#well Nioh 2 specifically

[transientsolution]

one of the most annoying Types of Gamer are the Nioh fans that insist on declaring every single vaguely souls-adjacent game worse than Nioh. and I know this, because playing Elden Ring is making me realize I am exactly that Type of Gamer.

[cerastes]

Tell us about your Nioh 2 awakening, lad.

Right, so, basically, Nioh 2's Kasha Did A Huge Number On Me.

First, I need you to understand how big she is:

That little humanoid down there is your playable character. That immense demonic catgirl 2.5 times the playable character's size is Kasha. And, this is what she looks like:

The right amount of monstrously and humanly attractive to nail a bullseye in my preferences. It was a VERY distracting fight my first time.

So, why do I say it's ironic:

In the past, big size differences weren't unwelcome, going either way, but were otherwise not something I thought of much, and I've never really cared about catgirls, just mostly completely neutral towards them, even a bit of disdain for them due to how overused they are.

But if that were all, it wouldn't be ironic, the irony comes from:

I'm long time friends with a certain popular giantess fetish artist. We became and remained friends over completely unrelated matters, but I did hang out in this friend's community mostly centered around the fetish for a while, mostly because I was young and new to the net by then and I didn't really have a community to call my own, so I jumped in there. I never really got into the fetish, and most people in that community were so toxic that I ended up hating them and the fetish for a few years. Eventually, I just hated them specifically. My friend is exempt from that statement in its totality, we've always been cool.

Years ago, I did playfully but frequently tease people over liking catgirls, basically the vanilla ice cream, the picking-Mario-in-Mario-Kart, the I-like-water-without-any-ice-and-the-latest-season-of-The-Simpsons of monster girls.

Fast forward to me fighting Kasha for the first time, and the subsequent 2 full days of feeling Something In Me That Wasn't There Before, I came to realize that I would really, really enjoy being attacked by a massive, voluptous beast woman two or three times my size. But, it has to be the cocktail, the ingredients by themselves don't do anything for me. Put them together like Kasha does and the way Kasha does, however, and, well,

Well,

I think that's pretty fucking hot and I can get drunk to that cocktail every day of my life, yeah.

[croxot]

Here I'll ramble about my favorite games this year.

This sure was a good year, and I have better opinions than the game awards do so I'm just gonna talk into the ether for a bit here.

Once upon a time I liked D&D 5e quite a bit, just like everyone else on this god forsaken internet. In recent years I've been more interested in Pathfinder 2e and Lancer. After so many years rolling with 5e, it became a bit more refreshing to try systems with more specific and rigid rules for certain things. However, a videogame requires specific adherence to rules to function, and in this respect, Baldur's Gate 3 is an incredible adaptation of the system. There's just so much stupid bullshit you're allowed to get away with in game that most devs would not even consider. I may have played thru act 1 like 7 times now and it's still entertaining. Also I went from hating Lae'zel to loving her. Congrats Larian, you made me like perhaps the most annoying person I've ever met in a videogame.

As my bones start to deteriorate I find myself seeking smaller, more intimate games that give a sort of feeling. Lunacid is "like" Kingsfield in the way that it's a first-person dungeon crawler. That's where the buck stops for that comparison gameplay wise. However, Lunacid offers an extremely specific feeling I find is rare in games. It's the same sort of "you're lost and alone but also it's also groovy" feel as Metroid Prime 1 & 2. And if you can capture the same sort of feeling that some of my favorite games ever gave me as a teenager, you're just automatically on my games of the year list.

I saw a gameplay video in passing on twitter, got slightly horny because caked-up goat lady, went to the steam page and saw OVERWHEMINGLY POSITIVE. I don't think my experience with Pseudoregalia is unique. It just feels great to jump around and the music slaps.

Cross the feeling of the open-sea adventure of Wind Waker, with the chase and collection of fishing minigames of countless other titles, and the dread of exploring the uncaring unknown. It scratches a seldom-scratched itch of exploratory joy within an indifferent universe. Dredge's systems can be distilled to the simple loop of growing beyond your own fears to discover more and more. None of these fears is particularly intense, but it's enough. Dredge isn't going to find itself on game of the year lists because it's doing any one thing particularly well. It's also not doing anything specifically or wholly NEW. It is however, more than the sum of it's parts, and it is beautiful.

Remnant 2 is the best co-op souls-style game that exists, tied with Nioh 2. That's it, that's what I had to say. It just real good and it deserves to be on game of the year lists.

So like, late this year, 2 Souls successors came out. Lies of P and Lords of the Fallen. And goddamn did Lords inspire division.

I think these releases really showed that people who are "Souls Fans" really cover a LOT of different specific interests, and not all of these interests are well-represented in every souls-like. Lords, perhaps amazingly, seems to cater to what I particularly want out of a Souls game, whereas Lies of P did not. I like these games for their challenge, sure, but more importantly, I like the character building. The ability to create a unique playstyle that I can take on the game with. This slowly grated on me in Lies of P because the game really only wants you to play it (and succeed at it) a certain way. Because the perfect parry was the truest answer to everything a boss could throw at you, and the dodge sucks ass, I felt more exhausted by the end of the game than anything. I also wanted to try a strength build, but the heaviest weapons cannot manage to fully wind up and land a hit on any bosses past the halfway point. Without any hyper-armor or poise, the "big weapon" playstyle felt completely trash, even outside of bosses. Lords lets me dodge, block, perfect parry, and hey they ALL feel useful. I can actually wind up big weapon hits too! Yeah it feels a bit floaty, and yeah enemy density can be rather crazy at times, but I'm the weirdo who's favorite Dark Souls is DS2. Lords also does ranged combat better than any of it's contemporaries. I think a lot of people also never played the original Lords of the Fallen. Now that game SUCKED. I played the whole thing, my god.

GAME OF THE YEAR BAYBEE

I've already talked about AC6, but again, you can't just get me to complete a game. I see an achievement list and I say "fuck that, I hate that!" I saw AC6's Achievement list and I was rubbing my hands together like a cartoon villain. Like Pseudoregalia, AC6 just feels good to play. It feels so tight, and after a few hours you can feel the minute changes in the way your mech handles even after small part swaps. Anyways it needs DLC with more Rusty content. 12/10.

[thryth-gaming]

Vancian Casting

One of the key mechanics of D&D is Vancian spellcasting where the spellcasters have a certain number of "spell slots" that they can prepare in a given day. Magic Users (the precursors to wizards, warlocks, and sorcerers) would "memorize" spells and the Clerics (and later Paladins) would "pray" for spells. Later, druids and rangers would be added which would also pray for spells.

This was one of my biggest stumbling blocks for getting D&D magic because it didn't make sense to me that you just stopped knowing something because you used it once. And while I get the idea of becoming tired, the spell slot system was too rigid to represent how exhaustion works.

The Concept Broken Down

This is called Vancian magic because it is based on the Dying Earth novels by Jack Vance. None of which I've read, which probably contributes to my just not meshing well with Vancian casting.

In the series, magic was released by using magical words and the human mind could only hold a limited number of syllables in mind at a time and using them would wipe the knowledge from their mind. So the wizards would have to study their tomes everyday to regain their ability to perform magic. This mechanic was carried over to priests save that they would begin the day by asking their god for specific miracles. In both cases, the spellcaster needed to pick specific spells and couldn't change over to different ones if they decided that they didn't need a prepared spell after-all.

Raymond Feist, the novelist who created the Midkemia setting and wrote the Riftward novels, did some earlier work on D&D and refined this narrative into the idea that spells were long rituals but wizards had eventually built in a cutoff at the end where they could leave a spell unfinished save for a word or two. They would then have that spell basically just hanging on their word to release. Mechanically similar, though the narrative is different.

I have read some of that series and his approach to Vancian casting was the first one that made some sense. It accounted for why you "forgot" a spell. You didn't, you just expended the ritual and didn't have time to set it up again. And it explained why you had to prep spells ahead of time. Again there would be no time to do the ritual on the fly. However, it still didn't account for why the spell slots were rigidly structured on a level basis. And I still felt that surely you could do something with all that raw power even if you couldn't shape something intricate.

My Epiphany

What finally made the idea of magic slots work for me ... sort of ... is the video game Nioh 2. But even here there aren't slots, there's a "capacity" and each technique uses up a certain number of points of that capacity. But that's not the big "ohhh" moment for me here.

In Nioh 2, your Onmyou (and Ninjutsu) are physical tools and talismans which are consumed. So you would go to the nearest shrine and choose to "Ready Jutsu"

This would bring you to a menu show your capacity and what skills you've learned.

And then you could assign those pieces of gear to one of your eight hot-key slots. Resulting in me having a bunch of stuff I want available immediately and some items I use between fights so I can take my time about activating them and thus don't need to use one of my limited hot-buttons.

The main thing that made me go "That makes Vancian magic make so much more sense" even more than Feist's rituals with the cut-offs. Is that each of these tools is a consumable item and once you use it, you have to make another one.

The energy isn't something you have on tap where rituals are used to funnel it. It is something you take effort and time to create and then you expend it like a grenade, potion, or ammunition.

On top of this, Nioh 2 does have powers that you can use repeatedly over time as power builds up in the form of yokai powers and yokai shift. Both of which hinge on your nature as half-yokai and the yokai spirits that have allied with you. For these powers you have two pools of endurance that build up over time, one of which you can use piecemeal to summon your yokai powers and one of which you have to build up to a specific threshold in order to shift into a yokai form.

So they both have consumable one-use spells in the way D&D does in the form of Jutsu and inherent magical energy to fuel powers in the form of Anima (fueling yokai powers) and the Amrita Gauge (the threshold for changing into yokai form). But they are separated.

I'm going to set aside Anima and Amrita because they are basically "Sorcery that makes sense" and function by getting rid of spell slots.

The Jutsu is the method I'm focusing on here again because:

Each prepared "slot" represents a tool prepared using engineering, chemistty, mystical reagents, or appealing to spirits.

The stuff that makes the tools and talismans is external to the character.

The slots are not specifically numbered. As a note, point pools have been an alternative magic casting method since late 2nd edition.

This combination of creating a physical consumable and dropping the level-sorted slots was the thing that made Vancian casting make so much more sense. But then again... this wouldn't be Vancian casting, would it?

Side note, another facet of Nioh 2's "Jutsu" system is that leveling up the skill does not improve the damage that technique does. Fire Shot I, Fire Shot II, and Fire Shot III all base their damage on your Magic rating and other inherent bonuses.

