I'm also playing Breath of the Wild, I've made a lot of progress, though I still have a lot of side quests to do. I've almost upgraded all my inventory (I have like 415 korok seeds) and have completed most of the shrines.
It's such a great game, and easily takes its place in my top 5 Zelda titles (Majora's Mask is my personal favourite in the series and is my all-time favourite video game) The open-world aspect works so well since there's constantly something new to find, whether it be a treasure, enemies, or a Korok puzzle. Often I'd mess up, say fall down a mountain or run out of stamina, and end up finding something in the process. Being rewarded for exploring has always been a great Zelda trope, and here it's fully realised.
Plot-wise I don't have an issue with it since this the approach they took for this particular game, and it is unique and refreshing in my eyes, (the faults I do have with the game come with heavy spoilers so I won't discuss them for now) Besides, there are plenty of other Zelda titles to tide those with a thirst for a story-heavy adventure. It'll be interesting to see what Nintendo does next with the franchise
I have completed NieR Automata. While there are 26 endings, Endings A-E are the main storyline. There is Chapter Select so you'll be able to save yourself some time. So much happens and there is a lot to take in, but I dunno about the True Ending.
Anywho I aim to acquire the Platinum so that shouldn't take too long unlike the first game.
I've also been playing NieR: Automata, although I've now completed it (almost everything, except a few entries in some of the lists). I enjoyed the game quite a bit overall. I think my playtime was around 80 hours, I can't say I played particularly efficiently but I enjoyed taking things at my own pace and it meant that I was able to complete all of the upgrades and such without needing to feel like I was going out of my way to do boring repetitive tasks.
In terms of the moment to moment gameplay, it's mostly good enough. The combat gets things done and keeps you moving but I don't think I'd specifically play just for that (though there is room for a bit of fun experimentation and optional challenge if you like that kind of thing). I think it's fair to say that the gameplay mostly exists in service to the story and I wouldn't say that's a bad thing.
There are some really good storylines and occasional neat interactions between the gameplay and story. Having multiple endings is handled quite well and it's really more like having three acts with a bonus alternative section and an extra "true" ending (the game itself is pretty clear that it's not over when you see the credits roll for the first time and even more so after the second). There are a few sections that you have to replay but you do so with a slightly different perspective that, along with some other differences, means you're not so much retreading the same ground as getting a new experience. I'm not sure how to better explain that without any spoilers but, basically, it's worth doing all of the endings and you'd pretty much have to be ignoring the story for it to feel truly repetitive.
I'd probably say that much of the best storylines are those that deal with characters other than the main few, sidequests could be quite rewarding in terms of the little stories you'd experience. They're not all equal but there's a lot of good stuff in there if you like kind of philosophical ruminations on life. The main storyline is solid but feels almost too straightforward compared to the side stories, although that was probably deliberate and exploring the lore and side quests does add extra meaning to the events of the main storyline.
As for the "true" ending, I liked it well enough. I probably enjoyed the ending to the first playthrough the most but the "true" ending does feature characters that gradual became my favourite (and could arguably be said to be the true main characters) in a way that I thought made it stronger than it might otherwise have been. Saying that, achieving that ending does involve a gimmick that is probably my biggest complaint about the game since it basically requires using the online connection option in a single-player game. It's maybe not fair to call it a gimmick really, it does have some thematic meaning and from that perspective it's kind of a neat idea, but it's a bit too annoying and poorly considered from a practical standpoint to entirely forgive it. It annoyed me enough that it undermined my enjoyment of the ending and I felt they could still have covered the same theme and maintained the story without the online requirement.
In fairness, the game is probably far more about the journey than the ending and the journey was easily the strongest part of the game so I wouldn't say that one problem was enough to completely spoil the game for me (it's just a shame that it was basically the last thing I did in the game). Still a very enjoyable game overall and probably worth a look for those who are curious.
As an aside, the game features an in-game shop to allow you to purchase trophies/achievements with in-game money (it's not a microtransaction thing or anything like that). It's an odd idea, especially since none of the trophies are likely to be especially difficult beyond requiring a bit of time invested into them (though maybe difficult trophies would make a shop less likely since that'd undermine their value to some). I suppose it's just another way that the game uses it's game aspects to say something, I guess it'd be seen as a problem for some but it depends on what you think of trophies/achievements. It's maybe worth noting that you need to achieve three of the main endings, which is the majority of the main storyline, to access the shop so it would still take a bit of effort to complete all of the trophies even if you use the shop (though it might still be around twice as fast as completing them the standard way).
I did actually use the shop, there are two trophies that require actions that could be to the detriment of the dignity of main characters 2B and 9S so it was nice to have the option to avoid doing them while still completing the trophy list. I mean one of them, I may have gotten the 9S one legitimately.
