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

[Psyren]

Got into Act 3 of Wrath of the Righteous properly, and as Azata appear to be some kind of fey monarchs, or at least the celestial version, I've had to come up with a name for my court.

Azata are the PF version of D&D's Arborea celestials (called Eladrin in 3.5e, no idea if they're still called that in 5e where Eladrin are now more associated with the Feywild than the CG outer plane.)

[Anonymouswizard]

Azata are the PF version of D&D's Arborea celestials (called Eladrin in 3.5e, no idea if they're still called that in 5e where Eladrin are now more associated with the Feywild than the CG outer plane.)

Yes, but for the game 'fairy monarch' seems to be the relevant archetype. Wonder, chaos, and a court independent of mortal power structures.

The game is simplifying Pathfinder lore so as not to confuse people, hence Archons being called Angels, Azata having a more fey than celestial presentation, and the Demon/Devil split only mattering on two out of six paths (and thankfully not Demon itself). Considering that there's no actual Fey path Azata leaning into fairy trappings isn't a bad thing.

I've also already got plans for subsequent runs, including a Rogue/Trickster (partially out of annoyance that Woljiff is a caster) and Cavalier or Paladin* Demon->Legend run. Might even do Demon->Gold Dragon at some point.

* Possibly a Good character who fights their transformation, possibly a Paladin of Tyranny if that's an included archetype,.

[warty goblin]

Previous Crimsonland Waves high scores: 6 million and change. New Crimsonland Waves mode high score: 15.67 million, 5,400 kills.

The land was, indeed, crimson. So very, very crimson.

[Zevox]

Open Beta for Granblue Fantasy Versus: Rising started tonight, so I got some time in with it. Best news for me, training mode is in the beta now, so I can actually try and learn some things about characters before fighting people.

Played about 30 matches with Vira. I was generally having fun, but I can already tell that against better players, I was not thrilled with what the neutral came down to with her. Feels a bit too honest - no projectiles, her only advancing special move is questionable on block, her pokes feel so-so. She does get air dashing, but only after entering her armored state, which requires either using a super install or landing a pretty slow command grab. I'm currently thinking she probably won't be my character, even though there's some things I do like about her.

Unfortunately, the timing for the beta is awkward for me. It goes through most of tomorrow, but between work and my D&D group I won't really have time for it then. It's then down on Saturday for some reason, and back on basically all day Sunday. Which functionally means Sunday will be my only real time with it outside of the couple of hours tonight. I'll need to squeeze in trying a bunch of characters though, there's so many more than there were in the base version of the previous game, which is all I've played before. Just from brief fiddling in training mode tonight, definitely want to give Zooey, Belial, Avatar Belial, and Yuel a shot (though Yuel feels like she may too complicated to learn in a brief beta, better saved for launch), plus maybe Cagliostro or Seox. And that's ignoring the characters I liked in the original game, who I do kind of want to see how they've changed too.

[Form]

I've been puzzling my way through the The Talos Principle II and having a good time. I'm enjoying the puzzles, the bits of lore and I approve of the robots' apparent obsession with cats (there's a cat monument in the city and a bunch of them have cats). So far it's nothing too complicated and it's taking care to gradually introduce new puzzle elements.

The only thing that bugs me is that I suspect I missed out on a secret near the beginning. There was a puzzle element outside of the bounds of one of the puzzles in the booting up simulation which I couldn't get to, no matter how much I looked around and searched for hidden switches or platforming tricks. Maaaaybe I'll return to that area later in the game? Ah well, I don't have to find everything.

[Cygnia]

I've been puzzling my way through the The Talos Principle II and having a good time. I'm enjoying the puzzles, the bits of lore and I approve of the robots' apparent obsession with cats (there's a cat monument in the city and a bunch of them have cats). So far it's nothing too complicated and it's taking care to gradually introduce new puzzle elements.

The only thing that bugs me is that I suspect I missed out on a secret near the beginning. There was a puzzle element outside of the bounds of one of the puzzles in the booting up simulation which I couldn't get to, no matter how much I looked around and searched for hidden switches or platforming tricks. Maaaaybe I'll return to that area later in the game? Ah well, I don't have to find everything.

