MolarAm🔵
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Post by MolarAm🔵 on Sept 9, 2024 11:46:08 GMT
One thing I don't like about modern From bosses (and even many enemies) is that I think they've listened to the "I want more challenge, give me more" fans a little too much.
I found the first couple of Dark Souls games pretty doable solo - though, again, I'm not precious about it - but ER in particular has too many enemies that go after you relentlessly. Just flailing their many arms about with barely a pause, and if any of them hit you, that's half your life gone right there. They really need to settle down a bit.
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wunty
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Post by wunty on Sept 9, 2024 11:55:16 GMT
That's why I'm liking my sleep build, AKA the "everybody just calm down" build.
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Aunty Treats
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Post by Aunty Treats on Sept 9, 2024 12:04:54 GMT
My fun with a game tends to end when I have to start exploiting things to get it done. Having grown up playing games since the arcade, challenge has always been part of it. I want a game to set up a challenge and then overcome it. If I have to use exploits, look stuff up or cheat, I'm just beating the game for the sake of it and that's not satisfying or fun for me. Previous From games were ideal for that- they're challenging, required patience, perseverance and some skill (though this part has always been exaggerated, in my opinion). Just really great action games
Frog said it in the ER thread- Elden Ring is more of a sandbox now and some people seem to love that. But if you just want a straight, fair challenge, it's quite a frustrating experience and I'm not sure it's worth it. I'm getting all the exploration and discovery from BotW without all the headaches and frustration. It's actually fun
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Tuffty
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Post by Tuffty on Sept 9, 2024 12:04:55 GMT
More so than the earlier games, Elden Ring wants you to approach bosses with a summon or spirit ash. I prefer taking things on solo so was a bit disheartened to see that I missed out on side quest progression by not summoning them for a boss fight. It's almost like bosses are made for summons too with the amount of bullshit they throw at you. Eventually just gave up trying too hard against certain bosses and used the spirit ash. But it definitely did hamper my enjoyment somewhat, the best bosses are the ones I did solo, to the point that one of the most satisfying ones was an optional one as I took it down solo after bashing my head for an hr.
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wunty
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Post by wunty on Sept 9, 2024 12:21:53 GMT
I absolutely love the world of ER, and the exploration - in particular the DLC - is immense. The actual encounters though? Less so. I've always hated the bosses in it, and the DLC didn't improve on this aspect. I'm old. My reflexes are shite compared to what they once were. I like the older souls games because I can learn attack patterns - a reasonable amount of attack patterns - and then I know what I'm doing. The bosses here have multiple phases, with a billion attack strings in each, they cancel out of animations and turn the fights into a far more twitchy affair that I just can't keep up with. Fine if that's your bag. It's not my bag.
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Post by zisssou on Sept 9, 2024 12:46:21 GMT
I binned Elden Ring around 20 hours in. Partly it was the open world, partly it is me who can't be arsed to get good anymore. For me it'll never get back that thrill of playing Demon's on PS3, where I was shitting my pants not knowing what was coming next. Following from beating the next few games, it felt less and less like getting that thrill back, and more just a pain in the arse.
So, yeah kiss my Elden Ring.
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Post by RadicalRex on Sept 9, 2024 12:51:10 GMT
I don't think the bosses are designed with summons in mind--at least not when it comes to the design of moveset, AI, etc.--just with ever more hardcore players in mind. The summons have just become a crutch that "allows" them to make the bosses ever harder without taking less hardcore players into consideration.
I think Elden Ring has a bit of a split personality, it wants to be too many different things at the same time. It wants to be more hardcore than ever, but it also wants to be more accessible than ever. It wants to be a grand RPG where you spend a lot of time and effort into levelling up your health bar, but then it also wants to be Ghouls'n'Ghosts and kill you in 1 or 2 hits. It wants to be a survival game with corpse runs that punishes you for dying, but it also wants to be a hardcore boss battle game where you're supposed to die over and over again. It introduces Stakes of Marika to accommodate, but then it just doesn't want to give up on boss runbacks entirely so it still has those too. It doesn't want a difficulty slider because that "would defeat the point of the game" but adds spirit ashes so it can have a virtual difficulty slider anyway.
