Ralizah

Crappy dungeons are disappointing considering both SMT V and P5R featured great level design in their own ways. I'll wait to pull the trigger on this. Especially since I expect the price of this to drop like a rock in a few months anyway.

@NEStalgia People were pretty excited for Death Stranding. Its PS4 release was absolutely a bigger deal than this PC GP port. Maybe not for you, personally, but in general for sure.

Besides, I think most of the attention the game is getting right now is amusement over how Sony seems unable to keep games they were involved with developing off of Game Pass.

1) Xenoblade Chronicles 3
2) Monster Hunter Rise: Sunbreak
3) Triangle Strategy
4) Elden Ring
5) Kirby and the Forgotten Land

I haven't played every notable new release this year (HFW and Nirvana Initative are going to have to wait), but those would be my top five this year. Switch is absolutely on fire at the moment.

It's an optimization issue. My PC can run this at 1080p/60, and it's weaker than the Series S pretty much across the board.

Actually, my PC can run games like TW3 at 1080p/60 as well. What the hell is the hang-up with the optimization for games on Series S? It's much more capable than the results it's turning out. Which, I guess, is the issue with consoles: you're dependent on developers to get the most out of your hardware.

As long as the console hardware is selling, I don't think Microsoft would just abandon the console format entirely. Doesn't really serve a purpose, even if GP is available elsewhere. Besides, Microsoft will want to honor digital purchases made in their ecosystem over the years.

But then this is Michael Pachter, who has been making laughably wrong predictions for generations now.

@Richnj I feel like Nintendo Switch wouldn't be nearly so well-supported as it is with exclusives if developers had to waste months of dev time modeling Mario's cheekbone, y'know? Keeping costs down also allows them to publish games outside of the AAA genre mold without bleeding money. I actually would be perfectly happy if, next gen, they didn't push the graphical envelope much further, but just allowed the more powerful hardware to run the games more smoothly, and at higher resolutions.

Was super happy to see Peggle on the service on PC. It was literally the first game I downloaded and played. Play almost no other casual games, but I have an irrationally strong addiction to Peggle.

Played through half of Carrion with my nephew before it left the service. Perfect GP game: cool concept, and the beginning is fun, but eventually I tired of some of the annoying mechanics and the confusing environments.

I'd be a little annoyed if I'd actually paid for the game.

Heavily considering dropping Eiyuden Chronicle: Rising as well.

Given Microsoft's approach to services and exclusives, I'll probably never buy an Xbox console again. But I have recently started engaging with Game Pass on PC, along with the Xbox quests that go with it, which marks the most sustained engagement I've had with any Xbox-branded services since the 360 era. So mission accomplished?

All that being said, almost every game I'm genuinely interested in releases on Switch, so that'll remain the platform that receives the majority of my attention. Especially now that the Monster Hunter Rise expansion is out.

But it is admittedly pretty neat that I can just log on and play Yakuza Kiwami 2, or the Ori games, or Trek to Yomi, or whatever at any point with a minimum of expense or hassle.

@themightyant Yeah, I understand if you're one of those FGC pros who requires pixel perfect inputs, but otherwise, I can't imagine being tethered to my devices again.

Maybe if you need a controller with a good D-Pad on Switch? Even then, the only games I really use that for are 2D games, and I have the amazing (and wireless) Sega Saturn-styled M30 controller for such occasions.

Cute design, but wired controllers haven't been my thing since... er... the PS2.

@Stoned_Patrol Moto G9 Power. Not the most advanced phone on the market, but I got it primarily for the large screen and AMAZING battery life.

I haven't had issues streaming music or video on it, but xcloud kept flickering and going unresponsive.

Looks eerily similar to the Split Pad Pro controller for Switch.

I've found Xbox cloud gaming works OK on my PC, but was a miserable experience on my smartphone, as expected.

Pity.

Cuphead is a masterpiece, and it took them many years to create this DLC, so that comes as no surprise.

A little surprised these games weren't already on Xbox in the first place.

I played the first one on my Switch. It's an alright game, but I wasn't a big fan of its focus on replaying stages over and over for materials and score chasing.

@Tharsman Interesting.

Well, that's a little more understandable.

Still, never realized there were so many games in this subseries.

@NEStalgia Soul Hackers was interesting, because it was sort of the Japanese equivalent of something like Shadowrun, right? This mix of a grungy 80s/early 90s cyberpunk dark future filled with evil megacorps, government corruption, and environmental decay (hey, isn't that just the world we live in today?) and pronounced fantasy elements. Granted, it was more European fantasy in Shadowrun vs the Native American-esque elements in Soul Hackers, but the balance is very much the same.

