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God of War Ragnarok Gave My sore thumb No Mercy

Bartski

Bartski

Gold Member
tl:dr I beat GoW Ragnarok on hard and survived to tell the story, having sustained an actual real physical injury in the process. Now you all must know about it. Here goes.

I knew there was only one way to do it - set up a retreat to my gaming den and binge as hard as I can. Sleep is for the weak. Stocked up on Red Bull and Milka, I was ready for days.

I knew I'll be giving Dual Sense the stress test. I did not expect to receive one back. Hard.

I started on "give me god of war", but then having died during the first QTE cutscene and then a second time in the first enemy encounter I decided this might be a bit much, as this way it would take me 200 hours I simply didn't have.

So I chose to drop it down for a smooth sail on "give me no mercy". It was surprisingly smooth, but with some exceptions. Actually plenty of exceptions.

I don't mind getting wrecked in hard games, I actually love it. The combat system in Ragnarok is fucking sublime, and totally addicting and there is nothing better than chopping the head of a Berserker after failing 15+ times to it. So good.

So I managed to beat the campaign and almost all side content this way. Including optional bosses. Some of which were a total WTF were they thinking.

Remember how much you loved the Godskin Duo? Yeah me neither. God of War? More like God of Getting My Ass Beat by a bunch of dudes hitting me from all directions with perfect tracking all at once. But it's part of the course so I choose to persevere, and I almost did.

On Saturday night I was almost getting done with the final challenges in Muspelheim when I started really feeling it. That sense of distracting, crampy uneasiness. Knowing I'm almost out of my scheduled time off, I decided to keep going for another night.

I'm also a proponent of L3 for run. L3 is where run belongs. But in some games man, sometimes you do A LOT of L3s. Clicked in and out with ferocity, clutch after clutch. Squeezing the controller harder than a handle on a rollercoaster.

Yesterday I was 2 bosses to go, as it just happens 2 most difficult ones in the game. The pain in my left hand became so bad, however, it became impossible to ignore. I noticed something really wrong with my thumb. Like it got all purple and hurt like hell.

So I did the unthinkable - dropped to easy and beat those 2, not before making a manual save to do it again properly. Later, someday.

I got up to work today and noticed the swelling on my thumb. After further inspection, it seems I have a giant fuck off blister very deep under the skin, another one on the ring finger my index finger hurts as if I hit it with Thor's hammer.

Last time I had some serious hand soreness was after binging on Sekiro, due to some equally constant clutch lasting days I started to feel pain in most of my fingers. Had to take some time off and recover to beat all those optional bosses like the Demon of Hatred that brought me to the brink of madness.

Had some after DMCV.

But NEVER this bad.

yF2zFDZ.jpg



tc73sUQ.jpg


Upon arriving to work today I realized I'm incapacitated, not only for any gaming for now but from actually working. See what I do there is mostly sign invoices, dispatches, contracts, all kinds of documents for approval. By hand. With a pen. And I'm a lefty.

It hurts enough so every single signature I made today looks like some toddler scribbling at best, forgery attempt at worst.

If things don't get better by tomorrow I might actually go on sick leave.

Is it the controller? Is it because dual sense is heavier than dual shock, with sturdier stick cliks? Is it because of the rumble rumbling so deep inside my clutched L3 just before Mimir tells me to get up after getting bit too much frost in his neck stump? No idea.

Cool story tho.

Looks like I'm playing Pentiment tomorrow rather than Somerville. On PC, with a mouse.

That's all. Stay safe.
 
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sobaka770

sobaka770

Banned
I'll be honest: God of War Ragnarok is not tuned well for higher difficulties. It's just not worth it to play unless you like pointless challenges.
There's just something "not fun" about dying in GoW over and over again. There is not enough precision in the moveset, abilities feel underwhelming, camera restricted, you often rely on kiting and Atreus' help. There's no reliable way to control the battlefield and master the abilities. High difficulty just limits choice and destroys the fantasy of playing as Kratos.
Some fights like become a mess of tracking and relying on blind luck not to get hit. In some sections without companions there's no reliable way to make monsters stop leveling up, making encounters just longer and more reliant on just kiting. Encounters take forever because your damage is so low yet a single enemy can take 80% of your life in one hit which feels wrong for a God of War game. The tuning is off and it doesn't feel good when all your skills and ultimates do a damage and status effects of a wet noodle, even with perfect parrying and dodging and comboing - it's just too damn slow and unrewarding.
I went down from Give me God of War to Give me No Mercy just because how boring it was to repeat an encounter while kiting enemies for 20 minutes and even then, it just doesn't feel like I'm playing as Kratos. Yes it's tactical somewhat, but the power fantasy is not there, the very definition of damage sponge. A big disappointment.
 
