Dude Jacob, I’ve watched this video at least four times. I’ve watched all of your content. You are a really good writer and I enjoy how you approach reviewing games. You’re clear, concise and erudite. I’ve bought, I think, 3 games based off your reviews (including Ashen) and I regret nothing. Keep up the fantastic work. I wish you the absolute best.
Several years late to this video, but me and a buddy played the whole game togheter and chilled and it was probably many times a better multiplayer experience than random strangers once in a blue moon. I'm glad the option to "lobby" with a matching session code was there.
the thing about dark souls story that people miss, is that, you play as someone who is being manipulated, you are guided by 2 forces that ask of you to choose the "right way", but all you have to go on is what they tell you. which explain why description of items, and the eviromental story telling are so important. because its only by looking at those details that you are able to grasp the reality of the situation.
22:40 Nah m8, I disagree. A good launcher has features that could benefit the consumer, like Steam community guides, forums, workshop support, etc. Valve also took the time to implement things into Steam like In-House streaming or SteamInput for controllers. The problem with launchers like the Epic Games Store is that they usually offer very little value other than existing, which inconveniences consumers who prefer using their favorite one. Epic is trying to balance it out with free games, but their launcher still lacks anything that's beneficial beyond giving more money to devs.
Steam has had years and much more capital to develop this and you can’t just tack on “giving more money to devs” like it’s a foot note steam having a monopoly on games and taking a large tax from indie devs isn’t something I like to support even if I do. The argument of preference is a valid one but then so too can you make the argument that the devs have the right to prefer getting more money from they’re hard work.
@@sevenaces7965 should be careful, since 40% of the company is owned by Tencent... You know, the guys famous for giving your data to the Chinese government and trying to run extremely intrusive anti cheat systems in their newest CS:Go meets overwatch game
Big Ashen fan here. One of my favorite games and I've been playing games since early 2000's. It has something special and it feels like an adventure since the very begining. I ended up completing all quests and I never do that. I guess it's something about my own preferences but I love its minimalist approach with no filler, no cinematics, no fancy stuff, just pure adventure and gameplay.
21:51 i disagree, dark souls does have passive multiplayer as well, same with demon souls before it. and it works wonderfully, even when you dont meet those strangers. and im not talking about invasions, but the ghosts of other players, be it the bloodstains, or the white shades.
Some of the differences between a good and a bad launcher: Friendslist with status, Voice Chat, Chat, Seeing the games you share with friends, comunity hub for questions etc about the game, workshop, offline mode, open game foulder, set game launching conditions, go back to older patches. thats just a few things a launcher should have to be considered good.
@@Fredministrator I agree. Steam is a great launcher and minecraft is a polished and simple Launcher. I think quantity of tools doesnt set a lunchers standards, just how well it performs which epic games does not perform well
After I went on an Annapurna kick after playing Stray, I played Donut Country, Solar Ash, Artful Escape and recently started The Pathless. I watched your review on that and loved it (still have yet to finish it, want to complete the game first). So I came here to watch your take on Ashen! I'm not a souls game person, Elden Ring overwhelmed the heck out of me. Something smaller and more contained is my cup of tea. Interested to hear what you think.
oh my god that voice acting was something else. i usually don't recognize bad voice acting unless it's really bad. and man oh man, this struck so hard in the "holly shit of voice acting"
The Nioh series prety muched solved the multiplayer issue in this genre. You can have good ol' regular lobbies where your friends can easily join up and you have "random encounters" where you are matched with a player requesting help. There's heavy stat scaling, but your skill trees make a big difference and higher tier equipment is still better even if it's scaled down, so you can be a big help but you won't one-shot everything even if the difference between your true levels is in the hundreds.
Weapon slots are mostly used in pvp, someone is running away? You swap to spear, someone is pretty good at rolling? You swap to one-handed fast weapon.
Dude, I'm so glad I found you. You're a refreshing take on reviewing, and I truly, absolutely adore that you understand making games is hard. It's such a rarity that I hear wonderful concepts like 'A44 Games probably had lofty goals for the talisman and relics system, but just didn't have time to hash it out completely'. 10/10, I'll recommend you to any I can because that's so wholesome and true. Game development is rough, not everything works even if you're the best of the best.
3:33 That got you a sub. Been saying this for years to everyone. Cutscenes are the laziest thing ever. Ripping off movies instead of actually trying to come up with something new. Videogame storytelling is still mostly unexplored territory.
