SallyNasty's Game Club - Lords of the Fallen! Spoilers open! There are those among us who beat in time!

I'm done. Not that I finished the game, but I'm finished with it. It's just weighted much too heavily on the frustrating side of the frustrating/fun scale.

Sorry, Sally!

I haven't gave it much thought as to why exactly, but I'm struggling to latch onto this one myself.

It's not the most challenging. It's not the most polished. It has failed entirely to stir any intrigue in its characters, its world, its story.

Honestly. Coming to this after Bloodborne hurt it tremendously. That's no fault of the developer as this did release first and Bloodborne was headed up by a legendary developer. It's unfortunate.

I'll push on farther. It's not a difficult game, yet, so I'll see what comes next. I'm at a bit of a loss for what to play at present, anyway.

What a great idea, a book club for a game and what an inspired choice of game!

I deleted this one a while back, maybe around the time Witcher 3 came out. Got stuck on tee third boss and said screw it. It has flashes of a solid game and this thread has me tempted to dive in again.

So, I definitely haven't stalled out on the game. I am enjoying it a lot but have had some RL things pop up(positive, for sure, but time consuming) and coupled with my OCD kicking in and making me obsessively play Evolve and trying to 1k it has really slowed me down. I will get the 1k in this though!

SallyNasty wrote:

So, I definitely haven't stalled out on the game.

Me neither. I think I'm a tiny bit behind, but I should have time to finish it up before the week is over.

I'm in the Catacombs. It's got some tight corridors with shielded baddies. I am dealing with them just fine thanks to the Gauntlet. I have it upgraded with a rune that slams the ground and knocks enemies over. Another shoots an orb that leavitates in the air to continually shoot foes with bolts of energy. Without such I think this bit would be rough and unpleasant.

I've got some better weapons now, too, so my damage output has improved at long last.

I kind of stalled. Not like, thinking of quitting stall, but hit a hard part stall. I defeated the Beast, did a bit more exploring and then the smith took me to the Ancient Labyrinth.

It's, um, difficult. Weirdly, these mages aren't hard. Those guys are pushovers. But every other enemy seems to have a massive health pool and hits hard. What I've been able to explore of the area isn't huge, but it's filled with a bunch of tough enemies. If there is a second checkpoint in there somewhere, I haven't found it yet, so I've been backtracking a lot just so I don't lose XP.

Good spot for grinding I guess, but it gets tedious feeling like you can't make any progress. I'm not sure whether I can leave and come back. I should look that up.

Garden Ninja wrote:

I kind of stalled. Not like, thinking of quitting stall, but hit a hard part stall. I defeated the Beast, did a bit more exploring and then the smith took me to the Ancient Labyrinth.

It's, um, difficult. Weirdly, these mages aren't hard. Those guys are pushovers. But every other enemy seems to have a massive health pool and hits hard. What I've been able to explore of the area isn't huge, but it's filled with a bunch of tough enemies. If there is a second checkpoint in there somewhere, I haven't found it yet, so I've been backtracking a lot just so I don't lose XP.

Good spot for grinding I guess, but it gets tedious feeling like you can't make any progress. I'm not sure whether I can leave and come back. I should look that up.

I got to that Labyrinth but couldn't get past the locked door on the first level so I gave up and continued exploring, I'm currently bit behind as I'm having trouble finding the Rogue Lord, the last boss I killed was the Guardian.

Fastmav347 wrote:

I got to that Labyrinth but couldn't get past the locked door on the first level so I gave up and continued exploring, I'm currently bit behind as I'm having trouble finding the Rogue Lord, the last boss I killed was the Guardian.

I briefly got stuck at I think the same part. There is that lever at the entrance to the labyrinth, that you have to pull to get the the maze to spin and open a path. If you pull it again it will open another path. I haven't gotten further than that though.

The labyrinth is the DLC. I'm pretty sure you can go back later.

obirano wrote:

The labyrinth is the DLC. I'm pretty sure you can go back later.

Good to know. Honestly, I'm not sure why I was concerned in the first place. Given how the entire rest of the game is designed, not being able to go back would be super weird.

I'm interested in people's thoughts on the game. As a huge Dark Souls fan, I bought this game at launch, played it and it didn't really click with me. Good to see others getting enjoyment out of it

I killed everything that moved and explored those catacombs until it stopped being confusing. I got better at the shield break, too, which was a bonus. And I found some Cold Blood armor which is pretty good. Along with my Protector daggers, and at long last an improved buckler, my Ranger looks like someone not to be messed with.

I think I'm about to fight a boss. Nothing else is alive and I opened a massive gate into a monster prison. Saved it not too far from there for next time.

The lore diaries have been a tad more interesting. A tad.

