What JRPG are you playing right now?
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From Zero just came in mail for me today, I'll have to watch summaries of Sky trilogy, because unfortunately I don't have a way to play on PC
Pretty exited to dive in at last
Still playing through Unicorn Overlord.
I love Vanillaware and I really loved the first 2/3rds of the game. But the game really started to lose its luster as I move towards the end. I'm just trying to get it over with right now.
I think the decision to be entirely gameplay focused was to its detriment compared to 13 Sentinels. 13 Sentinels had an absolutely wild story and I was engaged the whole time. Unicorn Overlord has some fun characters and that's about it.
I love Vanillaware and I really loved the first 2/3rds of the game. But the game really started to lose its luster as I move towards the end. I'm just trying to get it over with right now.
I think the decision to be entirely gameplay focused was to its detriment compared to 13 Sentinels. 13 Sentinels had an absolutely wild story and I was engaged the whole time. Unicorn Overlord has some fun characters and that's about it.
About 20 hours in Ys 8 it's really great. My first Ys game, wasn't grabbing me to much in the beginning. But the further I'm getting in just keeps getting better. May have to start trails series after this game.
You're in for such a treat! Ys8 is the best, and so is Trails!
Well I finally completed XBC2. 60hrs, very few side quest, lvl 70.
Unfortunately my biggest worries never resolved themselves. Story got more interesting as time went on but almost everything else about the game hardly improved or got worse.
The combat had a few more additions but nothing to major. Many mob fights took way too long even if they were a couple levels below me. The best info I got was some items made your art meters full faster which is game changer for both rex and every one else. These speed up items should've been talents or abilities or something, the base attack speed is too slow imo. As the combat system never really changes outside what elements your blades are boss battle were a chore and there was no uniqueness to them. There's no difference fighting a group of bandits vs fighting a super powerful character, battles play out the exact same way. What makes it worse is there's almost no gameplay variety to them: bosses don't have exploitable weaknesses, special moves to counter, new phases of the fight, unique mechanics etc.
The final boss is one of the worst final bosses I've ever had the displeasure of fighting. All the above apply but there fundamentally broken parts about the fight. You can only fight it head on so your position spefic attacks are useless, healing potions are dropped far away from you so sometimes you can't reach in time for an emergency heal, you party sometimes will not fucking attack the adds the appear, the boss at time is so far away to hit but can still fire more pr less to instant kills, party AI paths is so bad they will never move or be stuck in position and soc much more. The fight is legit broken at times and I died 10 or so times in a row and 9 were due to things completely out of my control like party not resurrecting me because they're stuck in place. I got fed up and looked up starts and the only thing I found was that when it's firing it's super use a chain attack to get invincible frames, it's basically an exploit/cheese. On my 10th attempt i did the strat and not only did it work to alleviate the insta kills it also got my party out of their buggy states where they wouldn't move. Hurray for a final boss that is so buggy that you need to cheese it to have a decent fight. When I beat it I didn't feel joy or accomplishment, i relieve like I felt like I finally finished the dirty dishes.
Exploring actually got worse. Navigation was still as bad as ever as the compass continued to give wrong directions, field skills became more prevalent to access certain mandatory routes or treasures, the gatcha blade mechanic became unbearable because even when I used rare or legendary core I still got common blades. All my unique blades were random from common cores. When a field skill check prevented me from progressing because I didn't have the correct skills (eg electric mastery to open a locked door) I need to keep unlocking new blades, 9/10 it's the wrong element so I waste time. It is a shitty design choice.
Some areas were terrible to explore. The cave under fonsett village was one of the worst part of the game: you lose Pyra who is you all round blade, you can only charge up to lvl 1 specials, monsters are highly aggressive, the layout has tiers so if you fall from above you have to go back to the beginning of your route. There's a later area in world tree where robots can call for reinforcements so sometime you can be fighting 5 or more enemies in cramped spaces and it's a total shit show in what you can see and what your party targets or draws aggro.
