noboners

I started watching One Piece in late 2020 and I'm "only" on episode 427. If this is created so that others can enjoy it without only getting 7 minutes of new content per episode, it's worth it. And I'm assuming it won't affect the current One Piece anime, so it's kind of a win-win. But that's all assumptions right? Have they explicitly said they'll be trimming the fat? I'm also curious as to who they'll get to voice the characters.

I really enjoyed my time with Venba. I thought the story was well told and the gameplay was just enough to push the story forward. While I was playing, I was hoping that the recipes would get more complex or the gameplay would become more involved, but looking back I think the simplicity of the presentation helped push me along and ensures that I finished this in one playthrough.

I think the 3rd act was a bit rushed, but reading through the mom and son's text messages helps fill the gap in storytelling. And I love the difference between their cooking styles where the mother was very neat and tidy, while the son was making a mess.

I think the suspense of finding the father after he got mugged was told really well, with Venba clearly worried but trying to put on a brave face for her son. I definitely expected more to come after that scene, but it just kind of moved onto the next one, while showing that the father never got new glasses.

This was just a great palate cleanser for me in between the Holiday chaos and rush to catch up on Game of the Year candidates. I enjoyed the brief runtime and felt the conversational writing was really well done. I can easily recommend it to folks on Gamepass. 7/10.

I'm all for skipping a cycle since it's the end of the year and I still have to write my thoughts for Cocoon and actually finish Jusant (a game I loved but had an emergency to take care of and haven't found the appropriate time to get back to).

I was also thinking of making a post where people talk about other things they've played on Gamepass this year that don't necessarily fit the scope of the club.

Thanks for these! I haven't had a chance to watch the live show yet but it looks like everyone had a good time!

1. Venba

2. Solar Ash

@ben_h: yeah it is nice that there are slight workarounds, but none of those really work if I'm in the middle of a cutscene. That's really where my problem lies. I know I can save and quit mid cutscene, but then it restarts the scene on load and if I had any checks happen mid conversation it will reroll them. It's certainly not as egregious as the always online games, but a problem for me nonetheless.

The Diablo 4 not being able to save mid mission is absolutely worse though. And I can only imagine how I'd feel about these things if I disliked my time with the game I was playing as much as OP dislikes Redfall.

Even universally beloved games such as Baldur's Gate 3 need to figure this out.

@retris: I didn't think there was a UPF this week?

@bigsocrates: it's definitely unfair of me to compare it to Wonder, it was just hard to go to a platformer with a slower pace. I do think the challenge of the game must have been lost on me watching it on GDQ. Since the game was being completed as quickly as possible, I can't remember the challenge of most of the puzzles in the back half of the game. But it was nice that the puzzles changed and evolved as the game progressed.

But you're right, I should have mentioned there are some incredible cinematic sequences and they do some real fun stuff to show the scale of the levels you're traveling in. So it is more exciting than some of the other 2d puzzle platformers we've played in this club. I just think the moments in between were a slog. It's one of those games where I recognize the beauty, I just am not in the mood for it at the moment.

Based on collectible tracking, I'm about 2/3rds of the way through and really loving everything about it so far. I am already a pretty big DONTNOD fan, and seeing them step out of their usual game style and completely nail it has me even more excited for what they could do next.