Nioh Beta Demo Thread 3 Ninjutsu too Stronk Edition

nevermind

The only thing you need to do to make soulsborne fun is to make it faster, which Nioh done perfectly

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Ah yes I too love mashing R1, and no penalty for running out of stamina. Maybe sometimes I press R2.
Seriously bloodborne did basically nothing I'd say was good, it was a mediocre game.
Chalice dungeons, fashion souls, banal enemy design with few exceptions, Poor weapon selection.

What? When it comes to gameplay, Ni-oh is "Well, if you didn't like mashing R1 before, you better love it now or else."

What are you saying? I wasn't comparing gameplay.

Anyone want/need to do co-op?

Hey at least there's the ki-burst system so I can do cool combos as opposed to what the souls games provide

Anyone else get the vibe that the blacksmith might be a boy?

But you do get combos in Bloodborne what are you saying?

First off, you have to unlock them per weapon type in Ni-Oh which is boring and shoehorns you into whatever you've been leveling up. Then there's this big obtuse bullshit where you get to change what happens if you press a different button, whereas in Bloodborne that third option is always there and doesn't need to be decided in a menu. Just because they don't slap you in the face like it's a fighter with the words COMBO HIT # doesn't make them not combos.

Whatever, I'm dumb at this shit. I just hope Ni-oh has better environments or whatever.

Not really, just mashing R1 isn't a combo, there's no real combo potential either because you're so limited by your stamina, not that there's any penalty to running out. The combo is more of you hit the button and the game does the combo for you as opposed to actually having to do the combo. Same thing with why the Overhead hammer's triangle attack isn't interesting, the game just does it for you, you didn't actually do anything. BB does that for everything

That's because he is.

Well, its a good thing that traps aren't gay, right?

Reminder for the survey, tell them to keep the online features free. They're free here and I don't want to pay for PS+ when the retail comes out.

Is the survey via PS4 or on a website?

It's done via a website.
gamecity.ne.jp/form/nioh_b_us

Okay so if repeating a move over and over again isn't a combo, which is what we agree upon, then how does Bloodborne not have combos? Just hitting the same button over and over again isn't going to spawn a combo from nothingness, you have to press any of the five other buttons involved in fighting to change into a combo. Ni-oh just makes you press R1 more frequently.

I'm not understanding. Maybe I should go to bed.

Does anybody know if the finished game will have PvP? I'm enjoying the fuck out of fighting revenants but doing straight pvp with a bro in this game sounds like it would be a blast.

I've just gotten a level 35 wooden sword out of this soul matching system. If it turned into the Unlaboured Flawlessness at level 100 or something I'd fucking nut.

Thanks m8.

Hope not, the gear system doesn't really work with PvP.
That and PvP in this type of game is always shit

This sadly

Looks like an Xbox 360 game holy fuck.

I hope this game never makes it to PC, god forbid needing a 1080 to run the game at lowest settings thanks to KTs abysmal optimization on that platform.

You mean from a balance point of view? Of course somebody going all purple against somebody with all white isn't going to be fair, but I'm guessing that there can be some way to balance the different tiers, like you know, "all white", "white with some blue", "all blue", etc.

That's just your opinion, I've always had fun on PvP on the souls games

even then the level of gear is what matters more than the enchants at a certain point

The magic and ninja systems are great too. So is summoning your Spirit Animal.

Can you get your wooden sword to inherit an ability from another weapon? Not being able to reforge it limits it's potential.

It can inherit a few but they seem to be stamina related. Most of my weapons wouldn't add anything to it, only two of my axes offered any abilities.

I was hoping I could force it to take spirit or an elemental attack.
Anyway I'm sure there will be higher level wooden weapons in the full game, and probably more forging techniques too.

When does the beta end?

Tuesday the 6th

Alright cool.

They definitely improved since the Alpha, but this game still kicks my ass with some bullshit I swear.

I'm going to have to make a compilation of my failures in this game.

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Looks like we're going to get a dragon spirit at some point.

What if you get it when you travel to China?

What do I do to a weapon that has reached maximum familiarity?

A whetstone will reset it's familiarity to 150%. I didn't experiment much with it, I just moved up to better weapons when I got them so I'm not sure if there's a benefit to it.

user…

I sold my ps4

oh maaaaaaaaaaaan that's so cool

Pc when

You did good

Bloody good boss fight. Now to finish the twilight missions before the demo ends.

The dark casual forces are too strong. Also I'm a ninja.

You still have The Unmatched Warrior of the West to go, I liked that fight even more than batslut

I was having a decent amount of fun up until bat slut, now my thoughts are fuck this game.

there goes any reason I had to care about this piece of shit

Hope everyone likes spiders.

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Ah, so that's what that thing is.

Still haven't tried this second beta but a thing that bugged me about the first was the pacing; I felt like there was a lot of backtracking to burn amrita on leveling up; because weapon skills have to be unlocked and the loot system, it feels like the game incentives grinding. I recall ending the first stage/mission at Lv23 and feeling absurdly overpowered and then the recommended level for the next mission was 25.

Side note, I wonder if they'll put DOA's Nyotengu as a easter egg hidden boss or something.

I beat the first area of the second demo at level 11. Feels decent for the cave area; though, I haven't beaten it yet. I couldn't finish the side mission in the fields without help those were some fun fights, but the last part of it just kicked my ass, no two ways about it.

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I've yet to do anything with the blacksmith, because I don't understand the systems and I don't want to destroy good equipment by accident.
What does the blacksmith do? Is it something that can be ignored?

Just lock anything you don't want to destroy.

The blacksmith levels up your gear, I guess you can ignore it but if you got something you want to keep, visiting the blacksmith is essential if you don't want it to become obsolete.

I've beat the game on Twilight mode without dying.
I found the best way to play the game is to:
1. Build 11 spirit first, then 8 body and str.
This is for guardian bonuses and west warrior armor.
2. Be under 70% equip load. Ideally 69.9% wearing full west warrior. (tatenashi body is best as it give spirit scaling defense)
3. Learn the Iai skills, and the ki burst skills. You can kill pretty much anything from stamina break by breaking stamina, ki burst to IaI draw, kiburst into another stance, ground stab, heavy attack wake up.
4. Dumpstat into spirit. This will grant you defense (if you have the tatenashi body and the charms) attack (if you have raikiri) and various other stats making it the most returns for the investment.
5. Use living weapon often. It builds quickly.

Only other odd tip i found is that you can do a standing evade, into a lunging attack. This is almost always 100% safe and can punish virtually anything

What said. Also you can buy weapons armor and items from the blacksmith shop.

The Hawk really builds quickly.

This really is probably the best "obvious" advice you can give on this game. Too often I find myself running around with full living weapon meter waiting to use it "at just the right time" which of course translates to it being criminally underused.

This is a bit harder than the Alpha.

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Where is that image from? Did I miss something in the demo?

Doesn't that make it closer to Onimusha then?

It only feels souls-like because the player has tissue thin health.

teamninja-studio.com/nioh/us/top.html

(checked)
phew, okay then, thanks lad.

How long does it take to beat the demo?

I wonder if it's worth trying to complete it before Tuesday.

it feels like a souls game because of the gameplay mechanics.

Onimusha doesn't have a stamina system and the fixed camera angles are a pretty core part of its identity.

why cant they just keep the demo up until release like every other game? this is bullshit. it would cost them nothing to do.

Also puzzles, Onimusha has that RE style key finding puzzle stuff

It's not a demo, it's a beta test, they're taking down probably doing some modifcation and then there's going to be another one or just a plain old pre release demo. A lot of stuff changed from the last one and this one contain a lot of inactive or downright broken, like the skill menu showing both L1+triangle and Guard+Triangle which are the same input as well as weapon skill like tempest which are non functional.

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Not in the truest of sense, it's both a marketing ploy to get people into the game (demo) and outsourcing your focus group/beta testing for free(maximum shekel maximisation).
A demo should be representative of the final product, while the time of shareware where the first quarter of the game was given away for free is long gone it's no reason to lower the standards.

On the other hand, the beta stage of testing is usually very nearly the final product.

As we have come to know, "it's just a beta" type flaws usually persist into the release version.

Well, back when the Alpha was up I was only able to start playing about 48 hours before it went off and I managed to get the Mark of the Conqueror, so you should have more than enough time to complete it in the next 3 days. I say go for it.

True, I was just being a retarded semantic nazi, hopefully stuff like tempest which was pretty cool will be repaired and more weapon/skill tree will be added, as well as other stuff like weapon mastery, levels for the spirits and all those empty options in the blacksmith, there's still a lot of room for either more content or possibly a lot of cut content.

