WHAT VIDEOGAMES ARE YOU PLAYING RIGHT NOW?

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Playing the Final Fantasy 1 Randomizer with the Archipelago setup. This is probably the most advanced randomizer options wise because the world map can be procedurally generated. The typical Corneria -> Garland progression happened but after killing Garland... I realized Corneria had no castle! So I couldn't get to the princess and the king to claim the rewards. Eventually I found 3 dungeons, one had a dragon in it that goes to the bahamut islands I suppose, another an ogre blocking the path and another was the ice cave.

The dungeon layouts I think are only randomized teleport wise, so going down a hole meant I was still in the ice dungeon but in an unexpected floor. I got a protect ring and a ribbon so basically my Fighter was carrying the whole team. I got a canoe sent from someone playing the Secret of Evermore randomizer but realized none of the river tiles actually go anywhere. I found the bridge in one of the chests which meant I could explore the world map a little more but then someone sent me the Ship so the options really started to open up after clearing the ice cave through a bit of grinding.

As someone who's beaten FF1 twice on remastered and PSP it's weird sitting down and playing the NES version and barely recognizing any of the dungeons. World map knowledge is probably the most useful, but that's useless since it's scrambled here. But I find the NES version the most enjoyable just due to the mechanics mattering a lot more especially with some of the randomizer tweaks and fixes. I find myself grinding a lot but also figuring out how far I can go before having to return to the world map and not letting any of my party members die. Since enemies have their skills scrambled a lot of the strategy is prioritizing the enemies that cause the most disaster for my party. I did mess up in assigning too many black magic to my red mage as I can't use the exit spell and there's no way to forget magic sadly. So either I find a useful item or recruit another red/white mage from the pub.
Marrend
Guardian of the Description Thread
21781
I've been experiencing some analog drift with my controller for maybe a month. Which curiously coincides with about how long I've had this laptop! Still, I've been looking into possible solutions for that. Even so, I managed to finally beat Bloodstained - Ritual of the Night. I'm not sure what my completion rate was, but, I'm happy to put it aside for a while. Though, I'm pretty curious what playing as Aurora from Child of Light would be like in the context of this style of game.

For what it's worth, I can probably play Beyond Good and Evil with the keyboard. The only time I would need a proper analog stick is for inputting various passwords, with how the input mechanism is structured like a wheel.
I finally got around to trying Disco Elysium. I'm definitely enjoying it so far, though I feel like I have to change the way I play these kinds of decision tree games.
Normally when I play a game where you're given multiple different choices on how to go about solving a problem or simply doing something, I go with the decisions I'd make if I was in that position IRL, but the situation is so bizarre, that that mode of thinking doesn't really work here.
Beat da FF1 NES randomizer, red wizard didn't make it though. All of the fights are super easy as I was decked out in ribbons + protect rings along with the masamune and xcalibur before activating the 3rd orb. But turns out Kraken had a BANE spell up its sleeve, and Remi was the only one who had LIFE so...


That said FF1 Randomizer is surprisingly fun, more of a treasure hunt. Really the hardest part was knowing how to activate the airship and not knowing where it typically was due to the procedural map. All the dungeons have a very speed walk to the exit or get all the chests dilemma, where at a low level and low items it can be risky to go deep into the volcano and not... make it out, but there's tons of chests with the potentially thing you need so you might have to make multiple trips. Other times there are dungeons that are split into two that you can do in one trip if you have the items. Feel like the Black and Red mages were kind of backseating aside from the occasional AOE clean up. I completely forgot the exit spell was level 1 so I misused my spell slots giving up faster trips.


Little Nemo Dream Master! :) On the NES.
benos
My mind is full of fuck.
624
Gonna play Dark Blood Chronicles, rpg maker game brought from Steam. Finally.
Marrend
Guardian of the Description Thread
21781
October is generally when I play Castlevania - Lords of Shadow. Though, I think, last year I played Darksiders 2 instead. This year might be either Resident Evil 2 (the PS1 version) or Resident Evil 4 (the PS2 version).

