Did you get the Bolt of Gransax? Make sure you do before going too far into swirly-floaty world!
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Did you get the Bolt of Gransax? Make sure you do before going too far into swirly-floaty world!
If the platform is PlayStation then I'd be willing to drop it if missed.
Got the Bolt! All is well.
...why do people play Soulslikes? I spent more than an hour in Elden Ring beating my head against the wall that is Margit (half of that hour went by before someone kindly informed me that Margit's Shackle only works correctly if you have it equipped in your flask slots, and the thing's damn near worthless anyway), all for nothing. And there doesn't appear to be anywhere else I can go that isn't defended by an even more impassible boss. I am absolutely stymied in this game and that is one of the worst feelings possible for me when it comes to games.
If it wasn't already far too late, I'd refund this game.
If it wasn't already far too late, I'd refund this game.
Because they're "hard games", "harder than most modern games", and they remind people of Berserk or Castlevania (the first three Dark Souls games and Bloodborne).
I've been playing a modded version of Castlevania III which disables the dumb knock back and disables the vertical levels where the floor or ceiling disappears. Still challenging, but not in a kick you the ground type fashion.
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I played all three Persona games like that last year, highly recommend.
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I really enjoy the challenge and having to put a lot of skills into it. Margit is one of those gate keeper bosses, if you can get past him then it shouldn't be too bad for a bit. You can also call in another player or spirits to help out.
On a whim I decided to pick up Nine Sols and see how 'Hollow Knight but Sekiro' works out.
Like Lies of P, Nine Sols has a much tighter window for parrying than Sekiro, and it punishes you more for getting sloppy. On the other hand, at least so far, you don't need to fight groups of enemies as often, and the art style has actually made it pretty easy to figure out attack timings, so between that and having played a couple of games with this combat philosophy before I'm not getting beaten up as badly as I did when I played Sekiro. A few bosses and mid-bosses have stymied me for a few attempts, though, but it's not more than I can handle. I've also noticed that boss runbacks tend to be pretty short, especially for the major enemies like the Sols.
Speaking of the plot, the other major Sekiro influence (so it seems to me) is that Yi is a much more active participant in the plot than the Knight, the Chosen Undead, Pinocchio or arguably even Hornet. He also talks a lot more than the Wolf, defining himself as a character and then developing on that through his relationships with others. And while Shuanshuan and Kuafu between them represent what little conscience he has, even knowing that he was on a revenge quest and may have partially been responsible for the current state of affairs, I still got caught off guard in a way that I haven't been since Tales of Vesperia by exactly how messed-up he could get when he did that to Goumang. Don't misunderstand, I'm enjoying the story and his character a lot, I was just surprised, and I'm looking forward to see how he'll surprise me next.
Overall, been having a pretty good time with it, and hopefully I'll be able to get through a fair bit more. I have beaten multiple Souls and Souls-y games before, though, including both Sekiro and Hollow Knight, so I'm sure it'll be fine.
Like Lies of P, Nine Sols has a much tighter window for parrying than Sekiro, and it punishes you more for getting sloppy. On the other hand, at least so far, you don't need to fight groups of enemies as often, and the art style has actually made it pretty easy to figure out attack timings, so between that and having played a couple of games with this combat philosophy before I'm not getting beaten up as badly as I did when I played Sekiro. A few bosses and mid-bosses have stymied me for a few attempts, though, but it's not more than I can handle. I've also noticed that boss runbacks tend to be pretty short, especially for the major enemies like the Sols.
Speaking of the plot, the other major Sekiro influence (so it seems to me) is that Yi is a much more active participant in the plot than the Knight, the Chosen Undead, Pinocchio or arguably even Hornet. He also talks a lot more than the Wolf, defining himself as a character and then developing on that through his relationships with others. And while Shuanshuan and Kuafu between them represent what little conscience he has, even knowing that he was on a revenge quest and may have partially been responsible for the current state of affairs, I still got caught off guard in a way that I haven't been since Tales of Vesperia by exactly how messed-up he could get when he did that to Goumang. Don't misunderstand, I'm enjoying the story and his character a lot, I was just surprised, and I'm looking forward to see how he'll surprise me next.
