What Are You Playing: 9 Years since the Last Dragon Age

[LibraryOgre]

One thing I noticed in Andromeda myself is that quite a few characters seem strangely fixated on this little arm computer they have. When you'd talk to them, they would keep just tapping away on that thing during the conversation. Like some kind of in universe smartphone addiction. Not a big deal, but it did come across as a little odd.

Like every door opening with an omnitool, even among the Angara, who don't have them? Like doors that take forever to open with an omnitool, like Kralla's Song on Kadara?

[Errorname]

Andromeda was the first game by a new wing of the studio and they wasted a bunch of early development time on deluded pipe dreams of a procedurally generated galaxy, something they could never hope to deliver and which nobody in their core audience actually wanted, and knowing that made the entire project made sense to me.

It's an unsurvivable combination of an extremely green team and deeply incompetent management. Better leads might able to shape the fledgling studio into a team that could have shipped a polished product, and likewise a more seasoned team might have been able to endure foolish management

[warty goblin]

Andromeda was the first game by a new wing of the studio and they wasted a bunch of early development time on deluded pipe dreams of a procedurally generated galaxy, something they could never hope to deliver and which nobody in their core audience actually wanted, and knowing that made the entire project made sense to me.

It was their first solo effort, but they developed ME3's multiplayer.

It's an unsurvivable combination of an extremely green team and deeply incompetent management. Better leads might able to shape the fledgling studio into a team that could have shipped a polished product, and likewise a more seasoned team might have been able to endure foolish management

Given the utter garbage fire that is Anthem, I don't think any team could weather management as bad as Bioware's. Andromeda at least swung for the fences, and while what they ended up with was middling, it's a perfectly serviceable and playable Ubigame. The combat is really quite good, one of the stronger third person shooters around, and the jetpack integration is excellent. Anthem is a subpar copy of Destiny that lacked the courage to admit that's what it was doing and completely screwed that up, to the point it tunnelled right through merely mediocre and into realms of baffling incompetence. I really cannot express just how utterly bad Anthem is. Even the jetpack isn't so much good as it is the one thing that mostly works
and is then left out to die by a game that cannot meaningfully support its one halfway decent feature.

[ShadowShinobi]

Let me just remind everyone that Yo****aka Murayama only worked on Suikoden 1 and 2, which is why those games were so much better than the rest of the series. Eiyuden Chronicle is what the guy who made those games created after 20 more years of experience and tech advancements.

Ah, I'd wondered why there was such a difference in the 3rd game, and onwards.

[Errorname]

Given the utter garbage fire that is Anthem, I don't think any team could weather management as bad as Bioware's.

Yeah, there's a reason I said might, but a more seasoned team probably ships a more polished turd, if nothing else.

Andromeda at least swung for the fences

Honestly, they didn't. They wasted a bunch of money and time fantasizing about swinging for the fences and then decided to aim for a perfectly reasonable and attainable target that they should have been aiming at the whole time and then thoroughly whiffed it

[Cespenar]

I have tried to get into Stray Gods: A Roleplaying Musical, but sadly couldn't. The songs felt really rough, and the overall pacing was erratic at best. Unfortunate, since the VAs sounded pretty good and it was supposedly written by David Gaider, the OG Bioware writer fella?

[Anonymouswizard]

Andromeda was the first game by a new wing of the studio and they wasted a bunch of early development time on deluded pipe dreams of a procedurally generated galaxy, something they could never hope to deliver and which nobody in their core audience actually wanted, and knowing that made the entire project made sense to me.

Bioware has suffered from a mixture of over-ambition and poor management since at least Dragon Age: Inquisition, maybe Dragon Age 2. Although I suspect if the developers had been allowed an actual development cycle instead of rushing an early version to publishable DA2 would have been exactly what they wanted (it benefits from it's much smaller scope, it really needed a longer third act more than anything).

I also think ME3 had the extra hurdle of losing the original Reaper motivation.

