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Poulpe
Nov 11, 2006
Canadian Santa Extraordinaire

Lap-Lem posted:

Mario Kart 8 screws my kids over

I had never really thought about the AI rubber banding having this effect- that's really unfortunate :(

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Poulpe
Nov 11, 2006
Canadian Santa Extraordinaire

StandardVC10 posted:

Resident Evil 4: Maybe it's just because I read Dark Id's LP of it, but I can't help but notice that the architecture of Salazar's castle seems to be 95% hallways and foyers, with the actual functions of the building spread ridiculously thin, and it's kind of annoying. That and the cannon pointed at the castle's own gate. :psyduck:

Why stop there? Anyone remember any of the bright architecture decisions in Resident Evil 3?

:downs::"Hey guys, how should we lock City Hall?"
:pseudo::"How about a series of 12 gems attached to an electronic device embedded into a clock?"

:downs::"Where should I keep this backup battery?"
:pseudo::"How about in the statue of the mayor! If you want the battery out all you have to do is swap his book for a sundial!"

Poulpe
Nov 11, 2006
Canadian Santa Extraordinaire

Ryoshi posted:

Annnnnd I finished it. The ending dragged the game down for me. It fit the rest of the game, I guess, but saying "hey whatever I tell you is going to seem like a cop-out" does not make the cop-out of not explaining ANYTHING about the Tragedy suck any less. And what the gently caress was up with that post-credits scene, anyway?

Does Danganronpa 2 touch on or explain any of this crap or is it just same poo poo, different setting?

Danganronpa 2 explains it by the end, yes.

Poulpe
Nov 11, 2006
Canadian Santa Extraordinaire
Bloodborne-

-For some reason you have to manually compare stats of equipment in the shop against what you're wearing because apparently it's 1992.
-For the most part, the chalice dungeons offer rewards for opening up more chalice dungeons. It never really felt "worth it" except to squeeze a bit more gameplay out, and in my experience the "randomly generated" setpiece arrangement really takes away from the experience. It doesn't help that they threw a pile of exclusive bosses/content into it.
-There was a lack of weapon/build diversity. Save for a select few choice weapons, many were just strictly inferior to others. (Looking at you, stake driver/tonitrius.)
-The armor choices available are for the most part cosmetic, with underlying "Play dress-up to make people happy with you" mechanics. This isn't mentioned anywhere in game.
-"Oh, another four-legged boss, I wonder if the safest place is between its legs."
-Whyyyyy did they make playing with friends such a trial?!
-Kind of an abrupt conclusion in my opinion, though all of the Souls games have kind of done this "you are a part of something grand, piece it together" thing.

I definitely enjoyed the game and the art design/aesthetics of the universe knocked it out of the park, but, yeah.

Poulpe
Nov 11, 2006
Canadian Santa Extraordinaire
I'm only in the very early game, but:
Divinity: Original Sin - Minmax or lose. Full stop.

Poulpe
Nov 11, 2006
Canadian Santa Extraordinaire

the_steve posted:

It has probably been mentioned before, but I'm going to say Bravely Default.
Without going into too much detail, it's pretty much the same X number of bosses over and over and over again, but they spice it up by doing different combinations.

I really enjoyed that game for what it was, but yes at the end it became a goddamn slog. I also liked what they were trying with the Brave/Default system, but I think it could use some refinement to tune the difficulty levels a little. I'm interested to see what the sequel does to improve.

Poulpe
Nov 11, 2006
Canadian Santa Extraordinaire

Judge Tesla posted:

Super Mario Maker is an incredibly fun toolkit where you can build your own Mario levels using a number of items from the Mario Series, but the thing dragging it down is the Playerbase itself.

The overwhelming majority of user made stages are Kaizo Mario inspired nightmare stages where only the creator and the grognards who like this stupid poo poo can complete them, I at least try to make my own stages completable by anyone, children included, who are funnily enough, the target market for Mario games. :v:

Ugh, seconding this. It's nice that you can trade a life to skip a level but 90% of the expert courses are "Nintendo Hard" schlock or courses with hidden passages/powerups so the original creator can actually complete it. I've played more than one "Pick a pipe- 2/3 of them are instant death! :D" levels.

It would be really great if Nintendo added a weekly "curated 100-Mario course" or something, with expert level difficulty on intelligently designed levels.

