Topic: What Game(s) are You Currently Playing?

Started Danganronpa 2 recently. I just got to where the first person was killed but haven't started the investigation yet. I am quite confused about the story and how it connects to the first game but also quite intrigued on how it is going to. I believe it has to connect somehow, but I don't know how especially after the first victim. I'm also not sure about the new set of classmates because they seem a little too similar to the first game, but I'm sure they will grow on me.

Story of Seasons: Pioneers of Olive Town PS4

Currently in mission to get 1 Alpaca Wool+ and 1 Brown Alpaca Wool+.
Those items are nearly impossible to get even I have raised the Alpacas heart level and happiness to level 10.
They still gave me multiple normal Alpaca Wools, not the Alpaca Wool+. 😩
The NRG of getting Plus products were killing me.

I’m currently just starting the third case of Miles Edgeworth: Investigations on the DS Lite. So far, I think the game is… okay. I’ll start off with what I like:

The investigations feel much more fleshed out than in the original trilogy, and being able to physically walk around the crime scene is very cool. Some of the music absolutely kicks, with Lying Coldly being one of my new favorite songs in the series. It’s also just really cool to see some returning characters after the events of Trials and Tribulations.

Onto the stuff I don’t like, though:

The writing feels really, really weird. Every character feels like a husk of who they are and what their personalities were like in the trilogy. Edgeworth came from being an intelligent, serious, and calculating man to just being smart and boring. Von Karma’s over-the-top personality is greatly held back, and Gumshoe has the same problem. I’m a little disappointed that this game didn’t take a little more time to characterize them a bit more and make them feel genuine. So far, I’ve only played two cases, but both of them have been very predictable. Hopefully it picks up a bit more later on, though.

I knew going into this game that it’s considered to be the worst in the series, and after playing a few hours, I can see why. I still don’t think the game is bad, it just doesn’t nearly hold a candle to any of the mainline games so far. I’ve heard that the sequel is supposed to be wayyyy better, though, so I’m looking forward to playing that.

Paper Mario: The Origami King - Working my way towards the third streamer. Great writing, world, and decent characters so far; one section even hit me in the feels a bit. Combat is a slight improvement over Color Splash, but it still gets repetitive fast. At least boss battles are reasonably challenging and turn the mechanics on their head. It's telling when I flee combat as much as possible to conserve items. 😅

Mole Mania (3DS VC) - An underrated puzzle gem created by Shigeru Miyamoto for the humble Game Boy. Monty Mole has to dig, break, cabbage, and stealth his way to rescuing his family from the cruel Jinbe and his lackeys. I've been playing this when I need a break from the former.

I've been playing Kirby: Planet Robobot, and I made it halfway through the third world. It's so good, and might even be one of the best Kirby games out there. The big mechs you can pilot throughout the levels are insanely awesome to use, too.

Continuing on my Legacy Collection crusade, I started Mega Man 1 earlier on, taking down Cut, Guts and Bomb Man and uh....yep....that certainly is Mega Man 1.

I expected pain, I got pain, someone save me from this hell.

Doing random bouts of Picross S (I finally understand what's addicting about it) on my switch, daily challenges on pokkén tournament when I feel like it. Besides that I'm playing Outer Wilds and Hitman 3 on steam, but I have a LOT of indies waiting for me on switch like spiritfarer, jack move, axiom verge... I've been in a one piece gaming mood too so Unlimited World Red and Pirate Warriors 4 might get some love too. All of the choices, with persona 3, 4 and fire emblem on the horizon... oof.

Anyway, 2 missions left before Hitman 3's story is done, and Outer Wilds is quite engrossing even if it's better suited to shorter sessions because of the feeling of repetition settling in with time loops.

I started playing Yooka Laylee, finally. I'm glad I took my time playing this, long enough that I know that both the game isn't amazing and also that the 2d follow up was awesome so it isn't that the old Rare people stopped being good at making games.

So far its alright, but it does really showcase why the Banjo games worked, when what changes they made to the formula seems to have often made it obviously worse (the apparent tallon trot replacement being the most obvious example of this).

Digimon Story Cyber Sleuth: Complete Edition- I’m on chapter 7 on Cyber Sleuth.
Octopath Traveler- I’m on Ophelia’s Chapter 3.
The Last Story- I’m on chapter 34.
Pokémon Ultra Sun- I don’t have any Z-crystals yet.

I finished the first trial in Danganronpa 2, and man, this game goes right for the jugular from the beginning, doesn't it? I assumed the first case would just be an easy tutorial-like trial where the blackened was obvious like it was in the first game, but nope! There have already been so many twists. And I've played a little farther and found the ancient ruin, and they are just throwing all kinds of stuff at you and it's still super early in the game. I'm really looking forward to how this story plays out. I just hope I can get through it before it gets taken off of Gamepass, as I saw the first game got removed this month (fortunately I beat it just in time).

FE Engage, Chained echoes still, tiny bit of halo, and a tiny bit of infernax.

@Xyphon22 DR2 was a gigantic step up from the first game in most respects. Great cast, expansive worldbuilding, some tremendous late-game twists, and consistently memorable trials. Like a lot of people, I didn't really become a fan of the series until I completed the sequel.

