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The Last Case Of Benedict Fox |OT| For Fox Sake

Rhaknar

Rhaknar

Member
Oct 26, 2017
42,792
combat aside, game is real good. I guess it depends on what you value more out of a metroidvania, the gameplay or the exploration/discovery etc. some real resident evil type puzzle shit going on here especially with the keys and the device.

I'm actually stumped atm, in the limbos I have access to I can't go anywhere else that I can see, and in the mansion I can't figure out anything else either.

I got the horn from the garden chest, but the device is busted and I cant rotate 2 of the things for now, so I cant make a key for the statue. No idea what the horn is for. No idea what to do with the piano. And nowhere near enough ink to get the power to open the mouth doors hmm...

Anyone progressed past this point and can help?
 
Arctic Chris

Arctic Chris

Member
Dec 5, 2017
2,179
Ottawa Canada
I am having fun with this on my XSX. I have not noticed any real issues, and like any platformer you need to be able to judge what you can and cannot jump to. Everything opens up with Double Jump. And if combat is really that difficult for some people, you can turn on Immortal. There is even a setting to solve all the puzzles for you, and another for guided quests. Not sure what the developer could do to make this game any easier for the people that want to just cruise through the game. Maybe a Twitch link to a live stream.

Like I said, I am having fun and that is good enough for me.
 
Bitterman

Bitterman

Member
Nov 25, 2017
2,907
Official reiews will be very intersting. Gonna get ass-blasted I bet. What a massive disappointment.
 

Deleted member 6235

Banned
Oct 25, 2017
8,447
Rhaknar said:
combat aside, game is real good. I guess it depends on what you value more out of a metroidvania, the gameplay or the exploration/discovery etc. some real resident evil type puzzle shit going on here especially with the keys and the device.

I'm actually stumped atm, in the limbos I have access to I can't go anywhere else that I can see, and in the mansion I can't figure out anything else either.

I got the horn from the garden chest, but the device is busted and I cant rotate 2 of the things for now, so I cant make a key for the statue. No idea what the horn is for. No idea what to do with the piano. And nowhere near enough ink to get the power to open the mouth doors hmm...

Anyone progressed past this point and can help?
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yeah the combat is iffy but i'm loving the exploration and puzzles. game is a looker too.

Messofanego said:
I can give you a couple of tips, if you want it.
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i beat it! but thanks
 
HighDrama

HighDrama

Member
Jan 17, 2023
356
Messofanego said:
Played the first hour and beat the first boss. Combat is not very responsive due to the measured animations, but I realised the dodge can be spammed continuously rather than wait for a stamina bar recharge. The world, art, and story itself is really cool though, and I like how investigative it is. The loading screen is a huge map of connections, much like the trope of stringed chalkboards so that's a cute touch.
fetchimage

E6TPGD.png
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What!? There is none of that in my game. It's just empty..
 
RedSparrows

RedSparrows

Prophet of Regret
Member
Feb 22, 2019
6,517
Messofanego said:
Move your cursor, it'll let you know if you leave it idle.
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I've not got anything there either. Maybe not progressed enough?

Bitterman said:
Official reiews will be very intersting. Gonna get ass-blasted I bet. What a massive disappointment.
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Irrespective of your feelings, why? It's not AAA, not is it particularly original, and def has some weak elements (getting hit just after scene transitions needs to be sorted!), but it has enough here that's well made, interesting and engaging. It looks and sounds nice, has systems and hooks, and I want to play more. Once again, feel like I'm in a different universe.
 
Rhaknar

Rhaknar

Member
Oct 26, 2017
42,792
damn I am hard stuck lol. Guess I need to wait for some walkthroughs on youtube or something.
 
thankyoumerzbow

thankyoumerzbow

Prophet of Truth
Member
Dec 8, 2020
8,482
i would normally be all over this but jedi survivor comes tomorrow and respawn are the goats, so to the backlog it goes.
 
RedSparrows

RedSparrows

Prophet of Regret
Member
Feb 22, 2019
6,517
HighDrama said:
No nothing. I'm on Series X and been playing for 3-4 hours..
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Same. Clearly a bug. Shame.

