Played through Deltarune chapter 1. It had a nice touch.
I think the game was pushing spare everyone a lot more than Undertale did.
I think the game was pushing spare everyone a lot more than Undertale did.
Arc Rise Fantasia
Arcanum
- Seda
Atelier Ayesha
- Gevin
Battle Chasers
- Luminaire
Blue Dragon
- ExistentialCrisis
Borderlands 2
- FiveSide
Breath Of Fire IV
- StormEagle
Breath of the Wild
- Wazzy
Chrono Cross
- AbsentmindedProf
Chrono Trigger
- nivora
Cosmic Star Heroine
- Bloodarmz
- Kalor
- nivora
- Zeno
CrossCode
- Taborcarn
Dark Souls
- Mattakuevan
Deus Ex: Human Revolution
- Asukui
Digimon Adventure
- Taborcarn
Digital Devil Saga 2
- Opa
Divinity Original Sin
- Thuddert
Divinity Original Sin 2
- Novel Mike
Dragon Quest
- AbsentmindedProf
Dragon Quest III
- Iva
Dragon Quest IV
- Tonton
- Zeno
Dragon Quest V
- Soilbreaker
- Thuddert
Dragon Quest VII
- futurememory
- Gio
Dragon Quest VIII
- Tenrius
Dragon Quest XI
- HosannaExcelsis
Earthbound
- BlueOdin
Earthbound Beginnings/Mother
- Beary
- Bloodarmz
- DarknessTear
- futurememory
- Luminaire
- Mattakuevan
- StormEagle
- Taborcarn
- Tonton
- Wazzy
- Xetherion
Emerald Dragon
- Bloodarmz
- Kalor
Energy Breaker
- lunarwhale
Eternal Poison
- Fou-Lu
Etrian Odyssey Untold
- Luminaire
Fallout
- Opa
Fate/Extra
- Beary
- futurememory
- Opa
Final Fantasy I
- Tonton
Final Fantasy Type 0
- Asukui
- Tenrius
Final Fantasy VI
- Xetherion
Final Fantasy VII
- ExistentialCrisis
Final Fantasy VIII
- Archreaper
Final Fantasy IX
- HosannaExcelsis
Final Fantasy X-2 HD
- Beary
- Thores
Final Fantasy XII: The Zodiac Age
- Gio
Final Fantasy XIII
- Iva
- Kalor
- Wazzy
Final Fantasy XIII-2
- Gevin
Final Fantasy Tactics
- emonk
Fire Emblem (GBA)
- futurememory
- Archreaper
Fire Emblem Mystery of the Emblem
- Archreaper
- HosannaExcelsis
Fire Emblem Fates - Conquest
- MoonFrog
Fire Emblem Fates - Birthright
- Thuddert
Fire Emblem: Genealogy of the Holy War
- StormEagle
Fire Emblem: Path of Radiance
- Fou-Lu
- Novel Mike
- Tonton
- preta
Folklore
- iiicon
Ghost of a Tale
- Fou-Lu
Grandia
- BlueOdin
Grandia 2
- ExistentialCrisis
Growlanser
- DarknessTear
Horizon Zero Dawn
- lunarwhale
Hyperdimension Neptunia Re;Birth2
- DarknessTear
Illusion of Gaia
- Gevin
Jade Empire
- Aters
Kingdom Come: Deliverance
- iiicon
Kingdom Hearts
- Zeno
Kingdom Hearts Birth by Sleep
- wrowa
Kingdom Hearts Dream Drop Distance
- Iva
Kingdom Hearts II Final Mix
- Iva
Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning
- Iva
Lands of Lore: Throne of Chaos
- Spamlynguist
Legend of Legaia
- StormEagle
Linda Cube
- nivora
Live a Live
- lunarwhale
Long Gone Days
- preta
Lunar: Silver Star Harmony
- Mattakuevan
Mass Effect
- Gio
Megami Tensei
- FiveSide
Megami Tensei II
- MoonFrog
Might & Magic IV: Clouds of Xeen
- MoonFrog
Mother 3
- AbsentmindedProf
NieR: Automata
- BlueOdin
- Boddy
Nioh
- Aters
- Taborcarn
- Zeno
Octopath Traveler
- iiicon
Odin Sphere
- Fou-Lu
- wrowa
- Asukui
OneShot
- Archreaper
Panzer Dragoon Saga
- Thores
Paper Mario
- preta
- wrowa
Parasite Eve
- Boddy
Pathfinder: Kingmaker
- Aters
- Soilbreaker
Persona 5
- Boddy
Phantasy Star I
- Tenrius
Phantasy Star II
- AbsentmindedProf
Pillars of Eternity
- emonk
