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DAWNTRAIL THIS WEEK! I am excited and looking forward to it! In the meantime, after not really touching FFXIV for a bit, I fell into it again this weekend so I could try to cap currencies before the servers go down tonight. I have successfully capped Bicolor Gems, but the rest probably won't be capped...

...but as part of the process, I ran The Dead Ends a bunch of times. That's a level 90 dungeon that drops a particular minion that is VERY popular and is VERY hard to get. I've probably soloed the dungeon with Trusts or Duty Support over 100 times, trying to get the minion. TODAY SHE FINALLY DROPPED! What a perfect ending to the Endwalker era.

In other news, I am streaming FFVII Rebirth. For a while I was a bit meh on it, because I didn't really understand what motivation the characters had for driving them forward, but I've gotten pretty far into the game now and it's definitely picked up. I'm more invested now! I stream it again Thursday evening, but then I am taking a week or so off to focus on FFXIV and complete my first play of Dawntrail.

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Watch me play games on Twitch!
Schedule:
Mondays: Final Fantasy XIV
Saturdays: Final Fantasy XIV Dawntrail Side Quests & Shenanigans

Quote (Glenn Magus Harvey @ 15th May 2024 04:22)

Unfortunately, they stopped working with Visa/Mastercard/American Express recently, probably due to the spate of silly attempts to ban internet porn on the part of some U.S. state legislators.  (DLsite has a lot of adult content, though it does have a whole sector of its store website for non-NSFW stuff; the "home" part of the URL indicates it goes to a non-smut page.)  But they currently say Paypal will still work.

Quick follow-up:

This was solved very simply, actually.
You can just buy DLsite points on a third-party website. It costs one Japanese yen per point, and you can buy in increments of 1000 yen (or 1000 points). DLsite even links the site, helpfully. That site uses Paypal to handle payments, but you can pay there using your own credit card on Paypal.

So basically this is like if you didn't have a credit card but had to buy Steam gift cards. Which I used to do before I could use my own credit card.

An added bonus is that the U.S. dollar is rather high relative to the Japanese yen in recent times. So, like, 1000 yen costs like US$6 and change (US$6.21 at the time I'm writing this message).

Now, if you're spending points on DLsite, you can't get points for your purchases. Points were basically meant to work as something of a store credit bonus for buying from them. But you could only get points on items you aren't buying with a coupon anyway...and if you're like me, you'll have noticed that DLsite showers coupons on you all the time and you'd pick up the games for cheaper by using the coupons, which means you're generally getting 18% off or more even on games that are already on sale!. So you wouldn't be getting points anyway lol.

Points expire after a year so don't buy too many at once. But if you're buying games online you know you can expect big sales at least like twice a year anyway.

This post has been edited by Glenn Magus Harvey on 29th June 2024 18:49

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Check the "What games are you playing at the moment?" thread for updates on what I've been playing.

You can find me on the Fediverse! I use Mastodon, where I am @[email protected] ( https://sakurajima.moe/@glennmagusharvey )

Street Fighter III: 3rd Strike. This has always been a fave of mine since I began playing back in 2000. Up until now, though, I hadn't really touched the game in about five years. Then I started get'n YT vids on it recently, and realized it began seeing a resurgence in popularity over the last few years. So I bought some new parts for my fightstick, slapped one of R51's nifty CoN stickers under a plexiglass plate (see here), and dusted off my Fightcade account. Good times!

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Console RPG Cliches

I am still doing Dawntrail MSQ on my main character in FFXIV - getting close to the final zone, I feel!

I had postponed streaming while I played through Dawntrail but I'm starting to really miss it, so tonight I'll be doing Pictomancer job quests and starting Dawntrail on my alt, Windy Storm. Link's in my signature, if anyone wants to drop by!

Dawntrail has been fun! I'll have more to say about it after I finish, but for now here's my first impressions:

Possible spoilers: highlight to view

Up to about MSQ level 97, I felt the story was quite fun but VERY predictable, which soured me a bit on it because I really love those "HOLY SHIT!" moments of the game. It picks up after the level 97 quests as the story takes a dramatic turn.

