Made me do a deep dive into it real fast and holy shit. Rogue like semi open RPG clearly inspired by old school TTRPG mechanics. Seems like a blending of JRPG aesthetics fans style with old school DND-esque mechanics. I need this shit in my veinnnssss

It's a game that took me time to appreciate. I was fascinated by the concept of generational story telling, but the step back in visual presentation was hard to swallow when I was younger. I credit it and Fire Emblem 4 with kick-starting my fascination with inter-generational stories.

How's it feel to be DSP's polar opposite. Unawarely hyper competent. Light Side Pat as it were.

I want to give 13 a fair shake, but dear God those opening hours where you are literally just mashing Attack are brutal, especially compared to SaGa games which are mechanically rich and engaging right from the start. This'll be the year though, I promise.

Terraria releasing a "final" update every 8 months for like 15 years. Like fuck off and enjoy retirement from selling a bajillion copies or make a new game.

Not sure if classic styling/retro is a requirement, you already hit the ones I knew of (Valis and Loddoss War). Frontier Hunter is one, with a more classic pixel looking one being 9 Years of Shadows.

MH2 sounds like it might be my shit. I hear about the seasons, forcing you to plan and prepare not just for monsters, but limited storage space to assist the village during certain seasons, and the overall slow burn of the game. It's definitely on my 2026 docket.

I started with FU, but didn't click until Tri. Water combat didn't bother me too much. I loved the bigger maps and the ability to swim and explore. This is why I liked Worlds so much. Giant, interconnected maps, the interaction between monsters and that massive environment, and other monsters.

I've tried bringing it up a few times. Wilds made a huge, hyper detailed and simulated world and then designed the actual game to ignore all of it in favor of a boss rush. Rise ran great and still lost players to World overtime. I wonder why...

Definitely one of my favorite PSX games when I was younger, even if I never came close to beating it at the time. Looking back, it's kind of funny how I managed to gain possession of weird sicko RPGs while somehow missing most Final Fantasy games during those years. It also explains my tastes today.

Yeeaah. Granted this was YEARS ago, but GoG wasn't particularly profitable last I heard. Definitely seemed like a loss leader.

Depending on your definition of sold well, Kenshi..? it's sold 2 million. Absolute pure sandbox, there's some hidden lore, but whatever story it has is whatever fanfic you make up as you play.

This makes the discussion tricky because game devs have been using generative tools for a long time but also AI as a buzz word is poisoning the well. Younger people, who are unfamiliar with game dev, are screeching against any mention inc. using AI for NPC Behavior which is the one proper namesake.

Similar tech has been used in 3D animations for decades. Usually you create a starting and ending pose, press up a button, and the motion engine does the rest. Then a human fixes it up to avoid clipping or add flair. Fully hand animated 3D takes forever to produce and is rare because of it.

Star Ocean reminds me of how much JRPGs can play with their structure. So much about Star Ocean 1 and 2 encourages you to approach them like an immersive sim. The way skills can interact with the world in odd ways, in order to meet characters and find side quests, you have to smell the roses.

I remember being 10ish..? Cell saga re runs were still being aired, found SNES mag about Japanese titles. There was a section on DBZ fighters. It was a treat taking it to school and speculating about who all the new characters were, seeing a future that wouldn't come for another year or so.

I tried the demo at the last...? steam fest. The combat is so loose and wild with the Rube Goldberg shit you can get away with you're lining up shotguns into ORAORAORAORA into other stuff. Not sure how the atmosphere will be, but the gameplay is pure clown shoes. Would recommend.

To this day, rather than Google or look something up, I'll just shoot messages to a few people. Is researching myself faster and more efficient? Yes, but I prefer the social conversation that'll happen. I do the same whenever I touch an MMO (typically to the annoyance of the other MMO players)