What are you Playing Now? - Right Now at the moment edition

[melkathi]

Started Songs Of Conquest and am a bit disappointed with no fault of the game as such. Reviewers made it appear to be something different: As you play a song for your faction is being written based on your actions.

That made it sound as if there are different actions, different outcomes woven into a soundtrack. That would have been amazing.

The actuality: the little story cutscene after each mission is a bard in a tavern singing about that mission.

 

It doesn't help that the main character in the human campaign (Song 1) is not likeable.

[Lexx]

22 hours ago, Wormerine said:

oh, one extra note - boss fights still suck hard. While combat got better, it is not good enough to provide “fun challenge”.

My issue with the combat is that it's either way too easy, or if I pump up the difficulty settings, frustratingly hard and tedious. You'll just end up hammering on bullet sponges. There does not seem to be any middle ground.

Edited August 31 by Lexx

[Wormerine]

9 hours ago, melkathi said:

Started Songs Of Conquest and

Played a bit during EA, need to return now when irons finished. Seemed like nice, streamlined HoM&M

2 hours ago, Lexx said:

My issue with the combat is that it's either way too easy, or if I pump up the difficulty settings, frustratingly hard and tedious. You'll just end up hammering on bullet sponges. There does not seem to be any middle ground.

Yup. 

[BruceVC]

I have some exciting news

I have just bought Kenshi and I have decided to play it as my next game, I have heard very positive comments about it and it appeals to me around its open-world and sandbox design. Those are some of my favorite types of designs and preferences in any game. I dont know anything about the lore or best strategies to " win " but from what I have read it doesnt have a main narrative and you literally create your own journey and adventures. 

I am still busy with Sunless Skies but I will be completing that in about a week or so and then I will start with  Kenshi 

Any mod suggestions would be appreciated but I will do my own research as well around recommended mods and use Nexus as a good source of information

[bugarup]

I somehow sank over 500 hours into Kenshi without noticing it, because it's emergent stories are so, so to my liking and I think I only explored, like, half a map yet. What mods I recommend would be "Less foliage and rocks" and some  texture compression mod, because Kenshi is not exactly optimized, SCAR's pathfinding, Let's Talk (because by default everyone only says something once and game gets too quiet). I also use and love Map Borders mod, one that makes your base gates bit sturdier, one that scatters about more potential recruits and one that allows for really big parties plus a bugfix or two.

[marelooke]

Been a while, but haven't really played much worth reporting on, so quick summary of the past few months.

Final Fantasy XIV new expansion was released. And well..."Meh." is the nicest thing I can say about Dawntrail.

Reached Legendary Rank 3 in Warframe by playing on and off for a decade. The previous quest ("Jade Shadows") was...interesting, given its themes. Can't say I've ever seen a warning stating "This quest contains scenes of trauma related to motherhood" before. New major plot development (Warframe 1999) looks more interesting than I was expecting.

Got dragged into some time in The First Descendant. It's a Nexon game with ideas stolen from Warframe and Destiny without understanding how, and why, they work in those other games. Maybe it's an improvement given how Destiny is doing (haven't touched since before they started deleting content, so...hearsay), but I'd just recommend playing Warframe instead of TFD.

Back to more positive news, I've been playing quite a bit of Warhammer 40.000: Darktide and have been enjoying it immensely. As far as I'm concerned the main thing keeping me from outright recommending it to Left4Dead/Vermintide enjoyers (note, haven't played a lot of VT2, so dunno how it compares there) would be the multiple layers of RNG in the "crafting" system, which should (finally) be getting reworked end of September. Combat is tight, atmosphere is absolutely great (the music... ), and I do greatly enjoy the banter between the different characters.

Also another attempt at finishing Mass Effect: Andromeda. Game starts of pretty strong and then just falls flat on its (supposedly, tired) face. I'm at the point where I gotta deal with the "exiles" and I really can't be made to care about that "faction" at all. Oh well, trying to power through.

