tommib
Gold Member
Not for the faint of heart as Mark tears down a lot of the design choices.
Oh, Mark! Of course!
I don’t know what’s worse: the corrupt journalists or the YouTube click bait rage influencers.
Not for the faint of heart as Mark tears down a lot of the design choices.
Dude saying that the cutscenes take half or more of the game playtime already tells me all i need to know, the dude is gonna use stupid hyperboles for the whole video.
And i'm far from thinking that the game is perfect.
I don’t know what’s worse: the corrupt journalists or the YouTube click bait rage influencers.
Spoiler alert: Stellar Blade is a mainstream action adventure game, not a cabinet Cave shmup.He knows his stuff when it comes to mechanics in action games and shmups and is one of the few reviewers who will go into to depth about them so the video is more than just stupid hyperboles.
Yes, because someone who primarily covers shmups is in it for the clicks. lol
Spoiler alert: Stellar Blade is a mainstream action adventure game, not a cabinet Cave shmup.
Not for the faint of heart as Mark tears down a lot of the design choices.
The video is full of cheap shots. Man is moaning about having to explore the environment to open chests that have a quick time event and generalising it as the epitome of “dumbified” design.And? Primarily isn't the same thing as only but I guess I should expect more of this conversation considering the lazy cheap shots.
Could it be that he’s taking advantage of it being the popular title of the month?
I watched the thing, and I both agree and disagree.
If I am honest he isn't wrong about the combat mechanics. The combo system yes, you need to spend points to even unlock the basic 4 or 6 hit flurries. And they actually are a liability. Enemies will usually hit back after 3 or 4 hits anyway. Especially the latter bosses, you can't even pull off a full level 4 combo on them and it will only get you hit. On top of that it basically doesn't do any damage, so there is little reward for a lot of risk like losing 30% health on a cheap shot. The best is to abuse Beta and Burst to stunlock enemies and doing actual damage while also depleting their balance. A good example is the
Raven fight. This fight is actually harder if you attack. You're better off just waiting for her and fish for parries, hit her with Beta X after Blink, and hit her with something that knocks her down again. This is why Beta and Burst trance builds are probably the best. Trying combos on her will only get you killed and does no damage anyway, this goes for basically all bosses by the way.
Not to mention invincible mode. It has a whole tree based on parries, but why lose valuable time on those? You are invincible, just mash the L1 skills until the bar runs dry.
There are indeed no launchers, which severely limits the combat. Not even small fry you can launch. And get this, air combos actually do far more damage than ground ones. Its not in your system because combat is never in the air but try it out on some mobs, jump and then strike them 4 times and do the triangle stomp attack. It does more damage than the longer and more risky level 4 combo.
He is also right about Eidos 7 being the best part of the game. I replayed it yesterday on NG+ and the first level is really solid in terms of encounters, aesthetics and atmosphere. It looks really good. And you can even expand it later. The wasteland flat out sucks, even if you beeline for the goal its very boring and looks one note. The desert is even worse. But those are the only 2 semi open areas in the game. However, the game would be better if the game kept the design of Eidos 7 throughout. He is right about the scanner but to me this is minor, he can also explore if he craves old school design so much. The wallhack is there to make it easier to find pickups. I only unlocked the upgraded scanner when I had spares.
I disagree about there being little amount of gameplay. The walking scene at the first hyper drive is indeed obnoxious and should've either have a fight and be skippable in NG+ runs. In fact, nothing is skippable in NG+ and you can only fast forward some dialogues but it goes with a lot of lag and feels kind of awkward. But I fought a ton of battles in this game and on top of my head I think there are easily 20 bosses not counting optional side quest battles. The chests, yeah, I'd rather have auto input when I find the code but to me this was fairly minor. Puzzle chests I don't like either, they work in an RPG where you can upgrade tiers of hacking or lockpicking, but in this game you need nothing to open them except for inputting some directionals which feels pointless to me. Though there are a small handful of hackable chests that only open if you have this skill, but I only found maybe 3 in the entire game?
I like this game a ton. And despite some annoyances (not being able to skip things), I enjoy my replay too. But there are absolutely some western padding tropes and busywork in this game. A lot of it is optional, but about 80% of the sidequests are dog shit in Stellar Blade too and they expose the very awkward fast travel system; you typically need to fast travel about 2 or 3 times in a row, and try to warp back to the handler in some cases, only to find that for the next step you need to return to the same area anyway.
“Forget 1984. Stellar Blade is the dystopian future.”Or he likes talking in-depth about shmups, fighting games, and character action games because he loves mechanical driven games and Stellar Blade is a recently released character action game. What it be better if he waited longer to post his thoughts? You don't have to like or agree with his critical eye but maybe refute what you find hyperbolic rather than cheap attempts at character assassination. He can certainly be curmudgeon around modern gaming tropes (see: overuse of parrying in modern action games) but he's hardly a trend or Youtube algorithm chaser.
