#/but the gameplay is just SO FUN I turned it back up to the average setting lol

[jaderavenarts]

New Rook!! His name is River Ingellvar (he/him) and I already love him 😌

[admiral-mason]

pspspspspsps hi uhhh first time requesting umumumumum

Sagau but reader have played WonderEnd 0 (my current hyperfixation aaaaaaaaa), favorite/chosen ending is the bad ending. NULLan and the phantasmas will not hesitate to not only help reader escape, but also torment reader's tormentors psyche. NULLan may or may not turn half of the population into phantasmas lmao (can also include entities from the abyss and the hilichurls :3 ).

I watched some gameplay of WonderEnd 0 prior to this (here's a link to a playlist of no commentary gameplay), and, uh...

Damn the game is messed up, I won't spoil anything but the protagonist is highly tormented in the series, with one of the endings leading to downright su!c!de (if you can decipher that word)

Thankfully, this individual is focusing on the other ending. Which is better for our protagonist (he gets to live), but probably bad for everyone else...

Anyways, onwards!

Warning: Torture

You never knew you would ever see this place.

Teyvat, despite its lack of technological advances compared to the current era, resembled a dream world with its depictions of bygone eras of human history mixed with unnatural forces compared to the drab, destruction-plagued era Earth underwent in the past few centuries.

Genshin Impact, for its luck-intensive gacha game nature, obtained a spot in your mind as a game for reprisal. When you required space to get away from the necessities of life, the game helped you escape responsibilities for a little bit longer.

Then you decided to explore the fandom via the internet and descended upon a relatively unknown branch of Genshin, known as SAGAU. Delving into the primarily Tumblr-centralized works, you found it interesting to become the average Isekai protagonist among Teyvat.

Maybe you would tell everyone to stop calling you 'Your Grace' or some other holy title like that. You are but a regular human after all. Aside from that, maybe it wouldn't be so bad to play the role of a divine god capable of creating Teyvat.

And you did get a chance to play that role...

But you never expected it to be like this.

You don't recall how much time has passed ever since you arrived.

Upon stepping foot into Mondstadt, the nation of freedom, you were branded an impostor, a fraud, a heretic, any term for one pretending to be another just like in those Impostor AU Tumblr works.

Everyone was against you; the Knights of Favonius, Diluc, Mona, they just apparently decided that you're a fucking con artist for simply existing. If you knew this would come to you before, you would have deleted the game and moved on with your life.

Unfortunately, those were past events and you needed to run at that moment. Never in your life had you run like an athlete, hell you never required such a physical-minded body. But anything less would result in cuts by a sword or an arrow landing in your back, so you ran.

Thankfully, not all sought to see you dead; Hilichurls, Abyssal beings, and animals assisted you throughout the rampaging hunt. From bringing you food or resuscitating your stamina to providing you weapons, you found unlikely companionship among these normally hostile enemies.

Their efforts helped you reach Liyue, although unfortunately they too decided that you were a fraud attempting to deceive Teyvat for their own gain. Having the Millelith, the Liyue Qixing, and the Adepti all working together against you was definitely not fun for you. However, it was here that someone or something else decided to help you.

One time, a few Millelith guards had you cornered in Liyue Harbor, and Ningguang herself approached you.

"I must say you are very persistent in your perseverance against our efforts to capture you. But alas, I believe your journey ends here. Don't make this any harder than we want now."

And then it happened.

You saw your vision glitch like a computer suffering errors for a split second. And then, a figure dressed in black clothing stood between you and your pursuers. They pulled out a glowing and glitching yellow slip of paper.

They let it go and it floated above them, before glowing brighter and glitching your vision again for another second. After that, the figure still stood in its position, but everyone else lay on the floor. You blinked once in that moment and the figure disappeared. Wasting no more time, you escaped, surviving to live another day.

The same thing occurred in all the other nations. In Inazuma, the figure saved you from the Raiden Shogun's Musou no Hitotachi. However, this time the sky's color changed from night blue to blood red, with what appeared to be a giant eye with even smaller eyes surrounding it, with a ring of geometric shapes surrounding them. Akin to the encounter in Liyue, the abnormalities dissipated as quickly as they appeared.

In Sumeru, it was what appeared to be a stringed puppet with the appearance of a woman. She stood before you, holding you akin to a mother with her child. Her eyes were devoid of features, yet her lips formed a smile that radiated sweet dreams.

Fontaine and Natlan were the same; in Fontaine, the figure was accompanied by a group of strange spider-like creatures with a body akin to a bee, while in Natlan they were accompanied by a tall, lanky humanoid figure. Said figure had red eyes, a larger head, black holes with white dots covering the said head, and an unnerving grin that held no hostility to you.

You didn't even bother with Snezhnaya, since the nation wasn't even released yet and you didn't want to bother risking trekking into unknown territory. Thus, after all the chasing and abnormal encounters, you decided to simply rest at a Hilichurl camp in a forest and head to sleep.

"Hey, can you hear me?"

A soft male voice woke you from your slumber, and you immediately noticed something wrong with your environment.

It's not a forest at all, hell you doubt this is even Teyvat anymore. Instead, you awoke in a dark environment surrounded by dark figures with glowing white dots for eyes. Others had a singular, multicolored eye with bunny-like bodies.

And above all of them was a seriously massive black eye with red markings, angel wings, and a binary halo.

You also noticed something about your positioning.

You are upright in someone's lap. A very very comfortable lap at that.

Looking up, you saw a familiar face with black hair, a black halo, and two purple eyes, the left one glowing.

"...Holy shit Alan??" You said, mostly bewildered but also slightly exhausted (you just woke up after all). Alan simply smiled in response.

He chuckled a little before gently stroking your hair. "Hi again, graceful player. I never thought I'd see you again after you... got lost in this world, but it didn't take me too much work to end up here."

You picked up WonderEnd 0 a few days before the moment you were involuntarily thrust into Teyvat. Safe to say, you could tell that Alan was a cinnamon roll that the game just likes to fuck over in every single way possible. The "good ending" horrified you, and the "bad ending" made you a little uneasy. You definitely preferred the latter ending a lot more though.

The Alan you're seeing here is clearly the bad ending one, although his expression isn't one of cold-heartedness and snark, but rather a gentle one you saw akin to that of the puppet.

You had to ask him something. "Are you the one who-"

"Before you ask, yes. I was the one who assisted you along with the Phantasmas. I will not stand by while the one who guided me in times of distress is subjected to unjust subjugation by religious fanatics."

"Yeah, as if you could do it by yourself, Alan."

Someone else then appeared beside you two. They looked like Alan before the bad ending but with a halo, and their voice was deeper than Alan's.

"Is that Null?" You asked, and they responded. "Yes, you're right, player. I am Null, AKA the computer virus that helped Alan ascend to my level."

"Shut up Null, you are cringe," Alan responded with a smirk. Null's face then morphed into one of agitation.

"I AM NOT CRINGE!!!" Null yelled, but Alan kept going. "Says the one who requires a human body to even use their full power. Couldn't be me."

"GRRRRRRRR ALAN I AM GOING TO KILL YOU AND KILL YOU FOR THAT!"

You laughed a little at the little discourse between the two, and both of them turned to you. "What?" You asked, slightly clueless to your actions.

"...Protect the cinnamon roll of a player?"

"Protect the cinnamon roll of a player, Null."

Meanwhile, oblivious to you, your tormentors have become the tormented.

Everyone who dared even possess the mere thought of attacking or killing you suffered terrible nightmares, ranging from wandering in a long hallway with featureless human-like figures to attempting to dodge monsters filled with devices no one understood.

The Knights of Favonius frantically attempt to utilize a box-like device and are slaughtered by a disfigured blue mass.

The Millelith, Qixing, and Adepti painfully attempt to navigate the never-ending hallways while being chased down by a pale-skinned man in a suit with a black, featureless head.

The Raiden Shogun and her Shogunate army must painfully stand still akin to mannequins under the watchful and menacing gaze of the Eye.

The Akademiya struggle to play a never-ending song for a stringed woman who never suffers any form of physical abuse.

The Maison Gardiennage question their motives of justice as they are slaughtered by four-legged bee-like creatures, only to be revived once again to endure further suffering.

And the champions of war are merciless to a being with the grip strength of the moon's density as it crushes their skulls.

Teyvat had tried to deprive both Alan and Null of their player, and it will burn, bleed, but most importantly, suffer.

General Headcanons

Alan and Null bicker on the frequent, and it's funny to hear them do so when they decide to explore humanity's current slang.

"I HAVE MORE SKIBIDI RIZZ THAN YOU ALAN!" - Null

"Shut up Null, your looks are so downright atrocious that even Ohio wouldn't permit you entry" - Alan

"Both of you SHUT UP-" - You

One day, Alan decided to try something new with his nightmares.

