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coop52
May 10, 2009



the Playstation website posted:

The land is dying. Vicious storms and an unstoppable blight ravage the scattered remnants of humanity, while fearsome new machines prowl their borders. Life on Earth is hurtling towards another extinction, and no one knows why.

It's up to Aloy to uncover the secrets behind these threats and restore order and balance to the world. Along the way, she must reunite with old friends, forge alliances with warring new factions and unravel the legacy of the ancient past – all the while trying to stay one step ahead of a seemingly undefeatable new enemy.

Watch the trailer here

Horizon Forbidden West is the second game in the ongoing Horizon series, released in 2022 for the PS4/PS5 with a DLC (Burning Shores) released in 2023 for PS5 only. Both had uncanny timing for releasing right at the same time as other similar hyped games.

Good news for those wanting to play Burning Shores but don't have a PS5: the PC port of the Complete Edition is coming out in February March 2024 now.

About the LP
Like with Zero Dawn I'll be releasing episodes with and without commentary over story cutscenes. Updates will be twice weekly.

Spoiler policy
Both the game and this thread assume you're familiar with Zero Dawn. If you haven't played, I have a completed LP:

Playlist with commentary over cutscenes
Playlist without commentary over cutscenes

Spoilers for Zero Dawn as well as lore discussion is ok. Please refrain from spoiling Forbidden West or Burning Shores; don't be a dick.

TABLE OF CONTENTS
Ep. 1 Hair Goals
Ep. 1a Hair Goals (no commentary over cutscenes)
Ep. 2 A Musical Interlude
Ep. 2a A Musical Interlude(no commentary over cutscenes)
Ep. 3 What's new Bristleback? (whoa whoa whoa)
Ep. 3a What's new Bristleback? (whoa whoa whoa) (no commentary over cutscenes)
Ep. 4 The Ulvund Haters Club
Ep. 5 Let's Play Board Games
Ep. 6 Hunting Grounds of Shame
Ep. 7 Someone Help, My Cult Is Dying
Ep. 8 I hope this Embassy thing goes well
Ep. 8a I hope this Embassy thing goes well (no commentary over cutscenes)
Ep. 9 Show me your tail; give me your horn
Ep. 10 This one time at rebel camp...
Ep. 11 Woooo
Ep. 12-1 The Worst Main Quest in the Game Part 1
Ep. 12-1a The Worst Main Quest in the Game Part 1 (no commentary over cutscenes)
Ep. 12-2 The Worst Main Quest in the Game Part 2
Ep. 12-2a The Worst Main Quest in the Game Part 2 (no commentary over cutscenes)
Ep. 13 Teenage Mutant Armored Turtles
Ep. 14 The kitty cat says (Cauldron) Mu
Ep. 15 Sleight of Crate all over again
Ep. 16 Up on the Root
Ep. 17 Hitting the Sweet Spot
Ep. 18 Robo Old Yeller
Ep. 18a Robo Old Yeller (no commentary over cutscenes)
Ep. 19 On the other side of the mountain
Ep. 20 Machine Stig
Ep. 21 Filling your gaping wound
Ep. 22 In the Flood (Literally)
Ep. 23 Someone make Melee Pits make sense
Ep. 24 MasterChef: Desert Clan
Ep. 25 Into the land of Daddies
Ep. 25a Into the land of Daddies (no commentary over cutscenes)
Ep. 26 Buddy Cop Vibes
Ep. 26a Buddy Cop Vibes (no commentary over cutscenes)
Ep. 27 Down with the Mountain
Ep. 27a Down with the Mountain (no commentary over cutscenes)
Ep. 28 I'm sorry I'm bad at video games
Ep. 29 There's a Snake in my 'Rut
Ep. 29a There's a Snake in my 'Rut (no commentary over cutscenes)
Ep. 30 Chewed up in the Maw
Ep. 31 Girl in a Box
Ep. 31a Girl in a Box (no commentary over cutscenes)
Ep. 32 Hippie Conspiracy
Ep. 33 Not One (Cauldron) Iota
Ep. 34 Contract Labor
Ep. 35 Stealth ain't working out
Ep. 36 There's A Monster At The End Of This Tunnel
Ep. 37 Therapeutic Triangulation
Ep. 38 The Grandma Episode
Ep. 39-1 What Happens in Vegas Part 1
Ep. 39-1a What Happens in Vegas Part 1 (no commentary over cutscenes)
Ep. 39-2 What Happens in Vegas Part 2
Ep. 39-2a What Happens in Vegas Part 2 (no commentary over cutscenes)
Ep. 40 Definitely not a tray cover

