2180: Action Unleashed

0180_001

I had a sudden and irrepressible urge for some Neptunia today, so I fired up the Neptunia game I was last working on: Hyperdimension Neptunia U: Action Unleashed. Having figured out that yes, it is indeed possible to stop the PlayStation TV from recognising accidental clicking of L3 or R3 as simulated touchscreen touches (which had previously made getting overexcited in this game somewhat hazardous, since I have a habit of clicking one or both of the sticks in when gripping the controller tightly) I decided to play it on the big screen. And I was reminded what an enjoyable game it is.

For those unfamiliar, Neptunia U, as I shall refer to it hereafter, is a collaborative, non-canonical entry in the Neptunia series (inasmuch as Neptunia even has a coherent canon, which is perhaps questionable) developed by both series creators Compile Heart and Senran Kagura developers Tamsoft. The latter's influence is very much evident in the game, since it plays rather like their other Vita game, Senran Kagura Estival Versus, right down to the characters' clothes getting ripped as they take damage.

Much like Senran Kagura, Neptunia U presents you with a series of missions to undertake, some of which are purely designed to challenge you and/or allow you to level up your characters, while others advance the plot. Neptunia U also throws a spanner in the works in its second chapter with "Irregular Quests", which generally have some sort of condition to you beating them rather than simply killing everything. The twist is that the game doesn't tell you what this objective is outright; you're expected to figure it out for yourself, though starting and quitting the mission does trigger a scene where the characters give you a few hints as to what you might want to do. Irregular objectives range from killing all of a specific type of enemy (while others respawn infinitely) to swapping characters in order to temporarily be able to deal damage to otherwise-invincible enemies.

Neptunia U's systems are fairly simple — like Senran Kagura, each character has both a fast, weak attack and a strong, slow attack as well as a couple of limited-use special moves. And, again, like its titty-ninja counterpart, the challenge is not necessarily in being able to perform these moves and combos — pretty much all of the combos in question run Square 4 or 5 times followed by Triangle — but in understanding the animations and movements involved in the abilities in order to deal damage most efficiently and clear levels quickly. Efficient performance results in bigger experience rewards at the conclusion of the level, as well as providing you with more Medals that drop from monsters. Collecting medals unlocks permanent stat boosts for the entire cast as well as new equippable items to boost (or, in some cases, deliberately penalise) their abilities.

Neptunia U is a game made for people who love the grind. It's not a particularly difficult game for the most part — at least its rather short, sub-6 hour story mode isn't; I'm yet to get into the substantial endgame involving the Neptral Tower dungeon — but in order to unlock everything and see everything, you'll need to grind a fair bit in various ways. You'll need to grind missions to gain enough experience to level up the characters. You'll need to grind specific missions in order to collect the enemy medals you need to unlock all the equipment. You'll need to grind specific partnerships of characters in order to raise everyone's Lily Rank to maximum — always the most time-consuming part of any Neptunia game, but pretty much everyone who calls themselves a fan somehow cannot resist this task every time it comes up — and you'll need to make sure said partnerships are levelled enough to clear the few character-specific missions throughout the game. In other words, if you're not up for a bit of grinding, this game will last you about 6 hours; if you are, however, it will push into substantial double-digit territory at the very least.

Mostly, I just like it because it's an enjoyable, simple brawler with quick, snappy levels and my favourite characters in the world smacking the shit out of all manner of different enemies. Of particular note is the game's implementation of the series' iconic "HDD" forms for the characters: in some of the mainline installments, these transformations didn't feel substantially more powerful than the characters' "human" counterparts, but here, their new movesets, animations and massively increased damage potential makes them feel as they should: earth-shatteringly powerful, cutting through enemies like butter. They are goddesses, after all.

I'm going to try and bash out the rest of the story mode in the next few days and then investigate the endgame. Whether it will crush my soul like the Lily Rank grind in Hyperdevotion Noire remains to be seen, but it's Nep-Nep, so of course I'm going to see it through to the bitter end; spending some time away from my favourite goddesses has only reminded me how much I love them. Absence makes the heart grow fonder and all that.

2179: Warhammer Quest: The Adventure Card Game Blind Tutorial Playthrough

0179_001

Longtime readers will know that I'm a fan of Games Workshop's wonderful but out-of-print dungeon crawler games, including Hero Quest, Advanced Heroquest and Warhammer Quest. Unfortunately, these don't hit the table nearly as often as I'd like, since they're quite time-consuming to play and fiddly to set up due to their sheer number of components and pen-and-paper RPG-style necessity to prepare adventures beforehand.

