Topic: What (Non-PS4) game are you playing??

@Th3solution I did think of you when I saw Ral was playing Dark Souls, and thinking that he has beaten you to it.

Good lord, the Gaping Dragon is an annoying boss. Not the first one I've had a hard time with (Capra Demon took me five tries or so; I maintain that particular boss encounter is just badly designed), but it did NOT want to let me around to the side of it.

Noticed I was barely chipping it, so tried applying electricity to my halberd, but you spend so much time running from that stupid thing that it's mostly just a waste of resources. Summoned someone named Solaire, but I think it makes the health pool larger for the boss, and all the guy does is get run over and killed after a minute or two. Hardly worth wasting my humanity consumables to turn human and summon him.

The solution was to just git gud. I stripped down to less heavy armor so that I'd move faster, double handed my halberd, and methodically kited the thing until it either slammed its face down or rushed the wall, allowing me to punish it.

Got a key for somewhere called "Blighttown." Sounds fun.

Congrats on beating the Gaping Dragon @Ralizah.
You've gone through the opening hours of the game quite quickly it seems!

Yeah... None of the summons are useful against the gaping dragon from how big it is and the AI of the npc summons being awful vs it. He's useful though against a certain dynamic duo later to take the heat off you and can be handy against the gargoyles earlier too.

You did meet him before right? Shoulda seen him after the tauros demon waffling about the sun.

Solaire's the sanest and nicest NPC in the game (well aside from the onion knight) which I'm sure you'd appreciate compared to everyone else in this crapsack world who's cackling mad or soon to be

@JohnnyShoulder I’m feeling the pressure now to play it!

I actually loaded it on my console weeks ago in preparation. Although that’s not always a guarantee that the game will get played soon, it’s the first step. 😄

Played Sonic Frontiers for about an hour today and so far I'm rather pleased with it. Definitely gives off BotW vibes in terms of its aesthetics and sound. I love the mix of open world exploration and linear high-speed levels. Very fun game, I can't wait to play more of it.

@HallowMoonshadow Yeah, I started playing on Saturday after buying it off a friend and have been going at it more or less continuously since then in my free time. I'm sure I'll burn out at some point, although I'd at least like to get through this miserable cesspit of poison, mosquitos, and tiny platforms I'm in first. We'll see.

I remember talking to Solaire at some point. I thought he was close to that red dragon on the bridge, though...

There's a really nice zombie lady who sells me poison protection items in the sewer (and something that says it'll let me attack those ghost women in another environment I tried exploring early on; they beat me back even harder than the ruddy skeletons in the graveyard). She's currently my favorite NPC.

Oh interesting Ral. I assume that was because of your positive experience with Elden Ring earlier in the year? I can only imagine the lack of a map is giving you trouble right?

And Blighttown... I have mixed feelings on it myself. The top section is the hardest part I feel... The middle and bottom aren't too bad. The blowdart snipers giving you trouble?

That area is right after the Tauros demon fight so... We're both right 😅

Oh Moss Lady! Yeah she's a pretty fun NPC too.

If you want a little tip regarding the New Londo ghosts you can damage them in two other ways too.

@HallowMoonshadow Pretty much. My experience with Elden Ring left me more... open to giving FS' Souls formula another chance, and I've been eyeing the Switch port of Remastered because of how brilliant the colors look in handheld mode. So when I casually mentioned to my friend that I was in the market for a copy, and he offered to sell me his, I jumped on it. He has no patience for the methodical, stamina-based combat in series like Dark Souls and Monster Hunter, so he was eager to offload it.

The lack of a map is still troublesome, yes, but to less of an extent than it was in Bloodborne. It probably helps that the environments in Dark Souls seem somewhat distinct, whereas a lot of the locations in Bloodborne seemed extremely similar to me.

The lack of fast travel sucks, though. I get that a lot of places still link back to Firelink Shrine, and its absence here is likely meant to force players to grapple with the interconnected nature of the map, but it just makes EVERYTHING in this game other than progressing forward a hassle. A hassle that was almost entirely absent from Elden Ring.

As for Blighttown, it's just not fun at all. Somehow, it's more sewer-y than the actual sewer level. Fighting enemies on those little wooden platforms is an annoyance. I had no idea why I kept dying from Toxic until I realized those little jerks were sniping me from inaccessible locations. The entire bottom is this horrible, poisonous swamp that's a pain to trudge through and is filled with annoying insects.