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Actually, equip load is a much more flexible thing in this game. Being under 30% gives you the highest Ki recovery speed, the furthest dodge and the lowest Ki costs on most things, but being over 70% means you have dramatically lower blocking costs (nigh on unbreakable really) and all your attacks gain armour.

So there IS a benefit to heavy armor. I guess that means if you're doing an axe/hammer build heavy armor is key then.

Oh shit really? Did you find this out experimentally or is the information listed somewhere?

It depends on how you want to play. The lower Ki costs and dodge let you be really offensive when light, but having high defense and then stacking The Adamantine on top of that means you can just cleave through almost anything.

I found it out by experimenting. I played this and the Alpha way too much and tested a lot of different stuff. There's a lot of really cool things in the game just waiting to be found. Like how 2kat can do Tempest, but the animation is glitched.

That actually addresses the way heavy armor is obsolete in dark souls, especially with the removal of poise. If nothing else, this says the developers have paid close attention to the weaknesses in soulsborne games, and have come up with their own solutions.

Yeah, I really like how they've handled the armour in this game. In Souls games over 70% might as well have not existed the way people avoided it. In this game with how they've done the weight of equipment, Stamina is more for wearing heavier armour than making it lighter, which is quite cool.

How the fuck do I beat bat bitch? I'm all out of anti paralysis needles.

If you boost your paralysis resist to the point where it takes 2 shots to stun you, then that aspect becomes pretty easy to avoid. Try summoning if you're having too much trouble. I'd be up for helping you if you want to set a password.

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Thanks for the offer, but I ended up summoning someone else. First time I summoned someone and they fucked Bat Bitch up.

And people still say it ain't Samurai Souls?

Well the combat and gameplay is much better than souls games.
Provided they don't fuck it up on release this is probably one of the best games on the PS4

Team Ninja appear to actually be fans of the formula (unlike western imitators). They probably know FromSoft isn't going to keep it up forever and they probably don't want it to just go away, because it makes money and it brought new life to "AAA" Japanese games at a time it was desperately needed.

I invested in Resistance talismans since I wasn't using Onmyo points for much else. It worked very well since you always have enough time between attacks to reapply talismans.
If you don't have enough points to spare to get those talismans, then I found that (at least in the non-Twilight mission) increasing your vs Paralysis by as little as 2 made her paralysis attack take more than one to paralyze.
If you're going to do the Twilight mission then I'd definitely recommend getting the Resistance talismans. Even though her paralyzing moves are pretty easy to dodge, it's nice to have that insurance if/when you fuck up the timing of a dash.

You can get paralysis medicine that refreshes automatically from the shrines from ninjitsu.

If you are out of anti para and have left over ninja/magic skill points then just take one of the anti para skills, you can tank up to like 4 shots before getting para'd and lasts around 2 mins. Also for easy mode on her, bring a katana with kick, it fucking destroys her. Bait out 2/3 combo and then 1 light attack followed by strong, repeat till she is out of ki then wail on her.

what a fag

Just take one of the anti paralysis ninja/magic skill, the anti poison/para spell let me tank around 4 or 5 shots.. For easy modeu Take a katana with the kick skill with dogo spirit, bait out her 2/3 hit combo, do 1 light attack followed by 1 strong attack to kick then back off. repeat until she is out of ki then wail on her for a little before backing up a little to not get grabbed.

Dude, they should scrap the pseudo PvP and implement a real PvP system that allows you to take a piece of your opponent's gear when you kill them. There is literally no reason for there not to be PvP.

Needs invasions too, can't make everything expected 1v1 duels. The element of surprise is a big part of the Souls experience and would be great in this game with PvP too.

Fuck no, PvP in no way would work with the gear system they have in place, you think Smurfing in DaS1 was bad this game would have it only be worse

I don't think any of it was bad.
It spiced the game up.
You're still talking about it.

Do I just have to progress to a certain point, and I'll get a prompt, or do I need to do something else?
Also, I have a question.
When I was a young lad reading about knights and shit, I developed an infatuation with spears and spear-like weapons, halberds in particular.
In souls-likes everyone says that spears are generally OP. This has left me with a dilemma.

Gas yourself. Invasions would be awful.

That makes no sense

Weapons have situations where they naturally perform better than other types, but generally, it's up to your preferences.

Katana are technical and effective against enemy types that are parryable/ripostable.
Spears are for area control. Lots of wides and overheads in High/Med, and Low gives you a lot of manoeuvrability.
Hammers are good against Youkai. The bigger, the better. Later skills also give you good options against normal foes.
Twin Blades are good for dying.

Yes.

Never found anything with spirit bonuses, so I am kinda fucked there. I assume I over looked something.

Souls games proper had an issue with spears being used to poke past a shield without lowering your guard. This game has no such option.

ur just a bitch like Hattori Hanzo
I'll bet you own a cat too

Gear scales down with the world of the host. Ever enter a world as a visitor and notice you do less damage, and take more? Smurfing (twinking as I know it) isn't a problem, the devs have taken care of it.

You are a bitch, and I believe the invaders in this game will be called "wanderers." Its all but confirmed by the UI, go to the dojo multiplayer menu and you'll see what I mean.

Yeah, they seem to lack luster.
I was investing points into body and skill, but I'll go for body and heart now.

I bet you'll buy this game like a good goyim too.

He uses it as a pocket watch. Apparently you can tell when Twilight's going to fall based on the form of their iris.

That's not entirely true. Anything they can stun you can turn into mincemeat, and you can get good combos on distracted Youkai or ones recovering from a heavy attack. The kick into double slash is exceedingly good if you can get the timing right. Even the high stance attacks are pretty damn quick. However, the reach does leave a lot to be desired and I find they fare very poorly against multiple and naturally spread out tough enemies like the double sumo giants in Of Withered Grass and Youkai, since you have to get so close and get little damage in with the few attacks you can safely make, in relatively similar number to harder hitting weapons. Chaff crowds require a bit of caution to hack through safely, furthermore. And quick high stance attacks aren't necessarily a good thing, since they don't seem to be quite as chunky in damage as other weapons' easy hit-and-ki dodge moves or as reachy, but you still have high stances' questionable mobility anyways.

In comparison, the regular katana is about as wide swinging on horizontal moves and only a little less fast while having dickish mid poking moves and a bit more non-forward-stepping swing based reach in general, far better stun capability, chunkier Iaijutsu damage compared to Sign of the Cross, and the incredibly useful ki burst, which can stun whole crowds of chaff even if you're completely surrounded and can be very good as a poking move for working down huge youkai's ki, as well as being quite good for dealing with quadruped Dwellers if you're feeling dicey about being command grabbed with slower moves or swinging over their heads with certain mid stance moves. So I'd agree that they're not that great, but 2kat has niches and most probably more theoretical DPS.

Personally, with the small slice of four weapon types they've shown us- I vaguely remember hearing there'll be 20 odd weapon types- I'm just hoping for a good spread of weapons in similar classes & niches with vastly different movesets to fill said niches and different scaling stats to fit the wide range of preferences. As example, I like the spear, but I also like the katana. Spears scale off of Body & Skill, and kats scale off Heart & Skill. Skill can give both increased scaling, but only with a secondary scaling grade, so I have to more shallowly invest in both primary stats to get the most out of them. I'm rather hoping there'll be naginatas for the same ranging/crowd control niche as the spear, with Heart scaling and fewer pokes but more swings & vertical chops. Maybe exchanging midstance parries for offensive guard breaks like the katana sword lock knockdown. Nagamakis or nodachis for high stance katana overhand chops on steroids would also be neat.

Here's some food for thought. If one has a choice between overupgrading a PC for the sake of modern games one won't buy nor even pirate let alone play because they're total shit or for making some unoptimized games & ports- be they budget PC titles or the acceptably good multiplats- run less shit at marginally better looking settings, or else buying an exclusives box at an equivalent price to such an upgrade for more games one would actually like and would be fine with purchasing, is the latter still a bad purchasing decision, shitty nickel & diming online 'services' that come with the box aside? One could of course do neither, but between the two?

Thanks for the bump, I guess.

How does he not get clawed up, or keep it from jumping out of his coat? I feel like there were better ways of doing that.

Like what, a magic twilight watch?

Training an animal to sit in your coat is not as hard as you'd think.

It gets people talking.

