I dropped La Mulana 2 because of this kind of thing. It was just too much of a pain in the ass getting around on top of trying to figure out WHERE I needed to go and deciphering the puzzles.
Your video game hot take(s) thread
- Thread starter Dany_the_penguin
- Start date
You know with all the horror games coming out and it looking like I'll run out of major titles to play before the end of the summer, I been thinking about if I should try horror games again.
I like horror movies and gore and creepy crawly stuff. But I have never liked a horror game. My two problems are:
1- Darkness. Everything is dark and I can't see anything. I already have this problem with fantasy games. My most recent squint-a-thon was Elden Ring, all the caves and whatever. Dark is a core element of scary so I know why it's needed, I just hate playing it
2- First person. It takes a lot of awesome for a game to make me like it in first-person (Dishonored!) It's just disorienting.
But Evil Within series always looked interesting, so I'll consider it.
So I was watching one of those Iceberg videos and stumbled across one for Dark Souls 2 and it reminded me of my big Pet Peeve for the Souls Sequels: Orestein basically becoming Boba Fett. So basically one of the big Bosses in Dark Souls is Ornstein and Smough, who are the big Boss of Anor Londo and the transition to the last 3rd of the game. It's a big thrilling Dual Boss battle and a fan favorite.
So in Dark Souls 2, you meet a boss who looks very much like Orestein called "The Old Dragonslayer" and he's hinted that he might be Orestein. While it's unclear if he is Orestein or not, he's clearly there to appeal to fan nostalgia for Orestein because there's no other reason for him to be there.
Dark Souls 3 takes it a step further by actively retconning that he never died and left Anor Londo, Leaving Smough to be the last "Knight" guarding the Cathedral and you eventually find his armor at ArchDragon Peak. Except in DS1 it's clearly stated Smough wasn't allowed to be a Knight, unlike his comrade in arms Orestein, so we're apparently retconning that too.
So much like Boba Fett, he was killed and then returns much much later because fans really, really like him, despite there being no good reason. Some fans try to handwave this that the O+S in Anor Londo are Illusionary much like the Princess, there's no proof this was the case in Dark Souls. The fact you get a Named Soul when you kill them, like every other boss in the game, supports this. And as much as I like Dark Souls 3, this irritates me FROM just tries to retcon this because the fans love the guy in the cool armor and they're gonna bring him back no matter how little sense it fucking makes. The only other way to explain it is basically that time is really messed up in Lothric due to all the fun fire dying stuff so you're basically seeing alternate timelines that previously didn't happen, much like whatever the fuck is going on with the untended graves.
Nobody else in the Souls games gets this treatment. Artorias has his fan club the Abyss Watchers and while some of his essence may flow within them he doesn't flat out come back because fanservice, the Great Souls in Dark Souls 2 are reincarnations of the Lords from DS1, not flat out just returning and the Soul of Cinder is basically a composite of every fire linker. Ornstein has cool armor and.....well, he has really cool armor and a thrilling battle and that's apparently why the fans love him enough to warrant messing around with the lore in this manner.
So in Dark Souls 2, you meet a boss who looks very much like Orestein called "The Old Dragonslayer" and he's hinted that he might be Orestein. While it's unclear if he is Orestein or not, he's clearly there to appeal to fan nostalgia for Orestein because there's no other reason for him to be there.
Dark Souls 3 takes it a step further by actively retconning that he never died and left Anor Londo, Leaving Smough to be the last "Knight" guarding the Cathedral and you eventually find his armor at ArchDragon Peak. Except in DS1 it's clearly stated Smough wasn't allowed to be a Knight, unlike his comrade in arms Orestein, so we're apparently retconning that too.
So much like Boba Fett, he was killed and then returns much much later because fans really, really like him, despite there being no good reason. Some fans try to handwave this that the O+S in Anor Londo are Illusionary much like the Princess, there's no proof this was the case in Dark Souls. The fact you get a Named Soul when you kill them, like every other boss in the game, supports this. And as much as I like Dark Souls 3, this irritates me FROM just tries to retcon this because the fans love the guy in the cool armor and they're gonna bring him back no matter how little sense it fucking makes. The only other way to explain it is basically that time is really messed up in Lothric due to all the fun fire dying stuff so you're basically seeing alternate timelines that previously didn't happen, much like whatever the fuck is going on with the untended graves.
Nobody else in the Souls games gets this treatment. Artorias has his fan club the Abyss Watchers and while some of his essence may flow within them he doesn't flat out come back because fanservice, the Great Souls in Dark Souls 2 are reincarnations of the Lords from DS1, not flat out just returning and the Soul of Cinder is basically a composite of every fire linker. Ornstein has cool armor and.....well, he has really cool armor and a thrilling battle and that's apparently why the fans love him enough to warrant messing around with the lore in this manner.
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If you haven't tried them out already, and have a system to play them on, I'd recommend Until Dawn and House of Ashes. Both are done by the same company, Supermassive Games, and are essentially playable horror movies/choose your own adventure type games. They just released another one, The Quarry, but I'm still really early in that game, so I don't know if it is as good as House of Ashes, which wasn't on the same level as Until Dawn.
I'd offer that you don't try to make sense of Darks Souls.. The lore is so convoluted that it really doesn't have to make sense, because the second you complain about the lack of rational continuity between 1, 2 and 3, someone might argue that 3 happened before 1... or maybe at the same time... or maybe in parallel dimensions. And FROM hasn't been very forthcoming on which interpretation is closest to accurate let alone marginally correct.
