LIST/ PIT STOP: My Three Favorite Gaming Genres

For anyone who knows me they know when it comes to gaming I have three genres that I love. Of course there is fighting games which most people know about me. I have played Tekken competitively for most of my gaming life and it was only with the advert of Tekken 8 that I quit it. It is a long story why but let's just say with all the changes going on with that game I am happy I never invested anytime in it. Before that tho, I played competitively Tekken Tag Tournament, Tekken 5 (all versions), Tekken 6 (all versions), Tekken Tag Tournament 2 (my least favorite Tekken that I played seriously) and Tekken 7. Outside of Tekken I have also played many installment of the King of Fighters, Street Fighter 2 and the Alpha series (with Alpha 2 being the last one I enjoyed), Dead or Alive 1 to 4, Marvel vs Capcom series, Virtua Fighter 2 all the way to 5 including the most recent update R.E.V.O and most recently Under Night In-Birth. However with all that history under my belt, I have realized I no longer feel the need to play fighters seriously anymore and I un-officially retired myself after I realize all the new versions of the games I enjoyed did not do it for me. So no MK1, no SF6 and no Tekken 8. Also when COVID ran rampant it really took away my competitive drive and I never got it back. I will not lie tho, if KOF 13 or Virtua Fighter 5 is being played seriously, I am there.

This is my Darkest Dungeon before Darkest Dungeon

My second favorite genre is Strategic RPGs or any type of similar turn based games. This all started with arguably one of my favorite games of all times and my favorite Genesis/ Megadrive (as we called it in Australia) Shining Force 2. Man, do I love that game. Playing that really got me into turn based games and its why I have not connected with all these 'real time with pause' RPGs. Nope, give me a good ol' fashion turn based RPG like Final Fantasy X and I am there. This love of turn based mechanics rolled over into similar games with the same ideas hence my love of both Darkest Dungeons. If the roguelite/ roguelike I am playing has turned based mechanics, I am in heaven. I love planning my moves and watching if I did it correctly.

Where it all began.

Finally Going all the way back to Tetris on the NES/ Gameboy and Columns on my Megadrive/ Game Gear, Puzzle games really scratches an itch for me. For example, my most played game is Marvel Puzzle Quest which I have been playing since the game first came out, 16 years ago and according to Steam I have now invested a whooping 6,052 hrs in. I play it at least once a day to finish my daily quests and because I just enjoy it. They took the Puzzle Quest IP and added my favorite comic book company to it and it is like crack and I can not put it down. However it is not just MPQ that is my jam, the original Puzzle Quest: Challenge of the Warlords is still one of my favorite games of all time, it took turn based combat and combined it with a dungeons and dragons-esque setting and honestly I think it was my most played Xbox 360 game hands down. The subsequent sequel which changed a lot of things but at its core was still Puzzle Quest was also a fun time and I look back fondly on that game as well. The guys at Infinite Interactive (and much later Infinity Plus Two) really found the secret sauce to make one of my most addictive gameplay loops I have ever played and they are Australian too to top it off. Another one of their games is the game I am currently playing right now, Puzzle Quest Galactrix.

We have arrived at our point ;p

 Galactrix really is a different take on the genre Infinity Plus Two mastered with a hexagon game board and gravity affecting how the gems fall. Add a Sci-Fi setting similar to Star Trek and I was hooked as well when I first played it. I actually recall playing Galactrix non-stop after I bought a PC Rom of it way back in the day, I subsequently brought it for my Xbox360 and I own it on Steam as well. Weird because out of all the Puzzle Quest games I've played, Galactrix maybe my least favorite lol. Now if we talking about Infinity Plus Two games, it'll probably come before Puzzle Chronicles (a very unique take on the genre they made for Konami) and Gems of War, the spiritual successor of Puzzle Quest which I played a ton of when I first got my PS4 because a) it a puzzle game by my favorite puzzle game developers and b) it was free. However I quickly discovered Gems of War is FILLED with play to win tactics, FOMO characters and just did not have the 'charm' their older games had. Sadly I heard they doubled down with what made Gems of War a 'Freemium' game aka pay to win gatcha style games when they released Puzzle Quest 3 and well, I think the charm is completely gone now and I do not think I'll ever play it despite it being 'Free'. Sad because before their descent into mobile game/ FOMO/ gatcha/ freemium slop I would have placed them in my top 5 favorite game developers but now I can only say I enjoy their old works.

