@@fink7968 It's ok though. It's something new for From Software in terms of world design. You might say Dark Souls is an open world and I can see it, but Elden Ring has side dungeons, open world activities, little villages/side hub areas like the three sisters, and a much more massive world. Both of those games have the same problems because From Software spend a little too much time on beginning and middle areas, but Elden Ring actually gets back to being great in Faram Azula. I think ER 2 might be better at it. And besides if people say that Elden Ring is Dark Souls 3.5, then I coukd say the same thing with Dark Souls versus Demon's Souls in that it's Dark Souls 1.5. But that's dishonest.
@@fink7968 Big problems? Lol no. Minor problems? Sure. Not a perfect game. But a masterpiece, and hell of a first try at adapting souls into open world. The next game they make will nail it and probably be one of the best games ever. Although i do gotta say, i love the open world, but i do hope the more linear but carefully curated DS style isnt gone forever. It still has a place.
Coming in the next video: "In my Fallout 4 video I wished that Bethesda to not even bother making an rpg and just make an open world game if they weren't going to put the time and resources needed for it. Fallout 76 was the result and now I know to be careful what I wish for." EDIT: I almost had it word for word! Now that is scary
@@SchazmenRassir or needed for fallout 4.. or fallout 3... Pretty much any fallout game made by them doesn't have the time deserved put into it. Mods show you what an actually passionate developer can do. That's why they're stealing their ideas and making players pay for them.
@Theo Dore Agreed. But, to be fair, mods can make ANY game better, since they basically just need to improve on what's already there. I know, oversimplified, but still.
To elaborate on the Amiren fight he mentioned: Her lantern is used for powerful AOE attacks, among others. However, if you attack it enough, the lantern will crack. She can't use those AOEs anymore, but the rest of her attacks now slosh out some of the dangerous liquid inside as she swings her weapon. So you end up with fewer attacks to deal with, but they get stronger and have some follow-throughs. It's very cool.
@@icevlad148 then I want better memes. I am unsatisfied by the level of memage around this topic. It doesn't adequately express my passe displeasure. And don't call me grandpa. 🍆💦💦😱
He did some math on how long his Witcher thing is going to take him. He mentioned something like ~600 hours AFAIR. Which based on how he calculated, he's way off. He's looking at more than ~2500 hours invested in to do the full analyses for all 3 games + books.
One of my biggest problems with ashen were actually the weapons - there are quite a lot of weapons to find, but almost all of them are some minor variation of a club, a big club, an axe, or a big axe. This made every moveset almost identical. I ended up not even trying out the weapons I found after the mid-game. The most unique weapon I can remember is a big mining pickaxe, and it's very slow and has too short of a range for a two-hand weapon.
Totally. There's only three movesets for one handed, and three movesets for two handed. I just played through again, and checked the wiki to find that each weapon has different amounts of combo damage and stamina use in the combos. Which means there's really more like 3 base movesets, with about four additional combo movesets per category (based on optimizing a combo for damage to stamina use)-- which is all really cool, but nearly impossible to distinguish with just the naked eye, which is a huge shame.
@Lucivius27 7 minutes ago What I also don't like on this game is how expensive upgrading weapons are compared to any souls game or souls like in my experience. I am the type to upgrade bunch of weapons to experiment and compare but here upgrading 4 weapon is already a daunting and very grindy task basically discourages you to try out different weapons.
Would of made more sense if they had limited use durability so if you break one you replaced it later on so you had to be careful not to swing mindlessly.
0:57 and now, in a couple months, Elden Ring is releasing which looks to be very much like an open-world Dark Souls game made by Miyazaki/From Software themselves
From what it sounds like, if this team decides to make an Ashen 2 and build upon what they got, adding enemies, bosses, etc it could become something pretty awesome.
About the problem shown in 76, that is a clear example of fucked up while baking shadows. In this case, they are volumetric shadows (Look "Volumetric lighting"), that was once cast by an object in the scene, but the object was moved away, and they forgot to re-bake the scene. So now you got shadows that origin in an object that no longer exist. Always remember to re-bake your shadows, everyone.
Im always surprised how critical you can view a game and how fascinating it can be to listen to those. Most of the videos I watched are just sideby things that I have open while doing something else, but whenever I watch a review from you, I lay down whatever I was doing before and just watch the video for hours and hours without making a break in between. Maybe it’s your voice, the way you talk or how much in depth you go into each part of the review, but something always keeps watching, no matter the length. By now I watched almost every review on your channel and I don’t think I regret watching one of them, even the Google Chrome T-Red Analysis was more interesting than I thought it could have been. Keep up the Good work!
I haven’t played any of the games I’ve watched your analysis on. I literally have not played ANY of the Drake’s Fortune games or Last of Us and yet I watched your entire three hour long video. I think I just enjoy hearing you explain and analyze stuff. I like your thought process and there isn’t a lot of content of this quality on TH-cam at the moment. More creators who do analysis/review videos should put in the same amount of work and effort you do. Have a happy and safe beginning to 2019!
If a game looks like an asset flip then I have no idea what you're talking about, stay tuned for our Battle Royale mode that's sure to come about six months after we leave early access/kickstarter.
