What are you playing?

[Exhuminator]

5-2 is nasty. I would do 3-2 and 3-3 before that one. The 3-2 boss is insane, but defeating it gave me an immense sense of accomplishment.

Well I didn't mess with 5 or 3 tonight. I actually finished up 4-2, taking out the "Old Hero" demon. 4-2 is an incredible place to grind up souls.

[Xeogred]

It's fun to go backwards through 4-2.

4-3 might be the best and easiest place to grind once you figure it out.

[Sload Soap]

4-3 is easily the best place to grind for souls. I wouldn't ever willingly put myself through 4-2 again if I didn't have to .

I finished up Demon's and Dark Souls recently, picking up DS3 tomorrow. Went Str/Dex in DS, Magic/Rapier parry queen in Demon's, so thinking pure brute paladin in DS3. Big ass swords, big ass armour and some of God's Wrath thrown in for good measure.

In the downtime between Souls games I've been playing Not a Hero as a sort of palette cleanser. It's pretty fun, kind of reminds me of Broforce, has that hyper-Amiga feel to it.

[Exhuminator]

I finished up Demon's and Dark Souls recently, picking up DS3 tomorrow.

So which do you think was harder, Demon's or Dark?

Also, are you skipping Dark Souls II?

[isiolia]

I finished up my NG+ run of Dark Souls last night, which I guess is the biggest jump between game cycles, but mostly didn't seem too different. May revisit one of the others (again) next, since I'm still in a comfort gaming mood, and my other inclination is to start an additional FFXI account for some reason.


DS3 doesn't favor the big weapons/armor as much I think (the most recent patch did adjust some things). If you just want to build that, by all means, but if you're anticipating it working like it did in DS1 you may want to check into the mechanics first.

Not that you can't respec a few times per game cycle anyway.

[Sload Soap]

I finished up Demon's and Dark Souls recently, picking up DS3 tomorrow.

So which do you think was harder, Demon's or Dark?

Also, are you skipping Dark Souls II?

I'd say Dark Souls is tougher but take that with a pinch of salt as it was my first exposure to the series and I played a magic build in Demon's. That said, no boss or area in Demon's gave me the kind of gyp Sen's Fortress and Ornstein+Smough did.

I'm not skipping DSII, I've just not got my copy at the moment (it's been "borrowed" by my brother for the last 6 months) and I got a cheap copy of DSIII off ebay.

As for my build, I'm just going for something a bit different really. I dabbled in pyromancy in Dark Souls, I went full mage in Demon's so would like to try the remaining magic branch as well as lose some dex and be a bit more tanky. I also read that DSII and III ease up on equip burden so I could finally wear some of that sweet, sweet heavy armour and not have to dread the fat roll. Correct me if I'm wrong though.

[Exhuminator]

I'd say Dark Souls is tougher but take that with a pinch of salt as it was my first exposure to the series and I played a magic build in Demon's.

Yeah that'll do it. Being a royal mage and spewing soul arrow / soul ray is easy mode in DeS. If you ever get bored go back and play as a melee-only character, just to see how different that is.

[PartridgeSenpai]

I restarted Vanquish again today, and while it took me a little to get into it, it's pretty good fun! The bullet time is a fun mechanic, and zooming around (even if it's way too hard to shoot during that) is also silly fun. I just finished Act 3. I just wish the voice acting were a little better (the big dude with the arm sounds a LOT like the main character Sam), which is disorienting at times. I also was absolutely dying when Sam was complimenting himself on his sniper rifle shots during the train bit

Also, I am totally up for skipping Dark Souls II. It's made by a different director and it REALLY shows. Apart from a better UI, it really doesn't do anything better than DeS or DS. Where most of the other games give you at least some idea of what's about to come at you (you can see pressure plates or blood spatters etc) DS II really loves dicking over the player for no good reason . The creature design is also really lame and so are most bosses, so that was really the final nail in the coffin for me on that one.

[isiolia]

As for my build, I'm just going for something a bit different really. I dabbled in pyromancy in Dark Souls, I went full mage in Demon's so would like to try the remaining magic branch as well as lose some dex and be a bit more tanky. I also read that DSII and III ease up on equip burden so I could finally wear some of that sweet, sweet heavy armour and not have to dread the fat roll. Correct me if I'm wrong though.

For comparison, DS1 fat rolls at 50%+ and has quick roll under 25% Dark Woodgrain Ring improves things a little as well, besides the flip animation.

