I really liked Hand of Fate 1, HoF2 improves on pretty much every aspect of it. It's really great.
Yeah, the first game was flawed but very inventive and unique. I was originally put off by the price tag of the sequel, but watching this QL might have put me over the edge towards buying it now. I like that all the levels here seem to have their own unique, self-contained stories/quests.
The combat seems like the only thing that isn't that much better, but honestly, that's the least interesting part of it to me - to be honest, it might be better without it (maybe instead simulate the combat to something closer to an actual tabletop game).
Nice! I looked when I finished the game, I was at 124 deaths, so I felt pretty good about that. I feel like the difficulty of this game has been overstated just a tad. The difficulty peaked in World 2 for me, that stupid Beppi the clown boss probably took me the most tries out of any fight in the whole game, and I had trouble with the bakery / candy lady.
Interesting to see which guns people liked - I mainly used the default gun, close-up shotgun, and the homing shot, depending on the boss. I know a lot of folks really liked the charge shot, I never even bought it, as it sounded like something that wouldn't fit my playstyle.
Anyways, I loved this game! Seeing the insanely inventive bosses and the way they changed phases into even weirder and more unexpected things was definitely the highlight for me. I really liked the ones that felt like they told their own self-contained story, like the woman acting out different phases of her life in a play.
At first I thought the default controls were a bit odd but just stuck with them and got used to them quickly.
Also yes charged shot, spread shot, and smoke dash definitely make the game a lot easier. Which can be good or bad depending on your skill level and what you're looking for out of the game. I was pretty happy with the game being on the easier side for me and it not dragging - I think dying 30 times to every boss would have made me like the game less.
What the hell was Dan about and these red shines? Vinny didn't make a big deal out of it when it happened to him. You trade the cups and the shines in them, of course the red one.
I am not sure if I should be scared about that, but I can see his thought process there (maybe that comes with handeling Pen&Paper RPG groups for years and years). That said: Vinny was right. You accept the shine into your cup which "triggers" the shine effect of trading cups. So you trade your cup with the red shine in it.
You basically nailed it. Seemed obvious to me, but maybe that's from playing so many board games where sometimes minutiae like the order that actions resolve becomes very important.
And like Abby said, they did it that way for the last couple times there was a red shine swap, so I think being consistent is fair (luckily, in this case, the consistent action is also the correct action). Dan probably didn't care before since he wouldn't have benefited in any way :P
@dixavd: Any piece of content that Austin is in is immediately the fucking best. He knows how to be thoughtful, critical, and pointed without crossing into formal discussion mode, and he brings really modern "internet era" mannerisms into the conversation in a way that feels so natural and keeps things fun. I love that dude so much.
You articulated how I feel about Austin quite well. I miss him on GB, but I'm super glad for his success with Waypoint, he really deserves it. (It's not like I can't go to more than one games site :P)
That lady is part of the society from Teslagrad. She has the same clothes/powers. That game is pretty, but the boss fights were really frustrating as you only have one hit. You could actually use that teleport move to skip past the trigger to the final boss and get to the ending.
That was my takeaway as well, in terms of the connection w/Teslagrad. "Not Wendy" totally has the same outfit, dash move, and magnetic floaty power as you have in Teslagrad. Seems to just be a case of the games existing in the same universe, or something like that.
Still really enjoying this series, even having beat the game a couple months ago already. It's cool to see your reactions and see other people getting into the series. It did inspire me at least to jump back into the game to try and finish off the real estate and cabaret club side stories, I'm curious what the payoff is for those (plus the cabaret club minigame is super fun on its own).
This is a great episode. I think Alex should be commended here for being totally on the ball and keeping Dan on task. I really appreciate the effort! Good stuff guys.
Yeah I agree. Alex always does a good job with the story recaps and generally knowing what's going on. Although all 3 of you fellas bring good stuff to the table :)
Thanks for playing through this whole...game? It certainly was an experience. This last episode in particular really went off the rails and was hilarious from front to back. There is an inkling of a good idea in the whole "do psych tests and they influence your game" mechanic (as proven by Silent Hill: Shattered Memories), but this game whiffs on that pretty bad. Although admittedly, a lot of the questions/answers made me laugh (someone must have had a fun time putting that portion together).
The whole Michael v. Kathryn thing in this game seems so misguided, both of them seem like pretty awful individuals. Reading in the comments that this is based on a book makes me wonder how awful the writing in that must have been.
This was a very Giant Bomb stream - definitely a complement :)
Always entertaining to hear enthusiastic folks discuss something they are enthusiastic about, regardless of the subject.
Also, this reminded me that Guitar Hero II is definitely my favorite of the GH / Rock Band games, mainly because of the killer soundtrack (covers be damned). Even most of the bonus songs are pretty memorable too.
I'm very much looking forward to this series, this was an excellent first episode. Glad you guys seem to be into the game. Props to Alex for trying to get Dan to slow down with the dialogue. There's a LOT of story / cutscenes / dialogue, but it is all worthwhile. The main story is very intriguing and enjoyable, in my opinion - both protagonists have worthwhile character arcs.
The funniest line from this episode was Vinny referring to Kiryu's fists as "Coffee 1" and "Coffee 2", that made me laugh so hard for some reason.
This is going to be an incredibly long series, even for just Yakuza 0. Everything moves at a snails pace and if you're looking for the side quests its 3x as long. I think I've played for 6-8 hours and I've only gotten 4 or 5 chapters done.
Also, great job on this :D
@efesell eh, I would say average length for games these day is around 6-8 hours. Yakuza is definitely more in the 15-20 hour range and even then I would say that's if you have a guide of some sort to know where to go for certain items and ignore all side quests.
Yeah, this game is pretty long, especially if you are doing side quests and happen to get engrossed in the side activities (I'm sorta addicted to the cabaret management game). I just started Chapter 15 last night (which I THINK is near the end of the game, at least looking at the trophies), and my game clock is at 58 hours.
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