#Elden Ring is an ARPG

[raspberrykraken]

I’m finally in the endgame of Diablo 4, by endgame I mean Act 6 to finally finish this campaign out. I did play Diablo:Hellfire on gog, Diablo2: Resurected, and the last season of Diablo 3 plus indie games while waiting for Diablo 4 to come out. Perhaps this will be a personal retrospective of the games and being a little upset because of how the campaign panned out for D4. Spoilers below.

In the opening scenes of Diablo 4 we are already having influences from Hell on two sides. Mephisto and Lilith. The first is more secondary than the second. Oh, why you ask? Because although you were “given” her petals she isn’t able to directly influence your character at all. You find signs of her throughout the game with more petals and visions. But the core gameplay is you being distracted by shiny things across the world while pursuing her.

Yes she has cut a path of cults and killed lots of people across the world. So has her former lover Inarius with his church. Both share extreme ideals, both are sides of the same coin. Lilith has more self awareness and understanding of her status, her mission. Inarius is a pompous jerk who wants to go back to Heaven and regrets ever being with her, doing any of this of creating humans, Sanctuary, the controversial Nephalem that are wrote out from Diablo 3. They get regulated to a group solving that problem as Diablo 4 takes hundreds of years into the future.

Diablo Immortal takes place in between Diablo 2 and Diablo 3. It’s gameplay is refined Diablo 3. It’s okay.

On the side Mephisto gets to directly influence your character. Offering advice, help, guide you through certain areas. Prime Evil of Hatred who had the foresight that if he was helpful to random strangers then maybe they will help him. In previous games he was trapped but managed to influence people before being freed by his brother Diablo in Diablo 2. So definitely a mysterious character that hasn’t been explored throughly from a story perspective but this isn’t his story. Yes he can intervene as the Father, which he is as Lilith is his daughter, but he completely railroads the narrative to his side.

It boggles me that Lilith only directly talks to your character on the second time you use the Sightless Eye, an ancient magical artifact, and tries to influence you to joining her. Not whispering to you, taking to you, trying to justify her actions, how people who see her get it wrong. But no, the story is written as if its all been pre decided, which it has. I get it, can’t take any kind of risks of an ARPG game by adding the RPG elements of choices in it. Your player character has already made up their mind on the whole thing and accept her Father over her.

I know on one hand she is the villain of the game. On the other Mephisto has been too and wised up unlike his brothers. She helped create Sanctuary giving everyone something new to fight over as the Eternal Conflict will never end, she was looking for a safe place with Inarius. In the lore all this has happened before, it will happened again. Humans are just pawns in their game. And thats where the narrative is being left. Very Battlestar Galactica of it.

Exhausting is definitely the word for it. I’m not trying to justify her actions. Her and Inarius do. I just feel like there could’ve been more. And I am hoping the seasonal updates will help.

I guess I am spoiled by other ARPGs like Dark Souls series. Arguably they do give you some kind of choices, especially in Elden Ring, and I guess I wanted that.

And if you made it this far thanks. Thanks for reading. <3

[mochillery]

Ranni the Witch on holiday ( hidden quest line) 🏖️

[a-space-opera]

[k-lua]

[curb-the-pain]

FLAWLESS VICTORY!

I'll beat Mohg every day till the Shadow of the Erdtree DLC - Day 6

[manstoolit]

I almost lost my sanity playing Lies of P

[themanwhomadeamonster]

tumblr seems to be all good with the news of dd2 so far but i think a lot of the more hardcore ppl on reddit, discord, etc expected too much from this game, especially with ppl comparing it to the likes of elden ring (soulsbornes and their impact on the arpg genre is another can of worms for another time tbh) and bg3. from the get go, the devs made it clear that it's a personal passion project that doesn't NEED to try to reinvent the wheel but wants to stick to its personal philosophy as being a primarily fun love letter to old school rpgs including the wacky mechanics of long rests, limited fast travel, etc. than trying to break new industry standards or whatever? idk. obvs i haven't played the game and shit and my opinion is probs gonna change as is normal when playing vs speculating but some ppl set their expectations too high when nobody ever promised mind-bendingly novel mechanics lmao. the game isn't perfect but it never wanted to be anyway

[itswavelengths]

The JRPG

This morning saw the lifting of a preview embargo for the upcoming Final Fantasy XVI, and with it a bunch of quotes from producer Naoki Yoshida that are being both praised and dunked on in equal measure depending on which interview you happen to be reading. One such interview that stood out to me came from a great video by critic SkillUp whose first question asking to clarify some earlier statements about the evolution of the JRPG genre elicited this response:

One thing he wants to get across is that when we create games, we don't go into them thinking we are creating JRPGs. We are just creating RPGs. The term JRPG is used by Western media rather than users and media in Japan. This is going to depend on who you ask but there was a time when this term first appeared fifteen years ago, and for us as developers the first time we heard it — it was like a discriminatory¹ term — as though we were being made fun of for creating these games. And so for some developers the term JRPG can be something that will maybe trigger bad feelings because of what was in the past. It wasn't a compliment to a lot of developers in Japan. We understand that recently JRPG has better connotations, and it's being used as a positive, but we still remember the time when it was being used as a negative. I remember seeing something fifteen years ago which was basically a definition of what a JRPG was versus a western RPG. It's kind of like Final Fantasy VII, and it has this type of graphics, this length of story — and compartmentalizing what we were creating into a JRPG box. And I took offense to that because that's not how we go into creating. We were going in to create an RPG, but to be compartmentalized we thought that was discriminatory.

