Last Game You Played and What You Would Rate It Out of 10

[Val the Moofia Boss]

@Val the Moofia Boss do you have like a Youtube channel or something? If you don't I think you should make one. I think you make a lot of really insightful posts and you clearly have a lot of passion for video games, but I think most of your posts fall into TLDR category for the format that MMO-Champ provides. I mean you went through the effort of collecting images for the game, I feel like that effort should be spent on like a Youtube video or something.

I have a youtube channel and I have considered posting analysis videos before. The problem is that since I have upgraded to a 4K monitor setup, my OBS doesn't work as good as it used to. I don't know if it's because my settings are messed up and I'm missing something, or if my rig is simply not powerful enough to play a game at 4K and record video at the same time. So since the upgrade, any videos I have recorded have had an extremely choppy framerate. So I just don't record game footage anymore, only taking screenshots. If I were to make a Youtube video, it would be me talking over still images... which I guess might be fine, since I suppose the main content of the video would be the thoughts on the game and discussing it. Kinda like a podcast, perhaps?

The other option I've considered is making a blog, and the blog posts would basically be my full thoughts written in text with pictures attached like what I've been doing here.

[Jastall]

Black Mesa - 8.5/10

Now here's how you do a remake, folks. It's been a very long time coming, but IMO this finds the perfect balance between faithfulness to the original, and risking changes where it makes sense for the sake of flavor and gameplay. The levels have been changed so that the facility makes a bit more logical sense and On A Rail doesn't make me want to kill myself anymore, weapons have been rebalanced while preserving their identity, the graphics look pretty damn good even if the lighting sometimes stutters my framerate, crouch jumping can be made automatic (thank sweet baby jesus), the jump module is way better now, there's just a myriad of nice changes overall.

Xen is where the team clearly let their creativity shine. The place looks a lot better in Black Mesa than in the original, and I don't mean in terms of graphical horsepower, it's just no longer a beige and brown morass anymore. It's also far longer and extensively redesigned, for example there are now Lamba Team base camps strewn across the map which work really well in connecting the Black Mesa part of the game with the Xen ones, where in the original the shift was a lot more brutal. Interloper as a chapter still mostly sucks, sadly, but everything else on Xen is tons better than in HL1.

[blankfaced]

Littlewood 7/10 The farm for those bubbles isn't all that enjoyable and the energy bar kind of kills the fun. It's like My Time at Portia, only without the automation.

Valheim 8/10 It's an excellent EA starting point for a game. They've got a lot planned for it. My main gripe is the crafting system is a little anemic.

No Man's Sky 9/10 This game would have a 10 if I could find some damn frigate upgrade parts! Probably the closest game to what i'm looking for.

[Val the Moofia Boss]

Currently playing Utawareumono: Mask of Truth

I think I'm reaching the end. I had my gripes with the game before, but I was overall enjoying it. But now it has pretty firmly jumped the shark. I'm starting to fast forward through scenes. I just want to get it over with.

The scene in question that made me very mad was when they were fighting the three transformed boys: deus ex Kuon, Kuon being insufferable, bad franchise fanservice with the old cast stealing the spotlight, characters making impossible predictions, impossible logistics, etc. I have a huge rant on this in my notes.

[lagiacrux]

survivng mars: green planet dlc

same problem i had with the original. once you get past the founding stage and have a stable economy on mars, you just plop down dome after dome after dome. the terraforming is nice and gives additional goals, but doesnt fundamentally change anything.
still worth the price of admission. i can heartily recommend it.

8.5/10

[Poppincaps]

Astro's Playroom - 8/10

For a free game that came with my PS5, this game was absolutely delightful. Tons of Playstation Nostalgia and fun platforming. It lacked any real story and some of the gimmicks were a little annoying to control which is why I brought it down to an 8/10, but it was still a short and sweet experience.

[PACOX]

Persona 5 Strikers - 8/10

Not just Dynasty Warriors with a Persona skin.
For some reason this game was billed as just being a beat-em side game. That characterization is wrong. It's an continuation of Persona 5 (but not the Royal addition) with all the story elements that made its predecessor great. Same great music, cutscenes, and camp. The straight up RP stuff has been cut a bit, for better or for worse, like deadlines, you have a lot more freedom to run in and out of dungeon. Combat is not deep as a turn based game but not just a button smasher (unless you out level stuff), think KH3 but you can only dodge. What's a side game for its main game is a full game anywhere else.
If you like PS5 and action battle systems then get the game.

[Val the Moofia Boss]

Utawarerumono: Mask of Truth - 7/10 (good)

The third and final installment of the Utawarerumono Trilogy. You can read my thoughts on parts 1 and part 2.

Doesn't live up to the hype by Gamefaqs and /JRPG, nor does it really meet the expectations that the prior game had set for it. The second game, and the first few hours of this one, really hyped up you up for a bitter war story. However, like most JRPGs and anime that are supposedly about "war", it's actually just another lighthearted adventure story dressed up as a war story. The bulk of the game continues to be fluffy slice of life scenes which the game excels at! It's just not what I was promised. However, it was still nonetheless enjoyable... up until the last 10 hours (in a 70 hour long game), at which point the story totally the shark.

If there is one thing in MoT's favor as far as anime/JRPG war stories goes, I was pleasantly surprised by the decent amount of character deaths. I just wish one or two of your party members had bit the bullet along the way. I felt the same way about Prelude; I felt like if someone was a core party member, they had plot armor. Everyone except the main cast were dying left and right.

