Copanele's collection of trophies and experiences

[Copanele]

43 minutes ago, Honor_Hand said:

Awesome write-ups, Copanele. I loved reading through these, especially those last two about Soul Calibur VI and Quake, as those are games that deeply interest me. =D

 

SC VI, in particular, looks like a proper continuation of the series. V was rather bland despite being mechanically solid. VI looks like it's going to be more of the same but with a more familiar cast, I guess? I just hope the fights and main campaign can be as interesting as they were in the old SC games. And man, Taki was always stacked as fuck. Not my favorite female fighter in the series, but she definitely carries the largest plot with her. xxD

 

Many thanks !!!

I so wished to write more about SC VI  but I believe you would truly appreciate that game more, being more knowledgeable than me with the series and all.

As for girls...yeah now that I think of it, personally I was more impressed by Sopithia, but Taki was the most "in my face " so to speak 😂

Soulcalibur sure has a good roster out there that is for sure😌

43 minutes ago, Honor_Hand said:

Now, Quake sounds sweet. I love me some old-school shooters, and Quake here sounds exactly like Doom but with more 3D-ishness to it, which is just awesome. This is not surprising considering that the developers behind it are the same guys from Doom. Honestly, the appeal of these boomer shooters always lies not only in their fast-paced action and movement but also in the strategic combat of having to micromanage which weapons you're going to use and how you can turn the monsters against themselves and whatnot. It's all good fun. ^^

Yeeees especially that part with the micromanagement!!!

I had instances where I just reloaded a save because " I could do that section better" . Why use 5 rockets and a grenade when I can use 2 grenades, aggro enemies to accidentally shoot each other then watch the carnage unfold. 

Quake really made you plan out some sick strategies and find some ways out whenever you were suddenly outnumbered. No wonder it's considered one of the greatest videogames ever made, according to Wikipedia at least

43 minutes ago, Honor_Hand said:

Quake's nightmare difficulty sounds a lot like Doom 3's, in which you have to deal with your health continuously trickling down to 25. That and the beefed-up monsters of course. Challenging, but still entertaining and fair.

Yep pretty much! Although I gotta say, I did enjoy Quake a great deal more than Doom 3 😆

43 minutes ago, Honor_Hand said:

Classic Doom's nightmare difficulty, though. Oh boi, I really look forward to the day you boot those up. The amount of cussing I'm going to read on Discord is going to be spectacular, lmao. xxD

Oh man you sure are waiting for that moment huh 😂 well I do have the games so I will eventually play them.

When however...that's the trick question. I know it will be painful that's for sure!

[Gommes_]

On 3/1/2024 at 10:30 PM, Copanele said:

 No. 274 - SoulCalibur VI

 

Platinum Name - A New Story of Swords and Souls

Hardest Trophy - Master of Style by a Mile - defeat an Ancient in Libra of Souls

Difficulty - 3/10 - compared to SCV, this one was a cakewalk

 

There's a certain type of games that simply won't click for you anymore once you've missed the hype train. For me, it's the Soulcalibur series, a series that I completely missed when it was launched. I played SC5 a while ago (fun game, terrible trophy list) and now after SC6 I have to say...this series ain't for me 😅 It doesn't mean that the games are bad, it's just that I feel no particular attachment or drive to play a Soulcalibur game, no matter how good it might be. Sometimes it just doesn't click like that.

 

In Soulcalibur, you usually have to deal with some tremendously powered sword and its wielder Nightmare. Several characters try to either find or destroy this damn sword. Or, at least that's what I understood from the little plot that I followed. Because to be honest...the moment I saw some beautiful knight getting saved from impending doom by an incredibly busty ninja (like GODDAMN that ninja puts the girls in DOA5 to shame) I was "hahaha yeah no, skip to the story". Do not get me wrong though, I do not complain about the design of the characters, god bless them, it's just that I couldn't take the story seriously anymore 😂

To be fair though, I doubt the story would improve my mood for the game, since for instance I haven't followed the story of Tekken or Blazblue either, yet I absolutely love those games.

Yeah, I am sure there's also a plot there somewhere

 

Moving on...the main single player modes are Soul Chronicle - which is the Story mode, following the adventures of the SoulCalibur characters, and Libra of Souls - a custom mission based campaign where you create your own character and start your own adventure. 

Soul Chronicle is your average "evil guy must be defeated" mix, you whack dudes in the head in a nice 3D environment. A nice addition is the guest character Geralt from the Witcher series, who somehow got portaled again in this weird world. Poor Geralt, can't take a break no matter what.

Damn portals and samurai

 

Libra of Souls is the more interesting mode. In this mode you create your own character and go to town with any style you prefer. For the least amount of hassle I picked the Cervantes style, where you wield 2 pirate gunswords and you spin around like Bison from Street Fighter.

 

Libra of Souls happens throughout the entirety of Europe/Africa/Asia. You fight several dudes and have to close several portals where you are invaded by other players' avatars. It's a rather monotone mode so I barely remember anything that happened there. There are some challenging fights (like the Master of the style you pick) but overall you can get through the mode in 2 days at most. Still, I had more fun with this compared to Soul Chronicle

 

My Souls main Agnatiel has found her way in this weird world...and she's ready to throw down!

