I never heard of this. Source?


Good job!


Yeah of course. 4 times haha. Got all the endings and everything.

It was from an interview around when Dark Souls 3 came out: https://www.neogaf.com/threads/hidetaka ... w.1289549/



So it wasn't exactly as I remembered. I thought he specifically said Martin's worldbuilding was an influence, but he merely said he was a fan of the books. Also, Fevre Dream is totally fucking awesome. Definitely my favorite vampire novel.

Recently finished Sekiro and got all the endings and the platinum trophy. Really fantastic game and it's absolutely true that you have to break yourself of habits you developed in Dark Souls. My first playthrough I had some real struggles, especially with some of the late-game bosses. The final boss had me on the verge of throwing my controller through the TV and even after a few playthroughs I still find that fight to be a little tedious, although I think this means I still haven't fully mastered the Sekiro fighting style. I've seen YouTube vids of people beating him much faster using more aggressive tactics, but this always seemed to get me killed.

I think it's a solid 9 out of 10 and stands up with the rest of From's hits, but I did find myself a little disappointed with the weapon arts and most of the items/abilities. Only a couple of the weapon arts ever felt useful to me, with several of them requiring such a long wind-up that I can't see how they'd ever be useful, especially in boss fights. I basically never used any items except Divine Confetti and Snap Seeds (and healing items obviously), and stuck with the same 2 or 3 prosthetics for pretty much the entire game. But at worst, this stuff feels tacked on to what's already an incredible combat system, albeit one that lacks the deep variety of Souls or Bloodborne.

I'm excited for their E3 announcement, whatever it may be. I do have faith that a Bloodborne 2 is on the (distant) horizon but probably not until next gen. They can take their time as far as I'm concerned--it's going to take a lot to live up to the first game.

Regarding other games, this Polygon article from a few weeks ago perfectly summed up what I hated about Red Dead Redemption 2, wondering if anyone else felt the same way? I put 10 hours or so into it but just ended up feeling exhausted with the slog and frustrated by the controls. Rarely have I been so disappointed by a game I wanted to love.

Re: RDR2 design
While good points are brought up, some of the complaints feel a bit like the writer didn't even bother learning the control scheme. He points to an inability to quick draw a weapon when there, in fact, is one (quickly tapping L1/LB, just as in GTA V, will bring up the last weapon selected), and his complaints about having to hold buttons to open/close/pick up items contradict earlier arguments.

There's plenty wrong with RDR2 that can be summed up as the Rockstar style, as these same issues are also present in GTA V, but sometimes I feel like the gripes with the game come more from a lack of ability on the player's part rather than the actual game design. As far as the SP goes, it feels like one of the better Rockstar titles. The MP, though...bleeecccchhh

I've ended up doing another NG and NG+ in Sekiro over the last week. There's just something really fun about this combat system. I can run the game in 2-3 hours now, depending on which ending I'm going for.

I'm definitely excited for a new From Software IP. Even if we won't see it until 2020 more than likely.

Maybe I'll jump back into Hollow Knight. The last time I played I beat Hornet and I was grinding to afford the lantern.

Getting back into Octopath Traveler after stalling out for several months. The recommended levels for areas are no joke in this game lol. You can generally survive a little bit out of your depth but you should expect to burn /a lot/ of your items to do it.

So GRRM is indeed consulting on a Japanese video game. Confirmed it himself.

There was a rumour circulating before his confirmation that it was a From Software game.

So he's probably contributed some lore or partial writing to their next IP.



edit: whoaaaa

https://gematsu.com/2019/05/george-rr-m ... t-of-japan
https://sea.ign.com/george-r-r-martin/1 ... m-software

All of this is AS OF YET UNCONFIRMED but:
- Open-world
- Horse riding
- Killing leaders of kingdoms to gain abilities
- GRRM contribution
- Miyazaki involved

Holy fuckballs, is it E3 yet?

This fromsoft stuff all sounds really cool, but to be honest, I still have my fingers crossed on that Sci-fi Souls rumor.

I need Aliens meets Dark Souls. Maybe I'm dreaming too far.

Apparently closed alpha for Nioh 2 starts tomorrow? That news sounded pretty exciting until I saw this video...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YsLuykzXV5I

Am I a turd or does it just look like DLC? I feel like a sub-2 minute clip for a brand new sequel shouldn't include the same yokai we've already seen before BUT NOW WITH MORE GLOW!!! Hopefully they receive some feedback on needing more monster variation.

The Surge? I haven't played it, but that's what I've seen so far.

I didn't like my 3~ hours of Nioh. That Nioh 2 trailer looks like the same game.

Right.

