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[Dalisclock]

Dark Souls 3: Hail to the King, Baby!

After a lot of practice and attempts(when I put down my summon sign, it took less then a minute on average to get summoned for co-op), the Nameless King is dead. It wasn't as bad as I feared, but then again, I'd gotten the idea it was one of the hardest fucking bosses in the series and yeah, it was hard, but not ridiculously so. I think I had more problems with the Fume Knight then Nameless. Then again, he's also a fucking War God and essentially Orstein on Crack. It's telling when the part with him on the Dragon is the easier part of the battle and shit only gets real when he loses it. Also, then you find Orsteins gear for some reason, so unless we want to get into weird lore theories, I guess it was a reward for beating the boss? I mean, I thought I already fought the armor as a boss earlier but Timey Whimey Wibbly Wobbly something something nanomachines?

I don't know. ADP is a weird area that doesn't seem to really connect to the rest of the game much and doesn't seem to have much in the way of lore, is weirdly isolated both in time and space from lothric and then everything about the storm is just trippy. It's too bad because it's a beautiful area with a unique architecture style that as far as I can tell isn't used elsewhere in the game.

So now it's Teapot fight time in spoopy graveyard or the frozen wastes north of the wall. Nothing like choosing between certain death and agonizing suffering to liven the spirit!

 

[hanselthecaretaker]

Dark Souls 3: Hail to the King, Baby!

After a lot of practice and attempts(when I put down my summon sign, it took less then a minute on average to get summoned for co-op), the Nameless King is dead. It wasn't as bad as I feared, but then again, I'd gotten the idea it was one of the hardest fucking bosses in the series and yeah, it was hard, but not ridiculously so. I think I had more problems with the Fume Knight then Nameless. Then again, he's also a fucking War God and essentially Orstein on Crack. It's telling when the part with him on the Dragon is the easier part of the battle and shit only gets real when he loses it. Also, then you find Orsteins gear for some reason, so unless we want to get into weird lore theories, I guess it was a reward for beating the boss? I mean, I thought I already fought the armor as a boss earlier but Timey Whimey Wibbly Wobbly something something nanomachines?

I don't know. ADP is a weird area that doesn't seem to really connect to the rest of the game much and doesn't seem to have much in the way of lore, is weirdly isolated both in time and space from lothric and then everything about the storm is just trippy. It's too bad because it's a beautiful area with a unique architecture style that as far as I can tell isn't used elsewhere in the game.

So now it's Teapot fight time in spoopy graveyard or the frozen wastes north of the wall. Nothing like choosing between certain death and agonizing suffering to liven the spirit!

If Nameless wasn’t too bad for you then you should have no problem wiping the floor with the Champ. I literally had more trouble with the first boss of the game, but then again that’s a solo run perspective.

The Twins, SoC, and DLC baddies will possibly be another story though!

 

[Drathnoxis]

A good way into Pyre. It has a far better start than Transistor and I'm just enjoying the world and story a lot more as a whole. It's actually told in a way that's comprehensible for one thing. The characters are fun, generally and even have some nice interactions with one another. I can't help but feel that I'm missing out on a lot by winning all my matches and liberating my party members. I feel like there's a fair bit of replayability, here in who you choose to face as opponents, if you win or lose, and who you choose to liberate first. I would kind of like to lose a liberation match against The Fate, but I probably won't.

The gameplay is ok. I don't hate it, but I'm not in love with it either. It's just nearly impossible for me to really do much strategy involving all three team members which definitely seems required for harder difficulties. I made the mistake of turning on the Titan Star that makes the opponents more cunning and quicker, and got completely destroyed for almost an hour before reloading a checkpoint, turning it off, and winning handily. Also the rewards for the Titan Stars are so small as to be negligible. You get like a 3% bonus for having most of them on, which is like an extra 15 enlightenment per match. You need a thousand or two to level up. Even if I had the 3 available to me turned on for the 3 or whatever matches in a season, it's probably not going to be enough to push me over the edge to another level before I give up the character. I guess it's fine to use them for the extra challenge, but they shouldn't really even pretend the rewards are worth it.

Something I really hate though, is the talismen that gives you money each match for banishing opponents. This means before I even start playing the match I need to stand around and banish 20 opponents to make sure that I get the max money every time. I mean, I don't have to do it, but I feel obligated to do it for optimal play. It's a bad item that encourages boring play since money is finite and not all that common.

