Vidya Gaems General

Bee · 2016-03-12 09:00:03

You know, the only downside to sales like this is that the forums get a shitstorm of idiots who don't know how to use Google.

glennmagusharvey · 2016-03-12 11:55:58

Bee wrote: »

You know, the only downside to sales like this is that the forums get a shitstorm of idiots who don't know how to use Google.

That's why we have Seraphna as a bouncer.

Bee · 2016-03-12 21:01:49

"Is this game worth getting?"

There's a fucking review section. The top-rated ones are extremely detailed.

MadassAlex · 2016-03-13 03:14:26

So I played Blade Symphony recently, which is weird because it's a 2014 game that should have caught my interest long ago. I remember hearing a little about it, but not much follow-up -- probably because of how it awkwardly compromises between a generalised fencing simulator (for lack of a better term) and a fighting game.

The basics: You have one attack button, and your attacks are modified by your traversal direction, stance, and charge level (of which there are three, counting uncharged attacks). There are dash evasions, rolling evasions, a kind of charge dash, and jumps as additional traversal options. Your character choice determines your moveset, and your weapon choice determines your attack attributes. There's a simple sword crossing system where upon two attacks colliding, the stronger attack completes its path and the weaker attack is knocked aside. Due to the stance system and charge levels, any combatant with any weapon can plausibly have the stronger attack in an exchange.

There are two major problems in terms of actually using this sword collision system:

The degree of mobility combatants have is so high that plenty of attacks are made without the need or opportunity to cross an opponent's attack.
Many attack geometries are poorly suited to colliding with opponent's attacks, as they don't spend enough time in front of the character using them.

Basically, the game's selling point is in providing a platform for virtual swordfights, but it's basically too wuxia to make good on that promise. Any kind of game is, by necessity, going to modify fencing in order to make it plausible to execute in its context; even real-world fencing styles make allowances for the differences between training and sincere, mortal use of the weapon (such as artificially weakening one's blows to avoid blunt force trauma damage with the blunted swords used). But the elements in this game ultimately conflict; it's trying to be a high octane spectacle fighting game at the same time it's trying to include substantial elements of realistic swordplay.

There's also the fact that only the longsword and katana class weapons "deserve" to be in the game, as it revolves nearly entirely around two-handed sword use. Other inclusions, like the rapier, jian, and scimitar, feel really artificial as a result. Weapon traits also raise some questions, such as why katana uniquely have the feint, which is a highly contentious technique in two-handed sword disciplines. Or why rapier can move while blocking. Or why scimitars have faster charge rates on attacks.

While I appreciate what this game set out to do, its scope is concurrently too wide and too narrow. That said, it's ultimately pretty fun to play and there's some true strategic depth in there, but it's marred by the game's mechanics and content veering off in too many directions at once. This is a good swordplay game by the haggard standards of video game fencing, but it's also less than it could have been by a substantial margin. I don't regret spending $10 USD on it at all, but I do regret the kinds of compromises it found between very disparate concepts and genres.

glennmagusharvey · 2016-03-13 03:37:25

Makes me curious whether my meatspace friend who likes swords will like this.

MadassAlex · 2016-03-13 03:41:35

Depends what you mean by "likes swords". There's several demographics within that phrase that don't see eye-to-eye, and it has to do with more fundamental variables than, say, preference for particular sword types.

glennmagusharvey · 2016-03-13 03:44:18

He's that guy I connected you with on Steam. Pretty interested in accurate simulation.

MadassAlex · 2016-03-13 03:58:26

I'd say he'd probably have a similar reaction to me; it gets some things right and makes some valorous efforts, but undoes some of its good work via trying to compromise with too many wuxia (or otherwise flashy) things.

