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pakoito

Arcane
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Joined
Jun 7, 2012
Messages
3,086
I just saw a speedrun and that's the impression I got. I wouldn't tell the difference with a regular action game like Prey, other than stat usage.
 

Ivan

Arcane
Joined
Jun 22, 2013
Messages
7,471
Location
California
Forgot to add this to my previous post: Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night :3/5:
It delivered exactly what I was expecting. I was never surprised, nor never truly disappointed. The very definition of "solid" / more of the same. I felt the same way with Guacamelee 2. It's comfort food. You could do a lot better, but you won't hate yourself for experiencing it.

-truly wish we would do away with healing by pausing the game & accessing menus
-soundtrack did a fine job
-enemy design was p. weak, with several reskins and some odd (backer influenced) inclusions
 

Perkel

Arcane
Joined
Mar 28, 2014
Messages
15,804
Just started Kingdome Come...

It is amazing how first rpg game from small Czech studio is so fucking good. Playing it atm and i can't believe quality of it. From stats to characterization, presentation etc.

It is fascinating that Obsidian can't do anything even close to it.
 

PulsatingBrain

Huge and Ever-Growing
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Nov 5, 2014
Messages
6,163
Location
The Centre of the Ultraworld
Codex 2016 - The Age of Grimoire Codex+ Now Streaming! Enjoy the Revolution! Another revolution around the sun that is. My team has the sexiest and deadliest waifus you can recruit. Pathfinder: Wrath
Just started Kingdome Come...

It is amazing how first rpg game from small Czech studio is so fucking good. Playing it atm and i can't believe quality of it. From stats to characterization, presentation etc.

It is fascinating that Obsidian can't do anything even close to it.

I love everything about it. Except the combat. It's fucking horrible. Even when I got pretty good at it, I hated it :negative:
 

Puukko

Arcane
Joined
Jul 23, 2015
Messages
3,861
Location
The Khanate
I was eyeing KCD with great interest back when it was first announced but proceeded to not really bother once it actually came out. It should be in pretty good shape in terms of patches and extra content now but I just haven't felt the interest to play a more grounded RPG. Plus I wouldn't have the heart to pirate it. I can see myself getting into it sometime next year though.
 

ebPD8PePfC

Savant
Joined
May 13, 2018
Messages
225
Celtic Tales - couldn't get it to work. Hate dosbox, internet archive speed up doesn't work for some reason.

Uncharted Waters II: New Horizons - You play as a sea captain in 1520, exploring the globe in a sandbox-y adventure. You pick one of six characters, get a short intro, and then you're left to your own devices. The game is could be good in theory, but it feels too much like everything you do is navigate through spreadsheets in elaborate ways. The economy is the same old buy low, sell high, which is annoying to deal with because it's hidden behind a lot of cumbersome menus. You get to interact with many factions (Spaniards, Turks, French) , but they all feel identical in everything but the name. The different ports you can find are mostly identical to each other, so exploring doesn't feel too interesting. You can do quests, but they are all boring (deliver letter, deliver goods, destory x pirates), and I suspect they aren't worth the pay.
The game plays a bit like an RPG, where you pick one of six captains, each with his own unique stats and talents. The stats aren't that interesting, but talents allow you to take different quests, and you can learn new talents from experts who are spread out at the different ports. This part is pretty cool, but for the most part all characters play the same with only the cutscenes being different, as well as the factions that like or hate you. And as I said, all the factions feel the same anyway.
Maybe it gets better, but the simulation and economy aspects of the game don't really appeal to me, and the RPG elements aren't strong enough. Play Pirates! or The Seven Cities of Gold instead, unless you're really into these sort of open world economy games. Also the dos version is superior because it has mouse support, don't bother with the snes.
 
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ERYFKRAD

Barbarian
Patron
Joined
Sep 25, 2012
Messages
28,237
Strap Yourselves In Serpent in the Staglands Shadorwun: Hong Kong Pillars of Eternity 2: Deadfire Steve gets a Kidney but I don't even get a tag. Pathfinder: Wrath I'm very into cock and ball torture I helped put crap in Monomyth
Celtic Tales - couldn't get it to work. Hate dosbox, internet archive speed up doesn't work for some reason.

