What are you playing right now?

If 'has a dungeon and puzzles' is a Zelda game, I guess.

I've never liked Zelda games, except for Wind Waker. And that was because it looks similar to Okami.

Do you not like dungeons or puzzles? Trying to get to the reason you aren't having fun.

Every time I've played these types of games I'm just overcome with the sense that I just don't understand what the point of anything I'm doing is or how it's supposed to be fun. I think it might be the fact that the game focuses on many different aspects rather than something like DMC where it's very obviously about fighting and everything else is just extra. In Okami, the game is doing a ton of things and I'm just kinda confused as to what the point is. It also might be that I have a hard time enjoying anything that isn't an "action" game in some sense. So just running around the map or doing simple puzzles, without any platforming or combat just isn't enjoyable for me. I probably explained that very poorly but It's pretty much the best I've been able to understand what isnt resonating with me.

If the world and exploration do nothing for you, either play until near the end and unlock every tool and the Devil Gate fights, or just quit. No point bothering with something you aren't enjoying.

@Rorc
-> Fighting games and SFII
I did not grow up playing fighting games at all and I'm basically as scrubby as it gets. So even the most baby, basic, of tips would probably be helpful. I've learned that block is pretty important (thanks to playing NG I suppose), though I'm still struggling to figure what are high and low attacks. The games are often so fast I can't comprehend anything that's happening. I have terrible reaction time.
I'm also trying to play on stick and I've been struggling to do the motion inputs efficiently. Crouching block into a Z motion input for instance is something I'm finding hard.

As for SFII, suggestions on good starter characters I suppose. Ryu I assume is best choice since he's the poster boy, though I've been playing Cammy. I've heard Sagat is pretty busted. I tried playing Chun-Li but I found her moves really hard to input.

Things I've learned:
I'm pretty sure throws are pretty good just based on how effective the CPU uses them to demolish me, though I struggle to find windows to use them. Sometimes I can punish Chun-Li's spinning kick move with a throw. But the CPU doesn't leave a lot of openings that I can find.
I'm too scared to really try combo's so my strategy has been to kinda stay outta range and poke with Cammy's medium kick. There seems to be counter damage in the game. Her low medium sweep kick seems pretty good, and sometimes I can get it to combo into her Spiral kick move. I haven't been able to get it to combo into her super meter move, though maybe I'm just not inputting it fast enough.
Cammy's super move also sometimes goes through projectiles (very useful). Is this the exception or the rule for characters super moves?

-> AC 6
Finally slogged to the finish. Still think the game is pants. Very frustrating game. Looks amazing and the Mecha designs are so cool with some of the best Mecha animations I've seen in a video game (I now want a model kit of Nightfall), just wish From had some balls and made an actual Mecha game. Story is fine but , my god, the constant fucking blathering on the radio through out the whole game is just so horrid and insufferable I at some point had to just turn the Voice volume setting to 0.

Game is also pretty easy even without using Zimmermans or Songbirds or other busted things.The build I ended up sticking with was a light-weight reverse-joint AC, equipped with Dual Needle Pistols and a Sweet Sixteen Shotgun on the right Shoulder, and a Pilebunker on the left. Was fun but being a build meant for very close range engagements it made claw gripping a requirement and tracking other AC's a nightmare. The final boss was also pretty tricky to learn with this build.

I now have the hankering to play a Mecha game that doesn't have a Sekiro ball chained to one ankle and a Dark souls ball on the other.


-> Front Mission 1st Remake
Definitely prefer the SNES graphics based on what I've seen on youtube. The Mecha are generally pretty good looking and well animated, but the rest of the game looks pretty generic. Environments look bland with little grit or atmosphere and menu and background art looks cheap and lazy. The OST is a pretty big highlight, and thankfully has the option to switch to the SNES version which I think I prefer.

Gameplay is pretty fun and challenging . I tend to not be able to sit through JRPGS, but so far Tactical RPG's seem a lot more fun (only have played 2 others thus far). I like the emphasis on the individual Mecha parts having HP that can be permanently disabled for a mission. Makes a kind of risk\reward system that has you contemplating whether to try and finish off an opponent or to play it safe and retreat to repair.
Menus could be a bit more helpful with it not even telling you whether a rifle is single shot or burst (edit* I was mistaken. In the shop menu it will add a helpful 'rifle' or MG' suffix to weapons, but not in the setup menu which is why I was confused). I'm sure all this stuff was in a manual back in the SNES days. But my PS4 copy has a very small manual and it's all in Japanese. Still it's not a big deal. Most things can be figured out through common sense and a little trial and error.
I'm only a few missions deep at the moment but it's very fun and cool so far. If there's a fan translation I might boot up the SNES version on emulation sometime.

> SF2
Played it a ton in Japan when i was there, and also on fightcade years ago. Fun game, but I will say it loses a lot of appeal when you get to the higher levels where it's mostly people taking turns with checkmate situations and a shitton of bullshit. Personally it's best played at casual level these days, since playing with optimized players is a nightmare unless you're into that shit.

