Honestly, Diablo 2. It’s a classic, it set the standard for the entire genre and it was a brilliant game. Playing it recently, it feels quite shallow compared to modern ARPGs and lacks a ton of quality-of-life features. Games like Grim Dawn, PoE, Torchlight 2 are way better.
Action RPGs, especially the ones with a heavy focus on loot, suffer the most for me. Trying to play through Vagrant Story now is brutal. MP for fast travel!
This is kind of the opposite for me. I didn’t try the original Diablo until long after playing plenty of more modern arpgs. While it’s very rough around the edges compared to current titles, I feel like it has something unique that later games lost - even D2. I think it’s the combo of your character feeling underpowered, like not much more than a normal person immersed in a world of otherworldly horrors; the way the darkness and aesthetic really comes together to create an atmosphere; and the slower, crunchier gameplay.
Pretty much all newer games put way too much emphasis on letting you play essentially a Marvel-style superhero who fills the screen with bright lights, and more more more numbers go up.
But then again I guess I have to admit I still spend more time playing the newer games.
Diablo 1 is like actually scary. I love all those other games but they are farther on the Halloweeny/spooky/edgy spectrum, if that makes sense. I mean so was the original, but in that one I felt like an insignificant little mote, a pathetic ember of humanity, up against overwhelming evil.
The PoE aesthetic definitely comes closest to capturing that feeling. But like you said, it’s more of a power fantasy once you get going.
Completely agree. I almost said something about PoE, but then I remembered how within a few areas explored I had quickly turned my character into a flying meat grinder who could bonk explosive materials out of monsters.
Diablo I was indeed unsettling, the soundtrack really assisted in that feeling well throughout the game. The enemies are done well and the bosses are intimidating to boot.
Diablo II kept up the horror but you could tell the action overtakes the theme a bit, because you're clearing mobs of enemies.
Diablo III is completely all action than horror. I've got a character that just mowed through enemies with barely a thought so there wasn't much time to sit and think of the theme.
I’m still surprised how well received it was, not because I disagree, but just because of the numbers. It’s currently sitting at 95% positive ratings on Steam, and that’s with 229k reviews, for a game that plays so different from what gamers expected out of FromSoft.
I was just reading some of the reviews on Steam the other night (because it’s my favorite game), and was pleasantly surprised to see that I was not alone in that view.
I got stuck on it and then stopped playing for so long that I feel that I need to start again. I do intend to start it again if I ever get the time to put into it.
He’s one of the first hard tests. You just gotta keep throwing yourself at him until it clicks. I went the other way and did Lady Butterfly which had its own pain. You have to play aggressively. Hesitation is defeat and all of that
People are complaining about Avowed? What the fuck is wrong with them?
I’ve been too busy loving it to be online reading anything, honestly cannot fathom what their complaints are tho. Avowed has repeatedly impressed me by being more clever and nuanced than I was expecting a game to be, in writing, level design, and combat.
Only heard a couple people talk about it online (that I trust to be reasonable) and they basically said it was fine but didn’t blow them away. And that’s fine but it makes for boring “cOnTeNt”.
From what I’ve heard, its mostly people expecting the game to be more dynamic - more akin to Skyrim’s varied gameplay systems or Fallout: NV’s story and quests. They’re going in expecting something with heavy RPG focus and getting something more action focused.
It has stealth, it has magic, it has melee combat, it has ranged combat, it has dialogue options for talking your way through stuff, it has multiple ways of solving quest lines…
It’s basically Skyrim, if it was smaller and more focused, with better combat, voice acting, level design, and heads and tails better writing.
Obsidian getting dinged in reviews for making more focused games that don’t waste your time and don’t bet their company’s entire future on its budget and scope has been very frustrating to see.
They still average out to be very positive scores, so I don’t think we can say most people don’t want what they’re making, and no viewpoint is universal, so don’t put words in my mouth.
But you’ll see the same people asking for a more sustainable game industry complain about what they find when they see it.
X is around the time FF lost it’s main architect, Sakaguchi (technically sooner , but dev times I imagine it overlapped). Guys a class act that was with them since the beginning, but he started his own company after a falling out with the direction SE brass wanted to take things. He was the one pushing to always have life and death as main themes and kept certain other producers in line.
I always recall an anecdote on FF7, as him, Kitase and Nomura were working out story. Sakaguchi required a meaningful death in the plot. Kitase (who we can thank for FF6s second half) suggested the whole cast die except one who the player chooses. Nomura talked them down from that. FF7 was his baby (so much so that he’s the character designer and artist), hence why he’s so present on the remake. That said, they kept each other in check and Nomura gets really weird ideas (KHs being his lead, for example).
After Sakaguchi departure, 11 was modeled after EverQuest and had a newish team, 12 was written most by FFT scenario team but had a change mid devolpment midway (the SE brass wanted a plucky young protag, Vaan was late development), 13 was so overbudget that they had to make sequels to recoup costs, 14 1.0 was mostly old guard 11 people with no idea about optimization, 14 2.0 was Yoshida learning from WoW success (flaws and all) but adding “FF theme park” plus a great writing staff, 15… similar to 12 in changes mid production, but iirc it was the SE brass shoehorning bad ideas and plot required DLC, and 16 is Yoshida and his core team making a pretty solid ARPG but with some tedium due to his MMO roots (and if you like 7R you’d probably be ok with 16).
Anyone can like or dislike a game, so I’m just giving you the long range of production issues that are objectively damaging the experience. It’s ok to like flawed games. I know an unhealthy amount of video game industry lore, and the biggest thing I can’t even say because of an NDA. lol
(Bonus fun fact, FF6 was meant to end at the halfway point but was so ahead of schedule and funds they went ahead and created the second half. It’s my favorite FF lol)
I’d say some clothes had stat effects. Left outfit gives +2 Charisma and -1 Dex. Right outfit gives -3 Charisma but short rests have the effect of long rests
I have a very simple process for dealing with all of this - I never check my framerate in the first place, so I never know what it is.
I just play games If there’s noticeable stuttering or lag then I maybe try to do something about it, and if there’s not, then I just play and don’t worry about it.
That’s actually a good way of doing it. I used to be this way, but I don’t know how and why I started using a team’s built in FPS counter and mangohud. I’m going to stop using it so I don’t have to keep glancing it all the time. Thank you.
It’s not like I notice it more when I have a frame rate counter turned on, I’m just not questioning how bad or how often the drops are when I have it enabled.
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