/ot/ - Off-Topic

>>12813
nta but same for me. A before the pandemic when I finally had enough money for that I played games but also bought a lot of them to catch to game releases that interested me. Then in 2020 I bought a Switch when they were finally in stock again in stores and online, I bought a shit ton of Switch games since then and nearly finished the backlog I had at the time. Then I bought less and less games and now I only plan to buy a few games that were released a few years ago that I simply haven't bought yet and that's just like three of them. So my backlog is full of games now but not for very long. And if I don't count visual novels I buy on Steam my backlog isn't that big.

>>12811
I forced myself to stop buying from steam sales lately but then I ended up buying a pile of retro games that I'm also not progressing through fast enough.

>>12811
>>12813
>>12826
Based golden oldies lovers. What games are you playing and chipping away at in your backlogs? Be specific ffs!

>>12850
NAYRT but I'm playing through all the ff games.

>>12850
I already blogposted about Togainu no Chi in the BL games thread, but for game games I'm currently playing Xanadu Next. It falls under the "westaboo" umbrella, which is usually a good time for me. It's one of those games with design elements old enough that it's a balancing act between "the dopamine hit of figuring out stuff for myself" and "peeking at a guide because I don't want to dally with my free time". Certain bits of the game are impossible to brute force so you have to engage with the systems to find the right combo to proceed. While I think this is "good" game design it's at odds with my desire to play what I want 100% of the time.

>>12850
Right now I finished the main plot of Pokemon Legends ZA so I'm talking a break from it before completing the pokedex and maybe trying the DLC. I'm in the middle of Unicorn Overlord as well so I will focus on that game for now. After that I will focus on Devil Survivor games on the 3DS, FF Pixel Remaster on the Switch and Zelda games on the 3DS because I've owned these games for a while. After that I'd like to beat the other Switch that I haven't started or barely started yet, so SMT3 HD remaster, Raidou remaster and Zelda BOTW. My other Switch games I think I'll replay them later on NG+ runs. The other games and VNs I have on PC and other consoles can wait for now.

>>12850
On PC I'm working through Final fantasy 12 while on the side I'm doing a playthrough of Pokemon White. I never played the sequel when it was new so I'd like to do a linked White to White 2 playthrough using the Entralinked software from github that emulates the old internet connectivity. I don't have physical carts, however, cause DS games seem to have shot up in price so I just started downloading a bunch of DS ROMs on my 3DS. Pic related is what my current physical backlog looks like.

huh, this lines up well…

>>12854
Funny enough I just finished the main story of ZA yesterday as well. I wanna complete the dex but I can't because I'm playing a pirated version lol
>>12855
Never heard of Entralinked, will keep it in mind for my next playthroughs of Gen 5.
DS games have been slowly creeping up in price secondhand due to Tiktok, I kinda feel stupid for selling off my physical collection in 2020 if I knew how much more they could have been worth (probably like 5 dollars more for each, lmao)

>>12857
Ah shit, maybe we could have played online together and traded pokemon to make them evolve. Although I named the playable character after myself so idk if that's a good idea, it would be like going off anon. If you ever try the DLC I'd love to know your opinion on it. I haven't bought it yet and won't do it until I have more free time.

>>12857
I'm not the one you asked but after watching a review and various player experiences of the DLC it sounded so disappointing for the price tag. If it was 15 bucks then maybe, but it mostly sounds like it was made for shiny hunters to grind out new targets and for 30 bucks I'd expect something more interesting.
>>12857
>Never heard of Entralinked, will keep it in mind for my next playthroughs of Gen 5.
I only dipped my toe into it but for now I used it to download a c gear and pokedex skin and it was pretty straightforward once I realised I had to edit the DNS server by going through the game first and not in the emulator menu. Even though I never played the sequel before I feel pretty confident in saying gen 5 is my favourite generation.

>>12862
>it mostly sounds like it was made for shiny hunters to grind out new targets
Really? That's not really my thing, I like finding shiny pokemon by luck while playing like I normally do. I liked the DLC in SWSH and SV more than the main games so that sounds a bit disappointing.