Good to know the ghosts drop weapons designed to hurt them, since that item that allows you to harm them is pricey, so it's not a long-term solution. And yeah, I've read up on the curse status effect, and want absolutely nothing to do with that!

It's fine so far. I'd even go so far as to say I'm enjoying it. If I make it to the end, I'll likely revisit Bloodborne next, at some point.

edit: And that's Blighttown kicked!

...no idea where I need to go now. And someone killed the fire keeper that upkept Firelink Shrine, wtf.

Lvl 57 now and exploring Anor Londo in Dark Souls Remastered.

Wish I'd stocked up on arrows, as that section with the two snipers was a pain.

It's amusing to me how dangerous the environments are for everyone. It feels like a common occurrence that I'm just strolling around and gain free souls because some dufus knight lost his footing on some of the absurd terrain in this game.

@Ralizah Are you experimented with using magic very much?

@Th3solution Just the basic pyromancy fireball spell, since it's easily upgraded at Firelink Shrine and not reliant on your stat spread. Otherwise, all of my points are going in Endurance, Strength, and Dexterity.

OK, so I'm level 75 now in Dark Souls Remastered. Obtained the Lordvessel after defeating Ornstein and Smough (absolutely insane fight; my heart was beating out of my chest when I finally managed to beat it, as I was out of Estus Flasks and was playing defense to avoid being killed again by Smough's crazy second form yet again), went into the Catacombs (having to run past all the skeletons in order to kill the necromancers was horrible), killed the easiest boss in the game (some starfish that slowly materialized copies of himself around the room), then struggled through the Tomb of the Giants until some backstabbing NPC kicked me down into a hole, where I thankfully found a lantern. Struggled further to get to the boss, and have died to him, like, four times now. The path to get to Nito is honestly just as hard, and I've died numerous times just trying to get there.

I've made a ton of progress is a week. Will probably sit the game down for a while and play something less stressful for a bit.

Pac-Man World RePac (Steam) - I'm on the final world & think I only have two levels left (one of which being the final boss). The gameplay doesn't flow as smoothly as a Mario or Astro Bot game, but it's still pretty solid & I think it does a great job of mixing in the "Pac-Man" elements giving it an identity of it's own (imaginative variety in terms of boss fights too, it must be said). Glad it gives out loads of extra lives too. I honestly haven't had that much issue with it overall, but I lost over 15 lives alone on 6-1 due to the fact that a lot of it consists of small floating platforms (some that move or disappear) where it's hard to orient yourself & I'd jump into the abyss constantly (to think this has apparently made a number of QOL improvements over the original, to boot). Graphically it looks lovely too. If I didn't know any better I'd think it was a completely modern game, and the world themes are very varied.

Star Ocean: the Divine Force (PS5) - I don't think it's optimized very well, as even on fidelity mode it doesn't always hit the 30FPS target (though issues mostly pop up in cutscenes, oddly enough, gameplay is usually solid), and apparently the PS4 & PC versions are even worse off in that regard from what I've heard. That said I'm having a lot of fun with it. Flying/gliding around the environments with "D.U.M.A." is a blast & it's fun to use in combat as well. I like the sci-fi element (it's set on a fantasy world with magic, however the protag & some of the other party members are space travellers from Earth who have crash landed here), and it's the first large-ish JRPG I've played since XC2 that's so willing to be endearingly cheesy. Just cleared a dungeon that climaxed with a boss fight against a big blue bird, and have now arrived at the capital.

Goddamn you really ploughed through DS @Ralizah if you're already at Anor Londo! I have to admit I'm curious about that playtime of yours...

Have fun in Sen's Fortress? I honestly found that the most annoying area in my playthrough last year... Well aside from one area you haven't reached yet that nobody likes 😅

Congrats on finally getting the ability to warp with the lordvessel! Did you summon Solaire for Ornstein and Smough? He's usually pretty good for taking the heat from one of them so you can focus on the other. He typically doesn't last the fight though.

Dark Souls 2 and 3 make it so you can warp from the start of the game. DS3 is also very linear (There's only 2 branching paths if I recall correctly) if that appeals... Though the areas are quite large still and have lots of nooks and crannies.

