What [not shmup] game are you playing now?

[Obscura]

With the "fighting normal enemies is generally repetitive and boring" in mind, is there any reason to do the side missions? Do they have new bosses or other interesting unique content, or are they just slogging through more of the same scrubs?

(Not really on the topic, but I do dig rage as it's implemented in DMC, especially the original [which despite not being as good as 3 or 4 has easily the best DT implementation], but that's a very different thing than "lol ur invincible nao". I didn't know that Nioh's living weapon timer went down from getting hit, that's interesting and good to know!)

[Steamflogger Boss]

I had the game Agony on my PS4 wishlist for some reason, and it seems to be on sale right now. Still a little pricey though, and now I wonder what made me wishlist it.

Did anyone around here play it, and what do you have to say about it?

Just looking online, it appears rancid, but I haven't played it. Might be better than it looks, but I'm not in any hurry to find out as I already have so many newer games I want to play. Plus I have a bunch of SNES games coming. Too many games. :S

Anyway, still playing Octopath. Wrapping up the 2nd story for each character (just a couple left) and already 30 hours in. Doesn't help that I am doing all 8 characters and side stuff but this definitely isn't a short game. Wish I could play it more but haven't had the time. I think I'm looking at AT least another 40 hours.

[Sumez]

With the "fighting normal enemies is generally repetitive and boring" in mind, is there any reason to do the side missions? Do they have new bosses or other interesting unique content, or are they just slogging through more of the same scrubs?

I did all the side missions. They are usually entertaining enough, but it's very much a repeat of the same stuff over and over, and does nothing good for the overall game experience. Some missions were too hard when I unlocked them, so I came back for them later.
As far as I recall, all bosses in the side missions are repeats of main mission bosses. You'll fight the same bosses a lot in this game. And despite this, the game has the nerve to still pull a boss rush in one of the final stages.

[Obscura]

Another question -- is there any point to using the Blacksmith? I've tried playing around a bit with tearing weapons up for materials, building new weapons, and soul matching, but none of it ever seems to be as good as just using the best gear I find. In particular, soul matching is supposed to make low-level weapons better, but when I feed my best purple Odachi that's at level 12 some level 14 or up weapons, the damage it shows that the resulting weapon would do is always lower than it is without soul matching.

[Sumez]

I did make a couple of weapons in the blacksmith that were useful for a short while, but you keep finding new weapons that are better, so yeah, it's pretty useless. One of the biggest headaches of the game is tidying up your overflowing inventory all the time.

I just used the blacksmith to get rid of all my crap.

I'm really curious to see if they decide to get rid of that awful loot system in the sequel. I have never spoken to a single person that liked it.

[Sumez]

Btw, if you find two enemies standing close enough to be in the vicinity of both of their backs, you can do a double backstab. I don't know if it's intentional, but it's fun:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2b4CY6658GY

[Obscura]

How do you even unlock the backstab? I can't find it in the "unlock skill" page.

[Sumez]

I don't remember, but as far as I recall you just do it? Stand close enough to the enemy when they haven't noticed you to get a prompt.
I think the intro mission gives you a tutorial about it.

[Obscura]

"Behind enemy, press Y" shows as "Not learned" on my skill customization page, and I never got a tutorial about it. Google is telling me it's a Ninja skill, I'll have to look at that tonight.

[Ed Oscuro]

"Why The Elder Scrolls is bad" is a meme, but I decided to more-or-less 100% Oblivion, the game where looted staves fall through the floor no more than half the time. I am now pretty much fine with never playing it again. It's also true that to get to the point that I can quibble about its many issues, it has to have many things...going on. That, at least, is the argument people used to make defending its big-huge-almost-orderly progression of Systems reigning over one gigantic clutter factory. Another plus is that it isn't Elex. I'm struck by how it feels like a transitional title - they are aiming at Skyrim type visuals, but they haven't got the technology yet to get away from the old Morrowind-style heightmap landscapes, and the facegen is clearly not all the way there yet (though not as bad as many people make it out to be).

