What game are you playing?

[wankerness]

I'm not as fast as completing games as I used to, but up to chapter 4 of Like A Virgin Gaiden, The Man Touched For The Very First Time, just after the part with what has to be one of the hilariously dumb and goofiest plot schemes to come out of the Yakuza series, and that says a lot.

I do enjoy the Agent fighting style a lot though. Since it was birthed from Amon in Y6, I can only imagine it as a proof of concept for latter games with gameplay going for augmented superpowers of sorts.

I didn't realise the pool minigame was absent since Y0 and while I'm not really good at it, I at least appreciate that its back.

What are you referring to with the plot scheme?

I thought the agent style was fun when dealing with street punks cause you could just upgrade the jet boosters to max and rush through them twice and kill all of them instantly. But, when fighting actual bosses it seemed terrible. You can't use drones or bombs very effectively cause you have to like, disengage from combat for a second before the charged button presses will register, and the boss usually won't get hit by the bomb, and the webs are basically useless on anything other than low level fodder types of enemies.

I didn't realize that about billiards, either. I thought it was in much more recent games. But then again, looking at lists, it appears that it was in Yakuza 3 and 5, and I played the games in the order 0-1-6-2-3-4-5-7-8 so I would have felt like I'd played it in more recent games, when they were older ones that I played after 0! Honestly I think it's a pretty good minigame apart from the trickshots. It's actually fun facing off against opponents in 9ball or whatever, I actually won most of the games I played. It's just bullshit when you have to do the trickshots with 100% accuracy considering there are no angles displayed or basically anything that makes it easy to duplicate your rare successes, and you have to do the first two of them every single time you want to attempt the third.

Amon is a total asshole in this game too, btw - I don't recall him HEALING FROM DAMAGE in any other rendition. Any time I'd whittle down a couple of his last four (healing) healthbars, he'd hit me with one big move and instantly regenerate back to full. I only beat him by switching to Yakuza stance and hitting him with like 5 consecutive tiger drops. Otherwise, I could easily have seen the fight going on indefinitely until I ran out of healing items. Anything else would just get outhealed the second he'd get a hit on me, and good luck avoiding that with this game's clunky dodging - there's nothing nearly as responsive as the "rush" stances in most previous entries. Which I guess makes sense when we're dealing with a protagonist that's supposed to be what - 60?

 

[p0ke]

Finally managed to kill the Flexible Sentry. He was easy, but the way there was a pain in the ass each time - I tried the slow and safe way many times, but always ended up having no estus left by the time I got to the boss, so I decided to run. Took a few attempts, but then I finally got there with 2 estus left, and only ended up needing one.
Two hand bastard sword and stand back until his combo is done -> hit 1-2 times depending on which attack he just did -> repeat.

I guess I could've skipped the fight though, as I already got to the area the boat sails to using the bird's nest near the pursuer boss fight. Oh well, I got a few levels at least, and I spent them all on adaptability...

All the bosses so far have basically been like normal enemies with extra armor, what's up with that? Hopefully there'll be some more epic ones later...

 

[wankerness]

I just started a new ds2 sotfs playthrough, too! In about three hours, got through the first boss of lost bastille, skipping the second boss in Heide’s tower cause that place is hell on earth for a low level caster. I’ve never played as a pure int sorcerer, it’s not very good compared to ds1 where it’s really overpowered and is also not good compared to a hexer in DS2, but it’s working after some speed bumps.

Make sure you don’t overdo it with ADP, what you’re aiming for is 99 agility (agi goes up with adp and attunement so there’s not a set amount of adp you need). Once you hit that you can ignore the stat.

 

[Bloody_Inferno]

What are you referring to with the plot scheme?

The part where Joryu asks Tsuruno for a large sum of money only to blow it on a night on the town with the boys.

The Agent style is indeed meant for crowd control and the Yakuza style designed for bosses. It's the same way Yagami's Crane and Tiger styles were done respectively.

 

[wankerness]

In judgment 1 though tiger was for everything and crane was garbage!! The sequel radically improved things, though the counter (viper?) stance was so darn fun that I only used the other ones for the exp bonuses for switching.

 

[Bloody_Inferno]

I felt the exact opposite. The crane stance was great for crowds whenever you have a stock of heat bars, in which all you need is a bunch of goons surrounding you and maybe a nearby wall. I forced myself to use the tiger stance just to jack up the game's score count.