Inquisition however suffers heavily from someone deciding the open world levels were a good idea when the strength of the studio was in densely packed areas with lots of story content. Inquisition shines in the heavily scripted missions, but nobody took the team aside and told them to make more of that.

Heck, the best non mission specific map was the one where you fight your way to and kill an Avaar who picked a fight with you.

I'd actually argue that on the whole Andromeda gets off better than Inquisition. At least once they were forced to work on achievable ideas the Andromeda team cut down on the number of maps.

[WritersBlock]

Bioware suffered from all of that and more ever since they sold out to EA. The exact second they did that was the end of them as a even half-decent company.

Call of Juarez has been pretty cool so far, I hear Gunslinger is the really good one so when I eventually finish the other 2 I will see for myself. One day I need to jump in the the 2 ancient gods dlc's of doom eternal still.

[Zevox]

So, Stellar Blade. It came out a couple of days ago, I got it... and I'm honestly still unsure how I feel about it.

The combat is pretty good, don't get me wrong, I'm having fun while I'm fighting the lovecraftian abominations that are this game's monsters, the "Naytiba." But everything else about it kind of leaves me feeling very... meh. As I already knew, the game really wants to be Nier: Automata, so most of it is taking place in the ruins of a post-apocalyptic Earth, with rather melancholy background music. Someone who likes this sort of thing would probably praise it as "atmospheric" or somesuch; for me, it just leaves the world feeling dull and lifeless, which makes it less fun to engage with. At least Nier: Automata had Platinum Games' combat to carry it; while Stellar Blade's combat is good, it's definitely got nothing on Platinum Games' work.

The writing is pretty flat - dialogue is often awkward (hard to tell if that's the original writing or the translation, but either way it's not good), the characters aren't interesting or fun at all as yet, and the story seems straightforward, predictable, and relatively minimal. Side-quests that I've encountered so far are rather boring, simplistic fetch-quests, most of which end with you finding out someone you were looking for died. Much like the world around it, it all just feels kind of lifeless and dull to me.

Still, there's definitely cool moments happening when I'm fighting, which keeps me somewhat interested. But it is telling that I've actually gone back and played a little bit more Legacy of the Duelist in between Stellar Blade sessions the last couple of days. Me playing anything but a fighting game at the same time as a new game pretty much never happens.

[Beelzebub1111]

I've been having fun with stellar blade. I'm not very far into it. Just at the Syringe Horse and I'm just starting to get ahead on the combat. They are offering me an intriguing enough mystery with the whole transhumanism aspect making me wonder what EVE actually is. It's somewhere between Nier and Devil May Cry never quite feeling like either. The use of yellow paint is just enough to not be completely annoying, but I think I'd rather only see it when I scan for it. maybe say it's infrared paint left by a survivor group or something as it's implied to be but make it a little more hidden for the people that hate that sort of thing.

I keep forgetting to perfect guard every hit of a combo and try to riposte on the first parry which gets me killed a lot. It's like I need to rewire part of my muscle memory.

[AlanBruce]

I just finished Stellar Blade.

It’s not a groundbreaking story- not by any means. I don’t believe they were aiming for top notch storytelling. However, combat is the highlight of this game and it that regard, it excels. I am thankful for playing Sekiro awhile back, since this game requires you to get in their face and perfect parry & punish. The counters can get tricky- knowing when to dash forward or backward depending on the glow to punish the enemy with a counter. Later on, a few bosses will mix both moves back to back, so quick reflexes are a must.

I’m going for platinum and glad to say that none of the trophies require Hard Mode, which is unlocked after finishing the game. I did enjoy hunting for cans, oddly enough. Their design is really good and some are cleverly hidden. Also, fishing. I wasn’t too keen on the mechanics until it was brought up you can make it much easier in Accessibility mode in the menu.

The enemy designs are very good. All incredibly grotesque to contrast with Eve’s beauty and her ever expanding collection of body suits.

