latter arguably one of the worst action games ever made and DMC3 saved the series from that game, not DMC1). Simply adding and changing stuff with little thought to balance, the series had gradually changed from substance to spectacle…and at times Bayonetta 3 is pretty fucking spectacular despite looking visually terrible. It's really really fun and an imperfect Bayonetta is better than most games, but it's not Bayonetta 1.

…also it's crazy how many people say Bayonetta 2 is better than 1 because 'It doesn't kill you for failing QTEs and has no shitty minigames like the Space Harrier section'. Those are like 5% of the entire game :confused:

Mega Man Legends 2 - I can't wait to beat this great game and pretend I have been waiting for Mega Man Legends 3 for years with everyone else.

Want
I am not going to buy ANYTHING until Pokemon is out, probably, I want a Retroid Pocket 3 though and I'm having to sit on my hands to stop myself buying one…a little sad that it now looks like a Switch Lite, but when they made the screen bigger they kinda had to change the shape a bit I guess? Also it's crazy how much I want it for that second actual analog stick considering I never ever use my slider on the RP2. :thinking:

Bin

Syphon Filter on RP2 - Sad but alas, it makes my fingers bend like a spiders does when it dies, maybe if Fear Effect 2 on the Vita ends up a bust (there has to be a reason I own that and never played it all on Vita) I will try it on the RP2. I am fairly certain the reason I abandoned it on Vita was a 'lack of shoulder buttons' issue, again.

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Mr Party Hat

Play
Modern Warfare 2 (2) – First CoD I've bought for years, and it's almost identical to the last one I played. Run round the maps like a headless chicken, get killed the moment you see someone, respawn, run round the map like a headless chicken… It's Battlefield for children, but it is compelling.

Tinykin – This is great. Pikmin meets Banjo meets indie game. It's on Game Pass, if anyone fancies the sound of that.

The library. I'm a grown man, but I've only just discovered how utterly brilliant libraries are. You can just sit there, in a quiet room, and read ALL THE BOOKS. FOR FREE. My local library even had a brand-new delivery of Image comics the other month, all pristine and unread.

Want
It to get colder. It was 21 degrees on Saturday.

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martTM

Want

Genuinely can't think of anything, I have a massive backlog of stuff to get through and just need more time to play it all! Persona 5 is looking at me every time I turn my Xbox on.

Looks like someone forgot Tactics Ogre is out in less than two weeks then. :laughing:

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martTM

Right then…

PLAY
Marvel Snap - Obviously.
Pinball Wizard - Does for roguelike dungeon crawlers what Yoku's Island Express did for 2D platformers. Bounce around as a spherical wizard climbing a tower to earn gold and XP, then spend that on skills and power to help you get higher each time. I'm enjoying it, though its pinball physics aren't very sophisticated and it can get a bit repetitive.
Rogue Legacy 2 - Killed five of the seven (?) bosses, but hit a bit of a brick wall in terms of being able to get enough gold in a run to level up. Current area, the Sun Tower, is a bastard too, and I've no idea how to avoid the boss's attacks (though I've only faced him once, to be fair).
Ghostbusters: Spirits Unleashed - Got it cheap from Eneba, not played it yet though.

WANT
No games, items or anything that costs money - I need to be super good now, because I need all my money for…
A bigger flat - Househunting in Frankfurt is a bastard if you're renting, because there are so many people fighting for the same places. We lucked out and saw a place last Sunday morning that's perfect for us and within budget (even though one of the bedrooms is the same size as our current flat, it's not that pricey because it's unfurnished), and now we have a meeting with the owner on Friday because we happened to be the first ones to get there. I hope we get it. After 3+ years of ants, mold and general frustration in our current place, I could use something good happening. It's going to need us to be controlled with cash, as it's quite a jump from what we're paying now (basically double, though our current rent is stupid cheap considering the location), but we can do it. We have to.
UK interest rates to drop - though who am I kidding. My mortgage has gone up by 200% in the last six months. OOOF. Can't wait to get rid of that place.

BIN
Mythic Games - I could tell you all about the terrible tale of the Darkest Dungeon board game, but I can't be bothered to type all that on my phone. Suffice to say, never buy a board game made by Mythic Games unless you want to be charged stupid money, deal with people who have no idea how to explain things to users, make shitty decisions which fuck over the most dedicated customers and then act like nothing's wrong. Absolute fucking shysters.

