From Software 'n such

[Lemnear]

If only i could play SHMUPS in the same way i play souls-likes...

[Angry Hina]

Last weekend, I captured some ingame footage of Armored Core: Project Phantasma and while doing so played the stages I havent on my playthrough back than and realized, that there are two Kings Field inspired stages o.O

Their names and discription were not that interesting so I choose the other missions. Thankfully you can play them after you playthrough.

I've made a little video of these two:
https://youtu.be/Ajdo21ex_WI

[Blinge]

Hmm, I'm not so sure.

Sure a few bits of the first mission remind me of necron's colliseum. but can you show 1-1 what any of these areas are actually supposed to be?

Yeah the second mish looks a bit like ancient battleground from 3-maybe it's homage like you say. but these aren't lifted directly.

[Angry Hina]

No, they are not directly copied. I think both games dont really have assets you easily could exchange directly. In my video description I said "more or less pasted", which is more or less correct, I guess

But nevertheless they surely should work as references to Kings Field.

[evil_ash_xero]

Pretty interested in this new AC game. I have VERY little experience with the old games. Played the demo of For Answer and V. Played a few minutes of 2.

The last 3D mech game I got into was ZOE2. This looks good, so far. I have to admit, when the previews start talking about all the customization, my eyes glaze over.
I know it's a gigantic part of the games, but it just slows these previews down. However, I know a lot of people want to see that part.

It'll be nice to play a FS game that isn't cut from the DkS cloth. At the same time, I hope it's close in quality to their newer titles.
Not similar, but just close to as fun or good as.

[Angry Hina]

I also captured all Armored Core: Project Phantasma missions in a row, if someones interested. Even if its so short, I really like this game and its stringent story line. Because of the few missions, it feels never repetitive, unlike most of the other AC titles.
Used a simple late game equipment with reverse joint legs, without human+ and secret weapons (the way I alswas play the series).

https://youtu.be/lHJ-4CQysxw

[Sima Tuna]

My favorite legs are the spider walker legs. I always build a midgame mech in AC3 and Silent Line that uses spider legs. Hover legs are fun too. Certain missions can take place over water or on a small platform surrounded by water. If you take those with hover legs, you can fly across the entire map and don't have to deal with the water hazard.

[Angry Hina]

I have heard this just recently and think this is a good idea but I like these few stages where you have to deal with those movement restrictions. I also like the idea of spider leg Mechs but I dont like the centaurus-style AC-Version of it with the human upper body above these legs. At least in most cases.

My first contact as a child with Mech designs was on a C64 game collection package with a Battletech game included. The artwork had shown some space marine watevers fighting a reverse joint Mech. I loved this artwork. (does someone know, how this model is called?)



Later I've seen some Mech Warrior designs like the gorgeous Catapult, which is my favorite Mechwarrior-Mech till today. This is why I alsways built reverse joint legged ACs

[Sumez]

[Angry Hina]

(I guess I'am here more on the western side ^^)

I answer myself on my question about the Mech on the Cover above: Its an old design style of the lightweight (20 tons) Mech called "Locust".

[Sima Tuna]

Tank tread ACs can be incredibly powerful too. The tank bodies typically have the highest carry capacity and the highest armor, so you can really pile on massive amounts of armor/hp and then slap every possible weapon on there as well. While it's flying, the tank isn't really much slower than any other AC type. It is slower on the ground, but you can afford to be. Unless you're getting circle-strafed by a much faster mech out in the open (in which case, back yourself into a corner,) you will win the damage race.

I spent a lot of time in the arena in AC3 and Silent Line. Tank treads prove their worth in the arena by allowing you to totally disregard your opponent's game plan. Just smash them with your high ordinance. Guntank bros forever!

[Angry Hina]

I've lately whatched some videos of a guy (above average gaming) talking about the different AC game generations. I liked his expertise about the different parts and its balancing but he if possible played always with human+, etc, because its "more fun". If one thinks this is a valid thing (I do not), tank legs are in a really bad spot I guess.

[Sima Tuna]

I never play with human+ because limitations make games more fun. Building an AC that can fly forever, boost forever, have a ton of armor etc without human+ is much more fun than cheating.

I'll never forget the first time I popped a massive generator into a mech with a tiny booster and learned that combo allows you to fly forever.

