I think my first impulse upon composing a new entry for this blog is to bemoan the fact that I haven't been updating as frequently as I'd like. I try to quash that feeling as soon as it comes because this blog isn't supposed to be an obligation for me in the first place. It's a place for me to hone my craft and to exercise my creative muscles so they don't atrophy. Any illusion that it's more than that is harmful. After all, I'm not going to write well if I feel like it's coming from a place of obligation. Okay, well, maybe that's not entirely true because if I were to be paid for writing I'd be writing constantly. I'm backing myself into a monologue corner here.
The month of May on this blog was concerned almost entirely with Bloodborne with a little Etrian Odyssey on the side. There's something about that game and the emotions it inspired in me that really sparked my imagination. I've written a lot more about that game that I have not published. There's a good chance I'll be sharing that at some point soon as well because although the premise of the piece I wrote might seem a little forced to some, it comes from a genuine place.
Since I last published an entry, I've managed to finish both Etrian Odyssey Nexus (just yesterday) and Yakuza 0, two games on which I spent a considerable amount of time. At the end of the day, the amount of time I spent on both was actually similar, but how I perceived that time was very different.
I first started Etrian Odyssey Nexus back in February on release day. I was really excited about it and posted an initial impression after I'd played 5-6 hours. At that time, I was very positive on the game, but as I progressed further and further, the cracks started to show. It became repetitive and frustrating in all the worst ways. There were sparks of fun and innovation here and there, but for the most part, the middle chunk of the game was a slog. As a result, it took me over three months to finish the game, chipping it away at it over the weekends. Looking back, I finished Etrian Odyssey IV in a similar fashion, while V was finished in a tight month.
My final playtime on Etrian Odyssey Nexus was roughly 89 hours, which, don't get me wrong, is a long time to play any game, but I've played a lot of RPGs in that range so it's not entirely unusual. Even so, the process of actually playing through it felt like an eternity. This is mostly because there are so many stretches of that game where nothing really changes. After unlocking my characters' core abilities, the ways fights progressed was almost identical from encounter to encounter for hours and hours of time. Boss fights spiced up the formula a bit, but when you spend 5-6 hours in a dungeon only to spend maybe 10 minutes on the boss fight, it's easy to see where that ratio solves very little.
On the other hand, I spent about 80 hours on Yakuza 0, which is much longer than I expected to spend on it after finishing Yakuza Kiwami in less than half that time. The crucial difference here is that it honestly felt like that 80 hours flew by. It helps that I finished the game in a much shorter timeframe overall, but the more important deciding factor is that it ended up being a game I just enjoyed a whole lot more than Etrian Odyssey.
Yakuza 0 is not a perfect video game by any stretch of the imagination. The structure of the game is entrenched in PS2-era conventions, both in terms of the way your characters interact with NPCs and the environment, and in how you navigate menus. Like many Japanese games, Yakuza 0 has a lot of menus, and they're just as clunky and annoying to navigate as any JRPG, even if this game is a straight-up narrative brawler. The core gameplay itself is not all that engaging either, since it primarily consists of roaming the streets and busting thugs' heads, but like many video games, Yakuza 0 is so much more than the sum of its parts.
I won't do a deep dive on it here, but what really sticks with me about Yakuza 0 is just how much I engaged with the story. It is a ridiculous, hyper-masculine soap opera in which business-suited crime lords spit envenomed words at each other with deadly seriousness. The game treats this story so seriously and gives it so much weight that it wasn't difficult to become invested in it--but then what makes the game so interesting and bizarre is that outside of these narrative sequences, the game is significantly more wacky. You'll find protagonist Kiryu Kazama racing what are essentially RC cars with a bunch of little kids, playing arcade games, chatting up anonymous ladies at a telephone club, and running a real estate business where he faces off against the appropriately named Five Billionaires, a group of increasingly extravagantly wealthy scumbags.
That disconnect between segments where you are free to roam around and participate in side activities and then the intensely structured central narrative is disorienting at first, but the more I played of it, the more I found I really enjoyed it. I was free to mess around and do whatever I wanted most of the time, but when I was ready to buckle down and watch this intense Japanese drama, I could advance the storyline. I really loved it and still wanted more by the time the game wrapped. Its a game with enough variety to sustain you for a very long period of time. I would never have thought I'd spent 80 hours on it. In the case of Etrian Odyssey, I felt it'd been far longer.
Tuesday, June 4, 2019
Tuesday, May 14, 2019
My Personal Bloodborne Narrative, Part 3
Recently, I accomplished something I was skeptical I'd ever be able to do. I reached the final boss of Bloodborne. Of course, I know I'm far from the only person to have achieved this goal, but considering my sordid history with Bloodborne and Souls games in general, it's an accomplishment I'm proud of all the same.
If we want to be technical, I've actually beaten the final boss of Bloodborne, but this is only something I was aware of after doing a little research. The true final boss still eludes me and likely will continue to do so unless I mount a New Game+ run. There are essentially three bosses that can be considered the "final" boss. Once I've vanquished the second of those, I'll feel comfortable calling the game complete.
In the meantime, though, I decided that I wanted more Bloodborne and went ahead and purchased the Old Hunters DLC. Since the bosses included in that content are reportedly much more difficult in a NG+ run, I decided to forego my attempts at the final boss for now and delve into the Hunter's Nightmare.
I'm pretty impressed at just how much content that DLC has. I balked at first at the $20 price tag, but now that I've made my way through it, I'm starting to feel it's warranted. The base game contains a good variety of weapons, but the DLC feature a whole slew of new ones, including some new favorites like the Boom Hammer, a fiery war hammer, the Whirligig Axe, which is essentially a mace attached to a buzzsaw, and the Holy Moonlight Sword, an extremely fun greatsword that can fire off beams of energy with its heavy attacks. Although I'd spent the bulk of the base game alternating between the Hunter's Axe, Ludwig's Holy Blade, and the Logarius Wheel, I've now switched to using the DLC weapons full time just because they're so much fun to use.
I only have a couple of bosses left in Old Hunters, but based on what I've read, the worst is already over. Ludwig himself, the grotesque, mutated amalgam of horse and man, was possibly the hardest boss I've defeated in Bloodborne so far. Still, after many attempts and much familiarization with the Whirligig Axe, I was finally able to take him down with only a few blood vials left to spare.
