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Same reaction. I assumed the opening bits with KR were really and quickly started to question it 😅. If this what Unreal 5 can do now, we’re in for some real treats by the end of the generation.
Yep, I mean you can still tell when they switch from actual video to the rendered KR and CM but it's very very good. There's a deadness to the eyes they they haven't quite got right but man that city is just astonishing.
 
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What a day for announcements and reveals.

HZD: Forbidden West gameplay has me giddy.


Hellblade II: Senua's Sacrifice is looking great.


Alan Wake 2 announced as a survival horror. Going to have to get back to Control and get my hands on the Remastered AW soon enough.


Silent Hill creators' debut Bokeh Studios game is Slitterhead


A Plague Tail: Requiem looks like a great continuation of the first!


SquEnix's Forspoken looks badass. Steelrising is super intriguing.

Yoooo, is that my boy Erend in the beginning of the Horizon vid?

Super excited for all of these. I had seen rumors of Alan Wake 2, glad to see that's happening.

Also, I opened these in YouTube, and each one had a short PlayStation ad before the PlayStation ads I was actually trying to watch. Though that was pretty funny.
 
117 hours later, I just beat Xenoblade Chronicles: Definitive Edition on the Switch. I still have some extra content to work on, including the extra story that should keep me busy for another 20 hours or so. Normally I’d be gung-ho about starting a New Game + but I’m leaning toward taking a break instead. I wish I had done a few things differently…

e.g. not over leveling before the final stretch of the main quest; start reconstructing Colony 6 a bit sooner.

It’s been an exhausting but fun ride.

A few more thoughts: I was generally annoyed by the affinity system and, in particular, the way it affects the side quests you receive. Even 100+ hours into the game (never mind internet access!), I still can’t for the life of me trigger either of Sharla’s extra skill tree quests. Such major pieces of content probably shouldn’t be buried under some byzantine system.

On the plus side, plot and soundtrack were both solid, and the endgame content was very engaging (so much so that I accidentally ended up some 20 levels above what I needed to beat the main quest). I also enjoyed the battle system (it’s oddly addictive) and the occasional challenge of tinkering with your party formation in order to beat particularly tough mobs (brilliantly, your characters level up even if they’re sitting out of combat, which allows you to use them whenever you need them). All standard JRPG fare, but done really well here.

Oh, and Melia is the best.
 
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117 hours later, I just beat Xenoblade Chronicles: Definitive Edition on the Switch. I still have some extra content to work on, including the extra story that should keep me busy for another 20 hours or so. Normally I’d be gung-ho about starting a New Game + but I’m leaning toward taking a break instead. I wish I had done a few things differently…

e.g. not over leveling before the final stretch of the main quest; start reconstructing Colony 6 a bit sooner.

It’s been an exhausting but fun ride.

A few more thoughts: I was generally annoyed by the affinity system and, in particular, the way it affects the side quests you receive. Even 100+ hours into the game (never mind internet access!), I still can’t for the life of me trigger either of Sharla’s extra skill tree quests. Such major pieces of content probably shouldn’t be buried under some byzantine system.

On the plus side, plot and soundtrack were both solid, and the endgame content was very engaging (so much so that I accidentally ended up some 20 levels above what I needed to beat the main quest). I also enjoyed the battle system (it’s oddly addictive) and the occasional challenge of tinkering with your party formation in order to beat particularly tough mobs (brilliantly, your characters level up even if they’re sitting out of combat, which allows you to use them whenever you need them). All standard JRPG fare, but done really well here.

Oh, and Melia is the best.
the affinity system and hearts-to-hearts progression are definitely the things that aged the worst about this game. absolutely no way to actually do them without grinding, so they’re pretty much impossible to obtain for casual players.
 
most of the more interesting stuff on that indie direct isn't coming out until mid next year, that sea of stars and alissha games were the most interesting to me.

also, all this time, i thought omori was already in switch, that last announcement of omori coming to switch threw me off guard
 
most of the more interesting stuff on that indie direct isn't coming out until mid next year, that sea of stars and alissha games were the most interesting to me.

also, all this time, i thought omori was already in switch, that last announcement of omori coming to switch threw me off guard
the chat in the YouTube stream was going nuts when they showed Omori, but I've never heard of it... though I'm not an RPG guy. but it looks kind of interesting
 
the affinity system and hearts-to-hearts progression are definitely the things that aged the worst about this game. absolutely no way to actually do them without grinding, so they’re pretty much impossible to obtain for casual players.
@Santi Chacin did you play XC2? I’m wondering if that’s worth picking up now that I finished the first one… or if I should switch gears and try something like Dark Souls again (I’ve sampled before but only for 15-30 minutes… I just couldn’t get into it).
 
@Santi Chacin did you play XC2? I’m wondering if that’s worth picking up now that I finished the first one… or if I should switch gears and try something like Dark Souls again (I’ve sampled before but only for 15-30 minutes… I just couldn’t get into it).
of course!!! have played the whole thing and then some

umm, for the past couple of years, every time i tried recommending xc2 to people, they either never play it or start it for like the first two chapters and completely drop it,

xc2 is for sure one of my favorite games of all time. (it's either my number one or number two in total). but it does have some flaws, mostly in the fact that the game's battle system is very complex and the tutorials are not very direct. battle system in xc2 is extremely fun and satisfying, but most casual players never get to see why bc the game's early chapters are not novice-friendly. definitely not the type of game to play if you never played a JRPG/ action-rpg. also, other people on launch didnt like the "anime" direction this game took with design and story-telling. at this point, it's become such a tiresome argument that all i'll say about it is that going into xenoblade 2 expecting something exactly like the first xenoblade is definitely the wrong thing to do. xenoblade 2 is a great game, but you either love it from the start or you come to love it by the end of it if you stick with it.

sooooo, tl:dr xenoblade 2 might take double the amount of time and effort xc1 did, definitely go into it with the mentality that you wanna sink all your free time into it.

EDIT: p.s. xc2 also has a gacha system in its game, if you absolutely hate gachas, then you will probably not like this game lmao
 
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