This game will forever be one of the best games I've ever played, though that might partly be because it was also one of the first PC games I played, which then got me into the souls games. The atmosphere, the music, the amazing creatures like that giant flying fish thing, the super scary shadow witch creatures, the super dark dungeons filled with enemies that can come around the corner at any time, and again, the music! Very memoreble experience and definitely challenging enough for me back then. I still listen to some of the soundtrack every while just to relive those moments.
I played this whole game with a friend. Definitely felt like the intended way to go through it. Biggest complaint is definitely the shallowness of the combat. Not having parries, backstabs, two-handing, jump attacks, etc. is just really lame. Still, I'd prob give it a 4/5. I'm a slut for souls-likes and I adored having one built with co-op in mind. Also the art style is incredible, imo.
Not to start a fight or anything, but you should also look into MauLer if you can find the time to. He's a difficult reviewer to recommend due to his length, but he doesn't bloat his videos unnessessarily. I'd recommend you start with his "Re: In Defence of Dark Souls 2" series.
Mauler's dissections are amazing. The fact that he points out the mistakes of other reviewers makes his videos more entertaining and due to their length you still get the in-depth analysis you came for. He hates Joseph Anderson though.
I mostly agree with everything you said, but I really disagree with your talk about exploring for secrets. Yes, I think they had some cool jumps and shit you had to explore to find the secret, but what you got as a reward was always so piss poor, that it made me not want to risk falling to my death. Everything was either Sapient moss, or a Sapient Root and if you were lucky, a stash. They needed something actually interesting to give you. Because by 3/4ths of the way through, I had insane amounts of scoria, roots, and moss, and I never needed to pick up anything else. That's my issue with most parts of the game tbh. Not enough variety. Weapons feel the same, enemies feel the same, bosses aren't special. Still a pretty fun game, but they really needed more variety
Chris Rivera I completely agree with you’re critique in the exploration. It got to the point for me where I stopped exploring as much because every time afterwards It felt less and less rewarding for going out of my way to find the next shiny I could see in the distance. The ones that you see in the dungeon where the most irritating and not worth the headache of trying to get to them because when you finally did all it was was either upgrade material or more currency pickups. I was hoping for a OP weapon or something different but nope, not worth the time spent.
wow hearing your voice when you talk to your son, and then again in the sneak peak where you talk to your friend, was mind blowing. your voice sounds so different when you inflect like you are in a conversation! i'll never hear it the same again. it was quite endearing, actually.
Looking forward to my favorite youtuber doing a video on my favorite game series, the witcher. Happy Christmas and new year to you and all your family!
nice review man :) my expectations were a bit too high but i am the person who wants as much souls like combat is possible so i did have fun. i wish the bosses were harder, i felt like the dungeons and some of the mob spawns were a bit cheaply difficult sometimes and the bosses were just so easy.
OMG I just started playing this, and the some buggy stuff has been driving me crazy. I got stuck with my hands in a stone door and unable to open it or get out of it for a while. And mainly, I keep engaging enemies to find that my partner has VANISHED and I'm alone. And sometimes, my partner disappears and won't come when I call him. It's been frustrating so far, but companion stuff and some aspects of combat have been frustrating.
Revisiting this gem of an analysis because I was remembering Ashen when playing through Elden Ring. I hope you do a video on Elden Ring, because I'd love to hear your thoughts on it implements or shortcomings with the Souls genre.
I too, loved Ashen, and I must say that playing through most of it with a buddy probably made the smaller enemy variety not register as much. I hope to see more of that world though, exploring it was a treat for me. And it felt short, too short, but then I realised I spent several more hours playing it than I felt I did. Which is usually no a bad sign. One of my favourite parts was that they did dark right, and a real obstacle without light. I did like how the first boss used its lore as part of a small, almost too unnoticeable mechanic though. Healing (just a little bit) by consuming your lantern's light, when it was said in the opening that they fed on light, was a neat little touch. Even if the healing was hardly noticeable without paying attention.
It's so hilarious listening to a parent tell their child to calm down until he finishes killing the boss ahahahahah Anyway, thanks for the review dude. I've had high hope for this game, but a 7 out of 10 rating feels justified when you consider lack of enemy variety, lackluster combat (caused by the formentioned scarce enemy variety and missing innovation such as body part targeting found in The Surge or stance mechanics from Nioh), awkward use of cooperative multiplayer (plus lack of PvP), and an open world that could've used a tightly-knit spiral layout akin to something like the first Dark Souls and Bloodborne. On the plus side, the game's mature-themed Adventure Time aesthetic does look jaw-droppingly beautiful and exploration - while not perfect - will surely add to the experience. If anything, I'll cross my fingers and wait for some DLC to come out; perhaps a bundle of the vanilla game and future add-ons will increase the value of this game, thus enticing me to make a purchase.