"Less than a second" isn't clear enough to argue against something that can truly seem long when games run 30-60 fps, and a humans brain when playing video games works at no more than 1 quarter of a second. When genres like fighting games/shooters have quicker animations that play in 3-10 frames, then yes I would absolutely agree that a monotonous act of putting the lantern down and takes any more than those quicker frames is a "long ass animation".
I watched your cube world video and couldn't stop. I love your reviews and think a bloodborne review (even tho it's been done alot before by many) would be amazing in your style.
I personally didnt like the game. First no swords... right there turn off xD. But besides that, i really didnt like the enemy positioning. An other bad point for me is that the exploration was never rewarding, because all the items found were almost all garbage.
I think this is the first video where I've heard someone point out the fact that the majority of video games are going to have amateurish writing and/or bad plots. It makes sense that gamers or anime lovers who have studied much film or literature are going to be uncommon, since the former and latter two tend to compete heh
I've heard when games are made the writing is generally done last, because so much of it's context sensitive around game-play. That said you also have the problem of agency and ludo-narrative dissonance to contend with. Edith Finch works because the game-play is nominal and the story can just be told, Doki-Doki and Stanly Parables play with the Idea of agency, while something life souls puts you in a world and tells you, you have to make your own story because the world is big and their is no consistent narrator. While something like Vattivideo is fun his stories often don't match with the dev-cycle of souls and illustrates how even if their is evidence for a good story the ability to peek behind the curtain can undercut interesting story lines as intentional.
I really wanted to play this game. but I've spended like 5 hours struggling with the controllers and I coudn't do. idk if it was originally a console game, but it felt so unergonomic on keyboard. the configuration menu was p neglected. At least there's this vid to kinda experience what I've missed
yeah, it's possible to play games like this on key board, but it takes some HEAVY re-mapping, like, switching from mouse aim to arrow keys, and putting your attacks on the numpad, kind of re-mapping. Most ARPGS that aren't diablo clones're meant to be played on controller, and rarely feel very good on keyboard and mouse
Great review. i agree on all parts tbh. i can tell you (as someone that did play the entire game, well up until i could.. on multiplayer with a friend) its honestly abysmal. not to mention the reason i couldnt actually finish the game due to a bug that only occurs on multiplayer in which the game just crashes when the next to last boss is at low health. so yeah, i gotta say i enjoyed the game for the most part but that one gamebreaking bug almost ruined my experience. i havent gone back to the game yet and honestly idk if i will. one the best reviews ive seen on this game though. good work man
on the dark souls series usually you can steam roll the game using a two handed weapon.... except the last boss, that's wen the little boyz and the adults that can parry an attack are separate
Passive Multiplayer's just a niche feature. It's for people like myself who mostly only play singleplayer games, who want multiplayer to just be a very simple and short-lived affair. Drop-in, drop-out, wordless co-operation or invasion. It's the polar opposite of sitting down in a VC group to play a Civ game for an evening. There's a market for that kind of detached "anti-social" multiplayer.
If that's your jam, "Castle Doctrine" might be worth checking out. You're against every other human player in the game, but you never go up against them directly. It's an ebb and flow of manipulating and exploiting each other without ever actually meeting. And because of the nature of the game, you don't even have to be actively playing to have the back-and-forth with them. It's dark, but good...if you're into that kind of thing.
I played the first 20 minutes and got scared to death with the spider in the ceiling, I wasn't expecting it and it gave me an anxiety attack, call me a pussy but I asked for a refound bc i got terrified from even looking at the icon on my desktop
Sissna is hard. I beat her human form easily, bataran's sister and felt good but when I saw her come out of the ashen's pool with tentacles I almost shit my pants. I can't beat her tentacles from. I usually rely on the help of my a.i partner but her tentacled form kills him in one combo leaving me playing to an embarrassing death about 15 times after which I quit forever and switched to playing Disney infinity ity 2.0
I really like the passive multiplayer aspect, especially with obtuse and dark games such as the titles from From Software. It's always nice summoning random players and see their gear or have wacky adventures together. Despite this, I absolutely agree that games should just give you the option to opt for a mode or another. It's clear that straight coop is requested and often preferable, which is noticeable with the Souls sequels which actually have rings and password options in the menu to make summoning easier.
In your sacred gold review you said that snaring the player while mounted so he would fight mobs and not just run past was a bad idea, and the devs should have made you want to fight them not just lazily snare you. How is that bad but forcing you to use 1h by making you need to use a lantern good?
