Yo Mic, I've got a rec for you. It's called Cosmic Star Heroine. Trust me, you'll love it.

I have a hard time wrapping my head around things to recommend you.

My brother and a few friends bought The Isle.. so I'm gonna join their velociraptor pack at some point this week and ambush motherf*ckers.

I feel bad for anyone that hasn't experienced DoS II at the very least.

Who plays ARPGs for the story?

The writing in it is very good.

But yes I'm on that Apex Legends too.

debaserzz

hmu, usually play sans mic.

It does look pretty neat. And the price is low right now. I like that it looks JRPG inspired and anime styled, but with a bit of restraint. A lot of anime designs these days are just TOO anime if you know what I mean. This game is keeping it simple and I like that.

Is the music good?

And what about the battle system?

And not least: Is there an insanely high random encounter rate? There better not be!

It's understandable. I've been playing tonnes of games since 1992 or something, and I've cultivated set of prefrerences that not everybody will be able to relate to. I could write a novel about my view on what good game design is and what is and isn't interesting to me about games in general, but I'll spare you.

Hit me with some chapter names at least my man.

Chapter one: Don't waste my time.
Chapter two: Why I'm not into escapism.
Chapter three: Your story sucks and you should feel bad.
Chapter four: Reward schedule oriented design is patronizing and evil.
Chapter five: Separating good gameplay design from bad gameplay design - the Devil is in the details.
Chapter six: Gameplay > graphics - I will play your Excel spreadsheet RPG and like it.
Chapter seven: Why small studios making small focused games is my favorite thing and why big studios making sprawling epics is not.
Chapter eight: Jonathan Blow and his influence on my approach to games.
Chapter nine: Gritty and grim makes me grouchy.

There actually aren't any random encounters. Every battle is preset, and you can see all enemies before you fight them (or avoid them).

The music is really fun. I can't remember the name of the person who made it, but it's someone who has done a lot of other work.

The battle system is a bit different. Instead of MP or SP, each character has a bunch of skills that they can basically only use once before they have to rest, which replenishes their moves. And you deal more damage as the fight goes on and you develop more momentum. So instead of just immediately using your strongest attacks, it's best to save them for when your momentum hits its peak. There are also some customization options, with different shields that characters can equip to gain access to different skills. And after each battle, you get all your HP back, so you don't have to worry about running back to town for a heal 'cause you're out of potions or whatever.