I beat Dark Souls 3 The Fire Fades Edition for the first time

 Hello everyone. I recently beat Dark Souls 3 The Fire Fades for the first time and I wanted to talk about my experience.

The super short version of this review is that I really enjoyed my time with this game. Dark Souls 3 might now just be my favourite Soulsbourne game I ever played. Ashes of Ariendal was decent but I was less fond of the Ringed City.

Now for the longer version of this post:

I started off making my character. An abomination with disfigured nose and eyes, neon green skin, golden tattoos and astonishingly blue hair. I called him "Elden Lord" and set him loose in the world as a sorcerer since I loved magic/tank hybrid builds in Dark Souls 1, 2 and Elden Ring. I am not the best at Souls games so typically, I find being a sorcerer gives me a lot more of a safety net. However, I found my poor character's magic was barely tickling enemies and that his starting sword was more effective.

 The weird giant crystal lizard that loved to cosplay Pinwheel and the first proper boss, Iudex Gundyr, took quite a while for me to whittle down with my small sword. They were really fun fights at least. Iudex Gundyr was amazing and I loved the encounter greatly. Even his weird second phase where he turns into a "a giant Cerberus/Venom hybrid" was fun even if I had a tough time visually parsing what he was even doing. I'd love it if Iudex Gundyr had a rematch or second phase that was just his first phase but he became faster and more aggressive.

I looked online and apparently, sorcerer builds struggle a lot in the early to mid game and only start getting good "once you dump 45 points into intelligence". And there would be enemies that would be near impossible to magic my way through. So, with a heavy heart and much sadness, and for the first time in my Souls career, I restarted with a purely melee character in the Knight (excluding Bloodbourne since that's the only kind of character there).

"Elden Lord 2 The Knight" was the long lost twin brother of "Elden Lord 1 The Sorcerer" and a knight and this character immediately starting paying dividends. His armour and health let him tank a surprising amount of damage. Often being able to tank 4-6 direct hits in a row even from bosses. That weird giant crystal lizard and Iudex Gundyr went down really fast this time. Even I was surprised. Guess "Elden Lord 2 The Knight" is who I am sticking with. Another advantage of this boi is that I didn't have to split my level points as much as I would have with my original Knight/Sorcerer Hybrid nor make too many drastic changes to my gear. After an initial (admittedly large) infusion of Strength, Dexterity and Vitality so I could fast roll with a Claymore, my boi is pretty much as decked out as he would be for the rest of the game (hopefully).

I then arrived at Firelink Shrine. And I was confused why it looked so different from the Firelink Shrine in Dark Souls 1. I'm still not entirely sure on the story of this game and it feels just as confusing as ever. I probably should have watched some Vaati. You could tell me that Yhorm the Giant is secretly the ex of the Firekeeper and they broke up because Yhorm committed tax fraud which is why the Firekeeper has a special grudge against him or something and I'd believe you.

From what little I got from the cutscenes, apparently, we are still in the fading Age of Fire and it's time for someone to link the flame again. My character in Dark Souls 1 chose to go for the Age of Dark Ending. So either the Link the Flames ending of Dark Souls 1 is canon or somebody else linked the flames while my character was busy hanging out with the snake bois😤.

However, it seems nobody was up to the task for doing it in Dark Souls 3, so 4-5 champions that rekindled the flame previously got resurrected to go rekindle the fire again. For some reason (probably because getting burned to save BlightTown isn't exactly a worthwhile cause), they refuse to. My character apparently was resurrected to try, might have died before and was re-resurrected as a "chosen undead" as the ultimate long shot. It's up to "Elden Lord 2 The Knight" to go toe to toe with the most powerful Gods in all the land (and Wolnir) with nothing but a Claymore and a Dream in the ultimate suicide mission.

Back to the gameplay, Dark Souls 3 seems to move away from Dark Souls 1's "expertly interconnected first half" and something closer to Bloodbourne's "You have a central hub for upgrades that's disconnected from the rest of the world. The rest of the game is a mostly linear affair" approach. And I personally kinda prefer this approach. While it does feel less replayable at first compared to DS1, I enjoy the pacing and forward momentum of DS3. You zoom through areas, killing stuff with far less backtracking. Upgrading and levelling up is in an easily accessible location so it doesn't feel as "tedious" to backtrack through multiple areas to reach a blacksmith. I will complain that having to fast travel back to Firelink Shrine just to level up and then Fast Travel back to the level did start to feel a bit annoying. 

I liked DS1's "just level up at any bonfire" approach. I suppose the reason why DS3 does this is because you can fast travel back to Firelink Shrine whenever you want and wants you to interact with the Firekeeper for lore reasons. Whereas since Fast Travel was a mid game item in DS1, it would be more convenient to level up at bonfires rather than backtrack to Firelink.

Dark Souls 3 as a whole, feels closer to Elden Ring than Dark Souls 1 in terms of combat. Enemies and bosses especially are much faster, way more aggressive with way more combos and varied attacks. Bosses like Gundyr, Pontiff or Abyss Watchers could easily fit as the final bosses of Dark Souls 1. They feel much more complex, varied and aggressive than Gwen. The player character, also feels much more mobile and powerful. I feel I'm rolling and attacking more than I did in Dark Souls 1, about the same in Bloodbourne but less than in Elden Ring. I'm really grateful for the way healing works in DS3 as having 10 Estus Flasks (that I can use while moving) really saved me more times than I could count. I do miss having my Mimic Tear from Elden Ring though😭.

The bosses as a whole in DS3 also feel great and are some of the most fun I had. If DS3 had a "menu to let you replay bosses just for fun" mode, I'd probably use it more than any other Souls game. Even at its worst, I feel the bosses in DS3 are "C Tier". There were no bosses I hated like Bed of Chaos in DS1 or Rom and Micolash in Bloodbounre. Gundyr (both versions) were amazing fights that were a joy to dodge and weave through and learn. For round 2, he moving too fast for my poor character to keep up. He kept sucker punching me with his roundhouse kick. I did have to cheese it by putting more points into Vitality so I could equip a greatshield (and wear lighter armour) so I could block more of his attacks. 

With my 30+ Vigour, I could take a few hits even when I messed up but I do feel I could eventually beat it with my regular loadout if I had more attempts at it. I later saw online you could parry him which blew my mind. I tried for the life of me but I couldn't parry anything in DS3 for some reason 😭. I will complain the runback was annoying.

Pontiff Sulyvahn was the first time I realized my character was a lot tankier than I originally thought even in his default loadout. He could take 4 of Pontiff's hits point blank and usually survive. He could block 1-2 of his hits safely even with his regular Dragon Crest Shield. And his +7 Claymore wasn't doing bad damage. The challenge usually was simply finding chances to safely heal or attack since in my weakened state after taking a few hits, my poor character would die soon afterwards. I actually didn't even realize that Pontiff's shadow clone mimics him which would have helped me so much more. I felt I got lucky in my winning attempt. But now I kinda want to retry that fight with my new knowledge in mind. In any case, amazing boss.

Vordt, Dancer of the Boreal Valley, Abyss Watchers, Lothric/Lorian were also great bosses I'd love to rematch one day. Dragonslayer Armour was fun but his twig dragons kept sniping me which hurt my enjoyment. Aldrich was in a similar position. His fight was perfect minus his arrow attack. It would track and oneshot my poor character. My winning attempt was the only one where he didn't use that attack. Oceiros felt a bit...."janky"? with how he moved around? Yhorm was a fun puzzle fight (that did require me to lookup how his sword worked). For some reason, after killing him, I was instantly teleported to the boss fight with The Dancer without any time to prep. I was able to quickly slip on a Ring of Sacrifice before I went down and lost my souls.

Crystal Sage, Curse-rotted Greatwood and Deacons of the Deep were....fine. Got nothing to complain nor especially praise. Though, I did learn I was right to swap from Sorcerer to Knight. It would have been painful as some bosses like Greatwood's eggs can't be targeted with magic so I would have had to go in with melee as a squishy wizard. And others like Pontiff, Dragonslayer and Gundyr moved way too fast so fighting from range would have opened me up too much. I had much more success making sure my Knight's face was shoved into every boss's knees as this limited them to swinging attacks I could sometimes shuffle around causing them to miss their larger attacks.

 High Lord Wolnir was funny. In my first attempt, I was completely caught off guard by him so I attacked his fingers. I died when I he charged me and I think I got crushed under his ribcage? In attempt 2, I decided to attack his ribcage and I died 4.3 seconds into the fight😭. His runback was absolute torture so I explored the area as much as I could before do attempt 3.

 I even looked at maps on Fextralife to see if I could find another bonfire. It showed there was this area, "The Smouldering Lake" near the bridge before the bossfight and accessible through a ladder somewhere. I searched and for the life of me, I couldn't find the ladder. So I assumed I'd backtrack here later or something. Sadly, in this attempt, I had been ambushed and followed by every skeleton, pinwheel and rat along the way and had to burn so much health and Estus just to kill them all. I wasn't feeling confident in my chances but still decided to give Wolnir a shot. On a. whim, I decided to go after his wrist bracelets and I killed him in 10 seconds. I started laughing out loud after this. My family was concerned and what was so funny. I couldn't explain it to them.

Soul of Cinder was amazing. Another S tier boss and probably the most fitting way to end the game. His first phase feels like he's an amalgamation of every player/build that linked the flames before. He pulls out weapons, moves and abilities regular players could use. I was doing that "DiCaprio pointing meme" as he crushed my poor character's bones with sword, staff, dagger and magic attacks I recognized from Soulsbourne games. Makes sense the final boss would specialize in PVP strats😤.

Unfortunately for just me, Soul of Cinder feels like he was made to counter my 2 main ways of playing Souls Games: Magic characters and blocking characters. He moves, dashes and attacks so fast, with so much damage that I imagine if I was using my typical magic characters this time, I'd get crushed before doing significant image. And while my Tank character could tank 5-7 of his attacks, it hardly felt better. His multi hit combos often required me to block even if I dodged his initial hits. His final combo hit would break through my block so by the time "Elden Lord 2 The Knight" recovered from the guard break, Soul of Cinder would resume attacking. I was sometimes able to dodge away or recover enough stamina to block a bit more but normally this resulted in me eating quite a few hits. And attacking him with my +8 Claymore was often a liability as even 1 attack took so much time and stamina to do that he could recover and hit me back before I could dodge or block.

Initially, I felt he was at his scariest when he switched to a magic staff as he could have small magic orbs following him. I was spooked that those would tear through me that I was worried of approaching him. But after realizing that -1- they did pitiful damage -2- it was easy enough to dodge most of them -3- all his magic attacks were generally quite limited in range, mobility and threat. It was easy enough to get behind him, dodge his magic greatsword swing or Kamehameha and wail on him that I always became excited whenever he entered magic attack mode. It feel the game was taunting me and "Elden Lord 1 The Sorcerer" by having him be at his weakest as a magic user😭.

It took countless attempts but I eventually optimized my game plan. I may not have been to parry him, or block all his attacks, or dodge all his attacks, or even get frequent attacks off on him. But a combination of "shuffling into his crotch to allow certain attacks to miss me", and being careful when to block and dodge to get 1 hit in started to pay off. It took forever, but I finally managed to whittle his health down to 0. I was relieved. I finally did it. I got revenge for "Elden Lord 1 The Sorcerer" (and probably accomplished some other lore stuff idk). Only for him to get up, knock my poor character down in an explosion and enter phase 2. And even worse for me, he was done playing around. Soul of Cinder seemed to remember how I beat Gwen back in DS1 by parrying him and how I beat Soul of Cinder Phase 1 with my "shuffle, block, dodge" strat and took it personally.

Phase 2 Soul of Cinder felt like he swapped to a build designed to hard counter me and get revenge for Gwen. I heard the familiar "Plin Plan Plon" as he switched to a familiar and purely fire greatsword and lightning bolt setup. If it was hard getting hits in before, Phase 2 was rough. His combos were longer, wider and faster. It felt like I needed 3x the 20 stamina I had just to stand a chance. In particular, he had this charge sword strike that broke my block after the 1st or second hit, then did what felt like a 6 hit combo where he juggled my poor character in the air before knocking me to the ground and stabbing me in a massive explosion. It felt like an Anime finishing move. Yet my character would usually survive this with 10% health remaining. Probably cursing his fate at the punishment he just endured.

This was the first time I truly felt bad for my poor character. Even against earlier bosses that gave me trouble, they either killed my boi here quickly enough or the attacks didn't feel too bad visually. But even I was wincing in pain at the ass whooping Soul of Cinder was giving poor "Elden Lord 2 The Knight" with even basic attacks. Poor guy was a punching bag who, after barely surviving what feels like tactical nuke, would get up, chug an Estus and keep going despite probably being in agonizing pain and suffering from 3rd degree burns. It felt like that "I didn't hear no bell" meme personified.

