#P IS FOR PERFECT AND ALSO FOR PARRY

[rukafais]

Ultrakill is dangerous because they gave me a giant boss and were like "yeah you can parry this if you get the timing right" and my brain started lighting up like a carnival ride

[cryptotheism]

Ive seriously warmed up to lies of P. The first playthrough was like a weak 7, but the second is a solid 8. The game does a poor job of teaching you it's systems, which can make progression a chore. But once you're comfortable in the driver's seat it's a real blast to play.

Learning the perfect parry timings is good, but they have nothing on GUARD REGAIN. The importance of this mechanic is CORE to the gameplay loop, but it's never explained very well.

Basically, you build up bloodborne-style rally potential when you take damage WHILE BLOCKING. What this means, is that it's always better to block EARLY. It is also FAR BETTER HEALING than bloodbornes rally mechanic. Deft use of guard regain can actually make your healing items obsolete.

As for building, if you want my advice:

upgrade nothing but health until you hit 40 health. Enemy damage scales up FAST.

Then split your levels between stamina and carry capacity.

THEN upgrade your attack stats.

Quartz is a parallel progression system to levels.

Get link dodge as early as possible,

then spend all your quartz on pulse cell upgrades.

[ultrakill-confessions]

Oh uhm Gameplay Anon again. I also think that P-3 is going to be Arachne. The progression of the skillset demanded by the Prime Souls makes her a perfect candidate

Stay grounded and you're good -> Dodge constantly -> Arachne could manipulate the stage with webs and make dodging harder

Parries stop attacks -> Parries have follow-through -> Arachne could have multiple spider arms that still attack whilst you parried a different attack

My real crackpot theory is that she'll have made her web inside the Flesh Prison, and that's what the level will be.

But I don't think we can say anything definitive about P-3 til Fraud releases (ᵕ,—ᴗ—,)

-🎮🖤

-

[croxot]

Here I'll ramble about my favorite games this year.

This sure was a good year, and I have better opinions than the game awards do so I'm just gonna talk into the ether for a bit here.

Once upon a time I liked D&D 5e quite a bit, just like everyone else on this god forsaken internet. In recent years I've been more interested in Pathfinder 2e and Lancer. After so many years rolling with 5e, it became a bit more refreshing to try systems with more specific and rigid rules for certain things. However, a videogame requires specific adherence to rules to function, and in this respect, Baldur's Gate 3 is an incredible adaptation of the system. There's just so much stupid bullshit you're allowed to get away with in game that most devs would not even consider. I may have played thru act 1 like 7 times now and it's still entertaining. Also I went from hating Lae'zel to loving her. Congrats Larian, you made me like perhaps the most annoying person I've ever met in a videogame.

As my bones start to deteriorate I find myself seeking smaller, more intimate games that give a sort of feeling. Lunacid is "like" Kingsfield in the way that it's a first-person dungeon crawler. That's where the buck stops for that comparison gameplay wise. However, Lunacid offers an extremely specific feeling I find is rare in games. It's the same sort of "you're lost and alone but also it's also groovy" feel as Metroid Prime 1 & 2. And if you can capture the same sort of feeling that some of my favorite games ever gave me as a teenager, you're just automatically on my games of the year list.

I saw a gameplay video in passing on twitter, got slightly horny because caked-up goat lady, went to the steam page and saw OVERWHEMINGLY POSITIVE. I don't think my experience with Pseudoregalia is unique. It just feels great to jump around and the music slaps.

Cross the feeling of the open-sea adventure of Wind Waker, with the chase and collection of fishing minigames of countless other titles, and the dread of exploring the uncaring unknown. It scratches a seldom-scratched itch of exploratory joy within an indifferent universe. Dredge's systems can be distilled to the simple loop of growing beyond your own fears to discover more and more. None of these fears is particularly intense, but it's enough. Dredge isn't going to find itself on game of the year lists because it's doing any one thing particularly well. It's also not doing anything specifically or wholly NEW. It is however, more than the sum of it's parts, and it is beautiful.

Remnant 2 is the best co-op souls-style game that exists, tied with Nioh 2. That's it, that's what I had to say. It just real good and it deserves to be on game of the year lists.

So like, late this year, 2 Souls successors came out. Lies of P and Lords of the Fallen. And goddamn did Lords inspire division.

I think these releases really showed that people who are "Souls Fans" really cover a LOT of different specific interests, and not all of these interests are well-represented in every souls-like. Lords, perhaps amazingly, seems to cater to what I particularly want out of a Souls game, whereas Lies of P did not. I like these games for their challenge, sure, but more importantly, I like the character building. The ability to create a unique playstyle that I can take on the game with. This slowly grated on me in Lies of P because the game really only wants you to play it (and succeed at it) a certain way. Because the perfect parry was the truest answer to everything a boss could throw at you, and the dodge sucks ass, I felt more exhausted by the end of the game than anything. I also wanted to try a strength build, but the heaviest weapons cannot manage to fully wind up and land a hit on any bosses past the halfway point. Without any hyper-armor or poise, the "big weapon" playstyle felt completely trash, even outside of bosses. Lords lets me dodge, block, perfect parry, and hey they ALL feel useful. I can actually wind up big weapon hits too! Yeah it feels a bit floaty, and yeah enemy density can be rather crazy at times, but I'm the weirdo who's favorite Dark Souls is DS2. Lords also does ranged combat better than any of it's contemporaries. I think a lot of people also never played the original Lords of the Fallen. Now that game SUCKED. I played the whole thing, my god.

