What Are You Playing: 9 Years since the Last Dragon Age

[Anonymouswizard]

Yeah, this is a big reason why even on JRPGs I've been dropping the difficulty I play at (when I have the option anyways). Grinding up levels to be powerful enough to get past the next story boss isn't as fun as it used to be.

I find that modern WRPGs are much better about this, I don't think I've ended up more than a level behind in anything released after PoE that wasn't made by Larian. Larian games are an exception that seem to want you to hunt out every last damn side quest to be at the expected level, with the Original Sin games probably being the worst and BG3 being the best (I think I've missed about two Act 1 side quests in my runs and didn't feel under levelled). But generally I find that if you nab the easily found sidequests and complete them you'll be a fraction of a level below where you 'should' be.

But yeah, if the combat's still kind of engaging on Easy I'll set it to that, while I can play BG3 on Normal it's less fun and more frustrating for me. The exception is Persona games and sometimes other MegaTen entries, because there 90% of the difficulty is working out which bits of the system to exploit and I think the only times I've had to grind in Persona have been for final bosses.

[LibraryOgre]

Oh yeah, big battles and turn based mode font play well together, and about ten minutes was me forgetting to kill an alchemist I'd put to sleep. But I really, really don't like RTWP combat and there's only one combat that seriously drags in the first three acts so it's something I can live with.

Oh, I play almost entirely turn-based... I'd just reach points where there was NOTHING to do, and turn off turn-based to let time pass on its own, then immediately turn it back on.

[warty goblin]

I have to say one thing I'm really enjoying about Tower of Time is that the fights are all pretty spaced out, and designed to be reasonably challenging. They're also against cool fantasy stuff like undead and golems instead of inexplicably homicidal wildlife. Even the very first fights feel like they matter.

[ArmyOfOptimists]

I'm not sure about that... I've found that entrance plenty of times (I clean-sweep spaces before I move on), and also gotten the Defender's Heart... it all comes down to length of time, IME.

Did you return to Defender's Heart and talk to Irabeth after finding the entrance? You need to do that, indicate you're okay with attacking the Grey Garrison, but then back out of the party selection, at which point she hands you the rewards you would normally get for the battle and it will never trigger. If you only find the entrance and continue to wander around, the demons will attack as usual.

It's slightly better to do the fight since you get a bit more XP and gold if you perfect the garrison battle, plus it triggers some flags that impact later quests. Nothing serious is missed, though, so I usually skip it just to save time.

[Anonymouswizard]

Honestly it would be fine if the Eagle Watch soldiers and cultist soldiers were individual stronger but fewer and if the important targets didn't take about ten rounds to start showing up. It also helps if you let the Eagle Watch swordsmen get killed off, as sadly the arena is not friendly towards charges and they spend many rounds walking towards their latest target.

Thankfully the next combat with a bunch of allies is designed in a more turn-friendly manner.

On future playthroughs I'm just going to skip it, IIRC Toybox let's you play with the necessary flags.

ETA: oh, to note I sent Regill into the Fearsome Leader archetype of Cavalier instead of straight or Beast Tamer. Partially because I've settled on Azata, partially because it gives him the Dazzling Display line and the silliness inherent in that, partially because it means I've now got two front liners on horses to let them abuse the fact that controlling a mount doesn't cost your move action. It also IMO fits his character better than Amiger does, he's not into glory but it's abilities are VERY practical.

[Cespenar]

I have to say one thing I'm really enjoying about Tower of Time is that the fights are all pretty spaced out, and designed to be reasonably challenging. They're also against cool fantasy stuff like undead and golems instead of inexplicably homicidal wildlife. Even the very first fights feel like they matter.

I wonder how the combats feel, because real time combats IMHO need a very specific speed vs. depth to be able to just click. Like, I remember the Pillars combats to be almost unplayable until I saw there was a 0.5x speed option. Despite the pause button.

