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[Destiny] Ours is the Light that illuminates the Dark Below! Hard Mode Crota's End awaits!

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Posts

  • MuffinatronMuffinatron Registered User regular
    I think I prefer the Vault to the Crota raid

    Definitely. Crota feels like a chore for drops rather than an enjoyable experience.

    At least VoG has some nice interludes between frantic encounters. Crota is all go-go-go.

    PSN: Holy-Promethium
  • Cilla BlackCilla Black Priscilla!!! Registered User regular
    I feel like if Templar wasn't such a weirdly paced encounter Vault would be a nearly perfect raid.

    Well, also eliminate all the Atheon bugs.

  • Cilla BlackCilla Black Priscilla!!! Registered User regular
    Also, yesterday, I got the green xwing from Roc, Ketch Me If You Can.

    It is pretty sweet

    I feel like I'm betraying the magic school bus though.

  • BursarBursar Hee Noooo! PDX areaRegistered User regular
    I bought Don't Touch Me from Xur, then engrambled.

    The engram turned into a better set of Don't Touch Me. :/

    GNU Terry Pratchett
    PSN: Wstfgl | GamerTag: An Evil Plan | Battle.net: FallenIdle#1970
    Hit me up on BoardGameArena! User: Loaded D1
    egc6gp2emz1v.png
  • Apothe0sisApothe0sis Have you ever questioned the nature of your reality? Registered User regular
    The Gorgon maze is pretty butts. I don't love it.

  • Hiryu02Hiryu02 Registered User regular
    I like it a lot. It's a new type of challenge.

    Sev: Your gameplay is the most heavily yomi based around. Usually you look for characters that allow you to force guessing situations for big dmg. Even if the guess is mathematically nowhere near in your favor lol. You're happiest when you have either a 50/50, 33/33/33 or even a 75/25 situation to go crazy with. And you will take big risks to force those situations to come up.
  • ShadowfireShadowfire Vermont, in the middle of nowhereRegistered User regular
    And I finally got to kill a Gorgon, so that was pretty great.

    WiiU: Windrunner ; Guild Wars 2: Shadowfire.3940 ; PSN: Bradcopter
  • Apothe0sisApothe0sis Have you ever questioned the nature of your reality? Registered User regular
    We killed 3.5 gorgons the other day in Normal mode.

    Then another team decided to give it a go as well, only to realise that none of us could remember the path for the Gorgon maze.

    Ultimately we split into multiple teams to figure out where to go. VoG Normal is pretty fun to do to farm exotics though

  • Hiryu02Hiryu02 Registered User regular
    edited February 2015
    Thing about VOG for me, and the main reason I want it updated later on to remain relevant and desired, is that the lore surrounding it is incredible. I have spent entire lunch hours explaining to friends the fall of Kabr and how he and his now-erased fireteam paved the way for our guardians to finally challenge Atheon, to deny the calculations of the Oracles, and to make our own fate.

    Hiryu02 on
    Sev: Your gameplay is the most heavily yomi based around. Usually you look for characters that allow you to force guessing situations for big dmg. Even if the guess is mathematically nowhere near in your favor lol. You're happiest when you have either a 50/50, 33/33/33 or even a 75/25 situation to go crazy with. And you will take big risks to force those situations to come up.
  • Cilla BlackCilla Black Priscilla!!! Registered User regular
    I take it all that amazing lore is wholly hidden on a website almost no one will ever read, rather than built into their damn game, right?

  • ShadowfireShadowfire Vermont, in the middle of nowhereRegistered User regular
    edited February 2015
    I take it all that amazing lore is wholly hidden on a website almost no one will ever read, rather than built into their damn game, right?

    No, that would be an insane and, frankly, stupid thing to do that none of us would settle for.

    It's in the app.

    Shadowfire on
    WiiU: Windrunner ; Guild Wars 2: Shadowfire.3940 ; PSN: Bradcopter
  • Cilla BlackCilla Black Priscilla!!! Registered User regular
    Oh, well, that makes so much more sense!

    God dammit Bungie what are you even doing with this game

  • DodgeBlanDodgeBlan PSN: dodgeblanRegistered User regular
    edited February 2015
    did anyone else think 'she got raid arms, good for her' when Katy Perry came out for the superbowl half time show

    or is this a sign that I need help

    DodgeBlan on
    Read my blog about AMERICA and THE BAY AREA

    https://medium.com/@alascii
  • Apothe0sisApothe0sis Have you ever questioned the nature of your reality? Registered User regular
    Hiryu02 wrote: »
    Thing about VOG for me, and the main reason I want it updated later on to remain relevant and desired, is that the lore surrounding it is incredible. I have spent entire lunch hours explaining to friends the fall of Kabr and how he and his now-erased fireteam paved the way for our guardians to finally challenge Atheon, to deny the calculations of the Oracles, and to make our own fate.
    It is cool as hell.