Anyhow this quick walk down memory lane is mainly a preface, a PITSTOP if you will before my next RANT/ RAVE and I feel its time to really put down how I feel about the black sheep of the Puzzle Quest franchise. In my next blog, it is time to talk about Galactrix and how it is the most fun game that I low-key can't stand.

AV

Victory: Grand Slam COMPLETED (Darkest Dungeon II)

 

Anyone who knows me knows I love me some Darkest Dungeon, both games have gotten pretty extensive coverage on my blog. The above achievement is one of the most elusive achievements for Darkest Dungeon II that I have ever attempted and I can proudly say, last night I did it.

I called in a lot of help but the main thing is I defeated all 5 of the major bosses (or as they are known in-game, the Confessional bosses) and the funniest part is it was not with the team I was attempting with it the most. That team was a Plague focused backline hitting team of Plague Doctor/ Occultist/ Flagellant/ Man-at-Arms squad but a lot of time this team would fall apart due to either Occultist notorious low health or us running into death a lot because of Flagellant. Some of these failures was talked about in my previous blog series featuring Darkest Dungeon II last year. It became so hard and made me feel so downtrodden that I stopped attempting the Grand Slam and I started playing other games. I rarely give up on something I dedicated this much time too (63 hrs since picking it back up 2 weeks ago) but at the same time, it felt impossible.

Fast forward to 2025, with the DD II 'Kingdoms' expansion and the 'Inhuman Bondage' DLC coming out I knew I wanted to get back into DDII eventually and got back into it I did, 'Kingdoms' itself was a very unique experience and finally completing that campaign even on the 'easiest' difficulty was some hard work but me and my heroes got it done (I think after I complete my second Kingdoms' run I'll write a full blog about that too). One of the biggest take-aways from Kingdoms is it is hard to keep running your favorite team because of the 'Fatigue' mechanic and basically Fatigue means if you keep using the same heroes they eventually lose up to 50% of their health if you push them too hard. Because of this I started experimenting with some new different team compositions that was not my team above. It was during this experimenting phase I finally found a team that did everything I needed and more. So with a little fanfare, let me introduce you to 'Holy Fyre' the Squad that helped me finally obtain the Grand Slam trophy.

Bringing up the rear is my trusty Vestal who I named Kassie.

Every squad needs a healer and whilst Vestal is not as strong in that department as she was in Darkest Dungeon, she is still gets the job done. Surprisingly what was previously my favorite path Seraph was not what I needed. I came to find the Confessor path was much better since her re-work. Sure, she could still heal when called upon but the 'Mantra' skill change meant I could finally get rid of de-buffs and her 'Illumination' could get rid of buffs on my enemies, especially annoying ones like Riposte and Dodge. Top that off with a hit anywhere skill like 'Judgement' that does good damage as well as stuns at higher levels of power helped me hit annoying rank 4 enemies pretty hard which is definitely a much needed skill in this game. Since her re-work, Vestal no longer feels like an after-thought like she did when the game first came out which is awesome because I feel she was unjustly nerfed too hard mainly because she was such a popular character (due to healing spam) in the original DD.

Holding it down for the third rank is my favorite character, the Occultist, whom I named Eli.

As stated above, the Occultist is my favorite character in Darkest Dungeon II and in running for my favorite character in the original as well (going toe to toe with Shieldbreaker) so you know I wanted him in a team that was going to obtain the Grand Slam. I didn't play around with his classes tho and went with Warlock like I usually go for and just did what I always did. Slam folks in the back rank with 'Abyssal Artillery', pulled folks closer and put a combo token on them for my front rank people to exploit with 'Daemon Pull' and of course, drop a bomb on them when possible with 'The Burning Stars'. Much like Vestal, Occultist being such a flexible support unit is what made him work in this team. However the MVP is surprisingly going to someone else. 

