The Backlog Check-in Vol. 254: 11/12/22: The Dark Pictures Anthology: The Devil in Me/Pokémon Scarlet and Violet Edition

[jfissel]

You’ve been playing Stray for months, shouldn’t you have finished it by now? It’s a linear and short cat walking sim, not some big epic RPG. And I was hoping for some God of War: Ragnarok impressions.

I beat Stray a long time ago, just was on my list to get the platinum...just have not spent a lot of time gaming over the last 2 months.

No Ragnarok impressions yet, it's too early. But soon!

[argyle]

So. Sonic Frontiers. The thoughts are...I ******* LOVE THIS ******* THING!!!! It's not completely flying off the rails somehow. It absolutely should but it's the spit and hope they used to keep this all together is holding. Seriously though, the core loop is just fine and as long as the center holds, this should be fine. The action stages are short and fine. The open world nonsense is really shockingly good. The story is taking a weird twist I am here for with the dynamic between Robotnik and Sage, his new god-tier thing he found that will inevitably turn on him...or will it this time? It's still plenty goofy but the characters have a center to them and the constant references to the past give just a bit of texture. I like the dumb skill tree and being grossly overpowered. It's like baby's first open world character action game...in fact, one might say it gives off the vibe of a PS2 game. And I have been in a PS2 nostalgia phase all year. It's not my game of the year just yet but unless it all completely falls apart at the back half (which yes, is entirely possible because it is a Sonic game), it'll be pretty high. I am really curious about the story and where they are going with it and looking forward to seeing how it plays out.

[canedaddy]

It's like baby's first open world character action game...in fact, one might say it gives off the vibe of a PS2 game. And I have been in a PS2 nostalgia phase all year.

Somehow you just made that goofy-ass game very appealing to me.

I did not love Ni No Kuni 2. It was fine. Like exceedingly, soul crushingly fine. You will WANT to like it more but simply CAN'T. It doesn't particularly excel in any one area. The battle system is functional but never feels really good. The side stuff is just content. You can get through huge tracts of the game leaving it running and going away. When you come back, the game rewards you like an idle clicker phone game. And the story has all the wrong parts of tonal whiplash. Not the good ones like Yakuza...fine, Like A Dragon. They open on the weirdest note and don't come back to it for SO LONG that when they get there it derails the entire rest of the endgame. I couldn't be assed to even mess around with the DLC because once the credits rolled, I was very much done after the story turns. And the game just isn’t as immediately and infinitely charming as the first. Even not in comparison to the first, as its own game, it's just there. It was one of the games I put the most hours into the year I played it but again that was just leaving the game running for hours for rewards. It might be 30-40 hours tops for a main story run. If the first few hours grip you, it's pretty much that for the entire game. Give it a go if you’re curious old man !

Very much appreciate the word. I put it in my PSN cart a week ago because it was on sale for $6.99 or something, but when I looked at it yesterday it was back up to $59.99. No thanks!

What had grabbed me was someone making comparisons to Dark Cloud 2... again with the PS2 nostalgia thing.

[argyle]

What had grabbed me was someone making comparisons to Dark Cloud 2... again with the PS2 nostalgia thing.

I didn't play as much as Crim, but I played enough to say that there's nothing in common between NNK2 & DC2 other than they were both developed by Level-5. My dream of a new Dark Cloud died a long time ago.

And in case it wasn't clear, my gif response was intended to say that I'm also loving Sonic. It's not perfect, I understand other ppl's gripes, but I also don't care because it's just *fun*.

[Phaseknox]

Somehow you just made that goofy-ass game very appealing to me.

Yeah, I was going to pass on it since it didn’t look all that appealing to me but after crim’s impressions I think that I’ll check it out now when I can get it for $20 or less.

I put it in my PSN cart a week ago because it was on sale for $6.99 or something, but when I looked at it yesterday it was back up to $59.99. No thanks!

This happened to me once before as well, I put several games in my PS Store cart and the next day some of them were back to their regular prices. I wasn’t happy to say the least, but thankfully they were games that always go on sale so it wasn’t long until they were on sale again. $6.99 is a great deal for Ni no Kuni II, but I can’t believe that it’s regular price is still $59.99 digitally because it’s been $19.99 physically for a long time now.

[canedaddy]

I didn't play as much as Crim, but I played enough to say that there's nothing in common between NNK2 & DC2 other than they were both developed by Level-5. My dream of a new Dark Cloud died a long time ago.

This happened to me once before as well, I put several games in my PS Store cart and the next day some of them were back to their regular prices. I wasn’t happy to say the least, but thankfully they were games that always go on sale so it wasn’t long until they were on sale again. $6.99 is a great deal for Ni no Kuni II, but I can’t believe that it’s regular price is still $59.99 digitally because it’s been $19.99 physically for a long time now.

I usually buy physical unless there's a crazy deal like that.

[Phaseknox]

I usually buy physical unless there's a crazy deal like that.

Yeah, I usually like having physical copies of AA and AAA games especially AAA ones. I’m fine with having indie games digitally which most are only available that way anyway. But I do have quite a few AA games digitally especially Japanese games because any released by companies other than Bandai Namco, Sega, or Square Enix tend to remain high priced physically, but drop in price or have good sales digitally. I sometimes buy games digitally for a few bucks that I normally would pass on, because I figure that they’re worth checking out for a few bucks if they look even a little interesting to me. If I end up not liking them, then I’m only out a few bucks. I’ve actually bought a few games again digitally that I had physically but traded in to GameStop, because they were on sale for a couple bucks and I liked them enough to have them for that much. I just recently bought Ary and the Secret of Seasons again digitally for $5.99 because I felt that what I played of it before when I had it physically was worth that much, but I think that’s about what GameStop gave me for it when I traded it in.

[crimson_tide]

Ok, quick Sonic Frontiers update. I do not know why or how they came to this conclusion but it's the literal best idea they ever had at Sonic Team. The idea? Every titan boss is a Super Sonic throwdown. And they all have their own over the top theme song. And every song so far has been a balling ass baller level jam fam. I fought 3 of these bad boys so far. They stay golden somehow. It's all the shonen anime energy, it feels like DBZ Kakarot. Which is great because I was all about that game. The best parts were the cinematic battles. The questing and open world RPG stuff was mad chill but them battles were just the bee's knees.

Tl;dr: Sonic Frontiers bosses are large scale shonen anime battles complete with music that goes way too hard that compliment the otherwise chill open world stuff. I love it !!!

[canedaddy]

No Ragnarok impressions yet, it's too early. But soon!

How about a quick thumbs up or thumbs down?

I've got a strong urge to buy it for PS4 after work. Has anyone heard anything about that version sucking? All I've seen is fairly positive...

[Phaseknox]

How about a quick thumbs up or thumbs down?

I've got a strong urge to buy it for PS4 after work. Has anyone heard anything about that version sucking? All I've seen is fairly positive...

I asked a person playing the PS4 version at another game forum that I frequent how it is, and he said that it looks and runs great.