I was, as you might expect, quite excited to hear that Fantasy Flight Games, who have been leveraging a whole bunch of Games Workshop properties recently, had released an official card game adaptation of Warhammer Quest which promised to play in 30-60 minutes, and which many claimed offered a fun dungeon-crawling experience without the need for festooning your table in thousands of miniatures and cardboard tiles.

The game is extremely well-regarded on legendary boardgaming community site Boardgamegeek, so I was keen to give it a go. One of the most common complaints, however, was that neither the Learn to Play manual nor the Rules Reference guide were particularly well laid out, meaning it took a little while to get your head around how to actually play. This is nothing unusual for Fantasy Flight Games, however, who, although they produce absolutely beautiful components and cards, aren't particularly well-regarded when it comes to writing instruction manuals. (Hey. If anyone from FFG is reading, I am very much available for freelance manual and tutorial writing. Please get in touch.)

With that in mind, I decided to try the game's tutorial scenario and record my experiences for the benefit of anyone else considering this game. So let's jump right in.

This is all the stuff you get in the box. Two rulebooks — a "learn to play" guide and a reference manual — plus a selection of quest sheets, a deck of large cards, a deck of small cards, six dice and a selection of tokens. Numbered tokens are double-sided so can be used to denote a value of either 1 or 3.

Let's get set up! I'll be trying out the Tutorial solo. The Tutorial isn't a full quest, rather just an opportunity to try out all the main mechanics before jumping in to a full session. I'm going into this pretty much blind, so I may get things wrong along the way. As such, do not take this post as a definitive How to Play guide for now!

First thing to do is pick two heroes to play. There must be at least two heroes in the party, even if you're playing solo. There are variations on each hero card according to how many party members you have. Generally speaking, the fewer party members you have, the more life each individual character has. If playing with two heroes, each hero gets two turns. If playing with three heroes, one hero per round gets an extra turn.

I'm going to go with the Ironbreaker dwarf and the Bright Wizard for this playthrough, because a tank/wizard combo sounds sensible, and also they're the two characters I've played most in Warhammer End Times: Vermintide on PC.

Each hero starts with four basic action cards that allow them to Attack, Aid, Explore or Rest. During a Campaign or Delve quest, these can be upgraded to Advanced versions later. Here are the Bright Wizard's basic actions:

And here are the Ironbreaker's:

The Bright Wizard begins the Tutorial engaged in combat with a Night Goblin Archer, while the Ironbreaker has been set upon by a Rat Swarm. There are also two face-down enemies in the middle of the table, considered to be "in the shadows" for now.

The Tutorial also specifies that we'll be exploring the Throng of Webs location for now, so this card goes in the middle of the table along with the shuffled Dungeon deck.

We're now ready to start. We begin with the Hero Activation phase, during which each hero activates in turn, beginning with the current Party Leader, and performs an action. The relevant card is exhausted once it is used, unless it has a Prepare symbol in the corner, in which case all action cards can be readied for the next round.

The Bright Wizard is first to play. Let's play her in an appropriately hot-tempered manner by immediately flinging a fireball at that pesky Night Goblin Archer in front of her.

Fireball is the Bright Wizard's Attack action, and it allows her two white dice with which to attempt to deal damage. It's also a ranged attack, so she can fling fireballs at enemies in the shadows or engaged with other heroes and even target more than one enemy in exchange for taking a point of damage, but for now let's concentrate on the immediate threat.

The Bright Wizard gets two white dice for her attack, and rolls against one black die because she's engaged with one enemy. She rolls two success symbols (the crossed axes) plus a defence shield, while the goblin rolls an attack for one point of damage. Since the Bright Wizard rolled a shield, she successfully defends against this damage, and since the goblin only has two hit points in the first place, she defeats it with an appropriately explosive flourish.

Now it's the Ironbreaker's turn. He, too, is going to attack. His attack allows him to engage up to two enemies. He's already engaged with one, but he's feeling cocky, so he also chooses to engage one of the enemies in the shadows. This flips the card face-up and places it in his engagement area in front of him.

It's a second Rat Swarm. They don't do much damage, but they do have 3HP each so it's unlikely either of them are going down this turn. Regardless, the intrepid Ironbreaker pushes on, rolling two white dice against two black dice.

He rolls one point of damage, which he applies to the enemy of his choice, and successfully defends against one incoming point of damage thanks to the two shields he rolled.

Now it's the Bright Wizard's turn again. Since her Fireball is exhausted, she can't use it again against the enemies engaged with the Ironbreaker or the one remaining in the shadows. She instead takes the opportunity to explore the location by rolling one white die against no black dice, since there are no enemies engaged with her right now.

