Calashnikov

The Streets of Rage characters were originally cops themselves, nah?

Yeah, I really appreciated the return to camp silliness which for me is as equally important (or perhaps even more important) to the series as the scares. I missed it in 7, as silly as that got at points. VIIIage had me grinning like Nemesis throughout, not least because of the most hapless, bumbling, unluckiest shambles of a man of all time in Ethan Winters, the GOAT Resi protagonist by this point surely. He’s like Bruce Campbell’s Ash as performed by Old Gil from The Simpsons with a sprinkling of Frank Grimes. Amazing character

When I was Googling around for the release date I noticed plenty of stockists appear to have the special limited edition ‘hingmy with the art book and steel case available again. I know Ben Moore of Easy Allies had been talking about how much difficulty he was having tracking one of those down, so I dunno if there had been a scarcity up until now or whatever.

I never played the PS2 original, but I understand that the new version has the full proper job and levelling system that was originally altered / simplified for the western market (I think). Plus there are 2x and 4x speed boosts you can turn on that make grinding and map traversal far less painful. If you’ve got a really efficient stack of gambits programmed throughout your party, it feels fucking glorious to walk them into a dungeon or field, bump up the speed, and just sit back and watch them strip the shite out of mobs for EXP and loot at comedy speed, causing numbers and pyrotechnics to fly all over the place while all the grunting, smacking and kerching-ing sound effects rattle off with the rhythmic intensity of the Amen drum & bass break

Out in 70 days.

Yeah I read that article as well, probably via a link posted on Rllmuk, but I can’t for the life of me find it now. You’re right, I think it also made the point that the games themselves were informed by the iconography of Death Wish-style “angry white man” vigilante flicks. Charles Bronson shooting Laurence Fishburn though his boom-box and racist power fantasy shit like that. In those movies, and by extension the games inspired by them, the goons and fodder all looked like some campy kitsch take on black and latino inner city NYC gangs, so pretty much like extras from MJ’s Bad video. Angular sunglasses, wild animal print, colourful punk Mohawks, leather trousers and cut sleeve denim jackets. Lots of queer and alternative styles confused and mixed up in a big “other” blender. Meanwhile Cody is cutting about in the all-American blue jeans & white t-shirt combo, with his blonde hair and blue eyes.

Levelling up the jobs is also handled really well. Expanding the skill tree type things per job is ultra customisable, you have a lot of choice as to what areas you wish to prioritise. They reveal just enough prospective skills on the board for you to aim for, in terms of unlocking certain abilities, attributes and techniques etc. You’ll constantly be looking forward to, and strategising where and when you deposit points.

It’s yet to come, correct. The systems are quite deep tbf, they do a decent enough job of drip feeding it so that it doesn’t become too overwhelming. I say that as a comparative recent convert to the genre, who appreciated being eased in. Eventually even I was able to figure it all out eventually.

The combat in this is majestic once it clicks. Invest the time into understanding the gambit system. “Programming” your mans to go out and grind the fodder into EXP/loot mincemeat is incredibly satisfying.

Any good? I’m expecting the roles and responsibilities in battle to be pretty similar to my current paladin’s.

Just started Heavensward after a short break from intensively mainlining ARR (this short break was spent playing a different Final Fantasy game ). Thinking of changing jobs. I didn’t mess with anything other than levelling up my gladiator and into a paladin. Any recommendations? I was thinking Dragoon coz their armour is fucking gangsta. Is the Dark knight or whatever class in Heavensward or did that come in a later expansion? I get it’s another tank class, but the Berserk fan in me needs to try it.

Fuck them anyway Twee cunts.

Got through being able to select shipping eventually in time for it to be sold out