Completed! Total playtime 16:36 ended up level 58 Paladin, I'm glad I played this, I would consider this game a hidden gem

Fastmav347 wrote:

Completed! Total playtime 16:36 ended up level 58 Paladin, I'm glad I played this, I would consider this game a hidden gem

Dang. well done.

That finish time makes it real clear how much longer I take to play games than most people. My play clock is at like 25 hours right now. Pretty sure that includes a bunch of time that the game was suspended while I watching Hulu or whatever, but even so, I'm like halfway, so total playtime is gonna be way more than 16 hours.

Dang, this game does a good job of making encounters you probably don't have the stats for feel incredibly unfair. The DLC is especially terrible about this.

The enemies in this tiny hallway dungeon have tons of health, dodge everything and hit really hard. The mages are the only things that die remotely easily... unless they use this flash of light attack that leaves you stunned for 5 seconds. The archers have grenades that wipe out all your mana. I found one enemy that is all but invisible (basically just a ghostly head) wielding what I think is a great axe (which is invisible), and while you can lock onto him, he doesn't have a health bar. And he's positioned literally right next to one of those stun-locking mage bastards. Without the health bar, I actually thought maybe he was a summon and I had to kill the mage first. And to top all of this off, like 80% of the time when I fight my way back to where I die, my XP ghost is just missing.

So, yeah, I'm gonna jump back into the main game for a while, to make some progress.

Edit:
DLC and main game are done.

Final thoughts?

ClockworkHouse wrote:

Final thoughts?

Mixed, I guess.

I like the art direction and character design. As much as people seem to hate the story, I think it's fine actually. It actually decent UX and pause (!!!). In general, I like the combat model. I like the addition of the gauntlet, and while the magic system is more constrained that the Souls games, I think it works.

The enemies being deadly is fine, in theory, but then they put in enemies with ridiculous reach, hits that wipe your stamina in one go, massive amounts of health, and then make you fight them in a hallway. Listen, fighting things in hallways sucks in pretty much all games, but it's especially terrible in a game like this.

Yes, they actually throw all of those things at you at once in a few places.

Spoiler:

Near the end of the game, Antanas' men turn on you, attacking on sight. You know those ghost enemies from the DLC I was complaining about? They seem to basically be ghost versions of Antanas' knights, only the knights seem to have more health.

The knights are the toughest non-boss enemies in the game, which really makes me wonder why the hell I'm running around, taking out Rhogar Lords, when they are clearly capable.

This also means that the one-safe Citadel is now a death trap, where you get attacked as soon as you open the door. Normal doors you can at least plan for, but not the area transitions. Area transition -> dead. Fun. Not very many save spots either, so I hope you like running up stairs.

One of those transitions, the front entrance where the knights tell you to buzz off earlier in the game, puts you in a stairwell, in a thin hallway, and send a shielded axe wielding knight at you. And you basically have to fight him in the hallway, because if you roll past him, up the stairs and around the corner into the main room, a rogue will join him. I was able to get past him, but couldn't get to a save point, so I gave up and tried the back entrance.

The camera is awful. Any time your not locked on, the camera wants to move itself behind you. In a different game, that might be fine; in a souls-alike, it means death. If you need to retreat, you basically have to keep the lock, and hope you can find the door while walking backwards. Enemies that just disappear and shake the lockon before rematerializing (another complaint about this game)? Well, you're looking at a wall now, and the enemy probably just stabbed you in the back.

All in all, uh, I guess I'm glad I played it. I'm really unlikely to go back to NG+ though.

I'm glad someone else is making games in that genre, but they missed a lot of what makes the Souls games work so well. Not that many individual things, I guess -- better camera, fluid area transitions, tuning to the combat model, especially around stun locks and hitboxes, and for heaven's sake, less combat in hallways -- but they add up to be a pretty big deal.

I'm curious to see what they do in a sequel, but honestly, unless make some pretty big improvements, replaying a From game is probably a better option.

I might not finish this. I'm stuck at the lost brothers fight. I feel like my build just isn't right for them and there's not much I can do about that at this point. I pumped strength and vitality so I could wear heavy armor and swing big weapons. Unfortunately, the lost brothers are too quick and the windows of attack are too narrow. I think with time and patience I can probably get a flow going and win, but I honestly just don't know if I care enough. Is there some easy trick I can exploit?

I had a similar build so I feel your pain. I found that the big 2 handed weapons are far too slow for the game, so switch to 1 handed weapon, use your lightning and fire resistance shards, also make sure you have runes equiped, a decent luck rune can boost weapon damage by 50 points. I took out lightning dude and saved the fire guy for last. I think there is a way to enchant your shields to give you resistance against fire, lightning etc. but I never bothered to look it up.

