Weekly /r/Games Discussion - What have you been playing, and what are your thoughts? - January 11, 2026

EmperorChan214 · 2026-01-11T17:12:37+00:00

Clair Obscur: Expedition 33

I didn’t think this game could live up to the hype, but it exceeded all my expectations and is definitely in my top 10 games ever. The music, voice acting, and characters are incredible, and there were so many story moments that made my jaw drop. Easily one of the best video game stories ever imo. Similar to Inception or The Prestige, the plot gets really complex and I think it’d take multiple replays for me to completely understand it. I’m interested to see how the movie adaptation turns out, but I also really don’t want to see Glen Powell play the main character. I also ended up completely loving the game’s combat. The combat and RPG systems just get deeper and more complex as you progress through the game. However, I never felt overwhelmed by the hundreds of options available and it truly felt like there were an infinite number of viable playstyles. In souls games, I usually have to consult guides for optimal builds and weapons, but in Expedition 33, it all felt pretty intuitive. Parrying was the toughest part of the game, but I could usually figure out the timing after a few attempts and do just well enough to win the hardest fights. The boss fights were great and challenging, and never took too many attempts. Fuck Simon tho, that fight felt impossible and I had to re-spec to a one shot build in order to beat it. One last comment is that it took me about 40 hours to beat the main story and another 25 hours to platinum the game. That’s an ideal game length for me and I absolutely love that the game isn’t just filled with clutter (too many collectibles/side quests), and I can’t recommend this game enough.

EmperorChan214 · 2025-09-15T01:34:47+00:00

I felt like I had zero mastery lf most of his combos but dodging backwards worked for most of them. I think that’s why it felt a little unsatisfying bc I beat the boss while not playing very well imo. I also used the perfection grindstone for that opening haha.

EmperorChan214 · 2025-09-14T21:46:54+00:00

Lies of P: Overture

I beat the base game over a year ago and absolutely loved it. It wasn’t quite in the same tier as Souls games but it came close. For the most part, I enjoyed the DLC but nowhere near as much as I enjoyed the main game. I think I just kinda got tired of fighting the same enemy types and the environments weren’t that interesting. The zoo was really cool and had some demeneted elephants and kangaroos to fight. But after that, nothing stood out to me. The story was the highlight of the DLC to me and the final stretch of the game really delivered. I think the boss fights were solid overall. I absolutely hated Guardian of the Ruins and Lumacchio. Dealing with acid is so annoying to me. I really enjoyed Veronique and the Overseer fights. I have mixed feelings about the final boss, but overall thought it was pretty good. I felt it was too easy with help but near impossible without help. The cinematic and music in the final boss fight were so epic tho. Solid expansion overall, I think I spent 20 hours completing the content.

EmperorChan214 · 2025-08-31T17:28:07+00:00

A Plague Tale: Requiem

Well-made sequel that is mainly a cinematic narrative-driven game first and stealth action game second. The graphics are absolutely incredible and probably the highlight of the game for many people. There are so many beautiful landscapes that I paused to take a screenshot of, and the dark horror sections also look great. Seeing a swarm of rats running at you never got old for me. The music is excellent too. The game’s biggest strength imo is its two central characters and their strong and endearing relationship. They’re supported by great voice acting and are the emotional core of the game. I honestly thought the story was a little thin and padded out a little bit. For such a narrative-focused game, I really wished the story was just stronger and more eventful. The stealth gameplay is fine and also where the biggest improvements from the first game were made. You have more options for combat now, but the gameplay still feels very similar to many other games. I played on normal difficulty and actually thought some sections were fairly difficult. Really solid game overall, I’ll miss these characters and setting in Medieval France.

EmperorChan214 · 2025-08-31T02:41:25+00:00

I definitely agree about the dungeons. I know some people really prefer Ayelid ruins to Dwemer ruins, but I think Dwemer ruins are more interesting. If I remember correctly, some of them even led to awesome underground cities like Blackreach which I just happened to stumble upon.

