Welcome new members (introduction topic)

Phorus1987 wrote:Thank you, I appreciate the support. Yes I am still trying new things on NGS2, the game has become part of my daily routine for the past 4 years or so. There are still challenges I would like to attempt, as a matter of fact I just uploaded one. I cannot believe I am still playing the game to be honest but it is a testament to the games quality and the servers still being open has kept me invested after all this time.

Oh I can understand that fully. Sigma 2 is a wonderful game (gets way too much hate I feel), have great memories of its co-op too. One of my first ever videos on Youtube was thanking the community for their help, tips and just general friendly-ness when I'd gotten the game's platinum. What you have with that game I have with Vanquish (hence the avatar). What is the challenge(s) you're still planning? If you want you can make a topic about them : )

Royta/Raeng wrote:Wow, I blinked when I saw that we'd suddenly gotten two new members. Welcome!

@cryoshock
Outside of your lack of interest for platformers, we're pretty much kindred spirits! Been a while since I've seen some love for the old CnC, such great games. Which one's your favorite?

In terms of action games, great to hear you managed to get into it after Nioh. I think Souls and Nioh are pretty good games to get into the meat of things since they are so open in their design (builds and such), but they leave an itch only few games can scratch. Which one are you working on now? 
If you're ever up for a challenge run, make a post. We'll gladly go talk about it!

I'm gonna have to go with Kane's Wrath. I like Kane way too much not to have it up there, plus I'm a total pyromaniac, so the Black Hand faction is my jam (<3 Purifiers). And yours?

Oh, I loved Nioh to pieces. Played it for almost a year straight until I finally burned myself out on it. Ki has to be my favourite stamina system that I've seen. I'm on God of War II right now, just reached the last boss (I assume it is). What a solid game, man. In both setting and combat.

I definitely will post about any attempts, if only to make sure I stick to it at the risk of shaming for being a quitter.

Royta/Raeng wrote:

Phorus1987 wrote:Thank you, I appreciate the support. Yes I am still trying new things on NGS2, the game has become part of my daily routine for the past 4 years or so. There are still challenges I would like to attempt, as a matter of fact I just uploaded one. I cannot believe I am still playing the game to be honest but it is a testament to the games quality and the servers still being open has kept me invested after all this time.

Oh I can understand that fully. Sigma 2 is a wonderful game (gets way too much hate I feel), have great memories of its co-op too. One of my first ever videos on Youtube was thanking the community for their help, tips and just general friendly-ness when I'd gotten the game's platinum. What you have with that game I have with Vanquish (hence the avatar). What is the challenge(s) you're still planning? If you want you can make a topic about them : )

I plan to do some tutorial videos to help newcomers to the series learn the fundamentals of the game. I have played with many players over the years and a lot of people who've cleared MN difficulty do not understand how to fight bosses properly.

As for the challenges I will attempt to kill greater fiends on MN difficulty by a very risky and intense challenge. I defeated Alexei yesterday morning, I feel Volf will be my next victim.

Sure, If you wish I can share my knowledge to help your NGS2 Enemy guide on here since the information is incomplete.

@phorus1987
By all means, the guide I have here is an old remnant of info I collected nearly 5+ years ago so it's really dated. If you have anything to add and like to do see, write it down! Rules are in the Tactical Guide side of the board. In terms of guides I mostly followed M0aninR0nin's boss guides and Lance's general combat guide, found here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sOqK5towxN0
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u9Uerd58PZk (on the few videos that actually taught me OLUTS)
https://www.youtube.com/user/M0ANINR0NIN/

JTB's movement guide is also gold, though that's NGB (still relevant though).

@cryoshock 
Oh! God of War II is excellent, best in the series in my opinion, and one of the best in the genre. Good pick! Fun combat, great story and locations, entertaining powerups; just a blast to play! 

> CnC
I never played past the Tiberium Dawn, which I highly enjoyed. My favorite is hard to nail down. I think I enjoy Red Alert 2: Yuri's Revenge (and the original campaign) the most, but nothing gets my heart pumping like a classic Red Alert skirmish match ^^

> Nioh
Its stamina system is really great, though later-on stats kind of make it irrelevant. I kind of wish the original system was kept that they used in the Alpha Test, which was a lot better (and harder, which is why they probably changed it).

What challenge are you thinking of running :)?

Royta/Raeng wrote:
Oh! God of War II is excellent, best in the series in my opinion, and one of the best in the genre. Good pick! Fun combat, great story and locations, entertaining powerups; just a blast to play! 

> CnC
I never played past the Tiberium Dawn, which I highly enjoyed. My favorite is hard to nail down. I think I enjoy Red Alert 2: Yuri's Revenge (and the original campaign) the most, but nothing gets my heart pumping like a classic Red Alert skirmish match ^^

> Nioh
Its stamina system is really great, though later-on stats kind of make it irrelevant. I kind of wish the original system was kept that they used in the Alpha Test, which was a lot better (and harder, which is why they probably changed it).

What challenge are you thinking of running :)?

It was actually your GoW article that compelled me to pick them up when they were all on sale on the PSN store: I bought (almost) all of them, from 1-3 and the spinoffs. My only real gripe with the ones I've played so far (1 and 2) is the lack of options for dealing with large foes (e.g. cyclops); all you can really do is attack + dodge, rinse-repeat until you can grab. It's not that fun. The counter-attack window would be too generous for them, I think, but having some kind of grab as a counter with stricter timing could've been cool, I feel. Could also just be that I'm inexperienced at dealing with them, I'll admit.

C&C:
I haven't actually played RA2 or Tib. Dawn. I think they were both only on PC, whereas I've always been a console peasant. But oh, man, RA skirmishes were my jam at one point. Pick the smallest map -> set up three bots -> try to make it past the first few minutes of the match was one of my favourite things to do.

Nioh:
I don't remember much of the Alpha, admittedly. I was terrible at it, and not really in the mood for any gaming in general at the time, so I gave up after beating the first mission. I do think they should've kept the harsher penalty for running out of ki, tbh - felt like a much stronger incentive to avoid spam. I also think the looser camera could've been kept and worked on, considering the current state of the game, with certain enemies that just LOVE their projectiles (fuck you, magatsu).

Challenges:
I think the first thing I'll be attempting is a no-upgrade run of one of the GoW games. Probably a spin-off, since I expect them to be shorter. Beyond that, I'd just like to eventually play through the NG games on MN - That's WAY off, though.

Makes me really happy to hear my articles are getting people into the games I write about, mission accomplished! If you rush, you might've played more than me! I only played 1, 2 and 3. Getting Ascension soon.