Although I'm not entirely clear on exactly what the lore of Old Hunters entails, it makes sense that it takes place either in the past or in an alternate dimension of sorts. The initial area of the game is very similar to the streets of Yharnam around the Cathedral Ward, but its warped and twisted in ways that prevent you from accessing areas you might be familiar with. The chamber in which you encounter Vicar Amelia in the main game now contains an enormous corpse of what I assume to be an earlier vicar. The streets of Yharnam in the Hunter's Nightmare contain many aggressive hunters instead of the shambling plagued townspeople you might have encountered instead. These more aggressive enemies lash out at you with deadly whip blades and hammers, much in contrast to the placid attack patterns of the early enemies in the base game.
The first area of the DLC definitely took me some time, with several spots that served as huge stumbling blocks. The first area I really struggled with was the series of caves near the river of blood in which a Blood-Starved Beast lurks, surrounded by gnarled little minions just like the ones in Old Yharnam near the Church of the Good Chalice. He's not treated as a boss this time but if I had to guess, he has just as much health as the boss I fought hours and hours of playtime ago. When I first encountered him, I dropped down on him from above and wasn't prepared for such a tough encounter. The second time I got to him, I had trouble even making it there since I had to weave through at least a dozen annoying, blood-spewing flea demons.
After finally making it through that section, I hit another stumbling block when I came across two giants with Cthulhu-esque face tentacles, one of which carries an enormous blade, and the other a cannon. Individually, they're pretty tough, but together they're almost impossible to take down. After employing a strategy that involved an absurd amount of dodging, I finally made it past them, where I then encountered Ludwig, the toughest boss in the game so far. Of course this happened before I found a checkpoint and then I had to retread my steps once again.
It's been slow going, but I'm impressed at the progress I've made so far, even when I find myself repeating the same content over and over. It only makes it more satisfying when I really learn the steps to taking down these encounters and find a new lantern to make it easier to delve deeper into the Nightmare. I've since completed the following section in the Research Hall, which, although difficult, was significantly easier than the first part.
At this rate, I feel pretty confident that I'm going to be able to complete the game for good. I've defeated some of the most difficult bosses the game has to offer and even if it takes some time, I know I can take down the rest, even if the section I'm in now makes me want to tear my hair out.
If we want to be technical, I've actually beaten the final boss of Bloodborne, but this is only something I was aware of after doing a little research. The true final boss still eludes me and likely will continue to do so unless I mount a New Game+ run. There are essentially three bosses that can be considered the "final" boss. Once I've vanquished the second of those, I'll feel comfortable calling the game complete.
In the meantime, though, I decided that I wanted more Bloodborne and went ahead and purchased the Old Hunters DLC. Since the bosses included in that content are reportedly much more difficult in a NG+ run, I decided to forego my attempts at the final boss for now and delve into the Hunter's Nightmare.
I'm pretty impressed at just how much content that DLC has. I balked at first at the $20 price tag, but now that I've made my way through it, I'm starting to feel it's warranted. The base game contains a good variety of weapons, but the DLC feature a whole slew of new ones, including some new favorites like the Boom Hammer, a fiery war hammer, the Whirligig Axe, which is essentially a mace attached to a buzzsaw, and the Holy Moonlight Sword, an extremely fun greatsword that can fire off beams of energy with its heavy attacks. Although I'd spent the bulk of the base game alternating between the Hunter's Axe, Ludwig's Holy Blade, and the Logarius Wheel, I've now switched to using the DLC weapons full time just because they're so much fun to use.
I only have a couple of bosses left in Old Hunters, but based on what I've read, the worst is already over. Ludwig himself, the grotesque, mutated amalgam of horse and man, was possibly the hardest boss I've defeated in Bloodborne so far. Still, after many attempts and much familiarization with the Whirligig Axe, I was finally able to take him down with only a few blood vials left to spare.
Although I'm not entirely clear on exactly what the lore of Old Hunters entails, it makes sense that it takes place either in the past or in an alternate dimension of sorts. The initial area of the game is very similar to the streets of Yharnam around the Cathedral Ward, but its warped and twisted in ways that prevent you from accessing areas you might be familiar with. The chamber in which you encounter Vicar Amelia in the main game now contains an enormous corpse of what I assume to be an earlier vicar. The streets of Yharnam in the Hunter's Nightmare contain many aggressive hunters instead of the shambling plagued townspeople you might have encountered instead. These more aggressive enemies lash out at you with deadly whip blades and hammers, much in contrast to the placid attack patterns of the early enemies in the base game.
The first area of the DLC definitely took me some time, with several spots that served as huge stumbling blocks. The first area I really struggled with was the series of caves near the river of blood in which a Blood-Starved Beast lurks, surrounded by gnarled little minions just like the ones in Old Yharnam near the Church of the Good Chalice. He's not treated as a boss this time but if I had to guess, he has just as much health as the boss I fought hours and hours of playtime ago. When I first encountered him, I dropped down on him from above and wasn't prepared for such a tough encounter. The second time I got to him, I had trouble even making it there since I had to weave through at least a dozen annoying, blood-spewing flea demons.
After finally making it through that section, I hit another stumbling block when I came across two giants with Cthulhu-esque face tentacles, one of which carries an enormous blade, and the other a cannon. Individually, they're pretty tough, but together they're almost impossible to take down. After employing a strategy that involved an absurd amount of dodging, I finally made it past them, where I then encountered Ludwig, the toughest boss in the game so far. Of course this happened before I found a checkpoint and then I had to retread my steps once again.
It's been slow going, but I'm impressed at the progress I've made so far, even when I find myself repeating the same content over and over. It only makes it more satisfying when I really learn the steps to taking down these encounters and find a new lantern to make it easier to delve deeper into the Nightmare. I've since completed the following section in the Research Hall, which, although difficult, was significantly easier than the first part.
At this rate, I feel pretty confident that I'm going to be able to complete the game for good. I've defeated some of the most difficult bosses the game has to offer and even if it takes some time, I know I can take down the rest, even if the section I'm in now makes me want to tear my hair out.
