I was unsure if choosing a specific visual novel would make the discussion too limited, so I decided to go with the genre as a whole for this thread.
Still, I sneakily used my favorite visual novel as the image: Steins;Gate! It was my first game in the genre. I bought it on a whim for PS Vita, after seeing the glowing review headlines that applauded it for its great story and music. Little did I know that this meant only story and music: there was barely any gameplay! This together with the fact that some of the tropes felt really strange to me at the time (I was not really into anime culture) made me regret my purchase and almost stop playing.
But somehow the story got its hooks in me. Only a tiny bit at first, but day after day I became more engrossed and looking forward to my play session. I read it mostly during the night while in bed, and it really took over my life for some time. Eventually I finished all routes and achieved the true ending, which is one of my favorite endings and stories in videogames as a whole.
Since then I’ve played lots of others. Some quick thoughts:
-999: a bit disappointing, the story felt very contrived and not as great as others experienced it.
-Virtue’s last reward: a real step up from the previous game, complex and satisfying story with a very meta twist to it!
-Zero Time Dilemma: often described as the worst in the series, but somehow this story really grabbed me from start to finish. The stakes were extremely high and while the story was very convoluted, the payoff worked for me.
-Danganronpa 1 and 2: very strange and over the top, but extremely well written mysteries with great presentation and soundtrack
-Ace Attorney: the first game in the series. I played it on switch and liked it, but didn’t love it. The humor felt to childlike for me at times.
-Planetarian: fantastic little gem of a game. Most visual novels will demand dozens of hours of your time, but this can be finished in less than 5 hours. Absolutely amazing.
-Muv-Luv Extra: I am currently finishing all routes for the first game in this trilogy, as I have heard multiple times that the 3rd one is incredible. I liked it most when it was just funny nonsense (it can be quite hilarious at times). The serious parts really didn’t hit home for me and a lot of the content feels a bit problematic and strange. I suppose some of this is culture, some of it satire and it was originally an erotic game so that might have something to do with it.
I’m glad that it seems sufficiently different from Ghost of Tsushima. I kind of dislike how most sequels these days are almost the same game with some small improvements in graphics and gameplay (Horizon Forbidden West, Spider-man 2). With the new character and time period, this seems like a more substantial change!
I finally got this game through a steam key trade on barter, traded for a game I didn’t need from a Fanatical bundle. It’s now sitting in my library until I have the time to focus on it, as one of my best friends recommended it to me as one of his favorite games ever. So I want to give it the time and focus it deserves, hopefully it will click for me too!
I really like this game a lot. I know it has problems, but it’s the first time since Dirty Bomb that an online shooter was able to grab me. I just really love objective based shooters, that way I can still be useful even though my aim isn’t the best.
I just play shotgun healer and push the objective. The spread on the gun allows me to have a decent amount of kills while also healing teammates and getting closer to the win.
My favorite DS game by far was Lock’s Quest. It was the first game that got me genuinely emotional, I had tears in my eyes during the ending. I remember initially being disappointed, as kid me wanted a strategy game, not something where I still had to run around and repair stuff in real time. But my god, my opinion changed quickly and both the gameplay and the story captured my fully. The music was just the icing on the cake.
My most played game by far was Guitar Hero On Tour: Decades. Shredding Can’t Stop by the Red Hot Chili Peppers while sitting in a restaurant with my parents is one of my favorite memories of that time (with headphones of course). I believe this game single-handedly formed most of my music interests for my teenage years.
Finally, I have to mention Bionicle Heroes. I am a massive Bionicle fan (and currently rediscovering it through finally reading the books). This game is by no means a masterpiece, but it is a surprisingly fun first person shooter with great controls and decent graphics for the time. I adored it because my parents were very strict and didn’t let me play realistic shooters, but this way I could get my fps fix and play in the world of Bionicle at the same time!
My device was a Nintendo DS Lite, White with flame stickers that came with the Guitar Hero game. I loved that machine to bits.
