Friday! Video games! Let’s talk!
Once again, my free time this weekend will likely go to World of Warcraft. My girlfriend and I are leveling our Alliance characters to see how the story plays out from the other side and we both agreed that the Horde story and leveling zones felt much, much better. I have a Horde Frost Mage and Moonkin Druid sitting at level 112 as well, but I really can’t wait to get back to my 120 Shadow Priest over there. The first casual raid wing opens up next week (or the week after, I forget) and I look forward to seeing this expansion’s new end-game content, even at its dumbed-down matchmaking level.
I’ve also gotten really into Shining Resonance Refrain. It’s the newest Sega JRPG in their Shining series, though it’s action-oriented instead of the series’ strategy roots. There isn’t a lot of meat here in terms of gear, expansive worlds, or deeply woven tragic tales, but I’m having a lot of fun with Refrain’s combat system and trope-ridden characters. Sometimes I just need a laid back RPG. I’m currently 12 hours in and look forward to playing more over the weekend.
And, of course, I’ll be juggling UNIST and Fire Pro Wrestling World. I’ve had Fire Pro for about 3 weeks, but it just released on Tuesday. Now that the online servers are up and players can upload their created superstars, I want to give it another week to see how that all plays out before digging into my review.
What about you, folks? Any gaming plans this weekend?
Cheap Boss Attack 
I’ve actually been considering getting into WoW more and more. I’ve watched a bunch of Youtube vids and some Twitch streams. I’ve been dying to get into an MMO lately, but I’ve been completely swamped with real life shit that I don’t have the time. I did complete Ni No Kuni 2 and it was amazing from start to finish. It’s my GOTY right now.
If I don’t get into WOW I’ll definitely be on ESO. I want to play through Summerset. It looks so good. I played the demo to Shining Resonance and it’s a pretty cool game. I can’t justify the price on it right now though because I’m still trying to finish Octopath Traveler and after that I think I might take a small break from JRPGs since I’ve played so many of them back to back :).
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If you do want to get into WoW and don’t already have friends playing, I play Horde on the Zul’jin server and I’m on nightly for the most part.
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I’ll jot that down so I don’t forget :).
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Woops! Hit enter on the mobile app and it just sent the reply instead of adding a paragraph…
Anyway! I’m glad you dug Ni no Kuni 2 so much. I was going to jump into that once I finished with Shining Resonance, but I pre-ordered Dragon Quest XI on PS4 and that comes out next week. It’s RPG madness right now, man. And I’ve been slowly chipping away at Octopath. Shining Resonance is fun, but it’s definitely a more casual RPG. Combat reminds me of the Tales series, same with the character designs, but animated cutscenes are super rare and all of the dialogue just takes place in visual novel-style storyboard moments. I like those and I really like the game, but after spending 80+ hours in Xenoblade 2 (which had a LOT of great cutscenes) it’s pretty clear that Sega did the best they could with a budget. Granted, it’s just a port of the Japanese PS3 game with all of its DLC included. Still, it’s rad, but waiting for a sale isn’t a bad idea. Plus it’s hard to recommend over something like Dragon Quest.
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My weekend when I get some free time is probably going to be mostly spent on The Messenger for the Switch. It’s got its hooks in me so far and am enjoying it. Think I’m only two hours in so far and up to boss number 4. Not sure if I want to start shadow of war, resident evil 7, or gears 4 as well this weekend. Any recommendations out of those?
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The Messenger looks rad. I watched Giant Bomb play a bit of it and it’s certainly on my radar whenever my backlog dwindles a bit or I need a palate cleanser between all of these RPGs.
Out of those, I loved Shadow of Mordor but really didn’t care for Shadow of War. It was a prime example of way too much of a good thing and got super grindy.
RE7 is fantastic and easily cleared in two or three days. I liked it just as much, if not more than RE4.
Gears 4 is pretty and I liked the story, but it’s very repetitive and showed that series is in dire need of an overhaul. Still had a good time but it wasn’t my favorite Gears.
Let me know which one you decide on!
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I picked up The Messenger with Steam credit. Going to stream some of that later in the early am. I have the rare labor day weekend off, so I bought some craft beer to drink while I play through it. It’s definitely getting reviewed!
Shining Resonance Refrain looks interesting. I’ve heard EsperDreams talk it up a bit. It’s nice that this series has gone on longer than most realize. I hope you enjoy the play through!
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Lots of folks digging the Messenger. I watched Giant Bomb play for a half hour or so and it seems neat.
Enjoy the rare weekend free!
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I want to finish my XCOM 2 play through before Spider-Man releases but college football is back so I have to find a way to balance both. I watched the Giant Bomb quick look of Donut County and that looks like some good stuff and I may get that since it is apparently very short.
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Donut County looks/sounds rad, yeah. Ben’s Quick Look of Under Night In-Birth led to me buying it a few weeks back, so GB definitely encourages me to buy things I normally wouldn’t. I’m trying to juggle an MMO with console games and there isn’t enough free time in the world, man. Enjoy the weekend and fingers crossed you finish XCOM 2 before Spider-man.
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Well, going to be difficult since the game keeps crashing. Argh.
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I recently got into Prison Architect, so I’ll be juggling playing that with Stardew Valley and perhaps making some progress on the Mario Rabbids game I started on launch day and then stopped playing even though I loved it!
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Haha, I did the same! Grabbed it at launch and made it to chapter 3 somewhere before putting it aside for something else. Haven’t gone back since! Enjoy your games!
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It’s a Game of Thrones/Dr Who kind of weekend. Also, I’m working Sunday. So tv and tea. :)
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TV and tea always sounds good!
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I bought Refrain, but haven’t played it much beyond where the demo leaves off. This weekend I have decided to give Dark Souls another chance. Let’s see how far I get before rage quitting again haha.
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The Souls games are super good but I happen to be super bad at them. I like watching people play them and have fun playing myself, but man, I am fucking TRASH at playing anything with that much pressure.
I’m at the halfway point in Refrain and I think it’s fun, but it’s generic and cliche. I really like the combat and I always appreciate RPGs that put in easier methods of grinding for the player. Somewhere in the 2nd chapter it adds an NPC that lets you enter unremarkable three-floor dungeons that give good XP, monsters scale with your highest level player, and they’re great ways to get rare items for alchemy. I’ve just been putting on podcasts and grinding for an hour here and there so I can breeze through the story.
Looking forward to your thoughts on DS!
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I grabbed the demo for Shining Resonance on the Switch and plan to check that out sometime this week! Thanks for the info about Monster Hunter, too :) Still playing Octopath. I finally got to Olberic’s Chapter 2, and I think he’s the last Chapter 2 I have to do. After that I think I”m going to go back through all the towns I’ve opened to re-talk to everyone, see what I missed stealing/purchasing, and see what side stories I can wrap up.
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I hope you dig Shining. I liked it and had my fair share of complaints, but I listed it on eBay and then shut down the listing the next day to keep it on my shelf. I guess I’m more attached to it than I though lol.
Congrats (early) on finishing chapter 2s! I’ve just been grinding since I’ve only jumped into Octopath if I have 20-30 minutes to kill. I still need to recruit my final 2 characters. I love it, though, and can’t wait to give it my full attention again. I’m determined to finish that, XC2 DLC, DQ 11, and Ni no Kuni 2 before the year is over and I do my annual GOTY top 10.
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I’m on 60+ hours and I’m frankly shocked. I have no clue how I found that much time to play lol. I’m able to handle myself in 35 Level danger zones, but I’m still wary about 40. I also have all the second jobs now, which is a great advantage.
Whew, and those aren’t light titles either!
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