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Neruz
Jul 23, 2012

A paragon of manliness

Archaotic posted:

Patrick Stewart pretty much does whatever he wants nowadays. I wouldn't be surprised if he does play video games in his spare time - the guy just legitimately does not give a gently caress anymore. It's kind of amazing.

He's in the enviable position of having sufficient money and credability that he doesn't need to do anything else for the rest of his life except what he wants to do. Patrick Stewart has everything he needs and is perfectly comfortable with that, so he just spends his time doing whatever it is he wants to do.

So yeah, I could actually see Patrick Stewart narrating some kind of web series for funsies.

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Zain
Dec 6, 2009

It's only forever, not long at all
I like Patrick Stewart, but drat do I get annoyed that every game that tries to be "epic" in some way uses him. It almost feels like a trope now. High Fantasy: Check, Heroes Tale: Check, will be it "Epic": Check, okay let's get Patrick Stewart to voice someone then.

Zanzibar Ham
Mar 17, 2009

You giving me the cold shoulder? How cruel.


Grimey Drawer
At least they didn't make Zobek look like Patrick.

RSCNyx
Mar 6, 2013

It's okay, little guy. I would be scared too.


No fucks given.

Honestly, I would of preferred Zobek looking like this. Skeeballs would be his primary weapon.

Cardiovorax
Jun 5, 2011

I mean, if you're a successful actress and you go out of the house in a skirt and without underwear, knowing that paparazzi are just waiting for opportunities like this and that it has happened many times before, then there's really nobody you can blame for it but yourself.
Patrick Steward is cool because he starred in the only good Star Trek series, but everything else he's been in since then has been a steaming turd. I don't know why anyone even cares anymore.

Zain
Dec 6, 2009

It's only forever, not long at all

Cardiovorax posted:

Patrick Steward is cool because he starred in the only good Star Trek series, but everything else he's been in since then has been a steaming turd. I don't know why anyone even cares anymore.

He's a good actor, so it's not like the things he is in suck because of him though.

Pizdec
Dec 10, 2012

Cardiovorax posted:

Patrick Steward is cool because he starred in the only good Star Trek series, but everything else he's been in since then has been a steaming turd. I don't know why anyone even cares anymore.
Hamlet is a piece of poo poo!

Neruz
Jul 23, 2012

A paragon of manliness

Zain posted:

He's a good actor, so it's not like the things he is in suck because of him though.

Exactly, he's been in plenty of terrible things but his performance is excellent across the board regardless of how stupid the script he's following. The man is a consummate professional when it comes to acting and doesn't give a poo poo anymore outside the studio.

BMS
Mar 11, 2009

by FactsAreUseless

Mehuyael posted:

At least they didn't make Zobek look like Patrick.


RSCNyx posted:



No fucks given.

Honestly, I would of preferred Zobek looking like this. Skeeballs would be his primary weapon.

You mean like this?



Just have that be his facial texture throughout the entire game, never changing just like in the old PS1 days.

"SO GABRIEL, COULDN'T HELP BUT OVERHEAR, BUT WAS THAT YOUR DEAD WIFE JUST NOW?" :smug:

BMS fucked around with this message at 02:27 on Apr 6, 2014

BMS
Mar 11, 2009

by FactsAreUseless
:siren:Update!:siren:



So this time around we get to put our Light Medallion we received from Zobek into practice. It allows us to use Light Magic, which slightly weakens our Combat Cross, in exchange for slightly healing us with every successful hit. We also pick up the "Focus Scroll", which works the same way the Devil May Cry combat rank system does, except that when you fully power your focus meter, enemies drop numerous Neutral Magic orbs (Refills your magic) upon each successful hit. Handy, especially during boss fights!

The tutorials are starting to slow down a bit, and to be honest, this is the last major section of hand-holding that this game does for a decent time. Unfortunately, the game just continues to "borrow" from other games. First it was the God of War style combat, which personally I find different enough to be enjoyable and not cause me to constantly think, "gently caress, another GoW clone". Then there was the Shadow of the Colossus style Titan fight. Devil May Cry could be considered as well, and now...of all things to borrow from for a Castlevania game, Zelda: Ocarina of Time.

How does this game do that you ask? Well, here is the lore that I mention in the video, that discusses the great "Dekuh" tree. Plus an entire level revolves around going inside the tree trunk, and killing giant spiders. Totally not ripping off the Gohma quest.