Some fun notes from 333 hours spent sleeping, 1000 skill increases, 1 day spent in jail, 37 lockpicks broken with ~700 locks picked, and 900+ hours spent waiting in Cyrodiil:

I decided to be the face in the Emperor's dreams - a Khajiiti tubersnout! "You seem to be a bard," OK. Thief birthsign because there's roads to run and wares to sell. I never used any unique / race magic powers, though I did try to hunt down all the Doomstones.

Poor Glarthir's body is still lying outside the temple. Kellen is unconscious somewhere. Syndicates of wizards in the land of the Altmer are leading boycotts of Imperial Goods. Nothing I'd like to talk about. Be seeing you!

First thing I did out of the sewer was eat all the delicious mort flesh, rat meat, and bonemeal I had been collecting, the premier strategy for Alchemy. Bonemeal's first alchemical effect is Damage Fatigue, so I knocked Eg out for about half a minute.
I don't remember making 1500+ potions. I do remember eating 6000+ ingredients, though, and selling every kind of arrow, armor, and assorted flim-flam one-by-one to get that top mercantile boost. That was 100 hours right there. Add another 20-40 hours spent just searching out the 50 random Oblivion gates - somehow still I missed one until it was too late.

Who would want to play as The Hero of Kvatch or The Champion of Cyrodiil the entire game? Leaving the main quest for the very last is probably the best way of going about things, but this highlights how uncomfortably abrupt the game's ending is. Sean Bean's voice-overs are really spotty production-wise, like he's moving around behind the microphone. I take it everybody knows about the wild variations in inflection and even accent that you find with many characters, as when switching topics with beggars to Rumors. Sound effects in this game, overall, have really aged just as badly as anything else. Ogres have a beautiful pitch-shifted falsetto death yell, and deer breathing are probably some of the scariest hellbeast sounds in the game.

Knights of the Nine: Bad, shorter than I remembered.
Vampirism quest: Bad, shorter than expected also.
Master Trainer quests - annoying to console-patch the dead, broken questgivers back into existence. Also useless when advskill is just a ~ away.

Horses? Not even once. Get the DLC armor from Vile Lair and a special amulet which buffs speed.

Best quest? Maybe something with the Thieves Guild, like meeting the Pale Lady. Or The Ultimate Heist. Shadow Over Hackdirt had real potential, but once you move to a particular area, there's no point to the clue-gathering. Some scripted gating could have made that one wonderful - this is the company that made Dark Corners of the Earth, right?

The most fun you can have is to set up Wrye Bash wrong at first, so you have all the DLC ready to go, but no DLC or unofficial patches installed yet. That way you can witness some grand old bugs, like the infighting Imperial Legion Foresters near Applewatch. After a while you'll need to realize your mistake and fix the mod manager so that you don't start having quests break all over the place, though. RIP Big Head, killed for a spork
Probably the next most fun you can have with the game is with TGM (god mode) on, and 100% chameleon. Random bears and skeletons tend to be smarter about taking damage from unknown sources than humanoids, who continually proclaim "Damn rats!" while being sliced to death by invisible blades. Bodies fly with balletic grandeur when punched by a level 100 strength + Hand-to-hand combo. One all that gets tedious, as it will, spice up your noclip-clearing of 60 Oblivion Gates by setting your magicka to the highest level possible - somewhere around 32,000; setting it to 100,000 will hit the cap. This will let you create 120 second megabuff spells with chameleon, that ugly-ass Chulthu green light so you can see shit, detect life, and whatever other buffs you want. Get a nice offensive spell with max power frost, fire, and shock damage for the maximum duration, plus drain health. Everything dies in 3 seconds or less, guaranteed, and melt Mehrunes Dagon just like Autism Cat. You can even add weakness to magicka and spell effects if you wanted to multicast, but again, it's not needed.

