[Supplice]

Well, I finally finished Yakuza 0. Holy crap, what a game! I take back most of what I said, still think the combat is a little frustrating at times, but the story really does make up for it. It is probably the best video game story, in terms of plot and story telling, I have ever experienced. It makes me wanna play the entire Yakuza series now, and I will probably start Kiwami pretty soon. But holy shit, that damn ending was incredible, can't believe this game doesn't have more recognition. 

Yakuza 0 is the pinnacle of the series so don't be harsh on the others once you play them.   Even when I played Dead Souls, it had it's charm. The music and hilarity of the sidequests kept me going.

 

Forgot just how deep of a game Dragon's Crown can get once you open up online play. Sadly, Dark Souls will crush my desire to delve deeper tomorrow, just like FFXIV did last time this game came out. I promise to revisit the game this time! Maybe. Probably not. Played GoW for only 4 hours so far. . .

When I played the JP version awhile back, I had forgotten how badly they nerfed one of my three mains (Elf) and it made me not to want dive too much into the game. On the plus side, the orchestra music was fantastic and it made my one chain run worth it.

 

As for Dark Souls..I had always gotten every souls game on launch, but not this time. Nioh, just spoiled me too much to keep up that trend. I'll definitely grab it later down the line though. For now, I'm still hoping Sony will let Bluepoint Games remaster Demon's Souls one day. 

[Jodou]

When I played the JP version awhile back, I had forgotten how badly they nerfed one of my three mains (Elf) and it made me not to want dive too much into the game. On the plus side, the orchestra music was fantastic and it made my one chain run worth it.

 

As for Dark Souls..I had always gotten every souls game on launch, but not this time. Nioh, just spoiled me too much to keep up that trend. I'll definitely grab it later down the line though. For now, I'm still hoping Sony will let Bluepoint Games remaster Demon's Souls one day. 

I haven't dug into theorycrafting on Elf because I'm just not committed enough, but what did they nerf? The 5-6 air combo still works as I've been using it and impact arrow (I think that's the upward arrow) buffed with strong draught and salamander oil still rapes pretty hard for boss fights. I've only played elf main and had wanted to dig into the other classes at some point to get perspective on forming good class teams but as I said, when a souls game comes around. . .

 

And Nioh, I tried the beta and it just wasn't for me. I think samurai games are too rigid in playstyle for me and I know it comes from proper show of form; martial artistry. For me it's just too stiff and I'm just not into that kind of lore heh. All I know is I'll love fighting Sif again. . .and seeing if dark root basin farming is still a thing haha. That fucking ledge lol. . .

[Supplice]

I haven't dug into theorycrafting on Elf because I'm just not committed enough, but what did they nerf? The 5-6 air combo still works as I've been using it and impact arrow (I think that's the upward arrow) buffed with strong draught and salamander oil still rapes pretty hard for boss fights. I've only played elf main and had wanted to dig into the other classes at some point to get perspective on forming good class teams but as I said, when a souls game comes around. . .

 

And Nioh, I tried the beta and it just wasn't for me. I think samurai games are too rigid in playstyle for me and I know it comes from proper show of form; martial artistry. For me it's just too stiff and I'm just not into that kind of lore heh. All I know is I'll love fighting Sif again. . .and seeing if dark root basin farming is still a thing haha. That fucking ledge lol. . .

They increased the internal cooldown on her arrow retrievals and the endgame content changed a lot how the characters are played. Her self-sustain issues really begin to show on Ultimate difficulty when resistances start to actually matter. It's even worse in the end game content: Labyrinth of Chaos and Tower of Mirages. The bosses are such crazy HP sponges, near nullifying resistances, and have the ability to summon elite tier units during battles with their own large HP pools. It really kills the use of oils and knives so it feels like the Elf is just left with Lore and Clone Strikes/Rapid Arrows. 

 

From Software lowered the amount of souls you got from them to 2K each. 

[BlackRockWaifu]

Yakuza 0 is the pinnacle of the series so don't be harsh on the others once you play them.   Even when I played Dead Souls, it had it's charm. The music and hilarity of the sidequests kept me going.

Oh yeah, I looked up the reviews for the games, and the others seem to fall into an average kind of level, but Zero and 6 seem to be the ones with the highest scores, and Kiwami doesn't seem bad either. But yeah, at this point I'll be playing them mostly for story and continuity anyway, and hopefully they will deliver on that front.

[BlackRockWaifu]

Okay, after working with the cards more and switching the difficulties to hard the gameplay became more fun in Peach Beach Splash. I'm leaving the characters at level 2, and my guns are mostly level 2. A couple are level 3. And I'm restarting missions if I lose one life. It's making the missions a challenge. I sometimes curse at the girls like Ryobi.

