What Games are you playing 2015?

[Fenrir]

I disagree strongly, but YMMV on whether fetchquests and braindead battles towards progress are a waste of time or more content, and whether losing progress is a waste of time or a way to raise/have stakes. My definition of this changed over the years.

[Jo'ou Ranbu]

Codename STEAM - Chapter 13. The experience remains enjoyable, but still a bit rough around the edges. I'm annoyed that I still can't predict when enemies are on overwatch or not. And under what conditions weak points show up. I guess I should just treat some of these things as kinda random and behave accordingly.

The only normal enemies that hide weak points are Prowlers, and they require taking damage to the head until it cracks (either an explosive shot aimed at it or upwards of 50 damage or so should do it. Fox -always- breaks it with her rifle and I've had very good results with shotgun blasts at relatively close range). As for overwatch... well, I figured pretty early that you can assume that -any enemy with an overwatch weapon will be on overwatch- and almost -never- have been proven wrong. I don't know if the AI cheats with steam or just plays incredibly conservative, but they always seem to have huge overwatch reserves (I had one particular run in 5-3 where Lion got KOed by triggering FOUR overwatch attacks in a row from the same Prowler. That was -not- fun). At least you can know when the enemy's attempting to overwatch you with the laser sight, but it's often too little, too late. The kinds of weapons that can overwatch are very predictable, at least (and, really, only sniper Prowlers, Hounds, Nettlers, Dreadnoughts and the final boss are at all capable of overwatching - and Nettlers seem capable of only one overwatch per turn. Shrikes weirdly are -not-, in spite of their range, but I guess it was a balancing measure due to their damage).

EDIT: Oh, one more niche for Randolph: the Lure redirects the line of sight of all enemies in its range, disabling their overwatch as long as you don't cross their sight. Since the Lure -also- lets you see the laser line as they're attracted towards it, it's a way to figure out overwatch dangers. That was how I got The Fox to safely move behind the back of the final boss for the winning shots.

[jsh357]

I have never really perceived anything in the Souls games as a waste of time aside from ladders and load times.  There are a couple of stages, mostly in Demon's Souls, where the shortcut from a checkpoint is a bit of a hike, but nothing so bad that it's made me angry at the game so far with the exception of Bed of Chaos, who I don't think anyone defends.  Usually if your time is wasted it's because you haven't developed proper strategy or timing against a boss or made poor choices you now have to live with.  Admittedly, the very first time I played one of the games I found it frustrating, but on reflection (and replay) my problems were largely a result of me not taking the time to learn. A lot of the "time wasting" bits in the games are readily solved by running past enemies instead of fighting them, especially when on the way to bosses. 

I can see the lack of tutorials on upgrades and stuff as 'hating the player,' I guess, but don't plenty of games have stuff you need to look up online/ask friends about to understand in full? It's probably the one thing I think could use better in-game documentation in Souls, to be fair.

Well, they're not for everyone, I suppose.

What I perceive as wastes of time in games: long unskippable story scenes, cutscenes or otherwise, before scenes you'll probably have to repeat. (worst offender I have seen is FFX, but a plethora of JRPGs come close)  Anime filler-type "character development" scenes with no real impact on anything (most of Golden Sun's dialogue).  Tutorials on extremely simple concepts.  Fetch/trading quests.

[Sierra]

Amygdala is going to be super unfun too, protips:
Attack his arms during the first phase, not the head, you'll have a bigger window and be able to esccape more easily
Get behind him during the second phase and attack his legs/tail. He can't hurt you. It's Going to take forever but you don't care. Btw you can't do this during the first phase.

The boss you're facing now actually redeemed chalice dungeons for me, and he also took me infinimillion tries. You just really need to git gud , learn his attack pattern and dodge accordingly there. You can't dodge in the same direction for the entire fight like you can do against a lot of aggressive Souls bosses.
Caffeine can help a lot.
Also: don't blink, only noobs blink

A) Took two attempts. First one I tried getting behind him too early and got stomped. Stupid, gotta wait for him to rip his arms off before he goes into the jumping loop. My katana actually almost broke here because I had a bunch of cursed -durability gems on it, had to switch back to the spear to finish him off. First time I've actually seen the "Weapon at risk" warning in this game.

