I’ve been having a real hard time lately wrangling my attention span onto a single game but I think Shin Megami Tensei: Strange Journey Redux finally did it.
I’m always in a dungeon crawling mood so the traditional first person perspective mixed with the classic monster collecting, turn-based battles really hooked me. The big catch on this one is that it doesn’t use the Press Turn system from SMTIII (which I haven’t played, btw, it’s on the list) but instead relies on demon alignments to exploit weaknesses. I don’t recall a game before that has actually mattered this much for alignment outside of simply limiting the overall choice of team composition. Here, whenever you exploit a weakness any other team member with the same alignment will join in for a combo attack which gives the opportunity to really pile on damage (note character name colors in screenshot below denoting Neutral, Law, or Chaos).
I’m running it in Citra (RetroArch) with 2x upscaling and the graphics are fantastic. Still a little crunchy due to the 3DS, but that’s the way I like it. As with all of the SMT/Persona games the interface is vibrant and snappy and the environments are all lush and interesting.
One of the things that is so, so important in a dungeon crawler is the dungeon itself. Back in high school I read a copy of Huck Finn that had an essay in the back about how the river was the third main character behind Huck and Jim. Pretty standard middle school stuff, but it always stuck with me. In that same way, the dungeon of any good dungeon crawler should be a persistent character in the narrative and the Schwarzwelt region accomplishes that. A dark, apocalyptic wave spreading out from the south pole, a research team is dispatched to the Antarctic but loses contact with the outside world as they’re confronted by an unholy amalgamation of human sin. When you game over it shows the world being swallowed by darkness.
Bonus points for whoever decided to do MacReady (MacCleary) dirty by turning him into a giant dweeb
I love this series and I need to keep picking at it. My first SMT game was Revelations: Demon Slayer on the GBC which was the English port of Last Bible. Later on I’d go on to complete Megami Tensei I & II in the Kyuuyaku SNES compilation without save state abuse, a thing I DO NOT recommend unless you’re a masochist who enjoys just tanking permanent level down spells. I’ve also played a majority of Persona (-Eternal Punishment, was waiting for the PSP fan translation) but still haven’t played much mainline SMT. I think I’m going to give the PS1 English fan patch a try next as I’d really like to do 1, 2, and If…
Love going back to previous towns and recruiting people that I missed my first time through. Also love the castle and how it improves the more people you recruit
Due to financial difficulties I had to sell most of my game collection and of the few things that didn’t sell were my PS3 and a copy of Gran Turismo 5 and also Demon’s Souls though that’s more because I left that one at a friend’s house, so that’s what I’ve been playing, both of those games, Demon’s Souls is fun if a bit frustrating, unfortunately can’t play it online because there’s something weird with ISP’s DNS that doesn’t let me access the emulated online servers, and GT5 is mainly something I use to kill time while watching youtube videos and movies or cleaning the house, I can just put on a B-spec event and let the computer grind cash for me while I do other stuff, TBH I don’t actually like sim racers, I’m really bad at them but it keeps my hands occupied with minimal attention while watching stuff.
Tecmo’s Deception! I really enjoy the trap mechanics in the later games but I LOVE how the first game lets you explore in first person. I love these weird first person ps1 games (echo night, baroque, deception, shadow tower, to name a few)
I can’t recall if I mentioned it in here or not, but after my sting I’ve moved pretty hardcore into Pacific Drive. I’m actually really enjoying it, it’s tense, it’s fun and occasionally it will fuck you over outta nowhere which sucks.
My “to play” list has also grown significantly with the Yogscast’s Jingle Jam charity bundle, few fun games in there and some others I’d really want to get back to. But I can’t really handle 2-3 large games at once so I just want to finish Pacific Drive and after that I’ll see how things turn out.
(I presume it’ll be either Rogue Trader or Lost Records: Bloom & Rage)
I can empathise; took what felt like weeks to beat Black Stake for the first time! Finally did it with the Checkered Deck but now I seem to have forgotten how to play with any other type of deck
In between students at work online I recently replayed all of Mega Man Legends 1 and 2. I really enjoyed both of them quite a bit, but the way the story just ramps up in both games will always confuse me quite a bit. Fun experiences of early 3D for sure though.
Gotten back into Minecraft the past two weeks, sadly due to a not so fun reason but it’s been a great grief processing thing.