In terms of characters, Ryu is a great starting character since he mixes offence and defence so well. Throws are really good in the game since even teched throws deal damage, and there's good follow-ups. In general you have to take a few things into account:
- combos are rare, but insanely damaging and deal good stun. Something as simple as j.hp > s.hp into shoryuken is like half half gone and stun. Combos are also quite hard, even something as simple as a kick into super can be quite challenging to pull off compared to releases of today.
- supers are generally safe, and deal good chip. Most players use them on enemies when they have to block, forcing chip-damage situations and good follow-ups
- projectiles are sick in this game, especially Guile and OldSagat
- SF2 has version-select of characters, Old characters use their base stats from the original release, but as a result don't have a Super. For most characters these are inferior versions, but some like Sagat shine with fantastic projectiles and damage.
- regarding high-low, general rule is that you block jump attacks and overheads (very rare unique moves) standing, the rest you block crouching.

Hi again, it's been a while since I posted here. I always forget this is a great place to be in because everyone is just so chill. I bailed out of twitter at the beginning of the year to focus on myself as well as preparing everything I need to make sure the move to Buffalo goes as smoothly as possible. I'm scheduled to visit the place this February, so I bought my plane tickets and reserved a hotel a few weeks back.

Anyway, for this thread, I've been kicking back with Risk of Rain Returns. Absolutely love all the QoL fixes the game has, the new sprites are fantastic, and the new moves they gave the survivors are fun. This is pretty much my go-to game on Steam Deck as I haven't bothered to sit at my computer for a while. Next to that, I've also been playing It Takes Two with my brother, and wow, what a fun game. I love the creative asymmetrical gameplay it offers. And on Xbox Series X, the game is just so fluid and clean. I wish we had more 3D platformers that ran as smoothly as this. I should really get to playing Crash 4 soon.

I got a lineup of a games I want to start tackling once my move to Buffalo is done. I got the rest of the Yakuza lineup to clear up (finished 0 and Kiwami, need to finish K2, 3, 4, 5, 6, and basically everything else coming up), as well as the entire Batman Arkham series to get started with. Hopefully when I find my new apartment and the internet is set up, I can return to kicking back with games again, just in a very cold weather, alone, and in peace.

Setnaro X wrote:Hi again, it's been a while since I posted here. I always forget this is a great place to be in because everyone is just so chill. I bailed out of twitter at the beginning of the year to focus on myself as well as preparing everything I need to make sure the move to Buffalo goes as smoothly as possible. I'm scheduled to visit the place this February, so I bought my plane tickets and reserved a hotel a few weeks back.

Anyway, for this thread, I've been kicking back with Risk of Rain Returns. Absolutely love all the QoL fixes the game has, the new sprites are fantastic, and the new moves they gave the survivors are fun. This is pretty much my go-to game on Steam Deck as I haven't bothered to sit at my computer for a while. Next to that, I've also been playing It Takes Two with my brother, and wow, what a fun game. I love the creative asymmetrical gameplay it offers. And on Xbox Series X, the game is just so fluid and clean. I wish we had more 3D platformers that ran as smoothly as this. I should really get to playing Crash 4 soon.

I got a lineup of a games I want to start tackling once my move to Buffalo is done. I got the rest of the Yakuza lineup to clear up (finished 0 and Kiwami, need to finish K2, 3, 4, 5, 6, and basically everything else coming up), as well as the entire Batman Arkham series to get started with. Hopefully when I find my new apartment and the internet is set up, I can return to kicking back with games again, just in a very cold weather, alone, and in peace.

Good luck with relocation! As for me, I tried En Garde! and it was very fun. I did hate the 1vs1 bossfights where you have to either parry or dodge, no other response acceptable.

> yakuza binge
I always say this, but I'll say it again: take your time. I burned myself out on the series due to going through them in a row to get ready for Y6's release. They're best enjoyed taking your time, going to the arcade, playing minigames every now and then, really living in the world and doing it at your own pace.

If you can find it, I would recommend playing vanilla 2 instead of K2. The combat system in K2 is abysmall and the artstyle really misses what made Y2 so good, and a key voice-actress is replaced who gives a way worse performance. Also gives you a nice insight into where the series came from, and also the jump to Y3.

Y3 is my favourite, but that's not a popular opinion haha

> arkham games
Fantastic series if you ask me. Don't skip out on Origins, it's great, don't listen to the haters (god I"m a snob..)

I touched Prince of Persia : The lost crown about 3 hours.
And my first impression is very good.

I didn`t expect that the combat abilities are various at default, and additional challenges are quiet enjoyable. I wanna see how far this game would go. And I appreciate that they have persian vocal option even though I can`t understand anything.


(Watch from 0:30 for gameplay)

Hey guys, been a while. Hope you're all doing well.

I recently finished the Guardians of the Galaxy game that was free on the Epic Store over Christmas - if you like the movies, it's a game I can recommend. The characters are well written, the story is decent, and I found the art direction to be quite appealing. If you've got the hardware for it, the game can be quite the looker on PC. If you're in the mood for an adventure game, it's a fun time.

Out of the billions of unplayed PC games I have, I decided to install this one mainly because I was curious about how the combat would work, hopeful that it might be an uncovered action gem. My opinions were mixed - while I did have fun playing through the game, it became clear to me that the combat was not the top priority of the game's design.

You directly control Star-Lord, while the rest of the gang are AI controlled for movement and standard attacks. You're able to issue commands to each of them to perform special moves which have different properties - some deal damage, others stagger enemies (yes, it's a stagger bar type of action game, snore), some target one enemy, others target groups, etc. You can use one of the character's special moves and then you have to wait for the cooldown before selecting another. You don't really have to use them smartly as cooldowns seem to be fairly short, although in an effort to balance them, more useful abilities result in longer cooldowns.

