I need to make a thread (259,846 views)

[Mario the black knight]

Ugh, the end of FF1 is so annoying.

They added a bunch of new stuff to the final dungeon for the 20th anniversary edition on PSP, and it results in this massive difficulty spike in the mobs, and these REALLY tedious extra puzzles. And it all culminates in this massive unavoidable superboss that nuked me once already, then I keep getting stuck on the dumb puzzles, this is my third attempt and I am just so bored with it.

I was fine with most everything else up to this point, but this is just dumb.

[tim]

i played the ps1 remake of ff1 back, i think in 8th grade. i remember i never beat it because i got to the final dungeon and that day i got a TERRIBLE stomach virus, like the worst ever, and after a couple days of that i never got back into the swing of the game.

[tim]

i also remember the thing i ate before the stomach virus were those sliced garlic breads you put in the oven. for years if i even looked at a box of those i'd feel nauseous. it probably wasn't them but something else that actually caused it, but still i had the psychological association.

[Mario the black knight]

Funny, since I am now playing when I am at my sickest.

I actually started playing it in the waiting room for my therapists each week, but since that ain't happening now, so I just play it here now. I wanna beat it so I can say I beat FF1, partially as research as well. I can't claim to be an authority on good RPGs and not have had made it through FF1

The PSP version is mostly based on the PS1 version, with the previously stated additions, like I think the sprites are the same for both.

I actually remember you playing FF1 and dropping it, so it must have been during that time, I think that was after we sat on the phone for a half an hour while you were beating Ruby Weapon the first time with KotR + Mime

I remember those frozen garlic breads, those are just not good, especially when you know how to make your own garlic bread

[tim]

i remember i liked the game a lot. very old school. i remember people saying the original NES version was way harder.

[Mario the black knight]

Ehh, up to this point I've thought it was fine, I can see how it became a hit back in the day.

Even the modern version has a lot of the same pitfalls that games of that era had in terms of not always being clear on what the next objective was or where to go next, but most games of that era were very stingy with text and such due to space constraints, and often relied on outside sources to help players, like the Nintendo Power Strategy Guide.

This game has reinforced my dislike of random encounters though. Since playing Chrono Trigger, Chrono Cross, and Earthbound, I just find myself being frustrated by the jarring modal shift between battle and overworld that random encounters create, you want to be doing one thing, but are forced into another. Theres just something nice about being able to see the fight coming, and knowing you can clear an area, even if just temporarily. It'll be extra work, but I'm definitely gonna do visible encounters in my game for sure.

Well, the NES version was just a victim of very janky programming, like all the FFs until about IX. Like in the original FF, enemies didn't have a concept of defense, just HP. And if you had everyone attack 1 target, but the first attack killed that target, everyone else would just attack nothing. And just a lot of other quality of life issues like that, like most name fields having a limit of 4 characters, so most of the spells had nonsensical names and so on.

[Mario the black knight]

So I beat that superboss........

Apparently, it WASN'T mandatory...

I just went into the wrong room. It was bonus content, just like the other super dungeons. Explains the difficulty spike...

Whatever, I'm gonna go beat the game now.

[Mario the black knight]

Well, I did it.

I finally beat Final Fantasy 1.

So if you ignore the extra content, I think that raises my opinion of the game significantly

The final dungeon was simple, but way more fun than the slog that was the Labyrinth of Time. The monster fights were about on level, I was probably in the upper end of the spectrum on level, at about 58. In the original game, the max level was Lv 50, so I'm not sure how they rebalanced stat growth in relation to that, but my Knight and Master were at 999 HP for the final fight, so I suspect maybe they just raised the cap, with very little actual change to the stat growth.

I mostly just strolled over the mobs in the dungeon itself, but Chaos was perfect, not a pushover, but not a drawn out, ball busting slog either. A good, glorious final battle, then the slightly drawn out final text crawl that wraps up the ending, then The Prologue (probably one of the best songs in the franchise) and the credits.

Overall, the game is simple, obviously, it was one of the first in the genre, so no complex, modular systems for abilities, the story is simple (but definitely not bad, I've definitely seen worse, especially games that try to be complex and fail, I'll take this over those any day), and the dungeon designs were mostly based on misdirection and causing more random battles, which is extremely annoying, but it's definitely a good game.

Pretty much every game in the main series (1-10) is better (though one could argue II is worse, much more grindy, and an unrefined implementation of what I would consider a good idea), but thats only because they were iterations on that core idea. FF1 is like if you stripped Final Fantasy down to it's most basic possible implementation. Every other game after that built and improved on that formula, something not every RPG franchise can say they've done (until X at least).

