What Games Are You Currently Playing?

I finished Nier Automata finally last night and obtained the Platinum trophy. Hm? What's that? Did I use the in-game trophy shop? lolnope. Completely legit. I didn't buy a single trophy. I honestly wasn't expecting to get, go for, or obtain this Platinum but am so happy I did.

So... overall... the moral is... HOW IN THE HELL DID I KNOW NOT ABOUT THIS GAME SOONER?! SERIOUSLY?! HOW?!

I mean it's moot now I suppose. Technically. But this keeps happening to me lol. I always find out about AMAZING games/series way late. But better late than never? I guess?

ALL OF IT. JUST ALL OF IT. ALL OF IT WAS GOOD. WAY TOO GOOD. WAY TOO AMAZING. Story, Gameplay, SOUNDTRACK, just ALL OF IT. ABSOLUTELY ALL OF IT. I never found myself not enjoying myself when I played this game (except near the end when I had to do the annoying as hell farming for the last remaining trophies but even that didn't really ruin my overall experience)

So... yeah... new favorite to win my personal GOTY for this year. RIP Ni No Kuni II. I mean 2nd place is good too I guess (really probably 3rd place with Final Fantasy 7 Remake Part 1 close to beginning for me)

Up next for me... is the replacement for Hollow Knight due to dropping and getting rid of it due to it's way-to-high difficulty for me. It's still a Switch game though. Ori and the Blind Forest Definitive Edition on Switch. Hopefully it'll give me a good enough 'break' before IT'LL FINALLY BE TIME FOR IT. Final. Fantasy. 7. Remake. Part. 1. (PS5 Upgrade too no less thanks to me finally having one)

 

I KNOW right? I played it a couple years ago but still after the initial hype and wow did it live up to it. I've been meaning to 100% it but I don't own it, was only playing on a friend's PS4 (though I did get A through E). My main question, why can't Toobee and Nines be happy??

 

I finished Ori and the Blind Forest Definitive Edition on Switch Friday night. I mean... it was very pretty, cutesy, and admittedly fun. At times anyway. Other than that though... I can't really say much else about it. Except that it was overly and unnecessarily difficult most of the time. Ridiculously so during some instances.

I guess getting 'breaks' just isn't something I ever get anymore (unless I'm playing a Life is Strange game)

So it's pretty god damn clear that it was good thing I got rid of/dropped Hollow Knight without even trying to play it. Because if I got annoyed with the Ori difficulty... I most certainly would have outright ragequit Hollow Knight.

I started playing Final Fantasy 7 Remake Part 1 PS5 Upgrade (Intergrade) last night. I've only completed chapter one so far but... GOD. DAMN. This is probably the best graphics I've seen in a video game... ever? Potentially? The best since FFXV I guess. Plus... IT WAS EXTREME FUN.

I'm going to enjoy every moment of this. I just know I am

Wait a minute.....................

SOMEONE HELP. HOW AM I SUPPOSE TO DECIDE WHAT I LIKED MORE AT THE END OF THIS YEAR FOR MY PERSONAL GOTY?! Nier Automata or this?!

 

I have Pokemon Unite pre-loaded on my Switch and will be trying it out whenever it becomes playable. It looks fun from all the videos I watched about it. I only plan on playing it for fun/casual. Is that doable? Who knows. I hope so. But I'd be lying if I said I still wasn't expecting to end up eventually dropping it, just like I did with Pokken, due to getting to frustrated with it. Because I am.

But I still don't see a problem in at least trying it. I'll do my best to not let stuff bother me though and just have fun. If you want to co-op/squad with me... contact me either on Discord or through PM on the forums and we'll see what we can do. Just keep what I said in this post in mind. Also I've never played a MOBA. EVER.

 

Well... Sunday night I finally finished Final Fantasy 7 Remake (Part 1). Overall... I'd say the game was an 8/10. I had a lot of fun with it at times but also struggled with it a bit more than I was really expecting to (in a bad way). Also... this so-called 'controversial' ending seemed completely fine to me. So... yeah... I'm not going to really say much else. You should all know by now that when it comes to me and Final Fantasy... I have the minority opinion on these sorts of things. Or just in general when it comes to so-called 'controversial' video game topics.

