You played any Ateiler?
I love Sophie 1/2. It uses a Tetris like grid and pieces for the alchemy. Great music, no time limit.
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I love Sophie 1/2. It uses a Tetris like grid and pieces for the alchemy. Great music, no time limit.
I haven't played any of them, was looking for a new rpg after Triangle strategy.
Me, I played it. Worth it at that price. I set the combat to easy. It's classic eurojank in that regard. But the detective work is good. They started to release their Sherlock Holmes games as well, which are very similar.
Graphically Sinking City is a clear downgrade from the other versions, but that dark depressing atmosphere is heavy. I wanted to treat it like a Lovecraft book and it fully hit the spot for me, so it's really a good version to get. The lore is pure Lovecraft and his influences, so the better versed you are in it, the more you will get out of it. But the game has a lot of material in game to devour as well. I recommend reading everything you can, which is why handheld mode was quite important to me.
Hmm. Well, I love the Atelier series and while Sophie did eliminate time limits, it's still one of the "old style" Atelier games. A big difference is that you have an overworld map that you use to travel to different areas. These are smaller areas you will collect materials in and fight enemies etc. Until Ryza time this was the standard.
Ryza 1+2 and Sophie 2 adopted the new style where it's a lot more open world and there is a whole new graphics engine which is a big step up in both areas. The zones in the new games are sprawling and while not true open world they are very large, and stunningly pretty.
So, depending on what you are looking for, Sophie 1 might be a good starting point. It's my favorite of the older style probably (I liked Lydie&Suelle also), and it will be harder to go back to that after playing newer ones. The alchemy is not super hard to learn. There are a lot of moving parts in all the Atelier games' alchemy systems so that shouldn't be a problem.
My recommendation is watch a video of Sophie 1 and see what you think of the graphics and the zones Sophie is exploring when leaving town. If you like what you see, get Sophie 1. If not, I highly recommend Ryza 1. I adored both of the Ryza games and am loving Sophie 2 so these are all easy recommends.
I'd be remiss not to mention the uhh female model issue. While these games do not feature every single female character as a barely-dressed person whom the camera constantly lingers on their breasts/ass, there are several of these in most of the games. I hate it. This series would be better if they would remove all of this. They are legit good, fun games that stand on their own and do not need to objectify women. That's my 1 huge complaint. I still play them because there isnt anything else like these games but whew.
Anyways, good luck lol!
I definitely am! Thanks very much :)
Thanks for the input. It definitely seems like the best available option in terms of Lovecraft-inspired games.
I got A Year of Springs on sale as part of the latest eShop deals. I wasn't expecting much, but I was amazed by how good the writing is! Plus, the game is adorable and handles its themes well.
If you haven't played it yet, Call of Cthulhu is also great. It's available on the eShop, though I don't know how well it plays on the Switch as I played it on PC.
I played A Year of Springs when they were released as individual chapters on mobile, it's great! Highly recommended and cheap narrative game.
I'll give it a go, never played a DQ spinoff before and I;ve heard good things
I don't know about kids (though my son would probably eat this up as well) but I have watched a review and am now SOLD on this thing! This looks to be filling that void that the first Test Drive Unlimited left in me more than 15 years ago lol.
It's a lot of fun. Busy work but it let's you decide how and when to do it.
It's an eShop gem for that price.
FYI: Dragon Quest Builders 2 is the best Minecraft-like game ever made. And it's so much more than Minecraft.
Really long main story, a million options for creating your own home base, lots of classic DQ trappings great music, it's hella addictive!!
My only downside: the cutscenes have text pop on screen - like 2 lines of text - that stay there for like 20+ seconds. It's excruciating and you have read the text 50 times before it moves to the next sentence, of which there are several. Baffling how this is and it's not skippable or able to be sped up.
But that's a minor blemish on an incredible game. If you like building and crafting and fantasy/DQ, check this game out!
Really long main story, a million options for creating your own home base, lots of classic DQ trappings great music, it's hella addictive!!
My only downside: the cutscenes have text pop on screen - like 2 lines of text - that stay there for like 20+ seconds. It's excruciating and you have read the text 50 times before it moves to the next sentence, of which there are several. Baffling how this is and it's not skippable or able to be sped up.
But that's a minor blemish on an incredible game. If you like building and crafting and fantasy/DQ, check this game out!
It looks like "Baby's First Snowrunner"...mixed with some of that Labo Vehicle Kit objectives on the map...which sounds cool!
