Hangout The Games Hangout Thread

[TrienDarkform]

So I saw that Nier automata game square enix released (or is about to release). Any thoughts? It looks fairly fun, though it has a 2000's feel to it. Any thoughts? Is the game worth it?

Well, I just finished Nier Automata (all the story routes), and my personal thoughts...

It's been a long time since I've had a game make me go, 'Whoah!', and this one did just that. Lots of layers to the story, plot twists which make sense, smooth and fluid combat, neat boss fight designs, and an amazing soundtrack (going to post more on that in the other thread) not just in terms of composition but how it's integrated into the game as well.

The first 'playthrough' takes you through the basic story, which in itself is quite good, but leaves you with a number of unanswered questions. Subsequent 'playthroughs' start digging deeper into the mysteries, and then you really find out what's going on behind the scenes, such that I'd really consider them different 'chapters' in the story. It's hard to really describe it without spoiling anything.

Maybe this one just hit all the right notes for me, so perhaps your mileage may vary, but this is the first game I've played through in a while that as soon as I finished it, I wanted to restart it and experience it all over again from the beginning.

 

[kkck]

Well, I just finished Nier Automata (all the story routes), and my personal thoughts...

It's been a long time since I've had a game make me go, 'Whoah!', and this one did just that. Lots of layers to the story, plot twists which make sense, smooth and fluid combat, neat boss fight designs, and an amazing soundtrack (going to post more on that in the other thread) not just in terms of composition but how it's integrated into the game as well.

The first 'playthrough' takes you through the basic story, which in itself is quite good, but leaves you with a number of unanswered questions. Subsequent 'playthroughs' start digging deeper into the mysteries, and then you really find out what's going on behind the scenes, such that I'd really consider them different 'chapters' in the story. It's hard to really describe it without spoiling anything.

Maybe this one just hit all the right notes for me, so perhaps your mileage may vary, but this is the first game I've played through in a while that as soon as I finished it, I wanted to restart it and experience it all over again from the beginning.

Ah, it's been a while since that post. I downloaded the game and have already finished it for the most part. I am basically sidequesting at this point. And getting the 13 endings or so I am missing.

For me what made the game was basically the combat system. It's just that fun to play and fight shit. Boss fights are amazing as well.

I am not particularly a fan of the soundtrack. Well, not in a "OMG the soundtrack is awesome" kinda way. I wouldn't listen 5 seconds of any of it outside of the game. But the effect it has on the game is spectacular. Specially when it gets to varying degrees of creepy which is all the time.

One thing which I don't know if its good or bad yet is that the game doesn't explain much about the stuff you can do. So sometimes I would be playing, pressed bottoms and then suddenly the character would do something I did not expect at all. I am pretty sure I still don't know all the functions. At times it was fun just experimenting but sometimes you actually need something and the game does not bother explaining any of it at any point.

Another thing which kinda bothered me is that there is not much room to grind in the game. You can do it to get specific plug ins but if you do you do you can easily overlevel. Well, you can increase the difficulty to compensate but still, literally no room to grind in a game that requires it if you want chips or money.

 

[TrienDarkform]

Ah, it's been a while since that post. I downloaded the game and have already finished it for the most part. I am basically sidequesting at this point. And getting the 13 endings or so I am missing.

For me what made the game was basically the combat system. It's just that fun to play and fight shit. Boss fights are amazing as well.

I am not particularly a fan of the soundtrack. Well, not in a "OMG the soundtrack is awesome" kinda way. I wouldn't listen 5 seconds of any of it outside of the game. But the effect it has on the game is spectacular. Specially when it gets to varying degrees of creepy which is all the time.

One thing which I don't know if its good or bad yet is that the game doesn't explain much about the stuff you can do. So sometimes I would be playing, pressed bottoms and then suddenly the character would do something I did not expect at all. I am pretty sure I still don't know all the functions. At times it was fun just experimenting but sometimes you actually need something and the game does not bother explaining any of it at any point.

Another thing which kinda bothered me is that there is not much room to grind in the game. You can do it to get specific plug ins but if you do you do you can easily overlevel. Well, you can increase the difficulty to compensate but still, literally no room to grind in a game that requires it if you want chips or money.

Which chips are you trying to get? As for cash, I didn't find I really had any problem with that (even the 180k for the half-wit inventor's sidequest wasn't really an issue). I hear fishing can make some good money, but that's one thing I never really bothered to do at all.

