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Mortal Shell. It's ok, not some masterpiece maybe but I'm enjoying it. It's actually not a straight up clone of DS, visually they go for a similar atmosphere (even the menus are kind of similar to souls) but somewhat more grimdark. The combat is based around the souls style but it has some new mechanics - you can turn into stone for a short while (you can do it anytime you want, while dodging, attacking whatever), there are no shields and there is more emphasis on parrying (best way to regain health is to parry and attack after). I didn't like the combat at first, had to get used to it. The leveling up is different, you don't level up in a traditional way(like more points to strength so you deal more dmg or whatever etc.) but gain extra skills (each "shell" has different) and there are 2 types of "experience points" one is like souls from DS (works the same way u get it for killing and lose it if you die) and the other more important type is gained from killing bosses and consuming rare items, sometimes it drops but it's not very common. Supposedly it's kind of short, around 10h, but I don't care about this tbh, I prefer shorter games than 100000h of boredom and filler. I haven't finished it yet but so far it's fun.
Finished my "being dwarven" gimmick run. It was a breeze, naturally (thanks to gimmick itself which was posted above) but very enjoyable one, had a lot of fun. Funny that since I haven't launched the game for a several years I forgot a lot of things and thus fucked up minmax whoring big time. First of all, I remembered the All-Father's blessing only mid-game but at that point I had max tech aptitide so I couldn't buy statue token for one of the temples from elven vendor in Ashbury. Not to mention that since All-Father's blessing gives 12 firearm skill points among other things, wise cource of action would be not to spend them and get through with underdeveloped firearm skill (although it could be preeeetty tiresome to do the circles without teleportation spell, so...).
Second of all, completely forgot about Vivifier being available to... anyone thanks to manuals so few stat points were wasted as well. Third of all, for crafting Tesla Gun good idea is to steal Looking Glass Rifle from firearms Master (which he gives to player in case of renouncing obtaining mastery) via fate point but again, I remembered about it only after doing his quest (pretty tough encounter by the way) and he was gone at that time.
But no matter, it was such an overkill anyway since I used pair of companions and crafted some automatons for beating Stringy Pete. After doing that I cba to level up more so just went to the finish line.
Few very unfortunate notes regarding vanilla: str bonus from machined plate mail doesn't work at all. And Vendigroth theme doesn't play in Vendigroth ruins, that's a shame, I like it a lot
So yeah, thouse are quite significant to curb my vanilla faggotry and to play some modded versions next time maybe (but they have so much other bs in it usually, eh).
The toughest encounter in the game (took me four tries)
Stats before the finale.
Never paid attention before, huh. By the way, saw very similiar statues in Underrail's Expedition
Yeah, speaking with elfs might be tiresome for a dwarf.
Finished my "being dwarven" gimmick run. It was a breeze, naturally (thanks to gimmick itself which was posted above) but very enjoyable one, had a lot of fun. Funny that since I haven't launched the game for a several years I forgot a lot of things and thus fucked up minmax whoring big time. First of all, I remembered about All-Father's blessing only mid-game but at that point I had max tech aptitide so I could't buy statue for one of the temples from elven vendor in Ashbury. Not to mention that since All-Father's blessing gives 12 firearm skill points among other things, wise cource of action would be not to spend them and get through with undeveloped firearm skill (although it migth be preeeetty tiresome to do the circles without teleportation spell, so...).
Second of all, completely forgot about Vivifier being available to... anyone thanks to manuals so few stat points were wasted as well. Third of all, for crafting Tesla Gun wise cource of action is to steal Looking Glass Rifle from firearms Master (which he gives to player in case of renouncing obtaining mastery) via fate point but again, I remembered about it only afterwards (pretty tough encounter by the way) and he was gone at that time.
But no matter, it was such an overkill anyway since I used few companions and crafted some automatons for beating Stringy Pete. But after doing that I cba to level up more so just went to the finish line.
Few very unfortunate notes regarding vanilla: str bonus from machined plate mail doesn't work at all. And Vendigroth theme doesn't play in Vendigroth ruins, that's a shame, I like it a lot
So yeah, thouse are pretty significant to curb my vanilla faggotry and to play some modded versions next time maybe (but they have so much other bs in it usually, eh).
The toughest encounter in the game (was fourth try to me)
Stats before the final battle.
Never paid attention before, huh. By the way, saw pretty similiar statues in Underrail's Expedition
Yep, they're pretty powerful and doesn't count as followers i.e. you can craft as many as you can/want which is kinda crazy. Also you can repair them for free outside of combat (and medical arachnid heals you and you companions for free anytime).
Let me preface by saying that I never played the original 1995 Rise of the Sinistrals on SNES; all I know is that the combat was turn-based whereas this one is a fully re-imagined top-down hack'n-slash not unlike Ys.
The first thing that sets it apart is how good-looking it is. The illusion would probably shatter on a big screen but on a handheld it's absolutely gorgeous, it's insane that the DS can even pull this off. The OST is solid too if not very imaginative, and combined with the visuals the game is always excellent at conveying its intended mood.
The writing is typical jRPG fare but I do give it credits for having characters hook up, get married and give birth midstory, instead of tiptoeing around the issue forever; otherwise it's so formulaic it might as well be a bullet-point checklist.
The combat system is pretty rudimentary though fast and satisfying, but it's the dungeons that carry the game: varied, elaborate, always with new and fun gimmicks, challenging enough to matter but still without dragging on, and again the beautiful 3D engine truly shines. Considering the dungeons are the core of the gameplay it will probably feel closer to Zelda than to actual jRPG household names.
Expect about 15 hours out of it, and the "real" ending isn't different enough to warrant a second playthrough, just watch it online. I'm not a huge fan of Japanese-styled games in general so it was just long enough to avert ending fatigue.