coop52 fucked around with this message at 00:33 on May 16, 2024

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coop52
May 10, 2009

Updated as of Ep. 26, mild spoilers are tagged

Important Characters We've Met So Far (click for pictures)

Nora tribe Tribe that occupies the eastern portion of the map, known as the Sacred Lands. A matriarchal society that worships the All-Mother, symbolized by a mountain. The tribe is ruled by High Matriarchs. All or most crimes seem to be punished by shunning. Dealt a heavy blow by the events of Zero Dawn
Aloy Our main character, now with better hair
Varl One of Aloy's friends, now with facial hair he shaved it off nooooo

Carja tribe Tribe that lives in the lands west of the Nora. Worships the sun and is ruled by the Sun King. They were at war with the Nora and other neighboring tribes for about 10 years, which ended 2 years prior to the events of the main game. After the end of a civil war, they now seem to be on the path of peace and mending relations with the neighbors. Their capital, Meridian, is still recovering from the battle with Eclipse/Hades.
Avad The current Sun King, still carrying a torch for Aloy
Nasadi and Itamen Avad's stepmother and half-brother respectively. Seem much happier after being rescued
Uthid and Vanasha A former Carja soldier and a spy respectively, both helped Aloy in the battle against Eclipse/Hades
Javad Magistrate of Chainscrape, seems to be doing his best to run the place but something's not working
Studious Vuadis Guy that got sent to represent the Carja at the Embassy, kind of an a-hole, loves scrolls
Fashav Avad's cousin, who got taken prisoner by the Tenakth and became a Marshal dies about 5 minutes after we meet him during the attack on the Embassy

Oseram tribe Tribe that occupies The Claim (location in relation to the Nora Sacred Lands unknown). Known for their drinking, tinkering, delving and arguing. Basically post-apocalyptic dwarves.
ErendFriend of Aloy's, still in the Vanguard and assigned to help with the Embassy at Barren Light, fortunately for us
Petra Former leader of Free Heap, now trying to help at Chainscrape. Always up for a cold beer
Ulvund The de facto head of Chainscrape. A huge dick that no one likes
Delah and Boomer Sisters who run a weapon stall, like to invent new things that may or may not work

Tenakth tribe tribe that occupies large parts of the Forbidden West, split into 3 clans (Desert, Sky, and Lowland). Currently undergoing a civil war
Regalla Leader of the rebels
Hekarro Current Chief, originally from the Lowland clan
Dekka Chaplain of the Memorial Grove, originally from the Lowland clan, AKA Battle Grandma
Kotallo One of Hekarro's Marshals, our new best friend
Drakka Member of the Desert clan, has beef with Commander Yarra
Yarra Commander of the Desert clan, has beef with Drakka
Meat Pet vulture of the Desert clan
Masked Rider AKA Machine Stig Mysterious guy who hangs out with the gang running the Gauntlet Runs
Tekotteh Commander of the Sky clan, arrogant poo poo


Utaru tribe vegetarian farmers who live just east of the Tenakth, noted for worshipping machines as Land Gods and having their villages all named after something to do with music
Zo Utaru Gravesinger who Aloy meets in Stone's Echo, has a thing going on with Varl