Of course, this version of the game sorta rounded some of the rough edges of the original release, but it seems like the parts that matter stayed intact, theres still something of a disconnect when some events happen to know where to go next, and still really strange design decisions in the dungeons, like just chests with random crap like potions and starter equipment in endgame dungeons, so through the second half of the game I used the Nintendo Power Guide for the original game, which made it feel more authentic, and gave me enough wrong information to improvise around that it wasn't just like following GPS or playing a modern AAA game.

Overall, I enjoyed it. I feel like I learned a lot about the roots of the series. And now I can say I beat it, something not everyone can say, but someone designing an RPG should be able to say for sure.

I've sorta had a few games I felt stuck in before tonight, so this has been a bit cathartic, clearing a big game off the list. My next Final Fantasy might be a replay of VII, just to commemorate the attempt to sully the legacy of the franchise, and to cleanse myself of images of the new one. Haven't decided for sure yet.

[Mario the black knight]

www.youtube.com/watch?v=h2AZ_WdIvmI

ugh, why wasn't THIS what the FFVII remaster looked like

The idea of making the models look more like the Nomura concept art is so awesome. The cel shading makes them look SO good. It actually makes the art style of the game more consistent!

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[Mario the black knight]

Why can I not delete spam posts? I'd very much like to do that.

[Mario the black knight]

So I have been playing Bloodstained again for Halloween. The Zangetsu DLC came out a little while back so now I'm doing a Zangetsu run of the game

On one side, it is fun to be able to listen to David Hayter scream like a maniac on command. It is a lot like playing as Richter in SotN or Julius in Aria, in terms of being a more combat focused experience. But it definitely feels like the reason they delayed it for so long is because they didn't know how to make it as fun as playing as Miriam. And really, they didn't put too much thought into it either

So basically Zangetsu doesn't have access to any type of items, no equipment, no consumable items, nothing. But for some reason, he can still collect money, which is useless because none of the merchants are in the game, and you know....even if you could buy things...you can't use them, because Zangetsu has no access to items are previously mentioned. Clearly it's very shoehorned in. Like they just wanted you to have SOMETHING to collect, or even just left it in from the normal game and didn't bother taking it out.

You start with all the abilities you will ever get, so you basically have all the mobility skills to start, so the progression is a bit out of wack. And is solely based on your level and the strength of enemies in the area. You are a bit overpowered to start, but become weaker as the game goes on in general, even though you level up over time and game menial stat boosts from that.

You get all of Zangetsu's moves as a boss, which gives you some versatility in battle, and some of the moves are cool, but quite often I feel like Miriam's moves were just better, so it's not like Julius or Richter where you feel cool and more effective in battle.

I'm about 70% though the map and have only been playing about 3-4 hours, compared to my regular playthrough where I got dozens of hours out of it. Theres a good chance in 1-2 more sessions I'll be 100% again. A little disappointing for how long we waited for it, but it's OK, it's still worth finishing

[Mario the black knight]

So I am at the final boss, and just stuck on it because it's not great. I guess I never realized how poorly designed the final boss is because I totally strolled over it as Miriam in the first run, because I had 100%'d the game and had the best weapons and armor and abilities and just crushed the fight like it was nothing.

It's clear Iga just never had to think about making actual villains before, because he could always fall back on the classic movie monsters and such, and when you have basically the king of villains as your final boss in Dracula, it's hard to replace him with something that can match up when you don't have him anymore. In all honesty all of the Castlevania villains who weren't Dracula always fell short in his Castlevanias, like Shaft from SotN, or that douche I can't remember the name of from Aria or Sorrow or Issac from Curse of Darkness.

But like....the big twist at the end that the lame ass shopkeeper is the final boss is just so weak. They tried to set it up like a swerve, but foreshadowed it so obnoxiously hard that it was not a surprise at all. Then they bring in Bael for the second phase as this like super demon power she wields (despite being a NUN, OOOOOH HOW EDGY!!!), which is this big random endless loop of weird penis monsters with animal heads which feels like the most poorly thought out bossfight ever. It's not difficult or tactically interesting, it's just this boring DPS race that he wins basically because my level is too low, because this fight was clearly not designed for Zangetsu, as basically nothing really was, so it is just not fun.

Also, Den of Behemoths might be the laziest area in a game like this ever. It's clearly just a palette swap of a previous area with most of it's backgrounds, except 4 times the size, where all the enemies are just bigger versions of small, annoying enemies from earlier in the game that are just not fun to fight at all. Basically, they needed to fill out a large section of the map, and they did so in the laziest way humanly possible. It's just awful to play and really a notable drop in quality from the rest of the maps in the game.

