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General Gaming / Re: What is the last game you beat? Thoughts/impressions?

« on: March 22, 2023, 07:25:51 AM »

I will be returning my friend's PS Vita, so might as well write down impressions about games i finished on it.

Flower:

Nice artsy-fartsy experience. Tilting Vita to control petals' movement didn't felt precise enough but the game doesn't really require it. Night rain level was so dark i could barely see what is around me, i wonder if it was because Vita model i had wasn't OLED...

Tearaway:

It's alright, though i never really liked tone in Sony's games in genres that are close to Nintendo games (like this one and Little Big Planet) -- it comes off as insincere and saccharine to me. Gameplay-wise it's a decent 3d platformer -- even if you can't jump for the first hour or so. Utilizing all of Vita's features works okay and gimmicks don't have the time to get old until the game ends. Though the one where you need to cut out hats, crowns and other character's features out of coloured paper -- i never really bothered with it and the characters were happy no matter how half assedly i made their thing.

Gravity Rush:

This game's movement is fun. Pressing shoulder button to change direction of gravity and "fall" in any chosen direction is exhilarating. You can also press another shoulder button to turn artificial gravity off and fall down naturally to reorient yourself or get a quick breather on solid ground when you need to refill your gravity gauge. Flying is pretty fun though it can get disorienting -- i was even getting dizzy at times. I guess this explains Japanese name "Gravity Daze".

The city you're in floats in the air and has many levels with lots of skyscrapers and towers. I always liked complex vertical architecture like this in videogames, Gotham in Batman: Arkham Knight comes to mind. There are crystals floating on top of every roof and under every bridge so you can just collect them for a while and upgrading your abilities without even touching any story missions. Just traversing this city is fun by itself.

Story missions also unlock challenge missions these are probably the part where game's movement mechanics really shine. I spent many hours optimizing's my routes in race challenges. Gravity slide challenges were harder to do because sliding controls are kinda broken -- you need to touch bottom corners of your touchscreen to start sliding and direction is motion controlled. It kinda works but making tight corners during sliding is almost impossible.

Combat challenges i stopped bothering with because unlike movement combat is pretty boring. All the more shame that story is filled with combat especially later in the game.

Story itself is kinda baffling. It doesn't really explain anything, things just happen, story arcs keep piling up and not get resolved at all, even the ending is more of a cliffhanger than a proper wrap-up.

Overall, very fun game with great movement and cute main character but the story and the combat are kinda meh.

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General Gaming / Re: What is the last game you beat? Thoughts/impressions?

« on: March 20, 2023, 03:42:36 AM »

Metroid Prime 3: Corruption (as part of Trilogy):

It took me months to finish Prime 2 and years on and off to complete Metroid Prime 1. I enjoyed 3 so much i finished it with 100% in a week. Time on "mission complete" screen was 18:54.

I never finished previous Prime games with 100% before because until this game they didn't show items on a map. UI in general, is improved across the board -- no more weird planetoid menu items, scanning is more smooth, you can also select and deselect individual rooms on a map as bookmarking of sorts.

Level design feels like it took all the best elements from previous games. Skytown is like a better version of Sanctuary Fortress from 2, Valhalla is a great spin on Metroid/Alien staple "spooky crashed ship". Bryyo is a very good Metroid Prime 1-style dungeon with fantastic lore to tell, and Skytown's lore about Elysians was pretty interesting too.

The art-design is a strong comeback after moody and weird Echoes' style that just didn't gel with me. None of the suits look as ugly as Dark Suit and environments are more varied. I remember saying "wow" when entering Skytown and Valhalla for the first time.

Game has many great memorable moments: initial exploration on Valhalla felt like something straight from "Event Horizon" or similar horror sci-fi flick, when you see soldiers' bodies turning to dust for the first time. Skytown is a beautiful level by itself but also has funny old 50s movie robots clumsily walking around. Destroying them is somehow comedic too whether you're just exploding them or melting them. Warping to Ice part of Bryyo for the first time and music adding a hint of Phendrana Drift was a magical moment.