Probably raised it from a kitten to be fine with it. I'm more worried about the fact that having a cat in your coat during a very long operation is going to present some biological logistic difficulties. Cat's gotta shit sometime. Are you gonna have to Tenchu your way into a zero-light bush to let him do his business? What if he decides to just go where he is? I guess if domesticated wildcats can be toilet trained it wouldn't be hard to get a fully domestic ninja cat to let you know in advance, but still.

If all you need is a cat, then why not find one at the site? Cats are good vermin controllers, so you should be able to find at least one in a village. I just found it odd that he keeps a cat in his coat just to tell if its twilight.

It does. It was pretty fucking funny; though, I don't know if that was what they were going for.

Its not odd, you're just retarded.

It's probably a youkai cat of some kind. Probably a Bakeneko. HONK

Dual katanas can stun lock the shit out of stuff. Plus I think you're suppose to combine them with ninja skills for the best benefit.

Might be fun for Doom or whatever competitive FPS but not when you're playing a medieval soldier with an armor, come on.

Emulation, user. There is also an occasional modern game that will use up the PC's grossly underused capabilities. However, today, it'd be emulation.
Wii U and PS3 emulation is going to be taxing as hell on computers from what one can guess from the previous generation of emulators. Owning a PC, makes available every generation game, save for the Xbox 360 and PS3, Wii U, and so forth.
The PS4, and the mentioned PS3/Wii U, are not too far behind in emulation, with Wii U attaining an almost playable state, and PS3 slowly getting there. I'd rather wait a few years, get a reliable PS4 (or PS3, for that matter) emulation software, with all the weeb games I want, than spend way more money on a PS4.

Speaking of money, I guess you had the stupidity to bring that up. PC is all in all, cheaper. Over time, as you purchase more and more games for the console, all priced at 30$ or more, (very few games deviate from this, and even then they're very old anyway.), in addition to the PS4's initial pricetag, you'll be spending more than if you went the PC route.
As a personal example, before full Jew steam, I built my own computer, and participated in steam sales like a good goyim, all in all, with saving money in mind, I've spent to this date, around 1000$ on everything I own within steam, with about 900$ for the computer. Total would be around 1900$
Of course, these last few years I haven't been spending my money on really anything, but I still managed to rack up around 130~ games on Steam, not to mention from other sources. The game count in my library happens to total around 150-160~. Add that with emulation and piracy, free good games from jap devs, free good fan games in general, and that makes a good few thousand games I could play at any one time, although most I have to spend a few minutes setting up.

Compared with the PS4, with shitty online services, stagnate prices of games and needed accessories, and high prices at that, low total game count, no power, so no ability to improve too far than what it is, and plain jewery and restrictions all around, I'd rather have a computer where I can play videogames, but still be free to do whatever the fuck I want afterwards. The pricetag is only appealing to those who don't actually think fucking thing about "bang per buck", and a PC has a staggeringly high "bang per buck" compared to any console. If you like any feature about a console, guess what? A console IS a computer, but computers YOU build can be modified! Don't like how not-portable it is? Modify it, people have done it before, hell, one is even being sold in stores! I think it's called a laptop or something. Like the feel of a controller? Good for you! Plug it in, and at this point all controllers either have drivers that come with them, or ones you can download online.

As for the PS4's game pricetag, if you've ever bought a console game, everyone brings a 50 and a 20 to the game store for a reason. They're fucking expensive. Anyone with a large library would have to sink in incredible amounts of money, or get insanely lucky with used Ebay deals. Combined with the fact that they almost never go down in price, including the ones online, and you'll be having fun sinking a 40$ into a five year old game. PC games have the Steam Jew advantage, where they want quantity over quality. PC Jews want you to buy as many games as possible, not the most expensive ones.

A console is just a scheme to lock poorfags who can't save their money for something better, and milk them dry. The only reason why I'd get a console over a computer, is for the exclusives, and even that is going to go in a few years.

Allow me to post smug at you. I bump threads related to videogames, even if they're related to shitty decisions such as the fucking aborted wonder called the PS4.

I'm not disagreeing with your overall message and point, but some things are patently false.
When is the last time you've been to a store to buy physical copies? Most games that are 2 years or older are below $30, sometimes even in one year. For example Bloodborne is $20 new.

Steam is the one with stagnate prices. Quite a few of the somewhat older games are at unrealistically high prices, and when they're on "sale" the price reflects the price you'd see at a store for a physical copy. For example, Singularity on steam is $30 which is pretty absurd for a mediocre-okay six year old game. However, it goes on "sale" consistently for 75% off, bringing it to $7.50.
It's less than $5 anywhere else.

As far as pricing goes, the only legitimate complaint for console games is the release price, which is unjustifiably high for almost every single title. Over time though, console copies tend to be cheaper since steam usually keeps the same initial release price and marks them down to the actual price with "sales."

If you're a middle-fantasy hero that kills ailing gods or in Nioh's case angry Japanese familiar spirits, it's not much to have the player character act on average a little above the mundane human upper limit let alone the mundane human average, is it? The reason Demons' Souls was viewed as shit and a failure during development was because everything moved at a snails' pace even lower than King's Field, which translated really badly into more open environments in modern 3D graphics. It was saved by Miyazaki raising it to the release Demon's Souls pace. Raising it a little higher would do the next FromSoft Souls style game good, as it certainly seems to do Nioh good.

I don't know, PS4 emulation seemed a good ways away. You might be a little overoptimistic here. But I don't keep up with emulation at all, so I'll tentatively take your word for it.

That is true, but that's if you're using it as a primary box for games. I referred to it as an 'exclusives box' for a reason. As an alternative to a superfluous PC upgrade with purchases made solely for the lean library of worthwhile exclusives, how would you judge it? In the longest term, putting all your hardware on one machine for par quality emulation & good PC running is technically the better option, but that's a long time to wait.

'To this date' is a bit hard to parse anything useful out of without a starting date, user. 130 games is a little more helpful, as 130*$30 would be a hideous $3900. But who on Earth is going to buy 130 console games, or half that number in new releases? The idea is absurd. The same total funds you used minus $400 divvied up between $30 latecomer purchases would round out at a very healthy 50 games, and early bird $60 ones at a reasonable 25. The latter number is probably going to be the most optimistic extent of the worthwhile exclusives over the lifetime of the thing, or more likely of worthwhile exclusives & a smattering of multiplats for those who don't also have a PC of equivalent/greater strength, and the numbers of properly worthwhile games in your Steam library is probably going to be similar to either of the two numbers, with a lot of the library being chaff, bloat, novelty purchases. Technically a greater value, but I'm not sure how much either of us have gotten out of the bloat items in our libraries on a whim.

Yeah, more or less, beside the 'stagnant prices' point being equally applicable to Steam; both Company of Heroes 2 (it's a bit shit and the engine's a bit too inherently gamey, but I hear the Spearhead mod is really, really good) and Men of War AS 2 have been sitting at $30 base and $60 with the three mini-expansions for ages, and I kicked myself for not being in a position to get the latter when it was slashed to $10 for the deluxe package. In any case, between no Bloodborne & other things and not having a need for the power equivalent PC investment would give me, the PS4 seemed the saner decision. My present milquetoast rig of an A10-5800K, 8 gigs of RAM, and a 750 Ti is more than enough for running older stuff or newer stuff at similar graphical quality to the older stuff.

Except to efficiently and more cheaply run current exclusives. That takes a miracle port or else disproportionate power applied for emulation well down the line from the original release of the native hardware & game, which is less than ideal.

Absolutely. No argument here, for the most part, although optimization- while increasingly spectral- can legitimately make consoles do less with more than the same hardware in a PC, though that's hardly the case anymore.

Which is precisely my approach, so we don't disagree overmuch.

I'm not so sure, but here's hoping. Said good exclusives arriving free to a wider audience far past the financial relevance to the studio of said free spread is only good in my mind.

ITT: The new bloodborne of console warring

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He's right though. Looks like it'll be Bloodborne all over again.
Discord for the sake of itself is worthless. I wonder why people do this.

I used to go to gamestop a few years ago to buy some PS3 games and Nintendo games. Frequently, whenever I'd look at the older games, I'd see them stay at 30-40$, especially with Nintendo.

The ones who decide the price are ultimately the publisher.
Activision doesn't give a shit about PC users, and steam sales don't seem to matter to them.
Even with the whole price tag drop to 15-20$ thing, PC does have a good amount of outlets and opportunities to load up on games.
The humble bundle, steam summer sales (which do mostly go below the universal pricetag, except for the more jewish companies), and GOG provide good deals on occasions.
All of these require waiting, and much less of "maybe it will be on sale", 'cept the humble bundle.