GAME OF THE YEAR BAYBEE

I've already talked about AC6, but again, you can't just get me to complete a game. I see an achievement list and I say "fuck that, I hate that!" I saw AC6's Achievement list and I was rubbing my hands together like a cartoon villain. Like Pseudoregalia, AC6 just feels good to play. It feels so tight, and after a few hours you can feel the minute changes in the way your mech handles even after small part swaps. Anyways it needs DLC with more Rusty content. 12/10.

[slightly-gay-pogohammer]

So what do you think of Overture so far? I love the new weapons added, especially the greatsword

i got to the final boss ( tried once, got oneshotted in phase 2, decided i needed a break )

short review: p got a gunblade and im so happy with it

long thoughts under read more bc spoilers

i actually cried through all monad charity house :) i didnt think we'd get to see romeo. or sophia. alive and well but yknow what i truly started hoping i was wrong at some point. and also geppetto's letter broke me i had to put down the controller for a few minutes and sob <3

i really hoped we'd get to see a younger antonia but considering how much her letter destroyed me maybe its better i dont get to see her again!! i wouldnt have been normal!!!!!!!!!!!!

IM SO HAPPY ARLECCHINO IS THE MAIN ANTAGONIST!!!!! i love love love his design yes he kicked my ass severely but i Really sells how dangerous and powerful he is and *explodes*

i love all the npcs. all of them. lea is everything to me, i actually audibly gasped at alidoro's voice and demeanor even if he was one of the few things i got spoiled by the trailer and even lumacchio i found like, an alternative take to parrot i really enjoyed a lot

klaus my dms are open btw. please. please a chance. please sir-

LADY MARKIONA MY DMS ARE OPEN BTW. PLEASE

out of all the bosses, the only one i didnt particularly enjoy was veronique but thats bc i dont particularly like the stalker bossfights in general. theyre at best way too easy, at worst annoying. she's a perfect middle imho once i got in there with the bow she became very easy, but all and all i really liked the little we got out of her however i really liked lumacchio's bossfight the hype was there and. maybe in hindsight the twist is obvious but just like w romeo i really started hoping i was wrong so it still stung!!!!

sidenote i really feel the bloodborne coming out of this once more. lea herself is very maria coded, the big crocodile is literally a watchdog of the old lords done right, arlecchino phase 2 really gave me orphan flashbacks, lumacchio is lowkey gascoigne coded with the second transformation, the Big Guy In The Mines has some ebrietasisms, There Is A Fishing Village. come on

about the bosses. im surprised by lumacchio and The Mines Guy really made me feel like i was playing a stalker boss and the green monster (both kind of bossfights i didnt enjoy in main game) Done Right. lumacchio's personality alone was enough to make the fight fun and the transformation was a very fun twist, and the big guy was HUGE, but always felt fair to me. shoutout to these two in particular for making me actually sit down and parry instead of rolling around like i did for 98% of the game

the only area i found a little repetitive was the mines, but honestly i had a fun time in there too. like if the rest of the dlc is a solid 9 when it comes to location thats a 7. and yea everyone loves the zoo me too but also the shipwreck really Did things to my brain. i really liked it a lot.

mixed feeling about gemini. on one hand im sad we still didnt get to know much about him, so unless the ending just surprises ig we're going to sit here and accept he was just lea's lantern like i suspected from the memories before arche abbey. on the other HE'S SO CHATTYYYY I LOVE HIM i dont CARE what everyone else say i loved him in main game and i just love him more now. the fact that he's overall much more serious than main game but still cracks cringe little jokes and that he COMMENTS WHEN YOU PLAY DEAD is so important to me. i love you gemini they would never make me hate you!!!!!!

non-story related but i want to kiss oh so tenderly whoever decided to make the replay bossfight feature. i owe you my life. i get to see romeo again now :)

also iirc you can access to the dlc after the attack to the hotel but to me it works So well as a post-game, especially in rise of p. the relationship between p and gemini seems way more solid, the little stuff i found about geppetto just hit harder after the battle with the nameless puppet, seeing arlecchino after his actual death in maingame hits harder and p seemed way more openly emotional. in his own little ways. idk i think it fits great as post-game content and just made me fall in love with this game even more

also you can pet spring as a little itty bitty kitty so of course 10/10

[kayayeteae]

No one:

Me: swamp monster is honestly the pinnacle of gameplay for lies of p. Not only does it reinforce pattern recognition from ur earlier encounter of scrapped watchman, it also rewards you for approaching the battle more aggressively as the hit box for its unblockable slam down move is either right behind or right in front of the enemy. Therefore, learning to perfect guard rewards you with a longer window of opportunity to attack. its tackle attack can also be perfect guarded to open it for punishing similarly to its slam. It’s a fight that forces you to use the games available resources (grindstones, dodge, guard, parries, and items) to win.

[good-enemy]

username tag game

rules: spell your username with song titles and then tag as many people as there are letters

Tagged by @userghouls (thank you Jade! Also sorry I completely forgot to do this until now 😬)

I was tagged on @/magicaplin so that's the username i will use ☺

M - Magic by Gabrielle Aplin (duh! 😉)

A - Anywhere but Here by PVRIS

G - Good Days Bad Days by Ana Straker

I - I Never Told You What I Do For A Living by My Chemical Romance

C - Coney Island by Taylor Swift

A - At Your Window by Ryan Ross

P - Perfect Places by Lorde

L - London Town by Grace Parry

I - I Wanna Get Better by Bleachers

N - Not the Doctor by Alanis Morissette

10 letters in magicaplin so tagging 10 people: @wtnytv @colifower @infectiouspiss @bodybetters @silversmists @miwtual @queereddiediaz @cascadeoceanwave @antoniosvivaldi @eddiediaaz (no pressure ofc!)

