I have played a few games since my last post, so here is an update.
Path of Exile 2 Early Access
Persona 3 Reload
Dynasty Warriors Origin (Sun, Liu, Cao)
Like a Dragon: Pirate Yakuza in Hawaii (Platinum)
Monster Hunter Wilds
The Witcher 3: The Wild Hunt
Clair Obscur: Expedition 33
Dynasty Warriors Strikeforce
Raidou Remastered: The Mystery of the Soulless Army
I had to play the turn based game that everyone was so hyped about, so I completed Clair Obscur: Expedition 33. I waited a long time for this update, to process my thoughts on the game to make sure I am not the crazy one. First thing I liked was the price when I bought it brand new and not on sale, $50. As you get into the game, you realize that the music is quality. Music can sink or swim a game, so it is nice to have. Early on I fell in love with Lune, so this post might be a bit biased in that respect. I played the game on standard difficulty as I often do and my strategy was to dodge, because I dislike parries in most games. Unfortunately, in my opinion going for dodge is objectively worse, but the more you learn. The gameplay relying on those certain aspects made me wish for a bit more strategy. The story was pretty good overall but some points made the game ruined for me, at least for the perfect score. Another point is it is an overall shorter RPG, and I prefer my RPGs long. For $50 you do get value for your money, but again it knocks it further away from the perfect score. I know a lot of people prefer 40 hours of high quality game vs 100 hours of quality game, but not for me. Overall a good game, but because of the previous points said, it doesn't make it top RPG material in my book.
Next I beat Dynasty Warriors Strikeforce. I had a big vacation planned, so I needed an easy and simple game to play before and after summer vacation. This game was on sale so I bought and started playing it due to my good memories of Dynasty Tactics and Dynasty Tactics 2. I originally didn't buy it out of protest, due to them not just making Dynasty Tactics 3. It is similar but Dynasty Warriors Strikeforce basically follows Zhao Yun and you get a limited amount of officers so they have to do like a ton of damage so like 4v100 units basically while dynasty tactics felt like 2 armies clashing 10v10 units. In general I prefer more strategy like the 10v10 than the 4v100 mash keys and one shot everyone. I do give the devs a bit of credit for allowing other factions officers to join Zhao Yun in many battles. Because the same old Shu dudes would have been incredibly boring. I had fun maxing out my Wu dudes bonds and stats and having them destroy the enemies instead of the Shu guys. Overall a decent game, served its purpose well, but Dynasty Tactics 3 would have been better.
And then I beat Raidou very recently. A solid remaster of a PS2 game, much like Persona 3 Reload, but from a much less popular series by Atlus. This was their take on a more action oriented game. I was a bit disappointed by the summon limit, the enemies can mass 10+ enemies, why can't I? Or at least 3. But I guess things get a bit messy with the limited movement arena. I had a lot of fun with this game as I often do with Atlus games just capturing and upgrading demons. The weapon upgrade system was clunky and slow, so I didn't really enjoy that very much, but I did enjoy using the axe throughout most of the game. The story was fine. My major complaint was the boss rush , I don't like redoing bosses. The final boss was fun though. The music was only solid, which is disappointing for an Atlus game, but I assume it is just the old tracks. The game length was rather short at 25 hours. I tried NG+ to see the differences, and there were too few for me to commit to finishing NG+. Overall another decent game.
I have completed quite a few games at this point in the year, but that is due to the disappointing length from at least 5 of the games I have played, while only one (Witcher 3) was far longer than expected.
