What video game are you playing?

[greyhammer90]

Anybody got info on a good Game Boy Color emulator? My preliminary searches haven't born much fruit.

I'd like to try one of the Gen I Pokemon RomHacks now that I've finished the FireRed Team Rocket hack.

I think mGBA is considered the standard for Gameboy and GBA.

 

[ulukinatme]

Anybody got info on a good Game Boy Color emulator? My preliminary searches haven't born much fruit.

I'd like to try one of the Gen I Pokemon RomHacks now that I've finished the FireRed Team Rocket hack.

Gambatte is what my default is on my RetroPie I believe. I haven't played a lot of it, although I did start Fire Red last year to get my first taste of what Pokemon is like.

 

[IrishSpartan]

There’s this thing that connects by usb to you computer that you can plug the actual cartridges in and saves on your pc. Not an emulator but cool nonetheless

 

[Irishokie]

There’s this thing that connects by usb to you computer that you can plug the actual cartridges in and saves on your pc. Not an emulator but cool nonetheless

Say what?! You gotta name for it?

 

[IrishSpartan]

Say what?! You gotta name for it?

Game boy operator.

 

[ulukinatme]

Just finished with Octopath Traveler last night. After playing Cypberpunk I wanted something a little more lowkey and chill as a palette cleanser. That's just what OT is. It's very old school as far as the turn based combat (Although with caveats) and the 2D HD graphics. I thought the sprites were well done. The whole 8 character, mini-episode storyline was decent. It reminded me a lot of SaGa Frontier as you play each character's story and they come together.

The combat system was similar to Sea of Stars (Or given the fact OT came out first I guess Sea of Stars stole the idea a bit). Enemies have "Locks" of sorts on them, weaknesses basically to certain weapons or elements. Once you find and hit their weaknesses enough times the enemy gets stunned and then you can really open up damage on them. There are other mechanics that get added throughout the game, usually for boss fights to make things a little more interesting...for instance, if a boss has 5 possible weaknesses out of 14 possible weapons and elements, they may start a fight with 3 of the 5 weaknesses being unusable, making the beginning of the fight more difficult (Especially if you lack the remaining 2 weaknesses in your party). You may have to kill a few guards that joined the fight before the other weaknesses are available, or you may need to stun the boss at least once to open up the other weaknesses.

During the first chapter I found the game a little too simple and un-engaging as they introduced characters and they limited you to just the starting character's classes. As you get into Act 2 you start finding Class Shrines that unlock 2nd Jobs for characters. This allows you to really tweak with builds and make some interesting setups. While only one character can hold a particular 2nd job, like Warrior, you can switch them at any time. Only the character with the active 2nd job is able to use said job's abilities in combat, BUT any secondary passive skills that you learn as part of that job can be selected at any time. For instance, Warrior gets a passive skill that allows you to break the 9,999 damage cap. This is obviously an ability that would be beneficial to any damage dealing classes, so it's suggested all your damage dealers spend time with the Warrior job even if they're casters. This can lead to some pretty overpowered builds if you play around with the system, I enjoyed toying with different setups and testing. In addition to unlocking each of the main jobs as secondary jobs for the characters, there are 4 hidden special jobs that are unlike any of the main jobs. They're obviously more powerful and include some very strong passive abilities.

Overall I enjoyed the game quite a bit, it was a relaxing distraction. There's some great stories in OT, and it's kinda neat how they all tie together in the true ending. The secret ending and boss turned out to be more difficult than I expected, I ended up having to break into my stash of rare potions and such that I normally don't use in a JRPG. That final secret boss throws quite a bit at you, and if you didn't do a good job growing all 8 players during your journey you end up in trouble because you need all 8 for the fight. Interesting note that I didn't find out till later, but the "Octopath" name is more than just a clever title for the 8 character adventure. It also spells out the first letter of each character's name. What's more, if you look at the map and follow the starting location of each character clockwise it actually spells out "Octopath" geographically. Just a neat factoid. If anyone enjoys old school JRPGs and sees this game pop up on sale I would recommend it.



