I doubt that. Many of the Streets of Rage type games that came out before and after Streets of Rage 4 have a rear attack of some kind. Final Vendetta being the most notable about this.
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What are you currently playing?
- Thread starter Nick Calandra
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Fuck it, I bought Gal Guardians Demon Purge and I am loving it! I completed the first two stages. The game is Curse of the Moon 3, except you're playing as two sisters, there is an optional co-op, and in single player you can switch between the two. One is range with weak attacks, while the close ranger with strong attacks, but the weakest health. There is a super meter you can fill up, and pressing it with a one button push can cause major damage, if it lands. I save them for bosses. The boss fights are cool too and the biggest highlights. The second is basically Lord Laptor, if he were demonic bunny. It's awesome! This game also does that Rondo of Blood thing where the bosses have a fuck-you-suicide move when they lose all of their health, and you either have to dodge or attack. So heads up on that. They're not insta-kills, but you will take some damage depending on health values.
This already my favorite modern style Castlevania game. I wish I had bought this sooner, but glad I got it on sale at Steam. I might just buy a physical version on Switch.
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"Studios," or what we call AAA, don't make Streets of Rage-like games anymore. If Streets was released for the first time now, especially in 3D, it would imitate other AAA games. Moves would be unlocked and upgraded gradually.
Who am I kidding? The studios never would make a game like Streets of Rage. But, yeah, upgrades in every studio game. I have been told that no character progression makes for monotony. Just find it disruptive and tiresome after seeing it in every single game.
Since you mentioned Devil May Cry, I have been grinding my way through Soulstice for the last six months. I don't read the unlocks there either, which makes the game harder. Mostly pick them at random. Can't be bothered. Refuse.
Well it's a good thing we don't have to rely on them anymore to get what we want. The indies, smaller stuidos, and AAs are more than making it up for us.
FTR, a 3D Streets of Rage is happening. Golden Axe too. No gameplay mechanics have been revealed yet, but everything appears to be completely arcade style with having to do upgrades unlocks. I don't know and could be wrong. We'll see how it goes
I get where you're coming from to an extent, but as long as the upgrades are done well enough or explained, I see no issue. Some games get them right, some others don't. Not the end of the world, nor worth crying over.
I 've seen reviews about that games, but it seems average overall. I have no interests in it though.
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I enjoyed that one. I never did the special ending, but it is on my replay list, along with like 50 other games so no telling when that will happen.
They made another one you might be interested in also called Umbraclaw.
Is that one level based or metroidvania? If it's the former, than I am more interested. I saw the trailer and the visuals are beautiful!
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I looked this up. The game is level based, but has this weird dying mechanic. There are multiple endings based off of your form of the character and what choices you made. I might get this on a sale, because I am not sure if I'll be into it.
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That could be annoying, depending on how long the game is and what else is out I could easily see myself only getting 1 ending in it and moving to another game. I still have so many shootemups I need to beat.
Loving the reaction to the Elden Ring DLC because I had a feeling they'd go harder on the Maliketh style bosses and it seems true and some brave folks are starting to call it out while the fandom and critics who are scared by the fandom still are calling it the greatest thing ever.
The FromSoftware backlash of 2026 is starting now, I smell it in the air...
Meanwhile I'm getting towards the end of the main campaign of the game the From fans cite as the reason we need more souls games, the prog to their punk- Forspoken. The story is actually good! I mean.. not "good," per se, lol, but engaging enough. I'm getting all the plot non-twists and trope deliveries I could have hoped for. More importantly, the centerpiece boss battles have been fantastic.
I'm probably gonna wrap up the main campaign today or tomorrow. Then it looks like there's a lot of grinding if I wanna go for platinum, so I may do that while listening to podcasts and stuff.
The FromSoftware backlash of 2026 is starting now, I smell it in the air...
Meanwhile I'm getting towards the end of the main campaign of the game the From fans cite as the reason we need more souls games, the prog to their punk- Forspoken. The story is actually good! I mean.. not "good," per se, lol, but engaging enough. I'm getting all the plot non-twists and trope deliveries I could have hoped for. More importantly, the centerpiece boss battles have been fantastic.
I'm probably gonna wrap up the main campaign today or tomorrow. Then it looks like there's a lot of grinding if I wanna go for platinum, so I may do that while listening to podcasts and stuff.
It technically already started, but I don't care either way. Everyone Can have their pathetic little war, I'll be playing games that i'm interested in like you. BTW, I do recommend you give Gal Guardians a shot, if you're in for another Castlevania type game. This one is more Classicvania than Metroidvania. Think Rondo of Blood & Bloodlines than Symphony of the Night.