I will say this though; you'd immediately end up with a more representative game if the traversal elements were scaled down. See: The Witcher 3.

glennmagusharvey · 2016-03-15 05:06:53

I asked him and his reaction was that it tried to be weeaboo bullshit.

glennmagusharvey · 2016-03-26 23:05:33

Hat-tip to @Unknown_Entity for finding this: youtube.com/watch?v=shswUZiebmw

Not embedded because spoiler image.

glennmagusharvey · 2016-03-27 22:28:49

Edit: I hate it when posts eat whatever they're supposed to display and then not show anything.

Zennistrad · 2016-03-28 05:15:11

Been playing through Citizens of Earth, a quirky, Earthbound-esque RPG. It's not perfect by any means but I'm having fun with it for what it is.

glennmagusharvey · 2016-03-28 06:26:56

Here's what was supposed to be in my previous post:

https://twitter.com/daniel_switzer/status/541763820801507329

glennmagusharvey · 2016-03-29 06:17:10

Right now, my flatmate is somehow playing both Risk of Rain and Hyrule Warriors at the same time.

Well, not quite at the same time. When he dies in Risk of Rain, he opens up his 3DS and continues playing Hyrule Warriors. Rinse and repeat.

I dunno how he does this.

glennmagusharvey · 2016-03-29 09:20:26

http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=1201826

WARNING: potentially NSFW pictures

>
All foreigners play is games where you slaughter people indifferently,
so they've got a lot of nerve to speak up about small things like this
in other countries' games.

Person's got a point, distasteful as it may be.

----

Meanwhile, thanks to a typo in the lab manual, I am grabbing a picture of Toad from the Mario series to tell people that fungi are not animals.

lrdgck · 2016-03-29 15:33:56

Wow. They might live half the world away, but the nerd rage is all too familiar.

Zennistrad · 2016-03-29 16:30:10

Those darn Ess Jay Dubyas censoring things by criticizing them. In the name of free speech, we should ban criticism!

MadassAlex · 2016-03-29 17:32:29

Bravely Second is currently living up to the gameplay of Bravely Default, but seems to allow access to more classes sooner.

Naturally, the "Fencer" class caught my eye, and then kept my attention by interpreting some elements of swordplay pretty well. At least given the framework the game is working with. One can take a stance, or use attacks that transition from one stance to another. This would be very clunky in a standard turn-based RPG, but the Brave/Default system provides the flexibility required to make it work.

In more game-designy terms, I also like the Fencer class for its potential synergies with other classes. Its stances can buff attack/magic attack, defense/magic defense, and speed respectively. There's some interesting applications there, given that magic defense determines a character's effectiveness when healing. The Swordmaster class also has some counterattacking abilities to contribute, so one could make a healer that hides behind a defensive stance with counterattacks ready to punish.

Still holding out for the Knight class to return, so I can just put a Knight/Swordmaster mix in front of every enemy attack and punish while my team just does their thing without a care.

Bee · 2016-03-29 18:54:52

As much as I should be surprised by otakus flipping their shit when a developer puts underwear on a teen to foil deliberate upskirt camera angles, I really can't be. I mean, I was around for the creeprage when the artist for Fortune Summoners voluntarily put towels on preteen girls in an outdoor bath.

You know the really silly part? If the dev didn't make a public interview about it, but instead just took it a step further without saying a word and stamped the underwear with the words "NICE TRY", it kind of would've fit in with the series' sense of humor anyway.

Zennistrad · 2016-03-30 04:56:27

^^ Swordmaster also pairs particularly well with the new Guardian class from what I've seen so far of Bravely Second.

Bee · 2016-03-30 05:06:13

This reminds me that my BD save file was like, right at the very end and I never finished it.

glennmagusharvey · 2016-03-30 05:21:21

Bee wrote: »

This reminds me that my BD save file was like, right at the very end and I never finished it.

I have a Lufia 2 save file that's on the triangular islands at the end of the game...

glennmagusharvey · 2016-04-08 06:31:16

glennmagusharvey · 2016-04-11 08:19:46

Xeodrifter is a nice game.

I just wasn't expecting...that ending.

