• Tag Archives Action RPG
  • Elden Ring – First Impressions

    With the whole ‘open world’ thing I was kind of hoping that this was going to be more like Dragon’s Dogma than a classic Souls game.

    It’s not. It’s extremely Dark Souls in terms of gameplay (albeit with Sekiro‘s stealth system), which I consider notably inferior balance-wise to DD. The exploration/discovery aspects on the other hand are far, far better. Exploring the various nooks and crannies of the map actually feels legitimately rewarding, with plenty of unique or unusual things to find scattered about… which puts me in a bit of a bind.

    I want to keep playing to collect stuff, but don’t really want to deal with bullshit enemies or the ‘dodge 10 attacks, strike once or twice’ style of boss fight the game seems especially fond of. Well, I’ll play it by ear I guess with a focus toward a Dex/Arcane build targeted toward weapons like Eleonora’s Poleblade, Rivers of Blood, Reduvia, Ripple Blade, and the Serpent Bow.

    Some extremely important things to do right at the start which aren’t immediately obvious:

    – Clearing the Tutorial area rewards a gesture.
    – Once you get outside, head north to find a ruined church.
    – Inside is a merchant and a weapon upgrade location.
    – Follow the road northeast to reach Gate Ruins (the small cross on your map).
    – Activate a save point just north of it to unlock the leveling system and horse riding.
    – Clear the ruins to find a map and an item which unlocks the weapon enchantment system.
    – Farm levels/Smith Stones if you want, then rest until nightfall and warp back to the church.
    – A new NPC will be there who’ll unlock the spirit summoning system.

    Now all the basics are available to explore as you please.


  • A Few Games

    Atelier Sophie 2 ~The Alchemist of the Mysterious Dream~ – Gameplay-wise there wasn’t any issue, it’s exactly what you’d expect from the franchise in terms of gathering/crafting and the combat is basically the same as the first Sophie game. The problem is the visuals; everything is very zoomed-in to the point I kind of felt like I was playing an emulated N64 game.

    Bravely Default II – This game, meanwhile, has a decent field of vision but unfortunately suffers from incredibly dumb character behavior. Ended up shutting it off in disgust mid-cutscene.

    Ys IX: Monstrum Nox – Chronologically taking place after the earlier Ys games (Dogi lookin’ real old) this one also features some dumb character behavior. Not enough to be a deal killer on its own, but when combined with the lack of environmental variety (you’re trapped in a single town and its subterranean tunnels) certainly starts tipping the scales in the wrong direction. A bigger issue personally however is the combat; it’s extremely fast-paced and heavy on enemy numbers. To the point where Flash Guard/Dodge can’t really be used strategically in non-boss fights and you’re often reduced to just button-mashing to clear everything out.

    Partway through the third chapter at the moment and unsure I want to bother pressing on. Think I’m going to take a break to poke at Elden Ring for a bit instead, maybe if I bounce off that game like I did Sekiro and the original Dark Souls (while I’m fond of Souls-like games, actual Souls games tend to just feel clunky to me) I’ll give it a second chance.


  • Grim Dawn: RoT Mod Revisited

    So despite my earlier comments I decided to take another character through the Reign of Terror Mod. An Assassin/Nightblade this time, as Assassin was one of my favorite D2 classes.

    My opinion regarding the lack of balance didn’t change in the early game; if anything it hardened due to how much more powerful Dragon Talon was compared to the other starting attack abilities. But then a funny thing happened after unlocking Claws of Thunder… all my memories of blazing through D2 insta-gibbing hoards of enemies with janky abilities came rushing back the moment it triggered.

    Like, the unbalanced builds and items are the entire point of the game. Strange how I forgot that.

    Just to properly compare, I also ran my Deceiver and Druid builds through Elite (after slightly revising them, different gun/boots for the former and components/devotions for the latter) to avoid looking at unmodded GD through nostalgia glasses. And ultimately I still like base GD a whole lot more: The enemy variety, class/build variety, (semi-) reactive quests, destructive environments, and the extreme amount of work that went into balancing all the various items and abilities against one another.

