Author Topic: What games are you playing 2014?  (Read 214123 times)

Sierra

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Re: What games are you playing 2014?
« Reply #1050 on: April 18, 2014, 10:23:56 AM »
DS2: One day Roberta woke up naked in a rotting medieval kingdom filled with zombies. She is coping with this situation the same way she deals with everything else: by punching the shit out of everyone and not dying even when she's killed.

Pugilism Souls, like so many terrible ideas this is 100% Fudo's fault. Been running around without armor just because well, why not? I may switch in nudist armor if I ever get it (or Velka set because at least it's the right color) but man, haven't hardly noticed any impact from literally not having any defense so far (I haven't died yet after clearing Forest/Heide's/NMW). Of course, the roll distance for <10% weight is honestly kind of problematic sometimes. I go so far that I constantly wind up like ten feet behind the people I want to hit!

I am really trying to keep it absolutely 100% melee this time and never even use a bow. This is difficult since that's my first response to like anything slightly inconvenient (Shrine of Amana nooooooo). I may just invest in throwable objects and accept that as a limited substitute. Throwing knives do seem pretty aces this time around!

I am just immediately chowing on every boss soul this time because seriously what do I need them for? Most boss weapons are crap even in a normal run.

Probably never ever talking to Gavlan this time unless I maybe come back with a huge pile of knives later.

Damage output from the caestus L1 one-two combo is actually very satisfactory so far, but I don't know if that'll hold out long-term. I see a ton of investment in physical stats here, presume optimally I want to hit 40 STR/DEX again because multiple stat scalings. And I guess otherwise just vigor vigor vigor. Well I had to dump some levels on ADP too because starting bandit drinking speed is paiiiiinful. As in unable to chug once without Pursuer stabbing you during the act slow.

Fudo: as far as magic goes, I found running a mix of sorcery/pyromancy a lot more fun than miracles. Also the INT-specific armor's got styyyyyle.

Fudozukushi

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Re: What games are you playing 2014?
« Reply #1051 on: April 18, 2014, 06:04:03 PM »
Suffer as G I Did!

I can't even imagine going through Shine of Amana without bows.

NotMiki

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Re: What games are you playing 2014?
« Reply #1052 on: April 18, 2014, 06:26:37 PM »
DS2: So I have been playing this! Just got the king's ring. Going Miracles'n'maces style, blasting things with lightning and macing things with a mace.  Wearing heavy armor, switching between Tower Shield and Rebel Greatshield, the value of which cannot be overstated, especially in Shrine of Amala.  Guilt I feel zapping bosses: significant.  Guilt I feel zapping everyone in Shrine of Amala: zilch.  Oh my god that zone is the worst zone.  Unless Black Gulch is the worst zone.  Guiltiest pleasure: using Soul Appease on Magus & Congregation.  Dick moves by the game that are laugh-out-loud funny: the setup where the crystal lizard falls into the center of the water and you jump off the bridge after it and then there are exploding zombies and YOU DIED; pretty much every time you get jumped from behind at the least convenient moment; "you know fighting invisible enemies in the mist is really hard I'm glad they at least don't backsta--THUNK where my HPs go???"
« Last Edit: April 19, 2014, 07:41:12 AM by NotMiki »
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Fenrir

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Re: What games are you playing 2014?
« Reply #1053 on: April 18, 2014, 06:35:10 PM »
Apparently dual wielding twinblades is total trash
Still want to try it out though


Amala is more manageable without bows since the patch. I did it pre-patch with a terrible full dex no bow char, you can do it.


Got a bunch of terrible pointless deaths in No-death run. Always for the same reason: Enemy attack pushing me into lava/bottomless pool of poison, even though I SHOULD BE INVINCIBLE with 50 Vit, 30 Vig, 2 Havel equipments.
At least I beat Smelter.
Very tempted to skip the Earthern Peak alltogether next time.

Anyway I then tried three mages and died almost immediately all three times.
Mages are the SMB2 Mario, Great club wielders are the SMB2 Luigi (Harder to use at first, but waaaaay more effective)

Going to try out that Giant Bandit Axe next.