She rolls a success, which puts the party 1/7 of the way to completing this location. She finds some Cool Waters, which allows her to recover 2HP or ready an action, but since she has taken no damage and her Explore action allows her to ready all her actions anyway, it's not much use right now. Since she's flush with life right now, she then chooses to take two points of damage to claim two success tokens and put them in her play area. These can be used next turn for two automatic successes on the Explore action if she uses it.

That's the end of the Bright Wizard's actions this round.

The Ironbreaker, meanwhile, is still engaged with the two Rat Swarms. He chooses to use his Stubborn Resolve ability to exhaust one enemy in front of him and automatically defend against up to two points of damage. He then gets to rest, which allows him to recover HP by rolling white dice against black dice, but since he hasn't taken any damage and there's no way for the single remaining readied Rat Swarm to do enough damage to get through that monstrous 2 defence, there's no need to roll any dice.

That's the end of all the Hero turns this round, which brings us to the enemies.

The Bright Wizard is first to activate an enemy. Since she is not engaged with any enemies right now, she must activate one of the enemies in the shadows, and since there is only one face-down enemy left in the shadows, she flips it face-up to reveal a Giant Wolf.

The Giant Wolf then resolves its three actions in turn. First is Lacerate, which causes whoever it is engaged with to be afflicted with the Bleeding status. Since it is not yet engaged with anyone, however, it does nothing.

Next, its Prey ability causes it to engage the Hero with the most HP, which is the Ironbreaker. It moves into his engagement area. Since the Ironbreaker is now engaged with the maximum three enemies, any additional engagements will simply cause him to take automatic damage, but since there are no other enemies on the table right now, that probably won't be an issue.

Finally, the Giant Wolf's Inflict ability deals two damage to the Ironbreaker. This can't be defended against. The Giant Wolf is then exhausted.

That leaves just the injured Rat Swarm for the Ironbreaker to activate. First it would Advance to engage the Hero activating it if it was in the shadows, but since it's already engaged with the Ironbreaker, nothing happens. It then deals another point of damage to the Ironbreaker.

At the end of the enemy phase, the Bright Wizard is on 20/22HP, while the Ironbreaker is on 23/26HP. Of the enemies, one of the Rat Swarms and the Giant Wolf are on 3/3HP, while the other Rat Swarm is on 2/3HP. All the enemies are now re-readied for the next round.

Before the round ends, the location's effects are resolved. In this case, the party leader (currently the Bright Wizard) must exhaust one of her four actions, though it can't be her Explore action, which has the Prepare icon on it — if this was exhausted, she would eventually be completely unable to act! She instead chooses to exhaust her Rest action Smouldering Wrath, since she's fairly hale and hearty right now.

Now the round ends, and the party leader token passes to the Ironbreaker.

The Ironbreaker is in a slightly sticky situation, since he's engaged with three enemies and two of his actions are exhausted. He chooses to offer his Aid to the Bright Wizard, since he has the HP to spare right now. He throws up a Shield Wall, rolling one white die against three black dice.

He rolls two successes, which the Bright Wizard chooses to "bank" on her Fireball action. He also rolls two attacks, causing him to take three points of damage — two from the Giant Wolf and one from one of the Rat Swarms, since higher attack value enemies are always prioritised in situations where not all enemies are attacking. He's now down to 20/26HP, but those two banked successes for the Bright Wizard will be useful.

Shield Wall also allows the Ironbreaker to re-ready all his actions, so he does so.

The Bright Wizard is up. She chooses to cast Fireball and engage the uninjured Rat Swarm, pulling it off the Ironbreaker. She then voluntarily takes a point of damage to target a second enemy. She then rolls two white dice against one black die.

She rolls one success and two defence, the latter of which allows her to shrug off the Rat Swarm's counterattack of a single point of damage. With the two banked successes from the Ironbreaker's Aid action, she has a total of three successes to assign between up to two enemies as she pleases, and since her Fireball is ranged she doesn't even have to attack the enemy she's engaged with. She chooses to assign all three points of damage to the Giant Wolf in front of the Ironbreaker, killing it instantly and levelling the playing field somewhat.

Next it's the Ironbreaker's turn again. Since he readied all his actions last turn, he is free to use his Attack skill Inexorable Advance. Since this allows him to engage two enemies, he pulls the Rat Swarm back off the Bright Wizard with a mind to cleaving both remaining enemies with a lucky roll. He rolls two white dice against two black dice.

