Patient Gamers

Another game that I didn't expect much from ... and was pleasantly surprised to be proven wrong.

The first time I saw the Book and Coppertop NPCs, I audibly groaned... I usually dislike "permanent companions" that just won't shut the heck up, and this game has TWO of them, just great. But I quickly learned to like them for their witty dialogue and constant barter.

I haven't actually finished the game yet so I can not vouch for the second half being as nice as the first, but what I've played so far had me wishing the in-game days were longer because I want to do All The Things™ everyday everywhere. Luckily there's no rush, no timer, no penalty for taking your time, so you can just continue where you left off the next day, but I've had my fair share of "nooo I don't wanna go home yet!"-moments nonetheless.

The main gameplay is a mix of garden simulator, town builder and exploration/adventure game with some fetch quests and puzzles sprinkled in. You can spend all your time pulling weeds and planting trees and fishing / catching bugs in the various worlds you create, or you can spend all your time creating and growing your settlements (plural!), building houses and shops and other facilities, customizing those, populating the area by deciding which visitors should stay, or you can spend all your time exploring the overworld, finding temples, caves, treasures, hidden NPCs while advancing the storyline (finding "song fragments" to restore the Evertree). There's no penalty for neglecting either one - your plants can't wither, NPCs don't need a 24/7 babysitter, facilities don't decay, and the story isn't going anywhere unless you advance it yourself.

All in all a very charming, easygoing but still engaging game.

PRO:

• Relaxed gameplay: no enemies, no "game over". Even if you drown, you'll just get put back on land after a quick fade-out

• The world opens up gradually, making it possible to learn gameplay mechanics at a comfy pace. It never gets overwhelming

• The NPCs have some delightfully snarky dialogue, make frequent use of puns and tongue-in-cheek references, but it never felt out of place or annoying to me

• ALL THE ACHIEVEMENTS! You always have something to do, but you're also not penalized for not doing anything

• Treasure chests, caves, certain little creatures playing hide-and-seek, alchemist's desks and full-fledged temples encourage and reward exploration

• The temples and caves I've found so far all had different, unique puzzles that were self-explanatory and engaging

• You can build your own settlements that grow over time, and decide which NPCs move in and what jobs they get

• You can create an agender character, complete with the singular "they" in every dialogue. It was a surprise to see that option in a 5+ year old game when even the most recent AAA titles tend to struggle with the concept

• There are even a bunch of romance options (NOT tied to specific gender) that stay kid-friendly throughout the playthrough (no kissing etc.)

• The "worlds" you can create can have noticably different biomes: from standard-looking forests, plains and deserts to neon pink landscapes with tree-sized glowing mushrooms populated by caterpillar-dogs. I even had a world once where the ground had eyeballs that blinked and watched what you did, and one with a little gnome in a hut that scolded me after accidentally tripping over his tiny furniture.

• You can tame most of the animals. Ever wanted to have a farm full of buffalo-sized green hamsters or a pet dragon-cat-poolnoodle-mix? Here you go.

• Personal little pet peeve of mine: you can invert X- and Y-axis of the camera controls separately and even chose how close the camera is to your character (it's a slider, not just 2 settings). I would love if other games followed that example because I legit can't stand games with un-inverted or even mixed camera controls.

CON:

• it occasionally lags, but I'm playing on a first gen Nintendo Switch and that thing has the processing power of a moist tortilla chip, so it might not be the game's fault.
• fish and insects are basically all the same. I stopped paying attention to them pretty quickly
• The explorable world gets HUGE eventually but you do not have a map, minimap or compass. Expect to get lost often until you memorize the layout of the land. Luckily you can always fast travel to your destination if you get lost, but not getting lost in the first place would have been preferrable.
• Even tho there are multiple different humanoid races that can populate your settlements, character creation is limited to only one species: Human. Not that big of a deal, but it would have been nice to play as something else
• You can rename you worlds anytime, but the descriptions of items you got from them are stuck. If you have 7+ worlds that you renamed a bunch of times and then want to find out what specific world a caterpillar or flower came from when the description only states the old name, it's a little inconvenient

Honestly the missing map is my only real complaint here. Everything else is just nitpicking and can probably be modded out if you're playing on a PC.

The main theme somehow popped into my head recently and I retried the game.

This time, I tried an geologist with egyptian magic, fighting unarmed. (other favorites are the werediggle curse, Mathemagic and necronomiconomics. )
It's been a while since I last played and I don't think I ever got far.

I also discovered a bunch of new things which I've never seen on my playthroughs before (new updates, or maybe just bad luck in the past) Pocket dimensions and Secret wizard dimensions that can only be accessed by finding their names (and remembering them!)

Everything feels silly like drinking beer to restore mana, using an ingot press to make omelettes from diggle eggs, drinking from fountains with mystery liquids, vandalising statues of the dungeon lord to level up.