[Blinge]

Can you do that in the PSX era?

haha I had to swap out my uber beast treads in Phantasma... all because of an intercept convoy type mission that required me to zip across the map very fast.
with the treads the enemy trucks managed to slip by.

so yeha reconfigured for one mission then went straight back.
I do love this tank build
What guns do you want blinge?
Yes.

[Sima Tuna]

Can you do that in the PSX era?

haha I had to swap out my uber beast treads in Phantasma... all because of an intercept convoy type mission that required me to zip across the map very fast.
with the treads the enemy trucks managed to slip by.

so yeha reconfigured for one mission then went straight back.
I do love this tank build
What guns do you want blinge?
Yes.

No idea if it works in PSX era Armored Core, but it works in Silent Line and AC3. I believe it works in AC2 as well. I've seen let's players doing something similar in that game. I haven't played PSX Armored Core in ages.

[BareKnuckleRoo]

Finally beat Dark Souls! Was playing the remastered version on Switch, ran around with heavy armor for a lot of it once I got a proper suit. The moss covered stone armor looks pretty rad aside from the helmet I think. Was built for tanking with a greatshield, but splitting between Str and Dex to try out a katana meant I couldn't get the Str for any hefty shields other than an Eagle shield.

Spoiler

The skeletal babies outside Nito's are incredibly creepy. O_o

I missed the DLC content so gonna explore more thoroughly on my next playthough, haha.

The Kiln of the Last Flame looks epic when you're running up to it, but the area's a bit of a letdown in that it's super linear and has no exploration to get to it. Gwyn himself I somehow downed on the first try but man was it close, I made the mistake of using a lightning Iaito and had to trade blows, healing through 20 Estus and over 20 humanities, oof.

Hardest boss for me was Four Kings; you pretty much have to know what to do and gear accordingly, though once you know to pile on the best armor and max poise and DPS race em, they're not that tough to kill. It's figuring out what's expected of you that sucks as the fight's unlike any other in the game.

Bed of Chaos sucked at first, but I've since been playing another playthrough and discovered all the attacks tend to miss if you hide along the back wall, and you can jump over pits to basically avoid being in melee range. Arrows make it WAY easier and it's possible to beat it in such a way that you only need to jump a couple of pits before the last phase. Puzzle boss, but more interesting and less frustrating to work out than Four Kings.

The hardest part of Seath's is to avoid the temptation to run up and smack him. The side tentacles see fewer attacks and are a safe place to carve him up. The tail slams he does if you get behind him are kind of ridiculous though, like 4 high damage hits in a row? He's slow enough that you can relatively safely whittle him down with arrows, I even tried using a Dragonslayer Greatbow on him and it worked very well, though it's way too expensive to buy ammo for it!

Nito died on first attempt. I was probably very, very overpowered though, my Vit stat was nearly 40 with the ring that Lautrec drops.

Fun stuff, looking forward to replaying it more.

haha I had to swap out my uber beast treads in Phantasma... all because of an intercept convoy type mission that required me to zip across the map very fast.

Yeah, tank treads are pretty rad; you can out DPS a lot of stuff, hover over the moonlight blade waves H+ ACs like to use, and carry enough ammo for missions that you never feel like you're at risk of running out. The low speed only impacts a couple of missions where the ability to move fast is basically required (the first game has the corrosive gas mission, Phantasma has that convoy mission, MotA probably has at least one I can't think of).

[Steamflogger Boss]

Congrats Roo, good stuff.

Bed still sucks though.

[Blinge]

Nito.. like a lot of early DS series bosses.. is just not built for people to facetank.

If you bathe in his nutsack, most of his attacks will whiff

I truly believe that From thought every player would evade backwards only- in the early days.
Did you play the DLC? Artorias? Manus?

https://youtu.be/HiFAZH0QIuw?t=2882 - there's my Four Kings Level 1 fight if you wanna see.
challenge mode: talking to my twat mate via discord the whole time haha.
*
Project Faptasma? the low speed also affects you on the missions which all tend to be pretty long compared to the compact action of the first game. A lot of base raids involve me taking AGES just to traverse the map from 1 objective to another.

[BareKnuckleRoo]

Bed still sucks though.

