What are you playing on your PlayStation 4?

[newtmonkey]

I got a few more games this week.  Once of the nicest things about getting into a console years after it was released (but before people get nostalgic for it) is how cheap games are... even factory sealed!

 

Sengoku Musou 4 DX (aka Samurai Warriors 4)

This is basically a straight port of the PS3 game, but with all the DLC included on disc.  KOEI claims to have redone the lighting and skin textures, but it really doesn't look much different from my recollection of the PS3 game.  Anyway, it's a fine port of this good game, with very clean and colorful graphics running at a mostly solid 60 fps.  You are constantly being bombarded with mandatory and optional missions as the battle goes on, which some might find annoying, but I like it because it keeps you on your toes.

 

Musou Orochi 2 Ultimate (aka Warriors Orochi 3)

This was one of my favorite games on the PS3, and I spent so much time playing it back in the day.  When I saw that there was a port to the PS4, I decided to pick up a copy.  It's a fine port, but maybe not as good as it should have been.  They improved the lighting and textures and added a ton more enemies on screen, which is cool, but it still runs at only 30 fps most of the time.  It would have been cool if they added action (60 fps with PS3 graphics) and movie (30 fps with upgraded graphics) modes, sort of like in SSM8/DW9, but oh well... it ends up at least as good as the PS3 version, and afaik is the best game in the series.

 

Mortal Kombat XL

I have this on PC and it runs perfectly... but I definitely prefer to play fighting games on the living room TV while sitting on the couch.  I think this is probably my favorite game in the series.  It looks and plays great with tons of cool characters (each with multiple variations) and plenty of depth if you want to pursue it, but it also plays perfectly fine as a casual fighting game.  The character roster is basically a "best of the best" of the series, and there's a good chance that your personal favorite MK character is playable.

 

There's tons of content and it's one of those games you could just play forever (the various tower battles were such a good idea).  It was also a stroke of genius to add the horror movie characters.  These guys really do fit in perfectly, in stark contrast with the likes of T-1000 (?), Robocop (??), and Rambo (!?!?) in MK11 (hoping that Mortal Kombat 1 gets Sister Act Whoopie Goldberg, Steven Seagal [with fat variation], and Garth from Wayne's World).

 

Much like Injustice 2, the entire game and all DLC is on the disc.  I personally verified this by installing the game from disc and running it without updating the game.  The game installs in stages, but lets you launch the game before it is actually completely installed from disc so you're limited to just two characters (Scorpion, Sub-Zero) and the tutorial.  I'm certain you could just leave the game on and it would install the rest, but I ran through the tutorial then restarted my console, and everything was installed with no issues. That means that, in the year 2048 after the Great AI War is over and the Internet has been dismantled, you will be able to plug your PS4 into your personal Nukey^tm nuclear generator or wind farm and play MKXL in all its glory.

Edited September 16, 2023 by newtmonkey

[+Cafeman]

On 9/6/2023 at 2:04 PM, Cafeman said:

I've had the PS4 sequel on my shelf for half a year and never even popped it into the machine yet.  Maybe when fall and winter hits and nights are longer. 

 

I finally started to play HZD: Forbidden West!  It took over an hour to load both discs (data disc, and gameplay disc) onto my PS4 hard drive.  I'm not very far, Aloy has a chatty companion dude at first. I have not yet got a handle on the menus and controls. The graphics are quite good and so far I've seen different machine beasts, like diggers and cobra ones.  

 

I also revisited my save file for Beach Buggy Racing, and I got a few more stars on races, Stampede levels, and Follow The Leader races. 

 

I've been watching my son play Subnautica, too.  Stranded on the ocean of a new planet, you dive and collect food and debris/parts to save yourself.  

[newtmonkey]

Played some PS4 this week!

 

Warhammer 40000: Inquisitor - Martyr

This game started out pretty boring, then got kind of interesting once it opened up... but now is pretty boring again.  There's simply not enough variety in the environments and enemies.  I dunno if it's because it's the typical Diablo-clone thing where the game only gets interesting once you've beat it 10 times, or if the game is trying to push the DLC stuff, but there's just not much to this game.  You get lots of equipment upgrades and points to spend on your passive skills, but the changes are so minor that nothing feels satisfying.  It's like, woah, I unlocked +1% melee damage when I'm surrounded by 3+ enemies.

