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This thread has been linked to the game 'Gladius'.
I've been enjoying Gladius. 55hrs into it, still haven't done the other storyline and haven't left the 3rd land yet.
But I've come up against that traditional, boring-ass cliche that seems to crop up in most games I've played.
The "Now's the part where it's nothing to do with skill, just repeated plays until luck falls your way" portion of a game.
Why? Why do developers do this?
This game, so far, has been tactical and almost chess-like in the necessity to plan each move, to consider where your opponents may move and how best to defend/attack.
Until now.
Having endured the oh-so-surprising "twist" where your surly companion finally decides (after *so* much whining and threats) to defect...*clasps hands to cheeks in mock Home-Alone-style surprise*...and you just know you'll end up facing him in the finale because that always happens in games - your once-close compadre decides to become evil and then disappears until the final encounter where, having spent so much time and money levelling him up/equipping him, it makes a complete mockery of your work by taking him away.
But I am now stuck.
Well and truly, red-faced-anger-inducing, swearing in guttural snarls, wanting to smash somebody's face in, hoarse-voiced-from-screaming-at-the-tv angry.
Being betrayed again...*sigh*...I now have to battle my once loyal gladiator nubian I picked up along the way.
Oh, oh...but not just him. Ohhhhhhhhhhhh no, because that would merely be bloody difficult.
No, in order to make it retardedly hard - the developers obviously sat around and thought
"Now, we've taken his two best medium fighters away from him. So, we'll give him 3 medium fighters. Against their old mate. And 3 summoners."
So you have 3 Gladiators against 4 enemy.
Fair enough, not 100% impossible with some planning and tactics. That's why this game is good.
But just to add that extra soupcon of hate-inducing frustration?
Let's have the 3 summoners able to conjure up Skeletons/Scarabs/Eagles!!!
Yeah! Because now you have 3 Gladiators fighting 7 enemies! Great! Dig it!
Ooo ooo, and to put the anger-icing on the cake?
Have your main Hero character, the one that cannot die else it's game-over be struck straight away by your ex-chum. Yep.
Oh, and then you can have the summoners bring forth their 3 extra enemies straight away before you are allowed to move!!! Brilliant!!!
So, what you have is your must-stay-alive Hero absolutely surrounded on all sides with no way to escape. And the summoners using "freeze" blasts on you, so you forfeit what occasional turns you do get.
And the other 2 of your team? They're waaaaaaaaaaaay over the other side of the arena, so by the time they get in range, it's over.
But just in case you might withstand an attack from every direction at once?
The summoners can also scatter your team with a magic-blast.
Which means instead of you being next to, finally, a summoner and ready to have a crack?
You end up the other side of the arena with 4 enemies and 3 conjured beasts coming at you.
It's retarded. No, really it is.
It's taken me 2 days off-and-on playing to repeatedly throw myself at this level until I have now reached the point of never wanting to play it again.
Stupid game design that can kill a perfectly well executed surprisingly good title.
But I've come up against that traditional, boring-ass cliche that seems to crop up in most games I've played.
The "Now's the part where it's nothing to do with skill, just repeated plays until luck falls your way" portion of a game.
Why? Why do developers do this?
This game, so far, has been tactical and almost chess-like in the necessity to plan each move, to consider where your opponents may move and how best to defend/attack.
Until now.
Having endured the oh-so-surprising "twist" where your surly companion finally decides (after *so* much whining and threats) to defect...*clasps hands to cheeks in mock Home-Alone-style surprise*...and you just know you'll end up facing him in the finale because that always happens in games - your once-close compadre decides to become evil and then disappears until the final encounter where, having spent so much time and money levelling him up/equipping him, it makes a complete mockery of your work by taking him away.
But I am now stuck.
Well and truly, red-faced-anger-inducing, swearing in guttural snarls, wanting to smash somebody's face in, hoarse-voiced-from-screaming-at-the-tv angry.
Being betrayed again...*sigh*...I now have to battle my once loyal gladiator nubian I picked up along the way.
Oh, oh...but not just him. Ohhhhhhhhhhhh no, because that would merely be bloody difficult.
No, in order to make it retardedly hard - the developers obviously sat around and thought
"Now, we've taken his two best medium fighters away from him. So, we'll give him 3 medium fighters. Against their old mate. And 3 summoners."
So you have 3 Gladiators against 4 enemy.
Fair enough, not 100% impossible with some planning and tactics. That's why this game is good.
But just to add that extra soupcon of hate-inducing frustration?
Let's have the 3 summoners able to conjure up Skeletons/Scarabs/Eagles!!!
Yeah! Because now you have 3 Gladiators fighting 7 enemies! Great! Dig it!
Ooo ooo, and to put the anger-icing on the cake?
Have your main Hero character, the one that cannot die else it's game-over be struck straight away by your ex-chum. Yep.
Oh, and then you can have the summoners bring forth their 3 extra enemies straight away before you are allowed to move!!! Brilliant!!!
So, what you have is your must-stay-alive Hero absolutely surrounded on all sides with no way to escape. And the summoners using "freeze" blasts on you, so you forfeit what occasional turns you do get.
