What [not shmup] game are you playing now?

Anything from run & guns to modern RPGs, what else do you play?
Searchlike
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Re: What [not shmup] game are you playing now?

Post by Searchlike »

BareKnuckleRoo wrote: God Hand - How am I supposed to play this game? What's the correct way to hold the controller? I say this, having beaten it a few times and being actually pretty decent at it. It still feels weird having to move my thumb between the face buttons to attack and right stick to dodge. I always feel as though my dodges are slower than they could be if the controls let you have your thumb on the right stick while attacking.
I don't know, man, I don't think the weirdness ever goes away, not enough to become second nature anyway. It's a pain in the arse for dodge-cancelling and that sweep move, but those are supposed to be hard to perform I think.
Another option is a weird grip with thumb on the stick and index/middle finger on face buttons but this is not comfortable or natural to me at all.
If you rest the controller on a table that could work. Personally, I would need to be able to press R1 reliably with that setup, cause roulette wheel auto-aiming is too good, but I'm not sure my ring finger would be up to the task. Hope you can figure this out and if you do, please, let me know. :lol:
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To Far Away Times
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Re: What [not shmup] game are you playing now?

Post by To Far Away Times »

Dodge on the right stick sucks in every game that it's in. I never end up using it.
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Re: What [not shmup] game are you playing now?

Post by BareKnuckleRoo »

I tried God Hand with the face buttons on shoulders and shoulders on face buttons. I was liking it a lot. It meant I didn't keep having to moving my thumb off the right stick except for less timing sensitive stuff, but because God Hand has strict timing on dodges and emulation has significant input lag, I couldn't tell how much of my sucking was the input lag and how much was me being rusty as all hell. And I kept messing up inputs because I was used to the normal ones, which I'd be forced to use on PS2. I give up, gotta deal with the stick flicking I guess...

Sekiro is still fun. Unlike God Hand it supports full custom remapping (the defaults are alright but I played around with it until I got something I preferred) and I'm finding improved ways to work around and cheese the fights that are indoors and otherwise can be a nuisance. Some of the advice I'd received to deal with this was a bit vague and unhelpful ("just stay away from the walls!" gee, thanks). Specifically useful stuff I've found is using Aged Feather Mist Raven to teleport dash if pinned on a wall, or umbrella to tank/deflect the hits and wait for an opening. Goes without saying that it helps to attack even if the enemy blocks to keep the enemy's posture up and keep yourself off the wall. But if you don't know/can't remember the pattern and get pinned on a wall and the camera messes up, you're making a guess as to which way to dodge if a perilous attack comes your way, which is exactly where Mist Raven helps. It can't stop certain attacks (grabs I think?) but most of the grabby enemies tend to be in wide open environments anyways. It's also exceptional in midair; you can try to jump escape, use it in the air, and if the attack hits you follow up for damage, or you dodge without spending spirit emblems. It's super good.

Mist Raven requires Fang and Blade to work optimally as otherwise the dash leaves you too far to retaliate normally.

edit: example vid of this in action: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uvA2ZzYD86Y
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Mero
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Re: What [not shmup] game are you playing now?

Post by Mero »

Been playing Touhou Genso Wanderer (vanilla not Reloaded) on my PS4, I'm on the 2nd set of Bunnyland challenges now. I've done the dungeon where you can't eat any food or potions (20 floors on one bar of TP, I came within about 20hp of death at the end), and yesterday I did the dungeon where you can't level up beyond level 1 but your partner can (I don't usually take a partner unless it's mandatory). Thankfully you can take your own items into that dungeon so I took My best weapon, armour and charm (with health regen, multi hit and various resistances/enemy debuffs) and loads of Dokadami(?) teas that I could drink to increase my max hp so I didn't get one shot. Partner died a few floors from the end (30 floors) but I got lucky spawning near to the exits a few times, I even got killed by a death curse late on but revived thanks to potion I found right before that. I won't be in a hurry to play that dungeon again.