The world design is kinda something I felt in BotW as well- there are a couple areas with a different feeling (even if they're straight lifted from other Zelda games, or feel effectively limited in scope in some way), but there are so many "rolling hill"- type zones filling up the world as well. Ice/Desert/Volcano themes are nice, but I felt like some of the zones could've felt much more diverse
Looking forward to playing this one when I can get it on sale. I enjoy the Souls games a lot but I'm not sold on the formula to the point I'm willing to pay full price for everything in it, since I found Nioh kind of disappointing. Regardless, it's always interesting to hear what you have to say on games and I look forward to your next video.
@@20thcentury_toy Yeah I picked it up a couple years ago. Pretty good, combat does get a bit dry but the world is somewhat interesting. Has some minor quality of life issues like a too-small inventory compared to all the weapons and stuff you can find. I agree with the 7 out of 10 or so rating; it's worth playing if you like Dark Souls combat and really want to play more games like it, and definitely an impressive first release from the developer. I wouldn't give it a glowing recommendation but it was a solid game.
To be honest I’d say Nioh’s enemy variety wasn’t that bad. You had human enemies with went from soldiers to leaders to ninjas and a few more. Same with the Yokai. I think the reason why people feel this way is because Nioh showcases almost all of its enemies in the first 2 areas. I’m sure if they spaced them out nicely, the variety wouldn’t too big of a problem.
I feel like I need to take a 2 year break from your channel just so I can binge watch your content in like a 2 day sitting. But seriously I don’t know if you’ll see this comment but I love your reviews and streams and you definitely are one of my favorite creators to date. I hope you had a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!
I doubt you’ll ever read this. If some how you do. You’re my favorite person to relax with. Your videos are so calming. I actually play your videos while I try to sleep. I probably have watched every video 5 times over. I spent a week falling asleep to your fallout videos, just hearing you discuss something and closing my eyes and thinking about it. I can not appreciate what you do enough. I love long videos! KEEP IT UP PLEASE!
7:15 that is not a heavy attack, atleast not a full one afaik. You have to hold the heavy attack button for a few seconds to actually perform one, you'd know that your attack is a heavy one because there is always a special animation for it (atleast with the weapons I had tried) and your weapon would also shine for a second and play a sound effect when lifted for a heavy strike.
Loved the video, truly. Good to know there's one game critic I can trust to look at something with an unbiased opinion. On another note, would love to see your opinions on a game like Metro 2077 or even Last Light. Not my favourite games but they hold a special place in my heart for when I first made my leap into more realistic and difficult games.
11:19 "And I don't think it's a good idea to make long TH-cam videos about the quality of your friends... Anymore." I love your dry humor and willingness to understate a joke haha
I’m playing this right now and the Elden Ring feel is so significant that you can’t help but wonder if fromsoft happened across this game during Elden Ring development…it’s like reverse inception….but not….woah
Repetitive enemies are the worst thing about the game. Especially when you keep dying them just to get to the ritual stone BUT when you actually get to the stone you can’t fast travel from it and spend your hard earned scoria!
Hey Joseph. Great work as always. Is there going to be a video essay for Persona 5? Really enjoyed the highlight video but would like to know your critical thoughts on the game.
Excellent vid dude. That credits clip sounded like you both were commenting on how looking past the buggy emptiness of Fallout 76, you could make out a former shadow of an interesting game.
We barely missed it, but the first huge dungeon (leading to the 3rd boss) has a shortcut leading down to the bottom where the boss-run checkpoint is. There is a room with a few blue lighting thingies and a medium sized of those similar dudes standing at the other end with a thin pass leading to him. It is unmistakable and not really far from the actual entrance door requiring 2 people. Now it might be important to note that it leads to the ladders which you can see from the door and we died while trying to jump over there (you die just inches before reaching the platform). So after you deal with the dude, I guess it is on the right and it is a narrow pass, easy to miss at first (and second glance). That is if I remember correctly - it's freakin' dark down there :) But the shortcut helps a lot and you can avoid most of the frustration. After reaching the "bonfire", you can always go back I guess and clean the dungeon backward. That is until they start to respawn...
Would be really nice if all of your videos had captions. I am hard of hearing, and although your sound quality is great, I still miss a few things, so having that would help me a lot!
16:40 If you're doing that fight on the harder difficulty mode, you do not want to destroy that lantern. Doing so makes the fight basically unsurvivable
I completely agree with you. I just posted my review of this game too, but much shorter, but I see that we agree on some things, I'm glad I wasn't crazy when I said I wasn't a fan of this game despite all the reviews that praised it. Great video btw.
Good video. This is unrelated to your Ashen critique, but I really think you should give MauLer a second chance. If he said something in one of his videos that offended you, I don't think you should take it too seriously. After all, it's just internet banter. If, however, you feel strongly enough about your position, then I'd recommend considering making a guest appearance on his podcast (EFAP). You could hash out any disagreements there and it'd be entertaining to watch/listen to. I'm saying this because, as a viewer, I enjoy both your content and his, and think that your approaches to media analysis are similar, to the extent that you both heavily emphasize the objective qualities of the games/movies you're reviewing.