"Hey [Name!] Want to see my idea for a nightmare?"

"Huh? Sure!"

So Alan opens up a little portal and...

"SKIBIDI DOP DOP DOP YES YES"

"WHAT THE FUCK ALAN"

When you're not in the dreamscape with the two, you simply hang around with the wild creatures of Teyvat.

Eventually, Alan decided to manifest himself in your world, and thankfully you managed to convince everyone that Alan was friendly you let him lay on your lap to prove it

He and Null help enhance the strength and intimidation factor of Hilichurls, Abyss Mages, and Abyss Lectors. All of a sudden, aside from the constant nightmares plaguing the lands, Teyvat suddenly finds itself encountering stronger and stronger enemies by the day.

They also get creepier designs too. Hilichurls now have soulless fake eyes, Abyss Mages wear disfigured costumes, etc.

However, when it's just you three, and Alan and Null aren't bickering, it's just a relaxing time.

You have not one, but two cinnamon rolls that you just get to cuddle akin to teddy bears. With smiles of contentment.

Overall, you're in heaven, and Teyvat is in hell :)

@a-star-intheabyss enjoy watching everyone suffer nightmares

And also sorry for the last part lmfao

[saltypearl712]

Y’all BB+ 0.8 is gonna be

HECTIC

Here’s a breakdown of what’s to come!

!! Minor spoilers below !!

(All info from and on Kickstarter, where everyone can view it.)

So for starters, there will be different ways to play Hide and Seek!

There will be three different modes: Normal, Arcade and Strict.

Normal is just the regular game of Hide and Seek that BB+ has implemented since the beginning, as in you get 3 lives per level.

Arcade mode will be similar, but rather than 3 lives per level, you only get 3 lives for the entire game! So if you loose a life on a level, you won’t get it back on the next one!

Strict mode will be the most difficult, only giving you ONE life for the entire game! Get caught once and it’s game over!

I think this’ll be a great addition for more diverse gameplay and for those who like a challenge and think the regular mode is too easy.

Now the next big change he talked about is much more game changing!!

Not long ago, Micah asked on Twitter how long it takes on average to beat a BB+ level, and now we know why!

Each level in Hide and Seek will now have a TIME LIMIT on how long before school closes! Class is only in session for so long!

There will still be plenty of time to explore the level, but not much time for dilly-dallying!

Once you enter a level, there will a timer on the wall telling you how time time you have left before school closes. Micah has also stated you will be able to view this from your map, similar to Mrs. Pomp’s mechanic. Baldi will also occasionally let you know how much time is left when he comes down on his TV screen.

The timer on the wall when entering a level. Also it looks like exit signs are back!

But what exactly happens when the timer runs out?

School closes! When the timer runs out, class is dismissed and the game will get much more intense. First of all, Baldi will slowly start speeding up, similar to how how he does in Endless Mode.

Second of all, Principal of the Thing will now be able to catch you at any time for being in school after hours! Similar to the Stealthy Challenge.

He’ll slowly go around the school turning off every light as he does, entering the school in dark mode! You will actually be able to use this to your advantage at certain times, being able to hide in the pitch dark spots, similar to how you’d hide with the Chalk Eraser, and nobody will be able to catch you!

The Principal of the Thing searching the school, turning off all the lights as he goes. Don’t get caught!

Baldi’s Super Schoolhouse in Dark mode after Principal of the Thing has turned off all the lights. Final look in-game is subject to change!

Micah said this is a change he’s planned for a long time, and again I think it’s a great one! Not only will it make the game a bit more challenging but also much more interesting! This is exactly the kind of stuff that positively increases game experience, showing how different Baldi’s Basics Plus is from the original. I can really tell he’s pouring his heart and soul into this game and I’m so excited for this update!

One more change worth mentioning is Micah also plans on adding new structures! Something that hasn’t been added to the game in a while. Something that will also help diversify new levels.

And lastly, the update is expected to be delayed about a month since he’s being doing so much technical work on the game, it’ll take a bit longer. But I think it will definitely be worth the wait! (Estimated release time currently is early December)

Hope y’all enjoyed this breakdown of what’s to come in BB+ 0.8! Thought it’d be a fun type of post to try.

💚💚💚💚💚💚💚💚💚💚💚💚💚💚💚💚💚💚

[sparrow-in-boots]

So here I am, gathering references for my Desmond study, as one does, and I reach AC3. I brace myself for impact because I have the original un-mastered version, and I find the remaster flattens the models too much and kinda, plastifies them?? which makes figuring out dimensions hard. So I gotta deal with, a lot of lighting and rendering bullshit instead. Fun all around.

I start the game and get to screenshooting, and I notice Desmond has some drastic pale palms going on. Like, oddly so. I shrug it off for now, but then I notice that Bill Miles also has them. And, Shaun? Some more gameplay in and we reach Haytham and, he has the same stark pale palms situation going on. Ngl, I'm baffled.

Speaking of averages and my own observations, people with pale skin don't get that stark pale palms even when they tan. They get some faint distinction, but it's mostly from a tanning gradient, the undersides of your arms don't get as exposed to sunlight so less tan. Meanwhile people with naturally brown skin do have distinct pale palms that clashes even with their own tanning gradient.

Now, I know for a fact Haytham doesn't have enough melanin in him to have naturally brown skin, that's a white man. He might not burn in the sun but c'mon, this feels too stark. Not only that, but the skintone just, don't match? Their hands are too red undertoned while Haytham's and Desmond's faces are much less so.

So I decide to do some digging. Now, I have no know-how on how to rip assets in games and god forbid, translate them to something like Blender. But I do know that machinimas were big back in the day, and that includes a lot of AC character models being used for gifs and videos and such, so I delve into DA for some model refs. And indeed, I find them, and...

Yeah, that's not the same skintone. And after looking at some other screenshots online, even in game the skintone is very much not a match. So what's up with that?

It turns out that as far as I can tell, Ubi did about three skintones (pale, brown and dark) for each gender, by modifying a base skin texture's levels or smth, thus why the palms are so stark. They used the same skintone for the native npcs, Connor, Haytham, Bill, and Desmond. Likewise, Ziio and Prudence share the same skin texture. Which, royally sucks for reference taking, despite being a fairly common game dev trick to shrink asset production.

Where am I going with this? Nowhere really, I'm simply annoyed. ACR very much whitewashed Desmond, but AC3 did um... something alright.

[youngerfrankenstein]

So, in my opinion, is Fire Emblem Engage worth getting?

In a word: No.

In 12 words: Well, maybe, if you get it cheap and only care about gameplay.

In several words:

Yeah I can’t say I’m fond of the game. Still, might as well start with the positives.

While it took me a while to figure them out, once I did I actually really liked the Emblem mechanics! It’s an interesting way to do weapon proficiencies and open up the reclassing options. Albeit the skill inheritance works far less well given the need to use SP. But they are fun and flashy and weirdly enough I kinda like the weird pseudo-cyberpunk costumes? And they have pretty darn useful special moves which I had a bad habit of not using in the same way I hoard stat ups.

The map design is overall decent? Not spectacular, but decent. And small honestly. But they did mostly play well, different without being too gimmicky. The variety of weapons you get ahold of is also nice, you get your average swords, lances, axes tomes and staves. Knives are also back again, and essentially so are fist weapons (called arts)! Though sadly no transforming classes :(

The smash mechanic is there. Sort of. Personally I never used it because the tradeoff of always going last was WAY too high for knocking an enemy back. And the break mechanic (weapon triangle advantage means the person can’t strike back) I have, mixed(?), feelings about. It has the tendency to be both super useful and super annoying. And since basically every map has the tendency to have a little of everything, planning out different teams for different maps isn’t really a thing. In fact you’re often just… stuck with who you first choose and the new guys. Given the level scaling it almost felt like you were just supposed to continually dump any but your best units for the ones you were just given, and a couple maps later you can’t really change your mind.

Part of this is because of how TERRIBLY skirmishes are implemented. They are ALWAYS a higher level than your best units and they scale. So if you were hoping to try out someone new or bring somebody who was falling behind up? You are in for frustration.

The UI is also kind of frustrating too. Even little things like the first option on the battle menus not being “Attack” or the main menu being “+”. And the controls often felt… sticky is the only way I can put it. Not physically, but like I would pick a character and see what their options were and while trying to put them back it felt like I had to hit “B” half a dozen times. Also nitpick I don’t know if you can change, but bring back the fucking movement arrow. I actually did find moving units more frustrating without it.

