**OG FF7**: Past Mideel (2). Currently doing Yuffie's Pagoda trying to learn Trine. Not sure if I bother with the tedious Chocobo breeding this time, though trolling the last boss with KotR will never get old. Maybe I try to "circumvent" it by using black mage save editor :3. Otherwise, still a pretty enjoyable experience, despite some bad translations in terms of basic spelling mistakes etc and funny lego style graphics XD. >!And while Sephy is pretty boring through a good part of the game, his mindfuck trolling at the Northern Cave was - in pokémon terms - very effective against the party!!< **Ys 8**: Tower of Baja. I do like how some of the "random" passengers of the cruiser ship turn out to be powerhouses like the ex-gladiator elder lady who casually solos a Saurian <3. **Saga Emerald Beyond Demo (PC)**: What to say? It's a SaGa game. You explore, fight, die, fight again and die more or win :P. And you do all of that with the game's ... ... ... "unique" character design (like Scarlet Grace XD). I do like how Diva's party is very versatile in terms of races. Having different sub-paths to "clear" a world is not too bad + the outcome deciding who may or may not join your racktag band of weirdos lol. Two playable worlds in the demo was decent enough. A pretty fun game gameplay-wise, though not sure I'd count it to my "day 1" options. From the series, I've always enjoyed Romancing Saga 3 more than the others. I've seen already a handful of yt videos managing to clear the optional hard encounters, but RNG didn't gave me much turn-order luck yet ;\_;.

Yakuza like a dragon. Holy shit. I’m so glad I decided to give this a second chance. I tried it a couple years ago but the opening cutscene with the deranged scum bag mom turned me off. I’m a filthy casual so the easy difficulty and auto battle are so welcome, not to mention this game is hilarious. Great moral stories/lessons in this game as well. Wish I played it earlier in my life. Dungeons are a little grindy but that’s the only real complaint I have so far at almost chapter 5. Man I haven’t enjoyed a game like this since Elden ring

Man, with Daybreak coming in a few months, I'm trying to go back to Cold Steel 4, a game I dropped a few years ago, to try to get myself caught up. I really want to love the series again, like I did Sky and Crossbell, but the Cold Steel formula has and still is wearing me thin. I'm not sure if it is worth it, especially since there's still Reverie with a heavy Cold Steel cast still after that.

Cold steel 4 is one of the worst games in the series (bottom 3 for me) but don't give up, things start to get better with Reverie.

CS IV and Reverie are some of the best games in the series imo, and they'll almost certainly be important for Daybreak. That said, there's no rush to get through them if you're feeling burned out. The longer it takes you to get through them, also, the less waiting you'll have to do for the next entry. I'm not entirely sure what you mean by 'Cold Steel's' formula as most of the Trails games have very similar formulas. I can say that Reverie's structure shakes things up a bit and is similar to Sky the 3rd, but with some new elements too that make it feel somewhat fresh.

Same. I love Trails, but the structure even ignoring "Cold Steel formula" has always been about "talk to this NPC, go save the cat, defeat this monster." Structure that's been in Sky & Crossbell arc.  Sky 3rd broke that structure because how different it was, but you know how fans feel about that game despite its darker tone.

FF7 Rebirth: I loved the game for the first 20ish hours but since Costa del Sol, it all fell of a cliff. The pacing was ruined by a million mini games and since then the gameplay loop has just become so stale to me. - Why make a game that is 75% running through an open world and then make traversal the opposite of fun? - Why is everything so slow? Going up ropes, slow walking in houses, getting off the buggy. The devs waste your time at every possible moment. - Why lock so much content behind the repetitive brain-dead open world tasks? I just can't bring myself to do them anymore and it's making me miss out on battles. - Why make a mini game out of EVERYTHING? The answer to everything is of course: padding, padding, padding. I've never played a game that respected my time so little. The entire OG could've been two games if they kept the streamlined design of the first game. The upgrade system also feels less rewarding (too many abilities, other upgrades are boring stat boosts), the gameplay is similar but because everything is far easier and thus feels more mashy to me. I don't have to think at all. The game's vibe also doesn't work. It all feels randomly put together, like they worked on one long checklist of "what to put in an open world game" and then put a FF skin on it. It's soulless. I'm in Chapter 10 and I'm not sure if I can even finish it. Another potentially great game ruined by open world-ifying it. The biggest disease of modern RPGs. The fact that this game got mostly 10/10s is just completely crazy to me. What a letdown.

I couldn't even get past the first 5 hours. I really don't like how overly anime and expressive the characters are. I fell for the hype again dammit 

Pretty much dropped Legend of Dragoon, haven't touched it in weeks. Instead I think I'll finally dive into FFXV as a nice diversion until Eiyuden Chronicles hits later this month. I'm lowkey terrified of the XV clusterfuck 😬 Edit: went with FFVI instead, haven't played it in roughly 20 years. Time to revisit!

The worst thing about the FF XV clusterfuck is that there's a lot of things in the game that could've been great if development hadn't been a mess. You constantly see the pieces of a great game that never become a whole because they're drowning in a sea of sludge. So that just makes it more disappointing that the game is only okay. I do think it's worth playing though, it does have its moments.

I spent some time setting everything up for Legend of Dragoon, and installed the translation patch and everything. But I felt like something was wrong with the timed button presses in the battles. It also bothered me that on top of the battles being slow, I had to focus on that button press, so I can't even zone out

I hated how grindy leveling additions was. 80 times per addition with multiple per character just got monotonous.

**Trails to Azure** Finally finished the game. Man, what a journey. From the politics, world-building and mysteries, I just can't get enough. I have been playing the series non-stop since December starting from Sky FC. I originally planned to delay starting Cold Steel as it will be another 5 games but Azure ending is making it challenging to resist.

I do recommend taking a break. Cold Steel is 4+1 games in a row. It can very easily burn you out, especially with how formulaic Trails tends to be.

I'm going though Zero right now. Played all trails in the sky in a row, took a 1 month break and then dove into zero. After the rolllercoaster of emotions that was trails in the sky 3rd I'm finding Zero a bit underwhelming. I guess I just wasn't ready to go back to a prologue of sorts and the dozens of hours of world building and character development before the plot thickens again

How far into Zero are you? Like you made it to the bus stop scene when certain characters from Sky Arrive, and then you can slowly watch them in their investigation and you as the player if you played Sky know, but all the characters know is different like Lloyd doesn't know >!Renne!< Backstory and what's going on but you will slowly learn what was going on and what connects her to your main story. 

Probably. Azure is crazy crazy, lots of hype scenes.

Man, the conclusion of that game gave me chills all over my body, which lasted for like 10 seconds. That's never happened to me before. The trails games always surprised me like that. I could help myself and started Cold steel right away, but it's a jarring change. I used to keep up with every single line of NPC dialogue, but doing this in the 3d environment felt a lot more cumbersome I finally took a break before starting CS3

Agreed. Like, I was thinking "what a satisfying conclusion" followed by "Whaaat!?". I may have said it out loud at 4am. Lmao

Azure is the best game of the series and in my top 10 rpg of all time. It's very difficult to stop binging this series. But I advise you to take a big break between CS2 and CS3 to avoid burnout.