What leveling up the skills does is increase their efficiency and increase the maximum number you can craft. For example

Fire Shot I: Prepare 1-6 fire shot talismans at 1 capacity each.

Fire Shot II: Prepare 1-8 fire shot talismans at 0.8 capacity each

Fire Shot III: Prepare 1-10 fire shot talismans at 0.7 capacity each.

This is largely just neat and not part of my epiphany on Nioh 2 and Vancian casting.

Now, you can't just change D&D to match that. It would be a completely different flavor of magic. But it is curious to see how it things would have developed if they had taken this track.

What If...

The big change here is that this mode of "magic" is more akin to being a D&D artificer than a D&D wizard. As you can also see, it would also have worked with some rogue abilities too with craftable thrown weapons, grenades, and medicines.

My suspicion is that if D&D had started with the assumption of wizards and clerics preparing relics and talismans between fights then it would be the sorcerer that was a late comer rather than the artificer. Though the artificer might not have been called such since it would be the base assumption.

I kind of suspect if the sorcerer had been introduced in that environment we would have heard something akin to the "no sci-fi in my fantasy" we get with artificers today but instead we'd be having "no mutant superheroes in my fantasy" with sorcerers.

[eight-freakin-gids]

A review of Another Crab's Treasure where I also talk about Slay the Princess  

I've finished* playing two very different games recently, and my experiences with them are such that I feel compelled to share my thoughts on them. This is a long post, so here's a Read More.

      The first of these games is Another Crab's Treasure, the indie Souls-like action RPG. I want to preface this by saying I'm not really a negative person by a lot of standards. My friends and family will occasionally joke that I think everything is "fine," and there's some truth in that. I tend not to hold anything to an exceptionally high standard. I am not overly critical of anything that doesn't meet my standards.

      With that in mind, I did not like this game, and I feel bad about that.

      For some background, I got into the Dark Souls series sometime between the releases of Bloodborne and Dark Souls III. I started with Dark Souls II, and had a hard time getting into it (but later revisited and finished it). Contrasted with that, I got really into Bloodborne, and still consider it one of my favorite games of all time. I played Dark Souls III when it came out, and played the Painted World DLC when it came out. However, I didn't play the Ringed City, and I have yet to play any other souls-like after that point. No Sekiro, no Nioh 2, and not even Eldin Ring (despite literally everyone and their dog playing it). I think a big part of this is due to life circumstances. I don't own my own PS4 or PS5, nor do I own a gaming PC. I could only play Bloodborne and Dark Souls III because I lived with my siblings and could conveniently borrow theirs.

      But I also tell you this because there's a chance I'm just not a SoulsBorne guy. I haven't really had the motivation to seek out these titles I've missed. This could explain why I feel the way I do about A.C.T. But at least, I want to be clear I don't need to git gud either.

      So anyway, we get this new Crab Souls on the Switch, and I think that I might as well try it out. 

      Credit where it's due, Another Crab's Treasure crafts a nice world. It's colorful, it's funny, it's charming, and it brings attention to the real-world problem of polluted oceans. But subjectively, I can't say I enjoyed the game very much. To sum up my biggest issue in one word, it's options. I am a player who values decision making in games. I want to express myself through the choices I make, be it narrative decisions or choice of strategy. Another Crab's Treasure didn't make me feel like I had many choices, and those choices I did have didn't feel like they mattered.

      The game invites us to compare it to its inspirations, so I'm going to compare it to Dark Souls III. I like Bloodborne more, but I want to do Crab Game the favor of trying to create a more direct comparison. 

      In Dark Souls III, you immediately begin with the option to choose between one of a few base character options. Each one offers different tools in order to tackle the incoming challenges. After navigating the opening area and defeating the first boss, you are immediately given access to the game's central hub. In addition to anything you find in the opening area, you can buy more weapons, ammo, and consumable items to help you on your way. The options available to you only increase as you continue to play the game. So many weapons, spells, and armor sets at your disposal, free to mix and match to your heart's content.

      When I played Another Crab's Treasure, I felt stifled. You don't get any starting options. You have one weapon. It has two attacks: light and heavy (compared to Dark Souls games, where you usually have light, heavy, fully-charged heavy, dodge attack, roll attack, running attack, and plunging attack at least. None of that even considering the game-specific movesets like Trick Weapons, Weapon Arts, dual wielding, or Power Stancing). Oh, Crab Game has plunging attacks and running attacks, but you have to unlock them in a skill tree after beating the first boss! Yay! Isn't that awesome?

      I think Crab Game's first boss is really when my opinion on it began to sour. They introduce the Shell mechanic to you, and I do not care for it. What little choice for customization the game would have in this system is offset by the inconsistent nature of it. You can never guarantee access to a specific shell, because you're limited to what you can find in the environment. Even something as simple as a preference between Small, Medium, and Heavy is not something you can guarantee. This lack of consistency only gets worse with the introduction of the Umami system. I hoped that acquiring this game's magic system would help ease my pain, but no. Your "spell" (singular) is tied to what shell you're using. Did you like that spell? Too bad, you weren't perfect, and now you have to manage with something else. Why bother even learning what all of the spells do? It's not like you'll have any of them for long.

      But I'm getting ahead of myself. The fact that Shells have durability also bothers me. Blocking feels like a complete waste of time. You move so much slower while blocking (regardless of what your shell's weight is), and you lose effective health even when you successfully guard against an attack. So. Why. Even. Bother? Also, they throw this entire shell system at you immediately before you have to fight the game's first boss. Better figure it out quickly, fucker!

      It took me an appropriate amount of time to beat Crab Game's first boss. I didn't hate the game, but I was having less fun. Progressing from there, you unlock the game's skill tree system before reaching the second boss. But before that, I want to talk about this game's performance issues. I probably didn't do myself any favors by choosing to play the Switch version. The frame rate drops considerably during certain scenes. And I normally don't give two hoots about performance in a game— I love Bloodborne in all of its 30 FPS glory. So when I bring it up here, know that it means I thought it was considerably distracting. 

      So I'm making my way through the corrupted Fort Slacktide en route to boss #2. At this point, the game's map choices became a mixed bag for me. The implementation of the Grappling Hook was intriguing, but ultimately made it feel like a Legend of Zelda item in the worst possible way. Rather than using it as a generalized tool to navigate any obstacle, you only ever use it to overcome a Grappling Hook Obstacle(tm). I have a few other nitpicks with the Fort Slacktide experience, but I'll spare you some of those. This review is long enough as is. I reached the first shortcut for the area, died, and then never figured out how to use that shortcut. This was also the first and only time I lost all of my Microplastics. So after giving up on finding the shortcut, I try to make my way back up through the same path. And then, I get hit and clip through a wall directly to the fort's second shortcut. I'm not going to hold a bug against this game too much, but know that it happened. With that, my time at Fort Slacktide came to a premature and unsatisfying end. I fought the boss and beat it on the first try. Why is this significant? Because I stopped caring. I just mashed dodge and light attack until I won.

      I have yet to make my way to the alluded-to Big City area. Judging by my collection of Corruption Crystals, The Shallows is likely one area out of fourteen. I'll admit I've played a comically small amount of this game. If you argue that I haven't played enough, I don't think I'll disagree with you. Maybe all of my problems will be solved if only I go a little further, but I don't feel like rolling the dice on that. That doesn't change what I've experienced.

      More than anything, this game has solidified a rule for me: any time a game makes me say aloud "This game is fucking stupid," my enthusiasm for that game is cut in half. 

      Sorry, Another Crab's Treasure. I sincerely hope that I'm in the minority here. I hope your game is the delightful souls-like romp that it looks to be. I hope to give it another chance some other time, but I won't be finishing it now.

      I've written a lot, so I'd like to summarize my points for anyone who doesn't want to read all my hogwash.

Another Crab's Treasure offers considerably less meaningful decisions compared to its contemporaries, and that is in direct conflict with one of my core desires for playing games.

The choices that the game does offer are shallow and come at a slow trickle.

The Switch version has performance issues bad enough that it bothers me, the guy who never cares about game performance so long as the experience is fun.

The systems that set this game apart from its contemporaries (namely, the Shell system) do not serve to improve the game experience for me.

I feel like the game has rewarded me for not engaging with its mechanics. I just did whatever was simplest, and it was the most effective.

I haven't been given any reason to believe that these problems will meaningfully improve if I keep playing.

      Now, I don't intend to talk for long about the other game I played. Partly this is to avoid spoilers, but it's also because I've already written a lot. Above all, I want to leave off on a positive note, so I want to talk about Slay the Princess.

      Slay the Princess is a visual novel. It's a horror story. It's a love story. It's a monochromatic game that features time loops, so how could I, an In Stars and Time enjoyer, not like it?

      I think the biggest reason that I wanted to talk about this game alongside Another Crab's Treasure is to contrast the decision making between the two.

      Slay the Princess, like many other visual novels, features choice of dialog as the primary "game" mechanic. Normally, I enjoy games with complex systems that I can really sink my teeth into. And yet, visual novels are also a favorite of mine. In spite of their simplicity, the impact of your choices is a central pillar to the genre, and that appeals to me greatly.

      This game takes that a step further. It does a thing I love: it makes your decisions matter even when you think that they won't matter. In any given scene, you roughly have two choices: select an "Explore" dialog option, or choose an option that advances the scene. Generally, an Explore option will provide you with new information. Sometimes, it also adds even more dialog options.

      But sometimes, the Explore options will secretly be the options to advance, for better or for worse. Sometimes you can back out, and sometimes you have to live with your decision. I could see that element of the game frustrating some players, but that's the reason why I love it so much. Adding stakes to all dialog invites the player deeper into the role play. You're not just here to mash through all of the text until you reach your next signpost decision. Every line of dialog has consequences, so you need to think carefully. What do you want to say? What do you want to do? Choose carefully. Sometimes, the game will remember your choices even when those choices don't seem like they would have mattered.

      There are a number of other things about this game I adore. It offers an intriguing narrative that had me speculating like a madman, so needless to say I think the story is good. The artwork is gorgeous and haunting at the same time. And, it features the voice talents of Jonathan Sims of The Magnus Archives fame.

      I played this game alongside my younger siblings, and I loved it enough that I will happily revisit it in my own time. 

      If anything I've said here encourages you to try out a new game, than that's a win for me. Maybe you disagree with me about Crab Game. Maybe my reservations about Crab Game give you enough heads-up to better work through it's problems. Or maybe my vague praises of Slay the Princess have piqued your interest. In any case, I hope I can contribute a positive experience to your life.

