It's not really the PvPvE that's the problem for me tho, it's more the randomness in the upgrades you find and how simple the PvE parts seem to be (I'm sure the full game will have more stuff, but it's still just grinding). It also seems to encourage unbalanced fights (as in 2v1 or worse), which I don't think is fun.
I guess I was expecting something closer to Deadlock but with more focus on the PvE aspect.
Got access to the The Duskbloods network test. I played a bit and did not like it at all, I wasn't expecting what essentially is a battle royale. Also runs really poorly on Switch 2, there's tons of input lag too.
Really liked the first games. Haven't played the remakes since the Cold Steel subseries made me kinda hate the series (and IMO the games were perfectly fine in the original form. I don't see why a remake was needed, especially since it still split them in two parts).
I wasn't interested in the game as I don't like tag fighters (not that I could have played it with Vanguard), but it's a shame to see so much effort being wasted, especially with how long development was. I'm glad they are keeping it playable.
Could you go into more detail on the combat in Graces F? It looks similar to Vesperia which I mostly liked towards the end, after unlocking most stuff, although TP sometimes felt too limiting. I see Graces F has an artes gauge like Berseria and Arise.
Your friends were right. The writing isn't great from the start and gets worse as it goes on, but towards the end the pacing gets unbearable. There's a few hours of uninteresting lore dumps, often for stuff you could have figured out on your own, occasionally interrupted by really annoying fights. I didn't have particularly high hopes for the story, but at some point it starts getting in the way.
I've reached the final dungeon and decided to give up. As @Phelpssan@lemmy.world mentioned, it's incredibly tedious, to the point where I tried lowering the difficulty to rush through it, but it still takes ages.
Overall I wouldn't recommend it. I was hoping the gameplay would redeem it, but it never really evolves, often getting worse when some enemies (including all bosses) disable the main mechanic. As I mentioned in my other comment, the party AI only makes it worse.
I've only played Vesperia out of other Tales games (I've played most of it, but dropped it close to the end). Compared to that, I found the skits in Arise to be really boring, as a lot of the times instead of characterizing the cast, they'll just repeat something from the last story cutscene adding nothing. Again, comparing to Vesperia, I found the characters to be either dull or unlikable due to this and how some things are handled in the story.
Speaking of the setting: without going into too much detail, I don't think the themes are handled well. Also the world feels weirdly small, most maps are just corridors and not particularly creative.
Sure I'll keep you updated. I think I just passed the midpoint and I'm stating to see some writing issues. The 4th area had a rather nonsensical scene which I feel was there just to prolong the chapter.
On the gameplay side, it's mostly enjoyable, although I've been using only Alphen and it might be getting a bit stale. I'm trying to switch to other characters but they feel a bit clunky.
One thing I'm not enjoying at all are the boss fights. They play pretty differently from normal encounters, since you basically lose some mechanics and the party ai is really annoying as you can't set per-member strategies.
Still playing Xenoblade Chronicles 2, but I'm starting to slow down a bit. Replaying them, I think I prefer the first game, as I'm finding 2 a bit lacking.
I also restarted Tales of Arise (not on Switch tho as I already had it on PC) and I'm enjoying it quite bit. I remember trying it a couple of years ago and hating it, but returning to it now I'm realising I was completely misunderstanding how combat is supposed to work.
Halfway through replaying Xenoblade Chronicles 2 with the Switch 2 Edition.
I'm mostly happy with the upgrade, but the Merc Missions are a bit disappointing and I wish they did something to improve the gacha mechanics. The resolution upgrade tho is very noticeable, even when comparing against the old boosted mode, and the new costumes are pretty, so it's overall a good upgrade.
I think for me it's either Minecraft or Monster Hunter World. I don't know how many hours I've spent on Minecraft, but I assume it's close to 1000 as I used to play it with friends daily when I was younger. Me and a couple of friends also got Monster Hunter World at the start of the covid lockdown and we ended up playing it more or less daily. I have 380h on it, but I think I've enjoyed it more than mc. Both of them costed between 20 and 30 €.
For the worst, if a series of games count then it's the Trails of Cold Steel series. After playing Azure I was excited for it, so I think I've even payed full price for the first or two. I ended up hating everything about them and convinced myself to play through, hoping the would get better, but ended up dropping the entire series a quarter of the way through CS3 when I saw there was no attempt at improving them.
Probably Soul Hackers 2. I know it's considered to not be particularly good, but I like the aesthetic and it's cheap enough that I don't mind trying it.
Ah thanks, that's a shame, I had no idea. I just assumed they didn't want to store some kinds of batteries. I'm guessing it's due the 3G modem then, if other handheld are fine?
Yea the prices and especially the culture around used items where why I was interested, ebay is often a bit more expensive.
What do you mean by local seller? Should I contact the Japanese store directly instead of going through the proxy?
Just wondering, how do you deal with getting batteries shipped overseas? I was recently looking to buy a psvita on buyee and similar proxies, but the always appear as forbidden due to the battery.
I don't dislike Tartarus so I didn't mind that, but I'd argue that in some ways Reload is worse than FES and Portable. I personally like the indirect control of the original and the cutscenes are better in the original, as Reload adapts Portable. The gameplay balance is also almost non-existent due to the additional mechanics. Compared to Portable it obviously lacks the FeMC campaign.
This looks good, but I don't really understand the point.
Like, we got P4G on all systems a few years ago, what's wrong with that version that needs a remake? P3R already felt unnecessary, but at least there only Portable was accessible.
I've recently tried the game for a while and I have to disagree. From first impressions, the timers on crafting and limited inventory made playing 'whenever' feel bad (and unlocking the battle pass was even worse). Maybe that changes deeper into the game, but it made me quit.
eww
Is the second screen useful for anything outside of DS and 3DS?
