Back to Donkey Kong Bananza as my primary game. Reached level / world 8, nearing the end now.
It’s nice how they have something different for each world that keeps them unique and keeps the game interesting.
Started Judgment, a spin-off of Yakuza / Like a Dragon series.
This is now 8th game in the series that I am playing, and I was wondering if Kamurocho will start to feel stale, but it’s interesting how they keep using the same place and still keep it fresh.
I am still in Chapter 2, so no idea if another area opens up, but for now the map seems much smaller than usual Yakuza games, or maybe it’s because our characters runs fast and doesn’t get tired.
Gameplay vise, missions have focus on “detective work”, like following people or finding someone etc, so it doesn’t feel like just another Yakuza game, it stands on it’s own legs.
Side missions are a bit different in this game, most of the restaurants and shops have friendship meter, when the bar increases it leads to some side stuff. Other than that, there are also different cases you can get from your office. Haven’t seen any random side missions yet, which I think is a good thing, I always had trouble finding all side stories without any guide.
Didn’t get much time for AI: The Somnium Files , will focus on it properly after finishing Bananza.
That’s all from me, what about all of you? What have you been playing and/or plan to play?
Still on Baten Kaitos! Currently progressing with a snails pace due to other stuff getting in the way.
I’m still heavily invested in the game, however, a few cracks in its systems start to show.
For starter, you only ever use 3 characters at a time. Each with their own deck. Setting them up and planning their decks feels like too much investment to ever switch them up, which means the other 3 won’t ever get used. Even worse, unused characters only get half EXP.
Speaking of EXP, there’s a system in place where you just collect it. To actually level up, you need to visit a church. And you can level up multiple times at once! Now, here’s the kicker: The more level you gain at once, the more stats you get as a bonus! (Up to 10 levels.) That’s fun in theory, but if you’ve learned anything about me by reading these posts, you can probably guess that I never a batch with less than 10 levels.
There’s also a class level, which you can increase by finding certain items for each character. They often get dropped by bosses. Using them increases the cards you can put in your deck, the cards you can hold in your hand, and how many you can play per turn. As a trade-off, your timer to actually play your cards in a turn decreases. Here’s a second crack: The built-in crafting system is still fun, but you don’t have much time to think about it while actually fighting. Even worse, they waste a turn. Even if you can play 6 cards, the crafting combo is only activated if you play exactly the cards mentioned and no others. Also, since your deck can’t have fewer cards than your actual maximum amount, you need to stall until you draw all combo pieces or fill your entire deck with otherwise useless cards.
This, combined with increasingly convoluted combos, leads to the crafting system being sidelined for the most part. I used to craft stuff organically while crawling through dungeons, now it only happens when I start an encounter with the specific goal to craft. The most convoluted combo I’ve seen yet involves 4 items, three of which you have to craft themselves beforehand. A doll, a monkey statue, a dog statue and a pheasant statue. Playing them all, as a reference to the legend of Momotaro, creates a treasure you sell for a lot of money.
That’s why I never tried Baten Kaitos myself. The game has some fun mechanism but I would probably just get annoyed by some of the other parts.
I love my memories of Baten Kaitos, but I don’t miss the frustration you are describing. As a formerly compulsive 100%er, Baten Kaitos cured me; it was the first game where I saw there was a 100% long play and accepted watching that as satisfying my need to complete something.