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Post by bbg95 on May 22, 2024 20:00:23 GMT -5
I completed the available sidequests in Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth. I'm like halfway through the game in terms of the main plot. I got my Hawaii party to level 30 with their main jobs, which is when they unlock their last skill for that job. I also have some much better gear and tons of cash from going through this procedural dungeon called the Hawaiian Haunt. The layout changes every time you enter, and it gets harder every five levels, but you can leave at the end of any level, and you can reenter at every fifth level that you've cleared. There are 30 levels total. Getting through the first 20 levels was fairly slow going because I was a bit underleveled, but my party has caught up. I also realized that most enemies can be avoided by carefully hugging the walls and running to the next room. This is useful to conserve MP on an initial run and just time on subsequent runs because each clear (e.g. level 5, 10) gives some good gear.
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Post by mikegarrison on May 22, 2024 20:03:28 GMT -5
Yakuza games seem to be known for their (occasionally very good) minigames. Minigames in most games aren't a highlight, but I keep hearing about people really liking some of the Yakuza minigames.
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Post by bbg95 on May 22, 2024 21:58:04 GMT -5
Yakuza games seem to be known for their (occasionally very good) minigames. Minigames in most games aren't a highlight, but I keep hearing about people really liking some of the Yakuza minigames. I can only speak for Yakuza: Like a Dragon and Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth. The business management minigame in Like a Dragon was excellent. I haven't spent much time on the IW minigames, which are an Animal Crossing/Rollercoaster Tycoon knockoff and a Pokémon knockoff. They don't appeal to me that much, but I think they're well done for what they are. I just enjoy the core gameplay loop better. The business management minigame was about as fun as the main game, and it gave some outstanding rewards (e.g. another party member, the most powerful attack in the game, lots of cash).
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Post by bbg95 on May 23, 2024 13:28:44 GMT -5
I completed the available sidequests in Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth. I'm like halfway through the game in terms of the main plot. I got my Hawaii party to level 30 with their main jobs, which is when they unlock their last skill for that job. I also have some much better gear and tons of cash from going through this procedural dungeon called the Hawaiian Haunt. The layout changes every time you enter, and it gets harder every five levels, but you can leave at the end of any level, and you can reenter at every fifth level that you've cleared. There are 30 levels total. Getting through the first 20 levels was fairly slow going because I was a bit underleveled, but my party has caught up. I also realized that most enemies can be avoided by carefully hugging the walls and running to the next room. This is useful to conserve MP on an initial run and just time on subsequent runs because each clear (e.g. level 5, 10) gives some good gear. I beat the level 30 boss in the Hawaiian Haunt. Even though the recommended character level was 39, and my party was all at level 47 with high-end gear, he was still a very challenging boss. He hit like an absolute truck and had an enormous health pool. Even using my highest-damaging skills throughout (mostly water-based skills, since that was his elemental weakness, though I was mixing it up some with other heavy hitting abilities to see if they were more effective), I had to heal several times throughout the fight to prevent anyone from getting KO'd. The fight probably took about 20 minutes and used up nearly all of my MP. The good news is that the rewards were quite good. It also opened up an even harder section of the dungeon. The recommended level for that is 50. I might at least explore the first few levels of it, since it's fairly easy to avoid the enemy encounters, and there's a save point before the next boss.
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Post by bbg95 on May 26, 2024 20:38:05 GMT -5
I completed the hardest section of the Hawaiian Haunt in Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth. There was some very good equipment in there that I used to upgrade my party, and then I embarked on the final boss of the dungeon. It was the same as the previous boss, except that he had four buddies with him this time. This fight took twice as long as the previous one, but I was more prepared this time. It was just a matter of focusing on one boss at a time, starting with the one that heals the others and the one that applies status ailments to my party members. Once they were gone, I got rid of two others before saving the original for last. His Destructo Beam attack still hits hard, but he doesn't use it unless he's at relatively low health. He can also be silenced, which prevents him from using it. I couldn't get the silence status effect to stick, but I still managed to whittle him down while keeping my party at safe health levels.
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Post by Wolfgang on May 27, 2024 2:36:26 GMT -5
I don't have a lot of free time these days but what little free time I have, I think I might play some video games. I'll pick ONE(1) from the following choices:
a. Inside. I already have it and started playing it several months ago. Don't remember why I stopped. b. Fallout 4. It's on sale at the PS Store. c. Assassin's Creed Unity. It's on sale at the PS Store. I totally skipped over Rogue, Unity, and Syndicate but played all the others up to Odyssey. Recently, I've been reading and watching reviews about how great Unity is. d. Sniper Elite 4. It's on sale at the PS Store. Like AC Unity, I've been reading about how great this game is. e. Resident Evil 2. The 2019 remake. It's on sale for $12.99. f. Weird West. Already have but played only 20 minutes several months ago.
