Western RPGs (or just not JPRGs)

[shinymcshine]

Floated the idea passed @Jimbo Xiii that we had a Western RPG thread , as I play quite a few niche ones and it seems a bit superfluous opening a new thread for each (if no-one else is playing them).

 

Today's opener is :

 

Outward (PS4) - an open world survival RPG from Deep Silver (9 Dot Media), which has been around long enough to gain a bit of recently released DLC.

 

Anyway, so far, so tutorial, there's a fair bit involved, fighting, magic/rituals, crafting, cooking, camping, eating & drinking, disease and poisons etc, all to keep you on your toes. And, as a plus, it can be played two player split screen too. But it's meant to be a bit of a 'rough diamond' so one to persevere with (so not dissimilar to the Risen games in some respect).

 

**Bet that typo in the topic name gets some attention at least......**

 

 

[mmmark]

I just watched a review for outward. I thought it looked alright but maybe a bit too involved for me despite the reviewer calling it simple. I’d probably give it a go for a fiver but at £14 (psn) on sale it’s a bit much for a game I might bin off after an hour.

 

It looks like the kind of game that’d do well on switch but if they can’t get it running very well on PS4 then it’s probably not worth trying to port I guess. 
 

What I watched fwiw:

 

 

[Rikzilla]

I picked it up back when it came out and never played it.

 

No reason other than I didn't have the time to commit to anything like that, it looks massive. Still want to give it a try though.

 

Has anyone tried Ashen? I keep meaning to pick it up on the Switch but haven't gotten around to it yet.

 

 

[Maf]

Yeah @Rikzilla Ashen is really good. A relatively short Dark Souls knock off that’s pretty stripped back in every way. Not as hard, more linear, less varied, more straight forward progression and direction. But also has cool ideas of it’s own like an AI companion that another player can seamlessly inhabit, exploring dark caves where balancing between holding a lantern and shield is key, and the atmosphere is very quiet and indie. 

For what it’s worth I really, really liked it. I played it on Xbox, though, so don’t know anything about the Switch version. 
 

It done got it’s own thread over this way, too

 

 

[shinymcshine]

Outward is very similar, gameplay and presentation wise, to Risen - you start over super low skilled, very poor, and a whole bunch of enemies kill you very quickly if you wander off. So early leveling is going to be a bit of a grind.

 

Notable too, the opening quest gets you kicked out of your home if you fail to raise a bunch of silver in 5 days or gain a tribal favour. Dying resurrects you after a time delay, which on my first effort, then took me beyond day 5. No retries either, as it just autosaves as you go along, so I took it as LFE (rouge like) , and restarted instead - only around 1 hr lost. Repeated again, then on third attempt went a different way, dodged some tough enemies, and picked up a tribal favour.

 

So much better, and got me enough to spend on extra skills. Inventory mechanism is interesting, you get pockets and a backpack. You're encouraged to drop the pack for combat (as wearing it reduces stamina) but risk is, if you die, you'll be resurrected elsewhere and need to retrieve it. Also you need to eat, sleep and drink, crafting recipes and cooking. 

 

So all a bit involved, especially as there's no quest markers or clear notation of where you are on the map, just navigation by landmarks. So a decent level of realism, big absence of hand holding. I think I'm beginning to like it though.

[shinymcshine]

In a few ways  Outward seems to have taken some of its inspiration from Zelda BotW.

 

It's pretty non linear, crafting and repairs seem key, wander where you like (with no barriers to really tough monsters).

[Rikzilla]

Pretty sure there's an item in it called "Bread of the Wild"

[shinymcshine]

I think Outward is broken ?

 

After 3 weeks I hit a point where I died and was resurrected but this time my backpack (which normally appears in your immediate vicinity, and location shown on compass) isn't around or on my compass. So all my stuff has gone, which, at the stage I'm at, seems irreplaceable. The game uses a single save/autosave, so no option to reload an earlier one.

 

Ive raised a support request via the Koch Media / Deep Silver website and await their advice.

[shinymcshine]

"Hello Steve,

 

thank you for contacting Deepsilver customer support.  

 

My name is David and I am here to assist you.

 

I'm sorry to hear you're having trouble with the game.

 

To ensure that all items and settings are saved correctly, please always make sure that you save the game manually using the Pause Menu / Options Menu before you exit the game.

 

Unfortunately, we do not have the ability to restore items or specific items.

 

The game will of course continue to be optimized and improved with future updates and patches.

 

We apologize for any inconvenience."

 

- So a quick but unhelpful response.

 

However, despite just the single game file appearing on the loading screen, I thought I'd check to save game file under the system storage tab on the PS4 setting menu - and 3 files were there, so deleted the most recent, and the next, leaving just the oldest (save from Sunday 26th) and it worked ! So lost maybe an hour progress, but have my backpack & items now.

[Maryokutai]

Take that David, you incompetent android.

[radiofloyd]

That was fucking smart, I’ll have to remember that myself.

[shinymcshine]

That's Outward sort of finished - the only main quest line involves joining one of the three factions and seeing their questline to a conclusion (I joined and completed the Blue Chamber). But you can only join one per playthrough, so would need to restart to do another - there are 4 'secret' legacy chests (one in each of the regions) where you can leave an single item for your next character - but they are tough to get to, so won't help you over the early starting difficulty hump.

 

I enjoyed it - not the most polished RPG, minimal spoken dialogue, mostly just text, but really gave a sense of adventure (and vulnerability). I crafted a horror bow that poisoned enemies (DOT) and it was much better doing ranged combat than relying on the dubious hit boxes of melee. There's also a whole magic system that I barely used (since again it's set up that you can only really go down one skill route per playthrough, as you get just 3 breakthrough points to access advanced skills).

 

Maybe I'll play again in the future, but now for something else.