therearerules

Thanks! I think I just felt a bit emotional given everything I've put in. Going to push it more over the long weekend and see how that goes.

I think it depends if Gamefound suffers the same drop off as Kickstarter. Hopefully not!

Thanks, I'm going to be honest I can't help but be disappointed with the numbers so far. Not sure if it's moving to Gamefound, or the theme not being as appealing, but I've put a lot more into the pre-marketing with this and have an incredibly solid game. Really thought it would be doing better 😐

And we've launched! If you do spot any spelling/ grammar errors, or anything else which ought to be changed please just let me know! Thanks! https://gamefound.com/projects/radical-8-games/damask

Absolutely exhausted, and the campaign starts tomorrow! I don't remember the push for pre-campaign followers being as critical as the campaign. 8:30 tomorrow, annoyingly my timetable has changed meaning I'm busy almost all day! Gah!

Maps, notes and cooking manuals, even if I was never going to craft whatever they described. Then the swordstone keys.

Feel free to tell me to shut up, but did you do everything in Limgrave and the Weeping peninsula before attempting Godrick? I've honestly never played a game which accomplished that feeling of adventuring more.

Reading that post I want to change my best story to Bloodborne. It would have taken best zones, but I just love the vastly different feeling of each zone in ER. Not a category, but best map/world would have been Dark Souls.

Defeated Radhan last night, the proper way using summons. Absolutely amazing boss fight. From the very start it's this giant uphill struggle with no room for waiting, but seeing your band of merry summons rush him whilst you flee from arrows on horseback is something to behold. Then the fight, getting the upperhand, only for everyone to die, proper eye of the storm quietness, giant screaming metoer boss attack (like a FF summon) which killed me once, then getting your army back together for one last push. The best gimmick fight. Very different to last time, where I swords and boarded him one v one. edit- and that's ignoring the build up, the music, the silent castle, the fmv. Truly the end boss of the first act.

Gah, wanted to share the project page in draft form to get feedback, but annoyingly on gamefound the draft page is visible to everyone who follows you, and is essentially the preview page. They really do have a terrible UI (also discovered gifs don't work, but mp4s do, however if an mp4 is embedded it can't be removed- you have to delete the whole section).

Also, wanted to sum up what I love about these games, and especially this, and that's every small thing feels incredibly large. What I mean is, every small encounter, every journey, no matter how insignificant ultimately feels like an epic adventure. At the start when the maps so small that feels truer than ever. Getting past that initial tree senital outside the start tomb to the small church just beyond, that you can easily see- an epic stealth shuffle through the hedges. Getting from that church over the hill, then through that ruin to the next grace, an epic masterclass in when to sneak and when to attack. and even after the tutorial or opneing bit, many hours in, it's the same. Travelling down the road in Caelid to the next grace is this epic horror show. Any time there's more than one enemy, or even just a hard enemy, I have to think about what I'm doing, what the terrain is, and how I'm going to attack it. And then there's that flourish of a flasks refilling as if to mark the end of that particular adventure. And every bit of scenery feels both completely natural and purposefully planned. It's masterful and only accentuates this.

Playing through a second time, and I've fought two bosses and completed one dungeon I completely missed the first time around, as well as got a hwole load of new NPC dialogue. Bearing in mind I put in a thorough 120 hours or so previously that's insane.

Yeah, I got absolutely demolished by Rom. It was the magic in the third act which did it. Stopped me taking out the spider babies, which then prevented me from attacking. Real roadblock.

So, after wondering what to do after completing it, I'm playing again as a mage. Finding it tricky when I'm this squishy though- fighting against otehr mages is playing a cover shooter, and fighting anything else is running backwards firing off beams. Also tricky to know what to upgrade- going for Vigor, Mind and Int, but my stamina is terrible, and I'm limited in what I can equip. Any mage advice?

I'm happy they've kept the struggle to the optional bosses, with no content locked away behind them (as far as I know). That's just a great design decision for everyone. Similarly, I loved the Haligtree and subsequent castle, but I know that if people hate it they can just bin it off.

Box room

Ah, I tried to play through fresh, only looked up some NPC locations when I remembered they had a quest for me, and how to get through those Hero Graves.

I think I must have missed that boss. And there I was thinking it was only Melania I didn't kill.

I didn't see him on my travels, turns out he was still at the festival combat grounds and I'd completely missed him!

I don't think they're comparable- BotW doesn't have giant bosses, harsh platforming sections or buzzing flies, which is what people find the lock on less than helpful for. I'm struggling here because I'm not really sure what a better lock on system in this gameworld would look like. What would a better lock on for Radahn look like? Or a lock on when crossing a thin beam look like? Or a lock on for a dragonfly look like? The system as it stands is consistent and pretty easy to use, and I've never felt it's done something I haven't asked it to do, even if it has done stupid things I've asked it to do (like jump at an enemy who's falling off a cliff). edit- things that would be helpful would be the ability to lock onto an undead as its reviving and shoot at a locked on enemy whilst on horseback, oh and if you've locked onto an enemy lower down and shoot, not for your bolt to hit the ground in front of you. But I don't get the feeling that's what's being discussed here.

Lock on does what it says- it locks onto an enemy. I'm not sure how you could have a lock on which doesn't lock on tbh. The only time it fails for me as an actual lock on is crossbow shooting on horseback- literally just doesn't work. Everything else is fine though.

I'm still making my way through the earlier podcasts (only started listening at the Elden Ring one, then immediately went back to the first), so it's good to know that in a few years time when I've caught up they'll be there. Great stuff.

Finished this yesterday evening, got the bosses straight after posting about them here, turned out to be relatively easy once I equipped the haligree+2 and pearldrake+2 medaliion, also swapped armour to regen health for my mimic, and everything else was maximum weight and poise. Didn't even use one of my 50 rune arcs because it was just an attempt, but they went down pretty easily. What a game. Defies hyperbole how good this game is. Sure the end is a bit of a boss rush, but there wasn't a location which didn't floor me when I started exploring it. The first thing I did when reach a location was always just look around. I'd run to the edge and look down at my past ventures, or up if I was subterranean. I went into NG+, but sacked that off because I want that sense of adventure, and running around completely OP isn't that. Sword and boarded it all the way through, 130 hours, used the same greatsword I got from a limgrave knight in the first hour till the end of the game, and went brass shield-cuckoo greatshield- big face greatshield- fingerprint greatshield. And Crepus' crossbow for cheese strats. I know it's not the way people like to play it, but I love the sword combat in these games, even if it trivialised a lot of later fights (shield up, wait for them to boink, retaliate). Not sure what to do now about replaying. I'd love a magic run, just to see what that's like, but I'd miss the unknown. Might watch some speedruns and lore videos then wait until the DLC or something. Or go for a pacifist run (with additional magic). Or play something else of course.

I just run away a lot and heal. Never enter a trade off of blows, back off and roll up.