|
Yapping Eevee posted:Add me to the chorus of voices looking for a sheet of Lea's expressions on a transparent background for use as Discord emojis or whatever. We're not quite ready for sprite sheets itt, but, well, I was saving this for the Update Post Signifying Image, but gently caress it, I cannot sit on things for long so here's a freebie;  (a snype's an appropriate time for this kind of thing)
|
#
?
Jan 16, 2021 01:41
|
|
|
|
| # ? Apr 28, 2024 15:58 |
|
|
Yapping Eevee posted:Add me to the chorus of voices looking for a sheet of Lea's expressions on a transparent background for use as Discord emojis or whatever. Well you're in luck cus the game keeps all its assets very accessible; but obviously be wary cus there's spoiler stuff in there too.\ 
|
|
#
?
Jan 16, 2021 01:44
|
|
|
Fedule posted:We're not quite ready for sprite sheets itt, but, well, I was saving this for the Update Post Signifying Image, but gently caress it, I cannot sit on things for long so here's a freebie; 
|
|
#
?
Jan 16, 2021 02:28
|
|
|
Well okay then!
|
|
#
?
Jan 16, 2021 03:05
|
|
|
Meanwhile I'm trying to work out if Ball Wizard as a class is more or less creepy as a male or female avatar. (Yes, -mancy would actually be divination but that's not how it's been used in RPGs for decades so.) As someone who doesn't know where this game goes, I have thoughts and predictions. And look forward to some or all of them being wrong.
|
|
#
?
Jan 16, 2021 03:15
|
|
|
Holy hell someone is actually playing this game. This game was... something. I really enjoyed what it was putting down at times, but I honestly feel like they started losing steam later on, and also tried to fixed problems people had with early parts of the game in ways that ruined a lot of the great stuff the early game had going for it. I'll have to wait until the LP gets further in to get into more detail, though. Platforming is also headache inducing at times; not because the actual platforming is hard but because the perspective plus the whole 3D environment in 2D thing can hurt your head. With all that said, what this game does well, it doesn't just do it well but it does so exceptionally. It's highs are really freaking high, and I love those highs to bits and they make me hype for new content releases when they release. I'll have to bookmark this.
|
|
#
?
Jan 16, 2021 05:05
|
|
|
The platforming takes some getting used to. I always recommend to use the aiming charged poo poo to see which level you're on. Some of the later ones are real screwy though. Though at least they put in hard edges to stop you from accidentally slipping off. It was rough playing the Early Access version without that 
|
|
#
?
Jan 16, 2021 06:36
|
|
|
Aw yes, I love this game. Lea's smug face is quite possibly my favorite piece of video game art. 
|
|
#
?
Jan 16, 2021 07:19
|
|
|
Adding my voice to the people who loved this, I don't think I've ever played a 2D game where the combat has felt as crisp and satisfying.
|
|
#
?
Jan 16, 2021 09:54
|
|
|
Seraphic Neoman posted:aiming charged poo poo
|
|
#
?
Jan 16, 2021 12:46
|
|
|
Yeah, the quintessential CrossCode Navigation Technique is using the aiming reticle for your charge shot to gauge terrain elevation. Aiming casts a little line of dots directly forward at your exact elevation, so if you aim it at a wall over a gap and it bounces, it means it's too high. The dots in the line also all cast shadows directly below them, so if they pass over something you can read its elevation that way. I'll be demonstrating the extents to which CrossCode quickly starts testing your capacity for this, and also faceplanting into a lot of slightly raised platforms, don't you worry.
|
|
#
?
Jan 16, 2021 14:25
|
|
|
I think what CrossCode gets right with regard to metatextual commentary is that it never makes the mistake of assuming that just because you're pointing out your own lazy writing you're excused from your writing being lazy. Like, the problem as I see it with a character in a game being all "Oh no, not just another fetch quest!  " is that not only is the joke mocking the laziness of MMO writing -- if you still have a fetch quest to do at the end of it, the joke is also mocking the player for not uninstalling the game and playing something with better, non-lazy writing. CrossCode's meta jokes land because the actual plot that matters, the story of Lea's history, isn't the plot that's being lampooned.
|
|
#
?
Jan 16, 2021 20:50
|
|
|
Well, this game looks cute. I think I remember wishlisting it back when it was still in development, then dropped it later for some reason. Seeing it in action I might end up getting it after all. Hi!
|
|
#
?