Is anyone hyped for new Resident Evil? I never played village or 7, but I am kinda hyped for this one
>inb4 Leon
It's not only that but the atmosphere of the game, I also prefer third person RE to first person.

>>12956
Leon is an old man so no

My brother moved out and left a playstation does it have any good games worth playing?
Preferably with a cute/handsome guy protag. Bonus points if there's multiple male characters that you can ship together. Mega bonus points if theres a sizeable amount of BL fanarts.
Or otherwise games that are fun and that you liked because of the gameplay.

>>12968
>inb4
At least Leon yumes are honest kek.
I am Piers x Chris fujo so the only game that had bl vibes died long ago.

>>12979
I only played Final Fantasy 16 and Final Fantasy 7 Remake on the PS5 so far. I plan on getting FF7 Rebirth once I beat more games in my backlog at the very least and I downloaded the demo for Metaphor but haven't started it yet. I liked FF16, it's not too difficult, it's just that the beginning is very slow when it comes to the gameplay but once you get more abilities combats become way more fun. If we're talking about it from a BL point of view the game focuses on the main character Clive and his little brother Joshua a lot to the point where Joshua feels like he's the actual heroine. But Clive has a female love interest who has a lot of screentime even if she's irrelevant they even have a scene where they talk butt naked after they finally have sex but the framing of it is a bit cringe worthy. Like the writers wanted to make the story look more mature than it is idk. Regardless I recommend you download the demo and try it before purchasing it. People said the game feels less like Final Fantasy and more like a Game of Throne copy but the further you go into the game the less true it is.

Then you have a canon gay pairing, Dion and his bishonen bodyguard. Which was very well received even by gamergate dudebros because it felt less like LGBTQ+ representation by out of touch boomers and gen X writers, and more like the cool, handsome guy voiced by Yuuichi Nakamura with the coolest boss fight in the game or even the whole series just happens to have a boyfriend. Their backstory isn't shown in the game, it's in an Ultima guidebook so I'll summarize it here: they're childhood friends who had a crush on each other for a very long time. Terrence eventually becomes Dion's page. They were involved in a battle together when they're like 17 or 18 years old but Dion becomes severely injured and Terrence nurses him back to health and they confess their feelings for each other because it feels like an emergency, it's now or never. Then they start dating after that event.

tldr about FF16; there's a canon gay pairing with an important character and and NPC, and you can easily interpret the relationship between the MC and his little brother as brocon.

>>12983
I'm not usually the type of woman who will immediately start complaining about the writing of female characters in videogames but even I noticed that Jill is barely written any better than Rosa FF4 who was made in 1991 and Jill is far less interesting than the women in FF5 and 6 who were also written in the SNES era like Rosa. I've seen hetshippers cry about how they need to drown out the ~gross brother shippers~ by shipping Clive/Jill harder but instead of being annoyed at them I just find the whole thing funny. You wouldn't need to try that hard if the canon ship was actually interesting.

>>12984
At least Rosa saved my ass plenty of times during battles in FF4 on the DS, she was my MVP. Jill isn't a playable character so something like that can't even help her. She's nothing more than a love interest and damsel in distress and she shows up too early to have a cool boss fight like the other dominants. I still wanted to mention her because the scene I described in spoilers is so in your face I'd rather warn other anons.

It's a bit random but I noticed that as I'm getting older I don't really give a shit about spin offs and sequels anymore. Like when I got into Persona 4 thanks to the anime in 2012 and I got a PS Vita and P4G as soon as I could I liked the game so much I looked up everything about Persona and then SMT, I wanted more of it and even bought Persona Q because I also loved P3P on the PSP. I actually hated Persona Q but didn't learn my lesson from it yet. I couldn't finish the game, I was kinda stuck in the second dungeon and never touched the game again, the gameplay wasn't my cup of tea at all and I didn't like how it made all the characters parodies of themselves with Akihiko and Chie obsessing over meat and protein. I still looked up other spin offs like the P4 fighting game to know what the story was, I was arguing over what in the story was canon or not despite not even playing it, etc. and other "fans" were annoying the fuck out of me over the whole "Naoto is a trans boy" discourse with some of my mutuals arguing over it and unfollowing each other, and asking when I was going to unfollow one of them. On the other hand if I tried P4G and P3P for the very first time today I would just enjoy the games a lot, maybe replay them depending on how much free time I have, and just leave it at that.

