Welcome new members (introduction topic)

Your English looked great, wouldn't have thought it wasn't native if you didn't say.

I also played NG2 young and played Black for the first time like a month ago.
Absolutely one of the greats. Very few parts that I would consider bad.
There is a ton of NG info in the relevant threads to comb through. Almost any question can be answered here I'm sure.
Welcome!

Hey dude, no worries. Your English is totally fine, had no issues with it at all.

And as usual, it seems like a lot of the people who join here are linked by Ninja Gaiden, which is pretty awesome.

Welcome!

Welcome Dettless!

>Ninja Gaiden
Lots of people here who are really into it! Easy to find help and discussion.

>Monster Hunter
I'm a huge MH guy, so feel free to ask me any questions about the series!

MH2 is a bit of a weird one, I haven't had a chance to play through it (working on Freedom Unite/Portable 2nd G right now). From what I've seen, it's pretty punishing and obtuse, but unique.

If you're new to the series, I recommend starting with Portable 3rd using the PPSSPP emulator, which runs on almost anything. I've also written a guide for MH! https://hotpockethpe.github.io/mhguide/

>STG/Shmups
Nice! I'm mainly focusing on "newer" shmups, slowly working on a 1cc of Hellsinker. Really cool genre.

>English
Good job, it's very understandable.

Hope you enjoy your time!

Great to see you here Dettless, and that you like the site so much! Makes me happy to hear it inspired you to return to NGB and NGII, if you have any questions about it or just want to talk about it, feel free to join in on its sub-forum!

Your English is great, so don't worry about it at all!

> lots of NG players here
Considering it's my favourite, I think I just attract them haha

Hey guys, new here :)

Before joining here I read most of the articles on this site, and enjoyed all of them :)

I'm interested in action games, I have casually beat or tried some in the past, but now I'm looking to actually dive deep and experiment with mechanics and just try all sorts of action games, including more obscure ones. In the past I've just juggled between too much games without beating them, and that's finally about to change.

My favorite games are NGB and NG2 and I regularly played them in the last year since getting them (150+ hours in each of them, and that's only the beginning for me) and now that I'm at a level where I feel like I have a solid grip on them, I also want to try other games.

I've GoW1-3 + CoO and GoS as a kid 9-10 years ago, and more recently beat Vanquish twice on hard, and ZoET2R on normal. Also tried DMC1+3 (for less then an hour each), Bayonetta, Viewtiful Joe, MGR, The Wonderful 101, RE4, TEW1, God Hand and Nioh. All of them are games I enjoyed and looking to finally beat (up to the highest difficulties), and also master and experiment with depending on how much I will love them.

I also tried Buffy (OG Xbox exclusive) for a bit and liked it, was especially surprised by the enemy aggression. It's another one I'm gonna play, and would recommend checking it out (also playable on CXBX-R for those with a very fast CPU).

Other action games I'm looking to try are Gunvalkyrie, Otogi 1 and 2, Genma Onimusha, Tenchu Return From Darkness (or is it pure stealth?), Rockstar's The Warriors and KH1FM+KH2FM LV1 critical.

Always looking for more action games recommendations :)

Welcome!
Great place for NG fans here. Tons of amazing discussion.

Welcome onboard!
You'll surely be fine here with those good tastes :)

Welcome, GN1! As RedShot said, you'll be a good fit in this forum based on your experience with those games. Also, glad to know that the KH games are on your list!

>CXBX

I was under the impression that OG Xbox emulation came to a halt, but then again, it's been a while since I last checked.

Welcome GN1!

Always great to see NG lovers! You don't happen to be GN876 on Reddit? Or is the sharing of the first two letters just a coincidence?

I'd highly recommend you play Vanquish on God Hard if you have the time and ZoE2 on Extreme, both are top-tier action games on those settings. Though all the games in that list of yours are bangers mind you!

One game I always personally like to recommend since it slips out of people's radars is Prince of Persia Warrior Within. Such a great little action-game!

> Xbox emulation
IIRC there's a guy on Patreon that is using patron-funds to boost its effectiveness. He managed to get NGB and NGII running ... sort of. It's still heavily in the works, but they/he/she/whoever is making good progress from what I've heard!