The best parts of the game was when Haku was struggling with the mental pressure. I wish the game had committed to the "path of carnage" idea, with Haku alienating his friends as he became more bloodthirsty, or became more mentally deranged, or something.

Kuon was my least favorite of the cast in MoD, but she wasn't a bad character. But in MoT, she is infuriating, to the point of becoming a "get off my screen" character, and actively detracted from my enjoyment of the game. There are multiple problems with her: they way the narrative contorted around her. They way she got multiple asspull powerups that violated the canon established in prior games. Deus ex Kuon happens a lot. She is also far and away the least compelling member of Haku's possible love interests, and yet towards the end the game leans towards pushing her as the main girl, which was disappointing (a sharp contrast to Prelude, where best girl Eruruu was also the main girl, but that game had other problems with romance, which thankfully were avoided in MoT).

Bad implementation of franchise fanservice, where the story bends over backwards to accommodate the old cast, and there are several moments where the old cast swoop in and steal the spotlight from this game's cast, when there was no need as the old cast had already gotten some nice cameos before.

The music continued to be fine. The standout track is Tempests of War (which makes any scene it starts playing in automatically 10x more awesome) and its calmer remixes. The inappropriate use of crappy insert songs once again ruined otherwise good scenes.


My thoughts as I played through the game

Spoiler: 

Lol Oboro's mustache is real




love his smile

What is up with Fumirul's dress? She appears to have frills across her breasts... that are transparent? What?

Kurou is no-nonsense. He ain't putting up with this "let's pretend nothing ever happened" farce. I'm guessing he's try to prod Kuon's memories. I like him!

This recap-flashback has outstayed its welcome.

Awwww Kuon was reset to level 5. Disappointing.

The chain attack timings are really hard this time.

lol the first battle is impossible on hard. I landed almost every chain attack, but didn't have enough health to make it through the last enemy.

I like how Haku/"Oshtor"'s dialogue doesn't list his name, as he is having an identity crisis right now.

If the valley basin is so well defended that invasion is unlikely, then what's probably going to happen is that Woshis is going to send in small strike teams of assassins, and the masked generals, to retrieve Anju and kill Oshtor. There... isn't really a way regular soldiers are going to have any chance against Mikazuchi. So rather than trying to defend from an attack that will likely result in defeat, Oshtor should be trying to find a way to defeat Woshis and the generals, or get them join his side.

Oshtor should probably seek out Munechika first, and try to bring her in as an ally. She'd be the most amenable. With Munechika and Oshtor as mask wielders, someone can stay behind to protect Anju, while the other goes out and fights the other mask wielders and the generals. Or the both of them can work together to fight.

Uruuru and Saraana being given over to Haku was a high profile event, wasn't it? Oshtor can't have them hanging around him or else it's going to give away the game to any spies, and therefore, his enemies, the mask wielders and the 8 generals. It is imperative that Oshtor maintain the charade or else his enemies won't treat him as a credible threat and hesitate to make moves against him. Also, having two young girls constantly visiting Oshtor's room would sully his reputation. He needs to tell them to keep their distance.

"Nosuri the Bow Lord" has a nice ring to it.

I'm getting Trails of Cold Steel 2 vibes from this plot setup:

Spoiler: 

the first game ends with the head of state assassinated and the empire falls into a civil war. Protagonist is forced to flee from his home in the capital with his friends. His friends stay behind, sacrificing themselves so he can escape. Protagonist is blessed with a superpower that all of the other factions want to acquire for themselves. Second game starts with the protagonist having retreated "his" hometown out in the mountains with the Princess, and now every faction has their sights set on him, the Princess, and his hometown. Hopelessly outmatched by far more powerful warriors. War situation is bleak. Need to get the gang back together again. Also, Oshtor and Rean were low on the totem pole, and the other factions tried to play on that - or were envious of them.

Is Kiwru leading Oshtor's men to Ennakamuy? I thought they were doing what Ougi's group of thieves did and laying low in hamlets and towns throughout the empire. But if they're all going to Ennakamuy, then Oshtor will have a group of military experts to call upon for advise, and to train the Ennakamuy army.




Well, he's not here. I'm guessing Ougi was captured, then.

Ougi ON THE BALL! I love him

I like the subtextual/coded conversations. Ougi can immediately tell that Haku is impersonating Oshtor, and when they're talking about "Haku's death", they're actually talking in code about the real Oshtor's.

It seems that for the mission where Ougi and Nosuri rescue Kiwru, you actually don't want Ougi to dodge any incoming melee attacks, because dodging consumes zeal, and the melee attacks only deal tickle damage. So you want to save up zeal for the double turns.

... Except Nosuri dodging an incoming arrow actually gives her zeal. This seems to be inconsistent.

YIKES I just realized: Oshtor is an ace swordsman! Haku has no sword combat experience! And he can't just ask for swordsmanship training, or else the gig is up. If any of the enemy generals or masked warriors fight him, they'll immediately know something is up because Oshtor is apparently not using his sword. He can try to use the "I am using my fallen friend's weapon in his memory" excuse, but it will be weak because then it will look like Oshtor is apparently gimping himself for no reason.

There is an equipment stat? Interesting. I might save BP on Jachdwalt so he can get another slot so I can make him into a better tank.

*raiko presents his fake princess anju*

Damn Raiko. He's good. (Is Woshis in on this? Woshis has the cunning, but he seems to be truly loyal to Anju, so I doubt it. Unless this is just temporary).