[Erloas]

I find that modern WRPGs are much better about this, I don't think I've ended up more than a level behind in anything released after PoE that wasn't made by Larian. Larian games are an exception that seem to want you to hunt out every last damn side quest to be at the expected level, with the Original Sin games probably being the worst and BG3 being the best (I think I've missed about two Act 1 side quests in my runs and didn't feel under levelled). But generally I find that if you nab the easily found sidequests and complete them you'll be a fraction of a level below where you 'should' be.

I haven't played the Larian games much, but I've found most WRPGs tend to out-level you a lot if you do most of the side quests. It's a hard balance for sure, because I've also had some games where you really struggle just because you're lower level, and others were nothing is even a challenge because you can just walk through it. It also depends a lot on how the level scaling works, some games being a few levels high or low really changes your hit change and damage and others were those levels are fairly minor.

Not quite the same, but in Borderlands 2 one that stood out to me was a DLC that I went into a few levels early and the whole thing was a challenge and the boss was an epic fight, it was hard but we won and it was a lot of fun. But I did it again as another character with more levels and it was just a cake walk and wasn't anything to remember.

[LibraryOgre]

ETA: oh, to note I sent Regill into the Fearsome Leader archetype of Cavalier instead of straight or Beast Tamer. Partially because I've settled on Azata, partially because it gives him the Dazzling Display line and the silliness inherent in that, partially because it means I've now got two front liners on horses to let them abuse the fact that controlling a mount doesn't cost your move action. It also IMO fits his character better than Amiger does, he's not into glory but it's abilities are VERY practical.

I wound up giving him the Hellknight levels to get the "If you shake someone, they get fear instead".

He will mess up a battlefield.

[warty goblin]

I wonder how the combats feel, because real time combats IMHO need a very specific speed vs. depth to be able to just click. Like, I remember the Pillars combats to be almost unplayable until I saw there was a 0.5x speed option. Despite the pause button.

For me it's about right. There's some stuff that really helps keep the chaos under control. As I said, it engages slow-time (which is really slow) whenever you select an ability by default. That means that targeting is never a hassle. You also only have max four characters active at a time - I've only got three yet - so there's just fewer dudes to micro. There's some summoning, but they're 100% AI controlled. And since it isn't a TTRPG adaption or wanting you to think it is one, there's fewer abilities per character, and they're evenly distributed across characters. I've got four per character now, it looks like there's maybe 10 or 12 total per character. You also get a complete resource reset between fights, so you aren't wondering if you need that fireball now or later.

All in all I find it just really pleasant. Some fights are pretty hard, some are easy, but none of them are braindead trivial, and they've got reasonable diversity in enemy design. Encounter maps could be a bit more varied, but they aren't bad by any means.

[Cygnia]

Röki was on sale on Steam. Nordic themed puzzle adventure where you need to rescue your younger brother from a jotun.

[Eldan]

Yeah, this is a big reason why even on JRPGs I've been dropping the difficulty I play at (when I have the option anyways). Grinding up levels to be powerful enough to get past the next story boss isn't as fun as it used to be.

As to currently playing, I've managed to make it most of the way through day 4 of Disco Elysium so far without having died once. Which with how the game was talked about here, was expecting everything being out to get me. I think my favorite character is the Horrendous Necktie, and wish it had more to say than it does (Inland Empire is currently at 11).

Spoiler: Spoilery things

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-Got the body down on day 3, with the help of the union, pretty sure that'll bite me in the ass later.
-Stashed it in the bear fridge and was able to discover the true cause of death on day 4
-Still trying to catch an Insulindian Phasmid, much to Kim's dismay
-Still working on getting the full story out of the Hardie Boys
-Really want to talk the shipping crate into opening, but don't have enough stats to (and unless I get luck with thoughts likely won't)

Going through my first playthrough mostly spoiler free, outside general hints/tips. It's a wild ride for anyone who enjoys narrative adventures.

So, the "dying all the time" thing happens mostly in one case: people who distribute their stats so that they start with either 1 volition or 1 endurance and die the first time they take damage. Or use the Thinker premade archetype, which also has 1 volition.

Edit: for the Horrendous Necktie to say its most important lines, you need to never take it off. Which is annoying, because the game doesn't tell you that and other neck items have better stats.