"The Great Dekuh tree was once the largest and most gorgeous tree in the forest; it was so tall, that it's canopy could be seen from many miles away. Some people even believed that it was alive, and that it's magical power protected the forest from the attacks of dark creatures. I don't know if the legends were real, but the truth is that the Dark Lords, maybe seeing the tree as a symbol of life, cursed it with a plague that still remains alive, beneath it's dead stump."

With that, instead of being rewarded with a Spiritual Stone, (which SOUNDS like it would be oddly fitting of this game story), we're rewarded with a Combat Cross upgrade, that gives us a spiked chain. This allows us to tame certain monsters so we can ride them around. Sounds like a great way to introduce this right? Well, the designers opted instead, to offer the first use of this upgrade being its awesome function of SAWING THROUGH SOLID STONE PILLARS.

I...I still hold to the fact that I enjoy the hell out of this game, but looking objectively at it while doing this LP, it's flaws are becoming bigger and bigger. :(

Also, feel free to suggest an upgrade for me to purchase. Otherwise I'll just tinker around myself and probably waste some points on the worst upgrades first...because this is Lords of Shadow, and we are Gabriel Belmont...gently caress LOGIC.

Cardiovorax
Jun 5, 2011

I mean, if you're a successful actress and you go out of the house in a skirt and without underwear, knowing that paparazzi are just waiting for opportunities like this and that it has happened many times before, then there's really nobody you can blame for it but yourself.
Focus orbs: the shittiest mechanic. You're good at the game and not getting hit? Congratulations, have a bunch of magic orbs you don't really need. You're having trouble with a fight? gently caress you, back to the checkpoint you go!

I still don't think much of the game, but I really like your commentary; it's pretty funny.

Agartha, by the way, is one of at least a dozen different "sunken cities" in European mythology, like Vineta, Ys or Camelot. It isn't really distinguished from all the other ones by much of anything, except maybe that Theosophism, which was a popular brand of occultism during the early 20th century, conflated it with a different lost city from Asian mythology.

Pelican Dunderhead
Jun 16, 2010

Ah! Hello Ershin!
Pillbug
Vacuuming up magic orbs as a mechanic would probably help if you didn't have to do a crouching animation every time, breaking the combat flow.

I can see why they did it to make you have a risk/reward thing but as said if you're doing well in combat you don't need the orbs.

anilEhilated
Feb 17, 2014

But I say fuck the rain.

Grimey Drawer

Cardiovorax posted:

Agartha, by the way, is one of at least a dozen different "sunken cities" in European mythology, like Vineta, Ys or Camelot. It isn't really distinguished from all the other ones by much of anything, except maybe that Theosophism, which was a popular brand of occultism during the early 20th century, conflated it with a different lost city from Asian mythology.

Say what you will about occultism, it sure as hell ain't exclusive. They'll connect anything with anything as long as it's sufficiently stupid. That being said, out of all the cities they could've gone with, they pick the one now associated with the Himalayas.

Also, spiders. This game's spiders are what made me stop playing it; while I'm arachnophobic I can normally deal with spiders in games easily - not those ones. The whole spider sneaking up on hero thing looks stupid as hell, but it sure scared the poo poo out of me.

AnotherGamer
Jan 12, 2007
Please change my name to "The Guff Machine"
I never did understand exactly why did they make it so that the double the normal amount of magic of either type drains away slowly when you fill it up from from those orb fountains, I barely remember any points where I had any extra magic left to use on enemies with the large gaps between encounters at times and you need to gather a ridiculous number of orbs via hitting enemies with full focus to be able to max it out in combat.

On unrelated note, I assume I'm the only one who likes to keep all the indicators for exact amount of damage dealt and healed, enemy lifebars and focus gain since barely anyone I've seen play this game seems to bother turning them on.

Pizdec
Dec 10, 2012

Cardiovorax posted:

Focus orbs: the shittiest mechanic. You're good at the game and not getting hit? Congratulations, have a bunch of magic orbs you don't really need. You're having trouble with a fight? gently caress you, back to the checkpoint you go!
I think the idea is to encourage the use of magic to make the admittedly limited combat system less monotonous. Which would be great if not for the fact that magic is a mostly passive effect that doesn't really impact the way you fight. They fixed it somewhat in the sequel though.