Finally the story. NGL I was more engaged with the characters, even some of the villains like Jin. However things were becoming more predictable as played don. It became very top heavy as things events played out and pasts revealed: evil being wants to destroy the humans because people are pigs, another evil being wants to destroy the entire world because it's his role, hero wants to save because of his friends (yeah Rex literray says as much) and so forth. You can see things a mile away. Also having bad guys do terrible shit and explicitly declare they will kill more but heroes continually excuse them because deeeeep down they have good intentions is fucking annoying. It was happening right to the end. Character Depth was very shallow too, all you party mates have very surface level backgrounds and any surprises aren't elaborated on. Case in Nia has a huge secret but when it's revealed it's a memory flashback and her situation is never addressed again.
The connection to Xenoblade 1 was interesting. I'm not too sure how I feel the way the games are connected because raises more questions than answers. This game seems like both a prequel to XC1 and an alternate reality. I wasnt too fond of its inclusion right at the end of XC1 but here there's some more information given which recontextualises XC1 to make it easier to swallow. I'm not sure about the alternative reality though, it seems like there's bigger questions of what was happening in the original universe to make this one a possibility and how exactly were new universes created because it could easily be alien tech. I'm planning in playing Xenoblade 3 straight after so I hope that game finally addresses all this multivers stuff
Overall I think it's a massive down step from XC1. Story was weaker, performance and visuals were very rough especially when BOTW is also available on the switch, gameplay designs like gatcha blades and unlocking huge portions of combat behind chapters are detrimental and the exploration is held back by poor navigation and having little to do within the worlds. I'd proba give XC2 a 7 at most, mostly it's a 6 with a few cool moments here and there. I enjoyed some of the characters and their interactions but almost everything else wasn't that great or enjoyable. There's so much potential behind the game but failed in many of its executions. I heard the DLC is good but honestly I don't I want to get back into this game, I've done enough. Maybe down the line I'll get the dlc but right now ive had more than enough of the the game, it's time to finish the trilogy. Hopefully XC3 is step up and is more like XC1 than 2.
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I think you ended up landing even further on the negative end of the spectrum than I did at the end, but uh, yeah, basically that.
Here's a great video now that you've finished that rips the game apart.
Amusingly, I also had my spouse pick X3 up for me in Japan, so I guess I'm a glutton for punishment.
I really tried to like the game, I always hoped there would a cool new story point or a new gameplay mechanic that changes everything but none of it never came. If I wasn't committed to finishing the trilogy I would've given up playing XC2 long long ago. I can excuse shortcomings if the game is really fun to play but like I said there were many design choices that were poorly made right up to and including the final boss.
Thanks for the link but I won't be watching. I have my own fresh experience to remember by which want exactly glowing and I don't really want to relive all the BS again, not so soon anyway.
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Pokémon Sword. Good grief is this a barebones Pokémon game. Gotta love how everything interesting happens off screen with everyone just saying to you "you just focus on your Gym challenge fam, we got dis". Now doing the 8th Gym and have not even seen the cover legendary, which is also funky.
I also have the DLC with Isle of Armor finished. Lacklustre to say the least. This feels more like QoL shit in a nice wrapping than actual DLC. I'm guessing Crown Tundra will be no different.
I also have the DLC with Isle of Armor finished. Lacklustre to say the least. This feels more like QoL shit in a nice wrapping than actual DLC. I'm guessing Crown Tundra will be no different.
That game(and its sequel) need a port on current gen. Well, what it really needs is a remake, but Atlus simply doesn't have the manpower to do that.
Been replaying Tales of the Abyss as a palette cleanser after doing the main story of Legendia. I forgot how stingy Abyss is with money.
On my quest to finish the Xenoblade trilogy I've started Xenoblade chronicles 3 today. About 5 hours, got the full cast and fought mobius and beat consule K.
