Topic: The Chit-Chat Thread

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I got time... I got time. The world rotates at a thousand miles per hour, time flows on and on and I still can't find time to write. But no, it needs to be done, I hate leaving people like that. Just screams against my moral code. My free time's increased quite dramatically because of a sudden two week quarantine I've been forced into...

@Tyranexx I took a quick Google search of f.lux and it's just awesome. Exactly what sleep deprived individuals need especially if they use their mobile devices immediately before and after sleep. I now put my devices downstairs, except things that are charging. I work now out of my bedroom so putting these distractions out of the way makes for much better sleeping. I no longer wake up randomly in the middle of the night, because any urge to check my phone is gone. I can't say I have a cooldown period between turning off my device and going to sleep, sometimes I'd turn off my console and I'd be in bed within two minutes... But it'll have long term health benefits, because your sleep'll become more consistent. Keep on!

Yeah, your feet hurt after a short amount of time. That’s a byproduct of going without shoes towards the pool, on tiles that’ve been baked in such hot temperatures. As for people who become enlightened by walking on hot coals… I think they’re wusses. Lego is much worse as I’ve found out several times. I have large feet and so my spatial awareness has tanked. Also means more surface area to get burnt, so not good.


Actually there’s a fun development that’s been tossed around. Summer holiday’s coming up and there is a small chance we could end up going to Iceland. When I learned of this chance I was very happy, because not only is it cold, it’s immensely beautiful and so… far away from the rest of the world. In that respect it would be my perfect country… if there was anything to do there. The trip would need a lot of hiking and travel but… Iceland!

I hadn’t necessarily been in contact with the person who tested positive, but all said and done our being “shelved” was an understandable and logical choice. It is a shame of course but I’ll have to grin and bear it. Wish other people could do the same!

I kid you not, a week ago I didn’t even know that collection existed. So learning it did… mentally unlocked a chunk of possibilities. Of course there’s the small hurdle that is my PS5 storage, because of how many games I’m juggling. Realistically I could delete three out of five games I have installed but some are just too big to delete and reinstall like that. Gran Turismo: Sport is 113GB, and on my internet it takes around sixteen hours to copy the game (about 50GB) and download all the massive patches and updates. Other games (Death Stranding, Horizon Zero Dawn) are 45-55GB so they won’t be too bad… but some of the games I’ve downloaded so far aren’t too big.

• Until Dawn. A classic horror experience. If I hadn’t already watched a playthrough of it, I wouldn’t have downloaded it. It’s a pretty cool game, and the interactivity is shocking, in that almost every single choice you make will have a consequence or reward down the line. I threw a snowball at a bird during a QTE sequence, and from watching it means one of the characters won’t be fully exposed during a romance scene (in terms of only a bikini of course). I played an hour and a half of the game in the dark, because focus testing was done in dark rooms, with bio-monitors for pulse. I love it, even though it’s scary beyond belief.
• FFXV… well I’ve already written about it, it’s fantastic. I’m about to infiltrate the second Imperial base… but I feel like something bad’s gonna happen this time, granted last time Noctis’ power pretty much obliterated the fortress. We’ll see of course. That’s another game I wouldn’t want to delete and reinstall, it clocks in at 66GB in total when you install the extra story content. I’ll beat the whole game in one playthrough, and such.
• Games that piqued my interest were; God of War, The Last of Us, Uncharted 4, Crash N’Sane Trilogy… so thank you for saying I have decent variety with games! I… pride(?) myself on that so I’m glad you think so too. It’s important to branch out and play not just Nintendo games… or not just RPGs… so playing action games, puzzle games, adventure games, RPGs, racing… it makes for a feast of the senses one way or another. They’re all big though so I’ll need to make a solemn commitment. After FFXV then, that’ll no doubt take a good 25 hours to beat. I’m at seven now and I’m beginning chapter six.