Jan 16, 2021 22:55
|
|
|
Whybird posted:I think what CrossCode gets right with regard to metatextual commentary is that it never makes the mistake of assuming that just because you're pointing out your own lazy writing you're excused from your writing being lazy. More or less this. CrossCode doesn't just wield irony more deftly than most games that make these halfhearted attempts, it understands why it's doing so in the first place, and does so from a place of earnestness.
|
|
#
?
Jan 17, 2021 00:08
|
|
|
Whybird posted:I think what CrossCode gets right with regard to metatextual commentary is that it never makes the mistake of assuming that just because you're pointing out your own lazy writing you're excused from your writing being lazy. Agreed. The meta-narrative makes this game and it's the reason it's not as obnoxious as its inspirations. Come to think of it, .hack also did this. Huh.
|
|
#
?
Jan 17, 2021 03:40
|
|
|
It's been a while since I've played Kingdom Hearts, but the battle music has super KH vibes to me both in the melody and the rhythm. Wonder if that was a matter of synchronicity or inspiration...
|
|
#
?
Jan 18, 2021 03:41
|
|
|
Xerophyte posted:Bonus rant: my dumb and quixotic video game pet peeve is that almost no game called isometric is actually isometric. Isometric is specifically the orthographic projection where the 3 major axes are equally foreshortened. An isometric projection isn't possible in tiled pixel graphics and tends to look more top-down than you want in 3D, so your Civilizations, UFO: Enemy Unknowns and Final Fantasy Tactics use a more relaxed orthographic projection where the height axis is shortened more than the two planar ones so square tiles are displayed exactly twice as wide as they are tall on your monitor. That way the tiles can be drawn with a nice, whole number of pixels and the planar axes are easily drawn 2:1 pixel lines, neither of which would be true with isometric projection. Oh well. Now that I know, I'll definitely keep using the same definition in the future.
|
|
#
?
Jan 18, 2021 14:42
|
|
|
Really, a projection like this is (or at least can be) isometric as the X, Y and Z axes are all presented in the same scale, just in this case the Y and Z axes are parallel. Incidentally I was inspired to buy this game and have played a few hours. It's good fun. Tenebrais fucked around with this message at 17:02 on Jan 18, 2021 |
|
#
?
Jan 18, 2021 15:35
|
|
|
I was so charmed by this game, but "it's a lot" and "no chill" are great descriptors. Sometimes I think about going back and playing through it again but my imagination always treats me to, "ow, my hands are sore." I'm sure I will enjoy the hell out of the LP, especially since there is plenty I missed or just didn't do much of because of exhaustion.
|
|
#
?
Jan 18, 2021 16:36
|
|
|
(Rhombus Dungeon + CrossCentral) "It is a very involved process, actually." In which, for real this time, a tutorial is completed. Notable Music: Rhombus Dungeon - Technically the tutorial dungeon, although it's really more of an exam. The main melody is super chill, but still holds your attention. Notable Lore:     It didn't occur to me before, but in retrospect, I think it's supposed to be an intentional joke that the tutorial enemies go down so easily... because Lea is overlevelled. Fedule fucked around with this message at 17:00 on Jan 22, 2021 |
|
#
?
Jan 18, 2021 22:41
|
|
|
(By the way, I've also added some Notable Lore to the first update post (which itself I've retconned into the Obligory Second Reserved LP Thread Post)). (Technically we don't have access to the encyclopedia yet, but, well, who cares.) (I'm also adding music to these posts! CrossCode's soundtrack is really good.) Fedule fucked around with this message at 22:58 on Jan 18, 2021 |
|
#
?
Jan 18, 2021 22:43
|
|
|
I already like Emilie and Apollo a lot.
|
|
#
?
Jan 18, 2021 23:28
|
|
|
"Anyways here's the most useless room in the game..." Little do you know this room is the answer to an earlier question asked in the video, can you get to the final city at this point in the game? (Well I'm paraphrasing a lot but still.) While you can't clip through the railing on the roof of Cross Central you can do a skip with the barriers that block the other areas of the game. It's a little funky to do and involves putting your CP into a different combat art and you have to keep tutorial pop ups turned off until you do it; but you certainly can skip almost ~65% of the game. Combat Lobster fucked around with this message at 23:46 on Jan 18, 2021 |
|
#
?
Jan 18, 2021 23:43
|
|
|
Sergei is working extra-time to get those words past that aggressive PG-13 swear word filter. My hero.
|
|
#
?
Jan 18, 2021 23:45
|
|
|
Gonna be honest, that's a really cute level up animation.
|
|
#
?
