It’s the Freakin’ Weekend, So What Are You Playing?

Posted on by Trashlevania

Friday! Video games! Let’s talk!

It’s been a bit of a crazy week, both in the way of migraines and preparing for another garage sale this weekend. Our plans to move to Seattle in October seemingly fell short, as we just didn’t have enough time to take care of other affairs. We’re planning for next spring instead, which should give us plenty of time to unload more of our stuff.

ninokuni2d

On the gaming front, I’ve been obsessively playing Ni no Kuni II: Revenant Kingdom. I’m 43 hours in, just unlocked the airship in chapter 7, recruited my 50th citizen, and upgraded my kingdom to rank 3. The kingdom stuff is pretty fun; erecting and upgrading buildings to impress the locals, which, in turn, gives me more money at a faster rate. I’m also enjoying the skirmish stuff, which is an RTS-lite with a paper-rock-scissors battle mechanic.

As for my go-to party, I spent most of my time using Roland (main) with Batu and Tani, just so all three party members avoided sharing weapon types. Lately, though, I benched the father/daughter sky pirate duo and brought in Evan for his massive spell damage, along with Bracken for her healing and support abilities. It’s been smooth sailing.

The story is fun and the game is absolutely beautiful, but it’s not doing much to flesh out the characters. Roland started off interesting and then his backstory was avoided altogether until chapter 7. The same happened to Tani and Batu after joining early on, as with Leander during the mid-game. Bracken has been the only character thus far to be given any post-recruitment attention, which just feels weird. I’m not overly attached to anyone just yet.

xc2torna

Anyway, I’m hoping to have this finished by next weekend so I can start Xenoblade Chronicles 2: Torna ~The Golden Country~. Ni no Kuni II is a rad JRPG with a lot of fun stuff to do, and my only issue lies within the lackluster cast of characters.

Since I don’t plan on subscribing to Nintendo’s new online service, I caved and sold my copy of Splatoon 2 and used the funds to pick up Tales of the Abyss on 3DS and Tales of Graces f on PS3. The NES games don’t interest me (I own modded NES and SNES Classics), the online features aren’t a big selling point, but the only reason I’d consider subscribing is for cloud saves. It’s only $20 per-year, sure, but I’m good for now.

What about you, folks? Any big gaming plans this weekend?

Published by Trashlevania

Bradley is an RPG, horror, shmup, beat em up, and fighting game scrublord from Baltimore, MD. His favorite console of all time is the Sega Saturn, with a deep love for Sega console gaming in general. He adorably thought everyone owned a TurboGrafx 16 as a kid just because he did. He also has a Bloodborne tattoo. Aside from that, he's super into metal, the wild (and dumb) world of professional wrestling, cooking, and mostly games on PS5 for modern stuff. Follow him on Twitter @Trashlevania.

41 thoughts on “It’s the Freakin’ Weekend, So What Are You Playing?”

  1. I got a PS4 for my birthday last weekend so I’ll probably get stuck into playing a bit more Bloodbourne.

    I’ve been incredibly busy this month so not really had much free time for gaming. I still have 3 characters on Hakuoki: Edo Blossoms to complete…

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      1. Thanks! I’ve got Persona 5 and God of War already and I’ll be picking Spyro Reignited up when that comes out. Also got my eye on Gravity Rush.

        Unfortunately my controller has randomly stopped working already at not even a week old so I won’t be able to play anything until I can swap it next weekend -.-

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  3. Working Saturday, so during the day nothing. But I’ll be playing Splatoon 2 as there is another Splatfest! Team Retro will hopefully give Pearl her fifth win in a row. (Sorry Marina) But I’ll be streaming some Giana Sisters tonight, and on Sunday before surgery on Monday. Good luck with the JRPG runs! Until next time…. STAY FRESH!

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  4. I’m also probably not going to bother with the Nintendo online service. Good thing Mario Kart 8 is so good in local play.

    I’ve had some expansions for the Dark Souls board game delivered, plus a mystery game I’ve been sent for review to tide me over this weekend. Then there’s always more Spider-Man!

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    1. Yeah, I still enjoy playing a cup or two in Mario Kart by myself, but Splatoon’s meat is in the multiplayer stuff. I may end up selling MK down the line, though. At least Nintendo published games rarely go down in value.

      Have fun this weekend!

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  5. I’ll likely never have time for Ni no Kuni II, but glad you’re enjoying the game!

    I’m still working on my crazy goal of getting the Platinum Trophy for MGS2. I’m on sniper part of Extreme difficulty (needed to do all levels of difficulty for dog tags… I’m proud and ashamed of myself, haha). The Harrier fight was brutal on Extreme, but I found a pattern and got through it. I kinda glitched the Vamp fight to win, and I’m not even sorry :)

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    1. I just finished it off last night at 63 hours, but I also did a lot of the side quests and whatnot. Not sure if that sways you into wanting to check it out, though.

