Unless Pokemon counts, I don’t think I have ever enjoyed a JRPG. I have zero idea what people see in these except weebs getting horny over anime girls.
I mostly agree, but I have seen real diamonds. It’s just hard to discern whether the appeal is genuinely from a surprising and unexpected story, or exactly as you say, a noncommittal showcase of characters.
The Trails series (Trails in the Sky and Cold Steel).
Some of the worst villains ever, and you’re constantly getting blue balled. The series keeps introducing new characters, that don’t matter, and just drag things out for hundreds and hundreds of hours.
Zero and Azure are great though, until they connect back to the main story at the end.
I had zero fun playing Breath of the Wild. I was just always looking for new weapons cause they always broke. After 10 hours I just wasnt into it at all so I never opened the game again.
I also have zero interest for CoD, Battlefield or GTA games.
Was it System Shock? Then yeah, it probably could use some love.
Was it Turok? Then hey, HD Dinos can be cool.
Was it Okami? Then why not, giving it some polish and getting it playable on PC is worthwhile.
Was it Ty the Tasmanian Tiger, Spyro, or Crash? Then absolutely, again for having them playable on PC at the very least.
I think all of these are examples where it makes sense to give them an update because various controls or even systems of today just don’t work with the old versions. All of these examples were also done pretty well overall.
On the other hand, I’m more conflicted on games from the last 10-12 years or sooner. Especially if it’s like The Last of US Remastered where it just isn’t supported well.
But then again, I appreciate getting Spider-Man and Horizon: Zero Dawn on PC, and I believe we only got those because of the remasters? But I would not be buying another remaster of either for PC in even 10 years from today, because what point would there be?
All in all, I think there are many examples where it “is technically fine”, but if it’s not done well then there was never a point in the first place. The Tony Hawk ones kind of fit here, as they partly feel really good and partly feel really janky - it’s nice having them on PC but they are no where near as polished as the other games I mentioned
It was on PS+ while I had the service so I tried it for the brawler part but it’s like a good anime with a murder mystery plot, it has elements of GTA and Phoenix Wright mashed together with a brawler, and the story is focused on a high school so you get to beat the ever-living snot outta bratty teenagers which is really cathartic.
And despite the serious tone of the main plot, the game is very goofy and over-the-top (again, it’s like playing an anime; complete with all the tropes you’d expect from an anime) and has me laughing my ass off pretty regularly. I had to actually buy a copy because I have barely scratched the surface of it and I’m not renewing my PS+ sub any time soon. Sucks that I got it on sale and the one DLC that adds content is twice as much as what I paid for the main game, cuz I know I will end up wanting it lol
Dragon Age: Origin Ultimate Edition: My personal favorite game of all time. Got me into the dark fantasy genre and RPGs in general. A simple story that has so much replay value based on the various decisions you can make with an amazing cast of characters. The rest of the series has been steadily going downhill since, unfortunately (in my opinion, at least).
Celeste: Best platformer ever. I’ve sunk hundreds of hours into it, and ever since I discovered there was an active modding community (seriously, the modding tools are so good now) I’ve been going through modded community expansions.
Slay The Spire: The most fun I’ve had playing a card game. It’s extremely challenging, but very well balanced, and there’s nothing else quite like it.
Okay, since you mention Celeste, maybe you could help me out? I bought it, played it, liked it, finished it and that was about it. A short, excellent platformer I thought. Since then, I’ve read several times how people said Celeste had an amazing replayability and how they
sunk hundreds of hours into it
so, could you tell me what to aim for after finishing the game? Why play it again?
Personally, I just really liked the platforming and movement. There aren’t many platformers that come close to Celeste’s polish, and I 100%-ed it (there’s some secret strawberries that are pretty damn hard to get), the golden strawberry challenges where you have to not die are super challenging, and I ended-up trying to speedrun it for fun. The modding community also has some excellent maps with practice areas that teach you advanced movement mechanics (I highly recommend the “Strawberry Jam” community map pack).
If you’ve never played Dune 2 or Dune 2000 or whatever other iterations and remakes of the Dune RTS series, I strongly recommend it. It seems like a lot of Warcraft’s DNA comes from Dune.
Yeah, seems like. Like when I was a kid and I played Dune 2, then played Warcraft a few years later, the one seemed to inherit most of its ideas from the other.
But I didn’t like go look up the dates or exhaustively check that no other game came up with the format first. I know the first Age of Empires is somewhere vaguely in that same time span too, but I’m not certain of the order.
