Friday! Video games! Let’s talk!
It’s going to be a brief post this week as it’s been a busy day and I have dinner that needs cookin’!
I literally just finished off Torna: The Golden Country, which was 34 glorious hours of JRPG goodness. I’ll be covering this in more depth soon-ish in a full-length post, so I’ll just say that the world design, characters, writing, music, and combat were all stellar and if you’re a fan of Xenoblade Chronicles 2 you owe it to yourself to play the prequel.
I did 99% of the side-quests and recruited all but 2 of the 89 community members, so it’s definitely shorter than 34 hours if you don’t feel like doing *everything*, but I highly recommend at least doing the side-quests. They add a lot to the character development.
With Torna out of the way, I’ve set my sights on Octopath Traveler. Rather than chip away at it little by little, I’m going to give it my full attention until it’s over. I need to recruit Primrose and then start working on all of the chapter 2 stories.
After Octopath I’ll either take an RPG break with Vampyr or keep rolling on with The World Ends With You since that’ll be available by then. I want to save Dragon Quest XI as my last big game of 2018 since I hear it’s easily 100+ hours long.
I won a random draw on Twitter and ended up with a free Switch copy of Dragon Ball FighterZ and a $50 eShop card. I used the card to pick up God Wars Complete (a strategy RPG) and Hyper Light Drifter. Not sure when I’ll get to them, but hey, free is free.
What about you, folks? Any gaming plans this weekend?
Cheap Boss Attack 
37% done the VR missions in MGS2… wow… This Platinum mission is gonna go into 2019 I think, haha. This weekend I’m visiting family for Canadian Thanksgiving, eh. I brought my Switch so I’m likely gonna play Mega Man 11 for a bit.
LikeLiked by 2 people
Woo, happy Canadian Thanksgiving! Mega Man 11 looks great. Have a nice vacation!
LikeLiked by 2 people
I’ve been obsessed with Grim Dawn for the last week or two, so I’m going to keep working on that one. I also might pick up AC Odyssey depending on finances, and if I do, no one is going to see or hear from me for a few weeks because a game sent in Ancient Greece with heavy role playing elements is literally a game I’ve wanted since I was a child. regardless, I am going to enjoy my weekend!
LikeLiked by 1 person
Enjoy Odyssey if you do pick it up! Hearing great things. I loved Origins to death so I know I’ll get to Odyssey at some point, but I have way too many rpgs already lol.
LikeLiked by 2 people
Not much for me this weekend, though you certainly seem to have a fun lineup :)
Do I even have to say it? Hearthstone! Other than that I might finish up Kiwami. I have a lot going on this weekend and next so may not get around to much :/
LikeLiked by 2 people
Indeed! Enjoy card battling and karaoke!
LikeLiked by 2 people
Thanks, I will! :D
LikeLike
With another Splatfest announcement, and funky Halloween duds, I’ve been firing up Splatoon 2. I’ve also been keeping up with the Insurgency Sandstorm Beta. Unfortunately it seems like I have a conflict with the latest nVidia driver, and my streaming software though, so I may have to roll it back, to see if it fixes it. I was hoping to get Mega Man 11 too, but I have to do the grown up thing, and pay some bills.
LikeLike
Hope you had fun this weekend! I saw the rad Jason mask, haha. Any luck working out the nVidia issue for Sandstorm?
LikeLiked by 1 person
I was able to uninstall the new driver, and reinstall the previous one. Magically, my PlayClaw 5 software decided to work again. Next year I’m going to have to suck it up, and upgrade to version 6 as it was built from the ground up to record, and stream, where 5’s streaming function was a DLC plugin. I’m sure the new software has less of these conflicts. That said, I still like it. Simplifies setting up a Twitch stream immensely. Sadly it only does PC games. I haven’t seen if version 6 works with capture cards. Hopefully it does so when I finally get one, I don’t have to master two utilities.