I made a deck that helped build my soak gauge faster. When I got a temporary endless clip on the Gatling gun on power mode with increased damage I thought this is pretty cool.

Just don't curse at my Waifu Ryona.

 

Yeah, some of the weapons if you upgrade them and have the right cards, becomes insanely strong. Gatling gun, rocket launcher, sniper with infinite soak gauge is crazy.

 

I kinda wish that the game didn't die so fast, and received a little more attention, since the gameplay changes they had for a shooter were pretty innovative and fun. Like shooting your own teammates to boost them, collecting cards with skills, 2 different fire methods, and using your ammo to dash and glide/fly, all seem like cool concepts that maybe even Call of Duty or Battlefield can learn from. 

 

 wouldn't mind tackling it again a little bit since I never got any weapon I really wanted from the event.  It will take 2-3 runs to beat if we only have one team going at it.  Set it up!

I'll start playing this weekend, in the CAG group. I forgot if I have you added on PSN, but if I don't, add me, PSN is Waffleswanton.

 

Nevermind, of course I added you. Forgot you were ichrono, we played a ton together!

[Jodou]

They increased the internal cooldown on her arrow retrievals and the endgame content changed a lot how the characters are played. Her self-sustain issues really begin to show on Ultimate difficulty when resistances start to actually matter. It's even worse in the end game content: Labyrinth of Chaos and Tower of Mirages. The bosses are such crazy HP sponges, near nullifying resistances, and have the ability to summon elite tier units during battles with their own large HP pools. It really kills the use of oils and knives so it feels like the Elf is just left with Lore and Clone Strikes/Rapid Arrows. 

 

From Software lowered the amount of souls you got from them to 2K each. 

Wow, this makes me realize just how much I skipped in Dragon's Crown, never even making it to true endgame. I hate games with resistances TBH; it's just a metagame of balancing more gearing choices and imbalanced difficulty spikes. I still have nightmares of Princess Huhuran in WoW. . .

 

And GDI From. . .how am I supposed to merc soul farmers now?

[deadofnight]

I finished the story mode in Peach Beach Splash. Playing the later missions in the later story arc with the handicaps I gave myself was intense.

Ikaruga and her sniper rifle was the main source of my ire. One shot took more than half my life. I'd have a good run going, then out of nowhere I either lose my life or get the half-health animation. But, it was a fun kind of infuriating.

It's great that the game let's you remap all the buttons. Eventually I said Dash on Circle isn't cutting it anymore, and moved it to L1 so I could have more control while dashing.

[Jodou]

Is it sad out of all the games in my backlog, only Dark Souls has kept me up to 3am and wanting more lately? Tearing through the game and working on a (hopeful) pvp build. Wonder if they'll stick to 126 this time around or just throw all that out the window. . .

 

I am noticing there's far less of a crowd as it were, with messages not as prominent, so hopefully it's just the long weekend with people out. Would be a shame if the remaster doesn't really take off and the community is just kinda burned out. :(

[Supplice]

I am noticing there's far less of a crowd as it were, with messages not as prominent, so hopefully it's just the long weekend with people out. Would be a shame if the remaster doesn't really take off and the community is just kinda burned out. :(

Time for From Software to hop on that Battle Royale bandwagon. 

Spoiler

[deadofnight]

A nice thing about not upgrading my stats in Peach Beach Splash is I had a ton of duplicate cards saved up. Duplicate cards are used to upgrade your stats. I was able to save scum the trophies for fully upgrading each weapon and fully upgrading five Pets. After a bit of grinding I was able to save scum after upgrading thirty skill cards all at once.

As far as leveling trophies, I just need to max ten characters now. That's going to take a while because that requires about 12,000 XP, but thanks to the save scumming I still have 4,000 XP.

I wish I knew the Pet cards were only in packs you earn from the side stories. I wanted to get Murakumo's wolves and Haruka's robot, and I thought I wasn't getting them because they were ultra rare cards. After completing my first side mission I got both.

[Supplice]

I'm really enjoying DHL's same day international shipping service. My PS4 and Vita Fate/Extella Link LEs arrived with both of the PS4 and Vita Persona Dancing Twin/Triple Packs in just a day. Plus Ascii's Jeanne d'Arc figure.

 

Besides those I'm also working on DW8XL PS4 & PS3, Far Cry 5, Far Cry 3 Classic, and Riddled Corpses EX. I'll be done with everything by the end of the month.

