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exquisite tea posted:I'm a couple hours into Hollow Knight, just defeated the Mantis Lords and went into Deepnest. Is there some kind of light radius upgrade I can get that eventually makes this area less annoying? Also, I feel like I missed something in Fungal Wastes. Some NPC told me about upgrading my nail near the old city before Mantis Lords but I couldn't see a way to progress past the bridge. Anyway yeah, the nail upgrade NPC is in the city past the bridge.
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Mar 1, 2020 14:40
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exquisite tea posted:I'm a couple hours into Hollow Knight, just defeated the Mantis Lords and went into Deepnest. Is there some kind of light radius upgrade I can get that eventually makes this area less annoying? Also, I feel like I missed something in Fungal Wastes. Some NPC told me about upgrading my nail near the old city before Mantis Lords but I couldn't see a way to progress past the bridge. You can buy a lantern in dirtmouth. If you already have, that's as good as it gets. You actually have a ton of ways you can progress at this point, deepnest is only one them.
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Mar 1, 2020 14:40
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going into Deepnest without the lantern 
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Mar 1, 2020 14:41
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All right then, it looks like I have to go back.
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Mar 1, 2020 14:42
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That being said, kudos for defeating the Mantis Lords with the basic nail.
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Mar 1, 2020 14:47
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BrainWeasel did a masterful LP of FFXII in these very forums, accessible if you have archives: HIS 299L - Historical Revisionism and the Monomyth (FFXII-IZJS). Masterful because they know the game at a level not many do, both in content and in system mastery. I had no idea how much work had been put into figuring out how to manipulate the RNG in the game till that LP. Pretty great if you've already played it or don't plan to play it but are curious.
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Mar 1, 2020 14:49
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anilEhilated posted:That being said, kudos for defeating the Mantis Lords with the basic nail. It's been some time since I played but I completely missed the NPC, too, and went as far as Soul Master before thinking that surely it shouldn't be this hard and looked up where is he hiding.
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Mar 1, 2020 14:54
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v1ld posted:BrainWeasel did a masterful LP of FFXII in these very forums, accessible if you have archives: HIS 299L - Historical Revisionism and the Monomyth (FFXII-IZJS). Masterful because they know the game at a level not many do, both in content and in system mastery. I had no idea how much work had been put into figuring out how to manipulate the RNG in the game till that LP. It's also on the LP Archive if you don't have archives here.
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Mar 1, 2020 15:25
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v1ld posted:The story is told from a teen, Vaan's perspective but he doesn't do the typical FF angsty teen much if at all - Penelo the other teen keeps him grounded when he does try to go in that direction. Some of the others in the party are more central to the plot and have far more consequential roles to play, so this is a very good thing - you're an observer along for the ride and your youth and inexperience lets you ask questions the others couldn't. It's great that while you're an observer to the fates of nations, you're along for far more individual reasons. The reason he feels so useless and extraneous to the plot is because that's what he actually is.
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Mar 1, 2020 15:40
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Cardiovorax posted:The thing worth remembering about Vaan is that he wasn't supposed to exist. In the original draft of the story, the game was all about Basch and Balthier, with Vaan and Penelo not appearing in it at all. Marketing, however, thought that their usual tween audience wouldn't be able to identify with a protagonist who wasn't an obnoxious teenager for once, so they forced Matsuno to write Vaan in as a viewpoint character. Is there any source for this because this always gets thrown out when discussing FF12 but I haven't ever seen any source for it
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Mar 1, 2020 15:48
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Andrast posted:Is there any source for this because this always gets thrown out when discussing FF12 but I haven't ever seen any source for it You made me search for "matsuno vaan" and that opens a can of worms so big that I'm not even gonna summarize. This is a big topic on the internet. One interesting tidbit worth sharing: Vagrant Story was the Matsuno game right before FFXII and it had the Basch-like protagonist - strong, mysterious, silent, as manly as it gets. It didn't do well commercially. There are unattributed quotes that this lack of commercial appeal influenced Matsuno's need to have Vaan in the next game to represent the player character directly. Dunno if that's true, but that was at least something interesting for the time spent.
