Sabbath - Kinda Bloody Sabbath!

[Arcesius]

 

2 hours ago, KindaSabbath said:

A None Trials Related Update (kind of) 

So I have added a few new games to my backlog, which are:

 

Ooooohh no no no no no... nooooooo no no no no.... nooooooo nooooonooono...

 

Imagine me telling this in a temperamental, vehement manner, while shaking my head and flipping my finger left and right in front of your face. 

 

Don't play this garbage. It is, without a doubt, the worst game in the entire franchise. Not only that. It is a piece of trash. It is baaaaaaad. And if you play it without having played many JRPGs, it will make you not wanna play one ever again. 

 

Trust me, play FF X. Enjoy the game, enjoy the story. Many of us got into FF X-2 looking for closure, expecting a worthy sequel. We got a slap in the face. It is not only a bad Final Fantasy and an unworthy successor to one of the best entries in the series, it is also a bad, bad game. 

 

Seriously. Don't even think about playing this trash. 

 

 

I hope I was clear enough ?

[DrBloodmoney]

2 minutes ago, Arcesius said:

 

 

Ooooohh no no no no no... nooooooo no no no no.... nooooooo nooooonooono...

 

Imagine me telling this in a temperamental, vehement manner, while shaking my head and flipping my finger left and right in front of your face. 

 

Don't play this garbage. It is, without a doubt, the worst game in the entire franchise. Not only that. It is a piece of trash. It is baaaaaaad. And if you play it without having played many JRPGs, it will make you not wanna play one ever again. 

 

Trust me, play FF X. Enjoy the game, enjoy the story. Many of us got into FF X-2 looking for closure, expecting a worthy sequel. We got a slap in the face. It is not only a bad Final Fantasy and an unworthy successor to one of the best entries in the series, it is also a bad, bad game. 

 

Seriously. Don't even think about playing this trash. 

 

 

I hope I was clear enough 

Oh…

…it’s fine  ?

 

Granted, I’m not the biggest fan of X, (don’t hate it, don’t love it) so I don’t have any huge reverence for that games characters or world or anything, and for sure FFX-2 is a weaker overall entry in the FF series…

 

but it’s fine. 

 

To call it the worst one, when FFII still exists out there is an outrage.
An Outrage I Say! ?

[YaManSmevz]

8 hours ago, KindaSabbath said:

Ofcourse, with the Gauntlet being the very first thing you do in the single player campaign. There was no way I could resist knocking out:

 

...Becomes the Master Place in the top 3 on the Gauntlet scoreboard

 

My run for anyone who's interested:

 

I'll be enjoying playing through this game over the next few days while working on my Trials Fusion review.  I also need to finish putting together my Redlynx to the Sword clip, so I'll share that at some point too!

 

It feels so weird to not be writing exclusively about Trials. Or metal ? 

 

You're a fuckin beast, dude. My time was almost a full second slower than yours, and that shit took me a few days!

 

You're gonna have a good time, personally I thought that game was a lot of fun. Same for me, only reason I started it was cozza all that corrupted server talk. I think you'll dig Yakuza 0 too, I'm not too far in but I'm enjoying it so far. I'll probably join you on FFX once I finish IX, but knowing you, you'll probably be long finished by the time I get there?

[Baker]

6 hours ago, Arcesius said:

 

 

Ooooohh no no no no no... nooooooo no no no no.... nooooooo nooooonooono...

 

Imagine me telling this in a temperamental, vehement manner, while shaking my head and flipping my finger left and right in front of your face. 

 

Don't play this garbage. It is, without a doubt, the worst game in the entire franchise. Not only that. It is a piece of trash. It is baaaaaaad. And if you play it without having played many …, it will make you not wanna play one ever again. 

 

Trust me, play …  Enjoy the game, enjoy the story. Many of us got into … looking for closure, expecting a worthy sequel. We got a slap in the face. It is not only a bad … and an unworthy successor to one of the best entries in the series, it is also a bad, bad game. 

 

Seriously. Don't even think about playing this trash. 

 

 

I hope I was clear enough 

Are you talking about this? ?

 

 

 

[KindaSabbath]

12 hours ago, Arcesius said:

Ooooohh no no no no no... nooooooo no no no no.... nooooooo nooooonooono...

 

Imagine me telling this in a temperamental, vehement manner, while shaking my head and flipping my finger left and right in front of your face. 

 

Don't play this garbage. It is, without a doubt, the worst game in the entire franchise. Not only that. It is a piece of trash. It is baaaaaaad. And if you play it without having played many JRPGs, it will make you not wanna play one ever again. 

 

Trust me, play FF X. Enjoy the game, enjoy the story. Many of us got into FF X-2 looking for closure, expecting a worthy sequel. We got a slap in the face. It is not only a bad Final Fantasy and an unworthy successor to one of the best entries in the series, it is also a bad, bad game. 

 

Seriously. Don't even think about playing this trash. 

 

 

I hope I was clear enough ?

 

??? - I'm gonna go out on a limb here and assume you feel pretty strongly about this one? I could only find FF X on the store in a double pack so X-2 was unavoidable. I didn't know it was rubbish though, as I know nothing about JRPG games. Appreciate you pointing that out. Fear not, it will never get installed. FF X was the one I was after.

 

12 hours ago, DrBloodmoney said:

Granted, I’m not the biggest fan of X, (don’t hate it, don’t love it) so I don’t have any huge reverence for that games characters or world or anything, and for sure FFX-2 is a weaker overall entry in the FF series…

 

Would you say FF X is a good entry point into the JRPG genre? Interested to here your thoughts here, if you wouldn't mind. I'm also going to pick up Ni No Kuni: Wraith of the White Witch. Not sure whether I'll play FF X first or this one.

 

7 hours ago, YaManSmevz said:

 

You're a fuckin beast, dude. My time was almost a full second slower than yours, and that shit took me a few days!

 

You're gonna have a good time, personally I thought that game was a lot of fun. Same for me, only reason I started it was cozza all that corrupted server talk. I think you'll dig Yakuza 0 too, I'm not too far in but I'm enjoying it so far. I'll probably join you on FFX once I finish IX, but knowing you, you'll probably be long finished by the time I get there?

 

Thanks man. Yeah I've had a blast with what I've played of it so far. I'm actually very, very excited to play a Yakuza game. Also, I dunno man, you could get to FF X before me to be fair. I'm not exactly going at a blistering speed through my games ?

 

6 hours ago, Baker said:

Are you talking about this? ?

 

 

 

 

The edit there was fucking hilarious. I knew you'd do it as well! Legend.

 

Arcesius is going to play TotBD and I'm trying to get @det_gittes to play it too! We can all bitch and rage about how shit it is together ?

[KindaSabbath]

15 hours ago, DrunkenEngineer said:

That was a slick run! 
 

Since you have played a lot of FPS games on console, do you feel the need to adjust the aim sensitivities away from the default values, on average?

 

I used to (and still kind of) play a lot of FPS on PC, especially Battlefield 3 through 5 and was really into finding the best mouse aim sensitivity, and the meta was all about low settings that offer a lot of precision, but then you need a lot of desk space to deal with the large swipes needed for snapping around. Anything like that going on for console shooters?

 

Thanks dude.

 

Back in the day when I used to go hard at FPS multiplayer, there wasn't a whole lot of options in regards to settings on console. Things have vastly improved these days and Respawn in particular do a pretty decent job of offering advanced controller settings to tinker with.

 

I usually play on a high sense with a linear response curve and vibration disabled. I typically go -1 on ADS sensitivity and adjust per optic accordingly. I also map crouch/slide to the right analog stick. My biggest gripe with console shooters is usually the lack of an FOV slider. Apex is the only one I've played to offer this on console which is a huge addition imo. I like to play at 90 or above depending on the game. I think the standard default for most shooters on console is around 60, which is far too claustrophobic for me personally.