 

As gameplay, SoulCalibur 6 follows the same control scheme like all its predecessors: Square button attacks horizontally, Triangle attacks vertically, Circle is a kick and X is block. You can combine these buttons to pull various special attacks, one of them being an odd rock-paper-scissors mode with the enemy. There is a sort of tactic in the game, it resembling Samurai Shodown where you have to bait the opponents for a mistake. In terms of combos however...yeah I still have no idea how the hitboxes work in this game 😅

 

Ok, to not prolong this already painful review...I didn't "feel" this game. I didn't feel any particular joy or excitement whenever I was successfully hitting the enemy. I didn't dislike the game but I had a profound "MEH" feeling from start to finish. As mentioned, maybe it's because I didn't grow up with the games. I also am aware that skipping the story severely diminishes the excitement of the game but my god I couldn't handle that High Final Fantasy mumbo jumbo 😅 just not my kind of jam.

 

Still, I can't blame the game for my own preferences. SoulCalibur 6 in itself is still a gorgeous game in my opinion and has some solid gameplay. It didn't catch my heart, but maybe it will convince others of its quality. So I can only recommend it at a discount, because it would be a crime to bash it. Not when characters like Sophitia exist  

 

THE GOOD:

• game looks amazing
• you have a lot of styles and weapons
• female characters look absolutely gorgeous
• detailed character creator
• solid controls
• Libra of Souls is actually rather fun
• Geralt as a guest character

THE BAD:

• it really wasn't my kind of game
• it's not really that complex of a fighting game
• really, had nothing memorable to say about the game

RECOMMENDATION - Samurai Shodown  I really had way more fun playing this SNK classic, with its DLCs. The only caveat is the absolutely horrible online, which is way worse than in SC6

 

 

 

 

Ah man, too bad you don't like that franchise. I bet it's because you missed the first three entries of Soul Edge/Soul Calibur.

[Copanele]

1 minute ago, Gommes_ said:

 

Ah man, too bad you don't like that franchise. I bet it's because you missed the first three entries of Soul Edge/Soul Calibur.

Yep, probably that's why  

Ah well, I can have a few misses here and there XD 

[Gommes_]

4 minutes ago, Copanele said:

Yep, probably that's why  

Ah well, I can have a few misses here and there XD 

 

Yeah you can . Maybe the ones who like it are still stuck in the past (like me), cause commercially that franchise is not doing that good and I think a potential part 7 will take a while to come out. If it even comes...

[Yuber6969]

Congrats!

 

I forgot about Breakers before your review. I did wishlist it, so apologies in advance for the raging 

 

SoulCalibur 6 is one that I feel I have to give a chance to since I hated the legendary SC2. It at least seems easy from what you wrote.

 

I thought Quake would have been much harder, but even if it was, you dodged a huge bullet with Quantum Theory.

[Copanele]

6 minutes ago, Yuber6969 said:

Congrats!

 

I forgot about Breakers before your review. I did wishlist it, so apologies in advance for the raging 

This one will be a breeze compared to AoF. The AI is still cheap but the rage levels won't be that high 😆

6 minutes ago, Yuber6969 said:

SoulCalibur 6 is one that I feel I have to give a chance to since I hated the legendary SC2. It at least seems easy from what you wrote.

Ngl I wish I grabbed SC2 when everyone played it. Ah well I can emulate it on PC just to see hiw the game feels. 

As for SC6...yeah you'll smoke it 😆 it's not even that long,  I expected Libra of Souls to take me ages! But it all went relatively fast.

6 minutes ago, Yuber6969 said:

I thought Quake would have been much harder, but even if it was, you dodged a huge bullet with Quantum Theory.

Yeah same, but I took a gamble, anything was better than Quantum 😂 guess it paid off in the end!

That damn Q letter, always eluding us in the A-Z events. Although X is truly the one that is the most painful!

[Copanele]

 No. 276 - Wet

 

Platinum Name -  WET Platinum Trophy

Hardest Trophy -  Total Bone-head - achieve Gold in all Boneyard Challenges

Difficulty - 7/10

 

We've barely entered March and I already have contenders for best games AND worst games of the year. If previously I raved about games like Lies of P, Elden Ring (once again) and Quake, I equally groaned about crappy games that I encountered. First I played Jump Force and I was certain that that game will win the stinker of the year. Then I stumbled across Sifu and my god I got angry with that game, was even ready to label it "disappointment of the year" despite being fundamentally a good game. 

BUT WAIT, HOLD YOUR HORSES, HERE COMES THIS PIECE OF SHIT TO SNATCH THE PRIZE! Wet stumbles, burps and slides to steal the award right now, like a game of Tag where participants have buckets on their heads. Don't try that at home, recommending from personal experience.

 

Suffice to say, after I played Wet, I looked at Sifu and Jump Force and instantly went

 

Now, what is Wet you may wonder? Wet is a 3rd person action game starring Rubi Malone, a mercenary (also called fixer) who would kill anything and anyone for money. Foul mouthed, trigger happy, always drunk and always moody, Rubi is the best in her job. But one job goes horribly wrong, Rubi gets stabbed and out of anger she starts shooting everyone. 

 

Look I will be completely honest here: The story resembles what a 15 years old kid would write if he never read a book in his entire life. It's complete dog shit, i fully recommend skipping cutscenes whenever possible, there's no point understanding what the hell is going on there. Rubi is drunk and Rubi will shoot people.

Our sexy heroine. You'll get tired of this shot.

 

Speaking of, let's introduce the star of the show, Rubi Malone. Simply put, she's the amalgamation of everything that would make a femme fatale...well...femme fatale. Beautiful, slim, with curves, skin tight jacket that further accentuates her "assets". Then, Rubi has a pair of pistols and a Katana/Chinese sword hybrid. She also swears, is incredibly deadly and can absolutely outdrink anyone in gaming, except maybe Dante.

