Arcesius' Pursuit of Completion

[AJ_Radio]

The first two games that pop up in my mind when I see The End is Nigh is Super Meat Boy and The Binding of Isaac: Rebirth.

Edited October 22, 2020 by Spaz

[NOWITSREYNTIME17]

14 minutes ago, Spaz said:

The first two games that pop up in my mind when I see The End is Nigh is Super Meat Boy and The Binding of Isaac: Guardian of Re-birth.

 

 

I don't know what guardian of re-birth is but those are all edmund mcmillen games so makes sense

 

[Arcesius]

I wanted to quickly write an update on my games. It's probably gonna be a while before I finish another game, so while you are all eagerly waiting for the next review to come, let's see what's going on! 

 

Divinity 2: Original Sin

This game is loooooooooong. Mori and I are at the end of Act 2, but cleaning up some side quests before moving on. I seriously cannot comprehend how the hell one would go about programming something this MASSIVE, with so much freedom, so many consequences whenever you do something... 

You know, I play P&P (we tried different ones, but Dungeons and Dragons is our go-to) on a regular basis, and this game just blows my mind. 

 

Anyways, I am also doing a parallel playthrough on Honour & Tactician on my own, and I'm caught up with our blind playthrough. And following a guide for this playthrough it just became clear to me how much content we missed playing blind. It is insane ?

 

It's still gonna take a while before we finish this... 

 

 

Warhammer: Vermintide II

I'm getting used to this game... Meanwhile we finished the main campaign and are currently working on the second (I think) DLC. This game is so different from anything I've ever played. First person (which I'm really not used to), but mostly melee. It is different, it needs getting used to, but it is good fun!  

 

We haven't even dared to play on the higher difficulty levels yet, which is gonna take a lot of practice, but trying to do one of the Misc-trophies the other day we for the first time noticed how crucial a well-coordinated 4-player party will be if we want to tackle the more challenging stuff. 

 

I'm rocking a Merc Kruber using a Halberd as my primary weapon. It's pretty fun to use, but I hear is also not the most straightforward weapon. The combo chains are a bit awkward, which forces me to block-cancel while clearing hordes, for example, as otherwise there are some poke-attacks mid combo that suck. I deliberately use pokes against elites though... They recently made changed the heavy-attack combo chain, now the first hit is a poke and not a sweep. That seems more useful (If you haven't played the game, I reckon this all doesn't make too much sense ?).

 

I might try the Executioner sword next time we play and see how that feels. 

 

 

The End is Nigh

This is my current single-player game. It is a platformer by Edmund McMillen, also known for Super Meat Boy and The Binding of Isaac, among other less popular games. Listen, it is a crime that only ~600 people on this site played this game. It is one of, if not THE best platformer I've ever played ? This is level design at its best. 

 

Comparing this game to Super Meat Boy would be the logical thing to do... But while SMB is recognizable in this game they are really not very similar. The game mechanics are very different, both games put their emphasis on different gameplaye elements... What they do have in common is their difficulty. 

 

I am almost done with the main game (only missing the bonus level), and have all but one collectible. And I think I can confidently say that, without looking at trophies, The End is Nigh is the more difficult game. Sure, the SMB plat might be the more difficult one (not sure yet though, still have a lot of things to do), but in terms of regular gameplay, TEiN feels more challenging. And I say that in the most positive way possible. It is a complete BLAST to play, holy shit... I was craving a good platformer, had bought this game at launch,... and I'm not disappointed ?

 

 

So there's that... I am currently not working on Crypt (I did a regular Cadence run the other day to see how rusty I am... I cleared it np ), and having two massive MP games going I will not start another SP game before I finish TEiN... 

 

As for guide work, I'm making decent progress with my Nex Machina guide. I've recorded the necessary footage and have most trophies written. I want to make an extensive Tips & Tricks section, and then write some advice for each individual world, give hints for bosses, etc... I'm not sure when it will be ready for review, but it's coming!  

