I think this one’s going to sell quite well once word-of-mouth spreads.

I’ve played several hours of this already and the deeper I get, the more it makes me think of Dark Souls. It has that same sort of cadence in the dungeons, just turn-based instead, with a party. What’s wild is even with how derivative the concept is, it’s a brilliant, fresh-feeling idea for dungeon design. I’ve been feeling like JRPG dungeons have been stale for a while now, and I’m loving both how dangerous the dungeon trash is and how there isn’t a ton of it. Normally by this point in a more traditional Japanese-style RPG I’m starting to skip around in boss rush mode. Not here. I’m wanting the challenge.

It’s nowhere near as difficult as a Souls-like though. I’ve seen many complaints about how not-optional the dodge/parry system is, but at least so far, I think there are ways around it. I’m not even through Act 1 and there are already enough tools that even people that miss most dodges can find busted builds to offset with (and I’m sure I’ve missed a lot of helpful Pictos and other loot already).

I have some nits to pick, but it’s been a great game on the whole so far. The soundtrack and voice acting in particular are top-notch.

Really curious about how well this game does. Being at a significantly lower price point, if it ends up a major GotY contender, that will make waves.

Depending on just how JRPG the game feels, it could also have a big impact there, too. The genre doesn’t have a regular, clear market leader anymore.

Just finished Castlevania: Nocturne (not bad) and am watching The Last of Us season 2.

I’m also watching DOTA: Dragon’s Blood, which has been such a very pleasant surprise for me and I never see anyone talking about it. I know next to nothing about DOTA, so I had zero investment in the world ahead of time. It feels like an R-rated Avatar: The Last Airbender, with similar pacing, episode runtime, and occasional silly bits. I’ve loved the voice cast (although ironically, my favorite character is mute), and it’s kinda bizarre but fun how many of the actors are Star Trek alumni.

Season 1 was a high water mark for TV in general, so anything that followed had an impossibly high bar to clear anyway. That said, I’d still say just skip season 2.

I thought season 3 was good, not great. It fits the themes well, but the talent and cast chemistry simply do not compare. Still worth a watch down the line, I think.

Ohh man, the reviews for the second season are glowing. I’m trying not to get overhyped for this, but the first season was some of the best TV I’ve ever seen.

Highly recommend the sitting in the character’s shoes approach. I ended up

and really kicked myself for missing that cue after. Still one of my most regretfully memorable gaming moments.

I really do think they should have flipped the timeline for the two in W3. Even players of the first two games don’t really know Yennefer that well, so her proper introduction to the player comes very late, all things considered.

Not being immersed in their backstory also doesn’t really convey how messed up it is that Triss got together with a man who lost the memories of the woman he was in love with (a woman she knew).

Headline doesn’t match what’s in the report. It’s not just gacha; the question in the survey is inclusive of other games that offer in-game purchases (課金 in Japanese). So we’re talking about skins and boosts in MMOs, MOBAs, and shooters, hints in games like Candy Crush, etc.

The report posted here last week showed just how much MTX spending there is on PC, of which gacha is still a small part. I suspect there is a higher rate of gacha spending in Japan than there is globally (outside of China, perhaps), but I’d be surprised if gacha even made up half of the spending SMBC is reporting on here.

Can’t wait to play the new Star Wars game from XCom devs and miss a 90% as a freaking Jedi 😒

Jumped back into Baldur’s Gate 3 after the new patch dropped to try out the new subclasses. Giant barb is fun! My Tav is a relatively boring diviner, but I realized I haven’t played a wizard face character before and some of the dialogue options have also been interesting. I rolled a Zariel tiefling so it’s also been amusing to use Intimidate checks as a cloth-wearer. Got a Death cleric that’s been not quite as exciting (planning on replacing with Circle of Stars druid a little later) and my crit build martial character I’ve run half a dozen times before will be trying the notorious Hexblade dip.

Side note, I play on Honour difficulty and I’ve run into a few bugs/blips already, more than usual. Frustrating as hell, though I guess I could always dig into my file system if I really wanted to load a save for a (legit?) reason.

Early Access games feel out of scope. Half of the point of patient gaming is waiting for a feature-complete product.

Woman-centered is not an absolute. One does not have to be part of a single characteristic of a group to have a stake in it, to be an ally, an advocate, a partner, a family member, among countless other scenarios.

I would suggest reading up on intersectionality.

By the way, all of this is covered in the subreddit sidebar, including in an FAQ in the wiki.

Neither the WvP subreddit nor the Discord excludes men from identifying as witches or from participating in discussions.

I actually don’t have one with Warlock as the main class! I love debuffs/CC, and trying to get my spell DC as high as possible means staying in the class (and short rest spell slots).

Whenever I multi Warlock it tends to be in martial builds, getting the extra attack with Pact of the Blade, or a quick dip into it for Mortal Reminder. I have a crit build I do this with.

I’m itching so bad for the BG3 update. It’s been one of those games where I’m in the shower and a new multiclass build pops in my head and next thing I know I’m reinstalling it. And now I get a bunch of new toys!

The Eternal Life of Goldman is visually stunning. Plus Yasunori Nishiki? He’s had some amazing music lately. I’m definitely in for this one.

I don’t see this one talked about much, but when I do, I hear the story is amazing?

I did like the one on the brand surgery. I had a hunch that one would be good and went with it. However, what I really wanted was more on

but from what I can tell, there wasn’t one for that. Just the one with the flowers. (I haven’t played the DLC, though I plan to some time.)

Ah yeah, this one’s not nearly complicated enough to have all that, hah. You’ll get a prompt concisely describing a new system when you unlock one and a small summary of new powers when you get them. That’s about it.

If Xenoblade Chronicles 3 is the ultimate hand-holding tutorial experience, FFXVI is about as far as you get on the other side of the spectrum while still having tutorials/descriptions.

Even among JRPGs, Persona 5 and Dragon Quest XI were turn-based games that were big sellers. Octopath and Like a Dragon have had some success too.

But yes, it does seem like the division leads at SQEX want action combat for mainline Final Fantasy. Maybe we’ll get something in a hybrid style like Metaphor or the recent Trails games.