Tuesday, May 7, 2019
My Personal Bloodborne Narrative, Part 2
The way I feel about Bloodborne continues to shift and evolve over time. I'm still not done with the game, but I'm much further in than last time, thanks to dedicating the better part of two days off to the game. Is the amount of time I dedicated to it reflected in the amount of progress I've made? Maybe not. It is, as ever, a very difficult game that requires multiple attempts on every challenge--at least for the most part.
I discussed in my previous Bloodborne entry most of the events leading up to the gatling gun hunter, Djura, in Old Yharnam. As it happens, I just recently revisited that area, climbed the tower, and effortlessly dispatched said hunter, having gained many hours of experience and resources from tackling much tougher foes in other areas of the game. It was almost comical how quickly and easily that fight progressed, and how that hunter helplessly fell to his death from his gatling gun vantage point.
Part of the joy of Bloodborne is how the game's structure is very circular. You'll progress further and further into the game only to find that eventually, you end up where you started again. Maybe this time you'll find that you can more easily defeat the enemies in that area. In typical RPG fashion, your stats and weaponry have progressed to a point where the enemies there no longer pose a challenge. It's not just about that, though. It's about pattern and behavior as well. Some enemies attack in very unpredictable ways and are very aggressive about doing so. Once you discover how to exploit these random attack patterns, it becomes more trivial to defeat enemies that take a more predictable approach.
It might feel like very lantern checkpoint in the game is spaced very far apart or that it's unfair they're not typically positioned right before boss encounters. Fortunately, the way the game's levels are designed remedies this problem by creating pathways and shortcuts that allow you to reach the area's boss quickly, regardless of lantern location. This structure rewards exploration in a great way. If you don't take the time to explore every pathway, you might end up facing a tough boss and have no way to reach it again quickly should you fall. This is a core element of Bloodborne that at first I found very frustrating, particularly when dying over and over to Father Gascoigne. As I've progressed further, I've come to realize that I appreciate the organic way in which these shortcuts provide multiple pathways from a level's checkpoint.
I find the level designs satisfying in much the same way as I would in a good Metroidvania. Everything is interconnected, sometimes in surprising ways. I can't count the number of times I've been delighted at where I ended up after opening a certain door or exploring a certain path. Often I'll reach a new area and think it seems familiar, until I jump down onto a ledge or cross a corner and realize, "wow, I'm back here again." The best example of this I can think of is when I found a ladder in a cave in the Forbidden Woods. I climbed up the ladder and all of a sudden I'd emerged from a tomb in the graveyard from the very beginning of the game, right next to Iosefka's Clinic.
Bloodborne is full of moments like that, not just in its level design, but with the way it surprises you with its obstacles and monsters. For example, early on in the game, there's a sewer in Central Yharnam where you'll find an enormous pig that doesn't hesitate to charge you when you get in its sight. When I first encountered it, I was quickly defeated. The second time, I avoided it entirely and quickly scrambled up the ladder next to it. It wasn't until after I'd died many times to Father Gascoigne that I managed to find a ladder that led down to the sewers behind the pig. Suddenly, I found that I could sneak up behind him and defeat him with a visceral attack without him ever even seeing me.
A little while later, when you're wading through filthy water in the Forbidden Woods, fending off ghastly swamp zombies, if you're listening carefully, you'll hear the familiar sound of grunts in the distance. I had to stop for a moment and listen. I wondered if I'd actually just heard that. I wouldn't have thought anything of it had I not had such a hard time with the pig in the sewers, but now I waded through those waters with trepidation.
There's another moment in the game where a gangly figure with a bag slung over its shoulder will attack you in the Cathedral Ward. When I encountered him, I couldn't help but notice he was significantly stronger than other enemies in the area and I fell to him quickly. I expected to respawn back at the lantern as usual, but instead woke up in a prison--on the other side of the locked gate I'd seen earlier. After a harrowing escape from the prison in which I was tasked with defeating several of those spooky bagmen, I managed to reach the Hypogean Gaol lamp and warp out of there. After significant trial and error, I was able to venture a little bit further into the streets, where I was assailed by a number of diseased dogs.
Much later in the game, I arrived at Yahar'gul, the Unseen Village, a hellish area where slain enemies are resurrected quickly afterward by ghostly women carrying bells. After pressing deeper into that area and dying many times, I eventually reached the Yahar'gul Chapel lamp, which led me to what I was surprised to find was the Hypogean Gaol lamp from much earlier in the game when I'd escaped from prison. That lamp was now inactive and I realized that if I'd never been captured in the first place, this would have been my first time seeing the area.
These moments of revelation are what I find endlessly satisfying about Bloodborne, even as it simultaneously makes me want to scream from frustration. I haven't even taken the time to talk about the spellbinding art direction and fascinating cosmic horror aesthetic of some of the game's later enemies. But I've written enough about Bloodborne for today.
I discussed in my previous Bloodborne entry most of the events leading up to the gatling gun hunter, Djura, in Old Yharnam. As it happens, I just recently revisited that area, climbed the tower, and effortlessly dispatched said hunter, having gained many hours of experience and resources from tackling much tougher foes in other areas of the game. It was almost comical how quickly and easily that fight progressed, and how that hunter helplessly fell to his death from his gatling gun vantage point.
Part of the joy of Bloodborne is how the game's structure is very circular. You'll progress further and further into the game only to find that eventually, you end up where you started again. Maybe this time you'll find that you can more easily defeat the enemies in that area. In typical RPG fashion, your stats and weaponry have progressed to a point where the enemies there no longer pose a challenge. It's not just about that, though. It's about pattern and behavior as well. Some enemies attack in very unpredictable ways and are very aggressive about doing so. Once you discover how to exploit these random attack patterns, it becomes more trivial to defeat enemies that take a more predictable approach.
It might feel like very lantern checkpoint in the game is spaced very far apart or that it's unfair they're not typically positioned right before boss encounters. Fortunately, the way the game's levels are designed remedies this problem by creating pathways and shortcuts that allow you to reach the area's boss quickly, regardless of lantern location. This structure rewards exploration in a great way. If you don't take the time to explore every pathway, you might end up facing a tough boss and have no way to reach it again quickly should you fall. This is a core element of Bloodborne that at first I found very frustrating, particularly when dying over and over to Father Gascoigne. As I've progressed further, I've come to realize that I appreciate the organic way in which these shortcuts provide multiple pathways from a level's checkpoint.
