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  1. - Top - End - #751
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    Default Re: What are you playing 4: HD Remaster Gold Collector's Edition Thread of the Year

    One critique of PoE1 is that the setting is almost too cohesive.

    All the worldbuilding stuff is important basically immediately to understand why people are acting the way they are in the newbie town. Which makes the start quite impenetrable.

    I found it all much better on second and subsequent playthroughs when I had a much better handle on the world and the gods and how they interact.

  2. - Top - End - #752
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    Default Re: What are you playing 4: HD Remaster Gold Collector's Edition Thread of the Year

    I always meant to go back and play through Pillars 1 again but the ending just drug on for ages. Fighter was fun but I ended up using the Larder Door the entire game.
    I am trying out LPing. Check out my channel here: Triaxx2

  3. - Top - End - #753
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    Default Re: What are you playing 4: HD Remaster Gold Collector's Edition Thread of the Year

    Quote Originally Posted by Wookieetank View Post
    App points are pretty generous, between 10 at every level up and the variable amounts from dead hunters, I never found myself really hurting for points to unlock what I needed. I'm working on new game+ and still haven't gotten everything unlocked yet though.

    Naverre is ridiculously useful, particularly for boss fights. Using him for buffs frees up your skills for damage ones, and you can just jump into dishing out the pain without having to manually buff. I'd use Asahi or one of the other healers for the dungeons for free heals, and then swap for the boss.
    It's less not having the App Points (the only other thing rivaling Demon Skill+s are the MP recovery line) and more not having the option to buy the Apps. It's strange, I've had access to mid level spells for several levels despite not having reached the second proper dungeon, but I've only got access to Nanashi Skill+1 and Demon Skill+1.

    And yeah, Naverre's buffs are incredibly useful, but I'd kind of wish that when using attack stones he'd use the ones that hot weaknesses, especially as I had been hitting it for several rounds already. I certainly don't want him most of the time, but for bosses he's pretty invaluable.
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    Quote Originally Posted by Zelphas View Post
    So here I am, trapped in my laboratory, trying to create a Mechabeast that's powerful enough to take down the howling horde outside my door, but also won't join them once it realizes what I've done...twentieth time's the charm, right?
    Quote Originally Posted by Lord Raziere View Post
    How about a Jovian Uplift stuck in a Case morph? it makes so little sense.

  4. - Top - End - #754
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    Default Re: What are you playing 4: HD Remaster Gold Collector's Edition Thread of the Year

    Quote Originally Posted by Anonymouswizard View Post
    It's less not having the App Points (the only other thing rivaling Demon Skill+s are the MP recovery line) and more not having the option to buy the Apps. It's strange, I've had access to mid level spells for several levels despite not having reached the second proper dungeon, but I've only got access to Nanashi Skill+1 and Demon Skill+1.
    Yeah the game is odd about when the apps show up. I think a fair share unlock after the 2nd dungeon, so you're close to them at least.
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    Quote Originally Posted by kpenguin View Post
    This is an image of Wookietank the Destroyer of Fortresses engraved in sandstone. Wookietank the Destroyer of Fortresses is leaving Trotknives. Trotknives is on fire and full of goblins. This image refers to the destruction of Trotknives in late winter of 109 by Wookietank the Destroyer of Fortresses.

  5. - Top - End - #755
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    Default Re: What are you playing 4: HD Remaster Gold Collector's Edition Thread of the Year

    Quote Originally Posted by Triaxx View Post
    I always meant to go back and play through Pillars 1 again but the ending just drug on for ages. Fighter was fun but I ended up using the Larder Door the entire game.
    Due to the way item enchantment works, you can quite happily get an early game piece of gear and keep it relevant throughout the game by adding quality enchantments.

    I tend to play as a Paladin and I use the Paladin only shield you buy in Gilded Vale for the whole game (the one with a +5 defence aura).

  6. - Top - End - #756
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    Default Re: What are you playing 4: HD Remaster Gold Collector's Edition Thread of the Year

    Quote Originally Posted by GloatingSwine View Post
    One critique of PoE1 is that the setting is almost too cohesive.

    All the worldbuilding stuff is important basically immediately to understand why people are acting the way they are in the newbie town. Which makes the start quite impenetrable.

    I found it all much better on second and subsequent playthroughs when I had a much better handle on the world and the gods and how they interact.
    My memory was that it had a lot of interesting worldbuilding, but it took me most of the game to get a handle on it, and it just wasn't quite interesting enough to stick in my head after four years between games.

    I can appreciate they didn't have you start as an amnesiac or have people do constant "As you Know..." dialogue, but the game just seemed bad at lowering you in gently to the lore. I'm enjoying PoE 2 so far, and it's making me a bit tempted now to go replay the first one.

    Thank you for the summary, I'm at least to the point where I feel like I've got a handle on what's going on.

  7. - Top - End - #757
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    Default Re: What are you playing 4: HD Remaster Gold Collector's Edition Thread of the Year

    Level 25, about 8-9 hours in to SMT3. I'm wondering if I should stop it there and wait for the remaster, because I'm wondering if that might fix some of the niggles I have with the game--at least, the frankly insane encounter rate, and maybe they might also let you see the stats of an enemy you've analyzed before without having to waste a turn casting Analyze again.

  8. - Top - End - #758
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    Default Re: What are you playing 4: HD Remaster Gold Collector's Edition Thread of the Year

    Quote Originally Posted by factotum View Post
    Level 25, about 8-9 hours in to SMT3. I'm wondering if I should stop it there and wait for the remaster, because I'm wondering if that might fix some of the niggles I have with the game--at least, the frankly insane encounter rate, and maybe they might also let you see the stats of an enemy you've analyzed before without having to waste a turn casting Analyze again.
    You're sure this series is for you?

    Okay, the latter might be fixed, they do let you see analysed stats without a spell in IV, although you have to beat or recruit said demon to analyse them. But if they got rid of the first then you might survive new areas.
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    Quote Originally Posted by Zelphas View Post
    So here I am, trapped in my laboratory, trying to create a Mechabeast that's powerful enough to take down the howling horde outside my door, but also won't join them once it realizes what I've done...twentieth time's the charm, right?
    Quote Originally Posted by Lord Raziere View Post
    How about a Jovian Uplift stuck in a Case morph? it makes so little sense.

  9. - Top - End - #759
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    Default Re: What are you playing 4: HD Remaster Gold Collector's Edition Thread of the Year

    Quote Originally Posted by Anonymouswizard View Post
    You're sure this series is for you?
    Yes, I am quite sure, thank you for asking in such a patronising way. The main problem I have with the encounter rate is its entirely random nature--as I said earlier, why is it that sometimes I can wander around for ages and get maybe a single encounter with a single monster, then other times I get multiple encounters in quick succession, even if I'm in the same area? This is particularly irritating if what I'm trying to do is get to a terminal so I can teleport to a life fountain to top everyone up. Oh, and the fact "Retreat" from battle can sometimes fail is just as annoying and unnecessary as it was in Persona 1 when I played that...I wouldn't be trying to retreat in the first place unless I either thought the battle was unwinnable or I needed to be somewhere in a hurry!

    Anyway, the release date for the remaster has actually been confirmed as 25th May now, so I'm shelving the emulated playthrough and will try that when it's out. For now I've gone back to Yakuza: Like a Dragon, which I put on hold when P5 Strikers came out.

