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What Video Game are you currently playing?

Cyberra

pain in the ***
Arch Tempered Kirin is a jerk. Even if we can't capture elder dragons we should at least be able to use traps to slow them down for a few seconds
 
More Akiba’s Beat! Music, gameplay and graphics are still rocking, but the story is becoming confusing. It’s less what’s happening and more the characters constantly changing what they think is the right thing to do. At first? Yeah, let’s go defeat the Doll Delusionscape. But wait! Kotomi has been lonely her whole life and couldn’t possibly even try and make friends at this point? Ok, let’s leave her be in a parallel dimension without food where she could easily be attacked at any moment! But Saki has a point in bringing her back, but her defence really isn’t rock solid. Let’s point out the errors she’s making- oh no she’s run away! Suddenly I forgot the criticisms I was making about her, she’s fine as she is! Let’s leave her to do whatever until she inevitably returns while- oh hang on! The Freedom Fighters are trying to kill the Grand Phantasm of the Doll Delusionscape? Let’s stop them! Oh but the phantasm is attacking us... let’s weaken it to almost dead so it stops attacking us in the presence of the people trying to kill it! They totally won’t try and do just that when we’re done. You get the idea... I’m just hoping that this craziness gets sorted out soon.

On the good side though, before all that, Yamato’s arc was really fun and the conclusion was surprisingly cute. Dunno what to think about Kyouya though, as he’s currently hanging out in an alleyway in Akihabara... I thought he was meant to be just an illusion? And an illusion who couldn’t leave the Delusionscape place nonetheless? Either way, I don’t feel like we’re done with Kyouya yet, and him and Yamato will pick up their plot thread again later on. We also still haven’t seen Kyouya swing that huge damn axe... maybe soon...

Also Akemi is just awesome. Period.
 
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Cyberra

pain in the ***
Taking a break from Monster Hunter: World to fart around in Minecraft for a bit. The console version, not Bedrock... Bedrock is just too damn glitchy and I do not want to lose worlds I've put so much work into to the current world corruption bug plaguing Xbox One players. Been working on this...

uL2l0k0.jpg


I completely underestimated the sheer size of this build, though. In the tutorial video it looked smaller. But actually building it and realizing the actual scale is a mudsdale of a different color entirely.

Still nowhere near finished. Main building's exterior is done, but there's a helluva lot of interior work to do and another building to be built before I can even put the water in the moat.
 
So my WiFi was playing up last night which is why I didn’t post this earlier, but here’s my update on Akiba’s Beat!

So, this game oddly became better? As in, “suddenly I feel like I’m about to cry” better? The part I’m at is meant to feel like a low point for the characters, and while I was only kind of getting into it at first, the heartwarming part afterwards that helps Asahi to start picking himself back up inadvertently left some tears in my eyes. The execution of it, along with the title theme playing in the background (which itself is a rather reflective piece) just got me, I guess.

It also helped me make more sense of what was going on with how the characters refused to take a neutral stance in the previous chapters. For the first several chapters they’re being dragged around by Saki, who is incredibly hotheaded and finds it hard to comprehend that any opinion other than hers can be just as correct as her own in some situations. She insists they destroy every delusion they find no matter what. Then Chapter 6 happens and Akemi asks the group whether they believe what they’re doing (destroying delusions) is the right thing to do. It’s meant to just help make the group reflect on how best to tackle a unique situation, but instead Saki angrily denies it while the rest of the group does a near-180 on what they believe they should do. The rest of the group suddenly realised that there’s another side to the coin, but in the rush of emotions they get with that, they forget (at least temporarily) just why they were fighting in the first place. Meanwhile Saki physically cannot believe that there is another side to that coin and storms off without everyone else. This situation leads to Saki temporarily leaving the group, and said group becoming unsure of how they should tackle things from there. Kotomi fills up their now absent fourth party member slot, but her guidance isn’t all that helpful. During this time they traverse another delusionscape, but without any idea of what to do when they reach the end except “stop the freedom fighters from killing the boss”. Then the boss gets mad at them which forces them to kill it, but then when the group returns they hear that destroying that specific delusion ended up partially causing a man’s suicide, which ends up leading Asahi to a huge depression as he gave the order to retaliate.

