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 The Mark of Kri is a third-person action-adventure game that was originally released on the PlayStation 2 in 2002. I am playing it now for the first time on PS4. While I'm not sure there's much to "spoil" about the game, this is technically a blind playthrough, as the game is new to me and I didn't know anything about it going it.  This game features a very distinctive art style. Cutscenes are essentially time-lapses of the gorgeous hand-drawn pieces coming together from lines all the way to being fully colored. While the game is 16 years old, and the pre-rendered cutscenes have aged somewhat poorly, the game itself is rendered in HD on the PS4 and it looks great.  Despite its cartoon style, The Mark of Kri is rated M for Mature, because of bloody violence. This game has some really brutal kills. Decapitations are just about the tamest finishers. About the Let's Play This is a video LP. Videos will be approximately 30 minutes. Some of the videos will feature my friend contributing commentary, but some of them are just me. I will post new videos daily. I'm about an hour and a half into the game and so far I'm having a blast. This is my first LP, so any constructive criticism is very welcome! Come check out this awesome and unique game with me! Part 1: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zl4B6hWhNIA Part 2: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k0X96sJ1hVg Part 2: Part 2: https://youtu.be/bEYmCS4AUtk Part 3: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aKgoMipYj90 Part 4: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sqk2G1c1hxI Part 5: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JqTc4OXgguA Part 6: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8pWkjRAiT-s Part 7: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dDf_uuvvAts Part 8: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LGdILA5f-Rk Part 9: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O7S-J1gAcio Snak fucked around with this message at 03:48 on May 17, 2016 |
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May 9, 2016 01:22
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drat this is one of those games that I completely forgot about and then as soon as I saw the name I knew I knew it I loved this game
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May 9, 2016 07:07
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This is right up my alley. I just finished doing an LP of this series myself, but I don't have a PS4 so I played the original PS2 versions. It's awesome to now get to see the game in HD and fascinating to watch someone's first experience with the bizarre combat system. I'll be sure not to say anything to ruin the blind nature of this LP, but I'll be following intently.
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May 9, 2016 14:59
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Awesome! Thank you both for watching, I'm glad you enjoyed my video. Part 2 is uploading right now, and should be up in a couple hours. There will actually be 2 new videos today, because the second mission took me about an hour, so I split it into to two videos. There is guest commentary on both of them, so I'm not just talking to myself. I'm having a lot of fun with the game so far, but I'm still struggling a bit with the camera, since I'm so used to being able to manually move the camera in modern games. Snak fucked around with this message at 15:37 on May 9, 2016 |
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May 9, 2016 15:34
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I hate to double-post, but the new video is up! I added it to the OP, but here it is - Part 2: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k0X96sJ1hVg I'm trying my best to keep audio levels consistent between videos, but I'm still fiddling with my work flow, so please let me know if you have any problems with the audio volumes being different. Edit: Part 2: Part 2 is up: https://youtu.be/bEYmCS4AUtk Snak fucked around with this message at 18:28 on May 9, 2016 |
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May 9, 2016 17:02
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Part 3 is up! I think I've got my audio processing process figured out now. Things should be normalized consistently from now on and I'm now ducking the game audio where I talk over it. In this video I start the third mission. It's also where I discover definitively that the missions are in linear order and can't be done out of order, something I was unsure of early. This is the first mission that makes use of the bow. The Bow mechanics are pretty neat. You can either fight with the bow in melee range, using the same multi-targeting system as melee to Legolas up unshielded enemies, or aim in first person to snipe vulnerable enemies. The first person aiming uses a lockon system but requires you to adjust your aim for the distance of the target after you've aquired it. It's pretty slick, because it's much less cumber-sum than pure "skill aiming" and not quite as mindless as auto-aim. I continue to have trouble with weapon switching, but that's more on me than the game. This mission took me almost 2 hours to beat, so expect it to be spread out over 4 videos. Originally I was going to try to do a mission per day, but if the missions are going to stay this length or keep getting longer, I'm just going to stick to uploading one video per day. So "Part 2: Part: 2" was a one-time thing and videos will now just be named normally. During this mission, I do talk more about what I like about the game design choices in this game, but it's not really until what will be parts 4-5, so I'll post more of my related thoughts tomorrow and the next day. Thanks for watching, I hope you guys enjoy watching my videos as much as I enjoy making them!
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May 11, 2016 01:07
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Part 4 is up! I'm not really gonna make an effort post for this one. it's the continuation of mission 3. I've got a bad cold, but I'm already got the footage for the next two parts, so I'm hoping that I'll be feeling better by friday evening to do a session for this weekends videos. Thanks for watching!
