Mikami is from the old school. When he says old school arcade style action, he means it. I don't always agree with his design choices either. I get the the intent, but at some point you got to stop and tell yourself, no.
What are you currently playing?
- Thread starter Nick Calandra
- Start date
Got back into Streets of Rage 4. Currently playing around with Axel and Shiva. Shiva is practically easy mode on almost all of the difficulties. He's playing Streets of Rage 5, and everyone's stuck in SOR4. He's hoping they bring back universal dashing and dodge rolling for whenever the fifth title comes out.
She’s a fan of using Destined Death on any threats to the Golden Order, so there is that.
Anyways from the wiki itself -
WHAT IS THE ERDTREE AND WHY IS ITS SAP/AMBER SO POWERFUL? WHY DO ALL OF THE CATACOMBS END IN A ROOM WHERE BODIES OF THE DEAD ARE BEING SUCKED INTO THE ROOTS AND EMBER OF (SEEMINGLY) THE ERDTREE?
- It is possible that the Golden Order is really nothing more than the Greater Will's diversion of the souls of the dead into the Erdtree, allowing the Will to effectively harvest the life-force of the Lands Between to power the domination of the Golden Order over Death itself.
Who’s to say they’d discriminate, as Marika is herself the embodiment of an outsider in emperean form. The Numen Rune description reads:
The Numen are said to have come from outside the Lands Between, and are in fact of the same stock as Queen Marika herself.
Why are Marika and Radagon the same being, and able to switch back and forth? So much is still relegated to fan theories. Most interesting of which IMO would probably still be that of alchemy.
Last edited:
Playing Teslagrad, a Norwegian-developed metroidvania. I could've sworn it would turn out to be French from the bouncy hand-drawn animation. Came out like 10 years ago but you wouldn't know it from a retro-style indie platformer. Sequel's been in the works forever.
It's magnetism puzzles. You have the power to magnetize things blue or red so they'll attract each other or move apart. This quickly goes from elementary color matching puzzles to having to contend with differently-colored gravitational forces, erratic behavior from robot NPCs and insta-death obstacles. What with the slippery movement and shaky physics, figuring out puzzles is much more fun than actually having to traverse them.
The characters animate beautifully but the environments have a bland phony 2.5D look. There's no sense to the different environments in the castle, which look like themed areas in a videogame, in contrast to the relatively grounded mood-setter prologue involving a chase in what looks like an oppressed 19th century steampunk Euro village.
I give it credit for not just being another double-jump/dash/wall-climb/ground pound/glide metroidvania. It has a gimmick and finds ways of exploring everything you can do with it. But the movement and controls really kills it for me.
It's magnetism puzzles. You have the power to magnetize things blue or red so they'll attract each other or move apart. This quickly goes from elementary color matching puzzles to having to contend with differently-colored gravitational forces, erratic behavior from robot NPCs and insta-death obstacles. What with the slippery movement and shaky physics, figuring out puzzles is much more fun than actually having to traverse them.
The characters animate beautifully but the environments have a bland phony 2.5D look. There's no sense to the different environments in the castle, which look like themed areas in a videogame, in contrast to the relatively grounded mood-setter prologue involving a chase in what looks like an oppressed 19th century steampunk Euro village.
I give it credit for not just being another double-jump/dash/wall-climb/ground pound/glide metroidvania. It has a gimmick and finds ways of exploring everything you can do with it. But the movement and controls really kills it for me.
I have been chipping away at Dragon Age Inquisition since April, and I am just about to come to the end, after playing this particular character for about 130 hours (though some of it is likely time spent AFK).
And yeah, I have opinions.
Starting with the good stuff, im genuinely surprised by the amount of content in this game, particularly when it comes to the number of zones, and how all of them feel really unique. The environments in this game generally look really great, even 9 years later, and the variety from one zone to the next really makes it feel like you aren't stuck in the same place for too long - see: Dragon Age 2. I've played this game to completion once before, so I generally recalled most of the areas before coming back for this second playthrough, but I do recall the feeling of wonder every time I stepped into a new biome. This is probably the area in which Dragon Age Inquisition flexes the most, and you really feel it.
