What are you currently playing?

[happyninja42]

Still playing Sekiro, though it's annoying the hell out of me. I just beat Sparky Boy of Tomoe, and ran into probably the dumbest, and most frustrating "choice" I've EVER seen in a video game. So dumb that I had to pause the game and rant at my wife, who agreed it was dumb, for like 3 minutes straight.

So, you beat Sparky Boy, and go talk to Lord Kuro, your master. He goes on about how the dragon blood stuff is a curse, and the people tied to it, and thus to him, are cursed with unlife, and it makes the dragonrot infect his people, and he's basically of the opinion, that it's all a load of shit, the dragon blood is a Bad Thing, and he wants your help to stop it forever. Ok, I can empathize with that. Good view on the whole magical powers with a cost kid, well done, I approve of your goal to rid your kingdom of this traitorous power, because it causes more harm than it helps. The Happyninja approves. But then, the game, gives YOU the player, the choice to agree with Lord Kuro and help him, or refuse him, for reasons of following "The Iron Code/Law" or whatever. Ok fine, a choice, that's to be expected in games, a binary position, Paragon/Renegade or whatever, sure, no worries, make my choice to agree to help Lord Kuro. *presses button to make choice* Game decides that no that ISN'T actually a choice you have, and basically just says "No, fuck you, that choice doesn't work." You can press it as many times as you want, and it keeps coming up with an Access Denied result. FORCING you to pick "I refuse Lord Kuro (Obey the Iron Code)" .....ok so...well fuck you game, why would that be a choice? If you are actually NOT going to let me choose. So, fine *grumblingly chooses Refuse. Proceeds to watch Wolf state he can't help Kuro with his mission because of the Iron Code, and then, with Kuro basically repeating his reason why the dragon blood should be purged, and just going "Come ooon....COME OOOOON!" ala Peter Griffin, and WOLF FUCKING AGREES!!*

So, ok let me make this really, REALLY clear, what they did. They give the player a choice, Option A/Option B. They proceed to lock Option A out entirely, so effectively NOT actually giving the player a choice, and railroad him down Option B, regardless of the player's desire for Option A. And then, in...the...SAME...conversation, literally the next lines of dialogue, proceed to have the character agree to Option A anyway. It's not a second chance to make the choice, no, you just...agree to help Kuro go with Option A. So...WHY IN THE FUCK DID YOU MAKE THAT A PLAYER INPUT AT ALL GAME?!?! That's just terrible design! Just fucking have Wolf, in the cutscene, say he can't help because of his adherence to the Iron Code, and then have Kuro convince him with further persuasion if you want him to ultimately agree! If my input is literally irrelevant to the outcome of the conversation, don't fucking ask for my input!! I just...GAAAH!!

Oh, so... yeah this is a From Software game post, so I guess I have to talk about the bosses or something.

Um...yeah they're annoying, each and every one. The game cheats with the UI and mechanics, it's clunky as hell, and I feel like I'm battling the camera, the lock on system, more than I'm actually fighting the bosses. And the way I can't stagger half their attacks no matter what I do, but they can ignore my shit and stagger me with a casual fart in my direction. I also find it really lame that most strategies are "Use Whirlwind Attack because it's the only Combat Art that also does vitality damage even if they block it." Kind of lame considering I have this massive collection of tools and skills, but...yeah apparently "Spin It To Win It" is the strategy of the day for almost everything.

I hate that the game specifically sets up encounters in areas that they HAVE to know totally fuck up the POV of their camera system, making you have to fight the camera instead of the enemy.

 

[NerfedFalcon]

-snip-

If you're not having any fun at all with any part of Sekiro, and don't tell me you are, because you wouldn't be interpreting literally everything in literally the worst possible light, and you just beat Genichiro and nothing's changed, then why are you still playing it? "I can't get any further because it's too hard" is one thing, but if you're genuinely not enjoying it, just stop playing it.

