any1there

I’m still playing Persona 3 Reload and I believe it finally clicked for me.
I still don’t particularly like Tartarus that much, but I’ve been able to complete each section relatively quickly so far (and without grinding) so it’s certainly not too bad. The rest of the game has definitely opened up though (thankfully, I’m about 30-35 hrs in, haha).

Slowly making my way through Jeanne d’Arc on the side - gameplay wise it’s up my alley (minus grinding…), however the story is pretty subpar imo.

Persona 3 Reload - I’m not sure whether I like it or not just yet tbh. I’m about 20 hours in (or 2 months of “in-game time”) and the plot is very slow to unravel.
I don’t like turn-based RPGs usually, so combat is a bit of a chore and the exploration of Tartarus is very samey. Social sim aspects have been fine, but I guess I expected a bit more interactivity? I’m not sure. Its been nice to learn more about side characters, albeit ones not present in the “core” team.
The only somewhat similar game I’ve played before is Fire Emblem: Three Houses and I absolutely loved it, but I was much more interested in the gameplay (T-RPGs are 100% up my alley) and social sim was okay as well.
I think my primary issue with P3R is the setting - which I didn’t think would matter so much - I really don’t relate to high school life / issues anymore and it’s making it hard for me to get into the game…
The OST is absolutely S-tier though (and it has made exploring Tartarus much more bearable!)

I finally started Horizon: Forbidden West - gameplay changes compared to HZD keep trickling in and I couldn’t be happier. I love Aloy’s character so I’m really happy to be in her shoes again.

This past week was pretty disappointing before that:

• Hellblade II was good, but nowhere near as impactful as the first one for me. I’m left with a sour taste overall, although I’ll admit they did a tremendous job with cinematography and character rendering.
• Stellar Blade was insipid. Whatever could save it in my book - its gameplay - turns out stale pretty quickly, so I ended up abandoning the game midway. The story and characters were really uninteresting imo, couple that with how EVE is represented… I couldn’t really find any redeeming qualities.

I finished DMC 5 SE sometime last week (or the “primary” arc at least) and it was fun as heck.
I moved on to Stellar Blade, combat is very fun/engaging, but story is utter sh*t (so comparisons with NieR were definitely unwarranted IMO, seeing as it’s pretty much the opposite of my experience with Automata).

As far as this weekend goes, I am playing Hellblade II, which was probably my most anticipated game of the year. I am loving it so far!

Just finished Cyberpunk 2077 and Phantom Liberty, which I enjoyed greatly, despite all the jank!

I’ll likely move on to DMC 5 now, since I left it unfinished a few years ago and would like a shorter / fast-pace game atm.

I’ve also been playing a fair amount of Guilty Gear Strive on the side, first real fighting game and it’s a blast so far trying to learn the right combos, cancels, etc…

Cyberpunk 2077. I just finished Act 2 last night and I’m (probably) about to begin Phantom Liberty.
Really enjoying most of the story and side quests so far!

PSP, hands down. So many incredible games, it was a RPG powerhouse, that screen was great for the time and for me it was an “everything” device (I remember browsing the web and reading mangas on the PSP… Janky but incredible all the same).

The Vita comes close - nigh “home console” games on the go and the OLED screen to make those shine.

Oh, that could likely be it - you might want to look into replacing the laser as they’re pretty cheap and easy to find (but that’s not really what you’re interested in atm I suppose).

Anyways, the emulator you want to look into is DuckStation. It is pretty much full featured (save states, fast-forward/rewind, etc) and the de-facto PSX emulator to beat.

I only played through most of the first one, but really enjoyed it! The second one is firmly on my backlog.

As for FFT (WotL), do you have a Vita lying around? Its around $10 USD on the store iirc. Same on Android, but I’m not sure about gamepad support.
A physical copy shouldn’t be much more, be it for the PSP or PSX versions.

Enjoy! Remake is really great and I’ve heard it runs like a charm on pretty much any recent handheld

I finished Final Fantasy VII Rebirth a couple days ago after about 110 hours, what a journey!

I’m currently playing a few shmups since I just purchased a (very cheap but perfectly adequate) arcade stick, easy modes for now and “moving up the chain”:

• DoDonPachi Resurrection
• ESP Ra De
• Espgaluda II
• Radiant Silvergun

After that, I’ll probably pick Cyberpunk 2077 back up (only 10 hours in from the free trial a few weeks ago).

The Nathan Drake Collection. Uncharted 1 is a bit rough around the edges, but I would recommend going in order of release either way.
Enjoy, those are wonderful games! (I might be slightly biased, Uncharted is probably my favourite video game series tbh)

No, I didn’t want to spoil myself at all, so I’m not sure how the two compare tbh. I would imagine there are still some slight differences and/or you might want to play on a more challenging difficulty if that’s your thing?

I’m rounding off the year with The Last of Us Part I and so far it lives up to my expectations (and even more).

I’ve also been playing some PSVR2 recently, I recently completed Moss and just started RE: Village (and it seems I’ve almost got my “VR legs”, I wasn’t really feeling nauseated after the first session).