Well, I'm starting to think that the mastermind reveal will be pretty underwhelming.

NOT THE MASTERMIND
It can't be Munechika, Mukezuchi, or Atuy's father, as they were wholly loyal and aren't cunning schemers.
Raiko and Vurai are opportunistic but they aren't master planners, and they were content under the Mikado, so they wouldn't have instigated anything in the first place.
Dekopompo: lol

MAYBE
Woshis has the cunning but has been shown to be in the dark about what was going and was wholly loyal... unless that was an extremely elaborate ploy by him.

LIKELY THE MASTERMIND
That just leaves... the last general, Tokifusa, who had barely 10 seconds of screentime once, and Rulutieh's father, who has been barely a footnote. Or it being a brand new character who hasn't been seen before. Yeah, none of these are very satisfying options.




goodness gracious this is going to be Yuzuha 2.0 "I want to have a baby" isn't it?




Oof.

I wonder if the mom sees through the deception and is just going along with it.




Looking at the title screen, I see 5 summons/monsters/transformations. So far, we've seen 4 mask wielders (Oshtor, Munechika, Mikazuchi, and Vurai). 4 out of 5 are from Yamato? Then this seems to be a Yamato centric mural. In which case, the 5th mask wielder or summon is likely also from Yamato, and since they are secret, they might be connected to the mastermind. The 5th monster in the image could be Hakuoro or Kuon, but I doubt it since they are from Tuskar, not Yamato, and there was little to no contact between the island and the mainland until recently. Therefore, the people of Yamato could not have seen the Tuskar Nugikamiswomi and incorporated it into their legends/mural.

For the hunt, Oshtor should pretend to be rusty and tired to excuse himself from using the bow to hunt. Just say "I needed to stretch my legs" and offer to carry the game they hunt.

LOLOL Ougi trolling Oshtor by forcing him to participate in the hunt!

GO FOR IT KIWRU! TELL NEKONE YOU LOVE HER!

holy crap he said it




lolol he confessed to Shinonon




Damn

BRING IT ON! DECLARING WAR ON THE REST OF THE WORLD HERE WE GO OSHTOR VS EVERYONE ELSE

Okay, now that we're actively trying to gather more men and raise an army, someone needs to sort out the army logistics. Probably Ougi. Ennukamuy isn't a bountiful land. We can't just have men from across Yamato pouring into the valley to be stationed here; the food will run out very quickly. We need to have armies raised in other territories with their own food supplies.

Was that Genjimaru? I can't remember if he was missing an eye (EDIT: looked online, yes Genjimaru had an eyepatch! It was him!)

Yup.

Swords and armor are too heavy for these farmers and mountainmen? Really? Maybe if the recruits were puny armed city folk who pushed pens all day, I could understand it... but these people till their farmland, chop trees, and pull tremendous drawstrength bows while hunting. They should be strong enough to wear armor and swing sowrds.

Haha "Mount Osh"




The brutality of using... flash bangs?

Not going to lie; I'm pretty disappointed how after they hyped this up as "path of carnage" and Oshtor accepting his place in hell for sending countless soldiers to their deaths for a whim... the battles are being treated as lighthearted Fire Emblem stuff, what with the fart jokes and Atuy's gag comedy. It just doesn't mesh well with what is supposed to be a horrifying scene about soldiers burning to death. Remember how a similar massacre at the end of Mask of Deception was treated more seriously?

Uh, Mikazuchi, Raiko, Vurai, and Munechika all did the same thing during the war against Uzurushan.

Is Dekopompo's secret weapon a Tatari? Wouldn't it slip through the cracks, though? Or is it a Boro-Gigiri?




Oh yesss.... do it.




Nice!




96 attack stat? That's going to freaking one shot anything it hits. And Oshtor's turn isn't before the boss', so Oshtor can't nerf the boss' attack stat.

Annnnd OFCOURSE he has a huge AoE! Oof I'm going to lose half of my party before I can even make a move, aren't I? I really hate it when this series does that.

We can't allow the beast to flee, or it will ravage the country side. If it's too dangerous for the group to take down, the Oshtor needs to transform and kill it.

The Mikazuchi confrontation is very tense.

Oshtor, transform immediately!

fuck fuck he knows

I like how the fight was just one stroke.

The Mikazuchi confrontation was really straight.

No, I don't want 5 minutes of Maro and Haku flashbacks. Get on with it!

(Maro sulking over Haku and Oshtor is pretty good, though)

How did Oshtor manage to take his mask off, then? Unless the mask is only perma-glued to the faces of regular humans?

Called it.

So Oshtor can potentially become up to 70% stronger than the others? The real question is, whether or not drawing upon the full power of the mask will kill him like it did with Ukon.


NSFW

Spoiler: 

... what on earth is that outfit? That is your maid outfit? What? More like your underwear! Seriously, you're wearing a GOLDEN NECKLACE! These people are poor! You stand out! That's not being undercover!

Seriously. WHAT IS THAT OUTFIT? WHY? I want to punch Oshtor in the face for allowing her to apparently walk through the middle of town on the way to mom's house in that outfit.




... SHE IS WEARING A GOLDEN NECKLACE! AND GOLDEN BRACELETS! In a country of poor people! Ofcourse they'd know she is the princess!

... Huh; my characters are level 15-16, but I'm only 15 hours into the game. The first two games ended with my characters around levels 27-29. So am I half way through Mask of Truth already? That'd mean that the game would only be 30 hours long (while Prelude was 60 and Deception was 50). Hmph. And the Mastermind hasn't even been revealed yet. I'm guessing that the party's level might be around the high 30s by the time we reach the ending?