  10. - Top - End - #760
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    Default Re: What are you playing 4: HD Remaster Gold Collector's Edition Thread of the Year

    Quote Originally Posted by factotum View Post
    Level 25, about 8-9 hours in to SMT3. I'm wondering if I should stop it there and wait for the remaster, because I'm wondering if that might fix some of the niggles I have with the game--at least, the frankly insane encounter rate, and maybe they might also let you see the stats of an enemy you've analyzed before without having to waste a turn casting Analyze again.
    Wouldn't hold my breath on that. Last I heard all they changed in the remaster was some graphics, voice acting, the addition of an easy mode, and the choose fusion skills patch. Everything else about the game has been left untouched. Though if you want to check for yourself I would just look up reviews on youtube about the nocturne remaster, its been out in japan for quite a while now so there should be plenty of information on the improvements or the lack of them.

  11. - Top - End - #761
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    Default Re: What are you playing 4: HD Remaster Gold Collector's Edition Thread of the Year

    Quote Originally Posted by factotum View Post
    Yes, I am quite sure, thank you for asking in such a patronising way.
    Sorry, it wasn't meant to be patronising, more 'mainline MegaTen is annoying and unfair by design, not liking those aspects is fine but rereleases are unlikely to change those aspects'. I actually like the more random nature of encounters in Nocturne/Lucifer's Call, and the idea of it being changed in a remake rubs me the wrong way.


    Finally ready to fight this giant snake thing properly in IV, I've got the sword of stabbing, the detectimabob, and I've got many demons with Rakakaja and Sukukaja to reduce incoming damage. It's also taken until the 30s, but splitting my stat investments into Strength, Agility, and Luck has paid off because I'm now landing semi-reliable critical hits on anything not resistant to physical damage (which is rare and I believe almost exclusively normal enemies). At this point most significant difficulty seems to have disappeared, I'm not even having to fuse specialised teams just make sure that I don't go into boss fights with demons weak to the boss's attacks (and with Medusa that didn't even matter, I beat her in about four rounds).

    Having unlocked Demon Skill+2 the game feels vastly better. I'm still having to get rid of skills I want, but I'm much happier with the skill distributions that get created as a result.I really don't get why the game put the skill limits in there in the first place.

    As to the story, I like the plot beats and characters so far except for Asahi. She's just annoying, and makes me wish that the game had stayed with the older design for Nanashi, insteading of changing it to aim at a slightly younger demographic. But as it is Asahi is just Isabeau without the professionalism that made me like her, and a tendency to make things drag by being shocked by things the plot had established over ten hours ago. Maybe she gets better later on, but I wish she'd just leave the party.
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    Quote Originally Posted by Zelphas View Post
    So here I am, trapped in my laboratory, trying to create a Mechabeast that's powerful enough to take down the howling horde outside my door, but also won't join them once it realizes what I've done...twentieth time's the charm, right?
    Quote Originally Posted by Lord Raziere View Post
    How about a Jovian Uplift stuck in a Case morph? it makes so little sense.

  12. - Top - End - #762
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    Default Re: What are you playing 4: HD Remaster Gold Collector's Edition Thread of the Year

    Quote Originally Posted by Anonymouswizard View Post
    As to the story, I like the plot beats and characters so far except for Asahi. She's just annoying, and makes me wish that the game had stayed with the older design for Nanashi, insteading of changing it to aim at a slightly younger demographic. But as it is Asahi is just Isabeau without the professionalism that made me like her, and a tendency to make things drag by being shocked by things the plot had established over ten hours ago. Maybe she gets better later on, but I wish she'd just leave the party.
    This seems to be a standard character type for a lot of SMT games I feel; Strange Journey has Zelenin, Devil Survivor has Yuzu, and Digital Devil Saga has Argilla (that's just off the top off my head, I'm sure there's more). I get that they're going for a character struggling to come to grips with the new normal, but the way its written is needlessly damsel in distress. Isabeau is sadly a bit of an outlier, and I would happily take more characters like her.
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    Quote Originally Posted by kpenguin View Post
    This is an image of Wookietank the Destroyer of Fortresses engraved in sandstone. Wookietank the Destroyer of Fortresses is leaving Trotknives. Trotknives is on fire and full of goblins. This image refers to the destruction of Trotknives in late winter of 109 by Wookietank the Destroyer of Fortresses.

  13. - Top - End - #763
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    Default Re: What are you playing 4: HD Remaster Gold Collector's Edition Thread of the Year

    Quote Originally Posted by Wookieetank View Post
    This seems to be a standard character type for a lot of SMT games I feel; Strange Journey has Zelenin, Devil Survivor has Yuzu, and Digital Devil Saga has Argilla (that's just off the top off my head, I'm sure there's more). I get that they're going for a character struggling to come to grips with the new normal, but the way its written is needlessly damsel in distress. Isabeau is sadly a bit of an outlier, and I would happily take more characters like her.
    Sadly I never got a working disc for Digital Devil Saga, and Devil Survivor was something I never imported (unlike the sequel, and I haven't picked up the rerelease of either yet). I can't remember who got the role in Devil Survivor 2, I think it was Io but the relative shortness of dialogue in that game and presence of one on one scenes helped make it not as annoying.

    I had issues with Strange Journey, I love the game but I'm not a massive fan od square by square dungeon crawlers, so I haven't quite got to Zelenin yet. And in Nocturne the character with the role didn't appear in every single scene.

    Asahi just annoys me more, at least partially because of them trying to cram 'glory seeker', 'sweet little sister' and 'can't cope with this' all into one character, and it shows. I feel like they either needed to go for two characters here or give Nanashi more clear characterisation, it feels weird to have her switch from 'oh we're not doing enough important stuff' to 'ah, something slightly out of the ordinary I must be shocked'. It might not have rubbed me the wrong way so much if twice her being shocked hadn't got in the way of me saving so I could go and do more important things. But yeah, if I was editing this story I'd have brought one of the other party members in earlier and given some of her traits to them (and also aged Nanashi and Asahi up by about four years).
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    Quote Originally Posted by Zelphas View Post
    So here I am, trapped in my laboratory, trying to create a Mechabeast that's powerful enough to take down the howling horde outside my door, but also won't join them once it realizes what I've done...twentieth time's the charm, right?
    Quote Originally Posted by Lord Raziere View Post
    How about a Jovian Uplift stuck in a Case morph? it makes so little sense.

  14. - Top - End - #764
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    Default Re: What are you playing 4: HD Remaster Gold Collector's Edition Thread of the Year

    Messed around in the Outriders demo last night for a bit. I didn't get super far into it, since it was late, and was rather exhausted due to an 8.5 mile run through every thornbush in the state, but my impressions were reasonably favorable.

    The story kicks off with you landing on an alien world. Apparently humanity totally wrecked the Earth, and you plus everybody in the colony ship are all that's left of the species. The first part of the game does a moderately good job of actually engaging with this premise, with characters being both horrified at what they left behind, feeling at least a bit of guilt over surviving in the first place, wonder at the entirely non-wrecked planet, and trepidation that they'll just ruin this one too. This isn't very deep engagement with any of these ideas, bit it's there, and decently done.

    Then things go sideways, some magic videogame weather happens, and it turns out a group of super-paranoid trigger-happy survivors of a dying hell-planet may not be the best decision makers. There's some shooting, you end up getting stuck back in cryo for 31 years, and waking up to find that things are now a total mess. All the colonists have landed, but the magic videogame weather means all the non-gun technology is cooked, nobody can leave the valley, there isn't enough food and so everybody spends their time murdering each other in classic videogame apocalypse fashion. Also the magic videogame weather has given you superpowers because of course it has.