The Old World Inhabitants of the world prior to the apocolypse
Ted Faro (not pictured) The one responsible for the end of the world, gently caress this guy
Elizabet Sobeck Aloy's genetic progenitor/"mom" and the scientist behind GAIA and Project Zero Dawn
Travis Tate Project Lead/Alpha of the HADES subfunction. The most entertaining of the bunch, therefore gets the most screentime

Other
Sylens Magnificent bastard, no one's really sure what this guy is up to or where he came from, but he's still one of the best characters

Rainbow Shield People
A group encountered at the Hades Proving Lab, have rainbow/holographic impervious shields and are generally dicks
Female Stranger Seems to be the most reasonable of the group
Male Stranger Seems to be the leader of the group
Male Stranger 2/Erik rear end in a top hat we fight an unwinnable boss fight against
Beta Another clone of Elizabet Sobeck, motives and reasons for being with these assholes not yet clear


Machines We've Encountered So Far (click for pictures)
Burrower Trash mobs of the west, annoying but makes up for it by being adorable
Scrounger I have no idea how these are different from Scrappers but they can kick your rear end at low levels
Fanghorn Deer that can shoot fire, that's about all there is to them
Bristleback Warthogs that like to cannonball on top of you
ChargerReturnee from Zero Dawn, a ram that likes to go fast
Skydrifter Flying machines that have spiky tails that you'll need to collect
Scrapper Another returnee from Zero Dawn, now with plasma attacks
Leaplasher Kangaroo assholes that build upon the annoyance of Glinthawks in Zero Dawn, I tend to call them Leapslashers and still think that's a better name :colbert:
Shell Walker Returning from Zero Dawn, much harder now that you don't have as many weapons with tearblast (now tear precision) arrows
Clawstrider Velociraptors with spiky tails to collect, can and will kick your rear end
Lancehorn Another old friend from Zero Dawn, not much changed
Glinthawk Back again for more punishment, not as annoying this time around
Longleg Returning from Zero Dawn, still has a concussion sac to blow up
Thunderjaw Back again, they're not just going to leave out the one on the front of the last game's box, right?
Shellsnapper Armored turtles with rockets on their backs, some of the most annoying things to fight in the game
Widemaw Giant hippos that have vacuum attacks. Annoying since you need their tusks for upgrades
Ravager Another returnee from Zero Dawn, still has a laser cannon you can shoot off
Grazer Back from Zero Dawn and essentially the same
Bellowback Also returning from Zero Dawn, don't pop the sacks this time since you need them to upgrade stuff
Plowhorn Triceratops! Acts as the land-gods for the Utaru
Spikesnout Anteaters that spray berserk juice and acid
Tremortusk Murder mammoths with rocket launchers


Soundtrack Spotlight

Whatever Comes Plays in the story trailer
Aloy's Theme-Forbidden West Main menu music
In The Flood Plays during the opening credits
The World On Her Shoulders Plays when Aloy's climbing very high places
Savior of Meridian Plays during the interlude that follows the tutorial, remix of "City on the Mesa"
Storm On The Rise Plays during combat sometimes
Steel The Mind Another combat track
Off the Trail General running around track
The Chorus Plays when we approach Plainsong the first time
Solace Beneath the Stars Nighttime running around track
Shoulders of Giants Plays when fighting Thunderjaws and Stormbirds



coop52 fucked around with this message at 00:45 on Apr 1, 2024

coop52
May 10, 2009

UPDATE

Ep. 1 Hair Goals
Ep. 1a Hair Goals (no commentary over cutscenes)

Hello again internet, time to head out west!

I really like Forbidden West's tutorial. It's a bit of a jolt coming from being overpowered in Zero Dawn to getting my rear end kicked in the tutorial area. To be fair, according to Guerilla they made the machine AI better, which makes combat harder.

Burrowers are really cute but overused considering just how many machine types we have in this game.

Scroungers seem just like Scrappers in the niche they're supposed to fill, but they hit like a truck and can be fatal at lower levels.