It ironically reminds me a little of Bethesda games which also want to be too many things at the same time, if in a slightly different way. I think Elden Ring should reconsider what it's actually trying to be, and part of that is to make a clearer decision if it still wants to be Dark Souls or not.
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Tomo
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Post by Tomo on Sept 9, 2024 13:56:10 GMT
I've referred back to Sekiro a few times in the ER thread regarding bosses. Some of those were absolutely nails, but they were well-pitched. Some weren't even nails, they were just interesting challenges - O'Rin suddenly springs to mind as a good example of From doing something different with a boss moveset to offer a new challenge. I remember her sweeping in these vicious arcs that were unlike any other enemies I'd faced at that point. It completely threw me at first, but it was fun adapting to her and working out how to scythe her down.
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Aunty Treats
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Post by Aunty Treats on Sept 9, 2024 14:42:08 GMT
I don't think the bosses are designed with summons in mind--at least not when it comes to the design of moveset, AI, etc.--just with ever more hardcore players in mind. The summons have just become a crutch that "allows" them to make the bosses ever harder without taking less hardcore players into consideration. I think Elden Ring has a bit of a split personality, it wants to be too many different things at the same time. It wants to be more hardcore than ever, but it also wants to be more accessible than ever. It wants to be a grand RPG where you spend a lot of time and effort into levelling up your health bar, but then it also wants to be Ghouls'n'Ghosts and kill you in 1 or 2 hits. It wants to be a survival game with corpse runs that punishes you for dying, but it also wants to be a hardcore boss battle game where you're supposed to die over and over again. It introduces Stakes of Marika to accommodate, but then it just doesn't want to give up on boss runbacks entirely so it still has those too. It doesn't want a difficulty slider because that "would defeat the point of the game" but adds spirit ashes so it can have a virtual difficulty slider anyway. It ironically reminds me a little of Bethesda games which also want to be too many things at the same time, if in a slightly different way. I think Elden Ring should reconsider what it's actually trying to be, and part of that is to make a clearer decision if it still wants to be Dark Souls or not. I think the summons would work better if they were class/utility based. You could have summons that will occasionally heal you, buff you, give you elemental resistances, stuff like that. You use one specifically to help with something you're struggling with. The bosses should ignore them (as they're just an assist). If you come up against a boss that has tonnes of health or is killing you too quickly and you're having trouble, rather than having to level, respec or summon a mimic, you get a damage or health buff from a summon, or even one that will resurrect you once per fight. Or a summon that will occasionally stagger bosses to help with the ones who are constantly attacking You could level them to suit and have control over how much of a health/damage boost you get, how many times you can be resurrected per summon, etc. It would be pretty cool and make finding and using all the different summons more interesting
For an example, say there was an airbourne summon, like one of those birds with the blades, who would knock a boss out of any air attacks. You could summon that for Malenia and it would just remove that one part of the fight and that's all. I might actually even use that as the fight itself without that is really fun Plus seeing this happen to Malenia would make me really happy
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Post by ToomuchFluffy on Sept 11, 2024 4:23:41 GMT
Wolfenstein - Youngblood (14 hours):
I didn't get along with The New Order because of tone issues, not finding the FPS-gameplay particularly fun and so on. The story might have worked better if it wasn't a shooter. This kind of topic is probably better handled as a point-and-click or as a walking sim.
The Old Blood was a little better in that respect, but the gameplay was still barely engaging enough and I couldn't even tell you why I finished it. Ultimately just very unmemorable.
Comically I'm liking Youngblood the most so far. Mostly on account of the FPS-gameplay actually being quite enjoyable now and the levelling/upgrading being done well enough. It also doesn't hurt that the maps are more complex and there is a decent amount of verticality as well.
The armor system and the resulting sponginess of many enemies was one of the big complaints people had back then. There are basically two armor types, one of which can tank ridiculous amounts of damage from most weapons. Upgrading weapons and getting more options against that armor type do help though.
The weapon upgrading has more depth than the character upgrading I'd say. The latter is still important, but it's mostly linear and there are barely any interesting decisions to be made. Just prioritization.
In terms of tone it's still all over the place, but I did also just skip most of the story cutscenes as I did find too much of the dialogue cringeworthy. Surprisingly I don't even mind the twins too much, as their silly back and forth can be strangely charming, it's just that they are in the wrong story. Outside of that most characters are quite bland and the story is mostly just an excuse to visit various places in "Paris".