 

14 hours ago, det_gittes said:

Haha, I knew this day would come eventually, but I will follow with interest your trophy journey nonetheless

 

Bro, that made me feel so gutted ? - like I said to you yesterday, I just can't shake this feeling of emptiness after beating Fusion. I have a motorbike shaped hole in my gaming world and everything feels meh. It's actually overwhelming to be honest.

 

14 hours ago, det_gittes said:

Btw, I just noticed what a great run you pulled off on Adelophobia, it put you in the top 300, that's one hell of a run! I don't like the track myself at all  Seismic Activity, on the other hand, is a completely different story. Last night and this morning I was going for it and it has to be one of my favorite speedrunning lines in Fusion. I have Elysian Skies and Adelophobia left for the trophy (also the extreme, but it's the easiest one because the time is very lenient).

 

Thanks man. Yeah, I remember thinking that I could improve that time on Adelophobia as well! I usually hit that first time saver much cleaner with my front wheel not touching at all. I can usually do the last time saver a bit cleaner, too. Maybe I'll go back to it and see if I can nail the perfect run.

 

Seismic Activity is by far my favourite. Such a clean line to run fast. As for Elysian Skies - the only thing I found annoying was that it seems totally random if you'll get enough distance after being propelled up to the final section to make a smooth transition. This is one I could of had a much better time on but I got that required distance so infrequently, I just settled for the run where it worked.

 

I'm sure you'll smash out Redlynx to the Sword today if you haven't done it already!

 

14 hours ago, det_gittes said:

If anyone reading this thread starts playing Fusion or Rising at some point and will need moral support, tag me, I do that selflessly and I enjoy it a lot, too  

 

Happily. Yo, tag me in anything Trials related too man! 

Edited September 16, 2021 by KindaSabbath

[DrBloodmoney]

18 minutes ago, KindaSabbath said:

Would you say FF X is a good entry point into the JRPG genre? Interested to here your thoughts here, if you wouldn't mind. I'm also going to pick up Ni No Kuni: Wraith of the White Witch. Not sure whether I'll play FF X first or this one.

 

You know - Im not necessarily the best judge for JRPG - and I've certainly heard people more whole-cloth into the genre call FFX a good entry point, so take my opinions with a grain of salt! - but personally I'd say no.

 

The issue as I see it, if FFX is at the intersection between old-style JRPG and the more new-school, and as such, isn't a great entry point for either.

 

For my money, I'd say the genuine best way in would be the old 16-bit era ones - Chronotrigger / FFVI / Illusion of Gaia - or, failing that, some of the much newer entries, such as FFXIII or the FFVII Remake.

 

As a 'split-the-difference' type entry point though, FFVII (the original game) could be a better idea. After all, it's function as an 'entry-point' is well established - it was a huge number of peoples entry point to FF back on the PSOne, and cemented a lot of people's love of the genre. I'd say the narrative elements are significantly better in that game than FFX, and it is far more likely to give you a plot that will hook you hard enough to keep a hold as you learn the more esoteric elements of the mechanical game, whereas FFX tends to excel in it's mechanical side, but as a narrative, is a little weaker than the games before it.

 

Just my two cents though!

Edited September 16, 2021 by DrBloodmoney

[Shrooba]

@KindaSabbath Since you’re open to trying out JRPGs, I seriously can’t recommend Persona 5 Royal enough, it’s one of the best games of the genre, and one of the best PS4 games out there. It’s got a fantastic story, brilliant characters, sweet music and great gameplay. I got hooked playing it and whilst it is long (as JRPGs usually are) I think you’d love every second of it. 

[DrBloodmoney]

2 minutes ago, Shrooba said:

@KindaSabbath Since you’re open to trying out JRPGs, I seriously can’t recommend Persona 5 Royal enough, it’s one of the best games of the genre, and one of the best PS4 games out there. It’s got a fantastic story, brilliant characters, sweet music and great gameplay. I got hooked playing it and whilst it is long (as JRPGs usually are) I think you’d love every second of it. 

 

I absolutely agree with this - the only issue with Persona 5 Royal is, it is so good, yet such an outlier in terms of mechanical design (with the whole 'social' side of the game) that while I absolutely agree it is amazing, I don't think it is likely to give you a real insight into the broader genre, as Persona is really it's own distinct thing, as far as I'm concerned. It may actually give a false sense of the genre, and it is of such high quality, it could make others feel lesser by comparison because... well... they are!

 

Still - play it!

It rules! ☺️

Edited September 16, 2021 by DrBloodmoney

[KindaSabbath]

On 16/09/2021 at 9:45 AM, DrBloodmoney said:

 

You know - Im not necessarily the best judge for JRPG - and I've certainly heard people more whole-cloth into the genre call FFX a good entry point, so take my opinions with a grain of salt! - but personally I'd say no.

 

The issue as I see it, if FFX is at the intersection between old-style JRPG and the more new-school, and as such, isn't a great entry point for either.

 

For my money, I'd say the genuine best way in would be the old 16-bit era ones - Chronotrigger / FFVI / Illusion of Gaia - or, failing that, some of the much newer entries, such as FFXIII or the FFVII Remake.

 

As a 'split-the-difference' type entry point though, FFVII (the original game) could be a better idea. After all, it's function as an 'entry-point' is well established - it was a huge number of peoples entry point to FF back on the PSOne, and cemented a lot of people's love of the genre. I'd say the narrative elements are significantly better in that game than FFX, and it is far more likely to give you a plot that will hook you hard enough to keep a hold as you learn the more esoteric elements of the mechanical game, whereas FFX tends to excel in it's mechanical side, but as a narrative, is a little weaker than the games before it.

 

Just my two cents though!

 

Appreciate the reply, Doc. I will check out those titles and keep pondering which would be the best for my first trip into the genre. I think I'm pretty certain that I'll be playing Yakuza 0 first - as a warm up for a proper JRPG. So I'm in no rush.

 

23 hours ago, Shrooba said:

@KindaSabbath Since you’re open to trying out JRPGs, I seriously can’t recommend Persona 5 Royal enough, it’s one of the best games of the genre, and one of the best PS4 games out there. It’s got a fantastic story, brilliant characters, sweet music and great gameplay. I got hooked playing it and whilst it is long (as JRPGs usually are) I think you’d love every second of it. 

 

Noted dude, thanks! I will also check this out. I'm not very familiar with the Persona series but I have heard good things.

 

How are you getting on with F1? I've got the itch to play a racing game soon - it'll likely be more arcade style though - probably CTR since as I already own it.

 

- Edit @DrBloodmoney to answer the question in your awesome new avatar: I'll only be happy when you begin the thread on Owls ??? - for science, ofcourse.

Edited September 17, 2021 by KindaSabbath

[YaManSmevz]

On 9/16/2021 at 1:45 AM, DrBloodmoney said:

For my money, I'd say the genuine best way in would be the old 16-bit era ones - Chronotrigger / FFVI / Illusion of Gaia - or, failing that, some of the much newer entries, such as FFXIII or the FFVII Remake.

 

Dr. Bloodmoney, I'ma let you finish - but Chrono Trigger and FFVI were the best RPGS of all time.. of ALL TIME!!

 

I think this is a solid take, not for the SNES love (the absolute king of RPGs, what, come at me bro) but for the suggestion of going full blown new. FF7RM would be a great way to get your feet wet, what with its more modern fighting system and stunning graphics. Outside of Final Fantasy (beyond the 90s, anyway) I am woefully uneducated as far as JRPGS. I know Dragon Quest and Persona are highly regarded, and I bought Valkyria Chronicles 4 (but haven't played it yet) on the strength of the whole RPG-in-WW2 aspect, but that's all I could really tell you.