Uncharted Waters II: New Horizons - You play as a sea captain in 1520, exploring the globe in a sandbox-y adventure. You pick one of six characters, get a short intro, and than you're left to your own devices. The game is could be good in theory, but it feels too much like everything you do is navigate through spreadsheets in elaborate ways. The economy is the same old buy low, sell high, which is annoying to deal with because it's hidden behind a lot of cumbersome menus. You get to interact with many factions (Spaniards, Turks, French) , but they all feel identical in everything but the name. The different ports you can find are mostly identical to each other, so exploring doesn't feel too interesting. You can do quests, but they are all boring (deliver letter, deliver goods, destory x pirates), and I suspect they aren't worth the pay.
The game plays a bit like an RPG, where you pick one of six captains, each with his own unique stats and talents. The stats aren't that interesting, but talents allow you to take different quests, and you can learn new talents from experts who are spread out at the different ports. This part is pretty cool, but for the most part all characters play the same with only the cutscenes being different, as well as the factions that like or hate you. And as I said, all the factions feel the same anyway.
Maybe it gets better, but the simulation and economy aspects of the game don't really appeal to me, and the RPG elements aren't strong enough. Play Pirates! or The Seven Cities of Gold instead, unless you're really into these sort of open world economy games. Also the dos version is superior because it has mouse support, don't bother with the snes.
What you need is Sea Dogs: City of Abandoned Ships
 

Jimmious

Arcane
Patron
Joined
May 18, 2015
Messages
5,132
Steve gets a Kidney but I don't even get a tag.
Switching between Disco Elysium and Startsector depending if I have the mood for something that makes me think or for some pew-pew.
They are both great games and especially Disco is one of the most memorable gaming experiences of the last decade , at least.
Starsector is space sandbox supreme. A bit hard so far for me as a noob, but I'll learn
 

Ivan

Arcane
Joined
Jun 22, 2013
Messages
7,471
Location
California
Just started Kingdome Come...

It is amazing how first rpg game from small Czech studio is so fucking good. Playing it atm and i can't believe quality of it. From stats to characterization, presentation etc.

It is fascinating that Obsidian can't do anything even close to it.

I'm very curious about this one. I have access to it (no DLC) with the Xbox Game Pass, but am on the fence. Does the skill/item progression feel like Gothic? How is the dialogue system? Does it lean more toward combat vs talking/exploration?
 
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Joined
Jan 7, 2012
Messages
14,149
Finished SS2. My original plan didn't work out 100% as I skipped psi tier 4 and went straight to tier 5. Tier 4 had only one skill I was interested in (invisibility), and unlocking that tier just for one skill seemed too expensive.

What you might have missed:

- Molecular Transmutation gives a large net nanite gain on grenades, worms, prisms, and specialized ammunition. Depending on how diligent you are on stockpiling the stuff it can be equivalent to buying 50-100 psi hypos, enough to blast through the rest of the game shoving hypos down your throat like cotton candy.
- Cerebral-Energetic Extension + adrenaline overproduction = Everything dies in 1 or 2 hits. Granted this also happens if you level a weapon skill to max and use their melee weapon with adrenaline.
- Remote circuitry manipulation. The "psi-hack" ability. Kind of cool since it also means you can hack turrets at range.

Tier 5 is great too though. I'd say Tier 4 is most important for a truly pure-psi route where you both need the special abilities to replace lost skills and need to economize your psi hypos more. Anything with Energy Weapons 1 is kind of "easy mode" for SS2 resource management IMO, overcharge laser pistol is just too good.

I also wonder if teleport has any good uses apart from saving time, maybe a quick escape to safety in case you get overwhelmed?

You can save the 10 cyber modules SHODAN deducts from you when you leave the area where you find Delacroix by warping past the trigger. Sadly that doesn't pay it off and its kind of just shit. I don't know why you would need to escape to safety if you have tier 5 powers, just pick Psycho-Reflective Aura and run around with power armor taking 1-2 damage from all attacks for 3 minutes. I'd rather pay the 10 nanite reincarnation cost than a 35 cyber module + have to remember to spend 5 psi at the start of each area to mark the waypoint.
 

octavius

Arcane
Patron
Joined
Aug 4, 2007
Messages
19,182
Location
Bjørgvin
Celtic Tales - couldn't get it to work. Hate dosbox, internet archive speed up doesn't work for some reason.

Works for me.
Installed it with D-Fend Reloaded.
This is the CONF file:
# This DOSBox configuration file was automatically created by D-Fend Reloaded.
# Changes made to this file will NOT be transfered to D-Rend Reloaded profiles list.
# D-Fend Reloaded will delete this file from temp directory on program close.

