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Latest Episode  What's Going On Here Way back in 2013 Electronic Arts did the usual EA thing and locked up exclusive rights to make games based on a property for the long term, but instead of being a sports license, EA went for what was arguably the crown jewel of all media franchises with Star Wars. EA would be the only game (ha) in town when it came to Star Wars until 2023. Now that we're almost through with the terms of the deal we can say the results have been...underwhelming. EA already had some ties to the SW franchise when the agreement started: their subsidiary BioWare had spent years developing the Old Republic MMO. Expansions for that game and two middling to pretty-ok Battlefront games were all EA had to show by the end of 2017. That and some mobile games that apparently made some good money. Project Ragtag, in development with Dead Space/Battlefield: Hardline developer Visceral Games, had been canceled and EA's business model had shifted to seeing games as microtransaction vehicles. There was at least one known-but-unannounced game in the pipeline that could potentially change the trajectory of the deal. Years prior EA had said that Respawn Entertainment, known for the Titanfall games and the semi-related Battle Royale game Apex Legends, would be making a SW title. Considering their pedigree it was easy to see this being a Dark Forces reboot or a new Republic Commando, but at EA 2018 Respawn showed off a melee combat focused third person action adventure game. What the gently caress? You have a top level FPS maker working on a Star Wars game and it's about a Jedi traipsing around the galaxy having feelings? This seemed like the biggest blunder yet. However, 2019 rolled around and Fallen Order got great reviews and sold well enough EA commissioned a sequel almost immediately. A good deal of this is just because Fallen Order is a really fun adventure that blends a bunch of popular franchise archetypes, Dark Souls and the Arkham games being the major influences, with likeable characters and good story pacing inside the Star Wars universe. The combat is that great easy-to-learn-hard-to-master style that ramps up as the character gets abilities and the upgrade system is built so you won't get screwed by a bad decision. I'm not going to say much more here, but I get more into it as the videos go on. It's a really fun game and I'm hoping that is what gets conveyed through the LP. The player takes on the role of Cal Kestis, a Padawan who survived the purge and has been in hiding for the last five years. Through a series of events that kick off the game, the anonymity Cal had been relying on is stripped away and he's sent on a quest across the galaxy that could not only see the Jedi Order resurrected, but could provide a degree of closure for both him and his new allies. Or it could get everyone killed. The LP This isn't a speed run, nor is it a 100% effort. I'm going to have fun playing the game and you're going to have fun watching it (if everything goes right). I'm cutting out segments where I get lost or where I have to backtrack without anything new popping up, but I'm also leaving in pointless exploration or the occasional extended experiments to solve a puzzle. One of the more enjoyable aspects of the game is wandering around the environments looking for new collectibles or finding puzzles you can't quite solve yet. I'm trying to get videos down between 30-40 minutes where I can, but it's unavoidable to go beyond that at times, especially early on when a ton of exposition and training are coming at you and breaking up the flow of levels. Episodes                        
Lazyfire fucked around with this message at 17:55 on Dec 31, 2022 |
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May 24, 2022 21:07
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This game is approved trash! Also fantastic.
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May 24, 2022 22:31
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Yeah, this game ended up way better than it had any right to be.
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May 24, 2022 22:48
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I was curious about this game, glad someone's showing it off!
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May 25, 2022 16:34
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anilEhilated posted:Yeah, this game ended up way better than it had any right to be. Considering the studio behind it and the not-great series of EA Star Wars games I fully expected this to be a complete mess. Don't get me wrong, it's not perfect (fighting non-human enemies, some platforming segments, random difficulty spikes), but it's still the best EA released Star Wars game and is objectively good in its own right. It's crazy it took six years from signing the ten year deal to produce a good game in the SW universe, crazier that the one that followed this, Squadrons, is also really good. It looks like the last exclusive EA is getting out of their deal with Lucasfilm/Disney is going to be a sequel to Fallen Order, so there's a potential to end the deal on a high note. They have games coming after that when Disney goes to a more free-form license agreement.
