dnf
Pedophile
- Joined
- Nov 4, 2011
- Messages
- 5,885
Let's not forget that this game was promised for PC way back, while the others isn't.
-
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Cutting shit up in real time (Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance)
- Thread starter Syril
- Start date
grudgebringer
Guest
Day one pirate
Drakron
Arcane
- Joined
- May 19, 2005
- Messages
- 6,326
To start this was done by Platinum Games .... second, MGS got a PC port a long time ago.
Kojima was too busy putting Red Skull in MGS5.
The game is gonna be released on Steam any day now:
http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2013/12/16/surprising-metal-gear-revengeance-on-pc-soon/#more-180473
Try it guys, it is pure 60fps action goodness with controls so tight, it strangles you. Even if you don't like Metal Gear stories.
http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2013/12/16/surprising-metal-gear-revengeance-on-pc-soon/#more-180473
Try it guys, it is pure 60fps action goodness with controls so tight, it strangles you. Even if you don't like Metal Gear stories.
Yeah, but PC port... We'll see.
I'm pretty sure controller support will be the default controlling method for the PC version. It is a given for this genre.
Well it is a lot less "bonkers" as the standard MGS games, but they share similarities. The characters are quite good in their MGS sort of way, especially some of the enemies. The limb cutting is just an extra, there is a good hack and slash action system beneath it. And no, there are no non-action gameplay, it is all about fighting and shit.
I didn't mention that on purpose, because the sneaking part is shit and should be avoided.
LundB
Mistakes were made.
- Joined
- Jan 2, 2012
- Messages
- 4,160
I hear the cutscenes in this are usually only a minute or two long, not 50 minutes of cutscene and codec conversation uninterrupted save for 2 minutes of 'gameplay' walking from one place to another. My goodness, what an insane and revolutionary idea.
Lolwut felipepepepepepepeppe? Unlike Mr. Frustrated Film Student Kojima, there are some people at Platinum who actually know how to make a good game (Pity they lost Mikami though). I'll probably end up buying it, though if they're porting one of their games, I wish it'd be Vanquish instead.
Last edited:
He said at the last E3 in an interview for Gametrailers that they were thinking about also porting MGSV after console release.
It seems like it's a current trend nowadays among Japanese developers and publishers to port games to Steam.
Baron Dupek
Arcane
- Joined
- Jul 23, 2013
- Messages
- 1,870,863
Surprise surprise, another maspertiecie of weaboo tecnology.
When some fuckup happen
in your neighbourhood
who ya gonna call?
https://twitter.com/PG_jp
Graphic Options: Res to 1080p. Up to 8x MSAA. Up to 16x Aniostropic on textures. Blur on/off. Shadow Low/Mid/High. Low/Mid/High on Zangeki.
@PG_jp No support for resolutions over 1080p? I've got a 1440p display.
@sunnychl 1080p is our max. Sorry!
High Zangeki mode is twice as many cut objects as consoles (400/enemies and 400/objects) and they remain on-screen for twice as long (30s).@PG_jp not forever? well.. Thats.. Meh, i hate dissapearing objects
@256k The game would eventually crawl to a halt with forever. All of those are physics assets.
When some fuckup happen
in your neighbourhood
who ya gonna call?
Vaarna_Aarne
Notorious Internet Vandal
Fixed.
bonescraper
Guest
Nope, you broke it.
And even without the 33% off, the price is a steal. I still don't know how could they ask such a low price. Obviously it is great, just a little unexpected from a AAA developer.
Edward_R_Murrow
Arcane
Figure I might as well dump some assorted thoughts from vidyapoasts.txt. I tried to put them in some sort of coherent order but...yeah...lots of wordswordswords.
-Game is overall pretty good, definitely worth a play for those that like the akshun gayming genre. The game it seems closest to is probably Itagaki's Ninja Gaiden 2, as both MGR and NG2 emphasize extreme-speed combat with a high degree of lethality; while the player character can die with a few stray hits, they are capable of dealing grievous damage to foes and dispatching them with startling alacrity. Even bosses can be taken out quickly, assuming a degree of familiarity with the gameplay systems and the boss movesets/tactics. Basically the game, like NG2, completely runs with the idea that "the best defense is a good offense".
