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1

Bully 1 Discussion / Re: "Perfect" Stat playthrough

« on: March 01, 2022, 11:17:07 PM »

Heh. Yeah, I knew about the soda thing. I was probably going to do that after the fight with Gary anyways, just to see if I could accomplish the game with just one soda. So far, it's been rather easy as long as it's not automatically gained after beating an enemy.

2

Anti-Bully / Constructive criticism

« on: March 01, 2022, 07:01:01 PM »

Hey guys, new Bully player here. I admit, I don't play a lot of newer games in general, so I won't compare it to new games, but just a few things that I found frustrating;

First, I'm playing on the original PS2 version. So there's no map. I know they included that in the Scholarship Edition, but the fact that they released a game in 2006 after this was one of the biggest complaints about GTA III, so the subsequent GTA games had maps. Relying on radar is okay, but missions like "Panty Raid" are difficult since everything is condensed in there, where its very easy to make a mistake.

Rhythm controls are not my thing. So for things like Chemistry, Shop Class and Mascot Dancing...it just feels like shooting fish in a barrel. There's no strategy involved, and I think at the core of any game playing should be strategy. This isn't necessarily a bad thing, but just something I feel that cuts against the evolution of gameplay, as it was common for many games around this time...just follow the button sequence on screen. It's the reason why I hated God of War.

Any mini game that requires you to mash a button, I swear that I am hitting it as fast as possible and it's purely random at times when I fail. High Striker as an example sometimes loses, but the biggest challenge to me is Dodgeball. For some reason, every so often I can't wrestle the ball away from the opponent , maybe the difficulty level goes up and down randomly, since I have a long frustrating game against the Greasers but then take out the Jocks in 6 quick throws. Bike races can be a chore especially if it's a long race and I'm sitting there pounding the button for 3 minutes straight, plus you have rubber band AI that allows for your opponents to never be too far behind. I guess they want players to use turbo controllers.

Safe houses and garages; most of these aren't in places that I think are beneficial to the player. I typically will use the dorm, beach house and comic book shop. The dorm has the quickest access to most mission start points, the beach house is for convenience to the carnival if you're doing something there or the bike races, and the comic book shop is a great hub for New Coventry since most missions begin at the underpass. The Greasers hangout is in a bad location and I hate navigating New Coventry so much anyways, plus you're most likely using it during Chapter 3 when the Greasers are hostile toward you...so why would you save in a location where you're likely to get attacked as soon as you leave? The Townies safehouse is only worth it for the final mission. As far as garages, they're usually out of the way of where your safehouse is, and you have quicker access to other bikes that spawn on the street, the only exception is at the dorm, where you're least likely to need a bike...and once you unlock the go kart, then you'll almost always prefer that.

Stats; like I mentioned in my other posts, I try to keep the best stats possible in my game. This game goes above and beyond with unusual and needless stats. Do I really need to know how many times I slipped on a banana peel or how many times I said hello to a perfect? It doesn't count toward anything, so why keep track? I do find it weird that it doesn't keep track of other things such as times ridden the bus and such. Also, I've experienced glitches where I have not gotten busted, but it has registered as getting busted. During "The Big Game" you trip the football players with marbles, yet after you do so, the stats say you were tripped 3 times by marbles. I know the argument is that you shouldn't worry about your stats, but if that's the case...why did Rockstar include this? Lastly, it is impossible to make every single one of your projectiles to hit, like you have missions and errands that require you to do something, but you cannot register it accurately in the stats. As an example, when you egg a building, it doesn't count, even in situations such as "Tad's House" where you have cross hairs that align to a "hit". I'm willing to bet my entire life savings that no one from Rockstar can do this. I wish they spent less time on window dressing things like this and worked more important things.

In many ways, I loathe any time I have to enter a building. The load time on PS2 is grating since many times I begin at my safehouse, then have to go to a mission, let's say...inside the school. So I leave the dorm...loading...enter the school...loading...start a mission cutscene...loading...back to gameplay...loading...exit the school...loading. That's FIVE loading times for one thing. Again comparing it to something like GTA where most of the missions were in plain sight, so at most you have only two loading times. And I've noticed that the longer I play, the longer the load times, so I usually have to shut off my console after about an hour.  I also experienced a troubling freezing glitch when I would enter the dorm and move too quickly, so I'd lose my progress. Grrrr.

Lastly, the clock; for someone who enjoys time management in his games, I feel like this is a missed opportunity. I don't know of another game to compare this to, other than Majora's Mask, where you need to navigate the game around specific schedules of the day. However Majora's Mask created ways to help ensure that the player was able to do whatever they needed to do based on their playing style, I've played that game numerous times and every time is different, yet I never felt cheated by needing to rush in the same way I do with Bully. See, I think this is something they should have sought to try to do, maybe an achievement based on the number of days it takes to to finish the final mission. Instead, I find myself either needing to constantly rush from one location to another, or play the game where I casually stand around waiting for the next mission to begin. Ideally, in order to get as much done as possible, I do no less than 6 missions a day, but sometimes the mission starting point is in one location and then I have to go across town to actually begin the mission such as "Funhouse Fun"...the mission should just being outside of the carnival. This is the same complaint I had about GTA San Andreas, just too much trekking to play the mission, and it's a waste of valuable clock time. This complaint might be specific to my playing style, but it works to my disadvantage so much.

Still...Bully is a lot of fun, I really enjoy the story and the characters. I just wish some of these issues were ironed out better since it probably would have created more hype for any sequels

3

Bully 1 Discussion / Re: "Perfect" Stat playthrough

« on: February 28, 2022, 11:06:10 PM »

Thanks for the words of encouragement, guys...I really appreciate it!

In defender of the castle I don't think you have to just stand on the gun and shoot down jocks with it. The super slingshot will be your best friend in this mission.