The gifts for pre-ordering the game including Zidane and Dagger minions, so I knew there'd be some FFIX influences. When those influences first entered the story, I was confused as to what they had to do with FFIX other than place names. But going on in Dawntrail's MSQ, I could feel some of the themes from FFIX trickle in. It's QUITE different from FFIX in feel though! It's an interesting take on a callback to a previous game while still remaining fresh and true to FFXIV.

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Watch me play games on Twitch!
Schedule:
Mondays: Final Fantasy XIV
Saturdays: Final Fantasy XIV Dawntrail Side Quests & Shenanigans

I had Fairy Fencer F Advent Dark Force on my "current games" for like half a year (7 months, my Galaxy client says) without touching it.

...but I did just get back into it!

Also, I need to pay someone for some stickers, but wild stuff keeps happening and I keep forgetting...

This post has been edited by Glenn Magus Harvey on 23rd July 2024 15:22

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Check the "What games are you playing at the moment?" thread for updates on what I've been playing.

You can find me on the Fediverse! I use Mastodon, where I am @[email protected] ( https://sakurajima.moe/@glennmagusharvey )

Still streaming Final Fantasy VII -Rebirth- which I talked about in the Remake thread elsewhere. Nutshell: enjoying it, but starting to wonder if I will *ever* finish it.

I did finish my first play of FFXIV: Dawntrail about two weeks ago! I really liked it. My initial impression (a few posts up) still stands, but I will say the second half of the expac kicked things up and gave me the experience I was looking for.

Spoilers for second half:

Possible spoilers: highlight to view

Endwalker had a "twist" in its story, but it happened pretty early, around level 83 or 84, IIRC. Dawntrail's twist was later - I was level 97 - and I think that weakened the storytelling a bit because SO MUCH is packed in the last few levels (the expac caps at level 100). Also, Dawntrail is essentially two different stories tied together. A friend said "well, so was Stormblood but Dawntrail did it better" but I personally feel that Stormblood weaved the two stories better together. Dawntrail very much is "here's the journey for Wuk Lamat to become Dawnservant", then is "oh, and here's a whole bunch of other stuff based on Final Fantasy IX"

About the FFIX references: at first, I felt the only references were place names and I didn't get why they used them other than to use them, but as you play further into the expac, the influence of FFIX was definitely apparent. Dawntrail's second half is VERY different in feel to FFIX, but the themes of the games are similar. I liked what they did with Dawntrail, and I successfully felt moved by certain parts of the last zone...

...which reminds me of someone on Twitter who posted a meme that said: "How I play FFXIV: Watch how hard I can CRY" with a stick figure drawing crying buckets of tears. This is one of the reasons I keep playing this game: because it DOES make me feel things! You really do get invested in the story and characters, and yes, I cried in the last zone (not as hard as Endwalker made me cry, but cry I did.)

All in all, I'd say this is a successful expansion. I do have my quibbles about it, but I largely enjoyed it, and am interested to see how they build onto this, ESPECIALLY

Possible spoilers: highlight to view

if we figure out how to travel to other shards/worlds. I want to see Y'shtola meet Runar again, and Thancred/Urianger be reunited with Ryne and Gaia!

I do want to say that FOR ME, the revelation of

Possible spoilers: highlight to view

Solution 9

as a place we'd be visiting during the lead-up to launch didn't work, because

Possible spoilers: highlight to view

I assumed it was another world, and wondered how we would be getting there. So the "shock" of the dome over the town was greatly diminished... I was like "Oh. This is how it happens." I really wish they had chosen to keep that hidden. But that's just my personal preference.

.

Okay enough blathering about FFXIV, I need to go pretend to be productive now.



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Watch me play games on Twitch!
Schedule:
Mondays: Final Fantasy XIV
Saturdays: Final Fantasy XIV Dawntrail Side Quests & Shenanigans

Been looking through my backlog, both on Steam and GoG, and I fell on WitchSpring R. Been pretty engrossed in it for the last few weeks, although I'm still fitting in some time for SFIII:3S.

