>Play Dark Souls
>Get ass kicked
>Learn how game works
>Git gud gear
>Game becomes so stupidly easy and formulaic, even on NG+ that it can barely contain my interest
>All ways of making the game actually interesting basically require me to deliberately handicap myself in arbitrary ways, or else play through a bazillion variations of NG+ because I can't manually choose to otherwise
Is there any way to make this game good again that doesn't involve imposing a whole bunch of weird rules?Pic not as related as it ought to be.
>>320061907
I seriously don't know the difference between this and Spelunky. They're the same game, just different name, right?
>>320062272
they're not remotely close except the protagonists both being Indiana Jones lookalikes
>>320062272
Well, no. La-Mulana is radically different from Spelunky. Spelunky is much more based on platforming mechanics than La-Mulana is. La-Mulana's main engagement with the player is through environmental puzzles, the platforming is sort of a secondary concern to "Discovering the secret of the ruins."
>>320061907
The answer to your question is no. You will have to wait for Dark Souls 3 or play a Souls game you haven't yet played in order to get the high of learning the game and conquering it again. Sorry.
Your use of La-Mulana isn't totally unrelated, though, since it occupies a similar sort of phenomenon. If you complete La-Mulana once and learn its secret, it loses pretty much all replayability. It stops being fun on successive runs, since you know all the answers. It wasn't a bad game to use as the OP picture.
However, you probably would've been better off using a Souls picture anyway.
>>320062586
>. If you complete La-Mulana once and learn its secret, it loses pretty much all replayability. It stops being fun on successive runs, since you know all the answers.
damn that's wrong as fuck
I've had a ton of fun going for achievements in La Mulana
>>320062783
But didn't you already have the answer for every puzzle? You already knew where to go, what to do, and so on. Part of the fun of video games is going in the first time and not knowing precisely where to go, what to do, what the answers are.
Is it not true that once you know all that information, the game stops being as satisfying?
Not that I disagree with you, I've had fun speedrunning La-Mulana or Dark Souls after completing them, but it probably falls under the OP's condition of 'imposing a whole bunch of weird rules.'
>>320062586
>If you complete La-Mulana once and learn its secret, it loses pretty much all replayability. It stops being fun on successive runs, since you know all the answers.
Nope. I've gone through the game 5 times now.
>>320062970
>>Is it not true that once you know all that information, the game stops being as satisfying?
Not really. It's still fun to work through it all.
>>320062970
I guess so, but La Mulana the second time round (with Hard Mode in this case) knowing the answers suddenly felt like a tricky platformer, which was a completely different experience for me. I suppose it's different with weird rules in that sense, but then every single game that's not a complete sandbox has that on a second playthrough.
>>320063197
I'm jealous. I would give anything to erase my memory of La-Mulana and play it fresh again. I can replay it, but it's just not the same. It's not as fun. I share OP's sentiment that games I have 'conquered' stop being interesting after completion unless I take a long break from them.
It might not have been fair of me to say the game loses ALL replayability, but it loses that special aspect that makes the game such an incredible experience the first time around, at least in my opinion.
>>320063242
Fair point. I haven't tried Hard Mode, perhaps I'll give it a go after exams.
>>320063557
Hard Mode isn't really much different, there's some added enemies and they do more damage/have more health. Hell Temple gets slightly trickier because it removes platforms.
Reminder that this isn't coming out in time
>>320063557
I'd say I get something different out of it with the repeat playthroughs. Instead of slowly discovering everything and plodding along, I'm able to have fun checking off the list of things to do, places to see and items to grab.
>>320063785
I actually got thrown off by normal mode when I tried it because I did my first playthrough on Hard. Same thing with using secondary weapons, I'm awful at using them because I'm used to just relying on my primary and my shield.
>>320063937
Really? I was looking forward to it.
>>320063937
They should take as much time as they need in order to make it as good as possible, so it's totally fine. I don't care how long it takes so long as it's eventually spectacular.
>>320063937
they're reasonably far, though
Are you supposed to get through La-Mulana without needing a walkthrough? Or am I just retarded?
