Rax/Maz/Jimbo 2020 Games Thread: "S.T.A.R.S...."

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Re: Rax/Maz/Jimbo 2020 Games Thread: "S.T.A.R.S...."

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NieR Replicant is getting a remaster.

This is going to need some explaining. In Japan, there were actually TWO different versions of NieR: one about a father trying to save his dying daughter from a sickness (Called NieR Gestalt), and a different version about a brother trying to save his dying sister from a sickness (Called NieR Replicant).

In America we only ever got NieR Gestalt before, and it was released only as "NieR" here. So while we're getting a rerelease, it will be a different story somewhat from the original versions. As much as having a different main character makes it different anyways.

I'm pretty curious about what the differences between the two versions will be. I'm betting the gameplay is mostly the same, though I wonder about subtle story differences and the like.
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Re: Rax/Maz/Jimbo 2020 Games Thread: "S.T.A.R.S...."

Post by Raxivace »

I've still been playing Cuphead, but I've been stuck on King Dice for a few days now.

I swear this guy, no joke, ruins the damn game. Like its technically "fair" in that nothing here is necessarily something you can't react to, but the fight is long as hell because you have a minimum of three minibosses at least to fight before hand, and possibly more if you suck at parrying the die he gives you to move across his little board.

Because there are nine god damned minibosses you could potentially fight, all of whom have different loadouts that make them easier, there's no one real loadout you can choose to just cheese through them and get to King Dice himself because if you fuck up a parry on the die I mentioned, you could end up on a miniboss that you just don't have decent abilities to fight.

King Dice himself once you get to him as one attack, and that one attack is bullshit that you have to parry through multiple times to not take damage from. No other boss before this required you to parry, and most of them I didn't even do so anyways half the time I would just take damage trying to parry something for relative little benefit. It's a little different when you have Auto-Parry equipped, but that only gives you the first parry of a sequence so its kind of moot for the King Dice fight itself even if its useful for some of the minibosses and stopping the die more easily.

This whole boss is just way too drawn out and immensely frustrating, like all of Cuphead's worse flaws are contained here. Like this isn't even getting into how some of the minibosses themselves are pretty obnoxious, like that fucking race horse.
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Re: Rax/Maz/Jimbo 2020 Games Thread: "S.T.A.R.S...."

Post by Raxivace »

Like no joke, Cuphead before King Dice is an 8/10 game at least.

Cuphead with King Dice is like a 2 or 3/10 game.
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Re: Rax/Maz/Jimbo 2020 Games Thread: "S.T.A.R.S...."

Post by Gendo »

Hmm, sounds annoying. We're only 2 levels into world 3 now. Paying both 2 player and 1 player; often 1 player ends up easier; so I'll press on and beat a level if my wife and I get stuck for too long trying it together.
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Re: Rax/Maz/Jimbo 2020 Games Thread: "S.T.A.R.S...."

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Tbh I was hoping that thing where you whine about a game on the internet and then immediately go on to beat it would kick in around now but so far it hasn't for Cuphead. :(

If you get to King Dice and find some good strategy for him let me know because jesus christ.
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Re: Rax/Maz/Jimbo 2020 Games Thread: "S.T.A.R.S...."

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I managed to beat King Dice. I had roundabout, the homing shot, Super I, and the smokedash thing.

Essentially, you have to learn all of the minibosses basically perfectly (Though the monkey I never could get the hang of enough to no-damage, though the other 8 I got decent at), and then for King Dice himself you have to manage to get on the other side of his hands before he starts shooting cards at you with it and then batter him with with either a special or jumping roundabout shots.

In the beginning of the fight though, you have to straight up guess whether King Dice starts his card attack with his left or right hand. If you're wrong, welp. Typically then he alternates between left and right, so if you guess correctly and he starts on left, you hide behind his left hand, and then after his card attack is done you immediately run to the other side of the screen so you can begin the jumping roundabout assault again. This is pretty slow until you can get a super fired off. The problem with this strategy though is that King Dice occasionally will repeat a hand twice in a row, in which case you're screwed if you're like me and can't parry through the cards. So you probably want at least 3 HP coming into the fight, because you should expect to have to tank through at least two hits though it could be more. In my winning run I guessed right at the beginning of the fight, but he pulled the switcheroo on me twice so I won with 1 HP.

So yeah, come into King Dice with as much HP as possible but no less than 3, and just hope RNG blesses you. Or you could get good at parrying I guess.
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Re: Rax/Maz/Jimbo 2020 Games Thread: "S.T.A.R.S...."

Post by Gendo »

Congrats! Glad to hear that roundabout at least serves some purpose; it hasn't seemed worth it to us yet. Also super I feels like it doesn't last nearly long enough to work. I usually have smokedash, but recently bought the 5 hearts, which seems like it might be my new go-to.

Beat 4 levels last night; I think 4 more bosses in world 3 to go.
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Re: Rax/Maz/Jimbo 2020 Games Thread: "S.T.A.R.S...."

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Another batch of games to post before RE3 and FF7 remakes take over my life.

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Kingdom Hearts III Re:Mind (DLC, 2020) - This DLC basically contains two halves. The first half is a reworked endgame for KH3, which I can personally take of leave. Some of the changes are kind of neat, but honestly I feel its pretty unnecessary.

The real meat of the DLC though is the second half, which are the 14 superbosses that come with it, which are some tough sons of bitches. Yozora was definitely the hardest for me, to the point that the guides to beat him on YouTube still take over 15 minutes just to go through all of the different attacks he can throw at you (And this is just for one of the bosses!!!), but man between this and the Critical Mode update its hard to remember the time where I once complained that KH3 was too easy.

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The Oregon Trail (1971) - Y'all didn't think I could make it to Oregon, did you? Well you know what? Y'all can go fuck yourselves, I'm in Oregon now. President Polk even congratulated me! Fuck the haters, they're jealous.

Apparently this original version of the game is pretty simple compared to later versions (I'm pretty sure the one I played a few times as a child at the museum must have been some later one anyways since it wasn't text-only, or perhaps it was a knockoff of some kind), though the core ideas that people recognize of the game are still intact (Also I guess technically the boxart above is for a later version of the game, but still). I'm not sure if dysentery deaths are a thing here though, since I got everyone to Oregon alive, because I'm the greatest.
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ARMS (2017) - I guess you'd call this a fighting game? It's one where the gimmick is that its entirely in third person though, with each character being able to extend their arms for long range attacks like they're Mr. Fantastic.

Throwing the long range punches is fun enough, though from playing arcade mode once it doesn't seem like there's too much more to it than that (And basic evasive options, guarding etc.). The arcade mode also throws these really annoying Mario Party-esque minigames in there which you HAVE to win to proceed which I just found a bit obnoxious. Like imagine if you couldn't proceed in Street Fighter II's arcade mode if you didn't get a high enough score when you have to trash the car. It's not like its particularly hard I guess, but its not quite what I signed up for.

