What are you currently playing?

[NerfedFalcon]

Well, with the advice as quoted above of @Xprimentyl and @hanselthecaretaker2 I managed to defeat Rennala. Haven't found how to get to her Great Rune tower, but with how obviously good Godrick's is (and my lack of PS+ making it hard to get more Rune Arcs) I'm probably not going to bother with any others regardless. Could go straight to Leyndell now, but I'm not playing this game just to beat it, and I'd probably get my ass handed to me anyway with a +5 weapon and 25 Vigor. So instead I'm going into Caelid to look for Radahn next (and hopefully a couple more Smithing Stone (2)s, though I doubt it).

Took a lot of deaths to beat the Putrid Avatar right at the entrance, but I managed it, so that's a start at least. Hopefully I can find whoever has the recipe for the consumable that cures Rot soon.

 

[thebobmaster]

After swallowing my pride and turning down the difficulty, been playing my way through Metaphor ReFantazio. I am quite liking it. It's got that Persona DNA to a degree, but it does enough to have its own identity as well. Plus, I'll easily take Gallica over Teddie (Persona 4) or Morgana (Persona 5), and I haven't disliked any of the party members so far. Granted, I only have about half the party so far (currently in the dead zone between having finished the infiltration for Louis's sky runner and waiting for the deadline for the soiree), but I quite like Hulkenberg and Strohl, and while I'm not AS big on Heismay yet, he does have a nice quality to his quiet nature.

My biggest issues with the game are primarily twofold. First, the dead time between finishing a dungeon and waiting for the timeline can feel a bit empty, just like in any other Persona/SMT game where you just feel like you are killing time. The second...if you've played it, you know what I mean here. "Time Marches On, And The Age Of A New King Draws Nearer..."

 

[hanselthecaretaker2]

...Right. So it's like Deacons.



I still don't really like that the first phase has nothing whatsoever to do with the second, especially since it's technically against the same person and not a totally different one, but considering that I thought you were meant to hit the shield directly until it broke and only got through last time by a total coincidence, as I said I'll accept that it's not as bad as my experience was. For now, anyway, I'll see if I still want to go to Caelid instead after a few shots at the actual fight.

I did the same thing the first time, but the scholars annoyed me too much to ignore and inevitably figured the glowy ones must be powering her shield or something.

Caelid isn’t bad if you’re just hoofing around on Torrent finding stuff, but the bosses are rather tanky and generally aggressive. You’ll know which ones when you try them.

Vs past Souls games, this one’s overall difficulty level is basically tied to how much exploring the player does. It’s funny because for how huge it seems like 80% of the game is technically optional with only a couple of progression choke points.

As an aside, rune arcs aren’t really worth relying upon beyond last ditch efforts on attempts that feel promising. It’s more beneficial leveling up spirit ashes since they’re reusable and only cost some hp/fp. Catacombs generally have upgrades for those, and caves/mines have stones for weapons early on, until finding the bell bearings to just purchase them. There’s also a really cheap incant to deal with rot/poison, found at a church directly east of Raya Lucaria.

 

[Johnny Novgorod]

Finished Pankapu and the game really escalates the bullshit in the form of boss fights towards the end. The one-before-last is especially aggravating. You're forced to dance around laser grids and meteors while floating in a void and switching between the character that floats up and the one that weighs down for altogether too much time before you're given a chance to damage the boss by ping-ponging back a fireball four times in a row. Miss a hit and the cycle starts anew. Land every hit and the cycle starts anew anyway, now with more bullshit!l This is when the laggy character switching and wonky hitboxes and papier mache health bar stop being tolerable.

I give the game credit for making good use of the three characters/classes you switch on the fly. Mr. combat/wall climb/magnet boots, Mr. double jump/evasive dash and Mr. teleport/glide make a nice balance, and flipping between them to perform some miracle of platforming is genuinely satisfying. But the system comes undone during the boss fights and more punishing one-hit-wonder levels, especially the ones that want you precariously balancing through gusts of wind and laser grids.

