A positive thread about what you're currently playing

Playing some Bayonetta for the first time in, oh god, eight years or more? Man, I love the gameplay and absurdity. Don't know if I'll play it completely through, but it's nice to revisit.

Also borrowed a friend's SNES Classic (I'm not a big enough Ninty guy to buy my own), and yep, this thing's pretty cool. Having not touched a SNES in a very, very long time, it's weirding me out how small the controller feels after years of modern controllers, haha.

Seconded, they did an awesome job with the updates. Bosco's voice was a shock, but the new VA is a joy.

Playing freakin' Bloodborne ATM because it's got great gameplay, challenge, it's dark and exploration is important, the enemy design is fantastic. Probably my favorite Souls-related game so far. And I'm doing pretty well with the bosses which doesn't happen often in these games, beat Gascoigne first try, Amelia & BS Beast on the third try or so.

Also playing Salt and Sanctuary for the same reasons mentioned above, but it's 2D and I love that Ska Studios art style, my favorite Soulslike that was not made by From Software so far.

And then when I want to chill out in between, some Pillars of Eternity, Etherlords 2, StardewValley or whatever else I having out on my desktop. And just got Pokemon Moon on my 3DS.

Playing CB 2077, and enjoying it. Granted, I'm running a monster pc spec with everything dialed up to Ultra and DLSS on "Quality".

The game really could have used a few more months in the oven, but I haven't found any of the bugs to be game-breaking. My favorite was the other night seeing an NPC standing outside a club entrance, t-posing at the bouncer.

I have been playing Beast Wars for the PSX and it is absolute trash but my nostalgia is making me enjoy it. The characters are to-scale so cheetor is like 1/20th the size of Megatron so the mission where you kill Cheetor is hilarious (assuming you aren't playing the Maximals' team).

I've finally started playing Yakuza: Like a Dragon, touched for the very first time. I'm quickly falling for this incredibly quirky JRPG. It never even occurred to me that a game like this could be done in this style. I have to applaud the effort of the localization going so far as to adjust the lip sync for the English dub. And the dub itself is also really good so far. I thought about changing it at first but when it comes to JRPGs English dubs are always a guilty pleasure for me. After playing Yakuza 6 and Judgment on a base PS4 I figured this game wasn't going to run well there either, so I'm glad I chose to play this on my PC because it's running better than I thought it would.

Bought Death Stranding from the Steam sale to see what the fuss is/was about, and I'm enjoying it much much more than I expected. The story is just beautifully weird and the right amount of confusing.

The gameplay is also surprisingly good. Not the most exciting thing out there, but hauling cargo around the world feels well made and kind of meditative. I also appreciate the system for sharing resources and posting signs. I found what I considered a clever shortcut through a BT area and took some time posting signs so others could follow it. The bunch of likes that earned me actually made me feel all warm and fuzzy. It's the strangest thing with this game, it just feels good to play and have positive interactions with strangers.

Finished Yakuza 5 and absolutely loved it. My Yakuza marathon is almost complete and my first impressions of 6 is that it will continue to suck up all my free time as well. It's funny how the team reused the 6 engine for the Y2 remake and didn't bother to change Kiriyu's face even though 2 takes place 10 years before 6.

I don't know if this qualifies as a positive discussion but I started up Yakuza 7. At first, I figured I'd get it on base Xbox One, assuming it'd run fine on there. It didn't . Immediately I was met with a uneven, sub-30 FPS, just walking around the city. Decided to get a refund, and pick up the PS4 version instead, playing it on the PS5, where it naturally runs smoother. This just really hit home for me as my first "Oh crap. These old machines aren't keeping up." experience. Not that every game was running great on those machines prior to the new ones coming out. But it did make me wary of ever buying anything on my base Xbox One again.

EDIT: Here's something else I learned starting up Yakuza 7. You're only allowed to have 1000 files in Playstation's cloud storage for save data and I have exceed that limit apparently.