But at the same time it's very easy to adjust the game to suit your taste.
The difficulty level is adjustable, Permadeath is an option, plus there is an option for slower floors with the same amount of experience (to reduce grinding if you have less time to play) + Modding support.

Overall a great small title that I enjoyed playing again after so many years.

I just finished it ....I think? Honestly I'm not sure because the game seems to end right in the middle of the story, and it feels weird that the only mention of this I can find is an article from 2014 that casually mentions that the game isn't yet finished but the creators will surely provide more content soon^[1 "The Squids’ stories are still not complete, so I’m sure The Game Bakers will produce additional and ongoing episodes of our heroes’ misadventures." ]... and then radio silence for 12 years?! Am I missing something crucial here or is everyone who bought the game somehow ok with the story just flat-out ending the moment it finally picks up some steam?

All in all it's an interesting game - colorful environment, characters with personality and different abilities, the art style is cute, gameplay is simple to understand yet challenging to execute. But the weirdly axed story arc left a really sour taste in my mouth and, frankly, retroactively tainted the fun I've had so far.

To elaborate: During the story it becomes clear that you have to visit and liberate 7 temples, defeat their guardians and then clobber the end boss that is teased relatively early on and makes frequent appearances.

You can clear 2 temples and defeat their guardians, then you can clear a bunch of random tasks and HALF of the third temple and the game ends. No guardian boss battle, the end boss is never even encountered and the only thing that pops up after a brief cutscene (that can be summed up with "and then the party continued their adventure") is that you unlocked hard mode now, but hard mode is just the same levels again with beefed up enemies - no additional story, cutscenes or levels. Not even credits or a simple "the end". Even a cliffhanger would have been okay-ish, but what you get is a big nothingburger with a side dish of confusion.

It feels weird and disappointing. If you still want to play it, you should wait for a massive discount, because what you get is not worth full price IMHO.

So I had had these guys on my wishlist for a while. Last December I pulled the trigger on them while on sale. I've had a bit of downtime and decided to try them out. They are a Xcom successor, but I had not played the original or the Sid Myer reboot, so I didn't really know what to expect. The game is really fun. I do like the mechanics of it all and the isometric view. For sure worth getting and has been a fun 20hrs so far.

I'm not going to lie - at first I didn't expect much from it. Had that title on my "To Do"-list for years but somehow assumed it was just some generic run-off-the-mill fantasy RPG with cute animals and not much else.

Boy, was I wrong. Such a charming little gem of a game. The story had some interesting twists that actually surprised me, which is something I hadn't experienced in a very long time. The characters are charming, some of them a bit quirky, but still manage to feel genuine. There's both rich lore AND some tongue-in-cheek humor within the story, without either one feeling forced or out of place.

All in all, I really enjoyed it. My only "complaint" is that it is a bit short, but since they have a super tiny indie dev team, one can't rightfully expect the same story length or map size as the ones made by big studios with hundreds of employees.

I actually regret not having played it sooner and I am stoked for the sequel. ;)

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/45971880

These two lengthy Phantasy Star Online developer interviews originally appeared in the PSO Episode 1&2 Setting Materials book.

Through a little research, I believe RT is the only RPG currently, which is unfortunate because I think it's a great way to soak up the setting.

I have my eye on Mechanicus, because it looks very XCOM influenced. I like the smaller-scale squad-based tactics much more than the army-scale grand strategy/RTS style.

Any other suggestions? I know because of what the original game is, the RTS ones are probably going to be the majority of the PC titles, but there seems to be some representation in just about any genre. I even saw an Ork dogfighting (planes) game.

cross-posted from: https://lazysoci.al/post/46086267

In these interviews, developers from Nintendo and Intelligent Systems discuss the making of the original Paper Mario, an RPG with a unique papercraft aesthetic.

Peter Molyneux, Google DeepMind's Richard Evans, and more on the making and legacy of Black & White as it turns 25.

It's 2007, I'm at home playing this new Sci-Fi RPG my dad got for the Xbox 360. I get lost on uncharted worlds, flip the mako, and blast some aliens.

It's 2017, I've finally bought Mass Effect 2 & 3 and sit down to do a full trilogy playthrough. It's an absolute blast, and I see what everyone was talking about with the Garrus romance.

It's 2026, I've installed countless mods onto the Legendary Edition collection, excited to throw myself back into this universe once again.

To say Mass Effect is ambitious would be an understatement. It doesn't take much for the average player to see the series buckling under the weight of publisher & fan expectations as the games go on. But people love the series for how much it gets right. How the world keeps opening up in new and exciting ways, how small choices can ripple through subsequent games, how the wonder & horror of space is captured at remarkable scale. With the Legendary Edition making EA's scummy DLC practices more or less a thing of the past, it's the best way to experience one of the best Sci-Fi RPGs out there.