> larger foes
They need a special hand. Enforcers (the giants with a ball for a hand) can be fought on the side of their other hand. They can't touch you that way. The Cyclopses beg for Medusa, with some smart spacing you can line them up and freeze them for an easy kill. Zeus's Lightning also eats them for breakfast. On PAIN runs (we'll get to that in the future, and on the GoW board;p) you'll probably end up doing plumes from afar.

> CnC
Never even considered a console version existed. Color me surprised! Does it control nice? I remember CNC1 being on the N64 and playing that, but that's it really.

> Nioh
I was terrible at the Alpha too haha, I think we all were. I really liked the original harsher punish for running out of Ki too, just felt better. Also liked that stats were just minor changes, not huge in impact like they are now.

> GoW NUR
If you can, do it with the first one. There are some really hard parts for sure, but if you NUR that game it is satisfying to no end and teaches you pretty much all the fundamentals for the other games, otherwise Ghost of Sparta or God of War 3 are good picks. The only downside is that you can't really 'win' unless you're planning on being one of the maybe 4 people in the known galaxy that can beat the final 'boss' (the clones) on NUR restrictions in GoW1. I did a No Upgrade Run for GoW1 and later a PAIN run to prepare for the article. It's really worth it imo :)

Royta/Raeng wrote:Makes me really happy to hear my articles are getting people into the games I write about, mission accomplished! If you rush, you might've played more than me! I only played 1, 2 and 3. Getting Ascension soon.

Yeah, your articles are what really put action games on my radar, proper.
Never bothered with the spin-offs? I just started Ghost of Sparta. Seems good so far; gonna start a thread on it in a bit since the spinoff forum is empty. As for Ascension, I saw it on sale on the PSN store, but took one look at the file size and decided no way. I wanted to go play the other ones first, anyway.

> larger foes
They need a special hand. Enforcers (the giants with a ball for a hand) can be fought on the side of their other hand. They can't touch you that way. The Cyclopses beg for Medusa, with some smart spacing you can line them up and freeze them for an easy kill. Zeus's Lightning also eats them for breakfast. On PAIN runs (we'll get to that in the future, and on the GoW board;p) you'll probably end up doing plumes from afar.

That explains my problem. I like to stick with the melee weapons in any action game as much as possible; something about using tools like magic almost feels like cheating sometimes, lol.

> CnC
Never even considered a console version existed. Color me surprised! Does it control nice? I remember CNC1 being on the N64 and playing that, but that's it really.

You can find CNC1 on the Sega Saturn as well. Red Alert was available on the PS1, CNC3 + KW are on the X360. They all control pretty smoothly. Obviously, they have nothing on a M + KB setup, but it's good enough.

> Nioh
I was terrible at the Alpha too haha, I think we all were. I really liked the original harsher punish for running out of Ki too, just felt better. Also liked that stats were just minor changes, not huge in impact like they are now.

Yeah, and to compensate for that, they had to make everything stupidly strong on the higher settings. :/

> GoW NUR
If you can, do it with the first one. There are some really hard parts for sure, but if you NUR that game it is satisfying to no end and teaches you pretty much all the fundamentals for the other games, otherwise Ghost of Sparta or God of War 3 are good picks. The only downside is that you can't really 'win' unless you're planning on being one of the maybe 4 people in the known galaxy that can beat the final 'boss' (the clones) on NUR restrictions in GoW1. I did a No Upgrade Run for GoW1 and later a PAIN run to prepare for the article. It's really worth it imo :)

It'll probably be either 1 or GoS, for sure. I'll definitely attempt to beat everything on an NUR, but PAIN? I don't think I'm enough of a masochist for that, but I also never thought I'd be eager to get into action game challenge runs, so who knows?

Yeah, your articles are what really put action games on my radar, proper.

Great to hear man! Begs the question, how did you stumble upon the site? I hope I can inspire you (and others) to dive into more action titles and enjoy your time with them :)

I getcha when it comes to the magic. I originally had the same feeling, but it can feel really rewarding too to beast through a large area without any damage having killed hordes upon hordes of foes using magic smartly. Example of God of War 2, guy smartly uses his meter paired with the freeze, just look at how powerful that is:




In terms of PAIN, I personally never imagined doing it. But after beating NUR by the skin of my teeth I'd learned so much about the game I couldn't wait to put that knowledge to the test. Against all my better desires, I booted up the game immeidately after beating NUR. Seems a lot of people have that, wonder if you'll have it too ^^

Anyway, feel free to make a NUR topic when you go into it!

Royta/Raeng wrote:
Great to hear man! Begs the question, how did you stumble upon the site? I hope I can inspire you (and others) to dive into more action titles and enjoy your time with them :)

I think it either came up on a google search when I went looking for Kagerasimaru's channel after a search history clear and the interview showed up in the results, or it was mentioned in a YT comment somewhere. As for more action titles, I definitely plan on playing through all the NG games I can currently access: NGS, NGS2, and NG3RE. Beyond that, I've already played through Yakuza 0 + Kiwami, and I plan on getting Kiwami 2 when it's released.

I getcha when it comes to the magic. I originally had the same feeling, but it can feel really rewarding too to beast through a large area without any damage having killed hordes upon hordes of foes using magic smartly. Example of God of War 2, guy smartly uses his meter paired with the freeze, just look at how powerful that is:

Oh, man, that clip is disgusting; now this is a guy who has never heard of square-square-triangle.
On magic, my tune is changing on it slightly. I've been trying out the magic on GoS and I admit that tactical usage makes it way more satisfying. Things like using Thera's Bane as a stunlock, or the orb to lock groups of enemies down is pretty cool. I'm just too used to thinking of magic as a panic/rage mash to get out sticky situations.

In terms of PAIN, I personally never imagined doing it. But after beating NUR by the skin of my teeth I'd learned so much about the game I couldn't wait to put that knowledge to the test. Against all my better desires, I booted up the game immeidately after beating NUR. Seems a lot of people have that, wonder if you'll have it too ^^

Anyway, feel free to make a NUR topic when you go into it!

I'm hoping that my first success will leave me wanting more, yeah.

Good show on the Ninja Gaiden titles. It really depends on what you want from an action game which one you'd like. Unlike most games they kind of reinvent the formula and playstyle per game. Ninja Gaiden 1 (Regular/Black/Sigma/Sigma Plus) is more a semi-open world (maybe a bit Metroid style) with keys and stuff with very slow and methodical combat with a focus on defence. Ninja Gaiden 2 (Regular/Sigma/Sigma Plus) is the opposite, lineair levels with very few distractions and combat highly focussed on you being as agressive as possible. The third game did this even more (even more agression, even more lineair). I personally prefer the originals (Black etc).

