Together Retro May 2021 - The Riddle of Steel

[PretentiousHipster]

Did my redux video on Blade of Darkness. Hope this will convince one of you to try it out for the last week of this challenge: https://youtu.be/2k-a2SW4FCc

[alienjesus]

I finished up my playthrough of Metal Gear Rising today. I picked up just before the boss of stage 4, and actually it was probably the easiest boss in the game. He uses 2 swords and a holw bunch of exploding shield panels. The game really wants you to use the sword to slice pieces off of the shields where it's safe - but I found using the dodge move to shift behind him and slice his back every time his sheilds lowered much more effective and way quicker. Stage 5 which followed was honestly crap - you fight through some recycled assets from stage 3 in reverse, but only a small section - there's 4 fights here to most stages 16 or so, and it only took me 10 minutes as opposed to most stages 60.

Stage 6 was a boss fight against a fellow swordfighter named Jetstream Sam, who was also rather easy, and then it was on to stage 7 where after a short intro I got into a boss fight vs a giant Metal Gear followed by a super buff US senator. Raiden obviously has it in for US politicians, considering the ending of MGS2 as well.

The final battle was really frustrating, as it has a section where you must slice rubble being thrown at you in precise lines - but the game doesn't explain how to do this really. I restarted the boss fight a good 10 times before I sussed it out and I'm still not entirely sure I had it down perfectly. I was almost dead when I finally took down the boss, but I did it.

Overall, I thought the game was OK. The plot is pretty meh and I've heard this is because it went through a lot of changes from being a serious prequel to a totally over the top sequel to MGS4. I actually think the plot weakens some of the ending moments of MGS4 so I wouldn't recommend playing it for that. The action is decent stuff as is the platinum games way - but it also isn't as good as the likes of Bayonetta. It's a pretty short game too. I bought it for £4 though, and it was definitely worth that.

And in keeping with the theme - I got the 'Samurai' award for beating the game exclusively with the Sword, as opposed to the subweapons you can you as you progress.

[PartridgeSenpai]

I finished Brave Fencer Musashi today! A game all about swords! At least in a more simple action-based sense. Granted, you ARE Miyamoto Musashi (in very anime-chibi form), and you do get more combos to use with your double swords as you rescue people, and new sword magics to use as you go through the game, so that's something, right? X3

A flawed but quite fun game, as is so often the case with SquareSoft's PS1 catalogue~

[Ack]

Hey Note, how far did you get in the survival mode of Soul Calibur?

[Note]

Hey Note, how far did you get in the survival mode of Soul Calibur?

Hey Ack! The furthest I got was 36 wins. I got around that number multiple times, but haven't been able to crack 40 yet.

Didn't you get through a crazy amount of rounds? I recall you mentioning that.

[Ack]

Hey Note, how far did you get in the survival mode of Soul Calibur?

Hey Ack! The furthest I got was 36 wins. I got around that number multiple times, but haven't been able to crack 40 yet.

Didn't you get through a crazy amount of rounds? I recall you mentioning that.

96 I believe, and I only stopped to go eat dinner. Ah, the good old days of parents yelling at me to turn off my game and come to dinner...I don't miss it.

[Note]

96 I believe, and I only stopped to go eat dinner. Ah, the good old days of parents yelling at me to turn off my game and come to dinner...I don't miss it.

That's awesome you were able to get through that many rounds. I actually miss those days! Lol.

I do find it weird that the survival mode doesn't have a pause feature. It's a bit of a pain that you can't take a break similar to the other modes. Anyone know if that was ever changed in later games in the series?

[Note]

Also, just to follow up on earlier post -- I did end up playing as Mitsurugi, Taki, and Lizardman throughout the week. I didn't really care for Mitsurgui, the design of the character is cool and the samurai sword weapon he has is awesome, but something about his move set didn't really click with me.

Taki is another character that I really liked the design of -- her ninja costume looks is badass IMO, but I've gotta get use to playing with the dagger type of weapon -- you really need to get close up to the enemy to inflict damage with it and I'm more used to playing with characters that have a bit more range. I'm going to continue to practice with her.

However, I really liked playing as Lizardman! Lol. He has the same move set as Sophitia, I believe. So he has a smaller sword and a shield, and seems to be pretty quick with the weapon, despite his size.

[SpaceBooger]

On to Chapter 6 of 8 in DQ: Swords.
As much as I would like to think that means I am done... it's a Dragon Quest game and the grindfest now begins. Normally I do not mind grinding in an RPG because it fits in with my often short playtimes. With standard RPGs when I only have 15-30 minutes to play, I will wander around a save point and grind - knowing that I don't have enough time to trot through a crucial part of the game, but the grinding will pay off when I have time to move the story forward. This game is more arcade-like and many arcade games with endings do not usually have replay value to me... Anyway, I'm close and may not finish it before the month is over, but I will finish this soon.

[SpaceBooger]

So the weather is crappy and we decided it was a video game day at the BoogerHouse.
With this declaration - I put in about 3 hours of game time and beat Dragon Quest Swords

I liked it. I liked it a lot... other than my shoulder and wrist hurts from the final boss. So before there are any jokes, I may be 45 but I do workout and run almost every day (I run and lead most of my cross country practices) not bragging just pointing out that I am not out of shape, but the amount of arm action has me fearing that my right arm may now be the size of the former Governator of Cali and my left arm is still normal-sized.

With that being said, the time it took to beat the boss and the flailing of the Wii Remote was excessive. In a normal boss battle on all other chapters you only fire up the special attack (I'm thinking this is what the Humpty Dance looks like "People tell me I look like MC Hammer on crack") twice per battle but for the final battle I had to flair to the point of exhaustion to pull off at least 12-14 special attacks... and that's not counting the ones I had to to to counter the final boss' special attacks.

I did do a little research and found out that beating the story needed minimal grinding, the extra stuff after the story is where you need to grind past level 35 and even hit the 99 level cap. I may go back and play through some of the end-game stuff, but right now I need a break. The game is fun its a nice hybrid of on-rails, Wii Waggling, Dragon Quest RPG.

I highly recommend this to anyone looking for a 10-hour romp on the Wii. It will satisfy any Arcade or RPG craving you may have.