Great quote from Miyazaki, who rose from programmer to president of the company.
“Now I’m president,” he says, “I get to meet a lot of other company presidents. They’re such weird people. I’m fascinated by them.” With a smile, he adds: “I use some of them as enemy characters in our games.”
This quote reminded me of an anime/manga called Attack on Titan, where it's said that its creator draws inspiration for Titan looks from bullies that had in his school years.
>But Miyazaki had a problem: at 29, he was too old to apply for graduate positions and too inexperienced for anything else. “Not a lot of places would take me,” he says. “From Software was one of the few.”
Career switchers who are slow to find their knack in life deserve a fresh start. I say that from the position of being one. Talent does exist among the people who are trapped in mediocre, unfulfilled lives, and all they look for is their chance to shine.
I am considering a career AND industry change, and I'm almost 40. Can you give me some general advice or pointers about career switching. I'm not entirely sure why I would think you might have a basis, just reaching out.
I've been playing Bloodborne every evening for the last week or so, and it is tremendous. It's the only game that minor spoiler has ever gotten Lovecraftian horror correct in a really convincing way. The tone is pretty much one hundred percent on target.
I'd love a couple of my cosmic-horror-loving friends to play it, but it is fucking hard. I'm not sure they'd make it to the first boss, to say nothing of past it and the next however many there are.
As someone else points out, it may unfeasible for you to get a copy of your own (it's a PS4 exclusive), so you can of course watch others play - but seriously, it's not the same thing. Creeping around corners waiting for an ambush, inspecting hideous statues, hearing the slither of some nearby yet hidden hostile creature - the mindset you enter while playing is important to the consumption of the content. Watching another play, you don't quite have that. If at all possible, don't watch, just wait for your chance to play it - outside of Dark Souls and to some extent its prequel and sequel, it's pretty much a one-of-a-kind experience.
> I'd love a couple of my cosmic-horror-loving friends to play it, but it is fucking hard. I'm not sure they'd make it to the first boss, to say nothing of past it and the next however many there are.
> outside of Dark Souls and to some extent its prequel and sequel, it's pretty much a one-of-a-kind experience.
Weird. Bloodborne is the first of the "series" that I've even been remotely tempted to play. The combat mechanics look fresh and exciting. Every video I've ever seen of its predecessors featured gameplay that looked boring and clunky (even if challenging).
> It's the only game that minor spoiler has ever gotten Lovecraftian horror correct in a really convincing way. The tone is pretty much one hundred percent on target.
I would recommend the game Darkest Dungeon, which convincingly nails the atmosphere of some of Lovecraft's work, for me. It's pulpier and less serious (more purple) than Bloodborne, but I believe that Lovecraft himself was pulpier, purpler, and less serious than Bloodborne (going so far as to hide inside jokes in his work).
This game is just phenomenal, I find myself thinking about the game and it's creatures late at night while trying to sleep. It has a quality to it that requires your undivided attention and I think that's why it permeates so easily into your psyche.
If you haven't tried it out yet, do yourself a favor and at least rent it. It's one of the best game to come out in the past decade. You'll hear people whine about it being hard, but it's not like that. It's fair. You mess up you will be hit. If you're patient and time your movements you'll glide through the areas and make the game seem like a typical hack n slash. You will make it look easy.
Usually you can find shortcuts to the boss areas, and most enemies in the game can be just run past. They leash back to their spots pretty quickly from what I've seen so far.
But I guess relatively speaking to non-Dark Souls style games, then yes, you do have to fight your way to the boss fights.
Yes, coupled with a 30 second load screen after every single death. I've never played any of the other games, but I can tell you after playing this for a while that this game is not for me due to how they implement the difficulty.
Just to give you an idea, it took me 7 or 8 years to beat Kingdom Hearts 1 because of how bad the camera was. I got to a point where I just walked away. I really dislike games that are difficult due to ackward controls, cheesy mechanics (such as enemies popping behind you in an area you just cleared), that sort of thing
I played it for a few hours but I got tired of things like
- you roll and the camera lifts up so you're staring down at yourself and can no longer see the enemies you rolled from
- if you hit the enemy at the end of your range your attack pushes them back further than your characters steps forward so you miss the followup attack and they end up killing you (or hurting you badly).
- Sometimes when you attack an enemy they'll slide sideways (I say sometimes, I mean quite often). I've seen them slide so far they slide behind the camera at which point you're guessing where they are based upon where they disappeared.
- Your attacks do random amounts of damage. Sometimes it takes 3 hits to kill a mob, sometimes 4 or 5. But because every attack uses stamina, you really want to use as few attacks as possible and sometimes you die for it because that 1 random enemy required an extra hit. I never figured out why.
- the healing items appeared to give a random amount of health back.
- Some of the level designs appeared to be such that it maximized the pain of the camera. One enemy in particular I'm thinking of is big and surroundedin by innumerable unbreakable boxes and such. He wasn't that difficult himself, but being able to avoid his attack successfull due to the aforementioned boxes, etc, was a tedious chore.
I can see the appeal to the game, but it just isn't for me. And this is coming from a guy who plays most games on hard. But there's a certain kind of difficulty I don't enjoy and unfortunately this game lands right square in the middle of it.
edit:
The thing that caused me to respond in the first place.