I am playing this as a part of Trilogy so change in controls went smooth because i only played these games with Wii pointer controls. Occasional motion controls to extract batteries and open doors are slightly cumbersome but not that bad and relatively unobtrusive. The only motion you have to do in combat is pulling motion with grapple hook and it works fine.

More important change in controls is removal of beam selection -- now all beams stack, upgrading beam weapon as you progress through the game. + button on wiimote now controls hypermode and you have to hold it to activate. Because - and + buttons are operated differently i no longer confused visor and beam button. Hypermode is a combat enhancer like Devil Trigger and it is just fun to activate it and go ham on enemies.

Beginning of the game is heavy on Galactic Federation game. When starting the game i got the impression Metroid "went mainstream" imitating more popular military shooters like Halo and Call of Duty where you are part of a big army effort, but that is over pretty quickly and after that game becomes usual Metroid style exploring abandoned worlds alone. I am guessing Retro didn't want to "reduce" Samus in her own game so Galactic federation are kinda useless -- half of the campaign is you saving and babysitting them and in the final battle cutscene there is zero point of them even being there because you still do everything. There is only one part where you actually work as part of a squad with them and that does feel like a small Call of Duty campaign but it only takes 10 minutes.

The more proactive characters are other bounty hunters. Their introduction feels like beginning of Metal Gear Solid game where new characters and their abilities are established so you know who you will later be facing as bosses. Bounty hunters were okay, they could have done even more with their characterisation but what is there is pretty good -- ending cutscene where Samus reminisces about them is nice.

In the beginning, unlocks are paced in a linear, rigid formula: you land in an area A and then go as deep as you can until you're blocked. Then you're told to go to another area B, get the unlock there and come back to area A. It all feels like you're constantly walking back and forth the same rooms. Game makes sure to compensate this adding slightly different combat and story scenarios on returning trips but it doesn't mask backtracking in the beginning.

Sometime after i reached Skytown game structure opens up and i was more free to expore and collect items on several different planets at the same time. Valhalla also opens around the same time and it is this game version of final artifact hunt. You need to collect 12 batteries that will be used as keys to go deeper into Valhalla until you reach final room that unlocks end game. Batteries are spread out more evenly and you get most of them just by playing the game. I only had to get out of my way to find 2 of them -- 1 was just lying there in docking bay of Valhalla and i just never noticed it until i actively started looking for them. The other was in Bryyo and it probably the only tricky battery. It required my ship to place some part in top of a structure. I had no idea what part exactly game was asking me to get -- so i just went over all rooms in that part of Bryyo with Command Visor turn on look for the part. Only took me 5 minutes -- i actually spent more time trying to think about it logically and failing.

Each planet is divided into smaller parts accessed by ship. Ship acts as fast travel system and gains other upgrades throughout the game. Apparently you could even use it to bomb enemies on open areas -- but i only discovered this function at the last hour of the game so i only use twice if that. Ship also works as kinda toy to mess around in between levels like you can check your in-game stats and your Corruption status.

The game is supposed to conclude Phazon trilogy so theme of Phazon corruption dominates everything, hence the title. Everyone gets Phazoned -- Galactic Federation, bounty hunters, space pirates. Reading lore entries how Dark Samus creates splinter cult of Space Pirates that are worhsiping her and calling her "our glorious leader" was amusing. Samus herself also gets Phazon abilities and hypermode adds a fun risk reward system because it consumes your life when activated.

Bosses were pretty fun if not as inventive as guardians from Prime 2 Echoes (but also not as annoying). Risking dying in this game is even more fun because -- game checkpoints before every big combat encounter and boss battle so even if you die you go back to it almost immediately.

All these badges (basically achievements) is was getting in 1 and 2 were apparently introduced in this game. But in Corruption you have achievements for more than just beating bosses and getting items -- there are all kinds of achievements for doing specific feats, getting scans -- very similar to achievements system on Steam and Xbox.

Music is a bit generic but still competent enough. Overall i think this is my favourite Metroid Prime game -- quality of life features (map, UI) go a long way for me but also nice art-style and atmosphere, great all around levels and satisfying combat. Now i am really looking forward how Metroid Prime 4 will look like.