 

 

I hope you all are having a fantastic time with your games as well! 

 

 

 

Edited October 27, 2020 by Arcesius

[BrandedBerserk]

Sad how overlooked divinity is on consoles, its easily one of the best rpgs ever made.

 

Im assuming that trophy you're on about is "fast flipper" if so then Goodluck, that shit took us like a good 2-3 days if I remember correctly. 

[Grotz99]

Looking forward to your Nex Machina guide. 

[AJ_Radio]

Just let me know how doable Nex Machina is for a average shmup player like me.

[Arcesius]

11 hours ago, BrandedBerserk said:

Im assuming that trophy you're on about is "fast flipper" if so then Goodluck, that shit took us like a good 2-3 days if I remember correctly. 

 

Thanks, but that's not it ? That one needs to be done on Legend, and we are far from being good enough to tackle that difficulty ?

 

I was talking about "Barrels of Fun"... we are barely level 20 now so nobody had any ability unlocked for faster movement. I guess it might not be that bad at some point, but it still shows that coordination will be extremely important later on. 

 

 

4 hours ago, Grotz99 said:

Looking forward to your Nex Machina guide. 

 

Hope it will be helpful! Did you attemt a run on Experienced yet? That shouldn't give you too much trouble

 

 

4 hours ago, Spaz said:

Just let me know how doable Nex Machina is for a average shmup player like me.

 

I don't think you can compare it with Shmups. In any case, the game is very doable. I'm rating it a 7/10 in the guide just so that it feels fair to everyone, and it should take you around 30 hours to get the plat. The only trophy that could give you trouble is beating the Arcade mode on Veteran, but all I did was clear each individual world once from scratch on that difficulty before starting full runs, and it didn't take me too long after that to get it done. 

 

I would definitely recommend the game, it is a blast! 

[Grotz99]

8 minutes ago, Arcesius said:

Hope it will be helpful! Did you attemt a run on Experienced yet? That shouldn't give you too much trouble

Been practicing on individual levels a bit as I didn't have a lot of time to spend on a full run lately. Can almost do the first level with no continues, 2nd level is looking pretty good too. Was trying to see if I can memorize the maps more as I worked on extra trophies or feats. Was at a multiplier of 45 once before it started to go downhill >.<. I feel like my deaths start to snowball once I start dying. I do seem to take unnecessary risks too much though for getting humans/powerups.

[AJ_Radio]

4 hours ago, Arcesius said:

I don't think you can compare it with Shmups. In any case, the game is very doable. I'm rating it a 7/10 in the guide just so that it feels fair to everyone, and it should take you around 30 hours to get the plat. The only trophy that could give you trouble is beating the Arcade mode on Veteran, but all I did was clear each individual world once from scratch on that difficulty before starting full runs, and it didn't take me too long after that to get it done. 

 

I would definitely recommend the game, it is a blast! 

 

I'm not talking about insanely hard shmups like Sine Mora, Raiden IV or Ikaruga. Even stuff like Sky Force Reloaded and Raiden V is probably a bit too hard for me.

 

Housemarque was always great at bringing old school fun with modern appeal and taste to their games. I plan to do Super Stardust HD, Super Stardust Ultra, Dead Nation: Apocalypse Edition, Alienation, Matterfall and finally Nex Machina. I think that about covers their library.

[Grotz99]

On 10/27/2020 at 2:06 PM, Arcesius said:

Hope it will be helpful! Did you attemt a run on Experienced yet? That shouldn't give you too much trouble

Got it done and did not expect that diarrhea light show of a last boss. Got to it with 90 something continues, almost gave up after 30 or so attempts, but pushed about 5 more and finally got him. Doing that fight with no powerups, especially range is a real pain. Had to be in a serious gamer pose to get it done and I think having a bigger TV was a disadvantage as it makes it hard to keep your eyes on where your shooting as well as your character.

