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

Friday! Video games! Let’s talk!

I’ve been feeling a bit under the weather for a week or so, which explains the absence of last week’s wrap-up post. I’m feeling better though so this weekend will be all about playing review catch-up.

While I was dealing with headaches and whatnot, I got heavily into Dissidia Final Fantasy Opera Omnia. I’ve never gotten hooked on a mobile game before and typically prefer my games on consoles, but it’s super solid and a lot of fun without burdening the player with microtransactions.

DFFOO isn’t like the Dissidia fighting series. Instead, it’s a turn-based RPG where your party members are drawn from nearly every game in the franchise, spinoffs and all. The story took about 10 hours to play through, which unlocked most of the roster. The rest were left to free single-player and co-op events, not gatcha-style lootboxes.

Instead, lootboxes are purchased with crystals that are thrown at the player regularly enough that I never once considered paying for them. They contain weapons and armor, some of which are character specific, and can be further leveled up by destroying the pieces you’re not using.

I still find myself logging in to take part in the game’s daily crystal event, which lets you repeat a certain quest 10 times that rewards you with a bunch of colored crystals. Each character falls into a crystal color and can have their stats strengthened and passive abilities unlocked by applying the appropriate crystals.

I have quite a few characters maxed out at level 50/crystal strength 50, with my main team being Vanille (best girl and my support character), Papalymo, and Cid. Each player can choose one character as their “support” that can be brought in by other players online to assist in battle. My Vanille has her max limit break (MLB) weapon and armor and can help dispel beneficial spells from enemies, grant BRV points to the party, and debuff enemy defenses, so she seemed like the ideal choice to main. I also liked her a lot in FFXIII, so the decision was easy.

Outside of DFFOO, I played quite a bit of Home Sweet Home and Punchline last night. I’ve seen Home Sweet Home through twice but this time the trophies are actually popping so I’m finishing it up before reviewing it over at The Well-Red Mage.

It has some great scares the first time through, some of the best atmosphere I’ve seen in a while, and interesting Thai folklore that’s explained in found documentation. It has a little jank in it, but overall it’s one of the better horror games I’ve played recently.

Punchline is a weird visual novel puzzle game where the main character’s spirit is removed from his body. It’s based on an anime by the same name, if you’ve ever heard of it. In the game, though, you have to enter various rooms within an apartment building (where you’re the only male) and do ghost stuff in order to trigger a specific chain of events that’ll eventually lead you into your old room and back to your body.

Finding the right sequence of events is basic trial and error, but the catch is that your character gets way too excited when he sees a girl’s panties. The girls often occupy the rooms you’re tinkering around in and if their panties are exposed the in-game camera will zoom in. You have to fight the camera using both analog sticks, but if you don’t succeed in time then the world is hit by a meteor and humanity goes extinct. Yep. That’s the story.

It’s cute, funny, lewd, and somewhat exhausting, but I’m a sucker for light-hearted visual novels and adventure-style puzzles. The story is kind of interesting, which is surprising, which plays out through storyboard dialogue sequences and well-animated anime cutscenes. I’m not sure how long it is, but hopefully I’ll have both reviews finished within the next few days.

What about you, folks? Any plans this weekend? I already miss Halloween.