# Command line used when starting DOSBox:
# -CONF "C:\Users\P\AppData\Local\Temp\Celtic Tales - Balor of the Evil Eye.conf" -NOCONSOLE

# Config file for profile "Celtic Tales - Balor of the Evil Eye"

[sdl]
fullscreen=false
fulldouble=false
fullresolution=1024x768
windowresolution=1024x768
output=ddraw
autolock=true
sensitivity=100
waitonerror=true
usescancodes=true
priority=higher,normal
mapperfile=C:\Users\P\D-Fend Reloaded\mapper.map

[dosbox]
machine=svga_s3
captures=C:\Users\P\D-Fend Reloaded\Capture\Celtic Tales - Balor of the Evil Eye\
memsize=16

[render]
frameskip=0
aspect=true
scaler=normal3x

[cpu]
core=auto
cputype=auto
cycles=auto
cycleup=10
cycledown=20

[mixer]
nosound=false
rate=44100
blocksize=1024
prebuffer=10

[midi]
mpu401=intelligent
mididevice=default
midiconfig=

[sblaster]
sbtype=sb16
sbbase=220
irq=7
dma=1
hdma=5
sbmixer=true
oplmode=auto
oplrate=44100
oplemu=default

[gus]
gus=false
gusrate=44100
gusbase=240
gusirq=5
gusdma=1
ultradir=C:\ULTRASND

[speaker]
pcspeaker=true
pcrate=44100
tandy=auto
tandyrate=44100
disney=true

[dos]
xms=true
ems=true
umb=true
keyboardlayout=US

[joystick]
joysticktype=none
timed=true
autofire=false
swap34=false
buttonwrap=false

[serial]
serial1=dummy
serial2=dummy
serial3=disabled
serial4=disabled

[autoexec]
@echo off
SET PATH=Z:\
keyb US 437
mount C "C:\Users\P\D-FEND~1\VIRTUA~1\"
echo.
C:
cd\
cd \CELTIC~1
Z:\config.com -securemode > nul
call KOEI.BAT
exit
 

HansDampf

Arcane
Joined
Dec 15, 2015
Messages
1,471
Finished SS2. My original plan didn't work out 100% as I skipped psi tier 4 and went straight to tier 5. Tier 4 had only one skill I was interested in (invisibility), and unlocking that tier just for one skill seemed too expensive.

What you might have missed:

- Molecular Transmutation gives a large net nanite gain on grenades, worms, prisms, and specialized ammunition. Depending on how diligent you are on stockpiling the stuff it can be equivalent to buying 50-100 psi hypos, enough to blast through the rest of the game shoving hypos down your throat like cotton candy.
I bought a recycler.
 

ebPD8PePfC

Savant
Joined
May 13, 2018
Messages
225
Yakuza 0 - The game has:
1. cinematic action with long cutscenes.
2. open world where you roam and talk to people.
3. plenty of mini-games.
It doesn't work. Each element is done well, but feels completely segmented from the others. You could have removed 2+3 and get a solid game, remove 3 and get a more focused and less zany game, or remove 1 and get something closer to an adventure game. The problem, at least as I see it, is that each part doesn't complement the other, and as such, fails to enrich the overall experience.
There's nothing really wrong in Yakuza (except the shitty QTEs), but I was done with this sort of bloated open world games 10 years ago. The friends of Ringo Ishikawa solved this problem by making the world more interactive, and it was done with a 1/100 of the budget. It's not an impossible feat.
That said, the disco mini-game is great. A guy on the street also taught me how to play Shogi.

Shogi - I thought it was just another Chess variant. I didn't know you can place captured pieces back on the board, this makes it way more interesting. Yakuza 0 is alright.


Celtic Tales - Similar to Romance of The Three Kingdoms series, this game is a Koei grand strategy game where you control one province and need to conquer the rest of the map. The player assumes the role of a Celtic tribe who has to unite the other tribes through diplomacy or war. You get a bunch of commanders and each turn you assign different tasks to them . Each commander has different stats and abilities that determine how proficient they are at doing those tasks. So a commander with the Masonry ability is good at building, Animal is good at herding and so on. It's a strategy game with light rpg and management elements.