[xenodile]

Alright, I finished Lies of P on stream today, so I guess I can give my review of it.

Very solid overall, strong early game makes an excellent first impression, with a few little nitpicks that turn into consistent frustrations as the game reaches its finale. The music and presentation is excellent, combat feels smooth and responsive, if you're familiar with Dark Souls and Bloodborne, Lies of P will feel comfortably familiar.

In terms of replay value from multiple runs, it's a bit of a mixed bag. The weapon modification system of mix and matching handles and blades to create totally new weapons to fit any kind of stat spread means Lies of P has the largest weapon catalogue of any Souls-like I've seen, so there's always a new weapon to try out whenever you start a new run. The flipside is that the game is completely linear and only has 2 endings, so if you're looking to vary up the sequence of your run you'll likely be disappointed.

The game is also quite challenging, and not always in the best way. Of the game's 13 mandatory major bosses, 6 have two health bars, three of which are fought back to back. Furthermore, the game touts its perfect guard system to force enemies to stagger and break their weapons, but by the halfway mark these systems feel less and less impactful. Later in the game, you encounter enemies with no weapons to break or weapons so durable that you'd have to do nothing but perfect block so many attacks, or so much poise that if feels like perfect blocking has no effect. It turns from a reward for good timing and skill to the bare minimum to progress as not perfect blocking will causes you to take tremendous amounts of damage from blocked attacks.

On the subject of the game's difficulty, Lies of P inherits Sekiro's perilous attacks, in which the enemy glows red and plays a sound effect to warn of an unblockable attack that can only be stopped by a Perfect Guard. While Sekiro gave the player many ways to deal with different types of unblockables with the memorable Mikiri Counter, jumping into a head stomp, and so on, fatal attacks in Lies of P are binary. Either you perfect block or you take unavoidable damage, and the timing on some of these attacks is very finicky. An overwhelming number of enemies in Lies of P have attack animations that consist of a laboriously slow wind up into near instantaneous active frames with no tell or warning. These attacks are effectively unreactable and so they only way to deal with them is to just...keep getting hit until you fish out the right parry timing by chance and then hope you can repeat it. It's very frustrating, especially when most bosses can have multiple attacks of this nature. Some enemies also have grabs or true unblockables, which cannot be blocked or perfect blocked, and the game does not give you the courtesy of warning you which ones, which can further add to the frustration.

The game's story is enjoyable and engaging, with plenty of little secrets to uncover and leads to pursue that give the player things to think about, the but its english localization is...subpar. While I cannot confirm it as such, I was told by someone in my chat that the game was machine translated, and I honestly wouldn't be surprised if that was the case. It's hardly the worst case ever seen, but the english script has some very awkward grammar and syntax in multiple areas, as well as clumsy word choice. The actual voice acting is excellent for most of the cast, it's specifically english grammar and word choice that seems off.

The game's greatest weakness is its pacing. As you near the 80% mark of the game, a significant change occurs in the game world that signifies the coming of the end, ramping up to a grand confrontation that just...drags on and on and on for far longer than it should. The final area has more checkpoints than any other zone in the game and is an agonizingly slow crawl through a generic gray environment with almost nonsensical enemy choice and placement. Progressing this one area took me almost 10 hours by itself when most other sections of the game took me 2 or 3 at most when I was thoroughly exploring and backtracking for items and sidequests, and it utterly ruins the sense of urgency the game's narrative attempts to instill in you when you arrive.

As I said before, I do like Lies of P quite a bit and would easily recommend it to anyone that enjoys games like Sekiro or Bloodborne, but it has glaring flaws that are all the more prominent when help up next to the game's good points. The frustrating, unfun bosses stick out when you remember all the incredibly fun bosses you fought before and after them. The slow dull irritating sections linger when compared to the faster paced and more engaging parts.

The game clocks in at a very impressive length if you're scrounging for secrets and optional areas, and given its overall quality I would say it is worth its $60 price tag, but only if you are already acquainted with other game in its style as I've mentioned previously.

[wicked-witch-for-hire]

Book recommendations for Galemancers

Happy belated Thanksgiving!

This is a thinly veiled attempt to recommend some personal favourites of mine. They are all fantasy novels with the occasional romance woven into it, but they do not belong in the romantasy genre (but if you have a great romantasy rec, or any other recs, please share it).

I have concentrated on newer releases but there will be a list of honorary mentions for all the classics at the end.

I.

- Gale is perfect, and I want exactly that!

Naomi Novik - Uprooted

“Our Dragon doesn’t eat the girls he takes, no matter what stories they tell outside our valley. We hear them sometimes, from travelers passing through. They talk as though we were doing human sacrifice, and he were a real dragon. Of course that’s not true: he may be a wizard and immortal, but he’s still a man, and our fathers would band together and kill him if he wanted to eat one of us every ten years. He protects us against the Wood, and we’re grateful, but not that grateful.”

