What are you currently playing?

[hanselthecaretaker]

Becoming fairly well acquainted with Isshin the Sword Saint. So far only managed to get near the end of his second phase, with the spear and glock (wtf? Ok then, I see how it is asshole). My biggest issue with the combat in this game is it completely deconditions what one typically learns from SoulsBorne, and I end up getting to aggressive and careless with my offense thinking I can brute force overpower with everything. But no, not these kinda bosses. Well, maybe a weakened Genichiro, but Isshin just goes all fuck you and summons elements, gats and spears, oh my.

Having said that, this might be the best use I’ve had for Mist Raven, which come in pretty handy against his Ashina Cross.

 

[happyninja42]

Becoming fairly well acquainted with Isshin the Sword Saint. So far only managed to get near the end of his second phase, with the spear and glock (wtf? Ok then, I see how it is asshole). My biggest issue with the combat in this game is it completely deconditions what one typically learns from SoulsBorne, and I end up getting to aggressive and careless with my offense thinking I can brute force overpower with everything. But no, not these kinda bosses. Well, maybe a weakened Genichiro, but Isshin just goes all fuck you and summons elements, gats and spears, oh my.

Having said that, this might be the best use I’ve had for Mist Raven, which come in pretty handy against his Ashina Cross.

Yeah I stopped playing yesterday after tying to beat Isshin for a second time, to get the Return ending. I was having way more trouble with him then I did the first time, and I realized I just didn't care. I was frustrating myself on an intentionally obnoxious boss (seriously, 4 health bars, a gun, a spear, a sword, and fucking lightning, and your typical boss cheese on top of all that), all that, just to watch what was maybe 2 minutes of new cinematics, that are only slightly different from the one that I already saw. And I know it's only 2 minutes, because we just looked up the ending on YT and watched it. Because seriously fuck that shit.

As to overpowering it, well you can get that dragonmask to let you spend skill points to boost your attack power, but that can be really tedious. It does pay off a pretty good bit though, and can help offset player skill issues, and the game cheese.

Still didn't really have issue with Demon of Hatred on second pass. Took maybe 6 tries or so for me to beat him.

Still find the entire game's plot, incredibly dumb, disjointed, a dependent on a lot of handwavey "Look over here!! Dangly keys!" to ignore simple things like plot development and establishing motivations/rationale. But, I've come to the conclusion that FROM just shits out whatever thinly stringed connective tissue they want to justify stringing boss fights together, and screw things like narrative pacing, dialogue, explaining stuff. Who cares? Just here to fight Ludicrous Number of Pustules Man or whatever.

Also, Genichiro, I could never take him seriously. He has such a hardon for Ashina, he reminded me of that Damacia!!!! guy from League of Legends. Galvin? Garren? Glaven? Whatever. The dude who just can't ever stop talking about Damacia.

Oh!! And seriously, who the fuck sets up a cut scene before boss fights, that pops up EVERY time you go back to fight the boss....in a game where you're expected to die 20+ times to each and every boss? That's just annoying to have to wait for that damn custcene to pop up, just so I can skip it...AGAIN....and then wait for the combat arena to load in. If I've seen the cutscene once, just don't show it again and load right into the fight.

 

[hanselthecaretaker]

Spoiler

Yeah I stopped playing yesterday after tying to beat Isshin for a second time, to get the Return ending. I was having way more trouble with him then I did the first time, and I realized I just didn't care. I was frustrating myself on an intentionally obnoxious boss (seriously, 4 health bars, a gun, a spear, a sword, and fucking lightning, and your typical boss cheese on top of all that), all that, just to watch what was maybe 2 minutes of new cinematics, that are only slightly different from the one that I already saw. And I know it's only 2 minutes, because we just looked up the ending on YT and watched it. Because seriously fuck that shit.

As to overpowering it, well you can get that dragonmask to let you spend skill points to boost your attack power, but that can be really tedious. It does pay off a pretty good bit though, and can help offset player skill issues, and the game cheese.

Still didn't really have issue with Demon of Hatred on second pass. Took maybe 6 tries or so for me to beat him.