[AJ_Radio]

1 hour ago, Grotz99 said:

Got it done and did not expect that diarrhea light show of a last boss. Got to it with 90 something continues, almost gave up after 30 or so attempts, but pushed about 5 more and finally got him. Doing that fight with no powerups, especially range is a real pain. Had to be in a serious gamer pose to get it done and I think having a bigger TV was a disadvantage as it makes it hard to keep your eyes on where your shooting as well as your character.

 

My screen is fairly big too, there were times where I had to sit in a chair a few feet away and squint at what I was doing.

[Arcesius]

8 hours ago, Grotz99 said:

Got it done and did not expect that diarrhea light show of a last boss. Got to it with 90 something continues, almost gave up after 30 or so attempts, but pushed about 5 more and finally got him. Doing that fight with no powerups, especially range is a real pain. Had to be in a serious gamer pose to get it done and I think having a bigger TV was a disadvantage as it makes it hard to keep your eyes on where your shooting as well as your character.

 

Ha, congrats! The good news is, on Veteran that boss is not that much more difficult... so once you figure the boss out, you'll defeat it every single time. If you manage to keep your secondary weapon, the Rocket Launcher annihilates it. Nicely done! 

 

The first thing I did in this game was a complete Arcade run on Experienced. I beat it on my first try, but I found myself in the same situation as you... got to the last boss with plenty of continues left, and almost used up all of them... The main issue is that there is no way to collect a secondary weapon there, so you need to defeat it without upgrades and with the pea-shooter only. The stupid Star-laser attack is almost impossible to dodge without Triple-Dash... ? 

 

Also, I play on a 65" TV, so I know what you mean with the big screen ?

 

The second step in my guide-roadmap (after beating Experienced) is to do the 9 Gold Medals in the online Arena  Those will have you practice at least the first three worlds on higher speeds, which will prepare you for Veteran and 1CC! The first three worlds will be a joke on Experienced once you have 9 Gold Medals. 

 

 

Edited October 29, 2020 by Arcesius

[AJ_Radio]

I looked at Matterfall and Super Stardust Ultra the other night and they look like a blast to play. 
 

Really a shame Housemarque games are generally overlooked. I can’t 100 percent Super Stardust Ultra because of the stupid PS VR requirement. 
 

Recently picked up Super Stardust HD, as old and dated as that game is it should still be fun. Then will do Ultra eventually, then I can say I got the set complete.

[Arcesius]

On 11/2/2020 at 0:48 AM, Spaz said:

I looked at Matterfall and Super Stardust Ultra the other night and they look like a blast to play. 
 

Really a shame Housemarque games are generally overlooked. I can’t 100 percent Super Stardust Ultra because of the stupid PS VR requirement. 
 

Recently picked up Super Stardust HD, as old and dated as that game is it should still be fun. Then will do Ultra eventually, then I can say I got the set complete.

 

I will definitely keep an eye out for Matterfall! I didn't know anything about Super Stardust Ultra, but it looks pretty fun as well.. I need a break from Arcade games for now though ? Want to tackle Bleed / Bleed 2 at some point. 

 

 

Now, let me just rumble some nonsense about The End is Nigh, a game owned only by ~350 people on this page, and without a doubt one of the biggest surprises of the year for me... 

 

This game is something else. Edmund said himself that he created this during one of the darkest periods of his life, and it shows. You are a lonely blob, stuck in a decaying city with only one videogame to pass the time.. And the cartridge breaks. The blob then decides to go out into the world and make a new friend. Literally... Your goal is to collect a Head, a Heart and a Body and assemble a friend ?

 

Collectibles are Tumors, there is an expanding "mass" of goo that is called "Mother" in the game, some stages/ cartridges are named after the stages of griefing (Denial, Bargaining, Depression, etc...)... Yes, it is a DARK mess, this guy must have had a rough time indeed. ?

 

But holy hell the game is incredible. Level design is amazing, the controls are as responsive as they were in Super Meat Boy, but the game mechanics make the game even more fun to me. The challenge is on point... This is definitely not a casual game... 

