So I've been playing this recently...

[Deathhappens]

Just when I was having fun and the game was finally opening up, Sekiro closes off all paths and drops another wall of a boss in front of you. Seriously, fuck SPOILEROwl, not only is he another beefy multi-phase boss, he also either oneshots you or (if you ground out for HP upgrades) one-combos you if you make a single mistake all fight. I've died to him a good 60-70 times, I have all his combos down to memory, but it doesn't matter when I need to chip him down over thirty + hits per bar while he only needs to hit me twice to murder me and every attack stunlocks you if you don't block it. Heck, even if you perfecly deflect his full combo he leaves you with the posture bar half-filled.

And sure, this may be par for the course on soulsborne games, but again other soulsborne games don't punish you if you fucking die more than twice.

[TomPen94]

Finished 13 Sentinels.

Hah! You thought I could talk about this without spoiling?

Quite a positive ending. I wasn't expecting it to be so uplifting, even happy since 5 years later they're all alive, well and kicking.
You'd expect a bunch of teenagers left to fend for themselves on a newly terraformed planet wouldn't last that long.
That last end credit scene is ambiguous though. And I think it implies something quite sinister, that even though the 13 folks we followed managed to get out, others in other planets might not be so lucky.

But I was happy with it. I like how the game used the final few character story scenes to make the final battle really feel like this huge event and everyone is banding together to save the world. Not sure about the jumping around within Gouto's story but it did fill in the blanks about some characters that became unavailable during the combat missions. Still that story made it obvious how good natured he actually is, every other story made him feel very sinister. A nice surprise.

I'll be spending some time recalling scenes in Analysis Mode since while I do get the major picture, the order of some events in relation to each other is still a bit unclear to me. But I think the game is surprisingly airtight despite the way the narrative is revealed and its massive scope.

It was definitely a trip. Quite enjoyed it. Some couple things left to grind out for that plat, which I might get done. But that'll be left for another time, now it's time to relax.

[Mattias]

Went back to MonHun Rise after a few months off because I've been watching a bunch of streamers play Stories 2. That one quest with a Rathalos, Diablos and Magnamalo in one arena is a bitch, especially since all my main weapons are very lacking defense. So I decided to pick up the Gunlance, for the sole reason that there's an Almudron version. It's actually pretty fun, especially zooming around on rocket lances.

[Deathhappens]

Just when I was having fun and the game was finally opening up, Sekiro closes off all paths and drops another wall of a boss in front of you. Seriously, fuck SPOILEROwl, not only is he another beefy multi-phase boss, he also either oneshots you or (if you ground out for HP upgrades) one-combos you if you make a single mistake all fight. I've died to him a goos 60-70 times, I have all his combos down to memory, but it doesn't matte when I need to chip him down over thirty + hits per bar while he only needs to hit me twice to murder me and every attack stunlocks you if you don't block it. Heck, even if you perfecly deflect his full combo he leaves you with the posture bar half-filled.

And sure, this may be par for the course on soulsborne games, but again other soulsborne games don't punish you if you fucking die more than twice.

UPDATE: Welp, I beat the boss, but it doesn't feel nearly as satisfying as the last time I was on top of this tower, mainly because I "cheated". I broke off, looked up where all the newly spawned minibosses were, and farmed an extra two Pearl Necklaces and a Memory off of them. Whaddayaknow, the fight is much easier when you hit harder and get hurt less (mainly because I hit some posture breakpoint that allowed me to deflect his combo even if I got hit once).

Still bullshit though.

[TomPen94]

Platted 13 Sentinels.

Thought I'd have to grind every ability into their max level, but unlocking them was enough, so I guess that's that.

[weeblord]

13 sentinels was amazing. Piecing together the story was so much fun.

[Mattias]

GOTY for me easily. Which is saying something since I really loved FF7 and Hades.



Fuck Tetsuya Ida.

[TomPen94]

Even he kinda got what he wanted in the end. Must say that scene kinda quelled my anger for him.
I don't really think I actually dislike any of the characters, even the ones the game makes you doubt the game comes around and gives you least one sweetener about them.

Spoiler:

Maybe the one exception would be 2188 Shinonome Ryoko, who altered the program to continuously reset before completion. But I don't really dislike her, I'm mostly meh on her and the game doesn't give her much of a reason other than to get back at 2188 Ida Tetsuya. Given we're talking about humanity's last ditch effort to maybe perhaps survive, kinda unjustified there. This makes her the de-facto villain of the story but I don't really have any strong feelings about her.