Oh sorry it seemed offensive or negative in any way, I just wanted to clarify that “seems like” i s a vast understatement. Dune 2 predates all of them, and became a template for mechanics and layouts. We’ve gone a long way since, but dune was the first of the models that we build RTS games as today
The Legend of Heroes: Trails in the Sky (Part 1 + 2) are really the first ones that come to mind for me. They reignited some of the feeling of excitement I have for JRPGs, where you become deeply invested in the struggles of the characters and enjoy every last “Big damn heroes” moment and sudden twist they pull out. The villains in those games are pathetically irredeemable, a far cry from some of the better written ones, but their amazing quality is in forcing out the most dramatic possible circumstances from the characters. Combat keeps its pace and was generally enjoyable for me, plus it had an XP catchup/slowdown system that stopped the game from ever feeling too grindy.
Funny thing is, I personally bear no recommendations for any games in that series beyond those two. They are, to my mind, a testament to good singular stories that leave the opportunity for future ones - even if those follow-ons didn’t click with me.
For Metroidvania style, Aquaria is one I don’t see mentioned much. I got it in one of the classic Humble Bundles, and it had a LOT more content than I was expecting for an indie game. Many different abilities to gather, a soundtrack and appearance that all blended together so well, and even optional bosses hidden in the waters.
And then, it comes up every so often to divisive opinions, but there’s plenty of shooter players that still need to try Spec Ops: The Line. It’s not terribly well-done in terms of gameplay, but tells a very compelling story about heroism and violence - even if it is NOT the one you hope to see. Much of the controversy over the game’s ranking has to do with how much it offers freedom of choice - but I’ve always felt that freedom of choice starts in the type of adventures you choose to play. You see the assault rifles on the cover. You’re planning for this.
Trails in the Sky‘s story is so goated, it‘s in my top 5 favorite stories. The combat wasn‘t my cup of tea, but I managed to get through without any bigger problems, I forgot how though lol
Cataclysm dark days ahead is to zombie survival what doom is to demon shooting or monster hunter is to monster hunting. Project zomboid? Can’t even play that garbage now. Cataclysm actually gives you the reigns. Out in the wild? Use the very deep crafting system to go from practically neolithic to the iron age out of a cabin you found . Not strong enough to take on dozens of zombies you’ve attracted raiding a city? Climb a drain pipe and run across the roof tops. Tired of living out of a run down cabin you found? Build an in depth base with it’s own power grid or build your own car. Or train.
Rain world is one of the best games ever, reaching the highest point in that game is an experience everyone should feel.
Lunacid is an old school dungeon crawler with vibes that are completely immaculate.
Kenshi is a genre all it’s own. Be a wuxia style master of whatever style of combat you like most (I’m partial to martial arts and punching off limbs), build up your base, create an army, and go to war against the holy nation.
Cassette Beasts is a monster tamer that is full of charm, had the best soundtrack of any game last year, and had great gameplay to boot. Comparing it to Pokemon (because duh), the type match ups matter so much more due to a reactive system that can change up gameplay instead of just altering damage. the fact that it went unnoticed last year is a crime!
Crosscode! To me it’s the ultimate hidden gem, as I hardly see people talking about it but most of the people who do play it go on to rate it as one of their favorite games. Especially if you like story focussed action-rpgs, I bet you’ll dig it. It’s also got somewhat of a zelda element with puzzles and dungeons
It’s also got somewhat of a zelda element with puzzles
Bit of an understatement. The game has a LOT of puzzles. A bit too many of them IMO, most of which are not optional and bring the game to a halt. The rest of the game is S tier but I could never bring myself to play hours of back-to-back puzzles in dungeons.
I played it on gamepass, then bought the Collector’s Edition simply because I wanted to give some money to the devs, and then bought it again on Xbox with the DLC just to have an excuse to play it again.
It’s a wonderful game choke full of content (especially if you like the collect-a-thon aspect of the game), the combat system is amazing, and there are tons of skills available across four different branches for each of the four+1 elements, which means it never overstays its welcome because there’s always something new to unlock and play with. But most of all, I loved having a game that isn’t afraid of giving you hard puzzles without a companion or an annoying thinking voice explaining everything to you before you even had a chance to look at the damn thing.
It immediately became one of my favourite games ever, and it’s a shame that not enough people even know of its existence.
bin.pol.social
Aktywne