Hey Raeng, yes I am, nice to see you remembered :)

Oh yeah I definitely will play both Vanquish on God Hard and ZoET2R on extreme, I just need to focus on a game without juggling...
PoP:WW -  I forgot to mention it, but I played the first 2 hours of it, what an amazing game, the combat really took me by surprise, glad to see I'm not the only one who sees it as pretty neat. The gameplay is a huge improvement on Sands of Time, sad to see people dismiss it because of "emo prince". It also has a great OST and a dark atmosphere I enjoyed a lot.

Xbox emulation: CXBX can run JSRF and Buffy, both are exclusives I would recommend trying. I don't know how much depth or replay value Buffy has, but it made a great first impression on me when the enemies actually tried to kill me.
Just note that buffy requires a top of the line CPU for full speed, preferably overclocked, JSRF ia much lighter.

Warrior Within also extremely broken on launch which didn't help, later releases i.e. PAL 2.0(?) were heavily fixed, but the original release had insane bugs like one save-station breaking your game if you saved there and then quit (which just happened to be after a tough boss, so a lot experienced that glitch). This didn't help its release at the time.

I really enjoy the shift in tone the game had, great OST, funky enemies, great locations. Never liked how people complained it was all combat when the entire platforming segments were expanded to such a huge degree. The game is in every way just a great sequel, upping the ante on SoT in terms of puzzles, exploration and combat. Fun story as well.

I only played the fist 2 hours of PoPWW, but it already was a maasive improvement gameplay wise, including exploration and platforming. I like how both TSot and WW have different atmospheres, and I enjoyed the OST of both.

I play them on PC with some community fixes and controller, not on consoles but yeah I heard WW is a pretty buggy game.

I hope it won't hurt my playthrough, but I guess I can grab an OG Xbox copy of it (it also has 2 bonus modes not on PC or other platforms).

How is Genma Onimusha? I wanted to buy Warlords HD, but knowing they ported the PS2 version instead of the expanded Xbox release I refuse to touch it.

I really hate how many remasters are butchered by either porting oversight and technical issues, or removed content altogether (like the online removal in NGMC).

The platforming gets even better lateron with the rope-swinging and Dahaka chases, lots of fun things.

> OG xbox modes
Did a google-search, never knew these things existed. What the hell. Time to buy that version then I guess! Do you need to unlock them or are they unlocked from the get-go?

> Genma Onimusha
Still my favourite in the series. It is leaps and bounds better than Warlords, especially on replays.

No idea honsetly, I actually found out about it in an old IGN head2head of all things, can't even recall how I found that.

About Genma - sadly it seems I made the right choice, good thing I got my OG Xbox.

I've heard of the Tenchu series because of comparisons with Sekiro, so I plan on playing Return From Darkness, how is it (will be my first entry in the series)?

> ign head2head
That's the article I just found as well, was surprised by all the details.

> Tenchu
Sekiro started as a Tenchu sequel IIRC, but they went into another direction afterwards. I only played the first one which, granted, was pretty cool, but never went in deeper. It is a very cool game though.

Hello GN1! Lots of NG players here. Vanquish and ZOE2 are phenomenal, really enjoyed those games myself. Hope you enjoy your time!

Hello everyone. I've been lurking here and on GFaqs for a while and decided to join.
It's been only a couple of years since I've been more interested in action games. I only started properly with DMC5 actually (I know, I know) and since then I played through some of the most important ones, but I still have a long way to go.
So far I've played DMC3, 4 and 5, GoW2, MGR, Bayonetta, God Hand, RE4, NGB and NG2 (finished this one a week ago on Warrior and enjoyed it very much). Of those I only replayed the DMCs, MGR and NGB on higher difficulties so far, but I plan of replaying them all eventually.
Before this I played 50Hz DMC1, because Europe, and played CoO a bunch as a kid, but I don't remember exactly if I played it on the higher difficulties or just steamrolled everything on Normal with full upgrades over and over. Also finished MGS2 on Extreme a long time ago, since I thought that the only difference between Extreme and EE was the game over on alert. I also played the other MGS.
Next on my list are an S rank run of MGR on Rev (stopped on CH3) and NG2 on Mentor.
I don't know how to end this so I'll just say that I enjoyed the discussions here a lot (which also helped me a bunch with NG2 and MGR) and I look forward to participating in them.