I would talk about the Somniel but honestly I barely used it. I think I didn’t at all until the 12th chapter or something, and once there I used the arena and that’s about it. The rest just felt like pointless minigames to waste your time and given how my dad’s reaction was to try them once, go “that was pointless” and never do them again, I think I am correct. Later in the game I tried to use a couple things to round out supports but it still took like 5 turns in between increasingly irritating skirmishes to go up ONE level so I ultimately gave up.

To be fair it’s not like I really cared about finishing the vast majority of the supports. Any problems 3H supports had? Double them. Maybe triple. They’re largely boring and ultimately I can’t say they made me care about any of the characters. Maybe I just got mostly bad ones but hey. I can’t this game will be adding to my “favourite FE characters” list. They’re mostly inoffensive and bland to mildly amusing. Favourite from this one? TIMERRA. Because I put Sigurd on her and she could one-shot one of the final boss’ health bars and could probably solo maps if I let her.

The fact the art style and designs are largely incohesive and ugly as sin does not help.

Now the big question. Is the story as bad as everyone says?

Yes. Yes it is.

Look. Simple stories with obvious plot twists CAN be done very well! This one is not. The dialogue is bad, and more than that it drags on fooooooooooooreeeeeeeeeeeeveeeeeeer. My god every scene lasts at least 5 minutes longer than it needed to. Special mention to Lumera and the Hounds’ deaths, as well as “But I wanted to be a good dragon.” It’s just not cheesy enough to be entertaining and not interesting enough to be, well, engaging.

Last note because I couldn’t think of where else to put it. But. The soundtrack is also pretty darn underwhelming. I like the Solm music! And I like a lot of the remixes! But overall it’s just. Bland.

So yeah. If you can find a cheap secondhand copy? Knock yourself out. Otherwise? Don’t bother.

[astrarobotica]

I've been playing a lot of MechWarrior 4/5: Mercenaries lately, and it really just makes me wish Bandai Namco would make like, an actually good, canonical Mobile Suit Gundam game.

It's really annoying that for the past decade or so, nearly all Gundam games have been PvP-focused mashup games that are basically just saying "Wouldn't it be cool if Amuro Ray could fight Domon Kasshu but also fight the guy from Gundam Seed at the same time?" Like yeah it would be cool! And honestly the Gundam Extreme Versus MaxiBoost Whatever the Fuck™ games look like the best games that have come out of the franchise recently. But then they were like "Okay what if we do that again, but rather than being a 2v2 arena fighter it's just fucking Overwatch? What if we make it so similar to Overwatch that we basically just copy the HUD almost exactly? What if we release this game TWO WEEKS before Overwatch 2 comes out?"

The thing that really bothers me about Gundam Evolution is it had a lot of potential to be a decent Just Another Hero Shooter if they had just put some thought into giving it an actual identity. The gameplay was actually pretty good, but they didn't do nearly enough to make it feel like a Gundam game. It was just Overwatch with a random assortment of mobile suits from 4-5 different universes. The fact that they went so far as to shut it down only a year after it came out is absurd. I'm not surprised that the game wasn't successful, but I'm confused at how they thought it would be, and then it was apparently so unsuccessful (meaning not enough people were buying the cosmetic shit for it to be profitable) that it wasn't even worth keeping the servers up and providing minimal support for people who did actually enjoy it.

Then there's Battle Operation 2, which feels more like what I think a Gundam game should be and is at least limited to UC content, but I just don't enjoy playing it. It's an overly-complicated free to play game that seems to reward players who play (or spend) a lot, which makes it difficult to get acclimated when you're just starting out. I haven't played it enough to feel like I can accuse it of being pay-to-win, but I've seen that argument made by other people, and it difficult not to feel that way a little bit considering how most of my matches have gone. And I'm sure a lot of that comes down to me just not playing the game enough to actually get good, but it just doesn't feel worth the frustration of trying to get there when the game seems average at best. I keep wanting to give it another chance, but I get frustrated every time I do. It certainly doesn't help that I've only been able to play on maybe three distinct maps, and specifically one of them away more than the other two.

Back to the point...

I've been playing MechWarrior 4: Mercenaries and MechWarrior 5: Mercenaries a lot over the past couple weeks. Neither of them are perfect games. They both have unique strengths and shortcomings. A lot of people would probably disagree with the things I like or dislike about them. But I think they're both a lot of fun, because they both make huge effort to make it feel like you're controlling a big bidepal machine loaded with weapons, and to make the combat engaging and satisfying.

The crazy thing about how much I enjoy these games is that I'm not even that interested in the greater BattleTech universe. I've played 20 hours or so of the turn-based video game from 2018 (although I need to go back to it because I don't really feel like I've experienced that much of it) but that's it. I know very little about the tabletop game. I've never read any of the books. I know the basic concepts in the lore and I know of the Houses and the Clans and all of that, but not much else. I know of some of the people but I don't know anyone's motives or ideals. I feel bad saying this, but I just don't care about the universe these games are set in. The plots of the games allude to much bigger events occurring in the background, but without context none of it means much to me. I don't think it's bad at all, but I think it's just not for me. It seems very dense and complicated, and I honestly think if I took the time to read some of it I would enjoy it. But I just don't have the desire to become engrossed within the world like I do with other fictional worlds. I think I'm just not that interested in the whole Feudalism, But in Space genre.

So it's just a bit of a shame that Mobile Suit Gundam games don't get that same level of treatment/production value. A game set in the UC timeline with a gameplay loop similar to MechWarrior: Mercenaries games would probably be my favorite game ever if it was actually any good. I just like good mech games. I loved Titanfall 2 even though I usually hate fast-paced multiplayer shooters. I really need to buy Armored Core 6 soon (speaking of, FromSoft made a Japan-only Gundam Unicorn game a while back, why not let them have another go?). There's so much potential to not only make good Gundam games that aren't PvP-focused, but also to make Gundam games that actually make sense canonically. Bandai Namco somehow felt confident enough to rip off Overwatch and thought that was a risk worth taking, but they don't want to make games that actually acknowledge there are stories and deep lore and a really good science fiction universe behind the big cool robots.

[veebs-hates-video-games]

Ok Unicorn Overlord will get its own post at some point now that I'm finally done with it (spoilers: it's pretty great but not perfect, and I still like Engage more for SRPGs I've played semi-recently, but it's definitely one of my favorite things I've played so far this year), but here's some other stuff that's accumulated while I've been busy playing that or otherwise not posting on here.

I finally got around to playing Night in the Woods, or at least some of it. I get why people like it so much, but I think it's just not really my thing. The characters and the world are fun and everything, but when I'm a few hours in and have zero idea how far I am in the game because there's been zero actual plot so far, just random slice of life stuff, I'm probably going to get distracted and go do something else.

I tried to keep going because so many people I know really love it, but then I ran into the problem that it's possibly the only game I have on the Switch that's literally unplayable for me when the sun is up unless I go hide in a dark closet or something. I'm not turning up the brightness for the dark scenes with an average color of #010002 just to get my retinas seared off as soon as it switches to daytime again, especially when I don't have to do that in any other game. I have the fun combo of being noticeably more light sensitive than average but also having moderately bad and somewhat uncorrectable vision, and that just doesn't mesh well with trying to play this game at any time other than the middle of the night.

Death end re;Quest 2 was going to get its own post, but I just can't work up the effort to write it. I actually completely forgot I'd even played it a few days after finishing, that's how little of an impression it left on me. It was such a letdown after how interesting the first one was (despite all the problems I also had with it). I have no idea why they dropped the focus on most stuff that made the first one stand out as unique and went with much more generic horror this time around.

I could complain about the gameplay being less fun this time around for some reason (even though I never used the genre shift mechanics in the original, so it's not like it was because that was missing) or how predictable the story was or how much wasted potential the characters had (please let them have more than one personality trait), but I think I'll settle for complaining about fanservice and call it a day.

I appreciate that they dialed back on the visual side of the fanservice stuff from the first game, even if they probably only did it because so many of the characters are underage this time around, but they made up for it with their characterization instead. Look, if you have the right to write potentially interesting but ultimately relatively shallow characters and fill them with your own fetishes, I have the right to not like it and complain about it. Let Rottie have a personality trait other than "is gay", please. And just because you don't have her running around half naked because she's only 13 doesn't mean you're not still a weird creep for making her Extremely Normal about smelling Mai all the time or for making both DerQ games each have young girls talking about wetting their pants more than every other game I've played in my life combined (with the notable exception of Sahad Ys8, who somehow manages to do it twice as much as these games do combined while still being a pretty likable guy).

Maybe the story finally goes somewhere if you do the NG+ stuff, but I don't have the fortitude to drag myself through that, especially since you apparently need to do all the side quests to unlock all the dialogues, and the side quests suck and are just filler/padding. I didn't mind doing NG+ in the first one because I was actually invested in the story, but I just don't care enough this time. I'm not feeling optimistic about future games in the series, but if they're closer to what the first one was like I could be persuaded to try another if it's on sale cheap enough.

