floralcateyes wrote:
* The story telling is interminably anime/modern jrpg. It's idea of pathos is dramatic violins while a character you met a few minutes ago predictably dies...Obviously depends on whether or not you're down for this kind of fluff, which certainly has its place. But personally it's making me reconsider my habit of not skipping new cutscenes (in case of gameplay info or directions) and I don't find it bad enough to be endearing.
People might get the wrong impression of me from my posts, but I'm not actually a huge jrpg man. I appreciate the classics, and there are a few gems and diamonds in the roughs that I love from the modern era, but I'm overall can't call myself a major fan or follower of the genre, I don't think. I've never gotten too big into the Tales Of series, abandoned a lot of the Final Fantasies, have only ambivalent knowledge of the more obscure and weeb-tier games, etc.
But when that shit is good? When it's well executed? When it's got that "feel" and ethos to it? I love the fuck out of it. And CV is definitely one of those times. While the vampiric mad-max faux-souls setting is unique and fun in its own right, the plot/characters are thematically straightforward as an arrow and completely unironic, and that's why I love it. I find myself comparing it to Chrono Trigger, because that's the vibe it sort of gives me. It's got the same sense of innocent, unironic heroism and can-do optimism. Which is why I absolutely don't mind having speeches about friendship and self sacrifice in my Soulslike. After 5 games and countless replays of weary existentialism, some chicken soup for the soul is exactly what the doctor ordered.
Obviously not for everyone. Like if you don't have a soul, for example, or you dropped your humanity and it got eaten by a giant plague rate, I could see thinking it's a bit cliche in that case.
floralcateyes wrote:
Companions comment on a lot of things, but it's usually a generic "That's a useful item!" after you pick up a key item or "It's a ladder!" when you've already mounted said ladder or "Glad to be leaving those caverns!" when you're backtracking and entering a cave from its exit.
There's definitely some good ones mang. Like revisiting the arena of one early-game boss fight with
many hours after her joining the party, she'll remark dreamily about the coccoon outliving its host. Really caught me off guard because it was a bit of an extra effort to add that in there that I wouldn't have expected.
Likewise, there are parts in the game where bringing the right companion to the right sequence/dungeon will have entire conversations running throughout the course of it (I can think if one major example off the top of my head, not sure if there's any as major though).
While most of the dialogue is utilitarian indeed, there's just enough "character" moments sprinkled throughout and extra efforts like that which manages to turn it towards genuinely charming. It helps that the english VA's are
mostly solid and some seem to be having fun with their roles. On that note gotta give special mention to
who epitomizes the RLM meme of "He's evil and he loves it!" as his VA relishes every opportunity to smugly chew the scenery like it's an all you can eat buffet.
floralcateyes wrote:
* I still feel like I'm cheating when I bring along the AI companion.
Honestly, I think the game is just not that hard to begin with, AI partner or not. Which - after the draining experience of revisiting Ludwig The Accursed and promptly giving up on a second victory over Orphan of Kos - I am
completely fine with.
With that in mind, and not being afraid of cheese, I find the whole system a lot of fun. My advice is to play less cautiously and in a more fast paced manner. Don't worry about picking off huge hordes from a distance, but play it like a more traditional action game and charge in knowing that you have backup trailing behind.
TBH I do wonder if the game wouldn't have the odd (and undeserved) love/hate reception it does if it strayed even further from the Souls formula. Take out stamina and the haze-drops and treat it as a more straightforward flashy-yet-grounded character-action-rpg and I wonder if a lot of the people who think it poor for directly comparing it to Fromsoft's productions would be more kind to it (also the leveling system and customization - which are designed around freely letting you change your build and experiment with all options, encouraging you to do so even- already feels like it would be more at home in a more "traditional" action-rpg). For me, the fact that it's already doing its own thing and deliberately has its own personality (in gameplay, aesthetic, story, etc.) is what immediately won me over when other imitators tend to make me roll my eyes.
floralcateyes wrote:
* Ambivalent about the ichor system, which is a mana pool for all of your spells and abilities. On the one hand, the fact that you can recharge your ichor just by hitting enemies with your melee attacks and can even temporarily increase your max ichor via backstabs and special attacks makes mages feel even more OP. Though this is very awkwardly balanced by how Big Sword has a penchant for killing enemies before I can use them to recharge. On the other hand, it does add to that "Should I push on?" feeling discussed above and elsewhere. I frequently forego chances to rest at a bonfire to take advantage of my jacked-up ichor (resting resets your max ichor to its default). And I sometimes consider backtracking to fight some mooks and increase my max ichor before tackling a boss (never needed to though).
Love the Ichor system. It allows you to indulge more freely in a massive moveset, pulling off Devil May Cry-esque stylings on enemies, yet balances out ranged powers and spams by forcing you to periodically close the distance and rush down enemies to recharge it quickly. It's quite the breath of fresh air to Bloodborne where I build my character around acquiring every Hunters Tool, exhaust all my resources with one or two casts in a boss fight while doing barely more damage than a melee combo, and then cry into a pillow over my shriveled blue balls.
I'm sure you can certainly cheese the game with the right combo and build, but as I said above, it's hard to care when not approached from the same Souls-y perspective. Or when you've played RPG's long enough to know that balance is a meme anyway.
floralcateyes wrote:
* That said, the level design is actually really good. Copy-paste Londo is a lovely little labyrinth filled with hidden paths and drops. Lots of verticality and paths that overlap and knot into themselves. The copy-paste actually worked in its favor. And consulting the mini-map (yes there's a mini-map) is likely to get you even more lost than if you ignored it. Other areas so far are great as well, doing a really good job of rewarding exploration, observation, and even a little deduction (i.e. "That item is on a platform above me, but I can see a ladder that extends below the ground, so maybe a I should look for a drop point along the nearby cliffs..."). There's possibly too much reliance on the old "enemy waiting for your right behind a corner" trick, but it does throw some fun variants on that into the mix.
Glad we agree on this! Not-Anor-Londo reminds me a great deal of a Ys 1&2 dungeon. An absolutely unforgiving, engrossing maze that requires deliberate effort and attention to mentally map. It's definitely the climax of that kind of level design in the game, but in general the "levels" in the game do have that feel of actually expecting you to keep track of your bearings.
Amusingly, I was told that Not-Anor-Londo was the worst part of the game and the one that made everyone quit it. Fuckin' plebs.