-The emphasis on the parry system works pretty well. Blocking isn't some "hold button to enter blocking stance" a la Ninja Gaiden but is closer to a Royal-Guard style of timed inputs with a directional component. When faced with an imminent attack, the player taps the light attack button and flicks the analog stick in the direction of the attack. A slightly early input will result in a block whereas a parry performed precisely before an attack lands will result in an extremely powerful counterattack slash appended on after the block. Basically, it's kind of like the Moon of mahaa-Kahlaa in Bayonetta. While complicating inputs in an action game is usually a bad thing, in MGR it gives blocking a bit more...impact, especially against combos.
However, this mechanics probably would be awful using WASD. Methinks this is definitely a "gamepad required" title on the PC.
-Blade Mode, which looked to be a silly gimmick in previews, turned out to work pretty well in practice. By depressing a trigger Raiden stands in place and can swing his sword around, slicing enemies and objects both. If the player has enough energy reserves, Blade Mode will be accompanied by a slow time effect to facilitate easier cutting. A few things help to keep this balanced. First off, energy (obtained by hitting enemies with regular attacks, consumables, or a special "Zandatsu" technique) drains pretty rapidly, limiting how long one can maintain slowed time. Second, mobility is sacrificed. While Blade Mode does allow for some extremely limited movement, it's purposely limited to keep the slow time effect only as a tool to make precision cuts easier. Finally, most foes are not "cut-ready", all but the lowest tier mooks require some softening up with regular attacks in order to be diced up.
The advantages of Blade Mode is that it allows for a relatively unique response to enemy projectiles (cutting them), allows for precision disarmament (in a very literal sense) of baddies in combat, and serves as a way to cancel out of certain animations for power-players. It also enables the use of the "Zandatsu" technique, wherein the player can can out an enemies's power source and consume it to refill their energy and health. It's probably a bit too easy to pull off for how useful it is, but on higher difficulties death is pretty close at hand even at full health. It only becomes problematic when combined with a certain ability I'll mention later.
-There's an annoying mechanic of "wiggle stun". Basically when Raiden is hit by an attack of significant damage, it may place him into a state of stun that requires control-stick waggling to escape, and more waggling the lower Raiden's health is. It's a pointless mechanic that serves only to randomly punish players, especially those trying to learn the game. Yeah, it's possible to "git gud" and never be affected by it, but the mechanic is just plain bad especially if you take a cheap hit (like a Mastiff jump) and then promptly get murdered by foes while totally helpless, all because the RNG decided to fuck you over. "Wiggle-stun" doesn't happen frequently, but it's irritating enough to stay lodged in player's memory and completely inferior to some sort of ukemi/teching that would allow players to quickly recover from knockdowns; not only does that remove randomess, but also allows the player to actually interact.
-Weapons are competently, but nothing too special. The HF-Blade, Raiden's primary weapon, is basically a mashup of almost every single staple "sword" moves from other titles. Stinger, Aeriel Rave, High Time, etc. all make an appearance and it controls with a stock two-button, Light Attack and Heavy Attack, scheme. A lot of the moves feel a bit weak, and kind of useless once you start acquiring the boss weapons. Some are only in for looking cool, which doesn't work well in a game with no style meter and extremely aggressive foes. Strangely the ->->Light move, a launcher, has the highest damage output over time, invalidating most of the heavy attacks. It also has zero effective crowd control. I'm not asking for a ton (that would really cramp the Polearm's style), but something like Rebellion Combo 2 or Streak would have been nice, especially given that you have to fight a boss that becomes much more manageable when you have some crowd control ability.
Other weapons work a little strange in this game. They don't completely replace the HF-Blade moves with their own set, nor do they occupy their own inputs. What happens with additional weapons is that they take over the Heavy Attack input and replace the HF-Blade moves with those of their own. The issue with this is twofold; not only are some of the weapons lacking in a real variety of moves but there is a face button (B on the FAGBOX, O on the GAYSTATION) not in use for anything besides a few context-senstive inputs. The second issue would be a big deal for me if the HF-Blade had some really good/fun attacks mapped to the Heavy input, but it doesn't, so it's not a awful trade-off. Still, strange.