 

 

Yeah, pretty tight platforming...

 

Anyways, as for my own progress here. I finished the game, I collected all Tumors and Cartridges, I managed a second playthrough in less than 1.5 hours and with less than 200 deaths... So the only thing I have left is to finish all Cartridges 100%. There are three types of Cartridges, and they are all in Retro-Style!

• Regular Cartridges: 
  There are 9 of these. Here you have limited lives (9 lives, one continue... so 20 tries total) and to get 100% you need to complete 4 challenges in each: 
  • Complete the Cartridge
  • Complete the Cartridge without using a continue. 
  • Collect 50+ rings. 
  • Collect 100 rings. 
     
• Iron Cartridges:
  There are 4 of these. Iron Cartridges don't have collectibles, but you only have one single life to complete the Cartridge. The only challenge here is to actually complete the Cartridge. 
   
• Glitched Cartridges: 
  There are 7 glitched Cartridges. Here you have unlimited lives and no challenges... But the levels are BRUTAL. Those who unlocked The Kid in SMB know that Warpzones can be a bitch in that game. Now imagine having 10 screens instead of only 3. 
   

Beating the above is not the hardest thing in the game though.. There are two more Cartridges.. The Super Mega Cart, which is all 9 Regular Cartridges in a row with an additional 10 screens, so you need to collect 1000 rings. You have three continues here instead of only one, so 40 lives total. Then there is the Tower of Ascension, which is all 4 Iron Cartridges in a row with an additional 5 screens exclusive to this Cartridge. No collectibles, but only one life. You screw up a jump, you go back to the start. 

 

I am done with all Regular and Iron Cartridges, and I completed my first Glitched Cartridge as well. It was insane, but also insanely fun ? I died a lot, and it took me ~45 minutes to complete all 10 screens, so I got no capture of it.. But let me at least post a video of me completing Bargaining, the third Iron Cartridge.

 

 

Seriously, fuck those fisn. 

 

Anyways... I will finish the Glitched Cartridges next, before finally tackling the Super Mega Cart and the Tower of Ascension. I'm about 23 hours into this game, let's see how much longer it takes! 

 

Edited November 3, 2020 by Arcesius

[AJ_Radio]

Nice post and observations. You have a knack for making well written, well thought out posts and giving credit where it’s due. 

[Arcesius]

Alright guys, this is not yet a new review, but I finished The End is Nigh! I though it would take me another week or two, but yesterday I put my son down to sleep and knew I'd have an hour or so before he would wake up and thought I'd get some practice in... and I got the last challenge done! ? Really happy about it.

I will take my time with the review though, I want to make the game justice... but man, looking at my list, with very few exceptions (most notably Injustice), this year has been full of incredibly fun games... ?

 

To pass the time until the review is ready, a quick update on what's currently going on in my open games, and what's coming next: 

 

 

Divinity: Original Sin 2

We are on the home stretch, or at least it feels that way! We finally reached Arx in Act 4 (of 4), and are hunting down Dallis and Adramahlihk (which I guess is a reference to Adremelech...?) and should hopefully reach the end soon. I wouldn't be surprised if the game would throw another 20 hours of content at us though, it is just so packed.. it's insane... ?

 

Unfortunately, we played very irregularly in the last couple of months, with other things coming first, so the plot is a little bit lost on us at this point. We get the bigger picture, but the smaller details are hard to remember and put together... A shame, but it's how it is  

 

 

Warhammer: Vermintide 2

I'll say it again... Holy shit is this game fun to play... ? I noticed that a recent patch nerfed the weapon I was using.. it made it significantly slower, and explains why I wasn't having as much fun with it. I switched to a new weapon and see there.. having a blast again! 

 

You know, we played maybe 20-25 hours on the first difficulty setting, Recruit... then there is Veteran, Champion and the true difficulty, Legend. That is also the one you need to master for the plat and 100%... When you read online, people advise to switch to Legend after being able to play through Champion taking minimal damage, slowly work your way up through the difficulites to have a smooth experience... 

