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

[Mustang]

Wow, I haven't posted in this thread since December.

Anyway, with Ninja Gaiden 2 Black, and all the fighting game news that's been rolling out you'd think my time has been spent on said games. Nope. Another slump. It's not that I don't want or having nothing to play. It's more like getting the motivation to actually play. I've only just started watching fighting game stuff this week, so I'm starting to come around, little by little. I did find myself going down these weird little rabbit holes when it came to watching streamers though. Watching them play all sorts of weird games. Great times for sure, but sure as hell brought me out of my element.

Like I said, slowly coming around. I was gonna start with Spider-Man again but in order for me to really enjoy it I would have to delete my data and start fresh. No can do. So I will be starting another Persona 3 Reload run. I do wish this was on the Switch (I don't know why it's not on the Switch). I tripled dipped; Bought Persona 5 Royal (double dipped with Shin Megami Tensei 5 Vengeance) for the Switch. Figured I want to play more jrpg's on the switch and action games on the PS5.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

I'm in my Beat-em-Up phase right now, as I have no patience for long-winded ARPGs at the moment, and it feels like just about every major action game coming out now is just that.

Streets of Rage 4 is excellent and I feel like kicking myself for not really investing any time in it beyond my first playthrough a few years back when it came out. The combat is super fun and has great character variety, and it's satisfying as hell to learn to juggle enemies when combining air tactics with wall and floor bounces as well as specials. I also like how your special attacks don't just outright harm you like they do in the Genesis era games but have a risk reward system where you sacrifice health for using it but can regain it back by landing normal hits on enemies. Skilled players can use this effectively to chain specials into their normal combos without taking damage. Currently I'm playing on Hard Mode with Blaze. I'll definitely work my way up to Mania+ mode, though I'm not yet sure if I'll actually try to 1CC clear the game.

Fight'n Rage is one that also came out a few years ago but I just discovered through channels like TEG, but this is another gem. It has one of the best uses of spacing and grouping enemies that I've seen in a Beat-em-Up, and incorporating a Street Fighter 3 style parry mechanic really adds a whole extra layer to the strategy of this game. I still haven't cleared it yet because I'm stubbornly trying to beat my first playthrough on normal without using any continues, but so far I can only get up the stage 4 that way so I really need to get better. I could credit feed my way to the end but I've discovered that it's far more effective to enjoy arcade style games if you treat them like you only have a single quarter since it forces you to really learn and engage with the mechanics. If you simply credit feed your way to the end then the game just turns into mindless schlock, which is why arcade games tend to be underrated in terms of their mechanics even though many of the best games draw from arcade routes.

I'm also trying to get into Shoot-em-Ups but so far I'm just messing around in Radiant Silvergun, which is absolutely not a good starter game for the genre, but I'm more just practicing the first stage right now, which I only managed to clear once on Easy mode with the maximum amount of lives. This game is fucking hard and it will really take me grasping advanced mechanics to be able to successfully see it through to the end. I do want to try some of the more accessible Shmups, but I'll wait until I clear one of the other games that I'm playing before investing time in a new one.

[Mustang]

Depending on the game itself, I can always go for an action RPG, BuuuuuuuuuT, I do agree that there's been way too many and I blame Fromsoft, or rather, I blame everyone trying to copy Fromsoft. There was definitely once upon a time where ARPG's were specifically tied to Tales of, Ys, Kingdom Hearts, etc etc, before the souls games, so, yeah.

I just finished my 3rd run at Persona 3 Reload. I might do a fourth run, I'm not sure yet. I still haven't really customized my Persona's to my likability just yet, let alone, made my lineup of borderline breaking the game, and I haven't gotten everyone's strongest weapon (some of those probably won't happen at all though cause I just don't care)

Not sure what I want to play next though. Depends on how I feel. I may jump into Ninja Gaiden Black 2, or back into the Trails games (I've been putting that off for quite some time as well)