From a gameplay perspective, the dual-weapon Rogue is a lot of fun to play. I played for about 100 hours as my 2H-weapon warrior, but decided to dedicate most of my time controlling one of my party members whilst running through the expansions, and this kit is just so much fun. Im just zipping around the battlefield, dashing from enemy to enemy, unleashing a flurry of stabs and strikes, before dashing to the next guy. This feels really energetic, and in comparison, I really quite regret spending so much time trudging around as my Warrior main character. Thank god for the ability to play as your companions, I guess!
Speaking of companions, I think this game does a really good job of giving your companions their own strict morals, and it is actually quite easy to just end up not being liked by some of them, which I think is pretty great. There are a couple of companions in this game that just straight-up do not like me, which is a pretty stark contrast to Mass Effect and Dragon Age 2, where everyone thinks that you are the shit, and you are buddy-buddy with everyone that you meet. This is similar to Dragon Age Origins - though in that game you can cheat with "gifts" DLC, to max out all of your companions' approval of you.
Also, the music is actually pretty great. Coming from Dragon Age Origins and 2, where I never really noticed the music, then booting up Dragon Age Inquisition and being greeted by this banger, feels pretty good. The rest of the tracks are also pretty great.
Now onto the not-so-great stuff
Firstly, the story. So for the entire game you are chasing around this dude called Corypheus, who is evil, and wants to take over the world... but I don't think that they ever really clearly communicated why? Like, the dude is evil, and you have to stop him, which is fine, but without a clear motivation, I found it quite difficult to be invested in his story. Its a bit of a shame too, because Dragon Age featured another similar character back in Dragon Age Origins (the Awakening expansion), and he was night and day more interesting than this guy. Oh well!
From a technical perspective, this game runs remarkably well on modern hardware (4k, 140FPS), but I heard that the development team really struggled to make this game on the Frostbite engine, and you can really feel the game coming apart at the seams. Weird camera angles in cutscenes, objects floating, characters phasing through objects. Playing as my Warrior character also often felt really clunky. My whirlwind ability would frequently just launch me into the air, like a helicopter. And when I was trying to hit an enemy who had been knocked to the ground, I would swing my axe, and it would just graze over the enemy's body, missing them, and causing no damage. I really hope BioWare are more used to working with this engine for DA4.
As for the content that you would be spending most of your time doing, it also isn't really that great. Campaign missions aside, you are dropped into one of these zones, and really all you have to do is collect collectibles, mark points of interest, fight demons at fade rifts, or fight a big dragon. That last one is pretty exciting on your first encounter, but all 10 dragons function basically exactly the same, except from the element that they breathe at you. Each zone is filled to the brim with content, but if the content isn't really that engaging, and often without any context, im not exactly having the best time of my life ticking all of these icons off of the map.
Generally, this game is just way too big, and really could have done with some quite liberal trimming, and consolidating of resources. As it is, it is packed with content, but very little of it is actually worth your time. Most of the more interesting stories are locked away in the War Table, where you just send agents to resolve these issues (which often takes hours of real time, no less), whilst you are left trudging around various locales, picking stuff off the floor, and fighting nameless dudes.
Coming to the end of this massive journey, I find it hard to justify the 100+ hours that I spent with this game. Overall, I think this is the longest mediocre game that I have ever played. I haven't had a bad time, I just haven't really enjoyed myself all that much, either.
Now, onto the last DLC - Trespasser - which I recall is actually pretty decent. Then I can finally move onto something else.
And yeah, I have opinions.
Starting with the good stuff, im genuinely surprised by the amount of content in this game, particularly when it comes to the number of zones, and how all of them feel really unique. The environments in this game generally look really great, even 9 years later, and the variety from one zone to the next really makes it feel like you aren't stuck in the same place for too long - see: Dragon Age 2. I've played this game to completion once before, so I generally recalled most of the areas before coming back for this second playthrough, but I do recall the feeling of wonder every time I stepped into a new biome. This is probably the area in which Dragon Age Inquisition flexes the most, and you really feel it.
From a gameplay perspective, the dual-weapon Rogue is a lot of fun to play. I played for about 100 hours as my 2H-weapon warrior, but decided to dedicate most of my time controlling one of my party members whilst running through the expansions, and this kit is just so much fun. Im just zipping around the battlefield, dashing from enemy to enemy, unleashing a flurry of stabs and strikes, before dashing to the next guy. This feels really energetic, and in comparison, I really quite regret spending so much time trudging around as my Warrior main character. Thank god for the ability to play as your companions, I guess!