Welcome! That is a fantastic list to start with.
Play The Evil Within 1 asap if you liked RE4.
I recommend the Onimusha series if you can do tank controls.
If you do play them start with Genma Onimusha on the xbox, not the hd re release. Much better version.

Welcome aboard! Those are some great games to get you introduced to the genre, maybe too good in some ways haha. I agree with the recommendations hedfone gave, but I will also add Streets of Rage 4. It’s not an action game in the same as the other titles but it’s amazing and is very easy to pick up and get in to.

Welcome Malcar! Good to see you deciding to join up :)

You already really made a good start with some great games. I have a personal love for MGRR and NGII especially, you're right at home here! What are you currently playing then, or still working on your mentor run?

If you need any pointers on MGR:R I made a pretty comprehensible S-rank guide with handicaps eons ago, you can find it here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ommAVjPNRVo
(reuploaded from my old channel). It has all the advanced techniques and some easy to use tactics for everyone. Might help you out!

> PAL 50hz hell
Join the club haha!

Welcome again :)

>PAL 50hz hell
It is not very often I am proud to be an American, but I am so happy I have never seen those gens at 50hz.

> 50hz hell
To give a bit added insight, it is mostly that the early gen-titles suffer from it. Later titles gave the option for 60hz thankfully, and a few were even exclusive (Metroid Prime 2 is 60hz only for whatever reason, I had to buy a new TV to play it). DMC1 is 50hz only. But games like Smash Melee, RE4, Metroid Prime, God Hand etc. all had 60hz options in PAL. Your TV just had to support it.

The big downside in this was that each game had a really, really ugly prompt at the start of the game that, when left open, defaulted to 50hz and the only way to change it was to reset the game. So you could't just turn on the game and get a coffee or whatever while the logos popped up. You had to stay active.

Enjoy this useless bit of trivia hahahah

@hedfone
>That is a fantastic list to start with
I tried to pick some more diverse games also to understand what I like and what I don't, since most of them are pretty different and so far it's paying off. I still have a long way to go tho.

>start with Genma Onimusha on the xbox
I'll keep this in mind but I don't have and OG Xbox and played NGB on Xemu with lots of slowdowns. Don't know if it's a problem with the game or the emulator in general.
I also played NG2 on Xenia and it's incredible how well it runs, especially compared to the OG Xbox emulation. A couple of bugs and crashes but nothing too significant (mostly icons in the menu getting swapped).

@Infinity
>maybe too good in some ways haha
Yeah, starting with the best might lower the enjoyment when playing with lesser titles, I hope that doesn't happen.

>Streets of Rage 4
Will keep this in mind. Already added to the Steam wishlist.

@Raeng
>What are you currently playing then, or still working on your mentor run?
Finished NG2 a couple of days ago. I still have to start Mentor difficulty but I'll be a bit busy until the end of the month. As soon as I have a bit more time I'll start it immediately.
I also picked up Ryse Son of Rome on your recommendation here for 2,50€ on Steam, so I also have that to play.

>S-rank guide
If I get stuck I'll definitely check it out. So far it hasn't been as bad as I thought. I played through VH twice and decided to start S ranking Rev on the first run. After this I'd like to also S rank VH.
On that note, how are the VR missions and how hard is it to get the max score on them? I only played a couple of them to get some money when I was playing on VH.

>PAL 50hz hell
Sometimes it sucks to be a Europoor.

Thanks to everyone for the welcome!

Welcome! Great list of games, that will set you up for a while. I'd also throw Vanquish and Zone of the Enders 2 in for consideration, they're phenomenal on the higher difficulties.

Monster Hunter is also a great series, and what really got me into action games, but they take a while to chew through, so probably best to keep it in the back of your head.

Hope you like it here!