As mentioned, the MVP of 'Holy Fyre' is none other than Runaway, whom I named Jasper

Now I will not front. I did not know about Runaway's true potential until I was deep into Kingdoms. After a pretty steep learning curve when I tried her originally I did not like her. I did not like that despite being a 'fire' based character she was still vulnerable to fire like everyone else, her skills were counterproductive in the Sprawl aka where everyone is basically immune to fire damage and I did not like how she had to dance when she attacked. Then, I discovered 'Smokescreen' and everything changed. Smokescreen being a move you can use at any rank and it can hit ranks 1 to 3 on the enemy and inflict blind, vulnerable and combo? Blind being a key component in winning runs and avoiding damage since stuns were made into a 2 part process instead of instantly like in Darkest Dungeon? Smokescreen was also amazing because of how it works on so many enemies, even bosses. 'Ransack' was also a less effective version of 'Daemon's Pull' but it got the job done in getting enemies away from the back ranks and 'Cauterize' healing bleeding folks came in useful too. Finally her last key component was her role as the set up for my front line, with 'Smokescreen' as mentioned but her 'Firefly' cause combo and put burn on folks which my # 1 rank loved to exploit. Speaking of...

Finishing out the squad and my all rounder is my Crusader, whom I keep as his default name, Reynauld. I actually think his default name suits him so we ran with it.

I never knew until I did more research just how much Runaway and Crusader have so much synergy. Much like how Jester and Vestal formed Jestal in the original Darkest Dungeon, I feel Cruaway is a perfect pairing. I choose the Aggressor path which specializes in holy fire and low-key inspired the name for the squad. Of course, he is also our main stress healer and could pitch in with some healing when needed. In later runs when I realized he could be pushed into rank 3 by Runaway's dancing, I got to use my favorite skill of his 'Holy Lance' to get back to front and slam opponents as well but his main call to fame was 2 specific skills. 'Stunning Blow' took full advantage of the combo placed on enemies by Runaway and Occultist and put them to sleep and I found a lot of use for his 'Reap' skill which by-passed many enemies annoying death armor if they were on fire which Runaway supplied in spades and sometimes I was able to kill 2 enemies at once. Crusader was really the missing piece of this puzzle and because of how well he exploited the burn status that all 3 other members of the squad put on enemies they were truly a unstoppable team. Also I killed 2 birds with one stone (much like Reap does) and I got the Battle Hardened achievement too which requires you to apply 5 memories onto the Crusader and that was easy since we were doing the Grand Slam anyway.

There you have it, 'Holy Fyre' the team that helped me perform the impossible.

Grand Slam COMPLETED.

AV

P.S It goes without saying the narration of Darkest Dungeon I and II really helps enhance the experience and one of the reasons I love playing it with my sound turned up and not play background music like I normally do. The man who provided the narration, Wayne June is such a important part of the atmosphere of Darkest Dungeon series that it is sad to say we as a fanbase lost him on January 2025. I just wanted to acknowledge the sadness we all share and thank him for his contributions. It goes without saying, the DD games won't be the same without him. 

Rest In Peace Mr. June.

LIST: Top 5 Hardest Moves in VF 5: R.E.V.O

 

So I decided to make a LIST but with a video. Here are my Top 5 hardest moves in Virtua Fighter 5 R.E.V.O (in my opinion).

I am also making a slight (very slight) push into content creation again and this video is also available as a Youtube short AND a TikTok (yes I finally doing TikToks).

The intro music is done by yours truly.

AV

Rave: The Hex

     The Hex is a unique mind-trip which could have only been conjured up by the twisted mind of Daniel Mullin Games (DMG). The same folks who made the amazing (RAVE) Inscryption which I have recently confessed to my wife maybe in my top 10 favorite games of all time to the good but flawed Pony Island (which I gave an OKAY rating last February, time flies right). I always wanted to finish the Daniel Mullin's trilogy so when 2025 dawned I decided to go ahead and do it. The Hex is a great concept and almost got the highest praise from this blog but I had issues with it that moved it back to just Rave instead of RAVE.  Let me explain why. Preface as well, I will be referencing my previous reviews of DMG games a lot in this Rave so if you have not read them, do check them out as well.

OKAY: Pony Island

RAVE: Inscryption

    Before we dive in, lets chat about spoilers. This review will talk about every aspect of the game and that means I will give away a lot. I highly recommend that if you have a real interest in playing it to play it yourself first, as 'blind' as possible and then come back to this review. Unlike my Inscryption review, which I felt is still a relatively new game, I did not wanted to give away too much of it mystic but The Hex has been out for at least 7 years now so if you are looking for an review of The Hex in the year of our lord 2025, you know what you are getting yourself into.

    At its core, The Hex is a murder mystery, a narrative driven experience with fourth wall breaks galore, a trademark of DMG. Like Pony Island before it, The Hex has a very simplistic look and a very simple interface but underneath the surface however lies a lot of depth and a story which once it pulls you in will compel you to keep going to the end like a spell.

