#bloodborne playthrough log

[mysticmistral]

After 97 (98 counting the wolf from the beginning) deaths, I can say that I FINALLY BEAT MY FIRST (90 percent) BLIND BLOODBORNE RUN. DID IT. SPOILERS FOR ENDING.

And so, this is the last Bloodborne Run update and I know I skipped much. Last update, I defeated Rom. Killed Master Logarious after learning you can just visceral attack him to stop him from going into his second phase, Alligned myself with the Vilebloods, gave Alfred the Summons and was shocked yet not shocked to see him going crazy (I didn’t expect him to turn the Queen to mush) and then turns out he just… dies at the altar. I was so sad to see that, my only friendly person just dead, probably by offing himself.

Played a game of tag with Micolash and died once to the people on the stairs, and found a glitch that he just stands right by the cell door when I was fighting off the skeletons and hit it, so I did not kill him the intended way but I did not want to play tag anymore it was 4am. Gained access to Upper Cathedral Ward, lost a lot of Insight by the brain suckers and fought the blue alien people in the Lumenflower Gardens, defeated Mergo’s Wet Nurse and went to check on the lady in white who peaced out after the boss.

The Dream’s on fire, went to the handicapped old man Gehrman at the tree and refused his offer, of which cured his kneecaps and slaughtered me throughly right before I would reach his Second Phase. Since it was endgame, I decided to explore more. Found the Altar of Despair and with the help of NPC acting as a distraction and the fact I was over leveled by this point, killed the Daughter of Cosmos and accidentally revived Queen Annalise making Alfred surely turn beyond the ‘grave’, I’m sorry man. Found the Darkbeast Paarl who by this point, was easily bodied and made peace with Djura, the man with the machine gun until I realized it is endgame, and me probably has loot. So I killed him, then the guy in the Forbidden Woods, and the other guy who came cause I killed the other guy and got a whistle out of it and forgot to kill the Ward man.

DLC was on sale and I am not counting those deaths literally, the hunters in the first arena wrecked me and their weapons have unfair range, Ludwig wrecked me, got a glow stick out of it, the two guys in the hall wrecked me. Got to the Research Hall and gave a woman some brain fluid, died many times to the Living Failures until I realized that the doors are a safe spot from the meteors. Then I met Lady Maria, she can fist my chest any day but wow was she easy with the Augur and just sticking close. Gascoigne does not teach you parrying, she does. Got lost in the Fishing Hamlet and called on online hunter to help me kill the fish giants, Orphan of Kos and Laurence.

With the DLC tackled along with my sanity slain over how damn hard it was, Gehrman was less tough and just when I thought I won, a creature appears as the Moon Presence and smashes me to pulp since I had barely any items left. I defeated it, and became a Black Leech and the Plain Doll is now the mother figure of a new Great One.

The End!

Game is maginificent and now that I can finally search up everything I missed a lot but I did a lot too. 10 out of 10, great music, hate/love gameplay and fun weapons. A wonderful first soulsborne experience. Hunter Hat, Cainhurst Armor, Hunter trousers, Knight Gloves and armed with my Threaded Cane and Holy Moonlight Sword. Currently in NG+, just beat Gascoigne and loving how you can sweep, but not without challenge still. Do I understand the lore? Probably not. But I am to get the refuse ending this time, and with the help of searching finally, try and get anything I missed. 57 Hours well spent!

[katyspersonal]

Also another highlight of ER gameplay is how much Patches helped me without intending to (Fantomette don't read if you didn't find him yet)

So like I explored god knows how much and leveled and seen all kinds of caves yet, until I went down in the lake one (haven't killed dragon there yet, I am working on it). So there was that basic bitch boss cave ok? And I waited for like TEN DARN MINUTES for the boss to appear! TEN minutes!! I thought the game lagged so I gave up and decided to dig in the chest, and MOTHERFUCKING-

HE WAS THE BOSS HGKMKKGYHV LITERALLY THE LAST THING IN THE WORLD I EXPECTED!!!! PATCHES WAS A BOSS AAAAA

And so many years later he invented a new trick than just throwing the player off the cliff gfhfjgb And this time it is ACTUALLY player's fault because he didn't ask for help, nor gave advice, nor tossed shiny coins near the cliff, he just... left a chest near a place that looks like a camp, so it was ACTUALLY unfair to open it if you think of it. Damn, they made him have a point instead of being hostile when you didn't even do anything bad ;-; He's grown so much xD unlike his hair

As for how that helped me, I returned in that cave later. He wasn't there (later I learned if you take too long he leaves, so I had to see what he'd say in Youtube), but there was the trap chest. It teleported me in unfamiliar area but I already knew THIS kind of bears was dangerous, so I just snuck away for a bit... Found some sort of chapel, stepped on the round lift there, and it was just. Going down and down and down until it opened such a beautiful sight????