 

[hanselthecaretaker]

If you're not having any fun at all with any part of Sekiro, and don't tell me you are, because you wouldn't be interpreting literally everything in literally the worst possible light, and you just beat Genichiro and nothing's changed, then why are you still playing it? "I can't get any further because it's too hard" is one thing, but if you're genuinely not enjoying it, just stop playing it.

He's done this with other high profile or otherwise critically acclaimed games with strong followings. Perhaps only as an overt jab as if to say that "No, these games are not actually *all that* IMO".
But gotta say, it kinda comes across like this to us dear readers.

 

[happyninja42]

If you're not having any fun at all with any part of Sekiro, and don't tell me you are, because you wouldn't be interpreting literally everything in literally the worst possible light, and you just beat Genichiro and nothing's changed, then why are you still playing it? "I can't get any further because it's too hard" is one thing, but if you're genuinely not enjoying it, just stop playing it.

Well for one I paid 60 fucking bucks for it, and so I want to at least see if it gets better later. I honestly don't know if I will keep playing it. But I have played other souls-like games, and found them mostly enjoyable, and as I've said before, I enjoy samurai/ninja stuff, so the back of my brain is like "You might like it, try it." So I decided I would. I just find the entire premise of these games bizarre, the dialogue is on par with a low budget anime, and for fucks sake PLEASE tell these people that having the protagonist just repeat the last thing he heard as a question is NOT good writing. The fights just seem to be built to be frustrating, for no reason other than "because fuck you that's why." So I don't understand why they are so popular, other than for people who just get a thrill out of beating something ridiculously hard for the ego stroking.

He's done this with other high profile or otherwise critically acclaimed games with strong followings. Perhaps only as an overt jab as if to say that "No, these games are not actually *all that* IMO".
But gotta say, it kinda comes across like this to us dear readers.

I've done "this" for mostly the souls games, because I dislike the effect they've had on the industry/gamers, where now a ridiculous % of gamers now compare everything to souls games the way anime fans compare everything to fucking Jojo. I mean people use the Souls games like a metric now, for quality. And that's frankly just stupid. Especially since all they ever use that metric for "quality" is how hard the fights are, and nothing else. I honestly don't know any other titles I've been critical of to that degree other than the From Softs, but if you can provide an example I'll be happy to consider it. I don't recall random posts about stuff from the past that well, so there could be something, but I'm honestly drawing a blank on any other titles/labels that irk me as much as souls and souls-like.

And sorry but, for me, if the only thing a game has going for it is "we made it really fucking hard" , and that's ALL anyone ever talks about, I don't think that's enough to consider something a good game. And so yes, as long as people constantly rant and rave about these games like they are the pinnacle of game design and all other games should bow before them, I will be that voice that's going to pop up and say "yeah I think your games kind of suck." Feel free to just not read my reviews of From Software games if that bothers you, I've certainly done the opposite when I see walls of text about someone's 27th attempt at DS 3, this time trying a "naked broken stick, hollow only, no dodging, no estes" run.

 

[BrawlMan]

I've done "this" for mostly the souls games, because I dislike the effect they've had on the industry/gamers, where now a ridiculous % of gamers now compare everything to souls games

I thought mostly game journalists did this. I know they mocked billions of times for comparing everything to DS regardless if the game was in the same genre or not. I know the "hardcore" did this too, but they weren't mocked as much. Statements such as "X game is the Dark Souls of..." or about as hard as DS finally died down after the Crash Remake Gamespot review in 2017.

the way anime fans compare everything to fucking Jojo.

That's nothing new. You always have some newbies, asshats, or wannabes that claim they're anime fans, but only watch one show/manga or one genre. Even then most would prefer watching the actual show over the manga (if it even came first in certain cases). Before that, you had 12 year olds, teens, or non-anime fans claiming to be fans of the genre compare all anime to either:

• Dragonball Z/GT
• One Piece
• Naruto
• One Punch Man
• My Hero Academia
• Bleach
• Hunter X Hunter

Noticing a pattern?

