Alucitary

Haven't played much of the recent Tales games, but the combat of this one seems really good, only have the first 4 party members right now but each one has a very unique playstyle and feels strong. A lot has been simplified very much for the better since Symphonia, upgrades come often and all feel impactful. Playing on Moderate since the start and feels like the perfect level of difficulty. Overall gamplay is a huge selling point, almost as good as FF7 remake in my book.

Story so far is pretty stock standard, but there have been some interesting developments here and there. Definitely have to be in the mood for an "anime" style storyline to enjoy it, but I just happened to be and it's doing the job just fine for me. Feels like they are actually committing to the darker tone as well, which is nice, in comparison to Berseria which, at least in the small bit I played of it, just felt more trying to be edgy then actually dealing with dark subject matter.

Overall I'd say don't rush out and play it just for the sake of it, make sure you are in the right mood. It's a Tales game so you probably know what the game is going to generally be like, but in that vein, so far I'd say it's one of the best.

Not to speculate too hard, but It sounds like Jeff is also ready to move on. Maybe just sticking around to build the site staff back out for a new generation. This is the end of an era, but I'll never forget it. This site has changed my life in so many ways, all for the better, and I can never repay these duders. On to the future, may it be brighter than any days we've yet seen.

@flashflood_29: 1 hit kills weren't advertised and I didn't see any of them for the first 20 hours, suddenly this happens. and no you can't turn the difficulty down from Give me God of War.

I just got to Hel and am about to quit due to the bridgekeeper fight. Maybe it's not that big a deal on lower difficulties, but on the hardest difficulty (which hasn't been that big a deal up to this point for me) it is extremely common to take 1 hit and get stun locked from full health to dead due to frost. On top of that I put a lot of money and XP into Atreus and don't have him anymore, I'm forced to use a new upgraded weapon, and I can't grind because of the story.

This has got to be one of my most disappointing gaming experiences ever. I love this game so much, but it's way too frustrating to continue.

A really important move that I never saw them actually tell me about in the tutorial is the perfect block/parry ability, and that completely changed the combat for me. I'm playing on the hardest difficulty and at the start it felt like the only option for me was throwing the axe from range, but the parry allows you to get in and feel fairly safe + allows you to do huge damage. For combat I get close to the mob and just pay attention to the enemies weapon and the enemy indicator arrows. If an arrow turns red I just roll, if the enemy attacks and all the arrows are white, I parry. If the arrows are still white after the parry I do the R2 charge attack. If there is a Revenant or archers I take those down first while dodging. All of the moves come out pretty much instantly, most importantly the shield, the key is getting the muscle memory down on executing what you want to as soon as you need it. Since there are so many moves that's kind of the most difficult part though.

I had to do the fight at the marketplace after you fall through the bridge about 50 times, but after that I breezed through all the combat. I just unlocked the unarmed leg sweep, and got the ability that lets Atreus attack downed enemies and It's getting even easier. You have to pay a lot more attention to combat overall, but as long as you know the tells, manage your positioning, and know how to execute the moves by muscle memory nothing is too demanding.

@babychoochoo: You can meld them in town from other materials. Just do some mining on each mission and you wont ever run out of them.

When you are in the dust you will sometimes lose navigation, your character marker will disappear, you can't mark your map, and existing marks disappear. It's really easy to get lost when this happens.

solution, carry flag posts. They show up on the map regardless of the navigation status and you can use your compass to reorient yourself.

Update 0.4 is now out. Combat has been implemented, as well as level progression and the fighters guild questline. Other NPC's are now in the game but currently have no programming. Seems like this may actually be on the way to completion. Importing all the quest triggers and dialogue will probably be the hardest part of the project, but it has come a long way for being such a lofty endeavor.

@stressedoutcat: If he wasn't that way before than he certainly is now. Paint somebody as a monster and destroy their lives for it, and they will naturally become one.

My strategy has always been to avoid houses as much as possible and only hide in bushes. When the circle starts getting smaller, and there are only a few houses left in the safe zone people will know where you are at and will always be able to pop in and get you easily if you aren't constantly on your toes. Find a good collection of bushes however and not only will you be almost impossible to find, but you will also be able to see anyone coming at you from a mile away.