    Overall it reminds me a bit of Mass Effect Andromeda, except good. Being a shooter first and foremost, the talky bits don't drag on and on and on and at no point did some rando NPC in a conference room tell me to go get yammered at by another NPC in a different conference room. It also seems to have a theme going about humanity not changing and how this is actually not a good thing, which it develops in a pretty consistent way through both the writing and visuals.

    Anyway, I'm sure this will all be pretty immediately set aside in favor of meatheads shooting each other so they can find pants that grant +5% reload speed, and honestly that's ok too. If I wanted an engaging and philosophically complex story I wouldn't be playing a videogame. The shooting feels good, and the superpowers are fun enough. In a touch of somebody actually doing game design, health regen is tied to your powerset. I went with pyromancer, so I regen health by setting dudes on fire then killing them. Based on the descriptions, other classes regen by killing dudes in a certain proximity, or other methods.
    Blood-red were his spurs i' the golden noon; wine-red was his velvet coat,
    When they shot him down on the highway,
    Down like a dog on the highway,
    And he lay in his blood on the highway, with the bunch of lace at his throat.


    Alfred Noyes, The Highwayman, 1906.

  15. - Top - End - #765
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    Default Re: What are you playing 4: HD Remaster Gold Collector's Edition Thread of the Year

    Okay, when I went to explore an ancient pyramid I raised from the desert with the power of an earth elemental, a disco party with forty faceless Toads and a giant hole-punch is very much not what I thought I was getting into. But that is not a complaint.

    Yeah, I think I'm roughly halfway through Origami King, and quite liking it so far. It is ridiculously easy, but damn if there isn't plenty of creativity and fun to it.
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    "When I was ten, I read fairy tales in secret and would have been ashamed if I had been found doing so. Now that I am fifty, I read them openly. When I became a man, I put away childish things, including the fear of childishness and the desire to be very grown up." -C.S. Lewis

  16. - Top - End - #766
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    Default Re: What are you playing 4: HD Remaster Gold Collector's Edition Thread of the Year

    Recently picked up a copy of Vermintide 2, was on sale for 75% off.

    Looking into it, seems like it's basically Borderlands mixed with Left 4 Dead, with the difficulty ceiling dialed to 11.

    Was doing some research to figure out what I should be paying attention to, and everyone in your party should have some kind of soft role in what they should be focusing on, you can spend stamina by blocking attacks or by shoving enemies to stagger them, staggered enemies take more damage and certain talents enhance the bonus damage on staggered targets or cause enemies to become more staggered, so you build your talents around those roles, and you gotta pay attention to ammo since it's a very finite resource and prioritize on using it on special enemies that are a threat amidst the hordes, and...

    Like damn. Haven't even played the game yet and it already seems intense.
    Last edited by Man_Over_Game; 2021-03-23 at 05:08 PM.
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    MOG, design a darn RPG system. Seriously, the amount of ideas I’ve gleaned from your posts has been valuable. You’re a gem of the community here.

    5th Edition Homebrewery
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    Adrenaline Surge, fitting Short Rests into combat to fix bosses/Short Rest Classes.
    Pain, using Exhaustion to make tactical martial combatants.
    Fate Sorcery, lucky winner of the 5e D&D Subclass Contest VII!

  17. - Top - End - #767
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    Default Re: What are you playing 4: HD Remaster Gold Collector's Edition Thread of the Year

    Got the kids a switch for their birthday (4 and 6, but otherwise 6 days apart). Picked up Mario Maker 2, Mario + Rabbids: Kingdom Battle, and Stencil Art (which was like $2, and looked good for the 4 year old). Mario Kart is on the way.
    The Cranky Gamer
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    Default Re: What are you playing 4: HD Remaster Gold Collector's Edition Thread of the Year

    Quote Originally Posted by Mark Hall View Post
    Got the kids a switch for their birthday (4 and 6, but otherwise 6 days apart). ... Mario + Rabbids: Kingdom Battle...
    I have that one. Like XCOM for kids, but it promotes a lot of mobility and aggressive play (since you can get a lot of combos and extra mobility with your melee attacks), so it felt like a lot of fun.

    The driving portion of Mario Kart was fun, but what really hit home were the party games. Cops and Robbers is crazy fun.

    I'd also recommend Mario Party. They added a lot of complexity to the game that makes it engaging for folks who would previously get bored. Like how every character can choose to roll their 1d6 or their unique die that has changed values.

    My personal favorite has been Wario, who has 2 faces be [Move 0, lose 2 coins] and 4 faces that are [Move 6], which allows me to not only trade my gold for movement, but it also guarantees me to move either 0 (good if I like the space I'm on and want to land on it again) or 6 (which is generally the largest amount of distance you can move from a die).

    You can also pick up allies through a match, which passively add 1 or 2 spaces to each of your rolls, but also lets you choose their unique die (so if you have Wario as an ally, you get +1/+2 spaces and can choose to use either yours or his unique die or the 1d6).

    They also added a cooperative 4 player game where you're using the remotes to paddle your sides of a boat, trying to dodge obstacles through coordination, and picking up powerups that pause the boat ride to have everyone play a minigame for a boost.

    Good fun all around.
    Last edited by Man_Over_Game; 2021-03-23 at 05:43 PM.
    Quote Originally Posted by KOLE View Post
    MOG, design a darn RPG system. Seriously, the amount of ideas I’ve gleaned from your posts has been valuable. You’re a gem of the community here.

    5th Edition Homebrewery
    Prestige Options, changing primary attributes to open a world of new multiclassing.
    Adrenaline Surge, fitting Short Rests into combat to fix bosses/Short Rest Classes.
    Pain, using Exhaustion to make tactical martial combatants.
    Fate Sorcery, lucky winner of the 5e D&D Subclass Contest VII!

  19. - Top - End - #769
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    Default Re: What are you playing 4: HD Remaster Gold Collector's Edition Thread of the Year

    Quote Originally Posted by Man_Over_Game View Post
    I'd also recommend Mario Party. They added a lot of complexity to the game that makes it engaging for folks who would previously get bored. Like how every character can choose to roll their 1d6 or their unique die that has changed values.

    My personal favorite has been Wario, who has 2 faces be [Move 0, lose 2 coins] and 4 faces that are [Move 6], which allows me to not only trade my gold for movement, but it also guarantees me to move either 0 (good if I like the space I'm on and want to land on it again) or 6 (which is generally the largest amount of distance you can move from a die).

    You can also pick up allies through a match, which passively add 1 or 2 spaces to each of your rolls, but also lets you choose their unique die (so if you have Wario as an ally, you get +1/+2 spaces and can choose to use either yours or his unique die or the 1d6).

    They also added a cooperative 4 player game where you're using the remotes to paddle your sides of a boat, trying to dodge obstacles through coordination, and picking up powerups that pause the boat ride to have everyone play a minigame for a boost.

    Good fun all around.
    Super Mario Party is fun, though very short on maps compared to older games. Also, Daisy and Shy Guy's special dice are OP. (The former gets three 3s and three 4s, the latter one 0 and five 4s. Consistency like that is a huge boon in a game as RNG-heavy as Mario Party.)

