Picture of Your Games the 14th

[the_dog_days]

^You haven't unlocked Chuck Jones yet?

[Keyrock]

24 minutes ago, the_dog_days said:

^You haven't unlocked Chuck Jones yet?

I only just started, I've played the game for an hour, if that. Right now it's just my boy Beefstick, Elvis, and Adelle, who has thankfully yet to sing any ultra depressing songs.

Edited November 3, 2021 by Keyrock

[LadyCrimson]

Sword and Fairy 7:

Oh, a mage-warrior pretty-boi - +1  (he's not the main character, will be one of your party tho)

Some nice looking/cinematic in-game cutscenes - +1 (movies seem to be the typical 1080 or 1440 resolution and thus fuzzier on 4k tv)

To Ray Trace and lose lots of FPS (depending how much quality you're willing to lose) or...


...to not Ray Trace and have lots of 4k FPS (still looks great w/out RT, but I notice RT in an overall effect a bit more here than in Cyberpunk. It's still subtle most of the time tho, like the whiter cape, cave lighting, hair, surface reflections)

But dang, some stuff/scenes in the game are absolutely eye-catching/gorgeous.
All during the brief prologue/tutorial I kept stopping to gaze around and around. Ground textures/other here and there are sometimes iffy but the overall impression is poppin'.

Combat, seeming player party structure ... reminds me a tad of Tales of Arise, really. Nothing uncommon lept out, in other words.

[LadyCrimson]

Yup, I like running around in this game. And at least combat is same-map, not loaded-in encounters. Also, seems a good game for future GPU/RTX performance testing. 
Not sure how linear it is yet - has small side quests and it guides you forward a lot - you can roam a bit, find things, but it's not hugely expansive early on.  Being very plot/scene heavy I'd guess fairly linear.

[LadyCrimson]

Forget the goody-two-shoes main characters, can I play as this woman, please?

...just love some of the art in the game. Gameplay itself is ... average/mediocre.

[Agiel]

Seems like the kind of game where folks aren't content with violating the laws of physics, but pouring lighter fluid and dropping a match on the text books, in the best possible way:

 

Edited November 13, 2021 by Agiel

[Keyrock]

4 hours ago, Agiel said:

 

 

That might be the best rhythmic gymnastics performance I've ever seen. 

[melkathi]

What's the video? Blocked in my country for copyright reasons

[Agiel]

It's from a long line of TV series based on the Wuxia novel <<Return of Condor Heroes>> but the one consistent thing from all of them is copious amounts of wire-fu (in fact the 1995 series and the movie <<Iron Monkey>> was my introduction to flying people in kung-fu movies before <<Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon>> came out).

[Keyrock]

6 minutes ago, Agiel said:

It's from a long line of TV series based on the Wuxia novel <<Return of Condor Heroes>> but the one consistent thing from all of them is copious amounts of wire-fu (in fact the 1995 series and the movie <<Iron Monkey>> was my introduction to flying people in kung-fu movies before <<Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon>> came out).

Iron Monkey is delightful, it might be my favorite Donnie Yen movie.

Back on the subject of vidya games, I had an unexpected, but very welcome surprise. A few days ago I got an email from Amazon notifying me that my copy of SMT V was delayed and the new expected delivery window would be November 19-22. Yesterday I got another email notifying me that it shipped and delivery was today, to which my response was "Are you sure? Today is Saturday." Lo and behold, a package showed up at my door today. I had no idea Amazon delivered on Sunday. Good thing because I go back on the road tomorrow morning.

Also, they came through on the steelcase:

Steelcases are usually fairly limited quantity, so I wasn't sure I'd actually get one. Not a big deal, a copy in a regular case would play exactly the same, but it is nice and it didn't cost anything extra.

[Keyrock]

There are 3 difficulty settings: Casual, Normal, and Hard. MegaTen games are famously tough and unforgiving, so having a casual difficulty for Little Billy (for whatever reason the casual mainstream gamer straw man in my head is always named "Little Billy" ) playing his first MegaTen game is great. As a MegaTen veteran, I decided to start on Hard. I will likely come to regret that. Difficulty can be changed to Normal or Casual at any time, but Hard can only be selected at the start.

Those school uniforms are snazzy!

I almost died on the very first tutorial battle. That's what I get for playing on Hard. 

Poor Tokyo always getting REKT in MegaTen games.