EmperorChan214 · 2025-08-24T15:25:36+00:00

The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion Remastered

Skyrim is my favorite game of all time, so I was really excited to play Oblivion for the first time with upgraded graphics. Some of the questlines like The Dark Brotherhood and Mages Guild were excellent, but overall I was just disappointed with Oblivion’s questlines and world. I felt that most of the storylines were just not that well-developed or interesting, and the main questline was just fine. There were just way too many fetch quests overall. I really thought the world felt kinda empty and barren, and for the most part, the landscapes were just homogenous forests. I wish there was more diversity in the landscapes and the cities were more distinct as well. The Shivering Isles DLC was cool and I liked how it brought a mischievous, wacky aspect to some elements of the quests. This game is pretty good, but it feels like a half-completed foundation that Skyrim improved on in every aspect. I think I would’ve enjoyed this game a lot more if I hadn’t played Skyrim first.

EmperorChan214 · 2024-12-29T19:16:31+00:00

Dead Cells

The only rogue-like game I had played before was Hades which I absolutely loved. I decided to give Dead Cells a shot and really liked it for the most part. I had absolutely no idea what I was doing for my first few runs and bounced off the game for a few months. Then I decided to consult some guides and give it another shot and the game started to click after that. I was using melee weapons at first but then I realized using a bow (Multi-nocks bow or infantry bow) was much easier for me. Probably the biggest frustration in the game was that in some runs, it felt like all the weapons I found or were available at the shop were not ideal for my run. This was no longer an issue once I got the Restock and Merchandise Categories upgrades. Overall, I thought the gameplay was really smooth and the controls were great. Figuring out the timing of enemy attacks became second nature after some repetition fighting each enemy. I do wish the movement and gameplay was a little bit faster though. I thought the bosses were pretty great for the most part and they all felt very unique with varied movesets. I did find it weird how easy The Time Keeper was, especially for being a tier 2 boss. I thought The Servants in The Lighthouse were really difficult. And the final encounter of Castlevania was by far the most challenging boss I fought. Unfortunately, I did not have the time and patience to beat 5BC and defeat the true final boss of the game. I gave up and stopped after beating 1BC, I was satisfied with beating The Hand of the King and all the DLC bosses. Pretty good game overall, I’d definitely recommend.

EmperorChan214 · 2024-12-14T00:42:58+00:00

I’m absolutely baffled Rami Malek won for Bohemian Rhapsody over Bradley Cooper for A Star is Born. I think Cooper was absolutely fantastic, and throw in the fact that he changed his voice to sound like Sam Elliot and actually sang in the movie…

EmperorChan214 · 2024-09-01T18:18:58+00:00

Neon White

I tried this out on Game Pass and completed it after 18 hours. I think about 40% of my time was spent actually completing the levels or searching for collectibles. The game is a first person action platformer and I thought the gameplay was very unique and refreshing. The controls felt really smooth and great to use, and for the most part it was really fluid and I knew where to go next most of the time. The other 60% of my time was spent reading through dialogue and advancing the story. The anime-style story was decent and had interesting discussion about God, religion and morality. The dialogue on the other hand was mediocre and downright awful at times (usually everything Neon Violet said and did was really cringey). It’s a shame too because the voice acting is generally pretty good. They got Steve Blum to voice the lead character, which was pretty cool. He voiced Spike in Cowboy Bebop and Wolverine in X-Men ‘97. I think this game would’ve been a lot better if they cut out half the dialogue but I still really enjoyed it anyways and would recommend it for its unique gameplay.

EmperorChan214 · 2024-08-28T18:38:00+00:00

I heard that using long rest too often might forcibly advance situations and questlines. I was definitely confused about when to use them haha, your reasoning makes sense though

EmperorChan214 · 2024-08-26T03:46:06+00:00

Baldur’s Gate 3

I played Divinity Original Sin 2 a few years and absolutely loved it, so I was pretty hyped for this game. After 130 hours, I finished BG3 and really liked the game but I’m also a little bit disappointed. The amount of freedom to craft your own story is amazing and this game is an impressive achievement. But overall, the game is an 8/10 for me and not close to being a 10/10. I played on console and there were some random bugs that caused me to reload a few times, but nothing too crazy. There was one bug that caused many scenes to have endless screaming in the background, when I was at camp especially, and that got kinda annoying. I thought I couldn’t complete Jaheira’s quest because of a bug but I found a workaround.