 

Lastly, I have Shining Resonance Refrain (NA) on preorder for July and I don't mind giving that a third run. 

[BlackRockWaifu]

Anyone use discord or would be interested in a discord server for this group? Been noticing many don't really post here anymore or on CAG in general. A real time chat server like discord offers could be a good way to get more active talk about games we currently are playing through. And maybe we could extend it to the niche thread as well.

[Jodou]

I never got on-board with Discord TBH. It's like trying to bring back IRC which I also never used as a teen since it was too sp00ky. Guess I'm just getting older since I don't hang out in any vent or mumble servers anymore. Just don't have any MP games to play like that anymore since MMOs are dead. That's just my opinion but I feel like it might be echoed here since in general I don't know that many people have time like that these days.

 

Forums are just easier to pick up and go.

[Gershomcz]

I have a discord. From what I see most people just use it as another forum. Most don't use voice chat, just regular text chat.

[Supplice]

I use Discord so I wouldn't mind it. If there was one for the Backlog thread, it would be a good idea to extend it to Niche thread as well to get more people. 

 

I would post more here in the Backlog thread, but I like to get a bunch of games done first before I do so. Which is really soon. 

[Draekon]

I used to be a network operator/admin for a moderately sized IRC network back around 2000. Since stopping with that, I've sworn off using chat rooms because I tend to do a lot of work on and around computers. That's mostly because I find I spend too much time doing things I should not be doing when I have other things I should be doing if I don't heavily moderate myself. Thus the only reason I'll ever use Discord is for short voice chat sessions as to stay away from my sloth side.

[deadofnight]

I thought I beat Bloodstained: Curse of the Moon, but then I found out there is more to it. It's a nice game, but it's one I play on the side. Once or twice a week I've been doing one level at a time.

I started a new game of Final Fantasy XV. I thought about playing it again once I bought the Royal Edition upgrade, and I bought that during last week's sale. I was thinking of just playing it on the side, but my first couple of hours with it again have been a lot of fun. I might play it more regularly that I thought.

Though I'm thinking of starting Bioshock Infinite (PS4) around the 4th of July.

[BlackRockWaifu]

Well the discord idea can just be in addition to the cag threads rather than a replacement. To me, it's really more of a place holder/back up, since I'm seeing less and less of the long time users post on the niche thread now, and most don't even post in general anymore. I also got a feeling the site is gonna close down sooner or later, so it would be nice to have everyone gathered somewhere before that happens.

[elessar123]

I don't use discord, but I do use Line already.

[Jodou]

I don't think CAG will ever shutdown now that it's on it's 15th-ish anniversary but users have fallen off due to fatigue and over-moderation in the past. I've been around for 11 years of that, lurking for the first year, and the site has just failed to really evolve to capture more of a market in that time. Other sites have shared the wealth with posters, getting kickbacks for posting deals that drive more revenue for the site. Sure I don't agree with shilling necessarily but it keeps the boat afloat. TBH though, CAG has done well here for being a smaller market to capture.

[Supplice]

My June Update: 

Spoiler

Persona 3: Dancing Moon Night  - For both of the Persona dancing games, I just played them to fill in the void until I get PS4/Vita MUSYNX. These two rhythm games are great for beginners and have light amount of content.

 

Persona 5: Dancing Star Night 

 

Muv Luv 

 

Muv Luv Alternative   - I can't believe they re-recorded the awesome Engrish scene from the JP ver. 

 

Far Cry 3 Classic 

 

Far Cry 5  - Far Cry 5 hasn't changed from 3 very much except for different coat of paint and the worst antagonist yet imo.  

 

Riddled Corpses EX  - 'Artificial difficulty via HP sponges until you level up' twin-stick shooter.

 

Fate/Extella Link  - Huge gameplay improvement over Umbral Star, but not much thought given to content (much shorter) or story (lack of). PvP is broken/dead just like any other Marvelous game.

 

Also, I'm starting to want to play more fighters lately. I'm just getting bored competitively with Street Fighter Alpha 3 (30th Anniversary Collection) and Killer Instinct so I wanted to branch out. I preordered  SNK Heroines ,  Blade Strangers (JP), and may get  BlazBlue: Cross Tag Battle in the future.

[Gershomcz]

 

My June Update: 

Spoiler

Persona 3: Dancing Moon Night  - For both of the Persona dancing games, I just played them to fill in the void until I get PS4/Vita MUSYNX. These two rhythm games are great for beginners and have light amount of content.

 

Persona 5: Dancing Star Night 

 

Muv Luv 

 

Muv Luv Alternative   - I can't believe they re-recorded the awesome Engrish scene from the JP ver. 