He rolls a normal success, a critical success and an attack. The critical success counts as a normal success but also allows an additional roll of that white die.

Impressively, he rolls another critical success, which means another reroll. That's a total of three successes so far.

His final roll is a shield, allowing him to shrug off the single point of incoming damage. He assigns two of the successes to the injured Rat Swarm, killing it, while the remainder goes on the last enemy. This round is now over for the Ironbreaker.

That leaves one action for the Bright Wizard. She chooses to use her Burning Sight ability to explore, using her two banked success tokens from the previous turn — these must be declared and used before rolling dice — and rolling a critical success.

She then rolls another two successes, bringing her to a total of five, including the banked tokens she used. This brings the overall progress on the location to 6/7. She then draws a Dungeon card.

The Shrine she discovers gives her the option of exhausting an action to recover 1HP and claim a success token. Since the Explore action allows her to re-ready all her actions anyway, there's no reason for her not to do this. She heals 1HP, exhausts her Aid ability Fan the Flames and banks a success token on it.

The Bright Wizard cannot finish the exploration this turn by burning HP, but she can bank one token for next turn. She takes the 1HP damage she just healed and claims a success token. She then re-readies all her actions, and that's the end of the Hero phase.

The only remaining enemy on the table is engaged with the Ironbreaker, who takes one point of damage.

The location effect then causes the party leader (currently the Ironbreaker) to exhaust one action dealing with sticky webbing. He chooses to exhaust his Explore action. Leadership of the party then passes to the Bright Wizard for what will probably be the final round.

To clear the Tutorial, the party must fully explore the Throng of Webs location (which requires just one more Explore success to do so) and defeat all the enemies. With that in mind, the Bright Wizard uses her first action to Aid the Ironbreaker for two dice plus the success token she banked earlier.

She rolls a success and a critical success…

…followed by a defence, which isn't much good right now, but three success tokens is still plenty. In fact, you can only bank up to two success tokens per card, so the Ironbreaker banks two on his Inexorable Advance card and a third on his Shield Wall card. He also readies his Into the Dark action to explore if necessary, since the Bright Wizard's Aid action allows him to ready one action.

The Ironbreaker uses Inexorable Advance and rolls two defence, which is more than enough to shrug off the incoming damage from the Rat Swarm. He uses his two banked success tokens from the Bright Wizard's Aid to defeat the Rat Swarm without the need for rolling further successes. Now the area is clear of enemies, which just leaves the exploration.

The Bright Wizard has a banked success token, so rolling the die is just a formality at this point, but she rolls a critical success anyway. That brings the location to 7/7 progress, completing it and clearing the Tutorial. Full quests would require the exploration of other locations and perhaps the completion of other objectives, but for now… victory!

2178: Some Love for Marvelous Europe

I received a package from Marvelous Europe today, containing five adorable chibi Senran Kagura figurines depicting Homura's Crimson Squad at play (or, in Hikage's case, as close to "play" as she could probably figure out). I was the lucky recipient of these figures because I retweeted or favourited something they posted on Twitter a short while ago, and I was fortunate enough to be selected as a "winner" of one of the prizes that was up for grabs at the time.

To be honest, I'd completely forgotten about it, since "RT to win!" Twitter posts are ten-a-penny, and also I very rarely win anything that involves the luck of the draw. I was delighted that Marvelous made good on their original offer, though, since I really like the figures a lot, even if they were a bit fiddly to put together. (There's a teeny-tiny accessory for Yomi that I have no idea where to put, for example.)

This pleasant little interlude got me thinking about Marvelous Europe and how they appeared out of nowhere a little while back. Previously, games such as Senran Kagura made it over to Europe via a convoluted string of people and companies — Senran Kagura Burst, for example, was localised by XSEED and then brought to Europe by, if I remember correctly, PQube Games. Senran Kagura Burst actually got a physical release in Europe through this convoluted process, however, which made Americans super-salty because it only got a digital eShop release over there. They got their revenge with Vita follow-up Senran Kagura Shinovi Versus, though, since this was digital-only in Europe but had a special edition physical version in the states. Vita games are region-free, though, so fans such as myself simply imported.

Anyway, I recall being particularly aware of Marvelous Europe once Senran Kagura 2: Deep Crimson was first announced for Western release. Preorders for some ambitious-looking limited editions went up early, and I decided what the hell, I'll jump in. After all, the limited editions put out by Idea Factory International — a very similar operation, bringing niche Japanese games to the West and giving them plenty of love and attention — had proven themselves to be rather lovely, so I had a good feeling about Marvelous Europe's offerings.