Poulpe
Nov 11, 2006
Canadian Santa Extraordinaire
Grim Fandango has a really great setting and story and is remarkably charming, but the 90s-era puzzle "solving" is really dragging it down for me. The chapter I just finished, aside from a particularly egregious "rub X on everything/everyone until it works" puzzle, has a quest line where you are given a photo of a racetrack mid race, and in the background a number of electronic signs read "Olivia, will you marry me?"

So I figure, great, I'll go show this photo to the character named Olivia, and maybe she'll give me a hint. Nope! She won't even recognize you're carrying it. The actual hint in the photo is the number of the race in it (obvious) and the fact that everyone in the photo is wearing hats.

Poulpe
Nov 11, 2006
Canadian Santa Extraordinaire
Fallout 4: (PS4)

VATS:
-More than once, VATS has caused my arms to disappear. I can still fire/change weapons/etc, but nothing on screen actually appears. Fun fact: the Pipboy menu is actually a part of your character model. Switching to "third person" mode fixes it.
-VATS has caused the R2 button to lock up, making me unable to use it for anything. I couldn't fire any guns, swing my sword, anything, but power attacks and VATS attacks still worked. Save/Quit and reloading didn't fix it. I had to equip a gun with a scope and go into "scope view" before it fixed itself.
-"Execution" animations in VATS are waaaay too long. When there's other enemies around, particularly in melee range, your character will just stand there like a moron for 3-4 seconds taking hits from enemies while your target "blows up" or whatever. Luckily this one isn't horrible because you can cancel the animation manually with cancel button.
-I really wish I could target parts of the body with melee weapons. In particular hacking off limbs is really helpful against Ghouls, and they're often in melee range, but there's no "chop off left arm" option, just swing wildly and hope.

Gameplay:
-Settlements are grossly under-explained. You're just kind of thrown into it with minimal explanation as to how all the systems work, and while I could appreciate a little bit of "figure it out yourself" game play, this takes it to an extreme.
-Settler management is really really under-implemented. You can't tell what most settlers are assigned to do unless they're actively doing it. Hell, even if each settler was given a new title based on what they're working on, it would be much more manageable. They actually do this when you assign supply routes- supply settlers become "Provisioners" instead. Why not do this for everyone? Farmer, Trader, Scrapper, Defender, easy.
-I really dislike the power armor structure in this game. I appreciate that they're doing something different with power armor because previously it's been "put me on and never ever take me off," but you're not going to explore freely in power armor as the batteries drain too quickly and it trivializes already easy random fights, and meanwhile difficult/boss fights are often sprung upon you, meaning if you have your power armor available for the fight you're probably cheating.
-Melee builds and power armor are intrinsically linked. See above point. You're sort of "expected" to be wearing it to optimally use melee weapons.
-Suicide super mutants are incredibly, incredibly stupid enemies from a lore perspective and a gameplay perspective. It's basically always going to be a OHKO if they get near you, and they're perfectly happy to take you and three of their buddies out. For what? "Somebody is intruding on our base! Better murder half of our defenders to get 'im! :downs:
-I'd really love a guaranteed safe place to store things that isn't based around "raiders are too stupid to ever look here"/"I'm certain noone will stumble upon this".
-More than once I have fast traveled to a dangerous area, and spawned literally a few feet away from an angry mob of enemies, who immediately proceed to slaughter me. One time there was a suicide super mutant three steps away.

Story:
-As others have mentioned, several locations waste so much potential by jarringly swapping to "...and everybody is pissed at you, time to fight!" In particular, meeting Cait at the fighting arena, I was totally expecting a cool ring fighting sidequest, no weapons allowed, but nope, walk in the room, scene plays, 10 raiders try to kill you, collect Cait.
-No, I don't want to join the Brotherhood of Steel. No, I don't want "Speak to Paladin Danse" to sit around in my quest log eternally because I opted not to join. No, I don't want a second "Report to Paladin Danse" quest to suddenly appear as well. "But thou must!" (Obviously this is just a shift of what a Fallout game "is" as has been argued to death over the last few pages, but I miss having the option.)
-That baby was brown, it's not even mine :mad:

SPECIAL/Perks:
-Aside from Charisma, stat checks don't seem to be a thing anymore. That's kind of disappointing. Maybe it was the same in FO3/FNV, I didn't play em, but I still think the game is missing out. Where's my endurance based food-eating contest?
-If you're going to give us stat boosting clothing for the love of God please give us the option to save outfits. I love manually having to equip +4 CHA gear every time I sell something/speak to an NPC just to manually re-equip another outfit and 5 pieces of armor immediately after, every time.
-I'm not pleased that you have to spend a pile of perks to get into crafting, and also that 90% of weapon crafting is upgrading looks/numbers. Legendary items come with all kinds of cool enchantments, why not let me pay a bunch of resources and move those around?
-Given that I am "Plot Guy Everyman," I'm really not inclined to take "personality" perks like Lady Killer, especially when there's vastly superior options and I can put on clothes to skew my stats whenever I need it.

