What are you currently playing?

[Xprimentyl]

I would spoiler that, but I feel like knowing it at most an hour ahead of time isn't going to spoil all that much, if you didn't already know it was coming through cultural osmosis anyway. And this way, you can be at least slightly more prepared for it.

It won't help.

@Johnny Novgorod is a smart guy, he's a gamer, and I think simply knowing Dark Souls exists means knowing what's coming next. I DEFINITELY want the videoS (emphasis on the plural) of this.

Good luck, my friend; we're here for you!

 

[Worgen]

Finally beat Persona 5 Tactica. Its not long, I just only played an hour or two a night. I quite enjoyed it, the story is very good, its a smaller scope then Persona 5 and Persona 5 Strikers, but it does a very good job of getting the Phantom Thieves into the psyche of our new characters and the new characters are great. Really the Phantom Thieves feel slightly out of place, like they didn't totally need to be in the game, but they also fit so well with what is going on and they are such great characters that they deserved another game. The gameplay is very different from the other Persona games, Tactica plays more like more different Xcom with some persona mechanics like the all out attack mixed in. Its not hard like Xcom is and while you can get new personas, they are more like an equipped item then anything else. So really enjoyed it and sad there are no other games with our beloved Phantom Thieves, at least on steam, probably a portable game or two.

 

[GideonD]

Risk of Rain 2! Put in a hundred hours in about a week and I am not lying when I say I’m currently sitting in a doctors office to get checked for carpal tunnel syndrome because my wrist has been hurting a lot since starting this game lol

Tbf though it’s been developing for a while now, I think ror2 just pushed it over the edge. The game is kind of intense.

 

[Worgen]

Risk of Rain 2! Put in a hundred hours in about a week and I am not lying when I say I’m currently sitting in a doctors office to get checked for carpal tunnel syndrome because my wrist has been hurting a lot since starting this game lol

Tbf though it’s been developing for a while now, I think ror2 just pushed it over the edge. The game is kind of intense.

Games like that taught me to be careful with my wrists, its kinda why I refuse to go back into Warframe.

 

[laggyteabag]

I'm currently playing some Hi-Fi Rush.

Its cute, but I don't really vibe with character action games all that much. It may well detract from the overall experience, but I might just whack this down to Easy and blast through the combat.

 

[Drathnoxis]

Risk of Rain 2! Put in a hundred hours in about a week and I am not lying when I say I’m currently sitting in a doctors office to get checked for carpal tunnel syndrome because my wrist has been hurting a lot since starting this game lol

Tbf though it’s been developing for a while now, I think ror2 just pushed it over the edge. The game is kind of intense.

I've always meant to RoR2 out because Shamus Young used to blog about how good it was. I didn't love the first game, though. I should really try it one day.

 

[meiam]

I've always meant to RoR2 out because Shamus Young used to blog about how good it was. I didn't love the first game, though. I should really try it one day.

Its more of the same but in 3D. Honestly, I don't think its worth playing solo, Shamus played it with his kid iirc.

 

[Drathnoxis]

Its more of the same but in 3D. Honestly, I don't think its worth playing solo, Shamus played it with his kid iirc.

Oh, it's a multiplayer roguelike? How does that work?

 

[meiam]

Oh, it's a multiplayer roguelike? How does that work?

Same as single player, the game just scale more enemy/stats for more player. When someone die, they're dead until the rest finish the level iirc, there's a couple of way to resurrect people otherwise like special item and maybe one character ability.

 

[NerfedFalcon]

I'm currently playing some Hi-Fi Rush.

Its cute, but I don't really vibe with character action games all that much. It may well detract from the overall experience, but I might just whack this down to Easy and blast through the combat.

Play whatever level's the most fun for you. If that's just wailing on enemies that barely fight back on Easy, that's cool too. The aesthetics and the story, and of course the music, are perfectly enjoyable on their own without needing to work high-level action combat into it as well, and just because I happen to enjoy that high-level action combat doesn't mean forcing it on people who aren't comfortable with that.

 

[Worgen]

I got Double Dragon Gaiden because its on sale and I am apparently unable to not spend money on games despite the fact that Doom Medieval comes out in a few days. So its pretty cool, the art style its kinda weird but the animation is fluid and the game plays pretty well, not quite as well as Streets of Rage 4, but certainly better then a lot of brawlers. Its really neat that if you play single player you have 2 characters that you can tag between, to get out of enemy combos or just heal up while the other one fights. Plus there are like 20 different characters you can unlock, mostly the bosses but so far they play nicely different from your 4 starting characters. It does have an unlock system during a run, but its not like Scott Pilgram where you just get more and more power and trivialize the game, its more like a roguelike system where you get a few moderate buffs till you game over to help out. It also has a great difficulty selection, you have a lot of options to effect difficulty of a run and the harder you set it too, the more tokens you get when you game over for unlocking new things like characters.

