I didn’t hear about it when it released, only got it on sale earlier this year. Apparently all this time the perfect game for me had already been out there just existing slightly outside the range of my awareness.
It is a high quality pixel art narrative RPG with a single character class that can branch any way they like, in a pseudo-MMO(single player game where the game is lore-wise an MMO that you are one character in, rest of the characters in the game are “other players” but are of course just narrative to us the real world player, but to our in-game player they are their real life friends and you know them separate from their characters). The pseudo-MMO has 5 classes, but your character is the jack of all trades class. So your various party members will be better than you at their one specialty, but if you are extremely selective, you can nearly match them at the same level if you pick only stuff for that one path. The trade off is that this class is supposed to be much harder to play.
But anyway, enough about that, the actual story of the game is awesome and I don’t want to spoil anything specific. Your character starts out unable to talk due to a malfunction of the “game”, but slowly gains more words, it’s not a gameplay mechanic, just a narrative mechanic, but it’s crazy endearing. Kind of like a “little mermaid” type scenario. She still has full control of her facial expressions and body language, and speaking of, there must be thousands of facial expressions. They did not skip out on any work in the pixel art department.
The exploration parts of the game are kind of zelda style platforming puzzles with more of an agility focus. Combat is real-time but somewhat easy, with more of a focus on stringing fights together and trying to survive as many back to back in quick succession as possible. The longer you stay in combat and string fights together, the less overall monsters you have to kill to get all the loot from a zone. Though the max monsters you need to kill at the worst is pretty low. Like 50-100 per zone. And even then it’s optional, but better.
They also have dungeons, these are also pretty similar to old school zelda, but quicker and tighter. Speaking of, character movement/control is very agile for a pixel art game. I’m not generally great at it in other games, but I love it in this game.
Ok, well I should probably stop now. I could probably go on for hours, it’s an amazing game that I’m sad I didn’t hear about til recently, but at least I did eventually hear of it. Now I feel I have to make sure other people don’t miss out on it like I almost did.
Edit: bah one more thing, character development is pretty robust. I built my entire character around thorns damage and blocking. It’s entirely possible to go through the game this way, in fact it makes some fights kind of silly. But it’s also entirely possible to never have any thorns and even to never block a single hit. But the thorns mechanic alone is pretty deep. There are several components that affect how much damage you will reflect when blocking a hit, how much the hit would have been, how much you lowered it by blocking it, how much baseline “pin body”(thorns) you have and how much defense the monster has. So a boss hitting you for 100 that you reduce down to 50 is gonna hit them back pretty hard, but so is a monster hitting you for what would have been a string of 10 hits of 3 damage, but you reduced them all to 0. Since there is a baseline, those 10 hits trigger pretty close to your minimum amount, but it’s probably alot more than 3, and certainly more than the 0 they actually did to you. There is also perfect guarding, completely unnecessary, but since my character is all about blocking, I decided to practice perfect guarding, and I got pretty good at it. Also when I perfect block a melee hit, it stuns them for 2 seconds. And perfect blocks inherently double thorns damage, like as if it was a crit.
All the mechanics seem as deep and well planned out as that too. And there are alot of mechanics. The 4 main disciplines are tank, ranged damage, melee damage and caster. Though caster is mostly just using more skills instead of auto attacks while still being either melee or ranged. Just get way more mana regen. And of course the idea is to blend and not just specialize in one, but you can also specialize. Ranged damage is done by way of shooting “spheres”, it’s also a pretty important aspect of alot of puzzle solving, but you don’t need any points in ranged damage to solve puzzles with it. I have no points in any type of damage other than thorns. My character has more than double defense versus attack. Hehe.
There is a relatively limited selection of gear, but you will likely always find something you want. Kind of similar to a final fantasy game, no unnecessary gear, just a bunch of stuff that “isn’t for you this play through”, but your party members might like what you don’t. They of course have their own money and choose when and what new gear they buy. Though bringing them to a shop that has what they want will prompt it, otherwise they’ll go shopping on their own time when not in your party.
Do people not like Octopath Travler (1 & 2)??? I rarely see it mentioned but it's one of my absolute favorites. Fantastic pixel art and music. I love the combat and job system too. Being able to bridge level deficits with items/gear and strategy meant it wasn't grindy either.
It depends on your partners and what you want your experience to be. Want to do stupid shit and be silly? Then coop is for you. Want to take the story seriously and get fully immersed? Maybe solo is better for you
The World Ends With You (or the sequel, Neo: The World Ends With You) is an action RPG that does away with random encounters. Battles are initiated by you scanning for enemies and picking fights in your own, you can even lower your level or string multiple fights together for more rewards. The original is 2D (and best played in a DS/2DS/3DS but if you don’t have one there’s also a single-screen version on Switch) and the sequel is 3D on Switch and Steam.
