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meiam

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To be fair, I'm pretty sure the Acid games are considered non-canonical to the main games for reasons such as this.
Didn't think it was, but its pretty shocking just how sloppy it is, on the plus side it makes me appreciate the witting of the main series more.

A few more point that I just remembered. The game use "O" to confirm and "X" to cancel, which is the japenese default but very much not the NA, usually company will flip it when they port stuff over, but not here so you'll constantly do something when you mean to cancel. You can upgrade cards, but the game doesn't tell you what the upgrade does, which can lead to a bunch of really awkward stuff, like your non lethal tranq pistol turning into a lethal gun or the upgraded card having a lower limit in the deck (ie you can have 4 basic but only 2 upgraded, so if you upgrade all 4 of your card you can use 2 and essentially lose the other 2). The enemy AI is also completely brain dead, I tried to kill myself once to restart a level but even walking right in front of the enemy and standing still was too much for them, I had to drop a mine next to a bunch of barrels and trigger it myself to finally die.

So I grabbed another game, wild arms XF. Wild arms is a cowboy theme JRPG franchise that died out in the PS2 era (5, the last one, was pretty bad, it went full anime plot). XF is a tactics a la final fantasy tactics. It does a few interesting things, almost every main story battle has some sort of gimmick, maybe you gotta escort NPS, or sneak somewhere or there's a time limit. The variety is great, but a lot of fight end up being a bit tedious or you have to figure out how the dev wanted you to clear a level and might have to restart a few times until you figure it out. New classes are given to you at fixed point in the story rather than FFT more organic version where you get them when you met pre requisite. Classes have good variety and a good amount of interesting skills, similarly equipment tend to be more interesting than just stats stick. So overall I'd say its a compare very well to FFT gameplay wise.

Story wise trough, ouch. It sorta tries to do the same kind of political intrigue story, but it just doesn't even have 1/10 of the writting chops to pull it off. Characters are all cartoonish archetype and the main story is just a convoluted mess. The games has to twist itself in all kind of knots to justify your character being involved in the story and then just end up resorting to "she's the one" bullshit anyway. Otherwise it also goes pretty deep in the anime cliche, there's even the usual skits about some 30+ character being constantly called old and treated like they're 80 or something.
 

XsjadoBlayde

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Man, Cult of the Lamb is good and all, but my follwers just don't like feeding themselves for some frustrating reason. I have to order the idiots to do it like 90% of the time now. And the temple only seems to allow 6 follwers in, which can't be upgraded, and you can't seem to choose which 6 to enter, so certain side quests just can't be completed if they involve requiring a follower to engage in a ritual when you can't even get them into to the temple in the first place. Other than that, and maybe the odd other niggle or two, is an addictive fun time. Hopefully those are merely patchable hiccups and not purposeful design specifically to punish me for my overwhelming guilt from all those crimes.
 

sXeth

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Man, Cult of the Lamb is good and all, but my follwers just don't like feeding themselves for some frustrating reason. I have to order the idiots to do it like 90% of the time now. And the temple only seems to allow 6 follwers in, which can't be upgraded, and you can't seem to choose which 6 to enter, so certain side quests just can't be completed if they involve requiring a follower to engage in a ritual when you can't even get them into to the temple in the first place. Other than that, and maybe the odd other niggle or two, is an addictive fun time. Hopefully those are merely patchable hiccups and not purposeful design specifically to punish me for my overwhelming guilt from all those crimes.

Temple/Shrine capacity upgrades with the Cult tier (I think it ups form 6-8 on Tier 2 for instance)

The game seems to have the same "trap" as Oxygen Not Included, it will happily hurl more followers at you then you can support early on, which will then spiral into a morass of poop and vomit. While also unfortunately not including a "Reject follower" button (so you have to accept dumb ones like the ones that immediately smack your faith down a bunch on join)
 
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XsjadoBlayde

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Temple/Shrine capacity upgrades with the Cult tier (I think it ups form 6-8 on Tier 2 for instance)

The game seems to have the same "trap" as Oxygen Not Included, it will happily hurl more followers at you then you can support early on, which will then spiral into a morass of poop and vomit. While also unfortunately not including a "Reject follower" button (so you have to accept dumb ones like the ones that immediately smack your faith down a bunch on join)
I already upgraded to what appears to be the highest tier, 4, so far with no difference, though it does mention a temple upgrade on each one, it doesn't say what the upgrades are. However, I just did a second google and a couple of new reddit threads seem to be saying it's a known glitch, especially on PS5 currently.



May have to just await patches for now, it is early days and there's already 2 -3 patches released.
 