    The Hex leverages the fact that you are a gamer, our six main characters are all pulled from some type of genre you have played or have seen before, be it a fighting game, a turned based RPG, First Person Shooter or even an immersive sim. The Hex actually does something I really enjoyed with Inscryption and that is the rug pull, the 'when you are comfortable playing it this way,' we are going to switch it up on you but The Hex even does it better than Inscryption because this rug pull happens a lot and each time is logical why it is done.

    One minute you are fighting a dragon and managing your mana and your squad, using items to boost your stats and the next minute, you have now listening the musings of a man who may have sold his soul so he could get the bag. Overall, the experience is unlike any other and it goes even deeper than that. I mentioned in my previous Pony Island review that even tho I did not really like the gameplay, I still stuck around for the story. The story and stories (emphasis on stories) behind the scenes is part of the appeal of Daniel Mullins Games so by the end we find out who our murderer is but we are allowed to go deeper and that is when things get really crazy and I felt the deeper I got into it, the more I enjoyed it. Unlike Pony Island, which I completed and dived back in for some quick achievements but then promptly moved on from, I am still entranced by The Hex. It has worked its magic on me so I am doing lore dives, I am doing multiple quick runs (again thanks to the wonders of Chapter Select, such a great tool you get once you beat the game) to unlock more achievements and find out more secrets. Like Inscryption, I am invested in this world and it is a trip. Also kudos to DMG for planting seeds in The Hex that would come to fruition in Inscryption and also building on the over-reaching meta story he established in Pony Island (long and short, Satan loves game development, make of that what you will).

    However despite all this praise, I still feel I need to give The Hex the second highest recommendation on this blog which is Rave (not all caps). I enjoyed my time with it no doubt but some of game design could get a bit too obtuse and the puzzle solving aspects to get to the 'game within a game' parts felt a bit drawn out for me. Also, DMG decided to bring back my least favorite element of all his games. The faux-programmer scenes.

    

Hello Darkness my Old Friend.

    

    Again referencing my Pony Island review, the faux-programming scenes are my least favorite aspects of the game and in all honesty, the aspect of having to do them again really puts me off wanting to play it again for the achievements. There is a similar type of puzzles in Inscryption and they are also my least favorite part of that game as well. It is funny that this time time around, DMG actually acknowledged how it is not for everyone and how the main reason why it exists is to give people a preview into what it is like to 'code' for games but sadly the fact that it comes near the tail end of the game when I was really enjoying, as artificial road blocks, it really brought my mood down. Now unlike Pony Island's 'puzzles' The Hex makes them much more manageable and I only really got 'stuck' on one or two of them and was able to solve them without a guide but overall it was no way near as rage educing as Pony Island's ones.

    

    I also thought the soundtrack was only passable especially compared to Inscryption perfect mood music however I will say the OST used during the FPS scenes are bangers and I enjoyed that a lot. Overall, this aspects mentioned in the last couple paragraphs brought The Hex down a couple notches in my book and makes it still a very enjoyable game with a amazing story but honestly like Pony Island, it truly feels like both it and this game were just the stepping stones DMG needed to really cut their teeth on before making a truly amazing experience. It is with this in mind, I feel DMG next big game 'Pony Island 2: Panda Circus' will be even better and take me back to the highs Inscryption did for me.

Game 'Crashes'. Fourth Wall breaks? Yep We are so Back.

    I will not lie. I had no idea until I went back to re-read my Pony Island OKAY review to realize it had been almost a full year since I played it. I bought both Pony Island and The Hex as a double pack after falling completely in love with Inscryption and I was looking forward to playing both of them. However the Pony Island experience was just not for me and it actually made me not look forward to playing The Hex because I thought it would be more of the same. Thankfully, I decided to finally move past it (only took a year lol) and I am happy I did. Whilst it is not as mind altering as Inscryption was it does tell me I do enjoy Daniel Mullins Games and that I enjoy the ideas he brings. Especially with gaming rapidly getting more vapid and artificial. Triple A games are becoming so boring to me and the makers of these game are always looking into whatever ways they can nickel and dime us and turn our hobby/ passion into monetary gains *cough Ubisoft cough* so it makes me happy we have Indie game makers like DMG making games for gamers.