Lost Judgment definitely balances everything and each stance was fun. At least until you get the boxer stance and then the game is broken.

 

[wankerness]

I don't remember if the 2nd or 3rd shot was really difficult (I think it was the 2nd one). Just use a guide, it still takes a few tries, but it's doable.

I think I used this one here https://www.gamerguides.com/like-a-...l/1-shot-challenge-guide-like-a-dragon-gaiden and still spent like half an hour until I got it.

Update: Got it on the first try with this guide instead of youtube videos. The big image of shot #2 is massively more helpful than some twerp rushing through the shot placements without any narration.

So now I'm done with this game! I will leave it installed for a bit to see if any DLC comes out, but I think it's probably dead. I can't really see myself replaying it, unlike a lot of the mainline entries. Now the only Yakuza game in my backlog is Ishin!

 

[wankerness]

I felt the exact opposite. The crane stance was great for crowds whenever you have a stock of heat bars, in which all you need is a bunch of goons surrounding you and maybe a nearby wall. I forced myself to use the tiger stance just to jack up the game's score count.

Lost Judgment definitely balances everything and each stance was fun. At least until you get the boxer stance and then the game is broken.

Maybe I remember backwards, I just remember there was one stance that didn't seem useful for anything and the other one was good for everything, despite one being labelled single target and the other AOE.

I played through the tutorial mission of Armored Core 6, got blown away horribly by the boss twice feeling like "this game is impossible," then decided to just bumrush him and mash all three attack buttons nonstop and killed him without ever going below 50% armor or using a healing item. The movement controls seem a bit overwhelming and the extreme limit on your boost (at least in the tutorial) was off-putting. I dunno. I might try more later. I realize that the tutorial used a preset robot that you couldn't change and a lot of the game is big on customization so I need to give it more time.

Then, I started FFVII remake again. I'm having a bit of a different reaction this time. Number one reaction is, why did they toss this battle system for FFXVI's?!?! This is much more fun and actually maintains some of the strategic party commands and stuff that FFXVI was sorely lacking. I'm playing it on easy cause I just want to get through it, so I'm not seeing the depth here and maybe everything feels as "bullet spongey" as it did in FFXVI on normal if you're on normal, but I still really like how you can actually control your companion directly and everything, and it feels like real fun where you look forward to combat instead of how I started feeling in FFXVI - "oh god, here we go AGAIN, and of course they all have 3083500934 HP, so much for my wrists."

I will say that FFXVI's dialogue and voice acting is way, WAY better than this, though. It's so embarrassing I'm tempted to set it to Japanese voices. I mean, it's well RECORDED and I don't think it's the actors' faults, but god is the dialogue bad. I'll give it another couple chapters before trying Japanese.

 

[TheBlackBard]

Well I reinstalled Elden Ring and... I'm having fun. Haven't fought major bosses yet, but for now, I'm going to take it at my own pace, explore the world, and just have fun. Got a Conan the Barbarian build going, greatsword in one hand, shield in other, and so far, as long as I don't get reckless and have patience, I'm doing alright. I used to have a big issue with summoning ashes or summoning NPC's and such, but honestly? I don't care anymore. They're their for me to use, so is summoning other players, so I'm going to play it how I see fit. I want to see the rest of the game before I gave up and if this is how I do it, this is how I do it.

 

[thebeesknees22]

I'm just past Costa Del Sol in FF7 rebirth. So far it's been pretty fantastic, but holy moly... I'm getting mini-gamed to death.

Way too many mini games that are mandatory for the main story. And the difficulty doesn't change with the difficulty settings so if I want to just flip it to easy mode just to churn through it, it doesn't change anything lol. I don't have time to spend an hour or two trying to get the max on a minigame. I need easy mode to make them easy

 

[wankerness]

I'm just past Costa Del Sol in FF7 rebirth. So far it's been pretty fantastic, but holy moly... I'm getting mini-gamed to death.

Way too many mini games that are mandatory for the main story. And the difficulty doesn't change with the difficulty settings so if I want to just flip it to easy mode just to churn through it, it doesn't change anything lol. I don't have time to spend an hour or two trying to get the max on a minigame. I need easy mode to make them easy

The problems I'm having with FF7 Remake are the terrible dialogue/voiceacting and the bland/simplistic environments. From what I've seen of videos, it sure looks like Rebirth solved the second problem, at least graphically. Are the maps less of the "straight hallways with nothing to interact with" variety? Is the dialogue any less cringey and awkward?