The game moves slow overall. You kill an enemy, he drops loot, but not immediately, so you end up waiting to see if he dropped loot. If he does, you run to the body, hit X, wait for the confirmation to pop up, hit X again, and then eventually go on about your day. When you're playing the same level over and over again it gets really time consumingly tedious. Add on to that the 30 second load screen (that's not an exaggeration) and you have a game that's pure tedium (atleast for me).
WillPostForFood|11 years ago
“Now I’m president,” he says, “I get to meet a lot of other company presidents. They’re such weird people. I’m fascinated by them.” With a smile, he adds: “I use some of them as enemy characters in our games.”
Filthy_casual|11 years ago
Filthy_casual|11 years ago
Career switchers who are slow to find their knack in life deserve a fresh start. I say that from the position of being one. Talent does exist among the people who are trapped in mediocre, unfulfilled lives, and all they look for is their chance to shine.
I bloody love Dark Souls and Bloodborne.
kleer001|11 years ago
devindotcom|11 years ago
I'd love a couple of my cosmic-horror-loving friends to play it, but it is fucking hard. I'm not sure they'd make it to the first boss, to say nothing of past it and the next however many there are.
As someone else points out, it may unfeasible for you to get a copy of your own (it's a PS4 exclusive), so you can of course watch others play - but seriously, it's not the same thing. Creeping around corners waiting for an ambush, inspecting hideous statues, hearing the slither of some nearby yet hidden hostile creature - the mindset you enter while playing is important to the consumption of the content. Watching another play, you don't quite have that. If at all possible, don't watch, just wait for your chance to play it - outside of Dark Souls and to some extent its prequel and sequel, it's pretty much a one-of-a-kind experience.
doktrin|11 years ago
> outside of Dark Souls and to some extent its prequel and sequel, it's pretty much a one-of-a-kind experience.
Weird. Bloodborne is the first of the "series" that I've even been remotely tempted to play. The combat mechanics look fresh and exciting. Every video I've ever seen of its predecessors featured gameplay that looked boring and clunky (even if challenging).
JimmyM|11 years ago
I would recommend the game Darkest Dungeon, which convincingly nails the atmosphere of some of Lovecraft's work, for me. It's pulpier and less serious (more purple) than Bloodborne, but I believe that Lovecraft himself was pulpier, purpler, and less serious than Bloodborne (going so far as to hide inside jokes in his work).
cousin_it|11 years ago
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OF_cCOKXgvk
sergiotapia|11 years ago
If you haven't tried it out yet, do yourself a favor and at least rent it. It's one of the best game to come out in the past decade. You'll hear people whine about it being hard, but it's not like that. It's fair. You mess up you will be hit. If you're patient and time your movements you'll glide through the areas and make the game seem like a typical hack n slash. You will make it look easy.
izacus|11 years ago
Goronmon|11 years ago
But I guess relatively speaking to non-Dark Souls style games, then yes, you do have to fight your way to the boss fights.
Narishma|11 years ago
jobu|11 years ago
Many of the encounters are almost like puzzles where you need a strategy to get through. Here's a pretty good take on it from PA: http://penny-arcade.com/comic/2015/03/27/provisional-resigna...
mreiland|11 years ago
Just to give you an idea, it took me 7 or 8 years to beat Kingdom Hearts 1 because of how bad the camera was. I got to a point where I just walked away. I really dislike games that are difficult due to ackward controls, cheesy mechanics (such as enemies popping behind you in an area you just cleared), that sort of thing
I played it for a few hours but I got tired of things like
- you roll and the camera lifts up so you're staring down at yourself and can no longer see the enemies you rolled from
- if you hit the enemy at the end of your range your attack pushes them back further than your characters steps forward so you miss the followup attack and they end up killing you (or hurting you badly).
- Sometimes when you attack an enemy they'll slide sideways (I say sometimes, I mean quite often). I've seen them slide so far they slide behind the camera at which point you're guessing where they are based upon where they disappeared.
- Your attacks do random amounts of damage. Sometimes it takes 3 hits to kill a mob, sometimes 4 or 5. But because every attack uses stamina, you really want to use as few attacks as possible and sometimes you die for it because that 1 random enemy required an extra hit. I never figured out why.
- the healing items appeared to give a random amount of health back.
- Some of the level designs appeared to be such that it maximized the pain of the camera. One enemy in particular I'm thinking of is big and surroundedin by innumerable unbreakable boxes and such. He wasn't that difficult himself, but being able to avoid his attack successfull due to the aforementioned boxes, etc, was a tedious chore.
I can see the appeal to the game, but it just isn't for me. And this is coming from a guy who plays most games on hard. But there's a certain kind of difficulty I don't enjoy and unfortunately this game lands right square in the middle of it.
edit: The thing that caused me to respond in the first place.
The game moves slow overall. You kill an enemy, he drops loot, but not immediately, so you end up waiting to see if he dropped loot. If he does, you run to the body, hit X, wait for the confirmation to pop up, hit X again, and then eventually go on about your day. When you're playing the same level over and over again it gets really time consumingly tedious. Add on to that the 30 second load screen (that's not an exaggeration) and you have a game that's pure tedium (atleast for me).
dlecorfec|11 years ago
[deleted]
doctorpangloss|11 years ago
http://www.twitch.tv/directory/game/Bloodborne
runevault|11 years ago
https://www.youtube.com/user/epicnamebro/videos
philtar|11 years ago