Speaking of companions, I think this game does a really good job of giving your companions their own strict morals, and it is actually quite easy to just end up not being liked by some of them, which I think is pretty great. There are a couple of companions in this game that just straight-up do not like me, which is a pretty stark contrast to Mass Effect and Dragon Age 2, where everyone thinks that you are the shit, and you are buddy-buddy with everyone that you meet. This is similar to Dragon Age Origins - though in that game you can cheat with "gifts" DLC, to max out all of your companions' approval of you.
Also, the music is actually pretty great. Coming from Dragon Age Origins and 2, where I never really noticed the music, then booting up Dragon Age Inquisition and being greeted by this banger, feels pretty good. The rest of the tracks are also pretty great.
Now onto the not-so-great stuff
Firstly, the story. So for the entire game you are chasing around this dude called Corypheus, who is evil, and wants to take over the world... but I don't think that they ever really clearly communicated why? Like, the dude is evil, and you have to stop him, which is fine, but without a clear motivation, I found it quite difficult to be invested in his story. Its a bit of a shame too, because Dragon Age featured another similar character back in Dragon Age Origins (the Awakening expansion), and he was night and day more interesting than this guy. Oh well!
From a technical perspective, this game runs remarkably well on modern hardware (4k, 140FPS), but I heard that the development team really struggled to make this game on the Frostbite engine, and you can really feel the game coming apart at the seams. Weird camera angles in cutscenes, objects floating, characters phasing through objects. Playing as my Warrior character also often felt really clunky. My whirlwind ability would frequently just launch me into the air, like a helicopter. And when I was trying to hit an enemy who had been knocked to the ground, I would swing my axe, and it would just graze over the enemy's body, missing them, and causing no damage. I really hope BioWare are more used to working with this engine for DA4.
As for the content that you would be spending most of your time doing, it also isn't really that great. Campaign missions aside, you are dropped into one of these zones, and really all you have to do is collect collectibles, mark points of interest, fight demons at fade rifts, or fight a big dragon. That last one is pretty exciting on your first encounter, but all 10 dragons function basically exactly the same, except from the element that they breathe at you. Each zone is filled to the brim with content, but if the content isn't really that engaging, and often without any context, im not exactly having the best time of my life ticking all of these icons off of the map.
Generally, this game is just way too big, and really could have done with some quite liberal trimming, and consolidating of resources. As it is, it is packed with content, but very little of it is actually worth your time. Most of the more interesting stories are locked away in the War Table, where you just send agents to resolve these issues (which often takes hours of real time, no less), whilst you are left trudging around various locales, picking stuff off the floor, and fighting nameless dudes.
Coming to the end of this massive journey, I find it hard to justify the 100+ hours that I spent with this game. Overall, I think this is the longest mediocre game that I have ever played. I haven't had a bad time, I just haven't really enjoyed myself all that much, either.
Now, onto the last DLC - Trespasser - which I recall is actually pretty decent. Then I can finally move onto something else.
Last edited:
Corypheus' motivation - such as it is - is largely conveyed in the Legacy DLC of DragonAge 2 where he is introduced. Even then, its not like its a complex motivation: he's one of the original Magisters who breached the Golden City as explained in the opening of Origins and he wants to Make Tevinter Great Again.
I was playing Warhammer 40,000 Boltgun tonight, & it has blown me away with how well it plays & much passion you can tell was clearly put into the game by the devs! You can even be nibbled by Nurglings! (It tells you what killed you.) A truly fast, fun & brutal shooter that I can recommend to any 40k fan easily! I don't play many shooters, but this one I liked!
Mass Effect (Legendary Edition)
Going back to an old favourite, with a fresh coat of paint. Mass Effect still conjures a sci fi universe in a way that few other games match, although the way gear is handled in the first game still leaves a lot to be desired - the main frustration I'm finding this time is that the provided stats for weapons don't give enough detail about what the weapon will be like to use, particularly for sniper rifles, which I'm using quite a lot as I'm playing as a Soldier this time.
Going back to an old favourite, with a fresh coat of paint. Mass Effect still conjures a sci fi universe in a way that few other games match, although the way gear is handled in the first game still leaves a lot to be desired - the main frustration I'm finding this time is that the provided stats for weapons don't give enough detail about what the weapon will be like to use, particularly for sniper rifles, which I'm using quite a lot as I'm playing as a Soldier this time.