And then that’s where the heartwarming part I mentioned earlier happens - Asahi wanders around the city, and as he does, he ends up hearing how destroying all of the delusions has helped people a lot as well, and I stopped playing just as Mysterious Girl #1 (who is so obviously Mizuki’s sister it hurts) tells Asahi that as they’re in a time loop he can still save the man who suicided without the need for a fake delusion to keep him happy. The execution could’ve made it more obvious from the start, but for me that’s story I can get behind! This game still has flaws, I won’t deny - Saki’s still pretty much a golden child and Pinkun is annoying as hell - but last night left a much better taste than the night before that.

I keep forgetting for mention this but the character songs used for Imagine Mode are freaking awesome and they had better be buyable somewhere.
 

The Teller

King of Half-Truths
So now I'm playing Octopath Traveler. First of all, WOW this game is a grind. If you don't like level grinding, this game WILL turn you off. And for a JRPG, it rather lacks in storytelling. While yes, most of the NPCs have specific backstories to flavor them up a little, I find myself just walking up to them, Inquiring, immediately hitting "A" once I see that a new hidden item has been unlocked, stealing everything with an 80+% chance of success, and leaving, never bothering to read their story at all, and I don't feel like I'm missing out on anything for it, which is sad. The characters do not interact with one another at all until you start to do their Chapter 2s (that phrase makes sense to those who are playing it), and even then, it's completely optional, you don't get to choose who actually interacts with who, and it's only a few lines (in a quest that can take upwards to 2 hours to do). They also don't interact (or even speak!) during any side missions. For those wondering, I started off with the thief, and I feel like I chose wisely. It's very rare that someone has stuff I can't steal, I've never had to buy health potions, and jacking up his evasion stat to ridiculous levels means even bosses have a hard time hitting him. Also, even if you're reasonably leveled, boss fights tend to take at least 20 minutes to do. You may not be in danger of dying and failing, but they have ridiculous amounts of health, even if you're constantly breaking them and hitting their weaknesses.

The graphics do look good, the voice acting is good, the actual battle mechanics is interesting (if you've played a Bravely game before, you know how to play Octopath). I think Primrose, the dancer, has the most interesting storyline, just for how dark and mature it is. I just wish that there was more story to this game, that the eight paths don't feel so separated and isolated from one another, and there wasn't such a HUGE difficulty spike every time you proceed from a Chapter X mission to a Chapter X+1 mission (ex.: level 9 for a Chapter 1 mission, level 22 for a Chapter 2 mission you can take on right away, level 34 for a Chapter 3 mission you can take on right after).

I'm 40 hours in, and just wrapping up all the Chapter 2s, btw.
 
So I didn’t play that much Akiba’s Beat yesterday but did get some story advancements, and today I did a decent amount of story, so I decided to post now instead of yesterday! This game has started becoming consistently great, and I’m really getting into it. I think the turning point for this game that really began making it good was the introduction of Reiji, not only did he start showing up at around the time I was really getting into what was going on, but he is also pretty much the most knowledgable party member and helps to make some of what’s going on much clearer - and that’s not even mentioning him being really intriguing or that he’s voiced by Edward Bosco (another of my favourite Cold Steel VAs). He’s also got a mini-rivalry going on with Yamato and as they’re my two favourite characters I began freaking out because it’s simultaneously hilarious and oddly wholesome!

The music is also still great, and the fact that our main villain Kanon is now making full appearances is incredibly cool. There was a scene with just Reiji, Yamato and Kanon and it was awesome because they’re my three favourite characters... oh and I had to fight Kanon twice with my party at half its normal size, and since I stopped at the Asahi-POV bit I assume I’ll have to do the same with just one party member soon. It was an unexpected layer of challenge, but I quite like it! It gave me a reason to use Kotomi when before she was only in my reserve (as you can imagine, since Kotomi was in my reserve, I hadn’t prioritised upgrading her stuff, so I had to do most of the dungeon without her stuff being at the highest level... her and Riyu’s Kanon fight was the hardest out of the two I’ve done so far). I think it was playing those boss fights that reminded me how I find the gameplay so fun in this game, and so I’m actually really surprised that so many review sites called it flawed and the weakest part of the game. Maybe it’s just because it’s the first game of its type that I’ve played, but it’s always felt pretty fluid and fun to me.