Don't even get me started certain fans that compared everything to Sailor Moon in the magical girl show/shoujo during the late 90s and early 2000s. Then there was old friend of mine that was very vindictive and was a Pokemon fan boy to max. Claiming that Digimon "copied" Pokemon, even though came out around the same time, and that Digimon technically came out first in Japan and America. He let it go finally when we got to high-school.

 

[Drathnoxis]

Then there was old friend of mine that was very vindictive and was a Pokemon fan boy to max. Claiming that Digimon "copied" Pokemon, even though came out around the same time, and that Digimon technically came out first in Japan and America. He let it go finally when we got to high-school.

You know i seem to remember reading a magazine article at the mall claiming something similar at the time. Something about Digimon being the new Pokemon or something. I don't know why it's stuck in my mind all these years, but I remember it ticking me off because I was a huge pokemon fan and was like 8. Obviously now I realize that Digimon actually did have the far superior anime.

 

[Casual Shinji]

I hate that the game specifically sets up encounters in areas that they HAVE to know totally fuck up the POV of their camera system, making you have to fight the camera instead of the enemy.

Yep, a lot of these issues are mitigated in Dark Souls as it gives you a relative amount of options to handle combat encounters (though even there it was bad), but as soon as Fromsoft tries to go for dedicated action things just fall apart. Their camera and lock-on suck balls, and it's like you're playing an action game while trying to hula hoop. And especially in Sekiro where you're dealing with super fast enemies, you're spending 30% of your effort mashing R3 hoping you're finally close enough again for the lock-on to stick after the enemy dashed out of it... again. And this wouldn't be too bad if not for the fact that the whole counter mechanic is depended on locking on.

And yes, I will bring up the gun in Bloodborne again and how stupid it is that it too is tied to the lock-on and how you can't just aim it manually.

As good as these games are at atmosphere and visual design, the combat mechanics are a bunch of loose screws.

 

[happyninja42]

Yep, a lot of these issues are mitigated in Dark Souls as it gives you a relative amount of options to handle combat encounters (though even there it was bad), but as soon as Fromsoft tries to go for dedicated action things just fall apart. Their camera and lock-on suck balls, and it's like you're playing an action game while trying to hula hoop. And especially in Sekiro where you're dealing with super fast enemies, you're spending 30% of your effort mashing R3 hoping you're finally close enough again for the lock-on to stick after the enemy dashed out of it... again. And this wouldn't be too bad if not for the fact that the whole counter mechanic is depended on locking on.

And yes, I will bring up the gun in Bloodborne again and how stupid it is that it too is tied to the lock-on and how you can't just aim it manually.

As good as these games are at atmosphere and visual design, the combat mechanics are a bunch of loose screws.

Not to mention the lock on system has the most annoying habit of locking me onto some dude 30 miles away in the distance, and NOT the guy right up in my face about to shank me, throwing off my movements for a second as it's oriented on the wrong person, making me vulnerable. I wish it prioritized proximity for locking, not a narrow cone in the FOV

 

[BrawlMan]

Not to mention the lock on system has the most annoying habit of locking me onto some dude 30 miles away in the distance, and NOT the guy right up in my face about to shank me, throwing off my movements for a second as it's oriented on the wrong person, making me vulnerable. I wish it prioritized proximity for locking, not a narrow cone in the FOV

The funny thing is is that DMC4 solved this problem all the way back in 2008 by giving you multiple lock on types. At least four of them if I remember correctly. The lock on system in that game had its flaws too, but it had way better options compared to Dark Souls.

 

[happyninja42]

The funny thing is is that DMC4 solved this problem all the way back in 2008 by giving you multiple lock on types. At least four of them if I remember correctly. The block on system in that game had its flaws too, but it had way better options compared to Dark Souls.