 

Each piece of equipment also has way too many modifiers, making it difficult to tell at a glance if something is better or not for your build.  I think the developers knew this, because each piece also has a "quality" rating.  I have no idea how this is calculated, but the game will tell you by what % a piece of equipment is an improvement (or downgrade) compared to what you've got.  It's helpful, but it also feels like the game is playing itself for you.

 

NieR:Automata Game of the YoRHa Edition

I could have sworn I posted about this earlier, but I guess not.

 

Strangely enough, the physical US version of this game was cheaper than the JP version on Amazon.co.jp!  I have this on PC, but it doesn't run very well (not a good port).  There's an unofficial patch you can apply that gets it running nicely, but I don't like to rely on that.  Anyway, the PS4 version runs mostly at 60 fps, with occasional drops, and looks quite nice.

 

This game is pretty interesting.  It's a decent action game, but the real appeal is the world and story.  There are a lot of cool ideas, but the game doesn't throw them in your face or force you to sit there while it explains it all to you.  It just sets it all up and then it's up to you to think about it.  Meanwhile, you are just playing the game having a blast exploring, fighting, and listening to a fantastic soundtrack.

 

Shin Sangoku Musou 7 with Moushouden (aka Dynasty Warriors 8)

I mentioned earlier that the framerate was really bad in this game, but it actually gets much better after the Yellow Turban stage.  In a lot of ways, this is the ultimate game in the series; the stages are really good and dynamic, there are lots of characters to play as (and they are mostly all unique), there are lots of different modes available, and it really does look quite good (the PC release is unfortunately based on the PS3 version with improved lighting).  If you are into this series of games (like I am), this is basically a game that never ends.

 

---

 

Time for general PS4 talk.

 

- I cannot believe that Mortal Kombat 1 is not available on PS4, yet there's the hideous Switch version out there.  I have nothing against the Switch at all (in fact, I was playing Switch games today all afternoon), but MK1 on that system apparently runs awful and looks absolutely dire.  How on earth is that acceptable, but not a PS4 version slightly scaled down from the PS5 version???  Totally nuts.

 

- I'm still annoyed that all the DLC stuff on the Mortal Kombat 11 Ultimate disc doesn't work anymore on my PS4 after installing a new hard drive.  Really frustrating.  I ended up buying a cheap used copy of vanilla MK11, and then bought the Aftermath expansion on PSN... and now the MK11 Ultimate disc recognizes the DLC (I don't have to DL anything, and the information in Library lists it all as "Disc version")... except for the Shao Kahn character!  I have no idea what is going on with this game.  It's infuriating that all the content is on the disc, but for some reason the console stopped recognizing it.  It's also only an issue with MK11, since both Injustice 2 and Mortal Kombat XL install 100% from disc.

Edited September 23, 2023 by newtmonkey

[newtmonkey]

Tomb Raider (2013)

This is free on PSPlus, so I gave it a shot.  I'm not a fan of these spectacle types of games where you just go from encounter to encounter doing exactly what the game wants you to do.  Maybe the game opens up and gets better later, but it really annoys me to get funneled through a game like this.  I'd rather just watch a movie.

 

Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order

I was intrigued to hear that this is sort of Star Wars Dark Souls, and although my PC can run it, it uses EA's awful DRM/client... so I decided to pick up a cheap used copy on PS4.  It's a great looking game, and even though I don't care much for Star Wars, it was definitely a cool moment when the hero pulled out his lightsaber for the first time!

 

Anyway, much of what I said about Tomb Raider applies to this game.  There's a lengthy forced tutorial where you just do exactly what the game wants you to do while epic stuff happens all around you.  I'm not a fan of this kind of stuff, but I know the game opens up with a sort of Metroid like structure, so I'm willing to put up with it.  Anyway, I think I completed the tutorial, so we'll see how it goes from now on.

 

[newtmonkey]

Star Ocean: Integrity and Faithlessness

This is free on PSPlus, so I thought I'd give it a try.  I completed Star Ocean (SFC) earlier this year (I didn't like it), but absolutely love Star Ocean: The Second Story (possibly the best RPG on the PSX), so I was curious about what a modern game in the series is like.