Pillars of Eternity 2: Deadfire
- Gevin
Planescape Torment
- Mattakuevan
- Taborcarn
Pyre
- HosannaExcelsis
- Xetherion
Resonance of Fate
- nivora
Shadow Hearts: Covenant
- ExistentialCrisis
Shadowrun Hong Kong
- FiveSide
Shin Megami Tensei Devil Summoner: Soul Hackers
- Xetherion
- Spamlynguist
Shin Megami Tensei IV
- Gio
Shiness: The Lightning Kingdom
- Kalor
Shiren The Wanderer 3
- Thores
Skyborn
- Opa
Slay the Spire
- StormEagle
Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic
- Mattakuevan
Suikoden
- Spamlynguist
Suikoden II
- DarknessTear
- Thores
- Thuddert
Super Mario RPG
- Thuddert
Tactics Ogre
- Asukui
- Bloodarmz
Tales of Berseria
- emonk
Tales of Vesperia
- Kalor
Tears to Tiara 2
- ExistentialCrisis
Terranigma
- Novel Mike
The Last Remnant
- Novel Mike
The Last Story
- FiveSide
- Luminaire
The Witcher 3 Heart of Stone + Blood & Wine
- Seda
The World Ends With You
- BlueOdin
Tokyo Mirage Sessions #FE
- Beary
Tokyo Xanadu
- Bloodarmz
- DarknessTear
- Boddy
Tokyo Xanadu ex+
- Seda
Trails in the Sky: FC
- nivora
Trails in the Sky: SC
- Wazzy
Trails of Cold Steel I
- Beary
- BlueOdin
- Luminaire
- Wazzy
- emonk
Trails of Cold Steel II
- Seda
Trails of Cold Steel IV
- Seda
Treasure Hunter G
- Aters
Ultima IV
- Fou-Lu
- lunarwhale
Undertale
- MoonFrog
Utawarerumono
- iiicon
- Xetherion
Valkyria Chronicles
- Aters
- wrowa
Valkyrie Profile
- Asukui
Valkyrie Profile 2
- preta
Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines
- preta
Vampyr
- Spamlynguist
Victor Vran
- Thores
- Zeno
Wachenröder
- Spamlynguist
World of Final Fantasy
- lunarwhale
Xanadu Next
- FiveSide
Xenoblade Chronicles X
- iiicon
Xenoblade Chronicles 2
- HosannaExcelsis
Yakuza 0
- emonk
Yakuza Kiwami
- Archreaper
Yakuza Kiwami 2
- Boddy
Ys I & II chronicles
- Novel Mike
- Opa
Ys II
- Soilbreaker
Ys VI
- futurememory
Ys VIII
- MoonFrog
Ys: Memories Of Celceta
- Tonton
- wrowa
Ys: The Oath in Felghana
- Gio
- Soilbreaker
From the day I put my name on the list to today I've made zero progress in any RPG whatsoever. Looks like ToCS4 might be the only one I will finish. Gonna write something about it for sure. There's so much to write about for the whole damn arc.
It might be too late to join and maybe you can if you ask nicely on the discord server.What is the Blitz? How do I join? Where is the Discord link?
So many questions!
From the day I put my name on the list to today I've made zero progress in any RPG whatsoever. Looks like ToCS4 might be the only one I will finish. Gonna write something about it for sure. There's so much to write about for the whole damn arc.
Maybe the Blitz will finally be the motivation I need to play through Trails in the Sky SC (and actually post in the thread). It looks like everyone's covering a wide range of RPGs so I'm interested in reading all the write-ups at least.
Decided to not join in on the whole Blitz thing, since I could only come up with one game (Ys 8) and I don't even feel like playing it yet.
I would be interested in joining following the impressions of other people participating in the Blitz, as I have been working through my own backlog and it looks like I am playing some games quite a few others are playing at the moment.