And I guess to end on a positive note, Vampire Survivors is still great. I originally played it on my computer before any of the DLC existed, and I did a bunch of what was in the game at the time but got distracted before finishing everything. I always meant to go back to it and do more and try the DLC, but I haven't been using my computer as much in the time between then and now because seeing is hard.

So I grabbed it and all the DLC on my Switch instead because it's practically free anyway, and I replayed everything I already did before plus all the new stuff, and I regret nothing. The first couple DLCs (Legacy of the Moonspell and Tides of the Foscari) were a bit underwhelming, even if some of the new characters and weapons were kind of fun, but the Amogus and Contra ones were actually surprisingly great. I was expecting crossover stuff to be worse and just a cash grab, but they actually did some really neat stuff with them and they were a lot of fun. I think I would've liked Foscari more if it had a proper adventure mode like the others to introduce you to the new stuff instead of just blasting through it with all your existing upgrades intact, but they haven't gone back and redone that one yet to add that. I suspect it'll be good when they do though, considering everything they've learned from making the more recent ones.

[i-consume-content]

PIZZA TOWER

Piping-Hot Platformer Perfection

Having been a long-time fan of Super Mario and all things Nintendo, I have never played a Sonic the Hedgehog game. I never really thought going extra fast was enough to hook me into a new platforming experience, but when I tried out early 2023's indie highlight Pizza Tower, it began to change my mind.

You play as Peppino Spaghetti, who's on a quest to destroy the Pizza Tower before the evil Pizzaface uses it to blow up Peppino's Pizza. Pizza Tower's gameplay loop is simple: run to the end of the level, destroy the load-bearing pillar, and get back to the start before the escape timer runs out. Hidden beneath this simple premise is one of the most addicting games I've ever played. Peppino controls like a dream, even at top speeds, with responsive controls that have been finely tuned to encourage high speed, tight turns, and well-timed reactions. Levels have been carefully built, with each wall, gap, and enemy meticulously arranged to create a satisfying experience for the average player, and a potentially godlike one for those who have mastered Peppino's moveset. Once you've familiarized yourself with a stage, it can be an absolute joy to breeze through it like nobody's business, especially if you're going for those P-ranks. The difficulty feels comfortable on first playthrough and provides a fun challenge for those who want to be as great as can be.

The artstyle is messy and it works. The large-canvas pixel art echoes the classic look of Microsoft Paint, and fans of old Cartoon Network shows like Ren & Stimpy will recognize how those shows' energy works its way in to make the art look great. The animation is fluid and snappy, conveying Peppino’s brutal rage when attacking enemies and speeding around the level.

And the soundtrack? Don’t even get me started, it’s phenomenal. There was not a single miss in this musical journey, and even the bonus tracks on the OST go above and beyond. It’s Pizza Time gets you pumped up and sweating for the harrowing run back to the start, the boss themes set the stage just as well as the art, and the final track (which I will keep vague to avoid spoilers) really lets you know that this is it, you’ve done it.

Pizza Tower exploded in popularity for good reason. It is one of the best platformers I’ve had the pleasure of playing in recent years, so if you haven’t played it yet, this is your wake-up call. Go drop some cash on it on Steam, and I guarantee you’ll love it in 30 minutes or less. That’s an ICC promise!

FINAL RATING:

A Supreme Pizza out of 10

- Rock

[prancingintheshadows]

I've just finished FFVII Rebirth and RWBY's back with new content, so obviously those two things are the only thing on my mind right now. So of course with my brainrot I have to imagine and conceptualize what the RWBY characters would play like in FF7 rebirth. Especially since Monty was a fan of Final Fantasy.

For people playing Rebirth, there's not going to be any story spoilers, but this will go into gameplay and talk about certain abilities in the game as comparison.

This is mostly just 'how would these characters be designed in this gameplay?', so I'm not really making any big changes to Rebirth's systems to account for RWBY's in-universe mechanics. While Dust is similar to materia, there's some notable differences but I'm ignoring those differences for the sake of this. So these characters will all use Dust/Materia the way the game does, using mp or something rather than having dust be like ammo. And speaking of MP, same case. Aura is both HP and MP in RWBY, but for the sake of this, everyone's having separate bars for those.

My plan is to generally talk about the overall gameplay identity of each character, along with specific details like if they have attacks after dodging worth mentioning or holding square produces a unique attack or such. I will not be talking about synergy, at least, not in this post. Maybe in a future one if I have the attention span.

For the first of these posts I'm tackling everyone's favorite blonde brawler

Yang

Basic Idea

I'm starting with Yang because... she was the easiest. But not too easy. It's not like we can slap on Tifa's moveset and stats and call it a day. Tifa's combo focused gameplan is fun and fitting for a martial artist, but it lacks the defining features of Yang's semblance. Yang's the toughest member of her team by a long shot and her semblance builds up as she takes damage, so it's instead easier to take inspiration from Red XIII's Vengeance Mode. However, not everything of Red's is usable. Red features a lot of supportive moves that apply buffs or healing and that's not really in line with Yang's straightforward, frontline fighting style, so I'd ideally take a mix of Red's ability to turn defense into resources as well as Tifa's explosive damage potential.

In keeping in line with this mix of tank and damage dealer, ideally Yang would have comparatively high health and defenses, though I can see magic defense being noticeably lower, along with good attack and low 'magic' or whatever the dust equivalent would be. Controversially though, I'd put her speed rather low. Yang's not slow, but everything's relative, especially in video games and video game balance. Comparing to everyone else on Team RWBY, Yang's slow. I'm not too sure on luck, but I'm leaning more towards low. Yang strikes me as doing a lot of damage raw rather than relying on situational damage like crits.

Yang, like Tifa, uses martial arts, so she has a short attack range that doesn't have much spread. As such, when coming out of a dodge, Yang will do a spinning kick. I get she's a punch girl, but she's not exclusively using punches. Holding square has her do a close range shot gun blast that can push enemies back. I'd also say Yang's dodge is only average. Again, relative speeds. She's got Ruby and Blake on her team, Yang has to be average at dodging at best by comparison.

Burn Mode

We gotta talk about Yang's unique mechanic. As stated earlier, I think elements from both Red XIII and Tifa work, so I'm trying to mesh them together. At the fundamental level, it works like Vengeance where blocking builds up a meter. However, this meter has several levels, much like Tifa's Chi or Cait Sith's moogle stuff. Obviously, building more levels increases the potency of the Burn Mode, which is functionally a super mode. I'm thinking maybe 3 levels? Like Red, Yang's attacks get a massive boost and increased range and the button used to transform is replaced with a new attack.

Unlike Red, this attack will drain the form's meter, similar to Tifa using up levels of Chi and falling to the lower level. Also, these levels drop quicker than Tifa's Chi or Red's Vengeance. This is just a byproduct of what I'm trying to achieve with Yang. While being a tank/dps hybrid can be a rather simple character, I want to give Yang's fighting game plan depth and complexity. Have her be able to fight smarter like in the show. It's why I want a healthy mix from both characters. Tifa's chi is cool, but you ultimately just spend all of it on a staggered enemy and there's no other uses for it as the buffs it gives you passively aren't enough to be worth considering, so Yang's Burn Mode needs to have passive benefits closer to Red's Vengeance than Tifa's Unbridled Strength. But it also needs to run out in a decent time frame to make spending Burn levels acceptable. I want that conflict of deciding whether or not using a level of burn for a potent attack is worth it. And similarly to Red, I want a lot of interplay between Yang's super mode and her abilities.

Abilities

I'm not going to make enough abilities to match the Rebirth characters. They have 10 abilities, which is an insane amount to be doing for 4 characters for a 'for fun' theory craft. There are certain requisite things Yang needs for abilities. For one, a rather standard damaging ability. You know, your Bravers, Divekicks, and Sidewinders. Likely some sort of punch. Easy enough.

Second thing, Yang's very block heavy, so like Cloud and Red, she gets an ability that puts her in a guard stance that builds up meter faster and is functionally a better guard. I call it Block Party, and no, I will not be using puns this entire section.

Most of Yang's abilities I want to play with Burn in some way to create that possibility for smart play while staying true to her fighting abilities. Dragon Throw is probably the ability that I've best made to fit this mold. In base, Yang grabs an enemy and chucks them at another enemy. In Burn, Yang instead grabs the enemy, and in true FF fashion, leaps into the air and comes crashing down on a different enemy. This gives Yang a repositioning tool without detracting from the brawler fantasy. I think this is also not out of the question as there's a few abilities in Rebirth that bring enemies closer, so I don't see any problem with just straight up manhandling them like this.