DS2 - Roll distance gets reduced starting at 10% equip load, with the largest spike in reduction as you go past 50% (80% of max down to 65%). You don't, however, swap to fat roll until 70%+
It further complicates things by tying roll speed, iframes, and other things like Estus Flask use speed to Agility, which is primarily raised via Adaptability (to a lesser degree by Attunement).
Early game DS2 (especially) feels very clunky to me as a result.

DS3 - Quick roll is under 30%, standard roll from 30.1-70%, so it's indeed a lot more relaxed compared to the others with regard to equipment burden.

The main thing with DS3, however, is that Poise works very differently. This is the stat that prevents you from being interrupted or staggered. It's more or less a hidden meter that takes damage. In DS1 and DS2, adding it via gear (such as heavier armor, Havel's being the poster child) meant you had a larger pool to work from. In DS3, improvements to it via items/armor only take effect during "hyper armor", which triggers during things like attacks with large weapons. The latest patch actually changed some things with it, to make it work better than it did during my playthroughs, so my impressions may be dated.
On the other hand, basic smaller weapons like swords or clubs tend to be easier to stagger enemies with, as they do proportionally high amounts of damage to the poise meter relative to their delay.

]Also, I am totally up for skipping Dark Souls II. It's made by a different director and it REALLY shows. Apart from a better UI, it really doesn't do anything better than DeS or DS. Where most of the other games give you at least some idea of what's about to come at you (you can see pressure plates or blood spatters etc) DS II really loves dicking over the player for no good reason . The creature design is also really lame and so are most bosses, so that was really the final nail in the coffin for me on that one.

DS2 certainly has its shortfalls, but it also does a lot of unique things for the series and is well worth playing through. I could expound more, but technically we do have a thread for that

[pierrot]

This may seem like a silly question, but what actually is the game part of Shenmue? That game has always seemed way more like a movie than a game to me. The combat in Yakuza is just so viceral, I couldn't be satisfied only watching it. Granted, I did get bored of Shenmue in only an hour or two, so perhaps I missed the fighting parts.

I guess I can see how someone who prefers a slower, more exploration-heavy and immersive game like Shenmue wouldn't be as drawn in by such a high-drama, big action game like Yakuza which shares such a similar setting.

Yeah, the "game" parts of both series are pretty much the same: exploration, combat, various diversions. The big difference, for me, is that Shenmue grants a lot more freedom, and much finer detail in the settings. In Shenmue, I can talk with every character I pass by, and be greeted with voiced dialogue; Every character follows a schedule, so I could find the lowliest of NPCs in a variety of places, at different times, and he or she is distinguishable from other NPCs; It's not hindered by poor visual fidelity, or camera response, and allows me to get a close up of almost anything; The atmosphere is better enhanced by an incredible music score, rather than muddled by a lot of repetitive, white noise.

To me, Yakuza feels a bit like a hybrid of Berserk on the Dreamcast, and Shenmue, with more emphasis on the Berserk-like aspects: The main progression is just a bunch of story clips, and battle arenas, but with some open world adventure stuff just dumped out in between those battles. I've kind of tried to figure out what the point of the adventure stuff is, but it really feels kind of meaningless. I got a free pass for the Asia dance club, and, just, why? A homeless guy told me a nice story about a caba-jyo, so I decided to go see her, and wow, was that a waste of time and money. It was about as sad as the time I went to a certain maid cafe with this Japanese guy who was trying to pick up one of the girls there. Except it's worse, because I'm getting dumb texts, in game, from a character whose job is to mislead clients into spending exorbitant amounts of money. Maybe the male hosts at Shine would treat me better--. I also found an underground casino, tried the slots, batting center, and crane game, but it feels like there's very little entertainment value in those. Also the rewards feel useless.

Like I said, though, there's not really a reason the games have to be compared. To this point, I certainly prefer Shenmue, but I do think Ryu ga Gotoku is fun, at least. One thing that's grating on me a little, though, is the combat. My god, is the combat in this game terrible. I unlocked a five button combo that ends in a round-house, to a 360 back kick, and basically use that, exclusively, on 90% of the enemies. The other 10% is largely enemies I attempt to hit with special moves, but since the window for executing them can be a few frames, most of the time, that mostly ends in failure. Shenmue's combat is basically a modified Virtua Fighter system, so it really feels like free form combat. I just finished the Majima fight last night, and the limitations in Ryu ga Gotoku's combat really show there.