The multiplayer has never worked right, you cant connect directly just hope for the best when your in the area your buddy is in (can verify it was NOT fixed, my buddy and I literally bought this to Coop and past around halfway into the game we simply couldnt connect to each other at all). Weapons are all basically the same with some visual differences. The entire adventure is just go forward in a linear path with some slight side paths, its not exploration if you are forced to go through the areas, especially when 90% of the found items are quite literally useless. Every time you finish an area you then have to go back to the starting village and THEN start advancing again. Not to mention the Coop is not balanced at all, its beyond easy to double team things and the only other thing it brings is that sometimes you need your partner to climb a section.
Great game, botched multiplayer concept. Sorry but, this game would have had about 150x more appeal if they simply went with the dark souls coop formula.
It reminds me of Absolver by the way of its sharp, simple design. Absolver was a lovely little game that never really got the opportunity to grow. There are a lot of reasons the Epic Games launcher is a Hell of a problem for the entire "Council of Gamers". EG is most popular for Fortnite, obviously, and lots of people are already annoyed or repelled by the culture of its community, myself included. If I did enjoy Fortnite just as a game on its own, it would still piss me off just a smidge that EG made an exclusive launcher and then started predator-buying the rights to sell games that people were excited to play. It smells like they did so just so that Steam couldn't have them, and so they could be special too. And I guess the EG launcher released with some built-in spyware or malware or some shit along that line? If it's true it's probably blown over by now, but I'm not risking my system for a company I'm already not a fan of.
If this video wasn't so informative, I would of turned it off because of the f-bombs. Trying to do some game design research when I have children in the same room as me is a big issue when the video Im trying to gleen insite from keeps dropping f-bombs. I really wish people valued the absence of these types of metaphors as a means of maturity and respect. But that is not the case. Too bad. I was enjoying this review..
I don’t doubt it, I also couldn’t help but push on my nerd glasses and snuffle a little in superiority. Good review though. Ashen reminds me of if someone who loved souls-likes wanted to port the concept into Absolver’s aesthetic and exploration.
@@ProbablyJacob frankly. compared to demons souls, i view dark souls 1's narrative the same way you view ds2 and 3's. just basic dull fantasy babble. i mean theres zues in it ffs, only hes called gwyn. just a mishmash of uninspired mythologies as long as im concerned. demons, bb and sekiro are lightyears ahead in narrative. hell there are some moments in ds3 that completely eclipse most narrative points in ds1, like gael and nameless. ehh to each his own. oh and have a sub! ur content is far better than i thought when i first clicked on ur vids! ur astroneer vid is pretty much the sole reason i got the game. thanks for that friend.
1:38 Welp. Somebody didn't watch VaatiVidya lore videos and definitely doesn't understand the concept of 'lore cards' via item descriptions. The reason why DS1 feels like it has more legitimacy in terms of lore than the other 2 is because (if you in fact do read said 'lore cards') the details dim down as TIME goes on and DS1 is at the early state. The world of 'Dark Souls' evolves, generations on generations of the linking-of-fire cycles. Gods and significant people/monsters are forgotten over time. The lack of item lore regarding major figures/events of the past has a certain accuracy to it. Like depicting how much time has passed between DS1 and DS3. - In DS1, everyone was engrossed in the magnificence of daddy Gwen but in DS3 people just forgot about he who started the cursed cycle of linking fire & DS2 is a somewhat eastern land unrelated to DS1 but has some influence in DS3 like the Giants of DS2 being in DS3. Gwyn's first-born was exiled for allying with the Dragons (roughly summed up) and became a God of war, soon to have been forgotten by time. You can see how the story of 'Dark Souls' is much more fleshed out than your short explanation. - Last but not least, Dark Souls was made and published by 2 Japanese companies and if there is a value, a strength that the Japanese excel at, is the massive attention to detail in ALL of their media. So scuffing that the 'Dark Souls' series didn't have all that much of a story really says something about your (and whatever the hell people you have somehow encountered that says that) competent ability to actually learn about a world with rich history that isn't a dim-witted approach from a biblical perspective. - If you wanna know, check out 'Demon's Souls'. It portrays the beginning of 'Dark Souls'' time. (funny how you brought Lovecraft directly after because that's the case with the start of Dark Souls) I have to point all of this out for you because you look like you live under a rock regarding your impressions with 'Dark Souls' lore. (in said time-frame at the start of the comment)
Why the fuck should someone have to look At a bunch of youtube videos and read a bunch of shit to understand the story? Its just some lazy bullshit that is never told in the actual games. When you tell a cryptic story you risk having it being ignored by most people. Dark souls has some great gameplay and it overshadows its overly cryptic and hidden storyline.
