#alternatively: parry this you filthy casual | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

layingeggs · 5 months

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Playing some of that Magenta Horizon, a game that bills itself as a character action. Really enjoying it.

However, unfortunately, I have pressed every button on my controller and I have not yet taunted. I played through the tutorial level and there wasn't a single taunt tutorial. Did I just miss it?

Devil May Cry 2 died for our sins you know. That was the DMC game where you couldn't taunt.

What are these young gamedevs doing these days that they're making games inspired by DMC and not including a taunt?

Just a little bit less facetiously, (because I was only being just a little bit facetious anyway, the comment about gamedevs as the youths of the day, that was facetious, everything else was sincere,) this does limit the options for S Rank play.

Like, expose me as a filthy casual if you like, but one of the things that appeals to me about Devil May Cry in the first place, say it with me now it's that old chestnut, it's hard but fair. Because yes the enemies swarm you, and yes some of the enemies can parry you, and yes the bosses are tough as nails, and it used to have the same reputation that Dark Souls itself does now,

but it was possible to raise your score through taunting. This had a wide range of subtle yet honestly profound effects on how you played the game.

In a number of DMCs, there are special passive changes to your moves and toolkit based on the Style Meter. Without taunts, you just have to play optimally in order to unlock those. But with taunts, you just need some basic critical thinking about timing your taunts with your combos and against the enemy attacks.

As well the end of level rank. Without taunts, if you want that S Rank, then you just have to play optimally. But again, with taunts, it leads you to intelligently thinking about when you should or shouldn't taunt.

These subtle little incentives for players to approach the game from a new perspective lead to greater insights into the rest of the game. It's a way to experience a tough as nails game and its meta without necessarily having to just sharpen your reaction times to perfection. But it does also train your reflexes with the game to try these alternate approaches!

Again, perhaps it belies the casual streak in me that I want a game with a tough as nails reputation that noneless allows me to get good scores without perfect play. However, and this is crucial, this is charactert action that we are talking about. Also known as stylish action.

The taunts give it that little flourish that makes it feel more like a scene from your favourite film or anime, and less like you're just following through the motions of whatever the game meta demands. Impressing the idea of the video game that is not only hard to play, but very pretty to look at when you actually master it. But emphatically with the control in the player's hands. None of that soft scripted gameplay sequence that we've seen in games since the PS3.

And you look at the cutscenes of these sorts of games also. You look at, for example, once again always coming back to the example, you look at the cutscenes in Devil May Cry.

Dante is always taking hits. There isn't a game where he doesn't. There's hardly a cutscene where he doesn't. Indeed, the fan favourite iconic series trope is of Dante getting impaled with a sword and then shrugging it off like it was nothing.

But then you have this stark contrast in the gameplay, don't you? Where you can't play well without just avoiding damage and never getting hit. That's not how Dante fights at all.

Except you can, can't you? You can take a hit, and then recover from them with taunts! Of course you're not recovering your health, so there's only so many times you can do that before you just lose, but it's doing exactly what Dante is doing in the cutscenes. Shrugging off a heavy attack like it was nothing. Daring on the enemy to do it again with a big dumb grin on your face like you haven't just shed your weight in blood all over the floor.

It's that harmonising between the gameplay and the cutscenes. Inviting the player to participate in the theatre of the action, of action storytelling tropes and conventions. That you can, in a way, use taunting as a way to 'no sell' or 'hard sell' your enemy's attacks!

So of course in a character action you need those attacks, you need abilities that let you damage and fight and defeat enemies. But you also need those non-combat moves! Those non-combat non-movement moves! Those abilities that disarm enemies in a different way. Those abilities that all the hyperviolence into a thing of play or dance or art. That's the real crux of it. That's the style in the stylish action.

Coming back to Magenta Horizon. I did the first two levels. I got pretty poor ranks since I'm only just starting. And then I tried them again and got better ranks.

A helpful thing that Magenta Horizon does when it ranks your performance on the level is actually tell you what you're being ranked on. Apparently, the level of your style meter during the KO of an enemy is important. (It was important in Devil May Cry as well, it's just that the game never said so!)

But how can I score more KOs against enemies during the time in which my Style Meter is filled to a high level? Sure I can do combos, and sure I'm avoiding repeats of stale moves, (though I sincerely don't know yet if this game has a stale mechanic LOL), but up to a certain point, you just have to avoid getting hit.

Can't raise my style with taunts. Just have to keep comboing and suffer as few interrutpions to my combos as possible. That's it.

That's why your taunts are important. They expand your toolkit. (Taunts are also a way of scoring a high style KO against a weaker enemy who would otherwise run out of health before any perfect combo could possibly raise the Style Meter high enough.)

Still, I'm only two levels in. Maybe this game does have taunting and I can still find the taunt ability later on! Maybe I'm just being a noob about.

On the other hand, this isn't the only game I've seen "inspired by Devil May Cry" that simply lacked taunts. I reiterate, only a little facetiously, what are our young gamedevs doing these days? Did they learn nothing from Devil May Cry 2? Alas.

#Magenta Horizons #Indie games #Video games #Character Action

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