 

I'm excited for you, man! Whatever route you choose, you've got some solid gaming ahead of you??

[DrunkenEngineer]

On 9/16/2021 at 0:43 AM, KindaSabbath said:

 

Thanks dude.

 

Back in the day when I used to go hard at FPS multiplayer, there wasn't a whole lot of options in regards to settings on console. Things have vastly improved these days and Respawn in particular do a pretty decent job of offering advanced controller settings to tinker with.

 

I usually play on a high sense with a linear response curve and vibration disabled. I typically go -1 on ADS sensitivity and adjust per optic accordingly. I also map crouch/slide to the right analog stick. My biggest gripe with console shooters is usually the lack of an FOV slider. Apex is the only one I've played to offer this on console which is a huge addition imo. I like to play at 90 or above depending on the game. I think the standard default for most shooters on console is around 60, which is far too claustrophobic for me personally.

 

Cool, thanks for the information.  Agreed on the FOV slider - that's honestly my biggest gripe about console shooters vs. PC, and while I'll likely stay on PC for the sweaty games like Battlefield.  Single player stuff, eh it's fine on either platform.

 

FYI, I believe Doom Eternal has an FOV slider, and if you (or anyone here) hasn't checked it out yet I highly recommend it.  The gameplay loop is an amalgam of a character action game and FPS, and it really works.  I got the 100% on Steam and sometimes think about doing it again on PSN except for those shitty multiplayer trophies.

 

Also, and I'm sure you do this, but I recently had an "ah-hah!" moment with regards to gripping my controller for shooters - switched out over to using my index fingers for L1/R1 and my middle fingers for L2/R2 and it really opens gameplay up.  I was forced into this with GTA5 where you need to use R1 and R2 concurrently when doing drive-by shootings, and sucks ass to do with only one finger.

 

Enough of my rambling.

[Shrooba]

7 hours ago, KindaSabbath said:

How are you getting on with F1? I've got the itch to play a racing game soon - it'll likely be more arcade style though - probably CTR since as I already own it.

Yeah, F1 2021 is a load of fun! It's got customizable assists, so you can tinker it to your liking, making it a good game to get into. AI difficulty can also be selected so there's a ton of customization to the gameplay. CTR is also another fantastic game.

For some reason, the N. Sane Trilogy and CTR have been infamously lumped into the "Dark Souls" category, but trust me, CTR really isn't that bad. At first it seems like an 8/10 difficulty like the guide says, but once you master Oxide it'll seem like a 5 or 6/10 in retrospect. But that's just part of the learning process; all tricky games become manageable when you master them. I found Oxide really demanding at first, but after you get used to the mechanics, you'll subconsciously notice that Oxide makes tons of mistakes in his runs. The real challenge is in the dev times.

When doing the time trials, the key is to maintain your drift boosts, and you need to time it to get a "perfect" boost. These add reserves to your flame (making it last longer). By going over boost pads, your flame turns blue, making you a lot faster. In doing so, your reserves are prone to running out, so you need to maintain perfect drifts to keep this flame going for as long as you can, thereby maintaining your added speed.
You've got different presets that prioritize whether your kart focuses on speed and drift for example, and I personally find drift to be the best option as it helps you with tight turns (which is pretty much essential for tracks like Dragon Mines). Oxide makes mistakes and loses it, so once you get the hang of the mechanics its really not that bad. Oxide isn't as brutal as the initial consensus implies (which is fair mainly because there were no Velo times in comparison during release), and once you properly learn the drifting it's a lot of fun. Good luck when you start it man, it's a blast to play! ?

Edited September 17, 2021 by Shrooba

[scemopagliaccioh]

What exactly do you expect from a JRPG? Final Fantasy 10 is my all time favourite, no contest, but what you prefer   is connected entirely to your expectations.

Yakuza, for example, with the exclusion of 7, isn’t a RPG at all, it’s more similar to the Batman Arkham games.

Final Fantasy 10, is a turn  based JRPG, who discarded the old ATB style of previous entries to a more pure form, with ATB being a form of turn based Hybrid, what’s your experience with turn based? It’s not something many like, so your first FF should be chosen considering that.

10-2 has  an abysmal plot, but in there lies  some shedding about the world, that make it less black and white that some might interpret  at the end of 10 (With Yevon being  bad, and Youth League good, for example, also several albhed and machina, Ff10 for war machines being a danger in certain situations), old Ultimania posts  also tell about former Gods before the titular God in the main game, with said religions restarting after the disbanding of Yevon, so we’re talking about 1,000+ years of worldbuilding, and a connection between FF7 and 10 no less.  Most  of the good stuff comes under the aspect of worldbuilding, narrative wise, the plot is atrocious, there’s no realistic way to salvage that, but the battle system is the best of the entire mainline franchise, to me, it’s kinda  like the evolution of FF5, before 6 changed  things up (almost) forever.

Both offer high value of replayability, if you’re interested in it, with 10-2 having  a job system and a form of ATB, and 10 the expert sphere grid.

The ff12 you can buy on the  psn store is the remaster, which completely changes the battle system  with the addition of a job system, the battle system  there, is like a single player MMO, so, again, it depends if you can stomach it, or outright like it.

I would strongly suggest to skip  13, maybe reading the plot and just barge in on 13-2, the best of the 13 trilogy (not that great of a bar, though)while some consider 2 the worst, at least it had a compelling villain, 13 doesn’t even have that luxury, having a posadist villain,  and that’s a  problem with FF ever since Exdeath of FF5, not that I’m a posadist or something taking personal issues, but Exdeath,  Kefka, Ultimecia to some extent, Kuja, Necron, Seymour, Nooj to some extent,  Gabranth, Barthandelus, Orphan, Caius Ballad, and 15’s villain, Square Enix is obsessed with this villain archetype and deathseekers/destroy and re-create in general, however it gets old  at some point, and 13 gets the “privilege”of having not one, but two central villains like that.

Protagonists are also not that well received, I believe only Sazh is well liked, due to his plot point with his son (a plot point that they end up recycling not once, but twice in the trilogy, Sazh has no agency other than saving his son), recycling plot points is also something that they do quite a lot during the trilogy, you won’t notice it if you only play 13-1, but characters learn a lesson,  be it cheesy or otherwise, and then they do the same  mistakes again in other games. Gameplay is the worst of the ones I mentioned, you only fight in 13, and that battle system is a mockery of the job system, bad, and most importantly, stressful, even in random encounters, and Square couldn’t figure out a way to organically grind for money except killing  a boss over and over until you get lucky with an item drop, said item only sells for 150,000, yeah, you’ll require like 10+millions for the platinum, by the way, enjoy.

15, I think, may end up being the one you prefer the most, in all honesty,  on a personal note, I consider it the strongest cast of main characters of any  mainline entry, the combat is an Action RPG, which is… not that great for old fans, but if you’re new, that shouldn’t be a problem for you, base game is pretty easy, but the DLCs have  some compelling challenges that might interest you.

Earlier I mentioned that 15’s villain is a posadist, and, while he does have entertaining moments, he’s a posadist due to his unlucky circumstances, the game tackles  the confrontation between Noctis and the  villain more from a essentialist paradigm, rather than a existential one, this is, at least in japanese media, very refreshing,  so many teenage-directed games always have existentialism as a plot point, with the same answer, as in us finding meaning etc, it got so bad that I remember a Breaking Bad episode tackling this, with Jesse spamming “kafkaesque” in all his phrases as a form of mockery, or maybe not, I can understand  the argument behind paying taxes being dreadful, but enough about Breaking Bad, to put it bluntly: the game tackles the situation more on Aristotle’s terms, rather than Nietzsche’s, like some other games might do (off the top of my head, Nier Automata). More importantly, the protagonist has a mission, or vocation I guess, if you want to consider Bahamut as a God archetype, and there is no easy way out from said mission, excluding non-canon material, that is, again, very renewing, in japanese media, there is always some type of man behind the man, that pulls the strings of everyone, and once eliminated all problems and conflicts stop, this is unfortunately also a problem 10 had partially, since a certain plot point nullified the sacrifices they made before.

