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Time to let off some STEAM since I'm feeling the bloodlust. Actually just installed some Painkiller: Hell & Damnation and I'll be ripping more demons' crotches out of their groins, while shoving it down their throats. WHOOOOOOO.
Actually I remember a convo that i had with a friend. Yes this is the tone that he was on when we were talking about Call of Duty 4 and after he watched Chubzdoomer's If Doom was Done Today.
In the middle of the convo, I mentioned Pokemon being a long standing franchise that suffers from stale-tality yet its still loved by millions. I can understand him not really being "in" to Pokeymans since he never grew up with it. He grew up with mostly RTS games and FPS ones. You can say that you already know some of his background from what I mentioned though. Probably someone you'd never get along with.
Spoiler:
Is there really a legitimate reason why Call of Duty is seen as a franchise that everyone just loves to hate? Like oh you hate call of duty? YOU ARE COOL! YOU GANSTA. YOU A REAL NIGGA. LIKE REALLY? SO HATING ON CALL OF DUTY IS COOL?
its like when people hate on Pokemon, they are immediately pelted with F Bombs, Clusterduck missiles, Gatling gun rounds of salt and hot spicy pepper, teabagged, get cursed at, and be shiyte on, and are kicked in the nuts. You express your genuine liking for Call of Duty, and whatever the ***k i mentioned becomes applied to ya. Fa Duck is that about.
Its making me feel so enraged that I can kill a mountain lion, tear off its penis, and shove it to the next muthapudding escaped rapist terrorist prisoner and beat him to near death with it, while knee striking his fellow bed buddy to death.
And that's him coming from a really bad day from work, school, and stress. He's absolute gold when it comes to ranting about it, I'm always left speechless. Its even better in person when he's going Catnip trigger happy.
I replaced the expletives from his original message because obviously PC doesn't like the F, S and even D Bombs. I've gotten my fair and delicious warnings from certain modz.
My friend and I often have discussions like these while we are playing or even just chatting in Facebook. He and I share a level of emotion when we get triggered by something. While I highly understand the whole CoD hate, i try to simply justify the hate the franchise gets. That is me seeing YOUR side of the story while i listen to HIS side of the story.
Then again, most of you can easily dismiss him as some CoD Bags who enjoy the games while scoring those sweet delicious Multiplayer 9.00 or more KDAs in every game like the CoDyoutubers. Oh wait, i do enjoy the games as well yet somehow i understand the flaws of the franchise as a whole after CoD4.
Ehhh, people will like what they like and hate what they hate; no sense getting worked up about it. So-called AAA "mainstream" titles like Call of Duty get an equal amount of praise and criticism whether they deserve it or not, it's just what comes of being in the spotlight. More opinions means more chance for like minds to gather and form cliques, and if you go against the clique you're not "cool" regardless of how irrational that might be.
I guess I'm kinda immune to this kind of thing because most of the titles I enjoy are niche ones - or "trash" as people affectionately refer to them as - and I'm constantly under fire from some quarters for my dislike of Persona 4 and Fire Emblem. No accounting for taste. Someone liking or disliking a game I enjoy doesn't stop me from enjoying it any less, just as my dislike of a title is not an attack on those that like it. People take these things far too seriously sometimes...who even cares what other people play?
Speaking of that, actually, Blanc's game is apparently designed around multi. Which frustrates me because it's on the Vita and would've made for the perfect couch co-op game.
Not that I wouldn't wanna go bashing zombies with based nep with you guys, of course, but it does seem like a bit of a missed opportunity.
I mean, it'll inevitably come to PC, so there's that, but...I doubt they'd add it then.
Since we started talking about Neptunia I have been just waiting for the right time to post that
I think my dislike of Ram and Rom stems primarily from CFW Trick in Neptunia Mk.II...I can't help but be reminded of him every time I see them. They did it AGAIN in the anime, too...urgggh.
Blanc's game being delayed to May 13th is quite vexing, although I have enough to occupy me in the meantime. I've been meaning to go back and finish PP, too...the gameplay isn't great, but the script is peerless. Neptune's in-depth explanation of the game's existence in her route gets me every time.
