What game are you playing?

[TedEH]

Made it to credits for Dark Souls. I definitely have some thoughts on it. I get why people praise it so much, primarily, the world design is very good, but at the same time, I think it's been exceeded in most ways in other Souls games. Having done ER before it, it feels like a really stripped down version of that. Kind of like they took the cheap / BS kind of play out of Demons Souls, but didn't quite fill the game back up with the modern trappings of ER yet. I didn't feel very motivated to try different builds or weapons or equipment or whatever, so much as just found something that worked for me and ran with it the whole game. I think I used the same two or three weapons, and one bow, from close to the beginning of the game. I did get really good at the parry though - which trivialized the final boss, for better or worse.

 

[wankerness]

Made it to credits for Dark Souls. I definitely have some thoughts on it. I get why people praise it so much, primarily, the world design is very good, but at the same time, I think it's been exceeded in most ways in other Souls games. Having done ER before it, it feels like a really stripped down version of that. Kind of like they took the cheap / BS kind of play out of Demons Souls, but didn't quite fill the game back up with the modern trappings of ER yet. I didn't feel very motivated to try different builds or weapons or equipment or whatever, so much as just found something that worked for me and ran with it the whole game. I think I used the same two or three weapons, and one bow, from close to the beginning of the game. I did get really good at the parry though - which trivialized the final boss, for better or worse.

Did you get the "remastered" version? It sounds like you missed the DLC, which is probably the best part of the game, but is also something you'd probably never figure out how to get to without looking it up.

DS1 has a complex interlocking map which none of its sequels have come close to. Some of them have pieces that are like it, but none of them have you running around basically the entire world unlocking shortcuts, they all enable quick travel from the beginning and then don't worry so much about level design. Which is fine with me, but I get why people like DS1's map the most. It's definitely the most intricate. Elden Ring's is all connected and stuff, but it's got fast travel from the beginning and thus lacks all those cool shortcuts and has fewer ways to do alternate progression paths and stuff.

 

[SlowTopic539]

i played a video game for the first time in years today. i played Banjo-Kazooie lmao.

 

[MFB]

Bro, what the FUCK is up with the difficulty spike in the last region of Nioh? I was doing fine until this portion, suddenly I'm hanging on by a thread in what feels like every fight, even against low enemies.

I started the mission "Source of Evil" and it just dumps you straight into an arena against one small and one large dweller + undead skeleton? That's fine, not hard to beat three st once although they do have different ranges covered between their size. But then you kill them and a Raven Tengu shows up? Ugh, fine but these dudes are the worst of the games enemies, they just blitz thru defenses. And when you get one half way, ANOTHER spawns in on the other side of the tiny arena and it's like, bro who did I offend suddenly?

 

[wheresthefbomb]

Restarted my BG3 run on Tactician, much more satisfying so far. When I eventually wrap this run up I'll probably take a shot at Honor mode.

 

[MFB]

Bro, what the FUCK is up with the difficulty spike in the last region of Nioh? I was doing fine until this portion, suddenly I'm hanging on by a thread in what feels like every fight, even against low enemies.

I started the mission "Source of Evil" and it just dumps you straight into an arena against one small and one large dweller + undead skeleton? That's fine, not hard to beat three st once although they do have different ranges covered between their size. But then you kill them and a Raven Tengu shows up? Ugh, fine but these dudes are the worst of the games enemies, they just blitz thru defenses. And when you get one half way, ANOTHER spawns in on the other side of the tiny arena and it's like, bro who did I offend suddenly?

Correction, this was apparently one side mission and not a mission one, and thank FUCK it's over; there's a cannon at the back of the arena that aims right where one Tengu spawns, so if you kill the first quick enough, you can light that and hit for like 1/3 health or so. So the mission ends up being:

Blitz one enemy when it spawns away from other two
Separate two enemies to combo spam him to deal
Lure 3rd enemy to die at cannon where Tengu also spawns
Spam kill Tengu and light cannon in anticipation of the other one
Kill other one
BOSS FIGHT! it's a reuse of the very first boss who I'm good at beating, but now I'm low on supplies in a small arena as always.

The artificial difficulty is real

 

[pahulkster]

Restarted my BG3 run on Tactician, much more satisfying so far. When I eventually wrap this run up I'll probably take a shot at Honor mode.