I'll degrade your "sometimes" into a "rarely".
If it's a low budget jap game, yes. I'd definitely see a quick drop in price overtime. Otherwise, with any jew(y) publishers, the price usually fails to go significantly lower than 30 dollars over a two to three year period. Although, after four years, it's a guaranteed 20-10$ price range.

I'd rather wait than spend more money than I need to. I'm completely fine with waiting years to save a good amount of money, and focus on other things in the meantime.

I don't want to greentext the entire argument, so hopefully you'll understand what I'm replying.
There are plenty of good games on steam. I'm the person who usually does a good amount of research into the game before I spend even a dime. I might even end up pirating before
I give money to the developers. It should say a bit to know that my account existed when steam first popped up, so this 1900$ figure is one from over long periods of time.
I've played a good thirty hours on each game minimum, save for maybe five, for some obvious reasons. (bought in bundles and it's somewhat of a backlog)
And even for most people, it's not that the games are BAD, they just have so MUCH of them. It's not like they're not INTERESTING, more that there are a sheer number of these interesting games. I'd say I not only got my value out of these games, but I've got games that'll last me for years.
And why would they?
They're expensive and most of them aren't too good. Like you said, only a good half of them are any good, and most of them are multi-platform. Yet again, the only reason for a console is
the exclusives.

That would be under the "I want this now, and I'd rather not wait, because it's looking sweet and I'd miss out on the fun if I waited a few years." mindset.
Personally, I don't have a mindset like that, nor do I understand that. It's your decision, but I'm gonna berate and call you a faggot anyway, faggot.

varies between games, and PC hardware has been trying to increase efficiency, the 750 Ti is proof of that. (This rig I'm using to post has it. Runs many games at max settings too.)
I'm also sure that if you wanted to build around efficiency, you could get a good build that is equal or greater than consoles in efficiency. (and you have freedom to choose how efficient you want to be vs raw power.)
The reason why consoles are "efficient" is because they're weak, and exclusives that try to hit a reasonable framerate is because they HAVE to be a "miracle port".
There is some good money in creating efficient engines and shit for a reason, it's because it's in high demand and any game company worth their shit wants one.

The newest generation seem to be very close to the old gen. The Wii U is so far ahead because it's system is very similar to the Wii, and people are finding similar things with the PS4/Xbone, just at a snails pace compared to the Wii U
It's too early to truly tell, but my guess is that once PS3 emulation is brought to a reasonable level, PS4 emulation will start getting a good amount of traction within no time.
Around the next generation of consoles should be when we'll see PS4 emulation brought to a decent level.

Completing the first stage unlocks the "Mark of the Conqueror"; Completing the second stage unlocks the" Mark of the Strong". As soon as you complete a stage the game will prompt you to go to the Playstation eshop and "purchase" your rewards (they're free). If you choose not to do it then you can go there from the beginning menu screen instead. There's a little prompt in the top right hand corner, can't miss it.
Be sure to actually download the rewards form the eshop and you have to download both of them separately.

Is there a difference between downloading and "purchasing" or does the purchase automatically download?

Such is your prerogative, so do as you will.

In that case, that is a rather significant savings number. Combined with a thirty hour obligatory playtime, yeah, that's a lot of bang for buck out of what for a lot of people just ends up being backlog chaff, certainly. I haven't gotten as much as I'd like out of my 129 strong library, so I think I should look back through it a bit, brush up on old favorites, give another go at the novelty purchases that ended up set aside. Till the soil, let it breathe.

It's a mindset I don't normally subscribe to at all, but it looked too nice and circumstances allowed for the splurge. I arrived thoroughly late anyways, but I'd say it was worth it, because every bit of both the gameplay and thematic genres of the game make my dick diamonds. Beside that, I'm still waiting for the Last Guardian to finally un-vaporware itself to get a new Shadow of the Colossus style adventure, and was waiting for NiER Automata until that got a surprise PC port plan, who knows how that'll run. Beside that, I'm keeping a close eye on what else might come out.

Again, that's your prerogative. I think you proselytize a little too hard to the detriment of your ability to convince others of an otherwise very cogent argument. If one doesn't want or doesn't feel any need to early bird on exclusives but still feels comfortable spending a similar amount of money, then by all means get some extra buffer performance with nicer parts. If one wants something in particular and doesn't need the buffer performance, then let the PC lag and get an exclusives box. And if one has to pick between a good enough PC or a current console, then one decides whether one wants a wider variety of good games on a general purpose PC or some very specific releases that appeal to oneself on a console.

Plausible enough. We'll see.

That's assuming we'll get another generation rather than a series of petty limping incremental hardware upgrades ala the PS4K to the current generations' architecture, possibly retrofitted to old stock after trade-ins for scratchbuilt new stock. Frankly, that might actually turn out better than a too-soon large hardware & architecture jump that no one will develop for in a new generation, even if the early 'new' console release is very sour tasting initially.

On the Mark of the Conqueror, how do I actually download it? It's only marked as Purchased and never downloaded when I got it during the alpha, and still won't download now in the beta, even after refulfilling the requirements just to make sure. But the Mark of the Strong was an actual downloadable item and is properly listed under my addons. Is this a glitch, or just a petty discrepancy on the devs' part of not adding a preload for the first Mark that won't affect claiming the thing once the game rolls around?

I don't think it actually downloads anything. Not yet anyway. I think when you "purchasing" a Mark you're basically just preordering free DLC for the full game. I can't find that it actually puts any file or indication on my PS4 but the PlayStation store remembered my mark of conqueror purchace from the Alpha and I got an email confirming it.

Bloodborne was good. What's the problem? Fuck yous hugbox. If people are too sensitive to not get triggered by console exclusives, they dont belong here. thats sjw tier behavior. I wont put up with that shit.

I assumed as much.

He's referring to the inability to talk about the game for months before and after release. Threads were full of shitflinging between PC sour grapes and sonyggers trying to justify the console. He's not referring to the game itself. Same with the first guy who brought it up for that matter.

okay, but does that mean we should just not talk about it and let those bastards have their way? Idk about you, but I'd like to stop accepting the Holla Forums is a shithole meme here. That was a thing on 4/v/ and it's obvious that travelers brought it over here. This board is crippled and games like Nioh are the spark it needs.

I dont want to just shut it down and let them win. Think of what would have happened if the MGR fans just let the DmC shitters win. That was a war.

This is a terrible dark souls clone.

'Slowly backpedaling' is a funny way of saying 'lowest equip load dodging & sprinting.' It's not much different than abusing I-frames to fastroll through big ol' boss swings and equivalent to playing keepaway in Bloodborne against non-distance closing attacks, of which the boss in question has a couple, one of which wasn't shown and creates an area that gives youkai stamina regen & drains player stamina regen. Hino-Enma's moveset is definitely constrained, but the video didn't show several due to the player gimmicking her to death. Explosive shurikens are a spell equivalent, so it's not overly different to Soul Spear kiting spam, and the stamina break at the end enabled some kind of juggling nonsense that let him repeatedly do counter damage with regular shurikens while knocking her back up into the air, mechanics that were probably intended for if somebody managed to juggle her using the substantially more sluggish bows & matchlocks before she hit the ground.

I've heard there was some kind of glitch with the US Mark of the Conqueror. They'll hopefully have it sorted out for the release but it might be ok as long as it says you have it. Try to download it again from the menu just in case.

Nigger, he literally just turned tail and ran, rolling once the whole video. When he took damage, the boss shaved off nothing, which is even worse with 'lowest equip load' I assume meaning no armor. The stamina regen is way too fast, meaning it'll be harder for bosses to punish mistakes.

PvP (if there is any) will be Demons Souls tier retarded. Shit, maybe worse.

At least in dark souls you actually have to dodge them / they do damage. Do you call anything from this fight a big ol' boss swing?
With how fast that stamina regen is, why bother?
Literally an int build vs. bosses takes more skill than this. You still have to dodge instead of walking backwards, won't stunlock the boss, and for most of the game have room to either have damage or have health.

That's where the 'and sprinting' part comes in. Her space closer move, which luckily for the player she did not use, can only be avoided by rolling rather precisely past it or else by sprinting directly away early in the windup, rolling back just gets you hit for trying. It might look stupid and make her look trivial in the video, but it's the thing to do in context and you're at risk of getting shitfucked otherwise.

That's because that petty little dagger throw move isn't meant to deal big damage, it's meant to put pressure on the player, cheap a bit of damage the first time she does it, and punish them for not blocking while they wait to see what the boss does. If she starts winding up the paralysis bolt, get ready to roll. If she doesn't, stay guarded. If you watch only for a visual windup but don't memorize the animation and listen for the vocalization before laterally rolling, then you get plinked thanks to the attack having three separate projectiles.

