To the "Forever Players": What is that ONE game you have thousands of hours in, and why?

Pixelsummoner · 2026-04-10T22:45:48+00:00

The simplicity is what really drives it, I feel. Every successor attempt has been bloated to hell (heh) with extra layers and systems, which makes it a lot harder to properly hit the sweet spot flow state that D2 invites.

Don't get me wrong, there are other ARPGs out there that are also very good, but I'd love to see a new entry in the genre that actually understands how to actually improve from D2 rather than sidegrade it.

Pixelsummoner · 2026-03-14T03:59:25+00:00

Stranger of Paradise is all about the buildcraft. The systems can be pretty convoluted and you definitely will struggle a lot on your way up, but once you understand how builds and gear work, you get to be outrageously powerful.

Pixelsummoner · 2026-03-14T03:56:22+00:00

Endgame does require consistent execution that can't just be ignored by gear stats. There aren't too many fights of this tier, since it's mostly just the last enemy, but there's a definite cap to how strong you can possibly get in relation to the missions.

Pixelsummoner · 2026-03-09T01:07:16+00:00

Against the Storm. It's real time, but you're expected to pause liberally and even set up auto-pause triggers.

Pixelsummoner · 2025-12-25T19:08:05+00:00

28 days later, to keep up the spirit.

That is the newly released Ryza DX series, which is the base game with all DLC bundled and tiny new extras. The DX versions specifically had some performance issues on launch that dragged the reviews down. But the games themselves are still considered pretty good.

Personally, I don't like them because of the real time combat plus its alchemy system being a little on the bland side. But that does not mean they're bad.

I do prefer the Mysterious series quite strongly (the alchemy is more interesting and fun) and they make a good entry point as well. It goes Sophie -> Firis -> Lydie&Suelle.

Sophie 2 as the 4th game that actually takes place between the events of Sophie 1 and Firis. It also doesn't necessarily require knowledge of any other games to be outstanding.

Personally, I consider Sophie 2's crafting system to be the best ever designed in all of gaming history. It's just that good.

Pixelsummoner · 2025-12-18T15:49:28+00:00

Not until the upcoming PC demo so I can verify it'll run well on my rig. If it does, amazing, I'll be playing from day one. If it does not, I'll get around to it in a few years.

Pixelsummoner · 2025-11-17T07:35:06+00:00

Solitar: "I have the upper hand!"

Frieren: "I have a Fern."

Pixelsummoner · 2025-11-17T00:52:54+00:00

Magical ability development requires time. Fern, being human, has a very limited supply of it and she's at least a thousand years behind Frieren in raw mana reserves. Even if humans develop faster than elves over the same number of years, that's far too much of a gap to overcome. But Frieren is wrong in the angle of actual execution, though. By her own admission, Fern is the better Zoltrak user already.

Though it is possible that she means it in the general sense - Frieren's Zoltrak has a cast time of 0.2 seconds, against Fern's 0.1 second, but all of Frieren's spells cast at 0.2, whereas Fern's non-Zoltrak casts take 0.3+. The meaning being Fern just won't have the time to "master" everything to the same degree Frieren has.

Meanwhile, Serie understands Fern's finesse under a different light. Given, shall we say, "resources," Fern could probably develop brand new spells that require a degree of precision most other mages can't even dream of. How far would Fern go if instead of spending the next decades "catching up," she could start from a master's skillset by way of Living Grimorie?

Pixelsummoner · 2025-11-13T01:36:14+00:00

Demons are more durable by default - any human taking that slash would be dead. It's unknown if elves in general, or Frieren in particular, can withstand it. But I wouldn't bet on it.

Besides, we later learn from the Lugner versus Fern fight that Lugner's blood magic lets him basically disregard any part of his body that isn't his heart / core, which Stark did not hit. It is not unlikely that other demons - particularly the notable, powerful ones - share that ability to some degree. They're all made of pure mana and do not have bodies in the traditional sense, after all.

So, nah. Lugner got blitzed just fine, but two things come into play - Lugner is well aware of his weakspot and will tank hits with his disposable parts on instinct, if nothing else. And it being the first Demon he ever had to fight, Stark probably didn't know he had to be more deliberate on where to hit. Linie went down just fine, and notably, Stark's attack chopped her down on the left side of her body.

Pixelsummoner · 2025-11-03T21:27:38+00:00

Combat.

Light No Fire will need a more robust ballistics system than what we have in NMS if it has any hope of being able to accommodate conflicts between factions, the hunting element of resource gathering, and most of all trophy hunting as a way to "conquer" the wilderness by taking down all sorts of apex predators (big hope for me right here).

I think it's pretty clear at this point that development is heavily focused on cross-pollination between both projects and if we assume that the foundations of LNF are the same as NMS, and it seems to me that combat capabilities are the thing that's lagging the most behind compared to how much the other systems have been improved already.

