Topic: Returnal

@Th3solution @CJD87 Thanks guys, I'm making good progress. just 2 more sun fragments to go and then I can do the last few bits

I'm just enjoying going through all the different phases and exploring as much as I can, I sort of feel like I don't want the game to end which is not normal for me as I'm in such a rush usually because of my backlog so I'm just trying to get as much as I can out of the game before I move on.

That's why I'll probably jump into the DLC pretty much straight away. As for the plat I'll likely be pretty close by the time I'm finished I think I have about 20 out of 33 already so I will consider it along as it doesn't impact on my enjoyment of the game which I doubt it will lol.

Your road map is pretty much spot on CJD, and I think that overcoming your major road block is one of the main factors in how you see the game because I can see how getting stuck for along time would be frustrating, especially if you've had a long run and it all gets wiped because of a stubborn enemy (which happened to me a lot 🤣).

@MaulTsir I felt the exact same way after I had finished the game, so I powered through to get the platinum. The last few ciphers were a pain, and I almost gave up on a couple of occasions!

@JohnnyShoulder I actually have alot of the ciphers I checked and I have them all for B1 and 2 and 3, 4 and 6 I nearly have them all completed, although I don't have many for B5 which is actually the one I least like being in lol. But I know when it comes to the final few I'll have a nightmare finding them lol.

I know I have to do those gold rooms as well but I've managed to smash a few out last night.

@MaulTsir That is roughly where I was at when I had finished the story. Good luck, and hopefully the rng gods are smiling at you!

@MaulTsir B2 ciphers were the bane of my existence... and this is the case for many players. So if you already have all the B2 ciphers, then you are in great shape mate.

Go get that Plat!!!

@Kidfried The game could and would have been a challenge if it was simply a normal game and erased the silly demons souls/returnal loop function. I could have played it, finished it eventually and enjoyed it. Then replayed it, most likely more than a few times.

But instead I spent hours getting nowhere. Being frustrated at rng deaths and dying instantly to new and op enemy types I hadn't encountered after a two hour run. And stillno progress was made. The perma upgrades were so insignificant as to not be any real value. I never felt like I was getting anywhere. And the length of time each run took simply to get back to teh last point you died was frustrating. Here, let's go through this ENTIRE THING again, to get back tothe really hard part where you died, only to die at that part again. After a two hour slog to get to it. Every single time.

That's not good game design, it's the devs thinking they are clever and not respecting players time. And when you find out what the actual story is, what a joke.

@Kidfried The problem is that it's just too much time to redo yet another run and to get maybe a 60 second attempt to bea the thing you died to three times before. An hour or more more just to get to it. I've read on reddit plenty of people doing two and a half hour runs just to die in less than a minute in a fight and then have to restart and do another two and a half hours to try again.
The basic mechanic of losing everything? Yes, I get it, but the runs are too long. Repeated too many times. And it's not like demons souls where you can memorise the levels, I lost a 90 minute run because I was in a room with a titanops, the purple bats and so much fog that when evading I ran off a ledge and fell to my death. I spent 90 minutes just getting to biome 2 and died in seconds when two severed double teamed me and I was insta killed. It's a poor design choice. Had it been a normal save system I would have already finished the game and restarted it. As it is, I'll never play it again. Which is sad because the moment to moment play is fantastic.

Act 3 done!! Wow what a game.

I've had an absolute blast with this game and I didn't expect to enjoy it any where near as much, never been a big fan of the rouge-like experience but this was implemented so well that (even though I know it won't be for everyone) it's hard not to like it.

I have a few trophies to go there all the exploration trophies but I have nearly all ciphers and there's the full proficiency one that keeps alluding me I've got to 29 most times in the Abyssal Scar but then I run out of enemies! So hopefully I can get the plat and then give the DLC a go.

@MaulTsir Well done on getting through act 3 in quick order and great to hear you have enjoyed and are still enjoying the game up to this point. Hopefully those last ciphers won't allude you for too long but be prepared to have to do quite a few runs just to get those.

It depends which ones you need but sometimes it's best to check out some YouTube videos of all the cipher locations to see which rooms you don't recognise so that you can be sure you don't miss them. With some of them you can take shortcuts e.g. some in B2 are on the top section of the mountain so you can just skip through from the teleporter at the entrance and then backtrack.