 

It's pretty bad.  It's almost impossible to even discuss this game, because the first hour or so is so generic.  I've dabbled in "modern" JRPGs, but they all seem to take place in the same setting where it's not medieval, but everyone still runs around with swords and casting spells, where every character is some military cadet, while heavily violin-focused music plays in the background.

 

The characters are all boring, and absolutely nothing is going on with the story.  The maps are all glorified corridors, and the combat is just button mashing.  While I was running from one end of the corridor to the other, the main character leveled up three or four times, but every enemy still seemed to take 5-6 hits to kill.  The combat is not random, but it might as well be, because you just have the same enemies placed all over every corridor.

 

The most annoying thing about this is that the game tries to do the Half-Life thing instead of cinema scenes, where you just walk real slow while characters talk around you.  It works in Half-Life, since the game is 100% in first-person perspective and is intended to be immersive, but in a third-person JRPG it makes no sense and is just tedious.  So now instead of a bunch of text boxes to blast through, I have to s-l-o-w-l-y walk down a corridor while some character talks at me.  I don't think the developers did this to make the game more immersive... I think they did it because it was cheaper.

 

I guess this entry is generally seen as the absolute worst game in the series.  Maybe it's one of those games where it opens up and "gets good" 10 hours in or whatever.  I'll give it another hour or so.

Edited October 4, 2023 by newtmonkey

[zzip]

On 9/27/2023 at 10:19 AM, newtmonkey said:

Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order

I was intrigued to hear that this is sort of Star Wars Dark Souls, and although my PC can run it, it uses EA's awful DRM/client... so I decided to pick up a cheap used copy on PS4.  It's a great looking game, and even though I don't care much for Star Wars, it was definitely a cool moment when the hero pulled out his lightsaber for the first time!

I don't know why this game always gets compared to Dark Souls, just because it's light saber based?   I didn't find it very Souls like,  nor a particularly great Star Wars game..   Though I agree visually it looks great!

[+wongojack]

On 9/27/2023 at 9:19 AM, newtmonkey said:

Tomb Raider (2013)

This is free on PSPlus, so I gave it a shot.  I'm not a fan of these spectacle types of games where you just go from encounter to encounter doing exactly what the game wants you to do.  Maybe the game opens up and gets better later, but it really annoys me to get funneled through a game like this.  I'd rather just watch a movie.

 

Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order

I was intrigued to hear that this is sort of Star Wars Dark Souls, and although my PC can run it, it uses EA's awful DRM/client... so I decided to pick up a cheap used copy on PS4.  It's a great looking game, and even though I don't care much for Star Wars, it was definitely a cool moment when the hero pulled out his lightsaber for the first time!

 

Anyway, much of what I said about Tomb Raider applies to this game.  There's a lengthy forced tutorial where you just do exactly what the game wants you to do while epic stuff happens all around you.  I'm not a fan of this kind of stuff, but I know the game opens up with a sort of Metroid like structure, so I'm willing to put up with it.  Anyway, I think I completed the tutorial, so we'll see how it goes from now on.

 

Both games do open to a point where you can explore and do things sort of in your own way.  In the case of Tomb Raider, there really is an open world section for a while.  For Fallen Order, the only reward for exploring is basically more panchos.

 

The sequel to that Tomb Raider game "Rise of the Tomb Raider" actually did a better job at letting you explore a more open world.  I consider that game to be excellent even if the story isn't that great.

[newtmonkey]

I played quite a few PS4 games this week, including a couple of new ones.

 

Sengoku Basara 4 Sumeragi

This is the latest (probably last) main entry in a series of completely over the top Sengoku Muso (aka Samurai Warriors) clones, by Capcom.  It takes the Muso/Warriors formula of selecting one of dozens of characters loosely based on historical Japanese figures and then running around open maps comboing enemy officers to death, but adds total and utter insanity.  For example, Tokugawa Ieyasu is now some kind of boxer who flies his robotic henchman Honda Tadakatsu from battle to battle.

 

Anyway, much like the Muso/Warriors games, this has so much content to keep you busy for hours.  In addition to the dozens of characters who all have unique movesets and gimmicks, each character has at least one "route" through the game.  The basic route has you taking over Japan region by region.  The cool thing is that you can select which region to attack next, and in between stages the other characters are also fighting and conquering each other.  It ultimately ends up with you against one other character, in a big battle to determine who controls Japan. Characters also have a "drama" route which is more like a "story" mode for that particular character, and some also have an "anime" route which rewards you with an anime cinema when you complete it.  Then of course you have the crazy stuff, like maxing out characters, finding rare weapons, etc.

