I've always found the Uncharted 4/The Last Of Us/God of War 2018 to all be decent, but all those games are kinda lacking in imteresting gameplay and are basically the video game equivalents of "Oscar bait"

      • CyborgMarx [any, any]
        ·
        2 years ago

        Combat is only "dogshit" if you fail to heed the lessons the game teaches you

        Also lmao the anti-Souls poggers really show their hand when they trash the level design, the game is famous for combining linear progress with non-linear exploration thru the use of discreet shortcuts and elevated platforming, this strategy depending on skill and knowledge allows for multiple versions of the game to exist depending on player builds and choices, so yeah pretty revolutionary

        • VenetianMask [any]
          ·
          2 years ago

          Just sounds like a rehash of the warp zone in mario 1 to me

        • keepcarrot [she/her]
          ·
          2 years ago

          I have zero rhythm and timing abilities, dark soul is not for me.

        • WEIMARUSSY [they/them]
          ·
          edit-2
          2 years ago

          Combat is only “dogshit” if you fail to heed the lessons the game teaches you

          No, it's dogshit because animations take approximately three days and feel like I'm moving around a full shopping cart. If there are changes between weapon types, they're limited to exclusive weapons like the Memelight Greatsword. A swing is a swing among 90 percent of the weapons and once you get that down, the decision when to swing is limited to the stamina bar and the individual mechanics of an encounter as apposed to what you want to do. For a RPG that (supposedly, I think it falls flat on its face) encourages experimentation, you don't swing a club differently than anyone else.

          And don't give me that "oh you just didn't get good shit". It's not about getting good, it's about how it's closer to an abstraction of traditional RPG combat with the accuracy stat replaced with the ability to press square within a 90 frame window. It's closer to Morrowind or Kings Field (ha ha) than like, a fighting game like Tekken, or a DMC, or a Platinum game, or even other ARPG peers like Kingdom Hearts II. And that'd be OK if the gear mattered and it was similar to western ARPGs like Path of Exile or Diablo where most of the combat comes down to "avoid mechanics and use 1-3 attacks you have spent the entire game building up to be billy badass", but again, you can't augment clubbing people, your +5 Chaos club is still doing the exact same Fred Flintstone shit you were doing 15 hours ago.

          And that's not to mention how PvP is a fucking nightmare in terms of balance and infrastructure (that netcode is fuuuucking garbage), how backstabs take a full three seconds so you either back the fuck off and maneuver around the hitbox that would give you a backstab, or get slapped by the three other skeletons that are in a given encounter, or how your spells and weapons don't even really impact the environment in a meaningful way. Evergrace, a game they made for the PS2's launch, would open up other treasures and paths based off of what skills your character had access to (based off of your equipment, which made picking up new gear interesting!) There is no sword that lets me cut down a tree in DS in a specific way that opens up another encounter.

          Also, the individual fight mechanics do not change, and because they do have to accommodate the bad netcode, laggy attacks and a variety of playstyles, they're not very engaging once you get the gimmicks down. They're really not hard and it feels fine once you stop getting knowledge checked, but once that learning process is done, you're going to approach the same fights in similar way unless it's "I'm gonna blast it with magic" or "I'm gonna fuck up the mechanics on purpose" (which for the later, why would you do that?). Once you know to run away from the boss, get a weapon and jump off the platform, why would you poke Asylum Demon to death other than to say "I did it!" once.

          is famous for combining linear progress with non-linear exploration thru the use of discreet shortcuts and elevated platforming, this strategy depending on skill and knowledge allows for multiple versions of the game to exist depending on player builds and choices

          This game released in 2012. Like, even if you just want to talk about games where that was the given intention, this has been a concept since at least Dragon Slayer 4.

          • Good_Username [they/them,e/em/eir]
            ·
            2 years ago

            My first thought on reading this was "oh wow, you've got some overly strong opinions here, maybe log out, no one cares."

            But then I remembered how many times I've posted similarly long rants about Ori. I'm fighting the urge right now to break into a multiple paragraph rant about how fucking shit Ori and the Blind Forest is and how there's nothing good in that shit-ass game and I don't understand why anyone plays or likes it.

            So yeah, I can hardly blame you, just because you hate a game series I actually enjoy quite a bit. Not every game is for every person.

            It should come as no shock that I fundamentally disagree with just about everything you've said here about Dark Souls, but that's ok. We can disagree here.

            • WEIMARUSSY [they/them]
              ·
              edit-2
              2 years ago

              well you could post it, this is the thread for it

              also sorry you're wrong about DS, go ahead buddy

              • Good_Username [they/them,e/em/eir]
                ·
                2 years ago

                That is fair. If no one else has, I may rant about Ori for awhile.

                And sorry friend, but you're the one wrong about Dark Souls. But it's cool, you can be wrong!

                  • Good_Username [they/them,e/em/eir]
                    ·
                    2 years ago

                    I'm joking around on a shit posting website, not trying to debate bro dark souls. I'm not going to try to change your mind. You know what you like, and it's different from what I like, and that's ok.