The closest friend I ever had passed away two weeks ago, he took his own life. We had lost contact the past couple of years but I though about him every day and had absolutely no idea this was even remotely a thing in his mind. I now know that he suffered a psychosis about a year ago and had gone pretty deep into bad stuff, dumb conspiracy stuff and the last months about asgardians and the whole old nordic religion thing (not in a nazi/racist way).
We used to play Minecraft together for several hours almost every day for some years back in 2018-2019 and I hadn’t really played since then. So I started a single player world and it has really helped so far, both in having something to dive into when I can’t handle the bad feelings but it has also helped me cry and keep him in my mind in a better way because of all those memories. We used to mine quartz in the nether for experience levels and the music there is very sad and powerful. There’s this one song that slowly builds up and then has this “drop” and I’ve balled my eyes out several times when that is playing.
Honestly very glad to hear it’s not just me! I still haven’t made it lol
Checkered deck is great, I’m trying to leave it to last as I know it’s going to be so much less painful to get gold stake
Edit: oh fuck I just did it! Not sure if what I’m feeling is happiness or just relief at finally being free from the bullshittery of black deck but either way I’ll take it
Hadn’t seen this before posting my dumb Balatro takes - I’m so sorry for your loss, I can’t begin to imagine what you’re going through. I’m glad you have a way to connect with your friend still through play - sounds like a really positive way to maintain a connection and to take time to process.
After quite a while of resisting it, I’ve finally started playing Disco Elysium. It’s amazing. Been playing in bursts, since I get so much into it that I don’t even notice time passing by. Already looking forward to doing a second run with very very weird stats (and by Weird Stats I mean dumping everything into Inland Empire).
Still playing a bit of Balatro, and slowly playing through Dark Souls Remastered (for the vibes).
Haha, no problem at all! Thank you for the kind words, it does warm the heart!
I have refused to play Balatro so far, I just know it’ll take my soul if I do, but have watched a lot of videos about it. Everything from just basics explanations to breaking the game and world records etc. It’s the kind of game that works well in that way, where you don’t need to have played it to have interest in it.
I’ve been hooked on Stalker 2 lately. I loved the original trilogy, and I switched from PC gaming to PS5 a couple years before it came out. I had hope because of how cagey the devs were about not confirming or denying a PS5 port, and November 20th my hope paid off. It released with the latest patch that added a lot of the A-Life system that makes the game world feel alive and I am absolutely loving it. Well worth the decade long wait
I’ve been replaying the PS2 Ace Combat trilogy. Them, AC7, and Project Wingman are still the perfect arcade flight games, to me. I’m through Ace Combat 4 and 5 and on to Zero, which is just peak Ace Combat. Plus it’s got live-action cutscenes, which I am always a sucker for.
I think I’m gonna spend this holiday picking both Pacific Drive and Star Trucker back up as immersive vehicle driving and management games with elaborate stories.
Hey pals, first time caller, long time listener. I’ve been really enjoying Lego The Hobbit lately.. finished it and didn’t know they left out the last movie though so *sadface
I got a Switch 2 for my birthday with Legends Z-A; that combined with me switching to a waterproof backpack for the rainy season has me finally bringing around a portable console again for the first time in years. I’ve been enjoying Legends Z-A a lot, despite what people have been saying about it; in some ways it does feel like what kid me imagined the future of Pokemon would be like… But I have to admit that with the kind of money they have, it could still absolutely be better (in particular the lack of voice acting is straight-up jarring at this point).
Of course, I also got Kirby Air Riders, and that game has been a blast, but I’ve been prioritizing trying to beat Z-A first, so I don’t have a whole lot to comment on with it for the time being.
I also did bring my Steam Deck around to try a couple of indie games: First, I tried the demo for Fumehead, a turn-based RPG with a really cool card-based attacking system that forces you to think on your feet and manages to overcome the complacency issue that a lot of RPG’s tend to suffer from, as you’re forced to use what you have on hand, not what’s best for the situation. I also played Bat to the Heavens, an adorable and really fun but also really hard puzzle-platformer where instead of being able to jump you have to swing a bat against various surfaces to launch yourself in the opposite direction.
Finally, there’s Unbeatable, a rhythm game I’ve been waiting for years… But now that it’s here, I have so many other games on my plate that I want to finish first that I’m going to hold off as long as I can (the introductory sale ends on the 23rd) and try to beat all my Switch 2 stuff so that once my next semester starts in the new year I can bring just my Steam Deck to play it.
recently realized there are evergreen events on RetroAchivements, so have been chipping away at a couple and reconnecting with some nostalgia / discovering new-old things
Mental health and SC warning! 