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May 12, 2016 01:03
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I'm going to try and be your Baumusu a bit and tip you off to some mechanics the game hasn't made entirely clear. As you saw in Part 4, the first time you do a combo, it'll go into that slowdown effect and Rau will shout the entire sequence, so you've only done two different combos thus far. The trick is that the game checks for the next input of the combo during the current one, so if you input the entire combo at once, the last attack or two will be ignored. What you want to do is hit either square or circle while Rau is saying "Fua" then hit the fourth button while he's saying "Toko"/"Usu." The specific timing takes some getting used to and changes with each of the different weapons, so experiment with it a bit because trust me, you're going to want to know how to reliably do each combo. When sending the bird to a perch, you can hit triangle at any time to cancel most of his travel animation, which is useful if an enemy is approaching while he's in flight. You can switch to and from Kuzo's view at any time with the triangle button, which is very useful when working out the timing on stealth and for general scouting purposes. Weirdly, and I've never understood why myself, there's certain perches that only Rau can see and others that only the bird can see for himself, just to explain some of your confusion about why perches seem to appear and disappear at random. Movement while in stealth mode (any time Rau is unarmed and not in combat) is completely silent unless you run into birds or a boar, so you can move around as fast as you want a long as Rau is in his stalking, hunched over stance. Also, switching weapons breaks your lock on so you might want to re-focus on enemies when going for disarm kills. Other than that, you're doing well with the LP so far, I'm enjoying it greatly. I adore the fact that you call the bird "Kazoo," it reminds me of my favorite indispensable avian video game cohort, Kazooie from Banjo-Kazooie.
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May 12, 2016 13:57
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Fiendly posted:I'm going to try and be your Baumusu a bit and tip you off to some mechanics the game hasn't made entirely clear. As you saw in Part 4, the first time you do a combo, it'll go into that slowdown effect and Rau will shout the entire sequence, so you've only done two different combos thus far. The trick is that the game checks for the next input of the combo during the current one, so if you input the entire combo at once, the last attack or two will be ignored. What you want to do is hit either square or circle while Rau is saying "Fua" then hit the fourth button while he's saying "Toko"/"Usu." The specific timing takes some getting used to and changes with each of the different weapons, so experiment with it a bit because trust me, you're going to want to know how to reliably do each combo. Hey, thanks for all the pointers! Yeah, as you can see, I'm not good at performing the combos. Your advice is going to help a lot, I think. Part of what's throwing me off is how quickly you have to hit the second button (because the first x attack is so short) is making me want to hit the followup buttons too fast. I also thought that the enemies blocking was breaking up my combo, but if that's not the case, then I have a lot more incentive to keep trying. I think I wrongly thought that the enemies blocking the second/third hit of Fau Toko Rotu was what was breaking the combo, and not my bad timing. Since parts 5 and 6 are already recorded (it took me two hours to beat the mission and I just recorded it all on one go), you won't see me apply your advice until Saturday's part 7. Hopefully I will be over this cold by then and my voice won't sound so nasally and pinched. The triangle thing I kind of already knew but, if it's not obvious, I have a bit of trouble internalizing controls sometimes I just hit left trigger instead of triangle because I get the two "bird buttons" confused. I'm not quite sure what you mean about movie as fast as I want when in stealth. There only seem to be two speeds when unarmed: running normally and stalking. But I will play around with it more next session. Thanks for watching, and thank you so much for replying in the thread. I can tell from my youtube views that a few people are watching, but this thread is pretty lonely  Part 5 will be up early this afternoon, I'll post an update here when it is  edit: Oh and in part 5 and 6, I'm still attempting combos, and at some point I forgot that Rau is always going to yell his combos when he does them, so there are a few instances where I think I'm doing a combo that, in retrospect, I'm obviously not. I'll mention it in my next recording session. Snak fucked around with this message at 16:46 on May 12, 2016 |
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May 12, 2016 16:42
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Part 5 is up! While the first two missions were more like tutorials, and this mission shares some of those elements, this one has shaped up to a much longer, more challenging level. edit: I have been meaning to ask: do save scrolls function just as continues, or can I exit the game and come back mid-mission? Because I had been assuming that wasn't possible. Because If I could split up my longer sessions more there would be more room for feedback between videos. I don't think recording 2-3 videos worth at once is too bad, but 4 videos is really pushing it. Snak fucked around with this message at 02:37 on May 13, 2016 |
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May 12, 2016 21:47
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Snak posted:I'm not quite sure what you mean about movie as fast as I want when in stealth. There only seem to be two speeds when unarmed: running normally and stalking. But I will play around with it more next session. I'll clarify: When Rau is unarmed and no enemies are aware of his presence, he automatically goes into stealth mode, which makes him move a little bit slower than he would while armed, but renders all of his movement completely silent, no matter how fast he's moving. You don't have to do the really slow walk to remain undetected, which is important if you're trying to stealth kill a patrolling enemy because they walk too fast to catch unless you're moving full speed. Snak posted:edit: I have been meaning to ask: do save scrolls function just as continues, or can I exit the game and come back mid-mission? Because I had been assuming that wasn't possible. Because If I could split up my longer sessions more there would be more room for feedback between videos. I don't think recording 2-3 videos worth at once is too bad, but 4 videos is really pushing it. Yep, you can reload from your most recently used save scroll even if you exit the level or the game, no need to complete levels in one sitting.