[chaithepie]

My name is Chai! 😁

So I'm moving here from Twitter because one of their new policies that they've implemented today that crossed the line for me. I mean... I'll still be posting there but I ain't paying to share my other social medias.

I'm Keana/Chai and I'm a digital artist and I've been doing art for nearly 12 years now. I do tons of fanart and oc art but will dabble into other mediums like crochet, sewing, pottery, etc (I have Adhd lmao). I also do commissions! Thay will be an entirely different post though so stay tuned.

That's all I want to say, but if you wanna know more about me...

I play video games too! You can find me on Playstation and PC. I mainly play Genshin Impact, but I also have tiny obsessions with Pokémon, any souls game (DS1, DS2, DS3, Bloodborne❤️❤️❤️, Nioh, Elden Ring, etc.), Monster Hunter, and a lot more. I also JUST got into Destiny 2 so...

I am also a ✨️weeb✨️, but I don't watch anime that religiously anymore (Again, I have Adhd). I do enjoy Jujutsu Kaisen, Demon Slayer, DBZ, Inuyasha, and a few others. I just started reading the manga for Chainsaw Man but its been on and off.

Now, for my very specific obsessions for those who are interested (Or characters I've simped for lmao).

Tartaglia from Genshin Impact

Dude had me in a death grip ever since I played his character in his story. Like, at first I loved his playstyle. Then I started loving the characters personality. It definitely didn't get better since I've gotten him for the first time and it wont get better cause I recently C6 the motherfucker. Fuck this guy, I love him so much.

Gojo from Jujutsu Kaisen

SPOILER FROM THE MANGA

I SPECIFICALLY love this dudes backstory. The way he learns how to fucking heal himself after getting stabbed in the throat, his annoying cocky attitude he has during a fight, he's a little piece of shit that I love so much. I haven't been simping for him recently, but with the new season coming out (WHICH IS HIS BACKSTORY BY THE WAY) it just might come back. I also bought a $200 figure of him. Worth every penny.

Dragons

Yes, I have been called a furry/scaley multiple times. I will deny it. I've been in denial for years now. Dragons are just the coolest things though. Shenron? Dude grants wishes, he's cool as fuck. Zhongli? My guy is an ex-archon and his backstory is badass. Every single Dragon type in Pokémon? There's a 90% chance they'll be in my team even when they're NOT dragon shaped. Jormangundr, Kukulkan, and Tiamat in Smite? Yeah, I main them, and yes they're all diamond. Point being, dragons are fucking cool.

"Kawaii"/Japanese Aesthetics

Pink isn't my favorite color, but it is a color I like to wear. Sakura blossoms, cats, Torii gates, tea, etc. Yeah, I'll happily vibe with it. Animal themed clothings (Bear ear berets, Cat ear beanies, Frog hoodies) an absolute MUST. I almost bought Hello Kitty stuff multiple times cause it was cute.

So yeah, that is me. Pretty sure I missed stuff but oh well. 🤷‍♀️ Hopefully I'll adjust well here, but it shouldn't be too much of a problem. If you somehow reached to the bottom of this post while reading everything, I'm very fucking impressed. So I guess 2023 is me officially starting this account up.

[grailfinders]

Fate and Phantasms #153: Miyamoto Musashi

Today on Fate and Phantasms we’re creating the ultimate wandering swordswoman,  Shinmen Musashi-no-Kami Fujiwara no Harunobu a.k.a. Miyamoto Musashi!

This wandering samurai is an Aberrant Mind Sorcerer to wander from plane to plane and bend the world to her sword-wielding whims with her Empyrean Eye, as well as a Swords Bard, because you actually have to be good with swords too, I guess.

Check out her build breakdown below the cut, or her character sheet over here!

Next up: Ask not for whom the bell tolls.

Announcement: Today (May 10, 2021) is also the last day to suggest possible servants for the anniversary build! If you’ve already sent yours in, you’re in the running! If you haven’t, just comment and/or reblog with any Type Moon character you’d like to see a build of and they’ll be added to the list! (One per person tho)

Race and Background

Musashi’s a Human, but popping in and out of reality isn’t that ordinary so we’ll go with the variant rules for this one. Variant Humans get +1 Dexterity and Constitution, as well as one feat and one skill proficiency. Grab the Performance proficiency to turn every duel into a mindfuck, and the Dual Wielder feat to dual wield. More specifically, this gives you +1 AC while dual wielding, you can use non-light weapons to dual-wield, so longswords are totally an option if you can get the proficiency in them. You can also draw or stow two weapons in the same amount of time you’d draw one.

Like your rival Kojirou, you’re also a Mercenary Veteran, giving you proficiency in Athletics and Persuasion.

Ability Scores

You’re really good with a sword, but that comes from technique, not brute force, so make your Dexterity as high as possible. That’ll also help with the fact that you’re clearly not wearing armor. Getting into your opponent’s head metaphorically is almost as important to your fighting style as getting into it literally, so Charisma should be number 2. Your Constitution should be next so you can stomach more bowls of udon in a single go. After that is Wisdom- your Empyrean Eye won’t do anything if you can’t see what you want to cut. Your Strength isn’t bad, we just needed other stuff more, but your Intelligence is kind of wonky. Shifting around the multiverse so much means world history is not your strong suit.

Class Levels

1. Bard 1: Going with bard right off the bat gives you a better hit die to start with, as well as a more forgiving skill list. Since bards can pick any three skills to be proficient with, I’d suggest Acrobatics, Intimidation, and Perception. I don’t know what exactly rattling your swords to provoke people would count as, but now you’ve got intimidation, performance, and persuasion, so it’s probably one of those. You also get proficiency with Dexterity and Charisma saves.

As a bard, you get Bardic Inspiration, a number of d6 equal to your charisma modifier per long rest. You can give one of these dice to your allies as a bonus action, which they can use to improve one of their attack rolls, saves, or checks. 

You can also cast Spells using your Charisma. Vicious Mockery lets you get under the skin of your opponent just like the real Musashi, and Message is a neat lil walkie talkie. I assume Gudako gave you one by this point, it’d be really hard to chat with you otherwise.

You also get first level spells like Disguise Self so you can slap a big ol’ hat on your head and be completely unrecognizable, Heroism to be a hero, Detect Magic because it seems that kind of a baseline power in the nasuverse, and Bane for even more ways to insult your way to victory.

2. Bard 2: Second level bards become a Jack of All Trades, adding half your proficiency to any skill checks you aren’t already proficient in. That extra boost to survival checks will probably come in handy if you get rayshifted to the middle of nowhere again.

You also learn a Song of Rest, letting you and your party kick back a little harder on short rests, regaining an extra 1d6 hp if you use your hit dice.

Finally, you learn the spell Faerie Fire for a cheap and easy way to nullify invisibility. You’ll learn how to see through it eventually, but for now break out the light show.

3. Bard 3: Like I said before, you’re a Swords bard, giving you the Two-Weapon Fighting Style so you can add your dexterity modifier to attacks from both hands. You can also use Blade Flourishes, giving you an extra 10 feet of movement if you attack as your action. Once per turn you can also add one of three options to your attack by burning one use of Bardic Inspiration. Defense Flourish adds the die rolled to your damage and your AC for the round. Slashing Flourish deals the roll in damage to the target and any other creatures you want within 5′ of you. Mobile Flourish pushes the target and deals extra damage to them equal to the roll, and you can use your reaction to follow them.

Your Expertise doubles your proficiency bonus in Performance and Perception, so you can find enemies and goad them into fights easier.

You also learn Locate Object. It’s still not tracking down a creature, but it’s getting closer.

4. Sorcerer 1: Bouncing over to sorcerer now nets you Spells, and boy howdy do Aberrant Mind sorcerers get a lot of spells. By using your Charisma you can cast your normal spells, or your Psionic Spells, bonuses you get at certain levels. Most of those aren’t in-character, but thankfully we can swap them out as we go.

You also learn Telepathic Speech. Using a bonus action, you can speak telepathically with them for as long as you’re within Charisma Modifier miles of each other, for Sorcerer Level minutes.

Starting with your psionic spells, you get Arms of Hadar and Dissonant Whispers, but we swap out Mind Sliver for Friends. Whatever goading someone to fight is, it’s definitely a charisma check, so this will help with that. I mean this also helps since it turns the target hostile after the spell ends, but either way you get a fight.

On top of that, you get all your other spells, like Booming Blade, Blade Ward, Green-Flame Blade, and True Strike to make your swordplay even stronger. (On technicality in True Strike’s case, just attack twice) and Absorb Elements and Mage Armor for magical defenses.

Also, your spell levels do mix, so check the multiclassing table to see how much stuff you got at each level.

5. Sorcerer 2: Second level sorcerers become a Font of Magic, giving you Sorcery Points equal to your sorcerer level. You can turn spell levels into points or vice versa, but that’ll get more important in a couple levels.

You also learn Shield for more magic defense, and swap out Arms of Hadar for Comprehend Languages. Everyone in FGO speaks english for no reason anyway, so I bet everyone has this spell to begin with.

6. Bard 4: Use your first Ability Score Improvement to bump up your Charisma modifier for better spells and more inspiration. You also learn the Light cantrip, and Knock. Breaking down a door barely counts as magic, but here we are.

7. Bard 5: Your bardic inspiration dice grows to d8s, and you become a Font of Inspiration, letting you regain inspiration on short rests instead of long ones. You also learn Major Image. It’ll be a while until you can summon a Nioh, at least it’ll look like you can now!

8. Bard 6: Sixth level bards can spend their action on a Countercharm, giving you and your allies advantage on saves against being frightened or charmed. More importantly, you get an Extra Attack with each attack action, which is way better than spending a whole action on some magic nonsense.

Speaking of spending an action to end magic nonsense, you can cast Dispel Magic to cut through magical effects. Raise Dead on permanent contingency is a bitch and a half to get through otherwise.

9. Sorcerer 3: Third level sorcerers learn Metamagic, ways to customize their spells using Sorcery Points. Quickened Spell lets you cast action spells as a bonus action, while Extended Spell doubles the length of time a spell remains active. Both are super useful on your buffs, but you can only have one active per spell.

For your psionic spells, replace Calm Emotions with Mind Spike for a bit of psychic damage and to let you ignore the target creature’s invisibility for up to an hour if it fails a wisdom saving throw. You also always know the target’s location if you’re on the same plane. You also get Detect Thoughts. for now. For your normal spell, Magic Weapon will help you out if your DM’s really stingy with magic items.