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Shenmue III (2019) - After 18 years the long awaited followup to Shenmue II is here, and its...okay. I was pretty positive on Shenmue I and II despite some (Intentionally) frustrating aspects about them, but I have to say I was looking forward to returning to that kind of game in Shenmue III. And Shenmue III sort of delivers on that, but not quite in the way I expected.

Probably the biggest difference here comes down to how the games were made. Shenmue I and II were not only studio games, there was time when the first Shenmue was the most expensive video game ever made with its estimated $100 million production cost. Shenmue II didn't quite cost that much, but still benefited from systems and such put in place by the first game. Shenmue III on the other hand is straight up an indie game (It was funded through Kickstarter and a deal with Epic Games which is actually located near where me and Gendo live), and from what I can tell online it was made for...much less than $100 million dollars (This isn't even getting into inflation).

Where Shenmue III falters though is that it tries to match the scope of the first two games and it doesn't quite work. Combat for example is somehow worse than the original Shenmue despite coming out 20 years later- you have no throws, enemies just guard a bunch, fighting multiple enemies is a huge pain in the ass because there's no real way to crowd control (At least that I can tell) etc. During noncombat sections too, NPC's don't seem to be given quite as much life- like in Shenmue 1 you could follow any random NPC's entire schedule throughout the day if you wanted to, though that doesn't seem to be the case here.

Some issues can't be explained by budgetary problems though. Shenmue coined the term "QTE" back in 1999, and yet here in 2019 they've made the QTE's bizarrely hard, even on the easiest difficult. Thankfully there's not much punishment for failing a QTE, you can jump right back into them, but still why do they have to be so split-second?

You can't pause during cutscenes either, which is really weird for a new game and caused me to have to rewatch portions on YouTube a few times when I had to get up from the game suddenly.

You're also expected to actual do kung fu training now to raise Ryo's stats, which is really frustrating. They even make you grind it out on the easiest difficulty that's explicitly for just experiencing the story, which is bizarre. While you could raise Ryo's stats in Shenmue I and II, it was never required just to clear the game, but here your stats seem to determine victory more than anything.

The biggest and worst change though is what they've done do HP. During general exploration, your health is CONSTANTLY lowering. And you have to consistently buy food to keep Ryo energized. This carries over into combat too where if stumble into a fight and haven't been keeping Ryo's health up, lol you're about to get pummeled. That's "realistic" I guess, and Shenmue prides itself on sometimes needless realism if nothing else, but its the kind of realism I don't think anyone was asking for. In previous games your health would slowly regenerate during combat too, and that's gone now.

The cutscenes here too are very bizarre and bad. Like during normal dialogue scenes you'll get these weird jump cuts to black in the middle of conversations, but its not to denote time passing or anything because its the SAME conversation still after the cut. Its not for some kind of weird dramatic emphasis either, but its during mundane dialogue about looking for a random stores or something.

Also any time you talk to an NPC and they point you in the direction of a store or signpost or something else, the camera never actually shows you where they're pointing, it stays on the NPC in center frame, just pointing to things the player can't actually see. Just a bunch of a bizarre choices all around.

Also the localization is really half-assed. You get a lot of weird responses from NPC's like that. The original games did not have this problem really.

There doesn't seem to be much actual plot progression in Shenmue III either. You spend literally the entire game looking for a guy that you heard went missing at the end of Shenmue II, and at the end of the game you find him. He then gives you information you already had. Wow. In the process of actually finding the missing guy, your spend most of your time fighting a mid-level gangster and his cronies in a village whom you defeat by getting a martial arts master to teach you a new technique, and then you go to city where you fight a different mid-level gangster and his different cronies whom you defeat by getting a different martial arts master to teach you a different new technique.

And yet despite all these complaints, I still kind of liked the game? Like I think this is easily the worst of the Shenmue three, though there's still something fun about running around fairly dense areas and gradually learning them as you do your low-level detective work. I still think Shenmue I and II did that better mind you, but that aspect is still fun in Shenmue III.

There's a lot of side content in Shenmue III too that I didn't touch, so if I ever get around to replaying this I'm curious to know how different the experience would be if I focused more on that than the main story.
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Cuphead (2017) - I feel like I've said most of what I wanted to about this game at this point, but I'll try and summarize. It's a good game but the minimum of 3 HP just feels too unforgiving, particularly with some of the later bosses like Dr. Kahl's Robot or King Dice. Like I would gladly sacrifice Simple Mode, which is a truly pointless addition to the game since you can't even get to the ending by playing it, with a mode that DOESN'T take away boss phases but at least gives you a base of 4 or 5 HP instead of 3.

Still the art style is great, the jazzy soundtrack is great, and its generally an inventive game. But the more obnoxious bosses (Particularly any where the foreground covers any actual threats that could damage you. The very last boss of the game, The Devil, has this problem unfortunately in his first phase) and the kind of bad “run 'n' gun" levels do bring it down. Its worth playing but boy the games that Cuphead is mechanically paying tribute to phased out of history for a reason. It would be nice if Cuphead could have kept the difficulty of that era without some of the more tedious bullshit but it doesn't quite accomplish that, sadly.

Oh yeah the game might be racist too but I'm not really equipped to judge that.
Last edited by Raxivace on Fri Apr 03, 2020 4:27 am, edited 2 times in total.
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Re: Rax/Maz/Jimbo 2020 Games Thread: "S.T.A.R.S...."

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Gendo wrote:Congrats! Glad to hear that roundabout at least serves some purpose; it hasn't seemed worth it to us yet. Also super I feels like it doesn't last nearly long enough to work. I usually have smokedash, but recently bought the 5 hearts, which seems like it might be my new go-to.

Beat 4 levels last night; I think 4 more bosses in world 3 to go.
Thanks. Honestly Super I doesn't seem that useful for stretches of the game, though I was glad to have it at the end here for King Dice and the Devil.

I generally like roundabout anyways because I found being able to hit guys behind you tends to be more useful than you might expect.
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Re: Rax/Maz/Jimbo 2020 Games Thread: "S.T.A.R.S...."

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I beat Resident Evil 3 already.

I'll type up something more substantial later, but that demo is mad misleading in a kind of bad way.
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Re: Rax/Maz/Jimbo 2020 Games Thread: "S.T.A.R.S...."

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Resident Evil 3 (2020) - I would like to know what the hell happened during the production of this video game because in a way they fucked this up bad.

I say in a way because on its own merits independent of everything else, its still a decent game that manages to be fun with a few standout sequences. Its just not even close to the game that Capcom lead everyone to believe this was going to be.

Back when the original Resident Evil 2 came out back in 1998, one of the ways they updated what OG Resident Evil 1 did was adding in Mr. X on the B playthroughs, and his one goal was basically to harass you and pressure you into making mistakes (Like running into zombies you're trying to avoid) while you're just trying to solve puzzles and run around with themed keys as all police officers and motorcyclists are prone to do.

