BadHat

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Posts posted by BadHat

  1. Posted

    I really cherished this. The characters are all great and shitty and charming and relatable. Even when the dialog feels at times as though it's going to veer a bit too "clever," mostly it really dials it in and gives each character their own voice and room to react authentically. I feel like in other games/things with this style of writing (very off the cuff and anti-punctuation) characters often feel like pieces to be maneuvered into place so that a gag or whatever hits just right, which might be cool in the moment but robs them of some individuality. The only times I felt thrown off by this were when certain scenes waxed on too long, with tons of awkward silences. It's a nice trick but they probably could've used it a bit less often.

     

    So yeah. It has FLAWS, some of which have already been mentioned here, but as a whole they really dwindle in comparison to all the things this does so very right.

  2. Posted

    I think mastery in this game is largely a matter of being able to effectively parse what's happening on screen at any given time. Most of my deaths are because I failed to notice the one deadly thing that mattered because I was focussing on some other deadly thing. Also learning to pace yourself, so that there are less deadly things on screen to worry about at any given moment. But also knowing when to just go balls-out bullet hell when the game decides to spawn you into some ungodly mess and then Lil Hunter is there and a thousand snow dogs are charging at you and aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa

     

    Basically fuck this game is what I'm saying.

  3. Posted

    Mystic Knight is so good. Seems kind of weak for the first couple ranks, but then you get the hang of pulling perfect blocks with an enchantment on, and zooming around Sky Dancing motherfuckers all over the place, and laying energy traps which send enemies flying into the air so you can Sky Dance them more, and buffing your entire party with weapon enchantments and and and

     

    So much fun.~~  ^_^

     

    Edit: Sky Dance, not Lunge. :v

  6. Posted

    Wow, what the hell? I had no idea there were actually some interesting quests in this game. I was expecting cool combat and exploration with some daft fetch quests draped over top, but my last few quests have been...

    Saving Selene from the angry mob - initiated by overhearing a conversation in town (just like Oblivion! :fart: ). I guess she lives at my house now? I need some nicer digs, her treehut was way cooler.

    Stealing into the Duchess' chambers by dark of night and then saving her from her nutso husband, only for her to throw me in the dungeon!  :blink: 

    Gathering evidence for the trial against Fournival. I saw somewhere that he has some rare items if you prove him innocent, but he seems pretty damned guilty so I'm just gonna let that run its course.



    Intrigue!

  8. Posted

    I've taken down a few Griffins now at level ~30 and they seemed like they were about where I was at. Mind you, I'm playing mage/sorcerer so I probably had an easier time of it than a melee character. Griffins are just a matter of spamming fire at their wings to keep them grounded and then melting the head. I did have some trouble with the Chimera, though, mainly because they attack so swiftly if they decide to target you and mages don't have a dodge/block move. So yeah, it might be more a matter of what you're playing than what level you're at.

     

    p.s. I really really like this game. How do I even have 45 hours played?! I feel like I'm just beginning.

  9. Posted

    Cool! Except now when I sleep at an inn it fails to connect to the server? I could even get online inside a rift stone to favourite your pawn, but it won't let me update my own. Is there a way to force this besides sleeping? :(

     

    Edit: Disregard, fixed it.

  11. Posted

    Some more spoilery discussion: Yellow Brick Panels

    This is the first hard wall in the game for me. They seem to be an essential element that's repeated often and I have the basic idea of how to interpret them, but I seem to be missing something. I couldn't get past the second/third set of panels in the red lagoon place. I must be missing some trick that lets you satisfy the requirement more efficiently. It's particularly annoying since you have to ride this slow moving bridge to get there and back.

    Spoilered in case people don't want to read vague specifics, but this isn't a solution.

    I'm stumped on these too, and worse I can't figure out how to get back across on the bridge? I'm kind of just stuck on the other side with those two sets of block puzzles. I solved the first of the set of two on the door up the stairs, but the second one has me completely stumped. I don't quite grasp the logic of how the shapes can be "arranged" when you outline them. If I outline only the two corner pieces on the left, it seems like I can "flip" their orientation and they won't blink when I attempt to solve the puzzle, indicating that's a valid choice. But then arranging them in other ways, like trying to rotate or stack them in odd ways, just straight up won't work. What's more, returning to the first puzzle there and trying the same thing makes those pieces blink, so being able to flip them (if it's even valid and not just a bug) seems completely incidental? I still don't know what the fuck to do with two or more shapes intersect. Those tutorial puzzles did not prepare me for this shit at allllll. :(

  13. Posted

    For people trying to accelerate their playthroughs you can skip the desert and fight Big Bandit immediately if

     

    you collect the Weapon Crate, Ammo Crate, and Rad Cannister in 10 seconds without taking damage

     

    I thought you had to

     

    open them all without killing any enemies?

