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 Introduction Die By The Sword is a classic PC hack and slash game in the purest sense. It's all about brutal sword fights where you can dismember your foes while shouting them down with boisterous taunts. The other big draw of the game is the innovative method of controlling your sword arm, which can be done via keyboard, mouse, or joystick. The game was developed by Treyarch and published in 1998 by Tantrum Entertainment, a now defunct (to the best of my knowledge) subsidiary of Interplay. You may know Treyarch from their more recent work on the Call of Duty franchise. They also made a game called Draconus: Cult of the Wyrm for the Dreamcast, which is considered by many to be a spiritual successor to this one. I have a thread going for that game over here if you want to check it out. We play as Enric, who grew up as a farmer, but became a soldier in the King's army after his family was slaughtered by dwarves. Eventually Enric was sent into dwarven lands during the ensuing war between dwarves and humans, but when his unit killed an unarmed dwarven family, he realized that he had become what he hated and deserted. From there he lived as a mercenary and eventually found his way to a human caravan being attacked by orcs and ogres. He joined the fight, which is where he met Maya, his implied lover. Maya was a street rat and thief for much of her life. She fell in with a group of thieves, but eventually a job went south and some were caught or killed. Maya escaped custody and continued to ply her trade as a thief or even assassin. A capable fighter, she is eventually hired to guard a caravan, the same one that Enric happens upon. About the Playthrough I played the demo of this game a bunch as a kid, but never owned the full version. I've always wanted to go back and play it, and there's not time like the present. This game was a bitch to get set up and running the way I wanted, but I finally did it. I'm using a cocktail of applications to play the game with an XBox 360 controller (vJoy, UJR, Xpadder), but in the end it was worth it. In my opinion, the joystick is the best way to control your sword arm, though the keyboard is possibly easier and the mouse can produce some amusing results as well. I'm also using a mod called Die By The Sword Xtender, made by someone named Hazard. Xtender fixes some graphical annoyances and helps improve the visual quality / FPS of the game a bit. I've also installed the optional "Cuss Pack" for a bit of extra fun, though I'll probably be talking over Enric half the time. We may or may not do the Limb from Limb expansion. We'll see how we fare in the main quest first. If you want to check out the game for yourself, I got my copy over at GoG, though you may be able to buy it elsewhere. I usually record in small batches, so I may not be able to act on your feedback immediately. Update Schedule The main quest is complete! See the post below for the Limb From Limb expansion. Thread Rules I'd prefer to keep any discussion related to the videos / sections of the game that have been listed in the thread so far. Vids Series Playlist
It's video games. Every day...ish. rojovision fucked around with this message at 18:30 on Jul 26, 2015 |
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Jun 10, 2015 02:10
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| # ? Apr 16, 2024 15:26 |
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 Introduction This is a playthrough of the Limb From Limb expansion to Die By The Sword. I decided to keep it in the same thread. It seems that this quest takes place a little while after the first one. Maya has been having some nightmares and there's talk of an "Evil Queen Maya" spreading around. Of course she has to investigate to sort it all out. That means canonically speaking this is Maya's quest, but we'll be going through it as Enric because Cuss Pack. Enric does seem to have his own stuff to say about the adventure, though. Update Schedule This series is complete! Thread Rules I'd prefer to keep any discussion related to the videos / sections of the game that have been listed in the thread so far. Vids Series Playlist
rojovision fucked around with this message at 04:44 on Sep 16, 2015 |
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Jun 10, 2015 02:10
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Also Reserved.
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Jun 10, 2015 02:10
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Episode 1 - Dismemberment 101 is now up. This episode is a bit of an introduction to the game while we dick around in a few rounds of arena mode. 
rojovision fucked around with this message at 02:39 on Jun 19, 2015 |
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Jun 10, 2015 02:11
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The Black Knight is invicible!
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Jun 10, 2015 07:06
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I don't even remember how far I got in this game but I remember it being pretty amazing
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Jun 11, 2015 02:09
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Playing with the keyboard is a bit easier than using a mouse or joystick, but the lack of control makes it far harder to do all of the limb-chopping and so on. I look forward to seeing it done right. Buuuuut I won't judge if Limb from Limb is skipped altogether.