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Console RPG Cliches

Just beat a game from my backlog -- Tower Hunter: Erza's Trial.

I did buy it within the last few years, so it's not from too long ago; it's one of the many games on GOG I've gotten since I stopped using Steam a few years ago.

Roguelite action platformer. The levels actually don't change *that* much, but the exact placement of the level elements is slightly randomized. The equipment you get definitely is. Also there's permadeath.

Oh, equipment. You randomly pick up weapons, but most of the action is picking up "chips", which give stat/ability enhancements. You can't have an unlimited number of them, though -- there's a hex-grid-style list of the ones you have (the grid order doesn't actually matter), and that grid has a limited capacity for the "energy" each chip needs. You'll get far more than chips than you can hold, but you can grind them into crystals, a sort of in-game currency that you can use to upgrade your capacity, your skill with different weapon types, your aptitude for each type of chip, and your other abilities, like special attacks and a multiple jump and a healing injection.

I heard that this game is like Dead Cells, but I've never played Dead Cells.

Also I've heard that there's a setting that lets you play with normal saves and no permadeath, but I can't find it. Oh well, I beat it with permadeath (including losing to the final boss a few times, yes) anyway.
EDIT: You have to choose it when starting a new game.

Game is slightly buggy (in amusing ways) but definitely playable and fun. Also, the translation is iffy at times (which I attribute to the Chinese devteam not being great at English), but the story is straightforward, and if anything, the flubs just add humor.

This post has been edited by Glenn Magus Harvey on 15th September 2024 19:38

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Check the "What games are you playing at the moment?" thread for updates on what I've been playing.

You can find me on the Fediverse! I use Mastodon, where I am @[email protected] ( https://sakurajima.moe/@glennmagusharvey )

Since the announcement of Echoes of Wisdom, I'd been having the urge to finally play Link's Awakening on the Switch - my daughter got it for Christmas the year she got her Switch and never really got into it, so it had been laying around unplayed for years.

It's my favorite Zelda of the ones I've played, and I haven't played it in 30 years, so I'm really enjoying it. It has performance issues and despite being arguably the easiest game in the series, it feels like the controls have gotten less precise and therefore many of the miniboss and boss battles have gotten more frustrating.

That said, I am having a really fun time with it and my daughter loves the story and the style, despite still not wanting to play it herself. I'm really looking forward to her seeing the ending.

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"To create something great, you need the means to make a lot of really bad crap." - Kevin Kelly

Why aren't you shopping AmaCoN?

I should start putting the stuff I've played here. My signature sometimes doesn't hold it all.

Anyway, I was looking for something to play after finishing Tower Hunter: Erza's Trial, and I gave Tonight We Riot a try. This is an action game where you control a...literal mob of player-characters, who the workers leading a revolution against the evil capitalists in charge of the place. And yes, the game has an explicitly Marxist theming to it. Amusingly, but perhaps fittingly, it's also a free game.

Basically, you control one specific member of a crowd, and everyone else follows you around, roaming around somewhat near you, and automatically meleeing enemies and obstacles they come across. They'll also duplicate any ranged attacks you do, such as throwing bricks or molotov cocktails, supplies of which you can collect while moving through each level. Occasionally, at predetermined locations, you can also rally more workers to join your cause, which means more of these computer-controlled units to help you, which is always a good thing, as you'll be fighting a variety of enemies who are of course out to kill you (all of you). A neat thing is that if your player-controlled character dies in combat (each unit has its own HP bar), your control is automatically switched to another member of your squad, as long as there's at least one other person still alive -- as the game tells you, the revolution lives on as long as at least one of you survives to the end of the level. But, if you can keep more of your comrades alive, the game will reward you with perks, like extra weapon options and equipment, which you can toggle on/off (this is a good design decision). The game basically works like a beat-em-up, but with relatively small sprites.

I finished the first set of levels, and even got the highest rank (i.e. most of your fellow workers survived) on each level (thus getting the unlock), but I lost interest by the second area, partly because I felt the controls were a little loose, and the AI is occasionally a little suicidal e.g. not standing far enough away from exploding fuel tanks.