    Performance-wise I played this entirely on my Steam Deck with M&K and I had zero problems setting it up and no crashes (unless I made it crash lol). This is no surprise because it is now 7 yrs old and it is already not a super taxing game graphics wise but still a win is a win. It also is actually very cheap even when it is not on sale and it is constantly on sale too.

    

    The Hex is surprisingly not talked about much outside of the DMG community. A lot of people know about Inscryption now (especially since Playstation has it for free on their PS Plus catalogue, play Inscryption if you have not btw) and it surprisingly getting a lot of attention from the streamer community. Folks know about Pony Island and that it is a mind breaking trip to the point where it is actually getting a sequel but The Hex looks like it is lost in the shuffle and I really feel it deserves more love hence this Rave. This is a type of game that sticks with you, that makes you want to explore every nook and cranny inside and outside of the game to extract as many secrets from it as you can. More than anything, it is a compelling illusion of simple game design hiding complex depth and well deserving of this Rave.

AV

Looking Back and Looking Forward

     As we welcome 2025, I looked back on the year that was.

    This blog definitely feel by the wayside as my focus shifted first to family then to just taking a break for myself. I did keep the UPDATES on my side panel and I will do that at least once a week. A part of me wants to use it as my own personal twitter as I think I will focus even less on that platform in the new year. I was doing good for a couple months especially with not posting but eventually I started posting again and as a whole I know why I did it but just using twitter is just eww.

    A big part of last year was finding a job I can actually perform in and feel rewarded doing so. I can not talk to much about it as I do like to keep somethings personal but the main thing is I now work with a non-profit that's main goal is mentoring and educating the youth. I brought in a couple of the things I enjoyed to them and the reception for it was pretty good. The main thing is because of the nature of this job I do have a bit more free-time and I've been using it wisely. I hope to do even bigger things with it in the new year and continue to make a good impression. Combined this with all my church duties which I take very seriously, work wise I am looking good.

The Surge 2 is a easy 9 out of 10 for me

     

    Gaming is still my primary focus and I've enjoyed being freed of the restraint of constantly playing and training in fighting games to the point where I can not enjoy my other game genres. Last year was a hall-mark year for new fighting games and I can honestly say non of the current crop of popular fighting games be in Mortal Kombat One, Tekken 8 or Street Fighter 6. The only fighters I have a remote interest in is Under Night In-Birth 2 and to a lesser extent KOF XV. What I do enjoy is my new goal of becoming a low-key 'achievement hunter'/ back log killer. Last year I platinumed/ got all the achievements for Dark Souls Remastered, The Surge, The Surge 2 and Dredge (at least before the final DLC came out and ruined everything lol). Nearly every game I play these days I aim to get most if not all of the achievements and its become a driving force in my gaming now. This new year will be more of the same as I hope to continue to trim down my backlog of  un-played games and it does not help that I am constantly adding to the list due Epic Game Store's yearly give-away marathon (allowing me to pick up Sifu, Vampire Survivors, Control and more for free). I know I will fall back down the pit of Darkest Dungeon II when its DLC drops, I eventually want to complete my playthrough of all recent Deck13 games (with the original Lords of the Fallen being the final one) and hope to actually play Elden Ring's Shadow of the Erdtree this year as well, at least before Nightreign comes out which I know I'll give a try as well.

This book is a TRIP

    Another big part of last year was finding my love for reading again. Now I never stopped reading, I read graphic novels religiously but last year around my birthday I started reading novels again and since then I have completed a re-read of one of my favorite novels of all time 'Galilee', a re-read of Volume one of Hickman's Fantastic Four omnibus, the trippy 'House of Leaves' by Mark Z Danielewski and the Bible. I am current reading books I own that I never got around to reading like 'Forms of Heaven: Three Plays' by Clive Barker (writer of 'Galilee') and 'Mox', the Jon Moxley autobiography I got for Christmas one year. I hope to keep up this pace and continue to read as much as I game.

RANTS, RAVES and OKAYS should be back this year too. I might even revisit some of the games and media I recently played/ enjoyed and give them their flowers. All in all, it is a new year but I am still me, just a guy who likes to go on and on about the things I like. This year I might actually put pen to paper (or at least fingers to keyboard and blog) again.

AV

PIT STOP: Hiatus & Future Plans.

     Hey y'all.

    Just letting everyone know we will not have a Dungeon Diving/ Week of Darkest Dungeon II for this week and next week.