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General Gaming / Re: What is the last game you beat? Thoughts/impressions?

« on: March 13, 2023, 08:17:03 AM »

Metroid Prime 2: Echoes (Wii U, as part of Prime Trilogy):

This game is weird. Different artstyle hits immediately with Samus's new-ish suit and ship with unnecessary weird ridges and other details. Starting environments, also, looked like B-tier sci-fi post-apocalyptic movie with dusty tents in the desert. Dark suit that you spend most of the game in, looks even more gaudy

Majority of rooms in MP1 were glorified corridors (Magmoor Caverns for one is literally just a line) sequel's level design is more condensed and grouped together. Now all 4 hub-like locations are connected with each other in a Mercedes-Benz star logo pattern. Unlocks' progression is mostly localised to one level until you're done with it and go to the next one. Because of a more compact layout walking distances are reduced greatly.

More complex level design, doubled again with light/dark worlds makes the map UI even more important. But sometimes map shows a door or a portal but doesn't show it is behind a fence or pile of denzium, so you can go all the way there only to get disappointed once you see you can't get in there.

You have to plan out your expeditions into Dark world and because 3d map can't show both variants at once you will need to memorize your path in and out before your set out. Because of this i spend way more time staring at the map than with the first game.

Both times i got stuck, were kinda map's faults too:

1. Finding seeker missiles in Hall of Honoured Dead. Hint showed me i have to go back from back to Temple grounds and insisted i must go to the room directly under Great Temple but no matter how i looked at the map i couldn't figure out the way how to get in there -- all i could see were 3 elevators up to Great Temple but not to the room under it.

2. Getting Power Bomb from Torvus Bog. The stupidest thing was -- hint was showing the place where i could get it -- but the room was behind Power Bomb-locked door! So i had to have the item to get the item?!.. Eventually i figured out there must be another way to get in there and arrived there from the Dark side but it took me a while to realize that this is correct and there is a trick to it.

Apparently i wasn't the only one who had problems with these 2 unlocks.

First trips into Dark world felt scary at first, but as you get more energy tanks life loss gets increasingly mitigated. Dark and Light concept is also represented in ammo system which simultaneously feels too restrictive but also pointless -- why even demand to open door with light/dark ammo if you can still open them with charged shots even if empty? Similarly why make player fight enemies in closed rooms if they eventually disappear and doors unlock by themselves? The implementation is so half heartedly done it's like developers weren't sure in their ideas themselves.

Guardian bosses are frustrating at first, but i got to appreciate their design afterwards. Some really inventive uses for Metroid abilities. By comparison, Dark Samus boss encounters feel dumb -- you just shoot it with regular beam occasionally switching visor.

UI styles designed as solar system is annoying to use. I constantly kept messing up the direction i need to spin menu items.

Screenshot tool costing a bunch of achievement badges is so stupid. Judging at how many badges it costs, i would have to complete all three games and potentially even play multiplayer and do the whole friend codes thing just for the privilege of being able to take screenshots.

If Nintendo/Retro ever get around to remastering Prime 2 the biggest improvement would be removing cutscene of going into the portal. I presume Switch must be able to load and keep both worlds of 20 year old Gamecube game in it's memory. That alone would cut ~20 minutes off playthrough time because you have to go back and forth hundreds of time. One room in Sanctuary Fortress alone has four portals inside it.

Once again, game blocks the last story bosses behind key hunt. I liked artifact hunt in MP1 because it was all about exploration -- best part of these games. Sky temple key hunt feels better in MP2 because the map is more interconnected and the puzzles are a bit more involved. Game no longer spells out name of the room, so i had to actually roam a bit based on A-Kul's hints to find last 2 keys.

I finished the game with 80% completion at 22:21.

