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Bound by Flame |OT| Free the fire

Tohsaka

Member
I'm at the last boss on Buffalo difficulty, and see no way to kill it. I'm almost entirely invested in the Warrior tree at level 24, and have probably 30 crossbow bolts and 10 healing potions or so. I have a poison customization on the crossbow but barely do any damage to the boss during he brief time it's not charging me or spamming those white fireballs. If I try to melee it, I get destroyed with the lightning-quick dagger attack and my axe is too slow to be of much use. I can't even imagine playing this on Captain.
 
Wow this game is rough as shit. Playing on 360 and it looks worse then Oblivion in some places. Combat seems pretty awful, and slow, and janky, yadda yadda. Not sure if I can bear to keep playing this but I might try again tomorrow.

Yeah, I started playing it yesterday and my only thought so far is "shame on anyone who recommended this thing." Hideously ugly, horribly clunky, and featuring the worst dialogue and voice acting I've encountered in a very long time. Not to mention the absurd difficulty that means repeating most parts several times.
 
Would it be worth setting Dark Souls II aside for a moment to pick this game up?
Judging by others reactions, I'd have to guess no, but I'd love to hear someone try to defend it a bit more.
 

Ashodin

Member
I'm at the last boss on Buffalo difficulty, and see no way to kill it. I'm almost entirely invested in the Warrior tree at level 24, and have probably 30 crossbow bolts and 10 healing potions or so. I have a poison customization on the crossbow but barely do any damage to the boss during he brief time it's not charging me or spamming those white fireballs. If I try to melee it, I get destroyed with the lightning-quick dagger attack and my axe is too slow to be of much use. I can't even imagine playing this on Captain.

I'd love to see if I can beast mode that boss. Gotta play more!
 
Yeah, I started playing it yesterday and my only thought so far is "shame on anyone who recommended this thing." Hideously ugly, horribly clunky, and featuring the worst dialogue and voice acting I've encountered in a very long time. Not to mention the absurd difficulty that means repeating most parts several times.
To each his own. I'm not "ashamed" that I recommended it to fans of the genre, and I fully acknowledge all the faults of the game. That said, I've played plenty of "good" bad games, just like I've seen plenty of "good" bad movies; it has it's moments. It's not a must buy by any stretch of imagination, but it's a fun diversion.
 

Corpekata

Banned
Last boss is pretty bullshit on all difficulties really.

The ending to this was kinda weird for me. Like some things didn't get flagged. During the final parts where you have party members one was just mysteriously gone. And the epilogue flat out didn't mention one of the others.
 

Owzers

Member
i'm about 1.5 hours in and i don't think i like it. There's a low budge quirkiness that i like but the combat feels very weightless and that makes it too hard for me since i never seem to be doing enough damage
 

Ashodin

Member
i'm about 1.5 hours in and i don't think i like it. There's a low budge quirkiness that i like but the combat feels very weightless and that makes it too hard for me since i never seem to be doing enough damage

At the beginning you don't, but once you level up more and more points into skills (as well as spec your weapons to do more damage) you can slice down enemies pretty easily.
 
I finished the swamp area and I'm enjoying this game more than I thought I would. I love the armor upgrading. Especially how every upgrade shows up on your character.
 

Jolkien

Member
I just finished the game (as stated above) on captain difficulty. I played Warrior the whole way and at the end dabbled in Pyromancer. The game take quite a dive in many department on the third act. Lots of repeat and tedious battle. The story didn't flow well throughout the whole game. My biggest problem I think with the game is just how much HP every enemy has (there's only a very few monster I could kill in like 5 swing) In the third act I didn't count but one monster type probably took me like 60 swing while the creature dishes out insane amount of damage if you don't perfect parry. But I don't know if it's just on Captain and lower difficulty don't have this problem.

The gear customization was a very nice idea, provide considerable boost and I love how you see the upgrades on your weapon and armor. The talents and feats were quite substantial as well you could actually look forward to levelling. Some side quest reward were extremely good, one in particular gives you permanently 20% more HP. The story premise was also quite nice but it was too ''epic'' for the game budget or cook time. (Even some dialog says a character name but the subtitle use another like Volcan instand of Vulcan (the protagonist) and Black Shadow instead of Black Frost.