As far as I've been able to find, there aren't really any 'special' special moves in the game. Just variants on the light and heavy attacks (eg. dodge + attack, jump + attack, charge attack). How many light or heavy attacks in the combo chain moveset is preset per weapon. Not sure if there's much else, other than timing everything to flow... which with how nicely they've animated everything makes for some pretty cool looking displays.

Spoiler: Ending E

Yup, I wiped my savegames for ending E. I thought it was only fair, considering the help I got to finish up that last bullet hell part.

And yeah, the music was used to some great effect. The one incident that sticks in my mind the most was when I accepted the extra help to continue on, and the choir got added into the music... my eyes got a little watery at that point. (And from what I found out later, that choir is actually the dev team singing!)

 

[kkck]

Which chips are you trying to get? As for cash, I didn't find I really had any problem with that (even the 180k for the half-wit inventor's sidequest wasn't really an issue). I hear fishing can make some good money, but that's one thing I never really bothered to do at all.

As far as I've been able to find, there aren't really any 'special' special moves in the game. Just variants on the light and heavy attacks (eg. dodge + attack, jump + attack, charge attack). How many light or heavy attacks in the combo chain moveset is preset per weapon. Not sure if there's much else, other than timing everything to flow... which with how nicely they've animated everything makes for some pretty cool looking displays.

Spoiler: Ending E

Yup, I wiped my savegames for ending E. I thought it was only fair, considering the help I got to finish up that last bullet hell part.

And yeah, the music was used to some great effect. The one incident that sticks in my mind the most was when I accepted the extra help to continue on, and the choir got added into the music... my eyes got a little watery at that point. (And from what I found out later, that choir is actually the dev team singing!)

I went for 2 chips basically. First the drop rate chips and then the crit rate chips. This is for my second playthrough though. On the first one I realized about halfway in that drop rate chips make a huge difference and almost 3/4ths into the game I realized how utterly insane crit damage is. In fact I dropped all my damage chips on the spot and replaced them with what I had of crit rate chips. In any case, on my second run of the game I went for first for the drop rate chips for 2 reasons. The first is obvious, more spawning of rare items. But more importantly this is by far the best source of income in the game. Getting them very early in the game is easy as well. However even before you reach the point where you can farm them it is worth it to spend time fishing solely for that. Once you get a good enough chip you won't even know what to do with all your cores. Towards the end of the game I was buying all the materials I was missing and when I ran out of money I sold 50 cores. Which was all of them. And soon after that I got 20 while completing sidequests.

I did wipe my data the first time, hence the second playthrough.

 

[Sky]

Really have to say that Mass Effect Andromeda was awesome. I don't get the hate whatsoever. Sure the facial animations are worse than most PS2 games, but apart from that it is a typical Mass Effect. The fighting was great, the characters have the usual depth an the story has potential. Sure I don't get how they could plan all this during the time of ME 1 but oh well. It is in the past. Can only recommend this game.

Now playing Persona 5. This will be my game of the year. 100% sure of it.

 

[Jammin]

Really have to say that Mass Effect Andromeda was awesome. I don't get the hate whatsoever. Sure the facial animations are worse than most PS2 games, but apart from that it is a typical Mass Effect. The fighting was great, the characters have the usual depth an the story has potential. Sure I don't get how they could plan all this during the time of ME 1 but oh well. It is in the past. Can only recommend this game.

I'm with you on that to some degree. It's a good game. And I think it's really suffered from the internet's tendency toward leaping from fair criticism to hyperbolic hate.

As something of a bonus, I've learned a whole lot about how animations in RPG's like Mass Effect work. Just understanding what went wrong was so fascinating to me. It's such a complicated and interesting process.

Spoiler: My personal favorite informative video on it.

Aside from that though I liked the game and I could even see replaying it on the hardest difficulty in a few months when they do what the can to fix the animations and maybe get some DLC going.. They've already improved it greatly just by adding an eye shader I'm curious what else they can do.

Now playing Persona 5. This will be my game of the year. 100% sure of it.

It's definitely mine so far too. The game is just so good. By far my favorite Persona game.

Seems like it will be fun to replay too. Which is crazy considering how long it is.

 

[Sky]

I want my Quarians damn it!

Regarding Persona, I really get you. I am in front of the fourth palace, so end of July and I already have played it for 35 hours... That is scary. Like really scary.

 

[Jammin]

I want my Quarians damn it!

My money is on that being the first DLC they release. Locating the Quarian/Elcor/Drell/Hanar arc.

Regarding Persona, I really get you. I am in front of the fourth palace, so end of July and I already have played it for 35 hours... That is scary. Like really scary.

Have you picked out your love interest yet?

