What Are You Playing?

Griffith

With the streak of a tear, Like morning dew
Demon's Souls... Finally! It's interesting to see how much was already there in this one and how the series evolved. So far it hasn't been anything I'm not prepared for (it's a bit unfair since I can already anticipate most enemies styles, having played their descendents), though the pathway to the Tower Knight was a pain that cost me some souls. I did start as Royalty and boosted my strength so I already feel like an end game dual threat wrecking normal foes, but it's early, I've only beaten 3 demons and I'm making my way through the first couple areas. The ability to have virtually unlimited healing and magic really makes it feel comfortable staying out and clearing areas. No reason to go home!
 
Griffith said:
Demon's Souls... Finally! It's interesting to see how much was already there in this one and how the series evolved. So far it hasn't been anything I'm not prepared for (it's a bit unfair since I can already anticipate most enemies styles, having played their descendents), though the pathway to the Tower Knight was a pain that cost me some souls. I did start as Royalty and boosted my strength so I already feel like an end game dual threat wrecking normal foes, but it's early, I've only beaten 3 demons and I'm making my way through the first couple areas. The ability to have virtually unlimited healing and magic really makes it feel comfortable staying out and clearing areas. No reason to go home!

Oh man! That is still my favorite. Think it’s as simple as the first iteration having that lasting impression and being a stand alone title as well. Keep updating if you don’t mind. The character and world tendency is quite unforgiving. I love this game.
 
Griffith said:
Demon's Souls... Finally! It's interesting to see how much was already there in this one and how the series evolved. So far it hasn't been anything I'm not prepared for (it's a bit unfair since I can already anticipate most enemies styles, having played their descendents), though the pathway to the Tower Knight was a pain that cost me some souls. I did start as Royalty and boosted my strength so I already feel like an end game dual threat wrecking normal foes, but it's early, I've only beaten 3 demons and I'm making my way through the first couple areas. The ability to have virtually unlimited healing and magic really makes it feel comfortable staying out and clearing areas. No reason to go home!

Ooooh, interesting. Don't get to hear a lot of accounts of people playing Demon's Souls after getting spoiled on the Dark Souls series. And frankly, I get kind of peeved by how no one seems to remember it anymore :sad:. Regardless, I too would be interested in hearing your impressions.
 

Walter

Administrator
Staff member
Griffith said:
Demon's Souls... Finally!

It's the one that got away, for me :judo: I've wanted to play it for years, I just can't justify the cost of a PS3 at this point. Are you playing it on a PS4 or PS3? Because maybe in a year or so, Last Guardian + Demon's Souls + Bloodborne will be worth the price of admission.

I've been spending my late evenings on Christmas break getting through a bunch of games. Have 450 moons in Mario Odyssey (I feel pretty much done with this game), swapped over to Mario Galaxy 2 for playtime with my son (he loves this one more than Odyssey, and I can't blame him), finishing up the last few quests in the Zelda DLC (skip this one, folks. It's needless), finished Steamworld Dig 2 (was fine, not revelatory: I got more enjoyment out of the first game and Steamworld Heist), 2 eps into Life is Strange's prequel (good so far, if a bit amateurish from this new team).

Then I went against my better judgment and picked up Xenoblade 2 for Switch, a hilariously huge J-RPG. I admit to feeling quite silly playing a game like this nearly 2 decades after I felt done with the genre (Infinite Space excepted), but well, here I am. I'm only 10h in, but here is my take, being a big original Xeno fan (liked Xenogears, tolerated Xenosaga, skipped blade 1 and X): Really enjoying it! There is a lot to love here. Endearing characters and world. And despite so many reviews saying it doesn't scratch the Xenogears itch -- it totally does for me, and that provides a huge advantage over the hurdles beset against this game. Speaking of which, it's got some major problems with fundamental quality-of-life stuff: Mapping and waypointing is rough; Systems take hours to understand how to fully utilize; Tutorials disappear after first reading; Voice acting is quite hit or miss (particularly in battles, where human enemies tend to say the same 2 lines over and over and over). Also, the ramp up to giving player full control is about 8h, though it's admittedly an interesting series of story-driven quests leading you there. Sounds quite bad when you spell it all out like that :ganishka: But in all honesty, it's better than I expected, and we'll see how far that early goodwill carries me through this 100h+ game.
 