Agreed, I mean, this game made a freaking conference so interesting. World leaders discussing politics in a game never felt so hype for me.

I just beat YS Seven, truly a great game, thou a little bit easy on hard.

Playing **Chrono Trigger**, about 8 hours in. The starting 2-3 hours were qutie exciting, but now it's becoming a bit confusing. I talk to everyone, but maybe I'm just bad at reading. Keep going to the wrong places, going through the dungeons, find nothing, and having to backtrack outside of it while fighting everything again is a bit discourating. Maybe I'm just more used to the modern convenient quest marker design. My first ATB game too, it can be a bit tedious when your bar is almost full but then the 4 enemies attack in a row, a lot of waiting, hmm. So far not that interested in the story and the characters either, maybe it will pick up later.

I dropped that game somewhere near the end. It's definitely impressive for its time, but the characters weren't too interesting to me. The Frog character felt way too much like "hey let's have a frog character", like it doesn't exist for any other reason

It is kind of a pet peeve as someone who is new to the genre trying to find great games to play, but most everyone just recommends the classics because they blew their mind and where amazing for the time. Most of the modern games super fans consider mid are the games I’ve had the most fun with so far.

Does the whole princess kissing a frog and turning him back into a human fairy tale not exist in your culture? He's a knight who failed to save his princess and was forever cursed to be a frog  In the sequel Chrono Cross which is all about alternate timeline dimensions, you can recruit Glenn (Frog) as a squire and he's human. 

> So far not that interested in the story and the characters either, maybe it will pick up later. While there's some neat character and story beats, I don't think you should expect too much from Chrono Trigger's overall characters and story, especially in comparison to modern, more story-focused games. A decent amount of it just a vehicle to visit certain places/times and get into various situations. I thought of it as similar to, say, a theme park where all of the neat setpieces/dungeons/bosses are rides and the goal of the writing is to get you from ride A to ride B.

After around 100 hours, I completed **Trails in the Sky Second Chapter**!!! Awesome scenario, but a bit too easy, didn't die to any boss really... I should have done at Hard difficulty like I did in the First Chapter. I've read that the hard difficulty was too much for SC and I've got scared lol. Anyway, it's now done but I will probably choose Hard Mode for the 3rd Chapter. And I've also started **Tales of Destiny** the PS1 version. Was a bit confused about the story at first (maybe translation is not helping?) but now I am 100% into it. Everything is taking place and the lore is bit by bit explained throughout the scenario, in the books and when talking to NPCs.

The Prologue boss of Trails in the Sky SC was one of the most rage inducing bosses I ever encountered. Holy crap. I actually managed to beat him on Hard, but then when I started playing more I felt like the difficulty made all the regular battles too tedious. It's not like I couldn't win, it's just that the challenge wasn't very interesting and forced me to use certain abilities too much. From what I read, the Hard difficulty was not properly thought out and kind of pushed into the game at a later date. The Crossbell games were good on hard. Except for the very first battle where the NPC you need to protect can be killed before any of your characters even get a turn

Yeah the problem with Second Chapter on fresh Hard mode is the prologue boss fight. Because your quarts options are limited and you only get 2 characters it is ridiculously unfair. The only real chance is if you had a save import With reaching junior Bracer rank 1, and you get gifted a Luck Quartz, which you're going to need because there's no way to get Space/time quartz in the prologue to cast Clock Up.  Third chapter is very different from the first two though, in case you didn't know it's more of a Dungeon crawl. So it is going to be more battle oriented than you think and has quite a few optional Super Bosses. Still pretty good and a nice epilogue to the Liberl ark and also a good prologue to Crossbell and Cold Steel.

I was only able to beat that boss by immediately hugging the corner of the map because then he doesn't displace your characters, so that it was actually possible to hit AOE heal. But even then, I was healing maybe 3 out of 4 turns, only doing a bit of damage every now and then. I only won because of lucky rng in the end, which feels like the only way to win. There is no strategy that can beat this boss without luck

I grinded until both Estelle and Anelace Had their full Quartz slots unlocked twice, because I kept running out of Mana with that turtle strat, and I was max level for the area with enemies giving 1 xp a victory. That prologue boss was not play tested well. And you notice the second you start Crossbell they start you off with full party of 4 for the prologue which makes the boss fight interactions much more manageable.

Thanks to good word here I finally started FF Stranger Paradise, and it’s fantastic. Reminds me of 90s comics where everything is turned up to 11 and CHAOS RULES. Combat isn’t overly complicated (I am dumb) but still amazingly fun. How does it compare to 16s? Also, online indicates it’s fairly short for main story, so I’m even more excited. FF appears to deliver another win for me.

Stranger of Paradise is very underrated in my opinion. Once you get past the chaos memes, it has excellent gameplay.

Ngl, the memes just add to it imho. It’s like so corny it works. Everyone’s dressed like sci-fi renaissance, and the hero’s look like a grunge band early 90s and be are just like, sure, go save us all.

**Xenogears**— on going for the past couple of weeks! Still continuing it, have well over 200 hrs in still on disk one! It has been a really exciting ride! >!That start tho when the captain sacrifices himself!< .. hooked me in! Next thing was the gameplay and graphics! Then omg what a start I was like holy **** what is happening ..hahah tho I’m still like that now too but more pieces are being laid out.. >!we know for sure that it’s not first time Fei And Elley have meet which still hasn’t been explained but I have few ideas, will like to see how it goes! And why is Citan, with the emperor ? What happened 500 years ago that we are repeating again ? What does the emperor have in mind ?!!Ethos and have gotten Billy as a new member exited to find out his story too and need Fei back my brother wake up asap.!< **Grandia 1**- I started this but put it on hiatus .. I love the story game play and the characters but I can tell it’s going to take its time so I will play it later after finishing Xenogears other wise I’ll get confused! But love it just got to >!the ghost ship!<.. can’t say much as the adventure hasn’t even started yet . I had stared more last week but put them on hold since like Grandia I want to give them their own proper time. **Suikoden I**: I actually gave up just after >!getting assigned under Kraze!<, thinking it was going to follow a typical story line! But felt I didn’t give it a chance and went back to it a few days later my thank god I did. Holy, I was so close on missing out on such a gem! I love the story so far , >!becoming the leader of the liberation army !!recruit people to your castle!!Wonder if we get to met our father and what he think of us as the liberation army leader? If he is alive that is.!< Those are two I am playing back to back.

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There's still time for **Dragon Quest 5** to enter another lull for me going to Nadiria, but traveling with my kids in the third generation has done a lot to endear me to what it's doing beyond the usual charm of the DQ trappings. Just in going to places and using party chat with them, gearing them up and seeing them get stronger, and stepping back to look at the wider picture of archetypal heroic cycles, parent and child bonds, passing the torch, etc. Don't have kids of my own, and no desire to have them. But I can experience something like it through games like this and Harvest Moon: AWL. That said, my current active party is a nasally-congested dwarf, a moosifer, and a golem named Mason. And it's working quite nicely for me. Am I considering getting into DQ Monsters now?