I had a lot of trouble with the spider on my first playthrough, in fact it was this level that made me change the difficulty to Normal. I guess the protagonist's personality rubbed off on me because I also thought you needed to complete the challenges to 100% the game and didn't realize that the sawing animation was in fact sawing, I just thought Gabriel stuck the spikes in and pulled really hard. :downs:

As far as upgrades go, is the air grab a unique animation for each enemy or is it just a generic one like in Mirror of Fate? If it is unique then that would be a nice thing to show off, otherwise I guess I'd suggest the heavy direct slam, it's an awesome looking move that I could never find a use for and so far this LP has been great for showing off how to get the most out of the combat.

AnotherGamer posted:

On unrelated note, I assume I'm the only one who likes to keep all the indicators for exact amount of damage dealt and healed, enemy lifebars and focus gain since barely anyone I've seen play this game seems to bother turning them on.
Nope, I did that too. The numbers make the combat more satisfying for whatever reason and the lifebars come in handy, especially in the second game because they make faraway or "hidden" enemies easier to spot.


edit - BTW, I always found Alhathkhllha the most boring environment in the game art direction-wise, especially after del Toro land. Can't wait to get some castles instead of just... vania. :downsrim:

Pizdec fucked around with this message at 07:17 on Apr 12, 2014

AnotherGamer
Jan 12, 2007
Please change my name to "The Guff Machine"
Pretty sure every enemy has the same air grab animation: it only seems to work on human-sized or smaller enemies to begin with and always consists of Gabriel smacking the enemy back to the ground with an overhead punch which instakills them like normal grabs. Trying to do it on larger enemies results in the flying kick that brings Gabriel closer to them but doesn't lead into a grab.

Not bothering to turn on the various indicators might be another reason people have a higher option of the combat than it deserves: when you see that a generic direct attack does 20 damage per hit on everything while basically all non-special AoE attack does only 5 per hit, it tends to discourage you from bothering to vary your attacks.

Pizdec posted:

I think the idea is to encourage the use of magic to make the admittedly limited combat system less monotonous. Which would be great if not for the fact that magic is a mostly passive effect that doesn't really impact the way you fight. They fixed it somewhat in the sequel though.

The main problem with their alleged fix is that it tends make the basic combat feel even more limited: when you only have access to your alternate forms of offense that work noticeably differently for short perioids of time and your main weapon is basically the same exact thing you had in the last game except now it glows red, it makes the parts where you don't have access to them stand out even more, especially when they make it a point to encourage you to vary your attacks in order to gain extra proficiency for that type of weapon that gives it a general powerup. Again, like with the draining double-filled mana bars, I don't get why they couldn't just let you use your alternative weapons all the time but without their main secondary effects disabled if you don't have the mana for it.

BMS
Mar 11, 2009

by FactsAreUseless

AnotherGamer posted:

I never did understand exactly why did they make it so that the double the normal amount of magic of either type drains away slowly when you fill it up from from those orb fountains, I barely remember any points where I had any extra magic left to use on enemies with the large gaps between encounters at times and you need to gather a ridiculous number of orbs via hitting enemies with full focus to be able to max it out in combat.

Pizdec posted:

I think the idea is to encourage the use of magic to make the admittedly limited combat system less monotonous. Which would be great if not for the fact that magic is a mostly passive effect that doesn't really impact the way you fight. They fixed it somewhat in the sequel though.

I pretty much agree with Pizdec on that they wanted to give a sense of urgency, in that you can basically use magic without actual cost for a short time...so you're motivated to actually use it in combat. Considering the Orb fountains are fairly far between, the extra boost doesn't help in the slightest except for the next immediate area, sometimes it has combat to utilize it for, sometimes it doesn't. While the magic itself is nice and all, (light magic recovering health, shadow magic increasing damage), the fact that you still use the same combos means that it doesn't spice it up at all like what I THINK they were hoping. Shadow Magic makes Gabriel a boss slayer if used properly, and using Light Magic in short spurts means you're virtually immortal...unless you run out, but mastering the sacred art of square repetition with dodging, and your focus meter should very rarely ever be off during any lengthy combat, which means all the magic you can handle.

