LogFAQs > #974952292

#11: Ni no Kuni: Wrath of the White Witch

Let's get a few things out of the way. First of all, Ni no Kuni is a gorgeous game - the cutscenes are great, the graphics are fantastic, the music is really good and I liked the story a lot. I love Level-5, their PS2 output is GOATed and Professor Layton is one of my favourite game series ever. This is in no way a "bad" game.

That being said - I didn't finish the game. I got the boat, ended up getting stuck and didn't care to progress further.

Now, I've been watching a streamer named Snapcube play through Dragon Quest 8 recently. It was made by Level-5, and the way I understand it is that you just fuck around and explore the map, experiencing the world until you come across a plot trigger. Perhaps if I had more patience back in the day and just explored and shit, maybe I would have finished it?

Well, to tell you the truth, I thought about going back to Ni no Kuni recently. And I ultimately decided against it because I didn't like the combat. The little arena where you throw your guys and do your attacks and all that kind of bothered me, and by the time I hit the port town where you get the ship, I was getting to my wit's end. I don't mean to criticize; I understand that it's just not for me, and the system is probably robust and all sorts of fun for people who click with it. But it felt more like busywork to me.

Ni no Kuni is a fine game with a lot of great pedigree to it and an excellent presentation. But it just didn't click.

10: Torchlight II

I like dungeon crawlers. Like back in the day, my sister's laptop had FATE pre-installed on it and I played the fuck out of that game. If they ported FATE, I'd play that shit in an instant. I've also talked about my enjoyment of Diablo 1 and 3. So Torchlight is a slam-dunk, right? It's even made by a ton of former FATE devs!

...

There's something off about Torchlight 2's presentation. The font is the same font they use in that House Party game, it's like a font that's meticulously designed for cheap, shitty boner games. The homescreen is jank as hell, and I personally didn't care much for the cutscenes.

I played a fair bit of Torchlight II, and it was okay to a degree. But it didn't have that insane addictive quality that I think I was looking for. I didn't vibe with any of the playstyles that I tried, and I didn't care about the story. Mowing down waves of assholes didn't feel super great.

And again, I don't mind stupid dumb-ass dungeon crawler schlock. FATE is a well-presented all-ages title with generic monsters, going down multiple randomly generated dungeon floors to get loot and taking it back to town. I like that. I didn't really glom onto the sort of presentation and vibe that Torchlight II was trying.

Like fwiw, it was definitely okay. Chalk it up to me being a Diablo III dude, but I just didn't get into it and it became a slog that I didn't want to finish.

#9: Hand of Fate 2

Hand of Fate 2 is a very fun idea. You're playing a board game with this evil fella, where you roll dice and spin wheels and do puzzles to determine your chance of success. He deals out a maze of cards for you to traverse, where you get events like - for example - chasing a thieving vagabond who steals 30 gold coins, and based on a mixture of skill and luck, you can either get your coins back or lose them forever.

The game is played in scenarios, and those scenarios have different endings. In one, you might seek out the support of a noble king - depending on how well you did, he might lend you the support, or he might politely decline because you didn't get enough tokens to convince him of your worth.

What makes Hand of Fate 2 such a novel game is that when you inevitably get involved in combat encounters, the game shifts into action combat. You actually get a 3D dude with a moveset, and you physically beat up whatever the fuck is antagonizing you. It skirts close to an action RPG in that sense, but the rest of the game pulls it back with its heavy focus on points and roleplaying.

And the game is a real uphill climb too, it's a roguelike in many ways. You will die, whether you're bad at the combat - because your HP carries over between board events like the vagabond example and the combat encounters - or because you get a run of bad luck.

I really like Hand of Fate 2, but for some reason it's hard for me to go back to. I think I'm gonna reinstall it and get further in the game, because like every other game on this list so far - I haven't finished it. Check out a playthrough or a stream of it, Vinesauce has a few streams of it which is how I found the game.