What Games Are You Playing?

Tonight I finally completed Tokyo Mirage Sessions which I've been playing again for the last month. In the end the game didn't have a very deep story but I really like the characters and the music was pretty neat, so overall I'm pretty satisfied with the end result. Although the game doesn't do the best job of expressing the Fire Emblem elements, I think Atlus did a pretty good job of tying the series back in later on.

My total playtime was about 66 hours, that's completing the main story plus all the side stories (which you're required to do if you want the best ending). I found the length about right considering I did all the side stories and I think some optional bosses, it's just a shame that it's not the best pick-up and play game if you leave it for long periods of time. I had to start going through each dungeon over a couple of days and then leaving it, otherwise I'd forget what I was meant to be doing and the game wasn't the best for pointing me in the correct direction.

Away from TMS I've been playing Pokémon Y as I wanted to play through Kalos again before the new games turn up. I also intend to go back to Tales of Xillia so I can finally finish that before I get any more Tales of games. I'm sure it'll make @NormanicGrav happy to see me finally finish too. :p
 
Finished Episodes 3 and 4 of Game of Thrones. Here's the results of the choices I made:

Episode 3:
Saved Malcolm. [49%]
Defied Margaery and spoke to Tyrion. [48.9%]
Walked away from Brit. [68.9%]
Stood up to Gryff Whitehill. [32.4%]
Burned the Ironwood Decree. [29.7%]

Episode 4:
Brought Finn along. [87.3%]
Maimed Gryff. [61.2%]
Kept Sera's secret from Lord Tarwick. [87.5%]
Ordered the Glenmore soldiers to remain at Ironrath. [64.8%]
Stopped Beskha from killing the Slave Master. [44.1%]

Two more episodes left. Honestly I felt that the storyline was getting rather off at first (having to end up causing enemies against the actual GoT characters which felt rather forced). But episode 4 has gotten to a better direction.
 
Finished Episode 5 of Telltale's Game of Thrones. There's only 1 episode left to play but I need to download that first (plus I have the Nioh Beta demo downloading as well).

Here's the choices:
Did not try to stab Ramsay Snow. [63.4%]
Did not tell Tyrion that Cersei sent you. [63%]
Chose to imprison the traitor. [42%]
Had Rodrik stay behind. [60.5%] ~ I actually redid this choice because I ran out of time, plus I felt unsatisfied with the outcome, so I made Rodrik stay behind instead.
 
Ultra Despair Girls complete. I had a fun time playing through this, I enjoyed the characters, story and music. Went for the platinum trophy, as I only missed a few collectables and they were easy to get and a few other misc trophies to get.

Now to go back to playing Steins;Gate and Paper Mario.
 
Finished the final episode of Telltale's Game of Thrones. This episode is pretty controversial because the ending regardless of your choices is a bit **** in a way.

I'm satisfied with Gared's ending however the others I'll change in preparation for Season 2.

Anywho here's the outcome I received:
Told Margaery the truth and were dismissed. [62.6%]
This outcome I was honestly fine with because either way Margaery is pretty much useless in the end due to the storyline forcing Mira to make some daft choices.
Agreed to marry Morgryn. [24.7%]
I figured why not but now I regret it. I am willing to kill her off because she's useless.
Gave Cotter a merciful death. [39.5%]
Considering the outcome of Gared's end I should change this choice, but it's optional in my opinion.
Exposed the plan to poison Lord Whitehill. [13.9%]
This was a tough choice to make because I didn't know what sort of outcome it would provide. Apparently regardless of what happens Lady Forrester is dead either way so I'm willing to redo this choice and give it a better end. The outcome of the choice I got was reasonable but it's not satisfying enough.
Stayed to defend the North Grove. [51.4%]
This was also a tough choice. Because of what happens at the outcome of the Whitehill fight you would think there would be no point in returning to Ironrath. However by staying there's also the possibility of bumping into Bran Stark in the second season (which I hope that is the case). I'll have to see what happens either way.

Anywho I also received my 18th Platinum trophy.
 
Nice. Grats on the plat.

I am currently playing gal gun double peace. Its fun but going to be tough to platinum as you need to nearly perfect every level for a gold
 
My favourite Zelda (granted, it's the only one I've put any significant time into) is Link's Awakening. That dope-ass Game Boy game.
 
Now that i have my new laptop, i can finally get back to doing some PC gaming and getting back to work with everything else! So i'm back onto Legend of Grimrock 2 - which i do thoroughly enjoy. classic dungeoncrawling with some good D&D vibes and RPG elements. highly recommended if you like RPGs and fantasy, then go for this. Also back onto Dishonored which i'm about half way through. It's very good fun, despite having limited options for stealth. I do look forward to the second game, hopefully they can build on what they did at first and get it all going in strides.

