From Software 'n such

[BareKnuckleRoo]

The psp versions of Armored Core 3 and Silent Line allow you to completely customize your controls. I usually make the pad/stick strafe movement and assign turning to left and right bumpers. It works really well.

I remember discussing this with someone on the forum about remapping a while back and doing so is a godsend. I used D-Pad for aiming/turning, and have forward / back on R2 / R1 with strafing on L2 / L1. All of the older Armored Cores allow full remapping to my knowledge, including the first one. Good on them!

Shame that the early releases of the Souls games didn't offer this. In case you're wondering why FromSoft made dodge on the Circle button, a button that's rather far away from the right stick, the secret is they didn't. In the original JP release, X is actually the dodge button, and was only switched for western audiences because English speakers are too dumb apparently to contend with Circle being the Confirm / Get button: https://media.fromsoftware.jp/fromsoftw ... SS_PS3.pdf

[ryu]

I have a fun history with the confirm and dodge buttons in Souls games since I switched to Japanese games around that time. And Sekiro using X for confirm even on the Japanese release was the icing on the cake.

[BareKnuckleRoo]

Moving the button you'll use most of the time away from the camera button is degenerate filth. >w> No wonder I didn't get into the series until I tried a release that allowed you to remap the controls (I got used to dodge on Square before I knew it was originally on X).

[Sumez]

As an aside, are there any hardcore-From people here playing Crimson Desert? If so, what's your take on it so far?

Is there any overlap at all??

Everything I heard about Crimson Desert made it come across like the worst pile of AAA slop I've ever heard of. Did I misjudge it?

[Obiwanshinobi]

First time I read about Crimson Desert (not being terribly into videogaming, recently). I would also like to read an opinion of someone who did actually PLAY it.

[Sima Tuna]

I heard Crimson Desert described was a single player MMO, which is actually a pretty based and cool subgenre of video game that isn't created very often. The best of these were probably Phantasy Star Online II and the .Hack series. Oh, and I suppose Dragon's Dogma.

Incidentally, the .Hack GU port is on sale on the steam sale for $10, which includes four ps2 games for that price. It's all combined into a single big MEGAGAME, because all the .Hack games were released that way in the day. The different volumes of the game were essentially "parts" of the same game. So really, there are only two .Hack games. The original .Hack which hasn't been ported, and GU which has.

Having said this, none of these games are in any way similar to Fromsoft games except that they are action RPGs.

If you want a soulslike that is an action RPG, you'll be better off looking at the Nioh series, which is more heavily action-rpg focused compared to what Fromsoft makes.

[Obiwanshinobi]

Doesn't it have a playable demo or sumthin' like that? I wouldn't know, not even likely having a gear to play it on. Basically, I'm already a couple of hardware generations behind these days.

[Sima Tuna]

I'm pretty sure it's not compatible on Steam Deck, so that's me taken out.

[Obiwanshinobi]

Euro-medieval-openworld-realtime-combat-cRPG that I enjoyed most remains, to this day, the first Gothic, as glitchy as it was. In "3D", at least. Out of Diablo-style controlled ones - Divine Divinity, that was. Ace presentation in both, too.
DeS played very "Capcom" in my experience, as did (obviously) Dragon's Dogma. I still think a modern game more like that first Gothic could by refreshing in this day and age.
The one I found quite reminiscent of Gothic was the first Way of the Samurai, actually. It was all many years ago, so I guess more games that'd scratch that itch are already somewhere out there, waiting for my attention...

[Sumez]

I heard Crimson Desert described was a single player MMO, which is actually a pretty based and cool subgenre of video game that isn't created very often.

Actually that sounds horrible

[Blinge]

So I tried Echo Night on stream the other day.
Surprisingly fun game.
Spooky 1st person puzzle/ adventure game with a tiny bit of horror gameplay.
I'm many years late to this party but ahh.

[drauch]

Severely underrated series. I love the concept of helping lost souls reach purgatory or whatever. My dream is to make a similar game so that I too, can reach purgatory. 2nd game is a bit of a disappointment, but EN Beyond is a great swan song.

[KAI]

Last week a friend added me to his steam family shared account, that gave me access to almost all the fromsoft catalogue, so I immediately jumped into Sekiro after planning to play it for years.
As a huge Tenchu and Way of The Samurai fan, I loved every second of it, the game felt like a perfect evolution of every mechanic from those series, and the Genpei Toumaden vibe was the cherry on top.
Managed to reach the good ending after a week (beating everything except the friggin demon), and when starting the NG+ I got a random BSOD and my save file got corrupted lmao.

I'll try to run Armored Core 6 eventually (maybe after beating Verdict Day), and see if my pc can handle it.
Im really curious about people on the AC community calling it Mechiro.

[BareKnuckleRoo]

Managed to reach the good ending after a week (beating everything except the friggin demon)

Congrats! And yeah, I didn't do demon on my first playthrough, it was only when I revisited it that I got good enough to try and tackle it. The demon is very, very strict compared to your typical Fromsoft boss, and no significant cheese strats exist that I know of if you're struggling.

