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[Jinaar]

My Play time is 34 hrs.
16/30 Achievements.
Almost finished all COMMANDER Challenges.
Have to finish game with Grimlock and Wheeljack.
Finished MAGNUS with Bumblebee. (SS Devastator Drills = OP)

For a 5 hr game, there sure is ALOT of meat on these bones. Nom nom. I can't get enough of it. Poor Dragon Quest Heroes, getting no love.

 

[NEO0MJ]

The answer is probably no, but

Spoiler

is the defense of Wheelack in those protect missions effected in any way by his playable stats/equipment or is it set in stone for the mission?

 

[TreIII]

My Play time is 34 hrs.
16/30 Achievements.
Almost finished all COMMANDER Challenges.
Have to finish game with Grimlock and Wheeljack.
Finished MAGNUS with Bumblebee. (SS Devastator Drills = OP)

For a 5 hr game, there sure is ALOT of meat on these bones. Nom nom. I can't get enough of it. Poor Dragon Quest Heroes, getting no love.

Gaaaaaaaaaaah, it's the same for me, too!

But every time I think about playing DQH instead, I get the urge to bust some more Deceptichops with Grimlock...

 

[Augemitbutter]

The answer is probably no, but

Spoiler

is the defense of Wheelack in those protect missions effected in any way by his playable stats/equipment or is it set in stone for the mission?

i really doubt it. you could use ally heal tech to make those sections easier.

 

[Shadowman16]

I started this game today, couldn't find the moves list so just used my normal Bayonetta combo's and was pleasantly surprised at how well they all worked right off the bat!

I gotta say, I'm loving the combat system in this game. I expected nothing less from Platinum but its just so damn fun! I especially love how fluid and seemless the vehicle attacks are, I was worried they would feel forced in this game but they actually managed to integrate the robots alt modes well into the main game.

I've gotten the hang of the basics of the combat now, but I was wondering if anyone could shed some light on a couple of things:

Dodge Offsets - What is the timing for these? If I'm not mistaken you no longer need to hold down buttons as you dodge anymore, but rather just follow up with the next button press quickly after dodging? I can't get it to work all the time though so either my timing is off or I'm missing something.

Grading - I'm getting between C to B grades on battles on the middle difficulty, but for an extra challenge I tried the first challenge on both the middle difficulty and commander difficulty. The best I can do on the middle difficulty is B, while I got "SS" and "S" ranks my first two times through on commander despite not really doing any better what so ever.

 

[Monocle]

Dodge Offsets - What is the timing for these? If I'm not mistaken you no longer need to hold down buttons as you dodge anymore, but rather just follow up with the next button press quickly after dodging? I can't get it to work all the time though so either my timing is off or I'm missing something.

That's it exactly. Just work on your timing so you're dodging and inputting the next attack with no delay. I think it might help to mash the attack button when you're still in your dodge animation, to improve your chance of getting the timing right. I'm not 100% sure about that, but it's worth a try.

Grading - I'm getting between C to B grades on battles on the middle difficulty, but for an extra challenge I tried the first challenge on both the middle difficulty and commander difficulty. The best I can do on the middle difficulty is B, while I got "SS" and "S" ranks my first two times through on commander despite not really doing any better what so ever.

I'm not an expert on the scoring system, but I believe you need more bonus points for a higher grade. An easy way to rack them up is to do the Vanquish dodge (evade then immediately hold the aim button) and get some headshots. Repeat several times and you should be be good. I just take the ranks as they come, so I can't really give you any in-depth strategy here.

 

[Seven Force]

Finally got to pick up a copy of this today. Diving in now!

 

[Crab Milk Mickey]

I'm not an expert on the scoring system, but I believe you need more bonus points for a higher grade. An easy way to rack them up is to do the Vanquish dodge (evade then immediately hold the aim button) and get some headshots. Repeat several times and you should be be good. I just take the ranks as they come, so I can't really give you any in-depth strategy here.

To be fair, there really isn't any additional nuance to the scoring system beyond the whole "accumulate style points" angle.

 

[Shadowman16]

That's it exactly. Just work on your timing so you're dodging and inputting the next attack with no delay. I think it might help to mash the attack button when you're still in your dodge animation, to improve your chance of getting the timing right. I'm not 100% sure about that, but it's worth a try.