Gave Persona 5 a quick go. It's so stylish but I'll give it a proper play when I can download the Japanese voice dlc on Tuesday. It's a shame that they've barred you from being able to use the share function on the PS4 version (as I would have shared loads )
Gave Persona 5 a quick go. It's so stylish but I'll give it a proper play when I can download the Japanese voice dlc on Tuesday. It's a shame that they've barred you from being able to use the share function on the PS4 version (as I would have shared loads )
Just a heads up that the Japanese VA dlc is up on the store if you log into the PSN store on your PC and then tell it to download from there, I have it downloading now. I agree about the share function being blocked, I would love to have got some screenshots.
*Just an update now that I've started the game and used the Japanese VA DLC, I'm kinda disappointed that they haven't subtitled everything :/ In one of the early cutscenes they're watching the news on TV and the newscasters dialog wasn't subbed, so while I knew what they were talking about, I had no idea what they were actually saying, shame really.
Anyway, I've been playing the Dark Souls 3 DLC, it is bloody hard! I have beaten every boss solo in every Souls game, but I think Darkeater Midir has broken me ;_; I just can't beat him (probably doesn't help that I'm in like NG+6) and I feel like giving up at this point lol.
I completed BotW last night, and decided to play the game again, now I'm armed with all the experience and knowledge of my first playthrough I'll be able to appreciate the earlier parts of the game that I admittedly skimmed through in places (especially some of the story specific moments)
I'm also planning on picking up Kingdom Hearts 1.5+2.5 this month so I'll probably start playing this as well
Rebirth was and is one of the highlights of ps+ offerings we've received this gen, so when i heard this was coming to switch i preordered as soon as it went up.
This expanded releases adds more enemies, bosses, items, rooms, floors and modes. As with rebirth i can see myself playing for dozens of hours.
Much harder than rebirth imo. Only managed my first clear run after 20 attempts!
I've been playing Persona 5 in what little spare time I have at the moment. Such a strong start, finished the first dungeon and really enjoyed it, the story part of it was pretty damn great, seriously, the girl trying to kill herself jumping from the roof legit surprised me. I'm currently doing the second dungeon, (just left it to send the calling card), and I'm pretty disappointed in the story aspect of it tbh:/ I hope it picks back up soon. I'm a big fan of both Ann and Ryuji, Morgana can piss off though lol I mean I like him for the most part but him constantly telling me to go to bed is getting really annoying..... I hope I get back to having more freedom soon.
I've been playing Persona 5 in what little spare time I have at the moment. Such a strong start, finished the first dungeon and really enjoyed it, the story part of it was pretty damn great, seriously, the girl trying to kill herself jumping from the roof legit surprised me. I'm currently doing the second dungeon, (just left it to send the calling card), and I'm pretty disappointed in the story aspect of it tbh:/ I hope it picks back up soon. I'm a big fan of both Ann and Ryuji, Morgana can piss off though lol I mean I like him for the most part but him constantly telling me to go to bed is getting really annoying..... I hope I get back to having more freedom soon.
I've just got finished with the fourth dungeon, and the story has started to become a bit more interesting. Looking back at P4, although you did have the mystery plot spurring you forward, the first few dungeons were just general rescues that didn't really advance the plot, it wasn't until a fair bit into the game where you actually started to uncover the mystery, and P5 is exactly the same, where you start off just doing the heart heists, before there actual story comes into focus. The only thing I'm finding a bit downgraded is the palaces themselves, and how they belong to enemies, not allies. Persona 4 used its dungeons to great effect, allowing the story to explore themes like sexuality, gender identity, fame, family pressure, etc, whereas P5 kinda, well, doesn't. I do appreciate it doing something different to P4 though, so there's that, but it can't help but come off as a bit less interesting because of it. Still, I'm loving the game so far, P4 is such a high bar to me (it is my favourite game of all time, after all) and I kinda didn't expect it to surpass it, mostly because of how good Persona 4 actually is and how much sentimental value it has to me. After I beat Persona 5, I probably will write some big rambly thing about it, and how it matches up to it's predecessor, so look out for that, if anyone is curious. All one of you .
I am indeed as I have also just finished the fourth dungeon heh. Please don't make me say how many hours I've put in this week though it makes me look like a shut-in!
After I beat Persona 5, I probably will write some big rambly thing about it, and how it matches up to it's predecessor, so look out for that, if anyone is curious. All one of you .
