Arcesius' Pursuit of Completion

[Arcesius]

 Platinum #71 – Trials Rising

 

 

 

The Pitch

Take your dust-collecting Trials bike out of the garage on a trip around the world, earning Platinum medals while on Safari in Africa or conquering Extreme tracks in Asia, and compete not only against other PS4 players, but against everyone else on the planet! 

 

 

100% Enjoyment 

 

100% Challenge

 

 

The Best:

I have to start this once more by emphasizing how much I love the Trials games... I still can't believe that I had never played them before, and they are suddenly among my favorite games ever, but hey, it's very nice to still be able to have such nice surprises nowadays  

 

Anyways, the best bits about Trials Rising... For one, it's more Trials ?  As for the superficial but still important aspects, instead of the futuristic Techno-theme that Fusion had going on, Rising has now a Punk / Rock theme that I personally find much more appealing. This is reflected both in the style of the game, as well as in the music, and I would often find myself riding to Trivium, Sum 41 and other similar bands I used to listen to a long time ago (and for some reason classical music would play during the Crash & Sunburn Extremes... Weird, but ok ?). And of course the graphics are much nicer than in Fusion. 

 

But what is way more important is that the tracks are extremely creative and fun to ride. I enjoyed the "global" theme, of participating in races and tournaments all around the world, and really loved how the tracks were designed to be in the style of the place they represent... Riding over containers on a frozen cargo-ship in Antarctica, crashing the tomato festival in Spain, riding on a moving transiberian train on its way to Beijing... Incredibly well-designed and innovative tracks that were a lot of fun to ride, that's for sure! And while on my first playthrough (I just played all tracks getting Gold medals without even looking at the trophies) I didn't really remember the tracks since I would mostly get Gold on my first or second attempt, coming back to them to get the Squirrels or Misc Trophies made me realize that they actually left a very positive impact  

 

 

The Worst:

Even if you enjoy a game a lot, there will always be certain aspects that you don't care about as much... That's no different here. From a technical perspective, this game is of course a lot more ambitious than Fusion, but this results in longer loading times and somewhat missing textures at points. It's not that bad, but it's noticeable. But again, these are minor nitpicks. 

 

I don't really know why, but initially all Ghosts I had to ride against were from random players. This changed at some point, probably when I had already established a good time on a track, and from that point on it would often ride against at least one or two Ghosts from my friends list. Maybe it has to do with all of the people on my list that played the game already having Gold / Platinum medals everywhere, and the game wants to measure you also against slower players? I dunno, but I found this weird ?

 

Once again I did not necessarily care for the Skill Games... I dunno, it's just not what I want to do in a Trials game. Some were fun, like the Power-Bike or Hill Climb, easily the hardest skill game for me, but most were pretty forgettable. For example, there is a Rodeo skill-game where you need to try and stay atop a rotating platform, and this one seems to be 100% RNG... Why is there such a luck-based minigame in this otherwise skill-focused game? Luckily I got a Gold medal on this one within 5 minutes, as I got good RNG and had only to survive two rotations of the platform... Still, I didn't enjoy this one at all. 

 

Other than the Skill Games, I grew to enjoy the track-selection from the world map, but I wasn't a fan of it initially. If you don't use the filter system, the map is very crowded pretty quickly. And when you are starting out, using the filter isn't necessarily very helpful, especially if you don't really know in which "Series" the track is that you are looking for... Oh and speaking of which, for a newcomer to the Trials series, it's probably welcome that there are so many Easy and Medium tracks. But for someone that has already experience with Trials, I would have enjoyed more getting to the Hard and Extreme tracks a bit quicker. 

 

And lastly, the lootboxes. I know, they are only cosmetic and you get them as rewards for completing tracks, challenges, etc... But why are they even here!?! The connection to the Ubisoft servers was often pretty bad, and I would need to open the same crate three or four times before it would show me its content. I stopped caring eventually, but it would have been nice to put together a decently-looking rider ?️

 

 

The Challenge:  

Let me start this by saying that the difficulty rating above can be misleading. This is an extremely difficult game! However, I mastered the Trials basics in Fusion, and thus overcame the extremely steep learning curve in that game. For people that have never played Fusion (or any other Trials game), this game will be extremely difficult to complete. In fact, I would say that the requirements for the Platinum are really demanding. 

 

For one, you need to get a Gold medal pretty much EVERYWHERE. Initially this might not be an issue, but getting Gold on the Hard and especially on the Extreme tracks can definitely be a daunting challenge to a newcomer. Personally I didn't really have many issues, with only two or three Extremes from the DLC giving me a bit of a headache (Warehouse HD, Frozen Leviathan), but I remember when I got to the Hard tracks in Fusion, I definitely struggled even getting Silver ?

But it is probably even harder to get Gold on certain Skill Games. Hill Climb gave me the most trouble, and even using the Hellium I needed about an hour to get it done, and Loose Screw is probably extremely difficult without the Donkey exploit. 