I'm not an expert on the scoring system, but I believe you need more bonus points for a higher grade. An easy way to rack them up is to do the Vanquish dodge (evade then immediately hold the aim button) and get some headshots. Repeat several times and you should be be good. I just take the ranks as they come, so I can't really give you any in-depth strategy here.

Thanks for the tips. I really shouldn't be bothered with ranks, especially at this early stage but its the same with replaying Bayonetta to remove any traces of stone trophies from my stats screen!

I still need to get my timing down on the Vanquish dodge move, I keep defaulting to a standard combo > transform attack. I definitely need to switch things up a bit. I do find it immensely satisfying when I manage to do stuff like fluidly grabbing missiles in the

Spoiler

Blitzwing

boss battle. That's just badass, especially if your playing with Grimlock and he grabs it in his mouth (when in Dino mode).

 

[NEO0MJ]

i really doubt it. you could use ally heal tech to make those sections easier.

Didn't even know that was a thing. Thanks.

 

[Rosur]

Finished commander difficulty tonight, and started Magnus difficulty. Any tips with dealing the ground soldiers as keep dying to the first 2...

 

[Monocle]

Finished commander difficulty tonight, and started Magnus difficulty. Any tips with dealing the ground soldiers as keep dying to the first 2...

Use a stunning weapon like Soundwave's speaker or a spreadshot. Confuse Spreadshots are the best since their status effect never degrades with repeated use.

Or you could use a really powerful sniper or assault rifle if you have one.

To be fair, there really isn't any additional nuance to the scoring system beyond the whole "accumulate style points" angle.

That's a bit too simple for my liking, but good to know. I like ranking systems that make you vary your attacks.

Thanks for the tips. I really shouldn't be bothered with ranks, especially at this early stage but its the same with replaying Bayonetta to remove any traces of stone trophies from my stats screen!

The higher ranks will come a lot easier when you're better equipped. I totally get the desire to get rid of bad ranks though. Those stone trophies mocked me.

I still need to get my timing down on the Vanquish dodge move, I keep defaulting to a standard combo > transform attack. I definitely need to switch things up a bit. I do find it immensely satisfying when I manage to do stuff like fluidly grabbing missiles in the

Spoiler

Blitzwing

boss battle. That's just badass, especially if your playing with Grimlock and he grabs it in his mouth (when in Dino mode).

Yeah, that Vanquish dodge is just a matter of input speed. Dodge an attack and immediately hold the aim button, and you should get it no problem.

I love those special parries too. I didn't even know they were a thing until I saw a video of someone catching Devastator's drill missile. So awesome.

 

[Pie and Beans]

These will come in handy for my soundtrack of the year post

...and my axe!

Activision is mad to not have released the OST. Why must they be so weird with musicians in games? "Yes, we hate being paid more money for things that are already made." Even though its probably some lawyer royalties for musicians pissing contest.

 

[Jintor]

Yeah but the thing is, then you're stuck carrying a missile and the animation frames to get rid of the missile suck!

 

[Monocle]

Yeah but the thing is, then you're stuck carrying a missile and the animation frames to get rid of the missile suck!

Dodging or transforming takes care of it, I think.

 

[Jintor]

Dodging or transforming takes care of it, I think.

not cool enough *folds arms*

(pretty sure the missile just falls to the floor like a broken bayonetta asset)

 

[Monocle]

not cool enough *folds arms*

(pretty sure the missile just falls to the floor like a broken bayonetta asset)

Lol, yeah.

 

[Muchi Muchi Pink]

Eh, this is pretty far from Korra from a budget POV. It's not AAA like Bayonettas or Vanquish, but this is clearly made with a lot more money than Korra. Every aspect of the game is a lot better than Korra. Korra was clearly a super-cheap digital game with minimal amount of money thrown into its development (and thus, lots of corners cut in what Platinum could do with the game), while this isn't too out of its league as a slightly cheaper-than-AAA retail game.

I didn't say it was as bad as Korra. I said activision once more was a cheap-ass concerning budget. The repeated battles speak for itself. I'm having a lot of fun with the game. I like the music and the look and the combat. But then I think how much better the game could've been with more time and budget. Kinda like MGR.