While the Polearm feels like a "full" weapon, having a bunch of strings, some that incorporate Light Attack inputs, the others are a bit sparse on the variety front. The Sai only does one thing, pulls Raiden towards enemies, also stunning them if the weapon is allowed to build "charge" for ~7 seconds. And the Pincer Blades have one (chargeable) string on the ground and a spinning air move. This isn't to say the weapons are not good; the Sai is pretty much an MVP and the Pincer Blades are capable of grotesque amounts of damage. The weapons are a bit narrow in function though.
There's also "sub weapons" like RPGs and Grenades of all sorts that one can pick up as a limited resource. They're pretty useful, especial EMP and Smoke grenades that can really help in tough battles, but not really all that interesting.
-Enemies are pretty varied in appearance and moveset. Opposing combatants include robotic wolves with mounted saws/railguns, robo-raptors with EMP (?) cannons, armored cyborgs wielding war-hammers, ATST doppelgangers that go "moo!", and gorilla mechs. Yes, many of these are completely ridiculous concepts, but they serve the purpose of making for a cast of enemies that can attack in meaningfully unique ways and provide for some gameplay variety. One issue I have is that a lot of the robotic enemies have a very similar best method of attack; at least half of them go into a stunned state, in which they can be insta-killed via button prompts, after parrying a certain attack or landing a perfect parry counterattack.
Take the Gekko for instance. They take a lot of hits and can lay down some serious pain. There should be a bit of tactical tension when facing them as part of a mixed encounter; whether or not it's better to prioritize the Gekko while having to dodge/mitigate the attacks of other foes or vice versa. But this doesn't exist once the player "gets" how to fight the Gekko because it is trivially easy to bait a charge move, parry the charge, and then trigger an instant-kill button prompt.
Some enemies have a different problem. Let's use the Raptor for example. On it's own, it can be a bit of a menace, but in groups things become downright crazy. Trying to fight them via "conventional" means can get messy quickly given the Raptor's stun-cannon and even more so when one is incapacitated and the rest of the group enters an enraged state. But perfect parry a Raptor and it is set up for an instant kill via button prompt, all the while wreathed in invincibility frames. Do it to each Raptor in the fight, and boom....encounter solved! I get that perfect parries are somewhat tricky, but it's far trickier to negotiate a full encounter against some of these guys, especially without getting hit.
Fortunately, there's a good deal of enemies that don't encourage a sort of playstyle that ignores 95% of the mechanics of the game.
-Bosses are solid and tend top focus more on substance rather than visual flair. I though Bayonetta's boss fights were mostly crap, but MGR shows that Platinum know what they're doing...even if they think HYOOOOOGE bosses probably sell better (ironically the two giant bosses in MGR are actually pretty good, mostly thanks to parry mechanics and Blade Mode). The majority of boss encounters are against cyborgs with combat styles as wild as their personalities. Whether it's against a good ol' boy from Alabama rocking explosive shielding and scissor blades or against a survivor of the Khmer Rouge who can separate his body parts and accelerate tanks and helicopters at the player character via "MAGNETIC POWAAAAAH!", bosses have plenty of unique character, and this extends to gameplay as well.
If you liked akshun game bosses in the vein of Murai, Doku, Genshin (Ninja Gaiden), Nelo Angelo, Vergil, Credo, Dante (Devil May Cry), Elvis, or Azel....you're in for a treat. The final boss deserves special mention...he's one of the few instances in which an game of this genre ends on it's highest note; the last foe is tough-as-nails and extremely well designed.
I also want to commend Platinum for making the enormous first boss fun enough for repeat players. There's a whole bunch of shenanigans with parries that can make the RAY fight play out a lot better than most fights against bighuge bossd00dz.
-Level design is pretty tight. There's not a whole lot of downtime between fight to fight, the encounters are well done (both in enemy composition and terrain), and there's precious little filler bullshit. Perhaps as a result, there's also not a ton of game. There are some a couple notably shitty sequences (the "Grip of Murder" sequence in R-03 before the boss is abysmal...and ranked to rub some more salt in the wound) but there are extremely rare.