Still find the entire game's plot, incredibly dumb, disjointed, a dependent on a lot of handwavey "Look over here!! Dangly keys!" to ignore simple things like plot development and establishing motivations/rationale. But, I've come to the conclusion that FROM just shits out whatever thinly stringed connective tissue they want to justify stringing boss fights together, and screw things like narrative pacing, dialogue, explaining stuff. Who cares? Just here to fight Ludicrous Number of Pustules Man or whatever.

Also, Genichiro, I could never take him seriously. He has such a hardon for Ashina, he reminded me of that Damacia!!!! guy from League of Legends. Galvin? Garren? Glaven? Whatever. The dude who just can't ever stop talking about Damacia.

Oh!! And seriously, who the fuck sets up a cut scene before boss fights, that pops up EVERY time you go back to fight the boss....in a game where you're expected to die 20+ times to each and every boss? That's just annoying to have to wait for that damn custcene to pop up, just so I can skip it...AGAIN....and then wait for the combat arena to load in. If I've seen the cutscene once, just don't show it again and load right into the fight.

Ironically it’s the only recent FROM game that does this too, though Idk the fuck why.

 

[Dalisclock]

Becoming fairly well acquainted with Isshin the Sword Saint. So far only managed to get near the end of his second phase, with the spear and glock (wtf? Ok then, I see how it is asshole). My biggest issue with the combat in this game is it completely deconditions what one typically learns from SoulsBorne, and I end up getting to aggressive and careless with my offense thinking I can brute force overpower with everything. But no, not these kinda bosses. Well, maybe a weakened Genichiro, but Isshin just goes all fuck you and summons elements, gats and spears, oh my.

Having said that, this might be the best use I’ve had for Mist Raven, which come in pretty handy against his Ashina Cross.

I tried that asshole for a fucking week and hundreds of attempts and finally broke down and used a cheat to murder his ass in the later phases of the fight. Basically gave myself unlimited SE usage and abused the fuck out of the shuriken. He blocks every single one but it does chip damage and prevents him from attacking, so you basically very slowly kill him with a thousand cuts before giving him a finisher.

I feel no shame because:
1.) I was too exhausted to feel anything resembling anything but relief at that point.
2.) If the fucker gets to cheat using a glock, I'm not going to feel bad about cheating back
and of course
3.) "A shinobi would know the difference between honor and victory." So basically, fuck honor then

 

[happyninja42]

I tried that asshole for a fucking week and hundreds of attempts and finally broke down and used a cheat to murder his ass in the later phases of the fight. Basically gave myself unlimited SE usage and abused the fuck out of the shuriken. He blocks every single one but it does chip damage and prevents him from attacking, so you basically very slowly kill him with a thousand cuts before giving him a finisher.

I feel no shame because:
1.) I was too exhausted to feel anything resembling anything but relief at that point.
2.) If the fucker gets to cheat using a glock, I'm not going to feel bad about cheating back
and of course
3.) "A shinobi would know the difference between honor and victory." So basically, fuck honor then

Yeah his 3rd/4th phases are just ridiculous. I played it on the PS4, so no mods could help me out. I just turned it into a ridiculous Benny Hill skit with a Yakkity Sax soundtrack, as I ran forever, waiting for the one attack I knew how to slip in under and poke him 2 times and then run away again.

Another thing I don't get is, the game giving you all of these really cool attacks, but they are almost entirely useless, because:
1. They don't actually damage the enemy through block, so you might as well use Whirlwind Strike, as it does do health damage and posture.
2. The enemies never actually stay staggered long enough for you to do more than 2 pokes at most, before they start to wail on your head. So trying to do a 5 swing Uber Blade Wind Strike attack on basically anyone is useless. Because they just stop being staggered by hit 2 at best, and just ignore the other blade strikes to the face, and proceed to start wailing on your health bar like it owes them money, while you are mid attack. YOU can't break your combo action, but they sure as hell can ignore it, and attack you through it. But if I try and attack through their attacks? Pssh, fuck that noise, I'm staggered for 2 weeks at the slightest tap from them. A tap that takes out like 50% of my health bar....followed up instantly by another attack for the rest of it.

 

[Dalisclock]

Yeah his 3rd/4th phases are just ridiculous. I played it on the PS4, so no mods could help me out. I just turned it into a ridiculous Benny Hill skit with a Yakkity Sax soundtrack, as I ran forever, waiting for the one attack I knew how to slip in under and poke him 2 times and then run away again.