I’ve never played these games. It all just feels extremely overwhelming with the large amount of menus and systems. I’m also unable to focus on long games (I also have issues with long open world games like Breath of the Wild for example), so that is another thing that pushes me away. But the idea of a cosy grind while listening to podcasts does interest me.
However, I have seen the film: an absolute masterpiece in the “bad film genre”. Just beautifully brainless action, similar to the amazing Resident Evil films of the same creator.
I have the remake (The Secret of Monkey Island: Special Edition) in my Steam backlog. I’ve been meaning to play it for a while, but it seems like a game that will require my full focus to not forget the story / puzzles. Once some of the games I’m currently playing are finished, I might give it a go. Also seems like a fun game to play during the winter times, so maybe I’ll get around to it in a few months.
I absolutely love this retrospective video about the series by youtuber Ahoy: RetroAhoy: The Secret of Monkey Island. I highly recommend it!
My favorite is honestly my PS5. The load times are fantastic and I love the feel of the controller and the rumble / adaptive triggers. I also fucking loved my PS Vita, to bad it had such a mediocre run games wise.
Worst is pretty harsh, as I have loved all my consoles. But there’s no denying that the PSP was a bit garbage with its single analog stick (which was also very hard to use).
I personally have almost zero experience with this generation, though I realize it’s historic value. So many great game franchise originated here: Super Mario, Metroid, Final Fantasy, Castlevania, Zelda, Metal Gear, Mega Man, Mother…
I’ll give a shout-out to Mike Tyson’s Punch-Out!!, which I got to know by watching a YouTube video on the world record history for this game. I then played some of it myself on my Switch and was actually quite impressed with the almost puzzle like gameplay!
I also played Super Mario Bros. While I respect it for being the first, I thought it was quite ridiculous at times (the way to progress in the final world was so stupid).
Still have to sink my teeth in the others!
Thank you for taking the time to respond. With siphoning money, I mean not giving actual value in return. The NFT market was a clear example of this: get some hype going, sell the promise of great gains on your investment, once the ball gets rolling make sure you’re out before they realise it’s actually worth nothing. In the end, some smart and cunning people sucked a lot of money from often poor and misinformed small investors.
I think I have an inherent idea of value, as in: the value it has in a human life and the amount of effort needed to produce it. This has become very detached from economical value, as there you can have speculation, pumping value and all that other crap. I think that’s what frustrates me about the current financial climate: I just want to be able to pay the people who helped produce the product I buy fairly with respect to how much time and work they put it. Currently however, so much money is being transferred to people “just for having money”. The idea that money in and of itself can make more money is such a horrible perversion of the original idea of trade…
Your last paragraph is not how money should work at all. Money should represent value that ideally doesn’t change, so that the money I receive for selling a can is worth a can, not a Lambo an not a grain of sand. What your describing is closer to speculation and pyramid schemes (NFTs for example).
Either try and explain to me how BTC could be an ideal currency that fixes the problems in existing currency, or try to explain me how it’s really cool as an investment thing to siphon money from others, but don’t try and do both at the same time.
Age of empires II is one of my first experiences as a child playing games. I used to play it on a computer in the back of my mother’s pharmacy. A friend of mine was a huge fan, but I truly sucked at it.
Later I bought Lord of the Rings: the Battle for Middle Earth II, and to this date this is the only RTS that I actually enjoy playing a lot (I later also played the first one which is also amazing).
Still, I played Age of Empires II a lot, mostly the tutorial levels and the early missions of Jeanne d’Arc. I think the micromanaging and constantly having to do multiple things at once (like constantly making new units, etc.) were to much for me (and it still is). Still, a classic in gaming history and a part of my childhood!
I am a late fan of this series. I used to have a Gameboy color as my first gaming device, but never actually sat down to play a Mario game fully until Super Mario Odyssey on the Switch. I really liked it, but it wasn’t a 10/10 for me like for other people.