The attempt at integrating stealth was poorly done, but fortunately "failing" those sequences result in more combat sequences, some of which are the toughest in the game. In some ways you are rewarded with more fun gameplay for skipping the shitty shoe-in for MGS fans. Cool by me.
-Balance...goes out the fucking window about 70% of the way into the game. Raiden gains his version of "devil trigger", which is completely busted. At full energy, one can click in the control sticks and activate Ripper Mode, which makes Raiden's attacks do enormous amounts of damage, rend limbs automatically, and allow for incredibly easy Zandatsus. The last part is key, as you can use Zandatsu's to "chain" Ripper activations and always have this overpowered nonsense in your back pocket. It's not so hot against bosses, and Ripper-Chaining requires a bit of skill, but it pretty much invalidates almost every other move against the overwhelming majority of regular foes. This, among other reasons, is why "fresh" runthroughs, without carried over upgrades, are so important to keeping up some fun, because some of the unlocked goodies later in the game absolutely destroy the earlier stuff.
-There's some cheap bullshit that can get on your nerves. Mastiff jump attacks and rocket soldiers are probably the most notable, and the camera can be downright awful. Normally I can forgive the camera in an akshun game because it's easy enough to play around, but not so in a game where all of the defensive abilities require directional inputs in relation to the attack.
Also Platinum continues the nonsense of having crucial techniques as "optional" upgrades. The dodge slash, "Offensive Defense", is pretty much necessary to the combat system yet is an "optional" upgrade; it's the only real way to dodge, which is critical as some attacks (grabs mostly) can't be parried. On Very Hard and above, the first encounter out of the prologue features a foe that requires the dodge slash. Guess where your initial upgrade points are probably going?
-Difficulties are a mixed bag. Hard Mode is the highest available difficulty from the start (unless you input the Konami Code to unlock Very Hard and Revengeance immediately) and provides a decent enough challenge as you learn the ropes. Normal is subject the "vanity sizing" of difficulties where easy is renamed Normal to protect frail egos of gayming journos.
Very Hard makes the enemies more aggressive (on Hard and below aggression is "capped"; that is to say enemies rarely all attack at once, stack attacks, etc), slightly remixes enemy placements, and makes subtle alterations to bosses (except for one BIG change to the R-02 boss fight) in addition to the typical ++damage and ++enemy HP tweaks. This difficulty is well done, for the most part. This is probably the definitive difficulty, best enjoyed in a fresh run, without any upgrades carried over.
Revengeance is basically a goofy gimmick difficulty. Enemies deal absurd amounts of damage and Raiden's perfect parries have been buffed into the stratosphere in terms of damage output. The prologue boss can be killed in one (tricky) parry, and other bosses can lose anywhere from 30-70% of their health if hit by a perfect parry. Enemies are absolutely shredded as well. Anything that can survive a perfect parry is either stunned (and vulnerable to a button-prompt insta-kill) or ready for a Zandatsu. While this difficulty was kind of fun when running through with a fully upgraded character, going for the highest ranks, the fresh run was miserable; getting one-shotted (or wiggle-stunned) by practically everything means that only the safest/cheapest tactics feel viable, making for a boring playthrough.
-Scoring system is kind of shitty. Like Bayonetta, it greatly encourages reset spamming because going through ~40 minute missions with near perfect play is utterly retarded. DMC style "never get hit" scoring works great in a game segmented into (mostly) 5-10 minute long missions with a single digit number of encounters. Not to mention some of the scoring idiosyncrasies; like how some combo targets are unrealistically high, some time limits are virtually impossible on fresh runs, and some encounters have kill/Zandatsu scores that are unattainable. Basically, you need the No Damage bonus in most encounters to cop an S-Rank. Be prepared to use cheap moves or mash that Reset button.
But at least it does use the Viewtiful Joe/Bayonetta system of ranking each individual encounter, allowing you to take hits in non-ranked sections, take your time exploring outside of ranked fights, and whatnot.
-Extra content is shit. The VR Missions are mostly garbage, consisting of awful "Race to the Finish" challenges, bad stealth challenges, challenges that only allow use of RPGs/grenades, bad combat encounters, and two missions that are actually decent (18 and 19, I think). Too many of the missions don't play to any of the game's strengths, they have almost zero replay value, and a lot of them simply aren't fun. There's a lot they could have done with VR Missions, like straight up rip-off Ninja Gaiden Black's mission mode (all action games should be doing this), or perhaps offer fights from Raiden's past (Solidus comes to mind) adapted to an engine all about combat. But nope, just crap.