[Zombimode]

Recently started Geneforge 1 - Mutagen. And, oh boy, this is RPG comfort food to me.
For a short introduction, the world of Geneforge is heavily influenced by the use of bio-magical creations, artificially created living things. They see use as workers, servants, soldiers and even tools.
The organisation that has the knowledge for creation and the means of control is called The Shapers. The player character is bound to become one of the Shapers and is on a trip by sea to reach a training facility on an island. This journey gets interrupted by an attack from an unknown vessel and the player character gets swept to shores of Sucia, and island declared Barred by the Shapers over 200 years ago. When Shapers retreated from this island (for unknown reasons) they left behind many of their creations. These have not just survived by thrived. Especially the human-like Servilles have unsurprisingly, as these are actually sapient beings, created societies of their own.
You, stranded on this foreign land with only few skills and no equipment, have to survive. But more than that, you have to decide how position yourself in regards to the Serville communities. Do you subjugate? Do you seek harmony? Or do you just seek power?

On the negative side, there are some issues with this setup. First, it is explicitly stated that the player character has yet to receive any Shaper training and is not yet part of the organisation. But in many situations the PC is assumed to have ingrained Shaper doctrine and rules. In others "your Shaper training" is explicitly mentioned. This feeds into the second more important issue is that the game thrusts the player into a place that contrasts the norms of the setting, but without giving the player the opportunity to learn and experience what is normal in this world.
As such the whole shock value of Servilles *grasp* thinking for themselves (how dare they?!) falls flat.

Thankfully the game works despite all that. How to deal with the various factions is interesting regardless, and I like that in this games only your actions really matter. Just saying that you respect the sovereignty of the Servilles will not lock you into anything. So far I have the impression that the game is very open in how to approach your objectives.

The other big selling point is the minionmancy. You don't have to play a minionmancer in Geneforge, but the game allows you to go all-in on that. The game is essentially a single character RPG meaning that you only have to care for the survival of your PC. Your minions are very much disposable. I have great fun treating them as such: throwing them into the jaws of the opposition to cover my retreat, standing in the corner of the map just sending my creations against the enemy, or creating wave after wave (with trips to town in between) to slowly wearing down even strong enemy groups is all oddly satisfying.

[LibraryOgre]

So, still avoiding Baldur's Gate 3, though getting closer to wanting to continue, I have dropped Andromeda for now, and am picking up Kingmaker, again. I set a rule for myself of "No Bards", and faffed about with a Sacred Huntsman/Druid build that I abandoned about the Troll Fortress... just BORED of the character. I have restarted as a half-orc grenadier. Don't ever plan to pick up Infusion, I am a melee grenadier.

[warty goblin]

Been poking at a fun little indie called First Cut: Samurai Duel. It's a 2d side view sword fighting game where every hit is lethal. While this is at some level unrealistic - plenty of sword strikes are survivable - it correctly enforces extreme paranoia on the player.

The combat is relatively simple in its components. You have high, middle and low stances mapped to up/neutral/down on the d-pad or left thumbstick. You attack with X, which swings from your current stance. If you are in the same stance that an attack is launched from, you parry the strike automatically. The longer you hold X, the faster the swing and the longer the reach. The A button dodges high or low attacks, so long as you match stance, and lets you follow up very quickly. It is a static dodge though, not a dodge roll you can reposition with. You can also counter attack off of a successful parry, though I'm terrible at it.

This turns into a relentlessly tense and extremely difficult game. Being in measure with an enemy is appropriately scary because one mistake and you die. So you have to read the enemy's stance and respond to that. There's no discrete combos, just the basic moves. The timing is tight enough that even a two parry exchange of blows is hard (at least for me, but I suck at games) and discombobulating enough you want to retreat and reassess.

Fortunately the respawn button is instant, because you will need it. A lot.


I've often thought that 2d side view is one of the stronger formats for videogame interpretations of sword combat because it removes the difficulty of precisely judging reach in 3d third person systems, and allows for much more intuitive representations of high and low strikes*. This is a really solid implementation of those ideas, in a quite lovely and exceedingly violent pixel art package. Definitely worth checking out.