I've yet to finish the first game. Which is driving me NUTS because I like it a lot, but I just don't have the eye-hand coordination to get past some of the levels' moving bombs (and these are the levels I can't parkour my way out of).

[Form]

I've yet to finish the first game. Which is driving me NUTS because I like it a lot, but I just don't have the eye-hand coordination to get past some of the levels' moving bombs (and these are the levels I can't parkour my way out of).

Spoiler: I remember struggling with this as well, but this might help

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The game doesn't tell you this, but you can put boxes on top of floating mines and ride them. There's at least one puzzle that requires you to do exactly that and I got stuck on that one for a while, constantly trying to dodge the mines instead of using the boxes this way.

[Cygnia]

Spoiler: I remember struggling with this as well, but this might help

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The game doesn't tell you this, but you can put boxes on top of floating mines and ride them. There's at least one puzzle that requires you to do exactly that and I got stuck on that one for a while, constantly trying to dodge the mines instead of using the boxes this way.

Unfortunately for the levels I still need to finish, that trick isn't applicable.

[warty goblin]

Started exploring Age of Wonders 4 with the most recent patch/dlc. It's good. I mean it already was good. But it's even better now.

First big change, the race/ancestry system has been deepened. Now instead of each species getting a body and a mind trait, you get five points to pick what you like. There's default options for appropriately elvish elves, but you can tweak away for wood elves or underground dark elves or just go full min-max.

Second big change, which is DLC exclusive, the Seals victory is back. I'll have to see how good the AI is at going for Seals, one of the reasons it was so good in Age 3 is the AI did a pretty good job of contesting them.

Also the DLC adds bird people. Nifty. And a sort of magical technology pirate culture, so now I'm playing a hot babe fire sorceress from beyond space and time leading a horde of magical buccaneer lizards. I didn't know this was a thing I wanted, but its so goofy and pulpy and awesome.

[Zevox]

Unfortunately, the timing for the beta is awkward for me. It goes through most of tomorrow, but between work and my D&D group I won't really have time for it then.

Well, I was wrong, D&D got canceled this week, so I had several more hours with GBFVR. Tried out Zooey and Avatar Belial, liking both of them better than Vira I'd say. Zooey may be my favorite at this moment, I like the sheer variety she has to her bag of tricks, including an air projectile that can bait anti-airs. Avatar Belial actually felt rough to try initially, but I was getting the hang of him after a while - though it seems he's significantly nerfed from the original game, since in this one only the new blue special moves that cost 50% super meter give hard knockdowns, and he apparently used to have a meterless combo ender that gave him hard knockdown at the expense of spending some of his health to do it. Kind of hope they give him that back honestly.

Also, have to say, it's really nice to play a fighting game with good music again. The last two I played were Street Fighter 6 and DNF Duel, and while DNF has a couple of good tracks, its music is mostly forgettable outside of Brawl of Hendon Myre. And SF6's music is its weak point, if it's not Jamie or Kimberly's themes (or round 3 with JP's), it's not worth listening to. But Granblue's got great music in spades. I've been setting my pick to Parade's Lust thus far, but listening to other people's picks when they're player 1 is still pretty darn good.

[Cespenar]

I dipped my toes into Lamplighters League out of respect for the developer, and it's... good, but a bit too XCOM-clony to be a great game, IMO.

So also got into Mask of the Rose, which looks good so far, though it's too early to say for sure. There's an Obra Dinnlike mechanic for creating custom stories and then using them as guesses, lies, etc. but we'll see how good it will be utilized.

Also, obviously, the Fallen London fellas can write.

[Zevox]

So, I actually had a lot more time with Granblue Fantasy Versus Rising than I thought. I'd misread the beta schedule, and it was not down all day yesterday, just in the evening and into the late night on Friday. So I got plenty of time to try out the characters I wanted to after all.

Of those I played, Belial was a clear favorite, probably the one I used the most. He may have leapfrogged Zooey as my favorite of the new characters - that tricky projectile of his is great fun to use, and his command grab quite satisfying to land. Unlike his Avatar version he feels more like, while an all-around overall, he wants to be in close (Avatar Belial definitely leans more towards the zoning side of things), which is more to my liking for sure. And I've just gotta love his goofy, over-the-top Incubus-style personality and animations, you don't see this kind of thing often with male characters in... well, anything, really, but fighting games included.