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May 25, 2022 18:47
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Seems like a very generic Star Wars ARPG so far, starring Young Jedi Who Survived Order 66 And Is Trying To Live Anonymously Until The Empire Threatens His Friend And Spurs Him To Action #847, but I've heard nothing but good things about the game regardless. I'll be interested to see how this one pans out.
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May 25, 2022 18:50
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Honestly the single biggest influence I saw in this game from playing it was Metroid, especially the Prime series. Which honestly made me wonder why nobody ever had the idea of making a Metroid-style game in the Star Wars universe before this one, because they go together sooooooooo well.
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May 25, 2022 19:08
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The magic number of attacks for Second Sister is two in a row: the third attack will trigger her counterattack.Cythereal posted:Seems like a very generic Star Wars ARPG so far, starring Young Jedi Who Survived Order 66 And Is Trying To Live Anonymously Until The Empire Threatens His Friend And Spurs Him To Action #847, but I've heard nothing but good things about the game regardless. Nothing about it is innovative, but it does a lot of solid things really well.
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May 25, 2022 19:34
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Dr. Snark posted:Honestly the single biggest influence I saw in this game from playing it was Metroid, especially the Prime series. Which honestly made me wonder why nobody ever had the idea of making a Metroid-style game in the Star Wars universe before this one, because they go together sooooooooo well. It pulls a lot on the Arkham series, which was always compared to Metroidvanias. There's a ton of Bloodborne style stuff in here as well. Not so much the combat style, but in the fact you need to be careful and patient and the game will throw enemies at you around corners or punish you for running forward blindly. Fighting one or two guys at a time is a much better idea than trying to take on a mass of Stormtroopers at every point.
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May 25, 2022 22:53
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This game has some big flaws (could use about 100% fewer slides and ropes) but it's still fantastic fun. Please show off the hot pink poncho at some point. Shout out to The HU for that opening song, too.
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May 26, 2022 01:01
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Yay! Lazyfire LP! Yay, best Star Wars game that doesn't have Kyle Katarn in it!
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May 26, 2022 03:08
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Always happy to see one of your LPs pop up. Been meaning to play this but never got around to it so this'll do instead.
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May 26, 2022 04:51
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I've considered buying this game on Steam, but I already have a large backlog and I'm a little leery when people say "Dark Souls-like". It already looks like dealing with blaster shots will be a really annoying task, and the lightsaber seems kinda nerfed even against basic stormtroopers, especially if even they are tossing a half-dozen with lightsaber-proof weapons at you at once. I'm also concerned about how it might control with mouse/keyboard. Stabbey_the_Clown fucked around with this message at 16:40 on May 26, 2022 |
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May 26, 2022 16:17
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Stabbey_the_Clown posted:I've considered buying this game on Steam, but I already have a large backlog and I'm a little leery when people say "Dark Souls-like". It already looks like dealing with blaster shots will be a really annoying plan, and the lightsaber seems kinda nerfed even against basic stormtroopers, especially if even they are tossing a half-dozen with lightsaber-proof weapons at you at once. +1 to that. It's on my wishlist, too, and I also have a massive backlog. And I'm terrible enough at easy video games to try my hand at something that's difficult by design. But sometimes I get tempted to pick it up during a sale... So I just boot up The Force Unleashed and kill mooks until the feelings go away.
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May 26, 2022 16:20
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Chalk me up as another that's been considering this for a while but hasn't gotten it for various reasons. For what it's worth, I've generally seen this compared more specifically to Sekiro rather than the general Souls series. Not that there aren't significant similarities between them (those are all made by FromSoftware, after all, and certainly share major similarities), but stuff like this game actually having difficulty settings - especially given it affects things such as parry timing - does seem to make it lean more towards Sekiro at first impression.
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May 27, 2022 01:44
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They did my boy Prauf dirty
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May 27, 2022 03:46
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It's much easier than a fromsoft game.
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May 27, 2022 03:58
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And +5,000 points for starting us off with music by The Hu.