Resident Evil 3 came originally came out in 1999, and its intent was to push the Mr. X idea even further with Nemesis. Nemesis would run, he could seemingly appear anywhere, he had weapons etc. He was meant to be a tough son of a bitch that was always present, trying to hunt. I don't think the execution of Nemesis really worked in RE3 for a variety of reasons (Namely because of how random his appearances seemed, him getting a bit monotonous, general gameplay problems with RE3 etc.) but the idea itself is solid.

There have been many such stalker type characters in Resident Evil over the years (Lisa Trevor to an extent in REmake 1, Ustanak in RE6, Jack Baker and co. in RE7, that asshole from Dead Aim that everyone's forgotten about etc.), but Mr. X and Nemesis being the first two and fairly iconic are what all of them get compared against.

Last year Resident Evil 2 Remake came out and IMO got Mr. X down perfectly. He was ever present, you could always hear him stomping around, he could see if you were below him, he would climb ladders etc. Again, the point wasn't to fight him really but he was an obstacle whose presence you would be forced to confront with at some point. He's probably my absolute favorite execution of this type of enemy now.

So now we come to Resident Evil 3 Remake. Here's where the first signs should have been obvious. What is the name of this game? It's Resident Evil 3. What is the name of the game its a remake of?

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Resident Evil 3: Nemesis. They dropped the subtitle for some reason. To be fair though that was only the English speaking regions' version of the game's name, in Japan it was called "Biohazard 3: Last Escape".

In interviews though leading up RE3 Remake's release, the developers talked up not only how they were basing the new version of Nemesis' AI on RE2 Remake's Mr. X, but how much more badass he was gonna be, how much deadlier, look he's got a flamethrower etc. The demo they released even seemed to play this up, as you run around Raccoon City doing Resident Evil bullshit and then at the end of the demo, Nemesis finally appears and chases the fuck out of you across town. Something seemed off about him to me though.
Raxivace wrote:Nemesis is the biggest concern here. I'm pretty sure the game wants you to fight him any time you encounter him, because if you try and run away from him like you would Mr. X he seemingly just fucking teleports all over the map, appearing from places that just seem impossible. What was cool about Mr. X was how he had a set path he would follow through the RPD- as you unlocked doors and such, that opened that path up for him (With the exception of the few rooms he was barred from entering). There were a few instances where he was scripted to appear but generally speaking you were meant to track him through the police station, listen for his footsteps etc. You could technically fight him but you're meant more to dodge him more than anything.

Nemesis is way more aggressive and will punish you for trying to run away through grabbing you with his tentacles or just leaping around (Or practically teleporting, like I said), however if you match his aggressiveness by just unloading on him he seems to go down fairly easily? Or at least he did based on the demo's encounter, who knows what the full game or harder difficulties are like. I certainly had an easier time with fighting him than I did just running away from him, and this seems true to the spirit of the original game where you would get rewarded with items and new weapons by fighting him anyways.
Well it turns out the reason he teleports around so much and is that aggressive is because in Resident Evil 3 Remake, he's not a Mr. X type stalker enemy at all, the demo is just designed to give the impression he is. He's a glorified boss battle- MUCCCCCHHHHHH more heavily scripted and setpiece based that I or anyone else was expecting, in addition to the actual several mandatory boss fights against him (Which involve him turning into a dog and then, for some reason, Bed of Chaos from Dark Souls). Instead of being an omnipresent stalker, there will be scripted sequences where you just have to run away from him like its an Uncharted game or something, i.e. once you've progressed the story enough Nemesis will appear, shoot a few rockets at you, and you have to dodge the rockets as you get to the end of a linear path. There are QTE sequences too that involve you escaping Nemesis, of course. Weirdly though it causes Nemesis to feel barely present in the story basically defined by him being there. He's so easy to dodge around this time too (Much easier than random zombies in fact. Hell, there are certain regular enemies that are flatout more dangerous than Nemesis even!!! Fucking Hunter Betas.), he kind of just pops in sometimes. Hell even in the damn story I'm not sure he actually kills any S.T.A.R.S. members this time around, and that's literally the reason this character even exists! To kill S.T.A.R.S.!!!! Its even his catchprhase!!!!!!

This comes down to the other major problem with RE3 Remake. The reason Nemesis is designed this way is because there's almost nowhere where he even could stalk you anyways like Mr. X in RE2. The area in the demo is by far the most open area in RE3 Remake, after that its almost entirely linear corridors and such- even when the levels themselves aren't straight lines they're still fundamentally straightforward- none of the looping around that RE2 Remake or even the original RE3 did where you could backtrack to areas whenever. Its mostly just straightforward shooting, after that first area there's little to no puzzle solving, few keys and such to run around with etc. It just because a typical linear action game in its level design. The original RE3 may have been badly done classic RE level design but it was still fundamentally there at least, and not this.

RE3 Remake gets a little of that Resident Evil-ness back during the Hospital segment, but its a far cry from what anyone was expecting after RE2 Remake, especially because RE3 Remake had an entire extra year of development compared to RE2 Remake, since they started development at the same time. Seriously, after how good and how true to the original RE2 Remake was, what the hell happened here? I didn't even like the original RE3 that much in its execution, but I was looking forward to a better execution of its ambitions and the Remake doesn't even try.

This is to say nothing of the absolutely bizarre cuts and changes to the story (Entire sections, characters, and memorable events are flatout removed, including a character featured in the damn ending of the original RE3!!!) but the whole thing was not only a disappointment (Its short too, I've beaten it twice already), but it does kind of feel like Capcom went out of its way to mislead people in regards to what the game was even like. Oh and in the end game they throw in one of the new annoying enemy types form Ghost Survivors, because of course they would do that.

That all being said its still not a bad game on its own or anything, like its fun enough to play. It just feels like an Uncharted game or something cosplaying as Resident Evil 3, and not even trying to be the Remake that everyone was dreaming of.

I could go on, but I'll stop here for now.
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Re: Rax/Maz/Jimbo 2020 Games Thread: "S.T.A.R.S...."

Post by Gendo »

Beat Dr. Kahl's Robot... hard but didn't take as long as a couple others have. Been having to go 1 player more now; the extra chaos caused by having a second player is making it too hard... between things that are based on your movement being unpredictable, and sometimes getting mixed up who you are for a moment just because you see movement. Also, I've learned that it's not only the boss that gets double health in 2 player. Everything does; like the mini planes and bombs that the robot fight has.

The next 2 fights were some of the easiest I've done so far... the theater girl and the rat/cat thing. Just one to go in world 3; then onto the final battles.

Another thing; we're playing it on our 120" projector screen. Makes it even harder than it already is. With that screen size you can't see everything at once; I'll often have my eyes focused on the boss to see the projectiles coming out; while just seeing my character out of the corner of my eye just enough to see the movement.
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Re: Rax/Maz/Jimbo 2020 Games Thread: "S.T.A.R.S...."

