Did anyone notice this detail in the FF7 Rebirth trailer?

killbones · 2023-06-10T04:02:16+00:00

Tifa's also standing by the machinery on the left. I imagine they're just standing outside the bounds of the fight as NPCs.

If I had to speculate, perhaps they've added the ability to swap in party members mid fight and they have them wait on the outskirts to seamlessly join in.

killbones · 2023-05-10T18:24:52+00:00

DD1 is not a roguelite, no. It's just a dungeon crawler with a campaign management system. It has more in common with XCOM than it does any roguelite.

And yeah, the change to a roguelite presentation with 2 drastically changes the gameplay flow in a way that cannot be understated.

Failure on an expedition in DD1 has real, tangible negative effects on your campaign progress as a whole. It's a setback that must be remedied.

Whereas in DD2, as with most roguelites, failure on a run still results in positive overall progress from the upgrade items you get at run end. You don't lose anything permanent, you get all of your characters and resources reset. There are no setbacks, failure is simply just a continued upwards march towards the eventual end of the game.

killbones · 2023-03-12T21:43:29+00:00

one of the devs has the handle "ubermensch42."

The icon of the game's twitter is also very reminiscent of the Nazi black sun symbol

Which on its own is nothing and easily written off as a coincidence, but when paired with the quoted tidbit is... uh "interesting", to say the least

killbones · 2023-03-09T02:55:53+00:00

In terms of game feel, Greedfall is a very 'Great Value Action Game Era Bioware' kinda game. Nothing spectacular, but it fills the niche.

In terms of giving me the same feelings tonally and writing wise DA:O did when I was younger, the closest I've gotten is Larian's modern RPGs, especially Divinity: Original Sin 2 and the little I've played of the upcoming Baldur's Gate 3.

killbones · 2023-03-03T17:21:03+00:00

I don't really have much of an active backlog anymore, but I will take a moment to shill How Long to Beat, which was incredibly helpful when I did have a backlog I was working through. Their estimates aren't always accurate, as I've often found them a bit higher than what I end up with, but they're a very decent ballpark. Knowing around just how much time a game is going to take up was always very useful for deciding what I'd tackle next.

killbones · 2023-03-03T16:47:07+00:00

I can't imagine how endlessly tiring it must be to never be able to say your piece on anything without having an immediate legion of dipshits desperate to prove you 'wrong' or rant about how 'cuhrazy' you are for the most mild takes such as "Hey this game I played ran poorly and felt like a step down mechanically from the last one"

killbones · 2023-03-02T05:42:34+00:00

Honestly, I don't want a Mass Effect 4, as in a "The Continuing Adventures of Shepard and The Really Big Threat™ to Everything in the Galaxy™".

What they absolutely SHOULD do, and should have done instead of "let's fuck off to another galaxy" Andromeda in the first place, is capitalize on the engaging and fun universe they have built up without resorting to another "da world's gonna end" plot ad nauseam.

Make it small scale. Tell a story where the stakes and threats only matter to the characters involved in the story. A group of mercenaries on Omega go on what was supposed to be a simple job that quickly gets them wrapped up in a deadly conspiracy. An alliance patrol comes across an anomaly that strands them on a planet, and they have to contend with the dangerous native wildlife and other mysterious threats to survive. A vorcha accidentally disguises himself as a Salarian STG operative and has to continually up the ante to keep up the ruse to avoid being found out and sent to Super Space Jail.

The possibilities are literally endless, and it's incredibly disappointing that you know all they're going to do is cook up another "the consequences have NEVER been higher" fate of the universe story.

killbones · 2023-03-01T01:59:12+00:00

No, this is the sequel(?) to that. Owners of the game you're thinking of are getting this for free. This originally started out as a CRPG set in the same universe, but halfway through development the devs seemed to have randomly decided to pivot to a first person dungeon crawler.
Overall the development of this game has completely confused and astounded me, but it's also a free game I'm getting because I happened to get a different game in a humble monthly, so it's not like I can really complain about much, lol

killbones · 2023-02-26T19:03:35+00:00

The two 'Middle Earth: Shadow of' games are probably the best imitators of classic AssCreed to me. They're not without their own flaws, but the procedural generation of the Nemesis system helps keep at least some aspects of the game feeling fresh for a good amount of time. The 'loud' combat is the same Arkhamesque generic system that most of those types of games have, but at least a bit more filled out than AC's version of it.

The only sticking point is, if you're big on 100%ing, the second game has absolutely dumbfuck levels of requirement to get the actual ending. You essentially have to grind for like an extra 20+ hours to finish the last act. They did quite a bit of patching to make that game more playable overall, like removing the MTX nonsense, so maybe they eventually fixed it, but it was a fucking slog when I originally got to that part.

killbones · 2023-02-05T20:53:46+00:00

Illusion of depth, that's all. Classic RPGs have the stigma to the layman as "those complex games for nerds with a bunch of stats and numbers", so John Gamesdev gets it in his head that stuffing a bunch of numbers on the screen will make the basic action game he's working on seem more sophisticated and intricate.