Unfortunately, I feel I played the game wrong. After beating it, I looked through a few videos and saw I missed a lot of stuff that would have helped me in my playthrough. I recruited that one surviving pilgrim but couldn't find him later in Firelink Shrine so I couldn't get the free 5 levels that would have come in clutch. Normally, I don't find much use for boss souls in Souls games so I just eat them. I didn't even know you could transpose boss souls since I missed the NPC despite him literally being on the thrones until the very end. But if I did know, I could have gotten Havel's Ring which would have helped me out so much😭. Even more than that, I missed areas like Smouldering Lake which could have given me more items or levels. Even the Painted world of Ariandel. I didn't even realize it was a DLC area. I figured it was a secret area I needed something later to open. I left when the princess told me to leave and never came back😭.

My only option was to double down on my poor habits, eat as many boss souls and sell equipment to get 32 Vigour and figure out how I could beat a boss that could hit me faster than I could hit him and burn through all my stamina. My only advantage was that I was bulky af and could fast roll. Meaning so long as I was above 80%-ish percent health, I could survive his worst attacks. With 10 Estus and a Sun ring, I could probably win a war of attrition. It's how I beat Lothric/Lorian. However, it felt like Soul of Cinder had prepped for that. He was the 1 boss I kept running out of heals on.

So I came up with a big brain plan. Get good at dodging his phase 1 attacks as much as I could. Then, try and minimize damage on phase 2 and save my Estus for recovering after his juggling combo attack as in all of my countless attempts, I only dodged it successfully like once. And so it went. I threw myself at him in countless attempts. Often eating a few minor hits in phase 1. Phase 2 was rough. I could barely get hits in without getting smacked in return. Yet I couldn't risk trading hits since I needed to save my heals for his juggling combo. It was a dance of me barely shuffling, dodging and blocking, occasionally getting a hit in before running away. My solace tended to be his "Gwen Grab" and "Gwen regular Lighting Bolt" since I could dodge them and it were his only Phase 2 attacks that felt long enough for me to get 1-2 hits in and still have enough stamina to retreat.

I did have the fight bug out on me once. Once I hit him enough, he'd stagger and enter a stunned state giving me a few extra hits in. Once when I did that, he "countered" and did a parry/riposte on me despite being stunned? I survived his parry/riposte (and died later to his juggling combo) but thankfully he never did it again.

It took countless attempts. One particular went started off poorly. I got poisoned. Had to back off and apply a cure. Burned through 2-3 of my "Juggling Estus" before Phase 1 was over. Entered Phase 2. Lost 5 more Estus to a combination of his regular hits and juggling combo. I was more surprised when I ended up getting one final roll + Claymore Strike to defeat him that I let out a biggest sigh of my life. My family nearby were half convinced I had an asthma attack or something.

Poor "Elden Lord 2 The Knight" had done the impossible after a long and gruelling 16 hours. And, in honour of his predecessor from Dark Souls 1 all those years ago, walked all the way back to Firelink Shrine to trigger the Age of Dark ending. Except....that didn't do it? Unlike DS1, you actually have to do some side quests or something earlier on to get different endings? With a sigh, Poor "Elden Lord 2 The Knight"returned to the Kiln of the First Flame. Went over to that bonfire, put the flame on himself. Which honestly probably felt better than the fire the Soul of Cinder was beating him with earlier. He took a seat, watching the weird eclipse thing in the sky as he wondered if this was all even worth it.......

PostScript: Originally, I ended this post here. After all, I beat the game and had a rather poetic ending to my post. But I visited my cousin's place who is a huge Souls fan. Man completes new DS1, 2, 3, BB and Elden Ring runs for fun and uses dex builds😱. How does he play without a shield?

He was showing me how the twin blades are apparently beyond OP in DS3, Chalice Dungeon exploits in Bloodborne and all the boss weapons and ashes in the new Elden Ring DLC. Including the final boss. Shadow of the Erdtree really feels the most anime out of these souls games.

I was talking with him about what I did in my recent DS3 playthrough and his response was "Bro, you missed half the game and all the good content! Get your ass back in there and follow these non-spoiler instructions I made for you!"

My first stop after beating Soul of Cinder was to go near Pontiff Sulyvin's boss arena to find an illusionary wall (thanks to a message that wasn't there the last time I played) that led to a secret area where fought these rat/crocodile hybrids that dropped the Ring that Lauthric had in DS1 that gave me extra health, stamina and equip load. Perfect for me 😇.

Then I went where I fought Wolnir as he showed me that you could attack bridges to make them collapse and climb them like ladders which I never would have seen coming. I followed it to some Demon Ruins and fought enemies that reminded me of the demons in DS1 and that one meme that was like "Gee, there sure are a lot of demons in these ruins. They should have called this game 'Demon Souls'.....wait a minute...."

I came into this valley that had giant crossbows sniping me. But at this point, with my 40 vigour and thicc armour and sun, I could tank a few hits. I ran into this giant centipede that kept knocking me away and was really hard to fight while getting sniped. As I was fighting him, I saw an orange message and went to read it. It said  something "ahh Respite" and as I was upvoting it, I noticed the centipede taking damage from the crossbow so I just waited it out. Easy W there.

I then went into the fog wall that centipede was guarding and ran into the Old Demon King. A throwback to the Demon Firesage from DS1. An easy boss thanks to my endgame stats. I'm not complaining.

Next step was to go to Irythyl Dungeon and take an elevator to where some statues where chilling on a blanket. I had to do the "Path of the Dragon" emote I got from beating Oricalos 10 hours earlier which would teleport me to a hidden area. Again, I had no idea this was the way. I followed this area and was told my by cousin to run past the dragon and just find a way up to plunging attack to 1 shot him. My cousin then refused to give me any more instructions for some reason and told me to play on my own with a grin on his face.

I kept playing. I found Havel the Rock who killed a dragon leading me to wonder what the timeline for this game was given I killed Havel back in DS1 and how much time had passed? But I got his greatshield so I was happy until I looked at its weight. Swapping my current +4 Dragon Crest Shield would put my Equip Load at 103%. There goes my plan to block everything😭.

Then, I came across this weird bell on a raised platform. I rang it and noticed it made fog everywhere and a fog wall in front of me. I wondered if I could walk on the clouds until an orange message reassured me. I did so and followed it to the fog wall. I entered it and kept moving forward until this giant turkey-like creature came and started attacking me, triggering a boss fight. This was rough at first. The Turkey and its rider's attacks actually did over half my health despite my vigour. The worst was its overhead fire attack which I could never seem to avoid.

But after a few attempts, I managed to optimize everything else. I swapped to the Grass Crest Shield to give me extra stamina regen and 2-handed my +9 claymore. I was jump for joy whenever the Turkey would go for his "grounded fire attack" since that gave me 4-5 clean shots on his head and tear off a massive chunk of his health and often give me a chance for a critical shot.

Killing the massive turkey led to phase 2 against the supposed hardest boss in base DS3: The Nameless King. And I believe it. Nameless King seems to follow Soul of Cinder's philosophy of "being super effective against my playstyle". His attacks would frequently punch through my blocking and do nearly 40% of my health per hit. It was hard to find opportunities to heal or do consistent damage at first. And eventually, it became rather tedious to keep having to do phase 1 to take shots at the really fun phase 2.

After what felt like an hour of attempts, I felt like Neo in the Matrix (kinda). I felt that 80% of the time, I could reasonably predict what moves he was doing and would do. Before if I took a hit, I'd try to panic roll or heal away as quickly as possible which only worked sometimes. But now, if I took a hit, I'd "play it out" for a while. Dodging through some of his later attacks with my health at 30% until I'd find myself instinctively healing in between his attacks. Was this how pro Souls players feel? Is this the power of Ultra Instinct?

Sadly, it wasn't 100% reliable. There were times Nameless King would do follow ups to his attacks. Such as a 3 hit version of his basic swipes instead of 2 or add 1-2 extra attacks to his lunging heavy attack and jump attack. I couldn't tell what version he was doing until waiting a bit extra to see what he was doing which made it harder to get hits in with my slow claymore. Most of my mistakes were from this as I'd sometimes land a hit and roll through his follow up at what felt like the last possible millisecond. And others, I'd get an ass whooping. I also could never dodge his lighting AOE attack properly. Suffice it to say, I wished I had more than 11 Estus for this fight.

Adding to my worries was his lighting sword which would drain a bit of my health on blocks which was still one of my main approaches. But despite all that, I was really enjoying this phase. He felt less aggressive than Soul of Cinder with more opportunities to safely punish him. With Soul, it felt like he was made specifically to counter me. Nameless King felt like he took more pauses between his attacks which was made for me. Eventually, my strat was "equip the Grass Cress Shield and 2 hand my claymore and complete phase 1 using 1-2 heals, then switch to the Etheral Shield for better lighting resistance for phase 2".

 My victory was climactic. Nameless King did his overhead attack and I audibly said "checkmate" as I went in for 2 R1s to get that Dub. It was the first boss where I felt I saw my victory was guaranteed and inevitable 3 seconds before the fight ended in such a clear way.

I took a break from the content to look through the weapons I had at this point. I wondered if I had a dagger or spear or something I could use while holding my shield up as a backup weapon to my claymore. Something faster for enemies Like Soul or Nameless King I'd encounter in the future. But sadly, everything I could equip seemed either too weak or required me to put 16-18 points into Dexterity and I was unwilling to level up Dex in the event it turned out to be a waste. So I decided to continue with my Claymore as my only weapon.

Next up was the Ashes of Ariandel. I skipped this area my first time through because the people at the church told me to leave and I didn't know this was a DLC area so I figured I'd have to come back later or something. My cousin showed me where the ladder was so I followed that to a snow village, fought some NPCs, made it through some catacombs with mosquitoes. My cousin told me I could use a torch to undo the bleed buildup since it was being caused by leaches. I pulled a lever and saw a cutscene of a statue moving at the church from earlier. I fast travelled back thanks to the Sword I learned was an infinite fast travel thing now.

The Church held a boss fight with Sister Friede. Her gimmick was Frostbite which kept messing me up. But I managed to brute force through her Phase 1 with 3 Estus remaining. Phase 2 had her 20 ft and lumbering dad step up for a tag team. I initially decided to keep attacking Friede since I was worried she's jump me while attacking her dad and her dad seemed too slow to counterattack. But eventually, after multiple attempts, I learned that Father Ariandel should be my target given his slow lumbering nature and Friede being relatively passive. And that Friede can be backstabbed when she's going for a heal so I got my strat down.

 I eventually completed phase 2 and got a Titanite Slab for my troubles. Not really useful for me at this point since I already had a +10 weapon and wasn't willing to upgrade anything else but I'm not complaining😇.  But the game threw me a curveball. Despite giving me reward and appearing like the fight was over, Friede got up for a Phase 3😱. With only 1 Estus remaining, Blackflame Friede turned my bones into dust and told me to leave.

I considered changing up my stratgedy to better have more healing coming into phase 3. Friede's "invisible attack" in Phase 1 always got me. So I decided it was finally time to learn parrying. Better late than never. But I changed my mind after -1- only successfully parrying her on 20% of my attempts and -2- taking more damage despite doing a successful parry (around 10% of my health) vs a block (around 1% + some frostbite buildup) and -3- my regular attacks would stagger her and I could dodge most of her attacks.

Finally, a boss that rewarded my caveman playstyle. With a fair amount of patience, I could get 2-3 stun lock hits on Frieda in phase 1, bully Father Ariandel in Phase 2 and make it to phase 3 with around 7 Estus left and only a few Frostbite procs. From there, it was a matter of biding my time, waiting for Blackflame Frieda do one of her bigger attacks that left her vulnerable and get my hits in. My winning attempt did almost go poorly with me getting greedy, getting too many frostbite procs and almost dying and running out of heals. Not my best win but a win is a win. Still a fun boss. I'm still sad there are no PSN trophies for the DLC😭.

Next up was the Ringed City DLC. Apparently, you can access this from the Kiln of the First Flame as there is a bonfire that will warp you there. But I missed it on my first run because I figured that bonfire would warp you back to Firelink Shrine. Even my cousin pointed out how dumb my thinking was with "Bro, why would they put 2 bonfires next to each other?"

While I really enjoyed the base game and felt Ashes of Ariandel was fun, I wasn't fond of Ringed City. The area before the Demon Prince in the toxic swamp with the butterflies sniping you was rough. The Demon Princes themselves were annoying as one would always toxic me and then double team me. They were fun and easy to fight solo. It got to the point where I swapped out my armour for something with more poison resistance but had no luck so just decided to use my usual armour with the Grass Cress Shield and 2 Handing my +10 Claymore and hope I'd kill them before the toxic got me.

After an embarrassing number of attempts, I got toxic-ed very early but decided to play it through. It was rough but I killed the boss at the exact second my HP hit 0 from the toxic and I had burned through all my heals. I didn't get the Souls for the kill but it counted as a kill and ember-ed me up. So I just had to return, grab my green souls, get a level in Vigour and continue on.