This is a delightful standalone fantasy based on mostly Polish fairy tales. Our heroine, Agnieska has been plucked from her home by their village's feudal lord to serve him for 10 years. Said lord also happens to be a prickly, impatient wizard who begins to teach Agnieska magic after he discovers to both of their dismay that she is talented.

I don't want to spoil the plot for you, but let's just say that there is an Evil Wood, a handsome prince who wants to save his long lost mother, and nothing will happen as you would expect to happen. It is imaginative, enchanting, engrossing and even funny.

II.

- I like Gale, but I wished to have adventures with Tara!

H.G. Parry - The Magician’s Daughter

“In every fairy tale ever told, it's a bad idea to tangle with a magician's daughter."Nobody, not Hutch, not Rowan, not even herself, had ever referred to her in those terms before. And yet hearing it made her relationship with Rowan so clear and so bright that it hurt. She still didn't know who he was, or why he had done so many of the things he had done. But she knew who he had raised her to be. If he wasn't her father, then she at least was his daughter.”

Have you been wondering if a wizard can be a good father? While an aloof wizard might not be the best choice to adopt a shipwrecked little girl at first glance, Rowan and his intelligent, loyal and kindhearted familiar Hutchington together are more than enough. (You have heard me right, Tumblr! :-P) Thus Biddy grows up on Hy-Brasil an enchanted little island not far from the coast of Ireland.

"Biddy loves her strange little home, despite being unable to use magic herself, but lately spends her time yearning to explore the outside world and meet actual humans (rabbits being notoriously poor conversationalists, after all, and magicians being, well, erratic at the best of times). After Rowan runs into a spot of trouble, inadvertently dragging Biddy into a magical mess almost a century in the making, her wish to explore is granted, but Biddy quickly learns that the outside world is not at all like the storybooks she grew up reading." (Lightspeed magazine)

This is a nice, meandering fairytale of a found family, coming of age and beautiful worldbuilding. It is full of magic, peril and adventure. I was very grateful to experience losing myself in book like a young girl again.

III.

- I love Gale, but I have respecced him... (how dare you! you heathen!) But I still like brooding heroes I need to save from themselves...

Alix E. Harrow - Starling House

"The gates of Starling House don’t look like much from a distance—just a dense tangle of metal half-eaten by rust and ivy, held shut by a padlock so large it almost feels rude—but up close you can make out individual shapes: clawed feet and legs with too many joints, scaled backs and mouths full of teeth, heads with empty holes for eyes. I’ve heard people call them devils or, more damningly, modern art, but they remind me of the Beasts in The Underland, which is a nice way of saying they’re unsettling as all hell.

I can still see the shine of the window through the gate. I step closer, weaving my fingers between the open jaws and curling tails, staring up at that light and wishing, childishly, that it was shining for me. Like a porch light left on to welcome me home after a long day.

I have no home, no porch light. But I have what I need, and it’s enough.

It’s just that, sometimes, God help me, I want more.

I’m so close to the gate now that my breath pearls against the cold metal. I know I should let go—the dark is deepening and Jasper needs dinner and my feet are numb with cold—but I keep standing, staring, haunted by a hunger I can’t even properly name.

It occurs to me that I was right: dreams are just like stray cats. If you don’t feed them they get lean and clever and sharp-clawed, and come for the jugular when you least expect it."

One part Southern Gothic, one part dark fairy tale and also intensely romantic story of two acidic, stubborn people battling monsters and each other.

"We meet Opal, a young woman who’s stuck in the tiny town of Eden, scraping a living so she can get her bright younger brother into a better school. Eden is nowhere, notable only for its connection to the author E. Starling, who wrote a single cult-hit children’s book, then disappeared nearly a century before. The house she lived in, Starling House, still stands, but it and its keepers have long had a mysterious air about them. So when Opal starts dreaming about the house, she wonders what it means. Then, the mysterious resident of the house, Arthur, hires her to clean the place for far more money than her old job, Opal can’t resist. But the house holds secrets—and danger—that she couldn’t possibly have imagined." Link

List of Honorary mentions

Ursula K. Le Guin - A Wizard of Earthsea (1st book of the The Earthsea Cycle)

Diana Wynne Jones - Howl’s Moving Castle

Thanks to @mavka-world

If you want even more:

Charlie N. Holmberg - The Paper Magician (1st book of the The Paper Magician trilogy)

- this is a YA fantasy, some parts of it reminded me of Anne of Green Gables (mostly because it is set in Edwardian times), and there is a bit of an anime flavour to it. All 3 books together is a pleasant albeit a bit formulaic story of girl named Ceony Twill who becomes the apprentice of a famed paper magician, falls in love with him, and of course has to save him :-) It is the perfect book to read if you are in a turkey coma!

Jim Butcher - Dresden Files

- while Butcher has problems writing non-stereotyped female characters (especially in the earliest books) I can forgive some of these tropes in a noire urban fantasy, where our hero happens to be a wizard working as a private investigator. Don't read them, but listen to them because the audio books are narrated by James Marsters (Spike from Buffy) and they are so damned good...

[dumbfinntales]

After about 45 hours I finally beat Lies of P for the first time. Man, how lucky am I to play three complete bangers of games in a row? Lies of P was an amazing game, not perfect, but truly a gem in the rough. Click more blelow to read my full thoughts!

So what is Lies of P? It's like if the "we have bloodborne at home" meme was genuine and you play as twink Pinocchio who fights against mechanical puppets. Sounds ridiculous, right? But the game makes it work. The world might be based on the story of Pinocchio, but it goes into so many different wild directions. The lore, the characters and most importantly the atmosphere are so superb that I kept forgetting that I'm playing as Pinocchio. I really do like the story they went for and there are a ton of nods to the original Pinocchio story.

