Yesterday was the big reveal stream for where Bungie is going in the near future laying out a long term road map. As the countdown ticked to the show beginning, the screen showed a sequence of all of the places we visited starting with Destiny 1 all the way through Shadowkeep. All of this to hype us up for the big reveal, and then as the countdown ticked to zero we were presented with this screen. We sat in 8 minutes of 46 seconds of silence as a sequence of slides played out in front of us ending with a number of links to organizations that need our help in the Black Lives Matter movement.
I have to give Bungie huge credit for the way this played out. By hyping us to a fever pitch with the “best hits” reel playing out in the moments as the countdown ticked down, this came across with maximum effect. Those 8 minutes and 46 seconds that the Derek Chauvin kneeled on George Floyd’s neck felt like an eternity. I guess I must be following the right crowd because I saw nothing but respect for the display. I still throw some serious side eye that it is to corporations we turn for solace in this time of global need… but it only makes me think more than we are sliding into a shadowrun esc corporate hellscape. That doubt aside however, I still greatly respect Bungie for their actions in not only donating to causes but also in taking time out of their big moment to make sure we remember.
Over the last week we have been getting fragments of a video showing two characters heading towards what we can only assume is Europa. Eris Morn and the Drifter have been characters that are all too willing to blur the lines between the Light and the Dark, so it is befitting that they represent what is ultimately the envoy in dealing with the Darkness. Over the last season the ships were a present threat looming on the Horizon, but now they have arrived and are interacting with the various planets in our solar system in what appears to be a similar manner to how the traveler was described.
The big reveal however is that we are adding a third to this rogues gallery. The Stranger is a character that we have heard nothing from since Destiny 1. She is the infamous source of the line “I don’t even have time to explain why I don’t have time to explain”. She is also the one who called our Ghost “Little Light” and represented a character that knew far more about our circumstances and predicament than our then fledgling guardian first stepping foot into the Ishtar Sink on Venus. Now she has returned at the same time the darkness has returned and appears to be the individual ushering us into the new expansion.
I said earlier that Bungie laid out a roadmap, and in doing so they have announced the next two expansions and with that dispelling any rumors that a Destiny 3 was waiting in the wings. This in theory begins a regular release cadence of a new expansion coming out every September with the first being Beyond Light in 2020, The Witch Queen in 2021 and Lightfall in 2022. Additionally we have an established structure of four seasons per year, which in theory means every three months an infusion of new content. The feature addition for 2020 is that console generations will be able to play together without purchasing the game again as we transition between the PS4/Xbox One to the PS5/Series X. They also hinted that a feature on the longer term roadmap was unifying the players so that there was a single Destiny platform.
I played through the first mission, but that is pretty much as far as I made it last night. I’ve had this fraught relationship with Destiny since the introduction of the seasonal model. Especially with the season pass unlocking a number of items, but only if you manage to make it to level 100 each time. Instead of prompting me to engage and grind away, this has prompted me to check out since I know I won’t actually manage to achieve that goal unless I swap to ONLY playing Destiny. One of my frustrations has been that the seasons set up content that only lasts while that season is currently happening, and in theory content will be sticking around for several seasons afterwards solving one big problem I had.
They also however presented a new problem. They talked about the introduction of the Content Vault, and shelving old content that isn’t seeing much play time. This means that they are going to be removing a number of destinations and activities connected to them including the Leviathan with the release of Beyond Light in September. They said however that they were going to dig into the Destiny 1 vault and pull back out some content from there like the Cosmodrome. Pending they cycle content in and out of the vault on a pretty good schedule, then it might not be a bad thing. I am just not entirely certain how I will feel about losing what is currently my favorite grinding Destination… Titan.
In truth I am not really sure how I feel about the entire model going forward. Like I said, last night I only played long enough to make it through the first mission and even then only because the game didn’t give me a choice. As I loaded into the game the mission started without me having any ability to stop it. After playing through, I went to the Tower, did a bit of maintenance and then logged out to play PSO2. I am not nearly as the friends who are deeply engaged with this franchise. Yesterday for them seemed to be a re-ignition of a spark, and I am pretty jealous of.