The next area with the ambushes, 4 giants, giant swamp, witches cursing me, ghost archers and Dragon Slayer Armour and mini Souls of Cinders that would pursue me to the ends of the earth were extremely frustrating to play through. I was half considering quitting at that point. I did fight a dragon on a ledge shooting fire and crystals while hitting the ground but killing it didn't give me any souls but did clear the bridge for my future crossings.

The next bossfight was rough. Church of the Spear summons a real PVP player as a boss and sometimes I got really easy players I could have beaten if I didn't get jumped by the white maidens. Sometimes I got a giga chad that beat me before I even knew what I was doing. My winning attempt was against a player that just laid there and let me get the win. I don't know who you are, but you are my hero and I love you.

This whole section really felt like DS3 was channelling DS2 and I really disliked it. I'm glad I got the Fire Fates Edition at a discount because it would have been demoralizing to pay for this DLC separately. It has the only bossfight in DS3 I've played I'd put at F tier.

Fortunately, the DLC seemed to have realized my pain and decided to make its last section the best it could be to recover. After a weird cutscene where this woman's egg created a sandstorm, I emerged into this grey desert world where I ran into Gael. The guy who trapped me the Ashes of Ariandel Painting in the first place. I wanted revenge on him for making me play the Ringed City DLC. His boss fight was great with 2.5 phases. The first phase had him channelling Vordt with him walking on all 4s and doing really wild sword swings that were relatively easy to dodge, block, shuffle and then punish. His one purple lunge especially, gave me 2 hits on him guaranteed.

Phase 2 has him standing and doing wild sword swings + a magic cape aftertrail that did some magic damage that would damage me through my block. I found it hard to dodge as it seemed to 2 attacks in 1 as I could dodge the sword swing but not the cape stuff. Phase 2.5 had him summoning lighting and red magic skulls. My main approach was to just run away and hide behind cover while his lunging attacks got stuck for a while to wait out the hazards. But he became so fast and frantic that I couldn't visually parse what was even going on anymore with his attacks.

At this point, I felt a bit burnt out. I had played for nearly 4 hours straight by that point intending to finish Nameless King, Ashes of Ariendel and Ringed City in 2 days. Ringed City took a number on me. At that point, I wasn't interested in learning a boss' moveset, getting ultra instinct and winning in a proper duel like I did with Soul of Cinder, Nameless King and Sister Friede. I wanted to win. So...... I decided to give into my inhibitions and commit to the playstyle I was on the edge off. Noticing that Gael's attacks didn't break my block as easily gave me an idea. It was time for my final form.

I equipped most of the Winged Knight Armour Set, Havel's Greatshield, my trusty +10 Claymore that was inseparable and tweaked my load-out until I was at 98.6% equip load. I was ready. Gael may be faster than me, stronger than me, cooler than me, have more rizz than me, but I am chonkier. I aimed to block most of his attacks and only fat roll through like, 2 of them. His lunging grab (since that goes through my block) and his overhead arrow slam and lighting follow up.

One of Gael's tricks is that his attacks are somewhat delayed and not in a consistent rhythm. Making it harder to properly dodge or parry them. But those worked for me. I could hold L1 to block his attack, let go to recover most of my stamina by the time he follows up and then punish. As a bonus, it seems Gael was designed that most players would be moving around him. He has a lot of attacks that swing around to catch players dodging around him and relatively few "get off me attacks". But this meant that me being relatively stationary and shuffling around let me avoid most of his attacks. It didn't take long to consistently get through Phase 1 without using any heals.

Phase 2 was tricky. While I could consistently minimize the damage I took from Gael, I found it hard to punish him. He'd recover relatively quickly and get hits in. Stamina management and timing became crucial as I had to time my blocks to recover enough stamina as possible so when I got 1-2 hits in, I could fat roll through one of his follow up attacks and still have enough stamina for 1 final block. Eventually, I found I had to be patient and punish only his overhead slam or his 2 sweeping combo.

Phase 2.5 threw a wrench in this as he'd now optionally extend his combos. Sometimes his overhead slam would get an extra 2 attacks. Or he'd do 3 sweeps. His magic would do like 5% of my health so I couldn't block forever. God, I wish I had 1 more Estus Flask. His lighting was especially rough. But despite all that, I felt this was the first time I had a build that was generally super effective against a boss on a conceptual level rather than because I was good with my skills or overlevelled. Gael didn't have the kind of attacks like Soul of Cinder that would consistently punch through my blocks and then punish me. So I didn't have to really learn this boss.

Like, I feel I have most of Sister Freya, Soul of Cinder and Nameless King's moves memorized. But for Gael, I feel I only have like, most of his Phase 1 and like a couple of his phase 2 moves memorized. That's how useful my build was.

I won the fight with my save file telling me I beat all this in 23 hours. I enjoyed most of DS3 and Gael ended it on a high note. Too bad I feel I can't accurately judge him because I don't feel I even fought him properly lol.

I platinummed Cyberpunk 2077 and Phantom Liberty

 Hello everyone. I recently platinummed Cyberpunk 2077 PS5 and its Phantom Liberty DLC and wanted to talk about it.

Overall, this was an easy (On PS5 at least) if rather confusing game to Platinum. There a lot of missable story related trophies as well as later missions taking several in-game days to unlock. So I imagine for a first time player, it would likely require a second playthrough in order to know where key items and missions are. Fortunately for me, I played the Stadia version (RIP in Peace) back when the game first came out and did a good chunk of the game so I was prepared for this run.

So here was my game plan:

1. Grab a Katana or Knife and kill enemies as I play through the game. When I get 300 kills, switch over to an SMG and get 300 more kills. Then keep alternating between them to level up my Shinobi Skill. Make sure I collect and sell everything I find in order to make money.

2. Prioritize doing Fixer gigs and CyberPsycho attacks (Special side missions that pay a good chunk of money. Save as much money as possible as I will need  ~E$2,000,000  for "Autojock - Buy all vehicles available for purchase").

3. Once those are done or more aren't available, start doing main missions. Watching out for any of the following since they contain a key item for a trophy: "Search and Destroy", "Nocturne OP55N1", "Riders on the Storm",  "The Hunt", "Rebel! Rebel!", "Pisces", "Chippin In", "Psychofan". Everything else doesn't matter how you play it.

4. Once I max out my Street Cred reputation, and have enough money, make a manual save and buy every car. Reload my save and then use the money to buy whatever I need for the following trophies especially:

"Daemon In The Shell - Kill or incapacitate 3 enemies with one "Detonate Grenade" quickhack."

"Rough Landing - While Berserk cyberware is active, perform a Superhero Landing to kill or incapacitate 2 enemies"

"Two Heads, One Bullet -Kill or incapacitate 2 enemies with the same sniper rifle shot."

"V for Vendetta -After reviving with Second Heart, kill or incapacitate the enemy who killed you within 5 seconds."

These require a good amount of money and specialized equipment. "Rough Landing" for example, required me to use a respec, shopping around for specialized Ripperdoc implants, weapons and mods and 15+ tries to do as the groups I did it on would always have one guy survive at 1 HP for some reason.

5. Once I unlock the Phantom Liberty DLC, put the main story on hold and 100% that. This DLC' missable trophies are only related to its endings which you can all get if you make a manual save before the mission "Fire Starter".

6. Return back to the main story, finish all main missions and side quests, then do all 100 NCPD gigs (which was really tedious)  and find all 159 fast travel points.

That last one was annoying because while you only need to drive close to Fast Travel points to activate, there were around 20 I had left despite 100%-ing everything else because they were on parts of the map where there were literally no missions, gigs or content. Though, it wasn't too bad to do. I simply gave my grandparents a photo of a completed map on my iPad and asked them to "find all the blue icons that weren't on my game" and they came through for me.

An important thing to note is that 2.0 update for Cyberpunk 2077 reworked a lot about how the game worked. Including mechanics like levelling up, crafting and progression. This makes the PS5 version easier to platinum than the PS4 version as many trophies aren't missable now. 

For example, "Master Crafter - Craft 3 Legendary items" on PS4 required you to specifically invest in 4 major skills in the technical skill tree to be able to even craft items. On PS5 however, you can craft whatever right out of the gate as long as you have the items for it. No skills required. So this ends up being one of the easier trophies now.

The only downside I found is that some of the guides I consulted were a bit of out date now. One cool feature the PS5 has is that some games' trophies lists come with a built in optional guide for how to get them. Which I find is great as it means you can help on the game without needing to leave the game. And there was a really helpful section for "Christmas Tree Attack - Complete a Breach Protocol with a minimum of 3 daemons uploaded". The built in PS5 guide told me to search for skills like "Big Sleep" and "Mass Vulnerability" which I couldn't find no matter where they were. Turns out, those were from the pre-2.0 version.  The real PS5 version also doesn't require any upgrades (although they do help).

Overall, this whole experience took me around 70-ish hours in real time and around 65-ish hours on my final save file.  The trophies generally were pretty fun. Many being related to the story often just meant doing certain questlines in their entirety which is how I play anyway. However, the game has a habit of "timegating" certain quests which I felt really hurt the pacing. 

So lets say you complete 2/4 of Judy's quests. It could be quite a while before you receive the phone call for mission 3. It got to a point where I had the final main quest "Nocturne OP55N1" ready to complete by like hour 35 but I still hadn't received calls from River, Judy or Kerry for their quests despite doing literally every side quest (minus NCPD gigs) I came across first in the meantime. The game seemed to roll for Panem and Rogue's quests early this time.

I suppose I could have just manually slept for several in-game days to pass the time requirements for these quests to trigger. But still, I am not a fond of this design from both a casual and trophy hunter perspective. For one, the main story critical path for Cyberpunk (just getting to "Nocturne OP55N1") is relatively short. A player focusing on just main content could easily get to it in around 20-ish hours.

However, some of these extra storylines, some of which do open up extra endings, don't have any indication there is more to them until they happen to pop up. Kerry's for example, could technically "end" after any of the missions and it wouldn't seem out of place. Later missions often open with Kerry even going "Hey V, remember how everything seemed hunky dory and resolved after the last mission we did? Turns out, the situation turned sour. Come and help me". River's last mission comes after the main threat is resolved and he invites you for dinner. It's a similar situation for Judy.

So if you are a casual player that doesn't know how many quests there are and aren't going after trophies, it's not unreasonable to see someone completing the game without even knowing Kerry, Judy, River or Claire's storylines are technically incomplete. And if you do know and are trying to complete them, you have bounce around between unrelated missions or just keep sleeping to trigger them which gets annoying.

I believe the intention is to get players to bounce around different quests and for the setting to feel more "realistic". After all, when a character says they will get back to you, it might actually take some time for them to get back to you. They're not going to instantly have the information you need. But, still, like I said, I dislike this approach. In addition to the reasons from earlier, I also feel it "punishes" the player for not doing their side questing during designated times. Lets say you do some Fixer Gigs as a break from the main story, then do a main story quest you find interesting only for the game to say "Hey, go take a break and do some side quests first". The main mission doesn't take into account what you were doing earlier. I feel it's better for open world games to operate like GTA or Assassin's Creed in this regard where the next mission is available as soon as you complete the previous mission. No mandatory timegating. That way, you can do whatever proportion of main and side quests you want.

The game actually has a solution for this in its Phantom Liberty DLC gigs. Here, the game gives you a general map marker for the next stage in a quest as long as it's "ready" and if the player doesn't interact with it for a specified amount of time, then they get a call revealing what the first stage of the new mission is. This solves the issue for the casual player missing potentially interesting quests just because they don't get a phone call by looking at their maps for new quests. And for experienced hunters as they can directly go to the quests they want. All while keeping the "timegating via phone calls" in some form.

 

The only other significant issue I had with platinumming this game were the NCPD gigs. About 100 "radiant quest"-style activities where you go to an area, kill all enemies and/or retrieve an item and the mission is over. These work fine as activities you can do along the way to more important activities (similar to crimes or Random Events in games like Spider-Man) as they are quick bursts of combat, money, loot and XP. They don't have much story (aside from a data log or journal from the scene of the crime). But having to grind out 100 of them got really tedious. I soon just ran in and grabbed the item and left to start getting them over as fast as possible as I had done everything else. Just making these optional for the trophy would have significantly improved the experience because otherwise the game was quite fun.

As for the game itself, separate from the trophies, I really enjoyed my time. I liked it when I played it back in 2020 on Stadia on version 1.5 and experiencing all the wacky bugs. It was a fun "Far Cry-Like" with how I'd bounce between quests and combat areas, alternating between gunplay, stealth and platforming, and collecting loot to improve my V. And the story and writing were so engrossing and human. Night City, despite being rather static to interact with, is absolutely detailed in terms of world building and houses plenty of interesting quests.

Version 2.0 on PS5 Seems to push further on this "Far Cry-Like" design by downplaying more restrictive builds that lock you into a playstyle and decoupling gear from stats. And in some ways, I feel that was for the better. One big issue I had with version 1.0 and its marketing is that it felt like it was trying to "do everything". It wanted to be GTA or Watch Dogs despite lacking that specific style of  sandbox (even missing car chases). It wanted to be a Witcher or Bethesda style RPG despite lacking the character building stuff of those games. It tried to be like Borderlands or Diablo with its loot system despite it feeling incongruous with the world (though I still enjoyed its attempt here and am a bit disappointed this got removed entirely).

