What Are You Currently Playing? 6.65: Neighbor of the Beast

[Mustang]

Ultimate Marvel vs Capcom 3
I hate this game lol. Jokes aside, the moment I thought I was settled on the characters here comes Zero and Strider to shut me the hell up.

I will always prefer swag over being optimal any day of the week. So what trumps swag? Mixups and Resets. To be more specific, Team Clock "mothaf$$@" work (Vergil, Doom, Strider) and Zero, Vergil, Strider. We know what kind of Mixups Zero and Strider can do on an incoming character. Those will always be great and dirty. Nah, the ones that I like, you usually see in Street Fighter or Gear when a character is knocked down (Usually characters are getting up the moment they're down or getting Hyper combo'd in Marvel). Zero's left/right mixups are stupid good, backed by Vergil and Strider should be illegal lol. Now when it comes to the resets, usually in Marvel people are going from throw resets (intentionally dropping mid-combo to air grab) but Team Clockwork is reset heaven because of point Vergil and his roundtrip with hard-tagging into Doom (can hard tag into anybody). It can set up for resets and high-low mixups. And I got hit by every last one of them (Dammit Clock lol)

I'm always going to go for swag no matter what. My style of game play though, can evolve if I can master resets which is why I love learning them. Take USF4 for example. My Dudley, while not anywhere near Smugs Dudley, I'd like to think you'd be able to see how I tailored my game after his. I'd prefer to be patient with you having the fear of "he can be a nut in the blink of an eye" So, passive rushdown in a sense (Wolverine is the perfect character for me in that sense since against most of the top tiers, you need to be patient, but he has no swag).

Oh, let me say this while it's on my mind. People seem to think loops and infinites equal swag (it's always been this way since the beginning of combos). BULLSHIT. They're hard to do, sure, but there's no swag in lightning loops. There's no swag in light/heavy/light/heavy repeat for 30 times. Takes a lot of skill for sure, but that's the most boring thing for me. Do a Doom TAC while Box Dashing in the air in the shape of a box and then you got swag.

Anyway, Clockwork got me pondering about using his team. It's got everything I want. It's just a matter of actually doing it now. Bump it. Lets get it.

[Mustang]

There's been a lot of games I've been wanting to get back to but don't think I'll ever be able to because Ultimate Marvel vs Capcom 3 has consumed me. There's just too much to catch up on. The meta, while still filled with Zero May Cry teams, believe it or not, is not the team that I fear. Sure, it's probably top 3 best team in the game, but I'm only seeing maybe 2 people (maybe 3) capable of piloting that team at a high level. There's a lot of high tier in the meta, all which can probably give my team(s) a problem, but the teams I fear the most are any team that has Haggar on them. Big bodies are a problem for me and that's in any game. Grapplers, my brain just melt instantly. Hulk+Haggar. I hate you. I'm still on my swag/mixup train and have come full circle with Spencer as well. Spencer, Doom, Dante is what I'm currently toying around with, but that might eventually turn into Magneto, Spencer, Doom. I just see that as Spencers best team (I can be convinced to say Spencer, Doom, Sentinel is his strongest team). Some will tell you that Nova/Spencer are bros for life and I agree wholeheartedly but I think Mags/Spencer needs to be looked at a lot more. I've been watching Mundank, who plays Nova, Spencer, Magneto. In my head this team shouldn't work, but the way he plays it make Spencer/Mags look kinda broken.

Dragon Ball Fighterz
Spider-Man: Miles Morales
Nioh 2
Final Fantasy 7: Remake
Tales of Arise

Just a few games that have fallen victim to not be played ever unless I'm in the mood and not playing Mahvel. That goes double for DBFz cause I really like that game but between that and Mahvel, nah, can't do both and Mahvel > DB.