Meteor Impact is Yang's basic AoE attack where she slams the ground. It interacts with Burn the same way Dragon Throw does. While out of Burn, it's decent, but in Burn, it's range and power increases. It would be a simple and effective tool for people who like using Burn in a straightforward manner.

Bombshell is an ability that uses Burn meter the other way. You don't have to be in Burn mode to improve the move, the move will simply eat meter from Burn by default. Yang attaches sticky bombs to the enemy that go off the next time they're hit with an ability. The amount of stickies attached can be increased by holding down the command and spending meter. It's a move that has some thought that can be put in it. It doesn't deal immediate damage, so you have to either be willing to wait or have resources left over to set them off. You could attach bombs to an enemy and then Dragon Throw them to make them a living bomb. You can set them up when the enemies stagger is nearly complete so you can rebuild your ATB and resources and go for a truly devastating combo. You can go full throttle on the bombs or hold back so you can still enter Burn.

The next ability is one I really wanted to make once I had the concept of Yang down as a fighter with a lot of variability. Golden Glow takes inspiration from Unfettered Fury being a side grade to Unbridled Strength. It's an alterative to Burn. While Burn quickly burns out and has potent offenses, Golden Glow is a mode that lasts longer but instead focuses on Yang's defenses. While Yang mostly uses her semblance to attack, she's also used it a few times to take hits. An ability like this has lots of synergy with Yang's abilities that want her to be in her super form, but doesn't play as well with moves like Bombshell that prefer having meter being quick to build and spend rather than something long lasting.

Limits

Limits aren't hard to do, but I should still talk about them anyways. A solid chunk of Rebirth's cast has a basic Level 1 Limit, a Level 2 that increases stagger a lot, and a Level 3 which just does tons more damage. That's not to say all of them are like that. Red notably gets healing from his LB1 and a longer lasting mode from his LB2.

LB1 I'd make a basic damaging limit. It'd be just one big strong punch, like the one used against Junior in the Yellow Trailer, to mirror how quick a lot of the other LB1s are.

LB2 would put Yang in Burn with 1 extra level. If used while you have level 3, this would put you in the otherwise unreachable level 4. Because of course there's 4, this a RWBY character, I can't not slap the number 4 on things. I'd probably use a scene from the JL movie part 2 actually. The one where Yang activates her semblance, jumps up, and starts peppering the battlefield with gunfire. I just think it's good to have a little bit of variety between all the melee combat.

LB3, due to being a whole process to get up to, would be huge stagger increase and huge damage. It's meant to help end the fight, regardless of how the enemy is currently looking. I actually think I'd like her to do something new for this attack honestly. LB1 already uses something from the early RWBY days and LB2 uses more recent stuff, so there's a good spread of representation.

[claristhegirl]

And there we have it! After 7 1/2 years, I've finally completed Birthright Lunatic difficulty!

Some backstory: When I originally played Revelation in early 2016, I had already completed Birthright and Conquest on Hard, and decided my first [and only] Revelation playthrough would be on Lunatic as I was already familiar enough with the game. After finishing Revelation, I started Lunatic playthroughs of both Birthright and Conquest, but as Birthright is the relatively easy game I added some extra restrictions:

No grinding.

No My Castle use. This meant I was limited only to items obtained during chapters as I couldn't buy anything from shops.

No statbooster use (…I think, I'm not entirely sure I didn't use any back in 2016 but I had a ton in my inventory, so).

No paralogues, though that's mainly because of how offputting I find the entire kids setup in Fates to be.

Conquest didn't get very far, only reaching Chapter 10 (I'll just start over completely eventually). Birthright made it to Chapter 16; I don't remember why exactly I stopped playing, though the opening of Ch16 is a bit overwhelming.

And so the playthrough lay dormant for nearly 7 1/2 years. But a bit over a week ago, thanks to a friend I was wanting to play some 3DS FE again, and so I picked up this playthrough again and got through the rest relatively easily with the help of over 7 years of additional FE experience.

Finishing this playthrough has really rubbed in how much it feels like Birthright doesn't stand on its own at all. Where are enemy skills? Why are the changes in difficulty level basically just "more enemies"? Why is the hyped up near endgame battle against Corrin's brother so incredibly simple with him "holding back"? Why is the final boss's position so close to the start making it an incredibly easy 1 turn with a bit of setup? The answer to all of these is "because Conquest is the opposite". The game wouldn't be designed like this if Conquest didn't exist. Birthright was basically advertised as the game for fans of Awakening, but a standalone Awakening followup likely wouldn't be like that. It makes the game not feel whole, I guess.

But regardless, it's still Fire Emblem, and Fates does have some really fun gameplay systems (albeit overly complicated at times, which is ironic in how they're all shared with the "simple" game Birthright). I'm glad I finally came back to this playthrough and had a good time with it.

Character and chapter info:

Corrin (238 Battles / 132 Victories) Girl

Oboro (206 Battles / 127 Victories) She was my best physically defensive unit, making her incredibly valuable. I'm surprised her battle count managed to barely surpass Ryoma's. Also, Girl.

Ryoma (202 Battles / 188 Victories) lol. Just… lol. What an absolutely utterly absurd unit. He did a fantastic job of being the emergency delete button for large groups of enemies.

Hinoka (156 Battles / 70 Victories) I'm surprised she's that high, but I suppose her ability to solo Magic enemies across several rounds of combat helped with that. She ended up fairly weak but good for support with her personal and Rally Speed.

Kaze (154 Battles / 99 Victories) Kaze's damage output always disappointed me, but his shuriken debuffs and massive Res ensured he got a bunch of use regardless.

Setsuna (108 Battles / 88 Victories) I had high hopes for Setsuna, as she was decently above average on Strength at promotion… but then proceeded to get only a single point of Str in the next 13 levels after that. She'll always hold a special place in my heart though, for this absurdly unlikely moment back from my 2016 portion of the playthrough:

1 / 250. She just happened to be standing adjacent while Kaze was weakening Camilla, and she got the 1 / 250 chance of finishing off Camilla instantly. This particular moment made this specific playthrough mean a lot to me, which is a big part of why I resumed it from Ch16 instead of starting over. (This picture was taken on April 5th 2016)

Orochi (105 Battles / 74 Victories) My only primary Magic user, her terrible speed meant I didn't use her as much as I would've liked to. I'm very glad I decided to promote her with my somewhat limited Master Seals before Chapter 19 though lol, I did not remember the gimmick of that map beforehand at all.

Takumi (100 Battles / 74 Victories) Fujin Yumi sure is good. He was slower than I'd like, given I almost always had to augment his speed whenever I needed him to do something.

Jakob (100 Battles / 55 Victories) Jakob was reclassed into a Paladin sometime before Chapter 16, before I resumed this playthrough. I don't know if I knew back then that, with my restrictions, it was the only Heart Seal I was gonna get lol. I didn't use him for combat much after resuming the playthrough, but he was a nice support unit thanks to Gentilhomme and Shelter.

Silas (80 Battles / 59 Victories) His main role was Pair Up and Shelter support for most of the later game. It was really funny the few times where I had him do a chip attack and he activated Luna, which I always forgot about.

Kagero (80 Battles / 57 Victories) Much stronger than Kaze, but her even worse defense and significantly worse Res meant she was too fragile a lot of the time. Her main legacy is unfortunately costing me two Chapter 25 attempts (one at the very end) due to very stupid mistakes on my part.

Scarlet (64 Battles / 47 Victories) My only axe unit, her Hammer was incredibly useful late game. She mostly was a very useful support unit thanks to Rally Defense.

Saizo (30 Battles / 17 Victories) I brought him in on Chapters 22 and 26/27 when the game gave me an extra deployment slot and I needed a filler unit for it.

Shura (17 Battles / 9 Victories) A prepromote gotten right after the game gives you another deployment slot, he had a nice role as an extra healer and a 3 range attacker with the Spy's Yumi only he could use.

Sakura (3 Battles / 0 Victories) Very useful support unit between her healing, personal skill and Rally Luck. Due to being unable to buy Staves with my restrictions, I couldn't grind experience by mindlessly healing; combined with my bad habit of never wanting to promote early, she didn't actually promote until Endgame (at Level 18) where it didn't matter anymore. She would have to be an Onmyoji to actually attack, though, as I had no E rank bows she could use as a Priestess.

Azura (2 Battles / 0 Victories) My Azura was absurdly strength blessed, capping Str and Spd pretty early. Super annoying that she was strictly a support unit who only saw combat from occasional Dual Strikes, lol. But as a support unit she sure was fantastic. Her personal was very useful for healing without using staves.