So version 2.0 focuses the game more towards what was its strongest points: its story, and flexible "Far Cry-like" gameplay and its worldbuilding/design. And those elements come together to make an engrossing and fun game despite other games still doing individual elements better. Like, Far Cry, I feel, still has more fun outpost clearing with how other elements of the sandbox can make the experience more wild.  Watch Dogs makes the hacking more interesting by giving you more ways to use the environment such as jumping between cameras to complete missions or bypass certain obstacles in a more puzzle like way (as well as having more interesting car chases). But Cyberpunk 2077's world and mixture of powers and quests manage to the experience more novel.

Thank you so much for reading. My next post will probably be a casual review of Dark Souls 3. See you then.

All the TMNT Games on GBA

 Hello everyone. I recently played the 3 TMNT games on GBA and would like to talk about them.

-1- Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles GBA (2003)

This is a licensed game based on the 2003 TMNT show (one I really enjoyed watching a kid and remember often being freaked out by because some of those episodes were dark af. That episode where Don goes to the future especially😳).

The game is mostly a 2D brawler/beat-em-up type split into 4 chapters you can play in any order. Each chapter is a self contained story based on season 1 episodes from the TV show where you control 1 Turtle. For example, Raph's chapter consists of him meeting and befriending Casey Jones while dealing with the Purple Dragons. Don's chapter references that one episode where the Foot Clan had invisible Ninjas and kidnapped Raph. The stories themselves aren't told in an amazing way, mostly being quick stills and text boxes so if you aren't a fan of the show or these episodes, you won't enjoy them as much. I won't complain about this aspect too much here. The poor GBA can't exactly go wild with the cutscenes here. And I did find the game's retellings of episodes I watched as a kid rather nostalgic and charming. The artstyle, sound and aesthetic are accurate to the show and well done here.

When I first played the game and saw there were 4 chapters, I imagined it would just be the same set of levels, maybe some alternations here and there for some level aspects or cutscenes for each of the 4 Turtles. Kinda like the old 16 bit Turtle games. But no. Each of the 4 chapters have different levels built around the different Turtles who have different abilities.

The 4 Turtles share the same basic controls. You jump with A, attack with B. Attacking an enemy with B does a basic combo. Holding B charges up an attack indicated by a meter under the Turtle's health. Releasing it when the meter is yellow does a stronger attack. Releasing it when the meter turns red does an even more powerful attack but takes longer to charge. Holding it until the meter is full "tires out the Turtle" and leaves you vulnerable so there is some risk/reward here. Pressing R does a super attack that damages all enemies around the Turtle at the cost of some of the Turtle's health. Good as a last resort option but not one you want to spam. There are some addition moves like jump and direction attacks.

The Turtles themselves have their own takes on these controls and movesets and their levels are built around that. For example, Leo's controls and moves are more standard brawler/beat-em-fare. So his levels focus more on throwing enemies and projectiles at him. Don can't double jump like the others. Instead, pressing Up + A makes him use his staff to launch himself up. And pressing A when running makes him use his staff to do a long jump. So his levels are built more around doing this type of platforming as well as doing some hacking. Mikey is the only one with a ranged attack (charging his attack until red makes him throw is nunchuks like boomerangs) and can wall jump so his levels often throw more ranged enemies across gaps that you can either take out with the ranged attack or jump to avoid projectiles and close the distance. Raph can climb walls with his sais so his levels have a lot more climbing and verticality.

The chapters are also interspersed with "gimmicks/vehicle" sections. For example, Raph's chapter contains a section where he must do a motorcycle race against Casey while also dodging obstacles and collecting fuel in a 2.5 level. Don has a 2D glider section where he must dodge and shoot down missiles and avoid floating mines. Mikey has a skateboarding section that kinda reminds me of Sonic 2's Special Stages.

The general gameplay and controls do work fine. The game is generally fun but I do find it starts to get a bit repetitive as there isn't much variety. I do appreciate the game trying to mix up the experience and make the Turtles have different moves but I feel it doesn't improve the experience enough.

For one, the game doesn't have many different kinds of attacks or attacks. I understand the GBA is limited with buttons but still. There's no cool counterattack or parry system or any kind of grabs. So most fights do come down to spamming attacks and jumping away from enemy attacks. Which is fun but not very deep.

Secondly, many of the Turtle's unique moves often feel more cosmetic rather than add variety. For example, Raph can climb walls. But the majority of his levels are still the same combat shared by the other Turtles. Climbing walls doesn't radically change how you play the level as Raph. It's not like there are secret pathways or routes you can now find by climbing. Instead climbing just becomes something you have to do as Raph sometimes.

Thirdly, some of the gimmicks often make the experience more annoying and frustrating. Don's sections often make him do that running+long jump platforming which I found was rather imprecise and finicky especially when needing to chain said jumps multiple times over spiked pits. Damage often persists for quite a while and checkpoints are pretty infrequent.

Don and Raph's vehicle sections were also really annoying. For Raph, it's hard to see what obstacles are coming up when traveling at high speeds. Making enough mistakes means you can't then catch up to Casey which means you lose and have to retry. I had to spend quite a while replaying this level, memorizing all the hazards and playing near flawlessly to make it through. At least the section was quite short.

Don's section doesn't have any time pressure but the level is quite long, has no checkpoints and very few healing items. Having to dodge so many mines and missiles at high speed with little heads up wasn't fun.

Interestingly, I found Mikey's chapter the most fun as his moveset is versatile enough to give more variety to the gameplay. Mikey having both a charged ranged attack and close range quick melee means you can alternate them depending on the enemy and its attacks. When you're fighting those big lizard monsters, you can come in close and attack them when they're doing their breath attacks, then jump away when they are doing their melee strikes and attack them from range and repeat. Mikey's platforming sections are more fun as the wall jumps ask you to time your jumps properly to make progress and avoid obstacles and enemy attacks. There are even combat sections that combine these. Like, I feel you can make an entire solid game out of just Mikey's gameplay. It's that good.

Even his vehicle section was quite fun. The pseudo 3D approach worked well in showing you what obstacles were coming, it was reasonable enough to react to them, Mikey has both a short move with the D-Pad and a longer spin/dodge with B that helped with this. Like, if you have to play only 1 chapter, Mikey's is the way to go. I have no complaints. It's short and sweet as well (the whole game is like 2 hours max). I honestly wouldn't mind an entire game that uses just Mikey's chapter as the foundation and builds on top of it.

Overall, TMNT GBA is a decent time waster for 2 hours but not one I would go out of my way to replay. I like the charm, aesthetic and set pieces here but the gameplay isn't the most replayable and it has some frustrating sections.

-2- Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 2: Battle Nexus GBA (2004)

Released a year after the last game. TMNT2BNGBA, from my research looking online, is generally considered the worst and most confusing TMNT GBA game. When I first started playing it, I thought the same. But now, I might consider it the best.

TMNT2 retains mostly the same gameplay, sprites, controls, and assets from its predecessor but is a completely different genre. Whereas its predecessor was a straight up brawler/beat-‘em-up, 2 is more of a platformer/stealth/action/puzzle hybrid. I know that sounds weird but hear me out.

Unlike its predecessor, there aren’t unique levels or chapters depending on the Turtle you pick. You progress by choosing a level and then which Turtle you want. Meaning you can play or replay any level with any Turtle.

When you choose a level, you start without a weapon. You do have shurikens you can throw but these do paltry damage and are used more for puzzles in later levels. You then have to use stealth and platforming to get past enemies as it’s very difficult to fight them at this point. Once you find your weapons, you can fight enemies normally and then must find the exit to the level.

When I first started playing the game, I found myself agreeing with many of the criticisms leveled at the game. It’s rather confusing to navigate and it’s not very fun as a stealth game as the stealth is quite basic and becomes a non factor when you find your weapons. Nor is it fun as a brawler as there are fewer enemies in fights because of the stealth aspect. Boss fights in particular are odd because you don't start with your weapons but the pickup for them spawns right above you at the start of the level.  So I was prepared to say this was the worst game here.

But after a while, I decided to try 100%-ing a level just for the fun of it. And that’s when the game clicked for me. The focus of the game isn’t the combat or stealth, but more the exploration/navigation.

Remember back in my review of the previous game where I mentioned the Turtle’s unique abilities often felt more cosmetic rather than novel? This game aims to rectify that. The same level can be played quite differently depending on which Turtle you select. This is most evident on the level in world 2 that asks the player to escape a vertical area in under 70 seconds. Raph can quickly climb the walls. Don can hack a console to bring down a lift and use his Bo Staff to launch himself upwards. Mikey can use his ranged attacks to break open blocks to create paths. This leads to some nice problem/puzzle solving where you have to analyze parts of a level and decide which Turtles to bring in on subsequent playthroughs to 100% the level.

Even the odd weapon pickup mechanic starts making more sense here. All the Turtle's movement abilities depend on their weapon. Starting without the weapon means you must navigate part of the level with your base movement abilities, noting all the areas you can't reach yet, and then possibly backtrack once you do find them kinda like a Metroidvania.

Leo does fare the worst here however as he doesn't have any unique movement abilities. Ralph can climb walls which is genuinely useful here. Don can hack certain terminals, see in the dark with his night vision goggles and use his Bo Staff launch himself straight up. Mikey loses his wall jump from the last game but can glide and has a range attack using his nunchucks. As a result, whenever I play a new level, I like to play as Leo first as the "hard mode" as I must complete the level in the most basic way. Then usually Mikey to get those crystals that require his ranged abilities, then usually Don or Ralph as they can mop up what few remaining crystals are left. The game also gives you a medal for completing a level with each of the 4 Turtles.

I will say that sometimes, this does work to the game's disadvantage. The later levels tend to be more fun being replayed 4 times as they are larger and have more paths or ways for the different Turtles to play differently. But early on, it can feel rather boring as many early levels don't change much with the 4 playthroughs. This is especially the case in the "gimmick/vehicle" levels that ask you to ride a hoverboard or glider or 3D shooting section as these do not change at all depending on the Turtle. You even get all 10 crystals with Leo. I feel it might be better if the game gave you the medal for completing it with all 4 Turtles when you beat it just once. It's sorta similar for the boss fights but at least the bosses are actually kinda fun and not very drawn out.

Then again, there is nothing requiring you play each level 4 times. The bare minimum the game asks you is to just complete the level once with any Turtle to unlock the next level. You can speed through the game once with just Raph if you want.

But yeah, I was pleasantly surprised with this game. And of all of the TMNT games on the GBA, I feel this is the one I'm most likely to ever come back and replay in the future. I enjoyed its design and approach that much. I really do feel this game has potential with a modern reimagining that takes its concepts much further. I'm imagining a TMNT game where how you complete a level and which Turtle you use unlocks a different set of levels. That would be so cool. As it stands, TMNT2 BNGBA is a pretty fun time for the 2 or so hours it lasts. I highly recommend checking this one out.

TMNT (2007)

The last and final TMNT game on the GBA was the one based on the 2007 CGI movie. And I loved that movie as a kid. So much so that I went and sought out whatever merchandise, books and games I could based on it. I remember getting the PS2 game based on the movie, as well as the PSP and DS versions. The PS2 version was this really good alternate take on Prince of Persia (makes sense since it was made by Ubisoft) with great level design and mechanics. I recommend everyone reading this go try it if you can. The DS/PSP version was.......a game. So I was looking forward to see how the GBA would translate it. I was hoping for an extension of TMNT2 BNGBA.

If I had to briefly describe TMNT2007GBA, it feels the closest we've seen so far to a GBA version of the Turtles in Time game. It's a straightforward and streamlined 2.5D brawler. No platforming. No vehicle sections. No exploration or branching paths. No Collectibles etc. You just pick a level, select which Turtles the game dictates you can choose (depending on the story mission) and off you go.

The first thing I want to highlight are the graphics and artstyle. This game looks great. And I don't mean "good for the GBA". I mean, really good. It uses this really nice and detailed artstyle that absolutely pops. It's gorgeous. Like, with some tweaking, it wouldn't look too out of place in a modern retro style game. I might even go so far as to say this is one of the best looking games on the GBA. Everything from the Turtles to the enemies and environments is some great pixel art.

The game also has a hub world. You start in the Turtles' lair where you can walk and talk to Splinter to play levels and look at in-game trophies and achievements. But you can also leave the sewers and walk around a small street in New York. This street has a few pedestrians moving around that completely ignore your Turtle, and some stores you can walk in to purchase items to help you in later levels like health potions, extra lives, extra exp, temporary weapons and even a wall jump move. And on this street, there is a small section where you can practice your moves on a respawning gang member, and a rooftop that leads you to April who can give you a minigame to spend 25 coins to throw barrels at targets. Like, yeah, all this stuff could be in a menu, but it's still really cool. And a bit funny to imagine Ralph angrily walking across the street in clear view of every pedestrian to enter a gym and buy some candy bars and baseball bats lol.