I think the last straw for me was how I hated the fuck out of Fire Emblem Echoes which everyone only praised for being less sexist than FE Fates (a total lie) and having better art and music than FE Fates (meh) as if the gameplay wasn't dog shit. I played it after loving FE Awakening and Fates and replaying them several times. And then I had fun with FE3H but its spin off was a Musou game of all things like, I don't give a fuck if the gameplay is going to be so insanely different but the story will be more of the same thing. They lost me with that game. There are other examples, I loved SMT4 Apocalypse and FF10-2 because they're very fun games on their own, otherwise I would have felt scammed for playing them. Now even tiny things can turn me off from entire franchises, like how I hated in Xenoblade 3 that Rex becomes a whore and has kids with Pyra, Mithra and Nia at the same time despite friendzoning Nia in a way that was so humiliating it that seeing Xenoblade 3 spoilers made me want to throw up a little. It even retroactively ruined the Rex and Pyra/Mithra romance from Xenoblade 2 for me, which I really enjoyed. I also avoided FE Engage for its localizationa dn ugly character designs, and I plan to avoid Yakuza games over the third game's controversy with one of its actors being a dangerous pervert. It's amazing how much money this made me save recently, now that I think about it. Pic unrelated, I just typed too much bullshit.

>>13178
For the first part, as another fellow Atlusfag I feel like that was one of the worst periods in terms of character flanderization and honestly I never really quite liked the Spin-off games all too much. I think the only "safe" games out of all of them are P3D/P5D only purely because they're both glorified project diva mods with no story. But I never bought them or playing them despite being kinda happy at the time that P3 got it's own solo spinoff game.
Persona is honestly best enjoyed with your own experience, thinking "wow that was a fun game" and never interacting with the fandom whatsoever. After P5 everything has gone to total shit and most Personafags/Atlusfags don't even like to play games. They just like to shit on the anime aspects of the games while hoping it becomes "americanized".
I've never had much attachments to P5 so I don't care much what happens to it but it does piss me off knowing that P3 characters are currently getting gachafied by P5X. It feels like the biggest monkeypaw ever.

>>13178
>>13180
I find myself treating Persona 5 like how I treat Final fantasy 7. I enjoy the original game but when I look at all the spinoffs they started churning out I just find myself not caring. The Xenoblade series already lost me when I found out the second game tried to emulate your average waifu gacha game but the spoilered part about 3 was the cherry on top. I remember seeing a viral japanese tweet that went "I thought this was Monolithsoft but it's Alicesoft." I personally don't see the problem with Fire emblem echoes, though, aside from Celica having brain problems. I never played Fates but I liked how Echoes had certain gameplay elements that you didn't see in Awakening that gave it a unique identity like the dungeon roaming sections and how you start with a whole set of villager characters that you can turn into whatever you want.

>>13180
>Persona is honestly best enjoyed with your own experience, thinking "wow that was a fun game" and never interacting with the fandom whatsoever.
After seeing how horrible the fandom was on tumblr back in the days I'm doing exactly that. Sometimes see great looking fanart on my fyp on twitter by asian artists, which helped me find artists to follow. The only time I had actual "fun" was when I was too broke to get a PS3 or a PS4 for Persona 5 despite looking forward to its release as soon as the first trailer was dropped and people were leaking scenes from a Japanese copy of the game one or two days before its official release date. Especially the shitpost about Akechi on 4chan. In hindsight everything else was just retarded and I only exposed myself to this because of this "I loved that thing so much I HAVE to talk about it to everyone!" the same way normies just talked about the new episode of whatever popular tv show just aired the previous night when they see each other in school or work. I wish fandoms were more like that type of fun but more casual interactions, actually.