I've been a bit hesitant to use the term JRPG over the past few months, as I started to question it myself around the release of Elden Ring. I'd seen some discussion online referring to the game as a JRPG despite not containing any of the mechanic elements I usually attribute to the genre. I asked myself why we use JRPG against other terms like ARPG (action role playing game) or SRPG (strategy role playing game) where the first word in the acronym describes how the player will interact with a game's systems². How is the word "Japanese" really helpful as a mechanic descriptor compared to "action" or "strategy?"

As a genre definition, most people attribute it to games containing turn-based combat, games made in Japan, or maybe some combination of both. Yet in the year 2023 we're far enough removed from the early days of Pokémon and Dragon Quest to be blessed with new titles inspired by those franchises and created by developers all over the globe. 2022's incredible Chained Echoes contains all of the trappings of the JRPG genre, but was created by a small team out of Germany. The upcoming Sea of Stars — similarly inspired by Chrono Trigger — is from a studio based in Quebec. Forum-arguers on the internet would likely disqualify both of these titles from the genre, despite allowing a franchise like Kingdom Hearts — which lacks turn-based combat in favor of real-time action. What this means in our current vernacular is that most would argue an RPG is the "default" terminology... unless it's made in Japan... and that seems like a super incorrect way to consider or classify genre.

In light of these comments from Yoshida³ about JRPG possibly being read as discriminatory, along with its definition being so broadly applied as to become almost amorphic, it seems like the term needs a rethink. In my eyes, it's not too much of a leap given the other RPG sub-genres already in use to say that "turn based RPG" is what most people mean when they say JRPG. Going forward, that's probably what I'll be using to describe games like Dragon Quest alongside the more general "RPG."

That said, all terms used to describe genre can and should be malleable. They should grow, evolve, or dissolve with the times. The most interesting and forward-thinking RPGs of today bear small resemblances to the games that defined the genre, but can be classified as RPGs all the same. What we considered to be a Metroidvania ten years ago looks very different than it does today, and I've gone as far as claiming a Sudoku app can be a roguelike so I'll always be the first to tell you to rethink the vocabulary used to describe creative works.

---

¹ There's also the entire bit about the lack of diversity in FF16 and Yoshida's disappointing response. His obviously horrible and close-minded take about a made up fantasy setting only having room for white people doesn't discount his very valid feelings about JRPG as a descriptor.

² Next up we'll need to figure out a new one for CRPG considering a lot of those games are available on an Xbox, which is kind of like a computer... but not exactly.

³ None of this really gets into Yoshida's larger point about finding genre trappings in general to be creative constraints he wants to break free from, and that leads into why people are dunking on him relentlessly for saying blitzball doesn't fit into the world of Final Fantasy which he envisions as a dark and gritty and Game of Thrones-adjacent world instead of one capable of containing small joys in the face of great darkness. I sympathize with wanting to chart your own path — especially when it comes to a franchise like Final Fantasy which was built on a foundation of innovation — but to do so while ignoring the legacy and successes of the past titles will only serve to anger the very people you're hoping to win over.

⏆

[montyterrible]

“How do I love thee, Lords of the Fallen 2? Let me count the ways…”

Having somewhat recently finished my first playthrough of the 2023 Lords of the Fallen, and after immediately starting a second playthrough, I wanted to put together some thoughts on the game; however, I also wanted to avoid writing another Mortal Shell - sized epic, so I am going with an internet staple: a clearly delineated list, with five entries just because. There are issues I could talk about at great length—like the enemy variety or how the “rune” system of passive bonuses equipable on weapons feels kind of boring or limited—but I want to focus on the things that I feel led to me ultimately loving Lords of the Fallen 2 overall since that feels more fun and better suited to this intentionally limiting frame than trying to say something comprehensive.

I LOVE THE LEVEL/WORLD DESIGN…

“I love thee to the depth and breadth and height

My soul can reach, when feeling out of sight”

While I enjoyed Elden Ring and Lies of P for the most part, one area where both of those games kind of disappointed me was in their individual approaches to the recursive and generally labyrinthine level and world design people associate with the Souls­-like sub-genre of ARPGs. I thought Elden Ring was too much of an open world game on the whole, with too much empty space and checklist-style design, while Lies of P was pushing in the opposite direction, with conventional linear levels so focused that they lacked a strong element of exploration. Both of those games do have some brilliant bits, but Lords of the Fallen 2023 was just a lot more satisfying to me in this regard.