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feltmonkey

Play
Marvel's Guardians of the Galaxy - I'm quite enjoying this, although I can only play it in 20-30 minute chunks every couple of days. Some of the fights are actually really difficult, so I'll be stuck on the same fight for days on end. I dropped the difficulty down to easy, and it became more like the game I wanted it to be - more casual combat and focussed on the characters, story, and humour, which is the real strength of the game. It looks amazing, by the way.

Final Fantasy Tactics Advanced. I play this on my phone through an emulator as a way of taking a mental break from painting. It's decades old, fairly simplistic, doesn't explain itself properly (it's never clear what each ability is going to do, and there's no in-game explanation, and what the "laws" mean is frequently a mystery) but it's compulsive as hell and absolutely brilliant.

Space Invaders Extreme - I didn't know this existed until it popped up in a video I was watching (an old Tim Rogers one, possibly - more on him later) but it's basically Tetris Effect for Space Invaders, and it's absolutely amazing. I got it in CEX by trading in some stuff I had gathering dust in my wardrobe, and it's a great, meditative experience. It's at once a brilliant music game and a brilliant pure shooting game.

Splatoon 3 - I'm not getting to play this a huge amount myself but my son loves it. He's very good at it, arguably even better than I am at Fortnite. I retired from Fortnite as I decided it was best to go out on top. Anyway, Splatoon 3. A big thank you to, well you know who you are. :heart:

more of a Watch but, Action Button youtube videos. I put these on while painting. They're Tim Rogers' longform video reviews/essays upon various games. They're amazing, frankly. Insightful, profound, and funny in equal measure. They're not going to be for everyone, but I watched a 6-hour video about a Japanese game I had never played or even heard of a couple of weeks ago and it was one of the best things I've ever seen. A "review" of Boku No Natsuyasumi that became a meditation on memory, nostalgia, and the passing of childhood. The length and depth of these videos is at once part of the humour, and yet utterly serious and worthy in it's own right. Rogers' persona and manner leads you to wonder if it's all a joke and you're not meant to be moved by it, but at the same time, the stuff about childhood homes and returning to your old schools as an adult is so true and so sad. If you've not watched one before and are intrigued, ease yourself in with the Doom or PAC-MAN video, and then try the Tokimeki Memorial one.

Want
The people in my life to be happy, and the health and mental health services in this country to be properly funded so that the decent people employed within were actually able to do their jobs. We could have built hospitals with the money that was funnelled to Tory backers via PPI contracts. Instead we are left with some services that have been cut back to the point of virtual non-existence. There are no child mental health services anymore, this at a time when some children have been severely traumatised by Covid. The actual services have been decimated, to the point that all we have left is the various signposting services, which all give each others' numbers out to the people who ask for help with no actual end point where the person gets the help. The same is happening with adult services. I know of a whole set of services in my area that are just gone as a result of the ego of one incompetent man trying to fluff their own CV, and one unscrupulous "charity" who hoover up tenders with no plan of how to deliver the service, or seemingly any intention of even trying. I can't go into details but it's depressing and infuriating in equal measure.

Bin
A whole bunch of my games collection. Well not so much binned as flogged off. I found my old Dreamcast and PS2 stuff in a box in the wardrobe and with bills looming I took a bunch of it to CEX and sold it. I have to say CEX are very good. They're completely transparent - you put the titles into their website and they tell you how much you will get for it, and how much they will sell it for. So you know what you could possibly get on ebay if you can be bothered with the hassle and can make an informed decision whether to do that or take it into CEX. I chose to go with the CEX option. I got decent money for my copies of Skies of Arcadia and Gregory Horror Show, both of which realistically I would never have played again. I just wish I could find the little bag that had some of my GBA games in that are now worth triple-figures.

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cavalcade

@feltmonkey my partner recently graduated in Psychology with Counselling, and has completed a year of qualifying to become a Transactional Analysis councillor in a 4 years Master's level thing. As part of her second year I think she has a framework to do affordable/supervised 1-2-1 counselling at a low cost (I'd have to check when she is technically allowed to start). TA isn't for everyone, but she is fucking good at what she does, so if you're really struggling to access practical services and just need someone, she might be an option. She also is a big believer in directed creative therapies (she uses sewing a lot) and group work where the group/individual is engaged in a task while accessing therapy rather than sitting in a circle like an AA meeting.

You could PM me with more details and I can always ask her if there's a fit there. I know mental health services in Wales have been decimated.

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Alastor

I watched Tim Rogers review of Tokimeki Memorial and really liked it, some of his mannerisms can grate but overall the second best longform videogame essay I've seen (first is, 'MGS4 was a mistake'). Also he described Death Stranding as the 'Gran Turismo of walking simulators' and I thought that was brilliant.

