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Retro Futurist posted:The achievements sucked a lot of fun out of that. You have achievements for doing a human upgrades only run, a typhon only upgrade run, and a no upgrade run. You can kind of cheat it by doing the no upgrade run, reloading your end save and doing one upgrade, but it still requires at least 2 full playthroughs and 3 if you want to actually play around with the upgrades. Since the human ones are way more useful you get burned out by the time you want to try the typhon powers. Obviously the solution is to not care about achievements but if they're going to put them in at least let people be flexible This is the same exact problem Dishonored had. On the one hand, it's cool when developers give an official nod to those sorts of challenge runs but on the other hand achievements have become such a Thing that it feels like a bad idea to keep putting them in because it incentivizes people to play that way as their first (and only) run and it usually sucks all the fun out of it. (With added  regarding the lopsided nature of pacifist vs. non-pacifist runs or other dichotomies.)
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Mar 10, 2021 02:23
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Strom Cuzewon posted:So much of HZD is incredibly generic (audiologs! vantage points! text logs! random collectibles! craftable inventory upgrades!) but it's just so drat well made that it doesn't matter. And the audiologs are actually interesting and well written, which is unheard of. HZD is probably the only game I've played where I got so mad at a fictional character that I smashed through the game JUST to spite them. Basically, gently caress Ted Faro. gently caress that guy and all his works.
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Mar 10, 2021 02:25
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IshmaelZarkov posted:gently caress Ted Faro 
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Mar 10, 2021 02:40
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moosecow333 posted:How does it all get resolved? I could imagine it being pretty unrewarding to the player to have their asses handed to them all game only for something else to defeat the boss, but you like it so it must be handled well. The tension is actually resolved in a much cooler manner than a boss fight, because the entire Beatrix being an unbeatable boss thing is in large part about exploring the personal issues of one party member, Steiner. More specifically, it's about the ways in which Beatrix being an unbeatable female super-soldier makes Steiner question his own masculinity. Essentially, Beatrix is established at the start of the game as being a vastly more competent equivalent of her male counterpart in Alexandria's army, Steiner, who is a buffoonish idiot of a Knight who starts the game with a tendency towards extreme black and white thinking and frequently fucks up. The standard Alexandrian army is all female and led by Beatrix, Steiner leads a small incompetent unit of male Knights. Beatrix outclasses him utterly in both battle and leadership and as a result he's becoming obsolete and has lost his self respect. Anyway, the party "kidnap" (consensually) Alexandria's princess, Dagger, and Steiner ends up coming along to protect her, despite hating the rest of the party. He then gets a whole game's worth of character development which ends with him becoming a much more reasonable and likeable character. While this is happening, you meet Beatrix again three times as mentioned above - I think once at the end of the game's first disk, and twice on disk 2. Now you're an enemy of Alexandria, you have to actually fight her, and she single handedly destroys your whole party every single time - despite having doubts about her own obsessive fealty. Beatrix's personal theme, by the way, is Rose of May. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oxZlJGtFGcw Despite what someone said above, this doesn't play during her boss fights. The boss fights have a separate theme for Beatrix - Sword of Doubt - which has elements of Rose of May but is a much darker song. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HqhUDIqx9TI On the third disk - after the party have already become much more powerful and more personally developed - the party return to the city at the start of the game, with the party's ex-Princess Dagger now having replaced the original evil queen Beatrix had sworn fealty to. Beatrix is now technically working for the good guys as a result. Said city comes under attack from an onslaught of monsters due to the next in a series of apparent final villains. Beatrix and Steiner at this point have both resolved their personal plot arcs in terms of who and what they're really fighting for, so given the situation they finally lay down any differences they had, team up, and sally out to fight a bunch of monsters and protect the city. Beatrix temporarily joins the party, and at this point the team consisting of Beatrix and Steiner get a final, distinct battle theme - "Something to Protect" - which is an upbeat, orchestral version of Rose of May. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BZ5exVxIuf8. Beatrix is still definitively stronger than Steiner, unless you've totally broken the game by this point, but Steiner enters "Trance" - the game's limit-break equivalent - when fighting alongside Beatrix, allowing him to match her as an equal for once. This means Steiner manages to win Beatrix's genuine respect as well as recovering his own. Then they realize they have a bunch of obviously unresolved sexual tension and become a couple. At no point does Beatrix lose to Steiner or the wider party at all, he just accepts that he can be cool and strong without being stronger than his girlfriend and then they kill monsters. Presumably they got married offscreen after the game ends and had a bunch of knightly children. The end.
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Mar 10, 2021 04:15
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A thing I really like about this whole sequence is that there's no tension between Steiner and Beatrix once they're on the same side. A different game would have them be suspicious of each other and have to do a whole series of quests to earn each others' trust, but Steiner and Beatrix and professionals and they drat well act like it.
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Mar 10, 2021 09:07
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She doesnt ever pay for participating in that whole "Wiping three cities off the map" thing. At the very least her own city also gets razed by some geezer who shows up out of nowhere.