 

But that's not the end of it. You need to 1-fault and 0-fault an Extreme track, get at least seven Platinum medals, two Diamond medals, ... it's a really demanding set of requirements for that 100%. But extremely fun, too ? Oh, and I haven't seen this mentioned anywhere, but if you are struggling with Unyielding... Just use the Turtle Bike ? I initially started going for that Trophy with the Rhino, when suddenly I remembered having seen the Turtle (had not bought it yet). Made the Trophy pretty much free. 

 

And finally, let's not forget the tutorial... Professor FatShady, from the "University of Trials", has (rightfully so) his own set of tutorial levels in this game. Getting an A+ on all of his tracks is no joke! Especially the Consecutive Bunny-Hop, Rear-Wheel Bounce and the 30ish seconds Time Trial can be really difficult! I cannot begin to imagine how borderline impossible those have to be for a newcomer. However, precisely these tutorial levels are the reason I would recommend starting with Rising over Fusion, even though, overall, the latter is probably still the more satisfying game ?

 

 

 

 

Alright, this was my review for Rising. I had already mentioned most of the points before, I hope it's still not too repetitive. As for how my Trials-future looks like... For the time being I have uninstalled both Rising and Fusion. I could honestly just always play these games, but my gaming time is VERY limited, and there are a bunch of games I already own that I want to get to, and others that are soon coming out... I will eventually download one of them again, but I can't really say when that will be ?

 

I hope you are all enjoying the beautiful weather, while staying safe! 

[Arcesius]

I'm back! I mean, I wasn't gone, I have just not had much time for writing, and gaming-wise I've been stuck with the now worst game on my profile... Well, this is not going to be a very positive review, that's for sure! 

 

 

 

 Platinum #72 – Injustice: Gods Among Us

 

 

 

The Pitch

Waste your life with this DC-Themed fighter, playing Pong as Lex Luther, slashing at rocks as the God of War Ares (he doesn't have better things to do apparently), or trying to defeat input-reading AI in 1v1 battles with Solomon Grundy and his cheap 43% damage combo!

 

 

100% Enjoyment 

 

100% Challenge

 

 

The Best:

The game was free, and is now my rarest platinum. That's it. That's the best thing about the game, which is an incredibly sad thing to say ?

 

 

The Worst:

I don't want to write a huge essay (I could), so I will focus on my biggest gripes with this game.

 

You know, in other fighting games, you need to complete certain trials with each character. Especially the Street Fighter games are known for the notoriously difficult trials. With each character, you need to pull off certain specific combos, and the timing can be extremely tight. But, despite those trials being really difficult, they show you the strengths of each character, and probably make you better at the game.
Not so with Injustice. Here, each character has 10 missions that, most of the time, don't have anything to do with a fighting game. There are missions where you fly through the sky and need to avoid rocks, missions where you have to slash at incoming meteorites, missions where you play Pong against an opponent,… REALLY? ? I DIDN'T START A FIGHTER TO PLAY FUCKING PONG! I mean, Harley Quinn has what… 1/10 missions that is an actual fight? Maybe 2/10? 

These time-wasting missions don't really teach you ANYTHING. And some missions are so RNG heavy that you will have to retry certain objectives over and over until both the AI and RNG decide that you deserve the star. Not what I was looking for in this game. 

 

The next life waster is Battle Mode, which is incredibly boring and, more importantly, really badly balanced. There are 20 modes in total, and 18/20 of them are laughably easy. Then you have the last two, of which 1 (The Max) is pretty fucking hard, and the last one (Impossible Battle) is probably the most frustrating thing I attempted in recent memory. More on those two modes later, but the point here is that there is no difficulty curve at all, just a flat line with a spike at the end. This is not good design. Fuck this game. 

 

Then there is the mandatory online play... Luckily you only have to win 10 ranked matches, but holy shit that was miserable as well ? First of all, despite the servers being pretty well populated, it still takes forever to get a match... And yes, there are players waiting to be matched. Mori and I even tried to get matched up, and started looking for a game simultaneously. The stupid game refused to match us against each other, and we were both still kept waiting for fucking forever to be finally be paired against some random. So, we did the ranked matches legit, and oh boy... You'll find AFK players, rage-quitters, laaaaaaaaaaag, Grundy-Combo spammers… I was lucky and only needed to play 13 or so matches to get my 10 wins, cause any more time with that mode would have been torture.

 

Actually, let me rephrase that... Any more time with this GAME would have been torture ?

 

 

The Challenge:  

Luckily the game isn't the most difficult thing around. It was my first fighter and, for having such low rarity, it was very doable. If anything the platinum is a boring, very boring grind.

Usually I would argue that a trophy list that requires you to do everything there is to do in a game is a good list. In this case, "everything there is to do" is a veeeeery tedious checklist… For example, you have to:

 

Perform all super-moves. Perform all special moves with each character. Perform all meter-burned special moves with each character. Land all level transitions. Interact with all interactable objects. Complete all Battle modes and, in addition, complete the classic arcade ladder with all characters. Complete all 240 missions and finish each with three stars. Play 200 online matches, and win 100 online matches... 