Now with that out of the way, I'm going to post things I've noticed about Dark Souls 3, sort of a primer about what's in store. To start off, the difficulty is most certainly back. Now onto other things. Here's some carry-overs, some new things, and also some absent things.
GUIDE TO DARK SOULS 3
Please note, this is by no means everything, just what I've noted so far. I've only gotten to Undead Village so far.
*** = "I'm still not 100% sure if this is true or mostly true, so don't take my word for it completely, it's just an observation."
Carry-overs from Demon Souls
- A HUB-level world system***. In DS1 and Bloodborne, the game used a Metroidvania-style interconnected world map. In Dark Souls 2, it used a mix of HUB and an Open-world. In Dark Souls 3, the game utilizes a HUB-world system akin to the Nexus from Demon Souls. You start off the game in Firelink Shrine and from there you seemingly complete levels one by one…I don't know, I haven't played enough to see if there are branching paths, but it does seem like a HUB world. Think Princess Peach's Castle in Super Mario 64, except with less plumbers and more giant monsters that kill you in two hits.
- A magic meter or mana bar (Focus Meter or FP). This replaces the "fire-n-forget" Vancian magic system of the previous two games with a mana bar from Demon Souls. Spells and weapon special abilities use up FP. FP can be restored with a second, blue colored Estus Flask…the Ashen Estus Flask.
Carry-overs from Dark Souls 1
- The faster and more fine-tuned Parry/Riposte system of DS1 is back. Dark Souls 2 had a rather slow and confusing Parry/Riposte system that required you to wait a good two seconds until your opponent staggered and fell on his ass before delivering a riposte, leaving you open to other enemy attacks before you could deliver a counter-attack. FROM did away with that and returned to using the system used in Dark Souls 1; parry at the right moment, your opponent's attack is reflected and then you can quickly use R1 to deliver a devastating counter-attack in less than a second after you've parried him.
- You are now once again invincible while delivering a riposte or backstab. In Dark Souls 2, whenever you used a riposte or backstab, enemies could still damage you while you were stuck in the animation. No more.
- The bleak environments. Dark Souls 3 once again returns to the Dark Fantasy feel of the first game.
- Popular weapons, rings, and armor sets have made a return. This includes Artorias' Armor, Havel's Set, Lautrec's Set, and even Smough's armor. Several weapons also regain their appearance in Dark Souls. Hell, they've even brought back the Calamity Ring.
- Several covenants return. Warrior of Sunlight and Blades of Darkmoon make a return. Rosaria's Fingers are essentially the Darkwraith covenant.
- Infinite use online items. Invaders rejoice! The infinite use Red Eye Orb is back!
- Pyromancer starting class. The pyromancer once again returns as a starting class.
Carry-overs from Dark Souls 2
- The ability to warp between bonfires right from the start. Given the game's HUB-world design, this was the only natural thing to do.
- Three Weapon slots for each hand, four ring slots. Nuff said.
- Several popular armor sets, weapons, and rings make a return. Faraam set, Lucatiel's Set, etc.
- Weapon durability restores when resting at bonfires. However, now ONLY when resting at bonfires; if you die while your weapon is at risk, better rest at the bonfire or it'll still be at risk.
- Several covenants make a return in some fashion. The Blue Sentinels are back, as is the Way of the Blue. The Aldrich Faithful and Watchdogs Of Farron are essentially expies of the Bellkeeper and Rat covenants.
- The Estus Shard system. Estus flasks start off with limited uses and you need to find Flask Shards to increase their uses. The upside is, with the introduction of a second estus flask for FP, there's more shards this time around.
- Dark damage. Dark damage has survived the transition.
- Reallocation of stat points. There is once again a method to reallocate your stats in case you botch your build.
- Only Titanite and Twinkling Titanite. Now colored titanite like in Dark Souls 1…Titanite works for all weapons except those that need Twinkling.
- Torches. However, they now work like in Bloodborne…they stay on until you put it away…no more timer, and they use a weapon slot.
Carry-overs from Bloodborne
- Slightly faster combat. Read "slightly." Although combat is more tense and faster, it's still not on the level of Bloodborne. For reference, if Dark Souls 1 and 2 ran at 30 mph and Bloodborne ran at 60 mph, Dark Souls 3 runs at 40 mph.