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The hardest part about Dr. Kahl's Robot for me was honestly that really obnoxious first phase where as you destroy his parts his weapons get MORE dangerous. Though once I figured out how to deal with it, the rest wasn't too bad, even if in Phase 2 I would sometimes get hit by a few unlucky missiles or bombs or whatever they were. Phase 3 is mostly just dodging bullet hell stuff of course, which isn't too bad as long as you have some room for error.

Yeah theater girl and rat/cat were pretty easy.

That's an interesting point about the screen you play it on. I played in handheld mode mostly but still had some issues just paying attention at times.
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Re: Rax/Maz/Jimbo 2020 Games Thread: "S.T.A.R.S...."

Post by Gendo »

Yeah giant screens are bad for hard video games in general; I noticed a big difference when doing a hard Mario Maker level in handheld vs in the theater room. But it's worse with a bullet hell game like Cuphead; I simply can't see all the things on screen without moving my eyes to change what I'm looking at.
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Re: Rax/Maz/Jimbo 2020 Games Thread: "S.T.A.R.S...."

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I feel like a lot of the plane levels have the issue of just throwing too much bullshit at you like that now that I'm thinking back on them.

At least with regular bosses you have more options with all the charms and the different kind of attacks, whereas with the plane you're more limited with what you can do.
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Re: Rax/Maz/Jimbo 2020 Games Thread: "S.T.A.R.S...."

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And now I've already Platinumed RE3 lol. I think I ended up beating the game 5 times in total on PS4 (One for each difficulty), plus once on PC.

They make it so easy to get the Rocket Launcher in this. In RE2 Remake, you had to get an S+ Rank with at least one character which is a legit challenge. Not impossible or anything, but you've got to learn your route.

In RE3, every in-game achievement gives you Points, and you use Points to buy unlockables. A lot of the in-game achievements are things like "Kill 130 enemies with a shotgun", so you just load up a save in the main game where there a bunch of enemies and you just go to town on them with your shotgun. Its accumulative too, so you just reload that save over and over again until you get your 130 kills. These weapon-based achievements give you A LOT of Points too, so you'll end up with the Rocket Launcher and other useful items pretty quickly and then even on Inferno Mode the game just crumbles lmao.
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Re: Rax/Maz/Jimbo 2020 Games Thread: "S.T.A.R.S...."

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Got to King Dice. Found the train level before it also relatively easy; as a whole world 3 was easier than world 2. The parry-sugar makes the train battle a lot easier, except that it can cause you to accidentally hit your cart switches when you don't want to, if you aren't careful.

Only played King Dice for a few minutes, gotta go to bed. Seems kind of fun so far, but haven't gotten past the minibosses. How did you decide which minibosses to fight? Always go for the one that gives the extra life, or go for ones you felt more comfortable with? I'm thinking always going for the health up seems like the way to go.

So far using Charge Shot seems like a power house against a lot of the minibosses. I want the twin heart, but the smoke dash seems like it's going to save a lot of health throughout. Of course whatever I use has to work for King Dice himself. I actually don't have the rountabout... it's the only thing I don't have; haven't figured out how to get the last 4 money in the game to afford it. Oh, and don't tell me if you know, we plan to try and find stuff more first before looking that up.

I do wish the die were more consistent. If it were just completely random that would be one thing... but it's weird that they let you choose, but only in such a way that a minor mistake can take away that choice, and even just cause you to fight an entire extra battle. I'm pretty good with the timing, but have messed it up a couple of times.

Also haven't tried on 2-player yet; we'll probably try that next time we play; and if it seems a lot harder than 1-player then I'll switch back.
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Re: Rax/Maz/Jimbo 2020 Games Thread: "S.T.A.R.S...."

Post by Raxivace »

I sucked with the timing of the die so I just got good at the first 8 minibosses (Never could quite get the hang of the ninth one for some reason). Generally though I aimed for the hearts, unless one of them was on miniboss 9 in which case I reset.

You should be able to get the charge shot to work against King Dice himself, though it will be a bit riskier since you'll have to shoot him while running under his head.
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Re: Rax/Maz/Jimbo 2020 Games Thread: "S.T.A.R.S...."

Post by Gendo »

Not to make you mad, but I just beat King Dice on the 3rd or 4th time actually getting to him. I did manage to have 4 health at the start though; and that was using Smoke Dash; not the extra hearts. I did take 3 total damage on King Dice himself though.

Anyway; just joined the devil and watched the bad ending; now to go back and fight him!

Also got all the coins; ended up giving up and looking up the location of the last couple.
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Re: Rax/Maz/Jimbo 2020 Games Thread: "S.T.A.R.S...."

Post by Eva Yojimbo »

That's really disappointing to read about REmake 3. I was really looking forward to that one, though perhaps it won't bother me as much given that I barely remember the original RE3. Cuphead may well be the next game I play when I get back to gaming and finish Dark Souls (it will happen eventually!).
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Re: Rax/Maz/Jimbo 2020 Games Thread: "S.T.A.R.S...."

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Gendo wrote:Not to make you mad, but I just beat King Dice on the 3rd or 4th time actually getting to him. I did manage to have 4 health at the start though; and that was using Smoke Dash; not the extra hearts. I did take 3 total damage on King Dice himself though.

Anyway; just joined the devil and watched the bad ending; now to go back and fight him!

Also got all the coins; ended up giving up and looking up the location of the last couple.
You're much better at Cuphead than me then it seems. [sad]
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Re: Rax/Maz/Jimbo 2020 Games Thread: "S.T.A.R.S...."

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Eva Yojimbo wrote:That's really disappointing to read about REmake 3. I was really looking forward to that one, though perhaps it won't bother me as much given that I barely remember the original RE3. Cuphead may well be the next game I play when I get back to gaming and finish Dark Souls (it will happen eventually!).
Again, I want to stress that REmake 3 is not a bad game on its own merits, just a disappointing one in a lot of aspects.

But yeah, I hope you'll finish Dark Souls eventually. I'd be curious to know your thoughts on Cuphead too.
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Re: Rax/Maz/Jimbo 2020 Games Thread: "S.T.A.R.S...."

Post by Gendo »

Beat Cuphead. The devil was a fun battle; not the hardest of the game. The hardest was probably the dragon; at least that's the one I recall spending the longest on.

Not going to try to get all the achievements; some of them sounds like way too much work. I did go back to an earlier level to get "beat a level without taking any damage" achievement though. I also checked out the run-and-gun pacifist challenges; managed to get the "P" ranking on the first 2. You need to do it on all 6 to unlock black-and-white mode; probably not going to take the time to do that. I also checked out the devil fight on Expert mode. It didn't seem all that much harder... everything's slightly faster basically; but not nearly as crazy as I would have expected. Not gonna take time to grind through it; but doesn't seem unbeatable.

I also watched a run from AGDQ; completely insane:

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Re: Rax/Maz/Jimbo 2020 Games Thread: "S.T.A.R.S...."