I would say out of the games I played from 2020 it would be the one that got to me the most. I loved the additional content in P5R, but the bulk of the game is from 2017. FF7R was great but I have some contentions on it, that the more I think about them the more worried I get over the future of the story. Here though... the more I think about it the happier I get. This is a game that is gonna stick with me for a long time, every single aspect of the story and world is meticulously calculated, each plot twist makes things clearer instead of needlessly complicating the narrative, some of them even simplify it and make it both easier to understand and put together, all while retaining the wow factor, the "everything-you-knew-was-a-lie" factor and the satisfaction of looking back with this new information and see it work out. And ultimately it nails the conclusion of the story.

My GOTY for 2020 as well.

[Mattias]

13 Sentinels villain

While she's really responsible for the whole situation, and her clone gets it the worst out of all the characters in the end, 2188 Ryouko gets a bit of a pass from me because of what Ida did. I forget if it's in the game or one of the cut scenes that Kamitami talked about, but she wanted to double suicide with Ida, who shut her down hard then went off to kill himself all alone, leaving her alone to stew for a few days until all the air/food/water ran out. Huge dick move right there.

[TomPen94]

I had no idea of that detail.

13 Sentinels

2188 Shinonome and Ida only appear in one scene each. Shinonome appears in our Shinonome's playthrough just saying Ida wronged her and so she made the kaiju purge the humans in all sectors. Ida appears in a log file talking about a change made in Morimura's files by someone logged in with Izumi's ID, then he says nothing matters cuz everyone is gonna die anyway.

Btw, is Sector 0 just Sector 1 fresh from a reset? Cuz all the scenes supposedly taking place in it are registered as being in Sector 1 in Analysis mode. The time matches up too, since Sector 0 is "16 years back in time" from Sector 1, and each loop takes that amount of time. This would mean that Sectors reset at slightly different times and what allows you to loop is shifting directly into an already reset Sector.

[Mattias]

I had no idea of that detail.

13 Sentinels

2188 Shinonome and Ida only appear in one scene each. Shinonome appears in our Shinonome's playthrough just saying Ida wronged her and so she made the kaiju purge the humans in all sectors. Ida appears in a log file talking about a change made in Morimura's files by someone logged in with Izumi's ID, then he says nothing matters cuz everyone is gonna die anyway.

Btw, is Sector 0 just Sector 1 fresh from a reset? Cuz all the scenes supposedly taking place in it are registered as being in Sector 1 in Analysis mode. The time matches up too, since Sector 0 is "16 years back in time" from Sector 1, and each loop takes that amount of time. This would mean that Sectors reset at slightly different times and what allows you to loop is shifting directly into an already reset Sector.

Spoiler:

Must have been the cut content then. Kamitami did an interview where he talked about 8(?) cut storylines that they just couldn't flesh out the way they wanted. That's where he says that She wanted to kill each other Romeo& Juleit style and he rejected it. Another one of which is the Ogata Sr. being a more overarching villain over LoliMura's shoulder.

Sector 0 is just the hard drive where all the data is stored. So when you upload you're data there you basically save state yourself into a new loop, probably always Sector 1 since it's the first in order. Basically once the final Sector fails the whole world wipes and restarts, and anyone who's managed to hack into Sector 0 gets spawned at the start of the new loop rather than as a child. Although since they're not the current version if the simulation ends they don't have a body to wake up into, which is why most of the loopers are so fatalistic.

Also IIRC the sectors are designed to last 20 years (each span is given in the info tab on that specific sector), before they'd get that 2 year training tutorial from 2188 and populate the new planet.

[TomPen94]

Spoiler:

Must have been the cut content then. Kamitami did an interview where he talked about 8(?) cut storylines that they just couldn't flesh out the way they wanted. That's where he says that She wanted to kill each other Romeo& Juleit style and he rejected it. Another one of which is the Ogata Sr. being a more overarching villain over LoliMura's shoulder.

Sector 0 is just the hard drive where all the data is stored. So when you upload you're data there you basically save state yourself into a new loop, probably always Sector 1 since it's the first in order. Basically once the final Sector fails the whole world wipes and restarts, and anyone who's managed to hack into Sector 0 gets spawned at the start of the new loop rather than as a child. Although since they're not the current version if the simulation ends they don't have a body to wake up into, which is why most of the loopers are so fatalistic.

Also IIRC the sectors are designed to last 20 years (each span is given in the info tab on that specific sector), before they'd get that 2 year training tutorial from 2188 and populate the new planet.

Spoiler:

Oh yea... Papa Ogata wanted to be fully revived. In fact he's kinda worse since he wanted to revive into his child's body, effectively killing Nenji for his own survival. So I guess there's that too.

