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General Gaming / Re: 5th Annual NWR Four on Four
« Last post by broodwars on April 23, 2025, 09:45:40 PM »Alright, I have 4 games. More, actually:
Representing PC/Mobile, but played on PS5: Balatro - I've managed to achieve a successful run in the game. I know there's more to do, but it's a Roguelike card game. It could go on forever, & strategy pales in comparison to RNG. I'll take my Participation Trophy at having 1 successful run and call it a day.
In general, the game's OK, but I really don't understand all the gushing over it and I don't think it belonged in the game of the year discussion. It's Score Attack Poker. Yes, that can get addictive when you get a run going, but at the end of the day that's all it will ever be. And while you do unlock new Jokers you can buy on later runs, new decks with their own modifiers, and new difficulty levels...that's it. That's all there is to the Roguelike elements, and that's just not enough for me.
Representing the PS2, but played on PS5: Indiana Jones & the Staff of Kings - Yes, this is unfortunately the same version of the game as the Wii version (instead of the allegedly superior PSP version), but without the motion controls and packed-in Fate of Atlantis port. However, that's what was on PSN, it was $6 and I had a $5 credit so here we are, and really...for $1 I could have played a lot worse and I was in the mood for some Indiana Jones. The game's extremely simple (not to mention glitchy) and not particularly challenging, but what's here is fairly solid and the button-based QTEs are only mildly distracting instead of outright unplayable like they apparently were on Wii. It's actually kind of amusing how much it feels like a prototype for the original Uncharted, right down to the cover-based shooting segments and arbitrary vehicle levels that play like ****.
Representing the PS4 (though it could also represent the PS2, PS3, or Wii): Okami - I have been trying to complete this goddamn game for 13 years over 4 different attempts, and I finally managed to force myself to get through it all. So...was it worth it?
No, not really. There have always been 3 reasons why I could never get through this game before, and they're still very bad now:
1. The framerate - The game is hard-locked to 30 FPS, and with some of the visual effects (especially early on) I found it very easy in earlier versions and on earlier (and smaller) TVs to get motion sick playing this game. I know it can't be helped because the animations were tied to the framerate (much like Tales of Symphonia), but it's still a very noticeable problem, especially since the game clearly doesn't always hit that 30 FPS.
2. The Celestial Brush - I love the idea of Okami, but the furthest I ever got in this game was on the Wii, and I quit it because of the controls. At the time, I thought it was the Wii's fault that the Celestial Brush only correctly guesses what you draw about 2 out of every 5 attempts, because that was the story of Wii controls in general. But no...that's just how this game is. The longer the game goes on and the more brush techniques that get layered on that use similar brush strokes, the less reliable the entire gameplay experience becomes. By the end of the game, I stopped even bothering to use any brush techniques outside the simple slash and wind gale, because nothing else every worked on command. Do you have any idea how much times I'd go to draw a simple circle around something to do the regeneration technique, only for the game to interpret it as the wind gale? It's pure aggravation.
3. The pacing - Okami has a notoriously slow opening and some of the most glacial text crawl conversations in the history of mankind, but on top of that the game's story is a colossal mess that doesn't know when to end. The plot more or less reaches a climax and starts over 2 separate times. It's just too much.
And that's really my problem with Okami in general: it's just too much. It just keeps layering on more and more nonsense until the game sinks under its own weight. The upcoming Okami 2 is the main reason I finally pushed through to complete this game, which is funny because now that I've finished it I don't want to even think about playing Okami 2 unless they REALLY learned how to make a better game since.
And finally, representing the PS5, Slitterhead - So, this is a weird one. It's clearly not a good game, and I played the game in a way that makes it very unpleasant and makes all its faults all the more obvious, but I still kinda...liked it?
The biggest problem with Slitterhead (besides the story, which is just complete incoherence) is that the game starts out terrible, and the player has to work to unlock the actual game experience as intended. Please note that for the Platinum, you have to complete this game on its hardest difficulty, Nightmare. And yes, that difficulty lives up to its name.
And yes, I have the Platinum for Slitterhead, as well as the ones for Okami & Indiana. And Slitterhead may be the hardest Platinum I've ever obtained, and if it's not it's damn close.
As you play through the game, you unlock more permanent characters to possess, and you unlock skill points you can use to make them strong enough to actually be fun to play. Until then, you either completely master this game's combat system, or you just get hard stuck. And this is a combat system completely built around one-on-one encounters that completely goes to **** the moment more than 1 enemy gets tossed into the mix. Oh, and all your most powerful abilities you can use to kill enemies? Yeah, they cost HEALTH to use.