You call it "block on" is that a typo, or is it a locking system that is activated when you trigger your block stance? Because if it's the latter, that would be pretty cool. Attack coming in and you are not in lock on mode, you reflexively hit block. If the hit is blocked, you are locked onto that target, and you can then switch as normal. That sounds really nice. Of course it does have the problem of "Well I don't want to fight this particular enemy locked on" , which is sometimes the preferred method, but still, I think for most encounters, that would be a nice system.

 

[BrawlMan]

You call it "block on" is that a typo, or is it a locking system that is activated when you trigger your block stance? Because if it's the latter, that would be pretty cool. Attack coming in and you are not in lock on mode, you reflexively hit block. If the hit is blocked, you are locked onto that target, and you can then switch as normal. That sounds really nice. Of course it does have the problem of "Well I don't want to fight this particular enemy locked on" , which is sometimes the preferred method, but still, I think for most encounters, that would be a nice system.

I meant to say lock on. I don't know how Google speak misinterpreted it as block when I clearly did not at a B to anything.

 

[happyninja42]

I meant to say lock on. I don't know how Google speak misinterpreted it as block when I clearly did not at a B to anything.

i suspect you use the word block a lot when talking about games, so it autocorrected. I've noticed mine does that for inside jokes. Like when I was playing Star Wars Galaxies on my phone, that one Jedi character with the big skull in Phantom Menace, I always referred to as Big Brain Brad, because I recall that was the first thing I thought of when I saw him in the theaters. I just, couldn't help it, my brain just inserted Sam Jackson's Pulp Fiction line, and it's stuck ever since. Now, when I type big, it autofills for Brain Brad, like all the time. It's a learning computer!! My autocorrect is cyberdyne!

 

[BrawlMan]

i suspect you use the word block a lot when talking about games, so it autocorrected. I've noticed mine does that for inside jokes. Like when I was playing Star Wars Galaxies on my phone, that one Jedi character with the big skull in Phantom Menace, I always referred to as Big Brain Brad, because I recall that was the first thing I thought of when I saw him in the theaters. I just, couldn't help it, my brain just inserted Sam Jackson's Pulp Fiction line, and it's stuck ever since. Now, when I type big, it autofills for Brain Brad, like all the time. It's a learning computer!! My autocorrect is cyberdyne!

I don't even use the word block that often on Google speak in general. I've no I've used lock and it's other variations for more often than block.

 

[BrawlMan]

You call it "block on" is that a typo, or is it a locking system that is activated when you trigger your block stance? Because if it's the latter, that would be pretty cool. Attack coming in and you are not in lock on mode, you reflexively hit block. If the hit is blocked, you are locked onto that target, and you can then switch as normal. That sounds really nice. Of course it does have the problem of "Well I don't want to fight this particular enemy locked on" , which is sometimes the preferred method, but still, I think for most encounters, that would be a nice system.

I forgot to mention that No More Heroes 1&2 actually do this. You both block and lock on at the same time when pressing whatever is the equivalent of the guard button. It is a bit flawed in that you cannot switch targets when pressing Right Stick or clicking it. You have to release the block button and then aim your camera hopefully the target you're aiming for. This is more so noticeable in the first game. If you're playing with the Wii more and nunchuck, this is usually not a problem. It's a bit more noticeable when you're playing on a controller. That said, once you know how it works, you get used to it.

 

[happyninja42]

I forgot to mention that No More Heroes 1&2 actually do this. You both block and lock on at the same time when pressing whatever is the equivalent of the guard button. It is a bit flawed in that you cannot switch targets when pressing Right Stick or clicking it. You have to release the block button and then aim your camera hopefully the target you're aiming for. This is more so noticeable in the first game. If you're playing with the Wii more and nunchuck, this is usually not a problem. It's a bit more noticeable when you're playing on a controller. That said, once you know how it works, you get used to it.

