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Briste's Diary of a Madman


Briste

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18 minutes ago, Briste said:

Do you mean two dozen runs through quests? Or have you died enough to restart two dozen times lol I assume you are saying the quests get repetitive. If I can survive the Undo Repeat sessions of Space Hulk, I can survive anything :) Did it take you long to figure out? Did you read up on it anywhere that helped? I've checked the trophy guide on here briefly and it seems to have some good information.

 

I mean runs as in missions within a single campaign. I don't know if you even can lose on Darkest difficulty - if characters die, you just recruit new guys, all you lose is time and effort, I think. Only on Stygian difficulty, there are time and death restraints. Unlike with gridbase top-down-view TTBC, the 2D side view doesn't give enough variety in battles. It's the same old in every battle.

 

You'll learn the basics and "what needs to be done - and how" fairly quickly, especially if you are experienced with tactical turn based combat games. The only thing that takes time is to get to know all classes and their skills because it is random which ones you get (if you don't cheese the game, which I don't recommend for a first game, because it makes it less challenging). And you'll be short on money which you need to buy and upgrade skills. As soon as you know which characters/skills you need/want, the rest is routine. Sure, a few of the bosses can be nasty if RNG is against you, so the game is no push-over, but if you upgrade armor, weapons and skills, the game is mostly fair. The Darkest Dungeon, though, has difficulty spikes.

 

The first playthrough on games I play is always blind. The only thing I knew beforehand is: you can stack debuffs (so applying bleed on top of another bleed gives more bleed damage) and that Stygian had restraints. I got that from a video I looked at to see how the gameplay is.

 

Spoiler

The only surprise was that you can't send your main crew back to the Darkest Dungeon. Characters won't return to the Darkest Dungeon, so you need to level up four crews - that's part of what makes it so tedious. I used a variety of character classes, only a Vestal healer was part of every crew of mine.

 

I have to admit, though, that I looked at the trophy list shortly before the end of my first campaign and thus knew I had to reach week 104. Missing that trophy would have meant another tedious long campaign (can't combine that with Stygian campaign). That campaign could have ended a couple of hours earlier.

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Congrats on slaying the beast that is Space Hulk! I've looked at that game once or twice, but you've kinda convinced me to steer clear.

 

For what it's worth, I didn't think DD was boring, but I can see how it might be for some people. It's very similar to XCOM, in that you're playing the "same" mission over and over again (i.e. there are only a few maps, there's not a huge variety of enemies, and you eventually settle into a few elite soldiers/classes that carry you until the end game). After a while, it is sorta like going through the motions, but there are other factors that keep things fresh. For example, just like in XCOM, it's pretty rare to have all of your best units on every mission. Not only do you want to protect some of them in case there's a party wipe, but you have to worry about stress and diseases in this game, which will keep some of your units out of commission for a while. This will lead you to have secondary and tertiary teams that force you to develop additional strategies.

 

Also, the pacing is pretty good on the base difficulty. You'll be upgrading your hamlet and units for most of the game, so you shouldn't ever feel like you're wasting your time doing a dungeon run. This isn't always the case in XCOM, where you eventually get to the point that it's better to ignore some missions, because accepting them can only put you in a worse position.

 

The biggest difference from XCOM, though, is that your units are expendable. You don't want to throw them to the wolves (well, you do for one trophy), but there's not that sense of camaraderie that you get for using the same soldier for a dozen or more battles. I'll leave it up to you to decide if that's a good or a bad thing.

Edited by Cassylvania
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Platinum #97

sCydHNF.png

LA Noire

 

Another day, another Platinum. I had never played the original LA Noire, however I had heard great things and I have liked all the previous Rockstar games I've played so plucked this one from my backlog. LA Confidential is one of my favorite movies and this game seemed like it may feel similar. There was only one nod to the movie that I noticed...the Homicide captain was eerily similar, eh boyo? For the most part, I really enjoyed this game. I did use a guide to avoid having to replay all the missions a second time for the 5 star rating.