      Good luck on the MGS2 platinum! I remember Vamp being brutal on Hard, let alone Extreme lol.

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      1. Hm. 63 hours isn’t too bad time wise. I’ll add it to the never-ending backlog list and hope I get to it someday, haha.

        Thanks! Happy to say I’ve beaten Extreme and got all the dog tags… The VR missions are kicking my butt now. There’s one with a giant godzilla-like version of a Russian soldier as a boss. The fight is so freaking frustrating, but I can’t stop laughing at how ridiculous it is :)

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  6. I know I’ll eventually cave and end up paying the $20 a year for Nintendo’s crappy online service. I was hoping this thing would have at least launched with Netflix…

    The lack of character building is a major flaw in Ni No Kuni 2. You get a little bit out of certain side quest, but if you’re the type of person that don’t like doing all of the stuff in JRPGs you can easily miss it. That being said it’s my GOTY right now. My main party was Evan, Tani, and Batu. I eventually switched to Leander, Evan, and Bracken, but I don’t like Bracken. I never needed a healer and she doesn’t hit nearly as hard as Batu so I just kept my main dude with me the entire time. Tani is a DPS monster.

    You already know what I’ve been playing on Twitter :). I want to complete Horizon Zero Dawn this weekend and get through NG+3 in Bloodborne. I’m only one trophy away from a platinum so I’ve might as well get it right?

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    1. I think the last two chapters of Ni no Kuni 2 really build up Roland and Evan (and Mausinger, who ended up having my favorite story arc), but it really doesn’t go into the others much. I liked the way Roland played most and sometimes I’d swap to Bracken mid-battle to pop her combat drones. She was less prone to getting beat up than Batu, who also ran in swinging. She mainly just sat back and shot things and used drones for me. Evan I really didn’t like using, but his magic hit for quite a bit. Glad I leveled him up somewhat, though, since the last boss was 72 and he was only 58 lol.

      Get that platinum!

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      1. Mausinger had my favorite story arc too. I really felt for the guy when I learned what caused him to dethrone Evan and steal his kingdom. I regularly swapped Evan and Roland because I couldn’t choose between the two. Evan’s magic is what gave him the edge to me. When I beat the game I think my entire party was around 65. I did buy those xp boost by upgrading my kingdom though. I used Bracken a little, but she never grew on me like Batu did. I used Batu more than Evan and Roland. I love his moveset and how hard he hits.

        I did get that platinum! – https://twitter.com/Drakulus23/status/1044007506631163904

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  7. Sounds like you are playing some good ones. I just finished up my Zero Escape series playthrough and reviews so I think I’m going to switch gears and do something for October since I am going to jump right back in with some VN’s after that. I have the Psycho-Pass VN and Danganrompa series to plow through. Other than that, Hearthstone of course! I’m also working on my own game so I guess I’m playing that too because somebody has to playtest it XD

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  9. I definitely want to play Ni No Kuni 2 sometime, even if it sounds like it won’t leave me with the same feelsthe first one did.

    I’m getting deeper into Octopath Traveler and enjoying it still. Nothing much new on my front that aside for games this weekend!

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              2. I always enjoy magic users, so I went with Cyrus and wasn’t disappointed. His max boosted spells on a weakened enemy are devastating. I always have him, Ophelia (yay heals and hard hitting light magic!), and Olberic in my party and prefer Haanit in the 4th slot so I can use her monster summons to hit the rest of the weapon weaknesses.

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      1. Primarily how Dontnod fared when they weren’t explicitly responsible for creating a world, when they had a lot of accessible source material to draw from, and if the mechanics and gameplay loops would benefit from this repositioning of focus.

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  11. I’m hoping to finish everyone’s ending in Octopath. I just did Tressa’s last night, and I only have H’aanit and Primrose left. I might leave Prim for the last just because her story feels the most intense. Then I want to try to get the secret jobs. Due to how some of the stories ended, I’m thinking there’s a “final” ending that I’ll probably need to gear up for. I’m nearly on 100 hours with it, so I definitely got my money’s worth!

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    1. Wow, 100 hours! Definitely got some bang for your buck. I spent 115 in Persona 5 and about the same or more on Xenoblade Chronicles 2, but 100+ hour JRPGs are pretty rare. I’m about to dive into Octopath myself for an hour or two.

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      1. Yup! I think I’m around 105 right now. I finished up H’aanit’s story last night. I only have Primrose’s left and then cleaning up side stuff. The last time I spent even close to this much time on an RPG was WOFF and 200 hours. I think that’s my record :p

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        1. Haha, I remember the WoFF obsession! Are you going to revisit it with the Maxima release? Looks like they’re adding new champions and the ability to play as them instead of just the two siblings. Also fishing with Noctis. Fishing. With. Noctis. I’m sold.

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