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May 13, 2016 03:02
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Fiendly posted:I'll clarify: When Rau is unarmed and no enemies are aware of his presence, he automatically goes into stealth mode, which makes him move a little bit slower than he would while armed, but renders all of his movement completely silent, no matter how fast he's moving. You don't have to do the really slow walk to remain undetected, which is important if you're trying to stealth kill a patrolling enemy because they walk too fast to catch unless you're moving full speed. quote:Yep, you can reload from your most recently used save scroll even if you exit the level or the game, no need to complete levels in one sitting. Awesome. I've been meaning to get a cheap analogue clock to put next to my TV with a red section on the face marking 20 minutes so that I can try to find a natural stopping point once I get past it. The way that I chopped up this last session worked out pretty well, but I'd like to be aware of where I'm going to cut while giving commentary. Even if I'm gonna record in hour sessions, I'd like to be able to recap each video in my commentary without recording a VO recap in post, which I haven't bothered doing yet. Originally I planned to do that, but I didn't feel necessary while I was editing. I think I wasn't doing a daily release schedule it would be a lot more important. Also, there should be a significant increase in audio quality in parts 3-6, especially parts 4-6. Since my first 3 videos, I learned how to do compression, auto gating, and autoducking, which I think have made a huge difference. The first videos I was just using noise reduction and some sorta manual normalization, but now I've got a pretty streamlined process, so... yay! I've learned a whole lot this week working on my first LP. I've had a lot of fun both playing and producing these videos.
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May 13, 2016 03:24
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Part 6 is up! This is the last of the four videos that I cut the last recording session up into. Starting today, I'm going to change my recording habits a bit so that each video stands alone a little better.
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May 13, 2016 19:51
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Part 7 is up! My guest commentator is back for this one. I also did a new thing where I fast-forwarded non-combat repeat gameplay. Like if I died, and had to run through a section again, I sped up the footage. I'm pretty happy with how it turned out, but I'd like to hear the opinions of my viewers on what they think of it. This mission seems pretty cool so far.
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May 14, 2016 22:18
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the combat seems like it would be better suited to an isometric game than a fully 3d one with no manual camera control. i guess its to the game's credit that it avoids manual camera control at all though, because one thing i've noticed with the ps2 on ps4 collection is how amazingly rear end the right stick camera is in almost every single one and you need to fight it all the time because camera snap is activated on character movement in a lot of games.
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May 15, 2016 02:48
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Real hurthling! posted:the combat seems like it would be better suited to an isometric game than a fully 3d one with no manual camera control. i guess its to the game's credit that it avoids manual camera control at all though, because one thing i've noticed with the ps2 on ps4 collection is how amazingly rear end the right stick camera is in almost every single one and you need to fight it all the time because camera snap is activated on character movement in a lot of games. Yeah, I like the combat system a lot in concept, but in practice, it's been pretty frustrating. Between the camera being completely out of my control, no real mobility options, the game actively punishing me for fighting near walls, it's pretty rough. Even when I feel like there's enough space, Rau takes big 360 degree swings and the sword can get stuck in things that it's not even actually close enough to hit. Getting my sword stuck in the wall behind me when I'm attacking an enemy in front of me doesn't really feel great. The stealth gameplay is really starting to shine, and how awkward the combat feels is an effective incentive for me to avoid alerts. I think I have a good idea what I need to pull off the combos now, but now I can't do them because I keep being too close to walls. Basically I think the combat system, controls, and enemy design is pretty solid, and the types of engagements make good use of it, but the level design doesn't support the combat system very well. They put lookouts with horns in places where there isn't room to fight effectively, but then make it so that if the alarm is sounded, there's no way to retreat to a better area. The enemies won't leave their area, so if you fail the stealth method, you are punished by a fight that you know is a poor situation. I feel like the point of having walls and wooden objects punish you for fighting near them is to encourage you to choose where you fight, but there are plenty of times where the game doesn't give you a choice of where to fight. But based on the lore so far, I think I'll be getting a new melee weapon soon. I definitely expected to like the the multitarget melee system, but so far I'm enjoying the (somewhat straightforward) stealth-puzzle aspect a lot more. Using Kuzo to scare birds and shooting boars and bells and monkeys in order to sneak up on enemies is very metal gear solid. edit: And welcome to the thread!
