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From: Justisaur <justisaur@gmail.com>
Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc.games.action
Subject: Re: Lies of P, Roboquest - First Thoughts
Date: Mon, 23 Sep 2024 14:51:12 -0700
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On 9/13/2024 11:36 AM, Justisaur wrote:

A week later:

> *** Roboquest

I went back to this after I hit the "gravity boss" in Lies of P.

> There's plenty of weapon variety at least, but I've already found my 
> favorites as far as I can tell.  The upgrades don't come too slow at 
> least compared to some of the "roguelites"

I got all the incremental upgrades, it has made a difference.  I managed 
to beat the 2nd boss once.  But now it seems I have to get secret 
upgrades, I looked up how to do some and they help a little.

Some of my favorite weapons turned out not to be really that good and I 
have new favorites.

> It's about 10-20 minutes per run, which is enough time to get one in on 
> a shorter break.  It's not bad and I'd probably buy it at the $7 range, 
> and might be worth keeping around for a quick FPS when I don't have time 
> to get into anything else.
> 

It's up to about 20-30 unless I have a bad break.  I found it starting 
to get a bit repetitive and relying on RNG a bit too much on the builds 
now (a common complaint with 'roguelites' like this)

I'd still place this about $7 and say play Immortal Redneck instead if 
you're curious about shooter roguelikes.  This seems a decent one if 
you've played IR and want some more and can stand the issues I have with it.


> 
> **** Lies of P
> 
> 
> I was very surprised to find I really like this one so far.  The levels 
> are much more like Dark Souls 3, which I'd heard, but didn't really give 
> much thought to.  They aren't quite as linear as there's tons of 
> shortcuts all over, but I doubt I've missed much so far.  Getting to the 
> bosses hasn't been too hard, though I did have one point in the area 
> after the 2nd boss I kept dying and it probably took me 7 or so attempts 
> to get to the next save/starting point.

Oof, well that didn't last.  I ran across an area where you have to pass 
rafters with monsters with ranged attacks, probably somewhere between 
30-40 deaths there to falling off, getting hit and knocked off.  I 
stopped playing at that point for several days.  I really don't like 
'gravity boss' areas.  One of many things that puts me off on Souls games.

I did come back and of course got through it after another 5 or so tries 
to the next spawn point. No more 'gravity bosses' so far at least.

> 
> 2nd boss in one attempt, 1st took me about 7, I looked up a how to do it 
> as I wasn't getting much past half of his health at that point, which 
> basically came down to use your items & weapon powers.
> 

And again oof.  Ran across a "Field Boss" clown puppet who took me 30-40 
tries, though I'd much rather die that many times figuring out a boss 
than gravity.  I didn't look up how to beat him.  Part of his trick was 
to just run away when he did a whirlygig tracking move that could hit 
you like 5 or 6 times in a row, dodging might get you away from the 
first 2 or 3.  That's still the only Boss that's give me a good bit of 
trouble, all the rest have been under 10, on average still harder than 
Bloodborne or ER & DLC for the bosses.  They feel harder than they 
really are perhaps because of the janky sidestep dodge you have.

I haven't really had any luck trying to guard or parry so far.  I try 
occasionally, but guarding seems like it's just taking damage for no 
point, and parry is too hard to pull off.

> Given all that it feels way easier than any of the Fromsoft games so far.

Yeah not so much now, it's heating up.  I do like they made the early 
areas/bosses not terribly hard so you could get into the game a bit 
before being punished.

> The things I don't like much is the dodging seems very short, Guarding 
> gets you a lot of damage, and Parrying seems very difficult to time. 
> There's a sort of skill tree which has stuff on it that makes you better 
> at any of that, so it may get better later.

There's some of that, but it seems very slight improvements. There's a 
ring that increases your stamina recovery and another that lets you 
dodge even when out of stamina I've been using, both of which I found 
far more valuable than any of the others I've run across.

> The story's kind of interesting, a re imagined sort of story of 
> Pinnochio with nasty automatons everywhere.   I don't really like the 
> idea of playing a puppet, but it gave me a realistic looking dog mask to 
> start, so I just put that on, I've also got a donkey mask now too.

Still interesting.

For those who've played, I'm playing a Technique (like dex) build, 
though most of my points are into HP and Carry weight so far (so I can 
use heavier weapons and better defensive rings and puppet parts.)  My 
most used weapons now are the Booster Glaive, and Trident.  Usually the 
Trident, but often enough the Booster Glaive works better.  I've tried 
most of the heads on various Tech handles, which is nice as I like to 
try all the weapons I can, I had some luck with the Wrench head on the 
booster handle, dancer's sword handle, and even the rapier handle from 
the starting weapon, but nothing else really comes close to the former 
two.

I do use some throwables on bosses, and one area there were a bunch of 
throwers above me.  I've been using the specters when I can off and on, 
mainly because I feel like I'd just be wasting all the summon items I'm 
getting otherwise.

The specters seem to be mostly good for a bit of distraction, they 
aren't like summons in DS/ER where they can be real players, and they do 
very little damage. They're also just AI controlled, not real players.

-- 
-Justisaur

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