P.S. If you never got around to playing this one, one thing to keep in mind: whatever character you pick to start the game with becomes the "main character" so to speak. It doesn't change anything from a story perspective, however that character will always be in your party and can't be removed until you finish that character's final chapter, Chapter 4. Once you do that, the credits will scroll (The game continues afterwards) and you can swap the character out finally. It's not a terribly big deal, but I would suggest whatever character you think you'll like the most would be a good one to choose here. I went with Ophilia as she was the Cleric, figured it would be good to always have a healer in the party and you can't really go wrong choosing her.

 

[ulukinatme]

Now I need to decide what to play next. Here are the options in my backlog. Taking suggestions:

Divinity 2: Original Sin
Dragon Age 2
Dragon Age: Inquisition
Kenshi
Middle Earth: Shadow of Mordor
Monster Sanctuary?
Pathfinder: Kingmaker
Persona 5: Royal (@DONTH8 I tried starting this one after Cyberpunk but was a bit overwhelmed and needed something lowkey lol)
Star Wars: Squadrons
Tactics Ogre: Reborn
Tales of Arise

Or play something old school (Suggest an old RPG from PS1/DC or earlier that I probably have on my RetroPie)

 

[IrishSpartan]

Now I need to decide what to play next. Here are the options in my backlog. Taking suggestions:

Divinity 2: Original Sin
Dragon Age 2
Dragon Age: Inquisition
Kenshi
Middle Earth: Shadow of Mordor
Monster Sanctuary?
Pathfinder: Kingmaker
Persona 5: Royal (@DONTH8 I tried starting this one after Cyberpunk but was a bit overwhelmed and needed something lowkey lol)
Star Wars: Squadrons
Tactics Ogre: Reborn
Tales of Arise

Or play something old school (Suggest an old RPG from PS1/DC or earlier that I probably have on my RetroPie)

Have you played Baldurs gate?

 

[dublinirish]

Veilguard


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[Irishokie]

FF9! 😂

 

[ulukinatme]

Have you played Baldurs gate?

It's #1 on my Wishlist. I'm just waiting for a good sale. Played Baldur's Gate II back in the day along with the Dark Alliance games. I do enjoy D&D settings and rules.

Veilguard


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

I heard people have been complaining it's overly woke, like the opposite of Dragon Age: Origins. I'm not terribly worried about that, but what is concerning is I've heard the plot/story is pretty vanilla with poor writing, and there's very few true choices in the game (Lots of "But Thou Must!" trope). Weak on actual RPG elements, as well as immersion too supposedly. What say you?

FF9! 😂

Played it. At first I wasn't a big fan when it came out, didn't finish it. Pushed myself to restart it 4-5 years ago. Still not a big fan of some of the art and character choices. HATE Steiner's suit of armor personally. The whole monkey thing with Zidane was a little weird for me, would have preferred a normal main protagonist for immersion. Quina...ugh. Vivi was cool though, and Beatrix was a badass...she should have been a main character. That said, I loved the return to actual defined classes in a Final Fantasy game. I'm not a fan when they let your characters do anything and everything, cast all the spells with no defined roles. Story was decent, although the ending felt a bit rushed and had a few weird WTF moments. Nice callbacks to previous games in the series.

To date I've finished FF games I-X along with a number of spinoffs on the old Game Boy and other consoles, definitely liked some more than others ...greatly detested a few. I played XI Online a bit, lost interest after a few months. I've started XII twice and enjoyed parts of it, but have yet to actually finish it (I did love playing around with Gambit setups). Absolutely hated XIII, could not finish it, just a big stinkin' turd imo. Never tried XIV, but heard good things. I haven't even bothered to touch XV or XVI because I was so turned off by XIII. I've previously mentioned here that I didn't care for some of the story and combat changes in FF7 Remake, as such I decided not to touch the rest of those until maybe they release a Greatest Hits with all parts combined. I may just be done with FF games other than some of the old titles. I lean more towards the Dragon Quest titles these days when it comes to Square Enix, don't care for the button mashing they've switched to with the more recent FF titles.