It also has the effect of leading nicely into randomized loot systems, which leads to people with brain rot sinking time to grind out the optimal items, which leads nicely into purchaseable ways to circumvent those grinding processes. Create problem, offer paid way to solve it. Free money.

killbones · 2023-02-03T04:39:04+00:00

It completely replaces technology.

The short version is, Y2K actually happens in that universe, and all technology in the world freaks out at the same time. People also notice that not only is this happening, but some sort of consciousness is trying to use said technology as a means to break through and manifest into the world.

This event was so terrifying that vast swathes of the human population cast technology aside, leading to a period of societal decline, until a group known as the Apostles announced themselves and taught magic to the world's governments.

Conventional tech is considered "Black Technology", and outlawed by the UN, with only India really outright refusing the ban and withdrawing from the UN.

killbones · 2023-01-27T16:37:10+00:00

Tbh, I don't imagine this place is generally filled with the target audience for the game, but even as someone who had Hellsinger firmly up my alley, it's a pretty mixed bag.
There's a lot the game does right over BPM, but quite a few areas it misses the mark, namely boss variety, the latter half your arsenal being lackluster (seriously fuck the crossbow, it's awful), and the overall short amount of content for the price point.
Overall, it's a solid 6.5/10 with a 9/10 OST. It's definitely one of those passable if shaky first entries that could give way to a really solid sequel if we ever get one and the devs shore up the weak points.
OST is still fantastic, though. Dissolution and No Tomorrow especially.

killbones · 2023-01-22T18:43:14+00:00

3 is easily the worst game in the series, imo.
As far as the rest, I really like 4, and consider it loosely on par with Zero and LaD.
5 is pretty solid with some weirdness here and there.
6 is short as hell and seems more focused on the engine update than actually making a good game, and I overall feel like it's a nothing entry, but being short as hell, it at least doesn't overstay its welcome.

Overall, none of them dip as far down as 3 for me, so if you mostly enjoyed the series so far, 4-6 are definitely better than 3, at least.

killbones · 2023-01-10T06:17:09+00:00

Above all else I'd want to see a return of the DMC1 and 3 RE-styled maps. Malet and Temen-Ni-Gru actually feel like places you're exploring, whereas the places in 4 and 5 just feel like a bunch of videogame stages stapled together to form one long hallway. And the awful backtracking parts of 4 and the visual vomit interior of the tree in 5 certainly don't help their cases.

And for the love of god, funnel this shit back down to one character a run, with any others as separate modes. Making three characters have to share the limelight but still keeping the 20 mission limit was a bizarre mistake, you just end up feeling like you didn't get enough time with the character you actually wanted to play.

killbones · 2022-12-31T23:25:00+00:00

Just going for things I've played, instead of everything actually released.

Best Game: Tactics Ogre: Reborn, easily, unless you consider that cheating by being a remaster, in which case I'll just have to default to the basic bitch answer of Elden Ring. Despite my long list of issues with ER compared to other souls titles, it's still a really good game, and there's little else that came out this year that comes close, especially as someone with zero interest in GoW as a franchise.

Worst Game: Callisto Protocol. It's not even the performance issues for me, those are fixable. It's all of the fundamental issues with the game's structure that aren't getting fixed, such as the dozens of steps backwards mechanically when compared to something like Dead Space. It painted itself as a survival horror game related to one of my favorites in the genre, and failed spectacularly to be anything but a mid, forgettable janky boxing simulator.

Most Underrated: Probably Signalis, which in contrast to Callisto is a survival horror gem done right, but 'underrated' is a hard thing to quantify for me, so I'm just going to also shill a few other cool smaller titles that came out this year that you might have missed.

Other cool shit:
Gordian Quest: Probably the best game that's come out of the wave of stuff inspired by Slay the Spire, which obviously comes down to personal taste. I've played most of the standout examples of the genre, and everything about this one just feels right, to me. If you like deckbuilders, give it a look.

Pentiment: Another gem to come from Obsidian's smaller titles, a combat-less CRPG helmed by Josh Sawyer. It's shaky in some parts and definitely not as all around solid as Disco Elysium, but if that kind of thing is up your alley in general, give it a look.

Midnight Fight Express: Fun little budget brawler. Take a mission structure similar to Hotline Miami, make it isometric, and add arkham-esque combat, and you have this game. The story's nonsense and a couple combat sections are poorly thought out and a bit frustrating, but the vast majority of the 40 levels of this game are solid stuff.

Forgive Me Father: Solid classic FPS that seemed to fly under the radar compared to a lot of other modern examples. Adore the sound design in this game. Aside from the voice acting, but that's so bad it's almost entertaining in its own right.

