I finally have a PlayStation 5 — For over a month already at this point…

I finally managed to snag a PlayStation 5 and it only took me 212 days to do so. As Sony clearly didn’t want people to play the launch games, I’ve decided to not buy Demon’s Souls and wait until it either goes down in price by at least 50% during a sale, or is free on PS+. If neither happens, well then I am just not going to play it. I am willing to pay for a Bloodborne upgrade patch though… please bump that game up to 60fps already? The only PlayStation 5 only content I’ve bought so far is INTERmission for Final Fantasy 7 Remake Intergrade, which btw.; that Intergrade upgrade did cost me 100 yen as well. I was under the assumption that that upgrade was free globally, nope it is not.

I recorded this script over a month ago

While this was going to be video over a month ago and I even recorded the voiceover for it I simply wasn’t in the right state of mind to edit the video and thus just kind of scrapped it. This in fact wasn’t the only video, the Guilty Gear Struggles folder you see there suffered the same fate. Maybe I’ll put that up as a Blog Post instead as well. In any case, let’s talk about my still relatively early PlayStation 5 experiences.

 

FF7R EPISODE INTERmission

FINAL FANTASY VII REMAKE INTERGRADE INTERMISSION

FF7R EPISODE INTERmission trophiesI guess it’s best to start here, as that was the first brand new content I’ve played that was carefully built around the new console’s specs, or at the very least built to take advantage of it. It really shows too. The first thing I did was to set the game to performance mode. If I can help it, I’d like to keep away from 30 fps with new games as much as I humanly can going forward. While I didn’t replay the base game with the Intergrade upgrade, I liked the game enough to accept that it’s a decent game, but even going through Hard mode last year was already pushing the limits of keeping my interest… I am a trophy junkie though, so I really didn’t have much of a choice there. During Yuffie’s two chapters, which I also ran through a second time on Hard Mode, I never saw any pop ins of textures or objects, not even once. They might have been there, but then they were at least subtle enough that they didn’t grab my attention. On my PS4 Pro, the base game was an absolutely jarring experience when it came to that at times. The content of INTERmission was also rather enjoyable. As it’s only two chapters, I didn’t have to force myself through hard mode either. Yuffie’s playstyle and the fights that surround it are a much more fast paced experience which was a nice change of pace. Going back to the main game to do the Weiss Combat Simulator fight though, jeez, what a snoozefest. That’s enough on FF7R though, my intention wasn’t to review the game, other people have done that already and if I am too critical about this game, a game that I too used to love as a child, not so much anymore, I might get cancelled, sooo let’s move on.

 

Guilty Gear Strive PS4 & PS5

Guilty Gear -Strive- on PlayStation 5

The first thing about Guilty Gear I have to address is that I can’t play the PlayStation 5 version of the game. I have access to it, I can install it and I can technically play it… with a DualSense controller. My Hitbox is unfortunately not compatible with PlayStation 5 content. So instead, even on PlayStation 5, I still have to play the PS4 version of the game, which allows me to use my Hitbox on a PS5.

There’s worse things right? Loading times are still so much better just playing this version of the game on PlayStation 5 and while that doesn’t alleviate the “communicating with server” or R-Code waiting times, neither does the native PS5 version. I am honestly not sure how Hitbox, Brook or other suppliers that use unlicensed PCBs are going to deal with the situation. The PS5 has been out for quite some time now and telling people “[…] but you can use it with PS4 games on PlayStation 5.” isn’t going to cut it for too long. Yeah for people like me, it doesn’t really matter, it’s a shame, but I can live with this. For new customers it basically means “Alright, that means I have to look elsewhere to spend my money.”; which is obviously not the most desirable outcome for a business. I would assume Brook will come up with a USB converter at some point, but I would much prefer a firmware upgrade so that we can flash our equipment ourselves. In my opinion it wouldn’t even need to be free, as long as it’s at least 60% cheaper than whatever a USB converter would cost me. Not sure if others would be so willing though.

 

Other Games I have tried on PS5

Other games

I haven’t tested too many games yet, the only other ones I fired up were another PS4 game, Granblue Fantasy Versus, which also benefited greatly from the reduced loading times and one more PS5 game, Astro’s Playroom, which my wife really seemed to enjoy and played for quite some time. I am not sure if there are going to be any further PS5 exclusives I am interested in, the only other game on my radar that is even confirmed for this year would be Melty Blood: Type Lumina, which so far seems to be a last gen only game anyway. There are at least no PlayStation 5 or Xbox series logos on the official site at the moment. Elden Ring would most likely be the next game on the PS5 that I should be able to enjoy in the quote unquote best way possible, I mean technically speaking the best way possible would be PC, but that is a different story entirely.

I’ve actually played and tested a few more games since I originally wrote this script. I’ve played through and platinumed Ender Lilies, which is a PS4 game as well. I tested Resident Evil 8, which I didn’t really feel like playing through again. Even though it’s just partially related, I have found that the DualSense’s D-Pad is a little odd and especially hitting “right” on it seems to take quite a bit of force. 

 

My PS5 arrived

Closing Words

I still don’t think it’s really all that necessary to own a PS5 right now, although I am glad that I got to play Intergrade Intermission, that’s going to be it for quite some time in terms of next gen games for me. The loading times alone do make this purchase so worthwhile for me though. I am actually considering going back to Monster Hunter World and replay that, now that it is in 60fps and with loading times that doesn’t make you want to scream bloody murder. That might actually be something that I could stream as well, without feeling a need to hurry up, since it is an old game at this point. Ideas for another day I guess, but my point is that, yes it is very convenient to finally have one, but I still don’t think that you really need one.

How is your hunt for a PlayStation 5 going or do you already have one? Was it worth the hunt, did you even need to hunt for one? What are you playing on it at the moment and did you have any peripheral connectivity issues? Let me know in the comments! My name is Sasa and I will see you next time.