Hidden 3 yrs ago Post by SleepingSilence
Raw
Avatar of SleepingSilence

SleepingSilence OC, Plz No Stealz.

Member Seen 2 hrs ago



Playing and enjoying MO:Astray. ("Action Platformer")

Plot summary but not really: It all goes horribly wrong for your Isekai protagonist.

It was recommended to use a controller. But I decided to use mouse and keyboard instead. (Since its controls seemed simple.) So I guess it's my fault that I basically *had* to switch to the controller and learn its differences, in order to beat a boss.

Also, I've realized that trial-and-error "chase/pursuit scenes", might be my least favorite type of challenge in video games. Since I feel like it applies to most games that I can think of. (And I don't really have a "good counter example" in mind.)

Though when you do get annoyed with physic puzzles, you can always rip monsters f*cking heads off. So that's gratifying.
Hidden 3 yrs ago 3 yrs ago Post by Bork Lazer
Raw
Avatar of Bork Lazer

Bork Lazer Chomping Time

Member Seen 12 hrs ago



It's mid-day and you're a foreign dwarven mercenary currently stuck waist-deep in dank dungeons filled with bloodraving cultists, horrible monstrous abominations and wooden medieval BDSM enthusiasts. The village elder has bequeathed upon you a quest to retrieve a cursed amulet and to stop the machinations of this foul cult. Having finally found the cult leader, you ambush them in the middle of whatever horrid scheme they were planning and cleave their head off with a carving axe the blacksmith gave you out of pity whilst suffering a broken arm. You eat a couple of penny bun mushrooms in your inventory to stave off the maddening hunger. You claim the cursed amulet of the cult and try to retrace your steps back to the village.

You are then encountered upon by a pack of 3 bandits and the hooded one slits your carotid artery and makes you bleed out all over the forest floor.

That is the experience that Stoneshard has offered me for over 70 hours.

Stoneshard has been the most ambitious early-access game that calls to me like a pond does to a duck. It's got everything that I love. Stellar pixel graphics and art. Engaging and brutal combat mechanics. Near seamless character progression. Mood music. Turn based combat (Without the number crunching). Randomized rogue-like elements.

The game isn't that long (10 hours of content tops) but more than makes up with it with its replayable nature and the depth and scope of its mechanics. Stoneshard's biggest strength and weakness, call it a double edged sword if you will, is its difficulty. The game does not fuck around. It's the Dark SoulsDoom on Ultra NightmareImpossible Quiz you know what I mean of RPGs for me at the moment. You will die a lot. From hunger. Thirst. Poison. Traps. Fire. An acute case of migraines caused by the fact that bandit stove in your head with a warhammer. Loosing enough blood to fill a bath-tub. Getting mauled by Pumba's cousins. Getting eaten alive by Smokey's the Bear's redneck brothers.

On top of all that, no map or waypoint system. Your character's location is pinpointed on the UI. You must make out your location and your relative directions to places of importance in the world map through memory and navigation. You can also only save by sleeping at a select number of places, most of which cost money to do so. There is no save on exit nor can you save in the middle of a journey. Once you set out on your epic journey, you set out and there's no amount of savescumming that will allow you to keep your progression.

Yet, you will also find ways to kill. A lot. Stoneshard possibly has the best skill/perk progression system I've ever seen in an RPG as well. There's active skills which cost energy to use and passive perks that you can buy. There is no strict level up where you're forced to choose a certain set of perks nor are there strict origins that limit you to a select number of skills. Everything is open for the taking. You could play a warhammer wielding arbalest. A dual wielding berserker who uses a knife and a spiked maul. A traditional sword and board knight. A pyromaniac wizard who wants to simulate the Shining with his shiny axe. A bowman who can fart rocks out of the earth.

My relationship to this game can be summed up as digital Stockholm Syndrome. At first, I hated it. Then, I liked it. I then hated it again before loving it again. Eventually, this abusive relationship transformed into a blossoming healthy relationship interspersed with random moments of unfair violence and cursing at RNGesus.