No, the first Ds isn't coherent. It's nonsensical as the second ones elevator from a tower in the middle of a poisonous sinkhole up into a volcanic castle that sank into the ground.
16:30 Pfft! What ye doin with all that useless, low-leveled items irrelevant to your current state in the game? It's not like fashion's gonna help you at any point in the game and neither is that broken plank shield, shoddy wood club & dull early-game swords & axes. Like, what? Your rags are gonna protect you at some point. Some old crone asks you for junk? I did a quick Google search to double-check & you _can_ drop items in the game so there's no excuse in hoarding all that useless clutter.
You're using the phrase "The problem is...." very frequently. Just state your opinion in a negative fashion. This will make you sound more sincere and your statement more thoughtful.
Im ASHEN you to get this game on GoG to support the channel: af.gog.com/en/game/ashen?as=1678711979
I'd love to.....
If only gog would support Steam Decks Linux based os
The art style reminds me of Absolver, which has a great martial arts system but no content.
It has a great martial arts system until you unlock the 4th style and everything else becomes obsolete.
Yeah, faejin just does everything
tbh I thought they were the same game
Yeah, before he said the name I thought he was talking abut Absolver. Maybe both of these games were made by the same developer.
The art style, especially the faceless characters, reminds me a lot of classic From software games, like Kings Field.
Yep that's the only thing that reminds me of fromsoft games lol
‘I hope this game has something for my giantess fetish’
Resident Evil: Hold my beer
Dude Jacob, I’ve watched this video at least four times. I’ve watched all of your content. You are a really good writer and I enjoy how you approach reviewing games. You’re clear, concise and erudite. I’ve bought, I think, 3 games based off your reviews (including Ashen) and I regret nothing. Keep up the fantastic work. I wish you the absolute best.
“This video is about feet” gets a like from me
Then you should definitely follow me on twitter, ive been trying to get #LesbianFeetGangbang to trend for months
@@ProbablyJacob Lesbian and gangbang are not two words I expected to see together. Ever.
@@enclave2k1 more feet flying than an MK tournament.
15:03 There is also the problem of, will my AI team mate follow me through this jump, or will I have to fight the rest of the dungeon by myself?
It will teleport to you when you reach a shrine, which is at the bottom of that dungeon.
Several years late to this video, but me and a buddy played the whole game togheter and chilled and it was probably many times a better multiplayer experience than random strangers once in a blue moon.
I'm glad the option to "lobby" with a matching session code was there.
"Dark souls was the first one"
*demon's souls has entered the chat*
Demon souls on a technical level was the first one, but its pretty much not up for debate at the point that dark souls was the main driving force
the thing about dark souls story that people miss, is that, you play as someone who is being manipulated, you are guided by 2 forces that ask of you to choose the "right way", but all you have to go on is what they tell you. which explain why description of items, and the eviromental story telling are so important. because its only by looking at those details that you are able to grasp the reality of the situation.
22:40
Nah m8, I disagree. A good launcher has features that could benefit the consumer, like Steam community guides, forums, workshop support, etc. Valve also took the time to implement things into Steam like In-House streaming or SteamInput for controllers. The problem with launchers like the Epic Games Store is that they usually offer very little value other than existing, which inconveniences consumers who prefer using their favorite one. Epic is trying to balance it out with free games, but their launcher still lacks anything that's beneficial beyond giving more money to devs.
That bit in the video was mostly just a goof
i could see why people would be mad about the exclusivity especially since the game has a steam page
Steam has had years and much more capital to develop this and you can’t just tack on “giving more money to devs” like it’s a foot note steam having a monopoly on games and taking a large tax from indie devs isn’t something I like to support even if I do. The argument of preference is a valid one but then so too can you make the argument that the devs have the right to prefer getting more money from they’re hard work.
try Epic Game Store. it gives a lot of free games.