I'll certainly give it a read (I read everything on here tbh, I just rarely have anything to add...) as I do tend to agree with what you say about the Palaces for the most part (they ARE much more fun to actually play imo, but I guess handcrafted dungeons are always gonna be better in that respect). I love Persona 4 but I've always liked 3 more, and to me this feels closer to that, although still a million miles away.
Anyway I finished the 2nd dungeon last night and just waiting on the timer now, hopefully I can get some SLs leveled up a bit more in that time and maybe even watch a DVD without the game effing me over lol but yeah, the game is stupidly good for the most part, now give me Makoto ffs....
Also speaking of Persona 4, I was watching the news in P5 and they mentioned Naoto, so that's two little references now (the other being the Rise posters in the station). I'm always a fan of little nods like that in games.
Taking an unsoiled gameplay of projet diva but using anime songs instead of vocaloids is a great idea but this game suffers from meeh song selection. I do recognize most of featured animes but i have only watched one of them and i didn't even like that one (Mosaic)
Besides not being fan of the song selection so far there's also the problem that there's only like 20-25 songs in the game.
Game like this with robust song selection with diverse anime selection would be great but this seems only be okay.
Re playing Castlevania: Symphony of the Night. Absolutely loving it, I play it once or twice every year. Really looking forward to the new spiritual successor by Igarashi san. Hope it blows everyone and all expectations away.
So I just beat Persona 5 ( I won't say completed as I haven't got the Platinum yet, but i will...) and let me just say... what a game. 9.75 out of ten for sure.
Anyway, here are my preliminary thoughts, spoilers will be marked of course.
First up, as one expects, it's a pretty big game. I didn't dally too much (my first run was to enjoy the story and prep for a Platinum run, so i didn't do much unneccesary stuff) and it took me around about 90 hours give or take. (and yes, that is some shut-in style playing to achieve this in a week or so heh).
The game itself is super slick and stylish, and that music... oh god the music is amazing.
Gameplay wise it is the standard persona fare, quite challenging until you get some decent personas together, but one big issue is SP starvation, so if you want a pro-tip... slight
Get the doctor contact up to 6 and you can buy accessories that give Invigorate 3, giving 7 SP regen per turn. This is huge and when I had these on the party (50k a pop at rank 6, 100k at 5 i think) my SP issues were very rarely an issue again.
Some of the puzzles can be a bit back-tracky, but only a couple of times did it feel particularly frustrating. The social aspect of the game is as good as you would expect, and the characters are all extremely well done. Best girl you ask, well so far
I think it is Makoto, and she is the romance option I went for. Though for some reason, I really liked Shogi Girl too...
Preparation for NG+ Platinum run entailed maxxing social stats (You probably don't need to put too much extra effort into doing this as you should get all 4 at least by the end of the game without effort i'd say), filling out persona in every arcana for social linking, getting a stack of cash for said arcana and getting the trophy for the navigation lines (which wasn't as hard as Risettes biggest fan, as there are a ton of new lines for the new ailments, quite a lot of the new ailments have 2 lines per character too).
Anyway, don't want to spoil the story too much, but i do wonder if anyone else noticed
That the voice actor of Igor at the start was very different, and that made me wonder why... and of course the end where he was proved to be fake-igor was thus perfectly foreshadowed!
Anyway, in conclusion, epic game, worth every penny, and surely a shoe-in for Persona 5: The animation in the future? also Persona 5: dancing all night please!
I've taken a break from Breath of the Wild (fully intend to return to it later, tho) and, like many others, I'm currently playing Persona 5. I'm not notably far through the plot yet (only recently dropped my first calling card and entered Kamoshida's Palace to at last steal the treasure) but I'm really enjoying what I've played thus far. Last time I checked my playtime was around 16 hrs.
That said, with this being my first real outing into the Persona franchise (the handful of hours that I played of Persona 4 Golden barely even scratched the surface of it), I will admit that I'm not the biggest fan of the time restriction mechanics. Within the context of the game the mechanics seem well crafted, and I like the idea conceptually, but in actual practice it's aggravated me a few times already. Maybe it'll annoy me less once the game opens up more but it'll likely always be a bit of a thorn in my side. I like doing all the thiiiiings at my own pace, and something tells me Persona 5 is never going to fully let me do that. X'D
so, just finished my second play through and Platinum of Persona 5. Full review and grind report to follow tomorrow after I sleep. 150 hours invested didn't leave me much time for that up to now heh...
Edit: Anyway, review time. Spoilers of course will be marked.
But first, in a continuation of my preliminary review after the first clear, short answer to the question of is Persona 5 worth buying, well, yes. It is an extremely polished and good game, as one would expect of the Persona Series, and I would score it in the 9.5-9.75 bracket. Out of the 150 hours I played, 148 were pure pleasure, only a couple of hours of annoyance at some of the puzzles on the first playthrough weren't blissful enjoyment.
