The Official "What Are You Playing?" Thread (Post Screens)

[Sabo 442]

LOL, well... that was certainly one of the most flaccid endings I've seen in a game. Somehow fitting for the game though because thats what the whole game is- flaccid.

 

One thing this game has made clear for me is that CBU 3 is overrated as fuck and I will be skeptical on anything they do in the future. This isn't the worst FF game and sure, I guess it's technically better than previous entries. But it's the only FF game that's left me feeling a whole lot of... nothing.

 

I have never been this unimpressed with a game before. A good game will make me feel something, a bad game will make me feel something, but this game? Just... nothing. 

[Twinblade★ 3,922]

33 minutes ago, Sabo said:

LOL, well... that was certainly one of the most flaccid endings I've seen in a game. Somehow fitting for the game though because thats what the whole game is- flaccid.

 

One thing this game has made clear for me is that CBU 3 is overrated as fuck and I will be skeptical on anything they do in the future. This isn't the worst FF game and sure, I guess it's technically better than previous entries. But it's the only FF game that's left me feeling a whole lot of... nothing.

 

I have never been this unimpressed with a game before. A good game will make me feel something, a bad game will make me feel something, but this game? Just... nothing. 

I think the game still has plenty of good aspects tbh. But you’re right ultimately I did feel empty after finishing it. It just fails to leave much of an impression especially with the way the story finishes. 
 

did you do any of the late game side quests? Some of them are actually pretty good as they develop the cast of characters in neat ways.

[Sabo 442]

I did everything. Didn't they claim this game would be 80 hours to 100%?

 

So that was a lie. My playtime was barely over 50 hours.

 

Hard to enjoy the side quests when the game literally dumps them on you in large chunks instead of spacing them out. Writing can't save stale quest design especially when there is an abundance of these stale quests.

 

Things I liked? Hmm... I liked Cid and Beneditka but- and that's a HUGE but- it's hard for these two to carry the game because Lord knows Bootleg Belmont and Lamer Tifa ain't doing it. It's bad when random NPCs are more interesting than your lead characters.

Edited September 10, 2023 by Sabo

[Twinblade★ 3,922]

2 hours ago, Sabo said:

I did everything. Didn't they claim this game would be 80 hours to 100%?

 

So that was a lie. My playtime was barely over 50 hours.

 

Hard to enjoy the side quests when the game literally dumps them on you in large chunks instead of spacing them out. Writing can't save stale quest design especially when there is an abundance of these stale quests.

 

Things I liked? Hmm... I liked Cid and Beneditka but- and that's a HUGE but- it's hard for these two to carry the game because Lord knows Bootleg Belmont and Lamer Tifa ain't doing it. It's bad when random NPCs are more interesting than your lead characters.

 

Spoiler

I think they were both easily the strongest characters but just didn’t get nearly enough screen time. I think that definitely hurt the game.

 

[Sabo 442]

26 minutes ago, Twinblade said:

 

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I think they were both easily the strongest characters but just didn’t get nearly enough screen time. I think that definitely hurt the game.

 

 

Yeah, they definitely dropped the ball. Avoiding spoilers but having it happen within the first 10 hours of the game was just dumb because it left a very noticeable hole for the rest of the game.

 

[-GD-X★ 7,740]

Playing Planet of Lana via Gamepass. It’s a gorgeous 2D puzzle platformer. 

[-GD-X★ 7,740]

This Planet of Lana owns! I’m getting major Inside vibes. 

[madmaltese★ 2,572]

Played maybe 6-8 or so hours of Starfield over multiple sessions. I don't want to sound too harsh but this really isn't even remotely hitting and I'm not sure if it's just me or the game. I feel its a Bethesda game in all the worst ways and nearly none of the good. For a game about sense of scale and exploration it has some of the worst exploration in any game, imo way worse than even just a standard open world game and leagues behind say Skyrim. It's just loading screen after loading screen to fast travel everywhere. You land on a planet and it's just random sites in varying distance from your landing site (400-1000m away) and then you just walk to them across barren wastelands most of the time. There's no vehicles or anything. After I get to one site I practically never want to go on another 5 min walk to another. I'm constantly over encumbered which makes walking even a major pain in the ass so I don't even get resources on the way to sites. In major cities there is no map which is fine but then the cities are again just sectioned off with load screens and everything is all over the place. 

The UI is honestly one of the worst I have ever experience, specifically in a game where I spend so much time in the menus. The inventory system specifically is so so bad. The Skill screen looks like it is from a sole developer's mobile game. I'm legit taken aback at just how bad some elements of this game are.

 

But yeah I think at the core it's just the gameplay loop is not there. Everything feels like a small interlude between fast travelling and load screens. Oh new mission across the solar system. Menu, fast travel. load. pop out infront of planet. menu, fast travel to land, load. Pop up in ship. Get out, load. Pop up on planet. Like seriously? 