The AI system, according  to the interviews, at least,  takes inspiration from Husserl’s phenomenology, I won’t say that it’s the best, honestly Kingdom Hearts 2, also from Square Enix, is miles behind gameplay wise, Husserl was anti  dualist, though,  so I will at least say, that it’s gameplay and story integration. Could have been much better looking at Square’s catalogue of action RPGs though. Finally, if you enjoyed Yakuza, this is the closest you can get in Final Fantasy at least, to that.

7Remake, I’m too busy to clean up online games to start it, but  from what I’ve seen, it’s similar to 15.

I don’t feel confident in suggesting 6,8 and 9 as a starting point, especially 8, 7, maybe, but the graphics are a bit dated, and Nomura decided to scratch the plot, so eh…

In summary. I’d say:

Definitely start with 10 if you enjoy or tolerate turn based. Then try the original seven, then 9, 4 on the ds, 6 and 5, you can branch off to other series, like Dragon Quest, Shin Megami Tensei, including Persona and so on.

Start with 15 if you want an Action RPG, from there, go look at 7Remake and Kingdom Hearts, maybe branch off to the Soulsborne series.

 

[Destructor-8]

On 15/09/2021 at 5:29 PM, KindaSabbath said:

Dude, I really dig the way you've organised your thread! It's pretty awesome. One I will be frequently checking in on, for sure!

 

Yeah I did... which leads me to something that has never been seen in this thread before:

 

I'm not sure when I will get around to these games but they're now very much there and waiting to be played! I'm very keen to get to Yakuza but I'll be waiting for a top notch write up from Mr @rjkclarke first (there's no rush buddy, I have loads to play so take your time)

 

As Destructor-8 has pointed out - I've started Titanfall 2! A game I was in no real rush to play, but, there's some mad shit going on with the servers - which I was aware of but still in no rush. Then I saw @Arcesius decided to just get the multiplayer trophies out of the way so that gave a little more urgency to do the same - just incase they become unobtainable.

 

Yeah thanks man, still working on it so it's a work in progress so far. It looks like you've got a few more good games lined up so that should be some good fun & a few great reads.

[KindaSabbath]

20 hours ago, YaManSmevz said:

I'm excited for you, man! Whatever route you choose, you've got some solid gaming ahead of you

 

Yes sir. Almost too many to play ?

 

Just throwing it out there but how would starting with a Tales game sound? I saw a review for Tales of Arise yesterday and it looks pretty dope! I haven't played a next gen game yet, could be an idea? Open to opinions on this, ofcourse.

 

17 hours ago, Shrooba said:

Yeah, F1 2021 is a load of fun! It's got customizable assists, so you can tinker it to your liking, making it a good game to get into. AI difficulty can also be selected so there's a ton of customization to the gameplay. CTR is also another fantastic game.

 

Glad you're having fun with it man!

 

17 hours ago, Shrooba said:

For some reason, the N. Sane Trilogy and CTR have been infamously lumped into the "Dark Souls" category, but trust me, CTR really isn't that bad. At first it seems like an 8/10 difficulty like the guide says, but once you master Oxide it'll seem like a 5 or 6/10 in retrospect. But that's just part of the learning process; all tricky games become manageable when you master them. I found Oxide really demanding at first, but after you get used to the mechanics, you'll subconsciously notice that Oxide makes tons of mistakes in his runs. The real challenge is in the dev times.

 

As someone who hasn't yet played a Souls game, I don't really understand this notion? Most people I have spoke to about Souls games speak about how awesome the games are, not how "hard" they are. Is this just a sign of the times? With most games holding your hand all the way through these days? When a game doesn't do it, is it automatically lumped into the Souls category? Maybe resident Souls expert @Copanele can shed some light here? 

 

in regards to CTR: from what I've looked into - and taking into account I played the original. It seems, similarly to Trials - it is easy to pick up and play, fly around the track and pass the finish line. But difficulty is there for those who choose to use the more advanced techniques to destroy a track and set good times. I like this and it's one of the reasons I'm excited to go for the completion.

 

17 hours ago, Shrooba said:

When doing the time trials, the key is to maintain your drift boosts, and you need to time it to get a "perfect" boost. These add reserves to your flame (making it last longer). By going over boost pads, your flame turns blue, making you a lot faster. In doing so, your reserves are prone to running out, so you need to maintain perfect drifts to keep this flame going for as long as you can, thereby maintaining your added speed.
You've got different presets that prioritize whether your kart focuses on speed and drift for example, and I personally find drift to be the best option as it helps you with tight turns (which is pretty much essential for tracks like Dragon Mines). Oxide makes mistakes and loses it, so once you get the hang of the mechanics its really not that bad. Oxide isn't as brutal as the initial consensus implies (which is fair mainly because there were no Velo times in comparison during release), and once you properly learn the drifting it's a lot of fun. Good luck when you start it man, it's a blast to play!

 

Thanks for the tips regarding the time trials mate! Will come in handy, no doubt! 

 

13 hours ago, scemopagliaccioh said:

Definitely start with 10 if you enjoy or tolerate turn based. Then try the original seven, then 9, 4 on the ds, 6 and 5, you can branch off to other series, like Dragon Quest, Shin Megami Tensei, including Persona and so on.

Start with 15 if you want an Action RPG, from there, go look at 7Remake and Kingdom Hearts, maybe branch off to the Soulsborne series.

 

Thank you for the detailed post! I don't think I've ever played a turn based game before, but I'm open to try it. I'm open to anything that feels good to play. All noted and I will continue to look into more of these games before settling on the right one to start with!

 

12 hours ago, Destructor-8 said:

Yeah thanks man, still working on it so it's a work in progress so far. It looks like you've got a few more good games lined up so that should be some good fun & a few great reads.

 

It may be a work in progress - but you've been making a boat load of progress! You also have great games lined up! Exciting times my dude! ?

Edited September 18, 2021 by KindaSabbath

[Copanele]

49 minutes ago, KindaSabbath said:

As someone who hasn't yet played a Souls game, I don't really understand this notion? Most people I have spoke to about Souls games speak about how awesome the games are, not how "hard" they are. Is this just a sign of the times? With most games holding your hand all the way through these days? When a game doesn't do it, is it automatically lumped into the Souls category? Maybe resident Souls expert @Copanele can shed some light here? 

More than happy to oblige, when it comes to Souls 

 

So, in the age where every game had an indicator and target (Any Ubisoft game with a minimap full of collectibles) or you could tone down the difficulty until you trivialized the game, a game tried something different. In Dark Souls(successor to Demon's Souls, but that was kinda very niche at the time) there was no minimap, minimal dialogue, a SUPER vague idea where you have to go and most importantly YOU DIED IF YOU GOT HIT TOO MANY TIMES WITH A SWORD WITHOUT BLOCKING WHAT A SHOCK! No more "imma block this firebreathing dragon with my forehead because I am a barbarian" Skyrim style, you started as a maggot and had to carefully and painfully climb your way up and beat the top dogs. You couldn't go and waltz your way through the enemies at first, you had to block, manage your stamina and hit when you saw an opening.

 

In my opinion, the only correct label to these games is "tough, but fair". Yes you die pretty fast in your first playthrough but except some really bullshit situations (every game has them), most of the deaths were your fault. Got ganked on a hallway? Why did you charge butt naked with only a sword and no shield? Too many enemies? Draw them one by one and shish kebab them instead of fighting 1v5 and do a speedrun in dying.