Satiating the urge to buy card packs in Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Links by buying a copy of Duelists of the Roses on ebay, since apparently being in my 30's means that I'm nostalgic for Yu-Gi-Oh!.

Not complaining.

-Been keeping up with a mobile game I’ve played for a few years now

-guiding the niece through her first BotW run

-Mercenaries Blaze - this is an indie Game by FlyHighWorks & Circle. It’s a simple, heavily-inspired-by-FFT-and-Ogre-Battle SRPG. There have been a bunch of them and they’ve grown into their own thing over the years. Solid and satisfying, with more than enough customization and some challenge. Good unique weapon/forging system. The series used to be called ‘Mercenaries Saga.’ This one has new characters and no lore overlap with the older games, so I definitely recommend it if you like SRPGs and indie games.

-It’s time to start up a new game, actually.

I'm playing through MGS2 for the first time and I'm actually loving Raiden as the game's protag. I don't mind not playing as Snake since I think playing as Raiden makes up for it.

Cyberpunk 2077

I've played through the game twice now and had a great time. There's a lot of great characters and missions, Night City is an amazing place, and I enjoy the gameplay. I'd like to play through it again actually, but I'm trying to wait for patches and whatever DLC is coming.

I feel like I have to say I didn't follow the development at all. I watched the first trailers like seven years ago, the "you're breathtaking!" Keanu presentation, and that's it. I went in oblivious to what CDPR said prior to the release. Apparently that was the right move because it's like I played a different game than the one people are complaining about.

Hollow Knight.

Started the game in 2017, and got stucked really early on (the first boss fight, False Knight took me forever). Abandoned it, and returned 4 years later after all the hype surrounding its sequel. Instead of making a new game, I started again where I left it and beat False Knight on my first try. After that I just kept going, and discovered a pretty great game. The controls are tight, the combat is nerve wracking (in a good way), the map design is really cool, the worldbuilding is great and the presentation is really polished.

So I finished Witcher 3 recently. I powered through it in a fortnight and genuinely enjoyed it. The writing makes that game so good and gets me invested in the kind of fantasy that would normally pass me by. It reminds me a little of Mass Effect in how they build that universe. In this case, they have books to draw from and you don't have a blank slate protagonist. Every decision you make as Geralt tends to land, although there was times when I felt they were really leaning heavily on shades of grey.

I was originally thinking how much the Bloody Baron quest stands out but there's other moments and good quests that hit high marks. It's a shame it broke on me four times in very odd ways. An open door resulting in being unable to move, an odd slow-motion fight that only returned to normal speed when the bandits got a hit in, etc. And movement outside of combat still feels odd.

Still, it makes me excited to go back to the others. Maybe I'll replay it on Death March, if I can be bothered.

Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity is incredible???

I've always liked Musou games as a fun distraction, and the first Hyrule Warriors (as well as Fire Emblem Warriors) was surprisingly fun and had a depth of play and light puzzle-solving in among the combat to let it stand out, but this one is something else entirely and I can't believe how good it is.

The storyline reads like fanfiction: a lone, small, cute guardian goes back in time from the Breath of the Wild to try and prevent it, immediately confirming a split timeline (rather than 'erasing' the main one, which is just the best way to write these stories) and takes off from there. It's a strangely powerful thing, experiencing the fall of Hyrule at the hands of Calamity Gannon and trying to prevent it from happening. It's goofy around the edges and incredibly light-hearted and silly, but the shocking thing is just how good it is at communicating the desperation of the resistance and how unbelievably powerful Gannon and his followers actually are.

The game also focuses a great deal more on Zelda and creates a PROPER legend around her: she is the torque, the world twisting around her and her twisting with it while Link takes a largely backseat role, and I think this focus helps tell a more compelling, even deeper, story than Legend of Zelda games often get to.

The characters all play vastly differently, even the ones who relate to others, and getting to fight and play alongside champions you only caught glimpses of in the proper core game is satisfying and absolutely delightful.