 

The list goes on, but you get the point. Doing "everything" doesn't make this particular game any better.

But we are here to talk about how challenging it is to achieve the platinum. There are three trophies that can be pointed out.

• Reach level 100.
  Of course. No grind is complete without the unnecessary and ridiculous XP grind. However, despite the exponential XP curve I was expecting this to be way worse. You can get a 15x multiplier, which allows you to get to lv. 100 in about 10 hours of repeatedly mashing R1, depending on when you start the grind. I won't complain.
   
• Complete all Battle Modes.
  We touched upon Battle Mode above. A Battle Mode in this game is your typical ladder, with each mode having different conditions… For example, Classic Battle is your regular 10 opponent arcade ladder, while Survivor will also pair you against 10 random enemies but your health bar carries over from match to match. I mentioned above that 18/20 modes are easy, and two stand out. Those are:
  • The Max. Here you have to defeat 10 enemies on the hardest difficulty. Some opponents are just unfightable on their hardest setting, so if they show up in the roster save your time and just restart.
    You know how in certain games people criticize that a "higher difficulty" just means having enemies with more HP and a higher damage output? Well, in Injustice, the hardest difficulty just means that you have cheating AI that will read your inputs and punish you at all times. Fun times!
  • The Impossible Battle. You have to fight 24 enemies in a row, with increasing AI difficulty, WITH ONE SINGLE HEALTH BAR. Fuck this mode. ? One successful attempt takes roughly 45 minutes, and while the AI never reaches maximum difficulty, having only one health bar makes this mode really unforgiving. This is the single challenge that made me rage the most, and I really felt frustrated at times. Definitely the hardest thing in the game (for me). 
     
• Complete all 240 S.T.A.R. Lab missions with 3 Stars.
  I already ranted about the missions above. Anyways, despite the RNG and even if these missions have nothing to do with fighting, most missions are pretty quick to do. I think most people can easily do most of these missions, maybe with a handful of exceptions. But there are so freaking many of them! That's the only explanation I have for the rarity of this specific trophy. 

 

 

So yeah… If you want to take something from the review, then that I gotta be really bored to ever consider doing another fighter. I understand that it is a very good genre if you want to play something competitively, but it definitely isn't for me. If the above wasn't enough, let me just say that boosting the 200 online matches was the most fun part of the game (thanks to Mori, of course). That alone should tell you enough. 

 

Let me say it one more time, and finally never think about Injustice ever again: Fuck. This. Game. 

 

 

 

 

 

In other news... Welcome @Koro249, that's the price to pay for playing with me... you'll get tagged every now and then ? Together with @Mori we finished the second DLC in Remnant: From the Ashes, and had been trying to beat 10 bosses in a row in Survival mode for a couple of sessions... with not much success. However, we then decided to split up and do it in groups of 2 and... we finally got it done without much effort. ? The enemy and boss scaling for three players is just waaaaaay too steep. Playing in a party of three we only managed to beat boss 5 twice in many, many runs... Once I tried it only with Mori, we got it in 2 attempts.

 

Now, they just need to fix the bugged trophy and the game will be again at 100%. The achievement was patched on Steam a couple of days ago, so I'm confident that they will fix it too on consoles. 

 

The three of us will be playing through the Trine collection next. Not really sure what to expect, but I'm sure it will be a good time ?

 

 

 

[Copanele]

7 minutes ago, Arcesius said:

Justified rage against Injustice

 

I. LOVED. reading that. Truth be told, the best thing about Injustice Gods Among Us is 1. the comics (really good story ) and 2. you writing your experience about it  I guess this is the only game so far that you utterly hated also, perhaps?

Somehow Netherrealm kinda nailed it with the second iteration of games (Injustice 2 and MK XL) but the first release...oh boy. It's only for the fans that don't aim for trophies and love their DC comics.

Also...glad that you don't have Mortal Kombat  on your profile (the PS3 one). I personally would rather go through the Injustice crap rather than going for that My Kung Fu is Stronger or that stupid, STUPID secret fight where you have to double perfect Shang Tsung or something. Will decide once I finish Ultimate Battler :3 Bottom line : Netherrealm hates us

 

Anyway! I expect you to have fun with Trine. It's a very nice puzzle platformer with lots of charm in it. Hope you enjoy it also! Way better than Injustice that's for sure.

 

 

 

[Baker]

Congrats.

 

Trine sucks. I’ve had Trine 2 for years and booted up the game a few times but I find it very boring. But maybe it’s fun in coop though.

 

There is still a spot open for Black Ops III if you’re still considering it.

[CrimsonMercury]

I agree with your opinion on S.T.A.R Labs, it's gotta be the single most ridiculous and frustrating mode I've ever had to experience in all my years of gaming. Battle Mode, in comparison, is a joke imo.

 

I'm currently grinding out the level 100 trophy and after doing the math, with a 5x multiplier it'll still take me over 35 hours of mashing one button ( don't have a turbo controller).  Could you explain how exactly I can get a 15x multiplier and finish it within 10 hours?