Edited September 2 by marelooke

[Mamoulian War]

I have defeated Ancient Dragon and Vendrick today.

Ancient dragon was interesting. I have postponed to go and fight against him for a very long time, as he was definitely the hardest boss for me in Vanilla game. I spent more than 150 attempts in total in all encounters with him O.o To my surprise, I have defeated him today on my first try O.o I still can't believe it. TBH I have to say, the Fire Resistance items from DLCs definitely helped me to survive his dragon breath.

Vendrick on the other had, I have thought, would be easier form these two. But of course I got few time completely destroyed, before I have relearned his moves and attacks. Then, on my 4th or 5th try, I have defeated him without being hit The funniest thing about it was, that the previous attempt, I was not able even to touch him, as he destroyed me in less than 5 seconds after entering the fog gate, as I have forgotten, that his attacks drain like whole stamina when blocking, and I was stunned with his first attack, and then promptly finished with two more swings

Next in line, before entering the NG+, just a little bit of grinding for missing items.

[Malcador]

New WoW expansion is fun, finished the campaign.  No one ever really dies for shame.  The side quests are pretty good though, decent world building in them.  Will do some activities to grind, mainly the dragon races and I guess will finish the storylines.  Will be nice to level a DPS alt though, being able to kill stuff is always nice, heh.

[LadyCrimson]

I tried the free demo for We Harvest Shadows via Steam. It's a 1st person "farming horror allegory". It has a day to day chores/mission form, although one can take as long as you want I think to finish the daily chores (finishing such chores advances the story/missions). You're out on a farm in self-isolation, and maybe you're a little (or a lot) mentally unstable. Or maybe it's actually haunted. Or maybe ...

I farmed a few tomatoes/chopped logs for money. Built a chicken coop to sell eggs for more money. Bought blueprints, and axe, planted more tomatoes. Took in a stray cat, feed it every day. Explored an old barn and was chased by wolves. Didn't go to bed early enough because I was trying to finish the daily "chores" assigned, and the farm/house began to make creepy noises, whispers and shadows until it became too creepy so I scuttled back to the room to get my sleep.....I like the concept and the artstyle was ok. And the cat was cute. It's probably going to be early access ofc.  But I wishlisted it. We'll see. 

[Mamoulian War]

After few grinding sessions, I have started NG+ in DS2:SotFS. I went right away into the Heide's Tower and defeated Old Dragonslayer and later Dragonrider as well. Both on first try. This time, without phantoms. The plans is to not use them if possible. We'll see how far I will be able to get before I get into first trouble.

For now, I am again enjoying the game, as I have mostly forgotten the placing of Red Phantoms, which pretty much kick my ass now and then It makes the experience fresh, and make me do hilarious things as soon, as I get surprised by few of them Anyway, sooner or later, I will have to go back to grind again, at the Falconers for their medals. The plan is to clear the Lost Bastille for Gold Covetous Ring+2 and then go back to them, to see, if they can drop anything for me.

[melkathi]

7 hours ago, LadyCrimson said:

 

I farmed a few tomatoes/chopped logs for money. Built a chicken coop to sell eggs for more money. Bought blueprints, and axe, planted more tomatoes. Took in a stray cat, feed it every day. Explored an old barn and was chased by wolves.

At first I only read this part of the post and wasn't sure if I was reading the What are you Playing Now thread or the What You've Done Today thread.

[Mamoulian War]

I had a little bit of time today again before the sleep, so I have run inside No-Man’s Wharf and cleared the area, including the Flexile Sentry boss. I needed 3 attempts, as the NG+ adds joined the fight almost imediately, so my first attempt ended after 5 seconds (In PS3 vanilla, there as enough time to shoot one Shadow Assassin down with a spell after entering the fog gate). Almost got him on 2nd try, but I started to be to greedy, when the water level started to rise up to my hips, so I have run out of stamina in moddle of his combo.

[majestic]

I, too, was playing a game someone else in this thread is. Luckily for me, I'm already done. I am talking about Dreck Souls 2: Scholar of the First Suck Edition.