I think Zangetsu mode has slowly lost it's charm for me as I've played. I like that it's possible, but I would have liked it more if more thought had been put into it to give some of the areas Zangetsu specific challenges. Theres also the fact that the gameplay isn't even unique the way Belmonts were compared to the Alucard-Like characters. 75% through the main game Zangetsu gives his sword to Miriam, so you already get to play with his playstyle for the most part, so it's not much of a departure compared to the difference between Alucard and Richter, or Soma and Julius. They delayed this mode like crazy, and put so little thought into actually making it feel unique. It really is a shame.

[Mario the black knight]

So after a lot of boring level grinding, I finally beat Bael.

It was less exciting than it sounds. But for ONCE, they actually added some original content in the game, and the only cutscene you get as Zangetsu so far.

After the Bael fight, it takes you to the hall where you beat Gebel, the lame, fake boss they always start these games with like Shaft or Graham. You enter the room and Miriam is there, and she is now evil, alluding to the bad ending you get if you kill Gebel normally, where the force that was controlling Gebel takes over Miriam. And she isn't just the lame doppleganger you meet mid game, she has ALL the powers the player gets at the end of a 100% run, so she is pretty powerful.

Only took completing 99.6% of the map to see something original...

[Mario the black knight]

Beat it. Now have a clear file for Miriam and Zangetsu. Dark Miriam is an OK fight, but it gets a little bullshitty in phase 3. Still better than Bael though.

Apparently yesterday they released a new secret character. I was hoping it was gonna be OD, basically this game's Alucard knock off, but instead it was the weeb anime girl vampire who sucks.

I probably won't play this game again until OD comes out.

Now I've got nothing to play on my PS4 again until the AEW game comes out, if thats good.

[Mario the black knight]

Finished Hollow Knight last night.

I thought I'd revisit it after playing Bloodstained, since that was the order I played the games in last time. I had a couple of little sidequests to handle that sorta fell to the wayside that I needed to finish up on my file

Basically, I had to get the true ending, which required following up on The Knight's backstory, which was really interesting. The final Hollow Knight battle gets way cooler once you have the conditions fufilled for the True Ending, because Hornet jumps in and helps you set up the true fight.

Hornet is just the coolest, I can't wait until Silksong.

Anyway, the lore in this game is so cool. It's interesting to compare Bloodstained vs Hollow Knight. Bloodstained has great art, and a lot of variety in combat, but the lore and storyline are garbage. Hollow Knight has such an imaginative world, great lore, and really well written dialog, but the art style leaves something to be desired (even if the animations are super good and read really well) and the combat options are a bit limited, but I definitely think the boss encounters especially are WAY better designed, like Soul Master and Hornet are just SUCH well designed, memorable fights, something I feel like Bloodstained lacked. Basically Zangetsu was the only actually good boss battle. I have to wonder though if maybe the limited combat options in Hollow Knight actually lead to it having such a focused design. Hard to say for sure.

Basically, if you could fuse the best parts of Bloodstained and Hollow Knight, you'd have the perfect Metroidvania game. Though, some elements of each game stand in contrast to each other....so it's hard to say if that would even be possible, like the elegance of some of Hollow Knights systems vs the verbosity of some of Bloodstained's crafting and ability systems.

It's just very interesting. But yeah. Hollow Knight. very good.

[Mario the black knight]

A fight literally years in the making has finally been completed.

After years of hiatus, and a bunch of wandering around trying to remember how to play the game, I finally gathered up the knights and beat the Ivory King.

I really wish that stupid melee at the beginning with all the charred knights wasn't in that fight, because it just feels so cheap, even with the full squad. The pyromancers were just infuriating.

But the fight with the Ivory King was so much fun, when I finally got to it. It reminded me a lot of Artorias or King Allant (the demon, not the fish), fast paced, lots of move variety, and great music.

Just a few more little loose ends to tie up before finally wrapping it up and moving on to Dark Souls 3.

[Mario the black knight]

I picked up this game on sale the other day called Art of Rally....and it's actually pretty great. I just spent like over 2 hours playing it when I expected to just play 1.

It's super artsy as the name would imply, and has one of those retro synthwave soundtracks, but the whole package is really aesthetically pleasing. The gameplay is just the right balance of arcade-ie and simulation. You are basically racing through the "golden" age of rally racing, and have to do a tournament each year. You unlock a new car for each year, based on iconic rally cars of the time, though different names and what not because licensing.

I started out with their version of the classic Mini Cooper, it was great.