 

Far Cry 3 Classic 

 

Far Cry 5  - Far Cry 5 hasn't changed from 3 very much except for different coat of paint and the worst antagonist yet imo.  

 

Riddled Corpses EX  - 'Artificial difficulty via HP sponges until you level up' twin-stick shooter.

 

Fate/Extella Link  - Huge gameplay improvement over Umbral Star, but not much thought given to content (much shorter) or story (lack of). PvP is broken/dead just like any other Marvelous game.

 

How was Far Cry 5? I want to play it in coop but heard it was buggy. Is that still an issue?

[Supplice]

How was Far Cry 5? I want to play it in coop but heard it was buggy. Is that still an issue?

My friend and I only played for an hour (3 missions), but we didn't experience any issues except one cutscene. Before I go into that I wanted to mention some missions weren't really designed for two players. I say that from both playing and hindsight since I finished the story before my friend started. Ex) Nick Rye's missions involve flying his plane where one player will be able to control the plane/shoot, the second player...does nothing the whole time. 

 

As for the cutscene bug, I wasn't host, but I was just staring at a forest from the sky until my friend finished up said cutscene. Normally, the cutscene plays out at the same time as the host. I don't know whether that was intentional or what. 

[itzd4n]

My June Update:

Spoiler

Persona 3: Dancing Moon Night - For both of the Persona dancing games, I just played them to fill in the void until I get PS4/Vita MUSYNX. These two rhythm games are great for beginners and have light amount of content.

Persona 5: Dancing Star Night

Muv Luv

Muv Luv Alternative - I can't believe they re-recorded the awesome Engrish scene from the JP ver.

Far Cry 3 Classic

Far Cry 5 - Far Cry 5 hasn't changed from 3 very much except for different coat of paint and the worst antagonist yet imo.

Riddled Corpses EX - 'Artificial difficulty via HP sponges until you level up' twin-stick shooter.

Fate/Extella Link - Huge gameplay improvement over Umbral Star, but not much thought given to content (much shorter) or story (lack of). PvP is broken/dead just like any other Marvelous game.

Also, I'm starting to want to play more fighters lately. I'm just getting bored competitively with Street Fighter Alpha 3 (30th Anniversary Collection) and Killer Instinct so I wanted to branch out. I preordered SNK Heroines , Blade Strangers (JP), and may get BlazBlue: Cross Tag Battle in the future.

how did you find time to plat and not just play all those games.. I'm jealous 😅

[Jodou]

How was Far Cry 5? I want to play it in coop but heard it was buggy. Is that still an issue?

It was super buggy and not in a funny, fun kind of way. We had to restart a few missions because the scripting bugged out as we were ahead of what they wanted us to do. The waypoint system was god awful, we had to start ignoring it at times to actually get to the objective. All kinds random bugs here and there, mainly mission related but if you can trudge through the shit it's still a fun co-op game.

[Supplice]

Time for From Software to hop on that Battle Royale bandwagon. 

Spoiler

Dark Souls III Once Featured A Battle Royale Multiplayer Mode

Spoiler

 

How was Far Cry 5? I want to play it in coop but heard it was buggy. Is that still an issue?

I forgot to add this last time. If you do too many side activities then the game will auto complete main missions for you (not all, but enough to be noticeable). There is no way to replay those missions and gain their rewards other than starting completely over or joining someone else through coop.    So if you want more story then do all main missions for a region first and side activities later.

 

As for backlog. I'm still working on DW8XL, but I am on the final stretch. I got really slowed down by collecting all weapons due to using every character for a specific mission while completing secret conditions. At least that is over and I can now play my maxed out Yuanji to get A ranks on Ultimate difficulty.   Update: Finished & got the 

Spoiler

[Gershomcz]

I'll hold off Far Cry 5 for now then. I'll just get it during Black Friday and hopefully by then they patched their bugs.

[Jodou]

Yeah, paying $10 or something in a few months will be worth it since you've already waited. I love the game series because sandbox, but the bugs can totally ruin a night sometimes.

[Supplice]

Shining Resonance Refrain and Octopath Traveler are my main focus for the month. I have Brave Neptunia and Steins;Gate Elite coming in, but not until the end of the month. I might as well make those my August ones with Bullet Girls Phantasia. 

[deadofnight]

I started Record of Agarest War. It seems pretty good, but some of the items from the free dlc are ridiculous. I'm going to have to delete and redownload the game so I can play it without most of them. I thought about selling some of those items, but they're worth so much money. I don't want to have to keep track of which equipment items they are, and there are stat and money bonuses as well.