The Evil Within

Stumbled upon this run, pretty sick. No death, no keys, no upgrades Akumu run by 白色の恶魔, DLC items were used though.

Just reading back over this topic, and it's surprising how many stun states and responses these enemies have.

I actually sold both TEW games, seeing as I was never going to replay them, but that doesn't mean they aren't solid. Just trying to cut down my collection to stuff I'll play until my hands don't work anymore. I recommend them to anyone who loves horror.

Absolutely great series I agree, very curious to see if it still has a future.

Skimming through this topic, it makes me sad that this game didn’t jive well with most players. In my opinion this game has the best weapons in any shooting game, the match system is simple but fantastic, the enemies are aggressive and unpredictable, the difficulty is about as high as we’re going to get in a modern AAA game, and some of the arenas/scenarios are the best in the business.

I really was a game that grew on me more on more the more I played it. It is also still a game I would love to master more, though I'm unsure on what system to do that. I own all versions now for some reason, thinking of going for the X1X version. Though PC might be more stable?

I wish there was a solid 60fps version of this game, as the “technical” aspects of it are certainly its biggest flaw and the reason the game gets dismissed so easily. Not sure if even the PC version is steady.

There are mods that make it work quite stable on 60fps iirc, just requires some work to get it up and running. I'm playing DOOM3 currently and its expansions, once I finish that I might migrate to TEW1 on PC. I'm addicted to playing ESDF style now and using tons of hotkeys, should be fun.

Does anyone have this weird thing where when they have a “favorite” something, it becomes seemingly impossible for it to be dethroned? I think this is my favorite action game, or at least at the very top.

I'm very easily impressed initially until I start to sink deeper into something and notice all the flaws, only to revert back to my old standby. But yeah my favourites really put a lot to shame, and it annoys me. I really wish I could pick up any of the new games and enjoy them as much as most people do (or do they...?), but in all honesty I just can't.

The last time a new game really blew me away to my standard - i.e. Ninja Gaiden II and Vanquish - was when I started getting big into Astral Chain. Other than that, just old games man.

>impressed initially, notice the flaws, then revert to old standby
Same here, definitely happened to me several times this year with RE2 and Sekiro. Part of it for me is that anymore I just expect heavy mechanical flaws in games, thanks to homogeneous design and it seems like a lot of the old talent aren’t as involved.

>NG2
Funny you should mention this, I think it’s about time I finally dive in. I’m off a few days and don’t have anything I want to play besides EW so I’m going to get started.

>Astral Chain
Really need to play this but I want to wait for a price drop, though it sounds like a game actually worth full price.

I still cannot image you not having dived deep into NG2, though granted I was extremely late to the party as well. Pretty sure you'll get the same love-hate dance I had with it. Went a bit like this:

"Man this game looks good"
"Jesus some of these enemies are pretty agressive"
"Okay that's bullshit"
"God does Chapter 3 ever end"
"I freak'n love this chapter"
"This boss is a piece of shit"
"I love this game"
"Ah cool, I unlocked a higher setting"

Cue this scene: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aO7NILnmURU

Followed by coming to terms with my own suckage. Only to then be confronted by just how great this game is for taking me so seriously.

>impossible to dethrone
Yep. Okami and Chaos Legion for me.

>Astral Chain
I wont be buying a Switch anytime soon. Was just looking at how absurd the prices are for pretty much any accessory or game for it here. $140 for the controllers and the threat of drift? No thanks. And I need PS4 Pro because I'm still playing on a launch PS4 and it overheats like crazy now

>love-hate dance
I’m ready. I’m actually on chapter 3 right now but so far having barrels of fun. I do remember some later chapters pissing me off though.

>clip
Is that an actual reaction or is it satire? I hope I don’t get to that point haha.

>Okami and chaos legion
I’ve never really seen notes or anything in-depth regarding Okami, does it have a good amount of depth? Haven’t played it since release.

>switch controller threat of drift
It’s happened to both of my controllers which is insane because they cost more than any other controller.

>Okami
It has nothing hard to execute and combat is pretty basic. It has all the usual stuff you'd expect like cancelling recovery with jump and dodge but what makes it interesting is the brush techniques. One day I'll make a topic and go over them.

