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I'm vaguely curious as to how psychic specializations work. Cuz like, Raz has access to a bunch of skills, and the Interns and the OG 'Nauts (plus Sasha, Milla and Hollis) all have things they specialize in (Morris and Milla on Levitation, Sasha on Psy Blast, Bob on his plant manipulation, Sam and Compton with speaking to animals, etc.) but we can also see they're not like, fully locked into them (rewatch the Hollis's Classroom intro and you can see Lizzie using Telekinesis to poke Raz while he's not looking even though her thing is cryokinesis). Is it like, natural talent for a specific psychic ability, or just choosing to focus on one thing to be really good at and then a base of supporting/side stuff just in case that won't work/isn't enough?
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Sep 5, 2021 02:53
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Finished it today, on the whole it was a fun game, but there were a couple things that just didn't quite get there for me. The combat could have used another pass, I think--a lot of enemies have short-telegraph "get off of me" attacks, which is fine, but you can't dodge out of your own attacks, and enemies will frequently hit you before you can get off a full combo And even if you slow them down, you generally can't get a full combo on the enemies that demand it. And at range, there's a little too much psi-blast dodging for my taste. The other part was, well, the plot in the back half of the game the story they're telling is a good one, the pieces are all there, but as you get into endgame it just isn't able to sew them together tightly enough. The other interns showing up again is a good example of this, because while you absolutely could have had the connection with them to make this work, you haven't seen them in a plot capacity since the Lady Lucktopus. They don't feel like your friends to that degree, particularly Pirate Radio guy being the last of the group and doing... not much? At some point I just lost my engagement, and it made the gaps stand out more, and it compounded on itself. It's a good game, and it's complete, there's just a lot of places where you can clearly see there was meant to be more.
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Sep 5, 2021 02:53
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From what is presented it seems psychics have various natural inclinations for certain kinds of moves and can master others. The issue seems to be that not everyone can explain whatever new unique powers they have to other people in a way for people to master them, so certain powers (like hydrokinesis) aren't available to everyone.
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Sep 5, 2021 03:24
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Two bitches: 1 - it's dumb that you get locked into the last area before you get the last skill so you can't go back and finish collecting. 2 - you can't get to 102 until it has no function any more
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Sep 5, 2021 03:36
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Finished last night. I agree with the general sentiment that it felt a bit threadbare near the end, but still a very fun and heartfelt game.
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Sep 5, 2021 03:53
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Clockwork Rocktapus posted:Just finished the game, loved it, and am super hungry for more, but I was left wondering something with Otto. With so much of the game being about going into the founders minds and helping them deal with trauma from the Maligula incident, how is Otto "fine"? Before I reached the end, I was guessing there would be a level in his brain because usually people who appear completely fine and functional after massive trauma are actually super broken internally and just don't show it. My suspicion is that if there's another sequel he will be a/the villain and they are holding off on exploring his brain for that. The guy gave me serious mad scientist vibes the whole game and unless I'm misremembering there was a lot of weirdness surrounding how Helmut's brain got into Otto's collection unrelated to the the czar or Maligula.
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Sep 5, 2021 03:57
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Something interesting about Otto is he seems to casually hate Ford. Talking with him post game, he very matter of factly referred to him as abusive and expected him to ruin the psychonauts financially now that he was back. He also said he had plenty of venture capitalists interested in him. If there is a P3, I think it will be from this Psychonauts sell out angle.
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Sep 5, 2021 04:39
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oh otto and ford pretty openly hate each other, in that old men set in their ways fashion. it's never resolved or even examined, but ford's interpersonal skills are and always have been atrocious. cut content or sequel bait.
