It was... okay. I do wish they let us free roam though. It's really hard to judge the combat because the fights were pretty damn easy. They must've toned down the difficulty for this build.

Oh and taking control away from you to show that your pawn is doing some stupid shit was bad. Hope we can turn it off in the release version.

@Packie said:

It was... okay. I do wish they let us free roam though. It's really hard to judge the combat because the fights were pretty damn easy. They must've toned down the difficulty for this build.

Oh and taking control away from you to show that your pawn is doing some stupid shit was bad. Hope we can turn it off in the release version.

Well I said this in another post but... If you look at the options and turn off the "cinematic camera" it will stop showing what your pawn is doing. Though I don't consider Salde holding up a Hobgoblin so I can easily own it's ass to be "stupid shit".

Oh and taking control away from you to show that your pawn is doing some stupid shit was bad. Hope we can turn it off in the release version.

So I was super down on this game until neogaf told me to do two things.

~Turn off cinematic camera

~Turn off pawn subtitles

After that, the game was a blast. I jumped onto the griffen, missed, ended up one hand grabbing his tail and hung on for dear life as he flew around the area threatening to shake me off. If they can link those experiences together in a satisfying way, they'll have something amazing on their hands. Fighting the mobs is kinda eh, but if you get to the point where you can bounce between big enemy to big enemy, could be pretty amazing.

I'm not day one sold yet...I'm close. I feel like Capcom always does this, but the fact that this is single player means I don't have to care about the multi-being broken...so...

First thing I did in the demo: grab my pawn and throw him off the cliff. It let me do it. Satisfying.

@Mesoian said:

First thing I did in the demo: grab my pawn and throw him off the cliff. It let me do it. Satisfying.

Don't do that with your main pawn in the real game ;p. My understanding is it gives you a game over. You can however throw pigs at townspeople, climb on a cows head and stab it to death (assuming it doesn't shake you off and stomp you), and a bunch of other crazy crap. As far as big enemies go.... yeah there are parts of the game where you will run into stuff like two cyclops at the same time only to crest a hill and find yourself fighting a golem, etc etc. You don't see it in the demo much but the game is insanely dynamic as well. Visit an abandoned shack during the day it is just some villagers, come back at night you walk inside to find it empty and when you walk outside you get jumped by a bandit army. There are also random giant monsters too, like the Griffin.

@Mesoian said:

Fighting the mobs is kinda eh, but if you get to the point where you can bounce between big enemy to big enemy, could be pretty amazing.

:O

the idea of being able to grab a griffin to fly high enough to jump off and land on a giant enemy's head... now if I can't do that i'll be disappointed.

@TheHT said:

@Mesoian said:

Fighting the mobs is kinda eh, but if you get to the point where you can bounce between big enemy to big enemy, could be pretty amazing.

:O

the idea of being able to grab a griffin to fly high enough to jump off and land on a giant enemy's head... now if I can't do that i'll be disappointed.

Exactly. And from what I've played, I don't see a reason why you shouldn't be able to do that.

Storytime: I actually played this game at PAXEast a few weeks ago and they had a more robust version of the griffin area, letting you actually explore and look around the meadow area. The mobs WILL be more difficult then they were in the demo, your demo characters are super strong. But more than that, this game has a really stark level of verticality. One of the first things I did while playing that demo was to go along a pretty sheer cliff along with my 3 pawns and jump off, sliding down the rock face in typical video game clunky fashion. My pawns just sort of freaked out, rubbing up against the edge of the cliff-side, unable to process whether jumping down would kill them or not, and I left them there for a while to fight a gang of bandits that spawned in front of me. From super far away, my mages were laying down suppressing fire for me from a very high position, allowing me to make short work of my assailants. So terrain, both high and low, looks like it can be utilized even by bots in order to make combat more interesting. This makes me really hopeful about doing interesting things during combat. I just hope the story isn't balls (it probably will be).

Shame the demo is really short, but I am buying this day one. It seems to control just fine, and those gameplay video's show a ton of really interesting mechanics. I have little doubt that this game will have some flaws, but I know I'll get my money worth.

The demo wasn't great. It really feels hectic and the missions it gives you are very linear, I could see a lot of people playing this and not even realising it's an open world game. The city stuff sounds amazing too, so it's really a shame they didn't better demonstrate that stuff.

That aside, I thought it was a lot of fun. Everything Monster Hunter should be.

Just finished it and... um... well... yeah, it's not very good.

I really didn't like the demo at all. I'll start with why I was interested in the game and how it disappointed me on that level before going into more general stuff I guess?