Post by Raxivace »

Yeah I thought the Devil fight was pretty fun. He had a few neat attacks but nothing too ridiculous.

Right now I'm pretty hyped for FF7 Remake, though my copy apparently is delayed because of coronavirus.
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Re: Rax/Maz/Jimbo 2020 Games Thread: "S.T.A.R.S...."

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I would probably enjoy FF7 remake, but not about to go get a PlayStation for it. Shame they aren't putting it on Switch. So instead I just recently bought regular FF7 for the Switch. I've never actually played it... started it a long time ago just barely.
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Re: Rax/Maz/Jimbo 2020 Games Thread: "S.T.A.R.S...."

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It seems FF7 Remake changes the story in some key ways a la Rebuild of Evangelion, so you'd probably want to have played OG FF7 first anyways.
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Re: Rax/Maz/Jimbo 2020 Games Thread: "S.T.A.R.S...."

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Final Fantasy XV: Episode Ardyn (DLC, 2019) - The last DLC for FFXV. There were more DLC planned for FFXV, though the director of the game left Square-Enix kind of randomly which is a shame since I was looking forward to the last bunch that was still to come out.

This leaves Episode Ardyn as the final say on FFXV's story and its kind of a weird note to end on since as the name implies, its basically about expanding Ardyn's backstory and generally providing him with more sympathetic motivations (To the point some would argue he's not even the main villain anymore, merely a pawn of a "fate" that despite his immortality he cannot change which I suppose does more than anything else to tie FFXV back into its roots as an FF13 spinoff.), even if his methods are still extreme.

Other than that its a pretty straightforward DLC. Ardyn's whole gimmick of basically eating people like he's Venom in Ultimate Spider-Man is fun and "The Infernian" is a fun summon to pull out. I like the bit where you're taking over Insomnia.
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The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening (2019) - Yeah this is basically the same game as the original, so most of what I wrote about the DX version still applies here. There are some major changes though.

1. The visual presentation. They're not only the really beautiful graphical style they came up with for this, but the angle you actually look down at the screen is a little different.

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^I wish I had screens of the DX version instead of the original Game Boy's color scheme but this otherwise seemed like the best example. Thank you whatever random stranger already made this and uploaded this to imgur.

But yeah as you can see, the Game Boy version is just top town, whereas the Switch version is seen not only from an angle but because its a wider image you can always see the periphery of nearby "screens" other than the one you're on. These grabs unfortunately seem to cut off part of the image of the Switch version on the left and right of the image, though you can still see what I'm talking about here, and the top and bottom of the image show other nearby "screens" as well.

1.5 On a related note to presentation, the beginning and ending of the game are just straight up animated which is just kind of weird for Zelda.



I guess that kind of what the beginning of the opening of the Game Boy versions are going for (This clip is from the DX version btw).



2. Equipment is far more streamlined on the Switch. You ALWAYS have your sword and shield equipped, and when you unlock them you ALWAYS have the Pegasus Boots and Power Bracelet equipped as well. This leaves you with the X and Y buttons to throw anything you want onto them. Usually I just had Roc's Feather so I could jump and something else I needed in the specific moment.

I almost kind of wish Roc's Feather was always equipped as well, though it would have been weird to have a dedicated jump button in a Zelda game.

3. The whole camera/photo album sidequest that was meant to tie in with the Game Boy Printer is completely removed, which is a shame because I thought it was the cutest part of the DX version. It is replaced with "Dampe's Shack" though, which is basically Mario Maker for Zelda dungeons. Sort of.

The thing about Dampe's Shack is that you're restricted to pre-existing dungeon rooms that are already in Link's Awakening, and you only unlock rooms to use as you clear dungeons in the story. You can still do some clever things with them I'm sure, but it seems more a proof of concept than anything here (Though it would be nice to have more control over where stairs lead in this mode, I consistently had issues with that here).

There are 12 challenges Dampe gives you too, where you're meant to design dungeons based around some restriction, usually just filling out a design with specific tiles already filled out that you have to design around, though toward the end you have to design with limitations like "No using your sword!" in mind. These 12 challenges are worth doing at least, because as you clear them you're rewarded useful items like an Empty Bottle, Heart Pieces, and a full Heart after clearing all 12.

There are even more challenges after you clear those 12, though I stopped there since I had all 20 Hearts at that point and was ready to go finish the game.

Anyways this is an incredibly faithful remake, and makes a really interesting contrast with something like Resident Evil 3's approach to being a remake. Makes me wonder how FF7 Remake will compare. Speaking of which...
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Final Fantasy VII (1997) - Managed to eek out another playthrough of this pretty quickly before my copy of the Remake arrives. Even with benefits of "God Mode" cheats of the PS4 version the main story is shorter than I remembered, though there is a fair amount of grinding and such that gets cut out as a result of "God Mode" benefits.

I'm glad to have a chance to revisit the story though (And nab the Platinum Trophy on the PS4 version), because there are things that stood out to me this time compared to when I last played the game when I was like...13 maybe? It's been a while. Most of it is just a lot of foreshadowing that I missed the first time around (Cait Sith's "fortune telling" takes on a bit of a different light with fuller context for instance), though some things are just cute references (Like the bosses of the Pagoda Tower being named Gorky, Shake, Chekhov, Staniv, and Godo).

Also in a way this game pulls off the same plot twist as Alfred Hitchcock's Stage Fright, since it also contains a false flashback. Interestingly, the false flashback is playable! How bold of a decision that is didn't really occur to me until playing the game as an adult.

Anyways its still a pretty awesome game. Yes, organizing items and materia are a bit too cumbersome, and yes some of the 3D looks a bit lego-y today. The English translation too still probably could have used another look, even considering that the PS4 fixed a few of the most famous issues from the original PS1 release ("This guy are sick." for example has been fixed), though are still some plot points that are a bit obscured because of the translation unfortunately.

FF7 is still probably my favorite game in the franchise all things considered, and it was nice to quickly speed through the original again before diving into the Remake. I'm intentionally holding back a bit here because of spoilers, though I'll probably have more to say about the original as well when I play the Remake and have that as a contrast (Even if its only adapting part of the game).
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Re: Rax/Maz/Jimbo 2020 Games Thread: "S.T.A.R.S...."

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Re: Rax/Maz/Jimbo 2020 Games Thread: "S.T.A.R.S...."

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Lol the guy that plays Badger in Breaking Bad voices Wedge in FF7 Remake.
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Re: Rax/Maz/Jimbo 2020 Games Thread: "S.T.A.R.S...."

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Re: Rax/Maz/Jimbo 2020 Games Thread: "S.T.A.R.S...."

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I like that animated version of that story that someone made.

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Re: Rax/Maz/Jimbo 2020 Games Thread: "S.T.A.R.S...."

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For those that care, major Last of Us 2 spoilers have leaked online.