Also, forever lol.

coop52
May 10, 2009

Back to square one equipment, handwaved as "lost my gear". The only thing that we get is the starter outfit which is a broken Shield Weaver that does jack poo poo at protecting you. There are a handful of early game skills from HZD that you have by default.

coop52
May 10, 2009

UPDATE
Ep. 2 A Musical Interlude
Ep. 2a A Musical Interlude(no commentary over cutscenes)

First boss fight! Slitherfangs are pretty annoying to fight, but the one in the tutorial is fortunately toned down.

I saw on Reddit where someone tracked Aloy's path in the Zero Dawn map for the opening credit sequence; I'll post it when I find it. She goes all over creation, but I guess at least it's scenic.

Edit: Found it!


We'll be in the game proper in the next episode, yay! I like the tutorial but it's a little bit on the long side.

coop52 fucked around with this message at 00:42 on Jan 4, 2024

coop52
May 10, 2009

UPDATE
Ep. 3 What's new Bristleback? (whoa whoa whoa)
Ep. 3a What's new Bristleback? (whoa whoa whoa) (no commentary over cutscenes)

More reunions this episode! I'm glad they brought back Petra. The scene in the bar was a nice way to deliver some exposition without making it too boring.

This quest is still kind of an extension of the tutorial since there aren't really any side quests or other activities available until you complete it, can't even go shopping.

coop52
May 10, 2009

UPDATE
Ep. 4 The Ulvund Haters Club

Sidequest time, this time with kind of a theme. Most of the Daunt sidequests involve something having to with Ulvund and just how bad a mayor/leader/whatever he is.

Forbidden West is full of great NPCs, and Delah and Boomer are a couple of my favorites. The reward from their quest is pretty good too.

coop52
May 10, 2009

UPDATE
Ep. 5 Let's Play Board Games

Forbidden West added a ton more side activities you can do; we won't get access to all of them until much later. They vary in quality greatly, imo. Melee Pits are pretty low on my list, Vistas are kind of disappointing compared with the Vantages from Zero Dawn, and Machine Strike is kind of meh. I do generally enjoy the Ruins though.

coop52
May 10, 2009

UPDATE
Ep. 6 Hunting Grounds of Shame

Our friend the Hunting Grounds is back. This particular one is pretty similar to Zero Dawn's first hunting grounds in that it's themed around environmental hazards/traps, with some of the same annoyances. That third trial is where I gave up on Hunting Grounds entirely on my first playthrough. I will come back at some point to complete it.

We also get a minor collectable in the Daunt with the Signal Lenses. The rewards for completing are only really good at the beginning; don't hold off on doing this one if you're playing along at home.

coop52
May 10, 2009

UPDATE
Ep. 7 Someone Help, My Cult Is Dying

Revisiting the melee pits: they're officially awful. I'm not sure why they thought it'd be a good idea to introduce fighting game mechanics into an action RPG, but what do I know.

The Twilight Path is a nice little sidequest that also kills two birds by being a location for one of our signal lens towers.

coop52
May 10, 2009

UPDATE
Ep. 8 I hope this Embassy thing goes well
Ep.8a I hope this Embassy thing goes well (no commentary over cutscenes)

Continuing on with the story; after this video we finally get to see more of the map. The Embassy is almost a repeat of the Proving in Zero Dawn as far as plot beats in the grand scheme of the story go, but the gameplay is more challenging imo. It's pretty easy to die here if you don't know what's coming.

coop52
May 10, 2009

UPDATE
Ep. 9 Show me your tail; give me your horn

Lots of activities and side quest stuff is now open to us, including our first Tallneck!

Salvage contracts are basically hunts, where you are assigned to get parts from a specific machine. You can get some decent rewards from doing them. There are a few contractors scattered throughout the map, and each one has 4-5 contracts to fulfill.

