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Banner Saga Trilogy (PS4) by jp (Dec 6th, 2025 at 14:27:00) |
I started playing this back in October - maybe earlier? - and it was really confusing for me. Mostly I kept making mistakes I blame on the interface. For example, I'd select a character, move it, and then try to attack only to realize that I wasn't adjacent to the enemy like I thought. So, I'd miss a turn, my characters would die - but, I moved on. In the sense that I know this game is supposed to be sad, there's attrition, you make do an move on. But overall combat was really fiddly for me - I'd bungle selecting characters, and I wasn't really understanding the system.. does facing matter? are there attacks of opportunity if you move away, etc. These aren't dealbreakers for me, I was happy to try to learn and figure things out, and since you can't really save, it just continues - I though I'd just see how far I could get. Especially since it seems really brutal! I think the upgrade points are basically how you heal? Only two points at a time - so, it really is attritional. Or maybe I'm really misunderstanding the progression system.
I did think it was interesting to follow the different stories - I have a hard time following the names and whatnot, but just seeing there were two groups, different character abilities, and such seems interesting.
Then other stuff got in the way and I wasn't able to continue playing for a few weeks.
I just came back to it, and wow - still the same UI stuff and ugh. I just don't feel like it's worth it to continue playing (a drawer full of other PS4 games doesn't help). I wonder if the console version is just worse than sitting at a desk on a PC? As in, would I make as many mistakes if I was on mouse and keyboard with the screen much closer to my face?
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Kirby Super Star Ultra (DS) by jp (Dec 6th, 2025 at 12:20:24) |
There's quite a bit to do, but most of it has started to feel a bit shallow. The dungeon exploring was perhaps my favorite, there's lots of exploring to do which was fun, and it isn't that hard, and the companion helper was also a neat idea (to be honest though, I kept forgetting to "activate") - but overall I'm looking at the stack of DS games I still want to play (it's been getting quite a bit smaller, which is good -since the 3DS pile now looms) that I've decided to shelve this one.
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Persona 5 Royal (PS5) by dkirschner (Dec 6th, 2025 at 11:47:01) |
This game was SO friggin long. 135 hours. I have been playing it since February (it is now December). And I didn’t even do the third semester and final palace in the Royal edition, which I read add another 10-20 hours. I don’t have the motivation to do any more. I finished the main game, saw the story build-up for the third semester after New Year’s (which I didn’t know I had fulfilled the conditions to unlock), and called it done. I clocked about 80 hours in Persona 4, so 5 is over 50% longer. I loved the game overall, but it kept going and going and going; there was no need for the extreme length. There are a lot of palaces (main dungeons), a huge dungeon called Mementos (full of side quests and the end of the game; like HUGE, literally at least 55 floors [I remember a character commenting on that number]), tons of confidants (characters with whom you forge social bonds), creating and fusing personas, five social characteristics to level up, tons of dialogue (often through long text chains), and just a really long, involved story with a lot of side activities to do. It’s enormous. It reminds me of the rebooted Assassin’s Creed games that were so much longer beginning with the PS4 games compared to those before. I really liked those first two PS4 Assassin’s Creed games, but I wanted something shorter and more streamlined. If there is a Persona 6, I will be skipping it unless it is significantly shorter and changes up the formula.
There really isn’t too much to say about this that I didn’t say about Persona 3 and 4. I made an entry for Persona 4 over 10 years ago! Re-reading it sounded like I was basically describing Persona 5 back then. You’re a displaced troubled youth. Weird stuff is happening, mysterious deaths and people going insane. You meet people at school, meet a talking cat, and get a mysterious phone app that transports you to strange places. You become the Phantom Thieves, who identify rotten adults and change their hearts by going into their “palaces” (minds), stealing their treasures (desires) and forcing them to confess to their misdeeds. In so doing, the Phantom Thieves become social media famous, until the public turns against them. You survive an interrogation (a cool narrative device that lasts about half the game), meet new people, recruit them to the team, go up against bigger and badder adults as you work your way toward the true culprit behind the mysterious deaths and insanities. (That’s when I thought the game was over, but surprise, there is more plot and a true boss after what you think is the last boss, and that’s like another 10 hours of gameplay!!). Along the way, you help all sorts of people with their problems and potentially date a girl.