B) So it turns out Abhorrent Beast has no poison resistance. Guess how I killed him? If you correctly said, "Without attempting a single melee attack," you win a no-prize. Estimate the number of fucks given and win another one.

I skipped Lower Loran and hit Great Isz to get the final chalice materials. This was shockingly easy for a place I might've expected to be among the worst in the game. The worst enemies here are just brainsuckers, which are annoying but a far cry from properly imposing treasure guardians like deadites or summoner swarms. Also the first two bosses are just a brainsucker with extra HP and Celestial Emissary without his friends. Woohoo. (The third boss is Ebrietas, who I will never EVER be fighting again, and fortunately I don't have to to get what I need from Isz.)

I'm now in Great Pthumerian Ihyll layer two. The end is in sight! Pthumerian Descendant was pretty rough, I finished the fight with no heals left and sitting at ~30% HP. The follow-up boss is much, much worse. I'm pretty sure this is the real obstacle for me, defiled chalice can go take a flying leap (the only serious problem/repeat death I had there was the hellhounds at the start of layer three). Too much HP, too much damage, too much reach and not enough room to get away from him. After burning through ~30 heals in two failed attempts just at learning his moveset, my OCD tendencies kicked in and I had to leave to go farm up more heals, because I get nervous if I'm not appreciably near full stock at all times and the feeling of finite mission-critical resources is something that in games just burrows right under my skin and irritates me on every fundamental level. So I'm more than prepared to ask for help here if you've still got a file capable of accessing the chalice, Fenrir. I'll be getting home 1-2 hours later than usual the next couple days but I will definitely be stalking you on PSN if you're still around by then. I already fought this asshat once, I don't need to fight him again just because he's missing his face now. I want to get to the queen already, dammit, and he's the last thing in my way!

(FF9 fans are still baffling, though.)

I could almost set my watch by your reliable propensity to say something constitutionally disagreeable to me and then follow it up with something shockingly sensible. I guess we'll always have FF9 hate.

[Grefter]

Edit - Babbly ranty post typed up over 3 hours at work.  plz ignore mostly i just want to respond to fenrir and tell him that he is still my favourite and <3<3<3

I disagree strongly, but YMMV on whether fetchquests and braindead battles towards progress are a waste of time or more content, and whether losing progress is a waste of time or a way tohave stakes. My definition of this changed over the years.

For where I personally think From games fall down?  Other than literally every single second of Demons's Souls's?

Losing progress that actively punishes with a time sink (blood vials/limited resources like Numbing Mists) would definitely fit in not respecting my time.  Having mandatory trap sections that you need to repeat that are fucking shitty is also not respecting my time. 

The tipping point for the latter is pretty fine I think.  The bottom 2/3 of Sen's is good in single player, the run to find the second hidden bonfire on your first sprint through is pretty terrible.  Multiplayer the boulders being broken buggy shit is very disrespectful of my time (lol someone running in random part of hallway spawned a second boulder #getrekt).  Ghost house in it's entirety is terrible.  Ghost house probably actually the single worst point Dark Souls 1.  New Londo in general is actually pretty bad, having to fuck around with the lift every time you die and respawn in another zone entirely is gross.

How random which bonfires you can teleport to is pretty vile. 

Almost every single thing you want to actually touch in Darkroot if you die is also pretty bad?

Blight town actually comes out OKAY in the wash other than the run from the bonfire down the ladder if you aren't going in the back way.

Izalith without the shortcut is nope.

The run up to O&S is dumb and I wasn't really a fan of the Artorius one either (which definitely felt deliberate to make you want it more).

Generally they are mixed bag on how successful they are with risk:reward.  The points where it is the worst is when there is punishment with no stakes.  O&S has like 90 seconds of running where there is no enemies, just waiting for elevators and running up giant stairs.  The run up to Artorius has no risk because I lost my souls 20 times over in the fight. 

In a vacuum Bloodborne's sounds pretty terrible with part of the drive to perform is to actively avoid punishment of gathering bloodvials?  I know that was part of the whole deal for Demons's as well.  There is distinct short cuts there on most levels that act kind of as waypoints, but even with those outside of Phalanx the boss run ups are always pretty tedious regardless.  (Was DEFINITELY a contributing factor to my incredibly liberal applications of cheese.  I will cheap the fuck out of all kinds of shit in games, but Demons's was a special "Nah fuck you".)

