Finished Marvel’s Midnight Suns !

Didn’t max all relationships or levels of characters, but did enough of them. The game was really good, and you get to spend lots of times outside of combat exploring the Abby and socialising with other characters.

There is some of that weird vibe from characters, if you are used to MCU versions, but you get used to it soon enough. All characters are pretty well portrayed, and voice acting is also pretty good.

Combat is pretty satisfying. I was skeptical of it at first as I am not a fan of these deck-building games, but it works out pretty well. As you are a super hero, there is no hiding behind the cover. There are some buffs and debuffs, but you have to be careful about using it too. Since every turn enemy reinforcement join the fight. Most of these are usually “minions” which mean they are one hit kill, but since you are limited to 3 cards / actions per turn, you have to play pretty aggressively. And there were a few levels where the enemy combination make this very annoying. Thankfully, those are very few.

Overall, loved the game. May come back to it to try the “dark” path in a few years.

Cleared the 5th world / level of Donkey Kong Bananza on to 6th one now. About halfway done with this too.

Too many thorns here though.

What about all of you? What have you been playing and/or plan to play?

  • Phelpssan@lemmy.worldEnglish
    5·
    3 days ago

    Finished Stella of the End!

    Probably the best among the kinetic VNs produced by Key. Art is beautiful, the characters and world are interesting, and while it has the usual “if you played enough Key VNs you can probably guess the ending” problem it was still an excellent journey.

    Philia’s growth over the story was fantastic, and Jude was a really solid protagonist. I loved the epilogue as well.

    Ending+Epilogue Discussion

    Jude finally accepting Philia as his daughter in his deathbed was a strong (though predictable) emotional moment, and I absolutely loved seeing Philia grow from a naive pacifist girl into a badass who still holds the some of those ideals but now has a better understanding of the world and also the physical and mental strength necessary to fight for what she wants.

    Finished Bo: Path of the Teal Lotus!

    The platforming sections in this game are hard - there’s been a couple spots where I was forced to take a break because I was getting hand cramps. 😄 Bosses are challenging but nowhere near as bad, with the only issue being that they can take a long time - the final boss has 6 stages and even after getting a lot of practice it still took me more than 10min to beat it.

    Overall a great game, but one that I can only recommend if you don’t get frustrated by dying a lot. Oh, and make sure you play with a good and confortable controller, you’re going to need it.

    Playing ATRI: My Dear Moments!

    From one story about a robot girl in world where society is collapsing to another. 😄

    But this one is quite different, a slice-of-life story in a world where oceans are rising and reducing livable land. It’s an unusual combination of themes, and having a disabled MC is another interesting take - Natsuki lost his leg in an accident and has to rely on an old, poorly fitting prosthetic while dealing with trauma and phantom pain. Atri is also great, a fun and smug gremlin who is a disaster at all types of housework but also a ball of positive energy that slowly helps the MC deal with his trauma.

    This is another VN with great visuals - the backgrounds are particularly impressive, with a very detailed photo-like style. One curious thing about this game is that it has English language support but it’s not available on the western eShops, so if you want to play it you’ll have to buy from the japanese store.

    Playing We Love Katamari Reroll+Royal Reverie!

    The announcement of a new game in the series after more than a decade reminded me I had never played the second game, so I decided to pick up the remastered version.

    This second game is “more of the same”, but it’s still good fun. Since these games are usually short and I got a day off today I’ll probably finish it before the end of the weekend.

    • slimerancher@lemmy.worldOPMEnglish
      2·
      2 days ago

      So, is Stella a good Kinetic VN to start with?

      Why do people have started to make difficult metroidvanias? Just because Hollow Knight was one, doesn’t mean all metroidvanias have to follow that step. Still, going to give it a try someday.

      • Phelpssan@lemmy.worldEnglish
        2·
        2 days ago

        So, is Stella a good Kinetic VN to start with?

        I’d say so. Of the Kinetic VNs I’ve played I’d rank the Top 3 as:

        1. Stella of the End
        2. Lunaria: Virtualized Moonchild
        3. Planetarian: The Reverie of a Little Planet

        Stella is the most consistent one of the three - excellent production, story kept me hooked from the beginning, decent length (took me ~10h or so) and a satisfying ending.

        Why do people have started to make difficult metroidvanias? Just because Hollow Knight was one, doesn’t mean all metroidvanias have to follow that step. Still, going to give it a try someday.

        It’s probably still influence from HK, it was the biggest hit in this genre in a long time.

        You can even see this in other mechanics, Bo also uses that same life system where you can only take a small amount of hits before dying but have a “potion” you can use to refill it mid-battle if you find the right opportunity.