What are you playing right now?

[BenKenobi7333 He/Him/Mandalorian]

Black Ops 6 is pretty chill. So I’ve been playing that and you can’t go wrong with Minecraft 

[Eluvianii he/him]

So I got Final Fantasy XV recently and while I don't plan on starting it yet (playing 3 long jrpgs simultaneously seems like a bad idea), I did start the, uh, preparations. 

According to this one guide I found, there's a number of things I may want to do before starting the game, so I figured I could at least do that. Should be a good source of hype. 

All that to say, I just finished A King's Tale. For a short tie-in it was really good. Looks like a beat em up, but plays like a hack n slash. Not enough 2d hack n slashes out there. Combat is fun, though maybe a little excessive? There's a lot of it. But considering it takes like an hour to beat as it is, it's no big deal. It's a cute little story and it already started to set expectations for the game. I like it. I don't think I'll be doing the dream fights, but I like that even those are worked into the story. 

Guess the next step is an unavailable demo, a short story, and a trailer. 

[Use the Falchion]

Metaphor ReFantazio has taken over my gaming life. I could finish Final Fantasy 16, or I could even play more of Romancing Saga 2: Revenge of the Seven, but those will have to wait until after I finish Metaphor. And part of me is convinced that won't be until, like, next year...

[Wittles he/him]

I've played Metroid Dread before, but I wanted to go back to it, and because I was getting kind of bored, decided to start a dread mode run (any damage is an instakill). I'm surprisingly close to the end.

[The cheeseman Don't you dare go Hollow!]

Elden Ring and Dark Souls Remastered. Just started a new DSR character for Return to Lordran; a yearly event to recapture the feel that multiplayer had way back when the game launched. RtL also let's vets like myself assist people who got the game as a holiday gift and are going through it for the first time

[Mags she/they]

I've recently gotten back into Stardew valley, I don't know why I was disappointed with it in middle school. I think my general pattern with video games is finally getting into them only years after I start and the online hype has settled down.

My brother was gifted Hollow Knight for Christmas, and is kind enough to let me borrow it (because it's on our family console). I really like the art style and music, though I've heard it's a hard game and I haven't gotten very far.

[Through The Living Glass She/They]

2 minutes ago, Magi said:

I've recently gotten back into Stardew valley, I don't know why I was disappointed with it in middle school. I think my general pattern with video games is finally getting into them only years after I start and the online hype has settled down.

My brother was gifted Hollow Knight for Christmas, and is kind enough to let me borrow it (because it's on our family console). I really like the art style and music, though I've heard it's a hard game and I haven't gotten very far.

I actually recently got back into SV as well! It's fun. (married Sam this time)

The new(er) update really added a ton to the game! Very fun.

[Mags she/they]

2 minutes ago, Through The Living Glass said:

I actually recently got back into SV as well! It's fun. (married Sam this time)

The new(er) update really added a ton to the game! Very fun.

I'm actually not certain if I'm playing 1.6 or not because I'm on switch and I don't know if it's reached console yet.

I really want to marry Elliot because he seems so sweet and I love men with long hair, but it's slow going because all of his favorites are expensive.

[Through The Living Glass She/They]

10 minutes ago, Magi said:

I'm actually not certain if I'm playing 1.6 or not because I'm on switch and I don't know if it's reached console yet.

I really want to marry Elliot because he seems so sweet and I love men with long hair, but it's slow going because all of his favorites are expensive.

It has! Well I'm playing it, so I guess it has lol

[Mags she/they]

14 hours ago, Through The Living Glass said:

It has! Well I'm playing it, so I guess it has lol

Oh that's good to know!!! I wasn't sure from what I'd seen online.

[Through the Living Shadow he/him]

On 1/1/2025 at 7:35 PM, The cheeseman said:

Elden Ring and Dark Souls Remastered. Just started a new DSR character for Return to Lordran; a yearly event to recapture the feel that multiplayer had way back when the game launched. RtL also let's vets like myself assist people who got the game as a holiday gift and are going through it for the first time

Hey me too! (No DLC, tho)

I played Elden Ring first, so I wasn’t nearly as careful as I should have been around the curse people. I got cornered, but didn’t realize that the death blight was different in the game. And now I have half max health…

[The cheeseman Don't you dare go Hollow!]

47 minutes ago, SpiritOfWrath said:

Hey me too! (No DLC, tho)

I played Elden Ring first, so I wasn’t nearly as careful as I should have been around the curse people. I got cornered, but didn’t realize that the death blight was different in the game. And now I have half max health…

(I don't have the DLC either. Hoping to get it for my birthday)

If you're talking about the ugly frog things in the Depths, then yeah… those have got me a few times as well. It's so awful trekking all the way back up.