None of that says that a 2 hours fetch quest for an antidote is somehow more respectful of your time though.  There is definitely a modern trend to "Content" being king where just filling a space with menial side stuff to do for rewards of varying degrees of value (Like things that help you with menial side stuff!).  It is the pendulum swinging to the opposite end of the spectrum and neither is really any better than the other.  I play both stuff in that Ubisoft model and the From games for different things and when I want a different experience.  From Style definitely peaks and troughs and burns me out much more though, so can definitely see preference for it when your play time is limited (Like now that I am not at the gym as much?  I don't need a game like Dark Souls that gets inside my brain and won't leave quite as much).

[NotMiki]

Yeah, I'm including Bloodborne in the same bundle all the same. Feels like From Software openly spites its players' time and disposition in wildly erratic manners.

That's really not true.  The vast majority of each game actually does respect your time.  It's hard, but hard in the way that rewards learning by becoming a trillion percent easier once you git gud.  There are just a few bottlenecks where bullshit rears its ugly head.  (I can't speak for bloodborne here, just the 3 ps3 games)

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------

anyway, I play games sometimes.  I played Titan Souls.  It's pretty great as an exercise in design, and the runs back to the bosses are mostly pretty short, which is good because you get smooshed by bosses a lot.  I'll say some stuff about it later.

[DjinnAndTonic]

Rondo of Swords: I am now invading the Holy City of Verona The Vatican Seine. My current party is Serdic/Ansom/Margus/Marie/Cotton/Alhambra/Sasha. However, given the fact that I need to bench people at certain levels until I get their shit, Alhambra and Sasha are currently benched for Shino shenanigans. Alhambra is in the process of promoting now, and Margus/Ansom already promoted. Thank you for the warnings, btw, I am sending Ansom and Alhambra on their Tarot quests and both are currently at 3. Ansom is on his 4th now, though, so I have Kay in his place.

Still finding it fun, and I do plan to beat both paths.

Idly, I've figured out a few things about enemy mages/archers. Archers have a range equal to their Move, and are not able to Move+Attack. Mages, meanwhile, run on spell levels 1/3/5. Weak mages have level 1 spells, strong mages have level 3 spells, and bosses have level 5 spells. This is how you can determine the damage/range of their spells.

Also, I heard I may be the only person in the DL to have actually played through the entire game before?

Oh yeah, sorry about not mentioning the mages/archers thing. For proper positioning, you'll often be counting squares for threat ranges. The melee types are easy to figure out, but obviously mages don't show their various spell ranges. It can be handy to have a list of all the spell ranges nearby when you're planning out where you're going.
Also, be sure to keep sending out Rukia and Owl and such to go to the market and buy equipment. It can be helpful to pack on the defense items.

As for your last question, I think I'm the only other DLer to play Rondo of Swords, but SnowFire and Grefter I think read the amazingly detailed LP. I feel like Random may have played it at some point too?

[SnowFire]

Suikoden Tierkreis: Well since I appear to be giving a long-form plot summary of the game, might as well keep at it.

After finishing our last fetch quest, we returned armed with a new sense of purpose.  and also porpoises.  those help too.  We find out that the Janam forces got chewed up attacking the fortress again, and there's some narrative hints that this is because they were stupid, but it honestly sounds sorta reasonable to me from what little info we have: they got word that their *enemies* had screwed up and left the fortress or something, so they were taking advantage of a sudden opportunity.  It just didn't work out.

Anyway, it doesn't matter: they need our help for attempt #3 on the fortress.  Maybe later dude, I've got sidequesting to do.  It's very strange that this is a game which advertises the number of days for transit very heavily, throws urgent matters on your plate you'd think you can't just abandon for a month, then expects you to go around doing sidequests for occasionally missable recruits that take a month in game time.  Luckily everyone acts like you didn't spend a month running back & forth playing telephone, so whatever.  A hint of why Janam might be having problems is given when a cook randomly murders 3 of their soldiers with his bare hands, though.  I also find a random wandering kind giant-folk Auster who just loves helping out and offering to do physical labor for free.  The same Auster tribe which joined the Bad Guys.  Hrmm.  I'm not buying this: I want neither servants nor spies, I want warriors.  To prove your loyalty, you must slay your kin and prove yourself.  You're coming with me to beat down the Auster leaders on the bridge.