MP1 was a trailblazer, they had to invent so much stuff with controls, lock-on, visors, morphball, boostball and all kinds of camera modes. MP2 has good guardian bosses but artstyle and ammo felt like misses to me. I liked Retro trying to incorporate space jump into 3d levels but it felt janky and unfinished -- hitting a corner or a ceiling trying to get into some room was annoying. Same with Dark/Light worlds concept and most of the combat. I wasn't keen on combat in MP1 either but i enjoyed the atmosphere and levels of the first game way more.

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Podcast Discussion / Re: Episode 811: Listen to Us Talking About the Latest Releases and Classic Games, Just Like Every W

« on: February 28, 2023, 03:00:34 AM »

On Bayonetta 3 "streamlining" combat challenges, i think that it was actually a bad thing because more often than not casual players were entering these challenges and getting stuck in there thinking they're mandatory or out of stubbornness.

Challenges are meant to be that -- challenges. Alfheims in Bayonetta 1 were hidden on purpose so that only people who are actively looking for them would find them.

These challenge room are meant to teach players intricacies of combat system, like Bayonetta 1 teaching players how to defeat enemies in 10 or less punches/kicks.

Despite that Bayonetta 3 niflheims are easier overall they are wasted on people who don't want to learn combat and only sour most people's first playthroughs.

I think this was especially contrasting with Hi-Fi Rush's campaign which unlocks it's deeper combat challenges only after player completes the game, because overwhelming majority of players never replay games (if they even finish them to begin with) and that filters out casual players leaving only people who actually want to wring out more out of the game.

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Podcast Discussion / Re: Episode 810: Looking for the Contours of Fun

« on: February 21, 2023, 03:54:14 AM »

Trespasser namedrop hit me right in the nostalgia, because it was the first (legal) videogame i ever bought.

The game legitimately had way more things going on that just a model of UI element shown on main character chest. Like you wielded weapons in the game by simulating arm movement with a mouse, including firearms -- kind of a precursor of Skyward Sword style controls

Check out this Let's PLay of the game if you're interested it at all:

https://lparchive.org/Jurassic-Park-Trespasser/

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General Gaming / Re: What is the last game you beat? Thoughts/impressions?

« on: February 15, 2023, 01:46:38 PM »

A small update:

AM2R (PC, version 1.5.3):

Today, i got recommended a video about the current state AM2R which i think very detailed and largely reflects my thoughts on remake:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gu37NDqxtH4

It's rare for video about AM2R not just go deeper than "DMCAd AM2R vs Samus Returns" debacle but also describe major updates game has been receiving over the years.

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Podcast Discussion / Re: Episode 809: Skylofty Expectations

« on: February 13, 2023, 02:42:51 AM »

New Mickey Mouse art style is not new and has been around for almost a decade now:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zCaxXQdkfPk

These series of shorts (and later a proper TV) are fantastic and highly recommended and are a great source of Ren Stimpy style face expressions characters do occasionally.

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TalkBack / Re: Iron Galaxy Studios Assisted with Metroid Prime Remastered Development

« on: February 12, 2023, 03:38:54 AM »

I am glad Retro Studios were able to tap into Iron Galaxy's expertise of Nintendo hardware.

Obviously third party studio like Retro would have trouble understanding Switch hardware unlike first party Iron Galaxy.

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TalkBack / Re: Nintendo Switch Game Library Adds Game Boy Color, Expansion Pack Game Boy Advance Games

« on: February 08, 2023, 11:51:48 PM »

They announced Kirby Tilt and Tumble coming later.

Does that mean that will also add WarioWare Twisted?

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TalkBack / Re: Metroid Prime Remaster Available Now

« on: February 08, 2023, 11:47:04 PM »

Will wait for a physical version of this.

Watching streams, the game looks darker than original -- i kinda hate it because i disliked dark areas in original.

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General Gaming / Re: What are you playing?

« on: February 08, 2023, 12:33:56 AM »

Played the credits on Hi Fi Rush. Game is not even that deep combat-wise or even well balanced for either first or further playthroughs, but charming art-style, music and freshness of it all really makes me overlook it all.

The graphics on this game is pretty much my Platonic ideal how modern games should look like -- high frames, striking colour schemes, distinctive silhouettes.

