Incline Are you ready to punch out gimps and fuck a British loli? Way of the Samurai 4 and 3 released for PC

[deuxhero]

http://blog.ghostlight.uk.com/post/way-of-the-samurai-4-is-coming-to-pc-on-steam

Nice to see them porting good games.

 

[LESS T_T]

While I want to see SMT games on PC, it seems not feasible for now or at least through Ghostlight.

This game looks cool, though.

 

[SuicideBunny]

but.. i already did all that on my ps3...

This game looks cool, though.

the wots games are c&c heavan, one of the reasons we have so fucking many threads about them.

 

[Felix]

I hope they fix the framerate problem, it made me rage quit many times.

also, nightcrawling.

 

[Jack Dandy]

Fucking cool. Always wanted to try one of these games out.

 

[ColCol]

It's so fun to be an asshole in these games.

 

[deuxhero]

Don't expect new content (though I think there was some piece of clothing you couldn't buy but NPCs wore, maybe mods will make it play obtainable), but hope they include the DLC in the actual game

 

[Ninja Destroyer]

but.. i already did all that on my ps3...

This game looks cool, though.

the wots games are c&c heavan, one of the reasons we have so fucking many threads about them.

How good is a combat system in this game ?

 

[SuicideBunny]

How good is a combat system in this game ?

it's an action game, mostly, so combat is twitch based, but it's not the stupid move spam of many action games, and with pushing and pulling it has quite a lot of complexity.. plus you have a fuckton of different combat styles and stances. pushing and pulling is how guardbreak works. you can push towards a guarding character when attacking, and depending on whether they pull or not, that will either elave you exposed or break their guard and so on.
the way combat and the game works, you're also meant to start out on the lowest difficulty and progressively increase it on subsequent plays as you master stuff like the whole pull/push thing.

wots4 is also the first (iirc) wots game to let your actions in the last game influence the next one beyond samurai rating unlocks or carrying over weapons. there are a couple of buildings which can be closed or open depending on what you did in your previous game, which in turn will influence available events in your current. it's noteworthy that these games are rather short (also totally bonkers in some aspect) and esp wots 4 is meant to be played and replayed all over with different goals until you are ready to tackle the most difficult endings on the highest difficulty with your perfect weapon. the series as a whole is really pretty darn awesome.

 

[Felix]

Don't forget you can customize your own swordfighting style, I wish the series have more budget though.

 

[taxalot]

Is this an RPG or some kind of Yakuza game ?

 

[eric__s]

Ghostlight seems like a cool company, porting that Elminage game to PC and now Way of the Samurai 4.

 

[spekkio]

Is this an RPG or some kind of Yakuza game ?

Define RPG.

 

[abnaxus]

Jet Jenkins and Melinda Megamelons.

Wapanese puns cannot be translated.

 

[TheGreatOne]

Ghostlight seems like a cool company, porting that Elminage game to PC and now Way of the Samurai 4.

They also brought Nocturne to Europe. Most SMT titles in fact.

 

[SuicideBunny]

Is this an RPG or some kind of Yakuza game ?

it's only an rpg in the sense of larping (aka sawyer-approved rpg). there are no stats besides hp/stamina and dmg and durability for weapons.
it's also not yakuza because it really does have a fuckton of c&c and different endings (10 or so endings in wots4, 20+ in wots3)

Jet Jenkins and Melinda Megamelons.
Wapanese puns cannot be translated.

you don't think megamelons is a good translation for dekameron?

 

[Vaarna_Aarne]

It does mention though that the ending paths in WotS4 are noticiably longer than most in WotS3 (only True Ending path in WotS3 is as long as a usual ending path in WotS4), and are somewhat easier to wrap your head around compared to the more picky path requirements 3 had (only a masochist runs away with the princess without being either extremely lucky or checking a walkthrough).

Don't forget you can customize your own swordfighting style, I wish the series have more budget though.

I think this bears additional elaboration on:

Previously in WotS your moveset has been tied to your weapon, and custom weapons would have custom movesets created by you.

In WotS4, your weapon is completely separate from your moveset. Instead you have a chosen STYLE that defines your moveset for specific weapon type (style groups you have equipped at once being Sword, Unarmed, Spear, Dual Swords, Pistol, and Rifle). Furthermore, as you unlock moves in each style you've found through using them (pro-tip, just spam the two redeem side quests for cops and yakuza to get hordes of mooks to fight and kill when leveling a style) you also expand your possibilities for creating your own custom styles (though this time custom styles cost dosh for your character, so it's best to unlock lots of styles before creating your own; there are certain must-have styles that I can list for interested people). Custom styles become very important when you try harder difficulties since styles actually DO change some of your stats (most notably the amount of damage you take, at harder difficulties it's 75% damage reduction or go home and be a family man).