So much so, in fact, that I also preordered both Corpse Party: Book of Shadows and Senran Kagura Estival Versus when they became available. Estival Versus is yet to be released, but both the Senran Kagura 2 and Corpse Party special editions were gorgeous, and both are releases I'm very happy to have in my collection.

The main reason I feel Marvelous Europe sets a great example for other publishers is that they clearly know their audience well. Their Twitter account is very "human", often sharing irreverent, dry humour — particularly when the prudes of the games journalism business start whingeing about boobs, as they are so often wont to do these days — and interacting with fans rather than acting purely as a news outlet. Their positive attitude towards the games they release, their pride in their work and their total lack of shame in bringing controversial titles to an eager Western audience means that I'm more than happy to keep supporting them for as long as they keep releasing quality games for me to enjoy.

Keep it up, Marvelous Europe. You're doing a marvellous job.

2176: Life on Mira

0176_001

I finished the main story of Xenoblade Chronicles X today, but my time with the game is far from over, since there's still a whole lot to do once you clear the story.

I wanted to reflect a little on my experience with the game so far — 100 hours' worth — and reiterate that I think it was absolutely the best game released last year that I had the good fortune to play. There may be some spoilers ahead, but I'll try and keep them to a minimum.

The most common criticism I've read of Xenoblade Chronicles X is that its story is "weak" or "not as good as Xenoblade Chronicles". While I don't disagree that its manner of storytelling is an acquired taste, I don't agree at all that its story is weak or of poor quality — nor do I agree with the assertion that the characters aren't particularly well-defined.

Let's take the first point first. I've already commented on this in depth in this post, but it bears mentioning again: Xenoblade Chronicles X's storytelling is about more than the main scenario quests and the cutscenes. It's an immersive storytelling experience in which you are part of the world of Mira, and things unfold around you, both with and without your intervention. The world changes and evolves as you complete missions and develop your relationships with characters, though the impact of your actions may not necessarily be immediately apparent. As you spend time in New Los Angeles and interact with its populace — initially all human, but later integrating several different xenoform cultures — you start to get a very strong sense of time and place from the people of Mira. It's ultimately one of the most well-realised worlds I've come across since the Final Fantasy MMOs — and, from me, that's high praise indeed, since these have previously been some of my favourite game worlds to hang out in.

Xenoblade Chronicles X's main story is a relatively straightforward affair, though its final act gets into some intriguing philosophical territory. But in many respects, the main story is the least important part of the overall narrative experience: the "true" Xenoblade Chronicles X, if you like, is in going about your day-to-day life as a BLADE, completing missions, interacting with others and developing your understanding of the world as a whole. Sidequests happen in the strangest of places at times, and you'll encounter a huge cast of weird and wonderful characters, many of whom have "affinity" links with one another just waiting to be discovered. Each of these sidequests is crafted with care, attention and meaning, and many of them tell their own compelling little "short stories" in their own right; others still form part of a larger ongoing narrative proceeding in the background alongside the main scenario. As a complete package, it's hard to think of an RPG with quite such a comprehensive narrative that you can explore in as much depth as you like.

Now, on to the second point: that of the characters. It's true that the main scenario largely focuses on the characters of Elma, Lin and Tatsu, with even your avatar not getting a lot in the way of development — though it's worth noting that in stark contrast to many JRPGs, you can play your character's personality in a lot of different ways, and there are often consequences for the choices you make — but to say that the other characters don't get explored is nonsense. For one, all the playable characters have their own chain of affinity missions and heart-to-heart events to explore as you develop your relationships with them, and some of these are even prerequisites for proceeding through the story. Plus, all of them have their own unique things to say during and after battle, with certain character pairings even having unique conversations with one another. Pleasingly, this even includes your avatar (who has a voice in combat despite being a silent protagonist for most of the game) — many of the things he/she says are responded to by other party members, which makes you feel like a more important part of the team than you might do otherwise.

Again, you're free to explore this side of the narrative in as much or as little depth as you please, since most of the affinity missions are optional affairs. The content is there, though — like most things in Xenoblade Chronicles X, though, it simply isn't handed to you on a plate. I like that, though; it gives a feeling of achievement when you discover something.

Final-ish thoughts for now, then? Xenoblade Chronicles X is a masterpiece of sci-fi, and the sci-fi game I've wanted to play since I was very young. It's not perfect by any means — the Wii U hardware arguably holds it back a little at times, though not as much as the original Wii held back titles like the original Xenoblade Chronicles and The Last Story — but it really is an astoundingly good game, and a truly impressive achievement. It deserves to be celebrated a whole lot more than I've seen, and I shall continue to bang my drum about it for as long as anyone will listen.

