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 Tunic is an action-adventure game published by Finji (publisher of Night in the Woods, and Chicory) in March of 2022. It is heavily inspired by the older Legend of Zelda games from the NES era, as you can see below with a picture of our character, a little fox with some very obvious nods to its inspiration:  Look at him there, bein’ all cute n' stuff. WHAT DO I KNOW ABOUT THIS GAME? Nothing, really. I’ve done a little reading up on what it is, how the game is structured, and that’s about it. The reason I haven’t done any more research is that, in my research, it seems like this game is HEAVILY based around the concept of exploration, seemingly to the point that knowing a lot about the game will likely spoil some of the experience of it. So I’ve deliberately kept myself in the dark as much as possible in order to commit totally to this game’s experience. …it should go without saying then, that I’m approaching this almost completely blind. It should also go without saying that Those of you that have been around for other thread by me know that I usually am not alone in my endeavors. This time, however, I will be flying solo (Dewgy and I are working on a different project). I may not be as funny as my compatriot, but I’ll still try to keep things interesting for y’all. Well, as interesting as I can make them, at least. As we go, if there are things you’d like me to talk about while I’m playing through, feel free to let me know! With all that said, let’s begin! EPISODES EPISODE 1: What Does the Fox Say? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HbI0kEbPGBU EPISODE 2: No Fox Given https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dotr0-9hAIw EPISODE 3: For Fox Sake https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m7lrZRixWT4 EPISODE 4: Moving fur-wards https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pGOCzG3_23c EPISODE 5:: Fur-ocious Fighting https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ur4AMWK9jO0 EPISODE 6: (Insert witty fox pun here) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7i0T7UOmrVI EPISODE 7:Vul-PEES Was Never an Option https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Wfb07kQmQg EPISODE 8: Tail as Old as Time... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s-HGzeWtBkg EPISODE 9: Fast and Furrious https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A3ntHK-tYkQ EPISODE 10: Skulking About... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=whfPbwC1trA EPISODE 11: Komm, Süsser Tod https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y2E0fspXtE0 EPISODE 12: High-Tailing it Around https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_5NqxJWh1E8 EPISODE 13: Attention to De-Tail https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IDn4APfHaZY EPISODE 14: Out of the Fire, Into the Fur-nace https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_tCZ-kGpr0s EPISODE 15: Outfoxed! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8hsH7wFo_S8 EPISODE 16: Pandora's Fox https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_nC1-cMZEQs EPISODE 17: In-FUR-iating https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RWM5hOOypIk FINALE A: Outta Fox to Give https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=08NpWIYMFiQ FINALE B: No, Really...What Does the Fox Say? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fUhToTpsjRs Professor Duck fucked around with this message at 02:32 on Feb 10, 2023 |
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Nov 23, 2022 03:11
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Welp... My daughter is going to want to watch me play this again. Good luck with this, it can be challenging.
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Nov 23, 2022 03:28
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FeyerbrandX posted:Welp... You could always watch some other idiot (me) go through it! ...but, yes. I can already see that I'm going to have issues with this 
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Nov 23, 2022 04:07
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Professor Duck posted:and {i]Chicory[/i]) in March of 2022. Broken tag there, my friend, and watched.
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Nov 23, 2022 13:48
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berryjon posted:Broken tag there, my friend, and watched. Thank you, and thank you!
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Nov 23, 2022 16:05
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Dang, this is what I get for leaving my own playthrough hanging. Hopefully I can get my drat keyboard fixed in time to stay ahead of you.
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Nov 23, 2022 17:06
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Nov 23, 2022 21:44
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Also, between when I played and watching 2 or 3 other people play or stream it, I never saw that interaction with the big door, I've only seen [Modnote: Tiny spoiler but still a spoiler]
Somebody fucked around with this message at 21:45 on Nov 24, 2022 |
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Nov 23, 2022 22:06
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....but I can't read :< EDIT: I guess this is the implementation of Crow's suggestion in the request thread.