-Story is fun in a goofy way. It's basically a mix of zany personalities spouting hilarious one-liners all while completely lampooning Metal Gear in general. The primary antagonist is a fat, balding Southern Kwanzanian who is an unapologetic warmonger who heads a private military company full of cyborg mercenaries. One of his subordinates is a Brazilian samurai who can't help but spout lines that would be at home in an 80s Arnie flick. The game doesn't take itself too seriously, especially at the end, in which one character comes in and utterly steals the show while completely shitting all over Metal Gear in general.
It's not quite God Hand goofy, but it's not hours upon hours about memes, the MIC, and whatever shit Metal Gear Solid drones on about.
-Graphics are good. Character models and animations are great and the game runs at a smooth 60FPS. Yeah, the locations are a little bland, but that's really unimportant.
-Special mention to the soundtrack, especially the boss tracks. Not only do all major bosses have their own songs, but the game employs them dynamically. Lyrics will kick in or out as the tides of battle start to turn. The game will also "skip" to certain measures of the piece at set points in the battle and surprisingly does so without breaking the flow. I'm glad to see that the best feature of the Black Baron fight in MadWorld got use in a much better game.
-Overall, definitely worth a playthrough, maybe more depending on your tastes. I don't think there is enough content nor is the gameplay great enough to justify slamming down 60 Kwa dollars for a purchase, but somewhere around 20-25 Bernankebux might be fair.
-The emphasis on the parry system works pretty well. Blocking isn't some "hold button to enter blocking stance" a la Ninja Gaiden but is closer to a Royal-Guard style of timed inputs with a directional component. When faced with an imminent attack, the player taps the light attack button and flicks the analog stick in the direction of the attack. A slightly early input will result in a block whereas a parry performed precisely before an attack lands will result in an extremely powerful counterattack slash appended on after the block. Basically, it's kind of like the Moon of mahaa-Kahlaa in Bayonetta. While complicating inputs in an action game is usually a bad thing, in MGR it gives blocking a bit more...impact, especially against combos.
However, this mechanics probably would be awful using WASD. Methinks this is definitely a "gamepad required" title on the PC.
-Blade Mode, which looked to be a silly gimmick in previews, turned out to work pretty well in practice. By depressing a trigger Raiden stands in place and can swing his sword around, slicing enemies and objects both. If the player has enough energy reserves, Blade Mode will be accompanied by a slow time effect to facilitate easier cutting. A few things help to keep this balanced. First off, energy (obtained by hitting enemies with regular attacks, consumables, or a special "Zandatsu" technique) drains pretty rapidly, limiting how long one can maintain slowed time. Second, mobility is sacrificed. While Blade Mode does allow for some extremely limited movement, it's purposely limited to keep the slow time effect only as a tool to make precision cuts easier. Finally, most foes are not "cut-ready", all but the lowest tier mooks require some softening up with regular attacks in order to be diced up.
The advantages of Blade Mode is that it allows for a relatively unique response to enemy projectiles (cutting them), allows for precision disarmament (in a very literal sense) of baddies in combat, and serves as a way to cancel out of certain animations for power-players. It also enables the use of the "Zandatsu" technique, wherein the player can can out an enemies's power source and consume it to refill their energy and health. It's probably a bit too easy to pull off for how useful it is, but on higher difficulties death is pretty close at hand even at full health. It only becomes problematic when combined with a certain ability I'll mention later.
-There's an annoying mechanic of "wiggle stun". Basically when Raiden is hit by an attack of significant damage, it may place him into a state of stun that requires control-stick waggling to escape, and more waggling the lower Raiden's health is. It's a pointless mechanic that serves only to randomly punish players, especially those trying to learn the game. Yeah, it's possible to "git gud" and never be affected by it, but the mechanic is just plain bad especially if you take a cheap hit (like a Mastiff jump) and then promptly get murdered by foes while totally helpless, all because the RNG decided to fuck you over. "Wiggle-stun" doesn't happen frequently, but it's irritating enough to stay lodged in player's memory and completely inferior to some sort of ukemi/teching that would allow players to quickly recover from knockdowns; not only does that remove randomess, but also allows the player to actually interact.