Pizdec posted:

I had a lot of trouble with the spider on my first playthrough, in fact it was this level that made me change the difficulty to Normal. I guess the protagonist's personality rubbed off on me because I also thought you needed to complete the challenges to 100% the game and didn't realize that the sawing animation was in fact sawing, I just thought Gabriel stuck the spikes in and pulled really hard. :downs:

Honestly the spiders gave me a bit of trouble my first time through as well. As for the Cross upgrade, yeah, I did too! I looked a bit closer and read the log book entry for it, and immediately thought the same thing as RSCNyx "It's a SAW upgrade? HOW THE gently caress DOES THAT EVEN WORK?". Then I said gently caress it, it's Castlevania, and weirder poo poo has happened.


Pizdec & AnotherGamer posted:

Air Grab

Unfortunately, yes, it only works on smaller enemies, and it's exactly the same. Gabriel brings them up to him in the air with the Cross, and then smacks them away. it's really underwhelming. Speaking of the upgrades, just finished recording the next update, and I went ahead and purchased the Direct Heavy Combo. It's another boss slayer basically. But we'll see that soon enough! Also, I appreciate the compliment on trying to keep the combat varied. It's definitely a game where 90% of the time mashing Square will get you by, but mixing it up a bit can be pretty interesting when possible!

AnotherGamer posted:

On unrelated note, I assume I'm the only one who likes to keep all the indicators for exact amount of damage dealt and healed, enemy lifebars and focus gain since barely anyone I've seen play this game seems to bother turning them on.

Not bothering to turn on the various indicators might be another reason people have a higher option of the combat than it deserves: when you see that a generic direct attack does 20 damage per hit on everything while basically all non-special AoE attack does only 5 per hit, it tends to discourage you from bothering to vary your attacks.

Pizdec posted:

Nope, I did that too. The numbers make the combat more satisfying for whatever reason and the lifebars come in handy, especially in the second game because they make faraway or "hidden" enemies easier to spot.

I left them off simply because the numbers the generate are HUGE, and fly over the screen when they're added up to the exp. total, and the graphics on this game are pretty drat nice, and I don't want it cluttered with RPG stuff. But now that it's been mentioned, for the update after this next one, I'll turn them on for a short time to show what they are, and how they look!

On a related note, as soon as I can get a time scheduled with RSCNyx, and get everything edited, I'll get the next update up. Probably within the next couple of days if all goes well!

RSCNyx
Mar 6, 2013

It's okay, little guy. I would be scared too.

BMS posted:

I left them off simply because the numbers the generate are HUGE, and fly over the screen when they're added up to the exp. total, and the graphics on this game are pretty drat nice, and I don't want it cluttered with RPG stuff. But now that it's been mentioned, for the update after this next one, I'll turn them on for a short time to show what they are, and how they look!

What!? You never told me about this! TURN THESE ON RIGHT NOW

Seriously, this LP would be incomplete if you didn't put those numbers in! Why would they be there in the first place, though? It's not like you have any other weapons (that I know of).

I'm really hoping Shadow Magic is a bit more interesting than Light Magic. Light Magic is just there to keep yourself healed at the cost of reducing your damage a bit. It's...not particularly exciting.

Honestly, at this point, I'm just wanting to see what stupid things Gabriel does next. "If I put spikes on my Combat Cross, I can saw through giant stone statues! Orrr, I could just constrict them until they explode! That's how sawing works, right?!" I'm also hoping someone comes by and kill steals the next boss.

Neruz
Jul 23, 2012

A paragon of manliness

RSCNyx posted:

What!? You never told me about this! TURN THESE ON RIGHT NOW

Seriously, this LP would be incomplete if you didn't put those numbers in! Why would they be there in the first place, though? It's not like you have any other weapons (that I know of).

I'm really hoping Shadow Magic is a bit more interesting than Light Magic. Light Magic is just there to keep yourself healed at the cost of reducing your damage a bit. It's...not particularly exciting.

Honestly, at this point, I'm just wanting to see what stupid things Gabriel does next. "If I put spikes on my Combat Cross, I can saw through giant stone statues! Orrr, I could just constrict them until they explode! That's how sawing works, right?!" I'm also hoping someone comes by and kill steals the next boss.

From memory Shadow Magic effectively just translates to 'you hit dudes harder' so I wouldn't get my hopes up :v:

Cardiovorax
Jun 5, 2011

I mean, if you're a successful actress and you go out of the house in a skirt and without underwear, knowing that paparazzi are just waiting for opportunities like this and that it has happened many times before, then there's really nobody you can blame for it but yourself.
Congrats on ruining the surprise.