That doesn't matter much when a mistake being punished means 75% of your HP down in a bad case or dead in the worst case.

Some people might find that fun, you know. I personally wouldn't be too into things being like that, but at least it'd make for some good clips.

Her kick combo, while easy to dodge on startup if you're moving defensively (and not even to the degree of outright sprinting around kiting) does a healthy amount of damage if you get winged by one hit from not dodging at the right time let alone eating multples, and she likes to close gaps with a spin to win room crosser that tears you up while shitting out a youkai fog that guts your stamina regen while giving hers back, preventing you from stunning her. It makes the regen pretty sluggish.

Like I said above, reactively dodging backwards is the worse option compared to actively sprinting for longer reaching moves, in reverse of Souls where a rolldodge is pretty safe due to I-frames and trying to simply walk backwards out of reach is a terrible idea, which option is the more agile is reversed here. And tanking through HP doesn't seem to be an option at all in Nioh, except if you're above 70% load, which gives passive and mid-attack animation defensive bonuses in addition to the heavy armor you're wearing to get there. Otherwise, you're made of glass or slightly less brittle glass. The choice is mainly in what fashion one is dealing damage in.

The guy in the video pushed her shit in with throwing weapons and running away. That piddly little dagger was rather unimpressive with health taken off, even with no armor on.
How is that a punish? How does that put pressure on the player?

youtube.com/watch?v=A1I2nqBf-XU

Vid related. At least this boss has a interesting move set.

hey, can other pieces of armor besides the gauntlets get the + fist damage bonus or am I just stuck reforging gaunts for the bonuses?

You're bitching about shit in videos that are blatantly about cheesing things.

If a boss is that easy to cheese it's just bad design bro.

What innovation

Looks more like an opening to me. She got stunlocked to death retardedly by throwing knives.

It looks like more of a chore to actually get hit than anything.

You're more concerned about youtube than a good game.

That shit looks even easier than the video linked in
How can a boss be fun if all it takes to break it is a stack of throwing knives?

Really depends on how easy it is to get to the point where they can be cheesed. It takes quite a few levels dumped into ninja skills to get that many shurikens and kunai and outside of bossfights it's more or less an awful build.

How long ago did Demon's Souls come out? As much as I hate the guys that shill for it like souls went downhill from there, it legitimately looks way more polished than your game.

The guy in that video has invested a nontrivial amount of time an amrita into a ninja build. Leveling for ninjutsu capacity and skill points is more restrictive and specialized than leveling for samuari skill points. Additionally ninja skills focus on consumables meaning you can run out of your ability to do damage. That's never true for martial weapons skill.

Make no mistake, Bat Bitch will push your shit in at least the first dozen times or so. He has a very specialized build and is probably over leveled too. Hes also scarfing down power pills.
Basically this is the Nioh equivalent of Danger Mario.

Exploding throwing weapons that took a stupid amount of skill points to invest in. Again, it's just soul spear spam combined with a funky oversight on counter-damage juggles. Still something to be adjusted, potentially, but the sheer amount of throwing weapons in the two videos here were acquired by farming the shit out of certain static drops that give skill points through mission reruns, plainly added so that players have a way to get enough ninja skill points in the beta to experiment without too much statgouging for the skill points rather than the jutsu slots.

Minor health loss compounded by lost stamina from being hit, along with rattling the player?

They were relatively far apart, so no, he didn't die. If on the other hand he had gotten hit by any of those combos properly he'd be dead or in serious trouble.

The Japanese didn't use hand shields, what do you want? Technically, they did have all of one hand shield of which the name escapes me, but that was a buckler sized square block of wood with a handle on it, meant for blocking matchlock fire from hitting the face, and nothing more.

Yes, because of course rolling directly through enemy attacks is not at all something one does in Dark Souls.

Not with normal ranged weapons. Too slow to bring up. Ninja throwing weapons are more usable in this context, but most hit for peanuts.

In a gimmick build that acquired a heinous amount of skill points from what will likely be very rare skill up items, gouged stats for jutsu slots, and a very specific strategy of working her stamina down with explosive knives to put her into a no-stamina state, which makes human enemies ripostable but makes youkai get automatically stunned by all attacks, then stunlock-juggled her in a very specific context that allowed for silly amounts of counter damage.

From a couple of gimmick clips of a gimmick build playing keepaway as hard as possible without actually trying to enter into melee? What would you say to somebody who watched a video of Gwyn getting chainparried judging that the game must be shit because of it? Chainparries are harder than throwing knife spam simply for the timing required, obviously, but it's not an accurate clip of the game overall.

No, I'm saying that even if the game had Demon's Souls tier bullshit PvP, at least it would look good in cut up snippets even if it was miserable in practice. That's saying there's a consolation, not that it'd be good or that the consolation is preferable to a situation which requires none.

To roll away to avoid damage?

That implies that he'll die when taking damage. Here's a clip of that actually happening in the game you're blatantly ripping off. Note that two hits of literally anything, even if they do 1 damage, would kill this guy.
Also power pills? Are you saying this game lets you outright buff damage from all sources via a consumable? Skill.

You'll do that plenty, and other times it'll be wiser to make their sword hit your sword than to try and get out of the way. And in spite of Dark Souls gameplay having weapons & small shields bleed damage through when blocking, along with some medium and even large shields arbitrarily doing so for being made of wood or having an enchantment, funny thing is is that if your flesh isn't being slashed and your vitals aren't getting punctured, you're not going to suddenly start coughing up blood & organs just because the tool you used to keep from getting stabbed happened to not be a mundane board shield. Why would you actually want arbitrary physical damage bleedthrough? It's always been nothing but a pointless annoyance and good reason to never, ever consider emergency blocking with a two handed weapon as opposed to I-framing through an attack with a far cheaper roll that also doesn't entail you gutting your stamina bar and eating half the damage anyways. It's flawed.

Weapons seem to be contagious in this game

Blocking in Nioh is a lot more viable than in Dark Souls, but I think you guys are overlooking one aspect of it. If you get guard broken in Nioh it's a lot worse than being guard broken in Dark Souls. You get thrown into a recovery animation about 3x as long, and if you take any damage during it you get thrown onto the ground. Unlike in Dark Souls you can be hit while on the ground. This means that getting guard broken is usually a really bad thing. Of course you also open yourself up to critical attacks, and this is in a moment where you just took an attack strong enough to knock you off your feet I've noticed some bleed through damage when I'm guard broken.

You can't actually farm them. Those drops are a one time thing. The guy had to actually invest more and subsequently gimp himself in a bigger way than you give him credit for.

Not quite in the way you're meaning it. All of the items that have green number beside them are a prepared jutsu. You can't simply purchace most of them or gather them as loot, they have to be prepared a head of time when you save at a shrine and you can only prepare as many as as you have magic capacity for. Now there ARE some items that can be found as regular consumables as well as a ninja skill (for example the bomb item there on the left - the round thing with the green 6 next to it.) But these DO NOT stack with Iga style items so you would have to double allocate them if you wanted to use them as well.
In short, this nigger has power leveled in ninjutsu.

So like DS1 magic and bonfires?

Yes. Ninjutsu and Onmyo magic is more or less similar to the spells in DS1/2. They are pretty op but the video did need a lot of investment and is overleveled so it's not a great judge of anything. You should try the Beta yourself, it's really fun, even though I don't agree with the changes made to the mechanics from the Alpha.

I'm assuming so, yes. I've never played a SoulsBorne game before but from what I can gather it's the same system.

Is there anything new in this demo. I downloaded it and beat the first area only to get the same download as the first one.

The second area is different from the alpha's second area, and there are two sub-missions. Also Twilight difficulty which makes all the enemies yokai.

Bloodborne is really mediocre though.

It got a lot better with the DLC.

am I the only one who get the "cannot connect to server" error? with the game crashing soon after

You're banned.

Working for me.

Dude waaaaaiiit
Team Ninja's gonna get sued.
Of all things to borrow, why the fucking crystal lizards? those are one of the worst parts of souls games.

I can play the game for 10~20 minutes, then the game freeze with the "cannot connect to server - try again or go to tittle screen"

They are 100x more faggot that crystal lizards. These bastards run two times faster than you do, leap all over the fucking place, and steal amrita from you if they happen to attack.

Also you can't get sued for stealing gameplay mechanics.

I havent encountered them yet. I'm still in the grassy fields.

Technically, Sanity effects were at one point patented.