Pro-tip: Custom Unarmed style is extremely helpful for getting the True Ending.

EDIT: Here's my own verdict that I posted here when I finished most of the paths in the game and the full side quest line:

Alright, finished Light of Hope on Hard today. Now that I've gone through most that the game has to offer, I think I'll make a short review.

tl;dr spoilers: 8/10, great game.

Alright, so first off for those (read; who wouldn't read this topic anyway), Way of the Samurai as a series focuses on two things: Extreme level of CnC evident at every playthrough, replayability (due to multiple ending paths from aforementioned CnC), gameplay options and good combat. The games also have a lower budget than just a single trailer for a Call of Duty game (probably). Way of the Samurai 4 is PS3 exclusive, and got an international release outside of Japan nearly a year after original release following fan petition for such.

As usual, the game throws you in the middle of a small town with big trouble, and you get to pick your side, which is what will largely decide what will happen in your playthrough, and how other characters will react to you in the main storyline. Personally, I'd say the presentation and clarity of the event system (every part of the day has several events, and you commonly have to choose a single one) has been improved from the last game, and the Journal is very useful at keeping track of things. Similarly, events have a better flow, and are presented better. The story itself isn't quite as interesting as it was the last time, but it does have a much better villain in Chief Minister Kinugawa who gets more screentime to show how evil he is. The more structured events have the downside of having less freedom than they did last time, when you could draw your sword during any event for varied effect (for example, last time if you joined the villain's side you gained his respect if you drew your weapon when he was kicking and mocking you). This time you mostly just fail an event, which may or may not cause time to pass. So, you can debate the advantages of a more freeform versus a more structured and logical event, ultimately both are valid design choices. I'll still give some crap for it for having a degree of moon logic involved in achieving the True Ending, which has certain conditions you must meet that have been set on earlier playthroughs (though I like the subtle hint about where you're supposed to take J.J.).

The game has robust enough writing to stand out from the usual crowd, and it does have several genuinely good moments. Some might think it has way too much humour, but I don't mind, at least it made me laugh which most games don't. One aspect I particularly like is that everyone except Kinugawa and his three daughters are ultimately good people, whose own flaws, viewpoints and personality shortcomings (ie, Akagi is the leader of the Disciples of Prajna, AKA Japanese Civilization Defense Squadron, and he's a brave and caring man who always looks out for those underneath him, but he's also a terrible racist to the point of blindness) generally end up in shitty things happening outside of the True Ending (and True Ending mostly being about everyone growing into a better person which then brings the supreme happy ending outcome). I'll also give additional credit to Kinugawa here, who does a very good job as an evil madman. One thing I don't like is that the True Ending path starts too abruptly, if it really got started at Day 2 like most endings it would flow better in the narrative, but besides that it's great fun. And it has a great classic adventure movie style final fight.

The shining jewel of the game is the gameplay though. Most aspects from the previous game have been polished or revised. A personal favourite of mine is the new Style system, which separates fighting moves from the weapon used, allowing for greater freedom in tooling up yourself. Money is also easier and quicker to get (as in, not needing to scam the rebels for cash), so it's not an issue anymore (which leads to Dojima being murdered a lot less). So, in the new system you equip your weapons, and you equip your Style (you will end up with weapon type-specific styles and dual weapon styles, and can carry 20 spare Styles at once) and train it up to learn its moves (which you can then combine together from various styles of the same type if you create your own style). The biggest change for most players is that Defense is no longer determined by your weapon, but damage mitigation is a style passive now. Weapon is simply something you kill stuff with. Weapon durability has also been reworked, now using a normal hit point type system which does lend itself better for using heavier moves (as many can remember, Heat favoured low-intensity combos disproportionately). You've also got the option to just disassemble and rebuild your weapon over and over again until you get the Charms you like, Charms being a special property system (the two most significant ones being Life & Death, and Big Shot).