GOD DAMNIT DOGMEAT:
-GOD DAMNIT DOGMEAT GET AWAY FROM THAT
-GOD DAMNIT DOGMEAT I'M TRYING TO PICK THAT UP
-GOD DAMNIT DOGMEAT WHY CAN'T I PET YOU


Yow, this was way longer than I was expecting, but I just kept remembering small gripes. This game needs a lot of work, but ALL OF THIS ASIDE the game is also doing a lot of stuff right and I'm enjoying myself.

(Edit: remembered one more gripe)

Poulpe has a new favorite as of 00:39 on Nov 21, 2015

Poulpe
Nov 11, 2006
Canadian Santa Extraordinaire
Oh are we talking about Fallout 4 endings? Swell!

Institute route:
I met you two hours ago. I am naming you heir to the entire institute, because I am dying of surprise mystery disease. My memories cannot be loaded into a synth, despite this more or less happening earlier in the plot.

Synths are slaves and nothing else and I won't even consider debating this point despite the fact that they're constantly escaping in an attempt to assert their free will. Everybody up in the commonwealth is a barbarian and a monster. I know this because I have been there exactly once and stood on a roof. I released you into that hell because I wanted to see "if you would search for me, if you would find me."

Now, go murder everyone in the Railroad by yourself, you're either with my shallow myopic worldview or against it, despite piles of conversation options stating otherwise.


Basically, a whole lot of :psyduck: all around.

What's more, you and Brotherhood are both in the same place looking for the same thing! You simply being there, despite them not knowing why, or under whose allegiances, despite how strong your relationship with them might be, instantly makes you enemies! Alright, then.

Poulpe
Nov 11, 2006
Canadian Santa Extraordinaire

Inspector Gesicht posted:

I'm midway through Castlevania: Circle of the Moon and I feel like the game is missing whole systems. There is no shop to buy and sell equipment, nor do you find any gear beyond Stat upgrades. Instead all equipment is dropped by enemies, which is determined by your Luck stat, which starts at piss-poor at Level 1. Measly potions are hard to come by. After a while you'll receive copies of equipment you already own off defeated enemies, and all these sets of armor can do is gather dust in your inventory.

...

What are good Metroidvanias out on PC that aren't Shantae, seeing as both Metroidvania franchises are dead nowadays?

To be fair to Circle of the Moon, it was one of the earliest Castlevanias that really experimented with collectible abilities, and only Symphony of the Night did "you got your RPG in my metroidvania" at all before it, so you have to cut it some slack. They've improved the formula a lot since then, naturally.

I've heard good things about Axiom Verge, as far as other games are concerned?

Poulpe has a new favorite as of 22:18 on Jan 4, 2016

Poulpe
Nov 11, 2006
Canadian Santa Extraordinaire

Che Delilas posted:

Dust is more combat focused, while Ori is more platforming. They're both pretty good games but some people might not be able to look past certain deficiencies in either one (though to be fair the big problem with Ori comes at the very end after you've already played and enjoyed the hell out of it).

Edit: Not disagreeing with you by the way, just providing a bit of detail.

That game was free one month on PSN, and I just could not get past the "badass" self insert furry protag and "absolutely no one is jacking off to whatever this thing is I swear" helper, and the remarkably poor writing overall. I got a couple hours in and just couldn't deal anymore.

Poulpe
Nov 11, 2006
Canadian Santa Extraordinaire

Ryoshi posted:

I just started Parasite Eve for the first time on a whim and I get the feeling it's going to be a bit annoying. The combat is kind of neat but the exploration bits suffer badly from 90s era "you must be standing right on top of an item with the right facing to interact" issues. For example, early on you need to read a diary to progress - it's not subtle, when you approach the dresser it's sitting on the camera changes so you see this BIG OBVIOUS OPEN RED BOOK to check. But it still takes ten seconds of walking slowly against the edge of the dresser and mashing X until you activate the thing.

