The combat is very deliberate and enemy encounters are thoughtfully designed. The words Dark Souls will probably get thrown around a lot when people talk about this game, as well as Zelda and Metroid. And it is difficult, but not punishingly so. You don't lose anything on death except for a bit of progress, as the game autosaves conveniently and often.
The world is a world of mystery. There is no text aside from a minimal amount necessary for interface prompts. Decaying titans litter the landscape with rusting artillery pieces and crumbling buildings. NPCs you encounter in the ruins and camps communicate their story through series of beautifully rendered scenes. There is much left to the imagination as you build an impression of the world. There are also secrets littered all over the place. It's up to you to discover how everything works, from currency and upgrading your equipment to unlocking inaccessible areas.
This is a pretty good game and I think it'll have a lot to talk about. Don't forget to use the spoiler tags!
this really looks stunning and its great to see it finally being released. hopefully the console versions wont be too far behind the PC release.
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DrakeEdgelord TrashBelow the ecliptic plane.Registered Userregular
It's a real breath of fresh air. The combat is really satisfying. You feel like a complete badass after every encounter. And there is so much nuance, and everything is animated so well.
And man it's just gorgeous. And every pixel and animation is loaded with meaning. It's pretty great to get something that lives up to its promise for once.
This looks amazing. The only reason I don't have it yet is because I can't play it right away but it's pretty much at the top of "next game to buy". Do you think it's going to end up generating world lore discussions similar to the way dark souls does?
This looks amazing. The only reason I don't have it yet is because I can't play it right away but it's pretty much at the top of "next game to buy". Do you think it's going to end up generating world lore discussions similar to the way dark souls does?
Yeah I think so, given the nature of the presentation. There's obviously a history behind the world and the protagonist has a central role in it, the opening of the game gives you a glimpse of the events. Some of that is in the launch trailer. And pretty much everywhere you go you see the remnants of what came before. On top of that a lot of the NPCs have their own stories to tell, which seem to be rooted in the aftermath of the events that shattered the previous civilization and left everyone living in its ruins.
The presentation is gorgeous, but yeah, it is quite hard. Even pretty early, it's throwing you into fights that I'd consider late-game Zelda material, and it only gets worse from there. I hate you, exploding flask frogs.
DrakeEdgelord TrashBelow the ecliptic plane.Registered Userregular
The direction you start out in is related to the difficulty apparently. I went east first and got a few triangles. North seems to be easier than that, with more health pack caches in more obvious places and so on. Still some pretty tricky secrets. One required a leap of faith, so now I'm going to start looking for more areas where that sort of thing may be repeated.
And yeah, the stone tablets are a complete mystery to me right now. As are the locked doors with the key on them.
Though does anyone else have the problem where the steam screenshot key doesn't seem to be doing anything? I can still call up the steam interface, but f12 isn't taking pictures.
Which is a pity, because pretty much any given screen grab would make an excellent desktop wallpaper.
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DrakeEdgelord TrashBelow the ecliptic plane.Registered Userregular
It's a known issue. I hope it's fixed soon because this is a real screenshotable game.
The direction you start out in is related to the difficulty apparently. I went east first and got a few triangles. North seems to be easier than that, with more health pack caches in more obvious places and so on.
I'm pretty sure the homeboy who saves you at the start tells you to go North when you wake up, so I think it's supposed to be the first zone, but obviously it's not entirely clear when the images are trying to tell you.
DrakeEdgelord TrashBelow the ecliptic plane.Registered Userregular
I tend to wander around like a fool with the sun in his eyes in these kinds of games. And I'm pretty overjoyed that the basic kit you start with is enough to get you through. Sure I died a lot not going north off the bat but it got me into some real fundamentals with the combat system.
The direction you start out in is related to the difficulty apparently. I went east first and got a few triangles. North seems to be easier than that, with more health pack caches in more obvious places and so on. Still some pretty tricky secrets. One required a leap of faith, so now I'm going to start looking for more areas where that sort of thing may be repeated.
And yeah, the stone tablets are a complete mystery to me right now. As are the locked doors with the key on them.
So is the difficulty actually spelled out for you, or is it like Dark Souls where one path kills you and the other path kills you more, so you know which one to avoid for now?