Been awhile since I posted here, but meh, Iz gotz opinionz:
FIRE EMBLEM HEROES
OVERWATCH 2
FIRE EMBLEM HEROES
So I finished Book IV. I really don't have too much to say here - a lot of what I've said about Books 1 to 3 can also be applied to 4. The TL, DR version is that I can't say I'm fond of this Book, and that in terms of story quality, my current rankings are 2>3>4>1. I really don't have the time or inclination to do a plot summary, so random thoughts:
-If nothing else, Peony is a precious little cinnamon bun, so yay for fairy characters. For better or worse, I kind of found myself reminded of Lumina from Sonic Shuffle (bet you didn't think you'd see THAT game mentioned, did you?)
-That being said, I have little else positive to say. Heroes has taken liberally from Norse mythology in Book 2 and 3, but a whole campaign dedicated to fairies and a dream world and whatnot just doesn't cut it for me after Nifelheim, Muspelheim, and Helheim. That's not to say you couldn't make an interesting story out of this, but let's be clear, none of the campaigns up until now have been "good," really, and this doesn't break the trend. Since it's revealed that everything takes place inside Kiran's head, that undercuts a lot of the stakes. Yes, I can probably assume that the threat from Freyja was real, but even so...
-Yes, the whole twist of "it was all a dream" is somewhat tarnished by the fact that almost all of Book IV is, well, a dream. I think the twist in of itself is decent - not just that it's a dream, but that it's inside Kiran's head (i.e. "your" head, given the player character format), but how Kiran has imagined himself (or herself, if you're a weeb) to be Alphonse, but again, still a dream.
-I'll give the campaign some incidental credit - this is one of the rare cases where characters pulled across the IP arguably make sense (sort of), in that if the whole thing is a dream, and nightmares are assaulting the characters, then the campaign has some leeway in how it portrays them. So for instance, if Kiran sees Marth for instance, he's not literally seeing Marth, but an apparition of him. I can't say I was ever fond of how Heroes pulled in FE characters at will, but at least here it's less jarring.
-The Shareena/Peony thing is such a waste. Basically, Shareena has an identity crisis as it's revealed that when she was young, she and Peony (or rather, the girl who would become Peony) swapped with each other in their dream shannigans (it's complicated). The crux of the matter is that Shareena here isn't sure if she's the real Shareena, or a changeling that's taken Shareena's place that's done the imposter thing so well she/it doesn't know whether it's real. Conceptually, I like this. However, there's a number of problems:
1: It's never really resolved. I'm not talking about whether there's an answer as to whether Shareena is the real Shareena, or Peony is the original Shareena who's become a fairy (like I said, it's complicated), it's just that there's no real climax to this plotline.
2: Since all of this is happening inside Kiran's head, Shareena's existential angst never really happens. Let's assume for the sake of argument that everything that's revealed about Shareena's backstory here is true, in as much that Peony is a reliable witness. If so, that arguably makes things worse, because the real Shareena will never know anything about it.
3: Because of how Heroes is structured, none of this will ever come up (as far as I'm aware), because no book has ever really led to a subsequent one narratively.
-Also, the ending. Plumeria and Tiandra mourn over Freya, Lif and Tharsis appear somehow, and do...something...how? Why? When? Peh, whatever.
So, yeah, not a fan. Also, maybe this is more me more than the campaign, but it was rediculously easy to complete. Book 2 and 3 had a number of missions I had to attempt numerous times, book 4 I barely had to retry anything at all.
So, okay then, Book 4 is a letdown. But since I'm resolved to see this through (well, sort of, being a mobile game it's complicated), I started Book 5. These are very much early impressions.
-So back to stealing from Norse mythology, we're introduced to the kingdom of Niðavellir (thank Odin for copy-paste). Not a realm, a kingdom, despite Heroes formerly establishing (unless I missed something) that the continent of Zenith was divided between Askr and Embla. Apparently Nodavellir (mispelling, I know, don't @ me) has spent the last few decades conquering other kingdoms and has now set their sights on Askr. I'm kind of left to wonder why Nodavellir was never mentioned up to this point, but I've already stated that the campaigns don't lead into each other sequentially, so the simple answer is that it likely wasn't conceived.