[Grotz99]

35 minutes ago, Copanele said:

I. LOVED. reading that. Truth be told, the best thing about Injustice Gods Among Us is 1. the comics (really good story ) and 2. you writing your experience about it  I guess this is the only game so far that you utterly hated also, perhaps?

Somehow Netherrealm kinda nailed it with the second iteration of games (Injustice 2 and MK XL) but the first release...oh boy. It's only for the fans that don't aim for trophies and love their DC comics.

Also...glad that you don't have Mortal Kombat  on your profile (the PS3 one). I personally would rather go through the Injustice crap rather than going for that My Kung Fu is Stronger or that stupid, STUPID secret fight where you have to double perfect Shang Tsung or something. Will decide once I finish Ultimate Battler :3 Bottom line : Netherrealm hates us

 

Anyway! I expect you to have fun with Trine. It's a very nice puzzle platformer with lots of charm in it. Hope you enjoy it also! Way better than Injustice that's for sure.

I have Mortal Kombat (PS3) and Injustice on my list for from back in the days where I'd try games without thinking about trophies. Was actually thinking about jumping into a fighting game again and keep seeing Injustice on my account, but after that review, I think I'll go back to either Super Street Fight IV or BlazBlue. 

[Copanele]

8 minutes ago, Grotz99 said:

I have Mortal Kombat (PS3) and Injustice on my list for from back in the days where I'd try games without thinking about trophies. Was actually thinking about jumping into a fighting game again and keep seeing Injustice on my account, but after that review, I think I'll go back to either Super Street Fight IV or BlazBlue. 

Yeaaaaa you will be better off with those 2 you mentioned. Mk9 and Injustice are for people who don't know what they are getting into

[Arcesius]

16 hours ago, Copanele said:

I. LOVED. reading that. Truth be told, the best thing about Injustice Gods Among Us is 1. the comics (really good story ) and 2. you writing your experience about it  I guess this is the only game so far that you utterly hated also, perhaps?

 

Haha, thanks a lot, that is fantastic feedback! ? I initially wanted to only write that the game doesn't deserve a review, but it now became a rant. 

 

As for hating the game... Perhaps not the only one [... quickly looks over his game list ...] yep.. the only one. There are games on my list that I didn't enjoy going for the plat for reasons, for example The Last Guardian or Oxenfree, but no game on my list made me say "I hate this piece of shit" out loud as often as Injustice did ?

 

 

16 hours ago, BB-BakkerJ said:

Trine sucks. I’ve had Trine 2 for years and booted up the game a few times but I find it very boring. But maybe it’s fun in coop though.

 

Honestly, I would not have considered getting Trine if not for them two guys asking me to join. The collection with all four games was just in the last sale for a really good price, and it cannot hurt to do something easier for a change. Has been a while since I did a chill game. 

 

 

Quote

There is still a spot open for Black Ops III if you’re still considering it.

 

Still tempting, but I'm still declining. I talked yesterday to your teammates and I just cannot commit 100 hours of 4-player coop gaming atm... It would take forever, believe me (Mori and I have been playing Divinity 2 since May, and we have put 50 hours into it at most so far...)

 

 

15 hours ago, CrimsonMercury said:

I agree with your opinion on S.T.A.R Labs, it's gotta be the single most ridiculous and frustrating mode I've ever had to experience in all my years of gaming. Battle Mode, in comparison, is a joke imo.

 

I agree that it is a joke in comparison, in terms of the time that it takes... But nothing in S.T.A.R. Labs is as challenging as Impossible Battle, in my opinion. I was averaging 2 characters (20 missions) per hour, but there were some missions that took way longer (kill Grundy as Batman without using Grenades... I hated that mission so much).. I'd say that with the handful of missions that really took long, I must have spent 15+ or so hours with S.T.A.R. Labs ? 

 

 

Quote

I'm currently grinding out the level 100 trophy and after doing the math, with a 5x multiplier it'll still take me over 35 hours of mashing one button ( don't have a turbo controller).  Could you explain how exactly I can get a 15x multiplier and finish it within 10 hours?

 

Yeah, that is not explained in the guide, but it is relatively easy to do ? Grab yourself a friend / boosting partner, and kill him 50 times in a row in private online matches. That will give you a 10x multiplier that lasts for 5 minutes or so. Thing is, if you start a match while the multiplier is still active, it lasts for the duration of the match. 

 

Now, get in addition the 5x multiplier from the archives. Unfortunately they don't stack multiplicatively (50x multiplier would be awesome), but additively, hence 15x. 

 

I dunno how you have been grinding, but if you do the "Robot interactible" grind with Doomsday, you will be getting approximately 3.7 Million XP per hour (250k times 15). When I started farming I already had about 12 Million XP, and you need around 50 Million to reach lv. 100. That's about 10 hours of button-mashing  

 

 

15 hours ago, Grotz99 said:

I have Mortal Kombat (PS3) and Injustice on my list for from back in the days where I'd try games without thinking about trophies. Was actually thinking about jumping into a fighting game again and keep seeing Injustice on my account, but after that review, I think I'll go back to either Super Street Fight IV or BlazBlue. 