Ending spoiler:
I found the ending to be perfect for the type of game though with Malthras telling us the player a story since he's immortal and all, it wrapped everything up with a nice bow and you know what happenned to some part of the world and your companions.

I finished at lvl 26, did all the sidequest I found and completed the game in 24 hours (played). In my opinion it wasn't worth 50$ (on PS4) but at 30$ I'd probably be ok with it overall I did enjoy my play through even with all it's fault.
 

RedAssedApe

Banned
Yeah, I started playing it yesterday and my only thought so far is "shame on anyone who recommended this thing." Hideously ugly, horribly clunky, and featuring the worst dialogue and voice acting I've encountered in a very long time. Not to mention the absurd difficulty that means repeating most parts several times.

shame on anyone?

everyone i've seen who has posted in depth impressions about this game has pointed out its shortcomings. sounds like you might have just glossed over the details and just read "i liked it" and based that on your decision. i don't blame you though...thirst is real for ps4 rpgs
 
I am currently playing on champion and keep getting the Last boss to about 3/4 of HP. It is really hard, and frustrating. I couldn't imagine having to use a warrior.
 
traded in some stuff at gamestop and got this for $10 cash, pretty decent but I've only finished the tutorial level so far, does this game open up any like level wise or is it like the tutorial level the entire game?
 
traded in some stuff at gamestop and got this for $10 cash, pretty decent but I've only finished the tutorial level so far, does this game open up any like level wise or is it like the tutorial level the entire game?
It never becomes an open world game, but the levels do get a lot bigger with more opportunities to explore.
 

Ashodin

Member
traded in some stuff at gamestop and got this for $10 cash, pretty decent but I've only finished the tutorial level so far, does this game open up any like level wise or is it like the tutorial level the entire game?

The village area you'll get to has a lot of winding ways and areas to explore. It's not exactly point A to point B.
 

Honome

Member
Damn, the final boss makes me wish to brake the disc in half!!!! Too bad i boight it digital...

Seriously, i already rage quit in the final boss a lot! :(
 

Jolkien

Member
Damn, the final boss makes me wish to brake the disc in half!!!! Too bad i boight it digital...

Seriously, i already rage quit in the final boss a lot! :(

The strategy below is how I did it on Captain difficulty,
took me two attempts. (Warrior specced) Bring your fire resistance as high as possible. Go with the highest damage crossbow.

Make sure to craft a boatload of crossbow bolts, trap and potions. I went in with 180 bolt, like 60 of each potions and about 60 traps. I used about 21 Health potions and like 10 mana potion and about 15 trap and 80 bolts.

Keep shooting the Demon with your crossbow while dodging all of his spell, when you have a second place as much trap as you can and keep returning to your 'trap camp'. When his dagger glow he's about to charge you, prepare to make a perfect counter and all those trap will get him off you. Rinse and repeat. When the dragon arrive cast Guardian flame, do to town on his pawn (back off when there's fire if you wanna use less potions). Melee/Crossbow the face. Use Guardian Flame when you have a spare cycle to mitigate a ton of damage

If you missing mats, craft them and if you need gold to keep crafting sell all your Tainted Gemstone since they're worth 1,000 gold each.
 

Zukuu

Banned
Is it me or axes the best weapons? High crit, just as much damage as swords, but better interrupt and decent enough speed.
 
I finished the game last weekend and became less and less amused with it as time went by. The final boss was one hell of a difficulty spike, I nearly gave up out of frustration but somehow I squeaked by after dying countless times. My biggest problem with the game though is the environments were so 'blah.' When I think RPG, I want forests, fields, rivers, mountains etc. Half the levels in this game are these drab cities and castles, not only do they not look great but they were just boring.
 

mark1982

Member
Finished Bound by Flame a few days ago as well, was pleasantly surprised and it had its shining moments. Some of the enemy designs and monstrosities were pretty damn interesting. Game was fun, decent amount of lore but could definitely use some fixing up. I'm just glad these non-huge budget titles are still released on the PS4.

Maybe Focus Home Interactive's other title Styx: Master of Shadows will get a PS4 release as well, I hope so.