After playing 2-3 hours, here are some thoughts, briefly:

PROS

Looks great
Sounds great
Puzzles are engaging
World interaction is engaging
Metroidvania stuff is present and correct
Combat has some nice mechanics/evidently room for progression/expansion
Story is in media res and rather vague, but I am at the least engaged
I like the concept of the whole thing

CONS

Combat also has issues: e.g. easy to get dogpiled, get hit on scene transitions. It's not super dynamic either
Some frame hitches when rapidly transitioning (e.g. falling through scenes)
Slippery/steep slopes (that you slide on) are too finicky with player movement/cause odd reactions at times
Not sure it explains itself well: first boss was a bit odd.
Unlocked a grab move I am unclear how to use...

I like it. It definitely has some downsides, but it has more upsides for me, so on we go! Enjoying it.
 
Tendo

Tendo

Member
Oct 26, 2017
10,449
Man the frame rate / hitching on series x sucks. Wtf. Done with this. Will wait and see if patches come.
 
Bitterman

Bitterman

Member
Nov 25, 2017
2,907
RedSparrows said:
I've not got anything there either. Maybe not progressed enough?



Irrespective of your feelings, why? It's not AAA, not is it particularly original, and def has some weak elements (getting hit just after scene transitions needs to be sorted!), but it has enough here that's well made, interesting and engaging. It looks and sounds nice, has systems and hooks, and I want to play more. Once again, feel like I'm in a different universe.
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Honestly, everything apart from the visuals seems subpar to me. That's really it.
 
Rhaknar

Rhaknar

Member
Oct 26, 2017
42,792
RedSparrows said:
Same. Clearly a bug. Shame.

After playing 2-3 hours, here are some thoughts, briefly:

PROS

Looks great
Sounds great
Puzzles are engaging
World interaction is engaging
Metroidvania stuff is present and correct
Combat has some nice mechanics/evidently room for progression/expansion
Story is in media res and rather vague, but I am at the least engaged
I like the concept of the whole thing

CONS

Combat also has issues: e.g. easy to get dogpiled, get hit on scene transitions. It's not super dynamic either
Some frame hitches when rapidly transitioning (e.g. falling through scenes)
Slippery/steep slopes (that you slide on) are too finicky with player movement/cause odd reactions at times
Not sure it explains itself well: first boss was a bit odd.
Unlocked a grab move I am unclear how to use...

I like it. It definitely has some downsides, but it has more upsides for me, so on we go! Enjoying it.
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hold the grab button and you pull enemies to you. its super useful because you can grab them from above (like if you are on a ledge) to seperate them from the pack for example.
 
point decay

point decay

Member
Oct 27, 2017
271
so much to like about this, but everything with the controls just feel off. got to the first boss and just thought, nope.
 
mcruz79

mcruz79

Member
Apr 28, 2020
2,807
No portuguese language is really a let down…
I hope they can add this post launch.
I will probably just wait a bit to play the game.

played 30/40 minutes and the art style and visuals are really nice.
 
Ricker

Ricker

Member
Oct 27, 2017
8,005
Beautiful Province of Quebec.
What an awful start to a game,all those puzzles with no clue what to do...Ooof,not for me,I know theres difficulty and accessibility options but the combat isnt fun and all those if you die ,you need to grab your essence, or whatever they call it or else,and if you dont you get penalised even more etc etc...tired of this.
 
MegaSackman

MegaSackman

Member
Oct 27, 2017
17,779
Argentina
Played for a few hs. I like the exploration and puzzles, combat is clunky but easy enough for now. I like the vision but not the execution, feels like a game designed for an Xbox 360 era in some way with hard cuts and loading screens in several places. I'm not sold on the story and the companion, at least narratively.

I don't think I'll go back to it though, playing Jedi Survivor tomorrow and then Zelda comes out so...
 
2shd

2shd

Member
Oct 25, 2017
7,586
Just tried this and it felt awful to play. Wasn't expecting anything amazing, but they lost me right out of the gate.
 

cecilpaladin32

Member
Apr 24, 2018
3,611
Janky and clunky combat/traversal, but neat production values. Played just past first boss - will keep going, for sure.
 
KnivesAndCoins

KnivesAndCoins

Member
Oct 27, 2017
1,180
Roma, Italia
Ricker said:
What an awful start to a game,all those puzzles with no clue what to do...Ooof,not for me,I know theres difficulty and accessibility options but the combat isnt fun and all those if you die ,you need to grab your essence, or whatever they call it or else,and if you dont you get penalised even more etc etc...tired of this.
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But are the puzzle fair or just obtues even if difficult or with no hand holding?
 