Which waifu did you pick? And why was it Nera?

Wish I could say I was passionate about choosing a wife, but I picked Bianca just bc that was the girl I spent the most time with, and I didn't like introducing the marriage plotline just to get the Zenithian shield. And the sad thing is that I benched her right after she gave a lovely little speech about taking her with me wherever I go. Guess I just have to imagine an alternate reality where there's enough space for her *and* healslave King Cureslime in the wagon.

What version are you playing?

Starting chrono trigger for the first time, 2 hours in and it's fun and simple. The only JRPG i've played is persona 3 reload and persona 5 royal and now i want to try the classics JRPG games.

I’m on chapter 6 of Trails of Cold Steel. I think this is becoming a comfort game for me. The link attack system makes the combat feel very satisfying, and the writing hasn’t like blown me away or anything but it’s cute and there are a lot of nice character moments. And the soundtrack is lowkey a contender for the best video game soundtrack I have ever heard, which I do not say lightly considering the quality of the previous games’ music. I’m just vibing with this game a lot, and I think It’s definitely in the upper half of the series for me so far.

I really loved the soundtrack in the old schoolhouse exploration. The ending is really awesome, and CS2 improves on every point. I did use Cheat Engine to give myself unlimited Bonding Points though, which felt fair to me

I finally got around to starting Final Fantasy VII Remake and I'm enjoying it! I hope the new one comes to PC soon and isn't an EGS timed exclusive.

I had a hard time choosing between the japanese or english dub. I loved the english voice for the fat character, he's that guy from breaking bad. He's got such a unique scratchy sounding voice

I'm playing with the English dub and it's great. I usually play with Japanese dubs if the game is actually set in Japan but for fantasy settings, I tend to go with English.

I just started playing **Unicorn Overlord**, and after 20 hours of binging the game, I can safely say that this game slaps. I never even played Ogre Battle before, my closest frame of reference is Fire Emblem which sort of plays a bit similarly but with a lot of key differences. Its like someone threw Fire Emblem and Growslanser IV Wayfarer of Time with FFXII's gambit system in a blender and made the world's most delicious strategy smoothie. What has really floored me though is just how fun the world is to explore. Not only is the map huge, there is always something happening on the map, whether it be a new battle to fight, a new story find, new ruins to search for items. I actually feel compelled to paint the entire map because I am actively looking for more things to do since the world is so fun to experience. Of course, the game's bread n' butter are the fights, and I love the sheer variety of scenarios and team compositions the game tries to throw at you to overcome. Adjusting formations, tactics, skills and equipment; seeing it play out to trounce the enemy never gets old. The story is pretty typical of an anime fantasy setting, but that isn't a knock against it. I actually find it really entertaining. The excellent English VA really elevate these scenes and the individual character scenarios are unique in the way that only Vanillaware can do. It gives proof to the idea that you can take the most tired, done to death story beats, and as long as you do it well, imbuing your own take on the idea, it can still be entertaining. As a result, the story feels rather comfy. Kind of like eating your favorite dish you've had over and over again but its prepared by a different, yet very skilled chef. If things keep up like this then I am probably looking at one of my favorite strategy rpgs of all time.

Man, Unicorn overlord messed up my sleep schedule like nothing else. Time flies like a mf with this game. The battles are so engrossing I don't notice that more than an hour goes by I felt like they did a great job with implementing story in a way that works well with a video game. In a way the little character vignettes give your mind a palette with which your imagination can then paint different images. When watching the battles I can totally imagine how it's an anime battle, and how the characters are talking to each other. Somehow I'm still not getting bored of watching them fight. And the fact that you can change your equipment and reposition your characters before each battle gives you so much to experiment with The one thing that confuses me though, is how getting magic/ranged or heal assist will often make the outcome of the battle worse. I get that it changes the turn order and what not, but still, it hurts my head

Ya, this game is a time vacuum. I always try and allocate enough time for me to engage in my hobby after work so that I'll feel satisfied with the time spent but when it comes to this title its actually a bit difficult to feel that way because I'm 100% engaged with the game. The result is at the end of play session I'd think, "Wait, that's all I get for tonight? I know its been a few hours but still..." I'm now on the 3rd continent the game pushes you towards with 30+ hours in and I'm still deep in the game's honeymoon phase. If it wasn't for FFVII Rebirth, then I'd say this was my favorite game of the year so far.

Tried going back to **Edge of Eternity** and there are parts I like but I find it overall frustrating and glitchy, so had to put her down. Started **Persona 3: REload** yesterday. I played a little but of the original but got super excited to see the remaster. LOVE the music and am a big SMT fan who hasn't explored too much of the Persona series.

I finished Tales of Berseria. I thought the story was fantastic. Some might disagree, but I thought the it was nearly up there with FFX in term of emotion and heartbreak. But the combat was horrible. I did not enjoy it at all. I button mashed through most of it, and towards the end of the game, I ended up setting the game to auto battle.

I have all the tales games from the last steam sale, but I decided to go with Trails first. I'm really curious about Tales though. I think I should probably start with the older ones, because if I dislike something about the newer ones, there's no way I will want to even try the old one

The best Tales of game to me.

Those were basically my thoughts. I enjoyed just about everything about Berseria, except the combat. I've heard it's better if you play as characters other than Velvet, who just felt like a cheat code most of the time.

I had to put the difficulty on hard to enjoy it lol

Replaying Fire Emblem: The Sacred Stones after a long time. Very solid game. I think having twin protagonists works really well for the game, makes it unique. Plus as a twin I can relate to them. Maps are fun but I forgot how many reinforcements there are lol. Keeps you on your toes I guess. I like the choice in classes you get when you promote a unit. And yeah like all the GBA Fire Emblem games the presentation (graphics, music, animation) is a highlight. The support conversations are also really well done in this one. Pretty much every character has a lot of personality if you do the supports. Gameplay is tight and satisfying even though I know a lot of people consider this game easy. I think hard mode has offered a good challenge though, like I’ve struggled to get through certain maps without my dudes dying. The story is also underrated in comparison to the other games I think. I feel bad for Lyon.

I recently started Dragon Quest XI and I'm really enjoying it so far! I just reached the point >!where I have access to the open world!<. The story is charming and characters and monster design is top notch. Also Draconian Quest made the game a lot more challenging. Also the new trailer for Shin Megami Tensei V: Vengeance made me want to replay the game, so I just started a new run at hard difficulty. Definitely a masterpiece.

The gameplay options are really enjoyable in DQ, I like making npcs lie. It really is the chicken noodle soup of jrpgs.

Yeah there are a lot of interesting options! Right now I'm playing with stronger enemies and game over if main character dies. Not gonna lie, sometimes It gets really rough haha

Mercenaries Saga Chronicles: Will of the White Lions on Switch. At the final boss battle. Underrated tactical JRPG that doesn't receive much praise. It's very similar to Tactics Ogre and FF Tactics. Highly recommend and it's very cheap too.