Yeah, and that boss, THAT FINAL boss... I finished Dark Souls 2 again before this game and that boss in Bound by Flame, lol. Truly an unfair and broken fight but soo satisfying after beating.
 

squall23

Member
Ending spoiler:
I found the ending to be perfect for the type of game though with Malthras telling us the player a story since he's immortal and all, it wrapped everything up with a nice bow and you know what happenned to some part of the world and your companions.
Umm, doesn't this game have multiple endings?
 

imperium

Member
The game had been a 7 up until the lackluster act 3 and the horrible final boss which knocked the score down to a 6. It had its moments but if I had to do it again, id put the game on the backburner and maybe pick it up at a discount during a lull.
 

Evolved1

make sure the pudding isn't too soggy but that just ruins everything
Going back and forth on whether or not to buy this...
 

Zukuu

Banned
I just uninstalled the game out of rage. Seriously, fuck this game. Beginning of act 3 on Buffalo and the difficulty spike is beyond sanity. It's not really more "diffcult" it's just that I don't have the fucking time to hit 80(!) times on every other minion because the devs are so lazy to just throw EVERY FUCKING BOSS as normal mob in groups in your face. Dual-shield guy takes like 100 hits or something. I maxed two hand (every point) and flame weapon with a fully upgraded 25 dmg weapon. The fact that ALL those fucking mini bosses use non-blockable attacks that also FREEZE you is just bull shit when you have no dodge. Sure I can time the block right sometimes, sure I often get away, but not always when you fight 3 mobs. It just takes AGES to clear ANY group. I had fun up to this point, but this is just lazy dev work, which I don't feel like playing through. Game is just unpolished like mad. Can't recommend beyond a 5 bucks price point.
 

RedAssedApe

Banned
I just uninstalled the game out of rage. Seriously, fuck this game. Beginning of act 3 on Buffalo and the difficulty spike is beyond sanity. It's not really more "diffcult" it's just that I don't have the fucking time to hit 80(!) times on every other minion because the devs are so lazy to just throw EVERY FUCKING BOSS as normal mob in groups in your face. Dual-shield guy takes like 100 hits or something. I maxed two hand (every point) and flame weapon with a fully upgraded 25 dmg weapon. The fact that ALL those fucking mini bosses use non-blockable attacks that also FREEZE you is just bull shit when you have no dodge. Sure I can time the block right sometimes, sure I often get away, but not always when you fight 3 mobs. It just takes AGES to clear ANY group. I had fun up to this point, but this is just lazy dev work, which I don't feel like playing through. Game is just unpolished like mad. Can't recommend beyond a 5 bucks price point.

can't you just lower the difficulty level at any time...no reason to rage. or is it a pride thing? :)
 

imperium

Member
Is this digital only? The 3 or 4 best buys by me look at me like I have 3 heads when I ask for it at the register?

No, its retail also. Its available on Best Buys site but it doesn't show as in stock at any of my local stores. Probably not stocked by the majority of stores.
 

Hik0boshi

Member
I have a question...
Ending Spoiler:
In the ending where you choose to sacrifice yourself, and if you rolled with Edwen instead of Rhelmar, what happens to her? Did she die like the rest of the Ice Lords? In the end, when Mathras is telling the rest of the story, he doesn't say anything about her...

Edited to clarify the question.
 

Zukuu

Banned
can't you just lower the difficulty level at any time...no reason to rage. or is it a pride thing? :)
I have played like 3 games in the past 20 years or so NOT on hard or above, given a choice. And those were all from Naughty Dog (U1, U2, LoU), since I can't stand the gameplay and just want to experience the story and/or puzzles. I dunno if it is pride, I just consider it lazy dev work no matter the difficulty, when you re-use former BOSSes as normal enemies that take forever to kill (I bet even on normal). It's just a terrible unpolished game. Needlessly to say, the story wasn't so interesting that I could endure it, and I have endured a shit load of other games.
 
I finally started playing this game - I pre-ordered it on release.

I'm not sure I'll play it through. It has some neat ideas, but execution falls down in places and the cut scenes and character animations are laughably bad. Combat is thus far somewhat enjoyable.
 

Matriox

Member
Just finished, man I really enjoyed this game more than most apparently. Sure it has its issues, but thoroughly enjoyed it. Played on hawk difficulty, so it wasn't too bad. Only died once on the last boss (full daggers spec). I'd recommend it personally, but I only paid $35 for it which seems about right.
 