Interesting. What I think would be a good compromise, is to just have a blocking action be the equivalent of pressing the regular "lock on" button. From that point, it still works like normal for that game. If you are already in lock on mode, blocking doesn't auto-switch you or anything, it just blocks. But when out of lock on, it would be a way to let you whip around and face the immediate threat, far more quickly, and realistically.

My reason is that I've noticed a lot of times where I will be rushing some enemy up close, that happens to be at a slight angle from the camera angle, like because I'm running around an obstacle to ambush the target or something. I click the lock on button, but because there is a mook guard directly in front, but their like 3 pagodas away, on a roof, scratching their ass, I lock onto them instead. And in the second it takes to adjust, the target I was actually after has reacted, and my ambush will be ruined. It's just really clunky.

 

[BrawlMan]

Interesting. What I think would be a good compromise, is to just have a blocking action be the equivalent of pressing the regular "lock on" button. From that point, it still works like normal for that game. If you are already in lock on mode, blocking doesn't auto-switch you or anything, it just blocks. But when out of lock on, it would be a way to let you whip around and face the immediate threat, far more quickly, and realistically.

My reason is that I've noticed a lot of times where I will be rushing some enemy up close, that happens to be at a slight angle from the camera angle, like because I'm running around an obstacle to ambush the target or something. I click the lock on button, but because there is a mook guard directly in front, but their like 3 pagodas away, on a roof, scratching their ass, I lock onto them instead. And in the second it takes to adjust, the target I was actually after has reacted, and my ambush will be ruined. It's just really clunky.

Despite copying Dark Souls, God of War 4 got this right. You're able to lock on properly, yet block at the same time if you wish, and you could switch between targets by pressing the R3 stick. Though I always set mine to the classic control style. R1 and R2 as your light and heavy attacks do not work for me.

 

[Casual Shinji]

Despite copying dark souls, God of War 4 got this right. You're able to lock on properly, yet block at the same time if you wish, and you could switch between targets by pressing the R3 stick. Though I always set mine to the classic control style. R1 and R2 as your light and heavy attacks do not work for me.

God of War '18 also has what appears to be a sticky camera that softly holds the camera's focus on enemies (which is also adjustable or something you can just completely turn off), making fighting them in groups a lot more manageable. I actually never use the hard lock-on GoW'18 except for the valkyries.

Saying this is probably grounds for execution in the eyes of Souls fans, but GoW'18 is like if Bloodborne had good combat.

 

[hanselthecaretaker]

Well for one I paid 60 fucking bucks for it, and so I want to at least see if it gets better later. I honestly don't know if I will keep playing it. But I have played other souls-like games, and found them mostly enjoyable, and as I've said before, I enjoy samurai/ninja stuff, so the back of my brain is like "You might like it, try it." So I decided I would. I just find the entire premise of these games bizarre, the dialogue is on par with a low budget anime, and for fucks sake PLEASE tell these people that having the protagonist just repeat the last thing he heard as a question is NOT good writing. The fights just seem to be built to be frustrating, for no reason other than "because fuck you that's why." So I don't understand why they are so popular, other than for people who just get a thrill out of beating something ridiculously hard for the ego stroking.


I've done "this" for mostly the souls games, because I dislike the effect they've had on the industry/gamers, where now a ridiculous % of gamers now compare everything to souls games the way anime fans compare everything to fucking Jojo. I mean people use the Souls games like a metric now, for quality. And that's frankly just stupid. Especially since all they ever use that metric for "quality" is how hard the fights are, and nothing else. I honestly don't know any other titles I've been critical of to that degree other than the From Softs, but if you can provide an example I'll be happy to consider it. I don't recall random posts about stuff from the past that well, so there could be something, but I'm honestly drawing a blank on any other titles/labels that irk me as much as souls and souls-like.

