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Saito Hikari

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Everything posted by Saito Hikari

  1. A bit late on this, but it's really more of a visual novel/platformer game. It's not for most people. At all. --- Been playing Assassin's Creed Odyssey lately, notably the DLC. So far, I'm not feeling the underworld stuff since it's mostly drab and grey with some sort of arbitrary portal sealing mechanic, but I'm trying to push myself into the final DLC area which is supposedly a lot better. I've also been playing a lot of FFXIV. Man, it's like all of SE's good writers decided they wanted to work on the MMO instead of the trainwreck of mismanaged single player titles. I haven't seen a MMO story spawn so many discussions about morality (and managed to write a villain that unapologetically commits mass genocide over eons while still having sympathetic motivations (or at least sympathetic enough that he's essentially crazy fanbase bait), but then again JRPGs tend to be kind of whack).
  2. After thinking about this for a bit, my understanding is that Larian was probably chosen to develop BG3 over Beamdog and Obsidian because they have experience developing games with heavy outside-the-box environmental interaction (compared to most other devs having virtually no such experience). When they talk about wanting to make a DnD-style experience, I think what they really mean is that a typical DnD session more or less involves coming up with ways to really bull**** your way through situations using the environment in really creative ways. So, the answer to your question is 'very', and it will probably be one of the big defining features of BG3. I don't expect OS2's obvious field effects, but more esoteric concepts like telekinesis manipulation and using paintings as makeshift walls.
  3. Ugh, quoted the wrong post. To the person who said that Larian is most likely just trolling to build hype, I'm pretty sure trolling using a licensed IP that doesn't belong to them would open them up to legal action. It wasn't that long ago that, IIRC, someone contracted with Bethesda pretty much ripped off a DnD campaign when writing a pen and paper scenario for the Elder Scrolls franchise, and Bethesda had to do major damage control with that considering they're normally the lawyer-siccing party. There's also this happening too. Console ports for many of the old DnD RPGs, namely the Bauldr's Gate series, Icewind Dale, Planescape: Torment, and Neverwinter Nights.
  4. Eh, I'm fairly optimistic. That's just the Divinity franchise in general. I imagine with a different established franchise like Baldur's Gate, they'll rein in the humor. Especially since it's not really their IP to begin with, and the bulk of the writing will probably be handled by the DnD people in turn. As for it being TB VS RTwP, that's up in the air. If they want to call it a sequel, it has to be RTwP. That said, they also clearly have the resources to pull a PoEII and have both TB and RTwP in the same game.
  5. Larian studios teasing something with 'III' in the title. http://larian.com/ Datamining indicates that it is most likely Baldur's Gate 3. https://www.resetera.com/threads/larian-studios-teasing-something-new-on-their-site-logo-metadata-contains-reference-to-baldurs-gate-3-see-threadmark.119852/page-3#post-21264147
  6. You were actually right at endgame, there was only one (or two, depending on endgame choices) chapter left. That said, the endgame of PK was probably the most infuriating thing I have ever witnessed from any modern game, and I wonder if the developers were bonkers with the encounter design there. Moreso than the rest of the game. Freedom of Movement was MANDATORY to have on everyone at all times, and lord help your entire party if it was dispelled and you ran out of spell cats (or ran into the annoying persistent field buff in the area that stops 50% of your spells from working because why the hell not).
  7. I want to say, I imagine another significant factor in the possible decline in sales for PoE2 especially when compared to D:OS2 is that PoE2 was already known to be launching with DLC being released later. I find there is a growing mentality in the gaming community - especially among cRPGs which have a recent but very major reputation for being a genre with games that constantly launch with bugs out the ass and being mass re-balanced later - where a significant amount of people will refuse to buy said games until all DLC is released, the bugs/balancing is ironed out, and the game is put on sale. In that time, the lukewarm reception people had to the base game may have hit those potential later sales hard, and the news that it sold poorly compared to its predecessor to the point where the series' actual future is in question basically compounds that further. It's a really nasty feedback loop that leads to a major loss in interest for those waiting to buy such games later. PoE2 launched in a really slow gaming month too, but by the time all the DLC was out, we drifted into the super packed holiday period too. D:OS2 was heavily advertised as being complete out of the gate due to the nature of how its developers operate (they haven't launched any recent games with any paid DLC), and the previous game's combat was also considered rather revolutionary even if its narrative was left up to taste (and while PoE had a superior narrative/writing, people still found it unnecessarily wordy, and not a lot of people praise the actual gameplay). People's views on it may be subjective (the last third of the game was so disjointed design-wise that the developers released a rebalanced version of the game that overhauled it as well), but even the definitive edition released a year later was outright free to those who already had the original game.
