What Are You Currently Playing? 6.65: Neighbor of the Beast

[Foggle]

I think TLOU's ending is pretty good; I wasn't particularly impressed by the rest of the story, but I really liked the conclusion of it. I agree that the beginning of the game felt very manipulative. I mean, it was definitely an important part of the story and Joel's overall characterization, but we didn't get to know his daughter or him long enough before her death for me to really care about her, and the execution came across as a bit over the top. I'm not trying to sound like a tough guy or anything, I've been moved by video game stories before, including fucking Ratchet & Clank of all things, but having a character we barely know die at the beginning of a story to set up another character we don't know's main arc doesn't suddenly become a tearjerker just because it's a kid. What happens is sad, absolutely, but it's the emotional equivalent of a horror game startling you by having a ghost jump at the screen with a loud scream, at least IMO.

As far as forced walking scenes go, the only one I've particularly liked was the one at the beginning of Nier Automata's second playthrough. It's only about three minutes long and does wonders for both the world-building & 9S' characterization while also managing to evoke an emotional response via its (albeit limited) gameplay instead of what amounts to a glorified cutscene

Spoiler

(e.g. tripping over the pipe and spilling the oil, which causes the younger brother to become further distressed and is accompanied by a heartbreaking animation).

[close]

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

The ending was interesting, I'll definitely give it that. Sacrificing all of humanity's future (at least potentially) to save one person is a definite moral dilemma, but one that can certainly be understood on an emotional level. But as you said, the stuff leading up to that point simply wasn't strong enough to make me feel the weight of those final moments.

Anyways, the post-game content is Nioh is insane, and the first DLC hasn't even come out yet! There are a bunch of challenge missions pairing up two bosses together at once, and I just completed one of them. It was as insanely difficult as it sounds. I'm not quite sure how I'm going to tackle the rest of these, so I just went ahead and jumped to Way of the Strong difficulty for now.

Anyways, now that I've beaten it, Nioh has gone from being my primary game to my secondary game. It's something that I'm still playing and still interested in, but there are just so many good games out right now and I really need to give them all a try. So Nioh will be that game that I always fall back on, but for now I'm putting most of my free-time into Nier: Automata. After I beat that I'm going to pick up Bloodborne.

[Mustang]

Talk about frustrating, good God, I'm basically at the end of Persona 5, trying to avoid battles in Mementos so I can reserve what little SP recovery items I have only to be chased hit the corner of a wall to get stuck and attacked. I know I'm sounding like a broken record, but I started getting fatigued as well because Mementos is too damn long. That said I am restarting my game because I messed up big time, or rather my time was divided poorly. I have no stats that got to 5, so obviously I'm missing S-links. Not sure if I want to try to attain all in one playthrough though. I would think there's so much replay value because of S-links alone.

Considering this is my first Persona game, I'd like to think I had some decent Persona's. I only had 1 that was 47, but the rest of them I had were 55+. A lot of them weren't used though. Speaking of Persona's, turns out I ended up getting rid of some important abilities. Considering this is a MegaTen game I completely forgot buffs and debuffs are too important in this series. A lot of the battles were a struggle because I kept getting debuffed and then the one who helps you out (I guess the character that helps the entire party?) to me was practically useless because I wasn't getting the proper aid that I needed, but again, that's probably on me.

Overall, it's a great game, and like I said, I'm starting over (which I have no problem doing because the game is so good and I want to go at it with a different approach, otherwise I'd be done with it), however, I'll probably take it a bit slower to get some Ultra Street Fighter 4 in. It's been quite some time since I've played and some of my folks want to start it up again.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

I beat The Last of Us: Left Behind DLC. For what it's worth, despite being the type of story over gameplay experience that I'm personally not a fan of, I do feel that the actual story here was handled better than in the main game, being a short vignette and all. Granted, I still had plenty of problems with it, but the major one being that they were trying to draw a parallel between Ellie trying to save Joel's life and her time in the past with her friend. Either that or they were trying to display how much she had grown since then in her resolve. Either way, it fell flat and didn't work well for whatever they were trying to go for. The two stories just felt completely disjointed from each other.