    And it continues to amaze me that Nintendo still hasn't made a game for that series that can be played online. It's a great multiplayer game, but these days being local multiplayer only is bizarre and kind of a hindrance (especially this past year).
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    "When I was ten, I read fairy tales in secret and would have been ashamed if I had been found doing so. Now that I am fifty, I read them openly. When I became a man, I put away childish things, including the fear of childishness and the desire to be very grown up." -C.S. Lewis

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    Default Re: What are you playing 4: HD Remaster Gold Collector's Edition Thread of the Year

    So I've managed finish the Ace Attorney series.....

    Spoiler: My Opinions, spoilers for the whole series of course
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    Games:
    1st Game:
    Pretty solidly sets up all the others, walking so that others can run. Introduces how detail oriented these games are, how smart the antagonists have to be, and the themes of truth setting you free as well as the theme of people often being controlled by others lies with Miles Edgeworth, being the first of many to change because a trial bringing things to light and starting off Phoenix's career with a bang as he takes down the 40 year long career of a corrupt prosecutor and save Miles from becoming like him......which involves making a literal parrot testify.

    2nd Game:
    Introduces the Magatama, which helps sell it by fixing a problem Phoenix has by giving him the slightest power up possible, allowing him to see when people are lying and enabling him to do his usual thing to get through it. At the same time, its the very game that showed how even the Magatama can fail and trap Phoenix in a situation where his client is actually guilty for once and thus have to play stall-ball with Miles, constantly serving their accusations back and forth long as possible, until he can be brought to justice while saving Maya's life. one of my favorite cases in Ace Attorney because its all about being trapped in dilemma that needs a lot of shenanigans to get out of because there is no clear answer to it on the surface.

    3rd Game:
    A good finish to the original Ace attorney trilogy. the fact that Phoenix somehow exorcises a ghost from somebody through nothing but cross-examination is just awesome, and the whole complicated aspect of what shenanigans can occur when like three spirit mediums are running around doing things at cross-purposes to one another is just fascinating to see how it can quickly make the final case the most complicated one of them all.

    4th Game:
    Pretty good, it made sense to make Apollo the protagonist for this, and it allow Ace attorney to remain fresh....but it it is the weakest of all the games in my opinion. I just feel like all the games before and after this one was better done.

    5th Game:
    Is just outright better than the 4th game and just refines everything 4 was doing while adding Athena who I really like. all the first look at 3D Ace Attorney with updated music is just so good.

    6th Game:
    I like this, but not as much as the 5th game, I think. There are some things that I think 5 just did better. Don't get me wrong, overthrowing a monarch and expanding the whole spirit medium lore is great, but 5's ending was just much better executed in my mind.

    Miles Edgeworth Games:
    Changes things up by turning it into this adventure game where you actually walk around and turns the logical puzzle parts up to eleven by having to form logical connections to make it all work. Miles Edgeworth makes a great protagonist who actually thinks through his actions and is something I'd like see to more of in fiction. We get too many protags like Phoenix Wright. both of them some of my favorite installments in the franchise, as I don't recall either of them being particularly supernatural in nature despite their ridiculousness

    -Characters:
    Phoenix Wright:
    everyman hero lawyer. Is a great guy and smarter than most heroes in fiction, so I like him. He clearly has this mentor and experienced aura to him in later installments that show how far he has come.

    Maya:
    kinda vanilla. she is okay, but I personally don't see why people would like her so much, when so many character made after her are better.

    Mia:
    she's weird, because she is set up as this badass lawyer mentor....then she dies right in the next case and keeps coming back to help sometimes. she's cool but personally I feel she was killed off too early if they were just going to bring back so often.

    Pearl:
    adorable and lovable. if anything happened to her I would murder everyone.

    Apollo:
    he is also okay. he is just......meh to me.

    Athena:
    Best defense girl. has the best expressions, great if not best backstory, methods of finding the truth, and she is just fun in all the right ways. I honestly prefer her over Apollo or Maya.

    Gumshoe:
    I'm actually disappointed that he is no longer around in later games. after a while he just seemed to be apart of the experience so to speak. Ema Skye is cool and all but, nothing was ever quite the same without this guy screwing things up.

    Prosecutors:
    Miles Edgeworth:
    best prosecutor, hands down. has no gimmick, understands what finding the truth just as well if not better than Phoenix does, uses nothing but logic to do his job, and is so good he got two of his own games. just awesome and deserves all the hype he gets whenever he shows up.

    Franciska Von karma:
    best whip girl. she was a great antagonist for the second game, her motivations make sense, and she just has this Vegeta-like energy about her that while its clear she is a jerk you wouldn't want to meet, she is still a fun character whose jerkishness lends them their own jerk-ego charisma, and clearly does have, or grows to have standards that her old man did not, and does actually care about doing her job right to an extent even if she also is prideful to a fault. and her implied relationship with Adrian Andrews makes me happy, because they're perfect for each other in my opinion.

    Prosecutor Godot:
    Honestly, a step down from the first two in my opinion. I get it, he isn't an ace prosecutor or anything, you can't produce perfection three times in a row, he is simply out for misplaced revenge, he is different for good reason, and he has a sad story to him, he is a good character but his long meanderings about coffee metaphors just make him a bit tedious to sit through and he just comes off as more weird than intimidating, he just doesn't have the right stuff to be a prosecutor and while that may be the intention, eeeehh....

    Klavier Gavin:
    and this guy? Eh. I mean he's fine? but all he's got is like, being a rockstar and pretty. Godot at least was something unusual and strange. Klavier's just the "X and a rockstar!" cliche in prosecutor form, while being a little TOO fair and good, should've been a little more jerkish.

    Simon Blackquill:
    Now this guy, right mix of intimidating, jerk, interesting for his role to paly with Athena's backstory and sympathetic, while also being funny at times to be a good AA prosecutor. like he is just the right mix to be the prosecutor you want to face in Ace Attorney without being Franciska or Miles. but given he is the last example of this and kind of third place, guess it was never meant to last.

    Nahyuta Sahdmahdi:
    Worst prosecutor. screw this guy. don't care how good he is, he's still a huge insufferable jerk who either got way into his mask or gave up. but at least he was satisfying to see defeated.

    Villains:
    Larry Butz:
    Yeah yeah, you can say he isn't really a villain, but given how many times he comes up and just causes trouble without any real reason for why he is friends with anyone, when he is more like this living annoying obstacle or nuisance that makes life harder for everyone for no reason, he is a minor villain in my eyes because he never truly changes for the better, and just makes things worse no matter how comedically foolish he is. I did not miss him when the series when into its second trilogy.

    Manfred Von Karma:
    strict, corrupt, and gave off an air of menace, he was the exact kind of difficult to crack nut that he was meant to be, and the exact kind of screwed up jerk that deserved justice for what he done.

    Matt Engarde:
    Yeah this guy was a real piece of work. The fact that he foiled the magatama with a technical truth without knowing what the magatama even is, was impressive. he was a villain that managed to make a situation where Phoenix would lose if he took either of the obvious options, and it was real satisfying to see it get turned around him so that he is placed in a situation where he is screwed no matter whether he is found Innocent OR Guilty.

    Dahlia Hawthorne:
    completely and utterly contemptible for all the things she has done. from the first appearance with her seemingly too good to be true smile and way of speaking you know she is up to no good, a villain that I love to hate, because she is just so underhanded, deceitful and at times petty yet so good at putting up this charming facade that makes you hate her even more in a completely intentional way, because you know at least one person who got killed because of those deadly charms. great villain, notable for not being particularly rich or powerful, and somehow being a threat even after she died.

