Stellar Blade Review Thread

ErableEreinte

There are two games I never would have considered if I hadn’t explored new / different genres from what I usually stick with, 1000xResist and Pentiment.
The latter might be my favourite by a slight margin, but either way I’m so glad I went out of my comfort zone and discovered games which aren’t my typical RPGs, action-adventure or shmups.

I’ll keep experimenting next year, I might even put together a list of genres or games I’d like to try.

ErableEreinte

I’ve had very little luck with playing games in French lately, recent dubs I’ve tried all sound like poorly acted téléfilms imo…
That’s a shame, because both Plague Tale games, as well as E33 might (could) sound much better in French, but I can’t get past the way VA is done when compared to their English counterpart.

ErableEreinte

ITAD allows for wishlist (and collection) imports from both Steam and GOG. You’ll end up with a unified wishlist, where you can set specific rules to get notified when there’s a sale, including which specific stores have a game on sale.
That’s what I use to track any game I wishlist, with specific rules to notify me when said game is on sale at GOG.

ErableEreinte

I feel like Sekiro would meet most of your criteria, except for the dungeon aspect.

ErableEreinte

A Plague Tale Requiem, especially after beating the game.

ErableEreinte

I can’t speak to this backlogging website specifically, it’s one among a fair number of somewhat similar offerings, but I’ve been using Backloggd for a couple years now.
What these apps/sites ultimately help with is getting your gaming library in check, if you also end up buying far too many games every time there’s a sale or if you want to keep track of your physical collection (although there are better sites for that).
Depending on the site’s focus, you might also get average completion times per game or user reviews.
I’ve actually found myself more interested in the “social” aspect of backloggd, eg user reviews (and making my own), ratings, user-made lists, because they’ve helped me discover games I wouldn’t have otherwise given a chance to or even heard about.

ErableEreinte

I could be slightly misremembering the exact context during which I watched Grave of the Fireflies but I’m 95% sure it was a school outing and either in primary school or junior high 20 or so years ago.
Needless to say it was absolutely gut wrenching, but also extremely memorable.

ErableEreinte

The thumbnail shows up just fine on Voyager FWIW.

ErableEreinte

I’m with you on most of your priority list, but would swap perpetual digital with physical.
I would also point out that physical need to be fully on disc, otherwise they’re at best as good as game key cards (doesitplay.org is very useful there).

I think PC gaming is unfortunately the only “sustainable” option nowadays to allow for both native games and emulation to run today or in a decade. With how console manufacturers, especially Microsoft, have been aggressively pushing digital, there’s little hope of having any physical backcompat in consoles moving forward.

ErableEreinte

I don’t think I’ve seen any shmup OST mentioned, but there’s so many that I think are bangers.
A favourite of mine would be DoDonPachi DaiFukkatsu / Resurrection, specifically Black Label Stage 2.

ErableEreinte

Good grief, I hope all affected people will be able to land on their feet quickly enough.

Microsoft is canceling its new Perfect Dark game that it announced in 2020, according to an internal memo from Xbox president of game content and studios Matt Booty. The company showed off gameplay during the 2024 Xbox Games Showcase, but at the time, didn’t provide a release window for the game.

I’m sure there’ll be more cancellations announced soon enough…

ErableEreinte

I’ve been playing Fire Emblem Engage on and off for the past few weeks. I don’t care for either the story or characters, but gameplay is really good imo.

ErableEreinte

Oh, Cattle Crisis seems to be right up my alley!
I bought Wednesday some time ago, but haven’t gotten to playing it yet - not in the right mental state either I guess.

And thanks for the Random Bundle Game mention, I hadn’t heard of it and usually have a hard time going through the bundles I own.

ErableEreinte

I’ve had great results with a newer emulator (Citron).
It’s not perfect, but I can play almost all of my games at full speed, Docked mode, and with few stutters. It runs about on par with my modded Switch, but in Docked mode, so that’s a real advantage imo.

ErableEreinte

I think the equivalence doesn’t apply, because a car is a functional product and you should expect price to correlate with added features.
Indie games, as well as AAA, can offer similar quality levels at wildly different prices, so price doesn’t (shouldn’t) enter the equation imo.
Quality, possible enjoyment and my tastes are what I take into account when buying a game or not, not its price point, so that might be the difference.

ErableEreinte

That’s not what I’m saying.
What I find silly is to expect price to correlate with quality in the video game space, because you have Indies as well as AAA, with wildly different prices, ultimately offering similar qualities. Price shouldn’t come into the equation when talking about a game’s quality or “value” imo.

ErableEreinte

Like the week before, I can’t settle on one game.
I’ve been playing Death Stranding quite a bit, but then got to setting up switch emulation on my Steam Deck again, so Ive been juggling between Xenoblade Chronicles, Fire Emblem: Engage and Astral Chain.
I’ll be travelling for a bit, so it’s likely going to be one of those for the next couple of weeks.

ErableEreinte

To be clear, I find this rhetoric pretty silly given that price has no influence over a game’s intrinsic qualities and vice versa.
I’m not arguing for games to be priced higher either, because a lot of that money likely wouldn’t end up going to the devs, but I think the price argument doesn’t stand either way.

ErableEreinte

What does that even mean? And what do you consider “full price worthy” in that case?

ErableEreinte

Backloggd works great for me because I want both game/library tracking and user reviews, including my own once I finish a game. If someone only cares about the former, backloggery.com is probably just as good.