So apparently that took me into a super fun secret map UNDER the main map, it was so entertaining to explore! I could not stop taking the screenshots because there THE SKY AND THE COSMOS ARE THE ONE, and there I found those herbs I needed to craft the anti-madness boluses but had NO idea where to find. Also there were pillars I kept igniting and pillars on the way up the stairs, so when I found them all I got to fight a cool giant reindeer!

Basically the coolest adventure ever that would have missed out on if Patches didn't do his thing bykgjhgfg Because I honestly doubt I'd be able to find that spot on my own.

[glassrunner]

ok i started replaying bloodborne on a whim and have logged about 40 hours over the past 5 days and i’ve actually improved so much despite not playing for the past 5 years. proof:

• forced myself to learn to parry for the first time in any souls game (and holy fuck is it a game changer)

• beat the crow of cainhurst for the first time

• beat shadows of yharnam in one try

• landed like 3 viscerals on orphan and made him hit phase 2 at 30% instead of 50%

• fully cleared the cavern in the hunter’s nightmare with the gatling gun hunter AND the lesser BSB

• unintentionally beat gehrman using no heals (i had no vials and was too lazy to farm) and some decent parries

• finished an all bosses playthrough in about 24h

• killed amelia + amygdala in one try in ng+

[eclipseandbone]

Every time I'm about to log into my elden ring NG+3 character my brain says "Naa you need to do your 76th bloodborne playthrough."

[mactiir]

What are some of your favorite videogames?

I’m super bad at making decisions so here’s an essay about this ask. If you just wanted a list I put the relevant games in bold.

I’m a sucker for a good strategy game and have loads of hours logged in Paradox grand strategy games (Crusader Kings 2 and Stellaris mostly, I keep meaning to learn EU4 but somehow always end up murdering my CK2 second cousins instead). I like the Total War franchise a lot (some more than others – Attila is my fave) but I do get tired of them pretty quick, I have to take them in small doses. And of course there’s Civ V (VI is aesthetic goals but the diplo sucks). I like squad strategy games like XCOM as well (I still log into XCOM 2 occasionally to attempt their dailies). I used to go NUTS for Soulsborne games but kinda got burnt out after DSIII – I have yet to decide if I wanna play Sekiro or not. Dark Souls 1 is definitely still my favorite of these, with Bloodborne close behind it. 

I love Mortal Kombat just for the gratuitous violence (It’s WWE with gore, what’s not to love?) and can’t really rank these – though I was really fond of 9.But my first and last love is character-driven western RPGs, which are unfortunately few and far between these days with Bioware getting gutted. Witcher 3 Wild Hunt is one of my favorites of all time, and I don’t even want to know how many hours I have in various playthroughs. I replay Dragon Age Origins once a year or so (though I’m not as fond of the other installments in the franchise). Baldur’s Gate 2: Shadows of Amn is an oldie but a goodie, and it’s worth a play if you can get past the fact that it was made in like 2002 and controls like asscakes. I like Obsidian RPGs a lot, but seeing as I’m a sappy romantic at heart, I really hate that you can’t romance anyone in their games (I’m still sour that Fallout: New Vegas didn’t let me date Veronica). I’m hesitant to name Kingdom Come Deliverance, because even though I was in love with that game when it came out, it’s been soured for me by the monumentally bad takes its head developer decides to fart out on a regular basis. Also faves, and in no particular order: Portal 1 and 2, Half-Life 2 + Episodes, Okami, Horizon: Zero Dawn, the reboot Tomb Raider series (I know, they’re trash, but I love them), The Sims franchise (guilty pleasure), Titanfall 2, Dishonored 1, Shadow of Mordor, the Mass Effect series, Hellblade Senua’s Sacrifice, Pokemon games, Fire Emblem games, the Metroid series– and probably a lot more that are slipping my mind at the moment. 