There was a pretty funny moment in the meta-level though when Reiji met an NPC voiced by Ben Diskin... as the two voice Machias and Jusis respectively, seeing the VAs reunite was quite funny - especially when Ben Diskin’s guy kept saying “hey, don’t I recognise you from somewhere?”

Also I kiiiiiiiind of ended up shipping Kotomi and Kyouya because of an interaction in one of Kotomi’s Sub-Events so that’s a thing I guess-

Edit: I would like to mention something though. I do wish the game would be more clear on the significance of Sub-Events. I only knew their importance by researching just what they do, and it turns out you have to do every Sub-Event for each main party member (so basically the other six who get significance in the opening) in order to reach the true ending. Lucky for me I’ve done just about every Sub-Event I can so far, and I now have a guide I can use so I know roughly when each one first appears, but I don’t think others have been so lucky. You can catch up on Sub-Events in the last chapter but it flows with the story better if you do them as you go, not to mention it’ll probably make the end of the game much less of a grind. I’m also doing the side character Sub-Events, and they’re incredibly helpful. I’m also glad they exist alongside the rest of the game, as I love getting to know characters that are more in the background.
 
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So here’s my Akiba’s Beat update I guess! So I’m glad with yesterday’s play session, mainly for the character development of Reiji and Saki. The former is revealing more about himself while also helping to make sense of the story (while also revealing he has a younger brother who is much like Yamato, which makes his rivalry/friendship with Yamato hold some more meaning), while Saki’s own superiority complex and belief that she’s a chosen one finally came into play in a way I didn’t expect - having her actually be part of the problem, and knocking down her superiority complex by having her realise she’s no more chosen than Riyu, Yamato or the rest of the cast. If anything, Asahi, Reiji and Kotomi are more “chosen” than her, which begins to force her character development forward. Now that I’m getting into the later parts of the game (I left off after I’d stocked up on items at the start of Chapter 12, in a game with 16 chapters) the plot has decided that it needs to have more of a constant presence, and that’s a good thing.

One of the most interesting things about playing yesterday though was the elaboration on Kanon, and the reveal that basically said he’s almost definitely not the actual main villain. From the way the game’s being set up, it feels like there’s a true mastermind behind the whole story - someone who pushed Saki to Akiba, someone who has the power to create Kanon, and more. What I’ve speculated is that the mastermind could be Yamato, Reiji, Hazuki or Akemi - Yamato because of the situation with Kyouya, Reiji because he feels incredibly anti-hero, Hazuki because she has the time to mastermind something while staying in the background, and Akemi because of her almost suspiciously good information broker team. The former two are unlikely because they’re party members, but I wouldn’t be surprised if Yamato’s arc isn’t finished yet either way. I wasn’t my expecting myself to speculate on things this much, so I’m happy that I’m getting into it!
 

Cyberra

pain in the ***
:D Finished!

w8TgqhT.jpg


My biggest build ever. 70 blocks tall from the bottom of the base to the roof decorations, the main castle with a footprint of 51x39, and the whole thing with a footprint of 95x75. It came out awesome, though.

Now back in Monster Hunter trying to get prepped for the arrival of Behemoth as our half of the Final Fantasy XIV Online x Monster Hunter: World crossover.
 
I can imagine y’all are getting tired of these, but another Akiba’s Beat update. I may be repeating myself, but the story is still delivering. Reiji and Mizuki’s characters are both beginning to shine, and I especially love how Reiji’s friendship with Yamato helped with his character development. Chapter 12 got me to cry proper for the first time though - there’s no better way of doing it than the equivalent of killing off three of your favourite characters, is there... the way that scene was animated in full 2D made it even more emotional, and the fact that it kicked off Mizuki’s development/redemption arc was also good. Today I mostly spent doing Sub-Events as Chapter 14 really escalated the number from the previous one, and most of them were just incredibly heartwarming. My favourite was probably Yamato’s 6th(?) Sub-Event, mostly due to the appearance of Kyouya leaving me seriously curious as to just what they’re doing with his and Yamato’s dynamic - not to mention just how cute it was to see Yamato finally be open about his interests. Honourable mention goes to Reiji’s event at around the same part, as his also featured Yamato. I just love both Yamato and Reiji, period, their characters are so well-written!