>I'd also throw Vanquish and Zone of the Enders 2 in for consideration
I've been interested in ZoE2 for a while and will check it out sooner or later. Same thing as Vanquish though that game intimidates me a bit.

>Monster Hunter
I actually finished 4U on the 3DS years ago and liked it a lot, but I stopped after finishing the main quest. MH is weird because you never see it mentioned alongside other action games and ARPGs for some reason, it's considered its own thing.

Welcome @Malcar ! The games you listed are awesome, I'd only add Kingdom Hearts Final Mix and Kingdom Hearts 2 Final Mix. And also it's a good idea to replay and master one game at a time, but many of us want to try different things so it's difficult sometimes to stay focused haha.

> Xemu is slow
Yes, it's still in development and some games like NGB are very slow if you don't have the most powerful PC. I'll probably buy a Series S or X for two games (NGB and NG2) and use the emulator for NG (2004) and Hurricane Packs after some updates.

> Rising's VR Missions
There are some difficult missions with tough waves and strict time. I especially hated the platforming ones.

> ZoE2/vanquish
Both great games and imo, despite them seeming like off-beat games that aren't "typical" action games, probably my highest regarded ones aside from NGII. Note that both edge you in really nicely. Lower settings are a power-trip where nothing can stand in your way, with excellent higher difficulty settings that will just abuse you if that's your thing.

> Genma Onimusha
Highly agree on this one, fantastic title that I can never touch again due to playing it to death haha

> Ryse
Cool! Let me know what you think about it! The next article on the site is, ironically, also going to be about it I think (depends on what day you ask me haha).

> S-rank
Honestly, S-ranks in that game are as easy or hard as you want to make it. You can just equip Wigs and abuse checkpoints for the perfect run for example, or do single-segment etc for a painfully hard challenge. Be sure though to, whatever you do, to make backup saves sometimes. Especially in multi-phase bosses like Sundowner. Personally the biggest joy in that game is a NUR run on Very Hard, highly recommneded. Game is great for challenge runs in general.

> VR missions
Most aren't that challenging, but more of a puzzle you need to crack. Only two of them are really combat based (three if you count the DLC). Fun diversions.

>Monster Hunter as an action RPG
It's weird, I think it doesn't get counted as an action RPG by people for a mix of reasons. Some of it is because the series was really niche in the West for a long time, some of it is because you can play in 4 player and destroy everything, so people lumped it in with other "grindy games", and some of it is because people don't know what to make of the pseudo-MMO/simulationist elements like gathering that are still around (in a highly diluted form) from MH1/2.

>Stopped at 4U credits
Glad you enjoyed it! Note that the low rank village is like 25% of the game, so there's much more beyond that.

>ZOE2
Really overlooked for how great it is. Gels with my philosophy very nicely: player toolkit isn't overly complicated, but there's a ton of depth in how that toolkit interacts with enemies. The Mummyhead enemy is a standout, and exemplifies the type of design I respect in action games: interacts with other enemies, and oppressive if left unchecked, but preemptive planning and smart manipulation of its AI can create big opportunities.

>Vanquish intimidating
I can see that, especially when trying out God Hard for the first time, it’s a real kick in the ass. One of my all time favorite VH modes though.

>ZoE2 gels with philosophy
Perfectly said, and I totally agree. I like a modest number of “things” the player can do, with a lot of layers to the tools and a lot of details regarding enemies/environmental hazards.

>mummyhead praise
Brilliant enemy, having such a devastating foe also be a healer seems weird at first, but the ways to manipulate their AI as you pointed out, and the length of the heal, really creates interesting encounters with them.

Welcome Malcar! Looks like you've given yourself a great introduction to the genre with the titles you've played so far. If you dig around the topics there are plenty of other recommendations you might like too!

> 50 Hz
Ah, yes. I remember the ignorant bliss of being a child and not knowing why it was important. I only realised later when I unknowingly downloaded the NTSC version of Tekken 3 to play on my PSP and thought it was strangely fast. I looked in to why and was then horrified that almost everything I'd played as a kid was slowed down!