The only thing is I wish they had more variety in camera view, it only does really far away from the car above the car camera, so you can see more of the scenery (which is HUGE on an ultrawide monitor) I just sorta wish it had cockpit view. It's all low poly so I can understand why the cars don't have cockpit models, but still, it would be nice.

They just did a really good job of making everything seamless, the soundtrack plays constantly, one scene flows into the next really nicely in terms of transitioning between races, and they make it really easy to pick up and put down.

The controller compatibility for this game is amazing as well, I've been on a string of games that have had terrible controller support, if any at all, so this was a welcome change. It's the first game I've played where vibration actually works on the controller, so thats a nice touch.

It's just a nice time killer game, and the first 3D game I've played on this PC.

[Mario the black knight]

So I finally beat Dark Souls 2: Scholar of the First Sin.

This time around I absolutely melted Nashandra. Once you've gathered all the crowns, Vendrick gives you his blessing, which makes you totally immune to the effects of the curse, including being cursed, which renders Nashandras curse based attacks basically ineffective. which from a lore perspective is kinda cool. I also kinda liked the Aldia fight, you couldn't just roll up on him and wail on him, you had to time your big hits instead. Took me 2 or 3 tries, but I whooped on him too. Mostly because I was over SL 200, and most of my stats were at 50, so not much is scary to me anymore, ha ha.

Overall, SOTFS is definitely the difinitive DS2 experience, it's not even close.

Now I can finally start DS3! only......many years later.... >.>

[Mario the black knight]

So last night I tried out a game I got in the winter sale, that I got because I was shocked to see it available for Linux

Sega released Streets of Rage 4 on Linux along with other platforms, and it has really impressed me so far.

Really good polish, great visuals, really good soundtrack, and it definitely feels like the original Streets of Rage.

It just has SO many nice QoL features, like when you run out of lives, you can restart the level instead of restarting the entire game, theres this nice system for "lifetime" score that you use for unlocking stuff which is cool, and they have such clever ways of demonstrating new mechanics by having enemies hit the new hazards with really good logic, like having them try to pick up weapons in pools of poison and having them break stuff that you might not realize you could break, and so on.

Artistically, it is just so impressive, like the animations are just so smooth, great smear frames and rubberhose effects, great rimlighting effects on the sprites, great particle effects, even the menus are super slick. It's faithful to the classic look in a lot of ways, while still having personality of it's own. Also, it lets you pick which buttons it shows for controller buttons, between PS, Xbox, and Switch controller icons, which is super nice.

One of the cool things is sometimes the cops jump into the fights, and they will fight you and the other thugs, so the enemies will infight, it makes for interesting dynamics

It's good to see a major publisher like Sega supporting Linux. It was developed by some smaller company, I'm guessing it was a similar deal to Sonic Mania. Still, I'm hoping this leads to more Sega games coming to Linux, I'd love to play PuyoPuyo x Tetris or any of their other games in the future. The online features straight up don't work in the GoG version, but I think that is a GoG thing rather than a Linux thing, and honestly thats no big deal for me.

[Mario the black knight]

Started DS3 last night.

Beat the first boss, the guy with the bonfire sword in his chest. Haven't died yet.

Had to play as the knight, since there is no Wanderer, and also I like the Longsword and the armet he wears in this one. Good Milanese style rig, though the breastplate is too long, as usual.

It's weird not having super low equip burder, and being super speedy, and also not having a parry shield like I did in DS2. How did I live with parrying with the Black Knight Shield in DS1...?

[Mario the black knight]

Just played some DS3

Man, the first area, The Lothric High Wall or whatever, has SUCH Demon Souls vibes, they have so many setups that feel like Boletaria, least of which being the angry wyvern (which I will say is way better than the ones from Demon Souls, better positioning, much better counter play, like a better Hellkite Drake), but theres that one hall that has a bunch of dudes at the end, some with crossbows, some with swords, and you have to meticulously kite them one at a time? Or the room with the dude with the firebombs with all the barrels, it felt like I was playing a more mature Demon Souls, I loved it. Even Firelink looking like The Nexus felt like they were calling back to their roots.

Also, I LOVE the Lothric Knights. Their design is cool, but also how he plays on expectations.

Like, if you've gotten savvy to Dark Souls combat, you know to circle right handed enemies counter clockwise, on their shield side, because it means you are generally safer if they decide to attack, because you are further from their weapon. The Lothric Knight plays on this so well, because he just backhands you with his shield if you try that, and I do it so instinctively that he just kept getting me with it. It was so refreshing to be surprised by an enemy like that.