I'm probably not going to play it myself, though generally speaking on the broadest nature of the spoilers without any specific details: I feel pretty vindicated with my takes on Joel and Ellie.

I have to say, if these spoilers are accurate it does make me like Part 1's story a little more.
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Re: Rax/Maz/Jimbo 2020 Games Thread: "S.T.A.R.S...."

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I'm playing Myst now and man some of these puzzles rival Zelda 1 in terms of dumb bullshit. Or at least one puzzle does.

Like a lot of this game is really cool, but the solution to the clock tower gears puzzle is really fuckin' stupid.
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Re: Rax/Maz/Jimbo 2020 Games Thread: "S.T.A.R.S...."

Post by Gendo »

Love Myst! And Riven.

Which clock towers gear puzzle? From my memory of the clock tower; you have different pull chains that you have to pull in the right order to get something to open. More of a trial and error slide-puzzle type thing than an actual puzzle. But that could be something else I'm thinking of. Are you talking about the puzzle where you have to set the clock to a specific time?
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Re: Rax/Maz/Jimbo 2020 Games Thread: "S.T.A.R.S...."

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I mean this mean, evil son of a bitch right here.

Image

The goal is the to get the dials to read 2,2,1 from top to bottom, and you have something like 8 moves to do it. The left lever moves the top and middle dial, and the right lever moves the bottom dial and also the middle dial as well.

The game makes you think you need you need to find the correct combination of these lever pulls to get 2,2,1 to show up, but mathematically its impossible. Turns out, if you fucking HOLD either lever down then after a second it turns the middle dial and only the middle dial on its own an additional number of times. WHO WOULD FUCKING THINK TO DO THAT? WHY WOULD ANYONE DO THAT WITH A LEVER? LEVERS ARE MEANT TO BE PULLED AND THEN IMMEDIATELY LET GO, NOT HELD DOWN!

Y'know what it is? This is a fascist torture device of a fucking puzzle. And the puzzle thinks its smart too. "AHHH LOOK AT ME I'M CLEVER I'M CHALLENGING SOCIETAL EXPECTATIONS OF HOW FUCKING LEVERS WORK AREN'T I CLEVER!!!!!????"

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! NO YOU AREN'T!!!!!!!!!

I DID NOT SPEND A GOD DAMN HOUR TURNING NUMBERS ON A DIAL FOR WHAT AMOUNTS TO A SICK JOKE!!!!!!! GOD DAMMIT. FUCK.

Anyways Myst is pretty good, I'm looking forward to toying around with it some more later.
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Re: Rax/Maz/Jimbo 2020 Games Thread: "S.T.A.R.S...."

Post by Gendo »

Yeah that's the one I was thinking of. Though I forgot about the way it turns out that holding the lever does something different than when you first pull it. So yeah, that was dumb.
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Re: Rax/Maz/Jimbo 2020 Games Thread: "S.T.A.R.S...."

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It just irritates me so much, like the puzzle equivalent to brutalist architecture.

Like most of these other puzzles I've seen so far actually seem fair on a fundamental level even if a bit tedious (Piano key tone matching etc. Even if you're deaf or something the game gives you enough information translate the "number" of the piano keys onto the switch things), which makes this one stand out all that much more.
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Re: Rax/Maz/Jimbo 2020 Games Thread: "S.T.A.R.S...."

Post by Gendo »

Riven had just one puzzle which I felt was BS in a similar way.
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Re: Rax/Maz/Jimbo 2020 Games Thread: "S.T.A.R.S...."

Post by Raxivace »

FWIW I will play Riven eventually. I actually had a PC copy years ago but its lost at the moment, but thankfully it was really cheap on Steam. Even Myst I got a pretty good deal on through Humble Bundle- something like $6 for realMyst Masterpiece Edition version.

Anyways I got the Red and Blue pages from the swamp area- I seem to recall hearing years ago to get the True Ending you need to get all of both pages, which makes having to do the second run through the zone kind of annoying to pick up the page you didn't get the first time.

The main puzzle in the swamp area with directing the water through the pipes was pretty cool. It took me a while to actually find the nozzle to get it flowing though.
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Re: Rax/Maz/Jimbo 2020 Games Thread: "S.T.A.R.S...."

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realMyst: Masterpiece Edition (1993/2014) - Wow I have to say that cover art does not match up to the original.
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^Like that's much better. That "God's eye" view of the Island you're about to become much more intimately involved and frustrated with is just much more iconic to me.

Anyways this is a great game that I'm just terrible at and used a guide for many times. I mentioned the dumb lever thing above, but even the puzzles I was better at I could only get at most like 80% of on my own. There was always some area I didn't realize I had to click, or some combination of steps I didn't quite realize how to get, or the dumb underground audio maze that just would have taken far too much trial and error for me to want to get on my own.

I do think most of these puzzles are "fair", mind you, but almost all of them had at least one layer of BS or annoyance that I just wish wasn't there. Like the sound lock thing that leads to the underground maze I mentioned- I figured out all of the sounds on my own, but I just could not figure out the intended order the way you were meant to with the sound station thing.

I did really like the atmosphere here a lot though, and this version of the game adding in the day/night cycle and from what I can tell random birds flying around and such helped add to it.

There are a couple of weird things outside of the game itself that I want to mention. First is that the version I played feels less like a remake in some ways (Even compared to something like the Switch version of Link's Awakening, where the changes to gameplay significantly smoothen the experience that I'm not sure you can quite say this does with Myst's gameplay) and more like the original game has been gradually Ship of Theseus'd into its current version. Like the original Myst Island and Ages have been recreated in 3D and they give you free roam movement and such, but all the puzzles are still the same, you still have "classic Myst" style as an option (And was often preferable to free roam to me outside of a few Easter eggs you needed to use free roam to find), and you even have the original FMV's and actors here still. And man there is some early 90's Resident Evil 1-tier bad acting going on in this game from the two brother characters and their ranting at you to find those damn Red and Blue Pages.

It's also really hard for me to wrap my head around the fact that this game was as much of a known cultural artifact as it was. Like The Simpsons referenced it.



There was even a parody game starring John Goodman of all people.
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Image

Image


^Apparently Goodman even sings the theme song!

Myst was also an inspiration on Lost even...
Damon Lindelof wrote:For me certainly, the big game-changer was Myst. There's a lot of that feeling in Lost. What made it so compelling was also what made it so challenging. No one told you what the rules were. You just had to walk around and explore these environments and gradually a story was told. And Lost is the same way. The problem on Lost has always been, no one has told the characters what to do.
Source: https://lostpedia.fandom.com/wiki/Myst

And hell my parents played Myst even, and so did a lot of my friends' parents growing up.

Its just bizarre to me that a game this obscure became as well known as it did for a few years there. Like how the hell did that even happen?
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Re: Rax/Maz/Jimbo 2020 Games Thread: "S.T.A.R.S...."