Glazius
Jul 22, 2007

Hail all those who are able,
any mouse can,
any mouse will,
but the Guard prevail.

Clapping Larry
Wow. I'm still laughing at the complete lack of stage transitions. Grab an orb, play the victory fanfare!

Rigged Death Trap
Feb 13, 2012

BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP

Jesus rays.
GET THE JESUS RAYS.

RSCNyx
Mar 6, 2013

It's okay, little guy. I would be scared too.
Never mind, answered, thanks!

RSCNyx fucked around with this message at 16:43 on Apr 22, 2014

Cardiovorax
Jun 5, 2011

I mean, if you're a successful actress and you go out of the house in a skirt and without underwear, knowing that paparazzi are just waiting for opportunities like this and that it has happened many times before, then there's really nobody you can blame for it but yourself.
Posting history says he's currently shitposting in GBS, so he's probably not dead.

RSCNyx
Mar 6, 2013

It's okay, little guy. I would be scared too.

Cardiovorax posted:

Posting history says he's currently shitposting in GBS, so he's probably not dead.

Kinda...confused then, but alright, thanks!

BMS
Mar 11, 2009

by FactsAreUseless
I am alive! Had a storm blow through last week and knocked the top half of a pine tree on my house. Between dealing with that, and the oh so wonderful work environment (C/O at a prison), and college, A GBS shitpost here and there is about all I've had time for. But that poo poo's starting to calm down a bit, so hopefully can get this thing back on track shortly!

BMS
Mar 11, 2009

by FactsAreUseless
:siren:Update!:siren:



So after a couple weeks, we return for more GREAT CASTLEVANIA ACTION. By which, I mean two stages that in terms of plot development, and essential item getting, are completely arbitrary. The best thing to come from these two stages, is the introduction to the mounts. One of the better points of Chapter 2, and probably the game. Sadly, once we're done with Chapter 2, with the exception of a couple time in the forthcoming Chapters, Gabriel's mounting opportunities all but vanish...JUST LIKE RIGHT AFTER HIS WIFE DIED. Seriously, it's a struggle to come up with anything worthwhile to say for the most part of these stages!

While it could've been shoehorned into any other stage, and thus allowing the elimination of these two, we do acquire the Shadow Magic Medallion. As mentioned earlier, it enhances your Combat Cross in the same way as the Light Magic, in that you still attack the same way, have the same combos, but with the added effect of more damage. More damage is great, but it drains the hell out of your Shadow Magic meter, so I've always used it sparingly.

Anyway, the Jesus Ray was recommended for our next upgrade, so that's what we'll be getting! It costs 6000 exp, and we've got a little bit before we reach that, but drat. Smiting all these creatures with Jesus Rays is actually, pretty loving useful! So it'll be worth it.

On an additional note, as soon as we finish Chapter 2, we're going to record the Trial videos for the stages on Paladin difficulty, for Chapters 1 & 2. We're really looking to get an extra commentator in for those, different one for each chapter's trials, so hopefully it can keep it fairly interesting. If anybody would like to get in on that, just drop a line here in the thread, or send RSCNyx or myself a PM!

Neruz
Jul 23, 2012

A paragon of manliness
The Jesus Ray is a great power. It actually continues to upset me that this was branded as a Castlevania game; I can't help but feel if we were in an original fantasy universe at the very least the story might make a little more sense.

BMS
Mar 11, 2009

by FactsAreUseless

Rigged Death Trap posted:

Jesus rays.
GET THE JESUS RAYS.


Neruz posted:

The Jesus Ray is a great power. It actually continues to upset me that this was branded as a Castlevania game; I can't help but feel if we were in an original fantasy universe at the very least the story might make a little more sense.

The Jesus Ray is amazingly overpowered for what it does. Plus you can cause minor glitches in the game with it, as well as create minor shortcuts. If you activate the RAY, then press the button to grab a switch, kneel down to pick up a scroll/gem, or activate most anything, you can activate the switch/grab whatever but the Ray animation will cancel it out. You'll still activate whatever it is you pressed the button for, but you can run away while it does. You can skip out on a couple of forced battles this way, against some rather annoying enemies to boot! I'm still tinkering around with this to see if I can somehow break the game with it in some way. Might see something interesting in a later update.