Edit: One odd vignette occurred in Bruma, outside the castle. I randomly decided to zap a guard with Fingers of the Mountain, and for some reason he immediately took off running. In Oblivion, characters can enter "fleeing" mode and won't be calmed down. He took off, nobody dared to apprehend me or give me a bounty. Shortly thereafter the watch change brought in a new guard, who simply took over the vacant post. Eventually the terrified guard calmed down and attempted to return to his post. End result is two guards constantly trying to bump each other off the patrol point. I'm keeping that savegame for posterity (I should have kept the save immediately before that, though).

Next Challenger: The Elder Scrolls Adventures - Redguard. The whole gang's here!

[Obscura]

Some scripted gating could have made that one wonderful - this is the company that made Dark Corners of the Earth, right?

Nope, Bethesda was only publisher on that one. It was developed by Headfirst.

[Ed Oscuro]

Yeah, I discovered that just after posting. Some details on their business practices floating around the net, whoo!

[Obscura]

Yeah, I discovered that just after posting. Some details on their business practices floating around the net, whoo!

Yeah, if you're a mid-size developer and have the choice between making a deal with the devil or making a deal with Bethesda, making a deal with the devil is probably the better idea.

At least ol' scratch will hold up his end as long as your soul still resides in the mortal realm.

[Blinge]

"Why The Elder Scrolls is bad" is a meme, but I decided to more-or-less 100% Oblivion, the game where looted staves fall through the floor no more than half the time. I am now pretty much fine with never playing it again. It's also true that to get to the point that I can quibble about its many issues, it has to have many things...going on.

Ahah. A man after my own heart. Y'all got some o' them.. Nirnroots?

I'm currently doing the same! Plugging away at it here and there, often late at night because it puts me right to sleep.
GOTY edition that i got on steam a while back just to record my ol' pacifist run. I'm not bothering with the other "plugins".

Only major skills yet to hit 100% are block and restoration.
I'm carrying around 150 strong heal potions that i never touch.
Shivering Isles completionism is all that's left, all the other quests are done.

Syndicates of wizards in the land of the Altmer are leading boycotts of Imperial Goods. Nothing I'd like to talk about. Be seeing you!

STOP TALKING.

First thing I did out of the sewer was eat all the delicious mort flesh, rat meat, and bonemeal I had been collecting, the premier strategy for Alchemy. Bonemeal's first alchemical effect is Damage Fatigue, so I knocked Eg out for about half a minute.
I don't remember making 1500+ potions. I do remember eating 6000+ ingredients

Wortcraft eh?I never bothered munching ingredients that much, always seemed better to just clear out someone's food, or empty the tables at a guildhall every time I was there.. and slam them all into the same potion type like a walking blender. Then just sell it to the first person i saw or drop it. Money ceases to be a factor pretty early on.

selling every kind of arrow, armor, and assorted flim-flam one-by-one to get that top mercantile boost.

Nope, screw that. I paid for training in mercantile, making sure to get them 5 increases every level.
I didn't know about levelling enough minor skills to get proper stat boosts for your character though and felt woefully underpowered in the fighters guild then main quest until learning of this strategy at around level 25

Add another 20-40 hours spent just searching out the 50 random Oblivion gates

Oh jesus you weren't closing them all were you? I drew the line there.
I'm filling as much of the map as I see fit but not seeking out gates that are already dead in my game.
So i'll be just shy of 100% but that's okay because no one cares..

I take it everybody knows about the wild variations in inflection and even accent that you find with many characters, as when switching topics with beggars to Rumors.

Best shown in the Shivering Isles when all the crazies suddenly switch from worrying about their spoon collection to a very formal remarks about holy crusaders.

Knights of the Nine: Bad

I thought it was alright, I mean.. you're playing Oblivion what do you expect?
I did like how the game has scaled up its level so highly by this point that the "final battle" saw *all* of my knights run in and die immediately to one or two enemies.

RIP Big Head, killed for a spork

Siiing to Big Head! siing to him!

I remember when i first played a decade ago it was on the shitty ps3 port.
Nearly every NPC in Mania+Bliss got warped through the gate into Tamriel.
They were all just crowded around outside the strange door on that tiny island. Everything was FUCKED and i never knew why.

and melt Mehrunes Dagon just like Autism Cat.