[GloatingSwine]

But if you have played Alan Wake, you'll most likely be quite confused, since Alan Wake 2 does not follow from Alan Wake, but rather from the DLC American Nightmare, and I'd argue that not having played AW is less confusing than having played AW but skipped AW:AN. Was for me, at least.

So I don't think this is right.

Everything that's relevant in American Nightmare is explained in 2. Because the truth about American Nightmare is that if Mr. Scratch isn't on the screen it isn't relevant and 2 recapitulates all that material pretty fast.

In fact, I think American Nightmare might just be the Remedy game that will add the least things to point and go "it's him!" at.

If you only play the original Alan Wake you'll understand everything you need to grok 2. If you play the rest of the Remedy games you'll see the fnords.

[Form]

I've finished Forgive Me Father, one of those retro style shooters. Decent game, had fun, but not particularly noteworthy other than perhaps its art style. I'm not sure if I'll give it another playthrough as the journalist.

So, the "dying all the time" thing happens mostly in one case: people who distribute their stats so that they start with either 1 volition or 1 endurance and die the first time they take damage. Or use the Thinker premade archetype, which also has 1 volition.

And even then you should be fine as long as you've got some nosaphed and magnesium on you. Other than dying at the start because your stats might be low and when you don't have any healing items yet you'd have to be very unlucky and unprepared to get killed.

Edit: for the Horrendous Necktie to say its most important lines, you need to never take it off. Which is annoying, because the game doesn't tell you that and other neck items have better stats.

Yes, but..... you wouldn't betray your bratan like that, would you?

[Saph]

For the past couple of months I've been mostly playing Against the Storm, which I've been really enjoying. It's basically a roguelike with meta-progression and a Slay-the-Spire-like 20-level ascension difficulty system, except that instead of playing an adventurer in a dungeon you're a viceroy managing a small settlement. Each new settlement is a new "run", with a new map and new resources, and you have to score enough victory points before time runs out.

It's just a really polished and well-designed game, with mechanics that work together very nicely. Still Early Access, but it's basically ready for full release and if there are any bugs I haven't found them. Very replayable – I've played a few hundred hours so far and haven't gotten bored of it yet. If you're a fan of roguelikes and/or citybuilders, definitely give it a shot.

[Mobius Twist]

A nomenclature pedantry note: Rogue-like describes a turn-based, one-life (permadeath), procedurally-generated game in the vein of Rogue, a very hardcore dungeon crawler. No meta-progression is implied, except perhaps unlocking new classes. Rogue-lite describes a game that plays with those characteristics in service of a less-punishing experience with meta-progression and a gameplay-mastery curve that is aided by things other than player skill with the game systems in a given period of play.

As for me, I got Subnautica recently and "dove in", playing through the game without aid of wikis, maps, or assistance. A bit of pain was had in discovering basic systems (e.g. cave sulphur!!!), but it's an enjoyable experience all-told. As with most survival games, initial settlement-building mechanics lead to "wouldn't it look nicer like this" waffling and constant rebuilding. I managed to stop myself once I got to "functional, but not pretty", else this would be a very long game.

[Rynjin]

A nomenclature pedantry note: Rogue-like describes a turn-based, one-life (permadeath), procedurally-generated game in the vein of Rogue, a very hardcore dungeon crawler.

Agree with the rest of your post, but nitpick: Rogue-like does not require the turn-based stipulation anymore; there are plenty of Rogue-likes these days that keep the important elements (procedurally generated, no meta-progression) but are not traditional RPGs. Noita comes to mind, for example.

[ArmyOfOptimists]

A nomenclature pedantry note: Rogue-like describes a turn-based, one-life (permadeath), procedurally-generated game in the vein of Rogue, a very hardcore dungeon crawler. No meta-progression is implied, except perhaps unlocking new classes. Rogue-lite describes a game that plays with those characteristics in service of a less-punishing experience with meta-progression and a gameplay-mastery curve that is aided by things other than player skill with the game systems in a given period of play.

