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PaperclipPerfector  5mo ago (text post)   3044 thread views

Friday Fun Thread for March 29, 2024

Be advised: this thread is not for serious in-depth discussion of weighty topics (we have a link for that), this thread is not for anything Culture War related. This thread is for Fun. You got jokes? Share 'em. You got silly questions? Ask 'em.

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So, what are you playing?

Well over a decade ago I watched Yahtzee's review of Catherine (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Catherine_(video_game), a weird puzzle-platformer from the people who made Persona. Although Yahtzee was iffy on the game, I thought it sounded like it might be my bag, but at the time they hadn't released a PC port. I picked it up in a Steam sale a few months ago and started playing it last night.

I'm really liking it so far. It's very funny and quirky, the core gameplay is deceptively simple and much more challenging than I expected, and it's oozing with style.

I’ve been playing CK3 and a little Slay the Spire on the side, but recently have got into Balatro after a lot of chatter from friend groups. If one likes deckbuilders, definitely worth a try.

Finishing up ff7 rebirth. It's pure nostalgia for me, nice bonus that the combat is probably the best in a mainline ff game in ages. Really makes me wonder how ff16 scored as well as it did, that game feels like just the bare framework of a game compared to ff7.

QS Watermelon (also known as Suika game) on my iPhone. It’s like a slower version of tetris. Highly addicting.

No video games, unless you mean Visual Novels with IRL elements, which I'd call dating.

I found the character creator to be horribly railroaded with a predefined character thrust into a hostile world. But that seems to have taken over my free time for now.

I quit destiny cold turkey, and I'm over to Warframe and Helldivers 2. I need to get back to the megafactory I'm building with my brother-in-law in factorio, though.

Oh hey, I've been playing a bunch of Warframe and Factorio as well. I can't get enough of games with in-depth crafting systems.

Do you know of any other games with similar progression systems to Warframe? Monster Hunter is kind of similar in crafting, but I'm more interested in the mastery system: "do all the things, collect one of every single weapon/armor/companion etc, and each thing you collect adds to your exp even if you never use it."

Endless Sky this week. It's an open source homage to the Mac classic Escape Velocity. A 2d vaguely Newtonian space sim.

Persona 5 Royal. I played the original game in 2019 and liked it quite a lot. This time around I find the writing much more laughable. The extra scenes and dialogue added by Royal probably don't help, as they bloat the game to its breaking point. So many conversations simply repeat what was just talked about in the last scene, or add absolutely nothing.

The game is also much, much easier. A lot of it comes from quality of life improvements — the game doesn't arbitrarily take as much time from you as in vanilla, so you have more opportunities to max out your social stats. The fusion alarm is straight up broken, though, and makes it trivial to snap the combat over your knee. A few trips to the gallows and your persona is going to be far stronger than anything you ever might fight. I'm having a lot of fun using all the mechanics to craft my optimized team though, so it's not all bad.

I'm nearing the endgame of the vanilla game, which I remember being excellent, with everything in Mementos being particularly haunting. Hopefully it holds up. And I am still coping that the brand new semester will be good, as I've yet to play that before.

So, I agree that Royal is easier than OG - but I'm also aware that when I played OG I was completely blind and very inefficient. Like, I never maxed Kawakami because I thought (incorrectly, from half-remembered information I'd read about Persona 3) that maxing a social link would require romancing them if they were romanceable and I was skeeved out. Going into Royal I knew what a colossal mistake that was so I maxed her ASAP and having those extra night timeslots back definitely made a difference. I was also more confident in my ability to stretch my resources to complete an entire palace in one shot, though again, Royal does have systems that make that more viable earlier in the game. I actually think the biggest relaxation in difficulty was the Mementos modifiers you get from Jose. I spent a real-time afternoon in there farming stamps and running over shadows with Ryuji's instakill and completely broke the late-game difficulty curve. (Speaking of which, don't miss talking to Jose after you collect all his stamps. I missed an achievement there.)