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Mar 1, 2020 16:01
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Cardiovorax posted:The thing worth remembering about Vaan is that he wasn't supposed to exist. In the original draft of the story, the game was all about Basch and Balthier, with Vaan and Penelo not appearing in it at all. Marketing, however, thought that their usual tween audience wouldn't be able to identify with a protagonist who wasn't an obnoxious teenager for once, so they forced Matsuno to write Vaan in as a viewpoint character.
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Mar 1, 2020 16:05
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Considering how he has only a fraction of the personality and plot-importance of anyone else, I find those unattributed quotes entirely believable.
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Mar 1, 2020 16:24
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SirSamVimes posted:XIV exists though Andrast posted:MMOs are trash XIV is getting better and better storywise, the big battles are challenging and interesting, but when it comes to actual battle mechanics, you are trying to hit your rotation at all times, making fights with normal mobs dull as hell eventually. My advice is to just play it like a single-player game that sometimes teams you up with others and unsub when you're done with the story. If you have the latest expansion, they are nice enough to offer free weekends from time to time so you can catch up on the story - you'll run through the latest story beats in 3-4 hours tops, add twice that for other extra content that isn't crafting, housing, beast tribe-related. When they revamp the beginning of the game later this year, you should give the game a try. It pays off in spades despite all the MMO trappings. There is a really good reason why Shadowbringers is praised to high heavens. Other expansions have been cool, too, it's not like you're playing through multiple games just to get to the good one.
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Mar 1, 2020 17:32
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Happy Spring thread! Here's two codes from Fanatical's recent Syberia bundle that I don't need. Syberia : P**BL-6IXR3-KB0*T Syberia II: QL68E-FHB8#-#50DX * = May is the *th month of the year # = Kate #alker is the protagonist in Syberia
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Mar 1, 2020 17:35
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https://twitter.com/HG_101/status/1234154255638028289?s=19
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Mar 1, 2020 17:40
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AbstractNapper posted:Happy Spring thread!
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Mar 1, 2020 17:57
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Blattdorf posted:XIV is getting better and better storywise, the big battles are challenging and interesting, but when it comes to actual battle mechanics, you are trying to hit your rotation at all times, making fights with normal mobs dull as hell eventually. My advice is to just play it like a single-player game that sometimes teams you up with others and unsub when you're done with the story. If you have the latest expansion, they are nice enough to offer free weekends from time to time so you can catch up on the story - you'll run through the latest story beats in 3-4 hours tops, add twice that for other extra content that isn't crafting, housing, beast tribe-related. I have absolutely 0% desire to play a JRPG that is full of padding and is way too long using MMO hotkey combat which is always terrible. I could maybe take that kind of combat for like 40 hours if the rest of the content was amazing. FF14 could be the greatest story ever told and I still wouldn't touch it.
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Mar 1, 2020 18:06
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Andrast pops in to tell everyone how much they hate MMOs practically every time one comes up, just roll with it.
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Mar 1, 2020 18:14
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Kanfy posted:Andrast pops in to tell everyone how much they hate MMOs practically every time one comes up, just roll with it. maybe like every other time
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Mar 1, 2020 18:15
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Kanfy posted:Andrast pops in to tell everyone how much they hate MMOs practically every time one comes up, just roll with it. I've been in the mood lately for an MMO-like game and the options are almost all either bad or the same ones that were around 5 years ago. FF14 seems to be the only one that is actively getting better rather than just sort of stagnating and fading away.
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Mar 1, 2020 18:19
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Kanfy posted:Andrast pops in to tell everyone how much they hate MMOs practically every time one comes up, just roll with it. In every single thread FFXIV is mentioned so there's no escape from the garbage posts.