10. Sorcerer 4: Your spells are starting to get spicy, so let’s keep things working smoothly by grabbing War Caster this ASI. This feat gives you advantage on concentration saves, and you can cast spells while dual-wielding. On top of that, you can use spells as attacks of opportunity now! They have to be only targeting that one creature though, so Sword Burst and Darkvision won’t be super helpful. 

We’re also replacing detect thoughts with See Invisibility for a saving throw free way to track creatures down.

11. Sorcerer 5: Fifth level sorcerers can use Magical Guidance to turn a sorcery point into a re-roll on a failed skill check. You also learn Fear to send less interesting opponents running, and the psionic spells Sending to boost your walkie-talkie’s range and Tongues instead of Hunger of Hadar. If you’re going to insult someone they better understand you.

12. Sorcerer 6: Sixth level aberrant minds know Psionic Sorcery, letting you spend sorcery points to cast psionic spells instead of using a spell slot. If you do so, you can ignore verbal or somatic components, as well as unconsumed material components. You also get Psychic Defenses for resistance against psychic damage and advantage against being charmed or frightened. Oh hey, it’s like countercharm but significantly better!

You can also cast Haste now, doubling your actions for up to a minute, as well as giving you advantage on dexterity saves, a +2 to AC and doubled speed. (The second action can only be used to make one attack, but still, free attack.) After the spell ends you can’t move or take actions for a round while you take an udon break to refuel.

13. Sorcerer 7: Seventh level sorcerers can use fourth level spells, like Conjure Barlgura! It’s... kind of like a Nioh, if you squint really hard. Just keep it away from the rest of the party.

You also get more psionic spells with Evards Black Tentacles and Locate Creature instead of Summon Aberration. 

14. Sorcerer 8: Use this ASI to finally bump up your Dexterity for a stronger AC and better attacks. You also gain Banishment to cut someone out of this plane of reality. (It’s temporary if they’re actually from whatever reality you’re currently in, but still.)

15. Sorcerer 9: Use your fifth level spell Skill Empowerment to make getting to your target even easier. Need to be really good at acrobatics to reach somebody? Sure, why not. You also get your last psionic spells, Rary’s Telepathic Bond for a long-term walkie-talkie, and Hold Monster in place of Telekinesis. Cutting things is so much easier when they stand still.

16. Sorcerer 10: Tenth level sorcerers get another Metamagic option. Heightened Spell gives a creature disadvantage on their first save against a spell, like Create Bonfire and Charm Monster. I’ll be honest there’s not a lot of fifth level spells that work for you, but you’re both cute and able to start fires, so I guess it works out.

17. Sorcerer 11: Eleventh level sorcerers gain a sixth level spell, and True Seeing lets you ignore any illusions, invisibility, or shapechangers you can see on your path to true swordsmanship, automatically making any saves against their deceptions.

18. Sorcerer 12: Use your last ASI to max out Dexterity for the swordiest swords and the least swordiest body possible.

19. Sorcerer 13: At the penultimate level we finally get our seventh level spell that we’ve been working so hard to reach- Plane Shift. You and up to eight creatures can move to a different plane of existence. Alternatively, you can make a spell attack against a creature, and if it hits and they fail a charisma save they have to find their way back from wherever the hell you sent them.

20. Sorcerer 14: Your capstone level makes you a Revelation in Flesh, spending a bonus action to transform yourself for up to 10 minutes. You can spend 1-4 sorcery points to activate one to four benefits: You can see invisible creatures, fly, swim and breathe underwater, or pass through inch wide gaps and escape restraints easily. Most of those...probably aren’t canon, but at least you get invisibility sight without using concentration.

Pros:

You come packing plenty of magic defenses, with a great dexterity save, advantage on mind altering effects, and the ability to tear down an enemy’s magical traps.

Seeing through invisibility and plenty of location spells makes you hard to escape, especially when you factor in plane shift to the mix. Those Empyrean Eyes aren’t just there for decoration, y’know.

Your psionic sorcery and multitude of telepathic abilities mean you can get a lot done while completely silent, which helps a lot on stealth missions. Your maxed out dexterity and JoAT certainly doesn’t hurt either.

Cons:

Gishes live and die on their concentration saves, and not starting with Sorcerer definitely hurt yours a lot. Even with advantage you’ve only got a +2 modifier. That’s going to drop spells more often than not.

Taking so many levels of sorcerer also leaves you with low hp, barely scratching past 100 by the end of the build. Your AC is very good, but when you get hit you’re going to feel it.

Focusing on dexterity and feats leaves you with a low charisma, at least by bard standards. This means you don’t have a lot of flourishes to work with, and your spells aren’t as strong as they could be. Your buffs and protection don’t really care about charisma though, so most of your kit isn’t that badly hurt from it.

[callsignbaphomet]

Power's out yet again so I'm bored so ima just talk about OCs. Valp in particular. Idk I saw a movie with Russians as the bad guys because 'merica can't let go of shit and it just brought him up to the forefront.

I got my OCs in my brain at all times but certain things kinda just remind me of specific ones and then I'll have that one specific one in the front for a while.

Anyway, I see/hear/watch/listen to anything Russian and just think of Angelus because I just associate anything Russian with him. Well, not just associate randomly. The man's got Russian in him because of his dad and paternal grandmother.

Okay, there's Aleksey, his paternal grandfather and guardian (he's not Russian, he's Sumer) but he moved to Russia at one point and changed his name and there he met a woman, blah blah blah and the rest is history. Had a son. Son is half Sumer, half Russian. Then that son had a son with a Scottish woman. Idk percentages but Angelus is part Sumer, part Russian and part Scottish.

To be fucking honest he completely just negates and ignores the Scottish part because of his abusers. He legit wants ZERO to do with them and that includes that itty bitty part of him. He just says he's half Russian and half Sumer (or just plain ol' Russian if talking to a human that's not aware of werewolves and vampires and things that go bump in the night).

And yes, he absolute can speak and read Sumerian. Not very good at writing it. As well as speak, read and write Russian and can even fake a legit accent if he needs to.

Just for funsies he has his phone, laptop and anything else he can change to Russian. Kinda like Jelani just has everything changed to Norwegian.

akdjchsbsbdh switched over to him in Nioh 2. He looks absolutely adorable <3<3<3

[poppopopopopi]

Settos GOTY 2020

2020 was a hell world and life is dogshit now. Also I only browse tumblr these days but I like keeping track of this stuff so!...yay.

I’m gonna be honest even I’m not sure what order I should put these games in.

I think I’m done with ordering by top 10 and just gonna put all 10 here equally.

I’ll also show some games I liked for specific reasons but didn’t put in the top 10.

Yakuza: Like a Dragon

Probably my second favourite Yakuza game ever, Like a Dragon introduces Ichiban as a new protagonist and boy is he a keeper. This keeps that classic Yakuza charm and good writing along with a new gameplay style of JRPG turn based combat. It’s fun, engaging and genuinely full of a love for the genre. I can’t wait to see the future of Ichibans adventures.

Nioh 2

I genuinely love this game. The soulslike genre has been all over the place the last few years but this one deserves the award for the most complex and well done entry in the genre. Everything about Nioh 2 kept me playing through the game multiple times. It truly is a game where you can build your character in so many different ways that you won’t ever play the same way twice.

Animal Crossing New Horizons

I’ll always love AC. New Horizons has a load of new wonderful features but is lacking a lot of what made previous entries so wonderful. I’m kinda tired of being drip fed content that was just in New Leaf from the get go. Other than that I enjoy the time I spend wandering around my island and customizing it to my liking. A very comfortable experience, that was well needed.

Disaster Report 4

Honestly one of the most endearing games I played this year. You can tell the developers had a lot of passion and despite the unbelievable jank, it shines in many places. This game had so many memorable moments and characters that overall I just fell in love with it. It really drives home the feeling of being in a natural disaster and seeing the cataclysmic destruction it leaves on not only the country but also peoples lives.

Sakura Wars

I’m probably bias because I’ve never played the RPG entries in this series. However I loved the character driven story and general way the game played out. I can’t really say much else, I just adored being in this world and seeing these characters grow together. The gameplay is alright, it’s basic mech based action combat, but I don’t think that’s the big draw here. Azami best girl.

Pokemon SWSH DLC

Can you spot the Galarian Moltres in the above picture?.

I actually loved SWSH, it’s got a load of problems but the overworld and raid dungeons made me play for far longer than I ever thought I would. Honestly the DLC just made the region even better designed and felt like a breathing Pokemon world. I’ll still buy new Pokemon games constantly because I adore their designs and the characters and just everything about the series.

Hades

I liked Greek mythology before it was cool.

Hades really drives home the narrative between these famous chracters of Greek mythos. It’s got such good writing with almost always new things to say every time you do anything in game.

The gameplay is a lot of fun and honestly it’s more of a bridge to progressing your dynamic with everyone. I couldn’t be happier it’s getting the recognition it deserves.

Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity

A genuinely fun game that builds on the musou style combat in massive ways. Every character feels incredibly unique and the gameplay loop keeps remaining fun. Honestly I can’t say much else. It’s a fun Musou game built on a familiar franchise. If you like them, you probably already own it.

Clubhouse Games 51

I mean it’s 51 board games with online play, designed by Nintendo.

It’s fun as hell and has Koi Koi, Of course I bought this.

If you like board games, you probably bought this too. It’s good, get it.

MOON

MOON was never translated upon its original release on PS1. It was a game a younger me looked at and it really set in my mind what I love about videogames.

Designed by the same team as things like Chulip, it takes a familiar formula and turns it on its head. MOON out of all games i’ve mentioned here, really set in stone the idea of what an RPG could be about and how characters could be developed through the game design. 

Playing it fully translated, it’s really clear to me how much of an inspiration this game probably was for a lot of more indie based developers and their games.

MOON makes me feel something I don’t feel often in games and that’s that something like this is so special it only comes around every now and then.

This game means a lot to me and really is a seal of actual wonder that I wish I could see more often. A message of Love and care and just genuine passion seeps through the entire thing.

If I was gonna give GOTY to a game it’d probably be this but I feel it’s worth more than that. MOON really establishes what I feel is a high point for all videogames.

Anyway here’s some other games I really enjoyed. I won’t talk about them much but i’ll put them here

Immortals: Fenyx Rising just came out and is...just a lot of fun. Buy it.

Kamen Rider: Memory of Heroez is a decent low budget action game with a lot of fanservice for toku fans.