Joseph Anderson, in one of his videos, came up with the concept of Gary, a fictional game developer responsible for everything in a game that is only designed to waste the players time. A prominent member of the German World of Warcraft community did the same earlier, he called the developer Malte. Since Malte is a much worse name than Gary, I'll be using Malte in this post. Steam says that I have played the game for 149 hours, with a lot of that time spent on dealing with Malte's contribution to the game. And I mean a lot.

Brave Undead, but why didst thou adventure on this much? Well, because I cannot help myself, and I wanted to finish the game before ranting about it. I know that it Dreck Souls 2 considered to be the black sheep of the family and that it is slightly disliked even in the toxic wasteland that the FromSoftware fandumb is, but with them being how they are, one is better safe than sorry. But seriously, screw this game, I am never going to touch it again.

From what I have gathered, Scholar of the First Suck is like a Kaizo variant of the original Dark Souls 2, which apparently has much better enemy placement, and also features a lot less enemies. Alas, as that is only one minor part of the whirlwind of misery that playing Dreck Souls 2 is, I cannot see the original being much improved - eh, or rather, the Kaizo edition much worsened - by throwing more enemies at you.

But, luckily, not all was bad. I appreciated the intro sequence that explained a bit about the lore of Drangleic and gives your character a personal stake in proceeding, something which the first Dark Souls sorely lacked. I never found it in myself to give a rat's ass about the Undead Pilgrimage in the first game and still enjoyed the game based solely on the combat and other gameplay elements, as well as the level and world design.

It could have been better, because the game opens with the promise of a cure for the Undead Curse, which simply does not exist, and never will exist - cannot exist, considering what the curse is implied to be - and as a recurring player your character's motivation is suspect right from the start. However, well, at least your character cannot know that, so, well, there is that. Sadly, that is about the only thing that is better than the original Dark Souls.

Do not mistake that for thinking that the storyline of the game is good, because it is not. It is a retread of Dark Souls, with the exception of adding a character that acts almost as a villain in the form of Nashandra, Queen of Drangleic, the woman at the heart of many of Drangleic's woes (because it is always them wimmin who corrupt the pure hearts of men ). Like in many such games, I bemoan the fact that I could not give her what she wanted. Having the Abyss corrupt the last embers of the First Flame would have elevated the ending of the game to a point where I would have liked it. Alas. I would be remiss to mention that it gave me one of the heartiest laughs this year in the form of Aldia's dialogue.

Quote

What is it that you seek?
You cannot even say yourself.

Indeed. As your character has zero agency in anything that transpires and is basically just a puppet for whoever comes along and needs something, it was rather funny that Aldia would be so blunt.

Instead of writing an essay about an old game where everything has been said already, my biggest problems with the game are the systems Malte designed, which seem to be all of them. The changed controls from the first game (turning feels much stranger, locked on attacking in different directions, the frequent misses in combat when an enemy is between the seemingly eight ways your characters can face), the encounter and enemy moveset design where there is basically only one difference between the enemy types, which boilts down to dragons and everything else. Just look at the bosses and regular enemies. They all have the exact same moveset, with slightly different animations.

The most prevalent of which are the double swing with an optional third attack and the forward lunge. Whether it is the Pursuer, the Smelter Demon, Fume Knight, Aava or Vendrick, really, that is not one of the dragon bosses in the game (and the Royal Rat Authority which plays like a dragon encounter, just without the breath attacks). The only standouts here are the otherwise ludicrously easy Covetous Demon encounters and in part the Duke's Dear Freja, although even that is more often than not a two attack combination with her legs, and a forward lunge. Some enemies shoot projectiles or beams at you, but that is it for variety.

It meant that I was able to defeat most boss fights first try (I played NG without summons, as evidenced by Lucatiel's and Benhart's achievements being almost the last ones to unlock, outside of the spells sold at Drangleic Castle in NG++), the longest of which took like five, which was, funnily enough, the blue Smelter Demon. It went down after I switched my equipment, which, ah, well, is something that I do not like to do in these type of games.