It doesn’t reach the level of flexibility that the first half of the original Dark Souls has, but it often surprised me with just how consistently good it was at sending me out from a checkpoint, spinning me around five or so times, and then leading me back to that checkpoint again (to my surprise). It’s obviously more focused than Elden Ring since it has the more traditional Souls-y structure, but it’s also frequently willing to indulge in nonessential loops or significant dead-ends, in contrast with Lies of P. Furthermore, if you don’t engage with its system of optional checkpoint creation, that requires a consumable item, then some of these loops feel especially brutal, at least on a first playthrough, given the maze-like levels and the enemy numbers and aggression being quite intense.

“World design” factors in here because A) levels do loop back to one another at times in ways that I did not initially anticipate and B) the total space you explore is so dense. It’s not all incredibly interconnected via traversable paths, but as you explore and gain an appreciation for where each area is in relation to the others, you start to notice just how layered everything is. It’s possible to look up from the bottom of the world and place things at the top (or vice versa) in a really satisfying manner. In the end, you make your way all over, down, around, and under this particular mass of land that the game’s explorable world is situated upon. The effect reminded me most of Dark Souls 3, maybe especially because that is another game of this type where there isn’t an abundance of interconnectivity but where you can see the whole world from very early on and then get to spend the rest of the game traveling through it and visiting all the locations you were shown, while also looking back (often up) at the places you already traveled through.

I LOVE UMBRAL…

“. . . [I]f God choose,

I shall but love thee better after death.”

In still images, Lords of the Fallen 2 can look quite impressive visually, albeit in a sometimes “default” Unreal Engine sort of (Maximum Polygons) way, but there is a certain amount of crustiness to it when you dig in and get up close and personal. I’m not some kind of graphics obsessive or someone who really cares about console power and whatnot, but the most distinctive “current gen” aspect of Lords of the Fallen 2023 is probably the element of “Umbral,” which represents both a technical showcase and an intensification of an idea that’s been developing across other, similar games.

In Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice, you can die (at least) twice thanks to the resurrection mechanic that lets you revive on the spot where you were killed to continue fighting. In Mortal Shell, losing all of your health causes the “Foundling” to be ejected from whatever “shell” it’s inhabiting, where you could keep fighting in that extremely fragile state or could scramble to get back into your body before a single hit kills you. Lords of the Fallen 2 intensifies and expands on this concept by instantly (without a loading screen) sending you to what amounts to the realm of the dead when you’re killed initially, with true death coming only if you also die in this Umbral zone. It’s actually possible to technically die again and again without resetting an area as long as you can escape from Umbral at one of the designated exit points, which crumble upon use.

Probably the most succinct way to explain Umbral is that it’s the Otherworld from the Silent Hill franchise, but entering and exiting it is completely seamless and freeform. Being in Umbral changes the game world into something more Fucked Up. Some of the changes are just visual, but Umbral does also come with new landmasses, interactable objects, and enemies as well that sit naturally beside, around, and amidst what you could see before, effectively creating the impression of a ghostly land that’s always just out of sight all around you.

One cool concept here is the Umbral Lamp, which has various active functions (like yanking the soul out of your enemies temporarily) but which will passively let you see into Umbral if you just hold it up. Doing this reveals the hidden environment and also allows a limited interaction between the planes. I tested this very early in my first playthrough when I noticed that a wall in Umbral had this grotesque protrusion that I assumed would have collision tied to it. Walking along that wall without the lamp raised was perfectly smooth, but if I held the lamp up, I’d collide with the obstacle. Keep in mind that you can pull out the lamp whenever you want and swing it over whatever part of the environment you like. I’m not technically in the know enough to evaluate exactly how impressive this is, but it’s a neat trick that feels like it might show off the hardware.

Umbral adds so much to the exploration of the game because of how any given area is essentially doubled, though not all spaces have anything meaningful to see or find in the other realm. It’s often used as a puzzle-solving mechanic, where you have to willingly enter Umbral (risking true death) to bypass an obstacle, possibly via a path that only exists in the world of the dead. A fun horror visual you encounter a few times in the game is moving, in Umbral, along the bottom of a body of water, with plant life waving and debris and corpses floating around you like the water was still present. Even when Umbral isn’t used for anything meaningful, looking into it still reveals these extra macabre environmental details, like saintly statues that appear demonic if you shine your lamp on them. I accidentally jump-scared myself at times because I’d hold up the lamp, only to find an enemy from Umbral staring me in the face, or shrieking and taking a swipe at me as I yelped and dropped the lantern, narrowly avoiding being dragged into Umbral from the ghostly contact.

I LOVE THE “DREAD” METER (AND OTHER DISPLAY STUFF)…

“I love thee to the level of everyday’s

Most quiet need, by sun and candlelight.”