From the beginning to where I am I'm saying wow fucking wow. What an awesome first few hours. Starts with a very sombre theme of a meaningless life of birth and death, it's a messed up plot to get into already and I can already anticipate a lot of characters will end up dying. It's going to a tear jerker isn't it?
The cinematography has come on leaps and bounds, at times it feels like a AAA game with dynamic camera use and great character animation in every scene. Graphics look great, it's very anime in style but everything looks so much cleaner and sharper than in XBC2 where a lot of times it was a blurry mess even on docked mode. Music is once again excellent, the Xenoblade series top tier soundtrack. The voice work is so much better, it now seems like there was better voice direction as the emotion of the voices matches the characters actions in contrast to 2 where Rex might be flailing his arms in excitement but the voice is calm and steady lol.
The gameplay is really fun and so far already the best of the 3. The MMO triangle of tank+healer+DPS works very well here even with an 6 party members, I get heals regularly and DPS position themselves correctly. It's so easy and effortless. Fights against mobs aren't long, it's surprisingly easy to coordinate position thanks to AI having a better understanding (now when I use a break attack the AI will almost always follow up with a topple attack and a daze attack to keep the combo going). Swapping characters to fine tune tactics is a little clunky as you have to scroll through everyone but it's really helpful if say you want to manually move your healer to a position that's close to everyone so the AOE heal affects as many as possible. The boss fight with consule K was the best example as I was using every trick like break combos, chain attacks, oroborous links and everything worked smoothly. The only thing I'm not really a fan of ATM are chain attacks at they're a little obscure to understand but nothing a bit of looking up won't fix.
The characters are great so far. Noah being reserved makes a nice change from typical high energy protags (though I don't think Noah is that entertaining) and the rest of the cast have their personality traits which I expect will get expanded on. So far I'm liking Eunice, Sera, Lanz and surprisingly Taion.
As I've said I'm only a few hours in but it's a massive improvement over XBC2 in almost every way. I mean the compass actually works in this game! It already blows that game away. I dunno if it will match XBC1 but it's got a great start. Long forward to the rest of the adventure.
From the beginning to where I am I'm saying wow fucking wow. What an awesome first few hours. Starts with a very sombre theme of a meaningless life of birth and death, it's a messed up plot to get into already and I can already anticipate a lot of characters will end up dying. It's going to a tear jerker isn't it?
The cinematography has come on leaps and bounds, at times it feels like a AAA game with dynamic camera use and great character animation in every scene. Graphics look great, it's very anime in style but everything looks so much cleaner and sharper than in XBC2 where a lot of times it was a blurry mess even on docked mode. Music is once again excellent, the Xenoblade series top tier soundtrack. The voice work is so much better, it now seems like there was better voice direction as the emotion of the voices matches the characters actions in contrast to 2 where Rex might be flailing his arms in excitement but the voice is calm and steady lol.
The gameplay is really fun and so far already the best of the 3. The MMO triangle of tank+healer+DPS works very well here even with an 6 party members, I get heals regularly and DPS position themselves correctly. It's so easy and effortless. Fights against mobs aren't long, it's surprisingly easy to coordinate position thanks to AI having a better understanding (now when I use a break attack the AI will almost always follow up with a topple attack and a daze attack to keep the combo going). Swapping characters to fine tune tactics is a little clunky as you have to scroll through everyone but it's really helpful if say you want to manually move your healer to a position that's close to everyone so the AOE heal affects as many as possible. The boss fight with consule K was the best example as I was using every trick like break combos, chain attacks, oroborous links and everything worked smoothly. The only thing I'm not really a fan of ATM are chain attacks at they're a little obscure to understand but nothing a bit of looking up won't fix.
The characters are great so far. Noah being reserved makes a nice change from typical high energy protags (though I don't think Noah is that entertaining) and the rest of the cast have their personality traits which I expect will get expanded on. So far I'm liking Eunice, Sera, Lanz and surprisingly Taion.