[Eluvianii he/him]

Just finished Final Fantasy XV at around 41 hours plus, I don't know, about 6 hours of DLCs. That was a thoroughly enjoyable experience that may have tried to do too many things at once but was still a great game.

It's a bit of an everyone pleaser. Like story focused linear experiences that go straight to the point? Got you covered. Like open ended games with lots to do where you advance at your own pace? Got you covered. And that duality doesn't always work in its favor, it's kinda jarring really, but I think this is a best case scenario.

Game was plenty long but I still wish there was more of it. Not more quests or anything, got plenty of those and plenty more I didn't even do. But I finished this feeling I know a lot about the main 4 characters plus a couple others, and not nearly enough as I'd like about everyone else. Still think it's a best case scenario, the DLCs are wonderful to flesh out certain characters, and the written works do their part too. But it still ended up feeling like a rather small world where people don't do much when you're not looking at them.

Ending is, a thing. A good thing mind, it just

Spoiler

It promises as early as the trailers and the prologue movie that Noctis and Luna both die. And when things are prophesied early on, let alone before the game even begins, it's usually so the characters can find a way around their fate. Well, not here. Each chapter only serves to convince you more and more, just a tiny bit at a time, that the ending you were promised is exactly what you will get. And so it was. Everyone played their role according to the script and then were done.

That's actually a bit I didn't quite love about it. So the gods choose a kid, 2000 years in advance, to save the world from darkness. But of course, it was also the gods who chose a dude to cover the world in darkness in the first place. So did the entire story happen because some higher being decided there needs to be turmoil on the world now and then? The more dramatic the better? And to get there of course Ardyn, Noctis, Regis, and Luna are just victims tied to a chain that can do nothing but fulfill their roles. Not to mention the thousands of casualties that didn't even know what was happening. I don't know, I really hope I got it wrong.

Also Ardyn's motivation sucks and he was more interesting before we knew what it was.

Combat is weird. Fun but weird. My HP was constantly dropping to 0 because I didn't dodge an attack that I couldn't even see an animation for. But this is balanced by the fact that it's really hard to die. Like, unless you get hit so hard that it depletes both your HP and your max HP in a single hit, you'll live. So you don't need to understand how it works to finish the game without issue, but it does get frustrating.

Music was freaking amazing. Easily one of the best parts of the game and there were entire sequences that were only as good as they were because of the soundtrack. Particularly chapter 9 boss, which is incidentally one of the coolest sequences I've played in a game.

I'm mostly satisfied with my time with this game, but I hear there's an "Official Alternate Ending", and the implication alone gives me some expectations. It's apparently only 4 short novellas though, one that I already read and another that the game already covered, so that brings it down to 2. Still, I wanna see what that is all about. Now if you'll excuse me I'll be crying on the corner.

 

Edited January 4, 2025 by Eluvianii

[𝖂𝖍𝖎𝖗𝖙𝖊]

I recently finished Subnautica, Subnautica below zero, and I've been working on the challenges for SUPERHOT. I just downloaded Unity and I think I'm going to try making a game or two.

[Silver Phantom he/him]

Been playing twilight princess for the first time. And I am loving it, but the kids of the starting village are the biggest brats in the world.

On 1/6/2025 at 8:18 AM, WhiteHairedDrifter said:

I recently finished Subnautica, Subnautica below zero, and I've been working on the challenges for SUPERHOT. I just downloaded Unity and I think I'm going to try making a game or two.

The Subnautica’s are great. Only problem is that if you didn’t have a fear of the ocean before playing. You do after

[𝖂𝖍𝖎𝖗𝖙𝖊]

8 hours ago, Silver Phantom said:

Been playing twilight princess for the first time. And I am loving it, but the kids of the starting village are the biggest brats in the world.

The Subnautica’s are great. Only problem is that if you didn’t have a fear of the ocean before playing. You do after

Yeah, that's legit...

[Eluvianii he/him]

Just finished Shadow of the Colossus, PS4 version, at around 6 hours and 40 minutes.

That was, awe inspiring I guess would be the term? Everything about it was beautiful from beginning to end. The environment, the music, the locales, and obviously, the colossi. They're not even like boss fights, bringing them down is just busywork designed to showcase how awesome the creatures are. And honestly I'm all for that.

Gameplay is terribly frustrating though. Sometimes it has small details like how uncomfortable it is to control Agro. Others it's the fights themselves. Some of these are really hard to hold on to. Some attack so fast you're allowed a single step after getting up before being hit again (and the fact that the protagonist takes so long to get up doesn't help). Sometimes you have to make an unpredictable jump that will set you back several minutes if you fail.