If you don't know what you're doing, 100%, it sucks. You can't block the swipes as you get knocked off, and the fact that the phases don't resist feels like the game's admitting it's jank enough to give you training wheels. But if you realize the back wall has a perfectly safe route you can do some platforming on to avoid the boss's melee hits, it's vastly more bearable. For the last phase, move forward to bait the two swipes where it uses left hand then right hand, then walk off the ledge onto the root for victory. I actually restarted a playthrough just to see if I could figure out a way of doing it from start to finish without dying or using the homeward bone trick to exit the fight after each phase.

Best reference video I've seen of someone doing it. I prefer killing the left thing first then the right one, but either way works: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5eZ4aAIelUg

Did you play the DLC? Artorias? Manus?

Sadly no, I didn't explore quite as much as I should have once I got to the endgame, and didn't finish off a few questlines (didn't see Siegmeyer again after he left firelink), so gonna replay it with a more magic oriented build and try to complete as much of the NPC related stuff this time.

[Blinge]

good luck finding the fuckin' DLC without a guide.
( don't. use a guide. )

here's the guide:
defeat the Hydra in Darkroot Basin.. follow the left edge of the pond.. it's shallow. Into a cave, kill big ice golem. Talk to NPC
Duke's Archives- first ice golem up the stairs on the right will now drop Broken Pendant.
go back to where NPC was by the pond in Darkroot... there's a portal there now.

Blinge files part DOS
https://youtu.be/r-7TeZB3rMI?t=5274

Thicc boi vs Bed of BS

[BareKnuckleRoo]

Thicc boi

Hehe, thanks for the reminder. Now that I've cleared the game I've got a few meme runs to watch including yours and a dragon form only run.

[Steamflogger Boss]

Bed still sucks though.

If you don't know what you're doing, 100%, it sucks. You can't block the swipes as you get knocked off, and the fact that the phases don't resist feels like the game's admitting it's jank enough to give you training wheels. But if you realize the back wall has a perfectly safe route you can do some platforming on to avoid the boss's melee hits, it's vastly more bearable. For the last phase, move forward to bait the two swipes where it uses left hand then right hand, then walk off the ledge onto the root for victory. I actually restarted a playthrough just to see if I could figure out a way of doing it from start to finish without dying or using the homeward bone trick to exit the fight after each phase.

Best reference video I've seen of someone doing it. I prefer killing the left thing first then the right one, but either way works: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5eZ4aAIelUg

Did you play the DLC? Artorias? Manus?

Sadly no, I didn't explore quite as much as I should have once I got to the endgame, and didn't finish off a few questlines (didn't see Siegmeyer again after he left firelink), so gonna replay it with a more magic oriented build and try to complete as much of the NPC related stuff this time.

Yeah I mean I don't struggle with it at all at this point but I still think it's crappy.

Also I agree with Blinge just use a guide for the DLC.

[Sumez]

If you don't know what you're doing, 100%, it sucks. You can't block the swipes as you get knocked off, and the fact that the phases don't resist feels like the game's admitting it's jank enough to give you training wheels. But if you realize the back wall has a perfectly safe route you can do some platforming on to avoid the boss's melee hits, it's vastly more bearable. For the last phase, move forward to bait the two swipes where it uses left hand then right hand, then walk off the ledge onto the root for victory. I actually restarted a playthrough just to see if I could figure out a way of doing it from start to finish without dying or using the homeward bone trick to exit the fight after each phase.

I think Bed of Chaos (fortunately) never really feels that bad on a first playthrough. It's a puzzle boss, so gradually finding out what you're supposed to do is still somewhat rewarding.
You probably go in expecting to die several times before you win, so that doesn't feel like much of a setback, and it's probably a tiny victory to get back and find out that the progress you made before dying actually carries through.
In a lot of ways the boss is actually quite cool. It seems like a big impregnable fortress with a massive reach, and you need to poke at its weak spots to be able to make it into its core. Like, on paper, it's actually fun.

But when you're replaying the game and know from the start what you need to do (basically the stuff you wrote), that's when you start experiencing just how wonky and annoying the boss is. The precautions you need to take to ensure not getting hit are tedious, the platforming is, well, it's Dark Souls platforming, and there's always a chance you'll mess that up. And somehow the timing to make it through its swipes are never as reliable as I think it is.
I've had multiple full playthroughs of Dark Souls 1 where the only deaths I had were at Bed of Chaos. Even though it's a puzzle boss.