I tried this route, you’ll be disappointed. I would advise getting a pre-owned Rift S which are cheap as fuck now.
Works perfectly with steam VR, and has proper tracking controllers. You can’t play Half Life Alyx with the PlayStation set - you can with a rift s. You’re basically cutting out the vast majority of PC VR experiences if you go with the PSVR.
Also you don’t need a Facebook account for the rift s, unlike the quest headsets.
Weird, mine has been absolutely rock solid. And I don’t touch the oculus software, just SteamVR. I’ve played hundreds of hours of Bonelab and Half Life 2 VR etc
The only issue I’ve ever had is having to replug in the usb cable at the start if my pc is started up with it plugged in… but as it’s almost always stored in a box unless I use it, that’s rarely ever a problem.
Maybe it’s the connector on the cable end that plugs into the headset that’s dodgy in your case
I thought it might be a loose connection or a cable issue as well but I’ve tried reseating them and also using an externally powered USB hub because I’ve heard that can fix some issues.
Weird, mine has been absolutely rock solid. And I don’t touch the oculus software, just SteamVR. I’ve played hundreds of hours of Bonelab and Half Life 2 VR etc
Don’t you need Meta’s software to setup the headset and get your computer to recognize it?
Likely just a usb bandwidth limit you are hitting, try unplugging other devices that arent in use, I had this issue with my rift cv1 Edit* Also plug your rift directly into a usb 3.0 port on your motherboard, hubs even powered ones can cause issues with high bandwidth devices
Odd last troubleshooting thing I can think of is to try plugging it into one of your front panel usbs since they are usually using a separate usb controller. Otherwise you might just have a defective unit
Due it being like this since I got it, an intermittent issue, and a common issue online I don’t think it is the unit. Killing Oculus’ software and restarting it would occasionally get it to work so I feel like it might be that. I spent sometime reading Oculus Support threads and others shared my suspicions.
My only other thought would have been my motherboard or power supply. My CPU, GPU, and RAM should be enough.
If you’re looking for a good JRPG, I can’t recommend the Persona series enough. I hate traditional JRPG’s but I love Persona and have dumped literally hundreds of hours into P5/ P5 Royal. I know it’s not pixel art, but the art style is very unique and fun to look at.
Procession to Calavry is a point-and-click adventure game tagged as “medieval” and “dark comedy” which is spot on.
The Longing is a pretty experimental game about waiting. You can win the game by waiting 400 hours, or you can go for one of the alternative endings, all of them needing a lot of waiting around.
Return of the Obra Dinn is a game you should take your time in. Explore. Ponder. Explore. Ponder. It has been compared to filling in crosswords.
Ittle Dew is a puzzle game with a Zelda-ish style and cute punk comedy presentation.
Not sure if this fits in what you’re looking for but I like Book ofTravels. It’s a very original morpg (they call it tmorpg I think which stands for tiny multiplayer online RPG ).
Also has some very interesting story telling coupled with a no hand holding way of handling quests.
Please consider WanderSong. It’s a small game and was made with so much love. Games can have a huge variety of plots and environments. But the vast majority of games, regardless of what they are about, are actually about victory. You’re a space dwarf mining for minerals, but the game is all about mastery and winning. You’re a dragon-kin with magic shouts, but every quest is about achieving a victory over a challenge. And so on.
I would say that WanderSong is not a game about victory. It’s a game about happiness. The character, the mechanics, the plot, the environments; they all serve first to explore the meaning of happiness. There’s nothing else quite like it. You can find it here.
Just want to emphasize how wonderful of a game Wandersong is. Nothing in your list makes me point and go “if they liked X, they’ll like Wandersong”, but it’s just a really good smaller-y game. Heavily story driven, with a little bit of puzzle-platforming. I have 10.4 hours of playtime in it on Steam, so including some AFK time and some post-game fucking about, it’s probably a 6-8 hour play.
Mass Effect trilogy. It has amazing characters, get stories, and the gameplay gets better with each game. Though the first in the series is still my favorite, and one of my favorite games of all time, 2 is considered to be one of the best character driven RPGs in recent memory. Bonus, you can get all three remastered via the Legendary Edition.
I honestly just don’t get the point of these screens.
It lets the game see which controller or input method you are using. This screen was (and maybe still is? I’m not sure.) a requirement for certification on consoles going back to the Xbox 360, when wireless controllers became ubiquitous.
Having to press a single button at the start of a game is a pretty minor complaint.
