Its a shame the frictional monster sucks so much
The saving grace of soma was when they patched in a for casuals mode that made the frictional monster harmless
I disliked Amnesia so much. The overwrought story, the pointless monster encounters, the terrible puzzles. I respect that it was like, horror movie style where the protagonists are truly helpless, but I was so not into it. It was scary for about 20 minutes.
2 Likes
All I’ve been playing recently is frickin Disgaea 4, which has stepped away from the Prinny Genocide angle and is now on an Overthrow the Government angle, which is…y’know, I have no opinion so far.
I’ve spent way more time in the item world than on the main story, because my rhythm with Disgaea is always Overlevel -> blast through 10-15 story missions until I hit any signs of resistance whatsoever -> repeat.
Valvatorez is extremely charming and this game is less horny than any of the other ones I have played, which is good!
Disgaea 1 still had the best item worlds though. They had so much variance in them, sometimes small little islands packed with weird shit, sometimes these sprawling plains of death, and sometimes literally impossible to clear. I can’t remember if Disgaea 2 cleaned them up but I know by Disgaea 4 they’re much more samey each level. Always these tiny little islands that feel kind of like perfect puzzles to complete, but never the ridiculous stupid crap from the first game.
I do appreciate the puzzley aspect of them though. Weirdly, going through the item worlds reminds me more of Into the Breach than any other strategy game. Like, somehow it’s the maximalist version of the “every turn has a perfect solution” feeling that Into the Breach has. Disgaea has 50,000 different numbers and things to take into account, yet it’s always an intriguing question of “What would be the perfect outcome of this turn?”
People always say that Disgaea is the kind of game people play because they like seeing numbers go up, but I think that’s reductive, at least for me. The numbers going up thing is definitely part of the draw, but there’s real joy in the freedom you have to approach the sometimes absurd situations that they throw at you.
Like, I think that Disgaea’s flavor is mostly a response to the fact that Item Worlds are often ridiculous! Especially in the first one, the biggest tool you have is picking up and throwing your own teammates, and I feel like this is a direct response to “we don’t know how to generate random worlds in a way that is always contiguous and possible to complete” but that total ridiculousness just keeps informing later design decisions.
My favorite exploit right now is this team attack functionality that you can put on up to two characters. So for example, If Good Guy A and B attack Bad Guy X, then Good Guys C and D (who have team attacks) will both attack Bad Guy X once for every time they were attacked by a unique good guy. In this case, C would attack twice, then D would attack 3 times (because of C’s attack), then C would attack again (because of D’s attack) for a total of 8 attacks. The best part is that this doesn’t even use their turn!! So you can move them around and have them do team attacks without even taking an action! It’s ridiculous
3 Likes
I also do not like amnesia but the lineage to all the best horror games of the past six or so years is very strong
I would state this more strongly, the environment design in Observer is impeccable but the story goes to absolutely stale cyberpunk cliche while Soma’s story is actually interesting. Taken as a whole Soma is the better game by far.
4 Likes
Literally why the fuck would you play Wow classic and not tell me about it so you could play with me on my server
Why the fuck
I tend (in all media, for longer than I’ve been aware of it to the point of being able to articulate it) to favour characters and spaces over broader stories, so I think it’s still down to preference as long as we can agree on their respective strengths!
I love good characterization plus nothing happening and I am happy to see this snob preference reflected back to me in vidcons of late
1 Like
My memory is hazy on Penumbra, the atmosphere is just as oppressive as the later games but is there a compelling story?
i keep thinking about picking up 4 or 5 on switch cause these are such good handheld games, but i also just want to put another 100hrs into 1.
The water monster in Amnesia was incredible and I can literally remember nothing else about the game
Happy to see the enthusiasm here for Disgaea 1
Want to temper my enthusiasm with “It’s very horny for characters that appear to be extremely underaged”
I love that game but
Jesus
3 Likes
I really liked them, almost more than the more polished Amnesia, but from what I remember everything interesting about the story is what goes unsaid, rather than what is said.
1 Like
not my fav halo but playing reach on pc this evening has been good shit
so why do you like numenera?
2 Likes
OWNED
2 Likes
Boy that Halo Reach audio is abysmal. They admitted they knew it was screwed up but “hoped” to patch it later and to release a blog about their “Reach audio jourrney” which lol what on earth? I don’t usually refund games but that really rubbed me the wrong way.
2 Likes
BLOOD AND SOULS!
Game seed: 17694410826513826885, levelgen mode: deterministic
1695360 Byc Odipsa the Champion of Chaos (level 27, 151/245 HPs)
Began as a Deep Dwarf Hunter on Nov 3, 2019.
Was the Champion of Makhleb.
Escaped with the Orb
... and 3 runes on Dec 2, 2019!
The game lasted 11:26:24 (77011 turns).
Byc Odipsa the Champion of Chaos (DDHu) Turns: 77011, Time: 11:26:25
Health: 151/245 AC: 32 Str: 24 XL: 27
Magic: 3/3 EV: 21 Int: 21 God: Makhleb [******]
Gold: 6373 SH: 0 Dex: 18 (19) Spells: 30/34 levels left
rFire + . . SeeInvis . a - +8 battleaxe (holy)
rCold + + . Gourm . (shield currently unavailable)
rNeg + + . Faith . H - +1 plate armour "Utsozeme" {rN+ Int+4 Slay+6}
rPois + Spirit . V - +2 helmet "Poworezy" {rF+ Int+5}
rElec + Reflect . i - +1 cloak "Ekosah" {Str+4}
rCorr + Harm . K - +2 pair of gloves of the Cast Vote {rC+ rCorr}
MR +++++ Rnd*Rage + F - +2 pair of boots {run}
Stlth ..........Rnd*Tele + q - necklace of Bloodlust {*Rage +Rage MR++ Int-3 Slay+6 *Curse} (curse)
HPRegen 0.00/turn t - ring of Equivalence {Dex+2 Slay+2}
MPRegen 0.08/turn d - ring "Bil Osuf" {rElec rPois rC+ Slay+2}
@: non-regenerating, hasted (expiring), very quick
A: damage resistance, heal wounds, camouflage 1, clumsy 1, deformed body,
deterioration 2, frail 1, negative energy resistance 1, sense surroundings 3,
teleportitis 1, subdued magic 2, no regeneration
0: Orb of Zot
}: 3/15 runes: decaying, silver, gossamer
a: Heal Wounds, Minor Destruction, Lesser Servant of Makhleb, Major Destruction,
Greater Servant of Makhleb, Renounce Religion, Evoke Berserk Rage
You escaped.
You worshipped Makhleb.
Makhleb was exalted by your worship.
You were completely stuffed.
You visited 13 branches of the dungeon, and saw 58 of its levels.
You visited the Abyss 2 times.
You visited 1 bazaar.
You also visited: Trove, Sewer, Ossuary and Desolation.
You collected 10002 gold pieces.
You spent 3629 gold pieces at shops.
+16 slaying!
That was good enough to let me be an absolute fool and fight orbs of fire in Zot with one rF+ and then waltz out without any real preparation.
4 Likes
I love this, this is the direct result of microsoft attempting to be more open and community oriented and the result is a professional culture that has never existed anywhere else on earth and nobody wants
2 Likes