Why do I think they are fair? Because well, if you understand what the game demands of you, you realize that everything is within reason. Ok maybe not bosses like Capra Demon who is a boss and 2 super fast dogs in an arena the size of a bathroom, but 80%-90% of every Soulsborne game is rather fair as long as you understand how to approach it. If you get it, this game is trivial also. It just require abit more effort from the player compared to say Assassin's Creed.

 

Now, I don't know who coined the term "game x is the Dark Souls of genre y", probably it was a reddit post. But certain enough, the glorious elite gaming journalists, that we know very well how proficient they are with videogames (RIP Cuphead Tutorial you shall never be forgotten), SOMEHOW every time they found a game harder than the norm, that game is "like Dark Souls".

 

Crash Bandicoot? Dark Souls of platformers. Crash Team Racing? Dark Souls of racing. DOOM 2016 on normal difficulty? Dark Souls of FPS ... you get the idea. Now it's mostly a meme within the community.

To be noted, ACTUALLY hard games like Super Meat Boy will NEVER be considered "Dark Souls of x", because they are legit hard games that require insane mastery of the mechanics. It's the games that you expect to beat eyes closed yet you get demolished in the first round that are considered "Dark Souls-ish" .

So yes I can say that what you mentioned about games holding your hand is quite accurate, Dark Souls doesn't do that. Dark Souls is like that father that teaches his son how to swim by throwing him into the lake yet saving him at the last second if the kid actually drowns. Poor analogy but it's the best I could think of.

 

Hope I could help with this minimal explanation  

[DrBloodmoney]

I’ll just add my unsolicited two cents here ? - and say I pretty much think @Copanele sums up Dark Souls to a tee - it’s not that they are necessarily hard that sets them apart, (I still would argue they can get very tricky, but I’m not on copanele’s level with the genre) - but it’s more that they ask a very specific, and very different type of challenge and levle of concentration from the player than most other games of a visually similar genre.

 

I don wonder though @Copanele - does this:

 

 

30 minutes ago, Copanele said:

Crash Bandicoot? Dark Souls of platformers. Crash Team Racing? Dark Souls of racing. DOOM 2016 on normal difficulty? Dark Souls of FPS ... you get the idea. Now it's mostly a meme within the community.

To be noted, ACTUALLY hard games like Super Meat Boy will NEVER be considered "Dark Souls of x", because they are legit hard games that require insane mastery of the mechanics. It's the games that you expect to beat eyes closed yet you get demolished in the first round that are considered "Dark Souls-ish" .

 

…mean that Sekiro should, by rights, be considered “The Dark Souls of Dark Souls?” ?

[Copanele]

3 minutes ago, DrBloodmoney said:

…mean that Sekiro should, by rights, be considered “The Dark Souls of Dark Souls?” 

That's just Miyazaki bamboozling us all ?

Normally "Dark Souls of genre x " should make gamers groan also, so I thought of the BEST comparison to annoy people:

Sekiro is the Dark Souls of Ninja Gaiden

 

Git Gud casuls ?(no it doesn't have to make sense either)

 

And yes they can get very tricky. There's some instances where the game can troll you even if you plan it carefully. It's the "no game is perfect" rule.

[KindaSabbath]

28 minutes ago, Copanele said:

More than happy to oblige, when it comes to Souls 

28 minutes ago, Copanele said:

Now, I don't know who coined the term "game x is the Dark Souls of genre y", probably it was a reddit post. But certain enough, the glorious elite gaming journalists, that we know very well how proficient they are with videogames (RIP Cuphead Tutorial you shall never be forgotten), SOMEHOW every time they found a game harder than the norm, that game is "like Dark Souls".

 

Thank you for that dude! I figured you would be the best person to chime in on this one!

 

I've been finishing up my review for Trials Fusion, so naturally I've watched a few reviews to see what others have to say. Guess what - it's only the bloody Dark Souls of platform motorbike racing games ???

 

The Cuphead fiasco legit had my dying. When the game released on switch and I picked it up, I let my 8 year old daughter play through some of it with me. She beat the tutorial - I don't even know what to say here ? 

 

28 minutes ago, Copanele said:

So, in the age where every game had an indicator and target (Any Ubisoft game with a minimap full of collectibles) or you could tone down the difficulty until you trivialized the game, a game tried something different. In Dark Souls(successor to Demon's Souls, but that was kinda very niche at the time) there was no minimap, minimal dialogue, a SUPER vague idea where you have to go and most importantly YOU DIED IF YOU GOT HIT TOO MANY TIMES WITH A SWORD WITHOUT BLOCKING WHAT A SHOCK! No more "imma block this firebreathing dragon with my forehead because I am a barbarian" Skyrim style, you started as a maggot and had to carefully and painfully climb your way up and beat the top dogs. You couldn't go and waltz your way through the enemies at first, you had to block, manage your stamina and hit when you saw an opening.

 

That makes perfect sense as to why everything that requires a bit of thought or the slightest bit of patience, is immediately dubbed as "the Datk Souls of..."

 

I guess maybe growing up during a time where you could legitimately get stuck on a game to the point where you would have to shelve it, until you find somebody who's gotten further than you, so you could figure out what you need to do next. Maybe I just didn't realise how much the typical run of the mill big title's tend to trivialise a games difficulty these days. I definitely underestimated how low the bar is with game journalism, these days. @DrBloodmoney see why you are the hero the gaming community needs? 

 

42 minutes ago, Copanele said:

To be noted, ACTUALLY hard games like Super Meat Boy will NEVER be considered "Dark Souls of x", because they are legit hard games that require insane mastery of the mechanics. It's the games that you expect to beat eyes closed yet you get demolished in the first round that are considered "Dark Souls-ish" .

 

So to sum it up, games that mainstream game reviewers will likely avoid because its obvious they will get steamrolled - not Dark Souls. Games that mainstream game reviewers expect to beat but get stuck in the tutorial because they didn't read the button prompts - Dark Souls.

[KindaSabbath]

19 hours ago, DrunkenEngineer said:

FYI, I believe Doom Eternal has an FOV slider, and if you (or anyone here) hasn't checked it out yet I highly recommend it.  The gameplay loop is an amalgam of a character action game and FPS, and it really works.  I got the 100% on Steam and sometimes think about doing it again on PSN except for those shitty multiplayer trophies.

 

Also, and I'm sure you do this, but I recently had an "ah-hah!" moment with regards to gripping my controller for shooters - switched out over to using my index fingers for L1/R1 and my middle fingers for L2/R2 and it really opens gameplay up.  I was forced into this with GTA5 where you need to use R1 and R2 concurrently when doing drive-by shootings, and sucks ass to do with only one finger.

 

Apologies - I meant to reply to you in an earlier post.

 

Doom 2016 looks rad. The multiplayer trophies massively put me off though, as I assume the game to be pretty dead now? FOV slider is a nice touch though and I hope that now, with more powerful hardware being out in the console space, it becomes the norm.

 

I actually don't have my triggers set up that way. But I am used to having buttons on the back of my controller, my son has an elite. Back in the day I used to use scuff controllers but their quality control is questionable at best. I will be modifying one of my Dualsense controllers and fitting back paddles, though. Not sure if I will use it much for multiplayer these days, but it will come in handy on many games, no doubt.

