I got shadow of the colossus (ps2) from gamestop. I have the ps3 that can play ps2 and ps1 games so I bought it. I had never heard of the game before but was interested in the name. I ended up loving the game.
Same, found that game while I was way too young to understand any strategy, which is kinda important in a Real Time Strategy to have. The units were cool enough to occupy little me’s mind, so I had a good time.
The original Creatures I found in the going out of business sale at KB Toys when I was a kid for like $2. IIRC, it was also the first game I ever bought on my own.
To this day, it’s still be the best virtual pet game I’ve ever played. The whole system of genetics was cool as hell, and the fact it was made by scientists studying the human genome and uses real science behind the genetic modeling was super fucking cool.
I loved that game even though I never figured it out. I couldn’t find anything else like it. It’s one of the reasons Spore disappointed me so much. Spore had customizable appearances but all the creatures acted the same. In Creatures, it almost felt like they were alive.
The memory I have ingrained most from the game is that once I hatched a norn that for whatever reason, could not walk. It just stayed where it hatched unless another creature moved them. I feared it would starve to death, but the other norns took care of her. They brought her food and liquid, they played with her, they taught her language, they even protected her from the Grendel. This wasn’t necessarily pre-programmed behavior; this never happened at any other time for me. They usually didn’t teach each other much, and they certainly never brought each other food or gifts. Just for the one that was unable to take care of itself.
The original Mount & Blade at an office max, I think? 5 dollar bargain bin game. I remember being blown away by the army combat in that game. The first one was so barebones but I still love that janky mess.
Does it have to be a JRPG? If you want tactics in your turn-based games I recommend looking into cRPGs as the genre originally started as adaptions of tabletop games and has way deeper tactics compared to most JRPGs. Stuff like the Baldur’s Gate games, Dragon Age, Wasteland, Divinity: Original Sin 1+2 or Arcanum: Of Steamworks and Magick Obscura are all turn-based or real-time with pause which work similar enough to count. As a plus point most of them allow you to be rather creative in the way you play from stuff like talking an opponent into killing themselves to turning opponents into chicken and letting them bleed out with another skill.
Look I’m in love but it’s a very polarising game. If you enjoyed playing ds1 blind, and saw something to love in ds2 underneath the weirdness then I’d recommend it but it is not the fast and nippy ds3 onwards style. Levels are confusing if you don’t figure out what the map is telling you, umbral exploration is fascinating but tense and you have to rush sections which can make you miss what you picked up.
There’s a few baffling decisions like auto filling your quick bar with new consumables when empty, not marking new items in inventory, lore being state gated (it miiight be some arty you get the story from various perspectives thing but I’m unconvinced yet), and many people find the ranged pressure unpleasant. You’re often being shot at till you clear an area.
How are the runbacks? Are they using the tedious=difficult mentality? DS2 was terrible because of that but on the other hand the recent lies of p is a masterpiece.
I thought lies of p was an absurdly tedious game tbh with the bosses requiring lots of memorisation. I think a lot of this is subjective.
You can place temporary bonfires pretty close to bosses using a consumable you can buy or loot from certain enemies. Some people seem to be running out of them, I have more than I need and I feel like I’m using them liberally.
It’s a very similar game to ds1. It’s that sort of slower, easier game where you spend most of your time methodically exploring a large interconnected world. Once you know what you’re doing you can run through a lot.
If you thought ds1 was a bad game you probably won’t like this. If you thought it was fantastic you probably will.
Thanks for the detailed response! Temporary bonfires seem to be a real solution to my main concern about this game.
I liked ds1 when it was new, I’d hate it now for being grindy and the time wasting runbacks but the level design was top notch.
From your response I gather it has the good parts of DS1 with modern graphics and a solution to the bad part. I’ll probably like it then and will definitely try it
I actually love ds1 in its entirity. well until the Lord vessel then the game falls apart. I’m not one for fast paced games (arthritis) and really enjoy the exploration and navigation. Sometimes I just load up a save and run around for a bit to relax :p
I’m not sure my opinion is the one to listen to in your case, given it seems you prefer the later faster gameplay with more emphasis on bosses?
All I can really say is I haven’t enjoyed a souls game much since demons souls and dark souls (although sekiro was quite fun it’s very different) until now. I’m only about 10 hours in on my third area.
I do think many people’s complaints (but not all! there are some very idiosyncratic choices) are from not paying attention. Like recognising when you can pull out the lantern to do something, when you need to fully cross into death, making full use of all the tools (e.g. regenerating ranged ammunition, the map they give you, kicks, mid combo 1h 2h swapping, powerstancing), understanding how the level designers have set traps.
If you try play it like lies of P and just sprint in parrying everything you have a bad time and get swarmed. you also need to engage in the RPG parts more, swapping rings and armour for the current challenge and so on.
I don’t necessarily prefer the faster pace. It’s just that LoP happens to be the first game in the genre, that I’ve played, without major downsides, at least for me.
Everything else has either time wasting, lengthy runbacks or game breaking bosses to artificially increase the difficulty (see Malenia), or is Sekiro.
A modern DS1 like game without the tedium and with some new ideas is very much something that appeals to me. If it has RPG mechanics then all the better, I liked how LoP had perks on top of the traditional, simplistic attribute system and at least some choices.
Everything you say makes me want to play it more 😀
Honestly, after years of gaming I would have to say controller. I grew up on consoles and didn’t start playing on the pc until my late teens. I can manage on MnK but after a while my wrists get sore even with wrists rests and I tend to forget where the keys are on the keyboard. Where as on controller I can comfortably play in any position and very seldomly my fingers may get sore but not as bad as my wrists. Plus, I like playing on a big TV depending on the game lol
My controller sat on the desk in front of the arrow key cluster of my keyboard, so I could run around in first person and cap some fools with KBM, then picked up the controller for driving.
I started playing GTA V with a controller, but was really confused how difficult the boat trailer chasing mission was. After almost 1 hour, I switched to KBM and finished it first try.
I still prefer controllers for most games.
Same. I also play Cyberpunk that way. Driving cars without the ability to control the speed is just a PITA. A binary input doesn’t cut it for me there.
OTOH aiming with anything but a mouse is also a PITA. Stuff like weapon switching also works better with dedicated keys vs a weapon wheel.
Now that I write it… all I would need would be one or two analog sticks/keys and I wouldn’t need the controller at all. It’s mainly the analog triggers that I need.
I’ve been a pc gamer all my life but controller has always easily been the superior choice. For first person shooters and strategy games I’ll go KBM sure, but for every other kind of game I’ll go controller when I can get away with it. It’s significantly more comfortable for me and I’m much more familiar with it.
I grew up on consoles, mostly Playstations, so I can use controllers a lot better then some people. I prefer to use them in FPS’, movement and melee feels a lot more natural with a controller then with a keyboard. Aiming is, I dare say, an art-form with a controller and it can get really difficult when the sticks are old and losing their sensitivity (*or it’s just a crap controller).
Not to mention how comfortable it is not having to have your fingers splayed across a flat surface for the whole game.
Same here, I grew up with consoles (Xbox mostly). I’m not used to keyboard so I don’t play that well on keyboard than I do on controller for most games. The only times I do use keyboard is for point and click or strategy games.
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