This is the same guy who made a combined nine hours of critique on the first two Witcher games (his video on the third may or may not be coming out sometime this decade but I'm not holding my breath). So I think it's fair to say nitpicking is the only thing he's good at. But yeah I agree. A few problems but some real meat to this game. Not quite done with it yet but I can say DAMN it looks good and is just solid and real polished
Enemy variety and over-the-top bosses were the scariest, most engaging, fun part of the Souls games to me. I love souls games so I'll get it, but hearing that there are so few types will keep me from buying this unless its on sale. :(
I really can't wait for the Sekiro video I love your critiques on those types of games as Sekiro is a single player soulsborne game by Miyazaki that diverts from how the games usually are mechanically and I know you love playing these games on single player mode.
Ironically, the mighty has fallen...FromSoftware made the big mistake with low enemy variety in Sekiro. And boss variety. And miniboss variety. And even went as low as repainting enemy armor in some cases. My guess it’s for the price of precise combat. But after signing with Activision, I’d expect higher budget and longer development cycle, which doesn’t show in some instances.
![[UNCUT] The Loyal Pin ปิ่นภักดิ์ EP.7 (1/4)](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/2rPGOyKs0VE/mqdefault.jpg)
"And daddy's like, trying to kill the ruiner of the world right now"
"Yeah?"
I lost it at this.
Why not pause the game?
Are you really asking some one to PAUSE a DARK SOULS game?
@@xKazutsu could you please explain that to somone who never before played a soulslike?
"I wondered if Souls combat could work in an open world"
Now we definitely know it does
elden ring babee
Yeah, although the open world lead to a lot of the big problems with elden ring.
What was there to wonder about? It was obvious that Souls could work in open world. There is nothing in Souls formula that suggests otherwise
@@fink7968 It's ok though. It's something new for From Software in terms of world design. You might say Dark Souls is an open world and I can see it, but Elden Ring has side dungeons, open world activities, little villages/side hub areas like the three sisters, and a much more massive world. Both of those games have the same problems because From Software spend a little too much time on beginning and middle areas, but Elden Ring actually gets back to being great in Faram Azula. I think ER 2 might be better at it. And besides if people say that Elden Ring is Dark Souls 3.5, then I coukd say the same thing with Dark Souls versus Demon's Souls in that it's Dark Souls 1.5. But that's dishonest.
@@fink7968
Big problems? Lol no.
Minor problems? Sure. Not a perfect game. But a masterpiece, and hell of a first try at adapting souls into open world. The next game they make will nail it and probably be one of the best games ever.
Although i do gotta say, i love the open world, but i do hope the more linear but carefully curated DS style isnt gone forever. It still has a place.
Welcome to the "Joseph Anderson vs Fallout 76" waiting room boys
"Fallout 76: It's Not Even Remotely Close to a Masterpiece"
Fallout 76: It Exists
Fallout 76: The bitter big truth
Fallout didn't die. It was killed!
Fallout 76 but its actually Skyrim Online
so elden ring… is ashen like?
Coming in the next video: "In my Fallout 4 video I wished that Bethesda to not even bother making an rpg and just make an open world game if they weren't going to put the time and resources needed for it. Fallout 76 was the result and now I know to be careful what I wish for."
EDIT: I almost had it word for word! Now that is scary
Whoa, that's actually pretty uncanny.
OH MY GOD HAHAHAHHHH OH NO
Well, on the other hand, they DIDN'T put the time or resources needed for it in 76.
@@SchazmenRassir or needed for fallout 4.. or fallout 3... Pretty much any fallout game made by them doesn't have the time deserved put into it. Mods show you what an actually passionate developer can do. That's why they're stealing their ideas and making players pay for them.
@Theo Dore Agreed. But, to be fair, mods can make ANY game better, since they basically just need to improve on what's already there. I know, oversimplified, but still.
Joseph: And daddy is trying to destroy the destroyer of the world
Child: *astonished sound*
Joseph: yeah😎
Wait, you did a review on Mariah Carey Odyssey? I love that game
Erick Wright you guys should review dota 2.
Eh, it's no masterpiece
That video was all I wanted for xmas
The only way to play Ashen xD
Okay so what did he _actually_ say? Because that's what I heard, too.
“Daddy’s trying to kill the Ruiner of the World right now...”
“Really?”
“Yeah...”
Best father ever lmao
To elaborate on the Amiren fight he mentioned: Her lantern is used for powerful AOE attacks, among others. However, if you attack it enough, the lantern will crack. She can't use those AOEs anymore, but the rest of her attacks now slosh out some of the dangerous liquid inside as she swings her weapon. So you end up with fewer attacks to deal with, but they get stronger and have some follow-throughs. It's very cool.
It seems so professional until I remember this is the man behind ☆A$$ EATERS☆
@Mac Mcskullface watch the persona 5 highlights video
@Mac Mcskullface you have no idea
@Mac Mcskullface oh yeah. 100% weeb.
What's that ?
This whole Witcher Waiting is gonna need to become a meme.
It is already.
It is already but in the form of the Phantom Pain's cigar
It's already NieR waiting, gradpa
@@icevlad148 then I want better memes. I am unsatisfied by the level of memage around this topic. It doesn't adequately express my passe displeasure.