-Weapons are competently, but nothing too special. The HF-Blade, Raiden's primary weapon, is basically a mashup of almost every single staple "sword" moves from other titles. Stinger, Aeriel Rave, High Time, etc. all make an appearance and it controls with a stock two-button, Light Attack and Heavy Attack, scheme. A lot of the moves feel a bit weak, and kind of useless once you start acquiring the boss weapons. Some are only in for looking cool, which doesn't work well in a game with no style meter and extremely aggressive foes. Strangely the ->->Light move, a launcher, has the highest damage output over time, invalidating most of the heavy attacks. It also has zero effective crowd control. I'm not asking for a ton (that would really cramp the Polearm's style), but something like Rebellion Combo 2 or Streak would have been nice, especially given that you have to fight a boss that becomes much more manageable when you have some crowd control ability.
Other weapons work a little strange in this game. They don't completely replace the HF-Blade moves with their own set, nor do they occupy their own inputs. What happens with additional weapons is that they take over the Heavy Attack input and replace the HF-Blade moves with those of their own. The issue with this is twofold; not only are some of the weapons lacking in a real variety of moves but there is a face button (B on the FAGBOX, O on the GAYSTATION) not in use for anything besides a few context-senstive inputs. The second issue would be a big deal for me if the HF-Blade had some really good/fun attacks mapped to the Heavy input, but it doesn't, so it's not a awful trade-off. Still, strange.
While the Polearm feels like a "full" weapon, having a bunch of strings, some that incorporate Light Attack inputs, the others are a bit sparse on the variety front. The Sai only does one thing, pulls Raiden towards enemies, also stunning them if the weapon is allowed to build "charge" for ~7 seconds. And the Pincer Blades have one (chargeable) string on the ground and a spinning air move. This isn't to say the weapons are not good; the Sai is pretty much an MVP and the Pincer Blades are capable of grotesque amounts of damage. The weapons are a bit narrow in function though.
There's also "sub weapons" like RPGs and Grenades of all sorts that one can pick up as a limited resource. They're pretty useful, especial EMP and Smoke grenades that can really help in tough battles, but not really all that interesting.
-Enemies are pretty varied in appearance and moveset. Opposing combatants include robotic wolves with mounted saws/railguns, robo-raptors with EMP (?) cannons, armored cyborgs wielding war-hammers, ATST doppelgangers that go "moo!", and gorilla mechs. Yes, many of these are completely ridiculous concepts, but they serve the purpose of making for a cast of enemies that can attack in meaningfully unique ways and provide for some gameplay variety. One issue I have is that a lot of the robotic enemies have a very similar best method of attack; at least half of them go into a stunned state, in which they can be insta-killed via button prompts, after parrying a certain attack or landing a perfect parry counterattack.
Take the Gekko for instance. They take a lot of hits and can lay down some serious pain. There should be a bit of tactical tension when facing them as part of a mixed encounter; whether or not it's better to prioritize the Gekko while having to dodge/mitigate the attacks of other foes or vice versa. But this doesn't exist once the player "gets" how to fight the Gekko because it is trivially easy to bait a charge move, parry the charge, and then trigger an instant-kill button prompt.
Some enemies have a different problem. Let's use the Raptor for example. On it's own, it can be a bit of a menace, but in groups things become downright crazy. Trying to fight them via "conventional" means can get messy quickly given the Raptor's stun-cannon and even more so when one is incapacitated and the rest of the group enters an enraged state. But perfect parry a Raptor and it is set up for an instant kill via button prompt, all the while wreathed in invincibility frames. Do it to each Raptor in the fight, and boom....encounter solved! I get that perfect parries are somewhat tricky, but it's far trickier to negotiate a full encounter against some of these guys, especially without getting hit.
Fortunately, there's a good deal of enemies that don't encourage a sort of playstyle that ignores 95% of the mechanics of the game.