hinch7

hinch7

Member
Lol, good story. I'm a clicker as well and left thumb was a bit numb/sore after completing the game. So fear not, you're not the only one. The Dualsense thumbsticks are kinda abbrasive after some long sessions of gaming.

I also tried the auto-run and it didn't feel right, what can you do ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
 
Bartski

Bartski

Gold Member
Jennings said:
Maybe a different controller would better suit you. Have you considered third party controllers with different layouts?
Click to expand...
Nope. High time perhaps. And high hopes for the DS Edge I'm getting at launch, back buttons should help.
Also I'm a believer in playtested default button layouts.
Here I would have likely made the X to O swap but I noticed the option halfway through the game when my brain was already rewired.
 
Con-Z-epT

Con-Z-epT

Live from NeoGAF, it's Friday Night!
I played the Sports-Mode in GT7 quite excessively in the beginning of the year. I quickly climbed up the driver ranks and ended up in the midst of Driver Rank A.

I would hold my left hand very weird and kinda stiff so it made it easier for me to be more precise while steering. I developed a tendonitis that would spread from the back of my hand into my forearm. Couldn't really play for two weeks because of the intense pain.

I stopped to play this way and realised that i'm just no good enough to sustain this level of skill with a controller.

It's hard to be a gamer sometimes.
 
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DelireMan7

DelireMan7

Member
Only time I "injured" myself while gaming was on PS2 when playing intensively Guilty Gear X/XX. I used the D-pad instead of the stick and it gaves me blister on the thumb.

Hope it quickly recovers

Also what triggers me in the pictures is how outrageously short you cut your nail. This is painful to watch.
 
Daneel Elijah

Daneel Elijah

Gold Member
sobaka770 said:
I'll be honest: God of War Ragnarok is not tuned well for higher difficulties. It's just not worth it to play unless you like pointless challenges.
There's just something "not fun" about dying in GoW over and over again. There is not enough precision in the moveset, abilities feel underwhelming, camera restricted, you often rely on kiting and Atreus' help. There's no reliable way to control the battlefield and master the abilities. High difficulty just limits choice and destroys the fantasy of playing as Kratos.
Some fights like become a mess of tracking and relying on blind luck not to get hit. In some sections without companions there's no reliable way to make monsters stop leveling up, making encounters just longer and more reliant on just kiting. Encounters take forever because your damage is so low yet a single enemy can take 80% of your life in one hit which feels wrong for a God of War game. The tuning is off and it doesn't feel good when all your skills and ultimates do a damage and status effects of a wet noodle, even with perfect parrying and dodging and comboing - it's just too damn slow and unrewarding.
I went down from Give me God of War to Give me No Mercy just because how boring it was to repeat an encounter while kiting enemies for 20 minutes and even then, it just doesn't feel like I'm playing as Kratos. Yes it's tactical somewhat, but the power fantasy is not there, the very definition of damage sponge. A big disappointment.
Click to expand...
As far as I remember the hardest difficulty is unlocked after you beat the game in older GOW titles. So i played them in hard and it is so much better. In Ragnarok they not only allow give me god of war difficulty but say that is the only difficulty you have to do since the beginning. So thay gave me no choice.
It feel weird to have to repeat all encouters dozen of times. I foud myself jalous of my ennemies abilities. In the hardest mode all ennemies are better than Kratos. I hope that it will change when I manage to lvl up because if not I will have no choice but to change difficulty.
 
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Skifi28

Skifi28

Member
I relived some pretty bad memories reading this. I got wrist tendonitis from a 360 controller playing RE5 back in the day which left my entire arm incapable of doing anything and in constant pain for months. Always take care of your hands/arms/digits. We take them for granted, but they're not.
 