10/10. Fucking beauty of a game. Would die from dehydration because I forgot to fill my water skins at Osbrook's well again and get mauled by a bear in the process.
Hidden 3 yrs ago Post by Luft
Raw

Luft ʟᴇʙᴇɴ, ᴡᴀꜱ ɪꜱᴛ ᴅᴀꜱ? / ꜱɪɢɴᴀʟ, ꜱɪᴇʜꜱᴛ ᴅᴜ ᴅᴀꜱ?

Member Seen 2 yrs ago

Does anyone ever bother to go through their game backlog on Steam? I've got all these games from bundles, like HumbleBundle, that I still need to go through, but I always end up playing the same select few games every time.
Hidden 3 yrs ago Post by Fabricant451
Raw
OP
Avatar of Fabricant451

Fabricant451 Queen of Hearts

Member Seen 6 hrs ago

Does anyone ever bother to go through their game backlog on Steam? I've got all these games from bundles, like HumbleBundle, that I still need to go through, but I always end up playing the same select few games every time.


I have a pretty decent backlog spread between Steam and console that I mostly just treat the backlog as something to play in lulls between the newer stuff that I want to get at first.
Hidden 3 yrs ago Post by Fabricant451
Raw
OP
Avatar of Fabricant451

Fabricant451 Queen of Hearts

Member Seen 6 hrs ago

Life is Strange: True Colors is the best Life is Strange game and like 40 percent of the reason why is because the characters are all adults who don't make dumb decisions or speak in 'written by 40 year olds trying to be hip' lingo.
Hidden 3 yrs ago Post by BrokenPromise
Raw
Avatar of BrokenPromise

BrokenPromise With Rightious Hands

Member Online

I posted a list of games I was working through about a year ago, so I thought I'd post an update on it here.

Muv-Luv Alternative: Wow, what a ride! I feel like getting a bit more in depth with this one, but it's still going to be a spoiler free review. In fact, I'll talk about the whole series.

Muv-Luv Alternative is the third instalment in the Muv-luv series, with Extra being the first and Unlimited being the second. Not confusing, right? Anyway, it's hard to give an overview of the plot without entering spoiler territory. The series starts out as a romantic harem comedy set in a modern day Japanese neighborhood, complete with a business tycoon's daughter who is able to vacate and demo a town to build her ultra large mansion right outside the MC's house. But the series transitions into a no-nonsense, dreary alternate reality where the earth is being sieged by the BETA. On the upside, mecha are a thing now.

Yea, it's a wild ride.

Muv-Luv is an early 2000's VN, so it's still recovering from 90's trends. Extra feels more like an episodic harem anime, and is really more an introduction to the characters than the plot. Your main hoes are going to be Sumika; your sweet yet prone-to-punch next-door neighbor, and Meiya; the wealthy yet socially inept import. Joining them is Miki the wanna-be cat girl, Kei the delinquent, and Chizuru is the teacher's pet. There's also Mikoto, a strange survival expert, though he's a guy, so why would you want to romance him? All of the characters are pretty charming. Even your teachers and other minor characters are a welcome site. I can't really think of a character I didn't like. Though I must admit that the lack of a real plot did make Extra a bit more tedious. My friends kept telling me muv-luv as a whole was the best visual novel ever, and I kept waiting for the story to develop into the alien invasion. But few things in Extra are more dramatic than your average harem romance hijinks. Having said that, I did enjoy the side routes a bit more than the main ones. Kei and Chizuru have surprisingly dark backstories, but weren't so heavy that they felt out of place in an otherwise lighthearted VN.