Also not a fan of having to finish a level when replaying it to clean up collectibles, especially when you play through the whole thing and you still missed something. While I got every trophy in the game (because it only tracks collectibles for the first two worlds, for some reason) I ended up not bothering getting everything in the second half. Too much hassle, not enough time.

 

[Casual Shinji]

I think part of what makes it so profoundly unnerving is how little overt focus the game puts on the effect you have on the tieflings, and lets the gameplay speak for itself. There's no cinematic of them making a heroic last stand or wailing in grief, you just kill them and that's it. In a way it puts you in the perspective of a truly psychopathic character: These people (who you will likely know very well through previous playthroughs) mean nothing to you, they're just in the way. Also compounded by the fact that it's so completely one-sided and unfair.

One thing I have not seen anyone mention regarding BG3 is how it completely does away with the PG-13 rating High Fantasy in mainstream media typically has. You got your classic elves, dwarves, and halflings, but then you also have American Psycho shit (and I mean like book American Psycho). It's a videogame so you're not as surprised by it, but even Dragon Age at its darkest never got this nasty. I mean, can you imagine Orin's backstory in a Fantasy blockbuster movie?

 

[Dreiko]

After swallowing my pride and turning down the difficulty, been playing my way through Metaphor ReFantazio. I am quite liking it. It's got that Persona DNA to a degree, but it does enough to have its own identity as well. Plus, I'll easily take Gallica over Teddie (Persona 4) or Morgana (Persona 5), and I haven't disliked any of the party members so far. Granted, I only have about half the party so far (currently in the dead zone between having finished the infiltration for Louis's sky runner and waiting for the deadline for the soiree), but I quite like Hulkenberg and Strohl, and while I'm not AS big on Heismay yet, he does have a nice quality to his quiet nature.

My biggest issues with the game are primarily twofold. First, the dead time between finishing a dungeon and waiting for the timeline can feel a bit empty, just like in any other Persona/SMT game where you just feel like you are killing time. The second...if you've played it, you know what I mean here. "Time Marches On, And The Age Of A New King Draws Nearer..."

The way to alleviate both the difficulty and the dead time is holding and not doing the dungeon until you have like 2-3 days left, so you'll be strong enough to clear it in 1 go and also not have to wait much for the impact of your efforts to manifest. And trust me, I beat the game on hard and did all the extra side content and everything. Doing so, outside of the endgame secret bosses, only a few of those sidequest bosses were hard cause some are intended to be done after you play the main dungeon, but if you do manage to clear them, you are definitely strong enough to run through the dungeon in 1 go. Also, learning that passive skill from the tier 2 healer class which regens 10sp per turn as long as you're buffed goes a looooong way towards making single day runs sustainable. Prioritize that asap if you haven't yet.

 

[Summerstorm]

So, i have been playing "No Man's Sky" the last two weeks. (It was finally on a bit of a sale after all these years. And since i heard that they never stopped upgrading it from it sorry release state, and it was supposed to be "ok" or even "good" and i quite like weird sci-fi and "survival" games: Well time to waste some time to escape for a while.

Man, i really don't like it. It is disjointed, and dead. The different systems don't fit together and are seemingly just busywork never amounting to anything. NPC's are dull, all the same. You don't identify with your character, can't empathize with your citizens (manage settlement subsystem), your crew (manage fleet subsystem) your pets, your ship, your gun... whatever. All is so boring. The enemies: All the same. Planets: mostly the same. The secrets/plot should be grand and mysterious and strange but i couldn't get myself to care about anything. The writing is just... (Just read short logs and it says "kzzzzt" (static) when something/one is named or an event is described to enhance the "Mystery")
The economy is shit, crafting is annoying... and i just can't care. I put nearly 40 hours into this (BECAUSE i am fucking insane) and after a while it felt like work and i just couldn't get myself to play for more than a few minutes.