I adore everything this game showed me but if it was any longer I would probably have dropped it on account of the gameplay alone.

Still, I'd say the struggle is worth it, and that ending forced me to warm up to the game even more than I already had. So yeah. Cool game. Kinda glad it's over but I look forward to a second run waaay in the future, when I've had time to forget my grievances with it.

[Use the Falchion]

Samurai Warriors 4 Empires, just for a quick campaign back in the world. I'll unify Japan under Oda Nobunaga (and my custom characters), and hopefully finish Final Fantasy 16 and Metaphor Re:Fantazio during Spring Break, just in time for Xenoblade Chronicles X to come out that Friday...

So far, my gaming calendar for the year looks like:

 

January - Dynasty Warriors: Origins (I actually haven't bought this yet, and probably won't until Feb/March)

March - Xenoblade Chronicles X

May - Rune Factory: Guardians of Azuma

June/July - Fire Emblem Genealogy Remake (this is unannounced, but I think the summer is the likely place for it, especially if it's announced in February)

 

No Release Date - Dark Deity 2, Marvel's 1943: Rise of Hydra, Pokemon Legends Z-A

 

All of these games, especially Fire Emblem if we're lucky, will keep me busy all this year and well into 2026. 

[Briar King]

I very been wondering if Switch 2 will be able to cast to tvs... like for the Xenoblade X Wii U remake. How cool would it be if the game cast to the TV and the undocked console was the Gamepad..

Idk how feasible something like that could be.

[Use the Falchion]

Playing some Fire Emblem Warriors: Three Hopes as a way to bide time until the hopefully rumored February Nintendo Direct is revealed, and with it hopefully a new Fire Emblem game!

I'm not starting up a new playthrough, but I've been trying to get F!Byleth to teach Mercedes Aura, and to get Hapi to teach Sylvain Hades Omega, because she can. 

Consequentially, it now makes me ship F!Byleth/Mercedes/Dimitri and Hapi/Sylvain for Three Hopes. (For Hapi/Sylvain, I can see Sylvain being more drawn to Hapi's curse and the magic behind it than to flirting, and the two share a genuine bond, because Sylvain is actually being mature and Hapi is being treated with respect and not with fear.) 

[Briar King]

RPG peeps is Pillars of Eternity any good? I was thinking of trying to give my Xbox some love and Avowed is going to it over PS5. I need to not have this machine be a waste of $. I've not finished a single game on this thing in almost 4 years now. It just sits collecting dust.

That wouldn't be for awhile though if Pillars gets some recos. I got to finish my epic Trails games 1st.

[Eluvianii he/him]

Finished Resident Evil 3 Remake. This is uh, a really short game. RE2 gets a pass because at least you play 2 routes, 4 if you really wanna see everything. But not only is this a single route, but the route in question is actually way shorter than a single one of RE2's. 4 hours and 40 minutes in my case. I knew this game didn't have all the backing from Capcom but... damn.

Still, I enjoyed my time with it quite a bit, it's not like I paid anywhere even close to full price for it anyway. What's there is good, Carlos is great, and Hunter Gammas are cute. I want one. I wonder if there are any plushies of them.

It's nice that it's so mindless. There's some ammo management, but not nearly as much as RE2. Game expects you to kill everything you come across, and gives you the tools for it. Infinite knife is a blessing too.

I can't help to wonder what they cut exactly. Gonna have to play the original one of these days. I'm really not fan of the og Nemesis concept, let me solve my puzzles in peace thank you, running away 5 rooms is a waste of time. But I want to see what's there.

[Ookla she/her]

Just got into Baldur's Gate 1. I'd play BG 3, but my computer is too wimpy. But BG 1 and 2? Totally doable for it! And quite a lot of fun, too; you just have to work out how the heck things work, which is the most challenging part.

[WinnieThaWho He/Him]

I have recently fallen into a gaming slump/depression. I got the platinum in Ghost of Tsushima, and have struggled to find anything fulfilling. 

I am slowly easing my way through Banishers Ghost of New Eden. I can tell the devs put a lot of love in it.

[Eluvianii he/him]

Rolled credits on Monster Hunter Rise: Sunbreak, which I guess isn't the same as finishing the game. But a feast was had, the names of everyone involved were shown, and a vocal ending theme was sung, that's enough of a milestone.

This is such a fun game, what I thought about Rise goes double for Sunbreak, I think this is the most fun the combat has been, can't get enough of it.

The new monsters I've liked a lot, and that final boss has gotta be one of the most intense fights I've had in an action game.

Took a little under 134 hours to get here, though I have to stick around a little longer. Gotta farm some master ranks and I think I'll be in endgame boss rush territory. I know Amatsu is somewhere in there and I'm gonna fight it.