 

I'll prob return to Sea of Stars which I was enjoying and get back to this later. 

[kaz 2,439]

still playing sea of stars which means this game does a lot right. I'm at the coral cascade area, man this game is beautiful - the music too. I haven't played a JRPG like this in years because I always drop them early, but this game really does have good pacing. I'm not forced to explore a village or town but do it anyway. The combat is very addicting and is quite challenging sometimes as well. I know there is a relic to be healed after every encounter but I won't use it and spend some time making sure I got balance for the 10 consumable slots, I like that it's not unlimited and doesn't trivialize the healing system.

 

these ant bruiser fucks though    wtf, I was in a battle and it took like 10 minutes because

 

Spoiler

these fucks kept summoning more and more of themselves, and my god, who thought it's a good idea to make them not only a direct replica with the same HP and atk power but also make them SUMMON TWO OF THEMSELVES as well. 

 

I was fighting like 8 of those and 2 other guys or some shite. It was impossible. Most annoying enemy of all time. BURST those cunts away immediately before it's too late. 

 

I have so many good things to say, but I'd rather point out the bad ones. I will never understand how people can work on a game and completely disregard the overall plot and writing. It's a homage to JRPGs, I get it, but cmon, even chrono trigger had better writing than this. They basically say nothing at all every time. Super cringe moments included. I wish devs would wake up and take this seriously. I hope the story picks up later like others here mentioned but so far it has been TORTURE. I was close to dropping it many times, I just can't handle it. 

 

Also the main battle theme gets on my nerves too. It reminds me of why I always hated dragon quest and never got into that series, Way to cheery and happy. 

 

But anyway, yea it's a good game.

[-GD-X★ 7,740]

2 hours ago, kaz said:

still playing sea of stars which means this game does a lot right. I'm at the coral cascade area, man this game is beautiful - the music too. I haven't played a JRPG like this in years because I always drop them early, but this game really does have good pacing. I'm not forced to explore a village or town but do it anyway. The combat is very addicting and is quite challenging sometimes as well. I know there is a relic to be healed after every encounter but I won't use it and spend some time making sure I got balance for the 10 consumable slots, I like that it's not unlimited and doesn't trivialize the healing system.

 

these ant bruiser fucks though    wtf, I was in a battle and it took like 10 minutes because

 

  Reveal hidden contents

these fucks kept summoning more and more of themselves, and my god, who thought it's a good idea to make them not only a direct replica with the same HP and atk power but also make them SUMMON TWO OF THEMSELVES as well. 

 

I was fighting like 8 of those and 2 other guys or some shite. It was impossible. Most annoying enemy of all time. BURST those cunts away immediately before it's too late. 

 

I have so many good things to say, but I'd rather point out the bad ones. I will never understand how people can work on a game and completely disregard the overall plot and writing. It's a homage to JRPGs, I get it, but cmon, even chrono trigger had better writing than this. They basically say nothing at all every time. Super cringe moments included. I wish devs would wake up and take this seriously. I hope the story picks up later like others here mentioned but so far it has been TORTURE. I was close to dropping it many times, I just can't handle it. 

 

Also the main battle theme gets on my nerves too. It reminds me of why I always hated dragon quest and never got into that series, Way to cheery and happy. 

 

But anyway, yea it's a good game.

The story will continue to be all over the place. However, the gameplay and diverse levels will be more than enough to keep you playing. I will say I still got connected to the characters, even with the unfocused plot. 
As for enemies that summon/heal, nuke them first. It’ll save you a lot of headaches. Shiii..I restarted a battle once because of the issue you had. I ain’t got time for all that lol. I slightly backtracked, rested at the fire, and then came at those mofos with guns blazing. Those battles can go from easy to annoying really quick lol. Fortunately, they are simple if you take them out first. 

[kaz 2,439]

2 hours ago, -GD-X said:

The story will continue to be all over the place. However, the gameplay and diverse levels will be more than enough to keep you playing. I will say I still got connected to the characters, even with the unfocused plot. 
As for enemies that summon/heal, nuke them first. It’ll save you a lot of headaches. Shiii..I restarted a battle once because of the issue you had. I ain’t got time for all that lol. I slightly backtracked, rested at the fire, and then came at those mofos with guns blazing. Those battles can go from easy to annoying really quick lol. Fortunately, they are simple if you take them out first. 

 

Yea, I did quit right away when I wasn't fast enough too    I just had to learn the hard way there is no point of trying it goes too far. It has to be nerfed. 

 

But man, the amount of combat is ideal too, i never get bored and it's never too much. I prefer this soo much over random chance encounters which are pointless.