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Mar 10, 2021 12:14
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FFIX does deserve credit as one of the few games where the bullshit rumors are actually true. You can only acquire the Excalibur 2 by pressing on a hidden spot in the final dungeon, provided you reached the place in under 12 hours. This game takes 40 hours to beat.
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Mar 10, 2021 12:21
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Inspector Gesicht posted:She doesnt ever pay for participating in that whole "Wiping three cities off the map" thing. At the very least her own city also gets razed by some geezer who shows up out of nowhere. But at the same time, is there much ELSE she could've done? She might be high up, but she's still subservient to Queen Brahne in every single relevant way, and wouldn't really have had the capacity to defy in any reasonable way even if she wanted to. It's one of those muddy areas that in real life would be a subject for, like, a war tribunal or something, because it's actually got considerable grey area. But Final Fantasy is ABSOLUTELY not a series that would crack one of those out, so you just kinda have to accept that whatever they get is as just (or unjust) as the game itself suggests. This comes up a bit in discussion of FFXIV, especially parts of Stormblood. There's some characters that have pretty complex events in their lives, ones where it's not really fair or plausible to pass a full judgement without scenes the game has no interest in playing out because they'd be boring as hell. You just... have to accept that the game has made its call (or in some cases deliberately didn't), and work out how you feel about that by yourself.
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Mar 10, 2021 12:29
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BurningBeard posted:Pillars of Eternity 2: One of the Shadowruns allow you to join the bad guys, and their plan of getting rid of the dragons ruling the Earth is actually quite plausible. Getting rid of all the seemingly immortal magical rear end in a top hat semigods who run the planet as warring mega corporations basically making the lesser beings, human involved, to die for their greed and lust for power surely is a nice choice? Unfortunately as it turns out their existence is also the only thing keeping much, much worse stuff from leaking into our dimension.
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Mar 10, 2021 13:19
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BurningBeard posted:Pillars of Eternity 2: The DLC Beast of Winter lets you try to repeatedly sass the god of frost, decay and permadeath (as opposed to the god of regular death and cycles, who you serve). It goes exactly as well as you expect. It also has a great payoff where at the end of the DLC you get to ask one question of him, and one of your options is basically "why are you such a jerk all the time?"
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Mar 10, 2021 13:34
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Inspector Gesicht posted:You can only acquire the Excalibur 2 by pressing on a hidden spot in the final dungeon, provided you reached the place in under 12 hours. This game takes 40 hours to beat.  ones where both the frame rate and the actual game speed are 17% slower, so getting to the final dungeon in 12 hours is... I don't remember if it's actually impossible or just practically impossible.Playing FFIX in slow motion isn't ideal in general but on the plus side, it's a lot easier to impress the nobles in that sword fight minigame!
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Mar 10, 2021 13:41
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You pretty much have to skip FMVs in the PAL version, which you can only do by opening the disc tray, and not every console will allow that.
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Mar 10, 2021 13:50
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It's cruel but I loved when Square used to throw in stupidly hard challenges like that just to annoy completionists. That Zodiac Spear thing in FFXII was top-tier.
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Mar 10, 2021 13:57
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Necrothatcher posted:It's cruel but I loved when Square used to throw in stupidly hard challenges like that just to annoy completionists. Was that the one where you have to not pick up multiple chests in order to get it later? And you don't know about this at all and have no way of knowing which chests?
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Mar 10, 2021 14:05
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Necrothatcher posted:It's cruel but I loved when Square used to throw in stupidly hard challenges like that just to annoy completionists. That was more to sell guides. They took it out from the rereleases, presumably because they were no longer as bent on making money from guides.  Topical: the rereleases also add a bunch of QoL stuff, including free full respecs. It's even more of a chill game now!
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Mar 10, 2021 14:28
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Necrothatcher posted:It's cruel but I loved when Square used to throw in stupidly hard challenges like that just to annoy completionists. Excalibur II as I see it is more of a speedrun trophy, like how beating Omega Weapon in VIII gives you the Proof of Omega message, just a "good job for doing this thing" -sorta deal. The fact that they made it a weapon instead of a key item despite there being little difference in practice really messed with some people though, that's true.
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Mar 10, 2021 14:44
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Aithon posted:That was more to sell guides. They took it out from the rereleases, presumably because they were no longer as bent on making money from guides. If I remember correctly, the guide writers weren't sure which 4 chests it were either. I remember there were a few sections where the guide basically just went "If you want the special spear, don't open any chest in this area. One of them locks you out of it, and we don't know which one ourselves".
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Mar 10, 2021 15:05
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Randalor posted:If I remember correctly, the guide writers weren't sure which 4 chests it were either. I remember there were a few sections where the guide basically just went "If you want the special spear, don't open any chest in this area. One of them locks you out of it, and we don't know which one ourselves". 
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Mar 10, 2021 15:30
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The FFIX guide still takes the award for worst guide ever. Most of what the guide contained just said 'Go make a PlayOnline account to see how to do this!' https://kotaku.com/the-worst-strategy-guide-ever-made-1702827492
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Mar 10, 2021 20:24
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Kanfy posted:Excalibur II as I see it is more of a speedrun trophy, like how beating Omega Weapon in VIII gives you the Proof of Omega message, just a "good job for doing this thing" -sorta deal. Doesn't it also give an epilogue scene? Or is that some other item?