Anyway, I was back to choosing a game...so I gave Way of the Red a try.

This is a metroidvania-ish 2D action platformer, about a warrior from a race of anthromorphic bird-people, who wanders into lands that are controlled by a human kingdom that enslaves them. He is captured by them, and has to fight his way out of captivity, and there's other plot lines that I won't spoil.

Pretty decent little game -- it took me about 6 hours to get to an ending, and there are actually multiple endings. The controls are nice, and while the combat is a little on the difficult side (which isn't necessarily a bad thing itself), there's a lot of exploration the player can do, including a variety of secrets with gameplay and/or story significance. The story is reasonably interesting, and there's multiple endings (and even some different bosses) depending on whether one finds certain hidden items and what one does with them. The spritework is simple, but effective. And the music is some satisfying chiptune. Not necessarily the best game in any particular aspect, but it's a work well put together, and it's also only like US$4, or half that or less when on sale.

Anyhow, after finishing that, I was again looking for something to play. Was thinking of playing Dex but I think I've kinda lost track of the fifty or so quests I had opened up. Was also thinking of familiarizing myself with Gauntlet (Slayer Edition), i.e. not any of the arcade games, but the more modern PC game in the series. But then I started another game...and I'm absolutely loving it.

Wonder Boy: the Dragon's Trap is a remake of the third game in the Wonder Boy series, whose legacy is...surprisingly complicated.

There's the mainline Wonder Boy games, then there's the spinoff/reskin of the first game that spawned its own series called Adventure Island, which is arguably ironically more faithful to the very first game of the series -- linear action platforming with tight time limits and fruit collecting and skateboard-riding, whereas the actual Wonder Boy flagship veered toward a more fantasy bent and eventually spawned the Monster World subseries, with what's basically the fourth mainline game being just Monster World IV and starring a different (and female) protagonist instead (probably why it doesn't have the Wonder Boy label). And this whole Monster Land/Monster World side of things is where Wonder Boy III: The Dragon's Trap is as well, which was remade in 2017 by the French developer Lizardcube, with help from the original developers. The remake drops the "III" in the title. Eventually, this side of the franchise also produced a whole new game in recent years, Monster Boy and the Cursed Kingdom. (And then there's even a Brazil-specific rebrand of some of the games, using the locally-famous comic book series Monica's Gang.)

In The Dragon's Trap (both versions, as well as the more recent Monster Boy game, from what I've heard), you have the ability to transform into various animals -- or, more accurately, you're transformed into them involuntarily, because you start off fighting the final boss of Wonder Boy II, the Meka Dragon (or Mecha Dragon, according to some translations, and this is frankly a more accurately descriptive name, lol, but the official canon name seems to be "Meka")...whose defeat puts a curse on the protagonist, turning him into a lizard (well, one inspired by dragons, because it can breath fire, but yeah). So now he's gotta figure out how to turn himself back...so he eventually finds another dragon!...whose defeat curses him and transforms him a mouse. This keeps happening, of course, with each new transformation being a case of "cursed with awesome" that allows the protagonist to access new areas of the game -- Mouse-Man, for example, can crawl around small spaces and even stick to certain walls and ceilings. The result is a non-linear 2D platformer adventure, or what we'd today call a "metroidvania", with an ample variety of areas, features, secrets, and easter eggs, more and more of which become accessible the further you get into the game.