I started playing Trails of Cold Steel 1 last night. I'm playing the first 2 games in the frachise back-to-back. It's pretty fun admittedly so far. Gives me MAJOR Persona vibes (except without Personas lol)

 

I played Alien Isolation on the PS3 a few years ago (so, not in 4K), and I found it very enjoyable overall, despite a bunch of obvious shortcomings. Not to mention that it's a pretty long game: on a couple occasions I thought I was close to finishing it, only to realize there was a lot more coming.

 

I finished Trails of Cold Steel 1 last night. Overall I did enjoy this game. I really did. The story was what kept me going for the most part. Plus it's just so much like the Persona series it's scary lol.

I struggled way too much with this game but I was told, repeatedly, that the first game in this franchise is the hardest so we'll see if that's true or not. Regardless I always ended up persevering eventually. The final couple of bosses in the game were a breeze. Which was nice considering the almost-impossible BS I ended up dealing with for the final Old Schoolhouse boss. Hopefully this won't happen with any of the other games. But again we'll see.

Either way I hate cliffhanger endings and I was planning on doing this anyway (because I already knew the first game had a cliffhanger ending beforehand). I'll be playing the next game in the series, Trails of Cold Steel II (2) as soon as possibly tonight. I'm hoping I won't struggle as much with this one and it'll be a lot easier. I guess I'll find out.

 

Well... finally... at long last... I finished Trails of Cold Steel 2 and started Akiba's Beat last night.

In the end... I struggled way too much with Cold Steel 2. More than was needed, more than was necessary, and more that made sense honestly. Don't get me wrong... I still enjoyed the game. For the most part at least. The story was just as good, if not better, than Cold Steel 1. However... I would have enjoyed it a lot more if I hadn't struggled with it as much as I did. It was just completely unnecessary, and at times, I felt like I practically had to force myself to keep playing it. That's... not good. To put it mildly.

If this is how the rest of this franchise is going to go... then I'm not going to take the unnecessary BS anymore. By that... I mean I'll play the rest of the games on Easy and nothing you say can or will stop me.

I'm also not against playing the other games in the franchise either... but if they are as bad difficulty wise as Cold Steel is/has been... then I'll play them on Easy too.

Regardless... I finally don't have to suffer with this game anymore... and that's really all that matters.

As far as Akiba's Beat goes... it's actually fun so far and the fact that I can actually have fun and enjoy a game for once... is actually nice. It's like Tales of, Persona, and TWEWY all mixed into one game. It's so self aware too with it's anime culture, references, and fourth wall breaking and that just makes it even better and funnier. I think I'll like this one.

 

I finished Akiba's Beat last night. To be completely honest... I can't praise this game enough. I seriously can't. It was just so good and so fun. It's just unfortunate that it got so many bad/mixed reviews and that most others don't even try playing it. It's not like it's the worst game ever made. Is it perfect? Of course not. But I enjoyed the hell out of this game and I really wish more people would try it out and play it for themselves. It was so self-aware, funny, and just overall fun. Story was pretty decent too with some pretty shocking twists around the end of the game. This was probably the most fun game I've played all year since Ni No Kuni 2. Please please PLEASE try it out for yourself and don't listen to the reviews because reviews shouldn't be relied on to determine if games are good or not. Though something like this should be common sense by now.

It is what it is I suppose.

Either way... finally... AT LONG LAST... it's time everyone. It's finally time for me to play it. Xenoblade Chronicles Definitive Edition. I've heard so much about this one so I just hope it doesn't disappoint. However... I also have heard it's challenging. *sighs* So much for not struggling anymore...

Well... we'll find out soon I guess. Because I should be able to start playing it... tonight.

 

I finished Xenoblade Chronicles Definitive Edition to my liking finally last night. Main game and Future Connected. For some reason... I enjoyed Future Connected a lot more than the main game and I still don't know why lol. Was it because I didn't struggle with it as much as I did the main game? Maybe. Who knows. Although I didn't really struggle with the main game until around endgame but still. Oh well I guess.

