Discussion What are you currently playing? (Week 18 of 2025)

[Cacher]

New week, new thread! What are you playing?

I am mainly playing Clair Obscur: Expedition 33. So good. Play it!

Also playing Yakuza 0. Mostly putting time into Majima route at the moment.

 

[curi0usBystander]

Street fighter 6.
I'm also looking on what to play next. I think I'll start Trials of Mana.

 

[edin]

Trying to focus on 1-2 games tops per platform and avoiding many story driven ones at once so I'm on: Expedition 33 (PS5), SF6 (PS5), Fatal Fury (Xbox), Capcom Fighting Collection 2 (Steam + Switch), Onimusha 2 (Steam + Switch), World of Goo 2 (multiple platforms), Prince of Persia The Lost Crown (iPhone), Katamari Damacy Rolling Live (iPhone).

 

[Cacher]

To elaborate, I am still in Act 1 of Expedition 33. Just befriended Esquie so the world has opened up. Currently exploring the optional (?) areas. So many places to go.

I am really love the type of build you can do. Like, I am not removing the gambler picto from Sciel. She just has that vibe.

 

[Parsnip]

I started and finished Submerged.
I then started and have almost finished Submerged: Hidden Depths.

Also occasionally some Blue Prince.

 

[bobnowhere]

Week 18? Damn I'm falling behind with all that has gone on in the last 4-5 weeks IRL.

Still playing Crime Scene Cleaner, Clair Obscur, South of Midnight and Diablo III. Need to get back to Pacific Drive and Fallout 3 as well. Though with the rumours of a F3 remake a la Oblivion scale, might park that for the time being.

Might start something else as well just because I can! New season of Diablo IV soon etc...

 

[Parsnip]

Finished Submerged: Hidden Depths.

It somehow feels more like it's held together by two pieces of gum than the first game. It's still alright, but man Unreal 4 asset streaming issues are quite apparent at times.

I think I'm going to start Emily is Away from my blitz next.



Also as an aside Submerged: Hidden Depths was one of the Stadia exclusives. Remember Stadia?

 

[Stevey]

Been playing the Oblivion Remaster, just done Kvatch.

Also playing Robocop, Diablo 2 Remaster and will be starting another new game of V Rising tomorrow when 1.1 hits.

 

[Panda Pedinte]

I'm playing Claire Obscur Expedition 33 just finished the first act and to be honest I had no idea I could end liking it the way I do.

The prologue already left me with a good opinion and after the events that happened in the first act I'm wondering where its going.

 

[Kvik]

With XenobladeX over and dusted, now I'm sinking my teeth into this classic.

Had quite a whiplash from XenobladeX's combat to SW2, but it doesn't take very long to acclimatise. One thing I noticed was how the lip sync is synchronised with the dialogue text. In the JP version, lip sync is animated while the text is displayed and the voice lines can be heard. All these three aspects are in sync. The text timing is obviously matched correctly.

In the fanTL patch, however, the English text can sometimes be much longer than its JP counterpart. So in one instance, the lip sync and voice lines can finish faster, but the dialogue text is longer. This can make the text appear stuck mid-sentence, until the on-screen character finished talking, then the rest of the text will display at once.

Obviously, the real difficulty here is to match the text speed with the voice lines and lip sync, but it may not be feasible to do. I believe in the original Sakura Wars fanTL, the lip sync didn't work at all, so to make the system work in SW2 with English text is already an achievement. Of course, we can skip the text animation entirely by pressing the confirm button and the text will be displayed instantaneously, but it also will disable lip sync animation entirely.

In the grand scheme of things, it's not really a big deal. It's still Sakura Wars that we all know and love. I'm still in Episode 2, so I'll be looking forward to play more of it this weekend!

 

[Cacher]

Sakura Wars write-up

Very happy to see that you are enjoying it. Sumire is the best. Confession: I beat SW2 but I don't remember anything except the backstory of Reni and the finale. I want to revisit it in the future.