Fudozukushi

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Re: What games are you playing 2014?
« Reply #1054 on: April 18, 2014, 06:44:32 PM »
The invisible douches in the Shaded Woods will outright insta-kill you with a backstab.  Even in Full Armor mode and almost 2000 HP I died in one stab in just NG.

I'm shooting for 90 STR to dual-wield Giant Warrior Club.  Infeasible and trash are the furthest concerns from my mind.

Fenrir

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Re: What games are you playing 2014?
« Reply #1055 on: April 18, 2014, 11:33:48 PM »
Got backstabbed in NG without the best armor/HP, and survived.
100% Sure, I was in No Death Mode and totally going insane.

Anyway

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Obkd0NeRWbg



Edit: Bandit Greataxe suuuuucks
« Last Edit: April 19, 2014, 01:04:49 AM by Fenrir »

Grefter

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Re: What games are you playing 2014?
« Reply #1056 on: April 19, 2014, 06:00:58 AM »
Bravely Default - So Chapter 2 was about the true nature of beauty and how toxic and deeply ingrained unhealthy concepts of body image are.  So far off early stuff of just getting to Isengard Eisenberg and talking with [SUBTLE]Daniel Goodman [/SUBTLE] it appears that chapter 3 is about how being incredibly passive aggressive about people with no stakes in your civil war not swooping in and being prepared to die for your country.
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Fudozukushi

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Re: What games are you playing 2014?
« Reply #1057 on: April 19, 2014, 06:31:25 AM »
Dark Souls 2: Spend most of the day farming Sunlight Medals in Belfry Luna.  Thanks for that tip Cid.  Highlights include dealing 1800 damage with a jumping attack.  Sweet sweet club action.  I wish I could hear the response of some people from getting obliterated by the club or watching the gargoyles go down in two hits each.  Anyway with 30 medals I go and grab the Sunlight Spear miracle and get invaded.  Eyhuh.  Due uses the Ancient Dragon Soul sword on me but I eventually manage to land my heavy hit and kill him.  Yay or something.  All I need now are Royal Aegis Soul and the NG++ stuff for the Platinum.  So let's go do those!  Shrine is blah.  Demon of Song is weakest t magic arrows, gonna stock up on those.  DOwn in the crypt the death pit gets another life.  Royal Aegis gets one because his giant second swing hits behind him.  Next fight I trash him.  Run in ring and... heyyyyyyyy I still have my Giant Souls get owned Vendrick!  Mmmm mmm mmm sweet 600K souls.  That's nearly enough to get me to 90 STR!  OKAY, gonna pop a bonfire ascetic for Wellgar and... can't do it because the boss is still alive.  OK, whatever, Throne duo aren't hard.  BUTOHWAIT THE DUO IN FRONT OF THE KING DOOR IS.  Like, HOLY SHIT they took more lives than every other boss in NG+ COMBINED.  UGH.  At least Throne Duo die easy.  Gonna double-check I have the correct bonfire and hahahaha-NOPE it HAS to be NG++ no bonfire asceticing here!

UGH.  That means I have to sludge my way through again?  But I have so many other things to try!  Oh well, Giant Club will be soon at least....  Alida's surprise guest gets a life.  Actually fight Guardian Dragon and his cousins in melee since I'm hella annoyed.  Learn that Gren's set also boosts soul gain and go switch to that since it's slightly better.  Dragon Shrine goes just fine since I ignore the club jerks.  Back over to Memory Lane.  Get the Club and the sixth giant soul.  Bug out, upgrade and dammit... it doesn't do as much damage as just two-handing one of them.  BAH.

And then a pyro-giant preforms a complete-180 throw to hit me wipes out 80% of my life and stuns me long enough for a follow-up shot I couldn't possibly dodge.

Grabbed the rest of the soul weapons and the king stuff at some point.

Captain K.

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Re: What games are you playing 2014?
« Reply #1058 on: April 19, 2014, 03:16:24 PM »
Pyro Giants cheat.

DS2:  At endgame.  Cleaning up the optional bosses before I finish.

BD:  Finished all the Chapter 8 optionals.  Praline cheese is ridiculous, but I found the best way to counteract it is with my own Performer using the Zero Sum skill.  Actually this is just a good skill in general.  When you use it enemies using brave attacks go negative so you get a free turn afterwards.