 

This is a rare game where I feel like using the guide actually enhances the game...at least with regards to the interview process. I tried the first case doing it on my own and the flow of questioning and how quickly the attitude from question to question seemed a little off. If you use the correct tactic (good cop, bad cop, accuse) then the flow goes much better and is far less awkward. I could easily see someone who doesn't use a guide say that the interrogations detracted from the game, whereas using the guide made the interrogations enhance the game. I treated it as a Telltale scenario for story telling and didn't feel like using an interrogation guide spoiled anything. I tended to look for clues on my own however since the 'clue' music lets you know when you've finished. There were a couple very large crime scenes where I took a peek at the guide. I would definitely recommend using the guide on a first playthrough for anyone looking to play this game. It takes a good 20-25 hours with a guide to complete the story line. Each case is anywhere from 30 minutes to an hour or so and not using a guide could easily turn this into a 50 hour game.

 

My only real complaint with the rating system is that you are kind of forced to have your partner drive to all of the locations. If you cause too much damage from driving, you will lose a star and it is very easy to crash into stuff. Your partner serves as a fast travel and it just ends up being safer that way. I did almost all of my driving in the open world clean up afterwards. I mean it makes sense that any damage you do would count against you...it just made it a little less fun to play. The story was ok and jumps back and forth between flashbacks to WW II and the 'present' day with the flashbacks just being short movies for context. The voice acting was pretty superb and it was amazing how many of the actors I recognized from other things. They really did a great job with the motion capture aspect and all of the motions felt natural. 

 

Hunting down the cars was pretty rough since they all look very similar. I did my best to jump in and out of any car I came across during the cases, which checked most of them off the list. I only needed to search for about twenty of them during the open world portion. The collectibles were a bit of a chore and didn't really add anything to the game. The Newspaper collectibles were fine since it added some context but the others were just a chore. I had hoped that the movie reels would give a little something about the movie or murder that it involved...but there was nothing. The only saving grace about the collectibles, was that it gave you plenty of chances to drive the 194.7 miles for the Miles on the Clock trophy. Since I didn't do much driving during the main story, I was able to catch up on it hunting collectibles. It actually worked out that I got my last collectible with only a mile left to drive, so it could have been much worse.

 

This game is definitely worth a play if you enjoy a little bit of Telltale style story with some Grand Theft Auto style driving and shooting. I wouldn't pay more than $15 bucks for it...but it was definitely entertaining. 

 

 

21 hours ago, Rally-Vincent--- said:

I have to admit, though, that I looked at the trophy list shortly before the end of my first campaign and thus knew I had to reach week 104. Missing that trophy would have meant another tedious long campaign (can't combine that with Stygian campaign). That campaign could have ended a couple of hours earlier.

I do this before playing a game just in case of missables. I don't like replaying an entire game for one or two trophies unless the NG+ game is required. This happened to me with South Park The Stick of Truth...I missed the very first friend you could get and had to replay the whole game just for that. At least it was a game I enjoyed, but some I don't want to play through again if I don't have to. 

 

21 hours ago, Rally-Vincent--- said:

You'll learn the basics and "what needs to be done - and how" fairly quickly, especially if you are experienced with tactical turn based combat games. The only thing that takes time is to get to know all classes and their skills because it is random which ones you get (if you don't cheese the game, which I don't recommend for a first game, because it makes it less challenging). And you'll be short on money which you need to buy and upgrade skills. As soon as you know which characters/skills you need/want, the rest is routine. Sure, a few of the bosses can be nasty if RNG is against you, so the game is no push-over, but if you upgrade armor, weapons and skills, the game is mostly fair. The Darkest Dungeon, though, has difficulty spikes.

 

Thanks for the feedback. In the hour or so I played, I didn't quite understand what was happening. It was pretty challenging to see stuff on the Vita screen and I kept running into traps. Maybe they are unavoidable...but it felt like they could be. I plan on starting fresh when I get back to it. For the time being, I've decided to re-tackle SMB.

 

15 hours ago, Cassylvania said:

Congrats on slaying the beast that is Space Hulk! I've looked at that game once or twice, but you've kinda convinced me to steer clear.