>>13181
>I enjoy the original game but when I look at all the spinoffs they started churning out I just find myself not caring.
Glad I'm not the only one. I loved P5R when I played it, I would love to do a NG+ run soon as well but that's it.

>I personally don't see the problem with Fire emblem echoes, though, aside from Celica having brain problems.
>I never played Fates
I makes sense why you don't get it, it was just a comparison. At the time FE Fates was treated like the worst thing known to mankind for all sorts of silly and more serious allegations, from the anti-consumer practices by Nintendo, the horrible localization, the story, the fanservice for men and women alike, etc. Plenty of people thought Fates was sexist because of Camilla in general and several of the female characters wearing panties but only if they're from Nohr so I guess it's just the local fashion trend kek. As a result contrarians defended Echoes as if it were a feminist manifesto just because the women wear impractical skirts and boob armors instead of impractical panties. I was looking forward to playing Echoes but the story is all about female characters needed to be rescued from cells, brainwashing, and all the original content that wasn't in Gaiden is even worse like Celica's brother just existing to save Celica all the time, or the guy who screams UNCLEEEEEEEEEE and kills his fiancee for more power but it's sooo romantic and her cursed soul forgives him because…? Whatever, my biggest issue was the gameplay but nobody talked about it online, maybe they were just weirdos watching some random youtuber playing it and acting like experts. The fandom was so weird about both games.

>>13182
It felt like people were trying hard to overcorrect and celebrate a 'return to form' in Echoes after giving Awakening and Fates so much flack. I enjoyed all three games, but I really miss the GBA era's designs and gameplay in particular. They felt like a good middle ground compared to what we have now. After the Edelgard discourse in 3H, I tried to stop discussing the series with randoms.

Related, I posted a long time ago about doing a FE9 run and I did end up finishing it after months of procrastination. Tormod and Mia ended up being my strongest carries outside of Ike, and I had a lot of fun using units I don't usually touch.

>>13183
I haven't really played the GBA games all that much but maybe someday I will. I started FE7 during the pandemic and got a bit bored, then tried FE8 but it turned out the second hand copy I had was a cheap copy that didn't work very well and I never finished Eirika's route. I don't feel like emulating anything, maybe I'll check if I can get a legit copy of FE8 that doesn't cost an arm and a leg because I enjoyed it.

>>13186
Both are included in Nintendo Online if you happen to have a Switch and don't want to drop $70 on a cartridge.

>>13190
I thought it was only for the Switch 2. I'll look into it. I already checked if my FE7 cartridge is legit and it is, I never had any issue with it so I can replay it with my DS Lite anytime.

I actually went and ordered a legit copy of FE Sacred Stones online for a bit more than 50€ because I'm dumb like that I guess. It's not like I'm going to spend money on video games anytime soon though.

>>13243
I respect your decision. Lately my own game purchasing vs piracy decisions have just come down to convenience. I'll pirate DS and GBA games, and probably 3DS games too if they're rare enough, because I find it easy to put them on my modded 3DS but I try to buy reasonably-priced older console games physically cause I can't be assed to download and set up new emulators for them. There's a certain rare gamecube game listing that I've been eyeing because it's missing a booklet and therefore it's cheaper than complete editions but it's still expensive enough that it's outside of my budget right now.

>>13245
>Lately my own game purchasing vs piracy decisions have just come down to convenience
I totally get it. I don't think I ever pirated games before, besides one time when someone gave me an R4 cartridge with too many games so some of them barely worked and some Sonic Advance romhacks when I was in middle school. I usually really care about having physical copies but after too many cases of games I bought for relatively cheap but disliked or found boring I stopped doing that. And don't even get me started on Fatlus games during the 3DS era in Europe. I'm still seething to this day because of what they did with SMT4. Getting second hand copies of older games is a major pain in the ass nowadays because of scalpers and graded games, I will never judge anyone who pirate games to play them.