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Jun 11, 2015 02:30
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 I THOUGHT I WAS THE ONLY PERSON WHO KNEW ABOUT THIS GAMEIts combat was so darn cool and creative for the time. That said, I got to I think the final level and could never beat it. There was something I couldn't get past and there weren't any walkthroughs online. So close...  Definitely gonna follow along.
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Jun 11, 2015 02:36
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Leximancer posted:I look forward to seeing it done right. Indeed, I'll be using the joystick...beyond that I'm afraid I may disappoint you with my lack of skill, haha. We'll find out soon enough.
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Jun 11, 2015 02:59
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rojogames posted:Episode 1 - Dismemberment 101 is now up. Oh boy. This looks amazing.  You sort of hinted at it in the video, but does all the wild swinging in various directions serve a purpose in terms of gameplay? Or is this just a case of "  90's Game Animation"?
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Jun 11, 2015 03:01
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Single leggedly dismembering orc heads never got old in this game. I remember the mouse being pretty funky to play the game as, so I think I ended up using the keypad to control everything. The demo level was amazing, because it showcased just how much this game hates you. But it also loves you, because you can avoid most things if you're clever or smart (or reload like a baby).
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Jun 11, 2015 03:18
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nine-gear crow posted:Oh boy. This looks amazing. Yeah it matters. Since I'm using a 360 controller I've got the right joystick set up to control the direction of my sword swings. As an example, if my sword is in the neutral position and I move the joystick left and hold it I'll prepare a chest level swing. If I then move the joystick right from that position I'll execute the attack from left to right. It's similar for other directions. Some of the sword movement is involuntary though due to weapons getting hung up on each other and stuff like that. Anecdotally, I think the velocity of your strike may even have an effect on your damage. I don't think I did too much of it in the intro video, but you can also go into parry mode, and your shield can block attacks as well, though I don't know that you can control it in the same way you do your sword. rojovision fucked around with this message at 03:54 on Jun 11, 2015 |
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Jun 11, 2015 03:45
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nine-gear crow posted:Oh boy. This looks amazing. You'll have a hard time chopping off legs with vertical swings, for instance. I believe all the body parts have their own "hp", so to speak.
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Jun 11, 2015 03:49
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tiistai posted:You'll have a hard time chopping off legs with vertical swings, for instance. I believe all the body parts have their own "hp", so to speak. You're probably correct about the individual HP thing. There's damage shown on individual body parts which would seem to support that. Thankfully it doesn't appear that you can lose your own limbs in quest mode even though it'd be hilarious to try to complete the game without any legs.
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Jun 11, 2015 03:58
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rojogames posted:You're probably correct about the individual HP thing. There's damage shown on individual body parts which would seem to support that. Thankfully it doesn't appear that you can lose your own limbs in quest mode even though it'd be hilarious to try to complete the game without any legs. I swear you can lose your legs, which are replenished by potions. It's been a very long time though.
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Jun 11, 2015 05:11
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I've played the poo poo out of this game back in the day, had regular deathmatch duels with my friend over network. You die either after your "total" hp pool is emptied or if both your legs or head are cut off. Damage is calculated by the impact of your swing sort of, the harder you do it the more it will do but it's wonky as hell.
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Jun 11, 2015 05:22
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God, this game. "Wonky" is probably the best word to describe it, it had a lot of intereting ideas but the execution fell pretty short. I'd love to see a modern dismemberment simulator along these lines.
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Jun 11, 2015 06:45
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Episode 2 - If You Pissed in That Potion I'm Going to Be Really Mad is now available. We start our adventure in the main quest. It seems Maya, our implied lover, has been taken captive for reasons unknown, and we cannot let this insult stand! 
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Jun 12, 2015 03:38
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Geop posted:
 And yeah, it's possible to lose more than just your leg. Though losing two is death if your total HP pool isn't reduced to zero yet. Let me tell you, it's pretty hard to keep fighting without your weapon arm.
