Redwolf's Journal (continued)

Dragon's Dogma slid below my radar when it came out - just not quite "big" enough. And coming back and playing it now, I can see why. It isn't bad, but it's not quite good in the field of action-RPGs either. For me, at least, there's a pervading sense of almost-good throughout, as if it really could have been a first-tier title with some more money and polish. It plays like... perhaps the Witcher games - real time combat with light/heavy attacks and modifiers (ctrl+clicks give you special abilities with primary weapon, alt+ gives them with secondary/shield). And you have a group of up to three AI companions - one you can set primary/secondary abilities for and two others you can recruit from those other players have created. It's interesting that these AI "pawns" are woven into the lore of the setting as summonable not-quite-humans drawn to aid the "arisen." The silent protagonist feels like a throwback these days - even conversati

Woke this morning from a dream in which I had gone back to college. Somehow, my dad and stepmom had come with me and we were living together in a tent. Note that this didn't strike me as unusual in a financially-strapped sense or anything. To me, it more represented their support of me. But... I had been consistently skipping classes. I knew there was no way I was going to graduate. So when my stepmom was all excited that graduation was coming up and talking about where they were going to sit for the best view and such, I felt this deep, gut-churning guilt that I was going to have to tell them that wasn't happening. Not. Pleasant.

So after the "new" game of Skyrim I was playing was fouled by corrupted saves, I turned back to Fallout 4 to fill some time. I'd played through the game before, but not the DLC, so it gave me a chance to peek at some places and plots new to me, which was nice. Nuka-World was interesting to me. I like the idea of an amusement park as sort of a fortress in a post-apocalyptic land. The different flavors of the park areas were neat. The story, though, is very... polarizing. If you're someone who played them game as a "bad" character, it's great - you get to explore joining/controlling raider factions, staging raids on settlements, and things like that. If you're playing a "good" character, though... not so much. You miss out on the raider settlement mechanics and the choice to free merchants from the raiders ultimately involves mass slaughter of raiders across the park. So, while the DLC doesn't require an evil character, it's most re

Le Chevalier d'Eon is an anime series I started watched probably years ago now, but didn't really get into. I picked that back up and watched it through to the (fairly tragic, I must say) ending. It's a spin on a historical figure of France - a knight and spy who dressed and lived as a woman some of the time. Of course, being a manga-turned-anime series, a lot more importance is put upon things and the story is wrapped together with some heavy supernatural elements (among the least of which being d'Eon being possessed by his sister Lia). It generally looks good, and there's a neat Musketeer-ish vibe to the adventure. On the other hand, character motivations are opaque a lot of the time and the supernatural stuff doesn't piece together very well for me, all told. And the end is, as mentioned, pretty tragic for most of the characters involved - plus leading into the French Revolution, so... there's that. Interesting, but I don't know that I would widel

I almost regret not buying and playing Tales of Berseria. Almost. I've instead been watching/listening to a play through, and I've been pleasantly surprised by it in general. For one, you get conversation between characters, even while running around, usually every few minutes - not necessarily full cut scenes, but having the characters talking about what's going on adds to the game. It keeps things more interesting than what is, in my mind, the more standard formula of long treks through the wilds of random encounters between areas where scenes play out. I'm also surprised by the solid emotional core behind the characters. Velvet's burning desire for revenge is pretty compelling, as are the times that's tempered with sisterly concern. Most of those drawn around her have their own beefs with the Abbey or those in it, so their participation makes sense. And you get some contrast with Eleanor, the Abbey exorcist who gets pulled in and struggles to reconcile wh

So, yeah, a recent comment/question had me looking at my Steam wishlist and realizing it's currently down to one (not yet released) game. I seem to have made it through the handful of holiday games and come out the other side with... not so much that I really want or am waiting on. Which isn't to say things are totally bleak. That one remaining game is Torment: Tides of Numenera . I'm fairly sure I'll play it when it comes out at the end of the month, but I didn't throw my support behind it originally and I'm trying to manage expectations overall. Claiming to be a spiritual successor to Planescape: Torment is setting the bar very, very high in my book. A big part of that could be personal - I'm not the same person I was when I played Planescape, and I'm skeptical of the ability of T:ToN to have the same level of impact. We'll see. And toward the end of March, there's Mass Effect: Andromeda , which is another almost-given for me. But that one

Well, yesterday was... pretty good, all told. Nothing truly extraordinary, but a net positive. I kept busy enough that sinking into depressive self-reflection wasn't really a thing. I made a cake. I enjoyed some RP online. No complaints, and that's a major improvement over the "norm" of the last decade or so.