The Jachdwalt-Jammachiry scene is pretty good, but the music ruins it. Should have had no music and let the dialogue speak for itself.




They're setting up Ennukamuy as their base of operations inside of Yamato.

Kuon, you moron. You fucking moron.

Can't wait for Kuon to get a taste of her own medicine. She's in a for a rude awakening.

Welp, be careful for what you wish for!




Speak for yourself, lady.




ffs Kuon you're not Aizen.




No. Iceman did NOT have a genetically engineered superhuman body. Hakuoro was just a regular human whose SOUL merged with the Iceman's SOUL. Hakuoro - and his descendents - should be normal humans. They may be able to transform, but their normal bodily forms should be that of a normal human's. So if Anju's blow was on par with Vurai's... then, sorry Kuon. There is no way you could have blocked that without transforming. It's just not happening.




You're so full of yourself.

I know that they're probably going to pull a "Kuon realizes she was full of herself" redemption arc or something, and then everything will be happy again, but... no. Fuck you Kuon.

This scene went for 2 or 3 times as long as it should have been.

lolol berserk quote

Okay, that was a satisfying ending. But the first part went for waaaaayyyy too long.

lololol Kurou

LOLOLOL Benawi's trolling Kurou

Okay, look. I'm 20 hours into this game. Where is the war I was promised? I like the slice of life shenagains, but I was under the impression that this game would have high tension all the way through, as the Eight Pillars and the other mask wielders jump on Ennukamuy and there are invasions and assassins coming, and Oshtor would be trying to run a gureillaw warfare campaign and try to find new allies. But instead, there has been... maybe half an hour of that, and the game has paid lip service to the idea of there being a war or stakes.

The "twins trying to seduce Haku/Oshtor" joke is getting a little old.

Are Raiko and Woshis mindcontrolling Maro? With Wrath of Khan mindcontrol bugs? They're going to have Maro infilitrate Ennakamuy?




Perhaps they are sending out a handful of mask wielders, rather than a whole army?

ffs Anju keep your robes on!

It feels stupid that the beast wiped out AN ENTIRE GARRISON SINGLEHANDEDLY, LEAVING NO SURVIVORS, and yet Oshtor and friends take it down with zero casualties.

I see no people escorting the wagon. Does it contain a bomb?




Munechika asking the right question. Seriously.

BOING BOING LOL

lol Fumirul and Kuon is literally the Alfin and Elise dynamic from Trails of Cold Steel.

lolol we've gone full blown late 2000's/2010s harem anime. Kuon, Rulutieh, the twins, Anju, Fumirul, and now Munechika have joined the Oshtor harem.

I love Anju's faces

lolol Oshtor and and Anju are about to get BUSTED by Munechika

holy crap Oshtor is being torn between two superhumans - Kuon and Anju - rip him

LOLOLOL Munechika takes one look and NOPES out

thank goodness he is wearing the mask with regenerative powers, or else he'd be DEAD




RIP Oshtor

I wish we had more fluff scenes with the men - Kiwru, Ougi, and Jachdwalt. Seems like it all revolves around the girls.

lol Munechika's room of stuffed animals

I love the irony that TWICE Raiko has been told that the man claiming to be Oshtor is false, and TWICE Raiko casually dismisses it, thinking he knows better. "Oh, Mikazuchi just wanted a rematch!" "Oh, the war has changed Oshtor!"

Lemme guess; the mindcontrol bug is in the tea?

lolol Rulutieh's family

Oh lemme guess; Shis is Ukon's ex wife?




Yeah, you keep talking about this "war" or "storm" that is coming to Yamato, but I'm not seeing it. There has been a grand total of... a one sided curbstomp (due to Dekopompo's stupidity), and... a small garrison that was wiped out by a monster. Over the course of... how many months since the coup? There hasn't been any skirmishing or smaller battles. AFAIK less than 500 people have died thus far.




I suspect it won't.

Spent 3 hours fighting Shis on hard difficulty. Game overed twice. Taking it down to normal difficulty. THANK GOODNESS EXP CARRIES OVER!

Goodness gracious Shis is joining the Oshtor harem! So... Kuon, Rulutieh, the twins, Anju, Fumirul, Munechika, and now Shis.




Awwww Shinonon has badgoodguy with her!

(the scenes where Nekone is struggling with her conception of Haku as big brother, and the kidnapping, are great)

Oh crap, I just realized: they gave us a 3rd healer with Fumirul! Which means... they can kill off Nekone and that won't upset the game balance.




Dude, there has barely been TWO SMALL BATTLES over the course of... 3 or 4 months?

I never knew about the hidden critical hits until now. Was this in Prelude and Deception too?

holy shit (brainwashed) Maro killed his family!

fuck raiko and woshis




lol

Tokifusa is probably the most interesting antagonist so far besides Woshis.

Holy crap, after losing half of my team and 241 turns, I just BARELY clawed a victory out of the Tokifusa waterfall fight.

Oshtor's harem count: Kuon, Rulutieh, the twins, Anju, Fumirul, Munechika, Shis, and now Nosuri. 9! NINE! I'm starting to struggle to think of anime or JRPG protagonists who were teased with that many girls.




Lol Ougi and his rubber ducky






LOL Atuy confessing TO HER DAD that she would have helped killed him!




