My main games have been Blasphemous 2, Sea of Stars, and Halls of Torment.
Blasphemous 2 has been an excellent follow up to the original. It’s very tough Souls-like (punishing, skill based combat with a strong focus on parrying and dodging) 2D Metroidvania (Large focus on exploration and getting new abilities to explore new areas) with incredible pixel art. The imagery is based on the Catholic imagery and lore of Spain, where the devs are from. This makes for a unique and bloody experience with art that feels fresh and classical at the same time. Highly recommend.
Sea of Stars is possibly the prettiest pixel art game I’ve ever played. It’s a JRPG with lots of interesting systems to mix up combat. In addition to the classic timed hits to deal/block extra damage the game includes several other systems that combine to make combat quite tactical and occasionally puzzle like.
Halls of Torment is a Survivors-like with a Diabloish aesthetic that mixes things up a bit. Unlike most of the genre you’re able to attack fully manually, but there are also options to make you attack and aim automatically. The extra nice thing about that is even if you auto-aim it’ll still let you aim manually, letting decide moment to moment how to play. There’s also a system where you can essentially sacrifice an item from your run to unlock the ability to buy it permanently back at camp. Been playing with the summoner character.
I’ve been playing Rimworld with the Biotech DLC. I haven’t gotten to try any of the new stuff yet due to a series of unfortunate events that have been kicking my teeth in.
Sea of Stars is definitely a game I’m looking at getting at some point.
I really like to play them for a while but large scale management games like Rimworld always intimidate and overwhelm me. I’ve recently started ADHD meds, though, so maybe I should try again.
I’ve been playing a bit of Dreamlight Valley recently.
Haven’t heard much about that. Looks a bit like a theme park turned in to a game, in a good way. How is it?
(Sorry for the late reply, evidently I wasn’t getting notifications).
I personally find it pretty fun, but It probably depends on the type of games you like. It’s similar in style to Animal Crossing, but it has a full storyline and almost adventure game like elements.
Interesting! I might like that. My biggest problem with getting in to AC is the lack of goals.
I’m still starting with Blasphemous. Nice to know the sequel will be a good followup.
For fantasy? I’ve been getting back into Dragon’s Dogma because of its upcoming sequel. I got about 5 hours into the original and stopped playing. Lots of fun with the magic. I never played any souls games until Elden ring this year, so it’s interesting to return to a game from a long time ago, and realize it sort of did the whole souls’ boss-things from a different perspective. I’m loving the no ‘roll to win’ because of iframes gameplay.
I hear that game is particularly punishing, especially if you you’re trying to get the ending you want. I imagine that makes the successes that much more satisfying, though.
It’s super punishing so far. ‘Measly’ bandits are still plunking holes in me with their super arrows, and I can’t stop my pawns from doing the most silly stuff. What mage wants to run into the middle of men with their swords out? Well, my companion, apparently.
Late to the party - Still working through BG3. Into act 3 now and still finding random side quests that are really cool. The third act has a lot more badly described actions where you chose an option and it doesn’t do what you expect; having to do a lot of quick loads because of that.
I also picked up Old World in the summer sale, so am playing through a tutorial game of that to try it out.
I keep meaning to make a new thread but I’m kinda scattered. I haven’t been playing BG3 much because I wanted to play through the first time with friends but we’re not all on that regularly so I think I’ll start my own campaign soon. The badly described actions is one of the biggest troubles across CRPG’s. I suppose it’s not always easy to communicate some things until you get feedback.
Strategy games are fun but they overwhelm me and kick my butt, hahaha. I can win civ cultural victories on medium and that’s about it.
It turns out that virtual d&D has the same organisational issues as real d&d 🤷♂️
It’s best to start you own game to get the story you want (and get all the companion stuff), then play multiplayer for all the random hijinks.
If I play to win I can win on resonably high civ difficulties. I tend to play a little RPey though which doesn’t lead to wins on higher difficulties.
Hahaha, too true. I didn’t even think about that. And I think you’re right. I’ll have to figure out where in my roto to work it in.
Doing RP for long strategy games does sound more fun. The Endless games would probably be pretty great that way.
