[boojiboy7]

[notbov]

man, I like the idea of the narrator, it accentuates the feeling of this being The Most Important Tabletop Session Ever
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[another god]

Protip: Up on the Left Stick (or dpad if you're weird and didn't change your controls) plus one of the face buttons is a quick select for your items. I currently have heal on Up + Tri and my magic ring on Up + Square.
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interdimensional

[rye]

Not a fan of the default narrator's voice either, but try one of the other characters before you turn it off.

The art assets are impressive, but sometimes their incredible attention to detail makes me wish some other parts of the game had received the same level of polish. #vanillawaregames

Totally agree with BotageL that the item shortcut should have been assigned to a shoulder button, or at least have the option in key-config.
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[MattCD42]

[notbov]

the last boss is more or less the Red Dragon/Synn from the D&D games, except several times less frustrating, and also gives you a ton of S loots. then the game turns around and gives you a story reason for the higher difficulties (which most importantly means the story doesn't reset and you can go right on playing online) and unlocks an infinite tower stage

Rune words are fun, by the way. activated The True Fist before a boss then boxed it to death doing 1k damage a punch (because Dwarves)
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[Isfet]

i gotta be honest guys; i really want this game, because i like Vanillaware and i like D&D arcade games, but the pervy "homages" in the game are kind of making it difficult for me to buy (molesting enslaved women being more of an issue than simply the way the characters look).

guess i might wait for a price drop or to buy it used?

[notbov]

in all fairness, the molestation only happens if you do it, thus reflecting the terrible nature of the player back onto themselves

or if you're online, in which case it's a little funny/disturbing seeing 2-3 hands dart to grope mostly unanimated portraits

the flavor text for the mermaid's breasts was funny in its shamelessness (she lost her bra escaping from pirates, we swear)
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[Isfet]

i wonder if that bit is in the original or was added by translators? either way, yeah, i do pick up the vague notion that a lot of this stuff is done with its tongue firmly planted in cheek (as opposed to numerous other games where it's the reason to play), but i feel like, at this moment in games, i/we/consumers/thinkers have some interesting choices to make about what i choose to spend money on and what that is potentially encouraging.

anyway, i don't want to totally derail the thread from talking about the gameplay itself, but i've actually been having an internal struggle about what to do since the game was released, and this is pretty much the only place where i feel like i could vent these thoughts.

there's always been elements of this stuff in Vanillaware games, but a) i was younger and didn't really take myself to task over my ideologies and how things i played may contradict those ideologies and b) the forcible touching aspect takes it a step further beyond male gazey stuff like the princess in Muramasa holding her towel in such a way that you will catch a glimmer of her butt cheeks as she walks.


anyyyway, we'll see.

[notbov]

I can respect that line of thinking. While I find the some of the portrayals to be problematic, I'm liking the game enough that it's just a flaw rather than a huge detriment to the meat of the product. Mostly, I'm just bummed that all of the beat em ups this year (aside from the D&D pack) seem to have something.... off. Like, I'll probably get Senran Kagura, and that is more "Ugh" than DC could ever hope to achieve and Phantom Breaker (which only I bought) is moe as fuck.

the baseline here is that I'm not ashamed of DC enough to want to hide it, which I can't say of some other games
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[boojiboy7]

I bought Deathsmiles and had that faceplate on my Xbox for the longest time, till it broke, so I clearly just have no shame about the stuff.

EDIT: Obviously not true, but I dunno, I just don't worry about it I guess?

[Pijaibros]

[nothingxs]

[SuperWes]

Serious question:

What makes Tomb Raider 2013 unacceptable, but Dragon's Crown ok?

-Wes
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[nothingxs]

tomb raider 2013 is unacceptable? i mean the main female characters in both games have agency and are strong women

i think DC is probably worse about it with all the omg captured girlzzz women so weak swoon swoon shit going on

i pretty much just go "yep thats an old fantasy trope" and move on

the thing that i laugh about the most is that the only male character that might actually be attractive to women is the wizard and i feel he doesn't get played anywhere as much as the sorceress
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select button
i've gotta let go. i've gotta get straight. why'd you have to make it so hard? let me get away.
3DSFC 1736-1476-0518

[boojiboy7]

[Isfet]

[SuperWes]

[boojiboy7]

[Isfet]

[Pijaibros]

no. tomb raider 2013 and other m are not very fun to play. this one is.

[Isfet]

[boojiboy7]

[Isfet]

bah, no, i don't care about authorial intent in this context, i merely brought up another game that has scantily-clad ladies who end up in bondage to serve as a counterpoint.

i know you can fondle the dudes; the reactions aren't the same nor are the situations, etc., even if they were the same, this doesn't mean anything because blah blah blah the same arguments over and over again about why simply swapping dudes for women doesn't make it better.


i dunno. actually, i think i'm gonna check out of this conversation! didn't mean to try to ruin anyone's fun, was more interested in hearing thoughts of anyone who might have shared some similar concerns and, if they did, and still bought the game, how they resolved it.

in summation: video games + Japan + fantasy settings à la Heavy Metal/Frazetta = ferget it.

