Arcesius' Pursuit of Completion

[Miles]

11 minutes ago, Arcesius said:

I actually already own it thanks to PS+, and was thinking about using it as a test-game to see if I now enjoy FPS 

 

Titanfall might be a good entry point for you yeah. It's totally different to games like CoD. I used to play a lot of CoDs and honestly its very basic and not much fun unless you have a full squad of friends for competitive. 

 

Also, Wolfenstein seems like it could be a lot of fun, even for a single-player game which I usually despise in the genre. 

 

As for rhythm games, I still suggest at least trying out DJMAX demo to see how the gameplay compares to Metronomicon. ?

[rjkclarke]

3 hours ago, Arcesius said:

Hey there! Haha it doesn't... In fact, I have been lurking in your checklist as well, enjoying reading your progress on my favorite and objectively best Final Fantasy  Glad to have you joining the party though! 

 

Thing is, with so many good checklists around it's really hard to find the time to read everything AND comment everywhere... But I enjoy your style of writing a lot   

 

 

I'm glad to finally hop onboard and say hello... That's nice to hear you're enjoying following along with my Final Fantasy IX progress - I find that tough to actually argue with, it being objectively the best Final Fantasy.. It's looking like it's going to slide into second place on my favourite ones. Final Fantasy X's going to take some beating. But I'd find it tough to argue that IX's not a better game perhaps.

 

That bit in bold, yeah I do get that. It's too easy to spend loads of time reading checklists and commenting on things instead of making progress in the games you are playing. At least that's what I'm finding. It's not something to complain about though, I'm getting to interact with plenty of awesome people as a result.

 

3 hours ago, Arcesius said:

Yeah that was my feeling at least initially. As I mentioned in some other post, eventually my hands started pressing the correct inputs without me having to think too much... Once I was good enough to just react to what was coming, I also started having more time during fights to enjoy the visuals, watch my characters actually dish out damage and cast spells. 

 

At the beginning though, it was pretty overwhelming  I barely found the time to check the elemental weakness of my opponents, or check which buffs / debuffs were active at any given time! 

 

That's good to know it eventually almost becomes second nature - or at the very least you go into a ZEN like trance and just become one with the game.  It sounds like it's quite satisfying when you get to that point, from what you've said. Looking at that gif I think, I'd have gotten so overwhelmed by everything going on at once and just panicked haha ? - it's great to know that eventually you do kind of gain a level of control over it. It certainly looks like an interesting game, so it might be one I decide to try out in the future and invariably fail miserably at . ?

 

3 hours ago, Arcesius said:

Thanks a lot! I think this is the third or fourth one I created, but also the one I like the most. I started with a regular x/10 rating, and then had some gauge thingy going on... The current symbols are taken from my favorite coop game, Warhammer: Vermintide 2  After playing that game I knew I wanted to somehow integrate anything from it into my checklist, so I decided to use the "difficulty symbols" for a custom meter.

 

That's a really good idea - it looks very interesting too. I don't think I've quite seen anything like it on this site before. Plus it's a great idea to incorporate something from one of your favourite co- op experiences into your checklist, makes it even more personal to you, which is a great little touch.

 

I did play around with the idea of doing a this game is x thing out of 10, for a while - mainly just to pepper in a bit of light humour towards the end of a review/write up. So if I was doing Monkey Island it would be 10 three headed monkeys out of ten. Because I fear my bias would shine through a bit too much with that game series haha. ?  I just haven't ever played around with that idea yet. You can be sure Final Fantasy IX would be getting at the very least 9.5 Quina's out of 10 - or 9.5 Tasties out of 10. ?

 

 

[DrunkenEngineer]

5 hours ago, Arcesius said:

More importantly though... I enjoyed both games immensely. In fact, Hyper Light Drifter is probably still among my top-5 favorite games on the PS4. Although that is probably because it left a very strong impact at the time, being one of the first really good indie games I played. The gameplay is fantastic, I dig the artstyle, and the game is overall really fun to play through. The only frustrating aspect of the plat is that there are TONS of collectibles. I didn't mind so much, but I know people that were quite bothered by it. 

Otherwise, you will also have to play through the game on NG+, which is probably the "hardest" challenge for the plat since you only have 2 HP, meaning that most enemies can one-shot you. However, it is still very manageable, and by the time you are done you'll be good enough at the game that you will be able to finish a playthrough without dying (also required for the plat) without even having to save-scum. Definitely a game I can recommend... I just hope you enjoy it just as much as I did!   