To my pleasant surprise, the plan works: my suspicious new Auster warrior doesn't falter vs. his own kind (although no special dialogue), and my elite ninja porpoise squad succeeds in penetrating the fortress...  although the game likes to pretend that opening the gate is enough, it really isn't if the porpoises were ever surrounded & killed, they'd just close it again, nor would it help us break the allegedly unbreakable defense of these Auster.  So yeah, I'm going to assume that the porpoises went on an off-screen killing spree for why this worked.  We nobly let our opposition run off as a favor, since they did us a solid earlier by letting us run away like wimps rather than capturing us.

Anway, things go south and all our allies get blow'd up...  again.  And Janam reacts counterproductively and imprisons are buddies, Chrodechild's Blades, who they claim are at fault.  This is something which I assume was Consort Shariah's doing: trying to cover for her screw-up + remove a potential future enemy in Chrodechild, after all, if she's a traitor, then the Emperor won't marry him.  That'd make more sense though; no, Janam Emperor Danash 8 just is a crappy leader and was trying to force Chrodechild's hand in marriage the hard way (and Shariah went along with this because ???).  Dishonorable, but sure, but apparently it's also some kind of weird test of Our Hero...?   Maybe...?  I'd like to pretend that he was just BS'ing when he claimed that part of this was his plan and he just hates to admit being surprised, but whatever.  Anyway, the Janam forces are in fact *perfectly* justified at being pissed off at us because we've just committed a princess-napping of Danash's daughter Manaril, but nobody seems to care about that except for Shariah spouting some mwahaha about how she'll be dead anyway shortly.  Instead the conversation turns political, with Danash apparently under the illusion that he's a strong leader or some such.  Look, dude, if you want our loyalty, you can either be an effective leader or a moral/respected leader.  You've pretty well failed at both, so let's just call this alliance off.  Because this is an RPG there's a very very easy fight rather than straight tongue-lashing, then we decide to leave the guy who just ordered our deaths around in charge because we're nice like that.  (Sheesh, at least take him prisoner.)

As a more serious comment, I actually rather like this plotline, at least parts of it.  Having allies which are just plain incompetent and do stupid shit is part of life.  Mistakes happen.  It's harder in an RPG to have the main character & PCs screw up repeatedly without enraging the player, so this is about the next best thing. 

Anyway, we get back and our castle does its magic transformation thing.  That makes the "This Old House" home improvement aspect of Suikoden games too easy, tsk.  Anyway this is a cataclysmic change...  although frankly they kinda all should be...  and to the game's credit, we get a peek into the consequences, which are something out of a horror story if you think about it.  Rather than be a "reconstruct a past that leads to the current situation" kind of alteration, the game goes with basically full-on brainwipe mind control, which *screws people up*, most notably the inhabitants of the town in the mountain.  What do you do with a fellow who's entire life was living and knowing the mountains, whose life now makes no sense?  He's a crazy senile old fool now, and everyone is very puzzled.  Another person who seems to know something is screwed up thinks that the mountains were there 1000 years ago and she has memories from a past life rather than from last Thursday.  Kinda glad they darkened the narrative a bit here, and they even had Our Hero poo-poohing on destined love, so hey, looking good, except for all the constant backtracking through a high-encounter dungeon with easy encounters.  Can't win 'em all, I suppose.

Also..  wait, was the support who auto-clears wimps Gadburg?!  "Allows the use of Spark" is not the clearest way to express this...  seems so from going to *really* out of date areas, but not for climbing the Cho'huli Mountains 10 times clearing out all the events there.  Still, glad to notice this at last, became clear after getting "Bribe" that I was probably missing something.

After three months of playing merchant and running up and down a mountain and going back to HQ a lot, it's time to actually investigate our new plains that the Bad Guys will send agents to any moment.  No hurry or anything.  There's a boss boar that really tires us out 2-rounding it without taking damage (bosses vulnerable to stun / sleep, lol), so we need beastmen to take out the next 2.  Then we fight the Bad Guys but inexplicably get painted as the bad guys ourselves because the other bad guy says so.  Uh huh.  More interestingly, Sophia, our evil lady opponent, seems to think that the Order getting the Chronicles will stop the changes/disasters somehow.  Hmm, well you want me to hear more at least, so stop plot-running away, and stop lettin' em do that, hero.

