Ashtear

@Ashtear@lemmy.zip

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨What's your greatest "gaming high" you've been chasing ever since? Please take care not to spoil anything, if you are going to be story-specific.⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  FF6 is mine. That moment when they turn the corner and the world map music changes. Beyond cathartic. The 3-4 hour tension and release they set up in that part of the game is an incredible design triumph.

  I did okay with the delays in FF7 but it was absolutely unbearable by FF9. On the plus side, that drove me to discover Suikoden merely because it had instant transitions.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Man, seems like Jim Cummings is to classic CRPGs as Jeffrey Combs is to Star Trek.⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  Jeffrey Combs was also in DOTA: Dragon’s Blood, and that series’s cast was a fun synthesis of video game voice actor luminaries plus Star Trek alumni (Michael Dorn, John de Lancie, Anson Mount, Andrew Robinson and more).

  But yeah, really that whole late 90’s/early 2000’s gaming era had some genuinely performances from actors of different media. I still think about David Warner in Baldur’s Gate 2 from time to time.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Silent Hill f, now on GOG⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  Irdeto’s been on a PR push lately. If they actually had robust studies backing their product, we would have seen them. Considering how they’ve got their hooks into the major Japanese PC port publishers (Sega, Capcom, and Square Enix), part of a segment of the industry that has long had specific stereotypes and prejudice surrounding PC gaming, I highly doubt the sales pitch for Denuvo amounts to much more than FUD and snake oil.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨What's your favourite menu music in a game?⁩ ⁨⁨4⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  I have a lot of these, but The Right Way Around, by Daughter, for Life is Strange: Before the Storm grabbed me the second I launched the game.

  A more traditional main menu theme that I love is Ecce valde generous ale from Panzer Dragoon Saga. It’s a brilliant introduction to the game, drawing the player into a mysterious world in a post-apocalyptic setting.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Hades II | Review Thread (93/100 OpenCritic)⁩ ⁨⁨4⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  I mean, if y’all really insist, I can specify “not AAA games.” That’s the point I was making; this year’s game of the year nominee lists are going to look quite different than usual.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Final Fantasy Tactics - The Ivalice Chronicles | Review Thread⁩ ⁨⁨4⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  I’ve got 1,000 hours in this one over the years and the PC port is the main reason I’m getting it (eventually). Hoping it’s not too locked-down for mods, FFT’s mod community has been a vibrant one.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Hades II | Review Thread (93/100 OpenCritic)⁩ ⁨⁨4⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  In a world where game budgets balloon to over $300m, Hades 2 fits comfortably into the “smaller game” category. As do Blue Prince, Expedition 33, Silksong, and Trails in the Sky 1st Chapter, among other top-rated games this year.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Hades II | Review Thread (93/100 OpenCritic)⁩ ⁨⁨4⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  Some of these scores haven’t been updated from early access yet, so this number’s probably going to go higher. Might be the top-rated game of the year. I’m sure it’s well-deserved, too. I played the crap out of the EA version when it first dropped.

  What a year for smaller game projects.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨How Chrono Trigger Taught Me The Word ‘Epoch’⁩ ⁨⁨4⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  Yeah, I suspect when it first appeared it was a short form of 尾羽. I’m not sure the exact kana limits they had, but I could see the extra two in おばね being too far.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨How Chrono Trigger Taught Me The Word ‘Epoch’⁩ ⁨⁨5⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  クロトリ getting the literal “Blackbird” treatment is a good example of how impossible direct localization is. It’s why I appreciate–and support–injecting similar vibes elsewhere in scripts that may not have literal connections to the original Japanese. I think Woolsey got there in this particular case with Flea, Slash, and Ozzie. Not so much with the gurus.

  I think, though, the answer to “why did we end up with this Woolsey-ism?” is no more complicated than him sitting bleary-eyed with a spreadsheet at 2am because of insanely short deadlines, and getting zero feedback. I’ve always figured that’s how we ended up with phoenix down.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Trails in the Sky 1st Chapter, a JRPG, just got released on Steam—and this is a big deal because this game is to PC what Final Fantasy VII was to PlayStation.⁩ ⁨⁨5⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  Again, Sky 3rd is the third game in a continuous series. This is not Ys, which is an entirely different narrative format following a hero in stories specifically designed to be standalone. Ys isn’t even told in chronological order. Ys can absolutely be played in any order without losing anything (other than the second game, which is a direct sequel of the first).