I’m cheating a bit with this item, but, at least initially, this is an extension of what I was talking about before. When you are in Umbral, you have a limited amount of time to explore, as the number and type of enemies that continuously spawn around you from these little statues/frozen figures intensifies with time, ultimately culminating in the appearance of a very powerful reaper-like creature that starts hunting you down. I had some narrow escapes during my first playthrough of Lords of the Fallen 2, where I entered Umbral (willingly or not) and then only just managed to reach an exit point or checkpoint to escape before triggering the reaper’s appearance, or sometimes even as it was actively chasing me.

The meter that tells you how close you are to doom is a wonderful visual, though: It’s primarily this giant eye icon in the upper right part of the screen that periodically blinks (and that shuts when you’re in a safe zone). This was honestly a huge contributing factor to me getting the game after I saw it in pre-release coverage. Rather than go with some innocuous meter or minimalist bit of design, you have this very lively, large eyeball. It’s both goofy and kind of genuinely unsettling.

Other elements of the UI/HUD have a similar level of stylization, most notably the displays associated with the Umbral Lamp and ranged weapon/magic actions. Every character has the lamp, but then the other depends on whether you’re casting magic or are using a bow or various thrown objects. You toggle between these two options with the up and down directional buttons, and holding the left trigger “opens” the selected one, surrounding the larger icon with a bunch of smaller ones indicating actions and button inputs. These are all very colorful, and the arrangement (where the smaller icons sort of ring and overlap with the larger ones) just struck me as some level of idiosyncratic. Initially, the icons are even kind of mysterious or “confusing” in a way that I liked. When you hold up the lamp, for example, you see all these little options, one of which is a skull and another of which looks like a weird fetus.

Also kind of idiosyncratic is the choice to pull the camera into an over-the-shoulder position when the player holds the left trigger to either ready their aim or raise the lamp. I like this flourish because it seems kind of unnecessarily awkward. It helps with manually aiming, I guess, but the shift also makes transitioning from melee to ranged (or lamp) options a little disorienting. In combat, it obscures your view of the battlefield, for example, and while you can still evade, it feels like exposing yourself to take on this perspective. And maybe vulnerability was one consideration here, as this is the perspective from which you use your lamp, so holding it up and peering into the dark, in a sense, is meant to create this appropriate feeling of tension or horror, which is further enhanced by your slowed movement and more limited view.

Or maybe it’s just willfully different to avoid mirroring FromSoftware’s work too directly? There’s part of me that likes that option just as much (if not more) than the marginally more profound one I described above. In either case, seeing this awkward view change in the pre-release footage also charmed me.

I LOVE THAT IT IS LORDS OF THE FALLEN 2…

“I love thee with a love I seemed to lose

With my lost saints. . . .”

While I was initially intrigued at the prospect of a sequel to the 2014 Lords of the Fallen, I kind of… fell out of interest with it when I started thinking about what the massive time jump and the title (“THE Lords of the Fallen,” at the time of announcement) suggested about the relationship between the sequel and its predecessor. I did finish that first game and did continue playing it afterward, and probably would have stuck with it even longer if I hadn’t been constantly stressing about backing up my save to a USB flash drive to avoid losing my data to frequent crashes, so this framing of the sequel felt kind of like a snub to me.

What got me back on board and did push me to get it was watching a little of someone’s stream around the release date. When they spoke to a particular character at the hub and he directly referenced the events of the first game, including outright using the name “Antanas,” that was the point I decided to buy Lords of the Fallen 2023. To someone who hasn’t played the first game, I don’t think any of this stuff is too obviously being carried over and will just feel like the usual Souls-like vagueness around names and events and such being dropped casually, sans context. There is part of me that wishes it was more prominent, but I’m fairly content with what I got: Aside from the antagonist Adyr technically “returning” from Lords of the Fallen 1, there are two other characters carried over and one who has a connection via his ancestry.

Having these little footholds of pre-existing investment is ultimately what helped me get interested in the new stuff, I feel. I started out not really connecting with the new characters in a hard-to-describe sort of way. The writing and characterization were fine, I thought, but there was just something “off,” like they were a touch too generic maybe (but maybe that feeling only comes from having played so many of these games now that I recognize the archetypes). Eventually, though, those feelings changed and I did care when characters started meeting their, predictably, tragic ends. Some of these “quests” were more underwhelming than others, but I started caring at some point I can’t exactly identify. I think I also missed the more conventionally RPG-like dialogue system of the first Lords of the Fallen, which is replaced here with the more distant-feeling Soulsian approach of just having other characters as good as monologue at you.

This sequel’s aesthetic ended up being more consistent with the first title than I originally thought. Some shift in the visuals that I find hard to pin down had me thinking, pre-release, that the game was going in a more grounded direction, where the 2014 Lords of the Fallen had this colorful, kind of goofy, comic-book-like look to it. Having now examined the enemy models in particular up close, I think the perceived shift is just a result of more subtle changes that I’m again not qualified to identify specifically; however, the “Rhogar” (read: demon) designs here definitely look like they belong in the same universe from the first game, so it was just some change in… lighting(?) that threw me at first. The one thing I was hoping for that never happened was for the old enemies or areas to somehow return as well as a surprise finale or something. That would have really delighted me. 