What is the Blitz? How do I join? Where is the Discord link?
So many questions!
Beat my first game for the RPG Blitz!
Pretty decent ARPG. The final boss took me quite some time to figure out but when I finally got his pattern down it was pretty doable. His vampire totems are bullshit though.
Looks like a pretty lonely Blitz for me, with just Xetherion playing Undertale as I do. Guess that's extra motivation to write up my thoughts on what I play in here.
I'm still thinking about my other two games and I might pick Undertale! Especially seeing that it's pretty short.Looks like a pretty lonely Blitz for me, with just Xetherion playing Undertale as I do. Guess that's extra motivation to write up my thoughts on what I play in here.
I was planning on starting the blitz with Undertale, but when I got to my computer yesterday morning ready to boot it up, I opted for Jade Empire instead. It called to me. It's been on my brain with all this talk about Bioware surrounding Anthem's release, and it's one of the few Bioware ass Bioware games I haven't played (the others, shamefully, are Baldur's Gate and Baldur's Gate 2). I wanted to get to it while my motivation was at its highest.
It's interesting coming to this game from the other side, having played all the games that came after. It's got obvious similarities with KOTOR, as the binary morality system seems similarly grafted on to existing ideologies but isn't fully fleshed out so it manifests as dialogue options that can only be summed up as "understanding and empathetic person" vs. "craven megalomaniac." The structure of the opening is reminiscent of the origins in Dragon Age as well, which shouldn't be surprising considering this team went on to make that game. But the game isn't hooking me so far. I love walking around and exhausting the dialogue options for everyone I see. That will forever remain my happy place, what drives me to play cRPGs. It's just a shame that the characters I've met in the opening area don't have much meat to them, they only exist to provide basic exposition or introduce me to the morality system in a way that completely oversells what the morality system is. The exception is Master Li, my trainer who ends the introduction by revealing his relation to the super evil emperor and hints at more twists to come.
Hopefully the next few areas are more exciting.
Last weekend I finished the last DLC of Inquisitionand, damn, it couldn't be any more perfect. The conversation withat the end its something at the Sovereign level. I'm super hyped for Dragon Age 4.Solas
It does not. It's an action RPG where you have three basic types of attacks (melee, weapon, magic), which all have light, heavy, and AOE commands. There are also different styles of fighting you can learn and switch between on the fly with hotkeys 1-4, so if you wanted you could have 4 different types of melee fighting styles. It's a little clunky and I'm early in the game so I don't have a ton of options available to me, but it's kinda neat.Jade Empire has always been something I've been aware of but saw little of. It occupies the same space in my mind as that old 80s/90s tv show Kung Fu.
Does it use DnD rules?
Interesting. Now that I think of it, I don't think I've seen it in motion.It does not. It's an action RPG where you have three basic types of attacks (melee, weapon, magic), which all have light, heavy, and AOE commands. There are also different styles of fighting you can learn and switch between on the fly with hotkeys 1-4, so if you wanted you could have 4 different types of melee fighting styles. It's a little clunky and I'm early in the game so I don't have a ton of options available to me, but it's kinda neat.
Finished Arcanum as my first game of the blitz.
So, the tl:dr is that I loved the game and it'll surely get a spot in my top 10 RPGs ever. As a little background of my playthrough, my internet went down sunday night, and monday and tuesday were holidays here, so I had both whole days for myself.
I hope we will finally see a release date for Disco Elysium during GDC.
I mean....I know GDC isn't really about that but, you know, it would be nice....
Played some Dragon Quest IV again, chapter 4 write up ahead. I wanted a bit more out of this, but it is still a good set up for a later chapter.
Game starts with Maya giving a dance performance in the hopes of finding the guy that killed her dad in the audience. No dice there, so after a rest she and her little sister Meena leave in search of new clues. Balzack (hehe ballsack) used to be their dad's apprentice, went mad with power and killed him. It is a simple story over revenge.
I feel this is where the partychat shines through a lot. Here a npc gives his condolences and the above is Maya's retort. The wound is still fresh. Meena also speaks about revenge. Both sisters share the same purpose, but express it in different ways. Maya is excited and easily distracted, while Meena is much more serious and too the point. Though she tends to repeat words for emphasis. Compare Maya talking about this cow in her hometown to Meena talking about her hometown:
This duality is what makes it interesting. I also think this is the new thing they bring to the DQ4 table. Playing as two protagonists in their own chapter. Yeah, there some minor changes in equipment, magic and encounters. Like the slimes merging to form a king slime, which was a neat little surprise.