And then the super mage fight.  You know which one if you've played it.  Ended up using Stillness at the beginning to get some setup time, with Slow World support ability on my mage.  Dark Nebula x4 from my Dark Knight (after Enigma) and quad Meteors kill two of the four enemies.  One of the remaining mages gets off a fire attack that kills my whole party... except for my healer using the secret best support skill in the game: Auto-Shell.  Which I threw on just because I didn't have anything else productive to spend that last point of support on.  He hits Rejuvenation and Enigma and it's game over for the bad guys.

The remaining fights are trivial after that one.  I actually get the Sweeper bonus on the next one.  And the one after that was amusing with Slow World vs Hasten World.

Now onto the Frue Final!

Oh, fun fact:  If you use a move that uses BP during Bravely Second, you actually get negative SP.  Actually that fact was not fun at all.
« Last Edit: April 19, 2014, 03:52:17 PM by Captain K. »

Meeplelard

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Re: What games are you playing 2014?
« Reply #1059 on: April 19, 2014, 07:11:11 PM »
FF10 HD: Finally back to this!  Just won the Blitzball tournament through the cunning strategy of "sit behind goalie" <_<

Ok, first off, I remember a discussion a while back regarding whether Wakka believes Tidus is from Zanarkand.  After rewatching those scenes, he clearly does not.  He comes up with a theory about Sin sending people through time, obviously as some sort of way to delude himself into believing that Chappu is still alive, and if believing Tidus raises those chances, then he's all for it.  Then Lulu shoots him down immediately saying "Chappu is dead and we even found his corpse; he's gone and never coming back, DEAL WITH IT."  This shuts up Wakka's theory entirely and the team moves on.  On the boat, the idea of Tidus being from Zanarkand never comes up, at least on Wakka's end.  They bring up how he's Jecht's son, and Wakka expresses a little bit of doubt; Lulu's a little hard to read here, because of her stoic way.  It's hard to say if she believes if Tidus = Jecht's son, or is merely expressing Yuna's reasoning, and simply didn't care enough about whether it's true or not. 

Zanarkand is only brought up by Yuna, and she's the one person who undoubtedly believes Tidus is from Zanarkand, at least at this point in the story.  Wakka's helping him out because A. Blitzball and B. He feels higher chance of seeing someone he knows in a place like Luca than a small village like Besaid.  He even shows willingness to leave Tidus in Luca and move on with the pilgrimage; it's Lulu who says that Wakka should ask him, on Yuna's behalf, because that's what Yuna wants, and Lulu clearly has Yuna's best interests at heart.

So yeah, in conclusion, outside of the delusional moment in Kilika he has, which Lulu shoots down with a major reality check, seems pretty clearly Wakka doesn't firmly believe Tidus' story.

Regarding Tidus and whining now?  So at the temple, after meeting the Goers for the first time, Tidus basically mentions how they're jerks, and...really, he's absolutely right; the Goers are arrogant, pompous jerks.  This isn't whining, more just him illustrating "I've seen these kinds of players a lot, my father was one of them" and it's more an indicator of how Tidus isn't a fan of bullies.  This is something I didn't notice early on, but just kind of subtle that fits in with everything; Tidus does not like bullies and always stands up to them.  This explains why later, he tells Kimhari at Luca to stand up to Yenke and Biran, who are essentially just bullying the heck out of him.  Tidus encourages Kimhari to stand up for himself, which Kimhari does do, and originally I felt that was just kind of "Tidus likes picking fights!" but now that I put that scene in context with the Goers scene, I think it actually seems more in character than originally thought. This fits in perfectly with the Jecht relationship too, since his father was essentially one major bully, not that Jecht realized it; to Jecht, it was an act of tough love, but it doesn't change the fact that on the recipient end, Tidus was feeling bullied by his father, and that's definitely the impression they want you to have on your first time through these scenes:

Jecht is an awful person who doesn't care about his son.  True, Yuna is defending him, but then that's to make Tidus' story also give a sense of bias; is that how Jecht really was, or how Tidus remembers him?  And if the former, why did Jecht act that way?  Obviously, these answers all come later, but as it stands, Tidus' anti-Jecht policy is, from what the game illustrates, justified.