> Magic in GoW
It's great when you use it as you should: a tool with a purpose and a time to use and not use it. Magic, like Ninja Gaiden's Ninpo, tends to get the 'oh shit' treatment (as you note). You use it when you're cornered and don't trust your skills to see you through. Here it's more an extension of your moveset. And granted, that takes getting used to especially when find out just how powerful they are it can feel like you sort of broke the game in half, but there's a magic-meter for a reason.
God of War 3 has the best magic/tool system imo. Spells hit hard and have clear uses, while tools have their own meter now.

Hi! My name is Khayyaam. Elsewhere on the internet I go by Gaming_Mastery or just Mastery, though I've been lately trying to just go by Khayyaam. You can call me any of those.

I found this site when Royta liked one of my tweets about God Hand (which I am currently going through) and I started reading his twitter. I'm ecstatic to have found a place where I can just talk about good combat. I feel like it's under-appreciated at large despite the fact that games are still largely violence filled anyway.

I like all sorts of games. My favorite type of game is Metroidvania, my second favorite is RPGs. But I like every type of game. Even in genres I normally dislike (such as FPSes) there are games I really enjoy. I also really like any action game with a focus on melee combat, fighting games, and strategy games. As long as the gameplay is good and fun, I'm down. I also feel very strongly about unique experiences in games.

As far as the type of Action game we all enjoy here, I basically like DMC, anything by Clover and Platinum, and the classic God of War games.

Again, right now I'm going through God Hand (Currently just made it to Stage 5 normal mode, I really love it!). The control schheme is a little weird, but it works and I wouldn't have it any other way.

By the way, my favorite (non-nintendo) franchise is the Tales Of series of Action RPGs, and I want to know if anyone else has played them. Despite my loving the series so much, I find myself being unable to connect with other fans of the series due to it looking like yet another RPG so most people just get into it for the anime aesthetic and story and that's all they ever want to talk about. The reason *I* love the series is because of it's trademark Linear Motion Battle System, which makes it less of an RPG and more of a fighting game/beat 'em up, with all the arcadey elements that implies too. I'd like to meet at least one other person who can recognize the game's unique, thoughtfully designed action, or barring that, at least maybe get other fans of action and combat games to check it out. I can talk or write at length about that series, and just keep playing the games too (planning on marathoning at least 3 of the games this summer).

Welcome Khayyaam! My heart always races when I see a new name around these parts, good to see you here! Where exactly does the name come from? Mastery is obvious, but Khayyaam is pretty specific :)

Always glad to see another God Hand fan, I am noticing a lot more people these days that are discovering it. Maybe its recent PSN sale helped (getting a PS2 copy was...a challenge for me (and my wallet)). In terms of tastes we're pretty close to each other. What type of RPG's and Metroidvanias do you enjoy?

I have the EXACT same feeling as you with Tales. While I love the story and settings (most of the time (only really dove deep into Symphonia)), I never really connected a lot with the rest of the community. I went to a Tales of Shop in Japan when I was there, and it was only love-pillows of your favorite male character and underwear with Lloyd's face on it (granted, that's funny). STill, the combat engine (which is great) rarely gets a mention.

Again, great that you're here! Right now the new God of War is quite the hot topic, but we're also diving into whatever is going on or whatever little game we're playing. You're playing God Hand right now, so let us know how it's going! How you liking that 'level up system'?

Hey there everyone! I met Royta over on the Ninja Gaiden subreddit, and had a great conversation with him about NG and games in general (which we still need to continue by the way...) and I told him I would join his forum a long time ago, so here I am! I got into action games when I was around 8 or so, when I bought Devil May Cry 1 at EB Games. That was especially memorable for me because it was the first M game I bought haha. Ever since then, I've loved action games, although I never delved into them too far until recent years, when I became inspired by Bick Benedict, and high level Kingdom Hearts II players to try all the highest difficulties of games I've enjoyed for years. I used to be a big pussy when it came to anything higher than normal, but now I always want the highest challenge available.

I love talking about this underappreciated genre, so this place, and a few other places on reddit were a godsend.

Besides stylish action games, I love Silent Hill, Max Payne, Resident Evil, Yakuza, Zelda, Souls, Red Dead and a plethora of other games.

Anyway, nice to meet you all! I look forward to spending time here.

Whaaaaat~~~~
Super nice to see you here man! Was wondering how long I'd have to wait before you'd drink the Kool Aid hahahaha! Great to have you here. Bonus points for the Max Payne avatar, actually replaying the 3rd one again right now. Such a great title. Funny you should mention Bick, he was actually a huge inspiration to me too! I'll continue our talk here soon :)

More souls!

Good to see you here Kajiwotore.

KH2 has recently been brought to my attention so I'll be looking into that. After NG Roy! AFTER! Please don't hurt me!

Would be interested in any other games you're into. I tend to love obscure and underrated action games.

Royta/Raeng wrote:Whaaaaat~~~~
Super nice to see you here man! Was wondering how long I'd have to wait before you'd drink the Kool Aid hahahaha! Great to have you here. Bonus points for the Max Payne avatar, actually replaying the 3rd one again right now. Such a great title. Funny you should mention Bick, he was actually a huge inspiration to me too! I'll continue our talk here soon :)

Yeah sorry it took me so long to bite the bullet lol. Great to be here finally though! Just got into Max Payne a month ago and I absolutely fell in love with the franchise. I just finished MP3 on all the difficulties (besides NYM) the other day. 3 is a great game, but to be completely honest I don't consider it a Max Payne game. The writing and story is pretty abysmal compared to 1 and 2. Wasn't a big fan of the setting change either. Having said that, gameplay-wise it's by far the best. The music is also amazing; I listen to the soundtrack everyday. Overall the first is by far my favorite. I had to pry my fingers away from the keyboard because I was so engrossed in the story. Such a brilliant series. Would love to see a 4th one, as long as Sam Lake comes back as the writer. Rockstar can handle the gameplay side.

Yeah I discovered Bick when I was going through NGB on Master Ninja for the first time. His guide helped me through it. I always respected him for doing everything on the highest setting, and even remaking entire guides when he wasn't satisfied with them.

Birdman wrote:More souls!

Good to see you here Kajiwotore.

KH2 has recently been brought to my attention so I'll be looking into that. After NG Roy! AFTER! Please don't hurt me!

Would be interested in any other games you're into. I tend to love obscure and underrated action games.