Aya runs notoriously slowly in Parasite Eve, even by 90s JRPG standards.
Just wait until NPCs start shoving 100% useless items into your inventory :cripes:

Still, stick with it if you can! I'm really quite fond of it

Poulpe
Nov 11, 2006
Canadian Santa Extraordinaire

Xoidanor posted:

I find it amazing how Stardew Valley isn't one big dustbowl valley considering that it somehow rains 0-1 times a season on average.

I've never had it rain fewer than ~8-10 times a season. Are you playing a pirated copy? Maybe it's one of those "gently caress you buy the game" things.

Poulpe
Nov 11, 2006
Canadian Santa Extraordinaire

Ratoslov posted:

My problem with Bravely Default is that there isn't a single dungeon in the game that would not be improved by replacing the entire thing with a short corridor with a wide-spot for the treasure chests and a save spot at the end so you have a convienent shop when you're grinding. The only things interesting in the dungeons are the random encounter tables, the treasure, and the bosses. The mazes are just tedious and boring, the traps are annoying and easily ignored if you have the 'dungeon master' ability from the Freelancer class, and the puzzles are insultingly easy but time-consuming.

Definitely agree on this, though that's always sort of been an issue with JRPG overworlds, and Bravely Default in particular is trying to deliver the "classic" experience.

What really spoiled the game for me was how glaringly tedious and monotonous the game became in it's final arc, and how you were more or less required to find or look up the "break the game over your knee" exploits to complete the later battles.

Poulpe
Nov 11, 2006
Canadian Santa Extraordinaire

Wintermutant posted:

I hate how in Overwatch, when you get a party invite, Accept (Yes) is the N key, and Decline (No) is the Y key.

There's no way this isn't a mistake. They probably mapped them backwards. Submit a bug ticket?

Poulpe
Nov 11, 2006
Canadian Santa Extraordinaire
Picked up Odin Sphere: Leifthrasir, which is an HD remake of a gorgeous old PS2 game, with some updated graphics and gameplay.

The game gives you the option to pick between English and Japanese voice acting, but the voice acting in cut-scenes is unspeakably bad in English, and the battle noises in Japanese are gratingly squeaky/orgasmic sounding.
No win, no joy.

Poulpe
Nov 11, 2006
Canadian Santa Extraordinaire

Johnny Aztec posted:

I'm rather glad I got out of JRPGs before they went 3D and full Voice acting.
Worst I had to put up with was " well, that's somewhere round 80 points" and " BE- HIND ME?!~"

Star Ocean for PS1 :3: Gotta love the occasional Japanese line accidentally left in, or the classic "C'MERE, BARNEY!"

Odin Sphere is actually 2D and quite gorgeous, (seriously check out this gameplay) and the English translation is fine, it's just that you can tell the English actors acted every voiced line one at a time, with no understanding of the context or which lines come before or after them, not to mention the animations timed to match Japanese speech. Everything just comes out janky and unrehearsed.

Poulpe
Nov 11, 2006
Canadian Santa Extraordinaire
Just finished up Zero Time Dilemma and it was fantastic, but holy christ Eric is the WORST, I wish I had ten times the opportunities to murder his dense rear end

Poulpe
Nov 11, 2006
Canadian Santa Extraordinaire

Cleretic posted:

But god damnit knock it off with the minigames. It's an enjoyable RPG, and I like when it decides to be one, but then it just keeps throwing weird bullshit at you while only barely telling you how it works. And it really seems to work to introduce some of these, too.
Fort under attack by Shinra? Ooh, that could be a fun endurance match kinda thing--oh, it's an undercooked and interminably slow tower defense game.
Big industrial-looking port town with Shinra stronghold? That has the makings of a stealth mission, or maybe it's like Karnak in V... or, it could have you disguise yourself as a soldier and do a ceremonial marching minigame*. That too.

I actually really like the minigame sections v:shobon:v
I think they break up monotonous gameplay and inject flavor into the universe that most games just wouldn't bother doing or would attempt to do via dialogue. Different strokes, though!

Poulpe
Nov 11, 2006
Canadian Santa Extraordinaire

Woolie Wool posted:

Core gameplay that needs minigames to break it up isn't good enough and needs to be reworked until it is.