Overall, been having a pretty good time with it, and hopefully I'll be able to get through a fair bit more. I have beaten multiple Souls and Souls-y games before, though, including both Sekiro and Hollow Knight, so I'm sure it'll be fine.
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Unlocking more of the sanatorium in REquiem. Haven’t had much time to play lately. My main point of contention is just how slow Grace is (I mean physically, but maybe a tad mentally too…canonically she should know zombies are a thing, even as a green Fed?). I get the surroundings are pretty confined which would make them feel “smaller” if she had more context-sensitive movements, but it’s like, *sigh*. Her verbal reactions are decent to seeing crazy shit, but it would go a long way if she had at least a greater sense of urgency to get away from these terrifying things.
That aside, I like that her sections have a good dose of puzzley stuff. The pencil shading thing was neat, and the blood crafting thing is a nice touch, to have a renewable, yet not abusable source of insta-kill ammo. Others like the door gems are typical RE but I guess that’s still part of its charm.
Also, just finished the Scenes From a Marriage quest in Witcher 3. One of the better imo, and the cell shaded memory world is a nice touch. I think I’ll start moseying back to the main questline soon just to conclude the main story at the very least. I’ve concluded that there’s sooo much side stuff that I’ll probably have this game installed forever and just keep picking away at all of it even after *finishing* the thing.
That aside, I like that her sections have a good dose of puzzley stuff. The pencil shading thing was neat, and the blood crafting thing is a nice touch, to have a renewable, yet not abusable source of insta-kill ammo. Others like the door gems are typical RE but I guess that’s still part of its charm.
Also, just finished the Scenes From a Marriage quest in Witcher 3. One of the better imo, and the cell shaded memory world is a nice touch. I think I’ll start moseying back to the main questline soon just to conclude the main story at the very least. I’ve concluded that there’s sooo much side stuff that I’ll probably have this game installed forever and just keep picking away at all of it even after *finishing* the thing.
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- Apr 1, 2009
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Started playing Shadowman Remastered. Its interesting going from Legacy of Kain to Shadowman since they both are similar style games, but play differently. Both were designed around one joy stick and each handles their thirdperson differently. In Legacy of Kain, it feels more standard where you can kinda move in any direction then lock the camera behind you and in the remaster it kinda makes dual stick work, but in Shadowman the camera is always behind you, if you move to the side you side step slower then your forward movement, it takes a bit to get used too. Also, Soulreaver gave Raziel 3 fingers which is animated very nicely, Shadowman just has the square fists, its weird how much that bothers me.
Anyway, Shadowman is another one of those games from the maze era of thirdperson games, but its got some really nice quality of life improvements (which might have been in the original game and I just don't remember) like you use a teddybear for fast travel and it will show you what you need to do in different areas and there is a book item that has a pretty goodmap/manual that I feel like was in the booklet in the original game. The combat is pretty satisfying, you shoot enemies with your spirit gun, they get haunted and then explode into pretty good gibs.
Shadowman does have the issue of "am I supposed to be here yet?" cause the levels are large and designed to just be wandered around till you stumble upon something, with a good number of paths that usually have some kinda collectable. Plus, backtracking as you get more abilities and items. but, even with that I'm having fun with it, story is interesting and gameplay works well. Plus, Nightdive did an awesome job with the remaster, with they worked on Legacy of Kain also.
Anyway, Shadowman is another one of those games from the maze era of thirdperson games, but its got some really nice quality of life improvements (which might have been in the original game and I just don't remember) like you use a teddybear for fast travel and it will show you what you need to do in different areas and there is a book item that has a pretty goodmap/manual that I feel like was in the booklet in the original game. The combat is pretty satisfying, you shoot enemies with your spirit gun, they get haunted and then explode into pretty good gibs.