- Limited stack of items on hand with storage for extras. All useable items now have a "stack" limit on how many you can carry on hand (ie. You can only carry up to 20 Firebombs). Any extras you buy or collect will go into a storage area in Firelink Shrine, like how extra stuff went to the Hunter's Dream in Bloodborne.
- The "Rally" mechanic returns in a different fashion. The rally mechanic from Bloodborne actually makes its way into Dark Souls 3 in the form of the ring called "Pontiff's Left Eye." With this ring, you recover HP from successive attacks on enemies. If you want it, keep hold of Vordt's Soul…don't waste it to gain a few extra souls.
- Blood, blood, blood…lots more blood. I don't know if it's on the same level as Bloodborne, but Dark Souls 3 is a lot more visceral than its predecessors. Sometimes the immediate area can be slathered in red.
What is new or has changed?
- The Ashen Estus Flask. This is a second Estus Flask you get and it's for restoring FP, not HP.
- Special abilities on weapons. Certain weapons now have "special abilities" attached to them. These abilities are activated when you two-hand the weapon and press L1 (for right-handers) or R2 (for left-handers). For example, weapons with "Parry" can parry blows like a shield can. Katanas have the "Hold" ability, where you assume a stance that follows up with a powerful attack. Crossbows have "Tackle" where you lunge into a shoulder tackle and shove enemies back. There are over 70 different abilities from what I can tell.
- Pyromancy mechanics have changed again. The mechanics of pyromancy have changed. In addition to reinforcing your flame, fire damage being a combo of INT/FAITH like in Dark Souls 2, this time around pyromancy spells themselves now actually have minimum Intelligence and/or Faith requirements in order to even use them. That's the bad news. The (somewhat) good news is that Pyromancy spells don't need as much stat requirements to use as sorceries/miracles; only three in the game require your INT or FAITH to be above 20 and none need more than 25 in a stat to use.
- Hexes are back, but they've been meshed in. Hex spells from Dark Souls 2 make a return, but they're not their own category anymore. The spells are now meshed into either of the other three magicks (Dark Sorceries, Dark Pyromancies, Dark Miracles). Affinity is now a sorcery, Dark Blade is now a miracle, etc.
- You can transfer Estus uses between flasks. By visiting Andre of Astora (yes, he's in this game), you can set how many uses each of your flasks use. So, for example, if you have 12 overall estus uses; you can put 6 into your Estus Flask and 6 into your Ashen Flask. Or you could put 8 into your Ashen Flask and 4 into your Estus Flask. Or you could put all 12 into your Estus Flask and leave none for your Ashen Flask (and vice versa). It's all up to you.
- New armors, weapons, rings, spells, etc. Of course, there'd have to be.
- "Low level" spells. These are minor spells or "cantrips" as I like to call them…spells that don't need much stats to use. Farron Dart is a weak sorcery that only needs 8 intelligence to use. Chaos Storm is a pyromancy that can be used no matter what your stats are. Heal Aid is a healing miracle that needs only 8 Faith to be able to use. Both the sorcery and miracle cantrips are available for sale at the merchant of Firelink Shrine right from the get go.
- Less quantity of weapons/armors/etc than Dark Souls 2. I'd say a bit more than Dark Souls 1, a lot more than Bloodborne, but not as much as Dark Souls 2. This may be a make or break for you, idk. Most players, even in DS2, would stick to a certain selection of weapons anyway, so this eliminates "filler" stuff that hardly anyone used if anything.
- Infusing weapons is an option at the beginning now. No more needing to track down an ember and give it to a blacksmith…so long as you have the appropriate gem and enough souls, you can infuse your weapon at nearly the beginning of the game. Hell, one of the starting gifts is a Fire Gem, so you can begin the Wall Of Lothric with a Fire weapon.
- Fewer Attunement Slots. With the number of spells you can cast now being drawn from your ability to refuel your Focus Meter, there's less attunement slots available to allocate a spell into. 50 Attunement grants you a grand total of 7 slots; 99 Attunement gives you 10. Fortunately, there are still items that increase your attunement slots. Also fortunate is that about 90% of all spells in the game need only one attunement slot and the remaining 10% only need two.