Another niggle for last: There are too many small pick-ups spread throughout the environment and many things have to be interacted with. Especially boxes that have to be bashed open first, but also small amounts of money and collectibles everywhere. It just slows down the game and stops the player from engaging with the core gameplay loop. What is it with this strange tendency of many small amounts and resulting time wastage instead of bis satisfying chunks anyway? Just seems like bad game design to me.
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Post by dfunked on Sept 11, 2024 6:51:39 GMT
The small +5 health/armour pickups have been an identifying part of the series since Wolf 3D. Can't say I've ever been a fan of them, especially when they're scattered around difficult encounters and you just want a big medpack. Kind of feels like they've abandoned the series at this point with Machinegames doing Indy and support work instead, but if they do come back to it, I wouldn't be sad to see them go.
I really need to give Youngblood another chance. Performance on my PC at the time was a bit iffy and I couldn't stand the main characters, but at least you can skip cutscenes as you say.
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Tuffty
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Post by Tuffty on Sept 11, 2024 13:53:12 GMT
Like A Dragon : Infinite Wealth - 9/10
The annual entry returns with the largest game in the series. The RPG turn based combat makes a return with considerable improvements over the last one including being able to move around the battlefield to get positioning on back attacks for extra damage or team up with a partner for combo attacks. The combat is kept engaging by relying on extra button presses for additional damage. It never gets too difficult unless you're fighting enemies that are several levels above your own and for the most part there's very little in the way of grinding that you need to do to stay on top of it all.
The game has more side content than ever, with side quests, mini games, even full fledged Pokemon and Animal Crossing esque side activities. They're not perfect, but they're much more involved than you would expect and I did appreciate it. The story isn't my favourite of the series, I think the main villains were a little dull, the story does a disservice to some of the existing cast for sure and there's a huge chunk in the middle of the 90 hr story that can drag and is forgettable. But new characters like Chitose, Tomizawa and Yamai were all great additions I hope to see more of and for the vast majority of the game, I was glad to hang out with this cast again.
All in all, prob one of my favourite games of the year, it continues to strike that balance of gritty crime drama with some of the goofiest shit you've seen in a game so well.
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malek86
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Post by malek86 on Sept 11, 2024 21:54:14 GMT
En Garde! (PC)
Swashbuckling adventure! That's what you get when you mix Arkham style combat and Zorro parody. It's not nearly as easy as that makes it sounds, because unlike your average Batman game, you are not as strong. Most enemies need to be distracted or dispatched by enviromental means. Attempting to fight a group of enemies is absolute madness - divide and conquer is the name of the game here. Later levels even start including enemies that refill their guard instantly if you mess up the timing of your blocks and parries. All in all, quite challenging. It does get repetitive after a while though, because there aren't too many enemy types, and while there is some platforming, it's little more than an afterthought. In the end, it's wave after wave after wave of enemies.
There is no real story either, it's just four standalone episodes, each with its own self-contained plot that never really amounts to anything. The whole game can be finished in 5 hours or so. I'll say the Sid Meier's Pirates style graphics look great, even if the cutscenes are all very cheap-looking model stills, and there is some nice humor too. Not exactly a memorable game, but a good palate cleanser between bigger time investments.
7/10
By the last two levels, it was crashing pretty often on me. Not sure if it's a GOG issue though.
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Post by Bill in the rain on Sept 12, 2024 5:42:51 GMT
Shadwen (PC)
A nice little indie stealth game. It's kinda like Thief, if you could climb around the environments like Lara and had a grappling hook. And you're escorting a little girl through some great moody medieval streets on your mission to assassinate the king (or not).
The key feature is that time only moves when you do (or when you hold the Q key) and also you can rewind time. This is initially kinda disconcerting, and the fact you can be mid-move while using the physics-based grappling hook can lead to some really weird looking freeze frames, which makes it feel kinda janky at first.
Once you get the hang of it, and no-longer end up hanging embarrassingly directly infront of a guard with your head embedded in a plank, it allows you to flow pretty smoothly through the levels, which can feel great. You often end up with the situation where you're moving smoothly between overhead vantage points while the kid is moving smoothly between cover below you.