Okay that makes more sense. Ppl talk about Sector 0 almost as if it were its own sector just like the other five so it confused me. Like when Sekigahara confronts Droid Ida he tells him that this time Sector 0 would be reset too, making it look like Sector 0 was a regular sector but immune from the reset. Maybe they explain it better in another scene.

You're close. The 2 years of training are included in those 20 years, Morimura says they'd start taking training when they were 18 years old. Because of the Kaiju though Inaba forced Universal Control to eject the real humans when they were 16.
This does raise the question though... are the bodies in the pods ageless? Or are they reborn anew when a reset occurs? They've at least been through 3 Loops, maybe many more before anyone managed to Loop for the first time. That would mean the bodies would be growing for at least 48 years by the endgame.

[Mattias]

Spoiler:

Oh yea... Papa Ogata wanted to be fully revived. In fact he's kinda worse since he wanted to revive into his child's body, effectively killing Nenji for his own survival. So I guess there's that too.

Okay that makes more sense. Ppl talk about Sector 0 almost as if it were its own sector just like the other five so it confused me. Like when Sekigahara confronts Droid Ida he tells him that this time Sector 0 would be reset too, making it look like Sector 0 was a regular sector but immune from the reset. Maybe they explain it better in another scene.

You're close. The 2 years of training are included in those 20 years, Morimura says they'd start taking training when they were 18 years old. Because of the Kaiju though Inaba forced Universal Control to eject the real humans when they were 16.
This does raise the question though... are the bodies in the pods ageless? Or are they reborn anew when a reset occurs? They've at least been through 3 Loops, maybe many more before anyone managed to Loop for the first time. That would mean the bodies would be growing for at least 48 years by the endgame.

Spoiler:

Well according to the file on the facility, the machine only has enough power/materials to last about 5000 years from initial construction. And Lolimura later says that they're on loop number high 400's, so they're actually running pretty close to the operational limit and run the risk of the entire facility failing if they don't make it out. It's why they need to do it now, rather than loop again like Ida wants. It's less Sector 0 being reset and more the whole facility being deemed a failure by Universal Control and scrapped.

Hmm, I just went and looked it up and the timelines for each zone are intened to run from, for example in Sector 1, 2089-2109. She does say that when they reach adulthood they get pulled out for training so maybe it's just an early thing.

The fact that they should have been released at adulthood, but when they pop out they're the current age, makes me think that the bodies are grown from scratch every loop and probably broken down for parts once the cycle fails (because if they kept the old bodies then all the loopers would easily get out and not have to wait for them to make new bodies for them).


One thing I really enjoy about the ending is how they go both for and against the idea of fate. Some events repeat themselves down throughout time, but other times the same characters go a wild different way. Like Juro and Morimura are together in 2188, then again in three loops before, but come current loop and Juro falls for Megumi when they meet.

Also how once you hit the end you can view the timelines of every MC no matter how little they appear, like Tamao, or Juro two loops ago, or 2188 Megumi.

[Deathhappens]

Sekiro

Divine Dragon, Owl (Father) and Demon of Hatred done in one glorious session (though I'd hardly call Divine Dragon a boss compared to the other two). Also assorted minibosses and sidequests meaning I'm maxed out on prayer necklaces for this run. Only the final boss left... though maybe I'll grind out Most Virtuous Deeds first in case I decide to NG+.

[eddyak]

I never managed to beat Demon of Hatred. It was such a weird fucking boss fight, it threw all the old rules out the window and went "lol it's soul level 1 dark souls all over again, just dodge and stab him a million times till he dies".

[Deathhappens]

I never managed to beat Demon of Hatred. It was such a weird fucking boss fight, it threw all the old rules out the window and went "lol it's soul level 1 dark souls all over again, just dodge and stab him a million times till he dies".

With Ako's Sugar and judicious R1 spam, he takes quite a bit of chip damage. Significantly more than fighting Great Shinobi Owl underpowered, even. And he has some semi-scripted "staggered" phases every third of his health bar or so that are prime time to unload on him.

But yeah, can't deny I got lucky he spammed moves I already knew in phase 3.

Also, update: Sword Saint is down and I've officially hit the Return of the Dragon ending. Damn, that was satisfying. Gonna try out the new Gauntlet of Strength before moving on...

[Deathhappens]

Currenty playing the new Doom Eternal. Really good game, I'm having a lot of fun with the new movement options they added.