[BareKnuckleRoo]

Various thoughts on DS while they're still fresh in my mind, curious to see if my opinions change later when I get better at the game:

Rambling thoughts in here!

• Wanderer's got the coolest starting outfit I think. It also helps that you can take a detour to Blighttown to get it if you want it with any other class, though it's pretty well guarded. The red sealer's robes would be really cool too if it weren't for the fact that you run around barefoot in them, and swapping to an actual pair of boots hurts you as the legs of these have absurd early game stats for such low weight.

• Eagle Shield is the best shield in the game, no contest. 16 Strength is easily doable for any class, and gives you an insanely high stability shield with minimal weight. Balder Shield also works well as an alternative if you can nab one early to block with. The heavier greatshields are technically better than the Eagle Shield, but require like double the strength investment to use, so are really difficult to actually justify the stat points unless you're actively aiming to use a high strength requirement weapon. The Eagle Shield's chip damage is negated by the face that its limited requirements means you can invest all your extra points in Vit for max health, making you very durable, even when facing down some of the heftier bosses in the game.

• Because spells don't use stamina when casting them and recharge stamina at the normal rate, you can swap to a Pyromancy Flame to smack enemies with Combustion up close if you want to keep your stamina up while attacking. Combustion served well as a very effective close range attack spell.

• Curved swords and stabby rapiers suck. I actually really like both of them, as the Falchion and Estoc were very handy, but their backstep instead of a kick is a very dangerous thing to have when you're on precarious footing as it's depressingly easy to do unintentionally, thus flinging yourself off a ledge. An accidental kick is generally nowhere as harmful to you as an accidental backflip attack. I suppose I could make use of them in places where there aren't pits around to worry about and swap to a safe weapon as necessary when footing's rough.

• Spears are awesome, but also suck ass. On enemies that have large, tight hitboxes, a spear's reach to punish attacks is really nice. The Partizan's heavy sweep attacks are a very handy tool to have. Using the shield raised poke is usually too slow for my tastes, and I tend to like the spears for the range. But spears also absolutely suck on tall, two legged enemies that stand wide enough that the spear goes between their legs. Smough, BIGMODE Ornstein, Gargoyles, Quelaag, the Golem, half the large demons in the game... there's several bosses where spears are a nuisance and a liability I find compared to a weapon that has a more vertical swing on their basic attacks.

• The Halberd's basically a better spear, with it being surprisingly fast if you hit with it repeatedly, but has the same problem spears have with it going between enemy legs. It also has a problem where it hits so low it sometimes outright misses ghosts in New Londo at normal body height.

• The Gargoyle's Halberd and Scythe (actually a Bardiche) have an amazing moveset. The speed and range are on par with the basic Halberd, but the overhead swing has a vastly better vertical hitbox, followed by the horizontal slash if you like, or you can delay a splitsecond and get another overhead swing. Not the fastest weapon in terms of DPS perhaps, but outranging enemies and punishing them is amazingly fun with these. The only problem is there's a couple tight areas of the game (the well in Painted World comes to mind...) where swinging it causes it to bounce off the roof! So a smaller poking weapon helps as backup...

• Katanas are alarmingly good with no major downsides. I'm playing with an Iaito that absolutely ruins stuff, and it and the Uchigatana (you can get early if you're very naughty) both have great movesets. Just don't upgrade them to a Chaos Blade though. Swings FAR slower, the heavy attacks are garbage, and the damage to yourself doesn't justify... well, any of it.

• Longswords, particularly the Balder Side Sword with its crazy effective double pokes, are very handy. You can poke like it's a spear when convenient, and get quick swipes when you need a wider hitbox or speed.

• Dodging kinda sucks. I tried tackling O&S with a lighter, non shieldy build and even with light rolling, it consumes a lot of stamina trying to evade stuff. Dodging being a negative edge/up button input also frustrates me a bit as I always find it hard to get a knack for the timing on some enemies, especially when some attacks have tricky delayed swing timing or don't have a noise to telegraph them if you're being blindsided. I'll probably always be an extensive shield user. >w>;;

• Always do Pinwheel before O&S, it's amazing how much more healing potential you have without needing to Humanity farm by doubling your Estus. I can't believe I explored the catacombs so late in my first playthrough. Just take lots of poise along for the wheel skeletons cause they're a nuisance to bait and kill, or run past and evade. ;w;

• Tomb of the Giants is my least fave part of the game. The giant dogs are rough to deal with if you go in with a less than high levelled weapon or spells to quickly dispatch them, and the Skull Lantern is very obnoxious to use as it lights only a small area when holding it up. The head gear you get that lights things up is mandatory, IMO (or the light spell I'm told was added to the DLC, is it considered cheap to use it to get through here since it was added after the fact?).

