Lurker > CaptainOfCrush

You fools

Kenneth Haight for Smash

DEX/Faith should be viable right?

I'm considering a re-run where I dual-wield katanas and cast buff incantations.

And this is after the Platinum. GUESS THE GAME WAS GOOD AFTER ALL.

One gripe I had is that normal weapons took far too many materials to upgrade. I wonder what the rationale was behind allowing normal weapons to reach +25 in the first place.

Any criticisms about "limited target demos" - numerous or not - ring hollow to me. I just watched it, and it was very much a coming of age story about trying to discover oneself while navigating the stressful waters of awkward school life and smothering home life. I felt like it was much more about growing up in general versus womanhood in particular; I never saw the "red panda" as a metaphor for a period and thought the movie hardly mentioned that outside of one scene.

I also thought it was pretty good in general, not great. I disliked Brave and thought Soul was meh, so maybe I'm not into Pixar movies full of people turning into animals.

foolm0r0n posted...

The whole fundraising part felt out of place to me.

Same, that was a weird shift. One second, the girls are talking about bonding and supporting each other unconditionally, and the next they literally have dollar sign eyes like 1940s cartoon villains.

https://twitter.com/Nibellion/status/1503909077457506304

You LOVE to see it

jpenny2 posted...

Street Fighter II

This might be the winning choice primarily because of how unplayable SF actually was.

ninkendo posted...

It's all pretty simple as long as you're aware of what to do. Otherwise you're going to have to do a full separate playthrough to get one of the other endings.

Guess who!

Though I'll say that running through NG+ is pretty quick.

Dunno about that. We just ubered from my sister's house in Alexandria and then walked everywhere.

I spent three days touring the National Mall before Covid hit, but we saw a lot and spent considerable time in the major museums there (like 3-4 hours each in Air and Space, Natural History, and Gallery of Art). That's obviously not feasible if you only have half a day, but if you have the time for a jaunt through one major museum, I'd recommend Natural History. I've never cared for jewelry, but some of the gemstones there blew my mind. They had one called the "Flame Topaz" that was one of the most brilliant things I've ever seen.

Also, it's cool how just about everything there is free to enter (and the only place with a line was Air and Space) and hot dog vendors were everywhere, so you could eat cheap n quick too. The only real expense we dealt with were the ubers to Alexandria and back.

Of the four I've played...

Bloodborne > Elden Ring >> Demon's Souls > Dark Souls

Bloodborne hit all the right notes for me. It has, by far, my favorite combat feel, visual style, music, sound design, and story of the FromSoft catalog. The more streamlined leveling system may have initially felt more limiting (magic seems barely viable and isn't split into two alternatives like Intelligence/Faith), but the individual melee weapons are so unique that entire runs can be focused on each. Instead of a DEX or STR run, you can do a Kirkhammer or Chikage run. I love how the game's atmosphere almost festers over time - you start with Victorian Van Helsing inspired locations and enemies that befit a Hollywood movie - and end with eldritch monster gods on the other side of hell. The Old Hunters has three separate bosses that are a contender for "greatest of all time" boss fight. That's fucking insane for one DLC package.

Elden Ring was one hell of an experience that consumed me for two weeks, but I doubt I'll regard it as an all-time favorite like I do with Bloodborne.

Of the four, I'll say that Dark Souls was the only one I didn't enjoy. Apart from Undead Burg and Anor Lando, I can't even recall liking the individual areas, and I had to resort to farming for the Black Knight Halberd to cheese the game because my initial mage build wasn't getting anywhere and I wasn't having fun. I got through Dark Souls because it seemed like a requisite thing to do so as a gamer, and not because I was digging it.

He's the first guy I think of when I hear "nWo." The first guy who made wrestling seem more real and controversial when he showed up to the rival promotion in 1996. The mark he left on wrestling is timeless.

I would never have the level of commitment necessary to Platinum this if not for summon ashes.