 

Simply put, Rubi is intended to be this equation:

 

 + +  +  = 

 

Now, I am a simple man, I can appreciate a slim design even if it's crazy unoriginal. The problem appears when Rubi opens her mouth and starts spamming "Fucking shit" and all other manners of CoD servers slur. It's here where I am incredibly disappointed in the writing for this character. Not sure why did the writers thought that Rubi cursing like a pirate is crucial to her image, I bet they thought this could impress the armies of 14 years old that will buy the game.

(spoiler: it kinda didn't)

 

Truly charming

 

Her crazy rants are only topped by the hilarious voice acting of the grunts. Most of the action happens in Hong Kong, exception being the 2 UK levels. The grunts will always say the most hilarious broken English lines ever, lines like "YUUUU AH SOOO FAKKD" or "NOOO I KIRR YOOOOOUUU". Hilarious, stupid and racist.

What's odd though, the grunts from the UK levels will say their usual Bri'ish gov'nor lines with the most exaggerated accents ever and then slip a "FAKK YOUUU" inbetween. This game is a mess 😂

 

Soon ,you will start relating to Rubi and her explosive mood though, because playing this game...holy crap.

 

Wet is a third person shooter, so Rubi has all sorts of weaponries at her disposal. 5, in fact. You have her trusty sword and her pair of guns at first. Afterwards you unlock a pair of shotguns, a pair of SMGs and a pair of crossbows with explosive darts. For such an action heavy game, this is a rather slim offer. 

In terms of shooting, if you just aim and shoot chances are you won't get far. However, due to the copious amounts of tequila ingested, Rubi has something called "Acrobatic mode". Simply put, whenever she jumps, slides, wall runs, swings on a pole and also shoots her weapons, Rubi can slow down time Matrix style, allowing her to aim her guns at the poor bastards that got stuck in the same game with her. You receive points based on your Acrobatic performance, so if you shoot a grunt regularly you get a measly 5 points. Do it in slow mo and you get 10 points. If you link moves (wall run then jump and shoot), you get multipliers that get added to your score. So from a simple wall run and jump, if you also headshot the grunt you could get up to 30 and even 100 points, depending on the multiplier.

With all these points, you can buy upgrades that further enhance Rubi's deadly capabilities. 

 

Now the big caveat of this game. At its best, this game is a boring slog. Simply put, by the end of chapter 1 you see 95% of Rubi's capabilities. Sure, you can unlock more moves, but if you simply upgrade your pistols that have infinite ammo by default and put a few points in health, you can absolutely demolish the game without breaking a sweat. The action is sometimes interrupted by some on-rail shooting sections (very poorly executed) and some "Rage mode" sections where Rubi gets enraged and everything turns to red and black, but the premise is the same. Aim and shoot, there's no spice added to it despite the slow mo. And listen to shitty music.

Believe me when I say, you'll get tired of the drunkass rock cowboy music and you'll switch it instantly.

It does look badass, but you'll get bored after the 1000th wall run and gun

 

At its worst, this game is the epitome of jankiness and clunkiness. Rubi refusing to climb walls, Rubi falling through the ladder she was supposed to grab, Rubi not detecting ledges, Rubi DETECTING ledges mid fight and getting shot because she's hanging like an idiot. Rubi sliding to the sides right into an explosive barrel despite you telling her to slide forward and holy shit you have to reload the entire section again. This game can be atrocious when it comes to controls, but only when it wants to. Sometimes the game runs smoothly and sometimes the game is a complete ass to play. 

 

Worst offender is the sliding move. When running, if you press Circle, Rubi gets on her knees and slides for an impressive distance, allowing her to shoot the enemies from underneath. Well, this sliding animation has a mind of its own and this can be best explained via football memes.

 

Sometimes Rubi can slide straight ahead like you tell her to:

 

Sometimes, Rubi decides that gravity, direction and purpose have no place in her game and decides to slide...fuck knows where, you'll find out once you're on the ground:

 

And finally, if there's an explosive barrel on the ground, chances are that Rubi will trigger her inner homing missile mode and aim straight to the fucking thing, just for it to be blown away by the enemies and killing her in the process:

 

This entire ordeal gets increasingly frustrating once you hit the Boneyard Challenges. Yes, indeed, this game has a challenge mode, where you have to run across a track, collecting rings like a drunk Sonic with boobs and reach the end under a time limit. Some of these rings raise some panels that you have to shoot, shooting a panel reduces the counter by 2 seconds. The timings are very strict and you pretty much have to do each track perfectly in order to get the gold medals required for the platinum.

 

With that in mind, imagine how fun it was to control Rubi who would refuse to obey my commands and also encountering the rare yet frustrating situation when shooting a panel would not bring the timer down. 

Oh did I mention that Rubi casually refuses to grab ledges whenever it suits her???

BOY WAS IT FUN!

 

You will curse your past self when you reach the boneyard challenges. What was in your mind ,starting this game?

 

Finally, it wouldn't be fair if I closed the review and not mention the beautiful BROWN 💩 GRAPHICS 💩 . In true PS3 fashion, this game was smeared with the poop color as a filter, for some reason. Just who thought that brown and washed out colors would pass for a good eye pleasing experience?

Of course, exception being the Boneyard area, who was gloriously slapped with a Mexican piss yellow filter. My god this game is ugly to look at.

 

In conclusion...is there any redeeming qualities?

Nah, not really. Fuck this game. Not even Rubi's design can save this steaming pile from the hole of mediocrity. It was so bad and annoying that it actually convinced me to remove some games from my PS3 backlog mainly because I can't handle this type of crap jankiness. Enough is enough. I barely can deal with janky games as it is, but a janky, clunky BORING game that looks like crap? Hell nah.