Nice to meet you Birdman! KH2FM is so amazing, although I will tell you, you have to play on Critical to see why the game is great; it's even better if you play the game at Level 1. The game is way too simple otherwise. You might want to play KH1 first though. The story will be confusing as hell if you don't.

Yeah I get that. The mechanics of many games really shine when played on higher difficulties.

Is the PS4 collection any good? Any issues I should know about? What do you normally play it on?

Birdman wrote:Yeah I get that. The mechanics of many games really shine when played on higher difficulties.

Is the PS4 collection any good? Any issues I should know about? What do you normally play it on?

Well in KH2's case the mechanics won't shine at all otherwise haha. You would just think it's a button masher on any other difficulty. That's why I have to stress playing it on the hardest difficulty in this case.

PS4 is 100% the way to go. You get almost the entire series at 1080p, with a rock solid 60FPS, and with dramatically reduced load times. The PS4 Collection is pretty much perfect except for some small glitches like a few missing sounds, and slightly different physics on a boss battle or two. Nothing you would notice if you haven't played the series before. The collection was actually a mess at launch because the 60FPS screwed the game up completely, but to Square's credit, they did a great job patching everything up.

You would just think it's a button masher on any other difficulty.
Don't worry about this. I play a few games that appear simple but shine on harder modes.

PS4 collection it is then. I'll have a look for it next time I'm at the mall.

> took you long enough
Ha! No worries there mate!

> Max Payne
I can understand. The third game is a wonky title, you can clearly see they had a new team working on it both in terms of writing and gameplay. I do have to say, like you note, the soundtrack and gameplay are top notch. "Tears" by Health is such a great song for the finale to get you pumped. That's what I like when stories in games work, they get you motivated, which is what that song does.
In terms of gameplay, I probably am going to make an article about it one day. Just great bunch of mechanics. NYMH broke me though, only game that made me toss a controller. 5 hours in, at the final boss, the game froze. I can still see it fly hahahaha!

> KH2
Also big on my list. You recommend I get the PS4 collection, play KH1 (any difficulty mode recommendations?) and then start KH2 on Level 1 Critical? (or is that too much of a leap?).

> you would think it's just a button masher
Not on this site

Max Payne
Yeah every time Tears comes on I always feel like such a bad ass. The airport is also one of the best levels in the game in terms of design as well. Plenty of room to shoot-dodge and go crazy. Another complaint about Max 3 is not being able to skip most of the cut scenes. If you're playing on PC, I know you can install a trainer that skips them, but I played it on 360 so I had to sit through it every damn time. If they were as good as Max 1 or 2's cut scenes, I wouldn't mind but as it stands it gets so boring.

I look forward to your article! More games need to have shoot-dodging. If I were Rockstar, I would put it in RDRII. Why the hell not? You could jump off a horse, go into slow mo, kill some deer, then land on another horse and keep riding. That would be the shit. Regarding NYM, I beat the first two levels and then I quit on the third. When you have to get a head shot on almost every enemy, aiming with the joy pad is just way too hard. Whenever I get a gaming PC I'll probably try it again though. What's different about NYMH? Do you have to do it all in one go? If so I probably would have smashed my TV if I lost near the end lol

Kingdom Hearts
Yes, you should definitely play KH1 first. I suppose Proud mode is fine for the game, but it might throw you through a loop the first time. KH1 is also kind of a clunky action game compared to 2, so you''ll have to get used to that. I'm sure you'll power through it regardless though haha. KH Chain of Memories is necessary for the story, but the game play is boring and horribly repetitive. If you enjoy the story of the first one, I would just watch the cut scenes for CoM on YouTube. For KH2, I would just go through Critical the first time. Level 1 accepts almost no mistakes whatsoever. I've been playing that game since it first came out, and my Level 1 run last year was crushing. Previously easy boss fights/enemy battles would take me an hour+ at times. But it was also a ton of fun! Just very unforgiving. It's funny because I watched so many speed runners blast through Level 1 in 4 hours without dying, so I figured "Well hey, I guess it's not so bad." Oh how wrong I was... I didn't even touch the 14-15 super bosses. I keep meaning to go back and finish that but it will take a while to beat all that stuff. After that the series take a huge nosedive in quality, but feel free to continue on. You'll probably figure out how to break the later games on your own. They should be broken btw because they're so damn cheap and poorly designed.

Button Masher
Yeah you're right. I take that back. Most casual KH players think it's a button masher because they play on Beginner and just enjoy the story (which is fine), but I know you guys care way more about mechanics than the average person. It actually really sucks, because KHIII's combat is looking a little ehh right now, but only a small minority of people care enough/know game design enough to complain about it. Luckily two top level KHII players got to go to a KHIII event recently and play the game for an hour and a half, and they were able to talk to the developers about what to improve/fix. So hopefully Square can do it. A lot of the issues are pretty simple fixes.

Hello, everyone! I was having a nice chat with Royta in the comment section of one of his Youtube videos and he brought this forum to my attention, so here I am!

In terms of action games, I'm a relatively casual gamer, I did play quite a bit of them, such as the Devil May Cry series, Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance (Which is how I've discovered Roy's channel a long time ago), Vanquish (Which I do need to get back to someday, life got me busy and I never got to properly return to it) and most recently the Yakuza series which quickly became one of my favorites! (Although they're not pure action games)

Outside of that, I tend to play games of varying genres, my favorite genre would probably be RPGs, but I also enjoy flight games, most notably the Ace Combat series which I've been playing for over 20 years now.

I'd say that's about it for a good introduction, feel free to ask any question if there's more you're curious about!

Lemmy wrote:Hello, everyone! I was having a nice chat with Royta in the comment section of one of his Youtube videos and he brought this forum to my attention, so here I am!

In terms of action games, I'm a relatively casual gamer, I did play quite a bit of them, such as the Devil May Cry series, Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance (Which is how I've discovered Roy's channel a long time ago), Vanquish (Which I do need to get back to someday, life got me busy and I never got to properly return to it) and most recently the Yakuza series which quickly became one of my favorites! (Although they're not pure action games)

Outside of that, I tend to play games of varying genres, my favorite genre would probably be RPGs, but I also enjoy flight games, most notably the Ace Combat series which I've been playing for over 20 years now.

I'd say that's about it for a good introduction, feel free to ask any question if there's more you're curious about!

Hey there Lemmy! Always nice to see new faces here. I met Roy by arguing with him about Ninja Gaiden 2 vs Sigma 2 on the Ninja Gaiden reddit lol

The Yakuza series has become one of my favorite series as well over the last year or so. Have you played the new Fist of the North Star game by the Yakuza Studio? Good stuff, even if you don't know anything about North Star.