 

I actually own both Hyper Light Drifter and Dead Cells on Steam, and beat NG of the former 5ish years ago, and "beat" the final boss on a 0 BC run a couple years ago on the latter.  I'm intensely interested in revisiting Hyper Light Drifter, much so that I booted it up and played a couple hours and went "you know, I'd rather be playing this on PlayStation for the plat".  So yeah, I'll be playing it soon.  It's on sale right now.  The dashing challenge looks intimidating, and the collectibles are no joke, too.  Did you use the video guide that's linked on the PSNP trophy guide for the collectibles?

 

5 hours ago, Arcesius said:

As for Dead Cells... I played it on release, and I hear that the game has changed significantly since then. Especially in 4 Boss Cell mode, all enemies can teleport around now, which must be a massive pain in the ass. So maybe I'm not the best person to ask ? 

But when I played it, it was really, and I mean really fun. It took me a while before I got my first clear, especially since the final boss (final at the time) was really tough to beat! In the release version, you couldn't simply lock weapons for them not to appear during your runs. Every weapon you unlocked was unlocked forever, and since I liked experimenting with different builds, that also meant that I unlocked items that were garbage, and then kept appearing in my runs... That made some runs more frustrating, since I could simply not find anything of use to me. This has changed as well... You can now basically toggle on and off which weapons have a chance to appear during a run. 

 

Good luck if you ever decide to tackle them! 

 

Fantastic, that jives with my experience on the Steam version, but I put it down once I unlocked Boss Cells.  It seems like the DLC didn't add trophies/achievements to the console versions, so I'm unsure if the DLC is something I should pick up or no when I decided to tackle it.  I'll keep my eyes peeled for a good sale ?

[Arcesius]

21 hours ago, Miles said:

Titanfall might be a good entry point for you yeah. It's totally different to games like CoD. I used to play a lot of CoDs and honestly its very basic and not much fun unless you have a full squad of friends for competitive. 

 

Yeah exactly.. When I played the more realistic FPS I mentioned before, I only had fun because I was playing with friends. But I never cared for the games otherwise. Titanfall 2 seems to be more along the line of games I enjoy, similar to something like Halo, which I also used to have a lot of fun with  (Not saying they are the same, but they seem to share some similarities...)

 

 

18 hours ago, rjkclarke said:

I'm glad to finally hop onboard and say hello... That's nice to hear you're enjoying following along with my Final Fantasy IX progress - I find that tough to actually argue with, it being objectively the best Final Fantasy.. It's looking like it's going to slide into second place on my favourite ones. Final Fantasy X's going to take some beating. But I'd find it tough to argue that IX's not a better game perhaps.

 

It's anyways very hard to rank the better games... I just enjoyed those games so much, when I'm playing X I think that is the best game, when I'm playing IX that one is suddenly the best one... ? But now that I haven't played any entry in a long time, I think that IX is indeed my all-time favorite entry. Though there aren't many games I didn't like at all. Mainly X-2 and Lightning Returns. 

 

 

18 hours ago, rjkclarke said:

That bit in bold, yeah I do get that. It's too easy to spend loads of time reading checklists and commenting on things instead of making progress in the games you are playing. At least that's what I'm finding. It's not something to complain about though, I'm getting to interact with plenty of awesome people as a result.

 

That's the main reason I'm not more active in the forums otherwise. I'm sick of all the drama, the "elitism" accusations, the endless discussions about ezpzs and all that stuff. In this corner of the forums, things really are different. The interactions with you guys are much more interesting, and we actually get to discuss games we are currently playing, or games we enjoyed a lot. No judgement, no bad feelings. 

 

It's just great  

 

 

18 hours ago, rjkclarke said:

I did play around with the idea of doing a this game is x thing out of 10, for a while - mainly just to pepper in a bit of light humour towards the end of a review/write up. So if I was doing Monkey Island it would be 10 three headed monkeys out of ten. Because I fear my bias would shine through a bit too much with that game series haha.   I just haven't ever played around with that idea yet. You can be sure Final Fantasy IX would be getting at the very least 9.5 Quina's out of 10 - or 9.5 Tasties out of 10. 

 

Well that would definitely be a unique and personal touch as well ? Honestly though, I have come to appreciate a 1-5 scale (which is basically what my meters are) much more. First of all, there is a middle point, which is missing from a 1-10 scale... And there really is no need to have such large differences. Is FFX a 4/10? Or a 5/10? Does it matter? We can agree it's a moderately challenging game... 