And don't call me grandpa. 🍆💦💦😱
He did some math on how long his Witcher thing is going to take him. He mentioned something like ~600 hours AFAIR. Which based on how he calculated, he's way off. He's looking at more than ~2500 hours invested in to do the full analyses for all 3 games + books.
One of my biggest problems with ashen were actually the weapons - there are quite a lot of weapons to find, but almost all of them are some minor variation of a club, a big club, an axe, or a big axe. This made every moveset almost identical. I ended up not even trying out the weapons I found after the mid-game. The most unique weapon I can remember is a big mining pickaxe, and it's very slow and has too short of a range for a two-hand weapon.
Totally. There's only three movesets for one handed, and three movesets for two handed. I just played through again, and checked the wiki to find that each weapon has different amounts of combo damage and stamina use in the combos. Which means there's really more like 3 base movesets, with about four additional combo movesets per category (based on optimizing a combo for damage to stamina use)-- which is all really cool, but nearly impossible to distinguish with just the naked eye, which is a huge shame.
@Lucivius27
7 minutes ago
What I also don't like on this game is how expensive upgrading weapons are compared to any souls game or souls like in my experience. I am the type to upgrade bunch of weapons to experiment and compare but here upgrading 4 weapon is already a daunting and very grindy task basically discourages you to try out different weapons.
Would of made more sense if they had limited use durability so if you break one you replaced it later on so you had to be careful not to swing mindlessly.
If you start this video at exactly 11:40:23, you will finish it when 2019 begins, which is the most intelligence it is possible to be
Liked your video on darksiders, funny to see you here so early.
ah, facebook meme
I think you'll actually have to start the video at 11:40:23 so that it ends at midnight.
It keeps buffering for me, plan foiled
Can’t wait for your silver lining video! Keep up the awesome work!
0:57 and now, in a couple months, Elden Ring is releasing which looks to be very much like an open-world Dark Souls game made by Miyazaki/From Software themselves
And now, it's most likely game of the year. :)
It's always a good day when Joseph uploads
From what it sounds like, if this team decides to make an Ashen 2 and build upon what they got, adding enemies, bosses, etc it could become something pretty awesome.
About the problem shown in 76, that is a clear example of fucked up while baking shadows. In this case, they are volumetric shadows (Look "Volumetric lighting"), that was once cast by an object in the scene, but the object was moved away, and they forgot to re-bake the scene. So now you got shadows that origin in an object that no longer exist. Always remember to re-bake your shadows, everyone.
the developers were more baked than those shadows
Very good game for $20 from an indie company. Hopefully they'll be able to improve on what they have currently, because it has a lot of potential.
I'd rather just save it up to buy Elden Ring or Dark Souls which I already have anyway. I'll just use the 20 bucks for some drinks.
@@bizznick444joe7the comment was 4 years ago lmao
I'm here for the Joe x Mandalore bromance
I had no idea that they knew each other but I placed the voice immediately.
@@noahsatterlee8873 fucking exactly dude I picked it up instantly. Dang. They both make fantastic videos
MARIAH CAREY ODDYSEY
Don't get your hopes up it's not a real game, I checked ;_;
@@FixYoSelf He meant Mario Oddysey lol. Its a meme that he constantly mispronounces mario
Im always surprised how critical you can view a game and how fascinating it can be to listen to those. Most of the videos I watched are just sideby things that I have open while doing something else, but whenever I watch a review from you, I lay down whatever I was doing before and just watch the video for hours and hours without making a break in between. Maybe it’s your voice, the way you talk or how much in depth you go into each part of the review, but something always keeps watching, no matter the length. By now I watched almost every review on your channel and I don’t think I regret watching one of them, even the Google Chrome T-Red Analysis was more interesting than I thought it could have been.
Keep up the Good work!
I haven’t played any of the games I’ve watched your analysis on. I literally have not played ANY of the Drake’s Fortune games or Last of Us and yet I watched your entire three hour long video.
I think I just enjoy hearing you explain and analyze stuff. I like your thought process and there isn’t a lot of content of this quality on TH-cam at the moment. More creators who do analysis/review videos should put in the same amount of work and effort you do.
Have a happy and safe beginning to 2019!
"When I keep working on the Witcher games."
TWO YEARS AGO, HOLY MOLY DEDICATION
So glad that a Finnterruption made it into a video :)
Happy new year, everyone!
If a game looks like an asset flip then I have no idea what you're talking about, stay tuned for our Battle Royale mode that's sure to come about six months after we leave early access/kickstarter.
Man, that was the quickest 9 hours of my life. How'd you condense time like that?
The first minutes of this video after watching his video about Elden Ring feels funny haha
The art style reminds me of Absolver
watching this video is gonna be confusing since "ashen" makes me think more of "british man talks about tat on a sofa" than "soulslike"
I clicked on this video fully expecting it to be a critique of another TH-camr.
Ashens is a sound lad in fairness, met him at a Con years ago and he offered me half a sandwich, nice dude, good sandwich.
That's Ashens, with an "s"... God I love him.