Another thing I don't get is, the game giving you all of these really cool attacks, but they are almost entirely useless, because:
1. They don't actually damage the enemy through block, so you might as well use Whirlwind Strike, as it does do health damage and posture.
2. The enemies never actually stay staggered long enough for you to do more than 2 pokes at most, before they start to wail on your head. So trying to do a 5 swing Uber Blade Wind Strike attack on basically anyone is useless. Because they just stop being staggered by hit 2 at best, and just ignore the other blade strikes to the face, and proceed to start wailing on your health bar like it owes them money, while you are mid attack. YOU can't break your combo action, but they sure as hell can ignore it, and attack you through it. But if I try and attack through their attacks? Pssh, fuck that noise, I'm staggered for 2 weeks at the slightest tap from them. A tap that takes out like 50% of my health bar....followed up instantly by another attack for the rest of it.

And it's kinda insulting for a guy fighting you in his damn bathrobe to survive 3 separate phases, pull a glock and a spear out of nowhere(in addition to his sword) and use them all simultaneously. Not gonna lie. I was getting REALLY tired of running down that damn tunnel. And of course, despite having seen that fucking cutscene over and over, nope, you can't interrupt Genshiro giving birth to his grandfather every single time(that would be impolite or something).

I was actually really enjoying Sekiro until I got to him, but man if that fight didn't kill my urge to ever play it again.

 

[happyninja42]

And it's kinda insulting for a guy fighting you in his damn bathrobe to survive 3 separate phases, pull a glock and a spear out of nowhere(in addition to his sword) and use them all simultaneously. Not gonna lie. I was getting REALLY tired of running down that damn tunnel. And of course, despite having seen that fucking cutscene over and over, nope, you can't interrupt Genshiro giving birth to his grandfather every single time(that would be impolite or something).

I was actually really enjoying Sekiro until I got to him, but man if that fight didn't kill my urge to ever play it again.

Yep, I feel you there. Even having beaten Isshin once already, the second time around, I just had zero desire to deal with his cheese. I realized "I'm not having fun with this. This isn't an enjoyable experience. This is just mounting frustration in video game form. There is no satisfying catharsis when he dies, it's just a conclusion to an ordeal that has taken up hours of my life, with no satisfying payoff." So I went and played ME: Andromeda instead, and had a hell of a lot more fun.

OT: I dusted off the original Dark Souls: Prepare to Die edition for PC, ran into an odd thing. I checked my play history of that game, from years ago, and it showed me having played 2.7 hours. And I know I got to the part where the bird just snatches you up and yoinks you to gloomy town. But, when I was playing, I noticed I got the starter achievements for the estes flask, and kindling a bonfire, and basically the tutorial related achievements. And I KNOW I got those the last time I played? Or...I dunno maybe achievements weren't a part of DSTSD until recently? Did they patch it to include them or something? *shrugs* Eh, anyway. Haven't played much. Killed the demon lord from warcraft clone boss at the start, well obviously, I'm at the area after him. Just...wandering around with no idea WHY I'm doing any of this. I'm undead...ok...so go smack bell....ok? Uh...why? The context of any of this stuff, in relation to the character's involvement is so disconnected as to be hilarious. Just..go smash things because we say so! I mean ok I guess but, I sure as hell don't feel very motivated to do so. We'll see if I keep playing it or if I drop it like a festering, undead turd for something that involved an actual script writer and editor for continuity.

 

[Dalisclock]

Just...wandering around with no idea WHY I'm doing any of this. I'm undead...ok...so go smack bell....ok? Uh...why? The context of any of this stuff, in relation to the character's involvement is so disconnected as to be hilarious. Just..go smash things because we say so! I mean ok I guess but, I sure as hell don't feel very motivated to do so. We'll see if I keep playing it or if I drop it like a festering, undead turd for something that involved an actual script writer and editor for continuity.

There was one parody that distilled that down to "KIll more Bosses!" and it's a running joke between me and a friend of mine who also likes souls games. This one arguably did it better. Nailing the creepy NPC helps a ton.