>>13247
Retro prices are what mainly stop me from completing my RL collection at this point. I've been fortunate that I was able to keep most of the games I bought over my life so I have a bunch of stuff worth a couple hundred each, but nowadays I just emulate what I feel like playing if it isn't under $60.

>>13243
I hope you enjoy Sacred Stones this time, nonnie! Did you have any units you like?

Trying to get into Homiciper since Scarletella is cute. The game has a cool concept and is making me feel stupid since I can't figure out what half the words are.

If there aren't fanfics of the Doctor fucking the head I revolt.

I'm hesitating between asking anons if they want to play online on the Switch, especially to trade pokemon and to visit each other's islands on ACNH and not doing it because I use my real name for the playable characters…

>>13713
Can’t you change your name?

>>13715
No, unfortunately.

>>13713
To ease your fear a bit, a 'real' name in a game doesn't mean someone will automatically assume it's yours without you telling them. I use a different name than my own for most of my player characters, but both are common among girls in my generation.

I'd make more sure you haven't posted your island code or trainer ID elsewhere on the internet where you might have other more identifiable personal information (ie reddit, tumblr). That sort of thing is much easier for someone to look for.

>>13717
>I'd make more sure you haven't posted your island code or trainer ID elsewhere on the internet where you might have other more identifiable personal information (ie reddit, tumblr).
I already posted some of the outfits I made on twitter and I often post screenshots/progress in my games on twitter as well on top of more personal things. I don't have a lot of followers but I'd rather not take that risk. Especially when I managed to find a lot of people I know on twitter just because one of them posted a link to his small business account on fb and followed his friend who was dumb enough to use a selfie as his pfp.

Pokemon champions may be an excuse for me to get more into competitive pokemon. It's too bad that it has microtransaction battlepass slop built into it but generally speaking the game feels smooth and quick to play. On some level I feel like if I was really serious I would've been grinding the ladder on showdown years ago but it's less intimidating to start on a platform that's flooded with newbies anyway.
>>13722
I know that feeling. I don't post my face or IRL info on my main social media platforms and I'm by no means popular online but I still feel paranoid about someone finding out I post here.

>>13722
I really don't understand why you guys still use sns platforms for anything that isn't silently following artists. There's no one even worth talking to on those sites for you to be broadcasting all your info there

>>13732
I follow artists but also use twitter to keep up with releases for new video games and manga/anime without interacting directly with people, and to check information about conventions and which artists will go there, at least at first. I also wanted to post my video game progress on twitter as soon as I got my Switch because the feature to post directly on twitter with the Switch was still there at the time, my backlog of games was getting out of control and I saw people posting about ACNH and wanted inspiration from their islands and houses, I thought why not? But I made a few mutuals along the way who are into BL and the same books and games I enjoy and when I'm very bored I post a lot more, which is usually when I'm stuck outside or at my job. I post way less when I have way more free time because I keep myself busy with better things to do. By the way, some Japanese artists are paranoid and will assume the worst if you don't actually use twitter yourself and only like and/or retweet things, especially the ones with locked account who accept anybody who's over 18 years old, so posting from time to time actually helped following more artists.

As to why twitter and not another platform, on top of the Asian fandoms staying on twitter after a shit ton of Japanese and Korean artists and fans fled tumblr around 2016/2017, it's like I said, because I could easily post screenshots on the Switch. I know how to transfer them to my phone now but it didn't work the first time I tried because of internet problems with my previous phone. It's very dumb, I know.

>>13732
>There's no one even worth talking to on those sites for you to be broadcasting all your info there
They exist in theory, but in practice it's a major pain in the ass to find random cool people to follow, especially with a certain someone buying twitter and ruining it for everyone the past few years. New rules means a lot of regular normal people who post a lot about normal topics or fan stuff are treated as bots and banned while actual bots have more views than ever. At least I never post personal info that could get me doxed and even removed lots of pictures of my recent trips overseas just in case.