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Nov 24, 2022 01:38
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Oh im looking forward to this. It will be interesting to see how you figure things out.
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Nov 24, 2022 19:38
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I've already seen like two whole LPs of this game, but it's quite fun to see you go through it. You seem to have a quite methodic way of exploration. Looking forward to more videos.
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Nov 25, 2022 23:53
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cant cook creole bream posted:I've already seen like two whole LPs of this game, but it's quite fun to see you go through it. You seem to have a quite methodic way of exploration. Looking forward to more videos. It certain feels like, in a game like this, it pays to be methodical... ...Although, in today's update, I discovered that I'm not as methodical as I thought: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dotr0-9hAIw
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Nov 27, 2022 22:46
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It's neat seeing people discover things in a different order. Even though it's available from nearly the beginning, I didn't find the room that changes the color of the fox until very late in the game, and was so focused on thinking that the curtains and bells were some obtuse puzzle to be solved that I never noticed that my character was changing color.  Similarly I never found figured out the controls for running until around the same time as that room, so I spent the whole game rolling every few seconds while walking when I wanted to go fast.
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Nov 28, 2022 08:23
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You never seem to use your estus even when you're dangerously low on health and full on flasks.
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Nov 28, 2022 09:28
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Item Getter posted:It's neat seeing people discover things in a different order. Even though it's available from nearly the beginning, I didn't find the room that changes the color of the fox until very late in the game, and was so focused on thinking that the curtains and bells were some obtuse puzzle to be solved that I never noticed that my character was changing color. It is fascinating what comes about in a game like this with what you discover and when you discover it. I've been having fun with it, even if the language problem feels like it'll be a major issue later. The Lone Badger posted:You never seem to use your estus even when you're dangerously low on health and full on flasks. I blame two things for that 1.) Old-school RPG hoarding instincts 2.) Except (I assume) refilling at statues, I don't know the mechanics of how they're refilled. I guess I should figure that out, eh?
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Nov 29, 2022 00:12
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The Lone Badger posted:You never seem to use your estus even when you're dangerously low on health and full on flasks. Also, every time I see "estus", in my head I say it as "Eustace", and get momentarily sidetracked into Courage the Cowardly Dog. If I was skilled at Photoshop I'd probably do something with that
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Nov 30, 2022 00:24
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Episode 3 up! I am quite enjoying this, but I have a feeling that I may have missed something.... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m7lrZRixWT4
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Nov 30, 2022 23:16
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I started playing this game after watching your 1st episode, I'd seen it on Game Pass, and heard it billed as a Zelda-like, and I really like Zelda games so I gave it a try. It seemed like the devs said, "I really like Zelda games, but it sucks how you can figure out where to go next, and can solve puzzles" then they went and leaned TOO hard on making it inaccessible to the player. Too often I got to where you're at now, trying to figure out where to go next.
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Dec 1, 2022 02:32
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It's is specifically intended to evoke the feeling of being a kid who just got their hands on a LoZ cartridge only its an import and is entirely in japanese, the manual is also in japanese, and gamefaqs doesn't exist yet.
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Dec 1, 2022 02:40
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The thing is that we're spoiled by 30 years of osmosis of how to deal with Zelda 1. Back in the day without a manual? How'd you know to burn specific bushes? Where'd you use the flute? Not so much for OG Zelda but without manuals good luck finding out how to do particular commands that we'd take for granted now like lock-on or parry/deflecting. That's why the manual is so important... and why its so infuriating playing blind that it doesn't come in order.
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Dec 1, 2022 02:45
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FeyerbrandX posted:That's why the manual is so important... and why its so infuriating playing blind that it doesn't come in order. The manual is of CRITICAL importance. Which again makes me think they went too hard on inaccessibility by not only making the manual a piecemeal pickup in the game but ALSO in a giberish language. It's like you're playing 2 games: a Zelda-like and a puzzle game trying to understand the manual. I REALLY wanted to like this game, but by the time I gave up and uninstalled it, I just hated it.