I don’t know specifically where I read this (it may have been here?!) but I really wished Demon’s Souls got an optional Easy Mode. It’s a deeply challenging game and I’ve felt myself making progress after just an hour, but there’s a limit to the challenge, it ends somewhere, replaced with unfairness. I don’t like that if you die after progressing through a level for twenty minutes, you start all the way from the start. I like that I’m feeling the challenge people on PS3 got but at the same time I wish developers could willingly offer players an alternative.

I watched a video @kkslider5552000 posted, by Game Maker’s Toolkit, that explained easy modes in video games. I found it to be beautifully written and every point that was posed I agreed with. Celeste did it best, because while the team stated that they wanted to make a challenging experience, they were willing to break the game by introducing “cheats” like infinite stamina, jumps and such. But they didn’t call it easy mode or wimp mode. It was called “assist mode”. (Of course it differs through language. Xenoblade DE has Casual Mode in English but in French it’s “mode facile”, or, “easy mode”.)

So it’s very possible for a game as hard as Demon’s Souls to have an assist mode. I wouldn’t care if it shamed me by giving me a trophy for loading up the assist mode, as long as I could experience the game without raging out. (Having said that games like NieR Replicant and Automata give you trophies for upskirting protagonists so…)

My own raging is internal though if I’m doing something online I’d tend to save my exclamations for those. Racing online for instance. You collide a lot with other cars, for whatever reason. I’m a careful racer so I’m often getting pushed and so on. Once I yelled so loud and so high my voice cracked. What did I say? “WHAT THE F?#K?! YOU F£&$!&@ “*£&!!” It was quite surreal. Taking a break of course isn’t an option when you’re racing in real time but I calm down by focusing on… recovering from that.

Dear God, it’s all about Atlus this month. Not really. But Shin Megami Tensei III: Nocturne HD Remaster is coming out this month, giving me a chance to explore one of the stranger videogame series of all time. I’ve read reviews and watched gameplay, it still feels a bit archaic despite the HD treatment. It’s apparently been in development for two years but for some companies two years is spent better than others… Either way there’s an Easy mode, thank goodness, so I won’t be rage quitting as much as in Demon’s Souls. Getting into Persona is something you will truly appreciate. Yes it’ll take time but the payoff is huge. You’ll have Jungian/Freudian psychology and Gnosticism coming out of your ears; Shadow Self this and False God that.

I think splitting up the Final Fantasy VII Remake Project was a good choice. It means the game we got last year was super focused and had a lot of love put in. It also means that the development cycle will be repeated with less bumps. In terms of remakes, this is easily the best remake for a game I’ve seen, ever. Everything about it is better, and it feels relatively natural. There’s some filler here and there but it’s all good. I can’t wait for the second part, because as far as the production has gone it’s been sublime. The writing’s taken a massive step better and the voice cast is so good that they’d compete for my favourite voice cast in video games (with Xenoblade 1’s cast, Dragon Quest XI’s cast and Persona 4’s cast as well as Persona 5)

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I've been pretty busy the last couple days. Mostly with work and house maintenance. A bit of bad weather to contend with too. I also received dose 2 of my COVID shot today, so fingers crossed I don't deal with more than a sore arm and fatigue this time! Those symptoms are definitely starting to kick in again. At least I know my immune system isn't broken lol.

@BruceCM I also hope that we see a sequel to XCX. It's begging for one.

@ThanosReXXX were the New Pokemon Snap articles themselves fine? I tend to avoid most comment sections with anything "Pokemon" in them these days and stick to the news if possible. It saves me from rolling my eyes for the umpteenth time about how the franchise is going downhill lol.

@TheJGG Apologies for taking a couple of days to respond. It's been one of those weeks. Good news is, barring any unforeseen issues at work tomorrow, I get to cut out pretty early! Now that I've jinxed it....

I make it a point to not use electronics in my bedroom these days, especially near bedtime. I will rarely use my phone as an early alarm if needed (I still use an old-school digital alarm clock), but I silence all other notifications and intentionally put it out of reach. I've never compulsively checked texts and emails in the middle of the night, but I certainly know people who have. Sometimes, even if I don't cut off my electronics like I should, I still drop off pretty quickly if I'm really tired. I think it affects the quality of my sleep sometimes though. Glad you seem to like f.lux! It was a game changer when I first learned about it.

