What games are you playing now?

[Pladio]

I've been playing the Thaumaturge and it started off quite interesting but it's basically become a follow the quest marker game.

The story is somewhat interesting but the combat is nothing special. The gameplay is so so. I am not sure I'll finish it but I will keep it going at a slower pace for now.


I also played a fun game of ck3 and achieved quite a few fun things like becoming a naked emperor.

 

[danutz_plusplus]

Went back and fought the Chromatic Abbest. Holy shit, what a long fight. I used 3 resurrects and still lost Gustave at the very end. My arm was getting numb from the same dodge timing.
It must've taken 30 minutes to get through the whole thing. Just insane. And at the end my characters leveled up 3-6 levels at least, each. Except for Gustave, who apparently only got 50% of the xp since he was dead? But still, a lot of levels. Very rewarding in the end.

 

[JFarrell71]

Went back and fought the Chromatic Abbest.

you're still quite early on. I keep expecting you to get to a certain point and am curious what your reaction will be.

 

[danutz_plusplus]

you're still quite early on. I keep expecting you to get to a certain point and am curious what your reaction will be.

I've only just now reached the Ancient Sanctuary, and cleared everything else before heading into it. (I tend to do that, delay the main path as the last thing I do, and do everything else before that).
Lune has become my main damage dealer. Somehow she's gotten to have the most life and biggest damage output; even though she's only 2 levels higher than Gustave. But she has almost double Gustave's HP.

And as far as attribute points, I've basically fallen into the same pattern for all levels, for all characters. 1 point in Vitality and 2 in Agility (since I like the idea of attacking very frequently). Didn't think too much about that, just saw very minuscule increases for the other attributes.
But even so, Gustave is almost half of Lune's HP. Even though she's a mage. Not sure how that happened.

But I've also not looked deeply into min-maxing each character's skills and building off each other. Except for the marked mechanic, which I do use.
I do like how diverse the abilities are, and how they each have their place. It's a pretty cool system.

It's a very solid game so far. The story is intriguing and I like the characters. And the mechanics are also very solid. It's great.

 

[JFarrell71]

Lune has become my main damage dealer.

She was for me for quite a while. I used her for all the solo fights against the Gestral. But Maelle eclipsed her and at this point Sciel probably has too. Maelle is an absolute powerhouse for me 2/3rds of the way through the game.

But even so, Gustave is almost half of Lune's HP. Even though she's a mage. Not sure how that happened.

Almost certainly because of the Pictos they have equipped. That makes a massive difference. I have a Picto that adds +1000 health all by itself.

 

[danutz_plusplus]

She was for me for quite a while. I used her for all the solo fights against the Gestral. But Maelle eclipsed her and at this point Sciel probably has too. Maelle is an absolute powerhouse for me 2/3rds of the way through the game.

Same. I also used Lune for the solo fights.

But even so, Gustave is almost half of Lune's HP. Even though she's a mage. Not sure how that happened.

Almost certainly because of the Pictos they have equipped. That makes a massive difference. I have a Picto that adds +1000 health all by itself.

Yeah, could be. I don't remember, but can you equip the same learned Pictos on multiple characters? I know the ones that you haven't learned yet you can't, but once you learn them? Can multiple chars have the same learned one? I assume no, since that would be way too OP?
I don't remember finding any Pictos that give HP yet. Most are for damages boosts from what I remember. But I'll take a second look next time I'm ingame.

 

[Jaw]

I tried Tainted grail: fall of Avalon this weekend. I kickstarted it ages ago and it just hit 1.0. It was a little rough at first but as I got into a melee-magic hybrid build it reminded me of gothic 2. Great dark fantasy atmosphere with an Arthurian twist!

 

[JFarrell71]

I don't remember finding any Pictos that give HP yet. Most are for damages boosts from what I remember. But I'll take a second look next time I'm ingame.

There are tons of them. I guarantee you have a bunch. Look at them again. They all have an effect, but they also all modify attributes.