Why do critics even need to be scared? They showed us hell, didn't fear the DMC fans or Greek era GoW fans? Why get so scared now? What are the things going to do to them, stop watching or reading their reviews?
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I understand all the words used here, but not how they are arranged. What are you talking about?
Ok... um... I guess I'll try to clarify...
Here's Inside Gaming talking about some of the ER DLC criticism:
Inside Gaming8
and then u/Bartholen recent posts in this thread. And then the common observation re: the last third or so of the base game about bullshit spam attack boss battles and crazy difficulty spikes.
Elden Ring is one of the critical darlings and has a vocal fanbase that is really religious about Souls games and criticism is often met with gatekeeping scorn. So my point is merely that as FromSoftware continues this trend or ramping up difficulty in annoying ways, it opens the door for a backlash. And internet discourse thrives on hot takes, hype, and backlash. I wouldn't be surprised of the momentum of backlash overwhelmes the fanboyism at some point, and I'm guessing that to be around 2026.
This does bring up an interesting contrast though. There’s always been a subset of gamers wanting easy modes in these games and complaining about different bosses or sections (btw still F.U. Londo archers, *signed: everyone* lol), and back when the formula was fresher it was generally met with the whole “git gud” response. But now, I think more of those people are like, “FFS FROM, are you serious?” because after all this time they never backed down from their philosophy, and the more challenging encounters once deemed “reasonable” or “fair” have more than occasionally morphed or escalated into plain “ridiculous” territory.
It’s pretty clear that FROMSOFT fatigue is setting in for an increasing number of gamers, which is understandable after seven games (five with dlc). I started feeling it roughly around DS3/dlc and was at the point where I wanted the game design to change to something more dynamic involving damage on enemies, environments, etc.. But considering the type of dynamism I would like to see is practically still either a pipe dream or only seen in other genres that I’m aware of…well, it’s a sacrifice/compromise I’ll have to make if I want to keep playing these things for the time being. Basically what they do well still far outweighs any bs IMO.
It’s pretty clear that FROMSOFT fatigue is setting in for an increasing number of gamers, which is understandable after seven games (five with dlc). I started feeling it roughly around DS3/dlc and was at the point where I wanted the game design to change to something more dynamic involving damage on enemies, environments, etc.. But considering the type of dynamism I would like to see is practically still either a pipe dream or only seen in other genres that I’m aware of…well, it’s a sacrifice/compromise I’ll have to make if I want to keep playing these things for the time being. Basically what they do well still far outweighs any bs IMO.
Continuing the Shadows of the Erdtree pain train, I'm settling on this finally breaking the trend of Fromsoft being the frontrunners of quality DLC. And it came when I noticed quite a noticeable disparity between the open world and the legacy dungeons: the latter is still Fromsoft at the top of their game with interesting level design, visuals, enemies and encounters. The former is mostly a barren, empty void that does not come even close to justifying its size. It feels like it's big because Fromsoft can show off a big map, but there's literally nothing in for huge swathes of it. Where are the enemy encampments? The hidden dungeons? Treasure chests to discover? Literally anything to see, do or interact with? This became impossible to ignore when I went throught the Ancient Ruins of Rauh. It's a combination of verdant open areas and gigantic tunnels and it looks great, but there's nothing there. I kept running around for minutes on end down dark hallways waiting for something interesting to pop up, some switchup in the level design, and it never came. This honestly feels baffling considering ER was already criticized for its open world being a bit too big and lacking interesting content especially towards the endgame.
The other element I'm conflicted on is the Shadow Blessing system. It's basically a new way of leveling up, akin to Sekiro's Memory system: you find Scadutree fragments around the world and can spend them at a bonfire for increases in health, damage, damage resistance, scaling and the like. This is also new for Fromsoft DLC: previously they've been endgame content, and as such leveling up hasn't made a huge difference in them, or even been strictly necessary. In Shadows of the Erdtree the difference between fighting bosses at Shadow Blessing 0 and Shadow Blessing 10 is night and day. A boss I'd died to honestly like 50 times folded like wet toilet paper when I'd reached Blessing level 10. Whereas previously I could sustain like 3 hits with my lvl 180+, VGR 50+ heavy armor build, all of a sudden I could take double that amount.
On one hand I understand that because Elden Ring is so much bigger and more open-ended than previous games, you can't really scale it the same way as more linear DLC. It's also open world, so you want to incentivize players exploring the new environments. But on the other hand the difference they make makes finding them basically mandatory, which just feels cheap. It's essentially restarting the players at level 0 no matter how carefully crafted or honed in their build, and only letting them back to the groove once they've collected enough fragments. Which also means that in repeat playthroughs there's always going to be at least half an hour of setup as you just run around the world collecting the fragments, much like how Golden Seeds and the Physick Flask are in the main game. Which I doubt is gonna be much fun, considering how huge and thinly spread the DLC map is.