 

Not this group ? We switched directly to Legend once we hit the level cap, because why the hell not! And initially, we were TERRIBLE at it... we wouldn't last more than 5-10 minutes before being obliterated by all kinds of hordes, elites, specials... But that's the beauty of this game (and other high skill-ceiling games)... you keep at it, you learn from your mistakes... and you eventually succeed. We learned that communication is absolutely crucial, that we need to play together, stick together, look out for each other... And yesterday we fired up the game, and got our first Legend clear! And then our second one  

 

So yes, the game is starting to click, and I think we are all having a fantastic time with it. At least I am! 

 

 

 

Going back to what I mentioned above... gaming-wise there have been a lot of very positive surprises for me this year. I will write the TEiN review next, but I would like to at least have brief or small discussion about the games I managed to complete in 2020. The surprises, the biggest let-downs, the hardest challenges, the shittiest grinds... But this is not yet the time... Maybe there is still time for another plat or two...   

 

 

Next on the menu... Enter the Gungeon! It was pretty fun to play The End is Nigh at the same time as @Mori, as we could rant, blow off steam, and talk about the game while going through the game together (even though he started later and finished sooner ?). So we will do something similar with EtG. @Koro249 will join us this time as well... I hope it will be yet another fun game to complete!

 

 

Oh and lastly.. my Nex Machina guide has been published  I hope it can be of some help!

Edited November 24, 2020 by Arcesius

[BrandedBerserk]

24 minutes ago, Arcesius said:

You know, we played maybe 20-25 hours on the first difficulty setting, Recruit... then there is Veteran, Champion and the true difficulty, Legend.

The dlc actually scales up to cataclysm 2 while going for weave 80. Quite eager to see what you guys will think of the 100% so ill keep an eye on your updates ??. 

Edited November 24, 2020 by BrandedBerserk

[S_y_n_e_IR_g_Y]

Have fun with Enter the Gungeon, for me this also another Indie Gem like Hollow knight.

There is so much to explorer, so much to do and a ton of easter eggs, some guns are just super funny?

 

Your nex machina guide will be helpful aswell, thanks for your work!

[Arcesius]

32 minutes ago, BrandedBerserk said:

The dlc actually scales up to cataclysm 2 while going for weave 80. Quite eager to see what you guys will think of the 100% so ill keep an eye on your updates . 

 

Haha yeah I know ? and there is only one crazy group that actually beat all 120 weaves this season... We have currently the first 15 weaves completed, working our way up! 

 

But yeah, I guess for Cata 1 & 2 we will need to rethink our builds again... For the time being though, I'm really stoked that we are actually clearing Legend missions now...  

 

 

22 minutes ago, S_y_n_e_IR_g_Y said:

Have fun with Enter the Gungeon, for me this also another Indie Gem like Hollow knight.

There is so much to explorer, so much to do and a ton of easter eggs, some guns are just super funny

 

Your nex machina guide will be helpful aswell, thanks for your work!

 

Oh nice, that's already promising!  It definitely looks like a good time, and if I decide to do Nuclear Throne, it should give me some good practice for this type of games ?

[Grotz99]

8 hours ago, Arcesius said:

Oh and lastly.. my Nex Machina guide has been published  I hope it can be of some help!

This is a super well made guide. Taking the time to map out where all the secrets are per level really helps. Going to try to knock out a few more trophies in that game. I might be able to do experienced with one continue using your guide for the secret lives, which there are a lot more than I thought.

[AJ_Radio]

Picked up Hollow Knight last week via PS Plus. I’ll see if that one trophy is as hard as people say it is.

[Arcesius]

15 hours ago, Grotz99 said:

This is a super well made guide. Taking the time to map out where all the secrets are per level really helps. Going to try to knock out a few more trophies in that game. I might be able to do experienced with one continue using your guide for the secret lives, which there are a lot more than I thought.