Cyrus Jong said:
Don't get to hear a lot of accounts of people playing Demon's Souls after getting spoiled on the Dark Souls series.

Very true, I can't help but think the essence of what makes it great will be felt by anyone, but may disappoint with its size. Movement and combat mechanics could go either way. I'm hoping those fears are wrong, I wish everyone had access to the game and gives it a chance despite it being a little clunkier
 

Griffith

With the streak of a tear, Like morning dew
Cyrus Jong said:
Ooooh, interesting. Don't get to hear a lot of accounts of people playing Demon's Souls after getting spoiled on the Dark Souls series. And frankly, I get kind of peeved by how no one seems to remember it anymore :sad:. Regardless, I too would be interested in hearing your impressions.

You got it, updates to come. As for it being a bit forgotten now, I blame From Soft and especially Sony for essentially making its availability limited to PS3, particularly after DS3 was such a big hit last year. Do a cheap HD port simply for financial reasons Sony, or shit, make it downloadable like in Japan. I don't know what the calculation is that doesn't make it worth it, but they should be able to cash in on it somehow with either a cheap port or major remake. There's still people saying it's the best Souls game, so SELL it, Sony!

Walter said:
It's the one that got away, for me :judo: I've wanted to play it for years, I just can't justify the cost of a PS3 at this point. Are you playing it on a PS4 or PS3? Because maybe in a year or so, Last Guardian + Demon's Souls + Bloodborne will be worth the price of admission.

Same here, my brother-in-law got a PS4 so he gave me his PS3 for Christmas and I got Demon's Souls for $18 (it's like the only PS3 game he didn't have, but I got Red Dead as well!). It's funny, the 3 games out there I really wanted to play are Demon's Souls, Bloodborne, and Mario Odyssey... but that's like $700 overhead for 3 games! :ganishka:

Fuck exclusives that are actually exclusive.

ThePiedPiper said:
Very true, I can't help but think the essence of what makes it great will be felt by anyone, but may disappoint with its size. Movement and combat mechanics could go either way. I'm hoping those fears are wrong, I wish everyone had access to the game and gives it a chance despite it being a little clunkier

I'm actually impressed with how close it is to DS1, and even DS3, so far; DS1 is basically just a reskinned version with a different world mechanic and some other tweaks. The areas seem plenty big to me too, so we'll see how long it takes me to get through.

In my last play session I kind of screwed myself for a bit because the mechanic giving me the most trouble is... Item Burden! It's like Dark Souls meets Bethesda. :ganishka: Anyway, while trying to make off with the most/best loot possible (and all the ore in 2-1, 2-2) I made some very shortsighted choices, like dumping my startimg gear and giving myself no equipment versatility to balance my equip weight. So, I was either fat-rolling or half naked for a bit until I got my shit back early in 3-1. It's an annoying mechanic and I'm not sad it was phased out, but it does make for another challenge to manage and sort of explains why the other games had storage boxes in the first place despite not really being needed. Next up: beat Flamelurker (who is currently holding on to about 4,000 of my souls for me =).

Oh yeah, the most significant difference I've noticed is that, unlike the other Souls games to my knowledge, when you get killed if you shut off the system fast enough you can beat the autosave and keep any outstanding souls you have intact. :griffnotevil:
 
ThePiedPiper said:
Very true, I can't help but think the essence of what makes it great will be felt by anyone, but may disappoint with its size. Movement and combat mechanics could go either way. I'm hoping those fears are wrong, I wish everyone had access to the game and gives it a chance despite it being a little clunkier

In terms of clunkiness, I'd say it's a bit of a toss-up, really. People might be thrown off by the lack of leaps and lunging attacks, stamina-costly shield blocks, less-forgiving weapon-wall collision, and carry weight. But on the other hand, attacks come out much faster than in the Dark Souls games, spells are much more potent with their lack of cast times and the fact you can effectively use them infinitely as long as you've got spice. Personally, I'd say that the only really problematic part to Demon's Souls is your complete lack of mobility in water, which makes 5-2 an utter pain in the ass, but every one of these games has at least one poorly-designed bullshit level that nobody likes.