Jan 19, 2021 00:43
|
|
|
Combat Lobster posted:"Anyways here's the most useless room in the game..." I'm gonna have to remember to look more into this later, although I should have known this game's surprisingly dynamic tutorials could be abused for something.
|
|
#
?
Jan 19, 2021 01:11
|
|
|
Oh god he's Apollo Justice. These other PC NPCs are perfect. Apollo is probably a third or fourth alt trying a new class while Emilienator (  ) is another rookie and they behave like you'd expect MMO players to behave. Mostly by treating the game like a game, looking mat you again .HACK.By the way, I just realized part of the initial setup was straight up the same as the .HACK//SIGN anime: Tsukasa and Lea are amnesiac players stuck unable to logout for unknown reasons. At least it seems the devs assigned an admin or programmer or something on Lea's case.
|
|
#
?
Jan 19, 2021 08:18
|
|
|
Omobono posted:Oh god he's Apollo Justice. The really great thing about this is that this is one of the game's loudest references and yet somehow it never seems to directly go there. He's called Apollo, likes to talk about justice, has hair spikes, does a dramatic finger point, basically presents evidence, even his theme music channels Iwadare et al. But... its all circumstantial, we lack the kind of decisive evidence we need to properly tie this case up, like if he ever just said "Objection!" or "Hold it!" or even just that he was fine, but... no.
|
|
#
?
Jan 19, 2021 12:08
|
|
|
Ciaphas posted:I got something like halfway through this game before literally petering out on the gameplay; the dungeons and their puzzles were good, they were just so goddamn long I got to what I assume is the very end, where the game was saying "go to this final confrontation or do sidequests" and I just stopped, exhausted. I cared, but I completely ran out of energy to even just finish it. This game is an amazing, beautiful, CHORE of a task that takes everything on so many different levels. The way I remember describing it at the time was that it felt like all the problem-solving parts of my brain were trying to work at the same time. Platforming, puzzles and combat may have their times of being the focus but the other parts are still working, nothing gets to breathe a lot of the time and it overwhelms. Not even counting the story and resulting emotional effects. I think this is the most draining game I've ever played. Bruceski fucked around with this message at 12:36 on Jan 19, 2021 |
|
#
?
Jan 19, 2021 12:21
|
|
|
Bruceski posted:The way I remember describing it at the time was that it felt like all the problem-solving parts of my brain were trying to work at the same time. Platforming, puzzles and combat may have their times of being the focus but the other parts are still working, nothing gets to breathe a lot of the time and it overwhelms. Not even counting the story and resulting emotional effects. I think this is the most draining game I've ever played. I know, I love it!
|
|
#
?
Jan 19, 2021 16:59
|
|
|
Fedule posted:I know, I love it! Absolutely.
|
|
#
?
Jan 19, 2021 17:24
|
|
|
I really like how Crosscode very slowly builds up the complexity of puzzles and platforming. It is probably bit slow for people who tend to play a lot of either genre, but as someone who doesn't usually play much of either it felt really good to ease into it. And towards the latter parts of the game I really enjoyed coming back to earlier areas and figuring out the overworld platforming puzzles with the stuff I'd learned. And some of the later puzzles felt really good to figure out, even if I almost gave up on a few. But saying the game is a lot really sums it up. It's slow, each area is large and it just keeps adding more and more stuff all the time.
|
|
#
?
Jan 19, 2021 17:49
|
|
|
dotchan posted:It's been a while since I've played Kingdom Hearts, but the battle music has super KH vibes to me both in the melody and the rhythm. Wonder if that was a matter of synchronicity or inspiration... Weird because I dont get the Yoko vibe from it. Its definitely a little unique, taking vibes from JRPGs, but id say it takes more cues from the indie scene. However, There is one very specific track that sounds very Uematsu, and another that sounds like it was lifted from Zone of the Enders. So the musical inspirations are actually more broad than at first blush. Rigged Death Trap fucked around with this message at 21:22 on Jan 19, 2021 |
|
#
?