This is one of those weird genre-shift things in the making. Rogue-like originally described anything that adhered to the Berlin interpretation, a list developed at the 2008 International Roguelike Developer's Conference of high- and low-value factors derived from five of the agreed-upon roguelikes at the time (Rogue, NetHack, ADOM, Linley's Dungeon Crawl, and Angband). A Roguelite was any game that had some of the Berlin interpretation's features but not enough to be a true Roguelike. I'm pretty sure the devs present at the IRDC would gag at the thought of meta-progression at all, especially the raw advantage type many "roguelites" include these days.

Since any game that has procedural generation and/or death-resets gets called a Roguelike these days, nobody seems to agree on what it means anymore. Personally, I think meta-progression that eases future runs in the form of permanent statistic advantages disqualifies a game from being a roguelike/roguelite at all. At that point, you're just moving the player to the beginning on death but not actually resetting all their progress - creating a brute-force methodology to winning the game that goes against the nature of the genre basing its challenges on observation, tactics, and experience.

[IthilanorStPete]

As for me, I got Subnautica recently and "dove in", playing through the game without aid of wikis, maps, or assistance. A bit of pain was had in discovering basic systems (e.g. cave sulphur!!!), but it's an enjoyable experience all-told. As with most survival games, initial settlement-building mechanics lead to "wouldn't it look nicer like this" waffling and constant rebuilding. I managed to stop myself once I got to "functional, but not pretty", else this would be a very long game.

Cave sulfur's tricky to get even when you're referencing a wiki; those small cave systems are disorienting even when you're *not* dodging Crashfish.

How far are you? I got nearly to the end of the game; I didn't quite beat it, but I liked it a lot. I didn't spend that much time on settlement-building, my first base near the surface was pretty ad-hoc and sprawling, but I did plan out and build a second base that I thought was pretty neat.

[Rynjin]

Since any game that has procedural generation and/or death-resets gets called a Roguelike these days, nobody seems to agree on what it means anymore. Personally, I think meta-progression that eases future runs in the form of permanent statistic advantages disqualifies a game from being a roguelike/roguelite at all. At that point, you're just moving the player to the beginning on death but not actually resetting all their progress - creating a brute-force methodology to winning the game that goes against the nature of the genre basing its challenges on observation, tactics, and experience.

Well, that's the point of the "lite" bit. And brute-forcing things usually isn't in the cards in any case, since straight numerical bonuses are often run-specific, not part of the meta progression. Eg. Slay the Spire is often referred to as a Rogue-lite, because it has meta-progression. But said progression is ONLY in the form of unlocking new items/cards/options that you can find in future playthroughs.

It's sort of like if when first playing NetHack you could only start as Tourist, but by completing certain bonus objectives in a run could unlock other classes. I don't think that would in any respect constitute "brute forcing" a run, since most classes are equally viable if you know what you're doing.

[Anonymouswizard]

Agree with the rest of your post, but nitpick: Rogue-like does not require the turn-based stipulation anymore; there are plenty of Rogue-likes these days that keep the important elements (procedurally generated, no meta-progression) but are not traditional RPGs. Noita comes to mind, for example.

This is pretty much the definition I use. Most people don't care enough to make a distinction (I barely do), but that's what makes most sense to me.


Wrath of the Righteous is finally starting to inflate enemy AC to the point I'm considering dropping their stats, right at the end of Act 2 almost exactly where I remember the difficulty spike. It's not as bad as my Skald and Cleric runs felt it, but that's just because as an Earth/Fire Kineticist I can target Touch AC at-will. Maybe if I can hold on a bit longer unlocking the Path of the FRIENDSHIP!!!!!1!XD will help a bit. At the very least it'll give me a cute ickle dragon to pet (and eventually ride).

[Rynjin]

This is pretty much the definition I use. Most people don't care enough to make a distinction (I barely do), but that's what makes most sense to me.

Yeah, I'm not a super-purist either but I think the distinction is helpful for people to know what they're looking for. Rogue-like = "every run is unique and everything has an equal chance of appearing form the start" and Rogue-lite is "every run is unique but you might unlock new stuff, so it kind of eases you into the trillion options of the game".