When you are in a level, the controls and gameplay should sound familiar. You move with the D-Pad, jump with A, attack with B. There are some tweaks to the overall combat system. You can now do a sort of Sonic the Hedgehog style homing attack by pressing A twice. There are no more "charged B" attacks. Instead you just have combos and moves that rely on a direction + B. You can pick up certain items dropped by enemies like weapons and throwables by pressing B and then pressing B again to use them. You can also pick up and throw objects like crates and even smaller enemies you knock down.

You also have "Brother Bond Moves". When you start a level and choose your main Turtle, you can also choose to bring along another secondary Turtle as backup. When in combat, you fill up a green meter by doing attacks. When this meter is full, you can press R to summon your secondary Turtle who will take out 1 or multiple enemies, or drop a healing pizza for you. The more you summon a particular secondary Turtle, the more they will level up and the longer they will stick around when you summon them.

This game also encourages you to get a high score. Moreso than the prior GBA Turtle games. How many hits you get in a combo directly correlates with how much money and XP you get. Getting more XP levels up your Turtle and improves their stats. Money can be used to by items and resources in between levels. You also get a score and time rating at the end of every level.

The game also tells the story of the movie through these stills from the movie. Although, it really speedruns the plot of the movie here. A single 6 minute mission feels like it blitzes through like 30-40 minutes of scenes from the movie. I can't be too harsh here. This is the norm for movie licensed GBA games. Those cartridges don't exactly have a lot of room to spare.

So yeah, if you are a huge fan of Turtles in Time, you might enjoy this game. I personally, didn't really enjoy this one.

For one, I really liked how the past 2 Turtles' games (especially TMNT2 BN GBA) really mixed up the experience with cool platforming and exploration gameplay rather than rely on strictly combat. It kept the game feeling fresh. TMNT 2007 GBA is just 100% combat in every level and I feel that gets a bit too repeitive. The game does introduce new enemy factions that do look visually different and have slightly different moves (and special or larger enemies that require you to really fight them differently) but I don't feel it's enough. I found myself getting kinda bored of the game by the 3rd level. The game even has a wall jump move you can buy and it does work in the lair but there's nowhere to use it in the regular levels which are mostly straight lines as you move through them. Sometimes there are some cool hazards like mines or explosive crates or trains but they only help so much. 

Your moves in combat are pretty straightforward and don't feel too different. The different Turtles, despite having different stats, don't play too differently. But you're still encouraged to stick with a specific pair of Turtles because of the XP system as the summon moves are really useful in later levels.

The game's few attempts at mixing up the experience come in the boss fights. And these aren't great. Hush is the first one you fight and feels a bit cheap given his AOE attacks but is otherwise passable. The weird red goblin looking thing from the movie is really confusing at first and his fire attack drains a lot of your health. But then you learn you have to walk into him when he's standing still to dictate where he moves and hit him when he inflates himself for his fire attack where he no longer becomes a challenge but is pretty dull. Karai's boss fight is her doing seemingly undodgeable attacks and then splitting into 3.  2 of which are fake decoys. You have to hit the correct one quickly to damage her or she'll restart her attack cycle. Winters' Boss fight involves him dropping these red laser balls on you that you just have to avoid once and hit them so they fly into Winters who will do a charge attack once that you have dodge and then repeat. The 13th Monster isn't a traditional fight but instead a timed challenge where you avoid falling off the truck and throw fish into his mouth while regular Purple Dragon goons and the monster's breath tries to blow you off. The 4 stone generals repeat the same basic and easy patterns so it becomes less a fight and more a waiting game. I didn't really enjoy any of these while the boss fights in the prior TMNT GBA games were actually kinda fun despite not being very novel. They were good straightforward brawler bosses.

It's a shame because I can see all the things this game does well or novel working in a better game. The artstyle and graphics, scoring system, and hub world are really cool. It's a shame that the gameplay itself kinda gets rather stale too quickly for the game's own good and the game doesn’t really have anything else in its hub world and side content to make up for it. And this game is far shorter than its GBA predecessors. I feel you can beat it in around 1-1.5 hours here. And I didn't feel any rush to replay it once I was done.

Of course, I could be entirely wrong here. It’s entirely possible this game has secret levels or something in its hub world that I entirely missed that are that mix of TMNT2 and TMNT2007 I was craving and I can’t deny that. I didn't find anything like that so I have to conclude for now, it’s not a game I’d recommend. If someone reading this knows if I missed something important, let me know and I’ll reevaluate the game.

In closing, TMNT2BNGBA is something of a hidden gem on the GBA. It’s a bit of an odd game that takes some getting used to, but once you do, it becomes a really fun and engaging 2D Action Stealth Brawler Platformer due to its level design and the different Turtles’ abilities. I highly recommend it.

TMNT1 and TMNT2007 on the other hand, are a bit harder to recommend. TMNT1 fares better due to its more varied mechanics and levels but is rather inconsistent and repetitive. TMNT2007 is drop dead gorgeous to the point of almost feeling more modern than it is but is far more repetitive and flawed.

Thank you for reading. I want to cover more superhero/comic book games on the GBA like the Iron Man and Batman games one day. My next post will probably be on Platinumming Cyberpunk 2077. I hope to see you all then.

A critique of Call of Duty MW3 2023's Campaign and ways to improve the story

 Hello everyone. I recently completed the main campaign of CODMW3 2023 and I wanted to talk about it.

Let’s start with the gameplay. MW3 2023 has been heavily criticized and roasted for its level design and structure. With some calling it the worst COD campaign in history. Many people really hated the game’s “Open Combat missions” that drop players into part of the Warzone map and be told to go do some objectives however they feel like.

But bear with me on this next section:

 I’m going to drop one of the hottest takes and pretty much ruin my reputation by saying “I actually kinda liked it and feel that with some tweaking and improvements, this has the potential to significantly raise the bar for future COD campaigns”.

Now that nobody is going to take this post seriously, it’s time to explain my reasoning.

To me, the main appeals of a COD campaign are its mix of levels that vary up the gameplay. You could have a level that’s more of an Uncharted style action set piece, followed by a scripted tense stealth level, followed by a more open ended level that gives you more freeform and improvisational gameplay. Followed by a straightforward shooter level with no gimmicks. But I still prefer it when COD levels lean more on giving the player multiple options rather than be 100% scripted and linear.

There is one Open Combat mission in MW3 2023 that I feel really highlights the potential of open combat missions. Highrise. In this mission, you play as Gaz as he’s tasked with capturing Konni operative Nolan on the top of an apartment complex. The gameplay involves navigating through through the various rooms of the apartment complex as you climb higher and higher. But you have a fair amount of options for how you want to progress and fight enemies. You aren't just going through linear hallways (not entirely). For example, you can jump out a window onto a balcony and use that to flank enemies or even bypass them altogether. There are often multiple ways to go up floors such as using the stairs, using the makeshift walkways outside or jumping on certain hanging crates. Gaz even comments that he's using these shortcuts. The mission even rewards your exploration by giving you high quality gear, armour pieces and tools like the Ascender to help you access more areas or shortcut back up if you fall. My favourite part was getting Ascender, using it to enter a side room a couple floors up, and finding a Dragon Breath Shotgun that fires explosive rounds that tore through many of the armoured enemies in my path. I really enjoyed this more freeform level design and progression despite the overall structure of the mission being quite linear.

Another Open Combat Mission, Oligarch has Soap infiltrating the mansion of the Russian Oligarch funding Makarov. This mission is fun because you can either choose to play it stealthily or go loud. The stealth is rather basic but the open ended design of the map makes combat quite engaging. I found I was enjoying it as I was chased and directed around, going into buildings and looting supplies as I fought armoured enemies. The mansion and its grounds offer a lot of variety and interesting spaces to fight in. COD's mechanics and weapons sandbox at this point are quite deep. There's a lot to play around with weapons and their attachments, killstreaks, gadgets and perks. And past COD games didn't really incorporate that into the campaign as much as MW3 2023 is.

The other Open Combat Missions, I feel, are fine. Their gameplay isn't any worse than prior CODs and their missions. The gunplay is snappy, you get quite a lot of rewards for exploring. Them being Warzone Maps means the environments are better designed for combat encounters with more avenues to approach objectives. I'm reminded a bit of the Singleplayer Spec Ops modes from prior CODs. MW3 2023's campaign kinda feels like it's incorporating some of the design of those old modes. Like, I don't feel these missions would be automatically better if they were much more linear and scripted like the older CODs like many of the reviews and posts I've read claim.

I will argue that many of these Open Combat Missions lack a lot of the spectacle and forward momentum. The missions also don't take more advantage of their format to introduce more interactive elements. So rather than feeling like "campaign missions that just happen to be set in Warzone's map", they feel more like "Warzone contracts that happen to be in the Campaign".

As an example, in the mission "Precious Cargo", Farah just needs to plant trackers on the missile containers. Even though the mission is open ended in how you approach it and we get a sense of her and Grave's relationship, once you plant the trackers, the mission just ends.  Or the mission Payload. Here Price is tasked with destroying 3 Konni Helicopters and then entering the base's nuclear reactor. Your primary objective is just to destroy the helicopters and there happen to be a lot of Konni guards in your way.

Imagine, in a hypothetical version of Payload, what if it worked a bit more like Metal Gear Solid 4 where Konni forces were engaged in skirmishes with some local militia and Price's objective was to sneak through the battlefield while the 2 sides were distracted to destroy those helicopters (or some other target as the Helicopters would probably be in use now)? You already have the approach the game already has where you can slowly stealth through, ride past or shoot your pay past Konni enemies (and also the local militia). But now the mission could introduce secondary objectives or interactions the player could do. For example, they could take a detour to free some local militia prisoners so they have a larger force to attack a Konni base. And then they could either join in the attack or use the commotion to sneak around and plant explosives on the Helicopters/Target? Could make the mission stand out a lot more than just being a Warzone contract.

This is something prior COD games have toyed around with. CODWW2 had a mission where you infiltrate a German Embassy and could optionally rescue prisoners you found along the way. And they would then help you out later depending on how many you rescued.

-The Story.

While I have been pretty positive on MW3 2023's Singleplayer gameplay (more than what people think it should deserve), I will be a lot more negative on the story. I have heard CODMW3 2023 was originally intended to be a DLC for MW2 2022 (the game even shows up as a DLC for MW2 2022 on PS5) and nowhere is that more apparent than in the game's story. MW3 2023's story feels like its spinning its wheels, stalling for time and stretching out events in order to buy time for the real MW3. It's even half the length of a typical COD story, clocking in at around 2-3 hours as opposed to the usual 5-6.

The game starts out strong. Rescuing Prisoner 627, learning its Makarov, seeing him go to work and seeing Price immediately abort a mission to go after him really establishes Makarov as a threat. But the game doesn't really progress this dynamic. A major focus on the plot is how Makarov intends to frame the ULF for launching chemical weapons......the same plot point from MW2 2022. And Task Force 141 are able to thwart it so Farah's wishes are fulfilled. Price is poisoned from exposure to chemical weapons......but is fine barely a cutscene later. The world as a whole doesn't feel like it's on the brink of war so there's no sense of forward progression despite what Lazwell says.

Something MW2019 and MW2 2022 did better than the OG MW trilogy was develop the main cast of characters. What can you tell me about OG Ghost's character? Those games didn't really show much of his character and personality aside from him "being a competent soldier" and wearing a mask (and also being a hit of a hacker). Like, you could swap him out with Ozone or Scarecrow and little would change. You had to read the tie-in comics in order to get some actual character out of OG Ghost. But MW2022 goes out of its way to give Soap and Ghost a bromance in "Abandoned". Their banter and relationship were charming and endearing. You also had Aleandro in MW2 2022 with a very charming personality and Farah in MW2019 who acted as something of a "moral compass" for the cast. Gaz has his bit in MW2019 where he showed off his feelings in Piccadilly. 

MW3 2023 portrays these characters in a far more generic way. Gaz feels much more like a generic and replaceable soldier character. Soap and Ghost's bromance only briefly gets shown in a single cutscene. Farah has this very interesting relationship where she trusts and sides with Graves (the villain of the last game) who every other character hates but that tension never goes anywhere. This hurts because I feel this trilogy was on track to at least make Soap and Ghost's deaths hit harder since we got more character development out of them. But MW3 2023, the way it currently is, makes Soap's death feel way less impactful than it could have. Like, you could have had Soap die in the final mission of MW2 2022 the same way he does in MW3 2023 and that would have felt more impactful because of the build up and relationship he had with Ghost. 

MW3 2023, because of its rushed pace and lack of any significant story or character beats, also suffers with regards to Shepard. Price kills him in the post credits scene. But unlike his OG counterpart, this version of Shepard didn't do as much wrong for Price to want to personally kill him. I guess he may have been responsible for delivering chemical weapons but it lacks the more personal antagonism of OG Shepard. It feels more like Price went AWOL to go after Shepard here rather than a more organic sequence.