"OOOHHH now TMS remains arguably my most favorite JRPG of all time."

So you're one of the handful of weirdos that actually enjoyed that game. I did my part and bought both versions of the game, but it never grabbed me.

"And of course I have a lightning/force squad now, so I can't even dent the hydra."

You're supposed to build your party to meet the needs of the challenge. Go fuse a team that can use ice magic, level up a few times, maybe learn some sleep magic, and it goes down easily even on normal difficulty. Hard mode is a little rougher in the early game, although even that becomes very approachable as the game goes on and you build frankly OP squads.

"It's working on me for now, but that probably changes the moment I can find a good way to make a "portable" Xbox that doesn't involve a $1000 phone or spending 100 hours working on a nasty Chinese knock-off android tablet to get it working right."

I mean... the Steam Deck IS a thing.

@mousieone

"That and Atlus has had mixed sucess on Nintendo Switch contrary to what people want to believe. "

I mean... that's what happens when you release a passion project that never sells tremendously well on any platform (Catherine), a game actively despised by Atlus' own fanbase (TMS), and a sequel to a game that, until this year, they refused to port to the platform (P5S).

At least the mainline SMT games have sold reasonably well. Nocturne HD did way better on Switch vs PS4, from what I recall.

BTW, where did you see stats on 13 Sentinels' performance on Switch?

As a Switch owner, I'd happily trade this for Soul Hackers 2.

But yeah, disappointing to see Xbox still struggle to get some of these random Japanese releases that should be a no-brainer, at least in terms of a digital release.

Also, my god, there are 10 of these things?!

@mousieone Well, that's the thing, right? I'm not seeing any unique gameplay systems in the footage so far. It looks like stock press-turn combat, except your demons are utilized only when attacking with abilities.

Considering Tokyo Mirage Sessions is one of the few games that managed to do about as poorly on Switch as it did on Wii U, I'm not sure Atlus is hankering to greenlight any spiritual successors to it. I guess that's what happens when you advertise a project as being the marriage between two series known for hardcore gameplay and dark subject matter and wind up with an idol RPG filled with musical numbers that feels more like something you'd expect to see from a company like CompileHeart.

@NEStalgia I wouldn't call most of the exploration in SMT V aimless. I almost always had a goal in mind, whether it was scripted ("this side-quest requires me to fight [x], so I need to go hunt it down") or more organic ("I need to find a way to get up to that building over there"), which is what happens when the overworld is tightly designed. Side-quests also pop up more frequently as the game goes on. There's actually a ton of stuff to do and find as you play through the game.

Yeah, the money problems lessen as you play further into the game. I was basically Scrooge McDuck by the time it was over. But it's important to keep that resource limited early on to force the player to make important choices and prioritize how their build is going to evolve.

I agree that the 3DS duology was peak MegaTen. IV: Apocalypse is still probably the most fun I've ever had with a JRPG, but I do prefer the darker tone of IV, even if it's a worse game overall. I also prefer the occult cyberpunk stylings of I, IV, and IV:A to the dark fantasy of Nocturne and V. And IV: Apocalypse has the best iteration of press-turn combat overall.

I don't think V represents a regression, though. To be honest, it's the closest Atlus has ever come to actually evolving their game design to the point where it feels like a modern product and less like a PS2 game that came unstuck in time.

I can enjoy games with crappy combat, but combat is basically... all you do in TWEWY. Fight enemies to digest food, collect pins, or bypass artificial progression barriers. That's pretty much the game. There's this mechanic where you can read the thoughts of the people around you, but other than in heavily scripted sequences that tell you exactly what you need to do, it didn't seem to get much play otherwise, making it yet another design element without purpose.

No worries. I read a wiki article about how TWEWY ends, so I should be good for the sequel.

There actually is a TWEWY anime, but it didn't... ah... review well. The majority of the game is just: "run here and fight this," so I'm not surprised that didn't translate into animated form gracefully.

@NEStalgia SMT V is best enjoyed when there's a bit of challenge to it. Especially this one, since the emphasis is so heavily weighted in favor of combat and exploration over narrative or character development. My recommendation, if you ever go back to it, is to keep stocked up on elemental dampeners. Bosses always telegraph when they're going to use a super-attack and using the right dampener at the right time will nullify it, leaving them open for punishment. Also, the hydra at Tokyo Tower is weak to status effects like sleep. I was so proud of my young nephew when he defeated the boss on normal mode by abusing his weakness to sleep magic!