When I read the stuff about making bosses climbable so you didn't have the silly "just hacking his legs" thing, I thought it was really interesting. But it just didn't feel like I was expecting. Maybe when the bosses get a bit bigger it will be different, but it just felt like, grab on, hit them loads from one spot until you get thrown off. Once I felt like I might have been doing something to avoid being thrown off, but I'm not sure because it's impossible to see what the hell is going on. Honestly, even though it was badass being on the griffin while it was flying around, it didn't feel like it was that different to just...well, hacking at its legs. Like I say, maybe it gets more useful and maybe I missed something, but I was hoping to like, climb all around him finding weak spots and shit

I guess I was also thinking it was going to be a dark souls type experience, because people have been throwing that around. It is nothing at all like Dark Souls, except maybe in some of the design elements (particularly the message on the splash screen, I guess). None of the feeling of precision, none of the timing based stuff, really.

The pawns thing never really excited me, but I didn't expect it to actually annoy me. having 3 of them seemed like too many dudes getting in the way. Also, during the griffin fight, one of them kept being like "I'll launch you at him" Every time it did this it slowed time and zoomed in on the pawn. I ran over, and they launched me in the air to zero effect, the Griffin had flown away. I realise this is a bit of a "use more skill" moment, but it just felt incredibly clunky.

The lack of any kind of lock on was also a bit weird.

So yeah, put me off entirely. I know that it was a very short slice of the game and a lot of these are things I would learn to get over in the full game, but I just don't want to at all. Maybe when it's price drops a bunch.

I thought it was quite good not great, but then again it is a demo. To me it did look different to the trailers I've seen, as in noticeably different, but it was still a good looking game.

When the Chimera began 'eating' that guy, I kind of felt that if this was going to be what the final product would be like, it would be painful to watch.

@bighat_logan said:

@Enigma777 said:

Just finished it and... um... well... yeah, it's not very good.

wrong

No. No, I'm pretty sure it's bad. Like 95% sure.

@bighat_logan said:

@Enigma777 said:

Just finished it and... um... well... yeah, it's not very good.

wrong

No. No, I'm pretty sure it's bad. Like 95% sure.

@Enigma777 said:

@bighat_logan said:

@Enigma777 said:

Just finished it and... um... well... yeah, it's not very good.

wrong

No. No, I'm pretty sure it's bad. Like 95% sure.

wrong

@bighat_logan said:

@Enigma777 said:

@bighat_logan said:

@Enigma777 said:

Just finished it and... um... well... yeah, it's not very good.

wrong

No. No, I'm pretty sure it's bad. Like 95% sure.

Well I feel sorry for you then

No need. I've paid 10 prostitutes to feel sorry for me at all times, in 2-hour shifts. Also a preacher to pray for my soul for 28 straight days. He came highly recommended.

Your feeling is unneeded and frankly, unwanted. I'm afraid it may tip the karmic scales too much.

@TentPole said:

@Enigma777 said:

@bighat_logan said:

@Enigma777 said:

Just finished it and... um... well... yeah, it's not very good.

wrong

No. No, I'm pretty sure it's bad. Like 95% sure.

wrong

Original. I bet you're real proud of that one, eh? Why don't you print it out so you can pin it on your fridge and look at it fondly and smile every time I reach for a chilled cider.

@bighat_logan said:

@Enigma777: you're very childish

You're the one who started it. You poopy head!

This game is going to be great. Archery was really fun to play.

I'll gladly wait 5 months and pay 30 dollars for this one

Did not expect to like this game at all, but I really enjoyed the demo. I found the controls very intuitive and the pace of the action perfect for me. I'm not a real traditional RPG fan because of the lack of character control, so the freedom in this game was nice. Really loved the ability to grab onto the monsters you fight, it gave me SotC nostalgia. OH! On the second mission available, I was so hype when my pawn wanted to launch me into the air with her giant sword! Just wish I had a little more control of my partners.

it's a nice demo but it didn't really grab me. It was mostly combat focused and I got no sense of the world they built or what tone they are trying to achieve. unless this game is a button-mashing brawler.

im underwhelmed and disappointed. i though it was generic and bland.

@Enigma777 said:

@bighat_logan said:

@Enigma777 said:

Just finished it and... um... well... yeah, it's not very good.

wrong

No. No, I'm pretty sure it's bad. Like 95% sure.

wrong

@Divina_Rex said:

@Bell_End said:

im underwhelmed and disappointed. i though it was generic and bland.

Yeah, real button mashy. I find this demo to be akin to Kingdoms of Amalur. I'll get it when it's cheap to hold me over the summer drought.

It is only button mashy if you don't uh .... get it. Or choose to be that way on purpose. Even your light attack has a delay component to it, like try hitting light ... wait.... light light versus just spamming the button. The bumper/R1-L1 buttons have alot of moves there that make very good tactical sense in the fights you find in the demo too. Example R1 in the "countryside mission" turns your jump into a dodge roll. It is like Street Fighter (go fig, both capcom) you can mash your way through but someone who knows the moves and how to tactically use them will have a much easier time of it.