 

Thanks :) I really want to say it's not that bad, and maybe the lag problem would be better on the PS4 console...but the 40,000 kill grind just isn't worth it. In the three playthroughs of the normal game, I didn't even reach 1,000 kills and...well you know about my grind lol If you planned on watching TV or something while doing the grind...it may not be that bad...if you got it for free and had nothing better to do...go nuts...but you're not missing anything by steering clear!

 

I'm loving the DD to XCOM link...I can only hope to enjoy it close to how much I enjoyed XCOM.

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On 16.10.2019 at 10:29 PM, Briste said:

Thanks for the feedback. In the hour or so I played, I didn't quite understand what was happening. It was pretty challenging to see stuff on the Vita screen and I kept running into traps. Maybe they are unavoidable...but it felt like they could be. I plan on starting fresh when I get back to it. For the time being, I've decided to re-tackle SMB.

 

Traps are not unavoidable. There is a scouting chance (which will reveal traps and other things on parts of the map, and characters can disarm/trigger traps that are discovered), and characters have a percentage to dodge traps that go off when you walk over them.

Edited by Rally-Vincent---
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39 minutes ago, Briste said:

I do this before playing a game just in case of missables. I don't like replaying an entire game for one or two trophies unless the NG+ game is required. This happened to me with South Park The Stick of Truth...I missed the very first friend you could get and had to replay the whole game just for that. At least it was a game I enjoyed, but some I don't want to play through again if I don't have to.

 

Trophies contain so many spoilers, though... I don't mind another playthrough, unless the game is shit, and then I'd not plat it anyway [upwards inflexion].

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On 10/16/2019 at 5:11 PM, Rally-Vincent--- said:

Trophies contain so many spoilers, though... I don't mind another playthrough, unless the game is shit, and then I'd not plat it anyway [upwards inflexion].

I don't find they spoil too much for me if I check them at the beginning. I generally don't know the context the trophy is referring to so doesn't make a ton of sense anyways. I just like to see if I can ignore the trophies and clean up afterwards (my favorite type of games) or ones that really need some guidance to avoid major headaches later. I can't think of a specific trophy name/description that has totally blown something for me. I get what you're saying, especially with trophies that have the name of a boss or something in the title/description...but even that knowledge wouldn't ruin the experience for me. I view most trophy lists like movie previews...they give you a tiny glimpse at what may come, but don't generally give so much that it ruins it for me.

 

For example, I'm playing SOMA at the moment. I checked the trophy list to make sure there are no missables and it turns out there is one. I made a mental note that when I reach (I'll put this in spoilers in case you plan on playing)

Spoiler

TAU, I need to read that trophy description so that I don't miss that trophy. I know the rest are earned through game progression so I don't have to worry. I have no concept of what TAU is, only that I need to find the last human alive when I get there.

In theory, that could be a spoiler I guess, but this is an apocalyptic walking sim game, so that description isn't really a shocker. I'll be much happier at the end of my playthrough with that minimal knowledge than I would be to get to the end and realize I have to blitzkrieg through the game just for that one trophy.

 

I'm genuinely impressed though by people that can stay completely spoiler free these days considering how much access there is to everything and how easy it is to accidentally spoil things.

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SOMA

I got this game for free on PS+ a while back and with it being the Halloween season and no Halloween event, I wanted to throw a horror style game into the mix. This seemed relatively short, it was free and I have it on my Fall/Winter Backlog challenge so snuck it in here between some bigger titles. It's a walking sim that takes place in the somewhat near future and involves apocalyptic events.

 

The game doesn't give you much to go on for clues and it causes some areas to be harder than you would think. The inside zones are relatively straightforward, however I got a little lost in some of the outside zones. Visibility is usually low and the flashlight doesn't help a ton. I'll say that the story was interesting enough, but was not altogether an unfamiliar scenario. The 'wow' moment takes place kind of early in the story and I kept expecting another twist or turn, but it ended up feeling mostly straightforward to me. There isn't a ton of enemies, but the game is very claustrophobic and it can be quite challenging to get around. The music is pretty good as it makes it feel very creepy throughout. They also do a pretty good job with the images, making them fuzzy or harder to see. I played in a dark room to help set the mood.