You shouldn't be deeply surprised that an 80 hour JRPG becomes more complex after its first five hours or so. Although the thing to keep in mind is that while more elements are added, side-quests become more involved, environments become more multi-faceted, etc. 80% of the game is still plotless overworld exploration. That's just the gameplay loop. One thing I really liked in SMT V, and I hope they include it in future sequels, was dangerous high-level enemies that the player has to learn how to navigate around. It's fun in this game and not irritating like in Xenoblade because the demon actually has to catch you to attack you, so level 80 enemies won't be one-shotting you a hundred feet away like in those games.

Like, there's a side-quest early on where you have to raid the nest of this enormous flying demon. The demon flies in patterns around the area, and you actually have to stay out of sight and time it so that you can raid the nest and escape before the demon catches you. When I did it, I messed up the timing slightly, and had this harrowing escape sequence where I ran like hell toward an enclosed area where the demon couldn't attack me.

It didn't surprise me to learn that the game director also directed the Etrian Odyssey games, and while those are more traditional dungeon crawlers, they also typically feature plotless exploration and giant enemies on the map that force the player to plan escape routes and strategize.

Monster-collecting is always a means to an end in SMT, since you'll quickly get your butt kicked if you don't fuse and negotiate constantly to keep your stock of available demons up-to-date. Which is actually what Pokemon has always been missing, and why I love SMT so much. You can bumrush through the entirety of any Pokemon game with just your starter, but monster-collecting in an SMT game is a matter of life and death. Granted, that's mostly true of the post-Nocturne games, and why my opinion of the 3DS duology is so much higher than it is for the older games (although the GBA port of SMT I holds up surprisingly well). Its turn-based combat that's refined and tactical to the point where it resembles art.

I played through about 70% of TWEWY (the first two weeks, and some of the third before I realized finishing it wasn't worth dying inside), and, honestly, the game is a mess. I agree the game's combat being chaotic nonsense is by design, but I think it's that way primarily to distract the player from how shallow and unfulfilling the combat ultimately is. The entire game feels like that, frankly: a jumbled assortment of systems, mechanics, gimmicks, etc. that never coalesce into anything bigger than the sum of their parts. There's a problem when a game never opens up, stops tutorializing, and just allows the player to explore the world.

Also, the game has hideous sound design. The caterwauling that they call music in that game just continues unabated no matter what's happening on-screen. At least have the decency to tone down the repetitive J-Pop when characters are trying to have a meaningful conversation!

As much as I hated it, I also found the sequel for super cheap last year, so I'll be giving the series one more chance at some point.

@NEStalgia I actually felt like the open world segments compared favorably to most games I've played in that vein. The design of SMT V feels like an improvement over Xenoblade Chronicles and Dragon Quest XI in terms of overworld structure, frankly, because of the fun freedom of movement the player has, the way it rewards poking around new environments, which are usually multi-layered, and the way side-quests and abscesses give each section its own sort of emergent sense of progression without herding the player with invisible walls and cutscenes. Most of the side-quests are fairly meaningful, to the point where I actually think a lot of them include what would have been main storyline content in any other JRPG, because they grant access to powerful new demons, develop storylines for existing characters that just sort of disappear from the main plotline, and in general give you a better sense of the relationships between different demons and factions and whatnot. Battling is snappy and fun, as usual in modern SMT. And the way the overworlds are designed becomes increasingly puzzle-like as the game goes on, which makes them feel more and more like gigantic, open-air dungeons.

So I actually really dig the approach. When it's not busily trying to pretend like it has a story to tell, it's my ideal monster collecting JRPG, and the funnest JRPG I've played this generation (P5R is still fun enough, though, and the added story content at the end is amazing and actually feels like it wouldn't be out of place in an SMT game thematically, so it's probably better overall). I just wish they'd either develop the characters and story more or ditch those aspects entirely and embrace a sense of abiding mystery.

Of course, this is coming from someone who found TWEWY borderline unplayable, and barely thought it counted as a game to begin with, so that's where I'm coming from.

@NEStalgia Well, I mean, that's just, like, my opinion, man. Don't let my sour grapes ruin your hype.

Aesthetically, the previous Devil Summoner games had a sort of grimy edge to them, right? Whereas Soul Hackers 2's aesthetic is very similar to the one in Digimon: Cyber Sleuth, or Belle, or Summer Wars.

In terms of the gameplay, while you can collect and negotiate with demons, humans seem to be your party members, so it seems like you only use demons to cast spell and use abilities, like in Persona.

Shops seem to have a hyper-stylized look to them, like shops in modern Persona games, with sharp colors and character portraits.