Reminds me of Splatoon 1 in a way, where freshness of the concept is so overwhelming it can make people forgive some rough edges. And the game is not even that janky -- it's an extremely polished game, but personally i just had some problems with some of the rhythm mini-games during battles.

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General Gaming / Re: What are you playing?

« on: February 03, 2023, 02:34:22 AM »

Hi-Fi Rush (PC, Steam):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O2i1Vq3Odbg

This feels like the best (action) game since DMC5. I kinda bought a new PC to play this game -- when the game didn't run on my old PC i figured i might as well use this as a reason to upgrade.

Such a fresh feeling game. My only criticism would be that rhythm mini-games can sometimes feel too precise. I was stuck at one minigame for almost an hour. I couldn't tell if it was my setup, my sucking at rhythm or some kind of bug with this particular minigame...

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TalkBack / Re: Melatonin (Switch) Review

« on: December 24, 2022, 11:30:13 PM »

After years of nothing indies have finally cloned Rhythm Heaven and somehow it all happened in the span of last two years: last year, Rhythm Doctor came out on Steam, Melatonin on Steam and Switch was this year and upcoming Bits and Bops just released a demo on Steam!

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General Gaming / Re: What is the last game you beat? Thoughts/impressions?

« on: December 12, 2022, 05:36:52 AM »

Luigi's Mansion 3:

Kinda crazy to say but i think i liked 2 better?.. Next Level games basically re-did the exact same game and not only didn't improve on annoying features of Dark Moon, but feels like doubled down on some of them.

Structure-wise they just renamed separate mansions as floors and made more of them. Even removal of mission structure doesn't make as much of a difference and is even detrimental in some ways: in 2 because each mission has a linear path where you're going from point A to B you can tell which gem is where by its placement, i.e. the first gem is somewhere in the starting area, third gem will be after the second gem and so on. The sequence is broken with gems of 3 which can be anywhere on the floor.

With more than dozen bosses, you could feel how NLG ran out of ideas -- gimmick from Dark Moon's ladder  quessing minigame is back and no less than four later bosses (including the final one) force you to play magic 3-cup game. Another recurring gimmick -- making boss a piece of wooden furniture -- ladder in 2, piano and pirate ship floor in 3. In general, fighting most bosses is just surviving through their attacks and waiting for that one phase where you will are allowed to harm them. It becomes tedious especially if you die on later phase and have to replay it.

Game's good bosses were memorable for the story and humour reasons and not for gameplay like the movie set ending sequence, dancing hall -- other ones felt generic or just bad like naval battle on floating ducks.

LM3 makes good use of physics -- it's fun to throw and break everything around you and watch the money float down. Environmental physics especially shines in circular saw and super suction sequences -- it is just exciting to destroy things at that scale.

Graphics-wise, Luigi's Mansion 3 is the best looking game on Switch. It's probably a single first party Nintendo game that uses anti-aliasing. Image quality, camera and cutscene direction is fantastic and animation is top-notch as always.

Overall, a good game but it felt like it's just Dark Moon but bigger and longer instead of a return to somewhat metroidvania structure of 1. Collecting boos and gems for 100% also kinda annoyed and soured me on the whole, but it was fun 40 hours nevertheless.

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Nintendo Gaming / Re: Official Sales Thread

« on: November 23, 2022, 02:23:08 AM »

It's been years, since my NeoGAF days, since I've seen Japanese sales figures.  Pretty interesting, but looking over them it just reminds me how much that market has declined.

Guys who were posting Japanese sales figures (and not only Japanese) are now on their own forums:

https://www.installbaseforum.com

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General Gaming / Re: What is the last game you beat? Thoughts/impressions?

« on: November 20, 2022, 09:45:56 AM »

Another Metroid 2 Remake aka AM2R (PC, version 1.4.5):

Aside from 1 hiccup where i forgot spiderball is a thing, game's first playthrough is very streamlined. Most of the items are placed right along critical path, the game feels deliberately designed so you get most of the items on your first playthrough. Considering that you must kill 30+ bosses just to complete the game, this is a very smart design that allows two-hour speedruns (and probably 100% two hour speedruns?).

