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Crosspeice
Aug 9, 2013



https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5OlTmTfWXsY

Mark of the Ninja joins a few other select titles as THE stealth game. Avenging your clan from an attack by hired soldiers, you control a ninja with no name, a bald head and sweet dragon tattoos, made from some :lsd: ink, that gives you the power to freeze time in your mind, see and hear everything around you and unlock some greater powers beyond.

Combat is terrible, everyone has guns, you do not. So in a way, you're forced to stealth through levels, keeping to the shadows, breaking lights and killing all in your way using a variety of tools and tricks. Or, you can go through the entire game without killing a single soul, aside from story purposes. In my first playthrough, I will be exploring all the levels and killing all that I see. Then, in NG+, I'll be doing a pacifism run with developer's commentary available and really dive into the game's themes, ideas and design. This is a fantastic game, I may gush, but this game is not perfect, it has its foibles and questionable design choices. I still enjoy the crap out of it though.

Joining me in this adventure will be hater of bugs living, DirtyDeedsDone. He's grateful we're playing a good game for a change. Also from Level 7 to Level 2 Pacifism, we're joined by Forer, the Americano. So sit back and relax, we've got some sneaking to do.
















Crosspeice fucked around with this message at 06:40 on Feb 4, 2015

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Crosspeice
Aug 9, 2013













Crosspeice fucked around with this message at 06:49 on Feb 4, 2015

No Gravitas
Jun 12, 2013

by FactsAreUseless
My favourite game since Thief...

Wow. I love this. Too bad it runs like crap on my system.

anilEhilated
Feb 17, 2014

But I say fuck the rain.

Grimey Drawer
This is a really good game and I really enjoyed the art style; the drawing reminds me of Penny Arcade a lot. About my only complaint is the vastly insufficient amount of ways you can mess with the mooks.

BottledBodhisvata
Jul 26, 2013

by Lowtax
I didn't much care for Shank, but this game always looked neat. What systems did it end up getting released on anyway? I don't think it's on the PSN.

Crosspeice
Aug 9, 2013

It's on 360, PC and Linux, so kind of a Microsoft exclusive. It also runs like crap on my laptop, so I have to use a computer so it doesn't lag to hell. Not every level, but some future areas have background stuff that really slows the framerate. We shouldn't have any of that in the lp.

Glazius
Jul 22, 2007

Hail all those who are able,
any mouse can,
any mouse will,
but the Guard prevail.

Clapping Larry
I like your occasional five seconds of failure. Really conveys how razor-edge this game is.

SonicRulez
Aug 6, 2013

GOTTA GO FIST
This looks like a very good game. You rarely see true stealth games. I recently completed MGS4 and I'm awful at stealth. The only reason I was able to complete it is because you can just go guns akimbo and kill everything in the room if you're ever spotted. Stealth is optional. I can see from gameplay that that isn't the case in Mark of the Ninja.

Crosspeice
Aug 9, 2013

Glazius posted:

I like your occasional five seconds of failure. Really conveys how razor-edge this game is.

Have some more! I'm good at this game, honest...

I do really, really like stealth and waiting and killing. So this is a good fit for me.

Crosspeice fucked around with this message at 06:52 on Feb 4, 2015

Dirty Deeds Done
Apr 8, 2009

OI OI OI OI OI OI
I will never forgive the game for the last few minutes of this video.

Clarste
Apr 15, 2013

Just how many mistakes have you suffered on the way here?

An uncountable number, to be sure.
This is probably the only game on Steam I've gotten 100% for. I liked it a lot. But doing a pacifist run first made successive runs in other styles seems pretty boring. Killing is easy mode.

Neruz
Jul 23, 2012

A paragon of manliness
A group of Ravens is indeed called an Unkindness by the way; yes Crows and Ravens get the best group names. Further proof of Dinosaur superiority.

Clarste
Apr 15, 2013

Just how many mistakes have you suffered on the way here?

An uncountable number, to be sure.
I've also heard them being called a Conspiracy. A conspiracy of ravens.

Crosspeice
Aug 9, 2013

Clarste posted:

This is probably the only game on Steam I've gotten 100% for. I liked it a lot. But doing a pacifist run first made successive runs in other styles seems pretty boring. Killing is easy mode.

I know, I'm itching to do the pacifism run, but most of the upgrades involve killing stuff in many different ways and the easiest way to explore the levels is to murder everything.


Neruz posted:

A group of Ravens is indeed called an Unkindness by the way

Clarste posted:

I've also heard them being called a Conspiracy. A conspiracy of ravens.

:krad:

Crosspeice
Aug 9, 2013



Let's set things on fire! Woo!

Crosspeice fucked around with this message at 06:53 on Feb 4, 2015

anilEhilated
Feb 17, 2014

But I say fuck the rain.

Grimey Drawer
Actually, the poem is about a ninja making his escape over a Nightingale floor.