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I did another Hard Mode playthrough of The TakeOver with Jackson this time. Almost managed to beat my high score. I finally got 200 kills in Final Vendetta's Survival Mode. I am never doing that again. I played some DMC5 on XONEX for the first time earlier today. Then I did a round of DmC.
 

NerfedFalcon

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Made it as far as the third boss of Ikaruga outside of stage practice mode for the first time. Wasn't able to beat it, even coming in with 3 lives; probably gonna have to look up a few more videos on how it works. Might have had another life to work with if I hadn't completely blown the first part of stage 3 and failed to keep (or even really get) a combo. Final score was 7 million and something, I don't know how close I was to the second extend at 8.

At least I have a solid route through the first two stages, so I can definitely focus my practice on the third.
 
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NerfedFalcon

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My birthday was today, and a friend of mine gifted me Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Shredder's Revenge on Steam. So far, it's pretty fun, if really basic compared to Streets of Rage 4, and a lot of the bosses feel kinda cheap. Still, Shredder's Revenge has a more 'fun' aesthetic and it's not like a game being simple automatically makes it bad. Also, the netcode is good enough that I in Australia can play with a guy in Europe and barely even notice we're not in the same room, so that's a plus.

Overall I'd still say SoR4's a better game, but if you like the Ninja Turtles, then I can recommend Shredder's Revenge (so far).
 

Chimpzy

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Still chipping away at Xenoblade 3. I'm quite enjoying it. But, I also have opinions. Plz no, not opinions!

- The combat in XC3 is probably the most refined in the series, despite being the most complex. Considering the vast fuckton of mechanics and equally vast fuckton of character stats and customization it has going on, it is no small feat that it is relatively easier to get into than its predecessors. It does help that unlike XC2, there's a compendium of tutorials in the menu, in case you want to read up, and a sort of training mode.

- That said, once you go into combat, and you got your 6 characters + 1 guest hero against like half a dozen enemies, things can quickly turn into a audiovisual clusterfuck where you have no idea who is where and doing what, and you become entirely reliant on the UI to have any idea of how the battle is going.

- Enemies also still imo have too much health. Uniques and bosses, sure, but even regular enemies can be really damage spongy. When exploring the map or going farming for items, I've actually taken to dropping the game difficulty to easy, because that makes the battles go by much faster (and also makes it safer to run away in case I run into something too high lv).

- Whose bright idea was it to introduce the discuss mechanic? You see, you get a lot of side quests by listening in on npcs talking about rumors. A bit annoying, but the game properly marks and distinguishes between rumors and just idle flavor chatter. However, to do the side quest you have to sit down at camp or canteen to discuss the rumor first, and only then can you actually go do it. Feels like a superfluous extra step in a game that's already a pretty big time sink.

- Inventory management sucks, cuz there is basically none. There's only one way to filter your items, and that's by rarity. Not by name, or newest/oldest, or stats. Just rarity. Problem is, that doesn't help much, because late game common items are usually way better than early game rares. Also makes finding a specific item out the dozens upon dozens you'll accumulate a real pain in the ass.

- I miss sprinting & Skells from XCX. One of the best parts of exploration in that game were the movement options to make exploration easier and faster culminating in your flying mech letting you go anywhere you pleased. By comparison, XC3 has the same basic running speed as XC1/2, but the maps are a lot bigger, so that speed just feels too slow.

- Also, one of the later areas in the game is very large, so you get a boat to travel it a little faster. Problem tho, it kinda controls like shit. Has the turning angle of a supertanker and for some reason sometimes moves backwards and left when I"m trying to move forwards and right.
 
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Old_Hunter_77

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Re: Xenoblade, I'm kind of interested in them as a potential RPG to sink my teeth into whenever I'm in the mood for one. But I'm also wary of JRPG's. Is the first one worth a look at this point or should one just go with the latest?

On my end, I couldn't wait for travel to jump into Bayonetta 2 so I'm about halfway through.
Impressions are basically that it's... well, just more Bayonetta. Not gonna complain about that. Graphics are the same quality on my Switch Lite and the the combat and even pace of the story is identical.
The difference is that this one feels easier. Various folks on the internet I read describe it as being easier to complete but harder to master and that feels about right. Since I only care about the former (I'm not gonna replay to get platinums and achievements) that's fine with me.

For the first game I dropped the difficulty at the game's midpoint but I'm not ready to do that yet for the 2nd. The sequel adds a mechanic where you press the left bumper sometimes and it makes all your attacks have infinite range and greater power and it makes everything 100% easier.
 