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May 15, 2016 03:02
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Part 8 is up! Fastforwarding returns. edit: This incorrectly said that part 9 was up. This is part 8, part nine is in the next post below. Snak fucked around with this message at 03:36 on May 17, 2016 |
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May 15, 2016 23:48
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Part 9 is up! I just realized that part 8 is incorrectly announced as part 9 in the last post. oops. I will fix it. I would like to apologize for the thread being so bare-bones. I realize now that it was a mistake to do daily videos when I didn't have interest ahead of time. Unless people want me to post updates less often, I plan to continue with daily videos, because at this point I don't think posting less is going to generate more activity in the thread. I hope that you guys continue to enjoy my videos. Now that the levels are a little less tutorial-like, I the gameplay is really starting shine, and I'm talking about my impressions of the game's design elements more in my commentary. The whole thing continues to be a learning process for me, but I like to think there's a noticeable increase in quality in my more recent videos compared to my first ones. Thanks for watching, I hope you all have a good night!
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May 17, 2016 03:36
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Part 10 is up! This one's a bit long, but it's a good one. Some real poo poo goes down and the game is really starting to hit it's stride, I think. Or I am. edit: Bonus content! The reason I was late making this post is because I got distracted making this trailer Snak fucked around with this message at 05:49 on May 18, 2016 |
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May 18, 2016 05:36
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I figured mid-combat saves were going to bite you eventually, but I liked that you used them as a strategy because it's so profoundly unlike how I used them (I was always swimming in save scrolls, couldn't even pick half of them up in each level because there's an inventory cap of four). For the record, you can prevent Kuzo's view from zooming in to points of interest by holding the go-to-perch button (L2, I think) when you aren't focused on a perch, and stealth mode Rau sticks to ledges the same way he sticks to walls so you can perform drop-down stealth kills without fear of running off the edge prematurely. What was the music you used in that trailer? It was pretty cool. Good luck recovering from your tragic saving error!
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May 18, 2016 14:49
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Fiendly posted:I figured mid-combat saves were going to bite you eventually, but I liked that you used them as a strategy because it's so profoundly unlike how I used them (I was always swimming in save scrolls, couldn't even pick half of them up in each level because there's an inventory cap of four). For the record, you can prevent Kuzo's view from zooming in to points of interest by holding the go-to-perch button (L2, I think) when you aren't focused on a perch, and stealth mode Rau sticks to ledges the same way he sticks to walls so you can perform drop-down stealth kills without fear of running off the edge prematurely. Oh it also why I had trouble dropping down that one time. Same trouble as getting off walls. quote:What was the music you used in that trailer? It was pretty cool. Good luck recovering from your tragic saving error! The music is music that was available to use in my student projects this semester from my IT dept. So I don't really have any way to credit it. It's called "looking 2". I used it in one of my class projects, so I had it handy. Normally I wouldn't use music in a video that I don't know is free to use, but that was kind of the impression I got from using it at the school.
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May 18, 2016 15:12
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Part 11 is up! As mentioned at the beginning of the video, I dun hosed up and had to restart the level to recover from a bad save. I spared you all from watching any of that. This video picks up at the beginning of the big tree area. I learned a valuable lesson about the appropriate way to use save scrolls.
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May 19, 2016 05:35
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Part 12 is up! The Taiaha is really, really fun. Getting near the end of the game I think, but I'm finally getting the hang of combat! This level and the last one are both really good. This game is a great example of introducing gameplay concepts and then building up to combining them all in a finished product.
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May 20, 2016 07:24
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Part 13 is up! Yes I'm still doing this LP.
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May 21, 2016 00:48
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part 14 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LCRjzHuO2h8
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May 21, 2016 23:45
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Part 15 is up! This video is about 18 minutes instead of ~30. I'm trying to bring my video lengths down because they are just too long.
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May 23, 2016 04:30
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Part 16 is up! Short videos continue, this one is ~23min.
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May 23, 2016 22:02
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Part 17 is up! ~24min.
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May 24, 2016 14:36
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Part 18 is up! ~20min. Coming up on the end here.
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May 25, 2016 18:20
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Part 19 is up!
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May 26, 2016 23:41
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Part 20 is up https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qZZxlroh3-A It's over! The End! Sorry for the big delay. The LP is over, but I will probably make a reflection video summing up my feelings about the game at some point. Thanks for watching everyone, it's been fun!
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Jun 20, 2016 17:09
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