Griffith said:
You got it, updates to come. As for it being a bit forgotten now, I blame From Soft and especially Sony for essentially making its availability limited to PS3, particularly after DS3 was such a big hit last year. Do a cheap HD port simply for financial reasons Sony, or shit, make it downloadable like in Japan. I don't know what the calculation is that doesn't make it worth it, but they should be able to cash in on it somehow with either a cheap port or major remake. There's still people saying it's the best Souls game, so SELL it, Sony!

:troll: Item burden, I almost forgot about that! Definitely the thing that'll kill most latecomers, far more than the Flamelurker, that's for damn sure! It must be hell for those who decide they'd rather do without Stockpile Thomas and kill him at their first opportunity. Regarding the lack of re-release, a number of people claim it's due to the different companies the game was published under (Sony in Japan, Namco-Bandai in Europe, Atlus in the U.S.), but I'm not so sure how true that is, or if it's true anymore considering the online servers are being shut down in a couple months. It is bullshit either way; Catherine, a fricken weird-ass and fairly obscure puzzle game released in 2011 is a getting a remaster, but Demon's Souls is still being left in the cold! :femto:
 

Griffith

With the streak of a tear, Like morning dew
Cyrus Jong said:
spells are much more potent with their lack of cast times and the fact you can effectively use them infinitely as long as you've got spice.

Oh yeah, I can basically kill anything in a couple hits from Soul Arrow, and it seems like all the enemies with strong physical resist go down even easier to magic or vice versa. I usually go melee for the fun of it and because I usually find magic not worth the effort, but here your starting magic setup can already do so much damage it's like cheating! I haven't invested a point in upgrading magic since and I'm curious to see if I'll need to for it to remain useful.

:troll: Item burden, I almost forgot about that! Definitely the thing that'll kill most latecomers, far more than the Flamelurker, that's for damn sure! It must be hell for those who decide they'd rather do without Stockpile Thomas and kill him at their first opportunity.

Didn't even think of that but yikes. Reminds me of when I let my wife try DSII and she immediately attacked the Emerald Herald! O_O She also somehow fought and killed an Old Knight and a Heide Knight simutaneously while having no idea what she was doing.

Regarding the lack of re-release, a number of people claim it's due to the different companies the game was published under (Sony in Japan, Namco-Bandai in Europe, Atlus in the U.S.), but I'm not so sure how true that is, or if it's true anymore considering the online servers are being shut down in a couple months. It is bullshit either way; Catherine, a fricken weird-ass and fairly obscure puzzle game released in 2011 is a getting a remaster, but Demon's Souls is still being left in the cold! :femto:

Or multiple darlings that have already been re-released and most people don't even want at this point like the SotC knock off coming out. Or Okami, which I didn't even know was being remade and suddenly it's out in HD like magic because that game apparently needs to be released for every platform in existence. Yeesh.
 
Rhombaad said:
I finished The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening on Christmas. It was a lot of fun playing it again. It was one of my favorites when I was growing up.
Link's awakening is one of the zelda games i spent the most time with, i spent hours upon hours upon hours playing that game to death as a child on my original gameboy, and I still hold it as one of my favorite 2d zelda games. Hell i still have my gameboy. Other ones i spent a lot of time are of course minish cap and the oracle games, yet i've never 100% the oracle games because of the need of 2 copies of the game AND the requirement of completing each cartridge 3 times. And i tried finding the codes for items in-game, and that was quite difficult to even find a handful of them.
 

Walter

Administrator
Staff member
Griffith said:
Or Okami, which I didn't even know was being remade and suddenly it's out in HD like magic because that game apparently needs to be released for every platform in existence. Yeesh.

Capcom has been in the process of porting its last-gen lineup to modern consoles and PC for the last year or so.
 

