Felt like mentioning a few games I've played recently.
I... don’t know what to say about the game really, and i’ve seen too many people do great pieces writing about it. Really don’t feel like I can add to the conversation.
It’s a wonderfully quirky game, but I must admit the gameplay just hasn’t clicked for me yet. This is my first Yakuza game, mind you, so I suspect that really is all there is to it, I just need to figure out a good style for myself. Have not finished yet, in case you couldn’t tell. Planning on getting back into the game at a later date.
I’ll be the first to admit i’m pretty new to the series, my introduction was 4 Golden and I never played any SMT, let’s leave it at that, so take what I say with a grain of salt.
It really is a wonderful game, and an interesting contrast to 4. While I will say I preferred 4′s main villain, I still don’t fault the game for it. 5′s main villain works more as a symbol really, but they work very well as such. Far as the rest of the characters, i’m not going to go into comparisons between the two games. Really they just all work in my opinion.
The gameplay is prettier and spruced up, it’s funny really because the game has a lot of RPG elements I've never liked. Enemies return when you leave an area, you don’t recover MP/HP after combat (well, later there’s a method to regain a small amount but still), so it feels in essence you’re being bled dry, while it sticks this niggling idea in my head that I should grind as much as possible when I DO have resources to be strong enough for later (supposedly the grim reaper foe can pop up in Mementos if you spend too long, but I never encountered them in my playthrough).
Then outside of that, you got the whole time mechanic, you get two “actions” per day, sometimes only one, or even none on some story-based events. (although you can also shop around as a “free action” as it were). Buffing your stats, ironically doesn’t actually affect your combat skills (although some areas that buff your stats also reward you with currency), but they are required to perform some social links that do reward you with benefits from in-combat abilities for yourself or party members, to allowing yourself to create a daily item as a “free action” (that can actually be quite expensive, but doing more stuff in a day is always a plus!), along with the awesome character moments they lead to which is honestly the real prize /bleedingheart.
I love the moments, which is part of what makes it frustrating. I second-guess my every action, some actions (like going to the gym, which gives you a hp boost) fall by the wayside because dagnabbit, I want to upgrade all the social links! But I need to buff my stat, but where do i buff that stat, how can I best buff that stat, I can hang out with this person now but I can’t upgrade their social link, could I be upgrading it now had I done something else? Oh no! I was given the chance to read a book on a train as a free action, but i have no books! Or I had books, but it turns out they were about going to places I had already unlocked. It also means the idea of leaving a palace before finishing the second i’m in is a travesty, one that tried my darndest to avoid doing after the first. Not helping is that going into a palace or mementos consumes both daily actions, and in the case of mementos you can occasionally be “surprised” by another encounter one needs to do for a social link, but you can complete multiple quests in mementos at once! But how long do you save up the quests before doing them in one burst? AAHHH!
Ultimately, most of these worries will fall by the wayside once I get around to doing a second playthrough, since you get to keep your stats and i’ll have more then enough time to get to know all the social links, but that nagging feeling remains. And in spite of all i’ve said, the game still somehow works for me. I ended up giving all my characters SP bangle accessories over time. SP is king, with SP you can recover health AND do the moves you need to fight your way through areas. If you want to complete an area in one burst, recovering SP every round really slows down the bleed you get fighting through foes... Or you can be the phantom thief you’re meant to be and only fight when necessary while avoiding others. Course, then it’s a crapshoot whether you’ll be leveled up enough to take on the boss (or bosses in some cases), so do as you will.
Honestly i’m disappointed in myself for some of these “complaints”, it really is just me being sad that the game isn’t made just for me. I’m sure many Persona fans love the resource management and the strategy in planning out your actions for the day. And ultimately, to a degree I think I still enjoy it. I love the game. It really is more personal issues then issues in the mechanics/gameplay. Just felt like mentioning it nontheless. Hey, this is my blog after all XD.
Sci-Fi Souls! Wooh. I feel like giving a bit of advice to the game, even though i’m not great at it and haven’t even finished it yet. Still, maybe someone can learn from my mistakes. I’ll try to minimize spoilers like i did with the previous games, but there might be some vague allusions to plot. Also, note that i’ve been going with a slow, single-rigged weapon for most of the game, so I can’t give much combat advice for faster weapons.
First up, think Demon’s Souls rather than Dark when it comes to the safe zones for levelling up. There’s one per area, and you don’t find more but rather shortcuts that lead back to it. So keep your eyes out for those shortcuts, or your death will lead to a much longer backtrack then it needs to.
In general, similar to Souls remember to always move cautiously and keep your eyes open for enemies waiting in ambush (and in one case a hole in the ground that leads to your death... not that i’m bitter.) and alternative directions to go. Alternative directions hide rewards, better entryways that can turn an ambush against itself, shortcuts, or show you where a future shortcut or area may be (and yes, you do return to some older areas). If you don’t know which is the “main road” and which is the “alternative” one, don’t be afraid to turn back and give the other one a peek after strolling through it a bit.