Story also brings some neat changes. Such as Oojam joining the sisters and leaving them in the same chapter. Oojam was another student under their father, although he uses physical attacks rather than magical ones. This definitely bridges the power gap between the sisters and the stronger monsters. Plus he can open the locks in the palace, that's pretty handy! His join dialogue is also the best:
The Revengers are born. Meena acts as a priest, Maya is the mage and Oojam is just a dude that hits hard as a brick. Almost got wiped in the mines once though and that was scary. Getting to Balzack was kinda fun. Setting up a diversion so you can follow the regent back to the throne and throw everything you have against Balzack. Suffering a defeat and being forced to retreat is pretty brave and anti-climatic. Neat thing is that Psaro got mentioned, so that's set up right. At least we got on a boat, except oojam lol, and I didn't have to wait years for the trip to end. This defeat quickly changes to a new resolve, to get the power to overturn the regime. FIGHT THE CORRUPTION.
I think this is pretty cute. Both sisters have never been on a boat. They have only seen it in books before or they may have heard of it from someone else. This kinda makes me think they had a sheltered life when their dad was still alive and they're slowly getting to grow in this journey of vengeance. I hope they can find closure after the whole ordeal is done for.
I'm not sure if I'll make a lengthy post on the next chapter like I have been doing, I'll see how it turns out. I didn't expect to make my chapter 4 review this long as well.
The first weekend of the Blitz and I think it's time to talk a little bit about the games I've been playing. After confirming that it was legal to include a game I started a few days before March the 1st, I'd like to talk about my first hours playing Kingdom Hearts II Final Mix:
So, Kingdom Hearts II Final Mix or How someone cockblocked my summer vacation
The first three hours of Kingdom Hearts II are more emotional than I thought they'd be. Years of willingly exposing myself to the mockery that the series receive meant that I already knew some of the twists the game will try to pull off, but I didn't think it would be this early in the game that I'd find the first of them.
So you're Roxas or... Sora X!!!, you're in the last days of your summer vacation and have no money to go to the beach with your friends, you also get blamed by a dick that hates you and your friends of stealing stuff from the locals and you haven't done your homework... It's a nice contrast compared to the main characters of Kingdom Hearts, where Riku and Sora and Kairi just have a childish dream of building a raft to go see the world. Another thing that kind of shocked me is that Sora is supposed to be 14 years old in the first game so the first few hours of Kingdom Hearts make even less sense.
What I liked about the introduction of KHII is the fact that fantasy starts to blend with slice of life, pretty much like in the Persona series or Brave Story. Things start to get out of control quickly as you try to live the last days of your summer vacation: first some characters of Chain of Memories come back and then it's clear that Sora himself is about to wake up after the events of the same game; someone behind the curtains guides you and mocks you, a pretty girl tells you you shouldn't exist and it's clear you have memories you shouldn't have. At the climax of this short episode Roxas learns he was defeated by Riku to the point he's almost broken and he's been trapped in some kind of simulation in order to allow him to heal in time to go back to Sora's heart... or at least that's how I understood it. At the end once you learn what you are and despite Roxas' frustrations there's no way to avoid your fate: Roxas has to go back to Sora before he awakes... "it looks like my summer vacation is over" is the last thing you hear from Roxas and you can't avoid to cry a little inside.
The game is a little bit cruel about the whole thing: once you control Sora the game acts as if whatever happened before didn't even take place, to the point that the menus themselves kind of restart too.
You get to explore Twilight Town once again and soon you find some familiar faces: Pence, Olette and Hayner, who tell you The King is looking for you. A brief scene later you get told you have to ride a train, and when you're about to do so Olette and the others come to say goodbye to you even though this is the first time they've met you. Sora too doesn't understand why but he's sad he has to leave to the point that he even sheds a tear without really knowing why. But you, the player, you do understand: it isn't Sora but Roxas the one who's crying. Goodbye Twilight Town.
...
