What are you currently playing?

[Herman Gigglethorpe]

I tried out Star Fox 2, which was previously unreleased until the Super Nintendo Classic Edition.  It's similar to Star Fox Command for the DS.  You select two characters, navigate a map while intercepting missiles and other enemies before Corneria is destroyed, and all battles are in "All Range Mode" rather than a corridor.  When you attack an enemy base on a planet, your Arwing can transform into a walker robot and move on the ground.  The controls for the walker can be a bit clunky, and the framerate is as bad as the original Star Fox, but it's still fun to play.  You'll see where much of the inspiration for Star Fox 64 and Command came from if you try it out.

The characters have different abilities.  Fox and Falco play like you'd expect, and their default weapon is the smart bomb.  Peppy and Slippy are slower, but have more health and have a powerup that restores health when used.  Fay and Miyu are only in this game.  They have low health, but supposedly can charge their shots faster and have a weapon that gives temporary invincibility.  (I never used those two much, and GameFAQs has no guide for Star Fox 2 yet.)

When you beat the game or get a Game Over, you'll be graded based on the time you take, the amount of carriers and enemy bases you destroy, and whether or not one of your characters dies.  The highest I managed to get was a C on Hard difficulty.  (Taking too much in-game time killed my score.)

[Herman Gigglethorpe]

Hello!  I played a bit of Kirby Super Star today.

One of my goals for the game was to beat the Arena using only one power and without a helper.  I succeeded with Mirror.  Mirror has several things going for it.  Normally, when you guard, you might take minor damage.  Mirror Kirby only has to fear "grabbing" moves (i.e. throws, swallows, black holes, etc.).  Those are pretty common among bosses, so you still have to dodge sometimes.  Mirror can reflect some projectiles, which killed Meta Knight quickly when I was stuck in a corner and had to guard.  The main attack has just enough vertical reach to hit foes like the Combo Cannon and Lololo/Lalala from a distance.  By the end of the run, I still had one or two Maxim Tomatoes left, and Marx did almost nothing.

To get 100% completion, I'm collecting the treasures in the Great Cave Offensive.  They're numbered based on the order they appear, so I collected the first treasure in the Wham Bam Rock area so I'd know when I got all the treasures in the more confusing castle region.

[antisocialmunky]

I picked up Dead In Vinland. At its heart its basically a worker placement game with RNG quests like King of Dragon Pass. I think you can describe it as a KoDP decision game married with a worker placement main game loop. Its quite charming and well written.

[Herman Gigglethorpe]

I recently finished Tomba 2 for the PSX.  It's a good exploration 2.5D platformer, but it doesn't quite have the same charm as the original Tomba.  Both games are recommended to Metroid or RPG Castlevania fans.

To take a break from long RPGs, I decided to replay Mario and Luigi Superstar Saga (GBA).  The Mario and Luigi series is closer to an action RPG than the original Super Mario RPG or Paper Mario.  You can dodge an attack completely with a properly timed button press instead of merely reducing its damage.  Special attacks that use up your "MP" require both Mario and Luigi to be alive, sort of like Dual Techs in Chrono Trigger. 

These features make Superstar Saga fun to play, but any variant restrictions wouldn't change your tactics all that much.  The "action" part would be harder instead of the "RPG" part.  You won't see a full report on this one like my Solo Mallow or No Equipment playthroughs of Super Mario RPG.

[RFS-81]

I just started on Star Wars: The Old Republic. Yeah, I know, an old MMO turned free-to-play... Well, there's this guy making videos (mostly) about dead and dying MMORPGs. I'm not into MMOs, but I kind of fell down a rabbit hole watching his videos. His video on SWTOR described the game as much more like a story-focused single-player RPG. And according to him, the story is really good, but the game is also probably not long for this world. So I wanted to give it a try.

He especially praised the Sith Warrior and Imperial Agent storylines, but I like being a (sort of) good guy and went with the Smuggler class. And yeah, the story is really fun! Still not sure if I really want to slog through miles of WOW knockoff to get to the Bioware writing, though.

[Gustaran]

I've been playing "Return of the Obra Dinn", the newest game by the developer of "Papers, Please".

The concept is fairly difficult to explain, IGN describes it as "an adventure game, a puzzle game, and a gruesome, supernatural, Moby Dick-themed version of Guess Who". If you are remotely interested in investigation/logical deduction or simply enjoy trying new game design concepts, you should take a look.

Metacritic is 89, IGN test (9.2) can be found here: https://www.ign.com/articles/2018/10/22/...inn-review

[Herman Gigglethorpe]

My "long RPG" reference in the previous comment was to Breath of Fire 4.  It's a second-tier PSX RPG at best.  The story shifts between the hero Ryu's party and a villain named Fou-lu.  Fou-lu's plot is more interesting, but I haven't seen much of it so far.  As for Ryu's side, it goes like this:  "Find the sandflier parts!  Find the princess!  Your princess is in another castle, and now one of your party members is in jail!  Do a fetch quest to get a replacement ceremonial sword to free him!"


The battle system is mostly a standard turn-based RPG, though you can switch out party members without using a turn.  (Sort of like Final Fantasy 10.)  There's also combo magic that can randomly activate if you use different elements in the correct order.  Characters can study under Masters to learn new abilities and alter stat growths.  Every character is also a Blue Mage and can learn enemy Skills by defending.


Whoever made the camera should have been fired from Capcom.  The same goes for whoever made the minigames like chasing a boar around a forest.

[Bobchillingworth]

Recently got back into Pillars of Eternity 2 to play the expansion content; it's a shame it never got much attention, as I'd rank it among top five CRPGs of all time.


Currently playing CodeCross, which fully deserves its "overwhelmingly positive" score on Steam; it's kind of like the Gameboy-era Zelda games crossed with Cave Story.

[Lewwyn]

I've been playing Stellaris. It's wonderful planet empire building management with the new patch.

[AdrienIer]

I've found pop growth to be a bit slow in the latest patch. The fact that growing tall is tied to finding rare resources is also problematic if you've been unlucky with them