Bandit camps are now Rebel camps and come in two flavors: outpost and camp. They usually have pretty good loot. If you're stealthy, you can sneak in and complete them without clearing out the rebels. As mentioned in the video, the human enemies now have face masks making it much harder to headshot them, at least at this point in the game. Using stealth and Silent Strike is a great way to take them out. I'm not that patient though.

coop52
May 10, 2009

UPDATE
Ep. 10 This one time at rebel camp...

More side activities today. I really like the final salvage contract for this area; mounted combat is fun.

This is our first Rebel Camp, which as you can see is a little more involved than the Rebel Outposts.

coop52
May 10, 2009

UPDATE
Ep. 11 Woooo

We're coming to the end of the side stuff available to us for this section of the map. Survey Drones are the :geno:est collectable imo. Blackboxes are pretty neat.

coop52
May 10, 2009

UPDATE
Ep. 12-1 The Worst Main Quest in the Game Part 1
Ep. 12-1a The Worst Main Quest in the Game Part 1 (no commentary over cutscenes)
Ep. 12-2 The Worst Main Quest in the Game Part 2
Ep. 12-2a The Worst Main Quest in the Game Part 2 (no commentary over cutscenes)


Continuing on with the story. The good parts of this quest are the formal introduction to the Utaru and Zo as well as more Travis stuff. The main part of the quest combines some of my least favorite things: platforming areas where you're punished by lengthy backtracking, boss fights where you can't win, and swimming where you can't see where you're going.

With the Igniter, you can backtrack to get some goodies such as Greenshine. You also need it to complete some ruins and side quests, as demonstrated in the video. I really like these ruins; the battery puzzle is pretty clever.


inflatablefish posted:

I've just caught up with ep 4 and wow, I want to find whichever dev had the idea to let you just flat-out buy animal parts and shake them by the hand. As well as the QoL improvement it just makes so much sense in-world!

Agreed, it's really one of the best features in the game.

coop52
May 10, 2009

UPDATE
Ep. 13 Teenage Mutant Armored Turtles

Back to sidequesting for a few episodes. We have the return of another old friend from Zero Dawn! Also the ending of the Eclipse questline.

coop52
May 10, 2009

UPDATE
Ep.14 The kitty cat says (Cauldron) Mu

Yay, first Cauldron of the game! It comes a bit later in the game than the first one in Zero Dawn did. Forbidden West introduces a new bullshit mechanic here in the form of partially unlocked overrides. As mentioned in the video, we'll have to wait a bit to do anything about those, and it'll involve grinding for parts to get completely unlocked overrides for those machines. Each Cauldron has a few machines like this.

coop52
May 10, 2009

UPDATE
Ep. 15 Sleight of Crate all over again

Another day, another Hunting Grounds. This time is Forbidden West's version of the stealth grounds. It feels cheap that two out of the three challenges were basically identical to the ones in Zero Dawn. The gliding challenge is neat. In hindsight, I should have gotten a stealth outfit to make life a bit easier.

The ruins in this area are pretty fun. They feature another great, physics defining ability: pushing around rusty train cars.

coop52
May 10, 2009

EricFate posted:

I'm currently 20 minutes into this one, kind of mystified.

On the one hand, the tutorial design is bad by not giving a clearer indication as to what is wrong ... on the other hand one would expect that when a move is titled Block Breaker, that someone would intuit that you wait until the thing you are fighting is BLOCKING before it will actually do anything.

The actual combat challenge, on the other hand, seems more clear. Defeat the enemy with the move. Not spam the move over and over until the enemy is defeated. Just beat the enemy down as quickly as possible -- wait for them to block -- and then use the move as a finisher. The trainer is actively shouting the solution at you during the fight.