[KindaSabbath]

Okay, so I'm going to try and implement my own system when it comes to reviewing games. I will be rating them out of a total score of 5.  Which means I'll be breaking games down objectively into 5 distinct categories:

- Gameplay
- Music
- Visuals/Performance
- Story
- Challenge

Each category has 1 point up for grabs, the only time this rule does not apply - is when a game is more gameplay focused and thus, the story category would not be taken into consideration (Trials Fusion will be the first example of this). Instead double points will be up for grabs gameplay wise. Each point will be treated as an individual 100%. So for example; if I only enjoy 70% of a games soundtrack, it will net a .7 in that category. This scales up when double points are on offer. Probably far from a perfect system but I hope that makes sense!

 

 

With that out of the way, let us begin as I try my hardest to do justice for the incredible game that is - Trials Fusion.

Trials Fusion, which is the 5th installment in the series developed by Redlynx - One of the largest game development studios in Finland (under the Ubisoft umbrella) was the first Trials game to launch on a PlayStation platform back in April 2014. I think this is one of the reasons why it has such a notorious reputation in regards to difficulty. For many, it would of been their first Trials game so they wouldn't of known what they were getting into - and in all honesty - some of the trophy requirements are quite fucking brutal. Factor in that it's also been a free offering with ps+ at some stage and I think the reputation makes perfect sense.

Officially listed as a physics based platform racing game. There is a steep learning curve for the Trials series but if you are willing to put in the time, it will be one of the most rewarding gaming experiences you will ever have!

Gameplay:
This is a category where Trials excells. Hell, I would even say in my very biased opinion - this is a category where Trials is unrivalled. The goal is to navigate your way through various obstacles and complete a track as quickly and cleanly as possible. In addition to this, there are also various skill games on offer throughout Trials Fusion. These range from very well designed and engaging challenges (Anger Management ?) to Gimmicky and infuriating ones (Speedcuber ?) I won't delve into too much detail in regards to skill games, however, I will say there is quite a variety on offer. Ranging from how far you can bailout and throw your rider off his bike, to how far you can keep traction and scale up an increasingly difficult and steep surface, while keeping your balance. (FUCK HILL CLIMB)

The game is physics based, so even though there isn't vast amount of controls to learn:
- Accelerate
- Brake
- Rider position (leaning forwards, backwards or standing neutral as well as seated).

The inputs combined with your riders position will lead to varying outcomes
- Going forwards
- Going backwards
- Endos
- Wheelies

Quickly changing your riders position combined with the right amount of throttle will result in various moves, one of the most basic yet most important would be the bunny hop.

your bike will take to surfaces and behave in a way that will require you to have atleast an idea of how physics work in order to properly maintain control. You will need to learn how to lean properly depending on the obstacle at hand, with the goal being to get that back tire down/keep balance/gain traction and maintain speed.

The level of difficulty with the various obstacles is dependent on the level of difficulty of the track. Tracks range from your typical easy/medium/hard with extreme being available for hardened riders who want to push their limits and master the game. In regards to trophies, you need to master the game enough to beat all tracks from all available difficulties. The only ways to fail a track are to either fault out by amassing 500 faults, or to time out by reaching the time limit of 30 minutes. In either case you fail the track and have to restart.

Upon completing tracks you are awarded a medal. These medals are given out in the order of:
- Bronze (scraping by the skin on your balls)
-  Silver (decent enough run with a decent amount of faults)
- Gold (good run with limited amount of faults)
- Platinum (flawless and fast).

Luckily only a handful of gold medals are required for trophies, however, I would highly recommend becoming competent enough to comfortably acquire gold medals on all tracks - if you want to go for the full completion. It will make your life much easier by honing your skills. Some of the DLC requires you to go far beyond even the standard for Platinum medals.

As basic as the controls are, as your playstyle evolves and you start to take on the increasingly difficult challenges that are available to you - you will be able to start combining simple inputs to pull off advanced moves, which will inturn make scaling seemingly impossible obstacles much, much easier; Things like consecutive bunny hops, back wheel taps, rear wheel bounces and fender grabs. The more familiar you are with your bike, the better you can control it. Alot of these things become instinct, to the point where towards the end of the game - I was using advanced movements that I couldn't even explain.  Because I knew how my bike was going to behave in certain situations - and I was able to manipulate it to my advantage.

All of these skills that you develop, will be pushed to their limits as you progress through the world of Fusion. The track design in this game is simply fucking phenomenal. They encourage player progression by cranking up the difficulty on a track by track basis, beautifully. This is also the case with the DLC - which with now having experience playing both of the main entries available on our incredible platform - seems to be a theme for Redlynx. They pull you in with a solid and very challenging main game, and when you've conquered that, they gut punch you with some insane DLC tracks and feats to pull off. If you are able to answer the question: Is There Anything You Can't Do with a proud and heroic no? Please believe they will follow that up in the DLC. I feel as though the team in Helsinki are sat at their desks saying "are you sure about that buddy? ARE YOU SURE?" I imagine many who played and completed the game at launch were probably very nervous for each and every DLC pack as they launched one by one. Redlynx are a bunch of sadistic bastards and I am a huge fan of this development team!

Touching back on the track design: from the simplistic in nature but beautiful Bungalow Beach which showcases excellent use of lighting for a game nearly 8 years old - the track has, like many in the game, an extremely detailed and picturesque back drop, consisting of swaying palm trees and various beach structures with clean racing lines and is both dynamic and vibrant - to the absolute madness that is riding (or attempting to ride) through the insanely creative Way of The Machine - an extreme track which can only be described as an assortment of mechanical/robotic parts that quite literally assemble in front of you, getting more and more challenging as you progress toward the finish line. Everything is fair and doable, even in the case of the more demanding tracks like WoTM. As much as we all tell ourselves that it's bullshit and it's the games fault, there is absolutely a consistent way to get over every obstacle in every track, you just need to figure out and learn the appropriate technique to be able to pull it off. Then get better at pulling it off quickly. All of this adds up to a game that is very easy to get caught by the "Well, I'll give it one more try" a thousand times mentality. I fucking love it.

In summary for this section of my review - the gameplay is very tight and solid. The physics are implemented very well and the controls are extremely responsive. It is both simple to play yet difficult to master. The game encourages mastery. Shit, the trophy list expects mastery. In both instances this is something I love, so in this category Trials Fusion scores a massive 2/2.

Music:
Anyone, and I mean anyone who has spent a decent amount of time with Trials Fusion, when the game is brought up - they hear "Weellllcooommmee toooo thaaaa fuuuutuureee!!!" Ringing through their head! Fair-fucking play. It's what I hear too.

Redlynx decided to bring in some local talent for this little number: Petri Alanko, a fellow Finnish composer who specialises in orchestral/electronic and sophisticated classical pieces of music. He's also responsible for soundtracks to other popular games such as Remedies Alan Wake and newer release Control. But it doesn't stop there, he worked on music for the film Imaginaerum, which is based on the album by symphonic metal band Nightwish, also from Finland. The take home here? Finland produce some pretty fucking cool stuff! Speaking of which, the soundtrack to this game is pretty fucking cool...

Amounting to 19 original tracks, the theme here is future proof. The execution is a mash up of different sounds and genres. A Fusion, if you will. Alanko decided that elements were to be taken from key musical components of the past, the present and take a pot shot at what will be the future.

From the man himself: "So, building on the tradition, extrapolating, converging and simply mashing up stuff in a no-school way was the right route. Usually genre polices are the ones preventing the genre itself from developing, by the way, so a conscious decision was made: at least two different styles must be mashed up in the songwriting, two more as the production guidelines"

The result after listening through the different songs included in the soundtrack and what they all bring to the adrenaline fueled high octane motorbike party -  is a brain melting soundtrack which I could only describe as a mixture of hard Techno/Drum n Bass/EDM with some duuurty Dub-Step wubbaaaaa wubs all fused together with some Trance and a sprinkle of Alternative Rock. An assortment of noise. I say this as a compliment, I totally fuck with it. It nets a full point in my music category.