I did get back into playing the Trails series again though (I have to. With Trails from Zero on the way to my house)

[Mustang]

Trails of Cold Steel 3
As much as I love this series and have replayed these games, man, this one in particular can fuck off. I have never been so heated at a rpg to rage inducing levels, ever. It's not even that the game is hard because it's not. It's more along the lines of being limited in certain things. I don't grind unless I absolutely need to. I don't farm because it tack on extra hours when that's not in my plan to begin with. It forces you to farm needlessly, but then when you actually go to farm it caps you at 99. For those that's not in the know, I'm talking U-material. Trying to farm for these is a bitch and going from 99 - 0 can happen in a blink because everything is tied to them. It didn't bother me the first few times back when I first played these game because I was following a guide and going by someone else's build. Now that I'm toying around with my own builds it's an entirely different story. First playthrough, forget trying to even go for everything unless you got time to kill. New Game+ you got things that carries over. I got all this money. All this sepith, but can't use the sepith for shit because getting tier 4 quartz cost this, this, this and this + 16-30 U-Materials and that's just for 1 character. Imagine trying to fill out a roster of over 10 characters And you're trying to give them specific roles. FUCK YOU! I've also been looking at this guide on character builds trying to get some ideas on a direction to these characters. Go figure, calling for all tier 4 quartz. Piss off. What makes this even more diffcult, you have the master quartz and sub quartz. Previous games you can use 1 MQ per person. That's no different here but you're allowed to use a secondary quartz to kinda combine abilites. So say I want Brigid and Scorpio on a character. I can't use that combo on another character but I can flip it, Scorpio/Brigid. This damn guide is messing me up because of repeated MQs on different characters so now I'm getting hit by a 1-2 punch between being limited from the game and this damn guide being half-assed.

Luckily Trails 4 remedies a lot of this. Call myself trying to get through all the trails games before I move onto Trails from Zero.

Then I lose wi-fi signal again. FUCK! I'm hoping this is because high winds.

I'm gonna go cool off and come back Sat.

[Mustang]

Power Rangers: Battle for the Grid
Gonna play this with my nephew for Thanksgiving. Specifically going to put the Green Ranger on my team. I heard earlier about Jason David Franks passing, and this'll be my way in paying homage.

[Mustang]

Gobble Gobble everyone.

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Shredders Revenge
It's been a long time since I've played a 2D beat em up. Think the last time I played one was when I was a kid (12-13). Anyway, I decided to fire this up for me and the nephew. We beat it and we had fun with it. I understand that this was made by the same people that did Streets of Rage 4 and I also understand that this is an Indy game, but this could've been a little longer IMO. Sure, you don't need 15+ hours of playtime, but 4 hours feels almost too short for me. And even then, for people that game as long as us, way too short. Speaking for myself though, this is not a game you'll see me play by myself at all. I can easily see myself getting bored of this trying to play solo. I think these kind of games are meant to bring back that couch co-op feeling and that it did for a little while at least. I may get the cowabunga collection but I'm not sure yet.

[Mustang]

Trails of Cold Steel 4
Man, this 1st playthrough (since having unfortunate internet problems causing me to reset my ps4 to factory condition) has been brutally frustrating. Most of it is much like Trails 3 and these damn U-Materials. Not to mention I'm starting to get burnt out again, so it's causing me to rush through the rest of the game (close to end credits). And yet again, trying to find sample builds for what I'm trying to attempt but a lot of Trails fans are just dumb and flock straight to posting endgame builds. Like, no shit, I can do busted endgame builds as well when I actually get the stuff needed. I mean, one person said they stick to 4 characters and I'm like, idiot, there are parts of the game where you're forced to play with other characters. What do you use for those moments? I guess I'm just getting to the point where I need to just step away.

Whatever on that though. Just about finish with the game and afterwards I'll probably take a break on rpg's for a little bit. Probably even take a little break from games in general but it might be too soon to do that since people are coming here for Christmas.

But depending on my mood I'll probably take my break after the new year depending on what game(s) come out at the beginning of the year though. For now I'll get back into my fighters. Starting with either Blazblue or Guilty Gear Xrd and a mix of Mahvel 3.

[Mustang]

So I've been watching God of War: Ragnarok. Story-telling, presentation is great as always. I'm an action buff when it comes to movies so this is right up my alley. That said, there is a HUGE no no for me. Me being the animal lover that I am, especially dogs and wolves (I'm also a cat guy too) you are crossing into a territory where I'm ready to come at your head should any harm be done and on that note, getting through the story was a huge struggle (Viking era, I get it, but whatever). Combat/Gameplay, I can only speak on so much since I haven't touched it, but it looks wild, like, some of the axe swinging looks sluggish. Now I'm actually going to give it a pass because it fits with the game. I don't think a Ninja Gaiden, DMC, or Bayonetta can get away with something like this. That being said, just by looking at it, I'd say it's far from being anywhere near "Great" combat, but because of Kratos himself being a brute, I like what I see. Am I going to play this? No (leave my animals alone, dammit), but I will buy it to support them. Thor is awesome btw.

