Weekly “What are you playing” Thread || Week of April 20th

I've been playing last epoch. But I've also been playing hunter call of the wild

Lords of the Fallen and Death Stranding which oddly enough, feel similar because of the ghosts and hands.
Highly recommend these games. DS is getting a sequel and gets better and better the more you play. LotF may as well be Dark Souls 4 with the 2.0 update.

Prince of Persia Lost Crown on mobile and having a blast!

I want to thank people who were talking about Blue Prince because I was able to recommend it to a friend who loves puzzles. she's enjoying it a lot.
I've been doing stuff in both Honkai: Star Rail and Zenless Zone Zero, but on the non-gacha front, I've started Disco Elysium. I haven't gotten very far but I'm really enjoying it even if not knowing how bad I'm messing up makes me a bit anxious. I picked Inland Empire as my main skill(?) too.
otherwise, I'm planning on playing more Fields of Mistria, now that they've updated again. I love that game with a passion, and I can't wait to see what more they add to it. I thought Stardew Valley was as good as it got, and while Fields of Mistria doesn't have multiplayer (and that's okay!) it ticks so many boxes for me, like for example, the shoujo laughs from Juniper spark so much joy. I don't enjoy the mines in SDV, but in FoM, I definitely do!
- Shout out to fellow fans of Honkai: Star Rail ! Best space fantasy I have played. Great story, great music, great characters!
  ZZZ is a bit too action oriented for me but the urban fantasy is good too!

Gave FFXIV another chance, ended up in HW.

I've been digging fucking deep with disco elysium this long weekend, started fresh after having dipped my toes in a tiny bit some years ago. 20 hours logged this weekend with more to come today.
The writing, worldbuilding, and atmosphere are actually just obnoxiously good.
- It is the best written video game ever and it's not particularly close either. It's one of the best written pieces of media I've ever had the pleasure of consuming.

I finally started Little Nightmares and I’m loving-hating it.
I didn’t know I’d get so easily scared by the grotesque ambience it has, but damn.
Taking lots of breaks to breathe so it’s taking forever!

Playing Ghosts of Tsushima on my Steam Deck. Having a blast. Don’t normally care for sword combat but I’m actually learning to parry and the different stances make for some aesthetic fights.

Way too much Pokemon Rejuvenation. Basically the overwhelming majority of what I've been playing that isn't PVZ Reflourished and fire emblem heroes on my phone on the bus too and from college.

I'm playing Coridden with my wife and a friend and it is really fun. It is more like what I wanted isometric rpgs to be: open world rpg, dynamic combat with some fun platforming and player to player interactions (you can turn into beasts and ride on top of a friend in combat, as well as the whole mixing of skills for neat combos and strategies, and resurrecting/healing/shielding eachother).

I haven't had time to play as much the past couple of days, but when I do I am similarly entralled by Blue Prince. It's going to be very hard for another game to pip it for game of the year for me I think.
It's so full of mysteries, so full of intricacies, so full of interactions and puzzles within puzzles. The narrative and lore is great too. I really do love every single element of it. Even the basic gameplay of the roguelite portion is so well done that you are always just fiending for one more run, the dopamine rewards of drafting a satisfying house really just tickles your brain just right.
Seriously, if you haven't already then go play it.

I finished DOOM (2016) and DOOM Eternal. Eternal is definitely the better of the two for me, maybe even my favorite in the whole series.
Eternal's campaign was pretty easy this time, since I actually used all of the tools the game gives you. Some of the Master Levels were harder though, especially Taras Nabad. Two fights in that level took me an hour each on Ultra-Violence.
Now I'll play the DLC for the first time.

I've been playing Under Night In-Birth II. I had bought it last year but never actually played it. After this first week of matches I'd say it's my favorite in this latest "generation" of figthing games.
I randomly bought Azure Striker Gunvolt on Switch, since I rememberd hearing good things about it when it came out, but it's not much fun to play. It feels really unpolished, the levels and bosses are a bit on the annoying side and the combat gimmick, where you need to tag enemies with projectiles to be able to damage them, feels really bad to use as it's slow and unsatisfying.
Everyone playing Blue Prince reminded me of La-Mulana, which I've been playing in the last few days. I'm a bit conflicted on it, since I like most of what the game does except for the combat which I find rather bad and unfairly punishing when considering how imprecise it is. I am enjoying the game, although I'm a bit worried it might be too long.
- I wanted to love La-Mulana a lot. And I do love it for building some of the foundation that some huge greats like Fez and Tunic and Outer Wilds stand upon. But holy shit, the game doesn't want you to love it. The combat and movement are so punishing in an entirely unfun way. I stopped playing after getting what I understand to be like 70-80% of the way through the content the game has to offer and by the last ~20% of that I was dreading playing.
  It is a game I have to thank for making way for the existence of some of my favourite games, but I hate it nonetheless.
- Yeahhh I bounced off la mulana pretty hard. It's good but I think it's maybe a little too much for me
  
  Understandable, yea.
  The puzzle part feels like Outer Wilds, but without the log to help you and it's also a bit less linear, which I'm personally enjoying but I can see why it could be boring.
  The platforming/navigation is a bit janky but usable after a while.
  The combat is IMO absolute garbage (the bosses in particular are pretty bad fights that waste your time and the hitboxes are terrible) and wouldn't be surprised if this is what makes most people quit.
  For now at least, the exploration and puzzles overshadow the negatives, but they are pretty big negatives that are hard to ignore.

I started South of Midnight. I'm liking it so far, especially the animation style and the jazzy soundtrack. It has some major Alice in Wonderland vibes. Although it is a little jarring playing a straight forward narrative after all the open world games I've been going through the last couple months.

Medieval Dynasty. Relaxing game that makes me forget time.