This week I started Witch Spring R and I’m really liking it.

I’ve also finally gave up and bought Monster Hunter Wilds. This one I’m kinda disappointed by. The combat feels really good, ignoring the new additions, but everything else feels off. The new quest-less system for hunts feels terrible to me, for example. I do prefer it to Rise, but it has the same flaws as World plus new ones.

Replayed halfway through Resident Evil Requiem, this time without using the blood collector (for the challenge/achievement). I think it’s more fun without being able to craft ammo or ribbons whenever you want, but it also doesn’t seem like it makes the game any harder. I did end up pausing the playthrough after reaching the more open area with Leon as I couldn’t get a stable framerate on the pc I was playing on and I was kinda bored of playing him.

I played through AI: Somnium Files - The Nirvana Initiative. I thought it was fine, I liked the original more. The “twist” was honestly really dumb and I don’t think it works, and in general the story felt weaker than the first. I appreciate that there were more real puzzles, but I still prefer 999 and VLR (I still have to play ZTD).

Excel does it for its formulas. It ends up being just a pain in the ass when you are looking online for info (which means it ends up increasing the barrier of entry, as most stuff online is in English).

I played Resident Evil Requiem. I really liked it, especially Grace’s sections. Leon’s sections weren’t really my favourite, but they were enjoyable enough.

I ended up replaying halfway through the remake of the first game too after Requiem, although now I kinda want to go back and replay 9.

This week I started Final Fantasy Tactics, but I’ve played it only for a few hours (a bit less than 10h). I think I prefer Fire Emblem’s gameplay, this one feels too grindy and the combat seems a bit shallow.

Finished Raging Loop, the first ~20h were great, but I’m shocked at how bad the finale is. It was still worth it for the rest of the story tho.

Played through Resident Evil 4 Remake during the weekend. I think Village realized the action horror gameplay better, I found neither the action to be good nor the horror to be scary in this one (I have never finished the original RE4, but from what I played of it, it seems the same). I am excited for Requiem tho, which I’ll play next.

Finally, I just started Utawarerumono Prelude to the Fallen, but I’ve played too little to say anything.

Looks like an interesting project, but I can’t understand what’s the advantage of using weird symbols.

Welcome back!

This week I played (read?) Paranormasight: The Seven Mysteries of Honjo which I really enjoyed. From the intro I kinda expected more from the gameplay tho.

I’ve also started playing Fatal Frame: Mask of the Lunar Eclipse and was considering replaying Xenoblade Chronicles X, but the Switch 2 edition turned out to be a downgrade.

I’ve mostly been playing Arknights Endfield. After a while I got my team set up and it’s become a bit too repetitive. For some reason I expected better from this one than other gachas but it ended up being as shallow and boring as all others.

I’ve played a bit of Deadlock, I couldn’t try any of the new characters tho. I’m trying to get back into Rabbit&Steel. I haven’t played in a while so it feels like starting from zero.

I’ve also tried the demo for Magenta Horizon. It’s not my style of game, it feels inspired a lot by Ninja Gaiden, which I can’t get into, but it seems really well made and the artstyle is pretty interesting.

Oh yea, I forgot about that series. I have the first two games, but haven’t really played much. I remember trying the first one a few years ago looking for something to play after MHW, but I think I dismissed them because of the higher speed and less weight in combat. I’ll have to try them again.

Another Monster Hunter “clone” I should probably try is Toukiden.

That said, it’s possible I misunderstood what you mean because I haven’t played older MH games or Xenoblade.

I realize I’m being a bit too vague, as I’m not sure how to describe clearly what I’m thinking about.

You mentioned both DMC3 and Dark Souls and while I don’t remember very well either fight, I do think that DMC3-5 (and Bayonetta too sometimes) allow you to do what I’m thinking about with most bosses, while normal encounters I feel are more about crowd control. On the other hand, Dark Souls and the other soulslike I played feel more focused on reacting to attacks, like the newer MH games.

It’s less important in the newer games, since the monsters are less predictable and their attacks track a lot, and the hunters get parries or other options (in GU and Rise in particular), but you often need to position yourself defensively to preemptively avoid attacks and usually keep attacking. For example: the Rathian charge is instant, so you should keep to her side to avoid it and her other frontal attacks like the fireballs.

Pretty often you could just walk out of attacks if you knew they were coming.

Not really what I’m looking for, but I do remember having fun with the original Mount & Blade when I played it ages ago so I’ll check it out!

Haven’t played it yet, but I was planning on playing the first one. It does look fun, so I might try it sooner rather than later.

I’ve been slowly finishing Xenosaga 3, I think I’m nearing the end. I’ll hold my judgement for when I actually finish it, but I mostly enjoyed the series even if I’m a bit mixed on it.

I saw Haste while scrolling through Steam and decided to try it. I was sold on it from the demo, it looks and sounds really good and the movement is a lot of fun. The full game tho was quite the disappointment. It feels incomplete like a vertical slice, more than a full release.

The main game is composed of different levels, but each of them is structured as a roguelike and you don’t keep items you buy between each level except upgrades you can buy (a la Hades). The items themselves change very little and the stages are fully randomly generated so they get repetitive very quickly. There’s also an endless mode which is more fun to play, as you keep stacking items, but it suffers from the same lack of level design.

Now I’m playing Arknights Endfield and I’m enjoying it. I hate that it’s a gacha, but it’s pretty fun. The combat isn’t the deepest but it’s enjoyable; it kinda reminds me of Xenoblade. The same goes for the base/factory building: it’s a very simple implementation of the system, but it’s fun to set it up. Storywise, the writing isn’t great and the translation is at times of dubious quality, but I wasn’t expecting much.

Couldn’t play much this week, but I got an invite to Deadlock and have been playing that. I’m having fun with it, but I have very little experience with hero shooters and even less with MOBAs, so it’s really confusing at times and feels kind of unlearnable.

I’ve picked up a few games with the sales, among which Atelier Yumia and Star Ocean: Second Story R. Atelier Yumia is pretty decent, it has the usual issues of open world games, but the crafting is fun (although I think it’s a bit less interesting than in previous games, but I haven’t played them enough to judge). On the other hand I found Star Ocean to have incredibly dull combat, so I’ve dropped it after a few hours.

I’ve also been playing Xenosaga Episode II and Episode III. Episode II was disappointing, it’s clearly unfinished and rushed. I think the story had potential, the plot and characters could have been interesting, but the execution is lacking. The combat system is interesting and you can start seeing ideas that will later reappear in the blade games, but the implementation is really slow and repetitive. I’m currently mid-way through Episode III (just finished disc 1), which is a clear improvement, although it plays it a bit safer with more conventional combat. The story is good so far and I’m curious about how it’s gonna evolve.

I did end up trying it for a few days, but it doesn’t seem to be what I was looking for.

Other players don’t seem to be interested in the progression (which is understandable and expected due to the age of the game), but I don’t want to invest the time to reach level 99 just to then risk not enjoying it (looking at videos I don’t think the combat is what I was expecting, as I thought the mechanics would be closer to what XIV is now).

I found that there’s a free login campaign now, so I’m trying it out. If we were in the same time zone and I was sure I’d continue playing, I’d offer to join you.