 

There was supposedly a missable trophy, however I'm not sure how it is missable since it seemed pretty required to advance the story. For a free game it was pretty good. I wouldn't pay more than $5 or $10 if you didn't get it for free. The controls took a little getting used to and I don't think the game really introduced anything terribly new or groundbreaking, but the puzzles presented a decent challenge at places (mostly due to the lack of direction) and it was pretty creepy. The voice acting was decent and if you're looking for a scary walking sim, this isn't a bad choice. It's not a game I feel like I'll remember in two years, but it served its purpose for the holiday!

 

I started a couple of new games this week. One will be a very casual experience that will probably take me the year to complete and that is Path of Exile. I didn't know much about it, but it was brought to my attention by another PSNP player and it was free to play so I checked it out. It seems like a Diablo clone, but way more involved. I'll probably play this a little bit on weekends to mix things up during my next series run. I think one of the things that hurt my enjoyment of the Kingdom Hearts run I did, was that I didn't really have anything to mix it up. This game seems like a perfect choice since it isn't something I need to worry about finishing in the middle of a series. I made my character and stopped at the first encampment (maybe 30 minutes of play so far). I'm going with a Witch. I generally choose the Barbarian or Wizard class in Diablo games and I was the Barbarian in Diablo III so I went mage class for this game. I usually play the Ranger type in the Skyrim/Dark Souls style games. So far it seems like a game I'll really enjoy. I have a lot to learn, but if anyone is interested in giving it a shot, I'll be around to play :)

 

The other game I started is Alice: Madness Returns. I have a trophy here sized up for my 4500 trophy, so we'll see if I can make it happen. This game also fits with my Halloween theme and is a game I've wanted to play for a while. I played for about 45 minutes last night and I really like it so far. The controls seem ok so far. I've had a couple spots where there is an invisible border that has blocked a jump, but other than that...nothing to complain about. I'm pretty happy right now with my slate of games! I have a chaotic month coming up at work that may severely limit some of my playing time, but my goal is still to finish up FFVIII for #100 and then start Mass Effect. My goal is to get Mass Effect 1 done by the end of the year.

 

 

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On 18.10.2019 at 10:56 PM, Briste said:

I'm genuinely impressed though by people that can stay completely spoiler free these days considering how much access there is to everything and how easy it is to accidentally spoil things.

 

Maybe it's just because I am like I am? Whenever I hear about a game I think I might be interested in - which is years before the release nowadays - I make a bookmark and occasionally check for the release date. I don't look at other articles because things "might be subject to change", and around the release date, I check a couple of reviews to see if I shall buy it. I don't need to see the dozen little teasers aimed to interest people - I bookmarked it because I am already interested, ain't I? And if I buy it, I don't want to spoil the story. So, yeah, it works quite well (accidental spoilers can happen, though).

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11 hours ago, Rally-Vincent--- said:

Maybe it's just because I am like I am? Whenever I hear about a game I think I might be interested in - which is years before the release nowadays - I make a bookmark and occasionally check for the release date. I don't look at other articles because things "might be subject to change", and around the release date, I check a couple of reviews to see if I shall buy it. I don't need to see the dozen little teasers aimed to interest people - I bookmarked it because I am already interested, ain't I? And if I buy it, I don't want to spoil the story. So, yeah, it works quite well (accidental spoilers can happen, though).

 

This is exactly what I do as well. I know I wanna play, say, The Surge 2. It is now out, but from the very beginning I avoided watching gameplay footage, demo footage... And now I avoid reading any topic that is about that game. I'll get to it eventually, and I'll get to it knowing as little as possible about the story and the changes that were made since the first game. 

 

 

Anyways, I read you wanted to get one more ironman done before switching over to DD. Are you practicing for Girl Boy or Zombie Boy? And how is it going? :)

 

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11 hours ago, Rally-Vincent--- said:

Maybe it's just because I am like I am? Whenever I hear about a game I think I might be interested in - which is years before the release nowadays - I make a bookmark and occasionally check for the release date. I don't look at other articles because things "might be subject to change", and around the release date, I check a couple of reviews to see if I shall buy it. I don't need to see the dozen little teasers aimed to interest people - I bookmarked it because I am already interested, ain't I? And if I buy it, I don't want to spoil the story. So, yeah, it works quite well (accidental spoilers can happen, though).