 

[IrishLion]

Now I need to decide what to play next. Here are the options in my backlog. Taking suggestions:

Divinity 2: Original Sin
Dragon Age 2
Dragon Age: Inquisition
Kenshi
Middle Earth: Shadow of Mordor
Monster Sanctuary?
Pathfinder: Kingmaker
Persona 5: Royal (@DONTH8 I tried starting this one after Cyberpunk but was a bit overwhelmed and needed something lowkey lol)
Star Wars: Squadrons
Tactics Ogre: Reborn
Tales of Arise

Or play something old school (Suggest an old RPG from PS1/DC or earlier that I probably have on my RetroPie)

Play Fire Emblem on the RetroPie if you’ve got GBA games.

Would be a nice JRPG step-down from Octopath Traveler in terms of mechanics if you’re still in “chill” gaming mode.

Surprising amount of depth, party-building customization, and optional challenges. If you meet certain goals/requirements while clearing each level, you can unlock bonus hidden chapters that allow opportunities for more experience, items, or bonus recruitable characters.

The challenge is that you don’t actually know what the stipulations are for unlocking the bonus chapters, nor which levels offer them, so it’s best to clear every level as quickly as possible while still finding a way to speak to every NPC, recruit every recruitable character, and kill every enemy you can, and doing it all in the least amount of turns that you can.

 

[IrishSpartan]

It's #1 on my Wishlist. I'm just waiting for a good sale. Played Baldur's Gate II back in the day along with the Dark Alliance games. I do enjoy D&D settings and rules.


I heard people have been complaining it's overly woke, like the opposite of Dragon Age: Origins. I'm not terribly worried about that, but what is concerning is I've heard the plot/story is pretty vanilla with poor writing, and there's very few true choices in the game (Lots of "But Thou Must!" trope). Weak on actual RPG elements, as well as immersion too supposedly. What say you?


Played it. At first I wasn't a big fan when it came out, didn't finish it. Pushed myself to restart it 4-5 years ago. Still not a big fan of some of the art and character choices. HATE Steiner's suit of armor personally. The whole monkey thing with Zidane was a little weird for me, would have preferred a normal main protagonist for immersion. Quina...ugh. Vivi was cool though, and Beatrix was a badass...she should have been a main character. That said, I loved the return to actual defined classes in a Final Fantasy game. I'm not a fan when they let your characters do anything and everything, cast all the spells with no defined roles. Story was decent, although the ending felt a bit rushed and had a few weird WTF moments. Nice callbacks to previous games in the series.

To date I've finished FF games I-X along with a number of spinoffs on the old Game Boy and other consoles, definitely liked some more than others ...greatly detested a few. I played XI Online a bit, lost interest after a few months. I've started XII twice and enjoyed parts of it, but have yet to actually finish it (I did love playing around with Gambit setups). Absolutely hated XIII, could not finish it, just a big stinkin' turd imo. Never tried XIV, but heard good things. I haven't even bothered to touch XV or XVI because I was so turned off by XIII. I've previously mentioned here that I didn't care for some of the story and combat changes in FF7 Remake, as such I decided not to touch the rest of those until maybe they release a Greatest Hits with all parts combined. I may just be done with FF games other than some of the old titles. I lean more towards the Dragon Quest titles these days when it comes to Square Enix, don't care for the button mashing they've switched to with the more recent FF titles.

You should go for BG3 don’t think there will be a price drop for a while and the amount of times you can play that game over is insane. Also the modding scene is top notch if you want to add stuff like races and classes. It’s the first long hour game I’ve played in a while that I actually have multiple play through. Also if you have friends with it, doing a campaign together is downright hilarious.

 

[ulukinatme]

Play Fire Emblem on the RetroPie if you’ve got GBA games.

Would be a nice JRPG step-down from Octopath Traveler in terms of mechanics if you’re still in “chill” gaming mode.

Surprising amount of depth, party-building customization, and optional challenges. If you meet certain goals/requirements while clearing each level, you can unlock bonus hidden chapters that allow opportunities for more experience, items, or bonus recruitable characters.

The challenge is that you don’t actually know what the stipulations are for unlocking the bonus chapters, nor which levels offer them, so it’s best to clear every level as quickly as possible while still finding a way to speak to every NPC, recruit every recruitable character, and kill every enemy you can, and doing it all in the least amount of turns that you can.