Lies of P is a souls like and probably the best one I've played. It is the closest that any souls like game has reached Fromsoft level of quality and truly feel like it. And I'd go as far as to say that this game does reach Fromsofts quality. Everything feels so pristine and so fine tuned. The art direction is godly, the enemy designs are wild and varied, the bosses are brutal and the world and its atmosphere are great. And the game feels really good to play, for the most part. But I'll get to my criticisms later.

One thing that they did a bit different from Fromsoft are the story and characters. The characters were real fun and I quite grew to like them, Venigni and Polendina for example. There was a lot more dialogue to each character so you really got to know them and what their story is, while in most Fromsoft games their stories are tragic, but you don't really get to know them. The games story is also very straightforward and most things are revealed to you in time. So it's not your usual Fromsoft "figure things out on your own" type of story telling. It's quite refreshing actually and there were some really nice story twists and revelations along the way.

Like I said previously the game feels really good to play. The combat is top notch and feels a lot like Bloodborne when it comes to combat options and speed. I'll give bonus points to Lies of P that you can fully upgrade multiple weapons per playthrough, while in Bloodborne you can only do two. One criticism or irk or whatever you wanna call it is the parry timing. Many people have talked about his online, and I agree. The parry timing is strict and combine that with extremely delayed attacks and you're in trouble. I wish the parry was a little more lenient because learning the pixel perfect timing for each boss is quite tedious. And the more attacks a boss has the more tedious it is.

This is not a criticism per se, but holy shit this game is hard. Far harder than any Fromsoft souls game. In fact it might be one of the hardest games I've ever played. The balance is a bit all over the place though, like most levels and basic enemies are easy to deal with, but bosses and mini bosses are brutal. I was stuck on a mini boss for like 50 minutes. That's how long a boss should take, not a mid level elite enemy. The game is this difficult because it asks so much of the player. You are somewhat squishy so you die quickly, bosses are relentless and the parry timing are extremely strict. Some enemies in this game have these overly delayed attacks that hang in the air for long and come down in fraction of a second and you can't possibly react to that in time. You gotta see that attack multiple times until you can predict when it comes down accurately. Many bosses in this game took me more than an hour to beat.

But despite being stuck on most bosses for so long I still persevered. As a personal challenge I did everything solo as well and I never really felt frustrated. Dunno why, but Lies of P sparked my classic enjoyment for souls bosses that Elden Ring killed.

I'm not sure where I'd rank Lies of P yet, but I'm really looking forward to any possible DLC or continuation. This developer has truly showed that they know how to make a tough as nails yet fun game, and they know how to craft an interesting and twisted world. Using a classic fairy tale no less!

[gentlemanjester]

Game Review: Lies of P

Some of you may have heard of this game. Some of you may never have heard of this game. Most likely, the former of you will be enjoyers of FromSoftware's titles, most notably Bloodborne. Lies of P is a Soulslike game, extremely visually similar to Bloodborne in the Victorian aspect, but it also draws from the Souls games as well in gameplay. Developed by Neowiz Games and Round8 Studios, released in 2023, it serves as a dark retelling of the calssic fairy tale Pinnocchio.

You play as a puppet, created by the master craftsman Geppetto, in the once-great city of Krat. Krat was the city of the future, home to animatronic Puppets who did almost all the work in the city from hard labour to law enforcement to entertainment. These Puppets were created in the factory owned by the richest man in Krat, Lorenzini Venigni, who also instilled in them the Grand Covenant of four laws: Puppets must obey all commands of their creators; Puppets are never allowed to harm their creators; all Puppets must protect and serve humans and the city of Krat; a Puppet can never lie. Of course, the player character lies several times throughout the game, whether it be to avoid combat or to advance the story.

But of course, something went wrong: the Puppet Frenzy happened, and the Puppets went on a murderous rampage. Citizens of Krat were slaughtered and massacred, and the Stalkers were formed, humans who specialised in hunting Puppets and destroying them. This is where most of the characters from the story are portrayed, since Stalkers were known for their animal masks (The Mad Donkey, Black Cat, Red Fox, Robber Weasel, etcetera). As you explore the city of Krat, following various objectives to try and stop the Puppet Frenzy and later the Alchemists, you uncover more and more about Ergo. For example, Ergo comes from the souls of humanity, and can be harnessed to basically supercharge humans. However, it also forms Carcasses; maddened, twisted humans and animals.

In terms of gameplay, the speed is extremely similar to Bloodborne; very fast-paced and frantic at times. However, it does encourage defensive playstyles as well, similar to other Souls titles; you're encouraged to time your blocks perfectly to damage and eventually break your enemy's weapons. Additionally, some enemies will have an undodgable attack which will ignore any I-frames you get from dodging through the attack, like you're usually trained to do. The only way to avoid these attacks is to get out of range, or perform a perfect guard.

The weapon system is also similar to Bloodborne, although very different at the same time. Both games have a limited roster of weaponry, rather than having weapons that can be farmed like in other Souls titles. While BB weapons can be transformed to have two separate movesets, however, Lies divides all of the non-boss weapons into blades/heads and handles, allowing you to mix and match them for an insane amount of combinations.