I concur with stepping on LEGO being much, MUCH worse than anything that burns the feet! Or at least anything I've had the misfortune to step on.

Iceland, huh? That's another country I'd like to get to, namely for its natural areas. For years, I've had a fascination with volcanoes and any resulting formations. I expect it's due in part to my fondness of mountains, a general fascination of some of Earth's processes, and the fact that I don't live anywhere close to any (Though I wouldn't want to live TOO close to an active one). I've seen some ancient volcanic necks and similar features in some of my travels, and I've been to Yellowstone, but nowhere near anything active outside of the latter. Do let me know if that's where you end up on holiday!

Ouch. I thought some games that came to the Switch, especially those lazy "half the game on the cart because we're cheap" physical releases were bad. But 113 GB for Gran Turismo Sport? I'd expect to see those numbers on a dev PC with a ton of extra ideas in-game floating around, not for the full package! As I'm primarily a Switch gamer, I feel kinda spoiled now lol. Both Death Stranding and Horizon Zero Dawn's space requirements at least seem more reasonable IMO.

I admittedly don't play a lot of horror games; I prefer atmospheric offerings that mess with your head, like Fatal Frame/Project Zero and Silent Hill (And I haven't played much of either series TBH). Not so much the overdone zombie/plague victim/alien/etc. shooter fests. That said, Until Dawn has piqued my interest on occasion due to the decision-making mechanics. As for Final Fantasy XV, that one's on the "Eventually, I'll get it" pile lol. I feel like I owe some time to the previous FFs that people sing praises about. Not all of them, but definitely most games from IV onward.

On game tastes: You're welcome! As they say, variety is the spice of life! Trying new things is rarely if ever a sin IMO. Part of the reason my backlog has grown exponentially is related to my trying out new games, genres, and franchises. The only genre I absolutely won't touch is the Sports genre (Though this is partially due to EA). I'm not big into shooters either, but I'll try out the odd on-rails concept, or if the game includes some shooter elements mixed with other mechanics. I like Racing and the occasional Fighter every now and again, but those two don't hold my attention long. J/RPGs, RTS games, Action, Adventure, Puzzle games, and the occasional point & click/visual novel are the genres I generally gravitate towards. I used to also play MMOs, mainly World of Warcraft, but the fact that they're major time sinks + a few other issues I've had with them over time means I don't dive into them anymore.

I would shamelessly use the easy mode in Demon's Souls if it had one. I'm not afraid to use medium or even high difficulties with franchises I'm familiar with as I like some challenge. But masochism? No thanks! Games that send one back to the start of a level, especially if one doesn't have a ton of gaming time to begin with, often aren't on my playlist for long. I should track down that Game Maker’s Toolkit video you mentioned; if it isn't too long, I could easily give it a watch while eating dinner.

I'm less inhibited when gaming at home since I live alone these days, so my raging admittedly becomes more external lol. I keep it mostly internal when around others...or at least to low muttering. Yep, you can't always take a break in a game that sends the adrenaline pumping right off, but there's always the post-session cooldown to look forward to, as you mentioned.

I completely forgot Shin Megami Tensei III: Nocturne HD Remaster is coming out this month; I'm not sure on the series, so like you I think I'll do a bit of homework first. In any case, it'll likely be ages before I pick up a SMT entry. I'd also totally use the Easy Mode if need be. Same with the Persona series, really. As for Atlus, I've only started picking up their games within the last year or two and hadn't heard of them at all until I tried out the 3DS Conception II demo a few years ago (That one was a pass lol). I've also picked up a couple of the other Etrian Odyssey games and am considering grabbing The Alliance Alive. I'd also love a shot at getting 13 Sentinels: Aegis Rim for the soundtrack alone.

Fully agreed on your additional FF VII Remake points, though I can't personally vouch for the quality of the game itself. Glad to read that there isn't a ton of filler, something that bothers me in some JRPGs that clearly stretch themselves out just for the sake of saying they have a ton of playtime. I certainly agree on the VA work put into Xenoblade Chronicles, and I'm glad to read that you hold Dragon Quest XI in similar regard. I still need to play the latter, though I own it.