Which Fire Emblem on GBA should I play first if I do? I should have all of them. I don't know anything really from the series other than Roy and Marth are in Smash Bros.

 

[ulukinatme]

You should go for BG3 don’t think there will be a price drop for a while and the amount of times you can play that game over is insane. Also the modding scene is top notch if you want to add stuff like races and classes. It’s the first long hour game I’ve played in a while that I actually have multiple play through. Also if you have friends with it, doing a campaign together is downright hilarious.

There's ALWAYS a sale if you're patient. The next time BG 3 is included I'll probably get it.

 

[Armyirish47]

Now I need to decide what to play next. Here are the options in my backlog. Taking suggestions:

Divinity 2: Original Sin
Dragon Age 2
Dragon Age: Inquisition
Kenshi
Middle Earth: Shadow of Mordor
Monster Sanctuary?
Pathfinder: Kingmaker
Persona 5: Royal (@DONTH8 I tried starting this one after Cyberpunk but was a bit overwhelmed and needed something lowkey lol)
Star Wars: Squadrons
Tactics Ogre: Reborn
Tales of Arise

Or play something old school (Suggest an old RPG from PS1/DC or earlier that I probably have on my RetroPie)

I had a lot of fun playing Divinity 2 with some buddies, but we played a modded version that glitched a ways in so I never finished it.

 

[IrishLion]

Which Fire Emblem on GBA should I play first if I do? I should have all of them. I don't know anything really from the series other than Roy and Marth are in Smash Bros.

The first entry that came out in the US (2003) was just titled "Fire Emblem"

In Japan, it was actually the 7th game in the series, so it is technically "Fire Emblem: The Blazing Blade"

It follows Roy's son, Eliwood, and his friends/companions. The kicker is that you don't actually get to Eliwood and his party until chapter 11. Until then, the intro follows one of the other "lords," Lyn, and you see how the conflict starts from her perspective.

After that, if you enjoy it enough, you can go back and play a patched version of the game that came before it, "Fire Emblem: The Binding Blade." Binding Blade is wayyyyyyyy more challenging, for various reasons, but is actually a year older. It follow's Roy's story. I had to download a ROM and then apply a patch for English translation to play it, but it was worth it.

I'd recommend starting with Fire Emblem 2003 to get the same intro the rest of us dumb Americans got, as it holds your hand appropriately for a few chapters, then cuts loose into a very fun challenge if you choose to play on Hard Mode after chapter 10. My only complaint is that everyone should probably start with "Normal" mode all the way through the first time, but it gets pretty trivial by the end if you level certain members of your party appropriately, whereas "Hard" mode can be pretty damn unforgiving. There isn't really a good middle ground lol.

Also, last thing: Hector Hard Mode is the GOAT Fire Emblem experience, both for challenge and availability of characters and extra chapters. I still play through it once a year.

 

[ulukinatme]

Here's your regular reminder: the Steam Autumn sale is going on right now till December 4th, ending 10am PST.

Baldur's Gate is on sale right now, but only 20% off. I might wait a little more...

 

[LOVEMYIRISH]

Here's your regular reminder: the Steam Autumn sale is going on right now till December 4th, ending 10am PST.

Baldur's Gate is on sale right now, but only 20% off. I might wait a little more...

Just bought it last night because of the sale. It had been on my radar for a while.

I've got just over 600 hours in Cyberpunk 2077...finally tapped out.

For those who have played Cyberpunk, I got OUTSIDE the walls...past the border guards and drove the entire way around Night City. I didn't realize there was a slight glitch that allowed you to jump the border patrol station on the South side of the map. (the one that auto-kills you when you drive through)
Why did I attempt this? Because...you CAN save Jackie:

 

[ulukinatme]

Just bought it last night because of the sale. It had been on my radar for a while.

I've got just over 600 hours in Cyberpunk 2077...finally tapped out.

For those who have played Cyberpunk, I got OUTSIDE the walls...past the border guards and drove the entire way around Night City. I didn't realize there was a slight glitch that allowed you to jump the border patrol station on the South side of the map. (the one that auto-kills you when you drive through)
Why did I attempt this? Because...you CAN save Jackie:

Damn...pretty cool, but my guess is it doesn't affect the storyline in any way given it's glitchy. Does Jackie just follow you around for the rest of the game? That would be kind of cool I guess, infinite partner backup.