Devil May Cry 1 is what got me into the genre, years and years ago. I never became hardcore about it until I discovered the Ninja Gaiden series about 3-4 years ago, which is my favorite action game series.

MGRR is great, though I haven't played it in 3 years, so I reckon I would be terrible at it now haha, and Vanquish is on my list to play, along with God Hand, Bayo, W101, Shinobi, and a bunch of others.

What RPGs do you like? I used to really enjoy JRPGs but I have trouble staying interested in them nowadays. Love the Mother series though, and Dragon Quest 8 is really special (still deciding if I should get 11 or not.) I also love the Kingdom Hearts series (well 1+2 at least) and I consider KH2FM a top 5 action game in general. Haven't played too many western RPGs though. I guess it doesn't count, but I love Red Dead Redemption.

Anyway, hope to see you around here for a long time to come.

Hey Lemmy! Welcome man, great to see you here! The forum has a lot of old threads, while some have been inactive feel free to post in them to respark conversation on some of your favorite games, or make a topic about one (like Ace Combat). 
I've always been very curious about that series, would love to hear more about it, what it plays like!

In terms of RPGs. Dang. It used to be my favorite genre when I was in Secondary School. Tales of Symphonia. Baten Kaitos. Golden Sun. Fire Emblem. Loved it. Never got into much of the rest. Played FFX (the only FF I ever beat) years later, loved it to death I must admit.

NOTE: I have been staring at your avatar for a while now...I still have no clue what it is haha!

It looks like the cockpit of a fighter jet or the 'window' of one. Not sure if they're named the same thing lol.

Lemmy, I've had an interest in the Ace Combat games for years but never touched them. I played the very first one on PS1 as a kid but didn't really get it back then.

I've always had the series in the back of my mind and sometimes forget it exists. Don't really know much about it. Are they realistic games or arcadey? I might give one a try. Which would you recommend?

Thanks for the welcome, guys!

-Kajiwotore-

I have indeed been playing the new Fist of the North Star game, I do like the Hokuto No Ken universe (I did read quite a bit of the manga back in the day) and when I've heard the Ryu Ga Gotoku Studio was making a game on that universe, I knew it was going to be good, I definitely wasn't disappointed! I'm progressing somewhat slowly since life keeps me pretty busy these days, but at least it makes the fun last longer that way!

I think Devil May Cry 1 was also the game that got me into the genre, I did play Ninja Gaiden 2 and had a lot of fun with it, but I was absolutely terrible at it, definitely a great game (And series) with a lot of depth to its gameplay that my young (At the time) scrubby self didn't manage to really grasp well!

I haven't played MGRR in a while either so I'm probably extremely rusty as well! I've heard a lot about God Hand too, never did manage to get my hands on a copy though.

I'm mostly a JRPG player, the Shin Megami Tensei series, as well as its spinoffs like the Persona series are among my favorites, especially Persona 2: Eternal Punishment, the Devil Summoner Raidou Kuzunoha duology and the Digital Devil Saga duology. Dragon Quest VIII is also a game I have played a lot, and if you enjoyed it, I do recommend giving XI a try as well, I've been playing it lately and it certainly has the same magical feeling as VIII, a true classic with top notch presentation while staying true to its roots! I've also played the Kingdom Hearts series quite a lot, 2 being my most played one (The original PS2 version, not the Final Mix one which I never did get), I did kinda quit following it all when we got a ton of spinoffs on different consoles though!
As for Western RPGs, I did enjoy most of the usual big names you see of that genre, Mass Effect, The Elder Scrolls, Fallout, The Witcher... to varying degrees.

I'll do my best to stick around and be decently active!

Royta

Thanks! Glad to be here! I did browse the forum a bit and noticed a good variety in terms of topics, I won't hesitate to go and try to rekindle some conversation in them if I have something to share! As for the Ace Combat series, that's probably the one series I'm even more passionate about than Yakuza, so I'll gladly share my love for it! I'll try and do that once I get enough free time to do a pretty complete thread on it, I wouldn't want to do any less, after all!

Ah, all those RPG names sure bring back memories indeed! I've played Tales of Symphonia and Fire Emblem: Path of Radiance to death back then! I still love both of these series, actually! I got to play Baten Kaitos at a friend's place, but never managed to secure a copy for myself. In terms of Final Fantasy, I've played most of the numbered games before XV, IV being my favorite of the series, closely followed by V and IX.

As for my avatar, as Birdman pointed out, it's the cockpit of a fighter jet seen from the left and slightly behind, to be exact, from a Rafale M, as shown in one of Ace Combat 7's latest trailers, here's the full picture if you're curious!
https://vgtimes.ru/uploads/gallery/main/138370/1537745244_4730.jpeg

Birdman

The Ace Combat series is very much arcade, planes carry dozens, if not close to hundreds of missiles and you don't have any feature such as High-G affecting your pilot or anything of the sort, some Attacker planes can attack other planes just fine, despite being made to attack ground targets and you have very slow planes such as the A-10 breaking the sound barrier, overall, the series is purely made to be fun and fairly accessible.

As for a good place to start, most people in the Ace Combat community agree that the series' highest point is the PS2 Trilogy, composed of Ace Combat 04, 5 and Zero, which is when it started focusing on having actual stories and world-building. Ace Combat 2 (On PS1) remains my absolute favorite in the series for the sheer arcade fun it offers though.
Out of the PS2 Trilogy, I'd recommend checking out 04 first, while it definitely has a story that's actually not bad at all, it still gives a lot of room for the actual gameplay and was the first to be released on the platform. 5 is much more story-focused which makes for a great first playthrough if you get invested in the story. Zero is the pinnacle of the PS2 Trilogy for me, bringing the best balance in gameplay, story, mission design and pretty much every aspect so it wouldn't be a bad choice either. Overall, despite most of them taking place in the same universe, the stories are only pretty loosely related so there's not really any game you have to play to understand the others.
If you have an Xbox 360, there's Ace Combat 6 on it, which is pretty great as well with a gameplay that's very focused on large-scale battles, more than any other AC game before it, it's also very replayable since missions can be tackled in different ways depending on which operations you choose to complete first.

On a side note, Ace Combat 7 will be released on the 19th of January on PS4 and Xbox One, and on the 1st of February on PC, it's marketed as a good entry point for beginners as well, so that's always an option, if you don't mind paying full price for your first game in the series.

Thanks for this detailed info.
I just spent an hour watching videos. Might start with Zero, then get the 360 one.