As I've said I'm only a few hours in but it's a massive improvement over XBC2 in almost every way. I mean the compass actually works in this game! It already blows that game away. I dunno if it will match XBC1 but it's got a great start. Long forward to the rest of the adventure.
Enjoy, absolutely incredible game and my favorite in the series. My opinion of it only grows with time.
Game has such a strong vision and thematic core that it fully commits to, and makes some odd story and world design choices to get there, but it all came together for me in the end and I wouldn't change a thing.
Mitsuda's work on it is some of my favorite music I've ever heard as well.
I'm replaying Paper Mario 64 in the lead up to TTYD. As a kid I always preferred TTYD because it felt more unique in the Mario world (unique villain group, more unique locales) but replaying PM64 now and the battle system is definitely way better in TTYD and that's a huge part of it. I really miss Partner HP, stylish moves, superguards, audience stuff.
Great analysis! I FULLY agree, I think it's one of the strongest opening hours of any JRPG or any game in general!
I think it overall sticks the landing, and the DLC is satisfying, but also... The way they tell the story isn't great for the video game medium.
Regardless it's a huge step up from 2.
Summer break is kicking up for me, finishing up school today (teacher here) so here's what I'm looking forward to playing:
* Dragon Quest IV, V, VI. (I'm also about 35 hours into DQ VII - but I doubt I'll be finishing that anytime soon.)
* Ys Book 1 + 2, Ys IV, and VIII (I'll probably check out III for funsies)
* Kingdom Hearts 1 + 2 with my daughter (maybe check out the DS games if we don't totally hate them)
* SMT Devil Survivor DS - This game is really cool, I love it more on the Deck/Citra because I can run it at 300% and use a custom soundtrack in the background so I dont have to listen to the battle music at 300% sped up lol
* SMT Digital Devil Saga PS2 - This game is also really really cool. I think it has potential. I don't like Demon negotiating in SMT games, so this is more my cup of tea.
* Xenoblade X. I'm LOVING playing it again on my Steam Deck.
* Yakuza Like a Dragon. I REALLY enjoyed my first 90 minutes into the game, I'll keep playing and see if it's something I want to invest time in. Its really cool and a strong start.
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I'm getting closer to done with Dragon Quest IV DS. I REALLY enjoyed the first four chapters with the individual character stories. I thought that was great and how each chapter basically ended with them bumping into each other was excellent. It felt like a really really good version of Octopath.
But the Chapter 5 is now a slog. I kinda just want to finish it at this point so that I can say that I did, and then move on to DQ5 and eventually DQ6.
* Dragon Quest IV, V, VI. (I'm also about 35 hours into DQ VII - but I doubt I'll be finishing that anytime soon.)
* Ys Book 1 + 2, Ys IV, and VIII (I'll probably check out III for funsies)
* Kingdom Hearts 1 + 2 with my daughter (maybe check out the DS games if we don't totally hate them)
* SMT Devil Survivor DS - This game is really cool, I love it more on the Deck/Citra because I can run it at 300% and use a custom soundtrack in the background so I dont have to listen to the battle music at 300% sped up lol
* SMT Digital Devil Saga PS2 - This game is also really really cool. I think it has potential. I don't like Demon negotiating in SMT games, so this is more my cup of tea.
* Xenoblade X. I'm LOVING playing it again on my Steam Deck.
* Yakuza Like a Dragon. I REALLY enjoyed my first 90 minutes into the game, I'll keep playing and see if it's something I want to invest time in. Its really cool and a strong start.
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I'm getting closer to done with Dragon Quest IV DS. I REALLY enjoyed the first four chapters with the individual character stories. I thought that was great and how each chapter basically ended with them bumping into each other was excellent. It felt like a really really good version of Octopath.
But the Chapter 5 is now a slog. I kinda just want to finish it at this point so that I can say that I did, and then move on to DQ5 and eventually DQ6.
Decided to put every other game on pause and put all of my energy into Yakuza 8.
