I think I resorted to Utsusemi spam for the first round of elemental dragons. They just hit way too fucking hard that early on.
It becomes less useful in most other scenarios, since the really scary encounters will either have multiple enemies or can Brave on you. There's little reason not to use if if you're running a ninja of course, since Utsusemi + Turn Tables is automatically at least a free evade + counter in addition to whatever else you were doing. It just becomes noticeably less cheese.
One fun combo I found was Ninja/Performer. All the fun of Utsusemi spam with BP + stat buffs on evade, but with a taunt to make it happen on purpose and Damage Dispersion for the few hits you actually take.
I imagine Swordmaster/Performer would suddenly go from luck-based to incredibly effective in the same manner.
Yeah Performer is amazing. Agnes has been rocking the bunny ears for just about every major encounter since I picked up the job, and I haven't regretted it a single turn.
Back up a Spiritist with a Performer and you can have Stillness up constantly. Make your other two characters dual Ninja/Vampire faster than the Spiritist and you can trivialize most endgame encounters -- including the jobmaster boss rush. If you want to be slightly less cheap (or less ponderous) about it, switch the Spiritist for a Templar spamming Rampart -- it's really good for the boss in the bonus dungeon.
Also remember Performers get Buff Up. If you need a mixed/magic tank, guess who's going to be really, really good at it with constant 150% all stats and a persistent taunt.
Honestly the class that shocked me with surprise usefulness was Merchant. But it's only good with very specific builds and strategies that have to span your whole party. Performer makes almost every party build better.
Like I won the first mission and I'm fine with the punishing damage if you screw up
But it was over half an hour of lv50+ Link grinding down absurdly large HP bars, and it wouldn't have been possible without Zelda's OP BBBY arrow rain to cap those keeps in one minute instead of five.
Still, it was all worth it to see those fateful words:
"Hylian Captain defeated Lizalfos!"
I don't think my jaw has ever dropped so far. The second time it happened I had to pause the game and make sure I was still playing the same one.
Skulltula: defeat the secondary boss while keeping all CPU allies above 50% health.
Oh come the fuck on. This is entirely contingent on how much trouble Darunia decides to walk into at the entrance, and how often King Dodongo decides to let you bomb his mouth instead of repeatedly rolling over him and Ruto.
Plus I have to do it with the low-level Giant's Knife instead of the badass 4-star Biggoron's. Sheik almost drops below half health by the time she becomes playable, because she keeps walking into Deku Babas or something before I can kill all the Lizalfos. Yay for special spam I guess.
Edit: I did it. Barely. Darunia and Ruto were both at almost exactly 50%. Darunia would've had a bit more slip room, but there was a wave of Assault Troops, and the last one of them dodged past me right as I hit Sheik's special so he got knocked into Darunia instead of away. Apparently Assault Troops can still nail friendly NPCs even when they're flying helplessly past them through the air with only a few HP left, because fuck you I guess -_-
I agree with all those words and will condone them if spoken elsewhere. Especially the stress on "good at spacial stuff" because that's one of the major things that separates video games from the (partially) forced abstraction of traditional and tabletop games.
I feel like it would've worked in Assault if it wasn't done so badly. I mean I liked the idea of third-person-shooter segments, but the controls were kinda slippery.
Also, I notice Start and Select both do the same thing in Hyrule Warriors. They rather desperately needed to use Select to scroll past messages, because they queue up long and fast, and key NPCs can die terrifyingly quickly. More than once, this has happened -- especially on rescue missions.
I save Darunia's dumb ass while he loses East Keep to some saboteurs, and recap it. I then lose my attack button, as if the mission is over. The following messages, starting then, display over the next full minute:
Goron Captain retreated!
Goron Captain: "That's all for me today LOL"
Lana has captured the Fairy Fountain!
Keep Saboteurs have appeared!
Darunia: <inane yammering about shit>
Darunia is in serious danger! Immediate aid is required!
Darunia: <inane yammering about shit>
East Keep is in danger!
Goron Captain is in danger! (he's way the fuck off alone in enemy territory)
Goron Captain retreated!
Goron Captain: "These guys ain't easy!"
Goron Captain: "That's all for me today LOL"
Keep Saboteurs are defeated!
Hylian Captain is in danger!
Impa: "Ramirez! Do everything!"
Goron Captain is in danger! (inside the Allied base, which is completely clear of red)
Goron Captain: "These guys ain't easy!"
East Keep has fallen to enemy forces!
You aided Darunia!
Darunia: <inane yammering about shit>
Lana has captured East Keep!
Hylian Captain is in serious danger! Immediate aid is required!
Darunia is in danger!
Darunia: <inane yammering about shit>
Hylian captain retreated!
You failed to protect Hylian Captain!
DEFEAT
God dammit Darunia and these fucking Gorons aren't even playable or mission-critical here and you're still fucking me over just by being present because your bullshit backlogged the messages so far that a mission-critical NPC went from safe to dead before I could even be notified anything was wrong!
i did enjoy being able to exit the vehicle and fight on foot in Star Fox Assault, though
Yeah, I barely heard about it until like last week or so.