 

THE GOOD:

• Rubi looks hot, if you mute the game and disable the subtitles

THE BAD:

• Subtitles can't be disabled, fuck you
• The graphics have a solid 💩 filter applied to them
• The story is written by some college students on acid. The bad kind.
• The music in this game should've stuck to Tony Hawk Pro Skater games
• Can't believe I say this ,but I got bored of the slow motion
• The entire game is boring as hell, you can see all there is to be seen in chapter 1
• Random "haha you thought it was a cutscene BUT IT WAS I, THE QTE " . Don't snooze else a random square pops on the screen and you'll die
• Rubi requires 500 IQ and computations in the 5th dimension for optimal control
• Peak DmC Devil May Cry Dialogue
• It really needs peak engineering to make a game this boring

RECOMMENDATION - Matrix  Want true bullet time? Look no further. You can watch the second and third movie too, but don't expect the glory of the first movie. DEFINITELY DO NOT WATCH THE FOURTH MOVIE

I will recommend Max Payne once I actually play it 😂

 

PS3 GAMES BACKLOG

 

1. Castlevania Mirror of Fate HD
2. Castlevania Lords of Shadows 2
3. Catherine 🤢
4. Fist of the North Star Ken's Rage
5. Mirror's Edge
6. Quantum Conundrum
7. Ratatouille
8. Tomb Raider Anniversary
9. Tomb Raider Legend
10. Tomb Raider Underworld
11. Wet 

 

[YaManSmevz]

9 hours ago, Copanele said:

 No. 276 - Wet

 

Awesome shit as always my friend. I remember seeing this game in the used bin in the last gen (wait... gen before that) literally every time I went to a shop. Now I know why!

 

9 hours ago, Copanele said:

Then I stumbled across Sifu and my god I got angry with that game, was even ready to label it "disappointment of the year" despite being fundamentally a good game. 

 

Makes me so sad, I got really excited about that being on PS+. No idea where I got the idea that it was supposed to be good tho🤣

 

9 hours ago, Copanele said:

Sometimes Rubi can slide straight ahead like you tell her to:

 

Sometimes, Rubi decides that gravity, direction and purpose have no place in her game and decides to slide...fuck knows where, you'll find out once you're on the ground:

 

And finally, if there's an explosive barrel on the ground, chances are that Rubi will trigger her inner homing missile mode and aim straight to the fucking thing, just for it to be blown away by the enemies and killing her in the process:

 

Fantastic🤣

 

 

9 hours ago, Copanele said:

1.  

 

Preach!

[Yuber6969]

I've been waiting for this review! Really glad I didn't do this for my W UR, I truly didn't think it would be that bad despite your multiple attempts to warn me lol.

 

It drives me insane when games are hard as a result of shitty controls as opposed to needing skill. I can tell I would have raged hard playing this.

 

Shame, this sounds like a story I'd enjoy in the sense of laughing at it. I just finished my first playthrough of White Day and enjoyed the story, but I'm dreading doing 20+ more playthroughs and playing on Hell Difficulty. The gameplay is flawed there too, but your review of Wet is making me feel like I made the better choice.

 

Congrats on the well deserved W UR entry!

[Copanele]

17 minutes ago, Yuber6969 said:

I've been waiting for this review! Really glad I didn't do this for my W UR, I truly didn't think it would be that bad despite your multiple attempts to warn me lol.

 

It drives me insane when games are hard as a result of shitty controls as opposed to needing skill. I can tell I would have raged hard playing this.

 

Shame, this sounds like a story I'd enjoy in the sense of laughing at it. I just finished my first playthrough of White Day and enjoyed the story, but I'm dreading doing 20+ more playthroughs and playing on Hell Difficulty. The gameplay is flawed there too, but your review of Wet is making me feel like I made the better choice.

 

Congrats on the well deserved W UR entry!

Thanks dude! I suffered here so you don't have to 😂

NGL I was this close to recommending this game to you BEFORE playing it. So glad I actually started it first and went NO, BACK OFF! Because if I raged at this...you would've smashed something for sure.

8 hours ago, YaManSmevz said:

Awesome shit as always my friend. I remember seeing this game in the used bin in the last gen (wait... gen before that) literally every time I went to a shop. Now I know why!

Yep, it should remain in the bin where it fucking deserves 😂 I will sell it back at the first occasion, someone else should take this curse off my hands.

[shadaik]

Oh boy, this one is sitting unplayed on my 360 shelf. Kinda glad I didn't touch my 360 in forever now. 😅

[jonesey46]

Aw man. I did this one back in 2020 and I didn't think it was THAT bad. I mean, god damn, you tore this thing a new one. Great write up as always though, it sure was an entertaining read 😂

[Copanele]

8 hours ago, jonesey46 said:

Aw man. I did this one back in 2020 and I didn't think it was THAT bad. I mean, god damn, you tore this thing a new one. Great write up as always though, it sure was an entertaining read 😂

So, that's what I also heard from a friend who played this game recently. He didn't experience any major bugs, he just said "it's an incredibly boring game but other than that and some clunk it wasn't that bad".

Guess the game just wanted to mess with me and go "I am on PS3, nobody will believe you" and activate all the bugs and glitches at once 😂 one of the moodiest games I've ever played

[jonesey46]

2 hours ago, Copanele said:

So, that's what I also heard from a friend who played this game recently. He didn't experience any major bugs, he just said "it's an incredibly boring game but other than that and some clunk it wasn't that bad".

Guess the game just wanted to mess with me and go "I am on PS3, nobody will believe you" and activate all the bugs and glitches at once 😂 one of the moodiest games I've ever played

To be fair to Wet if I may, I believe it had a rocky development cycle and it was all acquired by Zenimax/Bethesda mid-development which I think lead to it being a bit janky and unfinished/unrealised. 