2175: Nail'd It

0175_001

My good friend Mr Alex Connolly was kind enough to donate me a copy of Nail'd on Steam over the Christmas period. This is a game he's mentioned to me before, but I'd never gotten around to trying it. Now I'm regretting not checking it out sooner!

Nail'd is an offroad racing game from Techland and Deep Silver, the developer-publisher combo perhaps best known in recent years for the Dead Island series and its not-really-but-sort-of follow-up Dying Light. It's an unshamed arcade racer experience, with no pretensions towards having a plot or any reason for existing beyond simply being fun — nor, it must be said, is it making any attempt whatsoever to be the slightest bit realistic.

Nail'd is ridiculous. There's no other word for it, really. From the moment you squeeze the accelerator and you immediately ramp up to approximately three thousand miles per hour in less than a tenth of a second, it's clear that this is not a game intended to be taken seriously. This feeling is further cemented when you take your first jump and spend a good ten seconds airborne before landing with no ill effects, and set in diamond when you crash for the first time and your quad-bike explodes into fragments, while your driver goes spinning off into the distance with exaggerated ragdoll physics.

Taking part in a race in Nail'd is a rollercoaster ride. There's dips and undulations, huge jumps, banked corners, environmental hazards, narrow gaps to traverse and stunts to perform. Pleasingly, there are multiple routes through each track, too, bringing the races a feel somewhat akin to EA's classic SSX series back in its heyday, particularly as many of Nail'd's races are downhill point-to-point affairs rather than circuit races.

I hadn't previously been particularly interested in motocross or ATV racing games before, and I don't know how many of them are like Nail'd. But I do feel I've been missing out on some crazy offroad fun with this game, at least; it's an absolute pleasure to play, it's a challenge while keeping its mechanics extremely simple, and it's one of the most thrilling, exciting racers I've come across, ever. It's just a pity that the multiplayer servers are no longer active, so it's not currently possible to share the ridiculousness of a Nail'd race with other people, except by doing some jiggery-pokery with the LAN mode and external software.

My arcade racing renaissance continues, then; Nail'd has been a delight to discover, and it's inspiring me to check out some other racers I haven't spent all that much time with — or haven't tried at all — with a mind to doing a full roundup at some point in the future, either here on the blog or in video format, or perhaps even both!

Now I think I'll go hurl myself off a few cliffs before bedtime…

2174: Souls

0174_001

I've tried on several occasions to get into the Souls series from From Software, and have never quite succeeded, despite liking the overall atmosphere of the whole thing. This time around, though, I feel I'm finally starting to Get It. Kind of.

I'm playing Dark Souls II: Scholar of the First Sin, the rejigged and enhanced version of Dark Souls II that was released for PC and next-gen platforms a while back. It was a Steam sale acquisition; for its low price, I was willing to give it another chance, so I jumped in on the understanding that Dark Souls II is, on the whole, perhaps a little easier to get into than the other games of the series. I'm not sure if I believe that yet, but I feel like I'm starting to get a feel for it all.

There are several things to get into your mind when you start playing Dark Souls. Firstly, it's a good idea to think of it a bit like a "single-player raid". You need to learn things: develop a strategy and execute it, preferably flawlessly. This is particularly apparent when fighting the game's bosses, but it also applies to regular enemies: most of the time they spawn in the same places, so you can prepare for ambushes where they got the jump on you the first time you went down that particular corridor, and instead slice them to ribbons before they can even touch you.

On a related note, Dark Souls' combat, while initially appearing to be relatively straightforward, is very "Japanese" in nature in that it has a heavy reliance on pattern recognition. When fighting everything from the most lowly of crap enemy to the biggest of bosses, you need to recognise the patterns of their attacks and counter them accordingly: dodge them to avoid taking damage, and take advantage of an opening to attack, while simultaneously being aware of your own stamina so you leave a bit left over to dodge out of the way when the next attack comes.

Yes, Dark Souls is not a game where you can flail wildly and hope for success. My early encounters with the Souls series saw me hating that Stamina bar and how quickly it gets used up, but this time around, again, I feel like I'm getting more of a feel for it. You can almost relate it to a turn-based sort of system in a strange sort of way — or perhaps it would be more accurate to compare it to the "cooldown" system used by most MMO combat systems. In other words, you can't just spam the attack button and hope an enemy is dumb enough to walk into your swing; most attacks are slow and ponderous enough to leave openings wide enough for enemies to hit you, even while you're mid-attack. As such, timing is crucial.