@Divina_Rex said:

@Bell_End said:

im underwhelmed and disappointed. i though it was generic and bland.

Yeah, real button mashy. I find this demo to be akin to Kingdoms of Amalur. I'll get it when it's cheap to hold me over the summer drought.

It is only button mashy if you don't uh .... get it. Or choose to be that way on purpose. Even your light attack has a delay component to it, like try hitting light ... wait.... light light versus just spamming the button. The bumper/R1-L1 buttons have alot of moves there that make very good tactical sense in the fights you find in the demo too. Example R1 in the "countryside mission" turns your jump into a dodge roll. It is like Street Fighter (go fig, both capcom) you can mash your way through but someone who knows the moves and how to tactically use them will have a much easier time of it.

@Divina_Rex: I imagine part of the button mashy nature is you and your pawns are probably overlevelled for the demo. Also, they give you about ten minutes to mess with the game under a warrior/archer build (as opposed to a mage or mage archer) so maybe it's just natural to hit buttons until something dies.

Just seeing how other gameplay videos are made it seem like it was far tougher if you started off from the beginning.

@Divina_Rex: I imagine part of the button mashy nature is you and your pawns are probably overlevelled for the demo. Also, they give you about ten minutes to mess with the game under a warrior/archer build (as opposed to a mage or mage archer) so maybe it's just natural to hit buttons until something dies.

Just seeing how other gameplay videos are made it seem like it was far tougher if you started off from the beginning.

@Divina_Rex: Here's a good snippet of gameplay that the demo doesn't highlight. It's a late game mission to kill a griffin by a guy playing a mage/magic archer build. A lot of the tougher elements of the game (moving around at night, going through a dungeon, a purposeful lack of fast travel in the game etc) is highlighted.

I played through the demo last night and... eeeh, I don't know. The climbing mechanic seems cool and the pawn system might be interesting on paper, but I can't get over how janky and generally unpolished the game feels. Your party members always seem kinda stressed, desperately trying to get ahead of you in tight corridors, running around frantically during combat and talking WAAAY too much. They also seem to be suffering from ADD or something, warning me about goblins and talking about treasure... while I'm up in the air hanging on to a flying, burning griffin. Control-wise, the game feels too loose for me. No sense of weight in character movement or combat.

I might pick the game up at some point, just not at full price. There are neat ideas in there, but I'm getting Two Worlds-vibes from this.

I didn't feel too engaged. It didn't do it for me.

Diablo 3 and Max Payne are bleeding me the week before anyway so I don't think I'll miss anything.

As someone who enjoys Monster Hunter and Dark Souls, I thought this was okay. I don't know, maybe I just need to get used to the pace and feel of the combat and you can't really get used to it in a short demo that's essentially two boss fights.

I think this game will end up like a souls game you’ll either love it to hate.

I love it.

Something about it clicked somewhere deep inside me. Before I wasn't too interested, but I feel I have to play it now. Can't put my finger on it, there's just something I really like in there.

It's one of those demos that didn't leave a good impression on me, but I've watched enough footage of the game that I know it was a bad sequence to showcase. The prologue sequence was so terrible, although humping the manticore was pretty funny. Stance remains skeptical.

Played through the demo a second time and liked it much better. My first playthrough I just thought everything was too chaotic and couldn't really tell what was going on. Second playthrough I turned off the all of the cinematic cameras, turned off pawn updates on the left of the screen. This seemed to really help. Also, learned how to roll (R1 + x) and just using the R1 button in general to modify attacks. The control layout for this game is pretty complex. This game has a lot of potential.

I cut off that fucker's tail. Then I proceeded to play two hours of Monster Hunter where I cut off many tails.

I can't wait for this game but also don't know if I will be able to tear myself away from Diablo III.

@Divina_Rex said:

@TheSpoonyBard said:

@Divina_Rex: I imagine part of the button mashy nature is you and your pawns are probably overlevelled for the demo. Also, they give you about ten minutes to mess with the game under a warrior/archer build (as opposed to a mage or mage archer) so maybe it's just natural to hit buttons until something dies.

Just seeing how other gameplay videos are made it seem like it was far tougher if you started off from the beginning.

Maybe. I will say though that this demo would be a poor representation of the game then. It's too short to really get the full feel for it. They don't preview the structure leveling. They don't allow for a mage character. It's a demo that could really put people off, such as myself. I did really like the customization though. You could make some hideous people with that builder.

That would be the exact reason I replied to your post like I did. Because the demo does give the wrong impression as far as the game goes. The Prologue you play is literally the games tutorial level, so it is going to be a cake walk. The griffin fight you have a overleveled / geared team. There is an insane ton of move sets in this game that you don't get to see in the demo. I have seen everything from a attack that lets you leap into the air and do this huge long range stab, to a frontal aoe attack that does do knockdown, to a high level archer shoot an arrow that pinned an enemy to a wall, to a mage who started beating people with a whip made out of electricity. In fact there are so many buff spells in the mage arsenal you could literally make a mage who had nothing but buff spells. You wouldn't want to, but you can do it.