No Straight Roads isn’t.....the best as a videogame. But it’s gorgeous to look at and genuinely funny and creative.

Sakuna: Of Rice and Ruin is lovely and well worth playing if you wanna farm rice and fight demons as a small angry goddess.

The Pathless is a very nice game that reminds me of Shadow of the Colossus a lot. It’s a lot of fun to explore and solve puzzles, while keeping a good flow with movement and ....may be connected to Abzu which is cool. It’s also very pretty.

A final game that hasn’t even come out yet but I know I will love is

Puyo Puyo Tetris 2.....I mean It’s Puyo Tetris so ...yeah it’s good.

I hope you all have a good 2021 and a good holiday season. 2020 was awful but you hang in there, okay?.

[weirdmarioenemies]

Name: Gashadokuro

Debut: Takiyasha the Witch and the Skeleton Spectre

Skeletons! What would we do without them? Not only are they great for like, letting us not be blobs of flesh, but they make great monsters in nearly every situation! You need some kind of undead creature to fill in for you? Whether it's wielding a sword or doing a funny jig, skeletons will always have your back!

But the Japanese don’t do monsters like the rest of us. They’re not content with sticking to the status quo. They like to think outside the box! For example, once they said “what if a skeleton was like, really really big?” And everyone clapped. 

Enter the Gashadokuro! It means rattling skull! I guess. As much as I like reading about yōkai, my info is limited to English sources... Wikipedia says it means “starving skeleton”, but I can’t find anything to back that up! Regardless, they are made up of the remains of people who died from starvation. Unfortunately, there wasn’t a giant creature that died to give birth to a giant skeleton, but you know what? I think this is cooler! Isn’t it fun learning about these crazy monsters from old legends?

Hold on, which old legends? There aren’t any! It might've fooled you and many others, the Gashadokuro is a very recent creation- as recent as the 1970s, actually! Born from late 20th century boys’ magazines and illustrated encyclopedias, the concept of A Really Big Skeleton soon captured the hearts of people all over Japan! With a little help from manga legend and yōkai dad Shigeru Mizuki (see: GeGeGe no Kitaro), they really consolidated themselves as a resident Funny Monster like they’d been here all along!

Wait... Have they been here all along? You might’ve noticed that Mizuki’s illustration seems nearly copied from this old woodblock print: Takiyasha the Witch and the Skeleton Spectre, by Utagawa Kuniyoshi! To put a long story short, it’s about the daughter of a rebellious samurai (he was decapitated and brought back to life, but thats another story) who stayed in her father’s manor after his death. Thanks to a pact with a demon/wizard/demon wizard (there's a few versions to the story), she was able to scare away the emperor’s officials by summoning a horde of demons! But our pal Kuniyoshi took some artistic liberty, making her summon a giant skeleton, instead!

So basically, even though the Gashadokuro is pretty recent, their most famous depiction predates the existence of the Gashadokuro in the first place! I’m sure there’s some real purists who don’t think these yōkai should count, but I say that makes it so much better! After all, the whole fun of it is being part of a living, breathing culture!

Speaking of living culture, another fun part about yōkai is spotting them in all your favorite cartoons and games! So under the cut, some cartoons and games.

 Of course I gotta talk about Yo-kai Watch! Specifically, Gutsy Bones from Yo-kai Watch 2, and his trusted ‘Crank-a-Kai’ gashapon machine! Get it? Cause, the “gasha” in “gashadokuro” sounds like the “gasha” in “gashapon”? (Well, they do both use the onomatopoeia for rattling!) On that note, I’ve tried out some of those “gatcha games” that are all the rage these days, and none of them have any giant skeletons, so like, what gives?

As of Yo-kai Watch 3, Gutsy Bones is now one of the few befriendable boss Yo-kai. Hooray! They had to shrink him down a bit, but they let him have legs this time. He’s not very good at being a giant skeleton now, but a regular skeleton is just as good, right?

Castlevania Aria of Sorrow has a boss called the Creaking Skull, which is a rather literal translation of Gashadokuro. On that note, Castlevania has a lot of funny skeletons. A LOT of funny skeletons! I could write a very long post about them all, but Mod Hooligon has already subjected you guys to enough torture.

There’s a Gashadokuro in Okamiden, too! Quite a few of these are missing their lower bodies, huh? I guess it does look obscured in the woodblock print, after all. 

Here’s the Gashadokuro from Nioh! Scary! I don’t exactly know much of anything about Nioh, but I do know it has lots of yōkai, so it gets a pass from me! Hooray for yōkai!

The Gashadokuro in Yu-Gi-Oh is looking pretty decked out, what with their armor and flames and all! Good for them! I don’t even know what a mayakashi is, but it’s probably cool right?

Here’s Shin Megami Tensei, hitting us up again with some demons! This one has a G on his forehead, presumably standing for Gashadokuro. Or Gario. I don’t know much about SMT either, but I’d probably like it for the monsters! Anything is better with some monsters.

I mentioned GeGeGe no Kitaro before, but did you know the Gashadokuro has appeared in nearly every Kitaro adaptation, plus the live-action movie and a handful of video-games? I suppose it’s only fitting, considering its connection to Shigeru Mizuki. Speaking of, there’s a Gashadokuro on Shigeru Mizuki Road, too!

Man, I’m totally rambling at this point, but I’d love to go to Shigeru Mizuki Road.

Whew! That’s a lot of skeletons! You certainly won’t be lacking in calcium after this post! Thanks for sticking with me this long! So to bid you farewell, I’d like to remind you to keep your skulls a-rattling... And all your other bones, too!

[safestsephiroth]

Nioh 2: A Preliminary, Incomplete Weapon Analysis

I’ve been playing Nioh 2 since its release on PC Friday (48 hours logged), and while I haven’t beaten the base game yet, I’ve finally done 3 of the 4 weapon skill tier unlocking missions. (The 4th tier is unique per-weapon, the first 3 are generalized.)

I’ve been going a bit of an underpowered generalist build to get a feel for every weapon type, with a focus on the newer ones. However, I have not completed this objective by and large. There’s too many weapons, and my stats are split too wide, so the weapons that HEAVILY focus on one stat (Axe, Dual Swords) are suffering for it.

That said, I’ve got a decent feel for multiple weapons.

I’m halfway through Chapter 4 at the time of this writing.

The list of weapons, my thoughts on each, and what I’ve discovered of note so far below:

SPECIAL NOTE: Blessed/Yokai weapons are categories that are in every single weapon tree, and it seems there’s several of each per weapon.

Blessed weapons are a fucking phenomenal answer to every Yokai threat, they’re incredible. A++. They’re a free fast-stacking status effect that makes getting Chaos damage buff extremely easy as long as you have a spell of an element the target is weak to, and they make shattering Yokai ki gauges super, super easy. I very highly value them, but they’re somewhat hard to actually get ahold of in my experience.

Yokai weapons are extremely good against human targets, and have a gauge that fills a little bit every time you land an attack. When it’s full, the weapon “awakens”, has a cool voice line, and then you can go to town and do a big burst of damage. Personally, while this is good, I find you can’t really rely on it and about half-and-half it pops when I don’t need it anymore (last attack in a fight, etc.) That said, it’s a very good tool for when you get your ass beat by a boss and want to redo the fight a few times - you can make the others practice runs and have the fight where the weapon pops off be the “real” attempt. It makes learning strategies a lot easier to pull off.

General points to keep in mind: Weapon types that are ki-dependent feel much improved in Nioh 2, because ki regeneration on the whole is easier. 

Also, I’ve invested significantly (24-ish points, which, for a generalist save is pretty significant) into both ninjitsu and onmyo, so that’s being factored in to some of these.

Also also, I cannot recommend enough getting the skills which let you restore ki with a dodge ASAP. They’re all vital.

One final note: I plan to do multiple save files where I specialize on two weapons per save file, and at most two hyper-specific builds, along with my primary (respecced to focus on my “favorite” weapons) save. I’ll be doing this for multiple clears of the base game’s base difficulty so I can decide which to push into NG+ and beyond with. And I’ll be looking guides up after I beat the game.

Now, the proper weapon categories:

Sword: I find Sword boring. However, I’ve learned that iai builds are much easier to put together in Nioh 2, so I’ll be trying to do that. Maybe that’ll change my mind. Sword has everything you need, and none of the stances are trash, but I have little to say about it besides this. Seems equally good against everything.

Dual Swords: they feel good, it feels like the animations were cleaned a little bit to feel even better in Nioh 2. I haven’t done much because they require lots of Skill and that’s my second-lowest stat. (Har har.) Seems fine against everything, but better at shredding larger targets with elemental damage.

Spears: I like Spears WAY MORE in Nioh 2 than I did in the first Nioh. Fatal Thrust (the spear’s charge) feels WAY better than in Nioh 1, and way more worth it. Piercing Rain (high stance multi-hit) is a great status applicator, and the root of Spear’s theme seems to be zone control. Your ability to knock people around and to hit both far and close is really good, but I find myself whiffing basic high stance combos more often than not. Mid stance is really the place to be with Spear. Plus, there’s a TON of mobility built into the kit, and the ability to knock back enemies when doing a ki pulse is really solid for the super aggro fist weapon revenants.

Seems best against large targets, though it absolutely destroys humanoid targets with lower ki, much moreso than most weapons.

Axe: I’ve barely touched Axe. My impression is that it’s for tanky builds that don’t care about dodging and want to smash things. That’s about all I’ve got. It’s good if you want to specialize hard into it, I think.

Kusarigama: The first weapon on this list I LOVE. It’s got some insane mobility with Serpent Strike (blade hook-yourself-or-them-in). If you need to duel an AI and can only win through cheese, this is the weapon and combo of choice. You can chain stuns if the initial attack hits for as long as your ki holds out, and you can safely dodge away once it does.

You have great options for breaking horns in every single high stance guard ability, you have excellent control with the mid-stance AOE light attack ability “whirlwind”, you have excellent mobility using your hook skills and phenomenal range from it as well. Biggest weaknesses are how exposed you’re left if you whiff a hook and, sometimes, stamina costs. Well worth it.

Kusarigama is great against everything, but it shines as a killer of ranged bosses (dodge AOEs with gap closers!) and single human-types.

 Odachi: Odachi feels like it’s got a significant upgrade. Its greatest weakness once was its speed, and Twin Moons (high stance ability that allows for a quick triple-hit) fixes that RIGHT up. Mid stance heavy attacks continue to be excellent ranged tools for dealing with short-range matchups, but I haven’t used it a ton so that’s about all I have for insights. Odachi’s pretty good against everything, though anything with breakable horns will really suffer against it.