RedSparrows

RedSparrows

Prophet of Regret
Member
Feb 22, 2019
6,517
KnivesAndCoins said:
But are the puzzle fair or just obtues even if difficult or with no hand holding?
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There are puzzles you can't solve right off the bat, but that's because it's not the route you're supposed to take. I'm not sure that's odd, Resi did exactly the same thing.

The movement and combat need work, but I don't find it anywhere near as intolerable as some of the above. Measured responses? Hah.
 
benzopil

benzopil

Member
Oct 25, 2017
4,153
Spent an hour in the game and not sure why some of you hate it so heavily. Looks like a genetic but fun metroidvania like FIST.
 
Adryuu

Adryuu

Master of the Wind
Member
Oct 27, 2017
5,614
Oh it seems controls and feel are divisive. I downloaded this with the intention of starting it later, as I just got a ps5 last week and I'm playing that. I hope there are at least patches to address performance on console once I start this and I'll see for myself about gameplay. But I was pretty excited to play this (until I got the ps5 with Ragnarok lol).
I'll be checking here for more impressions.
 
Nocturnowl

Nocturnowl

Member
Oct 25, 2017
26,183
I've just got my first tat upgrade and so far....

I'm actually kinda digging this?

Let's get the main issue out the way, I'm playing on performance on series S and it's kinda crazy to me that some textures just aren't loading in fully or coming across as a blurry bunch of pixels, only seems to be on a few background details at least (the skybox when arriving at the mansion, wowee!) and in general it's not quite as smooth as I'd hope for a performance mode.
Otherwise though I'll live, I'm not the kind of player to deem something unplayable because of a few dropped frames or naff textures.

The gameplay had me expecting worse from impressions here, now there's definitely some quirks about the general movement and combat that lack some of that spit polish you may expect, noting for instance that this is the kind of game where making standard platforming just to traverse an area can involve some real last second jump timing instead of having the leniency of making platforms a bit wider, so that each jump isn't like you're doing a mega man hanging off an edge of a platform by one foot pixel kinda jump, but once again that's a small gripe, just means you might fall short more than you expect, especially since you need a full step or two of movement to get the full distance (as in Benedict's jump from standstill doesn't have as much horozontal movement)
Combat seems fine as it's fairly infrequent compared to a lot of the genre and its simplicity works well, quick combo to build gunshot, roll or parry and yeah that does things just fine right now.

The thing about the control to me is that, it fits? look maybe it's the fact that I've played Castlevania Mirror of Fate multiple times in my life which might be the standard for cinematic clunk movement and combat in a metroidvania, or perhaps I'm actually kinda tired by all the games aping Hollow Knight style so anything breaking the standard is welcomed as long as it ain't actively bad.

What I'm really digging so far, is that for the most part, in this increasingly oversaturated genre of metroidvanias, this approach feels pretty unique.
Yeah we have a few souls-isms with the ink loss on death and such, fortunately though this game isn't all that focused on combat, rather as pointed out in the thread, there's an almost resident evil classic or point and click style approach to opening up the mansion area, that's meshed with a more classic metroidvania like link to limbo.
Game has been fairly hands free on directing the player while not being obtuse, its general progression structure with the mysteries and such is kinda novel.
I think I just like that this one feels like it has its own vision and I'm not playing something that's so overly directly inspired by one of the main genre tentpoles.
A shame it seems to have dropped in hot, game didn't even give me a splash page image when loading it up, a white screen that almost tells me "we were rushing to meet our planned release date".

Well anywho, I hope it keeps up being a fairly solid time, the tone and visuals here are pretty stellar.
 
SanTheSly

SanTheSly

The San Symphony Project
Member
Sep 2, 2019
6,590
United Kingdom
IMG_8204.png


User reviews are appearing and it seems to be a fairly solid reflection of this thread. Firmly very mixed responses.

Still no more than a handful of official reviews yet either, but I did see a tweet from someone suggesting they only received a code a day before release.

Will still form my own opinions when I get around to renewing Game Pass but man, this is a bit of a bummer note to go into the game on.

I may end up loving it but the combination of mixed general opinions and how little media coverage this got doesn't exactly inspire confidence.
 
Dr PeterVenkman

Dr PeterVenkman

Member
Oct 28, 2017
2,271
the movement has a cinematic platformer feel to it. being a fan of that genre, it feels a lot better that I thought it would after reading the impressions here.

the game looks really great, though there's some hitching and stuttering on series x. my biggest issue here is the game didn't really set up and explain it's world all that well. i'm not really invested in the things i'm finding because it's just....there. it feels like i'm playing a game based on some IP/cartoon/comic book that I never read/watched or a sequel in a series and the creators didn't account for new players. strange. i can't quite place it, but that's the best way I can describe it.
 