 

[Punished_Snake]

Finished the game and I have been playing challenge mode on commander difficulty, the fighting challenge mode missions are really great. The combat is fun and satisfying, I have been experimenting with the combat system and it's deeper than what I thought it would be, made a video for first challenge using bumblebee, :

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G8DCEW6DQNQ

I'm enjoying the game and will keep playing, but the game has some issues, why you can't retry the challenge mission immediately if you want to instead of going back to the Ark first? The loot system is interesting but the menus are bad and frustrate me a lot. The game should give the player the ability to combine more than two weapons at once and to sell weapons in bulks too. If we are getting a sequel I hope Activision to give Platinum a better budget to make the story mode longer with better levels, add more weapons, and fix the menus.

 

[Shadowman16]

Finished the game and I have been playing challenge mode on commander difficulty, the fighting challenge mode missions are really great. The combat is fun and satisfying, I have been experimenting with the combat system and it's deeper than what I thought it would be, made a video for first challenge using bumblebee, :

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G8DCEW6DQNQ

I'm enjoying the game and will keep playing, but the game has some issues, why you can't retry the challenge mission immediately if you want to instead of going back to the Ark first? The loot system is interesting but the menus are bad and frustrate me a lot. The game should give the player the ability to combine more than two weapons at once and to sell weapons in bulks too. If we are getting a sequel I hope Activision to give Platinum a better budget to make the story mode longer with better levels, add more weapons, and fix the menus.

No retry on challenges is a real pain in the ass. The Yakuza series does this in their challenge mode (since the first game on the PS2 10 years ago) and still hasn't fixed that crap and it does my head in every single game. Especially Yakuza 0 which had some pretty evil challenges...

Anyway, I've played some more of the game today and found I was trying to use the counter moves all wrong. I wasn't holding attack buttons down, so I was never actually countering anything. I'm now getting better rankings due to actually knowing what I'm doing!
That also opens up more combo opportunities, needless to say the more I play the more I love this game. I just wish they wouldn't have those weird top down camera segments, as I really have a hard time judging certain attacks from that view.

 

[TheDinoman]

So I was reading the TF Wiki article on this game and found something interesting: Shockwave's ability to clone himself in his boss fight was actually inspired by a power mentioned in the original animated series production bible that ended up never being used in the cartoon. The color scheme of the SW clones are also inspired by the original "Astro Magnum" figure Shockwave was based on.

 

[Shin Kojima]

So I was reading the TF Wiki article on this game and found something interesting: Shockwave's ability to clone himself in his boss fight was actually inspired by a power mentioned in the original animated series production bible that ended up never being used in the cartoon. The color scheme of the SW clones are also inspired by the original "Astro Magnum" figure Shockwave was based on.

That's cool! Thanks for posting.

 

[Seven Force]

Blitzwing is such a fun boss fight holy shit

These bosses are really such a pleasant surprise.

 

[Shin Kojima]

I guess my only complaint about this game is that I would have liked the rest of the Stunticons to be more than just a part of Menasor. I'm sure they could have easily made you fight them as a group.

 

[TheDinoman]

I guess my only complaint about this game is that I would have liked the rest of the Stunticons to be more than just a part of Menasor. I'm sure they could have easily made you fight them as a group.

Gonna assume that was because of the game's limited budget. Probably didn't have enough resources or time to make an additional five or so Stunticons.

 

[CanUKlehead]

Gonna assume that was because of the game's limited budget. Probably didn't have enough resources or time to make an additional five or so Stunticons.

Add it to the sequel wish list, along with Combiner battles.

 

[Augemitbutter]

So I was reading the TF Wiki article on this game and found something interesting: Shockwave's ability to clone himself in his boss fight was actually inspired by a power mentioned in the original animated series production bible that ended up never being used in the cartoon. The color scheme of the SW clones are also inspired by the original "Astro Magnum" figure Shockwave was based on.

wow, very nice detail.

 

[KingV]

No retry on challenges is a real pain in the ass. The Yakuza series does this in their challenge mode (since the first game on the PS2 10 years ago) and still hasn't fixed that crap and it does my head in every single game. Especially Yakuza 0 which had some pretty evil challenges...

Anyway, I've played some more of the game today and found I was trying to use the counter moves all wrong. I wasn't holding attack buttons down, so I was never actually countering anything. I'm now getting better rankings due to actually knowing what I'm doing!
That also opens up more combo opportunities, needless to say the more I play the more I love this game. I just wish they wouldn't have those weird top down camera segments, as I really have a hard time judging certain attacks from that view.

That's really odd. The 360 version absolutely allows you to immediately retry challenges. I'm playing it right now and just did it several times in a row.

