Recent reviews by Enchanted♪Waffle

Edit 2:
Golden lie only extends to full length on a full humanity run at the very end of the game, so you never get to experience it at its true form in majority of the game regardless of ng+x you are on. Bad choice.
So many weapons defy the law of physics with insane wind-ups that can be canceled with a dodge. This is not Nioh. Speaking of which, why does my stamina immediately starts recovering once fatal attack animation starts? Again, this is not Nioh and my fatal attack is not a Yokai ability?? If P has to recover from a windup to perform the next attack, why is fatal attack exempted from that rule since it can chained without a windup?
Why do Fable Arts wake up a staggered enemy but a normal attack doesn't? What is the point of the amulet that increases FA damage on staggered enemy if you lose the damage from a fatal attack to begin with?
The game has incredible ingredients but the disastrous recipe called design choices just has to ruin it all, right?


Edit:
So I started NG+ run just to steamroll everything as mandatory Soulslike experience plus getting trophies, and you know what, if you kill Alidoro, get the vessel, but accidentally talk to Eugenie BEFORE deciphering the vessel, you are locked out of Eugenie's questline.
Like, now you know they are brother and sister but a 4th dimension creature living somewhere just won't let you talk to her about it ever again. Very logical.
Now, I'm REALLY not interested in NG+2. I've banned the use of:
- Aegis
- Proof of Humanity
- THE CLUB
- Puppet String
Because apparently they all break the game by trivializing all trash mobs, elites and bosses. There is not much left left to do, though. Build variety doesn't really exist.

Original Review: Really loving this game so far despite its weaknesses like dull level design and dragging mid-late game experience, mostly from chapter 7 through 10. Solid combat system. Appealing aesthetics albeit subjective. Decent lore. Great performance and modern visuals. I mean it's not spectacular compared to FS games but at $35 it's not bad at all and kudos to the dev team.

What really pissed me off is the idea of locking content behind a missable weapon, which, I would argue, any player with a bit sense of how these games work would NOT choose over its alternative because the Arm of Gods is just apparently a must have. Ok so after extensively exploring all those mediocre levels you are telling me i can't get all cryptic vessels (or whatever they are called) until ng+? like wtf dude?

And the fact this has remained this way a year after release just pissed me even more.

uh 40 hours in still haven't unlocked half of the stuff or made it past the vault.

Liked the art style and sfx but gameplay itself felt bland.

During the first campaign (tutorial?) I didn't feel like there was much strategic or tactical decision to make. Just moving around the map clicking buildings.

In battle make sure you don't expose your archers and that's about it. Since you are not allowed to split troops freely (there is a max limit associated with one of the Wielder's skill level), not much to be done about retaliation baiting and what not. It's all about sheer numbers.

Spells are replenished by essence points which in turn regenerates from your troops each turn, so it's not really a (critical, potentially) resource to manage, but rather something to click on when the button lights up. Their effects felt non-existent, too. Well you could save up enough essence in a few turns for a 'big' spell but by that time the battle would have been decided. The small buffs that are ready in one or two turns, well, again because they self-replenish it becomes a no brainer to just spam them.

Will check back after full release.

GET KATANA ZERO. 10/10 on every aspect. You won't regret it.

先说缺点，作为游戏来说一点都不好玩，探索都是线性的，解密小游戏也是浪费时间，宁愿直接喂饭给我，谁tm没事玩华容道啊。就是有点。。脱了裤子放屁的感觉吧。另外press z to pay respect真的不是作者在玩梗吗hhh。

但是如果当故事看还是很棒的。是个合格的恐怖游戏，可以调动情绪，该阴间的地方也非常阴间，画面和配乐都是。其次有谁能拒绝陈老师呢。从内容上说，没有传递价值观，也没有评判，只是单纯地呈现，这点非常喜欢。虽然为了照顾玩家朋友们，把很多没必要说明的话说明了，少了点味道儿，但是底线守住了。

结尾处提到的神秘参与者，应该是指从田家买卖获得利益的群体。以下几件事是谁做的?
1. 芳的蛋糕订单。
2. 闹鬼电话。
3. 王金财的死。
4. 陈。

这个势力显然达到了目的，而且仍然隐藏在幕后。我只能说太tm真实了。

.

Darkest Dungeon is all about taking control of your emotions and greed, not the other way around.

While RNG plays its little game all the time, if you plan around minimizing risk from week 1, and manage to consistently execute this strategy through the entire run, then around week 40-50 you should have -

1. Maxed-out Guild and Weaponsmith.
2. You first team of four Resolve Level 6 heroes.
3. Some, if not all, tier S trinkets, class-specific and general.
4. A few ancestor's trinkets, although they are far from mandatory.

This means the player should be ready to take on DD1 (We Are the Flame) by week 50 in the worst case. On Stygian difficulty, the base game gives you 86 weeks to beat the game, so that's 36 weeks' leeway for four quests. Because failing a DD quest is heavily punished, it's more preferable to keep farming for useful trinkets / quirks past week 50, than launching a premature assault on DD (prevention > reaction).

This is a simple and effectively way of having successful runs. Over time you'll accumulate enough game knowledge and start thinking in a new way - 'what exact party composition, hero level and gears do I need to have a reasonable chance at quest X'. Ultimately, X is the Darkest Dungeon level quests (win condition).

On your first run, it is not possible to deduce preconditions from this win condition, because you don't know about them at all yet, so working from week 1 all the way to DD is like scouting the game to get a map of it. This is what Darkest difficulty is for. Then you should have all you need to make deductions from win condition and make a path on the game map, so the second run will be all about execution, walking that path. Of course, there are many possible paths, some safer and longer, others riskier but shorter. Speedrunners are always looking for the shortest path and they don't care about failing a hundred times as long as the 101st attempt succeeds.

Now, the real fun (reads punishment) comes when you get emotional and greedy. When emotions take control, you tend to make faster, but not better, decisions. The game rewards good decisions and punishes bad ones. So we don't want emotions. But emotions always emerge, so what I like to do is walking the *** away from my keyboard for a while. Relax and watch some porn maybe, and come back only in rational mode.

Greed is all about risk management. Risking something you can afford, like a disposable hero, for a huge potential reward, like a Focus Ring, is OK. Risking your best men on quest reward, which usually includes some gold, heirlooms and a trinket, even if you are just one room away, is often not. Click that X button, bite the bullet, and live to fight another day. Always make favorable bets, never hope for godly rolls on unfavorable ones.

And of course, there will be times when the game just decides to **ck you up with really bad RNG. My mental model for this is simple - it's not my fault. Rather, it's just another way of the game saying 'I say 86 weeks, but its' really just 84. RNG tax is a thing'.

That's pretty much it for me. The first run is all about enjoying original art, music and combat design from the game. Then, if you are up to it, the second run is all about executing a reasonable plan, cold-blooded, and with a heart of steel. Darkest Dungeon does a really good job hand-crafting good experiences for such two runs.

Lastly, I must say the game has its problems. My biggest two complains -

1. Focus Ring.
2. Abuse-able stall-heal mechanics in combat.

Focus Ring is just strictly the better trinket 99% of the time, which defeats the purpose of the trinket system.
Stall-heal is tedious but too rewarding not to abuse, sadly.

That said, you can always play the game with self-imposed challenges -
1. No/Limited Focus Ring.
2. No/Limited stall-heal.

So, still a great game )

Orcs must die when my blood pressure gets high.

too busy enjoying the game to write any comments rn but will be back at it.

You Not Pig
That My Space!
Roarrrrrrrrrrr!
吃东西的时候到了！
该吃东西了！
我吃东西。。