Seriously, I can't emphasize enough: if you wanted more out of Breath of the Wild's world and lore, you should absolutely pick this up. (If you don't like Musou games, turn the difficulty down all the way, it's a cake walk at that point, but give it an honest go as the combat is more precise and demanding than these games often are portrayed as). I'm now unreasonably excited for the Persona Strikers game coming up, and they actually have an incredibly high bar to clear if that game's going to be as good as this one.

Started playing Cyber Shadow, the new game put out by Yacht Club Games. The same company that put out Shovel Knight.

Only about an hour into it, but so far, it's really good. It's tough. And I say that as positively as possible. It's not punishing like the game it's definitely inspired by, Ninja Gaiden, but it still tests your skills. Recommend it for anyone into retro action-platformer games.

I recently finished the first Crash Bandicoot game on Switch with a full 105% completion. It wasn't my first Crash game (that would be the surprisingly fun Crash of the Titans I played last year), but it's probably the one that has made me a full fan of the franchise. It was definitely hard (Stormy Ascent's time trial took me three days and I had to take the rest of the week off games to rest my hands), but pushing through the challenge felt really rewarding and fun, and Crash's world continues to be super charming.

It also has the best dang time trials I've ever played! I came into the game writing them off because I usually hate time trials and everyone says the ones added to Crash 1 are an afterthought, but I tried one out for the heck of it after doing everything else and I was hooked. Instead of sticking you with unreasonable times or forcing you to spam one move over and over (looking at you, Donkey Kong Country Returns), they completely transform the way you play the game.

Rather than trying to methodically find every box and survive the level, your mind goes into a kind of weird autopilot as you sprint along, trying to find ways to skip obstacles and shave off precious seconds. Which time crates are worth going for? Which should you skip? Can you pass by that level section if you bounce off that enemy the right way? Can you exploit the weird hitboxes that drove you crazy during the main game to jump that bridge that you normally can't? It helps that only gold relics are required for the full percentage. Some of those platinum relics would murder me, though I did manage to get a few naturally over the course of going for the gold.

Overall, very much looking forward to Crash 2 and 3, which I will also strive to do everything in. Officially satisfied with the Christmas present!

Matt Makes Games put out a sequel to the original version of Celeste. I suck at hard platformers, so I'm probably not going to beat it, but it's a fun surprise nonetheless.

Celeste Classic 2 by Matt Makes Games (itch.io)

I've been continuing to play Monster Hunter Iceborne (PC) throughout 2020, with multi-week breaks here and there just because of balancing life. I've been slow since I got to Guiding Lands. That said, a few weeks ago, I finally beat Alatreon. I'm learning Fatalis and hope to get it before MHRise comes out.

After Fatalis...well, I haven't actually encountered Brute Tigrex. So I should eventually reach Level 7 for the Rotten Vale, Volcanic, and Frozen zones. Then there's AT Velkhana...still plenty to do. But, I always enjoy just being in the game and atmosphere. Hope to get as much out of it as I can before MH Rise and dive into that once it's out in a couple of months.

Cuphead is amazing. I've never felt like a game has tested my abilities as a Player of Video Games quite like Cuphead. And because of that I both love and hate Cuphead. It is breaking barriers. My bounds have been pushed. My patience has been tested. And yet.. I CAN'T STOP TRYING TO BEAT GRIM MATCHSTICK. I will get that bastard.. someday.

Torchlight 3 is...free (on Gamepass). It also...kind of scratches the Diablo 3 itch.

After taking well over a decade break, playing wow again, lol. Kinda like came back for Classic stayed for retail thing. Always tinkering about in SWG:L, and i'm hovering over NieR: Automata atm, i think it's time to continue this journey.

Horizon Zero Dawn (PC)

I know, late to the party. This game is really good across the board. Art direction, technical proficiency, writing, acting, gameplay - it's all really good. I just finished the story (love it) and I'm looking forward to seeing where it goes in the sequel.