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Mar 10, 2021 21:52
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Len posted:Doesn't it also give an epilogue scene? Or is that some other item? The final reward for collecting all the Stellazio coins is the Hammer, which gives an extra (basically uninteresting) line during the epilogue. Or you can synthesise it into Steiner's best armor which is probably the better option.
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Mar 10, 2021 23:17
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Two pages ago but someone was talking about Kimahri from FFX and I would just like to ask that we refer to him by his full name of Kimahri Ronso.
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Mar 11, 2021 01:06
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oldpainless posted:Two pages ago but someone was talking about Kimahri from FFX and I would just like to ask that we refer to him by his full name of Kimahri Ronso. Small horn small horn The hanz and franz ronso are so ridiculous
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Mar 11, 2021 01:35
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Elvis_Maximus posted:Small horn small horn Hanzo and Franzo, surely.
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Mar 11, 2021 01:59
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Bussamove posted:Hanzo and Franzia, surely. Ah yes, THE choice for swords and wine
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Mar 11, 2021 03:13
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In FFX, when you’re in the Al-Bhed home city, (which is cleverly named HOME) there’s this warning playing on repeat over the loudspeaker there. It’s in their made up Al-Bhed language, but it sounds like someone saying “An annoying puff!” In English, Over and over. I legit love that game though, I have heavy rose tinted glasses type nostalgia for it.
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Mar 11, 2021 04:00
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IshmaelZarkov posted:Basically, gently caress Ted Faro. gently caress that guy and all his works. I'm hoping that in Forbidden West, we found out he cryogenically froze himself or uploaded himself into a computer so we can personally gently caress him up. Better yet, he uploaded himself into a computer then died of dick cancer. FUUUUUUCK TED FARO. DMorbid posted:That's probably better than just printing bullshit information like some guides based on pre-release code would sometimes do. The Silent Hill guide had incorrect puzzle solutions and the GTA San Andreas guide had some of the collectibles in the wrong locations. Were those official guides? I remember reading somewhere they'd change that stuff just to spite unofficial strategy guides.
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Mar 11, 2021 04:18
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Ted Faro was doing his best to work for the advancement of humanity I don't get the hate
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Mar 11, 2021 04:19
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Ted Faro is the only character I've seen who's so awful that people wish better for him, so that he lives long enough to suffer.
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Mar 11, 2021 04:30
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I always thought the Ted Faro thing was kind of strangely tragic. He was so distraught in his part in destroying the world he couldn't see his own plan come to fruition. I thought it was honestly a great portrait into a real person where I felt a weird bit of disgust and pity.
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Mar 11, 2021 04:31
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Real thoughtsI thought his whole twist was weak, creating neigh unstoppable robots is dumb as poo poo, If they had the tech to create their dumb space project why didn't they go full rods of god and end the problem at the source
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Mar 11, 2021 04:33
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Bevause then there would be no game.
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Mar 11, 2021 04:44
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It's a Guerrilla Games game. like 90% of their output is science fiction where humanity creates this sick rear end technology and it gets squandered in stupid ways where a whole lotta people die. also i still haven't played HZD, but fav little thing is how hated this Ted Faro character is. I vividly remember the hate when the game first came out and it's always great when his name comes up again and without fail a whole host of people chime in with "Oh yah, gently caress Ted Faro".  I really want the PC version to go on sale so i can finally play it!
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Mar 11, 2021 05:07
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Sally posted:It's a Guerrilla Games game. like 90% of their output is science fiction where humanity creates this sick rear end technology and it gets squandered in stupid ways where a whole lotta people die. 
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Mar 11, 2021 05:20
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Although in this case the problem wasn't something inherent to the technology, it was loving Ted Faro.
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Mar 11, 2021 05:39
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Mar 11, 2021 05:44
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Captain Hygiene posted:Man, morphing into random stuff even when there's no strategic need is my favorite thing in Prey. I can't think of a game since Gheist on GC that lets me go "I just feel like hopping around the room as a medkit right now", it feels like a weirdly underused central mechanic. you may enjoy Everything
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Mar 11, 2021 06:01
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You am play gods! The Lone Badger posted:Although in this case the problem wasn't something inherent to the technology, it was loving Ted Faro. Man, gently caress Ted Faro. I also hope that somehow in the Horizon narrative, total motherfucker Ted Faro's actions become widely known, and unite all of the peoples of the new world in saying "gently caress Ted Faro" like the Hymn of the Fayth scene in Final Fantasy X. Agents are GO! has a new favorite as of 06:47 on Mar 11, 2021 |
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Mar 11, 2021 06:44
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The Lone Badger posted:Although in this case the problem wasn't something inherent to the technology, it was loving Ted Faro. Yeah if anything a lot of HZD is a celebration of what humans working together with science can achieve even in the worst of circumstances, it just contrasts that with science used for greedy selfish ends both pre and post apocalypse.
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Mar 11, 2021 06:48
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He went too faro
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Mar 11, 2021 06:48
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