What are you playing these days?

[RaistlinMC]

Not a TTRPG, but very much a strategy game and RPG in its own right, Unicorn Overlord could very much be my 2024 game of the year. I started playing it on Sunday and I am hopelessly hooked. It's like someone took everything I loved about the old Ogre Battle games from the SNES and N64, reworked it in a modern way, added voice acting, and tossed out most of the tedious stuff that I probably forgot about while reminiscing through rose-colored glasses.

Seriously, if you like video game SRPGs at all, you've gotta play this sucker. It's that good.

[RaistlinMC]

I know I'm damned late to the party, but I'm finally playing Divinity: Original Sin 2 and it is, undoubtedly, a triumph in gaming. It was Baldur's Gate 3 before BG3 was a twinkle in our collective gaming eyes. You can go anywhere. You can do anything. You can go solo or adventure with a party and it just all works. Not only that, the game runs smooth as butter, even on the little ol' Switch!

If you love RPGs, and especially if you love turn-based gaming or the old pause-and-play style like the first two Baldur's Gate games, play this game if you haven't yet. There is literally no chance you won't love it.

Cheers and happy gaming in the new year, TTWers!

[RaistlinMC]

Well, the answer to your second question is easy: because I loved BG1 and 2!

As to whether you should play the Octopath games, I'd say yes, absolutely, especially if your favorite FF is 6 (which is, of course, the correct answer ). No need to play both though, I'd say; the second one is better than the first and since they're similar, I'd start with number two.

[Bravve]

I do like the Art of Octoppath traveler as my favorit FF (final fatnasy) of all time is FF6, never played it thought, is it worth the time?. At the moment i'm playing some 'Easy' Mechabellum. Its a easy quick VS game with new tactics all the time.

Any thought you want to play in BG3 and why?

[RaistlinMC]

Absolutely. I'm knee-deep in Octopath Traveler II right now but BG3 is on my looking-forward-to list for sure.

[Bravve]

Anyone looking forward for BG3?

[RaistlinMC]

Just finished up a 55-hour run through of Fire Emblem Engage and I think it was easily one of the best entries yet in the series. The story wasn't anything to write home about, but the combat and level design was top-notch.

Now it's time to check out Live A Live, even if I am a few decades late to the party.

[RaistlinMC]

Glad you're liking it! Yeah, I agree that it mostly cuts out the parts of JRPGs that annoy most people (even if I'm not included in that group, admittedly) while keeping enough traditional elements that you never forget what kind of game you're playing. It's obviously deeply influenced by '90s SNES RPGs but it's new and different enough that it never feels like a rehash.

Plus, just wait until you get your flying mech suits! The game really takes off then, pun very much intended.

[Tiger]

I looked up that Chained Echoes on the PS store and found it. PLaying it now. It seems ok. I normally despise Jrpg's but this seems to have stripped the annoying things out of the genre and left it with a more palatable experience.
Thanks!

[RaistlinMC]

I'm with you on Souls-likes, no doubt about it, but I certainly don't find any shortage in stuff to play. I just finished a great little throwback 16 bit-style RPG called Chained Echoes - I highly recommend that one - and am knee-deep in Fire Emblem Engage now.

[Tiger]

Is it me or has there been a serious RPG shortage on consoles the last... Years?
I'm pretty picky about hat kind of games I play.
I played Mass Effect, ME Andromeda (it didn't deserve all the hate), Horizon zero Dawn, Cyberpunk (it too did NOT deserve all the hate) Horizon forbidden west...
And that's it for RPG's
Yeah yeah, Elden Ring. But I hate Soulsborne games. I don't have the time to git gud so miss me with that.

And what's worse there isn't much to look forward too either...

[RaistlinMC]

Sounds like Chained Echoes is one JRPG that I really, really need to get my hands on. The reviews are off the charts for this little indie.

[RaistlinMC]

3rd person is how Resident Evil is meant to be played. Full stop.

Enjoy Drew!

[Drew]

I am back on Resident Evil 8 again. One year later and they've released a DLC that adds a decent-sized new story that follows the daughter of the original game's protagonist, but also, they went back and reworked the entire original game so that you now have the option to play it in 3rd person, as opposed to 1st person, the way it originally was, so even the original game feels like new. It's insane and I'm having a great time.

[RaistlinMC]

Are you playing Tactics Ogre Reborn yet?

Maybe for the first time, if you're younger than me, or maybe again for the first time in a couple decades, like I am?

Cuz if you're not, you really, really...really should be.