  • Hiryu02Hiryu02 Registered User regular
    edited February 2015
    I take it all that amazing lore is wholly hidden on a website almost no one will ever read, rather than built into their damn game, right?

    A lot of the VOG lore is in-game, through the descriptions of all the raid weapons and armor. The Titan armor essentially tells the summary of the fall of Kabr. But yes, grimoire cards as well.

    Edit: Also you can draw conclusions from the actual VOG mechanics. The oracles mark you for negation, which is then processed by the Templar. The reward for denying/killing the oracles in the timelost places that Atheon throws you into is called "Guardians make their own fate".

    I think that when you sit down, and think about mechanics, there is a lot that falls into place. You are thrown with the relic into the past or future. Atheon fears the relic so much that he attempts to hide it in the dark corners of time. But your light is bound to the relic, and it pulls you with it into the past and future, so it can be carried again into battle, and so Kabr can be avenged by his legacy.

    The biggest problem I have with HM Crota is that the lost light of Eris's fireteam embodied in the Chalice serves the same purpose as the Relic in CE, it is a beacon that makes the impossible possible. Removing it from HM is a failure to adhere to Bungie's own lore.

    Hiryu02 on
    Sev: Your gameplay is the most heavily yomi based around. Usually you look for characters that allow you to force guessing situations for big dmg. Even if the guess is mathematically nowhere near in your favor lol. You're happiest when you have either a 50/50, 33/33/33 or even a 75/25 situation to go crazy with. And you will take big risks to force those situations to come up.
  • Cilla BlackCilla Black Priscilla!!! Registered User regular
    Well, that's cool then. I'd still prefer the game to have lore in readily available text everyone can access in the game, but there is merit in lore through item descriptions. Dark Souls did a good job with it, though I would argue that game earned it by establishing enough of a tease in the base game to set you hunting for what is hidden. Destiny just makes you really wish you could skip the cutscenes, and not just for the sake of time.

  • DodgeBlanDodgeBlan PSN: dodgeblanRegistered User regular
    It's a bit of a stretch to say that there's anywhere near enough in the item descriptions to explain Vault of Glass. Pretty much all the cools stuff is in the templar, atheon, gorgon and relic grimoire cards.

    Read my blog about AMERICA and THE BAY AREA

    https://medium.com/@alascii
  • Hiryu02Hiryu02 Registered User regular
    DodgeBlan wrote: »
    It's a bit of a stretch to say that there's anywhere near enough in the item descriptions to explain Vault of Glass. Pretty much all the cools stuff is in the templar, atheon, gorgon and relic grimoire cards.

    There is quite a bit though, as I said the titan gear is essentially the plot summary of Kabr. The Hunter and Warlock armor sets give flavor to the base storyline. It didn't state that it explained everything, but that there was a lot of lore from the flavor text of the items.

    I will not disagree that the Grimoire cards contain the bulk of the VOG lore, which is regrettable.

    ...If I speak again, I am not Kabr.

    Sev: Your gameplay is the most heavily yomi based around. Usually you look for characters that allow you to force guessing situations for big dmg. Even if the guess is mathematically nowhere near in your favor lol. You're happiest when you have either a 50/50, 33/33/33 or even a 75/25 situation to go crazy with. And you will take big risks to force those situations to come up.
  • DodgeBlanDodgeBlan PSN: dodgeblanRegistered User regular
    edited February 2015
    there's a hint of some cool stuff in Crota's End.
    Like Eris' transformation and the fact that you kill crota's soul in the real world and then some other version of him in the raid dimension. But it never really gets expanded on or explained other than to make the Hive more guitar shreddingly evil.

    Also I equipped Hunger of Crota for the first time yesterday. I didn't think it would be possible to be embarrassed for a rocket launcher but here we are.

    DodgeBlan on
    Read my blog about AMERICA and THE BAY AREA

    https://medium.com/@alascii
  • DodgeBlanDodgeBlan PSN: dodgeblanRegistered User regular
    but yeah the melding of lore and mechanics in VoG is really strong and I hope they can reach that level of cohesion again.

    Read my blog about AMERICA and THE BAY AREA

    https://medium.com/@alascii
  • Hiryu02Hiryu02 Registered User regular
    DodgeBlan wrote: »
    there's a hint of some cool stuff in Crota's End.
    Like Eris' transformation and the fact that you kill crota's soul in the real world and then some other version of him in the raid dimension. But it never really gets expanded on or explained other than to make the Hive more guitar shreddingly evil.

    Also I equipped Hunger of Crota for the first time yesterday. I didn't think it would be possible to be embarrassed for a rocket launcher but here we are.

    Buried in the quest text somewhere is that Crota is not complete. I never took the time to observe, but supposedly he is only corporeal beneath the neck. His head is not solid, gaseous, probably as a reference to him being incomplete due to the events of the Wakening.