There is some fun to be had in combining these special moves, though - I did enjoy the synergy that some combos have. For example, Rocket has a grenade that pulls enemies towards it, allowing you to group them together. You can use the grenade, and then call in Gamora to use an attack where she moves from enemy to enemy slashing as she goes, killing groups of weaker enemies in an instant. For bigger enemies, Groot can lock them in place with his vines, and then Drax can use a ground pound to deal heavy stagger damage. It's nothing new by action game standards, and it's simple stuff, but you do feel rewarded for putting a bit of thought into how you fight.

Star-Lord has access to a fairly limited toolkit. His guns have a standard shot (think Ebony & Ivory, Scarborough Fair etc.) which deals little damage. You'll only really rely on this when your other attacks are on cooldown. In addition to the standard shot, there are 4 types of unlockable elemental attacks - ice, electric, wind and flame. Ice will turn enemies into blocks of iced that can then be shattered for a quicker kill. Electric can interrupt enemy animations and stun lock them, as well as transferring between nearby enemies, so it's great for crowd control. Wind allows you to pull far away enemies towards you, which is cool, but the game makes this feel essential later on as there are plenty of enemies who are otherwise unreachable and gun you down from a distance. Fire will burn enemies and cause damage over time, but I found this to be less useful as there are so many other ways to deal damage instead. While standard shots can be fired without any limits, elemental shots will overheat your gun if used too frequently, so you can't constantly spam them.

These elemental abilities are quite fun to use against weaker enemies, but become less fun against stronger ones. The harder enemies in the game have elemental weaknesses, which the game outright shows to you - you don't even have to figure out what they are. If you hit an enemy with the element they're weak to, it deals plenty of stagger damage, so the best option is to do exactly what the game tells you to do. It feels remeniscent of the colour-coded enemies in DmC reboot, but it's not quite as bad.

Star-Lord also has access to a melee attack, which is general seems pretty bad. It seems to be semi-random what attack will come out when you use it - you don't know if it will be a weak punch (which can be turned into a combo), a more powerful (and unsafe) flying dropkick, or something else. It always feels risky to use because you never know how vulnerable you're going to be afterwards. Sometimes enemies will parry your melee attack - on some occasions you just have to take the hit, and on other occasions a prompt pops up on the screen allowing you to reverse their counter attack. Again, I couldn't figure out if this was purely random or if there was some detail I was missing. If you initiate a melee attack with a teammate nearby, they will sometimes join you for a double team attack, which are stronger but leave you vulnerable. This is probably the most unpredictable mechanic I've seen in an action game. I did use the melee from time to time just for fun, as some of the attack animations are cool.

As with the other Guardians, Star-Lord has his own special abilities to unlock, also tied to cooldowns. One ability allows him to hover above the battlefield with his jet boots, which makes you safe from smaller enemies without ranged attacks. He also has access to a move where you are locked in place, but fire an extremely fast volley of shots off - it's a good damage dealer on tankier enemies, but you are completely open while using it. His third ability sees him jump into the air and fire explosive shots at the ground, dealing damage to a wide area beneath him. I won't spoil them here, but every character has access to a 4th ability unlocked after significant moments in the story. These are extremely powerful, and what makes them even stronger is that they have their own separate cooldowns from the other 3 abilities.

This game's equivalent of Devil Trigger is the Huddle Team-Up. When the huddle gauge fills, the team transports into a void and huddles together - the other characters will talk to each other, and then you are presented with a choice of 2 dialogue options. The objective is to give a pep-talk, and pick the dialogue most relevant to what the conversation was about. For example, if Rocket and Drax are making fun of your enemies for being pushovers, your pep-talk should be about not getting cocky. These are incredibly easy to get right as the other option is often completely irrelevant to the conversation. If you pick the wrong response, only Star-Lord gets a buff when returning to the game. If you pick the right option, the whole team get buffed, and you get to listen to the licensed soundtrack while the buff is active. It was surprisingly fun to beat enemies down to the cheesy variety of Rick Astley, Soft Cell, KISS, Motley Crue and others. However, I stopped using these about half way trough the game, as control can be taken away from you for over a minute at a time. The command for using huddle is LB+RB, which is easy to press by accident as these buttons are used frequently in combat, and you don't have to press them at the same time (i.e. if you're holding RB and then press LB, it will still trigger). It's moments like this that remind you that this game cares more about its presentation than its gameplay, which seems pretty normal for big budet games now, sadly.

I played through the game on hard difficulty (which is one below the hardest) and for the most part, it was painfully easy. You can lose health pretty quickly, but most enemies seem to drop healing pickups on death so it's very easy to recover. As well as having health, you have a rechargeable shield that can tank damage. To be honest, I didn't figure out how the mechanics of the shield worked, but once upgraded it seems to protect you from a lot. I wont spoil exactly what it is, but there is an ability unlocked towards the end of the game that makes it almost impossible to die. It definitely doesn't seem like the designers intended for the game to be challenging.

However, a very cool feature you don't see often is a customisable difficulty mode. There are a surprising amount of options you can tweak - how much damage Star-Lord deals (and takes), how quickly your shield regenerates, how quickly allies get downed, how quickly your guns overheat from elemental shots, how long the cooldowns on special moves last, how much slowdown there is when selecting special moves etc. I think there is potential to make the game pretty challenging with this, which would be interesting for another playthrough in the future.