You’ll notice almost none of these are multiplayer games. That’s because I am uncontrollably competitive and multiplayer games make me cause property damage, so I have cut myself off from them because they are bad for my: controllers, blood pressure, headsets, television, interior walls, and marriage. That said, I do still attempt them. I have been known to break things for Apex Legends from time to time. Back in days of yore, I was pretty handy at the original Titanfall. I loved Evolve when it first came out, before DLC and microtransactions ripped it to shreds, and went through a really intense Overwatch phase that ended when Sombra was released because I was too impatient to learn a new hero. Usually you’ll only find me playing these sorts of games for about a month before I get burned out on rage and go back to murdering people to gain the throne of England. 

[casualarsonist]

Monster Hunter World review (PS4)

My first interaction with the Monster Hunter series was way back in 2000-and-something as I watched a mate of mine play Monster Hunter Tri briefly on his Nintendo Wii. I’m not going to lie - I wasn’t that impressed. Not that I watched for long enough to get more than the most brief impression about the game, as his girlfriend turned it off on him before he managed to save because there were ‘guests’, and the entire room uttered a collective gasp of disgust. In any case, while I didn’t feel motivated to buy, I was intrigued by the series’ rather unique premise, and was always tangentially aware of its existence and the zeitgeist surrounding it. So along came Monster Hunter World this year, and along with it came lashings of praise from every angle. Having no experience with the series, I had no context for the compliments it was getting, but I knew more or less immediately that at some point I was going to play this entry, and given the post-release hype, I had no doubt in my mind that I was going to enjoy it. And then I bought it on PS4...

The first thing that struck me as odd when I started the game was the ad for PSN membership that popped up when it tried to log me in online. After having subscribed for a month in order to play Titanfall 2, and then being robbed by sneaky recurring payments that I wasn’t being notified about for another 6 months after that, I refused to buy a PSN subscription ever again. So loading up a brand new game, and having it immediately stop itself to advertise Playstation subscriptions to me felt grotesque. Next came the first cutscene, which I enjoyed right up until the characters started talking and I realised that the lipsyncing hadn’t been localised, meaning that the game looked like a poorly-dubbed Japanese film. Then came the loading screens, and as I sat in front of my console for two minutes and thirty seconds waiting for the first level to load, the incredulity in me rose. And then I entered the opening hub level. And the game ran somewhere around 25 frames per second. And at that point I tried to get a refund, but it turns out that you can’t refund PS4 games after you’ve downloaded them, meaning they could be broken as shit and you’re stuck with the product anyway because fuck you. And I genuinely thought Monster Hunter World on the PS4 was broken, because it ran almost as bad as Mass Effect Andromeda - one of the worst game I’ve ever played. So, barely 10 minutes into my first time playing, I turned off the console in disgust and walked away. So after I researched Sony’s refund policy and discovered that it was utter dogshit, I realised that I was stuck with the game and I sat back down and gave it another go. And...well, it’s okay. Just okay. 

I fully accept that this is my first foray into an established series with established mechanics. I hate it when games I enjoy dumb themselves down for a mainstream audience (*cough* Fallout *cough*), so I don’t criticise the game for taking some time to get used to. However, there are some real quality of life issues here that simply shouldn’t exist in this day and age.

First of all - it looks like shit. Not it terms of its design, but in terms of the quality of the visuals. Poor frame-rate aside, the graphics are heavily washed-out, which is a big disappointment given the lush forests and crystal clear waters of the first area. I don’t know whether the colour palette could be balanced better on PC, but there’s a flatness to everything on the PS4 that leaves the beautiful, evocative locales feeling drab and lifeless. This is purely a stylistic choice, and I cannot understand why they would go the trouble of crafting such a vivid landscape, only to broadcast it through what feels like a white filter. Turning the brightness all the way down helps, but there’s no reason why this should be a problem in the first place.

