Your video game hot take(s) thread

[Casual Shinji]

I understand your sentiments on their face, but I'd argue that stamina in FromSoft games adds a layer of gameplay complexity that must be considered to survive the game. In fact, to say "I can assure you nobody actually considers this stupid stamina bar during combat" is by far and away an inaccurate statement. I, for one, went into DS1 trying to play it like a typical hack 'n slash game, tried to button mash, and got shredded. It wasn't until I learned that managing stamina was a vital key to success before I was able to manage. I learned that an opening in an enemy's attack pattern meant nothing if I took advantage of it without enough stamina to roll away or block without being stun-locked.

I don't mean nobody considers stamina - it's obviously something you can't ignore - I mean nobody considers the stamina bar during combat. Considering how quickly you get punished for reading the enemies attacks wrong, it's extremely counter-intuitive to then also need to keep your eye on a bar in the corner of the screen that facilitates how many actions you can stil perform. In the heat of combat nobody is looking at that bar, they'll just try to string dodges and attacks until they're forced to stop. The bar in that sense is just kind of a useless indicator, except when you're using a shield and you're trying the measure how much of your stamina a new big baddie will knock off while you're guarding.

You don't have to like it, but I feel it's a mechanic that keeps the player engaged during every moment of combat, and makes victories over more aggressive and fast enemies that much sweeter when you discover how best to juggle your health AND stamina to stave off relentless attacks that would otherwise decimate players who think tanking damage with a shield or mashing the attack button with abandon are viable options. Stamina mandates that nearly every action has a potential consequence.

That's cool, and I would like that.. if they didn't put the bar in the corner of the screen. Put the stamina read-out (not necessarily a bar but some sort of indicator) over the enemy attack or over your own character so I can keep my eyes on the action. Again, health bars are easy to manage since only when you get hit do you need to take a quick glance at it. But then with stamina that would require you to check your stamina bar everytime or every other time you swing your weapon, dodge, and/or shield an attack. It splits the players attention more than it should in a game where one screw-up can mean death.

Also, have enemies function under the same rules - give them a stamina bar that you as the player can try to break or exhaust. As it is they might as well have unlimited stamina, there's no way to know. Also, make enemies bounce their weapons off of walls, not just the players. Also, add a decent goddamn aiming mode for projectile weapons, every other game has had one for 15 years now Fromsoft. *sigh*

 

[Xprimentyl]

I don't mean nobody considers stamina - it's obviously something you can't ignore - I mean nobody considers the stamina bar during combat. Considering how quickly you get punished for reading the enemies attacks wrong, it's extremely counter-intuitive to then also need to keep your eye on a bar in the corner of the screen that facilitates how many actions you can stil perform. In the heat of combat nobody is looking at that bar, they'll just try to string dodges and attacks until they're forced to stop. The bar in that sense is just kind of a useless indicator, except when you're using a shield and you're trying the measure how much of your stamina a new big baddie will knock off while you're guarding.

To be fair, once you know how stamina works, more importantly, once you know how the stamina for your specific build works, you don't need to check it after every action; you kind of intuit where you're at after a few actions, i.e.: I know I can typically roll in, attack, and roll away before my depleted stamina puts me in a precarious position, so if I roll twice, and attempt two consecutive attacks, I'm not surprised upon a glance that I'm low on stamina and that I need to back off to allow it to refill. It's a risk I sometimes take, but one I'm always cognizant is a risk nonetheless.

That's cool, and I would like that.. if they didn't put the bar in the corner of the screen. Put the stamina read-out (not necessarily a bar but some sort of indicator) over the enemy attack or over your own character so I can keep my eyes on the action. Again, health bars are easy to manage since only when you get hit do you need to take a quick glance at it. But then with stamina that would require you to check your stamina bar everytime or every other time you swing your weapon, dodge, and/or shield an attack. It splits the players attention more than it should in a game where one screw-up can mean death.

Also, have enemies function under the same rules - give them a stamina bar that you as the player can try to break or exhaust. As it is they might as well have unlimited stamina, there's no way to know. Also, make enemies bounce their weapons off of walls, not just the players. Also, add a decent goddamn aiming mode for projectile weapons, every other game has had one for 15 years now Fromsoft. *sigh*

Alright, a niggling detail, but this IS the hot takes thread, so you're welcome to it. I, for one, don't mind it where it's at. As someone who has his timing largely down and tends to focus more on the action on screen, I don't think having stamina indicators floating around in the melee would change much save add a layer of distraction, but fair enough complaint if such a thing would be helpful/useful to you and others.

