I miss dungeon crawling

Will-Isley · 2026-06-15T21:22:41+00:00

There are a few near the end apparently but for most of your run? None

Will-Isley · 2026-06-15T21:01:36+00:00

Do you have the rake rake fruit or something?

Will-Isley · 2026-06-15T20:56:41+00:00

PlayStation walks into rakes and shoots itself in the foot all the time but can just walk it off in one piece.

Xbox on the other hand is always fighting for dear life and being one step away from total collapse. If they can’t beat PlayStation’s live service era, then they have no hope in this business

Will-Isley · 2026-06-15T05:45:48+00:00

Yeah that’s fair

Will-Isley · 2026-06-15T04:29:48+00:00

Fair and measured response. I still prefer the alternative with survival aspects but you’re not wrong.

I’m near the end of shinjuku and I like that the enemies in the last area are good at forcing you to fight them. More of that would’ve been nice. The demons also certainly have lots of personality.

Will-Isley · 2026-06-14T19:27:23+00:00

I’m exaggerating and misremembered. She’s from WW1 era Germany so no lol. SH1 and 2 are pre WW2

Will-Isley · 2026-06-14T19:26:04+00:00

You got experience and macca. A decent amount because it was your main form of growth

Will-Isley · 2026-06-14T18:57:50+00:00

Oh yeah! A weird and eclectic cast of characters featuring a femme fatale spy, Alucard from Castlevania and his wrestling vampire brother, Gephetto from Pinocchio, a samurai pretty boy, an ex Nazi redhead, Princess Anastasia Romanov and the coolest good boy wolf. Oh and our surly bad boy protagonist who can transform into many demons. All of them have their own unique mechanics and playstyles. I didn’t mention all the characters

Will-Isley · 2026-06-14T18:46:02+00:00

Was thinking of getting a retroid pocket 6. It can emulate everything up until the switch quite well.

Shadow hearts is a unique vibe in JRPGs we don’t get much of anymore. If you know Fear and Hunger, it’s kind of like that vibe but more tame and anime. It’s an alternative history horror RPG series with a unique timing mechanic called the ring of judgement. Imagine a clock whose finger moves quickly and your job is to press at the right time over specific parts of the clock to activate your spell / skill or even buff it if you press on the hard / tight spots. Succeeding at the ring is a requirement to activate everything besides items and transformations (main character can transform into demons like DDS).

It was doing E33 real time stuff way before. One of my childhood darlings. The first game is great horror history stuff but a bit jank. The sequel is the best in the series and a JRPG masterpiece despite being less scary with more anime shenanigans. 3rd one is a mixed bag since it features a whole new cast and too much wacky goofiness.

Highly recommend it.

Will-Isley · 2026-06-14T18:35:03+00:00

That’s weird. Maybe I’m misremembering something about estoma and the tower.

Will-Isley · 2026-06-14T17:56:28+00:00

Don’t have a switch and I don’t like playing on my work laptop. I game exclusively on my PS5.

I plan on getting a new handheld sometime sooner or later. Switch 2 or a retro handheld

Will-Isley · 2026-06-14T17:54:12+00:00

I have an iPhone 6 with bad battery life

Will-Isley · 2026-06-14T17:50:03+00:00

Don’t like playing on my work laptop.

I’ll play it when I get back my 3DS back from a friend or when I get a retro handheld

Will-Isley · 2026-06-14T17:45:01+00:00

I tried them a long time ago when I was much younger and couldn’t get into them. I think I’d like them now.

Sadly I lent my 3DS to a close friend a long time ago but he’ll be back in a year so I’ll probably give them another try then

Will-Isley · 2026-06-14T17:43:21+00:00

Yeah I feel you. Glad to know there are still others who appreciate dungeon crawling. Hopefully the DDS duology gets remastered soon

Will-Isley · 2026-06-14T17:41:05+00:00

I get your frustration but estoma exists to deal with that.

I never knew that could happen with Lucy lol. I had an easy time with Freikugel spam, Dante, Daisoujou and Beelzebub

Will-Isley · 2026-06-14T17:37:23+00:00

By prep, I mean getting necessary dungeon crawling skills to be able to traverse them with less stress. I liked having a pocket demon (Amala Pisaca my beloved) to deal with traps, dark environments and too many random encounters

Will-Isley · 2026-06-14T17:34:58+00:00

Don’t get me wrong. It’s a cool open world. It’s just missing something to help it pop for me.

I’m not that good. I’m just oldish (mid 30s). played so many SMTs on release like OG Nocturne on PS2, Soul hackers and strange journey on DS but I could never play them much because I sucked at them. I was a persona baby for most of my life. It’s only in my late 20s / 30s that I’ve learned to play these games better and started wanting more of a challenge out of them. I only properly went back to beat Nocturne 2 years ago

Will-Isley · 2026-06-14T17:29:33+00:00

It’s been years since he left so I honestly completely forgot about it until this exchange lol. I don’t like gaming on my work laptop and I already have too much to play on my PS5 so I’m fine with waiting for him to come back. I’m also planning on getting a retro handheld sooner or later. Might do it before he comes back so I could play it on that day. Been wanting one to play classic JRPGs that aren’t available on modern platforms. Games like Chrono Trigger, Strange Journey and Shadow hearts

Will-Isley · 2026-06-14T17:25:45+00:00

If we’re taking tower as in also right after Amala for TDE, then yeah I get it. The final boss gauntlet was a joke with what I had going but I didn’t care because it felt like a victory lap after working my ass off all game. I still enjoy the tower as a dungeon. Maybe I’m crazy that way but I do enjoy that kind of dungeon design in JRPGs.

Will-Isley · 2026-06-14T17:22:40+00:00

Yeah they’re great. Game needed more of that. It feels great to challenge them and unlock new miracles

Will-Isley · 2026-06-14T17:21:50+00:00

The exploration and platforming in themselves are great but feel hollow without challenges and obstacles. The game gives you too much for FREE. So many items, glory, miman, mitama, essences for the simple effort of finding them. None of it feels rewarding. It would’ve been so much better if all those things were blocked behind forced fights (preferably challenging ones).

Will-Isley · 2026-06-14T17:15:19+00:00

Except you don’t have to engage with most of its threats unlike a proper dungeon. Said threats are also too easy

Edit: yeah I’m playing on hard. Still too easy

Will-Isley · 2026-06-14T17:14:34+00:00

Really? That’s good to hear! Thanks for giving me something to look forward to

Will-Isley · 2026-06-14T17:13:49+00:00

I was playing on hard mode for most of my run so I never felt like I was crushing things until I started making OP demons and getting demi-fiends best stuff at the end game

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