Lurker > MordecaiRocks

Ender Lillies and Cruelty Squad

Ordered it when it was $20 on Best Buy but looks like the shipment got delayed

I like the OPs and EDs a lot

yakuza

Ironic since Walmart stole $500 from me

America because fuck Japans work culture

First one of these I havent passed, unless the NSane trilogy version of Crash 2 counts. Have played Zero Mission and MGS. Although honestly I cant remember if Ive tried Shemue or Donkey Kong GB before. I do plan to get play Hotel Dusk at some point though

[LFAQs-redacted-quote]

The game is so snappy, and movement and combat just feel good which is my favorite part. It arguably might not match other Zeldas in areas like exploration or world design, but not of them are as satisfying to play moment-to-moment as this one imo.

Flockaveli posted...

Spiderman maxes at 30 FPS with Ray Tracing.

There's a 60 fps ray tracing mode, I used it

Also I can't believe it's been 9 years since the game came out wtf

I had to do something similar, except the professor made us record the conversations, transcribe them, and submit both the recordings and transcription with the paper. I guess she had caught on lol

Kloe_Rinz posted...

The somniums in the first game were more memorable and felt more tied into the plot. Iris's in particular. The one where she's dying and her theme is playing in the background while you try to find the fruit of immortality is one of my favourite parts of the first.

You're right about the second IMO. It's not bad but it's not as good and felt inconsequential. I didn't really care for the near characters (although blockheads somnium was alright). Best part of the second game was everything relating to Amame

Yeah for sure. The somniums felt pretty shoehorned into this game. They felt better to play mechanically because they were more intuitive but largely were unnecessary and mostly uninteresting. I did enjoy the Zero Escape themed Tearer one though.

The murder mysteries are much better for the most part, especially the second game imo. Other than that theyre better in some areas, worse in others. Definitely worth checking out if you enjoyed this one.

Kizuna and Lien really contributed nothing to the plot, huh.

I enjoyed it overall, but nowhere near as much as the first game. In fact, I think being a sequel does it more harm than good, because I don't necessarily like how it handled some characters from the first game, and the overall plot could definitely have worked as a new IP.

Speaking of characters, the new ones weren't particularly interesting. AITSF really made you grow attached to the characters, but I don't feel like I really spent enough time with any of the characters here for that to happen. It's indicative of a larger issue with the narrative as a whole, which is that you basically just go through the same list of places checking in on the characters there, a plot point happens, then back to the list of places. It never really felt like there was a strong narrative, just perpetual investigating with minor developments. Oftentimes I found myself just waiting for the inevitable twist that would hopefully make things interesting.

As for the twist...it was underwhelming, but I didn't figure it out beforehand. It's not my first Uchikoshi rodeo so even from the start of the game I didn't just accept the fact that the two timelines were actually occurring six years apart at face value. I figured Ryuki was just an unreliable narrator, and once TC-Perge/his condition was introduced it seemed obvious that he was confusing events from the past from the future. But I didn't expect the same for Mizuki's side too.

Don't get me wrong, it's an interesting twist but I just feel like it didn't do much other than make some of the already weak narrative more comprehensible. The way it was just mentioned by Mama through the fourth wall definitely didn't do the reveal any favors in terms of excitement. And like... there are so many contrivances necessary for it to work. Ever17 had a similar issue, but I at least felt the payoff with the twist there was worth it so it was much easier to accept them as a necessity. Here...not quite as much, although I do think it will be interesting to re-read it at some point and see all of the various ways it was foreshadowed in a new light. If nothing else, it's very ambitious and I respect the attempt, it just didn't nail it.

On a more positive note, I found the mystery very compelling, especially early on. NAIX was great and an embodiment of many of the aspects I love about Uchikoshi games. The reveal behind the two halves of Jin's body was so stupidly funny in the best way. Somnium segments were improved. Even if I don't think it holds up as an overall story nearly as well as the first, it was still a fun ride.

Doe posted...

So a couple observations. The first is I thought I'd notice the "open back" more because I've only ever used closed back. But I don't notice much difference in "closeness" personally. Just that I can hear my heater just a little bit lol.

That said, I definitely notice a far greater clarity in regards to different sounds and instruments. There are several aspects to this song I've genuinely never noticed before, such as the way his voice his doubles on the first half of the lines leading up to the chorus. I can't list everything off because it's a lot of little things but there seems to be entire instruments or synthetic effects I just could not detect before.

Im glad you seem to be enjoying them. Hearing new things in songs youve listened to dozens of times is always fun. When I got my first pair of decent headphones I didnt really appreciate just how much better they were until I tried using my gaming headset again a few weeks later and they sounded like complete shit in comparison.

Ive never been blown away by soundstage in any of my headphones either, at least in terms of hearing things as though they werent still being played a few inches from my ear. I tend to notice it more vertically than horizontally though.

Doe posted...

One thing I'm iffy on is that the voices in songs I'm listening to seem a bit more drowned out than previous things I've listened on. Like, the voice is the same distance or position as the instruments while I'm using to vocals sort of "popping out" more in front of the instruments.

I had the same thing when I switched over from my Sennheisers to the Edition XS. I adjusted to it pretty quickly though, sometimes your brain just has to get used to a new sound signature. There are definitely more mid-forward headphones out there if you end up thinking youd prefer that though.

Got one a few days ago and it's really nice. Everything feels so fast and smooth and the display is great. But I'm coming from the 7 so anything would've been a huge upgrade for me.

Ill second the 560s they sound like exactly what youre looking for

I liked it but there's not much variation between runs. After my first win I haven't really come back to it. It'd be great to see them add more playable characters with their playstyle from their respective game, but I guess that'd be a challenge since the level designs seem crafted around Shovel Knight. But they've announced free DLC so hopefully it ends up being pretty substantial, they have a really solid foundation to build off of.