 

So I’m guessing with something like Death Stranding that is set to release pretty soon, you bookmark it back in 2016 then you keep tabs on it every now and then to be sure it’s something you’re really interested in. 

 

I only do this for PS4 exclusives. I may occasionally buy a game that’s along the lines of being intriguing like Guacamelee 2 and Mega Man 11 but only because I have a special interest in them. Guacamelee is a very good indie series and I’ve been a long time Mega Man fan for over 20 years, so that was a given. Still haven’t bought Mega Man 11, going to wait for a possible sale on it before I buy. 

 

It’s not difficult to avoid spoilers if you don’t read most of the stuff that is leaked on Reddit and other websites. Reviews are obvious, I sometimes avoid them because I don’t want to be spoiled with the story. 

 

The last game I bookmarked was Marvel’s Spider-Man. Kept tabs on it the moment it was revealed. Same with God of War 2018. 

 

I don’t bother with the shit EA, Activision, 2K Games or Konami come out with. Ubisoft I am sort of mixed on. They’ve made some truly great games in the past, but a portion of their library consists of turds like the latest Tom Clancy game. How anyone can fuck up multiplayer at this point is beyond me. 

 

So far this year I just haven’t cared for most of the stuff coming out. Capcom still makes decent games. Resident Evil 2 and Devil May Cry V are both extremely tempting even if they came out earlier this year. Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice is a game I’ll jump into at some point. A few other bigger releases look good, but for the most part a good majority of the games fail to impress me. 

 

When games like MLB the Show 19 come out just months earlier ($59.99) only to be given away on Plus, there’s definitely something wrong. Now that I don’t think this is a bad game but why so soon? 

 

Most of my list is basically stuff that’s already been out at least two years, as well as some older stuff that I still haven’t gotten around to.

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On 10/21/2019 at 3:36 PM, Rally-Vincent--- said:

Maybe it's just because I am like I am? Whenever I hear about a game I think I might be interested in - which is years before the release nowadays - I make a bookmark and occasionally check for the release date. I don't look at other articles because things "might be subject to change", and around the release date, I check a couple of reviews to see if I shall buy it. I don't need to see the dozen little teasers aimed to interest people - I bookmarked it because I am already interested, ain't I? And if I buy it, I don't want to spoil the story. So, yeah, it works quite well (accidental spoilers can happen, though).

I meant more due to the accidental spoilers and such. I logged into ESPN.com today to check out the trade the Patriots made, and there was a banner ad for a Gandalf Halloween suit that I had looked up. There was another banner for the Joker movie, which I had also googled and looked at. I'm sure a good ad-blocker would solve some of that...but anytime I don't want to be spoiled...I inadvertently get spoiled. With movies, if it's one I know I want to see, I'll go opening night now just to make sure. Between Twitter, Facebook, Ads, Text alerts and so on, you can't help but find out stuff accidentally. I'm seriously impressed by the people that are able to navigate that minefield because I sure as hell can't.

 

12 hours ago, Arcesius said:

This is exactly what I do as well. I know I wanna play, say, The Surge 2. It is now out, but from the very beginning I avoided watching gameplay footage, demo footage... And now I avoid reading any topic that is about that game. I'll get to it eventually, and I'll get to it knowing as little as possible about the story and the changes that were made since the first game. 

 

I don't generally look at stuff for games at all outside of a trophy list/guide. There are a few exceptions...Final Fantasy VII Remake comes to mind. But usually, I hear about a game and if it's from a series I know I'll buy...I don't even need to look at it since I'm going to play it anyways. A lot of the games on my backlog I got from a recommendation and I just take the persons word for it. If the game is more than $15, I may check out a video or something...but I like about 90% of the stuff I've played, so I generally don't see things that give spoilers. Outside the trophy list/guide, I do actively avoid spoilers as well. Having said all that, unless it is a major spoiler...like 'No, I am your father' type of spoiler...it won't generally ruin a game for me. 