Oh I thought the only way to kill him was wabbajack him.

One odd vignette occurred in Bruma, outside the castle...

Amazing.

The most recent annoyance is just how fucking long it takes to level marksman. It feels like I've been using this shitty bow forever.
I got some master level training in an attempt to speed things up with the precious few opportunities I have left at level 47 or something to buy skill levels. The thing is, she's now fucked off.
I think the trainer got eaten by a mountain lion somewhere cause I've searched for ages around her camp. Waited for days in-game and she's not reappearing. Her corpse may be lying around nearby but good luck spotting it among the long grass, rocks and uneven terrain! GAH.
At least half my shots knock enemies down though so i can gleefully stand there pumping more arrows into them as they flail about trying to get up.

[Obscura]

I think I'm done with Nioh. This game is just too fucking shit to play, 99% of it is either cutting down humans who can't do anything for fighting Yokai enemies that have to just be "dodge -> one hit -> repeat" simon says bullshitted forever. Terrible brawler, terrible "action-adventure", terrible RPG, terrible port, terrible game.

[Ed Oscuro]

@ Blinge: If you're willing to cheat the opportunities are endless

Mehrunes Dagon cannot be "killed" for real without activating that certain scripted sequence. Hitting him with enough spell damage does cause his body to melt and fall into the floor - I don't think I got him to stay that way permanently in my game, though it appears that Autism Cat guy did with his crazy buffed spell. Quite amusing to see.

About closing the gates - if I really was doing every gate manually, fighting through like you're "supposed to" I'm sure I'd still be at it.

About leveling - honestly you can just use the "setlevel" command to take yourself back to whatever level you like, if the enemies get too intense (level 30 is the highest reasonable level to take; that's the highest level I've seen for quest rewards, and only for a handful of items - more leveled items max at 25, and I'm not sure it's terribly many either). On the whole "why does this game feel broken?" issue this is a pretty good appraisal of the game's issues.

About the missing marksman trainer - I had trouble with her too, here's a blow-by-blow guide to bringing her back:

Type "prid 0003C160" in the console, which should bring up her name along the top of the screen.
Then try "resurrect 1" in the console. You should see something like "Alawen picked package (Find)," in which case you can type "moveto player" to get her over to you. If you don't see the "picked package" in the console, type "enable" and then repeat the previous commands. Resurrected NPCs tend to be wonky on their time schedules so you might want to wait a while.

Keep in mind that when you stop by the neck of the woods NPCs are in, they're likely to wander into trouble and get killed. So for extra protection you can type "setessential" on an NPC.

Interesting fact: If you have an NPC in your sights (or anything in the game, including the ground), you don't have to look up a Wiki entry to do console commands on that NPC (or thing). Just pull down the console, mouse over the thing, and click on it. Make sure the top of the screen shows the correct name, of course, else it might have selected something else.

And here's a few useful commands for hunting down tiny objects (like daggers) hidden in the world: "tg" will turn off the grass; "tt" the trees, and I think "tl" will toggle leaves (including in little bushes which TT might not remove).

[Marc]

Uugh. I played some Arkanoid on X360 last night. Proof that not every beloved classic ages well. Doesn't help when the ball clearly passes straight through the paddles on numerous occasions.

Because it was on sale ridiculously cheap, and because I think that Rivals is possibly the most under-rated open-world racer I've played, I picked up Need For Speed 2016. It's.... OK I guess. It hard to understand though how the same team can cock up so many of the things they nailed first time around. Rivals understood that to make open-world racing fun, the road need to be long, winding and easy to navigate without having to constantly refer to a crappy little mini map, that's the main reason it worked so well. NFS is a grid-based city area which means lots of 90 bends, and built-up visuals that make a clear line hard to spot. The graphics can actually look quite splendid at times, but at speed it's a mix of street lights, head lights, and tail lights that feels like a 90's rave, and there's simply no need for the constant night-time setting. It breaks out into something approaching dawn every so often, and the difference is so striking it's untrue. It's a shame, because the handling is just up my street, set to drift even the starting cars can be thrown sideways though every bend, and there's a pleasing amount to be tinkered with. It was £3.99, so I'll give it a few more hours and see if the map improves any as I branch out.