 

Only the first game in the series has been released in English, as Devil Kings on the PS2.  The PS2 games were alright, but the series really came into its own with the PS3/PS4 games, where they developed their own identity quite unique from the Muso/Warriors games.  I definitely recommend picking up a copy of this one, because it's a very cool action game on its own, and it's crazy and funny enough that you can enjoy it even without understanding the plot.

 

Nier Replicant ver.1.22474487139...

I actually completed this game on the PS3 way back in the ancient year of 2010, but it's free on JPN PSPlus now, so I thought I'd revisit it.  As a remake, it's good and bad.  First the good.  It runs almost always at a solid 60 fps (the PS3 game had a very inconsistent frame rate), the lighting effects are a lot better, and the game is pushing more polygons (very obvious in the environment, which is much more detailed).  Now the bad.  The changes to the lighting and especially the character models simply went too far imo.  The original game had a much more stylized look.  All the character models were also redone here to make them more "attractive" and anime-like, which is bizarre considering what a bleak, weird game this is.

 

Anyway, it's still a fine remake and it plays like a dream.  Highly recommended.

 

Horizon Zero Dawn

I decided to give this one another chance, and I like it much more now.  Hunting robot dinosaurs is pretty fun, and the crafting is not as bad I originally thought.  I still think the faces (especially animations) look weird and that the dialog and/or voice acting is underwhelming, but it's otherwise a good looking and sounding game.  I don't think I love it enough to go crazy with it, but I'll probably zoom through the story and see how it goes.

Edited October 6, 2023 by newtmonkey

[newtmonkey]

Code Vein

This is free on PSPlus, and as a huge fan of the Dark Souls games, which it was clearly inspired by, I thought I'd give it a try.  It gives a really bad first impression, that's for sure.  After creating your character, the game stick you in a square tutorial room, throws a bunch of worthless lingo at you ("blood code" just means what any normal game would call "class" for instance), and has a cryptic anime babe s-l-o-w-l-y describing how to play the game to you.  This is not rocket science for anyone who has ever played any game released in the last 20 years, and anyone who has somehow not played any games ever is not gonna just suddenly decide to start gaming with something like Code Vein.  Who is this tutorial even for?  You assign a move to a slot, kill an enemy, switch your class, do the same thing again, etc.  The whole time I was thinking of how comparatively elegant the tutorial in Dark Souls is, where it just drops you into the game and gives you terse instructions that are immediately understandable.

 

Once you get through the tutorial, you have to s-l-o-w-l-y walk through a room as the cryptic lady from the tutorial says what is probably meant as exposition but is basically a bunch of nonsense because the game just got done forcing you through a boring tutorial and has dropped you into some world without any explanation whatsoever.  You walk over to a tree, the girl bites your wrist, you bleed on the tree, and then you wake up in some ruined building.  It's meant to be super mysterious and intriguing, but instead it's just bewildering and confusing.

 

I had had enough, and just stopped playing it.  It just seemed like a completely generic action game with RPG elements, like 99% of AA and AAA games released since, I dunno, 2010 or whatever.  Maybe this game becomes 10/10 after this, but I have increasingly less tolerance for this kind of stuff.

[jerseystyle]

Just started No Man’s Sky. Bought it upon released, hated it after an hour but have heard good things so dove in again. I’m doing “creative mode” which is way better because the grind broke me fast the first time.

[Shawn]

I bought DQ9 two years ago and I'm just playing it now. About 3 hours in and it's great! Another fantastic entry into the DQ series. 

[newtmonkey]

Ketsui Deathtiny: Kizuna Jigoku Tachi

After years of focusing mainly on RPGs, I'm now on a major shmup kick, and I was excited to see that this game had been ported to PS4 by the emulation masters of M2.

 

This is a "bullet hell" shmup that's fascinated me for years.  I first got interested in this game 10+ years ago when I was working at a company downtown, located within walking distance from an outside mall with a large arcade full of games old and new.  Every once in a while I'd stop in after work and spend 500 yen on some games.  This is where I first began to gain an appreciation for shmups... not as the crass coin munchers I thought they were, but as expertly designed games that have to strike the perfect balance between making money for the operator, and providing value for the player.