It's probably the best integration of the Gamepad yet, which makes it a huge shame that it got delayed until the end of the system's lifetime. Being able to look and aim independently of where you're moving really makes a difference, it singlehandedly fixes all the little things that bothered me about Star Fox 64's gameplay. (I would probably die a lot less if I took advantage of that more.)
Hyrule Warriors ultimately does have a major problem in that its rules are very unclear. I think that's one of the major reasons I've pretty much dropped it; beyond combat and the other essentials, it doesn't explain its rules effectively enough for me to understand what it wants. Like how sometimes defeating an enemy captain will cause enemy troops to flee, but most of the time it won't, and the game never explains or illustrates why.
On a semi-related note I find myself comparing a lot of games in terms of writing and mechanical engagement to Kingdom Hearts
Like okay, Kingdom Hearts may have had awkward dialogue, and Mass Effect may have had technically better dialogue, but I never felt the need to skip through KH's talkier scenes because even if the writing isn't great, it IS very efficient and to the point. ME is well written but it's also rather overwritten. Same goes for Dragon Age.
Also KH'S gameplay is all but perfectly suited to its story. I'm still a little iffy on that front when it comes to Dragon Age and Mass Effect.
The Myst games do a great job of communicating their story with fairly minimal text and dialogue, but they're minimal all around, save for the visuals.
The Myst games do a great job of communicating their story with fairly minimal text and dialogue, but they're minimal all around, save for the visuals.
Kingdom Hearts is far from minimalist. It's just efficiently written.
The Myst games do a great job of communicating their story with fairly minimal text and dialogue, but they're minimal all around, save for the visuals.
The Myst games do a great job of communicating their story with fairly minimal text and dialogue, but they're minimal all around, save for the visuals.
The Myst games do a great job of communicating their story with fairly minimal text and dialogue, but they're minimal all around, save for the visuals.
Dark Souls
I also mean that in the sense of "no combat."
I like peaceful yet eerie games.
I'd say Shadow of the Colossus but that has combat
Give me some minimal quiet games with dark undercurrents or general weird vibes. I've already god Yume Nikki and the LSD Dream Emulator on my list, and there's this other game that I saw mentioned briefly in an Extra Credits video that looked super unsettling whose name escapes me which involves a digital clock and a picture with palm trees.
Give me some minimal quiet games with dark undercurrents or general weird vibes. I've already god Yume Nikki and the LSD Dream Emulator on my list, and there's this other game that I saw mentioned briefly in an Extra Credits video that looked super unsettling whose name escapes me which involves a digital clock and a picture with palm trees.
The Static Speaks My Name. It's like five minutes long.
Give me some minimal quiet games with dark undercurrents or general weird vibes. I've already god Yume Nikki and the LSD Dream Emulator on my list, and there's this other game that I saw mentioned briefly in an Extra Credits video that looked super unsettling whose name escapes me which involves a digital clock and a picture with palm trees.
Give me some minimal quiet games with dark undercurrents or general weird vibes. I've already god Yume Nikki and the LSD Dream Emulator on my list, and there's this other game that I saw mentioned briefly in an Extra Credits video that looked super unsettling whose name escapes me which involves a digital clock and a picture with palm trees.
The Static Speaks My Name. It's like five minutes long.
Give me some minimal quiet games with dark undercurrents or general weird vibes. I've already god Yume Nikki and the LSD Dream Emulator on my list, and there's this other game that I saw mentioned briefly in an Extra Credits video that looked super unsettling whose name escapes me which involves a digital clock and a picture with palm trees.
Give me some minimal quiet games with dark undercurrents or general weird vibes. I've already god Yume Nikki and the LSD Dream Emulator on my list, and there's this other game that I saw mentioned briefly in an Extra Credits video that looked super unsettling whose name escapes me which involves a digital clock and a picture with palm trees.
Comments
That's quite the vintage meme.
Video games are *good at spatial stuff* guys you don't have to just stick to being a recreation of D&D3.5 with some backstabbing mechanics tossed in
i did enjoy being able to exit the vehicle and fight on foot in Star Fox Assault, though
Like okay, Kingdom Hearts may have had awkward dialogue, and Mass Effect may have had technically better dialogue, but I never felt the need to skip through KH's talkier scenes because even if the writing isn't great, it IS very efficient and to the point. ME is well written but it's also rather overwritten. Same goes for Dragon Age.
Also KH'S gameplay is all but perfectly suited to its story. I'm still a little iffy on that front when it comes to Dragon Age and Mass Effect.
Kingdom Hearts is far from minimalist. It's just efficiently written.
kinda concerned about Mother Brain
that's the orange fast-fire beam
Actually, though, I'm more concerned about the first phase, where you MUST use missiles. Because I don't have many of 'em.
In fact, the rest of the game was rather easy to get through with only 5 missiles and 5 super missiles.
I'm sure it's possible to do better but I'm not that determined