 

I would love to say that it's just me, that the genre isn't for me and Injustice isn't THAT bad. But @Copanele is a fighter-vet and still agrees that this game is garbage... In any case, I had no prior experience with fighting games and still got the plat in roughly 50 hours, including grinding XP. It doesn't take THAT long, but it's just a miserable time ?

 

So yeah... go for SSFIV... it's the harder but also more valuable plat in my opinion. 

Edited September 2, 2020 by Arcesius

[Mori]

@Arcesius Thanks to you, the plat does not show up in my top 5 rarest trophy cabinet anymore. You did good.

[AJ_Radio]

I enjoyed Trine, I’m going to have to agree to disagree with @BB-BakkerJ on that. 
 

Still need to get Trine 4: The Nightmare Prince. Will do Trine 2: Complete Story. Eventually I will get the whole series done.

[Arcesius]

15 hours ago, Mori said:

@Arcesius Thanks to you, the plat does not show up in my top 5 rarest trophy cabinet anymore. You did good.

 

Damn dude, sorry about that... I know you loved seeing the game everywhere on your profile! You know what, you should stack the NA version! That's still sitting at 0.13% ? ?

 

 

 

 

So, I mentioned that I am focusing on the Nioh 2 DLC atm... And I feel like writing a couple of sentences about Nioh right now ?

 

Now, why ain't I getting trophies for it? Similarly to the first game, the DLC came out with a trophy that requires you to beat all of its missions on the new difficulty, Dream of the Demon (NG++). The original game also had a trophy for beating ALL missions (Twilight, Dojo, Update, Base Game, DLC, ...) missions on that difficulty, but that's not the case with Nioh 2 (yet... who knows what future DLC will bring). 

 

HOWEVER, the DLC region unlocks together with the final base game region... Which means that you still have to complete roughly 75% of the base game missions to even be able to access it. I have now 100% completed the first three regions, so I should still have about 1.5 regions to clear before I finally unlock the DLC (don't feel like playing through it on NG first). 

 

Now, some of you have played Nioh, in which case you will understand what I am about to write. If you haven't then this probably won't make any sense whatsoever... When tackling Dream of the Demon (or Way of the Demon in the original), the single most important thing to survive that difficulty is to have a proper, well synergizing build going. That means a couple of things: 

• All of your gear acquired throughout NG and NG+ is obsolete. The game starts now. 
• The final boss on NG+ drops a Yasakani Magatama. That is the single most important accessory in the entire game. 
• Anything that isn't Divine shouldn't get your attention. Sell it, dismantle it, drop it... just don't keep it. 
• Think about your playstyle, spend dozens of hours browsing the wiki for set-perks, think about what you want your character to achieve, and start farming that shit. 

 

Now, I had a couple of builds on paper that I was eager to try out, but would have been a bit difficult to put together. For example, I wanted to go again for a Sign of the Cross build that does a ton of damage from behind... but Kingo's Set, which gives extra Backstab Damage, only reaches that perk with 5 set pieces (4 with the Yasakani), so I would have had to make a lot of compromises in other departments... 

Similarly, going for Saturation is nice on paper, and water is my favorite element to play around with.. but there are no perks that grant additional damage against saturated enemies (I dunno why.. there is for scorched, electrified, paralyzed, poisoned... but not saturated). 

 

So, what did I do? I have now a Toxic Dual Swords build. I'm combining two Dual Sword sets (Master Swordsman and Golden Gourd) to get additional damage on Sign of the Cross, Windstorm AND, my new favorite active skill, Cherry Blossom. Now, instead of Saturation I decided to go for Poison, and with my guardian spirits, soul cores and re-rolled perks I have a ton of additional Poison Accumulation and Melee Damage against Poisoned Enemies. I'm using Poison Shuriken to poison enemies from a distance, but also have Imbue Poison on my main weapon just for enemies that don't have a high Poison Resistance. 

 

Since I'm using all three Active Skills mentioned above depending on the situation, I also tried to roll more Active Skill Damage on as many pieces of armor as I could. I couldn't be arsed to farm for orange inheritables that grant more damage from specific skills, so more damage across the board it is. 

 

The result is pretty sick.. I am now at level 230 and can run through level 310+ missions without issues. The drawback? Bosses can sometimes 3/4-shot me... In the original Nioh, I had a tankier build using Tatenashi with a lot of Equipment Weight Reduction, but.... only noobs get hit in this game, am I right? ?

 

My equipment is at level 170 +14 more or less, but since most drops are around +8 to +10, I am now at the point where I need to soul forge lower level equipment to be able to further improve my actual gear. That means spending as much time at the blacksmith, as doing the actual missions ? But I don't mind it. My goal is to get everything up to +15 by the time I start the DLC. 

 

 

So much for Nioh. If you don't like random loot, farming and spending hours thinking about a proper build... yeah, I can understand that this game isn't for you ?. 