 

[Muchi Muchi Pink]

Can someone tell me where the kaon barriers info log is? Only one I'm missing.

 

[Unit24]

Well shit. Now I have a Battle Blade that does about 10K damage, and now Prime difficulty is trivial. This is why I wish there were multiple save profiles allowed.

 

[Monocle]

This is probably known, but bonus attributes on weapons only apply when that weapon is actually selected. So if you have robot speed+ on a speaker or something, it won't affect your run speed just by having the speaker as one of your four weapons. The speaker has to be in an active slot.

Well shit. Now I have a Battle Blade that does about 10K damage, and now Prime difficulty is trivial. This is why I wish there were multiple save profiles allowed.

There's nothing to stop you from using weaker equipment. Try a grapple gun + some gauntlets with an elemental effect. And maybe a Confuse Spreadshot or one of the gel guns for crowd control.

 

[Weltall Zero]

After finishing the game on Warrior and Commander, today, playing on Magnus, I learned that you can pick up downed enemies if you're quick, and throw them at other enemies (you can do it with Prime, at least: Bumblebee has that "saddle slam", and I don't know if any of the other three can).

It keeps on giving, man.

why you can't retry the challenge mission immediately if you want to instead of going back to the Ark first?

No retry on challenges is a real pain in the ass.

Ah, wait, you mean without failing them first. Not sure why that is, but it might be to prevent people from ammassing weapons on certain challenges that give them right at the start. I'm not particularly bothered because you keep everything you get during failed attempts, credits, exp, weapons, so might as well keep playing. On higher diffculties, standing still and taking the hits results in a quicker retry than going through a menu.

 

[Punished_Snake]

Ah, wait, you mean without failing them first. Not sure why that is, but it might be to prevent people from ammassing weapons on certain challenges that give them right at the start. I'm not particularly bothered because you keep everything you get during failed attempts, credits, exp, weapons, so might as well keep playing. On higher diffculties, standing still and taking the hits results in a quicker retry than going through a menu.

Yes. For example:You are not doing great in the challenge and you want to retry knowing you are not getting SS rank or high rank.

 

[NEO0MJ]

So I was reading the TF Wiki article on this game and found something interesting: Shockwave's ability to clone himself in his boss fight was actually inspired by a power mentioned in the original animated series production bible that ended up never being used in the cartoon. The color scheme of the SW clones are also inspired by the original "Astro Magnum" figure Shockwave was based on.

I had a feeling the colors were based on the original toy, but didn't know about the cloning power. Maybe that explains why he had a miniature version of his gun form.

I guess my only complaint about this game is that I would have liked the rest of the Stunticons to be more than just a part of Menasor. I'm sure they could have easily made you fight them as a group.

At least Motormaster got to be a full boss.

 

[Kilrogg]

I went back to the game yesterday after a short hiatus, but I'm a bit bored by it now. The OP drills have made everything so trivial, while still making the game frustrating when you die in 2 hits. And I don't want to artificially handicap my character, that's stupid.

Still, the game was great fun while it lasted, and I'm sure I'll get back to it some day!

 

[Monocle]

I went back to the game yesterday after a short hiatus, but I'm a bit bored by it now. The OP drills have made everything so trivial, while still making the game frustrating when you die in 2 hits. And I don't want to artificially handicap my character, that's stupid.

Still, the game was great fun while it lasted, and I'm sure I'll get back to it some day!

It's not really handicapping yourself to go with a loadout that's not purely damage oriented. There's so much fun to be had with the grapple gun and status effects. You could even play as Grimlock and use grapple+ and reversal+ tech to boost his throw game. Or you could use a ranged loadout with one of the characters who has good stats for that playing style.

Overpowered weapons don't invalidate other options. The drills don't ruin Devastation any more than the Durga + Kilgore glitch ruins Bayonetta.

 

[NEO0MJ]

I went back to the game yesterday after a short hiatus, but I'm a bit bored by it now. The OP drills have made everything so trivial, while still making the game frustrating when you die in 2 hits. And I don't want to artificially handicap my character, that's stupid.

Still, the game was great fun while it lasted, and I'm sure I'll get back to it some day!

This is why I stopped using them, fun as they are.

And I don't mind handicapping myself in some games if certain items or abilities break it.