Griffith

With the streak of a tear, Like morning dew
DeS update: Flamelurker flamed out immediately when I got serious (human form, flame ring, flame shield, and some old spice) and the Penetrator become the penetrated on the first try (scary at first, but this guy was too much like Souls 101), though I was so pleased he disposed of that jestering Minister! Beyond that I took out some phantoms and I'm probably going to see how deep I can go into Boletarian Palace before exploring the other levels further (though maybe I'll kill more lizards in 2-2 to upgrade my trusty Claymore). Once I got my strength high enough to use that and the PFS, it's been all vitality and endurance ever since, but because I alreafy have them at 30 and 20 respectively and aren't having much trouble dodging, attacking or staying alive, I'm considering pumping my next few levels into Magic to see if I can get even more efficient there. Shit is just so easy to use, even though I could melee with him just fine most of my damage to Penetrator was chip damage from Soul Arrow because there was just constant safe openings. I'd like to try some other spells as well like Soul Ray and the fire spells; I bought the heal miracle but apparantly have nothing to cast it with! >_<

Walter said:
I've been spending my late evenings on Christmas break getting through a bunch of games. Have 450 moons in Mario Odyssey (I feel pretty much done with this game), swapped over to Mario Galaxy 2 for playtime with my son (he loves this one more than Odyssey, and I can't blame him)

I didn't comment on this before, but it's stuck with me... Is Mario Odyssey basically overrated? You can tell me, it's just us. =)

BTW, I recently finished Mario Galaxy 2 myself and it was great and all (I thought the highlights were the Bowser Jr. boss fights actually), but I think the original is still more special and the one to play. At least SMG2 doesn't "reward" you for getting 120 stars just by letting you get them again with Luigi though. :rickert:

Gamehowitzer said:
Other ones i spent a lot of time are of course minish cap and the oracle games

Fun fact: Those were all written and directed by BotW director Hidemaro Fujibayashi. His Zelda bonifides are pretty, well, legendary at this point; as up there with Miyamoto, Tezuka, and Aonuma as one can get (and I give Fujibayashi extra credit for revitalizing it from its previous 3D doldrums). It's pretty cool he got his start making classic-style 2D Zeldas too, and not even for Nintendo!

Walter said:
Capcom has been in the process of porting its last-gen lineup to modern consoles and PC for the last year or so.

Oh sure, I can't criticize them for making their catalogue more available (unlike those games that become rare birds exclusive to a single platform), though as far as Okami is concerned I'll point out it's technically two generations old and pretty much available on everything since: PlayStation 2, Wii (Wii U), PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, PC... Jesus Christ, everybody got it yet!? I'm surprised they aren't retroporting it to the SNES Classic; see the majesty in 16-bit! That's a game that could use some exclusivity at this point because it gets around more than the disc it comes on.

Maybe I'll get it for PC. =)
 

Aazealh

Administrator
Staff member
Griffith said:
I didn't comment on this before, but it's stuck with me... Is Mario Odyssey basically overrated? You can tell me, it's just us. =)

It's a genuinely fun game that has got a lot of charm. It's got a lot of small things in it that are clearly made to please the old school fans and do a great job of it (e.g. the Donkey Kong, Super Mario Bros & Mario 64 references). However from a level design and gameplay perspective, it doesn't stand out as distinctly as the top games in the franchise. It still destroys basically any non-Mario platforming game, but it's probably more a Mario Sunshine than a Mario Galaxy.

That being said I've got a little over 500 stars and haven't quite finished the last segment of the game, which is frustrating enough that it got me to rage like I did as a kid. :ganishka:

And to stay on topic, other than Odyssey I've been playing Hellblade: Senua's sacrifice (PC) and Augmented Empire (GearVR), which are both great. Once that's done I want to get through Prey (got it during the Winter sales) and maybe the Dishonored 2 DLC "The Outsider's Death", since I hear it's very good and the first game's DLC actually was also pretty good (and extremely relevant to the second game's plot, too).
 
Griffith said:
DeS update: Flamelurker flamed out immediately when I got serious (human form, flame ring, flame shield, and some old spice) and the Penetrator become the penetrated on the first try (scary at first, but this guy was too much like Souls 101), though I was so pleased he disposed of that jestering Minister! Beyond that I took out some phantoms and I'm probably going to see how deep I can go into Boletarian Palace before exploring the other levels further (though maybe I'll kill more lizards in 2-2 to upgrade my trusty Claymore). Once I got my strength high enough to use that and the PFS, it's been all vitality and endurance ever since, but because I alreafy have them at 30 and 20 respectively and aren't having much trouble dodging, attacking or staying alive, I'm considering pumping my next few levels into Magic to see if I can get even more efficient there. Shit is just so easy to use, even though I could melee with him just fine most of my damage to Penetrator was chip damage from Soul Arrow because there was just constant safe openings. I'd like to try some other spells as well like Soul Ray and the fire spells; I bought the heal miracle but apparantly have nothing to cast it with! >_<