Damn that is a game I had to turn down to easy. The little fights just take way too long and I'm not good at it. My playthrough was still well over 100 hours.

 

[TedEH]

Did you get the "remastered" version? It sounds like you missed the DLC, which is probably the best part of the game, but is also something you'd probably never figure out how to get to without looking it up.

Yeah, it's the remaster, you're right I haven't done the DLC. Part of what's turning me off of that idea is that I have to basically do half a normal playthrough again in order to get to it. That's one area Eldin Ring got right, IMO, is not forcing you into NG+ as soon as the credits roll. I don't normally do NG+ runs in anything. I just.... kinda don't care anymore at that point? So being forced to do half a run of NG+ just to start the DLC is really unappealing. I also never did some of the hidden stuff that I know is in there. Maybe I'll do it, maybe I won't, I don't know.

 

[wankerness]

Yeah, it's the remaster, you're right I haven't done the DLC. Part of what's turning me off of that idea is that I have to basically do half a normal playthrough again in order to get to it. That's one area Eldin Ring got right, IMO, is not forcing you into NG+ as soon as the credits roll. I don't normally do NG+ runs in anything. I just.... kinda don't care anymore at that point? So being forced to do half a run of NG+ just to start the DLC is really unappealing. I also never did some of the hidden stuff that I know is in there. Maybe I'll do it, maybe I won't, I don't know.

Oh, yeah, that's unappealing alright. I think DS is fun on replays cause now you know lots of tricks and shortcuts and sequence breaks. But, NG+ definitely makes a lot of previously easy bosses actually difficult, and turns some enemies from "very annoying" to "kills you instantly" (those goddam bonewheel skeletons in particular) so I would definitely not recommend doing the DLC on NG+ unless you want a punishing experience. I would suggest maybe replaying the game from the start instead of doing NG+, but playing something else first so you're not just burned out on it. The DLC is really good, but yeah, you have to get through most of the game to unlock it.

DS1 and Bloodborne both forced you into NG+ immediately if you killed the final boss but DS2 and everything after bloodborne did not. I do consider that a huge quality of life improvement.

 

[wankerness]

Correction, this was apparently one side mission and not a mission one, and thank FUCK it's over; there's a cannon at the back of the arena that aims right where one Tengu spawns, so if you kill the first quick enough, you can light that and hit for like 1/3 health or so. So the mission ends up being:

Blitz one enemy when it spawns away from other two
Separate two enemies to combo spam him to deal
Lure 3rd enemy to die at cannon where Tengu also spawns
Spam kill Tengu and light cannon in anticipation of the other one
Kill other one
BOSS FIGHT! it's a reuse of the very first boss who I'm good at beating, but now I'm low on supplies in a small arena as always.

The artificial difficulty is real

I still don't get this term "artificial difficulty." If a game makes you fight a whole ton of enemies and then a boss without resting, it's not "artificially harder," what does that even mean? Is a single boss with a checkpoint before it artificial easiness? It seems like something's either just harder or easier! I also thought that level had a checkpoint so you could get straight to the boss after reaching him the first time, if it's what I'm thinking of.

That's not the last area btw! And yeah that boss I remember having some trouble with, I think. I forget. I remember a giant skeleton dude that I'd usually fight fine for a while and then get stepped on by, I thought he was earlier in the game though. I've played through Nioh 2 4 times but Nioh 1 I only cleared on the first two difficulties.

 

[TedEH]

NG+ definitely makes a lot of previously easy bosses actually difficult, and turns some enemies from "very annoying" to "kills you instantly" (those goddam bonewheel skeletons in particular) so I would definitely not recommend doing the DLC on NG+ unless you want a punishing experience.

After the credits rolled, I got as far as the firelink just so I could save without losing the souls I gained from the endgame (I don't even know if that was necessary). I realize it's literally the tutorial area, but of course running through there with the gear from the previous run completely trivializes it. I fully expect that to be an unrepresentative sense of security that goes away once you get into the game proper.

I gatta pick a new game, or maybe do something else entirely for a while to avoid the souls burnout I think. Maybe do a proper attempt at Bloodborne. I don't actually own copies of DS2 and 3 yet, so that prevents me from moving on without thinking about it first. Not like I don't have a backlog of other stuff.