- Several new classes. Mercenary, Herald, and Assassin are new classes. Mercenary is basically the Wanderer from Dark Souls 1. Herald starts with a spear and a minor healing miracle, and some good armor. Assassin starts with two attunement slots, an estoc, and a sorcery staff with Spook as an attuned spell (silences footsteps and reduces fall damage).
- The Mound-Maker's Covenant. A new covenant for this game. Mound-makers appear as purple signs / phantoms to other players. They are essentially the covenant for chaotic-neutral players….purple phantoms can attack anyone they want; the host, white phantoms, invaders, anyone. Apparently this covenant was inspired by the little "Fight Clubbing" minigame that players invented in the previous two games. FROM noticed this and decided to make a covenant that ran with this concept in mind.
- You can now change your appearance in-game. Didn't like how your face and body type, etc. ended up in the actual game? Well, the same NPC that can reallocate your stats can now also give you the option to change your appearance/sex.
- New infusements and alterations to older ones. I'll just post this list of the infusements in this game:
Spoiler:
Physical: Standard upgrade path Fire: Adds fire damage, increases base damage, removes all stat scaling Crystal: Adds magic damage, adds INT scaling, reduces STR/DEX scaling, reduces base damage Lightning: Same as Crystal, except Lightning damage and FAITH scaling instead of INT Dark: Same as Lightning, except gives Dark damage Blood: Add Bleed damage, reduces base damage, reduces stat scalings Poison: Same as Blood, except Poison instead of Bleed Hollow: Adds LUCK scaling, reduces STR/DEX scaling, reduces base damage Blessed: Adds FAITH scaling, reduces STR/DEX scaling, reduces base damage, adds a slight health regeneration effect to wielder Deep: Gives Dark damage, increases base damage, removes all stat scaling Chaos: Adds fire damage, adds INT and FAITH scaling, reduces STR/DEX scaling Simple: Adds magic damage, slow mana (Focus meter) regeneration for wielder Sharp: Increases DEX scaling, reduces STR scaling, reduces base damage Heavy: Increases STR scaling, reduces DEX scaling, reduces base damage Raw: Greatly increases base damage, removes all stat scaling Refined: Equalizes STR and DEX scaling (i.e. from A/C to B/B), reduces base damage.
What's noticeably missing?
- Lifegems. I've searched the strategy guide and the game itself. Lifegems did not survive the transition; they're gone. Sure, Heal Aid provides a semi-replacement, but if you don't plan to use any kind of Faith build, this limits your options for healing, especially when combined with the Estus Shard system limiting your flask uses early-game. Personally, I would've done them like Blood Vials in BB…they're there, but you could only carry a certain limited number at a time (like 20 or something).
- Bonus side-dungeons***. Don't quote me on this, but…I'm talking something like the Pilgrims Of The Dark in DS2 or the Chalice Dungeons in Bloodborne…so far I'm not seeing anything like that in the guide book. Again, don't quote me on this.
- Several armors that should've made it into this game. No Giants Armor. No Mask Of The Father. Come on, FROM…the Legend must never die!
Speaking of that, actually, Blanc's game is apparently designed around multi. Which frustrates me because it's on the Vita and would've made for the perfect couch co-op game.
Not that I wouldn't wanna go bashing zombies with based nep with you guys, of course, but it does seem like a bit of a missed opportunity.
I mean, it'll inevitably come to PC, so there's that, but...I doubt they'd add it then.
I had no idea this game was even a thing... So it's basically a Neptunia version of Left 4 Dead or something? Except less shooting and more animu action?
I might look into this if it means I can play with you guys, but I really ought to play the main Nep games first... :senpai:
Weapons were good, Fashion Souls were good, Power Stances were a cool idea. Mechanically it kinda handled better aside from the parry system IMO. Truth be told on the PVP side DKS2 put in work. Everything else though....ehhh.