-Bosses are solid and tend top focus more on substance rather than visual flair. I though Bayonetta's boss fights were mostly crap, but MGR shows that Platinum know what they're doing...even if they think HYOOOOOGE bosses probably sell better (ironically the two giant bosses in MGR are actually pretty good, mostly thanks to parry mechanics and Blade Mode). The majority of boss encounters are against cyborgs with combat styles as wild as their personalities. Whether it's against a good ol' boy from Alabama rocking explosive shielding and scissor blades or against a survivor of the Khmer Rouge who can separate his body parts and accelerate tanks and helicopters at the player character via "MAGNETIC POWAAAAAH!", bosses have plenty of unique character, and this extends to gameplay as well.
If you liked akshun game bosses in the vein of Murai, Doku, Genshin (Ninja Gaiden), Nelo Angelo, Vergil, Credo, Dante (Devil May Cry), Elvis, or Azel....you're in for a treat. The final boss deserves special mention...he's one of the few instances in which an game of this genre ends on it's highest note; the last foe is tough-as-nails and extremely well designed.
I also want to commend Platinum for making the enormous first boss fun enough for repeat players. There's a whole bunch of shenanigans with parries that can make the RAY fight play out a lot better than most fights against bighuge bossd00dz.
-Level design is pretty tight. There's not a whole lot of downtime between fight to fight, the encounters are well done (both in enemy composition and terrain), and there's precious little filler bullshit. Perhaps as a result, there's also not a ton of game. There are some a couple notably shitty sequences (the "Grip of Murder" sequence in R-03 before the boss is abysmal...and ranked to rub some more salt in the wound) but there are extremely rare.
The attempt at integrating stealth was poorly done, but fortunately "failing" those sequences result in more combat sequences, some of which are the toughest in the game. In some ways you are rewarded with more fun gameplay for skipping the shitty shoe-in for MGS fans. Cool by me.
-Balance...goes out the fucking window about 70% of the way into the game. Raiden gains his version of "devil trigger", which is completely busted. At full energy, one can click in the control sticks and activate Ripper Mode, which makes Raiden's attacks do enormous amounts of damage, rend limbs automatically, and allow for incredibly easy Zandatsus. The last part is key, as you can use Zandatsu's to "chain" Ripper activations and always have this overpowered nonsense in your back pocket. It's not so hot against bosses, and Ripper-Chaining requires a bit of skill, but it pretty much invalidates almost every other move against the overwhelming majority of regular foes. This, among other reasons, is why "fresh" runthroughs, without carried over upgrades, are so important to keeping up some fun, because some of the unlocked goodies later in the game absolutely destroy the earlier stuff.
-There's some cheap bullshit that can get on your nerves. Mastiff jump attacks and rocket soldiers are probably the most notable, and the camera can be downright awful. Normally I can forgive the camera in an akshun game because it's easy enough to play around, but not so in a game where all of the defensive abilities require directional inputs in relation to the attack.
Also Platinum continues the nonsense of having crucial techniques as "optional" upgrades. The dodge slash, "Offensive Defense", is pretty much necessary to the combat system yet is an "optional" upgrade; it's the only real way to dodge, which is critical as some attacks (grabs mostly) can't be parried. On Very Hard and above, the first encounter out of the prologue features a foe that requires the dodge slash. Guess where your initial upgrade points are probably going?
-Difficulties are a mixed bag. Hard Mode is the highest available difficulty from the start (unless you input the Konami Code to unlock Very Hard and Revengeance immediately) and provides a decent enough challenge as you learn the ropes. Normal is subject the "vanity sizing" of difficulties where easy is renamed Normal to protect frail egos of gayming journos.
Very Hard makes the enemies more aggressive (on Hard and below aggression is "capped"; that is to say enemies rarely all attack at once, stack attacks, etc), slightly remixes enemy placements, and makes subtle alterations to bosses (except for one BIG change to the R-02 boss fight) in addition to the typical ++damage and ++enemy HP tweaks. This difficulty is well done, for the most part. This is probably the definitive difficulty, best enjoyed in a fresh run, without any upgrades carried over.
