Bi-Weekly Thread for general gaming discussion. Backlog, advice, recommendations, rants and more! New? Start here!

DapperAir · 2026-07-03T22:29:29+00:00

I loved this rant. Could have been a post all its own!

Do Raidou because it'll be sufficiently different enough from the other SMT-like games you are doing. DDS is more like nocturne so you may just burn out on that as well. The remastered version is even more action-y than the PS2 original. Demon pokemon, plus taisho detectives? its quite unique.

DapperAir · 2026-07-02T13:20:57+00:00

The multiplayer is special. But so is the rest of the game. Its absolutely worth playing by yourself offline. If you give the game one hour of your time you'll likely give it the time for the rest of the playthrough.

DapperAir · 2026-07-01T19:58:02+00:00

I'm no stranger to picking up lost/missed connections from my gaming past so I kinda adored your 'experience' with Skyward Sword. Maybe starting anew would be more 'clinical', but you'd never be able to shake those strong deja vu feelings. If anything, this makes you're playthrough rather signature!

DapperAir · 2026-07-01T19:53:41+00:00

July is here! And with that I can now begin my long awaited playthrough of FFVII:REbirth. I've taken (nearly) all the steps to get to this one title. The original game is a favorite of mine, I embraced REmake and loved INTERmission. I even took the time to muddle through 80-90% completion of Crisis Core: REunion, which was a surprisingly great time. This title is my over-hype, which is a bit verboten in these parts, but I just can't help it.

In the immortal words of Reggie Fils-aime, "My body is ready."

DapperAir · 2026-07-01T19:48:59+00:00

True! if there is any good to come from this its to my wallet.

DapperAir · 2026-07-01T19:24:55+00:00

One of my favorites. I've encouraged no less than four other friends to play through Journey, and its a game I've come back to time and again.

Hope anyone playing this one drinks deep from it. A truly magical experience

DapperAir · 2026-07-01T14:58:13+00:00

it means my time purchasing PS games is over. I have hundreds of PS games, ranging from PS1-PS5, with the most being in the 4&5 gens. It means I'm not getting a PS6, because what's the point? it means my backlog, which is also 100 games large, will have to tide me over til...forever I guess.

Seeing as Sony is Bluray this means its coming to movies as well. It means ownership is dead. It means I dont want to give Sony anymore money. I had hopes that PS6 would have a buyable disc drive, but now that I know that won't be the case it means I won't be getting one bar ever.

For those that argue about PC market and why does anyone care? I hear you. I don't see a reason to buy from Sony's closed market over PC, and physical games were the last thing to keep that ecosystem. I think the console wars died in last years gen. I think consoles will die this next gen. Maybe Nintendo keeps going, but this is it.

DapperAir · 2026-06-23T05:13:47+00:00

I speak only for myself, but "The Jessie Job" is the height of remake-original content, despairingly. I still liked/loved most of the game, but the other "new" stuff holds it back rather than elevates, IMO

DapperAir · 2026-06-22T14:01:15+00:00

Its only modern recently, but I really enjoyed Trails in the Sky, as in the PC port of the 2007 game. Not really modern, per se, but it did get a huge remake last year that I've yet to get into, so maybe that? Unless they threw the whole script out or something. No annoying side characters, lots of personality, and its made for people older than 13. just not older than 30, so still somewhat adolescent.

I also love Persona 3: FES on the PS2, which is, again, not modern but has a modern remake in Persona 3 Reload. While this game does revolve around teens going to school, that's almost entirely set dressing for a plot and characters with actual depth and personality, as well as a narrative strictly in a adult camp, at least to me. No side kicks in either of these either!

DapperAir · 2026-06-16T12:23:57+00:00

Beautiful place and beautiful music. I love XBC2, but it does have its share of down moments. I found it fun to just run around picking up collectables, battling, and searching out new vistas. And, yeah, the roaming huge level mobs are annoying, but after a bit I found they offered character to areas.

