HansDampf
Arcane
- Joined
- Dec 15, 2015
- Messages
- 1,521
I'm playing through HK again and wanted to see all the "new" content. Can't believe it's been almost 4 years. My first playthrough was before the Grimm Troupe was added. Or it was released while I was playing? I don't remember.
First I have to mention the Enraged Guardian, which I was so afraid of before in my steel soul playthrough and fought very late with a bazillion masks, pure nail, Quick Focus + Shape of Unn, or something like that. This time, I was surprised how easy this fight is, even without the Shade Cloak. Like, just don't touch the lasers? Not sure why I was so worried back then. Only because he deals 2 masks of damage. Meh.
Path of Pain: This does highlight a problem I've always had with wall-jumps. The knight grabs the wall later than it appears. Maybe it has something to do with how the graphics are drawn. He always goes a few pixels into the wall before he grabs it. Even after many hours of playtime, I still sometimes make the mistake of pressing jump a frame too early and slide off. Most of the platforming in this game is forgiving, so it doesn't matter much. But it's fatal and annoying in the Path of Pain. Otherwise, this is a mild platforming challenge compared to Celeste or Super Meat Boy. And you get infinite soul, so it's fair.
Grimm Troupe: Looks like typical tacked on content. Repeat the same dumb fetch quest 3 times, then fight a boss that feels like it was ripped out of a different game, both graphically and gameplay wise. And it's not a particularly interesting boss. Sure, his attacks are overwhelming when you fight him the first time. But after you've learned how to handle each of them, it's boring. It's like I could write a script to beat him. If he does A, then I do B. Repeat 40 times until he's dead.
It doesn't seem to be connected to the main story either. This would have been a completely forgettable quest if the boss hadn't been so hard.
Godhome: This is something I was missing in HK. Fight harder versions of old bosses, mixed with some new bosses, boss rushes, and even a new optional ending? I've spent a lot of time in the Hall of Gods and got radiant grades for about half of the bosses. Don't feel like going for more because it does get a bit grindy.
But I wanted to clear all the pantheons and see the new ending. Now I'm at the last one and seem to have lost all motivation to even make an attempt (haven't touched the game for 4 days), even though I've practiced Grimm and Pure Vessel enough that I'm confident I will get to Absolute Radiance. I fully expect to die to her the first time though, and then practice the fight in the Hall of Gods. So I'd have to play through the entire pantheon at least twice. That's 45 minutes of mostly trivial fights before you get to Pure Vessel and Radiance. 45 minutes!
What were they thinking?
But I remember Radiance to be one of the more interesting fights and am curious how difficult Absolute Radiance turns out to be. Unlike with Grimm, you always have to deal with multiple random attacks simultaneously (spikes on the ground, lasers, homing orbs with random spawn locations, etc.), and the arena keeps changing with each phase. So I can't just run a mindless AI script in my brain to beat her. Maybe I will try it this weekend.
First I have to mention the Enraged Guardian, which I was so afraid of before in my steel soul playthrough and fought very late with a bazillion masks, pure nail, Quick Focus + Shape of Unn, or something like that. This time, I was surprised how easy this fight is, even without the Shade Cloak. Like, just don't touch the lasers? Not sure why I was so worried back then. Only because he deals 2 masks of damage. Meh.
Path of Pain: This does highlight a problem I've always had with wall-jumps. The knight grabs the wall later than it appears. Maybe it has something to do with how the graphics are drawn. He always goes a few pixels into the wall before he grabs it. Even after many hours of playtime, I still sometimes make the mistake of pressing jump a frame too early and slide off. Most of the platforming in this game is forgiving, so it doesn't matter much. But it's fatal and annoying in the Path of Pain. Otherwise, this is a mild platforming challenge compared to Celeste or Super Meat Boy. And you get infinite soul, so it's fair.
Grimm Troupe: Looks like typical tacked on content. Repeat the same dumb fetch quest 3 times, then fight a boss that feels like it was ripped out of a different game, both graphically and gameplay wise. And it's not a particularly interesting boss. Sure, his attacks are overwhelming when you fight him the first time. But after you've learned how to handle each of them, it's boring. It's like I could write a script to beat him. If he does A, then I do B. Repeat 40 times until he's dead.
It doesn't seem to be connected to the main story either. This would have been a completely forgettable quest if the boss hadn't been so hard.
Godhome: This is something I was missing in HK. Fight harder versions of old bosses, mixed with some new bosses, boss rushes, and even a new optional ending? I've spent a lot of time in the Hall of Gods and got radiant grades for about half of the bosses. Don't feel like going for more because it does get a bit grindy.
But I wanted to clear all the pantheons and see the new ending. Now I'm at the last one and seem to have lost all motivation to even make an attempt (haven't touched the game for 4 days), even though I've practiced Grimm and Pure Vessel enough that I'm confident I will get to Absolute Radiance. I fully expect to die to her the first time though, and then practice the fight in the Hall of Gods. So I'd have to play through the entire pantheon at least twice. That's 45 minutes of mostly trivial fights before you get to Pure Vessel and Radiance. 45 minutes!
What were they thinking?But I remember Radiance to be one of the more interesting fights and am curious how difficult Absolute Radiance turns out to be. Unlike with Grimm, you always have to deal with multiple random attacks simultaneously (spikes on the ground, lasers, homing orbs with random spawn locations, etc.), and the arena keeps changing with each phase. So I can't just run a mindless AI script in my brain to beat her. Maybe I will try it this weekend.