There are other great(er) games on my list but they're not on sale (at my preferred price range) right now, e.g., Monster Hunter World, Red Dead Redemption 2, Ghost of Tsushima, Days Gone (although it's at a very tempting $15.99).
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Post by bbg95 on May 28, 2024 22:54:11 GMT -5
So PlayStation has their "Days of Play" coming up. You can get a discount on PS Plus if you aren't already a subscriber, but if you are one, then you can only get a discount upgrading to a higher-cost tier. And this is of course on top of last year's price hike. My PS Plus Extra subscription expires in a week, and I just canceled it. It's possible that I could get the basic subscription after that since the sale goes for another week after. If so, and I can get a discounted subscription to the basic tier, then I might do that. If not, I'll wait until Black Friday before renewing. The monthly games haven't been all that great anyway. And I have plenty of games that I own (i.e. no need for the subscription) on both my PS4 and PC to keep me busy until I can get a discount.
Another annoying thing about PS Plus is that all the Final Fantasy games were removed from the service a couple weeks ago. They were the main reason I got Extra in the first place, and I never ended up replaying most of them. I got pretty far into FF IX, but I didn't finish it. Oh, well. I'll just buy them when they're on sale. And between Guardians of the Galaxy, Kena: Bridge of Spirits, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Shredder's Revenge, Tiny Tina's Wonderlands and Marvel's Midnight Suns, I got enough value out of the extra $30 I spent to get access to the Extra games for nine months. The one game I haven't really tried that I wanted to is Desperados 3. It looks like it's quite a bit longer than I realized (25-30 hours or so). I'll at least play the first mission or so.
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Post by Wolfgang on May 29, 2024 22:17:17 GMT -5
So, instead of going with the six choices laid out above, I went with Hellblade: Senua's Sacrifice. LOL! I forgot I already own this game. The physical disc version was a birthday gift from my brother five years ago. He thought I might like this game. At the time, I was busy with a lengthy queue of other games so I ignored it -- to the point that I totally forgot I even owned it. It was the same about 25 years ago when my brother-in-law gave me Myst (PC version) as a gift. But I never fully trusted his taste in anything so Myst was squirreled away in a box in the garage. I never played that game -- ever.
Anyway, back to Hellblade: Senua's Sacrifice, because it's set in a Norse myth world, it looks a lot like God of War with all the same Norse terminology (e.g., the alphabets, symbols, Alfheim, Midgard, Joltenheim, Helheim). I mean, even the opening scene is the main character rowing down a river in a huge log (while in God of War, it was the protagonists rowing down a river in a canoe with a gigantic log in tow).
I'm not sure I like the game but I'll reserve final judgment at the end. Currently, I've already mowed down some enemies and made my way deep into this "heart of darkness." The combat isn't too hard unless it's like multiple enemies ganging up on you, then it's kind of a pain in the arse.
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Post by mikegarrison on May 30, 2024 0:44:36 GMT -5
But I never fully trusted his taste in anything so Myst was squirreled away in a box in the garage. I never played that game -- ever. Really? Myst was a classic.
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Post by bbg95 on May 30, 2024 1:09:13 GMT -5
But I never fully trusted his taste in anything so Myst was squirreled away in a box in the garage. I never played that game -- ever. Really? Myst was a classic. Really? I mean, Myst had very pretty graphics at the time, but I wasn't all that wowed by it otherwise. Even in 1993, there were way better games. Like, for example, Betrayal at Krondor, also released in 1993. Its graphics weren't nearly as pretty, but it's one of the best RPGs ever made to this day. Edit: I thoroughly enjoyed reading this: www.rockpapershotgun.com/is-myst-still-one-of-the-worst-games-everI barely remember anything about Myst myself, since I think I played it at a friend's house 30 years ago. I doubt I'll ever replay it.
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Post by bbg95 on May 30, 2024 1:20:32 GMT -5
So I decided to play Desperados 3 before my PS Plus Extra subscription expires next week. I have played through the first eight missions, and there are 16 total, so I should be able to beat it by this weekend, and then I'll go back to Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth.