...And then a bunch of Disney stuff happens
No, seriously. So far, while the game has been pretty fun, it's the prologue one of the strongest parts of the game. Another great level was Timeless River too where you play in the 30s Disney world. In general, I can say that most Disney Worlds I've visited have been cool except for two of them: Mulan's world and Atlantica. The first one is pretty simple and kind of boring both in its looks and the setpieces presented and the second one is basically a bunch of rhythm minigames blocked under random conditions.
After 14 hours of playtime, the story doesn't seem to go anywhere after the Roxas episode: It seems that I'm just unlocking paths between the different worlds while I fight two factions along my way: the Heartless and the Nobodies. I know that things will eventually escalate and I'm looking forward to playing those sections.
Please, be excited.
Oh cool, I played Atelier Ayesha a few years ago, I'll be eager to see what you think of it by the end.
Great impressions. I'll be really interested to hear your takes as you play through the franchise, because it sounds like you're more interested in the Kingdom Hearts story and lore than the Disney stuff... which is the opposite of how I feel about these games! It's really neat to see someone approach KHII from that opposite perspective. Looking forward to more!The first weekend of the Blitz and I think it's time to talk a little bit about the games I've been playing. After confirming that it was legal to include a game I started a few days before March the 1st, I'd like to talk about my first hours playing Kingdom Hearts II Final Mix:
So, Kingdom Hearts II Final Mix or How someone cockblocked my summer vacation
The first three hours of Kingdom Hearts II are more emotional than I thought they'd be. Years of willingly exposing myself to the mockery that the series receive meant that I already knew some of the twists the game will try to pull off, but I didn't think it would be this early in the game that I'd find the first of them.
So you're Roxas or... Sora X!!!, you're in the last days of your summer vacation and have no money to go to the beach with your friends, you also get blamed by a dick that hates you and your friends of stealing stuff from the locals and you haven't done your homework... It's a nice contrast compared to the main characters of Kingdom Hearts, where Riku and Sora and Kairi just have a childish dream of building a raft to go see the world. Another thing that kind of shocked me is that Sora is supposed to be 14 years old in the first game so the first few hours of Kingdom Hearts make even less sense.
What I liked about the introduction of KHII is the fact that fantasy starts to blend with slice of life, pretty much like in the Persona series or Brave Story. Things start to get out of control quickly as you try to live the last days of your summer vacation: first some characters of Chain of Memories come back and then it's clear that Sora himself is about to wake up after the events of the same game; someone behind the curtains guides you and mocks you, a pretty girl tells you you shouldn't exist and it's clear you have memories you shouldn't have. At the climax of this short episode Roxas learns he was defeated by Riku to the point he's almost broken and he's been trapped in some kind of simulation in order to allow him to heal in time to go back to Sora's heart... or at least that's how I understood it. At the end once you learn what you are and despite Roxas' frustrations there's no way to avoid your fate: Roxas has to go back to Sora before he awakes... "it looks like my summer vacation is over" is the last thing you hear from Roxas and you can't avoid to cry a little inside.
The game is a little bit cruel about the whole thing: once you control Sora the game acts as if whatever happened before didn't even take place, to the point that the menus themselves kind of restart too.
You get to explore Twilight Town once again and soon you find some familiar faces: Pence, Olette and Hayner, who tell you The King is looking for you. A brief scene later you get told you have to ride a train, and when you're about to do so Olette and the others come to say goodbye to you even though this is the first time they've met you. Sora too doesn't understand why but he's sad he has to leave to the point that he even sheds a tear without really knowing why. But you, the player, you do understand: it isn't Sora but Roxas the one who's crying. Goodbye Twilight Town.
...
...And then a bunch of Disney stuff happens
No, seriously. So far, while the game has been pretty fun, it's the prologue one of the strongest parts of the game. Another great level was Timeless River too where you play in the 30s Disney world. In general, I can say that most Disney Worlds I've visited have been cool except for two of them: Mulan's world and Atlantica. The first one is pretty simple and kind of boring both in its looks and the setpieces presented and the second one is basically a bunch of rhythm minigames blocked under random conditions.
After 14 hours of playtime, the story doesn't seem to go anywhere after the Roxas episode: It seems that I'm just unlocking paths between the different worlds while I fight two factions along my way: the Heartless and the Nobodies. I know that things will eventually escalate and I'm looking forward to playing those sections.