[Copanele]

💯 No. 80 - Ender of Fire

Hardest Trophy -  Dragon Slayer - defeat the final boss 3 times in a row on Hard

Difficulty - 3/10

 

The best way to describe Ender of Fire is  "bootleg Trine" . I found this game while hunting for my eternal A-Z lists (non-A-Z platinum in this case) and I found this little janky game as a potential UR entry for the E letter.

I expected to play some buggy mess, however surprisingly, this game turned out to be pretty damn sweet.

 

In Ender of Fire, you have to pick from 3 characters to start the adventure with: A Knight - specialized in melee weapons and AoE attacks, a mage - master of fire, ice, lightning and gravity magic  and an elf archer - master of bows, projectiles and hopping around. The objective is to clear out all the monsters that have infested the land and beat the main bad guy himself, the Old One

 

Your heroes in action - you can play as one hero or create a party of up to 3 heroes with another 2 friends

 

Your map is split into various pathways, each with its own enemies. You will fight bugs and ants in the mines, zombies in the crypts and various rats and goblins in the sewers. Each level has a final boss at the end, most of them being rather well programmed and not as easy to defeat as expected. However, this game has a funny bug, where the boss can randomly die while you are out exploring the map. This is a silly bug that kinda works in your benefit, however you won't get any experience or money from that said boss.

 

Speaking of experience, you level up by collecting the various crystals dropped by monsters. The monsters also drop money which you can use to either buy potions and resurrection scrolls from the vendors, or you can hit the blacksmith to buy an upgrade to your existing equipment in the main hub of the game.

 

As a "Kinght", I can buy an "Arche" Angel set. Yep, someone failed to spellcheck this.

 

To be fair, this game is really "budgety", with various smaller bugs and spell issues (and some hilarious trophy descriptions). You don't have much to do either, just smack the enemies, get to the final level and smack the evil dragon. However, I can't help but somehow appreciate the odd charm that this game has. This feels like a 2000-ish game which got all the high fantasy tropes from some quick Lord of the Rings read, but somehow manages to still be fun. It honestly reminded me of Drakan Order of the Flame (ancient PC game) and, given that it periodically goes on sale...I'd recommend it, really  

Just don't expect too much from it and you should be fine.

 

THE GOOD:

• Oddly charming
• Has some silly beneficial bugs
• The skills for each character are quite fun to use
• Not too long 

THE BAD:

• Trine is better in every way
• The game really feels amateurish
• If you haven't played old games like Enclave, Knights of the Temple, Drakan and so on, this game will just feel meh for you

RECOMMENDATION - Trine  If you want a true dynamic trio, play this game, it will not disappoint

[Super_Mep]

@Copanele

I can't believe you found and played Ender of Fire. I too somewhat enjoyed it until I had to beat that dragon on hard THREE times. That trophy can pound sand. Honestly can't say I'd recommend it to anyone 😜

[Copanele]

18 minutes ago, Super_Mep said:

@Copanele

I can't believe you found and played Ender of Fire. I too somewhat enjoyed it until I had to beat that dragon on hard THREE times. That trophy can pound sand. Honestly can't say I'd recommend it to anyone 😜

Yep this was quite the hidden game 😂but would you believe that I had way more issues with the ant queen than with the dragon? For the dragon i just approached his head, attacked twice and ran away triggering his claw swipe. Did that for all phases.

Ant queen just randomly jumped in the air and did a stupid AoE that was unavoidable.

 

Also for some reason some of my bosses randomly died. Talk about beneficial glitches 😂

[Yuber6969]

You had already sold me on this as my E UR, but that glitch with the bosses dying is hilarious. XD

Sounds like an easy game for sure.

[Copanele]

2 minutes ago, Yuber6969 said:

You had already sold me on this as my E UR, but that glitch with the bosses dying is hilarious. XD

Sounds like an easy game for sure.

Yep it is very easy indeed 😆 the only nasty part is the grind, you have to farm 1 mil gold and you can get around 15k- 20k gold in 10 mins or so, depending how lucky you are. Difficulty really ain't an issue.

[Super_Mep]

3 hours ago, Copanele said:

Yep it is very easy indeed 😆 the only nasty part is the grind, you have to farm 1 mil gold and you can get around 15k- 20k gold in 10 mins or so, depending how lucky you are. Difficulty really ain't an issue.

Yeah that grind is awful. I found connecting a second controller and dragging them along and letting my main gather everything seemed to help get more gold. I could be wrong but it seemed faster. Or maybe because I was dealing with a second controller I was more distracted 🤷‍♂️

Edited March 10 by Super_Mep
Redundant text

[Copanele]

💯 No. 81 - Viking Squad

Hardest Trophy - Defender of Asgard - Clear Hard Mode

Difficulty - 5/10

 

I've been on a roll with non-plat games lately, because I stumbled across another little gem while going for the non-A-Z plat club event!

Viking Squad is a sidescroller beat-em up where you control one of the 4 Vikings available. While hunting for treasures for their poor clan, the vikings accidentally released Loki the god of Trickery, Deceit and Pranks. Loki infected the clan's Jarl, so the Vikings have to train and fight various monsters in order to defeat Loki. Basically, the plot is an excuse to just whack monsters around in a nice environment.

 

Unfortunately, the 4 vikings are not named for some reason, so I will give them random Viking-y names to identify them.