I liked it more than him as well but my years living in Korea probably bias me a bit. I do agree with the overarching points of the game not respecting your time. I'm not so sure I'd go as far as to say it would be better as a boss rush game but those were the best parts of the game by a large margin. I just wish we could get back to 10-15 hour games. I know you can play Stellar Blade like that but I have a hard time skipping content. I'm no my second Elden Ring playthrough and I'm repeating all the useless side content that I kind of hate. lol
“Forget 1984. Stellar Blade is the dystopian future.”
Yeah, I spent a lot of my gaming time over the weekend doing sidequests in preparation for the point of no return, and my character is only very marginally stronger than before. I love the game overall, but this is definitely an area that I wish was designed a bit better.I'm in Matrix 11 and the gameplay loop is starting to get a little boring to me. I really don't feel any of the side quest stuff is remotely rewarding. It's important for materials and stuff, but I prefer in games like this where you get something more noteworthy if you're going to be sinking that much time into exploring.
Or he likes talking in-depth about shmups, fighting games, and character action games because he loves mechanical driven games and Stellar Blade is a recently released character action game. What it be better if he waited longer to post his thoughts? You don't have to like or agree with his critical eye but maybe refute what you find hyperbolic rather than cheap attempts at character assassination. He can certainly be curmudgeon around modern gaming tropes (see: overuse of parrying in modern action games) but he's hardly a trend or Youtube algorithm chaser.
I liked it more than him as well but my years living in Korea probably bias me a bit. I do agree with the overarching points of the game not respecting your time. I'm not so sure I'd go as far as to say it would be better as a boss rush game but those were the best parts of the game by a large margin. I just wish we could get back to 10-15 hour games. I know you can play Stellar Blade like that but I have a hard time skipping content. I'm no my second Elden Ring playthrough and I'm repeating all the useless side content that I kind of hate. lol
I exclusively resorted to playing games from Japan and Asia for the last few years because they are more gamey and usually not tainted by woke curators. But the notion that they don't suffer from artificial padding ofcourse isn't true. FFVII Rebirth got some flak for it, because of its classic Ubisoft open world design, and Infinite Wealth is extremely big even for a Yakuza game. Stellar Blade has this same tropes. Its full of fetch quests. You can see the markers on the Xion map pop up out of nowhere after every event, and this is without even factoring in the bulletin board. I guess you can ignore them (though some are legit good, like the Enya questline.. well that one might be the only good one though a select few others contain some very tough boss fights). Yes, I know you can ignore them.
But then I can't help to think about DMC and NG.. having no side quests at all (only challenge rooms with a meaningful upgrade as a reward). Yet I replayed DMC stages themselves a ton, because I wanted to power up my characters. And to find some missed secret blue orbs. So you don't need fetch quests, you need a reason to replay some content, which DMC did masterfully. And ofcourse, a grading system helps too. This kind of straightforward design is missing nowadays. They all feel the need to pad games out.
having just gone from replaying bioshock to now replaying arkham asylum, it becomes obvious that there've been both gains & losses involved in transitioning to the current 'expanded' version of game design. I don't feel that it's inherently 'worse' overall (I've enjoyed a whole lot of it), but I do think that, simply by being bigger, it's more difficult to avoid the problems of downtime & dead space than it was previously. there simply being that much more territory to fill in...I like this game a ton. And despite some annoyances (not being able to skip things), I enjoy my replay too. But there are absolutely some western padding tropes and busywork in this game. A lot of it is optional, but about 80% of the sidequests are dog shit in Stellar Blade too and they expose the very awkward fast travel system; you typically need to fast travel about 2 or 3 times in a row, and try to warp back to the handler in some cases, only to find that for the next step you need to return to the same area anyway.
having just gone from replaying bioshock to now replaying arkham asylum, it becomes obvious that there've been both gains & losses involved in transitioning to the current 'expanded' version of game design. I don't feel that it's inherently 'worse' overall (I've enjoyed a whole lot of it), but I do think that, simply by being bigger, it's more difficult to avoid the problems of downtime & dead space than it was previously. there simply being that much more territory to fill in...
He knows his stuff when it comes to mechanics in action games and shmups and is one of the few reviewers who will go into to depth about them so the video is more than just stupid hyperboles.
He couldn’t even get a very basic thing correct on the amount of cinematics
What did he get wrong about the amount cinematics?
Not for the faint of heart as Mark tears down a lot of the design choices.
well, as an example of an open world game, shadow of the colossus is a pretty unique one. it's essentially the world's most laid back boss rush game, & the open world meandering, i've always felt, sorta acts as the calm before each inevitable storm. but, while I personally worship the game, i'm not so sure there's an appetite out there for this type of empty open world. red dead redemption 1/2, i'd say, are more widely popular, appealing examples of relatively barren open world 'horse riding sims'...This makes me think about open world design and how SOTC is one of my favorites and is fairly empty. The folly of creating GPS systems, maps littered with points of interest, and content every few paces is that most people aren't even going to finish your games, much less engage with all the content so why are developers so afraid to let players miss out on that content.