Tonfa: Every single goddamned Tonfa move feels incredible. There are no bad moves in the kit, and nothing breaks ki as well as Tonfa. A blessed one makes it possible to smash ki on yokai even more effective, and it needs no help doing so to human targets that can’t spontaneously decide to break out of a stun chain. Demon Dance: Heaven (rapid attack spam out of a ki pulse) is so absurdly strong for breaking guards it makes a joke out of all revenants within seconds. You cannot lose a duel if you properly use this tool, excepting special NPC bosses, and even then you’re incredible effective against them. The ability to just dodge through them with ki pulses that then chain into a counterattack is so obscene!

Tonfa are amazing against everything, and make Revenants a joke. Anything where ki breakage is a priority, the Tonfa are a go-to.

Hatchets: First of the new weapons, and, in my eyes, least. I’ve barely used them for being too reliant on Skill to do meaningful damage. I’ll have a more comprehensive view later. As-is, with trash stats and basic skills, they’re awful. But I’m confident that changes later on.

Switchglaive: What if you had the ki-shattering power of Tonfa, with the longest range of any weapon that isn’t slow, and the combo-chain potential of Fists, all in the most edgelord package of the game? Switchglaive is possibly my favorite weapon. It’s not great early, but unlocking the ability to chain between stances makes clear the core identity of this weapon. You can mix things up however you need. Start in mid stance and chain low so you can get off a heavy attack before dodging out after a short exchange. Go low to high for a low-commitment start on a heavy damage chain you can easily break ki with. For high stance, light light heavy to use Mortal Retribution is an incredible combo for taking out ki on human targets, and I find it almost always can break guard on anything I use it on. It’s less perfect for larger yokai, given it leaves you vulnerable during the last part of it, but you can just use three mid lights into the stance-swap high heavy for Yokai and do absurd damage with fantastic ki damage potential, ESPECIALLY with a blessed Switchglaive.

Switchglaive is great against everything. It has everything you want. Range, mobility, chain attacks, and it doesn’t cost an obscene amount of Ki to use either.

Splitstaff: Poke poke poke poke poke poke poke poke. But seriously, Splitstaff has a lot of potential, I just don’t use it that much. The ability to take short fights is really powerful, and its range is not to be underestimated. The ability to extend ANY attack by holding is really strong, and Fill the Void is a great space-making high attack that does meaningful damage on top of that. Against bosses, you can dodge damned near anything you need with that while still getting hits in, and nothing smaller than a miniboss-type at least can handle it.

Splitstaff is really good, but I don’t use it much because I find it too costly on ki and I also find its amazing AOE potential still doesn’t actually hurt that much and leaves you too immobile to do things unpunished.

Fists: The be-all end-all. The reason, more than any other, that I wanted this game. Fists are amazing at all points in the game. Fists of Reckoning is a great high stance combo chain early for punishing stunned yokai. High stance in general is fantastic. When leveling Fists, focus on abilities which are “at end of combo” skills. Every single first attack is a good engage, and every follow-up is even better. You have the ability to knock human-types into the sky, you have the ability to do insane parries, you can do running moonsaults (and dodge SO MUCH in the process), you can falling attack enemies with moonsaults.

You can chain counter-spam if that’s your thing. You can do an absolutely insane combo in the form of Beyond Infinity once you unlock it. You can use a mobile backdash-charge to dodge a ton of attacks that feels better than functionally the same move in Devil May Cry 5. You have everything you could ever want. Fists are the best. Fists are great against everything*.

And that’s it. That’s my incomplete impressions of every weapon so far.

*Note: Fists struggle against matchups where range is non-negotiable. Don’t fight enemies that take to the sky with your bare fists. They’re insane against revenants, almost as good as Tonfa at that. I highly recommend them, if nothing else, as a secondary weapon to followup on stunned Yokai. You won’t be disappointed with the results if you do it right.

[babybottlepop96]

Jorogumo Chapter 2

Warnings: none that I can think of

The drive to the “murder” sight was short, only about another twenty minutes from the motel the group stayed at. You just listened here and there to the conversations around you while taking in your morning caffeinated drink. Jean and Connie were talking about some new video game they were playing called Nioh? Nile? Lego? You weren’t really paying attention, video games were a forgein concept to you. Levi was yelling at Hange because she put her dirty chucks onto his dashboard, Armin and Eren were discussing something about cheeseburgers? Ymir and Krista were cuddling and talking about whatever they were going to do when they got back home and Mikasa was sitting across from you, talking about something that, you once again, weren’t paying attention to. 

Levi waking you up at seven in the morning was somewhat of a struggle. You really should be used to it by now from how many times you and your friends convinced him to take time off work to drive you halfway across the country, but you could never really get used to waking up that damn early.

“Levi! I’m hungry!” Connie whined, scrunching his face up as if he was dying from hunger pains.

“I told you to eat the free breakfast the motel offered before we left.” Levi spoke, his voice sounding bored and irritated at the same time. 

“But they didn’t have waffles!” Connie continued to whine, plopping himself down on one of the bunks.

“Quit your complaining and eat this.” Ymir said while tossing him a protein bar. “Next time, listen to what the old man tells you to do. I don’t have the patience to sit here and listen to you bitch about fucking waffles.” This caused the entire group to laugh, even Levi chuckled a bit, though he tried covering it up with a cough. 

“Oh! Look! Were here! Levi pull over there! We can set up in that clearing!” Hange spoke excitedly, pointing her finger to the open spot where the truck from ten years ago was found.

“Fucking finally! That was one of the longest road trips ever!” You sighed out, to which Jean put his arm around your shoulder.

“Come on sis! Let's go take a quick look before Captain Levi decides to make us sanitize the dirt before he sets up the chairs.” He whispered into your which caused you to giggle.

“Yeah, let's go before we have to bleach the air.” You and Jean walked towards the wooded area, two small crosses stood in the dirt, Emilee and Jason’s names each written on one. “It's sweet.” You spoke after a moment, a soft breeze flowing through your hair.

“What is?” Jean asked, looking at you quizzically. “The fact that people died and vanished here?”

“No you ass butt.” You lightly pushed him.

“Don’t you dare go quoting Supernatural to me! Especially with how Cas-”

“No! Shut up! Don’t spoil it! I haven't finished it yet!” You covered your ears and you let out a laugh. “No, it’s sweet that even though no one knows what happened to Jason, that they still decided to memorialize him with the girl he loved.” You smiled gently, still looking at the small wooden crosses, small purple and orange wildflowers scattered amongst them.

“Yeah, I wish to find love like that one day.” He grinned.

“Stop being a fuck boy and maybe you will.” You shoved him as you finally entered the wooded area. 

“Over there.” Jean spoke, pointing to a specific patch of land.

“How do you know that's the spot?” You questioned, crossing your sweater clad arms across your chest.

“Did you even look at the crime scene photos I printed out?” He asked in disbelief. 

“Yes! Of course I did!” You huffed and looked away. “But just tell me anyway.” Jean groaned at your ability to not do anything for yourself at times.

“The bushes and the trees to it, it's the exact same as this photo.” He pulled out a folded up piece of printer paper that showed a photo of the crime scene after the body had been removed. 

“Oh, I see it now.” You walked up to the spot on the ground and touched the soft, dried soil there. “And she was just… drained of her blood? It is almost like a vampire. Did you get any toxicology reports? Could you find any? Maybe there was something else that could’ve caused that?” You asked, looking at your brother.

“Armin got that covered, you know, computer nerd and all.” He shrugged.

“Stop calling him a nerd!” You smacked his arm, causing him to laugh.

“What? Someone got a crush on blonde haired, blue eyed, computer wiz?” He teased, causing a small blush to tint your cheeks. 

“No!” You defended but Jean saw right through you.

“You do!” He wheezed, “Oh my Walls! You have a crush on computer boy!”

“Stop! I do not! And don’t quote anime to me you weeb!”

“A proud weeb, thank you very much.” He smirked while you huffed and willed the growing blush on your face to go away.

“Hey! Brats! Get over here and help set up this shit!” You two heard Levi shout from the edge of the woods. 

“Come on, let's go before Levi has an aneurysm.” You groaned, the two of you leaving the crime scene behind for now.

~~~

“Come on Sasha! Share some of those candies you got! I’m still hungry!” Connie whined, he was on his hands and knees practically begging his girlfriend to share her candy. 

“No! You should’ve gotten your own!” She smiled smugly and continued to munch on her snack.

“Connie! You're getting your pants dirty! You’re not getting into my RV with dirty ass clothes.” Levi scolded as Connie quickly got up and brushed his jeans off. “Here, use this.” Levi tossed him a small travel sized bottle of hand sanitizer.

“Damn, you really are a germaphobe aren’t ya, Levi?” Connie jokes, but all he received was a glare in return. 

Set up went smoothly, or as smoothly as it can when half the guys were goofing off and the girls were getting pissed off by the lack of help. Levi was about to commit another murder in the same spot that happened ten years ago.

“Okay, now that we have everything set up,” Armin spoke from his spot at the bench underneath the awning, laptop and other equipment set up around him. “Do we want to check out the crime scene?”

“Actually, I think (y/n) and you should stay here and look over the toxicology reports you found. (Y/n) was asking about them when we first got here. Isn’t that right, Sis?” Jean smirked as you slapped him subtly, he snickered. “The rest of us will go to the two sights, the one were Emilee died and the spot where Jason vanished.”

“I’ll stay and get lunch started.” Levi stated, he was NOT going into the woods.

“Oh, sounds good!” Armin smiled and moved over for you to take a seat next to him. As you sat down next to Armin, Jean sent you a subtle wink, which you replied with a not so subtle middle finger. Jean laughed as he and the others walked to the woods or to the spot where the truck was found.

“Okay, so what did the toxicology reports say?” You asked Armin as you scooted closer, shoulders just slightly touching each other’s, eyeing the laptop. Armin let out a small cough, cheeks tinting a light pink as he brought up the report.

“Well, obviously, the strangest part was the vampire or spider-like bite on Emilee’s arm and the fact that her blood was drained. Completely dried up, not even a speck of blood was found on the ground.” You nodded as Armin spoke, listening intently. “Now, something else I found was never disclosed to the public, was the fact that there were traces of an unknown poison or venom of sorts found in her organs.”

“Like a spider or a snake bite?” You asked, eyebrows furrowed in confusion and concentration. 

“Yes, exactly! But the spaces between the bite wounds are too far spaced out to be a normal spider or snake. It’s about the width between a human’s canine teeth.” Armin further explained. “And the venom or poison or whatever was found at the bite mark, meaning that that is where the poison was given.”

“Couldn’t the ‘bite’ wounds just be from a needle? Because it would be impossible for a human to have something like that in their teeth.” You suggested.

“Already thought of that, there are no known needles to have that big of a width, the bite was from a human. But no one in the area or any one anywhere has natural or unnatural teeth like that.” He spoke, closing the laptop. “Oh, I should also mention that the venom they were able to get from the entry wound was found to be similar, not exactly, but similar to the properties of the venom from a Joro Spider. But they are normally found in places like Japan, China, Korea and even in Georgia here in the United States.”

“But none have been found here?” You asked, taking in all the information Armin just dumped on you.

“No, not around here. So that’s another mystery, if it was a murder, then how the hell did he even comit the murder since there no logical answer, and where the hell did he go? We live in a time where it’s almost impossible to be like the Zodiac or Jack the Ripper. Another question is what form of toxin was put into her body? We know it's similar to the Joro spider, but it has too many different differences to be from that spider or any known spider itself.” Armin sighed as he leaned back in his seat. 

“Maybe we are dealing with the supernatural.” You teased the blue eyed genius, he laughed at your silly notion.

“Fortunately, there are no such things as the supernatural. Everything can be explained through logic and facts.”