In the temple itself, Tidus doesn't really do any whining; some basic questioning and that's it.  Ok, he complains when Barthello throws him onto the elevator, but that's just a perfectly normal reaction.  What do you expect him to say? "Thanks for manhandling me! I totally appreciate the fact that I may get Yuna in trouble!"

Then the "I felt like I wanted to scream!" scene...I can't justify this.  I get it, he wants to go home and he knows he can't, but the sequence still felt a little forced.  This is probably the one time I felt Tidus came off as whiny so far.  The boat scene then occurs, and the only thing that comes off as remotely whiny is when he says he's going to punch his dad, but he does at least come up with a reason and again, everything the game has portrayed so far, you can completely understand Tidus' disgust towards his dad. 

At Luca, Tidus has the "HEY GOERS! WE RULE AND YOU DROOL!" scene on the loudspeaker, but that's just Tidus being loud and a jock.  Tidus may not be stupid, but he IS impulsive, and doesn't always think things through.  This is not whining, as he's doing it basically as a pure publicity stunt.  The game doesn't really try to pretend this is the right thing to do anyway, as Wakka immediately goes "are you crazy!?"  The Aurochs are fond of it, but it sounds like because "we never get any attention!"


In any event, Tidus whine values outside of one scene seem pretty low.
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DjinnAndTonic

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Re: What games are you playing 2014?
« Reply #1060 on: April 20, 2014, 03:04:10 AM »
Pokemon XY:
If I catch a female Pansage, "LaFemChiquita" should fit.

All-Canine Playthrough: I've just kinda been leisurely going through the early areas, catching lots of stuff just to catch them. Besides Fennekin and Riolu, which are ridiculously early, the next canines are Furfrou, Smeargle, and Abra/Kadabra (Abra is more like a cat, but kadabra is debatably some kinda fox thing, but that's close enough for my purposes). So I rounded out my early team with these three.

Abra: More of a long-term investment, but since I already have Delphox slotted for my final team, I don't really need another Psychic type (not to mention that getting Alakazam is impossible for me at the moment since I can't trade with anyone). So he's just kinda dead weight here in the earlygame.
Smeargle: Similarly deadweight.... well, I Sketched Fairy Wind early on so he's uh... representing Fairy type for me? Yeah, I may end up using him a lot later on since he's the only canine that can conceivably learn Fly. *grumble*
Furfrou: What a pleasant surprise Furfrou is! Bulky, decently fast, Normal-typed, so not many weaknesses, plus STAB Return is nice in a game with Pokemon-Amie where it's easy to raise happiness.

And let's talk about Pokemon-Amie for a minute. Holy crap, this insidiously genius addition to the battle system. Not only is it innately cute getting essentially a fantasy anime version of Nintendogs, but the minigames are pretty fun and breezy and addictive. The truly genius part are the little touches added into the battle text for a high-affection 'mon. I can't bring myself to run away or switch out a 'mon, when just before choosing an action, the thing glances at me briefly and the text reads "Pokemon is looking at you with trusting eyes!"... Seriously, now I'm gonna have to bust out some expensive items and let it beat down the enemy... It is terrifying how good at emotional manipulation Nintendo is...

Anyway, as early as Route 8, I have team of six canines.

Absol: She rounds out my party by giving me a Psychic-immune Cat/Goat/Dog thing. I had previously maxed out Fennekin, Lucario, AND Furfrou on affection, but for some reason, maxing out Absol's seems to have the most in-battle effects. It shrugs off status all the time, constantly criticals and dodges. It might just be that Absol is built with high crit/evade and Pokemon-Amie is just changing the flavor text to make it seem like it loves me more. (Insidious...) It freakin' worked though. Its TM movepool this early on make it amazing so far. I hope there's a Move Relearner or whatever later on because I've been throwing TMs on it and ignoring most of its good status-type moves in favor of more smash, but I know I'll want some of those status moves for later challenges. Still, current MVP on a team that has Lucario and Delphox on it is pretty impressive.