 

12 hours ago, Arcesius said:

Anyways, I read you wanted to get one more ironman done before switching over to DD. Are you practicing for Girl Boy or Zombie Boy? And how is it going? :)

 

I'm working on Zombie Boy. I want to finish up The Kid opportunities before I switch to Cotton Alley and I can't use him. I've only played for about an hour...and it is hard lol I can get through every level dying 5 times or less....but it's going to take quite a while before I whittle that down. For every zone up until now, I've just gone in order but I'll probably have to come up with my own order to finish. 

 

12 hours ago, Spaz said:

Most of my list is basically stuff that’s already been out at least two years, as well as some older stuff that I still haven’t gotten around to.

I'm the same. Because of this I have a general idea about most of the games on my list, but I haven't read up on any of them or anything.

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  • 2 weeks later...
On 22.10.2019 at 9:22 AM, Spaz said:

 

So I’m guessing with something like Death Stranding that is set to release pretty soon, you bookmark it back in 2016 then you keep tabs on it every now and then to be sure it’s something you’re really interested in.

 

Since the reviews are out now, I now know it is something I am not really interested in.

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2 hours ago, Rally-Vincent--- said:

 

Since the reviews are out now, I now know it is something I am not really interested in.

 

Shame. Hideo Kojima is a talented individual who made history with his Metal Gear Solid games. He basically did Death Stranding on his own.

 

Honestly though, I wasn't interested in Days Gone because it just looked like a rather generic open world third person shooter with zombies. But now I'm thinking of buying the game.

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It's been a couple of weeks since my last update so here we go:

 

The game I should be focusing on is Alice: Madness Returns, but I really haven't touched this game in about a week or so...I really need to play this one since it is the one I am going to be able to finish in a timely manner. It's really bothering me how many active games I have on my plate right now and I need to trim them down. I'm trying to play MLB The Show 19 at least one game a day to try and whittle away that last trophy, however I will probably be hovering around 400 points for the rest of my life. I win one lose two, get d/c'd on one, run into someone with a thousand games under their belt. I mean the good thing is I am in almost every game. Most of the time it is 1-0 or 2-1 or something....last night I had a game that went 15 innings at 0-0 and I lost on a game ending HR...it's depressing. I'll probably need to win about 10-12 games more than I lose in any stretch to actually get to 800 points. This game is going to end up a regret lol

 

The game I most want to play right now is Path of Exile. I'm really enjoying it. It is a Diablo clone, with a lot more nuance and stuff to learn. I know I haven't scratched the surface yet on it, but I don't think I'll regret this one since the game is at least fun. I'm also really enjoying Darkest Dungeon. My new favorite setup is the Vestal, Jester, Hellion and Man-at-Arms. The Hellion is a beast and so versatile. Man-at-Arms seems to compliment the Hellion well. I get what you were saying @Rally-Vincent---about it being a bit repetitive. I'm about 17 weeks in and it is a lot of the same thing over and over...it's just a matter of farming the materials to upgrade until you can make the final push. I'm trying to target some of the random trophies while I'm farming...I'll probably turn on the DLC around week 52.

 

So my immediate goal is to get back to Alice and finish that up.

 

 

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14 minutes ago, Briste said:

I'll probably turn on the DLC around week 52.

Hey @Briste, I'm also playing DD and it's only fair to warn you that activating the Crimson Court DLC makes the Vita gameplay experience very painful. There are places in the Crimson Court where the framerate drops to very low figures (the presence of certain characters seems to cause the problem) and, unfortunately, as some characters from the DLC also appear in the main areas, these are also affected by heavy slowdowns. I don't know about the other DLC as I haven't turned it on yet. As for the game itself, I really enjoy it though apparently I must have switched difficulties at some point early in the playthrough (I don't even remember it and I wasn't paying too much attention when I started) and I didn't get the trophy for finishing on the default difficulty. The game grew a bit old in the end but right now I've just started the Stygian playthrough and being so much more knowledgeable about the mechanics and hero classes and what not makes for quite an enjoyable experience again. I'm hoping to finish the Stygian playthrough in around 60-70 weeks, so it should be a much shorter journey than the first campaign (130 weeks and still going as I will be finishing the rest of the DLC trophies on that savefile :D). 