This fortress appears to have a crippling weakness: once invaders are able to breach the outer ring, they can just cut the rope bridges, isolating the defenders within the central fortress and starve them out, with no way to escape unless they have airships or flying mounts or teleportation, which just isn't really a thing in this setting.

for goodness sake Atuy is joining the Haku harem! So that's... TEN GIRLS!




oh crap no (I thought he was about to cut her)

... Huh, now that I think about it, didn't Oshtor have fur at the tips of his ears? Since Haku doesn't... shouldn't that be a dead giveaway?




Haha




Badass.

Seriously, Kuon's powers are bullcrap. She's pulling stuff Iceman couldn't do. And why even have a boss battle where the whole party fights against Mikazuchi... only for the next cutscene to go "nope, it was Oshtor fighting Mikazuchi in a duel the whole time while the team stood off to the side watching... until Kuon with her magic bullshit walked in and resolved everything.

Shut up Kuon. No one wants your self righteous Picard speeches.

Worst case scenario: Raiko intends to spite Oshtor. He will lure the enemy into the capital, and then burn/nuke it as one final act of defiance.

Did Raiko invent muskets? Cannons?




"appears to be"... Is she Honoka?

Shut up Kuon. Oshtor's plan to use the mask to transform and destroy the mortars is sensible, and probably the best plan they have at this point.




What about all the men you killed, throwing themselves time after time against OSHTOR? You know, the guy who has been steamrolling through Imperial forces? You've fought Oshtor three times, and three times he has completely wiped out your squad. Are you going to avenge them? Or are you going to take the hint and STOP THROWING PEOPLE AT ME SO MORE PEOPLE DIE MEANINGLESSLY?

The sabatouer is likely Honoka and her maid. Woshis is already committed against Anju and has no reason to switch sides now. Touka and Karulau have no reason to get involved, nor would they be able to know how the weapons work, where they are, or have the ability to reach them and escape unscathed.




Well, that's a man's voice. Has the same general figure as Woshis, but his voice is too deep to be him.

Oh, are these guys connected to the conspiracy that assassinated the Mikado and tried to assassinate Anju? Are they also the assassins who jumped on Kuon at the end of Mask of Deception? Only took 53 hours of game time to get back to this subplot!

What? The little twin brothers? But I can't think of any hints prior to this reveal. Well... huh, they both have white hair and grey eyes, like the twin sisters? Are they also clones created by a human scientist?

Wait, so Raiko was the mastermind? Really? I thought he was just an opportunist who took advantage of a situation that was created by the conspiracy. But... wait; that doesn't make sense, because why would Raiko have his servant sabotoge his own mortar? So Raiko wasn't apart of the conspirators to kill the Mikado and Anju and really is just an opportunist. So the conspirators aren't trying to kill Mikazuchi; Raiko is.

GIVE MARO A HUG!

It's Raiko's attendant, isn't it? Posing as Anju and trying to assassinate Oshtor?

Noooooo Maro




WTH is this logic? This sounds like a high schooler discovering nihilism for the first time.




Spoken by a man without a shred of faith in his bones, which shouldn't be possible when he has grown up in a near totally monothiestic society. Also, this is a rather satanic arguement.

Raiko's transformation looks like Vurai.




Uh, aren't you forgetting Woshis? And the assassins?

Hmph. So Woshis was in on the conspiracy all along, and was just pretending to be shocked by Oshtor's betrayl so Vurai would overhear, kicking off the coup. I was hoping he was truly loyal. We still need to find out how the Mikado was poisoned, and how Woshis can apparently use illusion magic (which he used to get Anju poisoned, and why he never used it again?). I presume Woshis found out about the history of humanity by studying ruins?




Wait, so Tuskar doesn't control the entire island? Why did it paint the entire island in one color with just Tuskar's name on it? This is very confusing. Why didn't the map show the borders of other countries on the island, then?




Burned!




Um, no. The orphanage existed prior to Ulthury taking it over.

So I guess they retconned Prelude's ending which had Hakuoro coming back to Eruruu. Now the canon is that he remained sealed away the whole time?

Why does Hakuoro have telepathy now? And seriously; how did he know about Haku?




Hm... if the Mikado created clones of his wife and daughter, could he have created a clone of his brother in law? A clone of Haku? Woshis appears to have the same hair and eye color as Haku, and the clothes he is wearing have the same color palatte as the clothes Haku wore in Mask of Deception. But his voice is not Haku's.

Holy shit I was right. Keiji Fujiwara really had range! EDIT: or not?

How did the rest of the gang even make it into the shrine?

I see that I can't equip anything on Mikazuchi, so I'm guessing he's going to die right after this battle.

Okay, in Prelude, Hakuoro was the only one who could wear the mask, because he was a human. The demi-humans, if they tried donning the mask, or copies of Hakuoro's mask, would be warped into those undead abominations. Anju just tried to put on Hakuoro's mask, but didn't transform. Was she saved from a horrible fate because she was genetically engineered by the Mikado? If anyone else besides Anju or Haku had worn it, they would have suffered a horrible fate. Except maybe Kuon, as she has Hakuoro's blood in her.

lolol they have freaking stargates




lolol they're doing the stupid code geass "I prerecorded my side of a five minute long conversation with you!"

Kuon, being 50% demihuman, shouldn't be completely immune to Woshis' command to kneel.