I LOVE THAT PARRYING (AND THE GAME) IS A BIT EASY…

“I love thee with the passion put to use

In my old griefs, and with my childhood’s faith.”

Don’t get it twisted—I died a lot in this game, sometimes in ways that felt fair and other times in ways that seemed like BS, though that’s an element of even the “official,” FromSoftware-made, Souls games. I felt tension while exploring in a way that I believe enhances that exploration, and I certainly didn’t go into any fights just assuming I’d win. The threat was there. And yet, I’d say this game is probably easier than any of the other titles I’ve mentioned above, and even that the exploration and moment-to-moment fights might feel tougher than the big bosses in a way that seems awkward or even unintentional. And yet, the game still feels like a true sequel to Lords of the Fallen 2014 in this way, as my impression of some of the post-release discussion around that game was how it was in some ways a more approachable take on this style of RPG. I think Lords of the Fallen 2 carries on that tradition.

One way it does this is through making grinding an incredibly accessible process. Since enemies spawn infinitely in Umbral, it’s easy to do a little grinding without even necessarily meaning to as you simply cut down the weaker demons because they’re either in your way or just on your way (somewhere). You don’t have to constantly visit a checkpoint and reset the level to get more sources of EXP to appear and can instead just go into Umbral and let the EXP come to you.

Bosses and enemies also have simpler move sets than in the more recent other big-name Souls-ish titles, and since enemies repeat so much throughout the game, you can get pretty comfortable with them individually. Parrying, as previously noted, also feels easier. That’s partly to do with the enemy repetition giving you so many opportunities to learn their attack patterns and timings, but they also tend to attack in simple and more easily readable ways. Most of them are humanoids, so how they hold and swing their weapons (or limbs) just makes a lot of sense even the first time you encounter them. Parrying is a matter of timing a block with the enemy’s attack, rather than performing any additional inputs, which means that you can also accidentally get parries even as you simply raise your shield or weapon to defend yourself.

I thought I’d try parrying out against the first proper boss—a heavy metal angel with her feet out—just to see how it went and found it so satisfying and reasonable to pull off that it became a staple of my first playthrough. I even went with a lighter, very small shield to maximize the risk of mistiming a parry since I felt so confident doing it (and since it’s possible to regain health in this game through certain mechanics I won’t get into here). The sounds and visuals associated with parrying just felt rewarding, as were the effects associated with breaking an enemy’s stance and delivering a “Grievous Strike,” up to and including the perhaps overly chunky wind-up and splattery noises that are meant to sell the power of the attack.

I reached a point years ago, when I still hadn’t played that many Souls-esque games, where I was no longer interested in punishing duels and was more invested in novelty and mechanics (“gimmick fights,” even). I can still buckle down and learn fights if I have to—and I certainly had to when I played Lies of P—but getting to bypass that process of dying over and over and having to come to terms with the fact that you might have an hour or more of learning ahead of you before you make meaningful progress in the game again seems just fine to me. Re-playing some Elden Ring in preparation for its upcoming expansion, I just found myself kind of tired of the Margits of the gaming world. Lords of the Fallen 2 was arguably too easy at points, even for me with this mindset, but I generally just found it fun. The exploration was the thing that really drew me in—that and sometimes feeling like I was trundling through the cover art of a heavy metal album—and the fights were more so the seasoning than the meal itself.

IN CONCLUSION…

“I love thee freely, as men might strive for Right;

I love thee purely, as they turn from Praise.”

This game was essentially a gift when I bought it, and if dollars and hours are equivalent, I nearly got my money’s worth with my first playthrough alone. However, I think Lords of the Fallen 2023 had the misfortune of being priced into the same associative tier as titles like God of War: Ragnarök or The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom when it lacks a lot of that polish, scale, and detail and would probably feel more at home at 50 dollars instead. It carries on a bit of its predecessor’s jank, and however massive of an undertaking it actually was to create, it has this scrappy quality to it at times when the seams really show. It was very unfortunate for it to release a month after Lies of P as well—a similar game that was both cheaper and more polished and that also had the more audacious and novel premise.

I’m going to go out on a limb here and say that Lords of the Fallen 2 will receive a critical/popular reappraisal in the future. That’s probably just a safe bet at this point for literally any piece of media, but I genuinely think that the stuff with Umbral and the level and world layouts are going to catch people’s attention in a wider sort of way in time, probably after a price drop or steep sale.

(Title based on and quotes above taken from Elizabeth Barrett Browning’s Sonnet 43, “How Do I Love Thee?”)