This also brings us to Fable Arts. Fable Arts are special skills your weapon has, and you'll have two per weapon: one for the blade, one for the handle, which is another benefit to switching out your blade and handle combo. I'll use one of the starting weapons, the Wintry Blade, as an example. The blade's Fable Art is a quick series of high-damage thrusts, and the handle's Fable Art is a guard parry which, when timed right, will leave your enemy open to a follow-up attack.

Furthermore, the weapon scaling depends on the handle, while the weapon damage depends on the blade. And you can change the scaling on the handle. For example, you can really like the Fable Art of a handle, but it scales with Technique and you're making a Motivity build. Just use a crank and change the scaling to Motivity instead of Technique, sorted! It really lowers a lot of boundaries when it comes to making builds.

And of course, speaking of the gameplay, gotta mention the Legion Arm. This is basically a utility, similar to the Prosthetic from Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice, which can be switched out to fulfil a bunch of functions. It can be a flamethrower, throw rope darts at enemies, shoot delayed bombs on enemies, lay landmines, act as a shield, loads of options. In a "normal" playthrough, it will play a relatively minimal role, like the gun in Bloodborne, but of course you can do a challenge run and beat the whole game with just throwable items and the Legion Arm. And people have already done so, obviously.

Regarding the story itself, it's kinda divided into two parts: first, you're hunting down the King of Puppets, assuming that it's responsible for the Puppet Frenzy. Killing the King of Puppets then changes your focus to Simon Manus, an Alchemist who's basically the big bad villain. There are also, of course, small NPC missions around the world, some of which are absoluitely similar to Bloodborne in their depressiveness. For example, Krat is beset by the Petrification Curse as well as the Puppet Frenzy, so most people in the world are stuck indoors, meaning you only see their silhouettes in the windows. One lady asks you to find her baby, since she's in quarantine and she just wants to see her baby before she dies. You find her baby, and it's... a puppet. You bring it back, Lie to her, and she doesn't see any difference; she believes the puppet is her child.

Also, Eugenie, the lass who upgrades your weaponry at the Hotel, you deserve so much more than Alidoro, girl, you are a QUEEN.

The game also has a lot of nice nods to other pieces of classical literature throughout the story. A boss who's basically a wrestling champion powered-up by Ergo is called Victor, and he's very obviously a nod to Victor Frankenstein. After defeating the Black Rabbit Brotherhood, you find a painting of a schoolboy who looks remarkabily similar to the player character and was painted by an artist called D. Gray, a reference to The Picture of Dorian Gray.

The game has three endings: you find out that your father, Gepetto, created you in the image of his dead son, and basically wanted to bring his son back to life. At the end, he asks for your heart. If you give him your heart, you're treated to a cutscene of him stepping out of Hotel Krat, with you at his side... and all your friends dead, because Ergo feeds off human life and you need Ergo to survive. The middle ending, you fight the Nameless Puppet and because of your choices up to this point, Gepetto calls you a useless puppet with his dying breath, since you haven't been lying. However, if you continue to Lie and be compassionate through the game, you get small messages each time which change as you progress (starts as "Your springs are reacting," then becomes "The Ergo is whispering," and finally "You feel warmth" as you become more human). If you've gained enough humanity, Gepetto will instead call you his son as he dies, showing that he realises that you were more than a puppet all along, and that you were in fact alive.

Also, you have a little guide puppet buddy who chats to you throughout the game called Gemini, but it's pronounced Jem-In-nee as in Jiminy Cricket and I didn't get that until far too late.

So, this game is so much fun, and one I can see myself playing just as much as I did Bloodborne. It looks awesome, I love the setting, and the gameplay is just so rewarding and satisfying. My favourite boss fight so far is the optional White Lady fight, since she uses a rapier and I also use a rapier, it was very much like a duel between two master fencers. So much fun.

I give this game an 8.5/10.

Half a point was removed for the finicky-ness of backstabs. Humanoid enemies can be backstabbed, and the game does give you a prompt when you're in the right position, but it only really works maybe 7 times out of 10. At least when bosses are stunned, it also puts a circle on the ground for you to stand in.

And one point was removed for what I think is an overuse of jump-out enemies. These are enemies who are hidden around corners or behind walls which will jump out to surprise you or knock you off ledges. Obviously, this enemy placement is a hallmark of Soulslike games, but they need to be used sparingly. Lies of P puts these enemies around every other corner, it feels like, which kinda removes the surprise of it; I end up angling the camera around every single corner rather than being surprised by it.

[youve-doomed-us-all-jerk]

still thinking on clair obscur, but yeah overall i can see why its so many peoples gotys, gameplay and writing was p engaging, v satisfying hitting that perfect parry and the characters were also p engaging, though admittedly that comes when you actually play through their writing, char design wise think they could have been a little more idk varied i guess, like i think FF is an inspo for this game and all the characters from thats main crew are pretty distinct using body shape and skin tone and clothes(admittedly i know they're a team i guess they need to be somewhat uniform in clothes lmao) so monoco ends up being about the most eye catching lmao then again i already have a bias towards more fantasy-ish/weirder char designs lmao, but yeah the characters are p captivating once you get to know them they got innerlives and differing opinion feels like they're alive(more on that later lmao) so imma say 8/10

the ending though, still much to think about, spoiler thots, mostly just rambling def not gonna b v coherent lmao:

yeah i got both and so like super obvious and v unsubtle lmfao that their writers intent is that the verso ending is the "right" one and my gut reaction first seeing it ofc again is that i grew to like these characters (like lune my queen, cover ur feet tho) they feel like living people and they're just gone and its not treated as a sacrifice with sinister undertones like the maelle ending with her eyes and old painted vero playing, so it feels like the game is pushing this idea that they were never really real just the play things to make alicia and aline feel better, their "childish fantasy toys" least thats what i think the intent of having alicia holding an esquie toy was supposed to say, so pretty much a whole tale about the dangers of escapism of what could have beens and not facing reality etc.