So far, I'm playing a mage-type character, since it allows me to deliver some decent damage from afar, which in turn helps me to develop my confidence to fight the more difficult opponents a bit more. I'm getting a feel for the hand-to-hand combat too, though; I can now pretty confidently dispatch lowly opponents with a dagger rather than a couple of spells to the face, though it remains to be seen if my overall play style will change too dramatically by the time I get to the end of the game… if I get to the end, of course.

So, then, I think I finally sort of "get it". I'm not sure I love it quite as much as some people do yet — I don't think I'm far enough in to feel that way — but I'm interested enough to keep going and find out more. Which is, you know, nice.

2173: Three Swords

0173_001

Been playing a little bit of one of my Christmas acquisitions recently: the intriguing The Legend of Zelda: Triforce Heroes. This isn't a "mainline" Zelda game in that it's not particularly narrative focused and is instead a largely cooperative multiplayer affair, but I've been very pleasantly surprised quite how playable it is — and how it very recognisably has that Nintendo "magic" about it.

Triforce Heroes casts you in the role of a Toon Link who may or may not actually be Link and throws you into the town of Hytopia, which is currently undergoing something of a crisis: the local evil witch is apparently cursing everyone who is getting a bit too fashionable, and thus it's up to the local heroes (for whom the populace have very specific requirements) to sort things out once and for all.

It's an eminently stupid premise, obviously, but in a way that works in the game's favour, because the lack of focus on a coherent narrative allows the game to instead concentrate on gameplay, and in a multiplayer-centric affair, this is by far the best approach.

Triforce Heroes unfolds over a series of discrete levels, each of which makes up a number of different regions in the Drablands, the area the witch calls home. As you complete the various levels, you'll acquire materials and Rupees, both of which can be used to create new costumes for maybe-Link and confer special abilities and bonuses — or, in some cases, penalties. You then repeat the process, gradually increasing your completion and/or grinding levels you've already done for more materials. That is, so far as I can determine, it. But rather than being a throwaway affair, it's actually rather compelling.

It helps that the levels are well designed to necessitate cooperation. Unlike, say, Super Mario 3D World, where additional players were more of a distraction than anything else, Triforce Heroes' levels are specifically designed with three players in mind. Most of the cooperation involves picking up and throwing around the other two players to reach out-of-reach platforms — not-Link, as ever, can't jump — but also making use of the "totem" ability to create a stack of up to three people in order to shoot at/smack/bomb/collect things that are too high off the ground for a single player.

One particularly charming aspect of the game is that as with most Nintendo online games, Triforce Heroes has no means of directly chatting with other players. Instead, you're given a set of endearing emotes ranging from "Over here!" to "Noooo!" that you can spam at will. Most players have already developed a means of "communicating" using these emotes creatively — and, indeed, it's a heartwarming moment when you come together with two strangers all spamming the "cheerleader" emote to signal your joy at having completed a particularly difficult area of the dungeon you're in.

Perhaps best of all for those who have friends with 3DSes, though, is the fact that the game supports Download Play, meaning that only one person needs to actually own a game cartridge for a group of three to be able to enjoy some cooperative fun. Obviously this doesn't apply when it comes to online play, but for local multiplayer sessions I can see it being a riot — I'm looking forward to trying it sometime.

It's not the sort of game I see being a thing you'd spend hours on at a time. But as something to while away a few minutes with at a time, Triforce Heroes is an impressive achievement: a cooperative game where yelling at each other is kept to a minimum, and where the whole experience just feels so delightfully wholesome that you can't help but enjoy it with a big smile on your face.

2172: Happy New Year, 2016

0172_001

Happy new year! It's the beginning of another arbitrary division of time which we ascribe more meaning to than is strictly necessary. And yet, as always, it's difficult to resist the allure of thinking that "this time, things will be better".

2015 was pretty shit. Not just for me, but for a lot of people I know. And that sucks. I hate to see people I know and care about having a shitty time, but it does make me feel slightly better (if a little guilty) to know that I wasn't the only one dealing with difficult shit.

I don't know whether or not 2016 will be better or not. I'd like to hope it will be, but realistically I know that there's no reason it will be. I don't have anything in particular to look forward to, but at least I don't think there's anything I'm particularly dreading either. Compare and contrast with the start of 2015, where it was gradually becoming apparent that I was getting forced out of my job (albeit one I didn't like anyway) and where my own personal well-being with particular regard to my weight was at something of a low ebb, and the start of 2016 already looks a little more positive in comparison.