I've got epic games installed and it's actually pretty good but I have never and will never play fortnite! Lol
@@sevenaces7965 should be careful, since 40% of the company is owned by Tencent... You know, the guys famous for giving your data to the Chinese government and trying to run extremely intrusive anti cheat systems in their newest CS:Go meets overwatch game
When I hear "passive multiplayer" I see "dragon's dogma" 's pawn system...I so,so wish we get new dragon's dogma ;I
Big Ashen fan here. One of my favorite games and I've been playing games since early 2000's. It has something special and it feels like an adventure since the very begining. I ended up completing all quests and I never do that. I guess it's something about my own preferences but I love its minimalist approach with no filler, no cinematics, no fancy stuff, just pure adventure and gameplay.
21:51 i disagree, dark souls does have passive multiplayer as well, same with demon souls before it. and it works wonderfully, even when you dont meet those strangers. and im not talking about invasions, but the ghosts of other players, be it the bloodstains, or the white shades.
And the memes, Message ahead then message. Messages are the only reason I play online.
Some of the differences between a good and a bad launcher: Friendslist with status, Voice Chat, Chat, Seeing the games you share with friends, comunity hub for questions etc about the game, workshop, offline mode, open game foulder, set game launching conditions, go back to older patches. thats just a few things a launcher should have to be considered good.
Not necessarily. Minecraft launcher is good and lacks most of those
@@tuatarian6591 I would call it okay. It meets nearly half the criteria.
@@Fredministrator I agree. Steam is a great launcher and minecraft is a polished and simple Launcher. I think quantity of tools doesnt set a lunchers standards, just how well it performs which epic games does not perform well
I do not know why this guy doesn't have a million subs. The best game reviewer on the internet (in my very humble opinion).
You should watch Joseph Anderson. Hes like this guy but with more in depth commentary and much longer videos.
First video from probablyjacob so this voice will probably be normal to me, great review seen it on sale on Xbox and psn thank you.
This is my new favorite channel, I'm already bingeing
unpopular opinion. if voice acting is going to be bad/cringy or whatever i would rather just read
After I went on an Annapurna kick after playing Stray, I played Donut Country, Solar Ash, Artful Escape and recently started The Pathless. I watched your review on that and loved it (still have yet to finish it, want to complete the game first). So I came here to watch your take on Ashen!
I'm not a souls game person, Elden Ring overwhelmed the heck out of me. Something smaller and more contained is my cup of tea. Interested to hear what you think.
oh my god that voice acting was something else. i usually don't recognize bad voice acting unless it's really bad. and man oh man, this struck so hard in the "holly shit of voice acting"
The Nioh series prety muched solved the multiplayer issue in this genre. You can have good ol' regular lobbies where your friends can easily join up and you have "random encounters" where you are matched with a player requesting help. There's heavy stat scaling, but your skill trees make a big difference and higher tier equipment is still better even if it's scaled down, so you can be a big help but you won't one-shot everything even if the difference between your true levels is in the hundreds.
Weapon slots are mostly used in pvp, someone is running away? You swap to spear, someone is pretty good at rolling? You swap to one-handed fast weapon.
Binging your reviews. Damn fine coverage and game selection aye sai!
Dude, I'm so glad I found you. You're a refreshing take on reviewing, and I truly, absolutely adore that you understand making games is hard. It's such a rarity that I hear wonderful concepts like 'A44 Games probably had lofty goals for the talisman and relics system, but just didn't have time to hash it out completely'. 10/10, I'll recommend you to any I can because that's so wholesome and true. Game development is rough, not everything works even if you're the best of the best.
3:33 That got you a sub. Been saying this for years to everyone.
Cutscenes are the laziest thing ever. Ripping off movies instead of actually trying to come up with something new.
Videogame storytelling is still mostly unexplored territory.
"Don't act like you don't have epic to play fortnite"
Me who thought fortnite was garbage at launch and never played it.
Plus Epic Games Launcher sucks cock
The "long ass animation" for putting the lantern down is less than a second...
"Less than a second" isn't clear enough to argue against something that can truly seem long when games run 30-60 fps, and a humans brain when playing video games works at no more than 1 quarter of a second. When genres like fighting games/shooters have quicker animations that play in 3-10 frames, then yes I would absolutely agree that a monotonous act of putting the lantern down and takes any more than those quicker frames is a "long ass animation".
I watched your cube world video and couldn't stop. I love your reviews and think a bloodborne review (even tho it's been done alot before by many) would be amazing in your style.
I just find out that you can upgrade your latern by crafting a new one at a table close to the crimson gourd upgrade table.
