Nodima

@atheistpreacher: Sorry, I forgot the original thread was the usual "discussion thread"; like Moose, thanks to Austin and Patrick I find myself consistently forgetting where the fantasy of this franchise ends and the actual conversation begins.

Also, I enjoyed Warfarer for a decent amount of time. I basically used it as a way to keep using my strongest weapon (spear), replace a healer pawn with myself (via mage) to speed up damage dealing and then also just bring along a cool bow I found in a cave occupied by a snake lady.

But something I didn't quite understand when I switched back was that even my basic attack was doing more damage as a straight up dragoon. I thought the idea was it's the best of all worlds? In retrospect, it feels like they just didn't have time to balance that class out. To my surprise, I was less invisible when I added healing to the shield because it was just so cumbersome to swap.

Rolling credits. Figured I'd say this here since of the three big blogs about this game in this forum, yours is the only one that made a point of the "romance" system at all:

I had heard there was some kind of affinity system, and I'm sure the game mentioned it in the earlier hours. I did notice, sometimes, I had the option to give people gifts. And by complete accident I did get the trophy for total affinity, which seemed to be from Sigurd because he takes part in a major quest and I took him for a walk?

In any case, one of the bigger laughs this game gave me came right at the end, when it seemed to regard its relationship system highly enough to take a pause to highlight the three people I'd connected with most. And of course it was him, followed by Lennart (right?) who I also took on a walk, followed by the cat guard from the south, who you do so many quests with and favors for it's actually weird she wasn't second. But also, I just want to call her Miquella, though I think it's Minella - this game definitely had a character problem.

Anyway, I'd have matched up with Ulrika if I had my druthers. Always a soft spot for Holly Earl, despite having seen her in almost nothing I picked her out immediately. Which I'm maybe not proud of.

I also got all three endings, because the ending doesn't really explain itself at all. But for all the talk about how saves work in this game...I was shocked how easy it was to stumble my way from bad to normal to...whatever the actual ending is.

@atheistpreacher: Ah, it was regarding how drastic I found peoples pawn designs. I'd never argue that my Moe is a pillar of creativity, but entering the pawn rift can be such a stark reminder that a lot of people just want to put a tall cat lady in the most underwear-esque underwear they can find.

I can't wait to have some downtime at work today and go back to the first thread to find where I said "hentai fever dream". I'll admit, between needing to know (which some in the know might say was foolish) how Final Fantasy Rebirth would get where it was going, a general Helldiver fugue state I haven't felt since the first weeks of Apex Legends, wrapping up Infinite Wealth, realizing I was in an unhealthy relationship with FF XIV after buying all of it for $20 but after 110 hours only seeing 1/5 of it, and a fair bit of guilt already lingering over all of this that the game I truly want to give good time to, Banishers: Ghosts of New Eden (which I've got 8 hours on) is sitting right there...my frustrations with some of the mapping in DD2 hit a head.

All that being said! I did finally re-open the game and realize, as I should've, just because one door is locked does not mean another cave is not open...and I am nearing the elusive Sara and, I think, the key to my least favorite thief in jail's heart.

My response to this post isn't about that, though. It's about this hilarious griffin that, to me, summarizes a whole heck of a lot of what you're getting at here. All I wanted to do was wait on the side of the road for nightfall. And yet, this:

My favorite bit? "Gathering materials makes for dull work, indeed." Right from the start. And for those who don't have time for the all of it - 9:20. Remember where I started, and let that image simmer. Now that's magic.

Edit: Finally rewatching this almost a month after recording it, I daresay it's insanely meme-able, but I'm just a guy that bookmarks the homepage and reads all the articles so I'm probably wrong.

As much as I love their take on Marvel garbage, I sure would love another Clanker.

I first played it in the Anthology Collection, but I'd only rented it from Blockbuster and I seem to recall being a little bummed out it didn't have the Akira Toriyama cutscenes that the PS1 Chrono Trigger had added. Or just didn't like the look of the CGI more generally. It was no FFVIII, in either case.

A few years later when I was dabbling with emulation I got much farther in the SNES version of the game (wasn't cheating or anything, it just clicked) but wound up underleveled for World of Ruin and just didn't feel like grinding, so I dropped it. Never went back. Which is funny because I see a lot of discussion on this online, with some people even saying (sort of like FFVIII) it's best to be weak at that point due to...reasons...but I had very much a bad time.

Two things I've found pretty overblown, as they tend to be with these things, after 50 hours: the lack of map pathing and the lack of fast travel. In the former, much like Elden Ring pretty much every significant location is marked on your map as you discover it, and much like...every other open world game, you get a waypoint for pretty much every major mission. Some quests start without waypoints, but after you've uncovered the end goal it pops up like clockwork. The map itself is relatively spartan (in fact a little less informative than Elden Ring) but they'll give you reason to look at it as much as any other game. Not sure why such a big deal was made about this.