Despite having a fair few disappointing design choices, I did have fun with the game. I would say the game is probably best appreciated as a character-driven adventure game, rather than an outright action game. I did appreciate how many unlockable outfits there are - these easily could have been paid DLCs, and including them in the base game is a nice touch that makes the it feel like more of a complete product. If you like the Guardians, there's a good chance you'll enjoy your time with this. If not, maybe don't rush to buy this one.

>So even the most baby, basic, of tips would probably be helpful.

Okay, well here's my beginner advice:
-Keep It Simple. This is first cuz it's the most important. Use the minimum brainpower necessary. Don't think any more than the opponent forces you to think.
-GUARD YOUR TOES. Jumping attacks you gotta block high, otherwise default to blocking low. Remember that when you're walking, you're not crouching. A classic beginner mistake is trying to walk away from an attacker and getting kicked in the shins for it.
-Jumping forward is a high-risk, high-reward move. Don't overuse it.
-Practice throwing and learn your throw range. Basic but effective tactic is the tick throw: jab, then step forward slightly and go for a throw (or another jab).

>The games are often so fast I can't comprehend anything that's happening. I have terrible reaction time.

Your reaction time is terrible because you are being overwhelmed mentally. If you're looking for 20 different things, and then trying to decide which 1 of 20 buttons to push in response to each, you will take forever to do anything. If you are looking for 3 or 4 things, and have 1 or 2 pre-planned responses to each, then you'll be able to react quickly. With experience, you'll get used to the most common threats and the best way to respond to each. This is one of the reasons that "keep it simple" is so important, the less time you spend thinking, the faster you can act and react. Stronger opponents will try to complicate things and make you second-guess yourself, because they know that "he who hesitates is lost".

>motion inputs

Just keep at it. I played for years before I got truly comfortable doing the dragon punch input. SF2 is on the harder end of the spectrum of input difficulty, the genre has trended toward making inputs more lenient.

>As for SFII, suggestions on good starter characters I suppose.

I'm the guy who recommends charge characters, because they force you to get good at controlling space and utilizing your normals. But the best choice is whichever character makes you the most motivated to keep getting better, even if it's just because they have cool hair or whatever.

>I've heard Sagat is pretty busted.

Old Sagat is near the top, but as far as I know Dhalsim and Boxer are considered stronger (maybe Claw too?). He's mainly infamous because his low tiger shot is the best fireball in the game and is very oppresive. Look up any Old Sagat match video, doesn't matter who the other character is, Sagat gets to sit back throwing fireballs and make them come to him.

Old Sagat was the top, he was even soft-banned in Japan (i.e., you could use him but were looked at funny if you did). Boxer and Ryu were really good too. Claw was the best character in the game if you removed Old Sagat imo, you can see this by the fact that Tokido used him haha. I played a few good Claw players in Japan and it's really scary, it's like he's playing a totally different game than you. I always liked how well designed the game was though, no character really felt like they had no chance outside of specific matchups.

Old Sagat has a few of the actual 9-1 matchups. Cammy vs Old Sagat is a nightmare to behold.

> terrible reaction time
Fully agree with what Rorc said, you're mentally overloaded. This isn't helped by newer entries having more and more and more stuff attached to them. Like in SF6 there's just a bazillion options, same with SF4 with FADC combos.

If you can get your hands on it, Capcom vs SNK2 is a good entry game, same with the Alpha series. Has enough depth, but isn't as insanely combo heavy (outside of the custom-combo system) and very fun to pick up and play.

I love CVS2 - might even surpass DMC3 as Itsuno's best game. It's one of those games that just perfectly merges gameplay, visuals and audio into something super satisfying to play. In classic fighting game fashion It's one of those games where there are only a handful of character/groove combinations that are considered truly effective at the highest levels, but the game is too fun to be worrying about crap like that. There's a nice big roster, the grooves give access to interesting and varied gameplay systems (gee I wonder where Itsuno got the idea for Dante's styles in DMC3?) and as Raeng says it's not overly combo heavy and thus quite approachable. Easily one of the all-time genre greats for me.

I'm a relatively new gow player started playing gow 3 started playing gow 3 on june of 2023 did my first chaos run in September first challenge was gow 3 NUR+ it took me 3 weeks to do it now I can finish it in 5 hours
My hardest challenge to date is BOA apollo pain+ it was fun until skorpius beating skorpius was a awsome experience


What inspired me to do such things?
Watching people like zesty aka extreme gameplays and
Xristos zimnas really made me go wow what if I can try to be like them so I booted up my ps5 and started my first challenge in October

Currently planning on getting a new pc in march to do gow 1/2 challenges

> CvS2
Yeah, like the hardest combo is something like c.hp into tiger uppercut or something, it's super basic combo stuff. You can also absolutely break the game with custom color and custom grooves, let alone combined with the banned characters like God Rugal and Shin Akuma - funny stuff. Great OST too.

> Egyptian
Welcome! Cool to see so many GoW challenge runners find a home here.

>CvS2
Let's say, hypothetically speaking, that one might want to get into the genre with this game. Let's also say, also hypothetically, that this person has the Retrobit Megadrive controller. Which characters/grooves would be good for this person to try at first? And how would be the best way for this person to bind the controller (top row for kicks and bottom for punchs or viceversa)?
All hypothetical of course.