~~~

“So, Armin and (y/n), huh?” Eren asked Jean as Hange looked over the spot where Emilee was found. 

“They totally like each other. It's so obvious!” Jean smiled as he tried to peep at the two through the threes, which was practically impossible. 

“I think they would make a cute couple.” Hange spoke as they moved some dirt and foliage around and Sasha looked up into the trees as she snacked on some chips.. “They would be like, the nerd and the adventurer. The nerd makes sure his girl is well knowledgeable in anything she decides to do before doing it. Protective. Like a knight in shining armor, except his armor is his laptop and big brain.”

“She would be good for Armin. He has had a lot of trouble with girls, but (y/n) is nothing like the bimbos Armin usually goes for.” Eren confessed, crossing his arms as he looked around. “What exactly are we looking for, Hange?” 

“Anything that shouldn’t be here. I know the police and the forensics team already did a thorough sweep through the area, but that still doesn’t mean they didn’t miss something small.” She got practically nose deep into the dirt, eyeballing each individual grain, surely Levi will be pissed to see her face covered in woods. 

“Something like this?” Sasha came back to the others holding something shiny in her hand.

“What is that?” Jean asked as Sasha shrugged and handed the object to Hange.

“It's… It's a locket!” She exclaimed, opening the dirty piece of silver. “It's Emilee and Jason. Where did you find this!?” Sasha pointed to the nearby tree.

“It was in a hole at the base of the tree trunk over there.” Hange ran past them and began her search around the area Sasha pointed out.

“Nice work Detective.” Jean joked and Sasha smiled proudly.