GymWolf

GymWolf

Member
sobaka770 said:
I'll be honest: God of War Ragnarok is not tuned well for higher difficulties. It's just not worth it to play unless you like pointless challenges.
There's just something "not fun" about dying in GoW over and over again. There is not enough precision in the moveset, abilities feel underwhelming, camera restricted, you often rely on kiting and Atreus' help. There's no reliable way to control the battlefield and master the abilities. High difficulty just limits choice and destroys the fantasy of playing as Kratos.
Some fights like become a mess of tracking and relying on blind luck not to get hit. In some sections without companions there's no reliable way to make monsters stop leveling up, making encounters just longer and more reliant on just kiting. Encounters take forever because your damage is so low yet a single enemy can take 80% of your life in one hit which feels wrong for a God of War game. The tuning is off and it doesn't feel good when all your skills and ultimates do a damage and status effects of a wet noodle, even with perfect parrying and dodging and comboing - it's just too damn slow and unrewarding.
I went down from Give me God of War to Give me No Mercy just because how boring it was to repeat an encounter while kiting enemies for 20 minutes and even then, it just doesn't feel like I'm playing as Kratos. Yes it's tactical somewhat, but the power fantasy is not there, the very definition of damage sponge. A big disappointment.
Click to expand...
Completely disagree, the game is super fun if you like an hard challenge and controls are perfect, i just defeated
fiske the odin general with a spear\scythe and super fast attacks
by just using last sec evade to activate the bullet time in my armour, you can't do that in a game without pitch perfect controls.


Usually people who find the game annoying are just people who just want to turn around and backstab enemies and they are not prepared for enemies who actually move around, flank and have actually annoying moves that you can't just mindlessly roll away.

When i beat these combat encounters i feel like a fucking god because i know how punishing they are and how there is almost no way to cheese them.
 
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sobaka770

sobaka770

Banned
GymWolf said:
Completely disagree, the game is super fun if you like an hard challenge and controls are perfect, i just defeated
fiske the odin general with a spear\scythe and super fast attacks
by just using last sec evade to activate the bullet time in my armour, you can't do that in a game without pitch perfect controls.


Usually people who find the game annoying are just people who just want to turn around and backstab enemies and they are not prepared for enemies who actually move around, flank and have actually annoying moves that you can't just mindlessly roll away.

When i beat these combat encounters i feel like a fucking god because i know how punishing they are and how there is almost no way to cheese them.
Click to expand...

Boss encounters are actaully why I hesitated lowering the difficulty, 1-on-1 combat against a strong opponent is great. In fact you chose the one boss encounter I enjoyed the most. I didn't mind perfecting that fight and getting a win by the skin of my teeth.

However when a random mob encounter right before is much tougher- it just becomes weird.

The new GoW combat system was already not great against a group of mobs which is a trade-off I can accept but combined with their capability to 1-hit you, level up and heal without good means to interrupt (especially when Atreus is unavailable) and sheer length of each encounter on highest difficulty is just not fun for me. I try to find for each game a balance between good challenge and the fantasy of the character, though, not the ultimate bragging rights. I don't think Kratos being one shot by a random fat trash mob does it for me. And frankly I have no time anymore to spend repeating same trash mob encounters a dozen times in an already quite bloated game.
The funny thing is I think GoW is actually bloated in available combat actions out of which only like 30% are viable at higher difficulty. Elden Ring has more variety but within a single build you'll be perfecting a limited number of actions (rolling, shield parry timing, weapon moveset, 1-2 spells and that's pretty much it). When you screw up - you usually know exactly where to improve because you are almost always perfecting some parry or dodge timing.

GoW has 7 button combos for different specials (all of which feel very underwhelming on Give me GoW), with different abilities for 2 available weapon sets that you're supposed to combine and switch on the fly and an elemental chargeup system which also feels like a gimmick. And the worst part is that perfecting a move, such as back dodge with axe throw doesn't drastically make you better as the damage is same as just hitting with R1 and even the extra slotted runes barely make a difference. Most of the trash mob encounters are either won by kiting and getting 1-on-1 situations against an enemy (because that's where you have more control) or lost through an attack from behind for 60-70% HP. In Elden Ring when I overcome a challenge - I feel like I can come back and repeat it for a win again, in GoW trash mob encounters - I feel like I got lucky and could get wiped 5 more times.
 
