What's everyone playing?

[Signa]

Been playing Last Epoch lately, and on a while, I loaded up Sekiro yesterday. It's the only PC Fromsoft game I haven't beaten yet

 

[Vendor-Lazarus]

I've also tried Last Epoch. Shame that it's trash.

 

[WaluigiFan03]

Megaton Musashi, currently. Another excellent Level-5 title.

 

[Arnox]

Megaton Musashi, currently. Another excellent Level-5 title.

How does it compare against something like Armored Core?

 

[WaluigiFan03]

How does it compare against something like Armored Core?

Armored Core appears to have much stronger customization and graphical quality.
Gameplay-wise, it seems Megaton Musashi has more combat freedom from being a bit more melee-heavy and slower while my impressions of Armored Core make it seem more gun-heavy and faster.
Best comparison I can think of is like comparing Kingdom Hearts 2 to Yo-Kai Watch Busters or Snack World.

 

[Signa]

Finished Sekiro for the first time a couple weeks back. Took me 3 years of getting pissed at it before I finally had it click. Seriously, my first achievement is from Feb 2021. It absolutely boggles my mind how Fromsoft was able to design the game, because every new enemy feels different from every other, and understanding the flow of when to defend vs when to attack had to have been completely intentional. It's not like Dark Souls where enemies run up to you and execute an attack animation. It's almost like every foe is its own boss that you have to learn their moves to fight them the best.

Just chilling with Windwaker on an emulator right now. Graphics haven't aged a day in 22 years, but there's issues with unskippable dialogue that's been getting under my skin. I also feel like Link has almost no agency in his adventure and is just being shuffled around by all the other characters in the world. Knowing how it ends, that's not the most incongruent thing, but it's disappointing, because even in OoT, Link still is searching the kingdom for problems to solve and mcguffins to help in his quest. WW feels more like Link is waking up after long Uber rides and told to get out and grab a few things before returning for another unknown trip. Even when it opens up, it feels like the Uber driver is letting you drive his car so he can take a nap, and you still have to follow his rules.

 

[Arnox]

WW feels more like Link is waking up after long Uber rides and told to get out and grab a few things before returning for another unknown trip. Even when it opens up, it feels like the Uber driver is letting you drive his car so he can take a nap, and you still have to follow his rules.

Yeah even when it first came out, I never saw why people fell in love with WW. I think Twilight Princess was much more what I was expecting as a sequel to OoT, though TP does have its own problems sadly. Either way you slice it, sadly, no later LoZ ever really reached the heights that OoT did.

 

[Battousai]

Finished Sekiro for the first time a couple weeks back. Took me 3 years of getting pissed at it before I finally had it click.

I'm still on that grind, some bosses and enemies just piss me off and I take really long breaks before returning to it. Last time I played was in November last year. XD

 

[Signa]

I'm still on that grind, some bosses and enemies just piss me off and I take really long breaks before returning to it. Last time I played was in November last year. XD

Keep at it. Once it clicks, it's very rewarding. If a boss nukes your HP in one attack, then it's probably someone you need to come back to later. Also, I didn't understand Mikiri Counters at all, and they would work maybe 10% of the time. Turns out, it's practically a requirement to learn how to do them, and the game does an AWFUL job telling you how to perform them. I was doing them wrong most of the time.

Biggest rage-quit moments was Lady Butterfly, and then the Seven Spears of Ashina guy that standing outside the tower where you met Kuro in the tutorial. You go back there again later in the daylight, and that fucker was killing me for about 5 hours straight. Not only did I fight him too early, I was fighting him wrong. Also, don't fight undead unless you have Divine Confetti. You can farm it in the Dojo.

Also of note, there's a skill on the top tree on the first skill book that heals you on getting death blows. I think the game changes a LOT once you get that. Also, on the second skill book, there's two on the bottom that increase your flask healing. Also pretty critical once you earn more health.

Some enemies are better fought where you mostly defend. Others you have to put the pressure on relentlessly and recklessly so that they never start using their mid-ranged moveset on you.

 

[Battousai]

Keep at it. Once it clicks, it's very rewarding. If a boss nukes your HP in one attack, then it's probably someone you need to come back to later. Also, I didn't understand Mikiri Counters at all, and they would work maybe 10% of the time. Turns out, it's practically a requirement to learn how to do them, and the game does an AWFUL job telling you how to perform them. I was doing them wrong most of the time.

Biggest rage-quit moments was Lady Butterfly, and then the Seven Spears of Ashina guy that standing outside the tower where you met Kuro in the tutorial. You go back there again later in the daylight, and that fucker was killing me for about 5 hours straight. Not only did I fight him too early, I was fighting him wrong. Also, don't fight undead unless you have Divine Confetti. You can farm it in the Dojo.

Also of note, there's a skill on the top tree on the first skill book that heals you on getting death blows. I think the game changes a LOT once you get that. Also, on the second skill book, there's two on the bottom that increase your flask healing. Also pretty critical once you earn more health.