Nothing came of it, of course, but hey. It's a thing.

...

Do they try to fist your asshole to death? I've only encountered them twice and the escaped both times.

I think it's kind of cute.

I get a message that I disconnected every ten or so minutes and I click "Try Again" and I'm right back in the game.
Also, does anyone know how heavily this game is based on nipnong mythology?
Is it inspired by it, or exactly like it?

I'm 99% sure that's exactly what one did to me. Bastard shoved his hand up my ass and ripped out amrita, then ran off to huddle up with a bunch of demons.

That's perfect. God I love this game.
Also have a better version of that picture I posted.

eh…. I disagree, it's not very good even with the DLC. It's to date the only souls game I actively had to force myself through.

This has to be bait.

I bet you were Chikagefag.

So…
What's up with William?
Is he gonna be The Guy?
Is this gonna be a single player game where you just play as him like this demo is?
Every player is some variation of Blonde Bill in different armor. (there's a shitload of it)

oh ur a liar, dude.

There's a hell of a lot changed from the Alpha to the Beta. Content wise the first level is mostly the same (except for a conspicuous missing oni), but after that there's a second main mission with a different Mark available, as well as two sub missions that are a yokai gauntlet and an honouraburu dueru. There's also hard mode versions of the two main and gauntlet sub missions which change enemy layouts completely. Dual katanas, guns and cannons are in, and the skill trees are reworked and expanded, especially Ninjutsu and Onmyoji. The blacksmith is in too.

Mechanics wise there's a ton that's different, most that you can find out from the old change list, but I can propaganda my way through it.

The Ki mechanics work differently. Trying to take an action you don't have the Ki for no longer leaves you out of breath. This means managing your Ki is a lot easier and you're able to mash on attacks and dodge as long as you kill the guy first or don't get hit. Not a fan of it, the old way was fair but encouraged playing your best and made the fights really tense and brutal.

The lockon camera is now Soulslike birds eye from behind. I felt the old one made fights feel more visceral, as well as gave you a better view in front, but more importantly, when locked on, running doesn't make you turn around anymore. This is a really bad change I feel, the old system made movement a much more considered affair, and you had to know for sure when you wanted to move. Walking, dodging, and moving with your guard up kept you facing the enemy, so it altogether made things really explosive and samurai-esque when combined with the original Ki mechanics. Now though circlestrafing is far too mindless and powerful, since the game wasn't designed for it.

Durability is gone completely, which is a real shame since it offers a ton of variability and wasn't too difficult or annoying to manage if you used what you had access to like offering and both equipped weapons. Would've been great with the now functioning Familiarity system (using a weapon makes it's attack and effects stronger), kinda like Vagrant Story.

Certain enemies also have a bit less health, and are kinda easy to just cleave through in high stance in the beginning.

Low stance and high stance's bonus Ki Pulse mechanics have been swapped too. High stance works great with it but low stance gets nothing from it. I think high stance should have both really. There's probably more things but this is the big stuff. It's still more than worth playing.

no BB is better than DaS2, but holy fuck BB was a slog. The setting and everything about it was just so played out I got bored, and even then, I felt the trick weapon gimmick was underwhelming and a lot of the common complaints.
In addition to the fact that the PvP was basically ganksquads and only ganksquads, and a lot of the mystery amounted to "it doesn't… really do much".

I just didn't like it at all. BB was a better game than DaS2, but at least with DaS2 I wanted to see new areas, BB didn't even have that for me.

The camera lock on was a good change because it was driving me nuts in the alpha, but I'd be OK with it being an option you can toggle.

They also fixed the shitty camera sensitivity the alpha had.

It's actually pretty close, with the caveat that everything is geared for an action game. Most of the time youkai would be defeated via guile rather than martial power. For example the idea of beating an oni to death (instead of tricking it to death… or into being your ally) is rather absurd. Unless you're a god or demigod or something like that. You can ward on away though.
I would love if Tecmo or someone else would make a survival horror style game with youkai where you can only defeat the various spooks using traditional folkloric methods.

I agree with your analysis on every point except lamenting the loss of durability. Durability is antithetical to the idea behind Familiarity, and it didn't serve much of a purpose.

PvP in BB is about ringing the bell and waiting for people to come to you, rather than invading random victims.

The trick weapons were awesome, confirmed for being a Chikagefag.

Chikage was good for PvP fake outs and a few bosses, but any one who designs a character build around it is either a weaboo or trying too hard to be unique.

When I played the Alpha I never allowed anything to completely break. I'd always swap it out or use a whetstone.
When equipment broke did it actually disappear or did it just become unusable?

Why would playing the only bloodtinge weapon in the game make me hate the game? Like the sawspear, the saw cleaver, the kirk hammer, the… whatever the greatsword was called basically all had the same 2 modes "slow and fast". The tonitrus and the bloodletter didn't even have a second mode and just gave itself a buff.
It was horribly underutilized.

If I remember correctly it would be in a broken state that made the damage virtually useless. I think the weapon was still usable, but it's been a long time and I'm probably wrong.

Because the trick move for Chikage was the worst in the game. The other weapons on the other hand have fucking awesome transformation combo attacks. Your description of "fast mode and slow mode" tells me you probably didn't know that the transformation itself is a unique attack that can be comboed. Not only that, but several weapons have hidden moves like a knock-back swing after a charged thrust (saw spear) or the over-shoulder fast swing after sheathing Ludwig's Holy Blade.

It's also worth noting that weapons transformation was less about "slow attack, high dps or fast attack, low dps" and more about the move sets. IE the horrendously OP charge on the two handed rifle spear, or the vertical left trigger attack on two handed LHB.

It really just took a moment to get used to. Once you understood that's how the game worked you adjust and play around it, but what it did for the game's pace and how you played was huge. It means getting hit from behind can actually be a threat, and back attacks are a really important thing in this since they give bonus damage and longer combos.
Having both camera angles as options would be fine but I don't think making the movement an option would work, since there's no reason for someone not to pick the safer option.

On the contrary, I actually think Durability is what Familiarity needs to be complete. The way it is now is a bit vanilla and basic, just "use this weapon, now it's better", only you don't even need to use the weapon, just equip it, so it doesn't encourage using both your weapons much at all. With Durability though, there would actually be somewhat of a challenge to building it up by sticking to the same weapon, kind of a "if you can use this weapon long enough, you will be rewarded" type deal.
A lot of the benefits coming from Durability seem a bit esoteric, but they have a big effect. It can make equipment types different to each other, acting in balance for that, give enemies new avenues for attacks, means you actually have to use both your equipped weapons and rewards the preparation from that, encourages fighting efficiently and can make drawn out fights more interesting and intense since repairing in those is difficult. Plus it works as a fair punishment for dying that can potentially force people to practice on what killed them and get better for it.

It didn't disappear and you could still use it, but it's damage was greatly reduced. I think it was something like 3/4 damage at half and 1/4 damage when at 0.

sorry, I meant to say
Bushido Bill

That or they were underwhelming much like the rest of the game, why would I want to combo when it actively is slower on everything but players.
Also "it's not about fast and slow I swear!"
Okay then lets look at the holy sword
R1 just for safety's sake
0.70x, 0.71x, 0.72x, 0.74x, 0.76x phys for 16 stamina a swing
Transformed R1
1.00x, 1.00x, 1.06x blunt for 36

yeah no, it's just fast attack slow attack on most every weapon

No casual would have gotten the first fucking boss, the game is still plenty challenging even with the changes.

This is why none of you fags will ever make games, because your first game would bomb because of all the dumb fuck ideas you idiots have.

Familiarity as it is now in the beta would benefit from the problem of determining whether keeping a weapon in proper shape for extended use and familiarity bonuses is worth it or not, however with the concept of durability come other problems, like availability of whetstones or other avenues of repair. If the repair items are too common, durability is superfluous. If they're too rare, familiarity is discarded altogether as the player will be forced to maintain a large collection of different weapons and swap out whenever one's durability gets too low. There would have to be a very finely tuned balance of repair availability for durability to be an engaging and interesting mechanic. Ideally it would play out as you've described, but I think the better solution would be to make familiarity decay over time and take longer to build up along with it not building up by simply equipping a weapon. Maybe even dying while using a weapon reduces the familiarity.
That way potential problems from durability are avoided while making familiarity a real mechanic to invest some amount of thought into.

Nigga the Saw Spear transformation-only combo absolutely fucks shit up in PvE and PvP. Really all the weapons have created combo attacks except maybe the Kirkhammer.

You really didn't experiment with it and use it to the full advantage available.