I wanna finish it before SMTV and Elden Ring DLC release because I will touch nothing else after that
I wanna finish it before SMTV and Elden Ring DLC release because I will touch nothing else after that
Like a Dragon Infinite Wealth: very good, looove the cast of misfits, especially the returning ones from 7.
Veeeery long though, burned out a little after the beginning of the second Hawaii part (looong running/fighting sequence), shall return soon, must indulge in some more Sujimon fighting
Eiyuden Chronicles: suprisingly formulaic, guess I've played too many JRPGs to enjoy this "homage" to the genre
Veeeery long though, burned out a little after the beginning of the second Hawaii part (looong running/fighting sequence), shall return soon, must indulge in some more Sujimon fighting
Eiyuden Chronicles: suprisingly formulaic, guess I've played too many JRPGs to enjoy this "homage" to the genre
I'm super enjoying Yakuza 7 but also I'm already burned out on combat in chapter 4 😆. I just downloaded a save file at Lv99 , and now I'm going to breeze through everything and just enjoy the mini games and the everything else about the game.
I havent really cheated through a JRPG like this before, but yeah I'm really loving everything about this game, it's my first Yakuza game.
But the combat system is just too slow, enemies are damage sponges, the inconsistenty I have with the perfect parry system and honestly while I do enjoy Mario RPG timing combat, this games is too simple and just plain boring.
I havent really cheated through a JRPG like this before, but yeah I'm really loving everything about this game, it's my first Yakuza game.
But the combat system is just too slow, enemies are damage sponges, the inconsistenty I have with the perfect parry system and honestly while I do enjoy Mario RPG timing combat, this games is too simple and just plain boring.
I finally have enough free time that I got into Trails into Reverie properly (I did the prologue shortly after it came out). I'd been busy with work, and I was worried I'd spend too much playing it so I held off (was also waiting for the translation update). I'm hoping this Trails game has fewer missable items and side quests so that I can unglue myself from a guide.
It's late, but did you turn down the difficulty of Xenoblade 2 (or consider doing so)? Around a third the way through Xenoblade 2, I got sick of fights taking so long and put it on easy mode, which ended up increasing my enjoyment of battles by drastically reducing the time spent in them.
Other than that, I agree with much of what you said about the game (the field skill locks and gacha mechanics annoyed me the most). I think I also rushed through to the end and had a similar playthrough time.
It's late, but did you turn down the difficulty of Xenoblade 2 (or consider doing so)? Around a third the way through Xenoblade 2, I got sick of fights taking so long and put it on easy mode, which ended up increasing my enjoyment of battles by drastically reducing the time spent in them.
Other than that, I agree with much of what you said about the game (the field skill locks and gacha mechanics annoyed me the most). I think I also rushed through to the end and had a similar playthrough time.
At first no, the game wasn't hard or anything so I personally didn't feel the need to lower teh difficulty. I did however over level a ton, every time I got the level up screen at inns I always went as high as possible and smooth things over. Often I was 5 or more levels higher than the surrounding areas mobs lol. Fights weren't long enough to be frustrating but long enough I could go through elemnetal combos and make use of chain attacks to their full potential.
But after ceratin part where Pyra leaves a bit over halfway through it was a nightmare to keep progressing because the fights take so much longer and sets of mobs were grouped closer. The spirit crucible eplyis area soon after was the worst area in the game: I lost access to Pyra, limited to only combo level 1 AND compulsory field skills. Yippee. Things were made even worse because I only had about 5 unique blades excluding everyone starting blades, no matter how many rare cores I burned though I didn't any unique blades. I burned through so many rare and common cores I kept getting the message you can't bond anymore blades, I didn't know why and assumed it was ANOTHER restriction of the spirit crucible. Turns out I hit the blade limit and only realised after I looked it up.