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Mar 1, 2020 18:20
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Samuringa posted:In every single thread FFXIV is mentioned so there's no escape from the garbage posts. Yeah I should probably lay off shitposting about it, everyone deserves an escape (and it's not like I have anything new to say)
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Mar 1, 2020 18:21
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Cardiovorax posted:The thing worth remembering about Vaan is that he wasn't supposed to exist. In the original draft of the story, the game was all about Basch and Balthier, with Vaan and Penelo not appearing in it at all. Marketing, however, thought that their usual tween audience wouldn't be able to identify with a protagonist who wasn't an obnoxious teenager for once, so they forced Matsuno to write Vaan in as a viewpoint character. My perception of FF XII is ruined by just seeing the plot as Star Wars (the original trilogy), so at least Vaan kind of fits into it as a weird variant of young Anakin as if he was in the original and also wasn't Vader. Still haven't figured out a good analogue for Penelo though.
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Mar 1, 2020 18:25
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Andrast posted:maybe like every other time I've only seen it about 12 times, which wouldn't you know it is exactly the same number of people who have played Alpha Protocol!
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Mar 1, 2020 18:26
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exquisite tea posted:I've only seen it about 12 times, which wouldn't you know it is exactly the same number of people who have played Alpha Protocol! This is a way better gimmick than complaining about MMOs besides, it's at least 14 people by now
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Mar 1, 2020 18:28
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I forgot it was discontinued on Steam once a 15th person actually purchased the last CD key.
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Mar 1, 2020 18:31
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The trouble I've got with ffxiv posting is that it's such a huge investment of time and money so you cannot sell it to people casually. Like even if they try the free trial that's still a huge decision that they're going to have to make on their own. And then once people make the investment, there's no way to get them to regret it - sunken cost fallacy hits super super hard. So saying "mmos are bad" is meaningless, and trying to convince people to play ffxiv is almost as meaningless. Fortunately, we can argue about other things: .... I'd give an example here but I'm clean out. American Truck Simulator is bizarre to play as it's ETS2 but with new maps and you don't have to force it to be in mph (as god intended). Dynasty Warriors 8 continues to be great, but when I tried Empires I didn't click with it as it feels kind of.... idk. Like a musou map generator? Which is good but also kind of empty. I'll play it after I finish 8. Also did No Man's Sky ever expand its soundscape? Or do the aliens all sound like whales still?
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Mar 1, 2020 18:34
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exquisite tea posted:I'm a couple hours into Hollow Knight, just defeated the Mantis Lords and went into Deepnest. Is there some kind of light radius upgrade I can get that eventually makes this area less annoying? Also, I feel like I missed something in Fungal Wastes. Some NPC told me about upgrading my nail near the old city before Mantis Lords but I couldn't see a way to progress past the bridge. Answers to both of your questions. In the first zone there's an npc you can find that opens a shop in town that sells a lantern. You can get across the bridge with the wall jump from the Mantis Village. edit oh there was an entire page after that post
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Mar 1, 2020 18:48
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The latest FFXIV expansion is by far one of my most favorite stories in a game. poo poo hit hard and it was amazing. It sucks you need to do the previous like 200 hours of story to appreciate it. Might be a bit better next patch since they're streamlining the original 1-50 poo poo, but yeah it's still a bummer.
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Mar 1, 2020 19:14
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I tried giving FF 14 a fair chance, bought the complete edition and tapped out after maybe 15 hours. I really believe when people say the story is great but MMO combat 100% deserves the bad rap it gets. Even as someone who plays regularly almost daily, though not a lot of hours, I can’t really justify spending my time on something so dull just because it gets good after 100 hours. e: not to mention you’re still buying the game itself and then pay subscription monthly
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Mar 1, 2020 19:15
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lordfrikk posted:e: not to mention you’re still buying the game itself and then pay subscription monthly This is the part of them that's turned me off of MMO's now. I played WoW for like 5 years, and with the base game and the expansions I spent over 1100$ on that game. I'd never tallied it up before, but goddamn. I can't justify spending THAT much on a game I'll only play once or twice a week now that I'm an adult with a job. And that's in addition to the fact that since I'm only able to play every once in a while, my friends who play FF14 are just lightyears ahead of me in level so it's a pain getting in a position where I can play with them. It's just way cheaper and more convenient to get a non-MMO game with multiplayer and play with my friends through that.