-Getting into more subjective territory, this marks the point where Fire Emblem (or at least Heroes) goes steampunk. Sort of. Maybe. I say that because the implication is that Nodavellir is a technologically advanced kingdom, with wheels, gears, where Princess Rajinn (more on her later) engages her enemies in a centaur-esque mech suit with machine guns and rocket launchers. I...okay, in isolation, the suit is kinda neat, in context, I really dislike this. If FE wants to go steampunk, sure, but this is steampunk in a setting that up to this point, has operated on Medieval levels of technology. Except the enemy goons are still using Medieval weapons, so it seems only Rajin is the one with the suit? But if that's the case, why, when we've seen how advanced Nodavellir is? Yes, I know why the grunts look the way they do (sprites), but it's a double whiplash. First, why are Nodaellir troops so poorly equipped in comparison to their level of tech, and why is Askr able to stand up to said tech level?
You might be saying "but Hawki, don't lots of settings have steampunk thrown in with Medieval tech? Aren't JRPGs particuarly infamous for swords triumphing over guns?" To that I say "yes," but I'll also say that context can mitigate this to various extents, and Book 5 seems to have the worst of both worlds - steampunk tech that should steamroll Medieval tech, yet steampunk tech that, for whatever reason, isn't used.
-All that aside, let's get to Rajinn. As a character, there's nothing I can say about her at this point, but her design, in isolation, is pretty neat. Like I said, mech suit centaur with machine guns, rocket launchers, sword, and shield. There's almost something Chaos Dwarfy about it (after all, the inhabitants of Nodavellir are called dvergr, which are Norse dwarfs, though they all look human, so...), but be that as it may, the design is neat. A glass cannon, but hey, not complaining.
-Minor point, but we're back to randomly plucked heroes returning as enemies, only unlike books 1, 3, and 4, without explanation. Fine. Whatever.
So, yeah. Without doubt, Heroes is easily my least favorite FE game, but still chugging along, so yay for determination or something.
-If nothing else, Peony is a precious little cinnamon bun, so yay for fairy characters. For better or worse, I kind of found myself reminded of Lumina from Sonic Shuffle (bet you didn't think you'd see THAT game mentioned, did you?)
-That being said, I have little else positive to say. Heroes has taken liberally from Norse mythology in Book 2 and 3, but a whole campaign dedicated to fairies and a dream world and whatnot just doesn't cut it for me after Nifelheim, Muspelheim, and Helheim. That's not to say you couldn't make an interesting story out of this, but let's be clear, none of the campaigns up until now have been "good," really, and this doesn't break the trend. Since it's revealed that everything takes place inside Kiran's head, that undercuts a lot of the stakes. Yes, I can probably assume that the threat from Freyja was real, but even so...
-Yes, the whole twist of "it was all a dream" is somewhat tarnished by the fact that almost all of Book IV is, well, a dream. I think the twist in of itself is decent - not just that it's a dream, but that it's inside Kiran's head (i.e. "your" head, given the player character format), but how Kiran has imagined himself (or herself, if you're a weeb) to be Alphonse, but again, still a dream.
-I'll give the campaign some incidental credit - this is one of the rare cases where characters pulled across the IP arguably make sense (sort of), in that if the whole thing is a dream, and nightmares are assaulting the characters, then the campaign has some leeway in how it portrays them. So for instance, if Kiran sees Marth for instance, he's not literally seeing Marth, but an apparition of him. I can't say I was ever fond of how Heroes pulled in FE characters at will, but at least here it's less jarring.
-The Shareena/Peony thing is such a waste. Basically, Shareena has an identity crisis as it's revealed that when she was young, she and Peony (or rather, the girl who would become Peony) swapped with each other in their dream shannigans (it's complicated). The crux of the matter is that Shareena here isn't sure if she's the real Shareena, or a changeling that's taken Shareena's place that's done the imposter thing so well she/it doesn't know whether it's real. Conceptually, I like this. However, there's a number of problems:
1: It's never really resolved. I'm not talking about whether there's an answer as to whether Shareena is the real Shareena, or Peony is the original Shareena who's become a fairy (like I said, it's complicated), it's just that there's no real climax to this plotline.
2: Since all of this is happening inside Kiran's head, Shareena's existential angst never really happens. Let's assume for the sake of argument that everything that's revealed about Shareena's backstory here is true, in as much that Peony is a reliable witness. If so, that arguably makes things worse, because the real Shareena will never know anything about it.
3: Because of how Heroes is structured, none of this will ever come up (as far as I'm aware), because no book has ever really led to a subsequent one narratively.
