What are you playing right now?

[Niahak]

Over the two-week break, I finished Horizon's Gate and picked up Metaphor ReFantazio.

Overall really enjoyed Horizon's Gate. The final sequence was just a little too hard (perhaps more grinding/exploring was expected, I think I'd explored ~60% of the map) so I turned down the difficulty a bit to compensate.

Metaphor has been great so far. I appreciate the ways it refines the standard Persona formula:
1 - A somewhat more mature story, with possible actual political commentary this time!
2 - Time management is at least reputed to be more forgiving
3 - A modified Press turn system instead of the One-more / All-out mechanics
4 - Streamlined dungeon crawling

I'm not a big fan of the creepy designs/menu/etc, and its pacing is pretty slow (comparable to Personas so far - completed the first real dungeon at ~10hr).

[Niahak]

Getting ~35 hours into Metaphor has made me glad I didn't try out the P3 Remake as I'd expect to be even more turned off by that.

While I still appreciate it for most reasons in my previous post, some of the dungeons and enemies are baffling. 90% of the enemies are easy-ish, but I just had an encounter where, unexpectedly, an enemy created 4 spare turns for itself and spent them alternating between almighty (AKA unblockable) and spell (I think wind) damage to my full party, doing 400+ damage even without weaknesses and wiping me out from full HP.

I'm on Normal difficulty, and visual/historical indications on this type of enemy indicate it's weak to light (it's not) or fire (it's not) so I wasn't prepared for this one.

While the ability to assign archetypes (Persona equivalents) to my full party is greatly appreciated, I really wanted a Persona 1-style "persona shift" mid battle for this fight as there are simply too many damage types to try and cover.

Oh well, autosave at least dropped me one floor down so I'm okay, just a bit miffed.

I've also been playing Ember Knights off and on, over the past 8 months or so. A major patch and DLC came out, and I was up for $10 for more of the same and it's been a blast playing it with the kids (even if it's twice as fast playing on my own). While I posted about it earlier, I'm still really enjoying it, especially with the larger weapon/relic variety. One of the DLC weapons does seem overpowered so far, but maybe I just haven't tapped the full potential of the starter weapons (only fully upgraded two so far).

In even-more-casual-land, we've played a bit of Mario Party Jamboree as a family and that's been a good deal of fun. It feels like a happy medium between Superstars (IMO a little too conservative in its changes from MP1-3) and Super Mario Party (which adds some interesting strategies). Jamboree might actually skew things too much towards minigame skill - the allies can be really powerful (and are given to the player who wins a longer minigame - with a handicap given to the player that reached the ally first). I'm still hoping for a fast mode and more configurability around allies, but there's good board and minigame variety. I do wish unlocks (characters and boards) were gated behind points rather than achievements - playing the single player modes to unlock the last board is looking like it'll be a chore.

[Sharecrow]

Okay, so my shmup at the moment is still the incredible Rogue Flight. I love that game. I THINK I'm on the second-to-last level but I may not be. Either way, I'll need to play the game a few more times to do all routes and to get all trophies, if that's what I still want to do at that point. It was probably my favorite game of 2024. I got it rather late in the year, so it's still got a lot of staying power.

Am still playing Grandia and loving it. I've missed some miss-able stuff, though, so will need to play it twice if I want to complete it. Grrrr....but that's okay. At least it's fun. I'm about 17 hours in or so...not sure...but enjoying it whenever I do get a spare moment to boot it.

Also, playing through the remaster of Tales of Graces f, which is outstanding, but the original game was, too, so I can't imagine how they would have screwed that up. There's a ton of stuff you can turn on for making the game faster and simpler. I was going to do that but decided against it. Am not sure if that is the default for the game or if it was a pre-order bonus, but I only turned on a couple of extra things (like being able to hold more items), so the game would remain somewhat challenging and wouldn't 'be a cakewalk.

I finally started playing Ninja Gaiden Sigma HD again, in part to sharpen my skills before the fourth entry comes out but also just because it is one of the best games ever made. It's fun but tough. A few days ago, I actually made it further in the game....had been stuck for months at the same spot, though, admittedly, wasn't playing frequently. It was a really difficult optional fight, and I couldn't not fight it! Finally prevailed, though. Am on chapter 15 so I'm about 3/4ths through.

Finally, I beat a point-and-click mystery game on PS4 so I'm picking something else to play and am strongly leaning towards restarting Days Gone and knocking it out. I liked the game a lot when it came out six years ago but never spent too much time with it. I think it's time.