*the 0-class jankfest and general crime against taste and standards Age of Barbarian does something sort of similar. I can't say it does it well, because it's Age of Barbarian and part of its charm is that it's the best worst version of itself. But the fundamental ideas of reach, tempo, and high/low lines are jankily well represented in a way fully 3d systems generally fail to realize

[LibraryOgre]

So, Kingmaker: If you're playing an Alchemist who doesn't have the Infusion discovery, how does casting communal spells (eg "Stoneskin, Communal") work? Does it still work on everyone?

[ArmyOfOptimists]

So, Kingmaker: If you're playing an Alchemist who doesn't have the Infusion discovery, how does casting communal spells (eg "Stoneskin, Communal") work? Does it still work on everyone?

From the PF1e rules, emphasis mine:

An extract is “cast” by drinking it, as if imbibing a potion—the effects of an extract exactly duplicate the spell upon which its formula is based, save that the spell always affects only the drinking alchemist.

Infusion doesn't change this. By default all spells cast by an alchemist only affect themselves as if the target line was swapped to "Caster Only". Infusion modifies this to swap the target line to "One nearby ally". The downside, of course, is that communal or otherwise multi-target spells are pretty garbage in the hands of an Alchemist. The upside is that spells usually locked to Caster Only, like Mirror Image, can be cast on others.

[Zevox]

I've been having fun with stellar blade. I'm not very far into it. Just at the Syringe Horse and I'm just starting to get ahead on the combat. They are offering me an intriguing enough mystery with the whole transhumanism aspect making me wonder what EVE actually is.

I don't get the impression that there's supposed to be any mystery about what Eve is? She's exactly what she seems to be: an android, sent by that Mother Sphere thing to kill the Naytibas. Pretty cut and dry there, really. It's everything else that seems set up for "twists."

Spoiler: Based on what I've seen so far (after 2nd Alpha Naytiba).

Show

After seeing the lab in the wastelands, it's pretty clear that the big "twist" will be that the Naytibas are what became of humanity after their war with the original androids, which the humans lost. Not sure if the transformation was intentional or not or who caused it or why, but it clearly happened, and that's all that'll really matter. The thing you recover before the Tachy fight backs this up, saying Mother Sphere was created by humans, and it was only after she (it?) created the first androids that she decided she no longer had any reason to keep humans around; pretty obvious that would've been the cause of that war between the humans and androids. Based on this, it seems Mother Sphere is basically using everyone for her own ends, one of which is wiping out the Naytibas - either because she just can't leave the job of wiping out humanity incomplete, or because the Naytibas will never stop attacking her and her androids as long as they exist and she wants Earth specifically to be hers for whatever reason. Or both, could easily be both. In any case, I pretty much expect Mother Sphere to be the final boss in some way.

The only thing I'm not feeling too clear on is how the prophet fellow in Xion that you're working with plays into things, but I'll bet he's revealed as a villain by the end too, given the implications about Mother Sphere and him being a figurehead of her religion. Also because that room he's in is more than big enough to serve as a major boss fight room, and is mostly empty as it stands, which felt like kind of a giveaway from the moment I first set foot in it.

I just finished Stellar Blade.

It’s not a groundbreaking story- not by any means. I don’t believe they were aiming for top notch storytelling.

I don't know, I definitely get the impression they want you to care about this story and this world. They're obviously not aiming for a DMC/Bayonetta style game that shuttles you from one action setpiece to another, even though that would play much more to the game's actual strengths. They're giving us all these side-quests, the hub city, and tons of (stiff, awkward) dialogue and scenes for a reason.

Spoiler: 2nd Alpha Naytiba

Show

To say nothing of trying to make Tachy's actual death scene dramatic and emotional even though you barely knew her and Eve seems almost incapable of expressing emotion...

However, combat is the highlight of this game and it that regard, it excels. I am thankful for playing Sekiro awhile back, since this game requires you to get in their face and perfect parry & punish. The counters can get tricky- knowing when to dash forward or backward depending on the glow to punish the enemy with a counter. Later on, a few bosses will mix both moves back to back, so quick reflexes are a must.
[...]
I did enjoy hunting for cans, oddly enough. Their design is really good and some are cleverly hidden.