I personally didnt like the game. First no swords... right there turn off xD. But besides that, i really didnt like the enemy positioning. An other bad point for me is that the exploration was never rewarding, because all the items found were almost all garbage.
I think this is the first video where I've heard someone point out the fact that the majority of video games are going to have amateurish writing and/or bad plots. It makes sense that gamers or anime lovers who have studied much film or literature are going to be uncommon, since the former and latter two tend to compete heh
I've heard when games are made the writing is generally done last, because so much of it's context sensitive around game-play. That said you also have the problem of agency and ludo-narrative dissonance to contend with.
Edith Finch works because the game-play is nominal and the story can just be told, Doki-Doki and Stanly Parables play with the Idea of agency, while something life souls puts you in a world and tells you, you have to make your own story because the world is big and their is no consistent narrator.
While something like Vattivideo is fun his stories often don't match with the dev-cycle of souls and illustrates how even if their is evidence for a good story the ability to peek behind the curtain can undercut interesting story lines as intentional.
The music was also captivating. The music really touched my heart.
"You get all the benefits of having feet, andnone of the detriments."
A backpack laden with loot is often low on supplies.
Maybe sometime, you could review Dead Cells. It's like a Metroidvania/Rouge-like game.
I love your dry humor ❤️
I really wanted to play this game. but I've spended like 5 hours struggling with the controllers and I coudn't do. idk if it was originally a console game, but it felt so unergonomic on keyboard. the configuration menu was p neglected.
At least there's this vid to kinda experience what I've missed
PC controllers exist? I only got one for souls though so, ehh...
yeah, it's possible to play games like this on key board, but it takes some HEAVY re-mapping, like, switching from mouse aim to arrow keys, and putting your attacks on the numpad, kind of re-mapping.
Most ARPGS that aren't diablo clones're meant to be played on controller, and rarely feel very good on keyboard and mouse
Great review. i agree on all parts tbh. i can tell you (as someone that did play the entire game, well up until i could.. on multiplayer with a friend) its honestly abysmal. not to mention the reason i couldnt actually finish the game due to a bug that only occurs on multiplayer in which the game just crashes when the next to last boss is at low health. so yeah, i gotta say i enjoyed the game for the most part but that one gamebreaking bug almost ruined my experience. i havent gone back to the game yet and honestly idk if i will. one the best reviews ive seen on this game though. good work man
Thats a really unfortunate bug
Hopefully it gets patched, thanks for the compliments
This game is available on ps4 now. And I freakin' love it.
You have a way structuring your commentary that keeps me engaged throughout the entirety of the video. Your content is very well done.
on the dark souls series usually you can steam roll the game using a two handed weapon.... except the last boss, that's wen the little boyz and the adults that can parry an attack are separate
Call me crazy but why do i remember being able to set up a 4 digit code for direct co op? Or did i miss something in the video?
Passive Multiplayer's just a niche feature.
It's for people like myself who mostly only play singleplayer games, who want multiplayer to just be a very simple and short-lived affair. Drop-in, drop-out, wordless co-operation or invasion.
It's the polar opposite of sitting down in a VC group to play a Civ game for an evening. There's a market for that kind of detached "anti-social" multiplayer.
If that's your jam, "Castle Doctrine" might be worth checking out.
You're against every other human player in the game, but you never go up against them directly. It's an ebb and flow of manipulating and exploiting each other without ever actually meeting. And because of the nature of the game, you don't even have to be actively playing to have the back-and-forth with them.
It's dark, but good...if you're into that kind of thing.
Speaking of _souls like_ do you think you could maybe review any of The Surge games?
I played the first 20 minutes and got scared to death with the spider in the ceiling, I wasn't expecting it and it gave me an anxiety attack, call me a pussy but I asked for a refound bc i got terrified from even looking at the icon on my desktop
So they say passive mp. but didnt they have password stuff so player can play with a friend?
Sissna is hard. I beat her human form easily, bataran's sister and felt good but when I saw her come out of the ashen's pool with tentacles I almost shit my pants. I can't beat her tentacles from. I usually rely on the help of my a.i partner but her tentacled form kills him in one combo leaving me playing to an embarrassing death about 15 times after which I quit forever and switched to playing Disney infinity ity 2.0
Started a playing this again since launch and when i heard you say what you said at 21:07 i stated dyin lowkey😭💀
Ashen is coming on steam in December this year... Woo... Not really woo... just a missed opportunity
Really good review.