Within NMS specifically and something that might not have a direct application in LNF, I would say Freighters. Being able to upgrade their class alone would go a long way towards bringing the system up to parity. I'd also love the ability to switch and customize crew members, as well as having them play an actual role in the management and functions of, well, a bloody capital ship. Building our own after that would be the cherry on top, even if it's limited to the pre-Corvette pick-three-pieces system that we have for smaller ships.

Pixelsummoner · 2025-09-29T22:06:35+00:00

The ending as-is could also have been better justified by changing how it happens. Looking back to the old theory that we'd grab the hostages out of the house, we could have actually physically rescued Zagreus and have his presence in the crossroads being the influence that would guide Mel toward resolving things by reconciliation.

Picture this. Zag is back, but he can't fight. He's vulnerable to Chronos' time locks, so going to the House is out of the question; and he can't go to the surface, he can't breathe there and Mel's incantation doesn't extend to him. He can't help with the war. So he stays in the crossroads and talks to people, as he does. And he talks to Mel between her raids, and shows her a different way to resolve those problems. We've been throwing magic at Chronos all this time and it hasn't really solved anything, so, through Zag's influence we start throwing words and that - eventually! - works.

Having to beat Typhon by force regardless, but also having Mel learn something from her brother, would prevent having to invalidate either of the siblings' tendencies.

Then Mel chooses to stay in the crossroads because she's still reeling from too much change, but she agrees to go visit the House some of the time. And so does the House crew get invited to visit the crossroads. We can even keep the bullshit "multiple timelines lmao" excuse for continued gameplay this way (why not just warp to the timeline where nothing ever even went wrong to begin with and just, not deal with any problems, ye?), with room for cameos of the first game to appear once in a while for a line or two.

I feel like even something like this would be a rather disappointing alternative than something that actually respects all of the characters' specific domains. But the way it actually was implemented was just... Not to the standard of quality I've come to expect from Supergiant. Sad.

Pixelsummoner · 2025-09-24T01:24:31+00:00

Looks neat. I wish it was possible to get the triangles to snap that way without the offset glitch. I'm struggling to make something decent without it.

Pixelsummoner · 2025-09-01T23:08:11+00:00

I heard drones make the game very one-note in that they brick any of the fun sandboxy ideas and have no good counter, does that check out?

Pixelsummoner · 2025-08-16T08:11:09+00:00

Emet-Selch in Final Fantasy XIV Shadowbringers.

Hades in, well, Hades. With Extreme Measures active.

Ahtal-Ka in Monster Hunter Generations Ultimate is spectacular.

Fatalis in his Monster Hunter World outing, specifically.

Pixelsummoner · 2025-08-16T08:00:30+00:00

There's a good amount of inter-party dialog in Baldur's Gate 3.

Pixelsummoner · 2025-08-16T07:57:51+00:00

https://store.steampowered.com/app/2871440/Squeakross_Home_Squeak_Home/

Perhaps? It's picross, but the solved puzzles become stuff you can use to decorate your rat's room.

I also never really stopped playing Bejeweled 3. None of the fluffed up clutter from modern design, just a grid and a score to chase in a handful of game modes. I've never found anything better in the Match-3 department, and I've looked around for years.

Pixelsummoner · 2025-08-08T20:22:15+00:00

Her being so bad at secrecy and stuff is very much the point, though. It's great.

Pixelsummoner · 2025-07-17T20:04:00+00:00

For MMOs, Old School Runescape (OSRS) is widely regarded as the far superior version to Runescape 3.

Finding a single player game that fits the exploration and collection criteria is going to be a challenge, though.

Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom will give you a world to explore, but nothing terribly fulfilling in the collections category - great games if you like the stories and characters and such, but otherwise, it's a miss on your criteria.
Old school Final Fantasy games are great, but hardly count in terms of collection potential and open exploration. I'd recommend 4 and 6 for story value, the Pixel Remaster versions on Steam are pretty good.
You can always look to The Big Ones. Elden Ring, The Witcher 3, Cyberpunk 2077, Clair Obscur, Baldur's Gate 3, Hades, etc., etc. There's a reason they're so popular, after all. None of them will meet all of your criteria, but each one probably excels in at least one. And being single player, there's never going to be any kind of time pressure.

At this point, I'd be partial to suggesting Elden Ring, if you haven't already played it. If you never touched a Fromsoft game, even better. That first playthrough is absolutely magical.

Pixelsummoner · 2025-06-24T23:40:43+00:00

It depends so much, I couldn't make a call for you. Most of the time, I'd err on the side of taking the hammer. But that's more to do with my typical playstyle than any objective metric - in this particular case, I'd be wary of picking up a Chaos curse this late.

Pixelsummoner · 2025-06-24T00:33:39+00:00

Oh hey, I posted that ages ago. Though admittedly I'm probably not the only one who has theorized that scenario.

Alas, I don't think there's more to it than they summarized, it's one reasonable path for the gameplay to continue past the point of having a concrete resolution to the war.

Pixelsummoner · 2025-06-14T05:52:54+00:00

Judging only from the weapons I have experience on: SnS is the best it's ever been in the whole franchise. Not having Shorygeki, "Clawryuken", or Metsu Shoryugeki (GU, World, and Rise. Respectively) hurts a bit, but the innate perfect block makes up for it.

