What's everyone playing?

[Lesbunny]

Did some retail therapy and got Vambrace: Cold Soul. Seems pretty good so far. It's a Roguelike with a story, which is interesting and cool, for sure. It's modeled after Darkest Dungeon, from what I can tell, but I've never played it so I wouldn't know. This game gets the atmosphere just right. It's cold, it's chilly, the music is awesome. The art is god damn beautiful, too. It's definitely repetitive in the sense that you have to do the same thing several times before you can really progress, but that's not a fault of the game itself, that's just roguelikes in general. If you like that kind of gameplay, though, and just want a bit more of an overt story that seems really well written so far, I highly recommend this game. It's niche, but not as niche as 20XX and it's overlap between Mega Man and roguelikes.

[Russoguru]

Okay so I was exploring some of the special features of the Castlevania Anniversary Collection and I found the Japanese version of the original Castlevania. With this version you can actually play on Easy mode... which I was curious about. Exactly how EASY is this version of Castlevania, one of the hardest games of all time?

Turns out... absurdly easy. Of course this is coming from somebody who actually beat the original US release of Castlevania on the usual difficulty level. So I started playing and at first I didn't notice anything MAJOR... but I did notice one big difference. The second you pick up a sub weapon you automatically acquire the ability to throw it twice in a row at your enemies. What Castlevania really wants to teach you is to use your sub weapons sparingly... for the bosses only. For example an Axe is the most efficient way of beating the giant bat at the end of level one, The holy water for Medusa, and so on.

I also suspect this version also made the hit boxes bigger for the enemies and smaller for Simon Belmont, making it easier for the players to dodge enemies and incoming projectiles. Simon also takes less damage and enemies(including bosses) take more damage. With almost minimal effort, I blew through the game in less than half an hour, losing a grand total of two lives, and that's only because even on easy, making it to the final stairway leading to Dracula is still quite difficult.

When I beat Frankenstein's monster with such unbelievable ease, that's when I finally realized they seriously nerfed the difficulty level. Honestly though? I find it refreshing to be able to beat a game without having to struggle at it for hours, turning into days, turning into weeks. Death was also a cakewalk. As long as you've got holy water, I'd estimate you've got about a 95% chance of victory.

[Buckshot52]

Finally playing Borderlands 2. It's one of my favourite open world games but the main missions are keeping too busy and you can't have enough time for side missions so I'm a little bit dissapointed.

[Lesbunny]

Finally playing Borderlands 2. It's one of my favourite open world games but the main missions are keeping too busy and you can't have enough time for side missions so I'm a little bit dissapointed.

I took it by level. Like make sure that you explore everything, do all the missions per every 5 levels or so, and then continue with the story when it's good.

[Iron Curtain]

I've been playing a lot of Fire Emblem: Three Houses because there was a new Nintendo Power podcast that goes in-depth in the game and I want to make sure I’m far enough in the game to understand what’s going on. Also, I’ve been playing this game called Smoke & Sacrifice. I got a free Steam code in a giveaway and since I wanted a Nintendo Switch version, I searched for it on the eStore, only to find out it was 60% off the $20 list price for $8, so I snagged it up immediately! I’m enjoying it! I hear people compare it to Don’t Starve, but I never played that game, so I can’t tell if they’re right or not. What I can tell is that it reminds me of Diablo with a lot of crafting. Crafting may be a cliché game mechanic at this point but it's a cliché of which I never get tired, so like McDonalds, I'm lovin' it!

[n4turall]

On PC: Titanfall 2. Overwatch. Golf it because I can. Fe. SAO: Fatal Bullet. Rainbow Six Siege. Warframe. Vermintids II: Beta. Monster Hunter. Watch Dogs 2. Rocket League. Death Squared. Destiny 2.
On Phone: Pokémon Master, Dragon City, and Pokémon Emerald free ver. on Apknite.
I play games too much. 

[Pak-Man]

Well after spending about 20 minutes marveling at all the SNES games on Switch that I haven't played in ages, I ended up spending most of my evening playing Link to the Past for the umpteen-millionth time. Still love that the SNES library is open and can't wait to see what else they add.

[Iron Curtain]

Well after spending about 20 minutes marveling at all the SNES games on Switch that I haven't played in ages, I ended up spending most of my evening playing Link to the Past for the umpteen-millionth time. Still love that the SNES library is open and can't wait to see what else they add.

I've been playing Breath of Fire in between sessions of Fire Emblem: Three Houses and Tetris 99.

[Pak-Man]

I also started checking out Breath of Fire. It's definitely got its share of '90s RPG problems (Didn't stock up on healing herbs and antidotes in that first city? Well you're gonna need them, and we won't sell them to you in the second city. Better head back!) but it's also got that '90s RPG charm and a fun soundtrack going for it. I rented it for a weekend in my childhood and never made it very far. Gonna try to stick to it and see if there's anything to it.

[Johnny Unusual]

Meanwhile, I'm playing Puyo Puyo 2.  One of the great puzzle games (the original released in English speaking countries as Dr. Robotnik's Mean Bean Machine) though I wish Nintendo took a little time to translate it.  I want to know what terrible jokes those adorable monsters are telling.

[Iron Curtain]

Meanwhile, I'm playing Puyo Puyo 2.  One of the great puzzle games (the original released in English speaking countries as Dr. Robotnik's Mean Bean Machine) though I wish Nintendo took a little time to translate it.  I want to know what terrible jokes those adorable monsters are telling.

My Japanese skills aren't proficient enough to quickly read what they're saying, so even I'm lost!