Deathlord
I really want to play and complete this someday. It combines the exploration and overall look of Ultima IV/V with the combat of Wizardry. It's a notoriously difficult game, with a massive world to explore and permadeath in combat (with deaths immediately written to disk).

My goal is to complete it on actual hardware... preferable Apple II, but if I cannot get a good working set of disks, there is a set of clean (non-hacked) disk images for C64 that I can use on the Ultimate-II+ cart. I don't think I would play it "ironman" and would probably back up my game disk every day, just in case something awful happens.

dr_st wrote on 2022-09-13, 11:20:

I do think I will try Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice at some point.

Mainly because I started it, and really liked the setting, but was overwhelmed by the boss battles.

It's probably not objectively good gameplay design. It's cheap and cheesy, BUT, I understand from a couple of friends that DID master it, that - if you learn certain basic techniques, the way the designers intended, your performance jumps greatly. I think I would be interested in trying to really dedicate some time to it, to do it "right".

Played a bit of Sekiro as well. From everything I've read, it does require playing it the way the designers intended (e.g. mastering the counter system).

I found a similar experience with the Dark Souls games, that when played based on the intended design tends to be a lot easier as opposed to treating them as typical hack 'n slash RPGs. I suspect the reputation for their difficulty is largely based on people trying to play them as the latter.

With Sekiro, although mastering the deflect system is the "intended" way to approach the fights (each enemy move can be countered in some way) there are shortcuts to go around it in case your skill or reaction time are not up to the task: the prosthetic arm upgrades. Some of these can be used and abused to trivialize some of the hardest bosses: the upgraded firecracker is usually devastating and can be used to cancel many enemy moves you're having trouble with, while there are other more "situational" tools such as the whistle that are very effective against specific enemies. I'd say this is the most "RPG-ish" aspect of what is basically an action game, while Souls relies much more on traditional RPG mechanics such as level-up or weapon upgrades (and maybe grinding).

Personally I finished the game and the optional boss-rush gauntlets using mostly deflect/mikiri because I liked the system and I can be quite persistent (even if my reflexes were never very good), but if you're willing to experiment with the prosthetic tool you will be rewarded with much easier boss battles.

As for the games I am determined to beat, I'd say the original X-Wing and Tie Fighter. I had both games when they were originally released, and was able to "beat" them by cheating my way through every single level... which was really unsatisfying, because I really liked the games. Now that I have mint copies of both (floopy versions, just like the ones I had) and era-correct hardware, I really want to take the time to redeem myself, but I'm kind of scared because they were quite difficult, especially due to the braindead CPU-controlled allies that you're supposed to protect but end up throwing themselves in front of a star destroyer.

TheMobRules wrote on 2022-09-16, 21:06:

As for the games I am determined to beat, I'd say the original X-Wing and Tie Fighter. I had both games when they were originally released, and was able to "beat" them by cheating my way through every single level... which was really unsatisfying, because I really liked the games. Now that I have mint copies of both (floopy versions, just like the ones I had) and era-correct hardware, I really want to take the time to redeem myself, but I'm kind of scared because they were quite difficult, especially due to the braindead CPU-controlled allies that you're supposed to protect but end up throwing themselves in front of a star destroyer.

Those are great games, but I do remember them being quite challenging. I think I did manage to beat Tie Fighter back in the day, but definitely not X-Wing. Probably worth revisiting that game soon.

Maniac Mansion. I've completed most of the other games, even DOTT, but never gone back to the original.