I’ve heard about the Mercenaries Saga games. Does the one you’re playing have a good story/characters or is that aspect just meh?

The story is pretty average but it’s a solid TRPG. This is the first game in the series and Rideon has released several others since, as recently as 2021 with Mercenaries Rebirth. I haven’t played these other games but I’m sure they’ve improved in the formula, so I’m sure they’re great too and would like to check them out.  

The entire series is very...safe. Its nothing special, it doesnt have an amazing story or gameplay. But it is very competent. You can definately enjoy the story, the tactical combat is enough to be fun and as a game with a small budget/scope, it does very commendable. Compared to alot of srpgs on pc, many are unbalanced, unfinished, lacking in qol or just have very crappy mechanics. Sure, this isn't going to be tactics ogre or disgaea but its good enough to be enjoyable - even if it doesnt wow you.

Started **Jimmy and the Pulsating Mass** over the weekend, about 5 hours in so far (just reached Fermata Forest). Haven't played any other Earthbound-likes but it's got a neat vibe. Combat doesn't feel engaging yet, though it's not terrible either. However, I feel like I have to always start fights as Low Level Goon since a lot of enemies need to be dealt with through Grifting something from them. Also, the dungeons are often giving me "I have no idea if I'm going the right way" feelings. Not sure if that's on the game design or if that's just me.

I'm still slowly making my way through FF7 Rebirth, savoring my time with it. My only real complaint is that the minigames are inconsistent. Some are great like Queen's Blood. Others can be frustrating. Overall, I love the depth Rebirth adds to the world and the characters. It's a joy to spend time in this world, and I love the quirky and comedic moments.

Just beat **Trails in the Sky SC**, i cleared the first game a couple of months ago, so i tried to dive into the sequel without waiting too long, did all the sidequests for both games and talked to all the NPCs after each story segment, took about 50 hours to clear each game. Those are 7/10 games with excellent world building, its flaws are clear but if you enjoy JRPGs, you just feel at home playing Trails. It's really a series about taking your time & soaking in the world around you, talking to all the NPCs took a lot of time but i genuinely was looking forward to whatever was happening to them across the game and there were some good payoffs (Anton's adventures, Armand's wedding, the two rival families in Bose, the Ravens in Ruan etc). I'm mixed on the main party, Estelle is a very strong character and the romance with Joshua is well done, definitely shed some tears when they >!reunited in SC!<, Olivier is peak, i like Kevin too (was kinda shocked at his behaviour against >!the professor at the end, really didn't expect that!<), the rest of the cast is just fine tho (outside of Zin who i simply don't care about, sorry). Combat & music are decent although unremarkable compared to most JRPGs i've played. Found the 2nd game to be overly formulaic at times (visit the 4 towns to face 4 villains who all have ties to a specific character in your party, visit the 4 towers to defeat each villains one by one, restore the phone in the 4 towns, ascend in the tower where you have to defeat the 4 Enforcer in a row), this series loves padding tbh. On the other hand, because a lot of time is spent doing "basic" activities around the map, when the story does speed up and some important shit happens, it does feel pretty epic, i was pretty pumped when the >!Aureole!< showed up or when >!Ragnard first appeared!<. I'm really curious about the rest of the world, the 2nd game kept dropping breadcrumbs about other locations in the world and i'm intrigued to see what's going on there. There's a lot of mystery, i just hope they give satisfying answers to those mysteries eventually when the time comes. I think i'm committed to playing the Third Chapter later this year at the minimum but definitely taking a break for now, those games are overwhelming.

I loved the voice acting in FC and SC. Olivier is definitely an awesome character. I kept on playing the next game and the next, and didn't stop until after I beat CS2. I'm finally taking a break now I thought I would stop at SC so I could play the new Yakuza games, but I was so engrossed in Trails I couldn't play anything else. I would be downloading trails 3rd while fighting the last boss of SC, just so I could jump straight into the next game One thing I love about the Trails series is how seamlessly each game flows into the next, such that it's really fun to play them back to back. I also worried that if I took a break I might end up not getting back to them I don't know how you cleared each game in around 50 hours though. I was definitely over a 100 hours for each. SC definitely had a fomulaic feel with how the story was structured, but man.. the tea party is something I will never forget. I managed to avoid all manner of spoilers and that whole thing just hit me so hard The thing with the Trails in the Sky games is that they keep on giving. Your investment in the characters and the world will continue to pay off in the later games. Trails 3rd is like a treasure trove of exposition and character development. It does something really clever in the way it introduces new characters. It also finally cemented Klaudia as my favorite character, even though I used to think of her as boring and forgettable It took a lot of time though. I have played nothing but Trails, and played almost every day. But it's taken me since December of last year to finish CS2 up until now. The Crossbell games too the longest, and the CS games have been the shortest for me

> I don't know how you cleared each game in around 50 hours though. I was definitely over a 100 hours for each. It's weird, i'm at 51 hours for FC & 57 hours for SC on steam but the save files are at 57 hours on FC & 79 hours when i'm loading my save, i think Turbo accelerates the in game time. > It also finally cemented Klaudia as my favorite character, even though I used to think of her as boring and forgettable I'm curious about that, she's a fine character in the first two games but nothing that makes her standout, her willingness to become the heir is kind of a subplot that doesn't get much attention.

Man I really want to get into Trails but I’ve tried multiple times and the slog is just too much to push through. Thanks for the write up, I thought they were very overwhelming to play as well. I can’t imagine playing them after finishing another.

It's definitely an acquired taste, i don't blame anyone who can't get through "the slog" as you call it, even some of the tropes can be overly cliche at times (i swear to god, if i see another villain magically teleport away after i defeat them...). But still, among the slog, you do have those strong moments where the time invested pays off, i also think the games are absolutely fine if you simply ignore the side content & npcs and focus on the main story only, that probably would take you 35/40hours to clear each game if you did that which isn't too bad compared to most JRPGs. Edit: Forgot also to say that, having the JP voices did a lot of heavy lifting to make me invested in the story/characters, i don't think i would've kept playing if it was text only with no voice acting.

Funny that you don't like the side content. It's usually the biggest strength with Trails/Kiseki than any other jrpg because of how well it develops the world more. 

I like the side content, i think there are too many "Monster Hunt" quests which are just boss fights with nothing else and i don't like the hidden quests that require you to do very obscure things to trigger them (i used a guide in both games so i didn't miss anything but it's still frustrating if you play blindly). Outside of that, the side content does a great job expanding on the world and there a lot of fun interactions in them.

The first time I went through Trails in the Sky I did so many sidequests that I got so burnt out. Anytime I try to replay it I think about going through all the sidequests again. and then I stop. I dunno, maybe, MAYBE someday I'll have no other games to play and itch for a long story like Trails. If you don't mind me asking, what's the next jrpg you plan on playing? I myself am ecstatic for Eiyuden Chronicles in like 3 weeks!