    Kristoph Gavin:
    this guy is twisted too, he is pompous, elitist, thinking he is fancy when he is just smug, and is the guy that managed to screw over Phoenix's career for seven years....but to be honest....he doesn't really have much of a backstory, and his black psyche-locks were put on him before the creators really what to do with them because they were never broken seemingly. I think its just one of the things that make the 4th game weaker.

    Florent L'belle:
    One of the better minor villains, he is a basically flamboyant narcissistic joker looking weirdo who is so vain that he makes a hair product line to advertise so everyone knows how awesome it is.....but not to actually sell any of it because he wants it all to himself, its just to proclaim how fabulous he is to everyone else and how this breakdown in logic leads him to committing a crime because of the resulting debts. Even more hilariously, the hair products clearly got picked up a company actually interested in making a profit when he got imprisoned, because Spirit of Justice has someone use a L'belle hair product in Khura'in for a disguise.

    the phantom:
    A great villain. a person without identity or emotions who can imitate anyone being brought down because of the slight mistakes he made and and being a good demonstration of someone who has something truly psychologically wrong with them to back it up that makes him truly disturbing when he starts breaking down and being unable to properly coordinate his deceptions because of his own hollow nature.

    Roger Retinz:
    a sleazy reality tv show producer who turns into a vengeful magician, he is notable for just being such a scumbag that he could've taken out the whole Wright law offices in one shot to show how modern society can be unfair in its own way compared to Khura'in's injustice.

    Ga'ran:
    the final villain. admittedly she kind of cheats with having the power to just rewrite laws however she wants. but to be fair, it is the ultimate foe for someone who has to fight within the laws rules- so of course, she had to be beaten by proving her very claim to power invalid, clever. though her changing so early in the trial gives away her villainy, they could've waited longer, so she isn't the best of them all. and taking down a tyrannical monarch with nothing but wits and legal knowledge is pretty awesome by itself.

    Conclusion:
    Ace Attorney is a great series, and I'm not surprised why they haven't made anymore games after Spirit of Justice, because where do you possibly go after taking down a tyrant of a minor nation? The series is real creative with its villains and intricate mysteries, as well as being consistently funny because of its many odd or outrageous characters, at the same time not shying away from a lot of this stuff hitting hard on people and those who commit these crimes being very twisted individuals who aren't always what you expect, the final villain of Edgeworth's second game is particularly left field being some clownish animal tamer who somehow masterminded almost every crime in the game somehow despite being some poor bit or comic relief character up until the reveal. and there is no way your guessing for this or that case the real culprit is a rapping fish-feeder, a kind man in a wheel chair or a sleepy flight attendant. its a series that constantly plays with your expectations and tries to make you figure out what is actually logical amid all the nonsense, false accusations and murky evidence.

    At the same it maintains a sense of fun, by making you go to the most outlandish and weird situations you can possibly logically conceive of, or cross-examine a parrot or an orca, or having to deal with colorful characters like a puppeteer comedian who is too into his act, or two magician girls who are twins, or any number of other crazy people.

    Its a series that manages to stand out because its intelligent yet light-hearted, and I see why people like it. its at times ridiculous, sad, triumphant, heartwarming, scary and so on. sometimes it can be a bit much about building up its drama and saying unnecessary lines when it really should just get on with it, but its not always bad, it just gets tedious at times when every character feels like they need to chip in how screwed you are when someone needs to submit evidence. its a minor thing compared to the fantastic payoffs that comes from seeing the breakdowns unfold.

    It goes into what justice really means, what it means to find the truth, what it means to defend someone and prove their innocence, and how often that justice can be denied or never reached with how many things that can make a case murky and uncertain, or how initial circumstances can make it look real bad for someone if they didn't have anyone to defend them. Though considering the biggest joke and enemy of the series is the legal system itself and how ridiculous it be at times, it can also make one thankful that real legal systems aren't this in a hurry to "get results", because thats arguably the one biggest break from reality this series has aside from the spirit magic or super senses: the short amount of time these trials take place. if Phoenix Wright simply had more time to consider the possibilities and investigate, it wouldn't nearly be as dramatic, tense or full of delightful absurdities or convoluted scenarios detailing.

    Overall it was a fun experience to go through all these games. technically they're visual novels, but I didn't know where else to put this. I wouldn't mind more in the future, but I'm happy with what we got. Phoenix Wright and his friends and allies are heroes of smarts and wits in the best way, living in a setting where those traits are very applicable and vital, and at its best shows the humanity of everyone involved. and some fan cases made aren't bad either.

    I don't know when or if we'll ever meet again Phoenix Wright, but if we do I wager it'll be a good day when we do. Keep on bluffin' ya crazy attorney.
    I'm also on discord as "raziere".


  21. - Top - End - #771
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    Default Re: What are you playing 4: HD Remaster Gold Collector's Edition Thread of the Year

    Quote Originally Posted by Man_Over_Game View Post
    Recently picked up a copy of Vermintide 2, was on sale for 75% off.

    Looking into it, seems like it's basically Borderlands mixed with Left 4 Dead, with the difficulty ceiling dialed to 11.

    Was doing some research to figure out what I should be paying attention to, and everyone in your party should have some kind of soft role in what they should be focusing on, you can spend stamina by blocking attacks or by shoving enemies to stagger them, staggered enemies take more damage and certain talents enhance the bonus damage on staggered targets or cause enemies to become more staggered, so you build your talents around those roles, and you gotta pay attention to ammo since it's a very finite resource and prioritize on using it on special enemies that are a threat amidst the hordes, and...

    Like damn. Haven't even played the game yet and it already seems intense.
    The game is difficult but it's pretty easy to pick up what you're doing just in the play of it. Every character is fairly interesting to play (though my favorite by FAR is Saltzpyre, the Bounty Hunter variant that's all about super turbo gunning people specifically, but Zealot is cool too) and it's probably easier to get into these days than on launch (I guess I'm technically a beta player but I only started playing like 3 days before release, so I don't think I count) because they've nerfed so many of the enemies so many times.

    I eventually got tired of it, but I got a fair few hours of it and don't feel like my money was wasted. Never bought the DLCs, largely because I got tired of the devs saying the Left 4 Dead style Versus mode was "coming soon". It's been "coming soon" for close to THREE YEARS now, and they have a new game (Darktide) coming out anyway, so it'll probably be "coming soon" fpor another three at this point, if it's ever released at all. Kind of left a bad taste in my mouth over the years.

    One quick tip that makes the game infinitely easier: you can hold block and revive an ally at the same time. This is a technique you will need to use, and frequently.

  22. - Top - End - #772
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    Default Re: What are you playing 4: HD Remaster Gold Collector's Edition Thread of the Year

    Quote Originally Posted by Lord Raziere View Post
    So I've managed finish the Ace Attorney series.....

    Spoiler: My Opinions, spoilers for the whole series of course
    Show

    Games:
    1st Game:
    Pretty solidly sets up all the others, walking so that others can run. Introduces how detail oriented these games are, how smart the antagonists have to be, and the themes of truth setting you free as well as the theme of people often being controlled by others lies with Miles Edgeworth, being the first of many to change because a trial bringing things to light and starting off Phoenix's career with a bang as he takes down the 40 year long career of a corrupt prosecutor and save Miles from becoming like him......which involves making a literal parrot testify.