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Mr Party Hat

I can’t get past the Tim Rogers voice. His intonations, which I assume are for comedic effect, would be fine in a five minute clip. But six hours?

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feltmonkey

They're better in the six hour videos than the 5 minute ones because if you don't like it you stop noticing it after a while, then you have another five and a half hours to enjoy.

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feltmonkey

I'll give it a watch. Does it require any prior knowledge of MGS?

While we're discussing superb YouTube videos, I recommend SuperEyepatchWolf's dissection of what the internet has done to Garfield. It's brilliant, mind-boggling, and very funny. I assume everyone is somewhat familiar with Lasagna Cat? Well, you might not know what happened in the end with that series but holy shit. SEW describes and interprets it so you don't have to. And that's only a small part of the video.

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Alastor

Hmmm, besides the obvious MGS4 stuff I can't remember how much it references the series, it was an entertaining video though. Might not land…?

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feltmonkey

I'm watching it now while I paint some Tyranids for a YouTube channel who also produce multiple hours long videos. I watch these things while I paint, so I miss some of the visuals and like the essay types of video. I think this explains both how I'm able to get through the super-long videos, and the marathon painting sessions. They feed into each other.

Anyway, I'm 10 minutes in and I just got to the savage take-down of Kojima as a writer and I think I'm in for the full 3 1/2 hours. Thanks, Al.

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Alastor

Ah man, I forgot about that part. I just remember him having a lot of fun with one of the intermissions.

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BeanyFGC

play

Sonic Frontiers

This was the game I was looking forward to the most out of the year….. As a massive Sonic fan of both the 2D and 3D games this is a big disappointment so far. I want to play more before I make judgement, but man I feel deflated. Also you can run it at 60FPS on the series S now. It's a bit weird but you have to go to the Xbox settings and change to 1080p. Hopefully they'll just add this to the in-game setting.

Want

River City Girls 2- It says it's coming this year, so here's hoping to no delays. First one had it all for a 2D beat em up.

Sports Story -Golf Story was and still one of the best Switch games I've played on the system. They announced Sports Story will release next month

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martTM

WANT
Too many indie games - Man, that Indie World had too many games that made me excited. I liked so many of them… but I want A Little To The Left now and Inscryption in three weeks. No money though, as we're moving flat, so that'll just have to wait.

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Alastor

play

Sonic Frontiers

This was the game I was looking forward to the most out of the year….. As a massive Sonic fan of both the 2D and 3D games this is a big disappointment so far. I want to play more before I make judgement, but man I feel deflated.

Shocked, think this is the first negative opinion on the game I've read so far

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Alastor

Started Shadow Hearts last night and other the protagonist acting like a creepy rapist in the first hour it seems really good, badass intro and cool gothic feel to the design of everything. The Judgement Ring is a fun battle mechanic and the main character has Vincent from FF7's Limit Break as his main mechanic except he can control what he transforms into.

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martTM

other the protagonist acting like a creepy rapist in the first hour

I'm kind of wondering what it would take to stop you playing a game, Al

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Cheddarfrenzy

Started Shadow Hearts last night and other the protagonist acting like a creepy rapist in the first hour it seems really good, badass intro and cool gothic feel to the design of everything. The Judgement Ring is a fun battle mechanic and the main character has Vincent from FF7's Limit Break as his main mechanic except he can control what he transforms into.

Ah I loved these back in the day! The second one is even better…

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aniki

other the protagonist acting like a creepy rapist in the first hour

I'm kind of wondering what it would take to stop you playing a game, Al

I'm not sure Al understands the concept of "stop playing a game".

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Alastor

Started Shadow Hearts last night and other the protagonist acting like a creepy rapist in the first hour it seems really good, badass intro and cool gothic feel to the design of everything. The Judgement Ring is a fun battle mechanic and the main character has Vincent from FF7's Limit Break as his main mechanic except he can control what he transforms into.

Ah I loved these back in the day! The second one is even better…

I love the atmosphere so far, I wouldn't say squeamish per se but pretty gruesome with the opening shot of those insides splattered over the road and that intro with the Victorian looking motherfucker slicing those guards apart, blood and all. I can see the vibe they're after here and I'm kinda' here for it.

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Cheddarfrenzy

The openings to both set the scene brilliantly. Also perv levels stay relatively high throughout… Not sure they'd get through the pr people these days tbh

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Alastor

Which is the one with the Vampire Wrestler who hits you with submarines and whatnot I've heard so much about? Also, what do you think of the third one?