Continuing with the worst issues is that with the reworked stamina, and the silly adaptability changes (Malte's brilliant idea to make the base dodge roll in the game have less i-frames than the fat roll in the original game unless one invests in adaptibiity was a fantastic change, *chef's kiss*), the game turned into a third person action adventure game with turn based combat. Bait enemy attack, dogde, parry of tank with shield, hit back while you can. Rinse, wash, and repeat.

The turning controls seem to have gotten worse, locking onto enemies makes it sometimes impossible to hit them as your character appears to able to face only in eight directions. Being locked on, one has to let go of the thumbstick to get a somewhat tracking attack out of it, or manually aim in the direction the enemy is standing, for no real reason. If you want to create some distance between you and the enemy, it is necessary to let go from the stick long enough, otherwise your character will just whack in whatever direction you were going. Maybe that's the reason why the dodge roll with lower equipment loads is so long. To make sure you're far enough away from the enemy to have to step back, so you can hit. Only Malte knows. The controls are floaty and sluggish, and felt much better in Dark Souls, which I played on the Switch (and that has only 30fps, compared to DS2's 60).

Then the game has no built-in offline mode, which is just baffling, and the scripted invasion encounters are ridiculous to the point where I just began carrying a great club to repeatedly stun lock them with the heavy two-handed attack. I guess it would be possible to approach those like actual pvp against cheaters (as they all have unlimited stamina, spell casts and equipment load), but why bother if you can just stunlock them dead.

Weapon balance is also something that seems to be a lot worse, but perhaps I never noticed these issues in the original games. But when your oversized ultra greatsword +10 takes five seconds to wind up an attack, eats up half your stamina bar and then deals 20% more damage than the one second attack animation of a rapier (at a much, much lower stamina cost) then something's seriously wrong. I played most of the game with the uchigatana sold by McDuff, which was a nice weapon to use, with a decent balance between speed and damage, and a rapier.

I wanted to like (ultra)greatswords, or great axes, or anything large, but... wrestling with Malte's gameplay decisions is bad enough without gimping yourself.

Good riddance, Dreck Souls 2. I shan't be installing you again.

On 9/5/2024 at 5:00 PM, Mamoulian War said:

For now, I am again enjoying the game, as I have mostly forgotten the placing of Red Phantoms, which pretty much kick my ass now and then It makes the experience fresh, and make me do hilarious things as soon, as I get surprised by few of them Anyway, sooner or later, I will have to go back to grind again, at the Falconers for their medals. The plan is to clear the Lost Bastille for Gold Covetous Ring+2 and then go back to them, to see, if they can drop anything for me.

Upgrade a great club to +10 (you can infuse it, if you want, but it is not necessary). Unlock the Brightstone Cove Tseldora campsite bonfire and join the Covenant of Champions. Equip the Symbol of Avarice (Jester's Cap if you don't have the Symbol), the Gold Covetous Ring +2, the Sanctum Knight Leggings, the Watchdragon Parma and the Prisoner's Tatters. Start from the bonfire, go to the right and behind the tent in front of it, enter the first tent of the enemy camp. There's an enemy standing inside. Walk up to him, back"stab" with your great club, which should kill him. Another one comes running into the tent, smash him with the heavy attack until he's dead. Leave the tent the way you came in, go right to the fire where an enemy is standing. Backstab that one too, and one other comes running. That is four enemies killed in the span of a minute or so. Go back to the bonfire. Once you're comfortable doing that and can pull it off without dying, pop a rusted coin every five minutes. Grind until you have your 30 sunlight medals, which will take a long while. Do not attack the enemy by the fire first, the one from the tent will come running. Enemy aggro is weird in this game.