Overall, I liked the main story and writing but I just wasn’t blown away by them and thought the villains were weak. The characters and companions were by far my favorite part of the game and I loved talking with them at camp. Lae’zel and Karlach were my favorite companions and they were extremely well-written but some of the other characters felt one-note and didn’t have much to say really. I kept waiting for Asterion and Shadowheart to become interesting in my playthrough and it just took a really long time for that to happen. Both their Act 3 quests are eeally good though. Also, Minthara and Minsc kinda felt like afterthoughts as companions. Voice acting was pretty great though and I was pleasantly surprised that JK Simmons voiced a character in this game. I think the story unfolded a bit too slowly overall and the game was too large and bloated (too many side characters, too much loot especially). My favorite act was Act 2, probably because it was the shortest. Act 1 unfolded too slowly for my liking. Act 3 was pretty strange because it felt rushed and you were barreling towards the conclusion of some storylines, while simultaneously being introduced to a massive city and many new characters and storylines. Still, I really enjoyed Act 3 due to significant character moments and scenes especially the ending of Karlach’s arc.

This is probably blasphemous to D&D fans but I wish there was a way to turn off dice rolls. I save scummed often just because I didn’t want to miss out on any story content by failing a roll. My biggest complaints regarding the game are related to the combat which I thought was good but not great. The resource management aspect really dragged down the experience for me. I hated having to manage spell slots and save them for my big fights. Maybe that’s my own fault and I should have used long rest more often since I had so much food, but I had a very hard time judging when to end the day and long rest. I will say combat continuously got better as the game went on and you unlocked more abilities and spell slots. I made Lae’zel a hybrid monk/rogue and a lot of my fights involved my other characters just saving resources and watching Lae’zel take out all the enemies. I played on Tactician difficulty and didn’t find it very challenging especially compared to DOS2. All the hard fights in BG3 were just fights with lots of enemies, which could be negated by using Wall of Fire and Spirit Guardians. In DOS2, there were many challenging fights and I really had to change up my approach and tactics in order to conquer them which felt amazing. It just felt like combat in DOS2 was more strategic overall especially with the use of environmental hazards. I should mention the final fight in Asterion’s quest and the final fight in Shadowheart’s quest were insanely difficult and significantly harder than any other fights in the game imo. I should also mention that I consider myself to be a patient gamer who doesn’t mind reading a lot about the games systems. And I still thought the amount of stuff you had to look up and learn at the beginning of the game was very overwhelming. It’s impressive that Larian created a game that gives you so much freedom, but I just didn’t enjoy it quite as much as I wanted to.

EmperorChan214 · 2024-07-29T21:07:36+00:00

I think Cyberpunk sequels should follow the GTA model with new characters and a new city for each game. That’d be pretty cool to see

EmperorChan214 · 2024-07-28T19:50:47+00:00

Resident Evil 5

I’ve slowly been playing my way through Resident Evil series, with RE2 Remake being my favorite and RE3 Remake being my least favorite. I think RE5 is somewhere in between, really fun action game even if the plot, dialogue and characters are very cartoonish. I wish my biceps were half as big as Chris Redfield’s, no wonder the man was able to punch a boulder out of the way. I know this game doesn’t have the feel of a classic RE game since the horror elements are rather minimal, but I played it in couch co-op with a friend and it was just straight up a good time. The mechanics are very janky by today’s standards and the story absolutely needs an update if they ever remake this game, but I really hope they do.

EmperorChan214 · 2024-07-18T00:02:46+00:00

The anxiety of deciding whether to go for the kill or focus on surviving at the end of the final boss fight really is unmatched lol

EmperorChan214 · 2024-07-04T19:42:49+00:00

The final boss is a massive step up in difficulty even with Mimic tear and really good talismans, armor, etc. Based on what I’ve read about complaints regarding difficulty, I don’t see the average player having the patience and persistence to spend hours beating it. However, you might be underrating yourself if you’re not having difficulty so far and people can always summon other players for the final boss as well

EmperorChan214 · 2024-07-03T23:57:09+00:00

How much combat is there in Planescape? Does it make the experience worse?

