the "Currently Playing" thread.

[barcode120x]

Been on a several week hiatus from Black Desert Online aside from PvP and daily logins. Haven't grinded really in almost a month. Just lost motivation to grind. Also doesn't help that my RNG regarding enhancing accessories have been terrible. I had some real nice luck on Dec 31 (I hit a tet basi belt and a duo dead god armor), but since then, I've been in the severe negative. I'm so broke right now as well.

Anyways, the game that I returned to and have been mad addicted to is Escape from Tarkov. I've played this game for going on 3 years now, but I took a 6 month hiatus. Came back just a week after this wipe and man, has the game changed. Tons of new gear, weapon attachments, ammo, etc. The expanded maps are sick too.

[DarkShame2]

Fate/Grand Order. Been more or less motivated to get up to date with the story so far in NA.

[AC-Phoenix]

Web/Phone F/GO, Kancolle

Atelier Ryza 2
Troubleshooter: Abandoned Children.

The last one got sidelined a bit due to the Atelier release.(Never thought I'd actually play one of them )
Troubleshooter basically Manwha XCom, and also actively being worked on past it's release.

[JagdPanther]

Recently, I've had a sudden and intense desire to play old JRPGs. It started with wanting to play Star Ocean: The Second Story again. I don't have it anymore, so I spent a few days looking at the PSP version online as well as the PSX version. I ultimately settled on the PSP version, which I got for a pretty penny on eBay, because it has new content and a refined battle system. It should be here next week.

But... I started to wonder, could I replay old JRPGs I still have? I muddled around for a few days trying to decide whether I would risk modding my US Day 1 Playstation 2 or try running an emulator on my PC so that could backup my saves given the age of my PS2. After mucking about, one of my friends reminded me today, "Dude, don't you have a fully backwards compatible PS3?" Oops.

So, I spent a few hours at my friend's place today while he modded by PS3 instead because I'm worried the BluRay drive will croak (if not the whole thing). He set me up to play games based on ISO files on my PS3 in case the disc drive goes (and thus also an emulator, if I wanted to).

Since I'm all setup with my PS3, and what will now force SO2 to take a back seat, I decided to start my return to JRPGs by finally trying to beat Lunar: Silver Star Story Complete, which I just never finished back in the day. I started a fresh game tonight, and, man, does this bring back the memories. I miss the days of 2D sprite-based JRPGs. They had such a comfy feel to them.

I have a really bad habit of not finishing JRPGs I start (in fact, I've beat only a handful in my life despite buying many), but my intention is to start fresh and beat all of the following:

Lunar: Silver Star Story Complete
Lunar 2: Eternal Blue Complete
Star Ocean: Second Evolution
Final Fantasy V
Final Fantasy VI

And, since my friend also backed up my PS2 saves for me and transferred them to my PS3, I'll try to pickup where I left off with Star Ocean: Til the End of Time.

This should keep me occupied for months, if I ever finish.

[Kafriel]

I decided to start my return to JRPGs by finally trying to beat Lunar: Silver Star Story Complete

An excellent choice, sir! Lunar is the best jRPG to scratch the itch, it has the looks, the music and the length required to satisfy without burning you out.

As for me, I'm still playing Nioh 2, but I got FF7R on the side. It has a lot of places to chill out and call it quits for the night, so it's a very pleasant break from the Nioh grind.

[JagdPanther]

Originally Posted by Kafriel

An excellent choice, sir! Lunar is the best jRPG to scratch the itch, it has the looks, the music and the length required to satisfy without burning you out.

Yup!

I'm taking it a lot slower this time. I've "matured" since the time I got L:SSC. I grind a lot now in any RPG I play. After about 17 hours of play this past week, I'm level 27 with everyone having just finished Damon's Spire. Definitely way higher than I was at the same point 21-ish years ago. Just toying with most enemies. Also taking time to soak in all the dialog from NPCs and exploring every place I visit. I also never knew back in the day that the library in Damon's Spire basically provided the backstory for Lunar: Eternal Blue. It was cool to read all the bookshelves and see how that pieced together.