Anyway, I'm enjoying the game so far.

 

[Dalisclock]

If Nameless wasn’t too bad for you then you should have no problem wiping the floor with the Champ. I literally had more trouble with the first boss of the game, but then again that’s a solo run perspective.

The Twins, SoC, and DLC baddies will possibly be another story though!

Maybe I just have mild PTSD from the first go with him. I swear I was batting my head against him for like a fucking hour and watching him wipe the floor with me each and every time, and then there are other people(including a friend who played it before me) saying "Oh, I beat him in two tries...and the first time I was fucking around". Which is depressing. Though Gundyr has been the most infuriating boss overall. Most of the others I haven't had that much trouble with, except for making the dancer because of how crazy her Phase 2 is and The Dragonslayer Armor because he's a giant pain who brings his own close air support to the fight(which has to be cheating somehow).

Then again, I keep hearing the Crystal sage was bad for people and I took him down super easy once I realized how to spot the real one. He just kept running away which was annoying. Of course, his GA counterpart was infuriating for the "Oh, come get me over here.....have fun running through the mobs in the path to get to me while I'm throwing spells at you from afar" Shtick.

Though IG gives you very few options because you can't level up, you can't ember up and all you have is what resources you can grab from the graves. Oh, and like 1 fucking estus or something like that.

 

[hanselthecaretaker]

Maybe I just have mild PTSD from the first go with him. I swear I was batting my head against him for like a fucking hour and watching him wipe the floor with me each and every time, and then there are other people(including a friend who played it before me) saying "Oh, I beat him in two tries...and the first time I was fucking around". Which is depressing. Though Gundyr has been the most infuriating boss overall. Most of the others I haven't had that much trouble with, except for making the dancer because of how crazy her Phase 2 is and The Dragonslayer Armor because he's a giant pain who brings his own close air support to the fight(which has to be cheating somehow).

Then again, I keep hearing the Crystal sage was bad for people and I took him down super easy once I realized how to spot the real one. He just kept running away which was annoying. Of course, his GA counterpart was infuriating for the "Oh, come get me over here.....have fun running through the mobs in the path to get to me while I'm throwing spells at you from afar" Shtick.

Though IG gives you very few options because you can't level up, you can't ember up and all you have is what resources you can grab from the graves. Oh, and like 1 fucking estus or something like that.

Pontiff was the first to give me that “this is the true Dark Souls” treatment. Then it was Aldrich, even worse. Twin princes were another decent roadblock to round out the worst of the base game baddies for me. Well, besides Nameless, of course. I could do his first phase perfectly pretty much in my sleep but his relentless attacks had just enough of a delay to mess with me.

But even then, they still ain’t got much on Sister Friede and Father Ariandel, who also might just be my favorite boss fight in the whole series. Slave Knight Gael was pretty fun as a pure melee fight too, at least until he unleashes total chaos. That’s another one where I’d gotten his first phase down perfectly but barely survived to the end.

 

[happyninja42]

Immortals: Fenyx Rising

My wife is actually the one playing this time, and she's enjoying the hell out of it.

You've heard people call it Assassin's Creed Odyssey meets Breath of the Wild and...yeah that's pretty spot on. More BotW than AC:Od, but it's definitely in there.

But damn is it funny. I know Yahtzee shit on it's humor, but, well, I've read his books, and his humor can be really fucking bad sometimes, so I don't consider him a really good judge all the time.

It's campy as fuck, ludicrous as hell, and doesn't take itself at ALL seriously. And I'm ok with that. Because frankly, greek mythology is some insane shit anyway. So turning it into a comedy, well it's hardly the first time.

Honestly it kind of reminds me of the twin tv shows Hercules: Legendary Journeys, and Xena: Warrior Princess. Thin trappings of greek mythology, draped over a campy comedy, with some slapstick and parody mixed in. The dueling narration of Prometheus and Zeus is usually pretty funny, as their banter is good. I especially love that Prometheus is voiced by Alexis Toufexis (voice actor for Adam from the Deus Ex reboot games, which I love) . It's just a fun game so far.

