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

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

In the fashion of me being years behind on my gaming, and seeing as how I'm into fighting games at the moment, I bought Street Fighter X Tekken for cheap.

I love how the combat system is exactly like Street Fighter IV, and how the game infuses the more serious and "playing it cool" tone of Tekken with Street Fighter IV's more comic/cartoony art-style along with its general sense of humor. It also has one of the more inventive uses of the tag-team mechanic that I've seen in a crossover fighting game.

I may not get much multi-player action out of it these days, but I do love the Trials and Missions modes in these games, which offer up a sufficient and interesting set of challenges. Arcade Mode could be better, though. It ranges from ridiculously easy to absurdly cheap, depending on the difficulty that you select.

On a related note, I'm wondering how Tekken X Street Fighter will incorporate Street Fighter's more over-the-top style of fighting, since what I've played of the Tekken games feels considerably more grounded, just in the sense that the fights don't seem to encourage moving around the stage as much.

[gunswordfist]

Assuming Tekken X Street Fighter ever comes out.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

Katsuhiro Harada said as recently as last year that the game is still in development. He also warned people way back when SFXT was announced that TXSF wouldn't be coming out for a long time (most likely because he was focusing on other Tekken-related projects first).

[Foggle]

Bamco also commented on the game's status just yesterday, I believe.

[gunswordfist]

Tried out my free copies of Tales Of The Orient and Gunstar Heroes yesterday. They work well.

[Foggle]

Played some Salt and Sanctuary at my friend's house tonight. Awesome game! It's a really great mashup of Metroidvania and Dark Souls - well worth a look for anyone who owns a PS4. Thank god for developers who still make games with local co-op.

[Nel_Annette]

-Gave up on the second-to-last boss of Legend Of Legacy. Tried to push through. I hate the leveling system in the game and for an RPG, there's surprisingly little story. Most of the story you're going to get is in the first hour of the game. After that the characters barely speak to each other, there's virtually no exploring their motives for being on the island besides the character select at the start of the game and their ending cutscenes, and there's very few cutscenes that drive the plot forward. It's just mindless exploring of map after map after map, and while I appreciate that the game doesn't hold your hand at all, it's a bit much to the point that it's directionless. One area I unlocked by accidentally buying a map for it from the shop, and several areas I only found because I stepped in a very specific spot of an area and the character suddenly acknowledged they could see another area in the distance.

-Taking a break from Super Mario Maker. I'm ideally bankrupt and just kind of burnt out.

-Went back to Kingdom Hearts 1.5 HD for the first time in nearly two years and didn't even get out of Destiny Islands before putting it down. I couldn't find two items for the raft and... eh. I'm so damn sure all the PS3 remakes are going to be rereleased for PS4 alongside that 2.8 Prologue thing that I don't really want to bother right now.

-Went back to Tales Of Symphonia (PS3) for the first time in nearly two years (I'm seeing a pattern here). Made some progress. I played the hell out of the game back in 2003 and now the battle system is so archaic that it's a bit hard to push through. Game still has a soft spot in my heart, but school's keeping me too busy for a console RPG right now. That and I just mostly want to play things that don't require my ears. I listen to music while I game usually.

-Titty Warriors. Alright, alright, Senran Kagura or whatever. It's surprisingly a fun beat'em up from what I've played, it's just a shame that there's so much emphasis on their gross blob boobs. The character designs would actually be pretty good if there wasn't so much focus on that. Turned off the annoying "waifu having an orgasm every time they get hit or attack" voices and was also surprised by the relatively good soundtrack. Fun game, but there's plenty that do it better without the fanservice. No need to ever go back to it.

-Hyrule Warriors Legends. The most pointless game ever. The Wii U version does everything better. The loading times on Legends can be atrocious. I actually went back to the Wii U game just to play with the new characters. Wish the new Linkle and Windwaker stories were available for Wii U as well, but alas, those missions are the only leg up Legends has.

-I bought a discounted Final Fantasy X/X-2 HD Remaster copy for PS4 today.

-I also broke and bought a PS4 copy of Dark Souls III today. Was going to wait for some kind of GOTY version down the road (like Scholar of the First Sin was to DS2), but eh.

[Foggle]

I honestly can't enjoy Kingdom Hearts 1. I liked the second one a lot, but the first game just isn't fun. It has some of the absolute worst level design I've ever seen - no hyperbole. Every world is comprised of about 5-10 rooms that loop around into each other with no rhyme or reason. Deep Jungle is probably the most poorly-designed stage I've ever played in a high-budget game, consisting entirely of visiting each room repeatedly until a cutscene triggers, which then requires you to visit each room again until the next cutscene triggers, which then requires you to visit each room again until the next cutscene triggers, etc. Also, every boss except Ursula (whose fights are a special kind of terrible) can be defeated by using your party members as meat shields and walking behind the enemy. The combat in general is literally just mashing X and dodge rolling/healing occasionally. I give it credit for being fairly innovative for its time, but man, it's aged worse than most PS1 and N64 games IMO.

It took me a year, but I finally played through Bloodborne. As someone who beat the first three Souls titles multiple times, the first part of the game really kicked my ass until I learned how to properly play, but it's an absolutely phenomenal title, especially with the Old Hunters DLC. Any fan of action RPGs, character action games, or the Cthulhu mythos should definitely check it out.

[Avaitor]

Has anyone played Star Fox Zero yet?

The reception has not been great. 

[Spark Of Spirit]

If you can get used to the controls, it's great. If you can't, then it'll be the same situation as Wonderful 101.

That's what I hear anyway. Haven't had the chance to get it.

[Foggle]

I'll be playing it soon! I hear the controls are confusing, but apparently the underlying game itself is actually quite good if you can learn them.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

I went into my local Game Stop looking for Nier. They didn't have it. So instead I used my gift card to buy the Metal Gear Solid HD Collection just because. I'll probably try MGS3, remember that I suck at stealth games, and never touch it again.

[Foggle]

I went into my local Game Stop looking for Nier. They didn't have it.

They did do a reprint recently, so someday... hopefully...

I actually recommend trying the MSX Metal Gear games (accessible from the main MGS3 menu in the HD Collection). They're pretty rudimentary by today's standards, and the second one especially can be a little hard to get into, but I find them to be very fun. While some of the design choices are questionable, they're classic titles with gameplay and design that hold up remarkably well.

Also, MGS3 is extremely good, but it's front-loaded with somewhere between 2-3 hours of cutscenes that might turn you off. However, once you get into the meat of the game, it's simply fantastic.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

I've played and beaten MGS2 before. I can handle long-winded cutscenes, my good sir.

I played a bit of the game so far, but an hour was cutscenes/codec chats and about ten minutes was gameplay. So far, I still suck at stealth, but it's also surprisingly easy to run away from enemies on Normal difficulty.

[gunswordfist]

Beat Axiom Verge's final boss for the 5th time this week and got another ending finally. Flawed but addictive game. If you really like Metroidvania then you should give it a try.