> "Started properly with DMC5 (I know, I know)"
Don't worry about how you got started, or if other people liked the game. I started with DMC4SE and for a period absolutely loved it, but I've played so many better games since that I don't know if I'll ever touch it again. I always think that while DMC5 probably won't be an all-time classic in the genre, it was great to see a major developer/publisher putting out a "proper" action game. There aren't many studios still interested in making those kinds of games.

> Recommendations
A few have said Vanquish and Streets of Rage 4, both of which are excellent. If you've got a PS2 or means to emulate, try Urban Reign. One of my all-time favourites, amazing combat (IMO) and a healthy challenge.

> started with DMC5
To note, I started with Ninja Gaiden Sigma 2 (technically I started with Bayonetta 1 but, eh, different story). You always have to start somewhere!

> NTSC
It is most noticable for me in FFX strangely. Tidus walks super fucking fast for me in the 60FPS versions haha

>The next article on the site is, ironically, also going to be about it I think
Well, that’ll be interesting.

>S-ranks in that game are as easy or hard as you want to make it
I am humiliating everything with Sai and Ripper mode ahaha.

> You can just equip Wigs and abuse checkpoints
Not using wigs (or restorative items), but I’m abusing the hell out of checkpoints. The quick restart is a blessing.

>there's much more beyond that
Sadly I don’t think I’ll replay it anytime soon. I forgot most of the stuff and restarting will be rough I think.

> it was great to see a major developer/publisher putting out a "proper" action game
Too many ARPGs and too few pure action games lately. It's always easier to grind if you get stucked. Also DMC5 was great as a proper introduction to the genre since it gave me a taste of different playstyles, and while those are better represented elsewhere (Kratos being a better grappler than Nero, the summoner playstyle being done better in CL and AC) it was nice to have those introduced to me in an easier game to get used to.
I still believe that the game could have been done much better, after analysing it and playing for a lot, but I'm glad that was my introduction. It also has amazing mods, one of the best modding scene of any action game. Without that I prolly would have stopped playing after S ranking DMD.

>try Urban Reign
Will add to the list.

>Tidus walks super fucking fast for me in the 60FPS versions
That's why it felt so slow. I felt like the guy was running in syrup.

You can actually sort of have the game become unable to hit you. If you use the Armor Breaker with Ripper you become nigh-immortal, as you can just stay in BM-mode all day and enemies die in a few hits. Just absorb, and repeat.

I did like how open-ended the ranking system was, especially comes into play with bosses like Sundowner which can be hard to s-rank normally.

> DMC5 is a good intro game
Never thought of it that way, but I can see it.

> Syrup Tidus
Jup, guy's walking on the moon haha

>open-ended ranking system
Absolutely. You can go for no damage and make the other categories basically irrelevant (focusing only on efficiency), going for no kills when possible or just trying to get 1000 points in every category if the no damage is difficult to achieve (like the bonus fight in R-02 against those water sliding fuckers).

>DMC5 is a good intro game
As your very first action game is probably a bit too much, but it's perfect if you already have had some exposure to the genre (I mean, who hasn't?).

Ironically I tend to push DmC as a good intro-game. It isn't the most beloved game, but it's pretty easy to grasp, has a lot of cool weapons and strong visuals. Most of my casual friends loved playing it for being so flashyflashybangbang haha. Korra is honestly also pretty good, but sadly really hard to get these days (illegal only I think).

> ranking system
It really is pretty neat. Best example imo is Sundowner. You can quickly nuke him with a 50 hit combo, get no-damage and get the 'kills' in the final QTE sequence (when you ride the mecha) for an S-rank. Or you can enter phase 2 and non-lethal kill the mooks for no-kill bonus. Or a mix of both. So much fun stuff, great!

Hello guys, I've found this site while lurking on gamefaqs. Read the GoW article and liked it a lot, and I approached raeng on twitter about GoW pain+ and he told me to come to this place. So far from what I've see, this is a pretty neat place. Some really high level discussions, which is always great.
I personally like RPGs and Action games. Got introduced to the genre thanks to God of war, Darksiders and God Hand.
So far my backlog for this genre is huge as I've spent a bit too much time playing RPGs.
Currently I'm planning on doing NUR on all the GoW games starting with CoO (which is kinda the reason I'm here.) and also I'm doing a RE4 knife only run.
Looking forward to using this site.