[edit] I should mention that while it can be 'insta-fail' stealth, the fact you can rewind time negates that. Also, while it's one long escort mission, the kid is usually pretty smart about when to move, and you can't fail because they get spotted. This occasionally leads to weird bits where the guards don't see her when she's right infront of them, but that's preferable to the alternative, which would have been infuriating. [/edit]
The guards are very "Thief guards" with their funny grumbling and inability to see anyone higher than them. A lot of the story is told through overhead conversations, and the game is a bit barebones outside that. Just some well voice acted cutscenes with static pictures slightly animated. Works ok though, and there are at least 3 endings.
HLTB says 6 hours, but steam says it took me nearly 12, and I felt like I was flying through some of the later levels. The levels can be pretty long, and I was (thief-style) trying to loot every chest even if it was between two chatting guards. The loot allows you to make traps, but I never actually used any of them because I was going for a full stealth playthrough. Which is kinda a shame, and did mean I was somewhat reduced to using the same tricks to distract guards. Getting into the right positions to do so is the challenge though.
I imagine you could play it pretty differently if you went full violence, as you could drop conveniently-placed barrels on guards, roll carts downhill onto them, knife them from above, etc... though you still have to worry about hiding bodies from other guards - and also possibly from the kid if you want the good ending.
I think it got pretty poor reviews initially, but they patched it up a little, and added another optional set of levels where you go *back* out through the main set of levels in reverse, with new guard placements. I might skip that though as I feel like 12hrs was enough. That was fine, but I wish a few of the individual levels had been shorter. Or maybe I'll play the back 14 in a more violent manner.
It's the very definition of a 7/10 indie game. But if you like stealth games and are used to pc-indie-jank then that probably rises to at least 8/10. You have to give it a few levels to get used to its idiosyncrasies though.
I don't think I'd recommend playing it on a gamepad, as I can't see how the grappling hook would work. If you're a AAA gamer then it probably drops to 5/10.
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Post by steifybobbins on Sept 12, 2024 20:26:00 GMT
Castlevania Dawn of Sorrow
I love this style of Castlevania. I remember buying this on DS shortly after launch only because there was nothing else to play and I fell in love with it. I'd not played Symphony or The GBA games at the time. The exploration and RPG elements combined created such an addictive loop for me. It helped that the pixel art is super too. Having since played the other DS entries and the GBA ones I now love this one a little less but I'd still take any of the "Exploration" Castlevania's over any Metroidvania before or since. I'm now half way through Portrait of ruin while rewatching the show on Netflix. I'm in a very large 'Vania shaped hole
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Post by ToomuchFluffy on Sept 13, 2024 17:03:40 GMT
Torchlight III (20 hours):
It has been a while that I have played the other two, but overally I'd say that it's mostly a step back after Torchlight II. The story was weak to a point where most of what I was doing felt disconnected from what little story there was. Environmental variety was low and the atmosphere not great, though what environments there were, were still decent, especially in Act III. The soundtrack is still good, but the mixing quite bad. The sound effects usually drown out the music and there is no separate setting for them.
The character building is decent. There are five classes most of which are kind of unusual and there is enough there to support a few builds on each character. There are only two simple skill trees per class, but a third relic tree can be added at character creation. For instance, a Duskmage has light and dark magic to which I added bane, which is poison-based. I ended up with a mostly dark/bane summoner, but I could as well have picked lightning and combined that with some light magic attack spell. On top of that there is also the option to add abilities from certain items as character abilities. This doesn't stack, so one either equips the item or the skill.
The gameplay is still as action-focussed and fun as the Torchlights have always been. Effects, feedback and so on are done well enough and there are often a lot of enemies on screen. Overall it was still a few hours too long, but the pacing in Act II and III was better than in the very vanillla Act I. Maps are relatively large and the game doesn't always to a good job of pointing the player in the right direction. Some transitions aren't accessible until some other quest has been finished, so this did ocassionally waste some time. The Fort they added and the many decorations and other fairly useless things that can be built in there, don't seem well considered. The few actually important functions could easily have been added to the hubs - which were pretty bland by the way - and the rest of it thrown out. Instead you end up with towns that are even more anemic than necessary.
Overall I had fun and it didn't overstay it's welcome too much.