This game will forever be one of the best games I've ever played, though that might partly be because it was also one of the first PC games I played, which then got me into the souls games. The atmosphere, the music, the amazing creatures like that giant flying fish thing, the super scary shadow witch creatures, the super dark dungeons filled with enemies that can come around the corner at any time, and again, the music! Very memoreble experience and definitely challenging enough for me back then. I still listen to some of the soundtrack every while just to relive those moments.
This video doesn't have an obligatory Dark Souls reference.
It *IS* the obligatory Dark Souls reference.
OH MY GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOD!!!!!!!
I played this whole game with a friend. Definitely felt like the intended way to go through it. Biggest complaint is definitely the shallowness of the combat. Not having parries, backstabs, two-handing, jump attacks, etc. is just really lame. Still, I'd prob give it a 4/5. I'm a slut for souls-likes and I adored having one built with co-op in mind. Also the art style is incredible, imo.
Your son coming in mid-boss was the most adorable thing I’ve seen on TH-cam
18:00 My two favourite video game reviewers, MandaloreGaming and Joseph Anderson!
Not to start a fight or anything, but you should also look into MauLer if you can find the time to. He's a difficult reviewer to recommend due to his length, but he doesn't bloat his videos unnessessarily. I'd recommend you start with his "Re: In Defence of Dark Souls 2" series.
@@benkaes3657 oh no
Ben Kaes actually do not watch MauLer at all since all he does is antagonize viewpoints and argue in bad faith about semantics
Mauler's dissections are amazing. The fact that he points out the mistakes of other reviewers makes his videos more entertaining and due to their length you still get the in-depth analysis you came for. He hates Joseph Anderson though.
@@benkaes3657 Isn't Mauler the guy that just uploaded a 2 hour long """intro""" to a SW:TLJ series of videos? He's kind of a living meme.
I mostly agree with everything you said, but I really disagree with your talk about exploring for secrets. Yes, I think they had some cool jumps and shit you had to explore to find the secret, but what you got as a reward was always so piss poor, that it made me not want to risk falling to my death. Everything was either Sapient moss, or a Sapient Root and if you were lucky, a stash. They needed something actually interesting to give you. Because by 3/4ths of the way through, I had insane amounts of scoria, roots, and moss, and I never needed to pick up anything else. That's my issue with most parts of the game tbh. Not enough variety. Weapons feel the same, enemies feel the same, bosses aren't special. Still a pretty fun game, but they really needed more variety
Chris Rivera I completely agree with you’re critique in the exploration. It got to the point for me where I stopped exploring as much because every time afterwards It felt less and less rewarding for going out of my way to find the next shiny I could see in the distance. The ones that you see in the dungeon where the most irritating and not worth the headache of trying to get to them because when you finally did all it was was either upgrade material or more currency pickups. I was hoping for a OP weapon or something different but nope, not worth the time spent.
don't forget the utter disappointment when you would find a spearhead...
wow hearing your voice when you talk to your son, and then again in the sneak peak where you talk to your friend, was mind blowing. your voice sounds so different when you inflect like you are in a conversation! i'll never hear it the same again. it was quite endearing, actually.
If the witcher 3 video isnt 8 hours long im gonna be disappointed
I think the Witcher videos are going to be ~10 hours long ... per game.
Witcher, NieR:Automata, Undertale, the videos about other Blizzard games hinted at three years ago... yeah.
I think Joe said previously it would probably end up being at least 4 hours long
@@DerringerHK He said it might be 6 and then said knowing himself it will probably be 8.
Now he says it's gonna be 9 hours long lol
Looking forward to my favorite youtuber doing a video on my favorite game series, the witcher. Happy Christmas and new year to you and all your family!
Most adorable ambush ever.
Always a treat when my favorite TH-camer uploads!
Happy new year Daddapon
nice review man :) my expectations were a bit too high but i am the person who wants as much souls like combat is possible so i did have fun. i wish the bosses were harder, i felt like the dungeons and some of the mob spawns were a bit cheaply difficult sometimes and the bosses were just so easy.
Happy New Year, dude!
Thank you for all the great content you’ve put out and I look forward to seeing more in 2019!
OMG I just started playing this, and the some buggy stuff has been driving me crazy. I got stuck with my hands in a stone door and unable to open it or get out of it for a while. And mainly, I keep engaging enemies to find that my partner has VANISHED and I'm alone. And sometimes, my partner disappears and won't come when I call him. It's been frustrating so far, but companion stuff and some aspects of combat have been frustrating.
I think Elden Ring also proved the combat works in the open world format now lol
Revisiting this gem of an analysis because I was remembering Ashen when playing through Elden Ring. I hope you do a video on Elden Ring, because I'd love to hear your thoughts on it implements or shortcomings with the Souls genre.
Guess i have good news for you friend
I too, loved Ashen, and I must say that playing through most of it with a buddy probably made the smaller enemy variety not register as much.
I hope to see more of that world though, exploring it was a treat for me. And it felt short, too short, but then I realised I spent several more hours playing it than I felt I did. Which is usually no a bad sign. One of my favourite parts was that they did dark right, and a real obstacle without light.
