Mark E

Yeah, it’s not and you do from what I could tell

I’m dying to get a class unlock, even though my tinkerer is only level 5. I’ve been doing healing mostly but the team rarely needs it in the clutch so I generally do whatever I feel like in matches (looting :D). So, for the language decoder, do we have access to that front the start? We did a temple as a mission and it had a message at the end and it said we couldn’t read it, but it’s in decoder speak.

Officially all Gloomhaven all the time here at the house. We went hardcore on Saturday during the heat wave and played three scenarios from afternoon to night. Currently our Tuesday game will be the last for a while, as the four of us have wildly disparate summer plans until September and we’ll probably go insane during that time. We’ve unlocked some fun stuff, including , which I am personally super keen on since my character’s personal quest is to do four of them. The only downside is that I have to drag the city kicking and screaming up the prosperity chain too

Seriously best news.

I’m on PS4, I can’t contribute anyway

Phew, HD TVs do this game no favours. I don’t have the joy for motion controls like I used to (it’s particularly onerous in my game space too) but dealing with them and the graphics... there’s still a really fun game here. This game could use a Port 100%; I think the joy-cons would be absolutely perfect for controlling this. I didn’t realize when I erased my last save just how little time I put into this. Four hours. Having a Zelda I have barely any experience with has been a nice change.

You guys really make me miss playing this game :).

Yeah, I can’t imagine not taking a new level power each time (well, actually, I found the choice for my tinkerer at level 2 super brutal but...)

Link’s Awakening gets a pass because it’s a straight remake :). I may play it but it doesn’t fit my definition of being a new Zelda, technically. I’ll resurrect the thread for BotW 2 and if I play Awakening on Switch, in addition to the other stuff I’ve listed...

Sweet revenge on Gloomhaven as we mopped up a dungeon with complete ease after our last debacle. Three of us hit level 3, I got a sweet suit of armour in a chest, AND I finished off a bonus perk. We were playing a lot smarter last night and also corrected the cards added after level up; we didn’t realize you had to pick one and stuff the other one until you could take it after level up again. Whoops.

Spirit Tracks This holds up a light year better than Phantom Hourglass, but the DS Zeldas stand out as super weak to me on revisiting them, compared to the others. They’re fine, but does that really cut it for a Zelda game? They fix a lot of what was broken in Hourglass, but the nature of a portable still means short dungeons. They’re much more fun and the unique power ups like the sand wand are cute at least (the boomerang still rules though). They do increase the game’s length with excellent puzzling in the big main dungeon while not forcing you to replay it endlessly. There’s also a ridiculous amount of mostly unnecessary and typically uninteresting side quests. A lot of people don’t like the trains. I personally like it a bunch. No worse than the boat and you get a whistle! Still, they try and make it hell to upgrade the damn thing again (you have to collect an insane amount to just add a single car) and any time you have passengers on board the game bogs down. On the plus side, the overworld music is hands down the best in ANY Zelda game. Speaking of music, however, the pipes you have to play in this game are the absolute worst and a dismal chore to get the timing right on. I legit gave myself a headache at a couple points trying to get the mic to pick me up. Story is usual bland stuff, but big props for giving Zelda something to do. It’s pretty cool to have her tag along and help out with her special abilities and it adds a lot to the experience. Final note, good luck if you play this on the DS. I wouldn’t. The last boss area is a string of several picky fights in a row and if you die you have no save points and have to endure all the cut scenes again to boot. Not so much fun. I guess my point at the end is that even a game like Majora’s Mask that I dislike I can see how it adds to the canon, but if neither DS game was released I can’t imagine many people caring. Now we’re on to the last stumbling block before two amazing final games... the slashing chatterbox that is Skyward Sword. Current Ranking: 1) Wind Waker 2) Link to the Past 3) Ocarina of Time 4) Link’s Awakening 5) Twilight Princess 6) Oracle of Seasons/Ages 7) The Minish Cap 8.) Zelda 2: The Adventure of Link 9) Majora’s Mask 10) The Legend of Zelda 11) Spirit Tracks 12) Phantom Hourglass

Man, Far From Home was frigging great. I dunno if I liked it more than Homecoming, but it’s damn close. And that post-credits, holy shit!

We would die without the Broken Token insert that I spent weeks assembling for Gloomhaven. It’s an absolute godsend and makes it easier for us to get a quest done during our weekly play sessions :).

Yeah, I kept seeing good reviews and finally figured they had to be coming from somewhere. It definitely feels like the whole being more than the sum of its parts - I couldn't give you one thing that it does exceptionally well, but it just works. It’s not angsty, the combat is JUST right, the characters have a lot of charm. It’s the only JRPG I’ve actually stuck with in ages and I didn’t even bat an eye at the playtime. Actually, I was playing Shadow of War last night and wished I was playing the sequel to Trails instead. In fact, I read a review that told me how one of my favorite parts of the game is integrated into the sequel and now I’m dying to play it. I can safely say in my many years of JRPGs that I’ve never wanted to hop into the sequel that fast before, so that’s gotta be worth something ;). http://www.rpgfan.com/reviews/The_Legend_of_Heroes_Trails_of_Cold_Steel/index.html This is the more balanced take on my gushing, but it’s pretty accurate.

I figured we could use a thread to compile all the chatter about JRPGs of a lesser caliber or with a small forum footprint (ie Mark & Brian) in one spot. I mean, who has time these days anyway? Case in point, I finally stuck a toe into Falcom’s ridiculously entry-stuffed Legend of Heroes series with Trails of Cold Steel and it ended up eating my June. It has issues. The graphics are cheap Vita polygons. Lots of moving anime art to simulate animation. The pacing goes from full throttle to dead lulls of walking and talking. But... But... If I wasn’t waiting for the pending release of Fire Emblem I’d have bought the sequel already and started right into it. This game has a charm to it and a solid game core that gets under my skin almost insidiously. The battle system is a solid turn-based system with interrupts and a fun set of skills and linked abilities. It remains challenging right to the end on normal, rarely needing grinding to feel fair. The definitive edition lets you flip in and out of turbo mode at a button so you can zip through the easy stuff at 4x speed, excellent touch. The story is anime trope as hell, but so well told. The characters are all fun (Rean is my favorite lead since Yuri in Tales of Vesperia - no moping!) and outside one boobs to the face gag early on it avoids the more annoying hyper-sex tendencies of the genre. Being based out of a military academy means you spend a lot of time in the same area and rather than getting stale (well maybe around hour 55 of 70...), it really lets you get to know the primary, secondary, AND tertiary characters. I legit enjoyed watching students try to hook up, the drama amongst the clubs, even the secret of the town radio station. The game’s lore and story read like somebody had a clue what they were doing and the fact that the sequel is a direct continuation has me really excited. The ending has a pile of shocking reveals that all make sense (mostly, it IS a JRPG) and at least one I had no idea was coming (some excellent misdirects that you don’t realize are setting up plot points). It’s on sale on Steam right now and regularly pretty cheap for what you get. I dunno, it will appeal to a small niche but I was only wanting to test it out and then it ate me alive for a month. I mean, I stopped playing Dragon Quest XI to play this, even though that is clearly the better game. This one is a weird kind of special.