Whatcha Been Playing?

[Alex79]

So I started Tunic last night and I'm wondering if anyone else who's played it can help. I'm not sure if I'm 'doing it right'?

At the start of the game, one of the first instruction manual pages you unlock seems to indicate you have to do something in the East Forest, the Heros Grave and the Guard Captain. I've beaten the Guard Captain which was a boss, and a little past him there's a tall monolith type thing you can activate (ring?) like a bell, as the manual suggests. But I can't find any boss or anything in the forest or the Heros Grave. Carrying on after the Guard Captain takes you to a big hub type area, but I can't shake the feeling I'm supposed to beat bosses or ring bells in the East Forest and Heros Grave, because the manual has tick boxes by them.

Any ideas? Or should I just keep playing and exploring and stop worrying about if I'm missing stuff or not playing it right?

EDIT: The only reason I started Tunic last night was because I'd started Thank Goodness You're Here in bed and had to turn it off because it was making me laugh too much and I didn't want to be too noisy

To be honest I can't remember but yeah, I would suggest keep exploring and looking for hidden paths which can sometimes be hard to spot due to the perspective.

Thanks, yeah I carried on looking around in the end. I've just rung both bell towers now.

[Jobobonobo]

Still plugging away at E.V.O: Search for Eden and the Birdman Fort is a fucking pain. I hate mazes where you teleport from one room to another. Been ages just stuck running in circles trying to make progress in this place. Really is a proper drag going going through here, will be glad to see the back of it.

Also in preparation for the show, I have started up Super Smash TV for the SNES. What a contrast, just shoot everything you can and pick up weapons and prizes. Difficult but enjoyable. Beats teleporting through a maze any day!

On world 4 of Demon Turf. Levels are certainly getting tougher but I am getting better at the game in general and mastering the controls to get through levels more efficiently. Despite being janky in places, overall game is getting better the further I get into it.

[Jobobonobo]

Currently going though the original Mother in preparation for the podcast later this year and I have to say it is not as painful as I thought an old NES RPG to be. I am a fair bit overlevelled so just blazing through it at the moment. Still have no other party members but I hope that changes soon. Mind you, I am playing it with a mod which balances things out and lowers the difficulty. But I want to experience this for the story so I am fine taking out some of the frustration that is infamous in this game. Also I did play and love the other two games in the series so it feels right to actually experience where it all began.

[Caligulas Horse]

Almost finished a couch co-op playthrough of Baldurs Gate 3 with my flatmate. Had a ton of fun playing it, and it's been an interesting experience overall.

I think they did a really good job of making both players equal main characters, but it definitely strains a bit at times. Like, the dual conversations with The Guardian really break the in-game logic, and the members of your party and other NPCS never really acknowledge the fact there are two of you. Buuut, it's a bit of an impossible task to make something like this work without inconsistencies of this kind.

I'd say the bigger hurdle was in learning how to share a game like this. I'd often have conversations cut short because my flatmate had wandered off into a prohibited area or been caught stealing, provoking a fight with the guards. Or I'd feel a kind of FOMO anxiety because he was starting up a conversation with an important NPC while I was off looting and exploring some other nearby area. It could be quite frustrating and we had a few disagreements on how to approach things, but it also made for some really funny moments and conversations filling each other in and piecing together what we had learned. The slight tensions could also play into the feeling within the game of having to manage the different aims and personalities among the members of your camp. I think we learnt to work together better as the game went on, and it's been so much fun planning out strategies for battles and taking down some of the big bosses.

More recently I've started playing Returnal and I can't really get enough of it. It feels so satisfying to play, especially pulling the trigger all the way in for those alt-fire shots. It's hard to imagine making it all the way to the end right now, but I have gotten to the 3rd biome and can feel myself getting better each time. I can see myself sinking a lot of time into this one... especially now I have the tower mode.

[Rhaegyr]

A combinattion of Indiana Jones, Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown, Kunitsu-Gami and The Case of the Golden Idol.

All pretty great in their own right, I feel quote spoiled!

[Truk_Kurt]

Started playing both Cyberpunk 2077 and Iconoclasts. The former I have christened my new gaming PC with and it does look stunning on there. I am not normally into RPGs but I think it is more due to the fantasy settings of most RPGs as the only other RPG I have got on with has been Mass effect 2 and the Yakuza games, but I am really enjoying cyberpunk. It helps that mechanically it feels so good, it feels like a good FPS unlike games like Fallout. The main plot is good and world building superb.

Iconoclasts is also good so far, just a good metroidvania with really satisfying platforming and general movement which I think is so important for a metroidvania. My only complaint with it is that some of the moves you're required to do can be very fiddling and end up being the wrong side of frustrating to pull off. A couple of times now I have got stuck not able to perform a certain move to the point that I thought that I would unlock a new ability later and return to this bit and so I would go off exploring only to come back and realise that I just have to pull off this incredibly fiddly move to be able to progress, it wasn't that I was lacking an ability. There's also poor signposting for how you are supposed to defeat certain bosses.

[Alex79]

I started Citizen Sleeper (the first one) last night. I don't know if it's my brain getting older and worse, but I don't really understand what I'm doing and the fact there's no way to show the tutorials again once you click past them doesn't help. I'm on on day, or cycle, three, but so far it's just been confusion around the game mechanics (even if I understand the story somewhat).

[Truk_Kurt]

I started Citizen Sleeper (the first one) last night. I don't know if it's my brain getting older and worse, but I don't really understand what I'm doing and the fact there's no way to show the tutorials again once you click past them doesn't help. I'm on on day, or cycle, three, but so far it's just been confusion around the game mechanics (even if I understand the story somewhat).

Yeah, I felt exactly the same. I remember starting it after it getting quite far through the TCGS GOTY show in the year it was released but yeah, I just didn't understand the games mechanics.

[markfm007]

It works a bit like Disco Elysium from what I remember. You have a number of dice that you can roll each day to complete activities. Then as time progresses you collect resources and complete quests, spec into different traits etc. You're just managing your schedule to do what you want to do and trying to optimize your dice rolls to succeed, while keeping yourself alive. I enjoyed the game for its writing more than its gameplay, which once you get it is quite simple.

[Jobobonobo]

Due to it coming up later this year on the podcast, I have finally decided to take the plunge and try out Chrono Cross. I love Chrono Trigger but having heard that this game is quite different from it I have gone in with lowered expectations. It is different in terms of combat system and especially settings but so far I am enjoying myself with it. I think for a PS1 game it looks phenomenal with a gorgeous watercolour aesthetic and the soundtrack is certainly up to par with Trigger. Rare I have two RPGs on the go but this is different enough from Mother that I am not suffering from fatigue. Good to finally get this off my bucket list!