Secondly, Dark Souls and Bloodborn exist, and a number of copycat games like Nioh have proven that there’s no excuse for a game to be clunky in order to be difficult. Difficulty should exist in the gameplay balance, not in dated control systems, and this is a big stumbling block for Monster Hunter World. The larger monsters all have certain weak points that can be broken or severed in order to weaken them. The problem is that attacking these weakpoints is easier said than done when the lock-on system barely works, and the directional controls feel like the nine-point directional system of a PS1 game. Attacks cannot be stopped once they’ve started, meaning that you need to master your timing in order to be an effective combatant, but they also cannot be rotated once you’ve initiated them in a particular direction, so if pointing your character in the right direction is a chore, your attacks will often fall slightly to the left or right of where you intend for them to go. Coupled with the fact that the creatures move at speed, this means that finesse goes out the window and much of your initial combat experiences will involve getting as close to the target as possible simply so you can’t miss. Now don’t get me wrong - there is a sense of skill-building and personal improvement once you start to get used to this system, but it does feel extremely dated in a way that doesn’t inspire nostalgia. If a retro first-person-shooter had no mouse look, you’d be up in arms. So too does this feel like less of a design choice and more of a glaring failure to adapt to modern conveniences.

The last big issue is that the game isn’t marketed as a multiplayer game, instead being sold as a single player drop-in-drop-out experience. Which is true, to a point, yet every time you load it up it freezes to connect to the Playstation Network, and then advertises a PSN membership to you if you don’t already have one. Once you’re playing, the game will constantly remind you that other people are playing online, even going so far as to tell you who is joining your ‘session’ - a session that you aren’t in if you don’t have a PSN subscription. And to top it all off, you can’t simply select a mission and then expect it to start straight away: instead you have to wait while the game ‘prepares’ the mission as if you were in multiplayer lobby, even if you’re playing offline. This can take up to a minute or more, and makes absolutely no sense whatsoever. So even if the game detects that you have no PSN account it will still connect to the internet, then force you into either hosting or loading an online game, then tell you all of the people who are joining a session that you’re not playing in, and then put you in a mission lobby when you’re not waiting for anyone to join. It’s the cherry atop a cake baked ten years ago and marketed as a 2018 release. It's absurd. It’s as if the game was created by people who couldn’t fathom a world in which players wouldn’t play alone, and yet the game is, largely, played and sold as a single-player experience - just like all its predecessors. The greatest effect of having other people join in is that your experience bonus is split between you all instead of going solely to you, and that’s not a bonus, but a deficit. 

These issues make me wonder how the game has come to be critically acclaimed at all, at least in terms of this particular version. I hear the PS4 Pro version can run at 1080p60, and I assume the PC version can as well, although I’ve heard there are some connectivity issues with the PC servers, but my immediate impressions of the standard PS4 version are near appalling. Spiderman runs flawlessly as you swing across the entire city of New York - I didn’t see a single frame drop in my entire playthrough, and yet the detailed but limited-scope environs of Monster Hunter World bring the console to its knees. This, more than anything, speaks to the decline of the console’s relevance as modern graphics capabilities increase. One of the important selling points of the consoles was the fact that you could count on them to run stably, even if their games were technologically inferior to their PC counterparts. If they look worse AND play worse, then what’s the point of owning a console at all? If you have to upgrade to a mid-generation PS Pro now every few years just to be able to ensure your games are going to work, then why not just buy a new graphics card for your PC for the same price, not have to subscribe to the fucking scam that is the Playstation Network, AND have a better quality experience while you do it? Aside from the exclusives, the Playstation 4 is redundant, in my opinion. I can’t think of a single reason to invest in the next console generation, because you know that whatever machine you buy is just going to be obsolete in a few years’ time anyway. 

I’m sure that, all the gameplay quibbles aside, Monster Hunter World is perfectly fine to play on a more powerful machine, but I still cannot see why it has garnered such praise. It’s still a niche game, and it’s okay for what it is, but it’s not at all the force to be reckoned with the reviews make it sound like. It’s stuck in the past mechanically, and has the bare minimum of localisation, and while it is fun after you pass a certain teething point, I find that the ultimate experience is defined not what it is, but what it is not. My rating here is for the PS4 version, so take that as you will, but as it is, the PS Store really needs a proper refund policy.

6/10

[ramajmedia]

Remnant: From the Ashes Review - Soulslike Gunslinging Takes Root

Remnant: From the Ashes brings guns and friends to the Soulslike table, and playthroughs remain engaging despite its several flaws and bad tendencies.