So yeah, double dragon is pretty cool.

 

[Johnny Novgorod]

I beat hit comedy duo Ornstein and Smough.

Spoiler: Ornstein and Smough, Take 4

My first three goes are a sham, but on the fourth I realize this is actually doable when I get Smough down to 10% health. Ornstein is a right pain. In the vein of a comedy of errors, I keep overestimating my reach while underestimating their own.

Spoiler: Ornstein and Smough, Take 8

By now I know about keeping my distance and using the columns to disrupt their moves. I think I have a decent damage output on Smough, but landing a hit at all is a pain in the ass, meaning I get greedy, meaning I get skewered. This is the longest I last in a fight and it's clearly a losing strategy.

Spoiler: Ornstein and Smough, Take 15

I called it a night after a dozen tries yesterday. Today I spent like an hour doing runs around the castle farming knights for souls and cashing out twinkling titanite at the blacksmith's to bring the Black Knight Sword to +5 (from +2) and a Silver Knight Shield to +4, although you'll note I don't even try blocking anything in the fight. The added damage helped but ultimately the difference was made by stripping down to under 25% weight and rolling around in a frenzy. It's not an exceedingly heroic look.

Tried out Smough three more times and finally got him on the third try, fifteenth overall. "Super" Ornstein is a chump, and a column gets the last laugh on him.

 

[NerfedFalcon]

I beat hit comedy duo Ornstein and Smough.

Well, damn, nice work! I think I took about 25 attempts to beat them the first time and I had to bring in Solaire (there were no player summon signs around). My strategy was actually the total opposite of yours; I switched to the heaviest armor set I could find (the Stone Knight set from Darkroot Garden) and relied on the damage reduction to soak any hits that I couldn't roll out of in the first phase, and then actually trying harder in the second.

Now for the next part, where the game goes for a wildly different approach to before. Four Lords, and the order doesn't matter; as far as I can tell none of them are supposed to be harder or easier than the others inherently, like how you're 'meant' to go to Undead Parish before Blighttown. So which ones are easier or harder will probably just depend on the order you challenge them in and your own experience.

One of the Lords' dungeons contains the other thing you need to play the DLC. If you've met Dusk already, then if you happen to pick up a 'Broken Pendant', go back to where the gold golem was and look for a portal. Be warned, the DLC is scaled for roughly the level you'll be at after you've beaten the four Lords, but before the final boss.

 

[BrawlMan]

It may well detract from the overall experience, but I might just whack this down to Easy and blast through the combat.

Do whatever is the most fun for you and enjoy.

So its pretty cool, the art style its kinda weird

DDG is going for a similar super deformed art style of Kunio-Kun/RC. While awkward at first, it grows on you and I thoroughly enjoy it. The smooth animations help a lot.

, but its not like Scott Pilgram where you just get more and more power and trivialize the game,

Thank God for that.

I finished my Jeff and Billy Lee Run in DDG. Jeff is okay, but he has only one good special. The other two are not really viable to use, even if you ever get the upgrade that let's you use supers twice or three times in a row. I still will give Abore a shot later.

 

[Xprimentyl]

I beat hit comedy duo Ornstein and Smough.

Spoiler: Ornstein and Smough, Take 4

My first three goes are a sham, but on the fourth I realize this is actually doable when I get Smough down to 10% health. Ornstein is a right pain. In the vein of a comedy of errors, I keep overestimating my reach while underestimating their own.

Spoiler: Ornstein and Smough, Take 8

By now I know about keeping my distance and using the columns to disrupt their moves. I think I have a decent damage output on Smough, but landing a hit at all is a pain in the ass, meaning I get greedy, meaning I get skewered. This is the longest I last in a fight and it's clearly a losing strategy.

Spoiler: Ornstein and Smough, Take 15

I called it a night after a dozen tries yesterday. Today I spent like an hour doing runs around the castle farming knights for souls and cashing out twinkling titanite at the blacksmith's to bring the Black Knight Sword to +5 (from +2) and a Silver Knight Shield to +4, although you'll note I don't even try blocking anything in the fight. The added damage helped but ultimately the difference was made by stripping down to under 25% weight and rolling around in a frenzy. It's not an exceedingly heroic look.

Tried out Smough three more times and finally got him on the third try, fifteenth overall. "Super" Ornstein is a chump, and a column gets the last laugh on him.

Nice job! And you took down Smough first, arguably the harder option! You made Super Ornstien look like a "chump," but you got some pretty good RNG too; he can be tough! He whiffed on a couple of his spear attacks where he actually impales you (for a ton of damage,) then raises you into the air where he hits you with lightening (for the rest of the damage,) and that would have been the start of Take 16 for you. Curious, did you ever try taking out Ornstein first, or were you dead set on Smough first? Ornstein has less health, is faster, and more aggressive, so I think most people think to focus on him first thinking they can outmaneuver the Smough in a one-on-one.