The world, music, atmosphere are all perfect to me. The feeling I get while playing it is magical and nothing else has come close except for maybe Wind Waker.

>atmosphere and feeling in Okami
Gotcha. As much of a “gameplay is all that matters” mentality that I have, this is still important to me in a game. This is another thing that I think has been lost in games due to homogeneous design and reluctance to take risks. Even Nintendo games don’t seem to capture this like in the past.

It still has the gameplay, just nothing difficult to pull off or DMC ultra combos type shit.

It's a weird combat system where you can pause the screen, draw a spell, then let unpause and it happens, in addition to your melee attacks. I'll just leave it there otherwise I'll start listing scenarios.

Damn it the more I mention it, the more I want to go back to it and make some notes.

I just learned that a shock+freeze bolt can kill mid tier enemies like Alter egos instantly. It’s also amazing that I never realized how useful melees were against masked enemies, since the melee attack usually turns them around allowing you to line up a headshot from the handgun.

>shock+freeze
That's news to me. So you just hit with one after the other?

In chapter 14 when you have to turn the valve in that area with the two alter egos and two traumas, I was trying to lay down a set of traps but accidentally put the shock and freeze bolts to close together, I looked back while I was turning the valve and both went off at the same time and when the shock effect ended the alter ego died. Pretty neat.

How does that work? The freeze goes off an then the shock deals damage? Where they both leveled?

Do those types of bolt, if used in isolation, kill those enemies in one shot normally at any level?

What difficulty is this?

Maybe there's a secret combination property like shock+water in TEW2.

The freeze went off first and the shock immediately after, when the shock wore off it was a kill. I’m assuming the shock counts as a “shatter” even though it doesn’t do any damage.

>do bolts kill in isolation
No, that’s only in the second game. These bolts don’t do direct damage in the first game even at MAX level.

>difficulty
Akumu.

>water+shock combination
That works in this as well, the AOE just isn’t as egregious as it is in 2(since that game made everything ridiculously OP).

Turns out a flash bolt shatters frozen enemies too. Extremely useful in the chapter 6 burning building.

Akumu No Upgrade No Lockers run complete. 330 deaths. 2/3 of that came from the last few chapters.

For ch.11. I burned my magnum ammo on the last few enemies at the shutter section and used spaced out flash bolts to get me through the gondola ride. Did a quiet ring out on the balcony enemy in ch.13 and lured everyone else into a tight doorway with shock bolts for a huge group match kill. Ch.15 was tough because I had very little resources, had to utilize the environment a lot(meleed enemies off the top ledge until they were all together for a group shotgun blast). Final boss was frantic since I had little magnum ammo and base explosive bolts, I actually left the dynamite in the arena and shot them when the keepers went by because it does a ton of stun, used that time to unload sniper rounds.

Fantastic run man, hats off. IIRC all enemies during the Gondola ride have 1 HP right? Or am I confusing it with the RE4 Gondola ride? Otherwise fantastic writeup and run. God I wish I had more time on my hands. This game is still one I want to dive deeper into.

Do you think a zero-death run with these paramaters are possible now that you've done sufficient experimentation?

>enemies during gondola ride have 1HP

That is indeed the RE4 ride. In EW, half of the enemies have normal health, and the others are reduced by around a third IIRC(I think it’s 140HP and 88HP, respectively).

>wish I had more time on my hands

Agreed, so many games I want to get into but it’s so hard to find the chance.

>zero death run possible with these parameters

Yep, it would certainly take a lot of practice and conservation of certain things like trap parts but I think it’s possible. I know a lot of people say the game is cheap but really everything has pretty obvious tells and you have a ton of ways to just decimate enemies. Chapter 6 and 11 are the biggest hurdles but knowing spawn points helps immensely. A lot of sections I struggled with in the past I actually beat my first try this run(ch.5 “they’ve got dynamite”, Ch.7 and 13 keeper fights) so I could see it happening. In an alternate universe where I had more time I would really start practicing for this haha.

I want to start making videos about games. The lack of a proper analysis of this and other greats in the genre makes me want to use my notes and go nuts. There are so many videos/posts/reviews that completely fail to understand some games and it’s frustrating(I’m sure Roy knows what I’m talking about with NG2, heh). It’s a lot of work but I think it would be something fun to do in my spare time.