So I may have been a little too salty over my initial experience with Sekiro - mainly because (as many have stated) it took quite some time to break my Dark Souls muscle memory, and play style over this completely new, fast-paced aggressive way of playing. Now that I have gone quite far into the game (Father Owl is hopefully my next victim), and learnt to adapt much better, I can honestly say that Sekiro is tough, punishes you when YOU fuck up or get greedy, challenging and at the end of the day highly rewarding when you get things right. Awesome game.



Yes it is hard, but it's mainly hard when you make a mistake, which is common when not reading incoming attacks correctly (especially against the Vile Hands!!), and yes, you do have to get good. Practice makes perfect. Now looking forward to getting all possible endings.

Going to leave this here because I found it rather funny.

Boo hoo.

"It's like having just a bowl of cherries."

YES. IT IS. NG+6. Still in love.

I picked up Hollow Knight again and I've made some decent progress. The soundtrack is perfect and it lulls me into wandering around and gathering Geo.

I'm garbage at Sekiro but like all other From Soft games I'm still enjoying the hell out of exploration and micro-progression. Been whooping up on Senpou monks to unlock a few new skills.

In more important news I finally picked Dead Cells back up and I'm having my best run ever. Clock Tower for the first time! I mostly hide behind my traps and frost blast like a punk but it manages to be exciting even still. This feels almost EXACTLY like when the first Risk of Rain finally clicked for me. Got a feeling I'll be doing a lot more runs now.

Edit: Bah! I almost beat the Clock Room boss on my first try. Just couldn't keep it together at the very end. I love this game.

Stuns and Freezing works on the Clock Room boss, the ice bow in particular is super useful. Also her dash attack gets one more dash in each phase, so watch out for that. Otherwise she's honestly not that hard, probably easier than the beholder boss.

It honestly felt easy, I just had no heals left. The Concierge is officially a joke. So I'll probably feel the same way about this Swiss bitch soon. I just unlocked the ice bow last night. The range is amazing but frost blast seems to last much longer. Gotta reforge those modifiers.

Yeah the frost bow is kinda dependent on what modifiers you get for it, but if you get the "pierce all enemies" one you're golden. The frost blast is good too, it just sucked horrible balls in the early access to the point where it was never worth picking up, and I put so many hours into the earlier builds that I keep forgetting it's not terrible anymore.

So there was a bug on PS4 that corrupts your game data for Dead Cells if you open the Custom run options. Crashes your game every time. So I got to delete all my progress and start over...yay!

I got to the castle on my first run. First time ever. Unfortunately within like 2 minutes I picked up a "cursed artifact" and then touched some spikes. What a beautiful, bullshit game. Love it.

Sorry for the double post, but Sekiro has finally revealed it's mysteriis to me! Something about cleaning up a few mini-bosses and reaching Genichiro makes me feel like I'm finally digging in properly!

Ashina Elite is my new favorite encounter in the game. Literally stone cold staring him down and then hitting 3 sets of perfect deflections in a row felt INCREDIBLE. Like the Blazing Bull x10000.

This game rules and I think I uderstand why y'all are on NG+13. When a certain boss or mini-boss "clicks" you feel godlike.

EDIT: HOLY SHIT GENICHIRO IS SO FUN

I've been sucked into Hollow Knight for 40+ hours. I've finished my first run. I have every charm, every upgrade and I'm working on some of the final achievements for the PS4 Platinum.

I gave Salt & Sanctuary a look. What the fuck is this? A Newgrounds game from 2010? This looks and plays like ass.

Based on what an insider has teased on ResetEra, I can now say the following things about the next major From Software game:

- Fashion Souls confirmed
- PvP and Coop confirmed
- Deeper customization than ever before
- Strong interconnected level design, lots of verticality

He hinted at:

- High fantasy/old school D&D-inspired setting. But still "From-flavoured" and full of weird shit.
- Scotland and UK-related inspiration (maybe Celtic folklore?)
- New IP
- GRRM involvement minimal; not based on ASoIaF
- Also NOT Norse-based like previously rumoured
- FromSoft "Magnum Opus", which takes the best of all their games and combine them in 1 game
- Will be likely teased at E3 but won't be out for a while.


Oh shush you. It plays perfectly fine. The characters look funny but the backgrounds and enemies look great.

You want something that plays like ass, try the Code Vein network beta. Holy shit this is like... what happens when you take Dark Souls except make it bad, ugly, and lame.

I have zero desire to play Code Vein. Every "Souls like" I've tried has disappointed me. I'll stick to From Software.



Easily the most fun fight in the entire game. Glad you've finally cracked the egg!

Thank you! It's just more fun (AND more effective) to be ultra aggressive in Sekiro. Backing his dumbass up against the ropes and applying even more pressure...it finally feels like that "clash of swords" I know Miyazaki was shooting for.