Now that the plains are clear, our final destination is soon in sight: a disused water pump in re-located Porpoiseville.  Soon, the world will tremble in fear of my elevator, powered by an old disused engine.  Soon.

[Jo'ou Ranbu]

This is hilarious.

[Jo'ou Ranbu]

Double-posting because yes.

Binding of Isaac: Rebirth - So, after Fenny's hype, I decided to give Eve a go and intuitively she felt -massively- improved, far beyond the design changes that'd improve her in a ripple effect manner (lost both times, but oh well). A quick wiki search tells me: Eve has unique interactions with Whore of Babylon, in that it activates at one red heart instead of half a red heart (not too major, but gives her more leeway to activate it and whatnot) and, beyond the 1.5x multiplier applied to damage, it raises her base damage multiplier to 1x instead of the natural 0.75x. Welp, that explains one hell of a lot.

EDIT: I remember Edmund McMillen interviews where he remarked Eve was his favorite character in terms of design concept, and I guess he actually realized she -needed- a boost in order to be even remotely competitive. I think those buffs went exactly in the direction she needed to go, pulling her up from the shooting gallery straight to high tier.

(Seriously, in the original, Whore of Babylon Eve had -less damage than base Cain- if my calculations aren't horribly wrong. Not even Judas. CAIN.)

[Fenrir]

A Softer World is ending. I am sad.



Gref :
It is all a matter of perspective, but I'm not going to be hugely bothered if the downtime spent running to the boss is shorter than the time spent fighting the boss on average, which is the case with everybody but Bed of Chaos and Capra I think, maybe Gwyn? In Dark Souls 2 this happens with Darkdude (Optional), in Bloodborne this happens with Celestial Emissary lol. Maybe with Papa too. This happens all the time in Demon's Souls.

I checked some vids from random youtubers because of course I did, the walk back to O&S is 40 seconds + loading. All the bosses in Darkroot including Hydra are pretty close to bonfires, did you find the two bonfires there? 4Kings is probably the longest run clocking in at 1m45. (more if you don't learn the amazing elevator trick of activating the elevator again then running off, so that it'll be up on your next attempt after your next inevitable demise against 4K)

On a tangent this all reminds me of when I first got my hands on an emulator (Zsnes) I played through all of Kirby 3 with mass savestate abuse, I saved every five seconds and reloaded every time I died. (which was a lot, partially because I never got any better at the game, and because I had to press F2 and F4 constantly, which was hard because I REALLY had to not press F2 when I wanted to press F4) There was no time wasted but it was still fucking stupid all in all.
I feel Megamen/Megamans are way more punishing than Souls game about this, and I got a ton more frustrated having to run back through the same level to get to the game, but I still feel the "0 life -> Back to level select" thing Megaman does is way better than just having you get unlimited tries against every boss.
... Didn't we already have this conversation?



El Cid I actually found that boss way easier without his face, he wastes a lot of time using slow stupid attacks. You should try again a few times. I'm not sure I'll be online much in the next few days.
Also dude you can like buy ten million vials / enemy kill now. It would take longer to go back.



Snow: So speed was the only point of Eve I guess?
I don't feel there are really terrible characters aside from ??? (and even then) and the Lost (Fuck the Lost), the team's pretty balanced. Samson must be rough in hard mode I guess.



I played Rondo of Swords for a short while but I wasn't ready for a Sting game at the time. I know Sting didn't make the game, but, here, let me just try adding a bunch of text with 10 different fonts on a random Rondo of Swords screenshot, and it instantly becomes a Sting game.

[Fenrir]

For fun I'm taking random screenshots from the Sting games I know and counting the number of different fonts on a single screenshot.