Oh and everyone involved in the atrocious 'acting' and 'plot' needs to die, slowly.

Also, Dead Cells. I've played 30 minutes and it's possibly the best thing I've played since Spelunky.

[Steamflogger Boss]

Dead Cells is awesome.

[Squire Grooktook]

I liked fighting humans in Nioh but the bosses made me realized how burned out I am on typical character action "press i-frame button to not die" repetitive timing memorization battles. If it was just a brawler against human opponents and didn't have any hyper-armor giant monsters I might have enjoyed it enough to continue.

Speaking of character action, after dropping the infuriatingly shallow and repetitive Ys Seven, I went and revisited Devil May Cry 1, 3, and 4. Curious how they held up compared to modern character action.

They really do. I like how there's actually some bit of spacing and creativity in these games when it comes to dodging. Sure, you have your i-frame dodge rolls and shit, but you can also manually outspace attacks by backing up normally, air dash behind enemies, clash against an enemy blow using a quick attack, low profile aerial high attacks with a falling slash, or rise up above low attacks with an uppercut...etc.

The evasive game is still not as fun as a shmup or a sidescroller, nor is the spacing/footsies as intricate as a beltscroller, but it's there and it plays well to the games real fine point: creative, varied rushdown. The evasive/defensive options you have (besides just "i-frame dodge roll through it") make those offensive options feel more varied and meaningful.

In comparison, I revisited Bayonetta 2 for a quick few missions afterwards and the balance nauseated me in comparison. Every fucking boss has a hitbox that reaches halfway to the moon, so outspacing things or clever use of your moveset is out of the question: just i-frame roll it, it's the only option. Normal enemies aren't even guaranteed to stay in hitstun mid-air unless you witch time them first, so you have to depend on that even for basic mook combos. And oh yeah, sure, there's more combo options (though that's not necessarily a good thing, more on that in a sec) but they feel less meaningful when they don't have any impact on the surrounding defensive rhythm game you're forced to play in between.

Another thing that really engrossed me about DMC3 was the combo/style system. The "don't repeat moves" conceit is brilliant. It's simple, yet deep, improvisational, and challenging enough to give you that kind of adrenaline high that a really intense shmupping scoring system does when you pull it off well.

Some people say DMC4 is a better game (in spite of its wonkier level design) because of its expanded combat system, and I'll disagree. DMC3 is the superior game on every front because less is more. The smaller moveset is tighter and results in a more alchemical balance for the combo system. In DMC3 getting those SSS ranks feels like a brain throbbing rush. In DMC4, I have so many fucking moves and combo strings available that it's probably more challenging to actually repeat a move than it is to vary them.

Also the enemies are more fun to fight.

Bayonetta's scoring system amuses me on that note because now there are definitely too many combos and moves available to make the simple old style system viable. So now it goes for a wacky (and stupid) multiplier system of "5 punches and 5 kicks to build multiplier then reset with a wicked weave", which reminds me of how Cave kept struggling to make more and more convoluted and stupid scoring systems in order to stay fresh instead of taking things back to basics.

Oh yeah, also gave Doom 4 a shot.

Overall it's okay. Big shoes to fill and it's got its fair share of flaws, but there are enough fun / interesting aspects that I'm not getting bored. I appreciate the effort.

[Ed Oscuro]

On the "less is more" front, Blades of Time is aggravating me for that reason. "This zone is full of Chaos!" Time to cast some Order spells. Whaat?

[BrianC]

Uugh. I played some Arkanoid on X360 last night. Proof that not every beloved classic ages well. Doesn't help when the ball clearly passes straight through the paddles on numerous occasions.

Maybe Arkanoid 360 isn't that great of a remake? I heard mixed things about that game and I'm under the impression that the flaws of the 360 version may not be inherent from the original AC version of Arkanoid.

