I find it really sad that ten years on, and despite the sheer volume of fangames, there's really no Yume Nikki community anymore.
The YNFG Wiki is what it is, but it's a wiki and you can't really get to know people on a wiki without an associated forum, Uboachan's been memeshit and bots for years (and is hard to navigate anyway).
I don't know what I want really. Somewhere to discuss the latest 2kki updates with people I guess.
Amorbis killed me three more times, and I died once when some douchebag Ing along the way rammed me off a platform in the Dark Agon lobby (huge with no safe zones on the ground floor).
Amorbis, as I said before, is surprisingly difficult on this difficulty with a minimalist run. You get 50 light ammo and no refills, so you have to ration it very carefully and make sure he doesn't reflect any of it.
The sandworm phase is pretty easy, but it can also kill you in two hits. On the third sandworm phase, it's probably a good idea to spend 7 light ammo to instakill the first worm you see, just to make double-sure you don't get blindsided with three worms bouncing around. Two are manageable enough.
The armor phases are where you're most likely to get fucked over. If it's just one worm, you can catch him in an easy AI loop by standing at the close edge of the safe zone to bait him into a melee attack, back away and hit with power beam + missile, then rinse and repeat until it's ready to bomb. But with multiple heads, the laser attack can take priority over any of its other ideas. Two charged light shots will blow a head off, but it can reflect them when it initiates the attack (with no warning, natch), wasting your ammo.
The laser lasts really long, and the vertical angles it swings through make it easier to roll under than jump over. When a laser gets close, roll up to Amorbis's base until it passes, then head back into the safe zone.
The ultimate dick move here is that while you can safely bomb the last head in each armor phase because it transitions to a cutscene, the preceding ones will always chomp you for ~25 damage as the bomb goes off. And you usually have to roll way out of a safe zone to do it. So you not only have to get your window in the hardest part, but you usually need at least ~40 health after it opens up to survive taking it.
Since U-Mos blocks off the Sanctuary tunnel's save point after the prologue, and there's a super missile door blocking your ship, there are no save points between Agon and Torvus. This sucks, because right after the long and annoying dark world puzzle on the way to Torvus, you get ambushed in a small space by two dark pirates. And on Hypermode, you can no longer shatter them when frozen. So they killed me twice.
Next time, I get to fight the most infamous boss in the series on the hardest difficulty with minimal resources! YAY!
Would anyone be mad if I said that I think computer RPGs may very well be the video game genre that has aged the worst
I don't know them well, but do you mean basically the games that are sometimes called "western RPGs"?
Also, I don't see how it matters whether it makes people mad, if that's what you truly think. You should just say it and then we can have a discussion on it.
But like even relatively simpler and more modern games like KOTOR and Morrowind have super obtuse mechanics
KOTOR runs on the d20 system and essentially leaves the player to figure it out on their own and Morrowind is... fuck, I could spend all day talking about the unintuitive bullshit in Morrowind.
It's mainly because old computer RPGs took advantage of PCs' greater technological strength and became very obtuse and complicated
Even something like the original Final Fantasy is more immediately intuitive than a lot of computer RPGs that came out after it
I think it holds an appeal to people who really want to dive into a game's mechanical system and play with it.
I know the problem of not understanding mechanics and being presented with too many choices. Part of why I haven't progressed past the intro segment of NWN2...because I just don't really want to think about how to give my character advancement yet, despite wanting to see more of the story.
To the point that I've been avoiding starting up Torment again because I really don't want to have to deal with that again, even though i really want to be free of spoilers
And the annoying thing is that that TOTALLY appeals to me. It's just that KOTOR isn't properly structured around it.
What are you looking for in a game, specifically? Like, what about the mechanics would you like to play around with? Would you like the mechanics to be visible to you as the player or left under the veil of the in-universe workings?
And the annoying thing is that that TOTALLY appeals to me. It's just that KOTOR isn't properly structured around it.
What are you looking for in a game, specifically? Like, what about the mechanics would you like to play around with? Would you like the mechanics to be visible to you as the player or left under the veil of the in-universe workings?
Clarity is good, but I was talking more about how progression in KOTOR is both pretty slow paced and flows oddly compared to the pace of the rest of the game. Plus, not enough viable non-combat options.
Damn, Planescape too? I was hoping that had aged better.
Even I have to admit that the game has not held up too well. The writing's still amazing though. (It makes me really happy when people say "Undertale is the first game that's made me feel bad about being evil since Planescape: Torment" because it's like this bright line from one to the other.)
