[Video Games] What are you playing? (Omikron Edition)

I'd usually wait longer to post again in this thread, but I feel like I might have stumbled upon another possible gem (though probably a very unpolished one):

Tainted Grail: The Fall of Avalon - This just left early access a few days ago, and I went in almost completely blind (I only saw a few very positive reviews/impressions). This basically feels like an Elder Scrolls game crossed with a Souls game involving the lore of the King Arthur universe (in this case, a darker version of that universes which seems right up my alley). Well there's a super easy mode you can enable (nearly impossible to die it seems), so I guess not that Souls-like, but definitely gives those vibes. Apparently it is pretty buggy and has issues in the latter parts of the game, but I played through the first chunk of the game last night and was completely engrossed. If you don't like buggy/poor performing games, maybe wait on this, but if you like what I've described (which includes games with a ton of bugs/poor performance haha), might be worth giving it a shot. Launched at $45.


Don't watch this if you prefer to just see it in-game, but I loved this cinematic from early in the game (basically the intro you see after the tutorial segment):



FANTASY LIFE i: The Girl Who Steals Time - I've also played a very tiny bit of this with my daughter. I'm loving it so far (first Level 5 game I've played in ages!), and it seems like the perfect game for this kind of thing. Kinda pricey, but content wise, it seems fairly substantial so far.

 

I won't make such grandiose claims about it, but I also have no problems with others making those claims (which itself should be an indication of how good I think it is). There's a level of quality that once achieved, I think you can lump all those amazing games together and claim any of them are better than the others. I'm OK with claiming this game reaches that level of quality.

As implied by my posts, I've largely dropped the game after completing the narrative and doing some side stuff. That's mostly because I have a *huge* backlog (which keeps increasing somehow ), and I have a strong motivation to move quickly to other games. That said, I've definitely continued the Expedition 33 experience during this time, largely by rewatching some of my favorite moments on Youtube or even watching experts react to certain aspects (filmmakers, musicians, etc). Or I just chill and listen to the ~8 hour soundtrack. I might be done with the game, but it continues to bring me joy.

My only issue is that I wish most people could play it blind like some of us did. Unfortunately when something this good comes out, people see all the praise it gets, and then when they finally experience it themselves, it won't hit quite the same. I assume most will still end up loving it, but you'll probably get some people who are disappointed (because it isn't as good as Zelda, FF7, or whatever). I was going in thinking this was just a solid turned based RPG (maybe like a Battle Chasers: Nightwar type game), but yes I found myself getting emotional during the first hour of the game. Even then, I was repeatedly waiting for the game to fall off and disappoint at least in some way. I've played so many games, and a lot of them will be great up until the 80-90% mark, and then they just screw up the ending. I was really expecting that here, and I was so pleasantly surprised to have an ending that surpassed my high expectations at the time. I've played so many games (and experienced so many stories) that this rarely happens, and it truly felt special to me.

8.8/10