Mm, no, I think I'd disagree. Classic Final Fantasy turn based combat worked for ten games and kept it interesting by having you gradually unlock different characters and abilities as you go along, but even with that there's no denying it could become monotonous after grinding away too long.

I'd argue that the games that aimed to break up that monotony via gameplay (FF12, 13, likely 15) have been departures from the series and generally drag them down, because they sacrifice everything else to do so. I legitimately miss the dumb little asides in modern RPGs.

Suddenly the best side quests and minigames you get are "go kill even more things" and "I'm Captain Basch!"

Poulpe has a new favorite as of 00:29 on Jul 27, 2016

Poulpe
Nov 11, 2006
Canadian Santa Extraordinaire
I really enjoyed Severed a lot! It was fruit ninja meets RPG meets bizarre carnivore world with Guacamelee art. Cool!

Two things:
- Getting around was kind of annoying. The game is in first person, you can turn 90 degrees left or right, and walk forward. That's it. It allowed for some alright puzzles and I think it's a decent movement method for exploration, but this game rewards you heavily for backtracking, and as soon as you start doing that it quickly becomes a massive chore.
- The ending. It explained literally nothing! The draw of the game's plot was that you're thrust into this mystery universe and you're trying to sort out what the hell is going on, and by the end of the game you're still asking all of the same questions. It doesn't even explain who lopped off your arm! I can enjoy a sense of "figure it out yourself" or "leave it ambiguous" but this didn't really scratch either itch for me, it just felt like I existed in a weird world for a bit and know absolutely nothing about it.

Poulpe
Nov 11, 2006
Canadian Santa Extraordinaire

Xen Tricks posted:

Bioshock Infinite sucked because it's possibly the single worst example of ludonarrative dissonance ever except maybe Uncharted, but at least Drake is likeable and not a preachy smug rear end in a top hat.

This is my first time reading that term! I'd say it's pretty fitting, but could you extrapolate a little further?
What kind of game "should" Bioshock Infinite have been, given it's narrative?

I certainly remember that "I look exactly like these people's symbol of hope, why are they shooting me" moment, but I'm not sure what could have been done with that section otherwise.

Poulpe
Nov 11, 2006
Canadian Santa Extraordinaire
Just finished Star Ocean 5, and boy was that ever a waste of my life.
  • The plot is so simple and the characters have next to no motivation for the things they do, and nobody has actual in-plot characterization.
  • Except in very rare scenarios all plot is done in voiced lines while your character is able to haplessly walk within a zone of invisible barriers, all of these are unskippable.
  • There are several "space battle" sequences, where you walk around bored in the bridge this fashion while the spaceship characters describe what's happening offscreen. They are exactly as boring as they sound, unskippable, and take upward of 5-10 minutes to get through
  • 90% of the gameplay is running between the four towns they could afford to put in the game, with the occasional dungeon stapled on nearby
  • Combat itself is simplified from previous entries with AI-adjusting "role assignment" for strategizing your MMO battle team (which is always well received in every RPG it's in)
  • Many bosses have wide aoe instakill attacks to try to add any relevancy to said role assigment system
  • "Protect the party member" scenes, when all enemies beeline for that character and, again, you have at best limited control of your allies through AI roles
  • Crafting is pointless unless you choose to do postgame, you really don't need the bonuses it affords you, and even if you want to break the game over your knee you can simply spend the time you would spend collecting resources for crafting overleveling your party since there's no experience scaling
  • Sidequests are all "go defeat this/these monsters," either for them to die or to collect their spoils, with very rare exceptions
Taking into account that the game only released a few months ago and I got it for half off, I should have expected it to be this bad, but holy crap was that game baaad. Saving grace, it only took about 17 hours to clear the whole thing, which is pretty generous by JRPG standards.

(Copied/edited post I made in a Let's Play thread, thought it belonged here)

Poulpe
Nov 11, 2006
Canadian Santa Extraordinaire

spudsbuckley posted:

Yeah, i'm playing it at the moment and i've done most of the straight forward side-quests and now i have about 15 low-drop rate things to collect to do the rest of them so i think i'm just going to finish the game and move on rather than grinding for another 10 hours.

I like it but it is really obviously low budget with gently caress all locations and a bunch of story stuff that is never really elaborated on.

The plot is really what put it over on the laziness factor yeah- never do they even try to endear any of the characters to ~mystic little girl~ in any way but suddenly she's the most important thing in any of their lives. Ugh.