The title Block Breaker is a bit of a misnomer; it'll break the enemy's defense and stun lock them regardless if they're blocking attacks or not. After doing research (and beating this challenge finally in this most recent recording session) the dumb thing is that spamming the move is the quickest way to beat the challenge. The issue I had previously was timing of the button presses. The game doesn't really give you any feedback on what you're doing wrong or right until you actually hit the combo and see the little pop up text for getting Valor for it. Though I'll happily admit that most of the problem is that I'm just bad :v:

MrFancyPants has a great guide on melee combat in general if anyone's interested (mild spoilers for future melee pits): Link

coop52
May 10, 2009

UPDATE
Ep. 16 Up on the Root

The Roots that Bind is a pretty nice sidequest, giving us a little more insight into the Utaru culture. I think the seed pouch is a nice idea, though I don't know how well it'd work in execution since seeds don't generally last that long, maybe a year or two without more specialized storage.



SIGSEGV posted:

There was this thing when the game released, about some of its devs finding that Elden Ring had bad UI, and they were wrong about the bad UI, it's not where they thought it was, this game has bad tutorials while Elden Ring has what Horizon 2 shook off: terrible inventory janitoring.

I find this faintly funny in the abstract but it's still irritating on actually having to deal with it.

I'd trade having good inventory management & bad tutorials over good tutorials & bad inventory management any day. It's far more likely that someone will have made a guide or video to better explain what the tutorial covers than hope that someone's modded a bad inventory system into something decent.

coop52
May 10, 2009

UPDATE
Ep. 17 Hitting the Sweet Spot

I'd be more forgiving of the Vistas fiddley-ness if they were as cool as the Vantages were. It's kind of disappointing we just get a text box instead of audio recordings for these.

Edit to add: just noticed there's a delay on the Forbidden West PC port release, sorry PC crew :(

coop52
May 10, 2009

UPDATE
Ep. 18 Robo Old Yeller
Ep. 18a Robo Old Yeller (no commentary over cutscenes)

Time to explore the Utaru's sacred cave. Varl and Zo join us, but as you can see the battle system really wasn't set up for companions, and they end up just standing there half the time.

The video's a bit long because surprise, there's another story quest you have to do once you find out what happened to the Land God. Good news, most of the rest of the map is now open to us. This quest is a pretty good transition point from leaving the early game and entering the mid-game.

coop52
May 10, 2009

UPDATE
Ep. 19 On the other side of the mountain

Time to explore what's on the other side. We have our first real encounter with the Tenakth and are about to spend a whole lot more time with them.

coop52
May 10, 2009

UPDATE
Ep. 20 Machine Stig

As expected from the quest we got in the last video, first Thunderjaw fights up and it's a doozy. At this point there are no tearblast (or tear pricision as they're called now) arrows or a decent ropecaster available so it's a bit more of a challenge compared to the first encounters in Zero Dawn.

We also meet a group of punks and take part in their Charger race. Gauntlet Runs can be pretty fun.

coop52
May 10, 2009

UPDATE
Ep. 21 Filling your gaping wound

Continuing with the side quest chain we started in the previous episode, time to solve the Desert Clan's water crisis and interfere in their politics at the same time. Also, we meet the most important member of the tribe, Meat!

coop52
May 10, 2009

UPDATE
Ep. 22 In the Flood (Literally)

I hope y'all like swimming, puzzles, and wandering around cranes for far too long.

This is also the debut of the shredder gauntlet, one of the cooler weapon types introduced in Forbidden West. It's got a learning curve, but once you figure out how to use them properly, they become really powerful. Arktix has a great video on how to use them: Shredder Gauntlet Master Class (some spoilers for machines we haven't seen yet).


SIGSEGV posted:

Today we learn that the Tenakth use body bags.

I respect that it forces a choice, I also appreciate that at the endpoint they don't actually have a solution to their problem.

The way that the Tenakth take military terms and make them their own is pretty charming, see also how Chaplains became their version of historians.

