De_Narm

More 13 Sentinels.

It has been a slow week in terms of gaming, I only did a bit of story. The story segments and the battle segments are mostly independent of each other, so you can do whichever for the most part.

Even though there are 13 characters, each with their own perspective and during different times within the overall story, the game does a great job to interest you in at least one of the other characters during any given perspective. You're free to switch after each mini episode, but I tend to follow a single character until there's a progression lock.

Currently, at 31% battle and 20% story completion.

Started God Eater 3.

Monster Hunter Wilds has been announced for Switch 2 and with the last direct being as great as it was, I'll get one eventually. But until then, we wanted to play something similar to scratch the itch.

The game throws a lot of progression systems at you, which I like. The monsters are a lot less tightly designed, but still fun. Thus far, the game is quite easy.

I loved the gameplay, but I think they said a while ago that the next game will feature a different system. Since the trailer didn't show any gameplay I'm somewhat anxious about that.

As an RPG guy, this was honestly one of if not the best Direct they ever produced. Guess it's time to get a Switch 2 - well, maybe only once the revised one releases in Europe, but still.

Definitely my biggest one. If they announce one I'll bite and get a S2!

I didn't think it was actually happening this decade, but they finally announced something! And this soon after Metaphor.

I dig the whole vibe change, but we don't really learn all that much in this teaser. I'll need to see some gameplay and hear at least one song.

Just finished Danganronpa. I thought it was great, but my partner wasn't really invested - which is why we finished it in one go this weekend and will be starting something new next week. I'll probably get the next one during the next sale.

How is Shiren the Wanderer a roguelike without any meta progression, aren't they part of the genre?

The original game Rogue didn't have any meta progression, that's been tacked onto the genre later. Back then, people tried to establish 'roguelike' for games without meta progression and 'roguelite' for ones who do. Didn't stick apparently.

Shiren ist actually quite faithful to Rogue as a whole.

There are ways to keep gear between runs to force some meta progression, but most dungeons don't allow you to bring items in anyways. It's mostly a thing for the story dungeon.

Any recommendation to try? To see if the genre is for me or not.

Pokemon Mystery Dungeon is generally the most popular sub-series. Especially the first two games - with Explorers of Sky being the best one overall. There is also a Switch remake of the first game.

These games aren't roguelikes at all, you keep your level and everything and there's an actual story.

If you don't care for that, Shiren has the most depth instead but can be quite overwhelming. Unlike Pokemon you can get these games for like 2 bucks during sales.

Started 13 Sentinel Aegis Rim!

It's a weird mix of a strategy game and a visual novel. It didn't grip me immediately, but I'm really starting to get into it. There are 13 different perspectives you can follow - they all overlap, but they are not told in order. There's giant mechs and time travel shenanigans involved. The biggest hurdle thus far was simply starting it. From the get-go, the story gets told like you already know most things, and it's on you to make sense of it all. I like this approach, but I'm not always in the mood for it.

Dabbled in some rougelikes this week.

Played some Ball x Pit while it was free. I did really enjoy the game, it has a certain addictive quality to it. At the same time, I don't feel like there's enough player agency outside of picking upgrades. Most of the time, I basically just needed to walk left - right to collect EXP. It's one of those game I can see myself putting a lot of time in really fast and then kinda regretting it. Every blue moon, that happens with an idle game.

Also played some Shiren the Wanderer: The Tower of Fortune and the Dice of Fate. This one is quite the opposite. There's little to no meta progression and it's choke-full of decisions to make. I simply love Mystery Dungeon games and this is no exception, even though I specifically avoided it for so long because I prefer the story based ones like Chobo or Pokemon. But that makes it perfect while I only have Visual Novels going on and sometimes need a burst of pure gameplay.

Just did the 4th trial of Danganronpa.

Seeing how slimerancher finished the game, chances are I'll finish the game over the weekend. If so, I'll add another post about it here while it's fresh in my memory.

Finished Octopath Traveler II!

The final stretch using all characters together within the story and allowing you to swap them at any time was the best part of the game by far. The final boss was quite epic and even had a cool new mechanic!

Sadly, the hidden final boss was none of that. It's one of those 'wiki bosses' you'll usually only beat by looking up either just a guide or lists of all available abilities and pieces of equipment and where to find them. I didn't feel like doing hours of prep work.

Overall, I did enjoy the game a fair bit more than the first one, but Octopath is still leagues behind Triangle Strategy and Bravely Default in my personal ranking. Still, anything by Team Asano is at least good. (Well, maybe except for Various Daylife, but I never played it myself. Someday on sale, perhaps.)

More Danganronpa!

Still enjoying the game, but I think the class trials could be a tad shorter. They can also be somewhat frustrating, I died twice testing every single combination in an argument, simply because I didn't know or forgot about being able to carry absorbed arguments into the next cycle. Luckily, you don't have to repeat the whole thing when running out of hearts.

Next up is 13 Sentinels! Actually my last game on the backlog, discounting Nioh 2 (lent out my PS4) and stuff on Steam I've had for almost a decade (I was waiting for the crypto craze to die down before buying a modern PC, then AI happened...).

Wait, what? Is that something people experience?

The logo is such a downgrade, I would love to see the last build they had before restarting. The original announcement had me way more interested than this one.

Still, I'm glad there was anything at all to show. It's been 9 years since DQ11. Almost a quarter of the whole 40 years they are supposed to celebrate. Seems like it will take a few more years, given the barebones trailer.