For me the unexpected match came in the form of Super Mario 3D World. Something about the simplicity of the level design (short levels with 3 collectibles each) combined with the amazing coop make this an all time favorite game of mine. I also adore the music and general tone and creativity. It really had an almost therapeutic effect on me, I’ve seen more immediate effect on my mood than any of the anti depressants I’ve tried :D.
I have Wonder but it’s a bit to strange at times for my tastes (even though it is incredibly creative it isn’t as relaxing as 3D World was for me)
It’s been a while, but here is another “Let’s discuss” post! I hope everybody is doing fine and these posts are still appreciated :).
I haven’t played this myself, but I know so many people who are extremely passionate about it that it felt like a good candidate! Looking forward to all of your musings!
I think the issue is not wether it’s sentient or not, it’s how much agency you give it to control stuff.
Even before the AI craze this was an issue. Imagine if you were to create an automatic turret that kills living beings on sight, you would have to make sure you add a kill switch or you yourself wouldn’t be able to turn it off anymore without getting shot.
The scary part is that the more complex and adaptive these systems become, the more difficult it can be to stop them once they are in autonomous mode. I think large language models are just another step in that complexity.
An atomic bomb doesn’t pass a Turing test, but it’s a fucking scary thing nonetheless.
This might be my first PC gaming experience. My niece had this game and when I came to visit we would play it together and build houses and stuff. I have really fond memories of the first game and some of its expansions (vacation and night-life, also pets if I remember correctly?).
I somehow completely skipped The Sims 2, but by the time The Sims 3 released, I was extremely hyped. It is the only time in my life I bought a collector’s edition. It had a USB key chain in the shape of the green diamond! I remember really enjoying it and especially loving the music and the vibes it brought.
I also had a Sims game on Game Boy Advance (with cats and dogs) and one on Nintendo DS (on a lost island). Both were really fun!
I adore this series. I especially have very fond memories of the original. I did not play it on release (I was still a toddler then), but I got it through the Valve Bundle on Steam and played it through at least 5 times. I’ve had multiple times in my life were I didn’t have access to a powerful computer, but similar to DOOM, Half-Life will run on about anything. I remember one of my playtroughs being on a horrible windows 8 tablet, and still it looked and played amazingly :).
Half-Life 2 then just perfected an already strong original. There is something just so satisfying about the environmental design and linearity of the levels. You just push through and know that you will find enough in your surroundings to make it. I find it strange that there haven’t been that many clones since (first person exploration action games). Most games either are to linear (COD) or completely open world or become a full-on immersive sim.
If you have any recommendations, please share them. Dishonored gave me similar vibes, but I miss the simplicity of Half-Life.
I agreed with you up until your last paragraph: that is some serious exaggerating. Never did the original commenter say that the solution was to kill all Palestinians.
I don’t agree with their view that eradicating Hamas followed by a temporary occupation by Israël will magically help the Palestinian people, but reducing an opposing viewpoint to a literal Nazi isn’t going to help or convince anyone.
Portable: my black Gameboy Advance SP, playing my original Gameboy games on it (Donkey Kong Country and pokemon Blue)
TV: this is gonna sound weird, but I absolutely love my PS5, it’s just so sleek and I love the controller haptics and finally having most games running at 60 fps. Again I mostly play older games on it, but a lot of them got PS5 updates like Death Stranding, Ghost of Tsushima, Horizon, Spider Man, Days Gone…
I think they are in their right to give their opinion on something no? Telling someone that their kid is ugly is such a wrong comparison to make. You’re directly offending them as it is their child, plus talking about something that neither parent nor child can do anything about (their looks).
I love talking to people who despise stuff I adore, this can give very interesting conversations. It also broadens my perspective on things. I love Mass Effect and still found the original comment very interesting.
You’re not saying the other person is wrong to love it, you’re just saying that you yourself hate it. I think this is an important distinction to make? Especially on a discussion thread, it would be rather boring to only hear the same voice?
Please correct me if I’m wrong, we’re all learning.
Not necessarily a VN, but you might like Pony Island if you liked Doki Doki.
Digital: A Love Story is also an experience that was really powerful for me.