2015 wasn't all bad, of course. I got married, for one thing, and that was pretty great. I met a bunch of new friends, too, and developed my interests further and deeper. I successfully got through what was quite possibly the second work-related nervous breakdown I've suffered in my life and out of the other side mostly intact. I lost nearly six stone in weight (though have probably put a bit back on over the Christmas period — we haven't been terribly strict!) and feel noticeably better about myself.

So I guess I should be feeling all right about looking forward to the new year. There are still lots of things I'm worried, anxious and upset about. But the only thing I can really do about them is keep on pushing forwards and hope things work out for the best in the long term. After all, that approach has got me this far, even if I'm not exactly in the position I thought I'd be in at the age of 34 when I was younger.

Happy new year, everyone. May 2016 be a good year for you, and if you, too, suffered a mountain of stress and other shit in 2015, may it soon be nothing but a distant memory. Thank you all for your support and kind words over the last 365 days, and here's to many more good times and pleasant chats as we slide inexorably into the future.

2171: Pain

0171_001

There are many types of pain in the world. There's physical pain, which can range from mildly annoying to excruciating and debilitating. There's mental pain, which, likewise, can range from occasionally distracting to life-consuming. There's emotional pain, which ranges from feeling a bit blue to wanting to end your own existence.

Few things compare to the pain you feel when helpless to do anything to help someone you love, though. This pain cuts deep, right through your very soul, and threatens to rip out the very core of your being. It's as excruciating, life-consuming and debilitating as all of the very worst the other kinds of pain have to offer, with the added joy that there's absolutely no way whatsoever to treat it. If there were, you wouldn't be feeling it in the first place.

Mostly this pain stems from a position of impotence: a position of complete powerlessness to do anything to help resolve that which is causing your special person anguish. It's the frustration at not knowing what to do, and at the things you do try not being enough or not working. It's the realisation that there really is nothing you can do but watch as someone else suffers, and just hope that people who are better qualified to sort things out are able to sort things out — or, in the worst possible circumstances, that things will just resolve themselves somehow.

I do not know how to deal with that pain, and I am suffering dreadfully from it. And I feel bad bringing it up, because the pain I feel is something intangible that is a consequence of someone who is physically suffering. But it's there, nonetheless, and it probably needs "treatment" of some sort just as much as the physical pain does.

I don't even know where to begin, though. Let's hope that the old saying about time healing all wounds is really true.

2170: The Slowest Racing Game You'll Ever Play

0170_001

My good friend Mr Alex Connolly saw that I had been investigating various racing games recently, and recommended something of an oddball curiosity to me: the rather literally named Off-Road Drive, a charming, clunky mess of a game from Russian publisher 1C Company.

Off-Road Drive is a game about offroading. Not offroading in the usual video game sense — that is to say, racing like you're playing Ridge Racer, only with mud textures — but rather a more realistic(ish) take on offroading in heavy duty vehicles more suited to chores on the farm than barreling around courses at high speed.

The interesting thing about Off-Road Drive is that it goes into a lot more detail than many other racing games, yet at the same time manages to do so without making itself completely obtuse to the non-petrolheads among us. The game features not only the usual accelerate and brake buttons, but also switches to toggle between two- and four-wheel drive, do something or other with your differential, hoist yourself up with a winch, downshift into a low gear and let the air out of your tyres.

You may wonder why on Earth you would want to do any of those things and it's initially baffling. However, a good tutorial mode gives you an introduction to the most common hazards you'll face while offroading — and the appropriate tool from your arsenal to make use of when attempting to traverse it. By the end of a couple of laps of the tutorial circuit, you should have a pretty good idea of how things work and what you should do when. It's perhaps best thought of as a racing game in which you're required to use various special abilities at specific points on the track; thinking of it this way rather than trying to get your head around what the "differential" does is the way to go, it seems.

Off-Road Drive is not a particularly polished product. It doesn't support VSync in full-screen mode, leading to screen tearing; its menus are clunky and don't work properly with a controller (despite the game itself supporting controller); controller buttons are labelled the wrong way around (LT instead of RT and vice-versa); and its collision detection is occasionally a little questionable, but there's little doubt that the developers set out to create something different to the norm and have succeeded in producing something that's actually rather interesting and fun to play.

One of the greatest things about gaming is that it gives us the opportunity to try things we'd never do in real life. I don't see myself ever flinging a Land Rover around a muddy course in Thailand, so Off-Road Drive acts as an eminently suitable substitute for now, at least.

Now, to go and look up what the fuck a "differential" is.