[Sumez]

Severely underrated series

Echo Night 1 sure is expensive for an underrated game
Wish they would have released it over here

[ryu]

I imagine all the English versions of classic Fromsoft games are stupid expensive these days...

[drauch]

^Yep, pretty much

I'm pretty sure any niche or low print run game nowadays is stupidly priced.

[Sumez]

Yeah. I don't remember a time when Echo Night wasn't expensive though -_-
I got all the other From classixxx

[Stevens]

After what was a hellish year I finally sat on the couch last night and installed Bloodborne onto my PS 5 (that we only have cause wife wanted Borderlands 4).

Hung out for an hour. It came back to be slow. Screammy bridge monster took me two tries - fucker one shotted me whit its dive - and Gas took me four tries. Went down to Old Yharnam and bested beastie in about five tries.

I was legit out of resources and just said fuck it we fire paper and beast blood pellet.

I'll probably cummfpk at some point just to max out on vials and bullets. I do miss my beast claws though..

[Stevens]

So rather than falling into comfort and old habits I am trying new shit.

Kirkhammer! So fun you are. How is it I have never used you till now. BONK. SMASH.

[Daytime Waitress]

After what was a hellish year I finally sat on the couch last night and installed Bloodborne

I feel that. Life very much got in the way of my initial run of last year, and now coming back I find that I've fuck all clue of what anything is in that save file. So I'm about to start a new journey and I'm looking forward to both mechanically de-rusting and trying out a new build. But what to use, what to use?

Kirkhammer! So fun you are. How is it I have never used you till now. BONK. SMASH.

I think I might have found it...

Spoiler

Hope this year goes a bit better for you, Stevens, or at the very least includes more Bloodborne.

[Stevens]

Thanks for the positive vibes DW.

Mom's health dropped off a cliff back in early 25', she died about six weeks ago. My family (both blood and chosen) has always been close and everyone rallied big time over the past 12 months.

To be fair mom was ready. She had 83 years of good health and went pretty quick relatively speaking. She didn't suffer for a decade dying of something else. She was a hall of fame mom.

So yes this year we will be doing all the things we didn't get to do last year. Off to Yharnam I am.

[Daytime Waitress]

That's bloody rough, mate, and I do hope you and yours are faring better.

Kirkhammer! So fun you are. How is it I have never used you till now.

I took a very brief gander at it back when I first started to play, and quickly retreated to the comfort of the cleavah's efficiency.
And now, despite the rust, I've got a fair bit more experience on this run and... I feel like I'm missing something with the hammer.
The sword's range is comical compared to the sweeping horizontal security of the cleaver, and it doesn't seem to do that much more damage to compensate (to say nothing of how it lacks the whippet-with-a-bum-full-of-dynamite urgency of the cleaver).
And when the end of the hammer string combos do connect you can see the damage climb, but I feel like your enemy has to be virtually comatose from the start of the engagement to cop the full brunt of said combos.
Is it just a case of MAX SCALING? (am only at +3 at the moment)

[Sima Tuna]

Kirkhammer is great. You can use the hammer for stagger. The sword is just a really solid package of high stats, good scaling and an excellent moveset. You have a mix of damage types which allows you to hit all enemies effectively. Unlike, say, the Saw Cleaver. Saw Cleaver is a better weapon (it's top 2 with Saw Spear) but there are times when you'll be dealing reduced damage against eldritch enemies.

The moveset of the sword is also perfect for those, like me, who spent about 300+ hours exclusively maining the DS1 Longsword. To me, playing Kirkhammer feels like Longsword and that makes me a better player because it taps into my buried longsword training.

I'm not saying it's the best weapon, but it's one of the best weapons for me to use. If you just rate every weapon in a vacuum, the Saw weapons are best. They have super fast movesets with very little downtime, solid stats and bonus damage against common enemy types. The Saw Spear even has a thrusting attack for Eldritch enemies. But BB is a game about using what you enjoy. The game is mostly easy enough you don't have to metagame.

[Blinge]

I've done a whole playthrough + DLC using only the hammer form of Kirk haha

I dislike one-handed swords generally in BB. I dislike Ludwig's standard sword too. I feel like if you wanna play dark souls then go play that.

The hammer still has an answer for every situation. the dash attack is quick enough. The L2 combos are decent for medium openings
The charged R2 flattens anything it touches meaning you don't need to worry about reprisals. (mileage with bosses may vary)

the sword > hammer transformation combo is decent too iirc. open with sword, transform and hammer them

[Austin]

The moveset of the sword is also perfect for those, like me, who spent about 300+ hours exclusively maining the DS1 Longsword.

LOL, I did the same thing in my first many runs of DS1. I guess when I get into a comfortable rhythm, I tend to stick to what I am familiar with. Ended up basically doing the same play style after in DS2, DS3, DeS and even Elden Ring (kind of a mistake there, I think you are really meant to experiment in that one).

[Stevens]

I pivoted my Kirkhammer run to the Uncanny Logarius Wheel. HULK SMASH EVERYTHING.

An interesting weapon for sure, possibly the most nebulous one to wrap my head around. I have a decent set of arc gems with durability down. It's better than stamina down here cause it's durability is ridiculous.

I also have the lost version that at some point I'll find some good fire/bolt gems for.