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Jun 12, 2015 12:30
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I remember reading about this game in magazines when I was a kid and thinking it looked awesome. A sword fighting game where you have complete control over your sword and can slash it in any direction? gently caress yeah! Then my friend got a copy at some point (I think the full game was on some PC gaming magazine's cover disc a couple of years after release) and I found out that the actual game didn't exactly live up to how I had imagined it earlier. It was wonky, ugly and frustrating. Gotta love that 90s animation. Especially the kobolds carrying the crate, holy poo poo.edit: 
DMorbid fucked around with this message at 13:44 on Jun 12, 2015 |
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Jun 12, 2015 13:17
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Episode 3 - The Magic Cock Ring is now available. We emerge from our raft ride in trog territory as Maya is dragged deeper into the mountain! I know I said in the last episode that this would be mostly blind, but I think I'm going to have to 180 on that. Game's too hard, yo. 
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Jun 14, 2015 03:36
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Doc Morbid posted:Gotta love that 90s animation. Just wait until you see the next gen swimming.
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Jun 14, 2015 03:39
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rojogames posted:Episode 3 - The Magic Cock Ring is now available. Kobold sized hole? Kinda. Try leading the baby Trog to the hole. Also, what's your setup for the 360 controller being used for the whole VSIM swordplay?
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Jun 14, 2015 09:10
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I wonder how I ever managed to get past these levels as a kid
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Jun 14, 2015 17:09
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Dinictus posted:Kobold sized hole? Kinda. Try leading the baby Trog to the hole. Aw, wish I'd thought of that. Maybe I'll start the beginning of the next episode at that last quicksave and try to go back for him if he's still around. As for the controller, I mentioned it in passing in the OP, but I'll try to explain in more detail here. I'm using Xpadder, vJoy, and Universal Joystick Remapper (UJR). Xpadder basically allows you to map joystick input to keyboard / mouse input. There's an old free version of Xpadder that some people use, but it didn't work for me on Windows 8 64 bit, so I just ponied up the 10 bucks and bought it. vJoy and UJR are both free. If you don't mind using the left analog stick for your sword while moving around with the right I think you could get away with just Xpadder. vJoy is just a virtual joystick driver. The installer didn't entirely work for me and would hang near completion so I had to go in and add a couple registry entries pointing to certain files to get UJR to work. UJR allows you to map a physical joystick's buttons to a vJoy virtual joystick thus giving me the means to switch the mappings of the left and right analog sticks. In theory Xpadder could do this as well, but it wasn't working for me. Finally I had to go into the Windows "Set Up USB Game Controllers" tool to allow me to select a default controller because DBTS doesn't let you choose a controller. rojovision fucked around with this message at 18:09 on Jun 14, 2015 |
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Jun 14, 2015 18:07
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Episode 4 - Orc S&M Party is now available. At the top of the elevator we encounter a barrage of tough fights and some creepy bug critters. We also make a few new friends! Dinictus posted:Kobold sized hole? Kinda. Try leading the baby Trog to the hole. I tried this and sadly it didn't seem to want to work for me. Maybe someone else will have better luck. 
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Jun 17, 2015 07:18
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rojogames posted:I tried this and sadly it didn't seem to want to work for me. Maybe someone else will have better luck. Yeah, guess I misremembered since it's been over ten years since I played the game. I lack the means to record reliably, but I tried hitting up the game again. The way in is even more obtuse. The kobolds on the raft, if you've used the crate entry, are not initially hostile to you if you focus on the Trog. Fight the Trog off, the kobold on the raft will attempt to jump off and run into the hidey hole. Fucker fell four times into the water, but the fifth, he hid in the causeway. I do not know if he gets an item out for you or not. Bug or not, the kobold survived. It might influence the way kobolds see you later in the game, though.