Jan 19, 2021 21:04
|
|
|
Yeah, I can't say for sure I felt a particularly Kingdom Hearts vibe off of any track (although I'm not the most familiar; for me, the thing that gives away a Yoko Shimomura OST if I don't already know is often a particular characteristic floaty synthy string lead and piano accents, like this or, no, wait, this from FFXV, this kicked in in the tutorial and I suddenly started thinking of Radiant Historia and I was like oh drat is this a Shimomura joint and sure loving enough!). But that said, there absolutely are some musical shoutouts in this. I've already mentioned Apollo's theme being instantly evocative of Iwadare's Ace Attorney OSTs, a couple of dungeon themes have, appropriately enough, strong Zelda vibes, while the overworld exploration and battle themes, appropriately enough, tend to channel classic JRPG vibes, but on the whole, CrossCode has a musical identity all its own; it has very SNES-like composition but far higher quality sounds than that system was broadly working with, and delights in mixing the hi-fidelity with the lo.
|
|
#
?
Jan 19, 2021 23:18
|
|
|
Bruceski posted:I got to what I assume is the very end, where the game was saying "go to this final confrontation or do sidequests" and I just stopped, exhausted. I cared, but I completely ran out of energy to even just finish it. This game is an amazing, beautiful, CHORE of a task that takes everything on so many different levels. People have been asking what the Citizen Kane of gaming is, and it looks like we already have our Uncut Gems.
|
|
#
?
Jan 19, 2021 23:33
|
|
|
It hasn't been brought up but I figured I go ahead and note that you can't beat Emilie in this race through Rhombus dungeon; trust me I tried. I assume the real canon reason being Sergei spending a lot of time talking your ear off and Lea still getting her sea legs, or video game legs rather. Also if you're watching the linked video, you might be wondering how I'm able to jump those large gaps which you normally can't clear. Well that's where 'Dash Jumping' comes in. You see, normally when you jump off a ledge you can't perform a dash midair, but you can perform any other action. This game is strange in that if you do an action midair like guard, attack, take aim, etc. the game then assumes you're on the ground and will then allow you to dash. (I'm guessing it's a state quirk.) So by doing any action immediately after leaving the platform, you can then do a dash to extend your jump's distance. Players really good at this trick can even double dash, but I'm not one of them. There's also some other ways of clearing larger gaps, but we'll have to wait till Fedule has built Lea up some more. I'm bringing up dash jumping now, cause it's not just an easy speed trick, it's a pretty good trick for dealing with platforming that you don't wanna do. Combat Lobster fucked around with this message at 03:15 on Jan 20, 2021 |
|
#
?
Jan 20, 2021 02:57
|
|
|
Combat Lobster posted:It hasn't been brought up but I figured I go ahead and note that you can't beat Emilie in this race through Rhombus dungeon; trust me I tried. I assume the real canon reason being Sergei spending a lot of time talking your ear off and Lea still getting her sea legs, or video game legs rather. Good stuff, good stuff. I don't intend to be getting much into the Secret Tech in the LP run although I'm personally curious to find out if one or two of the oddities I remember still exist. I have the strangest premonition-like feeling that this kind of discussion is going to briefly spike after every dungeon! As a general rule, if you have something like the above to contribute, you're welcome to, so long as a) you don't somehow show plot spoilers or areas we haven't seen yet and b) it's something I could have done in the LP as currently posted, were I so inclined (ie, doesn't require techs we don't have or plot triggers we haven't passed or other such).
|
|
#
?
Jan 21, 2021 15:49
|
|
|
I've heard about this game, but I've always been a bit wary because the gameplay didn't sound quite like my thing, and upon seeing the videos... I was probably right. I'm too out of practice for this sort of thing. The story could be interesting, though, although I hope the foreshadowing isn't quite as obvious as it seems.
|
|
#
?
Jan 21, 2021 16:35
|
|
|
The game has very generous difficulty sliders so if you ever feel it's too much, just crank those bad boys down
|
|
#
?
Jan 21, 2021 17:26
|
|
|
|
| # ? Apr 28, 2024 15:58 |
|
|
(Rookie Harbor intro) "I suggest you go in right away and just get it over with." I have to level with you all on this occasion; this is probably going to be the lowest-energy video in the entire LP (we tried though!); the game dumps the entirety of its main loop on us all at once, and I wanted all the preliminaries out of the way ASAP so we can get straight into the murdering next time. I was willing to employ Editing: Revengeance to achieve that, but I also didn't want to be jumping around the areas incomprehensibly, so, this video is 26 and a half minutes of setting everything in motion while expositing about the game (the lightly-edited cut is 37 minutes). Notable Music: Rookie Harbor - You can practically feel the sea breeze on your face and the sidequests in your log. Notable Lore:     (You'll forgive me for not making a habit of posting the story recaps... with maybe a handful of exceptions) Fedule fucked around with this message at 20:29 on May 6, 2021 |
|
#
?
Jan 21, 2021 19:57
|
|