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Sep 5, 2021 04:52
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readingatwork posted:My suspicion is that if there's another sequel he will be a/the villain and they are holding off on exploring his brain for that. The guy gave me serious mad scientist vibes the whole game and unless I'm misremembering there was a lot of weirdness surrounding how Helmut's brain got into Otto's collection unrelated to the the czar or Maligula. In regards to the above, there is a vault memory that explains how Otto found the brain without knowing it was Helmut's, which until that point I had felt was a bit of a plothole as well. Basically Helmut ejects his brain when he realizes he is about to be frozen, and Ford gets it and puts it into one of those bubble things, but after all the stuff he does with Lucy/Nona and the Aquatos, he deliberately fractures his own mind because he can't deal with the guilt and trauma anymore, and he completely forgets about Helmut's brain which just gets left sitting forgotten till Otto happens by, finds it, and confused since he has no idea whose brain it is, just adds it to his brain collection and doesn't (seemingly) think about it beyond that. There could absolutely be something more to come from this, but I did feel they at least gave an answer to that question.
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Sep 5, 2021 04:55
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iirc there are a handful of lines with the old crew when they learn ford has come back. helmut has an unambiguiously positive perspective since he's been on ice the whole time, cassie clearly has some dependency issues and i think literally everyone else has a negative opinion of him? boole is tormented by the recollection of him, he and otto openly snipe back and forth and bob barely seems to remember him at all. and to say nothing of lucy! he's not a very nice guy and the last twenty years hasn't been very kind to him. otto might have handled stuff better on the basis he was never "really" in the inner circle.
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Sep 5, 2021 04:59
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Very early in the game Otto does exhibit obvious regret and guilt for a moment when he hears their latest troubles involve Maligula, openly blaming himself, and it is later revealed in the game that he was the one who found and brought Lucretia into the Psychonauts in the first place, because he saw her power over water as a way to extract psitanium from the quarry faster than what they were doing themselves. It is perhaps the only time I can recall that Otto exhibits anything other than borderline arrogant self-belief in himself.
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Sep 5, 2021 04:59
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also i'm like 90% sure he just has a soft spot for raz, his characterization in the ottomatics and how he treats you are quite different. my read was he was a grouchy old gently caress to more or less everyone else.
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Sep 5, 2021 05:01
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About Otto, I was also one of the people 100% sure he was the mole. And then, nope!! He’s just kind of weird. I believe that the writers really leaned into his name being similar to Auto- in that he tends to do things his own way, alone. He definitely is not well regarded by the others, and his psychic powers seem to be pretty weak overall. He’s also the only one of the 7 not paired off with someone else. So I just think he’s a bit of a happy lone wolf, and I hope a third game would continue to subvert the expectation that he’s a secret bad guy and continue to build him up as his own person.CoolCab posted:iirc there are a handful of lines with the old crew when they learn ford has come back. helmut has an unambiguiously positive perspective since he's been on ice the whole time, cassie clearly has some dependency issues and i think literally everyone else has a negative opinion of him? cassie definitely disliked him, if you find the room at the top of the library with paper versions of the 7 thanks alot assbag fucked around with this message at 05:26 on Sep 5, 2021 |
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Sep 5, 2021 05:22
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CoolCab posted:also i'm like 90% sure he just has a soft spot for raz, his characterization in the ottomatics and how he treats you are quite different. my read was he was a grouchy old gently caress to more or less everyone else. I think it's good characterization. Otto has a bit of an ego and loves talking about his gadgets, Raz is constantly doing the hero worship thing and precociously curious. I don't know that Otto is so much a jerk as single-minded and the other agents either don't respect him or don't respect his work so it's kind of a mutual dislike. It sounds like he also gets along with Sasha which makes sense. Hub Cat fucked around with this message at 05:37 on Sep 5, 2021 |
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Sep 5, 2021 05:24
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Barudak posted:Then I think the theory that it doesn't spawn until a return visit might have some real credence, which would be unbelievably rude if true. Some figments get moved around if you miss them in an area you can't get back to. King Vidiot posted:As soon as it started up I was like well, they did it, they brought it back. Thankfully it was just a nice nod to the original, and probably put in the game to give everybody a panic attack when they heard that music. It worked on me.