But yeah, it seriously needs an "enhanced edition" like Baldur's Gate got. The fan mods are numerous and expansive, but they can only go so far.
Unrelatedly, I've been playing ACIV lately since it was on sale at the Humble Store.
It's really cool how when I was just stumbling around doing collectible missions one of them took me to a heavily guarded enemy fortress. I bombarded its defenses with my cannons, raided the stronghold, killed anyone who got in my way (one of whom just happened to be my assassination contract target), found the war room, jumped over the map table and stabbed the commander in the chest. Then the fort was mine.
Also, the enemy AI is surprisingly realistic. As a result, just shooting someone in the head from the bushes with these noisy early 18th century pistols is actually a completely valid stealth tactic, because the enemies will hear the report but it's so loud they won't really be able to pinpoint where it comes from. So they start searching the general area, and you can run up and stab them while their back is turned.
(On the other hand, the combat system is really, really bad. As far as I can tell enemies don't actually have health anymore, you just keep whacking them until a special combo animation happens, but if you get interrupted you have to start all over again. Why would anyone think this was a good idea.)
Tonight's one of those nights where I get music from Spec Ops: The Line stuck in my head and start thinking about that game again, oh no.
You know, I don't actually think anyone here has played it? I mean, if had the time or energy to write anything interesting about it I would but really all I can do is talk about it and that gets annoying for all involved, even when the people I'm talking to have played it.
Metroid Prime 2 Hypermode minimalist: Boost guardian down. 29 deaths. The worst part is I came within one shot of killing him on the second try.
So there is actually a strategy and sort of a pattern to this guy. The 99 health strategy is basically to stay in the air and farm Inglets while he's boosting around. They have a reasonably good chance of dropping 30 health, and a charged dark shot has a good chance of light ammo. He always turns into a blob after the third boost, so your opening to bomb him is predictable. If he blob-forms outside of a boost phase, he's still vulnerable, and it's a massive opening to exhaust your light ammo on him then farm inglets.
When bombing the blob during boost phase, kite him to the edge first. The third bomb will make him dash to a random spot in the room to initiate his next boost, which could be through you if you're not along the edge. Exit morph ball immediately before your third bomb blows -- he'll immediately initiate his next boost directly at you, and it often comes out fast enough to hit if you wait until the bomb actually connects.
On an ordinary run with 4-5 energy tanks and a shitload of super missiles, he's not that bad even on Hypermode as long as you know how to fight him.
On a minimalist run with skimpy firepower and 99 health, he also still has a lot of ways to randomly bullshit you to death.
#1: He never hits a pillar before you die, which means no health drops and no inglets spawn. This was about a quarter of my attempts.
#2: Random ricochets during boost because fuck you.
#3: Inglets randomly stop dropping health because fuck you.
#4: Initiates a melee attack during the cutscene where he exits blob form. Impossible to dodge, likely to hit twice and instakill.
#5: Possession attempt's autotracking bugs out and doesn't turn off, making it undodgeable. Between the heavy hit and DoT while you're covered in shit, it does about 70 damage. If he lands it before inglets appear, you're automatically dead.
#6: Randomly getting stopped low against the sloped ceiling when attempting to jump over boost spam.
#7: When entering morph ball, you sometimes drift a few feet in your previous facing direction, even if you were moving backward. When he turns into a blob after boost spam, this will almost always carry you directly into him for ~50 damage (sometimes two hits and instakill).
Jesus Christ. Fuck this boss. The next one is Alpha Blogg and he's almost as bad T_T
Would anyone be mad if I said that I think computer RPGs may very well be the video game genre that has aged the worst
Most RPGs don't actually allow for much real role-playing any more. Or rather, they allow you to play one role - the role they decided to write the story around. There's some choice, but it's all quite shallow and doesn't have a huge amount of depth to it, generally.
Admittedly, not all old ones did, either and there's some degree of rose-tinted glassesing going on, but still.
Would anyone be mad if I said that I think computer RPGs may very well be the video game genre that has aged the worst
Most RPGs don't actually allow for much real role-playing any more. Or rather, they allow you to play one role - the role they decided to write the story around. There's some choice, but it's all quite shallow and doesn't have a huge amount of depth to it, generally.
Admittedly, not all old ones did, either and there's some degree of rose-tinted glassesing going on, but still.