Man, it's such ancient history. I remember Flamelurker giving a lot of people, myself included, a lot of trouble when the game first came out. He's a huge jump in difficulty compared to the likes of the Armored Spider, Tower Knight, and Phalanx, which are typically the critters people would tackle before going for him, he's a helluva lot more mobile, unpredictable, and aggressive than they are, and he gets even fiercer once he's nearly dead. However, his fight is pretty part and parcel for how a lot of Soulsborne bosses work. Hell, Flamelurker may even be the basis for how bosses would go on to be designed in future titles, so it's no surprise a DkS veteran would incinerate him fairly easily.

Penetrator, meanwhile, was never that tough. And depending on what you did in Boletaria, he could be made into an absolute cakewalk.

Aazealh said:
And to stay on topic, other than Odyssey I've been playing Hellblade: Senua's sacrifice (PC) and Augmented Empire (GearVR), which are both great. Once that's done I want to get through Prey (got it during the Winter sales) and maybe the Dishonored 2 DLC "The Outsider's Death", since I hear it's very good and the first game's DLC actually was also pretty good (and extremely relevant to the second game's plot, too).

I got high hopes for "Death of the Outsider" too, though I'm kind of hoping the protagonists don't succeed. I like the Outsider, smarmy misanthropic bastard that he is. I'll be playing it after I complete The Frozen Wilds for Horizon Zero Dawn. I don't know if I'm ready for that, though, it has robot bears. :serpico:
 

Aazealh

Administrator
Staff member
Cyrus Jong said:
Flamelurker / Penetrator

This really reaches into the pits of my memory, but I remember getting through Flamelurker pretty easily, on my second try or so, and Penetrator giving me a little bit more trouble (maybe 5 tries) because I was intent on beating him in a way that just wasn't working very well.

Cyrus Jong said:
I got high hopes for "Death of the Outsider" too, though I'm kind of hoping the protagonists don't succeed. I like the Outsider, smarmy misanthropic bastard that he is.

Haha, yeah same here. I imagine there'll be a twist to it not unlike Dr. Manhattan's "death" when Ozymandias disintegrates him at the end of Watchmen. Can one really kill that which is already dead? :SK:
 
Griffith said:
DeS update: Flamelurker flamed out immediately when I got serious (human form, flame ring, flame shield, and some old spice) and the Penetrator become the penetrated on the first try (scary at first, but this guy was too much like Souls 101), though I was so pleased he disposed of that jestering Minister! Beyond that I took out some phantoms and I'm probably going to see how deep I can go into Boletarian Palace before exploring the other levels further (though maybe I'll kill more lizards in 2-2 to upgrade my trusty Claymore). Once I got my strength high enough to use that and the PFS, it's been all vitality and endurance ever since, but because I alreafy have them at 30 and 20 respectively and aren't having much trouble dodging, attacking or staying alive, I'm considering pumping my next few levels into Magic to see if I can get even more efficient there. Shit is just so easy to use, even though I could melee with him just fine most of my damage to Penetrator was chip damage from Soul Arrow because there was just constant safe openings. I'd like to try some other spells as well like Soul Ray and the fire spells; I bought the heal miracle but apparantly have nothing to cast it with! >_<

Yeah magic is pretty op in this game so go for it, how are you approaching the the different worlds? are you just doing them in order? if so then look forward to world 3 it's really good. Have you been seeking out npcs and following their quests at all or is that not the focus right now? same thing with world tendencies, next playthrough perhaps? :carcus:

On a side note to this day I think that the Nexus is by far the best hub world in any souls game, it's insanely cool in every way.

Aazealh said:
And to stay on topic, other than Odyssey I've been playing Hellblade: Senua's sacrifice (PC) and Augmented Empire (GearVR), which are both great. Once that's done I want to get through Prey (got it during the Winter sales) and maybe the Dishonored 2 DLC "The Outsider's Death", since I hear it's very good and the first game's DLC actually was also pretty good (and extremely relevant to the second game's plot, too).