 

Thanks for the nice feedback! I'd be really glad it it would be helpful ? It has been well received so far, but there is some weird formatting issues... the navbar appears at the bottom of the guide depending on the resolution you are using... I'm trying to figure out what can be done together with the responsible from the Guide Team.. 

 

In any case, I'm glad the guide is out, good luck getting 1CC! 

 

 

2 hours ago, Spaz said:

Picked up Hollow Knight last week via PS Plus. I’ll see if that one trophy is as hard as people say it is.

 

Oh, it is that hard... The real question here is whether you'll give it a fair shot, knowing that there is an easy way out, or if you decide to practice for 25-30 hours and do it the legit way. Regardless, I hope you enjoy the game as much as I did! I hope the sequel will be released soon  

 

I'm over the whole "exploit" thing, I know I'm in the minority on this page, so the only thing I can do is just actively decide which discussions are worth my time. The new "trophy elitist" discussions definitely aren't worth participating in. People should do whatever the fuck they want, and I'd just be happy to see people playing this amazing game... but what's sad is seeing that even though it is on PS Plus, it doesn't even appear on the "Most Popular Games" on PSNP. People are too busy clicking 10k times on a glass of Mayo. 

Edited November 25, 2020 by Arcesius

[ZoutjeNL]

Good job on the End is Nigh! Looking forward to your review. Also well done on your progress on Divinity that game is indeed packed with content... it might be a little too slow for me but I see the appeal. Also Vermintide looks interesting... another ultra rare is it just grindy or hard too? Hard is basically your second name so I mean... you love challenge

[KN_Kirai]

On 25/11/2020 at 8:38 AM, Arcesius said:

I'm over the whole "exploit" thing, I know I'm in the minority on this page, so the only thing I can do is just actively decide which discussions are worth my time. The new "trophy elitist" discussions definitely aren't worth participating in. People should do whatever the fuck they want, and I'd just be happy to see people playing this amazing game... but what's sad is seeing that even though it is on PS Plus, it doesn't even appear on the "Most Popular Games" on PSNP. People are too busy clicking 10k times on a glass of Mayo.

 

Yes, the problem with this matter is that it's too much generalized and people tend to not condone the act even for the stupidest things which really aren't worth discussing, and the result is people telling each other off on how they play games.

My thoughts on the matter is the obvious: you can do what you want with your games, nothing should stop you from doing so because it's not a job and you're not ruining other people's experience while doing so because they too can choose to play however they want to; I do understand that in some cases (like Hollow Knight), if someone like you who has done it the legit way sees people saying they managed to beat that particular part of the game without difficulty because of an exploit when you spent hours practicing for it, you ain't gonna have pretty thoughts about that ? Especially if they boast about it.

 

I might try Hollow Knight someday, since many have talked about it (you included) and it's now on PS Plus. I just hope it won't kick my ass too hard ?

(Love the shots fired at Mayo 2 btw)

[Mori]

When there's one thing I learned through the years on PSNP, then it is to not waste your time on trying to convince people on anything by arguing with them. People wont change as long as they have the feeling they need to defend themselves (or their opinion).

 

How many threads were created about leaderboards, easy plats, people using glitches etc. How many of them had an everlasting impact or effect on anyone? These threads just serve one purpose, seeking validation for ones own opinion. Anyone who disagrees just sucks ass and is [insert fancy namecalling].

 

I still believe that this checklist is one of the best things on PSNP. Embracing and overcoming the challenge is much more powerful and convincing than arguing about the same topics for the 100th time. It's no coincidence that this checklist is among the most popular on PSNP.

 

One or two years ago, there was this guy in the SMB bitching thread who struggled with the plat over several months. If I remember correctly, he had some kind of handicap which made it even more difficult for him. But he stuck to it, regularly posted his progress and eventually achieved the plat. This shit is impressive, people surpassing themselves.

 

I can only recommend it, challenge yourself every now and then. It's worth it.