I found the combat quite difficult at the beginning, to the point where I wondered if I was meant to avoid most of it. I'm really not a fan of stun-based or knockdown game mechanics. I despise stun lock with my entire soul. But once I got more tools and learned to use them I ended up having a great time dismantling machines.

Hopefully the next one comes to PC, too.

Honkai Impact 3rd.

Started playing yesterday. Got Asuka about an hour ago without buying anything.

I am very satisfied.

I managed to get hold of a PS5 having had Xboxes for the last 2 gens so really enjoying digging back into the best of PS4.

God of War is absolutely stunning, the world design, story and combat are all excellent and having recently read Neil Gaimen’s Norse Mythology it’s really striking a chord. The only thing that would make it better would be a proper 4K 60 patch from Sony.

Miles morales has also been great fun and Looking forward to jumping into Horizon!

I just finally started playing Black Mesa, after buying it back in March. Holy shit, man, what a quality product. You can tell that it was made with genuine love and care by people that loved the original game. I'm enjoying it thoroughly.

Snowrunner.

The gameplay is American Truck Simulator meets Death Stranding. You'll spend a lot of time stuck in the mud (or snow), winching your rig to poles and trees and broken branches. Tumbling over boulders, capsizing, crossing rivers... abandoning trucks and sending out another to rescue it. For some it will be like watching mud dry or snow melt. For me? Perfect pandemic rainy-day distraction.

It's tough! The menus are also a little too complex for their own good. But what a feeling when you finally winch your vanilla pickup up a spruce-and-mud infested hillside. The world is also desolate - no humans in sight. (Thus the Death Stranding comparison.)

This is the semi-sequel to Mudrunner, but it's not like there's a story to follow. Snowruner actually contains a world with lots of mud (Michigan), as well as snow (Alaska, Russia), so you're getting the best of all adverse environments.

Donut County is so charming and funny at times. Didn't realize coming in I'd be playing as a literal hole in the ground swallowing things up.

I've been playing a variety of stuff as of late. Still making my way through Yakuza 7 after taking a break for a few weeks, and still loving it. A few things I wish I could change in terms of gameplay, but for a game that changed gameplay style mid development because people liked a dumb April Fools joke and is the first JRPG made by that team, it's a fantastic base.

Ive been slowly making my way through Hitman 3, and by making my way, I mean replaying Hitman 1 & 2 as i never beat 2, and haven't done 1's story since 2016. Currently up to the first dlc of Hitman 2, the bank, and so far its been fantastic and the story is shockingly engaging and enjoyable. Far more than you would expect.

Hades. Do I need to say any more? Yes? Well alright. Its amazing. I feel out of love with Rogue-likes a loooooong time ago. Hades has pulled me in, and while im not going on 7 hour benders like I did with other games in the genre, the quick 30 minute nature is so easy to pick up and play that it keeps me coming back. The characters and story are also reeeeeaaaaaal good. I suppose to round out my thoughts on Hades i can just say Dusa best Gorgon, Sisyphus best bro. Please. Go play Hades.