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Ulythium
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Post by Ulythium on Sept 14, 2024 11:38:48 GMT
Rise of the Ronin. Rise of the Ronin is simultaneously the most interesting, and the most boring, game I've played so far this year. Interesting because, even after the best part of 60 hours, I'm still not sure how I feel about it - I've had a lot of fun, but just about every positive element comes with a caveat or three, and I'm damned if I know how to reconcile so many ups and downs. Boring because everything about it, from a design standpoint, is so utterly banal, rote, formulaic, and unimaginative. Let's get this out of the way: if you come to Rise of the Ronin expecting open-world Nioh, you're going to be disappointed. Yes, there are signs of shared DNA to be found - from the unending array of tiered loot to the similar-looking UI, and from the Blade Flash mechanic (basically a Ki Pulse in disguise) to the familiar third-person animations - but they're very different beasts, which you'll notice as soon as you delve beneath the surface. Instead, it's better to think of Ronin as Team Ninja's version of Ghost of Tsushima... ... Which, in turn, was Sucker Punch's take on Assassin's Creed. (Proving yet again that time is indeed a flat circle, Ubisoft themselves will finally take a trip to feudal Japan in November with Assassin's Creed Shadows - you couldn't make this shit up if you tried.) What this means in practical terms is that Rise of the Ronin is every inch the archetypal AAA open-world game. Icon vomit adorning the map? Check. Plenty of enemy encampments to be cleared out with a mixture of stealth and combat? Check. A variety of merchants vying for your custom? Check. Shallow, repetitive side quests? Check. Shoehorned-in RPG elements? Check. The American word for 'bill'? Check. (Sorry.) You catch my drift, I'm sure - as open-world experiences go, this is closer to Far Cry than Elden Ring. The "Been there, done that" ennui inspired by Team Ninja's archaic world design isn't helped by an insipid narrative, clunky dialogue, and acting that ranges from mediocre to just plain terrible. Remember how CD Projekt Red showed us that nailing these elements of a game can make even the most unoriginal of sandboxes seem fresh and exciting? There's none of that to be found here: just a selection of NPCs earnestly pontificating at tedious length about Japanese history, while the player's eyes glaze over. It makes one long for the over-the-top soap opera of Like a Dragon: Ishin!, which told a very similar story (involving many of the same historical figures) with the flair, wit, and melodrama for which RGG Studio has deservedly become known. A certain amount of ink has been spilled over Ronin's combat. Is it just a watered-down, streamlined take on what we've seen in the Niohs, Wo Long, and Stranger of Paradise? Well, it's definitely more basic than what we're accustomed to getting from Team Ninja, but "simplified" doesn't necessarily equate to "simple" - there's plenty of depth to be found if you're willing to go looking for it. Just as the Devil May Cry games can seem mindless and button-mashy at first, so Rise of the Ronin's combat may come across as one-dimensional during its opening hours; however, the gradual acquisition of new stances helps to bring in a bit of nuance, while the variety of weapons (melee and ranged alike) is as impressive as ever.
Team Ninja's decision to go down the Ubisoft route hasn't altogether superseded their traditional, linear approach to level design; indeed, most of the main missions in the game take place in smaller, Nioh-esque locales, with the overworld rendered inaccessible throughout.
These sections are where the game really shines, with no open-world busywork to detract from the core gameplay loop - fight bad guys, unlock shortcuts, find loot, and wrap things up with a boss battle.
Unfortunately, TN's commitment to historical realism has had an adverse impact upon Ronin's enemy variety. Gone are the yokai-inspired foes of previous games, and the Final Fantasy rogues' gallery from Stranger of Paradise is obviously nowhere to be seen; instead, it's just human enemies as far as the eye can see, and the limited number of available archetypes (big guy, spear dude, parry god, etc.) means that even boss fights stop being big set piece moments and soon become regular ol' enemy encounters instead.
Even the ability to switch combat styles mid-fight, in order to do bonus damage to a given enemy type, doesn't do much to shake things up - locking onto your foe will show you at a glance whether she/he is weak, neutral, or strong against a given style, turning this mechanic into an "I win!" approach in a game that's already far easier than its predecessors. (Imagine playing endless rounds of 'Rock paper scissors' when you always know exactly which move your opponent will make, and you're in the right ballpark.)
So that's a helluva lot of grousing and not much in the way of actual praise, right? Here's the thing, though: every once in a while, a game like this comes along, and happens to be precisely what you need at that moment in time. So it was with me and Rise of the Ronin.