I loved prey, intriguing story, very atmospheric, great music and it felt like system shock and deus ex, the inventory, the leveling the powers :judo: too good. I thought that death of the outsider was a great way to end this story arc, Billie's new powers are really fun to use, I hope you like it.
 

Griffith

With the streak of a tear, Like morning dew
Aazealh said:
It's a genuinely fun game that has got a lot of charm.
However from a level design and gameplay perspective, it doesn't stand out as distinctly as the top games in the franchise.

Heard a lot of the former, not so much the latter save you and Wally, but I'm skepitcal of the fan reputation because SMG2 is supposed to be the best platformer ever and I thought it was good, but not the epitome of Mario or even better than it's predecessor.

That being said I've got a little over 500 stars and haven't quite finished the last segment of the game, which is frustrating enough that it got me to rage like I did as a kid. :ganishka:

Actually, the whole reason I've been catching up on so much Mario lately is to stave off the desire to play Odyssey, which worked, but it still sounds like fun. =)

Cyrus Jong said:
Man, it's such ancient history. I remember Flamelurker giving a lot of people, myself included, a lot of trouble when the game first came out. He's a huge jump in difficulty compared to the likes of the Armored Spider, Tower Knight, and Phalanx, which are typically the critters people would tackle before going for him, he's a helluva lot more mobile, unpredictable, and aggressive than they are, and he gets even fiercer once he's nearly dead. However, his fight is pretty part and parcel for how a lot of Soulsborne bosses work. Hell, Flamelurker may even be the basis for how bosses would go on to be designed in future titles, so it's no surprise a DkS veteran would incinerate him fairly easily.

Yep, that's how it went for me. Phalanx was pathetic, Tower Knight got me a couple times before I realized I could kill the archers (:ganishka:), the Armored Spider made me cocky because I killed him just fucking around, taking unnecessary hits and still winning, etc. but Flamelurker felt like the real deal where you better stay on your game and keep weaving and moving. I think you're right that he feels like the prototypical Soulsboss, at least the more feral variety (and once they mixed that with swordplay watch out). Think of how simple he is though compared to a recent evolution like the Demon Prince fight. Yeesh.

Penetrator, meanwhile, was never that tough. And depending on what you did in Boletaria, he could be made into an absolute cakewalk.
Aazealh said:
This really reaches into the pits of my memory, but I remember getting through Flamelurker pretty easily, on my second try or so, and Penetrator giving me a little bit more trouble (maybe 5 tries) because I was intent on beating him in a way that just wasn't working very well.

Well, I was just careful with him, spent a good while just dodging and rolling to check him out and once I felt confident reading him I started chipping away (magic really made it unfair because he actually wasn't so easy to hit with my Claymore; mastering that might have taken a bit longer). There's really no reason to be impatient with the insta-healing herbs at your disposal though. It's like that first time you get a boss down real low then lose discipline at the end and get reckless because you're running out of estus and then... NO FUCKING WAY ARE YOU KIDDING ME?! :mozgus:

Not so much that pressure here, plus, as Cyrus said, I'm basically a time traveler from the future to these bosses. =)

Kaladin said:
Yeah magic is pretty op in this game so go for it

I pumped it up to 20 so far and it's responding accordingly. I'm even tempted to go Moon on my weapon, though all my DS instincts are against this, to double dip on the stat. But then I'll be pretty fucked up against any magic resistant foes, so maybe I'll just stick with what's working or go the Crushing route instead (I have 22 strength as well).

how are you approaching the the different worlds? are you just doing them in order? if so then look forward to world 3 it's really good. Have you been seeking out npcs and following their quests at all or is that not the focus right now? same thing with world tendencies, next playthrough perhaps? :carcus:

My approach is always the same: just looking for the best upgrades and the next boss (I don't get the tendencies but I'm pretty light all over). I wrapped up worlds 1 and 2, Allant went down in 3 because I didn't know the range of his explosion and then I let him combo me when he was almost dead (:schierke:), didn't kill the dragon yet either, but am indeed exploring the mighty cool world 3 (it's totally Irithyll Dungeon)! So, I have found some cool NPCs there, the Royal Wife or whatever has some promising shit I need to buy all of, and I'd like to free Freke and see what he's got but I've seemingly cleared all the dungeon and haven't found his key yet... maybe I missed a spot or need to fight the boss (or the fucking thing is one of those items on ledges I've been ignoring). And I'm not sure if I should free old ghosty from his cell or not...