I also respect that you have to make a choice. The choice doesn't really affect anything; you don't get any different rewards for choosing the other person, but I appreciate that you have to make it based on what you feel is right and not pressured to choose which one's better based on practical gameplay reasons.

coop52
May 10, 2009

UPDATE
Ep. 23 Someone make Melee Pits make sense

Another day, another Melee Pit. This one seems more fitting as the first one than the Chainscrape one IMO. The challenges play more like tutorials and the Pit Master goes down like a chump.


SIGSEGV posted:

sometimes science takes all the fun out of things.

This is also a game where a girl 100lbs soaking wet gets hit by 2 ton hunks of metal on the regular and walks away no problem.

coop52
May 10, 2009

UPDATE
Ep. 24 MasterChef: Desert Clan

A couple more nice little side quests. I think this is really the first time we hear about Veterans, Tenakth sent over to teach the Utaru to fight. I also really like the chef NPC who gives us the food quest; she's just so excited about cooking :3:

Salt Bite is a nice little town and is probably the easier place to get any goose parts. Geese spawn very rarely elsewhere.

coop52 fucked around with this message at 00:57 on Mar 21, 2024

coop52
May 10, 2009

UPDATE
Ep. 25 Into the land of Daddies
Ep. 25a Into the land of Daddies (no commentary over cutscenes)

Continuing on with the story, we're off to the Memorial Grove and our first meeting with Chief Hekarro on our quest to get a hold of our first subfunction.

We also have a nice interlude with Zo getting her backstory. A lot of people online post about wanting a Rost prequel game or DLC, but a Zo DLC set during the battle for Barren Light sounds pretty awesome too.

coop52
May 10, 2009

UPDATE
Ep. 26 Buddy Cop Vibes
Ep. 26a Buddy Cop Vibes (no commentary over cutscenes)

Time for an adventure with our new friend Kotallo! This video also features one of my favorite cutscenes in the game (the one at the bottom of the Bulwark, you'll know it when you see it).

The Tremortusk fight can be a doozy. They give you a bow with Tear Precision (aka Tearblast) arrows for a reason: using them to knock components off can make the fight easier. I had a hard time finding the sweet spot for the rocket launchers for some reason. I think one of the more challenging parts of the fight is the fact that the space is a little confining. I hate fighting big machines like that in small spaces. I don't think this Tremortusk is any weaker than ones you find out in the wild. It's a good idea to get used to fighting them since you'll need a bunch of their drops to upgrade end-game gear.

coop52
May 10, 2009

UPDATE
Ep.27 Down with the Mountain
Ep. 27a Down with the Mountain (no commentary over cutscenes)

Continuing our mission to humiliate Tekotteh ensure the Sky Clan sends their best to the Kulrut. We also pick up a sidequest to help a nice nerdy kid complete his right of passage.

:eng101: There are merchants later in the game where you can buy Bellowback and Frostclaw Sac Webbings if you prefer instead of hunting for them, but not for Fireclaws. No choice but to grind for those, and you'll need around 30 to fully upgrade everything that needs them.

coop52
May 10, 2009

A random thought I had was that Tekotteh reminds me of a Game of Thrones villain (not any one in particular, just in a general sense) but I can't really explain why.

coop52
May 10, 2009

UPDATE
Ep. 28 I'm sorry I'm bad at video games

This video was recorded about a month after the last one, and in the interim I forgot a lot of how to play :v: I've been playing FFVII Rebirth in my free time (it's good btw). Apparently there are dev interviews talking about how they were inspired by the Horizon series when creating the open world elements. I can see some of the influence: a lot of the environment designs remind me of Horizon, and the tower things are basically Tallnecks but boring. There's also some things I noticed that were straight up lifted from Ghost of Tsushima as well.

The Bulwark melee pit is utter bullshit and I hate it so much. Fighting multiple opponents without a good crowd control ability to give you some breathing room sucks rear end. In the main game, there's a Valor Surge called Radial Blast that works great when you're surrounded but you can't use Valor Surges in the pit.

To be completely fair, I suck at fighting games because I forget combos and tend to button mash and panic, which seems to lead to most of my bad runs.