    Not sure now whether I want to drag my remaining six post-Normal builds through Elite, try out the RoT’s Barbarian class (one thing I loved about D2‘s Barbarian was that it could dual-wield 2H weapons), or try something ‘new’.

    Basically, I’ve reached the point where I can’t really theorycraft new builds without stepping on the toes of my existing ones. So I thought I might try out a sort of roguelike approach to the game. Essentially start a new Hardcore character, then pick the first class based on whatever abilities the first epic drop has and second class based on the abilities of the first legendary.

    Could be interesting… or could be aggravating. I think the most annoying part would be having to wait for level 50 (the point legendaries start dropping) to pick up the 2nd class, but then again it might give me a reason to use abilities and ability combos I normally wouldn’t. I guess we’ll see.


  • Grim Dawn: Reign of Terror Mod

    Some time back, either earlier this year or last year, I had the urge to replay Diablo II. So I did… only to find that compared to Grim Dawn there was just too much missing in the quality of life department. Flash-forward to this week where I discovered the Reign of Terror Mod, which aims to re-create the first two Diablo games.

    A goal it succeeds at remarkably well. Perhaps a bit too well.

    While there is indeed no need to deal with equipment repair, lack of consumable stacking, slow health/mana regen, nor lack of stash space or respec options while playing this Mod, some of D2‘s less pleasant aspects are still faithfully imported. Namely the issues of massively oversized maps full of trash mobs (particularly damning in Acts IV-VI) and Hero monsters being inexplicably surrounded by 6+ ‘Minions’ with 5-10 times the health of other enemies. There’s a damn good reason Maphack was a required utility when playing back in the day and it wouldn’t have hurt anything to scale down the map size by about a quarter.

    Annoyances aside I ended up hacking & slashing my way through Normal difficulty (unlike base Grim Dawn the Veteran option here is an actual hard mode option which should be avoided by new players) with a 50/50 Amazon-Arcanist combo. Ended up at level 55 with 33 Devotion points; Wraith, Candle, Quill, Chariot, Widow, and Vulture. Main skills being Lightning Strike, Elemental Exchange, Overload, Mental Alacrity, and Inner Focus, with Inner Sight and Valkyrie at half-max (including item bonuses). Elemental Balance, Sphere of Protection, Conversion, Arcane Will, Star Pact, Critical Strike, Retreat, Elemental Strike, and the Dodge line all at 1 point (pre-item bonuses).

    My biggest complaint, aside from the map size issue, ultimately ends up being a notable lack of balance. Once you get the Horadric Cube and can make your first level 20ish runeword weapon, basically every non-set drop becomes worthless; I used the Serenity Spear (a level 22 craftable item) straight through Baal, Diablo, and hoards of level 50+ monsters no problem. Attack/Defense ratings also seem to be out of wack. You basically need 1k in chapter II, 1500 in chapter IV and over 2k by the end of VI. Those are insane numbers for normal difficulty. Particularly considering you don’t have access to equipment augments here.

    To have any chance of hitting anything, you’ll have to rush your class’ base Attack-boosting or Defense-reducing skills (for me that was Overload and Inner Sight). That in turn puts a damper on your damage output and defense, making much of the early game a stop-go affair of blazing through most trash mobs only to suddenly get nearly 1HKO’d by a particular monster type or Hero pack (meanwhile main bosses are just massive damage sponges). Which brings me to a couple other legacy issues: Mana Burn and damage-immune enemies.

    Diablo II didn’t have an extensive resistance reduction system and featured enemies that were completely immune to particular types of damage. Grim Dawn in comparison does have a complex RR system which let’s you exclusively focus on one damage type above all others along with a ton of conversion abilities to support it. You could even say the entire game’s built around that concept. This Mod disregards that and includes the damage-immunes, which can result in even more momentum-killing tedium.

    And then there’s Mana Burn. Why would you faithfully re-create such a massively unbalanced aspect of the game? There’s no rhyme or reason behind which enemies have the ability, the player themselves can’t use it or defend against it, and quite a number of enemies inexplicably being immune to mana leech only compounds the issue. It’s thankfully not present in Act VI (the D1 re-creation), but that only makes the hassle of the previous chapters all the more galling.