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On 11/4/2019 at 3:56 PM, det_gittes said:

Hey @Briste, I'm also playing DD and it's only fair to warn you that activating the Crimson Court DLC makes the Vita gameplay experience very painful. There are places in the Crimson Court where the framerate drops to very low figures (the presence of certain characters seems to cause the problem) and, unfortunately, as some characters from the DLC also appear in the main areas, these are also affected by heavy slowdowns. I don't know about the other DLC as I haven't turned it on yet. As for the game itself, I really enjoy it though apparently I must have switched difficulties at some point early in the playthrough (I don't even remember it and I wasn't paying too much attention when I started) and I didn't get the trophy for finishing on the default difficulty. The game grew a bit old in the end but right now I've just started the Stygian playthrough and being so much more knowledgeable about the mechanics and hero classes and what not makes for quite an enjoyable experience again. I'm hoping to finish the Stygian playthrough in around 60-70 weeks, so it should be a much shorter journey than the first campaign (130 weeks and still going as I will be finishing the rest of the DLC trophies on that savefile :D). 

Thanks for the heads up! If it gets bad enough, I guess I'll switch over to the PS4. So far the loading times take a bit, but I haven't had any issues with the game itself. I'm still getting to know each character type so am having a lot of fun still. I didn't realize you could continue on after beating the game, so that's good to know as well. 

 

I learned last night that the Grave Robber is extremely OP. I beat a Shambler the other night and he left my party in...well...Shambles. I really wasn't prepared to fight it and my Plague Doctor, Antiquarian and Man-at-Arms all died in the same round due to heart attacks...the quest I was on was to collect three stolen grain and I only needed one more to finish. I decided to look for it with only my Grave Robber left. I figured worst case scenario, I get the trophy for a full party wipe, best case I finish the quest. I was able to solo three battles and get the last grain. I would Shadow Fade to go to stealth, then use Toxin Trickery for the dodge and speed boost. Then I would just cycle Shadow Fade and Pick to the Face. I almost never got hit and was able to mow through the enemies. I wouldn't have realized how strong he can be if I didn't decide to screw around. I'm starting to develop more favorite characters than spots you can use in a mission. Almost every character is a ton of fun.

 

Is Stygian a lot harder so far?

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9 hours ago, Briste said:

Is Stygian a lot harder so far?

 

I would't say it is a lot harder. The enemies have slightly better stats, and you have to spend more resources to upgrade, but you start Stygian with knowledge on how things work. That evens this mostly out. The only thing you need to watch is that there is only a limited number of deaths allowed before instant game over. That means the RNG can ruin your game, but otherwise it should be okay.

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On 7.11.2019 at 3:19 PM, Briste said:

Is Stygian a lot harder so far?

 

17 hours ago, Rally-Vincent--- said:

I would't say it is a lot harder. The enemies have slightly better stats, and you have to spend more resources to upgrade, but you start Stygian with knowledge on how things work. That evens this mostly out. The only thing you need to watch is that there is only a limited number of deaths allowed before instant game over. That means the RNG can ruin your game, but otherwise it should be okay.

I can definitely second what @Rally-Vincent--- has said - to me Stygian so far (20 weeks in) doesn't feel harder at all because I know quite well what I'm doing. True, I feel that torchlights last shorter and there are more crits from enemies and definitely more stress penalties dealt to my heroes, but somehow everything seems to be manageable. Another thing is that this playthrough I don't have to go for all the bosses, so I will only play some for the trinkets and that should also make it easier. At this point I pretty much have 4 teams assembled, I will play around with Vestal - Highwayman - Highwayman - Hellion, though if need be, I also have a Plague Doctor, Man at Arms (his Guard will be useful in the 2nd Darkest Dungeon) and Leper, and a Houndmaster just in case. Also, I invested in the Bank (which means I activated the Districts from the Crimson Court), so in another few weeks money should become less of an issue (in my first estate I'm sitting at 17 million gold :D). And finally, I typically make a save before entering medium and long dungeons, so if I have some terrible luck at some point (nothing like that so far), I will have the option of reloading the save (losing a single hero in this game doesn't amount to much, but if my best team with good trinkets got decimated, I would definitely reload the save). 