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May 27, 2022 06:43
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Somehow Lazyfire returned
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May 27, 2022 07:07
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Sally posted:Somehow Lazyfire returned The dumbest line in all of Star Wars is how I want people to think of me. It's a long time coming. I started recording this in November and got like three videos recorded before I realized the new editing program I was using was producing low quality/audio desynched videos and some of my cuts and subtitles were not placed correctly or didn't also cut the audio. I put everything on hold to figure the program out and finally got the videos looking and sounding right. That was January and I got one more video recorded before things went crazy for a while and I only just recorded a fifth video last weekend and should have enough free weekends coming up to keep up with the posting schedule. Stabbey_the_Clown posted:I've considered buying this game on Steam, but I already have a large backlog and I'm a little leery when people say "Dark Souls-like". It already looks like dealing with blaster shots will be a really annoying task, and the lightsaber seems kinda nerfed even against basic stormtroopers, especially if even they are tossing a half-dozen with lightsaber-proof weapons at you at once. I keep saying it plays like a Souls Like just because combat encounters need some thought and the game is melee focused with a heavy emphasis of parrying, guarding and rolling. The healing system is also DS like. You'll see in this video that the map is straight from Metroid Prime, which was clearly another influence. Most of the normal stormtroopers will go down in a single lightsaber combo, the melee guys are a bit more difficult because the game wants you to parry them, trying to bash them until their stamina is refilling is a bad strategy. As far as dealing with blasters: there are spots where the major difficulty of the fight is a wide open area and stormtroopers firing on you from a distance. If you try to focus on the guys coming at you with melee weapons you'll start taking hits from the blaster guys. If you just reflect the blaster shots you'll get jacked up by the melee guys. The best option is to sprint away from the melee guys and just reflect as many blaster shots as possible instead of trying to stand your ground. The difficulty will ramp up as we see new enemies that can be even more annoying than the blaster guys, though. After this video we are pretty much out of tutorial areas for the game. We'll get a couple "hey, remember how to do this" things as we unlock new abilities, but the training wheels come off once we learn what the major point of the story will be. The mechanics are straightforward enough that it shouldn't be a major hazard for new players, and as a returning player it feels great to not be hampered by having to learn the basics of the game yet again. Plus, we get our Navi like character this episode. BD-1 does a little bit of everything without being obtrusive, he mostly blends into the background until you need him for a specific thing, which is great.
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May 27, 2022 18:35
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BD-1 is my favorite Star Wars droid. Topping him would be one hell of a feat. But he’s not my favorite character in the game. Fun Fact- The line "Faster, more intensity!" is a reference to a phrase George Lucas often shouted at Star Wars performers during production of the original films. achtungnight fucked around with this message at 19:42 on May 27, 2022 |
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May 27, 2022 19:06
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I'm glad to see someone else understands that green is the best lightsaber color.
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May 27, 2022 19:54
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The game is a lot of fun, and the last set piece is kind of amazing. As has been said before, there are comparisons to souls like games in terms of "attack > dodge > parry" combat triangle and "watch for the enemy tell" strategy, but it's not quite as punishing. Also, IIRC there is a difficulty slider/toggle. The combat is a little faster and bouncier, plus you get some force powers to spice things up. Plus there's a lot of traversal. A little part of this game that I enjoy is the customization options you get to unlock, and they are your poncho, your lightsaber, and your little droid buddy. A fun little tie in is that some of the lightsaber customizations are the same ones you can buy in Disney world. Gotta love corporate synergy.
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May 27, 2022 21:17
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BD-1 is best droid, number one
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May 27, 2022 22:56
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i'm a fan of our new droid-shaped robot buddy
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May 27, 2022 23:16
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So hey, good timing for this LP. The sequel just got announced. https://www.ign.com/articles/star-wars-jedi-survivor-trailer-revealed-2023
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May 27, 2022 23:39
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Mr. Fortitude posted:So hey, good timing for this LP. The sequel just got announced. Nice. I really liked Fallen Order and look forward to seeing what they do. The combat took a lot of adjustment for me, since the last lightsaber games I played were Force Unleashed (LoL) and the Jedi Outcast/Knight/Notary Public series, which really leaned into the power fantasy of a laser sword (especially with Jedi Outcast's cheat for absurdly lethal sabers, more games need that), but once you get used to it you can pull off some stylish stuff.