Original Metroid 2 tried to make main quest of eradicating Metroids more varied by placing them in different environments -- in the sandpit, over a lava pits and so on. AM2R largely follows that example but the fights themselves still don't evolve except for changed room layouts. Ultimately, all Metroids are killed by spamming rockets at them -- with enough energy tanks you barely even need to dodge too -- just stand under them and keep shooting rockets.

Highlights of the game are special events and special bosses: escaping exploding power station is a hectic action setpiece, exploring Federation's science ship is fun with nice Metroid Prime series feel and funny log entries, activating digging machine, turning the lights on inside the Tower (depending on the order you do it -- you might have to fight Omega in the darkness).

For art, game pulls some sprites directly from official games but it also has original assets, some of them look a bit amateurish (Torizo boss) but game looks great otherwise.

Music is okay and mostly relies on Super Metroid remixes, Hydro Station is a pretty cool remix of Green Brinstar theme. Electronic theme kinda reminded me of Binding Of Isaac: Antibirth soundtrack which also came out in 2016 -- compare item room ambience and very similar ambience sound after finishing the boss in Antibirth.

Close to the end game unlocks pneumatic tubes connecting all areas of the map and they are great implementation of fast travel. I really liked figuring out where rooms with pneumatic tubes are on the map. I still don't understand why one of the pneumatic portals is closed in the first half of the game, but then gets blown up by something in latter half...

After first playthrough game starts showing collectibles percentage on the map and it's weird how it's not tied to the current area you're in. Metroid counter is local to the area, but collectibles progression is global for the whole map. That actually prevented me from getting 100% -- i just couldn't find last several rockets for the life of me. I scoured all over the map and even found several shortcuts for speedrunning but couldn't find the rockets. If item indicator could show which area exactly i am missing the last 2% in, it would be over in less than 15 minutes probably.

My first playthrough took me 07:18 with 89% completion. For second playthrough i picked New Game+ and Hard mode. NG+ removes all lava restrictions unlocking most of the map from the start. This might be a good idea for speedrunning (?), but it ruined my run because without lava telling i am done with that area, i kept going deeper than i should have. Additionally Hard difficulty turned out too hard for me especially fighting those pesky Metroids on a tricky terrain. I gave up on a game for a while.

Few weeks later i had a chance to borrow Playstation Vita for a few weeks and it happened to have AM2R port on it! I guess it's a sign!

AM2R (PS Vita, version 1.0):

Playing AM2R on a Vita felt weird for the first hour so. Most of it, i spent in options menu setting up controls so they match my setup i had on PC with SNES Mini controller. Buttons more or less match GBA Metroid control scheme with one additional face button doing morphball.

Despite that Vita is a bigger handheld it somehow feels more cramped to play than on 3DS. Thankfully, i got system with a hand grip and it made holding the system more comfortable. Analog sticks feel fragile and they had a drift (despite that original owner already changed them once already). I fixed drift by increasing deadzone in game's settings, but stick is still placed too close to d-pad, so i found myself touching the stick accidentally when controlling the game with a d-pad.

Port is wonky and prone to slowdowns and crashes. But i was saving often enough so i wasn't too annoyed and took each crash as an opportunity to improve my time. However when i reached underwater area with enemies that shoot bullet hell patterns on dying was way too much for Vita port. Then i reached Serris and the boss is completely bugged -- only the head shows up and then he disappears leaving me alone in a room hard-locked.

After looking it up -- there are other ports that fix these and other bugs but i couldn't be bothered enough to learn how to install/update homebrew on Vita. I guess that finishes my experience with Vita port -- back to original PC...

AM2R (PC, version 1.5.3):

I updated the game. Apparently, the community around the game are still adding all kinds of things to it, like crazy time-trials levels, multiplayer mod (?), randomisers, horde mode (?). Base game too has been updated with newers sprites (no longer just copies of GBA games!), new effects and logs.

