In interesting news, a few weeks ago EA noted that they would be removing all “power” related items from their lockboxes and going for 100% cosmetics instead.  I don’t quite get how that matters now, or in relation to their abysmal PR team, but it certainly have weight in the overall industry.

Monolith recently announced a step further recently, where all loot boxes are going away.  For reasons.  Reasons that sound good (removes the experience) but also makes you wonder at the fundamentals behind the decision.

For those unawares, SoM has two modes.  The story mode that has you follow an absurd lore-breaking story to a large (and stupid) climax.  The combat power-curve is gradual, and just normal un-focused gameplay is enough to get you through.  Once complete, the “non-stop siege mode”, or more like “perpetual fortress grind mode” is what’s left.  You need to build up your realm with (epic) orcs who have a diverse skill set.  Ad-infinitum.  Acquiring these orcs is either through gameplay or through loot boxes.  They were certainly not required to keep moving forward in the rankings, but they did save a lot of time.

And truthfully, by skipping the “grind” you did lose out on the experience of developing your own tactics.  Understanding how to infiltrate an enemy base without getting squashed by god-like orcs is 99% of the fun of SoM.  Turning on invincible mode defeats that purpose.

Looking Back

I will recall Diablo3 and the real-money auction house (RMAH) debacle that Jay Wilson brought about.  At no point did reason, human psychology, or actual metrics even come into play.  It was launched, made a crap ton of money (I made money on this too), and then managed to burn out the core player base until Jay was shown the door.  Blizzard has tried (and succeeded) at finding the most efficient ways to have games part with their money, but this was a mis-step that thankfully was rectified.

Forward

MMOs and eastern-games aside, this does bode well for the trend against boxes.  It doesn’t solve the financial issues that developers face on a regular basis, and it’s got to be hard to give up the money-cow these suckers provide.  Finding alternative ways to get people to give up their money, without having the government pass laws to prevent you, should be the next frontier.  Should be quite interesting to see how EA manages to find the next big idea to exploit, and get bad press.  Or maybe that’s the cynic in me.

I really enjoyed the first one.  It was a nice mix of Pokemon, Ghibli storytelling, and JRPG mechanics.  One of the best RPGs in the past 5 years.  The only real issue here was the tediousness of pet management at the tail end.  I figured NNK2 would be an easy pickup.

While it does scratch that itch, there are some odd parts within.  I’m at Chapter 5 – less than half way I think.

Setting

The art/sound are the similar to before, which is great.  I love Ghibli films, so this is a good itch.  The world-setting is the same as well, though set a few years in the future.  Which is good since there are familiar pieces, but also less good since the themes of the first one seem lost here.  That, and the map is different, which is odd.

The first game dealt with tragic loss, and how the characters dealt with their grief.  Start to end, I enjoyed the story.  This one deals with a deposed (young) king who’s blind ambition for a “world at peace” seems to know no limits.  It’s a noble goal, granted, but the way it’s played out lacks the maturity of the first game.

Mechanics

Pretty much everything changed here, like the Final Fantasy game iterations I suppose.  Combat is real-time, with 1 main character and 2 helpers (that you can swap to). There’s magic (with very finite mana), health points, combos, movement… it’s smooth and easy.  There are Higgles (think forest spirits from Mononoke) that provide passive buffs, and can actively be triggered for effects.  There’s next to no difficulty in any of the mandatory combat – 95% of it you can “face tank” without issue.  Some bosses require movement but nothing fancy.  There are optional bosses to take down, and some of them can be a challenge.

There’s the traditional item-management-mini-game of RPGs here too.  Stat buffs, bonuses, damage, etc… all quite trite.

There are skirmishes, a sort of rock-paper-scissors game where you roam a small map with a mini army, taking out opponents.  In principle it works, in practice the level discrepancies make it hard to focus on.  Most of the battles result in hit-and-run tactics as you’re often flanked and can do nothing about it.  Pretty much all optional.

Finally, there’s the kingdom building aspect.  Literally castle, buildings and finding citizens.   The buildings are staffed and provide numerous benefits (xp, loot, gear, spells, buffs).  It’s all gated by two things – Time and Gold (KG).  The KG part is ok, but the time one is pretty dumb.  Research takes 30-90 minutes, which is a timeframe that means you bookmark play sessions with kingdom activities.  KG comes in over time, enough to fill the limited coffer in 30 minutes.  It’s rarely enough to keep a decent float. I don’t mind time gated mechanics, but the caps are just too low.  Thankfully, 90% of it is optional.