I never read the manga sadly, I tried watching the anime but burned out on it quite fast. I liked the setting and songs, but the animation was too stilted I feel. Especially considering it being a martial arts anime. The game is fantastic though, if you're interested check out the topic on it here: https://stinger.actieforum.com/t54-fist-of-the-north-star-lost-paradise

Great to read about your Ace Combat love! I've been checking some videos and AC4 on the PS2 really seems like a game I'd enjoy a lot. The games are also quite cheap which surprised me. Ace Combat 4 on the PS2 is only a 10'er. I'm going to order it, because I feel it is something refreshing. I never really played these types of games outside of Star Wars Rogue Leader (don't be jealous Bird, I'll get to your games). I won't play it right away though, gotta finish FotNS first.

Path of Radiance was grand btw, such a fantastic game. Again: welcome! Glad to have you here :)

Always good to see potential new Ace Combat players! Glad to have provided a good analysis, let me know what you think about it when you get a chance to play the games!

I'll be checking that FotNS topic for sure, no worries, I've got a little more time than I did yesterday, so I'll go browse the forum. :)

And indeed! Path of Radiance was my first Fire Emblem game and still my favorite to this day!

Thanks again for the welcome!

Path of Radiance is excellent. My first was the GBA Fire Emblem, got hooked ever since. I think Radiance is my favorite though, fantastic entry. Buying it now will cost you a limb though, very expensive title.

Yeah, Path of Radiance, and its sequel Radiant Dawn, are very expensive nowadays, I certainly am glad I still have both in working condition!

I sadly never got to buy or play the sequel, really regret that now since it costs me more than a limb. Still considering buying a USA Gamecube for Baten Kaitos: Origins (never got an EU release...).

I had a really hard time finding Radiant Dawn, it was my second Wii game, and my main reason to buy the console, but I had to run through every videogame store of the city to finally find a copy, and it was a pricy one even back then!

And yeah, I remember reading about Baten Kaitos: Origins never coming out in the EU in magazines way back then, and sadly that was the dark time where every console was region-locked too...
I can imagine an NTSC Gamecube isn't too expensive nowadays, but shipping fees can really add to that.

>Introduction
I post under 5hadows on gamefaqs, haven't been playing many games lately aside from metroidvania clones indies and retro games so I'll probably mostly lurk and do small talk about random indies or retro games until DMC5 and KH3 come out and I have more to contribute with in regards to actual hns talk, still looking forward to post regularly here whenever possible.

>gaming taste
Mostly action games(hns,platformers,arpgs,fighting games,everything goes), rpgs and other genres are fine too but I mostly enjoy my games being fast and frantic as possible. Used to, but stopped caring about recent triple A games and have been sticking mostly to indies and smaller titles(last full price game I bought was YS8).

I think that's it

Hey, good to see you here.

Hey 5does, welcome to the team! Good to see you here. Surprised to see you make your way to here.

>Used to, but stopped caring about recent triple A games and have been sticking mostly to indies and smaller titles

Think we can all relate to that one here. The last AAA games I enjoyed were TEW2, Deus Ex:MK and Witcher 3, of which 2 games flopped so bad they nearly closed the studio I think. You ever dove into games like Resident Evil and The Evil Within?

Lemmy

Hokuto of the Ken
I read the manga (the first part at least, volumes 1-14) a few years ago. I liked it, but goddamn does it drag. There's way too much filler for me. If the story just concentrated on Ken's brothers rather than the villain of the week, it would have been much better. I like the concept more than I like the execution. Art style is dope though.

The game is fun, but I think it needs a sequel more focused on the fighting than this one was. A lot of the Yakuza side stuff feels half-baked and grindy to me. It's weird, I spent $60 on it, got about 40 hours out of it, and I still feel like I payed too much for it. It should have been $30 like Kiwami 1 if you ask me. Anyway cool game, great combat, fantastic music, but honestly the Yakuza game I enjoyed the least this year.

Ninja Gaiden
Ninja Gaiden 2 is my favorite action game ever. Definitely play it again when you get the chance along with Ninja Gaiden Black.

RPGs
Always wanted to try SMT/Persona. I've had P4 sitting on my shelf for years, but never played it. I'll think about getting DQ11, the MIDI music in the PS4 version kind of turns me off though.

I don't blame you for dropping Kingdom Farts. The series starts to get really stupid later on anyway. 2FM was the last great one (in terms of pretty much everything, but especially combat), but at this point I have to see it through to the end. Been playing KH1 ever since I was 4-5 years old, so I'm not gonna miss out on 3.

I'm not too into WRPGs. I liked Fallout 3, played a bit of New Vegas, played a bit of Oblivion, bit of Morrowind, and a few others, but none have ever really captured me except for RDR, but that's not even an RPG soooooo. Yeah, not my cup o' tea lol

5does
Nice to meet you 5does! I think the last Indie game I played was Inside. Cool stuff. I liked Braid a lot as well, though I'm admittedly not a big indie guy so I can't comment on too many.

I feel the same way about AAA gaming for the most part. Loving RDR2 though.

Birdman:
Good to see you too, playing anything good?

Raeng:

>Making my way
I've noticed the forums back when you posted articles on the NuGoW board, I think you mentioned the boards once in some post as well.

>Games about actual gameplay flopping.
I should be used to this by now, but hearing it always upsets me. Maybe the studios shoulda considered putting real life actors or more cinematics cutscenes(read: garbage) in them.

>RE and EW history
I played RE mostly when I was younger, from fixed camera era I only really owned 2, played 1 and 3 a bit on a friend house but I've never been a fan of the series(I like Onimusha much more).
Became a fan of the series and did the basic vanilla run + Handcannon unlocking on the gc release of 4, only really played 5 story with a friend but clocked a decent amount of time in 5's merc. I have 6 on computer backlogged but never really got to it. 7.... I only really got to play it because a friend bought it on pc and got people together for a group playtrough, the game looked boring to the point that I'd just rather watch it instead of playing the game.

As for EW, I've played a decent chunk of it on a friends house together with two friends and mostly carried them through the whole game. I liked the game, felt like a poor's man of RE4 but it had interesting mechanics like using matches to save ammo. Never really touched 2 though I've only heard good things about it, I'll probably grab it someday if I get the time.

Kaji:
Hey, good to meet active people here.

>HnK Yakuzer lenght
The fun part is that the game lenght is more than enough for actual vydia standards, yet other titles in the series overwhelms you so much with content that you can't help but feel like it's lacking.

>Sequel focused on fighting
Project Judge will probably be what you're looking for, the game seems to be really based on HnK's combat from what I've seen.