Darksiders 3 developer Gunfire Games' Remnant: From the Ashes is the newest Soulslike, introducing high-intensity gunplay and online co-op to the well-trodden genre while still aping a sufficient amount of Dark Souls series elements to fit the trendy criteria. This surefire formula means that combat and exploration are decently rewarding, but the game inherits its antecedents' worst annoyances in the process. Its post-apocalyptic story settles itself somewhere between the dark fantasy of the Souls games and the gritty sci-fi setting of The Surge without borrowing much from either, but its efforts to craft the caliber of universe, lore, and characters that defines the genre cumulatively miss the mark. Luckily, Remnant: From the Ashes's core gameplay loop is engaging and difficult enough to carry both solo and co-op players through to the end of a semi-randomized campaign, but it's a far cry from the infinitely replayable adventure that Gunfire touts.

Setting the stage on an alternate history Earth ravaged by an alien force known as the Root, a hive mind of tree-like lifeforms hellbent on the complete entropic destruction of life across all worlds. Minus the tree thing - which, at the very least, makes for some interesting enemy and world design on Root-infested Earth - Remnant: From the Ashes's story isn't exactly groundbreaking, retreading a tired premise that's been explored to far greater effect by the likes of the original Halo and Mass Effect trilogies. Of course, the Soulslikes' main quests are rarely particularly imaginative or well fleshed-out, so the unoriginal concept deserves a pass here. What moves players from one area to the next is the search for the Founder of Ward 13, the only one who knows how to stop the Root at its source on Earth.

Related: Vicious Circle Review - Messy Multiplayer With Potential

There are many attempts by Gunfire to contrive the mandatory lore that Soulslike fans crave and a few heavy-handed text logs that spell stuff out, but its the search for the Founder - the only one who knows how to stop the Root at its source - that sends players on a circuitous journey across multiple worlds to kill almost everything they meet. Most of the game is a blur of near-constant monster slaughter, and interspersed among protracted combat sections are a few moments where Remnant: From the Ashes's creativity is allowed to shine through. However, none of these moments really pertain to or enhance the main storyline. It's expected that the drama should take a backseat to gameplay, but even the most seasoned and cynical players will likely be surprised at how anticlimactically and abruptly the central plot thread slams the door shut on playthroughs after hyping up the ending over a lengthy course of playtime.

The barebones story's lackluster payoff does sour the final hours of a Remnant: From the Ashes playthrough, but the focal point of the game is obviously combat, which does a more than serviceable job of delivering players from start to finish without descending into monotony. Its emphasized gunplay is punchy and satisfying, and it feels consistently great to stagger rushing enemies with shotgun blasts and devastate harassers at range with precise headshots. Though weapon variety is fairly limited during a significant portion of most initial playthroughs, the six starting guns can be outfitted with a diverse assortment of mods that temporarily alter weapon behavior or grant player abilities after filling a damage meter. Melee combat is also an option, but it's far more situational than in other Soulslikes due to its lack of power and zero stamina usage, relegating it to crowd control and a risky method of ammo conservation.

Although it misses the chance to flip the script on Bloodborne's brilliant fusion of ranged and melee combat, Remnant: From the Ashes isn't shy at all about lifting most of its mechanics and ideas straight out of FromSoftware's other titles. Though most lack the nuance of their inspirations, there are tough-as-nails boss battles (blocked off by fog gates, even), an obligatory stand-in for Estus Flasks, a stamina meter, and a Bonfire-like system of World Crystals and checkpoints that enable fast travel at the cost of global enemy respawns. The prescribed approach is slightly subverted by exchanging risk-reward Souls for permanent experience and Traits, though it's hardly an imaginative change. Its biggest additions are gunplay and online co-op, the latter of which makes the game innately more fun despite seriously killing atmospheric tension and tipping gameplay balance severely in the favor of bosses.

In picking what Souls elements to incorporate, Remnant: From the Ashes chose to take after its forebears' worst habit: padding out boss fights with droves of cheap fodder. Confoundingly, this mistake was entirely avoidable. It was most present in Dark Souls 2 before being addressed in its sequel, meaning Gunfire had five years' worth of hindsight and still actively chose the worse alternative. It's a shame, too, because Remnant: From the Ashes has great boss designs and a few with some truly formidable move sets. Rather than give players a genuine sense of accomplishment after mastering more intimate battles against hulking opponents dangerous in their own right, the game instead over-relies on overwhelming players with frustrating quantities of common enemies. Remnant: From the Ashes's best bosses are those that deploy only a small number of additional elite minions at a time, but these gratifying encounters are too few and far between.