My favorite game is SW3 so I seriously hope that it will be translated next. The battle mechanics were re-designed and the character concepts were bold even in today's standard. It's a masterpiece through and through.

 

[Kvik]

The battle mechanics were re-designed and the character concepts were bold even in today's standard.

I would love to be able to rotate the map in the next entry. The mini map helped a bit, but it's still a little awkward to gauge attack ranges.

 

[Cacher]

I would love to be able to rotate the map in the next entry. The mini map helped a bit, but it's still a little awkward to gauge attack ranges.

As far as memories go, I think the camera can be rotated! Battle's also not grid-based and has the first iteration of Valkyria Chronicles' AP system.

 

[Cacher]

Just finished Act 1 of Expedition 33. Heavy spoiler ahead.

act 1/2 spoiler

I kinda expected this story moment so I was not too surprised. For started, the VA interview video did not say anything about Gustav. In contrast, Ben Starr was given a lot of time so his character must be a prominent one. Gameplay-wise, Gustav is obviously the weakest one among the party members. Last but not least, realistically, Charlie Cox is also probably too expensive to hire to voice one whole game.

Now after this moment, I have so many questions. Very curious about how the story will move forward.

 

[Parsnip]

I started playing Isles of Sea and Sky.


Also I guess I installed Infinity Nikki and Wuthering Waves.
Remains to be seen if I actually end up playing them or not.

 

[QFNS]

Just finished the Fragments in Daybreak 2. Whew. Did not expect to be learning so much about this particular location and where it would fit into the overall canon. Very surprising.

 

[Kvik]

I installed Infinity Nikki and Wuthering Waves.

Counterpoint: Consider playing Girls' Frontline 2 instead. It has:

— Voiced protagonist with either masculine or feminine voice.
— XCOM-Lite (sans base-building mechanics) gameplay.
— Firearms of every kind, make and model.
— Generous currency offerings and pity mechanics.
— D E E P L O R E


Tip: The main campaign difficulty is piss easy, but the more difficult challenges can be found in the Combat Simulations game mode.

Did not expect to be learning so much about this particular location and where it would fit into the overall canon

Fragments has good bonding events despite a rather lacklustre selection of activities.

 

[Cacher]

Also I guess I installed Infinity Nikki and Wuthering Waves.
Remains to be seen if I actually end up playing them or not.

Counterpoint: Consider playing Girls' Frontline 2 instead.

Yes, hop on! Play with us!

 

[Parsnip]

Sounds dangerous!

I ended up starting Nikki yesterday, and what a confusing intro. I'm reading that they completely changed it with 1.5 and people are not happy about it, so I'm thinking I'll pause it for now and see how that situation develops.


I hope Girls Frontline 2 and Wuthering Waves haven't done too many dumb things like that.

What's the region/server situation in GFL2? On Nikki I picked the European server due to lower ping, but does ping actually matter in single player game? And are there like friend lists or something like that in GFL2?
Is there a previous story I should know?

 

[Kvik]

What's the region/server situation in GFL2?

Can you access Steam AppID 3347400 from Finland? If so, you will be on Darkwinter server, where the MetaCouncil Platoon lives. Otherwise, you will be on Haoplay server.

On Nikki I picked the European server due to lower ping, but does ping actually matter in single player game?

Not really, the PvP part of the game is asynchronous, so latency doesn't matter.

And are there like friend lists or something like that in GFL2?

Yes, there is a friend list, and we have something called Platoon which is like a collective/squad with clearing high-level boss as its objective. You can "borrow" units from squad mates and earn in-game currencies as well. There is a global ladder too, but MC's platoon is mostly casual, so there's no goal requirements, just play whenever you feel like it.

Sadly there's no in-game chat feature, but Mica seems to be receptive to feedback so hopefully we can see a chat feature implemented in the future.

s there a previous story I should know?