Also playing Yoshi's New Island on N3DS. it's fun, don't get me wrong. But it's so slow paced to what i'm used to, it threw me off. It's a charming title, but just isn't anything compared to the original. Worth it for a £10 though, definitely.
 
So for the past few days I finally got my hands on trying out Koei Tecmo's beta demo for the upcoming game Nioh via the PlayStation 4. This game has gotten my interest ever since it was re-announced back at Tokyo Games Show 2015 (yes this game has been in development since 2004 for the PS3) and with two demos released I wanted to give it a shot. I did download the Alpha demo but unfortunately they blocked access to it for anyone who installed the game after the date went past, so I was lucky enough to get the Beta demo. The Beta demo also includes the level used in the Alpha demo so I essentially got two demos in one.

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The Alpha demo was pretty simple. You navigate your way through a bunch of samurai and some Oni all the way to the American ship that's in flames. At the ship however is an Oni demon boss fight. Before I talk about the boss let's talk about the gameplay itself. Now here's the issue that's more of a nitpick - Nioh is essentially a Souls game with an Onimusha skin to it. You have the same mechanics that the Souls game have; there's no pausing, the game auto-saves during each Shrine (aka Bonfire in Souls terms), the enemies respawn after resting, after dying you keep your equipment and items but lose the points to level up, and you can even regain your points by locating the spot where your character died. Pretty much everything I said is also in the Souls franchise, even the enemies deal tons of damage and can be a huge threat if you are not careful. Now does this mean that Nioh is not original? Well the good news is that it does have its own special perks. One of the coolest features in the game are the three stances; high, medium and low. These change the way you fight against the enemies; high stance provides a strong offensive but takes up a lot of stamina, medium stance is a good balance between the two, and low stance offers a good number of hits with low hit points but also saving tons of stamina and allows a quick and easy dodge. You will need to make use of these stances if you wish to beat the game, but it's very easy once you get used to what each one does. The other special additions include the ability to summon a spirit that goes into your sword, this takes a while to charge but does a great deal of damage against enemies and even Oni demons which helps a lot. However you will need to search for the spot if you wish to re-use it after dying.

Now let's talk about the boss fights, the Alpha boss fight was one son of a bitch. His attacks can deal a heck ton of damage if you don't know how he moves. The trick to defeating him is by dodging and switching stances each time, and also a heck ton of patience because rushing in is not a good idea. His moves are split between two parts, the first part focuses on him throwing around his steel ball chains which can be deflected by using the block with zero or little damage against you. Once you hit half of his health he'll ditch them and try to slam you while also bringing an aura that will freeze your stamina unless you get out of it (relatively easy). It's all about patience pretty much and making sure you have Elixirs ready when you need them. The spirit ability (which is on the top left of your screen) does help quite a bit but you can mess up if he hits you.

The Beta boss fight is an interesting one. She is fast and will automatically destroy you if you get hit from her purple shots (which will paralyse you and cause a ton of problems if you don't have those needle items to undo the effect). But compared to the Alpha boss she is pretty easy to fight and that's mainly because her attacks are simple to understand and easy to dodge if you make use of the medium stance and guarding. The guarding doesn't work with the paralyse shots she makes but medium stance dodging does a great job compared to low stance (which was where I was having a ton of problems with). She will also try to grab you and absorb your HP to hers so becareful. Overall the trick to defeat her is use a medium stance and keep a good distance unless she does a triple hit (which ends with a kick), or when she dives into you (which you then dodge and strike back). Defeating the bosses will unlock two demo exclusive items; Mark of the Conqueror and Mark of the Strong.

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So overall, do I recommend Nioh after playing the demo? Yes I recommend it because while it is essentially a Souls clone, it is still a ton of fun and provides a solid challenge overall. The game is exclusive to PlayStation 4 and due sometime in late 2016.
 
I've been meaning to try that demo, apparently they actually changed quite a bit based on the feedback they received after the Alpha, which is always nice. I think this one is up til next week though so I'll have to try and remember/drag myself away from what I'm currently playing, which brings me onto this...

I've been playing the new Master of Orion game, and like all games of it's kind it's a complete time vampire lol it's pretty good though, having a lot of fun with it.
 
So after some weird decision making I finally got my hands on Rock Band 4 for the PlayStation 4 thanks to the awesome deal Argos provided (£24.99 for the Guitar bundle). So here's my first impressions on the game after about 6 hours of playtime.