[Copanele]

5 minutes ago, Arcesius said:

TOXIC

You managed to do a viable toxic build in Nioh 2?  Hot DAMN! Usually poison builds are very underwhelming in videogames. If Nioh 2 gets that right...

Ah shit here we go again. Gotta get the game. Looking towards your progress with great interest!

[AJ_Radio]

I have to ask you guys, is Nioh alright to be played solo like the Dark Souls franchise, or are you better off playing it in co-op?

[Copanele]

In my honest opinion, although the game can be soloed no problem, some missions are so incredibly hard for their difficulty range(especially in DLC3) that you are better off co-oping them. If you wish to solo, better prepare a proper build. Way of the Demon (NG++) is where the game becomes incredibly demanding.

 

But it's only in Way of the Demon where co-oping really makes your life easier(and you need that for a DLC trophy only anyway). Way of the Samurai/Strong (NG/NG+) should not pose so many troubles. 

Arcesius can give way more details, he blasted through the game full solo and knows his sets. 

[AJ_Radio]

Well I probably won’t be playing this game anytime soon, just curious to hear how it compares with the Soulsborne games. 
 

Got too many games already, so it’s probably best I don’t bother with Nioh. Can’t afford another time consuming game on my backlog.

[Arcesius]

7 hours ago, Spaz said:

I have to ask you guys, is Nioh alright to be played solo like the Dark Souls franchise, or are you better off playing it in co-op?

 

1 hour ago, Copanele said:

In my honest opinion, although the game can be soloed no problem, some missions are so incredibly hard for their difficulty range(especially in DLC3) that you are better off co-oping them. If you wish to solo, better prepare a proper build. Way of the Demon (NG++) is where the game becomes incredibly demanding.

 

But it's only in Way of the Demon where co-oping really makes your life easier(and you need that for a DLC trophy only anyway). Way of the Samurai/Strong (NG/NG+) should not pose so many troubles. 

Arcesius can give way more details, he blasted through the game full solo and knows his sets. 

 

@Copanele is absolutely right. Especially in the original Nioh, some of the missions can be extremely difficult on Way of the Demon. If you want the 100%, you'll have to beat every single mission on that difficulty setting, and that ain't no easy feat. In my opinion, it is harder than anything you have to do in any other souls game, by far. 

 

However, if you enjoy farming, thinking about specific builds, etc... and you end up with a proper build, then it is definitely doable solo. I never summoned anyone, but I cannot say that I didn't struggle at times. I certainly did. 

 

If at any point you decide to tackle this game (or the second one), I'd gladly give advice about getting the 100%, what builds to try out, etc...  

 

 

3 minutes ago, Spaz said:

Well I probably won’t be playing this game anytime soon, just curious to hear how it compares with the Soulsborne games. 
 

Got too many games already, so it’s probably best I don’t bother with Nioh. Can’t afford another time consuming game on my backlog.

 

I have said it before... I love the souls games (especially Bloodborne), but I like Nioh even more. The world building and enemy variety is better in the souls games, no doubt about that, but combat is way more complex in Nioh, there is a way larger build variety, and I enjoy the Diablo-esque loot system.

 

But it is not a game to play casually. You really need to learn the mechanics, you need to learn how the Blacksmith works (it's not as simple as it looks), how to craft proper gear, etc. It takes time, but the result is worth it. 

 

But yes, it is time consuming. I got 100% in Nioh in 190 hours, but only because I got the plat before the DLCs came out. You could get it in 150 hours playing solo (@Copanele, any idea how long it took you?). And Nioh 2 doesn't seem to be much shorter, either. I'm now at 135 hours and haven't even started the first DLC ?

[Copanele]

7 minutes ago, Arcesius said:

 

But yes, it is time consuming. I got 100% in Nioh in 190 hours, but only because I got the plat before the DLCs came out. You could get it in 150 hours playing solo (@Copanele, any idea how long it took you?). And Nioh 2 doesn't seem to be much shorter, either. I'm now at 135 hours and haven't even started the first DLC 

I am not sure how I can measure " a fuckton of time" but yeah...around that  (over 150 hours that's for sure) Let's just say that doing everything solo would put AC Origins/Odyssey to shame.

 

And yeah...to compare the difficulty,I'd say that Nioh in Way of the Demon is kinda the equivalent of doing Bloodborne at BL4. It's NOT an easy feat, you really need to know what you are doing. I personally couldn't solo the entire thing and had to request some co-op assistance at that blasted mission vs Toyotomi and Nine Tails. Was too tired of the 1 shot bullshit that was going on there.

 

LAST MINUTE EDIT: UNLESS you do a Living Weapon build which is the cheap way out in Nioh 1. Heard it's not as effective in Nioh 2 praised be Buddha ( @Arcesius pls confirm this)

Edited September 4, 2020 by Copanele

[Arcesius]

8 minutes ago, Copanele said:

And yeah...to compare the difficulty,I'd say that Nioh in Way of the Demon is kinda the equivalent of doing Bloodborne at BL4. It's NOT an easy feat, you really need to know what you are doing. I personally couldn't solo the entire thing and had to request some co-op assistance at that blasted mission vs Toyotomi and Nine Tails. Was too tired of the 1 shot bullshit that was going on there.