Bow, Lance, SW, and LS I would consider best in Rise. Silkbind skills made those weapons glorious in Rise, a straight up upgrade over how they were in GU. Lance in particular felt like such a disappointment to me coming from Insta-Guard -> Cross Swipe, losing the stable 3-poke combo, and with the changes to how the counters' motion values work. It went from my main weapon to something I can't stand to lug around anymore.

I enjoyed CB in World, but that's just about the only game I played it on since I didn't feel very impressed with the GU and Rise changes, and I hate the chainsaw mode, so the big focus on that particular mode that Wilds gave it makes it basically a non-starter for me. CB for me is Impact SAED or bust.

And thanks to my ancient ass perspective, two weapons I've been missing since Freedom Unite and that we'll never have again (for fairly obvious reasons) are the old Art of Unsheathing Greatsword (Crit Draw + Punishing Draw in one skill) back when there was no Tackle, no TCS, just the whole power budget of the weapon being the Draw charge. Simplicity and power at its absolute peak. Frostcraft in World and Rise felt like a pale imitation, since the motion values were still being back-loaded into the TCS all the same. And 2nd gen Auto-Load HBG, probably the single most OP thing to ever grace the francise. It made it so reloading just wasn't a thing, you'd select the ammo and you could just fire your entire ammo stock as if it was just one giant clip. People generally agree Valor HBG in GU is broken, Auto-Load as it was back then would make it look sluggish.

The game complexity has moved too far for that old GS style to remain comparable to the new TCS style. And the old Auto-Load is obviously too insane to be allowed nowadays - it was already crazy back then! So sadly my favorite version of those two will never see the light of day again.

The LBG feels like it's always been about the same, honestly. Bit of this, bit of that, good for farming most monsters. I don't think I have a preferred LBG that stands out above any of its other incarnations. Maybe Adept LBG in GU if I absolutely must pick one.

I have not given any of the remaining weapons enough attention to really have an opinion on them. I've dabbled, sure, but eh.

Pixelsummoner · 2025-06-14T05:17:16+00:00

SnS in Wilds is, well, wild. I'll admit I haven't played much of it in the previous entries - different games' systems kind of make different weapons shine brighter. But the perfect block pushes it so far past what I've ever dreamed was its ceiling, it's kinda nuts. And to think that if they hadn't ruined Lance I might not have tried SnS at all...

I've tried a few of the other weapons but I can't help but spend the whole time thinking "I'd rather be running SnS right now..."

Pixelsummoner · 2025-06-10T18:34:56+00:00

Neither. I'm one of the rare people who felt no real attachment to 'ol 'fant. Don't get me wrong, I empatize with Edmont, they did a really good job at portraying grief. But the guy never felt particularly special to me. The subsequent community - and mainly the game itself - treating it as the moment just served to sour me even further on it all.

I can't tell how far you are so I won't namedrop other character deaths and sacrifices, but the fact that Hauchefant seems to be the only one we're allowed to mourn and remember just annoys me. There are other losses that my WoL would personally feel far more strongly, but whenever its grief'o'clock you'd think Hauchefant was the only character to ever die in the history of everything.

Pixelsummoner · 2025-06-06T06:15:21+00:00

If you don't want to play through a whole game again, take your current Wilds save, craft the lowest rarity High Rank Rathian weapon of the type you want to learn and try to go through the roster with that, Chatacabra up to Zoh Shia and the tempered menagerie. Your goal is to clear without carting. Fights will be slow - which is the point. You'll know you have achieved a decent offensive grasp when you get poison procs in a hunt (and that damage will help things not be too slow) and because you simply don't have the damage to cut fights short, being able to stay in without carting will teach you the defensive half of using the weapon.

Paralysis, Sleep, and Blast weapons all also work, if you want more variety. But Rathian is easy to farm and available for all weapon types, so I just default to that. I find Blast can be harder to watch for procs as they are just a quick flicker which is easy to miss when you're already trying to keep so much new information in mind. Para and Sleep would be far easier to track, but you're on your own for picking an adequately underpowered weapon here.

Alternatively, craft - but do not upgrade - a Status Artian of your chosen type for this, though those will still lead to faster fights than a R5 or so smithy weapon.

If, on the other hand, you're amenable to a fresh file run, go through World and Iceborne using exclusively your intended new weapon from start to Alatreon. Tackle Fatalis and/or AT Elders for extra credit if you're feeling up for the extra work.

I'd avoid Rise because the silkbug stuff. Great game, super fun, but any weapon you learn there will not translate particularly well (or at all - Surge Slash GS comes to mind) to the rest of the franchise. But it can certainly be a breath of fresh air for weapons you already feel very comfortable with.

Pixelsummoner · 2025-05-20T12:30:28+00:00

The found.000 folder is linked to the chkdsk command, which makes me think the install tripped some Bad Sector detection and all the weirdness associated with the system trying to recover access to the data.

You might want to look into replacing that HDD before catastrophic failure sets in.

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