It's amazing to me how relatively complex the battle system was for the day. Really interesting to play with formations and combinations of attacks/magic for maximum effectiveness against enemy formations and enemy types. Was having a lot of fun the last two dungeons/maps managing MP.

[barcode120x]

I was in the Valheim crazy a few days after it went into early access and went hard on the game for 3 weeks straight. Definitely got my monies worth, but haven't touched it since. Pretty much have all the "end game" items and beat all the 5 bosses. Game is definitely fun and should be played with a group of people (but not too large due to the latency issues); however, it is quite easy to get the current end-game items (padded iron, chitin weapons, etc) especially when you're running with a group. The game has tons of potential, but I won't be coming back for some time and there definitely is a lack of updates as well as content; however, this is expected of any early access game plus one with such a small development team. I had a similar impression when The Forest came out many years ago in EA. I played it for quite a bit and stopped due to the lack of content but then got back into the game years later after it full released and enjoyed it.This is one of the very few EA games where you wish the game was finished. I have always been skeptical about playing any EA games nowadays and have been disappointed many times (money not worth spent). This game though is definitely worth the EA $ pricing if you are into the survival/base building/resource farming type of game.

Aside from that, I'm still hooked onto Black Desert Online as always. The game has definitely stepped up a notch ever since Pearl Abyss took over Kakao games. New class Sage coming out this Wednesday on NA/EU. So excited.

[sirius707]

decided to check out parasite eve.

great game

[JagdPanther]

Originally Posted by sirius707

decided to check out parasite eve.

great game

In the event I get through my ambitious (for me) run of JRPGs, I think that's my next attempt. I had both PE and PE2 back in the day. I think I did beat PE, but definitely not PE2. I still listen to PE/2 tracks from time to time.

[JagdPanther]

Well, I finished Lunar 2: Eternal Blue Complete this week. After 100 hours combined between L:SSC and L2:EBC, I got a tad emotional watching the epilogue ending. These have always been two of my favorite games even though I hadn't played them in 20 years and actually hadn't even beat L:SSC. I am so glad I went back to beat them back-to-back. Something just so wonderful about them... They really don't make games like this anymore.

It really makes me wish GameArts had made Lunar 3. This series really needed more mainline games. I also wish that there was something that kinda gave a little more closure to L2:EBC. I mean, there's a clear indication

Spoiler:

that the Blue Star starts to recover when Hiro finds Lucia, but I'd like something sort of like what was shown in the game about L:SSC's story, that Luna grew old and passed away as a mortal. I'd like to see Lucia older with Hiro, maybe back on Lunar or even better clearly on a recovered Blue Star being visited by Jean, Lemina, Ronfar, and Ruby.

Also, I think I'm gonna rehang the Lunar 2 poster that I got from the offer in the back of the L2:EBC strategy guide 20 years ago. Haven't had it on a wall in probably 8 years. Feels like I should've had it out while I was playing L2:EBC, but better late than never.

I discovered that some Lunar manga was translated and is available online, so I'd like to read all that. Unless I missed it, I never realized that the epilogue to L2:EBC is at least 3 years after the main story ends. At least, that's the implication from the L2 manga I saw that says it takes place in-between the main ending the epilogue and is like 3 years after the main ending.

But, anyway, now that my L:SSC and L2:EBC tour is done, I am onto Star Ocean: Second Evolution. I could've gone with Star Ocean 2, but I read SO:SE is slightly easier and has a little more content that SO2. I'm only a couple hours in and grinding in the Lasgus Mountains. I've discovered that the PS3 doesn't like repeatedly being shunted back to the Load screen; I can only go so long before the PSP emulator starts to wig out. If I just played through and didn't keep reloading to try to catch the right mob in the Lasgus Mountains to grind I'd guess it'd be okay.

[barcode120x]

Still playing Black Desert Online though I'm almost ready to dump the game, or at least take a break from it. Hit 676 gear score the other week but ever since the Sage awakening nerfs, it just has not been fun. Fortunately, New World comes out Tuesday so I'll more than likely be on that for the next month until the original class reworks come out end of October (unless they're pushed back which is probably gonna happen).