And then there's Unlimited. It's really hard to talk about it without spoiling it, but this is where we are introduced to our main setting. I've seen a few reviews where they praise Muv-luv for its ability to expertly shift genres from the goofy harem modern to the alternate alien apocalypse. I can't say that was my experience. In the first scene of Unlimited, we're treated to a scene that happened near the end of Extra. Then we're just sort of dropped into the BETA apocalypse. Despite the change in setting, the tone does feel eerily similar to Extra in a lot of ways. One example is MC is still going to school, but it's to become a mecha pilot. One of the bigger changes is a lot of the super silly nonsensical stuff doesn't happen anymore. There are still jokes here and there, but they are more grounded and feel like they could happen in reality. Probably the biggest change is that unlike Extra which has branching routes, Unlimited is linear, with your choices only really determining which waifu you're going to end up with in the end. I had mixed feelings about this. On one hand, having alternate paths dedicated to characters you're interested in was really welcome in Extra. On the other, it was also kind of nice to just have all that woven into the main line and not have to hunt for Kei. Seriously Kei, it can be really hard to find the dialog options to see where you're sitting every day. Especially when I need to pick options related to other characters just to have them show up. And I'm suppose to remember where all of these are from previous playthroughs just to trigger your route? WHAT KIND OF SHIT IS THIS?!?!??!

And once you're done with that, you're ready for Alternative.

Calling Extra and Unlimited homework makes them sound a lot more boring than they actually were. But it's the truth. They were homework so that you could properly enjoy Alternative. By this point, Muv-Luv has fully pulled away from being a quirky harem anime and is ready to bring you full on no-nonsense BETA induced despair. And despair is not a word I use lightly with visual novels. Anyone will tell you about the handful of shocking deaths that happen in Alternative, but there's a lot of somber realizations that also help reinforce how utterly screwed everyone is. After spending several hours following Takeru (MC) as he trained to become a mecha pilot, it's rewarding to see him and everyone else engage with such horrific creatures. It's not all fights with the BETA of course. There's also a decent amount of political intrigue as you're introduced to other nations. There were a few times where the story lapsed into armchair philosophy, which always went on a bit longer than it had to, and there were some sizable info dumps that could have been managed in a more interesting way. But once I got hooked on Alternative, I pretty much played the last 15-20 hours of the game over a weekend. I don't recommend anyone do that, but it shows how much I enjoyed the end of this VN.

And I guess this is the part where people throw up their 10/10 score, and make some comment about how the score should really be higher and how Muv-Luv will never be surpassed ETC ETC, and those are all valid opinions. For me though, I think I'll give it a 9/10. It's a great story, and the only real holes I could poke in it were minor contrivances that could be chalked up to character quirks. The tech used in the game doesn't suffer at all. It's still more advanced than most other VNs I've played, making light use of 3D environments and sprite scaling to make characters appear closer and further away. But this is a 20+ year old game written in different times, and it shows its age a bit. A lot of the info dumping could have been done in a more interesting way. They spend a lot of time talking about how realistic the simulators for mecha training are, yet the writers opted to have instructors explain to Takeru How to best take down each type of BETA and raid a hive. Why not have Takeru experience and deal with this stuff in a simulator? The main route of Extra is also painful to get through if you aren't a fan of harem anime (like me), but is absolutely necessary for Alternative's more emotional moments to hit true. The series is an easy recommendation for anyone who's into VNs.

By the time I was done with those, I think I had 14-16 hours invested in Extra and Unlimited combined. Mind you that I cleared every route in Extra (struggling a bit to find Kei) and just did Unlimited once. My clear time for a single play of Alternative is about 30 hours. So it's quite a bit longer than the previous titles.

SYNTHETIK: I beat it via multiplayer, which was a pretty rewarding experience. I stand by my original review of the game: If You're done with Hades, it's worth a look.

Gris: Disappointing. I knew it was going to be a pretentious artsy platformer, but I didn't realize the experience was going to be so vapid. It's pretty, but that's it. The puzzles are too simple to be challenging, and are an exercise in tedium most of the time. The theme of grief is really shoved in your face and I doubt anyone could really miss it. Aside from a few well animated scenes, I don't see any reason to pick this one up. It cost as much as a deli sandwich, and somehow I still feel conned.