GoaThief

Member
I just uninstalled the game out of rage. Seriously, fuck this game. Beginning of act 3 on Buffalo and the difficulty spike is beyond sanity. It's not really more "diffcult" it's just that I don't have the fucking time to hit 80(!) times on every other minion because the devs are so lazy to just throw EVERY FUCKING BOSS as normal mob in groups in your face. Dual-shield guy takes like 100 hits or something. I maxed two hand (every point) and flame weapon with a fully upgraded 25 dmg weapon. The fact that ALL those fucking mini bosses use non-blockable attacks that also FREEZE you is just bull shit when you have no dodge. Sure I can time the block right sometimes, sure I often get away, but not always when you fight 3 mobs. It just takes AGES to clear ANY group. I had fun up to this point, but this is just lazy dev work, which I don't feel like playing through. Game is just unpolished like mad. Can't recommend beyond a 5 bucks price point.
This one made me giggle a bit. The five bucks part was icing on the cake.

I think the problem in this instance lies with you rather than the game itself. Personally, and I've seen this echoed elsewhere, by the late game it becomes somewhat easier than say the swamps due to your build nearing completion. There's several different strategies, my personal one was to go for high interrupt with daggers to lock an enemy in so they're unable to do anything for a while whilst using mobile hit and run tactics.

If you've messed up just lower the difficulty instead of getting angry. Be prepared for the final boss however.
 
I enjoyed the game enough to get the platinum, which requires at least 2 playthroughs and some save game trickery.

It was pretty obviously a budget title, but the combat and difficulty are, IMO, the least egregious offenders. I really like the combat system. All 3 specs felt unique and had pretty good balance, although Warrior was probably the weakest. I'm not sure what you guys were doing, but I was tearing shit apart in Act 3 Captain. It didn't feel like the mobs had more HP, they just hit for like 1/2 - 2/3rds of my health per hit. If anything, the Act 1 mobs were actually more difficult because you are so much weaker that early in the game.

Now, the final boss on the other hand. My god. If you don't have a decent crossbow with a crapload of arrows, some traps, and an abundant supply of health potions, you're gonna have a bad time, regardless of your build. And it's doubly frustrating because, up until this fight, the crossbow has been more-or-less useless outside the first time you are told to use it during the tutorial level and for those annoying plants in Act 1. Beating him on Captain difficulty was so satisfying though.

If you are having trouble with the game's difficulty or combat, I definitely suggest going daggers. Dodging is way easier than parry/blocking to avoid damage, especially in Act 3 with all the AoEs. And the daggers attack so fast that you deal way more damage than the 2-hander in the same attack window. Plus, full specced, you deal massive DoT when you are dodging their counter attacks.

It's definitely a Euro-jank action RPG, but it's one of the more enjoyable ones.
 

Philippo

Member
Been playing it since a couple of weeks, it's totally a 6 (a 7 if you up the difficulty) and if you take it for what it is (a B-tier low-budget Euro-RPG) it can be enjoyable even.

But i'm stucked at the final boss. I mean WHAT THE FUCK IS THIS OVERPOWERED SHIT? He can almost one-shot me! And on top of it summons a mudafuckin' dragon in the middle of the fight? Ridiculous. Any suggestions on how to defeat it?
Also, pretty disappointed in missing some demon-sex with Sybil, i had to read a walkthrough but i already defeated the concubine.
 

Ricker

Member
I'm at the last boss on Buffalo difficulty, and see no way to kill it. I'm almost entirely invested in the Warrior tree at level 24, and have probably 30 crossbow bolts and 10 healing potions or so. I have a poison customization on the crossbow but barely do any damage to the boss during he brief time it's not charging me or spamming those white fireballs. If I try to melee it, I get destroyed with the lightning-quick dagger attack and my axe is too slow to be of much use. I can't even imagine playing this on Captain.

I am on normal with no potions left ,and not sure you saw what happens further down the line when you manage to bring his life down a bit,I said wow,seriously lol...this last Boss is the most frustrating encounter ever,awful difficulty,just bad...too bad because I enjoyed this game...thanks Spiders...for nothing lol...I heard the ending is like 3 seconds also...oh well,thank god I only payed 20,what it should of been in the first place.