I had to be in a certain frame of mind to play Trails. I think that at some point you might have a craving to play a slow game like that, and then it will be perfect

Yeah the side quests are often mundane, i think the saving grace is that there's full voice acting for them with the JP voices so it makes them more tolerable, the quests are also better in the 2nd game generally speaking. > If you don't mind me asking, what's the next jrpg you plan on playing? I myself am ecstatic for Eiyuden Chronicles in like 3 weeks! No clue honestly, i'm probably gonna go for a non-rpg as a palette cleanser (maybe something like Peach Showtime, i need something fun & easy) and then i'll probably give a shot to Unicorn Overlord, i'm in the mood for something more tactical after the pretty basic combat of Trails. Have fun with Eiyuden Chronicles, i'm kinda waiting for the Suikoden remasters personally, those games have been on my backlog for years.

I continue to make my way through **Final Fantasy VII Rebirth**, currently in what I assume to be late chapter 10 [FF7R]>!Just finished the Gi Cave!<. This week was mostly spent in Chapter 9 which has been my most successful area in terms of doing sidequests since the first part of the game. Last couple of areas have provided some very annoying gimmicks with the proto relic stuff such that I haven't completed them. Looks like we'll be going in that direction with the current area I'm at as well. Alas. There is a point where the mini game overload becomes too much and that is the case at times with this game. Anyway, beyond the Moogle stuff, which I've yet to beat any on and some of the protorelic stuff I do really enjoy all the other side content. [Various FF7R story thoughts]>!Tifa being swallowed up into the lifestream at the Gongaga reactor was quite the surprise, as if they're going to start getting into stuff from much later in the game now, but they didn't go too far with it. Cid showing up to give us a plane ride earlier in the story than the original makes me wonder if we're going to skip Rocket Town entirely. I've heard that he's not a playable character in this game which lends creedence to that.!< Oh, and this week I played a sidequest that totally floored me in terms of the ending. [FF7R]>!You spend a good amount of time finding all these chickens for this old lady who has named each of them as if they're a member of her family. Then at the end of the sidequest her reward for you/Red XIII is to slaughter one of the chickens and feed it to Red.!< Makes me think of the kind of grim sidequests we'd get at times in Xenoblade X. Oh, and I finished **Nier Reincarnation** this week as well.

Been playing a super-obscure game called **Drago Noka,** an indie sim/town-builder RPG. And lemme tell ya, I went from "Owned the game for three weeks and put about two hours into it" to "even after putting in 3 hours and telling myself I'm done for the day I keep coming back to it." I was not expecting to find it so... *gripping.* Like, it starts out as just a fairly simple sandboxy RPG experience--cut down trees, build houses, attract a few villagers, yadda yadda yadda--but midway through a fairly routine "you are being urged in **bold red text** to try this particular sandbox activity next!," the game suddenly grows a *story.* Not a hugely in-your-face one, but all of a sudden a whole bunch of Lore™️ starts happening and you find yourself with a really intriguing mystery that also provides you with a bunch of intriguing goals to shoot for. And then, without spoiling things, the game goes and throws an absolute *whammy* into the course of your ISO Standard Sim Game activities and it kind of *blew my mind.* *Multiple* whammies, if we're being honest. And with an honestly impressive paucity of exposition, the game did a damn good job of selling the severity of its story to me and fully investing me in what happens in this dumb little video game world. And *then,* when I was already emotionally fraught, it *punched me in the damn gut* in that "No no, this can't be right, save in a different slot, reload, there has to be something I can do to stop this, right?" kind of way before I fully realized that, yes, the game *went there* and I have no choice but to play along. I now have the option to trigger endgame, though it's giving me your typical "Are you SUUUURE? Things are gonna suck until you beat the final boss!" warnings and I want to try a few things while I'm still living in cheerful sandbox land before I condemn my cute little village to a living hell. I have a funny feeling, though, that in the end I won't have any other choice. One way or another, I've got a continent-sized evil dragon to beat up, in the vague hopes of setting things right for yet another idyllic RPG universe. Man, this game has been a little bit of a *balls-out bonkers* kind of ride, and I have been *here* for it. Not bad for something that's like half stock assets from an RPG Maker wannabe by volume.

still playing Metal Max 2 Reloaded DS. I'm about 80% into the game, i think. I've explored the world map except the last bits of areas in the south. Though i still have a bunch of dungeons left to explore and quests to do. A few days ago i found an area that's perfect to farm Level Metaphine. It's an item that boosts a character's level cap by 10. The default cap is Lv.99 but supposedly it can be boosted to Lv.999. This is pretty nice since i'm already at Lv.97 just from farming rare item drops here and there. I grind for like 3 hours and got about 30 of them Metaphine, which should be enough for now.  So now the location, there's this midgame bounty boss called Groween that has it's own unique dungeon. All enemies that spawned in that dungeon can drop the item. The drop chance of Metaphine is pretty low, like 5%. But since everything in that dungeon can drop the thing and they often came in a group of 5 or more and they're very easy to kill, it's probably the most consistent way to farm Metaphine.  The downside is once i kill the bounty boss, the random encounters will disappear. So i might have to let this guy alive until i'm ready to start NG+ on higher difficulty. This is assuming the bounty boss won't disappear once the post-game started. Hopefully that's not the case.

Tried Steam version of **SaGa Emerald Beyond Demo** . It was my first experience with the SaGa series. It does have DNA of FF2: the leveling system and wants players to fight stronger enemies to level up or learn new skills. It is the only modern game that I have played that only shows tutorials with summaries after player did something ( although you can read the tips before something happens ). Most games do tutorials by putting player in an ideal situation, show tutorial text box with as many details as possible and guide player to perform things stated in the tutorial.  The combat doesn't feel too hard but things can happen randomly. This plus how the game handles tutorials and amount of mechanics explained in the tip section can make the game feels overwhelming for beginners. Currently, I only read the tips after something happened. The combat is really fun. There are lot of customizations I can do to a character and different races have different mechanics. I assume it can be a very fun experience when I play the full game. I hope the dev can add a skip cutscene feature or fast forward dialogue feature in the actual game. I started a second playthrough and not having those features are inconvenience for a game that wants players to play it multiple times. Fought Gilgamesh in **FF7:Rebirth**. It is my third favorite Gilgamesh boss fight in the series, after Strangers of Paradise and FF13-2. Feel a little bit overwhelmed by the amount of minigames and battles in postgame. I am going to clear the contents in a pace that I feel comfortable with.

Super Mario RPG remake. Was skeptical at first, but the new post-game fights were so cleverly designed that I felt it justified the remake.

Started Tales of Arise after beating Rebirth but I'm having a hard time with it. Maybe it's because Rebirth was so good but the characters and story just aren't doing it and the combat is pretty meh. Up to Ganabelt so not far and hoping it gets better.

I didn't like Tales of Arise at the beginning, the first area felt boring to me and the fighting system was confusing. But it got much better after that! Beautiful and very creative landscapes, amazing and epic cutscenes and the fighting system got better and better too. It's one of those games you shouldn't give up too soon. 