Do yourself a favor and unlock/level "dead man walking" role to 3 and put it on Miki - from then on you'll be incapable of losing no matter how hard you power through plot

Poulpe
Nov 11, 2006
Canadian Santa Extraordinaire

Closed-Down Pizza Parlor posted:

Assume that I'm a moron who genuinely enjoyed the gameplay of SO4: is SO5 worse?
It has been a very long time since I played SO4, but I have been keeping up with the ongoing LP, and while I definitely remember thinking it was dumb, I don't remember being insulted by how aggressively lazy everything in the game was. SO5 is worse.

That said, the combat is somewhat similar between the two, and the combat is the only somewhat interesting thing in SO5 at all, so maybe, maybe, it will redeem the experience for you.
Watch youtube videos, and wait until it goes on mega cheap discount first, though. I bought it half off retail price at $40 CAD and feel quite cheated even still.

Poulpe
Nov 11, 2006
Canadian Santa Extraordinaire
Broken Age was broken into two clear point and click adventure parts.
In part 1, the puzzles were pretty simple and you could figure them out without too much trouble.
In part 2, some of the puzzles became "noone is figuring this out without a guide" obtuse.
And then the game abruptly ends.

I think they ran out of money in development.

Poulpe
Nov 11, 2006
Canadian Santa Extraordinaire

spit on my clit posted:

tim schafer is not a man who is good with money, even though his games are usually good

Haha, this makes me worry about Psychonauts 2.

And while I didn't personally notice this in my playthrough, after completing the game and reading some material online I definitely understand the criticisms on Broken Age's second half- the first had some pretty strong themes and world building that the second just threw straight out the window so they could hurry up and wrap up the plot.

Poulpe
Nov 11, 2006
Canadian Santa Extraordinaire
This is a petty gripe, and applies to way more games than just this, but:

I was considering buying Prettyboy Fantasy 15, until I read "Buy the $40CAD season pass for this $80CAD game!"
Maybe I'm just getting old or I'm too traditional but buying something incomplete feels really lovely, and it feels like they're just looking to milk me for extra money.

Poulpe
Nov 11, 2006
Canadian Santa Extraordinaire
Titan Souls was an enjoyable little romp for a few hours.
What dragged it down was the final boss.
While every boss in the game was challenging, the final boss cranks that poo poo up to 50.

The idea of the game is that you're a little dude with a bow and a single arrow, you can run around, dodge roll, shoot it, and recall it after you've shot it.
Most of the bosses in the game have obvious glowing weak spots, or interesting tricks to reveal their weak spot, and they die in one hit, as do you.

The final boss is a "dark" version of you that has a light arrow to match your arrow. He will fire it at you with 1 second preparation time and if you don't dodge at that moment you die. Whenever he fires said arrow, he also produces 4 balls of light that home in on you, killing you if they touch you. His weak spot is as small as you are and appears for about a half a second in a random direction whenever it goes to fetch it's own arrow. If you ever fire and miss, using the arrow retrieval will also suck his arrow toward you, killing you if you touch it. If he gets a hold of your arrow however, he fires it bouncing around the arena, homing in on you on every bounce, and you're expected to wait until it stops before using the retrieve arrow button. If you don't, it instantly flies at you and kills you.

In short get good, but every other boss in the game felt at least fair, like if I died I messed up. When I defeated the final boss I felt like I got lucky and not much else.

Poulpe
Nov 11, 2006
Canadian Santa Extraordinaire

Lunchmeat Larry posted:

you haven't reached the real final boss, who's pretty cool

:gonk:

Poulpe
Nov 11, 2006
Canadian Santa Extraordinaire
Binding of Isaac: Rebirth

I've spent a ton of time on this game, and I definitely enjoy it to an extent, but really I feel like your biggest enemy in most runs is not the enemies and rooms you encounter, but sheer tedium. Once you've cleared the game enough times the default difficulty ramps up for each and every run and without any helpful offensive weapons or tools it's just boring and takes forever.
Also, last night I completed a challenge run. My prize? Two more pills added to the pool of random pills! Both of them negative! :suicide:

Poulpe
Nov 11, 2006
Canadian Santa Extraordinaire
The Swapper was a neat little puzzle game that was sort of Metroid-ish and controlled pretty well.
The thing dragging it down was it's plot- it was essentially trying to be SOMA but did a poorer job of it.