Anyway the Sandstorm Beta has been pretty good, if buggy. They pushed back the full release to December because of the bugs. Frankly there are enough of them they needed to. That said most of those have been graphical anomalies (ie: taking a few seconds for parts of models to load, texture pop in.) the few that have been performance issues, are constantly being improved. So hopefully the full release lives up to the hype. If it does, and the console versions follow suit, the game has a chance to upset the apple cart. It does none of the business things people have been upset with EA, and Activision over in their army team FPS games. No microtransactions. Any maps/DLC will be free. No grinding for weapons. The point system from Insurgency 1 returns so you spend your points on what you want to use. No shoehorned pretend Fortnite/PubG stuff. And the full release will have a single-player campaign. So far I’ve been happy with the weapon accuracy, as UE4 handles it far better than Source. It’s a great blend of gamey action, and tactical realism. You can sprint, but you can’t shoot while running. You can bulk up on armor, but that just means two bullets will kill you instead of one. You can hipfire, but the bullets will fire based upon the recoil so you’ll probably miss. There’s no killcam or HUD. So think Battlefield Bad Company 2 with Rainbow Six 3: Raven Shield sensibilities. Also the two new classes can work together to call in air support…..if one or both of them aren’t dead, and are within a short distance. For less than half the cost of a AAA game. If they can iron out the bugs in time, and next year’s console versions are good, New World Interactive will be sitting pretty. I won’t tell anyone to rush out, and buy it today. Because it isn’t done, and it could slip into 2019, you never know. But if you do, they give you 10% off, and if you have Insurgency 1 they give you another 10% off. Plus you can play the beta builds up to release of the full game to which you’ll play because you bought it already. The nice thing though is the studio has been very active on Twitch, so if you want to see where they are on it, without dropping any money you can. Plus their community manager does Q&A when they go live.
LikeLike
You’re all JRPG, all the time right now aren’t you! I like the look of Vampyr and do want to play it some time before the end of the year, but with baby due soon I’m not sure I’ll get to.
I’ve been playing Forza Horizon 4. I’m not all that into racing games, but I’ve got a soft spot for Horizon. It’s got the simulation aspect of the main Forza games, but with a greater sense of fun.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Lol, RPGs are my main genre alongside horror stuff, but I got burnt out over the last few years. The fatigue is gone, though, so it’s back in the saddle again. I’m having a lot of fun knocking these bigger games off my backlog and I’m happy to be back in Octopath.
Horizon 3 was great and I’m sure 4 is even better. I don’t care for the mainline series but something about Horizon sucks me in. Hope you had fun this weekend!
LikeLiked by 2 people
Vampyr was a really interesting game that I wound up liking a lot, though it’s a bit of an acquired taste, I reckon.
I’m plowing into Dakar 18 and Forza Horizon 4 at the moment, and need to get started on AC: Odysssey. Think I took on too much work again :P But have been making some time to play Dead by Daylight some more. Game is a mess in so many ways, but a lot of fun.
LikeLike
I didn’t gel very well with Vampyr’s combat, even as a fan of the Souls type of methodical blows and whatnot. It just felt… off. No fast travel either, so I bounced off quickly. Hopefully I’ll enjoy it more the second time.
Forza Horizon 3 was incredible so I’m sure 4 is no different. Hopefully you enjoyed your weekend gaming!
LikeLike
I’ve gone back into Red Dead Redemption. Haven’t pre-ordered RDR2 but I want to give RDR a shot since I’ve never actually gone through it. My PS3 copy kept crashing so I’ve been playing on the Xbox One and it plays a lot better and I’m kind of getting into it.
LikeLiked by 2 people
I remember hearing the PS3 version of RDR was the “wrong one” to get back at launch, so that doesn’t surprise me. I have it on Xbox One after picking it up last year for $5 during the summer sale. Still haven’t touched it.
LikeLiked by 2 people
You need a way to inject RPGs into your veins at this rate :D I’m so glad you’ve been throwing yourself into these games again.
I’ve been powering through lots of games lately, somehow. I finished Final Fantasy VI a few weeks ago and just wrapped up Metroid for NES this past week as well. I don’t have many gaming plans this weekend since it’s Canadian Thanksgiving and I have a house full of people, but I will be starting up Ys III: Wanderers from Ys next week on stream.