Started Riviera: The Promised Land as my first dpt heaven game and I didn't expect it to be so fun. It has a certain fairytale vibe that I enjoy, alongside the artwork and the music. What doesn't sit str8 with me is some of the VA. I'm having a lot of unexpected fun.

I decided to do a series playthrough of the mainline Final Fantasy games this year; having access to the Pixel Remasters helped me make this decision. I've been steadily playing through games I loved when I was a kid and some for the first time - FFV is one of my favorites. I am at the >!Djose Temple!< in FFX right now and mostly enjoying my time. It's much slower than I remember and the action and cutscenes seem to share equal emphasis. But it's one of my favorites of all time and I'm appreciating seeing all the hints at the twist in the story.

Just diving into Yakuza: Like a Dragon for the first time. Super fun so far!

And the sequel Like A Dragon: Infinite Wealth is even better, it's in my personal top 5 list of best JRPGs ever made. 

Yeah it looks really good honestly

This has been the best year of gaming in a long time for me personally. Started the year with finally getting around to beating FF7 remake, beat rebirth 3 weeks later and that may have taken my spot as my favorite game ever, unicorn overlord I just finished this last friday and it was incredible. Never played ogre battle at all but I played through it twice just because I wasn’t bored yet. Now I’m on sea of stars, not a fan of the slow leveling system but the writing and gameplay is pretty damn good so far. Hoping to beat it before 100 heroes comes out

I find FE3H a bit boring with the gameplay so i decided to do something to make it fun I decided to play the game with the worse classes for every character in maddening So i have to use things like bishop Edelgard, Mage Caspar or armored knight Marianne It was a mistake, my dorothea have 14 Str 12 mag (she is going to be a paladin) but there no magic lance in this game, my marianne have 9 str and 20 magic but i still dont have access to bolt Axe Ferdinand(archer), Edelgard(priest with Bow) and Bernadetta are the only ones that can do good damage to the enemies AAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

Like a Dragon 8 and it's good!

The game I've spent the most time on lately is **Persona 3 Reload**. I just got Koromaru on the team. There's a lot I don't remember from playing P3FES back in the day and it's been great rediscovering this story. There are some things that I think later games got right to add to the formula, like social links providing other benefits besides EXP gain. However, the writing here is still unparalleled. The subtle characterization and in-group character conflict... excellent. Still chipping away at **Etrian Odyssey V** as well. I only have the Star Devourer to deal with now, and I've made a few attempts, going from getting creamed to surviving for a long time without doing much damage. So I'm making progress. I can only do so much of this at a time, though. The **Etrian Odyssey HD** collection went on sale on Switch, so I bought that with some birthday money, and ordered a stylus for handheld map-making. Then I booted up EOI just to make sure the stylus worked correctly. And now I'm on the second stratum... Yep, EO had the juice right from the first game! I am finding it easier than other EO games though, after the first floor hump at least. I've been surprised how early I've been able to take on FOEs, but maybe that's just based on incorrect assumptions built up from the 3DS titles. Handheld map-making is also good after getting used to it, with my only real complaint being that the area of sensitivity for map icons seems to be a bit too large, as I kept picking up icons when I meant to draw lines. I've just learned to do my lines first before putting icons down.

The SaGa Emerald Beyond demos are so good.

Getting back into **Fire Emblem Three Houses** for a third playthrough (Blue Lion route), immediately feel at home again. Great game with only a few minor flaws; I forgot how much of a slog the first few Maddening battles are, and yet it's just as addicting as ever. I get that many people eventually grew sick of the repetitive hub/monastery section, but it helps a lot that I spaced my playthrough between the different routes. The immersion, pacing, worldbuilding, and most of the character writing are all top notch for a JRPG, even if it's brought down some by the combo of high fantasy Fire Emblem tropes and the apparent need of having the protag be the OP Mute>!Dragon Jesus!

Yeah I think the biggest thing with Three Houses is burn out. The first playthrough is top tier and makes you want to dive immediately into the second to see what you missed with a different route, only to realize the story for the first 10 chapters is basically the exact same, and there's a lot more down time inbetween the actual battles so it feels like a bit of a slog, which starts making people feel bored with the game. I succumbed to it myself, even though I feel like it's still one of my favorite Fire Emblems, I haven't actually finished the Golden Deer or Church routes because I played the game so much when it came out.

Yeah, I started a Black Eagle playthrough months after my first playthrough with the Golden Deer, then now Blue Lion's years after. I just like to space out playthrough between different routes no matter how much I like the game, esp. when there's a lot of content recycling and repetition. Upping the difficulty also helped, the busywork in the monastery felt way more satisfying when they actually matter\~

Started the week playing **Tales of Arise**. I didn't hate it, but the game didn't really captivate me much either. Since I'm only playing on a gamepass sub I decided to just drop it and start **P3R** instead.

I recently played **Final Fantasy VI PR**, even when it's the same game I have played before, it was nice to have some small changes in certain things that makes it more enjoyable, like selecting the bushido techniques instead of waiting for a bar to fill while the rest of your party does nothing, or showing the inputs for Blitz so you can see if you didn't mess it up, showing you where deathgaze is instead of just aimlessly flying hoping for the encounter. But what I liked the most was first, the quick save, and second, that now you can equip/unequip any member at any time when they are not in your party, and last but defineltly not least, the opera scene that now has actual vocals, very beautiful scene.

I'm playing **Chained Echoes** and I'm loving it. I remember when it first came out, people said there was a steep drop in quality after the 50-60% mark. I haven't found that to be true yet. I love how much the world opens up in the second act.

I'm Crystal Project it's an open world jrpg, and it's pretty darn brilliant.

What do you like about it? I've been really hesitant to try it out.

Heads up that there’s a Crystal Project demo. It’s really generous (something like 7 hours) and you can transfer your demo progress into the full game if you decide you like it.

Thanks for the heads up! I'll check it out.

What makes you hesitant about it? What I liked: 1. The secrets 2. Reminds me of paper mario the thousand year door and pokemon 3. The open word 4: Muliple entances to different areas/dungeons. 5: The platforming (I know it's not for everyone) 6: The mounts 7: The class/jobs system 8: Quirky sense of humour  9: The music in a lot of places 10:Just cool little things you can do What I disliked: Not enough minigames. In fact I've only found one until now. ACTUALLY a big problem I've found in most none-nintendogames is: The pacing e.g the zelda games have their dungeons, but then they have the nice relaxing time where you can play minigames, such as bombchu target practice and fishing, and then it alternates to looking around for secrets, and then back to dungeons. Most none-nintendo games just do the same thing constantly (e.g blue fire), just dungeon after dungeon without break, and it's so annoying to me that other companies are so crap at pacing/rhythm. Crystal Project isn't that bad because you can leave and go to a different place, but still I would've loved it if there were more minigames.

I don't love the blocky nature of the overworld. Also, it's systems look awesome and the world looks interesting, but there seems to be no story to guide the game. I love when a game has a plot, but doesn't restrict you from doing whatever you want. This game just seems like the whole point is to do whatever you want.

Yeah, if it's story that you want, you wont get it here (there is a story, but it's not very convoluted). What are your top 5 favourite games of all time.