[Mustang]

Crashed real hard on Trails of Cold Steel 4. Granted I did beat it, but just stopped caring to go my usual way of playing. Anyway, my nephew wanted to play some good ole Dragon Ball Fighterz. 1st thing, Android 17 is a lot trickier to use than I originally thought. His rekka's, while good, can get you in a lot of trouble fairly quick. Not sure if I'm ready to bust him out in real matches against anyone yet. Gogeta (both of them) is crazy good. We had fun. I don't know if he'll want to play again though.

I really need to find something more suitable for my hands. Both the pad and hitbox messes with my hands. Pretty badly too. I'm hoping to get a new setup some time, but with this inflation and rent going up on me I won't be getting anything anytime soon.

Single-player games, still thinking I may take a break from them. Nothing really striking an interest at the moment. Nothing in the backlog I feel like playing either (Might be because I'm ready to upgrade to a PS5)

[Mustang]

So my brother-in-law came sooner than expected and we ran some sets. 3rd Strike, Super Turbo, USF4. I'm rusty in all of them. I don't think I've touched any Street Fighter since March/April. For 3rd Strike I think I lost 10-7 (They were best of 4s though). Super Turbo, I got waxed. I haven't touched this game in forever. It's still as fun as I remember, but I completely forgot how to play. And because it's so basic and fundamental heavy this one was not me. No excuses though. USF4, it was me and the nephew. I won 4-0 but again, couldn't really get going like I want/use to.

There's been a lot going on with the Street Fighter scene in general, along with some bullshit drama, so I've been kind of down on it as a whole. Street Fighter 6 included. Kinda kept my distance from everything pertaining Street Fighter hence why I've been playing more anime fighters.

Speaking of, Dragon Ball Fighterz continues. I know I said I wasn't ready to bring A.17 out in a match against anyone yet, but I am still looking to build a team around him though. Right now I'm trying to see if him and Beerus have any chemistry I can work with. I don't know if I can say I found any chemistry between the 2 so far. If anything, I'd say I got a lot of gimmicks. To be perfectly honest, I'm not seeing a lot of characters that I like being able to go with 17 other than SSB Gogeta and I don't really want to use that shell. A lot of characters can make use of 17's barrier assist but 17 can't really capitalize off of others from my testing. Right now in my head the only characters that I think can go well with 17 and form a team is 18 and Goku Black. I may toy around with that idea, but it's not main team worthy.

Tempted to get back into Guilty Gear Strive and learn Baiken. Heard she's got some nice changes from the previous balance patch (the patch for summer I believe). Other than DNF and maybe Mortal Kombat, for the most part it's never the game I have a problem with. Majority of the times it's the roster. If I can't find a suitable character for me then I won't play. That's been the case for Street Fighter 5 and that's the case for Strive. I'm a character loyalist first and foremost. Gimme my character 1st and if I don't like what I'm seeing then I'll move to another character. Other than that Strive is bare, sure, but it's also fun and nothing wrong with fun. All that talk about Strive dying when Xrd got rollback btw, yeah, all talk. Some times, the FGC need to just sit all the way down and don't say shit. People go where the money at. Plain and simple.

[Mustang]

Monopoly
I thought I could get my brother in on the action but it ended up being just me, the nephew and the niece. Called myself trying to take it easy on them but both of them ended up running off at the mouth a little too much and I let the shark loose a bit towards the midgame. I' not gonna gloat because they're kids, but they learned the hard way, don't mess with a shark. In the end, though, they had fun so it's all good. May do it again either before they get ready to go back to school or maybe Spring break.