I'd watch those videos.

@Infinity_Divide I'd watch your videos too. GoW1-3 are some of the most underrated games by action fans, this saga could be another object of your analysis.

Thanks guys. Yeah GoW is in desperate need of attention, every YTer who covers action games speaks rather poorly of it when they clearly have minimal experience with the series and don’t even understand the importance of collisions. If Cvit’s video on NG wasn’t already bad enough, he threw in several jabs at GoW. Just...stop. All of these cuhrayzee fans just need to stop speaking about these games if they’re not going to take the time to understand them.

I would still love to turn some of my articles into videos, but I just can't make the time for it. I did it once with NG1 and it broke me haha. If you ever want to do this, you have all my support and if you need any help with script checking or whatnot, let me know, I'll gladly lend a hand wherever possible man!

Thanks man, I appreciate it! My writing skills aren’t the best so that would definitely be a huge help.

>did it once with NG1
You did? Where have I been, haha.

Enjoy a one hour lecture brother: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YLdAmxjWgRE

But seriously, I am not nearly as well versed in TEW as you. If you want we could make something together or what not, or I can chime in anyway you need. Just let me know.

Nice, will watch/listen when I get off work tonight. And will do, thanks for the offer man. I have a small list of games right now and I’m going to keep it that way for a while because I want to make sure it’s only games I understand very well. I noticed a lot of big analysis’ barely even touch on how a game actually plays or its basic concepts, it’s generally straight to vague compliments or complaints.

Started a rough script from all my notes. Covered the match system to just get all my thoughts out on one system, when I timed myself going over the details it came out to over seven minutes. Either this is going to be one long ass video if I go through with it all or I’ll need to trim it down. I want to be as in-depth as possible though.

I'd say keep it long. The more detail, the better

Yeah I’ll probably do that. Want to just get as much info out there as possible.

Great news! I'd say keep it long too, but there's nothing wrong with a rewrite every now and again. My scripts usually start at 15 pages and end up at 10-11. Mostly because I tend to either overexplain or explain things double etc. Very curious to see your result man!

Thanks man! How long does it typically take you to write out the whole thing? And is the editing process as annoying as I’m imagining it?

Hard to put a timer on, some articles are finished really fast, some take months of note collections, building structure etc. That said I only work on them few hours a week.

Editing is pretty fun for me. The structure is there, now you can toy around with sentences, see connections between paragraphs and make cool conclusions etc. The final grammer part I leave to my editor haha. Be mindful to read your script aloud a few times since you'll be speaking it, helps filter out the weird sentences.

Good luck!

Gotcha, thanks for the info.

Now I have to play through the game and capture a bunch of footage...which I’m not entirely sure how to do.

Elgato is the cheapest option. The other is doing a stream I'd say. Just stream your playthrough, and download the stream from your channel. If you're on PC you can use a plethora of options to record.

Personally always use After Effects to edit, but Premiere is better imo.

Stupid question...does the card have to be hooked up to a PC for it to record? Or can I just plug it in and it’ll start capturing footage(I really have no idea how this works).

And yeah I was looking at Elgato, seems to have good reviews and doesn’t cost too much.

I bought an Elgato but my laptop can't run it.

Thank God for PS4 recording though. Getting tons of mileage out of it but still really want to record my older stuff.

Elgato requires a computer to be running yeah if you want to record, as the files are stored on there. Something like this might be more up your alley: https://www.amazon.com/AVerMedia-Portable-Recording-Definition-Streaming/dp/B00B2IZ3B0

Okay, thanks. I don’t work the next three days so I’m going to try to get this all situated. I wrote the next part of the script which was the crossbow. Editing and whatnot aside, things are coming along on that end.

You want me take a look at the script before you record the voice-over?

If you don’t mind, I would greatly appreciate it. Haven’t really written anything extensive since my second year of college so the writing itself is probably poor haha.

Of course man! We're all in this together :)
You using Google docs? Makes it easiest I'd say to comment etc. Just send me a link. If you don't like that you can send me a PM if you want. Let me know!

I haven’t been using google docs but it wouldn’t hurt to try it. I’ll definitely let you know what I end up doing!