God Eater 3: I actually went back to playing god eater 2 for a bit, and holy cow, you really overlook all of the quality of life changes they made to the game. God Eater 3 is easily the best in the series, with every improvement imaginable from better camera angles to an upgrade system that makes sense.

The Fruit of Grisaia: I uh, heh. I'm still working on this. Needed to take a bit of a break after muv-luv.

Tales of Berseria: My prediction was right. It's as good as any other "tales of" game, with an amateurish story and fun gameplay. The story does have kind of a sour ending, which was expected but was still disappointing. Though it occasionally goes on sale for cheap, so if you want 50+ hours of JRPG action on your first playthrough for 15 $ or less, might be worth putting on your steam wish list.
Hidden 3 yrs ago Post by Luft
Raw

Luft ʟᴇʙᴇɴ, ᴡᴀꜱ ɪꜱᴛ ᴅᴀꜱ? / ꜱɪɢɴᴀʟ, ꜱɪᴇʜꜱᴛ ᴅᴜ ᴅᴀꜱ?

Member Seen 2 yrs ago

@BrokenPromise > Muv Luv Alternative

Now you can suffer through the side story VNs like photonmelodies, photonflowers, TDA, Total Eclipse, Schwarzesmarken, etc. as well the anime series. In fact, Alternative is getting made into a show and will be airing rather soon. Think October 7th in Japan?
Hidden 3 yrs ago Post by BrokenPromise
Raw
Avatar of BrokenPromise

BrokenPromise With Rightious Hands

Member Online

@Luft



Also gotta say I'm not too interested in the anime or movie. In the movie's case, I doubt you could do a very good job cramming 30 hours of gameplay into 2-3 hours of movie, if it's even that long. Yea, the fight scenes will look a lot better than those sliding sprites ever did, but I don't see it becoming the definitive version of this particular story. Extra on the other hand would benefit greatly from being animated, as it's more hijinks and slapstick than anything else. But that was the least impressive part of the games for me.
Hidden 3 yrs ago Post by FamishedPants
Raw
Avatar of FamishedPants

FamishedPants CEO of Vanderlay Technologies

Member Seen 0-24 hrs ago

@BrokenPromise Why are you mentioning me in a topic that starts with "Maybe it's because my favorite Resident Evil is 6". Please use mentions in a responsible manner, please!

I got collabs to write in, some garbage ESPER RP to look at, a Pathfinder character to make, a Pathfinder crusade to lead, and I really think the last thing I need right now is being reminded that I need to go through Photonmelodies and the Day After. Or that Total Eclipse exists at all. I won't spoiler anything and just hard spoil that entire series right now:



The OP is the only worthwhile thing about it save the character designs.
Hidden 3 yrs ago Post by mickilennial
Raw
Avatar of mickilennial

mickilennial is trying to survive

Member Seen 4 days ago

with an amateurish story

Nah
Hidden 3 yrs ago Post by Fabricant451
Raw
OP
Avatar of Fabricant451

Fabricant451 Queen of Hearts

Member Seen 6 hrs ago

@BrokenPromise Why are you mentioning me in a topic that starts with "Maybe it's because my favorite Resident Evil is 6". Please use mentions in a responsible manner, please!


No no, I said I think it's the best one!

Though you are technically correct as well because it is also my favorite.

Sorry for irresponsibly mentioning you.
Hidden 3 yrs ago Post by mickilennial
Raw
Avatar of mickilennial

mickilennial is trying to survive

Member Seen 4 days ago

No no, I said I think it's the best one!

I really need to re-educate you at some point, Fab.
Hidden 3 yrs ago 3 yrs ago Post by Luft
Raw

Luft ʟᴇʙᴇɴ, ᴡᴀꜱ ɪꜱᴛ ᴅᴀꜱ? / ꜱɪɢɴᴀʟ, ꜱɪᴇʜꜱᴛ ᴅᴜ ᴅᴀꜱ?

Member Seen 2 yrs ago

Revisiting Toontown Online through Toontown Rewritten since Disney closed Online several years back.