The OG Devil May Cry 3 is harder than all Dark Souls combined
I really like the passive multiplayer aspect, especially with obtuse and dark games such as the titles from From Software. It's always nice summoning random players and see their gear or have wacky adventures together. Despite this, I absolutely agree that games should just give you the option to opt for a mode or another. It's clear that straight coop is requested and often preferable, which is noticeable with the Souls sequels which actually have rings and password options in the menu to make summoning easier.
Was ashen developed by the same people who developed Absolver?
In your sacred gold review you said that snaring the player while mounted so he would fight mobs and not just run past was a bad idea, and the devs should have made you want to fight them not just lazily snare you. How is that bad but forcing you to use 1h by making you need to use a lantern good?
one is stopping you from progressing, the other is forcing you to experience and learn more of the game's systems
I never played Ashen, but if it had the option for co-op and passive would have been nice.
I love how u always saying that being said hehe new subscriber here and that being said so far im enjoying your videos.
The multiplayer has never worked right, you cant connect directly just hope for the best when your in the area your buddy is in (can verify it was NOT fixed, my buddy and I literally bought this to Coop and past around halfway into the game we simply couldnt connect to each other at all). Weapons are all basically the same with some visual differences. The entire adventure is just go forward in a linear path with some slight side paths, its not exploration if you are forced to go through the areas, especially when 90% of the found items are quite literally useless. Every time you finish an area you then have to go back to the starting village and THEN start advancing again. Not to mention the Coop is not balanced at all, its beyond easy to double team things and the only other thing it brings is that sometimes you need your partner to climb a section.
First thing I hear in the beginning of the video is "giant ass fetish"
AI partner in this game drive me crazy to the point that I stop playing it. The dungeons were horribly designed.
2020; still no epic launcher installed. Fight the power people.
Great game, botched multiplayer concept.
Sorry but, this game would have had about 150x more appeal if they simply went with the dark souls coop formula.
The DLC new area looks hectic
finally someone sais it. screw coop games that mess up finding each other! it. is. a. pain.
Monster hunter world comes to mind, if you want to play with a friend you better watch a 1 hour long tutorial to be able to do that
Lol, giantess fetish!
youre videos are great !
Thanks man, got a new one cooking
Your spelling is awful
Sadly Epic's Game Launcher isn't easily available for linux like Steam is
Have you played absolver
i havent but its been on my radar for while
@@ProbablyJacob I would love for you to review it. I'm biased
@@goldenglowmaster8510 ill look into it and see if it has enough content for a full review
Do it. Me and my associates will guide you.
4:40 So will you show us your models someday?
It reminds me of Absolver by the way of its sharp, simple design. Absolver was a lovely little game that never really got the opportunity to grow.
There are a lot of reasons the Epic Games launcher is a Hell of a problem for the entire "Council of Gamers". EG is most popular for Fortnite, obviously, and lots of people are already annoyed or repelled by the culture of its community, myself included. If I did enjoy Fortnite just as a game on its own, it would still piss me off just a smidge that EG made an exclusive launcher and then started predator-buying the rights to sell games that people were excited to play. It smells like they did so just so that Steam couldn't have them, and so they could be special too.
And I guess the EG launcher released with some built-in spyware or malware or some shit along that line? If it's true it's probably blown over by now, but I'm not risking my system for a company I'm already not a fan of.
But absolve starts fine but further in a bit it becomes online oriented which I didn't like.
If Absolver was single player focused I think it would have sold more, maintaining a online only game is almost impossible for a small indie team.
Dark souls did the closest thing to passive multiplayer that also works
If this video wasn't so informative, I would of turned it off because of the f-bombs. Trying to do some game design research when I have children in the same room as me is a big issue when the video Im trying to gleen insite from keeps dropping f-bombs. I really wish people valued the absence of these types of metaphors as a means of maturity and respect. But that is not the case. Too bad. I was enjoying this review..
Or get into a anti inflammatory commercial.
12:47 sorry for having ADHD I guess...
These guys killed their own pretty game because co op sucks and epic exclusive
Yeah, the Co-Op was basically an art project and not designed well from a game play perspective
13:03 OK daddy
“The first Dark Souls,”
You mean Demon’s Souls?
Demon souls isnt as culturally relevant i usually just assume dark souls 1 is the starting point for most people
I don’t doubt it, I also couldn’t help but push on my nerd glasses and snuffle a little in superiority.