Combat operates pretty much the same as I remember. There are all the standard Shin Megami Tensei personas and magics. You play a game of strengths and weaknesses in combat, exploiting enemy vulnerabilities for advantage in battle. When you hit an enemy's weakness (e.g., use a fire spell on an enemy weak to fire), you knock them down and get an extra turn. If you knock all enemies down, you perform a powerful group attack. You can recruit different personas to enhance your own arsenal and can fuse personas to create stronger ones to mix-and-match skills to suit your purposes. For example, for most of the game, I created personas with a high magic stat that could use most elements. Whatever I didn’t have at the ready, I would choose party members who had what I was missing. By the end of the game, I was fusing personas focusing on buffs and debuffs because, as “exploit the weakness” combat systems always go, the toughest enemies have no weaknesses, and so you end up being better off going for pure damage, buffing your party, and debuffing the enemies. All the later bosses basically faced me at an attack power and defense deficit because I constantly debuffed them. Every time a boss raised its attack, I nullified it, and I had a few party members always ready to raise my own attack and defense and remove status ailments. Combat could be challenging at times (some particularly nasty enemies or combinations of enemies, some tough bosses), but usually it was a cakewalk, with me by the end of the game using auto-attack most of the time to win regular battles.
Outside of palaces, you are living the daily life of a teenager in Japan, going to school, playing sports, eating ramen, etc. You choose how to spend your time after school, in the evenings, and on weekends, strategically hanging out with people and engaging in activities to raise stats and strengthen social bonds. Or, you’re just really interested in all these characters’ side stories! I enjoyed all of them. One girl is an expert shogi player, but her mother wants to use her shogi fame to make her an idol. Another girl is trying to help a friend who is dating a bad guy who is attempting to exploit her for sex work. You help your best guy friend mediate conflict between his old track teammates. You meet a fortune teller who is caught up in a grift. There is a gamer kid who you train with and a former yakuza arms dealer who you go to work for. And like 15 more. There is a TON of story in this game. I really, really enjoyed the narratives, dialogue-heavy though the game is.
I guess in the end, that’s really what I was playing for was to see what would happen with all these characters and in the main story. The dungeons ended up getting pretty grindy and same-y with puzzles that just padded them out. Plus, I was way over-leveled. I got some accessories at the beginning of the game that increased experience gain by 15%. Any item that increases experience gain is an awesome long-term investment. I mean, 15% bonus XP in every battle for 135 hours, what could be more overpowered? I equipped that accessory on every character, ignoring all other accessories, such that by the end of the game, I was in the high 70s, with personas in the low 80s. The internet says you should be tackling the final boss around level 70. I completely dominated the final boss, but see how he could have been trickier if I was 10 levels lower (by the high 70s, all your party members' personas' skills are maxed out and, of course, everyone has higher stats, more HP, and more SP).
It was a fun, long ride, with great characters and interesting themes. I am teaching an Introduction to Psychology course for the first time right now, so it was cool to see how the game plays with concepts like the collective unconscious and, well, personas. Very Jungian. There is excellent story payoff at the end. You finally figure out what’s up with Mona/Morgana. However, if I knew before playing that it would be so long and so similar to previous Persona games, I would not have picked it up. Extremely glad to be done and start the next (also long, but nowhere near this long) Playstation game on my list, Red Dead Redemption 2 (also I believe the final PS4 game in my backlog and wishlist!).
PS, I forgot to mention how stylish the game is. It looks and sounds super slick. And the music is AWESOME!
This entry has been edited 1 time. It was last edited on Dec 6th, 2025 at 11:50:31.
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Etheria Odyssey (DS) by frythyrice (Dec 2nd, 2025 at 01:25:38) |
I dunno how to make stuff like this but I'll try my best!!
My current party consists of a Protector, Landsknecht, Alchemist, Survivalist and a Medic. I don't know how to build my characters. So far my Landsknecht has been a pretty good damage dealer so I'm happy with that. I'm planning on making the Protector just one big meat shield, which is going well.
I just finished the first floor. The jump in damage done by the enemies shocked me!! What do you mean the deer oneshots both my Protector and Landsknecht!! Not cool!!! I feel like I'll be stuck grinding to level up my characters or at least get more money to get better gear. Sighhh.. It's okay though, I gotta take it slow. Taking it slow is good :^)
I have to build my Alchemist but i dunno as what. I either fuck around and find out or look up some stuff online. My medic's also just fine. I should try the other characters too for a change too.
Overall fun :^) and very difficult :^( Very cool dungeon crawler with the map making mechanic. Useful and cool to do!!
