JRPGs do seem to be having a bit of a moment in the spotlight, it feels like for years everyone kept trying to turn them into action games but Clair Obscur has reminded everyone that actually we all liked the old turn-based stuff all along.
I'm currently playing FF7 Rebirth which seems so huge that I expect to be playing it for a very long time (and no matter how much it tries to pretend otherwise, its combat system is far more turn-based than action-based, so it definitely counts). But I've got a few others I'd like to get into, chief among them Metaphor: ReFantazio (which I've put about an hour into and then never went back to, for some reason) and Dragon Quest XI (where I played the whole first act, about six years ago, but is ripe for a revisit). But of course as a genre every game is about 100 hours long so it's hard to find the time to play too many of these things.
Do you guys save-scum, or play through a level in its entirity each time? I'm very happy quicksaving, getting a specific kill, then instantly reloading. Wondered whether that's how everyone else plays!
It's definitely the way to do it, at least when you're ticking off challenges and Mastery levels, as some of those challenges are so specific and would derail the run each time if you didn't reload. I'm sure the game is designed to be played that way.
That is, however, also part of what makes Escalations and especially Elusive Targets so challenging, as you can't save and reload there. So the game caters for both types of player.
Additional Play - Monster Train 2 - an already massive game gets even bigger. The free and paid updates combined give you two new clans and a new roguelike game mode with new bosses and stages and a new mechanic called Souls that you need to unlock and upgrade. The clans alone are worth it, to be honest - a bit more complex than most of the base game clans but really fun to play around with and with 12 in total in the game now the combinations seem almost endless.
This is a really great game. An all-timer. It seems very overlooked, both in the roguelike genre and as a game in general, and I'm glad cavalcade at least seems to appreciate it as much as I do.
Play
Final Fantasy VII Rebirth. As I suspected, getting this to run well on the Steam Deck was practically a game in itself. It doesn't run great out of the box (and has incredibly aggressive dynamic resolution scaling, happily reducing everything to a blurry mess if you don't keep it under control) but it is absolutely possible to get it running well and I'm really pleased with where I've got it to now. It looks and plays great, and is quite something to have on a handheld.
The game itself is… overwhelming. Remake was a tight, story-driven experience that led you from point to point in a very controlled fashion. Rebirth just kind of chucks you into the world and lets you get on with it. The upgrade system is more complicated, the battle system is more complicated and there is an overwhelming amount of stuff to do right from the very start. It's also absolutely amazing, and I've been unable to put it down over the last few days. It's like Ubisoft did Final Fantasy in some ways but it's also a really dazzling, complete world full of distractions that reminds me a lot of FFXIV. I'm going to be spending a lot of time on this one.
Want
Big new update for Monster Train 2 drops tomorrow - a new clan as a free update, and a second clan and a big new game mode as paid DLC. That'll be most of February sorted for me, then.
There are a lot of other games coming out this month though and I'm trying to persuade myself not to buy them.
Resident Evil Requiem - but I still have RE4R to play
Dragon Quest VII Reimagined - but I have the 3DS version
Yakuza Kiwami 3 - but I have Lost Judgment to play
If I crack on anything it'll probably be Yakuza.
Bin
I have no idea where to even start. I think I'll just stick to videogames.
Lost Records: Bloom and Rage
A narrative adventure game from Don't Nod, who did the first two Life is Strange games. It's very much in the same sort of mould, telling the story of what happened to four girls over the course of a summer they've largely forgotten, from the perspective of their reunion 27 years later.
I don't want to give too much away because the twists and turns are the entire point, but this is a beautiful game with some real emotional gut punches and a surprisingly mature storyline. If you like this sort of thing then this is a must play.
Garwoofoo