And the game is chock full of fun things, especially given that this is a remake -- and one that's somehow simultaneously quite faithful to the original yet also puts a fresh coat of paint on everything, in addition to improving a handful of gameplay features. The game distinctively offers the players the option to switch -- at will! -- between modern and retro graphics (with further optional CRT effects), as well as modern and retro audio (including a second toggle for the FM sound chip, thus effectively offering three soundtracks!). The game world's layout, and most mechanics (including the physics), have been meticulously reverse-engineered from the original game and ported to the new game -- this even includes the password system, as the new game (which autosaves the game) can register "retro passwords" on starting a new file, allowing people to continue their progress if they happen to have an old password on hand, and can even produce new passwords compatible with the old game! (If you listen to the developer commentary during a speedrun of the game at one of the GDQ events a few years back, you'll learn that the remake's devs even discovered secrets never known before in the original game, and preserved them in the remake.) Meanwhile, the modern graphics offer a delightfully charming comic-book-style aesthetic, with the chibi cuteness of the original, but adding in a variety of thoughtful new touches, such as far more fleshed-out setting details as well as new (and frequently humorous) dialogue for NPCs -- all of which are faithfully tucked away if you switch to retro graphics. And the remixed soundtrack, recorded in studio, adds a touch of jazz or other genres to the music, with some tracks getting multiple remixes, each for different applications (e.g. shops with their dinky radio, vs. clinics with smooth jazz), further adding new dimensions to the presentation. Oh, and you also get a nice gallery of concept art and recording sessions, which is gradually unlocked as you play through the game.

Basically everything about this game is so delightful. I never played the original before, having never grown up with a Sega Master System, but I thoroughly enjoyed this game, which I actually just beat a few minutes ago (I took a break from writing this giant post to finish the final dungeon lol). It has a similarly charming nature to it like that of DuckTales Remastered, and it's certainly there even for someone like me who didn't experience it as a kid, so it's not just the nostalgia talking -- this really is a great game.

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Games finished this year so far:

Wonder Boy: the Dragon's Trap
Way of the Red
Tower Hunter: Erza's Trial
Giral
Aggelos
Gato Roboto
drowning, drowning
New Super Mario Bros.
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 3: Radical Rescue

Games in progress: Fairy Fencer F Advent Dark Force, Pokemon Perfect Crystal

Tabled: Lost Ruins, Dark Devotion, Dex, Tonight We Riot

This post has been edited by Glenn Magus Harvey on 16th September 2024 06:33

--------------------

Check the "What games are you playing at the moment?" thread for updates on what I've been playing.

You can find me on the Fediverse! I use Mastodon, where I am @[email protected] ( https://sakurajima.moe/@glennmagusharvey )

Just finished The Pale Reach expansion for Dredge. Loved it and looking forward to grabbing the next dlc on pay day. Finishing up The Secrets of the Obscure expansion in Guild Wars 2 soon and playing Secret of Evermore on stream.

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Check out the Magicite Menagerie!

Retro gaming cosplayer with a focus on Terra Branford.

Rosenkreuzstilette is a game that's been around for quite a while now. It's a "Mega Man clone", made by doujin circle [erka:es], and it plays basically like a classic Mega Man game but with anime girls, lots of references to Mega Man and other games, and various other unique features, including its own unique plot and setting -- a drama involving humans with supernatural abilities. And lots of gratuitous German, with many characters named after German board game designers for some reason.

It's been circulated on the English-speaking internet for a while via a fan-translation, though eventually Playism picked it up for official publication. I bought it from Playism's store a few years ago, back when they closed down, because that was basically the last place to pick up an official copy of the translated version DRM-free. (It's still on Steam, but I personally recommend against buying things on Steam.) I first played it a couple years ago or so, and beat four of the robot masters RKS members, albeit with some difficulty.

Yeah, this game definitely takes after very classic Mega Man games, especially 2 and 4. And it has the stiff difficulty of those earlier Mega Man games, such as to a stage with Quick-Man-style lasers, a cap of 9 lives and 9 E-tanks cross tanks (where your inventory of them is not stored in the password system, of course), and bosses whose attacks are generally not that easy to dodge. The password system, amusingly, is basically lifted wholesale out of Mega Man 4 -- you can use MM4 password generators with this game (except for the second set of fortress stages, I think). (FYI, collecting the Black Forest's Treasure is equivalent to collecting both the Wire Adapter and Balloon Adapter in MM4.) The two placeable platform "weapons", Silberflügel "Eins" and Silberflügel "Zwei" (Silverwing "One" and Silverwing "Two"), are essentially Item-1 and Item-2 from MM2. Many enemies have obvious Mega Man analogues (mostly from the classic subseries), and some bosses/stages feel like creative mashups of multiple Mega Man bosses -- Zorne Zeppelin's stage seems to take inspiration from Heat Man's stage while having music that's strongly reminiscent of Drill Man's, while Luste Teuber acts like Metal Man while serving as the boss of a stage inspired by Air Man's stage. Some things that are direct analogues have an additional layer of difficulty -- for example, one of the Wily Castle Zeppelin's Castle stages has a boss clearly inspired by MM2's Mecha Dragon, but it now produces two different kinds of projectiles, some of which are harder to avoid than the dragon's fireballs. And bosses themselves tend to get tougher attacks in a "desperation mode" when half their health bar has been depleted. Meanwhile, thankfully, our main character Spiritia Rosenberg is able to both slide and fire charged shots -- for not just the Mega Buster Seelegewehr (Spirit Gun), but also many of the master weapons too, which is pretty neat.