          • CyborgMarx [any, any]
            ·
            edit-2
            2 years ago

            Who complains about player characters having actual weight and haptic response instead of just floating around the screen like some boring ass abstract ghost, give me a shopping cart over a wonky paper plane any day

            Also yes meter management, welcome to video games circa 1975-2022, sorry you don't have an unlimited button mashing ability, turns out thinking about combat actaully makes it more engaging instead of shooting infinite ammo at polygons. Honestly what a bizarre critique its like complaining about any game not having automatic cheat codes, sorry most people find that inherently boring, MANAGEMANT CREATES STAKES which is a core concept in any successful game design

            And yes it's not takken, its not a fighting game, you dont get to just button mash until you clip your opponents iframes which is why all fighting games are trash, and gear matters after +5 upgrades and even average stat gear becomes beast at +10, again if you don't experiment how would you know

            Also bringing up bad netcode while bringing up fighting games is ironic since every single fighter has garbage net code, sorry youre gonna get lag, adapt and anticipate which unlike popular fighters Souls gives you the option to do

            And despite all the "trash netcode" people loved the fuck outta of multiplayer and created a pvp community bigger than most fighters , which is again ironic. Learning curves do not equal bad game design

            Also intention doesn't matter, other games before 2012 may have attempted the linear/non-linear progression strategy, but Dark Souls was the first to successfully execute the concept across the games design and layout

            • WEIMARUSSY [they/them]
              ·
              2 years ago

              Who complains about player characters having actual weight and haptic response instead of just floating around the screen like some boring ass abstract ghost, give me a shopping cart over a wonky paper plane any day

              It's clunky, that's why. Swings feel unwieldy and slow in a way that doesn't take long to accommodate to, but never feels like you have the control over the character you'd like.

              Also yes meter management, welcome to video games circa 1975-2022, sorry you don’t have an unlimited button mashing ability, turns out thinking about combat actaully makes it more engaging instead of shooting infinite ammo at polygons. Honestly what a bizarre critique its like complaining about any game not having automatic cheat codes, sorry most people find that inherently boring, MANAGEMANT CREATES STAKES which is a core concept in any successful game design

              What management? What moron is gonna try to keep swinging after their bar is done after the first couple of fights? You get your swings in, you back off for two seconds while the bar refills itself, the fights are balanced around the idea that you will need this interruption. That's not interesting decision making, and that sure as hell isn't "creating stakes".

              And yes it’s not takken, its not a fighting game, you dont get to just button mash until you clip your opponents iframes which is why all fighting games are trash, and gear matters after +5 upgrades and even average stat gear becomes beast at +10, again if you don’t experiment how would you know

              1. You have no idea what that entire genre is about, not even a pedestrian understanding.
              2. How does it change the way you approach fights other than raw stats. How does it fundamentally change what buttons you are pressing on a regular basis during an encounter.

              Also bringing up bad netcode while bringing up fighting games is ironic since every single fighter has garbage net code, sorry youre gonna get lag, adapt and anticipate which unlike popular fighters Souls gives you the option to do

              see post above, also "a lot of people played this game", a ton of people played League of Legends but that game is a blight

              Also intention doesn’t matter, other games before 2012 may have attempted the linear/non-linear progression strategy, but Dark Souls was the first to successfully execute the concept across the games design and layout

              play more than four video games

              • CyborgMarx [any, any]
                ·
                2 years ago

                It's only "clunky" if you neglect the weight/ratio stats, and even then, plenty of dex builds have your character zipping across the screen hitting with pinpoint accuracy with precise control feedback

                If you play as a tank things are gonna get clunky, and you know some folks like that, but let's not pretend there's no accelerated option, dex builds do go fast

                What management? What moron is gonna try to keep swinging after their bar is done after the first couple of fights? You get your swings in, you back off for two seconds while the bar refills itself, the fights are balanced around the idea that you will need this interruption

                Ok no, fights are not balanced around backing off and waiting, some enemies sure, but large swathes of the game are designed around tipping over that established rubric and pressing you out of your comfort zone play style wise, many enemies will not allow you time to "back off", some switch into ranged move sets and others rush you, this requires a keen eye for management and anticipation, patience is only rewarded when those first two criteria are met. Not meeting them punishes you, which is where the stake arise, you can play cocky, loose and fast and maybe get lucky for a while, but the 'management/anticipation = patience' philosophy is always in the background acting as a torsion for the unwary and impatient, and when paired with TIME management (Souls/Humanities) and the risk of losing it forever, that is literally casino ass stakes

                You have no idea what that entire genre is about, not even a pedestrian understanding.

                I don't have a pedestrian understanding, I have an experienced understanding, because I'm good at those games, too good the shit is boring, I'm one of those mutants who can move my thumb up and down real fricking fast, as a result I always clip my opponents and then one or two memorized combos (does that sound familiar) and boom I win....and if I don't want that to happen I have to limit myself to one or two specific character types where quirks and gimmicks can offset my twitchy thumb

                Souls-like games, that doesn't happen, in fact my quick thumb more often than not gets in the way, I love games that punishes overeager trigger fingers

                How does it change the way you approach fights other than raw stats. How does it fundamentally change what buttons you are pressing on a regular basis during an encounter.

                Raw stats changes your strategy, gives you more openings, offsets the punishments, nullifies ranged and elemental attacks in many cases, you become a high roller at that casino I mentioned, you can double your bets and when you still eat shit you can't help but laugh because at that point you have no excuse, it builds confidence in a game that loves to means test confidence, shit feels good

                see post above, also “a lot of people played this game”, a ton of people played League of Legends but that game is a blight

                But unlike Legends, shitty netcode in Souls incentivized skill formation towards anticipation, one of the game's core gameplay aspects, the concept of mind games was introduced, dueling, management, timing, and of course etiquette

                In an ironic twist the core gameplay aspects were heightened DESPITE and because of the lag and something developed that many games struggle forever to create, NOVELTY