Now I'm doing a 12 floor no carry dungeon which doesn't sound like much and it mostly isn't but the top floor has an enemy type that can kill me in 2 hits and I can't always run because it's a dungeon where you warp from enclosed room to enclosed room, and there are fake exits that can surround you
with enemies if you step on them.

Don't know how long I'm going to play this, to see everything the game has to offer is going to take ages, I'm at about 90 hours already. I haven't even reincarnated any equipment yet.
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Marc
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Re: What [not shmup] game are you playing now?

Post by Marc »

I started Heavy Rain on the PS4. I have no idea why. I spent the entire hour muttering under my breath and shaking my head at the wankery of it all.
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Re: What [not shmup] game are you playing now?

Post by Stevens »

Left a wake of unconscious fools on my way to the 4th crew in Fights in Tight Spaces. Dropped the stage three boss in two rounds. It was brutal.

Dev has done a great job of consistently introducing new enemy types that require different approaches. On every stage there are unique goons who aren't retreads of the previous. It never feels stale.

Ideal deck size is 13 (minimum) and currently I am only taking cards I absolutely have to have. I think it is around 20 or so, but I am also on the next to last stage. I could have 40 cards. I could see playing where I grab everything just for kicks though.

You're basically Archer ,minus his signature side arm, going on a RAMPAGE. It's great fun.

Would also like to finish up Wasteland 3 this week.
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Blinge
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Re: What [not shmup] game are you playing now?

Post by Blinge »

Marc wrote:I started Heavy Rain on the PS4. I have no idea why. I spent the entire hour muttering under my breath and shaking my head at the wankery of it all.
Hahahaha. oh man. please give us more of your thoughts as you go :lol:
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Re: What [not shmup] game are you playing now?

Post by ravenclaws76 »

Month ago I finished Ghost of Tsushima, so I could concentrate for Demon's Souls Remake. Tsushima was gorgeous and fun. Hard difficulty was a right choice, but even with it, I felt that towards the end I was overpowered. Combat was fluid and story well written. Good game.

After 7 DeS characters and playthroughs I needed something for the side, so I started Days Gone... after 2 hours I deleted the game, shit felt so boring and uninspiring. Maybe I give it another try, when I first finish about 100 games on my backlog.. maybe.

Yesterday I finished God of War (2018). Good action and some violent and epic moments. Story was mostly okay. I didn't bother to find all secrets and stuff 'cause main story was enough for now.

Today started Resident Evil 7 Biohazard. Gonna play it and also DeS invades and pvp. R-Type Final 2 should arrive this week and I'm waiting PS4 release of Ghosts 'n Goblins Resurrection. RE Village and Nier Replicant too at some point.
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Re: What [not shmup] game are you playing now?

Post by Stevens »

Got wrecked a few fights in with the 4th crew. One of their ranks is a fiendishly, difficult to deal with, rifle man.

Licked my wounds and started over. Built my next deck (cards are random), but midway through the 1st gang i have 4 cards that leave enemies dazed in a 15 card pile. You draw six, so I have this option on almost every turn. Then there is another card that multiplies damage on stunned mooks. I have that too.

With a shit deck you're Mr. Bean, but with the right cards you're Sing at the end of Kung Fu Hustle.



Without knowing all the cards just yet I am starting to get the feeling that cards like that leave foes downed or in a stunned state are among the best in the game.
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Mischief Maker
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Re: What [not shmup] game are you playing now?

Post by Mischief Maker »

You should post these insights on their steam forum to help balance this EA game.
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Re: What [not shmup] game are you playing now?

Post by Stevens »

Mischief Maker wrote:You should post these insights on their steam forum to help balance this EA game.
I was reading through some of the feedback earlier today. I'm not sure I have anything to add that others haven't already mentioned. Perhaps a cap on the amount of effect cards you can have in your hand? No more than 3 stun/knockdown or something like that? Of course the flip side to that is you could just choose to not take them.

Admittedly though I was trying to build a deck with lots of stun.

I think the difficulty is spot on though. As in chess you can make one blunder and it's all over and I kind of like that FITS is similar in that regard.