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So what's different this time around? Well Rock Band 4 is a downgrade to its previous instalment; Pro Guitar, Pro Bass, Keyboard and Pro Keyboard have been omitted from this instalment due to the lack of usage on those devices based on user feedback. Pro Drums and Harmonies do carry over which is good because I consider them to be the most useful out of the new additions from Rock Band 3's engine, though I do wish Harmonix could have at least added Keyboard as a separate guitar track like in Rock Band 3. Another notable downgrade are the ton of features that didn't show up at launch; setlists, practice mode and even online multiplayer was absent (now the former two are back via free updates and the latter will be returning this holiday season) so getting this game at launch has divided the community quite a fair bit.

Now Rock Band is pretty much back on its feet this season with most of the features returning plus more and more songs being made available as downloadable content, with a total of nearly 2000 songs now available to buy. So far I've been having a pretty good time with this instalment, especially as I only have the Guitar controller this time around. The Rock Band 4 MadCatz Guitar is a slight improvement to the Rock Band 1 version that I owned on Xbox 360. The buttons feel much better to press and easier to navigate while the strum bar is silent but does its job very well (though I miss the clicking sound from Guitar Hero controllers which actually helps a lot with the fast thrashing type notes). The RB4 controller is also wireless via Bluetooth which is a mini bonus but I did notice some disconnections every now and then (only 2 and it's probably due to the way I play).

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So the big question many want to know, how's the setlist this time around? Interesting to say the least. Like what Rock Band 3 did with its chosen songs, Rock Band 4 has gone through a bunch of songs that are either B-tier or recent. The big surprise this time around is the inclusion of U2 and Van Halen, both of which were originally impossible to appear on Rock Band (the former didn't want their music in the video games, while the latter had an exclusive deal with Guitar Hero). I've played both U2 songs and they're pretty solid, especially Cedarwood Road which is fun to play on guitar. But what makes Rock Band great is the songs that you wonder to yourself 'how did I not hear this before?'; to me a couple examples have been Fleetwood Mac's "You Make Loving Fun" and St. Vincent's "Birth in Reverse". There's also some cool challenging songs with Brad Paisley ft. Keith Urban's "Start a Band", Dream Theater's "Metropolis - Part 1 'The Miracle and the Sleeper'", Judas Priest's "Halls of Valhalla" and Soul Remnants' "Dead Black (Heart of Ice)", the latter of which is pretty epic for a niche metal genre (about 5-6 guitar solos as well!).

Career Mode is decent and does it job, reminds me a lot of what Rock Band 2 did. You basically create your band name and characters which will then give you a bunch of setlists that vary to choosing your own, voting for a certain one, or being given a set of songs in order. While voting is a cool feature, if you don't have additional songs downloaded from the music store this may tire you a fair amount due to being limited to the same songs all over again.

So overall I think that Rock Band 4 is a pretty good game now than it was a year ago. It's still not perfect but with the free updates and continued support of additional songs via downloadable content, there's still enough replayability for this game to last fans a while.
 
Finished Nights of Azure the other day, I had a great time playing throught, I love the story, music and Arnice <3 Spent today cleaning up the misc trophies. The finish 300 requests was the last one I needed, which I got a few minutes ago along with my platinum trophy :D

I'm looking forward to Nights of Azure 2 coming out, hopefully you can take more than 3 requests at a time lol
 
Haha yeah they're a little different to say the least. Devil May Cry and Bayonetta are two of my favorite series of all time and both are less guided and linear in their approach to action than the Batman games. You're given freedom in what weapons and what attacks you choose to utilize as a means to be as stylish as possible. It's more akin to dance than fighting I guess. There is some overlap however with the Batman games, waiting for the right opening and timing moves and such. There's no shame in getting your ass handed to you, everyone starts somewhere and the best approach to these games is to go back to older levels and improve rather than getting the best ranking first time around because you're always gaining new abilities and weapons.
 
I really want to get a DS for all the hammy visual novels. I regret selling every DS I've ever had before I even got any real use out of it, I've done that about four times.

If hammy/campy visual novels is what I'm after, what's got the better range, DS or 3DS? I know there are a few VN fans around these parts, anyone got any favs to recommend? I've pretty much only ever played Phoenix Wright and Hotel Dusk, but both were brill, and why read normal novels when you can read Visual Novels, they usually use less big words too.
 
Close to finishing off Dragon Age Inquisition. Love the character interactions, but man does this game get tedious. Started Borderlands 2, too.

Weighing up getting Digimon Cyber Sleuth and EDF 4.1 (for that glorious MP campaign) next.
 
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