Adding to the issue are Graves and Alex' characters. Alex died back in MW2019. Graves (supposedly) died in MW2 2022 (but we didn't see a body so he almost certainly was alive). Not only does MW3 2023 bring them back after several years (significantly undermining the threat of death in this series) but the reveal and details of their re-appearance wasn't even shown in MW3 2023. The cutscenes re-introducing them came from Warzone and its seasonal storytelling approach. Being charitable, I suppose Activision noticed that the Singleplayer story was only being updated a couple years apart while Warzone needed a concurrent story to keep players engaged and so decided to kill 2 birds with one stone by having the singleplayer story continue in Warzone. This isn't even an entirely new idea as CODMW2019's Spec Ops Mode was described as being a sequel to the base game's story as it followed up on some plot points from the base game.

But still, I don't think this is a great idea. I haven't played Warzone since 2022 but I don't imagine Warzone players were that invested in the Singleplayer campaign's story? I figured the Warzone playerbase were kinda like the Zombies Playerbase in that the story was this alternate universe "isolated to the mode" type affair. Kinda like Operation Monarch Event where Kong and Godzilla showed up in Warzone. Conversely, are fans of COD Singleplayer really going to play Warzone just to get more story out of the game? Especially when the story is now limited to the location and structure of Warzone. I imagine there are quite a few players like me that don't play much Warzone and primarily get their COD story from the singleplayer campaigns who were quite confused. A major aspect of modern COD is that there are like 3-5 modes per game and some players are exclusively fans of 1 of them.

 -

But on a more broad note, I feel the core story issues in MW3 2023 aren't entirely new. They kinda were always present with this trilogy of games. MW3 2023 is just where they caught up to their consequences as its seemingly rushed development really pushed them out on the open. MW2019 had this weird approach where it wanted to be this far more "realistic" and "grounded" game rather than something closer to a Hollywood Blockbuster. Something more morally ambiguous with Price saying "We get dirty so the world stays clean". But the game doesn't commit to either approach. See how MW2019 rewrites the Highway of Death to blame the Russians or how the Russian Occupation of Urzikstan's inspired suicide bombings in the UK rather than Russia. Jacob Geller has a really good video on MW2019 wants to look controversial and serious but fails to actually explore any of its topics and falls back to its preconceived conventions. 

MW3 2023 inherits that same wishy-washy approach but has less to distract from it. It can't seriously explore Makarov's points or explore its characters in any depth because it can't commit to being serious or having characters reflect on their questionable actions. But at the same time, it can't let Makarov kickstart WW3 or have America be affected like in the OG MW2 and MW3 because its supposed to be "grounded and realistic". So all it can do is spin its wheels. This results in a story that doesn't really progress its overall plot or its characters. The new MW trilogy really feels like the kind of Games Spec Ops: The Line was designed to critique. It also doesn't help that the story now needs to be handed off and received from entirely separate modes like Warzone that don't complement a more serious story.

 I suspect MW4 2025 will continue this trend. You may have Task Force 141 pursuing revenge against Makarov in some small isolated section of Russia and/or the Middle East that is completely isolated from the rest of the world. They may even kill him but there won't even be a proper WW3 in the story. Or if there is, it will probably just be US troops vs the local army or something all while the game claims this is WW3.

 Regardless, If I could suggest how to improve MW3 2023's story while making as few changes as possible, here's how I would do it:

Operation 627:  Honestly, I think this mission is fine the way it is. The shake up that you're rescuing Makarov, getting a sense of how he operates and the final cutscene showing Price abandoning a mission as soon as he learns Makarov is free is good stuff. It establishes Makarov as a credible threat. Honestly, I don't think there's much wrong here that needs to be changed.

If I had to change anything, I am not a huge fan of this version of Makarov's design and appearance. OG Makarov's design and voice was more iconic and intimidating. Reboot Makarov kinda looks and sounds younger and less threatening. Other rebooted characters like Price, Soap, Ghost and Shepard due at least look and sound on par with their OG Counterparts. I wouldn't  have been opposed to Makarov here being a copy and paste of his OG self.

Precious Cargo: The first open combat mission. I kinda like what this mission is going for here. You play as Farah, her friend Dina gets killed and you have to scavenge for supplies in a dock while Graves is the voice on the radio. Farah's primary objective is to plant tracking devices on shipping containers that hold the chemical weapons Makarov wants. I feel the banter with Graves here as this "fake angel/help" is quite interesting and I wish there was more of that.

If I had to add something, I feel there could have been a linear section after the trackers have been planted where Farah wants to seek revenge against the Konni commander that shot Dina. So you could have a section where Farah disrupts a small Konni command centre, gets into a scuffle with a commander, and learns more of Makarov's plans before the mission ends. But idk, seems a bit overboard for the first Open Combat Mission. Plus it would just be padding anyway. So I'm not too big on this idea.

Reactor: This mission is ok. Price infiltrates a nuclear power plant in an Open Combat mission. Destroys some helicopters, and goes into the reactor where he gets hit with a dose from the chemical weapons.

Not much to add here. I do feel the mission would be improved by my MGS4 inspired idea.

Payload: This is where I start getting more drastic with my changes. The opening missions of MW3 2023, if a little bland, do at least something and follow on from prior missions. Payload is the first mission that really falters here. Price gets exposed to chemical weapons in the last mission but recovers in like a couple seconds of screentime. The consequences of his exposure never show up in the game whatsoever.

So here's my suggestions: Price gets benched for this mission because of his injuries. The player takes control of Gaz while Soap provides recon and assistance via his drone. Kinda like an inversion of "Abandoned from MW2 2022" where it's now Soap who is helping out the player character. I want this mission to have a lot of optional dialogue and bonding moments between Soap and Gaz. We need to milk as much of Soap as we can before he dies. But the story should present it as like Soap and Gaz being worried about Price potentially dying. Flag up Price potentially dying as the red herring to distract from Soap's death.

 

In the current version of MW3 2023, the chemical weapons are marked with Urzikstan's flags so they get blamed for the attack. Aside from being a repeat from MW2 2022, this plot point doesn't matter much because Urzikstan's name gets cleared anyway by the end. If we have to reuse this plot point again, I feel it would be better if the consequences of this are something that are more drastic and can't be as easily undone. Like, in the original MW2 2009, the events of the "No Russian" Mission weren't easily swept under the rug. So I would have it such that the missiles are branded with American Flags or set up in a way to blame the Americans. This strains global tensions and pushes the world towards war. Which at least feels higher stakes than the current version. It also mirrors the OG MW2 2009 which is what MW3 2023 is going for.

This also accomplishes several other things. Firstly, it gives Makarov an actual win that Task Force 141 can't easily undo. It also puts more pressure on Price as the story could frame it as him being out of commission is what allowed the missile launch to actually happen. That if it were Price in Gaz' place, this wouldn't have happened.

Deep Cover: This mission is really brief so there's not much to talk about. Laswell sneaks into a Russian military base, steals a keycard and meets with Yuri but then has to evacuate when the chemical weapons launched in the last mission hit the base.

This one is weird because it introduces Yuri but doesn't do anything with him. If I had to suggest a more drastic change, maybe have this be MW3 2023's version of MW3 2011's chemical weapon attack and have Laswell die in the base (assuming she doesn't have a large role in MW4 2025 or something). That way, Makarov gets another win and Task Force 141 loses a valuable source of intel and support.

For gameplay, maybe this mission could have more ways of sneaking into the base as a way to improve it. CODWW2 showed that is possible in COD.

Passenger: This mission seems to be MW2023's main attempt at a "No Russian" style mission. And in isolation, it's really good. The mission is tense and there are some "choices" the player can make such as "choosing" to fire on the other passengers only to find the gun wasn't loaded.

But in the context of MW3 2023's story, this mission has no consequences as Farah wipes the data in the next mission and Urzikstan is cleared by the end of the game anyway.

I say, if this game is going to take some notes from MW2 2009, why not go all the way? I would change it such that this a framed Russian act of revenge on an American Plane. Really get both countries ready to go to war. If we want to include Samara and the ULF into it, we can still have her be the unwilling scapegoat Makarov uses. This could allow a plot point where Urzikstan is also willing to go to war now and is trying to drag its allies like the US into it and Farah is torn between her loyalty to her country or having to go behind it.

Crash Site: First change: I want this mission's opening cutscene to be a montage of various news broadcasts talking about how WW3 is imminent from both the US, Europe, Russia and Urzikstan's sides.  Really play up the idea that this is serious. In the current version of the story, Laswell says the world is on the brink of war but we don't really feel it. These changes really bring that out into the forefront.

I also want there to be a brief cutscene of Price seeing the rising stakes and choosing to return to the field before fully recovering. Citing that the threat is too serious for him to sit out. That they can't take the risk of Makarov doing more damage and that they need Price now even if he's not at 100%. It's Shepard, funnily, who gives Price the OK here to return to active duty. I want to have it that Shepard has somewhat similar motives to his OG counterpart in that he wants to push America into a war and is hoping that he can use Price as the catalyst to launch it given how easy it is to goad Price into going into a mission by just suggesting Makarov might be there.

As for the mission itself, it can play out mostly the same as it does in the current game. Farah investigates the crash site to figure out what really happened. But the change is that even though she learns the truth of what happened. she doesn't find any hard evidence to exonerate anyone or convince Urzikstan's to not go to war. Farah's internal conflict here where she's torn between supporting Urzikstan's decision to go to war or abstain is really introduced here and gives her character something to do.

Flashpoint: No major changes here. It's a solid flashback mission. And it really sells Makarov as a threat and chessmaster as even though Task Force 141 capture him, because they focused all their attention on Makarov, they missed the Stadium getting blown up. The framing of this mission is that Price feels he needs to get after Makarov as he's too dangerous and Price is the only one that knows how Makarov operates.

One change I would add is that partway through the level, there is a single bomb that Soap and Price have to disarm. The game presents this as supposedly being Makarov's plan and it involves responding to a series of faint coloured lights. This is for the Chekhov's gun my story is going for.

Oligarch: No major changes here. The mission is solid and has what little engaging dialogue between Soap and Ghost that there is in the game. And this is a victory that Task Force 141 gets over Makarov as they cut him off his money in Milena.

A change I would make is have Price on comms offer help like "this is where an ambush would be" or something to show that he does know Makarov well enough to counter (or at least get Soap to counter) his traps.

Highrise: No major Changes here. This mission is great the way it is. We could have this be Price's return where he's mostly fine but still suffering from some issues like faded colours or having difficulty seeing some things (this is the important Chekhov's Gun for my version of the story). But to be safe, we could also have Soap accompany us. Both as a way to help Price and to have some more bonding between him and Gaz. And again, we could have some instances of Price recognizing traps or ambushes from Makarov before they happen and warning Gaz and Soap of them.

Frozen Tundra: To be honest, I still don't understand why Shepard is here or why he's Makarov's captive.  The story doesn't do much with it being Shepard specifically. The easy change would be to remove him and have Task Force 141 actually have a prisoner they carry the entire time. Maybe Yuri in this case?

But if we have to keep Shepard because of that tension of "is this the mission where he betrays us?" then I suppose we could. We'd then have to have a setup where he kills Gaz and then escapes otherwise what's the point of having Shepard along? This would somewhat mirror the fate of OG Gaz and be something of a callback to MW2 2009. To be honest, this is what I thought was going to happen when I first played the mission and Gaz offered to watch Shepard. That this is what gets Gaz killed and what motivates Price killing him. I'm not exactly sure how present it in a way that makes sense and doesn't make Shepard look bad in front of his forced that he killed Gaz.

So here's a version of how this could go down. Graves' Shadow Company had also been tracking the captured Shepard independently of Task Force 141. So most of the mission plays out as normally but Gaz and Shepard get separated from the rest of the squad. Gaz finds out about Shepard's plans to goad the US, Russia, Europe and Urzikstan into a war, and goad Price into starting it when Shepard tries to convert Gaz to his side. At this point, Shadow Company come in for the evacuation and Shepard shoots Gaz before he can spill the details to Task Force 141. Shepard "covers" up Gaz' death but Price is not convinced and vows to kill Shepard for it. However, Soap and Ghost have to talk him out of it. Citing that the mission to stop Makarov and the upcoming War is more important.

Gora Dam: This mission is kinda filler in the story. It's another "stop Makarov from launching a false flag attack" mission. I guess we could have that but also have Ghost figure out what exactly Makarov is planning next. If so, we need the tone to be more dour as well as have Ghost and Price discuss their feelings and thoughts. If we have open combat missions that encourage stealth and traveling over long distances, then we need this dialogue to fill the time between and develop these characters as much as they can.

Danger Close: an AC130 mission and one to hit against Makarov. The only novelty here is that you're controlling one of Graves' operatives . But otherwise filler. Maybe not have Makarov "seemingly die" and have Task Force 141 get intel that Makarov plans to hit the Chunnel next.