The little gameplay that was here did feel a bit more survival-esque than the main game, mainly because you didn't have as many materials to work with and had to actually conserve some supplies. They also added in an interesting little twist in which you could pit infected against human hunters. It's a concept that I actually would have liked to see further explored in the main game.

That said, ultimately, it's still not really my type of game. It's fine for what it is, but I hope that it doesn't negatively influenced too many single-player titles that will end up taking the wrong lessons from it in the same way that many have taken from the Uncharted games. It's just not something that I particularly want to see more of in gaming.

[Mustang]

That said, ultimately, it's still not really my type of game. It's fine for what it is, but I hope that it doesn't negatively influenced too many single-player titles that will end up taking the wrong lessons from it in the same way that many have taken from the Uncharted games. It's just not something that I particularly want to see more of in gaming.

Huh? Coming from a person that's a fan of the Uncharted series what other games have taken "wrong" lessons from Uncharted? I only ask because I'm not aware of other games like and succeeding outside of Last of Us and Tomb Raider that's like Uncharted.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

I'm referring to stuff like overly-scripted set-piece moments, forced context-sensitive moments, a general restriction on being able to play segments the way that you want; for example, you are actively punished for trying to use stealth on a section that the developers don't intend for you to use it on, even if you technically do it right, enemies will automatically shoot you down before you trigger the next checkpoint.

This kind of mentality has gone into a lot of games that it has no business in, such as Ninja Gaiden of all things, which lead to the atrocious third game in the series.

Likewise, The Last of Us is already being copied by games that gave no business aping that style of gameplay, such as with the new God of War which is clearly trying to cater to that crowd.

Other developers are just trying to copy and paste aspects of those games that are popular, yet don't really consider whether it fits the style of gameplay that their titles should really be focusing on.

You're correct in saying that not a lot of games have been successful in copying aspects of Uncharted and The Last of Us, but that's my point in saying that they take the "wrong" lessons from those games. They take aspects of those games that work for people who are fans of that sort of gameplay style, but only for the sake of trying to grab attention rather than thinking of how it works in the context of their games, or if it's even any fun.

Stuff like this is how we end up with crap like The Order: 1886, which is a glorified walking simulator at best. Clearly the developers saw the cinematic flair of games like Uncharted and The Last of Us, made a game that was 90% just that, and turned the other 10% into a shallow imitation of Gears of War.

I don't have a problem with Naughty Dog's games on their own, but I'm not liking how many other games are sacrificing interesting mechanics in favor of trying to look more like a movie in the way that those games do.

[Foggle]

I liked Left Behind more than the original game, though that could be because I played LB at 60fps on the PS4 and TLOU at around 22fps on the PS3... The shooting mechanics feel way better in the remaster; they're so squishy and unsatisfying on PS3.

Overly-scripted set-piece moments, forced context-sensitive moments, a general restriction on being able to play segments the way that you want; for example, you are actively punished for trying to use stealth on a section that the developers don't intend for you to use it on, even if you technically do it right, enemies will automatically shoot you down before you trigger the next checkpoint.

I do think Call of Duty is also partially responsible for this. A lot of the games after CoD 4 (World At War in particular) practically have a fetish for killing you unless you play EXACTLY how the developers want you to.

This kind of mentality has gone into a lot of games that it has no business in, such as Ninja Gaiden of all things, which lead to the atrocious third game in the series.

Likewise, The Last of Us is already being copied by games that gave no business aping that style of gameplay, such as with the new God of War which is clearly trying to cater to that crowd.

Other developers are just trying to copy and paste aspects of those games that are popular, yet don't really consider whether it fits the style of gameplay that their titles should really be focusing on.

Even some really good games like Vanquish are plagued with the horror that is "five minutes of forced walking between gameplay segments." It's fucking torturous on replays.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

I do think Call of Duty is also partially responsible for this. A lot of the games after CoD 4 (World At War in particular) practically have a fetish for killing you unless you play EXACTLY how the developers want you to.