    I am currently focusing all my energy on my family for this week with us suffering a personal loss recently. After we process this I will be taking a much needed vacation with my wife and family and we won't be doing any updates during that time either.

    When we come back, we will do Week of Darkest Dungeon II but take into account the 2 missing weeks so instead of Week 4 it will be Week 6 since I might still be playing it when I can.

    Also by the time I get back I should have Elden Ring Shadow of the Erdtree and hopefully the game will run much more smoother on my console of choice, the Steam Deck. I am patient tho because I have other things on my plate.

Thumbnail from when I used to stream.

Until then.

AV

Week 3 of Darkest Dungeon II: Deja Coup

     Welcome to Week 3 of Dungeon Diving; our ongoing exploration of Darkest Dungeon II. This blog is written chronologically and basic summarizes my thoughts and experiences as I play Darkest Dungeon II. Now I know this is going up on Thursday but I have come to realize my Wednesday are actually pretty busy mainly due to Bible Study which I attend every Wednesday. However Bible Study is taking a break as of this Wednesday so I might have more time now however that might be up in the air as well. More about that in the WHAT'S NEW section at the end. On that note, let's Dive.

Wednesday

- Started off a new week with a pretty good runs however they both feel apart near the end against Leviathan and then hitting a Oblivion Ingress into the Collector.

- Collector is such a rough fight without an back-end damage dealers (Future Phil: This will become a re-occurring theme of this week)

- Re-reading my previous blog I realized that I had Occultist as my Number 4 position and that makes so much more sense.

- Daemon Pull is so in-disposable.

- Since the deck is always stacked against you I have taken to quitting and restarting when I use Inn items that are supposed to get rid of quirks and they do not do it. Like 67% and I can't get rid of Anemic. C'mon game.

- At first I was annoyed they re-purposed the Cannon boss from Darkest Dungeon as a random encounter boss. However I realize it thankfully is nowhere near as tough as it was in DD and most of the time you get a cool item when you beat it that strengthens your stage wagon.

- Whilst he is a cool character, Leper really sucks if he gets moved out of position 1 or 2. He already has the built in weakness of being blind 80% of the time and he has no way to big damage to the back-end. If he could at least move forward 2 spaces (something he was able to do in DD) it would be so much better if he is pushed out of position 1 or 2.

Thursday

- I think it might be time to make a change, team Power Creep (the MVP team of my last blog) just is struggling a lot. Either that or I might change the time positions.

- New team has a built in name, Deja Coup (hence the name of this blog). Also it is nice to bring back the ol' Jestal team aka Jester/ Vestal. Deja Coup is made up of Vestal/Jester/Duelist/Man-at-Arms

- This team is built to deal with stress it appears, they did not struggle at all with it and I think it is mainly due to Jester.

- Team was doing good until we made the mistake of taking on the Shambler and MaA died. 3 on 4 for area's final node was too hard. Pretty much made a rule if I lose a character I will just abandon the run.

- Beginning to notice a annoying trend, the final area always have tons of road hazards and most of the time I find myself getting ambushed at the worst time.

- Resentment boss seems much more do-able now. Lost Jester but we able to beat it.

- I must admit when Deja Coup work, they work well. It really is a testament that all characters work so well together, well with the exception of Leper.

- Denial is much more beat-able with any team as long as we stock some debuffing items for the back-end. Also note to stock a lot of holy water to get rid of all the debuffs it puts on me.

- The Profane Scroll wants you to run a front row Vestal... haha... no.

Friday

- Understand speed and being able to move before the enemy is super important especially when it comes to using items.

- Getting ambushed by the Antiquarian and being able to smack her around the globe was a good feeling. Like call an ambulance but not for me!

We used to be friends... a long time ago.

- Realizing Duelist potential is really nice especially her dying so much on me in the early days using her.

- After a nearly flawless run Deja Coup falls apart against Resentment due to... you guess, lack of back-row damage. I must have got lucky in a previous run because it felt inflating it's front 'lung' which was much easier to hit but  this time it was mainly the harder to reach back one.

- Really need to think out my routes better, sure pleasing the squad is good and all but running a Stress Relieving team means I can get rid of small ticks of stress much easier. Saying this because following their 'requests' keeps leading me down hazard roads and Cannon ambushes yay *sarcasm*.

- Starting to notice a weird trend, everything I try a new team they do well for a couple runs but subsequent runs things fall apart a lot faster. Weird that.