Moznu is still alive? After he was framed to be executed... what? Half a year ago? A year ago?

rip purple boy




holy shit, this is like the end of FF8's disc 3, but if they actually had followed through on the apoclaypse. Well, I'm sure everyone will be reverted back to their original selves by the end of the game. Remember, Karulau and Touka are still in the capital. The game isn't going to end with two fan favorites from Prelude being doomed as Tatari forever.




That's... an average of 5 degrees farenheit? With no spring for years? That's a death sentence for humanity! No way they will go through with it.

Oh wow, they're actually going to do it? Nuke the capital and kill everyone off over the next few years due to cold and starvation? Are we going back to Ennakamuy and going to watch the world whither away from there?

Why isn't anyone grieving at the shock of literally EVERYONE IN THE CAPITAL HAVING DIED? Kiwru, what if your grandfather and your retainers were in the capital? Anju, what about your maids? Ougi, what about your subordinates? Nosuri, what about your clansmen who were in the capital because you were? Kuon, what about Touka and Karulau who ran the inn? Jachdwalt, what about Shinonon? Haku, what about your conscience, about having killed tens of thousands of people and having doomed the world? What about freaking out about the impending ice age? Feels like we just went to a slice of life summer vacation camping trip.

wait... did Kuon and Haku do it?




What is that weapon you are using? Is that a pair of pliers you are holding backwards?

Is that Touka? I thought she was in the capital, at the inn?

Are we about to get another deus ex Kuon?

oh wow Oshtor transformed, I'm impressed. Usually this would be the part where they would go "no, we can do this without resorting to that power!" and then someone jumps to the rescue or something.

Hm... I guess Touka, Karulau, and/or deus ex Kuon will be necessary anyway.

Looks like it will be Touka and Karulau this time.

Is it a boro Gigiri?

Oh. Deus ex Kuon afterall. How did they get the Abh-Kamuhs across the ocean from Tuskar all the way here in just one afternoon?

Oh, and she's being a bitch again.




... Seriously game? The new cast from the Mask duology are no slouches. I killed one transformed boy, whittled down a second to 30% HP, and pushed the third boy to transform. I was doing fine against the trio! And then the cutscene goes "nah, you did jack shit against them". But then the old cast arrives and suddenly they're inexplicably steamrolling through the monsters, and they are one shotting the transformed boys? This is BULLSHIT! I suppose the writers thought that this was an awesome fanservice moment, but it just leaves me annoyed.

If the old cast are THIS ludicrously overpowered, then why did they ALL come to this one skirmish? Just one of them could have easily handled this. They should be making best use of their numbers by having each person go to different parts of Yamato.

Annnnnd Fumirul had Munechika's mask THE WHOLE TIME? BULLSHIT! There were so many legit life or death situations where all seemed lost and there were humongous stakes on the line, and you didn't GIVE MUNECHIKA HER MASK WHEN IT MATTERED? Fuck you!

(Sorry, I don't usually swear, but this legitmately makes me mad at the game)

People, stop chit chatting. There is a freaking ZOMBIE APOCLAYPSE happening right now!

I had my gripes with Mask of Truth before, but I was overall legit enjoying the game up until this scene.




What are you talking about? Oshtor can crush them like bugs!




Dude, it takes DAYS to sail across the sea, and that's with the Mikado's special ships which are faster than anything Tuskar can manage. Now, events moved very quickly once Oshtor began chasing after Woshis. Maybe only an hour or two passed before the capital of Yamato was nuked, and by then night had fallen. Right now, it is still the afternoon. So, you're telling me, that in less than 20 hours: you went to the ruins underneath the capital, unbound the Abh-Kamuhs, found a way to control them/found pilots for them and trained them how to pilot them (or you had people trained to pilot them... when you hadn't used the Abh-Kamuhs for the past 20 years?), moved them out of the ruins, mobilized the army, marched from Tuskar's capital down to the docks, boarded a ship, traversed the sea in your dinky little wooden ships, beached at Yamato, and then ran all the way here... in less than 20 hours? BULLSHIT!

And how on earth was Hakuoro able to predict "oh yeah, 2 hours from now, Woshis is going to try to kill the Tatari, but he is going to have a freak out when he realizes he is a clone, so the Tatari won't be killed in time, necessitating the use of a nuke on the Yamato capital... which Woshis will survive, and then Woshis will begin zombifying the remaining population? HOW ON EARTH DID HE PREDICT THAT?

So... as we approach the capital, aren't we going to worry about radiation? Semantics over whether or not that was a nuke or an actual sun aside, the fact is that they were talking about breaking down atoms. Which means radiation. And with that much sheer power, the whole area has to be pretty heavily irradiated.




Why are there still houses left standing? They are made of wood! Remember Hiroshima and Nagisaki? The sheer heat would've set everything that wasn't obliterated ablaze. It's why the firebombings killed millions of people, because of the infernos!

And... is that an egg in the center of the crater?

Hm... this is sounding like Woshis has become the dark half of Iceman? But how can that be? Both Hakuoro and Dii were sealed in the Tuskar shrine.

Wait, so Camyu made it to Kujyuri... by midnight! So less than 8 hours after the Mask cast left Tuskar? WTH




... Isn't this literally the same model as the Prelude final boss?

Please, let's NOT have a 10 minute long goodbye with everyone.




Okay, wait: I thought that the Mikado said that he watched his wife and his daughter transform into Tatari before his very eyes? And the Tatari are immortal unless fried by radiation, but the Mikado didn't have the will to do it. So his wife and daughter were hanging around as Tatari until Haku nuked them a few days ago. Meaning that his daughter's soul couldn't have possibly reincarnated as Anju (like how the soul of Iceman's wife Mikoto reincarnated into the body of Eruruu) because Anju had already been created before the daughter's soul had been released via death.