I am enjoying Desperados 3. I think I like Hector the best because he can kill the "long coat" heavy enemies by himself, and he can quickly carry two bodies at once. His bear trap is pretty useful as well. I haven't used his shotgun that much, but it seems quite powerful for situations where you need to kill multiple enemies at once. The protagonist, Cooper, is also good. His knife throw attack is quite useful, and his two pistols can be used to take down two enemies at once. He can also swim and climb terrain that others can't. Kate is very interesting. Once she finds a disguise, her ability to indefinitely distract male enemies is incredibly useful. Her pistol is also very nice for stealthily killing certain enemies. I have used the doctor the least, since he's pretty slow and limited in where he can go. But his scoped pistol is quite handy for dealing with some situations that are a real pain otherwise. I haven't met the last character yet.
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Post by bbg95 on May 30, 2024 13:13:13 GMT -5
I just finished the first mission in Desperados 3 with the final character, Isabelle. I think she might be my favorite character of them all. This mission was really fun, as the entire party is captured. Isabelle uses mind control on a guard to get him to unlock her cage (I had to use mind control twice because he kept getting seen, so I had him shoot another enemy first, which got him shot and removed two enemies to make it a lot easier. After that, she has the option to rescue the other four characters in any order. The game suggests rescuing Cooper first, but I actually rescued him last. I opted to rescue Hector first because his ability to kill the long coat heavy enemies made rescuing the others easier. Kate was near the key that I needed to rescue her and Hector, so I rescued her second. I then rescued the doctor, since I had cleared out his area on the way and just needed Hector to deal with the heavy. And then I got to Cooper.
As for Isabelle, her skill set is quite useful. The mind control is limited to four uses, but she can find additional ammo in crates like the others can for their guns. I only used it at the very beginning and end of the mission, but it's good for dealing with otherwise sticky situations. She has a cat that can distract an enemy for six seconds, which I only used once, but it seems better than Cooper's coin. She can swim and climb everything that Cooper can, and she carries enemy bodies at a normal pace, which is nice (only Hector is better in that department). She has an unlimited healing skill, even if it is a bit slow (only one HP at a time). Her best skill, though, is her blowgun. She can shoot two enemies with darts to connect them. And then, anything that happens to one, happens to the other. This is perfect for killing two enemies that are looking at each other or who are patrolling together and made the mission significantly easier.
Oh, I also killed a pack of five roaming enemies that emerged after I set off an alarm (I only set the one off, since I just needed to get the key, and and it was very difficult to kill two enemies and hide both their bodies before one of the two roaming long coat enemies noticed, so I just killed them, grabbed the key and went to rescue Hector before waiting out the alarm) with one shot from Hector's shotgun. I should probably use it more often.
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Post by mikegarrison on May 30, 2024 13:22:49 GMT -5
Don't underestimate the usefulness of Doc and Kate for hiding bodies. They move slowly, but they remain crouched to do it, while Cooper and Isabelle and Hector always stand up to move bodies.
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Post by bbg95 on May 30, 2024 13:30:07 GMT -5
Don't underestimate the usefulness of Doc and Kate for hiding bodies. They move slowly, but they remain crouched to do it, while Cooper and Isabelle and Hector always stand up to move bodies. You make a good point. I did notice this for the doctor. His bag as a lure is also useful on occasion. I used it to get an enemy out of the last area before I escaped, and then I had Hector take care of them once they got to the bag. With Kate, she can't actually kill enemies with melee or tie them up after knocking them out, so I haven't used her at all for hiding bodies. But I suppose there could be a situation where Doc isn't available for this purpose, and I need to move a body stealthily. I think Kate is a very valuable character overall, particularly her distraction ability and her quiet pistol. But she's more of a support.
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Post by mikegarrison on May 30, 2024 13:33:18 GMT -5
Don't underestimate the usefulness of Doc and Kate for hiding bodies. They move slowly, but they remain crouched to do it, while Cooper and Isabelle and Hector always stand up to move bodies. You make a good point. I did notice this for the doctor. His bag as a lure is also useful on occasion. I used it to get an enemy out of the last area before I escaped, and then I had Hector take care of them once they got to the bag. With Kate, she can't actually kill enemies with melee or tie them up after knocking them out, so I haven't used her at all for hiding bodies. But I suppose there could be a situation where Doc isn't available for this purpose, and I need to move a body stealthily. I think Kate is a very valuable character overall, particularly her distraction ability and her quiet pistol. But she's more of a support. As long as she is dragging them, the timer does not expire on them waking up. If she drags them to someone who can tie them up (or kill them, if you prefer that), it works.
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