I hope you have a fabulous weekend.
LikeLiked by 1 person
I did have a bit of genre fatigue with JRPGs over the last few years but I managed to squeeze in the ones I *really* wanted to play last year (namely Persona 5). Fatigue is over, though, so JRPG Madness 2018 is in full force lol. 120 hours spent with Xenoblade Chronicles 2 and that’s finally out of the way so it’s back to Octopath Traveler. So, so good and super nostalgic.
LikeLiked by 2 people
A melee run of fallout 4! Butch the butcher is on a rampage đŸ˜‚
LikeLiked by 2 people
Melee is a lot of fun in that game, haha.
LikeLike
Octopath Traveler is so good dude. Primrose has my favorite story, but none of the stories are bad. I just prefer the darker tone of hers. I hope you enjoy it :).
I need to get Torna, but it’ll probably be a next year thing because I have so many games to play right now. Let me know how you like Vampyr. I’ve read mixed things on it.
The weekend is technically over so I’m late here, but I’ve been putting some hardcore time into God of War. I’ve defeated all of the Valkyries, have a level 8 Kratos with some beastly gear, and I plan on focusing on the story now since I think I’ve run out of side stuff to do. After that I’m moving on to Persona 5. I bought that over Dragon Quest 11 because it was cheaper.
LikeLike
I’ve only finished her first chapter but it was definitely my favorite. Also intrigued by Olberic’s.
I was going to jump into Vampyr but decided to just focus on Octopath. I want that and Dragon Quest finished before GOTY talk and both games are pretty huge.
Glad you’re digging God of War! It’s my GOTY so far, with Torna in a close 2nd place. Persona 5 was great. At least, I thought so. It’s not as good of a story or cast as 4 but it’s still really good and stylish as fuck for a turn-based game. Dragon Quest XI already appears to have dropped $10 at most retailers and I imagine it’ll be on a good Black Friday sale here next month.
LikeLiked by 1 person
It did! I’ll have to check and see if I get Dragon Quest 11 then :). I would prefer that over Red Dead Redemption 2 right now. Persona 5 is amazing and so stylish. It’s so cool and I love the characters so far. I played it for 8 hours last night.
God of War is also my game of the year right now, but I still haven’t played some games that I think will give it a challenge for that title, to me anyway.
Olberic’s story started off super interesting, but I lost a little interest after his chapter 2 (or 3?) mission. Primrose’s story is great from the first chapter to the last one. My least favorite is probably Ophelia’s.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Glad to hear you’re digging Persona 5 too. I thoroughly enjoyed my 115 hours with it and I finished everything it had to offer. I’m not interested in RDR at all, honestly. Rockstar games do nothing for me.
What do you have on your to-play list that you think may give God of War a run for its money? So far, Torna is super close to overtaking God of War and Celeste is in 3rd place. I’ll have to finish Octopath and DQXI before finalizing anything.
LikeLike
Pokemon, Red Dead Redemption 2, Dragon Quest XI, Octopath Traveler (I’m near the end game), Soul Calibur VI. and Total War: Three Kingdoms. I’m super excited for Soul Calibur VI and won’t be surprised at all if that turns out to be my GOTY this year. Right now God of War is in my top 3, but I’m not sure if I like it more than Final Fantasy 15, Spider-man, or Hollow Knight yet.
Total War is one of my favorite game series of all time and I’m very excited that the series is visiting my favorite era of Chinese history.
So there are a few games that’ll give it a run for the money to me, but I don’t think any protagonist is going to be better than Kratos this year.
Persona 5 is fantastic. I love everything about it… well… almost everything. I hate that when Joker dies it’s game over even if you have everyone else left alive. I love everything else though!
I understand not being interested in RDR2. I love Westerns and playing a Western of this caliber will be something special. That being said I won’t own this game until November possibly December because I need Soul Calibur VI first.
LikeLike