Just hand this IP to the Hi-Fi Rush devs already…
mohab
joined 7 months ago
There already is a Steam page and the description says co-op action RPG.
I mean, perspective matters, I suppose: you could use isometric/top down and 3rd person to make a distinction between PoE and HZD, but then again I don't play either, or ARPGs in general, so that's as nuanced of a take as I could have on this.
Well, I'll be damned… this is looking more and more like a proper action game. Ima give it a shot on release.
God damn, I wish it was a fighter, but I'll take an ARPG. Will give it a shot when it comes out 👐
I'm glad Suda51 is still making new IPs, but I'm kinda over his gameplay? It needs to evolve somehow… like, melee here looks a lot like Killer Is Dead, which was serviceable, but not great.
Of course, everything else is captivating, as it always is, but I'll need more from the gameplay to get invested in this.
Tag fighters aren't my thing and ASW are headed in the opposite direction of what I want from a fighting game, but I'm happy for them! They came a long way and more or less stuck to their guns, which's admirable.
I'm happy to go down with Plus R, P4AU, and Under Night though.
This reads like a crutch though and reflects part of the problem: games are being treated like products and not carefully curated, cohesive experiences, which's why its consistent inclusion everywhere is being criticized.
If everyone is using the same crutch, no one should be surprised if people start complaining they're seeing the same crutch everywhere instead of interesting new ideas.
Didn't Furi do this in 2016? I'd be surprised if it was the first game to tie parrying to health gain either. In the slew of action games that came out in the PS2 era, someone must've done it.
That's not it though. No one complained about parrying in Bayonetta or Ninja Gaiden II because this is where the mechanic belongs. But when you start seeing it in Resident Evil or Doom, or even new IPs like Slitterhead, you have to start questioning if combat designers are being pushed to ride a trend or if they're being lazy and using parrying as a crutch.
I think with parrying specifically, it's frustrating to see it become a crutch for games to add combat depth, or pop up as the central mechanic everywhere at the expense of exploring new combat ideas.
Dishonored is obviously not a bad example of parrying, so I'll give a bad one I just encountered recently: Slitterhead. The game has plenty of cool combat mechanics, but it repeatedly puts you in scenarios where parrying becomes either your only option or your quickest road to victory, which trivializes the rest of its cool combat ideas.
I think games like Ninja Gaiden II or Bayonetta perfectly handled parrying: it's a tool that unlocks combat depth, but not the only one, and combat is still fun without it. Not to say anything is wrong with a game like Sekiro, but to see games blindly copy this design philosophy is disappointing.
Well, none because favorites are super subjective, but I'll shout out my favorites because no one else did:
- The Wonderful 101
- Bayonetta
- Ninja Gaiden II
- God Hand
- Viewtiful Joe
- Catherine
- Gravity Rush
- Guilty Gear XX Accent Core Plus R
- Under Night In-Birth II Sys:Celes
- Persona 4 Arena Ultimax
- Crimzon Clover: World EXplosion
- Ketsui: Kizuna Jigoku Tachi
Ima give Sekiro another try. So I admit the first time I maybe didn't give it enough time (stopped at the snake bit) but that's because the rhythm-based, parry-focused gameplay felt boring and too one dimensional.
Ima play a bit longer this time and see if unlocking new techniques makes any difference. I'm not optimistic, but I wanna explore something new for a change, and Sekiro can't be the worst option.
Fuck From Software's offense though… it's boring as shit. I hope Sekiro eventually ends up feeling different.