>P4
It's a okay game, overrated to oblivion thanks to all the waifu talk, but still pretty decent. I feel the actual SMT titles are way more interesting and Devil survivor is a must get if you're into srpg.

>Braid
Was one of the first indies I played as well, great game. My only real issue with it is having a misseable collective for the true ending.

>Indies in general.
They've been saving gaming for a good while for me, you can also tell that devs have the freedom to produce whatever the fuck they want without the need to catter for a general mass, this sort of results in a indie market being saturated as hell with a bunch of crappy games but there's more than plenty of gems to find here and there. Another good point is that a lof ot them retro games with recent tech and it's the only place to find some genres such as metroidvanias or beat em ups in the current gen.

>RDR2
Nice, I'm interested in picking it up but I'll probably do so after a eventual price drop.

I recently got into Dead Rising and I'm loving it. Also a little Knack 2. Was playing that non-stop but giving it a little rest while I play DR.

> I should be used to this by now, but hearing it always upsets me.
Always a painful reminder, I'm sure. Every time I see a golden title, play the hell out of it I end up looking for its results only to see it sold less than 1% of something like the latest Tomb Raider. At least these lesser noticed games aren't getting fluff pieces about how it is too masculine or whatever.

> Resident Evil
Reading it I was a tad worried you'd never played Resident Evil 4, glad to see you mention it, really the zenith (though chosing between it and REmake, or RE2 and CVX for that matter, will give me internal turmoil). RE5 was good fun co-op, hell solo. I still have nightmares of Sheva running into tripwire-bombs on my Fresh Pro run.

> The Evil Within
The first game really had the downside of it being in the spotlight as RE4.2, which just didn't happen. The second game is, in my opinion, the better one in terms of gameplay. I always consider it "The Last of Us, but not horrible".

> FotNS
I honestly felt I got my money's worth, outside of one mini-game I liked all of them equally I must admit. Good fun.

> Judge
Really excited for this one.

> Braid
Same for me, loved the puzzles, one of the few 'narratives' I enjoyed too. Very well paced, didn't outstay its welcome either.

> Indies
Never really dove into them wholesale. Loved titles like Binding of Isaac, but most Indie games 'miss' something for me most of the time, not sure what it is.

-Kajiwotore-

Hokuto No Ken

I see what you mean, the manga sometimes feels like it's trying to show what life in the post-apocalyptic world can be more than to focus on the main story, I do like manga/anime that give world-building a lot of focus so I don't necessarily mind it that much, myself, but I can totally understand that it's not something everyone can enjoy.

As for the game, I still don't have that many hours on it because... lots of games to play and little time to play, so far I'm enjoying it despite having played a lot of Yakuza games lately, but I do agree that combat is where it shines the most while the side stuff isn't exactly as good as in the main series.

Ninja Gaiden

I would indeed like to give the series another shot, even if only to see how much I've improved at gaming over the years, I'd definitely like to be better at it, and only practice can do that!

RPGs

Persona 4 is probably my least favorite in the series but even so, it is a solid game, just pretty overrated by a lot of people. Definitely worth playing if you've got the time and have nothing else you want to play over it. It's pretty far from the main SMT series in many aspects though, so do give those a try as well, SMT: Lucifer's Call (Nocturne in the US) is generally held in very high regard, but my favorite "main" SMT games are the Digital Devil Saga duology and the Raidou Kuzunoha duology, both definitely have that SMT feel along with solid characters and very unique settings.
And as 5does mentioned, if you like SRPG, the Devil Survivor games are well worth playing.

As for Kingdom Hearts, it's been around for a big part of my life too, I got the first game when I was... in middle school, but I really dislike the idea of getting 3 and supporting it just for the sake of finishing the series, not to mention Square-Enix didn't see fit to offer it any French dub (Unlike 1 and 2 which had stellar dubs) and I really don't want to reward that laziness so I'll just read up about the story on Internet instead.

And I see what you mean about WRPGs since I'm generally more into Japanese games myself.

Also hello, 5does and welcome! Good to see someone else who knows SMT!

Hello, I'm new here. Thought I might as well join after seeing Raeng's 30th Aniversary video on Ninja Gaiden and him recommending this place. Looking forward to chatting a bit here and there about games. Good forums are a rare commodity these days.

I suppose I should say some stuff I like to play, huh? I play a bit of everything, a bit of a jack of all trades in that respect, but some of my favorite games are Ninja Gaiden Black, Ninja Gaiden 2, ARMS, Spyro the Dragon, The Last Guardian, Devil's Third, Ratchet & Clank: Up Your Arsenal, and Kid Icarus: Uprising. I generally love games that either put up a challenge of some sort or do interesting things with their worlds and gameplay.

Anyhow, I think that covers the gist of things. I look forward to meeting the rest of you.

Hey Gouf! Welcome man, glad to see you made the jump to join up! Interesting read on your games, I love Ninja Gaiden too but also a big fan of Devil's Third (actually the game that kickstarted this whole site). Surprised to see Arms and Kid Icarus, I've always been very interested in both of those games but never made the actual jump. Can you tell us something about those games perhaps? What makes them appealing to you? :)

Feel free to make a topic about them!

Ah, you like Devil's Third too? Don't see too many folks around carrying that opinion these days lol. I was a big fan of the multiplayer on Wii U back when it was active. It certainly tried something rather unique with it's mix of shooting and melee and I think it mostly stuck the landing in the end. The multiplayer really needed a patch to balance out some things, but all things considered it turned out surprisingly strong given the development history. The single player is also pretty fun to blaze through every once in a while just cause it's so short even though it isn't the most tightly designed thing ever and clearly wasn't the focus.

ARMS
Yeah, ARMS and Kid Icarus: Uprising are pretty slick titles! ARMS is basically a 3D arena fighting game distilled to some very basic elements like punching and grabbing where your actions extend across the screen to reach your opponent. A lot of the focus is placed on movement and the spacing of your attacks which is where some of the challenge comes from. Another source of challenge is deciding the three ARMS in your loadout, which basically act as your attacks that you set at the beginning of a match to your character's left and right arms. There are like 42 different kinds of ARMS every character can wield with all sorts of different traits such as elemental properties, weight classes, speed, curvability, and reach. And lastly, the characters themselves all have their own unique traits related to their movement, defensive, and offensive options with different advantages and weaknesses the player must account for with their loadouts. Overall, I guess I love it because of its depth despite its simplicity. Execution in ARMS is relatively simple, as noted with their being a fair number of people that play at a high level with the motion controls, but it's the simplicity that kind of allows the mind games that fighting games are known for to take center stage. The inputs themselves aren't what hold back players from being good at the game, it's more their situational awareness and knowledge of how to handle hundreds upon hundreds of different ARMS loadouts on different characters. The online lobby system is also probably one of the best ones I've seen for making online in fighting games unintimidating to get into as possible with different, more casual game modes and in-game events which change up the rules pretty substantially.