RSCNyx
Mar 6, 2013

It's okay, little guy. I would be scared too.

BMS posted:

Might see something interesting in a later update.

You tell me this every single time!

I do look forward to seeing the Jesus Ray™ in action, though. Hopefully with huge RPG numbers blocking everything.

Neruz
Jul 23, 2012

A paragon of manliness

RSCNyx posted:

You tell me this every single time!

I do look forward to seeing the Jesus Ray™ in action, though. Hopefully with huge RPG numbers blocking everything.

There is something viscerally satisfying about watching all those numbers explode out of people you are beating up.

DeliciousCookie
Mar 4, 2011
This is one of the things that irked the hell out of me in the game. The gameplay, while solid, is really really really bland and repetitive. Especially when you start having longer combos which never really allow you to complete them, due to enemies being dodge happy or something attacking you to force you to block/dodge out of the way. It makes the single target stuff borderline useless.

Also, that shadow dagger thing irked me the first time I played through, but I don't think we'll see why for a while.

anilEhilated
Feb 17, 2014

But I say fuck the rain.

Grimey Drawer
It says something about a game when you can state that the monsters are almost as dumb as the protagonist.
edit: Also, Patrick Stewart's statement about the level being a "labyrinthine maze" strikes me as particularly stupid. Either you take it literally, in which case it makes no sense as a labyrinth and a maze work in different ways, or metaphoricallly, in which case it makes no sense either because it's completely loving redundant.

anilEhilated fucked around with this message at 11:25 on Apr 25, 2014

Cardiovorax
Jun 5, 2011

I mean, if you're a successful actress and you go out of the house in a skirt and without underwear, knowing that paparazzi are just waiting for opportunities like this and that it has happened many times before, then there's really nobody you can blame for it but yourself.
For a pointless filler level this was really fun to watch. You guys are really doing this game justice.

Derek Barona
Dec 8, 2009

WHO'S YOUR FRIEND?!
BMS, if you're still looking for an extra guy for trials videos at some point, I would like to give it a shot. I'm socially awkward, sound nasally over a mic and trip over my own words all the time, but I promise I'm still smarter than Gabriel Belmont. I hope.

BMS
Mar 11, 2009

by FactsAreUseless
:siren:Update!:siren:



First up, there's a part in this update approx. 1:30 in that is :nws:. Watch at your own risk, unless your boss doesn't mind watching some Kojima jiggle physics on some weird lady Demon thing. But, keep in mind that the "Cut" version of the video features what I believe to be a tasteful censor bar placed just right! So if your boss hates weird Demon Lady tits, well then the Cut version is for you!

Hey, whadaya know. After 5 stages we're actually getting some plot development! Minor as it may be, at least it's something! the entirety of this update is spent running around Agharta chasing some mute lady named Claudia. According to her logbook entry, she's a few hundred years old, and the daughter of the old King of Agharta. All of this essentially means jack though. The important part is, she has a huge rear end magically enchanted Golem that protects her, and they decide to team up with our main man Gabe for some hardcore Gremlin/Lycan slaying action! CAN'T WAIT TO WATCH THE CO-OP ACTION BETWEEN THESE THREE :ohdear:

Bottom line, these are pretty fun stages to play through. Mostly quick and to the point...even if there are some questionable parts to it. Specifically the fact that Gabriel has been doing more wall crawling than a Metroid Prime glitcher, yet he can't use his nifty Combat Cross upgrade to climb a dilapidated tower because...PLOT. Gabriel is just very picky. If it's not glowing and rectangular in shape, or doesn't involve some type of QTE, then he'll have nothing to do with it.

Also, the song for the first stage here is titled "Waterfalls of Agharta". It's very nice to listen to, and if you pay close attention, you can hear that it's an arrangement of The Waterfall from Super Castlevania IV. If you can't put them together for whatever reason, Jorge Fuentes combined the two into an incredible track. Seriously, listen to this...it's wonderfully amazing. It's also such a shame that with visuals and music like this, as well as the gameplay being fairly solid...that the way they chose to do the story, and utilize certain gameplay mechanics is quite a shame.

:siren:THREAD CHALLENGE:siren:

Ok, so given that they tried to have Gabriel show a tad bit of emotion at the end of this update, and how they completely failed to convey it, I figured a good first challenge for this thread would be to find a way to give Gabriel/any other poorly face rendered LoS character some emotion!