Barely do I have time to get my new Absol (a mere mountain dungeon and a gym leader where Smeargle got to smack down Tyrunt with Fairy Wind), when I get to Route 10, where the rest of my Dog team awaits! Eevee, Electrike, and Snubbull replace Smeargle, Abra, and Furfrou. You will be missed, Furfrou! I catch a bunch of other Eevees too, just to eventually evolve them for some kind of collector's habit. It's nice that Eevee is just a common wild encounter in this game.

Eevee: I evolve my main Eevee into Vaporeon right away so it can learn Aurora Beam, but it's too late for him to learn any Water-type moves for a while and I have no water TMs. It's frustrating since there's a lot of things that water would hit weakness on coming up.
Electrike: Mostly contributes Thunder Wave and is my go-to dog for catching things. He's fast, but is leveling slowly (with three new 'mon at once, I haven't had time to max out all of their Pokemon-Amie affection boosts.)
Snubbull: He is the newest addition and so I haven't quite figured out what he's good for yet. He has the Run Away ability, which is nigh-useless. I hear there's a way to switch which ability they have in this game, where do I get this?

Fun little romp so far, the Exp Share has insured that I've always been a bit more leveled than my opponents though. Not taking it too seriously overall, but Pokemon-Amie is a highlight.

And now the important part: NICKNAMES. Seriously, I need some suggestions, I'm running out of good ideas.

Roselia: "Byanthyname" would smell as sweet~
Oddish: "MANdrake" If it had been female, I'd have called it Womandragora.
Azurill: "Beachball" Because it is so cute I want to spike it over a volleyball net.
Espurr: "Psykitty" I considered the alternate spelling of Psychitty, but it looked weird
Ralts (M) + (F): "Empatrick" and "Empatricia", together I think of them as the Empats.
Fletchinder: "Firaptor" because a raptor is a bird of prey... and it's on fire.
Bulbasaur: "Dendrobater" Dendrobates are Poison Tree Frogs... bater.
Kecleon: "Comma , , , " CHAMELEON!
Honedge: "Scarebard" He has the soul of a poet in his scabbard.
Minun: "Dimples" - it matches my Pikachu named "Cheeks", and if I ever stumble upon a Plusle, I'll call it "Pimples"
Croagunk: "Toothfrog" - seriously, why does this frog have teeth?
Salamence: "Kickassasaur" I also considered "Kickassic"
Inkay: "Inversushi" Although, how can you really tell if sushi is inverted or not?
Sandile: "Shades Ogrey" Look, he likes BDSM novels, okay?
Cubone: "MommyIssues" It wears them on its face!
Helioptile: "Dilophoshock" I can use Greek prefixes too~
Skitty: "Cattail" because this cat's tail looks like a cattail...
Skiddo: "Handlebars" It's like riding a bicycle... that eats trash
Onix: "Boringsnake" GET IT?! Because it BORES!
Mawile: "Backtalker" double-appropriate because it has a Sassy Nature!
Dwebble: "Sedimentick" I think Dwebble is some kind of tick anyway?
Ducklett: "Infowlible" ...yeah, I told you I needed suggestions...
Hawlucha: "Pollo Diablo" Monkey Island reference mixed with luchador reference!
Swoobat: "Kissoptera" Bat with the power of LOOOOVE~
Zubat: "SCOURGE" of my existence.

Team:
Delphox: "Browser" still a psychic firefox
Lucario: "Pound Puppy" -> renamed "Pounder" because he's not a puppy anymore.
Furfrou: "Passionista" I considered naming this one Grefter or Snow
Smeargle: "Van Doge" much paint so beret such wow
Abra: "All Yo Spoons" yip yip yap
Absol: "Monocorn" because it's monochromatic and has one horn. What, they can't -all- be funny.
Vaporeon: "Paddler" he doggy paddles when you use Surf <3
Manectric: "Wiremane" because I wanted something that sounded like a name, but "ManeAttraction" was such a better pun!
Snubbull: "Faebull" It's a fable about a fairy-type... who is also a bulldog.

