Sands of Aura. Action rpg in a Souls vein, kinda like No rest for the Wicked or Path of Exile 2? Anyway, everything kills you fast if you’re not careful.
Maps are islands in a sea of sand. Apocalyptic world, corruption, divinity, yada yada.
After cleaning up the first island, I’d suggest doing the main quest first because it unlocks stuff you’re going to need, however upgrade resources are kinda scarce and the bosses are annoying without the much needed upgrades so exploration might still be preferred first. Unless you’re good enough even with the default stuff.
The campfires are replaced with bells. Each island has one and they can be used to fast travel from place to place when opening the map right next to them. A second bell might be placed closer to a boss area, but it’s hit or miss with them.
You can jump and will likely jump to your death often enough to make you sigh with emotion. And the game makes use of the architecture. Jumping, climbing, secret areas found by randomly manhandling the walls, it’s part of the loop.
Bell locations are annoying. Bosses are annoying. The environment can be exploited and is annoying because it usually works against you, such as boss skills flowing through obstacles (unlockable). There’s a dark, foggy map part of the main quest that’s annoying. And the lack of a minimap or a local map is also very annoying.
You can see and feel the cuts to the game, but the idea is there. The Souls ARPG idea that is.
Anyway, frustrating parts aside, I’m liking it so far. Might give up on it later.
Ratopia
I can’t stop playing it since the release. I love to manage my underground town, full of mice and save them from the zombie attacks.
I’m playing The Outer Worlds. Pretty cool so far!
Lots of dialog options for stuff, as I’d expect from Obsidian, interesting lore, hard choices. I wish the slow motion mode also highlighted enemies with V.A.T.S. That would make it much easier for me to play.
I started playing Baba is You. Simple looking game but very challenging. A lot of times I feel completely stuck before eventually finding a solution.
Started a new fort in Dwarf Fortress. I’m trying to make all decisions based on the preferences of whatever dwarf is in charge.
Clair Obscur: Expedition 33
I was a good patient gamer and only bought it after the release discount was gone.
I’ve been wrapping up my first ever proper playthrough of Dragon Age: Origins (and Awakening).
I bounced off it hard back in the day, but this time around I’ve been really loving it! Looking forward to continuing through the series in the future.
Amazing game!
Advance Wars
I bought an Anbernic RG35XX H little handheld system and have been having fun with mostly GBA games the past couple days.
Nice! I’ve got a similar device that I’ve been hooked on for a year or so now. The GBA catalogue is so big and so good, no sign of getting stale.
I’ve already bought my 2nd handheld now as they are incredible value. Miyoo Flip V2 is on the way.
I’ve been replaying Ender Lilies recently. Probably won’t play through the whole game again, but I was in the mood to see it again after playing Ender Magnolia.
How was Magnolia? I loved Lillies.
I really enjoyed it. I think it was a bit easier but also improved in several ways.
Just started Trails of Cold Steel 2 after beating Octopath Traveler 2. It’s nice to come back to a JRPG where unit position matters. One of my favorite battle systems!
It’s a lot of fun. Round-less has always been my favorite way to do turn-based. I wish they’d do more with field positioning too (like the final boss of Zero), but the character kits are almost always cool and I like that they are always throwing in a tweak or two for the battle system.
I’m honestly shocked that don’t leverage that idea more where the terrain changes (unless they do later again in the series).
I started from Trails in the Sky FC two years ago and I actually regret not playing this series sooner. What’s funny is I got FC as part of a bundle ages ago but never got around to playing it. I probably won’t play the new remake until I finally catch up on all the games hahaha.
Yeah, I had to poke at Sky FC for a couple of years, and it took pandemic lockdown for me to get through it. I didn’t get grabbed by the series until Sky 3rd. So glad I did, though. Zero and Azure are some of my favorite games ever.
I like what I’m seeing with the scenes in the upcoming remake, but my replay of FC/SC wasn’t long ago so I’ll certainly be patient on that.
After getting emulation station desktop edition installed on my phone, I’ve been playing my definitely legally ripped versions of Wario Land 4, Advance Wars, and Zelda the Minish Cap. I’m on a real Game Boy Advance binge at the moment, as I didn’t get to play much of it as a kid, whilst also feeling that it’s like the Super Nintendo generation but with more modern game design choices.
Been playing my way through Journey to the Savage Planet lately. I meant to get to it quite awhile back but eh. Life happens. It’s pretty fun and doesn’t take itself very seriously at all, lots of humor and some very charming creature and environment design. Best way I can think to summarize it is like “what if Subnautica was really, really stupid (in a good way)?”, only it seems to lack similar base building mechanics as far as I’ve seen so far. Also funnily enough the sequel is coming out like this week or something really soon.
Hatris just when I feel like killing some time.
I started my first Terraria game since the covid lockdowns. Just wanted to show off something fun to my daughter, but then I got lost in it for a few hours.
I‘m playing GOD EATER 3 with a friend and TemTem with my gf.
First of all, I have to use a VPN to see people move in TemTem, I googled it and this is the solution, in decades of gaming and hundreds of games played, this is the first time I have to do something like this and somehow the devs think it‘s not their but my ISP‘s problem.
„Hello, is this ISP? I‘d like to file a complaint: This one game isn‘t working as it should, can you change how your network runs for it? No, it’s just this one game, everything else is fine. …Hey, you can’t call me that!“
I honestly can‘t believe it lol. It‘s still fun although the monster designs seem a bit basic/shallow and I can rarely tell what type something is and even less what type would be effective. It catches the Pokemon flair quite well otherwise. Especially the part where I gotta bend over backwards to find a monster that has IVs I can live with.
GE3 I started playing with a friend thinking we might drop it cause it‘s from 2018 kinda looking like a PS Vita port, but it‘s actually kinda solid fun. It‘s clunky af, we don‘t really know what we‘re doing and ignore half of the poorly-explained systems, still it‘s easy enough for that and the combat flow’s fun. Any Monster Hunter is probably a better use of your time though.
I am currently playing Project Zero 2 (fatal frame in america) and having a blast. I really love fixed camera horror games. I have so many memories of playing it with my father.
I use RetroAchievements for it too which is pretty challenging.
