Been watching playthrough a bit more
This thing reminds me a lot of Okami, albeit with far fewer NPCs
Ah that must’ve been it. I feel dumb not realizing the orange tinted ones were summoners but I never saw any movement/animation of the sort. Only more enemies caught up in Battle Tendency.
So I had complaints earlier about how useless a lot of your tools felt because of how heavy enemies tanked everything you did but I wanted to say that problem cleared up once I reached Alfheim, which is actually pretty early in the game if you don’t stop to explore every corner of the main hub area for side content like I did. It feels like from there enemy make-up gets more varied and balanced. I still fight a lot of guys who tank my hits; but instead of just The Light and Fast Guy, the Heavy Guy, and The Projectile Guy, there are now Flying Guys who come in different behavior and power types, and Underground Lizard Guys who can hide underground and come with different debuff effects, and Witch Guys who are giant pains in the butt, and so-on. They change the flow of combat considerably.
I felt like my complaints stopped there and the combat has only gotten better since. And I’m sure some of that is that I’ve just gotten better at the game itself but the different enemy types push you into leaning into particular kinds of moves and playstyles, and they help teach the uses of Kratos’ rather large and varied moveset. I think I was able to acquire new skills and abilities quicker than I was able to appreciate why they exist in the first place.
Edit: I made a video to show someone some of the more interesting environments I’ve been to and I might as well post it here as well. The art direction in this game is way, way more inspired and creative than I would have expected.
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I’m still exploring the rest of the game post-story and also partaking in some cool end-game stuff which basically amounts to gathering super rare materials in order to craft super awesome gear (or just upgrade my current gear which is already sufficiently awesome) so I can fight a special set of super powerful enemies (the Valkyries, who will literally stomp your face while shouting “Unworthy! Unworthy!” at you are until you just like Hurt. Me. More. I have been waiting for this pain etc.).
If you’re ever worried you might run out of things to fight or be challenged by, uh, don’t. You won’t.
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the many faces of norse mythology translated into a duology of Videogame Levels and Yes album artwork
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just watched the first human-sized-boss fight of this thing and i can’t believe that in the year of our lord 2k18 i’m itching so bad to play a god of war game
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Too bad the good God of War wasn’t the one set in India tho
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I just discovered the “real” fade-to-black-roll-credits ending. Had no idea there was an actual ending.
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odins gonna say perhaps the same could be said of all religions right
If DMC5 ever materializes, it’s got some heavy lifting to do.
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I like the name Dad of Boy for this game.
So does the next God of War, if there’s going to be one
Having a lot of fun thinking about a grizzled Dante and Son adventure, thank you
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It really could be the best next installment, there’s been plenty brotherly stuff and Uncle Dante
They just have to exchange heavy mood for deep rad.
I guess we could have real Dante school teenage/tweenage emo Dante
Dante Generations ala Fat/Skinny Sonic
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Dante’s Paternal
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more like Dad May Cry
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I just finished this a couple of hours ago, although there’s one side-quest and a couple of areas I still need to complete, which look like they might take me a while more.
I haven’t followed the press of the game much but my impression is that people have been calling it a masterpiece. I wouldn’t go that far but I think it’s strong action game overall. Story? Didn’t do too much for me, though I liked how understated it could get. The characters are about what you’d expect from their archetypes I don’t think it does anything you haven’t seen elsewhere, it’s just unexpected to see it coming from God of War.
Most of the time the game did not make me feel like I didn’t want to stop playing, or that I really wanted to turn the game back on when I got home; but it was always a comfortable thing to return to because it’s such a pleasant game to play. Your boat glides along the water at such a nice pace with a serene sloshing of the oars that I preferred taking the scenic route across the lake rather than fast travel, listening to the characters discuss the legends of the Norse gods and making dad jokes. The game just never seems to run out of stories to tell you on those boat rides and they do the brunt of the work in building the relationship between the main cast despite how optional they are.
The game’s combat is top notch. I had some complaints early on but once the enemy variety kicks in you can start recognizing just how well paced it is. It sits somewhere between the fast dodge-cancel heavy style of Platinum Games and the commitment focused styles of Dark Souls of Monster Hunter. You can cancel out of large portions of start-up animations but the aggressiveness of all enemies present in battle still forces you to consider the small moments you’re committing to the attacks. I really, really like how offensive the enemies are. You have to constantly maintain some awareness of what enemy types exist, where they’re standing, and what attack they look like they’re going to do. It’s a lot of to keep track of but the game gives you a ton of freedom in how you deal with them. You literally have dozens of attacks available during combat and yet they all feel useful.
You’ve got close range attacks, long range attacks, attacks for hitting large groups and small groups, attacks for dealing damage and for building stun, attacks for building elemental damage, attacks for getting enemies off you, attacks for distracting enemies, attacks for getting back in after a dodge and attacks for doing damage while retreating, attacks for causing hitstun and attacks for causing knockdowns and knock ups, attacks for freezing enemies in place and attacks for pinning enemies in walls, attacks for grabbing aerial enemies and attacks for pulling enemies off of the ground.
I don’t think that could have been achieved without how well paced the combat is. The game has a large variety of enemy types and it frequently switches up the kinds of enemies you’re encountering and the mix of enemies in any particular scenario. The enemy behaviors and weaknesses are varied enough that the game keeps you from getting complacent with a particular rhythm.
And beside that, the game knows when to stop the combat. The overall game flow is paced astonishingly well and keeps any particular moment from wearing out it’s welcome, weaving between combat encounters and light exploration/puzzle solving as rest periods. Emphasis on the light. Pathfinding is generally straight forward lines and the puzzles are usually just looking for the line of sight to throw your axe at something but they serve as nice breathers. The individual areas/“levels” vary in size and length but I rarely felt like they went on too long. The majority of the side content takes place in smaller 5-minute areas with particular gameplay themes but there are so many of them that you never get bored of any particular locale before you’re done and moving somewhere else. There are also several side-quests that have the content and design on par with the main story quests so little of the game’s side content feel like they’re just filler. Everything is fun to do.
Overall I’d definitely recommend this you want to play an action game. If you do the side stuff it’s really long too. There’s no time counter in-game but I’ve definitely put in tens of hours.
It’s also very pretty.
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