I restarted and completed the game, and again got stuck with 98% completion with over 2 hours time. This time i gave up, and googled map to check what i was missing. While referencing the map i also discovered that in-game map also doesn't show collectables if they're on the same cell with unlockable items like wave beam and such. Yet another way how AM2R's map is bafflingly worse than Fusion's and Zero Mission's despite emulating them in every other respect.

Getting 100% shows a special cutscene -- a story hook for Fusion and unlocks Fusion mode -- take that Samus Returns: no Amiibo required!

Continuing comparison of 2 remakes i found myself wanting to parry enemies that charge you, which proves how natural of an evolution parry ended up to be especially against Metroid 2 enemies. Funny how both remakes ended up doing similar decisions to spice up monotony of killing the same metroids over and over again, adding Chozo-made robot bosses.

Watching some youtube videos about AM2R i saw many people praising it for "inventing" morphball/unmorph shortcut, which i feel is misplaced. AM2R is a product of active Metroid modding community where such shortcuts have been a standard for more than a decade now (see Project Base for example). AM2R didn't invent instant morphball or Metroid Prime-style tractor beam but i think so few people are aware of Metroid mods, everything that repackages community's ideas in a more accessible package feels like new.

Even if Samus Returns places morphball button rather awkwardly on a touchscreen, parry button works also as an unmorph which is the functionality you need the most.

Overall: a great fan-service game. I wished map's item indicator was a better but otherwise it's my only nitpick.

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Nintendo Gaming / Re: Bayonetta 3 - gameplay impressions

« on: November 17, 2022, 03:24:54 AM »

100 hours in, halfway into Pure Platinuming Normal mode.

Finally got used to the timing of Viola's parry. Because PPKP attack string is the shortest combo with Cheshire attack at the end, spamming this combo makes Cheshire attack more often (outside of directly summoning him). For some reason, block offset doesn't work on "Kick" sword throws so that doesn't allow offsetting final hit after going into parry -- have to start PPKP inside the Witch Time from the start. Maybe it would be better to only do PPPPPP combos and offset them?..

Getting used to Viola's charged hits can be awkward especially when you don't want charged animations to take up your time when you're trying to go deeper into attack string. You need to tap buttons very lightly so they are recognised as regular hits and not slower charged hits. However, charged moves do a lot of damage -- for example Viola's fully charged sword launcher can halve bosses' HP bar -- this a huge damage output -- not even Bayonetta has anything even close to that. And while the sword is spinning you're free to mash on him with melee, adding to the damage. Regular fully charged sword throw also does lots of damage but more importantly it covers huge area, stunlocking lesser enemies and not allowing them to attack you.

Viola actually became fun to play as, especially great to fight some of the bosses in side missions.

Speaking of side missions -- the amount and variety of encounters you can pick at any moment is stupid. Side missions hide enemies, bosses, demons and unlockable weapons that are completely outside of the main campaign.

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Nintendo Gaming / Re: Bayonetta 3 - gameplay impressions

« on: November 06, 2022, 03:17:42 PM »

Seemingly cosmetic item secretly created keys on specific areas of the game. After collecting them, the item opened a completely new game with yet another completely different type of gameplay!

Platinum Games'  priorities are really weird -- they would do and polish this kind of hidden game inside the game that player would have to run around all the levels to just unlock and not only that -- it still only opens up for 10 minutes and then throws me out... I still have to do something else to unlock it completely (collecting all bewitchements? getting all umbran tears? getting platinum on all levels?)

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Nintendo Gaming / Re: Bayonetta 3 - gameplay impressions

« on: November 02, 2022, 01:14:41 AM »

One of the consequences or removal mix-and-match of weapons is that you can't combine speed/combo on hands and DPS on legs in one set.

Thus more often than not you will be forced to have one quick "combo" weapon on set A and big damage weapon on set B.

Additionally for "combo" weapon just speed is not enough -- the weapon also needs to be able to harm enemies from afar to keep your combo up as your demon summon pounds the big enemies. That's basically only guns, and yo-yo weapon.

I am okay with mix and match system gone, but i wished there was a third weapon set at the very least.