In addition, there are references to other games. Zorne's bombs act like Bomberman bombs; Scwher-Muta Casasola Merkle's stage has obvious Mario references, and Count Zeppelin's character and castle as well as Grolla Seyfarth's stage both invoke the gothic horror of Castlevania games, taking direct inspiration from some of its most iconic bosses. And then there's the game over screens -- a unique one for every single stage, each referencing a different videogame, from Final Fantasy Legend to Shadowgate to The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening.

Anyway, this time around, I started playing it on a whim, and this time, I managed to actually finish it. I've arguably been playing it a little harder than I needed to, since I've actually largely tried to fight the bosses using buster only rather than exploiting weaknesses (though, to be fair, some of their weaknesses are for weapons that are rather close-range, so...). I've been able to beat six of the bosses with buster only and without needing E-tanks, albeit needing water to fight Trauare Wrede effectively. Last time I played, I got stuck fighting Trauare; this time, I had a better expectation of the difficulty, as well as a slightly better keyboard, and I pushed all the way to the end of the game.

Now that I've beaten it...there are some extra modes, most notably playing as one of the other major characters, but I don't think I'll be trying them anytime soon. I'm a little disappointed that the password system doesn't store number of E-tanks collected, not to mention that I can't revisit stages and re-collect E-tanks easily, making it kinda demand that I keep playing until I'm done. But, if you like classic Mega Man games and go in with these limitations in mind, you'll probably enjoy it. Also there's a sequel, Rosenkreuzstilette Freudenstachel, which stars another of the major characters, in a whole new game.

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Games finished this year so far:

Rosenkreuzstilette
Wonder Boy: the Dragon's Trap
Way of the Red
Tower Hunter: Erza's Trial
Giral
Aggelos
Gato Roboto
drowning, drowning
New Super Mario Bros.
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 3: Radical Rescue

Games in progress: Fairy Fencer F Advent Dark Force, Pokemon Perfect Crystal

This post has been edited by Glenn Magus Harvey on 2nd October 2024 18:01

--------------------

Check the "What games are you playing at the moment?" thread for updates on what I've been playing.

You can find me on the Fediverse! I use Mastodon, where I am @[email protected] ( https://sakurajima.moe/@glennmagusharvey )

Tonight I finished streaming FFXIV: Dawntrail on my alt! I had forgotten just how fun the final trial is. I really had a blast with it!

This time around, I felt much happier about Dawntrail. It's not that I [em]didn't[/em] enjoy it the first time around: I really did! I just felt it was lacking in some of the Holy Shit Quotient that I've come to know and love from this game. I was able to push aside those feelings for the second playthrough and just enjoy it for what it is, which is mostly a very fun romp with some serious bits near the end. They called this the "summer vacation" expac, and yeah, it is.

Patch 7.1 with more story is about a month away, and I'm looking forward to it. I want to see where they go next. Meanwhile on stream, the plan is to unlock flying in all Dawntrail zones on my alt by doing the side quests (I've got the aether currents already, except for the last zone) and then tackle the 8-person raid sequence.

Due to life busy-ness, I've had to cut my streaming down to two days a week, just Mondays and Saturdays. I"m going to keep that schedule for now, but perhaps in a few months, once I adjust to the new normal of my life, I can add back a third day.