Shadowman does have the issue of "am I supposed to be here yet?" cause the levels are large and designed to just be wandered around till you stumble upon something, with a good number of paths that usually have some kinda collectable. Plus, backtracking as you get more abilities and items. but, even with that I'm having fun with it, story is interesting and gameplay works well. Plus, Nightdive did an awesome job with the remaster, with they worked on Legacy of Kain also.
I have unlocked everything in Vampire Crawlers other than whatever I would get for beating the final boss. I think I'm done. That final boss is just...bullshit. And a run to get to him takes at least an hour, so it just feels too demoralizing to put in that effort and just not stand a chance.
They rarely make games like these anymore (for arguably good reason), but you can try this one if you want more with some more modern QoL
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I played that and really really enjoyed it. I had never seen a game do so much with movement and movement unlocks that felt so good to play. Really looking forward to what comes next from that dev.
@hanselthecaretaker2 @Worgen question about Bernahl (dude with the legendary warhammer at Volcano Manor) - I know he's supposed to invade you later on and you get his weapon. Is it safe to kill Rykard and Tanith before that? Asking because I read the associated volcano quests might break if I kill them before finishing them (as far as I can tell I already did Bernhal's though, and him invading me later is unrelated).
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I think you would be ok to kill them. I think I did that also, but its been awhile.
You basically need to kill Rykard to finish both of their quest lines. Bernhal will be an invasion later in the floaty-swirly world (dropping some of the game’s best armor), and Tanith will be available later at the grace site after Rykard’s death for some…creepy fun.
I certainly can't or won't presume to tell you why "people" play these games but I can tell you why I, someone who otherwise avoids hard games and even other "soulslikes," played and platinumed all the major FromSoftware games. And it's basically the same reason I play my favorite games- the sum is greater than the individual parts.
And it's also one of the reasons I dropped them recently. Dark Souls 3 started introducing enemy movements that focuses on speed and delayed attacks, and Elden Ring took that to an extreme I don't like.
But the difficulty is one of the things that make up the best parts of these games, along with the level design, exploration, and just vibe. There is simply nothing out there that matches the feeling of creeping along the world of Bloodborne with a saw cleaver. Nothing I've ever played comes close.
Its always been about the "tough but fair" aspect of difficulty. But I feel like now the franchise has just gone into the "tough for advertisement" side of things. Enemy have ridiculous tracking, forcing player to just memorize the correct timing for i-frame and attack pattern makes no sense other than just being made to have confusing timing for parry/i-frame.
I got about half way trough elden ring (may very go back at one point) I like the exploration and the interesting lore. But the combat system just doesn't do much for me anymore. I don't have a particularly hard time of it, I didn't stop playing at a tough boss or anything, but I feel like I have to rely more and more on the aspect that I care the less for.
Also, really was hoping at some point they would make it easier (ie less grindy) to switch weapon so you can just play around with different style as you go, but they never did and so once you get invested in a weapon, its really hard to justify switching to something else, and that makes the gameplay more repetitive and means getting new loot as little value for me.
I got about half way trough elden ring (may very go back at one point) I like the exploration and the interesting lore. But the combat system just doesn't do much for me anymore. I don't have a particularly hard time of it, I didn't stop playing at a tough boss or anything, but I feel like I have to rely more and more on the aspect that I care the less for.
Also, really was hoping at some point they would make it easier (ie less grindy) to switch weapon so you can just play around with different style as you go, but they never did and so once you get invested in a weapon, its really hard to justify switching to something else, and that makes the gameplay more repetitive and means getting new loot as little value for me.
Played Jak and Daxter for the first time, a half hour. It's bland. I can see why Naughty Dog wanted its next character to shoot lots of people.
The silence of the protagonist sucks. Give me Nate's lame lines over this mute letting his little companion do all the talking for him in awkward conversations with NPCs.
The silence of the protagonist sucks. Give me Nate's lame lines over this mute letting his little companion do all the talking for him in awkward conversations with NPCs.