In any case, I recommend it. Along with the same devteam's previous game, Mutant Mudds.

glennmagusharvey · 2016-04-12 03:27:54

Courtesy of Imipolex G:

The worst Super Metroid hack ever.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vxHJJjirBCY

glennmagusharvey · 2016-04-17 23:09:22

Rockman DX3 is a GBC game that is a knockoff attempt at a Mega Man X-style game, and apparently also known as "Zook Hero 2". The graphics and music and bosses and level design are original, though the gameplay mechanics are clearly lifted from MMX while the music engine is lifted from Mega Man V (GB).

It plays very roughly like a Mega Man X game, with the following exceptions:
* Six robot masters/mavericks are selectable at the beginning. Four body upgrades are hidden amongst them. Two endgame stages follow these. The final boss has two phases.
* Some blocks breakable only with master weapons lead to secrets, true to the Mega Man games.
* The upgrades, I'm not sure what all of them do, but I think the arm upgrade lets you charge the master weapons.
* Minibosses can be really obnoxiously durable and have unavoidable attacks. Thankfully, again, they do piddly damage. Usually.
* You can't proceed to the endgame stages unless you've beaten all six bosses AND found all four upgrades.
* One of the endgame stages is the first time I've seen a Mega Man style game have a split path one of which leads to a dead end (that you have to climb back out of, but you can, and it's only one screen long).
* Hit detection in boss fights is pretty bad, because it seems that there's one attack you can never dodge no matter where you are on screen. Apparently the cartridge version on a GBC works better, allegedly?
* Enemies generally move/shoot way too fast to dodge their stuff, meaning you have to take unavoidable hits all over the place. Thankfully, they also do piddly damage and health refills are given out like candy.
* Enemies occasionally drop H and S tanks. The H tanks are basically like Mega Man's E-tanks. The S tanks, I haven't tried those yet but I presume they refill weapon ammo?
* Your character moves far too slow considering how fast other stuff shoots at you.
* Controls occasionally unresponsive or hard to use -- like, I wanted to jump but it wouldn't let me. Also, double-tap a direction to dash (more like rush, as in run toward something, because down+direction is a slide-dash). Occasionally have to double-hit start to open the menu.
* Sometimes glitchy -- descending the wall next to a ladder, or kicking against the air next to a wall, for example. Or standing on air in a ladder.
* Spikes are sometimes not one-hit kills but just do damage. I'm not sure what this depends on.
* Wanna fight the ninja star boss over and over again? Get to the teleporting hatches, and then you can refight it as many times as you want for some reason! The game says "SAVE" on its teleporter after you beat it once, but instead of saving the game, it just teleports you back to the boss fight. Trickery fitting for a ninja I guess.
* You seem to get healed to full after boss fights in the teleporting hatches.
* Game's text is entirely in Chinese, but there's very little text anyway.
* The first endgame stage has the happiest Mega Man endgame stage music that I've ever heard.

Overall, playable, but not recommended. The game is irritating, but also thankfully easy enough that it's playable and finishable. If you do play, savestates are strongly recommended. If this game got cleaned up it could become a thing.

Or just read someone's commentary about the game: http://tasvideos.org/4238S.html

Blueeyedrat · 2016-04-19 19:05:34

Given Supergiant's previous offerings, I'm excited.

glennmagusharvey · 2016-04-26 05:00:05

I've already got both Bastion and Transistor and I haven't played either one yet...such backlog

Meanwhile, this looks neat.

glennmagusharvey · 2016-05-03 07:29:38

Games I would like to play or at least try out:
* Maldita Castilla
* Curse of Issyos
* Soul of Dracula
* Super Cyborg

I mean, just look at -- and listen to -- these things: (and don't look at that much if you don't want to be spoiled)

glennmagusharvey · 2016-05-03 20:05:15

> new Humble Bundle offers Shantae: Risky's Revenge for $1
> just bought S:RR on GOG for $5
> feel bummed out
> remember that Humble Store version of S:RR is Steam key only
> check Humble Bundle
> Steam key only

> feel defiantly satisfied

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