I also liked what I played of Yuel quite a bit, but she'll definitely take more time to get the hang of than I was going to have in the beta, so I didn't stick with her too long; she's a "give her more of a shot when the game's out" character. Cagliostro I tried for a bit, and as a zoner she's probably more to my liking than Avatar Belial (has traps and pillar summons rather than just various projectiles), but not one I think would be a top pick for my main. And I also gave my old main, Zeta, a spin towards the end of tonight, and yep, still quite like her. Wanted to do a bit with Percival too, but he's more complicated and I waited too long to do it since I was trying the new characters. But yeah, I've definitely got a fair few characters I'll need to play for a while before I can decide on a main once this comes out, which is a good thing.

Was also kind of impressed by the character variety I ran into online. Aside from the one character who has never been playable before this beta, Anila the sheep lady, no one stands out too much as the "popular character" that I saw a lot of - and even Anila wasn't all over the place, just noticeably more frequent to see than any one other character. I could probably identify a few that were slightly more common than most, but they weren't so common that it was too noticeable. There's a few that I saw only once or twice, and I think two I didn't see at all (Anre and Seox), but overall a good, solid variety to the opponents. Which is quite nice compared to playing the original version back in 2020, where Gran, Zeta, and Katalina felt way more common than anyone else, IIRC.

[NeoVid]

After finishing my playthrough of Fuga 2, I decided to search the Game Pass for things that have been on my Steam wishlist so I could play through them without spending more cash.

First up was TOEM, which was pretty much what it looked like: A relaxing photographic exploration/puzzle game. Got hooked, but because the game was so nice and short, I finished it in a weekend. And I'm glad I did, it was a unique experience... and I should have realized that the game is in black-and-white so that the one moment that isn't stands out even more.

Next, I decided to try one that's been making a big impact recently: Sea of Stars. At first, it looked like it would be another of the 30% of Game Pass games I couldn't get to launch successfully, but then I saw a recommendation to delete one specific file from the game's save location, and it worked perfectly after that. What the?

Anyway, a couple of hours in it was bringing back my best memories of playing Suikoden/Chrono Trigger/Wild Arms, which is clearly what the developers were going for. SOS also has several mechanical features that I've never seen in a JRPG, like multiple reasons to use the basic Attack command, and to pay attention to enemy actions in random fights. The entire reason I learned how to minmax in games is due to my JRPG experience in my younger days, where abusing the combat mechanics would mean the fights almost became a non-issue and didn't get in the way of the parts of the game I cared about. SOS is actually making me want to go into combat, which is ironic since its open world enemies don't drop anything worth the effort. The story and setting, the things that primarily keep me interested, are pretty damn good. Just the change from the tutorial zone to the first island you reach is making me wonder just how varied this setting is going to get. I'm going into this game nearly blind, something I rarely do in RPGs, but I have heard that there's some very out of left field weirdness in the game, which I'm looking forward to. The player characters being "The two chosen ones... and their ordinary nonmagical best friend" is another variation on the formula that I want to see the result of. I think I'm going to be staying with this game for a while...

[Erloas]

Still been playing Cities Skylines 2, I haven't noticed much for performance issues, though I've only now passed 75k people and I think most people didn't run into big problems until 100-150k.

It has some of the same traffic issues, and demands of the first. Like you're normal city of 40k people is usually pretty slow but it's easy to have huge traffic problems by then. I also have a medical and technical college, 2 regular colleges, and a university, which seems like a lot, but then only one high school.

There also seems to be complaints from buildings about crime even though the maps show good coverage.

Overall though it's good if you like the genre. I really like the production\supply info, and the specialized industry is similar to the DLC in the first game. The parking is a new thing to manage, it works it just seems oddly specific to control, maybe that's just because it hasn't been a thing in other games.
The ability to finely tweak the roads is nice, it's not quite as robust as the Move-It mod from the first but it's a big improvement over the base in the original.

I'm just wishing I had planned out the start of my city better. But it's a bit hard to plan for larger roads and infrastructure when you're a long ways away from unlocking them. And destroying large areas of established buildings to upgrade the roads or put paths in is hard, at least psychologically.
But I'm having fun, and stayed up way too late several times doing just a little bit more.