[ArmyOfOptimists]

Well, that's the point of the "lite" bit. And brute-forcing things usually isn't in the cards in any case, since straight numerical bonuses are often run-specific, not part of the meta progression. Eg. Slay the Spire is often referred to as a Rogue-lite, because it has meta-progression. But said progression is ONLY in the form of unlocking new items/cards/options that you can find in future playthroughs.

It's sort of like if when first playing NetHack you could only start as Tourist, but by completing certain bonus objectives in a run could unlock other classes. I don't think that would in any respect constitute "brute forcing" a run, since most classes are equally viable if you know what you're doing.

There are a lot of Roguelites where stat progression is the default. Rogue Legacy and Hades come to mind, to the point where I've met many people who think grinding meta-progress is a core feature of the genre. There's also Vampire Survivors and its many derivatives where meta-progress is expected, though I don't like calling those Roguelites.

I tend to stick to classifying traditional turn-based, tile-based, Rogue-inspired games as "Roguelikes" and there's still a lot of those being made, Quasimorph and Cogmind are fairly recent additions. Games that take the spirit of Rogue and deviate further out of turn-based or tile-based RPGs, like Enter the Gungeon or Slay the Spire, are "Roguelites." Anything that adds meta-progress beyond variety (unlocking new classes or items) ceases to be Rogue-anything at that point. If you aren't starting from zero every run, you aren't that far off most non-Rogue games that set you back some amount of progress on death.

It's sort of like how Soulslike has been stretched so thin that any game that has a stamina bar or loss of currency on death is now a Soulslike. Heck, I've seen some people put Armored Core 6 in the Soulslike category simply because it's made by FromSoftware, which is a terrible way to classify anything.

[Saph]

A nomenclature pedantry note: Rogue-like describes a

Well, for those who are interested in the roguelike/roguelite genre, I'd recommend the game. It's a really good example of an indie game that's better polished than a triple-A one. The devs have been really good at listening to and acting on feedback.

[Anonymouswizard]

For ****'s sake. Dear WotR game designers, if you're going to design your game based on the assumption that all offensive casters will maximise Spell Penetration as fast as possible make it easy to tell what abilities are affected by spell resistance. Either an explicit tag in the ability description or a big noticeable effect to alert the player it's been resisted. That way players won't get to a major boss to find that their main character's build only works if they roll a natural 20.

Yes, one of the bosses in Drezen has 31 spell resistance, whereas every previous enemy that has had it has been in the 20s at most. Meanwhile if you've grabbed every last possible boost to spell penetration you're looking at a +14, build that also spent normal and mythic feats on accuracy maybe +10. It's also probably the most annoying boss in the game consider just how ridiculously overlevelled it is.

Spoiler

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Yes, I'm talking about the Balor, who my dedicated fighters needed like 17s to hit. I get that mythic powers make the party more powerful, and that there's a six round limit to the fight, but you're not so powerful that he can't just wreck your party within that limit with only a little luck (point blank fireballs can wipe half a tank's health while doing basically nothing to him).

I'm sure Staunton and Minagho aren't quite as extreme defences wise, but IIRC one of the other bosses has an AC of like 40.

[Saambell]

They really need to come up with a new term for "repeat run based meta progression game" that doesn't get "um by strict definition"ed to heck.

In terms of what I have been playing, mostly Starfield still, with occasional tries of Balder's Gate 3.

Somehow I like the openness of Starfield to just grab a pile of missions of a poster board, run off and do them, check back in and grab new ones. Sure the returns on them are minuscule and its all lazy procgen nonsense, but its kinda just how I like Bethesda games. Even when playing Skyrim, I mostly just spam bounties. Now, in Skyrim I added a mod that ups the gold reward and gives a perk point for each one I do, so its actually a very valid method of progression. But as I have yet to find something similar for Starfield it just feels wasteful. Once the Creation Engine gets released for Starfield and the bigger fancier mods start appearing I might make a new character and give it another go, but for now my drive to play is kinda stalling out.

