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Code Vein - new action RPG from God Eater devs at Bandai Namco

Child of Malkav

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God that area was shit. Walking/running around super focused and then step on those thin ice surfaces and falling to my death. Sure I eventually learned how to spot and consequently avoid but still.
Enemies hiding under snow, those massive brutes that roll around, hitting like a train.
I found that sometimes (most of the time) it's better to just run through a new area and make it to the next mistle and backtrack/explore from there. That's what I've been doing since the Cathedral. You know, bullshit the bullshitters, troll the trolls.
 

Haplo

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Pillars of Eternity 2: Deadfire
Yeah. Well, the enemies hiding under snow didn't cause me too much trouble - I generally disposed of them in 1 combo as they appeared. But the rest....
 

Child of Malkav

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Taking a break with this game, probably permanent. Made it to the successor of the throat or some stupid name like that and just stopped. Very bored with this, the boss has 360° attacks (nothing new here), the sands drain your ichor (in case you're playing a mage you have to alter your playstyle), the vortex slows you down and you have 2 seconds to get out until it explodes (of course the explosion one shots you), problem is I don't always see what the the actual edge of the vortex is as sometimes I've been hit even after getting out, she makes some spikes from the sand which you barely see, they start from the edge of the arena and close in (one shotting you if they all hit you), some other AoE and tons of HP.
She's weak to ice spells but I'm weaker to bullshit.
Gonna come back later, maybe.
Going to play Disco Elysium instead.
 

Haplo

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Pillars of Eternity 2: Deadfire
I'm at the same point :)
Just haven't triggered the Successor fight yet.

The desert area was kinda cool, despite the annoying Ichor drain. Good map layout/level design I'd say. It loops to the beginning mistle... brings back good memories.

I guess Final Journey from Queenslayer is kinda "easy mode". You're always on Quick speed, regardless of encumbrance, have super-armor so you're almost impossible to stagger and have greatly boosted attack.
Killing a boss actually clears the "gonna die soon" debuff.
 

Child of Malkav

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Yeah, I liked the snowy and desert areas.
In general I prefer jungle, arctic, desert maps in games but the BS though, I don't have high tolerance to it. Just plain boredom and frustration, cheap tricks just to prolong the life of this game. I'd rather play DkS 3 damn.
 

Haplo

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Pillars of Eternity 2: Deadfire
Yeah, in the Throat Successor fight I rarely knew what was happening and when I can get hit for most of my HP. Fortunately I had Io with me and her heals are Uber.
Stunlocked the Successor a lot (hm, that's the 2nd Successor in a row that can be easily stunlocked, after Claw) and she was defeated rather quickly.

And well, the next area after the desert, Crypt Spire (aka real Anor Londo, although without moving island platforms), is also very nice. I think my favorite so far.
I must say, area design has vastly improved late game. Also a lot less trash fights, the fights are nicely spaced and mostly involve fairly strong enemies.
 

Haplo

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Pillars of Eternity 2: Deadfire
Wow, the Black Greatsword... it has horizontal angular strikes that cause Impact Shockwaves. Rather quick ones. My favorite weapon so far.

And I got the Judgement Edge... it's strong attacks just look amazing.... anime style, of course.
 

cruel

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Couldn't resist and bought the game. So far no regrets, my Souls urge is somewhat satisfied. Only cons from now - enemy variety and level design. But still, this feels MUCH better than Lords of the Fallen or first Surge.
 

Child of Malkav

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Yeah I finally uninstalled it. I'm physically tired of putting up with this.
Reached the cannoneer and blade bearer and I was done.
Funnily enough, they don't have 360° attacks but every other single problem that other bosses and mobs have is right here turned to 11 as if to compensate for the lack of spin to win moves.
Very fast attacks not telegraphed enough (not a problem, muscle memory kicks in, you adapt), can't stagger them (maybe you can if you play as a 2 handed melee whatever, but I played a caster and staggering just doesn't happen), combo bullshit (you get hit by the first attack and it staggers you enough to be hit by the following ones, this happened in general not just on this fight and in 5% of the cases you can dodge out of the combo, somehow, it's very inconsistent), HP inflation (literally bullet sponges, game was clearly designed for coop, no stats modifications in case someone plays solo), input reading (heal, attack, whatever doesn't matter, 95% of the time the moment you do such an action they attack (or in the case of blade bearer she basically teleports around) and since the canoneer doesn't give a shit about LoS, he just casts that explosive circular mine thingy underneath you anywhere you are, he literally spams it, no cool down, no resource requirement; he has a fireball attack which is instantaneous, at least I couldn't see it telegraphed; combined with the charge attack of the blade bearer which can go through the pillars btw, yeah, all of this leads to a new problem which is overlapping attacks from both bosses, you dodge one, you get hit by the other; it's very RNG), damage (the mine one shots you, or leaves you with 100-200 HP, every other attack does 30-50% damage, killing you fast, which leads to artificially prolonging the fight, since the bosses don't have many attacks, they're not hard to learn, but it's a lot of RNG during this), every boss and every mob ever has AoE (that they spam not to mention that the halberd mobs in the Crown of Sands map, they can do 4 (four) spin to win moves one after another, they literally spin 4 times) and I mentioned before how after every corner, near every ledge, hanging or on a vantage point, there are enemies, ambushes. It puts DkS 2 and 3 to shame.
Also one of the starting enemies, has no weapon but kicks a lot, doing 30% damage with each hit, stun locking you, stopped trying to take him down normally, just 2 or 3 spells and he's finished.
This is what they understood from the From Software games, regarding difficulty. Shame.
The maps are linear but very beautiful though. Also I liked the minimap and the dots showing where you've been, really helps with exploration without making it too easy. I mean IRL if make a map of a place and i start exploring, I write down or mark the route I've traveled. Thief had this as well. Blue marked the places you visited and yellow marked the place you're currently in and grey marked unexplored areas.
This game did fill a bit of a void left from DkS games but I'm waiting on the pros to deliver.
Sekiro is my favorite FS title to date but at the same time I can't wait for Elden Ring.
Until then, I'm done playing these cheap imitations from amateurs who aren't even able to clone something right.
Also, lack of dedicated boob size slider :decline:.
 