im def trying to get it based on what it is rather than what i want it to be so trying to examine it from that lens based on what i saw in the game, and i know painted verso does tell is straight up that they need break the Dessendre family curse and that the people of the canvas including painted verso are more i guess to represent real versos ghost who needs to be let go but in the flying manor the painted boy who we now know is the last sliver of real verso's soul does believe these painted people are alive and dont deserve to just be unpainted, so i think thats my biggest hmm that they do set up this interesting idea where both endings could feel like a choice with clearly kinda monstrous sacrifices you have to make but they end up not following through and just saying one is good one is bad. Who knows maybe i need to play it again and ill get it more

also think there's this kinda weird line between suicide and agency in the game, which is something to think about i guess, i guess people should have the agency to end it all if they desire, but not like suicide by withering away while also trapping other people which is bad apparently, but choosing to take everyone elses agency to make sure u all suicide in one fell swoop is noble apparently, lmao, jokes aside that would have been an interesting idea, that the canvas worlds lives and agency were built on both painted verso and real kid veros lack of it so does the canvas world get to exist built on that, is verso then a admittedly v tired hypocrite for taking their and maelle/alicias agency and forcing them and her to do something they dont have a say in(further supported by his anger at painted alicia choosing to die without his say but he was more than ok with his first let renoir win and burn the canvas plan in act 2), idk would have been interesting but again might be straying into what i wanted to rather than what it is. I'm sort of getting real alicia and painted verso are supposed to be idk parallels to renoir and aline i guess.

but yeah still crazy endings and it does make u think, whether u agree or not, which is a good thing i think, make u flex ur critical thinking and analysis and all that, def the kind of game u should play and get to the endings urself, worth it i think to do so me thinks lmao

[maximuswolf]

How does parrying works?

How does parrying works? I'm having fun with the recent release of Ghost of Tsushima on pc. This made me interested with other games that have similar combat. The closest game to GOT that I've played is Lies of P. A game that I dropped after reaching to the third boss. Other games I've played that have this dodge/parry mechanic are Hellblade, God of War, and DMC5. Therefore I'm really not skilled with these type of games. I want to ask how does parrying works in general. Or if different games have different approach to this. Because when I am looking for tips in Lies of P I read that in order to parry I must hold the block button. Meanwhile, in GOT I saw a youtube vid where in order to PERFECT parry, I must press the button just before I'm about to get hit. What I want to know is should I parry when (1) I see the enemy start their attack animation e.g. swing their weapon or (2) just before I'm about to get hit. Because while parrying I noticed these problems: * Doing 2 makes it impossible for me to parry fast attacks. Examples are the quick spear thrust in GOT and that one move of the third boss in Lies of P IYKYK. * The light indicator in GOT messes with doing 1 because whenever I see a flash, I feel an impulse to press parry. This is a problem with delayed attacks. Also, in most games, does parrying only works by light tapping the button?I think being a longtime League of Legends player also messes with my timings in such games. An example, is vsing an Ahri. I am anticipating a charm ability so I am trying to dodge just as I see Ahri's casting animation. My brain is wired to act when I see the initial animation not after. Doing the latter will cause the ability to hit me if I have a slow movement speed. Any tips will be appreciated. I liked GOT so much that I think I might get back at Lies of P and maybe try sekiro, elden ring, and other souls games. Submitted May 23, 2024 at 04:37PM by Superb_Ad_8491 https://ift.tt/BmvcR9s via /r/gaming

[blubbly-pizza]

I Played - Ultrakill (Layer 7) - 2023

"Like being a whirlwind of blood."

There are times when I play a game on an easier difficulty because that's just what feels right. I just want the story, I'm not good at the gameplay, or I'm just not in the mood for a challenge.

I play Ultrakill as a challenging power-trip. I want to feel blood wash over me as it powers me to just. keep. killing. What do I mean by this? More below.

So what are my bona fides? I played Standard and P-ranked all except the last of Layer 7 and the dreaded secret bosses (but I did beat them). In the future when the game is fully released I will inevitably come back to actually P-rank everything. Maybe on higher rank too. The last I played time I played was when it was up to Layer 3. Down? I liked the game then, and now? I love this game. I booted it up and it dug it's way into my brain.

The gameplay? I want to bite onto it like a chew toy and shake my head. The dash and it's stamina? Double-jump? Rocket-jumping? 11 Weapons? (not counting variations) The parry system? Arms? All pieces in an orchestra playing beautifully by themselves that when utilized together? Perfection. It is also built upon. The way pieces add together as they are unlocked? Enemy variety and fight composition increasingly requiring just a little bit more from you? AAA IT'S SO FUCKING GOOD!

I want to devote a paragraph to the secret bosses. The game really goes, "Wow you did really good at all those missions! Why don't you check out what's through this door here? :3" Then proceeds to give you an immensely challenging boss- that you also have to work up to through an entire level. Sisyphus kicked my ass until I just slowed a little bit down (and dying roughly 50 times).