Hey Red! Super cool that you made the jump!

Surprised you read about this site on Gamefaqs, haven't really visited that place in a long while I feel.

Always great to see another GoW lover, and even God Hand and also RE4. I did a Knife Only Run on Pro more than a decade ago, really challenging, can highly recommend it. Feel free to post in any topic, even the old ones, if you have notes or run-comments to share or just to talk about said game.

Enjoy!

>introduced to the genre with God Hand
Same here, weird game to get you started but it really helps recognize mediocrity with how great it is.

>RE4 knife run
Really makes you appreciate enemy behaviors and the overall design of combat.

>appreciate enemy behaviours and combat design.
Not just that, it also teaches you about the level design as well. Imo RE4 has pretty great levels with which you can interact with to manipulate the enemies into doing what you want. Like in the 1st level, in the village when you enter the house and the 2nd chainsaw appears, if you guard the window with the shelf all the enemy's attention goes towards that window, instead of clotting infront of the ladder. Then if you go upstairs, the chainsaw ganado is will climb the ladder much earlier, which gives you plenty of oppertunity to knife him down while he is climbing, before the others can break into the upstairs window, so you don't have to tackle him with hordes of other enemies.
This is especially helpful since I'm playing the GCN version and the knife is weaker here so it takes a lot of hits to kill enemies than usual, even on normal.

The knife's damage is also dependant on the game-version IIRC, PAL RE4 GC already has some of the damage boosts ported over to later iterations, but also some oversights i.e. numbers being incorrectly displayed like the Automatic Rifle's stats. We had a discussion about it here: https://stinger.actieforum.com/t111p50-resident-evil-4?highlight=resident+evil
(starting from post 60~ something)

Thanks man, will check it out.

Welcome, talked to you a bit already on Twitter. Just beat RE4 on Professional myself, amazing game.

Hello guys, I followed the wind trails...I mean, the Twitter mutual connections to discover this place. Somehow the people from here got similar tastes from mine (judging from their Backloggd) so I decided to hop in. I just like reading arguments/critiques about games in general and as a game dev, I wanted to see heavy action game fans' general preferences so that they can be good references for my project. (Not that I don't have my own vision lol) Looking forward to using this forum.

Hey Maddison! Welcome to Stinger, I hope you'll have a good time here. What are you playing currently? :)

Currently co-running both The Evil Within and Unsouled.

I already have seen someone streaming The Evil Within so I know almost everything about the showsets and scenarios in that game. But I've been curious about why people felt "off" about the control, and why are the opinions about this gameplay so divided, so I decided to play it myself. So far, it's not RE4, but the combat options are deeper than they looked. I like the match lighting system where you can chain-burn enemies with well-timed input.  On the downside....yeah, the camera is really awkward and slow, aiming is slightly off, and the enemies' animations can be...bullshitty? I wish the game had that camera flip button from RE4 and Godhand, but oh well. I'm used to headbutting brick walls. I'm going to see the ending anyway.  

About Unsouled, I've cleared this game several times, but I'm trying to see if I can speedrun this game since this game is pretty short enough to do multiple playthroughs. This game might seem like a dull hyper light drifter clone at first glance, but inside, there are so many combat systems interwoven here and there. It almost feels like 2D ninja gaiden, even though it has a stamina bar. Would be cool if there's a way to shill this since it's an obscure South Korean indie game that just came out recently.

The Evil Within was a bit of a case of "we expected X, but we got Y" for a lot of players at the time (myself included). Pair that with some weird design choices and a very bad launch (lots of bugs) and it's game that got a weird reputation.

Mechnically it's incredibly sound. One of its better players frequents here from time to time, Sebastian-avatar and all: @Infinity_Divide

It's a great game I'd say! Give it a fair shake I'd say.

> Unsouled
Make a topic about it I'd say! Maybe you can convince others to give it a shot :)

Oh wow, I can make topics freely? I didn’t know that lol

Yeah just make a topic for a game!

Oh shit it's you, I've been meaning to try your game. Gotta play that soon. Welcome!