It’s not a lot
Don't need some idiot to tell me anything, i played it and platinumed it myself. Had a blast!
well, as an example of an open world game, shadow of the colossus is a pretty unique one. it's essentially the world's most laid back boss rush game, & the open world meandering, i've always felt, sorta acts as the calm before each inevitable storm. but, while I personally worship the game, i'm not so sure there's an appetite out there for this type of empty open world. red dead redemption 1/2, i'd say, are more widely popular, appealing examples of relatively barren open world 'horse riding sims'...
now, as far as littering the game map with shit? not a fan, either. i'd say most people prefer hidden goodies to 'look! over here!' goodies...
I'm glad you had fun. I don't think anyone is trying to tell you anything and a difference of opinion isn't going to stop the sun from rising tomorrow.
Not for the faint of heart as Mark tears down a lot of the design choices.
I get where you're coming from but i don't know this person, don't agree with his points, and find them hyperbolic and ADHD driven (i don't want to watch the cinematics type of BS) and I honestly think that being this critical of a studio who made their first triple A console game is unnecessary.
When someone says "the story is painfully stupid with unskippable cutscenes" i don't take them seriously, because I played it and think he's being dramatic for content like most of these people. He is so dramatic, it's complete and absolute childish BS.
Favorites for me (of the 27 or so I have) in no order:My fav outfit remains default, pre order, orca exploration and black full dress
Most recent things is the plans to add a boss rush mode or something similar.Any word on a patch drop? Kind of want photo mode, or for them to hide the left side icons in dynamic hud.
Maybe it's teaching people to never judge a book by its cover.If Shift Up end making sequel (I hope they do) they need better side characters.....lot of people criticize Eve "bland" personality but I didn't mind her, in context of the story she was fine the way she was but she needed fun character with her.
In Nier Replicant/Gestalt MC himself also didn't have much colourful personality but he had fun character like Emil and Kaine he can banter with.
Also I actually really liked some of the NPC design but their design doesn't match their personality and what they do for living....AT ALL.
For example: Kasim has cool and freaky design but why is he a hair salon? He has no hair or god damn face, he looks someone who works in black marker in Alita or GotS world selling body parts.
Another one is Barry, again cool freaky design which looks like psychopath you see in cyberpunk setting but his personality is polite and sells fish.
You are crazy. This game looks good in both balanced and performance mode and 60 is a must for a title like thisCall me crazy but I prefer fidelity mode.
I think Fromsoft made a product that is so mainstream every action game just gets compared to them. Stellar Blade is more in line with all the Hack and Slash games from the 2000's.
It's more NieR Automata or Astral Chain then it is a Soul Clone.
Because usually when someone enjoys cutting hair then they would also like have hair themselves even its artificially created.Maybe it's teaching people to never judge a book by its cover.
I suppose, but for what it's worth my regular barber was completely bald and another that I go to now has really unkempt hair (picture Einstein). I'm not sure if they like their job or not but they're good barbers.Because usually when someone enjoys cutting hair then they would also like have hair themselves even its artificially created.
Don't need some idiot to tell me anything, i played it and platinumed it myself. Had a blast!
Fidelity looks better. I switch to it for screenshots. The best up in balanced can make the image a bit soft.You are crazy. This game looks good in both balanced and performance mode and 60 is a must for a title like this
Me, too. The game isn't so hard that I need perfect reflexes with 60fps nor is it an ultra fast game that profits hugely from better 60fps motion clarity. Image quality on the other hand sucks big times on any other mode. Even in fidelity the dynamic resolution goes a bit too low for my taste and the image could have been better.Call me crazy but I prefer fidelity mode.
Yeah but where does stellar blade fit into all of this?Jurassic World was a decent enough popcorn movie. Fallen Kingdom was quite bad and Dominion was laughably god awful. Somehow, Dominion still made over 1billion, so I doubt much will change going forward. I hope Pratt doesn't return and they give the franchise a soft reboot, at least with new characters. How have people not gotten sick of Pratt playing the same character in every movie?
Too many costumes looks great but completely cover the ass and boobs.I unlocked black wave and cybernetic bondage today and I have a hard time playing without constantly looking behind my shoulder lol. The game Is so sexy and that’s all of it. It’s a great game with sexy outfits. And it’s funny nobody ever mentions anything about her dressing in bondage lol.
The whole sex appeal is absolutely not mentioned and it’s all played with a straight face and that’s great.
In usual anime style, getting a haircut is more “yikes” coming from Adam than seeing the dresses lol.
Anyway. I appreciate it.
I find myself doing and clearing absolutely everything before I go to next mission. It’s just fun. Although some enemies are annoying in Great desert.
My fav outfit remains default, pre order, orca exploration and black full dress