 

1. Bjorn (blue viking) - looks like the leader of the group and he uses a sword and shield. He also has the rune powers of ice that allows him to freeze his opponents.
2. Ragnar (red viking) - is the Berserker of the group, using his hatchets to quickly mow down the enemies and charging through them with his fire abilities.
3. Astrid (green viking) - the powerhouse of the group, she uses her hammer to slam down the enemies and summons the powers of earth to launch them upwards.
4. Erik (purple viking) - the ranged user, he uses his daggers to get the enemies off his back and his air imbued arrows to deal with threats from afar.

The lore part is all made up, in reality the characters have no name or backstory. You always start in a camp where you can purchase equipment that you salvaged in your adventures, upgrade your stats from the super muscular viking that is benching a tree trunk or even buy potions or keys from the camp's Druid. Once you're set, you jump in your boat and off you go towards adventure!

 

The best way to train your strength and mind is by lifting a huge ass log above your head while in your underwear

 

The combat in this game is very simple. You have your usual 3 hits attack via square and your rune magic via triangle, every viking having a different rune magic. The playstyle for each viking is vastly different: Bjorn approaches a more defensive playstyle, hiding behind his shield, while Ragnar's all about spamming raging attacks with his axes. Astrid is "one hit kills all" while Erik is all about lining up his enemies and shooting them all from afar. The tactics become more and more apparent once you progress towards the harder levels in the game, where the monsters and bosses become beefier and hit way harder. Overall, I found Astrid to be the best because once you fully equip her with the best equipment, her attacks pretty much one shots everyone on the map and her rune earth slam flips everyone who gets way too close for her own comfort. 

 

You also have a special "all enemies on the screen must die" attack, but it's basically the same attack for every character.

 

You can even co-op with a friend in this game

 

In order to deal more damage, you need to first find equipment and then buy it from the vendors in the main camp. For this , you need to find the most valuable resource for a viking - treasure. Every item or artefact that you find counts as treasure and you can use it to buy a better sword, a better helmet or max out your health, damage or rune power. The main caveat and probably the nastiest downside however, when you get back to your camp all your treasure must be spend or else you lose it. Which means you either HAVE to buy items, level up OR you have to convert the treasure into coins that are only useful for potions or keys for treasure chests. The game forces you to play an entire area (consisting of 5-6 maps each) and sometimes it can become a slog.

 

Some rooms have piles of treasure, all unusable unfortunately

 

Once you defeat the game, 2 new modes open up. Boss Rush Mode is fairly simple, you have to defeat all the main bosses back to back. Given how trivial the bosses are in this game, it won't pose much of a problem. Hard Mode difficulty however is another beast. Enemies hit harder and have more health and for this mode you definitely want to learn every character's strengths and weaknesses. Personally I completed Hard mode with Ragnar the Berserker and let me tell you, a mindless axe spammer is NOT the way to defeat this mode 😂 I had to group up enemies and charge at the right time in order to defeat them as effectively as possible. Was surprised to see that you actually had to use a small degree of strategy in order to beat this mode.

 

Some fights can turn into WWE matches against a bartender bear

 

The 100% for this game is a bit of a slog. Most of the stuff can be accomplished rather easily, the only serious challenge being the Hard Mode difficulty (play as Astrid, she's way stronger). However the grind based trophies were a bit of a slog. You have to collect 10.000 coins and kill 10.000 enemies, which will be an extra grind if you are proficient at the game and finish it too fast. For me personally thought, the most annoying was Levelling up all 4 characters to the max level. Considering that you had to get 195 treasure for each character in order to max them out and you could get a max of 35-40 treasure in the final area of the game...yeah it really wasn't that great. 

 

But in the end, this game was pretty fun. It never goes on sale unfortunately, so if you are interested you have to get it at a full price, but if you want a sweet UR with cool graphics and decent gameplay that will burn several hours of your time, give this one a go!

 

THE GOOD:

• Cute graphics
• Enjoyable enough gameplay
• Action can get pretty hectic

THE BAD:

• You can't save your treasure between runs, it has to be spent
• Game never goes on sale

Recommendation - Blizzard Arcade Collection - The Lost Vikings  to be fair I haven't played the Arcade Collection but I played the original game. This one was an inspiration for Trine and in this game you can play as 3 vikings, each with their own fun abilities. Very cute game from a better Blizzard time.

 

 

[jonesey46]

On 1/21/2024 at 5:34 PM, Copanele said:

 266 - Lies of P

 

Platinum Name - Lies of P

Hardest Trophy -  Golden Melody - find and play all records

Difficulty - 5/10

 

Fromsoftware's "Souls" series are some of the most iconic videogames in the past decade. From the Dark Souls series, to Bloodborne, Sekiro and the newly released, acclaimed and GOTY'ed Elden Ring, these games got a fame of their own. Obviously, many companies tried to emulate that success, but most of their games pale in comparison to the "Souls formula". Most of them focus solely on combat, throw in some cryptic "world's fucked we ain't telling you why" items and call it a day. I believe that other than Salt&Sanctuary, no other soulslike game came even close to what makes Fromsoftware games great.

 

Until now...buckle up everyone, because Lies of P finally cracked the code, figured the mystery and got its hand stuck into the Adaptability jar. 

This game finally understood what makes "Souls" games great, took the idea, molded it and created something short of a masterpiece. This game was so good that I couldn't believe it right until the end when I saw the end credits and the epilogue.

 

And the shocking part - this is the first game of its kind developed by Neowiz Games and  Round 8 Studios. I am absolutely shocked but also immensely pleased that they actually sat down and UNDERSTOOD the concept.

