While I get that yes it’s often a money grab, especially when it’s a remaster of a game that’s less than 10 years old (sometimes less than 5 years), there are times where it’s completely valid and justifiable.

Let’s just look at the very recent Trails in the Sky 1st Chapter release. Yeah we could probably just call this a remake, but in this case it’s such a faithful recreation of the original, it’s like playing that original all over again. But this fixes the accessibility issue this first trilogy has in that the only way to play it in English is either: PSP, Vita, or 2014 PC release. No modern console can play it, and it’s a very important story arc. Now us rabid Trails fans can pretty unanimously say where the best starting point of the series is.

Lol I feel like they added it simply because of all the people saying that of all Midgar enemies, there’s no way it’d fit in. Tbf, they truly jumped the shark with this one out of spite for what they could or should do in their game.

Sorta. It’s so loosely connected to the Dragon Slayer and contains almost no reference back to anyone before Trails actually started in 2004. Yes, I know, these are the origins, but saying “it’s not just any JRPG” makes it sound like the preceding series would be relevant to Trails too. I would say that the only games that you’ll ever see meaningful references to would be the Gagharv trilogy, but even then, not canon to Trails.

I think the more impressive thing is that Falcom has been making RPGs since before “JRPG” was a used term. Before Dragon Warrior/Dragon Quest and Final Fantasy ever took the stage.

Either way, loving the remake, it’s truly one of the most faithful remakes of any games I’ve ever seen, regardless of genre. It’s insane that at a glance I recognize literally every area compared to the original.

Yeah the reason for the naming is that the original games were Trails in the Sky FC (First Chapter) and SC (Second Chapter) because it was supposed to be one game. And the scope of the story got so huge that it would never have been reasonable to release it as just a single game. FC was a 40-60 hour game while SC was 60-80 hours.

The 20 hour gap on each is really how much a player dug in because nearly every single NPC has their own story going on in the sidelines and some people (myself included) actually end up following them all at every story transition. They reoccur throughout this game and later games too, so the attention to detail to keep an these things happening is fairly incredible.

To further answer your original question though, FC really does need SC to get a satisfying end, but FC is a beloved entry anyhow from all the world building it provides.

The series is currently 12 games and will be 13 soon. That’s 4 major story arcs that all connect, get referenced, have some reappearing characters and talk of those past events, etc. In comparison to more well known JRPG series, it’s not like Final Fantasy or Dragon Quest because this is not an anthology series.

Another possible option if you’re on PC is using the mod that makes dodge/parry window bigger or smaller. I haven’t used it but I know people who have and it can really change your enjoyment of the game.

There have been many games delisted over the years. That doesn’t mean they are deleted from your account. Prime example is Prey (2006): it had a lot of music in it they had to license from large publishers and when that license expired, they no longer could sell it. They then delisted it in 2009. You can still get the code for Steam on places like eBay, activate it, and download it. It’s very very rare that a game is both delisted and purged from CDNs. And in those cases it’s because of malware or other suspicious activity (like undisclosed crypto mining, etc IIRC).

You’re a terrible person. And thank you.

2 months ago I would have been curious why. But since finishing E33, I then binged all of NieR and I wholeheartedly agree now. I’d probably pay any price for another Sandfall game now too. As well as for any Trails/Kiseki game, but that’s literally it.

As much as I adore games like Witcher 3, CDPR needs to prove themselves all over again with Witcher 4 after the misfire launch of CP2077.

And I also loved FF7 Rebirth, it was almost a perfect game for me, but SquEnix really needs to make the impossible perfect game for the trilogy itself to make this journey feel worth it, so I’m so damn cautiously optimistic about the final game.

I want to agree but I suck at that game so damn much. It’s fun, but I struggle to find a good path every time.

Clair Obscur immediately had rave reviews everywhere, especially with users, and that was also UE5. UE5 isn’t inherently low performance, but inexperienced devs can make any engine run inefficiently.

I never finished Signalis myself but it’s a pretty interesting game. One that I always suggest but never see much anywhere is a game I got on Humble a few years back called MO: Astray. Seems really simple initially but has a really interesting way of narrating the story that I don’t want to go further into.

Okay I’m going to be a pedantic fuck and say no, tomorrow is the one year anniversary. Day 365 is just the end of the first year. Solid dedication though, been following the entire journey, even when you play games that I’m not usually interested in. I wish I gamed every day for a year.

Yeah I tried to redeem within 2 min of buying. They are selling this without any keys in their system.