As for the latter, it seems there are actually plenty of ferrystones and port crystals for when you need them. I've got one port planted with two in my storage, and have usually been carrying 4-8 ferrystones that I don't use just out of worry they won't restock in stores. It also seems like as long as you doze off in an oxcart, you'll get a 50/50 shot or better that the caravan will make it unscathed.

...But, I concede that the ways some quests start is quite obscure, and they're pulling some real Elden Ring shenanigans with the ways some characters move around the map. I'm no coward when it comes to guides (remember the daughter of...Godrick or whomever that basically bopped all over the map? impossible before they added NPC trackers) but where I'm at, having to give a character named Hugo some advice and my most significant quest (in that the game is constantly re-prioritizing it) appears to take place behind a big door some other quest will open...it's a bit wild that some quests in this area begin in the other city, an hour and a half trek across the map.

I've loved my time with the game, but I have to admit I've cooled on it a bit now that I'm in my mid-40s level wise and the very real complaint that there's not nearly enough enemy variety is making every 40-plus minute excursion a bit of a slog, unlike the first 30 hours or so of the game when I was still uncovering new locations and landmarks.

Lastly - dragons are still hella scary. I just run away, and I can take down a griffin in about a minute at this point.

The three classes I've spent a decent amount of time with so far are the dragoon and mage (maxed out), plus 2/3 of the way through thief after Gerstmann raved about it. I really appreciate how different they each feel, and as I said somewhere on the Giant Bomb subreddit mage was a stellar class to play while getting a feel for the game, while dragoon has been so addictive now that I'm less scared of getting into prolonged fights.

One criticism I've seen become more and more prevalent that I totally understand is that the enemy variety is well and truly shockingly spare, but it also stubbornly throws enemy spawns at you like any classic SNES RPG. The panoramic effect of which is that several long treks once you're in the mid to late 20s feel artificially lengthened by mobs that are both non-threatening yet unrelenting, forcing you to deal with them more because they're annoying than they're engaging to beat up on.

To that end, though, I finally realized the value of the stamina replenishing roes and other items; you collect more than enough items to craft plenty of their various forms, and if you just chug them as you make your way across the map the stamina depletion is way less annoying than it seems at face value. The missions that taught me this lesson were the weird poison infliction missions once you finally access the second region (for me, about 27 hours in) so I think it might've been nice to have a mission that inspires you to really think about those items much earlier, but it significantly changed how I approach travel in a really positive way.

Ultimately, I also don't necessarily mind being overly familiar with every enemy in this game. The combat is just fun enough that it doesn't much matter to me that outside of bosses I'm not sure I'll see even one more unique enemy in this game. I'm almost more disappointed in how many pawns I meet at the runes are either fairly generic or literally stuck with the name MainPawn. I didn't go crazy with my big cat boy Moe by any means, but at least he has some visual identity. Meanwhile most pawns I come across seem to be either intensely Just Another Guy or even more intensely Hentai Fever Dream.

Considering how awful it felt/feels to stumble onto a cabin encumbered by, uh, Norse gods determined to end you for disrespecting their property rights, it's equally and oppositely awesome to see some beast pop a health bar with four or so extra pips below it and realize about 10 minutes into the fight "oh I've got this."

And that's my "OK Austin Walker, maybe I understand you" moment. I can write a sentence that reads terrible about a scenario that sounds terrible and feel excited to share it.

RE: DLC, much like Resident Evil 4, Infinite Wealth, Street Fighter VI, Metal Gear Solid V, Gran Turismo 7, Mortal Kombat 1 and other such games with plenty of opportunities for microtransactions...I just take solace in knowing that I can ignore it completely and enjoy the game for nothing more than what it is.

I understand the argument that "you can't trust the game design" when certain mechanics are attached to microtransactions...but then I think you have to take the word of those who've actually played the game, particularly reviewers who weren't ever aware they'd have the opportunity to circumvent them for a price, that you can trust the game design. MGSV and SFVI are not lesser games because they're littered with opportunities to spend money. They're simply littered with opportunities to spend money.

As for the game itself...I picked a mage because I kind felt like I wanted to stay out of the fray for once in a game (I'm very much a Gerstmann who picks the most melee/DPS class and gets busy) but it seems I've made for a very hard start. I've got a shield now, and as long as I remember to equip it that's super useful, but I feel extremely vulnerable all the time. I'm dying a lot, especially if anything other than a basic goblin or skeleton shows up. Luckily, the autosave warning before the first inn seems at least a little tongue in cheek, as I've so far always spawned right before the fight I just lost.

I'm enjoying myself so far, hopefully I'll start to see how all the "emergent" stuff can play out after the weekend when I can put some serious time in.