I have just reached the final boss, and I have no health potions, no ways of crafting any and no earlier save to go back to. Am I screwed?

Like you never been before lol...

EDIT: I just watched the fight and the ending on YouTube and it was an ok ending,compared to what I said before...voice acting was suspect a lot of times in this game but the guy who voices Mathras is pretty damn good.
 

Morrigan Stark

Arrogant Smirk
So I got this for Xmas and finally started it. Decent so far, flawed of course but I'm not sure why it's getting such godawful reviews. My biggest complain so far is the camera, I often died because I had branches or vegetation obscuring my view during combat. -_-

I have a question: any way to respec your skills and/or perks?

Also, I'm playing the PS4 version, and three times the game froze on me while I was saving or loading (twice when saving, once when loading). Only during the manual saves, but I always keep a few of those just in case something glitches and I get screwed over. Still, now I'm tempted to just rely on the auto-save because it's really annoying when a game's most basic function can't even work reliably. Has this happened to anyone else?
 
Got this game for PS4 cheap from Amazon seller. I will say that I was a bit worried because of the reviews, but I love these type of action RPG games and Witcher is still far off, so here are my quick impressions:

First impressions were not very good, you start so weak that every single enemy is such a sponge, they take so much damage and at first your attacks don't even seem to bother then at all, I was having trouble just dealing with more than one deadwalker at a time, and if three or four were together then I would surely die almost immediately.

You also begin with so few health and mana potions that you don't want to waste them but if you are taking damage you can't drink them, making it likely that you'll die if you left your health fall to low before trying to run away to take a potion.

Because of these reason the First boss of the game has so far been the most changeling boss I've fought so far, and the one that manage to kill me the most times (3 times before I found out how to beat him)

the game however does pick up better pace as you level up, I feel like your character levels up fairly quickly in this one, I was also getting used to the fighting systems although I don't like that you can't dodge for shit when using the sword, I mean is the same character it makes no sense that she would lose the ability to jump backwards just because she isn't using daggers, but whatever.

I'm also at the point were I've unlocked the abilities to make stronger potions with fewer ingredients, my firespell last longer and my sword swings do more damage and can actually interrupt the opponents, in other words I finally feel like I am badass, it has been an incredible sense of progression, when I can see a group of 5 normal enemies and not have to worry about them anymore, since am actually powerful enough to wreck their shit.

I get the feeling that maybe it was this feeling the developers were aiming for, after all, it goes well with the story mechanically that you were before a low lever mercenary just somewhat stronger than a foot soldier in the deadwaker army, but I can't help but feel that that begging may have turned off a lot of people from this game. Yet a few hours in and I start having this great feeling, the feeling that I'm often looking for when playing game, I am having fun, really lots of fun, I want to keep playing and seeing the rest of this story

I'm still just a few hours in just after the first village, the last thing my character did was
fight against my captain for control of the company
which is something she did automatically by herself, which is another thing that I wanted to mention, often in these kind of RPGs the player character is a blank state that you shape you each decision you make, but in this game Vulcan is his/her own character and will respond and do thing on his/her own that will affect the story, maybe this done because of the limitations in scope of a lower budget game, but I actually welcome it, I'll pretend I'm controlling the Demon possessing her and casting an influence on her.

As for the companions, don't know what to make of them yet, going by the back of the box it seems I already have all of them [are there more than 5?] , feel a little early for that, but I have no idea how long or big this game is.

By the way how many Ice Lords are there? I feel like I'm about to fight the first one, but I have no idea who they are of how many, I may have mixed that info somewhere
 

Morrigan Stark

Arrogant Smirk
About your question:
you only ever fight one Ice Lord
. The game is very short.

I enjoyed the game too, I was maining daggers because I can't stand not being able to dodge or run while in combat. For all its budget limitations it was pretty decent. I got as far as the last boss, though, but I kinda RQed there because that shit is insanely cheap (enormous difficulty spike) and I wasn't having any fun.

I was playing on Buffalo difficulty.
 
About your question:
you only ever fight one Ice Lord
. The game is very short.

I see, considering where I am
right after rescuing the Blades and fighting My own captain, near the elven city (which is the 3rd location I've seen after the temple and then the swamp
how far into the game am I at, Percentage wise, can you tell?
 
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