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Divinity: Original Sin II (PC) by dkirschner (Dec 1st, 2025 at 21:06:47) |
The “toolbox” feel of Divinity: Original Sin 2 is incredible. I am barely through the second act, haven’t even left Reaper’s Eye, and have clocked nearly 30 hours. I’ve explored every bit of every area I can and have been flummoxed by locked chests, complex puzzles, and difficult encounters. Often, I have been stuck on something only to have an “a-ha!” moment. For example, I remember when I realized the value of the teleport spell. This spell is amazing. Cast it on an object and then select where to move the object. It works on most anything—chests, items, even enemies. Chest stuck behind a locked gate? Teleport it to your side. Enemy too close to you in combat? Drop it off a cliff. One of your characters needs to be on the other side of the battlefield, but is slowed and would take three turns to get there? Boom. Teleport him. There are so many abilities like this that have numerous uses that aren’t obvious at first glance. At some point, I realized that if I kept spare junk weapons in my inventory, I could use them to bust down doors. Since they’re junk, it doesn’t matter if they break. At some point, I realized that I could make great use of my undead character being healed by poison. So, I always keep a poison wand on him, all poison items go to him, etc., and he can always heal himself by attacking himself. At some point, I realized that it might be cool to put one point of Necromancer on each of my mages. Necromancer heals the caster by 10% of damage dealt (20% at level 2, etc.). So now all my mages heal for 10% of damage dealt. I am sure there are dozens more such discoveries to be had.
This makes combat fascinating and extremely dynamic. It is based on elements—fire, electricity, oil, ice, poison, blood, steam, etc.—being manipulated on the battlefield. I mean, you can choose to ignore elements, but that would be stupid. You can use them to your great advantage, and accidentally to your great detriment, and enemies will use them too. For example, have a character hurl an oily rock that coats characters and surfaces in oil, then have another character launch a fireball at the oil. BOOM! Explosion. Have a character cast raining blood, which causes enemies to bleed if they don’t have physical armor. Then have another character use a lightning attack, which electrifies the blood. A character on fire? Cast rain to extinguish all the fire. But watch out for an enemy to blast the water surfaces with lightning and zap your previously immolated character. The number of interlocking effects and systems in this game is nuts.
My party is magic-heavy. I have a summoner (my main character, the Red Prince), a fire/geo mage (Fane, the undead), an aero/water mage (Lohse), and a dual-wielding rogue (the woman who is possessed by a demon). The magic variety is awesome because I often have elemental control of the battlefield. But, if there are a lot of enemies with high magic armor, or a lot of physically strong enemies who can get up close, then I can have some trouble. Usually, my rogue can lock down any mages or archers who are around. The trick there is getting her to them quickly (hello teleport) so she can kill one and move on to the next. And my magic users obliterate melee enemies who tend to have low magic armor. The summoner is especially badass because his familiar acts as an extra character, and a strong one at that. Plus, he can summon totems that take a free shot per round at an enemy. The familiar and the totems also act as damage sponges; sometimes enemies will attack them instead of my main party members. I’ll often just summon the familiar out in front of the party to serve as a tank, then bombard enemies with spells from the mages, while the rogue runs around the edges of the battlefield disposing of mages or archers who might be sniping from above. The setup works pretty well! One drawback is equipment though; I keep getting all these badass two-handed swords, heavy armor, strength equipment, crossbows, etc., with no one to use them, and I only get so much equipment that is great for mages, with three mages to share it.
Story-wise, I am loving the world and the characters in it. It’s dark, funny, deep, creative—extremely well written. It was just revealed to me that each of the main playable characters (there are six or seven playable characters, but you can only have four in your party; no idea what happens to the others right now) is chosen by a different god to become The One. It introduced conflict between me and my party in what was previously a collaborative venture! Now The Red Prince (me) is supposed to distrust everyone else because they’ve all been summoned by different gods, and my god told me outright to kill one of my party members (my aero/water mage, who is the healer!). I don’t want to kill any of my party members! I’m so curious about how these intertwining playable character narratives flow together, because any one of them can be you, the main character. That means that the game is a bit different every time, aside from the race/class/background stuff, because each character essentially has their own hero arc.
I started off playing this co-op with a friend, which had its own cool features, though we only played through the tutorial together before I got busy, put the game down for a long time, and then just continued on alone. It was fun fighting together, as you can play off each other in terms of battlefield elements and coordinate in interesting ways. I would like to play some more co-op; however, given the narrative heavy nature of the game and all the inventory management slowing me down (probably the only downside), I don’t think I would enjoy playing co-op except for the combat.