Some enemies are better fought where you mostly defend. Others you have to put the pressure on relentlessly and recklessly so that they never start using their mid-ranged moveset on you.

Lady Butterfly funnily enough took me like 4 tries but that was because I spent so much time traversing the game and killing other mini bosses that when I went to her I was fairly prepared. The spear guy outside the tower took me almost 2 years I shit you not and only because I sort of cheesed him after getting one death blow from stealth I used the flame vent prosthetic and oil vases so his hp kept going down steadily while I kept to the cliff side and he just kept circling me without being able to attack, once I ran out of emblems his hp was low enough and I went in for the kill.

I got so pissed off by some bosses that I went exploring the whole damn game as much as much as I could kill and unlock other stuff, as far as undead goes I killed 1 shichimen warrior so far with divine confetti since I got the air deathblow art its really easy when he jumps you can basically 1 shot him. I am still stuck on fucking Genichiro in Ashina castle hence I dropped the damn game so many months ago lol, it got extremely frustrating.

 

[Signa]

B

Lady Butterfly funnily enough took me like 4 tries but that was because I spent so much time traversing the game and killing other mini bosses that when I went to her I was fairly prepared. The spear guy outside the tower took me almost 2 years I shit you not and only because I sort of cheesed him after getting one death blow from stealth I used the flame vent prosthetic and oil vases so his hp kept going down steadily while I kept to the cliff side and he just kept circling me without being able to attack, once I ran out of emblems his hp was low enough and I went in for the kill.

I got so pissed off by some bosses that I went exploring the whole damn game as much as much as I could kill and unlock other stuff, as far as undead goes I killed 1 shichimen warrior so far with divine confetti since I got the air deathblow art its really easy when he jumps you can basically 1 shot him. I am still stuck on fucking Genichiro in Ashina castle hence I dropped the damn game so many months ago lol, it got extremely frustrating.

By the time I reached Genichro, I was starting to get the game a bit. I wouldn't say it "clicked" like I was told it would, but after fighting him for a few hours, I kinda knew the rhythm for countering him. Not going to say he was easy, but he was one of those fights that you just suddenly find yourself doing better on the more you play. My biggest problem with him was I could never react to his red kanji attacks with the correct button. Even when I knew which one he was going to do, I'd still press the wrong button for it.

Glad you finished off the spear guy, but in the end, he's a great practice for learning how to Mikiri. I still beat him right before learning it, because I had someone explain it fully for the ninja in the well near by. I'm going to try to convey it here, in case my wording makes it make more sense for you.

When you see the red kanji pop up, you're going to receive one of 3 attacks from your foe, and there's a rock-paper-scissors counter for each of them. Most enemies only have 2 of the 3 in their moveset (Genichiro has all 3, so yay to that...). If the enemy is doing a sweep attack, like spinning their sword around in a horizontal slash, you need to jump. Some sweeps are more of a dash attack that you'd think you'd just dodge out of the way like jumping away from a speeding bus, but the game treats it as a sweep, so you need to jump.

The second red kanji is the stab/thrust. Stabs can be anything, like a lunging kick, or, most often, a spear attack. What you need to do is press the dodge button and forward on the stick INTO the incoming attack. If you're too close, the game will treat it more as a dodge and circle, so it will make you try to flank the attacker. That's not what you want in this case. You want to be dodging as the attack lands on you, and then they take posture damage rather than you taking a bunch of HP damage.

The last attack is the grab, and you just need to get out of the way for that one. No hard counter to help you with that one.

From the start of playing Sekiro, I had a TON of problems with how I personally reacted to the game mechanics. Having just come from the Souls games, I'm used to there being stamina to prevent you from continually attacking and blocking. So when the posture bar would fill up, I would always break away from combat to let it recharge, just like stamina. That makes the game so much worse for you when you do that, because it gives your foe time to recover. Also, every time the red kanji shows up on my screen, that grabs my full attention, and I panic input, hoping to get something to happen. Since at that point I was no longer paying attention to the foe's animations, I wouldn't be able to predict which of the 3 types was about to hit me. So, I had to force myself to stop paying attention to my own posture bar, as well as try to not let the kanji grab my attention. After that, things started getting easier and easier for me until I had fun. Your posture is almost meaningless in the grand scheme of the game, and if you can still parry incoming attacks, it will never break anyway.

Edit: Oh yeah, Lady Butterfly. I beat her after much blood and tears, but I also did it as soon as the game could possibly let me. I hadn't even fought the guy on the horse yet. I didn't know that the game wanted me to be elsewhere instead, because I thought the problem was me being bad at the game, not that I was in an overleveled area.

 

[Battousai]

Edit: Oh yeah, Lady Butterfly. I beat her after much blood and tears, but I also did it as soon as the game could possibly let me. I hadn't even fought the guy on the horse yet. I didn't know that the game wanted me to be elsewhere instead, because I thought the problem was me being bad at the game, not that I was in an overleveled area.