Turn counts and MVPs: Prologue: 2 (None) Chapter 1: 5 (None) Chapter 2: 6 (Corrin & Jakob) Chapter 3: 13 (Corrin & Jakob) Chapter 4: 26 (Corrin & Kaze) Chapter 5: 110 (Corrin & Azura) …I assume I did a ton of Azura grinding here. Chapter 6: 2 (Corrin & Kaze) Chapter 7: 12 (Corrin & Jakob) Chapter 8: 9 (Rinkah & Silas) Chapter 9: 10 (Jakob & Silas) Chapter 10: 17 (Corrin & Kaze) Chapter 11: 15 (Corrin & Kaze) Chapter 12: 7 (Jakob & Kagero) Chapter 13: 9 (Silas & Kagero) Chapter 14: 14 (Silas & Orochi) Chapter 15: 15 (Corrin & Jakob)

Chapter 16: 16 (Hinoka & Ryoma) The first chapter after I returned to this playthrough. The first two turns were a bit overwhelming, but the rest wasn't bad once I decided to let Ryoma do Ryoma things. It was weird having a time limit here before the thieves reach the treasure, only for this kind of objective to never come up again for the rest of the game; kinda set some false expectations as my first chapter back.

Chapter 17: 28 (Takumi & Kagero) Pretty easy, the villages were a bit scary as I didn't know where the enemies would come from but not actually bad when I completely surrounded them with my own units first.

Chapter 18: 3 (Jakob & Orochi) Easy 1 turn but I spent a couple more turns to get the items from Odin and Niles.

Chapter 19: 14 (Corrin & Orochi) I totally forgot about this chapter's weird stat gimmick beforehand; sure made for an easy chapter though I would've had much more trouble without a promoted Orochi.

Chapter 20: 7 (Orochi & Ryoma) Another very easy map.

Chapter 21: 42 (Azura & Silas) Just about the end of the super easy maps as it's the last map where enemies don't charge at you before you're in their range.

Chapter 22: 18 (Corrin & Jakob) Had to get used to enemies coming for me unprovoked now; from this point on I started leaning on Ryoma hard.

Chapter 23: 47 (Corrin & Ryoma) Okay what the hell this chapter?? Such an absurd difficulty spike. I deployed only 8 units, then put them all in 4 pairs in the 4 tile wide hallway to the left so they all avoided Camilla's corridor attack.

Ryoma/Corrin were on the left and took out most enemies.

Kaze/Hinoka were the middle left, Hinoka there as a healer, switching to Kaze when there were bow units around; they were left unequipped to bait a magical ranged attacker that could do no damage and would block the only 1 range tile that could reach Ryoma, letting him slowly pick off every 1 range enemy that surrounded the area.

Shura/Jakob were the middle right. Shura was very nice as a healer with better defenses than my other healers so he could take a ranged attack. Jakob was there in case I needed his support skills.

Oboro/Silas were on the right, tanking anything that came that way as best as I could. Despite much fewer enemies, she had much more trouble than Ryoma did.

Once all the moving enemies and reinforcements were gone, Corrin and Ryoma cleared up the rest of the map, while a few units stayed in the right column to keep Camilla's attention there.

Chapter 24: 26 (Hinoka & Setsuna) So many enemies. So many enemies…. So many enemies………. Not that hard, just long and tedious since I was going for a full rout.

Chapter 25: 55 (Corrin & Scarlet) This chapter was super annoying as I failed two attempts due to very stupid mistakes. The first, I was near the end of the reinforcements, I carefully set up my units to bait two of the four incoming enemies at the edge of their range… And I totally forgot to move Ryoma. So he was left in range of 4 enemies, all having Weapon Triangle Advantage against him, without a pair up or any rallying. And he barely survived!! I thought that would be the end, but Ryoma is too good and Vantage came through. …..And then the VERY NEXT TURN I made the exact same mistake of forgetting to move a unit, except this time it was Kagero who got OHKO'd by a 100% hit attack. The second, I reached the very end. I set up all my units so that each of the 6 enemies in the row at the top would attack one unit each… And I didn't bother to do all of the combat math because I assumed everything would be fine, and Kagero got exactly OHKO'd. Super frustrating mistakes on my part. The beginning was pretty funny, with waves of 6 enemies attacking from the left and right each turn for the first 6 or so turns. Most of my units worked together to take out all the units on the right; Ryoma (with a pair up partner and some rallies) took out every enemy on the left. There being enemies with Entrap was scary, until I realized they couldn't actually warp me anywhere that Ryoma couldn't handle easily.

Chapter 26: 19 (Jakob & Oboro) Went for a full rout instead of the comically easy 1 turn. You don't even get anything for it aside from a Sun Festal pretty close to the start.

Chapter 27: 34 (Silas & Oboro) A large part of the map was [Enemy group moves on the left] Okay Ryoma, go to the left. [Enemy group moves on the right] Okay Ryoma, go to the right. [Enemy group moves on the left] Okay Ryoma, go to the left. I had the game crash once mid-chapter; I entered a battle animation, but the character models failed to load and several seconds later the game gave up. That was a super annoying way to fail an attempt. .-.

Endgame: 1 (Corrin & Kaze) Spent way more time than I needed to setting things up due to not wanting to redo Chapter 27 if I failed. My setup was:

Sakura tries using a Hexing Rod because lol

Corrin moves up

Azura dances Corrin

Kaze is paired with Jakob (+1 move), moves above Corrin, transfers Jakob to Corrin, then attacks the boss with the Spy's Shuriken + a Corrin Dual Strike

Oboro and Ryoma are Rescued closer to the boss

Oboro attacks to activate Seal Defense

Corrin attacks

Ryoma attack with a Corrin Dual Strike

The result was that Sakura missed with her Hexing Rod, but Ryoma wasn't even needed as Corrin finished off the boss herself.

[notajinn]

Top Games Played in 2023 - Number 2: Fire Emblem Engage

2. Fire Emblem Engage (Switch)

Fire Emblem Engage was the first game in the series I was straight up disappointed to see announced. The main character looked awful, and the tone felt way too young. I figured this was going to be my least favourite Fire Emblem game.

But once I actually played it, I realized it was surprisingly good.

What I Like

Engage is basically the opposite of Fire Emblem Three Houses in terms of where it excels and where it fails. Three Houses has unremarkable maps and combat gameplay, so Engage has some of the best maps in the series! Seriously, this game made me remember the combat in Fire Emblem is supposed to be fun and not just something you push through to get to the story. There's multiple different map designs, different objectives than just "kill the boss/all enemies", and great enemy placement. They also brought back the Weapon Triangle which was inexplicably missing in Three Houses.

I also really like the Emblem specific maps brought from previous games in the series. Some of them are weird choices (Lyn's is from Binding Blade even though she's not in that game) but they're all fun to play. It's also interesting to see how maps designed for different combat systems are adapted for Engage, especially the large map of Genealogy of the Holy War.

And while the general story and writing of Engage does not live up the 3H, there are some really good characters and pieces of writing in this game. A lot of it is in later Support conversations and further in the story, so it really does get better as you go.

In particular this has my favourite version of the series mascot Anna; they turned her into a child but kept her as a crafty merchant.

Re-classing seems less broken than some other games, especially because permanent skills aren't unlocked through it. So it's really a case of what class you want (or possibly what growth rates you want) rather than pushing through a mediocre class for a good skill. I also appreciate that no one class seems to be the best like the Wyvern Lord in 3H.

Instead skills aren't learned through the Emblem rings, which act as equipment you can put onto a character as needed. However you get certain great passive and active abilities from wearing them that you can't ever permanently learn otherwise, so there's a strategy in deciding which Emblem to equip on which character.

The in-between home base sections are very streamlined and can be finished much quicker than previous games.

It's also nice to see the classic characters with current gen Switch graphics. Speaking of graphics, they are a HUGE step up from 3D. Plus this game has a much more vibrant colour scheme.

Engage also has by FAR the best combat animations of the series since the GBA days. It really feels like they're trying to adapt those animations with how lively the characters move. There's also cool small touches such as low level characters doing dodge animations when the enemy misses, but high level characters deflecting the attack when it misses.

There's also a cool new class where the character rides a wolf and fights with a knife. That's like objectively cool. And the wolf does flips!

What I Don't Like

As I mentioned before, Engage does not have great writing most of the time. The story is pretty average, and a lot of the characters are just fine. Even the good ones like Alfred often need some investment into Support conversations before they really shine, writing wise.

Some of the Emblems in particular just feel out of character and very one-note. Lyn gets this the worst given originally she's a reckless person focused on family and revenge as well as her homeland. Here she just...talks about her homeland. None of the other stuff.

The game also makes a horrible first impression. Not just the trailer. Not just the cheesy Saturday morning cartoon theme song (which I like but not for a Fire Emblem game). But the initial few chapters have you with just the ugly main character and two annoying same-looking kids. It takes some time to get going, and I can see people drop it before getting that far.