  8. Hubris doesn't exactly lead to making bad design decisions while trying to fix a balancing issue that was prevalent throughout a previous game. That's more of a lack of foresight, especially when people who played the beta didn't have a problem with the armor system, and thus never aired any grievances during the testing process... Until the insane stat bloat later in the game ratcheted it from a 10 to 100 problem real quick. Now, if you want to see hubris, the disjointed writing of POE2 (especially in regards to god interactions) is pretty high up there. Granted, a lot of that was because a lot of writing was cut out in an effort to make the game less wordy, but one could argue that assuming enough was left in for everyone to connect the dots also qualifies.
  9. I'm not sure if this was ever brought up anywhere, but I've started a new game and it appears to me that a lot of dialogue was re-written and even re-voiced. I'm noticing a lot of altered lines that I swear I haven't heard before, and I've barely finished the tutorial cave. I am particularly impressed, not only since I thought this not necessary for minor NPCs, but the re-voicing must have cost even more money.
  10. I've been bouncing between a number of games over the past few months. I dropped FFIII right at endgame due to the grueling grind the game expects you to do in order to clear the last leg of the game (you have to go through the game's final two dungeons and like six bosses in a row -without saving-, and the level difference of enemies at the start of the dungeon and the final boss is like 20 levels). I dropped Shadows: Awakening at around the halfway point I think. I actually did like the game overall, but I guess I didn't like the gameplay loop enough. Since the game is split into two 'realms', it kind of felt like a lot of backtracking to explore on the other 'realm'. I actually did finish Kingdoms of Amalur and Fell Seal: Arbiter's Mark, though. I ended up dropping Children of Zodiarcs. While the setting is rather compelling, the combat system was a total downgrade from Fell Seal in comparison, so I probably need time to dive back in. On a side note, I'm beginning to notice a lot of tactical games with some sort of deck building system. I have no idea why this is such a popular concept, because I think it sucks (although Children of Zodiarcs probably doesn't pull it off that well, to me it just feels like an unnecessary layer of RNG on top of the already RNG dice roll system when doing any action, I usually just turtle in a corner if I don't have enough cards to attack - especially when the game also doesn't let you move after attacking even if you haven't already yet moved that turn, unlike most other tactics-style games). Right now I'm going through AC: Odyssey. I'm actually enjoying it a lot, although I kind of have to suspend the narrative a bit because the writing is sort of at complete odds with what you actually do in-game, ha.
  11. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wesvzmNEMpU This 'Pathway' project actually looks really interesting. Seems like an indie X-Com, but I also get Pillars vibes from it.
  12. Finished Fell Seal up to the end of its current release, and now I'm eagerly awaiting the full release (presumably in a week and a half). It really is a Final Fantasy Tactics inspired game, and in some ways even deeper (at least in terms of class variety). But dear god is the Cleave passive and Knight's One for All ability broken to hell. Cleave gives you an extra turn if you KO an enemy (though thankfully it's capped at one extra turn per 'real' turn you get). One for All lets you attack anything within range of your weapon attacks if the target is attacked by a party member using any offensive single target attack/ability. Stick that on a dual wielding gun wielder, and a single One for All command basically turns into that character potentially executing 5+ regular attack commands in a single turn. There's debates on the steam forums for the game about how the developers should balance ranged weapon users with that ability. Moved on to Children of Zodiarcs. It's an... Interesting game. A strange mix of tactics/card play. The game's setting is rather compelling, but the combat isn't that particularly deep so far, especially since the game forces you to end your turn after executing an action, even if you didn't yet move that turn.
