Since The Witcher 3 came out, my favorite video game stories have been Disco Elysium, Cyberpunk 2077, 13 Sentinels: Aegis Rim, Alan Wake 2, Citizen Sleeper, and Metaphor: ReFantazio. I also really liked Death Stranding, but Kojima’s not for everyone.

It’s funny how often I hear of Trails being COVID games. I honestly didn’t like most of FC and SC and wouldn’t have finished them if they weren’t pandemic companion games. Glad I did, though; Sky the 3rd hooked me in a big way and I’ve been devouring the series ever since, all the way through Daybreak.

Zero and Azure are some of my favorite all-time games, too.

I dunno, I might side-eye my partner a lil bit if it turned out they were really good at CK3’s schemes.

That’s the original version of the game. It’s had enhanced ports but never a remake previously. From what we know, this is a full remake, with changes to gameplay, a new localization, and some additions for continuity. The game’s 20 years old. Hard to put that anywhere near modern.

Since it’s the first in a continuous series, it’s long seemed necessary to at least bring the game into full 3D for new players to come on board. For long-term Trails fans, the value of this remake (and the inevitable second one, at least) will probably depend on some of the details, especially the localizations for players that don’t read Japanese.

I don’t know what it is with Japanese devs and arbitrary multiplayer decisions. The way Capcom handles Monster Hunter’s multiplayer continues to baffle me.

From a PC gaming perspective, it feels like Western developers decided to just give players multiple options to play together all the way back in the 1990’s. This sort of thing always feels badly regressive to me.

I wonder how well the marketing exclusivity is working for them. I’ve come across more than one person that thought Metaphor: ReFantazio wasn’t on PlayStation because of it.

Don’t mind me, I’ll be sitting here waiting patiently for my Destiny of an Emperor remake.

Biggest surprise for length was Dragon Quest VII, the PSX version. Started playing it close to release, dropped it several times and finally finished it years later.

I’d played multiple games in the series before and I think the longest one topped out at 40 hours, so I really was not expecting a 100+ hour marathon like that was (although the very, very long prologue should probably have served as a warning).

Especially considering last I checked, Porsche isn’t pushing a line of space ships.

Big, chunky logos are part of this specific vibe, though I can understand why it’s a turn-off (with a couple of the fictional ones being out of focus).

AHHH this raises so many questions. So ready for this.

It’s a meme at this point.

“Turn based RPGs are dead!”

points at, well, everywhere

“No, I meant turn based JRPGs”

points at Like a Dragon, Persona, Metaphor

“No, I meant turn based JRPGs developed by Square”

points at Bravely Default, Dragon Quest, countless remasters/remakes

“No, I want AAA mainline Final Fantasy to be turn based!”

🤷‍♀️

I don’t think these people will ever be happy, even if Sakaguchi came back to Square and brought the whole gang back with him.

They are also on Bluesky. GDL’s a great follow if you’re interested in Japanese gaming trends.

I played the demo a couple months ago and have only played a few hours since release (the save carried over), but so far this is in the running to be my personal game of the year. I’ve discovered a love for these repetitive problem-solvers like Papers Please and Hardspace: Shipbreaker, and this has been absolutely brilliant so far, with a very solid plot hook and a mature, wacky, occasionally gross vibe that totally fits the setting.

It’s quite difficult, and the gameplay loop is clearly intended to be meta-progression driven, with player knowledge of how to repair the ships being the major factor. Hopefully it doesn’t fall apart once I’ve “solved” it, and also would be nice if the story holds up. It’s damn interesting. It’d be great too if this turned out to be as replayable as something like Papers Please, where a year from now I drop into the game from time to time to do some repairs.

Edit: Now that I’m in the late game, I’ve unfortunately discovered a couple of bugs that make things more difficult than they should be (or even impossible in one particular case). I’d say wait for a patch for this one at this point.

I’m thinking the online component isn’t going to going to be full-blown MMO, would be ambitious for this developer.

I like the concepts here, but it always comes down to execution and scope for space-based games.

It wasn’t for me, but I’ve heard that some people like Noita, which is built around granular physics interactions.

Oxygen Not Included was more my speed, but that’s more about complex, larger systems (like fluid dynamics and heat) than collision.

This is me with current books and music. For books, common styles of prose or an abundance of certain tropes used now simply don’t hit with me, and I’ve even gone back to mid-to-late 20th century books recently to try to avoid all that.

I’d say the best way to try to broaden your taste is to make sure you’re touching on the hits in different genres, and–if you can handle dated gameplay and visuals–to go back and try games from previous generations as well.

Zero DRM isn’t the only reason games aren’t published on GOG right away, and that may not even be the main reason for the countless games that release day one without Denuvo.

GOG also doesn’t have the best infrastructure for pushing updates. Stories abound of it being a slow process, whether physically uploading the files or authentication taking a while. Invariably, game updates will show up later on GOG than they will on Steam. GOG also has a very consumer-friendly return policy. All that, combined with it being simply a smaller marketplace, doesn’t place it well in cost-benefit analysis.

The first Suikoden is on the shorter side, at least. Should be able to get through it in 25 hours or less.

Darkest Dungeon, Jedi Fallen Order, and Titanfall 2 are all super cheap. Darkest Dungeon pissed me off 15 hours in or so, enough to ragequit the game, and I’d still consider it well worth the current price.

Disco Elysium and the original Hades are also great buys at 10€.