 

So in my head, the 5 values are something like Easy, Moderate, Challenging, Very Hard, Extreme. It's much easier to assign games to these "values" than to put them on a larger scale. 

 

 

16 hours ago, DrunkenEngineer said:

I actually own both Hyper Light Drifter and Dead Cells on Steam, and beat NG of the former 5ish years ago, and "beat" the final boss on a 0 BC run a couple years ago on the latter.  I'm intensely interested in revisiting Hyper Light Drifter, much so that I booted it up and played a couple hours and went "you know, I'd rather be playing this on PlayStation for the plat".  So yeah, I'll be playing it soon.  It's on sale right now.  The dashing challenge looks intimidating, and the collectibles are no joke, too.  Did you use the video guide that's linked on the PSNP trophy guide for the collectibles?

 

Nah, I hate using video guides while I'm playing games... Luckily there is an interactive map here: 

 

https://hyper-light-drifter-map.de/t/#2/102.1/110.0

 

You can simply mark whichever collectibles you have found (with a right click... a left click highliths the collectible), and the only good way to really keep track of what you've found. With this map, getting everything wasn't as intimidating  

 

As for the dash trophy.. It's not that bad! There is a song I could link that I used for this that is in the exact bpm you need to keep your dash chain alive. If you have a decent sense of rhythm, you should not have too much trouble with this  

[Joe Dubz]

5 hours ago, Arcesius said:

That's the main reason I'm not more active in the forums otherwise. I'm sick of all the drama, the "elitism" accusations, the endless discussions about ezpzs and all that stuff. In this corner of the forums, things really are different. The interactions with you guys are much more interesting, and we actually get to discuss games we are currently playing, or games we enjoyed a lot. No judgement, no bad feelings. 

 

It's just great  

Could not agree with you more here, bud. This is part of the reason I've enjoyed following along with your progress! Same goes for the UR Cleanup, everybody is very friendly and encouraging there too. So much BS and arguing going on elsewhere about the dumbest shit... I don't know why some ppl care so much about jockeying for leaderboard positions, or who stacks how many copies of the same shitty game! I mean we're all here for the same reason (hopefully): a love of gaming!

 

5 hours ago, Arcesius said:

Nah, I hate using video guides while I'm playing games... Luckily there is an interactive map here: 

 

https://hyper-light-drifter-map.de/t/#2/102.1/110.0

 

You can simply mark whichever collectibles you have found (with a right click... a left click highliths the collectible), and the only good way to really keep track of what you've found. With this map, getting everything wasn't as intimidating  

 

As for the dash trophy.. It's not that bad! There is a song I could link that I used for this that is in the exact bpm you need to keep your dash chain alive. If you have a decent sense of rhythm, you should not have too much trouble with this  

Man Arc, you are once again coming through for me. I just added HLD to my Tier 4 over there as well, this is going to come very much in handy when the time comes!! I'm with you tho, I absolutely hate having to follow along with a video when I'm playing. It really steals everything from the experience! I'll be curious to hear about that song too, having a beat to follow would definitely make it significantly easier IMO. 

[rjkclarke]

5 hours ago, Arcesius said:

It's anyways very hard to rank the better games... I just enjoyed those games so much, when I'm playing X I think that is the best game, when I'm playing IX that one is suddenly the best one...  But now that I haven't played any entry in a long time, I think that IX is indeed my all-time favorite entry. Though there aren't many games I didn't like at all. Mainly X-2 and Lightning Returns.

 

I can't argue with that.. I don't think many would probably argue about your thoughts on X-2 and Lightning returns. I mean they have good points sure. But it's pretty tough for me to look back on them with any sort of real level of fondness that I have for some of the other titles.

 

5 hours ago, Arcesius said:

That's the main reason I'm not more active in the forums otherwise. I'm sick of all the drama, the "elitism" accusations, the endless discussions about ezpzs and all that stuff. In this corner of the forums, things really are different. The interactions with you guys are much more interesting, and we actually get to discuss games we are currently playing, or games we enjoyed a lot. No judgement, no bad feelings. 

 

It's just great  

 

I'm exactly the same - I don't see the point in elitism at all, I'm fairly sure people would dig me out for playing Hidden Object Puzzle games and point- and - click adventure titles. I'd probably get accused of padding my list or whatever, but for me it's not about that at all, I really enjoy games like that. I just see the fact they have trophies as a nice little bonus with those sorts of things. Some people don't just play games like those for the trophies.