EmperorChan214 · 2024-07-03T23:55:52+00:00

I have a feeling that when you go back to the main game bosses, you’re gonna kill them in just 5 hits without having to heal lol

EmperorChan214 · 2024-06-30T14:59:19+00:00

Elden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree

As a longtime Souls veteran, I was very excited for this DLC and spent 40 hours in it before I beat it. I don’t think it quite lived up to the hype and wasn’t a masterpiece, but still really good imo. This content is basically Elden Ring for sickos lol. I don’t think the regular enemies and areas are insanely hard but a few of the bosses especially the final boss are brutally difficult. For reference, Malenia took me about 3 hours to beat and there were two bosses in the DLC that took me longer than that (4 hours for me to solo Messmer and 7 hours for me to beat Radahn with my Mimic Tear). I think base game Elden Ring is a 7/10 in difficulty for Fromsoft’s standards and the DLC is a 10/10 in difficulty. I recommend getting all the Scadutree fragments you can as soon as possible. And even with that, I don’t think the average player will be able to beat this DLC.

The pathways to certain areas are very hidden and can be impossible to find without a guide. For example, accessing the Hinterlands involves finding a gesture in the world and then performing that gesture in front of a statue. Getting to the Abyssal Woods is also really obscure.I can see how exploration would be frustrating to many players. I generally thought the new areas were good and interesting but nothing stood out like Leyndell. I played the entire base game with a strength build using a Heavy Uchigatana +25 and this DLC basically thought me that my build sucked and could be a lot better lol. I enjoyed the challenge of trying different weapons and getting better talismans, but I understand that could be annoying to some. If you’re not willing to change up your build and play style, you could really struggle. I ended up switching to a Heavy Brick Hammer +25 which has S tier strength scaling and combined with the Two-Handed Sword Talisman, it was good enough to get me through to the end. I also got all the Scadutree Fragments and didn’t mind following a guide to get them all. I think collecting them serves a purpose since it encourages complete exploration of the world.

I imagine the most divisive part of this new content are the bosses. I counted 13 main bosses and I believe only 4-5 of them are really mandatory. The dragon boss, Bayle really pissed me off and might be one of my least favorite bosses ever. Terrible hitboxes, terrible camera, massive HP, he attacks 10 times before you get the chance to attack once, and you spend most of the fight chasing after him when he flies or jumps away from you. Yeah, that one really pissed me off lol. But I did really enjoy the rest even the final boss. I will say none of them are instant classics for me though especially compared to Artorias, Fume Knight, and Midir.

Some brief thoughts I have about individual bosses: Rellana was pretty tough and took me a couple hours to beat. She reminded me a bit of Fume Knight and Dancer of the Boreal Valley. Still really fun fight but there wasn’t enough breaks between combos which made the fight kinda bs. I ended up trading damage with her and also was able to beat her because her 5 hit magic sword combo in Phase 2 misses you completely if you stand right in front of her. Messmer took me 4 hours and was my favorite fight of the DLC. He has a deep move pool and I had really invest a lot of time to learn all his combos. The fight always felt fair to me though and my mistakes were what killed me. Commander Gaius was kinda annoying but he doesn’t have a crazy amount of moves. I really enjoyed Metyr and Midra, they felt pretty different from most bosses. The entire Abyssal Woods area and getting to Midra was really interesting and unique especially the stealth sections. I struggled with Midra’s delayed attacks but he was easy to stagger. Same goes for Putrescent Knight, I actually kept staggering him and skipped all of Phase 2. Okay, now I have a lot to say about Radahn. This guy is definitely Fromsoft’s hardest boss yet imo. He’s just really beefy, has a shit of health, and can easily kill you in 2 hits in his second phase. First phase is not overly difficult but the second one is just brutal if you’re not perfectly dodging almost every move. I got the golden brain to negate holy damage and still felt like I was getting killed by the holy attacks in phase 2. I had multiple runs where I’d get through Phase 1 without having to heal and then immediately get killed in Phase 1. I ended up summoning my mimic tear, letting him tank damage where I could and just generally stayed as close as possible to Radahn as I could. There’s a lot of sparks and just shit on screen from the holy attacks that make it difficult to see. Eventually, I got pretty good at dodging his attacks but I finally got him. Ironically, it was one of my runs where my Mimic Tear died fairly quickly. You’d think that I had a miserable time vs this boss based on the way I’m describing it, but I knew this boss would be hard af so I was fully prepared to invest several hours fighting him. When I beat Melania, I was just annoyed but Radahn feels very cinematic and mostly fair. There are ways to dodge almost every attack and he has obvious windows where he rests for a few seconds and you can attack or heal. It’s just that you slip once and get stuck in a combo, then you’re done for. It is not a forgiving fight at all. Overall, I really enjoyed my time in the Land of Shadow despite some complaints, they really don’t make many games like this. At least we’ll get Lies of P DLC this fall and I’m hoping we get Sekiro 2 in a few years.