 

Yeah.. As I mentioned above, I had an Agility A build going but using Heavy Armor... Specifically, Tatenashi, which gives you a TON of Toughness, Defense and Damage Reduction... So I wasn't easily one-shotted. I felt like it was necessary in the original Nioh... 

 

That's a good comparison though! ?

 

 

8 minutes ago, Copanele said:

LAST MINUTE EDIT: UNLESS you do a Living Weapon build which is the cheap way out in Nioh 1. Heard it's not as effective in Nioh 2 praised be Buddha ( @Arcesius pls confirm this)

 

Yup, you are right. There are no cheese builds in Nioh 2, which is why people that cheesed the first one are having a very hard time with the sequel.. they never learned how to play the game properly, and are now being destroyed. 

 

And which is also why I would not recommend doing a LW build in Nioh. First of all I imagine that it is extremely boring... And secondly, cause Nioh 2 will be very difficult if you played the first one that way. 

[AJ_Radio]

Nioh and Nioh 2 are perfect examples why trophy rarity was and is in many cases pointless to a degree. 
 

Bloodborne was the hardest uncommon platinum I went for on my profile. Nothing else compares. Assassin’s Creed games in comparison are piss easy. 
 

Super Meat Boy I feel is one of a select few games that is truly deserving of its ultra rare platinum because it demands a lot. OlliOlli2: Welcome to Olliwood is an easier platinum than Surgeon Simulator, despite the fact that both platinum trophies are within .04 - .05 percent of each other in rarity. 
 

Practically most of everyone who did Nioh 2 poured over 100 hours in the first Nioh. Now you take in consideration the number of people who played Nioh that are Dark Souls veterans. 
 

Trophy rarities can fool people. Nioh has a dedicated fanbase which is why the rarities are so high. But I’m willing to bet a good number of people out there who are casuals and tried out Nioh gave up on it because it is simply too hard. 
 

Having to learn the knowledge of what builds work and what don’t work so well is generally a barrier that many casual players don’t bother with.

Edited September 4, 2020 by Spaz

[Arcesius]

On 9/3/2020 at 8:51 AM, Copanele said:

You managed to do a viable toxic build in Nioh 2?  Hot DAMN! Usually poison builds are very underwhelming in videogames. If Nioh 2 gets that right...

Ah shit here we go again. Gotta get the game. Looking towards your progress with great interest!

 

I'm gonna quote this because... I did. But I've encountered a problem now, and I had to improvise. 

 

So, I've been playing nothing but Nioh 2 lately, playing on Dream of the Demon only. I just recently unlocked the DLC, and am almost done with it. But I've now encountered a wall. Lemme elaborate. 

 

To touch again upon my build. The "disadvantage" of Poison is that tick-damage caps at 999. I have reached that cap, but with enemies having a fuck-ton of HP, those ticks don't really do much. But that doesn't really matter, since it's not the DoT that I care about. Thanks to my perks I have around +80% melee damage against poisoned enemies, and so much poison accumulation that I can poison any enemy with one single Poison Shuriken. So, I usually just run around with 10 Poison Shurikens and, whenever I encounter one of those buffed dudes with a red aura that appear in Dream of the Demon, I poison them and go to town. I get most of the poison perks from my weapon, my accessories and, more importantly, my Soul Cores... Meaning that I didn't need to compromise otherwise, and have rolled my other gear to grant me other bonuses such as Active Skill Damage, Life, Defense, Toughness, Tenacity, etc... you know how this works. ?

 

Now, this build was rocking the base game on Dream of the Demon. There is one Yokai that is immune to poison, and I hate it, but I can deal with it, and most bosses aren't immune to poison either. It might take 2 Shurikens instead of 1 to apply the effect, but it works well for the most part.  

 

But then I started the DLC. And encountered Benkei, Uminyudo and Yoshitsune (and an improved version of 

Spoiler

Nue

)

And of course, they are all resistant to poison. 

 

I fought the first one as a mini-boss in the first main mission of the DLC, and while it took me a while to take him down, not being able to apply poison made the fight pretty long, but forced me to learn his moveset. I got pretty good at the fight, so when I faced him again in a sub-mission (you know, your typical Nioh duels) with more health and whatnot, I got him on my second try. Fun fight, very well designed boss, provides a challenge. 

 

Uminyudo is an improved version of the original Umibozu fight, but is also way harder than the counterpart in the original (remember, that huge blob that pops out of the water...). Anyways, also here I had to improvise since it is almost immune to poison, but I got its moves down and defeated it eventually. 

 

Now, Yoshitsune. This is, without a doubt, the hardest boss in Nioh 2. He has the largest health pool I've seen in the game, he is immune / resistant to pretty much everything but purity, and moves around like a freaking Anime character. This fight is INSANE ? And this guy has over double the moves of any other boss I've faced so far, so learning how to react to everything is incredibly difficult, especially given his speed. I haven't even managed to get this guy to 50% health yet, and that despite bringing 4 Quick Change Scrolls to the fight. 

