Gather round kiddos...
While I'm not sure it was ever really a popular feature, it's time for another installment of "Hey Frost! Where ya been?"
So this happened. I'm hoping I can get it's damn hooks out of me and get back to playing some other games. I've done just about everything achievement related, outside of the 3 that are shown as locked which are for hitting the level cap (200... I'm at about 108 or so, I think.), doing a hard mode playthrough, and doing a speed run playthrough (both of which, I believe, can use your same save file, so I should be in good shape to do those at some point in time in the future, when I've had a good break from the game, I guess).
What'd I think of the game overall? Even with a ridiculous amount of hours sunk into it, I don't know that it lived up to the hype that people had built around the game when talking about the PS3 version. The combat is definitely the most polished aspect, I'd say, but this is expected since this game is what DMC team made after DMC4 (instead of making DMC5, leaving Capcom to go get NT to make DmC instead). The variety in classes is welcomed too, though I never spent much time in the fighter tier, I spent the majority of the hours clocked on the game switching between mage, strider, ranger, assassin, and magick archer... and each one played similar to those you would expect it to with enough variety in the vocation skills to make them feel unique and mostly worthwhile (except for assassin, I think, looking back on it).
Outside of that, a lot of stuff (outside of the enemy design) leaves a lot to be desired... there's a distinct lack of enemy variety until you either clear the "final" mission or you've beaten the DLC area (Bitterblack Isle) at least once... and then some of the enemies that show up are a bit ridiculous in terms of balance. Loot drops, particularly those from Bitterblack island can be a bit of a frustrating endeavor, as I've been trying to get the ring for the magick archer class that turns sixfold bolt into ninefold bolt (preferably with the bonus for explosive rivet as well) for what seems like forever... I wanted to get that and switch back to magick archer, but I ended up finishing the game out as a ranger instead and I *still* don't have that ring. I've read up on it and there are places people spend hours reopening chests to try to get the rare drops they covet... this type of loot system drives me nuts. And we haven't even gotten to the traversal yet... I'm not sure when Capcom added in the eternal ferrystone (nice touch) but the lack of being able to get enough portcrystals so you can set up warps in all the places you'd like them before getting to NG+ is a real bummer. An easier way to handle it would've been to allow for fast travel between discovered riftstones a la Dark Souls 2 bonfire fast travel, but alas, this is not an option.
Now it may sound like there's a lot of negativity there... and there is, I guess. But at the core of the game, there's just something that sinks its teeth into you; I imagine this is what people who get pulled into the vortex of an MMO feel like... I'd find myself saying "eh, I'll boot this game up and do a few quests, or try to get achievements x, y, and z, shouldn't take more than an hour." Then 4 hours later, I'm looking at the clock thinking "holy schnikes, have I really been playing that long? Oh, well, I should just finish up this last thing before I save and quit..." and you know what happens next.
It was a mostly enjoyable ride and I'm glad I finally got a chance to play this, as I've been waiting for the day Capcom would hopefully port it to PC with a stable framerate, as the horror stories of single digit dips had me steering clear of the game, even when I got it "free" through a PS+ subscription. The port is good and the core of the game is extremely well crafted, even if a bunch of the more superficial aspects of the game suffer because of it.