The souls games have simple plots but deep fucking lore all over the place. It's just the Lore is attained by basically "Stare at brick walls, read the item descriptions, mine the cyptic dialogue and finally break down and watch Saint Vaati explain all of it to you because it turns out some of the plot points are different in Japanese because the phrasing is different in translation and there's a bunch of allusions to mythology/mythological symbolism". And also DS2 was rushed as shit so there's a bunch of stuff that feels like it's holdovers from the original conception of the game.

I mean....gIt GuD ScRuB!

 

[happyninja42]

The souls games have simple plots but deep fucking lore all over the place. It's just the Lore is attained by basically "Stare at brick walls, read the item descriptions, mine the cyptic dialogue and finally break down and watch Saint Vaati explain all of it to you because it turns out some of the plot points are different in Japanese because the phrasing is different in translation and there's a bunch of allusions to mythology/mythological symbolism". And also DS2 was rushed as shit so there's a bunch of stuff that feels like it's holdovers from the original conception of the game.

I mean....gIt GuD ScRuB!

Yeah...see, if your story is so obfuscated, that I HAVE to outsource understanding it to a video by someone else, not part of your dev team....you didn't present it well. Now, if they flat out planned to just not give a shit about that, and genuinely only used it as a thin framing device, to make boss fights from their cocaine fueled nightmares, well ok, that's fine, fair enough. But you don't get to call that good writing

It's like the people who try and praise the bouncer scene in John Wick, as supposedly being good writing, because a year later, at a Q&A, the actor said he was told by the director, that the conversation about the weight loss, was supposed to be code for how many guys were in the club. Despite the fact that nothing in the film actually establishes that, or implies they are doing anything other than having a conversation between old acquaintances before a bloodbath. And it's further butchered by the fact that since he said in the other language "30 kilograms", implying 30 dudes, it's ruined by the english translation saying "60 pounds" implying 60 dudes, which makes it even less clear to the audience that it's supposed to be a measure of security. So IF that is the case, which I doubt, and think it's something they retconned to try and make it seem more cool and deep, it's terribly executed, because it clouds it's own information to the audience, and never conveys that it's actually TRYING to convey more information to the audience.

Sorry, that was a bit of a tangent.

 

[Dalisclock]

Reply to HappyNinja(Snipped because the forum totally doesn't want to let me post my reply if your point is quoted because it apparently upsets the gremlins in the code or something)

Not a problem.

So to my understanding, the real world(Doyalist) explanation for everything being so cryptic is because Miyazaki loved reading western fantasy as a child but didn't know much english, so he's picking up what little he can with the limited english he knows and it created this whole sense of mystery for him of just what's going on in the rest of the story he can't actually read. The experience impressed in him so much that that's apparently why the Souls Lore is basically a bunch of tiny pieces that are mostly disconnected from each other, to replicate that same feeling for the players. It's kinda like the story that the Legend of Zelda was inspired by Shigeru Miyamoto exploring the countryside as a child and he wanted to replicate that in the first game(which is wandering about in the wilderness and plunging into forgotten places/caves/etc).

The Watsonian(in game) explanation, IIRC, is that since the world is coming to an end, civilization has collapsed and history has more or less just been forgotten or lost to time. Apparently this is exacerbated by the fact time itself is convoluted(or apparently in Japanese it's "Stagnating" like a pond as opposed to a flowing river) so the little bits of lore and such are all that's left of the past that anyone can find. And while there's some weirdness with this, it appeals to me personally because reading a bunch of ancient near eastern history/mythology tells me just how little of our own history we know beyond a certain point. We have roughly 3000-4000 years of actual known history depending on region, but beyond that it's mostly what little we can dig up out of the ground and history and mythology become very tied together. There are entire civilizations we barely know anything about because they didn't leave much writing or we can't read what we have found. Hell, 3000 years ago, civilization in the west more or less just collapsed and went dark for a couple centuries and nobody really knows why(with Egypt just barely hanging on). The Trojan War might have happened but aside from the location all we really have is what Homer told us(and we don't know anything about Homer either) from centuries later and is so tied with myth it might as well be one.

And I think that's why that resonates with me so much, because there's a bunch of mysteries with no real answers and just these fantastic ruins and such to speculate what all led to this. The fact it draws on a fair bit of our own mythology while building its own off of that also helps.

 

[hanselthecaretaker]

Reply to HappyNinja(Snipped because the forum totally doesn't want to let me post my reply if your point is quoted because it apparently upsets the gremlins in the code or something)

Not a problem.