The Hunting Grounds are refreshingly straight-forward, two trials proving you know how to use their respective elements and one proving you know how to use shredders. Just need to practice my shredder catching some more.

coop52
May 10, 2009

UPDATE

Ep. 29 There's a Snake in my 'Rut
Ep. 29a There's a Snake in my 'Rut (no commentary over cutscenes)

I finally beat the Melee Pit, skip ahead to 18:27 if you want to just watch the successful run. My favorite bad run is at 14:00.

The Kulrut (or rather defending it) is really fun and has some great story cutscenes at the end.

coop52
May 10, 2009

UPDATE
Ep. 30 Chewed up in the Maw

The Arena's now open! The Arena is holds a good chunk of the elite weapons/outfits, which means you'll probably want to complete at least some of the challenges to complete your endgame loadout.

One thing I forgot to mention: items you use in the Arena such as ammo and potions are returned to you when you're done. This has lead to discovery of an item duplication glitch that involves leaving the Arena by jumping over its invisible walls to find a Stash. The ability to use this glitch seems to disappear and reappear depending on the current patch.

We also return to the Base to have a nice hang-out moment. I really like conversing with our growing friend group, and watching them figure out the Focuses is pretty cute :3:

coop52
May 10, 2009

UPDATE
Ep. 31 Girl in a Box
Ep. 31a Girl in a Box (no commentary over cutscenes)

Investigating the Eluthia signal with our pals Varl and Erend! Guess what we find!

The Specters aren't terribly tough once you acid them up; you can see the acid eat away at least a half of their health on both fights. I'm not sure if these are weaker than ones we'll encounter later.

We also get some more nice conversations with the gang at the base.


achtungnight posted:

A lot of people who played this game found themselves not liking the Arena. I'm not sure why- I enjoyed it well enough. Only issue was I steamrolled through it due to playing on low difficulty. :)

No shame at all in playing the Arena on story. I think a lot of people do just to make the grind easier.

coop52
May 10, 2009

UPDATE
Ep. 32 Hippie Conspiracy

A quick backtrack to Plainsong where things ain't alright. One of our quests involves rescuing some hunters; the food situation's bad enough that they've had to give up their vegetarian ways. Our other quest involves a murder mystery where the victm was someone wanting to at least try to improve their situation. I do like that we have more stuff to do in Plainsong after we've largely left that area behind story-wise.

I'm also not sure if there's been a settled term for a male Karen. Kevin sounded pretty good to me so I went with it.

coop52 fucked around with this message at 18:40 on Apr 21, 2024

coop52
May 10, 2009

UPDATE
Ep. 33 Not One (Cauldron) Iota

Cauldron time! :buddy: I really like this one, probably my favorite of the Forbidden West ones.

coop52
May 10, 2009

UPDATE
Ep. 34 Contract Labor

Finishing up with the salvage contracts for this area. This lady is important since she's got a good selection of machine parts for sale, particularly the elusive Bellowback Sac Webbing needed for a ton of upgrades for blue and early purple grade weapons and outfits, as well as for the override.

I also show off the Clawstrider mount at the end of the video. Clawstriders suck as rides since they're so slow (technically faster than running but still), but they have excellent utility in fights, especially the Elemental Clawstriders. The downside is that ones in Aggressive mode tend to pick fights with literally everything they see and aggro way too much. It's fine when they just decimate a herd of Grazers or something but not so much when they bring in the big guys when you're not ready for them.


achtungnight posted:

The image of Aloy rising out of the Cauldron atop a Tallneck is indeed super cool.

That's one of the reasons I like the Cauldron so much, so cool

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coop52
May 10, 2009

UPDATE
Ep. 35 Stealth ain't working out

A nice little Relic Ruin and a Rebel Outpost that was way harder than expected. Usually Outposts are pretty quick to clear but this one gave me a lot of trouble for some reason.

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