Also for that proficiency trophy the best way to get that is in Abyssal Scar by locating one of those shielded squid things that infinitely spawns baby squids and just keep shooting the baby ones until you've popped it.

@MaulTsir Sounds like the Platinum is now 100% on the cards, and well done! When I got the stage you're at now, I decided to limit myself to 1 or 2 runs per day maximum... so as not to burn out.
The RNG can be a bit of a killer when it comes to Cipher hunting - and @render is totally right in that Youtube videos will be a great aid. Best of luck man, just a matter of time now

@Jammsbro sorry (and somewhat sad!) to hear that Returnal didn't click for you. I personally loved this game, and it was easily my own GOTY for 2021.... but equally I can appreciate why others may not be so enthralled by it.
I certainly don't think you're alone in your views, and I suppose the important thing is that you 'gave it a go'! I think Returnal's addition to PS+ Extra has hopefully broadened its appeal & reach. Whilst I'd be very hesitant to recommend anyone to outright 'purchase' the game individually, I'd 100% push for any PS+Extra subscribers to at least give it a go.
(On a personal level, my only real bone of contention with the game was that there was NO suspend feature from Day #! I'm glad this is now patched in, but IMO it was borderline obnoxious not having this from the start ha)

Gaming & tastes relating are always an interesting topic. I know for many that Resident Evil Village was an incredible experience, but I honestly still can't click with this!

@MaulTsir Congrats, buddy! Really glad you have enjoyed it. Hopefully that platinum is right around the corner.

@CJD87 I echo your thoughts about the lack of an actual suspend feature being the games biggest wart. Since I played it and completed it at launch, I haven’t even experienced the ability to save a run that they patched in later. I used the PS5 rest mode a few times, but I never really trusted that. So I’d just power through a run and make sure that I had a solid 3 hours of free time whenever I booted up the game. 😅

And interesting that you mention RE Village, as I’m playing RE4 now (a game frequently compared to Village) and although I’m mostly enjoying it I’m also scratching my head about why the game is so lauded.

@Th3solution

Ha oh wow, I remember I forgot to turn off 'automatic updates' for games... so if my PS5 was in rest-mode (to 'save' a Returnal run) it meant that the run was lost.
I'll never forget the level of irony when I lost a rest-mode run due to Returnal receiving a patch update - the very patch that would include 'suspend'! (update in turn then killed my rest-mode run, one last hurrah for Housemarque!!)

Resi 4 is a strange one. Someone else on this forum put it very well in that it is/was very much 'a product of its time'. I recall playing it at release on PS2, and it was just incredible... really fresh, and a welcome step away from the tank-controls of entries 1-3. I don't think it holds up particularly well today, especially against other entries like Resi 2 Remake and Resi 7 (my personal favorite).
R4 is still a lot of fun, and especially the campy dialogue... Leon seems to have had a complete personality transplant since Resi 2, and is now the king of sassy comebacks lol!

Well, I managed to beat the first boss on my first try thanks to a lot of help but the second boss kicked my butt.

The thing with this game is that you can't rush back to where you died. In order to have the best possible shot at the boss, you need to collect and upgrade as much as possible on your way to it. That's problematic if you make multiple consecutive runs because your patience will run out. So I think the best possible strategy is to do a run after some time has passed from your previous run so you won't feel impatient.

Which is hard, because the game is so addicting lol (I've already played it for 5 hours today!). But for the sake of my sanity, I'll have to use this approach and play other games in between.

Jesus Christ, that was an intense run.

Decided to take my time and explore the first biome thoroughly. I mistakenly decided to go through one of those yellow doors that let you fight a bunch of enemies and I died. Then on my second run I decided to avoid optional areas like those. Managed to buy an astronaut, which made me really happy. Then I decided to locate the area in the second biome where you can purchase stuff. I got lost on my way there and got absolutely decimated by a sentient. I lost my astronaut and almost died again. That would've absolutely sucked, it would've been an entire hour lost just like that. Luckily, I managed to pull through, found the area where you can purchase stuff, upgraded my health, bought a large health pack and even activated the reconstructor just in case. Then I decided to fight the second boss. I didn't have full health so I thought I might as well just give it a shot but not use up my large health pack since I'd get full health after I get resurrected. I died the first time, but then on my second try I didn't even get hit once until the third phase. I finally beat him and I didn't even need to use the health pack! That was such a satisfying moment for me. I was surprised that I had gotten that much better.