[Anonymouswizard]

Went back to Dragon Quest XI, found the place needed to continue the plot, and after a couple of hours got what seems to be the final two party members (Funny Old Man and Sexy Noble Lady). Then for some reason the game became Final Fantasy and told me to find four crystals orbs.

This game can have a weird habit of playing a cutscene, having you walk ten steps, and then triggering another cutscene. Getting the orbs quest is probably the most extreme example (they probably should have had the second cutscene when you nearly get back to the ship), but at least the story's been generally decent so far (I like that we picked up a MacGuffin all the way back in the first proper dungeon).

[tonberrian]

Went back to Dragon Quest XI, found the place needed to continue the plot, and after a couple of hours got what seems to be the final two party members (Funny Old Man and Sexy Noble Lady). Then for some reason the game became Final Fantasy and told me to find four crystals orbs.

This game can have a weird habit of playing a cutscene, having you walk ten steps, and then triggering another cutscene. Getting the orbs quest is probably the most extreme example (they probably should have had the second cutscene when you nearly get back to the ship), but at least the story's been generally decent so far (I like that we picked up a MacGuffin all the way back in the first proper dungeon).

Orbs are a Dragon Quest Tradition dating back to DQ 3!

Edit: Looking at the wiki, the orbs in DQ XI might in fact be the same orbs from DQ 3, because it looks sort of like the world of DQ 3 is the far future of DQ 11 due to post game cutscenes. This would make it the same world as DQ 1 and 2 since those take place in the future of DQ 3. But it's not entirely clear what's going on in the cutscenes, and i haven't seen them to form an opinion, so *shrug*.

[Rynjin]

Orbs are a Dragon Quest Tradition dating back to DQ 3!

Edit: Looking at the wiki, the orbs in DQ XI might in fact be the same orbs from DQ 3, because it looks sort of like the world of DQ 3 is the far future of DQ 11 due to post game cutscenes. This would make it the same world as DQ 1 and 2 since those take place in the future of DQ 3. But it's not entirely clear what's going on in the cutscenes, and i haven't seen them to form an opinion, so *shrug*.

I've only played a little of XI and never any of the others but they hammer in very early the "He's reincarnated from some other Hero" thing so much I figured he was supposed to be the reincarnation of a previous game's Hero. Make of that what you will.

[Zevox]

Orbs are a Dragon Quest Tradition dating back to DQ 3!

Edit: Looking at the wiki, the orbs in DQ XI might in fact be the same orbs from DQ 3, because it looks sort of like the world of DQ 3 is the far future of DQ 11 due to post game cutscenes. This would make it the same world as DQ 1 and 2 since those take place in the future of DQ 3. But it's not entirely clear what's going on in the cutscenes, and i haven't seen them to form an opinion, so *shrug*.

The bolded isn't entirely true. While DQ3 is a prequel to 1 and 2 in that it turns out the character you play in 3 is the legendary hero you were descended from in 1 and 2, the world in which most of 3 takes place is not the world from 1 and 2. You travel to the world from 1 and 2 late in 3, and the portal between the two closes when you beat the final boss, stranding you there. So if the world from 11 is the same as from 3 - which I don't recall being the case, but it's been a while since I played it - it still wouldn't be the same one from 1 and 2.

[ArmyOfOptimists]

The bolded isn't entirely true. While DQ3 is a prequel to 1 and 2 in that it turns out the character you play in 3 is the legendary hero you were descended from in 1 and 2, the world in which most of 3 takes place is not the world from 1 and 2. You travel to the world from 1 and 2 late in 3, and the portal between the two closes when you beat the final boss, stranding you there. So if the world from 11 is the same as from 3 - which I don't recall being the case, but it's been a while since I played it - it still wouldn't be the same one from 1 and 2.

Spoiler: Dragon Quest 11

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The game closes with a mother reading the story of the Luminary before going to wake up her child, which sets up the opening of Dragon Quest III. Implying either the two games are in the same world or that DQ11 is a fictional epic in DQ3's universe. I'm inclined to believe it's the former, since the "Erdrick" title is also coined at the end of DQ11 and carries over into DQ3.