90% of players never beat the first level of ANY game whether it is hard or easy. Go ask Valve, see the Half-Life 2 stats.

Great* combo attacks. Fucking autocorrect.

No I did, there's a reason I said most not all.
As opposed to what randomly generated combo attacks.

...

Repair items in the Alpha were at a fairly comfortable level, outside of one area at the end of the second level that gave out 6 whetstones and that after we beat it there was just replaying the game. There was always one of each in the boss arena so you could retry as well. Offering things to get more helped with keeping loot relevant alongside the other items, and if they were available to buy in the shop it would give the game a midlevel expense it sorely needs, since early on gold isn't necessary and later on soul matching and reforging require crazy amounts of gold. Generally two weapons was enough too, since whetstones fixed all equipped weapons and if it came to it the reduction wasn't too severe until it got empty. Besides, Durability can be a factor regardless of how many repair items you have. Fighting in long battles without being prepared, like Withered Grass and Yokai would mean you had to improvise or look for a moment to use one, and honestly it'd feel cool as hell fighting tooth and nail through a big battle and emerging victorious with everything in pieces.

Familiarity decaying is an interesting idea, and how I actually thought it was going to originally work, but on thinking about it, the max benefits of it only come from when it's full, as opposed to how Durability's penalties come gradually, which would make it a bit more of a hassle when going in and out of full strength, and especially when you want to use a weaker weapon for soul matching. Plus I think that would also lead to people still only focusing on one weapon, since swapping would make the other weaker until you swapped back and built it up again, making a cycle. Also rip in pieces Soul Release talismans.

See above you, but really yeah you can create some nice combos once you know all the tricks and hidden attacks.

So, after playing a metric shitton of both versions of the game, I wrote a guide detailing a bunch of the things I found out as well as addressing a lot of common questions of the kind not immediately obvious. It was wrote with the intention to encourage people to find out more stuff for themselves by shedding light on some of the lesser known more interesting things. I originally posted it on your older sister, but I want to help as many people as possible with it, so I wanna post it here too. Fair warning, it's pretty long and a real ass guide.

pastebin.com/VEHby7kd

How do I gain access to the twilight version of the first mission?

It alternates every day.

Damn.

The only thing I am worried about is that the UI showing 5 of the little green dudes per category means that there might only be 5 main missions and then however many side missions and then twilight reskins. I really hope it has more content than that at launch.

google William Adams you stupid fuck

If you read the Amrita Memories it mentions the Kodama are separate per region. There'll be new ones to find to get the blessings/elixir cap increases for each region you go to. I've heard the devs say there'll be I think 20-30 main missions along with about 100 side missions.

Oh thank god.

How do you access the hidden tearoom? Are the only downloads for the 2 bosses?

As far as I know you can't access the tearoom and there are only two downloads.

I feel as if I've been mission something this whole beta.
There IS just two main missions, a side mission, their twilight counterparts and Muneshige, right?

missing*
jesus christ, fuck me.

Yep, that's all.

phew, alright then

We cant let em take the beta down. I'm not done with it yet.

no thanks, jew

Yes, they do. Depletes all your Ki and puts you into the Exhausted state. They also steal some of your Amrita.
Usually seems to happen after you've been putting yourself into Exhausted. Like when you're swinging like a wild retard at them in hopes of finishing them off before they can escape.

Who is this demon demon?

I agree with every change you listed except for the removal of Ki Pulse bonus on the low stance dodge. At the very least, low stance should make attacks easier to cancel with dodge because it's meant to deliver the most fast paced style of combat, but that feature was instead included in mid stance for some reason (e.g. when you dodge immediately after an attack, you see a blue trail on the character).

Another thing that I find really odd is how I frequently get caught up in an enemy's attack during a dodge in mid stance. It seems that low stance allows you to block an attack if you're caught in a dodge. Don't know if that's just me, but I feel like there's something off about it.

Other things I would like to see improved is 8-way dodging, and higher range and angle on lock-on toggle. Unfortunately, I blew my load too soon and sucked the game's dick on the survey. Wish I could go back to amend that.

They better not change it in the full game.

I can't tell, did you play the Alpha? Cause these changes really went a big way in removing a bit of the satisfaction and skill ceiling of the overall game, so I'm curious what makes you agree with the changes they made. Low stance already does allow you to cancel attacks easily with dodge, due to the attacks and dodges having low Ki cost as well as being much faster. Low stance having Dodge Pulse just meant spamming dodge attacks could last twice as long, which could make Ki management too easy for the damage it did. Without it and even without Combo Pulse it would still be just as fast and useful. The dodge with afterimages you're talking about isn't something specific to a stance. That always happens when you dodge after an attack in any stance. It's not faster either, but I believe it does give more iframes.

The game says that low stance allows you to keep your guard up as you move, so I think that is something specific to low stance as a way of making it more focused on evasion.

8-way dodging might be ok, but I'm not sure I see the need because of the different ways dodges work based on weapon and stance, and running can cover those angles. More lock on range would be cool though I guess.

Who is this thick chick?

I agree with the change that running out of Ki no longer makes you completely vulnerable, and you have to be hit instead. The way it worked before was just frustrating and hard because of the wrong reasons. Also, the removal of durability improved the pacing of the game; it's less time spent on menus, and you don't have to keep trash as spare equipment.

Then maybe they should have nerfed the damage for low stance, and make it so that low stance is useful mostly for frame advantage to initiate a combo, or when enemies run out of Ki, because any attack stunlocks them at that point. The thing is, low stance should be the most mobile and "cancelable" of all stances, which bring me to my next point:
This isn't true. Try doing an attack in low stance and dodge right after. You won't get the same blue trail effect that you get from mid stance. It should have been mid stance that allows you to keep your guard up at all times (as the game tells you, it's the best stance for blocking), and low stance that should have the most iframes. The way it is now, it doesn't make sense and is counter-intuitive.

Omnidirectional dodging is always better, try playing the first Dark Souls and Dark Souls 3 and you'll see what I mean. It's much better for trying to get behind an enemy, as well as the tracking when doing a rolling attack.

I dunno, some random cosplayer?

Then of course, there's this autist who's really good at action games.

How does he walk around with his huge fucking balls of pure tamahagane?

Personally I don't see it being for the wrong reasons at all. Before it was as simple as anyone taking an action they didn't have the Ki for would get staggered afterwards. It gave a fair penalty you could potentially avoid through timing, as well as exploit on enemies at some cases. It also helped you improve and removed just mashing an enemy to death, which you can do now as long as you don't get hit. It even worked as a warning to let you know when you run out of Ki. Now to people that pay less attention to their Ki it will feel like you get punished for being hit by being hit over and over, rather than being punished for running out of Ki by being hit.
As far as the time Durability took for using the items, it was honestly barely a factor. The item took as long as any other, and going to it from the menu took about a second, less so if you had it on a shortcut. Plus having two weapons would cover you in most cases and you generally could get weapons on par with the ones you were using so it wasn't a case of being forced to downgrade.

It was less about the damage and more about how safely you could deal the damage. But nerfing the damage would remove the hit and run element from it which is a big part of the stance's role. The other stuff you're saying is what low stance is already capable of doing, if something is doing low stance attacks on your guard you have to get outta there since they beat your next attack's startup. although high stance can be more for damage in big openings. It's far and away the most mobile.

I checked it out and damn, you're right about the trail thing, my bad. To be honest though, I've always more assumed that it came with a bonus as well because of the effect. Low stance's dodges are still faster and more effective for evasion and counterattacking though, it's maybe a case of them throwing mid stance a bone. Mid stance is best for blocking because you can continue to recover Ki while moving with your guard up. Being able to block out of dodges wouldn't encourage blocking, it would encourage dodging since it's on the whole safer, which is why it's on low stance.

Omnidirectional dodging isn't really necessary I feel because running and sprinting fills that role. The problem is that still facing the enemy makes running too safe and easy to cheese enemies out, while also making revenants less fun to fight since they can do it too now. The enemies and system just wasn't designed for it.

Mind's Eye absolutely destroys this guy and bat bitch.

Finally beat the Honorabu Duel. Took me a full 10 heals but I did it.

How exactly does Mind's Eye work? I find the description a bit confusing, and I don't seem to dodge like the movie shows. Is it a matter of timing?

Time it the way the movie shows and you'll understand. It basically gives the later frames of your low stance dodge more invincibility, and then an attack boost if you dodge with them. I have a little bit in that pastebin guide I posted where I explain all the more esoteric skills, but for Mind's Eye, I feel it's all just in the movie, so try to replicate that timing.