Also just Kanon in general is great. It’s so interesting to see just how many reveals they can pull out of the bag concerning him, and the fact that I know the true ending’s achievement is named “Kanon Ending” (blame the guides I’m using for knowing that) makes his mysteries all the more puzzling. Remind me how this game got so many mediocre reviews again? And someone explain to me why it has barely any fandom?

Edit: guess I should say it here since nobody’s posting. Yesterday I finished this game off via the true ending. The true ending had a few good bits but was kinda confusing? It didn’t really feel like we needed half of the final chapter, and there’s definitely a better way it could’ve been handled. I did like the post-credit cutscene with the updated opening segments though, that was pretty cute. Ultimately while the ending was confusing, I cannot bring myself to dislike Akiba’s Beat because of it, because I fell in love with the world, the characters, the music and the better story elements. It’s also rather easy to headcanon a better ending, similar to what I did with PokeSpe’s RS arc, so the ending doesn’t particularly bother me that much all things considered. It’s not a game for everyone, what with the slow start, heavy otaku influence and said ending, but if you just want to play a fun, mostly lighthearted standalone with a good sense of humour after playing a long and heavy franchise (like me), then Akiba’s Beat might just work for you.
 
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Storm the Lycanroc

Oshawott Squad
Lately I feel like I'm jumping between to many games and forgetting where I was in the story or what playstyle I was using for that character. So I've decided to reset every game I own to ease this confusion.
 
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Phsy-Spark

your wish is my strong recommendation
Xenoblade Chronicles 2
i have only two non-quest blades left to get, both kinda spoiler-y, one with a .1 chance and one with a .25 chance. at least i got the one new game plus blade i wanted pretty quickly despite his .25 chance
 

Storm the Lycanroc

Oshawott Squad
After watching some lore videos for the Elder Scrolls series I've decided to replay Skyrim on the Switch. With this playthrough focusing on the Thieves Guild storyline and playstyle.
 
Because I can’t leave this damn game alone, I’ve started the postgame of Akiba’s Beat. Mostly it was card collecting and grinding in the underground fighting arena, but I am getting onto whatever the heck this mini-story is gonna end up being. I guess cat girl finally holds some importance, huh...

I do wish there was an actual story written around the trading cards though. Beat’s story gives us a vague idea thanks to Yamato and Kyouya rambling on about it, and the titles given to each card help give an idea of a potential role for that character, but nothing connects the dots. I know it wouldn’t ever happen because Akiba’s Beat has been pretty much abandoned to obscurity at this point, but it’s nice to consider what those characters did in their story.

I also keep making theories about Beat to try and solve the problems I had with it, and somehow I’ve ended up with a ton of headcanons to fill up spaces in the actual game. They’re good headcanons, they make me like the game more.
 

Darthlord7

The Smug Pikachu
I'm currently playing DOOM since I always wanted to get it on my PC and I have to say I got hooked to the point of losing sense of time.
 

Zoruagible

Lover of underrated characters
GTA V forever! Trying to get Kifflom shirt and failing hard.....
Pokemon Crystal
And Far Cry 5
 

Storm the Lycanroc

Oshawott Squad
At the moment I'm still playing Skyrim and can say I'm actually feeling invested in this character. I find myself trying to complete quests without being detected and gathering as much loot as I can carry.
 
This was technically yesterday but I finished off the postgame of Akiba’s Beat (minus three achievements that I have no interest in getting) and thus I’m finally done with it. The mini-story that went with the postgame dungeon was actually pretty interesting, and came up with a good concept that I think should’ve been explored a little more - not necessarily in the main game, but the dungeon’s reason for existence was just mentioned and then it was basically left, the characters didn’t really comment on it all that much beyond “wow, really?”, so I certainly would’ve liked to see more of the character’s opinions on it.

Either way, now that I’m done with Akiba’s Beat, I think I could safely call it my guilty pleasure, and I’d like to actually call it a half-decent game when it comes to the non-story and non-loading time parts. If I’m wanting to draw at least one character from it, then I guess it’s a sign that I’ve somehow ended up having a soft spot for it.
 
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