>CvS2
I'm no authority on the game but I'd say C or K Groove are probably good starters. C-Groove is based on Alpha 3's A-Ism, where you can build 3 levels of meter and most super attacks can be performed with level 1, 2 and 3 variants. You don't need to do anything special to build meter (or use it), so it's pretty straightforward. K-Groove is (I think) a hybrid of Samurai Shodown and Garou, where you build meter primarily by taking damage. Again, building meter doesn't require anything special as you'll probably be taking damage anyway, and when your meter is full you enter a "rage" mode and get a damage buff. Your meter drains while you're in rage, and you can perform a level 3 super anytime rage is active. With K-Groove you always have good comeback potential, so that's probably a good starter too.

As for the buttons, I'd put punches on top and kicks on the bottom to mirror the arcade panel layout, but you can customise the layout however you like.

N for me.

K groove is friendly for beginners. More simple than other grooves as it cannot guard cancel or roll, and only has access to level 3 supers. What it gets in return is Just Defend and Rage mode. When your meter fills, either by taking damage or Just Defending, you automatically enter Rage mode for a set amount of time. Rage is a huge buff, over 30% damage and also a smaller defense boost. Those level 3 supers do insane damage because of the Rage buff.

C and N can be considered the two 'standard' grooves. They each have all the important system mechanics and straightforward super meters. C groove is the only groove that gets the awesome level 2 supers, N groove gets an install that temporarily buffs damage.

Avoid S groove, it's both weak and weird/hard to use.

>characters
Too many to go through, and it's hard to go wrong. There's about 10 different shotos, all of them are solid choices. Hibiki, Claw, Eagle, and Hoahmaru have big sword normals if you want to play footsies. Claw is worth taking into training mode just to witness the absurd walk speed he has in CvS2.

I echo what the above are all saying, personally found C-groove to be the most 'default' since it's basically the 'street fighter' groove with 3 supers and basic abilities. Ya'll on fightcade? Maybe we can get a few matches going at some point (casually ofc.)

I'm not on Fightcade, but I have been meaning to look into it. I remember hearing it got Naomi/Dreamcast support a while back which adds so many great games to the library. MvC2, CvS2, DoA2, Soul Calibur amongst others...

It's pretty fun, but there's also a pretty big paywal if you want more than a few games installed which is sad. I get it though, but it's not fun.

> DoA2
Sadly the shitty old version where Holds are a nightmare to do with insane inputs. Not sure if they changed that.

>DoA2
I believe the shitty hold system was only in the arcade version, so providing Fightcade supports any of the Dreamcast revisions, it should be alright.

>Paywall
I had no idea there was any paywall involved with Fightcade - that seems very dubious for someone to be trying to profit from emulation...

-> Mentally overloaded/recent fighting games
Hence why I like SFII. I tried playing Strive for a bit but that game has like 2 different meters, 2 different blocks, ground dashes, air dashes, a combo cancel system of some kind, combos go on for ages and it has a shit ton of characters to learn how to fight. Makes focusing on the basics pretty hard. Playing SF6 led to a similar experience.
SFII feels like such a relief after trying some of the newer ones.


Might also be worth mentioning that I'm playing entirely against the CPU. I'm nowhere near ready for online.

-> Other beginner friendly fighting games.
I'm just going to stick with SFII for now. Looking through the jargon on ism's and god knows what else is enough for me lol.

-> SFII questions
I might have been getting away with retreating because I think Cammy moves faster than most characters, also maybe the CPU isn't programmed to punish you like that I don't know.
How do you recommend retreating? Sometimes I've been jumping backwards throwing out whatever kick feels like it has the most generous hit-box. Particularly against Chun-Li since her AI jumps around so much.

What are the utility difference between Punches and Kicks? Kicks are Slower I think, though I have a hard time telling, and they obviously have more range.
Would you say kicks are more defensive while punches are more offensive? If so how should I be using punches?
I've basically been using kicks exclusively.

How is the "jab then throw" strat effective? Doesn't seem to work very well against the CPU.

Which characters are charge characters?

-> Picking characters
I think Ken is WAY cooler than Ryu so maybe I'll try him out. E-Honda is also cool. And than Cammy is the coolest.

Also, is there a SFII thread or a general fighting game thread I should be taking this to?

You can make a general SFII thread in non-action games, should be fine :)

> CPU / players
No problem, CPU does build a lot of bad habbits though since they read inputs so a lot of things that would work on other players won't work on them and vice-versa. I would say that playing against other players is very fun, especially in a casual non-competative setting where you just talk and have fun.

> isms and meters
My issue with most modern fighting games. If you can, check out DoA2U on xbox. I found that to be the best fighting game, especially for singleplayer, where you can just have fun playing against the CPU. It has a lot of depth, but the inputs and options are very simple. Soul Calibur II is another great one.

-> DOAU2
Played the shit outta that. Have all the survival items and everything. DOA is really the only fighting game series I've played with any consistency. Absolutely got my ass handed to me when I tried to play 5 and 6 online though, shows how much I actually knew how to play the games lol.

->SFII pvp
I'm not exactly on the verge of going pro lol. Nowhere near playing any fighting game seriously and probably never will be. Just wanna get to the point where I'm comfy with the basics. Honestly playing pvp really intimidates me. I don't play or talk about video games with anyone but my younger brother. So video games being social in anyway is very new and strange to me.

I just want to learn the basics, get better at the motion inputs, and learn the movesets for a few characters before trying things online.