Grefter

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Re: What games are you playing 2014?
« Reply #1061 on: April 20, 2014, 03:28:20 AM »
All-Canine Playthrough:

No mention of Stoutland line.  Officially dead to me.
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Re: What games are you playing 2014?
« Reply #1062 on: April 20, 2014, 03:36:06 AM »
Stoutland is sadly not available in XY. Game Grefter should skip/10

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Re: What games are you playing 2014?
« Reply #1063 on: April 20, 2014, 03:41:10 AM »
No Arcanine or Ninetales either :(
And Houndour is X-only.

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Re: What games are you playing 2014?
« Reply #1064 on: April 20, 2014, 05:37:48 AM »
Marvel Heroes is a good game.  I've been playing Wolverine lately and running the fabled "Baby Wolferine" build, wherein he melts bosses but he is also invincible, because the ESRB won't let you show a baby getting killed.  Using multiple Pym's Shrinking Serums, you can make him, already the shortest character, really short.  Like baby short.  Hence the name.
 
Baby Wolferine melts bosses because he is a Wolverine with the added anger of a baby.  Wolverine has a secondary resource called Fury, which he consumes to do his best moves.  Baby Wolferine kills Magneto in 3-5 shots because that makes no sense but neither does a version of Wolverine who is less than two feet tall.  He wears the Satan Claw, signature weapon of Baron Strucker, and a Department K vest.  Since Department K is Canadian I assume the vest is denim.

Basically being Baby Wolferine means that you max your passives and then use the cooldowns that make Logan get instantly angry, then you just melt things.  You get punched a lot but you're Wolverine and healing from shit is what you do.

Is he the best character?  Not even close.  He is not very good at fighting more than one thing, and since this game is Diablo with Superheroes you can imagine how that is a problem.  He also doesn't have multiple viable builds like Iron Man or Dr. Strange or several other characters I could name, so if you get bored of melting bosses there's not much else to do except laugh at how you look like a baby.  You also have to pay attention and not stand in things and also press buttons, all of which Jean doesn't have to do.  She just turns into Dark Phoenix and flies around the screen cackling and things die almost instantly from getting close to her because I guess she burns like the sun.

All in all I give Baby Wolferine a B and am moving on to playing Punisher.  Basically you just fire rockets into a crowd and then spray them down with machine gun fire to mop up the stragglers which makes perfect sense to me.

Captain K.

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Re: What games are you playing 2014?
« Reply #1065 on: April 20, 2014, 05:56:32 AM »
DS2:  So I'd been avoiding Smelter Demon because everyone says he's hard, and... he's easy?  You just roll diagonally towards him and to the left when he attacks.  Then you have like an hour to hit him before he attacks again.

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Re: What games are you playing 2014?
« Reply #1066 on: April 20, 2014, 06:21:13 AM »
Smelter's explosion is the most dangerous part since it shares the exact same animation as a different attack.  Coupled with his damage aura and he falls into the usual pattern of too much damage to compensate for otherwise complete ease.

Dark Souls 2: NG+ Complete.  Giant Lord took a life because I I got with fire on the run in again.  Then I got hit by fire but lived.  Final went down in one go again.  Also discovered the real reason for the Soldier's Rest bonfire is to respawn a Black Phantom that only spawns once per NG+ and drops gear.  Yippie.  Racked my head about whether Four Great Ones or soul-spamming would get me through Shrine of Winter faster.  Too tired today to properly think so I went into NG++ without grabbing Benhart's stuff or the Ancient Dragon Soul.  Skipped the Rats, Darklurker and Ancient Dragon itself because of there being no real reward anymore.

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Re: What games are you playing 2014?
« Reply #1067 on: April 20, 2014, 01:39:03 PM »
DS2:  So I'd been avoiding Smelter Demon because everyone says he's hard, and... he's easy?  You just roll diagonally towards him and to the left when he attacks.  Then you have like an hour to hit him before he attacks again.

Roll diagonally towards the enemy and to the left is Advanced Tactics.
Everybody rolls to the right!

Even if you're super pro, he does a lot of damage, is durable, the room is small, immolation can fuck you over. There's a high chance of getting murdered while estusing. He's much tougher than all the other early-mid bosses, and pretty similar to Veldstadt (who's fought way later)


I got killed by the best trap in a No Death run: You know that room after the second bonfire in the Gutter with all the ladders? You can basically pick any to go down and continue to the Black Gulch.
One leads to nowhere.