This approach of throwing large waves of enemies at players works a lot better in Remnant: From the Ashes's regular environments, and the difficulty here also scales much better based on player squad size. Mowing down scores of grisly adversaries is the name of the game here, and it's obvious that Gunfire went to great lengths to ensure that the core combat remains engaging dozens of hours in. The act of clearing areas of common enemies in normal ARPG fashion is regularly punctuated by the appearance of elite enemy types that require advanced tactics and greater firepower. These stronger combatants keep players on their toes and contribute to a consistently frenetic experience, and it never fails to spike one's pulse slightly when hearing the distinct warning sound and seeing the sudden Left 4 Dead-like rush of lesser foes that herald their arrival.

That said, this core gameplay loop quickly grows predictable, but that gripe can be attributed more to overly simplistic level layouts than to enemy patterns. Whereas most Soulslikes pride themselves on cleverly funneling players around complex, interconnected areas that build a sense of real place within their worlds, Remnant: From the Ashes instead settles almost exclusively for series of corridors of varying dimension. Coupled with the relative small size of disparate areas within each world, it becomes apparent that the game is so densely populated with hostiles in order to artificially lengthen the amount of time and resources needed to reach the next checkpoint. The feeling of being a monster exterminator is further reinforced by the inclusion of a mini-map that reveals paths as they're navigated. This concession was likely made to cater to the game's online nature, but it considerably dulls the thrill of exploring the unknown.

While its environments are shallow, enemy design in Remnant: From the Ashes is the full package. Non-boss enemies leave little to be desired in terms of their disconcerting visages and solid variety, and they're an effective vehicle for effective environmental storytelling. Each world sports unique collections of foes, and no faction outshines the Iskal on the primordial swamp planet Corsus. Brainwashed and enslaved by the manipulative Fairy Queen, the once peaceful Corsans have been made hosts to an incredibly aggressive species of parasite. When first exploring this world, shambling humanoids with amputatable legs at first seem like generic aliens. That is until later on while encountering eerily familiar Corsans that have yet to fully turn, culminating in the introduction of their more heavily affected peers that degenerate into their fully devolved form mid-battle. Gameplay-driven discoveries like are far stronger plot devices than anything found in the main story or flavor texts, and the game would be stronger overall if it had shifted its focus more toward this direction.

Even though it won't set the Soulslike genre alight with its well-implemented but ultimately minor additions and tweaks to the formula, Remnant: From the Ashes is an intensely compelling gameplay experience, doubly (or triply) so when played with friends. Even when it sabotages itself with its abortive narrative, cheap boss tactics, and undervalued enemy design, it still emerges from the ordeal as a solid shooter with a high amount of polish and decent replayability. Though it remains to be seen if Gunfire can fix the present issues and expand the game into the infinite time sink that the studio promised, Remnant: From the Ashes will no doubt inspire genre fans to hang up their swords and shields for some time in order to dive into a chaotic universe, guns blazing.

Next: Telling Lies Review - A Thoroughly Immersive, Interactive Story

Remnant: From the Ashes is now available on PC, PS4, and Xbox One. Screen Rant was provided a PC code for this review.

source https://screenrant.com/remnant-from-the-ashes-review/

[thesnowdragon]

I’m starting to seriously wonder if gentleman Kjell suffers from some kind of illness, physical disability or is simply a plain disaster person by nature.

I mean, in this session of Bloodborne alone, he keeps dying, gets everyone around him killed, like Eileen and most of the old hunters he summons. He keeps rolling in front of spiked log traps on accident, then 3 minutes after revival he walks off a cliff and falls to his death, he keeps losing tons of blood echoes due to his mistakes and he just basically struggle with general stuff.

I mean, the most likely explanation for it being some canon illness, is that the illness he wanted to get cured in Yharnam in the first place ended up with some messed up symptoms. Maybe he even got a bad leg or something, thus the main reason why he keeps a cane around.

He just struggles a lot extra compared to Casimir and how his playthrough went. I wouldn’t be surprised if he’s got some extra baggage to carry through all of this, which makes survival even more challenging for him.