Anyway, first up, how does it stack up to Persona 4? Gameplay wise the combat has been improved a lot, the stylish new menu system is a real plus and makes combat operations quick and easy.
The non-randomised dungeons are excellent on first playthough, but lose a little charm on the subsequent one, but this is still stronger than the dungeon design in previous iterations. With their own randomised dungeon still in, it feels like that base is covered too, but the randomisation really sucks being honest, so they could certainly have made improvements there. The dungeon puzzles are all simple, but a couple involve a lot of backtracking and confusion the first time which I found really frustrating for an hour or so, and those that don't (Such as the lit floor puzzles) are usually so easy they might as well not be there.
The exception to this is the mouse puzzles, which I found quite well implemented, as well as the security camera/beam ones, which while stylish, were also kinda pointless too i guess... ok, the puzzles aren't great.
The demon talk way of getting persona is very cool, although sometimes it feels totally random which can be a teeny bit annoying.
Sound is excellent as always, I can't decide if I prefer the battle music on 5 or 4, and that means it's an excellent track you'll be hearing in your dreams after playing for sure. And Rivers In The Desert is like one of my favourite game tracks of all time
Daily time management... seemed quite a bit easier to get through than Persona 4, I felt I had more time available, so on second run-through I quite easily dealt with Max Confidants and so on. But it is a ton of fun as you'd expect.
And now into potential spoiler territory I guess.
Character wise they are all pretty well formed and decent, and you quickly grow to care for the characters and their troubles.
The main character certainly feels cool, he has a certain demeanour and a suitable amount of snark, he feels a little edgier than Yu, but still bland enough to serve as the player cypher. Overall I wanted to see him succeed in his endeavours
On the first playthrough I went Makoto, and this is certainly the angle the game is pushing, in the cut-scenes and little events. And she is pretty great. Although to be fair her reason for joining the Phantom Thieves is kinda weak, and her backstory pales compared to all the main characters. Still, her Confidant Arc is well done, and she is a worthy best girl
Second Playthrough I went Hifumi, the Shogi girl, and for not being a main playable character she is certainly awesome. As good as Makoto i'd say and thus joint best girl. Her Confidant arc and events are as adorable as hell, plus she seems like so totally happy to be your girl.
Third Best Girl would be Futaba, and while I never romanced her she fills that little istser role perfectly, and is delightfullt adorable, in a needy geeky sort of way. I'd fall bad romantically purusing her, but she's still a best girl in her own way
The side characters seem much more rich than Persona 4's, especially the romance options, and I very much enjoyed all the interactions with them. The only thing I would change is I would make having a romance with a side character a little bit more viable, maybe add them into some of your events at the cafe etc. It would be a lot of work, but to push persona to a 10/10 score it would be a must.
As I alluded to in my first provisional review, I had a feeling something was up with Igor just because of the voice actor, which was like... good job me!
I also suspected the hell out of Akechi - and not just becuase he gives of serious Adachi vibes... although he does. He was just too smarmy and superficial, and I had him pegged before the pancake, but that only solidified it for me. Anyway I thought it was reasonably well done, but the whole drugged thing making you miss events as you play the game and remember them latter could have been handled a touch better.
Shido... oh man, Shido ... what an asshole, I wanted him to get his comeuppance pretty damn bad. In fact they did a FANTASTIC job of making the villains scumbags. They also made me worry for the safety of characters, such as Makoto when she was first being a dumbass with Kaneshiro. Seriously if that wasn't a game she'd be either dead or wish she was...
Anyway the overall darker story worked, and the whole popularity drive was something kids who got superpowers might do, even if it wasn't sensible.
Grind/trophy wise it isn't actually so bad, maybe a little easier than Persona 4, as I felt that there was more free time, and the navigation lines trophy seemed way easier...
There wasn't really any grind per-se, the longest was getting to 95 to fuse the top level personas, but you can cheese that in an hour with the flu trick if you don't want to spend an extra few hours grinding before the last dungeon. It really isn't hard to level though.
This one was quite fun, the hardest part is taking both twins down at the same time or a 4000 HP ressurection spoils your day. I had fun with this, but as ever Yoshitsune spamming Hassan Tobi will go far to kicking ass over everything not physically immune...
The reaper is similarly tough but again Hassan Tobi spam or Lucifer spamming boosted morning star will do it... or you can just flu cheese it of course, though that's a bit anti-climactic.
Overall, I would say Platinum Difficulty of 7, just for the time commitment, but a grind rating of 3.
So, in conclusion, awesome game, full of neat improvements and little touches, and one which deserves to be Platinumed!
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