Insofar as enemy indicators, meh, I guess I agree. Thinking mostly about the Artorias fight where everyone assures me you can break him out of his buffing animation. I've tried on a multitude of occasions, and have never been able to do it. Probably mostly my hesitance to be close when he comes out of it, but I've never been able to break his buffing animation. It would ne nice to have an indicator to see how close I actually am; maybe I'm one hit away, but too cowardly to stick around and risk the extra attack... because of my own dwindling stamina. Full circle.

 

[BrawlMan]

I know this is not much of a hot take, but I never cared for any of the mainline Crash Bandicoot games after the original trilogy. The exceptions are the Remake Trilogy and Crash 4. The Crash games from the 6th generation and 7th generation have their defenders, but none of the games I found interesting and avoided at all costs. Twinsanity has an interesting concept, but was rushed and had various glitches. All of these games had weird or dumb gimmicks. Most of which were unnecessary, did not feel like a Crash game, or should have just been there own game with a new IP. With Crash 4 out, there is even less reason to seek out these games. The two GBA games are still solid though, and play exactly like the PS1 originals.

 

[Gyrobot]

To aspiring brawler developers: basing your game off of Final Fight or Streets of Rage, is no longer a free pass or ride. If that's all you're doing, but adding nothing new to the genre, and just making your games difficult for the sake of being difficult without much balance, then we have issues. You're not moving beyond the old school and improving the formula, you just doing the same mistakes that was done in the past. You can claim old school all you want, but if there's not much difference, or not much stands out, you're going to just end up being like those other brawlers from the '80s and '90s that faded into obscurity by being weak clones.

As a beat them up fan, I think what they need to expand on is to make the stage feel like a playground of pain. Throw some smuck to a bar and bottles are available for you to use. Execute environmental takedowns (or suffer them) from applying a well placed fist to the enemy against the wall and even Yakuza style heat actions with weapons. Make your combat fluid before complex

 

[BrawlMan]

As a beat them up fan, I think what they need to expand on is to make the stage feel like a playground of pain. Throw some smuck to a bar and bottles are available for you to use. Execute environmental takedowns (or suffer them) from applying a well placed fist to the enemy against the wall and even Yakuza style heat actions with weapons. Make your combat fluid before complex

Congratulations, you just described Mad World and Anarchy Reigns. More so the former, but the combat is not exactly complex in MW. The games I was referring to that have problems are Final Vendetta, Super Punch Patrol, and Mayhem Brawler. SPP suffers the worst from this, as other than unique art style, the game is difficult for the sake of it. The campaign is meant for co-op in mind, and is not balanced for single player. FV had a similar issue, but fixed it with a patch that allows easier ways to add extra lives, less cheap enemies or bosses, and a new Casual difficulty. The game still has a problem with replay value, as there is only Survival and Boss Rush mode, but I will give the developers credit for at least listening and improving their game. Top Hat Gaming had a biatch fit about this, and basically turned in to a "CAZUALS RUIN EVERYTHING! DON'T APPEAL TO THEM, AND CRAPPY GAMEZ JOURNALISTS!". Even though games journalists were not the only ones complaining, and have good points.

If you want environmental interaction, play Shredder's Revenge. You get interactions from both the player characters, enemies, and certain bosses. SR's major flaw is even though there are 16 levels, there is not a lot of bonuses, other than Casey Jones. Streets of Rage 4 and even The TakeOver have more bonuses. Sure, some of them came through updates, but the thought counts and the updates are actually fun and useful.

EDIT: Gyrobot's description doubly applies to games like SIFU and the Jackie Chan Stunt Master (PS1).

 

[BrawlMan]

GoW 18 is as much GoW as Resident Evil 4 is Resident Evil. Not that I'm comparing the impact of RE4 to GoW '18, but how the new compares to the old. And in both cases despite the differences it's still recognizable as the old franchise beyond the surface.

Funny enough, God of War 4 did leave an impact on the industry. Maybe not to the extent of RE4, but still a big impact none the less. Games like Godfall, Evil West, and Flintlock are over-the-shoulder brawler/stylish action games. Though as I mentioned before, Clover and Platinum beat GoW4 to the punch years ago with God Hand and Anarchy Reigns respectively.

 

[hanselthecaretaker]

I understand your sentiments on their face, but I'd argue that stamina in FromSoft games adds a layer of gameplay complexity that must be considered to survive the game. In fact, to say "I can assure you nobody actually considers this stupid stamina bar during combat" is by far and away an inaccurate statement. I, for one, went into DS1 trying to play it like a typical hack 'n slash game, tried to button mash, and got shredded. It wasn't until I learned that managing stamina was a vital key to success before I was able to manage. I learned that an opening in an enemy's attack pattern meant nothing if I took advantage of it without enough stamina to roll away or block without being stun-locked.