Overall... I'd probably give it an 8/10. Definitely the best 'open-world' game I've played since FFXV. The story didn't really blow me away all that much though but I'll admit there were some pretty unexpected twists/revelations and stuff like that. I had more fun just running around doing Quests than anything else lol. But I'd say I did enjoy it. I just wouldn't say it was the best game I've ever played lol.

I'm taking a small break from Xenoblade now and started the Final Fantasy 7 Remake DLC with Yuffie. Didn't take me very long to start struggling with it. Again. *sighs* Oh well I guess. I'll get through it eventually. I hope. The reason I'm doing this is so I'm not too overwhelmed by playing too much Xenoblade because I do intend on playing Xenoblade Chronicles 2 once I finish this 'mini-break' with this DLC. So I'll get to see what the big deal is all about when it comes to Pyra and Mythra I guess lol. So yeah that's all I can really say. I guess I'm just Final Fantasy/Persona/Kingdom Hearts biased (although I did at least admit that KH3 was a massive disappointment). Sorry?

 

Finished Subnautica Below Zero recently. It was good, but not as good as the original. Just had a different feel, and I wasn't very satisfied with the ending, especially given that I had no idea about the bonus objective with the frozen leviathan until after finishing.

Currently playing through Shadow of the Tomb Raider. And man, is it a shadow of the first game in the reboot series. The story isn't very engaging, the gameplay sections feel uninventive, and the controls are pretty jank. The first game had me repeatedly saying aloud "Lara..." (oh no, why is this happening to you), this has me going "Lara..." (frustrated at why she keeps jumping to her death)

Also playing Duel Links. Want to get a Horus the Black Flame Dragon deck 'cause he's a fun little cutie.

 

Well my break is over. I finished FF7 Remake DLC last night. I kept struggling and I got annoyed with it so I switched to Easy. I don't want to hear any complaints about this. I don't know why I kept struggling but I just did. More so than when I played the main game. So I did what I had to do to prevent the game from annoying me anymore. Either way... the game went from Dirge of Cerberus to Kingdom Hearts (I KNEW IT) and then back to FF7 Remake. Yep. Makes sense to me.

Either way I also started Xenoblade Chronicles 2 last night. Honestly... I'm intrigued already. Much faster than the first game. Lots of improvements that I've noticed so far and I'm liking it quite a lot. Hopefully I'll understand why everyone loves Rex so much and what the big deal is when it comes to Pyra and Mythra.

 

Finished Souls-like games

Star Wars - Jedi Fallen Order
Kena - Bridge of Spirits
Code Vein

Surrendered - Sekiro Shadows Die Twice

The weird thing about this is that I never played the FromSoftware games. Maybe its because I watched youtubers playing them and that made me avoid playing it. For example for Sekiro, I like the mechanics of the game and the difficulty. But got totally stuck at the last boss and never touched that game again. I never should have watched the playthrough of others since it clearly made my gameplay sloppy.

Unlike my finished games. Which I played in blind.

 

I finally completed Xenoblade Chronicles 2 and it's DLC a few days ago. Honestly... I can't give this game justice. I can't. I really can't. It was just SO GOD DAMN GOOD. It really was. It's unreal how AMAZING this game truly was. Every time I thought the game couldn't become more AMAZING... it just did. It was just so freaking good from start to end and I loved it for that. I am SO glad I heard about this franchise now and decided to buy the games and play them. I really am. I'm pretty much a fan of this franchise for life or for as long as it's alive I suppose. For some reason... I didn't really like the DLC. I think I might know why... but... it involves spoilers. So... yeah. My personal scores for this game would probably be 10/10 Main Game and 7/10 DLC.

I also started my next game in my backlog. Another Switch game. If you can't tell from the image in my signature trophy card... it's Octopath Traveler. Honestly... I'm really concerned about this game. Probably difficulty wise mostly. However... I just keep getting a bad feeling about this game for some reason. Oh well. I'm going to at least try. We'll see what happens from there. All I can say so far... is that I'm doing far better than when I played the demo. However... I got a Game Over already during Ophellia's first boss. Which I feel like is a bad sign. Well again... we'll just have to wait and see. Wish me luck I guess... I might need it.