Also trying to think of a garrote or lapel dagger card..
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To Far Away Times
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Re: What [not shmup] game are you playing now?

Post by To Far Away Times »

Playing a bit of Mario and Rabbids: Kingdom Battle right now. It distills the stategy gameplay to be as simple as possible, but it works. Kind of a low stress strategy game, nothing like Fire Emblem and its rage inducing one shot permadeaths.
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Re: What [not shmup] game are you playing now?

Post by WelshMegalodon »

Wonder Boy III: The Dragon's Trap (1989)

I doubt I could say anything about this game that hasn't been said before, so I'll just say that all the hidden doors and secret equipment properties make a terrific experience even better. And the FM soundtrack... just wonderful. It's a shame that the expansion was never released outside of Japan, especially considering how many US- and PAL-only games took advantage of it. Even this game was only ever released in Japan as a Game Gear title.
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Re: What [not shmup] game are you playing now?

Post by Sengoku Strider »

WelshMegalodon wrote:Wonder Boy III: The Dragon's Trap (1989)

I doubt I could say anything about this game that hasn't been said before, so I'll just say that all the hidden doors and secret equipment properties make a terrific experience even better. And the FM soundtrack... just wonderful. It's a shame that the expansion was never released outside of Japan, especially considering how many US- and PAL-only games took advantage of it. Even this game was only ever released in Japan as a Game Gear title.
The weird thing is it was only an add-on for the Mark III. The Japanese Master System had the FM sound built in, so it's not like there wasn't a template for Sega to implement there in other markets. There was clearly some intention somewhere for it to happen with all the West-only games that had FM soundtracks taking up expensive ROM space.
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vol.2
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Re: What [not shmup] game are you playing now?

Post by vol.2 »

I think I remember something about Yamaha having reduced fab bandwidth for the FM chips because of increasing demand and maybe some disaster. Might have just been a shortage of chips.


Edit: I got around to looking this up again, and I found what I had read. According to this guy, the reason that the SMS didn't have the FM chip is because they released the SMS in the US before the FM sound add-on was released for games in Japan. According to the author, claims that the chips were available for instruments in 1986 are false, and all evidence points to those keyboards using the M3 FM chip as being mid-late 1987 units. Even if they were sampling, the chips were not in active life-cycle until too late, and SEGA was rushing to market to compete with NES.

There was a predecessor chip to the FM chip used, but the author claims that it wasn't available because the chips were "...earmarked for an ill-fated project from the Japanese government and weren’t for general sale."

Anyway, this is that, you can read for yo-self: https://mechafatnick.co.uk/2021/03/14/t ... &trackid=0
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Re: What [not shmup] game are you playing now?

Post by Marc »

To Far Away Times wrote:Playing a bit of Mario and Rabbids: Kingdom Battle right now. It distills the stategy gameplay to be as simple as possible, but it works. Kind of a low stress strategy game, nothing like Fire Emblem and its rage inducing one shot permadeaths.
Good to hear. Haven't played a game like this in a LONG time (maybe PS1 X-Com?), but fancied dipping a toe in.
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Marc wrote:I started Heavy Rain on the PS4. I have no idea why. I spent the entire hour muttering under my breath and shaking my head at the wankery of it all.
Hahahaha. oh man. please give us more of your thoughts as you go :lol:
Honestly, it's everything I hate about gaming distilled into one pompous, humourless, nonsensical, clunky load of bullshit. Are we so blind in our pursuit of technical achievement that we ever thought this dumpster fire was preferable to the numerous LucasArts titles? It fails on every level, as a 'game', as a piece of 'interactive entertainment' and as a 'movie'. I was trying to read some case files on my stupid-faced investigators stupid 'ARI' glasses, but every time I swung the pad in the direction indicated, it kept flicking back in the menu rather than opening the file I wanted, it can't even get the 'interactive' bit right. I had to climb up a hill, and somehow making me use every button on the pad so I ended up holding it like a fucking Octopus is somehow preferable to just letting me push the stick. And so what if I did fail, there's absolutely no consequence to it! I presume there are branching paths in some of the QTE's, but the only time QTE's haven't sucked massive balls is on the last disc of Shenmue 2, and that's been so long that that might suck as well now. Fuck this thing, and fuck me for taking three hours to decide it sucks donkey dick.
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Re: What [not shmup] game are you playing now?