You can farm/raise Higgles in the kingdom as well.  There are 100 to collect, with various benefits.  Extremely time consuming, but also optional.

Gameplay

I will say this, the overall gameplay is fun.  While the main story line is mandatory, the choices in what you do along that line are entirely optional.  Want to make equipment?  Go ahead.  Train Higgles? Sure.  Recruit Citizens?  Go for it.  Do side quests?  Why not.

None are mandatory, and none really have a dramatic impact on gameplay (so far).

It’s a good game, plenty of stuff to see and do.  It just seems overall less focused than the first one.  It got rid of the tedious aspects of the first game, but may have swung the pendulum a bit too far in the other way.

There are bosses and then the are bosses.  The final colossus is the size of a small town, and will make short work of you before you even reach his feet.  First, getting to him.

SotC uses a neat mechanism to find the colossus.  Hold up your sword (when there’s sunshine) and it will point in a general direction towards the boss.  This works for 1-14.  15 and 16 are in the same line as previous colossi, entirely possible to take the wrong turn.

Getting to 16 requires finding a door, shining light, and then taking Agro along the path.  *spoiler* Things don’t go very well and Agro falls into the water *spolier*.  This was my first time dying in the PS4 version, and I recall the finicky controls of yesterday causing many a death in earlier games.  Following that, you need to climb up a small cliff to finally reach the boss.

Let’s be honest for a moment.  This guy gives goosebumps.  He takes up the entire screen and he’s a mile away.  It’s still something to see how large he his, likely could fit all the other 15 colossi under his armor.

The fight is in 3 stages.

First stage is more about not getting killed by fireballs.  You need to stand behind protection, run and dodge-roll to cover.  The last part of this is the hardest, as he’s quite close and the things come in screeching for your head.

The second stage is the climb.  He’s a tower and it takes a few seconds to make your way to his midsection.  This part is pretty darn cool.  It’s in the middle of a storm, and the rain/cloud effects are something to behold.  Feels like the sky is crying.

The final stage is the bugger of them all, and is burned into my psyche from all those years ago.  It requires a lot of precision and patience.  First, a prick on his back to make his hand come behind.  Then you reverse jump onto the hand.  He’ll bring it up, allowing you to run up his arm and then stab his shoulder.  This causes his other arm to come towards you, and another reverse jump.  So far, pretty obvious if not somewhat challenging.

Now the tricky part.  You need to stab that hand in order to make him lay it flat, then use your bow to attack the opposite shoulder.  He’ll then cringe in pain, bring that hand over, and you need to jump to the shoulder on the way to the head.  This is the frustrating part, as for some reason jumping doesn’t always work here.  It could take 10 minutes to get to this part from the start, and you’d fail and fall to your death.  I didn’t die (thankfully) but it did take a dozen or so tries to get the jump to work.

After that, the soft spot is on the head and it’s game over.

Ending

The game flows directly into the ending after that final strike.  You learn who Dormin is, what the sacrifice cost and the future of the world around you.  It leads well into ICO (the horned-kids and all).  I won’t go into it much, but it’s one of the better game endings out there.  And it looks amazing.

Replay

There’s a new game+, which allows you to do it all over again and stack more HP/stamina for each playthrough (that gets ridiculous after a while).  There’s mirror mode where everything is swapped vertically (your character is left handed).  This is more of a hard mode.

Finally, time trials – normal and hard.  This puts you against the clock on each colossi.  Beat enough, unlock items.  These items can improve power, stamina, change the way fights work out, or add markers to the maps for extra mini-collection quests.  I’ll spend some time here I think.

Overall

The game went by quickly, more so because I remembered the answers to all the puzzles.  For anyone who has never played the game, it is an amazing ride and worth every penny.  For those that have, the PS4 remake looks amazing.  Right up there with Horizon and MHW, but it tends to evoke more emotional response due to the efforts in music/lighting.  It’s a near masterpiece in what gaming can offer.

My level of originality is not, ugh, good.  Yay!

Colossus 11

aka. Dumb Bull.

We reach the point in the game now where each colossus has a special gimmick to get the fight started.  #11 is a rather pain to get to, honestly.  I mean it looks great but he isn’t living on the corner road.

