@dannyglover: In agreement with the two above. They don't really draw attention to that stuff outside of the character portraits, so once you see them the first time, you're over the hump. There is one more overtly sexualized character in the game, but she's twice their ages.
@c_toc: Yes and no. Nothing fundamentally changes up the battles in the latter parts of the game, but they're more complicated. The puzzles are harder to solve, and the enemies can't be 1-hit by basic attacks even with the multiplier. Once you unlock the higher-tier weapons, though, they'll take pretty much anything out if combined with the 1.5x damage (but also, your strength is increased by the collectible HP Up hearts you often find through exploring, so mileage may vary).
That said, it seemed like the combat gets a bit more sparse by the time you hit Ch 3, and your coin count explodes by Chapter 4 so you can avoid many of them at your leisure (or kill the lower-level ones with a hammer strike in the field). All in all, I didn't think the combat quite holds up for a 30 hour game, but it probably bothered me more in Ch1-2 than anywhere else.
Curious what they think of this. At risk of outing myself as someone stuck in the past, I feel like the majority of people with a positive experience thus far have a limited memory or fondness for the earlier games.
For what it's worth, I would classify myself as extremely fond of the earlier games (as in, PM64 and TTYD are two of my favorite video games period), I watched my partner play through PM64 for their first time a few months ago, and I bought and 100%'d Bug Fables a couple months ago after learning that it was modeled after TTYD...
...and I've been having a great time with Origami King. But you have to be able to accept it as a different thing - this is first and foremost an adventure game. I've had a better time with it than, say, Luigi's Mansion 3 in that regard. The visuals and audio are consistently great, there's plenty of scripted sequences throughout for variety, the writing is a highlight throughout, and each new region has been distinct and worthwhile to explore.
I don't love the ring combat, and it's too simple in the early hours, but it gets trickier and enemies become more difficult to take out. I really dig the inverse ring system for the bosses, though. And the economy is pretty balanced for the first ~15 hours if you buy the accessories as they pop up, so the fights aren't totally useless.
Yeah, I'd prefer this to be an RPG throwback with an array of full-time partners, and honestly it might have also been better going the other direction as a purely real-time adventure game. Nintendo has restricted the developers creatively with character designs (i.e.dictating all Goombas and Koopas look exactly the same) and that's a huge shame for such an off-beat series. But they've managed to get a lot of mileage out of this concept, and imo it's still a standout release for the year.
I'm a little surprised at how much I'm enjoying this game. I'm probably 80% or more through and it hasn't lost its charm - if anything, the first few hours were the weakest part and it went uphill afterward.
A real pleasant experience to have in the current state of the world.
For the sake of feedback, I'll also chime in that I'm pretty disappointed by the lack of categories, since the deliberations are generally my most anticipated content each year. It doesn't matter if I agree with the choices or not (though, in this case, I'm totally down with #1).
I've listened through the old GOTY podcasts multiple times, and the 3-day rundown of releases, while okay material in its own right, is much less entertaining, memorable, and replayable to me. Removing the small categories from day 5 is just an additional blow to my excitement.
I love what you guys do, and I'll be here next year regardless of the format, but I hope you'll be able to go back to some of the 'styyyyyle' of previous years.
Did Dan not shoot the ice in the Gears 5 fight? I died once against it, and I’m not spectacular at the game. But it would be a god awful fight if you didn’t realize she could get stuck inside the ice lol
The Kessler bit was magical for me because all I had to go on was random references to him from earlier streams (like a joke about him being banned from E3). I didn't understand the context at all, so piecing things together as he did his bit felt perfect.
One thing I still don't know about - They say this is the last time they can have this segment, is that an in-joke or is something actually happening?
The more Nier pops up, the more excited I am to see how they try to hash out the top 4-6 games tomorrow. Feels like Mario and Zelda have been kind of simmering in the background, waiting to strike.
Makes me happy to see Night in the Woods getting love. Gregg rulz
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