-Also, the ending. Plumeria and Tiandra mourn over Freya, Lif and Tharsis appear somehow, and do...something...how? Why? When? Peh, whatever.
So, yeah, not a fan. Also, maybe this is more me more than the campaign, but it was rediculously easy to complete. Book 2 and 3 had a number of missions I had to attempt numerous times, book 4 I barely had to retry anything at all.
So, okay then, Book 4 is a letdown. But since I'm resolved to see this through (well, sort of, being a mobile game it's complicated), I started Book 5. These are very much early impressions.
-So back to stealing from Norse mythology, we're introduced to the kingdom of Niðavellir (thank Odin for copy-paste). Not a realm, a kingdom, despite Heroes formerly establishing (unless I missed something) that the continent of Zenith was divided between Askr and Embla. Apparently Nodavellir (mispelling, I know, don't @ me) has spent the last few decades conquering other kingdoms and has now set their sights on Askr. I'm kind of left to wonder why Nodavellir was never mentioned up to this point, but I've already stated that the campaigns don't lead into each other sequentially, so the simple answer is that it likely wasn't conceived.
-Getting into more subjective territory, this marks the point where Fire Emblem (or at least Heroes) goes steampunk. Sort of. Maybe. I say that because the implication is that Nodavellir is a technologically advanced kingdom, with wheels, gears, where Princess Rajinn (more on her later) engages her enemies in a centaur-esque mech suit with machine guns and rocket launchers. I...okay, in isolation, the suit is kinda neat, in context, I really dislike this. If FE wants to go steampunk, sure, but this is steampunk in a setting that up to this point, has operated on Medieval levels of technology. Except the enemy goons are still using Medieval weapons, so it seems only Rajin is the one with the suit? But if that's the case, why, when we've seen how advanced Nodavellir is? Yes, I know why the grunts look the way they do (sprites), but it's a double whiplash. First, why are Nodaellir troops so poorly equipped in comparison to their level of tech, and why is Askr able to stand up to said tech level?
You might be saying "but Hawki, don't lots of settings have steampunk thrown in with Medieval tech? Aren't JRPGs particuarly infamous for swords triumphing over guns?" To that I say "yes," but I'll also say that context can mitigate this to various extents, and Book 5 seems to have the worst of both worlds - steampunk tech that should steamroll Medieval tech, yet steampunk tech that, for whatever reason, isn't used.
-All that aside, let's get to Rajinn. As a character, there's nothing I can say about her at this point, but her design, in isolation, is pretty neat. Like I said, mech suit centaur with machine guns, rocket launchers, sword, and shield. There's almost something Chaos Dwarfy about it (after all, the inhabitants of Nodavellir are called dvergr, which are Norse dwarfs, though they all look human, so...), but be that as it may, the design is neat. A glass cannon, but hey, not complaining.
-Minor point, but we're back to randomly plucked heroes returning as enemies, only unlike books 1, 3, and 4, without explanation. Fine. Whatever.
So, yeah. Without doubt, Heroes is easily my least favorite FE game, but still chugging along, so yay for determination or something.
OVERWATCH 2
I debated whether I should address the gorilla in the room, and while I really didn't want to, I know someone would bring it up as soon as I posted here at all, so here are the facts:
-No, Overwatch PvE wasn't cancelled, I keep seeing this claim being made. Overwatch 2 was set to launch with 2 PvE modes, Hero Missions and Story Missions. Hero Missions have been cancelled, Story Missions are still on.
-How you feel about the above fact is up to you, but this is the "what are you playing" thread not "what do you think about stuff that hasn't released yet" thread, so I'll leave it at that.
Alright, now that that's out of the way, OW2 is still my de facto multiplayer game right now.
-No, Overwatch PvE wasn't cancelled, I keep seeing this claim being made. Overwatch 2 was set to launch with 2 PvE modes, Hero Missions and Story Missions. Hero Missions have been cancelled, Story Missions are still on.
-How you feel about the above fact is up to you, but this is the "what are you playing" thread not "what do you think about stuff that hasn't released yet" thread, so I'll leave it at that.
Alright, now that that's out of the way, OW2 is still my de facto multiplayer game right now.