I don't know if it changes later on (again, I'm only just past the 2nd Alpha Naytiba), but thus far I've found the color-coded forward/back dodge attacks by far the easiest to deal with. They're so telegraphed it's almost a test of patience to wait after seeing the initial flash for the one on your sword that lets you know when to actually do the counter move. It's everything else, where you want to parry or perfect dodge, that I need to learn the timing on and can mess up. Combat is definitely the game's strong point, no argument here, but I'd by no means compare it to Sekiro, it feels simpler and much easier than that game.

I did recently get Burst moves though, and should say I do greatly appreciate Eve getting to learn Judgment Cut End. A little Vergil flair is a very welcome addition to any action game's repertoire.

I kind of like the cans too personally, but it's more because it feels silly to me, particularly with the pose Eve strikes when you find one. Feels like the kind of thing that would fit in the more Bayonetta-esque version of the game that I'd assumed it was from the first trailer. I don't expect to actually try to track them all down though, I just enjoy when I find one.

Edit: Okay, question time for folks. Apparently, Solasta: Crown of the Magister got a Playstation release in early March that I hadn't heard of. It not being on my main systems has been the only reason I haven't picked it up, and it's now also on a pretty steep sale, so I'm probably going to grab it, I just need to decide which version. Standard edition is an enticingly cheap $9, but "Lightbringers Edition" (which lists off a bunch of what I assume to be DLC that's included with the game: Lost Valley, Palace of Ice, Primal Calling, Inner Strength, and a Supporter Pack) is also discounted at $34. Would the latter be worth the almost quadruple price tag, or should I just grab the base game?

[Zombimode]

Okay, question time for folks. Apparently, Solasta: Crown of the Magister got a Playstation release in early March that I hadn't heard of. It not being on my main systems has been the only reason I haven't picked it up, and it's now also on a pretty steep sale, so I'm probably going to grab it, I just need to decide which version. Standard edition is an enticingly cheap $9, but "Lightbringers Edition" (which lists off a bunch of what I assume to be DLC that's included with the game: Lost Valley, Palace of Ice, Primal Calling, Inner Strength, and a Supporter Pack) is also discounted at $34. Would the latter be worth the almost quadruple price tag, or should I just grab the base game?

Lost Valley adds a new campaign for a fresh party. Palace of Ice adds the third campaign, this time a continuation of the main game. Primal Calling and Inner Strength add character building options (classes, races etc.). For the full 5e base class setup Primal Calling and Inner Strength are necessary.

While I found Lost Valley to be no on the same level of quality then the main campaign it was still fun. And Palace of Ice was pretty good.
Personally I would not want to play Solasta without the two class DLCs as the character building options of just the base game are a bit limited.

In short, the additions in the Lightbringers Edition are real content, adding new campaigns and enhancing the base game. I would go for the complete package.

[Corlindale]

You'd better believe I'm still steadily ignoring all my new games to play Might & Magic VII.

My current project: Single-class challenge runs. I'm going to do runs where I try to win the game with single-classed parties, going through all the classes in alphabetical order. Why? Just for fun, and as an excuse to play more MMVII.

It's early days, so I've only just started playing my first run: Team Archer. I expect the main strength of this party will be ranged combat (duh), so I figure I should make it an early priority to get everyone up to Master level with the Bow skill. This lets my Archers fire two arrows with every shot, literally doubling their damage output. A no-brainer, really. The only problem? The person who can teach Master Bow is located in Mount Nighon, a region which is only accessible by going through a series of three interconnected dungeons, each more deadly than the last. Still, I figure I can make a dash for it. Maybe hire a Gate Master NPC before I go so I can at least Town Portal back to the mainland after getting the skill.

