What game are you playing?

[MFB]

God damn did I forget how fucking GOOD it feels to beat Great Shinobi Owl.

I've easily died to him the most on this run, probably two dozen attempts, but the last two were like, almost zen like. I just stayed really tight on him when only guarded when I absolutely needed to, but it was mostly just bait him into his overhead leap and then hit him with nightjar slash. No prosthetic during phase 1, and then in phase 2 I accidentally used the normal firecracker vs long spark which gives the extra posture damage.

 

[Ralyks]

Side tracked. Stray came out today. I've nuzzled with other cats, scratched up a carpet, befriended a tiny flying robot, zip lined in a bucket, and meowed over 100 times. 10/10 Game of the year.

 

[MFB]

Side tracked. Stray came out today. I've nuzzled with other cats, scratched up a carpet, befriended a tiny flying robot, zip lined in a bucket, and meowed over 100 times. 10/10 Game of the year.

Shit, I didn't realize that was launching this month. Guess I know what I'm playing after Sekiro!

 

[wankerness]

Sounds like it’s good, but extremely short. I might wait for a sale cause I’m not paying for their Netflix service!!

 

[MFB]

I can crack the first two phases of Corrupted Monk no problem, I just forgot how much Phase 3 absolutely fucking rushes you and eats up posture. Gonna have to pop a sugar while it's changing phases I guess, I'm like, 0/5 as of last night.

 

[destroyerdogs]

I've been playing Tekken 7 again, after taking a break for like 2 years after my son was born. It's been pretty fun getting back into it.
Kind of itching to play Elden Ring or Demon's Souls again, though.

 

[thebeesknees22]

I've been making my way back through Final fantasy 15 here and there.

I kinda really hated it when it first came out. I beat it, but it felt like a real bore to get through.

This time I'm semi-speed running it and it's a lot more fun that way. the landscapes and overall world was cool. The story was just terrible.

 

[StevenC]

F1 2021 is kicking my ass. I don't know if it's setup related or because I'm on controller, but I'm really struggling with a lot of the hairpins in this game. Even corners on older tracks that I know very well. Also some of the more aggressive breaking zones with a corner incorporated, like turns 7/8 and 10/11 at Portimao for example.

I might have lost some finer motor control in my hands since the last time I played one of these games, though, so maybe it's just time to buy a sim rig.

 

[Mathemagician]

I’ve been looking for a new game to get lately and when I initially started reading all the Sekiro talk I got excited, but the more I read the more I realized it’s probably not for me. I definitely prefer a good storyline over memorizing combatants every move to be able to get one hit against them.

Hell, some games I’ll even put on Easy the first time through just so I can get into the story of it, then go back and beat it on Normal or Hard the 2nd time around.

I’ve heard Elden Ring isn’t quite as much of a pain in the ass as Sekiro. The trailers all look great for Elden Ring and obviously it was probably the most talked about game this year, I might just take the chance on it and get it.

So for Elden ring the “basic tips” are as follows:

Boost your HP, it’s your cushion and it matters more than in a game like Devil May Cry or similar.

To do more damage, boost your weapon’s levels.

Leveling your stats helps, but it is secondary for most damage calculations. You need the minimum stats to use a weapon or spell, but after that level your sword or staff up by one will give you a bigger boost than leveling your stat by one.

And last but not least, if you get stuck/enter a hard area. You are free to fuck right off and wander elsewhere to level up more. There’s nothing stopping you from coming back later.

That’s enough to enjoy your first playthrough.

 

[wankerness]

With how much he talks about having to get into the story I think maybe he just shouldn't play DS games or Elden Ring. Sekiro's the only one with a typical story!

 

[wankerness]

God damn did I forget how fucking GOOD it feels to beat Great Shinobi Owl.

I've easily died to him the most on this run, probably two dozen attempts, but the last two were like, almost zen like. I just stayed really tight on him when only guarded when I absolutely needed to, but it was mostly just bait him into his overhead leap and then hit him with nightjar slash. No prosthetic during phase 1, and then in phase 2 I accidentally used the normal firecracker vs long spark which gives the extra posture damage.

I can't wait for you to fight Owl Father if you had this much trouble with regular version!

If you're trying for platinum this run, I noticed some other things you're going to have to do. You absolutely have to do all the bosses AND the first three sword saint endings (via save scumming) on your first playthrough, as well as doing the pot nobles quest that gives you another lapis lazuli. And then on your second playthrough, you have to do the Shura ending, and then save scum back and fight great owl instead to get to fountainhead/the lapis lazulis, or else you'd have to do a third playthrough since you'd be locked out of getting the ones needed for all upgrades.

Basically I think the minimum number of playthroughs required with no save scumming whatsoever would be four, while you only technically need one full one and then NG+ up through the fountainhead palace if you do save backups.

Fortunately it's incredibly easy to do that on Playstation Plus and PC.

I started burning through NG+, got through Lady Butterfly and Gyoubu and all associated minibosses in about an hour, had my first death on that spear asshole in Ashina Reservoir.