That right there was when i caved in and lowered the difficulty. Like you it did increase enjoyment a bit for me but every so often I'd run into issues which soured the experience. The spirit crucible im talking about? It ends with one of the worst boss fights ever, even on easy mode it just wouldn't stop, I got frustrated after my second attempt and looked up his to defeat him. Lowering difficulty 1 was step forward but other parts took it 2 steps back.
Thankfully XC3 combat is sooo much more enjoyable. Fights are fast, you can chain abilities better because your AI party actually knows when to use skills like topple to combo and tank-dps-healer system works fluidly. The only downside are chain attacks are grossly OP but they take so long to execute, why couldn't it 1 quick animation like XC1 or 2 instead of all this flashy shit?
Beat Yakuza Like a Dragon, probably my favorite Yakuza game now and I prefer Ichiban as the lead already. Could be just a honeymoon phase thing but I've played 0, Kiwami, and Kiwami 2 so I've had way more time with Kiryu and the party dynamic with Like a Dragon just adds so much.
I already wanna play more Yakuza but gonna go back to the Trails series first probably. I'm about to be behind more games than I've finished in this series once Daybreak comes out so it's time to catch up.
I already wanna play more Yakuza but gonna go back to the Trails series first probably. I'm about to be behind more games than I've finished in this series once Daybreak comes out so it's time to catch up.
Persona 3: Reload restart on Steam Deck is great thus far, going for Hard from the beginning and that seems to be perfect considering I've died once.
Honestly trails and Yakuza 7 feel so similar in the sense of building an interesting world and great great character writing.
Xenoblade 3 chapter 5 ending and the beginning of chapter 6.
Wow.
That was simply amazing. The story, the character animations, the voice work, the music, that final smile, the return. I sat through like 3hrs of cutscenes and went through shock, tears and joy. The funny thing I wasn't that into these 2 particular team members, I thought they were boring goody 2 shoes for the most but now I'm fully invested in them both and their "counterparts"
There was a thread ages ago asking for the best cutscenes from this and last gen and the above 2 were mentioned mutiple times and now I had the pleasure of seeing why. They easily some of the best scenes I've seen in any game ever.
Oh and bitchqueen will never stop being funny lmao.
Wow.
That was simply amazing. The story, the character animations, the voice work, the music, that final smile, the return. I sat through like 3hrs of cutscenes and went through shock, tears and joy. The funny thing I wasn't that into these 2 particular team members, I thought they were boring goody 2 shoes for the most but now I'm fully invested in them both and their "counterparts"
There was a thread ages ago asking for the best cutscenes from this and last gen and the above 2 were mentioned mutiple times and now I had the pleasure of seeing why. They easily some of the best scenes I've seen in any game ever.
Oh and bitchqueen will never stop being funny lmao.
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God they opened on a completely mundane fake prison sequence where you go around doing gather/kill quests and keep your head down and I was totally lulled in, starting to get too comfortably bored. When everything went sideways and the team is captured, I was like ok how are we getting out of this one. They countdown to the execution day so it's like ok we gotta escape before then.
We do not escape.
I was shouting in disbelief. I was totally engrossed in everything that followed, probably my most memorable XB experience, yeesh.
We do not escape.
I was shouting in disbelief. I was totally engrossed in everything that followed, probably my most memorable XB experience, yeesh.
It's indeed that good. By the way how are you feeling about sidequests this time around.
The actual side quests are still mostly fetch or hunts but the context and reasoning behind them are 10x better. Makes it more compelling to see them though.
For example go to this location, do this, go to next sounds generic AF but your mission is to go and send off fallen friends makes you more invested in. The side colony ones can be really good, there was one recently where the whole colony was run by little girls which is strange given how they managed to survive so long during war but then you find out the truth (the enemy consul was disguised as a girl was actually looking out for them all along) it's both sad and kinda heartfelt. Really well done stuff overall.
The night time music and graphical change in Satorl Marsh is 10/10 video game music. Stunning.
Oh man, absolutely. Coming off the Guar Plain music, which is not really for me (especially night), this was like whiplash for how much I loved it.