*Edit: Welp, forget this idea. My controller is crapping out like there's no tomorrow. Like, I tried throwing down some Dynasty Warriors 8 Empires, and it was doing things I wasn't even aware was possible with a controller. Taking sreencaps? Adjusting my system volume? Restoring closed windows? Moving my mouse with the left analog!? What the Futch-and-Bright?
benos
My mind is full of fuck.
624
Yazuka Like A Dragon. For the very first tiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiime.
Going pretty hard at Overwatch 2. The new battle pass and shop are both kinda scummy, but I'm largely ignoring them since the core gameplay is still A+.
Gdleen - Grinding outside Edona for gold and levels iirc? This game's plot feels like a first draft, would like to read the book it's trying to adapt and its sequels, but my Japanese isn't that good.
Lagoon SNES - Poverty grinding outside Natela's room. Man the X68k version is gonna be one hell of a whiplash.
Tecmo Secret of the Stars - Leveling up near Bonzley before beating up the creepy circus man. lmao this game
SD Gundam Gaiden: Knight Gundam Monogatari: Ooinaru Isan - Parked at Sweetwater's inn in Chapter 2.
Lufia II - At Bound Kingdom. Replay.
Final Fantasy V - Leveling up jobs at the Prototype Island in World 1. GBA, previously beat SNES.
Valkyrie Profile - Hard Mode: Nethov Swamp. Trying to build Belenus to yeet him to Asgard or whatever.
Final Fantasy IV - Just outside of the Lair of the Father, got Fusoya. First time on PSP, but I've beat SNES before.
Tengai Makyou Ziria - Almost done with the State of Banmou, got Tsunade, I'm at Shirakawa City.
Arcus Odyssey - At Act 4 as Erin. Picked this one at random, this fucks.
Arc the Lad III - Every Job done until 52 I believe?
VIP & Wall Mix (SMW romhack) - Starting World 5 after finishing the optional World 4 and Mangrove Forest and Cannon Fire levels. Replay.
Tales of Destiny 2 - At the Undeveloped Jungle in the Alternate Timeline, just got out of Elrane's Flying Dragon.

And that's the past month, I guess
Currently replaying through Majora's Mask on the GC port for the 1000th time lol but this time using a HD 4K Texture Pack and oh my god it's sooo damn beautiful and vibey <3
OzzyTheOne
Future Ruler of Gam Mak
4676
I've been playing a lot of Age of Empires 2 Definitive Edition lately, trying to actaully imprive my skill past simple casual player, with varying levels of fun and frustration (I'm just not an enjoyer of playing RTS games competitively)
The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time, I still don't know how to start. and this is still there version.
Octopath Traveler II: I've done all but one chapter 1 (and Oswald's chapter 2 of course) and with the exception of the dancer, every story seems to be an improvement over the same class story of the first game. Agnea's tame beginnings may be a setup for a bombshell later, I know where her second chapter takes place and it's rather foreboding.

To expand on this, the first Octopath had a few heroes and villains who really stood out, but the stories themselves were rarely very interesting, with the exception of Primrose that was exciting for the first three chapters. In this game however every story makes me want to know how it continues. Most of them sets up a good mystery or in other good ways hints towards exciting things to come.

The combat seems to be slightly improved. I'm spotting a few less skills that makes me think "when are they ever going to be used?" and the game does a better job of encouraging you to use their more class specific abilities.
The Sims 3 because my library had a copy for sale for only $2 and Tears of the Kingdom because I really liked BOTW and decided to give it a shot after the incredible reviews.
KrimsonKatt
Gamedev by sunlight, magical girl by moonlight
3326
I beat Tears of the Kingdom about a month ago. Great game, I'm just sad I didn't have the time to do everything I wanted to do. I had to stop early to give the game to my brother... and he never played it. And IDK I don't really want to go back to a game after I've gotten so far and am right before the final boss door after all this buildup. It just feels wrong to backtrack and do all these other things.