  13. Finished Edge of Eternity up to the end of the current build. The last fight was way harder than it had any right to be, and currently feels like it basically boils down to a lot of grinding and RNG since there's nothing on the field for your party to take advantage of. Your caster starts within striking range of the enemies in that fight too, so they absolutely HAVE to spend their first turn getting out of the way, because trying to cast something against four enemies without getting interrupted/outright KO'd are not good odds. Apparently the devs are working on a formation setup that lets you set party members in different hexes before combat starts, though. Which would really alleviate a lot of problems with the game's balance. As it currently is, all the hardest fights in the game are against multiple enemies, meaning you have to burst them down one by one ASAP or else -you're- going to get bursted down. --- I've moved on to Fell Seal: Arbiter's Mark. This game is surprisingly incredible, I've been searching for a good Final Fantasy Tactics-style game, and this game is the closest game I've played to scratching that itch. That said, it was on sale for about $17 when I picked it up a few days ago, and I believe the developers increased the base price from $20 to $30 on Monday because the game was about to leave early access and would be fully released in April. I would still say the increased price is well worth it. The writing and story is mildly interesting (though not exactly FFT level), the art style grows on you after a while, the music is pretty good, and the class system is rather deep. Deep enough that I ended up discovering some class synergies by complete accident. War Mage in particular looks like it should be a melee class that can use their Infused Edge ability to launch a normal attack and cast a single target spell in the same turn, but read the fine print and you'll notice that its range is actually tied to the weapon rather than being fixed. Combine it with a bow/gun-wielding class, pick up some crit passives and another passive from a different class that lets abilities inflict critical hits (and restore HP and MP for each critical hit you land), and you've got yourself an arcane archer build. (Ranger/War Mage seems to be the best build for this kind of setup, due to Ranger's inherent critical hit rate boosting skills and that it has an attack that has a 3.8x damage modifier that requires a fair amount of MP to charge up. But with the right combination of passives and the War Mage ability to attack twice per turn, you could potentially end up launching said attack every two turns, instead of every 4 turns via natural MP regeneration.)
  14. I think the thing that rubs me the wrong way the most about this whole Epic thing is that one of the biggest arguments in defense of it is that it's supposedly 'good for the developers'. But in some cases, it seems that it was more of the choice of the publishers rather than the developers, which leads me to question how much of the money is actually going to them. Some of the games had the developers literally put up achievements on Steam mere days before they were informed that their games would suddenly be timed exclusives on the Epic Launcher. There's a screenshot floating around of Obsidian developers working on the Outer Worlds not even being aware of the decision until after it already happened, which would be another tally for those keeping score of Obsidian's history of being screwed over by publishers. Same kind of thing happened with the Metro Exodus devs too, in that the decision wasn't even theirs to begin with and happened behind their backs with their publisher/upper management, IIRC. Some of the games targeted were mere weeks from release on Steam, which seems fairly deliberate and particularly devious considering part of the decisions might be fueled by the theory that they (either developers that willingly went with this or the publishers) want hype generated from having two different release windows on the PC. The other thing is that a lot of the games were advertised quite a bit on Steam before the whole Epic Games exclusivity thing popped up. It's going to be interesting to see if Epic ever acquires newly announced games that make it clear from the very beginning to be timed exclusives on their store front, or if they'll continue to go after games that are halfway in development that have already appeared on the Steam storefront.
  15. Finished Kingdoms of Amalur. That final boss fight was pretty cool, but I feel like I broke the fight by being an archer so the final boss' actual attacks never had any chance of hitting me. The major threat was the mooks anyway. I've started on Edge of Eternity, an early access turn based tactics-style JRPG that takes environment and weather into account in its battle system. The game is unexpectedly beautiful, and the game actually already forced me to think about my tactics from the first real boss fight. The writing can really use some work though. A lot of the dialogue between the two main characters feels rather forced instead of natural. The game's combat system seems like it has a lot of potential besides that.
  16. I find that PoE1 had far better writing (especially in regards to companions, although it probably helps that the companions in PoE1 were actual companions and weren't extensions of the major factions above all) and a far more compelling setting/exploration, but PoE2 had the better overall gameplay.
  17. I am not sure how to feel about Dragon's Dogma getting an anime adaptation out of nowhere... https://media.netflix.com/en/press-releases/anime-production-line-deal ...But between this and all the other recent news about the franchise, I'm inclined to think a sequel is actually in the works.