Good review though. Ashen reminds me of if someone who loved souls-likes wanted to port the concept into Absolver’s aesthetic and exploration.
@@KingMakerRook Im like 98% sure absolver was intended to be a hybrid of a fighting game and a souls game
It has the same problem that Ashen has where it’s obviously made by artists and not game devs. I love it, but even I must admit that.
@@ProbablyJacob frankly. compared to demons souls, i view dark souls 1's narrative the same way you view ds2 and 3's. just basic dull fantasy babble. i mean theres zues in it ffs, only hes called gwyn. just a mishmash of uninspired mythologies as long as im concerned. demons, bb and sekiro are lightyears ahead in narrative. hell there are some moments in ds3 that completely eclipse most narrative points in ds1, like gael and nameless. ehh to each his own. oh and have a sub! ur content is far better than i thought when i first clicked on ur vids! ur astroneer vid is pretty much the sole reason i got the game. thanks for that friend.
Saying that most video game stories are bad cause they're video games is possibly the dumbest shit I've ever heard
Great vid! Great game! Sry don't have Epic, am too tard to 5nite.
Bullshit. When was beautiful throughout.
1:38 Welp. Somebody didn't watch VaatiVidya lore videos and definitely doesn't understand the concept of 'lore cards' via item descriptions.
The reason why DS1 feels like it has more legitimacy in terms of lore than the other 2 is because (if you in fact do read said 'lore cards') the details dim down as TIME goes on and DS1 is at the early state. The world of 'Dark Souls' evolves, generations on generations of the linking-of-fire cycles. Gods and significant people/monsters are forgotten over time.
The lack of item lore regarding major figures/events of the past has a certain accuracy to it. Like depicting how much time has passed between DS1 and DS3.
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In DS1, everyone was engrossed in the magnificence of daddy Gwen but in DS3 people just forgot about he who started the cursed cycle of linking fire & DS2 is a somewhat eastern land unrelated to DS1 but has some influence in DS3 like the Giants of DS2 being in DS3.
Gwyn's first-born was exiled for allying with the Dragons (roughly summed up) and became a God of war, soon to have been forgotten by time.
You can see how the story of 'Dark Souls' is much more fleshed out than your short explanation.
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Last but not least, Dark Souls was made and published by 2 Japanese companies and if there is a value, a strength that the Japanese excel at, is the massive attention to detail in ALL of their media. So scuffing that the 'Dark Souls' series didn't have all that much of a story really says something about your (and whatever the hell people you have somehow encountered that says that) competent ability to actually learn about a world with rich history that isn't a dim-witted approach from a biblical perspective.
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If you wanna know, check out 'Demon's Souls'. It portrays the beginning of 'Dark Souls'' time. (funny how you brought Lovecraft directly after because that's the case with the start of Dark Souls)
I have to point all of this out for you because you look like you live under a rock regarding your impressions with 'Dark Souls' lore. (in said time-frame at the start of the comment)
Why the fuck should someone have to look At a bunch of youtube videos and read a bunch of shit to understand the story? Its just some lazy bullshit that is never told in the actual games.
When you tell a cryptic story you risk having it being ignored by most people. Dark souls has some great gameplay and it overshadows its overly cryptic and hidden storyline.
I always think of the style as absolver
No, the first Ds isn't coherent. It's nonsensical as the second ones elevator from a tower in the middle of a poisonous sinkhole up into a volcanic castle that sank into the ground.
I'm not very good at games but says souls game are not very hard the games that specifically known for its difficulty
A "souls-like" must have only two things: "souls" and "bonfires".
Not what he said.
What he said could describe any J/ARPG...
16:30 Pfft! What ye doin with all that useless, low-leveled items irrelevant to your current state in the game?
It's not like fashion's gonna help you at any point in the game and neither is that broken plank shield, shoddy wood club & dull early-game swords & axes.
Like, what? Your rags are gonna protect you at some point. Some old crone asks you for junk?
I did a quick Google search to double-check & you _can_ drop items in the game so there's no excuse in hoarding all that useless clutter.
Gotta be honest and say that this game looks like a straight up asset flip of Absolver. And no before you ask the developer isn't the same.
Wäääääää
You're using the phrase "The problem is...." very frequently. Just state your opinion in a negative fashion. This will make you sound more sincere and your statement more thoughtful.
Smash that upside down dislike button.
.
Funny how you criticize the story as it was written by an established fantasy author.