By contrast, I can now say the glide ability is practically the saving grace of the game at this point. An excellent and worthwhile and in some ways better change from the Banjo equivalent move.

@Ralizah Granted I am not very far into it yet, but I would agree with all of those things you mentioned except for the cast. From the start I haven't liked these people nearly as much as those from the first game. I think too many of them are far too similar to characters from the first game, and those that are different are beyond annoying. I'm also having a lot more trouble remembering their names and who they are when one character refers to another. I'm sure they will grow on me (at least I hope so), but first impressions of the cast are not favorable for me.

One Piece Odyssey (PS5) - Recently started the first memory world (Alabasta) and it's pretty decent so far. Has a clean, Dragon Quest like vibe (though I'll say Oda's designs can be a bit more quirky than Toriyama's) with an easy to grasp turn based battle system.

Ryse: Son of Rome (Steam) - I was recently reminded that this existed, and being one of the few Xbox One launch games that seemed interesting at the time I decided to check it out. Think I'm a little over half way through it & it's been solid so far. Definitely worth the $10, and it wasn't even on sale.

Right now I’m playing Ace Attorney: Dual Destinies on 3DS. I’ve heard some people say that this is one of the weaker entries in the series, but so far, I’ve really been liking it. Granted, I’m only about halfway through the second case, so I’ll have to see if it keeps its momentum.

So far, the writing has been great, the music is super catchy, and Blackquill has been a really interesting prosecutor so far. The anime cutscenes that play throughout the cases are great too, although the voice acting is pretty cheesy at times. The 3D models look slightly janky compared to Great Ace Attorney’s, but since this is their first attempt at 3D, I’m willing to give them a pass.

So yeah, hopefully this game can keep my interest and leave a more positive impression on me than Edgeworth: Investigations did.

@StarPoint The 3D models improve pretty significantly in Spirit of Justice. As does the quality of the writing overall.

This is definitely one of my least favorite Ace Attorney titles, but at least it's better than Apollo Justice, and it still has some cool tricks up its sleeve. Also, for whatever reason, I believe it's the only M-rated game in the series, lol.

Be sure to grab the DLC case, btw. Arguably one of the best cases in the game.

@Ralizah Yeah I’ve heard that SoJ is an improvement in almost every way, so I’m really looking forward to playing that. Would you say that SoJ’s quality is on par with the Great Ace Attorney games, at least in terms of visuals? So far, I’ve been enjoying this one more than Apollo Justice, but it remains to be seen for me whether or not it’ll be better overall.

Yeah, the ESRB really screwed up the age rating. Apparently they rated it Mature since one cutscene shows a courtroom being blown up, and a couple others show a bit more blood than the norm. Which to me is not a great reason to close off the game to a ton of the normal audience. I don’t tend to play M rated games but after seeing why this one got rated what it did I decided I’d be fine with it.

And yes, I made sure to snatch the DLC. I think I’ve heard at some point you need to cross examine a whale or something? Not sure if that’s accurate but that would be awesome.

@StarPoint I'd say the Great Ace Attorney duology has both higher highs and lower lows than Spirit of Justice, whereas the latter is consistently good, and caps off with a really fantastic final case that wraps up characters arcs throughout the trilogy. So... very much like T&T in that respect. Visually... well, I played GAA on the Switch, so that obviously looks better in HD, but I think otherwise they're pretty similar in terms of how expressive and smooth the 3D models are. The in-engine cutscenes look amazing for the 3DS. I'm tempted to say it's one of the most attractive titles on the system.

SoJ also has an excellent soundtrack, and even significantly improves certain tracks introduced in Dual Destinies.

Spirit of Justice, Trials & Tribulations, and Great Ace Attorney 2 are all such fantastic games that I struggle to choose between them. It depends on my mood.

The M-rating was bizarre, yeah. Sorta reminds me of how inconsistent movie ratings can be as well ("This Film is Not Yet Rated" is a documentary that did a great job investigating the MPAA's biases regarding how it treats different types of content). The Persona games being M-rated always struck me as being weird as well, considering the games never stray especially far from subject matter teenagers would be exposed to anyway, and inarguably speaks best to people in that age bracket. You can show Nathan Drake murdering a small nation's worth of foreigners in a T-rated game, but god forbid a game make even vague references to teenage sexual identity issues.

There's actually an orca whale, and it's sorta your defendant. The case is just super fun, and if you've played the OG trilogy, there are some really great callbacks and cameos.

I really, really loved Dual Destinies at the time but I'm concerned that like Apollo Justice, I'm not going to feel the same the moment I look back at it. Though unlike Apollo Justice where I was genuinely surprised at how much I didn't care about a good chunk of it in hindsight, its a bit easier for me to see that happening this time (though I hope not to the same extent, Apollo Justice went from like 2nd best to 3rd worst in the series for me). Absolutely part of the reason I loved Dual Destinies is that I had played an AA game every 6 months for 2 years, and then outside of 1 spinoff had to wait 5 years for the next one. I could've seen myself not being as overwhelmingly positive about it without that.

Ironically though, being a stealth Apollo Justice sequel was largely the best part of Spirit of Justice for me.