This man just straight up writes himself at this point

(Also at some point when he died, he fell to his knees, face planted into the ground but his butt still poking out into the air. I just thought it looked kinda silly)

[bootycallofcthulhu]

Finally giving my opinions on Persona 5

Here’s a read more because this is honestly just me gushing about the history i have with the series

Prior to the summer of 2013, the best game I had ever played was not Pokemon Emerald (which if you know me irl, I fucking love Pokemon Emerald). By 2013, I had played a lot of really great games: Jak 2 &3, Sly Cooper 2 & 3, Red Dead Redemption, Halo 3, Kirby, Wind Waker, Ape Escape, Fire Emblem....a lot of really good games. But the game that stood out, the game that I played over and over at least once a year was Radiata Stories. This game stood out because 1.) I love character driven games and 2.) Radiata is one of the greatest (granted under-appreciated and quite frankly under the radar) JRPGs of all time. 

Anyways, back to summer of 2013. Just completed my first year of college and was about to spend the summer alone....I forget what the hell I was doing but end of the first week I had set up a blanket fort in my living room and only had the company of a neighbor who didn’t like me much but kept coming over anyways. So I did the natural thing you do when you’re alone and depressed off your balls and went to gamestop and asked the employee for the best and longest JRPG they had. She recommended Eternal Sonata (a game I ended up not finishing) and Persona 4 for the PS2. 

Long story short, I fell in love, and cried my eyes out when I said my goodbyes to a virtual cast of characters. I played it every summer, bought a Vita shortly after the ps2 version just to play golden, and eagerly awaited for 5 to be released. Hell, I found the original trailer before I even played golden. I have a huge emotional attachment to this franchise, which before my biggest emotional attachments to video games were Radiata and Pokemon (the game of my childhood). The reason is I had found this game when I needed the storytelling and themes the most (because I was depressed and alone and drowing my problems in alcohol). The cast of great friends combined with the immersion of putting yourself in the avatar’s shoes made it feel like I wasn’t so alone and got me through every summer I spent alone working until someone came to visit (or until I adopted my cat, Harley).

Between then and now, I got my hands on a few more great games: Dark Souls, Persona 3, Bloodborne (which holy shit this game is also fandiddlytastic), FFXV, more Pokemon and Fire Emblem etc. All great games. 

8 years later, Persona 5 came out and was the first game I had been waiting for and said “wow, the wait was worth it.”

And to be perfectly honest, its the best damn game I’ve ever played. I played it for 2 weeks straight, got the platinum my second playthrough, and I’m halfway through my third playthrough with nearly 200 hours logged. 

Y’all. This game is great.

To get into the specifics, I’m just gonna start off by leaving the soundtrack as holy shit, all bias aside this is the best video game soundtrack, going on par with the likes of Final Fantasy and Zelda (although in terms of OST of the year, I would say Nier is gonna be going toe-to-toe with this one). 

Next up is the art direction. Everyone is talking about how this game eats, breathes, and sleeps style. They aren’t wrong. The art direction for this game is insane, the screen is always in motion. If you cycle through the menu screen, there’s animations for every selection. Even in the shops. The victory screen is running around and watching the flashy animations for your battle results. Its insane and despite running on a ps3 engine, the game feels beyond that.

As far as gameplay, the game is basically Pokemon, but with extra turns for hitting weaknesses. Also the way you catch the Personas in this game gets an added feature if you’ve only played 3 and 4, which is demon negotiation. You hold them up outlaw style, and mug them for money, items, or use their personality traits to answer their qeustions and get you to join them (provided you’re at the appropriate level). Everything else is a giant life sim/visual novel and the game nails it with its cast of great characters.

The characters in this game exceed anything done in the other games. Every one of them, from party members, to the side characters (which in past games were pretty lackluster imo), has an interesting story to tell that keeps you engaged as they try to tackle their problems with your help. And buidling up these relationships adds more than just extra exp when fusing personas; they add combat elements, help with negotiations, the option to switch characters out mid battle, discounts, the option TO FUCKING DO SOMETHING AFTER YOU EXPLORE A DUNGEON BESIDES SLEEP TAKE THAT MORGANA. Its good shit.

The game comes together, and since its an Atlus game in the SMT realm, the story is gripping...for the most part. 

Keep in mind, this is my favorite game of all time, but it does have its problems.

First and foremost, we have the cast and relationships.

While the cast is the best to date, there is one problem I have with them: the game’s writing doesn’t give the main cast enough events to make them feel like good friends over time. This isn’t to say they aren’t friendly with each other, because they are and do genuinely want to forge stronger friendships outside of Phantom Thieving, but the game doesn’t have as many side events due to its shorter calendar coming from P4G. However, even coming from P4 vanilla, there’s just not as many in-game events of them hanging out as there were, and so as an ensemble, they don’t seem as close together as the game tries to play them off. This is just a nitpick though.