All this to say I've been working so much I almost never play anything but I do get thirty minutes in every few days or so so that's better than nothing!

[Niahak]

I'm running out of steam on Metaphor - the Persona games (particularly 4 and 5) really stretch out the ending sequences with fake-out endings, poorly foreshadowed twists, and general padding. Metaphor does it too, IMO. While I still like the characters and the concept, unless something drastic changes in the last ~5 hours I'm not expecting any sudden reveals that will outdo the ones already done (which actually *have* been foreshadowed, with one exception).

So I've been trying some other games. I tried Warriors: Abyss briefly and after about 40 minutes I was not impressed. I wish it had a demo - as is, It's my first Steam refund. It's a little too cluttered, too difficult to control, the massive variety comes off as overwhelming rather than appealing, and it lacks the "battlefield control" aspects of the warrior series.

Since I had some nostalgia for the series after that, I played some Dynasty Warriors 3 and it largely holds up aside from no right-stick camera control. I'm thinking of playing 4/5 for a bit just to remember how they were different - 3 is always the one I've thought of as the peak as it's so arcadey, and getting new items and weapons is exciting.

And then I switched over to trying Mount & Blade 2: Bannerlord on Steam Deck this time. It seems to run really well, and the biggest problem I've had is that it can be hard to figure out controls as not all of them are labeled appropriately. The gameplay loop is addictive, even early on when you're trying to get established. Although some of the economics are kind of wild - I'm not sure why exactly the second worst crossbow costs as much as some of the finest horses. For that matter, I feel like you should be able to craft bows/crossbows (or at least arrows/bolts) in the same way you can make throwing knives or javelins... but alas, crossbows are an unappreciated weapon in many games.

[Kong Wen]

So I've been trying some other games. I tried Warriors: Abyss briefly and after about 40 minutes I was not impressed. I wish it had a demo - as is, It's my first Steam refund. It's a little too cluttered, too difficult to control, the massive variety comes off as overwhelming rather than appealing, and it lacks the "battlefield control" aspects of the warrior series.

Since I had some nostalgia for the series after that, I played some Dynasty Warriors 3 and it largely holds up aside from no right-stick camera control. I'm thinking of playing 4/5 for a bit just to remember how they were different - 3 is always the one I've thought of as the peak as it's so arcadey, and getting new items and weapons is exciting.

Thanks for posting, because I would have been on the hook for Abyss as well but the vampire survivors clutter-as-design design was one of the things giving me pause.

I've always held DW3, 4, and 5 in about equal regard, each with their own major strengths. 3 is good, hard, and tight, a nice prototype for the series to expand on. 4 always felt the smoothest and most playable to me. Straightforward and everything clicks, doesn't overcomplicate itself. 5 feels like the pinnacle of the series' design. Good maps and story beats.

[Claytone]

I've been playing a handful of games at once, which is somewhat rare for me.

I just completed and platinumed Tomba! Special Edition, which I loved. It's a clever, cute platformer with some neat ideas. Can't wait to see how they iterated on those ideas when the Special Edition of the sequel drops. I also played a good chunk of this on the PlayStation Portal roughly 1500km from home, and it performed quite admirably. Pretty cool!

Since a new Shinobi was announced while I was traveling, I also started 3D Shinobi III: Return of the Ninja Master on my 3DS. I love how these Genesis games look with the 3D effect, and I'm having fun finally playing through this classic.

I've been chipping away at Loco Roco (remastered) on PS5 as well. This is a good one for short sessions when I don't have a ton of time. Fun, adorable game.

Finally, I also started The Last of Us Part I. I've long resisted playing this game since it doesn't seem particularly up my alley, but I've decided to finally give it a shot in light of its enormous success and Sony's seeming insistence that it be released on every new PlayStation. I'm a couple hours in, and it's not bad so far, but I still have my doubts that I'll love it as much as its broad critical acclaim suggests I should.

[Sharecrow]

Finally, I also started The Last of Us Part I. I've long resisted playing this game since it doesn't seem particularly up my alley, but I've decided to finally give it a shot in light of its enormous success and Sony's seeming insistence that it be released on every new PlayStation. I'm a couple hours in, and it's not bad so far, but I still have my doubts that I'll love it as much as its broad critical acclaim suggests I should.

Last of Us excels in the story department. Gameplay works okay though I think it can be more difficult than it needs to be at times (at least in my experience). Also finding all collectibles without a guide wouldn’t be reasonable, which I think is another downside.