I'm a bit confused on this one too. Is it just a single tap of the dodge button? Do I time it according to when I will get hit?

It's just a single dodge. The skill is essentially just an improvement to your dodge, where normally you would get punished for dodging you instead stay invincible, get a cool little animation, and then an attack buff if you learned it. The video is just someone dodging early so that the attack comes at the end of his dodge where the extra iframes from Mind's Eye are applied. Not sure if I'm explaining it well, but it's easy to think of it as just an increase to the iframes of your low stance dodge.

Thanks, that makes sense. Do you know if it's just on backwards dodging or if side dodges can get it too?

I know the game uses level and item scaling for co-op, but at a certain level do you stop pairing up with new guys?

Nope. Even level 50+ I got paired with people on the first mission at the first shrine in starting gear.

It can be really jarring watching that happen after playing for so long. Glad I learned the frustration gesture from the tanuki just for shit like this.

Also thanks, I see how it's supposed to work now. Getting the timing down is gonna be weird however, since I'm not used to intentionally dodging early.

Side dodges get it too.

Do you unlock the Hidden Teahouse if you complete the twilight missions?

If you time your dodge so that it ends right as an enemy attack is about to connect you get extra invincibility frames, plus if you upgrade it like I did you can get a damage boost afterwards.

There's a tanuki in this game.

Not that I know of. I've run every mission multiple times, and I am at level 58 (It costs 900,000 Amrita for my next level), but the hidden teahouse is still greyed out for me. I think it's probably not unlock-able in the beta or it is an extremely stupid and obscure unlock condition.

I guess it's only available in the actual game then.

Yep. He's hiding in a chest on the Twilight version of Isle of Demons. Pops out with his ballsack over his head like a hood then copies your character 's equipment and does a gesture. If you repeat the gesture, he gets flustered and attacks, giving you a new gesture when he dies.

it's like you're losers.

This isn't exactly right. Doing the gesture he does makes him happy and he drops a bunch of stuff with a cute wave and no fight, along with the Overjoyed gesture. If you do the wrong one, then he gets angry and fights you, and winning gets you the Frustrated gesture.

Strange. Perhaps I got the gesture mixed up then, since I swear he did the "oh" pose with the elbow sticking out.

Maybe it was the other Nioh pose. There's a few gestures that look pretty similar to each other but he likes it when you do the same thing as him since he's "just a prank bro": the yokai.

>>>/gay/

No I mean cause it's a tanuki!

BETA'S STILL UP, FAGS

Playing with a friend was cool, and a lot easier against the turbo paralisys bitch on Twilight.
I find it nice that they made two different kinds of coop.
Katana master race: go Iai or go home.

Oh, so that was why I randomly got Frustrated when i was being gangraped by a couple of Onis and a skeleton. I fell down the hole in the roof another two times after I dispatched them.

Pretty sure the wanderers will just be there to fuck your shit up a-la invaders. Though this time, it seems that when you invade you won't have the luxury of choosing where you end up.

I actually meant not only being able to be summoned as a phantom but also being able to match up in Yokai Realm with a Companion, the mode with a revive bar.

I have no fucking clue what you're talking about. How do you initiate that kind of co-op?

It is also in the Toori Gate, the first option is Yokai Realm with a Companion, and the other is Totally not Dark Souls mode. If you see "become a wanderer" and "become a visitor" you picked the wrong choice.

Maybe if you would have shut up and lurked for a while you wouldn't look like such a retard

No one really knows for sure what Wanderers will be, but I think the director might have ruled out Souls-style invasions at some point. The only thing we know for sure is that it'll be cool as hell. Can't not be with a name like "Become a Wanderer"

I just tested it out, that's pretty sweet, a genuine co-op mode for the whole game with a friend, no need to constantly summon or repeat missions.

Yeah it's a really neat addition, the co-op options are pretty sophisticated and varied which makes it really enjoyable.

Jaquio had a hard life.

Big skeleton or little skeleton?

Small one with a spear if I recall correctly. Doesn't really do much damage but it doesn't help when you have a couple of Onis in a small house.

So everyone, which buddy is your favorite?
I think I spent the most time with Daiba but I think I like Kato the best.

I liked Ushi, it heals the damage you take in a fight against a big skeleton if you make one mistake. And it gives a guard ki enhancement.
I also liked Kato, because Ki regeneration.

Sharkbro is best. Made my early hours in the Alpha far more manageable.

What's Geralt doing in a hot tub with The Watchers?

My old man once told me you have to go where the money is.
Maybe hunting monsters in Europe wasn't cutting it anymore, so he decided to go to Japan.

Firewoof and birb were my favourites, firewoof for all those Ki buffs so you could be really offensive when fighting and a Living Weapon that was great at being sustained, and birb had the cheaper evasion for the same thing and that Living Weapon that filled ridiculously fast. You pretty much got one every two fights.

I found myself using the bird the most. The Living Weapon charged so fast that I forget I could pretty much spam it during a mission, and the bonuses to Ki and dodging were definitely handy.

I'm interested to see what this game will look like on the PS4Pro. The beta managed to get 60fps pretty consistently, but I'd imagine the better hardware would help bump the resolution up more often while still running at that speed. I was hoping it would get a mention at the Sony conference today.

Example of getting fisted by the turtle dude.

...

Or even better you gain a kappa Guardian Spirit.

Is there a list of the differences between them?

Here's a semi-complete chart.

I use Bull Bro cause I'm a shitter who likes high defense.

Implication #1: We might get other wooden weapons other than just the bokken.

Implication #2: There's going going to be a raven guardian spirit and it might effect ranged damage.

Raiken also got Treasure Sense (treasure shows up on your compass) and about 10-15% extra close combat damage against Yokai.

That first implication is kinda reaching, but if you watched the skill videos, it shows that you actually can get wooden versions of all the weapons reaching.

It's pretty likely we'll end up meeting Magoichi and getting Yatagarasu ourselves though. The Ishida Masamune also talks about Mitsunari's Guardian Spirit, Izuna.

...

I hope we get a tengu set and a komuso set.

I could actually see this happening.

I am conflicted.

However….

I don't want them to nerf it to the point of the tree being useless…

I suspect the two demos were rather vertical slice in their content. I don't think that the things that appear to be overpowered in the demos will feel that way in the full game.

Hand Cannon a best.

I think fixing the numbers on them would be the best way to do it. Getting 3 traps on 1 Jutsu equip for example is too much since it lets you stack 9 of them. Even just taking it down to 2 makes it 6 maximum if you focus on it, which is solid but a little less crazy. The Paralysis weapon buff was really good, especially on Axe and 2kat, and you got 5 of the damn things per equip. Also, people won't want to hear this but they should pretty heavily nerf the Unlimited ___ effects. Apparently some were getting up to 80% of it, which is just insane. There's enough ways to increase and refill your ammo and jutsus without something like that.

Bump for any final thoughts now that it's over.

10/10 already personal GOTY. It can't come out soon enough.

I enjoyed my time with the demo. I'll be buying the full game.

Assuming that they don't seriously fuck something up between now and the full version it'll be a day one purchase for me.

I really like it. It's like a weird blend of Demon's Souls and Ninja Gaiden that I never knew I wanted. I just wish we had a release date more specific than 'late 2016.'

Spear + axe is the best weapon combo tbh, katanafags get out

A best what?
is that supposed to be an adjective?

In my first playthrough I'm considering becoming an Axe Ninja, assuming I can't be a monk

Go for it user, using Cloud Crush to fling enemies off of ledges never gets old.

I quite like all of the weapon movesets personally, so I don't think I'll settle on just one or two in the full game. It's nice that you get minor benefits to health/Ki/etc for upgrading each of the weapon-focused stats, which makes me think that they must have wanted to people to at least try every weapon archetype once.

Here's hoping for some kind of fist weapon archetype in the full thing, though I'll be getting the game regardless (unless they really mess it up between now and release).

Is this your first day on the internet? Are you lost on your way to reddit?

You reek of newfag.

Go ask /a/.

You just need Ninjutsu skill tree unarmed damage bonus, a good glove with unarmed damage bonus and a shit ton of Onmyouji points.

I'm hoping for monk "armor" (even if it's a one off thing like the Archer outfit) or at least a ring staff.
One thing I forgot to try during the demo, can you summon your living weapon into your bare hands?

Nope, you need a weapon equipped to be able to use buffs or Living Weapon. Bit of a shame, but maybe there'll be actual fist weapons. A monk outfit is pretty likely, and with 24 weapon types we might get a staff too.