It's quite the competition. I'm in September and I just now realized that every female social link is a potential love interest. Which I only realized because I accidentally almost romanced the teacher. I was like "Wait, that's an option?!".

 

[Sky]

My money is on that being the first DLC they release. Locating the Quarian/Elcor/Drell/Hanar arc.

Have you picked out your love interest yet?

It's quite the competition. I'm in September and I just now realized that every female social link is a potential love interest. Which I only realized because I accidentally almost romanced the teacher. I was like "Wait, that's an option?!".

Let's hope so. Thank god Peebee was able to be my new Tali. She is just as adorable.

Well isn't that the same for every Persona game. For now I think Futaba will be my waifu... Not sure yet.

 

[Jammin]

Let's hope so. Thank god Peebee was able to be my new Tali. She is just as adorable.

I went with Cora and was rather satisfied. One of the more fun characters to flirt with. Peebee seemed like fun too though. Vetra seemed a bit dull sadly. Too bad the doctor wasn't romanceable, lord knows my Ryder tried. Though I think I enjoyed that he failed just as much.

That's reminds me of a bit of praise that Mass Effect hasn't gotten that it probably should. As someone who always goes with a straight male character the available romance options were vastly better than in Dragon Age Inquisition. Cassandra was probably the least awful but she wasn't great and Josephine, despite having the same VO as Tali, was easily the worst romance plot I've ever experienced.

Well isn't that the same for every Persona game. For now I think Futaba will be my waifu... Not sure yet.

Futaba is pretty great. It's a cage match for best girl for sure though. I'm leaning Makoto personally but I feel like an argument could be made for nearly everyone.

One of the things I like most about Persona 5 is that most Confidant quests really flesh every character out in a unique way. They always start out with characters seeming like one thing and then when you delve deeper into who they really are they always subvert those expectations.

 

[Sky]

I went with Cora and was rather satisfied. One of the more fun characters to flirt with. Peebee seemed like fun too though. Vetra seemed a bit dull sadly. Too bad the doctor wasn't romanceable, lord knows my Ryder tried. Though I think I enjoyed that he failed just as much.

That's reminds me of a bit of praise that Mass Effect hasn't gotten that it probably should. As someone who always goes with a straight male character the available romance options were vastly better than in Dragon Age Inquisition. Cassandra was probably the least awful but she wasn't great and Josephine, despite having the same VO as Tali, was easily the worst romance plot I've ever experienced.

Futaba is pretty great. It's a cage match for best girl for sure though. I'm leaning Makoto personally but I feel like an argument could be made for nearly everyone.

One of the things I like most about Persona 5 is that most Confidant quests really flesh every character out in a unique way. They always start out with characters seeming like one thing and then when you delve deeper into who they really are they always subvert those expectations.

Cora was not my type. I actually wanted to go with nobody, to keep on honoring Tali, but Peebee was so hnnnnnnnnnnnnng that I just had to. (I also tried my luck with Lexi for the lulz. )

Never played more than Origins. Simply wasn't my type of game. Mass Effect is a completely different story though. Though some things just don't make sense to me from the lore point of view.

I first went with Ann, then Makoto took over look-wise. Futaba is just... Looking forward to having her available plus finally entering Akiba.

Still have trouble calling them that. They will always be Social Links to me. (Also I am happy that I now have Izanagi in my team.)

 

[Jammin]

I was pretty sold on Makoto when I did one of the side activities where she texts you to go to a movie. And she sells it to your character "I'm really interested in this director" and all kinds of brainy sounding reasons to see it. Then you get there and it's a Dolph Lundgren style action movie.

It's just really funny to me that she's a Class Prez type whose personal interest are action movies and motorcycles.

 

[Spirit]

So... I'm a little hesitant after Battlefront but what do you guys think of Battlefront 2?

 

[Jammin]

Looks interesting to me. Though to be honest it's still not the kind of star wars game I want.

The games I was really into were the Jedi Knight series and the KOTOR series. So, while this looks fine and all, I'm not exactly drooling over it.

 

[xi0]

What are people thinking about Prey? I'm sort of hesitant to drop money on new games that often, but I'm a huge fan of the Dishonored series, so if it has that kind of quality it might just be a must-buy for me.

 

[Jammin]

What are people thinking about Prey? I'm sort of hesitant to drop money on new games that often, but I'm a huge fan of the Dishonored series, so if it has that kind of quality it might just be a must-buy for me.

The early word on it has been extremely positive.