    At this point I don’t think I’m going to replay it until the apparently intended (based on the ‘to-do’ list) item balance overhaul occurs. Possibly not even then since while it’s certainly better than the base Diablo II experience, it’s notably inferior to the base Grim Dawn experience. Honestly I’d probably like a Mod that balanced the D2 classes and items to match GD‘s content a whole lot more.


  • WARHAMMER: CHAOSBANE

    I had been waffling on this game for some time now when I saw it was once again on sale for $20. Which seemed like an acceptable price for the base game plus all the DLC.

    Ended up… decent, I guess? Rather than Diablo, it reminds me more of Shadows: Heretic Kingdoms in structure, gameplay, and visual style. It does a few interesting things, such as having all skills unlock as you level (you can only equip a limited number), not having a level cap (legendary levels go into increasing a unique set of triggerable passive abilities), and not having any merchants (you donate equipment in exchange for progress toward unlocking extra skills).

    And while repetitious enemies and backtracking are still a problem, fortunately many of the early complaints about the game appear to have been addressed over time. The only issues I’ve had with it so far (just completed the base game with the archer; Health Regen/Poison build) beyond the repetition issue were not being able to re-enter areas if I accidentally left them, and one time it looked like my character had been deleted. Turned out the game just created a new profile and copying over the data from the old profile (in the “Warhammer Chaosbane/Data/Save” directory) to the new one restored them.

    Some things to be aware of:
    – There’s little reason to wear +Loot Quality gear. Save a set for opening chests though.
    – The 3rd level of a skill is not always better than the 2nd level.
    – On the inventory and skill screens, take note that some functions (appearance changes, DLC skills, Legendary skills) appear via small tabs on the very bottom.
    – Raise the difficulty as soon as possible (the difficulty system here is like Diablo III‘s). I started on Normal and raised it one level each chapter.


  • CodeVein – Endgame

    So I just beat the game… at level 1, with everything cleared/collected (aside from the four bad end classes) and all equipment upgraded to +9 or higher.

    Hardest fights were Gilded Hunter (his power-up has a limited duration and can be guarded through), those twin Yetis in the Deeps (Fire Weapon & Ice Guard), the Spire Fire/Ice boss fight (used this build), and the final bosses (used this build, swapping Blood Guard for Hasten after Skull King fell).

    I’ve never really seen the appeal of low-level challenges, and honestly there were more than a few frustrating moments… yet after beating the game and leveling up to 90 for NG+ everything suddenly dies so satisfyingly fast. The contrast made it almost worth the effort. Ironically though, it seems I didn’t have to go through all that trouble in the first place since the level caps are much more generous than I thought. Wish I found that page earlier.

    Some other complaints would be:
    – Unlimited Queen’s Steel unlocks far too late.
    – The vestige scene walking speed is far too slow.
    – The Good/True ending doesn’t make a whole lot of sense.

    A mixed experience overall for sure, but an ultimate net positive I think.


  • HELLPOINT & CodeVein

    Hellpoint is essentially Dark Souls on a space station. Aside from the atmosphere, the main defining features are the additions of secret doors (if you see an otherwise smooth wall with two vertical indentations appearing to make a doorframe; chances are it’s a secret door) and the ability to jump. Many games including a jump feature don’t really do anything with it, this game however has quite a few platformer sections leading to loot/secrets along with a specific jump attack.

    The only notable flaws, beside the intense similarity to DS, is the kinda illogical leveling system (cost should be based on attribute level rather than total level) and somewhat janky menu system; clicking occasionally won’t work (you’ll have to use the Enter key) and dismantling/upgrading requires far too many confirmations.

    Also taking cues from Dark Souls is Code Vein, a heavily Anime action RPG which combines Souls‘ general structure and gameplay style with a job/class system. Assuming you don’t hate Anime character design it’s pretty damn good… so long as you don’t fall into the trap of actually leveling your character. See, turns out each area has a hidden level cap, and going over it results in extremely slow to nonexistent progress toward unlocking class abilities for universal use. You also don’t get much from leveling up besides more health. It’s far more effective to spend your currency on weapon/armor upgrades and ability unlocks.