Trojan Horse: The last mission of the game. I suggest the mission plays mostly the same until the very end where Price needs to help Soap disarm the bomb. Now this is where the Chekhov's gun of Price's condition and the bomb disarming minigame finally come into play. Price's ability to distinguish differences in colour fades so he cannot rely accurate information to Soap which results in Soap's death. We can have it that Soap sacrifices himself to prevent the entire chunnel from being destroyed and Price is broken by what happens. I want the final stretch of gameplay to be Price just hunting down Makarov and fighting through his guards in a blind rage before being snapped into senses by Ghost (maybe Ghost disarms some bombs and needs Price to provide him cover at least). Price is torn between going after Makarov or helping Ghost. He chooses to help Ghost and Makarov escapes as a result. Task Force 141 manages to save the chunnel but the threat of the looming WW3 is still there.

We can still have the end credits scene with now just Ghost, Price and Farah holding a memorial for Gaz, Soap and Laswell. But I would rather the post credits scene where Price shoots Shepard be saved until the next game. Or if it needs to be there, be an extremely brief section of gameplay so it at least has some catharsis.

So yeah, that's my proposed changes to improve MW3 2023's story? I feel it's a bit of an improvement as it gives characters more to do and creates much higher stakes so it feels like progression and sets the stage for MW4 2025 to go more into a WW3 focused storyline and mirror MW3 2011. But the character deaths' value are limited given that we have Graves and Alex come back. If at least Alex remains dead, maybe we could salvage some more tension? I imagine players will still hate the fact I kept most of the Open Combat missions intact and just added more dialogue to them. There also isn't much room to give these characters more development.

Platinumming TES6: Hammefell

 Hello Everyone. I recently platinummed The Elder Scrolls 6: Hammerfell and I want to talk about it.

Unlike my past platinum trophies reviews (which y'all never read for some reason), this one was quite the challenge. At least half the trophies in the game are missable, a couple are buggy, and many are extremely difficult to do without speccing into a particular build. However, as TES6 lacks a respec option, you either have to do multiple playthroughs with entirely different builds just to get a single trophy, or you decide you haven't suffered enough trauma in life and decide to do it all in a single run with a single build and pray to Talos.

Lets start with some of the straightforward notable trophies and work our way up to the more challenging ones.

"Prepared Hero - Complete the Tutorials Flawlessly". While you do start the main story as a prisoner and have to go through a pretty lengthy tutorial sequence, you can choose to skip it. TES6 also has an optional training mode in the Main Menu that gives you an extended tutorial with all the playstyles, upgrades and skills maxed out so you can try out a fully maxed out character. There are also bonus challenges that task you with completing certain activities as best you can with there being time or bonus optional objectives.

This trophy requires you to complete said activities and hit all those bonus objectives. For example, for the Pickpocketing challenge, not only do you have to pickpocket all the things without getting spotted, but under the time limit as well. The Acrobactics challenge asks you to navigate across the rooftops using the parkour/acrobatics moves and complete the mini race faster than the recommended time. The various combat challenges want you to use the prescribed weapon or technique to try out all the suggested moves like countering, parrying, light/heavy attacks and take out every opponent without getting hit etc. You also then need to complete the actual tutorial in the main game without taking a hit.

I actually really like this trophy. Yeah, it can be a bit boring at times but I like that it encourages you to actually try out all the playstyles in a safe and isolated manner so you can actually see what you like before you try building for it in the main game. You ever play an RPG where you invest in something, like say, axes, only to find axes are garbage partway through and you can't switch or respec? TES6 at least lets you know that beforehand which I like. In addition, the game is pretty forgiving with this trophy as you can keep retrying the challenges if you mess up and it will let you know if you ace them.    

"Mara's Embrace - Spend the night with another character". This trophy requires your character to get laid. By getting this trophy, you cannot roleplay the average TES player.

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"The Pirate's Treasure- Find the Lost Pirate Treasure".  This trophy requires you complete the aforementioned Quest. The quest tasks the player with finding treasure maps and using them to find 6 lost treasures all over the map. While you can collect some of the treasure maps and the treasures themselves beforehand, the game gives you the quests to collect them individually and sequentially. Moreover, this is the only quest in the game where the quest markers are disabled for most of it. Even if you have Guided Mode turned on. On paper, this isn't a problem. You can use the treasure maps to find out where to go and if you get stuck, you can use a guide. Except, with the way how I played the game beforehand, the quests kinda broke.

 

Ok, so normally, TES6 is pretty good at accounting for the player doing stuff out of order or completing quests before officially accepting them. The quest usually then has the player character going "oh, I already did x" and the quest giver going "Oh great job. You're even better than I thought. So we can skip this next step you should do Y now". This pirate quest is in a weird sort of limbo where it will let you complete some parts of it out of order, but the quest objectives and progression act like you're doing it "intended way". For example, one of the middle quests ask you to use a treasure map to find a treasure. I already found both beforehand 100+ hours ago but the quest didn't acknowledge that for some time until after the quest "started". I was then able to turn in the quest but the treasure maps remained in my inventory and I hadn't seen it yet so it had the "new item" icon on it. This caused some confusion later on as I was using the wrong treasure maps thinking it was the newest one.

And one of the later quests task you with using 1 treasure map to go find 2 other treasure maps and using them to go find the 2 actual treasures. Normally, when you find the first spot, the quest updates and points you to a merchant you need to interrogate who points you to a chest you need to loot to get the 2 final treasure maps. And then the game becomes hands off again like it usually is for this quest. But when I reached the spot, it didn't update because I had unknowingly already looted the 2 final Treasure Maps and just had to go find the treasure. I didn't know this and began worrying I had soft locked the quest. When I looked up guides, they said to go interrogate the merchant and loot the chest he points you to. I could still interrogate the merchant and get him to tell me where to go, though no markers appeared like they normally would and nothing in the game indicated I had already gotten what I needed. I couldn't even loot the chest as I had already looted it before. And when I browsed my inventory, the "new map" I had looked nothing like the one from the guides and there was nothing there. I really was convinced I'd had to do a NG+ run or something and properly do the quest. Before trying that, I decided to try one last leap of faith and follow the guides to see where the treasures actually were just to see if that would complete them somehow and not further break the quest. And to my surprise....that worked. I could pick up those treasures and complete the quests and get the final trophy I needed for the platinum. And it was only afterwards, looking through screenshots of other people's guides, that I realized I had all the treasure maps but the hands off nature of the quest and its weird progression didn't inform me.

 

"Meric's Adventurer: Uncover all Sub-Regions of Hammerfell and High Rock": This trophy requires you to visit every sub region on the map. This game introduced the new ship sailing system and underwater diving and by Talos it's going to make you use it to explore every crevice.

The way the game tracks is that when you open the world map, locations you haven't visited either have a rocky texture if they are on land or have a paper-like texture if they are on water. Once you do visit them, their texture updates to reflect what they actually look like. On paper, this sounds like a fair system. If you explore the map and do all the POIs, you should naturally hit most if not all of the locations. 

 But the problem is that it includes small random islands scattered all over the map. Some of which have the same texture unexplored as they do explored. So if you haven't been keeping track of which of these random islands you visited, it can be really tedious to find them. On top of that, this also includes all of the underwater locations as they also count as sub regions even though they don't explicitly show up on the map as different locations nor are there clear boundaries or borders so you wouldn't even notice if you entered or left an underwater region. 

 I only noticed something was fishy when I was looking through my PS5 Screenshots. Unlike other PS4/PS5 games but similar to Witcher 3, TES6 names screenshots based on your in-game location rather some date string. So if you take screenshots in Alik'r, it will name them as either "Alikr-1-A7-01-01-24" or "Sentinel-04-H9-03-02-23" (even the game has a hard time keeping its political borders straight lol). When underwater, most locations, even those that are POIs, will show up as either located in Tamriel, Hammerfell, High Rock or Illiac Bay. But a couple had unique names like "Thraas-Secrets-4-QZ-09-10-24". These are those unique sub regions that you need to visit at least once. But like I said, it's not always clear which you've already visited. Even PSNProfiles doesn't have a good list of which regions count and which are there. My solution was to dump all of my PS5 screenshots to a USB, dump them to my Mac, and cross reference them with a random YouTube Comment and the Unofficial Wiki that listed out possible regions, double checking if that region has multiple possible names. On top of that, the trophy is said to be buggy where even if you have met the requirements, it can pop hours later.  Fortunately, I got it as soon as I touched Samos Island.

 

"The Arena's Champion - Defeat all Elite Combatants in the Arena". This was one of the hardest trophies to get. Normally when you're doing the Fighters Guild Questline, you get set to the Arena, this massive Colosseum where you have to fight these overlevelled gladiators in unarmed combat. These gladiators are designed to be extremely difficult to beat and even have instant KO moves they can perform on you if you get stunned too much by their attacks since they are higher levelled and you aren't wearing much armour. When playing casually, this quest isn't an issue because you're supposed to get beaten up so the story can continue. You can even come back later and fight the enemies in a more fair setup. However, the trophy requires you to actually win on this first visit. 

I was stuck on this for quite a while. I'd eventually make a mistake, get struck by a stray punch, or get a rock thrown at my poor character's head from an offscreen opponent, get stunned, and then instantly Knocked Out by an opponent doing a German Suplex or Burning Hammer at Mach 8 on my poor character, breaking nearly every bone in his fragile warlock body, killing him instantly.

My only hope was making that strength fists build with some passive magic abilities because it was the only way I stood a chance. My character could deal some damage, dodge, parry and counter without using too much stamina, and recovered somewhat quickly after getting stunned. But even then it took me a long time. And there are people on YouTube who somehow did this without investing in unarmed! Those people are absolute machines!

I ended up repeatedly making attempt after attempt. Slowly learning the intricacies of the combat a little bit more every time I got teeth kicked in. My poor character may have gotten multiple ass beatings of a lifetime, but at least he was making more and more progress every time. Until finally, I slowly became the John Wick of TES6 unarmed combat. I danced through the battlefield, dodging and countering attacks and getting hits in (until I inevitably messed up and had to reset). Until I memorized every possible situation and thanks to my overly specialized build made specifically for this purpose, I prevailed. I beat the shit out of all those gladiators with my bare hands. I performed the same German Suplexes and Burning Hammers they used to break my neck on them, giving them a taste of their own medicine. They had to catch these Hands as they were Rated E For Everyone. Not even Johnny Sins evil Twin Brother, Sohnny Jins, could unfuck the mess the I left behind. And in the end, I earned that bronze trophy for all my hard work. I no longer have to frequent Super Weenie Hut Jr's. I can now eat nails without milk at the Salty Spitoon.

As for the game itself, I really like it. Bethesda has really improved and it feels like all the lessons they learned from Skyrim, Fallout 4 and Starfield coalesced in TES6. Like, the best way I can describe it is like it feels like a better, more fleshed out and fun next-gen Skyrim.

One major change TES6 makes is something called "alternate controls". Here, when you press a button on the controller like left, it changes your default controls to something for different situations. For example, if you're just exploring normally or fighting easy enemies, you can stay in the default controls. But if you get into a fight with a particularly tough boss, you can press left to switch to "combat mode". You lose the ability to pick up objects, interact/talk to people, sneak and jump regularly. But in exchange, those controls are replaced by more combat options like dodge, grab, parry, kick, throw etc. This system, although confusing, does allow you to have more commands and options than what a regular controller can provide. Because yeah, normally, you couldn't fit an additional kick or grab command onto Skyrim's controls scheme given every button was already assigned and did something. This system tries to address that and lets you assign custom control schemes for combat, stealth and parkour. I imagine even Mouse and Keyboard players might benefit from this as they could swap to more convenient setups on the fly rather than reach over and press like the "k" key to kick or something. Although, I have seen some PC players still assign every single possible command onto the default scheme and it just looks wild. How are those people even considered human?

Character Building is really fun. TES6 has the same approach to levelling up skills and attributes from Skyrim with many of the same categories like one-handed, 2 handed, sneak etc. There are some notable additions. Acrobatics, returning from prior TES games, has been modified a bit. Instead of using it to jump crazy high, it feels more "natural" here. TES6 introduces a rudimentary climbing, free-running, parkour and mantling system. It kinda resembles Mirror's Edge. So now it's possible to climb buildings, jump from rooftop to rooftop, scramble up ledges you barely reach, drop down and hang from ledges and do back/side ejects, and vault over or under objects in your way while running. It's really cool to do these in some of the larger cities and the game rewards you by leaving mini treasure chests and free XP hidden across various rooftops. If you see a place you think you can't reach but still somehow find a way to get there, the game rewards you for it.

But in addition, it's also useful in other places. Many dungeons now have alternate entrances/exits, pathways and secret areas and vents you can find if you look around. Like, you can enter or exit a building by climbing through a window you can break by shooting an arrow and jumping through it as long as you can find a way to reach it. It makes combos really nicely with thief and sneak playstyles as you can further silence or hide yourself while climbing and jumping around. There's also synergy with combat focused playstyles as the "roll after doing a jump" move you can unlock helps you with a much better dodge.