On the various podcasts I listen to quite a few people had spent preview time with it. Among them it was pretty much unanimously liked. It sounds like the mechanics are truly unique too. It is also supposed around 20+ hours long. Which is longer than I think people expected.

Story wise it sounded a bit like John Carpenter's The Thing or the first Alien movie. Leaning more heavily into the paranoia and thriller aspects and away from the space marine style stuff. Like the idea that you could walk into a room and an alien could be disguised as a coffee cup or a fire extinguisher and then ambush you when you turn your back seems like a pretty crazy idea. But potentially really cool. Where identifying threats is just a significant a part of the game as killing them.

--- Double Post Merged, Apr 23, 2017, Original Post Date: Apr 22, 2017 ---

Finished Persona 5 last night and, my god, what a game.

The best JRPG since the PSOne era. Just incredible start to finish. Characters, story, gameplay, music, UI. Simply great across the board.

It was a true 10 out of 10.

--- Double Post Merged, May 11, 2017 ---

Word is that the Mass Effect Franchise might really be dead. Or at least in a coma.

Since the studio that made Andromeda, Bioware Montreal is getting scaled down and returning to being a support studio with employees getting transferred to Motive. Which is the Star Wars Battlefront studio.

It's really a shame for RPG fans because Bioware Edmonton (Dragon Age and the original Mass Effect trilogy) is supposedly working on some new IP that is rumored to be similar to Destiny or the Division. Which was just pushed back to sometime after May of next year. So that probably means no Bioware RPG's for a long time.

Unless Bioware Austin(SWTOR) does something like a KOTOR 3 but I feel like that would be too good to be true.

Is this the beginning of the end for Bioware?

 

[Freid]

Just pre-ordered Tekken 7. Morning I get this in the post, I'm throwing my wii out never to play Smash 4 again.

 

[Haya-san]

It's been almost a month since I started Persona 5, almost done with the Sep-Oct dungeon and my play time is almost 90 hours! Is this normal? I'm having a blast with it, so I'm not complaining. This is the best Persona that I played since Persona 2.

In terms of who to hook the MC up with, Ann is best girl to me, but I prefer her as a friend to the MC. Futaba is cute, but I prefer her as a little sister to him, though I find the idea of the MC as Sojiro's future son-in-law appealing . Hifumi is interesting, I honestly would've preferred her as a playable character over Haru, who I find bland so far. I haven't started her S-Link yet, so my opinion might change later on. Makoto is so far the one I'm leaning to the most. Speaking of the Niijima sisters, I found some similarities between them and the Suou brothers from Persona 2. Can't wait to reach the ending. At the speed that I'm playing, P5 might end up the longest game that I played without completing all the side-quests.

I also got Nier: Automata. At first I wasn't that interested, but a lot of my favorite fan artists were drawing stuff for it and got me curious.

 

[riki]

I'm in the same dungeon as you ^^

Makoto is a good choice I always prefer the person with the High Priestess arcana as my romance choice though.

Yeah, there are a lot of references to the past Persona games. Some are obvious while others are blink and you'll miss it. Oh, did anyone see Tanaka's Shady Shopping Network? He looks hilarious with shades,

 

[Jammin]

It's been almost a month since I started Persona 5, almost done with the Sep-Oct dungeon and my play time is almost 90 hours! Is this normal? I'm having a blast with it, so I'm not complaining. This is the best Persona that I played since Persona 2.

In terms of who to hook the MC up with, Ann is best girl to me, but I prefer her as a friend to the MC. Futaba is cute, but I prefer her as a little sister to him, though I find the idea of the MC as Sojiro's future son-in-law appealing . Hifumi is interesting, I honestly would've preferred her as a playable character over Haru, who I find bland so far. I haven't started her S-Link yet, so my opinion might change later on. Makoto is so far the one I'm leaning to the most. Speaking of the Niijima sisters, I found some similarities between them and the Suou brothers from Persona 2. Can't wait to reach the ending. At the speed that I'm playing, P5 might end up the longest game that I played without completing all the side-quests.

I also got Nier: Automata. At first I wasn't that interested, but a lot of my favorite fan artists were drawing stuff for it and got me curious.

My final time from my first, noncompleitionist play through, was 110 hours. So I'd say that's pretty normal.

I went with Makoto in the end but I genuinely liked pretty much all the heroines.

The question is... is it immoral to go back and play it again like 2 weeks later? Because I kind of want to dive into newgame+ even though I feel like replaying it this soon is one of those uses of time that's really hard to justify. But I did beat the Witcher 3 on three separate occasions so maybe I just shouldn't worry about it.