Post by Blinge »

lmfao. is that the end of your playthrough then??

There's a point in that game.. where it asked me to hold so many fucking buttons, that I shoved my tongue behind my bottom lip, and pushed the last button with my fucking face.
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Re: What [not shmup] game are you playing now?

Post by Stevens »

Still sinking lots of time into FITS.

Currently trying to curb stomp Berlin's ninja problem (stage three). Current deck is built around lots of nerve strikes, a few kicks, movement (duh), and three or four focus cards (I easily have +5 momentum every turn) which often means I play most or all my cards each turn. The lynch pin is rising strength. It costs three to play but each turn you gain +1 to attack and it stacks. Currently have two.

By turn three or four I hit like a truck, and by five or six, if the fight goes on that long, a fucking tank.

Maybe this will be the run I get passed stage four.
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Marc
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Re: What [not shmup] game are you playing now?

Post by Marc »

Blinge wrote:lmfao. is that the end of your playthrough then??

There's a point in that game.. where it asked me to hold so many fucking buttons, that I shoved my tongue behind my bottom lip, and pushed the last button with my fucking face.
See, dumb as it sounds I'm not sure. Since lockdown, I've got this odd thing where I keep buying games, but holding off from starting the ones I know I'll really like, or playing five minutes so I know I've always got stuff stored up should I ever be on my arse financially. But it's getting beyond a joke now (top of my head, this queue, excluding indies, includes such things as Mr Driller Drill Land, Panzer Dragoon Remake, Dead Cells, Hollow Knight, Luigi's Mansion 3, Pikmin 3 Deluxe, Mario 3D World, Hard Reset Redux, Ace Combat 7, Bloodstained, Wreckfest......), and yet I keep on starting stuff that only half interests me, and picking up games I've already played (latest purchases - Ashura's Wrath which I was vagely interested in years back, and Grip, which I played on Game Pass ages ago), and pushing those to the front of the queue.

So, I'm half hoping that forcing myself through this piece of crap and wasting however many hours in the process (I'm guessing at least 10-15?)might break me out of this nasty habit.

That's after I've replayed Deux Ex of course. My partner has just picked up a PC for working for home, so it would be rude not to replay that again.
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Re: What [not shmup] game are you playing now?

Post by Mortificator »

I've endured Heavy Rain and Indigo Prophecy (which manages to be EVEN DUMBER) and still ended up with Beyond: Two Souls. Maybe I should finally give that a run for y'alls schadenfreude.
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Marc
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Re: What [not shmup] game are you playing now?

Post by Marc »

Mortificator wrote:I've endured Heavy Rain and Indigo Prophecy (which manages to be EVEN DUMBER) and still ended up with Beyond: Two Souls. Maybe I should finally give that a run for y'alls schadenfreude.
That was Fahrenheit over here right? I played through with that with my then-partner when it first came out and kind of enjoyed it, but I guess I had more time and tolerance back then. I remember it being pretty entertaining at the start and absolutely batshit by the end. Were there aliens, on a airbase or something? I forget.
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vol.2
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Re: What [not shmup] game are you playing now?

Post by vol.2 »

I remember Indigo Prophecy having terrible QTE mechanics. It started out strong because of the novel interface and storyline, but failed hard not long after the halfway point as the story became boring and convoluted and the gameplay became lazy button mashing.

But I haven't played it in 15 years, so maybe it has aged better than I remember it.
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Re: What [not shmup] game are you playing now?

Post by Blinge »

You guys don't know the existential threat to all human conciousness known as Omikron: The Nomad Soul :lol:
What a steaming pile of turd.