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Sep 5, 2021 05:32
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Can I just say that it is so nice that the game has a gay couple that is plot-important but isn't remarked upon or seen as odd at all
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Sep 5, 2021 05:39
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Hub Cat posted:I think it's good characterization. Otto has a bit of an ego and loves talking about his gadgets, Raz is constantly doing the hero worship thing and precociously curious. yeah, and he's introduced through sasha, and sasha thinks incredibly highly of you, literally seeing you as a younger version of himself. you learn from the ottomatics, otto's explicit reason for building a gigantic off-site laboratory and a series of vending machines was to prevent people coming over to bother him - that seems to be true of everyone but raz. The Lord of Hats posted:Finished it today, on the whole it was a fun game, but there were a couple things that just didn't quite get there for me. The combat could have used another pass, I think--a lot of enemies have short-telegraph "get off of me" attacks, which is fine, but you can't dodge out of your own attacks, and enemies will frequently hit you before you can get off a full combo And even if you slow them down, you generally can't get a full combo on the enemies that demand it. And at range, there's a little too much psi-blast dodging for my taste. my friend noticed this; why do enablers, a caster and buffing mob, have what is by a wide margin best melee attack in the game. there's no windup, it hits in a 360 degree swing and does damage and knockbacks? CoolCab fucked around with this message at 05:46 on Sep 5, 2021 |
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Sep 5, 2021 05:43
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CoolCab posted:yeah, and he's introduced through sasha, and sasha thinks incredibly highly of you, literally seeing you as a younger version of himself. you learn from the ottomatics, otto's explicit reason for building a gigantic off-site laboratory and a series of vending machines was to prevent people coming over to bother him - that seems to be true of everyone but raz. I think that is to prevent people from going up to them and meleeing them. I'm pretty sure the intent was to force the player to use a psi ability to attack.
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Sep 5, 2021 05:53
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Junpei posted:Can I just say that it is so nice that the game has a gay couple that is plot-important but isn't remarked upon or seen as odd at all Same -- I had missed the hint in the song, but the way the next section just lays it all out very naturally for you to pick up on... it was really good. And that's not even getting into Bob's Bottles, either. I was genuinely touched.
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Sep 5, 2021 05:56
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the line i wasn't expecting them to get away with was "yeah, they used to get high up there". definitely would not have made it in the original, had a moment to go gently caress me has the world changed in sixteen years.
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Sep 5, 2021 05:59
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Re: Otto talk, I think I actually really like him as a character. I was definitely one of the people that thought he was the mole due to his apparent indifference with everything, but in retrospect, I'm... kind of glad there's a character who came out of the whole thing more or less stable? Otto's not a bad guy, he's just an extreme introvert who wasn't so emotionally reliant on his friend group that he's still devastated by losing them 20 years later. He can acknowledge his mistakes, such as by regretting bringing Lucretia in in the first place, but he's not hung up on them in the wildly unhealthy ways the rest of the group is. We're throwing around "psychopath" a lot when referring to Otto but it's probably worth pointing out that it's been 20 years since the incident. It's okay to move past your grief and trauma over people dying and friend groups drifting apart, especially over such a large time frame. We don't know that Otto was never upset about what happened, only that he isn't upset now. I'd still love to get a glimpse into his head and see if he genuinely was okay in the aftermath or if he just went to therapy and worked on things, but for now it could go either way and I'm fine with that. I agree with one of the previous posters that I hope the third game (if there is one) doesn't turn him into a bad guy. Also frankly, I kind of agree with him on his dislike of Ford. I sympathized with Ford and felt bad for what he went through but also holy poo poo, he pulled some incredible rear end in a top hat moves that he never got comeuppance for. Kinda came out of this one feeling like Ford was getting off as lightly as Oleander did after the first game. CoolCab posted:you learn from the ottomatics, otto's explicit reason for building a gigantic off-site laboratory and a series of vending machines was to prevent people coming over to bother him - that seems to be true of everyone but raz. This may be less a specific interest in Raz and more that Otto's methods have worked too well - nobody comes over to talk to him anymore. As an extreme introvert myself, I'm fine with being left alone for 99% of the time but sometimes you do feel the rare urge to interact with people, only now it's weird to do so because you've spent so long avoiding it. You don't want to the interaction to just be "wow, look who's finally coming around to talk to everyone," so you wait for people to come to you, only they don't. If Raz is the first person in a long while to make the effort to come see him, Otto might be pleased about it - for now anyway. That's just speculation though.
