I fucking hate FTL and everybody hails it as the best thing since sliced bread for effectively inventing the roguelike genre. It’s an incredibly poorly balanced game that boils down to travelling across each sector, bouncing between beacons, fighting hostile ships, encountering random events and whether you choose to engage with these events, rolling the die and (more times than not) getting screwed over by dogshit RNG.
I’ve only reached the Last Stand twice. On the first time, I engaged the Rebel Flagship, had over half my health taken out in a few shots then decided to retreat. Retreating triggered an instant Game Over because the game was glitched. The second time around, I made it to the second phase before dying.
This is how rough the game is on Normal mode…
Xemnas from Kingdom Hearts 2
This is more like me not having the patience to learn the fight. Roxas had already worn me the fuck down, and the only way I got past him was to effectively cheese the fight with Megalixirs, Limit Form and Ars Arcanum spam, which is easier said than done. I not only had to grind my drive forms up significantly beforehand, but I also had to intentionally manipulate the game’s RNG so as to not trigger Anti Form at any point in the fight.
Xemnas is like a far more bullshit version of Ansem from KH1, in the respect that both are lengthy multi-phase fights that can take 20 - 30 minutes under normal circumstances, but unlike Ansem, his Nobody counterpart now has the ability to drive you down to 1HP with an unavoidable QTE attack where he launches a flurry of combos which you have to perfect parry.
And I think generally, Kingdom Hearts 2 is an objectively worse game than the first one in almost every respect, aside from the fluidity of its combat system. It has serious difficulty spikes, some incredibly bullshit boss mechanics, lacks the interactive game world that the first game had, gave us a substantially worse version of Atlantica that plays like a cringe Little Mermaid sing-along rhythm game, has substantially worse gummi ship sections, and unlike the first game, and it generally began the point where the plot of the entire franchise would start turning into a confusing clusterfuck.
And it’s not like I’m bad at Kingdom Hearts games either. Riku 2 took me a grand total of two attempts to beat in the first game, and the way I was able to beat both Riku fights so easily was because I learned quickly not to execute a full keyblade combo on him and cancel right before the last swing, because he will do an undodgeable counter. Also, Riku 2’s ultimate attack can be easily dodged by just jumping up and gliding around the arena. Even Sephiroth (the game’s bonus superboss) is pretty easy with healing items or Leaf Bracer/Curaga.
Elder Princess Shroob from Mario & Luigi: Partners in Time
Superstar Saga was a masterpiece. Its sequel on the other hand is linear as fuck, has bad writing, is ruined by the Baby Mario Bros who wear the same red and green outfits as their adult counterparts and therefore make Bros Moves substantially hard to pull off (as it’s easy to get A/X and B/Y mixed up.)
For me it’s the game that killed the Mario & Luigi series.
I could never get past the final boss and I’m convinced that my copy of the game is either glitched or she was designed to be a damage sponge. I genuinely gave up after one attempt took me well over half an hour only for me to die.
had over half my health taken out in a few shots then decided to retreat. Retreating triggered an instant Game Over because the game was glitched
IMO most likely what happened here is the flagship destroyed the Earth. If the flagship arrives at Earth and sits there for 3 rounds, you get a game over. The only way to stop it is to beat it in a fight, and finishing a phase will buy some time.
This mechanic is definitely not super obvious at first so I wouldn’t blame you for missing it.
On FTL: I want that game’s primary loop, but in a Fallout-style role playing game. Have a universe you’re free to move around in. Rather than a single person gaining stats and abilities or whatever, you install equipment and hire crew. Kinda similar to the existing game, where having a leveled up medbay allows for certain actions. But make it one longer game you can sink your teeth into rather than a roguelike.
Three I can think of
Rebel Flagship from FTL: Faster Than Light
I fucking hate FTL and everybody hails it as the best thing since sliced bread for effectively inventing the roguelike genre. It’s an incredibly poorly balanced game that boils down to travelling across each sector, bouncing between beacons, fighting hostile ships, encountering random events and whether you choose to engage with these events, rolling the die and (more times than not) getting screwed over by dogshit RNG.
I’ve only reached the Last Stand twice. On the first time, I engaged the Rebel Flagship, had over half my health taken out in a few shots then decided to retreat. Retreating triggered an instant Game Over because the game was glitched. The second time around, I made it to the second phase before dying.
This is how rough the game is on Normal mode…
Xemnas from Kingdom Hearts 2
This is more like me not having the patience to learn the fight. Roxas had already worn me the fuck down, and the only way I got past him was to effectively cheese the fight with Megalixirs, Limit Form and Ars Arcanum spam, which is easier said than done. I not only had to grind my drive forms up significantly beforehand, but I also had to intentionally manipulate the game’s RNG so as to not trigger Anti Form at any point in the fight.
Xemnas is like a far more bullshit version of Ansem from KH1, in the respect that both are lengthy multi-phase fights that can take 20 - 30 minutes under normal circumstances, but unlike Ansem, his Nobody counterpart now has the ability to drive you down to 1HP with an unavoidable QTE attack where he launches a flurry of combos which you have to perfect parry.
And I think generally, Kingdom Hearts 2 is an objectively worse game than the first one in almost every respect, aside from the fluidity of its combat system. It has serious difficulty spikes, some incredibly bullshit boss mechanics, lacks the interactive game world that the first game had, gave us a substantially worse version of Atlantica that plays like a cringe Little Mermaid sing-along rhythm game, has substantially worse gummi ship sections, and unlike the first game, and it generally began the point where the plot of the entire franchise would start turning into a confusing clusterfuck.
And it’s not like I’m bad at Kingdom Hearts games either. Riku 2 took me a grand total of two attempts to beat in the first game, and the way I was able to beat both Riku fights so easily was because I learned quickly not to execute a full keyblade combo on him and cancel right before the last swing, because he will do an undodgeable counter. Also, Riku 2’s ultimate attack can be easily dodged by just jumping up and gliding around the arena. Even Sephiroth (the game’s bonus superboss) is pretty easy with healing items or Leaf Bracer/Curaga.
Elder Princess Shroob from Mario & Luigi: Partners in Time
Superstar Saga was a masterpiece. Its sequel on the other hand is linear as fuck, has bad writing, is ruined by the Baby Mario Bros who wear the same red and green outfits as their adult counterparts and therefore make Bros Moves substantially hard to pull off (as it’s easy to get A/X and B/Y mixed up.)
For me it’s the game that killed the Mario & Luigi series.
I could never get past the final boss and I’m convinced that my copy of the game is either glitched or she was designed to be a damage sponge. I genuinely gave up after one attempt took me well over half an hour only for me to die.
IMO most likely what happened here is the flagship destroyed the Earth. If the flagship arrives at Earth and sits there for 3 rounds, you get a game over. The only way to stop it is to beat it in a fight, and finishing a phase will buy some time.
This mechanic is definitely not super obvious at first so I wouldn’t blame you for missing it.
On FTL: I want that game’s primary loop, but in a Fallout-style role playing game. Have a universe you’re free to move around in. Rather than a single person gaining stats and abilities or whatever, you install equipment and hire crew. Kinda similar to the existing game, where having a leveled up medbay allows for certain actions. But make it one longer game you can sink your teeth into rather than a roguelike.