#and also for having a stupidly fun playstyle

[shalomniscient]

clorinde truly might be entering blorbo territory the way she hardcarries me through quite literally all endgame content

[opal-owl-flight]

8!

Favorite weapon classes!!

3 is a shooter main. Its what they were trained on, its what they saved the world with. Theyve held a shooter ever since they grew flexible tentacles. Its familiar to them, its versatile, its dependable. Gets straight to the point. Good at what its built to do. Though....if you ask them what they use when they wanna have fun, theyd go straight to the krak-on roller.

4 is a dualie main. Dont let her size and heft fool you, she is a FAST motherfucker. Very big fan of the splat dualies, but the dapples have attracted her recently. Something about punching people on the side of the head. And a more consistent killcount to boot, since the weapon deals with foes stupid fast. All in all, she started using the fresh new weapon when it was hot off the presses and hasnt let go since. She is, however, also good with brushes due to a similar playstyle. The painbrush is a particular favorite. And! If you cant tell by her splashtag R4INM4KER, she can main that nuke stupidly well. To the point that she pulls a modified version of it along on agent duty. Shes a rough and tumble gal who wants to be up close and personal!! (Tbh she can use any class. Shes cracked like that. She just prefers the dualies)

8 is a charger main. In the whole platoon, shes got the deadliest aim. Probably thanks to both her Octarian training and her time in the metro. She had to be this good to survive. To make a new life for herself. Mains the e-liter primarily, and currently testing out the custom kit for it. She occassionally plays squiffer if she wants to be a goblin alongside 4. She can hit brushers and dualies, no sweat, or even knock weapons out of opponents' hands. Overall, she usually stays out of the main tussle (unless 4 is there). Kind of reflective of her attitude towards too much chaos...

Neo3 is a stringer main. She had used a modified stringer back in salmonid land, and continues to use it on the field because she enjoys the feeling of being on the hunt. Its just like back home! A home she cant return to until she restores her honor! The maniac is a crackshot and giggles after every kill. If she doesnt land a direct, shes going to scurry on down to explode someone close range. She uses the inkline tri-stringer, but has been eyeing the wellstringer as of late. She thinks its too...clunky for her frame, though.

Kiko is a dualie main, specifically the order dualies. (It matches her style better than splats)

Booga is a charger main, specifically the new squiffer. He cheered when the Bamboozler mk2 came out though, and has been using that more and more. (Hes likely been trained to use the bamboozler back home.)

[alicelufenia]

Another week, another update on the Chosen of Eilistraee playthrough

We sneak through Grymforge picking off the wandering guards and the scrying eye (which is stupidly resistant to damage in tactiction, but vulnerable to thunder so Gale blows it up with a chromatic orb)

After all the stragglers are dealt with, we try to take some of the duergar in the main room with Nere, but aggroing them, even by drawing them away, aggros the rest of them. We manage to take out one, and then run away, with plans to long rest to reset their aggro and be fresh for the big battle (no negotiating with slavers this run)

Also backed off on my rule of using no gameplay mods and added UA6 Invoke Duplicity, 5E Mirror Image, and UA8 Healing Buffs, to make Shadowheart slightly more viable as a Trickery cleric. I gotta tell you, UA6 Invoke Duplicity ROCKS! It's basically a misty step that leaves a duplicate that you can opt to cast spells from, including melee ones if they're next to enemies. Moving it is a bit clunky, as it uses Tabletop rules for moving it on your turn with a bonus action, but the fact that Shadowheart can just rush into the midst of it, Fear everyone, then bonus action fuck off to a hidden corner, where she can cast spells with impunity from the duplicate (and enemies will occasionally try to attack it, but favors easier targets usually). The fact it now only grants advantage to the caster if she's next to it and the enemy isn't that big a deal, it's now so much more fun to use! Zero regrets with this one.

Dream Visitor is back, explaining how the True Souls are controlled. Finally the seed is planted that they may yet be saved, though visitor wants her to try to work with them by using the tadpole powers, which Tav doesn't wanna do.