[Form]

Spoiler: Talos Principle II, new puzzle element

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Oh no, they've introduced gravity shifters. This is going to get real disorienting, real fast.

[Anonymouswizard]

Orbs are a Dragon Quest Tradition dating back to DQ 3!

I wouldn't really know, everything I've tried pre-8 has had an early grindwall that turned me off. I really should get another copy of 8 though, I did enjoy the half(ish) I played.

I've only played a little of XI and never any of the others but they hammer in very early the "He's reincarnated from some other Hero" thing so much I figured he was supposed to be the reincarnation of a previous game's Hero. Make of that what you will.

I believe it's supposed to be part of it's throwback nature, with the heroes of the first three games being the descendants of great heroes. Although I think the series does very roughly fall into two sets of continuity (1-3+11 and 4-6), with 7, 8, and 10 being standalone and 9 being a potential distant prequel to any of the others


I'd like to note that the bosses tend to absolutely wreck me and leave only one or two iarty members standing, but whenever I recruit a new party member I've not been more than a level behind them. The difficulty in this game is interesting, I think it's that it's expecting me to have the stat buffs from multiple parts of the skill tree rather than focusing every character on one area. Although I probably will start diversifying now, most characters have picked up the abilities I was building them towards.

[Zevox]

Spoiler: Dragon Quest 11

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The game closes with a mother reading the story of the Luminary before going to wake up her child, which sets up the opening of Dragon Quest III. Implying either the two games are in the same world or that DQ11 is a fictional epic in DQ3's universe. I'm inclined to believe it's the former, since the "Erdrick" title is also coined at the end of DQ11 and carries over into DQ3.

Spoiler

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The thing that doesn't work about that is actually exactly that last bit. The title Erdrick - or Loto, in the translations I played - was never a part of DQ3's world, only DQ1 and 2's. It was bestowed upon the hero of DQ3 by the king of the kingdom in that world after they'd defeated the final boss and the portal back to their original world had closed. So using it in DQ11 comes across as just a reference to the old classic, rather than something that means their worlds are the same.

Now, if memory serves the king did say the title was from another hero in the past when he bestowed it, so perhaps the world of 11 being the same as 1 and 2 could fit. Except then we wouldn't be seeing the hero of 3 prior to starting their adventure, since they came from another world... so yeah, it's weird.

[Anonymouswizard]

Started a Pillars of Eternity run because it's Pillars of Eternity and I like the setting. I make an ex-blacksmith Orlan Rogue and immediately missed the pistol in the starting area, so I guess I'm using crossbows for a bit.

[warty goblin]

You know in fantasy series how there's often a long gone civilization of impossibly powerful magic users? My Age of Wonders 4 game has reached the point where I am that civilization. In this case as elves who have partially fused with the astral plane, have augmented their bodies with living, magical metals, and command armies of golem warriors.

All that remains is casting the spell, the final spell, that will carry my leader beyond this world and into eternity. That, and curb stomping some very dumb dragon people who picked a fight with me.

[Bohandas]

The player characters being "The two chosen ones... and their ordinary nonmagical best friend" is another variation on the formula that I want to see the result of.

That sounds a little like the Disney cartoon show Hamster and Gretel [sic]

[AlanBruce]

Lies of P just got another patch.

Now you get Rising Dodge as basekit, which should’ve been the norm since the beginning- getting downed by a shovel puppet and stunned locked on the ground by subsequent shovels because you can’t roll away unless you upgrade on a skill tree was most unfun.

The store also got a few upgrades, with quartz being offered really early and in large numbers. They mentioned ease of play for heavier weapons and “monster modifications”. Whether these are good or not, I haven’t tested them out.

They did expand on the cosmetic section for free. Now you can wear a hat and glasses, to round up your style. They even have Alidoro’s outfit, so you can go around killing puppets like a rabid hound.

I also purchased and played a little of After Us. It’s an indie platformer I saw earlier this year and was for sale. The visuals are very interesting. The character looks like she belongs in a Pixar movie. For a platformer, I wish the controls were a little more forgiving with the jumps and accuracy, since that’s the meat & potatoes of the game, but I can let it slide. Visuals look gorgeous and although the story is almost non existent, it’s a short campaign.