My prevailing sense of the DLC right now is that of resounding mediocrity. The legacy dungeons are fantastic, but they're balanced out by a dull, empty open world and some truly questionable design decisions. We'll see if my feelings change when I actually finish it.
The other element I'm conflicted on is the Shadow Blessing system. It's basically a new way of leveling up, akin to Sekiro's Memory system: you find Scadutree fragments around the world and can spend them at a bonfire for increases in health, damage, damage resistance, scaling and the like. This is also new for Fromsoft DLC: previously they've been endgame content, and as such leveling up hasn't made a huge difference in them, or even been strictly necessary. In Shadows of the Erdtree the difference between fighting bosses at Shadow Blessing 0 and Shadow Blessing 10 is night and day. A boss I'd died to honestly like 50 times folded like wet toilet paper when I'd reached Blessing level 10. Whereas previously I could sustain like 3 hits with my lvl 180+, VGR 50+ heavy armor build, all of a sudden I could take double that amount.
On one hand I understand that because Elden Ring is so much bigger and more open-ended than previous games, you can't really scale it the same way as more linear DLC. It's also open world, so you want to incentivize players exploring the new environments. But on the other hand the difference they make makes finding them basically mandatory, which just feels cheap. It's essentially restarting the players at level 0 no matter how carefully crafted or honed in their build, and only letting them back to the groove once they've collected enough fragments. Which also means that in repeat playthroughs there's always going to be at least half an hour of setup as you just run around the world collecting the fragments, much like how Golden Seeds and the Physick Flask are in the main game. Which I doubt is gonna be much fun, considering how huge and thinly spread the DLC map is.
My prevailing sense of the DLC right now is that of resounding mediocrity. The legacy dungeons are fantastic, but they're balanced out by a dull, empty open world and some truly questionable design decisions. We'll see if my feelings change when I actually finish it.
I have been playing "Shadows of Doubt" on my last two weekends:
It is quite good. Get's me real in my puzzle+ocd+cyber-detective noir vibes. And is a real shining example of "gaming technology" gone the right way for me.
It is what people would call an "immersive sim"-type game, but in a procedurally generated world. (Also Voxel-Style)
So it creates a map for you, fills it with buildings (with convoluted airducts to crawl around in), businesses and apartments and then creates the people inhabiting it. Those people have spouses (No children), a job with working hours, schedules and different characteristics (build, ethnicity, fingerprints, hair, glasses, hobbies, voice, income etc.) (Important point for the detective work)
You play a cyber-noir detective doing a handful of jobs (Mostly identifying and finding people and then either trashing their place, steeling secrets back, following them, or finding out if they have an affair with someone) and then getting evidence back to your employers.
The big thing are the murder-investigations though. Usually the game makes someone a serial-killer, which you have to find before he kills again (to get paid).
This is being done by:
1. Building profiles for the inhabitants of the city by connecting clues and documents to them. (For example just talking to them might give you their name and how they look and how their voice sounds. Then after finding their employee-records you connect them with name/photo and learn their income, position in a business and date of birth. Then scanning their hand when they sleep (don't ask) you have their fingerprints. Rifling thourgh there own documents you find their birth-certificate... and so on and so on.
2. Finding clues at the crime scene or from witnesses (For example an unknown set of fingerprints, a vague description by someone in the area, or a deliberate left note by the killer), or security-footage by a cam (Yes there a cams in the world which save up when people where passing through their field of vision for a day)
3. Connecting the information on a case-board. (And finally it allows for wrong conclusions)
Overall this is impressive technology, and i would love to have something similar made by a huge team with more complexity. That, sadly is my problem with the game. While a great idea, the cases itself are either very easy to solve or nearly impossible unless you already lucked/worked you way into having the perp already fully profiled.
(For example if the job is "Find me this skinny, tall man with AB+ blood type and a income of 42.000 as a bookkeeper - Well, you better have all Businesses already "visited" and know all bookkeepers or it will be a LOOONG night)
But luckily you can have several cases on backburner and sometimes they pretty much solve themselves.
There are some other mechanics:
Some "cyberware/DNA" implants to give you some powers - sadly many are just "you get money if" -types which are not important, but others make you better in combat (knocking people out) or negating falling damage (Jumping from a skyscraper when chased by enraged folks who found you in their bedroom rifling through their computer while they slept, hehe) or just straight up being more beautiful, so people give their names to you more freely.
Buying your own apartment and decorating it: Not needed, but fun to relax and lose a bit of that earned cash.