Please, be excited.
DQIV looks pretty good. I don't want to read too much into it because I do plan to play it at some point. You're playing on mobile, correct? If so, how does it handle? I kinda hated the virtual controls on DQ1 but I can deal with them if needed.
Awesome! Glad to hear that you enjoyed it. I'm curious what build you went for - I've heard magic(k) is overpowered but have never tried with it.
Plotwise the game is most interesting at the very beginning and IMO putters out once you've figured out things in Tarant. Somehow the overarching enemy doesn't have much in the way of menace or urgency, even though conceptually it seems like it should! Virgil's arc is interesting, though, and Magnus' isn't bad either so I recommend playing with them eventually!
Secondly - I forgot how melancholic this game is. The world is on the decline. There are ruins everywhere. The land is dying. Rivers are drying up, crops are failing to yield, and people are clinging onto whatever they have left. There is no stopping it. It has happened before, and it will happen again. There's no Evil Force causing it. The only thing that can be done is to band together and try to survive through the Dusk of the world. There's a dimness and dullness that gives everything a sad spectacle while having some glimmer of hope, however faint it is. It makes any flowers in the drab earth stand out while sunsets across a grey sky become a gem.
Really enjoying your write ups on Atelier Ayesha (my personal favorite of the atelier games I have played). The muted, earthy color palette and the music really sells the aspect of the inevitable slow decay of the world, and gives the game a very bitter-sweet atmosphere at times. The dusk trilogy also has a larger focus on exploration, so by the end it feels more like you are actually exploring larger and more interesting world.
Ayesha´s story is also a very personal one in the vein of Totori. She has a clear motivation from the start and that gives the game more of a sense of purpose, even through the more mundane daily tasks. Especially the later parts of the game resonated quite strongly with me emotionally.
Also: Wilbell is adorable.
I was able to wrap up my play-through of Fallout. Not as long of a game as I expected, actually, probably under 20 hours, so once I decided to actually push ahead instead of faffing about, it was pretty straight forward.
Not to say that there were no casualties. I gave up of baby-sitting my brave-but-very-very-dumb companions while going throughand the result was a bloodbath. The solitary experience felt more thematically appropriate with the setting anyway, so I wasn´t TOO bothered.the mutant base with its many damage-on-impact forcefield doors
The final dungeon/boss segment was very memorable. A very eerie locale unlike anything in the rest of the game.
Being able to use the information one has gathered about the super-mutants being sterile to talk yourself out of a final boss battle also felt very rewarding. The whole dialogue section was well-written and the voice-work for the Master was a neat touch. However, I was not prepared for how much of a cluster-fuck it would be trying to get out after "destroying the Master with facts and logics". A full-frontal guns-blazing approach might have been easier, if substantially less rewarding.
Ended up getting stuck for an embarrassingly long time trying to open the secret bookcase door, not being able to open it from the "wrong side". Frantically trying to click every little pixel of the screen that could potentially be a switch/door handle, while inhuman abominations try to eat my face. Chugging stim packs like crazy, while the nuke-timer ticks away. I did somehow manage to overcome this insurmountable barrier in the nick of time, and managed to make it out in time to safely observe the magnificent fireworks.
Final verdict:
Very good game, with good writing and an interesting setting.
Most challenging doors in a RPG I can remember (probably more of a personal challenge)
Reading the manual would probably have saved me some headache.
Will now move focus more on Tactics Ogre most likely, and have a bit of a break before jumping into Fallout 2.
Ni no Kuni 2: Revenant Kingdom - I really enjoyed the first one, but haven't given this one too much of a chance (I just got past the prologue). It seems like more of the same but at the same time the bits I did play didn't seem to really grab me so I'm not sure if that's going to happen again. Even so, I do like the music, and the game is quite charming so I think I'd be okay if I gave it some more time.
Dragon Quest 11: Echoes of an Elusive Age - This has been reviewed pretty well, and it seems big and engaging but I'm unsure about it as I've never played any of the DQ games and from what I can gather the game is a case of "do something really well but not try so much new" so I'm having a hard time figuring if I'd enjoy it or not.
