• Tag Archives Exploration
  • Assassin’S CREED: VALHALLA – Conclusion

    Oxenefordscire ended up more like the beginning of the midgame rather than the midpoint of the game itself.

    While exploration and combat never changes from that point, the main questlines take a hard turn into railroad central. Early main quests are good at giving you the illusion of choice; later ones not so much. This works on a thematic level (the whole unchangeable fate/destiny thing) but it’s not a lot of fun to experience. Oh, I guess there was one change in the exploration aspects: You’ll want to clear all 10 Anomalies before completing the Norway quest that sends you to the far northeastern point of the map.

    Ultimately ended up at 142 hours with 94% completion, all areas cleared, and 65 Mastery points. I never did find any Black Bears or Wolf Fangs for the hunter requests though (or small Sturgeons and big Redfish for the fishing requests), and had to look up the location where to use those various Mysterious Tablets (the area is instantly recognizable, but also easily overlooked since there’s no treasure chests there).

    One final thing:

    If you’re experiencing random freezes, try installing the “Visual Studio 2015, 2017 and 2019” C++ update. The x64 one fixed the issue for me.


  • Assassin’S CREED: VALHALLA – Midgame

    With roughly 50% of England cleared (Oxenefordscire, Lunden, and everything lower level), 7 zealots killed, 11 Order members killed, all non-feast buildings constructed, silver equipment, and 205 skill points this seems a decent enough place to mark as the midpoint of the game.

    With ~55 hours invested so far it’s quite large, larger than it seems because there’s also an Asgard ‘dream world’ map (cleared that too) along with apparently a Vinland area (haven’t gone there yet). What’s really remarkable about this is that each area so far has felt pretty distinct in both the landscape and questing departments, all of which was enjoyable until the bizarre Odyssey-like change in the Eivor/Sigurd dynamic that occurs in Oxenefordscire.

    Combat-wise I’ve been using heavy dual-wielding. Started with a greatsword & dagger combo, switched to a spear & dagger combo, and then finally settled on a greatsword & spear combo (using the Dual Swap skill depending on whether it’s a boss fight or not). It’s extremely effective for plowing through enemies I can’t assassinate/headshot ahead of time (I do however still miss the 3-enemy chain assassination ability quite a bit).

    There’s no shortage of skill points (and you can respec whenever you want) so there’s not really any need for skill breakdowns, though Brush with Death and Advanced Assassination are godly, Explosive Corpse and Battlefield Bolt are garbage, Counter Roll is kind of sketchy since you need to dodge into attacks for it to work, and Auto-Loot is just plain nice to have. Abilities are a bit trickier. I’ve been rolling with Valkyrie Dive (great quick stun), Rage of Helheim (you have to hold the button to connect), and Throwing Axe Fury (crowd control). Bow abilities I’ve mostly been ignoring apart from Powder Trap (to blast through weak walls).

    As far as settlement buildings go, some are certainly more useful than others. The Blacksmith (equipment upgrades), Hidden Ones Bureau (quests, targets, rewards), Hunters’ Hut (quests, rewards), Seer’s Hut (quests), Museum (quest, rewards), and Fishing Hut (rewards, at least one Mystery event requires the fishing line) are probably the most important. The Barracks (cosmetics), Tattoo Shop (cosmetics), Shipyard (cosmetics), Stable (cosmetics, don’t have to travel for horse training), and Trading Post (don’t have to travel to other cities to shop) meanwhile are all nice to have. The feast-buffing ones are obviously situational (although the Bakery has a couple quests), and the Cartographer is completely useless if you happen to be the exploring type.

    At some point you’ll also get an Opal Shop for free. This serves as a method to buy Cash Shop items with in-game currency rather than actual money. On the positive side of things this currency is renewable through simple daily quests… on the negative, these quests award 5 opals a piece and you only get two a day (a new piece of equipment costs ~130 opals). So while you ~can~ technically get these pseudo-DLC items for free it’s not exactly something worth obsessing over (and besides, there’s plenty of equipment/customizables already in the game).