Post by Gendo »

I never realized the Myst reference in that Simpsons episode!
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Re: Rax/Maz/Jimbo 2020 Games Thread: "S.T.A.R.S...."

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Gendo wrote:I never realized the Myst reference in that Simpsons episode!
Yeah I always figured that bit was about Tron more than anything but the music when Homer walks by the library is even very Myst-y (lol).
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Re: Rax/Maz/Jimbo 2020 Games Thread: "S.T.A.R.S...."

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[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5FSCMls ... =emb_title[/youtube]

RE8 officially announced and coming to PS5. Seems to be a direct sequel to RE7, though I have to say I'm not too thrilled at the idea of another Ethan game. Also werewolves?

Looks like we're getting a Demon's Soul remake as well, some kind of Miles Morales game, and also that Deathloop game looks cool.
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For those that care, Bloodstained: Curse of the Moon 2 is coming July 10th.

I thought the first game was a really solid update on classic-style 8-bit Castlevania, so I'm really looking forward to this.
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Re: Rax/Maz/Jimbo 2020 Games Thread: "S.T.A.R.S...."

Post by Eva Yojimbo »

I'll try to catch up tomorrow, but I did finally get back to Dark Souls and started the DLC. Must say, I'm already enjoying this DLC more than the last few sections of the main game that were really tedious. The Sanctuary Guardian, though not a difficult fight for my build, was certainly a way to instantly crank up the intensity. Artorias, however, was a real PITA. Took me half-a-dozen tries with my "tank" build. Dodging was impossible, so that left blocking all of his attacks, which could easily drain my stamina down to nothing, or near nothing, and, at best, that would leave me room to get one R1 attack in before he'd either retreat or go in for another quick attack and hit me himself. Part of the difficulty may be that I'm just rusty because I also struggled with those stone guardians in the woods. I'm guessing both would be much easier with a fast/dex or sorcery build. Only real complaint so far (beyond my suckage) is that I don't think the atmosphere in these sections are as compelling as most of the main game. Like, the Royal Wood just seems like a blander version of Darkroot Forest.

I may try to do some work to get a better weapon for my build. That DK Halberd has been great, but I kinda think I would've been better finding a pure strength weapon since that's where most of my stats are. May try to farm either the Man-Serpent GS from Sen's or go buy either the Demon Great Machete or Demon Greataxe from Shiva of the East. Not sure if any of them would end up being better, but it's worth a shot.
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Re: Rax/Maz/Jimbo 2020 Games Thread: "S.T.A.R.S...."

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Eva Yojimbo wrote:Like, the Royal Wood just seems like a blander version of Darkroot Forest.
Well, it helps that they're literally the same location lol.
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Re: Rax/Maz/Jimbo 2020 Games Thread: "S.T.A.R.S...."

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Anyways yeah Sanctuary Guardian is not too bad, but yeah Artorias is pretty tough if you fight him legit.

Funnily enough, there's a setup that can one-shot Arty using Pyromancy. I even did it on my Level 1 run of the game.
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Re: Rax/Maz/Jimbo 2020 Games Thread: "S.T.A.R.S...."

Post by Eva Yojimbo »

Raxivace wrote:
Eva Yojimbo wrote:Like, the Royal Wood just seems like a blander version of Darkroot Forest.
Well, it helps that they're literally the same location lol.

Anyways yeah Sanctuary Guardian is not too bad, but yeah Artorias is pretty tough if you fight him legit.

Funnily enough, there's a setup that can one-shot Arty using Pyromancy. I even did it on my Level 1 run of the game.
Oh really? I remember the new NPC near Artorias saying something about the DLC basically being you pulled back through time, so that's interesting. I guess the Stone Guardians are just older versions of the ones you encounter in Darkroot Forest? I will say, given how minimal (practically non-existent) the story is, there does seem to be a lot of interesting lore hinted at in the world and characters. I may end up checking out some of those VaatiVidya vids when I'm done.

What's the Pyromancy that one-shots Artorias? I have invested some souls into Pyromancy but I rarely use it. I think I mostly just wanted to do this first run as a dedicated tank/melee build. Definitely seems like this could be a completely different game with different builds. Replay value seems insanely high.

BTW, any thoughts on the remake of Demon's Souls for PS5? I caught the trailer and it does look gorgeous.
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Re: Rax/Maz/Jimbo 2020 Games Thread: "S.T.A.R.S...."

Post by Raxivace »

Eva Yojimbo wrote:Oh really? I remember the new NPC near Artorias saying something about the DLC basically being you pulled back through time, so that's interesting. I guess the Stone Guardians are just older versions of the ones you encounter in Darkroot Forest? I will say, given how minimal (practically non-existent) the story is, there does seem to be a lot of interesting lore hinted at in the world and characters. I may end up checking out some of those VaatiVidya vids when I'm done.
Yeah I would presume the stone guys are the same even too.

I never bothered too much with the VaatiVidya vids myself since no matter how interesting he can make it sound most of the actual storytelling in Dark Souls doesn't really do much for me, with the Darkroot/Royal Wood thing maybe being one of the exceptions. Too much of the rest of the game's story feels like I'm collecting the world's most cryptic encyclopedia pages more than anything.
What's the Pyromancy that one-shots Artorias? I have invested some souls into Pyromancy but I rarely use it. I think I mostly just wanted to do this first run as a dedicated tank/melee build. Definitely seems like this could be a completely different game with different builds. Replay value seems insanely high.
Maxed out Pyromancy Glove + Lingering Dragon Crest Ring + Red Tearstone Ring + Crown of Dusk + Power Within + Fire Tempest.

Here's a video of somebody doing it.



Yeah its a very replayable game. You got the different builds and such you can make, sure, but its so open ended in the beginning too. Like you can make Pinwheel the first boss after you leave the Asylum if you wanted to.
BTW, any thoughts on the remake of Demon's Souls for PS5? I caught the trailer and it does look gorgeous.
Looks awesome, and its being made BluePoint who did the "remake" of Shadow of the Colossus too. I just wonder how closely it will follow the original game.

Like OG Demon's Souls had an infamous glitch that allowed you to get unlimited copies of nearly any item and it would be a bit of a bummer to lose that option lol.

BTW I probably won't get to responses in the other thread until tomorrow. I'm just feeling a bit under the weather today with a migraine. Now, I know what you're already thinking- "Just how often are we even above the weather, anyways? Its not like most of us have airplanes to fly above the clouds and too close to the sun like foolish Icarus", and you know, that's a fair point, albeit one based on an extremely literal reading of that saying.

EDIT: BTW, make sure to check out my thread in the Lit forum for a nuclear hot take on Shakespeare's most popular play.
"[Cinema] is a labyrinth with a treacherous resemblance to reality." - Andrew Sarris
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Eva Yojimbo
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Re: Rax/Maz/Jimbo 2020 Games Thread: "S.T.A.R.S...."