    All that said, there’s an extra hurdle to enjoying the game: Actually getting it to launch. Numbers 6 & 8 on that list are ultimately what got it working for me (24bit 192000 Hz for the sound setting). Sometimes though it will simply refuse to launch no matter what, in which case you can try setting your system clock to UTC +9 (Osaka; and no, I have no clue why this works). Once you do manage to get to the title screen (if you do), be very careful with the settings… as changing some of those may cause it to stop launching again (in which case you’ll probably have to delete everything in the “AppData\Local\CodeVein\Saved\Config\WindowsNoEditor” folder).


  • Dungeon Siege II & IRON DANGER: Shard of time

    In a fit of nostalgia I decided to revisit Dungeon Siege II… only to discover I’d never played it before. What I thought were memories of II were in fact of the first game in the franchise.

    While notably better than that first game in the gameplay department, it suffers rather badly from some of the worst character interactions ever conceived. And though better than DS I the gameplay is still not particularly engaging. Rather than Diablo, it instead brings to mind a proto Titan Quest. There’s just a certain emptiness/soullessness about the enemies and loot situation which, when combined with the limited ability system, makes progressing past a certain point far more trouble than its worth.

    Sharing the malus of atrocious writing, Iron Danger takes a notably different path where gameplay is concerned. It’s a ‘real time with mandatory pause’ tactical RPG featuring a time manipulation mechanic you’d expect to see in a puzzle game. Rather than simply take turns acting, characters move about in segmented (paused) real time which you can advance or rewind at will even if your characters die. So every combat encounter essentially becomes an equation to solve by finding the right actions to take during the right segments to most efficiently eliminate the opposition. It’s pretty cool.

    The problem is of course the aforementioned writing; it’s infuriatingly bad. If this were an action RPG where the storyline didn’t matter it would be an acceptable price to pay for the innovative combat system… but that’s not the case. The game’s very clearly story/character driven, and that story and those characters are insufferable.


  • BATMAN: ARKHAM ASYLUM & ARKHAM CITY

    I heard lots of good things about these two games over the years, alongside seemingly never-ending comments about this or that game using “Arkham-style combat”.

    So perhaps my expectations going in were too high: Neither game is particularly impressive and the much vaunted combat is just your standard beat ’em up fair. Streets of Rage was released over a decade earlier for fuck’s sake.

    I will however grant that they both earn top marks for visual quality and implementing that age-old combat system flawlessly… but that’s not really enough to counteract the somewhat clunky non-combat movement and the complete and utter absence of any loot/pick-ups. Batman basically has everything he needs right at the beginning and doesn’t use conventional weapons so you’re just moving from point to point through static environments beating/creeping up on generic mooks.

    If you’re a beat ’em up fan this obviously won’t be an issue, but personally I need more than button-mashing for button-mashing’s sake to keep me invested in a game.


  • Book of DEMONS – Archer & Mage

    Once you reach 5th level with the starting class you can play as the other two classes (note that nothing carries over between classes), both of which seem notably better.

    The archer has the distinction of being able to attack off-screen, greatly reducing the annoyance caused by ranged attackers and letting you mow down the hoards before they’re even aware of your presence. Equip a Quiver and Splitting Arrows and she just rains down utter devastation with little effort. The lower starting HP is an issue though and she can’t use arrows if enemies get too close.

    The mage doesn’t seem to have any distinguishing features at all beyond an abysmal starting HP pool. I guess you could say he excels at crowd control thanks to his lightning/ice spell options… but a split-arrow archer can accomplish something similar while attacking at far greater range. So I’m rather underwhelmed at his pre-Cook performance. Maybe later spells are more devastating?

    At this point I doubt I’ll ever touch the starting class again, but the archer is enjoyable in small bursts (due to sidestepping a lot of annoying enemy abilities) and I’ll probably keep playing on-and-off between doing other things for a while yet.