  18. ...A bout of restart-itis hit me in Kingdoms of Amalur and I decided to go Bow/Faeblade Shadowcaster build in my planned second playthrough after testing it out in my main file. It worked out better for me personally, because with Bow/Staff, I found myself dumping a ton of points on Finesse side into passives/sustained skills I couldn't use in order to remain on Shadowcaster path (since they either didn't work very well/didn't work at all with either weapon). But going Bow/Faeblade Shadowcaster despite both being Finesse weapons meant I was wasting less points on Finesse side and also freed up a lot of skill points on Magic side to boost spell power too. Staff animations are nice and all, but Faeblades are really fun. Whirling blender death machine. Bow/Faeblade Shadowcaster play style reminds me a lot of Magick Archer from Dragon's Dogma. (I now wonder though, the Might tree seems kind of boring. It got hammers, longswords, and greatswords... But a ton of enemies use spears. I think greatswords should have been replaced by spears.)
  19. I actually bought the two expansion DLC for Kingdoms of Amalur. I went into the latter one, Teeth of Naros. The Greek myth aesthetic it has is quite pretty, and rather unique from what I usually see in most open world RPGs. It revolves around a bunch of humanoid stone giants who value logic over brute strength, and their struggles in adhering to this belief while following the Goddess of Wisdom, who was thought to have abandoned them after an incident long ago. (Also, the gear from this expansion is broken as hell, at least for any kind of mage build. Using such weapons grants you a 'Primal Magic' buff that appears to double the power of subsequent magic attacks, including any elemental enchantments on your weapons. I am unsure if it applies to physical damage, but the game's dialogue in the explanation of this new weapon type seems to indicate that it only applies to elemental magic damage. As it turns out, it appears the easiest way to trigger the Primal Magic buff is to use the bow charged shot, as it appears that you require a full weapon combo to trigger it with other weapon types. I went from doing about 1,000-1,500 damage charged shots and 2,000-3,000 damage lightning storms to going anywhere in the realm of 2,000-3,000 damage per arrow and 8,000-10,000 damage lightning storms, although I did upgrade a lot of other gear at the same time. Given enemy health trends, I think that kind of damage puts even the final boss squarely into 2-3 shot territory. Shadowcaster path is just so busted with the expansion gear, when it seems people considered it the weakest in the main game. Since you equip two weapons at once and swap between them in combat, I noticed that the secondary weapon you use will still have some passive enchantments apply to attacks you make with the primary weapon along with persistent defensive effects if any, and vice-versa, so I basically just use my staff as a stat stick now while I wreck everything with my bow.) I returned to the base game afterwards and reached the final region, Alabastra. If there's one thing this game does well, it's capturing the mood and atmosphere. I think the game aged quite well in the art design department in the later zones. The beginning forest areas seem pretty bland in comparison to all the later zones.
  20. I'm trying to find that random fanart I saw about two weeks ago, where the main character starts out saying 'Time to commit some CRIMES', and the rest of the panels consist of them playing video games with children, delivering groceries for an elderly woman, and telling a random person to be the best they can be. It was kind of hilarious and sweet and it makes me mildly interested in trying out the Yakuza series for its writing. --- On another note, I'm still going further into Kingdoms of Amalur. I decided to look into how the game determines enemy levels and loot scaling. Apparently, different regions in the overworld have enemies scale to your level starting and ending at a certain point, and enemy levels/the loot table is locked the moment you step into the region for the first time. It's fairly interesting design, potentially allowing for low level speedruns to be a thing while still keeping the game somewhat challenging towards endgame if you level grind/do all possible sidequests. That said, I'm about to cross the river area to where the Tuatha strongholds are, which I assume is the point where the plot really takes off as I cross into enemy territory in the narrative. Going by the lorestone list, I'm probably about 60% of the way through the game now.