Also, this insert song that has been playing for 10 minutes has completely ruined the scene.

Hm... Kuon seems like she is about to have a freak out. Is she going to transform into the true final boss? What, is Haku going to come back from the dead to fight her? What?




But Hakuoro and Dii were sealed in Tuskar!

This is looking like the final boss of Trails in the Sky SC, where your party are fighting a god monster while standing on an invisible floor with crazy weird stuff happening underneath.

Whoa, the attacks are suddenly subtitled?

No, stop. We don't need yet ANOTHER scene where Haku talks to every single party member.

god forbid my game softlocks or crashes again, or I'm going to have to do this three hour long true final boss fight all over again. I'll probably just youtube the ending in that case.

Is that... Shinonon, filling in while Anju is off somewhere?




Is that Nosuri is pulling an Oshtor/Mikazuchi and using an incognito identity... as a bandit leader?

Wait, is that Moznu? Wasn't he in the prison underneath the Imperial Palace, the same one Oshtor was freed from? There is no way he could have made out of the prison and fled far enough away from the palace to avoid being cooked alive by the nuke.

Overall thoughts on the trilogy

The trilogy was overall good. Recommended. For a 180 hour long trilogy, it was pretty good. I don't think I'd play it again, though.

[Val the Moofia Boss]

The Banner Saga 3 - 8/10 (very good)

I played the first game way back in 2014, and loved it. 9/10 great game, became one of my absolute favorites. It was one of the few games I replayed over and over. Couldn't wait for the second game.

The second game released in 2016, and... it was good. Not as good as the first game. The first game had great atmosphere, a large and colorful cast of characters, and a very tight story. I also liked the war battles. I can't think of anything bad about TBS2 - it's still a very good game - but I think that the story wasn't as tight. The game was longer than the first, but had fewer major plot events. I felt that there was a little more filler. Also, while almost every character in TBS1 contributed to the story, I felt that with TBS2, the side characters from the first game started to fall to the way side, like Eirik or Mogun. The only characters that got screentime were the mains from TBS1, or the new characters of TBS2, like Aleo or the Horseborn or the Ravens. Another problem with TBS2 is that for the Skogr caravan, you're pretty much retreading what you did in TBS1: journeying to a besieged city. Except we already did that in TBS1 when we went to Boersgard, so it's not as exciting to do it again going to Arberang. I felt like the plot was on hold until we reached Arberang (whereas in TBS1 there were twists and turns along the way to Boersgard).

One thing I really liked about TBS2 was the subplot with the Ravens. In TBS2, you get to play as Bolverk, the leader of a band of mercenaries called the Ravens. Unlike the prior protagonists, who were good people/heroes, Bolverk is a very selfish, ruthless, bloodthirsty, and rude fellow. He leads a band of unashamed murderers for hire. In a JRPG he'd almost certainly be a villain and his men would be mook fodder, but here in TBS2 you get to play as them as they get tricked by the good wizard into unwillingly helping to save the world. It was very refreshing.

Okay, now to TBS3. When it came out in 2018, I saw a lot of people saying that they were disappointed with it, and after TBS2 released I didn't have as much enthusiasm for getting it as quickly, so I put it on a backburner and waited for a sale. A few days ago, I decided to finally get around to it... and then found myself sucked back into Banner Saga, and decided to actually go back to TBS2 and catch up on the story and the game mechanics. I was very pleasantly surprised by TBS3. I saw a lot a people saying that they didn't like how short TBS3 was, but I liked it. There was relatively little filler compared to TBS2, and there were a lot of plot advancements. Almost every scene advanced the plot in some way.

I thought that the story of The Banner Saga was overall very well written. I usually finish an RPG or a JRPG with major gripes about how a character arc was handled, or plot stupidity, etc, but in this case I had none. I also pleasantly surprised by how TBS avoided several of the cliche pitfalls that plague RPGs, such as

Spoiler: 

• The Serpent could have easily become just another JRPG god monster final boss, but thankfully that never happened. The Serpent is never fought in gameplay, nor is the Serpent's defeat our ultimate objective. TBS does the LotR thing where some creatures like Balrogs are just so higher tier than mortals that mortals have no hope of killing them, so the Serpent really feels like it is an impossibly powerful foe.

• The ultimate objective is to fix the Dark Sun, and it wasn't broken by some ultimate evil or dark lord trying to take over the world; it was broken by accident. Fixing the Dark Sun was the climax of the story, and that too didn't boil down to killing a god monster either.

• The actual final boss of the game, Bolverk (who was the deuteragonist of the second game), isn't some dark lord trying to take over the world. Bolverk is just some guy who just hates your guts and wants to kill you. Since he knows you're going to the Dark Sun to try to fix it and save the world, he can go ahead and wait there knowing you will come, giving him his chance to kill you. Bolverk is mostly incidental to the whole Dark Sun/Serpent storyline.

• The ostensible main characters of the trilogy, the Skogr caravan (Rook/Alette/Oddleif/Hakon/Ludin/Ubin), aren't even the ones who save the world. They're stuck in Arberang trying to survive the apocalypse. The actual party of unlikely heroes who will save the world... are the Ravens. I just find it really hilarious that these murderers for hire are kidnapped by a good wizard and forced to be the ones who journey through hell to save the world. The comedy and the banter was absolute gold.

