I’m not nobody ;____;
Yeah, that does seem like a sticky wicket. The only game I can think of to even come close to solving it is Metroid II, and even that was a) relatively linear and b) locked away truly versatile ways of moving around from the player until the last couple of acts. I can imagine a Ninja Five-O game that works a bit like that game, with hostages serving as an equivalent to metroids–and in the process looking and working quite a bit like Metal Gear if that game were a platformer–but I’m not sure if reworking the game in such a way would add anything of substance.
(Speaking of Metroid, it has occurred to me that Zero Mission’s suit-less segment is already precisely one grappling hook away from actually being just Ninja Five-O on a space ship.)
More generally, I can imagine a game where the various upgrades aren’t to the grappling hook, but to the actual weapons–you’d start out with only the grappling hook, with segments opening up as you become able to defeat wider varieties of enemies–but I can also easily see that becoming the sort of game that undermines itself the more you go through it. But then, that’s why I’m not a game designer.
ETA:
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I can’t believe that I was talking about Ninja Five-O in relation to Metroid and forgot to note the last stage, which suggests, at least, some direct inspiration.
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That experiment of yours sounds super-cool, Broco, and I’m sad it didn’t get anywhere.
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man, i am really glad people are talking about ninja five-o in 2016
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i like Dragon’s Dogma a lot now that i understand better how it works but it feels like i can’t wander off the beaten path without falling face-first into a pile of bandit swords
most open world games in recent generations shy away from beefgating, so it’s always appreciated to a degree, it’s just weird that sometimes i’ll enter a battle w/ what look like garden-variety highwaymen who turn out to be super-highwaymen that can swarm and destroy my party before i have a chance to escape.
my favorite was thrashing some goblins a few yards off the trail to Gran Soren, then a short ways beyond getting attacked by a mass of terrifying giant goblins that charged my pawns like a bunch of linebackers and cut them to ribbons :o
dragons dogma feels like a lot of the game is hidden behind beefgates for quite awhile but in reality its no different than a lot of early onset rpgs. its just the beef-and-gate lockout is for like the first 40 hours or so. once you get past, hm, about half of the kings quest for gran soren, theres not a lot of the game outside the high tower that’s blocked by Big Men anymore. imo half of the fun of the game is getting to the point where so little of the game is stronger than you that when a Biggu Drake falls out of the sky and owns you its exhilarating
ive just been taking it a lot slower, luring ppl out, falling back more readily, etc. and its paid off. though of course i ended up dropping way more time into the game than i intended today URGH
saurians :3
Shadow of Mordor is the only game I’ve seen that actually mechanically develops on the AssCreed formula and is kind of interesting. It also has a pretty good power curve where you start out in a place where lots of guys will kill you and you end up a murder god. It is loaded with boring ass architecture and an absolutely dire plot. It gives me weird feelings.
Like, maybe the worst since the PS1 era? It’s ludicrously bad
It definitely wears its license like an albatross. If you let these guys make the same game but gave them Ubi’s AssCreed art people and set it in Renaissance Someplace you’d really have a god damn game.
Have fun on Bitterblack Isle
I think I’ve learned that I enjoy hearing other people talk about and bring up the names of places in Souls and knockoff games more than playing the games and actually going to those places
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After 3 Souls games, finally got to Bloodborne and… it’s pretty good? The limited character development possibilities kind of suck, but uh, okay. What definitely irks me though is that, while it has become more aggressive and faster than Dark Souls, what with the emphasis on parry and whatnot, it takes some time to get used to it. I can’t really play it as slowly and mechanically as a Souls game, since the bosses whack the shit out of me. On the other hand, whenever I am pushed towards the twitchier gameplay style, my brain orients me to input commands as if it was a straight up character action game in the style of DMC, and it simply is too slow for that.
tl;dr I still kind of suck at it, even after mastering the other Souls games (III notwithstanding)
Also, I really don’t want to play anything remotely actiony below 60 FPS in my life again. Alas, I must endure…
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Bloodborne has the hardest bosses in the series. Just wait till you get to the final DLC boss: what a monstrosity.
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It is a boss that I had to practice for a week straight, every night. Finally clearing it was a sublime experience, but I think it emptied something out of me. I haven’t been able to go back to the game since.
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Same here (although for me it was more like the same amount of time spread over months). Meanwhile speedrunners can beat it at like 80% consistency and much faster.
so after being less than blown away with a lot of this year’s indie crop there were a couple games featured on eurogamer this week that I’m pretty taken with:
is like an expanded version of that one monkey ball battle mode with a lot more you can do, it’s got a bunch of different game modes, has the right balance between fair and silly, etc., my kind of local multi.
is one of those antigravity racers that’s been in the pipeline awhile, and it’s actually pretty good! looks great, feels pretty good, has neat pickups. I’m not sure that I love it necessarily but I can’t tell why not. felt similarly about the last penelope.
ahahaha i just got jumped by a chimera out of literally nowhere dragons dogma rules
Also this game does Big Swords way better than Souls #wow #whoa
Going back and trying to finish witch3r’s euro vacation dlc so I can finally get this ~100gig monstrosity the hell off my hard drive, but I find myself dicking around with sidequests and sunsets, of course. Whenever I come back to this game I’m always floored by just how danged beautiful it is.
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Playing W2 here and it looks fantastic as well. Significant improvement over Witcher 1, especially the combat. Always hated CD Projekt’s take on the NWN engine combat, and would’ve vastly preferred them to leave it as it was in the NWN games.
Playing on Dark is pretty intense, most enemies can kill me with one or two strikes, so I have to be wary of getting ganged up. Specializing in alchemy as well, since I’m a big fan of builds in RPGs where you need to use all sorts of gadgets and concoctions to save the day.
I just played through Inside over the course of two nights, and it sure was entertaining. I’m glad I didn’t see any screenshots beyond a certain point in the game that would spoil what happens.
The puzzles are all easy, so don’t expect a real challenge (or any frustration, for that matter). Your actions kind of carry the (not entirely coherent but fun nonetheless) story along more than anything.