Post by Eva Yojimbo »

Well, yesterday made me feel pretty dumb. Wasted some time going back to Demon Ruins to farm the Demon's Greataxe and Demon's Machete only to find I already had the former in my inventory. Luckily, I didn't waste too much time as I'm always carrying 10 souls around and put on the Helm of Avarice to (between both) quadruple item discovery, so I only had to take down like 3 Taurus Demons. Then I realized that I hadn't picked up the Giant Ember in New Londo Ruins, so I had to go back there and get that, and, frankly, all online maps suck if you're trying to find a specific item at a specific location. I'm sure it's hard given the convoluted nature of the level designs, but it still took a while to get my bearings and find it. So finally got the DGA upgraded to +15 and with my now 50 strength I'm doing like 650 damage one-handed and with Havel's shield in the other hand I was even able to successfully block Kalameet's attacks. Speaking of...

Kalameet may be my favorite boss in the game so far. Took me even more tries to beat that Artorias, but what an awesome fight with a badass boss. Not being able to dodge anything, managing stamina was even trickier than with Artorias and that breath attack was just devastating. After a couple of tries I eventually had to forego the hope of beating him with the ring that gives you extra souls and went with the Corianthy(sp?) ring that speeds up stamina regen. Still took me several tries after that. Funnily enough, on the time I beat him it I was going there mostly just to retrieve my souls/humanity and then book it back closer to the ladder so I didn't have to run so far every time just to retrieve them, but he kept knocking me down before I could get back to the ladder so I ended up fighting him anyway and got lucky to end up on his side a few times when he did that sweeping breath thing and I 2-handed the shit out of him.
Raxivace wrote:
Eva Yojimbo wrote:Oh really? I remember the new NPC near Artorias saying something about the DLC basically being you pulled back through time, so that's interesting. I guess the Stone Guardians are just older versions of the ones you encounter in Darkroot Forest? I will say, given how minimal (practically non-existent) the story is, there does seem to be a lot of interesting lore hinted at in the world and characters. I may end up checking out some of those VaatiVidya vids when I'm done.
Yeah I would presume the stone guys are the same even too.

I never bothered too much with the VaatiVidya vids myself since no matter how interesting he can make it sound most of the actual storytelling in Dark Souls doesn't really do much for me, with the Darkroot/Royal Wood thing maybe being one of the exceptions. Too much of the rest of the game's story feels like I'm collecting the world's most cryptic encyclopedia pages more than anything.
Come to think of it, in Darkroot Garden those guardians are moss-covered and slumped down, while in Royal Wood they're not moss-covered and standing. Makes sense.

I don't think there's really much of any "storytelling" per se in DS. It's more what I'd call "lore" or world-building. Maybe it's my getting into D&D that's made me appreciate this aspect more (thinking about poor DMs having to invent an entirely new place with multiple locations and histories and politics and people etc.). I also think there's something about the perpetually melancholic and oppressive atmosphere that really hammers home the idea that something bad has happened to this place, and the "myst-ery" aspect of being dropped in a place and not really given much of anything explicit about its history or present. I may go into this more whenever I finish and write my review.
Raxivace wrote:
What's the Pyromancy that one-shots Artorias? I have invested some souls into Pyromancy but I rarely use it. I think I mostly just wanted to do this first run as a dedicated tank/melee build. Definitely seems like this could be a completely different game with different builds. Replay value seems insanely high.
Maxed out Pyromancy Glove + Lingering Dragon Crest Ring + Red Tearstone Ring + Crown of Dusk + Power Within + Fire Tempest.

Here's a video of somebody doing it.
Pretty awesome. Kinda makes me wish I'd invested in Pyromancy more! LOL.
Raxivace wrote:Yeah its a very replayable game. You got the different builds and such you can make, sure, but its so open ended in the beginning too. Like you can make Pinwheel the first boss after you leave the Asylum if you wanted to.
I've played the game over too long a period to remember, but I can't recall many sections that are only unlockable once you've done one thing or another. IIRC, it's mostly Demon's Ruins/Izalith and of course the DLC stuff. Is it just me, or is the game almost Metroidvania-esque in its level design? Metroidvanias are a little more "do X to unlock Y section," but the basic notion of having one giant, interconnected map/world is pretty similar.
Raxivace wrote:BTW I probably won't get to responses in the other thread until tomorrow. I'm just feeling a bit under the weather today with a migraine. Now, I know what you're already thinking- "Just how often are we even above the weather, anyways? Its not like most of us have airplanes to fly above the clouds and too close to the sun like foolish Icarus", and you know, that's a fair point, albeit one based on an extremely literal reading of that saying.

EDIT: BTW, make sure to check out my thread in the Lit forum for a nuclear hot take on Shakespeare's most popular play.
Haha, no worries. Migraines are awful. Had 'em since I was 12/13. Prescription meds and cannabis really help now, but there were times as a teen I'd have a migraine for a week or more at a time.

I'll try to check that lit thread out, but man I'm way behind! I still need to catch up on others' film threads. :)
Raxivace wrote:
283022-realmyst-masterpiece-edition-macintosh-front-cover.jpg
realMyst: Masterpiece Edition (1993/2014) -

Its just bizarre to me that a game this obscure became as well known as it did for a few years there. Like how the hell did that even happen?
I also played Myst as a kid. I picked it up from a used game shop on a whim for PS. I'd only vaguely heard about its reputation but didn't know anything about. This was also pre-internet (for me) and I didn't know of any game guides for it (though I'm sure they probably existed). So I basically played that game guideless. I did finish it, but, man, looking back I don't know how I solved some of those puzzles. The one you mentioned certainly, but I also recall getting completely lost in the tree world and that underground cart thing. Eventually I remember in those sections I had to literally get out a piece of paper and pencil and draw the different possible paths I'd tried to work out which ones didn't work and how they connected to each other.

But I have no doubt of Myst's influence. It was absolutely the first of its kind, perhaps really the only of its kind. It was unprecedented to just drop people in a world with really no information and just expect them to start solving puzzles that aren't even (at first) obviously puzzles. The sense of discovery was so much of what that game was about. Hence my little "myst-ery" allusion when talking about Dark Souls. I can see it in Lost as well, but of course Lost is much more overtly story/character driven while Myst is, well, not.

As for how it became such a cultural phenomenon, I also think there's something similar to Dark Souls there too where it probably became a communal effort to figure everything out because the game just doesn't hold your hand at all. I think there's something about games that demand you DIY, and that feel deeply rewarding when you do, that can easily create that kind of gaming or even socio-cultural phenomenon. I mean, I almost regret using guides as much as I have for Dark Souls because I'm sure it would've been a much more rewarding experience trying to do it all alone and blind, but these days there's just so many games to play that it's hard to justify wasting all that extra time just figuring out where to go and what to do, and I also think that element was probably way more important to Myst than to DS (DS still has all the other gamey stuff that's challenging without that exploration aspect).
"As far as we can discern, the sole purpose of human existence is to kindle a light in the darkness of mere being." -- Carl Jung
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