Personally, I think if I cant just use both at the same time it’s kind of shit. Only a handful of games actually work like that, and it’s insane. I shouldn’t have to go into the settings and switch control types. I should just be able to use them if they’re plugged in, like GTA or BG3.
Wouldn’t that be just as applicable from the interaction with the main menu? When the player selects a menu entry (eg Start, Load, Options), that tells the game what you’re using.
Plenty of games are able to determine what you’re using without having such a screen. The “press any key to continue” screen has been a thing my entire life (born in 85), and it has never been necessary for anything other than simulating the “insert coin” screen for arcade games.
BG3 can use both at the same time, and yet it still has two of these screens. If you’re playing with a controller, it will say press any key then you press a button and it changes to “press A to continue” before you actually get to the main menu.
And it’s even dumber because you can see the game detects your controller before the first logo screen ends when the cursor is auto hidden.
I’m reminded of something that Binding of Isaac does that I wish more games would do: If you’re anywhere in the main menu (even drilled into it), if you just mash the B button/Esc key, it will keep backing out, up to and including exiting the game if you press it on the main menu. I hate games that make me click 3 times and say “are you sure??” when I just want to quit the dang program.
“REEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE NEVER DO THAT” - FromSoft games
At least Elden Ring added a “Quit to Desktop” option. Any games before that… no you have to exit back to the title screen and be subjected to several seconds of extremely loud gothic chanting before you’re allowed to exit the game. God help you if your network connection is down because it will try to connect to the network for an entire minute before it fails and lets you exit.
Hey just an FYI “reeee” is “autistic screeching” i.e. it’s pretty ablelist/shitty to say. Not sure if you are aware, I only learned that pretty recently.
I’m sorry but what? I’m not OP but that is a record scratch. End of story. There is no ableism even in the vicinity of OPs statement without someone shoehorning it in there.
Sorry, wrong nomenclature. We are talking about the same subject (use of Reee) but I used the term OP in reference to the commenter you responded to. Sorry for the confusion.
My point was that calling out using Reee as ableism is uncalled for, in my opinion, because it is used to signify a record scratch (if this is not general usage and confined to my bubble of experience , I do apologize). Pointing out the possibility for offense when there clearly is no offense implied, and no one stating that they are offended, smacks of white knighting.
I feel like your comment came with good intentions, but to me it seems like unnecessary language policing. It’s a harmless onomatopoeia that could just as easily apply to the unrelenting tinnitus that rages inside of me.
I have never heard of “reeee” being a record scratching sound.
“Reeeee” being a joke about autistic screech, like a lot of old shitty jokes, originated on 4chan but made its way to reddit and twitch and basically any other site where pepe the frog got traction. It eventually got mainstream enough that shows like South Park and I think Family Guy referenced it as such. Search “reeeee” on google or youtube, it’s going to be almost all references to a joke about autism.
Also, correcting someone making offensive jokes isn’t white knighting. It is a good thing that more people should do. Just because someone from the targeted group isn’t vocal in the comments doesn’t mean harm isn’t done. It isn’t the sole responsibility of the people targeted in situations to vocally defend themselves. Informing others of harm they might be doing to others is a core part of building a community.
I worked the 1’s and 2’s for years and I never, ever heard someone say “reeeee” to refer to scratching. And in what world is the above a record scratch? It doesn’t even make sense in context.
pointing out the possibility for offense when there clearly is no offense implied, and no one stating that they are offended, smacks of white knighting. but to me it seems like unnecessary language policing.
You came rushing to the defense of another user. The white knighting is not happening on my end. And what’s worse, you’re defending something that can easily be verified as a bad thing to say. But sure, go ahead and die on the hill of defending “REEEEEEE.”
I made it clear that I am assuming it was not their intention. But language is not all about intention. If you know something is offensive, just don’t say it. It’s not that difficult.
That use of the term was clear. It had no other interpretation. But please keep lecturing me, someone who is on the spectrum (which is not a requirement for speaking up by the way), about how I am White Knighting over a shitty 4chan meme making fun of autistic people.
Your ignorance of a term does not suddenly make it innocuous. Especially not when someone is standing here telling you exactly what it means and you could easily verify it with a cursory Google search because it’s that prominent and known now. But no, instead of trying to understand this you chose to lecture people on what they can and can’t be upset about. I’m sorry we didn’t meet your arbitrary bar.
Thank you for mentioning this. I try/want to but it's so tiring dealing with the crap people throw at me just because they can't stand to ever think about the crap they spew.
Here's a cupcake to help make up for you getting jumped on instead :3 🫴🧁
It should be noted that games that arent verified with proton won’t work until you change a steam setting that enables using compatibility tools on all games. You can also set this per game.
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Aktywne