“All in a day's work!”

~~~

Later that evening, everyone sat around the campfire, roasting hotdogs and making smores. They all discussed what they found, Connie, Ymir and Krista found nothing around the spot where the truck was left, Levi obviously didn’t do any searching so he was just listening to everything else, Armin and yourself explained what you discussed about the toxicology reports and your questions and conclusions, and Hange rambled on about the locket Sasha found. “Okay, Brats. Let's get this shit cleaned up so we can go to bed.” Levi spoke and everyone did their part of the cleaning.

“Hey, Connie.” Sasha whispered, getting in close to Connie’s ear. 

“Yeah, babe?” He turned to look at her, smiling bright as always when he looked at her.

“Want to see the spot where I found that locket?” She asked, obviously she was excited she was the one who found an important piece of evidence missed in the initial search.

“Yes!” The two snuck off towards the woods while the others piled into their respective beds and couches.

“No fucking in my RV! I’ll cut your asses off and put them above my fireplace!” Levi shouted from his place in the front seat. 

“Levi, you’re no fun.” Hange teased from the bunk behind his seat.

“Shut it, four eyes.” Hange giggled at the stupid insult Levi gave her back in their college days.

“Where’s Connie and Sasha?” Krista asked as she slipped into Ymir’s warm embrace on the pull over couch.

“I saw them sneaking off towards the woods.” Jean said, wiggling his eyebrows.

“As long as they aren’t fucking my RV, I don’t care.” Levi grumbled, closing his eyes letting his eyes rest. Suddenly, the RV door swung open and slammed against the counter behind it. The group looked towards the door to see Sasha, wide eyed, panting and covered in something red.

“Holt shit! Sasha!” You jumped up from your designated bunk and ran to your friend. What happened?!” Sasha stayed silent.

“Wait, Sasha?” Sasha turned her head towards Jean. “Where’s Connie?” Everyone looked at the brunette girl, eyes wide and ears listening. 

“Gone.”

[cerastes]

gf and I like to watch your VODs (timezones, man), and, ok, first of all, you are freakishly good at Dark Souls, you dismantled every boss so far except maybe two on the first try with just a dinky shitty dagger, so that's really metal, but also, you have converted us both to your church of leveling HP. The few times you got nailed by anything remotely dangerous, our first reaction was to think "oh yeah, he's dead" and then you'd take like maybe a third of your HP, from attacks that usually killed us outright. Maybe if we had leveled HP, we would've fared better. Also it's really funny 1) how chat called you out on your "hey man" habit, and 2) the fact that you just sort of know the frame data for every boss from what I could tell? To the point where you literally only had to focus to fight Midir, otherwise you were just reading chat and making jokes midfight? Even with Gael and Friede and shit? Is that just experience or did you datamine every single boss' frame data and commit it to memory?

Glad you are enjoying the vods, haha.

Yeah see, I take personal issue whenever people start with the whole "Soulsborne games are codified by dying in one hit" bullshit people just decided to believe because they were garbage at building characters. You can get so, so tanky in any given Dark Souls, as I've proven countless times, even here with the dagger build, and yet, this line of thought is pervasive even among industry professionals! You go play Nioh 1 or Code Vein and they fucking also bought into that! Everything kills you in one-two hits in those games because of how prevalent the objectively incorrect opinion on how the game works was and still is. And it's not like Fromsoft has encouraged it, either, you can be Very Tanky in any of their games. Even Bloodborne, which is the most touch-and-go, agility based game, lets you take some considerable damage before you keel over. Whenever I hear people say something to the effect of "oh, Dark Souls, and games like it, are just hellishly, unfairly difficult because you just die in one or two hits" all I can hear is "I'm Very Bad At This Game And Have Opinions On It Even Though I Don't Know Much About The Game". It's not like pumping your STR or DEX to 40 frame one at the start of a run does you any favors, you get shit damage from stats in the early game, stats only contribute meaningfully to damage in the late midgame and endgame, when your upgraded weapons have scaling worth shit. You're meant to level up 1) dmg stats for weapon requirements 2) everything else into weight limit, stamina, HP, attunement, etc utility and quality of life stats for your build in the early game, and you start leveling dmg stats around the midgame.

Anyways! Yes chat lets me know about my habits more often than I figure them out myself, I find it really funny, though. To answer your question, I know the frame data just from experience. I have over 1000 hours of gameplay on DS3 specifically, and like 1700 hours over the three Souls games, not counting Sekiro, Bloodborne and Elden Ring. I'm dangerously obsessed with Soulsborne but that's given me insight and the ability to do party tricks like the ones you see in the vods, like low profiling specific moves or doing the barehanded switch parries, hahaha. It also helps that I did a Soul Level 1 run of DS3 and had to learn bosses REALLY well in order to finish it.

Anyways play Soulsborne and feel free to ask me any questions about it, they are my favorite games.

[vagabond-sol]

Questions to Self:

™ - Do any inspirations for how your muse fights come from other media? List or describe them.

Absolutely! And probably part of why I have such a love for monk as an archetype. I’ll list the sources as Major and minor as well as the specifics of what I mean.

Major:

Monty Oum Animations/RvB(Web Show?): Over the top action, resourceful fighters, superhuman but not DBZ levels of flailing. This is the level of ass beating Caz puts out just fewer people get back up for seconds.

The Raid: Redemption (Movie): Again resourceful, brutal, crazy action that just goes on and on. Choreography was immaculate and the whole thing just keeps ya wanting more. Go watch it if ya like action movie and don’t mind some brutal kills and subtitles, assuming you don’t speak Indonesian.

The Devil May Cry Series (Game): Smoking Sick Style! You know why this is here. Fist weapons were my favorite with Nero’s devil bringer being a close second. While Caz isn’t the taunting type, he will style on someone if they duel him or if the mood takes him. Also Devil Triggers are cool!

FFXIV Trailers: Every time monk appears in a CG trailer I feel pure power so Stormblood was a full meal. But seriously seeing the level of power Monks are truly capable of helps set Cazhim’s level of physical ability in my mind. I mean I love Monk in game but you DO just punch people in the butt until they die so again it’s good to see what it’s supposed to look like. Technically not other media but it’s too important so bleh

Minor:

Absolver (Game): While it has its flaws that game is 100% running around and learning martial arts through combat to mix moves from different disciplines to craft your own powerful homunculus of punch. Plus light but useful magic, very on brand.

Hulk: Ultimate Destruction (Game): My first touch of 3rd person action. Fighting off groups of Hulkbusters by pile driving one into another before nailing one to a wall with a tree just so you can machine gun punch him into dust was all I needed. Taking super strength and a list of skills against a force of enemies similar to me sparked the fires of action in my soul. Honorable mention to Prototype (Game).

Nioh 2(Game): I gave Cazhim a few changes due to Nioh 2 but it definitely gave me insight into not only fist weapons and sick throws but also tonfas, kusarigama and spears. Just a good game for weapon ideas. Excellent duels. Also Devil Triggers are cool!! (Its called Yokai Shift but its a fucking Devil Trigger.)

The Dragon Ball Series(Show): Look...sometimes they have good fights that aren’t arm flailing parties. Honestly it’s mostly for beam ideas. Or the literal stomp into the ground. I like that.

Alright there’s probably some slipping my mind right now but the list can’t be infinite. So long story short, you’re in trouble if you square up on Cazhim and can’t simultaneously take and give an earthshaking, metal crunching, jaw breaking punch. And that’s just to stand a chance. I’d include gifs but that’s a lot of gifs so look it up or play it if ya can.

[redphienix]

It’s the weekly (not weekly) post telling you to play games I enjoy aggressively:

Dwarf Fortress: 

That “Impossible to approach” ascii game (that doesn’t have to be ascii, there are tilesets and image packs, but I’ve stuck to ascii thus far).

I’ll put it to you this way, skip if anything makes you go “Actually nah”.

Do you enjoy base building games? what with figuring out defenses, managing your units, crafting exactly what you want?

How about open-ended ones where the goal is up to you? Do you strive for a military strong enough to conquer the goblin death pits? Maybe you see the jerkwad elves asking to trade while belittling what Dwarvenkind can accomplish and you decide it’s time to burn down their woodlands? Maybe you just want to have the best library with the most creative scholars, or a tavern the size of six football fields that people from all ends of the world come to visit?

Maybe you want to see what happens when you dig into a volcano despite the many warnings of hot stones?

Beekeeping? Animal raising? Booze? Crafts? Archery? Traps galore? Hunt monsters? Forbidden Beasts? Drop lava on things? Get drunk?

Anything really. Well if you enjoy or want to try that then you can download right now for free (link is the name of the game above^^)

If you enjoy that but feel apprehensive you can watch this 30 min crash course and (speak from experience here) you’ll be fine (LINK).

If you enjoy that but feel apprehensive yada yada and want to see this with graphics then give the forums a visit because things like this exist: http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=126076

Newb packs often come with tilesets and graphics pre-installed for experiences more like this: 

(THIS IS AN EXAMPLE OF THE FUTURE PAID STEAM VERSION, GRAPHICS LIKE THIS EXIST BUT JUST POINTING OUT THIS IS THE FUTURE CURRENTLY UNRELEASED VERSION ETC)

Anyway, that’s a good game, should probably mention another so- next.

Toukiden 2: 

You know Monster Hunter?

Of course you do, you have good tastes and you’re really cool and I hear you’re popular.

Well, Toukiden in my opinion is what would happen is monhun was pushed like 35% further towards single play rather than coop play.

What I mean is, if Monster Hunter put that much more effort into the single player story (not an A+ but certainly pushes away from Monster Hunter’s C- story structure) and the developers designed the game to give you a full experience from that solo play instead of “Coop or it’s bland”.

I really love Toukiden 2, I grabbed it on GC Positive’s video’s praise (Seriously go watch this because GC makes phenomenal videos and it will say so much more about the game than I will be saying here. I’ll emphasize the gameplay a bit, he emphasizes the message)- And it quickly became my personal favorite twist on the Monhun style.

Admittedly, I have tastes.

Not good ones, not bad ones, I have come to realize in the past decade or so that I have specific tastes in games that really REALLY feel perfect to me but are burdensome to others.

The reason I love Toukiden 2 is the same reason I love Nioh. Well not all the reasons, but they have a similar thread and THAT is the same reason I love them.

I love both for many reasons, but the thread is “In-depth customization of character strengths without destroying a simple combat system”. Or. Something like that.

I like games where you can go deep into character builds. Nioh is Dark Souls if you could make exactly 5 billion different character builds with different win conditions and tactics for increasing their efficacy instead of Dark Souls traditional 3-5 builds (Str/Dex/Mag/Fth/Bow). (NOT to belittle souls, I love souls, but play both back to back and you’ll get what I mean by Nioh being “Souls with builds galore”)

Toukiden 2 is Monster Hunter if Monster Hunter let you craft like 16 different builds for every weapon in the game, while avoiding over complicating everything (my same view on Nioh).

For short example off the top of my head.

Monster Hunter, you pick Great Sword, you build for GS. Meaning you likely toss quick sheath on there, maybe draw skills like crit draw (depends on goal/game/build, yes, Monster Hunter is also huge on builds), then generic damage buffs like attack if low rank or crit if G rank.

In Toukiden 2 you pick the great club (Great Sword equivalent).

Your armor is just defense.

Oh... okay. So it’s simpler there that’s nice.

Well the builds are both simple and offer a lot to play with which I like.

As you play you unlock various mitama, or spirits of warriors from the past (to put it simple as hell for this post).

You equip up to 3 of them: A Weapon mitama (general skill), An Evasive mitama (evasion skill), and An Attack Mitama (attack skill).

The weapon mitama is the main one, it determines what 4 skills you get to cast which can be anything from a magic bolt attack to creating clones that copy your attacks for more damage, to raw buffs, to healing- tons of options but all condensed down to “3 unique skills per ‘TYPE’ and Recovery, a jack of all trades heal that every mitama has”

The Evasive gives a buff to cast that is usually defensive in nature, and the Attack mitama generally gives a buff that’s offensive in nature. Again, both of these are determined by the TYPE, so there aren’t a billion options, just a fair amount. But that fair amount is expanded because:

Huh, still seems simple enough to understand but I bet there’s a lot of combining to do there! Correct!

BUT ALSO EACH MITAMA CAN EQUIP 3 SKILLS THAT PASSIVELY INCREASE YOUR ABILITIES, WHA! AND THESE SKILLS ARE PICKED FROM A LIST EACH MITAMA HAS THAT IS UNIQUE TO THEM?

AND DEPENDING ON THE RELATIONSHIP OR CORRELATION THE THREE WARRIORS YOUR MITAMA REPRESENT HELD DURING LIFE YOU CAN GET A BONUS, WHHHAA!

It’s fun to build, and the gameplay is A+.

By the end you have a ‘Great Sword’ build that creates after images of itself to smash the enemy three times with each fully charges slam while also gaining defense buffs because your three spirits like each others company.

Now I mentioned it’s single player oriented, what I mean is they put more effort there than Monhun traditionally does, not that the multi is lacking.

The single player has an actual story, and mostly revolves around you making new friends. Said friends become AI controlled hunters you can bring on any hunt which is a big boon. Also the world is open world (before World did it and moreso than world did it) and random events occur for you to involve yourself with!

Now the only caveat is that unlike Dwarf Fortress this game is not free. The link included in the name of the game is to the steam page, I play on PS4, it’s a whole thing.

I will say that it DOES have a free version of the low rank multiplayer so you can give the game a try before you actually buy. I highly recommend it if you’re into “builds” or the era of Oni portrayed, or just want some more Monster Hunter.

[satoshi-mochida]

Publisher Koei Tecmo and developer Team Ninja will release a time limited “Last Chance Trial” demo for Nioh 2 via the PlayStation Store on February 28 at 12:00 a.m. PT, which will run through March 1 at 11:59 p.m. PT.

The demo will feature three missions, detailed character customization, the ability to summon Yokai to assist in battle, and the new Switchglaive weapon. Save data from the demo will not carry over to the full game, but your created characters appearance does.

Here are some new details on the game, via the PlayStation Blog:

How Nioh 2 Stands Apart

Like many players, I love masocore games that test my skill and force me to improve while also building up my character. I’ve played my fair share of action RPGs set in dark fantasy worlds, where the lowest-ranking enemy can one-shot careless players. Despite my appreciation of the genre, I missed out on the first Nioh, and have anticipated Nioh 2 as a jumping-on point for the series.

After playing the game for a few hours, I walked away with a clearer picture of what makes Team Ninja’s samurai journey unique within the tough-yet-fair genre.

Yokai Presence

Nioh 2 fuses feudal Japanese history with mythological creatures called Yokai. The result is a refreshing, fantastical blend of visceral samurai combat and enchanting magic.

“Japanese people are familiar with the concept of Yokai,” says Fumihiko Yasuda, Team Ninja producer. “We’ve grown up hearing stories about them in folklore and they can appear in many different forms. Not all of them are enemies; some are friendly or are simply spirits that live in objects. We wanted to share that Japanese tradition with the world, that’s why it’s special to me.”

Yokai Abilities

These spirits are much more than eye-catching set dressing – they’re intrinsically woven into combat. Bosses may summon raging boars or fiery wolves to cut you down mid-battle. Unlike the previous game, players can summon their own Yokai to perform powerful attacks, like a brutish ogre that clobbers foes with a huge club. Don’t let these powerful attacks make you overconfident, though – you’re still susceptible to deadly attacks. The layer of Yokai-enhanced combat keeps melee feeling fresh.

Ki Management

Every weapon swing, dodge roll, and blocked attack costs you stamina. This resource is called “ki” in Nioh 2. Mastering the Ki Pulse technique is critical for outlasting your foes, and sets Nioh apart. Tapping the R1 button with precise timing as you complete a combo triggers a Ki Pulse, quickly restoring your ki. To assist timing, pay attention to energy collecting towards your character, and the white bar filling atop your ki bar. Practice this critical technique early on, and you’ll be thanking yourself later.

The Dark Realm

Certain enemies shroud themself in the ki-sapping Dark Realm. Sometimes this manifests as a puddle-like aura emanating from a singular enemy. The effect slows ki regeneration to a crawl, but a well-timed Ki Pulse instantly dissipates this aura. In Nioh 2, some enemies cause entire rooms to be corrupted by the Dark Realm. Dispel the bad mojo by destroying that enemy. The Dark Realm wrinkle can infuse the most average battle with new challenge, so don’t rest on our laurels.

Weapon Variety and Stances

Nioh 2 features a robust arsenal of close-combat weapons. Choose a trusty katana, massive hammer, or get stylish with chained kusarigamas. The breadth of options is matched with impressive depth, as each weapon supports low, medium, and high stances. Low stance is highly defensive with short, safe, low-damage attacks. High stance prioritizes big, high-risk attacks that leave players open to lethal damage. Naturally, the medium stance is an all-purpose balance. The exciting benefit is that there’s much to master about each specific weapon, even after you master the medium stance.

Two new deadly weapons also join the lineup in Nioh 2, adding even more diversity to the impressive options.

“Nioh [1] had seven weapon types. With Switchglaives and Hatchets players have two new weapon types [in Nioh 2],” Yasuda-san says. “They’re all well-balanced — no one weapon type is better than another. Dual hatchets have long range, and depending on your stance they will have different range and different combos. Try them and find out what works best for you!”

Takeaway

Fans of masocore epics should absolutely dive into Nioh 2. Appreciation for the genre isn’t requisite to enjoying Team Ninja’s latest, however. Nioh 2 packs in enough customization and depth that players are bound to find a weapon and combat style that suits their style. Be cautious, master your ki, and prepare for a potent challenge with every step.

Nioh 2 is due out for PlayStation 4 on March 12 in Japan and March 13 worldwide. If you missed it, watch the latest trailer here.