I don't think anybody here would probably do that, at least not anywhere I could see it anyway ? -  just like you, the interactions and the discussions about games is where I have some of the most fun. It's refreshing to be around so many like minded people.

 

5 hours ago, Arcesius said:

So in my head, the 5 values are something like Easy, Moderate, Challenging, Very Hard, Extreme. It's much easier to assign games to these "values" than to put them on a larger scale. 

 

That's a really interesting point actually - as you say, what really is the difference between something being a 4/10 difficulty and a 5/10 difficulty. I'd never really given much thought to it, until you said that. So I'm glad to have gotten that extra bit of perspective.

[DrunkenEngineer]

5 hours ago, Arcesius said:

Nah, I hate using video guides while I'm playing games... Luckily there is an interactive map here: 

 

https://hyper-light-drifter-map.de/t/#2/102.1/110.0

 

You can simply mark whichever collectibles you have found (with a right click... a left click highliths the collectible), and the only good way to really keep track of what you've found. With this map, getting everything wasn't as intimidating  

 

As for the dash trophy.. It's not that bad! There is a song I could link that I used for this that is in the exact bpm you need to keep your dash chain alive. If you have a decent sense of rhythm, you should not have too much trouble with this  

 

Dude, this is fantastic and going to be a huge boon for me!

 

Regarding FPS titles, I almost feel like Titanfall 2 is going to spoil the genre for you - as a single player FPS it's that good, and I'm trying to think of over games available on PlayStation that would be similar.  Half-Life 2 would be my next rec if you had a gaming PC.  The Doom reboots would be the next best thing IMO, especially if you enjoy the run-and-gun of TF2.

[Baker]

5 hours ago, Arcesius said:

That's the main reason I'm not more active in the forums otherwise. I'm sick of all the drama, the "elitism" accusations, the endless discussions about ezpzs and all that stuff. In this corner of the forums, things really are different. 

That is such a toxic gatekeeping elitist thing to say. ?

 

Seriously, this is why I wanted to leave the forums many times already. A little while ago, in that topic about ‘do UR trophies mean anything to you’, I immediately regretted posting my opinion because you just get ‘attacked’ because it’s different. And then you feel the need to defend yourself, thinking, what am I even doing here anymore. 
 

Screw that. I’m not posting in those kind of topics ever again.

 

 

[DrBloodmoney]

16 minutes ago, Baker said:

That is such a toxic gatekeeping elitist thing to say.

 

Uh, excuse me Baker, but I think what you meant to say was:

 

“In my own opinion, exclusive to me and entirely my own, without connection to, or dependence upon, any third party (living or dead), and without any confusion arising from any correlation to any attempt to speak for any third party entity or group of entities, singularly, for myself, alone, I feel that… 

That is such a toxic gatekeeping elitist thing to say.” ?

 

 

 

6 hours ago, Arcesius said:

That's the main reason I'm not more active in the forums otherwise. I'm sick of all the drama, the "elitism" accusations, the endless discussions about ezpzs and all that stuff. In this corner of the forums, things really are different. The interactions with you guys are much more interesting, and we actually get to discuss games we are currently playing, or games we enjoyed a lot. No judgement, no bad feelings. 

 
But also yes - I agree.

 

I cannae help myself - I always end up wading into the mire of all the other parts of the site (it’s a sickness, okay?) ?… but the vibe in the checklists is a whole other thing - and the main draw of the whole place really!

Edited August 20, 2021 by DrBloodmoney

[Grotz99]

On 8/19/2021 at 7:41 AM, rjkclarke said:

That bit in bold, yeah I do get that. It's too easy to spend loads of time reading checklists and commenting on things instead of working. At least that's what I'm finding. It's not something to complain about though, I'm getting to interact with plenty of awesome people as a result.

 Fixed that for you. ?

[Arcesius]

Gooood evening, everyone! 

 

It's weekend, meaning that I have barely time to hang around here. Still, a discussion over at @Briste's actually gave me some motivation to try and do something different in-between reviews. You see, in this checklist, we talk a lot about challenging games. About difficulty. @Cassylvania then wrote as part of the discussion, that she plays a lot of obscure games. 

 

And I thought.. Checklists are the perfect place to give exposure to games that might otherwise fly under the radar of some or most people... And there are games that can and should get a shout-out from time to time. 