 

[MFB]

I still don't get this term "artificial difficulty." If a game makes you fight a whole ton of enemies and then a boss without resting, it's not "artificially harder," what does that even mean? Is a single boss with a checkpoint before it artificial easiness? It seems like something's either just harder or easier! I also thought that level had a checkpoint so you could get straight to the boss after reaching him the first time, if it's what I'm thinking of.

That's not the last area btw! And yeah that boss I remember having some trouble with, I think. I forget. I remember a giant skeleton dude that I'd usually fight fine for a while and then get stepped on by, I thought he was earlier in the game though. I've played through Nioh 2 4 times but Nioh 1 I only cleared on the first two difficulties.

Yeah, it's the giant skeleton boss, and that mission is actually kind of one of the easiest? Like, it's one singular piece of map that's connected by different levels of verticality, so you can make your way top down and really not trigger any mobs; you also only take on one yokai at a time for the majority, so that make it easier too. That skeleton is giving me flash backs to the dinosaur from Ninja Gaiden, and I am not here for it.

Artificial difficulty is stuff like one-shots at the very end of a gauntlet, when they know damn well they just drained you of resources in the shittiest way possible. The arena of the side mission is fairly small, I'd say probably the same size as the room you fight the Flying Bolt/Raven Tengu combo in (which, also, fuck that fight), and the immediate enemies it spawns are also fast so you don't have much room to work with besides catching one on the rock in the middle. If all three chase you at once? Your ki is going to be gone fairly quick since you have to juggle attacking/dodging for two different attack lengths. Then the Raven Tengus are notoriously known as being the worst enemies in the game, as their wind attacks are unblockable so you NEED to use the rock as a block, and their animations make it so difficult to read the sweep kick attack that if you don't know about it, you're going to miss it. So now your character may be in a combo just by skills you've unlocked that it can't cancel out of, while forced to eat the damage of an attack you can't read coming possibly, and there's two of them that also have an unblockable attack.

And then you STILL have a 3rd wave to deal with being one enemy who's a previous boss, that has attacks that can still one shot you after dealing with all that enemy resource management before? I'd rather they just trip me and tell me to go fuck myself than act like that's even close to a balanced mission. You're also stuck with whatever items you've readied as there's no shrine in the mission, so if you want to try and change up strategies? Not possible.

 

[wankerness]

Yeah, it's the giant skeleton boss, and that mission is actually kind of one of the easiest? Like, it's one singular piece of map that's connected by different levels of verticality, so you can make your way top down and really not trigger any mobs; you also only take on one yokai at a time for the majority, so that make it easier too. That skeleton is giving me flash backs to the dinosaur from Ninja Gaiden, and I am not here for it.

Artificial difficulty is stuff like one-shots at the very end of a gauntlet, when they know damn well they just drained you of resources in the shittiest way possible. The arena of the side mission is fairly small, I'd say probably the same size as the room you fight the Flying Bolt/Raven Tengu combo in (which, also, fuck that fight), and the immediate enemies it spawns are also fast so you don't have much room to work with besides catching one on the rock in the middle. If all three chase you at once? Your ki is going to be gone fairly quick since you have to juggle attacking/dodging for two different attack lengths. Then the Raven Tengus are notoriously known as being the worst enemies in the game, as their wind attacks are unblockable so you NEED to use the rock as a block, and their animations make it so difficult to read the sweep kick attack that if you don't know about it, you're going to miss it. So now your character may be in a combo just by skills you've unlocked that it can't cancel out of, while forced to eat the damage of an attack you can't read coming possibly, and there's two of them that also have an unblockable attack.

And then you STILL have a 3rd wave to deal with being one enemy who's a previous boss, that has attacks that can still one shot you after dealing with all that enemy resource management before? I'd rather they just trip me and tell me to go fuck myself than act like that's even close to a balanced mission. You're also stuck with whatever items you've readied as there's no shrine in the mission, so if you want to try and change up strategies? Not possible.