Celctic Tales's combat is probably the biggest issue. It's a very simple SRPG that takes too long to resolve, and there's too much of it. There's also many small issues that ruin it - it's hard to click on specific tiles, it's hard to tell sometimes which unit is selected, the 3d camera means characters can be hidden from view and so on.
Giving commands to your provinces also has to be done in order, so you can't give commands in Province A, then B, then A. You have to give commands one after the other. This is insane. There's no justification for it, and it makes managing an empire of more than 2-3 provinces a huge headache for no real reason.
There are other problems (broken economy, menu bloat, needless complexity), but the gist of it is that the game is a simplified Romance of The Three Kingdoms game, and many of its problems were resolved in those games.

The best part of the game is definitely the magic system. Spells are useful both inside and outside of combat, but to cast them you need to gather magic runes:

1mox23f.jpg


Pick three runes and you might get a spell (similar to Ultima Underworld). To learn new spells recipes you have to pay wandering bards and druids, so you can't build your strategy around the entire spell pool, you have to rely on the specific spells you got. Runes also break, so you could end up in a situation where some spells aren't available temporarily even though you know them. Each time you restart the game the available spells change, so it's it adds some depth to the early phase of the game.
The spell system has its issues (spell recipes aren't randomized so you can copy them from game to game), but overall it's a cool system that works really well. I would love to see it reused and expanded in other games in the genre.

If managing a Celtic tribe sounds interesting to you, play King of Dragon Pass. If the grand strategy aspect sounds good, play Romance of The Three Kingdoms.

Golf Peaks
- It's a puzzle game where everything is good except for the puzzle design. Not much more to say.
 

octavius

Arcane
Patron
Joined
Aug 4, 2007
Messages
19,182
Location
Bjørgvin
Still playing Diablo 2 1.09 alternating between seven characters.
Barb, Amazon, Pally and Necro had little problems with Nightmare Duriel, but my cold Sorceress got a nasty surprise when Duriel turned out to be Cold Immune. Took about half an hour with Trail Blaze and Meteor, after opening with Static Field. May have been better spells, but Trail Blaze seeemed like an obvious spell to use running around in the confined space.
Now I need to change shirt. (I wonder if it's good excercise if gaming makes you sweat?)
 

Kabas

Arcane
Patron
Joined
Feb 10, 2018
Messages
1,258
I got the sudden urge to replay the Impossible Creatures, campaign of which i never finished. The game still holds up graphically.
Main menu theme is as catchy as i remember.
 

Dayyālu

Arcane
Joined
Jul 1, 2012
Messages
4,465
Location
Shaper Crypt
I got the sudden urge to replay the Impossible Creatures, campaign of which i never finished. The game still holds up graphically.
Main menu theme is as catchy as i remember.

Yeh, it's a pity the game becomes boring after a while (you'd even like not to optimize and double down on the weird shit, but the missions become a boring grind). I was sorta surprised, considering the pedigree. I've never finished the campaign too, after a point it feels like a chore and not a game.

Speaking about chores....

I wanted some relaxing game, and started to lazily checking the GoG catalogue searching for some old TB game. Then my eye falls upon Fallen Haven (1997, Micomeq) this weird French Canadian TB sci-fi game. It's relaxing as fuck, even if the depth is arguably below some mobile games. Two factions, humans and aliens plus some generics to fill space, and you go on the strategical side conquering provinces, building bases, managing research and dropping dropships. Everything works and is very very relaxing. I can't repeat how comfortable it was, the interface was nice, the funky techno music proper. Nothing special or original (well, one can guess that having you choose how to deploy Dropships is fairly novel). In the end game you get some nice tech like nukes and the last maps, if you let the enemy fortify enough, are rather challenging but fun. After failing the first assault but crippling the enemy defenses (bases are permanent, and permanent is also the damage you deal to them and I had a B-team ready to follow up the first failed assault that nonetheless managed to cripple the alien nuke defenses, letting me nuke a comfortable landing zone and then mop-up) I finished the game, and, seriously, one of those cozy feelings you get in playing, dunnow, Fantasy General for the first time.

Ohh, there's a sequel.

Fallen Haven: Liberation Day (1998, Micomeq) is like..... I am a huge fan of Missionforce: Cyberstorm, and Cyberstorm 2, like M.A.X. 2, was a mess of conflicting ideas that crippled a sequel. Liberation day is a sequel that .... cuts a shitton of the nice stuff the first game had (dropship, research, permanent bases, secondary weapons for units). instead you get a single base par continent and your research is tied to capturing enemy research labs (secondary objective in missions, and you get a fixed number of research points and you have to upgrade every single unit type by itself instead of the first game's "generic" categories).