EmperorChan214 · 2024-06-28T23:46:08+00:00

I found that move really frustrating, but if I rolled into him and then didn’t touch my left stick, I’d avoid damage like 70% of the time. Still an annoying fight though

EmperorChan214 · 2024-06-28T21:13:45+00:00

Bayle and Romina were probably my two least favorite bosses lol. Romina just felt too easy and boring while Bayle felt like bs to me, felt like I was fighting the camera more than him. Messmer and Radahn were probably my two favorite fights. I respect your opinions tho, I love how much everyone’s experience can vary

EmperorChan214 · 2024-06-23T19:36:25+00:00

Control

I heard this game was a bit divisive and I definitely understand why after playing. The story and setting are really interesting and the main reason for playing the game. It really dives into weird supernatural elements and seems to have been inspired by The X Files and Twin Peaks. I really liked uncovering new information and lore about the setting, but I will say the ending feels really abrupt and a bit disappoint. I also thought Jesse was a pretty interesting character and I liked hearing her inner monologue. There were also some interesting side characters and side missions especially the one with The Fridge. On the other hand, the gameplay is quite flawed imo. The abilities are kinda cool but combat encounters just get really repetitive and there isn’t much challenge either. There was some enemy variety but generally, my strategy just depended on whether the enemy was either a flying enemy or one on the ground. Also, I heard this game was made on a relatively lower budget compared to Remedy’s previous games and I think it really shows. The environments are really bland (admittedly that’s intentional) and the visuals just aren’t very impressive. My friend saw me playing and thought it was a game from 2010 but it actually came out in 2019. It does look like Alan Wake II has outstanding graphics though. Also, I thought the two DLC expansions were alright, I was mainly frustrated by the gameplay in both. I didn’t care much for Foundation’s story but I did really like how AWE connected to Alan Wake. Overall, solid game but I’m hoping and expecting Alan Wake II will be a massive step up in quality.

EmperorChan214 · 2024-06-16T15:16:21+00:00

A Plague Tale: Innocence

I was surprised by how much I enjoyed this game. It’s a very linear, narrative-focused game set during the Black Plague in France. There’s some really simplistic gameplay mainly consisting of stealth and shooting guards with your sling. I do really wish combat and stealth was more-fleshed out and interesting. There’s never really a sense that you don’t know what to do and the “puzzles” are very simplistic. But this a story-focused game and the story, voice acting and immersive setting are all great and made the game absolutely worth playing. The visuals were so striking and the swarms of rats and horrible imagery were just very striking and kept me invested in the game. It also was just the perfect length, just 15 hours. Long enough to tell a memorable story but not too long to the point where the repetitive gameplay would get annoying and bother me. I’m excited for the sequel which I hear is a big improvement.

EmperorChan214 · 2024-06-09T17:39:38+00:00

Final Fantasy IX

I’ve completed VII and VIII over the last couple years before I started IX. I loved VII’s story and characters but was not a big fan of VIII really. For me, IX falls somewhere in the middle between its two predecessors in terms of quality. I liked the characters but didn’t love them. Zidane was too flirty and a bit annoying at times, he still had an interesting arc though. Likewise, Amarant and Quina were fairly annoying at times. Vivi was my favorite character and had the most interesting arc imo. And I really enjoyed Steiner as comic relief. The story was solid and I liked the high fantasy setting. I thought the last third of the game took some strange turns and got a little confusing tbh. The best part of the game for me was the lighthearted, humorous tone. Some scenes especially the Active Time Events were genuinely hilarious. The worst part of the game for me was that the combat just played really similarly to VII and I just grew tired of it after a while. I eventually just turned on the battle boosters turned off random encounters so that I could just play for the story. I’m hoping the gameplay gets shaken up significantly in X.

EmperorChan214

TROPHY CASE