I find the level designs satisfying in much the same way as I would in a good Metroidvania. Everything is interconnected, sometimes in surprising ways. I can't count the number of times I've been delighted at where I ended up after opening a certain door or exploring a certain path. Often I'll reach a new area and think it seems familiar, until I jump down onto a ledge or cross a corner and realize, "wow, I'm back here again." The best example of this I can think of is when I found a ladder in a cave in the Forbidden Woods. I climbed up the ladder and all of a sudden I'd emerged from a tomb in the graveyard from the very beginning of the game, right next to Iosefka's Clinic.
Bloodborne is full of moments like that, not just in its level design, but with the way it surprises you with its obstacles and monsters. For example, early on in the game, there's a sewer in Central Yharnam where you'll find an enormous pig that doesn't hesitate to charge you when you get in its sight. When I first encountered it, I was quickly defeated. The second time, I avoided it entirely and quickly scrambled up the ladder next to it. It wasn't until after I'd died many times to Father Gascoigne that I managed to find a ladder that led down to the sewers behind the pig. Suddenly, I found that I could sneak up behind him and defeat him with a visceral attack without him ever even seeing me.
A little while later, when you're wading through filthy water in the Forbidden Woods, fending off ghastly swamp zombies, if you're listening carefully, you'll hear the familiar sound of grunts in the distance. I had to stop for a moment and listen. I wondered if I'd actually just heard that. I wouldn't have thought anything of it had I not had such a hard time with the pig in the sewers, but now I waded through those waters with trepidation.
There's another moment in the game where a gangly figure with a bag slung over its shoulder will attack you in the Cathedral Ward. When I encountered him, I couldn't help but notice he was significantly stronger than other enemies in the area and I fell to him quickly. I expected to respawn back at the lantern as usual, but instead woke up in a prison--on the other side of the locked gate I'd seen earlier. After a harrowing escape from the prison in which I was tasked with defeating several of those spooky bagmen, I managed to reach the Hypogean Gaol lamp and warp out of there. After significant trial and error, I was able to venture a little bit further into the streets, where I was assailed by a number of diseased dogs.
Much later in the game, I arrived at Yahar'gul, the Unseen Village, a hellish area where slain enemies are resurrected quickly afterward by ghostly women carrying bells. After pressing deeper into that area and dying many times, I eventually reached the Yahar'gul Chapel lamp, which led me to what I was surprised to find was the Hypogean Gaol lamp from much earlier in the game when I'd escaped from prison. That lamp was now inactive and I realized that if I'd never been captured in the first place, this would have been my first time seeing the area.
These moments of revelation are what I find endlessly satisfying about Bloodborne, even as it simultaneously makes me want to scream from frustration. I haven't even taken the time to talk about the spellbinding art direction and fascinating cosmic horror aesthetic of some of the game's later enemies. But I've written enough about Bloodborne for today.
Saturday, May 4, 2019
A Nexus of Frustration
I've been working on Etrian Odyssey Nexus off-and-on for about three months now. I would have expected to finish it much sooner, but I keep running into brick walls. With Etrian Odyssey, I'd normally expect my biggest barrier to be its difficulty, but the problem I'm having most of all is that the game has become repetitive.
I really like that the game features a huge variety of classes (nineteen of them!) and at first, I was excited that the game had so many dungeons to explore.
But then it started to become clear, since Nexus is essentially a "Greatest Hits" collection of past Etrian Odyssey releases that every dungeon I came across was a retread of something I'd seen before. It was nice to revisit some of them, but it started to become a little tiring after going through five or six. The only new dungeon in the mix so far involves a cool mechanic in which you can swap between different elevations so that even the walls of the dungeon can be traversed. Then the game proceeds to reuse that dungeon format several times over, utterly destroying whatever novelty it might have had.
Nineteen classes also provides a huge amount of variety for class compositions, but then you have to consider that only one of those is brand new. I really like the Hero class and if several of the other classes were new as well, I'd be way more excited about the game. Maybe I would have felt like there was more with which to experiment if sub-classing unlocked earlier. As it is now, you don't gain the ability to sub-class until Labyrinth 9, a stage at which I was about 45 hours into the game. At that point, I'd already almost entirely filled out my characters' builds. With something like six more major dungeons to go before I finish the game, what do I have to look forward to in terms of character growth? Not much, it seems.
What I thought might have assuaged the game's issues with repetition is experimenting with different party compositions. But then you have to consider that leveling up new characters is a trial in itself because acquiring experience happens so slowly. Sure, the game has an accessory that allows you to share experience among all of your characters, but benched party members only gain about half as much as your primaries, meaning you still have to devote a significant chunk of time to getting them up to speed. That's not even to mention the tremendous amount of Ental (the game's currency) you'll need to spend to ensure they're properly equipped. This is a game in which equipment is very important in tackling foes, too. If your armor isn't up to date, expect to be one-shotted by even basic enemies.
When I first started playing Etrian Odyssey Nexus, I spent a lot of time theorycrafting my party composition and as a result I ended up with a pretty rock-solid lineup. I've only made a couple of changes to it as I've progressed. Noboru the Ninja was eventually subbed out for Xavier the Arcanist, since at the end of the day I was only using the Ninja for his status ailments, and Arcanists simply do that better. I also retooled my Hero, Kalindra to be more offensive after a certain point, since the raw power she had at her disposal was more valuable to me than a more protective build.
Even despite making these changes, the ways battles play out hasn't changed much in the 50+ hours I've played the game. And it's certainly gotten old using the same abilities over and over against enemies I've fought many times before in other Etrian Odyssey titles. Unfortunately, even when I try different party compositions and invest time into making sure they're leveled up and properly equipped, they just don't perform as well as my primary party. Because the game is fairly difficult, it doesn't make a lot of sense to fall back on a party that just doesn't perform as well, so I inevitably will end up going back to my primary party and the same strategies as before. It's an endless cycle.
You'd think there'd be a host of viable party compositions with such a huge roster of playable classes, but then you have to consider that the class archetypes are really distributed suboptimally. Out of all of those classes, only two of them are dedicated healers, for instance, and only three are dedicated back-row damage dealers. This means there are tons of different viable melee classes all competing for slots while you have far fewer options for the back row. Compounding this issue is that the game's new class uses a mechanic in which abilities sometimes create a mirror image character that occupies whatever available space you have in your party. There are a total of six slots in combat, three in both rows. If you have three melee characters in the front row already, then this copy the Hero creates is automatically going to go to the back row where it will deal much less damage and be less effective overall.
