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Cake day: October 30th, 2025

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  • Parrying ruins it for me, unless it’s on the depth of Mario & Luigi, by which point it’s an Action game with RPG elements. It turns “oh I died, I’d better rethink my strat or party comp” to “oh I died, I’ll do the same thing but push buttons better”.

    Imagine if you could slap the enemy’s wrist away in chess.


  • If you want the gameplay, I’d recommend trying other Atlus games, like mainline Shin Megami Tensei (keeps the “extra turns on weakness” mechanics but is more deep about it, since you make monsters based on mythology like Pokemon - it’s straight up Persona without lifesim) or Etrian Odyssey (pretty much peak class based JRPG to me, but the good ones are locked to 3DS), though alongside lifesim they cut down on story too.

    Most Atlus fans love them for gameplay, which I heard is harder than FF due to importance of buffs and such. Their only JRPGs that I’d recommend for story without lifesim elements are PS2 games like Digital Devil Saga, maybe SMT IV (which is 3DS locked), and Persona 2 I heard. SMT VV for instance has good atmosphere and mythology references, but little character focus.


  • If you only played Final Fantasy it’s harder to compare (the only FFs I’ve played are 4-6, 10+ years ago, and lost interest in all of them). It’s turn based, anime fantasy (but thankfully not as cliche as teen dramas - most characters are and act like young adults, with little fanservice), has a fantastic job system (with a lot of job combinations having combo attacks), and give you extra turns for hitting weaknesses. It also has lifesim elements (cook, talk, read to get stats and abilities) and a calendar system, so activities take time - it’s very generous though.

    My only issue was crappy balance past the midgame - some bosses are too weak or strong, and by the endgame you are silly overpowered if you’re a completionist. The story’s great but not groundbreaking. Characters are generally good.


  • I think a lot of it was just getting sick of E33 discussion. I remember when Hundred Line released this year some time after E33 and on Steam forums (which, to be fair, is as bad as most gaming forums), while people were, er, “discussing” the game, plenty of valid complaints were topped off with “just play E33 instead, it’s cheaper and much better” Like, I don’t even disagree, HL was disappointing, but why are you bringing it up, it’s apples and oranges.

    It was also the first I heard of E33 personally so it wasn’t a good first impression, even if the devs are sweet and actually gave a shout out to HL.

    (As someone who prefers Silksong that game’s community sucks too though, no, I don’t care a game is as expensive as 3 Silksongs)



  • Once you setup the emulators (which does take me ages sometimes), the only problems I had were Gamecube and Switch emulators not letting me open emulator options in game mode without things getting fucked up.

    But she probably won’t care, and I probably needed an extra 30 minutes to get it fixed, which’d be your problem. I grabbed NSO on Switch 2 because the setup was a pain and I am fine with paying ~4€ a month to skip it, but Steam Deck sounds better for you. (And is also just better in general)



  • Well, some people just treat it like playing sports. Wanna go play ball? Wanna play CSGO? Hey, this ball/shirt/skin looks fancier! It’s foreign, but understandable to me.

    It also seems to be as many people as it was back shooters became a big thing. Out of the few people I know who video game, one only does FPS, one sticks to a few different games (Ultrakill, TF2, Peak to name a few), one either plays co-op with his gf or does Single player, and one mostly plays single player like me. Chatting up random people about games, that ratio seems similiar.







  • Booted up E33 and it does pull stable 30 now, but last time I was fighting a boss with pretty cinematic attacks. I didn’t have tearing on though and I’m still not sure if resolution needs to be set to low manually for upscaling, I did it now to be sure like someone suggested. Maybe it was also the constant speeding up and slowing down of attacks that messed with perception. A few UI bugs happen still. Don’t worry, the difficulty is fine.

    Reading all this and looking up Steam Boot ups does make me consider my own setup, true, but I’d just at most end up with a stronger and upgradable (and probably pricier) Steam Machine anyway. And if I only upgrade every 4-5 years or so, like I have up to this point, I might be starting from scratch anyways. (Had a gaming laptop around 2010, then budget laptop at 2020 that couldn’t play PS4 games well anyway, then Steam Deck at around 2022)


  • The breaking point was Expedition 33, which even with optimization mods I can’t get to stable 30fps in combat, which breaks at least one skill and seems to mess with parries. PS4 games at 60fps would be nice too though, Elden Ring is ~50 at ok settings.

    My friend’s problem was picking out parts, which was harder for him since besides playing STALKER 2 he wanted to potentially render videos in the future. The friends we asked also gave split opinions for things like futureproofing - apparently some Ram setups are harder to upgrade than others, or are related to picking PUs? Same with power supply, etc.

    Also, I have a pretty tiny room. I have a TV for consoles that’s there to stay, and shelves 13x13x13 inches below it the SM would fit in, while a desktop would have to be SFF (which, I only learned about now) or a small tower but I’m not sure about ventilation then. Without SteamOS it seems I’d need a keyboard/mouse out for every boot too. The desk always has a budget laptop for work on it, so among other crap there’s little space for a desktop. No space below/besides desk either.

    I’m also not knowledgable about specs, but I figured when, say, Borderlands 4 is not playable at 4K 60fps, then I could just deal with Full HD 30-40fps, which would be enough. Or if I decide to stream to Deck, not even Full HD.

    Edit: The closest solution is PS5 Pro or PS6 when it comes out (and they fit on shelf, never checked size) but, no Steam library then. Or mods, emulation. All in all, it seems I’m in an extremely specific situation where buying SM seems optimal.



  • The thing is that since Steam Deck’s release, a lot of competitors made handhelds, and it’s mostly keeping up because of SteamOS. It sounds to me like Valve just needs the Steam Machine to once again offer software, convenience etc. above everyone else in the couch gaming market this is aiming for.

    Then the only upgrade most users would want is from Valve themselves, but the same goes for Steam Deck - they said they might make a new one with a big enough generational leap, and then the old SD’s become outdated too. We had emulation machines before Steam Deck - being able to play last gen games on it was still a big appeal.

    Also, is constantly upgrading PCs better, when instead of selling off/scrapping the PUs and other parts every 5-10 years, you sell off/scrap PUs annually? I don’t think people doing that are the target audience here anyway. I think some patient gamers would buy a used GabeCube 15 years from now for a low price.