A lot of games aren't fun online, since you enter a totally different mindset and playstyle. I love DoA2 and SCII, but it'd rather die than ruin them with optimal strats. SCII is godlike with friends who are equally unaware as me about the details of the game.

>DOA 5&6 online
They have the same problem as most pvp games way past its popularity peak, you're either fighting complete noobs or players with 1000h. At least from my experience, it's rare to find someone on on the intermiadate skill lvl.

Also, as mostly mid-tier main, it always feels like having to put extra effort into learning match-ups instead of natrually coming up with stat during a match. It soured FG in-general for me, because I'm way too stuborn to switch characters.

>A lot of games aren't fun online
True, true. A lot of it comes down to competitive environment naturally promoting guaranteed and degen strats. Often it just showcases worst parts of a given game.

>tick throw
The idea is getting your opponent to wait passively. A jab has enough frame advantage on block that if you immediately do another jab, it will beat any attack your opponent tries (except invincible stuff). So players will tend to just wait, expecting to have to block another attack, giving you time to quickly throw them. It then becomes a guessing game of jab or throw, or even how many times the attacker will jab before going for the throw.

It won't work nearly as well against a CPU because the CPU doesn't care about mindgames.

>difference between Punches and Kicks?
Punches tend to be slightly faster, kicks tend to have slightly larger hitboxes. Punches more often have higher hitboxes, kicks more often have lower hitboxes. There are some general trends: crLK/MK/HK are usually your low attacks, with crHK usually being a slightly risky sweep that knocks down, crHP is usually an uppercut to hit airborne opponents, stLK/LP are fast and usually have high enough hitboxes to work as anti-airs, making them good defensive options. But it depends on the character, Fei Long's crHP is a horizontal poke for example. You gotta play around and learn each normal on a case-by-case basis.

>playing pvp really intimidates me
You'll lose a lot as a beginner. Then once you become an average player, you'll still lose half the time because you're average. Just gotta get into the mindset of having fun even when you lose.

...Or do what a lot of fighting game fans seem to do, complain online about how their favorite game that they play every day is unfair trash, lol.

> either fighting a pro or a n00b
I really want to get back into Marvel 3 at some point, but everytime I think about it this is what worries me haha. Sick ass game though.

In general just having fun is the most important imo. I had a blast playing SF4 with a guy way above my weight class in the Taiwanese arcade last year. Guy stomped me with his main, then we just went to do casuals with alts and had a lot of fun sets despite the language barrier.

Just finished Man Who Erased His Name. I have a major soft spot for this franchise but honestly the combat is such a fucking clumsy mess lol(at least in the Dragon Engine entries). There’s so much chaos happening at all times; weapons getting knocked around the arena, enemies randomly interrupting your attacks, massive difficulty spikes because of the RPG elements, off screen attacks galore, attacks constantly missing.

I also don’t like how these newer titles handle heat. It takes forever to build and the heat actions are really weak. The grabs are also not great.

Will be getting Tekken 8 today.

The game was fun, but very busted. Once you get Tiger Drop and that heat-action with the fists to face brace (whatever it's called) with the damage-increasing equipment and upgrades, you can (and will) literally facemelt most bosses. Drones were also insanely busted.

But it really misses that ... logic? Like everything fees super random and jank. The web was cool to use, same with the cigs. This was the first Dragon Engine game I played that I enjoyed combat wise to a degree. Juggles were hilarious too.

Mostly hate the 'realistic hitboxes'. A fully charged attack missing because an enemy's stagger animation makes them lean over is bullshit imo hahahaha

Finished Yakuza Gaiden recently, and I've been replaying some of the other games in the series too. Overall a solid game, but not quite the best. Some thoughts:

Positives:
- Agent's gadgets are really good and fun to use, especially against crowds. Especially in EX Heat, pretty much any gadget will destroy groups of enemies.
- Agent's EX Heat counters are free damage source, you don't need any special timing to do it. Also sets up juggling.
- Juggling is in the game, and due to the damage scaling (which is comparable to Kiwami 2), they do insane damage. I didn't even upgrade my attack power, yet I was still doing almost an entire HP of damage just from the juggling. The six second juggle limit is due to the damage scaling, compared to Lost Judgement where there is damage decay (your juggles doing less damage over time).
- While it's a bummer that Komaki Parry is not in the game, Komaki Knockback gets a buff where you can stun bosses with it.  Unlike the older games where it's more of a "get off me" move.
- In comparison to most Yakuza games, enemies are quite aggressive in this game, which is refreshing.
- Shishido is just a phenomenal boss and character, nothing else needs to be said.

Negatives:

- Yakuza style is pathetically slow. Enemies are more aggressive than they've ever been, yet they think it's a good idea to make it this slow. Even K2 is faster. This makes it really bad in group fights, compared to Agent where you'll just destroy them with the gadgets. Triple finishers are also unsafe. You don't even get a speed boost in EX Heat either.
- On that note, finishing holds being relegated to EX Heat is also really stupid. It's not like they're even broken compared to gadgets, they even removed one of the finishing holds.
- While Agent's gadgets are nice, most of the finishers or heavy attacks are rather unsafe to use and have long recovery. Also, in EX Heat, the EX Heat combo of Agent is s instead of t, which means that they replaced the normal rush combos. A bit annoying.
- Building up heat takes literally forever. It's especially bad in early game, where you only have one or two bars. Using a heat action without Indra's Amulet drains the entire bar, and good luck trying to build it up again. Really strange that if you dash into objects and furniture using Serpent, you'll get way more heat compared to just hitting enemies normally
- Gun enemies, there are way too many of them. Not much of an issue late game where you have more than enough tools to deal with them. Not so much early game, where they throw these fellas at you (even making some of them bosses). Just garbage.
- Majima, Saejima and Daigo's moveset are limited and not complete (if you buy the DLC). Yet when you fight them, they have their complete moveset. Thank god for mods (yet again).
- No NG+ is idiotic. Just because the game is shorter, that doesn't excuse it. Nothing mods can't fix, but that's no excuse either.