 

So... there goes my poison build. I quickly respeced my character to increase my Omnyo skills, and am using those exclusively for defense. Barrier, Steel, Rejuvenation and Life-Leech Talismans for survivability, I changed my Soul Cores because I obviously don't need damage against poisoned stuff, and while I have been more successful with the setup, it's improvised on the spot, hence not optimized and I get destroyed nonetheless.  

 

Oh well... Two missions to go, both with this insane dude as the boss (regular mission and of course, a duel), and I will have Nioh 2 once more at 100%. When will that be? No idea... It will still take a while before I have this mofo down. 

 

Maybe it doesn't help that I'm 85 levels under the recommended mission level. ?

Edited September 10, 2020 by Arcesius

[Copanele]

Oh man you were so close so poison ain't as viable once you get to the big cheese enemies. I guess it will forever be a complimentary debuff applied on a main skill when it comes to extra content in games. 

Actually I think the only place where poison worked wonders was Dark souls 2 (and the enemies who were immune to poison were trash anyway). Other than that.. I don't have any other game in mind. Definitely not in Nioh 1, those dudes in WotD would trash the poison out of me. 

 

And I don't think the recommended level matters anymore when you reach Dream of the Demon. Don't know how it scales in Nioh2, in Nioh1 I blitzed through twilight missions 150 levels above my recommended level and I didn't feel any difference. The game would still kick my ass regardless of the level

[Arcesius]

Alright, I made it work. I didn't feel like farming for another build, or re-rolling my perks, or summoning.... So, played it dirty. 

 

Defensive Mystic Art on my Dual Swords, Rejuvenation, Steel and Barrier Talisman, Gust Talisman for the Dark Realm to reflect back his projectiles, Quick Change Scrolls and, the most important thing... three cute little cats ? All of that allowed me to stay really up in his face and spam Windstorm and Sign of the Cross. Had to play it safe in the final moments of the fight since I run out of protective items, but it worked just fine. 

 

So, this is the hardest boss in Nioh 2, on Dream of the Demon, beaten in around 4 minutes by a less than optimized build. Not my usual playstyle, but if the devs decide that poison ain't as viable anymore, I'm gonna play dirty. Enjoy! 

 

 

Edited September 10, 2020 by Arcesius

[Copanele]

7 minutes ago, Arcesius said:

Alright, I made it work. I didn't feel like farming for another build, or re-rolling my perks, or summoning.... So, played it dirty. 

 

Defensive Mystic Art on my Dual Swords, Rejuvenation, Steel and Barrier Talisman, Gust Talisman for the Dark Realm to reflect back his projectiles, Quick Change Scrolls and, the most important thing... three cute little cats  All of that allowed me to stay really up in his face and spam Windstorm and Sign of the Cross. Had to play it safe in the final moments of the fight since I run out of protective items, but it worked just fine. 

 

So, this is the hardest boss in Nioh 2, on Dream of the Demon, beaten in around 4 minutes by a less than optimized build. Not my usual playstyle, but if the devs decide that poison ain't as viable anymore, I'm gonna play dirty. Enjoy! 

 

 

OH WOW IT'S VERGIL FROM DEVIL MAY CRY! Why you summoning swords boi?

 

Nah but really  that boss is so goddamn epic, it gets my gaming blood boiling  (anime much I know). They really did a fine job with this game. God bless those quick change scrolls lmao.

What are the 3 cats doing by the way?

[Grotz99]

24 minutes ago, Arcesius said:

Alright, I made it work. I didn't feel like farming for another build, or re-rolling my perks, or summoning.... So, played it dirty. 

 

Defensive Mystic Art on my Dual Swords, Rejuvenation, Steel and Barrier Talisman, Gust Talisman for the Dark Realm to reflect back his projectiles, Quick Change Scrolls and, the most important thing... three cute little cats  All of that allowed me to stay really up in his face and spam Windstorm and Sign of the Cross. Had to play it safe in the final moments of the fight since I run out of protective items, but it worked just fine. 

 

So, this is the hardest boss in Nioh 2, on Dream of the Demon, beaten in around 4 minutes by a less than optimized build. Not my usual playstyle, but if the devs decide that poison ain't as viable anymore, I'm gonna play dirty. Enjoy! 

 

 

I haven't gotten around to playing the first Nioh, as it sits on my shelf mocking me, but damn does this make me want to. That last 10% looked like it got a little sketchy compared to the first 90% of what looked like face tanking.

Edited September 10, 2020 by Grotz99

[Baker]

O wow. That looks pretty cool. It looks like Nioh has a much faster battle system compared to any Soulsborne game. Is that true? I tried Bloodborne but it was just too slow for my liking, but I also have Nioh from Ps Plus. I’m going to download it and give it a try.

Edited September 10, 2020 by BB-BakkerJ