Yeah, I'm probably not going to finish Pillars of Eternity. I'll be surprised if I'll hit the 10 hour mark. There's a good reason why CRPGs have evolved significantly since the late 90s, first among them being called "not wasting my fucking time". Hot take: objective markers are good, actually. Because instead of leafing through my journal and going to 5 different locations to try to discover the NPC whose location is only given in vague generalities, you can just cut out the middleman and show me where said NPC is. Same goes for weapons: instead of having to read through every. single. fucking. line of text on the 3-paragraph long description of a minorly magical morningstar, you can just show me with colors whether or not it's going to do more damage overall than my longsword. Oh, and while you're at it, you could just automatically compare it to my main weapon instead of me having to click "inspect" and then "compare" separately.
My experience so far can be mostly be summed up as "click and wait". Click on a place and wait for the party to walk where I told them to go. Click on an enemy and wait for the automated party AI to do its job. Maybe intervene with a healing spell if things are getting dicey. Yet another idiotic design decision in this game is that for some reason the party AI will only activate when you click on an enemy for them to target, but stop working the moment the enemy you pointed at first dies, leaving with their thumbs up their asses while the enemy pounds them to gravy. But what delivered the killing blow for me was the absence of a simple fixture of modern gaming that's simply inexcusable in a game from 2015: an inventory sort button. Retro styling is one thing, outright ignoring innovations and quality of life features is just being a stuck-up boomer.
All in all it's one of the most disconnected-feeling and simply boring gaming experiences I've had in a long time. This is one style of retro game we can leave firmly in the past. I'll say this for it though: it has made me want to give Wrath of the Righteous another chance. One which I'm pretty sure I'll regret.
My experience so far can be mostly be summed up as "click and wait". Click on a place and wait for the party to walk where I told them to go. Click on an enemy and wait for the automated party AI to do its job. Maybe intervene with a healing spell if things are getting dicey. Yet another idiotic design decision in this game is that for some reason the party AI will only activate when you click on an enemy for them to target, but stop working the moment the enemy you pointed at first dies, leaving with their thumbs up their asses while the enemy pounds them to gravy. But what delivered the killing blow for me was the absence of a simple fixture of modern gaming that's simply inexcusable in a game from 2015: an inventory sort button. Retro styling is one thing, outright ignoring innovations and quality of life features is just being a stuck-up boomer.
All in all it's one of the most disconnected-feeling and simply boring gaming experiences I've had in a long time. This is one style of retro game we can leave firmly in the past. I'll say this for it though: it has made me want to give Wrath of the Righteous another chance. One which I'm pretty sure I'll regret.
- Apr 1, 2009
- 14,926
- 3,802
- 118
- Gender
- Whatever, just wash your hands.
Played a couple levels in Boltgun. Pretty cool so far, movement feels really good and like you are wearing a heavy suit of armor, but you are still nimble so while it feels like you are wearing 2 ton armor, it doesn't FEEL like you are wearing it. Bolter feels good too, powerful like the rocket machine gun its supposed to be. Wasn't expecting the chainsword to feels as good as it does, you just ready it with right mouse button and when an enemy glows red, you just quick dash to them and hack, works well. The enemies seem to be kinda stationary, some move but not by much so I have a feeling I won't get much of a challenge but it is fun. Also, the servo skull you have is worthless, its text shows up at the upper left and goes by too quick and it tends to just say things like "heath is here".
If I could pay Ghost Of Tsushima a game design compliment it's that it's "sandbox with a purpose.". As I'm playing there's a perpetual sense that "filler" content is strategically placed along side or in-between my objectives so that I can get sidetracked while I'm on the way to doing something else, and even despite that there's almost excessive availability of fast travel points. I often am just roaming around when I have to stop and remind myself that I can just fast travel to my destination. Early in the game I was going out of my way to "not" do the main quests and explore because I feared I wouldn't get my needed allotment of upgrades.
I stopped and started just doing the story quests and what I'm finding out is that all the meaningful side quests always seem to be plotted in the most likely direction someone would travel to get to a main objective. This is different from games like the Ubisoft sandbox franchises where auxiliary content feels entirely procedurally generated and exhausting to run around doing.
I stopped and started just doing the story quests and what I'm finding out is that all the meaningful side quests always seem to be plotted in the most likely direction someone would travel to get to a main objective. This is different from games like the Ubisoft sandbox franchises where auxiliary content feels entirely procedurally generated and exhausting to run around doing.
- Apr 1, 2009
- 14,926
- 3,802
- 118
- Gender
- Whatever, just wash your hands.