NerfedFalcon

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Re: Xenoblade, I'm kind of interested in them as a potential RPG to sink my teeth into whenever I'm in the mood for one. But I'm also wary of JRPG's. Is the first one worth a look at this point or should one just go with the latest?
Personally, I thought that the original Xenoblade was excellent. I played it with the Japanese dub, so I can't speak to the quality (or lack thereof) of the English dub, but the story is a great time, the gameplay expands and evolves pretty naturally over time, and there's plenty of customization to work with without being totally overwhelming. Worth noting, though, it's really long. A first playthrough, if you do sidequests (and it's worth doing them for the EXP) can easily take about 80 hours.
 

gorfias

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My birthday was today, and a friend of mine gifted me Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Shredder's Revenge on Steam. So far, it's pretty fun, if really basic compared to Streets of Rage 4, and a lot of the bosses feel kinda cheap. Still, Shredder's Revenge has a more 'fun' aesthetic and it's not like a game being simple automatically makes it bad. Also, the netcode is good enough that I in Australia can play with a guy in Europe and barely even notice we're not in the same room, so that's a plus.

Overall I'd still say SoR4's a better game, but if you like the Ninja Turtles, then I can recommend Shredder's Revenge (so far).
Happy Birthday. Hope you got to do some spectacular stuff today. Gaming? Worse ways to spend the day!

I played Saints Row 2 on the Xbox One X today. I think it is a game for gold today.

I started at the beginning creating my character and made it to my 1st "Forgive and Forget".

 

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My birthday was today
Happy Brithday! Hope it's been going great!

a lot of the bosses feel kinda cheap.
Actually, most of the bosses are fair and not that hard. Here's a hint, try not to use the same strategy that's was used in the Arcade games. It won't end well. Gnarly Mode bosses have so much HP, and they hit real hard!

On my end, I couldn't wait for travel to jump into Bayonetta 2 so I'm about halfway through.
Impressions are basically that it's... well, just more Bayonetta. Not gonna complain about that. Graphics are the same quality on my Switch Lite and the the combat and even pace of the story is identical.
The difference is that this one feels easier. Various folks on the internet I read describe it as being easier to complete but harder to master and that feels about right. Since I only care about the former (I'm not gonna replay to get platinums and achievements) that's fine with me.
Bayo2 is the first game, but better gameplay and mechanics. Stick around, because there are better unlockable bonuses, characters, and game modes too.
For the first game I dropped the difficulty at the game's midpoint but I'm not ready to do that yet for the 2nd. The sequel adds a mechanic where you press the left bumper sometimes and it makes all your attacks have infinite range and greater power and it makes everything 100% easier.
The difficulty is so much more balanced and not as rage inducing. You should get through just fine. The left bumper is Umbran Climax. It's this game's equivalent of Devil Trigger. It's runs off the same magic gauge as your torture attacks. Collect Moon Stones to extend bar, either by collecting them in hidden areas and challenge arenas, or buying them.
 

NerfedFalcon

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Actually, most of the bosses are fair and not that hard. Here's a hint, try not to use the same strategy that's was used in the Arcade games. It won't end well. Gnarly Mode bosses have so much HP, and they hit real hard!
I've been playing on Okay (medium) and I still feel like they have a lot of HP and hit pretty hard. Also, I've never played the arcade games, and the last time I played Turtles in Time on the SNES was a long time ago. Mostly what I mean about them being cheap is that they have super armor for days and attacks that you basically can't dodge unless you never, ever try to attack except after one or two of their moves that leave them stunned and wide open. Also, when I posted that, the last boss I'd faced was Rat King, who is all of that plus adds that move and attack quickly and unpredictably, and also open you up to lose a whole bunch of health to that command grab.

Compared to Streets of Rage 4, where the boss super armor was a lot more obvious and there was a lot less of it, and even if you did attack a boss in armor frames you still had a reasonable chance to avoid their attack if you recognize it. Actually, based on what I recall of Turtles in Time, this is exactly how the bosses in that game were too, made particularly clear with the Metalhead battle which is more or less the same as that game.
 
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Dalisclock

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Happy Birthday. Hope you got to do some spectacular stuff today. Gaming? Worse ways to spend the day!

I played Saints Row 2 on the Xbox One X today. I think it is a game for gold today.

I started at the beginning creating my character and made it to my 1st "Forgive and Forget".

Have you played it before, out of curiosity? Also, if you want, I can suggest certain things make you OP early that's honestly not difficult at all. Namely a certain vehicle and weapon you can get the moment you finish the tutorial.
 
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BrawlMan

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I've been playing on Okay (medium) and I still feel like they have a lot of HP and hit pretty hard.
Were you doing multiplayer by any chance? Bosses do get health and armor buff each time a new player is added. It works similar to how the Dynamic Difficulty worked in the arcade games.

