NoYouLogOff [he/him, they/them]

Fire Emblem romhacks are really good, and it’s like retro gaming with modern community-favorite features. I haven’t played too deeply into many of them, but I completed The Morrow’s Golden Country and loved it, and am running through it again after some time.

They aren’t taking the time to install it, it has way less downloads compared to similarly endorsed mods.

The whole situation with Oblivion Remastered feels so strange to me. If I had to guess, Bethsoft has very little marketing budget for this game, being a remaster, so they’re doing a marketing by leaks strategy. But even then the leaks are like “It could launch any day now!” And that seems like such a quick turnaround for an unannounced game, though it may have to go through platform related stuff before actually selling. Fire Emblem Engage had something similar happen, but it didn’t really sell well at all.

Not really relevant to your post, but the Remaster has been on my mind.

GOOD post

I’ve found that cheating in singleplayer games is a pretty good way to keep me from bouncing off them. Especially stuff that’s sandboxy, mods and cheat starts sustain me.

Duel between Luigi Mangione and Tetsuya Yamagami over whether Japanese people should have sex or not

Ghost of Tsushima is very pretty, I got it during the recent sale. The lethal difficulty is fun, I probably should have started on the an intended difficulty level rather than the gimmick level but I’m afraid to change it.

Played a little bit of Echo Point Nova, a… movement based first person shooter with a (small) open world level design? Highly recommend it, I 100%ed it in 8 hours and go back every now and then. The dev also did Severed Steel, which had some pretty decent post launch support and game types, and the dev seems to be shooting for the stars with additional content.

Trying to 100% achievements for Dragon’s Dogma Dark Arisen after getting it in DD2, and did it on the Xbox years ago. Trying to kill Death pre max level sure is something. Doing it max level without items is already a pain. Losing interest in continuing, but I gotta see it through eventually.

Got Space Marine II to play with friends eventually, it just seems ok. The defensive quick time events don’t seem to be very responsive? I’ll have to try it with a controller sometime.

I also played through TMGC about a month ago. There are ONES of US on Hexbear.

I had a lot of fun, though I did do my Fire Emblem thing of getting a few chapters away from the end then taking like a month break. Extremely solid and I continue to love GBA Fire Emblem, but I think I did burn myself out on it for a little while on it. Maybe not burn out, more like scratched the itch?

I like that supports are rewarding.

Not a turn-based JRPG, but Dragon’s Dogma 2 I think nailed its steal mechanic. The skill is just a little yoink that can only happen when an enemy is staggered, but gets you an extra drop. The table is slightly different than actual drops, but you aren’t getting unique equipment from stealing, and those drops can help with your forging or selling mats for money. Having a Thief in your party with Pilfer/Plunder and the grapple hook that can knock down enemies easy does give you more loot. Certain NPCs can also be stolen from once, but there’s near 0 risk or test involved, it’s just finding out who has what.

I really liked Symphony of War: The Nephelim Saga. The story is mid as hell but the gameplay scratched an itch that I didn’t know I had (this was before Unicorn Overlord). It’s Fire Emblem but your units are squads that have fun class dynamics that are cool without being so complex it needs player scripting. A few of their character designs are kinda , but not uncommonly so.

The devs literally edited my save file after a big patch broke my save and sent it back to me, so I’m partial to them.

This is Missouri, so it’s likely.

They changed owners this year. While they still have a recent pro-Gaza (university protests) article, they seem pretty in the Dem’s camp now.

You are safe to mine the cage. Atom smashing the filled (deconstructed) cage will probably work. You can link the (constructed) cage to a lever, and pull it to release the creature inside. You can use this and an airlock system to get gear to the vamp without exposing your dorfs, then have him mine his own way to the caverns or something if you want him to die in glorious vampirism-buffed combat. Just make sure he never gets a path back to your fort.

I had a lot of fun with the tools it gives you such as the beforementioned Skill Swapping. I did not play World, so I can’t say what is evolution and what isn’t, but the endgame monster (the big big big boss, not the final monster in the string of post-game releases) was a fun little spectacle. They don’t do Rampages at all, which while I found them charming I thought them unnecessary and others disliked them. They drop the Japanese aesthetic, which is a little unfortunate, but the hub is good and continuous. The new maps are cool, lots of exploration potential.

Sheathing is your friend, you can sheathe after Sakura slashes and all kinds of stuff. You have counters, both while attacking and while sheathing. These counters build gauge if they land, so they’re handy to learn. I hardly ever use the silkbind techniques other than Sakura Slash and later the kick that gives you Helm Splitter. The DLC is pretty far for you, but when you unlock skill swapping Longsword gets insane.

As far as general game flow, I started by focusing on exploration, getting to know the maps and routes to get spiribirds, fulfill optionals, and learn good movement skills. The maps have a certain flow to them that is fun to figure out. The buffs make the fight easier, and you won’t run out of armor orbs if you keep those optionals going. Holding down the interact button summons your dog as a mount, which is very fast and combining the dog jump and leaping off its back, you can really get around without even needing bugs as much. Yes, you can drift the dog.

Probably true, don’t get far in a lot of them. That’s still an interesting example, because it doesn’t bother me in DE (but I still have trouble getting far into it, I’m 99% sure it’s because it has time management elements). I also couldn’t think of the right words in my last comment, it was specifically character models. It could just be I find the character models incongruent in Wrath but not in Disco, or maybe something more broad? Less interesting characters (which is admittedly a high bar)? A lack of curiosity in anything going on in the Wrath setting?

I wish I could get into Wrath more. I’ve tried twice now and bounced off. I legit think I can’t get into the characters enough due to them just being avatar pics and fairly undetailed map models. The ole Bioware cut scene style of BG3 likely kept me going there.

It’s some weird gesture at centrism lol. “We have the 10 commandments, the liberals get the people they idolize.”

Damn, I remember feeling this way about a game in the past but I don’t remember what it was. Tip of my tongue kind of feeling.