Finally finished Trails SC. Hell of a JRPG, that. Good lord was it ever long, though. And apparently I missed a sidequest or three, to boot.
Don't really know what else to say, honestly. If you like JRPGs you'll probably like these games, and they're certainly solid value. Hopefully the quality stays consistent. I would say the one thing that stands out is that everything story-wise actually made sense. As long as that continues I'll keep playing them.
It was quite damn good eh!?
Azure has a hidden quest where if you miss it, the plot twist can come a bit out of left-field. So keep that in mind when you get to it.
Quote:
Originally Posted by CorsiHockeyLeague
Trails 3rd is super weird. That is all.
best of the trilogy IMO, despite the dungeon-crawly nature.
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Last edited by GranteedEV; 09-23-2020 at 01:58 PM.
I think I'm most of the way through it (I'm on the Erbe scenic route part) and it's felt like a clip show in video game form. I mean, sure, more of the same combat wise, and I'm always up for some more backstory about various characters, but it doesn't feel like a well developed narrative at all.
As I say it seems to me I'm most of the way through it and I don't really have much of a clue what's going on, and I'm confident that I'm not supposed to. I don't know why I am in the setting, I don't know who the bad guy and his right-hand man are or what they want or why all the main characters are involved in it (and I don't think I'm supposed to), the main tension between the two protagonists is still simmering, and yeah, it is quite straightforwardly a series of dungeon crawls.
Spoiler!
Like I say, "clip show" - as if these side stories, as the game unapologetically refers to them, are things from the cutting room floor of the previous two games. I was sort of expecting this "other world" setting to be a temporary thing where we'd be back in the "real world" pretty quickly, but as it became more and more obvious that the whole game (or more or less the whole game, I guess we'll see how the ending goes) is going to take place in it, I was honestly a bit disappointed.
The previous two games had a lot going on at various levels above what our protagonists were up to. In FC, you're going around the country meeting people and trying to effectively graduate from your apprentice status, but then you end up getting cuaght up in a series of small-scale local mysteries. Meanwhile, there's a whole level of political intrigue going on within the country culminating in a coup d'etat, at the same time as there is international political implications, which of course has nothing to do with the real plan by Ourobouros that is lurking beneath it all. There are layers. Same with the second game - the Ourobouros plot becomes front and center, but there's still the question about what's going on with Erebonia lurking behing everything, as well as the internal political fallout in Liberl as a result of the events of the first game.
There's really none of that here. There's a bad guy who has captured everyone for mysterious reasons and we're fighting our way through his weird SAW-like "game boards" to get to him, at which point we'll presumably find out who he is, why he's doing this and what it has to do with our heroes.
It's just a lot more simplistic, when the human complexity (not just manufactured JRPG plot complexity) and nuance of the world that forms the backdrop of the adventures in the first two games was a big part of why they were good. Maybe I'll change my mind by the end but so far it's my least favourite of the three (although to be honest I pretty much see FC and SC as one game).
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Last edited by CorsiHockeyLeague; 09-23-2020 at 02:39 PM.
Finally did this as well. Funny though I was not expecting it whatsoever given the first half of my run was pretty bad. Was using the bow simply because it had the extra darkness buff and things weren't going well, but then I got an upgrade which doubled the number of shots of the special, boon that doubled the damage it did and chilled enemies, and 2 extra dashes. Then I started mowing down everything and Hades himself was pretty easy to deal with. I think I'll name that build Spamalot
Lol doubled number of shots with the bow special? Yeah that'd be pretty fun.
Had the same happen last night with a shield run, was just going to try and get some more resources and ended up making it all the way to the end, but died in Styx. I got a chill on the special and a huge boost on the bull rush. Even the end of Elysium seemed pretty easy.
__________________ Uncertainty is an uncomfortable position.
But certainty is an absurd one.
Been playing THPS 1+2. Damn fun game. Reminds me of chilling in my buddy's bedroom while playing his PS1 on his tube tv and playing those games for hours on end. Even the soundtrack brings back great memories. Takes a round or 2 to get used to the controls again. But once it comes back, prepare to be addicted all over again.
Also been playing Deus Ex: Mankind Divided. Picked it up for $5 on an Xbox sale recently. Interesting game but hard as F, even on easy mode. I get the game is supposed to be a stealth RPG, so sneaking around is key and more ''realistic''. But IMO a games loses it's realism when you have to manually save a checkpoint in every room and reload it if you die. The shooting and weapon swapping also blows. For $5 I shouldn't complain too much as it's still an interesting game. But the game was hyped quite a bit when it was released however I'd give it a 6.5 at the most.
Saw that Doom Eternal is supposed to come out on gamepass soon. Glad I held off buying it and can't wait to get my hands on it!