I haven't found many games that are particularly conducive to role playing except... Dark Souls and SMT are like the only ones I can think of?
The thing is whether the choices are shallow is kinda irrelevant? I felt a lot more shoehorned into a role with Mass Effect than with Dark Souls even though Mass Effect bends over backwards to show you how your ~~choices affect the entire galaxy!!!!!~~.
I think the key to building a game to allow role playing is allowing the player to feel as if they are establishing meaningful context for their actions, mostly regardless of what those actions and their effects actually are.
Man is a most complex simple creature: see what he weaves, and how base his reasons for doing so.
There's nothing in Dark Souls. It's just atmosphere and tone. I honestly don't know how anything in it can be considered a roleplaying feature. Not that you can't, because you can roleplay with anything, but that none of it encourages roleplaying.
Honestly RPG is kind of an artifact name for what the computer game genre is, but at this point it feels a little odd to call it anything else due to the grandfather rule.
You might as well say a text editor is the ultimate neutral space, and thus the pinnacle of roleplaying features.
And yes, the name is an artifact and doesn't make sense anymore.
Well, writing exists, so in a way you are kinda right.
The thing is that Dark Souls also allows the player to make explicit decisions (stats to raise, characters to kill, etc.). It just never comes to any real judgement of those actions. It leaves judgement to the player.
Man is a most complex simple creature: see what he weaves, and how base his reasons for doing so.
To me, roleplaying requires guidance and structure. That's why there are pen-and-paper RPG rules, and what those rules encourage or restrict doing. Why there needs to be a consistent world, where your actions have consequences.
Who are you? What are you doing? Where are you? How are you affecting others? Why are you doing the things you're doing?
You can internalize your character's emotions and reactions all you want, you can make decisions about your character, but it doesn't mean much in a world that doesn't care about you. Judgment and the means to change the world is an important part of roleplaying.
There are times when absence of reaction can be just as interesting than presence. That being said, sometimes it's just a matter of games currently being unable to model the full complexities of human interaction. It's far more important for the game to allow the player to emotionally internalize that their own actions are meaningful, however the game chooses to do that. I just don't think the Mass Effect approach is altogether that great (to this end at least) because it almost entirely amounts to an early decision of "do I want to be Paragon or Renegade." There are certain variables the player can add in, but for all its massive effects the game just doesn't contextualize the actions of anything but a full Paragon or Renegade to any great extent.
There are times when absence of reaction can be just as interesting than presence.
That's not true. It's a trick of tone. It's "here, put something in this empty hole and use it" and you oblige and it's not a substitute for guidance or structure.
There are certain variables the player can add in, but for all its massive effects the game just doesn't contextualize the actions of anything but a full Paragon or Renegade to any great extent.
That, at least, I agree with.
Honestly, video games are bad at roleplaying in general.
There are times when absence of reaction can be just as interesting than presence.
That's not true. It's a trick of tone. It's "here, put something in this empty hole and use it" and you oblige and it's not a substitute for guidance or structure
100% of media is an empty hole asking people to fill it in
Comments
Also:
(iirc Extra Credits said that JRPGs had aged more poorly than western ones, with the exception of those influenced by western RPGs)
Also, I don't see how it matters whether it makes people mad, if that's what you truly think. You should just say it and then we can have a discussion on it.
but i'm not sure what you mean
Even something like the original Final Fantasy is more immediately intuitive than a lot of computer RPGs that came out after it
KOTOR runs on the d20 system and essentially leaves the player to figure it out on their own and Morrowind is... fuck, I could spend all day talking about the unintuitive bullshit in Morrowind.
I know the problem of not understanding mechanics and being presented with too many choices. Part of why I haven't progressed past the intro segment of NWN2...because I just don't really want to think about how to give my character advancement yet, despite wanting to see more of the story.
Assassin poems, Poems that shoot
guns. Poems that wrestle cops into alleys
and take their weapons leaving them dead
It was upsetting
Assassin poems, Poems that shoot
guns. Poems that wrestle cops into alleys
and take their weapons leaving them dead
The thing is whether the choices are shallow is kinda irrelevant? I felt a lot more shoehorned into a role with Mass Effect than with Dark Souls even though Mass Effect bends over backwards to show you how your ~~choices affect the entire galaxy!!!!!~~.
The thing is that Dark Souls also allows the player to make explicit decisions (stats to raise, characters to kill, etc.). It just never comes to any real judgement of those actions. It leaves judgement to the player.
Its a matter of decorating the hole