I shan't bore you with the details, but I've been in a bit of a funk over the past few weeks - parting, as it turns out, is indeed a sweet sorrow - and while this wasn't quite the cure for what ailed me, it proved to be a pretty effective short-term painkiller.
Sure, the £45 I spent on it could've gone on a bottle of decent scotch instead, but that wouldn't have lasted nearly as long (and it probably would've done more harm than good overall). Better to while away one's evenings stroking cats and opening treasure chests than pickling one's liver, methinks; preferable to glide off the top of a temple, before landing astride one's goofy-ass horse and riding off into the sunset, than to spend another night in the company of J. Walker Esq.; more pragmatic to try (and usually fail) to woo an attractive woman in a video game than to nurse a hangover while rueing one's IRL failures in that regard.
Well, fuck - that got a trifle depressing at the end there! Quick, come up with a lighthearted note on which to finish. Something pithy, urbane, and witty; something sophisticated, befitting the denizens of this wonderful forum; something that'll lift everyone's spirits. Um, ah, I dunno...
... TESTICLES.
Nailed it.
7/10.
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Aunty Treats
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Post by Aunty Treats on Sept 14, 2024 12:04:36 GMT
I miss spooky too
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Ulythium
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Post by Ulythium on Sept 14, 2024 12:08:53 GMT
I never did play Stellar Blade.
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Tuffty
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Post by Tuffty on Sept 14, 2024 13:26:24 GMT
Perhaps I'm wrong but I remember the stance switching in Ghost of Tsushima to be more of a direct counter to certain enemy types than RotR is. With the latter you can at least fight against someone even with the "wrong" stance to fight against and still be ok, albeit the fight will last longer because it's not doing as much damage to the enemy's stamina. Compared to GoT where I think you couldn't even break through an enemy's shield unless you're using the right stance.
I think for the team's first effort at an open world game, it's more than good. I can see what you mean about icon vomit but the combat was enough of a draw for me to enjoy going out and hunting fugitives and clearing outposts. They do good things that other games should learn from like traversal from point A to B never taking too long, the ability for your horse to auto run to a designated point on the map picking up any items automatically along the way. Just lots of quality of life features that make the traversal more smoother and respectful of the player's time because without it, all those things just add up. I'd be willing to say that AC Shadows will look better than this but I think RotR will have it easily beaten as a better game to play and fulfilling that wandering ronin fantasy.
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Ulythium
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Post by Ulythium on Sept 14, 2024 13:46:17 GMT
I seem to remember that some of the parry-related skills you could acquire in Ghost of Tushima effectively nullified the need to change stances at all, so I didn't bother engaging with that mechanic after a certain point in the game.
My favourite stance-switching gameplay was in the Niohs, as it seemed more tactical than in Ghost of Tsushima or Rise of the Ronin - rather than remembering which enemy type is weak to which stance (Ghost) or holding R1 and fiddling with the right joystick until the enemy had upward-pointing arrows over his head (Ronin), I'd find myself learning which stance suited each situation and making adjustments on the fly.
Despite my criticisms of Ronin, I did enjoy it overall, and I wouldn't mind in the least if Team Ninja announced that their next project will be a sequel. They've already shown that they're capable of making big strides between an original game and its follow-up (Nioh --> Nioh 2), so Rise of the Ronin 2 would certainly have a lot of potential.
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Aunty Treats
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Post by Aunty Treats on Sept 14, 2024 13:53:29 GMT
Remember how CD Projekt Red showed us that nailing these elements of a game can make even the most unoriginal of sandboxes Even the ability to switch combat styles mid-fight, in order to do bonus damage to a given enemy type, doesn't do much to shake things up - locking onto your foe will show you at a glance whether she/he is weak, neutral, or strong against a given style, turning this mechanic into an "I win!" approach in a game that's already far easier than its predecessors. (Imagine playing endless rounds of 'Rock paper scissors' when you always know exactly which move your opponent will make, and you're in the right ballpark. How would you say it compares to Alex the Kidd in Miracle World?