[Sumez]

Don't really have any horse in the build/gear race.
But...

• Dodging kinda sucks.

Yeah you're definitely gonna change your mind on this
When you become familiar with all the moves of a boss, dodging is by far the most effective (and fun) way to deal with their attacks while staying on the offense. As a Bayonetta player, this should feel natural to you
If nothing else, Bloodborne will change your mind because it forces this

Tomb of the Giants is my least fave part of the game. The giant dogs are rough to deal with if you go in with a less than high levelled weapon or spells to quickly dispatch them

When you know the layout, Tomb of Giants becomes one of the easiest and quickest areas to just stroll through without engaging a single enemy

[BareKnuckleRoo]

If dodge were instant as soon as the button registered input instead of the game using it also as a run button I suspect I'd enjoy light builds in this game more. It's a useful tool for specific attacks, but there's a lot of situations where it is actually way easier to build so you can block the hits (O&S where they can catch you in recovery frames, being rushed by multiple mobs heavy at once) or run up to their face and poise right through the hits to retaliate (Nito, 4K). I appreciate being able to dodge, but I would not want to be unable to block, either! Qualifies as a challenge run I think. It'd be like playing God Hand without ducking or something (Bayonetta's parrying is far less important and can be ignored safely in many cases compared to the far more powerful dodge there).

When you know the layout, Tomb of Giants becomes one of the easiest and quickest areas to just stroll through without engaging a single enemy

I'll take your word for it, but I really struggled to learn the layout with just a Skull Lantern the first time I stumbled into the area! Definitely not an experience I want to repeat.

[Blinge]

playing no shield.. ahh roo. It's really not a challenge run haha.

alas- using dodges and abusing iframes became (more or less) the only way to play Souls as the series went on, sadly.

[Volteccer_Jack]

Eagle Shield is the best shield in the game, no contest.

Eagle Shield is "one of the best" shields in the game, but it does have problems. Other than physical, fire is the next most important damage to deal with, and Eagle sucks against fire. Parries are also extremely strong in DS1, while shield bashes are terrible and useless in every Souls game. The other contenders for "best shield" are the Heater Shield (ridiculously lightweight, very good resistance and stability, has superior small-shield-parry despite being a medium shield, usable at base stats by every class, located in the Undead Burg), Artorias Shield (high requirements but gamebreakingly OP, trivializes 99.9% of all enemies, not even the final boss can hurt you), and Black Knight/Balder Shield (basically Eagle Shield with better resistances and ability to parry, at the cost of a bit of stability).

And no I don't think playing without a shield is a challenge run. It was pretty easy when I did it. Poise+Dodge is strong. If you were to do light armor AND no shield AND no ninjaflip ring, then that's a bit of a challenge I guess.

[Sima Tuna]

All of the Crest shields are very good and useful as swaps, along with the spider shield. Grass Crest is obviously op as fuck for being so effective as a shield (only somewhat worse than a normal crest shield, especially when upgraded) while retaining the ridiculous stamina regen buff. Heater Shield always gets mention for being so strong for its weight category, but I believe there's only a single point of weight difference between Heater and Crest shields. Heater is 2 pounds and Crest shields are 3 IIRC. That amount of difference that pound makes varies per build obviously, but I don't find it a deal-breaker on my builds, personally. Heater is superior to Dragon Crest shield, but the other crest shields (and the spider shield) have different resistances which recommend them over the Heater in some situations.

All crest shields are parry shields iirc and thus don't prevent you from parry spamming.

[Blinge]

Roo were you aware that the lightest roll gets more generous iframes than mid and heavy?
(ninja flip ring gives even more. some people refuse to play without it.)

Also the Eagle Shield doesn't block 100% of phys damage. you're always gonna take chip.
I find that very annoying.