On the topic of souls, I'd like to point out how defense works a bit. It seems that DKS3 took a Bloodborne esque approach and gave all armor the same flat defense rating for damage reduction (example: if your total is 250 and you get hit with a 500 damage attack, it's coming in at 250), meaning that if you happen to play through with one less piece of armor, you're gonna take more damage period, no matter if it's like a cloth hat or a Havel's Helmet. It's more fashion, but heavy armors still have uses cause the heavier armor has more Damage Absorption which is percentile based. I believe it falls off to a lower scale after like...25%?
tl;dr
Light armors: Good for general stuff
Heavy armors: Good for dudes that have heavier, harder hitting weapons
Note that obviously if you have good equip load it probably doesn't matter to you, but for those who wanted to have more Glamour in their souls game without risking your defenses, this is as close as you're getting.
Hyrule Warriors is a much more enjoyable experience on New 3DS than Wii U, in my opinion...it just seems a better fit. It's actually got a more consistent frame rate too (if that's your sort of thing) and it doesn't look too bad in motion either; the altered graphical style suits it. My personal bias towards handhelds over consoles has me gravitating towards it naturally. Plus there is the extra content.
Speaking of...god, I want Marin already. I was quite pleased about Medli, but then they went and announced Marin. I have renewed hopes for Yuga and Vaati now <3
I tried the N3DS Demo kiosk, it seems alright, defiantly playable, but not the type of game I would probably play on the 3ds, though hard to tell because playing at a kiosk =/= on your own device. I just want the new stuff on the Wii U version, possibly on Hyrule Warriors 2, Wind Waker is my favorite game and its sad I don't get it. xD
I'm so broken, I got Mario Maker in Physical as a late Christmas gift, though I kinda did want it Digital. Reason is it seems like a game when you get done playing so and so, and see Mario Maker on the homescreen, not change disc. Getting digital also means getting either Super Mario 64 (More likely) or Super Mario Land II on the VC which is a nice bonus. Though the casing is also quite nice, and I'm not sure if getting a digital code (Because its cheaper then the eShop) comes with the physical art book offer. Also with the NX this or next year according to rumors and Mario Maker being ported, it would be nice to be able to sell. I already own WarioWare, Captain Toad, NES Remix, New Super Luigi Bros if I get it, and planning on selling my copy of Tank! Tank! Tank! and if I still want it to rebuy it digitally, even though that just sounds like money down the drain because its not that good. I could just buy the Case/Book/Box separately, then its weird without a disc, I'm so weird. I'm already overflowing with Wii U games space-wise anyways. :/
Is it crazy that, this time last year, I proclaimed "NO MORE DISK-BASED GAMES FOR ME", and then Amazon recently announced you get new titles for $48 with Prime and now I want to go back to getting disk-based games?
Is it crazy that, this time last year, I proclaimed "NO MORE DISK-BASED GAMES FOR ME", and then Amazon recently announced you get new titles for $48 with Prime and now I want to go back to getting disk-based games?
Well your saving $12 pretty much, so not crazy at all. Still irks me that digital Games are the same price as physical copies. I get that the dev, R&D, marketing cost still, though I doubt they sell the packaging and distribution for free.
I still much prefer physical copies for two reasons:
1. My internet sucks and I can't download modern 40+GB games without it literally taking days.
2. I enjoy having a physical collection of games that I can display, loan out, sell if I want to, etc.
Plus Best Buy GCU/Amazon discounts make it more affordable to go physical than digital. Sure, there are PSN flash sales and the like, but I still prefer to go physical unless it's an absolutely insane deal.
I have pretty much gone all digital on PC though and just download at work where we have FiOS.
If digital games weren't tied to a single account on handhelds, I might be a little more forgiving...but having to buy a game a second time if I want to play it on a different account on my Vita/3DS is just annoying.
I also refuse to pay full RRP for a digital game when I wouldn't even pay that much for a physical one, EVER. I'd never pay £50+ for a PS4 game unless it was a special edition, and £40 for a 3DS title is outrageous. Nope. Not happening. Publishers these days are such greedy bastards. I can actually understand RRP being high to a degree, because the store needs to make a profit as well. But you cut the middleman out with digital purchases, and they're the same price and/or higher no matter how old they are? Yeah. No.
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