WFGuy
Feb 18, 2011

Press X to jump, then press X again!
Toilet Rascal

anilEhilated posted:

Actually, the poem is about a ninja making his escape over a Nightingale floor.

I was expecting a different sort of link. However, YouTube was unhelpful, so I played through SC:CT again to get this clip. Considering I can play Chaos Theory with my eyes closed by this point, it wasn't too much hassle. Mark of the Ninja is pretty great, though, and quite possibly my #2 behind it.

Crosspeice
Aug 9, 2013

Oh that's really cool. Thinking about it, it's a shame there's nothing like that in the game itself, it'd be a cool concept.

Also, no such things as ninjas? A lot of the guards in these levels thought the same thing. :smug:

TooMuchAbstraction
Oct 14, 2012

I spent four years making
Waves of Steel
Hell yes I'm going to turn my avatar into an ad for it.
Fun Shoe
The game is also on Mac. Hooray for good games getting Mac ports :v:

Also, if you think that killing people is easy mode, check out the Path of Nightmares. That costume is hilarious and absolutely broken. You need to show it off at least once!

EDIT: VVV yep that's the one.

TooMuchAbstraction fucked around with this message at 22:29 on Jul 19, 2014

anilEhilated
Feb 17, 2014

But I say fuck the rain.

Grimey Drawer

TooMuchAbstraction posted:

The game is also on Mac. Hooray for good games getting Mac ports :v:

Also, if you think that killing people is easy mode, check out the Path of Nightmares. That costume is hilarious and absolutely broken. You need to show it off at least once!

Is that the one that makes guards panic more? Because if so, that was my absolutely favorite way to play the game.

Kobold eBooks
Mar 5, 2007

EVERY MORNING I WAKE UP AN OPEN PALM SLAM A CARTRIDGE IN THE SUPER FAMICOM. ITS E-ZEAO AND RIGHT THEN AND THERE I START DOING THE MOVES ALONGSIDE THE MAIN CHARACTER, CORPORAL FALCOM.
Welp, this is only my favorite stealth game in the last forever.

I'm glad you agree with me on the combat being terrible!(From reading the OP), because I was worried I'd just not figured it out or failed to pick up on some stupid nuance whenever I'd break from glorious, glorious stealth and try to go face-to-face with a guard.

Crosspeice
Aug 9, 2013

In between this run and the pacifism run will be the dlc and a couple videos of anything I missed, including all of the Paths, aside from Path of Silence, which will be the main staple of the pacifism run.


bathroomrage posted:

I'm glad you agree with me on the combat being terrible!

We die too quickly to bullets and the guards can move around quite a bit and I'm rubbish in fast paced situations like that anyway. Anymore than one guard and you're completely hosed. And losing points from being discovered (and losing another bonus to boot at the end of the level!) just isn't worth it. In quite a few levels, the no alarms bonus is just enough to get me the last point seal, so I'll always restart, muuuuuuch less hassle.

TooMuchAbstraction
Oct 14, 2012

I spent four years making
Waves of Steel
Hell yes I'm going to turn my avatar into an ad for it.
Fun Shoe
You can kill one alert guard on their own, if you get up in their face and keep the pressure on, but it takes ages (since you have to stun them and then do a kill animation). And yeah, you lose a crapton of points so unless you're on newgame+ and have already unlocked everything, it's much better to just restart.

Two alert guards? Run away and wait for them to forget about you. Or just restart.

And of course we'll be seeing other guards where fighting them when they're alert is even more ill-advised.

Neruz
Jul 23, 2012

A paragon of manliness
Frankly I rather enjoyed the fact that combat was inviable; makes you actually feel like a Ninja and it makes logical sense that mans with guns would be able to kill you right quick if you give them a chance.

It's rare that a Ninja game has you actually act in a stealthy fashion and has modern weapons be a genuine threat instead of just being a super fast awesome fightmans who can parry bullets.

Endorph
Jul 22, 2009

Yeah, combat kinda sucks in that you can take on one guy, maybe two, but that's kind of the point. I wouldn't really call it a design flaw.

Clitch
Feb 26, 2002

I lived through
Donald Trump's presidency
and all I got was
this lousy virus
Fighting a guard heads-up means you hosed up and are bad. It feels awkward and dumb, because the developers want you to feel stupid for doing it wrong.

Neruz
Jul 23, 2012

A paragon of manliness
Yeah, you should feel awkward and dumb for letting a guard see you, you're a Ninja. Not being seen is literally half the job description.

Crosspeice
Aug 9, 2013

I'm sorry for being bad at this game, guys. :saddowns: I can improve, give me another 80 hours of playtime.

(New video up tomorrow)

Forer
Jan 18, 2010

"How do I get rid of these nasty roaches?!"

Easy, just burn your house down.
No being bad at this game is allowed, how dare anyone be bad at this game!