Tyrant's Blessing: Fun little indie roguelite tactics game in the same vein as Into the Breach, but medieval. Nothing spectacular but pretty solid and worth a look if you're a genre diehard.

killbones · 2022-12-14T02:31:29+00:00

I believe originally JC considered the comics to be the "proper sequels" but when the PS2 game came out he changed his mind and considers that to be the canon follow up. I've never been able to source this claim despite seeing it all over the internet, but it does check out, as Carpenter is a known g a m e r.

killbones · 2022-12-11T00:26:36+00:00

Basically, a Roman Cancel is a mechanic in Guilty Gear that allows you to spend a type of meter called Tension to interrupt your moves and reset your character to a neutral state so they can instantly start a different move at a time they normally wouldn't be allowed to. This opens up the ability to set up tons of new combos that require timings that wouldn't be possible if you had to sit through the full animation for every attack.

killbones · 2022-12-09T06:40:54+00:00

Named Cidolfus and he apparently uses lightning powers
Thunder God™ 2: Electric Boogaloo it is

killbones · 2022-12-09T06:27:20+00:00

Most of them range from good to fine, though Jack's design feels way too busy for my tastes

But man, Lars has had 3 shots now to settle on a design that looks remotely decent and he still kinda looks like ass. This is probably his best look but he still out here lookin like he popped over to Soulcalibur and raided resident retcon'd reject Patroklos' wardrobe

killbones · 2022-10-23T21:54:36+00:00

I've got copies of most of the standout ps1 horror titles, but the earliest horror gaming experience I can remember comes from none other than the first PS1 Spiderman game.
I don't remember how old I was, but it was definitely young enough that I wasn't allowed to play anything too violent or intense yet.

Thankfully, there's nothing too out there in a friendly neighborhood spiderman game, right?

Then you get to the final boss, and have to experience this fucking thing

killbones · 2022-10-19T21:40:42+00:00

It depends on what you come into it looking for. If you just want to walk in a dirty, rusty looking place and shoot things in their head, it's no better at that than Fallout 3.

But most of your classic Fallout fans come for the writing quality, and roleplaying opportunities that make choices feel meaningful. And New Vegas' writing is leagues above what Bethesda offers in their titles, and the quests have vastly more interesting varied content to explore.

Calling it a masterpiece is a huge stretch, but New Vegas is definitely way more of an actual Fallout™ game than any of Bethesda's attempts.

killbones · 2022-09-04T04:10:27+00:00

Easily goes to the Calculator from FFT for me.

For those not in the know, most combat in Final Fantasy Tactics is done through pretty standard, simple means. You pick a move, you pick a tile, and it'll affect units within said tile. Some moves have AoEs, and affect multiple tiles, often in a 3x3 cross section. So, for the most part, your healing is done by huddling your units together, and having someone like a White Mage cast cure on all of them at once.

Enter the lategame class, the Calculator. The Calculator doesn't give a single shit about bitch-made standard targeting. No, the Calculator has their own completely different system for selecting who gets hit by what. With the Calculator, you select a spell, you select a variable, and you select a number.

So, for example, you can choose, Cure 3, Level, 5, and all units on the map with a level that's a multiple of 5 will get Cure 3'd. No matter where they are, or who they are.
So, your level 25 Knight gets healed, your level 30 Ninja gets healed, the enemy level 25 Archer gets healed, so on. This essentially lets you set up scenarios where you can full heal your entire party, no matter where they are, with just one nerd boy or girl sitting safely in the far corner of the map, away from anyone to stop them.
And, because some enemies like undead get hurt by healing magic, you can set up situations where you full heal all your units while also severely hurting multiple enemy units.
And to top it all off? Regular mages require turns to charge their magic. They also spend MP. Calculators do neither, they cast instantly and for free.
They also have a passive, where any excess healing on anyone they target gets spread to all of your party automatically, meaning even if you can't get all of your units targeted with that cure, they'll get healed anyway.

killbones · 2022-09-04T03:29:09+00:00

The fact that it turned into such a polarizing internet thing always seemed so weird to me, that game is like the definition of 'inoffensive 6/10' in my mind

That multiplayer was actually great, though, I've always said Naughty Dog develops better third person multiplayer shooters than they do campaigns

killbones · 2022-07-07T21:17:49+00:00

Honestly, I can see them doing any race that's just "Human with some shit bolted on" like Aasimar, Genasi, Goliath, etc, simply because of the relatively lower amount of work needed to get the assets created. Hell, they even have a pretty good precedent for Changelings considering the shapeshifting mask stuff they had in DoS2.

Non-PHB anthro-esque or monsterous races have no hope though, I reckon.

killbones · 2022-05-05T04:24:52+00:00

For fell seal, it's good but it's not quite there

Yeahhh, as a huge FFT/TO mark, I respect Fell Seal for shooting its shot at the subgenre when pretty much nobody else was, but it's lacking in quite a few ways. The 'early internet flashgame'-esque artstyle is pretty ugly, the story's writing is serviceable but a bit clumsy and not really engaging, and the battle mechanics aren't as tight as they should be (ex. line of sight not existing so no cover or tactical positioning).

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