Currently playing A Total War Saga Troy. Visuals are nice, the game speed is freaking amazing and fast, but definitely some problems with the game. Particularly the AI and how almost every main faction and their territorial allies/friends/cultural groups declare war on you probably by turn 15 if you are playing on Hard difficulty or higher. So right now, I'm playing as Paris on Normal using Radious's overhaul mods until then. Hopefully his overhaul mods will adjust this AI problem for the harder difficulty because on normal, the game is just too easy.

Also picked up Diablo 2 Resurrected. Currently a level 45 summoner necro on nightmare difficulty, but I think I may have had my time with the game. I bought it to play for the nostalgia and I think I've had enough. The visuals are real good though it's crazy how they were able to do it. I do miss a LOT of the Diablo 3 aspects and QoL stuff (despite how not that good of a game it is).

Waiting for New World this Tuesday WOOP!!!!!!!!!

[barcode120x]

Since my last post, New World came and went quickly for me. I kind of went hard in NW when it came out, but it was very tough because my guild was on another server and the whole transfer servers was a jank-show. I REALLY enjoyed the game, but I was basically soloing the game for the first 3-4 weeks that by the time I joined my "hardcore" guild, I lost interest. Everyone knew each other and were pretty far in crafted gear and doing daily/weekly chest farms. Everyone also had their own static group so I felt out of place. Also, our guild basically owned the entire server for a few weeks in regards to pvp. The other two factions were a joke. Anyways, I basically stopped playing New World after about 5-6 weeks.

After the New World shenanigans in September-October, grad school got busy for me and I slowly got back into Black Desert Online. Before I jumped into New World, I had blown up most of my gear/money in BDO because I didn't think I'd come back for a long time. I fortunately ended up with a V ruins rings, V valtarra belt, and V ogre ring, but I was missing some armors and other accessory pieces. Through Nov-December, I recovered a lot of my money and gear back and was enjoying node war/pvp again, but by mid-January, I had started losing interested in BDO again.

Then I jumped on the Lost Ark train in February after once again, blowing up most of my gear in BDO (and I got nothing out of it this time). So yeah, I have been mad addicted to LA. Currently maining 1359 Arty with a 1325 Gunlancer alt. I do like Arty because of the tankiness and big damage, but Gunlancer has been hella fun. Right now, I'm just slowing my pace in the game and waiting for "buffs" to the honing system so I'm just tryna cash in on gold and trade it in for as many blue crystals as I can.

Other games I picked up are Dying Light 2 and Total War: Warhammer 3. DL2 was fun when it came out, but LA came out like a week after so I only have a few hours into the game. Some day I will finish it and I do intend to. On the other hand, TWWH3 has been a HUGE let down. I had HIGH hopes for a decent release but the game is god awful. The frames are so bad in the campaign and my god, the visuals are dreadful. TWWH2 has better campaign and in-battle character/environment visuals than TWWH3. The trend now for triple A games is to release unfinished and unpolished games. Forunately for the Total War series, the workshop and modding community is a god send. Unfortunately, it's probably still a few weeks before they open up the workshop for the game, but I'm hellbent on LA at the time, I have time to wait. Can't wait to play the game with Radious' mod overhauls.

[JagdPanther]

Since my last post, my Games of My Childhood marathon has added probably my 10th+ all-time playthrough of G-Police: Weapons of Justice after I finished Star Ocean: Second Evolution.

For SO:SE I spent long hours preparing for the final boss. I made multiple saves, one in front of the regular final boss, and one in front of Gabriel Unlimited. At level 255 with all characters, man, regular Gabriel was laughably easy. At level 255 with the best equipment, holy sh** was Gabriel Unlimited insanely hard and frustrating.

I also just beat the FF Anthology version of Final Fantasy VI yesterday finally after having never beaten it as a kid. I was intending to play Final Fantasy V first, but I discovered that the Anthology version of V has a game-breaking bug on PS3, sooooo.... may have to pony up for the Pixel Remaster version on Steam and play it that way.