 

Anyway, Ketsui was one of those games.  It just seemed fascinating to me, with beautiful backgrounds and tons of sprites all over the screen, a somewhat grim atmosphere, and a cool scoring system that's easy to understand just by playing the game.  Unfortunately, I never made much progress in this one, because I changed jobs shortly after discovering it, and stopped going to arcades.

 

So that brings us to this release.  This is an awesome version of the game, with tons of options and different versions of the game.  I'm pretty sensitive to lag, and the game plays great, even just using the stock PS4 controller.  There are so many cool options and modes available.  It's basically like going to Ketsui school.  You can individually enable "gadgets" on the side of the screen to track your progress, show you status, and more, all in real-time.  It ranges from basic stuff like boss information and a stage map, to advanced scoring information.  You can even play the game in "super easy" mode, which reduces the number of bullets on screen and enables auto bombing, which sacrifices a bomb instead of a life if you get hit.  I think pretty much anyone can clear the game on a single credit in this mode, which is fun, but more importantly it teaches you a crucial lesson: use your bombs often!

 

It looks and sounds great.  There are optional blur and scanline filters, and you can run the game in either horizontal or vertical mode.  You can set it to pixel perfect mode, or scale it to fit the display.  Even when scaled, it looks great with only very minor pixel shimmering.

Edited January 6 by newtmonkey

[newtmonkey]

eBASEBALL Powerful Pro Yakyuu 2022

I don't care about watching sports at all, and I'm not much of a sports video game fan, but I had a weird affection for baseball video games when I was a kid.  It's just one of those unexplainable things.  I had lots of fun playing the Bases Loaded games, Baseball Stars, Super Baseball Simulator 1.000 (I played this one a TON), and even weird ass random games like Little League Baseball (NES) (kinda neat) and Nolan Ryan's Baseball (a crass attempt at tricking people into buying a mediocre Japanese baseball game with a license slapped on it).

 

Anyway, this was cheap brand new on Amazon, so I bought it.  So far, it's pretty charming.  The graphics are totally bizarre, because it's graphically quite nice looking (it even supports HDR!), but the players are these hideously deformed monstrosities.  At first, I was worried that these squat munchkins would be difficult to control... but it actually has a very cool batter/pitcher interface that uses the analog stick for precision aiming, and fielding feels pretty good so far.  It plays just as nice as a more action-oriented baseball game like you got in the 80s or 90s, but is infinitely deeper.

 

There are also TONS of modes in this game.  The main menu is just plastered with modes to select, everything from just playing a game of baseball, to replaying famous situations from actual games, to managing a high school team, to raising a baseball player through some kind of life sim.  This is one of those games where, if you get into it, you could put hundreds of hours into it and still have stuff to do.

Edited January 12 by newtmonkey

[newtmonkey]

Pro Yakyuu Spirits 2019

Another baseball game from Konami, this is basically a much more serious and realistic Power Pro.  It plays mostly the same, including the same awesome batting/pitching interface, but basically offers more depth for everything.  Like Power Pro, it has a ton of modes to play.  Graphically, it's weird.  My first impression was that it didn't look great, with the players looking like mannequins, but in motion it looks very cool thanks to the excellent animation and TV-style presentation; squint your eyes, and it looks a lot like watching a game on TV.

Although it's more realistic than Power Pro, you can actually ignore most of the more advanced controls (controlling individual runners at base, adjusting your grip on the bat to control the angle of the ball when hit) and just play it like one of the classic NES baseball games, like Bases Loaded or Baseball Stars.  It lacks some of the fantasy stuff from Power Pro, but is just as accessible yet deep imo.

[+wongojack]

I'm about 75% of the way through with Spiderman.  It was kind of a weird start because the game has so many similarities to other games (Arkham, Assassin's Creed), but as the game has gone on, it does its own thing in combat and adds a bit of depth to a Spiderman story you think you've already seen.  A nice experience so far.

[str0m]

On 1/6/2024 at 6:37 PM, newtmonkey said:

Ketsui Deathtiny: Kizuna Jigoku Tachi

After years of focusing mainly on RPGs, I'm now on a major shmup kick, and I was excited to see that this game had been ported to PS4 by the emulation masters of M2.

