FR. I hate this app so much, and how necessary it has become for multiplayer gaming. I’m glad it’ll get worse and hopefully give people a strong reason to move.

Why title it “of All Time” though 😅 Helps with engagement, I suppose.

Also, fuck Japan, I guess, haha.

Odd take in this context. The last game in this trilogy was released almost 20 years ago—if they’re not gonna remaster this, what are remasters for exactly?

Nice! I’m not a composer, but I just started playing with LMMS the other week and thought it was cool and intuitive—even encouraged me to finally pull the trigger on that Kurzweil keyboard with midi support I’ve been eyeing for some time! I bookmarked this and will take a look at OpenMPT and Furnace too.

Open source FTW ✊

Hmm… sure, but I feel like “reviews are subjective” gets used as an excuse to give low-effort reviews a pass too often.

Like, I understand if a Steam reviewer writes whatever because they’re just a user, but I cannot justify using the same scale to judge a professional reviewer.

I understand a game may not be a reviewer’s cup of tea, but if this stops them from engaging with the game’s systems and attempting to provide insight through their review then I think it’s fair to judge they haven’t done their job well.

Like, if someone hires me to do a job, and I accept, I cannot go “Oh, I’m gonna do half of it because the rest isn’t my cup of tea. Sorry.” No, I’ll do the job and maybe complain about it afterwards, which IMO, is exactly what reviewers should do—example: “I beat the boss, but the fight sucked because X, Y, and Z.”

I think there should be standards, otherwise you get reviewers unfairly judging games they barely played like in the infamous God Hand review.

Damn, this looks like a proper Onimusha game? Ballsy from Capcom there. The dub is awful though, holy shit 😂

And this has Denuvo? 😂 It’s a 2D Shinobi game in 2025, why are they spending money on Denuvo.

Hmm… I suppose they’re not wrong seeing the most successful action franchise today—Devil May Cry—took the combo simulator route, which’s not necessarily bad, just not in line with the design principles of the genre’s best games: Devil May Cry 3, Bayonetta, and Ninja Gaiden 2.

We need the challenging/awesome action balance to come back, for sure.

Any action/fighting/shmup franchise because the stories are typically nonexistent/shit anyway:

1. Bayonetta: I recommend the original as a starting point for an authentic action experience, but Bayonetta 2 is more beginner-friendly.

2. Devil May Cry: either 3, or 5 will work—3 if you’re after a challenging experience, and 5 if you’re looking for an insane combo simulator. 1 could work as an entry point, but it’s too old and will not appeal to everyone.

3. Ninja Gaiden: I recommend the original Ninja Gaiden 2 on XBOX (not Sigma) if you’re after nonstop action, and Ninja Gaiden Black if you’re more of a souls-like fan.

4. Crimzon Clover: World EXplosion is the superior game.

5. Under Night In-Birth: I recommend Sys:Celes because it’s the only one with functional netcode.

6. Persona 4 Arena Ultimax because it’s the only Persona Arena game, they just started at Persona 4, and the story has tie-ins for Persona 3 and 4.

7. Guilty Gear: start with XX Accent Core Plus R if you need the “the most Guilty Gear” because every character has the most moves they’ve ever had throughout the series. -STRIVE- for beginners, and Xrd if you find XX inaccessible. OG Guilty Gear is a broken artifact, maybe to be admired, but not taken seriously.

8. DoDonPachi: DaiOuJou: widely regarded as a shmup goat and the best DoDonPachi game. I recommend the Black Label release.

God, the cringe…

In case anyone forgot: this game was nominated for Best Fighting Game twice at the TGAs and still failed 😂 Both times ahead of far more deserving candidates—further evidence a good chunk of these awards is promotional crap.

Hmm… I think it’s definitely a spectrum. Even arcade games have stories. It’s not what drives them, but they still do.

When you start considering something like Bandersnatch, the spectrum gets even wider.

I try them often, but haven’t had much luck finding a favorite other than Crimzon Clover. Nex Machina and Furi got close, but not quite.

Some experiences were nice, but not replayable, which ruled them out as a favorite for me, like Hyper Light Drifter.

Some I had some fun with, but took issue with some of the design choices, like Dead Cells and Hollow Knight.

Some I outright did not enjoy at all like Hades or Stardew Valley.

Most recent indie game that got close for me was Kill Knight.

What are some of your favorite indies?

Oh, absolutely. It probably has a lot to do with falling out of favor with current design and monetization trends, I agree.

Some of the games I’ve been playing for years: Guilty Gear, Under Night In-Birth, Bayonetta, The Wonderful 101, Crimzon Clover, Smash TV, and Catherine.

Which games do you keep going back to?

I love that you’re having a different experience! This is exactly why I posted about this: I have found that my taste in almost everything else has become broader as I aged, so I was wondering what’s the deal with my uncharacteristically narrow taste in video games.

Sadly, I tried most of the games on your list, and found out they’re not for me. I’ll try the rest though! Thank you for taking the time to list them.

I’m mainly into fighting games (Guilty Gear, Under Night), action games (Bayonetta, God Gand), and shmups (Crimzon Clover, Ketsui)

I’ll occasionally like an Atlus game (Catherine) or a Zachtronics game (Shenzhen I/O) but that’s about it.

What are your favorites?

Ah, man, I feel the same. I like some indie titles, but haven’t run into anything I could add to my favorites except Crimzon Clover World EXplosion. Nex Machina and Furi got really close too.

What are some of your favorites?

Not to rain on that particular advice—it may actually work for others, I obviously do not know—but I did try that at some point, and got bored really quickly.

For anyone who hasn’t tried it, I recommend doing it just to find out if you feel or notice anything interesting.

I think I agree: it definitely has more to do with knowing what one likes than being jaded.

Hypothetically, if the market is full of games like Monster Hunter, or borrow a lot of ideas from it, would you still not be interested in most games?

That’s so sweet bonding with your dad over that game. May you retain that memory forever ❤️

I’m with you. The concept of gaming as a disposable medium never really worked for me either. The idea of going through my wishlist like it’s a watchlist—beating a game only to move on to the next was just never really for me.

If I don’t think a game is built to be organically replayable, I’ll probably just lose interest in buying it.