Thoughts:
While their are already some mods to have the game have more content, this is the one thing which needs to be expanded: More difficult/convoluted cases, red herrings, more lines for npc's. Fully ramping up the logic behind the alertness-system of npc's ("Must have been the wind"-syndrome). More communication between the npc (Mail and speech). Well i would say this game scratches an itch though. It is atmospheric, clever and technical impressive. But it could be so much more. But well if you flaw is: "I wish there was more" or "man this could even be better when..." you have done something right.
It is quite good. Get's me real in my puzzle+ocd+cyber-detective noir vibes. And is a real shining example of "gaming technology" gone the right way for me.
It is what people would call an "immersive sim"-type game, but in a procedurally generated world. (Also Voxel-Style)
So it creates a map for you, fills it with buildings (with convoluted airducts to crawl around in), businesses and apartments and then creates the people inhabiting it. Those people have spouses (No children), a job with working hours, schedules and different characteristics (build, ethnicity, fingerprints, hair, glasses, hobbies, voice, income etc.) (Important point for the detective work)
You play a cyber-noir detective doing a handful of jobs (Mostly identifying and finding people and then either trashing their place, steeling secrets back, following them, or finding out if they have an affair with someone) and then getting evidence back to your employers.
The big thing are the murder-investigations though. Usually the game makes someone a serial-killer, which you have to find before he kills again (to get paid).
This is being done by:
1. Building profiles for the inhabitants of the city by connecting clues and documents to them. (For example just talking to them might give you their name and how they look and how their voice sounds. Then after finding their employee-records you connect them with name/photo and learn their income, position in a business and date of birth. Then scanning their hand when they sleep (don't ask) you have their fingerprints. Rifling thourgh there own documents you find their birth-certificate... and so on and so on.
2. Finding clues at the crime scene or from witnesses (For example an unknown set of fingerprints, a vague description by someone in the area, or a deliberate left note by the killer), or security-footage by a cam (Yes there a cams in the world which save up when people where passing through their field of vision for a day)
3. Connecting the information on a case-board. (And finally it allows for wrong conclusions)
Overall this is impressive technology, and i would love to have something similar made by a huge team with more complexity. That, sadly is my problem with the game. While a great idea, the cases itself are either very easy to solve or nearly impossible unless you already lucked/worked you way into having the perp already fully profiled.
(For example if the job is "Find me this skinny, tall man with AB+ blood type and a income of 42.000 as a bookkeeper - Well, you better have all Businesses already "visited" and know all bookkeepers or it will be a LOOONG night)
But luckily you can have several cases on backburner and sometimes they pretty much solve themselves.
There are some other mechanics:
Some "cyberware/DNA" implants to give you some powers - sadly many are just "you get money if" -types which are not important, but others make you better in combat (knocking people out) or negating falling damage (Jumping from a skyscraper when chased by enraged folks who found you in their bedroom rifling through their computer while they slept, hehe) or just straight up being more beautiful, so people give their names to you more freely.
Buying your own apartment and decorating it: Not needed, but fun to relax and lose a bit of that earned cash.
Thoughts:
While their are already some mods to have the game have more content, this is the one thing which needs to be expanded: More difficult/convoluted cases, red herrings, more lines for npc's. Fully ramping up the logic behind the alertness-system of npc's ("Must have been the wind"-syndrome). More communication between the npc (Mail and speech). Well i would say this game scratches an itch though. It is atmospheric, clever and technical impressive. But it could be so much more. But well if you flaw is: "I wish there was more" or "man this could even be better when..." you have done something right.
Main campaign of Forspoken done. It is shockingly short. But I liked it! The plot is like a spec script written by a teenage girl for a CW superhero show, which is kind of charming in its simplicity and perfectly fine for a video game. Also explains why Teh Gamurs hate it so much- it's the video game equivalent of a Taylor Swift hit.
Now there's a TON of end-game grinding if I want to get the platinum so I'll embark on that journey until I complete it or get tired/bored. I'm gonna be away all next week so if I don't get the platinum by then I for sure won't bother coming back and caring about it because my next living room game (by which I mean a game I play in the living room, couch + TV + PS5) came in the mail: Cyberpunk 2077. Finally gonna get around to that in July.
Now there's a TON of end-game grinding if I want to get the platinum so I'll embark on that journey until I complete it or get tired/bored. I'm gonna be away all next week so if I don't get the platinum by then I for sure won't bother coming back and caring about it because my next living room game (by which I mean a game I play in the living room, couch + TV + PS5) came in the mail: Cyberpunk 2077. Finally gonna get around to that in July.
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Beat the
and the
in the Shadow of the Erdtree. They were tricky, but mainly just learning their move sets and not making dumb mistakes. Although, I am getting tired of the solution to all issues being the perfume bottles. They are so powerful against large enemies.
flower
hippo