I mostly liked it but ended up giving up 2/3rds of the way through.
Combat wasn’t really changing other than new flashy skills occasionally. I was fighting the same way in hour 5 that I was in hour 50. No new weapons in a game trying to be a bit of DmC meets Final Fantasy was a miss for me. Gear was basically useless as well.
I get this is personal opinion, but Clive and Jill were immensely boring to me as leads. The story was good, but had pacing issues where it was obvious they padded for time and designed it the same way they do FFXIV expansions.
Welcome to AAA game reviews. Where every major studios games must receive a high score, or they won’t get review copies for the next game from that studio. With rare exceptions.
Exactly. I consider it basically payola these days. Every big-name review is gushing, falling over itself to expound on the innumerable virtues of every AAA release, and then once normal folks have played for a few weeks, the real story comes out. My partner played the demo and was shocked to be playing the same game as the one that was reviewed. Unless I’m so excited to play a game that I don’t care if it’s mediocre, I wait to buy until actual the real user reviews trickle out post-release.
1 - Get Recalbox on a GPi Case 2 and you’ll have access to just about every system from before 2000 (including support for commodore and other similar systems). It can handle PSP games as well, but not PS2 or NDS. There are other cases available for a raspberry pi system, but I recommend the GPi Case 2 because you can play it “docked” and handheld. I recommend Recalbox since it already has a lot of support for the GPi case built into it, but if you’re tech-savvy you may prefer Lakka for its flexibility. You may be able to get more modern emulators to run on the lakka as well.
2 - Gaming PC with Lakka, Citra, or whatever other emulators you’d like. And unless you’re playing a lot of super new games, you don’t need anything fancy- you could probably just throw windows 7 on a $100 refurbished business PC and run just about any game from 2010 or earlier, TBH.
3 - Wii or Wii U. I personally find emulation of these (specifically with a wii-mote) to be a bit finicky. If you don’t use a Wii, you can substitute your personal console of choice for this one.
4 - Oculus Quest- though I’m not sure if it counts since you aren’t connecting to a TV. This isn’t the best VR headset but it is the cheapest. It has a good library of standalone games, and for anything else you can use airlink or the virtual desktop to run games off of a VR-ready PC (If you went with one that was beefy for #2). The quest has a lot of modding support through the sidequest. The main concern with this is that you need a phone to set up a Quest when you buy it/after a factory reset. So if Facebook goes under or a meteor hits silicon valley, this could conceivably turn into a fancy paperweight. To my knowledge, nobody has cracked the Quest to skip over this step. If historical preservation is more important to you than money, I would recommend choosing literally any other VR headset because of the setup thing.
Have you considered Enderal? It’s a total conversion mod for Skyrim on steam, so the bones of it are the simpler Skyrim systems- but it overhauls everything and has excellent world building and quests to boot. A full mage playthrough/build is very fun/rewarding. Just understand that it is NOT Skyrim. It looks like it sometimes, and there’s definitely still that Bethesda jank, but it’s its own beast.
I wanted to avoid mods for now especially with skyrim since last time I’ve tried I’ve spent like 3 hours straight on nexusmods, only to run into conflicts and be too tired to even attempt to fix them. Although with a total conversion I assume it’s all-in-one which should help avoid that problem. Thank you, will check it out!
If you have the steam version of Skyrim it's very simple to get running. https://store.steampowered.com/developer/SureAI/#browse has both versions (depending on if you have the launch version or special/anniversary edition). Also found here is Nehrim, their total conversion mod for Oblivion
I think part of the problem last time was that some of my mods were nexus and some were steam 😃 I guess I’m reinstalling Skyrim then. Thank you for the link!
Yes, the total conversion package makes it self-contained in the steam library/store. It just checks that you own a legit copy of Skyrim to run it. It has its own steam page even, couldn’t be easier. Plus it’s free (assuming you own any edition of Skyrim) so it’s hard to pass up with so little risk aside from your time.
Wabbajack is a mod organizer / installer that lets you load mod orders that have been configured by people who borderline make Mod Orders for a living. I cannot stress enough how much they took the thinking out of modding Bethesda games.
Pay for a 1 month sub to nexus mods and set the installer to run overnight.