It would be a lie if I said I would not be there playing Beyond Light in September. I like the concept of wielding the darkness and growing the abilities we have access to. However due to the stance of rolling out new content and removing old content, I am wondering what exactly we will sacrifice in the process. My preference will always be with constantly expanding the world, making it a more exciting and vibrant place to play. However it seems Bungie feels like they need to shrink it down a bit to keep from having to restart once again with a new game to keep the scope manageable. I understand that desire, and I absolutely do not want Destiny 3 to cause the same big reset that Destiny 2 did. For now I mostly just have to mull over these thoughts and determine at what point I will engage with this franchise again.
The post I don’t Even Have Time to Explain… appeared first on Tales of the Aggronaut.
Good morning friends! I’ve been playing a non-casual amount of Phantasy Star Online 2 over the last few weeks. Most of my posts about the game thusfar have been largely explanatory, given that there are a truly nonsense number of systems to digest. At this current moment I am level 60 of 75 and the leveling process has slowed down significantly. Imagine a train pulling into the station, each time you tick past 10 levels you feel a noticeable slowdown in just how much momentum is happening. I expect the 60-75 grind to take as much time as the levels previously gained to be honest.
I’ve not really noticed this that much however because the game provides a bounty of large set piece content for you to participate in. Right now I am mostly focused on “very hard” content, though I could bump up and start doing “super hard” though I am not sure the added difficulty is worth it. Several times a night something happens call and Urgent Quest, and for a period of time you can participate with other players on the server in a group activity. These feel similar to the Alliance Raids you can participate in while playing Final Fantasy XIV.
My current favorite of these is Dark Falz Luther, which is a multi part event. The first phases involve 30 minutes of farming the oddly bong shaped creatures two images up which drop a ton of meseta and worth a sizeable amount of experience. Once that phase finishes you get to fight Luther itself in a big raid like encounter with mechanics that more or less need to be observed. This phase can be done only once per character and tends to drop some pretty significant rewards.
After which you end up with this cool screenshot moment of the entire team. I’ve been lucky enough to participate in this event each evening over the last several days, and in part this is probably why I have gained several levels in rapid sequence. I’ve not really encountered one of these urgent quests that was not worth my time either in loot or experience gained, and as a result I tend to look forward to them when they are announced by the ships public announcer. It also helps to make you feel like you are part of a larger community.
Another thing that I first thought was really weird, but I am now warming to significantly… is the fact that every so often there are “Live” vocaloid concerts in the shopping area. I am not going to go into what a vocaloid is, but SEGA appears to have a cross promotional relationship with the folks behind “Hatsune Miku” and “Megurine Luka”. There are item packs associated with both that can be gained through the in game loot boxes, and periodically a concert happens of a song called “Living Universe”.
I admit that at first I considered this a bit on the odd side, but players legitimately turn up for these and as a result they become yet another spontaneous occurrence of community in game. I tend to turn up if I am available because of the prevalence of folks firing off various symbol art. I am slowly curating a collection of these images, and I absolutely snagged “Meatwad” shown above. I don’t personally necessarily get the vocaloid thing, but I don’t really have to in order to understand that it is good to have these moments of spontaneous gathering in a game.
The game has this built in farming culture that I also find interesting. When something is going well people tend to stick around and ride the experience and loot until it stops being interesting. I was doing a mission the other day that no joke gained me half of a level at 57 and the entirity of 58 all while just sitting in the same place. We had a full compliment of twelve players and for some reason this beach decided to start paying out in droves as we went through the course of three different PSE bursts. No screenshot can do justice to just how fast we were killing things and how much loot was dropping. This is the closest I have ever seen to the fabled Destiny Loot cave.