I played Turtles in Time on the SNES
Actually, based on what I recall of Turtles in Time, this is exactly how the bosses in that game were too, made particularly clear with the Metalhead battle which is more or less the same as that game.
Depends on the version you're playing. The Arcade version is straight up cheap, and it' almost impossible to kill bosses without taking damage or losing a life. The console version of TiT is a lot more fair, and bosses won't straight up counter attack you after landing several hits. The SNES version gives bosses a life meter, so it more than helps when the boss is about to kick the bucket. The difficulty is balanced for all modes, and there is no dynamic difficulty. Hyperstone Heist is more or less similar to how the SNES version of TiT works.

Also, when I posted that, the last boss I'd faced was Rat King, who is all of that plus adds that move and attack quickly and unpredictably, and also open you up to lose a whole bunch of health to that command grab.
Rat King can be a pain the ass the first couple times through. I hate his battle, because it's a case of waiting it out when trying to dodge all the rats, and you can't hit him until the phases obnoxiously finishes.
 

Drathnoxis

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Re: Xenoblade, I'm kind of interested in them as a potential RPG to sink my teeth into whenever I'm in the mood for one. But I'm also wary of JRPG's. Is the first one worth a look at this point or should one just go with the latest?
I'm occasionally into JPRGs but have a low tolerance for grind. I played for a couple hours and got sick of it. The story was pretty typical JRPG nonsense where, like, 5 guys are worth as much as an entire army and something something magical artifact. Didn't really grab me, and the combat was a grindy combination of real time and turn based. I would say unless you are typically into JRPGs, avoid it.
 

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I watched SuperGreatFriend play AI: The Somnium Files - Nirvana Initiative, and now I have opinions. I loved the first game, but this one, not so much. I posted this elsewhere already, so I'll just copy it here.

Uchikoshi should not write sequels. It just seems like he has no interest or ability in writing a compelling sequel that is actually a reasonable continuation of a plot. 999 was a really good story, had a great twist that made sense in the context of the game, and best of all had a good ending. Then VLR came along and might as well have been it's own game, the world is different, any returning characters have had their personalities transplanted, and the game ends on a cliffhanger. The less said about ZTD the better really, but suffice it to say that returning characters once again have new personalities and despite supposedly being the resolution to VLR the plot has almost nothing to do with either of the previous 2 games.

Frankly, I had basically given up on him as a writer after ZTD, but then he knocked it out of the park with AI: The Somnium Files. The game was a fantastic mix of silly and serious, the characters were great, the twist made all the pieces of plot fall into place without being ridiculous or unbelievable, and the big dance number out of nowhere at the end made it into one of my favorite endings to a video game ever. However, with the release of Nirvana Initiative it's clear the cycle is beginning again. Now AINI does have a few advantages over VLR, namely that it actually has an ending, and it also is more closely related to its predecessor which is a double edged sword. Now I'm going to take this opportunity to rant about AINI for a long while.

First off, much has already been said about the decision to make AINI spoiler free. Obviously this was a huge detriment to a story that ostensibly continued directly from the conclusion of the last game. Most notably all the character development that Date and Mizuki underwent in the previous game has been erased. Date is once again a perverted man-child, despite the fact that much of his horniness was stated to be a side effect of the drugs used to normalize Saito's body. Once he was back in his own body at the end he seemed much more stable. But all that is gone and he's wearing... a mask... of a serial killers body... for the ladies... Man, who thought that was a good idea, seriously? Anyway, I don't know why they even did it because he's barely even in the game anyway.
Mizuki is just Mizuki, except there's 2 of her now. She doesn't undergo any development, unless you consider acquiring a clone development. Both Mizukis act interchangeably despite living radically different lives. I guess it's nature over nurture as far as AI is concerned. Also, it's weird but Mizuki tends to act more like Date now that she's the protagonist, especially when commenting about the environment. Actually, so does Ryuki. It's like there's this 'protagonist' trait that they all acquire and end up saying the same stupid stuff about sofas or whatever. Kind of sloppy writing. Boss, Pewter, Iris, Hitomi, Ota, and So also briefly make appearances, but contribute almost nothing

The game in general cribs too much from the last game. Jokes that were funny in the first game are retread ad nauseam, like Kagami and Atami. Kisuna is basically Iris 2.0 complete with her own song and dance and fanatical admirer. And you know, as much as I loved the dance number in the first game, when you do it a second time it just doesn't feel special (though I do appreciate they remembered to make a separate animation for Hitomi and her arm). Also, Invincible Rainbow Arrow was the better song, fight me. The villain is once again an illegitimate child of So. That makes the world feel small and kind of silly.