In this battle you need to climb a fire tower, and have him charge it, which will drop a fire stick.  Use that stick to force him over a cliff side and break his armor.  I made the mistake of jumping after him.  Bad call.  He gets up much faster than you and there’s nowhere to hide.  Back up to the fighting area again, repeat the fire tower work.  Cept this time, you can jump on his exposed back.

Colossus 12

One of my favorite fights in the game.  A giant fireshooting turtle with teeth on his head. Serious.

This one is not challenging, you simply climb his back, then hit the teeth to steer him towards a tower.  Jump on the tower, he lifts his paws, then jump on his belly.  The hard part is just getting from the starting point of the fight, to his back in order to start the climb.

Colossus 13

Back to back awesome fights!  Hands down the coolest fight in the entire game.  A giant flying snake that can also hide in the sand.

He has 3 main sections to the body, top and bottom.  When he’s in the air, you need to shoot the air sacks underneath to make him come down.  Then ride your horse next to his fins, jump on them, climb, wait til he turns, then go to town on 3 spots on his back.  If I recall, it was possible to do all 3 at once, but I was only able to manage 1 per try.

The effect of being in the air, so high and fast, is really quite impressive.  It does an amazing job of showcasing the game.  Amazing fight.

Colossus 14

The Domino boss.  It would be hard to keep up with #13, so #14 really does seem disappointing.

Fromt the start, you just climb from tower to tower, waiting for him to charge it twice and knock you to the next one.  The hard part is knowing where the startin point it (exactly where the fight starts).  It’s cool to see the set pieces tumble, but it feels overly long.

Colossus 15

This reminds me of the Ewok Adventure, seeing him climb up to face you.  Truly impressive scale.

I dislike puzzles that have an ultra specific solution, rather than a pattern.  This boss suffers from that sadly.  Clearly you need to move up along the walls, but how?  First floor isn’t too bad, he stomps and causes a platform to tilt. The next level though..that took me over 15 minutes.

He will swing his sword at you (slowly) but you need to be at a very specific spot to trigger the next part.  There are 8 alcoves that are possible and the effect only triggers in a specific portion of one of them.  That part done, move up to the top bridge and have him smash it down.  That exposes his head for ~90% of his HP.  Then the 2nd trick.

Drop to his shoulder, stab to make him drop the sword.  Then jump all the way to the ground, wait for him to smash you and jump into his palm.  That’s the last spot.

When you know exactly what to do, it does look really cool.  When you don’t, it’s incredibly frustrating as it is not at all obvious as to what you’re doing wrong.

Last Fight

This is a bugger of a battle. Next post will cover the fight against a colossus the size of a small town.

Didn’t have much time this run.  Late day at work, had to run some errands, fit in a workout. I did get the chance to watch a bit of Hans Zimmer Live (Netflix), which was really an experience.  STAY from Interstellar…still get some goosebumpbs from that one.  I still have parts left to watch.  And re-watch.

Colossus 9

In which the game decides to add complexity and beauty.

The road to this guy is a retread but the last little bit is in a sandstorm.  I recall this from the PS2 days and it feels different here.  Mostly to due with how the fog of war effect is much more noticeable here, since in most cases you can see the horizon.  PS2 had a much smaller draw distance.

The turtle-like boss can shoot fireballs at you, and they hit well enough.  You need to draw him over 1 of 2 gas plumes on the ground.  Then shoot 2 of his feet that are pushed in the air, run to his belly, then wait until he turns over and climb on his back.  It’s a neat effect to be on the side of the creature, then on the back.  The rest of it is rather simple.

Colossus 10

Woo does this fight look cool.  The ligh from above comes into the cave, and with all the flying dust, it gives a great visual effect.

My horse got caught on a ledge, so I walked in on my own.  I was trying to figure this out on my feet without any real luck.  Actually, with a fair amount of damage taken from the undersand strikes.  The game has an automated hint system that kicks in every minute or so, and this one mentioned that my feet were not enough.  *click*  Horse time.

Sure enough, leading the horse in front of this sand worm let me shoot his eye (not exaclty easy controls), who then proceeded to crash into a wall for an easy stun.  2 such events was enough to bring him down.