 

[Weltall Zero]

Guys, I thing I finally figured out how fusing weapon skills work. You know how every so often you fuse two weapons with the same level of the same skill, and instead of two copies, you get one copy of the skill, one level higher? Early in the thread someone said that was caused by the fused weapon having no free slots, but it's pretty obvious with some experimentation that's not the case.

Instead, after some more testing, I've realized that the condition is that the base weapon has to be a higher rank (SS > S > A > B > C > D) than the ingredient weapon. This is pretty easy to test: find two weapons of different ranks with the same level of a skill, and you'll see how it works when fusing them one way, but not the other.

Remember that the skills still have to be the same level, this restriction is on top of that. And in case you're wondering, it doesn't work with weapons of the same rank, it has to be strictly higher.

 

[Shadowman16]

So, finished the game this afternoon:

Spoiler

The Megatron fight was a lot of fun, but it felt just a tad anti climatic next to the epic Menasor/Devastator battle a short while before

.

Its a short game, but the combat is so damn good that I'll be replaying this for weeks to come.

The story is nothing to write home about, but the performances by the various characters were great - its so nice hearing the original Prime, Megatron, Optimus, Bumblebee, Grimlock etc. again

Really can't wait to get stuck into challenge mode now, I'd be putting it off while I completed my first playthrough to get the combat system down, I feel I finally have a decent grasp of it.

 

[BumblebeeCody]

This is probably known, but bonus attributes on weapons only apply when that weapon is actually selected. So if you have robot speed+ on a speaker or something, it won't affect your run speed just by having the speaker as one of your four weapons. The speaker has to be in an active slot.

Ah I thought so.

 

[Justinh]

This is probably known, but bonus attributes on weapons only apply when that weapon is actually selected. So if you have robot speed+ on a speaker or something, it won't affect your run speed just by having the speaker as one of your four weapons. The speaker has to be in an active slot.

Yeah, I noticed this not long ago, bummer.
I tested this with Item pull +5 on one of my guns. I'd stand sort of near an item and switch to that item pull gun and watch it get sucked towards me.

I just dump atk+5 and I think focus+5 on my weapons now, and leave everything else taken care of by techs.

 

[Muchi Muchi Pink]

Bumblebee is just too good.
I still don't know why we can't play as Decepticons.

 

[Kilrogg]

Bumblebee is just too good.
I still don't know why we can't play as Decepticons.

Time and budget constraints most likely.
I mean, we don't even get to fight the Stunticons outside of Motormaster.

 

[NEO0MJ]

Plus, it allows them access to movesets that would be too broken to be fair or heavily nerfed so that they end up being pointless gimmicks should we be able to use them.

 

[ColonelSkills]

...and my axe!

Activision is mad to not have released the OST. Why must they be so weird with musicians in games? "Yes, we hate being paid more money for things that are already made." Even though its probably some lawyer royalties for musicians pissing contest.

This image reminds me of the Knights of Unicron toy set that came out last year.

Got a lot of fanbase hate despite how awesome it is. I shrug.

 

[Shadowman16]

Bumblebee is just too good.
I still don't know why we can't play as Decepticons.

Yeah, I think Bumblebee is my favourite out of the bunch. I just get the most awesome looking combo's with him, plus his L1 evade move is just too cool.

 

[Muchi Muchi Pink]

So we have any numbers how it sold? I mean want to know if there's any chance we get a sequel. Longer dev cycle and higher budget would work wonders for this. The Autobot clone fights are one of the best in the game.

 

[Sparrowhawk]

I really need to get back into the groove of playing this every night. Still need to beat the campaign with a few characters.

Really wish Platinum would make a Thundercats game next.

 

[KooopaKid]

Played one hour so far. Not really feeling it. I started on Commander difficulty but the first boss fight was too much and his health bar was going down so slowly.
It feels too much like Bayonetta with a Transformers skin. Bayonetta combat system is 6 years old now and this is the 4th game with a very similar feel. If Platinum doesn't evolve its core gameplay combat, I'm probably going to skip the next one. Shame as the controls are spot on as usual but I've done all this already

 

[Peff]

Played one hour so far. Not really feeling it. I started on Commander difficulty but the first boss fight was too much and his health bar was going down so slowly.
It feels too much like Bayonetta with a Transformers skin. Bayonetta combat system is 6 years old now and this is the 4th game with a very similar feel. If Platinum doesn't evolve its core gameplay combat, I'm probably going to skip the next one. Shame as the controls are spot on as usual but I've done all this already