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Jun 17, 2015 13:23
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Holy poo poo this game owned. I think i still have the CD somewhere at my parents house. You should try jumping in combat to score headshots. I also remember using the numpad to swing the sword from the upper diagonals to the opposite horizontal for great effect Watching you die repeatedly to those two orcs in ep3 was painful 
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Jun 17, 2015 15:21
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Dinictus posted:Yeah, guess I misremembered since it's been over ten years since I played the game. Cool, mystery mostly solved then I guess. Illegal Username posted:You should try jumping in combat to score headshots. I also remember using the numpad to swing the sword from the upper diagonals to the opposite horizontal for great effect Yeah I may give that a shot now that I'm getting a little bit better at the game. Usually I just end up getting hit in the legs when I do jump attacks, but practice should help mitigate that. I do sometimes try to do high and low horizontal slashes, but for me at least they're a bit tough to execute with a joystick, so I often fail.
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Jun 17, 2015 17:56
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Episode 5 - It's a Nutsack with Legs is now up. The difficulty ramps up as we fight through the orc stronghold and have a little fun with potions and disguises. 
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Jun 19, 2015 02:39
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To call this game's plot "rudimentary" would make a disservice to *facepalm*. Which means it's good that the fighting looks like something from a 1920s slapstic comedy, at least.
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Jun 19, 2015 20:26
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Pyrogenesis posted:To call this game's plot "rudimentary" would make a disservice to *facepalm*. Yeah pretty much. Which reminds me that I forgot to update the intro section with a little character back story (it's done now). There's actually a fair bit in the game's manual, but it seems like most of it doesn't really come through in the game itself.
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Jun 19, 2015 21:15
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I'm enjoying this LP a lot so far, so kudos! Shame I missed this game growing up, because it's so my jam. Anyway, was wondering if there's a way to turn on subtitles in-game or whatever? Or maybe just something with the audio? Because half the time I only barely hear dialogue, random taunts or otherwise, and only have your post-facto commentary on it to go by what was said. Not that the dialogue is anything stellar, but Edric being childishly crass does seem to be part of the game's charm, and all.
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Jun 19, 2015 21:19
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Oh gosh, I forgot Tony Jay was in this game. Then hearing the guy's delivery of the sorceror brings back so many fond memories.
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Jun 19, 2015 21:32
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RoboChrist 9000 posted:I'm enjoying this LP a lot so far, so kudos! Shame I missed this game growing up, because it's so my jam. Glad you're enjoying it! I'll have to double check, but I don't think the game has subtitles, which is a shame. Volume is a bit of a tough thing to balance because if the taunts are too loud you won't be able to understand either of us, and it's tough to do any sort of commentary when you're constantly interrupted. That said, I've already recorded the next episode, but I'll see if I can improve the voice volume for what's left since I definitely do want people to be able to hear some of the silliness. In the meantime if you haven't tried it yet, you could give wearing headphones a shot - it might help bring out some of the lower sounds a bit without having to put your speakers on blast. Dinictus posted:Oh gosh, I forgot Tony Jay was in this game. Then hearing the guy's delivery of the sorceror brings back so many fond memories. Yeah, Tony Jay was a great voice actor. One of my favorites, in fact!
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Jun 19, 2015 22:32
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Episode 6 - The Wizard's Foul Methane Swings a Sword is now up. We emerge from a tunnel into a temple of sorts, and enjoy a bit of relief from the difficulty of the last episode as we spend much of our time platforming. 
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Jun 20, 2015 20:49
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I made a bit of an error when rendering out episode 7, so it's going to be up late. Sorry about that. Should be ready sometime today, though (6/24).
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Jun 24, 2015 07:05
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Episode 7 - Knock, Knock...Candygram is now up. We find a great item and have some fun breaking stuff and cracking skulls in the dwarven mines! I upped the game volume in the mix for this one so hopefully you guys can hear some of the voices a bit more easily. 
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Jun 24, 2015 23:45
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This is an enjoyable LP. Thanks for the daily updates!
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Jun 25, 2015 01:18
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YouTube is having a really bad day as far as uploads go, which is really annoying. Next episode won't be out until tomorrow (6/26).
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Jun 26, 2015 03:22
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