This is where it gets a little tricky. GFL2 is “almost” a direct continuation to Girls Frontline's story. Therefore, a newcomer can be a bit lost at various points in the campaign because they won't understand the context from the first game completely.

Think of it like The Legend of Heroes series. You can start in the middle, with Cold Steel series, for example. But you will be missing context for returning characters from the Sky and Crossbell series.

Having said that, the story is relatively easy to follow, and you can definitely acclimatise faster story-wise. There's deep lore regarding the world (and there's a whole wiki for that), but you'll also learn more about it as you go.

Additionally, the story presentation in GFL1 is now available on a website: gfStory Editor

So you can actually start from this if you want to. Just be aware that it's actually quite long.

 

[Parsnip]

Can you access Steam AppID 3347400 from Finland? If so, you will be on Darkwinter server, where the MetaCouncil Platoon lives. Otherwise, you will be on Haoplay server.





Not really, the PvP part of the game is asynchronous, so latency doesn't matter.



Yes, there is a friend list, and we have something called Platoon which is like a collective/squad with clearing high-level boss as its objective. You can "borrow" units from squad mates and earn in-game currencies as well. There is a global ladder too, but MC's platoon is mostly casual, so there's no goal requirements, just play whenever you feel like it.

Sadly there's no in-game chat feature, but Mica seems to be receptive to feedback so hopefully we can see a chat feature implemented in the future.



This is where it gets a little tricky. GFL2 is “almost” a direct continuation to Girls Frontline's story. Therefore, a newcomer can be a bit lost at various points in the campaign because they won't understand the context from the first game completely.

Think of it like The Legend of Heroes series. You can start in the middle, with Cold Steel series, for example. But you will be missing context for returning characters from the Sky and Crossbell series.

Having said that, the story is relatively easy to follow, and you can definitely acclimatise faster story-wise. There's deep lore regarding the world (and there's a whole wiki for that), but you'll also learn more about it as you go.

Additionally, the story presentation in GFL1 is now available on a website: gfStory Editor

So you can actually start from this if you want to. Just be aware that it's actually quite long.

Yeah I installed the Darkwinter published version a little bit ago, but the servers seem down at the moment so I didn't log in yet or anything.
Going to check some docs about the story and lore, but maybe tomorrow.

 

[Kvik]

the servers seem down at the moment

Yeah, there's a new content update that will be live soon.

 

[Cacher]

Parsnip I saw that you are in Darkwinter server. Great!

At the beginning the missions available are very limited, so just progressing the main campaign to reach Commander Lv20, then things will open up. As Kvik explained, the story is a direct continuation of GFL1, and the game does not explain the lore. You can refer to the "World" section in the opening post of our OT for background info. Personally I don't recommend reading too many wikis or spreadsheets before playing the game because they will burn you out. (And many GFL veterans out there haven't experienced the full story of GFL1 anyway. It is long ) I think you just need to know the basic lore and you are good to go:

• You, the MC, were once a big shot commander from a private military contractor called G&K (Griffin and Kruger). 10 years ago you did a self-exiled and now you are a bounty hunter doing missions in the wasteland (so-called "yellow zone" in the world)
• The girls are dolls, so their brain ("neural cloud") can be uploaded and transferred to another body frame. They also have emotions and discretion like humans. In GFL universe many people are robot racists.
• World War III broke out years ago and now it is relatively peaceful time. Many areas are covered by "collapse radiation" which can turn living things into monsters. The government "URNC" is undergoing the purification project to expand habitable areas.
• And those in the OT

You can always refer to the wikis once you dive deeper into the story. It will probably take you more than a few days to read through the main story (ch1 to 8) in the game.

Be sure to join our platoon to get more resources daily. Don't need to worry too much about doing dailies or participating platoon boss battles (we would be grateful if you do them though!).
Platoon name: MetaCouncil
ID: #112197

 

[Cacher]

Expedition 33 Act 2 first boss.

The music was so good! Unfortunately I am over-leveled so it was a cakewalk.