Since Hero is the only new class is Etrian Odyssey Nexus, it makes a lot of sense to field one for your team, so if you want to put together a successful party, you might well decide to only feature the Hero and one other melee character in your group. This makes for a paralyzing decision point, since the game features a huge number of viable melee classes, like the glass cannon Ronin, the burst damage Imperial, or the ailment-centric Nightseeker, just to name a few. It feels like you're pigeonholed, even though you have so many different options. It doesn't help that the few back-row damage dealers in the game just aren't that interesting. I've already used the Gunner and Survivalist in previous Etrian Odyssey games and didn't particularly care for them. The Zodiac is painfully boring and always has been.
Repetition has always been an issue in Etrian Odyssey games, but never has it been more of a pressing issue than in Etrian Odyssey Nexus. It's a real shame, because there's a lot the game does well and the premise seemed extremely promising. I know I'll still finish it, but it might take me a few months.
I really like that the game features a huge variety of classes (nineteen of them!) and at first, I was excited that the game had so many dungeons to explore.
But then it started to become clear, since Nexus is essentially a "Greatest Hits" collection of past Etrian Odyssey releases that every dungeon I came across was a retread of something I'd seen before. It was nice to revisit some of them, but it started to become a little tiring after going through five or six. The only new dungeon in the mix so far involves a cool mechanic in which you can swap between different elevations so that even the walls of the dungeon can be traversed. Then the game proceeds to reuse that dungeon format several times over, utterly destroying whatever novelty it might have had.
Nineteen classes also provides a huge amount of variety for class compositions, but then you have to consider that only one of those is brand new. I really like the Hero class and if several of the other classes were new as well, I'd be way more excited about the game. Maybe I would have felt like there was more with which to experiment if sub-classing unlocked earlier. As it is now, you don't gain the ability to sub-class until Labyrinth 9, a stage at which I was about 45 hours into the game. At that point, I'd already almost entirely filled out my characters' builds. With something like six more major dungeons to go before I finish the game, what do I have to look forward to in terms of character growth? Not much, it seems.
What I thought might have assuaged the game's issues with repetition is experimenting with different party compositions. But then you have to consider that leveling up new characters is a trial in itself because acquiring experience happens so slowly. Sure, the game has an accessory that allows you to share experience among all of your characters, but benched party members only gain about half as much as your primaries, meaning you still have to devote a significant chunk of time to getting them up to speed. That's not even to mention the tremendous amount of Ental (the game's currency) you'll need to spend to ensure they're properly equipped. This is a game in which equipment is very important in tackling foes, too. If your armor isn't up to date, expect to be one-shotted by even basic enemies.
When I first started playing Etrian Odyssey Nexus, I spent a lot of time theorycrafting my party composition and as a result I ended up with a pretty rock-solid lineup. I've only made a couple of changes to it as I've progressed. Noboru the Ninja was eventually subbed out for Xavier the Arcanist, since at the end of the day I was only using the Ninja for his status ailments, and Arcanists simply do that better. I also retooled my Hero, Kalindra to be more offensive after a certain point, since the raw power she had at her disposal was more valuable to me than a more protective build.
Even despite making these changes, the ways battles play out hasn't changed much in the 50+ hours I've played the game. And it's certainly gotten old using the same abilities over and over against enemies I've fought many times before in other Etrian Odyssey titles. Unfortunately, even when I try different party compositions and invest time into making sure they're leveled up and properly equipped, they just don't perform as well as my primary party. Because the game is fairly difficult, it doesn't make a lot of sense to fall back on a party that just doesn't perform as well, so I inevitably will end up going back to my primary party and the same strategies as before. It's an endless cycle.
You'd think there'd be a host of viable party compositions with such a huge roster of playable classes, but then you have to consider that the class archetypes are really distributed suboptimally. Out of all of those classes, only two of them are dedicated healers, for instance, and only three are dedicated back-row damage dealers. This means there are tons of different viable melee classes all competing for slots while you have far fewer options for the back row. Compounding this issue is that the game's new class uses a mechanic in which abilities sometimes create a mirror image character that occupies whatever available space you have in your party. There are a total of six slots in combat, three in both rows. If you have three melee characters in the front row already, then this copy the Hero creates is automatically going to go to the back row where it will deal much less damage and be less effective overall.
Since Hero is the only new class is Etrian Odyssey Nexus, it makes a lot of sense to field one for your team, so if you want to put together a successful party, you might well decide to only feature the Hero and one other melee character in your group. This makes for a paralyzing decision point, since the game features a huge number of viable melee classes, like the glass cannon Ronin, the burst damage Imperial, or the ailment-centric Nightseeker, just to name a few. It feels like you're pigeonholed, even though you have so many different options. It doesn't help that the few back-row damage dealers in the game just aren't that interesting. I've already used the Gunner and Survivalist in previous Etrian Odyssey games and didn't particularly care for them. The Zodiac is painfully boring and always has been.
Repetition has always been an issue in Etrian Odyssey games, but never has it been more of a pressing issue than in Etrian Odyssey Nexus. It's a real shame, because there's a lot the game does well and the premise seemed extremely promising. I know I'll still finish it, but it might take me a few months.
Wednesday, May 1, 2019
My Personal Bloodborne Narrative, Part 1
I've tried several times to play Bloodborne. I've given it so many chances because I've been reassured countless times that it is a masterpiece and among the very best the PlayStation 4 has to offer. Much has been made of how satisfying the combat is, how rewarding the exploration is, and how deep and intricate the lore can be, provided you take the time to delve into it.
The first few times I attempted to play the game, I just couldn't understand what others saw in it. The combat to me seemed very clunky and imprecise. I felt I wasn't receiving the same level of feedback I would be getting from other games, action and otherwise. I felt frustrated that every weapon had such extreme windup and that the enemies could easily (and mercilessly) interrupt any of my actions. I even felt limited by the stamina system, because I kept running into situations where I'd wail on an enemy and then be completely unable to escape. Additionally, the aesthetic is grim and very dark, and the graphics are frequently blurry and poorly anti-aliased, which has often resulted in significant eye strain on my part.