Only the ones directly equipped affect attributes. You can't equip the same Picto on multiple characters, but using Lumina you can absolutely get the effect of a Picto on multiple characters. That's a key gameplay mechanic.

 

[danutz_plusplus]

I tried Tainted grail: fall of Avalon this weekend. I kickstarted it ages ago and it just hit 1.0. It was a little rough at first but as I got into a melee-magic hybrid build it reminded me of gothic 2. Great dark fantasy atmosphere with an Arthurian twist!

I didn't install it on gog, but was surprised it didn't show up as 1.0 in the gog library. It either is the release version, and the 0.65 number is something else. Or it wasn't yet updated on GOG?

 

[Jaw]

I didn't install it on gog, but was surprised it didn't show up as 1.0 in the gog library. It either is the release version, and the 0.65 number is something else. Or it wasn't yet updated on GOG?
View attachment 6277

I don't know, I'm playing the steam version. Sometimes steam and gog versions are not updated att the same time.

 

[Carnifex]

Aye, that's an issue I've also run into in the past, not all platforms are super prompt with the updates.

 

[danutz_plusplus]

Apparently the 0.65 offline GOG version is indeed the 1.0 release version. I didn't want to install to confirm, but that's what some people are saying.

where is the 1.0?, page 1 - Forum - GOG.com

Download the best games on Windows & Mac. A vast selection of titles, DRM-free, with free goodies, and lots of pure customer love.

www.gog.com

 

[Couchpotato]

That's been a known problem ever since GOG launched. Their version numbers don't always match steam, and yes it does indeed get very confusing. Anyway good to know.

 

[mercy]

Wandering Sword finished!

Wuxia game. Meaning magical flying kung-fu stuff with a martial arts infinite leveling system, so no level caps! Massive army fights and really nice boss fights. Turn-based or Real-time! Surprisingly feature rich!

LOTS OF SUPER SEXY GORGEOUS CHICKS!!!

Extremely addictive in the beginning. Later the combat system becomes simplistic. Beautiful scenes and excellent writing, professional story all throughout. I thought once at around 75% that the game was ending soon, but only revved up to introduce even more bosses.

ADDICTIVE ELEMENTS:
1. Looting NPCs: lots of them wander the land ON FOOT, like in those 70's Ninja/Samurai/Karate/Kung-fu movies and when you cross them, they stop and offer CHAT or OBSERVE. Latter gives you insight into their inventory. You can GIFT them trash, which makes them happy and increases their friendliness toward you to 20, then you can SPAR with them, which ends in them losing - especially if you cheated like me to get stronger sooner - then you get some items from their inventory. Once confident you can switch to AUTO battle and ALT+TAB out of the game to watch your favorite TV SHOW, then ALT+TAB back into the game again to find that you have won the battle and AGAIN looted one or a couple items from poor NPC. Keep doing that until you completely empty these NPCs. Once you get experienced in OBSERVING, so you know which stuff is worth a LOT, then you can let go useless NPCs you meet carrying cheap junk. Then you can COVET the increasingly powerful KUNG FU MASTERS, who usually have the BEST STUFF!!! Best loot will make you stronger quicker.
2. Collecting a minimum of 3 of the most powerful power increasing pills & stuff - so NOT using them, but waiting and grinding and doing the story, until you get Three and then using Cheat Engine to multiply the really powerful stuff, so others in your party also can have them. This is especially a MUST HAVE for FORGING weapons or TAILORING armor. Because you need multiple rare ingredients and instead of grinding / collecting them, you just wait, until your FISH/LOOT/COLLECT THREE pieces of these rare ingredients, then multiply those with CE. So you forge/tailor your party's armor & weapons a LOT SOONER losing a lot less LIFE-HOURS!
So deck out everybody in your party with the most powerful armor using the most powerful recipes you can get your dirty grubby hands ON. Powerful equipment also increases strength / mana etc.. attributes. Until later you can gather 3 of the really potent STR, MANA and HP and meridian-point increasing pills. After these you just collect rare kung fu scrolls teaching you more and more devastating AOE KILL techniques. After that late game I just safely increased by 2x 3x my party members' power to safely put away the most powerful NPCs as well. So the game could end SOONER. Because by the time the story "peeked" I had enough of this game. But still I was at ~75% in the story! Aarrgh!! Lots of famous NPC names got confusing really quick. Then I did not care about secret chests or stupid little quests or idiot little villages full with NPCs breathlessly waiting for me to solve their idiotic problems. No, I bypassed all that. New techniques and new items did not help me after I acquired some of the potent late game weapons and armor. I didn't need the most powerful ones, but equipped them for fun...