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Mar 1, 2020 20:41
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Cardiovorax posted:FWIW, I played both versions and thought that Zodiac Age still couldn't fix the fact that FF12 is just generally not a good game. If you don't like FF12, TZA will not make you like it. The classes are a big change if your issue was making everyone able to do everything and you want/need the forced specialization, the fast-forward button is a great QoL addition, other than that it's still FF12 with a couple of tweaks that won't matter unless you were used to farming rare steals to jump the power curve. If someone was choosing which to get, TZA hands down. If they have the PS2 version and the change to classes doesn't make them say "I want that", stick with what they've got.
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Mar 1, 2020 20:55
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v1ld posted:The story is told from a teen, Vaan's perspective but he doesn't do the typical FF angsty teen much if at all - Penelo the other teen keeps him grounded when he does try to go in that direction. Some of the others in the party are more central to the plot and have far more consequential roles to play, so this is a very good thing - you're an observer along for the ride and your youth and inexperience lets you ask questions the others couldn't. It's great that while you're an observer to the fates of nations, you're along for far more individual reasons. I think the story's easy to stumble on because it's introduced via Vaan, but pretty early on it stops being his story and other characters get the focus and growth until Vaan gets some more at the end. As such it's easy to get stuck on Vaan as THE PROTAGONIST and all that middle stuff gets lost. Kinda like how FFX is both Tidus and Yuna's story except X calls that out specifically and their stories run in parallel while Vaan turns into a background character once Ashe's story starts rolling. I hated Vaan's role in this until I went back and finished the game, It really is the final dungeon that brings him back into mattering.
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Mar 1, 2020 21:03
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I absolutely love Mastsuno and I think he’s responsible for Square’s greatest hits. I could go on endlessly about how much I love Tactics and Vagrant Story. That being said: FF12 feels half-finished. I love the game and the Gambit system never bothered me but the storyline does feel as though it went through way too many edits and changes. Balthier is a wonderful character and Vaan pales in comparison both in character writing and overall plotting. That being said, Vaan bothers me a lot less than he did when I played the game at release. But he is, undoubtedly, one of the more annoying teenage FF protagonists. He’s more annoying, by far, than we remember Squall being. In terms of aesthetic I think FF12 is the best of the whole series. The art is, probably for the first and only time, absolutely 100% consistent across the entire game. FF games have, generally, pretty stellar art but it’s usually all over the place. In 12 everything feels incredibly grounded and of a specific location. The music is also incredible! poo poo, 12 is just a great, great game and the IZJ release fixes a lot of the “every character is the same” criticisms the original got (and somewhat deserved). But it does feel like half a game. That’s inescapable and tragic.
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Mar 1, 2020 21:20
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Pathos posted:That being said, Vaan bothers me a lot less than he did when I played the game at release. But he is, undoubtedly, one of the more annoying teenage FF protagonists. He’s more annoying, by far, than we remember Squall being. Squall's problem, on the other hand, is that he is frustrating because he's such a picture-perfect portrayal of a teenager who wants to come across as cool and aloof, but who's really just visibly scared and has no idea how to deal with it all.
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Mar 1, 2020 21:24
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It's interesting to hear the takes on Vaan. I didn't identify myself with Vaan after the extended intro bits - say around when you get to Basch - because you could play as anyone and I was there more for the overarching storyline. So it didn't matter who was getting the development, I was there to see how it all worked itself out. I can totally get the other perspective though. The very ending, final battle and right before it, is the weakest part of the game. Almost felt like it had been written by a different group of people who were rushed. I was reading up on the change in TZA, lots of nice stuff in there. Will be good to play it again after all these years - played only the original, not IZJS. Game looks gorgeous on the PC with everything turned up. Sound is fantastic too. Agree on the aesthetic comment above - it's all very cohesive. Is there a good cheat sheet to setting up the party for TZA? I don't want to spend days in analysis/paralysis over the new job system. v1ld fucked around with this message at 22:00 on Mar 1, 2020 |
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Mar 1, 2020 21:57
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Looks cool but it seems to be more in the vein of classic Castlevania than anything with an open world. Might be worth picking up on sale.
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Mar 1, 2020 21:57
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if anything it's most like a contra game
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Mar 1, 2020 22:10
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Contravania
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Mar 1, 2020 22:13
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