On a side note to this day I think that the Nexus is by far the best hub world in any souls game, it's insanely cool in every way.

Yeah, it's pretty cool, and also clearly the precursor to DS3's Firelink Shrine.
 

Walter

Administrator
Staff member
Griffith said:
Heard a lot of the former, not so much the latter save you and Wally, but I'm skepitcal of the fan reputation because SMG2 is supposed to be the best platformer ever and I thought it was good, but not the epitome of Mario or even better than it's predecessor.
Real quick on SMG2 before I get into Odyssey: I've never regarded it that highly, but I'm having a blast with it now, directly after Odyssey, because this game propels you in a completely different way from Odyssey. Each level/sequence has a momentum, and every little transport between planetoids feels rejuvenating before you tackle the next portion. That kind of pacing is something that Odyssey completely lacks. Its equivalent is like, walking back to your ship and dumping off some more moons before heading out to find more.

I don't think Mario Odyssey is a system seller. It is a technically fun game (lol). But even with all the charm and personality pouring out of the game in buckets, it's too thin, and ultimately rote, an experience to justify a new console. Zelda however, I have zero regrets buying the Switch (almost) exclusively for it. So if you've already had that experience, then wait until you're actually ready to get a Switch before buying it.

The biggest bummer for me with Odyssey is that while it's true there are a TON of moons to collect, I can count on one hand the moons that felt like accomplishments. Mostly, they just sort of happen along the way from A-B. Sometimes you'll butt-stomp on a glowing crack in the ground and find a moon. :schierke: That was my fear early in with the game, and it didn't change throughout. You can change costumes, and you can "capture" enemies, but only a handful of either of those actually affect gameplay in a significant way. Most of the game (90% or more), you play as Mario in much the same capacity that you would in any other 3D Mario game. Getting around in the world feels good, just like it's always felt good in Mario games of this sort.

I've got 480 something moons, and I'm not really compelled to play any more. In the pantheon of 3D Mario games, I'd rate this one just above Sunshine, a game I've never even played :troll: .
 

Griffith

With the streak of a tear, Like morning dew
Walter said:
Real quick on SMG2 before I get into Odyssey: I've never regarded it that highly, but I'm having a blast with it now, directly after Odyssey, because this game propels you in a completely different way from Odyssey. Each level/sequence has a momentum, and every little transport between planetoids feels rejuvenating before you tackle the next portion.

It was a little repetitive for me after going 120 stars deep in Galaxy, despite the new gimmicks in each level. I also didn't like the hodge podge progression system with a linear map screen but with star minimums that are far too high to actually play through it going level to level. It was kind if stuck between 3D and classic Mario.

That kind of pacing is something that Odyssey completely lacks. Its equivalent is like, walking back to your ship and dumping off some more moons before heading out to find more.

Sounds like Diablo! :ganishka:

I don't think Mario Odyssey is a system seller. It is a technically fun game (lol). But even with all the charm and personality pouring out of the game in buckets, it's too thin, and ultimately rote, an experience to justify a new console.

That's the sense I got from it; it's a fun game, but not worth buying a system for. There were people basically trying to lump it in with Zelda as Nintendo reinventing the open world wheel though.

The biggest bummer for me with Odyssey is that while it's true there are a TON of moons to collect, I can count on one hand the moons that felt like accomplishments. Mostly, they just sort of happen along the way from A-B. Sometimes you'll butt-stomp on a glowing crack in the ground and find a moon. :schierke:

Yeah, it's a quality or quantity approach, 100+ of something like stars or shrines can be a carefully crafted experience with momentum to each as you described ... 800+ though, like moons or korok seeds, and you're probably just sticking them around to some degree. It's an interesting thing to consider about BotW, that it has both.
 