Infinity:

It's nothing to be proud of, but this game is at least miles better than Y6 and K2. The best DE game is easily Lost Judgement.

Also regarding grabs, are you referring to normal grabs, or finishing holds? I do agree that finishing holds suck in this game because it costs heat and you need to be in EX Heat mode. Fun fact, if you grab a boss after their wakeup attack or if they retaliate, you can grab them indefinitely. It's a thing that carried over from LJ, which you can use to set up the wall heat action.

Raeng:

Speaking of the damage, it is insane. Good thing I've finished the game without any upgrades, or else it would've been boring. You can even beat Amon in under a minute with the right set up. The King Justice fight absolutely sucks for this reason though, with the time limit and the insane HP of enemies. You know what would be cool? If you enter EX Heat, Kiryu retains his old moveset. This way, you can have both the DE and classic moveset.

In general I feel that damage-value increases should not have a place in action-games, regardless of the RPG-suffix. It always leads the exact same issues namely that players are either too weak, leading to dull monotonous fights where you deal 0.1% damage per finisher or way too over the top steamrolls where an intimidating boss loses all its luster as you decimate him in 2 blows. It's rare to get to a point where the balance is found. The giant double boss fight before the end was supposed to be dramatic, until my Joryu deleted like 5 healthbars worth of pain with a single heat-action.

> meterbuilding is slow
Noticed this too. I think it's value is different here maybe, since heat is more a single-enemy/boss removal tool, whereas in earlier games it often wouldn't even kill a medium thug outright. Was more surprised by how many of them were locked behind very, very specific setups or the EX form or low/max health.

> agression
The highlight for sure, though also felt it was a bit clumsy and a bandaid, but a welcome one.

>damage-value increases should not have a place in action-games, regardless of the RPG-suffix.

Agreed. Basically the only time I think damage increases are interesting are when they're a meaningful choice you're making (Dark Souls), or tied to interesting new tools (new weapons and skills). Otherwise, they just get in the way for no real gain other than giving the player the illusion of increasing strength.

>Heat actions locked behind specific setups

Not a fan of this too. Especially since the group heat actions are the ones that require specific things, such as low or full HP.

>Damage values shouldn't play a role

Agreed. I've seen people absolutely destroy the final boss because of this, there was more time spent on the action sequences rather than actually fighting him. It's a good thing I'm aware of recent RGG games doing this, back in the older games the damage was balanced, even if you're fully upgraded.

I also completed a NUR of Y0 recently, the quick change clothes is still busted. Too bad Majima doesn't have it.

NOTE: I'm not going to play it anytime soon, but Infinite Wealth locking NG+ behind DLC is absolutely scummy. Not surprised since it's Sega.

> meaningful choice damaage values
Even then it feels like it removes the value of other options instead, as higher-damage often becomes the optimal strategy. Especially in games with less depth. They really feel like what you said, illusions of improvement. Like going back to an earlier fight with a fully upgraded gun and nuking it, sure it feels empowering, but it isn't really. Going back to it with the same setup as before, but with new knowledge, and THEN winning feels fantastic though.

> Infinite Wealth NG+ dlc
Very surprised by this since Yakuza tended to avoid the DLC debacle.

> damage values in older games
It could get pretty crazy in Y0, but it really needed a ton of grinding which most would avoid or not naturally find. But otherwise an unupgraded Kiryu was, to a degree, just as dangerous as max upgrades. He just had less combat options and suffered more from heat-move staling since he had less options.

>Yakuza tends to avoid DLC cancer

For most of its history yes. Not so much recently. Lost Judgement locked an entire fighting style behind DLC. Yakuza 7's initial release in Japan also locked NG+ to DLC, this was changed for the worldwide release. Last year's Ishin remake has a higher difficulty than Legend, yet again locked behind a paywall.

It infuriates me, but I guess that's the price to pay for the series getting popular.

Fattah86 wrote:Finished Yakuza Gaiden recently, and I've been replaying some of the other games in the series too. Overall a solid game, but not quite the best. Some thoughts:

Positives:
- Agent's gadgets are really good and fun to use, especially against crowds. Especially in EX Heat, pretty much any gadget will destroy groups of enemies.
- Agent's EX Heat counters are free damage source, you don't need any special timing to do it. Also sets up juggling.
- Juggling is in the game, and due to the damage scaling (which is comparable to Kiwami 2), they do insane damage. I didn't even upgrade my attack power, yet I was still doing almost an entire HP of damage just from the juggling. The six second juggle limit is due to the damage scaling, compared to Lost Judgement where there is damage decay (your juggles doing less damage over time).
- While it's a bummer that Komaki Parry is not in the game, Komaki Knockback gets a buff where you can stun bosses with it.  Unlike the older games where it's more of a "get off me" move.
- In comparison to most Yakuza games, enemies are quite aggressive in this game, which is refreshing.
- Shishido is just a phenomenal boss and character, nothing else needs to be said.