Also, what the hell are these like, goddamn crazy hollows that just explode into eldrich horrors out of nowhere? I've encounter a few and they always jumpscare me.

I discovered you can shoulder aim the crossbows now, so thats cool. Too bad they are so hilariously and blatantly outclassed by the longbow immediately. Like the longbow has higher base damage, it scales off stats, which the crossbow just straight up doesn't, and the ammo for the crossbow is actually MORE expensive than arrows for the longbow. Like there is literally no reason to use the crossbow, it's kind of sad actually.

At least I'm starting to get the hang of parries again. I can SOMEWHAT reliably parry enemies now, though not completely consistently like I could before. Not sure if the shields all have unique parry frames like they did in DS2. I'll probably run a parry shield again like I did in DS2 if I can.

[Mario the black knight]

Beat Vorgt the armored dog person guy from the valley.

Decent fight, a new play on the whole "giant dude in armor" trope I guess. Also, Frostbite ain't shit.

I think I had forgotten this feeling of creeping around every corner, with literally every enemy capable of killing me. I don't even think I felt this suspense while playing DS2.

Also, this new system where you have a much more limited inventory for consumables/ammo is really good, and the way it automatically restocks your inventory from storage at bonfires is awesome.

Also, it took them 3 games....but you can finally sell things. Simply amazing. Those 35 pairs of shitty pants you get from the shittiest enemy that I will never wear finally have value!

[Mario the black knight]

My build is really coming together

I infused my Lothric Knight Sword to be Sharp, so now it has insane Dex scaling. Combined with the fact that for whatever reason this sword has a boosted critical hit modifier, this sword is basically perfect for my fighting style, combined with the Target Shield. This is the sword I wish I had in all the other games.

While in Cathedral for the Deep, I found the end game armor set I used in DS2, which in this game is called the Drang set, so that's cool to have, it's like I picked up where I left off in 2, only way way better.

Speaking of way way better, the Abyss Watchers boss fight is way better than any boss fight in DS2. I just love everything about it, including the setup beforehand with the Darkwraiths who come in and fuck up all the guards outside, you wonder at first what they are doing there, and you hear the fighting going on inside the boss arena, it seems like you are getting caught up in some shit. Then you realize, of course there would be Darkwraiths, servants of the abyss, trying to kill Abyss Watchers, so it makes the setup for the fight really cool

Then you get into the fight itself, and see who is inside, the Abyss watchers being who they are fight a lot like Artorias, but different enough that it feels distinct. Plus their fighting style is super cool, fast paced, just my favorite style of fight, like a true duel.

I also love that one of them seems to be corrupted, so every so often one of them attacks the other two and it breaks down into this crazy free for all, which is so cool. It does a good job of making it less of a clusterfuck than all the other group fights in the series where they just pile on top of you and it becomes this merciless gang bang. Every so often you get some help to even the odds.

Then when they all sorta fuse their power together into the second phase of the fight, and he gets the fire sword, it just gains a whole different dimension, and feels like an entirely different fast paced fight, where you already learned their pattern, but now you have to account for the fire after effect as well. You basically can't parry him anymore, and have to fight him completely differently. I've gotten close to beating him like 3 times, and I've enjoyed it every time.

Such a cool fight.

I just love that I've been though quite a few boss fights so far, and every single one has been unique, and only two of them featured a big dude in armor, and the second one hardly counts, because he was like part dog or something. Every encounter has felt unique and interesting in a different way.

[Mario the black knight]

So I went back and shot the dragon at Lothric high wall with arrows, figured I could take him.

He actually wheeled back and breathed fire on me from a place I thought was safe. He didn't kill me, but honestly, kudos to them for even considering that possibility.

Eventually I made him fly away. I was expecting more than a Large Titanite Shard, but eh, it's fine, I need those right now for upgrading my weapons. Interestingly, my sword and morning star have the exact same damage output right now, the sword with stat scaling and the mace with raw base damage. They are both upgraded to get the most out of dex, so it is fascinating to see how perfect of a weapon combo I have with those.

In other news, Irithyll Dungeon scared the living hell out of me, made me actually yell with a jumpscare. One of the corpses lurched up and yelled when I took an item from it, and it was louder than literally every other sound effect I've heard in the game so far, even if you played all of them at all at once at the same time.

It's amazing how much of a Demon Souls throwback it is. It feels JUST like Tower of Latria. Real creepy atmosphere, jumpscares, the really creepy powerful guards, it's all there. I just hope the final boss of it is better than Tower of Latria's. I mostly went back to Lothric High Wall just so I could feel powerful, ha ha ha