I put in a couple levels today, and I'm sorry to say I'm not enjoying it as much as the "first" for precisely the same reasons. Too many fiddly bits, too much emphasis on powers and combos and mods and what the fuck ever, not enough honest run n' gun. And the game is way faster for some reason too, which I guess some people might enjoy but personally I just find tiresome. I don't want to waste bullets missing a bunch of zippy demons, especially when you get so cripplingly little ammo to begin with.

I also don't like that DOOMguy has a face now, even if it's classic jarhead Doomguy from the old games, or the fact that they're building all this pseudo-fantasy nonsense lore to avoid making the religious references too obvious. I mean, whatever you call everything else you're still fighting the demon-spawned armies of Hell, why are you pussing out on the word "angels" ?

[Mattias]

Well, finally finished my trip through Mass Effect Legendary edition. Wow does Vangaurd just delete any enemy. Charge, Nova, Shoot, repeat two time until eldritch horror is dead. Or Kai Leng wimps out and calls in his gunship after a single attack. Last mission was a bit of a pain until I realized it was a timed battle with infinite enemies and just turtled up and ran out the clock.

And even 10 years after the fact, I still really enjoy ME3. Even the ending. All except the dream seqences. What a slog those are.

Oof, typed this up while the credits were rolling and damn do those after credits suck. Not the idea, that's fine, but the acting there is real elementry school play level, and it's all coming from the old man, not the actual child with him. Damn.

That said it felt like I ran into way more issues with 3 than the others. there were actual gameplay issues with 1 and 2, but the happened only a handful off times, but in 3 it seemed like a bunch of missions, particularly in the endgame, were full of ragdolls and broken prompts screwing up all the dramatic scenes they were trying to build. Sure, I'm supposed to be thinking this is the last chance to save the galaxy, but it's hard to take it seriously when there's a zombie frozen in attacking animation five feet away from the conversation we're having in the bombed out streets of London. Or the way NPC's are always supposed to look at you to talk, but are always postioned looking at screens, so their heads spin 180 degrees to track you while their body stays completely still.

Still 9/10 would play the entire series again for a fourth time, if I ever feel an itch for sci-fi shooters. Maybe go Sentinel next time. Hopefully by then they'll have unlocked romances for all genders.

[Deathhappens]

Got through a bunch more levels in DOOM ETERNAL, and I have to admit the game is fun in its own way once you get used to its frantic "CONSTANT JUMP DASH JUMP FLAME BELCH ICE GRENADE QUICKSWAP SUPER SHOTGUN FAST FAST FAST" style of gameplay. The idea of refilling health, armor and ammo just from murdering enemies is a solid start, but the implementation really suffers from how hard they tried to push it. Even at maximum investment, you will constantly run out of ammo against bosses or big waves of heavy enemies (especially exacerbated because there's only 4 ammo types in the game, with the later weapons using the same type being enormous ammo hogs that blow through your entire stash in a few shots), to the point where even the one-on-one arena fight includes random imps and zombies spawning constantly because, well, you literally don't carry enough ammo to finish the fight without refilling a few times. I also wasn't a fan of just how much puzzle-platforming they shoved in (which you can't really avoid, as most of the hidden stuff is neccessary to keep you ahead of the curve as opposed to just collectibles like the first game). Again, not a bad idea in itself but when you're trying to push a much more frenetic pace in combat having long lulls between every encounter while the player keeps running around wall-hugging and trick-jumping to get every secret absolutely murders the pacing. Story, well, as I said above I'm not a fan of the soft reset type thing they did to retroactively add an entire storyline where Doom 2016 only had very vague logs, but I do have to admit it's decently well-written and ties the entire DOOM mythos together very neatly (though there really was no reason to do so in the first place, imo).
And a completely personal gripe: The Unmaykr completely sucks for all the hoops you have to go through to get it, it should've been the Crucible sword locked in there, that weapon fucking slaps (though you get so pitifully few uses out of it it's basically a melee BFG, at least if it was a 'limited' weapon it would make sense).

[Skull]

I'm never gonna be able to look at silkworms the same ever again...

So what happens when you take Resident Evil and instead of STARS, you're a bunch of Onmyouji investigating a haunted mansion full of Zombies "Yamabito"...yeah that's Kuon in a nutshell. That one time FromSoftware made a straight up horror game.

Great game though, practically encapsulates old school Survival Horror with semi-fixed cameras, metroidvania exploration and a plot that has to be pieced together from reading notes and journals rather than just watching cutscenes - even hours after the credits rolled I'm still scratching my head as to what just happened. Just a shame that Resident Evil 4 came out right after and Kuon went straight into obscurity.

Definitely interested in checking out any other old forgotten gems.