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Cheddarfrenzy

He's in the second one, although loads of characters from 2 have smaller roles in 1 as well so he might be in there too, can't remember.

I love the way they mix darkness/horror tropes with normal jrpg ridiculousness - it shouldn't work but it does somehow. The ring keeps the combat interesting too. I'd forgotten all about them until you mentioned them! Are they bc on ps5? Or are you emulating?

Never played the third, it was pretty divisive at the time, not sure how it's seen these days. Will be interested to hear what you think when you get there

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Alastor

Yeah, I'm emulating but on the strength of what I've played this is up there with Xenosaga for me in the 'even if I've beaten it I'd still buy a HD remaster if it came out' tier, something about a main character who can transform into monsters at will that is both really cool and fun in gameplay

All I know is the third is apparently less horror and a bit more…light hearted? I've seen someone stream it a fair bit and I can see why it's divisive amongst those who loved the horror stuff of the first two but it looked like a SH game gameplay wise at least, also got a banging battle theme..

Will be interested to hear what you think when you get there

Already got me signed up for the entire series eh?, let's see if I can beat the kickstarter game the devs are making to the punch at least :sweat_smile:

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BeanyFGC

play

Sonic Frontiers

This was the game I was looking forward to the most out of the year….. As a massive Sonic fan of both the 2D and 3D games this is a big disappointment so far. I want to play more before I make judgement, but man I feel deflated. Also you can run it at 60FPS on the series S now. It's a bit weird but you have to go to the Xbox settings and change to 1080p. Hopefully they'll just add this to the in-game setting.

Starting to enjoy this more and more. The open hubs are getting more fun. It dose have a lot of issues though. Some I'm worried will damage the series forever, but we'll see.

Want

Vampire Survivors Pretty much everyone is telling me to play it. Looks fun and it's on game pass now. I'll get it it soon hopefully.

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Alastor

It's looking to be the only Sonic game I'll ever buy, the combat looks amazing in the 3D sections and the levels have a lot of speedrunning shit

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BeanyFGC

I'll complete the game first before going ham on this, but for now. I honestly think a lot of Sonic YouTubers aren't going to like it. It's cool to have a open hubs for collectables but that's the main game? It's not just side missions in-between the main campaign stages? They have cyber stage's that play like your 3D sonic games, but they're terrible! It's the same type of levels in Sonic Forces. They around 30-90 seconds long with no room for any depth. Any multiple paths are very basic. Like high path with boost rings or ground path with enemies. It's hard to get a fast time score because there's little to none wiggle room for cutting seconds. Sonic games have had this 5 red rings system for awhile now. When it's hard to find them all with them being hidden around stages with different paths to take. Normally you'll have to play the stage a few times because it's impossible to collect them in one go. It's honestly hard to not find all 5 red rings in one go without trying in this game because the levels are too short and simple. You have to remember that a lot of time in these stages are running on boost pads, loop the loops and rails and you don't have control. In one of the stages I tested I had about 20 seconds of control of out a 48 second stages. Within them 20 seconds I jumped on a few springs and and held up. The best way I can describe it is Batman Arkham City. If I remember correctly it had main campaign missions, side missions (some optional) and lots and lots of small but fun riddler challenges. Imagine if that game only had a open world with the riddler challenges without campaign. That's how it feels for me. There's a lot more to say like the story, and open world looking and feeling like a tec demo, but that's for another day. I won't post anymore until I completed it now. Like I say before, I'm having a more fun with it now so hopefully I'll end up liking it.

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Cheddarfrenzy

Already got me signed up for the entire series eh?, let's see if I can beat the kickstarter game the devs are making to the punch at least :sweat_smile:

Was assuming you'd have them all polished off this week! 😂

I didn't know about the kickstarter until you mentioned it! Would be well up for that and as you say an HD collection to accompany it

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Garwoofoo

Vampire Survivors Pretty much everyone is telling me to play it. Looks fun and it's on game pass now. I'll get it it soon hopefully.

I played a bit of this on PC Game Pass while it was still in early access, it was weirdly compulsive and really rather good. Will be getting into this on Xbox for sure.

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Alastor

Vampire Survivors is addictive as fuck, is there a way to make the item level up windows go away faster? that was my only complaint pretty much. What strat doeseveryone use? I always go for more speed, damage and importantly, knives, knves and more knives….

TACTICS OGREI S OUT TOMORROW??? QRTJQTGJGGV

Alright, STFU, I got it and I'm near to where I was on the Vita which isn't far and it made just as nice an impression on me as it did then, that said…the graphics look pretty damn blurry and blobby and I just kinda' think for putting the term 'reborn' and selling at full price they could have at least made it look sharp and crisp?

