My problem was that it had the same gameplay loop. Find shrines to upgrade your health and stamina. Find Koroks to upgrade inventory space. Many of the Koroks were even in the same place as the previous game. I didn’t do any Koroks that required more that 2 seconds of effort because in the time it took to carry a guy to his friend, I could have got 10 more by picking up suspicious rocks. So it really just felt more of the same in that regard.

And honestly, I hated shrines in BotW, so I was very disappointed to not only see them come back, but for them to be the main part of the gameplay loop once again. And just the fact that so many things were in the same places as in BotW felt lazy imo. I had to get all the same outfits again with the same perks.

It’s a weird feeling. I simultaneously felt like TotK was much better than BotW, but also I didn’t enjoy it as much, I think because I felt like I was just playing the same game again with a few new mechanics. It felt more like an expansion to me than a whole new game.

Yeah but some of that stuff doesn’t really do anything for me. The depths are alright, the sky map is too empty, with most of the islands looking nearly the exact same, the caves all have the same look. The abilities are cool, crafting is cool, new characters are nice. I hate everything about korok seeds, and the Hudson puzzles can easily be cheesed to the point that you can use the same solution for almost all of them.

I replayed BotW just before TotK came out, and it really just felt like I was rehashing the same stuff. Playing them back to back definitely took away from how much I might have enjoyed the game.

I only played BotW back in 2021, so that’s why I remember so much haha. I guess a break wouldn’t hurt.

Yeah, Mirror’s Edge is that first person parkour game. If you haven’t played it yet, I definitely recommend giving it a shot. I love how the levels flow, and I find myself getting a lot better every time I run through the game.

My man big man

As for older ones, while I don’t mind retro games, they feel a bit too retro. How would you say those older games are, if you don’t have any nostalgia for it?

I’d say 5 and 6 are worth playing even without the nostalgia factor. The job system in 5 is really fun to play with and the plot is solid, and 6 is one of the classics everyone should play once.

As for the earlier games, they are surprisingly decent despite their age but I’d say they are best played as a history lesson to the genre.

6 is my favorite of the entire series so I might be too partial to it, but I do really feel like 6 is the their first big step into a somewhat modern/more mature storytelling. 4 also has a good story, but it’s still kinda tied into this idea of the main characters dealing with crystals and whatnot, and that never really resonated with me that much.

6, on the other hand, has a narrative beyond that. You don’t worry about silly crystals at all, and instead of some vague evil plaguing the world because the crystals got broken or out of alignment or whatever, you have real threats from a nation that’s using magitek technology, then later on even worse threats (and the best main antagonist of the series). I also think 6 has the most interesting characters, and even though there are a lot, almost all of them have interesting back stories you can explore. And many of those stories are tragic. You may have heard about suplexing the ghost train, but the story around the ghost train is heartbreaking. This is the first of the series where I cared about all these characters because they are written well.

It’s just a game that feels whole. Things that happen feel correct for the setting they have set up. 6 and Chrono Trigger are the absolute apex of 2D RPGs before the world jumped to 3D. And another big plus is that these games still look gorgeous because the sprites never get old unlike the boxy, ugly humanoid figures of 7.

As for the others, 1-5. They are alright. 4 is the most important of that group. It’s got a good story, though it’s not my favorite. I think the Pixel Remaster versions are pretty nice because you can set the xp gains to 4x, cutting out a TON of grinding in the older ones. And you can turn off random battles if you just want to get through a dungeon. I’ve played 2, 3, and now 5 this way. I think it’s neat to see how the series has evolved, but if you aren’t too worried about playing them yourself you could surely get by by watching some video synopses online. That said, with the 4x bump, I got through 2 and 3 each in about 10 hours. So not bad at all.

How forgiving are these limits?

On Marie they are very, very forgiving. I have more than one year left with Marie at almost max level, max knowledge and reputation, only one item left to craft (the Philosopher’s stone, which requires an item that I can only get in one specific day later this year), already killed two special bosses, already made an Elixir to cure Schea… I haven’t checked the ending requirements but I’m pretty sure I already fulfill some of them.

Generally speaking from my experience with Atelier the time limits are only a problem in two situations:

• You want to 100% the games, in particular if you don’t want to use a guide or go into NG+
• You are playing Atelier Totori

Time limits in Totori are rough, the only game I had to reload an earlier save because I ran out of time and could not get at least a “good” ending. It’s still one of my favorite games in the series though.

Worth mentioning that Marie also does have an “unlimited” mode you can choose at the beginning, but given how forvinging the limit is it’s probably not necessary.

And what do you suggest I play first Marie Remake or Ryza?

Between those two, Ryza.

Marie is cute and fun game, but it’s lacking in depth compared to other entries in the series. If it was $20 it could be an interesting entry point to the series, but for $10 more than what they’re asking for that game you can get a far more complete experience by going with one of the recent games like Ryza or Sophie 2.

It went out like 8 hours ago. It came out during midnight in Germany, and I came to work, so I haven’t played it yet. I heard is quite good

I’m liking it a lot. I’ve never finished Bioshock, but I’ve played a few hours of it, so it may not be a fair comparison, but the environment feels bigger and more convoluted, everything is less linear. It’s more similar to Prey than Bioshock.

Also, the progression of the player is based on gadgets and weapons, there are no powers to level up by using points.

And with Baldur’s Gate I’m playing a thief which a master on almost every skill, but not the best in combat jajajaja.

So I finished Leon’s ‘half’ of the story yesterday. It was great! Loved all the puzzles (which had a classic videogame feel to them) as well as the various settings. It’s a beautiful looking game and the gunplay is very satisfying.

I was a bit disappointed to learn that playing as Claire is just the same thing again, although it does have a few different story beats. I don’t mind too much though as it seems like a fun game to play through multiple times.

This seems like a great way to remake an old game. Reminds me of FF7 remake in some respects.

To be honest, I’m kinda expecting Big Man to be the favourite still, there’s a lot of Big Man players.

I’m thankful that I’ve only had 2 mirror matches so far and neither of the other teams are rare to find