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Dec 1, 2022 03:18
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As a twelve year old playing video games myself for the very first time I didn't even know that Link could pick up bushes so I gave up on playing a Link to the Past because I couldn't get out of the initial rainy Hyrule break-in-and-escape sequence. As a result I don't mind that modern Zelda games are much more hand-holdey, and I loved the starting bit in Twilight Princess because I grew to care about "my" hometown and it pissed me off that it got invaded and "my" childhood friend kidnapped.
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Dec 1, 2022 03:25
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I love the hell out of this game and am  a plenty at the videosat first i was sure it was going to be a hugely tedious pain in the rear end to play when i first saw the manual full of moonrunes; playing more, i started to draw mental comparisons to Outer Wilds of all things. specifically, the sense of being an explorer in a familiar-but-fundamentally-weird universe, and coming to learn over time what makes it tick, from both a mechanical and plot perspective. i was happy just running around lost, because even if I made no progress I would have seen something new and interesting to wonder at and think about how it connects to everything else. the aesthetic immediately captivated me, too; from the overworld to the dungeons to the bosses to especially the music and manual i was barely 2 years old when The Legend of Zelda first came out; parents got it for me when i was just about 5. some of the earliest memories i still have are of trying to figure out the game from a manual i couldn't really read much of yet. so yeah Tunic got me dead to rights on that too lol Ciaphas fucked around with this message at 05:39 on Dec 1, 2022 |
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Dec 1, 2022 05:36
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The way the manual is handled as incomplete information works well for the concept of this game, and this video the OP found one of the reasons why. While this game has a few Zelda-style upgrade items like the sword and shield which gate exploration by rather or not you have the item, there are other things like the method of leveling up by giving items to the statues, that are not gated by finding some upgrade in the world but technically available from the start and really only gated by the player's knowledge. There was nothing stopping you from leveling up this way from the beginning of the game, except that as a first-time player you weren't aware that this game mechanic existed until you found the manual page explaining it. Alternatively you can discover this mechanic by accident. (I discovered it by accident before finding the page, when opening the menu standing next to a statue and seeing there were some kind of buttons related to the items in the lower right). So really it's less about obfuscating the basic game mechanics like attacking just to be obtuse or whatever but sort of a different kind of the old Zelda-style item based unlocking based more on the player's own knowledge and discovering what is possible to do in the game. And the mechanics of the game are very simple, it's not like it is throwing a 4x strategy game or some complicated JRPG battle system at you without a readable manual or anything. But it's not a completely straightforward Zelda-like game so it might not be for everybody. For another example, the many hidden shortcuts in the game are a bit like this as well, they are there from the beginning but you might not notice them until discovering them first from the back side. Item Getter fucked around with this message at 07:59 on Dec 1, 2022 |
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Dec 1, 2022 07:46
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Absolutely love this game to bits. It's not perfect, and I don't much care for one of the fights, but overall it just ticks so many boxes for me. In the latest video, around 18:00, that's a curious bug/glitch, I'm guessing caused from getting knocked past the camera change trigger. Biggest one I found was sometimes falling down while running near the edge of stairs. I can see the manual being handed to you out of order making it feel like you're missing something, but it's a trade-off between giving the player confidence they've got everything so far, and keeping the manual looking like a manual. The devs went with the latter option. It works well with a player who doesn't mind forging ahead despite potentially missing something sometimes. As for figuring out where to go next, there's always the handy mental checklist of -What items/information have I gotten most recently? -Is there anywhere they could be put to use? -Is there anything else I can use/do somewhere? -Have I misinterpreted how something works? The last two are thankfully pretty rarely needed in Zelda-style games.
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Dec 1, 2022 15:16
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Professor Duck posted:Episode 3 up! I am quite enjoying this, but I have a feeling that I may have missed something.... I have to admit, "How close are you to... BOMB!" made me laugh out loud.