It does the same thing Indigo Prophecy does where it keeps adding new antagonists " he's the real bad guy! " or new ancient prophecies/beings as the game goes on.

I've actually watched an old lets play of it by 3 yelling idiots (best friends play) twice now, I found it that entertaining.
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Re: What [not shmup] game are you playing now?

Post by Stevens »

Ugh. Defeat.

Almost cleared stage four. RNGeesus fucked me.
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Re: What [not shmup] game are you playing now?

Post by WelshMegalodon »

Wonder Boy in Monster Land (SMS)

Also known as Super Wonder Boy Monster World and, less commonly, Super Wonder Boy Super Monster Land.

I thought I'd check this out since I finished The Dragon's Trap and Sumez had (some) good things to say about it. What an addictive game. It's intriguing in its opacity, and obviously quite charming. I can currently get to Stage 7 or 8 consistently. After having spent the better part of an hour stumped, I realized that the boss encounter needed to progress the plot was behind a completely invisible door and am now wondering how many other hidden doors there are in this game...

Is there a preferred version of this port to play? The only difference I can see between the North American and Japanese versions is that bosses have a ton of health in the latter.

And just what is going on with this?

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Re: What [not shmup] game are you playing now?

Post by Sumez »

wondering how many other hidden doors there are in this game
I can't remember exactly, and I'm not familiar with the Master System port, but there are quite a few, and most of them are kinda essential for being fully equipped to deal with later fights.
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Re: What [not shmup] game are you playing now?

Post by Vanguard »

In particular, if you ever miss a sword upgrade then omae wa mou shindeiru. Some of them are really hidden too.
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Re: What [not shmup] game are you playing now?

Post by Herr Schatten »

WelshMegalodon wrote:wondering how many other hidden doors there are in this game...
There's quite a few, and you'll definitely need those sword updates. I can't remember offhand if any of the sidequest items are also behind hidden doors.

You'll get a feel for when to expect a hidden door. For starters, try to knock on every wall above a platform that's as wide as a door. Also, if there's a "hut" with a regular door inside a cave, there's often something on its roof, either a hidden door or at least some serious money.
WelshMegalodon wrote: And just what is going on with this?
Lol, I have never seen this on real hardware, but if the glitch shows in Emulicious, then I was probably just lucky. Looks like a messed up tilemap because the screen scrolled to a position it wasn't supposed to. Under which circumstances does that happen?

I really like the SMS version of this. The difficulty is much more relaxed than that of the arcade original, and I think the art style is actually more coherent.
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Re: What [not shmup] game are you playing now?

Post by Marc »

Blinge wrote:You guys don't know the existential threat to all human conciousness known as Omikron: The Nomad Soul :lol:
What a steaming pile of turd.

It does the same thing Indigo Prophecy does where it keeps adding new antagonists " he's the real bad guy! " or new ancient prophecies/beings as the game goes on.

I've actually watched an old lets play of it by 3 yelling idiots (best friends play) twice now, I found it that entertaining.
Oh I do my friend, indeed I do.
I bought my DC for Xmas in.... 2000 maybe? When the VF3/MSR/something else (maybe JSR) pack had dropped to around £80.00, and picked up a fuckton of stuff pre-owned for pennies. I spent that Xmas absolutely addicted to Omikron, up until one particularly shitty FPS section forced me to give up. Flawed as it was, that was the most coherent world I'd ever experienced at the time. Probably shit now, but that will always be a fond memory.

Anyways, Heavy Rain. Semi-naked chick wakes up on the couch last night. Fights off three masked assailants via the medium of QTE's, then gets her throat slit in the kitchen. BUT IT WAS ALL A DREAM. Fuck off.
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Re: What [not shmup] game are you playing now?

Post by Blinge »

Hahahahahah
yeeah but you got to make her take a shower first!
and she runs around in her underwear :shock: !!

*slow clap for david cage*

Apparently at quantic dream studios a whistleblowing employee cited much enjoyed office humour delights as an image of a 'farting dick and balls' being shared around.
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