    2nd Game:
    Introduces the Magatama, which helps sell it by fixing a problem Phoenix has by giving him the slightest power up possible, allowing him to see when people are lying and enabling him to do his usual thing to get through it. At the same time, its the very game that showed how even the Magatama can fail and trap Phoenix in a situation where his client is actually guilty for once and thus have to play stall-ball with Miles, constantly serving their accusations back and forth long as possible, until he can be brought to justice while saving Maya's life. one of my favorite cases in Ace Attorney because its all about being trapped in dilemma that needs a lot of shenanigans to get out of because there is no clear answer to it on the surface.

    3rd Game:
    A good finish to the original Ace attorney trilogy. the fact that Phoenix somehow exorcises a ghost from somebody through nothing but cross-examination is just awesome, and the whole complicated aspect of what shenanigans can occur when like three spirit mediums are running around doing things at cross-purposes to one another is just fascinating to see how it can quickly make the final case the most complicated one of them all.

    4th Game:
    Pretty good, it made sense to make Apollo the protagonist for this, and it allow Ace attorney to remain fresh....but it it is the weakest of all the games in my opinion. I just feel like all the games before and after this one was better done.

    5th Game:
    Is just outright better than the 4th game and just refines everything 4 was doing while adding Athena who I really like. all the first look at 3D Ace Attorney with updated music is just so good.

    6th Game:
    I like this, but not as much as the 5th game, I think. There are some things that I think 5 just did better. Don't get me wrong, overthrowing a monarch and expanding the whole spirit medium lore is great, but 5's ending was just much better executed in my mind.

    Miles Edgeworth Games:
    Changes things up by turning it into this adventure game where you actually walk around and turns the logical puzzle parts up to eleven by having to form logical connections to make it all work. Miles Edgeworth makes a great protagonist who actually thinks through his actions and is something I'd like see to more of in fiction. We get too many protags like Phoenix Wright. both of them some of my favorite installments in the franchise, as I don't recall either of them being particularly supernatural in nature despite their ridiculousness

    -Characters:
    Phoenix Wright:
    everyman hero lawyer. Is a great guy and smarter than most heroes in fiction, so I like him. He clearly has this mentor and experienced aura to him in later installments that show how far he has come.

    Maya:
    kinda vanilla. she is okay, but I personally don't see why people would like her so much, when so many character made after her are better.

    Mia:
    she's weird, because she is set up as this badass lawyer mentor....then she dies right in the next case and keeps coming back to help sometimes. she's cool but personally I feel she was killed off too early if they were just going to bring back so often.

    Pearl:
    adorable and lovable. if anything happened to her I would murder everyone.

    Apollo:
    he is also okay. he is just......meh to me.

    Athena:
    Best defense girl. has the best expressions, great if not best backstory, methods of finding the truth, and she is just fun in all the right ways. I honestly prefer her over Apollo or Maya.

    Gumshoe:
    I'm actually disappointed that he is no longer around in later games. after a while he just seemed to be apart of the experience so to speak. Ema Skye is cool and all but, nothing was ever quite the same without this guy screwing things up.

    Prosecutors:
    Miles Edgeworth:
    best prosecutor, hands down. has no gimmick, understands what finding the truth just as well if not better than Phoenix does, uses nothing but logic to do his job, and is so good he got two of his own games. just awesome and deserves all the hype he gets whenever he shows up.

    Franciska Von karma:
    best whip girl. she was a great antagonist for the second game, her motivations make sense, and she just has this Vegeta-like energy about her that while its clear she is a jerk you wouldn't want to meet, she is still a fun character whose jerkishness lends them their own jerk-ego charisma, and clearly does have, or grows to have standards that her old man did not, and does actually care about doing her job right to an extent even if she also is prideful to a fault. and her implied relationship with Adrian Andrews makes me happy, because they're perfect for each other in my opinion.

    Prosecutor Godot:
    Honestly, a step down from the first two in my opinion. I get it, he isn't an ace prosecutor or anything, you can't produce perfection three times in a row, he is simply out for misplaced revenge, he is different for good reason, and he has a sad story to him, he is a good character but his long meanderings about coffee metaphors just make him a bit tedious to sit through and he just comes off as more weird than intimidating, he just doesn't have the right stuff to be a prosecutor and while that may be the intention, eeeehh....

    Klavier Gavin:
    and this guy? Eh. I mean he's fine? but all he's got is like, being a rockstar and pretty. Godot at least was something unusual and strange. Klavier's just the "X and a rockstar!" cliche in prosecutor form, while being a little TOO fair and good, should've been a little more jerkish.

    Simon Blackquill:
    Now this guy, right mix of intimidating, jerk, interesting for his role to paly with Athena's backstory and sympathetic, while also being funny at times to be a good AA prosecutor. like he is just the right mix to be the prosecutor you want to face in Ace Attorney without being Franciska or Miles. but given he is the last example of this and kind of third place, guess it was never meant to last.

    Nahyuta Sahdmahdi:
    Worst prosecutor. screw this guy. don't care how good he is, he's still a huge insufferable jerk who either got way into his mask or gave up. but at least he was satisfying to see defeated.

    Villains:
    Larry Butz:
    Yeah yeah, you can say he isn't really a villain, but given how many times he comes up and just causes trouble without any real reason for why he is friends with anyone, when he is more like this living annoying obstacle or nuisance that makes life harder for everyone for no reason, he is a minor villain in my eyes because he never truly changes for the better, and just makes things worse no matter how comedically foolish he is. I did not miss him when the series when into its second trilogy.

    Manfred Von Karma:
    strict, corrupt, and gave off an air of menace, he was the exact kind of difficult to crack nut that he was meant to be, and the exact kind of screwed up jerk that deserved justice for what he done.

    Matt Engarde:
    Yeah this guy was a real piece of work. The fact that he foiled the magatama with a technical truth without knowing what the magatama even is, was impressive. he was a villain that managed to make a situation where Phoenix would lose if he took either of the obvious options, and it was real satisfying to see it get turned around him so that he is placed in a situation where he is screwed no matter whether he is found Innocent OR Guilty.

    Dahlia Hawthorne:
    completely and utterly contemptible for all the things she has done. from the first appearance with her seemingly too good to be true smile and way of speaking you know she is up to no good, a villain that I love to hate, because she is just so underhanded, deceitful and at times petty yet so good at putting up this charming facade that makes you hate her even more in a completely intentional way, because you know at least one person who got killed because of those deadly charms. great villain, notable for not being particularly rich or powerful, and somehow being a threat even after she died.

    Kristoph Gavin:
    this guy is twisted too, he is pompous, elitist, thinking he is fancy when he is just smug, and is the guy that managed to screw over Phoenix's career for seven years....but to be honest....he doesn't really have much of a backstory, and his black psyche-locks were put on him before the creators really what to do with them because they were never broken seemingly. I think its just one of the things that make the 4th game weaker.

    Florent L'belle:
    One of the better minor villains, he is a basically flamboyant narcissistic joker looking weirdo who is so vain that he makes a hair product line to advertise so everyone knows how awesome it is.....but not to actually sell any of it because he wants it all to himself, its just to proclaim how fabulous he is to everyone else and how this breakdown in logic leads him to committing a crime because of the resulting debts. Even more hilariously, the hair products clearly got picked up a company actually interested in making a profit when he got imprisoned, because Spirit of Justice has someone use a L'belle hair product in Khura'in for a disguise.

    the phantom:
    A great villain. a person without identity or emotions who can imitate anyone being brought down because of the slight mistakes he made and and being a good demonstration of someone who has something truly psychologically wrong with them to back it up that makes him truly disturbing when he starts breaking down and being unable to properly coordinate his deceptions because of his own hollow nature.