And the other 2 of your team? They're waaaaaaaaaaaay over the other side of the arena, so by the time they get in range, it's over.
But just in case you might withstand an attack from every direction at once?
The summoners can also scatter your team with a magic-blast.
Which means instead of you being next to, finally, a summoner and ready to have a crack?
You end up the other side of the arena with 4 enemies and 3 conjured beasts coming at you.
It's retarded. No, really it is.
It's taken me 2 days off-and-on playing to repeatedly throw myself at this level until I have now reached the point of never wanting to play it again.
Stupid game design that can kill a perfectly well executed surprisingly good title.
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Goatboy wrote:
> Stupid game design that can kill a perfectly well executed
> surprisingly good title.
Its the old "Its getting near the end of the game and we’re out of inspiration / against a deadline, so lets bump the difficulty level up to Herculean proportions.”
“The Thing” on the pc (dunno about Xbox) was a prime example of this. After sprinting through the majority of the game of difficult, the complex goes up in flames. Cue a run through flames, killing nasties as you go. Now, this wouldn’t be to bad, apart from the fact any health kits are removed, and the following level is you with a sniper rifle, in the cold, against a legion of bad guys. Its neigh on impossible, and reeks of sloppy level design, just to make the game longer.
I hate it when this happens.
> Stupid game design that can kill a perfectly well executed
> surprisingly good title.
Its the old "Its getting near the end of the game and we’re out of inspiration / against a deadline, so lets bump the difficulty level up to Herculean proportions.”
“The Thing” on the pc (dunno about Xbox) was a prime example of this. After sprinting through the majority of the game of difficult, the complex goes up in flames. Cue a run through flames, killing nasties as you go. Now, this wouldn’t be to bad, apart from the fact any health kits are removed, and the following level is you with a sniper rifle, in the cold, against a legion of bad guys. Its neigh on impossible, and reeks of sloppy level design, just to make the game longer.
I hate it when this happens.
I did a similar battle in one go on the easy path.
Didn't want to know about the dragon but meh. ;D
I'm at 58 hours but I think I'm now allowed to go back and have a go at the pro battles I couldn't play on the earlier lands so I'll do them before going on to Caltha.
Should finish it around the 65-70 mark I think, might be earlier.
Didn't want to know about the dragon but meh. ;D
I'm at 58 hours but I think I'm now allowed to go back and have a go at the pro battles I couldn't play on the earlier lands so I'll do them before going on to Caltha.
Should finish it around the 65-70 mark I think, might be earlier.
Nah it's part of the main story battle.
Unavoidable and you can only use Valens, Urlans & that stupid Viking Brother bloke.
3 mediums against 3 summoners & 3 beasts and the main, used-to-be-your-mate Nubian.
Except mate did it last night *round of applause*
How? Tactics, planning and skill?
Nope. Repeatedly (2hrs+) throwing ourselves at it until I throw the controller down and stomp off swearing, he takes it up and, by sheer luck, gets a back-attack in and offs 1 quickly.
3-4 days of trying to do it, and it's only because 1 summoner goes a different route and we happen to have 1 gladiator in that *exact* spot that it was done.
Stupid and annoying that it relies on luck and simple "Nope, try again"
But it's done.
Even the final, final boss dragon thing wasn't as difficult as that battle.
62hrs to do the 1st story, now starting on hers.
Unavoidable and you can only use Valens, Urlans & that stupid Viking Brother bloke.
3 mediums against 3 summoners & 3 beasts and the main, used-to-be-your-mate Nubian.
Except mate did it last night *round of applause*
How? Tactics, planning and skill?
Nope. Repeatedly (2hrs+) throwing ourselves at it until I throw the controller down and stomp off swearing, he takes it up and, by sheer luck, gets a back-attack in and offs 1 quickly.
3-4 days of trying to do it, and it's only because 1 summoner goes a different route and we happen to have 1 gladiator in that *exact* spot that it was done.
Stupid and annoying that it relies on luck and simple "Nope, try again"
But it's done.
Even the final, final boss dragon thing wasn't as difficult as that battle.
62hrs to do the 1st story, now starting on hers.
Hmmm. I decided to read the original post again and my final quick fix solution is:
Equip your lead character with an Ingwaz accessory and if you have any more left over give them to the other characters.
My main characters have the Ingwaz accessories and they have turned into absolute terminators!
Equip your lead character with an Ingwaz accessory and if you have any more left over give them to the other characters.
My main characters have the Ingwaz accessories and they have turned into absolute terminators!
Oh hang on '3rd land'?
Sounds like the place with the waterfall...
If you try some of the tactics I've suggested you should be able to do it.
Sounds like the place with the waterfall...
If you try some of the tactics I've suggested you should be able to do it.
If you ARE stuck on that desert fight then it's forced you to use the 3 standard characters, these should be able to do it, see if you've any unspent points to enhance them (to tip the balance).
Hmmmm.
I've done this sort of thing on the Easy story mode. Basically what I did was to run straight at the summoners and take them out without worrying about the crreatures they conjure up.