It wasn't my first time playing a From Software game, either. I've also tried Dark Souls and Demons' Souls in the past, both of which presented similar problems for me. I struggled with navigation, with the punishing combat, and the high cost of failure.
But I keep trying because I do want to understand why so many people really love these games. Sure, maybe there are better things to be doing with my time, but it really does feel like there's this mysterious gaming nirvana that is just out of my reach. Dark Souls and its ilk have become so popular in recent years and I have to wonder if I've just not understood those games because I've never made a legitimate effort to immerse myself in them.
As of today, I'm about level 60 and 20 hours into Bloodborne. I'm much further in than any previous attempt and I feel like I'm starting to understand it better. It's definitely a more complex game than it seems at the surface level, but it is nonetheless an immensely frustrating game. In fact, it provokes an ugly rage in me that other games rarely do. Enemies mercilessly lash out at you, intent on robbing you of your hard-earned progress. When you fall, as you inevitably will, enemies will continue to swipe and bite at your freshly mangled corpse. Careful play means you can work around these aggressive foes, but doing so requires a level of focus that I don't often need for other games. It's more than that, too. It's about a mindset. I couldn't help but notice that as I progressed further, I became more aware of and comfortable with my character's limitations. That understanding makes certain enemies a lot easier to handle. If I understand how much damage I can deal with certain attacks as well as what kind of range they have and how long they take to play through their animations, then I put myself in a position where I feel much more comfortable tackling foes that at first seemed like significant challenges.
I began to feel like Bloodborne wasn't prepared to let me feel triumphant like other games do. It made me feel frustrated and distressed and even when I did fumble my way through encounters, I didn't feel accomplished. There was relief, to be sure, but little in the way of accomplishment. I didn't feel, for instance, that I was deftly avoiding enemies and crushing them with my athleticism and mastery of my chosen weapon. The only strategy that seemed to work for me against most enemies was to close the distance to enemies and mash the fastest attack possible repeatedly until they fell. There wasn't room for stringing unique attacks together into interesting combos or for strategic play in my mind. I was wrong about that, but because I wasn't accustomed to how these enemies worked and how the game itself worked, I felt pigeonholed in a very uncomfortable way.
After a time, I came to find that the regular plagued townspeople weren't very difficult to kill after all. Because I was so familiar with them from dying to them dozens of times, it gradually become second nature to anticipate their movements, to easily defeat them without taking damage. I discovered that the charged heavy attack with the starting axe was capable of taking down the starting enemies in one shot in most cases. I only needed to make sure that I spaced myself properly and was conscious of how they were moving so I could avoid being interrupted during the long windup time. Knowing this helped me to tackle a lot of other enemies, even when every new enemy I encountered became a new and intimidating obstacle to my progress.
I did a lot of research as I progressed through the game. The game gives you some basic instructions but doesn't go a long way toward tutorializing--which is not to suggest that I think it should. But there are some pretty core components of the combat that I simply wouldn't have known about had I not thought to look them up. I had to read a lot about what the gun is actually useful for--because it's certainly not there to help you kill enemies with its pitiful damage. It does briefly stun enemies, though, and opens them up for a Visceral Attack, a flashy parry that can't be interrupted and deals a lot of damage. This is a technique that was instrumental in defeating Father Gascoigne.
I've now defeated Father Gascoigne twice. After I beat him the first time, I quickly dropped off the game. This is surprising in retrospect because it's such an important milestone in making progress in that game. What prompted me to quit the first time was yet another frustrating stumbling block, the hunter manning a gatling gun in the tower in Old Yharnam. The number of times I died to his gun, the exploding barrels on the way to that tower, or even just standard enemies in my way was staggering. When I stopped playing this time, I had every intention of returning and soldering on, but it didn't happen until months later. At that point, I was so confused about where I was in the game that I was forced to restart.
So, I defeated Gascoigne again and found that it was a little easier this time. It wasn't a fight I was able to complete in one try, but after dying probably one hundred times in my initial run, the second time through went much more smoothly. And when I got to the gatling gun hunter this time, I didn't bother engaging. I ran past him, ignoring my stubborn desire to take revenge for his immensely frustrating potshots. And so I made progress, little by little. I continue to do so now, but it's very interesting just how the narrative changes as I get further. I start to feel powerful, and then the game firmly reminds me that I am but a frail mortal, destined to fall before ever more otherworldly foes. But I'm going to keep trying, because although it provokes a host of negative emotions in me, I know I can make it there.
The first few times I attempted to play the game, I just couldn't understand what others saw in it. The combat to me seemed very clunky and imprecise. I felt I wasn't receiving the same level of feedback I would be getting from other games, action and otherwise. I felt frustrated that every weapon had such extreme windup and that the enemies could easily (and mercilessly) interrupt any of my actions. I even felt limited by the stamina system, because I kept running into situations where I'd wail on an enemy and then be completely unable to escape. Additionally, the aesthetic is grim and very dark, and the graphics are frequently blurry and poorly anti-aliased, which has often resulted in significant eye strain on my part.
It wasn't my first time playing a From Software game, either. I've also tried Dark Souls and Demons' Souls in the past, both of which presented similar problems for me. I struggled with navigation, with the punishing combat, and the high cost of failure.
But I keep trying because I do want to understand why so many people really love these games. Sure, maybe there are better things to be doing with my time, but it really does feel like there's this mysterious gaming nirvana that is just out of my reach. Dark Souls and its ilk have become so popular in recent years and I have to wonder if I've just not understood those games because I've never made a legitimate effort to immerse myself in them.
As of today, I'm about level 60 and 20 hours into Bloodborne. I'm much further in than any previous attempt and I feel like I'm starting to understand it better. It's definitely a more complex game than it seems at the surface level, but it is nonetheless an immensely frustrating game. In fact, it provokes an ugly rage in me that other games rarely do. Enemies mercilessly lash out at you, intent on robbing you of your hard-earned progress. When you fall, as you inevitably will, enemies will continue to swipe and bite at your freshly mangled corpse. Careful play means you can work around these aggressive foes, but doing so requires a level of focus that I don't often need for other games. It's more than that, too. It's about a mindset. I couldn't help but notice that as I progressed further, I became more aware of and comfortable with my character's limitations. That understanding makes certain enemies a lot easier to handle. If I understand how much damage I can deal with certain attacks as well as what kind of range they have and how long they take to play through their animations, then I put myself in a position where I feel much more comfortable tackling foes that at first seemed like significant challenges.