I pretty much only play it one way every time… When I’m high enough level, I get Griffin Witcher gear, and when I’m high enough for Feline Witcher gear I stay with it through the base game and both expansions. I did go Bear once and it was okay but never felt as good as a set.

Yeah I’m considering buying it on Steam directly with the plan of refunding if I get a code from Humble.

Interesting, I haven’t had that experience with Humble Choice. Sometimes I don’t redeem for a week or more and I still manage to get keys. Was there any particular game that you had this issue with?

Just a heads up that if you try buying from Humble, they have no keys right now for this game. It’s very possible we’ll never get them with the impending delist.

Always loved Battle of Olympus on NES.

Lol I saw that Lenna’s Inception is starting later tonight. Reminds me of a friend who was streaming it back in like 2020. The devs had some kind of cloud feature they used to send him an in-game mail that said hi to him by name and thanked him for playing it. Was really damn cool at the time.

Yeah doesn’t happen for me very often either, but happened twice to me in about a month now. Finished E33 recently and it was a hell of a ride the entire time. But then after that I went on to play Nier Replicant for the first time. Damn, I need a therapist after games this hard hitting.

You’re below minimum requirements on VRAM and you say it’s not optimized. Well done.

You should! It’s a very solid game with a fun story. Just don’t play like my group did and end up on NG+9 on the hardest difficulty. We JUST quit the game two weeks ago to move onto other games, but now this drops. Lol figures.

Seriously, I keep trying to get people to get a taste of it, to the point I’ve even gifted it. It’s been fascinating and beautiful and devastating. Haven’t finished it yet, but getting very close and I only regret it’ll have to end soon.

The man is an actual genius, I can’t believe how varied the OST is, from operatic, to jazz, etc, every track just works. He is at the same level of genius we all felt about Mick Gordon on his Doom OSTs, and maybe better. I know I’m dealing with recency bias, but this is one of my favorite games of all time already, and probably my #1 for OST.

Some games really do depend on learned conventions from previous games which can feel a bit unfair to the uninitiated. It’s a double edged sword of avoiding too much tutorializing vs alienating newcomers.

As much as I’ve been excited about this content update, I didn’t know it required a server reset to get into it. Not sure I have it in me to start over just to see this.

The most? Nah. Yes they’re fairly friendly to modders, but there’s been other cases of publishers going way out of their way to embrace a modder or mod group. I can think of one right now where a massive localization mod team actually had their work used as the basis of the official Western release of a game.

You’re also forgetting maybe the biggest factor: library selection. We used to have a lot of choices, but not literal thousands of choices across all our platforms. If we only had our choice of a few hundred games, $80 might sound more reasonable.

Yeah, definitely not Larian, they’ve always been pretty open to players and other devs alike. And if they really do end up moving on, I cannot wait to see what they do next. Maybe a new Divinity game that’s as in-depth as BG3?

I’ve never heard that this started as a mod. Last I knew, even Witcher 1 was a licensed product even at the initial development. It’s been a couple years since I watched the CDProjekt documentary though.

Cool, thank you. What’s up with the bezel? Flimsy?

How’ve you/her liked the Framework? Which one did you get? I’ve been considering one for months but I don’t have a huge need but it’d be nice to have a solid laptop rather than my Chromebook that I’m running Arch on when I’m on my couch.

Made my jump to Arch (btw) a couple of years ago and haven’t really looked back. I have Win10 as a second boot option, but that’s reserved specifically for Game Pass and VR, but it’s very rare I boot it. Don’t care to upgrade even after EOL, and I’d never recommend Arch to anyone but the most comfortable with Linux, but it’s been a great option for me.

Never played Emperor’s Tomb, though I think I have it. I’ve played Last Crusade, Fate of Atlantis, and Infernal Machine, but never really kept up with anything after. Do you know how this compares to Infernal Machine? Loved that game but it was brutal and made me question my sanity repeatedly for continuing.

Yep, hard pass. I’ll occasionally play a co-op game here and there with friends, but as soon as you add pvp, especially if required, I’m out without regret and nothing will bring me back.

Yeah I also backed System Shock and it took so damn long. Was happy it finally released, but the experience like that gives me pause about other projects. Project Phoenix is another example of one that went on for years, but then ultimately fizzled out with zero product.

Still love this one. Have watched a couple LPs of it in the past couple years too just to relive that first experience again.

Oh hell, mine too back in August. Guess I’ll have to take it out drinking next year.

Yeah I heard something like that too, but I never heard of any success.

Every time I see a post about Spore, I get sad I never played Dark Spore (despite owning it) before it got shut down.