GymWolf

GymWolf

Member
sobaka770 said:
Boss encounters are actaully why I hesitated lowering the difficulty, 1-on-1 combat against a strong opponent is great. In fact you chose the one boss encounter I enjoyed the most. I didn't mind perfecting that fight and getting a win by the skin of my teeth.

However when a random mob encounter right before is much tougher- it just becomes weird.

The new GoW combat system was already not great against a group of mobs which is a trade-off I can accept but combined with their capability to 1-hit you, level up and heal without good means to interrupt (especially when Atreus is unavailable) and sheer length of each encounter on highest difficulty is just not fun for me. I try to find for each game a balance between good challenge and the fantasy of the character, though, not the ultimate bragging rights. I don't think Kratos being one shot by a random fat trash mob does it for me. And frankly I have no time anymore to spend repeating same trash mob encounters a dozen times in an already quite bloated game.
The funny thing is I think GoW is actually bloated in available combat actions out of which only like 30% are viable at higher difficulty. Elden Ring has more variety but within a single build you'll be perfecting a limited number of actions (rolling, shield parry timing, weapon moveset, 1-2 spells and that's pretty much it). When you screw up - you usually know exactly where to improve because you are almost always perfecting some parry or dodge timing.

GoW has 7 button combos for different specials (all of which feel very underwhelming on Give me GoW), with different abilities for 2 available weapon sets that you're supposed to combine and switch on the fly and an elemental chargeup system which also feels like a gimmick. And the worst part is that perfecting a move, such as back dodge with axe throw doesn't drastically make you better as the damage is same as just hitting with R1 and even the extra slotted runes barely make a difference. Most of the trash mob encounters are either won by kiting and getting 1-on-1 situations against an enemy (because that's where you have more control) or lost through an attack from behind for 60-70% HP. In Elden Ring when I overcome a challenge - I feel like I can come back and repeat it for a win again, in GoW trash mob encounters - I feel like I got lucky and could get wiped 5 more times.
Click to expand...
I don't get one shotted by anything tho, at the very worse and pretty rare i get fucked in 2 hits, but most of the time is more like 3-5 hits before dying, not that different from any souls game, and here you can block and evade without stamina management.

I vastly prefer those type of mobs over retarded mobs that you can fuck up by turning around them waiting for an occasion, the game require a lot fo spacial awareness to not get flanked and gangbanged.

Don't know what to say, for me the game combat is almost perfect and i love how hard these enemy encounters are, and believe me, i'm just a good player, not great or incredible, to me they never feel cheap, just genuinely hard.

About the low damage, sure it is a thing, but you can circle around the problem a bit, like for example i use moves that build up the frost faster like the keep pressing r1 or r2 and then switch to blades to have the extra damage on frosted enemies or using atreus to build the stun and finishing them early with a fatality, and i didn't even reached half game yet, i never felt like the enemies were TOO spongy, and if their life bar is green (so on your level) you dispatch them pretty fast, even a yellow bar is acceptable, they are only really tanky with a purple bar.

A dude discovered a poison armour that melt enemies and there are gonna be other rpg op builds, the game has a lot going on, it is not a simple brawler, other people told me that eventually the keep pressing triangle move to build up an element on the weapon become way faster to charge and that one is gonna be a game changer eventually.

The enemy levelling up can be annoying but it is just something to keep things spicy, you can block their evolution from distance with an axe throw, did that countless of times.
 
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NeoIkaruGAF

NeoIkaruGAF

Gold Member
Back in my day, we used to call this the Nintendonitis.
I got this the very day I used my NES for the first time, and I certainly wasn’t allowed to play for as long as you have here.
 
Aenima

Aenima

Member
Slothbeing1209 said:
I just figured you can change Press L3 sprint to auto. It's in button mapping. Kind of weird it isn't in Accessibility.
Click to expand...
Gotta change it too. I hate pressing L3 to run and GoW combat requires you to run alot to reach fast to stunned enemies, and some attacks can only be performed while running.

OP story was cool, but i dont remember ever getting phisical injuged for playing a game. Im just not THAT hardcore i guess. :p And yes GoW combat is sublime. It takes some time to get used to it, but once you are familiar with it, its amazing. Im using an armor that slows down time when i dodge in the last second and a parry shield, its so safisfying to dodge and parry big mofos.
 
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