Me personally, my go-to console at this point is the Steam Deck for its sheer versatility. I’ve got a dock with an 8Bitdo Ultimate Pro connected so it’s more or less plug and play. Since building my first PC in high school, I have a huge Steam library. EmuDeck is also amazing so with the exception of a Series X somehow running emulators, the Steam Deck is the best console for emulation.
I’ve had an Xbox One S as my 4K blu-ray player and have been digging the backwards compatibility, though there’s not enough OG Xbox support. I’m more than likely going to mod an OG Xbox with the Stellar chip/HD mod. I’ve considered a Series X, but unless it can replace my Nvidia Shield TV as an entertainment box, I’ll probably stick to my Onse S. I’ve also considered a PS5, but their games are coming to PC, albeit delayed, so I don’t really feel the need to pick one up.
The PS3 is a special beast as those games are seemingly trapped on the console unless ported (RIP Beenox Spider-Man games). When modded you have the ability to software emulate PS2 games (not as good at the launch PS3 but those things won’t last), but for me my TV still has a component connection so my cheat is having a PS2.
Nintendo has one of the most beloved library of games, but the Switch does not support much of said library unfortunately. The Wii U on the other hand had better compatibility especially if you modded in GameCube support which runs natively on the console.
With the Steam Deck you can just hit the power button and it’ll suspend immediately. Press the power button again and it’ll resume your game immediately. I don’t believe the Ally or any Windows devices has that instantaneously feature. Its been so awesome for quick game play sessions throughout the day around the house. Or when I’ve traveled.
Final Fantasy games have some similar themes/monsters/abilities/sometimes gameplay mechanics, however, except for some outliers, they all take place in separate worlds and have separate stories and worldbuilding.
They’re all decently long games so if you’re looking to play a few:
FF16 is the most recent and has good reviews. It plays more like an action game.
FF4 is my favorite. It was on the Super Nintendo but has a 3D remake on Steam. It plays like an old school JRPG.
FF6 is one of the most popular. It was on Super Nintendo. I believe it has a remaster on Steam. It plays like an old school JRPG but has one of the most lauded stories in games.
FF10 is another favorite of mine. It was on PS2. It has a remaster on steam. It plays like a newer school JRPG.
Try checking them out on Steam and seeing which one catches your eye
I had a surprising amount of fun with the Dragon Quest games, DQ Builder I/II and Treasure Hunters. Squeaky clean polish and very focused, nearly arcade-like gameplay. Don’t forget the various Marios and Kirby Forgotten Land.
Cadence of Hyrule is a bit of a weird departure but very fun and replayable with a kickass track. You can get the Binding of Isaac physically, as well as the Ori collection which is incredible and Stardew Valley. Moonligher is a bit repetitive but that can be good comfort. Celeste, if you’ve never played it, is potentially life changing if you struggle with perfectionism and/or anxiety.
For a very obscure digital game, Chasm was an amazing randomized full-length metroidvania.
To offer an alternative view: nothing! It sounds like you had a great time with the game, and it’s sometimes nice to end on a high note instead of after trudging through a bunch of side content. Besides, I’m sure you have some other games you’ve been meaning to get around to 🤔
When I was young I would spend hours taking photographs or randomly roaming around in GTA San Andreas, it was a nice break from reality to just be free. As I grow old, I find myself actually enjoying good narrative without painfully complex mechanics like Minecraft, and I presume TotK. Back then I would skip the missions and just fool around, now i would follow the missions and in the process fool around only after i get comfortable with the game world and setting.
Back in the day, Undertale. Many made YouTubers and livestreamers have less fun by spoiling the pacifist, genocide and neutral routes and letting everyone only go the pacifist way. If they didn’t then the fans would get all angry. Outside of playing the videogame was also another can of worms.
Don’t know if Deltarune, also made by the creator, has the same problem since I’ve only ever played the game myself and never seeked out the community.
Im just going to say FFXIV in my experience has a very friendly community, one of the nicest ive seen, so i dont fully understand where that comes from.
For me it would probably be Garry’s Mod, as its full of so many edgy teens who constantly say the n word.
I get that communities for popular games can be a bit hit or miss, but communities for single player games are pretty chill. Competitive team games like the Source games you mentioned, League of Legends etc. are on a whole different level of toxic. They can't even be compared.
For something like Genshin the real problem is content creators. Much of the so called toxicity has little to nothing to do with the game itself and is more an issue with huge cults of personality clashing with each other. I think every popular game is going to fall victim to this going forward and you just have to learn to ignore it.
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