>>320064607
A lot of people tend to use a walkthrough, but the game is clearable without it. I found that taking notes of the puzzle hints helped me a lot. Also, you should be looking at the layout of each room (and how that might relate to a puzzle hint) as well as the names of the room on each map. Doing the above will make the game completable without a walkthrough, I found. Except the mantras. I had to cheat for the mantras.
>>320064316
I've become skeptical. The alpha releases clearly show that they barely know what they're doing with Unity, and they're already trying to outsource things like UI programming and music mastering. They might have maps and stuff already prepared, but I expect this to be a buggy mess when it finally hits. Top it all off, they've basically done nothing but attend shows since the KS ended, and only just recently said they're finally committing to working on it.
>>320065205
Eh, they seemed realistic
>2015 is about to come to an end.
>We've tried implying progress to everyone via KickStarter updates or at event venues. Some people who've known NIGORO since long ago guessed what we meant. LA-MULANA 2 won't be released in this year. We are sorry about that, but it's impossible.
>After our KickStarter project concluded, we spent about one year while we did major revisions, attended international events and worked on the PS Vita version. In addition, we had many turns and twists until we ultimately decided to shift to Unity environment.
>Thanks to that decision, porting into consumer platforms will go smoothly after the PC version is released.
>Since this project was made possible through Kickstarter, it's only fair that we must announce this information to Kickstarter backers first. Additionally, we're working hard on this project so as to not repeat our wrongdoing such as when we developed theWiiWare version of LA-MULANA. We claimed "We will have done it in a half year!", after that we kept apologizing for one year, and then we kept silent for the next year.
>We will disclose game contents as soon as we prepare a website for LA-MULANA 2 in 2016.
>So, when will we finish up LA-MULANA 2?
>We don't wanna spend one more year, but we don't think it will be released in a few months.
>We might publish it as an advance release when we finished the part of the main story, which we actually did before working as NIGORO. But, we'll never release it until we ensure the quality that is appropriate for the name "LA-MULANA 2."
>Development takes priority over anything else, so we can't take much time to do public relations and update official website because we are a very small team. We are sorry for inconvenience.
>We are working so hard to accomplish La-MULANA 2 that convinces everyone. We appreciate your patience.
>NIGORO
>>320062272
Maybe play fucking videogames some time. Apparently you need to learn that the sprite of the protagonist is not what defines a game.
>have to go backwards through a teleporter you just warped into to get to Eden
Up until that point I didn't have to look anything up, but that warping puzzle seemed absolutely impossible. Did I miss all the hints or something?
>>320066910
the whole teleporter puzzle isn't really anything with hints, you just have to figure it out
>>320067425
Is there any logic behind it at all? I love the game so far but actual trial and error puzzles I could do without. They aren't even satisfying to solve.
>>320061907
> Is there any way to make this game good again that doesn't involve imposing a whole bunch of weird rules?
Yes, sort of. Keep track of you deaths over each playthrough, and try to push it down as far as possible while still exposing yourself to as much game's danger as possible.
I don't know, but it's possible to feel that level of interest again without a "formal challenge ruleset" if you are self-judgemental enough about your performance just playing "normally". That's the key. You will still want some soft rules of "Don't let the easy strategies you've devised remove all the risk" and some soft restrictions (like stat caps, weapon level upgrades, shield caps) --- just enough to avoid steamrolling.
>>320068702
>and try to push it down as far as possible while still exposing yourself to as much game's danger as possible
That's the most arbitrary and weird kind of rule imaginable and exactly what I'm trying to avoid. Exactly how much danger am I supposed to expose myself to before going, you know what, fuck it.
> if you are self-judgemental enough about your performance just playing "normally". That's the key.
I'm not, and have no desire to be. I can play a game like, say Goldeneye, and make it as balls hard as I want because it provides me the means to do so without bullshitting myself.
The biggest issue I have is that, at a base level, the game seems pretty interesting. Fighting multiple skeletons with decent HP and not being able to easily break their defence with any tools I have is actually pretty interesting and really gets your blood pumping when you first try it. There's no reason this couldn't continue to be interesting, it's just that the game gives you methods of not having to deal with that.I actually loved the beginning of DS2 because the game initially screwed over most of the staple strats I relied on in the original, and started off dual wielding without a shield to boot.