ErableEreinte

I’m finding it hard to stick to one game in particular these past few days (weeks?).
I’ve been going back to my play through of Divinity: Original Sin 2 and I find the story is getting somewhat less interesting after reaching the second to last act/location (and fights are less challenging now, which isn’t as fun imo).
I’ve also been playing a bit of Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order and it’s more appealing than I anticipated - I’m just annoyed by recurring shader comp and loading stutters on PC…
I’m kind of in the mood for a shorter game, but my backlog is far too dense to pick anything easily.

ErableEreinte

Congrats! That’s absolutely what I found most exhilarating with Expedition 33 gameplay-wise, being able to defeat much tougher enemies with a mix of persistence and parrying/dodging - that was really rewarding imo.

ErableEreinte

Great, I’ve sent you a message :)

ErableEreinte

Probably the best soundtrack I’ve heard in a video game, period. He talks about composing for the game here (and likely in many other outlets).

ErableEreinte

I picked up Fire Emblem: Path of Radiance (again, but I lost my save file, so I’m starting over).
It was that or Genealogy of the Holy War, but I’m going with the “easier” of the two first.

ErableEreinte

Ditto (but 2077 instead, haha). I’ve had no issues, except I wish it’d be possible to export the mod collection and reimport on a different device - eg going from desktop to Steam Deck and vice versa, which I’ve had to do manually.

ErableEreinte

Thanks for another great post and a very interesting interview! FWIW I cross-posted it to [email protected]

ErableEreinte

Nope, 8bitdo (via their eshop) ships directly from China to Canada, alongside a number of other countries.
The change is only wrt shipping to US.

ErableEreinte

Not exactly, you need Steam to install it, but then per PCGW’s wiki:

DRM-free when launched directly via <path-to-game>\SwGame\Binaries\Win64\SwGame-Win64-Shipping.exe while EA app is not installed.

ErableEreinte

I can’t confirm for Steam, since I only have the game on EA app, but the game’s wiki page on PCGW shows the same DRM-free info (with correct launch steps).

ErableEreinte

You’re right, they do - this Steam DRM-free games list shows Jedi Fallen Order is the most recent DRM-free EA published game on Steam afaict.
Same goes for DRM-free games on the EA app.

ErableEreinte

They also increased prices in Canada, by 7-15% afaict.
eg: MX Master 3S went up ~14%, $140 to $160.

ErableEreinte

As enjoyable as ever to read!
I think you might have missed the link to Nightdive Studios’ future endeavours? Or Voyager is not showing it at least.

I almost didn’t mention my game of the moment - I’ve been diving deep into Hollow Knight on the Deck, I just wish it supported HDR but otherwise it’s an experience like no other.

ErableEreinte

Yep, thanks - so far I’ve avoided any guides and went in completely blind, I’m starting to explore the map again for what I might have missed.

spoiler

I’ve been trying to beat the Mantis Lords for a while, but I feel like there’s some other place I might be able to go for now - I think I haven’t fully explored the City of Tears yet, but got my first nail upgrade

ErableEreinte

I’m still playing Divinity: Original Sin II.
I also picked up Hollow Knight recently and I’m making progress, albeit painfully sometimes haha.

ErableEreinte

I’m slowly continuing my playthrough of Divinity: Original Sin II and absolutely loving it.
I also recently bought Stardew Valley, finally, and started playing it a bit.
Last one, Mushihimesama as the c/shmups Game of the Month.

ErableEreinte

Voyager works perfectly fwiw

ErableEreinte

Castlevania: SOTN
13 Sentinels: Aegis Rim

I didn’t think I’d enjoy SOTN so much, as I tend to have mixed feelings towards metroidvanias, but it delivers in many areas - I’d say it’s too easy, but then again it’s a matter of adjusting your equipment to make it more difficult.

I’m attempting another playthrough of 13 Sentinels, I’m not sure why I bounced off of it a couple years ago but I’ve been getting into “gameplay-lite” games lately with great results.

ErableEreinte

No?

Realistically, as you mentioned with FF XIV ARR now being a classic but also being a pain to get into is true for any other older FF, many people simply have rose tinted glasses to keep them from seeing all the flaws present in those prior entries.
I also started with FF VII, but 25 years after its release, and let me tell you that it did not age well (at all) imo.

Had I not picked up FF XVI, I probably wouldn’t have given the series another chance.
I now played both FF VII remakes to date and absolutely loved them, especially Rebirth, and am going through FF VI, which I also think is a masterpiece tbh.
FF IV didn’t work out for me, but that’s fine.

All that to say, video game series evolve, ARPGs have been quite popular for a while and FF went that route - for now. That doesn’t make for bad games, and the series will keep evolving.

ErableEreinte

In an ideal world, every game should be fully cross-buy IMO, but that tends to never be the case.
PlayStation used to have PS3/PS4/PSVita cross-buy games for a while, but they didn’t keep it going for their recent PC porting efforts (that clearly wouldn’t help their bottom line).
Xbox has Play Anywhere, and that’s likely the closest to a functional cross-buy (and cross-play) we have today - that’s the main draw for me if (when) I ever buy games digitally on Xbox.

ErableEreinte

Stellar Blade Review Thread

Stellar Blade Review Thread

FF VII Rebirth - Improvements to Performance mode image quality coming Feb 21th

FF VII Rebirth - Improvements to Performance mode image quality coming Feb 21th