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  • 2 weeks later...

Hey @Briste, I've noticed that you've made good progress in DD, especially with the Color of Madness DLC! Would you care to say how the Vita handles this DLC? I will be finishing the Stygian playthrough very soon and don't know whether to continue playing on PS4 or not. Also, how was the 300 kills trophy, easy-peasy? :D

 

Edit: I just finished the Stygian playthrough. I am disappointed that, contrary to what the guide says, I got no Strict Mode trophy. I certainly didn't touch anything under the Gameplay menu, which means if I want the plat, I will have to play through one more time ? (I have a few other trophies left, but they can be done early in the game.)

Edited by det_gittes
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12 hours ago, det_gittes said:

Hey @Briste, I've noticed that you've made good progress in DD, especially with the Color of Madness DLC! Would you care to say how the Vita handles this DLC? I will be finishing the Stygian playthrough very soon and don't know whether to continue playing on PS4 or not. Also, how was the 300 kills trophy, easy-peasy? :D

I've been sick the past week and a half with pneumonia so my Vita has been a good companion lol I have been pretty productive in DD at least. I haven't turned on Crimson yet and didn't notice any frame rate issues with Color of Madness. The bosses aren't too bad but the 300 kills was actually pretty challenging and took several hours. I didn't realize you fight a boss every fourth 'round' and was caught off guard on the first one. I ended up having to fight the Miller first and he almost ended my journey real early. I went in with a Hellion, Highwayman, Vestal and Jester. I basically used the Jester full time on stress reduction and the Vestal healing each round with the Hellion and Highwayman my only real damage dealers. I also got very lucky that each of my guys ended up getting a positive effect when they hit 100 stress which helped a lot. If one of them was negative, it would have been much more difficult. I did have to quit out and reload a few times when I got super unlucky....but party maintenance is the secret to success for 300 kills.

 

Either the description is wrong or my trophy glitched for the Caretaker trophy for completing all caretaker goals. I still have one boss and three levels in Darkest Dungeon to go before I finish the list, but the trophy popped after my last character class hit resolve level 6. I'm not complaining...it was just unexpected. I'm going to turn on Crimson Court soon and we'll see how my Vita handles it.

 

13 hours ago, det_gittes said:

Edit: I just finished the Stygian playthrough. I am disappointed that, contrary to what the guide says, I got no Strict Mode trophy. I certainly didn't touch anything under the Gameplay menu, which means if I want the plat, I will have to play through one more time 1f62d.png (I have a few other trophies left, but they can be done early in the game.)

That sucks...I'm sorry. It's not like this game is a quick play either. Are you going to take a break in between trying? I'd need a break I think :(

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54 minutes ago, Briste said:

Either the description is wrong or my trophy glitched for the Caretaker trophy for completing all caretaker goals. I still have one boss and three levels in Darkest Dungeon to go before I finish the list, but the trophy popped after my last character class hit resolve level 6. I'm not complaining...it was just unexpected.

The same happened to me, it seems that the trophy is awarded for bringing all characters to resolve level 6, don't know if it's any different on PS4. In the end it didn't matter as I killed all bosses anyway, but I also remember being surprised. 

 

1 hour ago, Briste said:

That sucks...I'm sorry. It's not like this game is a quick play either. Are you going to take a break in between trying? I'd need a break I think :(

I don't know yet, before entering the final dungeon I uploaded the cross-save, so maybe I will replay it on PS4 to see if the trophy pops - I've read online that for some people it popped after Stygian, but for others it didn't, maybe it's worth trying. It helps that the last dungeon isn't too bad. 

 

And by the way, I hope you're feeling OK now, pneumonia actually sounds quite scary ?

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