[wiNteR]

I liked fighting humans in Nioh but the bosses made me realized how burned out I am on typical character action "press i-frame button to not die" repetitive timing memorization battles. If it was just a brawler against human opponents and didn't have any hyper-armor giant monsters I might have enjoyed it enough to continue.

I guess I don't feel that strongly about it (part of a somewhat persistent/larger "accuracy" issue with number of 3D games perhaps ..... though not all genres I think). But generically, I agree with what you said (not played the mentioned game though). For what its worth, I have played and completed (i) DMC3 (ii)DMC4 (iii)Bayonetta-1 (iv)Bayonetta-2). (i) I played way too long ago.

(ii) and (iii) both about 7--9 years ago (and on higher difficulties than normal), going for one life clears of levels (not using anything obvious like health/magic consumables etc.). Same with (iv) on highest difficulty (except for the last level, because I was burned out). Also, I played this one with Jeanne because slow motion is harder to trigger. It wasn't easy. But it isn't about difficulty I feel.

So certainly, I can't speak for every game (however, the general issue is perhaps there), but certainly none of the games were as satisfying as when I played say Sengoku-3 or Age of Heroes. I never got to 1CC of these games but played them to some extent (reached fourth or fifth level on both games ..... on one credit ofc). It is clear that one has to learn to control the spacing/movement etc., which is significantly different(note that I am not talking about difficulty) from rhythmic actions or difficult button presses. To me, this feeling of that control is what seems to be missing in 3D action games.

Is there a way to make it different. I don't know for certain, but few things do stand out. One thing is that dynamic camera often seems to make too many enemies off-screen (which I feel shouldn't be happening). And dynamic camera is perhaps kept to avoid making the game feel older/primitive perhaps. The other thing is that it seems about design (if the game is designed while giving thought to these points, then it is more likely to address them).

But probably not everyone feels that way I suppose. And, at any rate, some people do seem to enjoy playing for combo/grade though.

P.S. Interestingly though, I played GoW (the first one) an year or two ago (on hard difficulty). I didn't complete the game (played about 50 to 60%). One thing is that it did hold up reasonably well. It seems that the level design was attempted to keep a certain degree of variety (though "eventually" things do start to get a little boring I suppose).

[NYN]

I revisited Bayonetta 2

boss has a hitbox that reaches halfway to the moon

Oho, I applaud what you did there.

Some people say DMC4 is a better game (in spite of its wonkier level design) because of its expanded combat system

I tried 4 for the first time some 3 years ago and was astonished. I get the combat nerd angle, but all in all, to me, it feels like half a game. And that is bolstered by official citation of the staff. Looking inside the game for any fresh ideas is hard work, man. Nevermind the 'dome, though.

Also the enemies are more fun to fight.

No kidding. 4 brought back marionettes, blades, and scythes from the original and rehashed them as Scarecrows, Assaults and Faust/Mephisto. My fave is the new type, appropriately dubbed Fault - a bleeping ground booby trap. Similar goes for the bosses, who are to fight three times on one difficulty or more if the board game part (*wince*) is not exploited accordingly. But hey hey hey, whatever you do, don't contradict continuity! It's our friend, right?

[Squire Grooktook]

I revisited Bayonetta 2

boss has a hitbox that reaches halfway to the moon

Oho, I applaud what you did there.

^_~

tried 4 for the first time some 3 years ago and was astonished. I get the combat nerd angle, but all in all, to me, it feels like half a game.

Indeed. I also feel the level design and general pacing isn't as good. DMC always had a psuedo adventure game aspect to break up the action. In 3 it's handled perfectly: just a bit of spooky exploration and atmosphere in between fights to keep you from losing your mind and to ensure it still feels like an adventure and not a combat sim. In 4 you have to push fucking gyro blades around for 5 minutes...

Not that I think 4 is bad, mind you. 3 is simply a masterpiece, but 4 is still good fun and worth a visit for the fun but less refined toybox it offers.