    Roger Retinz:
    a sleazy reality tv show producer who turns into a vengeful magician, he is notable for just being such a scumbag that he could've taken out the whole Wright law offices in one shot to show how modern society can be unfair in its own way compared to Khura'in's injustice.

    Ga'ran:
    the final villain. admittedly she kind of cheats with having the power to just rewrite laws however she wants. but to be fair, it is the ultimate foe for someone who has to fight within the laws rules- so of course, she had to be beaten by proving her very claim to power invalid, clever. though her changing so early in the trial gives away her villainy, they could've waited longer, so she isn't the best of them all. and taking down a tyrannical monarch with nothing but wits and legal knowledge is pretty awesome by itself.

    Conclusion:
    Ace Attorney is a great series, and I'm not surprised why they haven't made anymore games after Spirit of Justice, because where do you possibly go after taking down a tyrant of a minor nation? The series is real creative with its villains and intricate mysteries, as well as being consistently funny because of its many odd or outrageous characters, at the same time not shying away from a lot of this stuff hitting hard on people and those who commit these crimes being very twisted individuals who aren't always what you expect, the final villain of Edgeworth's second game is particularly left field being some clownish animal tamer who somehow masterminded almost every crime in the game somehow despite being some poor bit or comic relief character up until the reveal. and there is no way your guessing for this or that case the real culprit is a rapping fish-feeder, a kind man in a wheel chair or a sleepy flight attendant. its a series that constantly plays with your expectations and tries to make you figure out what is actually logical amid all the nonsense, false accusations and murky evidence.

    At the same it maintains a sense of fun, by making you go to the most outlandish and weird situations you can possibly logically conceive of, or cross-examine a parrot or an orca, or having to deal with colorful characters like a puppeteer comedian who is too into his act, or two magician girls who are twins, or any number of other crazy people.

    Its a series that manages to stand out because its intelligent yet light-hearted, and I see why people like it. its at times ridiculous, sad, triumphant, heartwarming, scary and so on. sometimes it can be a bit much about building up its drama and saying unnecessary lines when it really should just get on with it, but its not always bad, it just gets tedious at times when every character feels like they need to chip in how screwed you are when someone needs to submit evidence. its a minor thing compared to the fantastic payoffs that comes from seeing the breakdowns unfold.

    It goes into what justice really means, what it means to find the truth, what it means to defend someone and prove their innocence, and how often that justice can be denied or never reached with how many things that can make a case murky and uncertain, or how initial circumstances can make it look real bad for someone if they didn't have anyone to defend them. Though considering the biggest joke and enemy of the series is the legal system itself and how ridiculous it be at times, it can also make one thankful that real legal systems aren't this in a hurry to "get results", because thats arguably the one biggest break from reality this series has aside from the spirit magic or super senses: the short amount of time these trials take place. if Phoenix Wright simply had more time to consider the possibilities and investigate, it wouldn't nearly be as dramatic, tense or full of delightful absurdities or convoluted scenarios detailing.

    Overall it was a fun experience to go through all these games. technically they're visual novels, but I didn't know where else to put this. I wouldn't mind more in the future, but I'm happy with what we got. Phoenix Wright and his friends and allies are heroes of smarts and wits in the best way, living in a setting where those traits are very applicable and vital, and at its best shows the humanity of everyone involved. and some fan cases made aren't bad either.

    I don't know when or if we'll ever meet again Phoenix Wright, but if we do I wager it'll be a good day when we do. Keep on bluffin' ya crazy attorney.
    One nitpick I have with the series is that they never seemed to understand what made it successful in the first place. Like, it's obvious that its the courtroom theme and the logic/deduction gameplay that stood out, because there weren't many games like this out there.

    What would then mesh really well with these two aspects? Courtroom... logic... oh I know! Spirits! Magic! Wacky, caricatural witnesses that undermine the whole theme! Cartoon-tier violations of proceedings (such as the prosecution just assaulting the judge/attorney into submission), etc.

    Like, there is this line between humorous and slapstick, and the devs just roll over it with a bulldozer.

    Don't get me wrong, the main aspects are still strong enough that makes you chuck your disbelief into the stratosphere and suspend it there, but still.
    Last edited by Cespenar; 2021-03-24 at 09:04 AM.

  23. - Top - End - #773
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    Default Re: What are you playing 4: HD Remaster Gold Collector's Edition Thread of the Year

    I continue to very slowly putter through the Outriders demo. The combat is surprisingly difficult, though I think its because I don't quite get the rhythm of it yet. It's a cover shooter (and quite a good one, it steals the run-to-cover system from the Division), but it doesn't really incentivize cover the same way. Like sure, if you're behind a wall the bad men don't shoot you as much, but only like bottom 20% or so of your health regens. Everything else you get by killing dudes in particular ways. I went pyromancer and get HP back whenever someone dies while on fire, so there's some real incentive to charge in and start combustin' fools. But getting too aggressive is still invariably fatal, so I'm figuring out the right balance.
    Blood-red were his spurs i' the golden noon; wine-red was his velvet coat,
    When they shot him down on the highway,
    Down like a dog on the highway,
    And he lay in his blood on the highway, with the bunch of lace at his throat.


    Alfred Noyes, The Highwayman, 1906.

  24. - Top - End - #774
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    Default Re: What are you playing 4: HD Remaster Gold Collector's Edition Thread of the Year

    Quote Originally Posted by Rynjin View Post
    The game is difficult but it's pretty easy to pick up what you're doing just in the play of it. Every character is fairly interesting to play (though my favorite by FAR is Saltzpyre, the Bounty Hunter variant that's all about super turbo gunning people specifically, but Zealot is cool too) and it's probably easier to get into these days than on launch (I guess I'm technically a beta player but I only started playing like 3 days before release, so I don't think I count) because they've nerfed so many of the enemies so many times.

    I eventually got tired of it, but I got a fair few hours of it and don't feel like my money was wasted. Never bought the DLCs, largely because I got tired of the devs saying the Left 4 Dead style Versus mode was "coming soon". It's been "coming soon" for close to THREE YEARS now, and they have a new game (Darktide) coming out anyway, so it'll probably be "coming soon" fpor another three at this point, if it's ever released at all. Kind of left a bad taste in my mouth over the years.

    One quick tip that makes the game infinitely easier: you can hold block and revive an ally at the same time. This is a technique you will need to use, and frequently.
    I did some quick research, looks like they're slowly incorporating UI changes that aren't necessary for anything but a Versus mode (such as changing the color of Party chat so as to allow a separate form of chat, like say for PvP). So apparently it's still moving ahead, although who knows how long it'll take.
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    Default Re: What are you playing 4: HD Remaster Gold Collector's Edition Thread of the Year

    I have expanded my monster huntering repertoire.

    I am into Master Rank hunts on World, with a little bit of Iceborne started and some new much stronger variants of monsters to contend with. I'm going through all the optional quests for standard monsters first though and getting them to max research level and getting all the beta+ armour sets so I have all the options, then I will build something to properly address that Viper Tobi-Kadachi.