    All in all a very impressive showing so far even with the recent main plot hiccups. The only other thing I can really complain about is the inability to assassinate zealots the same way you could assassinate mercenaries in Odyssey. Oh, and I guess it’s also a bit annoying that the most efficient path forward is to complete the main questline in each area before exploring; it reduces backtracking and some items don’t appear until a quest triggers them (if you see a chest marker on your map that doesn’t have a related item for instance, chances are it’ll appear later during a quest).


  • Assassin’S CREED: VALHALLA – First Impressions

    The follow-up to Odyssey, Valhalla trades ancient Greece for medieval Europe (specifically Norway and the Viking invasion of England).

    The exploration aspects remain pretty much identical, though points of interest have been streamlined/condensed for a far less cluttered experience and it doesn’t appear to be possible to highlight enemies while in Bird View any longer (I suspect the ranged ability which automatically highlights enemies replaced it). You also now have to manually click on a chest marker if you want it shown on your compass rather than that happening automatically.

    Combat on the other hand is a bit different, with boss fights now being geared toward counters/parries and slower deliberate fighting instead of hectic hack & slashing (random trash mobs can still be attack-spammed into oblivion though). A particularly interesting choice is the implementation of a stamina system which drains when you dodge/block, use a power attack, or miss with an attack, but refills when you connect with normal attacks or just move around normally. This encourages a more engaged, hybrid playstyle and avoids the trap Elex fell into.

    The biggest change though is the equipment system: It’s been drastically simplified so that there’s only one or two varieties of a particular weapon or armor piece. Rather than continually finding new randomized variations with slightly better stats, you instead directly upgrade whichever particular weapon/armor type you want to use. I’m not sure how I feel about that just yet considering my fondness for collecting things, but it does make sense from a gameplay perspective and makes finding a new weapon something of a special event.

    All-in-all, at this point with Rygjafylke cleared (make sure to periodically check your map at its most zoomed-in setting to catch any resource chests; they show up as faint gold specks), I’m pretty well satisfied with this incremental upgrade so far. We’ll see how things progress when the assassination ability is finally unlocked and the action shifts to England.


  • Kingdoms of Amalur – Endgame

    Yeah, the game really falls off a cliff once you break the siege.

    I avoided the maxed level problem this time around by ignoring the two (formerly) DLC areas and not using Reckoning Mode at all, but that doesn’t solve the issues plaguing the second continent. Chiefly among them being the abundance of enemies that appear out of thin air and absolutely garbage sidequests. If you do decide to keep playing post-Siege, I’d strongly suggest sticking to the main questline while ignoring all distractions. Then just go and clear the Pirate area afterward (maybe the Teeth of Naros as well, though I’ve never bothered with it)… or just do the first continent and bonus areas while skipping the second entirely.

    It was kind of nice being effectively invincible thanks to the semi-overpowered armor crafting system while having the ability to kill 3-6 enemies at a time with a single Mark of Flame. But then again there was no reason for all those enemies to keep appearing out of thin air to begin with; throwing hoards of trash mobs at the PC is a hallmark of bad design.

    So is the end result worth paying full price for? Hell no. Not when it was first released in 2012 and certainly not now. If you want to play it, best to wait until it’s $20 or less.

    Some tips for if/when you do:

    • Weapon abilities max out at 3, while all other abilities max out 2 over their stated limit.
      • Meaning, combined with the rewards for completing the 3 main Faction questlines, you only need one piece of +Skill equipment.
    • Once prismere equipment starts to drop it’s time to switch from selling excess equipment to salvaging any green/blue pieces you find.
    • Nearly every location on the map has a quest tied to it. So, pre-Siege, avoid exploring areas before you find the relevant questgiver to reduce backtracking.
      • Post-Siege, the questgiver is often located inside the location.

  • Kingdoms of Amalur: RE-RECKONING

    I remember playing Kingdoms of Amalur years ago and enjoying myself quite a bit, only burning out after reaching max level somewhere in a badlands/desert area after having completed the Pirate-themed DLC and building a Keep… or something like that. The memories are vague and looking through Wayback Machine snapshots for what I posted about it at the time (pre-server merge mishap) hasn’t turned up anything.

    This remaster, as far as I can tell from those fuzzy memories, is effectively identical.