Archers are also decent at the elemental magic skills, but the Expert and Master levels are pretty heavily gated behind the class promotion quests, which in my opinion are among the most difficult in the game. So it'll sadly be a while before I can enjoy the convenience of spells like Fly and Town Portal, though at least this will be one of only three single-class challenge runs where I actually get these spells (the others being Druid and Sorcerer). I also discovered that Expert rank of Disarm Trap is similarly gated (curse you, incorrect Gamefaqs guide!), so I'll have to make do with Basic rank until fairly late in the game. Pretty annoying, hope I can at least find a +Disarm item soon.

Looking forward to the next couple of single-class challenge runs too. Team Cleric should end up as an offensive powerhouse once I get full Dark Magic online. Probably the strongest of all the single-class runs in terms of direct combat potential, given that they have both the most lethal offensive spells in the game and strong defensive spells like Regeneration and Protection from Magic. Team Druid should be fun too, with access to almost all spells in the game and some interesting decisions about how to focus their magic. Honestly, I'm mainly dreading the really low-magic runs like Knight, Monk and Thief, although at least they should be good in combat.

[Anonymouswizard]

My biggest issue with Solasta is that they essentially use unaltered 5e spellcasting monsters, as I found out when zi ran into a goblin random encounter. And the game is very willing to use Lightning Bolt on your third level characters, unlike BG3.

Oh, and an extra voice person gender would be nice. Can't have a team of four ladies without at least two sharing a voice.

Otherwise, just make sure to decide if you want to artificially remove dice clumping or failed noncombat checks and it's fun. No BG3, but certainly a B tier RPG.

And yes, I'd too very much recommend the additional character building options. The base game only has like five races and classes, and I fortunately one of those is Vanilla Human.

[warty goblin]

Edit: Okay, question time for folks. Apparently, Solasta: Crown of the Magister got a Playstation release in early March that I hadn't heard of. It not being on my main systems has been the only reason I haven't picked it up, and it's now also on a pretty steep sale, so I'm probably going to grab it, I just need to decide which version. Standard edition is an enticingly cheap $9, but "Lightbringers Edition" (which lists off a bunch of what I assume to be DLC that's included with the game: Lost Valley, Palace of Ice, Primal Calling, Inner Strength, and a Supporter Pack) is also discounted at $34. Would the latter be worth the almost quadruple price tag, or should I just grab the base game?

I like Solasta quite a bit, it feels like playing through somebody's high school D&D setting but in the fun it's kinda cliche and very sincere way. Just be aware of the following:

1) It's more of a tactics game than a standard cRPG, just a tactics game where your squad is four D&D adventurers. NPCs are few, far between, and not very interesting. Your entire party are custom made characters, with the personality deficits that come with it. The game uses a kinda cool system where you assign personality traits to characters, and then they speak according to those traits, but this isn't a game you play for the sizzling character writing.

2) it's definitely budget. Everything looks very default Unity, flat lighting, character faces straight from the Idaho potato fields, etc. The word "adequate" was made for this.

3) The combat is very D&D 5e. It doesn't reinterprete and house rule it like BG3 does, it's straight, by the book 5e. There's custom subclasses, but that's as outre as it gets.


The good side of this is that it has really solid combat. It goes full XCOM and uses a 3d cube grid, with genuine 3d movement and rings that let you walk on walls and genuine flying enemies and so on. When the encounters really lean into this it can be fantastic, spiders coming out of the ceiling, or jumping from ledge to ledge down a cliff. Its focus on strong fundamentals over shiny gear and tweaked builds feels refreshingly old-school.

I also find something very charming about it's relatively minimal story and characterization. This is a game about going cool places, stabbing goblins, and taking their stuff, and it doesn't overcomplicate that. It's very low key, you play as some folks doing some stuff.

Basically ask yourself if fantasy XCOM ("ELFCOM") sounds appealing. If so, Solasta scratches that itch very effectively.

The DLC is generally very worth it, it adds lots of character options, and they're all pretty chunky options as well. There's no point in playing with a quarter of the toy chest.

[Zombimode]

My biggest issue with Solasta is that they essentially use unaltered 5e spellcasting monsters, as I found out when zi ran into a goblin random encounter. And the game is very willing to use Lightning Bolt on your third level characters, unlike BG3.