It’s near this point that you really start to notice how dirty/grey the hero has become.  It’s such a gradual effect that you don’t appreciate it at first.  He’s starting to blend in more with the sparse land and has lost the freshness.  I’m sure it’s entirely visual and not mehcanics, but he appears more weary.  Half expecting a limp to show up.

I’ve been including videos in these entries because the game looks and sounds so different from most anything else.  It’s a barebones mechanical system of combat (sword and bow) but because the production values are so high, that gameplay scarcity just amplifies everything else.  I still find myself stopping in the middle of a field, or a climb to just look around.

I have a fascination with puzzles.  Making order out of chaos.  Games are order, wrapped in chaos, that you need to filter through.  My goal is often to make games boring, but having a ton of fun getting there.

SotC is that exemplified.  Once you know the trick of taking down a colossus, the execution part is a matter of practice.  With the updated control set in the PS4 version it is much easier to have the character do what I want him to do, when I want him to do it.

Number 6

This is the first colossus where I think you can actually die.

You need to jump over some barriers then hide behind a small wall.  Eventually he’ll drop his head and you jump on his beard.  The art here is neat, since it seems to slow down time a bit during certain parts.  If you can make those first 3 walls, the rest is rather simple.

Number 7

An interesting eel-type monster, he moves extremely slowly but can hit you with some electric shocks.  There’s not much trick here, other than patience.  You need to wait until he swims up to you, avoid the shocks, grab the tail and then make your way to the head.  I can’t recall if it’s possible to make it in 1 go, and as long as you avoid the shocks, it’s pretty straigthforward.

Number 8

This one is a bit of an odd one.  More of a lizard that climbs the inside of a cylinder and will eventually shoot you with some gas bombs.  Avoiding those isn’t too hard.  The challenge here is hitting 2 of his 4 legs when he’s on a wall with your bow, then dropping to the bottom and attacking.

The challenge is only at the start though, since you’re 6 stories up and dropping all the way down in 1 go is a bad idea.  Once you are on the ground floor, getting back to the 1st floor is easy.

Halfway Done

The cutscene after the 8th is a bit longer, and the young lady appears to wake up during the dream sequence.  If I recall, the first 8 were also the “training wheels” portion of the game.  You learn the basic controls, the speed of the colossus, how to aim with a bow, how to use the environment to your advantage.  Rarely do you need to use more than 2 of those per fight.

I know the sand worm is coming up, and that was the most painful fight for me.  Well, #16 is like fighting a battleship with a toothpick… but that’s a different matter.  Looking forward to more!

Was away in Florida last week.  Sunny.  Spent it with the in-laws and we were able to rest up a bit.  Did a fanboat tour of the Everglades, that was pretty neat.  Guide did a super job. Went to a large Bass Pro Shop which was cool.  Horse track, restaurants, boardwalk… all the tourist stuff.  It’s interesting because it’s different, yet also familiar.  Makes me miss the cottage…and coming back to weather 50 degrees colder was a punch in the gut.

Shadowy Past

Ugh, sorry.

I played the original SotC on the PS2 on a small-ish TV. I must have put 40 hours into that game.  It was the focal point for the argument of “games as art”.

I picked up the PS3 version (with ICO) a while ago to play on a very large screen.  It didn’t click as well that time.

PS4 version recently came out, and more of a remake than a remaster.  Controls have been tweaked (great).  The graphics/art have been overhauled.  It feels like watching a movie.  Video comparison below.

(Quick side note.  I ordered the game at 9pm from Amazon and it was delivered to my door by about noon the next day.  How can anyone compete with that model?)

The thing that’s most impressive is the draw distance.  I can see the horizon instead of a fog of war.  The way the lighting filters through makes me stop and pause.  My wife made note that MHW was a prettier game, and on that I won’t disagree.  SotC is a muted game, where the lack of things is what makes it so impressive.  There is beauty in simplicity.

Down Goes the Giant

Playing from memory, the first 5 colossi went down without too much effort.  I do recall the original play through, where each one was a puzzle that needed cracking.  It’s always more fun the first time completing a puzzle, but the 2nd and 3rd (or more like 10th now) you get to appreciate some of the smaller details.

The 3rd one in particular was a head scratcher.  You need to get him to swing his giant sword on a specific spot on the ground.  You know exactly what to do, but getting a lumbing 20 story giant to follow along is a tough one.  The 4th is a similar event, knowing sort of what to do but having trouble getting it done.