So is the difficulty actually spelled out for you, or is it like Dark Souls where one path kills you and the other path kills you more, so you know which one to avoid for now?
I'd say they're roughly equal, with each of the initial three directions (you can't go South) presenting different tactical challenges.
The three quadrants seem to be about equal in difficulty, but some seem to have more alternate routes than others (that are locked until you upgrade stuff).
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GnomeTankWhat the what?Portland, OregonRegistered Userregular
Had this on my radar for a while and picked it up last night. Really great so far. I wish it did a tiny, tiny bit more explaining than it does, especially on the RPG systems (like the yellow upgrades, whatever those do)...but I see what the developer was going for and people smarter than I will have it figured out and wiki-ized soon enough.
Yeah, this game is awesome, even if I have not fogured out how to get past certain blocks or locked doors. (Are the red blocks enemies in the area?)
RE: Doors and how to open them:
Blocks that have a directional arrow require you to have activated the obelisk in the quadrant matching the direction of the arrow (i.e. arrow pointing left requires western obelisk).
Key doors require you to have found keys equal to the number of red keys on that door. (Keys are very well hidden.)
Triangle doors require you to have found that many triangles in that quadrant. (8 per quadrant.)
el musico is dank. rich vreeland d o I n g I t b o y s
I can't get enough of it. The adaptive stuff is so, so good; you come across something incredible and the music builds on top of itself and hoo boy. I'm getting the soundtrack the moment it's released.
AvalonGuard on
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DrakeEdgelord TrashBelow the ecliptic plane.Registered Userregular
Any idea how long this game is? I've put about 2.5 hours into it and I feel like I'm already a good chunk through it.
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DrakeEdgelord TrashBelow the ecliptic plane.Registered Userregular
No idea. I've seen some people say it's possible to make a run in something like 6 to 8 hours. I guess that's if you are really good at this sort of thing and don't stop to smell the flowers. I wonder if that means skipping optional content?
I'm about six hours in and I've found five triangles, three up north and two to the east. I'm dicking around out west now, peeking in all the nooks and crannies for cash. I'm not really a fast gamer, especially on a first run.
An hour or so in, and man I'm really hating these crusher blocks. Rest of the combat, world exploration, everything else is great. But seriously fuck insta-death timing puzzles. Hell, even falling off ledges just takes a health. Why can't I just take a hit and get warped back to the beginning of the puzzle? Nope... You gotta go repeat this 5 minute fight arena every time.
In the North section I found a way to the tutorial area, and if you keep going past where you collapse during the tutorial you find your way here. There's also a few squares and a teleporter that connects this room permanently back to town.
+3
Ninja Snarl PMy helmet is my burden.Ninja Snarl: Gone, but not forgotten.Registered Userregular
Picked up the game and I'm digging it, but I cannot fathom why they bothered even putting the chain dash in the game and then made it borderline totally useless for anything outside of the challenge room for it (which has a challenge with a totally fucking absurd goal of 1000 successful chain dashes, without a single mistake, in a room far too tiny for something like that). Even went digging through the game files to see if there was a way to force the timing of the chain dash to at least be constant, because then it would at least be useful.
If I can get up to 400-something chain dashes, but actually using it in combat works less than half the time at best, it's a shit ability with garbage design.
Picked up the game and I'm digging it, but I cannot fathom why they bothered even putting the chain dash in the game and then made it borderline totally useless for anything outside of the challenge room for it (which has a challenge with a totally fucking absurd goal of 1000 successful chain dashes, without a single mistake, in a room far too tiny for something like that). Even went digging through the game files to see if there was a way to force the timing of the chain dash to at least be constant, because then it would at least be useful.
If I can get up to 400-something chain dashes, but actually using it in combat works less than half the time at best, it's a shit ability with garbage design.
The chain dash is used for much more than just the challenge room at the town. There's numerous puzzles which require you to use the chain dash with some deftness in order to cross otherwise impassable walkways.
As for the challenge room... At 100 (or 200, I forget) you get an extra square, and at 800 you get the cool blue/purple colour scheme clothes. The timing of it, as far as I know, seems to be quite constant. I had to set up an internal metronome to pass the challenge.
I'm having a really hard time with the first boss (the guy with the square spell thing that follows you). Getting him to half health is rough, and then he kicks it up a notch and I get destroyed. I'm even entering the fight with full health and 3 potions. Should I maybe go upgrade something? I haven't upgraded anything yet.