(God knows I'm awful)

Crosspeice
Aug 9, 2013



(Spoilers, I'm still bad)

Crosspeice fucked around with this message at 06:54 on Feb 4, 2015

TooMuchAbstraction
Oct 14, 2012

I spent four years making
Waves of Steel
Hell yes I'm going to turn my avatar into an ad for it.
Fun Shoe
I don't think I've seen you go out of your way to do this, so you do know you can hide bodies, right? Just, when you got spotted right after the "follow Karajan before he gets away" objective, you could have dumped the guy's body into a vent instead of hauling him into the corner and hoping.

I think the optimal points-farming for a single guard is something like "sneak past undetected, distract them, terrify them, kill them, and hide the body". Amusingly, you can still get body-hidden points for stuffing a corpse into a closet even if that causes a body you had stuffed in there earlier to come tumbling out. Fortunately that kind of tedious farming is never required to meet the point thresholds; as long as you get clean kills on every guard, don't get detected, and get all the scrolls and artifacts, you should get full Honor for points.

Crosspeice
Aug 9, 2013

Yes I just panic a bit and just try to move out of the way, I noticed during editing I could've hidden the body and was gonna mention it in recording, but ah well. I hide bodies if I know someone will see them, but I don't think of that when a guard comes investigating. And it isn't something to go out of the way for, since, like you said, I can get full honour regardless without the tedious point grind, which I'm trying to avoid.

So you'll see me hide bodies on occasion, but if I don't need to, I won't.

Bobsedgws
Jun 12, 2009
College Slice
You can do the hanging kill before you get the ability to hang dead bodies. There's a kill where if you dangle which results in a hung up guard. It's pretty good too because it's worth 600 points compared to the usual 400.

Clarste
Apr 15, 2013

Just how many mistakes have you suffered on the way here?

An uncountable number, to be sure.

Bobsedgws posted:

You can do the hanging kill before you get the ability to hang dead bodies. There's a kill where if you dangle which results in a hung up guard. It's pretty good too because it's worth 600 points compared to the usual 400.

I was actually wondering why the LP didn't show this off earlier, since there have been positions in earlier levels where hanging kills would have been helpful (and cool). If you didn't know about it though that explains things.

Crosspeice
Aug 9, 2013

I-I-I thought you needed the upgrade we just got...

Therefore, yes, you can get every seal the first time through the level, unless you don't know you can. :sweatdrop:

(Also I prefer being proactive and killing guys instead of going to a ledge, dangling, then waiting for a guy to come under to kill him. It's worth more, has a chance to terrorize and looks metal as hell, but that's like three steps, my brain can't handle that much)

Crosspeice fucked around with this message at 03:58 on Jul 23, 2014

Kobold eBooks
Mar 5, 2007

EVERY MORNING I WAKE UP AN OPEN PALM SLAM A CARTRIDGE IN THE SUPER FAMICOM. ITS E-ZEAO AND RIGHT THEN AND THERE I START DOING THE MOVES ALONGSIDE THE MAIN CHARACTER, CORPORAL FALCOM.

Crosspeice posted:

I-I-I thought you needed the upgrade we just got...

Therefore, yes, you can get every seal the first time through the level, unless you don't know you can. :sweatdrop:

(Also I prefer being proactive and killing guys instead of going to a ledge, dangling, then waiting for a guy to come under to kill him. It's worth more, has a chance to terrorize and looks metal as hell, but that's like three steps, my brain can't handle that much)

And this is what noisemakers are so good for! :unsmigghh:

frozentreasure
Nov 13, 2012

~

TooMuchAbstraction posted:

as long as you get clean kills on every guard, don't get detected, and get all the scrolls and artifacts, you should get full Honor for points.

Don't even need to kill 'em and you'll get enough points. The pacifism bonus really is significant, although if you go for pacifism every time, it makes a significant amount of the game unenjoyable. Like, for example, when more prowl-y guards trigger traps, get themselves killed, and the engine awards the kill to you because it wasn't told to handle that happening.

Crosspeice
Aug 9, 2013



I lurve endless thunderstorms. :science:

Crosspeice fucked around with this message at 06:54 on Feb 4, 2015

TooMuchAbstraction
Oct 14, 2012

I spent four years making
Waves of Steel
Hell yes I'm going to turn my avatar into an ad for it.
Fun Shoe
I found the upgraded smoke bombs to be really useful, actually. Being able to disable guards at-will is quite handy (moreso starting in a couple of missions...), and every once in awhile you just can't be arsed to deal with lasers.

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Clarste
Apr 15, 2013

Just how many mistakes have you suffered on the way here?

An uncountable number, to be sure.

TooMuchAbstraction posted:

I found the upgraded smoke bombs to be really useful, actually. Being able to disable guards at-will is quite handy (moreso starting in a couple of missions...), and every once in awhile you just can't be arsed to deal with lasers.

Smoke bombs are basically cheating anyway.

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