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Also been playing Deus Ex: Mankind Divided. Picked it up for $5 on an Xbox sale recently. Interesting game but hard as F, even on easy mode. I get the game is supposed to be a stealth RPG, so sneaking around is key and more ''realistic''. But IMO a games loses it's realism when you have to manually save a checkpoint in every room and reload it if you die. The shooting and weapon swapping also blows. For $5 I shouldn't complain too much as it's still an interesting game. But the game was hyped quite a bit when it was released however I'd give it a 6.5 at the most.
I f--king love Deus Ex: Mankind Divided because there are so many ways to play it; run and gun, Metal Gear Solid sneaking style, or a mix of both. Though I'd recommend playing through Deus Ex: Human Revolution first to get a feel for the story.
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For the soccer gaming fans, Konami did something kind of cool this year with PES. They made PES 2020 last year but are just doing a "season update" for 2021, where they only charge $35 for the update. They're doing this so their developers can use the extra year to build on the previous game instead of just churning out what essentially amounts to a roster update for $80 like EA does with FIFA and Madden every year.
For the soccer gaming fans, Konami did something kind of cool this year with PES. They made PES 2020 last year but are just doing a "season update" for 2021, where they only charge $35 for the update. They're doing this so their developers can use the extra year to build on the previous game instead of just churning out what essentially amounts to a roster update for $80 like EA does with FIFA and Madden every year.
Honestly this is what most sports titles should be doing.
Move to two year development cycles to make more substantial improvements.
But charge for a "Roster/Jersey/Schedule Update" DL C pack in the off year.
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Honestly this is what most sports titles should be doing.
Move to two year development cycles to make more substantial improvements.
But charge for a "Roster/Jersey/Schedule Update" DL C pack in the off year.
Yep, exactly. EA of course won't because their lemmings will go out and drop $80 a year for new Ultimate Team packs, but that's why I'm giving Konami my money from now on and not buying anymore EA sports titles. Worst thing would be if PES can't turn a profit and we end up with an EA monopoly over soccer like we have with football.
EDIT: I also think I like PES better than FIFA. This is my first year playing it, and I'm still getting used to the controls but I think the overall gameplay is better.
Yep, exactly. EA of course won't because their lemmings will go out and drop $80 a year for new Ultimate Team packs, but that's why I'm giving Konami my money from now on and not buying anymore EA sports titles. Worst thing would be if PES can't turn a profit and we end up with an EA monopoly over soccer like we have with football.
EDIT: I also think I like PES better than FIFA. This is my first year playing it, and I'm still getting used to the controls but I think the overall gameplay is better.
Makes me sad Konami never brought PES to the Switch.
Thought they would for sure with them being a Japanese developer and all.
Lol doubled number of shots with the bow special? Yeah that'd be pretty fun.
Had the same happen last night with a shield run, was just going to try and get some more resources and ended up making it all the way to the end, but died in Styx. I got a chill on the special and a huge boost on the bull rush. Even the end of Elysium seemed pretty easy.
I got to Styx for the first time yesterday with the bow. My boon strategy ended up being pretty fun, I was causing Weak with my main attack, and Doom with my special, then I got a Duo boon that would cause Doom to repeatedly hit enemies affected by Weak. Then I buffed that up so I would with my main attack and special, then just run away while they got repeatedly hit with 150 damage. Good for that ###### Theseus too. Unfortunately it just didn't have the stopping power to be effective in Styx's tiny rooms (wasn't expecting that).
Theseus is annoying but once you realize his attack patterns he's much easier to deal with. I strongly recommend using the pillars to block his spear attacks and then focus down Asterius. If you have a call ability try to save it for Theseus' second phase because you can burst him down real quick.
Also, I am not sure it's ever explained but if you're using the shield you can block damage by charging up bull rush and pointing it towards the attack. You can hold this indefinitely.
Styx can be a real pain if you don't have the right boons or upgrades. I tend to like some kind of area of effect ability to deal with all the tiny rats. Satyrs are just #######s though.
I had Artemis's call ability which shoots an arrow that has a chance to crit... and if you have a full meter it shoots 10. I updated it a few times, and it was enough to one shot both Asterius and then Theseus.
Had a good run with the bow going but yeah Styx's small rooms stopped me, feels like builds that work well in most encounters often really get stalled out there.
__________________ Uncertainty is an uncomfortable position.
But certainty is an absurd one.
I think you're in for a rude awakening. If Microsoft's goal is to get Gamepass subscribers then the easiest way to do that is to lure people over to the Xbox with exclusives. Best to expect that all future Bethesda games will be Xbox and PC exclusive.
I will bet you anything this will not happen. PS and Nintendo fanboys who can only afford one console are not going to change to Xbox for one companies games. Microsoft would lose hundreds of millions of dollars by making something like Elder Scrolls 6 an Xbox exclusive. I can totally see an early release availability exclusive to Xbox but there is no way in hell they don't release it on other platforms.
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