And the last thing ive been playing is the Kingdom Hearts 2 Final Mix: Garden of Assembladge Randomizer. KH2FM is my favorite game of all time, and this randomizer just makes me solidify that choice. It shows how dynamic the battle system is because even without basic combat abilities, if you play smart, you can get past jist about anything the game throws at you. The amount of options you have to randomize, and to different degrees, is incredible. Don't like doing Port Royal? Turn it off. Everything important (skills, magic, keyblades, etc.) Will be places in another world. Are you a masochist and want to have Atlantica added to the pool of locations that items can appear in? Go for it. On top of that the community support for it is next level. Very quickly after release a hint system was made by going to a community made webpage, select your seed file, generate the hints, and each time you find an Amsem Report you punch in the report and where you find it and get back something like "Space Paranoids has 2 important checks". And that's just the start of making items that from the base game are just junk. The way you beat the randomizer is you obtain the Proof of Connections, Proof of Peace, and Proof of Non-Existance, each giving sora a new coloured crown (1=Bronze, 2=Silver, 3=Gold), and at Gold you are allowed to enter the final boss. Well. If you have the Promise charm turned on in your settings, once you have it and the gold crown you can just skip the entirety of The World That Never Was, which you normally have to beat to access the door to the final boss, via the computer in the center of the garden. With the latest patches they have made the Hollow Bastion Restoration committee card open up Ansems lab early so you dont have to do The 1000 heartless battle to get to that chest, and the Hades cup trophy will similarly open the underworld tournaments early. This mod is incredible and keeps growing, and i can't wait to see how it evolves in 2021. Oh also it has a boss and enemy randomizer option which is buggy as sin but can be absolutely hilarious. TL:DR KH2FM Rando is real good guys.

As for the future myself and some friends are looking to start Deep Rock Galactic, and after the GOTY talks about it im very excited to try it. Also Persona 5 Strikers. I played the JP demo and liked it far more than i expected, so im hoping when that comes out in the West I can have just as much fun

I'm a few hours into Paradise Killer. First of all this soundtrack is BUMPin'. The fiction of this game's world is crazy town banana pants. There are some really great quotes from the characters about morality that I'm constantly wanting to stop and write down. I do wish it could have a big budget overhaul because it has some high concept stuff that could probably be better expressed in a different type of game with higher production values. Still, for what it's working with it's a super ambitious piece of software.

I'm probably playing Warframe again. This game has changed a bit since 2013.

Edit 2/2/21: Eh, forget it. I'm back in SAO: Fatal Bullet. Was thinking about getting back into PSO:2 as well, but I want to style and profile without spending real money. I still don't care about the anime, but the game is fun.

Edit 2/4/21: I lied. I'm back in PSO:2.

I'm playing Last of Us, Minecraft, and Rocket League. Not much recently tho.

So with Nioh 1+2 on PS5 coming out next week (?) and Yakuza 3-5 only apparently hitting gamepass this week AND Hitman 3 being a clusterfuck on PC that I am waiting for the ability to import my 2 maps in, all my existing plans kind of went to crap.

So I played more Elder Scrolls Online and got back in to Elite Dangerous. AND I think I learned that the scrubs rewatch podcast is swapping out their ads because these episodes from april are referencing december 2020 in ads...

Elder Scrolls Online - I remember being really excited about this during the beta. Think I was even in the closed one? And I kind of hated it. The game has the camera of a TES game but everything is still a very cycle animation cycle based game and the auto-attack not only feels stiff but also needs to be tapped instead of held. It just felt disgusting every time I came back and tried again over the years. Then, late last year, I discovered that people just play in third person where most of the animation issues matter less. And now I realize this is just Guild Wars 1.5 So now I am having fun but holy shit does that game have a bad monetization policy and worse cooldowns than a pre-gacha mobile game.

Elite Dangerous - Played this on and off for years (I am dumb enough to have the ten year expansion pass...) but fell off around the time exploration was overhauled because I didn't want to redo binds. Tried this maybe early lockdown and somehow managed to get a bounty while testing binds because there is no sandbox. But been playing a decent amount of MS Flight Sim on and off so went back in and been having a blast. Definitely helps that I "grew up" and realized I hate VR for cockpit games (TrackIR is cool as hell though) and that I actually don't need to use every single button and bind on a stick. Rebound for my t16k+throttle+pedals setup over the course of an hour and then, while watching Ip Man 2 (that is some good ass propaganda), decided I wanted to switch back to my old x52 with the thrustmaster pedals in like ten minutes.

Very much enjoying DCS having taught me to just use the cockpit so now I don't even bind crap like lighting or flight assist and, ironically, I could probably do this setup in full VR. Feels almost cheated that the "new" exploration mode is not in the same cockpit and actually needs mode toggles rather than looking to my right and toggling a few options in the ship's OS.