I also enjoy that most of the items Fenyx earns, are legendary items from greek mythology, but from MORTAL heroes of greek mythology. Aside from Zeus's Lightning, all the others are items that some badass mortal used in the legends. Which is a nice touch to me, considering she's like the only mortal left, and all the gods have been trapped, so it's up to her, a mortal, to become a legendary badass. and she uses items by other mortal badasses. I dunno, that just warms my little atheist heart.

But yeah, did you like the sillier, comedy oriented missions in AC:Od ? Then you will probably enjoy I:FR, as it's more of that, but an entire game with a BotW skin.

My wife wanted to play it pretty much immediately, which is rare for her, she usually only likes to watch. We've both been laughing at the game regularly, and she's been having a blast playing it, even when she royally fucks up stuff, like trying to be sneaky, much to my amusement. So yeah, so far, I'm enjoying it.

Oh, I got the basic version, because season pass has nothing yet. We specifically avoided getting it , in case we didn't enjoy the game. But given how much fun we've had in just the first few hours, I suspect we will get the DLC's when they come out at some point in the future. So yeah, fun so far, I'd recommend it.

 

[Dirty Hipsters]

Dark Souls 3: It's always sunny on Archdragon peak.

So managed to work my way to the top of the peak and boy, that was fun. Dragons, Lizards, roly poly stone lizard guys, big lizard guys, lizard guys who summon NPCs to kick your ass. Oh, and a familiar looking dude in stone armor. Not sure if he is Havel or is one of his fanboys, but he hits just as hard as Havel did. I went a few rounds with him, got my ass beat hard and decided it wasn't worth it. I managed to snag the goodie he was guarding so I'll call it even. Also managed to run the assfuck trail to the summit to grab the dragonstone thingy, which apparently allows you to turn into a dragon-man dude. I tried it but aside from scaly cosplaying I didn't see much advantage to it. I know the dragons covenant was in DS1 and possibly DS2 but it was harder to access(the DS1 was pretty much a PVP covenant).

Also, is there a point to the ADP elevator? You don't access it until you've been teleported to the bonfire next to it and, well, there's a bonfire right there.

Of course, the main attraction of the peak is the Nameless King fight and yeah, his reputation for being a total bastard is well deserved. I'll come back to him later but at least now I can try him whenever I want. So I've got him and Big Teapot boy to throw myself against. Fun times.

OTOH, I took down the Old Demon King and that was an interesting fight. Sometimes I'd get into a groove and do really well against him, and sometimes I'd get my ass beat in short order. The NPC summon is nearly useless, due to her bringing fire to a demon fight(Silly summon).

Mostly did a lot of cleanup before going into the DLCs and endgame. Maxed out my Estus and Ashen Bone shards, got two of the greatbows, found the damn grass crest shield(an old favorite from DS1). After that, it was time to try the painted world of frozen death and yeah, I knew I was gonna have a bad time when I got lost almost immediately before being beset by wolves. And I know about the murdernun who awaits me up ahead. The people of this frozen wonderland don't take too kindly to strangers, unlike what I've heard about Canad....checks the map, oh, there's no map....okay, it's probably not Canada (unless I run across a Tim Hortons, then it is). Okay, that joke is about run into the ground and then some.

I would recommend beating the main game before doing the DLCs.

The DLCs take place after the main story, and the DLC bosses are much more difficult than the final boss of the main game.

The game also won't automatically kick you into NG+ when you beat the final boss.

 

[Dalisclock]

I would recommend beating the main game before doing the DLCs.

The DLCs take place after the main story, and the DLC bosses are much more difficult than the final boss of the main game.

The game also won't automatically kick you into NG+ when you beat the final boss.

I'd gotten the impression the Ending(whichever one you choose) is supposed to be the big farewell, where the ringed city apparently you beat Beardy McCrazypants and then apparently Nothing happens. You're in an empty burnt out world and possibly the last (un)living thing left.

Or maybe that makes it far more fitting for it's anti-climatic nature?

I can go challenge the princes and SoC whenever I want at this point(this has mostly been cleanup so far) so there's nothing stopping me from going either direction with this. Aside from the beatdowns, of course.

 

[Dirty Hipsters]

I'd gotten the impression the Ending(whichever one you choose) is supposed to be the big farewell, where the ringed city apparently you beat Beardy McCrazypants and then apparently Nothing happens. You're in an empty burnt out world and possibly the last (un)living thing left.