And if you can master and max it out, you can do some wacky stuff. The final unlock even lets you wallrun vertically and horizontally for a short while like in the Prince of Persia games. The only downside is just how taxing both the controls and stat requirements are. At low acrobatics, you struggle to even mantle up small walls even in light armour. Higher acrobatics do make that easier but doesn't entirely eliminate the timing aspect. In TES6, if you want to do any of the cooler and more advanced moves, you need to input the right commands with accurate timing. For example, to do a long jump into a ledge grab, you need to be sprinting with decent momentum just as you reach the edge of a ledge. Then hold jump and keep holding it until you're close to the ledge. Then quickly let go of jump, tap crouch (as it brings your arms and legs up) and then tap jump as you land on the ledge. And all while doing this, make sure you have enough stamina. At low acrobatics, some of the slightly higher ledge grabs require you have at least 90% stamina otherwise your character will lose 100% of their stamina, fail to grab the ledge and fall. Higher acrobatics both lower the stamina requirements, give you more speed and height from shorter sprints, and ease up on the timings. But it can still be tricky to nail even the basic moves here. There's some solace in that the game does tell you what you messed up with a quick prompt like "crouched too early/didn't hold jump enough, not enough stamina" so at least you can work on the timings. But given the different distances and heights of various jumps, it can be difficult to learn all the nuances without a lot of practice. Wall running in particular was murder on my hands as you have to alternate moving the left stick forward and neutral in a really fast rhythm in accordance with the wall running animation which begins vary as it progresses. Being slightly slower near the end and angled slightly down. This really messed me up to the point where I refused to try it ever again.

Hand-to-Hand is the big new melee skill TES6 adds. Allowing you to do grabs and takedowns during combat. You can either do this while unarmed, or with certain smaller and more manoeuvrable weapons. This does make combat more interesting as you can parry an incoming sword strike with your dagger and then seamlessly go into a German Suplex or Powerbomb on your stunned target. I especially like the submission style moves allowing you put adversaries in chokeholds. Either to restrain or non-letally take them out or to interrogate them. Be careful as you can accidentally still kill people here. Either by dropping them on their heads or by choking them too much. Oh, and you can even do some of these on non-humanoid combatants. I loved that one time I managed to somehow put a bear into an ankle lock.

This even plays into quests. Many quests often have a "pacifist/non-lethal" branch you can reach by not killing enemies in combat. This can affect how the quest turns out, what rewards you get and even your reputation. Certain quest givers will either refuse or want to hire you for certain quests depending on your kill-to-knock out ratio.

For example, early on in the game, there is a side quest by a guard that asks you to go attack another guard so he can come in and "arrest you" in order to get a promotion. He even offers to pay you. However, the guard he asks you to attack is some crazy high level boss and you don't realize that until the fight begins. If you kill the boss, the first guard backs out of his deal as he's afraid of you and you get a really high bounty that can't be entirely removed until partway through the main quest. But if you non-lethally just restrain him by keeping him locked in a pretty soft chokehold, you can actually tell him the details of the plan. And he'll want revenge so he agrees to "arrest" you and then reward you with double the money. Another side quest will only trigger if you go through several quests with a low kill count but high KO count. A duchess will ask you to to put her in a chokehold because she gets off on it. I found that very uncomfortable and hated every second of it. After she comes, she returns the favour and it was kinda interesting.

 

The timing, controls and stats for these are tricky here. Even if you do get your opponents in a grab they can be interrupted by other enemies. They can also fail depending on how much stamina both you and your opponent has left, how heavy both you and they are. It's harder to lift and throw a muscle bound fit knight clad out in heavy armour than some random starved bandit wearing rags on the side of the road. Grabbing someone involves making sure all these different factors are accounted for as well as from where you grab. This is where the alternate control system TES6 has comes in handy as you can assign a "grab control scheme" with commands for different attacks, grabbing high/medium/low, and switching positions and throws. It took a lot of fiddling for me but I eventually found something that worked. I put high grab on jump on x, roll/evade on circle, quick strikes on square, position switch on triangle, high grab on L1, Low Grab on L2, Medium Grab on R2, Alt Attack on R1.

There are more weapon types like spears, claws, staffs, chains, handcuffs and whips that have additional commands like twirl and change position that I found too confusing so I won't talk about them here. I'm sorry spears, claws, staffs, chains, handcuffs and whip main. But since there is no trophy for learning how you work, I don't care. 

There's also another cool feature that I really like. TES6 brings the "mutations" idea from Outer Worlds and Fallout New Vegas where depending on your actions, you will get these modifiers with pros and cons. For example, if you fight enough rats, you might either get a mutation that gives you additional damage against rats at the cost of taking more damage against them. I got one that gives you better odds when parkouring but any falls instantly shatter your ankles, one for more success performing stealth takedowns but take more damage against fire attacks, and one for better odds of finding loot and bonus XP at the cost of being unable to talk to female NPCs.

-Sailing and Diving

TES6's big new feature is being able sail around the waters surrounding High Rock and Hammerfell. As well being able to dive underwater using a Diving Bell. Think of how Assassin's Creed 4 Black Flag did it except it's a lot more seamless. You can, at any point while sailing, literally dive underwater and explore. And on paper it is really cool. You can find entire underwater caverns, cities, shipwrecks, monster and mermaid hideouts and more.

But I don't know, I don't really like it in practise. I find it kills the pacing. Much of the surface of the water is quite plain and it takes a while before you hit any interesting islands on POIs. I get that's how sailing works in every game from Windwaker to AC4 but I've always found that rather dull. Diving Underwater isn't much better since it takes a while before you find anything cool. Also, I chose an Argonian character so I wouldn't have to worry about breathing underwater but it turns out that potions and spells that help with that are so dirt cheap and common that it's a non-issue.

I much more prefer land exploration. Land has more interesting and varied terrain. It's more picturesque, it preserves more of the regular gameplay. Buildings are much cooler etc.

-The Story

TES6 continues the common setup of prior TES games of the player of the player being a prisoner and playing through a short tutorial section that also sets up the main quest before being let loose. This time though, you can choose beforehand if you want to be a prisoner on an Empire or bandit ship via dialogue and the rest of the ship changes to match your choice. This introduces the basics of the game as you do some quick chores for your chosen side, get into a ship battle with the other side, and get attacked by a kracken  before getting the option to confirm your choice and start the adventure. This does make replays more interesting than Skyrim at least.

A common criticism people level against many of Bethesda's recent games, especially Fallout 4 and Skyrim is the urgency of their main quests juxtaposed with the player's desire to explore the world and do side quests. Fallout 4 often gets hit the hardest here with "I'm putting off saving my family to go collect glue and explore the world. I have zero motivation to go save them". And Personally, I don't feel Bethesda's approach there is an issue and may even be the best approach for an open world game.

 

For one, a player can lollygag in urgent linear games as well. I can play Uncharted and spend my time looking for useless collectibles for a trophy even though Nate should really be moving on to facing the villain or what have you. And it's fine for a game to do this since it gives the player more to do in levels, a reason to explore, all while the urgent main story is still there for them to enjoy. Players can separate and compartmentalize different sections of games to enjoy them separately.

 

 

In addition, the concept of "zero motivation" could apply to any game. Like, I technically have no motivation in Dark Souls 1 to go ring the bells of awakening. There's no urgency if I don't go and ring it as soon as possible (hell, the world is screwed anyway). My character doesn't have a backstory or explicit reason for wanting to do it. He could just accept his fate and go hollow like others since there isn't even a chance things would work out. But players are still cool with going through it. Since the motivation the player has to play the game is more important than the character's reason in-universe.

Secondly, if we accept this is a problem, then there are only really 2 solutions to address this. The first is the "Jak 2" approach where there is basically no side quests in the open world. It's all just the urgent story. But this defeats the point of an open world which is to allow the player a world to do other things in besides the main quest. The second approach is the Minecraft approach where there is no main story and everything is equally up to you. But this limits the stories such games can tell.

I guess there is a third possible approach. You could do what Assassin's Creed does and have the premise be that you are playing through a simulation of what happened centuries ago. Where your character did actually do the main quest quickly and urgently but since it's a simulation, you're free to go do other stuff in between main quests and it would still make sense. Allowing it to have both an urgent main story, and side quests and have the fact the player can lollygag make sense no matter how they play it. But it's not like the fact AC has this diegetic explanation means its open world main quest is magically the most immersive thing ever. So clearly it's not that important.

Urgency is often necessary to give a story stakes and something to enjoy. A main story where the main character just goes and does whatever the whole time with no real continuity isn't a very interesting story. Even the open world games people claim "do this right" with no forced urgency like Witcher 3, RDR2 or Morrowind, still actually have points where they introduce urgency for stakes (e.g Witcher with Ciri or RDR2 with Arthur's illness). I often joke that if the people that complained about urgency in open world games wrote Breaking Bad, then the entire first season would have been about Walter White being a chill teacher and the cancer only kicking at the start of season 2. That would really hurt the pacing and flow of the show since it would take forever to get to the actual interesting parts.

Bethesda's approach allows for you to have that main story with urgency to give it stakes if you want to follow through it, while still allowing you the freedom to go explore the open world. It doesn't "dilute" one in order for it to be cohesive with the other because it realizes both can be enjoyed by players. Some players may play the whole main story so that story probably should be interesting. Some players ignore the main story and only do side quests so the side quests should be interesting. Some players do both.

 

Custom Quests:

One of the coolest aspects of TES6 is that players can create their own custom side quests and share them with others to play. In addition to being all to bring in mods even on consoles. And I really love this aspect. Yeah, the gameplay in these quests isn't much of a departure from the regular quests at this point (likely due to the limitations of the creator and how new the feature is) but the story and dialogue choices can be a lot more interesting. I have played really cool quests like the one where a guy made this parody of Castlevania where you can help this guy named Belmont deal with some sort of monster like Dracula and there were multiple choices and outcomes based on what you did during it. I've also played very boring ones where you have to escort an NPC across half the map. I've played ones that had really boring gameplay, but had writing that was "so bad it's good". Like one of them was this sorta epilogue for the main story and had the player character interacting with their family afterwards. But it was full of edgy deviantart swearing, typos and even some self awareness of that (like when Darius says "I killed the King of Skyrim (I forgot his name btw)"). And in between these conversions, there was an NPC called "Exposition Man" that tells you what's going on and how much time is supposedly passing between you waking between 4 NPCs. I was enjoying it even if it was so laughable.

Some of these were even designed to help the player level up. There are even these "XP Farm" Quests where you just kill some enemies or talk to NPCs and get a lot of XP quickly. There is one that exploits a glitch to help the player quickly synchronize viewpoints.

I genuinely recommend people try out the custom quests as they can be great. I also wish more games had a feature like that. The only other open world console game I can think of that has something like this was inFAMOUS 2 back in 2011. I remember spending quite a few hours messing around there and seeing all the wacky and serious content other players made.

 

-Other Stuff:

 

I love the game's implementation of Photo Mode and wish it was the standard for all over games. Here, you can enter Photo Mode and take a picture at any point. That photo now shows up on your map and in the games of other players. You can even see the photos taken by other players, upvote them and the photo with the highest votes in the last 24 hours gets highlighted as the photo of the day. Personally, I'd love if this was taken a step further with an optional "Dark Souls-esque" system where you can see in the world, icons that a player has taken a photo here and see the photo rather than using the map. There is one downside however. In more "unique" places such as bossfights with elite monsters or other monsters, or in Divine Temples, there tends to be a lot more photos by players which does spoil the surprise. Personally, I don't mind since so much of the map isn't unique that ways to highlight what content is there that's unique is great.

During the minotaur challenge questlines, one quest requires you to obtain a challenge token. If you choose to buy it, one of the other competitors will admonish you for wanting to "pay to win" and ask you "where is your sense of pride and accomplishment". Which is ironic given the game has a microtransaction store.

If you choose to romance Kyra, the player character says "We have a lot in common. I was hoping when the smoke clears, we could find somewhere quiet". Kyra responds: "And what exactly do we have in common? ". The player characters responds: "I just... We... I just thought that's what people said to each other. I wasn't expecting a follow-up." I found this funny.

 I love how the game not only finally has an in-game codex/database allowing you brush up on in-game lore in the game itself. But also how it has an "audiobook" mode for the codex/database where you can listen to those entries as you play the game. Almost like podcasts. It's great.

In closing, I really enjoyed my time with TES6. Yeah. It was a painful game to platinum at times, but the beauty and fun I had is unparalleled. Any minor frustration of annoyance I felt was eventually overturned by how novel this game can be. A true light in the world we only ever blamed for the shadows it created.

 I hope you enjoyed reading. Next up for me on the PS4/5 is that new Half Life game. On the VITA side, I hope to platinum that Gran Turismo game exclusive to it. See you all then.