Nowadays I just buy a ton of kunais from Melantia since they're so useful (The best anti-exploding zombies weapon) and this nets a Covetous Silver Serpent Ring +1. I also just kill Pate outright since it's so easy and his armor looks boss. The Heide White Knight who's just chilling near the giant tree also gets killed by kunais.

Captain K.

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Re: What games are you playing 2014?
« Reply #1068 on: April 20, 2014, 01:55:11 PM »
Well I fought him at endgame with a ranged character so that may have helped.

Now Royal Rat Authority, that is a tough fight at any level.  Just because of his support.

hinode

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Re: What games are you playing 2014?
« Reply #1069 on: April 20, 2014, 02:57:06 PM »
Make sure to plan out which Furfrou trim you want ahead of time, Djinn.



This is literally the most important decision of your entire playthrough.

DjinnAndTonic

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Re: What games are you playing 2014?
« Reply #1070 on: April 20, 2014, 03:20:41 PM »
Obviously I'm choosing the one with the top hat, snazzy tie, and the... what is that? a bedknob? for a tail.

Sierra

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Re: What games are you playing 2014?
« Reply #1071 on: April 20, 2014, 03:42:27 PM »
Pugilism Souls: this session, the dying started.

Got murdered first by a crossbow-in-a-box (holy shit these things are mean) attempting to retrieve what memory says is a TORCH. It was downhill from there for a while. Five deaths to Mytha! Who I'll go on record as calling one of the worst things to dodge in the entire game. Also it turns out the eyes on her severed head actually blink! I didn't think people were capable of blinking in Souls games. Oh, and it turns out desert sorceresses actually have melee attacks?! (They should stick to exploding faces, it's much scarier.)

But the only other thing to kill me more than once* so far has been the Sentinels (two deaths). Usual crap, their jump-across-the-goddamn-room attack is way too fast and way too damaging. Everything else is perfectly manageable but that just always comes out of nowhere right when you're trying to heal. Caestus damage actually really outstanding here, even at only +6 weapons I could take them apart pretty quickly given opportunity. Why is strike damage so good. Jesus christ From. I had a higher attack rating in dual-falchion mode but I deal more damage even just per-hit in this run just because everything in DS2 resists slash damage and in Drangleic anything made of metal is weak to punching (what).

So yeah, this is actually both extremely effective and very satisfying. Max roll distance has a surprising degree of utility! Precision timing is less important when you know you can leap right out of anything's attack radius instantly. I'm not sure I can go back to wearing clothes you guys. (Observed impact to damage taken: NONE WHATSOEVER. Even status susceptibility is barely any worse.)

Other stuff, uh, let's see...no deaths to the gargoyles! (Despite me almost embarrassing myself by panicking and getting mauled to within an inch of my life once it was a one-on-one fight.) That was immensely satisfying. Then I got summoned for the fight by some Havel's dude who'd ascetic'd the belfry. I SURVIVED. This was great. And pugilism actually has some surprising utility for PVP? Put on the Stone Ring and you can stunlock through quite a lot of armor. I smashed through two invaders in the process of ringing the bell. Caestus attack range is much less of an issue when you can jump right across the world to uppercut someone.

(*OH WAIT. Retrieving the Bastile key. This was excruciating. Far more trouble than either the boss before it or the one it's useful for. Again reinforcing that the scariest things in this game are not gigantic menacing monstrosities but instead just hordes of tiny dudes.)

I guess there were some other bosses in there. I died once to Smelty, was having an easy time of it but freaked out over it being too easy or something and got smashed at like 85% progress? Victory run was probably the easiest time I've had with him. Roll left and behind really is the key. And I can roll all the way behind whatever I want this time! Then I go back in the room to get my Ring of Blades +1 and wait what Pursuer's glowy blue poke attack curses you?! (I'd never been hit by it before.)

