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Final Fantasy 16

Now to just gush a little bit about Final Fantasy 16 after being able to play that demo and it being out this week. The demo is fantastic and something we just don’t get often in the industry anymore at least in the AAA space which is the most important area to get demos since these are full price $70 and up games with dlc and/or special editions. Having a quality demo should only help you secure more people to buy the game if they enjoy it instead of people not knowing whether they want to drop that much money onto a new game and being a new kind of Final Fantasy. This demo gives you what I assume to be most if not all of the opening act to establish the premise of the game and the gameplay and where it can go with learning in the tutorial segment and then a disconnected dungeon with a lot of skills already unlocked to allow you to experiment. I’m already sold on the game, it has an interesting story, high production value, runs pretty well on the PS5 and the combat is so good. It is essentially Final Fantasy x Devil May Cry and it feels glorious. I want to see more of the abilities in the game to do some nutty stuff. Also the voice acting in english in top notch and I learned the script is actually meant for english as the default, which I think is the same for Devil May Cry. Where the script and english voice performances come first and the japanese is the dub over.

The thing that sucks though is that I won’t have much chance to play it unless I binge for the entire first week of July. I am going on a business trip this week when it launches, come back home start of July, and then that following week am going to be going on another business trip and won’t be back home to my PS5 until late August. Damn you Sony and Square Enix! Why couldn’t you release it on PC too at least because then I would actually be able to play it on the road on my laptop because there is no way I’m traveling with a PS5 just for FF16.

At least these business trips will give me time to work on my backlog of games, maybe I will try writing about my backlog too here if I actually get to it.

#final fantasy 16

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Trying this again

Trying again to make this a habit because I am failing at this. Just want to vent and personally gush about videogames. Honkai Star Rail has been great and I am surprised it clicks for me despite dropping about all the other auto turn based battles on mobile. That may be due to my bias to mihoyo and already playing their games but I do think the production value, story and gameplay is pretty fun. The turn based battles I wish were a bit more in depth since the characters are only limited to 2 attacks and their ultimates which feels limiting but the ability to activate ults whenever keeps a little more active than other auto battlers when you feel like it. Wish the Nier mobile game could have kept my interest but I dropped that after a week. Been liking Star Rail so much that I have been neglecting Genshin. Hope Genshin’s story picks up soon because right now it just feels like the main story that started the game just keeps getting pushed back with little buildup. For Honkai Star Rail though I liked its impression so much that I did decide to already drop $100 on the most expensive pack and bought the monthly sign in and the 2 passes that have happened and can’t say I am disappointed. I havent actually dipped into my paid currency yet because I am weak like so many others and am saving for Kafka’s banner. Man when Star Rail launched it was like so many artists got horny brainrot from that character and I get it. Her banner isn’t for another probably 2 months but I will be ready.

Other than my gacha games Street Fighter 6 also launched since last time and Final Fantasy 16 launches soon. Got into fighting games with Guilty Gear Strive when it launched and have learned to appreciate fighting games casually since. Street Fighter’s pacing feels so weird to me in comparison to Strive and all the anime fighters I have been trying out. Playing Dee Jay and I am having fun but I dunno how long I want to be playing it regularly and often. May keep to it because it is fun and this game is gonna be around for a while like SF5. I calibrated at rock bottom for ranked mode but have climbed to silver since starting. My combos are very basic and garbage but I guess I can make better decisions at times vs my opponents. Just sitting back and letting the opponent jump into an anti-air can really carry some matches. But I really do struggle to understand SF’s neutral because it is so much slower than Strive and combos are harder to link together. It feels stiff to me until you do some heavy commits like Drive Rush and your heavy long pokes that can’t or are harder to combo into. One thing that is tilting me are matchups like Zangief, JP and Honda. I have no idea how to deal with these characters. It feels so stiff to try and navigate around Zangief that I dunno how to actually approach. Honda just does headbutt and buttslam and I feel at a loss on how to counter it besides getting good with parry. And JP...where do you start with JP? This character is kind of fucked up. I’m not a pro or high level player but I know when stuff is just mad annoying. Dunno if overpowered but definitely annoying. Someone at Capcom wanted to give a zoner character full screen high/low projectiles, full screen command grab that looks similar to the projectiles, a setup projectile that can also serve him as a teleport location, a level 2 that surrounds you with projectiles that go high and low, a full screen touch level 3 that he can combo into with his projectiles at full screen that just helps him stay winning when he wins space back. On top of that Capcom decided the zoner with all these tools and combo potential needed a counter that is valid against strikes AND throws! Like huh? I mean yea he is vulnerable if someone calls it out but that just makes every single character second guess what to against this character on their wakeup. The good thing is that it isn’t like an instant counter that you get bopped for but its a projectile that if JP does the right thing after the counter can get a full combo off of and hey he can also just try and grab you after the counter goes off because you are worried about avoiding damage from the projectile that just spawned off his strike AND throw counter. Just need to get better I guess but that is irritating. At least with Axl in Guilty Gear Strive or even Dhalsim in SF6 you kinda just get poked to death at range and they have limited tools when they are being rushed down with weak defense moves. Oh and for last, I think I just realize I hate armor in fighting games, yea I should play around it but eh everyone having an armored move like Drive Impact, I’m getting more annoyed with it.