Sure most of the loot that dropped was trash, and I only actually picked up any of the “red” items which denote the higher rarity items, but the experience was fun regardless. I have to say the longer I play Phantasy Star Online 2 the more I end up enjoying it. Sure it takes a long time to really begin to grasp all of the systems and how they intermingle, but eventually you read a point of equilibrium where you are doing interesting things every day. The longer I play however the more of the community aspect I am experiencing, and while it is not necessarily my traditional jam, I definitely appreciate it. A fancy horned lad pole dancing in the cafe if nothing else breaks up the monotony.
The post Spontaneous Moments of Community appeared first on Tales of the Aggronaut.
Last week my friend Grace finally managed to catch one of those super rare restocks of the switch. For those hoping to do the same at some point, you might follow both Cheap Ass Gamer and Wario 64 as they both pretty regularly announce restocks. However immediately after being excited about finally getting a switch, Grace mentioned that she would be bugging me for a list of games that I recommend. As such I en-devoured to attempt to compile such a list over the weekend, and said that I would be posting it on Monday.
I have to say… I didn’t expect my list to be quite so boring. Most of these games are pretty obvious picks, but as I said I would do this thing I am going to do this thing. Here is a list of some of my favorite Nintendo Switch games.
The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild
This is the game that sold me a switch, full stop. I get that to some it is highly overrated, but it is a deep and immersive experience and if you have never played it I highly suggest doing so. Sure I personally have some issues with the fact that weapons break and some other things like that, however I deeply love this game.
Mario Kart 8 Deluxe
Sure this game is essentially the same game released on the WiiU. However it is Mario Kart in your hands and playable from bed, and there is never going to be a time when this is not worth purchasing. Mario Kart will always be one of the more enjoyable co-op experiences as well.
Diablo 3 Eternal Collection
If you have read this blog for any period of time you will know that I love Diablo 3. This is Diablo 3 that I can play from bed, and that is reason enough to want it. The only real complaints that I have are that this lives on a disconnected island from my PC account, and if I could somehow PLAY my PC characters on it… I would be so much more into this title. I don’t run a seasonal character up each season, but I absolutely have in the past and it was a joy to do so.
Lumines Remastered
The PSP handheld will always hold a special place in my heart, and not just because it was easily exploitable and you could run emulators on it. I remember spending hours upon hours playing Lumines and as a result was super pumped when I saw this game available on the Switch. I still spend a non-zero amount of time hanging out in bed and playing this to chill out after a long day.
Baba Is You
Another great chill out from bed game is Baba Is You. I own this on multiple platforms at this point, but I have to say the system that it is best suited for is the Switch because it allows you to tackle the puzzles on your own terms wherever you happen to be at. If I remember it is also extremely cheap.
Nintendo Switch Online
I spend an excessive amount of time playing Super Nintendo games on the Switch through the apps that become available one you have a Nintendo Switch Online account. This is roughly $20 a year and is money extremely well spent as it gives you a SNES and NES app with releases coming out pretty regularly as well as access to exclusives like Tetris 99. Additionally if you create a Japanese game shop account you can have access to any Japanese exclusive releases as you only need one account per switch with an online account.
Sonic Mania
This game is essentially… what if you could return to the greatest era for Sonic the Hedgehog and get more of it. This game essentially extends the original three games (plus Knuckles) and gives you more courses designed with the same concepts. Really good stuff and well worth playing, and the Switch is a device well suited for it.
Super Mario Odyssey
Did you like Super Mario 64 and Mario Sunshine? Gratz then you have a great new adventure ahead of you. I don’t love Cappy, because it seems like yet another goofy gimmick mechanic that Nintendo seems to love to put into games. However the gameplay is solid and at some point I might actually beat it!
Pokemon Sword and Shield
It’s a main line Pokemon game for the Nintendo Switch, and generally speaking I shouldn’t need to say more. However this is probably my favorite Pokemon game, because it actually grows the series. I wish the entire thing were open world rather than just one zone of it. It is an awful lot of fun, and the female character option is freaking adorable.
The Touryst
This is another great, hanging out in bed and playing game. The Touryst is a visual puzzle platformer for lack of a better term, and it is freaking gorgeous and runs insanely smoothly on the Switch hardware. The idea is that you are on a vacation to an archipelago, and each island has some puzzle to unlock which in turn gives you access to more islands.