Now let's talk about the twist. The twist is stupid, straight up. Second worst out of all of Uchikoshi's games I've played (VLR is a near third, mind). First it's a twist for the sake of having a twist. It has no relation to the plot or characters or anything. See, in the first game there are a ton of details of the mystery that just don't seem to work. The prime suspect keeps getting killed, and nothing fits. Then, you learn the twist, the body swapping ability of the psync machine, and everything falls into place. You re-evaluate everything you know and suddenly it makes sense. This twist is nothing like that. The mysteries that could not be resolved were only mysteries because the game was lying to you. It's a twist for the player only, not the characters. Well you got me Uchikoshi. I had assumed that when characters suddenly referred to Komeji as only being dead 3 days or having recent entries in their journal about Chikara it was sloppy writing or a translation error, but you planned it the whole time. Congratulations. It's still fricking stupid! What, nobody changed their clothes, or hair, or painted the walls, or rearranged the furniture, or aged, or did anything for six years?! Mizuki Kurunushi looks, dresses, talks, and acts exactly as Mizuki Date, despite living completely different lives? They even drive identical rocket powered scooters? Yeah right, and nobody ever directly mentioned the old man in the wheel chair either, you bloody cheater. Also, I saw the 'Q head', "nobody ever called him Q" my foot.

The other twist about simulation theory is pretty dumb too, but doesn't really require much discussion. The world is a simulation you say... almost like, I'm playing a video game and it's all fictional. Yeah, I was trying to ignore that fact and get into the story, thanks for breaking the illusion.

Tearer is kind of a bust as well. He acts all omniscient, like he's got a plan for every eventuality, and he's working toward some big important goal. He effortlessly hacks Tama and Wadjet Eye. He's got hundreds of nameless fanatics ready to throw their lives away at his command. Then he gets punked out by a mermaid with a wrench. Like, come on, I thought you were supposed to be smart? You invite the girl who's father you murdered over to see your secret lab and then turn your back on her? What did you think was going to happen, idiot? How did he survive without his organs anyway? Like a kidney, ok, and some skin, sure, but they were harvesting his organs for a decade! There aren't that many you can live without, they don't grow back either. Also, what about Jin's bone structure? Just because you take someone's skin doesn't mean you'll look like them, or did they take half of Uru's bones too?
I guess the last thing I want to talk about is Gen and Amame's ending. This is something that really makes ABIS look like a slapdash organization. Mizuki is close friends with most of the people connected to this investigation, but especially with Gen and Amame. You don't let people investigate their close friends and relatives, especially not a teenager. This case should have been handed over to one of the other psyncers for obvious reasons. But it's not, and Mizuki realizes that Gen and Amame have been acting really suspicious the entire game, and finally calls them on it. Only for them to do a runner, and her to let them go. Then Boss, realizing what a sham this has all been, calls in back up to make the arrest, only for the game to suddenly act like she's betraying everyone. Dude, she's doing her job, there is (half) a body in Gen's freezer! This is grounds for arrest! But instead both Date and Mizuki are suddenly fighting the police, and I'm just sitting there thinking "what the heck is going on?!" This is only made worse when we find out in the true ending that, yes, Amame is a murderer, as suspicious as she seemed, and it was entirely justifiable to arrest her. But nobody in ABIS seems to care much for making arrests. Nobody ever arrests the hundreds of goons that make up the interminable action scenes (I swear the action scenes weren't this numerous or tedious in the first game), and rather than bringing Tearer (The Killer!) back to headquarters while they have him unconscious, they bring him to warehouse in the middle of nowhere to do the psync and then lose him! Frankly, it's shoddy work like this that makes me lose all respect for this organization. Also, kind of tangential, but I thought it was really weird that it was a big shock to Mizuki that Shoma and Amame were siblings. Like, for how long they've all been friends and how important family is to Amame, you'd think it would have come up.

Anyway, all this is to say that I thought the first game was a lot better and that Uchikoshi should stick to writing one shots. I know that franchises are a lot more profitable, but sequels are not where his talents lie.
 

gorfias

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Have you played it before, out of curiosity? Also, if you want, I can suggest certain things make you OP early that's honestly not difficult at all. Namely a certain vehicle and weapon you can get the moment you finish the tutorial.
Only a little when it 1st came out. I had it for the 360 and the boy had "friends" over who did some "shopping" in my house and took it among other games. I got it for PC (Steam and GOG) and it doesn't work. Now I have it on Xbox 1. Gamefaqs has some cheats I plan to try but as this is a 360 game on the Xbox 1, I'm not sure they'll work. I can use all the advice I can get!