Revengeance is basically a goofy gimmick difficulty. Enemies deal absurd amounts of damage and Raiden's perfect parries have been buffed into the stratosphere in terms of damage output. The prologue boss can be killed in one (tricky) parry, and other bosses can lose anywhere from 30-70% of their health if hit by a perfect parry. Enemies are absolutely shredded as well. Anything that can survive a perfect parry is either stunned (and vulnerable to a button-prompt insta-kill) or ready for a Zandatsu. While this difficulty was kind of fun when running through with a fully upgraded character, going for the highest ranks, the fresh run was miserable; getting one-shotted (or wiggle-stunned) by practically everything means that only the safest/cheapest tactics feel viable, making for a boring playthrough.
-Scoring system is kind of shitty. Like Bayonetta, it greatly encourages reset spamming because going through ~40 minute missions with near perfect play is utterly retarded. DMC style "never get hit" scoring works great in a game segmented into (mostly) 5-10 minute long missions with a single digit number of encounters. Not to mention some of the scoring idiosyncrasies; like how some combo targets are unrealistically high, some time limits are virtually impossible on fresh runs, and some encounters have kill/Zandatsu scores that are unattainable. Basically, you need the No Damage bonus in most encounters to cop an S-Rank. Be prepared to use cheap moves or mash that Reset button.
But at least it does use the Viewtiful Joe/Bayonetta system of ranking each individual encounter, allowing you to take hits in non-ranked sections, take your time exploring outside of ranked fights, and whatnot.
-Extra content is shit. The VR Missions are mostly garbage, consisting of awful "Race to the Finish" challenges, bad stealth challenges, challenges that only allow use of RPGs/grenades, bad combat encounters, and two missions that are actually decent (18 and 19, I think). Too many of the missions don't play to any of the game's strengths, they have almost zero replay value, and a lot of them simply aren't fun. There's a lot they could have done with VR Missions, like straight up rip-off Ninja Gaiden Black's mission mode (all action games should be doing this), or perhaps offer fights from Raiden's past (Solidus comes to mind) adapted to an engine all about combat. But nope, just crap.
-Story is fun in a goofy way. It's basically a mix of zany personalities spouting hilarious one-liners all while completely lampooning Metal Gear in general. The primary antagonist is a fat, balding Southern Kwanzanian who is an unapologetic warmonger who heads a private military company full of cyborg mercenaries. One of his subordinates is a Brazilian samurai who can't help but spout lines that would be at home in an 80s Arnie flick. The game doesn't take itself too seriously, especially at the end, in which one character comes in and utterly steals the show while completely shitting all over Metal Gear in general.
It's not quite God Hand goofy, but it's not hours upon hours about memes, the MIC, and whatever shit Metal Gear Solid drones on about.
-Graphics are good. Character models and animations are great and the game runs at a smooth 60FPS. Yeah, the locations are a little bland, but that's really unimportant.
-Special mention to the soundtrack, especially the boss tracks. Not only do all major bosses have their own songs, but the game employs them dynamically. Lyrics will kick in or out as the tides of battle start to turn. The game will also "skip" to certain measures of the piece at set points in the battle and surprisingly does so without breaking the flow. I'm glad to see that the best feature of the Black Baron fight in MadWorld got use in a much better game.
-Overall, definitely worth a playthrough, maybe more depending on your tastes. I don't think there is enough content nor is the gameplay great enough to justify slamming down 60 Kwa dollars for a purchase, but somewhere around 20-25 Bernankebux might be fair.
Maximum brofist for Edward. Really well tought review.
Diablo169
Arcane
I didn't get it on sale, i'm going to hold fire for some reviews first. Platinum games have never made a pc game. Ever. So I dont exactly have high hopes for the quality of this port given what happened with Dark Souls.
Utgard-Loki
Arcane
- Joined
- Dec 29, 2011
- Messages
- 1,877
my erection just ruined my pants.
even the music, which i disliked, starts to actually be good once you play the game yourself.
i won't walk for quite some time. my throbbing member will not allow it.
even the music, which i disliked, starts to actually be good once you play the game yourself.
i won't walk for quite some time. my throbbing member will not allow it.
bonescraper
Guest
So next-gen.
Well the game was on last-gen hardware.
JohnTheRevelator
Arcane
- Joined
- Mar 10, 2011
- Messages
- 1,160
That looks like google maps.
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