Riviera



1) Overdrive! / lv 3
2) Ein/Disaresta
3) 605/720/130
4) 365, 68
5) HP
6) Exl. Overskill is ready
7) Exl
8) Skill Data Info
9) Attack
10) Hits/Eff
11) Attack
12) Over
13) 01: Ultima!
14) Enemy/Near



Yggdra Union



Oh god
1) You Win!
2) Power 1700 / +20%, etc
3) Japanese font upper left
4) Japanese font upper right
5) Japanese font lower right
6) Japanese font lower left
7) 2180
8) Stray thief / Fencer
9) 2/0
10) Attack!
11) Vs
12) + Hero whatever I can't read



Knights in the Nightmare



1) Dir/Time/Exp/MP/Speed/Height/ 4.419.359 pt
2) L
3) 4 hit
4) For victory/Attac
5) Start
6) (5.5)
7) 47
8) Dmg!
9) Bonus chance!
10) 2 hit!
11) Lv 8/10 Edit: Actually, 8/10 might be a different font than lv?
12) Action phase
13) L (the other L, near Action phase)
14) 2
15) 49.23



Knights in the Nightmare wins, honorable mention to Yggdra Union for having that much cluster. Feel free to correct me if I made a mistake.

[Jo'ou Ranbu]

Snow: So speed was the only point of Eve I guess?
I don't feel there are really terrible characters aside from (and even then) and the Lost (Fuck the Lost), the team's pretty balanced. Samson must be rough in hard mode I guess.

Her point was supposed to be a high-risk, high-reward character, but her offense was so awful it just didn't work out. The original also had less (-significantly less- pre-Wrath of the Lamb) soul heart sources and no evil hearts, which make maintaining Eve's primary gimmick harder. In practice, she was near game-worst PC, only better than because seriously and probably slapfighting with Samson. Even her base speed wasn't a deal, since Cain matches her there and he gets far better item loadouts (Lucky Foot is -really- good in BoI original) and offense otherwise even with the lesser range.

As for BoI:R, I think, failure curvebreaking aside, I think the worst characters are Magdalene and Lazarus, though neither are -pointless-. Lazarus is kind of a bizarre spin on Eve with simpler micromanagement but less payoff who has to struggle with crappy range and luck. Maggy... sigh. Her tanking just isn't really a niche BoI rewards in advanced play, though it at least makes for good practice while you're still getting the kinks. She's safe, but Isaac rewards risk-taking.

[Fenrir]

is pretty bad, I much prefer
Maggy I find pretty good. She's a decent character for new players because of all the hearts. She's a decent character for pro MLG gamers because she takes ALL the devil deals
Lazarus I just reset until I get a good pill, and then he's good


A new contender for Yggdra Union, a PSP screen



1) You win!
2) Card power 5316 / +48% etc / 40%
3) Surviving Units / Ability Difference / Bonus
4) Head-Alive
5) Add-Factor
6) 6 / 0
7) La pucelle / Valkyrie
8) Yggdra / Aegina
9) Atk.
10) Vs
11) The time for indecision is past!
12) Morale
13) High
14) 4758
15) Geo defense

Big respect there

[Fenrir]

Oh shit I forgot I also played

Gungnir



1) Select a target
2) Enemy's Unit
3) Brute
4) Base p.
5) 5.0 ht / legion / hp / 245/668 / 7 / Level: 15
6) NO GUARD...
7) Lyzze / Ville
8) Rodrigues Blitzers
9) Target / Attacker
10) Wait
11) 12
12) Rune Orb
13) Front
14) Tactics
15) 205-226 DMG (perhaps the same as NO GUARD)

*slow clap*


Baroque



What happened Sting

[NotMiki]

A Softer World is ending. I am sad.

[NotMiki]

What happened Sting

They decided more words would make the game make more sense and that wdon't go crazy don't go crazy don't go crazy don't go crazy don't go crazy don't go crazy don't go crazy don't go crazy don't go crazy don't go crazy don't go crazy don't go crazy don't go crazy don't go crazy don't go crazy don't go crazy don't go crazy don't go crazy don't go crazy don't go crazy don't go crazy don't go crazy don't go crazy don't go crazy don't go crazy don't go crazy don't go crazy don't go crazy don't go crazy don't go crazy don't go crazy don't go crazy don't go crazy don't go crazy don't go crazy don't go crazy don't go crazy don't go crazy don't go crazy don't go crazy don't go crazy don't go crazy don't go crazy don't go crazy don't go crazy don't go crazy don't go crazy don't go crazy don't go crazy don't go crazy don't go crazy don't go crazy don't go crazy don't go crazy don't go crazy don't go crazy don't go crazy don't go crazy don't go crazy don't go crazy don't go crazy don't go crazy don't go crazy don't go crazy

[Sierra]

Bloodborne: You have selected regicide! If you know the name of the king or queen being murdered, press one.