Just entered Drangleic Castle when I called it a day. No deaths to: skelemob, Jabba, balrog (I won a fistfight with a balrog! That is awesome), Lost Sinner (and I dread this fight more than anything else in the game), chariot, Prowling Magus. Prowling Magus is suddenly a crazy attrition fight! Circle around, punch out priest, circle around, punch out other priest, punch out walking zombies one by one, demolish Magus in one attack string, end fight in epic match against crawlers that are too low for my fists to hit without leaping attacks.

One death to:

-Najka. I got stupid (the money was too good). The proper strategy is bait her into using stinger jab then punch the crap out of her. But I just had to try and get in some extra hits between spear stabs.
-Freja. 100% because of her support. I spent a couple minutes circling around the actual boss trying to pick apart her goons one by one and mostly whiffing (because of attack range/spider dodgehax/getting stunlocked). Little spiders are a major problem in this run! Freja a complete joke without her little friends though.
-The Rotten. I have no excuse, you guys. None whatsoever.

I may not bother with ratbro bosses. Dunno. Definitely skipping Darklurker because fuck the lead-up to him and the fight itself, king and ancient dragon can also get tossed because they're both stupidly overpowered and stupidly boring.

My bows are still all in storage, and the only throwing implements I've ever used are the few found ones that were only employed to aggro a few specific enemies (duo outside of Mytha's room, for one). I was going to just leave Straid a statue forever because I don't need anything from him this time but WAIT I want that Mock gesture god dammit (thanks for that video Fudo, now I can't play DS2 without hearing that song in my head. At least it's a pretty cool little song, but still). So had to brave 'splosion zombies after all. This wasn't so bad as expected, I'd taken no hits from them en route to the Gutter earlier. The trick is that they pause just for a second before exploding at you. This is when you must punch them in the face!

And then it turns out Straid won't talk to me because my character is clinically retarded. God dammit. Okay I'll come back later after some Soul Vessel shenanigans.

Oh, and I decided to see what happens with Pate and Creighton if you don't do anything to help either of them. Pate wins. And you don't get the key to that little room with the 'splosion chest. OH NOES. It's nice not having to give a damn about loot or even ore at all. Soul items and healing supplies are always nice to have, but seriously once both caestuses hit +10 there was no reason for me to ever care about picking something else up again ever. Which is good because my character doesn't understand vertical tolerance and my fists fly right over crystal lizards.

Why does the messaging system not include lizard as a noun when there's dozens of them yet you can say horse and there's only one horse in the game.

Fudozukushi

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Re: What games are you playing 2014?
« Reply #1072 on: April 20, 2014, 05:47:16 PM »
Yatta Dark Souls?  Because I didn't link any DS2 videos and the video for DS2 I did want to link I kept forgetting.  But here it is, how to find the pickaxe!

EDIT: Fenrir posted the Mockthrough.
« Last Edit: April 20, 2014, 06:02:19 PM by Fudozukushi »

Meeplelard

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Re: What games are you playing 2014?
« Reply #1073 on: April 20, 2014, 06:06:14 PM »
Kirby Return to Dreamland:  I just took down a giant DeDeDe Mech with a plasma gun.  This may be the single greatest thing in a Kirby game ever.
[21:39] <+Mega_Mettaur> so Snow...
[21:39] <+Mega_Mettaur> Sonic Chaos
[21:39] <+Hello-NewAgeHipsterDojimaDee> That's -brilliant-.

[17:02] <+Tengu_Man> Raven is a better comic relief PC than A

Fenrir

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Re: What games are you playing 2014?
« Reply #1074 on: April 20, 2014, 10:56:03 PM »
All that for a pickaxe.
Love From Soft.

My current character is named Claymoar,  she dual wields Claymores.
Pretty great. Slash res everywhere mostly hurts low damage weapons like daggers or dex weapons in general, greatswords are still decent in PvE.

El Cid, that battle right after the Gargoyles should remind you of Capra Demon. I never had much trouble with it (except in SL1 mode) because I used usual Capra Demon tactics.  (=abusing the stairs)

You do notice damage difference for low damage attacks. The poizn zombies ambush in the Shaded woods screwed me over a few times, when I had no armor on. I'm pretty happy having armor only has a small effect, you can equip anything stylish you want.