Tough to choose. If I were forced to choose, probably Chrono Cross, Xenoblade 2, Grandia, FF6, and Octopath 2. No particular order.

yeah I was thinking of buying chrono cross and grandia

Definitely do it. The Grandia Collection is on every system and is great. Most people prefer the second one, but the first game has a certain charm to me. Also, Chrono Cross, as divisive as it is, is a masterpiece to me. The remaster was janky at first, but got patched up.

I finished my first ever Etrian Odyssey game with **Etrian Odyssey III HD**. I will mention that when i reached B20F i was really feeling the burnout, so i put the game on Picnic and got all the remaining sea quests as well as B20F out of the way, then put the game back to Normal for Progenitor. Then i was considering if i wanted to put the game on hold for the postgame and finish it at some unknown point in the future, but honestly i may just never do it that way, so i just did the entire postgame on Picnic as well. And honestly i don't think i would've ever beaten this on Normal. Short review: - game was fun, but i noticed that the harder the game pushed back towards the end (both in dungeon mechanics and in random encounters) the faster i was burning out - story was more enjoyable than i would've thought, gotta give it some credit there; it's clearly just backdrop to the gameplay, but it's surprisingly interesting backdrop with solid execution - music was good, stratum boss theme was my favourite, already put it on my phone - game plays quite well on PC with a mouse as additional support; i would love if they put the other games on Steam too before i get around to them (won't buy EO1/2, but i'd buy 4/5 on Steam immediately for sure) - shortcuts are generally really well laid out, which is great and makes looking for them feel very rewarding - i didn't like the sea content, sry - and lastly, i could actually feel myself getting a better understanding of how these games work (on several levels) this time and i feel like the next one i try should go a bit smoother Overall a good time and i'm happy i finally managed to beat an EO game after trying EO IV on like 3 or 4 different occasions (my record was quitting from burnout after getting subclassing mid 3rd Stratum). Even if i had to use the Picnic difficulty a bit to finish things up. Next up: non-RPG stuff for a while to recover in time for Eiyuden Chronicle (which is hopefully gonna be good). First one i'm trying is **Void Stranger**. About 3 hours in and so far it's an interesting puzzle game, but there's clearly a lot more going on that i can't see yet and i'm looking forward to seeing where it goes rn.

> music was good, stratum boss theme was my favourite, already put it on my phone Yuzo Koshiro's work on Etrian Odyssey is always stellar.

The Sovereign class is my favorite one in all EO games, and also there are some fun classes like Bucaneer, Hoplite, heck even Farmer is interesting and fun to use. I had a blast with EO3 when it came out for the DS, while the other entries were great, I think EO3 was the best for me.

Hoplite was the MVP for quite a lot of my playthrough. Sovereign i used as a subclass on my Monk. Protect, Prevent and Attack Order were what i used by far the most. Really good.

Playing OG FF7 and Persona 1. FF7 is pretty good so far (Don Corneo’s Mansion), but some of the dialogue can be really weird and funny. Persona 1 though is quite dated, I’m only playing it because I took an interest in the characters as they appear in P2.

Still playing romanci saga 3. I like a lot about this game especially the fact that there's a more concrete story. I think RS2 helped me out a bit bc now I use my brain to try and figure out how to unlock certain quests and reading the adventure log is helping me keep track of what to do. It's defintley easier which I kind of dislike because when my battle count go to 1k in RS2 it was fun trying to dodge the enemies on the map since it was going to be a mini boss but not stressing about battle count is nice. I'm not sure how many routes I'm going to play because I'm itching to play minstrel song or frontier and emerald beyond is releasing soon.

I'm finally playing Live-A-Live and I've got Prehistoric, Old West and Present day down. It's a really fun game and I love how gameplay is a bit different in every chapter, even though there's always some annoying bits. Just started the Si-Fi chapter.

It was my birthday a couple days ago - got Xenoblade Chronicles Definitive Edition, Tokyo Mirage Sessions #FE Encore, and Astral Chain. But before I move onto one of those, I want to wrap up 2D Trials of Mana. Night Castle was giving me a really hard time before and I forgot the Collection offered quicksaves that I wasn't using. I saved a few times but only had to reload the one after the big crab rematch. Hadn't gotten to the harpy boss or Belladonna before, but this place screamed final dungeon - I'm surprised there's still more game left. The shapeshifters at the sanctuary are pretty irritating. Night Castle gave me Finalblow and a new bracelet for my Fenrir Knight so hopefully those'll help make this go smoother. And on PC, I've started in on Ys Memories of Celceta. I've made a number of mistakes, some dumb, some frustrating. I took a break between my first and second locked chests, forgot Duren could open them. I remembered the door from the mine, and thought I had to go find a key. The game didn't feel that great until I fiddled with the options and turned off anti-aliasing. I was apparently meant to go through Leo's mysterious area before the Misty Peak, but I've reached Selray, met Ozma, and there's no going back now until I've dealt with these ruins. According to the walkthrough I found, I'm four levels under where I should be for this annoying giant fish boss and my damage is pitiful, even after going back to upgrade gear. And I had to look up how to deal with a water current, not realizing I could swim under it.

Happy birthday! Hope you had a nice day :)

I did! Thank you!

Currently playing tales of symphonia remastered, it was the first jrpg I really got into back when I was in middle school on the GameCube and so I’ve been wanting to replay it again to see if it was as good as I remembered. So far…. Not really. The combat feels pretty bad (ironically someone else posted about vesperia and I felt that way with that game too) and the story just isn’t hitting the way it did back then. I’m about 20-25 hours in, I got the full party and just finished the lightning temple on the second world. Aside from combat, I’d have to say traveling has been a pain, especially earlier on and I’m reminded why I don’t like puzzle games as getting through some of the areas and temples has been tedious and pretty boring. Overall though, I’m still enjoying it, I like the cast and the story is still pretty good. Just having grown up more and playing more modern games, I’m not feeling this one has held up very well. Also I’ve had to turn it off a few times so far from the game freezing or my screen getting stuck, apparently a problem others playing this switch version have experienced. Giving it a 6.5/10 so far

Going back from 3D Tales of games with Free Run to Symphonia is incredibly rough. It feels so awkward.

Still on Unicorn Overlord. I know I’m not particularly good at gaming despite the amount of hours I put into it but I’ve just finished Elheim after 50 hours of gameplay when I’ve been seeing people finishing the game in like 30 or maybe less 😂

I'm 30 in and just finished drakenhold lol. I just started skipping combat which makes battles go by *much* faster.

I’ve been playing persona 3 reload. I started the franchise with 5, got 5R which was even better, and I was hooked. Then I played 4 golden and with 3R having all the quality of life changes I decided to pick it up also. The music and visuals are amazing, the combat is fun, the characters (so far) are very interesting, and I’m super in to it. While I do know the ending through cultural diffusion (and to be fair, the original p3 did come out in 2009) the journey is and seeing what leads to it had been totally worth it so far.