[-GD-X★ 7,740]

2 minutes ago, kaz said:

 

Yea, I did quit right away when I wasn't fast enough too    I just had to learn the hard way there is no point of trying it goes too far. It has to be nerfed. 

 

But man, the amount of combat is ideal too, i never get bored and it's never too much. I prefer this soo much over random chance encounters which are pointless.

Oh yeah, the difficulty scaling is mostly great. I found I was a hair OP later in the game (minus a few boss fights). 

[Sabo 442]

Story sucks but that should've been a given considering they didn't hire an actual writer. Then again I've been following the game for years so I already knew not to expect anything from the story. Sea of Stars was always banking on its gameplay to win people over.

[kaz 2,439]

3 hours ago, Sabo said:

Story sucks but that should've been a given considering they didn't hire an actual writer. Then again I've been following the game for years so I already knew not to expect anything from the story. Sea of Stars was always banking on its gameplay to win people over.

 

This is what I don't understand. I don't think anyone needs to hire a writer, if anything it would be natural for the people who came up with the idea and spent a long time working on it to put more thought into this and come up with something. I mean we can, it's simple. Everyone has more imagination to come up with something better than the typical meaningless empty words of magical powers, to train them, to overcome evil with it blabla....

 

https://sabotagestudio.com/team/

 

meanwhile Signalis made by TWO people, they worked on the story themselves. Okay, I'm comparing apples with dildos, but it shows they really cared about their game

[-GD-X★ 7,740]

1 hour ago, kaz said:

 

This is what I don't understand. I don't think anyone needs to hire a writer, if anything it would be natural for the people who came up with the idea and spent a long time working on it to put more thought into this and come up with something. I mean we can, it's simple. Everyone has more imagination to come up with something better than the typical meaningless empty words of magical powers, to train them, to overcome evil with it blabla....

 

https://sabotagestudio.com/team/

 

meanwhile Signalis made by TWO people, they worked on the story themselves. Okay, I'm comparing apples with dildos, but it shows they really cared about their game

They poke fun at a lot of the JRPG “save the world” tropes, and even some of the leveling/gameplay ones. I actually think it was intentional, or they didn’t really care since its combat/enemies/bosses/levels shine. 

[Casual 732]

Bout an hour into Sea of Stars, alright way more cool than the Field of Stars.

 

The music from the first dungeon area gives me big Celeste vibes.

[madmaltese★ 2,572]

3 hours ago, -GD-X said:

They poke fun at a lot of the JRPG “save the world” tropes, and even some of the leveling/gameplay ones. I actually think it was intentional, or they didn’t really care since its combat/enemies/bosses/levels shine. 

They make a joke early game about how every blacksmith just coincidentally is better skilled and with better items as you head further north lol It's a very self aware game and all of it very much intentional.

[-GD-X★ 7,740]

15 minutes ago, madmaltese said:

They make a joke early game about how every blacksmith just coincidentally is better skilled and with better items as you head further north lol It's a very self aware game and all of it very much intentional.

Exactly! 

[kaz 2,439]

Of course they are self aware and I noticed these jokes too. Like I mentioned they are doing a homage to JRPGs, I get it. But the rest of it is lazy and worse than any other JRPG I ever played. It's fine, kids play it too, and I'm glad they get their kinda version of oldschool games.

 

My point still stands though, I think what I'm trying to say is I hope to see a JRPG-style game but with a heavy-theme and plot. It doesn't have to be like a Shadowrun CRPG where you spent hours reading, I know must people would hate that, I would love it if it's good but I'm thinking of a middle ground between the two.

 

Most devs are too lazy when it comes to writing. But there is no excuse when TWO people (Signalis) come up with interesting shit even if it's cryptic - and told in tiny bits - I'd rather have that than a minute long meaningless convo. Or like that hyper light drifter dialogue, with metaphors etc.

 

can't have everything in life, i know

[kaz 2,439]

2 minutes ago, kaz said:

Of course they are self aware and I noticed these jokes too. (I wouldn't say all of it is intentional tho, mad). Like I mentioned they are doing a homage to JRPGs, I get it. But the rest of it is lazy and worse than any other JRPG I ever played. It's fine, kids play it too, and I'm glad they get their kinda version of oldschool games.

 

My point still stands though, I think what I'm trying to say is I hope to see a JRPG-style game but with a heavy-theme and plot. It doesn't have to be like a Shadowrun CRPG where you spent hours reading, I know must people would hate that, I would love it if it's good but I'm thinking of a middle ground between the two.

 

Most devs are too lazy when it comes to writing. But there is no excuse when TWO people (Signalis) come up with interesting shit even if it's cryptic - and told in tiny bits - I'd rather have that than a minute long meaningless convo. Or like that hyper light drifter dialogue, with metaphors etc.

 

can't have everything in life, i know

 

 

 

 

Edited September 12, 2023 by kaz