Having played many, many yakuza games I'll probably be fine with mandatory minigames, no way it's got more than those!

 

[narad]

Yea, when they were touting the mini-games like a year ago, it seemed like a bad sign. I loved the mini-games in the original, in their true, purely optional way.

 

[thebeesknees22]

Yea, when they were touting the mini-games like a year ago, it seemed like a bad sign. I loved the mini-games in the original, in their true, purely optional way.

yeah man. totally agreed.

I don't mind having some in the main story, but i feel like i'm getting spammed every few bits in a chapter with them.

 

[TheBlackBard]

Just killed the Tree Sentinel near the beginning of Elden Ring. Using Lordsworn Greatsword, but did find the Claymore and I'm thinking of giving that a chance, especially since it has a thrust attack and the LSGW doesn't. Got the Brass Shield which has 100 percent physical damage reduction. Went with Hero class and doing a Conan the Barbarian style build, not sure if I mentioned that already. But yeah, still having fun, beat the Tree Sentinel on the second try with the Wolf summons. Pretty nice! Also beat Leonine Misbegotten with Wolves as well, although I'm sure he has no poise whatsoever, he went down pretty easy. @wankerness thank you for your advice earlier on in this thread and telling me about my options to make the game easier. Helped me find enjoyment in the game!

 

[MFB]

Just killed the Tree Sentinel near the beginning of Elden Ring. Using Lordsworn Greatsword, but did find the Claymore and I'm thinking of giving that a chance, especially since it has a thrust attack and the LSGW doesn't. Got the Brass Shield which has 100 percent physical damage reduction. Went with Hero class and doing a Conan the Barbarian style build, not sure if I mentioned that already. But yeah, still having fun, beat the Tree Sentinel on the second try with the Wolf summons. Pretty nice! Also beat Leonine Misbegotten with Wolves as well, although I'm sure he has no poise whatsoever, he went down pretty easy. @wankerness thank you for your advice earlier on in this thread and telling me about my options to make the game easier. Helped me find enjoyment in the game!

I went hero as well for this STR build and it definitely gives a boost in the early game, my VIG/STR are both at 30 right now and I think I have END around 15? Need to boost it a little, but it's been enough to get me through so far. Although I'm not rolling sword since it seems like they never get as high scaling as the blunt weapons like mace/axe, so I'm using the highland axe at the moment and that'll take me a good chunk thru since it's already at B scaling.

Tried taking down the Crucible Knight in the evergaol last night, I don't know why but he just keeps stomping me; maybe they're tuned for higher levels even if you do find him early on? But oh well, so I moved on and unlocked Raya Lucaria again and I'll finish that up and who knows how much else over the weekend.

 

[TheBlackBard]

I went hero as well for this STR build and it definitely gives a boost in the early game, my VIG/STR are both at 30 right now and I think I have END around 15? Need to boost it a little, but it's been enough to get me through so far. Although I'm not rolling sword since it seems like they never get as high scaling as the blunt weapons like mace/axe, so I'm using the highland axe at the moment and that'll take me a good chunk thru since it's already at B scaling.

Tried taking down the Crucible Knight in the evergaol last night, I don't know why but he just keeps stomping me; maybe they're tuned for higher levels even if you do find him early on? But oh well, so I moved on and unlocked Raya Lucaria again and I'll finish that up and who knows how much else over the weekend.

I think I want to try dual wielding Greatsword. Got a claymore and the LSGS but want to try out Bastard Sword as well.

 

[gabito]

Return to Monkey Island. It's pretty funny, I like the graphics, music, and everything else. It's a very well made graphic adventure.

But I'm kind of old and impatient now, very used to immediate results in the internet era, and more often than not I end up using the hint system to progress the story

 

[TedEH]

Noclip has a documentary about Return to Monkey Island that's worth the watch after you've finished the game.

 

[p0ke]

Got to the Ruin Sentinels in DS2... but I had to remote play on my phone because my wife was occupying the TV, and ofc the framerate goes to slideslow-mode everytime I enter the boss area and when it resumes normal I'm already dead. I did somehow manage to kill the first one a couple of times without even getting hit, but then I always fell off the ledge or something... I'll certainly get them next time I get to use the TV

 

[Noisy Humbucker]

RE:4 Remake is cool.