PixlBit

DJ Shadow has been around for a long time. Very old school hip hop, rhyme drops over slow beats. Very chill. 

I liked the latest Guilty Gear game. It felt like very Souls-like in terms of combat depth, compared to most fighting games which feel simpler.

I like the Mass Effect-like parts of the sound track in xeno. The vocals are very anime. The party member also shout out very cringy things as they battle. Anime. It is what it is.  

I do read and listen to your music posts, but don't always comment. With metal I usually move in and out of it. I've been mostly listening to americana/folk/bluegrass music because it relaxes me. Other than that I've been listening to xenogears sound track because its stuck in my head, as well as the guilty gears ost because it got stuck in my head too. My favorite hip hop artist is DJ Shadow, although he mostly remixes tracks and they are slow and melodic and cool and thats what I like. 

 

I mean even in Monster Hunter you have to kill all the things for resources and crafting which are vital to your gameplay, but at least there are missions where you can weaken and capture enemies instead of defeating them. Plus your resources don't go to waste.You can also harvest and farm. Defeating enemies isnt an easy task either. You are most likely to die more often at the hands of your foes, which I think is fair. Like hey gamer asshole, come get some of this if you can. I feel bad killing dino babies in Monster Hunter tho, but HP and staminia...

This reminds me of 'Deadly Premonition'. A wonderful horror adventure game that is better as a mystery but the developer had to shoehorn horrible combat to make the game more appealing. It would have worked better as a walking simulator, although I still enjoy the game regardless. But yeah, 'game mechanics' ruining immersion.

The sex thing is a whole other topic on its own. I thought it was odd to have the ability to romance everyone in Dragon Age Inquistion regardless of gender. Is sex that fluid in this world? Like everyone is just asexual or pansexual? That would be an interesting story to explain. I would have preferred if they had character sexuality better represented. But its a game so its there to let the player choose what they want. That gamey mechanic kind of ruined the romance part.

This game is just very ambitious in terms of content and it seems that the game is still rooted in grinding as the main means for progress/strength. This is an issue that I have with the state of current JRPGs in general. They refuse to change. There are many chatty NPCs around the city and world and they do offer side-quests that allow you to assist them in combat or search for artifacts. There are even other aliens races on the planet that are friendly, while others are more hostile. I think for something that has its best foot forward, especially coming from japan, it still holds on to grindy roots where there is room for more growth. Many of the enemies aggro easily, although you can run away to avoid battle, it still feels unavoidable even if you are making a bee-line for the next mission objective. I love the game, but I would have loved it to have some story features and consequences like Dragon Age or Mass Effect. The grind is real.

I paid like $40 for it, but I would have bought it at launch but didn't have the time to play it really. It's basically a single player MMO mixed with scifi anime. It also seems like an endless type of game, with story missions added just to offer a little structure, kind of like Metal Gear 5. It appeals to me because it has everything I like, mechs, monsters, creative beautiful world, ambiance, and I like anime. I actually like the soundtrack. Its closer to openess and hot-key combat like Dragon Age Inq. I new what I was getting with it, so if you haven't played xenogears previously, you might not like it at all. It is very Japanese.

But also when games start looking better and better, the dissonance is more blatant. For instance, this game has a blaring anime soundtrack that breaks out once you initialize combat, and your party members boast excitedly as you are taking enemies down. The world is very bright and colorful, but then gunning things down and boasting with anime music is weird. Plus there is a weird little potato dude that follow you around all the time. Odd combination. It's a cool game though. The game also starts off with like a Star Wars-like battle destroying the earth, and then you become the destroyer of another world, but you're a bunch of cool anime kids doing it. I think Bioshick Infinite had a similar 'its too gamey' problem for serious story, or the other way around?