Hollow Knight
It is Hollow Knight that you can play from bed. That should be all of the selling point that you need. You are going to see a running theme here for me. A lot of these are games that I enjoy, but also want to hang out and play them from bed. Switch is very much a console that I mostly play while doing that.
Trials of Mana
Seiken Densetsu 3 was one of those games that I knew about back in the 16 bit era but was never able to play because of the lack of localization. I tried playing a fan patch, but it was buggy and the game was too advanced for most emulators at the time. Once I entered the 2000s I mostly put away any thoughts about the game and moved on with my life until it released as part of a Secret of Mana collection on the console. However at the same time they announced we were getting this fully re-imagined version of the game and I decided to wait. This is exceptionally fun, and like so many titles on the list it has a Demo that you can download and play first.
The Legend of Zelda: Link’s Awakening
I never played the original on the gameboy, and when I heard about this I was extremely excited. The way that this game has been remastered is delightful, and if you were ever a fan of the classic era of Zelda then this is definitely worth checking out.
Streets of Rage 4
Streets of Rage as a franchise is really important to me, for weird reasons. I was the kid that had a Super Nintendo and my best friend had a Genesis, and SoR was the game that we spent most of our time playing together. When I also got a Genesis I ended up playing the hell out of the later two games as well. This game is a loving recreation of that era of Beat Em Ups, with a gorgeous hand drawn art style. Probably one of my favorite games out this year.
Animal Crossing New Horizons
You can’t make a Nintendo Switch list without including ACNH, because it is effectively a cultural phenomena. This was my first real AC game, and I played the shit out of it for the first few weeks. I have not logged in for a really long time, but if Grace were to pick it up it would be reason enough to do so. The only problem with the game is that it is extremely time consuming, especially playing it how I chose to do so… and not partaking of time skipping. I might back away from that so that I could feel less beholden to the 24 hour clock.
Spyro Reignited Trilogy
I’ve not spent anywhere near enough time with this, but I am extremely excited to have the entire Spyro Trilogy sitting in my hands. It plays more or less like I remember the original, which is both a good and a bad thing. The movement is a little kludgy, but so was the PlayStation era game. I would have rather they did with the thing that Ratchet and Clank did, and present the old story with updated gameplay.
Xenoblade Chronicles Definitive Edition
I have never played a Xenoblade game prior to this, and for right this moment this is my main squeeze as far as Switch games go. This very much plays like a single player MMORPG, in that the way that the questing and such are set up feels like MMO style questing. I am enjoying myself so far, but i can’t say I have made it terribly far into the game itself. The world seems interesting and the game is extremely pretty. I had picked up Xenoblade 2 but never got around to playing it, and now I am sorta thankful given that I can play the games in sequence.
What Did I Miss?
So what games did I miss from the list that you would have suggested? I didn’t suggest Bloodstained because the Switch port is not good. I didn’t suggest Smash Bros, because I never got into that and I am not part of that broader fandom. Super Mario Maker 2 is another good choice because it is in theory an infinite number of Mario games, but I have not really spent anywhere near as much time as I would have liked to with it.
I have a lot of games on my switch that I didn’t talk about, but I am curious what games you think I should have included. Drop me a line below and let me know.
The post Switch Favorites appeared first on Tales of the Aggronaut.
Featuring: Ammo, Ashgar, Belghast, Grace, Kodra and Tamrielo
Tonight we start off with a discussion of Dungeon Defenders Awakened and how it is a less complete version of the original game. We talk about whether or not this is going to be a good idea for the long run. From there Bel talks about his experiences with Minecraft Dungeons and how it generally feels like an unfinished and unbalanced mess. From there we talk about how PSO2 has a lot of interesting systems and some decent tutorials, but does not do a great job of leading players to them. Lastly we have a discussion about a return to Guild Wars 2 and experiencing how much better they are at telling its story.