It's not really the PvPvE that's the problem for me tho, it's more the randomness in the upgrades you find and how simple the PvE parts seem to be (I'm sure the full game will have more stuff, but it's still just grinding). It also seems to encourage unbalanced fights (as in 2v1 or worse), which I don't think is fun.
I guess I was expecting something closer to Deadlock but with more focus on the PvE aspect.
Got access to the The Duskbloods network test. I played a bit and did not like it at all, I wasn't expecting what essentially is a battle royale. Also runs really poorly on Switch 2, there's tons of input lag too.
Really liked the first games. Haven't played the remakes since the Cold Steel subseries made me kinda hate the series (and IMO the games were perfectly fine in the original form. I don't see why a remake was needed, especially since it still split them in two parts).
I wasn't interested in the game as I don't like tag fighters (not that I could have played it with Vanguard), but it's a shame to see so much effort being wasted, especially with how long development was. I'm glad they are keeping it playable.
Thanks. Sounds cool, I'll check it out.
Could you go into more detail on the combat in Graces F? It looks similar to Vesperia which I mostly liked towards the end, after unlocking most stuff, although TP sometimes felt too limiting. I see Graces F has an artes gauge like Berseria and Arise.
Your friends were right. The writing isn't great from the start and gets worse as it goes on, but towards the end the pacing gets unbearable. There's a few hours of uninteresting lore dumps, often for stuff you could have figured out on your own, occasionally interrupted by really annoying fights. I didn't have particularly high hopes for the story, but at some point it starts getting in the way.
I've reached the final dungeon and decided to give up. As @Phelpssan@lemmy.world mentioned, it's incredibly tedious, to the point where I tried lowering the difficulty to rush through it, but it still takes ages.
Overall I wouldn't recommend it. I was hoping the gameplay would redeem it, but it never really evolves, often getting worse when some enemies (including all bosses) disable the main mechanic. As I mentioned in my other comment, the party AI only makes it worse.
I've only played Vesperia out of other Tales games (I've played most of it, but dropped it close to the end). Compared to that, I found the skits in Arise to be really boring, as a lot of the times instead of characterizing the cast, they'll just repeat something from the last story cutscene adding nothing. Again, comparing to Vesperia, I found the characters to be either dull or unlikable due to this and how some things are handled in the story.
Speaking of the setting: without going into too much detail, I don't think the themes are handled well. Also the world feels weirdly small, most maps are just corridors and not particularly creative.
Sure I'll keep you updated. I think I just passed the midpoint and I'm stating to see some writing issues. The 4th area had a rather nonsensical scene which I feel was there just to prolong the chapter.
On the gameplay side, it's mostly enjoyable, although I've been using only Alphen and it might be getting a bit stale. I'm trying to switch to other characters but they feel a bit clunky. One thing I'm not enjoying at all are the boss fights. They play pretty differently from normal encounters, since you basically lose some mechanics and the party ai is really annoying as you can't set per-member strategies.
Still playing Xenoblade Chronicles 2, but I'm starting to slow down a bit. Replaying them, I think I prefer the first game, as I'm finding 2 a bit lacking.
I also restarted Tales of Arise (not on Switch tho as I already had it on PC) and I'm enjoying it quite bit. I remember trying it a couple of years ago and hating it, but returning to it now I'm realising I was completely misunderstanding how combat is supposed to work.
Halfway through replaying Xenoblade Chronicles 2 with the Switch 2 Edition.
I'm mostly happy with the upgrade, but the Merc Missions are a bit disappointing and I wish they did something to improve the gacha mechanics. The resolution upgrade tho is very noticeable, even when comparing against the old boosted mode, and the new costumes are pretty, so it's overall a good upgrade.
I think for me it's either Minecraft or Monster Hunter World. I don't know how many hours I've spent on Minecraft, but I assume it's close to 1000 as I used to play it with friends daily when I was younger. Me and a couple of friends also got Monster Hunter World at the start of the covid lockdown and we ended up playing it more or less daily. I have 380h on it, but I think I've enjoyed it more than mc. Both of them costed between 20 and 30 €.
For the worst, if a series of games count then it's the Trails of Cold Steel series. After playing Azure I was excited for it, so I think I've even payed full price for the first or two. I ended up hating everything about them and convinced myself to play through, hoping the would get better, but ended up dropping the entire series a quarter of the way through CS3 when I saw there was no attempt at improving them.
Probably Soul Hackers 2. I know it's considered to not be particularly good, but I like the aesthetic and it's cheap enough that I don't mind trying it.
Ah thanks, that's a shame, I had no idea. I just assumed they didn't want to store some kinds of batteries. I'm guessing it's due the 3G modem then, if other handheld are fine?
Yea the prices and especially the culture around used items where why I was interested, ebay is often a bit more expensive.
What do you mean by local seller? Should I contact the Japanese store directly instead of going through the proxy?
Just wondering, how do you deal with getting batteries shipped overseas? I was recently looking to buy a psvita on buyee and similar proxies, but the always appear as forbidden due to the battery.
I don't dislike Tartarus so I didn't mind that, but I'd argue that in some ways Reload is worse than FES and Portable. I personally like the indirect control of the original and the cutscenes are better in the original, as Reload adapts Portable. The gameplay balance is also almost non-existent due to the additional mechanics. Compared to Portable it obviously lacks the FeMC campaign.
This looks good, but I don't really understand the point.
Like, we got P4G on all systems a few years ago, what's wrong with that version that needs a remake? P3R already felt unnecessary, but at least there only Portable was accessible.
I've recently tried the game for a while and I have to disagree. From first impressions, the timers on crafting and limited inventory made playing 'whenever' feel bad (and unlocking the battle pass was even worse). Maybe that changes deeper into the game, but it made me quit.