I'm curious about the combat system in their next game. I feel like there's no going backwards. The posture system is SO MUCH MORE satisfying than just rolling around turning somersaults waiting for an opening. I'm stoked that they confirmed more verticality. That's another "no going back" situation for me. Can't wait to see how they develop.

Anyone else still curious how Ghosts of Tsushima is gonna handle? The combat LOOKS smooth and buttery but that's no real indication. Sekiro has set a pretty lofty watermark for sword based combat as far as I'm concerned. There's still room for improvement and innovation.

Ghosts of Tsushima is one of the few games on the horizon I'm excited for.

I'm late to the party but there's going to be a Hollow Knight 2?! YES.

Genichiro is light-work and I love screaming at dead bosses about how they ain't shit.

Sekiro is a dance/rhythm/memorization game. There's no way around it. That was so fun. Only used 1 gourd the entire fight and zero spirit emblem trickery. We just dancin' out here fam.

Playing the Nioh 2 alpha test, and then the Code Vein alpha test, and the difference in quality is comical. It's actually astonishing how mediocre Code Vein is. I expected it to be... but it manages to be much, much worse.

May I ask how you got access to the Nioh 2 alpha? I'd love to try it.

I...might have finally found a game that makes me quit. I've beaten the base game of Hollow Knight, but the pantheons/bindings...what the fuck.

I was planning on going for the Platinum. I nearly broke myself just to beat Nightmare King Grimm and the Radiance.

Ugh.

I think it's ending, sadly. But it was invite-only, you had to be lucky and get a code by email. I didn't even get one despite having the Platinum. Yet HellBlazer got one despite not having played it. Luckily he is a good SO and gave me his code

Definite buy for you when it drops? The footage I've watched of the Alpha has me unsure. I love the changes they made to living weapons, and as always it's fun to grind better gear. But I was expecting them to shake things up quite a bit more. The one-legged Yokai cracks me up.

I'll definitely buy it, but it is pretty much Nioh 1.5 rather than 2, which is slightly disappointing. Nioh 1.5 is great for me, still, but I had hoped for a bit more.

That's fair. I'm curious what other new weapons they will include besides hatchets.

Last night I farmed Senpou monks for a few hours then destroyed Robert's dad on my first try. That fight is like a slapstick routine dropped in the middle of Throne of Blood. Hilarious. The blood cloud ninjutsu technique is my favorite thing in any game.

I thought I was en route to the Sunken Valley but apparently not. Gonna double-back and check out the Gunfort.

Oh and I snagged the umbrella! There are some odd prosthetics I seem to have missed based on gaps in my tree. From memory I've got: flame vent, shuriken, axe, sabimaru, spear, umbrella, mist raven...bah I'm probably forgetting something. There are some interesting gaps.

I've been looking forward to the Guardian Ape since I first learned about him. Wasn't even sure if I'd make it that far. But I did, and it was sooooo fun. I didn't count attempts but I beat him in my first session. Never felt frustrated. All prosthetics unlocked!

This game isn't that hard once you finally just do what they obviously want you to do, huh? Aggressive always, perfect deflects whenever possible. I'm sure I'll regret saying this when I reach SSI but man, I feel so much more powerful than when the game started. I want to start a new game just to see if I can clap Tutorial Genichiro.

Also the giraffe centipede whatever the fuck was HILARIOUS. His posture melts! What even was that?

How is no one talking about BG3.

Disappointed in you, MacMoney.

A deflect skill check

I already talked about it for nearly 8 hours straight with my brother and friend, so I got it out of my system.

This felt incredibly validating for some reason lol.

Maybe no one cares besides Necroticism and myself but I heard there's Celeste DLC on the horizon with over 100 new levels. SQUEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE

Anyone else excited for Blasphemous?



Looks like a Dark Souls-Metroidvania hybrid with religious symbolism and imagery. Looks pretty kewl.

Fucking duh! But I'm also a 2D, pixel graphic, Metroidvania nutcase at this point. Blasphemous has been on my radar (and Steam wishlist) about as long as EITR. But it looks like Blasphemous may actually come out first. I hope that it's great. I want it to be great. I felt the same way about Death's Gambit and it looked extremely underwhelming in the end.

That fucking art thoooooooo *heart eyes*

Is it normal to get completely stomped by Sekiro's Chained Ogre or i just need to learn how to play?

I thought he wasn't too bad but I spent a LOT of time in Hirata before I bothered so I may have been a little overpowered or overprepared? I had also picked up some second hand info from the internet regarding just setting his dumbass on fire.

I barely remember him tbh. I know I stealth'd away his first health bar then just sorta did a hit and run on the second.