I did like how the first boss used its lore as part of a small, almost too unnoticeable mechanic though. Healing (just a little bit) by consuming your lantern's light, when it was said in the opening that they fed on light, was a neat little touch. Even if the healing was hardly noticeable without paying attention.
It's so hilarious listening to a parent tell their child to calm down until he finishes killing the boss ahahahahah
Anyway, thanks for the review dude. I've had high hope for this game, but a 7 out of 10 rating feels justified when you consider lack of enemy variety, lackluster combat (caused by the formentioned scarce enemy variety and missing innovation such as body part targeting found in The Surge or stance mechanics from Nioh), awkward use of cooperative multiplayer (plus lack of PvP), and an open world that could've used a tightly-knit spiral layout akin to something like the first Dark Souls and Bloodborne.
On the plus side, the game's mature-themed Adventure Time aesthetic does look jaw-droppingly beautiful and exploration - while not perfect - will surely add to the experience. If anything, I'll cross my fingers and wait for some DLC to come out; perhaps a bundle of the vanilla game and future add-ons will increase the value of this game, thus enticing me to make a purchase.
The world design is kinda something I felt in BotW as well- there are a couple areas with a different feeling (even if they're straight lifted from other Zelda games, or feel effectively limited in scope in some way), but there are so many "rolling hill"- type zones filling up the world as well. Ice/Desert/Volcano themes are nice, but I felt like some of the zones could've felt much more diverse
Looking forward to playing this one when I can get it on sale. I enjoy the Souls games a lot but I'm not sold on the formula to the point I'm willing to pay full price for everything in it, since I found Nioh kind of disappointing. Regardless, it's always interesting to hear what you have to say on games and I look forward to your next video.
So did you play it?
@@20thcentury_toy Yeah I picked it up a couple years ago. Pretty good, combat does get a bit dry but the world is somewhat interesting. Has some minor quality of life issues like a too-small inventory compared to all the weapons and stuff you can find. I agree with the 7 out of 10 or so rating; it's worth playing if you like Dark Souls combat and really want to play more games like it, and definitely an impressive first release from the developer. I wouldn't give it a glowing recommendation but it was a solid game.
We'll see how From Software does with an open world when their next game "Elden Ring" comes out
God, it’s been two years since it was announced already?
To be honest I’d say Nioh’s enemy variety wasn’t that bad. You had human enemies with went from soldiers to leaders to ninjas and a few more. Same with the Yokai. I think the reason why people feel this way is because Nioh showcases almost all of its enemies in the first 2 areas. I’m sure if they spaced them out nicely, the variety wouldn’t too big of a problem.
I feel like I need to take a 2 year break from your channel just so I can binge watch your content in like a 2 day sitting. But seriously I don’t know if you’ll see this comment but I love your reviews and streams and you definitely are one of my favorite creators to date. I hope you had a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!
This was an awesome video. I think I will check out Ashen eventually when the price drops.
so cool to see you being a buddy with Mandalore! (as well as Whitelight) keep it up, enjoyed it :)
I have no idea what Ashen even is, but I know it's gonna be fun 20 minutes. Thanks for this unexpected New Year gift, Joseph!
I dont remember this part of the witcher
I doubt you’ll ever read this. If some how you do. You’re my favorite person to relax with. Your videos are so calming. I actually play your videos while I try to sleep. I probably have watched every video 5 times over. I spent a week falling asleep to your fallout videos, just hearing you discuss something and closing my eyes and thinking about it. I can not appreciate what you do enough. I love long videos! KEEP IT UP PLEASE!
joseph + lord mandalore fallout 76 video is the perfect way to start 2019
7:15 that is not a heavy attack, atleast not a full one afaik. You have to hold the heavy attack button for a few seconds to actually perform one, you'd know that your attack is a heavy one because there is always a special animation for it (atleast with the weapons I had tried) and your weapon would also shine for a second and play a sound effect when lifted for a heavy strike.
I hope your progress on the Witcher games is going well. I REALLY look forward to what you have to say about them!
i had a mental breakdown after dying over and over at the 2nd "dungeon"
happy new year, thank you Joseph Anderson for all your videos.
Loved the video, truly. Good to know there's one game critic I can trust to look at something with an unbiased opinion.
On another note, would love to see your opinions on a game like Metro 2077 or even Last Light. Not my favourite games but they hold a special place in my heart for when I first made my leap into more realistic and difficult games.
A combo bad game review from Janderson and Mandalore?? I'm very excited
This video helped me fall asleep last night. The narration is perfect!
I'm very glad you're doing some shorter videos. I missed those. Your darkest dungeon and witness videos are my favorites.
Are you thinking of doing rimworld or kenshi at all?
I could be wrong, but I don't think Joe has played either one of them yet.
Did he say Mariah Carey Odyssey or am I losing my mind?
He did and it was completely intentional. It's his mission to mispronounce Mario worse with every video.
Charzey lmfao what
@Charzey you realize this is just an inside joke, right?
Ah Play-Doh Sekiro Elden Souls, yes.