The Ravens are annoying cause they require fast reaction time, but you definitely don't need to hide behind anything. If you're using the spear, just get in close so they don't do the projectile (if they do, dodge sideways), and then just poke them with strong attack in mid stance and always be ready to dodge backwards (I think twice?) if they rear back for that whirlwind kick. I don't like fighting them because my reaction speed is bad and they do a TON of damage if you mess up, but they have a very simple and predictable moveset at least. I have an easier time with them than the big tongue guys (similar amount of damage/health and similarly predictable move set, but I just suck at not getting punched while i'm in the middle of an attack animation). Plus you can use sloths on them if you're having problems cause I don't think it is very necessary on the actual boss.

I'm not sure if you figured this out as the game is obtuse, but if you learn the higher ranks of a spell you can equip all the ranks at once and have more usages of the spell per rest. I don't recall if there's any way to recharge magic skills without resting in this game, though. Maybe not. But, yeah, I would frequently use one on a tengu or lick-demon just to get them over with without any threat.

 

[wankerness]

After the credits rolled, I got as far as the firelink just so I could save without losing the souls I gained from the endgame (I don't even know if that was necessary). I realize it's literally the tutorial area, but of course running through there with the gear from the previous run completely trivializes it. I fully expect that to be an unrepresentative sense of security that goes away once you get into the game proper.

I gatta pick a new game, or maybe do something else entirely for a while to avoid the souls burnout I think. Maybe do a proper attempt at Bloodborne. I don't actually own copies of DS2 and 3 yet, so that prevents me from moving on without thinking about it first. Not like I don't have a backlog of other stuff.

Bloodborne is widely considered the fan favorite of those things, but I think it has a lot of user-unfriendly stuff that's a backslide from DS2. It's still less punishing than DS1, but only a bit less (ex, it has fast travel from the beginning, and it doesn't have any long sections as "lol get fucked" as Tomb of the Giants or Sen's Fortress or the first half of Anor Londo). I would recommend Sekiro for the next one you play, that one has a lot of QOL stuff like way more frequent checkpoints and an actual honest-to-god pause button and the ability to use consumables on the pause screen. But yeah, definitely don't burn yourself out on their games.

 

[TedEH]

Bloodborne is high on my list I think because the aesthetic is different, and I'm quite the sucker for novelty in that way. It's also spoken about a fair bit at work. Some folks in some circles I work tangential to, to be very vague, are big fans. So it would scratch that itch to be "in the know".

Other candidates include:
Stellar Blade, Rise of the Ronin, Ghost of Tsushima, finish the attempt at Bayonetta from a while back, Axiom Verge 2 maybe.

I've also been debating going back to play something I know I liked but never returned to - like Prey, or Psychonauts 2, or Bioshock Infinite or something.

Or I have a pile of retro stuff that hasn't been look at in a while. Shadow the Hedgehog? The one where he has a gun? Kirby 64 I never finished. I have a mountain of PS1+2 rpgs that I never touched.

Ooooh and I had meant to go through the MGS series, did the first but never did MGS2 or 3. I've got the collection kicking around somewhere in my xbox account.

¯\_(ツ)_/¯

 

[SalsaWood]

I'm very slowly working my way further into RDR2. I'm somehow starting to enjoy the game as an experience instead of a "game". I keep skipping cutscenes and losing my horse and weapons, though. I'll take the blame for it, but I'd like to just have one horse with all my stuff on it. I don't want to be a 1900s horse mesmerist, what the fuck am I supposed to do with all these equestrian bastards?

Got me a reissue facelift of the OG duke Xbox controller, surely a polarizing design, but I love it. Has a screen where the jewel would be that does the OG Xbox start up animation. I also installed clicky triggers on my S controller, the mounts for the switches are kind of sloppy but I'm very happy with the change all the same. The factory triggers are really nice, especially for racing, but I've never found them better for shooters.

 

[wankerness]

Bloodborne is high on my list I think because the aesthetic is different, and I'm quite the sucker for novelty in that way. It's also spoken about a fair bit at work. Some folks in some circles I work tangential to, to be very vague, are big fans. So it would scratch that itch to be "in the know".

Other candidates include:
Stellar Blade, Rise of the Ronin, Ghost of Tsushima, finish the attempt at Bayonetta from a while back, Axiom Verge 2 maybe.

I've also been debating going back to play something I know I liked but never returned to - like Prey, or Psychonauts 2, or Bioshock Infinite or something.