It's alright and little bit of fun, but man, do I not remember combat RNG being this awful. Either I completely blanked the RNG from my memory, or the people behind TTR must've screwed with the RNG odds because I seem to be missing gag attacks a lot. First twenty minutes I had already died because I missed several throw gags and got hammered by 6 damage attacks.

edit: stay mad gowi
1x Laugh Laugh
Hidden 3 yrs ago Post by SleepingSilence
Raw
Avatar of SleepingSilence

SleepingSilence OC, Plz No Stealz.

Member Seen 2 hrs ago

Does anyone ever bother to go through their game backlog on Steam?

I have been actively attempting this very thing. (To varying degrees of success.) But it has proven that my ability to stick with games I play, is becoming increasingly difficult for me. Though on that note.

Full Mo:Astray Review: Thumbs up from me. 👍


Life is Strange: True Colors is the best Life is Strange game and like 40 percent of the reason why is because the characters are all adults who don't make dumb decisions or speak in 'written by 40 year olds trying to be hip' lingo.

Since my only experience with this game (when I bought the first part, around the time part four was released, I think.) is getting through the first awful cutscene, and then having it hard crash on me each and every time. Becoming one of the very few games I've ever refunded.

You've tempted me to look up a let's play of this.


So, because I fear my PS4 will hard crash on me, and delete many hours of progress. (Like it has with several games I've gotten into. #Don'tBuyOnLaunchDay)

I started playing a bit Dark Souls on PC for the first time. (Despite my complete lack of skill, when it comes to video games. And my reluctance to go back into Bloodborne, despite probably liking its opening/atmosphere more.)

And really, the game hasn't gotten *too* awful yet. Though to spoil how little I've accomplished in my first session, boy I sure do hope those plunging attacks work their magic. <.<'
Hidden 3 yrs ago Post by Fabricant451
Raw
OP
Avatar of Fabricant451

Fabricant451 Queen of Hearts

Member Seen 6 hrs ago

Deathloop fucks and proves that Arkane don't miss. I just wish that the game didn't handhold you through the perfect route once you figure it out, though I'm curious to see if it's possible to do the full kill run earlier if you know everything on a second save. Also, the invasion aspect is weighed super heavily in Colt's favor but it's fun all the same and really encourages you to think creatively instead of just being lame and snipe camping.

1x Like Like
Hidden 3 yrs ago Post by mickilennial
Raw
Avatar of mickilennial

mickilennial is trying to survive

Member Seen 4 days ago

I hate invasion mechanics so I imagine that'll be my one issue with Deathloop outside of it being pretty simple (no moral choices, etc).
Hidden 3 yrs ago 3 yrs ago Post by BangoSkank
Raw
Avatar of BangoSkank

BangoSkank Halfway Intriguing Halfling

Member Seen 9 days ago

I always loved the CoOp aspect of DS and the sort of location based invasion aspect, particularly when/if that location is optional, but the actual like Invasion at anytime aspect I didn't much enjoy.

It's part of the genre, it's probably not going anywhere, and lots of people use it reasonably, but I think it encourages some of the worst people to be their worst.
Hidden 3 yrs ago Post by Fabricant451
Raw
OP
Avatar of Fabricant451

Fabricant451 Queen of Hearts

Member Seen 6 hrs ago

BAYONETTA 3 IS FINALLY REAL I CAN FINALLY BE HAPPY
Hidden 3 yrs ago 3 yrs ago Post by Majoraa
Raw
Avatar of Majoraa

Majoraa Oyasumi~

Member Seen 0-24 hrs ago

BAYONETTA 3 IS FINALLY REAL I CAN FINALLY BE HAPPY




:> Just gunna put this here.

SHE HAS BRAIDS
Hidden 3 yrs ago Post by Jeep Wrangler
Raw
Avatar of Jeep Wrangler

Jeep Wrangler VROOOOOOOOOOOOOOM

Banned Seen 5 mos ago



AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAH
↑ Top
© 2007-2024
BBCode Cheatsheet