Also, the game is still fun and incredibly relaxing with a few bursts of chaos. Looking forward to really not liking space legs and taking another year or so off.

Also: The monetization model is pretty crap and I am curious if you can get exactly the amount of ark coins you want or need to buy in bundles (and I realize I don't have to wonder...). But it is mostly cosmetic so whatever.

Im replaying all Naruto Ultimate Ninja PS2 games. There just is something about battling each other in 2D perspective while casting epic jutsus. Kinda a shame they completely abandoned this with the Storm series. I like Storm too but found the previous games easier to enter with friends that dont know the games. Great fun brawlers.

Im at Ultimate Ninja 4 now and am soon done. 4 and 5 really spiced the formular up and even the RPG world is comparable to Storm. Its really fun. I also cannot praise the battle stages enough. Graphics are insane for PS2 standards. Music is also some of the best I have ever heard.

Cyber Connect 2 really knows their stuff. Their games based on Anime franchises are always really good. They just recently released DBZ Kakarot.

Funnily enough Ultimate Ninja 5 was released 2009 in Europe, 2 years after PS3 launch and storm being out already.

What would I give for another "Legacy" Ultimate Ninja game. Probably wouldnt be profitable enough. Meh. Same could be said about DBZ Budokai Tenkaichi 3.

These games are one of the few reasons I still grab my PS2 these days. These and Timesplitter series.

Playing a lot of different games but I've finally got hold of a very nice condition PSP and am enjoying Assassin's Creed Bloodlines without having to get out of bed. It's a bit easy and just like Prince of Persia used to be (and I know AC is a souped up PoP anyway) but the controls are simplified without losing any of what makes AC so fab.

On Xbox One S I'm also enjoying Little Nightmares. Challenging enough that I can spend half an hour on one room but not so challenging that I just give up in a hail of f-words. I agree with the Completionist on YouTube when he says the controls are pretty messy, but I actually let my sister know that my 10 year old nephew might enjoy it.

Lastly, mobile Lemmings. I miss the quirky soundtrack of the original game, but after a slow start, the levels quickly get harder and more interesting and it's nice to enjoy the game again.

Played a few games of Destruction AllStars. The playing the game part of the game is fun enough. The monetization stuff is a bummer though. The current slate of skins for characters are all pretty boring, the premium skins cost $6, and naturally the premium currency only comes in $5, $10, and $20, with ways to earn it in game coming some time later. They also charge premium currency for their single player mode, aside from the one free one, which are a series of games with challenges to be met in each game, and completing them all unlocks a special skin specific to the character associated with the challenge. And on top of that some challenges appear to be on rotation or have some sort of time limit on them, which theoretically leads to a situation where you might pay $4 to get into a Challenge Series, not complete it in the time limit, and it just goes away?

I do like the driving around and crashing in to stuff though. It's always clear how and why you take the damage you do, which something like On rush was weird about. Seems like a pretty solid arcade-y car crashing game.

EDIT: Also, they got Bruce Buffer to introduce the match, so that's pretty good too.

I randomly started playing GTA IV on PC the other day when I was testing out Steamlink on my Apple TV and I ended up playing it for 3 or 4 hours in total and have played it a couple more times since then. I'm having a weirdly good time playing it. It definitely feels a bit old but compared to other games from around then it holds up pretty good.

It's also certainly a weird time capsule in terms of the writing. There's lots of jokes about fearmongering, Fox News, and the "war on terror". Stuff like that. So much of the satire in that game now feels tame compared to reality today. There's so many jokes about what are supposed to be ridiculous conspiracy theories, many of which are less crazy than some of the ones actual current members of congress in the US believe. It really is something.