I don't entirely agree with you on dialogue bloat, but I do think that Yoshizawa's introduction scene in the casino was gratuitous and flow-breaking. Plus, if you think about it, how the heck did she know how to get there? Showtime attack unlocks do feel a little contrived I guess. This might just be down to personal taste. I do think that the more I play P5 the less I like Morgana.

I liked the new semester, I feel like it's a better resolution than the OG ending (mostly). There's a particular unlock in it that I believe is potentially missable if you don't hit certain dialog flags in the Justice confidant beforehand though.

Very true. I didn't prioritize Kawakami and even skipped Chihaya in my first run because I was so peeved about getting scammed by her, and this time around knowing who to prioritize made things go much more smoothly for me. Jose and Ryuji's reworked instakill make it trivial to farm money and XP. I'm not complaining too much as I like having the money to fuck around with Persona crafting, but I wish there was a way to only get the money so I wasn't overleveling the content so much.

The scenes introducing the new characters could be awkward, but I can accept why they had to be inserted in like that. Maruki was handled much better than Yoshizawa so far, and I agree with you that her scene in the casino was goofy and makes zero sense. For me, all of the followup phone conversations tacked on to every confidant or how the Phantom Thieves start a new groupchat every day to gush about how evil their current target is wore very thin.

Makoto was one of my favorites originally, but she really gets on my nerves now. She becomes the main character once she joins, and I wish the game didn't feel obliged to pretend that Joker is the leader since she it's so clear that she is. The way the Phantom Thieves are so thoughtlessly cruel to Mishima rubs me the wrong way too, since the narrative never acknowledges how hypocritical it makes them look. I still love Haru, Ryuji, Yusuke, Akechi, and my favorites from the first time around though.

I have high hopes for the new semester. I was spoiled ahead of time on the direction it takes and it seems quite interesting. I did follow a guide to make sure I wasn't missing any of the triggers for it, though.

They did make Royal easier. Too easy IMO. But I hope you're not using those 0 yen "dlc personas". They're far too OP.

And yes, the December part is awesome.

Haha, I fused Izanagi and Kaguya in the early game before I realized how busted all of the DLC personas were and dropped them. It's a shame, because they have cool designs, but it feels like cheating to use them for combat or itemization. If they were a bit weaker it'd feel better to use.

My main squad is Jack Frost, Pale Rider, Titania, Seth, Bugs, and Alice. I'll say that having the means to keep personas you like relevant past the dungeon you fuse them is a great mechanic. Theorycrafting their movesets to cover every situation and going through the steps to get the builds online scratches a certain itch. I'm thinking of adding Metatron or training up Kaguya now that her ability isn't gamebreaking, but they won't be necessary to finish.

I personally felt that Royal dramatically improved the pacing of the original. In the original game, basically everything from Shido's palace onwards was a bloated mess that I hated slogging through, and I was relieved when the game was finally over. Royal speeds up the vanilla content somewhat so that there's room for the new semester, which was a very welcome reprieve.

I'll have to see how Royal handles the original endgame content post-Shido to compare. I don't remember the original endgame being that bad, but the ideas in it definitely grabbed me so I could have overlooked any pacing flaws it had.

It's all the stuff Royal added to the original game that makes the pacing suffer for me. Like those pointless followup phone calls every confidant has where they repeat the ideas you just saw two minutes ago. The extra scenes for Kasumi, Akechi, and Maruki feel a bit out of place, but I like those characters enough that I don't mind too much.

"Suzerain" finally got it's "Kingdom of Rizia" expansion. Still rough around the edges and falls prey to purple prose but it's still a fun expansion to a unique game.

Did a reformist diplomatic run. Next is to do an Absolutist militarist run.

Man, I played through the OG once and called the Second Sordish Depression. It was fun but I'm gonna feel bad about also ruining Rizia.

I've been searching for a game centered on political intrigue--I recently reinstalled Stellaris and Crusader Kings III--but this might be the ticket.