Weapons and demons are the highlight of this game i wished there was less cumbersome way to switch them than entering a menu UI.

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Nintendo Gaming / Re: Bayonetta 3 - gameplay impressions

« on: November 01, 2022, 11:08:33 AM »

Finished the game and man -- rushed ending kinda sours otherwise fantastic fanservice-filled playthrough...

But the stuff you unlock by the end -- oh man... Feels like all the fun weapon are concentrated right at the end -- and beyond even...

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Nintendo Gaming / Re: Bayonetta 3 - gameplay impressions

« on: November 01, 2022, 02:07:20 AM »

Gameplay styles is so varied, first playthrough really feels like WarioWare with barrage of random minigames. They never last more than few minutes and are very fun for how random they are but it's gotta be a nightmare to pure platinum them.

As if pure platinum wasn't already impossible enough with 30-45 seconds verse completion requirement...

It also feels like Platinum games really went out with weapons, complete insanity. They all kinda control the same -- stinger input, launcher input, 360 input, but the timings and animations and effects are very different. Just when i started to get the basics of default guns -- they throw 10+ weapons and demons at me, it is overwhelming.

22

Nintendo Gaming / Re: Bayonetta 3 - gameplay impressions

« on: October 30, 2022, 11:58:28 PM »

Started playing with Viola now. Trying to adjust to her makes my brain melt.

Her combat options being somehwat simplified (and her story arc so far) reminds me of how Nero was introduced in DMC4 -- a spunky younger character with potential to take over the series. Usually series does that when creative team series went in too deep and create soft reboot with "simpler" controlled character.

B3 is a huge game with most of the stuff having nothing to do with combat. A list of custom achievements for each chapter, collectibles unlocking side-chapters, side-chapters also have their own achievements.

The areas are HUGE, almost Xenoblade-sized. Some of the platforming challenges are harder than combat verses even. Viola having somewhat wonky jumping mechanics doesn't help too.

23

Nintendo Gaming / Re: Bayonetta 3 - gameplay impressions

« on: October 28, 2022, 06:03:03 AM »

Pure Platinuming the game feels really hard, still can't get used to new attacks. At least Bayonetta 3 has finally allowed players to select any verse and the result saves over -- so you don't have to Pure Platinum the entire chapter, nice QoL feature.

I think i unlocked the DPS feature i was looking forward, it's demonic parry (Assault Slave) and demonic combo finisher (Wink Slave) -- both are huge AoE that stop and deflect any enemies' attacks.

The more i play -- the more i notice how "weak" auto lock-on has become. In previous game lock-on would never move if held punch/kick/gun buttons, but in 3 it is too eager to change targets if you move the stick even a little bit.

24

Nintendo Gaming / Bayonetta 3 - gameplay impressions

« on: October 27, 2022, 09:54:18 PM »

Have been playing the game for few hours now.

I only have 2 demon and 2 weapons so far and lots of stuff still to unlock and learn, but it still feels like Bayonetta.

New homunculi enemies feel weird at first -- have to get accustomed to new timings and attack cues, so small archers managed to hit me more often than big guys because how subtle their tells are.

Lock-on moved to R3 (MGR style) changes surprisingle little. Commands for tetsuzanko and Stiletto are still the same. R1 bumper does the same thing -- it was just decoupled from manual lock-on and renamed "Stance change".

Demon slaves feel way too slow, but at least you can summon them for one move, buffer one move and turn yourself back to normal, so both you and demon attack at the same time.

Some Bayonetta players noticed that time requirements on verses are very short, which means you might very well be required to use demons for high DPS or else you're not gonna make it on time for Pure Platinum. That's disappointing but maybe there will be more hard hitting options further in the campaign.

25

Podcast Discussion / Re: Episode 793: My Colleague Bought a Novelty Fridge

« on: October 19, 2022, 12:35:37 AM »

On composers talking about their work -- Yuzo Koshiro has had youtube channel for years now and in several videos he talks his process and inspirations:

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCe_lUL6kLzZLS49SIdHly5A/videos