TheWildCard

Most of my gaming this year has been backlog. I'll never actually cut it down "substantially" (which is legion) but I have been trying to trim new game purchases in favor of the mountain of games I already have. Luckily I've had good results so far!

I rarely pay full $60 for a new game anyway, so I don't mind paying another $10 for the few I do. Everything else will just of wishlisted and wait for discounts like usual.

Returned Horizon Zero Dawn after dropping it after putting 6-7 hours into it back near release. I was disappointed partly because it wasn't quite what I was hoping for (was expecting it to be crunchier on the rpg side) and partly because I was just approaching it wrong. Well, now that I've had a few years to sit on it I went back in with a clearer head and made some different priorities in goals (oh here's how to expand inventory space... whoops) and have been enjoying it more. Maybe I'll come out of this being more excited for the sequel.

A little bit, but I haven't played Eternal yet. I may or may not have strong opinion after that.

As much as I've wanted to fall in love with a Kurosawa-inspired game set in a grounded feudal Japan setting, I remain underwhelmed by most of what I've seen. Kinda hard to get excited by the samurai film inspirations when the combat looks stilted and mostly dull. Granted it hard to say exactly how it feels and or how hard it is to pull off these moves (although the parry/deflection windows seemed pretty generous). I do like the idea to short, lethal combat encounters, but that only really works if enemies are virtually as capable and dangerous to you as you are to them, and... that doesn't really seem to be the case?? The stealth demonstration looked better but also pretty bog standard "throw rock to lure out lone enemy" (seriously I can't believe how often that's still used in demonstrations).

Was hoping for something more evolved instead of just Assassin's Creed: Japan, which admittedly I would have been excited for... in 2011. Sure that will be fine for a lot of people, personally I'm not getting good vibes.

@sombre: LTTP is kind of particular in that it's gameplay conventions were copied so thoroughly by many following games that if you've played most the entries afterward yeah there's anything there you haven't seen before, beyond the fact combat encounters are more dangerous than later games (which I like).

I don't really play a lot of retro games, and when I do I'm more surprised if something grabs me then not regardless of reputation. Like I certainly have nostalgia for the 8- and 16-bit eras, but there's not that many games I would want to go to play more than a snippet of. I certainly don't expect younger folks to be impacted so far outside of their original contexts. Most the the canon "greats" are their because formative experiences for people.

Anyway, for a personal example of being underwhelmed after the hype, I came to Mass Effect 1 seven or eight years after the fact, which was apparently too long cause that game was a 7/10 at best.

@sethmode: I didn't mind it as much the this second time (same for most the other palaces too) but it's definitely starts to lose pacing in generally during this point of the story in general. The palaces theme is actually maybe my favorite, but it goes way too long like every other dungeon in the second half. Doesn't help that it has the one music track that gets grating.

Just in terms of personal affection:

1. Demon's Souls- Mechanically harder to go back to, but man still the best in terms of atmosphere and music for me. What a game.

2. Dark Souls III- Super satisfying capper to the series, just wish it was a little less derivative of DS1 (and incorporated DS2 a little more)

3. Dark Souls- Best world building and lore, even if it's maybe overly cryptic up front.

4. Dark Souls II- Clearly the least even Souls game but the peaks are as good as anything in the entire series. Really like the the variety of stats and builds you can do.

5. Bloodborne- Starting to feel diminishing returns in exploring yet another civilization that feel to ruin. I like a good Lovecraftian tale but found the cosmic horror undercurrents of the previous Souls games more interesting than the on the nose take here. Wasn't a fan of how slimmed down the rpg elements were. Still a really good game though, especially the Castlevania looking sections where it becomes the 3D Castlevania game I'd always wanted.

All of them are very close in quality though.

(Haven't played Sekiro)

Yeah I've been all in on this since I got it, just finished the fifth palace (which on hard took some tries but I did it dammit!) Haven't touched P5. since the month of its release, so maybe it isn't surprising it's been easy to get swept up in the Persona life sim management again. Personally I really appreciate the amount of reediting done to the localization, feels so much smoother now, even if "Sakamoto" still has that asinine pronunciation. Between that and the fact Morgana isn't constantly sending you to bed after story events there's no reason to go back to vanilla regardless of new content, which all seems good so far. Though I'll echo it seem more slanted to be on the easier side compared to the original, even on hard.

No, pretty sure he's new.

Can't say it doesn't look bad at least, though I wonder how they haven't spoiled at this point. And while it isn't terrible I do find it strange SE voice acting still shades toward early-aughts anime quality still.