 

For anyone that cares... I'm also now playing Chocobo GP as an official 'side game' so to speak. Yes I realize it's been getting a lot of negative flak lately. But I'm having a super fun time playing it so I don't really care. The Story Mode/Story is nonsensical sure but it's also hilarious

Also I don't plan on putting any money into the game other than what I used to buy it. Even if that means no Cloud and Squall for me. I'll deal with the free characters and maybe some shop characters if I ever get enough tickets to obtain them. So I don't really see an issue here. For me at least.

If anyone has this same mentality... I'm willing to play with others. Just find a way to contact me so something can be set up.

 

I finished Octopath Traveler last night. Well... 'finished to my liking' really. The game gave me credits after completing one of the Chapter 4's. It was the first one I did. I still did the rest of the Chapter 4's. But because the game gave me credits... everything else is considered post-game as far as I'm concerned. I don't play post-game most of the time except in some certain specific circumstances. This isn't one of them. No I don't care if there's a 'true final boss' it's after the credits have rolled and in post-game as far as I'm concerned so I'm not doing it. Besides... I have no motivation to continue this game. It was extremely underwhelming and not as great as everyone made it out to be. In other words everyone made it out to overrated to what it actually ended up being for me. It makes me not want to play anymore HD-2D games but we'll see. Feel free to try to convince me otherwise though. At least when it comes to Live A Live. Either way my personal final score for Octopath Traveler is 7/10. A little too much grinding and not exciting at all.

Either way I started my next game in my backlog last night as well. Tales of Symphonia Chronicles for the PS3. It's fine. It's been so god damn long since I've played the Symphonia games it'll be interesting to see how they still hold up for me (they used to be my favorite Tales of games but I didn't start getting more until recently lol). Plus... can I beat them without cheating? I certainly hope so but time will tell obviously. It's just going to be weird yet somehow cool to play these games again.

 

I completed Tales of Symphonia yesterday. Despite how old this game is... it's unreal how well this game still holds up to this day. For me at least. Is the battle system outdated and didn't age well at all? Of course. However... outside of the first Sword Dancer boss and the other bosses that were either literally impossible or weren't required to win... I didn't get a single Game Over. So you could make the argument I didn't get a single game over in the game period. Great story and great characters. I love it just as much as I originally did.

I also started the Symphonia sequel last night. Because why not. Dawn of the New World. It'll be interesting to see if my opinion on this game changes... but I personally doubt it. Most hate this game but I don't. Honestly... I utterly and completely forgot about the monster catching gimmick in this game. I hope getting specific monsters isn't required... otherwise I won't be beating this game. I can already tell the skits are FAR better than the first game. One has already made me legit laugh. Off to a good start so far. It's still jarring to see the drastic change in Lloyd though....

 

I finished Tales of Symphonia: Dawn of the New World last night and finally finished Tales of Symphonia Chronicles PS3 for good. My opinion on this game... hasn't changed. For the most part at least. I didn't think it would. About all I can really say... is that the main story moves way too fast and the game isn't that long overall. There are also some battles and bosses that are overly ridiculous in terms of difficulty. Other than that though... this game just is not as bad as everyone makes it out to be. Yes it has a line that gets repeated... A LOT (which is putting it very lightly) and other characters aren't giving as much of a focus... but it's still a great game for me. Obviously it's not as good as the first game but sequels never are. In most cases that is (there are exceptions obviously). I still really enjoyed my experience with this game again though. I even got the Bad Ending in it for the first time ever (I never got it previously).

Here's my new Tales of list if anyone wants it I guess:

Berseria
Symphonia
Zestiria
Symphonia 2
Vesperia

Anyway... I plan on starting Gravity Rush Remastered tonight. So I'm back to the PS4. I also plan on going for the Platinum in this game. Can I pull it off? Only time will tell obviously.