You don't have to like it, but I feel it's a mechanic that keeps the player engaged during every moment of combat, and makes victories over more aggressive and fast enemies that much sweeter when you discover how best to juggle your health AND stamina to stave off relentless attacks that would otherwise decimate players who think tanking damage with a shield or mashing the attack button with abandon are viable options. Stamina mandates that nearly every action has a potential consequence.

God I swear if PhoenixMGS shows up with that “It’s just a dps limiter so it’s not really doing anything” shit I will for sure this time promise to not take the bait.

 

[Xprimentyl]

God I swear if PhoenixMGS shows up with that “It’s just a dps limiter so it’s not really doing anything” shit I will for sure this time promise to not take the bait.

I guess that's one extremely pragmatic way to look at it, but also an overt contradiction: by limiting dps, it IS doing something. Take it away and allow action without consequence, you drastically change the Dark Souls experience. One could argue you almost break the DS experience.

 

[hanselthecaretaker]

I guess that's one extremely pragmatic way to look at it, but also an overt contradiction: by limiting dps, it IS doing something. Take it away and allow action without consequence, you drastically change the Dark Souls experience. One could argue you almost break the DS experience.

Looking back it is one of the main things that got me into FROM games in the first place. It just felt different, more methodical and consequential than what I typically played up until then. I’m sure there were other games with stamina aspects Demon’s Souls but for me it was the one that made me think differently about what combat could be in games. I just felt like a fairly normal dude trying to survive a bunch of undead A-Holes in a strange, intriguing place and it was pretty neat.

 

[hanselthecaretaker]

Bed of Chaos is a better designed boss fight than Malenia. Why?


- You can learn where to stand
- Progress saves after each stage
- No damage sponging
- No stage-crossing 12+hit insta-death combo that you’re almost never out of range from, unless using homing spells or something
- No health regen, on block no less
- No second life bar with status effect to deal with
- It doesn’t remind you what it is every time you die

 

[BrawlMan]

This goes to show not every review site was not perfect back then, and GT had plenty of screw ups as well. WTF does "Where man against man should be slugging it out. Instead degenerate demon punk against Gene's God Hand" even mean? When I last checked, not every brawler has to be man against man. Plenty of them already proved that before the 2000s. Even in 2006, I thought that was a shitty hot take done to sound "smart" "clever", or "mind blowing". Where the hell were you guys when Dante was smacking around demons with Ifrit or Beowulf (gauntlet weapons that involve punching and kicking demons)? When I last checked you guys are and were not the arbiter of what should and can be done in a beat'em up. GameSpot had a better grasp of the game, what it was going for, and way more thorough with their review. Then again, that was just 2 years before GS got shitty.

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[Specter Von Baren]

Spirit Tracks Zelda is the best incarnation of Zelda in the entire LoZ series.

 

[BrawlMan]

Spirit Tracks Zelda is the best incarnation of Zelda in the entire LoZ series.

My favorite Zelda is the HW version and Tetra.

 

[Drathnoxis]

Spirit Tracks Zelda is the best incarnation of Zelda in the entire LoZ series.

Spirit Tracks is the only Zelda game I haven't played.

 

[Specter Von Baren]

Spirit Tracks is the only Zelda game I haven't played.

Now I'm biased, because I love trains, but I think it's a very good game. While the train tracks make it so you have less freedom than Phantom Hourglass, I would say the design of the dungeons and plot are better.

 

[Dalisclock]

Now I'm biased, because I love trains, but I think it's a very good game. While the train tracks make it so you have less freedom than Phantom Hourglass, I would say the design of the dungeons and plot are better.

I haven't played it yet(I do plan to) but Im intrigued by the fact there's an actual Zelda train game and even if only for that reason I'm looking forward to checking it out.

 

[Specter Von Baren]

I haven't played it yet(I do plan to) but Im intrigued by the fact there's an actual Zelda train game and even if only for that reason I'm looking forward to checking it out.

The Zelda in it is a lot of fun. She's a girly girl with a phobia of rats but she's also the only Zelda to truly be part of the adventure and is very helpful. I like the train moments perhaps exactly because they aren't super frantic and have moments where you can just chill and take in the scenery. The only bad part of the game would be one of the musical sections that gave me immense grief to finagle through.

 

[BrawlMan]

I can definitely see where Sterling is coming from. I still don't mind a crossover every now and then, but I do have a lack of interest in most of Marvel stuff and Star Wars stuff in general.

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[TheMysteriousGX]

These are, in fact, different jumps

 

[BrawlMan]

These are, in fact, different jumps

So it's the same jump, but the game is just trying to psych you out. The squares that aren't missing are pretty much in the same position as they were with the squares underneath them in 8-1.