Sorry, needed to gush there. I really like how they structured the ending.

I also really liked how your choices from the first two games actually mattered (*cough* looking at you, Mass Effect! *cough*). There are a lot of continuity callbacks, and pretty much everything from the first two games is paid off. Except Vognir's death; we still never found out who killed him. (Apparently there were changes to the overall storyline in between the development of TBS1 and TBS2, so maybe this was a subplot that didn't fit the new storyline and was abandoned?).


I only have two major complaints about the game:

• The side characters of TBS1 continued to be irrelevant. I don't think Eirik or Bersi got a single line of dialogue in TBS3. It feels especially weird how the new side characters of TBS2 and TBS3 got a lot of screentime.

• There is no proper epilogue. We don't find out what happens to each character after the end, not even a sentence or two per character.

• *minor gripe, but I would have loved if the game had been fully voice acted.

Apparently the devs ran out of budget near the end of TBS3's development, and there was a lot of content cut. But given how all of the characters already have their artwork done, I feel like it should've been really easy for the devs to implement this stuff. The content is just text, after all. Even if there were significant storyline changes and the plans for the side characters of TBS1 didn't fit the new storyline direction for TBS2 and TBS3, I felt like the writers could've easily come out with some skits or dialogue for the old side characters to say. Really don't know what happened here.


Overall, a great trilogy, and absolutely worth it. It's short but good with minimal filler (first game is 15 hours, second is 20-25, third is 15 hours). You could get the next Tales Of game or whatever... or you could get this, and get an amazing, story dense game for the same length. Strongly recommended.

[Theangryone]

Guild Wars 2 8/10

[Queen of Hamsters]

Dawn of Man - 6/10 - It held me occupied for 75 hours, but after completing the "challenges", which aren't all that challenging, it just suddenly drops any desire to keep playing. Its citybuilding isn't varied nor complex enough to inspire a true "joy of development", and even on highest difficulty it's combat moments are more annoying than challenging.

It was charming and I had fun for most of the experience, but the fact that I won't be getting more hours out of it when Banished gave me 425 and MegaQuarium gave me 129 drags down the rating A LOT.

[AcidicSyn]

Subnautica: 9/10

Would be a 10/10 but the nature of the creatures AI can result in some interesting and amusing bugs.

I love how the story is delivered, the freedom to build and explore. Once you've played it a few times you learn the map though, which does hurt replay value for some, though not for me. I like to intentionally build bases in areas I've never tried to before. I run through this game every few months, love it.

[neik]

Star Wars: Battlefront II - 6/10

PVP is auto skip for me, because you can never know who is aimboting. When it comes to PVE few things that stuck with me:

-3rd person is always a win.
-Nostalgic gun sounds.
-Satisfying gunplay.

Few dislikes:

-Very short campaign.
-Laggy campaign graphics in certain areas.
-While it's iconic to SW, I really disliked space battles.
-It's running on life support and it won't be receiving any future updates.

The game is quite expensive on Steam, but I got mine with EA digital subscription, so no money was lost when I uninstalled it.

[EmmaRose]

The last game that I enjoyed playing was FIFA 14. But nowadays I like to play Ludo with my friends at home as you know everyone is stuck at home due to pandemic situation.

[Yriel]

Star Wars: Battlefront II - 6/10

PVP is auto skip for me, because you can never know who is aimboting.

It's not just that, i tried it some time ago and basically everyone who still plays is rank general, has everything unlocked, knows every map in detail, stuff like that. As a new player it's just frustrating to get into the game. Thats my problem with all battlefield games, you are either there from the launch or you can skip them if you don't want to get farmed by much more experienced players.

[Aliven]

It's not just that, i tried it some time ago and basically everyone who still plays is rank general, has everything unlocked, knows every map in detail, stuff like that. As a new player it's just frustrating to get into the game. Thats my problem with all battlefield games, you are either there from the launch or you can skip them if you don't want to get farmed by much more experienced players.

You get the same players in your team. While sure, you may be weakest link but that is what learning curve is for. But i get it, it is frustrating and im not a fan of it also.

[Thelxi]

Starbound 3/10

Trash game honestly. Shameless Terraria clone with the addition of some big ideas, all of which are half-assedly executed. It feels like they abandoned the game halfway through development too. It's still fun if you really like Terraria and have time to burn, but I wouldn't recommend it to anyone else.

[Yriel]

You get the same players in your team. While sure, you may be weakest link but that is what learning curve is for. But i get it, it is frustrating and im not a fan of it also.

I didn't mean to say it's unfair. I just think those games are much more fun at launch because everyone is at the same level, everyone uses the same weapons, no one knows the maps. You need a lot of frustration tolerance to get in years later imo.

[Mysterymask]

I didn't mean to say it's unfair. I just think those games are much more fun at launch because everyone is at the same level, everyone uses the same weapons, no one knows the maps. You need a lot of frustration tolerance to get in years later imo.

ahh the famous skillgap...sadly a lot of competitive online games have them these days..
Just repicked up Marvel vs Capcom 3 on steam...yeah low ranks are basically god tier players from when it originally came out and I'm kinda scared what the higher tiers are.

[Aliven]

I didn't mean to say it's unfair. I just think those games are much more fun at launch because everyone is at the same level, everyone uses the same weapons, no one knows the maps. You need a lot of frustration tolerance to get in years later imo.

It can be alleviate somewhat by good bracket system and matchmaking. So new players play agains mostly new players. But yeah, thats pvp games...