[Claytone]

Last of Us excels in the story department. Gameplay works okay though I think it can be more difficult than it needs to be at times (at least in my experience). Also finding all collectibles without a guide wouldn’t be reasonable, which I think is another downside.

Yeah, I'm expecting the story will win me over eventually. Still only a few hours in.

Nice thing about the collectibles is the PS5 version basically has an in-game guide in the form of those Game Tips or whatever they're called in the PS5 UI. If I circle back for the plat, I at least won't need to pull something up on my phone or anything.

[Kong Wen]

Despite blasting through a few games lately, I still don't have much on the go.

My ambient games, as usual, are Final Fantasy XIV Online and Langrisser Mobile, and a little touch of Pokemon TCG Pocket (in which I'm just opening my two free packs per day and being available for trading if anyone in TONecord needs anything).

I'm continuing my recent Platinum Blitz through the Final Fantasy Pixel Remasters with Final Fantasy V, which will be much slower than the others because a) it's longer, b) it has more trophy requirements, and c) I've played through it fewer time & longer ago. I think I'll pause this blitz after V is done because VI seems like it will be a much more involved play-through and I don't know if I have the focus for that right now.

I recently started Bloodstained: Curse of the Moon 2 and got a few levels in while streaming in TONecord, but I put that on pause for FF games. That's what I'll go back to when FFV is done.

After that, I'll check the stuff I picked up during the December holiday sales. I wanted to tackle one of the big full-sized games I snagged then, God of War or Corn Lord or something. We'll see.

[Niahak]

5 feels like the pinnacle of the series' design. Good maps and story beats.

After I tried out Dynasty Warriors 5 for a little bit... this is probably better than 3. While 3 isn't unplayable, and it's likely the one I played the most, it's pretty rough around the edges while 5 is very polished. Wish I had a copy of 5 Empires... I have Xtreme Legends though!

I settled on Romance of the Three Kingdoms IX for about 1.5 weeks, in the end. I started a Sun Ce run in The Little Conqueror (194 I think). It's a perennial favorite of mine, because while you have immediate contact with two potential foes (Liu Biao and Yuan Shu) you can let things unfold in the north for a bit, and unlike early Sun Jian scenarios you aren't getting a totally free lunch on conquering Jing and Wu regions.

External factors resulted in Liu Bei being conquered and the brothers being separated. It took a fair bit of time - Zhang Fei in particular - but I got all three of them (and Liao Hua and Chen Dao) by sniping them as they eventually got hired by various factions and LOY dipped below 80. So I have a Shu "unit" at least! I've also managed to snag Lu Bu, Gao Shun, and the usual Wu powerhouses (Zhou Tai, Xu Sheng, Zhu Huan, and my starters). After conquering the upstarts in the southeast, I parked some officers by Shan Yue to wear them down.

I briefly had an exclave in Jiaozhi, which I conquered only for the title. It held on for about 4 years, geography keeping it from being conquered by a couple Liu Zhang expeditions. In the end I was able to get all my officers out. One unit made the long march from "defend the west of Jiao Zhi" to "get the heck over to Chai Sang" without falling apart, mad props to He Qi for his three-month march past two of Liu Biao's city, finally arriving with 171 troops and 20 morale.

Shan Yue is a pain, but the Lu Bu mallet demolishes them pretty easy. They're down to 100K troops. I've pushed up into Ru Nan, Chen Liu and Xia Pi, where Yuan Tan (RIP Shao) and Cao Cao are duking it out. Cao Cao is down to two cities north of Luoyang, Yuan Tan is clearly considering attacking me from the East, and Ma Teng and I recently got a border as he conquered Luoyang.

I've traded two Cao Cao prisoners for his horses, so I *could* execute him in the future, but I'd rather have him as a viceroy of some harmless precinct. I just have to be sure I'm the one taking his last city - which might be a bit of a trick.

I really love the overall feel of RTK9. It's the perfect level of difficulty once you know what you're doing - where progress is slow but steady, knowing officer compatibilities helps but is not essential, and hiring is not quite so ping-pongy as other ones. While there is a snowball in RTK9, it's much later (and slower to build) than other entries which are mostly really easy. I do wish you could slightly weaken tribes as they seem a little too strong for those starting near them, but otherwise it is just a great strategy game.

Anyway, after writing all that, I'm likely moving on to Suikoden I in the form of the remaster. I'm comfortable leaving off RTK9 at "I conquered 25% of China" if need be.

/edit: fixing a boss typo where I replaced Liao Hua with Lian Huo. Good times.