The sad thing is, that it is technically pretty nice. Good ideas. the procedural generation, the permanent saving of world states... all impressive shit.
Oh also: Man the action is shit. Space-fights and fights on foot: Boring samey, never evolving.

It's not "bad" or janky or some such. The point is "No Man's Sky" is disappointing, which feels worse. I can see the work put into it, and elements which should be fun, but it just misses everything slightly or couldn't do something interesting. there is SO much not working within... i could rant/explain/make change requests for fucking days... It is baffling to me.


On a related note: A Subnautica 2 trailer came out. Subnautica is one of my favourite games ever... Subnautica 2 will not be good. God, please surprise me (pleasently)

 

[Old_Hunter_77]

I'm at the jungle in FF7 rebirth and its such a pain in the ass to navigate. Pretty much everything is behind a plant/rock maze and it can also be above you so the map is rather useless and there are enough trees to make riding the chocobo annoying. Its going to be a huge pain in the butt to clear everything there.

Yes this kind of level/map design has been in a bunch of games I've played in the past few years- the Jedi and God of War games, for example, and FF7 was the worst. This whole thing of trying to make it like a metroidvania in pieces, but in 3D, and endless hours spent running around in circles. I hate it.

 

[The Rogue Wolf]

The different systems don't fit together and are seemingly just busywork never amounting to anything.

That's always been my primary problem with No Man's Sky: It's a thousand barely-interconnected puddles, each one shallow and uninteresting, and nothing ever seems to flow between them.

 

[Xprimentyl]

Well, with the advice as quoted above of @Xprimentyl and @hanselthecaretaker2 I managed to defeat Rennala. Haven't found how to get to her Great Rune tower, but with how obviously good Godrick's is (and my lack of PS+ making it hard to get more Rune Arcs) I'm probably not going to bother with any others regardless. Could go straight to Leyndell now, but I'm not playing this game just to beat it, and I'd probably get my ass handed to me anyway with a +5 weapon and 25 Vigor. So instead I'm going into Caelid to look for Radahn next (and hopefully a couple more Smithing Stone (2)s, though I doubt it).

Took a lot of deaths to beat the Putrid Avatar right at the entrance, but I managed it, so that's a start at least. Hopefully I can find whoever has the recipe for the consumable that cures Rot soon.

Awesome! I figured the issue might have been your misunderstanding the dynamic between Rennala's shield and her students; I've never heard anyone call out phase one as problematic. And to be fair, the game doesn't really telegraph the relationship very well; there's a lot going on, and the glowing students don't really stand out in any significant way amidst the chaos if you don't know to look for them for their very specific reason. Most people going in blind probably assume the glowing ones are casting an offensive spell or something, and I guess the game expects a first-time player to just kill enough of them by happenstance, but that inexorably leads to frustration (like yours) if the relationship isn't sussed out in a minimal number of attempts.

Reminds me of Ceaseless Discharge from Dark Souls; he's either the hardest boss in the game, or the absolute easiest if you know the gimmick, but the game never hints at the gimmick, and 99% of players playing blind wouldn't imagine it's an option.

EDIT: Oh, as an FYI, while a relatively rare drop, Rune Arcs are also dropped by rats, so if you get desperate, find a gaggle of rats reasonably close to a site of grace and farm them to get a few. But like @hanselthecaretaker2 said, it's best to get your stats up to the immediate challenge and only pop a Rune Arc when you want a boost you can afford to lose.

 

[Bartholen]

One thing I have not seen anyone mention regarding BG3 is how it completely does away with the PG-13 rating High Fantasy in mainstream media typically has. You got your classic elves, dwarves, and halflings, but then you also have American Psycho shit (and I mean like book American Psycho). It's a videogame so you're not as surprised by it, but even Dragon Age at its darkest never got this nasty. I mean, can you imagine Orin's backstory in a Fantasy blockbuster movie?

