Finished Shadow Hearts: Covenant. Didn’t think I’d like it as much as I did. But now it’s one of my top 5 favorite PS2 games. Love the sense of adventure and travelling the game has going to different places around Europe and Japan. It’s much like the first game in that way but it loses some of its creepy personality.
They made so many improvements to the gameplay and it now it feels even better going through battles. I still ended up skipping a lot though as you end up facing a lot of encounters wandering around dungeons. And that’s my biggest complaint: many dungeons are just labyrinths so you have to get through by trial and error hitting each dead end.
I have to talk about the music because my god is it good. It’s got an exotic and otherworldly quality about it at times with the way female vocals are used. Almost hyptnotic. In a certain boss theme they’re mixed together with an almost industrial and hard techno beat that just hits different. These compositions are contrasted with some of the most warming and relaxing town themes you could ever hear. The soundtrack is wonderful.
Took me around 45 hours to beat doing most of the side quests using a guide. Feels like a good length for a 2 disc PS2 game.
After about 130 hours, I’ve wrapped up my initial playthrough of Doctor Hojo or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love Chadley. I have two hard mode minigames & a few dozen combat trials left, one late game quest line, as well as a couple items on each characters relationship checklist, but I was quite thorough with this playthrough. I’ve got about 10 collectibles left before I finish those, and my trophy completion is at 72%. I’m gonna play a little more casually now, but this is still gonna be my primary game until I have nothing left in it. Very excited to give hard mode a spin.
I will be flabbergasted if this is not my GOTY. Can’t wait for Remake Part 3
just finished up legend of zelda: skyward sword (I’m a fanatic) and now replaying minish cap on the emulator for the first time since I was a wee lass.
I have a horrible habit of not finishing what I start buttttt I’m also working through nier, persona 5 royal, TOTK, FF IX (third time) AND…xenoblade 3. 100+ hour games? no problem!!! (help me)
Beatdown my way through River City Girls 2. Surprisingly enjoyable follow up to the first game. More moves and characters make it a bit more engaging. And it still has a ridiculous yet fun personality. Music is just as good too with a lot of new tracks and a lot of returning tracks.
Lately Predator Hunting Grounds, but it’s kinda disappointing. Multiplayer is gone, at least for me, so no thrill at all. You can have your own Predator anyway, which is not bad after all.
Started Devil May Cry 5 Special Edition. This game looks so good visually. Very impressed with what the RE Engine is capable of. I’ve played the RE Remakes and Resident Evil VII and VIII, but the visuals in DMC5 pop out even more with neon lights and water reflections everywhere.
Never been a huge DMC player but the combat in DMC5 is pretty good. Honestly though, I actually like the feel of FF XVI’s combat more so far. In DMC the hits feel somewhat light like I’m swatting a piece of toilet paper with a baseball bat. There’s a lack of impact. Only like 2 hours in though and I have a lot of moves to unlock and explore.
Just finished my Elden Ring NG+9 playthrough with The Age of Order ending. One of the two people I summoned used something against Radagon and Elden Beast, and the last boss fight was over in 1 minute. I was amazed how that was even possible.
Finishing up Xenosaga for Playstation 2. It’s a sci-fi themed rpg with an interesting battle system that requires strategically using points to fulfill certain actions. Smaller actions use less points and more powerful attacks use more points at once. So you need to decide if you want to stack your points for more damage, or do something else. You can also “boost” characters so that they get a turn early.
It’s a very 2000’s era game with its character designs, dialogue, and mechanics. But I think it’s part of its charm. The game’s story is actually quite interesting and touches on some deeper topics like if androids are living beings or not, donating your body to be used as a soldier, and using children as soldiers. It’s nothin special compared to stories nowadays, but it kept me engaged.
The exploration is quite linear, but there are secrets to be found and there’s even a small sense of traveling between planets. Kind of like in a star wars movie. The most fun part of this is finding secret doors and keys to access special items and gear.
Currently playing Jak II and regretting it for its difficulty spikes and checkpointing issues! Super fun game though and another one of Naughty Dog’s great stories!
I’m replaying Ni no Kuni 2: Revenant Kingdom, but giving hard mode a run, and its largely a cake walk after learning about Hero’s Delights and being inspired by my partner to find fun in skirmishes and kingdom-building (these were my most-hated aspects of the game during my first run through it, but I was more focused on the story as well).
I still much prefer the first game, but I’m addicted so far on this 2nd run.
Picked up Vampie Hunter D for PS1. Surprisingly, pretty fun. It’s an action adventure game with some exploration elements like a survival horror game. Complete with tank controls. Which makes combat janky, but somehow they make it pretty functional.
You can absorb enemies with your left hand and use abilities like healing and fireballs.
Very cool aesthetics and pretty fun gameplay. Glad I found a copy!
Completed Xenosaga Episode II. It’s the black sheep of the franchise but I had a good time with it. The changes to the battle system kind of suck, but the presentation of the game is top notch and there are a good number of memorable moments. For a PS2 game there are some fantastic visuals. All the environments look really good and eye catching.
I’ve completed everything in the lead up to the last boss of the base game and I’ve enjoyed it so much more than Rebirth. People complain about the side quests but I found them infinitely more interesting than mushroom picking and chicken herding.
Finished it a few days ago and it was great! Honestly, some of the best content in the whole game. I haven’t played Rebirth yet (and probably never will) so can’t comment on mushroom picking, but I was mixed on the sidequests.
The quests themselves are pretty lame since most of them are fetch quests or “go kill x amount of monsters”. I wouldn’t have as much of an issue with them if they let us turn off all the destination markers and guides. Feels like you’re just following an arrow rather than playing a game.
The lore can be interesting, but I wish they:
Removed like half the amount of side quests
Wrote a majority of side quests to revolve around the main cast of characters rather than random npcs
Included more high quality cutscenes as “rewards” for these side quests instead of showing characters standing around with the same animations
Some of the last handful of side quests were really good. I just wished they wrote them all like that.
To your point, since all you ever do is combat, it would’ve been nice to give us some other stuff to do than fighting and walking around. Doesn’t have to be a mini-game persay, but a breakup in activities would’ve kept the game feeling refreshing. The Rising Tide felt close to perfecting the formula they started with the base game though. Would’ve loved for the whole game to have gone more in this direction.