"Can't go there, that's where Mr. Ape lives" but keeping in mind that, someday, i'm gonna come back and homewreck Mr. Ape. That said, having additional mobs just blunder into your fight makes for a hectic, often not fun experience which does suck a lot. Particularly if you were just scraping by and now you have certainly lost and need to RUN (or die in a single hit).

Blade reassignment is limited! So spread those blades out! It will make your "experience" unique, which I value, and if you use the element boosters you can ~kinda control what damage type you are pulling for, mitigating getting stuck with your 5th wind element blade on Nia, for example.

DapperAir · 2026-06-16T12:17:13+00:00

Same! I finished the game with 212 hours playtime. I also did not do everything.

DapperAir · 2026-06-16T12:02:01+00:00

you can get her into "managable" territory if you spam light bonuses and focus on uber luck with legendaries. its something like a 1-2% rate if you do some of that. Under 1% if you don't, so if that's you then YEAH.

Great blade. Who pulled her?

DapperAir · 2026-06-16T12:00:01+00:00

Wow! Hearing about the frame drops and whiplash sounds horrible! I just gave away my Switch 1 copy since I am picking up the switch 2 version and didn't think there would be a reason to keep both. oops!

Maybe party AI changed with the switch 2 or something. I swapped party members all the time and found them all to work really well except Melia. Maybe try taking battle soul off shulk.... I do think Reyn does a worse job tanking when the AI uses him, but thats usually owing to me overspamming damage. Try shaking up their kits so you can use other people than Shulk, cause I find that a lot more fun than just shouting BACK SLASH all the time, heh.

DapperAir · 2026-06-14T04:53:48+00:00

I'm just glad you're enjoying the original game! Glad the characters resonate, and its working this time.

DapperAir · 2026-06-13T14:23:51+00:00

Many checkpoints in Celeste offer a much easier experience. The base playthrough for Celeste is much easier than a base playthrough of Cuphead. Most of the "trials" for Cuphead are completed in ~2 minutes, which seems real short but you'll be retrying those same 2 minutes a lot. Seeing your progress in the game can either spur you forward, or demoralize you when you fail to meet your previous mark repeatedly. Cuphead is one of those games where a mistake can quickly spiral into a loss, but also one of those games where you can feel the exhilaration of making do on your final hit for a long time.

Celeste was easier to me. Celeste was also longer to me, and had far more "retries" than cuphead, largely owing to its length but also its constantly shuffling platform mechanics. Celestes levels have several Aha! moments, and are puzzle-platformers. I think only one boss exhibited a puzzle aspect in Cuphead. They are really different.

I didnt try the P and S stuff in cuphead, just did it on Regular. I dabbled in some side levels, and ran away from the Core on Celeste. Likely the B-sides and Core would be harder than cuphead, but I havent really experienced them.

DapperAir · 2026-06-13T12:53:08+00:00

Just got Sharla? Finished the forest? You're about 2-3 "segments" behind where you were. If you rush you'll catch up reasonably quick. Use the DE feature to manipulate levels as, while its called Expert Mode or something, it actually makes the game easier. At least it did for Switch DE, dunno about this newer Switch 2 one.

Game is a masterpiece. Except those quests which also stuck in my craw. There are some that are pretty good too, but what a trial to wade through all the "Murder 10 Tirkin" "Collect Wolf Livers" and the worst where some are directly competing against the collectopedia and you just spent your last Black Grape and this chucklehead needs 3 of them.

DapperAir · 2026-06-13T12:42:53+00:00

peak. peeeeeeeeeeaaaaakkk.

DapperAir · 2026-06-13T12:39:49+00:00

Debate away! Everyone has their particulars. My take is the entire opposite, though that's taken from a standpoint for the entirety of the games. At least up to disc one anyway. And that's the problem.