That route avoids all the archers, and at worst you might pull a pig, which just dies all the same, and you're never in danger of dying, as long as your heavy two-handed attacks connect. It is so not worth trying to set up the archers in a way that you can kill them too. They'll be dealing silly amounts of damage and can shoot through tents. Sell excess Falconer armors to Gavlan at leisure, or just throw them away.

Worst grind in the game, really, the Mad Warriors were farmed much faster in comparison (with the Unveil miracle).

Edited September 6 by majestic

[Hawke64]

The Outer Worlds. (Some parts were written during the week/before I finished the game for the third time).

It has occurred to me that there is a lot of flexibility in the narrative structure - the player can reach a lot of quests from different points. Some, such as the power generator in Edgewater, are quite straightforward, but they still support the player being murderous. Reed Tobson is the bottleneck which the player unavoidably faces. He starts his dialogue right when you exit the elevator, giving you the information to proceed to the other settlement and the powerplant. Unless he is shot at before entering his office. In which case, the information can be taken from his body and the terminal.

On the other hand, there are cases where the quest NPC do not appear before the relevant quest has been taken, such as the bounties from the sheriff in Edgewater. This particular quest chain can lead to lonely targets sitting among corpses, should the player visit the camps in advance.

I can’t quite recall where I got the NavKey for the Groundbreaker, but I do remember Welles calling.

For Monarch, the next large location, there are MSI and the Iconoclasts. For Sanjar, the items can be obtained before meeting him. For Gresham, the first NPC, Catarina does not appear before the Iconoclasts send the player there. It is explained by Catarina delivering supplies on request, not having a store set up. Consequentially, the next quest requires the items obtained from her, thus, the progression is linear. Unless, of course, one just kills the Iconoclast leadership, successfully completing the main part of the story on Monarch. At this point, the lines come together as the UDL gunship crashes onto the surface. The requirements for the ship to appear is to deal with MSI and the Iconoclasts in any manner. Additionally, if the information broker is approached before these quests are completed, he will just inform the player that he cannot transfer the intel required to Welles.

I am yet to break into Byzantium, but I assume that the flexibility comes from the main quest giver there - Welles or Akande. I might be mistaken, since I have not followed the Board quest line.

If my blog goes live today, I have just noticed that the civilians in Byzantium do take cover when combat starts.

---

I have finished my low-int playthrough without crashing into the sun/central star of the system. By going only for the main objectives and companion quests and trying to limit looting (I kept running out of ammo in Edgewater, then I just kept running away from the enemies, so it got better), it took 8 hours. The previous run took 32 hours. I can't say that the ending was worse (I skipped the Iconoclasts' quest line by killing Graham and Zora). Having low Stealth and Dialogue skills was somehow less satisfying than having low combat skills - fewer choices in quests, more combat. But I did defeat RAM in open battle (well, I kited the boss into the first room and kept it knocked down with companions' abilities), so that's something.

---

On Dark Souls 2. I consider it to be the best in the series:

• it is very comfortable to play with keyboard and mouse
• there are several paths to choose from (all semi-mandatory, but still)
• rolling requires stat investment to be viable
• the bosses can be revived on the same NG cycle
• teleportation to any bonfire is available (would prefer to have a more interconnected world, but with several quite linear paths, it is good enough)
• there are some light differences between NG cycles
• there is poise and the game's speed/required reaction time is generally adequate (it became much worse in DS3 and later games)

I can't quite recall the foes' exact movesets, but the hitboxes attached were quite different, so it was good. Regarding the weapons, the appeal of the 2H weapons was in the ability to break poise. I used mostly katanas or long swords, so cannot tell how effective it was.

I do hope that it is clear that the points above are very subjective. I also have no intention to try to get all achievements due to the farming required.

[majestic]

4 hours ago, Hawke64 said:

Regarding the weapons, the appeal of the 2H weapons was in the ability to break poise.