The game's super obscure optional boss is perhaps inevitably nowhere near as much trouble to beat as to actually reach. It's...certainly a memorable fight, at least. Insane bereaved mother that spews blood at you. Yikes. I'm not sure what kept stunning me in that fight. Are you not supposed to attack when the baby's crying?

El Cid I actually found that boss way easier without his face, he wastes a lot of time using slow stupid attacks. You should try again a few times. I'm not sure I'll be online much in the next few days.
Also dude you can like buy ten million vials / enemy kill now. It would take longer to go back.

Yeah man all he did for me was walk his crotch into the camera and push me towards walls so he couldn't entirely fit onscreen anymore and I couldn't properly tell what he was even about to do. Not my idea of a good time, not a fan of the giant size bosses in this game. Also killing enemies to get the funds to buy heals may be less onerous than farming them, but it's busywork nonetheless (ultimately I just helped someone kill MWN once). Was trying to wrangle support from someone on my PSN friend list for that fight but connection wasn't happening. While I was waiting, against all expectation a totally random other player showed up instead. I understand the odds for this happening randomly are staggeringly low.

Also while I was waiting I decided to have some fun with audio glitches. So the roar gesture, it's pretty great, right? Totally ridiculous sounding, everybody loves it. I've noticed it sometimes bugs out and the scream echoes in the same location every few seconds thereafter. This isn't uncommon at all. So while I'm waiting I walk around spamming this for like five minutes straight, then some dude finally appears and the walls are screaming at him. Excellent.

I just have to finish up with axechick now, talk to fake final boss #2 and submit to deletion, and full bragging rights are properly secured.

[Fudozukushi]

Is the 4Kings time Firelink or Valley of the Drakes?

[jsh357]

Is the 4Kings time Firelink or Valley of the Drakes?

Is Valley of Drakes faster in any way?  It always seems like a lot more trouble than the Firelink bonfire.

[Sierra]

I used Valley of the Drakes on my first run through the game, not knowing there was a shortcut from upper Anor Londo just past the first couple ghosts, and would roundly call that route worse. This probably assumes running past all enemies, though.

[Fudozukushi]

I think it's faster.  More dangerous because of the Drakes, but you have one short-ass elevator ride then can flip right next to the boss door.

[Cotigo]

Lol no that is still not faster than running from Fire Link, especially if you remember to send the elevator back each time. MINIMUM, the two elevators from Valley vs. One elevator from FL seals the deal.

Lets not lose sight that it would just be better to have a closer Bonfire ala DS2 because every run up to a Lord Soul boss from the bonfire is a a couple minutes if you know what you're doing and 5 to ten if you don't. I wouldn't honestly know how to have made those run ups not suck shit if I didn't watch speed runs to see them.

[Fudozukushi]

Lol no that is still not faster than running from Fire Link, especially if you remember to send the elevator back each time. MINIMUM, the two elevators from Valley vs. One elevator from FL seals the deal.

Lets not lose sight that it would just be better to have a closer Bonfire ala DS2 because every run up to a Lord Soul boss from the bonfire is a a couple minutes if you know what you're doing and 5 to ten if you don't. I wouldn't honestly know how to have made those run ups not suck shit if I didn't watch speed runs to see them.

Right, two elevators, I forgot about that.

[Grefter]

Lol no that is still not faster than running from Fire Link, especially if you remember to send the elevator back each time. MINIMUM, the two elevators from Valley vs. One elevator from FL seals the deal.

Lets not lose sight that it would just be better to have a closer Bonfire ala DS2 because every run up to a Lord Soul boss from the bonfire is a a couple minutes if you know what you're doing and 5 to ten if you don't. I wouldn't honestly know how to have made those run ups not suck shit if I didn't watch speed runs to see them.

Right, two elevators, I forgot about that.

f

Y don't u pussies just run from blight town like the pros???