So now I'm finally done with the second biome and I'm on my way to the third one! I just can't stop playing this game lol.

@LtSarge Really is an addictive game to play, and I had to force myself to stop playing at times. Thank god for rest mode, otherwise I think I might have lost out on a lot of sleep and meals lol.

Good luck in biome 3, that was a stumbling block for many people. I hope you continue to play if you do come across a real tough section, as it can be infuriating at times.

But I've got a feeling that you've got this game and may well be one of those people that get though the game relatively quickly.

@LtSarge Wow, you’re flying through the game! B3 is pretty punishing though so good luck. I was really lucky though as I got through B3 on my first attempt as I got a perfect mix of items and upgrades on that run.

Two tips for that area though are;

1) You don’t take damage when using the grappling hook so it’s a very good way of getting out of danger
2) You don’t have to kill everything! There’s one area that is especially tricky but you can just run through it

And one thing you may already know, but that the game doesn’t outright tell you, picking health packs up at full health gives you one level towards increasing your overall integrity so don’t always leave it lying around!

@LtSarge nice work, mate! You’re making faster progress than I did. But like has been said, Biome 3 is arguably the toughest for most people. It’s so effin’ epic though and I hope you enjoy it.

I’ll try not to give too many spoilers so you can just enjoy discovering it yourself, but I will say that my typical approach was to clear out most of B1, at least until you get to the shop, but your upgrades there, and polish off more of B1 until you can upgrade your integrity, then take the path to B2 and I would just do the beginning open area. It’s really quite easy, probably the easiest area in the game because there is so much open space to dodge. There’s a lot of weapon pick up and other power ups in that first part of B2 also. But I would then skip the second indoor temple area of B2 and warp to B3 from the temple entrance. I think the risk of dying in there is more than the rewards you’ll find and you should be strong enough for B3 after clearing B1 and that first half. It’ll save you some time. But I found that if I tried to skip straight from B1 to B3 then I’d be too frail.

Just my two cents on the approach. Also, don’t sleep on the Lobber. I didn’t like it in most other areas because it’s slower to fire, but for B3 it works quite well because it does some continuous damage and you can be running for your life while it corrodes enemies. 😅

@JohnnyShoulder @Thrillho @Th3solution I just finished biome 3 on my first try! Jesus Christ it was so nerve-racking going through the third area, thinking if I die I'll have to start over from the first one. I was sweating like a pig, I probably lost half my body weight during this run.

I went all out in preparing for this area after reading your posts. Bought an astronaut, found a parasite that regenerates health for me when low and I even bought a use of the reconstructor just in case. I didn't even need to use it or the astronaut against the third boss. But man, I was really confused while fighting it. Didn't know what was going on half the time! It was absolutely intense and I loved it, definitely the coolest boss fight so far.

But man, biome 3 was just so long. It probably is around the same length as biome 2, but for me it felt much longer for some reason. It would've really sucked to die here considering how long it takes to get through this place.

@JohnnyShoulder I genuinely can't imagine how awful it must've been to play this game when you weren't able to suspend the cycle. Even though rest mode is an alternative, you never know what might've happened. I'm glad they eventually updated the game.

@Thrillho Very helpful tips! I remembered the first one while I was going through B3 and it helped me out in so many situations. I also had no idea about the last tip, that's very good to know. I tend to leave health items when I have full health just in case I'm running low on health so that I could return to previous areas and grab the ones I left behind.

@Th3solution Even though I've finished B3, I would've used your approach in the case that I die. It makes sense, because the temple area in B2 is so risky. I almost died multiple times in my last run because of that area. So I agree that going through B1 thoroughly, then doing the first half of B2 and skipping the temple would be a good approach when getting back to B3.

@LtSarge Wow, good work! I was pretty underwhelmed by the B3 boss to be honest although the mechanics were quite clever. The B4 boss is my favourite in the game though!

@Thrillho I just finished B4 now and the boss was pretty dang cool. I liked how he was attacking while having his back turned against me, lol. Then when he turned around, the attacks got even fiercer. Very cool stuff.

B5 is looking to be very cozy to explore as I love ice levels in games. Looking forward to starting it up soon.