The "problem" with the thrusting swords in Dreck Souls 2 is that the the Stone Ring adds flat additional poise damage per attack. Sure, any ultra greatsword has 50 poise damage, and a rapier for instance deals only 10. But the rapier can hit 5 times while not expending much of your stamina in the time span it takes to swing your sword, for the 50 poise damage alone, never mind the additional 150 poise damage from the ring. Only weapons that can knock down enemies are more useful in shutting them down (i.e. great hammers).

Then there's the flat bonus of the Ring of Blades per hit and the Leo Ring's increased counter attack damage. It's silly that a rapier does 500+ damage per hit on a boss without having the time commitment problem that come with the slower attacks of larger weapons, meaning you can be more aggressive, can get way more hits in, and the attacks barely cost any stamina.

For some extra fun you can use a poison infused Black Scorpion Stinger with Sanctum Knight Gauntlet and the Rat Crest Ring. It's enough to poison anything that is not poison immune in four hits. One-handed you can get your enemies poisoned in a second and a half. It also does good overall damage.

Lastly, there's a reason most invaders you still see active in the game carry buffed Ice Rapiers. Although I have no idea how people could possibly enjoy pvp in these games, but apparently they do.

Edited September 7 by majestic

[HoonDing]

I'd sooner play Barrel Gate 3 than a From software game.

[Wormerine]

9 hours ago, HoonDing said:

I'd sooner play Barrel Gate 3 than a From software game.

That's fine, but you should play Dark Souls1 once you are done with BG3. It's really, really good. Outside DS2 and some of the EldenRing Dark Souls diffculty is greatly exadurrated. It has a learning curve, but not an unpleasant one. That's all.

[Hawke64]

8 hours ago, Wormerine said:

That's fine, but you should play Dark Souls1 once you are done with BG3. It's really, really good. Outside DS2 and some of the EldenRing Dark Souls diffculty is greatly exadurrated. It has a learning curve, but not an unpleasant one. That's all.

The later games are much more demanding in terms of reaction time. The aspects that appeal to me are the level and boss design and the variety of builds (even if I end up playing a sword&board who occasionally grabs the sword with both hands or uses a bow). The former is much rarer in other genres, except immersive sims.

---

Sekiro

I started a new playthrough, promptly got defeated by the archer-samurai boss (Ginichiro?), and proceeded with the main story. For some reason the game tried to overheat my "new" GPU (got some time ago, but started using actively only now). After playing with the settings, I limited the FPS to 40 in the NVidia control panel and the hot spot temperature remained under 70C. As mentioned above, I like the level design - Sekiro is as close as it can be to a 3D Metroidvania. I tried to go and meet a headless mini-boss early and discovered a path to the Devil's Bell, but got burnt before reaching it and reloaded. I also got through most of the Hirata Estate, except the final battle - I could not defeat the ninja boss without upgrades. The bandit leader took several attempts, including clearing the area around and splitting the aggro with the samurai ally. Though, I still detest the open combat and the controls (the MC flinches easily and cannot look straight even when target-locked). I hope to be patient enough to get to the final boss/younger Owl battle without decreasing the difficulty. Still, this mod looks most delightful: https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1713602236

[LadyCrimson]

No Man's Sky - I went to a shoreline. I put some bait on a hook and cast out a fishing line. I got a nibble and pulled the reel/pole. Got nothing. Repeat 20 times. Still nothing. Emulates real life pretty well. >.>

7 Days to Die - I finally have it tweaked to my liking.
--biome/outside zombies won't respawn (but I increased their original numbers somewhat)
--POI/dungeon zombies won't respawn for 900 days
--the above two is so that I could theoretically "clear the map" if I played long enough. Plus I'm just sick of the constant (and ever faster) respawns. They should stay down/gone.
--made workstations, wallTorches, cooking produce no "heatmap" Screamer zombie attractant
--lowered the "heatmap" numbers for most sounds. I would like to fire a gun more than a few times or mine more than 10 iron ore blocks before a Screamer spawns out of thin air. (Screamers are annoying - they're basically Z-summoners and dev's made them trigger far far more)
--lowered the amount that using a headlamp/flashlight/torch will reduce stealth/sneak, I don't care about realism
--removed most of the stupid remnant/useless/wastes-space, mostly deco POI's

Thus for the first time in some years, I have stuck to one map for a very long time vs. just liking the early game. Closer to the more chill/nomad sandbox feeling the early versions could gave me, vs. the dev's seeming desire to turn the game into an enforced jump-scare poorly coded dungeon looter shooter.