For example, here's Gabriel upon watching his Combat Cross get an upgrade:


Or Marie, the first time her ghost thing appears, since she said she was so happy to look upon our main man Gabe again, why not have her show it!:


I honestly don't know about prizes or anything, but if I get one that's good enough, I'll probably wind up using that image in the OP to represent the character, instead of the stock Logbook pictures that I am now.


DeliciousCookie posted:

This is one of the things that irked the hell out of me in the game. The gameplay, while solid, is really really really bland and repetitive. Especially when you start having longer combos which never really allow you to complete them, due to enemies being dodge happy or something attacking you to force you to block/dodge out of the way. It makes the single target stuff borderline useless.

Also, that shadow dagger thing irked me the first time I played through, but I don't think we'll see why for a while.

It's such a shame too. I mentioned this in the paragraph above, but it stands to be said again. Everything works beautifully for the most part, it's just they used it so, so wrong. It could have been a truly GREAT game. Also, Explosive Dagger puzzle(s) (can't remember exactly how many there are), but yeah, it's obnoxious. But gently caress, they're unbelievably useful against the Lycans which you'll see in a future update, as well as against a certain boss which considering how difficult he normally is, will be...quite trivialized with the Explosive Daggers.

anilEhilated posted:

It says something about a game when you can state that the monsters are almost as dumb as the protagonist.
edit: Also, Patrick Stewart's statement about the level being a "labyrinthine maze" strikes me as particularly stupid. Either you take it literally, in which case it makes no sense as a labyrinth and a maze work in different ways, or metaphoricallly, in which case it makes no sense either because it's completely loving redundant.

Seriously, Gabriel, while I sympathize with the character in many ways, (wife is dead, he's fighting hordes of evil poo poo, he's a sad sad man), he's also just so loving STUPID. I mean God drat. Well, either stupid or just completely obliviously not giving a gently caress. Both are pretty much the same thing however.

Patrick Stewart's lines might have some flaws, but don't they sound nice? A-LIST ACTOR, FOR AN A-LIST SCRIPT.

Cardiovorax posted:

For a pointless filler level this was really fun to watch. You guys are really doing this game justice.

I appreciate that! Honestly the last couple of updates I've felt like I'm really having to struggle to say anything worthwhile informative/entertaining wise. This chapter drags on with so much redundant nonsense going on, it's easy to run out of things to say.

Derek Barona posted:

BMS, if you're still looking for an extra guy for trials videos at some point, I would like to give it a shot. I'm socially awkward, sound nasally over a mic and trip over my own words all the time, but I promise I'm still smarter than Gabriel Belmont. I hope.

Well Gabriel seems pretty socially awkward as well, and if he's good enough to be the main character, then you're good enough to be a guest! I'll send you a PM in the next couple of days so we can get the trial video set up if you'd like.

Pelican Dunderhead
Jun 16, 2010

Ah! Hello Ershin!
Pillbug
That was a pretty fantastic censored bar.

Also is it actually worth it to replay stages to farm up experience to fill out your purchased upgrades? How many of them are actually useful?

Pelican Dunderhead fucked around with this message at 15:42 on Apr 28, 2014

Cardiovorax
Jun 5, 2011

I mean, if you're a successful actress and you go out of the house in a skirt and without underwear, knowing that paparazzi are just waiting for opportunities like this and that it has happened many times before, then there's really nobody you can blame for it but yourself.

BMS posted:

I appreciate that! Honestly the last couple of updates I've felt like I'm really having to struggle to say anything worthwhile informative/entertaining wise. This chapter drags on with so much redundant nonsense going on, it's easy to run out of things to say.
I can't speak for anyone else, but I think you guys have a great dynamic and play really well off each other. Plus you riff on all the things that I also think are dumb and silly about the game, so that's bonus points right there. :v:

Zain
Dec 6, 2009

It's only forever, not long at all
While this game is painful in so many different ways, I'm enjoying the LP thus far. The main problem with this game is that it has the misfortune of calling itself a Castlevania game with BARELY being related to the other games. The combat is dull the magic system is subpar and really this has the feeling of DmC: Devil May Cry style of shoehorning.

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Neruz
Jul 23, 2012

A paragon of manliness
That was some excellent number porn right there. The health bar under Gabriel is overdoing it though.

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