Or maybe that makes it far more fitting for it's anti-climatic nature?

I can go challenge the princes and SoC whenever I want at this point(this has mostly been cleanup so far) so there's nothing stopping me from going either direction with this. Aside from the beatdowns, of course.

No, the Ringed City and Ashes are the big farewell. It's about the ending of the old world (and Dark Souls) and the creation of a new one.

 

[Terminal Blue]

I'd gotten the impression the Ending(whichever one you choose) is supposed to be the big farewell, where the ringed city apparently you beat Beardy McCrazypants and then apparently Nothing happens. You're in an empty burnt out world and possibly the last (un)living thing left.

That's not entirely true.

Most people who felt the ringed city was anticlimactic seem to have a problem with Bad Santa being, essentially, the final boss of the entire series, because he's a character who was only introduced in the DLCs. But I think that's missing the point. At the point you fight him, he's not just a random old dude any more. Given that the series is called Dark Souls, the final battle is ridiculously on the nose.

And no, you're not just left in the wasteland. Because time is wibbly wobbly, you can go back and complete Santa's mission, which leads to one of the few genuinely hopefully and optimistic moments in the series.

By constrast, the main story resolutions are all kind of anticlimactic, and yes I'm including the secret ending. People like to speculate about the secret ending being secretly good, but while it's more empowering than the others its still a very sinister and uncomfortable ending, particularly considering what you had to do to get there.

 

[Chimpzy]

Still plugging away at Hades. Got to the big man himself for the first time. Nearly beat him too, got him to a quarter health, but alas, got nervous and started playing sloppily. Got really lucky with boons that all stacked and synergized, which helped a lot. Anyway, getting better at it. Can consistently and with relative ease beat the Tartarus and Asphodel bosses. The Elysium team-up is still giving me trouble tho.

 

[Dalisclock]

By constrast, the main story resolutions are all kind of anticlimactic, and yes I'm including the secret ending. People like to speculate about the secret ending being secretly good, but while it's more empowering than the others its still a very sinister and uncomfortable ending, particularly considering what you had to do to get there.

Well, in order to get the secret ending, aside from even knowing how to get it in the first place(which you probably won't without reading how on the internet, someone telling you, or very carefully following the questlines as not to accidently spike the important ones), going through with it essentially means Leading Anri to his/her demise if you know about the assasin and fail to do anything about it, violating the corpse you find in the chapel as a "marriage" and of course, making a deal with a goddamn darkwraith, which in turn means further Kaathe's aims(and Kaathe is responsible at least in part for both the New Londo and Oolacile clusterfucks). He may have been right about the dark souls but that doesn't exactly make him the good guy by any stretch. And then there's the added fact that it may have been what Aldia and Vendrick were trying to accomplish in Dark Souls 2, which complicates shit even more depending on how you feel about that.

No, the Ringed City and Ashes are the big farewell. It's about the ending of the old world (and Dark Souls) and the creation of a new one.

So there's actual more narrative/thematic cohesion(so to speak) in finishing the main story and THEN doing the DLCs, not to mention a more natural difficulty curve(I'm assuming, because this is Souls we're talking about)?

I suspect part of this is the fact it felt like, at least in DS1 and BB, you were pretty much locked into NG+ once you finished the final boss. I can't remember if DS2 forced you into NG+ or not though, so I've developed the habit of trying to finish everything else before the final boss in FROM games.

 

[XsjadoBlayde]

Still plugging away at Hades. Got to the big man himself for the first time. Nearly beat him too, got him to a quarter health, but alas, got nervous and started playing sloppily.

Hm, is advice a spoiler? Well, just in case, click at one's own discretion, it's advice I would give my past self: I'd be extra careful about getting overconfident there, speaking from rather recent painful experience

 

[Chimpzy]

Hm, is advice a spoiler? Well, just in case, click at one's own discretion, it's advice I would give my past self: I'd be extra careful about getting overconfident there, speaking from rather recent painful experience

If you're talking about his 2nd phase, yeh, I know. I got him down to 25% of that, but deliberately avoided mentioning that.