The main game I'm playing now is Shin Megami Tensei IV. After many struggles I got on the neutral route (aka true ending route) and I am currently on the very last dungeon, and it sure is a hassle. Luckily I'm almost done, and then I can move onto the sequel SMT4 Apocalypse. On my first playthrough I followed a guide 1-to-1 besides a single mistake, which ended up costing me the run because by the time I hit the alignment lock I was locked into either law or chaos. I fought the same boss Kenji 14 times over and over making different decisions trying to get the neutral ending, only to realize that I COULDN'T get the neutral ending. Even reloading my save did nothing. So, out of despair and desperation. I went for the early bad ending (nothingness/nihilism ending) so I could start NG+, get the bonuses, and get my alignment back to square one so I could make the right choices this time and not mess up, this time following the guide even more closely. I got locked onto neutral, but then after that it was a serious struggle to complete the 20 or so sidequests you had to do to continue the story, but once that was over with I could finally finish the game with the best ending and after over 90 hours of gameplay I'm just glad I'm almost done. Oh wait... I forgot about the DLC bosses... crap.
KrimsonKatt
Gamedev by sunlight, magical girl by moonlight
3326
author=Crystalgate
Octopath Traveler II: I've done all but one chapter 1 (and Oswald's chapter 2 of course) and with the exception of the dancer, every story seems to be an improvement over the same class story of the first game. Agnea's tame beginnings may be a setup for a bombshell later, I know where her second chapter takes place and it's rather foreboding.

To expand on this, the first Octopath had a few heroes and villains who really stood out, but the stories themselves were rarely very interesting, with the exception of Primrose that was exciting for the first three chapters. In this game however every story makes me want to know how it continues. Most of them sets up a good mystery or in other good ways hints towards exciting things to come.

The combat seems to be slightly improved. I'm spotting a few less skills that makes me think "when are they ever going to be used?" and the game does a better job of encouraging you to use their more class specific abilities.


Just to let you know Agnea's story is very clearly the light hearted "feel-good" story of the 8 similar to Tressa from Octopath 1. It doesn't really go anywhere dark for it's entire runtime, which is in contrast to the rest of the stories being FAR darker than Octopath 1's general tone. Octopath 2 is a clear improvement over the OG but the OG does have some better strengths, like the character/class roster being far less unbalanced (Hikari is insanely broken in Octopath 2) and some of the chapters in OP1 being better than most OP2 chapters. (Primrose Chapter 1 and Alfin Chapters 3&4 are peak fiction) But overall OP2 is much better, especially in it's finale. Like, you know, actually HAVING ONE. Generally if I could rank all the stories in both games I would rank them as such:

#1: Alfin
#2: Temenos
#3: Primrose
#4: Paritcio
#5: Cassiti
#6: Cyrus
#7: Throne
#8: Osvald
#9: Orphillia
#10: Therion
#11: Hikari
#12: Olberic
#13: Agnea
#14: Ochette
#15: Tressa
#16: Hannit

Of course, this ranking doesn't actually determine my favorite characters. My favorite character in either game is Tressa despite having the second worst story IMO. And despite Alfin having the best story, he's not even close to my favorite characters. Temenos is probably my second favorite character followed closely by partitio. Octopath is probably the only series (with good writing, so KH doesn't count) where I strongly prefer the male characters over the female ones. I like Therion a lot too solely for the fact that his relationship with that noblewoman girl turned me into a hardcore shipper with how wholesome and sweet that whole dynamic was. Just be prepared for some crazy twists in OP2. Not everyone can be trusted. Also the final boss theme is arguably the best final boss theme in video game historic. Literally God Shattering Star 2. Should have been the final map theme of FE Engage instead of the crap we got. Masterpiece.
benos
My mind is full of fuck.
624
No Man's Sky, tedious, but long, took me 1 hour or so to get back to the ship on a planet. :0

I can't leave the planet/s when you lose stuff to try and get off again lol
My expirience with My Summer Car:

First things first, i realize i have no clue what to do, so i look up a guide that tells me to go over to Tiemos.

I get in the shitty kekmet tractor with my case of beer and i begin the long and boring road. Once i get there, Tiemo is long closed so i end up staying all night at the pub drinking beer, eating sausage and pissing all over Tiemo and his pub. After morning comes and i buy what i need i start assembling the engine, it goes well until i decide to try out the Jonnez moped and die in a car accident, which is where i find out i accidentally kept permadeath on.

Im currently playing on a new save and i got done with the engine last night and got started on the front suspension, but now i gotta go over to the abandoned cottage to find the old wheels and hopefully not die to the hornets like a dumbass.

Great game, would reccomend even if you dont really like cars.
The Sims 4, purchasing more DLC as I feel like it. With the NES, SNES, and Playstation, Final Fantasy titles put in to the mix occasionally.