I'm playing Tales of Symphonia for the first time in years. As a kid when it came out it was my favourite video game and the first game I ever started playing again the moment the credits rolled. Must have played if 6 or 7 times in my early teens.
It's a 7/10 game objectively but to me it still has a unique magic to it. Call it nostalgia maybe but the game has a ton of love and effort put into it. So many dungeons and little things to find. For the first time ever I've found a different route on this playthrough that skips an early city and changes the order in which events play out.
Love it and having a great time replaying it. In an age of unfinished or buggy games, or games trying to extract as much money as possible out of my wallet, it is nice to replay this right now.
It's a 7/10 game objectively but to me it still has a unique magic to it. Call it nostalgia maybe but the game has a ton of love and effort put into it. So many dungeons and little things to find. For the first time ever I've found a different route on this playthrough that skips an early city and changes the order in which events play out.
Love it and having a great time replaying it. In an age of unfinished or buggy games, or games trying to extract as much money as possible out of my wallet, it is nice to replay this right now.
Finished Tales of Arise and thought it was absolutely awesome. 90+ hours, finished all side quests (at least I think so, don't use guides) caught almost all the fish, beat all boss zeugles and extra dungeons. Cast was awesome and suuuper likable, story was entertaining and gameplay was tons of fun. Minor complaint is that the battle mechanics were a bit too hectic, even for a Tales game, the finishing moves epilepsy inducing and there was too much unnecessary optional dialogue.
Strong 4/5
Excellent job Tales Team!
Oh and the second opening might be one of my favorites in any JRPG. Spoilers, obviously ^^
Strong 4/5
Excellent job Tales Team!
Oh and the second opening might be one of my favorites in any JRPG. Spoilers, obviously ^^
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Fixing a massive oversight by finally playing SMT 3 Nocturne. I'm starting to lose count of the times I thought to myself "Boy, this game hates you."
The most recent being a multi-floor teleporter maze.
The entire Labyrinth of Amala is a big ol middle finger to the player. Absolutely awful.
Still better than SMT 4.
The most recent being a multi-floor teleporter maze.
The entire Labyrinth of Amala is a big ol middle finger to the player. Absolutely awful.
Still better than SMT 4.
Finished Tales of Arise and thought it was absolutely awesome. 90+ hours, finished all side quests (at least I think so, don't use guides) caught almost all the fish, beat all boss zeugles and extra dungeons. Cast was awesome and suuuper likable, story was entertaining and gameplay was tons of fun. Minor complaint is that the battle mechanics were a bit too hectic, even for a Tales game, the finishing moves epilepsy inducing and there was too much unnecessary optional dialogue.
Strong 4/5
Excellent job Tales Team!
Oh and the second opening might be one of my favorites in any JRPG. Spoilers, obviously ^^
Did you play the DLC? I loved the game but never came back for what sounded like meager DLC, but it's rare enough to find a poster on Era not shitting on the game it would be nice to hear the impressions from someone positive on the game lol.
Bit late to comment on this, but really I don't think I have played that got me as much as Chapter 5 + beginning of Chapter 6. Absolutely astounding. I rarely rewatch cutscenes of a game, but I just can't help to, every now and then, go back and rewatch everything.
It left me speechless and I think is really the highest point of the game and of the series as a whole, even if Xenoblade 1 is my favourite still.
DQ5 for me! What a great game so far, playing the PS2 version on Steam Deck. Being able to save state/fast forward is amazing, makes every Dragon Quest game a better experience.
Not yet, and I don't think I will, tons of other stuff in my backlog (like Persona 5, which I will no doubt spend hundreds of hours with) and not very big on DLC in general tbh. Plus the ending was super satisfactory. And yeah, I was waiting to reach the what some describe as terrible second act, but that never happened. Had fun from start to finish, especially after
beating all the lords and just wandering around doing side quests, beating up zeugles, searching for materials to upgrade my weapons, go fishing for an hour or two etc.