Been a while since i finished it, but from my memorties playing exclusively handheld, it runs pretty smoothly. No memories of lag or noticeable slowdown when playing it.
Runs great. A fantastic port. I did find it a little blurry but not at all among the worst Switch games. It's a great in bed game.
Phenomenal game too! Kinda regret that i finished it on PS4 already before the Switch version was announced what with the bonuses and 2D mode etc.
It's one of my favorite games ever and I didn't even beat it, but I got way closer than I would've in a non-portable device. In many ways it's a perfect Switch game.
Now that I have an OLED Switch I'm kinda getting the DQ bug again so I might actually go back and finish the last story arc.
To be honest, the 2D mode kind of sucks. It's fun as a novelty, but I haven't seen many people put genuine time into that mode
Well, thanks for making me feel slightly less frustrated at not getting this edition i guess ;)
On the other hand, you're missing like 6 hours of story content in the middle of the game that happened to be some of my favorite stuff from that game. I recommend checking out a playthrough of that part or something if you don't plan on playing through it again in the future.
Welp. Tx for the heads-up, i may just have to do that then...no time for another playthrough in this lifetime anyway lol.
Koei-Tecmo sale:
Sales on Ryza 1 & 2, Fairy Tail, Monster Rancher, Fatal Frame, Rot3K, and others + some DLC.
Is Fatal Frame: Maiden of Black Water any good? I remember playing one of the early Fatal Frame games and not liking it as much as RE/SH, but it's been a while so I might want to give it another chance.
Sales on Ryza 1 & 2, Fairy Tail, Monster Rancher, Fatal Frame, Rot3K, and others + some DLC.
Is Fatal Frame: Maiden of Black Water any good? I remember playing one of the early Fatal Frame games and not liking it as much as RE/SH, but it's been a while so I might want to give it another chance.
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Never played an Atelier game and have heard the Ryza games are a good starting point. My only "concern" is I'm not into the waifu/husbando thing. Do these games do that?Koei-Tecmo sale:
Sales on Ryza 1 & 2, Fairy Tail, Monster Rancher, Fatal Frame, Rot3K, and others + some DLC.
Is Fatal Frame: Maiden of Black Water any good? I remember playing one of the early Fatal Frame games and not liking it as much as RE/SH, but it's been a while so I might want to give it another chance.
I'm tempted on FF but it's gotta get a bit cheaper for me.Koei-Tecmo sale:
Sales on Ryza 1 & 2, Fairy Tail, Monster Rancher, Fatal Frame, Rot3K, and others + some DLC.
Is Fatal Frame: Maiden of Black Water any good? I remember playing one of the early Fatal Frame games and not liking it as much as RE/SH, but it's been a while so I might want to give it another chance.
I haven't played Atelier in a few years, but last ones I played weren't big on romance. They have been getting more fan-servicey as time goes on, but we're talking like Xenoblade 2 levels, not one of the JRPGs that is banned on this site. I could be wrong though as I haven't played any of the Ryza games yet.
There isn't romance in the Atelier games really at all. There's no dating system, nothing like that. It's more slice-of-life anime with crafting. There are sexualized/pandering characters/models unfortunately but romance/sex etc is not in these games. Also: Ryza 1+2 are great and a perfect starting point for the series :)
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Thanks good to know. I just don't really enjoy the games where they have young characters and really focus on certain physical features of said characters. To each their own, but it's not my thing at all.
Ok well…there is no romance but male gaze shots of boobs/asses, in your face in cutscenes is in these games. It really sucks because the games themselves are great and they simply don't need any of this bullshit. So while the stories are all innocent and cute, and characters aren't screwing and having lewd conversations, they cram as much of the ridiculous camera shots as they can and it does cheapen the experience imo.
So frustrating because outside of this, the Atelier games are just a delight to play. Deep gameplay systems, Ryza is beautiful, music is A+++, like it hits all the notes but then needs to pander to teenage basement dwellers I guess to get more sales. So beware - you may not want to play these 👀
Not sure if it was true, but i remember someone on here saying that every game on the eshop that is programmed with a bundle specific discount (buy one game, the other one has a discount automatically applied) never goes on sale since the eshop does not handle the discount conflict that would cause, and i don't think the eshop had a case where 2 specific discount were added on the same item. Would LOVE for that to be wrong through, i want to buy them too.
Yep. It's most likely the reason why Bayonetta 1 or 2 hasn't gone on sale yet. But with the new Bayonetta bundle, I'm hoping the games finally go on sale.
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