I've been dicking around with arcade stuff pretty much exclusively since I finished The Witcher III, so I decided it was time to get into something with a little more length:
Monster Hunter: Freedom Unite (iOS) - I put about three hours into this one to try again to actually get into the series. I did all 18(!) of the training quests and found a few weapons that I like. I stock up and head out on the first "real" quest only to be reminded how God damned clunky this series is (was?). They do a good job hiding it when everything is piecemeal during the training, but as soon as I'm cycling through way too much garbage in my inventory while being eaten by a velociraptor in the snow, the immersion falls apart. I have to manage the cold buy carrying yet another item along, but a fucking lizard is just fine running around in it? If I'm going to be frustrated anyway, I might as well start...
Dark Souls (PC) - I received a message the other day asking when the best of the generation thread was coming. This is all that stand in my way. I'm fairly confident this is the only game from the last generation that I haven't finished that could make my list, so I need to knock it out. Thanks to the terrible port followed by the GFWL to Steamworks conversion, I got to start out by uninstalling the game, reinstalling the "beta" version, downloading the newest version of DSFix, and editing an .ini file. Thankfully it all worked as advertised. I reached the first camp fire, saved, and turned it off for now. I'll dive in in the morning. Walking through the dungeon and fighting three zombie-like beings that didn't fight back is still better than Monster Hunter.
Though this intellectually sounds like a terrible idea, I might start Devil Survivor as my sitting on the bed game alongside Dark Souls. What could possibly go wrong with my real life responsibilities and/or my blood pressure while playing a Souls game and a SMT game concurrently?
When it comes to monhun you are almost certainly doing it wrong. There's no need to clutter your inventory with whatever you had. You also shouldn't really need any items to fight them aside from maybe a sharpening stone. I hope you're not gunning! The first real fight that matters will be against something like a Yian Kut Ku.
The controls are very deliberate with no tracking whatsoever and the camera just sucks, though.
2 bishy 4 snakes
Freedom Unite = Gen 2.
Gen 2 = jank.
If you want to try to get into Monster Hunter, download the MH4U or MH3U demo. You'll still need to acclimate to fairly unintuitive controls. Let me see if I can dig up a post I made explaining them...
Beat Shadowrun Hong Kong. Liked the characters better in this one. They took the effort to make your fellow townsfolk types far more interesting. Missions were more varied. The extra combat options with each subsequent release is nice. Didn't care for the story as much as Dragonfall's though. Probably best they're moving on to Mechwarrior with their upcoming KS. I'd like to see Shadowrun in a new engine next time.Coming to grips with the controls is always challenge number 1 for new players. Each button may do different things depending on whether your press it or hold it. Or if your weapon it sheathed or drawn. Or if you press a direction at the same time. Gathering/preparation tutorial is challenge 2 and weapon specific combat controls/proficiency is challenge 3. These all have to be learned one after another, which forms a high wall to deter a lot of people.
Controls
L button: (tap) recenter camera to the direction you're facing (or towards the monster if you've pressed the monster look button)
(hold) then tap Y or A buttons to cycle through usable items in your inventory
R button: (hold - weapon sheathed) To sprint. Consumes stamina. Press B while sprinting near a large monster to evade dive. Diving has many invincible frames but a lengthy recovery.
(weapon drawn) Weapon action button. There are many weapon commands that involve holding the R button and pressing X and/or A at the same time.
Y button: (weapon sheathed) Use selected item.
(weapon drawn) Sheath weapon.
X button: (weapon sheathed) Draw weapon. Draw into an attack by hitting a direction along with X.
(weapon drawn) Weapon action button.
B button: (weapon sheathed) Crouch. This is used to gather/carve faster, to sneak up on sleeping monsters, etc. Press a direction and B to evade roll.
(weapon drawn) Weapon specific evasion button
A button: (weapon sheathed) Interact button. Use to gather, climb walls, etc.
(weapon drawn) Weapon action button.
Remember that you can hit the home button to access the manual for these controls and other information.
Also, I'd recommend picking one weapon type and learning it in the beginning. If you bounce from one to another it'll be difficult to learn basic combat flow, let alone each weapon in question. I generally recommend picking switch axe and staying in axe mode if you're brand spanking new.
As far as user interface goes, the health and stamina bars are pretty self explanatory. Just be sure not to go into red stamina while running or you'll slow down. Sharpness is the blade icon in the upper left corner. For the purposes of the demo, you'll generally want to use a whetstone to re-sharpen if you fall below green into yellow. Of course, when you first start the full game, your weapons won't even have green sharpness at all! Maintaining a high sharpness is important since it is what determines whether you can cut through a monster's specific parts or if you bounce off.
Downloaded the Disgaea 5 demo. Last Disgaea game I played was 2, and I quite partway, since it felt to samey and I wasn't digging the characters as much as Laharl/Etna/Flonne. So jumping back in after all this time was kinda nostalgic. The special class traits, called "evilties" made the classes more interesting. Wish they'd have added some new weapon types in the 10 years or whatever since Disgaea 2. Characters seem kind of lame, though.
Last edited by alan_fatima; 07 Sep 2015 at 12:14 PM.
Those controls are extremely similar to the iOS version of Freedom Unite. I wonder if they updated it once it left PSP. The only difference I noticed is that it's X and B to cycle through the inventory while holding L1 instead of A and Y. Why in the hell is it not the D-pad while not holding anything?
2 bishy 4 snakes
That would certainly be a handy option, since I never use the d-pad for camera control.
This Mishima kills fascists
You can pin items to the touch screen in 4U, Yosh. It's awesome.
I was cleaning up my XBONE drive and I thought, "Maybe I should give Chariot a go"
This game is oddly fun.
can't wake up
Sunset Overdrive - not sure about this. It looks great and the game is genuinely fun to play, but it's also a bit exhausting. You stand still for a second and get swarmed. The control is amazing but the way you have to always always always keep moving it can get tiring. And with all the crap I need to collect and all the upgrades I feel like I'm playing a late N64 Rare game. At least it's not crap like Resistance.
Raiden IV: OverKill (PC) - Playing on Arcade & OverKill modes. Forget the Type X version when this can be cranked to 1920 x 1080. While arcade mode is best IMO, OverKill mode is good for a change at times (some larger enemies don't immediately explode when killed, allowing you time to "free beat" them for medals) and has some nice alternate BGM such as Megaten's remix of Raiden III's Lightning Strikes.
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