BuggeryBugz

BuggeryBugz

Member
Oct 29, 2017
708
up to the first of what I think is a boss, and I'm struggling big time with it. Not sure if I need to somewhere else first or just keep trying.
 
BuggeryBugz

BuggeryBugz

Member
Oct 29, 2017
708
MegaSackman said:
You can kill it, just remember to parry and dodge with the stick, but mostly parry will be enough (and the gun).

I thought the same as you until I tried parrying the thing.
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Thanks!

I've been parrying the rocks and dodging everything else. Hard to read the moves sometimes as well. I'm getting closer though so I'll keep at it.
 
Alek

Alek

Games User Researcher
Verified
Oct 28, 2017
8,485
Shame about the mixed reception. It looks very cool aesthetically and conceptually. While I appreciate that it has some obvious merits that people are pointing out, given how competitive the metroidvania genre is it seems unlikely people will be talking about it for very long.

I can't help but feel they could have picked up these issues with some early playtesting. The issues people have with combat and controls seem very surface level mistakes.
 
Governergrimm

Governergrimm

Member
Jun 25, 2019
6,593
Dr PeterVenkman said:
the movement has a cinematic platformer feel to it. being a fan of that genre, it feels a lot better that I thought it would after reading the impressions here.

the game looks really great, though there's some hitching and stuttering on series x. my biggest issue here is the game didn't really set up and explain it's world all that well. i'm not really invested in the things i'm finding because it's just....there. it feels like i'm playing a game based on some IP/cartoon/comic book that I never read/watched or a sequel in a series and the creators didn't account for new players. strange. i can't quite place it, but that's the best way I can describe it.
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I may be wrong, but I think it's intentional. I think as the game is based on puzzles, riddles , and uncovering secrets they want it to feel mysterious and unknown. Yoou are right though. Thheuu definitely throw you in the deep end.
 
MegaSackman

MegaSackman

Member
Oct 27, 2017
17,779
Argentina
BuggeryBugz said:
Thanks!

I've been parrying the rocks and dodging everything else. Hard to read the moves sometimes as well. I'm getting closer though so I'll keep at it.
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I just glued to the left tentacle, went ham with melee and the gun and parried every attack. The problem is that when the second one appears, you need it to do melee attacks as well because if it throws rocks at you it's a pain in the ass. Somehow the time I beat it they were both pretty close and did melee attacks only. That said, It wasn't too long after the second one appeared that I got the first tentacle down and you only need to kill one.
 
Gavalanche

Gavalanche

Prophet of Regret
Member
Oct 21, 2021
17,689
Alek said:
Shame about the mixed reception. It looks very cool aesthetically and conceptually. While I appreciate that it has some obvious merits that people are pointing out, given how competitive the metroidvania is it seems unlikely people will be talking about it for very long.

I can't help but feel they could have picked up these issues with some early playtesting. The issues people have with combat and controls seem very surface level mistakes.
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The issues were there with the Steam Demo; some of us, myself included, pointed it out. I went from massively hyped over this to cautiously worried. In any case, you are right, it is such a competitive genre. I myself am going to wait for a sale I think. I still think they could tweak and change the combat to be better down the track, like Deaths Gambit.
 
BuggeryBugz

BuggeryBugz

Member
Oct 29, 2017
708
MegaSackman said:
I just glued to the left tentacle, went ham with melee and the gun and parried every attack. The problem is that when the second one appears, you need it to do melee attacks as well because if it throws rocks at you it's a pain in the ass. Somehow the time I beat it they were both pretty close and did melee attacks only. That said, It wasn't too long after the second one appeared that I got the first tentacle down and you only need to kill one.
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Yeah makes sense. I got past the tentacles to what I assume is the final stage of the boss but because it's a one hit one kill I keep getting hit haha! Must be a me thing.
 
Dogui

Dogui

Member
Oct 28, 2017
8,838
Brazil
Surprised it got available on Xcloud after not showing in the cards.

Played the tutorial only for now, and noticed the LT for some reason only responds if you go all the way trough, while the RT is a lot more sensible. Thought it was my controller but other games has the LT responding with just a little touch. Only used them for menu navigation so far.

Is this a bug? Is it intentional? Can it still be my controller somehow?
 
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