I actually find that CoD 4 works decently enough because despite being heavily-scripted, it isn't absolutely obsessed with trying to seem like a movie the entire way through. Thus the general shooting segments have an arcade-like quality that let you just have fun and enjoy yourself with your own play-style. Meanwhile, I still remember how I failed a mission in Black Ops with a message telling me that I got too far from my squad mates. Nevermind the fact that we weren't in combat and I was just trying to explore the area for any dropped weapons. Nope, I didn't strictly follow my squad at the pace that the game wanted me to go at, so I was punished for not adhering to the script. The game was actively working against my very gameplay sensibilities, and it left me absolutely confounded.

Even some really good games like Vanquish are plagued with the horror that is "five minutes of forced walking between gameplay segments." It's fucking torturous on replays.

That, the general use of QTEs, and the fact that you have to basically ruin your analogue stick to get out of a grab move are among the few pet peeves that I have with Platinum's game design philosophy. I do like how MGRR at least lets you skip most of the dialogue.

[Foggle]

Yeah, I think CoD 1, 2, and 4 do an excellent job of blending the classic FPS gameplay with modern scripted set-piece cinematic moments. I still wouldn't call them favorites of mine by any means, but they got the formula just right IMO. Unfortunately, World At War, Modern Warfare 2, Black Ops 1, and Modern Warfare 3 embody everything I hate about the genre.

That, the general use of QTEs, and the fact that you have to basically ruin your analogue stick to get out of a grab move are among the few pet peeves that I have with Platinum's game design philosophy. I do like how MGRR at least lets you skip most of the dialogue.

Oh shit, I just realized that Nier Automata doesn't have any QTEs or shitty grab moves! Thank you based Yoko.

[Mustang]

I don't have a problem with Naughty Dog's games on their own, but I'm not liking how many other games are sacrificing interesting mechanics in favor of trying to look more like a movie in the way that those games do.

It's all good. I get what you're saying. I'm just so far behind on pretty much everything that I thought there might've been some games to come out that're like Uncharted that I wasn't aware of.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

Well, you certainly aren't the only one far behind the curve. I'm still trying to catch up to games from last gen while barely even making a dent in this year's output.

[Mustang]

Last gen, wow, so many great titles that I missed due to Street Fighter 4, but I made sure to play the ones that I needed to play when I was bitching about SF4 lol (The Metal Gears, Devil May Cries, Ninja Gaidens, Uncharteds, etc). This gen it's been big hit after big hit, but at the same time I must admit that outside of Persona 5 I haven't actually had the motivation to play a lot of these games. I think it's something like Foggle stated with Persona 5 (That was you, right?). For me, those titles are Ni-oh and Nier (Can probably add Gravity Rush 2 to that as well). I own both games, but the motivation to play these games aren't there and I was so hype for these titles. I almost want to say these big hitters are coming out (came out) far too quickly especially since I want to take my time (heh) to enjoy a lot of these games, especially since I've been in a bit of a slump with games. I also have to admit that I've been losing a bit of interest in games a tad bit in general.

That being said, Persona 5 scratched that itch that I was missing. Don't know what it was that I thought was missing, but I'm having a blast with this game. I'm getting the hang of it a bit more and while I'm not so much customizing the characters, it's the Persona's themselves that I'm customizing and I like that. I like that a lot. I just might go back and buy the older games just for that aspect alone.

[Foggle]

Yeah, that was me, and I totally get it. I'm having trouble getting into Persona 5 and that might be because it launched so close to Yooka-Laylee and Prey, two games which interest me infinitely more.

[gunswordfist]

I didn't know Prey was out and assumed Persona would interest you more than it. This turns my world upside down.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

I totally understand the feeling. For me it's Nioh that has been devouring most of my time, and games that I would otherwise be really interested in (like RE7, Horizon, Tekken 7, or some upcoming releases) aren't even on the top of my priority list right now.

That said, if Itsuno announces Devil May Cry 5 this year like some people are speculating, then that will pretty much trump any other piece of media that I'm currently invested in, video games or otherwise.