  21. Still going through Kingdoms of Amalur. The game got a lot more interesting once I reached the Plains and the giant city there. It's much more visually interesting than the earlier forest areas. I notice the dungeons in the area got a lot shorter too. Not complaining though, if they were just as big as the early game dungeons, I'd have probably stepped away from the game for a time. The gear/stat scaling is kinda broken as well. I think I'm only about 40-50% of the way through the game, but I'm already level 28. Apparently, the level cap in the game is 37. I also found it a bit awkward when the game suddenly started handing me what appears to be endgame tier potions when I barely started finding the mid-tier potions. The crafting system also seems to break the game in half if you invest in the crafting skills. I do like how the game's out of combat skills actually do more than just make you better at detecting traps/dispelling wards/etc. I've noticed them unlock additional conversation options and even come into play during quests (like how Dispel became important for freeing the captured Fae from magical possession during the House of Ballads questline, when otherwise you're forced to kill them). It's a bit Pillars-esque. A lot of guides mention that Persuasion actually isn't important because the persuasion options don't change outcomes much if you succeed. They're a bunch of liars. There's a fair amount of permanently missable stuff gated behind Persuasion options (and Dispel if you do House of Ballads without at least 4 points in that skill), while ignoring the other skills (particularly the crafting skills and Detect Hidden) just means that you get stronger/may need to backtrack later in the game. Of course, Persuasion is RNG-based and you could just savescum until the persuasion checks pass, but it's best to just save yourself the headache (especially in one case where I had to pass three checks in a row). (It's important to note that there's skill trainers throughout the game that you can pay to permanently increase your skills, and it carries over when you Fateweave, as in skill reset. Thing is, the trainers also have minimum/maximum amount of points needed for them to train you in that skill. It seems a common tactic is to reset your skills, go visit the trainers that you haven't trained with because your skill level was too high before, and more efficiently re-allocate your skill points from there.) It's still a fun game overall, balance issues otherwise.
  22. Still plugging away at Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning. Gameplay is starting to show its flaws. Namely you arrive to a new region, clear out the area, do a couple kill/fetch quests, and move on. Not much deviation beyond that. The main quest so far has quickly moved into areas so far beyond my level (like 2 regions over to enemies that can 2-3 shot me) that I'm staying behind to do sidequests to level up. That said, I can probably rush the main quest if I wanted to, because the slow time/damage boost reckoning mechanic makes boss fights a complete joke in the game. I could also NOT use it, if it wasn't so integral to leveling in the game due to massive EXP boosts while killing enemies in this mode. I really do like the combat, though. I've settled for Shadowcaster build path (mage/rogue hybrid) with bow primary/staff secondary. I especially like how staves are treated as AoE melee/mid-range weapons, and the attack animations for them are very visually pleasing. I could probably use chakram secondary instead (they're considered long/mid-range AoE mage weapons), but it seems rather redundant if you already have bows, and they seem more suited for pure mage path and warrior/mage hybrid path. I'd say the game so far is good enough that I'm baffled at how poorly it sold. The combat is actually really good, it's one of the few open world action RPGs where you can come up with actual combos (and quickly swap between two weapon types and throw spells into the mix). Staves have a 1-2-3 hit combo effect with just left clicking rapidly, but you can also guard + left click to execute a quick backstep while summoning a vortex with a small area of effect that drags enemies to a central point, then swap to a different weapon or cast a spell into the mix. There's also a charged staff attack that launches a 360 degree defensive knockback pulse, and one other move I haven't unlocked yet so I can't yet describe it. Bows so far have a charged shot and an area of effect arrow rain move, there's apparently two other bow abilities I haven't unlocked yet either.
  23. Yesterday, I was deciding between picking up either Dark Messiah of Might and Magic or Kingdoms of Amalur, since I heard both games had good archery. I decided on the latter because while the former game apparently had the better combat (plus being able to just kick things is a legit well thought out mechanic that I'm surprised isn't a standard in all first person RPGs by now), there was no guarantee it'd even run properly on my computer today. Amalur actually controls pretty well, although I haven't gotten too far into it yet. I'm going for a Shadowcaster build.
  24. So I'm having a problem that I think was caused by the latest patch, and I wonder if anyone has any insight on how to get around it. Ever since I updated the game to the latest patch, I've found that POE2 no longer launches in full screen mode in Windows 10. Or it still does, but for some reason, the windows 10 task bar blocks everything at the bottom of the screen. This is hugely problematic because the task bar blocks the 'Delay Turn' button in turn-based, and also cuts off the bottom portion of my character's portraits (meaning I cannot see health values and resource amounts). I've looked all over in options and I can't find any way to set the display back to what it was before, and it's completely halted my playthrough for the time being. I don't believe any of the mods I'm using are causing this issue either (the 6 party members mod and the Spoils of Caed Nua), launching the game normally without them still causes the issue to persist.
  25. CDPR literally already tried something like that with Witcher Tales: Thronebreaker late last year too. It sold like **** even though it had the Witcher branding behind it. Enough **** that they released it on Steam a month later with no indication that they were going to do that so soon, and bundled Witcher 1 with it there (as opposed to the GoG bundle including Gwent cards for the multiplayer game instead). Considering that, I don't think they want to risk hobbling Cyberpunk early performance by making it exclusive to their store.
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