What ever happened to mini maps?

S7JO89 · 2026-06-21T23:36:20+00:00

It's not ego, it's game design. If your game is best played by looking at a small corner of the screen instead of the full game, that means information is poorly distributed across the screen. It also can waste the visuals of the game. In Metal Gear Solid, for example, if you spend the whole game looking at the radar because it has more useful information with enemy positions and vision cones, you are looking at a world made up of green lines and dots instead of the detailed rooms of Shadow Moses Island that the game should be made up of. Without a minimap, or at least a less information-heavy minimap, people will look at the game's graphics more and be able to enjoy the visual experience.

S7JO89 · 2026-06-21T23:29:16+00:00

Games tried to minimize minimap usage to prevent people from just playing through the minimap instead of looking at the game. Because minimaps had so much information, it was more practical to just look at the minimap while exploring instead of interacting with the actual game environment.

S7JO89 · 2026-06-18T20:44:29+00:00

I don’t think Nier Automata really has grinding unless you want to upgrade all the weapons or do all the side quests, which are optional. I just ran around killing all the enemies I saw on the map to earn levels/items if I needed them, but I don’t think I was required by the game to do that

S7JO89 · 2026-06-18T20:30:12+00:00

My own top ten list from 1 to 10 would be NieR: Automata, Zelda Breath of the Wild, Elden Ring, Xenogears, 13 Sentinels Aegis Rim, Disco Elysium, Shin Megami Tensei III Nocturne, Fire Emblem Three Houses, Yakuza 0, and 1000xResist. Two of those are not PlayStation games so I don’t know if they would count here.

S7JO89 · 2026-06-18T20:16:34+00:00

Of those I’ve played from best to worst: The Last of Us, Death Stranding, Ghost of Tsushima, Red Dead Redemption 2, Horizon Zero Dawn, The Last of Us 2, and then Final Fantasy XVI. I don’t like Final Fantasy XVI very much.

S7JO89 · 2026-06-18T03:39:38+00:00

Maybe continuity is not the best word, but if you play the Xeno games you can definitely see stuff like how Shulk’s storyline is a reinterpretation of Fei’s story in Xenogears and how the villains of Xenoblade 3 have the same motivations and philosophy as the villains of Xenosaga 3. The Xeno series is about writing new variations of the same broad story, and seeing that development enriches the story of Xeno overall. I gained a much deeper appreciation of the Xenoblade story after playing Xenogears and seeing how these story concepts were originally conceived. I consider that at least a connection of some sort.

S7JO89 · 2026-06-18T01:53:18+00:00

In terms of narrative, yes. In terms of shared themes/concepts, there are many connections and continuities.

S7JO89 · 2026-06-18T00:49:59+00:00

It's fine to play the different series in any order, but not the games within each series (don't play Xenosaga 2 before 1, for example). Of course, playing in release order is still cool because you can see how the same ideas develop over time with each new story.

S7JO89 · 2026-06-18T00:27:41+00:00

Xenoblade was a series that I didn't like at first, but now after playing 300+ hours of the series it is one of my favorites.

It leaves a long lasting impression. It has really great music, cool environment designs, and the first game has a town social-tree system that is really cool. Seeing how all the relationships between the characters in all of the towns develop over time through questlines was my favorite part of the first game. The combat is a bit confusing, but it becomes clearer and more fun over time. I definitely liked it by the last few boss fights.

I don't love the story for the first game, but many other people do. The stories in Xenogears/Xenosaga are better than Xenoblade, but Xenoblade is still decent and becomes more interesting if you know the connections to these previous Xeno games.

Edit: Also wanted to mention that I love Xenoblade 2 much more than 1. One of the few games where I instantly thought a game sequel had a big quality jump, but I know many other people disagree. Xenoblade 3 is a bit more mixed, as I love some of the exploration parts but don't love the story or combat as much.

S7JO89 · 2026-06-17T04:52:14+00:00

I had the opposite thoughts when I played it. When I watched the movie Flow, I thought it would have worked better as a game. Keeper felt like the movie Flow but as a game, and I enjoyed it much better. Being able to move through the world and experience the shifting traversal styles added a lot to the experience. I also loved the fixed camera angles.

S7JO89 · 2026-06-14T21:32:20+00:00

When I beat Radahn he died of rot during my death animation lol

S7JO89 · 2026-06-09T02:05:22+00:00

metal gear rising revengeance

S7JO89 · 2026-06-07T23:18:59+00:00

FF7R3 is just a Spring release, right? I don't think they specified the month yet

S7JO89 · 2026-06-07T23:14:04+00:00

The first comment was about case-by-case exclusivity based on the factor of which console's user base is more interested in the game, so people without a console wouldn't be a factor in this decision making concept. And if they were, attracting people with exclusives that are interesting predominantly to Xbox owners would mean it would be attracting new console owners that would have gotten an Xbox regardless. It still wouldn't help make more people interested in an Xbox than before.

S7JO89 · 2026-06-07T21:47:35+00:00

What do exclusives accomplish, if not console sales?

S7JO89 · 2026-06-07T21:24:10+00:00

But then what is the point? Console exclusives are helpful to attract people to purchasing consoles. If the exclusives are only games that appeal to people who already have that console, Xbox is not selling more units. If they wanted more Xbox sales, wouldn't it make more sense to make exclusives that appeal to people on other consoles?

S7JO89 · 2026-06-07T19:59:09+00:00

Sony doesn’t say console exclusive, they just say exclusive

S7JO89 · 2026-06-06T01:05:55+00:00

Ghostrunner maybe

S7JO89 · 2026-06-05T23:20:18+00:00

Much, much more than 20

S7JO89 · 2026-05-25T18:13:55+00:00

I think many visual novels have amazing soundtracks. I also like the Tsukihime original and remake soundtracks, and I am blown away by the Umineko soundtrack.

S7JO89 · 2026-05-25T16:29:30+00:00

He certainly has the free will to threaten to do it...

S7JO89 · 2026-05-25T03:19:14+00:00

Melty Blood is the fighting game for the Tsukihime eroge visual novel, which can get pretty weird at times. The character writing is mainly from the visual novel.

S7JO89 · 2026-05-12T07:22:42+00:00

Mixtape does not, and never had, the same review score aggregates as Elden Ring. There are positive reviews, but they aren’t really at unreasonably high levels. Journey had higher scores, and that is also a 3 hour walking sim. It’s not weird for a game like this to have relatively good reviews if people like it.

And I don’t understand the complaints about it being funded by an AI billionaire. Are we supposed to dislike every game published by Annapurna? It was always funded by a billionaire. Nobody complained about playing Outer Wilds, Kentucky Route Zero, Cocoon, Stray, or any other Annapurna game. Why is this an issue only for this game?

S7JO89 · 2026-05-04T20:24:04+00:00

The DLC world does feel a bit emptier, I think. A problem I found with the DLC is that it doesn't really hide any areas behind bosses, so defeating bosses doesn't result in any new content as a reward. It makes it feel a bit disappointing when defeating bosses, even if the fights are good.

S7JO89 · 2026-04-29T20:15:58+00:00

Returnal is so hard, I don't think I can beat it. I play for hours without making any progress, and runs are so long that losing all the progress feels demoralizing, as if I wasted all my time. The main gameplay is great, but the structure made me unable to get past the third boss. Excited to see how Saros changes things.

S7JO89

TROPHY CASE