Props to whatever voice actor is voicing Gustave. My man is hamming it up super hard!

[Keyrock]

Oh no! I better rescue this cute, innocent, vulnerable girl from those horrible monsters!

That's what I might have thought were this my first rodeo. To a MegaTen veteran, like myself, this scene smells like a fish hatchery. She is initially referred to as "Demon in Kimono", but I knew it was Amanozako long before she properly introduced herself. For those not familiar, Amanozako is a spirit of rebellion. She was literally vomited out by Susano-o after he built up all the force and anger inside himself. Here's what a traditional depiction of Amanozako looks like:

Amanozako is not necessarily evil, but she is ill manared, has a very short fuse, and is enormously powerful. She could wipe out that group of Pretas by sneezing in their general direction. Clearly she staged that scene and is manipulating me.

I'll play along for now. She's acting as a "guide", I don't get to use her in combat, which is understandable given how hilariously OP she would be relative to the rest of my party.

These 20-sided dice are the treasure chests:

I don't know if opening them during the Full Moon phase gets you a better chance at superior contents, like in some previous MegaTen games, but I'm trying to do so nonetheless.

Atlus broke out the serious waifu material for the World of Shadows ruler in the form of Sophia. I approve. 

[melkathi]

What is combat like in these games? That pixie looks cool.

[Keyrock]

8 minutes ago, melkathi said:

What is combat like in these games? That pixie looks cool.

MegaTen games use the Press Turn system, the finest turn-based battle system ever developed IMHO. It's all about exploiting weaknesses. You get extra actions for landing a critical or hitting a weakness. You lose extra actions for missing or hitting a resistance. It works both ways, enemies can and will exploit the system against you.

[melkathi]

So it's turn based but with a QTE to hit the right button?

[Keyrock]

2 minutes ago, melkathi said:

So it's turn based but with a QTE to hit the right button?

No QTEs. Menu-driven turn-based.

[Amentep]

Traditionally, one of the things I've liked about the system as well is that status ailment actually can play a part in strategy. Most games status ailments have such a low chance of working that there is little point in trying.

Edit - screenshot of my current crew:

[Keyrock]

28 minutes ago, Amentep said:

Traditionally, one of the things I've liked about the system as well is that status ailment actually can play a part in strategy. Most games status ailments have such a low chance of working that there is little point in trying.

In some of the previous games I've even managed to get status ailments on some bosses with somewhat respectable success rates. There are usually a variety of things you can do to increase your odds of landing status ailments, they vary from game to game, but raising Luck is a common thread. It seems like in a lot of games that have a Luck stat, it tends to be a throwaway stat, but high Luck builds can absolutely be viable in MegaTen games, not just for the status ailments, but also the criticals. I've had success with Strength/Agility/Luck builds in the past.

[LadyCrimson]

On 11/13/2021 at 12:49 PM, Agiel said:

violating the laws of physics

Don't know what you're talking about.

 

[Keyrock]

Don't worry, Leanan Sidhe, I'm on your side.

Lucifer's been working out!

I ran across the first boss:

Hydra

I got killed, but given that I went into that battle blind and on Hard difficulty, I put up a pretty good fight. I saved right before, so no big deal.

My ill-prepared party just before the boss battle:

[Amentep]

Lucifer has buffed up.

This guy didn't fare so well, though.

 

I also faced down hydra

Me and the crew panicked first time and didn't kill him before he poisoned my crew, killing Asparas outright as she's weak to ailments.

I did last long enough to see  hydra's weakness, so went back better prepared.

Needless to say, ol' hydra will feel that in the morning...

[melkathi]

Very strange seeing that character not named Beefstik.

Edited November 19, 2021 by melkathi

[Keyrock]

4 hours ago, melkathi said:

Very strange seeing that character not named Beefstik.

Until told otherwise, I'm assuming that's pro wrestling legend Hiroshi Tanahashi.

[Amentep]

1 hour ago, Keyrock said:

Until told otherwise, I'm assuming that's pro wrestling legend Hiroshi Tanahashi.

Not that clever, I'm afraid.  The full name is Hiroshi Jinkawa, a name pulled directly from the human characters in GODZILLA VS MEGALON. The character, played by Yutaka Hayashi, was the friend of Goro Ibuki, inventor of Jet Jaguar.  

[Malcador]

The game has issues with bloom

Fitting the game ends with this line... oops forgot profanity.

Edited November 20, 2021 by Malcador