Meanwhile BG3 is somehow less open but not as directed as Starfield to me? I have no pointers to anything and generally feel too weak to do the stuff that's there.

Getting a pile of mods ready for another Skyrim run, might get around to starting that this week now that the other big games are proving not my thing. I don't touch the main story and just run around doing side quests and seeing some corner of the map I don't often see.

Otherwise still doing daily Mobile Gacha Game things. But I don't think we usually count those here.

[tonberrian]

For ****'s sake. Dear WotR game designers, if you're going to design your game based on the assumption that all offensive casters will maximise Spell Penetration as fast as possible make it easy to tell what abilities are affected by spell resistance. Either an explicit tag in the ability description or a big noticeable effect to alert the player it's been resisted. That way players won't get to a major boss to find that their main character's build only works if they roll a natural 20.

Yes, one of the bosses in Drezen has 31 spell resistance, whereas every previous enemy that has had it has been in the 20s at most. Meanwhile if you've grabbed every last possible boost to spell penetration you're looking at a +14, build that also spent normal and mythic feats on accuracy maybe +10. It's also probably the most annoying boss in the game consider just how ridiculously overlevelled it is.

Spoiler

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Yes, I'm talking about the Balor, who my dedicated fighters needed like 17s to hit. I get that mythic powers make the party more powerful, and that there's a six round limit to the fight, but you're not so powerful that he can't just wreck your party within that limit with only a little luck (point blank fireballs can wipe half a tank's health while doing basically nothing to him).

I'm sure Staunton and Minagho aren't quite as extreme defences wise, but IIRC one of the other bosses has an AC of like 40.

...I'm pretty sure in the detailed view of every ability they say Spell Resistance: Yes if spell resistance applies. Might not be in the mythic spells because I think *all* of them ignore sr.

[AlanBruce]

Röki was on sale on Steam. Nordic themed puzzle adventure where you need to rescue your younger brother from a jotun.

I was fortunate enough to get it for free on PS Plus and it was a most delightful experience. I really liked the art style and story. The main character, Tove, is most endearing and uplifting, despite the dire situation she finds herself in.

I found Inside just a few days ago and decided to give it a completely blind playthrough.

I suspected there was some familiarity with Limbo. Later, I learned that it’s the same team, which makes perfect sense. Utterly surprised, transfixed and slightly disturbed from start to finish.

[Psyren]

This was my reaction.

They really need to come up with a new term for "repeat run based meta progression game" that doesn't get "um by strict definition"ed to heck.

I use "roguelite" for the ones that allow for permanent power progression to carry over between runs (e.g. Hades' Mirror and Weapon upgrades), and "roguelike" for the ones that don't. (I will not be taking questions at this time)

[WritersBlock]

The Consuming Shadow is a fantastic roguelite and I should probably do a few more runs later. (car speed is top tier as is item find rate.)

[Mobius Twist]

Cave sulfur's tricky to get even when you're referencing a wiki; those small cave systems are disorienting even when you're *not* dodging Crashfish.

How far are you? I got nearly to the end of the game; I didn't quite beat it, but I liked it a lot. I didn't spend that much time on settlement-building, my first base near the surface was pretty ad-hoc and sprawling, but I did plan out and build a second base that I thought was pretty neat.

I got to the almost-end right now. I have a feeling if I wiki it, the solution will be marvelously, frustratingly obvious.

Spoiler: storyline for a 5-year old game

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I built the escape rocket and hatched/freed the cute little baby/juvenile emperors. Now, I'm completely befuddled since nothing immediately cured me and I couldn't disable the quarantine enforcement weapon. I tried sucking up the golden stardust trailing behind the adult and/or the peepers that spread it around the world, so far no go. I'm sure the juveniles are actually out in the world for me to find and interact with, but that's 5 unique fish in 4 square (circular) kilometers of terrain, plus verticality. At least they're supposedly in "the shallows", whatever that qualifies as. They're certainly not in the starting shallows.