Or I have a pile of retro stuff that hasn't been look at in a while. Shadow the Hedgehog? The one where he has a gun? Kirby 64 I never finished. I have a mountain of PS1+2 rpgs that I never touched.

Ooooh and I had meant to go through the MGS series, did the first but never did MGS2 or 3. I've got the collection kicking around somewhere in my xbox account.

¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Stellar Blade and Rise of the Ronin are both very fun but also very...safe? Neither is really what I'd call essential in the way Sekiro or Bloodborne is. Rise of the Ronin is very much a ubisoft-lite style of open world game with a ton of icons on the map to check off. So is Ghost of Tsushima, for that matter. Ghost of Tsushima is better-looking and more artfully done and the story is easier to follow if you aren't familiar with Edo period history, but it's also more ponderous and I think the combat in RotR is greatly superior as long as you're not playing on easy. Definitely GoT is the game with the better reputation, but I think ROTR is more fun. Stellar Blade is like, just sort of a hack and slash kind of combat game. It rips a lot of aesthetics from Nier Automata, which I like, but it's nowhere near as good as that game plotwise or musicwise. The gameplay is fun. It is often labelled a soulslike but I don't think it really counts, it feels more like a spazzy action buttonmasher cause you don't have a stamina bar and you can animation-cancel and enemy respawn systems aren't exactly the same as Dark Souls.

I did not like Axiom Verge 2 at all in the approximately 30 minutes I played it (I got it for free, I've never played 1).

Bioshock Infinite is still playable, but it just seems SO dumb now. Not that it didn't have issues on launch, but my last playthrough of it maybe 5 years ago was kind of embarrassing. It's a game where the hideous gore and hilariously high bodycount gets in the way of anything else it's trying to do, as well as the infamous "both-sides-ism." But, the production design is still pretty darn impressive.

I've never played a Kirby or Sonic game! Or MGS2+! Or Prey! Or Psychonauts!

 

[TedEH]

I've never played a Kirby or Sonic game! Or MGS2+! Or Prey! Or Psychonauts!

Honestly, other than the Genesis originals, Sonic is basically a franchise you play just the lolz, as they might say. It's not really good, and the best they ever do is scrape by on nostalgia. Everything else though is good stuff. Kirby can be hit and miss, but the hits are real good. Antithetical to Dark Souls though.

 

[wheresthefbomb]

Damn that is a game I had to turn down to easy. The little fights just take way too long and I'm not good at it. My playthrough was still well over 100 hours.

I have played a lot of D&D as well as D&D-to-computer-game adaptations over the years so the strategy is pretty much second nature. It's maybe a little more nuanced but my overall strat in those games is: action economy (and the restriction thereof) is king, and Dead Dudes Do No DPS. Everything else I do from positioning, spell selection, party makeup to consumable usage leads back to those two things. I'm also a hoarder and meticulous explorer combined with being very miserly about my rest usage, so I always have lots of gold to keep my consumables stocked and buy gear upgrades.

Also though, that's just how I have fun, and there's no wrong way to enjoy a game.

 

[SalsaWood]

Got save locked in RDR2. It loads me in a mile from the mission area with no horse so I can perpetually and inexplicably fail the mission every single time. I had just given up on manual saves and I'm definitely not replaying the last 2 hours of progress from the only autosave file, probably to just end up in the same situation all over again.

The discs are in the trash. I've never thrown a game out in my life until today. Also never had a single player game mutilate my save files to the point of them being absolutely useless. I can understand not reloading the random encounters, but why in the shitting fuck does the character need to wake up a mile away from the actual save point with nothing? There are save gates and save zones, why, if the game is just going to hand-of-god my ass to the next county anyways? Whoever thought quick swapping wheels were the premier method of item management needs to see management and get fired. What's wrong with a box menu, too much efficient use of space? The world and dialog are fantastic, just straight up phenomenal even by today's standards. However, I'm not playing for three hours at a time to make progress because the saves have nearly zero continuity- I'm not even playing one hour because the gun play sucks raw asshole and I get bounties for jaywalking in front of sheep. Don't even get me started on how much I dislike the main character and his gang of fellow rejects. I would probably really dig the game if I could just take my little bites from start to finish without having to deep throat the trail of fucking tears every time I turn it on or restart. Fuck cowboys, fuck horses, fuck the 1900s, fuck this shit.