Tales of Arise
Finally getting to this, what looks like a beast of a game that's going to take forever to get through. I say that because it's a Tales game, and while it's not doing much in the "wow" department, it has gotten my interest. I tried to fire up Trails of Zero before this game and about 10-20 mintues later I ended up switching to this. I think I played 1 too many turn-based games at the moment. Right now, I don't see myself quitting Tales cause the gameplay is something I needed. Oddly enough, I still couldn't get myself in the mood to start up Spider-Man/Miles Morales or finish Devil May Cry 5. I may have a little something I need to get off my chest about AAA titles coming soon, but right now, outside of possibly Ghosts of Tsushima (leave the animals alone dammit) I haven't really been pleased with or interested in any of the AAA titles since MGS5/BotW. Anyway, Tales is cool so far. Not sure if I like Alphen over Yuri (Vesperia). He's ok in some areas, and get a little annoying in other areas.

Dragon Ball Fighterz
Boy, much like Mahvel 3, a complete 180 with this game. There is potential that this game could top USF4 for me in favorite fighting games. Right now I think I got USF4 in the 4th spot while DBFz is sitting in the 6th spot. Let's get it out there right now, this game has nothing on Mahvel 2/3, at all. Hell, if the roster was better along with the graphics, MvCI would be better than all of them (the gameplay is that good). Alright cool. That's out. DBFz is still great on it's own. I dare say DBFz shines over Mahvel in 1 category and that's the roster (O_O BLASPHEMY. I know, I know). I'm not saying that Dragon Ball has better characters or memorable characters. That's whatever to me. I'm saying that the roster (the whole roster of characters) are viable, if you can find a way to gel them together. Yes, Fusions and Lab-coat 21 are running amok, but if you can pull yourself away from rank for 1 moment and just try to find synergy between the rest of the cast you'd be surprised at how much fun the game can be and see how much it opens up. I've also been watching Wawa's youtube and he's been trying out all sorts of teams. I don't think anyone legit hates any of the fusion characters (I hate Gotenks though). I think the hate only comes from when you pair them up with "easy"-to-use characters (the meta term we use is brain-dead), so SSB Gogeta, UI Goku would see a lot of hate whereas SSB Gogeta, Yamacha wouldn't get so much thrown at them which is why I try not to use SSB/4 Gogeta together with Vegito. Seriously, learning how to use SSB Gogeta, 17, Jiren together is tons of fun. Watching Wawa use Base Vegeta, A.Gohan, and Janemba is tons of fun. I've been cracking out on this game.

Edit:

More cracking out on DBFz. I've been watching this training group called Whis Training Grounds and listening how one of the guys would break down a "perfect" shell and what characters can enable other characters and since watching said video, I've been watching a lot more tournament footages and all of Wawa's vids to see if I can compare what he was saying to these high level matches/teams. For the most part, yes. Something else I did end up finding out, especially when the game first came out, that everyone was trying to play this game like it was UMvC3 which is what we got now as well with Labcoat 21, SSB Gogeta, Vegito teams. When you take into account what WTG folks were saying into consideration (trying to enable characters to focus on your favorite character) then you're essentially turning the game into MvC2 (but instead of running away, you are constantly keeping the pressure on, or playing like you on that high octane ish). It's hard to explain it but using this little method I've got 3 main characters and looking to make 9 teams. Each main gets 3 sets of different teams. Adult Gohan, you already know I can't distance myself from the sauce. Main team with A.Gohan is SS4 Gogeta, A.18, A.Gohan. The 2nd team with Gohan is Kefla, Gohan, 18 and I haven't quite decided on the 3rd team just yet, but that's the gist of it. The other 2 characters I plan on making teams around are Beerus and 17.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

Despite owning a Switch for the last three years (or close enough to it), I admittedly only just got around to Super Mario Odyssey, but holy fuck is it just as good as it's been hyped up to be. I know that I'm late to the party, but the simple charm of this game combined with it's creative brilliance that shines in a way that only top-tier Nintendo games do, is the kind of stuff that washes away all of my modern-day cynicism and reminds me of that child-like wonder that made me fall in love with video games to begin with. I'm a grown-ass adult working a fulltime job and usually too tired or busy to play for more than an hour or two at a time (which is why it took me months to get through a game like Elden Ring for a single playthrough), yet I have found myself almost neglecting some of my daily responsibilities just to get in as many hours as I can with this game during my free-time. It's like a fully realized modern day version of Super Mario 64, and it may very well end up being my favorite Nintendo Switch game.

