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Finally got around to finishing FFVII Rebirth after dropping it when Stellar Blade was released.

I thought this was the last game and would have an ending, not another to be continued. To be fair, I knew the FFVII remake was going to be 3 parts, but I always thought Crisis Core was one of the parts. Not that there was a part III still in development. Reading rumors on Reddit predictions are for a 2027 or 2028 release for Part III.
 
Was going to countdown the Isaac achievements, but got sidetracked and now I am down to one: Dead God (100%) completion. Turns out getting all the other achievements doesn't give this one, you also have to complete everything in game, which includes actually picking up every item at least once. I'm down to a single item: Genesis. Been doing regular Isaac runs for the D6 re-rolls, but this item might just be the rarest thing in the game. Can only be obtained through Angel Deals. Had a run where I duplicated three angel items, then rerolled twice - no luck. Same run, got the stairway, which opens an angel shop. Got the begger to pay out with an item and bombed the statue for a key piece. Again, re-rolled twice in the room, and got this setup twice in the same run. Still no Genesis. Got a feeling I'm going to have to try and get Death Certificate, which lets you choose any single item from the whole pool.

I'm very much looking forward to the end here, but I feel like the game knows and is trolling me as it loves to do.
 
A couple hours into Echoes of Wisdom, and it's a real delight! Got that cozy, old school Zelda vibe (which is exactly what I wanted after Tears of the Kingdom) while mixing up the gameplay in an inventive and fun way.
 
LeeVing said:
If you gave up on Diablo 4 a while back - I highly recommend coming back and giving it another go.

While this new season isn't that special,, they fixed a lot of stuff that sucked with the items and the grind to level 100. It's essentially out of beta testing now.
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I just got back into it after not really enjoying the initial play. It is soooo much better now!
 
I bought it for cheap recently, but haven’t installed it. Getting on my PS5 is a bit challenging, as it’s on the main TV. Playing Halo Infinite at the moment, and while it isn’t anything new, I’m quite enjoying it (even though I suck at it!).
 
Anyone play New World? I guess it's getting an overhaul/console release next week and a buddy asked if I wanted to play. Don't know too much about it. Seems like reviews are somewhat middling, don't want to jump in blind on a $60 game.
 
soo I had started Xenogears last month and finished it this week. was very pleased overall, but there is so much to say about it!!

like, for instance, the thing that surprises me the most is the fact this thing actually got localized at all!! and it even got a T rating, which I don't really think it's accurate since this is easily a M-rated game. if this ever got remade, I'd think the rating would get updated for sure. but yea, this is an interesting title to play for sure, with a lot to say about a plethora of subjects and ideologies (specially the intersection of both psychology and religious ideologies). it's kinda funny how much of this thing reeks of Evangelion rip-off (and I say that in a loving way, btw.), even though the writers have said on record that this wasn't on purpose. but one thing that Xenogears does far better than Eva at least is having a more interesting cast of characters, specially Xeno's main protagonist Fei Fong Wong being a far more superior, interesting character than Eva's Shinji.

now, as far as combat and actual gameplay goes, while it is not my favorite, it is sufficient enough for the story it tells. but this is me being biased, since while I was playing, I kept imagining how the gameplay would be a lot better if it was more modernized. fighting as human units is fine, it was fun leveling up the characters and learning their special moves (i.e. "deathblows" as they are called in here), and fighting inside the mecha units is not too difficult or annoying, albeit the lack of mobility and move variety while in the mechas does bring in some minor nuisances. as for traveling around the dungeons, easily my least favorite part of the game, specially on disc 2 lol. that shit was so unbelievably annoying.

still, the story is still so omnipotent over the entire thing, and it is quite dense af. pretty much 80% of disc 1 is like reading the Old Testament. and while disc 2 is relatively short compared to disc 1 in length (disc 1 is about 40-50 hours and disc 2 is mostly 10), everything that disc 1 sets up gets brought to a full circle that narratively reaches a climax a la End-of-Eva style. (again, see my point above). but so much of the exposition in disc 1 is introduced with no hand-holding, it's very easy to misinterpret things and/or just forget things because, again, this game is way too dense. it's the type of story that while yea, you get the whole gist of it by completing it, you kinda feel like you need to replay it again to catch the things you missed. and that's where I'm kinda in a conundrum rn. I enjoyed playing this, but the thought of replaying it all over again feels like a chore and I don't really feel like doing that (even though I kinda want to at the same time). this is where I wish the game would get remade, but again, considering the subject matter and the fact that Square Enix still owns this game, I don't really see this happening anytime soon. best-wish scenario, Nintendo buys the copyright off Square and helps publish a re-release. not sure how likely that could be, but considering Nintendo is now more open to publishing (and even developing) M-rated games and Super Mario RPG (a square game) did get remade, the chance is not zero.

but regardless of no remake or re-release in sight, the original still stands to this day (for a blind play-through at the very least). this is the one Xeno game pre-Nintendo that I knew nothing about before playing, so it was cool to see how vital to the overall Xeno meta series Xenogears is. quite a few of the character archetypes and themes on this one resurface on later games, even as recent as Xenoblade 2 and Xenoblade 3. I also find it funny looking up people's reactions to this game, and I noticed that most players who dive into Xenogears come out of it either full-on atheist or more inclined to their monotheistic religion.
 
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