So Final fantasy 14's free trial now includes Shadowbringers, my favourite expansion in the game, so I'd like to give it a shoutout. I can't say anything substantial about the ShB story content without spoilers but I enjoy the way it depicts the theme of still finding hope amidst extreme hardship. Earlier expansion stories have themes such as corruption in the church affecting a whole nation and how younger generations deal with growing up in a colonized country. On a lighter note, throughout the whole game I can actually count five male characters who are captivated by (you) in some form or another. Instead of treating it like a yume thing you can just make your player character an OC to ship with your favourite male NPC or use the canon MC design to treat it like a Persona/Pokemon MC situation. The NPC/NPC BL ships that I'm personally interested in are in the expansions you still need to pay for so I can't actually use those as advertising for the free trial. While this game is an MMO the devs have taken steps to make it solo friendly by adding NPC party members for battle content that's required for story progress. You can play with mouse and keyboard but it also has controller support.

>>13983
>not doing the (new) meme pitch
Would be good for the general fandom to get more fujos. I was big on Asahi/Zenos but apparently no one but 10 people care. I know it's one sided. That is the point. I want messy toxic yaoi.

After a long break from video games because of work and then a trip overseas to visit relatives, I'm trying more PC games and will try to beat most of them before september, including some otome and BL visual novels. Some of them are longer than others so I started Stardew Valley and… what's the point of it? I'm very familiar with Animal Crossing, a lot less with Story of Seasons/Harvest Moon, so maybe that's because I'm biased but so far I think I just need to clean up my farm and talk to people in the village little by little until something happens? I will play it little by little, I don't feel like playing it for hours in a row to unlock as many things as possible. If I end up disappointed I will just move on to another game.

I'm also hesitating between starting Idol Manager which I bought years ago and UuultraC. UuultraC seems like the shortest one between these two according to vndb so I can see myself reading it all weekend long maybe.

>>13991
>a lot less with Story of Seasons/Harvest Moon
That's your problem. Stardew is directly inspired by those games. It's a farming and social sim so the main objective is to socialise and get married and to grow crops, forage for items and upgrade your farm. Though for Star dew specifically you find a place that asks you to collect and turn in specific items as a general goal to work towards like a main story quest.

>>13992
>Though for Star dew specifically you find a place that asks you to collect and turn in specific items as a general goal to work towards like a main story quest.
That's going to make the game easier to play then. I felt clueless as soon as the game started because there's so much freedom 5 minutes after the game starts. I'll see what it's like by playing it from time to time for a week or two and then I'll see if I want to put it aside for later.

By the way, I started Idol Manager just now so I guess I'll play both games at the same time. I'm really bad at Idol Manager because I misclicked on something once, which made me accidentally buy something really expensive and now my character has a massive debt kek.

Any other nonnas been playing Tomodachi Life: Living the Dream? I love the customization options and the fact miis can be gay now, but I wish there was an option to share miis, plus I wish features like the Concert Hall and Quirky Questions from the 3DS version were brought over.

>>14030
I haven't since those kinds of games struggle to hold my attention long-term, but I just want to say those Miis looks great! Did you make them yourself? You got Vox's mouth exactly right.

>>14036
Thank you! And yes, I did! I'm glad you like them, I'm not super skilled when it comes to art (which is why I was disappointed when I discovered mii sharing wasn't allowed) but I still like how my Vox came out.

>>14036
Same here. With simslikes it's fun to see people's screenshots and clips of wacky stuff happening and I'm impressed by the high quality custom miis but I think that on my own I'd get bored. It's like how I enjoyed Pokopia right until I beat the story because afterwards I had to make my own fun and I don't have the patience to make complex builds.

>>14030
I absolutely hate games like this, but after watching some friends play over stream, I bit the bullet and bought it. Honestly, I'm really enjoying it so far. I have about 45 hours on it, and I'm only just now starting to get a little bored (meanwhile some friends have like 100+ hours?!). I get overwhelmed managing too many Miis, so I think that's my problem wrt boredom + some of the scenes are repetitive imo. But seeing my OTP interact is worth it.