  You didn’t make it to the Cold Steel games, so you don’t know what I’m talking about here. Most of Sky 3rd’s throughlines continued in Cold Steel, not the Crossbell games (they even continue into the Daybreak arc). Falcom pivoted during Sky’s development; they initially weren’t going to do games in Crossbell.

  Trails is Mass Effect writ large. It’s Game of Thrones. It’s Harry Potter. Yes, one can jump into those properties at any point, but they will be lost at some point–if not immediately–or otherwise missing context critical to their enjoyment of the property. That’s basic fictional media literacy. It’s just highly unusual in video games, so people assume it’s like other series. It’s not. It’s closer to long-running manga, television or novels.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Trails in the Sky 1st Chapter, a JRPG, just got released on Steam—and this is a big deal because this game is to PC what Final Fantasy VII was to PlayStation.⁩ ⁨⁨5⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  There might be some fringe impacts Trails has had on the industry here and there, but the only big influence it has had is on Honkai: Star Rail’s combat system. And at this point, HSR is so much larger than the Trails series as a whole that it’s going to look like Meucci’s contribution to telephone technology when all is said and done. Expedition 33 already took some of its UI design from HSR.

  Even the impact of Trails’s hybrid action/turn-based system is debatable because Trails through Daybreak was in development at the same time as Metaphor: ReFantazio, which uses the same system. Ultimately, the series serves a very specific, small niche within a niche, and it’s never going to be a major trailblazer for the same reason much of Baldur’s Gate 3’s story design won’t be: that kind of narrative structure is not an efficient way to make money. You have to be an auteur or a major risk taker to do software engineering that way.

  Meanwhile, Final Fantasy VII’s impacts on the entire industry, let alone the genre, are too numerous to list. The two series are not remotely comparable. OP’s neck-deep in atomistic fallacy here.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Trails in the Sky 1st Chapter, a JRPG, just got released on Steam—and this is a big deal because this game is to PC what Final Fantasy VII was to PlayStation.⁩ ⁨⁨5⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  Sky 3rd is simply the third game in this continuous series. It’s not a “die-hard fan” thing. It’s the third work, just as much the third season of a TV series or a third novel in a novel series. Whether or not it’s a good work is a matter of taste. But whether it’s a necessary part of it is not up for debate.

  It wraps up the first arc of a major throughline in the series and starts many more.

• In a week dominated by Silksong and Borderlands, co-op roguelike Shape of Dreams still managed to launch on Steam as an instant top-sellerwww.pcgamer.com ↗
  Submitted ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago⁩ to ⁨games@lemmy.world⁩ | ⁨21⁩ ⁨comments⁩
• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago⁩:

  I’m beyond excited, this was the best early access experience I’ve ever had by a mile. It’s gotta be a GotY contender.

  Hell of a year for indies/small publishers.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨After More Layoffs, Unionized IGN Workers Are Done Picking Up The Slack: "We feel greatly understaffed and undervalued"⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago⁩:

  High enough regard to be very profitable, which makes the job cuts even more ridiculous.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨The recent Steam censorship debacle actually sort of opened me up to adult games.⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago⁩:

  Alicesoft is one of the major dev studios in this exact space, but their games range from having some non-con to outright featuring it. Not for everyone.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Weekly Recommendations Thread: What are you playing this week?⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  I started Crying Suns and have been very impressed with the art and the story, both the greater narrative and the script. Not sure about the combat just yet, maybe my tactics are just bad.

  Overall though, I know how how the hell this one passed me by. It’s exactly the sort of thing I love.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨[deleted]⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  Honkai: Star Rail. I love turn-based RPGs, and it continues to have the best turn-based combat I’ve ever played. The main story also has my favorite fiction trope (a shake-up of a pantheon) and it’s got amazing music, so it just hits a lot of really good spots for me.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Trails in the Sky 1st Chapter adds Switch 2 version; ‘Prologue’ demo now available for PS5, Switch, and PC⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  Having played a chunk of the demo with Japanese audio, this hasn’t been a literal translation situation. It’s a standard JRPG localization, closer to NISA’s work with the series than XSEED’s that was on the loose side.