True, but this is also one reason why I clearly prefer the combat in Solasta over BG3. I was actually annoyed by the incompetent spellcasting enemies in BG3 who waste their turns casting irrelevant spells. Spellcasters in Solasta actually use good spells against you.

[Anonymouswizard]

True, but this is also one reason why I clearly prefer the combat in Solasta over BG3. I was actually annoyed by the incompetent spellcasting enemies in BG3 who waste their turns casting irrelevant spells. Spellcasters in Solasta actually use good spells against you.

The issue is that enemies get better spells than you and don't have to worry about having slots free later, tabletop D&D theoretically solves this with the assumption that even if pushed to absolute desperation that goblin shaman almost certainly doesn't have all their spell slots. I'd argue it's a bad solution, enemy Spellcasters should just not have regular access to spells that can drop the entire party, but it's certainly an attempt.

On the other hand I like it when the game uses it in story encounters as part of the puzzle. At least one level 3 encounter is made much easier if you successfully disrupt their spell caster's flight, because they'll take several d6 of falling damage and die a round or two later.

BG3 goes in completely the opposite direction and just let's enemies spam weaker spells. Which is better for casual players, but annoying when they're not using spells that benefit from this strategy. Honestly the only Spellcasters that were really effective were those with Command, Hold Person, Darkness, or Misty Step, otherwise it was generally the sheet number of foes the hand can throw at you.

[Zevox]

I do have an idea of what Solasta is like guys - I have seen you all talk about it for the last couple of years, after all . That's the whole reason it was on my radar to begin with, I'd probably never have heard of it otherwise.

But thank you all. Entire additional campaigns sounds like a pretty good reason to get the Lightbringers Edition, and more character options is certainly good too. Went ahead and grabbed that; looks like I now know what I'll be playing after I complete Stellar Blade.

[Zevox]

Huh. So, turns out beating Stellar Blade came much sooner than I thought: just did it. Things proceeded pretty abruptly after a certain point, and the last few bosses were pretty steep difficulty spikes (though only the last one in a way I wasn't fond of).

Story-wise, yeah, it's not good. There's some ideas in there that would've had some potential in the hands of a better writer, but not with the execution as-is; and oh boy, does it fall apart at the ending. This is up there with Mass Effect 3 as far as the ending coming from nowhere and not making sense goes - though on the strangely plus side, since it doesn't make you care before getting there, that's less of a problem than it was with ME3.

Spoiler

Show

I really wish my guess about Mother Sphere being the final boss had been accurate, it would've been considerably more satisfying than the random mech.

Honestly, I had half a mind to tell Adam to shove it just because his whole "fuse with me" thing made no damn sense, but I figured that had to be the better ending considering the alternative was doing what Mother Sphere wanted. Wish the game would let me change my final choice there when I reload my completed file so I could fight the other final boss and see that ending without resorting to Youtube or a full second play-through though.

That said, the combat is definitely quite good, and gets better as the game goes on. If the game had a boss rush mode, I'd be quite eager to play that. Honestly, after finishing it, I now wish even more that the game had been a more Bayonetta/DMC-style game: taking its story less seriously and cutting the side-quests and few large maps in favor of more linear levels would play immensely to the game's strengths, as the best parts of the game (the stages leading up to the Alpha Naytiba fights) are already basically designed that way. It wouldn't be as good as Bayonetta/DMC even then, but that's a high bar to clear, so no shame there. And it would be a fair bit better. I'd be much more inclined to do a second play-through to try the New Game+ mode and hard difficulty, for sure.

As-is though, I'm probably done with it for now. Maybe some day I'll come back and replay it to see the other ending and try NG+/hard, but I'm not inclined to do so right now.

[Beelzebub1111]

The good side of this is that it has really solid combat. It goes full XCOM and uses a 3d cube grid, with genuine 3d movement and rings that let you walk on walls and genuine flying enemies and so on. When the encounters really lean into this it can be fantastic, spiders coming out of the ceiling, or jumping from ledge to ledge down a cliff. Its focus on strong fundamentals over shiny gear and tweaked builds feels refreshingly old-school.