[voxtrotteur]

Qui aurait pensé qu'un jet d'esquive me convertirait finalement à l'église de Path of Exile ? Je suis toujours tombé du côté de Diablo 3 dans la grande guerre entre fans d'ARPG. Path of Exile était assez amusant quand j'y plongeais un orteil, mais je n'étais tout simplement pas intéressé par sa sensation Diablo 2. Et donc j'ai plutôt enregistré mes heures d'ARPG dans Diablo 3 au rythme effréné de Blizzard. Mais après ExileCon 2023, où Grinding Gear Games a lancé de nouvelles images pour Path of Exile 2 et a révélé qu'il s'agirait d'un jeu autonome plutôt que d'une extension, je me suis intéressé à donner une autre chance à la série. Et donc, quand le studio m'a offert une chance de jouer la même démo que les participants à l'ExileCon ont joué, j'ai plongé dans l'espoir que la série cliquerait enfin pour moi. Au début, la démo de Path of Exile 2 ressemblait au Path of Exile que je connaissais déjà vaguement – ​​bien que beaucoup plus joli. Je me suis déplacé dans l'environnement avec le léger décalage caractéristique du jeu sur mes mouvements. J'ai inséré des gemmes de compétence pour que mon personnage puisse frapper certains méchants avec de nouvelles capacités plus intéressantes. Et j'ai décoré mon Moine avec l'équipement de mise à niveau loufoque de début de partie auquel nous nous attendons tous dans les RPG. Ce n'est que lorsque le deuxième boss de la démo - un énorme ver souterrain - que Path of Exile 2 m'a finalement saisi. La créature m'a frappé sur le cul en un instant lors de mes premières tentatives. Ensuite, j'ai réalisé que j'avais utilisé le nouveau rouleau d'esquive du jeu uniquement comme un outil de repositionnement plutôt que comme une véritable esquive. Sur un coup de tête, j'ai essayé de passer à travers l'une des attaques mineures du ver – qui faisait généralement suffisamment de dégâts pour réduire de près de moitié ma santé – et à ma grande surprise, mon personnage est passé à travers. Et c'est ainsi que l'homme a découvert les iframes. J'ai donc commencé à analyser les schémas d'attaque du ver. Chaque nouvelle tentative sur ce boss s'accompagnait d'un peu de progression supplémentaire, et avant longtemps, il était mort et j'avais le butin pour le prouver. Image: Jeux d'engrenages de meulage Une autre bataille de boss mettait en vedette une bête ressemblant à une chèvre sur une petite plate-forme. Alors que j'esquivais ses charges et ses coups, ses alliés me lançaient des lances depuis les falaises voisines. Et, à l'occasion, il invoquait un nombre comique de loups pour m'assaillir, me forçant à les tuer avant qu'ils ne me tuent. Il s'avère que vous êtes coincé si vous essayez d'esquiver une meute de 50 loups. J'ai dû adopter une stratégie complètement différente de celle de ma guerre rapprochée et personnelle avec le ver, mais le patron a fini par être tout aussi satisfaisant à tomber. Ces boss de Path of Exile 2 de niveau relativement bas m'ont donné un niveau d'épanouissement auquel je ne m'attendais pas d'un ARPG, car normalement une grande partie de l'expérience de combat dans des jeux comme celui-ci est basée sur l'équipement. Je ne m'attends à lutter contre un boss que lorsque je suis sous-équipé ou sous-équipé. Mais ces batailles ressemblaient beaucoup plus à battre des boss dans Elden Ring qu'à abattre des méchants dans Diablo 4 – un jeu qui partage par ailleurs beaucoup d'ADN avec Path of Exile. Path of Exile 2 m'a montré que, du moins en matière de combat, PoE et Diablo font des choses fondamentalement différentes. Tuer un grand patron dans Diablo 4 – à part peut-être Uber Lilith, le défi ultime du jeu – consiste davantage à vérifier l'équipement, à utiliser habilement vos temps de recharge et à vous précipiter dans l'arène pour préserver votre vie lorsque les choses vont mal. Mais les combats de boss de Path of Exile 2 sont des danses où vous reprenez de plus en plus la chorégraphie par l'échec et la pratique.

Et tout cela grâce au nouveau jet d'esquive, qui élève le combat d'un type loufoque s'éloignant rapidement d'un monstre fouisseur à une expérience active où la précision et l'expertise sont récompensées. En ce qui concerne le reste de Path of Exile 2, je ne peux pas dire que j'ai trouvé le gameplay minute par minute aussi engageant que les combats de boss – pas de loin, en fait. Et à ce stade, je dirais certainement que je préfère faucher des hordes d'ennemis dans Diablo 4 à Path of Exile 2. Mais un patron de Diablo ne m'a jamais eu sur le bord de mon siège comme l'a fait Path of Exile 2, et c'est plus qu'assez pour que l'attente d'un an pour la version bêta à part entière de PoE 2 semble vraiment très longue.

[ayuranslounge]

Huge Path of Exile 2 gameplay video just dropped and what can I say? I’m excited. I’m looking forward to more AAA devs whining about how you should reduce your expectations from them. It’s just a fluke. Rockstar behaviour that will never be seen again. From a studio of maaybe 200 employees?