There are really poignant scenes with nice animations and good music and writing. Graphics is OK. DUNNO the engine speed - is it optimized or not - , because I have NOT checked on my old PC. And loading on this new PC takes 1-2 seconds, everything is smooth speed-wise, etc..

They are planning a probably amazing 2025 Summer DLC, but thanks no! I have a massive backlog. Even in its current already DLC-ed and patched state it never ever crashed once. Full with QoL featues. Had to cheat on grinding, because it would have taken twice this time to finish.
There is a New Game Plus Mode with Extreme Difficulty settings and you get lots of relics gained from the first playthrough in the beginning and nice MODs, but playing through once was more than enough!
Music 8/10
Gameplay 10/10

Now onto finishing System Shock remake and beginning DOOM 2016.

 

[Carnifex]

I'm well into Metaphor: ReFantazio, I've done a great deal of quests with my stable of three and just added a fourth yesterday to the roster, finally a thief! Although stealing seems to be a great challenge in this game, I've pumped up his agility as far as I can and he still only nabs an item maybe one time out of ten attempts. I won't complain though, I'm really glad to see this class included. That seems to be the major difference between this game and Persona 3, actual classes.

A great story never hurts and this game has that in spades. There's an ongoing world contest and your team has decided to participate, for better or worse. Combat is a mix between real time on one field and turn based in another, with lots to explore along the way. The social aspect seems to be a bit less than, say, Persona yet still important as it affects classes and I think quests to a certain extent. You also have extensive healing/detrimental items to use, and these can easily be the difference in some of the fights I've already had.

Atlus is a company that I'll be keeping my eyes on from now on!

 

[danutz_plusplus]

Reached Act 2 in Clair Obscur. Damn, did not expect them doing that. Not sure how I feel about that; will have to let it marinate further.
But the story is gripping indeed.

Also, the game really opens up once you get Esquie and have him swimming. And I remember seeing footage of him flying the open world? That'll be fun.

 

[Carnifex]

Metaphor is totally nailing it story-wise, a few days ago I'd a battle with some creepy baby-like thing which was tougher that one might imagine. Part of the story involved you having encounters with others that are also competing for the election-prize, these might be debates or actual fights along the way. And when the battles happen you've no warning, so I've gotten used to keeping my stable wearing their best classes just in case!

 

[danutz_plusplus]

Metaphor is totally nailing it story-wise, a few days ago I'd a battle with some creepy baby-like thing which was tougher that one might imagine. Part of the story involved you having encounters with others that are also competing for the election-prize, these might be debates or actual fights along the way. And when the battles happen you've no warning, so I've gotten used to keeping my stable wearing their best classes just in case!

I might give it another try, after enjoying Clair Obscur so much. Though I'm also preparing myself for the fact that the similarities will likely be more mechanical than in terms of setting and story. For those I still need some adjusting, due to my bias against jrpg settings.

 

[JDR13]

I might give it another try, after enjoying Clair Obscur so much. Though I'm also preparing myself for the fact that the similarities will likely be more mechanical than in terms of setting and story. For those I still need some adjusting, due to my bias against jrpg settings.

Yeah, they're not similar at all. I mean, they both have turn-based combat, but that's about it.

 

[Warmark]

I've never been able to get into JRPG's though I've tried many that have been recommended to me over the years, but Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 seems to resonate with almost everyone that has played it, especially with most if not all my fellow CRPG'ers. Coming very close to pulling the trigger on this one...