Take a guess what this game's favorite way of ramping up the difficulty is. The weakest trash mobs are the kiss of death in this game. They kill you in a few hits, usually take more than few hits to kill, and they kill all the civilians in the arenas who act as your lifelines while you're busy elsewhere. That is, when they spawn in at all. Sometimes the game just glitches and doesn't spawn the civilians, meaning you're completely screwed if you get knocked out since you have no one in the area of possess. And checkpoints are for poor people, especially during 10 minute long boss fights. Git gud. -_-
And I really hope you like the 3-4 environments in this game, because this game taking place in consecutive time loops means they're all you're going to see.
And yet...there's something to this game when it's firing on all cylinders. Once I got used to the game's incredibly weird control stick directional parry system; got my characters leveled-up; and started getting a feel for the game's structure, I was having a good time. There is an intriguing idea in here, and it can be quite exciting to take down a boss by just continually laying the smack on it as you just keep switching bodies every few seconds. It's kind of refreshing to play a game that's willing to be extremely cryptic about its secrets and refuses to hold your hand. It's willing to be inconvenient in ways modern games just wouldn't ever be.
And then **** like this happens.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RLKcfAKISeg
This is the penultimate boss of the game. This boss has 3 phases, and in each phase she instantly kills you if you don't stagger her within 60 seconds. At the start of the 1st phase, she also spawns in 1 hit kill mobs (who also die in 1 hit). At the start of the 2nd phase, she summons a dozen 1 hit kill mobs (who also continuously heal themselves) who go down in MANY hits. Oh, and during all this she's casting spells that half your max HP, prevent you from using skills, and poison you. And she does this while teleporting around the room, casting AOE damage, flinging homing missiles at you, and just being a royal pain in the ass in general.
I've never seen such a finely-honed gauntlet of utter bullshit in my entire gaming lifetime, and considering the nonsense that went on in the NES days THAT'S saying something. And yes, I did beat her (https://x.com/i/status/1910896975765033277]). And the final boss was actually a pretty big pushover after that.
In general, Slitterhead is rough and its systems don't really work, but there is "something" there. In order to face the final boss, you have to reduce the number of civilian casualties you've accumulated throughout the game by replaying missions, and I was allowed to reduce the difficulty in order to do it. And on lower difficulties where the game isn't trying to murder you quite as much, there's a lot of fun to be had here. The game is just extremely poorly balanced, and I suspect it was barely playtested.
Other games I could have talked about: Spider-Man 2 PS5 (which I've completed) and Indiana Jones & the Great Circle (which I'm still playing and will be on the backburner for Expedition 33 tomorrow).
Representing PC/Mobile, but played on PS5: Balatro - I've managed to achieve a successful run in the game. I know there's more to do, but it's a Roguelike card game. It could go on forever, & strategy pales in comparison to RNG. I'll take my Participation Trophy at having 1 successful run and call it a day.
In general, the game's OK, but I really don't understand all the gushing over it and I don't think it belonged in the game of the year discussion. It's Score Attack Poker. Yes, that can get addictive when you get a run going, but at the end of the day that's all it will ever be. And while you do unlock new Jokers you can buy on later runs, new decks with their own modifiers, and new difficulty levels...that's it. That's all there is to the Roguelike elements, and that's just not enough for me.
Representing the PS2, but played on PS5: Indiana Jones & the Staff of Kings - Yes, this is unfortunately the same version of the game as the Wii version (instead of the allegedly superior PSP version), but without the motion controls and packed-in Fate of Atlantis port. However, that's what was on PSN, it was $6 and I had a $5 credit so here we are, and really...for $1 I could have played a lot worse and I was in the mood for some Indiana Jones. The game's extremely simple (not to mention glitchy) and not particularly challenging, but what's here is fairly solid and the button-based QTEs are only mildly distracting instead of outright unplayable like they apparently were on Wii. It's actually kind of amusing how much it feels like a prototype for the original Uncharted, right down to the cover-based shooting segments and arbitrary vehicle levels that play like ****.
Representing the PS4 (though it could also represent the PS2, PS3, or Wii): Okami - I have been trying to complete this goddamn game for 13 years over 4 different attempts, and I finally managed to force myself to get through it all. So...was it worth it?
No, not really. There have always been 3 reasons why I could never get through this game before, and they're still very bad now:
1. The framerate - The game is hard-locked to 30 FPS, and with some of the visual effects (especially early on) I found it very easy in earlier versions and on earlier (and smaller) TVs to get motion sick playing this game. I know it can't be helped because the animations were tied to the framerate (much like Tales of Symphonia), but it's still a very noticeable problem, especially since the game clearly doesn't always hit that 30 FPS.
