This Old Neon Forum

Still slugging through Tales of Berseria. I've also been playing a lot of FE Heroes and occasionally Mokuri and Gotcha Force.

Playing Way of the Samurai 3 lately.

Just started Persona 5. Pumped to be diving back into this series.

Soooooooo much Zelda.

But also

Snake Pass (switch) - Just completed the game today, found everything. The main mechanic of snaking through levels and wrapping the snake around platforms worked really well. The music was nice too, made by David Wise I believe? Definitely had some Donkey Kong vibes.

World of Goo (Switch) - Never tried this out during the Wii days. I think I'm around half way through now. Puzzles are becoming more and more complex which is interesting. I like that I can control the same using motion controls or touch screen.

Battlefield 1 (PS4) - This one I've only been playing here and there for a sole purpose of playing with friends. The game is nice for party chat since you can join the same squad as your friends so that you all spawn close to each other. Only unfortunate thing is squads can only hold 5 people.

Yooka-Laylee (PS4) - Just got this one yesterday. I've gone through a lot of the first world and just entered the second. It functions quite similarly to Banjo Kazooie and DK 64, as expected. The humor and presentation are really nice, and the game feels good to control. The camera does get caught a lot and refuses to be adjusted, but not so bad as to mess me up. Just based on the first mini game I can tell those are going to be very annoying so I doubt I'll be looking to grab everything in the game. Enjoying it so far though!

Persona 5 (PS4) - This is my main jam right now. It's great. Easily the most mechanically pleasant Persona yet. Having said that, the series (by its nature) stresses me out, so I can only play so much at a time. It's weird. I love the series, but the anxiety I get from having to manage time (and possibly miss neat things day by day) wears me out after a few hours. Which is why I'm also playing other stuff!

Yooka-Laylee (PS4) - Banjo-Kazooie is one of my all-time favorite series, so getting this was a no-brainer. I have a lot of thoughts already on why this game isn't quite as good as its inspiration, but I also have thoughts on why it's neat and why this genre can still work. This is a gaming space I'm passionate about, so I'm constantly thinking about this stuff as I'm playing it. Super engaging. Will probably try to Platinum this.

MLB The Show 17 (PS4) - Working my way through a short Braves season to try to win the World Series. This game looks sharp in 4K HDR. It's also possibly the least janky sports sim I've ever played (that may be owed in part to the nature of baseball). Really solid game. Love the adaptive difficulty option. Keeps me on my toes. Played a game the other day with 3 lead changes by way of home runs. Possibly the most fun I've had playing a realistic sports sim (as opposed to arcade style NBA Jam, etc.) outside of the no-longer-made NCAA Football series.

Looking forward to Puyo Puyo Tetris tomorrow!

I basically "marathoned" Persona 5 and am now done with it. I don't have the patience for new game+ and finished almost everything on my first playthrough regardless.

I decided to pick up the Tokyo Mirage Sessions #FE game for Wii U as I wanted something to fill the Persona 5 void. However, to be honest the game feels a lot like Persona-lite. It's similar to Persona but casualized in almost every respect. While it's not a bad game so far at all, it feels too simplistic to me.

I've also been hitting up Tales of Berseria a lot lately. Right now I'm somewhere around the 40 hour mark.

I play FE Heroes from time to time but my playtime of that game has been cut drastically.

totally hooked on granblue

Been playing quite a bit!

Zelda Breath of the Wild: Finished this one up a couple weeks ago, put in just about 200 hours. I'll be waiting for the DLC now to jump back in.

Uncharted 4: Been playing both the story and the multiplayer, enjoying both. I've never been great at shooters, but it's a fun game to play with friends. The story has really been impressing me so far, I want to say I'm over half way through. This one in particular has a lot of focus on the characters and developing them further, which puts it leagues ahead of the previous titles. It has a few new gameplay additions that mix things up as well like the grappling hook and sliding. Both help to make the environments feel more organic.

Minecraft (PS4) - Got into playing this with a group of friends. It's really an enjoyable laid back experience for multiplayer. If I had gotten into this 5 years ago I could see myself putting a lot of time into it, but for now I like it as a way to hang out with friends and build stuff.

Fire Emblem Echoes: Shadows of Valentia: This game has taken me by surprise. I wasn't sure if I was going to pick it up, but decided I wanted a game for the weekend. This game so far has been a huge improvement in the story and character department compared to Awakening and in particular, Fates. The presentation is nice with full voice acting as well as 2D character portraits being used more than 3D models. I really like the dungeons they added - my teenage self would have loved being able to explore dungeons as Ike back in the Path of Radiance/Radiant Dawn days. Cool to see the series finally give you sections to fully control a character. I also really like how environments now are a bit of a point and click adventure as you search for food, weapons and people to talk to.

Granblue all day every day.

Ah shit I already posted that.

I've also been playing some Renowned Explorers. An expansion pack recently came out for the game which adds some new characters, a new expedition and new game mode.

I started playing Fire Emblem Echoes: Shadows of Valentia (3DS). Not far enough in to have many thoughts. It's interesting how they manage to "ease you in" to the battles like a traditional JRPG would (fighting a bunch of trash enemies to get your feet under you) as opposed to the usual FE method of pitting you against real enemies to learn the mechanics. It works because the initial battles are so quick. It's good so far.