 

[Johnny Novgorod]

Nice job! And you took down Smough first, arguably the harder option! You made Super Ornstien look like a "chump," but you got some pretty good RNG too; he can be tough! He whiffed on a couple of his spear attacks where he actually impales you (for a ton of damage,) then raises you into the air where he hits you with lightening (for the rest of the damage,) and that would have been the start of Take 16 for you.

Would that last spear attack have killed me if it hadn't bounced off the column? I think he does it just after I've healed. Never got a sense of his strength. To me he just becomes another slow golem/colossus type boss you can easily "cheese" by sticking close and weaving around its legs.

That video is the first (and last) time I fight him so I'm panicking and healing at the wrong times thinking any single attack might one-shot my whole health bar.

Curious, did you ever try taking out Ornstein first, or were you dead set on Smough first? Ornstein has less health, is faster, and more aggressive, so I think most people think to focus on him first thinking they can outmaneuver the Smough in a one-on-one.

Well, that's the thing, if I have to beat them again in NG+ but in the reverse order of NG I'd rather do the hard version of the fight now. So I deliberately chose to try and ignore Ornstein.

 

[XsjadoBlaydette]

Journey t' savage planet
started it ages ago and kinda forgot about it entirely till spotting they had a sequel soon out - uh just noticed the date, a sequel now out - so should at least do the minimal honour of finishing the first one first. I think I know why I dropped off though, cos upgrade progress was gated by quasi-optional "kill 5 makakaboos with a single wank laser shot" missions, a form of aimlessness I straight up cannot be trusted with. however, with the power of internet wikis and a hefty dose of shame those a now concerns of past! sort of. for it's time to do the same-but-different shit after stumbling onto the dlc world/quests! an overall inoffensive shrug of acceptance I feel far too sober for

Mandragora: whispers of the witch tree
somehow this has become comfort game. got a lot of stuff to throw at you for a 2.5D soulslike, and feels a bit more forgiving than its peers. it also has a sorta Majula home population building thing going on too, where you can usher lost npcs to your favourite haunted tree campsite, each with their own backstories and leveling/crafting systems. it doesn't lose any crap you sell to anyone neither, they hoard the tat for life in case you suddenly decide you want it back again, which came in more useful than I ever would've guessed. it's just nice, you know, easy on the eyes easy on the thumbs, no arguments really mayhaps the chillest of the genre so far

 

[Xprimentyl]

Would that last spear attack have killed me if it hadn't bounced off the column? I think he does it just after I've healed. Never got a sense of his strength. To me he just becomes another slow golem/colossus type boss you can easily "cheese" by sticking close and weaving around its legs.

That video is the first (and last) time I fight him so I'm panicking and healing at the wrong times thinking any single attack might one-shot my whole health bar.

Had to go watch another video of the fight, and yeah, you got some really good RNG. Not taking away from your victory, but Super Ornstein took it easy on you. He can be relentless with the butt stomps when you stay close, and it doesn't look like he ever even attempted his lighting stab (timestamped in the video below) which would have eaten your whole health bar.

Well, that's the thing, if I have to beat them again in NG+ but in the reverse order of NG I'd rather do the hard version of the fight now. So I deliberately chose to try and ignore Ornstein.

Yeah, that's the smart play. I did the exact opposite because I never imagined I'd be 100%'ing the game, but after my NG, I wanted to keep playing, so set my sights and went for it. Sucked too because I couldn't connect to the internet, so I couldn't summon another player for help, and Solaire kept dying in phase one. When I finally beat Super Ornstein, he'd actually killed me at the same time, so it was a razor thin win. And I'm noticing now you didn't summon Solaire? That's some OG shit!

 

[Johnny Novgorod]

Well, damn, nice work! I think I took about 25 attempts to beat them the first time and I had to bring in Solaire (there were no player summon signs around).

And I'm noticing now you didn't summon Solaire? That's some OG shit!

I'm not principled against summoning or anything like that but I also don't see the point in squandering a rare (?) resource to do so just to die like every other attempt so far. I'm very stingy about that.

Usually I'd like to see if I can do it myself too, at least once, before I get help. I'll probably do summons in NG+ while going for Plat.

I remember not summoning during Demon's Souls (and Bloodborne? Did Bloodborne have summons too?) thinking if the dude gets killed in a fight that's the end of the NPC, and I guess I never bothered to check on that with anybody.

 

[Old_Hunter_77]

Why is it that when people talk about Orenstein & Smough and Solaire no one every mentions those two huge sumbiches and the arrow guy right at that gate? Those were why I rage quit that game the first three times. You either have to kill the enemies first THEN summon Solaire then I would just get so tired I didn't have the give-a-shit to even bother fighting the bosses.
Also it's a favorite invasion spot

(I would end up beating it by switching the game to offline and using the hard drive save spam cheat).

I sometimes look back and wonder why I even played these f'n games.