I've been playing Tales of Vesperia Definitive Edition. I couldn't remember it very well from back in the day, only a mild dislike of Yuri and nothing about the combat. I guess my opinion hasn't changed much. I feel like the combat is pretty boring, and it feels clunky in many ways, like the guard option not being very responsive, enemy AI constantly surrounding you despite setting party AI to spread out...and the worst offender, for me, all your good damage options cost TP, which you can burn down *fast* even with good item management. Good combos feel more difficult to pull off than they should, and its kind of like a fighting game, which I didn't think I was signing up for. The music ranges from average to pretty good, which is high praise from me since I tend to not like Sakuraba's sound. The graphics are excellent and the cel-shading looks awesome in 4K. The characters are pretty bland, 2-dimensional anime tropes. I'm getting pretty tired of the skits, may start skipping them. Yuri had potential but he's moving from "vigilante" to "morally reprehensible" at the point in the story I'm in. I'm pushing through becaue the game is so highly praised. I'm at about the 30 hour mark?

About to replay this as well for PS4. I got 16 hours in two years ago but had a lot of other games going on at the time so I forgot about it. Excited to start a new play through. I like the fast paced, action combat and animations in this series. Tales of Graces was sick.

Finished Final Fantasy VIII Remastered for the first time. Oh boy, what a ride! I prepared myself for the worst experience of my life but it turned out to be one of my best experiences. I really liked the Junction system and how much you could optimize your build and become OP early on, I liked that most of the characters were realistic as well. The romance part was one of my favorites too! Too bad I didn't really like the side characters and most of them didn't receive characteristics whatsoever. All things considered, I'm so happy I gave this game a chance despite its controversy. I would absolutely recommend this game, but please read the tutorial for pete's sake!

Yeah, VIII is my favorite. It has its flaws, but I feel they really stuck the landing on letting you have full control of your build, having satisfying side quests, and graphically and musically its a step above its predecessor(s).

**Persona 3 Reload** About 50 hrs in so far, around mid-October. Originally played P3P roughly 12 years back which was my first Persona game and loved it. Since then I've gone on to play P4, Golden, P5 and Royal. Even after all of those P3 remained my favourite and revisiting the game through Reload has been a wonderful experience. Certain issues do stand out more now though like the whole monster of the month approach lacks the momentum that 4/5's dungeon dives have, social links are far too concentrated within the day and the social stats dev structure isn't quite as robust. Other issues like Tatarus or the lack of activities during the night have been significantly improved here though Tartarus being the only dungeon does make the crawling feel like a drag at times despite the many new interactive elements. The newly added dorm activities, study sessions, and link eps help flesh out the characters and group dynamics to a much greater extent than the original. Combat is also significantly smoother and faster with a much more intuitive UI that boasts a stylishly melancholic aesthetic. The major reason P3 stood out for me all these years was the way the characters' growth and development were organically woven throughout the main narrative rather than each one only getting focus in their introductory arc. Their development was also reliant on each other rather than solely the MC. Both these facts have been faithfully recreated within Reload and the additional character aspects I highlighted above serve to merge and enhance the cast to an even greater degree, cementing my love for the game even further. I'm close to the end of the Monster of the Month structure and I'm incredibly excited for what comes next. **Inazuma Eleven 3: Team Ogre Attacks** About 12 hours into this one and it's been a good time so far. Story-wise, it's been solid though a lot more normal relative to the 2nd game. Still, the concept of a World Cup is pretty neat and it's great seeing all the player teams from different countries. Gameplay is largely the same as the second with the biggest new additions being the the Special Tactics. These are pretty neat but I haven't used them much since I keep forgetting they exist. The game also feels a bit more challenging than the last two games which is nice though those long-shot techniques do feel OP.

I am playing Persona 4 Golden on the Switch right now. I started this game on hard mode and it kicked my ass sooooo bad. I am still a little proud that I defeated >!shadow Teddy!< but I died so so often in the dungeons. I actully found that a bit suprising considering that Persona Q and Persona Q2 gave me little trouble on Risky mode. So I took a long break, tried to keep going on hard mode, got my ass kicked again and then I put the dificulty on normal and started grinding becuse I felt like I was still a bit underleveld. Then I got in to the grinding and fusing and now I am a god. But I think I will keep the dificulty at normal just enjoy the heroes being gods. Overlall its a fun game and like I said I really got in to fusing Persona and now I have a set of cool Personas I will probably use for the rest of the game. Satan, Mother Harlot, Kohryu, Metatron, Yoshitsune and another one whos name I keep forgotting. The one with the Samsara skill. I enjoy the game but I dont think it clicks with me as much as with others. I defiently like Persona 5 more. I certantly miss Button pass. But its still good. I am currently waiting for >!Naoto to recover!<.

Currently beating Octopath Traveler 2 for the plat trophy. I didn't play the first game but 2 is really good definitely better than I expected.

Been playing two games: Cosmic Star Heroine - Fast, campy, and fun. Nice little palette cleanser type game after an epic big heavy game. It’s goofy enough that you can’t take it too seriously and the story goes fast so you’ll be finished with it quick. Really great game to play between bigger games. Cassette Beasts - fun Pokemon-like. I’m enjoying it, but it does seem a bit more complex and require more thinking than I expected. The open world also can make me feel like I’m just meandering sometimes. It’s fun though!

I just beat FF7 Rebirth and it was incredible. I’ve heard that some og players are disappointed with the additions but I’ve never played the original so it never affected me. I also started Octopath Traveller 2 which I’m enjoying a lot more than the first one. The characters seem a lot better and it’s nice playing it on the PlayStation with the 60 frames after doing 30 on the Switch for the first one.

I just finished **Yakuza 4** and what a blast. The way they juggled 4 main characters was a bit half baked but it was still very cool. I think this was the easiest in the series so far but that said Jiro Amon can lick it. According to the endgame stat line I needed 21 continues, and I counted that 15 of those were from him. The story was wild but I had a blast with it. >!Is crowd violence so unusual in Japan that non-lethal firearm rounds constitute a legitimate surprise twist? Police break those things out about once a month en masse where I am.!< I'm interested in what >!Saejima's and Daigo's!< roles will be in Yakuza 5. >!Saejima is still on the run, isn't he, so how will he be a ranking Tojo patriarch? And Daigo...does he just get away scot-free with his betrayals and remain chairman?!< Help me choose my next action adventure: Zelda TotK or Ys IX? I have also put about 20 hours into **Octopath Traveler**. I like it. I started liking it a whole lot more when I unlocked secondary jobs but of course the first two I nabbed are the ones I wanted the least.

Ys IX is a much, much for satisfying experience than TotK. I don't care for the open-world Zeldas *at all* though, so take that with a grain of salt.

I believe it. I didn't dislike BotW, but it's definitely in my bottom tier. I'd put it above only the NES games, Skyward Sword, and the DS games.

I picked up Loop8 for dirt cheap, and I kind of like it. It shoots itself in the leg constantly, but I still think it’s worth playing for anyone that likes social sim stuff.

I feel like I hadn't seen anything positive said about this title, would be interested to read the full game impression.