Still deciding on my next game. I should probably finish Gungriffon Blaze, but I haven't played that in months while focusing on FFVI. But, alongside that, options include:

1. Sailor Moon: Another Story - Probably a good choice for a shorter interlude JRPG. Haven't played it in many years, and always a good time.

2. Final Fantasy V: Pixel Remaster - Not sure why, but kinda loses its luster to me if I have to play the Pixel Remaster version instead of the Anthology version.

3. Star Ocean: First Departure - I dropped $9 on the PS4 version last night, but I may just punt on that and download the Undub version of the PSP version to play on my PS3 like I did for SO:SE because I'd rather have the Japanese VAs.

4. Star Ocean: Til the End of Time - While my original plan was to salvage my 19-year-old saves, I may just start this from scratch, too.

5. Wild Arms or Grandia - Never played either as a kid or even had any interest in them, but... in watching retro reviews of the Lunar games, I watched some reviews for these and am somewhat intrigued... Maybe my Games of my Childhood marathon should include some games I never thought about at all.

[Naorin]

Playing Devil May Cry 3. Accidentally had my first SSS fighting those archer demons thingies with big eyes lol. Overall i'm having a great time, though since this pc is kinda old the game sometimes crashes if i play for too long

[JagdPanther]

Finished Sailor Moon Another Story last night. Probably my 5th or 6th time through. I only *just* learned that the center position in the Cluster formation actually gets the biggest attack multiplier, so.... Sailor Venus went there for some big-time damage-dealing, as opposed to the front row where I'd normally kept her every time I've played. I also just found out that after like level 60 the experience curve inexplicably flattens out, so you gain levels like crazy while characters still in the 50s are slogging through big jumps in XP from level to level.

Such a fun game.

So, today, I started Star Ocean: First Departure R. I learned *after* I bought it on the Playstation Store that you can switch to the Japanese audio, so no need to go find the Undub PSP version online. A few hours into it. Highly annoying already having to plan exactly how I need to play hours in advance so I make sure I can recruit the characters I want and ensure (I hope) I get the canon ending. But, definitely good to be experiencing the first game in the series for the first time.

[BassGSnewtype]

Going back to SRW 30 to finish my 3rd run before the next DLC pack drops

[Mahou]

Mary Skelter Finale. I want to finish the fairytale after emotional rollercoaster in MS2 and the best ending in MS: Nightmares.
I like Pyre's group the best :3. Toh, Mary and Charlotte are meh, which can make their group interaction a bit tiresome.

[barcode120x]

Got my hands on a 3080ti MSRP and have been enjoying every game I have with it. Been mostly enjoying Total War: Warhammer 3 despite the game still looking below average overall but since the mod workshop opened and Radious released his game overhauls, I am madly hooked. I put down TWWH3 because the game is just plain terrible without the mod workshops and I was waiting for the GPU upgrade. It has also been nice to basically play all my other games on max settings with great FPS, no fans blasting, and my room not getting so hot from the GPU lol.

[Golden Lily]

Been playing Nier Replicant (on ps4) recently and unfortunately, I just can't seem to enjoy it. Combat was fun for the the first few hours, then it gets repetitive (fighting armored Shades is a pain), but two biggest factors for my disappointment are side-missions which are just awful (stopped doing them after a while) and especially endings - no game should force you to repeat a large segments of the game, just to get few endings, with barely any changes.

It was good until Ending A and B, but then I learned you need ALL weapons to get Ending C, and I had to start the game from before Part 2 because I missed just one weapon in Facade. At this point I think I will just watch the remaining endings on youtube.

It's a shame, because game has rather unique style, music is phenomenal (easily the best part of the game) and Emil is so adorable I want to give him a hug, but it's rather tedious, all things considered.

[Naorin]

Finished DMC3 with Dante, so now i'm playing with Vergil! Making combos is much easier with him. And his menu is much cooler.
During breaks i'm trying Tales Of Berseria. Velvet reminds me a lot of Ragna The Bloodedge so i love her already.