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Player's Log: Trails of Cold Steel III.

I'm almost at the end of the first part of Chapter 1, just after a certain someone makes their return broadcast, which felt like a good stopping point.

I am in love with a lot about this game right now. First, thank God for the return of auto-advancing text. Feels so good to sit back and let conversations go at their own pace without fear of skipping dialogue parts.

I also love that there's an auto-battle function, but I suspect it only does regular attacking and basic linking, which means I'll have to forego it if I want all the achievements surrounding s-crafts and rush and burst and etc. A shame, but understandable.

I am bamboozled by the fact that they stuffed a mini Magic: The Gathering card game in this RPG. At first I was concerned that it would be way more of a headache than the previous Blade card game, but I'm actually getting the hang of it and it's not that bad.

I also like the changes they made to fishing, as button mashing was incredibly annoying, and I'm all about this new simplified experience.

Overall, I love how pretty the game looks. Definitely a big step up from Cold Steel I and II, both in the character models and environments. You can tell it was made on higher-gen hardware than the other games.

I also just love that all the worlds are converging now. You've got Sky characters, Crossbell characters, and Cold Steel characters all working together under the same roof, and it's nice to see how they've grown in the time since their last appearances. Tita remains as cute as a button.

Meanwhile, I'm seven episodes into Northern War, which is a twelve episode anime covering an event that took place after Cold Steel II and is discussed early on in this game, and I have to say... it's very mid.

The new characters it introduces are barely interesting if at all and the shenanigans that happen to them in the first few episodes are pretty ridiculous. It's kind of entertaining? But the vibe is very off from what I'd expect from a Trails adventure.

It's a little better now that Rean and known characters are appearing, but I don't expect much improvement in the back half.

 

playing every mode in Fortnite except the actual battle royale and listening to fun.

This is a vibe

 

I played for another hour or so of FFXVI last night until I got to THAT scene… fuck

 

Wrapped up Alan Wake's American Nightmare. It was a bit of a weird departure from Alan Wake 1, but I enjoyed it well enough. Felt very arcadey overall and the continuation of the story was interesting, if not a little bland compared to the original. Probably going to hold off on AW2 for a bit, but really looking forward to playing it soon-ish.

 

About 15 hrs into Cyberpunk. Gameplay and story are both great so far.

Only things that bums me out rn are the lack of cosmetic cybernetics I can customize my character with and the fact they didnt incorporate any sort of 3rd person view when running around the city (like in the fallout games). Just let me have a robot leg or replace my whole face so I can look like one of those cyberpsycho dudes. Stuff like that defeats the immersion a bit for me especially when I see random npcs walking around with cool body mods I can never get.

 

wrapped up Jedi Survivor yesterday and immediately started Alan Wake 2 last night... holy shit lol

 

Mario Wonder has been a joy to play with my wife. It's a great co-op game, but haven't' played single player yet. The focus on new unique traits while also maintaining what makes Mario "mario."

So far I've put about ten hours into Baldur's Gate 3. I will say the amount of free choice can be very overwhelming for someone who is indecisive and overthinks every decision. Despite that, I have really enjoyed my time exploring the world and mythos! I need to take a step back and focus on other side quests for a bit, though. Last thing I did was kill a goblin priestess.

 

Anyone in her ever play Afterimage?

 

No but I really want to at some point

 

Never mind this movie about to be GOATED

 

I tried Baulder’s Gate 3 and I did not like the combat at all. I started Diablo 4 and it’s my first Diablo game. I love it so far.

 

I’m sorry but that’s an all timer of a bad take.

 

I've wondered how accessible BG3 is to people who haven't played DA, NwN, etc

 

I haven’t really played games with that type of combat before, but I really enjoy it and didn’t have too much trouble picking it up

 

BG3 is much more accessible than Divinity 1 and 2 imo.

 

It 100% is, I started with Divinity 2 and had a hard time, then played BG3 and loved it and it makes me want to go back to Divinity 2 so much more now that I get BG3

 

It’s based on the most simple edition of D&D. It was also my first game of this kind and I found the difficulty curve steep but rewarding, but ultimately manageable and not obtuse at all.

 

where are my game pass games for January XBOX

 

I just started Alan Wake 2 as it was on sale but I am not sure about it so far... A lot of this may be explained by the plot, but here are a couple of complaints. No spoilers for those that haven't played and I will always spoiler tag if I continue to share thoughts that need it.

- Not really sure about the case board. It seems repetitive and not very skill based thus far and just slows the gameplay.
- The profiling is weird but I'm sure there will be some story reason for how Saga is able to deduce the information she does.
- The fucking jump scares... The faces flashing onto the screen have continually got me. It's got a good atmosphere (especially with headphones on), but man, are those flashes annoying, loud and cheap thus far. I have read they continue for the entire game which will be a bummer.
- The dialogue is a bit hammy and corny and I'm not as invested in the story just yet due to some questionable exchanges.

I'm really not far though to be honest, just a couple of hours in, and by no means are the issues above enough to stop me playing (except the jump scares - it's really not a feeling I enjoy but some horror buffs who like their heart jumping into their throat may disagree).

 

People like me who are very nostalgically attached to D1 and 2 I think do not enjoy the newer Diablo games haha. I didn't finish 4. That said, I'm glad you're enjoying it and I'd highly recommend D2, it's the most beloved in the franchise for sure

 

I hear 4 was good at first but then they updated it to Hell, pun intended

 

I started Alan Wake 2 recently as well and am in love with it

I understand gameplay concerns though. I'm just 100% not playing it for gameplay

 

How I feel about AW2:

 

I feel I'll end up enjoying it, I'm just salty about the screen flashes lol. It's gotten me every time. I don't mind suspenseful horror and a sense of dread, but there's nothing fun (to me at least) about sudden noise just to evoke the jump scare reaction (especially when it's not an 'in game' moment) if that makes sense. IE - a monster busting out the wall ala Dead Space = okay, I get it, but these 'strobe' scares are something else.

I loved the first one, and the max payne games so I'll keep going. The story is interesting so far. Some very odd dialogue and some reactions that aren't natural to the situations the people are in, but going to give the plot time to develop and see if those issues continue to grate at me or dissipate.