And man I did NOT like that english voice acting…at first, I'm either stockholme'd into liking it or I'm just used to it, but…even now it's not as good as Final Fantasy Tactics or Final Fantasy XII's for sure, don't want to sound like I hate what they've done since the game wasn't fully voiced at all IIRC but what happened? There's a Japanese sub option but even if I thought the VAing was awful this game just isn't right without someone English saying 'I will taste iron before the boot of some Lord, Dear friend' or something. Same reason I reccomend watching Edgerunners with the dub, the slang is huge imo.

I still love it overall, and it definitely stands side by side with Final Fantasy Tactics so far imo, the class system is not as crazy and you choose your own route in a story that is apparently seven games deep by this point so I don't feel like I'm playing too much of a precursor game, good. They've also apparently done a fair bit of rebalancing and I don't know pretty much most of it other than now levels and job levels are apparently way less grindy and AI is smarter? It sounds pretty substantial so in a way I'm an arsehole for dragging the game earlier in my post about the use of the 'Reborn' title…it is pretty blurry though.

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Garwoofoo

They've definitely rebalanced a whole load of stuff, it's a much more extensive re-release than it appears on the surface. Characters now level up individually rather than an entire class at a time which is huge and should make the later stages of the game much more varied. Random battles have been removed. Crafting now has a 100% success rate which removes a lot of the frustration from the process. And so on. On the face of it all these changes sound really good, I guess we'll see how the game is balanced overall but they've certainly tried to address the issues that the Vita version had.

That voice acting though… that's getting turned off immediately. The writing in this game is so good, why they gave it to the local amateur dramatics society to act out is beyond me.

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Alastor

I can't bring myself to turn it off, it's not the same without it…the dude you need to beat outside the place the Duke is being imprisoned sounds like he walked straight out of Dragon Quest though lol

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Garwoofoo

I tend to turn off voice acting in any game where they’re just reading out text boxes. Persona, Danganronpa, Fire Emblem and this… all played in blissful silence. The voices are never as good as what I hear in my head.

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Cheddarfrenzy

I've been playing both P5R and the first Danganronpa over the last month and much prefer them with no voices on. The translations are the sort of thing you can get away with when it's text, but sound pretty rubbish when you read them out, however good the acting is…

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Garwoofoo

First impressions of Tactics Ogre are very positive. They've changed a lot more than I thought they would. The opening battles are much more of an introduction now with some additional explanation and tutorials, it also seems a bit less punishing overall at least in the early stages which isn't a bad thing. The addition of a party level cap has the potential to completely transform the game (for the better, I expect). The skills system has been revised and the character status screens show a LOT more in one go than they used to which makes managing your party far easier. There are now optional objectives in battles and "cards" you can pick up that give you temporary buffs. The new soundtrack is spectacular. And so on, and so on.

There are a few things I'm surpised they haven't changed - buying equipment is still a crapshoot as there's no easy way to try the items on, and I'm not wild about the new sprites, the filtered appearance looks a bit odd against the immaculately redrawn backgrounds and character portraits - but overall I'm very impressed with this. Pretty much the perfect remaster, retaining the look and feel of the original while smoothing off some of its rough edges. Great job.

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Alastor

Fired up Final Fantasy Tactics this morning too, these games are just too good, having just played TO last night I can still happily confirm that I have no issue hopping back and forth, especially with how iirc the job changes in TO removed 'buying abilities' which further separates it from Tactics. Between this and both MMOs I dunno if my top 3 FF games are any of the mainline games….also Ramza was the best to ever do it, a true Hero.

At this rate I'm going to pop FFXII into the PS4 too.

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Alastor

Roughly 20 hours into Tactics Ogre and the only real issue I have is that it needs to unlock classes faster in my opinion. The starting classes are obviously solid for the beginning but I think you're lumbered with a somewhat vanilla party for a while and it's not until I unlocked Terror Knight that I felt I could start making a strat that works for me, also they are basically Dark Knights from FFXIV and cool as fuck.

And at the end of Chapter 1 Spoiler - click to show you get an absolutely insane choice to make and I'm struggling to wrap my head around why anyone would go the massacre route on the spot like that. Vyce on the other hand, goes from 'for the Walisters' to 'Lets kill all the Walisters' frighteningly quickly.

Also the difficulty is ramping up, which I'm happy about. I do wish there was an easier way to remember what stuff is weak to what though, some enemies will take single digit damage if you don't know what your doing