 

This is a "bullet hell" shmup that's fascinated me for years.  I first got interested in this game 10+ years ago when I was working at a company downtown, located within walking distance from an outside mall with a large arcade full of games old and new.  Every once in a while I'd stop in after work and spend 500 yen on some games.  This is where I first began to gain an appreciation for shmups... not as the crass coin munchers I thought they were, but as expertly designed games that have to strike the perfect balance between making money for the operator, and providing value for the player.

 

Anyway, Ketsui was one of those games.  It just seemed fascinating to me, with beautiful backgrounds and tons of sprites all over the screen, a somewhat grim atmosphere, and a cool scoring system that's easy to understand just by playing the game.  Unfortunately, I never made much progress in this one, because I changed jobs shortly after discovering it, and stopped going to arcades.

 

So that brings us to this release.  This is an awesome version of the game, with tons of options and different versions of the game.  I'm pretty sensitive to lag, and the game plays great, even just using the stock PS4 controller.  There are so many cool options and modes available.  It's basically like going to Ketsui school.  You can individually enable "gadgets" on the side of the screen to track your progress, show you status, and more, all in real-time.  It ranges from basic stuff like boss information and a stage map, to advanced scoring information.  You can even play the game in "super easy" mode, which reduces the number of bullets on screen and enables auto bombing, which sacrifices a bomb instead of a life if you get hit.  I think pretty much anyone can clear the game on a single credit in this mode, which is fun, but more importantly it teaches you a crucial lesson: use your bombs often!

 

It looks and sounds great.  There are optional blur and scanline filters, and you can run the game in either horizontal or vertical mode.  You can set it to pixel perfect mode, or scale it to fit the display.  Even when scaled, it looks great with only very minor pixel shimmering.

I have this too, love it and it plays well. Only issue for me is it's mostly in Japanese but you can figure out most of the menu. I didn't know about the gadgets you mention, off to see if there's a guide for it now!

[jerseystyle]

I started playing Shadowrun: Dragonfall today. Loved the SNES game back in the day and, a few hours in, am digging this as well. I’m still a bit iffy on the graphics but it does a good job replicating the original’s vibe.

[Shaun David]

Was playing Some Atari 50 and Arcade Archives Super Cobra, Time Pilot, Gradius 3.

[+Cafeman]

On 9/19/2023 at 1:59 PM, Cafeman said:

I finally started to play HZD: Forbidden West! 

 

Played it 90 hours. So many missions to explore and do!  Rather than try the final battle mission, I just watched a play-through on YT and called it quits.  RIP actor who played Sylens, and Broyles on Fringe. 

[newtmonkey]

It's been a while since I last used my PS4, so I started it up tonight and played some games:

 

First, a few games from the excellent Arcade Archives series.  These are really exceptional arcade ports, with plenty of options to tweak (though not to the extent of the M2 releases).  There are TONS of releases in this series, and they are quite inexpensive.  Each release is just a single game, but often contains multiple versions of the game (usually Japanese and World releases).  They play great with the Dual Shock 4 over BT, with no recognizable input lag.

Splatterhouse - The PCE release is one of my all time favorite games (one of the few games I can clear without continuing), so I had to get the arcade release.  It's tougher than the home release, and of course looks and sounds a lot better.

Argos no Senshi (aka Rygar) - I think this gets some flack for being "just an arcade game" compared with the quest-based NES release, but it's really quite cool.  It plays great, and being able to hop on enemies is a useful mechanic that's sort of wasted in the NES version.  The game gets quite tough quickly, but seems pretty manageable overall.

Raiden - A fine version of this classic, with some really nice options.  For example, you can choose to play as the 2P side ship, which starts out at a lower rank and makes the game a bit easier.  It's also got both the Japanese and World releases, which is important because the former restarts you from a checkpoint after losing a ship, while the latter lets you continue where you were shot down.  There's arguments to be had for either version, so it's good that they're both here.

Zero Team - Truly a hidden gem!  An over-the-op beat'em-up with small but extremely detailed characters, colorful backgrounds, and surprisingly deep fighting mechanics.  It's also surprisingly fair, at least early on.

