I forgot I had this on my list. I’m neck-deep in Metaphor ReFantazio right now, but I’ve got to try this soon (along with at least half a dozen Next Fest demos). Emperor Rise of the Middle Kingdom is one of my favorite games.

One thing I appreciate about FF5 is it allows for more of that flexibility. Fewer bosses like FF3’s Garuda or dungeons like Cave of Shadows that will give the player a particularly hard time if they don’t follow the prescribed party composition.

I was mildly concerned, as Metaphor had a little bit more of this than I liked at first. It seems to be easing up on this as the game goes on with more flexible options made available, fortunately.

Great response. There’s definitely been a lot of change to streamline the experience in this way. Chrono Trigger’s a big part of what started that in JRPGs, too. Its move away from random encounters sometimes overshadows discussions about how tightly tuned that game’s encounters were.

I also can’t see complaining about free content. This isn’t an Ark situation.

A welcome change, though I imagine the more savvy grifters have seen the writing on the wall for a while now with virtual credit cards becoming more popular. I put a freeze date on every single purchase I make that has a recurring subscription.

Did the same, although damn is this release ever tempting me. I was done with the first Hades pretty quick, but I could see this one easily sucking me in for 100+ hours. Felt to me like they improved damn near everything, and the vibe is divine. Amelia Tyler is a treasure.

I know Jennifer English and Ben Starr off-hand for playing Shadowheart in Baldur’s Gate 3 and Clive in Final Fantasy XVI, respectively. Andy Serkis is most well-known for playing Gollum in The Lord of the Rings films, but he’s been in a ton of stuff.

Seems there was a translation issue, Uematsu is clarifying that he’s still doing work, just scaling it back. Consistent with what he’s said previously about Fantasian being his last major project.

A seventh month gap for the next game in the series, crazy. Would be amazing if we got Kai by the end of the year.

I didn’t see the plot twist coming myself, but in general I’d say Bethesda’s open world games aren’t the place to go for main story (even if Starfield’s was my favorite of the bunch so far). The idea of followers chiming in on quests from time to time being a new concept for these RPGs in 2015 should tell readers where this studio’s been positioned in the genre. Definitely not top-tier immersive story experience, even if I did like some of the follower vignettes.

I still put probably 200 hours in this game over the years–mostly settlement stuff–yet each time I started a new run I groaned at the power armor. Something about it always felt a little off to me, and most of the random loot in the game is regular armor, the bonuses on which are all deactivated when in the suit. I did builds without the power armor more often than not, and that usually meant a stealth build with frequent quicksaving. One rocket was generally enough to end a run.

I’m surprised to hear you were getting those framerates, though. I get a solid 60 FPS even downtown with Super Mutants running around, and I wouldn’t have called my rig very well equipped even when it was current (3060Ti). That’s gotta be a mod issue.