In a game like Bloodborne, it's very easy to let your emotions get the better of you. Frustration, anger, and even fear have caused me to make a lot of mistakes that made me think more negatively of the game. There is a stress inherent to many of the game's systems. Defeating the game's first major boss, Father Gascoigne, is a tremendous exercise in frustration because every enemy you encounter on the way is its own struggle. From the very beginning, the first plagued townspeople teach you that every enemy is a threat. I died to even these most simple of enemies dozens of times. It felt like the game wasn't prepared to let me feel powerful the way most games do. It wanted me to feel broken and defeated.
I began to feel like Bloodborne wasn't prepared to let me feel triumphant like other games do. It made me feel frustrated and distressed and even when I did fumble my way through encounters, I didn't feel accomplished. There was relief, to be sure, but little in the way of accomplishment. I didn't feel, for instance, that I was deftly avoiding enemies and crushing them with my athleticism and mastery of my chosen weapon. The only strategy that seemed to work for me against most enemies was to close the distance to enemies and mash the fastest attack possible repeatedly until they fell. There wasn't room for stringing unique attacks together into interesting combos or for strategic play in my mind. I was wrong about that, but because I wasn't accustomed to how these enemies worked and how the game itself worked, I felt pigeonholed in a very uncomfortable way.
After a time, I came to find that the regular plagued townspeople weren't very difficult to kill after all. Because I was so familiar with them from dying to them dozens of times, it gradually become second nature to anticipate their movements, to easily defeat them without taking damage. I discovered that the charged heavy attack with the starting axe was capable of taking down the starting enemies in one shot in most cases. I only needed to make sure that I spaced myself properly and was conscious of how they were moving so I could avoid being interrupted during the long windup time. Knowing this helped me to tackle a lot of other enemies, even when every new enemy I encountered became a new and intimidating obstacle to my progress.
I did a lot of research as I progressed through the game. The game gives you some basic instructions but doesn't go a long way toward tutorializing--which is not to suggest that I think it should. But there are some pretty core components of the combat that I simply wouldn't have known about had I not thought to look them up. I had to read a lot about what the gun is actually useful for--because it's certainly not there to help you kill enemies with its pitiful damage. It does briefly stun enemies, though, and opens them up for a Visceral Attack, a flashy parry that can't be interrupted and deals a lot of damage. This is a technique that was instrumental in defeating Father Gascoigne.
I've now defeated Father Gascoigne twice. After I beat him the first time, I quickly dropped off the game. This is surprising in retrospect because it's such an important milestone in making progress in that game. What prompted me to quit the first time was yet another frustrating stumbling block, the hunter manning a gatling gun in the tower in Old Yharnam. The number of times I died to his gun, the exploding barrels on the way to that tower, or even just standard enemies in my way was staggering. When I stopped playing this time, I had every intention of returning and soldering on, but it didn't happen until months later. At that point, I was so confused about where I was in the game that I was forced to restart.
So, I defeated Gascoigne again and found that it was a little easier this time. It wasn't a fight I was able to complete in one try, but after dying probably one hundred times in my initial run, the second time through went much more smoothly. And when I got to the gatling gun hunter this time, I didn't bother engaging. I ran past him, ignoring my stubborn desire to take revenge for his immensely frustrating potshots. And so I made progress, little by little. I continue to do so now, but it's very interesting just how the narrative changes as I get further. I start to feel powerful, and then the game firmly reminds me that I am but a frail mortal, destined to fall before ever more otherworldly foes. But I'm going to keep trying, because although it provokes a host of negative emotions in me, I know I can make it there.
Tuesday, April 30, 2019
Getting Through 130 Hours of Gameplay Is An Odyssey in Itself
My initial clear of Assassin's Creed Odyssey clocked in at around 88 hours. This is after completing the main storyline and a fair chunk of optional content, although not everything was done. This is already a lot of time to devote to a video game, but because it is a game that has so much content, I really wanted to experience what else it has to offer. Now, with a game clock of about 130 hours, I've cleared just about everything there is. There's still more, but I've done everything I consider to be "of note."
This means that in addition to the aforementioned clearing of the main storyline, I've also vanquished all of the optional Cultists and done all of the major side quest story arcs, including the Arena and all mythical beasts. After all that was done, I was sitting at well over 100 hours--but there was still DLC to be done!
In a fit of madness, I decided when I was deeply engaged in the main storyline of Odyssey that I'd purchase the season pass for the game as well as the DLC for Assassin's Creed Origins, which my girlfriend was playing at the time and I have not yet played myself. Little did I know that I wouldn't be getting to that DLC for a pretty considerable length of time.
When I finally started Legacy of the First Blade, the first set of DLC for Odyssey, I'd already played so much of the game that I was starting to approach burnout status. Still, it was fun to have a new set of pseudo-cultists to assassinate and new weapons to toy around with. Of course, the arc of that story feels a little strange to me since it casts my character of choice, Kassandra, as a mother of a child, either through a desire to continue the bloodline or out of genuine love for her partner, who the game sticks you with regardless of the choices you make.
I'm sure much has been written about how little choice you have in Legacy of the First Blade, but it is a little disgruntling, after being at the helm of this character for 100 hours and then suddenly thrust into a relationship over which the player has no agency whatsoever. Sure, you can roleplay it in your mind as a means to an end, but I'd made choices with Kassandra over the course of Odyssey that characterized her as a free-roaming mercenary with more desire for money than family or relationships. To see that same character cooing maternally to her new baby, shackled to this idyllic, monogamous life--it's more than a little disconcerting.
On the other hand, the game's second set of DLC, The Fate of Atlantis, treats choice much differently. I've only played through it once, but it does seem like my choices made a big impact on how the story progressed.
Just for context, The Fate of Atlantis is much more explicitly mythical, whereas the bulk of the base game is rooted in historical realism. As with most Assassin's Creed games, there is always that nod to an ancient alien race and to the futuristic simulation technology that allows us to assume the roles of this historical figures in the first place--but the gameplay itself is at least reasonably realistic. The Fate of Atlantis has Kassandra (or Alexios) exploring the fields of Elysium, the portion of the Greek underworld reserved for fallen champions and those otherwise deserving of acclaim that have passed on.
