ikki unite is the game of 2023. 'nuff said.
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hmm
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gargoyles quest is pretty sweet so far, love the gothic aesthetic, the hover frees them up to do tricky stuff with levels since it helps with blind jumps, challenging but fair (though i’m already getting stronger).
the random encounters are stupid but they are quick and short and it looks like you only gain levels from events, so hopefully that means no need to grind at any pont
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Started playing Hitman: World of Assassination and I cannot believe I didn’t start playing these Hitman games sooner. I’m trying to remember why I skipped them and I know I had a reason but I cannot remember it anymore. They’re fantastic. Absolutely a game I could play for ages.
Love the puzzlebox environment shit. So far I’ve done every map at least 2-3 times before moving on to the next one. Extremely good systems for raising opportunities to the player and letting them know what “special kills” are possible in each environment. Would love to see how they plan the content which alerts the player to the possibility of a special kill… a lot of it is done through VO, and they are very restrained about VO in this game.
I have also been having fun finding weird hidden outfits and bizarre weapons all over the place. These environments are so much fun to just meander around… every time I go wandering I find something funny or useful or cool that I otherwise would not have.
Could do without the interstitial cutscenes though. I could not give a shit about anything these nervous old white guys are saying. They all kind of look related?? They are all the exact same type of skinny pointy-nosed middle aged man and they all have sickly skin that makes them look a little bit like an egg a monster laid in a sci fi movie. I can’t tell them apart and I replay the levels so much that I only see these cutscenes like once every 4 hours. I’ve completely forgotten who they are each time I see them.
10 Likes
Ninja fight is fairly early on in the game - might be worth restarting on Easy difficulty? it’s what i played when i wanted to just see parts of the game again without going through specific bullshit
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Isn’t there a whole trick to it where you fight hand to hand and it’s easier than shooting?
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yeah, you basically can’t shoot him at all until you get his health all the way down (i mean maybe there are speedrun strats that break this sequence, idk). if i recall, you can sort of stunlock him by hitting twice, pausing, hitting twice again, pausing again, etc. and not finishing the combo
2 Likes
the more i play, the more i think this is actually one of the biggest strengths of the game
first, the voice acting in english is… OK. some of it is kind of poor.
but the game is quite dark and really marinates in tragedy. the characters are well-done and i am enjoying getting to know them, especially with how natural the NPC interactions are. the levity of some of these scenes is an extremely welcome respite from the gloom permeating much of the rest of the game
1 Like
started wizardry: tale of the forsaken land (ps2) and it has made a great first impression… great vibes… love hanging out in the tavern
the Big Mechanic in this one is party unite abilities that unlock and succeed related to a ‘trust’ stat, so your initial party members are all like these super earnest types who’ve been let down in the past and just want a group of friends they can rely on, love it
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i kind of want to suffer through it? like get the full suffering experience. im “having a conversation” with “the master kojima” by telling him to fuck off under my breath
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the cutscenes expect you to care more and more as the series goes on and really lost me in 3 despite introducing new characters that are easier to care about but the briefings get delightfully over-the-top in hitman 2 (2018). love a woman with a sedate english voice telling me about super cocaine
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Fascinated by the NESlike plot+gameplay dichotomy in Nioh 2
In Souls games the general world building partially exists to serve the gameplay and all questions that arise from it. Why are enemies not coordinated at all and you can just invade any place easily : because it’s a dead zombie world. Why are enemies resurrecting each time you go to a bonfire: dead zombie world. Etc.
Nioh 1 lifted gameplay from the game entirely and the plot justifications for this felt a little more tenuous. There was still something, though, at least.
For Nioh 2 though, all pretenses for this have been thrown out and you get this normal 3 kingdoms plot grafted into Souls and it’s just weird… I am sent by Nobunaga in like 1600 to conquer a castle, by myself, and the human soldiers protecting the castle have no visibility and keep respawning when I go visit shrines? I have a bunch of allies but they just appear in cutscenes and sit in the sidelines at the beginning of the level? Again, very NES-like. It’s good
The game also has too many useless side characters that are only here because they were important in the source material, just like an old licensed game
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I’m also glad that despite the game being fairly difficult I can still manage by playing sloppily and relying on a (very good) guard move like in Demon’s souls.
Feels like a direct answer to the exhausting escalation of boss speed and agression + punishment of defensive tactics in Souls games from Bloodborne on
4 Likes
playing one of the most endearingly mid games of all time… pn03. you have to unlock autofire so basically its a great game to strain your hands with. it has like 12 textures and the entire game mostly seems to be boxy white interiors. reminded all at once of both god hand and gunvalkyrie but with even less of a budget than either.
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If you hate this you’re gonna hate Dark Souls, and Rondo of Blood, and most well regarded classic video games. A surprise final attack is…a surprise final attack. It’s hardly a uniquely Kojima idea.
Like it sounds like you hate the way the game plays, you hate every surprise and novelty it has. You’re definitely not also going to like the actually objectionable stuff.
Like I am trying to be polite here because reading that I go “lol that rules.” Failure (in video games) is fun!
7 Likes
The first time i ever got owned by an exploding boss was playing deus ex as a kid and the MIBs that attack you at pauls apartment explode like a full second after they die so i was standing in the hallway and just got instagibbed by like two enormous explosions. Videogames rock
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even gemstone has a ‘parting shot’ mechanic! they’re the worst but only in an in-the-moment slam my fist way. every time i remember a boss blowing me up after i kill their ass i laugh
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the first time i played deus ex, i just beat the boss at the top of the statue of liberty with barely any health left. i wanted to be a cool action hero so smoked a cigarette to celebrate and the damage from the cigarette killed me
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Video Games Rock
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Kojima’s games are funny, but if you find that kind of humor irritating then I don’t think you’re going to think it was worth seeing any of these games through to the end.
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