Edit: stick with it, thats the last hard fight in the game, the final boss is cake walk

Hmm, no way to backtrack and prepare for that fight, which is another problem with the game. So I'll keep this to stuff that doesn't require that.

Try switching to medium armor. The speed may be more important than poise for this fight.

if you happen to have the DLC and already did it, the Consecrated armor is great. Decent armor and high magic, fire and lightning resist. Otherwise, choke down some resistance shards.

Use a quicker weapon. I was using the worhiper's scythe and a staff most of the game, but I found a high damage sword called spine slasher that was awesome.

Another thing, which I didn't realize until late into the game: you can swing your weapon without dropping your shield first and with the right timing, can get a 2 or 3 hit combo, then immediately bring the shield back up.

I don't recall ever if there is an anvil there, but if so, tweak your runes. Maybe some fire runes in your armor.

There is a portal right before the boss, if you take that there is a save shard where you can refill your potions, not sure if there is an anvil there. (if you zone in and out couple times you can completely refill all the potions)

I haven't shelved the game, but I got way behind in my progress with two horrid weeks at work. Also, Street Fighter V filled the gaps I did have. Lords hasn't been as rewarding or as enjoyable as I had hoped. It is neither awful, mind, just a middling experience that I don't look for unless I have time to burn.

Sorry that I flunked out. I was enjoying the group discussion when I was keeping pace.

If I can see it out in a timely fashion this week, I'll post my belated report.

I stalled out pretty early in but have every plan to go back to this game. Quite liked it and there are a lot of easy cheevs still to grab. Thanks for playing!

Well, I beat it. Big thanks to fastmav and garden ninja for the tips and the thread in general for support. I definitely would not have finished this game without this thread. I think I enjoyed it overall but there was a lot of frustration. I've only played a handful of hours of Dark Souls so this game is the most I have ever delved into this genre, as small as it is. I don't think they were able to execute on the mechanics as well as they really needed to for a game that puts so much emphasis on execution. I still like a lot about the game. I apparently suck at exploration, though. I finished the game with 6 health potions after having given up 2 for quests. I have a feeling I missed some. I also only did maybe 1 or 2 side quests. I was never able to really figure out what to do for some of them and I was going guideless, for the most part.

Wembley wrote:

I finished the game with 6 health potions after having given up 2 for quests. I have a feeling
I missed some. I also only did maybe 1 or 2 side quests. I was never able to really figure out what to do for some of them and I was going guideless, for the most part.

Oh yeah, you missed a bunch. Each class starts with a specific amount. I think I started with 4. I gave up 2 to quests and ended with 14. There were a few in those shard portals, or dimension portals or whatever they're called, but most I found from exploring the dungeons.

Sounds like annoying feedback loop: not enjoying much, so don't explore much, which ends up making the game harder.

But yeah, I agree they never quite nailed the mechanics.

I think Clock mentioned upthread (paraphrasing), that while this seems like it should be a great entry point into the genre due to generally better UX, it actually kind of fails at that because the poor tuning, relative to the From games.

I started with 3 as a Paladin and by end of the game I had 7 after giving two up, sounds like I missed alot and I thought I was pretty good on exploration.

That was the thing for me as well. I thought I was actually pretty good at exploration. I'm not sure where I missed places to go off the beaten path. I was certainly lost enough that I feel I found a lot of stuff.

What did people think of the story? I feel like I was able to follow most of it until the very end when I fought the judge. Was the judge antanas? When did that happen? I think I missed something there. Also, the ending sucked. They just do a slideshow of sentences that might change depending on what you did during the game. I thought it was really underwhelming considering there was at least once during the story where they were emphasizing you should make your choice carefully because whatever you do will totally affect your ending (with the super rune or whatever it was called). I ended up giving the rune to the smith and then at the end there was just a line that said "and he gave the rune away because balance or whatever...". Very disappointing. I should have just slapped it on my armor or something and maybe then the judge would have been easier?

I had looked it up. If you put the rune on your weapon (which one, I have several?) you lead the Rhogar to victory, and on the armor (same question!) humanity. (or maybe vice versa, whatever). Giving it up brings balance.

I think the Judge was supposed to be Antanas, but no idea how that ties into the story, it just kind of happened. I don't remember any note about him being a descendant of one of the 3 Judges, and anyway, they were human. But you just get back to the Citadel and everyone is either calling you a traitor and attacking you, or curled up on the floor and rocking in the fetal position, and then Antanas is a monster now for reasons.

The traitor thing I actually found really annoying. Like, I'm only fighting because y'all got me out of prison. And the only indication of why they thought I was a traitor was one dude saying "the god still lives". Um, yes, but how do you know that? and Adyr never showed up to fight me so how am I supposed to kill him? I guess Antanas turned on me and convinced his people before turning into... whatever he turned into, but again, no clue as to why.