In theory, Liberation Day has four factions and every mission is hand-crafted, compared to the almost "skirmish" feelings of the first one. Thus you play the first set of missions, and hey, it ain't as good as the first one, the balance is iffy, Overwatch reigns supreme and indirect fire weapons make a mockery of balance, but hey... then the further you go you start to ask what the fuck were the mission designers smoking. Have fun winning a mission with limited resources and limited turns when you get random spawns of suicidal bombs right in the middle of your troops. The AI can call paratroopers right in the middle of everything you have, hope you got AA, and nope, you can theoretically do the same but the maps are carpeted in enemy AA and they don't have to worry about resources. In later missions the enemy has up to 500% your points value in troops and you have to run to them and pray the RNG is merciful. Ah, yes, there are four factions, but you fight three at once on the same map meaning that in later maps your limited set-up has to deal with three different kinds of opponents, each one covering the weak points of the others.

What broke me was a mission with "special biological units", enemy worms that could leisurely eat an entire army worth of firepower, before lazily breaking your gunline, eating your AA, and then the enemy air would cripple you. Fuck it, time to cheat to see the ending. Not proud of it, but seriously, what the fuck, Micomeq. What the fuck. Not even Panzer Corps with its "you do the puzzle my way or you die".
 

flyingjohn

Arcane
Joined
May 14, 2012
Messages
2,944
So after trying out a lot of pc-98,turbo cs and sega cd jrpg's i decided to give some helpful tips on how to avoid getting bored or annoyed:

-Use mobygames for descriptions and use romhacking.net translations for your selection of games.

-If your select title's description on moby and romhacking include the words solid or traditional you can probably skip that tile.
For a genre like jrg's solid and traditional mean worse then the counterparts they are copying(dragon quest,final fantasy,man series,etc).

-Screenshots are useless.

-If your select title has reviews pay no mind to the positive ones,they are useless.Read or translate the negative ones and see if the flaws are deal breakers to you.
This is exceptionally useful for pc-98 stuff.
Oh,emerald dragon looks really nice.Oh,you only control one party member in a tactical style combat.

-Developer portfolios are actually useful.If said dev survived the pc-98 era they probably did something right.

-Play order of the griffon on the turbo16. It is ironic that the best rpg on the japanese console was a western style game made by westerns.

-Working designs translations are meme central.If you can't handle that,well you got no choice.

-When thinking of ports,think in the future.
Yes,ys games had amazing ports on the tubo cd,but they got a even better ports and remakes on other platforms later.

-Play turbo cd dracula game and Rance games ,you peasant.

-Music is mostly awesome on every single game.Don't judge the games based on that alone.

-Do not use machine translation.
A game about a devil prince translated becomes a game about a cat trying to go back to the moon via a river.And said cat changes profession from a lawyer to a magician randomly.
Menu translation is iffy at best also.

-Langirser games are overrated as fuck,minus the dreamcast one is which is just a somewhat solid hack/slash.

In conclusion,i had more fun with game gear rpg's then these consoles and computers(minus griffon and dark wizard,which is a strategy game).

EDIT: Meant to write lodoss games instead of langrisser.
 
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overly excitable young man

Guest
Playing Dark Souls 2 right now. The level design is worse, but otherwise it's so similar. No game changing original ideas.
And every mistake from DS 1 is still there.
Distance between bonfire and boss is the whole level.
And i really can't understand who thought it was a good idea that the bosses just despawn after killing them.
It would be so cool to stand next to the corpse.
Fighting and exploring is still very fun though.
 

ebPD8PePfC

Savant
Joined
May 13, 2018
Messages
225
Vanguard Bandits - A PS1 SRPG that has been rightly forgotten. Story is derivative jrpg drivel and the combat consists of nothing more than bland stat checking. I got to the half mark because it's a short game and I love SRPGs, but I can't recommend it.
It's not all bad though, the game has some QUALITY 90's anime spirit:

tu6cybw.jpg
 

Catacombs

Arcane
Patron
Joined
Aug 10, 2017
Messages
5,927
I'm finally getting around to continuing my once-forgotten Divinity: Original Sin EE game.
 

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