The game looks so much more modern. So much more action oriented.

Sometimes I like to imagine what kind of game I would like to make and how I would approach the issues that I experience with the games that I play right now and a lot of it is addressed.

Melee feels bad because you’re stuck spendin half the time walking around the attacks or simply eating them? Add movement to skills themselves. Never stop moving.

Weapon swap is an idea that never quite work right. Supposed to allow you to react to situational issues or have an alt skill. In reality it’s just too fiddly. So automate it. And allow personal customisations about which skills will cause the swap. Also some skill points can be specced specifically for one weapon rather than the other. Dang.

100 unique bosses to find and fight. Each with their own theme??? Heard some clips of the music and it is going to be amazing. Banger after banger.

0 cooldown dodge ability on every class. Because they want to make actually interesting boss fights.

I don’t think it’s quite the Elden Ring of ARPG, but they brought it damn close.

It’s seeing these kinds of releases that makes me feel like I don’t need to make the game that I want. Because someone is already working on it.

[thetoxicgamer]

How Path of Exile 2’s combat learns from Elden Ring

Combat in Path of Exile 2 is so far looking extremely good. The Path of Exile 2 announcement at ExileCon demonstrates the truly interesting choices that the game's creator, Grinding Gear Games, is making to help design the next generation of combat for its cherished loot-chasing RPG title. Jonathan Rogers, the creative director of Path of Exile 2, explains to PCGamesN how Grinding Gear Games explores different genres to find intriguing concepts that might work well for its game. “We’ve always drawn inspiration from non-ARPGs,” Rogers tells me ahead of the ExileCon reveal, “The leagues that we do , we often tend to say, what’s a cool game mechanic from another type of game entirely – what if we could do that in PoE as a league?” We saw this in the Path of Exile Sanctum league, for example, which occasionally dropped players into a separate dungeon adventure inspired by the best roguelike games. Sanctum proved so popular that Grinding Gear Games is already preparing to bring it back in a new endgame format as part of the Path of Exile 3.22 update. That next league, meanwhile, is perhaps even more intriguing, with you building a team of AI companions to enter into a tournament of sorts. Rogers tells me the new mode is “inspired by sports games, weirdly enough – it’s more of a football game, in a way.” For Path of Exile 2, however, there are some clear inspirations to Elden Ring. The first of these is the robust dodge roll mechanic – an ability available to all classes at any time on the space bar, with “no cooldown and no restrictions.” This not only allows you to avoid incoming damage and reposition for your own attacks, it’ll also cancel you out of almost any skill, giving you a reliable safety net to attempt more involved attacks, such as channeled skills or ones with longer cast times. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y8OL9qqnhDo Unlike Elden Ring, the dodge roll doesn’t give you true ‘iframes’ – so you can’t stand in the way of a big area attack and simply ‘roll through it’ the way FromSoftware games allow. It will, however, cause incoming melee attacks and projectiles to miss you if timed well, meaning you can take on Path of Exile 2’s “over 100” boss fights in a manner much more akin to that of a Dark Souls encounter than anything ARPGs have seen previously. Rogers actually points to a different mechanic as the most directly inspired by the likes of Elden Ring, however – the way crowd control works in PoE2. Unlike its predecessor, where effects like freeze and stun are binary states that an enemy can be put into, crowd control mechanics in the sequel use internal meters that you build up to apply the status effect. “It’s a little bit like Poise from games like Elden Ring,” Rogers tells the audience at ExileCon, “though the meters tend to be a lot smaller. When you freeze an enemy, it increases the amount of freeze you need to do to get another freeze, but the increased difficulty bleeds away slowly.” “More freeze will always let you freeze the boss more often,” he explains, “but this system means it will not get out of control in party play or interact badly with other crowd control mechanics, allowing us to let these kinds of mechanics actually work against bosses.” It’s similar to the way Diablo 4 boss staggering works, although a little more nuanced, as individual types of crowd control are handled separately in Path of Exile 2, meaning you’ll get to actually apply your specific effect rather than just a generic, all-encompassing stagger. The introduction of stagger meters for the bosses in Elden Ring was probably one of my favorite additions to that game – making it so that most of them could be susceptible to tools like parrying without it completely trivializing the fights in the process. I’m really glad to see it make its way into Path of Exile 2, allowing me to more eagerly pursue a status effect build. As for the reduced speed of combat in the demo, Rogers tells PoE streamer Octavian ‘Kripparian’ Morosan in an ExileCon sit-down that this was partly a consideration to help show off the game to an audience, though he does admit the final game “will be a little bit slower.” He explains that most players won’t notice this, however, as it’ll only really affect high-level players with the most broken builds. “At the top end of players, you get this absolute ridiculousness with 600 projectiles a second… You just can’t see fking anything, so you don’t have any ability to respond to boss mechanics.” He says this small change should help boss fights feel more interactive, but emphasizes that the team still wants it to get silly. “I still want the player to feel like, ‘Oh I totally broke the game with this bullst that I’m doing here – it needs to feel like you still broke it. The Path of Exile 2 closed beta begins Friday, June 7, 2024. Rogers says the team wants to “make sure we get it right,” so we’ll have to wait a while longer to get our hands on the finished product. In the meantime, you can tease your tastebuds with plenty of gameplay from the ExileCon stage. We’ve picked out the best games like Diablo you can play right now, if you’re eager to get your hands on even more tasty loot. Alternatively, the best free games are packed with more delightful choices that won’t cost you a thing. Read the full article

[radroller]

Do you prefer action rpgs or turn based?