This Witcher review is really good, totally worth the wait
11:19 "And I don't think it's a good idea to make long TH-cam videos about the quality of your friends... Anymore." I love your dry humor and willingness to understate a joke haha
7:37, the pronounciation is getting worse by the second and I love it
I’m playing this right now and the Elden Ring feel is so significant that you can’t help but wonder if fromsoft happened across this game during Elden Ring development…it’s like reverse inception….but not….woah
Repetitive enemies are the worst thing about the game. Especially when you keep dying them just to get to the ritual stone BUT when you actually get to the stone you can’t fast travel from it and spend your hard earned scoria!
A joseph and Mandalore review. I think i may just fall over
Hey Joseph. Great work as always. Is there going to be a video essay for Persona 5? Really enjoyed the highlight video but would like to know your critical thoughts on the game.
18:04 wait how did Joseph compare Fallout 76 to Death Stranding when Death Stranding released nearly a year after this video was uploaded??
maybe he played a demo
Excellent vid dude. That credits clip sounded like you both were commenting on how looking past the buggy emptiness of Fallout 76, you could make out a former shadow of an interesting game.
I adored this game, i have been gaming for 45 years and this was one of the most enjoyable games I have ever played.
Didnt know you knew Mandalore :)
I’ve noticed more quick videos and streams, I hope you continue to make many long form critiques like this one.
We barely missed it, but the first huge dungeon (leading to the 3rd boss) has a shortcut leading down to the bottom where the boss-run checkpoint is. There is a room with a few blue lighting thingies and a medium sized of those similar dudes standing at the other end with a thin pass leading to him. It is unmistakable and not really far from the actual entrance door requiring 2 people. Now it might be important to note that it leads to the ladders which you can see from the door and we died while trying to jump over there (you die just inches before reaching the platform). So after you deal with the dude, I guess it is on the right and it is a narrow pass, easy to miss at first (and second glance).
That is if I remember correctly - it's freakin' dark down there :) But the shortcut helps a lot and you can avoid most of the frustration. After reaching the "bonfire", you can always go back I guess and clean the dungeon backward. That is until they start to respawn...
This is one of your best vids yet imo. Pretty well-written. Keep up the better than mediocre work! :)
I really liked this video, thank you for making this! Can not wait for fallout 76 video!
The question is will the Witcher video come out before Cyberpunk 2077? I guess that's the deadline.
Would be really nice if all of your videos had captions. I am hard of hearing, and although your sound quality is great, I still miss a few things, so having that would help me a lot!
16:40 If you're doing that fight on the harder difficulty mode, you do not want to destroy that lantern. Doing so makes the fight basically unsurvivable
WITCHER HYPE YES IVE BEEN WAITING FOR IT SINCE YOU MADE THAT VIDEO ANNOUNCING YOU WERE WORKING ON IT AND HAVE BEEN SEARCHING FOR NEWS EVER SINCE
Hell yes! Let's do this!
Is joe's voice slowed? Am I crazy?
I completely agree with you. I just posted my review of this game too, but much shorter, but I see that we agree on some things, I'm glad I wasn't crazy when I said I wasn't a fan of this game despite all the reviews that praised it. Great video btw.
"im going to get into some spoilers now starting by.."
oke bye
Good video. This is unrelated to your Ashen critique, but I really think you should give MauLer a second chance. If he said something in one of his videos that offended you, I don't think you should take it too seriously. After all, it's just internet banter. If, however, you feel strongly enough about your position, then I'd recommend considering making a guest appearance on his podcast (EFAP). You could hash out any disagreements there and it'd be entertaining to watch/listen to. I'm saying this because, as a viewer, I enjoy both your content and his, and think that your approaches to media analysis are similar, to the extent that you both heavily emphasize the objective qualities of the games/movies you're reviewing.
This review is ridiculously harsh for an indie game. This game is a masterpiece as far as I’m concerned. Stop knit picking
This is the same guy who made a combined nine hours of critique on the first two Witcher games (his video on the third may or may not be coming out sometime this decade but I'm not holding my breath). So I think it's fair to say nitpicking is the only thing he's good at.
But yeah I agree. A few problems but some real meat to this game. Not quite done with it yet but I can say DAMN it looks good and is just solid and real polished
Enemy variety and over-the-top bosses were the scariest, most engaging, fun part of the Souls games to me. I love souls games so I'll get it, but hearing that there are so few types will keep me from buying this unless its on sale. :(
I really can't wait for the Sekiro video I love your critiques on those types of games as Sekiro is a single player soulsborne game by Miyazaki that diverts from how the games usually are mechanically and I know you love playing these games on single player mode.
What about Immortal Unchained? It's a relatively new soulslike tps shooter. Where would that come above or below The Surge?
15:48 was absolutely adorable
Oh man, a wild Mandalore appears! Did not expect that. Solid review though. I am waiting for this to hit Steam before I nab it.
Ironically, the mighty has fallen...FromSoftware made the big mistake with low enemy variety in Sekiro. And boss variety. And miniboss variety. And even went as low as repainting enemy armor in some cases. My guess it’s for the price of precise combat. But after signing with Activision, I’d expect higher budget and longer development cycle, which doesn’t show in some instances.
was this made by the absolver team? thought it was an expansion with weapons at first the visual style is super similar