• Trails in the Sky 1st Chapter adds Switch 2 version; ‘Prologue’ demo now available for PS5, Switch, and PCwww.gematsu.com ↗
  Submitted ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩ to ⁨games@lemmy.world⁩ | ⁨16⁩ ⁨comments⁩
• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Battlestar Galactica: Scattered Hopes | Reveal Trailer⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  Yeah, was a solid move to echo the series opening with the in-game engine.

  A roguelite structure seems like a natural fit for the premise, too.

• Battlestar Galactica: Scattered Hopes | Reveal Trailerwww.youtube.com ↗
  Submitted ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩ to ⁨games@lemmy.world⁩ | ⁨7⁩ ⁨comments⁩
• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Blackbird Interactive acquires full ownership of Hardspace: Shipbreaker IP⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  Best gaming news I’ve heard in a while. This was a fantastic new IP and really shows a lot of promise for future games. Really excited to see where they take this world.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Final Fantasy X programmer doesn’t get why devs want to replicate low-poly PS1 era games. “We worked so hard to avoid warping, but now they say it’s charming” - AUTOMATON WEST⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  I still see the fifth generation as a lost one for pixel art. The games that do it really well in that era are few and far between (Castlevania: Symphony of the Night, Suikoden, Breath of Fire IV) and even those still had 3D elements in them that have aged like milk.

  I too grew up more on pixel art, but the problem I always had with 3D in the 90’s was that–on an objective, technical level–it was already being done so much better elsewhere than it was on PlayStation and the others. Both PC and arcades were consistently driving much higher framerates, and by the late 90’s, far better picture quality. It wasn’t even four years after the PSX that the Dreamcast launched and completely outclassed it in graphics potential. I feel the move to 3D in the console market was just too early. I guess I can sort of see why some would be nostalgic for it, but to me this trend is the equivalent of being nostalgic for 19th century movies.

  What I don’t get is why this trend is happening now. The tech’s been there for indies and the like to do this for a while. Maybe we’re just oversaturated with pixel art at this point?

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Mass Effect 1 is still my favourite sci-fi game of all time⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  Even though I liked ME2 and 3 a bit more, the series overall still has my favorite Bioware cast by a mile and one of my favorite casts in gaming.

  The ironic thing is I actually find the setting kinda hokey, but the moment-to-moment action is fantastic. A classic example of solid script writing and characterization elevating overall plot and setting.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨what are in you're top 3 favourite games of all time?⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  Impossible to rank, so I’ll pull from at random from a top 25 I did not long ago:

  • Trails to Azure - This one had a massive impact on me, from musings on depression and self-worth to love for a city, a community, and the hard choices that come from that love. Incredible story and character writing. All boosted by a well-developed world with a lot of moving parts and a crazy good soundtrack.
  • WarioWare, Inc.: Mega Microgames - Endlessly replayable. Holds up even to this day. Every time I think about it, I’m amazed at how they got lightning in a bottle with this new idea.
  • The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt - Just one of those games where every single facet clicked for me. Visuals, writing, setting, soundtrack, gameplay, meta-gameplay, decision points. All of it.
• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨what are in you're top 3 favourite games of all time?⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  Unfortunately it’s a thing when going back to older games after being living in the map marker era for so long. This is a big part of why games back then came with annotated maps so you’d at least have a reference for all the locations.

  I’d say at the minimum, don’t be afraid to pull up maps and take notes.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Gen Z Is Cutting Back On Video Game Purchases⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  Setting aside how unusual it is for overall spend to decrease in this age cohort (I encourage people to read the WSJ report linked in this article), this is the only comment here that hits on the most newsworthy part of this. Video games have been recession-resistant for decades, but now we’re seeing it as a leading category for cutbacks. Even though gaming is a low-cost hobby, zoomers have found alternatives, and that surely includes F2P games.

  While trends haven’t been great for a while now, this is the most alarming data I’ve seen yet for the traditional gaming market. I feel like I’m gonna blink and there’s going to be a generational divide like there is with baseball.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Weekly Recommendations Thread: What are you playing this week?⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  Fire Emblem Engage. Only the third FE I’ve tried, I go back and forth on whether this series is for me. At this point, this one might be my favorite out of the ones I’ve played. The cast is really weird overall but I still quite like a few of them. I also like the character advancement and Engage systems. It’s fun to tinker with my party. The battles also seem to have less of the nonsense and more of the kind of strategy I like than in the others.