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Post by Ex on Aug 28, 2019 1:12:22 GMT -5
Well I finally broke my week long streak of not playing any video games, and put an hour into Valkyria Chronicles III tonight. It's great so far - more of the same from the series as expected, but that's not a bad thing. Interestingly this game's plot takes place directly after VC1; VC3 basically ignores VC2's plot entirely. I can understand why that is, as VC2's plot was kind of a gaiden thing, and a lot of people didn't like VC2's plot at all. VC3's plot is pretty good so far, but I'll have to touch on that later. For now, here's a vid of the very beginning bit of this game:
Of course, the gameplay grows to be much more complex as you progress.
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Post by Sarge on Aug 28, 2019 13:52:05 GMT -5
Darksiders III has been pretty interesting so far. The combat has changed somewhat (again), and feels in some ways like Bayonetta in that you have a dodge move where time slows down a bit when you time it correctly. Then you can unload a powerful counterattack. Some folks have been comparing it a bit to the Soulsborne games as well, which feels... off? Perhaps in terms of how quickly you can die, because Fury's defense seems pretty flimsy. Enemies can wreck you pretty fast. There's also apparently the Souls mechanic of reclaiming souls you've earned if you die, so there's that. That being said, there is a sort of rhythm of adapting to an enemy's tells and dodging at the right time, but that feels endemic to the character action genre itself. But they did add a combat mode that parallels the old hack-and-slash style of the first two games. I really wonder how much that changes.
Performance on the base PS4 has been acceptable, but there's definitely some odd technical foibles here. Often in loading a new area, it will make vocal clips stutter quite a bit. You can see the game noticeably hitching as well. I'm guessing this is better than it was at launch, where it was quite buggy, but clearly there are still remaining issues.
Still, not enough to keep me from playing. I like what I see so far, and I'm very glad they dialed back the loot mechanic in this one. Darksiders II suffered from an overabundance of loot that you had to constantly sort through, and it got old, fast.
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Post by Ex on Aug 28, 2019 14:57:03 GMT -5
For the rec, I bought the first two Darksiders for 360 based on your praise of the series. (That was a few years back.)
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Post by Xeogred on Aug 28, 2019 17:13:43 GMT -5
Has Sarge played any actual Souls games? I tried playing Darksiders 1 a few years ago on the PS3, way after its zeitgeist and release. I didn't like it enough to stick with it. I still have nightmares about that awful looking kill animation on the flying bat things... the thousand or so you have to constantly kill. This was an early last gen title I believe and it shows, didn't age well. lol, I also hate that art style... So yeah, there's a lot of fans so maybe your mileage will vary. Valkyrie Chronicles I'm still pumped to check out someday, I'll probably get the PS4 remaster.
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Post by Sarge on Aug 28, 2019 17:21:52 GMT -5
I have played several, but not played through them. (I own Demon's Souls, Dark Souls, and Dark Souls 2. My brother has DS3 and Bloodborne, but I haven't played either.)
It's been a long time since I played through the first Darksiders, but I had a lot of fun with it because it's basically super-edgy Zelda. I'm okay with that. It was probably around halfway through the console cycle, though, somewhere around four years in.
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Post by Xeogred on Aug 28, 2019 17:25:12 GMT -5
Although I liked Star Fox Adventures and Beyond Good & Evil (maybe counts a little), I usually have a weird automatic dislike for Zelda-clones haha.
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Post by Ex on Aug 28, 2019 20:19:29 GMT -5
Has Sarge played any actual Souls games? I'd love for Sarge to play through the entirety of Demon's Souls. I think he'd "get it" after doing so. Admittedly I didn't "get it" initially, but then DeS ended up being one of my all time favorite video game experiences ever. I plan to do Dark Souls this winter (as in January). The Souls games are to be played when the world is darker and colder. Admittedly I'm not a big fan of Darksiders' art style either. But Sarge 's tastes and mine are usually close enough that I took his advice and bought DS1 and DS2. But that was years ago. You know how I am about buying games and then not playing them for like a decade. Gotta let those pixels ferment and age into a finer vintage. The Valkyria Chronicles series really is awesome! I'm not sure if @tsumuri has played through them yet, but as much as he enjoys SRPGs... can't see why he wouldn't at least somewhat enjoy the series. I honestly believe Sarge would love the first Valkyria Chronicles if he played through it. VC1 is just a masterpiece - it's only negative IMO is the difficulty is on the low side. Mostly due to the Scout class being unbalanced. Still an amazing experience though.
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Post by Sarge on Aug 28, 2019 20:46:55 GMT -5
Yeah, it took time for me to "get" King's Field, so I think DeS would eventually click.
Hopefully you're not disappointed in DS1. I remember having a great time with it, but you know how some of these games age...
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Post by Deleted on Aug 28, 2019 21:24:40 GMT -5
I'm not sure if Tsumuri has played through them yet, but as much as he enjoys SRPGs... can't see why he wouldn't at least somewhat enjoy the series. I think I'd enjoy them, I just don't feel like playing any kind of RPGs at the moment, but that'll change.
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Post by Sarge on Aug 30, 2019 18:18:08 GMT -5
Celeste is pretty tough. It's one of those "die a zillion times until you get the hang of a section" platformers, in the vein of Super Meat Boy, although the checkpointing is mostly fairly generous. Third area saw me die almost 350 times. Of course, they come so quickly that it's easy to rack 'em up, and I'd be losing less if I weren't going for the "swag" items.
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