For this playthrough, I decided to go all-in with mods. Here are some highlights:

• ME 1 & 3 Diversification Project - I didn't even install this mod til a couple hours into Mass Effect 1 because I was skeptical the new additions would stick out. But honestly, this project is amazing. Female turians are present before ME 3's Omega DLC, all of the species feel more present and feel like a natural part of the experience. I didn't even realize Tali was the only Quarian in ME1 until I installed this.
• MELLO - If you're like me and played ME1 on the 360 you might notice some drastic lighting changes in the remaster. This mod tries to bring back the old lighting and atmosphere from the first game, and largely succeeds.
• Paragade Persuasion - No more arbitrary paragon or renegade playthroughs! Play your Shepard how you'd like in every moment. This mod allows you to choose either Paragon or Renegade persuasion options as long as you have the choice for one of them.
• ME 2 No Paraphrase Mod - Want to actually roleplay dialogue instead of guessing what Commander Shepard will say with a 4-word prompt? This is the mod for you!
• ME 2 Early Recruitment - This mod completely changes the structure of Mass Effect 2 for the better. Many probably already know that the game was split into two discs for consoles, but was originally intended to allow players to recruit any companions in any order. This mod goes above & beyond, allowing you to recruit Legion first if you so choose (like me).
• ME 2 Risky Suicide Mission - Despite some issues I had with the randomness of this mod, it makes the Suicide Mission fun & unpredictable again. I actually had to use strategy when selecting who to bring on main quest missions, along with choosing team leaders during the Suicide Mission.
• ME 3 Expanded Galaxy Mod (EGM) - One of the most popular mods for Mass Effect 3, this one greatly expands the Normandy and Exploration to reflect the state of the galaxy and growing galactic conflict.
• Dreams Remade - Makes some much-needed changes to the dream sequences from Mass Effect 3. Instead of focusing on a random child, the dreams reflect your choices throughout the series, reminding you of what you've lost and have yet to lose.
• Kai Leng Reworked - While I wanted to try Altered Assassin (swaps Kai Leng for either Miranda or Jacob), mod conflicts caused me to use this one. It's pretty good! Kai Leng goes from being an annoying quippy character with infinite plot armor to a menacing figure with mysterious motivations.

Lastly I want to highlight 3 mods that worked together to greatly improve the ending experience of the trilogy for me:

• Take Earth Back - This mod overhauls Priority: Earth to reflect all the allies you've spent the entire game recruiting. It also expands final dialogue with important characters into full conversations, giving a better feeling of closure with Wrex & others.

• Audemus' Happy Ending Mod (AHEM) - While I know many people might be skeptical about a mod that takes away the ending choices from 3, I believe this mod significantly improves the pacing and tone of the final hours of 3. Instead of

  Tap for spoiler

  having a meaningful conversation with Anderson then being thrust into a conversation with a child who gives a last-minute motivation for the Reapers before being forced to choose 3 options ripped straight out of Deus Ex, this mod instead ends Shepard's story with Anderson, as they watch the rest of the galaxy dock the crucible and fire it - destroying the reapers. It shifts Shepard back into being an exceptional soldier, rather than the one person who gets to play God over the galaxy.

• Citadel Epilogue Mod (CEM) - Allows you to play either the entire Citadel DLC or just the party after rolling credits on the main game. Ending with the party & Commander Shepard walking with their companions back to the Normandy was a wonderful way to wrap up this iconic trilogy.

Played Mass Effect recently & want to share your thoughts? Or have any other mods to recommend to folks looking to play the trilogy again? I'd love to hear about it!

The real-time chess of the different character classes in Bad North is truly incredible. I love how height makes a real advantage (or disadvantage if too close!) for archers' physics-driven arrows, all the details (despite being a minimalist game) like arrows getting stuck in targets' shields, your choices in what weapon specialties you can assign, the fluid and organic character movement and fighting, etc.

You also really come to care about your soldiers' survival since the death of squad leaders is (typically) permanent, so loss is extremely emotional, especially given how they're customizable with different items. And—like the world's greatest jigsaw puzzler, Glass Masquerade—almost any screenshot from the game could be made into a wallpaper, so that's awesome.

For those who have never played this game, it was just on sale at GreenManGaming for <$3 (IsThereAnyDeal rocks!). It was also given away via Epic Games some years ago, which is how I've been revisiting it.

This game made me feel like the captain of a space ship. There was nothing like it at the time it was released, and even now I have not experienced any other game making me feel this way. I loved Fallout 3 too, but Mass Effect had something special. It was so well crafted, I listened to every dialogue of every NPC. The characters are so memorable with amazing voice acting. The Citadel is the best city in video games, felt really alive. Most sidequests add to the story instead of just padding the gameplay time.