I also find something very charming about it's relatively minimal story and characterization. This is a game about going cool places, stabbing goblins, and taking their stuff, and it doesn't overcomplicate that. It's very low key, you play as some folks doing some stuff.

In this way it reminds me ALOT of the 2003 Temple of Elemental Evil game. Which (I should add) is a game that I absolutely adore and think there should be more games like it. A fantasy tactical game that faithfully adapts a classic D&D module. I'm taking a break from it before I get into earning the ironman achievement for a run. But I completed the main campaign and throne of ice on authentic difficulty with no deaths.

I don't mind your party being four people you just create. and yes, only 5 voice options does limit you a lot, but to be fair to the creators this is something that was made on a budget and the game is fully voiced and they did more work to diversify them than most modern games do (even if they end up mismatching a few subtitles here and there)

[Cespenar]

@Zevox: While I loved Solasta's encounter design, which could be among top 3 in recent tactics games, 30 something $ seems a bit too much, at least for me. The rest of the game is a bit too unpolished for such a price tag IMHO.

[Anonymouswizard]

Started a new game of Bloodlines as a Malkavian, modded to look less ridiculous. Again I'm struck by the implications that the Malk PC's madness is only the hallucinations, the dialogue options seem more like someone trying and failing to get into character as the terror of the night and missing the mark.

And honestly 'over-,enthusiastic LARPer' is not a terrible Malkavian concept.

Going for a Persuasion/Stealth/Melee build, mainly because going for guns would require using a lot of blood on Dementation until decent options become available, and partially because not going guns just let's me dump Auspex in favour of the two actually useful Disciplines Malks get. Now it's just making the knife work until I can do the boss fight which drops the first actual sword of the game.

(I was going to pick up a Tremere playthrough, but I've switched over to an SSD since then and I don't want to do the entire Thaumaturgy/Dominate spam thing.)

[Rodin]

The issue is that enemies get better spells than you and don't have to worry about having slots free later, tabletop D&D theoretically solves this with the assumption that even if pushed to absolute desperation that goblin shaman almost certainly doesn't have all their spell slots. I'd argue it's a bad solution, enemy Spellcasters should just not have regular access to spells that can drop the entire party, but it's certainly an attempt.

On the other hand I like it when the game uses it in story encounters as part of the puzzle. At least one level 3 encounter is made much easier if you successfully disrupt their spell caster's flight, because they'll take several d6 of falling damage and die a round or two later.

BG3 goes in completely the opposite direction and just let's enemies spam weaker spells. Which is better for casual players, but annoying when they're not using spells that benefit from this strategy. Honestly the only Spellcasters that were really effective were those with Command, Hold Person, Darkness, or Misty Step, otherwise it was generally the sheet number of foes the hand can throw at you.

Tabletop D&D also assumes you have a DM along adjusting the combat on the fly. Our group once encountered three hags and we stepped on a magical trap as we entered the room. If our DM was playing to "win" each Hag would have cast Lightning Bolt on their turn while we were coming up the stairs, resulting in a TPK. Instead after the first Hag fried us the remaining Hags mysteriously started focusing on melee attacks...

[warty goblin]

Tactics videogames get around the more powerful enemy problem by giving you arbitrarily good coordination, and the enemies the intelligence of unusually belligerent doorknobs. Also by generally stiffing the bad guys on stuff like healing potions - just imagine how annoying fights would be if enemies chugged those suckers like players do - how easy it is to perma-kill them vs how hard it is to drop a player unit, and most of the deeply cheesy stuff that players are absolutely encouraged to use. If you come up with a character build that trivializes the entire game, you are all clever. Drop that same build on an enemy and the game's a terribly balanced piece of crap.

Which about tracks. The point of a tactics game isn't an even fight, it's to give the player a moderately to severely challenging optimization problem.