Haplo

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Pillars of Eternity 2: Deadfire
Yeah, that fight was a bit brutal. But Final Journey from Queenslayer allows you to brute force pretty much everything.

Directly afterwards you fight Mido BTW. - and can get his awesome sword. Not that you've been a heavy user :)

... wonder how you'd like his Inhibit. Though I guess that can be cured at least.
 

Child of Malkav

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Yeah, that fight was a bit brutal. But Final Journey from Queenslayer allows you to brute force pretty much everything.

Directly afterwards you fight Mido BTW. - and can get his awesome sword. Not that you've been a heavy user :)

... wonder how you'd like his Inhibit. Though I guess that can be cured at least.
It's a very bad, very poorly done O&S fight. That fight didn't have a quarter of the issues this has.
This game wasn't fun anymore. One word describes it perfectly: annoying, not hard. The only reason I stuck with it was because of the story, I thought you get to fight that Queen they keep referencing throughout. But at some point I stopped caring even about that so why go on?
 

Nortar

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Pathfinder: Wrath
The only reason I stuck with it was because of the story

Dude, you got stuck, because you suck at this game.
You've been bitching and moaning about how you can't beat bosses because reasons for several pages.
At least man up enough to admit the obvious thing.

Strangely enough you list Sekiro as you fav. game, and it has no "mage build" to cheese through like Souls, and way more difficult than Code Vein.
This makes me wonder why you had such a difficult time here.
Were you leveling up and upgrading your gear?
 

Serious_Business

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Played this against my better judgement, because apparently I am now a "souls-like fan" (yeah that's right you fuck, kill yourself). It's alright. Played solo, of course ; the alternative is Great Dishonour. There's some interesting things going on with the skill system, reminds me of FFT... but I would have preferred a more "hard progression" - although to be fair, this is a problem I have with Souls games in general, you need to limit yourself so that you character doesn't end up being able to do everything (maximizing levels).

Remains to be seen how this formula will evolve and what will be recognized as the "good titles" of the lot, I think. Doubt I will ever give up my love of Bloodborne though. Code Vein certainly is trying something while rooting itself in some jrpg conventions (the "magic system") and anime ; it really is "anime Dark Souls" (to the point of anime-fying not only the gameplay, but also the story and world - fucking terrifying). The ichor mechanics sure work. The bosses are sometimes good. Level design isn't great and too many enemy repetition, but what are you gonna do. Ultimately the anime shit was fucking obnoxious, the storytelling was moronic and I'm not keen on the overtly sexualised female models (call me a faggot, faggot, I don't care). That shit is embarrassing. I wouldn't tell anyone decent I play this game, but luckily there's no one decent here.
 

Correct_Carlo

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I'm liking this game less as it progresses. Combat is OK, but the enemies and levels are so fucking boring. Gilded Hunter is the first and only hard boss so far. I hear that changes, but fuck if I want to play through another corridor city, only this time with fucking fire everywhere.
 

Haplo

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Pillars of Eternity 2: Deadfire
The level design in fire city is actually decent - and it just gets better from there. Although the fire itself is an annoying gimmick. Just equip a fireproof armor, use Ice on your weapon and be done with it.
In general the 2nd half of the game features greatly improved map designs.



Finished the game yesterday. Was a fun romp. Lots of nice upgrades and options for a heavy 2h sword user.
Though the Black Greatsword remains my favorite (with Impact Shockwaves Gift).
Some lovely unbalanced abilities.

In general the Souls are a much tighter, more serious, skillful and challenging experience. Many bosses in Code Vein feel cheap (particularly Blade Dancer and Canoneer for me).
But some aspects of Code Vein are cool also. Class and ability mixing and matching. Discovering broken abilities and combos. It's cool for some things not to be overly balanced now and then.
 