And sorry but, for me, if the only thing a game has going for it is "we made it really fucking hard" , and that's ALL anyone ever talks about, I don't think that's enough to consider something a good game. And so yes, as long as people constantly rant and rave about these games like they are the pinnacle of game design and all other games should bow before them, I will be that voice that's going to pop up and say "yeah I think your games kind of suck." Feel free to just not read my reviews of From Software games if that bothers you, I've certainly done the opposite when I see walls of text about someone's 27th attempt at DS 3, this time trying a "naked broken stick, hollow only, no dodging, no estes" run.

RDR2 was the other big one, and Nioh to a lesser extent. It’s unfortunate that some games have a few annoying factors that prevent people from enjoying them to the end. I was never bothered by repeating stranger encounters that much, or the narrative driven honor stuff considering how it all plays out in the end. Trying to think of any game, even that I’ve highly disliked, that had me so angrily fixated on whatever its flaws were. Maybe that Erica game and the stupid choice to have ONLY touchpad/six axis controls that literally locked me into a foreign menu about half way through because it’s so finicky. I did end up saying the hell with that game. Might just watch a YouTube play through if I’m ever curious of the story.

Anyways, marketing is mostly responsible for the difficulty focus of FROM games. They certainly aren’t limited to that aspect in terms of what draws people to them. People have made names for themselves on YouTube merely talking about everything but the combat.

Yep, a lot of these issues are mitigated in Dark Souls as it gives you a relative amount of options to handle combat encounters (though even there it was bad), but as soon as Fromsoft tries to go for dedicated action things just fall apart. Their camera and lock-on suck balls, and it's like you're playing an action game while trying to hula hoop. And especially in Sekiro where you're dealing with super fast enemies, you're spending 30% of your effort mashing R3 hoping you're finally close enough again for the lock-on to stick after the enemy dashed out of it... again. And this wouldn't be too bad if not for the fact that the whole counter mechanic is depended on locking on.

And yes, I will bring up the gun in Bloodborne again and how stupid it is that it too is tied to the lock-on and how you can't just aim it manually.

As good as these games are at atmosphere and visual design, the combat mechanics are a bunch of loose screws.

FROM’s games have always had shitty aiming though. The bow mechanics feel flat out broken next to a game like Horizon for example. Aside from one of the rifles I think, all the guns in Bloodborne were designed as parry weapons. The difference in it and GoW’s combat is you can move your character in any direction freely and lock on whenever engaging in combat, whereas GoW movement and camera are designed to always be forward facing. I’ve had more issues with that and the camera during combat than anything in Bloodborne personally. Ultimately though each game to me was easy enough to compensate for their respective flaws. Getting the Platinum in either was never made frustratingly difficult in that regard.

 

[BrawlMan]

Saying this is probably grounds for execution in the eyes of Souls fans, but GoW'18 is like if Bloodborne had good combat.

You're not wrong. Let them cry. There are plenty of sensible Souls fans that would and do agree with you.

 

[Casual Shinji]

FROM’s games have always had shitty aiming though. The bow mechanics feel flat out broken next to a game like Horizon for example.

It'd be nice if they could finally fix that though. Even not great action-RPGs have had competent aiming down for at least a decade.

Aside from one of the rifles I think, all the guns in Bloodborne were designed as parry weapons.

Yeah, but it's a parry mechanic with consumable ammo. And while bullets are pretty easy to come by, you still never feel secure in it as a mechanic that's always available. It's a mechanic that like regular shield parrying requires practice, but unlike shield parrying practicing with the gun consumes ammo, which doesn't exactly inspire confidence in the player to practice. There's also the issue that even when locked-on the game has the nasty habit of having your shots just whiz by enemies when they slightly turn. Dark Souls had the same issue when using Soul Arrow.

Again, this might be seen as blasphemy to suggest Fromsoft get some outside help, but maybe get someone from Capcom to help tighten up some of those mechanics most games have nailed, but that Fromsoft is still strangely lagging behind on. Affording Fromsoft with the same leniency regarding their rusty mechanics as we did back when they were still 'the little studio that could' feels a little unwarrented since they're one of the most prolific game studios within the industry now.