What seems weird to me is that, despite its technical issues, SMT V is weirdly high budget in a way that the games they release on power consoles aren't. Like... when you go into the shop in that game, if you recall, you actually get a detailed 3D render of the shop-keeper and his environment. It's not just an anime character portrait bordered by bright colors. It's also the only game to date that actually showcases huge environments where to-scale demons wander around and naturalistically congregate. Meanwhile, in P5 and Soul Hackers 2 (I'll link to footage: https://youtu.be/_o87ywQWpms?t=201), you're wandering around PS2-era corridors, and enemies are still represented by abstract avatars on the world map like in the 3DS games.

SMT V is interesting insofar as the narrative pacing is completely whack. The structure of the landscapes means you're wandering the wastes for tens of hours at a time with scarcely anything happening plot-wise, and then you get a collection of cutscenes that quickly rush you onto the next arc of the story.

I actually love the gameplay design of it, with a focus on exploration and puzzle-based overworld design, but it doesn't work at all with a linear JRPG plot structure, which is what they were going for. Frankly, it should have been more like Nocturne, where they let the player stew in the mystery of their circumstances and don't let an artificially imposed plot intrude on that.

Like, you remember how Pokemon games used to not have intrusive cutscenes continuously interrupt the fun? You just played the game, collected monsters, defeated bosses, and the story felt like it arose naturally from that process? SMT V should have been more like that, because it feels like that's the sort of plot structure it's designed to accommodate. And it's 80% of the way there, frankly. But then they keep dragging you back to Tokyo, so underdeveloped characters you don't care about can waste your time until the game lets you get back to the monster collecting.

It's a flawed game, but I deeply hope Atlus takes the right lessons from it and doubles down on the aspects of the game that worked brilliantly.

The sheer amount of DLC sounds bad, but absolutely none of it is necessary, and the extra Personas often end up breaking the balance of the game (what little there is, anyway).

@NEStalgia Soul Hackers 2 doesn't resemble the previous Devil Summoner games tonally or in terms of how the gameplay is designed, unfortunately. It feels very... Persona-fied, from the footage we've seen, and somewhat generic as a result.

Unfortunately, the success of P5 probably means this'll happen to a number of their spinoffs.

I just hope they keep this design trend away from SMT. SMT V has some issues with its narrative structure, but the gameplay is a wonderful evolution of the 3DS-era entries.

Hollow Knight: Silksong and, to a lesser extent, Starfield.

None of the others appeal to me at all.

@NEStalgia Uchikoshi's stories tend to unravel across multiple different routes on a flowchart, building one narrative rope out of multiple strands that can be unlocked in a semi-non-linear fashion. If you play the Zero Escape games, which he also wrote (and which are also on Game Pass via the Nonary Games collection), they're structured in a similar way.

Iris' route is actually pretty ingenious when you realize what's going on.

I do believe the game actually tells you to go back and investigate different possibilities in the somniums after you hit your first ending, which is probably how you're supposed to know to interact with the flowchart.

@GarbonZoni Stocking up for a service I'm not even sure will be worth investing in long term doesn't seem advisable.

Anyway, it's possible I'll earn enough rewards points each month to just renew the service for free if I end up liking it. My plan, once GPU is up, is to use my points to sub to PC GamePass. No reason to pay for the more expensive option when I don't even own a modern Xbox.

Literally just joined Game Pass Ultimate today for the first time (that three months for $1 offer was too good to pass up) and have been enjoying the little metagame with these quests. So this guide is actually useful for me.

I was worried being on PC would lock me out of a lot of these, since the wording specified "cloud gaming or download to console," but I downloaded a PC version of one of these and completed the GP reward just fine.

@mousieone @hirushu Nintendo + PC is pretty much the perfect combo at this point, since you get the option of native hybrid play for the majority of modern video games, access to games from all three major manufacturers, and don't have to worry about exclusivity antics.

Aside from the shocking Persona announcement, I was pretty disappointed in most of what they showed off. Starfield... I dunno. I assume they'll patch up the performance, but nothing about it seemed particularly exciting. Silksong looks good, but not much else grabbed me. Definitely worse than Sony's recent SoP.

What I was happy about, however, was the fact that we saw so much gameplay this time around. Way better than the usual cinematic trailers.

Persona's multiplat now. Gravity Rush is gone. Silent Hills is never happening. Xbox/PC are getting a Kojima horror game. Sony is busy porting their catalog to PC.

There goes any reason for me to buy a Playstation console again.

I feel like they'll probably announce the Xbox/Steam ports. The exclusivity periods should probably be up for both Playstation and EGS, and it hasn't been long enough since FF7R first launched that it'd be reasonable to expect footage of the sequel.