So to my understanding, the real world(Doyalist) explanation for everything being so cryptic is because Miyazaki loved reading western fantasy as a child but didn't know much english, so he's picking up what little he can with the limited english he knows and it created this whole sense of mystery for him of just what's going on in the rest of the story he can't actually read. The experience impressed in him so much that that's apparently why the Souls Lore is basically a bunch of tiny pieces that are mostly disconnected from each other, to replicate that same feeling for the players. It's kinda like the story that the Legend of Zelda was inspired by Shigeru Miyamoto exploring the countryside as a child and he wanted to replicate that in the first game(which is wandering about in the wilderness and plunging into forgotten places/caves/etc).

The Watsonian(in game) explanation, IIRC, is that since the world is coming to an end, civilization has collapsed and history has more or less just been forgotten or lost to time. Apparently this is exacerbated by the fact time itself is convoluted(or apparently in Japanese it's "Stagnating" like a pond as opposed to a flowing river) so the little bits of lore and such are all that's left of the past that anyone can find. And while there's some weirdness with this, it appeals to me personally because reading a bunch of ancient near eastern history/mythology tells me just how little of our own history we know beyond a certain point. We have roughly 3000-4000 years of actual known history depending on region, but beyond that it's mostly what little we can dig up out of the ground and history and mythology become very tied together. There are entire civilizations we barely know anything about because they didn't leave much writing or we can't read what we have found. Hell, 3000 years ago, civilization in the west more or less just collapsed and went dark for a couple centuries and nobody really knows why(with Egypt just barely hanging on). The Trojan War might have happened but aside from the location all we really have is what Homer told us(and we don't know anything about Homer either) from centuries later and is so tied with myth it might as well be one.

And I think that's why that resonates with me so much, because there's a bunch of mysteries with no real answers and just these fantastic ruins and such to speculate what all lead to this. The fact it draws on a fair bit of our own mythology while building its own off of that also helps.[/spoiler]

I’ve found that the emoji icons in quoted posts are what usually prevent a successful reply, so deleting just those will likely help.

About the lore, yeah. Somewhat similar to what happens with MGS, I think things get lost in translation a bit, along with the cultural barriers to certain things clicking with the intended impacts. Although Kojima’s style is so much more flamboyant and excessive which doesn’t help, whereas FROM’s restraint typically fairs better. With Sekiro though in particular, it’s perhaps a bit more exacerbated due to FROM actually attempting a normal style narrative, while also trying to keep some of the traditional mystery intact.

Maybe they’ll strike a better balance of the two in Elden Ring.

 

[Dalisclock]

Got the Master Sword in Breath of the Wild, then made a raid into the castle to get the Hylian shield. Combined with getting the Ancient Armor I think I'm almost ready to finish this off(and I've been informed that Ganon is a bit of a Joke if you've gotten the master sword and freed the beasts). Really, it's just a matter of checking out a few more spots on the map I haven't gone to yet and finding the last few memories before I finish the game.

Spent more time futzing about on the SW corner of the map looking for stuff(notably that damn statue built into the cliff so I could get the sand shoes). The Highlands are pretty but there's not really much there except some mini-boss enemies. Not to mentioned did some of the hidden shrines and finished the 3rd labyrinth. I can only imagine what it's like for regular people wandering the world and finding all these weird ruins all over the place, such as massive labyrinths that appear to serve no purpose but even more so the fact that a bunch of this stuff are puzzles that were built into the very landscape itself 10,000 years ago for the benefit of one dude with a special ipad. From a gameplay perspective it's fine, but from a historical standpoint it's like "Wait, what?"

 

[Drathnoxis]

Reply to HappyNinja(Snipped because the forum totally doesn't want to let me post my reply if your point is quoted because it apparently upsets the gremlins in the code or something)

@Dalisclock you can use the @ symbol so that somebody will still get a notification of your message even if you don't quote them.

 

[Worgen]

Still working on the imperial campaign in Battlefleet Gothic 2, I swear I 'm gonna have 60 hours into it before I'm done with that and I still have the Necron and Nid ones to do.

Replaying Nier Automata with my gf, on hard mode. Hard mode is hard since things hit ridiculously hard.