In The Fate of Atlantis, Kassandra will find herself playing something of a double agent between Persephone, the queen of the underworld, and Adonis, the object of Persephone's affection that wants nothing more than to escape Elysium to be reunited with his true love, Aphrodite. The motivations involved are a little complicated, but it is really interesting to see where the narrative takes them and how it ties into Greek mythology. Your choices effect the scenes you see in interesting ways. I'd be curious to see how things might progress if I were to play it again--and there's a good possibility that will happen once the second episode releases.
It's also worth noting that Elysium is ridiculously beautiful and is distinctly different from the Greek world depicted in the main game. It's clear the development team worked very hard rendering that terrain. It's also much more substantial in terms of gameplay than Legacy of the First Blade, which takes place entirely within Greece in areas underused by the main game. While each of the three episodes of that DLC only took me a couple hours, the first Atlantis DLC chapter took me about ten hours to get through, not only because it has a lot of story cutscenes, but lots of optional objectives to explore, including uncovering new ability enhancements and sprawling camps full of exotic Elysian enemies.
At the end of the day, I enjoyed Atlantis a lot more than Legacy of the First Blade, but this is only the first episode of what I believe is a two-part DLC pack. Although the ending of this episode is intriguing, it was also very abrupt and ultimately unsatisfying when you consider how long we'll be waiting for another release, which I'm hoping takes place in some of the grimmer parts of Greek mythology's underworld.
Thursday, April 25, 2019
All Things Persona 5
I've talked a lot about Persona on this blog. I was so excited for the upcoming release of Persona 5 in 2017 that I embarked on a partial marathon of the series with plans to finish up right before the release. I played Persona 2: Eternal Punishment, Persona 3 Portable, and Persona 4 Golden in succession, finishing just in time for the Persona 5 release date, which I then played nonstop for about 120 hours. Needless to say, I was pretty burned out on Persona at that point, even though I enjoyed the game a lot.
With the news that Persona 5 Royal is essentially an enhanced rerelease of the game, do I feel ready to embark on that 120+ hour journey again? Well, considering that the game doesn't come out in the US until next year, I think the answer to that is probably yes. It's been enough time. I'm perfectly ready to be stressed out by the planning needed to max out all confidants, especially since this version of the game will have at least two more of them than the original release. But that's okay, since it evidently contains an additional semester, just like Persona 4 Golden did.
It's clear at this point that the Atlus goal of branching out the Persona 5 brand into as many different revenue streams as possible is coming to fruition. First there was Persona 5 Dancing, which was surprisingly excellent. Next year will be Persona 5 Royal and announced just today was Persona 5 Scramble: The Phantom Strikers, a musou game in the tradition of Dynasty Warriors with an as-of-yet unannounced release date. Considering how fun Dragon Quest Heroes and Fire Emblem Warriors were, I'm definitely on board for this Persona variety. I think there's a lot of cool stuff they can do with it as long as they retain the base game's sense of style and aesthetic.
What no one's really talking about at the moment is another Persona spin-off game coming up in just a couple months, Persona Q2: New Cinema Labyrinth. I loved the original Persona Q, which featured characters from both Persona 3 and 4 in an Etrian Odyssey dungeon-crawler mashup. I liked it enough that it sparked my interest in the Etrian Odyssey series in general. Here I am several years later, playing Etrian Odyssey Nexus, having completed every main entry in the series up to that point. I'm really excited about Q2 because of course it adds Persona 5 characters but keeps all the old ones too. Sure, some might grumble about breaking out their old 3DSes again, but mine never really left the rotation in the first place.
With all of these new Persona 5 titles coming soon, it's not hard to see why Atlus decided to work with Nintendo to incorporate Joker into Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, especially considering that Persona 5 Scramble will be releasing on Switch in addition to PS4. Sony seems to have a stranglehold on exclusivity for the main Persona titles, but Atlus is still giving Nintendo a lot of support in spin-off titles. Maybe one day we'll see Persona on Switch, but it seems at least for now that's not happening.
With the news that Persona 5 Royal is essentially an enhanced rerelease of the game, do I feel ready to embark on that 120+ hour journey again? Well, considering that the game doesn't come out in the US until next year, I think the answer to that is probably yes. It's been enough time. I'm perfectly ready to be stressed out by the planning needed to max out all confidants, especially since this version of the game will have at least two more of them than the original release. But that's okay, since it evidently contains an additional semester, just like Persona 4 Golden did.
It's clear at this point that the Atlus goal of branching out the Persona 5 brand into as many different revenue streams as possible is coming to fruition. First there was Persona 5 Dancing, which was surprisingly excellent. Next year will be Persona 5 Royal and announced just today was Persona 5 Scramble: The Phantom Strikers, a musou game in the tradition of Dynasty Warriors with an as-of-yet unannounced release date. Considering how fun Dragon Quest Heroes and Fire Emblem Warriors were, I'm definitely on board for this Persona variety. I think there's a lot of cool stuff they can do with it as long as they retain the base game's sense of style and aesthetic.
What no one's really talking about at the moment is another Persona spin-off game coming up in just a couple months, Persona Q2: New Cinema Labyrinth. I loved the original Persona Q, which featured characters from both Persona 3 and 4 in an Etrian Odyssey dungeon-crawler mashup. I liked it enough that it sparked my interest in the Etrian Odyssey series in general. Here I am several years later, playing Etrian Odyssey Nexus, having completed every main entry in the series up to that point. I'm really excited about Q2 because of course it adds Persona 5 characters but keeps all the old ones too. Sure, some might grumble about breaking out their old 3DSes again, but mine never really left the rotation in the first place.
With all of these new Persona 5 titles coming soon, it's not hard to see why Atlus decided to work with Nintendo to incorporate Joker into Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, especially considering that Persona 5 Scramble will be releasing on Switch in addition to PS4. Sony seems to have a stranglehold on exclusivity for the main Persona titles, but Atlus is still giving Nintendo a lot of support in spin-off titles. Maybe one day we'll see Persona on Switch, but it seems at least for now that's not happening.
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