Using troop that have running attacks (enabling them to get a good few extra spaces forward) is a good idea, otherwise some robust archers will finish of some summoners quickly and earth magic REALLY hurts summoners quite a bit (if we're talking about undead ones anyway).
Otherwise I suggest tying up the most troublesome monster/monsters with one/two of your fighters and sending those left at the summoners.
Equipping your characters with INGWAZ trinkets (or whatever the charm-like things are called) will make your characters VERY tough.
You can usually take most things down by using the larger nastier combo attacks and finding the affinity types that do the most damage to them.
Also bear in mind that hanging back and ganging up on monsters (let them come to you) usually works well in this game as does finding a nice height advantage.
I realise most of these are obvious things but you might have over looked one. :)
Also if it's a non-essential battle then leave it and come back to it, although it sounds like you're at the nasty desert fight.
I've done this sort of thing on the Easy story mode. Basically what I did was to run straight at the summoners and take them out without worrying about the crreatures they conjure up.
Using troop that have running attacks (enabling them to get a good few extra spaces forward) is a good idea, otherwise some robust archers will finish of some summoners quickly and earth magic REALLY hurts summoners quite a bit (if we're talking about undead ones anyway).
Otherwise I suggest tying up the most troublesome monster/monsters with one/two of your fighters and sending those left at the summoners.
Equipping your characters with INGWAZ trinkets (or whatever the charm-like things are called) will make your characters VERY tough.
You can usually take most things down by using the larger nastier combo attacks and finding the affinity types that do the most damage to them.
Also bear in mind that hanging back and ganging up on monsters (let them come to you) usually works well in this game as does finding a nice height advantage.
I realise most of these are obvious things but you might have over looked one. :)
Also if it's a non-essential battle then leave it and come back to it, although it sounds like you're at the nasty desert fight.
Well, tried five time today with no luck. Don't let anyone reading this be put off Kill Switch though, it was seriously under-rated most places - I'd give it 8/10 easily - just like playing out every movie/24/Matrix (minus bullet time/ shootout ever.
When I first played through Viewtiful Joe I thought the penultimate boss was just a complete and utter joke; having to complete the first four bosses THEN a brand new one which is seemingly impossible to beat, but then it became easier and easier and I perfected each boss which rectified the insane difficulty first time.
There are so many times when I've completely given up on a game nearing the end because of these moments, meaning I miss out on some crappy end with flowers, hugging and lots of joy throughout the land that was previously infested with bug-eyed nobs.
Shoot-'em-ups and RPG's are especially annoying, most final battles I've had in RPGs have been won because my opponent made a mistake, not thanks to my strategic prowess or ultimate chain of attacks. Some of the best games I've ever played have been ruined because of this.
There are so many times when I've completely given up on a game nearing the end because of these moments, meaning I miss out on some crappy end with flowers, hugging and lots of joy throughout the land that was previously infested with bug-eyed nobs.
Shoot-'em-ups and RPG's are especially annoying, most final battles I've had in RPGs have been won because my opponent made a mistake, not thanks to my strategic prowess or ultimate chain of attacks. Some of the best games I've ever played have been ruined because of this.
Belldandy wrote:
> I've run up against similar idiotic game design in Kill Switch on PS2.
> You play through to the last level by using cover, covering fire etc.
> Last level has tons of rooms with NO COVER and fire coming from all 4
> sides.
--------
Yep, that's exactly what is making me angry about this bit.
All previous fights have been possible. Sure, damn hard and require multiple restarts until you get the tactics correct and realise why you were getting owned so easily, but possible with some thought and pre-planning.
It always happens in games, some pointless level/section that just requires you to mindlessly throw yourself time and time again until you get lucky and manage to complete it.
It should be that if you are good/careful enough, you should be able to do that section instead of the retarded "This'll extend longevity if we make them repeatedly attempt it" mindset.
And there are no places you can stand to prevent side-attacks/being surrounded, no height advantages to use, no cover.
Just a big circular arena and, without fail, pre-set start positions that mean you nearly die by the time your turn comes around.
It's frustrating beyond amusement.
> I've run up against similar idiotic game design in Kill Switch on PS2.
> You play through to the last level by using cover, covering fire etc.
> Last level has tons of rooms with NO COVER and fire coming from all 4
> sides.
--------
Yep, that's exactly what is making me angry about this bit.
All previous fights have been possible. Sure, damn hard and require multiple restarts until you get the tactics correct and realise why you were getting owned so easily, but possible with some thought and pre-planning.
It always happens in games, some pointless level/section that just requires you to mindlessly throw yourself time and time again until you get lucky and manage to complete it.
It should be that if you are good/careful enough, you should be able to do that section instead of the retarded "This'll extend longevity if we make them repeatedly attempt it" mindset.
And there are no places you can stand to prevent side-attacks/being surrounded, no height advantages to use, no cover.
Just a big circular arena and, without fail, pre-set start positions that mean you nearly die by the time your turn comes around.
It's frustrating beyond amusement.
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