     

    Or maybe that's a method from an old patch. I'ma have to try this out now, I gave up on doing it that way since I could never get it consistently...

     

    Edit: That's still what the wiki says:

     

    http://nuclear-throne.wikia.com/wiki/Oasis

  15. Posted

    HAH. I swear I noticed that similarity on some kind of subconscious level. I feel like it was eating at me for years but I never knew until now.

     

    Here's some stuff I said elsewhere while listening to the GOTY pods. Preface: I'm enjoying them a lot and generally kind their discussion entertaining if not super enlightened, it just got frustrating on day 2 when they could not get off Fallout 4 for like an hour.

     

    man, austin being on these GOTY podcasts kind of brings into stark relief how bad everyone else on the site is at actual game criticism

    he's so patient and articulate about everything, even stepping in to explain other people's positions to people who don't understand them, while most of the others just shout the most base level argument for/against their game
    actually dan is pretty good too but he's mostly silent. brad is doing his best to be a good host and keep things rolling but he can't reign in jeff/alex/vinny once they get going on something they're passionate about

  16. Posted

    I can't seem to get into the new Tesseract, except for this one track.

     

     

    Was really excited for Dan to be back on vocals since I always thought One had much higher high points than Altered State, which was more consistent but blander on the whole. This new one just seems kind of tame though, too trimmed back.

     

    Bonus Acle clip! This cover is awesome/hilarious:

     

  17. Posted

    I think I did that four times before I developed the reflex not to. At this point I've figured out how to safely walk across the carpet to trigger the centre beam, just because it gives a reprieve from the bullet hell. Maybe I'm a slow learner, but it took me thirty or forty hours to get to the point where I was any good at looping, gradually building up skill at each level. I think a lot of the nuanced learning is about observing AI patterns and getting a sense for how each enemy will act, and if you just go through trying to kill everything and preserve your fragile butt, it takes forever to piece together enough observations to gain understanding.

     

    I have 117 hours played and I've looped maybe twice in that whole time. :sad:

     

    Mind you, I bought it early and played sporadically, so a lot of what I learned each time was either lost or no longer relevant.

  18. Posted

    Ahhhhhhh, I can't beat the Throne again. I've gotten to it 5 or 6 times in the past couple of days and every single time I forget about my positioning and just wander back into his centre beam.   :(
     
    Been playing a lot of Crystal since I got more used to her ability, but I'm having no luck getting to the mansion to get her a golden weapon. Hitting a bit of a brick wall.
     
    I feel like this game would really benefit from daily/weekly goals rather than levels. The layout of the levels is far less important than, say, Spelunky, but the tools at your disposal are basically everything. I think if they expanded on the weekly thing and had you trying to accomplish specific goals it would make casual play really interesting. I guess I just need something to shoot for (heh) when I'm not playing for serious and trying to unlock characters or loop or whatever. Daily doesn't really matter to me without anyone to compare with, and the leaderboards still don't work anyway...
     
    Edit: Two mansions with Crystal. Two golden wrenches. :fart:

  21. Posted

    That's a lot of goddamn running around if I'm trying to level up affinities, and it's made even more frustrating by the fact that experience doesn't carry to non-party members. Nothing like having to put someone in your party for a mission and they're level 18 and can't equip any of the gear you have!

     

    Oh noooooooo that's the worst. Didn't RPGs solve that problem 10+ years ago?

     

    Wasn't it solved in the fucking first game?

  24. Posted

    I love explosives against my better judgment. I try to only use them when I'm super focussed on the game and getting good results, not when I'm playing casually and messing up a bunch. I find they work well with something that can keep enemies away if they come in close (like those bastard crystal spiders), like a shotgun or a meaty melee weapon.

     

    Edit: Also there are blood explosives which are fantastic and completely safe, even though I never seem to find them. Just watch your ammo counter!