Tavierra now has dual wield. The start of her main playstyle is coming together (just two more pieces needed to bring it online) For now she wields a rapier in the off hand, Phalar Aluve in the main. Which gives her pseudo extra attack at Character Level 5, not bad for an early multiclass.

Time to prepare everyone for the fight.

Karlach you're not yourself before you've had your medicine.

MUCH better! (we also throw in our 2nd to last soul coin, it's gonna be a long day)

Sadly I have no screenshots of the battle but, let's just say do you know what's better than a Hunger of Hadar cast on all the enemies grouped up by a Minor Illusion, from hiding, making everyone trapped in the HoH surprised for a round? Not much. We easily dispatched the duergar from a high point, Karlach happily chucking spears, javelins, chairs, at everyone while Wyll knocked them back into HoH with Eldritch Blasts. Did you know Warlock is a really good class?

The gnomes are understandably happy with this result (I very nearly got Laridda here caught in the Hunger of Hadar, but luckily she was just out of it, and all the duergar were too busy focusing on us and getting out of the pain zone to care about the gnomes.

Time to break Nere out with the Runepowder Vial. Now, here I tried two paths, and while one is arguably more interesting, I went with the one with the best in-game reward. However:

With the Duergar defeated, we have a way to negotiate with Nere, even influencing him to let the slaves free, and he's none the wiser.

He tells us about his mission to find an alternate route to Moonrise, but the cavein lead to failure. We tell him he can inform the General himself, but he's stuck here too with his moonlantern broken. So he gives us a spider lyre which we can use via the mountainpass route. So this is an alternative to working with Minthara that still lets you take the super shortcut to Moonrise at the start of Act 2.

More importantly, now that we've had him talking for some time, he's noticed something:

Damn wish it worked this fast with Minthara. We explain how the Absolute is a front for mind flayers, and that we're protected. Just spill the beans right away.

So here's where we diverge in how we can deal with Nere. We can either goad him to fight, or convince him that he should leave the Absolute. That latter option is the interesting part. This is basically doing what we do with Minthara but way earlier and easier. Which is probably due to Nere being not as motivated to stay with a religion—unlike Minthara who has an EXTREMELY devout personality.

Convincing him to leave nets us his gratitude, and a reward of... a +1 Dagger. An insult, really. This makes you miss out on his rapier which is decent at this level, and the BEST GENERAL BOOTS IN THE GAME. And this is before we've even MET the Myconids, so we've no motivation to take his head right now. It wouldn't be so bad if he did show up later like Minthara did, but nope, this is the last we see of "Twat Soul" Nere. Had he showed up later and gave his boots as a reward, this would probably be the best outcome.

All that being said, he DID kinda murder one of the gnomes in cold blood after being rescued. So I think, after getting threatened by him for our blasphemy, it's fair to say Tav is through trying to save this guy, and is ready to kill him instead, if only to give the one gnome whose sister is killed some closure and justice. She's been Chaotic Neutral for the most part, but she's trending more towards Chaotic Good as this crisis she's in starts to feel more like a pilgrimage on behalf of her goddess.

Tavierra equips the shoes she'll likely use for the rest of the game.

Also, Astarion is interested in the tadpole powers even if Tav isn't. I make sure he gets Luck of the Far Realms and make a mental note to find enough tadpoles to ensure Minthara can get the same later. Guaranteed crits on both of them are godsends.

After dealing with Nere and talking to the gnomes, I head back to the Emerald Grove cause I completely forgot to talk to Zevlor after killing Kagha! He gives me his gloves, which are going on Shadowheart at least until she starts getting the pieces for her future radiating orb build put together.

I also decide to just Item Spawn the ring of protection into my game. My justification is: it's my game and you have no power over me, also I did successfully steal the idol, I just didn't know that NOT accepting the quest from Mol locks you out of the reward, and giving her the idol later doesn't do anything. So lesson learned, but I still want it cause Tactician Mode.

Also got Wyll this absolutely stylish mid-tier armor! The dye is modded, but I think red and gold suits him well.