Divinity: Original Sin 2 Enhanced Edition - I played the first game and really enjoyed that - the combat especially. I wasn't so much a fan of the story though, and I worry that this will be like the second with a story that's kind of just "there" and not really memorable or impactful. That said this looks to be much the same and improve on the predecessor on the gameplay front.
Dragon Quest 11: Echoes of an Elusive Age - This has been reviewed pretty well, and it seems big and engaging but I'm unsure about it as I've never played any of the DQ games and from what I can gather the game is a case of "do something really well but not try so much new" so I'm having a hard time figuring if I'd enjoy it or not.
Xenoblade Chronicles 2 - I've been meaning to finish this for over a year, and when I do get into it I do enjoy it, but at the same time, I don't like how the maps/navigation are and I also keep running into situations where I'm underleveled and get killed by giant enemies while exploring.
I was able to wrap up my play-through of Fallout. Not as long of a game as I expected, actually, probably under 20 hours, so once I decided to actually push ahead instead of faffing about, it was pretty straight forward.
Final verdict:
Very good game, with good writing and an interesting setting.
Most challenging doors in a RPG I can remember (probably more of a personal challenge)
Reading the manual would probably have saved me some headache.
The more I think about NNK2, the less I like about it. It starts off so strongly with a ton of charm, but it just kinda loses that as you go through the game. The battles are very easy and don't really evolve much unfortunately. About 80% in I was getting frustrated with the story. The final boss is one of the most irritating things and a massive difficultly spike that feels completely unearned. The game is fine overall, but I feel it's missing the charm that kept NNK1 going.
I've never really been a Dragon Quest fan. DQXI was the first DQ game I'd beaten and the first one I'd poured more than a few hours into. You don't really need to have played any of the previous games to know what you're getting as many JRPGs have pulled from the DQ franchise for nearly three decades.
It's a very good game. While I won't call it a wondrous breath-taking gem that others have, it's a pretty great and powerful traditional JRPG. The characters are very endearing, the world is vast and full of life, and there's quite a bit to do in it. It's quite long and meaty, but I do think it earns its length for the most part. The charm sticks with it throughout the game and I found it to be fun. I think it's worth it and a fine place to jump in. You can always go check out the other games later. While DQXI does do plenty of new things, it just strengthens its foundations more in comparison to the risks it takes.
While I've never beaten this game, I beat the first one and made it through act 2 of the 2nd. The story is much more prominent and personal, along with the character stories (which I recommend wholly versus using a blank slate). The combat in the second is a great evolution in my opinion. Overall its just bigger and better. You can expect more freedom in the sequel as well, as I'd burned through the first act three times now and have completed it in different ways each time, using different routes or methods I previously hadn't thought of.
Out of the three, I'd recommend DQXI. If you do, I'd recommend changing the camera to Classic, as the free movement is purely cosmetic. You get nothing from moving around in battle and Classic feels faster, snappier, and more focused on what is going on.
Haven't played the others myself so I'll just speak to these two:
DQXI: It does do new things tbh: the PS4 version changes it from round to turn-based command inputs and changes some QoL features to be more in-line with the way they're done elsewhere; generally the game moves the focus from dungeon crawling and resource management to boss battles and the combat is redesigned to be more oriented around realizing and maintaining offensive potential to burn down glass cannons. Indeed, depending on your taste plenty of this modernization can be more or less off-putting! Honestly, it is probably the most satisfying skill system in DQ for me, even if I have mixed or neutral feelings about other developments.
Where DQXI is the same-but-different is in the general strengths of its writing and narratives, which are fairly idiosyncratic among JRPG. Honestly, I don't really understand complaints about the series along this dimension: they seem to miss what is going on and how the series formulae and tropes are being arranged to draw out new meaning in conversation with past titles, often through very obvious yet intricately constructed structural conceits. DQXI was really satisfying as a fan of DQ story-telling and it added its own voice to the conversation. But yes, this is where many people fall off the train with DQ.
It is also an extremely well polished and beautiful game, reworked lovingly for western audiences. People complain a lot about the music, true. But idk...only really ever the world map song got to me well along the standard lines of criticism. The significant re-use of old music could be quite jarring at times, but that is for old fans.
XB2: I don't really know if later maps get better along your points of concern. I think they might though. I remember going to areas I shouldn't have been in mostly just from the opening areas of the game but maybe I just got better at avoiding them? IDK.