I just skipped it. Keighley's events always suck. If E3 doesn't properly return, I'll just watch the showcases the manufacturers put on themselves from now on. At this point, everyone realizes what a smart idea the Nintendo Direct format is anyway.

@Dezzy70 Between third-party partnerships and first-party releases, Nintendo is at the point where they're publishing a noteworthy exclusive every month in 2022 on average. That doesn't sound like they're having issues to me.

That's actually really cool. It's apparently on mobile as well, so I might need to download this on my tablet.

The footage I've seen has been pretty dreadful. It looks like one of those unfinished Unity games that Steam is filled-to-overflowing with.

@Stocksy I order games from this company for a friend of mine pretty regularly (he doesn't want to put his cc online), and there's never been an issue with their products aside from the long wait time to get the games in the first place.

@NEStalgia Gran Turismo 7 is on PS4, though.

@NEStalgia There hasn't been a year without at least a few notable exclusive releases on Switch. It's been the most consistently well-supported console this gen in terms of exclusive content.

@ShadowofTwilight22 Microsoft is probably walking on eggshells until the Activision/Blizzard acquisition goes through.

@awp69 They have a lot of stuff announced, so if they follow through, late-gen Xbox Series will be pretty appealing.

Hopefully once the GP machine is warmed up properly these droughts will be a thing of the past.

@Kooky_Daisuke Don't get me wrong: it's not a good look, for sure.

But most people buy power consoles for third-party games, so as long as people are struggling to find next-gen hardware, Microsoft will remain competitive.

The funny thing is that it's very possible the chip shortage could ease up when Microsoft's fleet of first-party exclusives are finally starting to ship out.

@Kooky_Daisuke Demand for next-gen hardware has been extremely high for a couple of years now, and as long as Sony is struggling to push out hardware, XSX will continue to sell well.

@awp69 Nintendo's 2022 is pretty stacked in terms of noteworthy exclusives.

And even if GoW fall through, Horizon FW and GT7 are still out there.

That's a weird oversight.

Achievements support in really old Xbox games would be a pretty cool addition, though.

@SplooshDmg A 3080 Ti? I hope you didn't need that kidney you probably needed to sell.

PC is really turning into the ultimate gaming platform, isn't it? Sony is increasingly turning to PC for support as it struggles with this chip shortage. All MS games release on there now. It gets its own version of GP. Almost universal Japanese game support. Even Nintendo console-exclusive stuff like MH Rise releases on there.

It even has hybrid play appeal via the Steam Deck!

It's wild, considering I'm old enough to remember when PC gaming sucked compared to consoles.

I understand Microsoft isn't laser-focused on console sales anymore, but they really do need to do something as a gesture for the people who bought their next-gen console. Especially on top of that issue that cropped up recently with digital games on Xbox and widespread discontent about Halo Infinite.

@Alstil This sort of thing is why I'm kinda glad Nintendo hardware is still a couple generations behind on a technical level. Games take SO MUCH LONGER to develop now. It's nice having a system where fun, colorful exclusives still release pretty consistently on a system I can carry around with me (I'm actually gaming on Switch Lite almost exclusively lately, since the original model is a little hefty for my liking).

Even on Switch's off-years, they still manage multiple first-party game launches.

@Korgon Yeah, the Cyberpunk comparison is worrying.

I've been wondering why we haven't seen almost anything about a game that was supposedly launching this year, and this just concerns me even more. It actually does remind me of how Cyberpunk kept getting, like, half-year delays, which we eventually learned was just them scrambling to put together something playable (on PC; console releases were a total mess).

@NEStalgia XC3. Splatoon 3. Monster Hunter Rise: Sunbreak. New Pokemon gen. Still plenty of stuff to look forward to on the Nintendo side. Especially considering they ALWAYS have some surprise late-quarter release they reveal in the middle of the year.

Bayo 3 wouldn't surprise me, either, although I won't be grabbing that.

Wow, going the entire year without even one major first-party launch, huh?

Glad I own a Switch. The graphics might be a bit fuzzy at times, but I'm drowning in fun games I want to play.

With that said, how far behind in development are they that they're fearing a Cyberpunk-type situation? CP2077 wasn't just lacking a few months worth of polish, after all.

Great deal.

My Wii U was a refurb. Bought it for $200, and I've never had any issues with it (apart from it being the Wii U, of course).

Haven't had any drifting issues with my Pro Controller.

The D-Pad, on the other hand...

@NEStalgia I'm 100% grabbing a Series S if they find a way to allow me to convert my physical 360 discs to digital downloads or something. Although, based on the description, I'm still a little foggy on how this would work if you don't already own a Series console with a disc drive.

There are a lot of deeply stupid people out there, and a large percentage of them are on the internet now.