Oh and about Firelink shrine did you get the firekeeper back?

@HallowMoonshadow I'm well past Anor Londo at this point. But yeah, I'm curious to see exactly how much time I've racked up in DS... in a few days, since the Switch won't tell you how long you've played a game until ten days or so have passed, for some completely arbitrary reason. Meanwhile, on my 3DS and Wii U, I can look at complex breakdowns of how long I've played a game, how many times I've booted it up, which months I gamed the most, get an ordered list of my games by total playtime, etc. at any point.

Sen's Fortress was actually pretty fun! I mean, not all of it, considering some sections just felt unfairly difficult (the bit where you have to walk across a razor thin platform and are IMMEDIATELY shot off by a lizard archer hiding off to the side of the level, forcing you to go back to the bonfire, was pretty frustrating), but it was nice to have an environment with actual puzzles in it! I've long felt one of the biggest weaknesses of From Software's Soulsborne titles has been how much of the experiences amount to just running around empty environments killing enemies, but this environment, with some minor tweaks, wouldn't be entirely dissimilar from a dungeon in a game like The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess. So, I'd go as far as to say it's my favorite area in the game at this point.

The Catacombs/Tomb of the Giants were miserable, though. Even worse than Blighttown. Glad to be out of there. Although Gravelord Nito ended up being a pushover once I forged a divine weapon to take out his little skeleton homies that crowd around you during that entire fight.

Yeah, I summoned Solaire during the Ornstein/Smough fight. It's hard enough WITH help! Certainly wasn't wanting to solo it. Although I almost had to, because, by the time I defeated that encounter, I had just used up my last humanity to unhollow and summon Solaire one final time.

Dark Souls 3 really does sound like it cuts out a number of the annoyances from this game. Saw it for $15 in a Walmart the other day. Maybe I should have picked it up. Are shields still useful, or does the combat go full Bloodborne and become Dodge Roll: The Game? I do like the resource management element of using your stamina to protect against damage with a shield.

Yeah, some black orb I picked up triggered in Anor Londo, and it transported me to a dimension where I could fight the NPC that killed the Shrine Firekeeper. Dude was an amateur, so despite fighting against three enemies, I didn't even end up needing to heal at all.

@Ralizah Yep shields can be used in all three Dark Souls games.

Sounds like your are actually enjoying it? Which is not something I thought I'd ever be saying to you.

@JohnnyShoulder Mostly. Accepting at the outset that the experience would likely be rife with frustrations put me in a mindset where I'm more able to enjoy the game for what it is.

Also, the initially short play loops as you learn what to do through trial-and-error are much easier for me to swallow on a portable system.

I'm pretty sure @Ralizah if you press load game on the main menu rather then continue it shows you your game time per save slot/character so you can look your game time up whenever Ral

And yeah I do remember that feature from the 3DS was pretty cool. I remember being quite surprised at spending over 200 hours in Pokemon X!

Funny you mention Twilight Princess as that's the only home console Zelda I've actually played (The handheld one being Phantom hourglass). Good to hear you enjoyed Sen's Fortress though. I kept falling off the ledges and tried going for everything so it meant a lot of falling on tight beams or to the ground floor and having to fight all those damn titanite demons

You got very lucky with the dynamic duo there. Any reason you went for Ornstein first or was that just pure coincedence?

I should clarify that I mean main diverging paths for DS3. So it's not like in DS1 when you get to Firelink & there's like 6 different places you can go and most of them are a bad time. There's still various paths, dead ends and the likes in DS3 but you won't find yourself in an area you shouldn't be til 30 hours in or whatever 😄

Shields are still very useful in DS3. I don't actually use shields all that much though in any of the games though personally besides stopping projectiles. I mainly do dex builds and dodge roll a lot

I don’t think even I can write a review about UEFA Champions League 04/05, it’s one of the most bizarre pointless games I’ve ever played. Imagine FIFA 2005 but with a fraction of the teams, the ability to only play 4 leagues in a season mode and worse presentation. I guess it has the Champers license but it’s just utterly pointless. We might complain about DLC but imagine actually buying that game at the time. Like a full game with a disc and everything.

It’s no Three Lions.

And what an intro!