In fact, I don't want to be too harsh on Bayonetta either. It's still a fun experienced and probably the most polished example of what it is (though I wish it did the MGR thing and guaranteed you safety if you pressed the i-frame dodge button after an enemy flash, at least so you can just focus on reflex dodging and not worry about memorizing timings from the impossible to read attack animations on the games cast of eldritch horrors.)

Also the enemies are more fun to fight.

No kidding. 4 brought back marionettes, blades, and scythes from the original and rehashed them as Scarecrows, Assaults and Faust/Mephisto.

Their gameplay just feels less balanced too. Scarecrows feel less agressive than Marionettes or The Seven Hell's on comparative difficulties, for how much of a mainstay they remain in enemy forces. The Faust/Mephisto (ESPECIALLY the big one) take too long to kill, and the Assault variants have a bit too much hyper armor for my taste and their ai is weird, sometimes running away from you and generally being annoying.

There's also the Bianco/Alto Angelo's...I like some aspects of them (snatching behind them to get behind their shield, grappling them mid air, etc.), but they're too blocky for my tastes as well, particularly the Alto's. Feels like it slows things down waiting/baiting them to expose themselves sometimes.

So certainly, I can't speak for every game (however, the general issue is perhaps there), but certainly none of the games were as satisfying as when I played say Sengoku-3 or Age of Heroes. I never got to 1CC of these games but played them to some extent (reached fourth or fifth level on both games ..... on one credit ofc). It is clear that one has to learn to control the spacing/movement etc., which is significantly different(note that I am not talking about difficulty) from rhythmic actions or difficult button presses. To me, this feeling of that control is what seems to be missing in 3D action games.

I feel 3 is on this level, myself. It doesn't have the footsies of a beltscroller or the dodging of a shmup, but what it excels at over those games is offense. Finding creative ways to berserker rush enemies and keep the assault going while being flashy, stylish, and varied feels as deep and satisfying as those other games. It's this unity of purpose between the interaction of its mechanics and playstyles that really put it on another level, imo.

[Obscura]

There's also the Bianco/Alto Angelo's...I like some aspects of them (snatching behind them to get behind their shield, grappling them mid air, etc.), but they're too blocky for my tastes as well, particularly the Alto's. Feels like it slows things down waiting/baiting them to expose themselves sometimes.

Buster. You don't have to wait for shit.

Alternatively, smack them, and if they block, jump -> grim grip, you'll land at their back and can keep combo-ing.

[Squire Grooktook]

There's also the Bianco/Alto Angelo's...I like some aspects of them (snatching behind them to get behind their shield, grappling them mid air, etc.), but they're too blocky for my tastes as well, particularly the Alto's. Feels like it slows things down waiting/baiting them to expose themselves sometimes.

Buster. You don't have to wait for shit.

Alternatively, smack them, and if they block, jump -> grim grip, you'll land at their back and can keep combo-ing.

Bianco shields can be bustered, but it seemed like Alto's shrug it off a ton before their shields finally succumb.

And yes, the jump -> snatch to get behind them is very fun.

Dante has neither option, but then again, he's Dante he don't care.

[Obscura]

With Dante, switch to Gunslinger, Shotgun Stinger or Charge Shot with Shotgun both instantly solve the problem of an Angelo blocking.

(Shotgun Stinger is a critical part of Dante's toolkit in general)

[Obscura]

Started a Vanquish God Hard run.

Holy fuck, what did I get myself into? I had heard that 1-3 was a bitch on GH, but god damn... that stage that's a total non-event on Hard took me over 3 hours and 131 deaths on God Hard. I almost never use the Sniper Rifle on Hard (aside from that scene on the train, of course), but on GH, it seems like a key component of salvation, since you can't any of the rapid-fire weapons for more than about a third of a second at a time with the revamped AR mechanics.

[Necronopticous]

I beat the Pantheon of Hollownest in Hollow Knight.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w_-AHnN2c9g

[kaicooper]

just finished CANDLEMAN: The Complete Journey
its good challenging game with some trippy levels in last chapters..kinda fucked up
but the issue here is there's no purpose to collect/lighting the candles at all..
for a first run is good..but no more in future