 

[MFB]

Dark Souls I definitely wouldn't recommend for him, there's basically zero story to get into, and what there IS isn't presented in any sort of accessible/traditional manner; Bloodborne is the first one that has a story that seems more presented up front, but even still it's not like it'll be the most interesting compared to other games, it's still very dry (realistically, "hunter must hunt.")

Unfortunately that leaves him with Sekiro, which mechanically is the hardest of their bunch, OR Elden Ring which does also have a fairly intricate story however given the size of the world and the initial barrier of difficulty many people won't make it too far in and are better off just reading the wiki of what the story is

 

[wankerness]

I read some more about Stray. DEFINITELY waiting for a deep sale on this one. 5-6 hours long, and apparently the game totally shifts genres into something familiar and uninteresting about halfway through that. The first few hours are apparently brilliant.

"This is like if Untitled Goose Game shifted to a JRPG at the halfway point where you now have to save the world from some ultra-powerful behind the scenes entity that had been manipulating the residents of Goosetown into its cult all along and you had to defeat him with QTE goose antics."

That actually sounds funny though, sounds like this is more just bad.

 

[MFB]

I can't wait for you to fight Owl Father if you had this much trouble with regular version!

If you're trying for platinum this run, I noticed some other things you're going to have to do. You absolutely have to do all the bosses AND the first three sword saint endings (via save scumming) on your first playthrough, as well as doing the pot nobles quest that gives you another lapis lazuli. And then on your second playthrough, you have to do the Shura ending, and then save scum back and fight great owl instead to get to fountainhead/the lapis lazulis, or else you'd have to do a third playthrough since you'd be locked out of getting the ones needed for all upgrades.

Basically I think the minimum number of playthroughs required with no save scumming whatsoever would be four, while you only technically need one full one and then NG+ up through the fountainhead palace if you do save backups.

Fortunately it's incredibly easy to do that on Playstation Plus and PC.

I started burning through NG+, got through Lady Butterfly and Gyoubu and all associated minibosses in about an hour, had my first death on that spear asshole in Ashina Reservoir.

It wasn't trouble in the sense that I can't beat him, just that I forgot how different he is compared to the majority of the enemies you fight; especially after coming off the fight with Guardian/Headless; he's much slower, attacks more in successions versus attack-retreat-attack-retreat, etc... his reach is much longer than you're expecting since he uses a sword, but no, it's at like spear range, all those little variations that I had to change my playstyle to.

I also forgot that firecracker use 2 emblems at once instead of 1, so with having 19 available you can only use it 9 times and that's for the entire fight. So initially I was using them in the beginning and trying to just get it into phase 2, when it should be the opposite. And hey, some days I just can't get the rhythm going to match the fight, and I've also had some truly awful mis-times with healing items.

For save scumming, it sounds like I need PS+? I was hoping to avoid it but I guess I can just buy the one month as I'll legitimately never use it besides this.

 

[wankerness]

For save scumming, it sounds like I need PS+? I was hoping to avoid it but I guess I can just buy the one month as I'll legitimately never use it besides this.

Probably? I've never NOT had it. Cloud saving (and the extremely easy ability to first turn off auto-sync, then just force quit the game and manually either download or upload save from/to cloud) is a PS+ thing though. You technically can do it with a specially formatted USB drive, but I don't know exactly how that works. Probably the same way, just a lot slower.

Do you have a PS5? You do get a bunch of free games with PS+ immediately if you do. Not sure if you care about any of them, though.

I've had the service since I got the system back in 2017 so I have a TON of games connected to my account that are dependent on the subscription (ex, Bloodborne) and I also do very regularly use the cloud save stuff.

 

[wankerness]

Beat Genichiro this morning, took two tries but it was close (used a divine grass, no gourds left). The jerk kept spamming the grab move that is usually so rare! I hate grabs.

I'm going out of town for over a week and I fully expect to be unable to play the game when I try to pick it up again.

 

[Bloody_Inferno]

Man, I really want to play the Live A Live remake... except it's Switch exclusive.

 

[TheBlackBard]

Tales of Arise. First Tales game I've ever played, and first game of this kind with this combat system I've ever played, and honestly? I'm loving it quite a bit, actually. May go back and look for other games like this, but I've also been looking at the Persona series when it comes to Xbox later this year.

 

[MFB]

Tales of Arise. First Tales game I've ever played, and first game of this kind with this combat system I've ever played, and honestly? I'm loving it quite a bit, actually. May go back and look for other games like this, but I've also been looking at the Persona series when it comes to Xbox later this year.

Is Persona not on Xbox already? I know P5 is like, always on sale in the PS store but I don't think I ever realized it wasn't released on all consoles. I've always been curious about it as it's got a huge fanbase, but I'm not sure if the combat would be my bag, and demos no longer exist so it's all or nothing with purchases now.

 

[TheBlackBard]

Is Persona not on Xbox already? I know P5 is like, always on sale in the PS store but I don't think I ever realized it wasn't released on all consoles. I've always been curious about it as it's got a huge fanbase, but I'm not sure if the combat would be my bag, and demos no longer exist so it's all or nothing with purchases now.

Not yet, no. I'll be playing it when it comes, though. Was told 4 and 5 are amazing.