 

But what makes Dark Souls/Bloodborne/Elden Ring this great? In my opinion, it's not only the combat and the tough but fair bosses. For me, what makes these Fromsoftware games great is the atmosphere and the world building. It's not Ornstein and Smough that made Dark Souls great, it's the fact that you, the average schmuck with a rusty sword, manages to crawl like the ultimate cockroach in a world filled with deadly zombies and mad powerful gods and somehow sit at the top. It's not Malenia that makes Elden Ring amazing, it's the fact that you get tasked by a random girl to beat some demigods into submission, you get a stupid horse and you're told to fuck off wherever you feel like. It's this whole stew of beautiful but oppressive setting + unique way of telling a story + tough but fair encounters where there's multiple solutions to one problem, that make the games be as loved.

 

And that's exactly where Lies of P succeeds - starting with our main protagonist Pinocchio...or let's call him P for now.

The winner of  "become a real boy!" program

 

For those few that don't know, Pinocchio is a story about a wooden puppet that struggles to become a real boy. This game takes that plot and twists it in a Bloodbornesque way. In the great city of Krat, people figured out how to make animated dolls, basically automatons, with a special substance called Ergo. With this, Krat became an industrial superpower, where all the labor was done by the puppets while people were thriving. However, in one day, every puppet in the city went rogue and starting hacking away their masters, turning the city into an utter nightmare.

You are the last puppet, unaffected by the puppet frenzy. A mysterious girl Sophia wakes you up and urges you to find Gepetto, the original puppet maker, and discover what caused the puppets to go crazy in the first place. Obviously, the puppets won't recognize you as one of their own, so you'd better deal with the whole madness while you're at it.

 

Do ye have a permit for this area, boy?

 

The first sign that the devs understood what they have to do is seen from the first time you leave the train where you were sleeping and enter in the actual city: Krat is an absolute marvel of a destroyed city, similar to Yharnam from Bloodborne (abit TOO similar - more on that later). The Victorian setting works wonders for a puppet frenzy, giving an extra layer of creepiness to each of these deranged automatons. You can see the horrors everywhere you go and you truly feel that yeah...shit's pretty bad!

 

Luckily, P is a puppet that had the latest "combat pack" model installed into him, so he is very proficient at fighting. The combat in this game is a mix between Bloodborne and Sekiro, where you have a large array of weapons, from small but quick daggers to slow heavy hitting wrenches that can stagger a puppet in one hit. You can block with these weapons, but it's a technique that won't last you long, since blocking makes you lose a portion of "regenerative" health, this health being recovered by attacking back (the rallying system from Bloodborne). However, if you time your blocking right before the attack strikes you, you can parry attacks Sekiro style. Parrying is way more useful than simply blocking, because not only does it stagger the enemy, but you also have a chance of breaking the enemy's weapon. Bosses included!

 

The combat has truly been treated with great care, P is very fluid with his attacks, which is required because...oh boy are the enemies tricky in this game. If you're not on your guard, they'll rip you to shreds instantly. Given all the variety of weapons, you have multiple ways of approaching combat, each tailored for every type of player. I can't believe how much fun I had with a self-imposed BONK build, where I simply pumped points into health, carry weight and strength and proceeded to sweep the streets with a huge swordspear, Nameless King style. For those more focused on sneaking, they have a wide array of daggers, rapiers, katanas and such. Sadly there's no magic in this game but those who want to go "elemental" they can focus on electric sticks, fire daggers, aciding hammers or even various throwables that are really potent now. And finally, for those who feel abit more "exotic". P comes equipped with a legion arm, a robotic mechanism that allows you to do various unique attacks from stringing puppets with a hard steel wire, shooting flames, shooting a gun or even creating an actual shield to protect you Dark Souls style.

 

The most unique mechanic that no other Souls or Soulslike game has is the ability to mix any blade with any hilt from the weapons you own. Say you have a circular saw with a long handle. You can detach that handle and put the saw on a short hammer's handle. It will transform your weapon from a long but slow buzzsaw to a short quick minisaw that will make quick work of anything is near you. Or you can put a stupid electric coil on a police baton and go spread justice throughout the city. Or hell, get that nice fire dagger, strap it on a spear stick and poke fire from afar. This mechanic is endlessly fun, there's so many silly ways to experiment with weapons in this game, I couldn't even cover them all in my 2 playthroughs.

And of course, let's not forget about boss weapons. Each boss that you fight drops their Ergo and you can convert that Ergo into the classic boss weapons. Hint - they're equally demanding and powerful. Every boss weapon is an absolute powerhouse with their unique abilities, so you definitely want to get your hands on them.

 

There's a lot of options there and all of them work equally well. Truly, there's no wrong way of fighting in this game.

The "Get over here" moment from the trailer. Yep that's definitely a viable tactic

 

The combat is great, but that's not why I love the game. The reason this game is so great for me is because of the story, its characters and the ability to lie.

P is not like the other puppets. P is a character that has its own agency, its own free will and can do whatever he desires. Which means, unlike the other puppets, P can also lie when needed, which is an unique mechanic that is the focus of the game. Normally in the story Pinocchio's nose grows whenever he lies, but isn't lying an ability unique to humans? And isn't Pinocchio's aim to become more human?

 

This is the part that made me fall in love with the game. P can lie his way through and interact with the other characters in a way no others can. He is unique in this bleak world, he's trapped between being a puppet and being human-like. It's only with your decisions throughout the game that you decide whether to "be a good boy" or follow your own convictions. 

Every other character is amazing in its own rights. Sophia, your "Maiden in Black" that levels you up is also a mysterious girl that slowly reveals her past the more you advance throughout the story (and she easily beats every firekeeper in the Souls games, hot take I know). Venigni the brilliant inventor that promoted the city of Krat looks like a pompous buffoon but is also a great man with a great heart that is always eager to help. Lady Antonia and her puppet butler Polendina offer you insight about the Krat Hotel, your base of operations and the only safe haven in the devastated city. You even find the mischievous Fox and her brother Cat, always up to no good and with a hidden backstory. And of course...Geppetto. You'll love Geppetto. Who doesn't love Geppetto? 