If you’ve been following the game, you’ll probably already know with human enemies that dismembering limbs can get you items, from what I can tell you only get them by going for armored body parts, going for the unarmored areas may give you some scrap or lesser items, but if you want the whole limb, you need to go for the armored part (they say it just matters how much “damage the part has taken”, but if there’s a small chance you can get the whole limb even hitting an unarmored part, I haven’t been lucky enough yet.) Not only does going for the armored part do reduced damage, but it also decreases the stun effect your attacks have on an enemy. With a big weapon you can essentially stunlock a human enemy to death if you hit their unarmored part, but be ready to block or dodge their counterattack if you’re trying to get their gear (don’t stay back too long though, or you won’t have the energy needed to perform a dismember!)
Wearing an entire set of gear gives a buff, one I assume depends on the gear in question. I’ll admit, I haven’t experimented with my gear to find out exactly what the buff my set has actually does, but it’s there.
When you wield a large, heavy weapon like I do, it’s usually best to start off a battle with a charge attack (that is, leap at them and attack), it isn’t quite as damaging as a regular attack (it’s close though), and it consumes quite a bit more stamina, BUT it is a heck of a lot faster then a regular attack. Far too many times I found a foe could hit me as I was winding up with my bigass weapon and there wasn’t much I could do about it. Most of the time my character could power through thanks to hyperarmour, but the damage is there, and it’ll add up over time.
Dash attack and you can usually stunlock your foe long enough to kill, or at least do a large chunk of damage before you retreat or block. Alternatively you can try to play a bit more defensive, and just make sure you only attack after your foe has tried and failed to hit you, but with some faster foes (or maybe you’re taking on multiple and they just don’t leave a big enough opening) your attack is just THAT slow and they can just go again while you’re open. Honestly, I think just a tiny attack speed increase for the slower weapons wouldn’t be amiss. Not a massive one, but just a small tweak.
That being said, I might think this way because I haven’t mastered blocking, which the game does advice heavier rigs to do over dodging. Blocking is a little different from souls. First up, instead of slowing down stamina regen, it outright drains stamina, so you can only do it for a short period of time before needing to recharge. Also, there’s actually only a small window of time where your “block” can work against bigger attacks (about the only attack that i can block after that small window seems to be drone charges or similar small attacks) and leave them open for a counter. There’s no other “parry” button, you just need to time your block right. You can also “duck” or “jump” while blocking to avoid some attacks, although I've had limited experience with it so can’t judge how effective it is.
Weapons also all have separate “combos” of R1 and R2 presses. If there’s a menu where it tells you what those combos are I haven’t found them, so you should either look it up or just play around with the buttons and experiment. In the tips in the game menu it mentions timing the presses right in the combo also decreases stamina drain, which I might look into at some point, and you may wish to as well.
At a point in the game you’ll notice some green smog that seems to do damage to you. Honestly this was probably just me being silly, but in case someone else makes the same mistake note that it isn’t the smog perse as it is the blue gunk on the ground that is damaging you, if you be careful and dodge the gunk you won’t take damage. Wish i’d known that earlier...
Later in the game, there’s a robot enemy that has a “tail”, taking out the tail not only limits the foes actions, but gives you an item that can give your rig more power in exchange for a slot. If you’re like me you’ll struggle a lot through the area where this enemy is and collect a lot of them, you can actually sell them back at base for 1000 scrap each, which isn’t too bad.
That’s about all the advice I have for the moment, I've also got a few minor complaints.
That damn tiny gap in the second area tunnels that make you fall to your death, darn you! darn you!
There’s a robot enemy on wheels where the back wheel is it’s weak point. Charging this foe, even with it’s back turned, is a grave mistake as it turns nearly in an instant. It’s just a frustrating feeling that I can’t ambush these buggers, even with my dash attack you’re not fast enough and hit armor and, most likely, a nasty counterattack. Maybe it’s just me, but it feels kind of cheap (the main way to best them isn’t great either, mainly just strafing around them waiting for them to make the mistake of attacking and just smack ‘em in the back. You can’t execute bots anyway so there’s no benefit in attacking the armored parts from what I can tell (well, apart from when that part is it’s weapon anyway).
The third boss has three parts that annoy me. First up,locking is pretty impractical with them, all well and good, except when you attack an enemy you lock onto them, so i find myself having to delock every time i hit the bugger. In hindsight, maybe there’s something in the options menu that removes it though... I’ll have to check later.
Second, theres a point in this boss fight where you learn the annoyance of hitting enemies that spend most of their time above you, it’s really awkward trying to hit them, lockon doesn’t really work (once again, i found it easier to delock after every hit), and since my weapon’s combo is based around enemies being on the ground, i essentially have to pause after every attack to make sure he doesn’t try the second part of the combo, which will miss by a mile! Blaaaaargh.
Third, for a poor bugger like me who died multiple times to this boss, collecting the scrap is a bit awkward. You have a “load bar” when you’re collecting it, except it doesn’t seem to work properly when you drop down into the boss fight and doesn’t actually pick it up even when the bar finishes. A couple of times i’ve been smacked to the earth for the sin of trying to pick up my stuff before I started fighting him. Actually, speaking of, there seems to be some unavoidable falling damage just entering the boss arena when you fall in. Isn’t much, but it’s there. Seems like a bit of an oversight.
Oh! And not a complaint, but I noticed while trying to beat the boss that along the way i’d suddenly start regenerating a little health briefly and have no idea why. Just weird, I think it has happened elsewhere too. Maybe it is what my gear does? Except i’m pretty sure it does something else, and it isn’t consistent, a healing symbol pops up and i just start veeeery slowly healing.
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