But yeah, O&S garnered enough popularity with fans in DS1 that a call-back to them (especially Ornstein) will always get a rise. Like if Hulk Hogan were to return to the wrestling today; nevermind he's 142 years old, it's HULK HOGAN!
Good point. I kind of assumed when he said he was into horror movies with gore, which I automatically associate with slashers.
Thanks guys for the recs and thoughts- I do like cheesy slashers up to a point (my sister and I still remember our week-long marathon of the Jasons) but in movies I do prefer the psychological.
Until Dawn is a PS exclusive, IIRC? Well I do use PS5.
Honestly I kind of don't like games where you don't do much. Like Telltale or Dave Caaaaaage stuff? Not for me, I need my games to be games.
But if I see any of that stuff on sales or whatever, I'll check 'em out.
Until Dawn is a PS exclusive, IIRC? Well I do use PS5.
Honestly I kind of don't like games where you don't do much. Like Telltale or Dave Caaaaaage stuff? Not for me, I need my games to be games.
But if I see any of that stuff on sales or whatever, I'll check 'em out.
I will say the second game is more fun, polished, and the better story and characters, but still say to play the original first and at least once. There are a bunch of patches that iron out most of the first game's problems, but it is still challenging. Then play the second game. Evil Within 1 is a fine game, but is RE4 with more psychological and Silent Hill-esque. Evil Within 2 has the over-the-shoulder of RE4, but has that right balance and elements of RE2 and RE3, but takes it even further.
I'll give my recommendations then.
Can't go wrong with Corpse Party, it's still very scary and it's one of the few games where the extreme brutality feels appropriate, don't feel bad about following a guide for it though, some of its solutions can be easy to miss. Ib just came out with a remake and its English translation, it's scary but also has feels. The Count Lucanor is a very interesting one in the kinds of humor it mixes into it while still being scary. And the Little Nightmares series is also very good with its "diorama sidescroller" gameplay.
Reminds me that I need to play the 2nd one still. Loved the first one, though the 3rd DLC wasn't my favorite for one particular reason.
I don't consider Scott Pilgrim a good brawler, let alone a spiritual successor to the River City/Kunio-Kun franchise. The game is indecisive on what it wants to be. The game wants to be linear, while having RPG elements at the same time. Neither is done well. Enemies are too spongey and certain stages go on forever. The game should have been an open 2D sandbox brawler like River City, or just a linear brawler without the RPG elements. Now with so many brawlers out, and the return of the River City franchise with RC Girls, I find it even more pointless to play Scott Pilgrim.
Another hot take on God of War Ascension's combat is how it does the whole "Don't get hit to unlock moves that were already default moves in past games" mechanic. That was done better in Killer Is Dead and No More Heroes 3. The only difference being your moves weren't exactly locked out. KID had it where the higher you combo without getting hit, the more damage you could do and execute 1 of 4 optional finishers that upgraded your stats. There is an upgrade that extends your sword limiter and allows you to do more damaging moves.
No More Heroes 3 has a similar thing, except your move sets aren't locked behind it either. Travis's beam katan gets more powerful and extends in length the more hits you make, and not taking damage. Whenever you get it hit, meter goes down. The meter is represented by kitty (weakest) to red tiger (strongest), and it is awesome!
Another hot take on God of War Ascension's combat is how it does the whole "Don't get hit to unlock moves that were already default moves in past games" mechanic. That was done better in Killer Is Dead and No More Heroes 3. The only difference being your moves weren't exactly locked out. KID had it where the higher you combo without getting hit, the more damage you could do and execute 1 of 4 optional finishers that upgraded your stats. There is an upgrade that extends your sword limiter and allows you to do more damaging moves.
No More Heroes 3 has a similar thing, except your move sets aren't locked behind it either. Travis's beam katan gets more powerful and extends in length the more hits you make, and not taking damage. Whenever you get it hit, meter goes down. The meter is represented by kitty (weakest) to red tiger (strongest), and it is awesome!
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Ok I'll check 'em out.
I did play Little Nightmares. I liked it fine, probably not enough to play the sequel but I liked the art and mood.
Also, if you just want to find every indie horror game under the sun then check out ManlyBadassHero's channel on Youtube.
Has an amazing ability to find horror games and he'll give you a good experience with them (He doesn't scream, yell, and overreact).
Hah, have I already ranted how I can't watch most video game related and youtube content because of screaming and yelling or do Escapist fans just generally agree on this?
It depends on what I'm in the mood for. Yelling is when I want to laugh, quiet is when I want to be spooked. It's just rare to find people that won't overreact but are also charismatic or observant enough to be entertaining while being quiet.
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Depends on who you're talking about, and what context. Pat, Matt, Woolie, Max & YoVideoGames are cool, and only scream when appropriate.
I go to Seraphim17 for the classy commentary. Though he will have his moments of yelling when it's something that makes him mad or irks real bad
I know I sound like a broken record, but why does everyone or certain online critics keep saying "Nobody plays No More Heroes for the combat"? The combat in these games are not perfect, but they're definitely nowhere near close to bad. You ain't just randomly button mashing. I'm only saying this, because K. Bash is now getting on this rhetoric. Dude, you have cool videos, and while it is true people play these games for the story and characters, and the whacked out stuff, the combat has to at least be engaging on some level and fun. I find all these games have a good or great combat. Obviously the series is not something like DMC, NG, or even God of War. But so what? I've had more fun with the NMH games, than all the Ninja Gaidens and God of Wars combined.
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