[Rodin]

Lies of P just got another patch.

Now you get Rising Dodge as basekit, which should’ve been the norm since the beginning- getting downed by a shovel puppet and stunned locked on the ground by subsequent shovels because you can’t roll away unless you upgrade on a skill tree was most unfun.

The store also got a few upgrades, with quartz being offered really early and in large numbers. They mentioned ease of play for heavier weapons and “monster modifications”. Whether these are good or not, I haven’t tested them out.

They did expand on the cosmetic section for free. Now you can wear a hat and glasses, to round up your style. They even have Alidoro’s outfit, so you can go around killing puppets like a rabid hound.

I never bothered with Rising Dodge after my first playthrough - other than the shovel puppet it never made a difference. Most enemies don't follow up on you when you're on the ground, so those two Quartz were much better spent somewhere else. It's nice to have it off the P-Organ tree, but I would have much preferred to have the Link Dodge moved to base.

The monster modifications aren't much from what I've seen - the only really obvious one is the aforementioned shovel puppet, which has a much slower slam attack. So moving the Rising Dodge was pointless anyway.

The heavy weapon modification though? That is transformative. I tried a full heavy weapon run before and found it nearly unplayable. Heavy weapon + heavy handle was just too slow, you would get countered by every enemy and you could only ever get a single swing off before needing to back off even on the best punishes. With this change, the absolute heaviest weapons are still that way (Frozen Feast is painfully slow) but all of the "normal" heavy weapons are finally viable. I've been running the Bone-Cutting Saw on the Exploding Pickaxe handle and it feels great. I just swapped on the Live Puppet's Axe blade and it similarly feels great, if with a bit less range.

The dev team has clearly listened to feedback and made changes that improve the game without taking anything away. They also released the soundtrack for purchase, which I immediately picked up. There is a lot of beautiful music. Now if I could only hear it over the sound of me cursing out the Swamp Monster after yet another death...

[warty goblin]

I also purchased and played a little of After Us. It’s an indie platformer I saw earlier this year and was for sale. The visuals are very interesting. The character looks like she belongs in a Pixar movie. For a platformer, I wish the controls were a little more forgiving with the jumps and accuracy, since that’s the meat & potatoes of the game, but I can let it slide. Visuals look gorgeous and although the story is almost non existent, it’s a short campaign.

Funnily enough I just picked this up, I found the whole all the people a d also everything else is dead an arresting concept. Haven't started it yet though, I remain very distracted by Age of Wonders 4.

[AlanBruce]

The heavy weapon modification though? That is transformative. I tried a full heavy weapon run before and found it nearly unplayable. Heavy weapon + heavy handle was just too slow, you would get countered by every enemy and you could only ever get a single swing off before needing to back off even on the best punishes. With this change, the absolute heaviest weapons are still that way (Frozen Feast is painfully slow) but all of the "normal" heavy weapons are finally viable. I've been running the Bone-Cutting Saw on the Exploding Pickaxe handle and it feels great. I just swapped on the Live Puppet's Axe blade and it similarly feels great, if with a bit less range.

The dev team has clearly listened to feedback and made changes that improve the game without taking anything away. They also released the soundtrack for purchase, which I immediately picked up. There is a lot of beautiful music. Now if I could only hear it over the sound of me cursing out the Swamp Monster after yet another death...

I must concur that the developers are clearly listening and improving on the game. When it comes to a pure Motivity build, I bring the tried and true Pipe Wrench Head + Krat Police Baton. Short range, but devastating when you pull off the Patient Smash fable art coupled with Conqueror and Extreme Modification amulets. Ideally with 5 fable slots to capitalize on the damage.

[Form]

I've nearly finished The Talos Principle II with only the golden gate puzzles still remaining. I suppose I could skip those and move on to the end as the game doesn't force you to solve those, but my pathological obsession with these puzzles demands I solve them.

I also wanted to mention the sense of wonder and hope for the future the game instills. It's rare to find something with this much optimism and it's something I needed, having been stuck in cynicism the past few years. It's a realistic optimism too, not the kind that comes from just sticking your head in the sand and ignoring all the bad things. It feels good to have that faith in a better tomorrow be rekindled, so if any of you have felt similar than I can absolutely recommend this game to you as well.