As someone who considers myself more of a Zelda fan than a Mario fan, I can already say that I like this better as a modern Mario game than Breath of the Wild as a modern Zelda game. Just to be clear I do like Breath of the Wild, but I've gone on record saying that it's personally not my favorite direction for the series, even though I respect its ambition. Odyssey is everything I love about Mario, Nintendo, Platformers, and Exploration games distilled into a single awesome package. I can't believe that I waited this long to play this game. Out of all the games from the previous console generation, I could very possibly see this tying with Devil May Cry 5 as my number one favorite, and that's high fucking praise coming from me.

[Avaitor]

I'm glad you enjoyed Mario Odyssey, it's really a lovely game, and it's one I keep meaning to go back and 100%, alongside BOTW and Tropical Freeze. The Switch has been very good for Nintendo's main franchises, with most of them receiving at least one high tier title. I think Donkey Kong and Star Fox are the only ones which haven't, but the former at least has a port of TF to tide fans who skipped the Wii-U over. I have a feeling that we'll probably get another Star Fox game as good as 64 again, though.

Which reminds me, one of my few "fun" gifts for Christmas this year was a copy of Kirby and the Forgotten Land, which I hope to get to... after I go through some more of my backlog. I think after I finish either Metroid Dread or Xenoblade, I need to get to Super Mario 3D World first. I'm also booting Hades back up in excitement of the sequel.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

I've 100%'ed every Zelda game that I have played (I haven't played Adventure of Link or the original DS games) except for Breath of the Wild, and I don't think that I ever will with the 900 Korok seeds and countless other collectibles strewn everywhere around it's world. I can definitely see myself replaying it, but 100% just ain't happening for me.

I probably won't 100% Odyssey, but I will most likely at least collect 500 Power Moons to reach the game's true final level.

[Mustang]

Dragonball Xenoverse 2
Oh dear God, why do I continuously comeback to this hellhole to put up with this torture? The only answer I could come up with is that I must be some sort of masochist or something. Truth be told, it's the only game in my catalog (backlog included) to hold me over until Persona 3 and 4 comes to the PS4, that is if I don't break first, and considering all the hit-detection issues and not facing the right way and charged up attacks (that I never do) I'm definitely on the verge of breaking point. For as long as this game has been out, I've never seen everything in it. I've seen the story ending 3 times. But when it comes to the new content, I've seen maybe Jiren and Ultra Instinct Goku once. The other stuff, never. There are something's that I'll never be able to see due to it being locked behind multiplayer (this has got to stop). Believe it or not, I think this type of game can work. Just get away from the arena-base fighter style (Hot-Take, Tenkaichi was never good. Copy-cats of this nature are the plague). I have ideas but I don't think there have been any games made with how I'm thinking.

Still going strong with DBFz. I decided to drop A.Gohan (It's been real homie). Gonna go for Beerus. Right now, I'm liking SSB. Gogeta, 17 and Beerus, but that may turn to Kefla, 18, Beerus since they do almost the same thing, in terms of enabling Beerus to get setup, but I think Gogeta and 17 may be just a tad more optimal. If I really wanted to be optimal I'd have to drop 17 and pick up SSB Goku and I hate Goku.

Now when it comes to streams. Let's see. Little blow up happened last night. Won't go too much into the details. Twitch streamer mods and chat got into it a little bit over something petty. It sucks because this streamer is connected to the other streamers I venture to as well as those same mods. For the time being I'm distancing myself from those streamers. Nothing happened to anyone by any stretch, but I'm at a point in my life where I just need to distance myself from situations because I know I can go from 1-100 at the drop of a dime. It also sucks because it was these streamers that got me into the likes of Among Us, Project Winter and so on. I'm going to stay in my lane and stick to fighting games. When it comes to me, when you burn bridges, you've burnt them. You can't come to me. I have to come to you (in this case, will probably be a couple of years before I do any reaching out)

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

Super Mario Odyssey may actually end up tying with Devil May Cry 5 as my favorite game of the previous console generation, and I don't say that lightly. I've gotten to the end credits after the finall fight with Bowser, but I of course am far from having beaten the game as there is so much post-credits content that I don't plan on stopping anytime soon. This is easily the most pure fun I've had with a title in ages, and it's that rare gem that makes me feel like a kid again and reminds me of why video games are awesome.