Anyway, I am almost off of Reaper’s Eye, and then on to the next act! Excited to see where this one goes.
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In Sound Mind (PC) by dkirschner |
| Blowing me away so far. Great presentation. -------- Excellent game. Psychologists should play. |
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most recent entry: Monday 19 September, 2022
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I had zero expectations for this. Never heard of it before seeing it free on Epic. It seemed like a nontraditional horror/FPS with some trippy visuals. What did I get? A story-heavy game about a psychologist unraveling the mystery of his patients’ deaths, a government conspiracy, and his own psychosis. It's a VERY clever premise as presented. About 3/4 of the way through, I had a sad feeling that it was moving toward a more generic central plot and that the setup wouldn't deliver, but it mostly does. I even teared up at the end. It was so SWEET and I love cats.
You wake up in the basement of a three-story building. Eventually, you (the player) start to realize who you (the character) are. You find your office, your home (there’s a portal to it, don’t ask), a talking cat, and lots of mysterious purple substance that looks like radioactive waste. Most areas in the building are blocked off. The game is divided into "tapes," which you find through a series of other portals into your patients’ homes. Like a metroidvania, new parts of the building open up as you gain new items in each tape (e.g., a piece of glass to cut through police tape or smash boards, a radio device to jam electric boxes, etc.). The tapes are your recorded sessions with patients and the game proceeds as you play through each tape, transported into some hellish version of the patients’ realities. In each of their tapes, you trace their descent into madness, fight them in truly epic boss battles that span most of the tape, and bring some closure to their part of the story. But it only deepens the overall mystery and their connection to one another.
In Sound Mind shines in numerous areas, but I'll highlight the epic boss battles. Since the tapes are the patients' realities, you might imagine that the patients are omnipresent in each level. Good guess! Sometimes the entire tape feels like a boss battle. Not only are the tapes set where the patients finally lost it (a ravaged supermarket; a lighthouse and surrounding beaches; a state park; industrial mining operation), but the patients are there, manifested in horrific versions of themselves. It's hard to choose which one to talk about. The first one might have been my overall favorite tape. The second one presented me with the most tense moments of the game. The third one had the longest and most epic boss battle. The fourth one was probably the least impressive. And the final boss battle was whatever (he pesters you throughout the game and looks like a doddering Freddy Krueger).
The first tape is for a patient who can't handle other people looking at her. You (her psychologist) try exposure therapy and have her go out to a familiar local supermarket. She can do that, feels comfortable there. But then it closes, pushed out of business by the game's version of Wal-Mart. She goes there and, long story short, smashes it up and kills herself with broken glass. You get a piece of said glass, which is a creative tool for the rest of the game. Not only does it cut police tape and smash boards, but if you hold it up, it highlights objects (key progression objects, upgrades, electrical grids) behind you. They remain highlighted for like 10 seconds after you put the mirror down. So in this way, you can find hidden keys, health upgrades, figure out how to open electronically locked doors, see hidden paths, and so on. It's pretty neat!
In the third boss battle, you fight a man who is very angry over losing his job, transformed into a bull-head-shaped truck engine that zooms around the map trying to kill you. You basically lure it from place to place as you develop a way to pacify it. This involves a big puzzle synthesizing a drug, navigating a conveyor belt maze, completing a puzzle with fuses to lift an elevator and navigate a power grid, avoiding the bull in a train yard, and more. One of my favorite parts was in the second boss battle where you are fighting "the darkness." You have one fuse and have to get through dark areas by sprinting from fuse box to fuse box trying to create lit areas so the darkness wouldn't get you. Scary!
Sometimes, the levels can feel a bit long though. This is due to the game's main weakness: its combat (not good for an FPS!). Shooting is very basic and enemies dart around too much for the guns to handle. It is the least fun part of the game. There is basically one enemy type, besides the bosses. It does have a couple variations, but they both jerk around and are hard to shoot in the head. Stealth is also totally broken. I may have snuck by one enemy once. There's a whole stealth stat! You will never need this, rarely be encouraged to try it, enemies will see you anyway, and you'll always have enough ammo to kill them.
To sum, In Sound Mind was surprisingly good. Most of the time, I thought it was great. The story, bosses, and puzzles are highlights. Combat with normal enemies becomes a slog. Actually in the final boss battle, I quit killing them and learned I could just run past them. I'd definitely recommend this for something a little different. Oh, also, the soundtrack is excellent. I have to look up the band that did the music, The Living Tombstone. Their songs fit/set the tone of the game perfectly.
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