My wife watched the 3rd and thought it was relatively simple.  She had some suggestions for the 4th, which was neat to see.  When I was finally able to climb aboard, she was as happy as I was.

Then the 5th.  This is a flying bird, gliding over water.  You need to get it’s attention, then figure out how to board it.  Memory worked, found the ledge and then the fun began.

The ones previous to this lacked the concept of movement.  They were slow moving.  This one provides a great sense of movement, size, and distance.  Hanging vertical, running to a tail in the wind… just feels amazing to go through.  Even falling for a good 5 seconds into the water is exillerating.

The Toll

As I was fighting the 5th, my wife noted “he’s not very agressive, like the monsters in that other game”.  Good observation, and one that helps articulate why this game is not like the others.

It’s a rare event that playing an older game gives the same feeling as in the past.  Knowing what’s coming is making all the details that much richer.  I am really enjoying my time here.

Monster Hunter World is based on the simple concept that you kill monsters, make gear from their loot, and kill harder monsters.  Rinse and repeat.  There’s, for the most part, a linear structure to the power curve.  Think Diablo; you get more powerful stats to get stronger.

I have currently “red completed” all the optional quests to 7*, which I consider having completed the proper game and entered “end game” – the tempered monster hunt.

Further, MHW is split into 3 tiers.  Low Rank, High Rank, and Tempered.  The first two follow the same power curve, the latter does not.

Low Rank is split into 3 sub-groups of monsters, in terms of general difficulty – Great Jagras as the low end, Odogaron at the high end.  That works, and there’s a somewhat clear path to progression.  It’s also fairly linear, meaning the change is gradual.

There’s a major milestone when High Rank is unlocked, since the needed power level is just a tad more than what Low Rank can provide.  You need to offset that power need with better gameplay performance.  Git gud.  High Rank has 4 sub-groups of monsters (elder dragons are the 4th), and once you are comfortable with the low end, moving to the high end isn’t too bad.  The gaps between the sub-groups are larger than low rank, so killing something like a Laviasoth is a challenge if you only have gear for a Pukei Pukei.

Still, it works and you can see progress.

Unlocking these enemies is also rather straightforward.  They all have a preferred habitat and you can generally find them within a minute or two.  This also unlocks investigations and optional quests to hunt them ad-infinitum.

Tempered enemies are different.  These are the same enemy types as in High Rank (3 subgroups), but they are at much higher power levels.  A tempered Bazelguese will kill you in a single hit if you’re not adequately prepared.  There is no power increment (HP/Attack/Defense) from gear to offset this change.  You need to start crafting potions.  You need to select specific gear sets, with specific skills.  You need to have a specific set of decorations (gems) for even more skills.

Potions are easy enough to farm up.  The pieces can literally be farmed from the Tree in Astera.  Gear isn’t too bad either, since all the drops are from High Rank enemies.  Some pieces are a bit more rare (Wyvern Gems) but it usually works out in a couple runs.  That leaves decorations, which are randomly dropped, and have 4 drop tables (A, B, C, D).  There’s a whole hidden table on this, and multiple YouTube guides to make the best of th situation.  The point is, that you need to either be a) lucky or b) gaming the system to come out ahead.  And there’s no path of progress… you simply loot the decoration or you don’t.  Even the Melder (to upgrade 3 gems to 3 other gems) is randomized.

Did I mention that these quests are not optional, and to find investigations you need to track down tempered tracks in the maps?  There are about 8 tracks per map for Tier 1 monsters, 4 per map for Tier 2, and 1 per map for Tier 3.  Getting an investigation is random, and the monster assigned for that investigation is also random. In fact, in order to get Tier 3 Tempered investigation missions, it’s best not to complete the HR49 mission for a Tempered Kirin, and simply follow it collecting tracks.

From Low Rank to High Rank, the path is both clear and somewhat linear.  From High Rank to Tempered, the path loses that clarity and is dependant not only on hidden systems, but RNG on top of other RNG.  After WoW-Legion, I have had nearly enough of that model.

My guess is not enough people have hit this milestone.  It honestly takes quite a few hours to get here, and even once there the problem isn’t exactly evident as you’re still working on gear sets.  I am also guessing that Capcom is going to modify this sytem in a future patch, to make it both more transparent to the player, but also to open up more challenging hunts that don’t require RNG to unlock.

Until then, I think I’m going to take a step back.