We'll probably focus on FFXIV for a while, but eventually I'd like to start another single player game on stream. I'm really having trouble deciding what, though! These are my options:

Quote

    The Kingdom Hearts series
    Stardew Valley
    Star Ocean: First Departure R
    World of Final Fantasy
    Shadow of the Tomb Raider
    Journey
    Persona 5
    Horizon Zero Dawn
    Untitled Goose Game
    Spider-Man Miles Morales

Am open to opinions!

And now I need to fall into bed, I'm exhausted from streaming a half hour longer than normal tonight.

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Watch me play games on Twitch!
Schedule:
Mondays: Final Fantasy XIV
Saturdays: Final Fantasy XIV Dawntrail Side Quests & Shenanigans

Heroines of Swords and Spells is an indie JRPG by Russian dev Kirillkrm, developed in RPG Maker. The game stars four misfit characters for their classes -- a thief who's too nice and generous, a warrior who's a total coward when push comes to shove, an acolyte with a mean streak who's been expelled from the nunnery and can't cast healing magic, and wizard who has no spells. Together, they are on a quest to hunt down the leader of the goblins. There's also a side-story where you can play as a set of goblin characters, but I haven't played that.

It has a number of distinctive features that would differ from what you might typically expect out of a JRPG. Here are some.

1. It's basically sidequest heaven, or hell (if you hate it lol). There is a main questline -- actually, just one quest, and the game is meant to be the first episode of a larger series. But before you can do that, you have to do personal quests related to each character, and these are essentially the meat of the story, each taking their own twists and turns, as you find out that in order to do thing A you actually need to do things C and D first, and once you do that, it turns out F is in the way, and so on. Along the way you'll also uncover a huge variety of sidequests, of varying complexity as well.

2. This is something of a low-power game with lots of item use. You don't level up very often, and monsters don't respawn, but grinding for XP is slow anyway, and killing monsters doesn't get you gold in most cases. (The starting level is 1 and I ended the game at 8, after cleaning out most monsters.) And you'll be going through pretty much the whole game with no healing magic (and it'll take you a while to get any useful magic at all). On the other hand, you'll be treated to a pretty generous (albeit similarly non-respawning) amount of item and money pickups, thanks to the lead protagonist's "thief vision", which you can even improve to see (and swipe) more stuff, which is always conveniently marked with sparkles. Just try not to waste too much of your items, and try to find a way to leave town without needing to deal with the nasty bureaucracy that charges you a toll. You can also try to take advantage of free healing too -- though the lead protag might feel guilty about it in at least one case.

3. This isn't something that affects gameplay directly, but the character names (most notably) as well as other setting lore take inspiration from Slavic/Russian culture, including some mythology and religious aspects. For example, there's a reference to Nicodemus, as well as a swamp kikimora. Makes me wonder whether the obnoxious bureaucracy and various political undercurrents are also a commentary on Russian government and politics...

As you might guess, the game is very story-driven, though obviously there's gameplay here too. Coolest mechanics I think are the lockpicking skill and perception skill elements, both of which can be enhanced separately. On the other hand, it's a bit of a drag that the mechanically-"flawed" characters will basically stay that way for quite a while, since I'd have to keep making trips to stock up on items, and also scrimping-and-saving on recovery. But I understand that this design choice serves the narrative. Things do get a bit easier the further you go into the game, particularly if you've been doing all the sidequests, because you gradually unlock more abilities and gain access to better gear.

Games finished this year so far:

Heroines of Swords and Spells
Rosenkreuzstilette
Wonder Boy: the Dragon's Trap
Way of the Red
Tower Hunter: Erza's Trial
Giral
Aggelos
Gato Roboto
drowning, drowning
New Super Mario Bros.
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 3: Radical Rescue

This post has been edited by Glenn Magus Harvey on 14th October 2024 17:30

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Check the "What games are you playing at the moment?" thread for updates on what I've been playing.

You can find me on the Fediverse! I use Mastodon, where I am @[email protected] ( https://sakurajima.moe/@glennmagusharvey )