 

[XsjadoBlayde]

If you're talking about his 2nd phase, yeh, I know. I got him down to 25% of that, but deliberately avoided mentioning that.

Ah, I was wondering whether that may have been the case...well, good luck! That's about as far as I am also. It's a tough frolic for sure!

 

[BrawlMan]

I played more Bot Vice and I am almost done with the game. Got 5 more stages to go. I know from the artwork that the final boss is Mr. X from Streets of Rage. I am surprised Sega did not try to sue. The game has plenty of Capcom references and feels like a spin-off of the Mega Man X series. Right down to the animal looking robots and Maverick style bosses.

The game is on sale on Steam, but I am playing the Switch version which was on sale.

 

[hanselthecaretaker]

I'd gotten the impression the Ending(whichever one you choose) is supposed to be the big farewell, where the ringed city apparently you beat Beardy McCrazypants and then apparently Nothing happens. You're in an empty burnt out world and possibly the last (un)living thing left.

Or maybe that makes it far more fitting for it's anti-climatic nature?

I can go challenge the princes and SoC whenever I want at this point(this has mostly been cleanup so far) so there's nothing stopping me from going either direction with this. Aside from the beatdowns, of course.

Definitely do the DLCs in order of release if nothing else though, which makes most sense thematically.

Well, in order to get the secret ending, aside from even knowing how to get it in the first place(which you probably won't without reading how on the internet, someone telling you, or very carefully following the questlines as not to accidently spike the important ones), going through with it essentially means Leading Anri to his/her demise if you know about the assasin and fail to do anything about it, violating the corpse you find in the chapel as a "marriage" and of course, making a deal with a goddamn darkwraith, which in turn means further Kaathe's aims(and Kaathe is responsible at least in part for both the New Londo and Oolacile clusterfucks). He may have been right about the dark souls but that doesn't exactly make him the good guy by any stretch. And then there's the added fact that it may have been what Aldia and Vendrick were trying to accomplish in Dark Souls 2, which complicates shit even more depending on how you feel about that.



So there's actual more narrative/thematic cohesion(so to speak) in finishing the main story and THEN doing the DLCs, not to mention a more natural difficulty curve(I'm assuming, because this is Souls we're talking about)?

I suspect part of this is the fact it felt like, at least in DS1 and BB, you were pretty much locked into NG+ once you finished the final boss. I can't remember if DS2 forced you into NG+ or not though, so I've developed the habit of trying to finish everything else before the final boss in FROM games.

I personally did Ashes of Ariandel, SoC for a base game ending, then Ringed City (had to go back to page 13 plus check my trophies to verify!) but if you’re concerned about missing the other ending it’s best to make a USB backup save before SoC. Doing everything in order of release for DS3 (base, AoA, RC) ultimately makes sense though, as it is for all intents and purposes the *final* Souls game. The Ringed City finale wraps things up rather well.

DS2 and 3 both leave you free to decide when to step into NG+ after an ending, which is appreciated and really how they all should be.

 

[gorfias]

I got this deluxe edition an age ago, hit a snag very early on and didn't bother with it further. Just picked up on it again. Got through the opening and now, the world is opening up for me. Very special. I have a PS4 and the Pro and, on the OG system? Still amazing looking.

 

[Dirty Hipsters]

So there's actual more narrative/thematic cohesion(so to speak) in finishing the main story and THEN doing the DLCs, not to mention a more natural difficulty curve(I'm assuming, because this is Souls we're talking about)?

I suspect part of this is the fact it felt like, at least in DS1 and BB, you were pretty much locked into NG+ once you finished the final boss. I can't remember if DS2 forced you into NG+ or not though, so I've developed the habit of trying to finish everything else before the final boss in FROM games.

Yeah, Dark Souls 1 and Bloodborne automatically kicked you into NG+ after you beat the final boss. Dark Souls 2 and 3 don't.

With Dark Souls 1 it kind of made sense because the DLC is meant to be done during the last 1/3 of the game and fits into the narrative there. Dark Souls 2 and 3 have the DLCs set up to be continuations of the themes and story from the main game and should be done after the main game is completed.

Also, definitely do Ashes before Ringed City.

 

[Worgen]

Still working on Cyberpunk but also now Project Wingman, as you can see from the screenshot thread. On top of the run in Deeprock Galactic when I have vids to watch.