Combat itself is the usual action game swordfighting as before, with many enemies (especially if you don't pack damage mitigation) being perfectly capable of killing you in one blow depending on the difficulty. Of course, eventually it becomes a breeze when you're packing a powerful sword and have a custom style. With weapon types, the newcomers are pistols and rifles, which have few styles but have some quirky things of their own (namely, you Oil them constantly to spam the fuck out of their ranged attacks which normally cost a LOT of durability per shot). The combat model is heavily in favor of constant offensive or active dodging, blocking is far more dangerous than just avoiding the attack in the first place. The game also has a great health regeneration mechanic, with characters having two meters: Life and Vitality. Life is your hit points, depletion = death. Vitality on the other hand allows Life to regenerate when you don't do anything except block without being attacked or move (jumping is not allowed), but Vitality is drained by attacking yourself and by fast travel. At zero vitality, your health won't regenerate, which can be a very tight spot in a large fight. Most items no longer restore Life, but instead Vitality, and take a few seconds to consume (without style passives that speed up eating or drinking), requiring you to put a bit of distance between yourself and nearby sharp sticks if you need to refill your Life in an emergency.

As usual, the difficulty takes the approach that you first play on Easy until you've suited up enough to be ready for Normal, and so forth. The main effects of difficulty besides challenge are the weapons you can find (and disassemble for parts), Samurai Points awarded for use on unlocks, and the unlocks you can get.


Overall, I really enjoyed the game.


PS: The Ronin of Love (PC) can get more pussy and ass than Shepard can dream of.

 

[SuicideBunny]

speaking of wots in general, i'm kinda worried there's been nothing on wots5 so far.

 

[Rahdulan]

Excellent. WotS4 is the only one I never got around to actually playing. Go, you sake drinking bastards.

 

[Vaarna_Aarne]

speaking of wots in general, i'm kinda worried there's been nothing on wots5 so far.

The developer is around:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Akiba's_Trip:_Undead_&_Undressed

I'm starting to pick up a trend among Japanese niche developers. They all make these ecchi games to fund making real games. SNK has the same thing with that one game where you tickle and grope schoolgirls to find witches, which sells a bazillion times more than their King of Fighters games (which is a damn shame considering KoF XIII is a serious contender for best fighting game ever).

 

[LESS T_T]

A new game in the series teased last week by the publisher Spike Chunsoft, isn't that?

http://gematsu.com/2014/09/way-samurai-announced-ps-vita

 

[Wirdschowerdn]

This looks horribly trashy and shoddy, just like Deadly Premonition. But appearances can be deceiving, as it was the case with DS.

What is the hivemind humming?

 

[TheGreatOne]

I'm starting to pick up a trend among Japanese niche developers. They all make these ecchi games to fund making real games. SNK has the same thing with that one game where you tickle and grope schoolgirls to find witches, which sells a bazillion times more than their King of Fighters games (which is a damn shame considering KoF XIII is a serious contender for best fighting game ever).

Big developers used to do that too, but in today's world where publishers only care about short term profits and minimal effort, it's not so common. Square made games like Parasite Eve, Einhänder, Bushido Blade and Xenogears with FF7 money, Black Isle was a part of Interplay etc. Hopefully Atlus will funnel their Persona profits to making more Shin Megami Tensei games, SRPGs and dungeon crawlers etc. In fact I wouldn't mind Bioware being shit, Call of Duty getting million sequels, FF XIII-part 7 and other things like that if those publishers and developers used the massive profits gained from those franchises to fund other game projects. But instead they use it all on making even more sequels for those games and saturating the market with that crap.

 

[Rahdulan]

I'm starting to pick up a trend among Japanese niche developers. They all make these ecchi games to fund making real games. SNK has the same thing with that one game where you tickle and grope schoolgirls to find witches, which sells a bazillion times more than their King of Fighters games (which is a damn shame considering KoF XIII is a serious contender for best fighting game ever).

Big developers used to do that too, but in today's world where publishers only care about short term profits and minimal effort, it's not so common. Square made games like Parasite Eve, Einhänder, Bushido Blade and Xenogears with FF7 money, Black Isle was a part of Interplay etc. Hopefully Atlus will funnel their Persona profits to making more Shin Megami Tensei games, SRPGs and dungeon crawlers etc. In fact I wouldn't mind Bioware being shit, Call of Duty getting million sequels, FF XIII-part 7 and other things like that if those publishers and developers used the massive profits gained from those franchises to fund other game projects. But instead they use it all on making even more sequels for those games and saturating the market with that crap.

Square Enix has so many IPs they're just sitting on while cashing in FF and DQ. So many IPs in fact they probably don't have to worry about ever making a new one if they started with sequels and reboots. I wish they did what you suggest, but we all know that's not gonna happen because they don't either don't get or blatantly don't care about market saturation. Or maybe it's just the retarded mouth breathing audience who keeps buying this shit that's really to blame, I don't know.

 

[SuicideBunny]

This looks horribly trashy and shoddy, just like Deadly Premonition. But appearances can be deceiving, as it was the case with DS.

What is the hivemind humming?

learn to read.