The difficulty of Boltgun ramped up nicely, the arena battles have gotten more infested and enemies have started moving more. Most still go down with 1 or 2 bolts, but that is expected from most things. The shotgun is pretty good, the plasma gun is... well, its aoe but if you fire it too much it backfires and damages you and even against tougher enemies, just using your bolter a bit longer or shotgun seems to work fine.
I can't freaking do it, it's impossible. And I'm only playing on normal. I can't beat Touhou 6 without continues. I've made it to the final stage once with 2 lives, but I had to use two continues to beat the boss. There's just too many bullets, I can't keep up. I could use more bombs, but it's hard because most of the time you are just scraping past bullets and by the time I'm thinking that maybe I should use a bomb I've already taken a hit. Doesn't help that the framerate tends to slowdown and speed up randomly and I'm not sure why. Sometimes I'm playing at 30fps and sometimes at 40fps, and since this is one of those games that actually move faster at higher fps it's a bit of an issue. Also, why do I have to hold down a button to fire? She should just always be firing, there's no time that you don't want to be.
This is a genre that I really struggle with, I don't think I'll ever beat Enter the Gungeon either.
This is a genre that I really struggle with, I don't think I'll ever beat Enter the Gungeon either.
A lot of shmups for the past 25 years or so have had scoring systems that reward firing at specific times to target specific enemies rather than simply holding down the button until it goes click; admittedly Touhou's scoring systems generally don't reach the complexity of games like Battle Garegga or Radiant Silvergun, but at the same time I don't think it's unreasonable for even a more 'basic' shmup to require intentional shooting.
OT: Gradually continuing through God of War 4 still, and also started Breath of the Wild again. The Great Plateau is still one of the best openings to a game I've ever played.
Slogged through The Legend of Dragoon this last month.
I'm not sure what to say about the game. I can see it being a visually stunning game for it's time, but I can also see why it didn't catch on with wider audiences compared to other RPGs of its time.
It just feels too "restrictive". Not a game I'd like to play again without something like a 4x Frame Skip or Cheats to dull the dullness a bit.
I'm not sure what to say about the game. I can see it being a visually stunning game for it's time, but I can also see why it didn't catch on with wider audiences compared to other RPGs of its time.
It just feels too "restrictive". Not a game I'd like to play again without something like a 4x Frame Skip or Cheats to dull the dullness a bit.
- Apr 1, 2009
- 14,926
- 3,802
- 118
- Gender
- Whatever, just wash your hands.
I got to the end of that and just couldnt get the final boss. Spent like an hour farming those enemies that show up before it and still couldn't. Went to play something else then, but I have a habit of doing that with jrpgs. I'll get to the end and just not finish it.
God bless your soul for having the patience to farm in this game.
With random battles giving so little experience and battle intro sequences being so lengthy, I just couldn't deal with farming in this game. I coasted by on Boss Exp for most of the game, ending up around level 35 at the end. I'm not even mentioning the tedium of always having to nail those Additions lest your damage tanks hard or your Additions don't level up, at all.
I happened to buy a Legend Casque in Lohan before going to the point of no return at the end of Mayfill, that helmet saved my skinny arse for many a magic attack near the end. Also happened to have five or so Healing Rain items ( the one that heals the entire party ) that helped a bit with the final bosses. That, and the PS4's rewind feature.
Boss do a heavy attack that hits all party members? Rewind back a turn or two and pick different attacks for my own characters, often times this would change the RNG for the bosses attack patterns.
I've gotten to Battle Network 4 in the collection and now I suddenly understand one of the reasons the experience of the game sucked so much. Japan had all the cool stuff. In Japan you could get Patch Cards to modify the game to add all these different effects and stuff, like changing panels as you walk on them, more health, change what your charge attack is, let you put more Mega chips in your folder. These are accessible in the collection and I'm now looking at all of them thinking of how much more interesting the game would have been if I'd had access to them, especially for diversifying the gameplay, and how much easier it would have been, given all the stat changes and such. It's actually kinda shocking how much content we had no access to.
At the time the random battle where pretty fun with the attack being more involved than just picking attack from a menu which helped make it stand out. It also had limited inventory and healing in dungeon which made things a lot more interesting. As far as difficulty, if you were able to beat the divine dragon you were good for the rest of the game. imo because weakness wa slack of good endgame content.