 

With that in mind, I would like to get some sort of mini-series going, where I talk about the top-5 games according to some sort of criterion. And since I would love to get started already next week (when I'm back at work ), I'm setting up a poll now to see what criterion most of you would be interested in. Don't worry, I think I would get to all of the choices eventually, but just to have an idea what to prioritize  

 

So, if you are even slightly interested in what I just proposed, go ahead and pick an option! And feel free to suggest some other criterion as well, I'm open to anything! 

 

Here is the poll!

 

Looking forwards to the results  Maybe it's a stupid idea, but we'll see. For now, you all enjoy the rest of your weekend! 

[Baker]

Arcesius is scared to start certain games? Now I’m curious. Obviously a vote from me for that one. 

[Briste]

1 hour ago, Baker said:

Arcesius is scared to start certain games? Now I’m curious. Obviously a vote from me for that one. 

I'd have to echo this....considering the stuff you have been able to brush off....I'm curious what games give you that kind of pause lol

 

For me it is mostly MP FPS style games....but even I would start one of those out of morbid curiosity. I have to start MW3 for the PS3 soon I think....it's a game I paid real money for and has just been collecting dust for 10 years

[DrBloodmoney]

Had to go “Fewest Owners” because those are going to be the ones most obscure and interesting I think - but looking forward to whatever one you land on doing! ?

[Copanele]

I voted for Least enjoyable games, because I just love the passion of your hate towards certain games  

[Potent_Delusions]

Voted for games that you're scared to start for the same reason as Briste; you have some great completions so it'd be interesting to hear about that. 

[Rally-Vincent---]

23 minutes ago, DrBloodmoney said:

Had to go “Fewest Owners” because those are going to be the ones most obscure and interesting I think - but looking forward to whatever one you land on doing! 

 

Same.

[Cassylvania]

I went with fewest owners because it's the meme that must live on, but I'm also curious what frightens you. What is a game to a god?

[DrunkenEngineer]

I went with games afraid to start, that should be interesting.

[Eqill5]

I went with games you’re scared to start. I’m really struggling to believe there’s actually 5.. ha! Unless they fall into genres that just aren’t your forte? 
 

Nonetheless it’s a cool idea which I’m looking forward to reading, it would be good if you can make your way through each poll option!

[rjkclarke]

I also went with fewest owners -  sometimes there's a good reason ?. Often times there are brilliant games buried and hidden that just don't get the exposure that they so desperately deserve.

[AJ_Radio]

Jesus. This thread sure blew up the last couple days. 
 

I have to blame myself, and it wouldn’t surprise me if I was the cause of some people leaving the website due to my relentless ‘drama’ in other parts of the forums. 
 

The Trophy Checklists subforum is more personal in my opinion, and thus I try to focus on individuals rather than a general community as it is elsewhere on this website. 
 

I voted “most difficult games”, because @Arcesius always did an outstanding job breaking down his reviews section by section, dissecting them and being complete honest about his thoughts. He makes my own reviews look sloppy.

[Arcesius]

Ok, you guys are insane. I put the poll up pretty much for fun, but was expecting to get like 5 votes... Now it's like 30 ? What is this, the Ribbon 3.0 thread? ?

 

In any case, "Games I'm scared to start" is winning... by a landslide ? You monsters want me to face my fears, don't you? Just to make things clear.. I won't be writing about any potential game that exists.. I won't pick stuff like Cloudberry Kingdom because

1. I have no PS3 and
2. I have no interest in that game. 

Instead, I will restrict my choices to games I already own or have access to, and which I actually want to play (and will eventually!). 

 

For that reason, I also think it is the best Top-5 list to start with... Otherwise I might start some of them soon and run out of options to talk about!   

 

So, "5 Games I'm scared to start" coming soon! I will definitely get to "Fewest Owners" as well, since that is what started this entire idea   

Edited August 24, 2021 by Arcesius

[Destructor-8]

12 hours ago, Arcesius said:

In any case, "Games I'm scared to start" is winning... by a landslide  You monsters want me to face my fears, don't you? Just to make things clear.. I won't be writing about any potential game that exists.. I won't pick stuff like Cloudberry Kingdom because

1. I have no PS3 and
2. I have no interest in that game. 

Instead, I will restrict my choices to games I already own or have access to, and which I actually want to play (and will eventually!).

 

Nice. It will be interesting to see what you list.

Edited August 24, 2021 by Destructor-8

[Kcrack_Km]

Is it possible to be scared of certain games when you've already fired up necrodancer? ?