Level: 203
Playtime: 152 (though I left it idle so long, I suspect my actual playtime is closer to 120)
Status: PLATINUM'D

Man, what a ride that was. Not sure if I have it in me to drop a big post that groups my thoughts together, but this was a GOOD GAME. I'm pretty much gamed out until BotW2.

For anyone wondering, bosses in NG+ die just as easily to Comet Azur cheese.

I often have a hard time "appreciating" bosses because I'm so laser-focused on actually surviving, so I'll sometimes look up YouTube vids because the spectator experience is clearly different.

...and holy shit, the Malenia fight is an absolute work of art. This is clearly the game's most special combat moment, and the one that IMO rivals Ludwig and Maria as an all-time classic boss fight. I can't stop thinking about how good it is.

Okay, one feather in Elden Ring's cap compared to BotW - actually having a NG+. I'm two hours in and it's so much fun to just cut straight to the meat (though I suppose this wouldn't be as fun in Zelda, since leisurely exploration was a much bigger deal for that game imo).

I'm actually referring to the removal of the Frenzied Flame itself, which is only done by the needle.

Regardless, turns out I was wrong about everything lol. You *can* warp back to that lair (you open up a Site of Grace there that I completely forgot about), but even that doesn't matter, since I had already beaten the game with the Frenzied Flame ending. I chose not to jump into NG+ under the impression that I can try for other endings if I managed to reverse the Frenzied Flame, but nope. One playthrough, one ending.

I assume the only way around that might be cloud-save shenanigans, but I've never bothered with that in any game.

So here I am, doing the entire Millicent questline because it grants you a special needle which is the only way to reverse the Frenzied Flame (necessary so that the player can see other endings). I'm doing all this gleefully, thankful that FromSoft is acknowledging that open world games are different, and thus should have minimal lockouts so that a player can experience as much as possible in one playthrough. After completing 99% of the questline, the final step involves warping to the lair of a secret boss, as that is the only place you can use the needle (for some fucking reason).

Of course, I just realized that since I've already beaten said boss, I can't re-warp to its lair to use the needle. I did 99% of the work just to learn I'm still locked out.

This fucking developer.

So the Frenzied Flame ending is basically Sauron wins

I'm at level 140 and still don't think I'm *that* close to beating the game >_>

I'm starting to get really burnt out in the late game. This might be a one-n-done for me.

That character, especially the mask, is straight up Bioshock. I like!

It might be time for a respec tomorrow - I have plenty of Larval Tears, so I can always revert to my Strength build, but I'm light on high-level stones. That begs the question - what gets upgraded, the Moonveil or the Moonlight Greatsword (or should I try the Sword of Night and Flame)?

Have you noticed how everyone in this game wants to fuck Link

UshiromiyaEva posted...

I think Bloodborne still keeps my top spot but this made a run for it.

I'm still in the process of milking every drop out of this one, but of the four FromSoft games I've played...

BB > ER >> Demon's > DS1

Hot take but I love Bloodborne (and have enjoyed Elden Ring) far more than the actual Souls series. Hotter take - I didn't even enjoy Dark Souls.

So I'm completely stuck on (late game, I think) how to actually get to the land of the giants after defeating Morgott. I have the special seal but no idea how to progress and use it.

Anyone wanna throw me a hint?

UshiromiyaEva posted...

Video in the spoiler below. It's just two rehash bosses as a duo, though very hard variants of them.

Dude, I'm really impressed with your skill. I *tried* to make parries work at the very onset of my playthrough and said fuck it once I missed like five in a row. I'm now spec'd to mindlessly jump attack with Radahn's swords and everything dies. It's fun, but I haven't had an impressive fight - where I'm memorizing movesets, perfecting timing, and dodging in and out - in a while.

ninkendo posted...