 

I also played:

Ryu ga Gotoku 7 (aka Yakuza: Like a Dragon)

I really don't have much interest at all in this series of games, but when I read that this entry is actually an RPG with a job system and turn-based combat, I had to check it out.  So far, it's awesome!  The characters are interesting and/or likeable, graphics are fine, and it's just cool playing what is basically a pretty traditional JRPG but in a modern setting.  I'll probably be focusing on this one for a while.

[newtmonkey]

Played some PS4 last night:

 

Star Ocean: Integrity and Faithlessness

This is still free to play on PlayStation Plus, so I decided to give it another chance.  Maybe the game completely sucks only for the first hour?  Anyway, I gave the game another 30 minutes, and it's just awful.  The "world" is a bunch of corridors, no thought whatsoever was put into encounter design (just the same handful of enemies dropped all over the map), and the game constantly wastes your time.  It's bad enough that you have to tediously run back and forth through the corridor world, but the game constantly interrupts your progress with dialog scenes that go on and on but don't really tell you anything at all; even worse, they tried to make it "immersive" by having the dialog go on while you are playing... but slows you down to a sluggish walk and forces you to listen to it all, instead of allowing you to read/skim the text as fast as you can.  Begone from my PS4, foul game!

 

Eiyu Densetsu: Sen no Kiseki (aka Trails of Cold Steel)

Much like with SO:IaF, this is free to play on PlayStation Plus, and I decided to give it another chance since I disliked it initially.  It's better than SO:IaF, but still not good.  It's a real budget production, which normally I wouldn't mind, but the game attempts to be somewhat cinematic, and so it just makes the low budget more obvious.  One thing that really started to annoy me is that all the characters in your party walk with the exact same animation cycle, synchronized together, so when you see one of the many "all the characters walk into a room and look surprised" cinema scenes, they are all doing the same exact thing, at the same exact time.  It looks extremely amateurish.

    The dialog and characters are just awful.  Every single character is simply an exposition dump, and it's very hard for me to relate to a bunch of a kids in military school who are completely obsessed with which noble family each other character belongs to.  It's so bizarre and awkward.  Early on, the characters get sent to a sort of training dungeon, and are split up.  Every time you run into one of the other characters, every single character has to introduce themselves, and then one of the characters will comment something like, "Cecilia Reinhardt!  Of the famous Reinhardt family?  You mean, you are the daughter of Frederick Reinhardt, the famous general of the Arnheim kingdom who fought in the Bloody Roses War of 1456?  That must mean... you are a master of the Reinhardt school of fencing!"  At one point, I thought the game was some sort of parody, because it keeps happening, character after character.  And of course, as aristocrat brat pack grows, it just becomes more tedious because every single character has to comment on absolutely everything, so as to reinforce their single character quirk.

     The combat is pretty good though.  I'm gonna try to get through this awful intro dungeon and see if the game starts to get more interesting once you get out.

 

Ryu ga Gotoku 7 (aka Yakuza: Like a Dragon)

Although this is just as plot-heavy if not more than the previous two games, the difference is that this game has likeable/interesting characters, fine writing, and exposition that's handled properly and naturally.  It's a nice story, but it's hard to rate it as a game so far, since the pace of the game is extremely slow.  You have access to a pretty large area right from the start, but there's really not much to do, so you end up just following the map markers to get to the next plot scene.  Combat might be cool later, but so far it's very basic and easy -- just your single character fighting a handful of enemies at a time.

Edited February 4 by newtmonkey

[newtmonkey]

Quick follow-up:

 

Eiyuu Densetsu: Sen no Kiseki (aka Trails of Cold Steel)

I think this is just not my kind of game.  I simply cannot relate to the characters at all, and the endless dialog is simply unbearable -- even with the game on 4X speed it takes forever just to get through a dialog scene, since every single of the 12 characters on the screen has to comment on every single thing.  I'm convinced that this not written to actually tell a story, but instead to sell figurines, pencil boards, and body pillows.
     It's a shame, because I really liked Eiyuu Densetsu: Sora no Kiseki (aka Trails in the Sky), an earlier game in the series released back in 2004 that's just as wordy, but well-written and with interesting characters.  WTF happened to Falcom since then?

 

Ryu ga Gotoku 7 (aka Yakuza: Like a Dragon)

Just awesome.  My only complaint so far is that you spend more time watching cinemas than you do actually playing the game.  Having said that, I just got through the first chapter, so I expect the game to open up a bit now.

Edited February 4 by newtmonkey