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Dec 1, 2022 21:06
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I'm digging the discussion going on here. For my own two cents, I have enjoyed the blindness that the game foists on you, and trying to think around the limited info you're given is definitely a challenge I haven't really had to contend with from a game in a while. The exploration aspect along with that is fun, too. It reminded me of a memory I had from when I was quite young. My brother (who is almost 5 years older than I am) was playing Super Mario Bros. 2, way back in the day. He was stuck in one of the stages, and there were a few pits around. Recalling that there were stages earlier that had rooms below, I suggested that maybe he should explore the pit. He did. It was an actual pit. He wasn't happy about that. ...its a stupid story, but its the kind of vibe I've been getting--just kinda do whatever in the name of "well, what happens if...", and its been fun. Hopefully it'll stay that way StarFyter posted:In the latest video, around 18:00, that's a curious bug/glitch, I'm guessing caused from getting knocked past the camera change trigger. Biggest one I found was sometimes falling down while running near the edge of stairs. Yeah...I commented on that in the video, too. I guess the game isn't expecting you to be hit into a new area like that. I adamantly defend that that death doesn't count  StarFyter posted:As for figuring out where to go next, there's always the handy mental checklist of I'll have to consider some of this before I record the next episode. Lemniscate Blue posted:I have to admit, "How close are you to... BOMB!" made me laugh out loud. Bombs are my only friend, apparently. Good thing the creepy skeleton fox thing in the windmill seems to have an endless supply!
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Dec 1, 2022 23:28
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This game does some really cool things (as mentioned, it's a really interesting way to recapture the experience of being a child who couldn't read ingame text, or of playing imported games in a language you don't know), and enjoyed parts of it quite a bit, but overall it left me feeling a bit sour. It's a weird mishmash of genres that don't quite gel imo, and a few things (especially at endgame) fell on the wrong side of too cryptic to be fun for me. (I also don't much like the autosaving given how cryptic everything is, it feels like this should be a game that lets you experiment and reset to figure out how things work.) A lot of people seem to really love it, though, and I do think it gets a lot of things right. I'm enjoying seeing you experience it and take different routes than I did. It is a brilliant homage to old game manuals regardless, though. (I will maintain that, personally, I think the best way to experience this game is to just look up and read the translated manual, and skip the game itself. The manual is wonderful. But that may just be my personal taste.)
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Dec 2, 2022 05:24
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Explopyro posted:(I will maintain that, personally, I think the best way to experience this game is to just look up and read the translated manual, and skip the game itself.) 
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Dec 2, 2022 16:52
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Explopyro posted:This game does some really cool things (as mentioned, it's a really interesting way to recapture the experience of being a child who couldn't read ingame text, or of playing imported games in a language you don't know), and enjoyed parts of it quite a bit, but overall it left me feeling a bit sour. It's a weird mishmash of genres that don't quite gel imo, and a few things (especially at endgame) fell on the wrong side of too cryptic to be fun for me. (I also don't much like the autosaving given how cryptic everything is, it feels like this should be a game that lets you experiment and reset to figure out how things work.) A lot of people seem to really love it, though, and I do think it gets a lot of things right. I'm enjoying seeing you experience it and take different routes than I did. It's been a good time. I have figured out how to back up my saves for tech-related issues I've been experiencing, and I agree that the game should've set up to autosave in a couple of slots. quote:It is a brilliant homage to old game manuals regardless, though. (I will maintain that, personally, I think the best way to experience this game is to just look up and read the translated manual, and skip the game itself. The manual is wonderful. But that may just be my personal taste.) The manual is gorgeous. It makes me think back to when I was little, and my brother and I got The Legend of Zelda 2. I read that thing over and over (especially the story in the beginning pages), and it makes me very sad that works like that don't really exist anymore. New episode up! It's a little shorter than usual because I have been having voice/coughing issues over the last few days, and I was hoping they'd resolve before recording again. Sadly, they didn't, and I got in what I could while (almost) not hacking up a lung. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pGOCzG3_23c
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Dec 4, 2022 22:10
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Professor Duck posted:It's been a good time. I have figured out how to back up my saves for tech-related issues I've been experiencing, and I agree that the game should've set up to autosave in a couple of slots. I'm thinking you could also have dodged those laser statues using the invincibility frames from your roll which you learned about in the manual a couple episodes ago.