The story is beautifully told from the perspective of a killing machine, while not being truly about V1 at all. It partially exists in side-content, log-books, and enemy entries. But god-damn do I want to see how it plays out. Speaking of side-content? The breadth gameplay you can get out of them? THE VISUAL NOVEL SEGMENT? I should go replay that bit...

The music is? I'll be real honest I practically blank out anything that isn't enemy information and the sweet sound of a gun blasting bozos. So sound design in general good. I am listening to the soundtrack as I write this and the memories of playing do come back. It's really fucking good y'all. Also being able to use music cues to know I'm safe to continue helps. It's like the killing frenzy recedes and I know I must proceed to the next hunt.

The accessibility options? You can slow down the game to what you need it to be. You can lower damage to what is manageable for you. You can change just boss difficulty. You can connect the game to your buttplug!

I touched on accessibility last because to me. This game wants you to succeed. It wants to challenge you. These two goals can work in beautiful tandem. You can tweak the game to challenge you but be a fun challenge. I'm not even going to give a hypothetical settings example of what that would be. Because it doesn't matter. Hell it doesn't matter if you're not challenged, just be a killing machine. After all...

MANKIND IS DEAD.

BLOOD IS FUEL.

HELL IS FULL.

[itwas50yearsagotoday]

12/7/23: It was 50 years ago today, December 7th, 1973, Emerson, Lake & Palmer would release their fifth album Brain Salad Surgery. Of today's trio of Prog records, this one is by far the best IMO. Kind of EL&P's magnum opus (unless you count Tarkus... questionable) as the multi-part 'Karn Evil 9' stretches across both sides of the record. Honestly, if you really want to educate someone on Progressive Rock this may be one of the most representative records of the entire, sprawling genre. You have two covers right off... first, poem 'And Did Those Feet In Ancient Time' by English poet William Blake in 1806, with music added a hundred years later by Hubert Parry, known better today as 'Jerusalem'; second, you have 'Toccata' which was from piano concerto by Argentine composer Alberto Ginastera (in 1961). Straight up, pretentious-ass covers of non-Rock music... and honestly they're both outstanding songs. I mean, once you hear 'Jerusalem' two or three times (at least the EL&P version) you start wailing along with Lake... it's just beautiful, and a perfect album starter. 'Toccata' is somewhat similar to 'Tank' from the first album... just blasting you with Classical music done by a Rock Trio; then you get to the bizarro pinball noises and proto-DNB sounds about five minutes in by Emerson... it's nuts, just nuts. Phew! Then you get the one Lake ballad on the record (I believe he is the only one of the three playing on it) 'Still... You Turn Me On' which didn't crack the U.S. Top 40, but was (is?) a big Classic Rock song. I don't think it's as good as 'Lucky Man' or 'From the Beginning', also Lake softer tunes on previous albums, but definitely mix-worthy. Even the goofy-ass Pete Sinfeld-penned tune 'Benny the Bouncer' is a ton of fun... again, another pattern across records, fast little ditties... little piano or keyboard ditties... like 'Jeremy Bender' and 'The Sheriff', these tunes are kind of breathers in between all the pomp and circumstance. Then we get to the big boy, the big one--'Karn Evil 9' which is divided like this: end of first side is 'Karn Evil 9 (1st Impression, part one)', then entire second side is 'Karn Evil 9 (1st Impression, part two)', and then 2nd Impression and 3rd Impression (I'm not writing that shit out again). The part that just about every good Classic Rock listener knows is the five minute '1st Impression (part two)'... this is the one that starts out "Welcome Back My Friends, to the Show That Never Ends!!" This song may very well be the most memorable thing for some EL&P casual listeners, as it has the highest Spotify-play from this album and fourth for the band overall. Unlike the songs on the first side, this is a major Prog workout... like 'Starship Trooper' by Yes... you know, long, sudden changes, musical showmanship, great melody. I do love part two, but really part one is better... it is very similar in sound to part two but it's almost twice as long. If you've read this far and you've not heard '1st Impression (part one)' then stop reading and go play the fucking song, beginning to end. I mean you can even connect both 1st impressions if you want to, but it's not necessary. The '2nd Impression' is mostly a spare piano version of the 1st Impression, along with some crazy percussion and Moog parts that, like Toccata, might be mistaken for some '90s DNB (okay, probably not, but it's still wild). '3rd Impression' is probably the worst song on the album, but it's still very good... kind of a re-hash of the first parts, but worth listening to at least once, especially the headphones experience at the very end. Wow, what a great record. I used to like Trilogy best, but maybe this album is superior after all. Overall an excellent experience. This album ain't for everyone, but every good boy that loves Prog should at least know this record, front to back, back to front. Also, a killer album cover that acted as a triptych when opened. Cool!

[twentythousandvolts]

i had a dream that i went to go play P-1 (have not done this irl yet despite technically being able to now) and despite being spoiled on what the boss fucking looks like my mind decided that i had to kill something that looked like a huge machine cerberus. anddd it was in a fucking huge room like bigger than the map for 0-S with no walls (but it also wasn't a perfect rectangle, there was like.. a part where the wall kind of went In for a bit to separate two rooms?) ANYWAYS the boss's attacks were fucking insane and stupid (and probably partially inspired by the fact that i beat MDK for the first time lastnight) like none of it could be parried and it all fucking Followed You and there was like, an 'arm' (flexible tube with claw hand and a Blue Light) that chased you too which Never fucking went away andddddddddddf Yeah thats all i remember. whats up