I never could get a full grasp of Stellaris. And the new ck3 expansion is just okay. After the End 2 released on steam though. Shame they removed the California rationalists big Yud lore.

Suzerain is unique as a western VN. And it's hard. But pulling off the Great Sordish Recovery is incredibly satisfying.

It's also a great way to understand the struggles of post ww2 Turkiya

Stellaris looses the plot late game when you're just building first stike doom stacks and chasing fleets around that won't stop and fight you.

that was always my issue. I find the combat system to be too opaque.

EU4: First more morale, then more discipline. Have enough artillery. use terrain. done.

CK3: Good Knights. Good men-at-arms. have more troops. men at arms. done.

Victoria 3: Don't ever go to war. Just build tall. comfy. done.

Victoria 2: Enough infantry to fill the frontline. Enough artillery to do damage. Some cav for early game capture.

Stellaris: A confusing as figuring out HOI4 Navy.

I played Catherine back in the day when it came out on PS3, having just come off loving Persona 3 & 4, IIRC. I hope you enjoy it more than I did, since I didn't find the base tower climb box-pushing puzzle gameplay all fun enough nor the narrative compelling enough to keep me going beyond probably the third-to-half-way point. The mundane everyday life + nighttime dream fantasy setup like Persona was great, but they could've done a lot more with the narrative, because I found myself very disconnected from the characters, who just seemed to teleport from bedroom to date to bar, with little hints of any life outside. At least Miyuki Sawashiro's Catherine was a joy to listen to as always.

I just bought a new PC after not having one for nearly 10 years. I went sort of nuts getting games: Total War: Rome; Dyson Sphere; Ultrakill; Satisfactory, Elden Ring, EU4, Monster Hunter World; Trails of Cold Steel 3 (difficulty mod); Cyberpunk; Witcher 3; and a few others I cant even remember. Kerbal space program too. Its my first go round with that and its not too bad. I wish the career mode had just a little bit more...production? I dont know, it seems like the edges are unsanded.

Noting has really drawn me in. My go to at the moment is Elden Ring, im maybe half way through a replay on that in advance of the DLC coming. I was really hoping Dragons Dogma 2 was going to be good since I really loved DDDA, but it seems to be a bust. I;ll wait till the DLC comes out and hopefully they get a hard mode.

As an adult, I really need complexity or extreme difficulty in games. Stellaris is really evergreen for me and I havent done a campaign in a while. I might download a new version with all the DLCs and give it another go. That game can really suck me in.

I really need complexity or extreme difficulty in games.

Do you like strategy games? Do you want a lot of complexity thrown in? You might like Shadow Empire.

Thanks for the tip - i will check this out. Looks very cool.

I find this concept fascinating, the setting is cool, and what I've seen of the gameplay looks deliciously complex. As someone who works in R&D it's strangely satisfying to see equipment designed by random rolls.

If it were $20, I'd totally try it. Or even if they'd chosen to make it look less ugly than Xenonauts. I don't normally care about visuals, but wow.

Ah well. Back to another HOI4 run.

You're doing yourself a disservice if you keep playing HOI4 and don't even try some of the Endless games. They're not pretending to be realistic, but they IMO are at least as deep as HOI4, though ofc the complexity is presented differently.

Oh, I had a good time with ES2 back when it came out, mostly for multiplayer. Some of my friends swore by EL instead, though I never really joined in to that. Great presentations and theme. I still use Cravers as shorthand for any militarist bug-aliens in other games.

I like EL more, because combat in ES2 is really simplified in that it's about finding out whether enemy is shield or kinetic heavy, refitting your fleet at the last moment and then pasting them.

EL2 has actually fairly interesting combat.

Not defending HoI here - any game is ruined by the PDX DLC treatment, IMO - but the endless games are overrated trash. Visually over and mechanically under-designed, they're the darling of games journalists who play for ten minutes before giving them a glowing review, but a waste of time for anyone who tries to explore any depth.

mechanically under-designed

Endless Legend 2 is basically SMACx, mechanics- wise, although it has more tradeoffs in that researching any technology increase research costs of other technology, so getting all the techs is quite a challenge.

