Happy Last Day of May!
This ended up a bit long, you can safely skip the details, if you want.
Played Octopath Traveler a bit more. Have recruited 7 characters, just last one, Primrose, remaining. It's getting pretty repetitive though, and I am getting a bit bored of it. Playing a single chapter of each character, and then for all intents and purposes, forgetting that character in any kind of narrative just feels like waste of time.
I thought maybe I shouldn't have recruited everyone, and continued with the story once I had 4 characters, but the chapter 2 of some characters require level 27, or in case of some, level 22. And after going through the map, recruiting 7 characters, my highest level character is level 21. So, even if I hadn't recruited them, I would've to grind a lot to reach chapter 2.
So, while I am playing it a bit here and there, combat is interesting, but without any kind of story, I am not feeling much reason to keep on going with it. Haven't fully decided to abandon it yet though, will think about it over the weekend. If you have played the game, any opinions?
Other than that, still playing Kingdom Come: Deliverance, really enjoying the game, specially now that I am over the starting weak phase, where everything is very slow and difficult to do.
My one main gripe with the game is that it really want you to use your thieving skills. Usually in games like these I go with Master of All build, level up everything and do everything without any worry, but this time I decided to role play as a 'Knight' who doesn't do things like stealing, pick pocketing and things like that, but I get so many people who just straight up ask me to steal something, without me ever doing any stealing in the game. The protagonist is an actual Knight in the game, why does a random passerby think he would steal something for them? Or frame someone for them? Or any other illegal activity? Instead of just capturing them and getting them arrested?
Other than that, narrative is fun, side quests are also interesting, leveling up your character makes significant difference, helping you feel you journey from a commoner to a Knight.
Well, what about all of you? What have you been playing lately?
I have started the final DLC of Sparks of Hope, the Rayman DLC. Now, I've not been particularly excited for this one since I'm not a Rayman-guy, but it's disappointing he doesn't get to meet the Mario characters at all. It's just two of the Rabbids. Which, in a way, makes this the least cross-overy cross-over in the series. But on a plus-side, the battle rankings are back! It's just a bit of 'too little, too late', considering you only have three characters, so it's not like you can do much to 'adapt' to a map to improve your performance. You can adjust your sparks, but Rayman can't use them, so even that part has limited customizability.
I've looked into the first game's DLC again, and it's about the same length as the two main DLCs of the sequel combined. And in a game like this, where you level up and customize your characters, I think one meaty DLC is better than two shorter ones. Let me actually invest time into the skill trees and grow my characters instead of rolling the credits as soon as I get something going. Sometimes, less is more.
In Arkham Knight, I finished off Red Hood in less than two hours. Unless a map required me to remain unseen, I'd just finish off the challenges and start shooting everyone else. It's honestly crazy how easily you get away with this, but that's not exactly why I'm doing these Predator challenges. The Red Hood Story had enemies with bullet-proof vests, but they didn't use them at all for the maps. It's a bit disappointing, they always remove enemy types that a character can't deal with but don't add the new ones that were made specifically for them!
Next up is the character I've saved for last: Harley Quinn. I just think this is going to be the hardest character to use because A, she's the only character without a grapple, so there's very little upward mobility (my primary way of escaping), and B, she has no silent takedowns. I believe her on-screen prompts even say 'Loud Takedown'. She is going to drag me out of my comfort zone kicking and screaming and I am scared. At least her personalized version of Detective Mode is pretty fun. The scribbles on the walls, the giggling, what little remains of Harleen Quinzel trying to talk sense into herself.
In any case, it seems like I'll be beating both of my games around the same time, and I believe I started them around the same time, too. That's not how I usually do this and it's weird that it's happening again.
I love Rayman, sad to see he isn't given more spotlight.
Good luck with the final stretch!