[boojiboy7]

[rye]

[MattCD42]

To throw in my asshole, er opinion, I think the difference between a game like Dragon's Crown and the new Tomb Raider:we couldn't think of a title, is really the art style. We don't care about the cartoonish violence, the absurd body types/contortions ect. because it's all drawn in a fantasy-esque way, i.e. it's very cartoony. Whereas Tomb Raider is 'realalistic' or trying to break through the uncanny valley, however you want to look at that, so the depictions can be taken more seriously because the art style suggests we're supposed to take it seriously. I think that's the biggest breaking point. I also think it's a great question.
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Steam: Godamn_Milkman

[JUMBO]

Yeah, one's funny, the other's humorless. Dragon's Crown ain't putting on no airs. It's shamelessly dumb. Just look at that sorceress when she runs -- it's like someone tried to animate that old joke about Dolly Parton going jogging, and it's rendered with far greater skill than most Japanese creep-art. Her bosoms aren't quite like the gravity-defying water balloons you see in stuff like DOA or that one animated GIF I see all the fucking time where that sniper bullet flies between that schoolgirl's boobsocks. The sorceress does not look comfortable. She's fucking burdened. It's so great. It's so dumb. But it's also kinda smart, an acknowledgement of how such a body might actually move, like it was drawn by an artist who's studied more than anime and video games.

I mean, I'm overselling it here. It's still 100% creepy nerd shit but at least it's honest, and when I saw that little run animation while searching for videos of the Vita version (the framerate sucks and I wish I'd gotten it on PS3 but then I'd never play it cuz man, I never play console games nowadays) and it made me laugh so hard that it sold me on the game. So I'm also probably a creep.

I'm definitely a creep.

Though had I known about the molestation thing I wouldn't have bought this. That's pretty gross, but man, at least I can easily avoid it. The only way to avoid all that Tomb Raider torture porn is not to play. Fuckin' Shadow Complex didn't let me opt out of shooting my cheating, spying (and, if I remember correctly, unarmed!) girlfriend in the fucking head. And...I dunno, I'm pretty tired so I can't come up with a third example but pretend I put something super gross and Japanese here as an attempt to make myself seem less like the sad, sexist Japanophile I'm surely coming across as.

(It's cute when they do it.)

Anyway, I'm playing this on Vita, which doesn't have crossplay. I thought it did. There's a ton of slowdown once you get 3 or 4 fighters on screen throwing around spells. And it makes me feel like a blind old man cuz I have a hard time keeping track of where I am on that smaller screen and it all seems a bit dim. And the overabundance of loot devalues the whole upgrade system, making the post-battle stuff a bore. And unlocking basic functionality like online is obnoxious as usual. But the touchscreen is better than using a cursor! So that's a big plus in favor of the Vita version. And it is fun playing a dwarf and throwing monsters at other monsters, so I will keep playing this while watching episodes of Columbo.

[diplo]

So, how are the musics in this?

[scratchmonkey]

[notbov]

the thing no one's saying about the one, single portrait you can "molest" is that the flavor text for it is pretty much calling you a creep for doing it; your fairy companion pretty much gives a "What the fuck" look every time you touch her (in text form).

unless we're counting the shopkeeper, in which case the text implies that you aren't even doing it and she'd kill you for it anyway
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[JUMBO]

On further inspection those sorceress tits are pretty boobsocks-y but they're still pretty funny.

I promise I'll never talk about anime boobs ever again.

[notbov]

not even about how the Amazon gets bitten on her boobs when she's grabbed by a snake

cause that's mostly funny
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[ionustron]

[Moogs]

Not jiving with the combat this game. Feels like none of the sprites are interacting with each other so it feels off to me.

Not sure what I was expecting, but it wasn't this.

[costel]

[notbov]

the Sorceress is the closest thing the game has to a support class in the vein of the D&D Cleric; she trades Turn Undead for more crowd control-y spells, but she has support spells that shield other players and spawns food for healing. they seemingly took a cue from hunting games, where players have to be largely responsible for themselves (though the only penalty for dying and continuing is a fuckton of gold).
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[rye]

[Rokkan]

theres nothing wrong with things being sexy or exploring sexuality (what sexuality is explored other than the straight cis man's sexuality in 99% of all vidcons though?). there is something really wrong when literally all of your female characters being fetichized as fuck while all of your male characters aren't treated as such. i'd like to play as a cool lady that represents me instead of representing some guy's sexual desires. there is something much wronger with mechanics that allow you to molest chained NPCs. it's uncalled for and it's fucking gross for a list of reasons. please dont portray fetishes reliant on power and domination out of a strict D/s or BDSM scenario with consent.

[scratchmonkey]

Just saw the art book as a guy at work got it. It's ah...well...super-pervy. There's really no other way to describe it.

There is a really lush two-page spread of all the food you can find in the game though.

[diplo]