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Sep 5, 2021 07:23
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Regardless of any of this, I still love this little exchange after you finish both Cassie and Bob: Raz: It still works! Ford: Of course it still works! Otto over-engineers everything. Otto: Cruller, I think that's the nicest thing you've ever said about me!
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Sep 5, 2021 07:52
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One thing that did work for me with the Gzar endgame stuff was the enormous crowns in the final level. That was genuinely funny to me. I also liked his assertions about his country being great because "You weren't there.. I was!" but not having the self awareness to realise that it was only good for HIM.
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Sep 5, 2021 08:05
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BioEnchanted posted:One thing that did work for me with the Gzar endgame stuff was the enormous crowns in the final level. That was genuinely funny to me. I also liked his assertions about his country being great because "You weren't there.. I was!" but not having the self awareness to realise that it was only good for HIM. "I had a candy floss machine in my bedroom!"
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Sep 5, 2021 08:13
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I also loved (act 2 discussion about the family moving in) Raz's father being an actual father as well as being there to be a goofy psychic idiot having too much fun with his powers. Like when Raz tries to hint at Frazie being psychic too, and his dad just admonishes him gently with "That's not your place to discuss that. Let her come to us when she's ready instead of outing her like an rear end in a top hat..." Also Raz's interactions with Dion were interesting too, him pushing Raz away performatively but being secretly saddened that his act is working too well and that Raz genuinely doesn't want to hang out anymore by the end. Dion's only hurting himself there as Raz will be better off without him, but he's too stubborn to just apologise and rebuild the bridge that he is burning.
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Sep 5, 2021 08:25
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BioEnchanted posted:I also loved (act 2 discussion about the family moving in) Raz's father being an actual father as well as being there to be a goofy psychic idiot having too much fun with his powers. Like when Raz tries to hint at Frazie being psychic too, and his dad just admonishes him gently with "That's not your place to discuss that. Let her come to us when she's ready instead of outing her like an rear end in a top hat..." Also Raz's interactions with Dion were interesting too, him pushing Raz away performatively but being secretly saddened that his act is working too well and that Raz genuinely doesn't want to hang out anymore by the end. Dion's only hurting himself there as Raz will be better off without him, but he's too stubborn to just apologise and rebuild the bridge that he is burning. All of this was great, I've really loved a lot of the character interactions - except for the other interns who still just seem to feel kind of half baked to me. Waltzing Along posted:Two bitches: Seconding both of these though.
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Sep 5, 2021 08:49
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Re: the family, I love that in the postgame Dion is excitedly explaining all these amazing things to Raz he's learned about psychics and how they're actually NOT evil demonic monsters  . Even better though is Frazie trying to explain the family tree to their little sister who basically cuts through all the bullshit to say,"Nona's still our Nona  ".
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Sep 5, 2021 09:01
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Dion has some pretty generous readings from you guys when he thinks of Raz as a punching bag even in the post game. I think he's just a dick.
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Sep 5, 2021 09:35
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Small little figment reference I noticed: in Cassie's mind one of the figments is a discworld book. this isn't really important, but it's cute. EDIT: also whoever was just complaining about too much psi-blast dodging and enemies with really absurd counter-attacks: Enablers can still do their obscenely powerful dodge move even when slowed down, between that ability and their counter on top of making other enemies immortal; it just makes them outright awful to deal with. Nuebot fucked around with this message at 10:07 on Sep 5, 2021 |
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Sep 5, 2021 09:45
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I always just used Pyrokinesis for enemies like that, it seemed to take care of most issues fairly efficiently.
