Yeah. It's so weird to listen to them talk about this game that I've really enjoyed the first ten hours of like it's unplayable. I've gotten none of the bugs I've heard of. Sure the facial animation hasn't moved on since ME3, but that's done very little to ruin the game for me. I'm super psyched for the release.
I have a feeling that it's going to be another game that I greatly enjoy playing, but there will be nothing but an endless stream of pissing and moaning and saying how much of a shit game it is. Hell, that's already begun and the game isn't even out yet.
I know, "just don't listen to those people" and "if you like it, who cares what others think".
The problems with that are:
It's a constant barrage
It's really kind of a demoralizing/disheartening experience.
Oh well. I haven't kept up with a lot of the coverage and stayed away from most of the videos. From what I've seen and what I've heard from those that do like it, I'm pretty confident I will too. Mass Effect rose to be my favorite franchise, knocking Halo off the #1 spot (the changes they made to the story didn't also contributed). I liked Mass Effect 3. I didn't flip out over the ending.
Whatever.
Hey guys welcome to the club. I enjoyed the first Watch Dogs quite a bit to the point of actually doing a whole lot of the side content because I simply found the mechanics really entertaining. So it's always a joy to hear people absolutely shit on it in every way imaginable - from complaints about the character, the driving, the world, the missions, absolutely everything was complete garbage apparently.
So buckle up and welcome to the wonderful world of liking a game that wronged the world in some way.
I'm with you guys. Final Fantasy XV is possibly my favourite in the series, which apparently means I'm some kind of scrub satanist or something. I don't even go on forums for that game anymore, so tired of being bombarded from all angles for not thinking it's a trashfire.
I'm pretty sure I remember Knuckles digging and climbing in Sonic Adventure 2.
There are definitely story elements connecting the original Mega Man series to X and X to Zero. I'm pretty sure ZX is supposed to take place in the future of Zero and Legends is supposed to take place far (very, very, very, very far) in the future of ZX, but I'm not a hundred percent sure on that one because I haven't played these games in a long time. I don't think Battle Network and that DS spin off of Battle Network have anything to do with the other series.
As I understand it, the Battle Network series is a split timeline wherein Dr. Light and Dr. Wily developed networking and AI technology rather than robots, so they went into sick internet land instead of dystopian robot land. Star Force is a sequel to Battle Network where they ported the internet to EM technology (radio internet, let's go) and got heavy into space.
FYI Drew and Dan, Rising is considered canon by Kojima himself. KojiPro wrote the plot/characters/setting so it is a canon Metal Gear game. The only part Platnium worked on was the gameplay, other then that it was a Kojima production/collab.
I have no idea where Dan got the idea this isn't a canon end to the series.
He was probably thinking of how the story changed from between MGS2 and MGS4 to post-MGS4 and thought it might no longer be canon.
@paulunga: To be fair, as time goes on FFVII gets more on more flak as people begin to talk about all the problems that game has--particularly the English release with its awful localization.
@mr_elysia: for some reason I always thought the US also had Remembrance Day, even though it was a Commonwealth thing.
Same. I immediately had to go look up Remembrance Day to see that the US didn't participate. Just serves as a healthy reminder to a Canadian real close to the border that there are some real clear distinctions between our two countries.
... not a single QTE in the game as far as I can tell. Let alone 'drenched'. It's also nothing like Inquisition.
Not sure if that's you or a poor Quick Look that's giving you the wrong impression. But what's up with Witcher fans having to point out they like the Witcher all the time?
Are you sure about that? 32:20 - big Oh pops up to do a "follow up". There's also numerous times a big square pops up to do a block or parry. Those are called QTEs my friend.
The circle follow up prompts, while technically QTEs, always appear after a Team command so they aren't reactionary--they're a choice. The block/parry prompts are there to tell you an attack that is parryable is coming; it doesn't tell you if it will actually connect with Noctis. Either way, you only have to hold square and then if you block then the parry prompt trigger. There's no reaction necessary there either, unlike actual QTEs.
To anyone on the fence about the depth of the combat, here's a few things for you to know:
All weapons of a given class have the same moveset (with exceptions not covered in #2)
"Royal Arms" have their own movesets, even if they would belong to an existing weapon class
Only one attack button, but you use the analog stick to execute different attacks that have different properties, and there are additional actions based on whether you end a combo by letting go of the button and tapping it again or if you perform different stick+button inputs during other actions (ex: down+O with a sword is a backflip, keep holding them down to warp into the air for an air combo, or tap circle again to initiate on the ground).
Execute team-attacks by fulfilling criteria like attacking from behind, or parrying.
This game is all about the stick-and-move. You can and will get mobbed, but that's what the hold-to-auto-guard is for.
The combat isn't super deep, but it's more than holding a button or two.
It's the difference between jamming on square (and sometimes triangle) in GoW or DMC, and learning a few combos that you can bust out on command.
In all the talking Dan did about this game on two of the Bombcasts, I imagined this review would just be a restatement of those arguments (but one I would be happy to read). However, I don't think Dan mentioned - or didn't stress the ridiculousness of - possibly using your Thing item on a nobody enemy or having it stolen and being forced to trudge back to town to buy another. I don't know why this was the one thing to stick out in this review, but that feels beyond enraging to me.
Well, just look at it this way, Dan: you can't appreciate the good without having experienced the bad.
That part stuck out to me as well, but for a different reason. I ended up getting Kamek'd multiple times in my playthrough where the effect was all of my cards turned into the same Thing card. I had to blow 2-3 cards and watch the same lengthy animation for multiple battles. Just uuuuuuggghhhh.
That said, I'm writing my own review for funsies, and I keep finding myself writing glowing paragraphs then adding caveats in them somewhere that kind of undoes a lot of the praise. "Yeah the gameplay on the overworld is awesome, the loop of collecting paint to paint shit to get stuff is addictive...but the combat is boring as hell and makes it so you spend a lot of overworld time trying to get around enemies instead of gleefully prancing through the areas." Things like that. This game is so good, but with so many things you have to not mind in order to like it :/
@teddie: I have to agree regarding the Tantalus storyline. ZP loves to invoke Checkov's gun in regards to the storytelling in FFIX, but I feel like the game is following that principle, just in reverse. The story to get the Supersoft and free Blank, the little details in general and the ATEs all exist because the story and world of FFIX loses so much without them. Paring down those elements isn't the answer, it's building them up and adding more.
I would also say that any time spent learning about Tantalus is also time spent learning about Zidane; he was brought up by Baku in this environment and pretty much everyone in the crew follows the same ideals. The times that Zidane doesn't he mentions as such, as we saw in disc 1, when he tells Dagger that he's left the band on many occasions. Hence I feel that witnessing the struggle to free Blank and seeing the value they place on brotherhood is also a reflection of Zidane that we can see come through in his interactions with Vivi and Amarant in particular.
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