Negatives:

- Yakuza style is pathetically slow. Enemies are more aggressive than they've ever been, yet they think it's a good idea to make it this slow. Even K2 is faster. This makes it really bad in group fights, compared to Agent where you'll just destroy them with the gadgets. Triple finishers are also unsafe. You don't even get a speed boost in EX Heat either.
- On that note, finishing holds being relegated to EX Heat is also really stupid. It's not like they're even broken compared to gadgets, they even removed one of the finishing holds.
- While Agent's gadgets are nice, most of the finishers or heavy attacks are rather unsafe to use and have long recovery. Also, in EX Heat, the EX Heat combo of Agent is s instead of t, which means that they replaced the normal rush combos. A bit annoying.
- Building up heat takes literally forever. It's especially bad in early game, where you only have one or two bars. Using a heat action without Indra's Amulet drains the entire bar, and good luck trying to build it up again. Really strange that if you dash into objects and furniture using Serpent, you'll get way more heat compared to just hitting enemies normally
- Gun enemies, there are way too many of them. Not much of an issue late game where you have more than enough tools to deal with them. Not so much early game, where they throw these fellas at you (even making some of them bosses). Just garbage.
- Majima, Saejima and Daigo's moveset are limited and not complete (if you buy the DLC). Yet when you fight them, they have their complete moveset. Thank god for mods (yet again).
- No NG+ is idiotic. Just because the game is shorter, that doesn't excuse it. Nothing mods can't fix, but that's no excuse either.

Infinity:

It's nothing to be proud of, but this game is at least miles better than Y6 and K2. The best DE game is easily Lost Judgement.

Also regarding grabs, are you referring to normal grabs, or finishing holds? I do agree that finishing holds suck in this game because it costs heat and you need to be in EX Heat mode. Fun fact, if you grab a boss after their wakeup attack or if they retaliate, you can grab them indefinitely. It's a thing that carried over from LJ, which you can use to set up the wall heat action.

Raeng:

Speaking of the damage, it is insane. Good thing I've finished the game without any upgrades, or else it would've been boring. You can even beat Amon in under a minute with the right set up. The King Justice fight absolutely sucks for this reason though, with the time limit and the insane HP of enemies. You know what would be cool? If you enter EX Heat, Kiryu retains his old moveset. This way, you can have both the DE and classic moveset.

It's crazy how the combat mod on PC fixes a large majority of Gaiden's issues. Yakuza style is faster, you can perform finishing holds without EX, You have combo strings with Y just like Lost Judgement, more charged attacks etc etc

There's even a NG+ mod on PC

I had alot of fun with Gaiden as there's no filler content (apart from 1 or 2 objectives) and "RGG-isms" in the main campaign. Heck, even the side missions are 90% combat focused. Another bonus is that it's relatively a short game (like 7 hours max) compared to it's predecessors. 

It's also really hard when doing a professional mode no items run. LJ was piss easy, even on a hard no items run for like 90% of the game. Also, Enemies can get really aggressive in Gaiden, attacking you from all directions, you gotta be calculated with your strikes.

>Mods fix most of the game's issues

True. Which is the reason why I got the game on PC. Gotta feel bad for people who are on console though.

>RGG-isms

I'd usually save that after the story, but yeah there is barely any filler. Even with me doing most of the side content, it took me less than 20 hours to beat the game.

>Pro no-item run

Definitely challenging, especially in long battles.

>LJ is too easy

Agreed. The combat system is great, but I do wish enemies would put up a fight. Instead, they'd all take turns attacking you. I did a run without upgrading my attack and HP, but with all skills. It was a lot more engaging and fun.

Yeah it's short length and that the sidemissions were a lot more combat focused really helped imo, was a nice 'snack' game.

Granblue Fantasy Relink.

I'll make a topic and anyone interested can ask questions.

I just completed Jak 2. The naysers are wrong and got filtered. Jak 2 is masterpiece. Naughty Dog's best game.

I hated the vehicles in it, and I thought the open world was pointless, but I loved the game regardless. The actual missions and platforming were great.

Birdman wrote:Granblue Fantasy Relink.

I'll make a topic and anyone interested can ask questions.

I played it and thought it was ok but you literally can't die? Lol like I kept getting revived by my party, even when I removed all my NPC party, I tried to die and see what happens but the mf kept reviving himself, like bro just die lmao

GN1 wrote:I hated the vehicles in it, and I thought the open world was pointless, but I loved the game regardless. The actual missions and platforming were great.

The vehicles controlled fine, the problem is that they had the durability of toilet paper. I like how the open-world didn't get bogged down by pointless side activities. Too many open-world have distractions that are glorified busy work. Most of the missions in Jak 2 were great, even that dock mission wasn't THAT hard. The only missions that were awful were the racing missions. I enjoyed Jak 2 than most of the GTA games.

Playing Tekken 8 at the moment, and enjoying it quite a bit. I was a bit hesitant as I didn't really enjoy T7 that much, but it seemed to be getting universal praise (much like GG Strive and SF6 did when they came out) and Tekken is one of my all-time favourite series, so I went for it. Spent the first couple of days playing through the story and arcade quest modes to get a feel for the mechanics.

Then, I decided to be brave and take the plunge into online and I'm finding that I'm doing a lot better than I expected! Currently at Destroyer rank with Alisa and Assailant rank with Steve.

Anybody else pick it up?