Funnily enough I got extremely good at beating Gyobu Oniwa and his horse, really just stand there and block his attacks, he doesn't do that much posture damage and parrying him is fairly easy to read. Plus the firecrackers get the horse all spooked so its made even easier with that. Now the blazing bull that came right after was bullshit but in the end I did learn how to parry that bitch instead of running forever behind his ass and slowly doing damage.

 

[TheWhiteTigerGod]

Just finished up Tales of Zestiria and I liked it. The combat took a lot of getting used to, but once it clicked, battles became a lot more fun.

Currently going through Monster Hunter Stories 2 since it finally came to ps4 and I loved the first one on 3DS. I also play a bit of Fortnite, and Genshin Impact.

 

[Arnox]

Just finished up Tales of Zestiria and I liked it. The combat took a lot of getting used to, but once it clicked, battles became a lot more fun.

Currently going through Monster Hunter Stories 2 since it finally came to ps4 and I loved the first one on 3DS. I also play a bit of Fortnite, and Genshin Impact.

I got Tales of Vesperia on my modded Xbox 360 but I wonder if I'm going to be able to look past all the anime tropes. lol

 

[TheWhiteTigerGod]

From what I've seen, Tales games have some very dark undertones to balance out the goofier anime tropes. The one I played through had everything from child death, disease, war/politics, human sacrifice, and a bittersweet ending to wrap it all up in a melancholy bow. And that isn't even the darkest game in the series.

I have heard Vesperia is one of the better games from the Tales series, so I say go ahead and try it out. Worst case scenario you don't like it and you quit playing.

 

[LemonSquid]

I've been thinking about getting back into Project Reality again. I suck at it, but it's been the most fun tactical shooter I've played since the Socom days.

 

[Arnox]

I've been thinking about getting back into Project Reality again. I suck at it, but it's been the most fun tactical shooter I've played since the Socom days.

What is your take on Arma? Insurgency 1/2?

 

[LemonSquid]

What is your take on Arma? Insurgency 1/2?

I've never played them, actually. I know a lot of Socom guys mentioned Insurgency when it first came around, but I just didn't have time to get into it then and by the time I did, they weren't into it anymore. Arma has been a staple for years, but I just never gave it a chance. I want US Navy SEALs, dammit!

 

[Arnox]

I've never played them, actually. I know a lot of Socom guys mentioned Insurgency when it first came around, but I just didn't have time to get into it then and by the time I did, they weren't into it anymore. Arma has been a staple for years, but I just never gave it a chance. I want US Navy SEALs, dammit!

In that case, you may be interested in Rainbow Six 3.

 

[Houseman]

I've never played them, actually. I know a lot of Socom guys mentioned Insurgency when it first came around, but I just didn't have time to get into it then and by the time I did, they weren't into it anymore. Arma has been a staple for years, but I just never gave it a chance. I want US Navy SEALs, dammit!

Play Arma! Or wait until Arma 4. Guaranteed that SEALS will be there, even if it's in a mod. Arma modders create everything. You can find a role-playing group, a hard-core milsim group, just a casual group, and have hundreds or thousands of hours exploring the different ways of playing the game.

I have 1,844 hours myself, but that's nothing compared to other people.

I played PVP first, then tried out a few milsim servers where 200 people would do an operation. Then I played a few persistent base-building modes.
Nothing gets the adrenaline pumping like running into another player doing a mission in a persistent map, lying in wait to ambush them, and stealing their helicopter so you can sell it.

 

[Arnox]

Play Arma! Or wait until Arma 4. Guaranteed that SEALS will be there, even if it's in a mod. Arma modders create everything. You can find a role-playing group, a hard-core milsim group, just a casual group, and have hundreds or thousands of hours exploring the different ways of playing the game.

I have 1,844 hours myself, but that's nothing compared to other people.

I played PVP first, then tried out a few milsim servers where 200 people would do an operation. Then I played a few persistent base-building modes.
Nothing gets the adrenaline pumping like running into another player doing a mission in a persistent map, lying in wait to ambush them, and stealing their helicopter so you can sell it.

Damn, Houseman, I didn't know you were holding out on us with the Arma stories.

 

[LemonSquid]

Play Arma! Or wait until Arma 4. Guaranteed that SEALS will be there, even if it's in a mod. Arma modders create everything. You can find a role-playing group, a hard-core milsim group, just a casual group, and have hundreds or thousands of hours exploring the different ways of playing the game.

I have 1,844 hours myself, but that's nothing compared to other people.

I played PVP first, then tried out a few milsim servers where 200 people would do an operation. Then I played a few persistent base-building modes.
Nothing gets the adrenaline pumping like running into another player doing a mission in a persistent map, lying in wait to ambush them, and stealing their helicopter so you can sell it.

I read that as 'a hardcore Muslim group' and was trying to figure out why that would be a positive. Lol. But yeah, I'll certainly check it out. 1800 hours is nothing to sneeze at. I'll take a slow, tactical milsim over any run and gun game, and the older I get, the more true that becomes.