You also have the ability to unlock outfits, but they only show up during the home-base. So they are basically pointless.

One MAJOR and inexplicable negative is that there are no paired endings except for the main character. Practically every Fire Emblem game since they started releasing in the West have had paired endings, so it's really weird they're missing here. I want to ship some of these characters, and the supports make it seem like they should end up together, but too bad for me.

Final Thoughts

Fire Emblem Engage feels like a return to form after the unusual (but great) departure of Three Houses. As someone who was worried the future of the series wouldn't return to these gameplay highs, I'm glad to be proven wrong. I just wish it had a better looking main character and general introduction so people didn't dismiss the game.

[queenlua]

let's see about 5, 11, 12, 13 for the ask meme?

5. What game would you recommend to someone new to the series?

ugh this is so HARD because i don't think there's any game that's perfect for this...

if they're new to the series but have enjoyed at least a couple older video games at some point (and thus have some tolerance for a bit of gameplay cruft and GBA-era rough edges), i'd be really tempted to throw Sacred Stones at them. absolutely gorgeous sprites, good music, probably the most solid/focused/best-executed story in the series, fun support conversations, and very good gameplay whose only flaw is "it's kinda too easy." but it's satisfying and if someone likes everything about it but "too easy," then that's an easy problem to fix with subsequent games lol

i suspect Awakening is probably the objectively-better answer, though. first "modern"-feeling FE in terms of how streamlined and nice the mechanics feel, the depth/multiplicity of strategies, the storyline is weaker but still has definite highlights (especially when the kids show up), etc

Three Houses is a solid contender but the game is kind of bloated with extras that i think can make playing it feel like a bit of a drag; i know a lot of people who just kinda flaked out or gave up b/c of all the monastery stuff, and i wouldn't want someone's first FE to end that way

i do love the Tellius games but i wouldn't recommend them as starter games. the 3d sprites are kinda ugly and it definitely shows its age a bit in terms of gameplay cruft

11. A character that deserved better?

Edelgard, tbh. she's fantastic when the game isn't trying to make her all woobie/waifu/etc. wouldn't even take many changes to fix this one!

also Renning. i love what's on the page but he gets so little and shows up so late. give the dude some damn base conversations plz

also Meg. the game is so mean to her, goddamn.

12. A game that deserved better?

oh boy. the problem here is, if i finished playing an FE game, that means i liked it well enough over all, even if there's stuff i didn't like. like, i wish Awakening's storyline was stronger, but it definitely feels like it executed on exactly what it wanted to do, so i wouldn't say the game deserves better per se

so i guess i'll say the two FE games i tried and failed to play:

fe6: i ragequit on the map with the fucking reinforcements that move the same turn that they spawn. motherfuckers. why

fe14: i was already pretty "eh" on the story and then that one fucking "defend [x] turns" map (unhappy reunion iirc) took SO much finicky effort to survive that by the time i finished it i was like. ugh. i'm so tired. and then i put it down for a while and never picked it back up oops

13. What do you like most about Fire Emblem?

...god this is going to make me sound SO uncultured but, the support conversations, especially in the older games, are just so delightful. delightful in-and-of-themselves (especially when they would happen DIRECTLY ON THE BATTLEFIELD lmao), and also, were probably weirdly influential in how i thought about game writing / writing generally. conveyed a huge amount of personality & implied huge things about the world & in a relatively small space; and also refused to let anyone be just a rando soldier in your army; you can look back at short fiction i wrote in middle school and see how much i was striving to get that huge-cast-small-space-feel in that format. simple but effective approach

also it's nice to have a big-name game series that executes so well on story and gameplay, on average. i've played a lot of Final Fantasy and i love those games but. often the gameplay is just kinda mediocre/grind-y, right, and i'm forcing my way through for the story? could NOT be fire emblem lol

[doppel-drop-distance]

The Dubiously Needed, Unnecessarily Extensive Magia Record Stat Guide (Connect)

I'm back!

Now that all the boring math is out of the way, we can get into the really fun stuff - the actual kit!

Upon using three of their discs, a character unlocks their Connect. Connects are a form of ally support that every character has access to. In using it, an ally can borrow one of your character’s discs, alongside some unique buffs for that turn. 

As always, a visual example with our helpful protagonist, Iroha:

Iroha’s Connect: We’re Together, We’ll Be Fine

HP Restore [VIII] (47.5%)

MP Restore to Yachiyo Nanami (30 MP)

Attack Up [VI] (32.5%)

Connects typically grant two to three effects. Four effects is not unheard of, but often exclusive to limited or anniversary characters. 

The Connect is the first step in getting into the real nitty-gritty of your character’s playstyle. Maybe by now you’ve determined that you want your character to be offensive or defensive, an Accele character or a Blast character. The Connect is where you determine how that playstyle benefits your team. 

Iroha is a Heal type unit, so it only makes sense that her Connect heals an ally. It also provides a neat little Attack boost on top. But what about characters with less obvious means of support? 

Yachiyo’s Connect: I’ll Light the Way

Blast Damage Up [IX] (80%)

Critical Hit Chance [IX] (70%)

HP Restore to Iroha Tamaki (25%)

Yachiyo is an offensive character with a disc spread of Accele/Blast/Blast/Blast/Charge. As you might expect, she aims to deal plenty of damage with Blast discs. Therefore, her teammates will also want to use Blast discs, so they can chain together Blast combos and deal more damage. Yachiyo’s Connect supports her allies by giving them Blast Damage Up and a chance to deal double damage with critical hits. As an offensive character, Yachiyo’s Connect enables her allies’ offensive capabilities. 

There are many effects you can choose from to build your character’s support. There’s healing (HP Restore, MP Restore…), buffing (Attack Up, Defense Up, Damage Up…), status ailments (Poison, Curse, Charm, Bind…) and conditional effects (Ignore Defense, Damage Cut, Evade, Counter…). When I say many, I do mean MANY, and it would take far too long to explain every effect here. I would highly suggest checking out the Magia Record English Wiki’s article on skills and status effects: Skills and Status Effects | Magia Record English Wiki | Fandom. 

Thinking from a gameplay perspective can be kind of taxing, so we can always look at this another way. Rather than thinking in numbers and percentages, we can think from our own OC’s personal fighting styles. If your OC was fighting a Witch with another character, what would they do to support them? Would they cover their advance? Would they empower their weapons with their magic? Would they keep the Witch distracted, or weaken them so their teammate could make a deadly attack? A character’s Connect can be just as personality-related as it is gameplay-related. 

You may remember in Iroha and Yachiyo’s Connects that they gave a bonus effect exclusive to each other. This is another way you could add some more personality to your unit. Does your character have a teammate who they care deeply for? Maybe family, a close friend, a partner? That could be someone they could share a bonus effect with in their Connect. 

Okay, back to math for a minute. Let’s talk about percentages. 

You remember those examples I gave? Did you see how there was a Roman numeral and percentage written there? Did that instinctively make you want to roll up and cry trying to determine what could possibly be a reasonable average for every single ability in the game? (I’ve been there, don’t worry.)

Many skills, like Attack Up, actually stick to a consistent number when used in Connects and Magias. So I’ll include a list compiling all the skill percentages that are consistent among units. 

Remember that while there are patterns, deviations will happen. It’s always good to check the wiki if you’re looking for a number a little higher or lower than what’s described here!

HP Restore: 47.5%-50% HP

MP Restore: 25-30 MP

Survive: 20% HP

Attack Up: 40%

Defense Up: 105%

Damage Up: 40%

Status Ailment Resistance Up: 60%

Accele MP Up: 40-50%

Blast Damage Up: 70-80%

Charged Attack Damage Up: 25-30%

Charge Disc Damage Up: 40%

MP Gain Up: 25%

- Attribute Attack Up: 25-27.5%

Status Ailment on Attack Chance: 100%

Defense Pierce Chance: 100%

Damage Cut: 60-70%

Critical Hit Chance: 70%

Evade Chance: 100%

Counter Chance: 100%

Follow Up Attack Chance: 100%

Damage Up Vs. Enemies With Status Ailments: 45%

Endure Chance: 100%

Taunt Chance: 100%

HP Regen: 8-10%

[poke-rating-agency]

#722 Rowlet

The Grass Quill Pokémon, a Grass and Flying Type from the Alola Region. It is available as a starter Pokémon in Alola and ancient Hisui. Fun Fact: Rowlet is the second ever starter to have a second type and (up to gen 9) also the last.

Serious Ratings!

Stats: 6/10 It's a starter, so it obviously has the 320BST which is slightly above average for first stages. It's not particularly outstanding, it is decently bulky, it's a bit slower but for this first stage thats not detrimential. Really nothing more to say.

Availability: 2/10 Well, it is a starter. So you won't really get it anywhere during normal gameplay in other games, and if you don't choose it in the games where it's a starter you're out of luck as well.

