• 11 months ago
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    Do yourself a favor and play Hi-Fi Rush. It's budget price to begin with and has had some great discounts for a game just a couple months old, or you can just play it on Game Pass.

    The combat style isn't up there with the best of the best but you have to reach all the way back to the PS2 era for my absolute favorites. I like this better than the combat of any of the Platinum brawlers, but I've always been a bit of a hater there. And of course the art style and soundtrack are delightful. Hardly a day has gone by that I haven't put the Beacon into my Spotify queue.

    The writing is my biggest disappointment. It works well enough but it tries really hard to make you laugh and it mostly just manages a chuckle here and there. CNMN the robot drawing his facial expressions on his head with a sharpie to convey his emotions was probably the consistent source of amusement. The game has such a light-hearted feel-good energy that is hindered a bit by the mid Netflix comedy tier dialogue. Hopefully they can bring a marquee comedy writer in for the sequel that I truly hope gets made.

    There are a lot of great budget and indie titles these days but in terms of the full 3D action adventure ones (A Plague's Tale, Hellblade, Kena) this is of the highest quality.
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    • Klemoib
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      Klemoib
      Editing … * squints * does it have anything to do with Bomb Rush Cyberfunk? Or are the name and cell-shading just a coincidence?
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    • Sandvich
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      Sandvich
      Editing … Pure coincidence as far as I'm aware, though I suppose we'll have to wait for Jet Set Radio FauxTure to launch in August to know for certain.
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    • Klemoib
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      Klemoib
      Editing … I'm not sure what sega is or isn't planning for JSR but Bomb Rush Cyberfunk seems to be the best we're going to get until now. Even the original composers (Hideki Naganuma) from JSRF is onboard so I guess it's something. I really want a new official one though. I can't even imagine how cool it could look on modern hardware. JSRF is the only reason I still own an original xbox.
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    • Sandvich
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      Sandvich
      Editing … I'm digging the trend of fanboy indie devs waiting decades for a publisher to do justice to an old IP, only to go "k screw you, I'll do it myself." Earthbound -> Undertale, Pikmin -> Tinykin, Paper Mario -> Bug Fables etc. Cyberfunk Railgrinders has been on my Steam wishlist for over two years so I'd love to see it become a hit.
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    • rockshard PhD
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      rockshard PhD
      Editing … lol tinykin
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    • rockshard PhD
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      rockshard PhD
      Editing … p.s. have you checked out Born of Bread?
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    • rockshard PhD
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      rockshard PhD
      Editing … P.p.s. I heard of Bomb Rush Cyberfunk forever ago, I actually started to wonder if it became vaporware. As for Hi Fi Rush, I was somewhat interested in trying that along with the Rick and Morty FPS. (High on Life) I'm actually not sure what the gameplay in Hi Fi Rush actually is, or to what extent the music rhythm element affects combat.
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    • Sandvich
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      Sandvich
      Editing … I keep my ear to the ground for all Paper Mario successors, including Born of Bread (much better title than the working title Loaf). The rhythm element of Hi Fi Rush is slick. No matter your timing, your attacks will always hit on the beat, but if you match your button presses to the beat you'll do more damage and fill your style meter faster allowing for super attacks. Light X button attacks take 1 beat, strong Y button attacks take 2. There are pause combos and most of the usual staples of hack and slash combat. Then once you beat the game there's the highest difficulty which I haven't tried yet where if you don't play on the beat sufficiently it's game over. It takes some getting used to. For most of my first playthrough I was relying on the UI indicator to keep on beat which you can turn on and off with an instant button press. But once you get more comfortable with the combos and let yourself get into the groove of the music you enter this zen-like state and it all starts to feel really natural and satisfying.
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    • Klemoib
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      Klemoib
      Editing … "I keep my ear to the ground for all Paper Mario successors, including Born of Bread". Did you play Bug Fables?
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    • Sandvich
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      Sandvich
      Editing … I put about five hours into it on Game Pass. I found it fairly enjoyable but not enough to pull me from some of the more appealing stuff on GP. I'll pick it up again someday but it's definitely no TTYD. I found it weird that the characters had the paper cutout aesthetic purely because Paper Mario had it. Personally I think South Park: The Stick of Truth is the best Paper Mario style RPG to have come out since TTYD.
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    • rockshard PhD
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      rockshard PhD
      Editing … yea I was wondering about that. Bord of bread has the paper aesthetic too but it's not clear what that has to do thematically with bread or anything else in the game.
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    • Klemoib
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      Klemoib
      Editing … "Personally I think South Park: The Stick of Truth is the best Paper Mario style RPG to have come out since TTYD." What? Really? Now that's a statement I was not expecting. I always thought of it as a joke game or a game for fans but it's that good?
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    • rockshard PhD
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      rockshard PhD
      Editing … I always heard very good things but I after trying the demo I decided it wasn't for me. I had never thought of it as a Paper Mario game, but I guess that's what it is? I mean, the paper is based on the show's art style, not Paper Mario. And the QTE nonsense is in a lot of turn based games. (the indie RPG Sea of Stars, for instance) I think that's what turns me off the most from these types of games. I found Born of Bread interesting because it has an onscreen prompt you can follow, like a rhythm game. That's a feature that was long overdue in these Paper Mario clones.
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    • Sandvich
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      Sandvich
      Editing … When I say Paper Mario I'm talking TTYD, since the series has tried to reinvent itself with every entry. South Park has largely identical game design. You explore a diorama-esque environment unlocking new areas with abilities you pick up as you progress. Most of said abilities can also be used in combat. Enemies approach you in the environment and thrust you into a turn based battle if they touch you, but you can also try to avoid them. You can get a free hit if you initiate battle with an attack. You complete QTE's to buff attacks or defend from enemy hits. You're accompanied most of the time by a companion who can be swapped out for one of a number of colorful characters with their own unique abilities that can also be used in both combat and exploration. Different attacks are needed depending on enemy formation, or resistance to certain attacks. I could probably think of more similarities but it's been about a decade since I played either game. Like Parker and Stone even cited Paper Mario as a major influence along with Zelda and Earthbound.
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    • Sandvich
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      Sandvich
      Editing … And yes Klem, the Stick of Truth is pretty choice. I wouldn't recommend it to someone who hates South Park since a huge part of the appeal is the humor and exploring the town and farting on everyone in it, but it certainly wasn't a lazy cash grab.
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    • Klemoib
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      Klemoib
      Editing … That's interesting. Didn't know Matt and Trey played games like that. But maybe it's not surprising since Cartman froze himself to get to the wii release date quicker.
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    • Sandvich
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      Sandvich
      Editing … The whole storyline for the Stick of Truth was preceded in the show with the kids doing a Game of Thrones style fantasy LARP where they're locked in a fierce civil war over whether they should all get the PS4 or the XBox One. They wear the same costumes in the game in what has to be one of the best executions of cross-media marketing ever.
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