Kid Icarus
Kid Icarus is an awesome mix of on-rails shooter and third person shooter. For a third person shooter, it's probably the fastest paced one I've ever played, and that's entirely due to the fact that you use the stylus to aim. It allows for a kind of accuracy you don't get with an analog stick and allowed them to up the challenge and speed akin to a mouse and keyboard shooter. The single player campaign is super tightly designed with fun opportunities to search for secrets, get new weapons, and duke it out with tons and tons of uniquely designed enemies that let you make use of the shooting as well as the basic melee. One thing I love in particular is how the weapons work. They're all projectile based in that the bullets you shoot are usually visible as you shoot. Which means there are weapon weight classes too for each of the different types of weapons. When the shots from two bows clash, their bullets cancel out, neutralizing each other. When a bullet from a heavy club weapon clashes with the bow however, the club will overpower the bow and win the exchange. It's got a lot of neat mechanics like that incentivize smart play. Like, you can dodge out of the way of a bullet and go for an immediate counterattack with a stronger than usual bullet and things like that. It all works astonishingly well in the multiplayer component too and is well balanced in that regard.

Yeah I really enjoyed Devil's Third, I sadly never got to experience the multiplayer for too long due to the servers going offline, but had a lot of fun playing the Single Player. Game got a lot of bad rep for the wrong reasons, in the end it is a flawed game with some cool ideas imo.

ARMS sounds very interesting, I really like how Nintendo always manages to make a unique little spin on popular genres. Splatoon was an excellent take on the shooter-trends for instance, absolutely fantastic. I did hear the solo-content in ARMS was a tad lacking though, which is where I spent most of my days. Really interested in a sequel though if it is in the works, think I'll buy that one for sure.

Kid Icarus sounds very fun too. I looked up some footage and the style is very charming. I don't have a 3ds though sadly (only a Switch and GBA). I still want to get one for cheap one day, if only to play Earthbound, Xenoblade and Golden Sun on the go. Might add this to the list. Is there something like a ranking system or anything similar?

Yeah, I'm hoping ARMS is able to get a sequel down the line at some point. It was pretty bare-bones at launch, but the dev team really gave it a surprising amount of support in terms content updates and patches that refined the gameplay. I think a sequel with more substantial single player content would be a really solid product.

Kid Icarus doesn't have a ranking system but it does have a difficulty slider that goes 0.0 to 9.0 which basically dictates the challenge you want. It's a nice risk-reward kind of thing too, because you basically have to bet your in-game currency when choosing really high difficulties in hopes of getting access to specific locations you can't unlock on lower difficulties, better treasure, and getting more money at the end of a level. It doesn't feel like a cheap artificial kind of difficulty bump like a lot of shooters either. Definitely would recommend it if you ever get a 3DS. The controls are a little odd at first, but the game really surprised me when I first played it.

Here is my introductory post. I found this site through chatting with Birdman on YT about Chaos Legion. I tried the game a while back and completely wrote it off as trash. Years later, While watching a youtuber i respect say it was their favorite game of all time, I knew there had to be more to it.

I have been thinking of my top ten games of all time recently after listening to EpicNameBro talk for 9 hours about his top 25. (Great way to pass time at work lol) So I guess I will list them here.
I like to keep it at 1 game per series. Or there would be like 5 Shin Megami Tensei and Yakuza Games on here.

1. God Hand - What really needs to be said, this game speaks to me on every level.

2 RE4 - Again not much needs to be said. This game is timeless.

3. SMT: Nocturne - Just a fantastic, mature, and difficult JRPG. Hard mode on this game is so unforgiving, I love it.

4. King's Field: The Ancient City- If you have never played the King's Field series and you love FromSoft, I would highly recommend emulating this ASAP. This game in my eyes has exploration that is easily some of From's best work.

5. Dark Souls - This game opened my eyes in so many ways. I picked it up on a whim and it blew me away. It ruined Skyrim for me, as that came out a few months after.

6. Shadow Tower Abyss - I have only played the kind of janky fan translation as it never was released outside of Japan, but even that didn't stop it from being one of the best games I have played. If it wasn't for the more Demon's souls like hub design, vs the Dark Souls/King's Field open connected world, this would be higher.

7. Fallout: New Vegas - This is one of the only games that I think makes a case for needing to be open world. The modern open world game is a lifeless map filled with check boxes, this game felt like a living, breathing world, and I loved to explore every inch.

8. Persona 3 - I don't consider this an SMT game, but damn if it isn't a solid JRPG. I love the story so much.

9. Diablo 2: If I had someone to play this with, this could be my desert island game easily.

10. Yakuza 4 - I love all of the Yakuza Games, but this one is just my personal favorite. Playing them all in order, I remember being so blown away by the multiple protagonists. Such a great idea pulled of wonderfully.

Again, as noted, welcome Hedfone! Funny how people keep finding this little sanctuary for action-fans via word of mouth. Cheers Birdman!

God Hand is excellent and still rocks my top10 list too, though Vanquish still keeps on beating it if only for how more replayable it is (God Hand is a tad too long imo). RE4, timeless.

Never played SMT or Shadow Tower. Looking at the latter online I still have no idea what it plays like. Seems very King's Field ish. Which I've also never played (I don't like emulation, prefer the real deal, which kind of hampers my choices haha).

Fantastic to see a fellow Diablo fan. While I'm more a fan of the original (still have it installed and play it weekly), the sequel was great too.

Yakuza 4 was a great title, some of my favorite scenes were in that game. I especially love how the song keeps getting re-used in the finale, even made a post about it here:
https://stinger.actieforum.com/t13-music-what-are-you-listening-to#3062
I personally prefer 3 though, and Zero, those are my two favorites. 3 for it's Okinawa Kiryu and difficulty, Zero for its combat and over-all story.

Again, welcome :)

Hello! I am new. I am coming in. I am saying hi! Anyway I am glad to be here. Thanks Royta/Raeng!

I'm not sure what I want to play next though. Max Payne 1, Max Payne 2, Doom, Doom 2016, Ninja Gaiden, Ninja Gaiden 3RE, Otogi: Myth of Demons, Metal Gear Rising, or any of the DMC games.