Edited September 10 by LadyCrimson

[Malcador]

Amused that WoW is having a lot of things for solo players to do. Eventually we'll be able to do raids with AI raid members, honestly might be an improvement over LFG.  The amusement is mostly due to people moaning about that existing in parallel with the "normal" way.   Nice for me, as I get interrupted by family routinely

 

[uuuhhii]

3 headphone broken in 1 years

and now the new headphone stop working in 1 day

is the sound card broke them somehow

anyway dredge still have problem at main menu after the new patch and dlc

Edited September 11 by uuuhhii

[Mamoulian War]

Currently on business trip again, but before departing I had a little bit of time to wander around NG+ Lost Bastille. I have defeated all of the local Pursuers, and then I have went for the Ruin Sentinels. I have used Lightning Mace+10 with Sunlight Blade buff. It has dealt massive damage against them. The funny thing is, that due to that, I became to reckless and triggerhappy, which almost cost me the attempt, but after jumping down, I have normalized a little bit and started to be more cautious, becuase I needed to find an opening to chug an Estus Luckily, I have found one, and hit by hit defeated the remaining two Sentinels and harvested their soul

[Hurlshort]

I've played a few different games recently.

Green Hell - Picked this up for $10. It's a good survival crafting game with some interesting mechanics. My guy has some serious dietary requirement though. The game wants you to balance carbs, fats, fruits, etc. I feel like I'm eating a lot and still struggling. Also Jaguars are mean.

SW: The Old Republic Online - I hadn't played this in probably 5 years or so. My son took my original account, where I had a few storylines complete (he has 6 of 8 done at this point) so I started from scratch. I'm just focusing on storylines and it is enjoyable. Oh, they opened up the classes! I never liked the gameplay of the smuggler or imperial agent, but now you can use different class abilities for storylines. So my imperial agent plays like a bounty hunter and my smuggle plays like a trooper. 

Return to Moria - I bought this on epic about a year ago. It's been updated a bit, but it still needs companions or NPC's. I tooled around a bit, but I think I'll keep waiting on it.

[Hawke64]

Sekiro. Spoilers for mid-game and a long mostly-complaint are below (I have been trying to write longer/higher? text walls).

I admire the location design, the style (both artistic and technical), and the stealth and traversal gameplay aspects. The ironic thing is that there are quite a few boss battles with limited stealth options and the open combat and controls, as was mentioned before, are horrible and the MC feels like a wet paper doll.

The battle against the Guardian Ape, which I have spent about an hour on, reminded me of it. The boss was moving erratically, occasionally resisting the firework prosthetic tool, and once chain-grabbing me. I am aware that all hand slaps are possible to parry, despite the boss being a giant ape using his hands to hit or slap. The above-mentioned grab attacks also repeatedly messed with the camera - after being thrown into the walls, I was unable to see where I or the boss was. And if the latter was nearby, due to the MC’s inability to face the target it locked on automatically, it meant restarting the battle. The key to victory was to stun the Guardian with the fireworks and use the combat art while he was trying to get up and hope that he would not go for a grab, as the combat art was locking me in the animation.

So, the second phase came where the boss changed his type (thanks to the wiki for telling me that a zombie was an apparition) and moveset. Here I would like to add that the getting up animation and the delay between stages were very amusing on the first try, though not so much on the subsequent ones. After several more attempts, I resorted to using the consumables and mostly facetanking the smaller damage. The boss finally fell… only to appear in the next room. On my previous playthrough, I got lost on the way to the Ashina Castle and ventured into the Ashina Depths, thus, reaching that room before facing the Guardian. Back then, it looked suspiciously spacious and empty. Now, there was the Headless Ape standing between me and the progress. So, being low on both Estus and enthusiasm, I retreated and left the zombie be.