There are even enemies in the game with elemental resistances, guys who are strong against physical attacks, golems that con only be hurt by attacking weak points on their body, drakes that can mind control one of your pawns... Even some of the pud regular monsters like Saurians (think lizardmen) have different strengths and weaknesses. There is definitely tactics to apply to each type of enemy, it is just sad you only get to see that in two fights where the demo gives you a party specifically designed to beat those enemies. In the real game your archer won't automatically start trying to snipe it's wings and your mage may not even have a fire buff spell which is what Griffin's are weak to.

So trust me, the real game is only mashy if you want it to be. Like I said you can play that way, but you can get farther if you don't.

Holy shit!!!
 
I have to admit i was super sceptical going in, what I saw in like streams wasn't very appealing.
But after the demo I'm all the way in. It felt great!

• not sure what clicked but realising I could pickup my follower is probably what sold it the most lol.
• loved the character customisation, you can make a lot of interesing dudes and dudettes. (altho you can make some really creepy stuff too)
• the fact that you can create your own follower made character customisation alone somehow 10x better then just making yourself, this way you can make really interesting character pairs that contrast or compliment each other, fucking awesome!
• as soon as the level loaded i had an instant association with Darksouls due to the look, which is bad, i really consider DS graphics to be ass, and this game looks just as incredibly low tech, sigh what I wouldn't give for a PC version :(
• loved the different combo moves you had, should make for some fun comboes or tactics once you get fammiliar with how the game works, i can see the depth there that isn't quite well shown in the demo
• not too fond of the bow, the abilities are nice but aiming kinda meh, but this is partly because I don't play FPS games with a controller and I know I'm not as agile or precise with it, but this pretty much means I will not be rolling an archer character under any circumstances
• your pawns (really dislike the term actualy) I liked their system in general, with their own skills, inventories, gear, dialogue, decent custom Ai action (lol grabbing a goblin) it felt like a good take on the western RPG party system from a kind of DS perspective, but yes their text on the screen was annoying, also wish there was a button to make them loot everything in the immediate area
• on loot, i don't like how hard it is too see, several times i walked by loot, that loot prompt should not be all the way in the corner, something needs to be fixed, either making the loot stand out more, or followers autoloot everything command
• quite liked the group combat against large monsters, it felt a bit chaotic but in a good way, also while it was hard to notice big tactical shit when fighting them in the demo, i can definately see how interesting it is after managing to cut off the chimera tail and head
  
• really wish the demo allowed at least a bit of free roam and a taste of the mage class, too short :(
• small nitpick but with smaller characters the weapons behind their back float like a foot off, kind of messed up
  

Nonetheless, i'm sold.

I'm undecided on it mostly. Given it's high similarity to Demon's/Dark Souls, it was probably a lot harder for me to get in to. I much prefer the slow and methodical approach to combat over the frantic spam fest. That said, I was still extremely impressed by the dynamic and evolving nature of those "boss" fights. Chopping off "pieces" of a monster is something so rarely seen in any kind of game.

The constant shouting in combat is a bit annoying. It's crazy that in 2012 we're still dealing with this in so many games; no line of dialogue should ever be repeated more than once (with some exceptions).

I generally save my 60 dollar game purchases only for things that I absolutely must have, and this didn't grab me quite that much. But I'd definitely look at it for a lower price somewhere down the line. It's a bit janky, but some of the stuff they pull off in this game is unexpected and legitimately impressive.

And I remain among the Xbox Silver plebians who can't download...

I finished the demo... and it was okay. I had some fun with it, but I'll probably wait for a price drop to get this one.

was very meh about the game before but after the demo i will at least say its on my radar now. Depending on reviews and learning more about how the game will play i will pick it up if everything is green.

I thought it was pretty fun, I think I'll enjoy it a lot and because it comes out right after finals, I pre ordered it. I like the inclusion of a character creator, I always spend far too much time making characters and I spent a bunch in the demo too and there was a good amount of options, but I do like having more weird hair color options.

Wasn't impressed by the game itself, but the thought that some stranger could end up summoning C*NTMASTER or his trusty sidekick Murder Balls as one of their 'pawns' is rather enticing.

@Mustachio said:

Wasn't impressed by the game itself, but the thought that some stranger could end up summoning C*NTMASTER or his trusty sidekick Murder Balls as one of their 'pawns' is rather enticing.

Sorry dude they could only summon his trusty sidekick Murder Balls.

@Karkarov: No purchase.

I created Ken Masters and my pawn is Cammy.