Poulpe
Nov 11, 2006
Canadian Santa Extraordinaire

Digirat posted:

It was trying to be a game that came out two years after it?

Faaaaaiir.
Point stands that SOMA did a much, much better job of exploring the concept.
And regardless of release dates it's nobody's fault that I experienced SOMA first :shrug:

Poulpe
Nov 11, 2006
Canadian Santa Extraordinaire

muscles like this! posted:

The thing dragging down Soma is the monsters which can kill you. They just feel completely out of place in the story.

I do agree with this, but I do think the game needed SOMEthing to mark it as a game and not a walking simulator a la Gone Home and Everybody's Gone To Rapture.
I think puzzles and horror slot together quite well personally but I think they needed to force some kind of danger in there to keep you freaked out amidst the moral dilemmas.

Poulpe
Nov 11, 2006
Canadian Santa Extraordinaire
Zelda Breath of the Wild:

-Whenever you upgrade your endurance, you are also slightly punished for it. With each endurance upgrade your "exhaustion" period also grows longer. Link should recover from exhaustion when the inner ring fills.

-Cooldowns on the awesome skyflight power only begin counting down after you've used the last charge- 30 minutes beginning when you use the last one. There's no reason this shouldn't be one every 10 minutes.

-Swimming blows and takes forever, luckily you're given the ice tool immediately which kind of trivializes traversing water, but it's tedious in another way.

-NO Link just jump, don't dive, oh my god why do you do this, mRJHGwru7ygr23gr

-Left control stick press is stealth, instead of run. There's no option to change this. The number of times I've accidentally put away my weapons mid battle and "gone stealthy" is staggering.

Len posted:

As long as it isn't raining for 20 irl minutes. You can't do dick when there's rain.

-Holy christ this. The "benefit" you gain from it being rainy out is that you're slightly stealthier, which I want maybe 2% of my gameplay time, the drawback is that I can't explore anymore, which takes up, oh, 80% of my gameplay time? What a nuisance of a mechanic.

Poulpe has a new favorite as of 18:36 on Mar 17, 2017

Poulpe
Nov 11, 2006
Canadian Santa Extraordinaire

Len posted:

For BotW I don't want the entire map marked for me just for climbing a tower but it would be nice if it did more than put a topographic map on my pause screen.

I think half of the prize is meant to be having a teleportable vantage point in the middle of the zone that you can use as a launch point to quickly explore in any direction, but, yeah, I hear this.

Poulpe
Nov 11, 2006
Canadian Santa Extraordinaire

spit on my clit posted:

diving is a form of art in and of itself :colbert:

Not when it cancels activation of your glider for no apparent reason! :shepface:

Poulpe
Nov 11, 2006
Canadian Santa Extraordinaire

BioEnchanted posted:

The main thing with the new Zelda is it seems a little... overwhelming. I have a lot of hearts, but when I get the boost from the first main quest's power it doesn't overflow to a second row, and there is no obvious end to any of the collectibles. There are probably at least hundreds of Koroks, a heart for each boss and every 4 optional challenge dungeons, but again without the overflow I just can't tell if 20 is the max like in most of them or if it is less, the great fairies are expensive finacially to unlock and upgrading armour takes a lot of enemy drops. Generally there is a lot going on, some things seem to do enormous damage no matter what I have equipped and it is very intimidating.

Apparently there's 900 koroks! And, yeah, I understand this, there is no way in hell I am 100%ing this game or anywhere near it, but I really appreciate that there's just stuff to do literally everywhere you go, you can't miss it, and all of it feels like progression toward meaningful goals.

edit: typo'd the number of koroks

Poulpe has a new favorite as of 20:38 on Mar 17, 2017

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Poulpe
Nov 11, 2006
Canadian Santa Extraordinaire
Back for more Zelda Breath of the Wild:

-Having explored most of the world now, there really aren't many enemy types. Palette swapped S/L moblins, skellies, jellies, bats, robots, big robots, octoroks, lizards, and a smattering of minibosses. I definitely get they had to budget in critters and animals everywhere, but for such a big world it just feels a little short.

That said,

-The dungeon design is exactly the same for the entire freaking game! I get that you like your fancy new ancient Sheikah tech motif but would it kill you to shake up the decor at least once? Or wrap it in vines? Or surround it in ice? Or anything? Even the guardian beasts are same same the whole way through! For how varied and unique the different over world environments are I'm surprised they left it this way.

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