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Dec 4, 2022 23:26
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So ive been following your videos. its been a treat to see you explore and discover new things. i will say this. the room where you change your characters colors i never found in my previous playthrough (and i never saw it in any other playthroughs i saw). So there is even more in this game that i havent found. hope you feel better and enjoy!
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Dec 5, 2022 04:53
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Carbon dioxide posted:I'm thinking you could also have dodged those laser statues using the invincibility frames from your roll which you learned about in the manual a couple episodes ago. I attempted that...I think maybe I just mis-timed it, but it will be worth trying again. lookw posted:So ive been following your videos. its been a treat to see you explore and discover new things. This game is definitely unique in the fact that it seems like a lot of players have some really different approaches to how they discovered certain things and in what order. I am feeling better--only 1 or 2 coughing fits on the latest episode! Thanks! ....and BTW, new episode here! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ur4AMWK9jO0
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Dec 8, 2022 22:52
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nice work on garden knight, my first time through i got got by that thing seven or eight times. i was trying too hard to shield tank the slams 'cos i didn't have the roll timing down very well, so i'd just run out of stamina and eat poo poo lol
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Dec 11, 2022 02:05
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Ciaphas posted:nice work on garden knight, my first time through i got got by that thing seven or eight times. i was trying too hard to shield tank the slams 'cos i didn't have the roll timing down very well, so i'd just run out of stamina and eat poo poo lol Thanks! I can understand how that would be....ive been hesitant to use the shield just because I honestly don't know what's blockable and don't want to get lit up from it. I never would've guessed his sword swings we're blockable. ...timing, too--that 3rd swing is off-tempo from the first 2 in the combo and I took too many hits from that the first run. It's certainly not easy if you're not used to these type of games...I had expected to have to take several.runs at it. poo poo's hard. Good on you for pushing through! Professor Duck fucked around with this message at 16:37 on Dec 11, 2022 |
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Dec 11, 2022 16:30
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I thought this game was supposed to be a Zelda clone. Instead it's a Zelda-themed Dark Souls clone. What a letdown.
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Dec 12, 2022 02:59
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Delphisage posted:I thought this game was supposed to be a Zelda clone. Instead it's a Zelda-themed Dark Souls clone. What a letdown. Later on there's a little bit more to it than that.
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Dec 12, 2022 06:10
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Professor Duck posted:Thanks! I can understand how that would be....ive been hesitant to use the shield just because I honestly don't know what's blockable and don't want to get lit up from it. I never would've guessed his sword swings we're blockable. Honestly blocking is better than dodging most of the time. Blocking can be done very quickly by holding the block button and it leads to much less stamina use overall. Especially since if you block you're still next to the enemy. Delphisage posted:I thought this game was supposed to be a Zelda clone. Instead it's a Zelda-themed Dark Souls clone. What a letdown. You say that like Dark Souls itself isn't heavily inspired by Zelda 1.
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Dec 12, 2022 06:38
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Dr Pepper posted:Honestly blocking is better than dodging most of the time. Blocking can be done very quickly by holding the block button and it leads to much less stamina use overall. Especially since if you block you're still next to the enemy. I'll have to try blocking more, I guess. Delphisage posted:I thought this game was supposed to be a Zelda clone. Instead it's a Zelda-themed Dark Souls clone. What a letdown. If the original LoZ was made today, I have a feeling it'd play a lot like this. New episode up, too! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7i0T7UOmrVI I apologize for any hitches in the videos (I just noticed a freeze in ep. 5) I've been having some issues with OBS being stupid when it comes to recording this particular game and I've been trying to figure out why its doing what its doing. Any expertise would be welcome there!
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Dec 12, 2022 22:39
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Okay, you are way to early to do that stuff at 19:00. Figuring that out just from visual clues is impressive. This playthrough is weird, but fun.
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Dec 12, 2022 23:12
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