(TIL it's Alex Kidd and there is no 'the')
Also, don't nail your testicles
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wunty
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Post by wunty on Sept 14, 2024 20:13:23 GMT
Alone in the Dark (the new one) Actually REALLY liked this. I was always going to get it at launch but the delays put me off along with the middling reviews. I actually thought it was great. Combat wasn't too bad, graphically very good looking and it was just all so delightfully odd. I also never expected it to go full on Lovecraft . The background music was also very cool, all smoky New Orleans jazz. Going to go straight into NG+ I think.
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Ulythium
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Post by Ulythium on Sept 14, 2024 20:45:27 GMT
How would you say it compares to Alex the Kidd in Miracle World?
I've never had the pleasure of playing the game in question, but I looked up a few YouTube videos.
There's a lot more beheading in Rise of the Ronin.
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Post by JuniorFE on Sept 14, 2024 21:02:03 GMT
Ulythium I agree with most of what you said, except the icon vomit (it's there, but felt a lot more subdued than the typical Ubisoft offering... And my Xbox history can attest that I've played a lot of those for someone whose first was Black Flag ) and the acting (the writing/story is give or take, but the voice cast -in the Japanese voiceover, at least- I found to be charming and personable with quite a few recognizable, sometimes almost instantly, voices. Certainly good enough to carry an otherwise decent-but-not-very-good script through the game). I also didn't mind having mostly human enemies with the occasional animal, but it's certainly no Nioh in terms of variety. Glad you enjoyed it nonetheless!
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Ulythium
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Lily-livered
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Post by Ulythium on Sept 14, 2024 21:07:50 GMT
JuniorFE The icon vomit could've been a lot worse, I grant you. Also, I should've specified that I played with the English dub, so my criticisms of the voice acting are limited thereto.
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Post by JuniorFE on Sept 14, 2024 21:16:26 GMT
JuniorFE The icon vomit could've been a lot worse, I grant you. Also, I should've specified that I played with the English dub, so my criticisms of the voice acting are limited thereto. Did the Niohs teach you nothing, user Ulythium?!? I kid, I kid. But if we're being honest offerings like these and Ghost of Tsushima just don't feel right to me without JP voiceover, even though I use English for pretty much every other game ever including most JRPGs
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Post by pierrepressure on Sept 15, 2024 7:43:06 GMT
Astro Bot
Justifies the high Metacritic score it received.
I'd love for them to release DLC of those levels that are based on PlayStation classics.
10/10
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Post by Mark1412 on Sept 15, 2024 9:52:11 GMT
Also Astro Bot, but not quite as keen
I finished everything but gave up on the final thing you unlock. Might go back to it if the masochist / completionist side of me wins out over the logical side that knows DualSense controllers are very expensive.
I found it an odd game. I loved it when it was celebrating PlayStation, the themed levels were fantastic and I'm surprised there weren't more considering how good they were. It had really great boss fights too, which is something I've probably said about three times in my life. Feels great to play, looks and sounds excellent. Genuinely an excellent, funny little platformer which, at its best, I definitely enjoyed more than recent Mario games.
And if they'd left it at that I think it would be an essential play. But there is a big chunk of the game where they think they're making Super Meat Boy 3D but they're not, and that that game only worked because levels were 4 seconds long and it was 2D. My lasting memory of it are some completely rubbish challenge levels requiring absolute perfection without any checkpoints. No fun at all, and at such odds with the rest of the game.
I wish they'd put that energy into making more of the themed levels, which were really special.
Very good, but for me should have been unmissable.
8/10
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Post by simple on Sept 15, 2024 10:19:02 GMT
Remember how CD Projekt Red showed us that nailing these elements of a game can make even the most unoriginal of sandboxes Even the ability to switch combat styles mid-fight, in order to do bonus damage to a given enemy type, doesn't do much to shake things up - locking onto your foe will show you at a glance whether she/he is weak, neutral, or strong against a given style, turning this mechanic into an "I win!" approach in a game that's already far easier than its predecessors. (Imagine playing endless rounds of 'Rock paper scissors' when you always know exactly which move your opponent will make, and you're in the right ballpark. How would you say it compares to Alex the Kidd in Miracle World?
(TIL it's Alex Kidd and there is no 'the')
Also, don't nail your testicles
Now Alex Kidd in Miracle World was an f’ing game! I can’t believe it wasn’t until Miracle World DX that I realised that the Janken bosses always make the same moves in the same order. 30 years I’d had versions of it before discovering that.
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