    I’ve seen people complain about technical issues regarding slowdown, but since I generally don’t play with extraneous bells and whistles like AA/AS I haven’t noticed anything beyond occasionally long loading times when moving from an interior area to the main map and some choppiness when running through multiple groups of enemies who end up attacking each other (forming a 10+ mob). I suspect that if you disable the advanced graphic options in-game and enable them directly through your graphics card instead it might sidestep some of the more severe cases that people have reported.

    Regardless, I’m having fun so far and will hopefully actually complete the game this time around.


  • Atelier Lulua: The Scion of Arland

    Breaking with tradition, the 20th Atelier game is a continuation of a previous trilogy rather than the start of a new one. Fortunately, familiarity with the events there isn’t required to follow along here (though Ficus’ character arc won’t make any sense if you aren’t familiar with Atelier Totori).

    Mechanically speaking there’s nothing to complain about. The Alchemy system is solid, the combat is engaging, the exploration areas aren’t over/undersized (and subareas can now be traveled to directly), and it doesn’t take hours of grinding to acquire the best traits to put on your equipment.

    The game’s problems revolve entirely around its plot developments and character behavior: It features some of the most extremely cringey cutesy Anime bullshit you can imagine. Every other line of dialog is delivered with an exaggerated expression, a dumb pose, or both. It’s full of friendship power, event battles that act as though they were hard/dangerous when they weren’t, and extraordinarily dense idiocy. The character design is also uneven; Lulua/Ficus are purestrain Shoujo, Aural/Niko are purestrain Shounen, and Eva looks like an escapee from The Nightmare Before Christmas (also, the assorted generic merchants’ appearances don’t match their voices).

    I made it to the end despite all that thanks to a fondness for collecting things and crafting overpowered equipment… but it was a real struggle that I wouldn’t recommend to anyone who doesn’t happen to enjoy watching generic daytime magical girl shows.


  • Atelier Ryza: Ever Darkness & the Secret Hideout

    The Atelier games have been vaguely on my radar since the Escha & Logy Anime was released. More or less at random I decided to start with the most recent one, Atelier Ryza, without being aware it was the most recent one at the time.

    It was a bit of a shock when halfway through I discovered it was released last year… because it definitely doesn’t look it. Maybe it’s because it was designed specifically for consoles, or maybe it’s because the PC version is incredibly half-assed (no mouse support, though to be fair it did recognize my Logitech controller instantly), but whatever the reason it does not feel anything like a modern game (for comparison, Dragon Quest XI and Cold Steel III blow it out of the water on a purely technical level). That doesn’t mean it’s not fun though.

    It is absolutely fun and I ended up spending just under 50 hours beating it (Character Level 50, Alchemy Level 99 with everything crafted). Around 12 of which were spent pre-Tower crafting the best equipment… which resulted in hilariously wrecking the Great Elementals in ~5 seconds (the end boss took ~10 due to the second form). Combat aside, for the most part it’s a very laid-back slice of life type of game that unsurprisingly focuses on collecting, duplicating, and fabricating items. I even got some Recettear vibes occasionally from the various villager requests. Action-packed it is not and despite their dynamic nature (the only time the action pauses is during a Quick Action; otherwise everyone’s always attacking over one another) you’ll likely spend most of your time avoiding battles.

    The question now is whether or not to try out some earlier games in the franchise, or just assume this is the current pinnacle mechanics-wise and do something else.


  • Deus Ex: M△NKIND DIVIDED & Mary Skelter: NIGHTMARES

    The sequel to Human Revolution, Mankind Divided got an extremely hostile reception upon its release. Mainly due to its monetization aspects and what at the time was considered an overly heavy-handed depiction of police vs. activists… neither of which appear to be particularly egregious in retrospect.

    Sure the existence of the Breach minigame and QR codes is immersion breaking, but it’s not like you have to play it or use them to progress. The in-game depiction of police in the face of a legitimate threat meanwhile is, if anything, too restrained when compared to the ongoing real-life police response to imagined threats. Greater issues than either of those are the general clunkiness of the character interactions/movement, and the incredibly annoying energy system. Everything needs energy and there’s apparently no way to recharge it (beyond the basic minimum ‘1-bar’ level) aside from limited consumable items.