 

Of course, I won't get into spoiler territory, but the more you advance throughout the story the more disturbing things get, to the point where a mere puppet frenzy is preferable to the true horrors that the city hide. And again, the more you advance the more disturbing everything gets. Play and you shall see

Truly the fairest blue fairy

 

I really struggle to say anything bad about this game really. If there's only one downside...it's the fact that they copied Bloodborne a bit too much. I know it's expected from a new company and let's be honest, they copied one of the best games ever made, but the game truly gets his own identity after you're 50% in. The first half of the game will feel a bit "Bloodborne 2.0". 

Also there's a severe lack of optional areas to explore, although I can't complain too much. Lies of P is a linear game but in the context of the story it makes sense. You only have one optional area that is unlocked via a semi-obscure sidequest, but it's nothing too big.

 

Honestly, I'll stop the review here, because I start to get into the "this game is great because it's great and that's what makes it great" mood. Simply put, Lies of P is the best parts of Bloodborne and Sekiro, and if you loved those games then this game is a no-brainer. If you played the abysmal demo, ignore all that, the devs patched, tweaked, cleaned and oiled every single gear, to the point where I was still not believing that the game is THAT GOOD. The game did not lie to me one bit, it's pure quality through and through. Even the endings managed to impress me, the bad ending was especially bad and got me into "they simply can't do that man, it's not fair..."  which I quickly fixed by going after the best ending. The game has 3 endings, all depending on how good of a liar you are, so be careful what you pick 😆

 

As for me...this is not just a great game. This is a game that makes me glad that I play videogames. This gets the highest awards out there from my side. I rarely find a game that can keep me this invested from start to finish. I'll take a short break, finish a couple more games and then fire up the PS4 version. I played through this game twice, NG+ brings so much new stuff (NieR players will LOVE the second playthrough) so yeah, I am pretty sure of my ranking. This game is pure quality.

 

Well done devs! Still can't believe it. Glad I bought this game physical, it deserves no less.

 

THE GOOD:

• The game's atmosphere and the city of Krat tells me that the developers understood the Souls formula
• The combat is top notch
• A story that rivals the source material
• A huge amount of solutions to the problems the game throws at you
• I could find no major issue with the game from start to finish
• NG+ and NG++ adds new content for their respective playthroughs
• The Krat Hotel is by far the best hub in Souls games
• You can change the hotel's music via gramophone by collecting various records
• Sophia
• There's no truly bad boss in this game
• The epilogue donkey kicks you out of nowhere
• The lying mechanic is actually implemented smart in this game and offers you different rewards depending on your choices
• The fact that you can mix weapon handles and blades creates endless amount of fun and mayhem

THE "NITPICK" because I have to write something here:

• It copied abit too much from Bloodborne in the first half of the game
• the game slightly favors Motivity builds
• maybe an extra optional area? 

 

Recommendation - Bloodborne  The main source of inspiration and the OG that won't leave PS4 and 30 FPS 😂 Bloodborne is the textbook definition of masterpiece

 

 

 

I told you I'd be back!

 

I love this review and it seems you suitably gushed over it as I'm sure I will when I do my post. It's so great to finally have a competent souls-like though right?

 

However, you said this:

Quote

The combat is great, but that's not why I love the game. The reason this game is so great for me is because of the story, its characters and the ability to lie.

For me, the combat is the main reason I love this game, particularly the boss combat. The story and characters were just dressing for me. The slight additions they brought in from From's combat systems really changes the game and marrying sekiro and bloodborne is a stroke of genius in my opinion. Deflecting attacks is just so damn satisfying.

 

Looking forward to the DLC and hopeful sequel?

 

[Copanele]

1 minute ago, jonesey46 said:

 

I told you I'd be back!

 

I love this review and it seems you suitably gushed over it as I'm sure I will when I do my post. It's so great to finally have a competent souls-like though right?

Hah, I've been waiting for this!

1 minute ago, jonesey46 said:

However, you said this:

For me, the combat is the main reason I love this game, particularly the boss combat. The story and characters were just dressing for me. The slight additions they brought in from From's combat systems really changes the game and marrying sekiro and bloodborne is a stroke of genius in my opinion. Deflecting attacks is just so damn satisfying.

 

Looking forward to the DLC and hopeful sequel?

 

Ah I can explain very well why the story and characters did it for me. I played several Souls-likes and despite them having a good combat (The Surge, Nioh), none of them touched that "something"that made Souls magical to me, like the atmosphere or world building. Lies of P managed to absolutely nail it and that's why I held that aspect in high regards.

 

Of course, I am not disregarding the combat, heavens forbid! This game has a better combat than all the souls games brought together, I couldn't have enough of it 😂 as you said, Sekiro x Bloodborne = love was indeed a match made in heavens. Stroke of genius was combining weapons with handles.

 

Yeah let's be honest, this game is fantastic 😂

[Yuber6969]

Congrats! I love a good beatemup. I would have picked this for my UR V if I hadn't already finished Virtua Fighter 5. Despite the grind, this one sounds like a better choice.

[Copanele]

9 minutes ago, Yuber6969 said:

Congrats! I love a good beatemup. I would have picked this for my UR V if I hadn't already finished Virtua Fighter 5. Despite the grind, this one sounds like a better choice.

Yeah I remember we discussed about Virtua Fighter 5  the grind and the fact I am not that excited about that particular game, really makes Viking Squad more fun.

Besides, you can play it online with friends!