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@Tyranexx No problem, I too am busy, meaning there was delay to my response. Fridays are such a good day of the week, Saturdays too, because in every culture they're considered days off. As I detailed over on General FF, I had a marathon Final Fantasy X session today, and finally managed to beat Evrae. It took me nine months but I've finally done it, so maybe I'll have a chance of beating the game, and continuing onto Eternal Calm, X-2, Last Mission, and then the accursed audio drama. But all said and done I'm finally free of that stupid dragon worm thing.

It's not the first time I was blocked by a boss and spent a massive amount of time trying to beat it again, I've had that happen to me in Twilight Princess, Xenoblade 1 AND 2, among others. In TP, about ten years ago I struggled to beat the Palace of Twilight, specifically the Sol section, and when the HD remaster came out in 2016 I managed to beat the game for the first time. And in Xenoblade, Jade Face was so difficult (also back in 2016 as it happens) that I deleted my save, and went all the way back to find out why I was so bad. Hint: I didn't get Monado Armour, plus I was underlevelled. So three hours of grinding did the trick. And in 2, I got the game at launch, and spent way too long trying to beat a specific boss. I was banking on the... 1.1 patch I think... to beat the rest of the game but by the time March 2 rolled around I had managed to beat them.

I rarely put my phone near my bedside but there are exceptions. I imagine any potential early morning wake-ups for flights would have me using an alarm but I distinctly remember using it to wake up for the Game Awards, and the Nintendo Direct back in February. Both times I had to wake up very early (TGA: 1:30am, and the Direct: 12:30am), so it was very useful. But I've found that almost always, my best alarm clock is my own body, so I've never had a dedicated alarm...

I'll let you know if there's any noteworthy travel, it'll be interesting to see if we can get something done this summer. I'm already super psyched for E3, I'm fully prepared to spend the whole day just watching different presentations, so adding something like this on top is very nice. I've practiced my photograhy in very mundane ways, and almost died of fright the other day when I made the mistake of photographing a dragonfly at extremely high zoom. I could make out the individual bristles on their stick legs, and it creeped me out a lot. Plus the eyes... it was too much!

Switch users have it much better off in that respect, because if you get a physical game you don't need to install the whole damn game! Installing GT Sport is a royal pain every time, if I actually delete the game at all. If I'm lucky... twelve hours. A game like FF7 Remake is better, because there's no patches or major content updates. Just 90GB of installing a game. I imagine it's due to the SSD and such. I feel that Death Stranding's use of space is quite phenomenal, because of the staggering (pun intended) amount of realistic physics, high-res graphics, and the absolutely massive world. I mean the middle region is so big that I played in it for a month and never got bored.

I watched some Resident Evil: Village gameplay today and it cemented my opinion on horror games; that I just don't like them. Until Dawn is different, because I know all the choices and what happens and so on. But even watching Hideo Kojima's PT demo... man it was scary. I'd watch gameplay, maybe in a dark room, but the games? Too darn scary. Even Demon's Souls is scary! But having said that... I'd consider playing if there was an easy mode.

FFXV's truly a good game. It wasn't self contained though, it had an anime, movie and novel, plus four DLC expansions, for the full experience. The game itself is awesome though, the combat is super slick and runs like a dream. One thing I love about the lore and world is that it draws so heavily from Latin; "Noctis Lucis Caelum" translates to English as "light the night sky", "nox" (as in Lunafreya Nox Fleuret) means night, "Regis" means King, "Tenebrae" means darkness. It's just awesome. The music's also very good; a trademark of Yoko Shimomura. Take a look at this Imperial Boss theme;

I'm of the opinion that Nocturne'll be a great game. Dated, yes, but nothing I haven't played before. With new voice acting, better graphics AND an easy mode... what's there not to love? Persona also has great difficulty balancing and quickly I found my ideal mode; Safe.