    Unlike Dishonored 2, while you can use stealth to get past any obstacle here, you’re equally able to go in guns blazing and play it like a conventional cover-based FPS. That should be a good thing, but instead it ends up clashing a bit with the highly non-linear layout of the various maps; going from peaceful exploring to bullets flying everywhere causes enough whiplash to sort of force you into a stealth mindset in order to keep things consistent. It’s a weird combination and I didn’t end up getting very far before uninstalling out of disinterest.

    And now for something competently different:

    When I first saw Mary Skelter: Nightmares pop-up on GOG, for some reason I thought it was going to resemble the dungeon portions of Tokyo Xanadu. As it turns out, that was completely offbase. Instead it’s a dungeon-mapping game like Elminage & Labyrinth of Lost Souls with an FFT-like job/skill system and a few galge elements. There’s a lot going on here in terms of character/equipment customization, to the point that (at the start of Chapter 2) I’m really not sure learning the upgrade systems’ intricacies will be worth the effort… particularly since the character interactions are so frequently cringe-inducing.


  • Wizardry: Labyrinth of Lost Souls – Conclusion

    Having just beat the the main storyline with two characters (one for each of the ‘good’ endings), and having fully mapped both the Shiin and Trials dungeons, my main takeaway from this game is that the item drop rate is just too damn low.

    It takes forever to farm the weapons you need in order to handle the notable difficulty jumps on Shiin floors 4 and 9, and even with good equipment the last two Shiin levels (and the later Deep Dungeon levels) are just a slog filled with enemies that do 200+ damage to the entire party, regenerate, and dodge a chunk of your attacks besides. It’s not fun in a conventional way… just a masochistic one.

    Good for one playthrough, but no more unless you’re in the market for a mindless timesink.


  • Fate hunters & KingdomCome: Deliverance

    Fate Hunters is a game very, very similar to Slay the Spire. A bit easier though, so long as the ‘Reinforcement’ option is turned off (which it probably should be on your first few attempts), thanks to the introduction of disposable ‘one use’ cards you can pick up without fear of ending up with an oversized late game deck.

    The Inquisitor focuses on healing & self-damage with a subfocus on discard. The deck I eventually beat the final boss with was a treasure-heavy Pot of Greed/Empress deck that focused on the combo of Seal of Repentance -> Holy Fire -> Nemesis. The Arcanist specializes in multiple-choice effects, random damage, and duplication, with a subfocus on weaponry. I ended up beating the tower with a Fireball-heavy Wheel of Fortune build with Magic Rune and Fire Rain.

    Unlike those first two characters, the Raider is somewhat more limited in build choices and you’re pretty much forced to focus on a Soul Stone-centric build… though that’s far from a bad thing since Soulstones are quite versatile. The winning deck here ended up being centered around Dark Flame, Famine, Souls Bust, and Soulstorm. The fourth and final unique character is the Berserker, which specializes in Wound creation (far trickier to handle than Soul Stones) & criticals with a subfocus in discard. This time I ended up clearing the tower with a weaponry-centric Hermit build; Feel No Pain and Deadly Swing have no downsides when only a single Wound can be in your deck at a time.

    The final character, the Spy, is a medley of the others. You can build a deck mimicking one of the above builds, or mix and match from multiple builds. The later is quite risky though and can easily result in a deck that does nothing particularly well. The winning combination I ended with was a Curse-heavy self-damaging Possession build (Cursed Sword, Philosopher’s Stone, Eviscerate, Unbreakable, Nemesis) which transformed into a Hermit deck on the last floor.

    So yeah, the game’s fun. I don’t think it’ll have as much repay value as the aforementioned StS though due to the reduced complexity. Of course, that’s to be expected since the entire installation is <300MB. Pick it up on sale sometime for ~$10 if you enjoy StS.

    Switching gears now we come to Kingdom Come: Deliverance, which at first glance appears to be an open-world RPG. While that should be right up my ally, in reality the game bears an unfortunately strong resemblance to a medieval life simulator. A hunger system, an energy/tiredness system, a cleanliness system, a food decay system, an equipment deterioration system, an overly complex real-time locational-targeting-centered melee combat system, and a highly limited ability to save your progress.

    I got to the second area and just kind of lost all will to proceed, since I most certainly don’t play games to be forced into doing things I already have to do in real life. The visual quality is quite impressive though. If you want to give it a shot, make sure to grab the KCDTweak utility to reduce/eliminate some of the inherent annoyance.