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May 28, 2022 00:12
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I noticed some audio issues with the Cordova message , where the audio flickers or cuts out in spots. Might just be on my end but I figured you should know just in case.
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May 28, 2022 00:24
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Cythereal posted:I'm glad to see someone else understands that green is the best lightsaber color.
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May 28, 2022 00:30
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Sally posted:Green You spell yellow/orange oddly, my friend. But I have to say, aside from the saber colour, all those customization options are really only relevant in cutscenes where the saber has a focus. In gameplay, the weapon is either in motion, meaning you can't see details, or held out of sight of the camera. The Poncho is more visible and interesting than the saber hilt.
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May 28, 2022 01:31
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It's good to see some Star Wars themed competition to Hardspace: Shipbreaker.
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May 28, 2022 01:41
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The Second Sister's vocal performance is an all-time great. She just has so much fun.
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May 28, 2022 02:04
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berryjon posted:You spell yellow/orange oddly, my friend.  on a different note, force psychometry is a pretty cool idea and seems like a really good fit here
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May 28, 2022 02:23
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SirSamVimes posted:The Second Sister's vocal performance is an all-time great. She just has so much fun. She's played by Elizabeth Grullon, and yes, she's fantastic in this.
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May 28, 2022 03:26
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berryjon posted:You spell yellow/orange oddly, my friend. I varied my color choices up during the game just to keep it interesting, although the traditional blue has always been my favorite. quote:But I have to say, aside from the saber colour, all those customization options are really only relevant in cutscenes where the saber has a focus. In gameplay, the weapon is either in motion, meaning you can't see details, or held out of sight of the camera. The Poncho is more visible and interesting than the saber hilt. Yeah, although a lot of the choices were a bit strange, to be honest. Though strange or not we must see the pink poncho at some point. Gotta say, Lazyfire, I am DEFINITELY getting flashbacks to my playing through watching your headaches, so it's nice to know I'm not the only one who struggles a ton in the early game. I would suggest mixing more parrying into combat instead of just dodging; you do need to dodge a bunch, but parrying has the advantage of interrupting the enemy combos a bunch, at least when they hand you attacks you can block at least (so many drat glowing red enemies *sigh*). Also, the ziplines only work going downhill for now anyway, which is why you couldn't use that one, it was going the wrong way.
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May 28, 2022 04:10
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SirSamVimes posted:The Second Sister's vocal performance is an all-time great. She just has so much fun. Ninth Sister gets a nod for "I found the Jedi  "
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May 28, 2022 05:28
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As someone who hit a triple digit death count in my now terribly bad and outdated LP of Jedi Outcast, I'm finding it quite amusing watching all the flubs. (Going forward, is there any chance of adding an unobtrusive death count to your videos?) I actually recognized Tony Amendola as the voice of Eno Cordova because Eno Cordova looks like him. But character design tends to come well before voice acting, so did they design the character hoping to hire him specifically, or did they redesign the character after he was hired? Stabbey_the_Clown fucked around with this message at 14:05 on May 28, 2022 |
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May 28, 2022 13:32
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Could be either. Cal looks just like his voice actor, who also did the motion capture for the character I think. And there are one or two other characters with similar credits. I looked it up- Cal, Cere, and Cordova are all modeled after their voice actors. The same is true of at least two other game characters we have yet to meet. I’ll identify them when we meet them in future updates. achtungnight fucked around with this message at 14:23 on May 28, 2022 |
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May 28, 2022 13:42
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Angry Joe riffed on the ponchos thing in his review, having Cal dressed as a stereotypical Mexican, and referring to his master as "Obi-Juan Kenobi". He liked the game, by the way.
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May 29, 2022 07:15
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I like the ponchos! It's a good look for a 3rd person game.
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May 30, 2022 05:38
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