Still, the Sunken Valley was a gorgeous place - there were giant stone statues of Buddha covered in light snow, while also autumn trees with bright red leaves holding fast to the cliffs. The traversal consisted mostly of jumping between smaller cliffs and grabbing the branches. I was able to reach most foes undetected, including the feathery ninjas and the albino monkeys dual-wielding katanas (they hit like trucks). There also was a Giant Snake shrine. It took 2 attempts to get through and grab the persimmon heart and another one to gather the loot. The snake’s final lunges were possible to dodge with the mist feather prosthetic.

Which led me to the Poison Pool and another sniper boss, whose peripheral vision was fortunately quite poor, while the rockets from her comrades were hitting her as well, which was extremely satisfying. Getting to them after killing the boss was less satisfying, but somewhat amusing. I still have no recollection of how I got there before.

So, I decided to follow the main objective (to get the Mortal Blade to heroically stab a child) and head to the Senpou Temple. On the previous visit in this playthrough, I missed the way forward and ended up at the Demon Bell and no idea how to reach the Temple itself.

The area itself is as beautiful as the Valley, though with more wooden temples and less statues. Also with little but frequent piles of civilian corpses and quite a lot of monks and insects. There also was a field of pinwheels.

I suppose, if the main character was more controllable, I would have less issues with the combat. On the other hand, the ability to use different tools or consumables provides engagement, making the enemies feel more diverse and the combat more expressive and interesting. Though, the number of consumables and Spirit Emblems being limited makes one more cautious. Then again, if I cannot start a boss battle with a Deathblow, I feel like the MC’s ninja abilities are not utilised fully. Which is another reason why I disliked the Guardian Ape - the boss’ hearing was perfect and he deduced that a human ninja zipped into the arena to steal his flower in seconds while I was above him.
 
Regarding the story so far, it is understandable and easy to follow - the city-state of Ashina is being conquered, Genichiro, the leader’s grandson, believes that the Dragon’s Heritage (resurrection) would allow it to survive. The last Dragon Heir is the MC’s master and thinks that the Dragon’s Heritage causes the Dragon’s Plague, thus, refuses cooperation. The MC is a ninja and has only his work, so he protects the Heir and saves him from Genichiro, because his father/tutor told him to do it. The Heir decides that he wants to sever the Dragon’s Heritage and to do so he needs to enter the Divine Realm to get Dragon’s Tears. To do so, he needs to find the ingredients to open the portal to the Divine Realm. On another note, considering that the ingredients to enter a spiritual plane of existence need to be burned and probably inhaled, it is an excellent opening for a joke.

Edited September 12 by Hawke64

[Wormerine]

37 minutes ago, Hawke64 said:

The battle against the Guardian Ape, which I have spent about an hour on, reminded me of it. The boss was moving erratically, occasionally resisting the firework prosthetic tool, and once chain-grabbing me. I am aware that all hand slaps are possible to parry, despite the boss being a giant ape using his hands to hit or slap. The above-mentioned grab attacks also repeatedly messed with the camera - after being thrown into the walls, I was unable to see where I or the boss was. And if the latter was nearby, due to the MC’s inability to face the target it locked on automatically, it meant restarting the battle. The key to victory was to stun the Guardian with the fireworks and use the combat art while he was trying to get up and hope that he would not go for a grab, as the combat art was locking me in the animation.

I love Guardian Ape - I think it's make or break Sekiro boss. I find his timings to be very satisfying to parry. He is not predictable, but there is a nice rhythm to his dance. 2nd phase is a kind of FromSoftware cruelty that I really appreciate.

Not so much Guardian Ape redux, though it makes sense for story reason. I find it too tedious to be fun, though I think the power scaling doesn't make it as hard as it seems at first.