 

[dublinirish]

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[ulukinatme]

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Fuckin' EA...unbelievable.

 

[rikkitikki08]

My wife got me a ps5 for Christmas. I got college football and cyber punk. College football is a lot of fun and I’ve played cyberpunk for about 30 minutes. The thing I’m most shocked about is the controller, you can feel the car shift gears in game while holding the controller. Wild stuff for a guy who hasn’t played games since the ps3.

Cyberpunk looks great visually but I was expecting more. Any games I can buy that will really show the visual improvements? I’ve been out of the game for awhile so any and all recommendations would be appreciated

 

[FightingIrishLover7]

My wife got me a ps5 for Christmas. I got college football and cyber punk. College football is a lot of fun and I’ve played cyberpunk for about 30 minutes. The thing I’m most shocked about is the controller, you can feel the car shift gears in game while holding the controller. Wild stuff for a guy who hasn’t played games since the ps3.

Cyberpunk looks great visually but I was expecting more. Any games I can buy that will really show the visual improvements? I’ve been out of the game for awhile so any and all recommendations would be appreciated

Cyberpunk is not exactly about "visuals" as it is a massive game with tons of performance requirement.

As for visually stunning, it really depends on what you like in terms of esthetics.
Last of Us 2 (ps5 remake) is incredible
Horizon Forbidden West is my favorite
Astrobot / Ratchet and Clank are "simple" but so so crisp
Ghosts of tsushima (ps5 remake) is fire too

And of course Gran Turismo if that's your thing.

 

[ColoradoIrish]

Cyberpunk is not exactly about "visuals" as it is a massive game with tons of performance requirement.

As for visually stunning, it really depends on what you like in terms of esthetics.
Last of Us 2 (ps5 remake) is incredible
Horizon Forbidden West is my favorite
Astrobot / Ratchet and Clank are "simple" but so so crisp
Ghosts of tsushima (ps5 remake) is fire too

And of course Gran Turismo if that's your thing.

Second Horizon Forbidden West. My favorite PS5 game by far. It's definitely worth playing the first one, Horizon Zero Dawn, especially with the remastered version coming out recently.

 

[rikkitikki08]

I’ll buy forbidden west tonight, thanks fellas

 

[zelezo vlk]

My wife got me a ps5 for Christmas. I got college football and cyber punk. College football is a lot of fun and I’ve played cyberpunk for about 30 minutes. The thing I’m most shocked about is the controller, you can feel the car shift gears in game while holding the controller. Wild stuff for a guy who hasn’t played games since the ps3.

Cyberpunk looks great visually but I was expecting more. Any games I can buy that will really show the visual improvements? I’ve been out of the game for awhile so any and all recommendations would be appreciated

If you haven't played since the PS3, pick up Red Dead Redemption 2 (PS4 but it's backwards compatible). I also recently just got a PS5 and I'm in love with this game

 

[dublinirish]

RDR2 is still the best game on any console IMO

 

[zelezo vlk]

RDR2 is still the best game on any console IMO

I'm only halfway through the game and I completely buy this take

 

[ulukinatme]

My wife got me a ps5 for Christmas. I got college football and cyber punk. College football is a lot of fun and I’ve played cyberpunk for about 30 minutes. The thing I’m most shocked about is the controller, you can feel the car shift gears in game while holding the controller. Wild stuff for a guy who hasn’t played games since the ps3.

Cyberpunk looks great visually but I was expecting more. Any games I can buy that will really show the visual improvements? I’ve been out of the game for awhile so any and all recommendations would be appreciated

I just finished Cyberpunk recently. You need to give it more than 30 minutes imo. The game has a very good story imo, it gets pretty crazy. A lot opens up the further you get in the game. There's some unique combat elements you get access to, like Smart Guns and Netrunner skills are super cool. I did a bit of a lengthy writeup on the last page about my experience:

https://www.irishenvy.com/threads/what-video-game-are-you-playing.67536/page-324#post-3383808