Visuals/Performance:
Trials Fusion aims for a crisp 1080p/60fps. I can't speak for the experience on PlayStation 4, but playing it on my PlayStation 5 - I experienced no hiccups whatsoever and frame rate felt Rock Solid. Unfortunately the resolution was a bit stretched out as I'm playing on a 55" 4k Oled, but this is no fault of the game and more a by-product of playing it so long after release - in a time where 4k gaming is often becoming the target. For a 2014 game, the visuals are fantastic. Clever use of backdrops offer a lot of diversity in scenery. The lighting is outrageously good and sometimes the sunset is blinding to the point that I've fallen off my bike because it jarred me - in a good way.

The general art direction is creative and vibrant with the theme of the game being set in a Sci-Fi futuristic world where the lines have been blurred between man and machine. This does allow for alot of variation in tracks as one minute you will be riding through rocky shores, the next you will beamed up into a space ship.

The game uses 3D graphics, but is played on a 2d plane. So even though you can generally only move forwards or backwards, the tracks boast depth visually which just adds to the immersion - in my personal opinion.

The pouring rain, quick flashes of lightning and rumbles of thunder in Eye of the Storm. The fire engulfed torture chamber with ear destroying bells continuously ringing that is Inferno IV. The steampunk themed shantie town from Neo Bradford. Everything just pops. Everything just works. It holds up superbly for a 2014 game and that just helps cement a very memorable experience. Trials Fusion nets another full point from me in this category.

Story:
Well fuck me. When starting to write this review, I didn't think for a single second that I'd be using spoiler tags for a game, where quite frankly - I think the story is irrelevant. It doesn't affect the experience really, at all, in my opinion. However, some people may want to find out about this more organically, on their own. The very nature of how the story is told in this game (through tid-bits of dialogue and easter eggs) is exactly the reason why I won't discuss it in open writing. Some people love a bit of that - who am I to deny them. So below I will put in spoilers - what the general consensus is,  regarding the story. There is no point up for grabs in this section of my review, for the reasons stated above.
 

 

Okay... So you play as "Rider" ? - your two AI companions are George and SynDI. That is the level of depth we're dealing with here. However, there may be a little bit more to what's going on with you and around you.

So I had my suspicions that something sinister was going on here. I mean, George and SynDI who speak to you throughout the game - say some straight up weird shit ?... At the end of every track there is always some brutal fatality awaiting your rider. If you face-fuck the wall (or just fault in general) the world doesn't reset around you, you just reappear at the last check point. In one of the levels my man George is in my ear asking me to refrain from using the retry button so much as it's using up too many resources in biomass. Erm, wait, wut? George, I was on a zero fault run you cheeky bastard.

Looking into it a bit more, there are quite a few worrying comments that your AI pals make to you whilst you're busy racing away. To be completely honest with you, I didn't catch most of it while actually playing the game. I mean, you try keeping up with @det_gittes, I'm not listening to SynDI's sweet nonsense in my ear, that's for sure ?...

The community consensus is that Redlynx figured out a clever yet pretty messed up way to work spamming the retry button into the story. You are but a mere clone. Everytime you hit retry - another clone is dropped at the previous checkpoint. The level Fusion Factory could very well be the place where the clones are made in bulk. There are lots of crates randomly scattered throughout the many levels of the game, which begs the question; what's in them? Could it be mangled clones from all of the crashes. Who knows for sure.

This is quite significant in a way because if this theory is true. Which does make sense when looking at it objectively. It would of had an impact on the level design and the general theme of the game. I will link a video confirming the possibility of this madness: 

 

 

Challenge:
Well to the surprise of absolutely no one. Trials Fusion is a tough game to complete. Like I have mentioned in the opening of this review, the trophy side of things is both brutal and very demanding. That said, it is also super rewarding to go after the full completion.

You have to - in order to attain the full completion - in completely subjective order of difficulty:

- Complete every challenge on every track in the base game...

Some of which are pretty tough, like beating one of the hardest extreme tracks in the game on an invisible bike. Or using a bike with poor agility, that is lacking in the technical ability to comfortably beat extreme obstacles - to zero fault a tough extreme track. Get good enough at wheelies to beat a track with long sections of pipe (which you have to drive on) without touching your front wheel at all.

Some of which are just annoying though, like guiding a physics based football from the beginning of a track all the way to the finish line (one wrong move and the the ball can go anywhere, resulting in a failed attempt). Or flying your motorbike through rings of fire to reach an objective... Seriously, in a game I praise so much for the incredible and robust controls, there is a mini game with the worst fucking controls ever. WHAT!?

- Speedrun some of the tracks far beyond what's required to earn a platinum medal. You have to go head to head with the very people who built this game. The developer time trials. Some of them are within reach for most people. Some of them are going to require you having put more hours into the game (fuck you Konsta ??)

- Again, go far beyond the requirement for a platinum medal on some of the skill games. A  bit of a mixed bag this one - the circles of hell skill game is awesome fun. The track, which gets increasingly more difficult with each pass - is incredibly well designed - which makes for a good challenge. Where as Cubicle Space can go eat a bag of balls because it sucks.

- Beat every extreme track in the game. Some of which will require advanced skill to get to the finish line. Nothing that can't be developed by simply playing and practicing though! That is the big thing here, anything that is out of reach to begin with in this game, is completely possible with more practice and more hours played.

Trials Fusion lays out some tough as nails requirements if you want to get all of the trophies. However, in my opinion this is high difficulty done well. The game absolutely nails player progression by incrementally cranking up the difficulty as you work your way through the game. Yes, it requires a lot. But, it offers you all of the tools to get it done. Can't complete a challenge you're working on currently? There's plenty of others you can be working on that will further develop your skill as a player which inturn only increases your time invested to result in more skill acquired. Everything is laid out neatly and is completionist friendly. Everything in the game has individual tabs with progression bars that make it easy for you to see what you have completed and what you have left to do. Something that can't be said about Rising, unfortunately.

All in all, Trials Fusion nets yet another full point in this section of my review.

Enjoyment rating: Fucking Awesome
Difficulty Rating: 8/10 - although I recognise for a new player this would be higher. I think whichever Trials game is your first out of the two main entries available to us, will be the hardest. The challenges that you have to overcome in Fusion are harder than that of Rising but I already had a firm grasp on how to play when going in, which took it down a notch for me.

Trials Fusion scores a perfect 5/5 from me.

To wrap things up I'm going to put it simply. Aaero has been dethroned as my favourite game of all time. Trials Fusion now holds that spot and I don't see it being rivalled anytime soon. I had an immense amount of fun playing through this game and it will be forever special to me. Yes, a big part of that is everything I've typed above. The game is fucking incredible. But a large part has also been the journey I've experienced completing this game and Trials Rising, too, that I've shared with all of you - one that you have all made so very special and for that I'm forever grateful. Below I have attached my Redlynx to the Sword clip - which was just the most awesome way to close out this monstrous completion. I've said it before but I will say it again: to cross that finish line and pop the final trophy ? bundled together with my friends that have completed it before me - is up there for me as one of my best gaming moments, ever. And I've been playing video games for over 25 years!

 

 

Edited September 18, 2021 by KindaSabbath

[Destructor-8]

8 hours ago, KindaSabbath said:

It may be a work in progress - but you've been making a boat load of progress! You also have great games lined up! Exciting times my dude! ?

 

Thanks! I'm hoping to get some more done this week. Also I saw that you mentioned CTR as one of your next games & I'm sure you'll enjoy it. It's not going to require the same skill as a game like Trials Fusion since that takes a lot more mastery for the trophies, so you'll enjoy getting better & better whilst your skill improves. It looks like @Shrooba has explained CTR incredibly well & I'm sure you can't wait to have fun on that game too.