Second gripe I have with the cast, and this one is bigger and hopefully something that gets updated in the rumored (and lets face it this is probably gonna happen) Ultimate Edition which I will buy in a heartbeat because I’m fucking trash, but I’m a little let down that on a game this big there’s no option for a female Joker, and that you can’t be gay/bi. And this is even a bigger disappointment given that there’s plenty of set ups within the confidants’ dialogue to do so.

Granted, no matter what I would still date Makoto or Haru, but the lack of male romance options is a let down because at the end of the day, Joker is an avatar character and should represent the player as such. This part of the game actually disappoints me over my 3 major complaints. Its obviously not a deal breaker but it is a disappointment nonetheless.

The last disappointment I have is actually something of a spoiler if you’ve played the past two games so I’m gonna hit some spaces and mark where the spoiler starts and ends. 

*************SPOILER STARTS HERE*********************

The game’s ending. The game has a very strong start, and keeps up the pace for about 90% of the game, but falls off in the last dungeons. The storytelling here starts to fall short mostly do to cliches. I won’t get into specifics but I will say the final boss is very much a recycled theme from the past 2 games, and the boss before that just doesn’t seem to fit minus the exposition about him you’re given from the start. In fact, the ending to his arc just feels anti-climatic, and while there’s a story-based reason for that, the link between the two happens a little too fast and could’ve been fleshed out more, which I feel the fix could’ve been just making the game longer. I feel like Atlus was worried the game was too long but when you go into these games, you’re going in because you want the longer experience and I personally feel you should try to tell the story to its fullest rather than speeding things up. The speedup especially feels awkward because its at the game’s climax. 

But this is also a nitpick.

**************SPOILER ENDS HERE FAM****************

anyways, those are my thoughts on the game. 

I love this game. This isn’t anywhere near a review but mostly just a rant and i’m sorry if you read the entire thing because I needed to give my irl friends a break and shut the fuck up about it but I wanted to get my full thoughts out somewhere. So yeah. 

12/10 gonna play again tbh

[mysticmistral]

I needed a break from Bloodborne, so I took a break for a bit, and then fell hard and played it for over eight hours. So.

I have defeated Vicar Amelia, wasn’t too hard, first try

Bought a 10 buck PSN sub for this Cummm dungeon I heard so much because I could not buy enough Molotovs and endlessly killing the townsfolk rarely gave me one (THE PLACE GIVES YOU OVER 80K my god. I’m now sadly over leveled- or am I?) and of course PlayStation gives a week of free online play for Valentine’s Day :/

Killed a guy named Henryk to help Eileen (Bird Lady)

Died four times to the Witches of Hemwick because I had no idea the real opponent vanishes and does a stupid grab attack

Died ELEVEN TIMES to the Shadows of Yharnam because of their dumb fire moves and upper cuts, too quick to fire bullets while being too slow to avoid being hit by fireball and getting banged up on stuck in a rock or something

AND I WAS RIGHT ABOUT IOSEFKA, SHE IS MORALLY QUESTIONABLE! I knew it! I knew there wouldn’t be two safe places. Little red caped dude forever, I need to find more people to save cause all I have is a Granny going mad thinking I’m her child or something.

Killed Rom the Spider, and woke up in Cathedral Ward with some monster on the walls and the sky is now a mix of light colors and blues and reds, and the moon is red, and I always hear the cries of a baby, and to get there I faced yet another Threaded Cane enjoyer who killed me twice. Died to the spider four times and lost Henryk… RIP Henryk. Also killed the Wheelchair guy, his existence didn’t look like a pleasant one and got a rune out of it.

Followed the advice of a note and found a version of the hunters dream with a set of doll clothes, hair ornament that I gave my doll (she cried, I was happy she was happy), a second doll and oh ONE THIRD OF AN UMBILICAL CORD laying around

I don’t actually know what that is, but I’m not going to search it up.

And now, currently, I’m getting my crap handed to me by a hunter on crack who takes a big chunk of health every time he shoots me at Amelia’s boss arena and who injured Bird Lady. The man does the critical hit attack, and it hurts. And I’ve died six times.

76 deaths and I have no idea how close I am to ending the game.

Also old man found a new spot. Now 23 hours in apparently.