- Vestal is a key component of Deja Coup, not only is she the healer of the team she is also our main consistent back-row damage dealer. A lot of folks say she was nerfed and she is no longer brain damage hit heal every turn character now she is much more nuance and about setting up consecrations.

- Going back to a previous post, I am required to kill the boss of this area and characters are telling me to go a separate patch. Trolling I tell you.

- After a good run with so many close calls we lose Duelist simply because we forgot to equip MaA with his 'Bellow' ability to hit the back row of the Sleeping General lair boss. SMH.

- I must say, previous DD was fixated on killing you with Stress and Heart Attacks, DD II is more everyone does a million Damage Over Time (DOT) effects every attack. Going to try running a Resistant (RES) stage wagon build to counter it.

- I feel the run after losing to DOT is a apology run aka a run where the game just throw good items at you. I already have 4 pieces of Road Gear for my anti-DOT station wagon.

- Realizing that Combat Items are basically free attacks and not just healing is changing my game approach a lot.

- Apology run is going well. Time to stock up on my own DOT items for the final boss.

- Wow. Despite having a amazing run up till the boss, we barely win with only MaA surviving. Going to change his name to MVP.

- I did not re-equip Duelist's Coup De Grace for her back-row damage so it was on me.

Saturday

-  Also worthwhile  noting that my anti-DOT team still had good/ great relationships at the end.

- I do enjoy a good Daemon Pull as mentioned above. Clearing bodies whilst getting the enemy in front of the front line damage dealers with Combo status? Chef Kiss.

- After a particularly bad run that ended with a Warlock ambush I think I am done for today. Going to play some anime fighters instead.

Sunday

- I am a private person so I will not go too much into it but today was a really sad day for me. Definitely a break night.

Monday

- The Grand Slam achievement requires you to beat all the confessional bosses without losing anyone. It really is one of the hardest things to pull off for sure.

- Nothing beats turning around tons of negative affinities to positives one.

- Still trying to get the Grand Slam, I have been quitting as soon as I lost a character. I really do not like replacing characters at the Inn because they always come in with no affinities and seem to have bad traits off the bat.

- Was hesitating pulling the trigger on completing the Altar of Hope but now I see you can use excess candles to either try to either pull good items before a run (rarely happens) or re-roll quirks. Pretty good because some quirks are game breaking aka Head Injury (50% chance of being Dazed) or the Yips (15% of being Blinded).

- New squad is 'Pulling Flames' with Occ/Due/Run/Lep with Duelist using the Instructice class. Trying something different with her.

Tuesday

- Had the most insane run, arrived at Act 1 boss and instantly got hammered by DOT and more and everyone was on Death's Door by Round 3. However we also inflicted tons of DOT on the boss and somehow we still won and not just won, everyone survived! A insane moment which I wished I recorded.

- After this epic win, I proceed into the game without equipping my winning team with memories. Realizing I missed up I quit before reaching the Inn and I lost everyone. After this hard earned win I messed up big time. I am such a dummy.

- 'Monarch' class Leper is supposed to do big damage against Cosmic foes and they appear a lot in the game so I thought this was a great idea, however his regular damage blows and he still has all Leper's normal flaws. Unless they buff this class in the next update, I do not think I will ever use it again.

- Pulling Flames is losing points for me. Struggle bus and all the seats are filled. Giving it one more try before moving on.

- Yeah this team lacks a lot. Occultist tries to heal Leper and instead bleeds him and he dies. I need a more consistent healer? Maybe Plague Doctor? Besides I do not need Daemon Pull if Plague Doctor can clear bodies and Runaway can put Combo tokens for Leper.

- Yep. P.D was the missing link. Being able to heal multiple DOTs is invaluable as well.

- Stress seems to be this teams biggest weakness. Anti-stress stage wagon?

- Team was doing great until we reached the boss. DOTs do not harm the back lungs so the Seething Sigh boss just keeps wiping us out. I need to re-think my teams to include someone like Highway Man, Crusader or Grave Robber who can actually hit the back row.

WHAT'S NEXT

    Another week, another blog. However as I mentioned in my Sunday entry, my family has had a pretty bad tragedy and I might be taking some time off from writing this blog. I might come back next week but do not be surprised if we do not have a blog next week because I will be pretty busy with family obligations. 

    I am still playing Darkest Dungeon II tho so I will eventually return to this. Till next time.

AV