The boxing games increase your damage significantly.

I won't give spoiler but the last mission is nearly impossible to finish without getting hit. Prepare yourself for that pain 

Unfortunately, I attempted the super slingshot, but Jimmy has a tendency to focus on hitting Casey and Bo, instead of the football players that run the gate. Physical attacks are too hard to maintain while everyone is charging, and the camera angle doesn't help. One thing I found that works best is to not even bother with the barrier. As soon as you go through the entry way that causes the nerds to charge, I turn around and run back to the potato machine gun. I also park the go kart at an angle near the pillars to help maintain a single file when the jocks run toward me. Now..the only thing I don't know is...does the number of football players who run to the gate correlate to the amount of football players who get knocked out during the barrier part? What I mean is...if there are 12 football players who charge, and say I knock out 3 during the barrier part, does that mean I'll only get 9 during the gate part? I plan to try this when I get a chance.

For the boxing, I did that and a TON of other stuff during Christmas when the clock is "stopped". Unfortunately, any time you load the game, the clock does run about 5 minutes in game, so you can do the boxing, bike races, errands, carnival games, yearbook pictures, rubber bands, G&G cards and such during this time, however both the boxing matches and the hobo fights cause the clock to continue to roll, so I had to race to save my game, then load it again to stop the clock.

As far as the final mission goes, I don't mind if I take any damage, as that isn't a stat that is tracked, just as long as they don't give me an automatic soda. 

Nice to see a new member enjoying the game after all this time, even while playing in an unorthodox manner lol

Thanks, it's actually quite a fun challenge, especially when it comes to trying to make the most of each day. You have to start creating strategies to move from one place to another and a lot of time trying to get a mission done while a class is going on, THEN racing back to class to try and get in there before 11:30 or 3:30. It works much better if you unlock the go kart in Chapter 2.

4

Bully 1 Discussion / "Perfect" Stat playthrough

« on: February 28, 2022, 06:58:04 AM »

Hey guys, I'm new here and new to the game of Bully. I actually owned it for a long time, but finally got around to playing it due to my work schedule changing. Anyways, I'm on Chapter 4 now and enjoying it for the most part.

So regarding the thread title, I have a tendency to play games with the intent on having perfect stats, or at least as perfect as I can make them. It's a completely pointless thing, I know...but it's just something I've always done, which can sometimes make things less enjoyable. However, it's still something I obligate.of myself.

Anyways, Bully has a lot of interesting stats, and my goal was to keep things to a minimum in terms of attempts at that stat, such as kicking a soccer ball or getting hit by a car..which would be zero, while something such as sodas drank or getting kicked in the nuts would be at one, since they're both used in missions "Welcome to Bullworth" and "Character Sheets" respectively. I also am attempting to keep school days to a minimum so that Jimmy doesn't have to repeat classes, and that I don't skip any classes. So essentially, unless I'm obligated by the story, I try to avoid any additional stuff, while shooting for 100%.

Probably the most frustrating stats are accuracy; projectiles, fighting and dodgeball can be pretty annoying. At least with fighting, I can usually score multiple hits from a single punch or kick, however I cannot miss a grapple. With dodgeball, I usually have to knock six people out in a row without getting hit or missing a shot. With projectiles, I try to avoid using these altogether unless I have a workaround.

Projectiles are super annoying since they don't count if they hit an inanimate object. So your slingshot will miss shots, as an example. This became hard to do in Chapter 3, so I ended up sneaking into Blue Skies to get the rest of the rubber bands, so I can have the rubber band ball to assist.

Anyways, these are the workarounds I discovered, if you know of any others, please let me know;

During "Slingshot" you can just get on the bus and jump to break the windows, Gary doesn't care.

During "Halloween" in order to break the two pumpkins that are on the fence, just grab a baseball bat and whack them.

During "Help Gary" you will be told to use your slingshot to move the broom to hit the switch. There's actually a brick nearby, use that instead. For the furnace, move Gary in front of it, then use the fire extinguisher on him, so that it will hit both him and the furnace.

During "Tad's House" you have to throw eggs in windows, and this is where I don't know any major workarounds. I am able to angle the egg to hit multiple windows. I was able to accomplish this with just two eggs, one in the front window and one in the back. Still, these two eggs don't count as "hits". The same thing applies with the errands where you egg a building, so as of right now, I have 11 projectile misses due to eggs, and 2 more due to throwing the toilet paper over the stall.

After Chapter 2, if your punches aren't accurate, you can go to the gym and punch Bryce since he doesn't fight back. You can also register punches to the bag while hitting Bryce, so you can easily gain several hundred hits in no time.

Apparently the carnival games count as projectiles, but the dunking and baseball game are pretty easy, so it didn't cause much issue. The shooting range on the other hand took forever to get a perfect score.

During "Wrong Part of Town", I just turn my character around and don't do anything. For some reason, this helps avoid the Greasers throwing stuff at me. I still take some damage, but I'm usually in the high yellow when I'm done.

During "Stronghold Assault" aka the hardest part of the game yet, I have depended on the rubber band ball to knock down the appliances when fighting Earnest. During this mission, there is also an unavoidable projectile miss when using the potato machine gun, I don't know why.

And that's where I'm at as of right now. Yes, I know it is kind of silly to put so much effort into something so pointless, but it's just how it goes for me.

I'm currently trying to figure out "Defender of the Castle" since that lousy potato machine gun misses so much. I tried blocking the entryway with the go kart, but it doesn't seem to work. I've gotten good at firing it, but I'm still missing between 4 and 6 shots every mission attempt.

Anyways, it's good to be here. I probably mentioned a bunch of stuff that you guys already know, but figured I'd share anyways. Let me know if there are any other masochists who play the game like this.