And Days Gone, not sure how long I'll stay with it, so far its good but open world games tend to bore me, but this one seems to limit the number of quests and side quest available at a time so I'm not spending too much time screwing around without getting further, so we will see.

Thinking about picking up Shrine 2 again too, since I'm kinda in the mood for a doomy game and I never got around to beating that one. Plus I just beat Lycanthron 1 & 2 which was made by the same guy.

 

[BrawlMan]

I downloaded the Samurai Warriors 5 (PS4) demo. It allows you to play the entire first chapter as it has multiple stages. After that, you have to purchase the full game. The game looks beautiful and digging the new art style. Gameplay is a huge improvement over 4, and I like how you can't spam the hyper attack button similar to 4-II. Nobunaga and his clan are the only delectable characters and none of the factions, which is fine by me. It's clear KT wants to do something different this time story wise, but I wish they would have more content. From what I heard, there is no conquest mode, only the main story, which is pretty lengthy, and tower mode. My guess is the usual DLC or an Empires version. They already have a season pass at $34.99, so it does not surprise me. I probably gonna wait for a price drop on this game as, NMH III comes out in 3 weeks and that will be my go to hack n slash for the month.

 

[hanselthecaretaker]

Spoiler: Finally beat Isshin, the Sword Saint.

Was one of four bosses in this game that dished out three nights of punishment to me. First being Lady Butterfly whom I made the masochistic error of fighting very early on, then Genichiro, then Owl: Father. To my surprise though, once I learned this Isshin fight, it didn’t feel quite as bad; it’s just an endurance match, which had me a bit anxious towards the final moments of, as I’d only gotten to the final phase I think four times beforehand. The spear is IMO his biggest threat, and the battle is less intimidating once its patterns are recognized (and personally compensating for my projector’s 67 milliseconds of input lag of course). All in all it ended up being pretty fun. Demon of Hatred is the only boss I wound up cheesing, right off a cliff; never got a single death blow on it and this shinobi feels no shame!

I also feel no shame in save scumming all three Kuro endings, which only leaves NG+ and the Shura play through which, apparently culminates with another Isshin fight. So…will probably be three nights of that ish too, I presume.

Now, to head straight into NG+, or detour into Infamous: Second Son for a bit change of pace.

 

[Bedinsis]

I started a run of Crusader Kings II as a count within the country of Italy. I currently am the king of Italy, my cousin is the king of Egypt after a successful crusade, I own several duchies across the African coast and roughly half of Spain and while I wasn't looking the AI managed to reform the African faith.

 

[Dirty Hipsters]

I tried the Splitgate beta today on steam.

It's basically what if Halo and Portal had a competitive FPS baby together.


So far people are not very good at it and I crushed them. People don't really understand how the portals work and what amazing utility they have, and greatly under-use them. When playing with portals the thing you need to understand is that even when you're on the low ground you still have the high ground and this concept seems to completely break people's brains. Lots of fun, and a lot of potential for really creative plays.

Just know that the beta is a little low on server space, so when you launch the game it puts you in a queue and it took me about 20 minutes to actually get into the game. Once you're in though you can play as many matches as you want and the matchmaking is very quick.

 

[NerfedFalcon]

Been playing mainly Genshin Impact lately; I just haven't been able to focus on anything else for long enough to make real progress. And I've only been doing short sessions of Genshin since I hit a roadblock in the MSQ, a tough boss that I can't get through. So while I'm grinding the team that I think has the best chance of getting through it, I haven't been doing much else when I log in.

Other than that, I've done a couple levels of Ghostrunner every couple of days, though I haven't had a long session in a while.

 

[XsjadoBlayde]

The psuedo-free games for playstation this month aren't the most exciting: another battle royale clone but Chinese, plants vs zombies, and Tennis...world tour....2. So Tennis is up first. Booted up the menu to read the menu tutorial message introduction, and damn, they don't mess around with where they want your eyes to be directed to first...



It's like a bad joke. I don't feel like playing anymore.

But wait! It's ok, because the game won't let you play until you've really seen the store!



Not done yet I'm afraid...



You just gotta open 7 more card packs before you can get out this tutorial...



Ok, it lied, tutorial must usher you to your card collection...sorry, gameplay can wait, loser!



If you thought you were coming here for tennis, you're shit outta luck son. This is the card economy now!