Last edited:

Shackleton

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Codex 2016 - The Age of Grimoire Make the Codex Great Again! Steve gets a Kidney but I don't even get a tag. Pathfinder: Wrath I'm very into cock and ball torture
Just about to finish this, near the end of the last area and rushing a bit so I can get stuck into The Outer Worlds.

Really don't get any complaints about boss difficulty, the only boss that gave me any trouble at all was the butterfly one right at the start. After that it's all been plain sailing. Yes, I've played with a companion and used 2H sword like Haplo , but with the total lack of persistent stats in this game, switching styles and powers is an option for anyone if their build is sucking. The game is easy. I'm not particularly good at these souls-likes, I never beat Nameless King in DS3 and stopped playing Sekiro at Genichiro so that should tell you something if I find it too easy. My main problem with the combat is that it's basically 'backstab fishing: the game.' All I ever do pretty much is circle round the back of everything and try and get the sweet spot to get more ichor and do massive damage. They give you all these cool powers and buffs and shit, but 80% of them are not needed, and the 20% that are are only needed for a boss fight. Don't even get me started on all the unnecessary item spam. All I've ever needed is healing and codes have handled the rest.

I've enjoyed the story, I thought it was going to be pants-on-head retarded at first and really it is, but they've done it well and managed to mash it together so it makes a sort of twisted sense. I really liked the way they've handled the themes of loss and sacrifice, was quite moving in places. Wasn't a fan of the 'walking forward and watching a little diorama' style though, got fed up of that about halfway through. Grinding out codes and powers has kept me interested throughout although it does seem a bit pointless as I won't use the vast majority of them.

Enjoyable, if too easy game. Io = best girl.
 

Lutte

Dumbfuck!
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Yes, I've played with a companion

lol this is a totally different affair in this sort of game generally. All of the souls games content is piss easy if you coop or summon a npc when available too.
There's some moments I've experienced in code vein where I don't even know if it's expected to complete some stuff without having the player switch to a specific build for it. The wave spawning gank squad in the cathedral is one of those. I can't even begin to comprehend how you're supposed to do this without a two hander and wide area swings. I actually try to gather all the skills in the game for the fun of build switching but when I happened to meet that gank squad I was using one of the mobile codes ( don't remember which ) with a bayonet and just stubbornly tried multiple times to win this with the build but then I went hollow, switched to the 2h and instantly finished the fight spinning to win. Atlas is god.

I don't hate the game for these moments though. It has many flaws but it's still quite enjoyable despite my initial prejudices against it and I really like the build system and experiencing different playstyles with those, sure you can backstab fish mobs and just mash through with a 2h but I like varying things and the game makes it easy to keep up multiple weapons as you play through. The base mechanics are pretty sound overall, it's the encounter and enemy design that needs more tweaking. Magic type building is also a ton more fun to use than in souls, just the UI alone for casting different things is a boon.
 

cruel

Cipher
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Sep 17, 2014
Messages
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I reached fourth boss, taking my time and not rushing anything. I must say I like this game - it perfectly satisfied my Souls urge, before Nioh 2. The most important thing in a game like this (combat) is done very well, each weapon feels different, even poise / balance mechanic seems to work properly (big difference between playing as Atlas / Berserker class compared to Prometheus or Mercury). This whole Blood Veil switching on the fly is fantastic - whenever you get bored, you swap your heavy axe build with something mobile, and your game is totally different. I don't remember any game doing something like that, without requiring another playthrough.

I would say this: if you like Dark Souls, and anime graphics don't bother you that much, you will have fun playing this game. Best Souls-like after Nioh for me.
 

Lutte

Dumbfuck!
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It has a working hyper armor mechanic (ala DS3). I don't recall seeing actual passive poise happening when I got hit while using the tankier blood codes, but having a high balance stat does help your hits get through when you cross swords simultaneously.
 

Correct_Carlo

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Beat Cannoner and Blade Bearer 5th try. I used the Black Halberd (level 9) and Yakumo. Threw up cold/fire protections right away, and then immediately poisoned the Blade Bearer. Poison drops her health significantly, after which point I buff with lightening and finish her off. After she's dead the other guy is easy.
 

Correct_Carlo

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Fuck this piece of shit game. Beat the "Virgin Reborn" on my 6th try. 20 minute, tedious, anime cut scene plays, then I'm transported back to the base. The companions are standing around so I talk to them. Player character gets stuck in the floor, can't move anywhere. It's the base so can't use warp items. Had to quit out and when I reloaded the game starts me back before the boss is dead.
 

Haplo

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Pillars of Eternity 2: Deadfire
Guess didn't occur to you to use the doors to exit...

Oh, stuck in the floor? Ouch.

Still, check if you're not eligible to restart in New Game mode from the main menu.
 

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