Lore: 6/10 There is not too much special info about it, but since it lives in Hisui, and (well, as a starter) it's fairly prominent in the anime it gets some extra points. It's evolutions are obviously a bit more decked out in terms of lore, but i don't blame it as a first stage evolution.

Fun: 8/10 Now we talking! While i'm generally not a fan of the rival choosing the type disadvantage, i can't get enough to blast that weird seal into next week at the start of Sun/Moon. At the same time it does its job just... very well, it's nice to look at and i have to admit it has become my favourite alola starter.

Design: 10/10 i mean come on. Look at it. This is a borb. It is a sphere. it has the little bowtie. It turns its head back at you when you send it out against Groudon like "bruv what". Or it tilts it sideways. It is. Peak. The shiny is also looking great, otherwise there wouldn't be a perfect score. It's actually a grass type this way and also reminds me of the Kakapo bird who is very silly.

Serious Score: 32/50

Silly Ratings!

Politeness: 10/10 Starter Pokémon have to be friendly, so that is a default high rating, but look at his little bow tie! What a gentleman! He is a proper young lad and i am very glad to have made his acquaintance.

Friend-Shape: 10/10 That is a sphere. It doesn't get more friend shape than that (as long as it's soft and squishy)

Jokes: 8/10 You know, he's still young and sometimes his punchlines don't quite deliver, but the way he tells jokes is just great. His funny "WhooWhooWhoo" laughter makes it better as well.

Deliciousness: 8/10 I don't have actual based foundations fot this, but he looks kinda tasty. Many birbs are on the menu somewhere and he's delivered with rosemary and basil included! That has to be yummy.

Lust for Murder: 6/10 I can't quite put my finger on it, but i think he'll develop some more lust for blood at some point. The way it stands, he'd rather talk it out though, but if you insult his friends or trainer or bow tie, you WILL get the claws. He also mastered the deadly art of the cannonball so watch out.

Silly Score: 42/50

Can it make a Lasagna? Yeah, but it's not gonna be great. Rowlet has bit of trouble holding the utensils, it's not quite happy about working with the hot pans and the oven, but it would try if you ask. Don't put the pressure on poor rowlet.

Total Score: 74/100 and a Lasagna that could definitely be much better, but a Lasagna nonetheless. Rowlet is definitely in my preferred bracket of starter Pokémon and i like it a lot. Rowlet does reach the top 50, but it's just lacking that special connection with me to make it top 10.

[eternaljonathan]

Game review: Born of Bread

Born of Bread is a paper Mario like RPG that while fun does fall a bit short of TTYD and Bug fables. Basically it's a treasure hunt like TTYD about a Boy named Loaf that was baked to life by the royal baker, and after the baker is unintentionally framed by some recently revived fire people you set off to claim the treasure they are after to stop a world ending calamity. Overall the story while similar to TTYD is more goofy and fun with more puns, though it does have a few emotional moments in between.  Graphics are excellent, I'd say on par with the original TTYD on Gamecube. As for gameplay, this is where the main issues pop up. Starting with traversal walking around isn't so difficult, but the game can sometimes lag or get a bit buggy. The worst part is the backtracking as you will have to go back and forth between a lot of areas to complete quests, and in the 3rd chapter you will be backtracking worse then chapter 4 in TTYD. There is a fast travel system in the game, but the game does so little to instruct you might miss it for almost the entire game like I did. Some of the quests are buggy too. I completed one quest and twice in a row it soft locked my game, forcing me to reopen the game. The menus can also bug out with the pointer getting stuck sometimes. There's also a lot of graphics glitches I noticed such as character's facial expressions or poses getting stuck. The battle system is similar to TTYD but more flawed. For one instead of just badges being used to add passive skills and attacks you have the backpack for your weapons, and perks for the passive skills including the necessary weakness viewer and life bar viewer. The game has a lot of elements to deal extra damage, but also weapon type resistances so you could get a new weapon with an enemy's elemental weakness, but is resistant to it's weapon type so it's useless. There's also no weapons that can deal status effects, only your partners can do that, so Loaf just focuses on raw damage. You also have special attacks, but they really aren't usually worth using when your regular weapons are more efficient. you can also swap places with your partner like in paper mario, but don't ever bother doing it. Doing so wastes the front guy's turn. Defending makes you get attacked immediately to generate WP for weapon attacks, but doing so with the front guy basically gets you attacked twice in a row. If you want the front guy to avoid damage have the rear guy defend so you just play out a regular batch of attacks from enemies while gaining WP. Another major issue is enemies will only attack the front guy meaning if you don't make Loaf a tank in HP you will regret it later on with groups of 4 enemies wailing on him when you get surprise attacked, because if an enemy hits you before battle all the enemies get a free swing.  There's also viewer requests you can fulfill during battle for extra WP, but the item one doesn't seem to work at all no matter how many items I used. The items are also less versatile as all of them are just healing items, and there's no cooking system involved. Overall, the gameplay while not bad is inferior to games that inspired it. Overall Born of Bread is an okay adventure that while not as good as games like TTYD or Bug fables it's still a good time. I give this game a 7.5 out of ten for an above average game that I would recommend if you've already played Bug fables and TTYD and it's on sale.

Posted using PostyBirb

[ideahat-universe]

I guess this is as good a time as any to talk about my relationship to the Dragon Age franchise.

It's actually complicated.

Before I played Dragon Age Origins I had never experienced a RPG with serious role play potential.

Pokemon doesn't really have a story or much characters and with the exception of Dragon Warriors 3 there was very little to customize and it was mostly playing out a pre-determined campaign. No moral quandaries, no branching solutions. That changed when I played Dragon Age Origins.

It was literally a spellbinding experience.

I had never played a game where your choices really mattered and you could have a multitude of different origins and that your party was an extension of your choices. Playing it with no knowledge of Bioware's writing tropes made to where I didn't know who was a NPC and who was a future party member.

It was so great that I went on to do a second run that was even better than the first. My female Dwarf who grew up in the slums with nothing but heartache to her name carved a future where the casteless could be equal and she, would the be the ultimate role model that can always lead people to believing they should never settle for unsavory roles they were given to play.

Dragon Age Origins has a lot of love.

But also, some hate.

I never managed to do a playthrough without bending my knee and putting it on easy if only for a boss fight or two.

The Circle tower is completely ruined by The Fade mission. It's so bad there's a mod that just gives you all the buffs you would have gotten from that excursion and drops you back on the other side.

The Dwarven mines is by far my least favorite moment in gaming period.

A horribly boring and titanically long tunnel where you get to learn the one piece of lore no one asked for. Jesus Christ, where is Planned Parenthood when you need it?

The elvish mission starts out strong but then it's back to delving through an abusively long cave to come out the other end. Are you telling me that there can only be one quest hook that can involve the poet tree? What a waste.

There's the Skeleton mission where if you can get over the hump of the defense mission it's only tolerable.

Everything scales with your level so there's no real optimal order beyond who you need in your party to better balance your team out.

The economy is very deflationary. You'll thank god for every potion that's for sale because it's not unlimited for some hideous reason (same with mana).

Oh man, and the Sacred Ashes good start but yet again, another dark and boring looking cave I spend hours trudging through just so I can get the really good character moments at the end.

Dragon Age Origins is not perfect for me.

But I still really loved the role play experience and the closest I ever came to replicating that was Rune Factory 4 and Dragon Warriors 3.

So when Dragon Age 2 came out I was ready to go, until I was given the grave news. You are not importing your character from Origins. Instead you are playing Medieval Shepard. And I already established that I don't like the general world of Dragon Age. Turns out, I don't like grim dark. I can accept it but when it starts being about stories of rape and racism I want to get out of that questline and hope to forget about it.

I'm invested in my character playing off the world, not the world itself. Kind of like how the average DND player doesn't really care about the world until their personal story starts being told.

This mistake was more or less fixed in Dragon Age 3.

But I was gone by then. Yeah, I'm not a particularly loyal consumer, a lot of people like that game too but at this point in my life I don't even like that style of gameplay so it's just not happening.

But now there's a fourth Dragon Age game.

The trailer for it. Is weird. It's like under some weird delusion that the side characters are supposed to be really cool and we should be excited to play them.

The side characters in every Bioware game are fun to play off of. They typically aren't very interesting in and off themselves. Good news though. You can import more or less the character from Dragon Age 3 into 4. I don't know why they didn't lead with that. The pathos of Dragon Age is everything and the weight of your choices is the pathos generator.

Are you telling me the tone of Dragon Age 4 is drastically different? It's not Grim Dark?

Can it even be Dragon Age if it's not Grim Dark?

Maybe that's a really bad trailer. I guess we'll have to see.