    I have also started playing Monster Hunter Stories, since there's a second one coming out and the trailer made it look pretty cool. It's actually rather a lot better than I was expecting, and quite a lot more Monster Hunter in its DNA than I expected as well. The way quests and equipment are handled is all extremely Monster Hunter and is more about planning and creating a build rather than just getting the gear with the biggest numbers on. It's a pity it was a late life 3DS title before the franchise broke through in the west and so it didn't really get much traction and the translated versions didn't get the updates.

    I've decided to wait for the PC version of Rise.

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    Default Re: What are you playing 4: HD Remaster Gold Collector's Edition Thread of the Year

    Quote Originally Posted by Cespenar View Post
    One nitpick I have with the series is that they never seemed to understand what made it successful in the first place. Like, it's obvious that its the courtroom theme and the logic/deduction gameplay that stood out, because there weren't many games like this out there.

    What would then mesh really well with these two aspects? Courtroom... logic... oh I know! Spirits! Magic! Wacky, caricatural witnesses that undermine the whole theme! Cartoon-tier violations of proceedings (such as the prosecution just assaulting the judge/attorney into submission), etc.

    Like, there is this line between humorous and slapstick, and the devs just roll over it with a bulldozer.

    Don't get me wrong, the main aspects are still strong enough that makes you chuck your disbelief into the stratosphere and suspend it there, but still.
    What are you talking about?

    Phoenix having to cross-examine a parrot or deal with strange people is one of the best parts. The entire point of these witnesses being caricatures is they're imperfect people with imperfect viewpoints and thus letting you know their testimony can have flaws. I don't see how they undermine anything.

    while the magic aspect was to make sure Phoenix can actually find the truth, because not every client is going to tell the truth and short of such magic telling him thats happening, there would be no way of getting to the truth from his position.

    I do agree that the slapstick assaults are bit too far though. that doesn't make sense given that some prosecutors should outright be in jail several times over.
    I'm also on discord as "raziere".


  27. - Top - End - #777
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    Default Re: What are you playing 4: HD Remaster Gold Collector's Edition Thread of the Year

    Quote Originally Posted by Lord Raziere View Post
    So I've managed finish the Ace Attorney series.....

    Spoiler: My Opinions, spoilers for the whole series of course
    Show

    Klavier Gavin:
    and this guy? Eh. I mean he's fine? but all he's got is like, being a rockstar and pretty. Godot at least was something unusual and strange. Klavier's just the "X and a rockstar!" cliche in prosecutor form, while being a little TOO fair and good, should've been a little more jerkish.
    Say what you want about Klavier as a prosecutor, he still has the best theme music in the series. And you have to respect a guy who can air guitar and make actual sound with it.

    Quote Originally Posted by Cespenar View Post
    One nitpick I have with the series is that they never seemed to understand what made it successful in the first place. Like, it's obvious that its the courtroom theme and the logic/deduction gameplay that stood out, because there weren't many games like this out there.

    What would then mesh really well with these two aspects? Courtroom... logic... oh I know! Spirits! Magic! Wacky, caricatural witnesses that undermine the whole theme! Cartoon-tier violations of proceedings (such as the prosecution just assaulting the judge/attorney into submission), etc.

    Like, there is this line between humorous and slapstick, and the devs just roll over it with a bulldozer.

    Don't get me wrong, the main aspects are still strong enough that makes you chuck your disbelief into the stratosphere and suspend it there, but still.
    Oh, hard disagree there. What makes the series what it is is the blending of serious courtroom drama and over-the-top comedic elements - it's a perfect Dramedy series. Take away the crazy supernatural stuff or wacky witnesses and you'd lose the soul of the series just as much as if you took away the deduction or courtroom aspects. Or more, actually, since Edgeworth's spin-offs do actually remove things from the courtroom, and still work just as well.
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  28. - Top - End - #778
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    Default Re: What are you playing 4: HD Remaster Gold Collector's Edition Thread of the Year

    I simply argue that if you took away the deduction gameplay, the franchise just wouldn't exist. If you tone down the over the top humor, though, it still would exist in a successful manner. They would probably lose some people (apparently!), but they would gain people from the opposite end as well.

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    Default Re: What are you playing 4: HD Remaster Gold Collector's Edition Thread of the Year

    Quote Originally Posted by Cespenar View Post
    I simply argue that if you took away the deduction gameplay, the franchise just wouldn't exist. If you tone down the over the top humor, though, it still would exist in a successful manner. They would probably lose some people (apparently!), but they would gain people from the opposite end as well.
    I disagree, I think the humor helps more than you think.

    I tried the Professor Layton vs. Pheonix Wright game, which was basically the same courtroom battles with puzzles between each trial, and it was a lot more serious, and I just didn't have it in me to keep playing. The puzzles were fine, but you'd be surprised at how...tense the game can be without the humor and absurdity to break that tension.

    Like,
    Spoiler: When things became a lot more serious than usual
    Show
    when your defendant basically chooses to kill herself in the courtroom, at like a third of the way through the game,
    I just didn't have it in me to keep playing, even if it had the core courtroom gameplay loop as other games in the series.

    My wife and I were talking about it, it's kinda how shows like Doctor Who and American Gods exist. It has to be a bit campy, a bit ridiculous, otherwise you're just going through one traumatic experience in a tense scenario to another with no break, until the audience gets tired of it and decides to take an indefinite break.
    Last edited by Man_Over_Game; 2021-03-24 at 06:23 PM.
    Quote Originally Posted by KOLE View Post
    MOG, design a darn RPG system. Seriously, the amount of ideas I’ve gleaned from your posts has been valuable. You’re a gem of the community here.

    5th Edition Homebrewery
    Prestige Options, changing primary attributes to open a world of new multiclassing.
    Adrenaline Surge, fitting Short Rests into combat to fix bosses/Short Rest Classes.
    Pain, using Exhaustion to make tactical martial combatants.
    Fate Sorcery, lucky winner of the 5e D&D Subclass Contest VII!

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    Default Re: What are you playing 4: HD Remaster Gold Collector's Edition Thread of the Year

    Quote Originally Posted by Man_Over_Game View Post
    Can confirm that that may not be true. I tried the Professor Layton vs. Pheonix Wright game, which was basically the same courtroom battles with puzzles between each trial, and it was a lot more serious, and I just didn't have it in me to keep playing. The puzzles were fine, but you'd be surprised at how...tense the game can be without the humor and absurdity to break that tension.

    Like,
    Spoiler: When things became a lot more serious than usual
    Show
    when your defendant basically chooses to kill herself in the courtroom, at like a third of the way through the game,
    I just didn't have it in me to keep playing, even if it had the core courtroom gameplay loop as other games in the series.
    It gets even worse further down the line....
    Spoiler: spoilers for like, Halfway through Layton/Phoenix Wright and beyond
    Show

    ....when "winning" a trial and proving Maya's innocence results in Maya refusing to let the true culprit die just because she is a witch and tries to rescue her, thus resulting in Maya getting sent into the flames instead when a soldier just decides to pull the lever while Maya was inside for seemingly no reason. This causes Phoenix to have perhaps the biggest breakdown I've ever seen from him where he chews out the prosecutor in fury for such an unjust system the massive screw up that was, after running away from the courtroom because he was wanted by the law by that point, then being depressed for like a day afterwards. it was pretty dark, especially as Layton was still turned to gold at that point.

    of course it turns out it was all an elaborate hoax due to drugs and stage magic and no one actually died in those trials, but still it was pretty much Phoenixes lowest point.
    I'm also on discord as "raziere".


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