Gonna say turn based since the only ARPG ive played was Elden Ring. Though that’s an all-timer for me 🤔

[k-lua]

[honestlyfullfox]

Player doesn't want to be the thrill

Some of the biggest announcements to emerge from January was Blizzard's announcement of a brand new game set in the "all all-new universe" is currently in the works which adds yet another bow to buy cheap Diablo IV Gold maker's symbolic bow. It wasn't the sole one to announce something new and exciting however, as Apex Legends creator Respawn Entertainment also announced that they are working on a triple-A shooter.

To top it all off Fans of turn-based strategies were rewarded with the news of an all-new studio, headed by Doom and XCOM team, who have united to bring even more strategic fun to this ever-growing genre.

The highlight of February was, of course, Elden Ring. As a result, it was touted as one the top FromSoftware games ever The RPG game quickly rose to the top of the charts, as players competed from all over the world to restore the item of the title. Additionally, Elden Ring, Amazon Games and Smilegate RPG brought ARPG/MMO hybrid Lost Ark to the West after a wildly successful launch in Korea. While server queues rose and players lost the desire to play but the game has exploded following its launch, and now has an abundance of fun areas and classes. Dying Light 2 also deserves an instant mention. After the fact, what player doesn't want to be the thrill of killing zombies?

And finally, Valve changed the landscape of gaming on the go, as we discussed during our Steam Deck review. Initially, very few people were able to access the device due to reservations and many people placing an order, but the device quickly was a hit with boot screen modifications as well as physical accessories and gamers racing to enhance their buy Diablo IV Gold games to work with the new system.

[crocodile-tears-game]

What makes an ARPG good?

An ARPG game, or action roleplaying game, is a culmination of the best parts of and RPG and action game.

A role playing game is a game where the player takes up a role, which is normally the protagonist of the game. RPG's are normally heavily story based and allow the player to follow a character through their story. At its core an RPG game has to include interacting between your character and NPC's/the environment and a sense of immersion and involvement with your character's life.

An action is a game that relies on the players abilities to complete certain inputs and actions. These inputs require the player to have a quick reaction time and good hand eye coordination.

These two are quite different. So for the most part, the way to differentiate these genres is a matter of what each one requires of the player. RPG's require the player to be more strategic, and with action games, you should have good hand eye coordination and reaction time.

An ARPG is a sub-genre of both of these and incorporates the use of allowing the player to take up a role, and interact with the environment, and action.

In my mind, a good ARPG is essentially an RPG game where the player has complete control over what they are doing with the character. ARPG's need realistic interactions with everything and they need to give the player full control over how they interact with everything. With this in mind, these ARPG's are some that manage to capture the genre really well.

Breath of the wild

This game is, for me personally, one of the best video games ever made. I love this game so much because of how much interaction with the environment it allows. Every interaction with anything in the game happens exactly how you would expect, even with the introduction to the runes, anything you do with them makes sense. If you push a rock, it will roll down the hill and hit the bokoblins. If you chop a tree down by a cliff, it will make a bridge. The action aspect of it comes through in the combat mechanics. They have dodges, bullet time and, my personal favourite parry's. Party's are the most action gameplay mechanic ever. Parry's allow immediate gratification for perfect input timing. One of the things I found most fun about this game was the ability to create openings in your enemies defence through your own inputs. There is also a mechanic that allows you to go into a slow motion state, allowing you to spam your enemy with a bombardment of attacks if you get a perfect dodge.

Elden Ring

Elden ring is one of the best ARPG's ever made. The game uses a series of complex combat mechanics dependant on what weapon you're using, and your interactions with enemies go exactly how you would expect them to go. This game requires the player to have very fast reaction times as all the bosses are ridiculously hard.

Majora's mask

I have included this game, despite having a Zelda game here already, because I really like the interaction between the player and the NPC's. Every time you talk to someone in the game, the interaction feel real. A mayor trying to hold the truth about what's going to happen to them, and you can almost sense the panic in his dialogue. A couple who have to fight their way though the hardships of their relationship and marry each other before they die. A man who is completely aware of what's going to happen to him and he can't do anything about, and he reacts to his knowledge exactly how you think he would. Action wise, the game uses the same combat mechanics as ocarina of time. They are very basic but they allow the player the freedom to attack in multiple ways and strafe left and right to find openings.