    Sev: Your gameplay is the most heavily yomi based around. Usually you look for characters that allow you to force guessing situations for big dmg. Even if the guess is mathematically nowhere near in your favor lol. You're happiest when you have either a 50/50, 33/33/33 or even a 75/25 situation to go crazy with. And you will take big risks to force those situations to come up.
  • Cilla BlackCilla Black Priscilla!!! Registered User regular
    That's actually something they did do somewhat right and in the game text itself that I didn't pick up on till later

    Crota apparently would've been killed by Eris' fireteam but the hive were able to safeguard away his soul and render him unkillable, so he just mopped them up. We had to take out his soul to be able to kill him in his whatever dimension.

    The only real hole is why the hive would be trying to wake him up at all, but I suppose going soulless puts you to sleep pretty quickly.

  • shoeboxjeddyshoeboxjeddy Registered User regular
    I actually think Crota Hard Mode is probably the best expression of lore as gameplay since Vault, and better in some places since Eris is there to give voice to some of the important themes/plot points whereas ALL of Vault is item text/Grimoire cards.

    Just like Eris' fireteam, the Raid team is blinded, swarmed, and panicked from the get go. It's very easy to lose one of your level 32 guys (so proud of their power up until that moment) right at one of the first Lanterns. Your Light is malfunctioning, you can't revive, your special moves are hampered. In the second phase, you begin stealing your enemies' power to press forward (like Eris stealing the Hive eye). The third phase is dangerous, but understandable, power will win through. Perhaps your confidence is coming back. We're going to take back the Moon guys! Suddenly... Crota. Your Light begins to fail completely, and any fatal mistake from anyone in the Team brings the Hive's power to its maximum (just like how Crota used a captured Ghost to MURDER other Guardians). Just when you think you're bringing things back, Crota behaves unexpectedly, moving in a way you weren't aware he could, shrugging off damage like a no selling wrestler, or suddenly using his strongest power even when you HAVEN'T made any mistakes. Anyone mocking Eris' Fireteam after this experience is just lacking in self awareness.

    From a gameplay standpoint however, I don't love it. It feels more random and more punishing, not finely tuned enough for how hard they've made it. It's garbage imo to force repeats on the team so quickly (any key death can force you instantly to replay the whole section), but then Heavy Ammo drops are completely random (the team has lost BOTH the ammo they've used AND the ammo STOLEN from them by the bug), so you can have not enough to finish. If you spent all your cash buying synths coming in, you'll be set for a number of failures, but those won't run you too too long. And since the Raids (bizarrely imo) prevent you from earning cash, you'll have to go out and earn money separate from your attempts to buy the resources to try again.

    It's the difference between making a Hard version with more tricky encounters and making a Hard version that's the same, except you do less damage, the enemies do more, and any mistake means you start over. Bungie's temptation to reuse every single asset from the core game without making anything more is getting pretty egregious by this point. My grapes will be SLIGHTLY less sour once my Fireteam finally breaks through the wall and beats the Douche, but even then we'll just have to go right back to it the next week without any real advantage gained from the experience.

  • BruanBruan Registered User regular
    me and another guy are doing nightfall on ps4 if interested. need one more. PSN: Anthai

    Playstation: Anthai (Destiny)
    WiiU: jooncole (Monster Hunter 3 Ultimate)
    3DS: 2122-5983-8919
  • Trojan35Trojan35 I want Too Human 2. Registered User regular
    edited February 2015
    I think I prefer the Vault to the Crota raid

    Definitely. Crota feels like a chore for drops rather than an enjoyable experience.

    At least VoG has some nice interludes between frantic encounters. Crota is all go-go-go.

    On the other hand, the visuals in Crota are way better than VoG. The raid start is awesome on the moon, and way better than VoG. Spelunking was fun, but the Crota skybox's on the final fight and bridge are amazing, and I do like the artistry of running into the light after the abyss to enter Crota's dimension.

    Trojan35 on
  • Cilla BlackCilla Black Priscilla!!! Registered User regular
    Crota's skybox in the final fight is just the skybox on the bridge, though. Or at least that shattered asteroid blood thing. Reused asset. The raid is, otherwise, just a lot of darkness and gray.

    VoG is this palpable feeling of space. Everything is dramatically huge and expansive, and the architecture matches that feeling perfectly somehow.

    I absolutely think VoG is artistically superior to Crota. It just has such a superior sense of wonder and exploration that I totally didn't get out of Crota at all. Crota is just bleak and sorta boring.

  • skyknytskyknyt Registered User, ClubPA regular
    VoG definitely feels like both their first raid but also the apotheosis of all their initial game design decisions. It's a little bit janky because of that, but it also feels a little mysterious and a little more puzzle like as a result.

    Tycho wrote:
    [skyknyt's writing] is like come kind of code that, when comprehended, unfolds into madness in the mind of the reader.
    PSN: skyknyt, Steam: skyknyt, Blizz: skyknyt#1160
  • GMaster7GMaster7 Goggles Paesano Registered User regular
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