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Sep 5, 2021 10:08
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ThisIsACoolGuy posted:Dion has some pretty generous readings from you guys when he thinks of Raz as a punching bag even in the post game. I think he's just a dick. With regards to Dion, considering Raz effectively abandoned his family to go on psychic adventures, I can understand how Dion would see that as a betrayal and have a negative opinion of him. We can only guess the amount of stress and responsibility that was foisted on him being the eldest (I believe) child after Raz left to become the thing that was pretty much the reason for all their suffering up until the truth came out. He still loves Raz, but at the same time probably sees him as an easier avenue for his pain and anger. I had the association of a punching bag as something to inflict frustration/pain upon. Dion has, arguably, justifiable reasons to be mad at Raz. Is it healthy? Probably not. Dion is a teenager though and it’s going to take time to untangle the feelings and mess that was left behind by Ford and his mind loving shenanigans. All in all, I like Raz’s family  .
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Sep 5, 2021 10:53
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ThisIsACoolGuy posted:Dion has some pretty generous readings from you guys when he thinks of Raz as a punching bag even in the post game. I think he's just a dick. He always looks pretty sad whenever you end a conversation with him though. Like I dunno, even in their first conversations I feel like his older siblings come off like they do care about Raz even if they're jerks about it.
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Sep 5, 2021 10:56
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I've got literally I even know the figments I'm missing in PSI King,
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Sep 5, 2021 11:10
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SyntheticPolygon posted:He always looks pretty sad whenever you end a conversation with him though. Like I dunno, even in their first conversations I feel like his older siblings come off like they do care about Raz even if they're jerks about it. Yeah, Dion's got a really good balance of teenage frustration in how he's written. He's letting off a lot of steam and acting standoffish, but the way he looks as Raz leaves a conversation always tells you the whole story of how he actually feels. His older sister's also quite clearly just ribbing him when she says stuff like "later, traitor!"
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Sep 5, 2021 11:13
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It's also really obvious that he has a habit of saying things without thinking because you can see him literally like. wince/immediately regret it when he says stuff like the family would be better off if raz wasn't a part of it ever again. Give us a DLC where raz has to go on a mission with the family so he gets an entire section of just him and one of his siblings 1v1ing something 
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Sep 5, 2021 11:20
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Found the one in Fatherland Follies, that just leaves the very last one in PSI King's Sensorium. Well, there are worse levels to be scouring. e: Got it, it was Right next to Vision's knee in the Eye Shrine. e2: Isn't there supposed to be a cutscene for rank 102 or something? I went and talked to Harold, but he only has the same dialogue. Dareon fucked around with this message at 11:52 on Sep 5, 2021 |
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Sep 5, 2021 11:33
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In the boss fight for compton's cook off is there any rhyme or reason to whether or not you'll get a correct ingredient from the vomit? I feel like I can go waves without getting what I need, and it kind of makes a fight I already don't like all the more tedious. Just seems to needlessly pad out the length of the fight. That fight aside, everything else about the game thus far has been an overwhelming success.
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Sep 5, 2021 11:35
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The thing you need is always there, its just that because its always groups of five there's no guarantee you'll see it unless you're REALLY fast about grabbing and then chucking the wrong ones. the TK upgrade that makes you grab things faster probably helps with that fight
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Sep 5, 2021 11:50
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magimix posted:In the boss fight for compton's cook off is there any rhyme or reason to whether or not you'll get a correct ingredient from the vomit? I feel like I can go waves without getting what I need, and it kind of makes a fight I already don't like all the more tedious. Just seems to needlessly pad out the length of the fight. Seems completely random. I once got 5 potatoes in a row, which would have been super cool if I wasn't looking for an egg at the time.
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Sep 5, 2021 11:52
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Mix. posted:The thing you need is always there, its just that because its always groups of five there's no guarantee you'll see it unless you're REALLY fast about grabbing and then chucking the wrong ones. the TK upgrade that makes you grab things faster probably helps with that fight Maybe just bad luck then. I had multiple instances of grabbing 4 items (I feel like I did grab *all* the stuff at times, but its hectic to maybe not), and none of them being the thing. I think it is a needless wrinkle for that fight to have. Funnily enough, I nabbed the upgrade you mention after that fight. 
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Sep 5, 2021 11:53
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