Tomorrow gonna try and write about Final Fantasy 16 and Armored Core 6.

#star rail #street fighter 6 #gacha

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Ok for real

Going to try and keep to this as a blogging habit for myself. Feel the urge now because now I feel actually settled into my own place and just completed my first custom keyboard and I absolutely love it and just want to use it now to work on my typing skills.

So 5 gacha games is quite a habit to keep up and its not really a drain on money because I don’t spend that much, its more so the time investment because I need to manage each one 2 times a day if I want to optimally make progress with them due the energy caps to do the activities. Right now I am playing Honkai Impact 3rd, Arknights, Genshin Impact, Punishing Gray Raven and Path to Nowhere. This is in the order that I added them as a daily habit. I’m even considering maybe 2 or 3 more or perhaps rotate out 1.

Mihoyo has Honkai Star Rail this month and I’m more so interested because it is Mihoyo, instead of the actual game. I haven’t really liked any of the 3 unit auto turn based JRPGs on mobile, I tried and dropped a lot of them. Dropped both Raid Shadow Legends and Nier Reincarnation soon after trying them. Dropped Raid because nothing actually interested in that game but for Nier: R I really wanted to like it because I love the Nier games but just don’t like sitting there on my phone watching the auto battles play out, Arknights for me is enough to be watching an auto mission play out. Shame because some of the art in that game is fantastic and I can’t care about playing it and wanted to get into the story but the story couldn’t carry my enjoyment for it. So for Honkai Star Rail I’m not so sure I if it will hold me.

Mihoyo also has in the future Zenless Zone Zero and that one is more up my alley with its 3D anime graphics and 3D action gameplay and Mihoyo giving more distinct body types and character designs for different characters. Dunno when it comes out but really interested in trying it and adding it to my dailies.\

Then there’s Kuro with their upcoming Wuthering Waves and while it looks great, it does seem to be Genshin Impact’s blueprint but with the action and style the studio has established with Punishing Gray Raven. Interested, hope its good. Kinda playing Genshin atm out of habit with a sunk cost fallacy kind of feeling. Mildly interested in Genshin’s story but I am far more invested into PGR’s story and Honkai’s story.

May drop Path to Nowhere. Its kinda there and only reason I feel like I’m not is due to a few characters I like with a passing interest in the story but the daily upkeep is very simple and quick. Tower defense gacha with its own spin in comparison to Arknights but for using up the energy and doing dailies, you can just auto complete missions you perfect cleared. As opposed to Arknights where for most of the daily upkeep I have to actually have to wait for the mission to play out with a recording of my saved clear play. So don’t feel pressed to drop it bujt also not exactly invested into it like the others.

Its just that before I was already feeling like I shouldn’t have had 3 gachas, now I’m 5 but I think 8 will actually be overkill. Next number of posts is just gonna be about the various gachas I play and maybe some break of something else in between.

[legatesprinkles]

I am going to be using this as my primary blog for my own thoughts concerning games and my other interests. It will be just a stream of consciousness of what I enjoy, whether playing new games, which are my habits and thoughts on the news in the industry.