Griffith said:
My approach is always the same: just looking for the best upgrades and the next boss (I don't get the tendencies but I'm pretty light all over). I wrapped up worlds 1 and 2, Allant went down in 3 because I didn't know the range of his explosion and then I let him combo me when he was almost dead (:schierke:), didn't kill the dragon yet either, but am indeed exploring the mighty cool world 3 (it's totally Irithyll Dungeon)! So, I have found some cool NPCs there, the Royal Wife or whatever has some promising shit I need to buy all of, and I'd like to free Freke and see what he's got but I've seemingly cleared all the dungeon and haven't found his key yet... maybe I missed a spot or need to fight the boss (or the fucking thing is one of those items on ledges I've been ignoring). And I'm not sure if I should free old ghosty from his cell or not...

Sage Freke is a great character and has a lot of great spells, and yeah The Tower of Latria is very similar to the Irithyll Dungeon, more of that to come later on, world 5 :carcus:
 

Aazealh

Administrator
Staff member
Walter said:
I've got 480 something moons, and I'm not really compelled to play any more. In the pantheon of 3D Mario games, I'd rate this one just above Sunshine, a game I've never even played :troll:

You should play Sunshine if you ever get the chance, it's underrated.
 

Walter

Administrator
Staff member
Aazealh said:
You should play Sunshine if you ever get the chance, it's underrated.

I've seen quite a bit of it played (on Giant Bomb, they had a series for it), and it looks utterly painful. But if they port it to Switch, I might check it out.

Check in on Xenoblade 2: 20h in and it's wearing thin on me. Story has some major problems (character inconsistencies, inexplicable ignorance from characters not openly discussing world-changing events, not weighing in on things they should definitely be weighing in on). Basically it confirmed my suspicions about the game from the first few trailers, that it was Xeno for kids. I had successfully held that fear at bay for a while, but recently the game started showing its hand (revealing more significant portions of the lore) and it's what I had thought from the start :sad: . I still plan to see it through, but expectations have been lowered.
 

Griffith

With the streak of a tear, Like morning dew
Kaladin said:
Sage Freke is a great character and has a lot of great spells, and yeah The Tower of Latria is very similar to the Irithyll Dungeon, more of that to come later on, world 5 :carcus:

Yeah, I finally cashed in some Demon's souls for new spells from him, now I gotta get my intelligence up a couple points to try the 2 slot ones. I don't want to go too far down this path though and hobble my characters melee abilities down the line. Even Soul Ray uses too much MP to be more useful than Arrow for my purposes.

Anyway, I'm at the beginning of 3-2, but don't know when I'll next get to play (and I'm thinking the Avarice ring I bought isn't worth it and I'd have been better off using the 50,000 souls towards my level).

Aazealh said:
You should play Sunshine if you ever get the chance, it's underrated.
Walter said:
I've seen quite a bit of it played (on Giant Bomb, they had a series for it), and it looks utterly painful. But if they port it to Switch, I might check it out.

It shouldn't be hard or expensive if you already has a Wii. I've been thinking of hooking up my GameCube and giving it another shot for a while diring my Mariothon. I stopped playing it about halfway through out of bored frustration the first time (not a great sign =).


In other news, I've also put a few hours into Papers, Please, which Wally was kind enough to gift me, and it's strangely compelling/addicting. My first effort yielded a couple of ignoble ends but now I'm in a little bit deeper in more ways than one.

Also playing Twilight Princess for the umpteenth time in HD on Wii U, mainly on the gamepad while the wife watches the TV. It's losing me, though I did just complete the final bug hunt so that's like the nadir, but the Water Temple on steroids in this game isn't exactly a fresh start either. If BotW had huge temples like these strewn about though it'd be the best Zelda EVAH!
 

Rhombaad

Video Game Time Traveler
I beat Adventures of Mana yesterday. It was a very well-made remake, though a bit on the easy side. Still a fun game to play. On to Secret of Mana!
 
On New Years Eve we played a few games on a friend's SNES Classic - Street Fighter 2 Turbo, Mario Kart (gave me motion sickness cos I wasn't used to seeing pixels move that fast), Super Ghouls and Ghosts and Contra III.
 

Rhombaad

Video Game Time Traveler
IncantatioN said:
On New Years Eve we played a few games on a friend's SNES Classic - Street Fighter 2 Turbo, Mario Kart (gave me motion sickness cos I wasn't used to seeing pixels move that fast), Super Ghouls and Ghosts and Contra III.

Nice!
 
Top Bottom