After playing the game, I wondered how Star Wars (movies) sucked so badly, when a video game could create a much more interesting sci-fi world and story.

Unfortunately Bioware is no longer the same company.

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.zip/post/46035991

Good Day good people.

I am looking for some more examples of Video Games where there is a plot, but for one reason or another, the result of the plot is that nothing happens. My criteria for this is fairly lax on the "how" but in some sense, by some definition by the end of the game, absolutely nothing has happened. I'm hoping some of you fine people may be able to identify some instances of such a thing.

Examples (I've chosen to spoiler tag everything as just being listed gives away certain plot elements. All examples given here are niche titles from over 15 years ago).:

• Ace Combat 3: Electrosphere (specifically the Japanese release): Huge inter-corporate conflict with several different factions and paths you can follow. One you go through all the different endings, the game reveals that it's just a simulation made by one guy to make sure no matter what happens in an upcoming conflict; your character, an AI, will kill the dude who cucked him.
• Persona 2: Innocent Sin: You spend the whole game fighting Nyarlathotep to prevent him and the Nazis from destroying the world. At the end of the game, you fail and choose to abort the timeline and erase everyone else's memories, leaving the main character stranded in the doomed timeline.
• Drawn to Life: The Next Chapter: This is the most boring way for this to play out IMO as it's just a straight coma twist

---

So please. Let me know any and all games you can think of where the end result of the plot is that nothing happens. The more ridiculous, the better!

(Sorry, for repost. I didn't know about the crosspost feature)

I never got around to playing the DS Castlevania games since I never owned a DS, and the emulators aren't the best experience because of its awkward portrait mode and touch controls. Recently though, I picked up the Castlevania Dominus Collection on my Switch and wanted to gush about it a little.

Order of Ecclesia is fantastic. Almost 20 years later, it aged incredibly well even compared to modern Metroidvanias. You could say the same for any RPG Castlevania game, but still. It's a great take on the Castlevania formula but manages to be unique enough to feel fresh.

For one, this doesn't take place in one big map. It's split up into multiple smaller areas connected with a world map, which is pretty different compared to entirely taking place in one castle. Areas can still be massive and have a lot to explore though, and there's a lot of side-quests you can finish to help the villagers across many areas.

Also, Shanoa's playstyle is heavily magic-based. At the start you can conjure up weapons to attack normally, but over the course of the game you'll be exclusively using spells and exploiting elemental weaknesses on enemies. Similar to Dawn of Sorrow and the newer Bloodstained, you gain new spells from enemies you kill which is a great mechanic.

Side note, I'm in love with Shanoa's design in this game. It's a shame it had to be a DS game because it doesn't quite show in the pixel art, but she's probably the coolest MC in any Castlevania game. Very different to your typical "Die Monster!" protagonist.

Order of Ecclesia is also notably really tough. I was having a much harder time compared to Symphony of the Night or Dawn of Sorrow. Checkpoints are few and far between, and bosses can be such a pain in the ass with really high HP and enough damage to kill you in 3 hits. The game is also very stingy on money so you can't just keep buying potions to use in hard fights, I was constantly broke and had to manage my resources well.

Overall, fantastic game. Highly recommended if you're into Metroidvanias or never got around to playing it. It's an S tier Castlevania game.

I also want to give a shoutout to Konami. I hate their business practices and pachinko machines, but I have to give credit where due, this is the best retro collection of games I've ever bought. It has everything. Built-in achievements, a music player for each track in every game, hundreds of high quality concept arts, scanned user manuals for each language, high quality versions of covers and promotional material... You can even switch each game's region between US and EU for its subtle differences.

Like, you can even choose tracks you like in the main menu and place them in a playlist, then shuffle it. They put so much effort into this and it really shows. It's a game preservation miracle. Serious props to the creators.

Ran across this in a discussion about Nintendo's Virtual Game Cards and Key Cards.

For myself it's

Physical > Perpetual Digital (GOG) > Key Cards (Switch 2) > DRM Digital (Steam/PS3/Xbox 360) > Account DRM Digital (PS4/Switch/Xbox One) > System Locked Digital (3DS/Wii U) > GamePass > Streaming Games (Amazon Luna/Stadia)

For some context.

While Key Cards are digital they are not tied to hardware which means so long as the servers are still running the game can be downloaded and played... presuming no additional authentication is required.

DRM Digital is bellow that since services like Epic Games, and Steam still require re-authentication from time to time. Though Steam is getting better thanks to the Steam Deck.

GamePass is low because it is the same as Game Rental. You don't own the game. Good to try never to own.

On that note, physical games with download codes inside don't even get a place on my list. Got tricked into buying Patapon 2 this way and I always read the games fine print ever since.

Give me your favourite OSTs, individual tracks, whatever.