Mooncrash. Mooncraaaaash. The simple introduction of character classes so radically transforms the experience of the immersive sim. While they were about playing your way, modern games have just caused analysis paralysis and suffered from every problems having the same three solutions. Lacking access to certain powers in Mooncrash encourages such a huge amount of improv.

Crosscode, a really neat SNES-style RPG with a big focus on melee and long-distance attacks. Tons of upgrades and equipment, surprisingly decent writing and some nice puzzles too. I recommend giving it a shot if you're in the mood for classic-but-upgraded action RPG.

Ghost of Tsushima just keeps drawing me back in. I just love being in that game man.

Need for Speed Payback looks nice. Shame they tried to make The Crew.

@shindig:

Definitely enjoying NFS across a few platforms.

For me? I'm currently playing Assetto Corsa Competizione, DiRT Rally 2.0, GRID 2019 and WRC 9 on PC.

@the_nubster: Yeah, Mooncrash is great. It does a good job giving you access to all the different human and typhon abilities that you wouldn't get access to if you only played through the main game once. It does get a bit grindy if you want to 100% it but otherwise its a lot of fun to re-run through as the different classes.

@dr_pow: I had seen some criticsms of grind, but I spent about 15 hours and that was with staunchly refusing to buy Neuromods during the load out screen. I ended up with about 300k Sim Points when I was done, so I could have easily bought out and crafted enough Neuromods in a single run to max out every character. Honestly I wish it were longer, and harder (heehee). Absolutely kick-ass, though.

Nioh 1+2 hit PS5 and finally figured out the launch window bullshit (not that it would have made a huge difference. MAYBE an hour or two before I went to sleep on thursday). So cleaning up DLC and a few of the less obnoxious trophies on Nioh 1 before I finally go into Nioh 2 after waiting for the PC release became waiting for the PS5 release.

Most days I will still argue that Nioh 1 is the best souls game. Reeks of style in ways that I go into in my borderline "found at a crime scene" manifesto on Sekiro that I need to finish some day but Nioh 1 does an AMAZING job of making even the giant yokai feel like "a fight between equals" and the actual enemy samurai are even better because you both are "just assholes with swords and a devil trigger".

And bonus points for just being really easy to pick back up... which is hilarious since so much of the game is about chaining stances and using special moves for DPS bursting. Ran through the first mission again to remember the controls, did the epilogue mission to pick up an achievement I never got on PS4, and now just cleaning up a few side missions and doing some NG+ to level up for the DLC. And one of these days I need to do a deep dive on the ki/stamina system as between ki pulses and natural regeneration it feels like I (almost) never run out but ALSO like I am always on the verge of running out in a way that just feels awesomely anxious.

Will be curious if Digital Foundry does a video but, at a glance, the framerate feels smoother on PS5 than it did on PC (couple year old i7 and a 1070). Which was and was not what I expected because the game shouldn't be THAT demanding but... the PC port was a thing. Do wish I had a VRR TV as I notice some slowdown at times but feels like it is still not a good time to get a new TV.

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I think one thing that I really love about Nioh is the atmosphere and themes. Yeah, William is a Geralt looking mother fucker (who might be based on a real historical figure?) and he becomes a super awesome swordsman. But it is the opening sequence set in the Tower of London that kind of points out what anyone who can get past weebing out will acknowledge: European and Japanese swordsmanship have more similarities than differences. Even the Bastard Sword is a hand and a half blade generally used by nobility on the battlefield (assuming they lose every single useful weapon) which should sound familiar. So while William learning how to use a Katana over the course of a few months on a boat is kind of shitty, it also is pretty reasonable.

And many of the special techniques you learn are straight about kicking your opponent or breaking their guard and tackling them to the ground. Combine that with Okatsu and the game does a good job of reminding you that Samurai might have been badass fighters but they are also kind of rich and violent assholes who care more about their chivalric code than anything else.

Which I think is why I love Nioh. Games like Sekiro are about romanticized samurai. Games like Nioh are about violent mother fuckers going at it until one of them can't move.