So .. under-designed? How?

I'll agree that it's insufficiently racist and something like the population system from aow would've been preferable, but apart from that it's as good as it's ever been outside of those games written by people who feel they should've been staff officers.

Damn, tell us how you really feel.

I’m not attacking your credibility—anybody who plays Shadow Empire is clearly looking for something Endless * doesn’t offer—but there’s more to games than depth.

Absolutely true, and anyone looking for visual spectacle will be better served by Endless than by HOI or SE. But @No_one above specifically cited Endless as examples of deep games, which is a point I strongly disagree with.

Endless Space is kinda .. simple, especially combat wise, but Endless Legend is definitely not 'shallow' in the slightest. Sure it looks simple, however..

Shameless plug of a Guide I recently wrote: https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?&id=3195937264

I desire feedback.

This guide is really good - you dont really spoil things but give some nice context. I think im going to get this tonight.

How did you guys hear of this? This is really under the radar but looks awsome.

Steam put it on one of my discovery queues. I'm waiting for solid bundle discount some steam sale.

Did another week pass already?

The Persona devs have got style coming out of their ears. I wonder how far off we are from P6, and I wonder whether they can change their formula somewhat and produce something more original vs P3/P4/P5 (which are quite similar) without stumbling. My main hope, though, is that they don't start pandering more to the US/the West and the lowest common denominator to sell even more copies. P3R and its marketing had some minor signs of this.

I haven't found a new game to really dive into, after finishing a Civ 5 playthrough. So, way ahead of 'schedule', I started on another Civ campaign. I'm not as eager to keep playing though. I'll probably let it rest for a while.

I tried SIFU, which seemed alright, but button mashing combat usually isn't what I enjoy most. I tried starting on Hitman's freelancer mode too, and failed miserably on the first mission after a body was found. Mistakes are permanent in this mode. I don't think it lets you save. It's been years since I played the WoA games and I underestimated how particular the game is in how you need to go about the missions if you aim for a professional way of doing it. The levels are puzzles.

Playing Katana Zero when I get a chance; very fun, and surprisingly the story so far is really engaging. I have heard it ends on a cliffhanger, but that's okay, that's a problem for future me.

I don't think I'd call it a cliffhanger.

I feel like I'm pretty close to beating it, so I guess I'll see. Shows how out of touch I am... in high school I was very into Hotline Miami, and this is definitely in the same vein, so I should have already played this years ago. Even the story feels similarly adult (dunno everyone else's opinions but I actually liked Hotline Miami 2's story, the writing gave people their own voices and made them talk like normal people might). What a cool sci-fi concept it is, and the dialogue system is great.

I didn't know about any of that before buying it, just that it was an action game with a good OST that I discovered by looking up "hotline miami mix" on YouTube.

Playing stardew valley again. There was a recent update, and the game is a fun little time suck.

My girlfriend's basically been living at her computer playing Stardew all week. Works out for me since I'm hogging the couch playing Persona 3 Reload, and if she were in any vicinity of the living room there'd be spoilers abound. Buuuuuuut I think the timeline of her actually getting around to P3R after I finish it has been delayed by a few months.

I guess that gives me some time for when the DLC comes out.

Maybe Concerned Ape can now focus on releasing Haunted Chocolatier.

Just remember he's doing all programming, art and music alone for this one too (or at least that's the current plan, with porting and translation help).

I found myself sucked into Railgrade. Scratches a train itch I didn't know I had. At first I was blasting through the campaign, then I found out it had a sandbox mode. But I think it's still a little half baked. Like it's too easy, minus the rather tight time constraints and the more limited resources of the campaign missions. Virtually impossible to fuck up a sandbox game. I literally cannot imagine how you would. There is zero pressure. I guess some people like that. But I need some risk in my sandbox logistics/automation games.

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