Amazing game though. Some of the cutscenes are downright haunting, especially with some good headphones cranked up.
I'm having a really hard time with the first boss (the guy with the square spell thing that follows you). Getting him to half health is rough, and then he kicks it up a notch and I get destroyed. I'm even entering the fight with full health and 3 potions. Should I maybe go upgrade something? I haven't upgraded anything yet.
Amazing game though. Some of the cutscenes are downright haunting, especially with some good headphones cranked up.
If you really really struggle with him, there's... something you can get from beating the East boss which I found super useful against the bird boss. You can actually do any of the first 3 bosses in any order, if you like.
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And man it's just gorgeous. And every pixel and animation is loaded with meaning. It's pretty great to get something that lives up to its promise for once.
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Yeah I think so, given the nature of the presentation. There's obviously a history behind the world and the protagonist has a central role in it, the opening of the game gives you a glimpse of the events. Some of that is in the launch trailer. And pretty much everywhere you go you see the remnants of what came before. On top of that a lot of the NPCs have their own stories to tell, which seem to be rooted in the aftermath of the events that shattered the previous civilization and left everyone living in its ruins.
Also, dash-chaining is tough as hell out in the wild, sometimes frustratingly so.
But yeah, presentation is great, music is great, combat is great, and the shotgun is oh so satisfying.
And yeah, the stone tablets are a complete mystery to me right now. As are the locked doors with the key on them.
Though does anyone else have the problem where the steam screenshot key doesn't seem to be doing anything? I can still call up the steam interface, but f12 isn't taking pictures.
Which is a pity, because pretty much any given screen grab would make an excellent desktop wallpaper.
I'm pretty sure the homeboy who saves you at the start tells you to go North when you wake up, so I think it's supposed to be the first zone, but obviously it's not entirely clear when the images are trying to tell you.
I wonder if a no upgrade run is possible?
So is the difficulty actually spelled out for you, or is it like Dark Souls where one path kills you and the other path kills you more, so you know which one to avoid for now?
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I'd say they're roughly equal, with each of the initial three directions (you can't go South) presenting different tactical challenges.
Yeah, this game is awesome, even if I have not fogured out how to get past certain blocks or locked doors. (Are the red blocks enemies in the area?)
RE: Doors and how to open them:
Key doors require you to have found keys equal to the number of red keys on that door. (Keys are very well hidden.)
Triangle doors require you to have found that many triangles in that quadrant. (8 per quadrant.)
I feel like I've been finding tons of secrets but I'm sure there are lots I'm missing.
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Yeah. Yeah.
I can't get enough of it. The adaptive stuff is so, so good; you come across something incredible and the music builds on top of itself and hoo boy. I'm getting the soundtrack the moment it's released.
I didn't think it was a huge deal, but joy of discovery and all that you know. Err on the side of caution and courtesy?
I'm about six hours in and I've found five triangles, three up north and two to the east. I'm dicking around out west now, peeking in all the nooks and crannies for cash. I'm not really a fast gamer, especially on a first run.
It's pretty short. I finished it in 2 days, or so.
It's just the 4 areas and then
I did not 100%.
"Sidequest" spoiler:
If I can get up to 400-something chain dashes, but actually using it in combat works less than half the time at best, it's a shit ability with garbage design.
Just done the west boss (I think), enjoying it a lot.
The chain dash is used for much more than just the challenge room at the town. There's numerous puzzles which require you to use the chain dash with some deftness in order to cross otherwise impassable walkways.
As for the challenge room... At 100 (or 200, I forget) you get an extra square, and at 800 you get the cool blue/purple colour scheme clothes. The timing of it, as far as I know, seems to be quite constant. I had to set up an internal metronome to pass the challenge.
I know this because... Well...
They're Currency/EXP; there are vendors back in town that sell upgrades for 2 or 3 chits (4 pips to a chit).
Amazing game though. Some of the cutscenes are downright haunting, especially with some good headphones cranked up.
If you really really struggle with him, there's... something you can get from beating the East boss which I found super useful against the bird boss. You can actually do any of the first 3 bosses in any order, if you like.
Ah, should have explored the town more!