2. The Celestial Brush - I love the idea of Okami, but the furthest I ever got in this game was on the Wii, and I quit it because of the controls. At the time, I thought it was the Wii's fault that the Celestial Brush only correctly guesses what you draw about 2 out of every 5 attempts, because that was the story of Wii controls in general. But no...that's just how this game is. The longer the game goes on and the more brush techniques that get layered on that use similar brush strokes, the less reliable the entire gameplay experience becomes. By the end of the game, I stopped even bothering to use any brush techniques outside the simple slash and wind gale, because nothing else every worked on command. Do you have any idea how much times I'd go to draw a simple circle around something to do the regeneration technique, only for the game to interpret it as the wind gale? It's pure aggravation.
3. The pacing - Okami has a notoriously slow opening and some of the most glacial text crawl conversations in the history of mankind, but on top of that the game's story is a colossal mess that doesn't know when to end. The plot more or less reaches a climax and starts over 2 separate times. It's just too much.
And that's really my problem with Okami in general: it's just too much. It just keeps layering on more and more nonsense until the game sinks under its own weight. The upcoming Okami 2 is the main reason I finally pushed through to complete this game, which is funny because now that I've finished it I don't want to even think about playing Okami 2 unless they REALLY learned how to make a better game since.
And finally, representing the PS5, Slitterhead - So, this is a weird one. It's clearly not a good game, and I played the game in a way that makes it very unpleasant and makes all its faults all the more obvious, but I still kinda...liked it?
The biggest problem with Slitterhead (besides the story, which is just complete incoherence) is that the game starts out terrible, and the player has to work to unlock the actual game experience as intended. Please note that for the Platinum, you have to complete this game on its hardest difficulty, Nightmare. And yes, that difficulty lives up to its name.
And yes, I have the Platinum for Slitterhead, as well as the ones for Okami & Indiana. And Slitterhead may be the hardest Platinum I've ever obtained, and if it's not it's damn close.
As you play through the game, you unlock more permanent characters to possess, and you unlock skill points you can use to make them strong enough to actually be fun to play. Until then, you either completely master this game's combat system, or you just get hard stuck. And this is a combat system completely built around one-on-one encounters that completely goes to **** the moment more than 1 enemy gets tossed into the mix. Oh, and all your most powerful abilities you can use to kill enemies? Yeah, they cost HEALTH to use.
Take a guess what this game's favorite way of ramping up the difficulty is. The weakest trash mobs are the kiss of death in this game. They kill you in a few hits, usually take more than few hits to kill, and they kill all the civilians in the arenas who act as your lifelines while you're busy elsewhere. That is, when they spawn in at all. Sometimes the game just glitches and doesn't spawn the civilians, meaning you're completely screwed if you get knocked out since you have no one in the area of possess. And checkpoints are for poor people, especially during 10 minute long boss fights. Git gud. -_-
And I really hope you like the 3-4 environments in this game, because this game taking place in consecutive time loops means they're all you're going to see.
And yet...there's something to this game when it's firing on all cylinders. Once I got used to the game's incredibly weird control stick directional parry system; got my characters leveled-up; and started getting a feel for the game's structure, I was having a good time. There is an intriguing idea in here, and it can be quite exciting to take down a boss by just continually laying the smack on it as you just keep switching bodies every few seconds. It's kind of refreshing to play a game that's willing to be extremely cryptic about its secrets and refuses to hold your hand. It's willing to be inconvenient in ways modern games just wouldn't ever be.
And then **** like this happens.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RLKcfAKISeg
This is the penultimate boss of the game. This boss has 3 phases, and in each phase she instantly kills you if you don't stagger her within 60 seconds. At the start of the 1st phase, she also spawns in 1 hit kill mobs (who also die in 1 hit). At the start of the 2nd phase, she summons a dozen 1 hit kill mobs (who also continuously heal themselves) who go down in MANY hits. Oh, and during all this she's casting spells that half your max HP, prevent you from using skills, and poison you. And she does this while teleporting around the room, casting AOE damage, flinging homing missiles at you, and just being a royal pain in the ass in general.
I've never seen such a finely-honed gauntlet of utter bullshit in my entire gaming lifetime, and considering the nonsense that went on in the NES days THAT'S saying something. And yes, I did beat her (https://x.com/i/status/1910896975765033277]). And the final boss was actually a pretty big pushover after that.
In general, Slitterhead is rough and its systems don't really work, but there is "something" there. In order to face the final boss, you have to reduce the number of civilian casualties you've accumulated throughout the game by replaying missions, and I was allowed to reduce the difficulty in order to do it. And on lower difficulties where the game isn't trying to murder you quite as much, there's a lot of fun to be had here. The game is just extremely poorly balanced, and I suspect it was barely playtested.
Other games I could have talked about: Spider-Man 2 PS5 (which I've completed) and Indiana Jones & the Great Circle (which I'm still playing and will be on the backburner for Expedition 33 tomorrow).