It really is remarkable just how much absolutely fucked up shit Larian got away with in BG3. I think it's because they were operating under the banner of two giant, relatively light-hearted franchises and the marketing focused more on the goofy aspects of the game that they were able to sneak so much in. But some of it is downright Berserk-worthy, stopping just short of the rampant sexual violence. And even then if you look under the hood it doesn't take a lot for it to peek its head out: Astarion is pretty directly confirmed to have been forced into prostitution by Cazador, for example. It really should have come as no surprise, seeing as Divinity: Original Sin 2 is one of the cruelest, most nightmarish fantasy stories I've ever experienced, hidden behind a thin veil of colourful graphics and goofy abilities. You can turn people into chickens, ho he ho he hoo. Now enjoy this story about enslavement, systemic persecution, torture, genocide, institutional corruption and fascist prejudice.

 

[Agema]

Avowed (PC)

Slick but slightly underwhelming first-person RPG from Obsidian. Obsidian has always been on the superior scripting/storytelling/worldbuilding end of RPGs and this is no exception, although it isn't at it's best there either.

Otherwise, normal shit of running around killing stuff and finding chests. And of my goodness, there are a lot of chests. A lot of the game seems to be jumping around platforms to get to chests, all of which have basically fuck all in you'll care about. I have literally never cared so little what I pick up in a chest, because of the mechanics of the game. Like nearly all RPGs, gold is pointless. Usually an artificial limiting factor to prevent excessive progression early game, and eventually you're drowning in the stuff. Obsidian have gone a step further by giving you so much shit you don't even need it early game either, it just accumulates.

After that, rather than progressively picking up better kit, what happens is you pick up a load of stuff with some relatively marginal special bonuses, and upgrade them to deal more damage / protect against damage so they sort of level up with you. Therefore, a lot of what you're picking up in chests is the crafting materials to do this. You will end up with a massive load of armour and weapons all of which have their bonuses that you can mix and match to your combat style, and you just craft them up to required standards. I could probably invest more in thinking about this, but I don't care enough. Thus it's find all the chests, dump it all in inventory without a glance, move on. I like wandering around and finding that amazing kit. That truly, genuinely unique and amazing, legendary artifact. Bethesda seemed to pioneer the idea that everything is craftable and customisable, but the basic problem with that is that if you can make everything you can pick up, then actually nothing is legendary.

Combat feels like a bit of a mess. There doesn't seem to be much strategy to it because your party members are just going to run around doing their own thing, and you're always left managing being outnumbered and having to looking at being flanked and whatever else, and a ton of it is going to come down to fine-tuning arcade skills with your blocking and dodging and aiming. Still, at least with the phenomenal customisation of kit, character stats, abilities etc. you do have a phenomenal number of ways of doing things differently.

So it's big, it's pretty, it's full of jumping around the scenery finding ways to get at stuff. Broadly it's fun and a worthy recipient of however much I paid for it, but at the same time in ways it also feels strangely hollow and disappointing.

 

[thebobmaster]

The way to alleviate both the difficulty and the dead time is holding and not doing the dungeon until you have like 2-3 days left, so you'll be strong enough to clear it in 1 go and also not have to wait much for the impact of your efforts to manifest. And trust me, I beat the game on hard and did all the extra side content and everything. Doing so, outside of the endgame secret bosses, only a few of those sidequest bosses were hard cause some are intended to be done after you play the main dungeon, but if you do manage to clear them, you are definitely strong enough to run through the dungeon in 1 go. Also, learning that passive skill from the tier 2 healer class which regens 10sp per turn as long as you're buffed goes a looooong way towards making single day runs sustainable. Prioritize that asap if you haven't yet.

The difficulty curve hit me in a non-dungeon part, though, which was literally the belly of the beast, if you catch my drift. As for the dead time...that would just cause me to be doing the deadtime stuff before the dungeon rather than afterward.