 

5 hours ago, KindaSabbath said:

Enjoyment rating: Fucking Awesome
Difficulty Rating: 8/10 - although I recognise for a new player this would be higher. I think whichever Trials game is your first out of the two main entries available to us, will be the hardest. The challenges that you have to overcome in Fusion are harder than that of Rising but I already had a firm grasp on how to play when going in, which took it down a notch for me.

Trials Fusion scores a perfect 5/5 from me.

To wrap things up I'm going to put it simply. Aaero has been dethroned as my favourite game of all time. Trials Fusion now holds that spot and I don't see it being rivalled anytime soon. I had an immense amount of fun playing through this game and it will be forever special to me. Yes, a big part of that is everything I've typed above. The game is fucking incredible. But a large part has also been the journey I've experienced completing this game and Trials Rising, too, that I've shared with all of you - one that you have all made so very special and for that I'm forever grateful. Below I have attached my Redlynx to the Sword clip - which was just the most awesome way to close out this monstrous completion. I've said it before but I will say it again: to cross that finish line and pop the final trophy bundled together with my friends that have completed it before me - is up there for me with one of my best gaming moments ever. And I've been playing video games for over 25 years!

 

I really like the enjoyment rating you came up with as I think it pretty much explains what you thought of it in just a couple of words lol. That's a really great review there & I'm glad you mentioned the intro music as that is one of the best parts of the game, as it really lets you know what an amazing time you are in for. That's also a great video you did there & I can imagine it must've been amazing going against everyone's ghost as you finished it. I can see that's the best way to finish the game, which along with the intro music fits very well together. I'm glad I'll be able to use everyone's ghost for that too so I'm just going to have to improve my skill a lot before I get there. I know it's gonna take awhile though as you have an extreme amount of skill on the game. That was a really great read overall dude, nice going!

Edited September 18, 2021 by Destructor-8

[rjkclarke]

Spectacular review man! It's been a really enjoyable experience reading your progress and watching you absolutely slay this game and now to finally having those bad boys under your belt (game and review)....... Looking Forward to what's to come in the future.

 

That scoring system you've come up with is going to be very interesting when applied to plenty of games you'll play in the future. So I can't wait to see that more. I'm sure plenty of people are going to want to pick up Trials now as a result of this.

 

You worded that whole thing in such a great way, that'll make people believe in themselves that they have it in them to crack on and do it themselves. Instead of what you could of done which is just say " I DID A HARD GAME! LOOK HOW MUCH BETTER I AM THAN YOU" not that anyone on this side of the forums that would do that, but there is a certain type of chuckle head somewhere that probably would.

 

By the way I don't agree with that comment further up about Yakuza not being an RPG - it might not be listed as one, but it's heart and soul is an RPG/Brawler it has about as much in common with Batman Arkham Asylum as a Pigeon does with a Donkey, and, well - the fact  that they are both games you can hit people in I suppose. That's about it. All the other JRPG advice though I'd say is pretty sound ?

 

Funny you bring up Tales of Arise actually - because that might be a good first JRPG. One of my friends got the platinum in it a couple of days ago, and by Tales of' standards it's actually fairly short, from what he said it's fairly unobtuse too. So it's pretty good for people that haven't played an entry in that series before. I've not played it myself yet - but I'm a huge fan of that series so I'm waiting to play it on PS5 and man is it tough to fight the urge to get the PS4 version, but I'll stick in. Actually @DrBloodmoney, you asked me a while back what would be a good starting point if you wanted to dip your toes into the Tales of' series, so this might be up your ally too if you ever feel the urge at any point.

Edited September 18, 2021 by rjkclarke

[Arcesius]

Man, what a fantastic review that was! I think what makes it really great is that it both focuses on the game itself, but at the same time you show every bit of love you have towards all of those aspects that make this game one of the best I've played myself as well! That, and it is full of encouragement for other people to try it out  As should be! 

 

Also, this bit at the end: 

 

On 9/18/2021 at 2:50 PM, KindaSabbath said:

Enjoyment rating: Fucking Awesome
Difficulty Rating: 8/10 - although I recognise for a new player this would be higher. I think whichever Trials game is your first out of the two main entries available to us, will be the hardest. The challenges that you have to overcome in Fusion are harder than that of Rising but I already had a firm grasp on how to play when going in, which took it down a notch for me.

Trials Fusion scores a perfect 5/5 from me.

To wrap things up I'm going to put it simply. Aaero has been dethroned as my favourite game of all time. Trials Fusion now holds that spot and I don't see it being rivalled anytime soon. I had an immense amount of fun playing through this game and it will be forever special to me. Yes, a big part of that is everything I've typed above. The game is fucking incredible. But a large part has also been the journey I've experienced completing this game and Trials Rising, too, that I've shared with all of you - one that you have all made so very special and for that I'm forever grateful. Below I have attached my Redlynx to the Sword clip - which was just the most awesome way to close out this monstrous completion. I've said it before but I will say it again: to cross that finish line and pop the final trophy bundled together with my friends that have completed it before me - is up there for me as one of my best gaming moments, ever. And I've been playing video games for over 25 years!

 

Yes! Man, not only did you have a fantastic time, you found one of your favorite games and created a new top gaming moment  This is really cool to read! Really awesome stuff! It has been really fun to follow your progress and talk so much about this game.. though I'm sure it will continue to be the case with whatever you tackle next! 

 

Speaking of which.. I NEED to mention two things, even if late: 

 

Persona 5

I really disliked this game. It was the first Persona game I played, and I didn't know what I was getting myself into. I really enjoy RPGs though, and this game is all people could talk about for a while. It scored 10s left and right, and so I tried it. 

And I hated it. Not for the plot (which was meh), or the RPG elements (which are pretty basic... that's really not the focus of the game...), but because of the time-gated mechanic and what you do in the time that is available to you. 

 

You see, each day (you play like an in-game year or so... a bit more I believe) has three slots: Morning, Afternoon and Evening. Some of those slots are taken up by story-progressing events, and you can do ONE SINGLE ACTION at each of the free slots. So if you want to go buy weapons... that eats up a slot. You want to go to the doctor and see if you can get her to go home with you? A slot is used up. You want to go to the arcade? Well tough luck, it's Sunday. 

 

I also didn't enjoy that the game puts so much emphasis on "socializing". You need to go with your friends to places, hang out with them to improve your bond, go to a café with your maid, etc... I just didn't care for all of that stuff. 

 

That's not to say that what the other guys have written above is wrong. I just thought I'd tell you what I personally didn't like about this game so that you could make an informed decision. I played the original game though, not the Royal edition, which in addition is just so much more tedious to plat. I noticed 30 hours in that this game wasn't for me... and went on to spend another 80 hours with the game before I was done ?

 

 

Souls-games

I really am glad to hear that when you hear people talk about these games, they talk about how good they are and not how hard. The thing is, they really aren't tough in the same sense that games like Trackmania Turbo or Trials Fusion are hard. All FromSoft games are - in my very personal opinion - all between 4-6/10, not more. 

 

@Copanele did one hell of a job with his posts, and I agree with pretty much everything. I guess if you compare these games with their closest relatives (I'm thinking Onimusha, God of War, DmC, etc...), they indeed ask more of the player than any of those games. They are also way more cryptic. So much so that there exist YT channels focusing on nothing but the lore and hidden secrets in these games. And the depth is INCREDIBLE. It's just super difficult to get on your own (though definitely worth watching someone elses work on digging all of that stuff up). 

 

In any case... These games are not only mechanically incredible, the atmosphere is pretty much unparalleled. My recommendation? If you don't see yourself playing through many soulslikes but still want to try out the genre.. Play Bloodborne. I can say pretty confidently that you won't regret it a single bit  

Edited September 19, 2021 by Arcesius