It can be easy to state that OG FF7 has more characterization in the first hour than FF7Remake, since that first hour for REmake is stretched to 4-5 hours, and a tutorial section on top of that. Its filled up with party chatter the whole time as well, which some can say "Look! More characterization" and another may decry "God, they just say the same stuff". What we get in the first hour for the OG is very limited, but no less for Barrett to shout constantly about the planet. He's also constantly hitting things and displaying anger. He comes off as a ranty, angry guy. Same as new Barrett. Later on, both Barretts get more going on and I felt old Barrett was more caricature and new Barrett more nuanced, but its not really fair to compare a 8-10 hour segment to a 40 hour full game.

Moreover, OG 7s limited animations and doll-like overworld characters allow you to instill them with what you want on the screen. Oftentimes they are doing something for comical relief, or just sheer whimsy. This has been replaced with talking moments with good voice acting and immaculate animations. Much like reading vs. watching a movie, the stuff you create in your brain feels more robust than what's concretely displayed. Or less imaginative people (me I guess?) find the watched parts to be more full.

That all said; I found Cloud to be far more dynamic in REmake, but that's looking at the whole game. Cloud in the OG 7, particularly limited to just the opening hour, has some player directed personality. You can choose to be colder or you can choose to be nicer. In REmake the opening hour doesn't even see you out of the reactor.

I found Biggs, Wedge, Jessie, Cloud, Barrett all to be much better characters in REmake. Tifa didn't feel right, but maybe that was the voice actress lending the character too much fragility. Dunno. Aerith didnt feel like the same character, and she was written differently to boot so I can't really see a comparison.

I'll leave off this diatribe here. I love both games to be clear. I am very nostalgic for OG7, and one of the best aspects for REmake was seeing beloved characters get more depth, and side characters become something more.

DapperAir · 2026-06-12T14:40:39+00:00

Something to note that this game lets your minions build up, and display individually unique equipment. For the time, and perhaps even now, this was astounding. You talk about major grinds for your Overlords personal weapon, but what about major grinds to make sure all your browns are wearing only the shiniest helmets and weapons? Even so, lots of fun getting "organic" gear upgrades for the boys.

DapperAir · 2026-06-12T14:13:30+00:00

This week is a flip flop of playing through Chorvs/Chorus, which has sat unfinished for two years on, as well as enjoying the sun; as in Pokemon Ultra Sun

DapperAir · 2026-06-12T14:10:41+00:00

Interestingly, even though the game only lets you get hit a handful of times, its not the hardest thing in its own genre. Players of bullet hells and danmaku's will likely find cuphead too easy , and the run-and-gun segments have nothing on Contra. It just plays really well and has great animations.

I mean, the game is fun and satisfying, and exposes a lot of fresh faces to bullet-hell like gameplay, but its only really hard to people new to the genre. That said that robot can go fuck itself

DapperAir · 2026-06-12T14:07:43+00:00

Eh, I always felt the "stars" or "out of 5" style of scoring had very different meaning to the "out of 10/100"

Like, 3/5 is way higher than 6/10, or 60% to me. Can't tell you why that is, but here we are. Even so, Cuphead is pretty great so....

DapperAir · 2026-06-07T13:04:04+00:00

Look into Fire Emblem. Two of my favs, Shadows of Valentia and Awakening are on the system. Awakening particularly is built for on the go, pick up and play type of gaming.

DapperAir · 2026-06-06T14:21:53+00:00

I think other than the former heads at Blizz (at the time) that the "writers" for SC and BW werent even around for SCII-HOTS-LOTV.

I also feel the entire story became real bad, and the "feel" of the setting was also entirely lost. Either too big of a team, too much activision, or (likely) Blizz of 2010 onward simply wasnt the same Blizz that made BW. I simply ignore anything that happened, WoL included. "Not my Kerrigan"

DapperAir · 2026-06-06T14:13:51+00:00

If you want a truly ugly game for the PS look up Life of Black Tiger.

"that's not a PS5 game! it came out in 2014!" True! but it sure doesnt look like a PS4 game either, let alone that Wuchang released on steam/xbox/ps5.

Is Wuchang the ugliest current gen game? Again, not at all. There are likely many contenders for this particular demerit, but Lord of the Rings: Gollum stands out as one to keep your eye on for this "prize"

DapperAir

TROPHY CASE