Assuming they haven't changed it from other Souls games most stats you start to get diminished returns after 40

Vigor does, but it continually scales upward until 40, so I'm guessing that number will be the standard. Endurance actually gets diminishing returns after 25, so there isn't much of an investment requirement there.

Auriza Hero's Grave

I hate this game.

Users who own Resident Evil 2, Resident Evil 3, and Resident Evil 7: biohazard on PlayStation 4 or Xbox One will be able to upgrade to the PlayStation 5 or Xbox Series versions at no additional cost.

You done good, Capcom.

The great Plateau and the early exploration right after was one of my favorite parts of the ggame. If that didn't hit for you then I'm not sure anything else will, unfortunately.

The Imbued Sword Keys are rad. There's so much damn content in this game that I have to wonder what, if anything, was left on the chopping room floor.

Once I had the requisite stats to wield the Claymore, I leveled VIG to 40 before touching anything else. For anyone interested, HP seems to scale upward until 40 and then suffers a severe softcap, so I then beefed up STR until 40. I'm currently at 70 and two-handing a +17 Claymore, so most enemies die in 1-2 hits.

Also, I'm far from an expert, but the second phase of the Radahn fight might be one of the most Souls things to ever Souls.

Claymore is at +15 and everything's dying

The most obnoxiously rare item for me at the moment is the Smithing Stone 3. I'm sitting on a bunch of 4/5s but only a single 3.

I'm playing offline

This game is good

*Pthumerian Elder flashbacks*

skullbone posted...

What the hell Gamestop?

Such a bummer, but stories like this make me thankful for my dumb luck. I walked into GS to pre-order yesterday, and they assured me they'll be handing out copies tonight an hour before close. I suppose they could be lying their ass off though...

I hope one of the preset character faces is basically Guts so that I don't have to putz around in the custom settings and disappoint myself.

Just reserved at GameStop, they're doing a Thursday night launch. Now to mull over a new TV...

Am I shooting myself in the foot by playing this on a 1080p TV from 2013? I really wanna pick this up on Friday (for PS5), but I also wanna stick with my current screen until I absolutely need to plunk down a grand on an upgrade.

Yeah I don't see a problem with parents pimping out their children like this either.

The dad's retired, presumably with a cushy enough pension to give his family comfort, and he still condones this. Fucking scum.

Mistere Man posted...

Imo there was nothing gross about prime Arnold. Now if you are talking omg the veins body builders those are less appealing, but Arnold never had the omg the veins problem imo.

Pretty much. Outside of competition (where the competitors use every trick in the book to make themselves look as supernatural as possible, and can usually only maintain that look for like a day), Arnold never looked like a science experiment or anything.

https://hips.hearstapps.com/hmg-prod.s3.amazonaws.com/images/gettyimages-2628409-master-1522429883.jpg

UshiromiyaEva posted...

And that final area walking around the solar system was rad as fuck, especially now with the context.

As someone who knew nothing (and still knows nothing) about anything else Xeno, this part floored me. I'm one of the fans who does believe that the game dips in splendor after the Fallen Arm (the Mechonis is just too samey and uninteresting compared to all the varied locales of the Bionis, and Prison Island is a pretty standard video game dungeon), so I was looking for SOMETHING to wow me again, and boy did that swerve do the job.

I vote OoT partly because seeing those dungeons fully recreated would be incredible.

I feel like the game went so savage on Melia that some of the fanbase resents Fiora as a consequence, and that's unfair since Fiora is awesome and did nothing wrong.

GuessMyUserName posted...

fallen arm best map

It's where Xenoblade became a top 5 game for me. EVERY character gets heartfelt development here, and the music is perfect for it.

UshiromiyaEva posted...

I cleaned up basically every side quest available up until this point that can be completed

Wow, based on your progress I assumed you were tackling the main game almost exclusively. You're flying through! What characters have you been primarily running?

I actually used C U Next Tuesday, Sally as a word today, and my intent WASN'T to be stupidly vulgar.

Alley OOP