Next step: deal with the Goblins once and for all. Tav is fresh off failing to get anywhere with Nere, and is considering what other options she has with these True Souls now. She knows that they're not necessarily willingly serving, by virtue of being tadpoled, but that doesn't change the fact they're zealots right now. She'd ask for more guidance, but aside from a few days ago when she first met Minthara, and she was guided to a singing blade, there's been nothing else from Eilistraee, no obvious signs at least. What to do?? (also she really should go find Halsin, he's still locked up lol)

[rocketbirdie]

Palamutes!! I'd be shocked if palamutes don't make it into MH6. They're super popular. Though I do think they could use a bit of a nerf. Sharpening while riding your cool dog friend is awesome and all, but definitely screws with the flow of battle.

Controversial opinion maybe, but I actually really want to see something similar to the wirebugs again. Maybe just have one single wirebug that you can only use for mobility outside of combat? Kind of like a grappling hook. I think that would be fair and would provide great map movement, without making the player overpowered.

Related, silkbind moves are fantastic and absolutely ridiculous... and I don't want to see them make a return. Silkbind shockwave on HH is stupidly broken and way too much fun, but I think it would be better off as a curiosity unique to Rise/Sunbreak.

Armor skills. Do we currently have a shit ton of skill bloat? Hell yeah. Do I want that skill bloat to continue into MH6? HELL YEAH! Set building is at its absolute peak right now, and it's easier than ever to try out wacky new playstyles with a huge variety of skills. I'm here to have fun, not lose hours to doing my armor skill homework on kiranico. I embrace our new busted-ass spoiled brat talismans with evade window5 wexploit3 + three slots. You can't change my mind.

As for weapons, some weapons are the best they've ever been (especially lance!!) and I want to see them stay that way. Others definitely need to dial it back a juuuust a teensy little bit I think (cough cough hunting horn). Great sword is a weird grey area for me right now... I think I just want good ol' reliable hit-and-run GS to be its main playstyle again. I hope they find a way to make charge blade even more complicated because it would be hilarious. Pretty pretty please can we please have layered kinsects for the insect glaive? Also endgame gunlance shells should be hitting for 100 per shell MINIMUM. I mean, come on people.

I hope MH6's art direction continues the trend of cartoony and colorful graphics like MHGU; I think it's a WAY better look for the series as opposed to World's more realistic take. Same with the music. I think Sunbreak was a great step in the right direction for both look and sound. But the Amatsu fight did remind me how badly I want those cheesy clunky old school sound effects back.

Anywho. That's all just my silly opinions. I'll certainly end up playing MH6 regardless of what it's like (even if it means having to suck it up and get a ps5... lol)

But I think I speak for all hunters when I say, WE WANT ZAMTRIOS

What do you expect for Monster Hunter 6?

[gavillain]

I think you reviewed the first three Disney Villainous packs a while back but what do you think of the playable villains in Perfectly Wretched, Despicable Plots and Bigger and Badder?

Haven't played Bigger and Badder yet, but I'll do the other two...

Perfectly Wretched:

Cruella De Vil - Cruella was one that I really wanted to like more than I did. Her goal is to accumulate 99 Dalmatian puppies for her coat by capturing puppy tokens worth either 11 or 22 puppies. The actual mechanics for Cruella are pretty fun with her relying on Horace and Jasper to be on the field and taking advantage of the activation buttons to get ongoing effects. The biggest problem that causes her to rank as low as she does is a broken mechanic with her Fate deck. Her Fate deck can allow puppies to escape or be rescued after they're accumulated, but the thing is that the Fate cards don't distinguish between the 11 and 22 increment tokens, so Cruella can wind up basically getting stalemated and stalled right at the brink of victory with no strategy out of it in time for other characters to complete their own win conditions. However, despite being so slow, she CAN pull some surprise wins that are very rewarding when they happen.

Pete - I really enjoy the novelty of Pete being in the game and the whole aesthetic of his realm and cards being based on the old black and white Mickey cartoons. Pete is unique in that his goal is to complete four different smaller goals that are random and hidden from other players if a Fate action doesn't reveal them, which makes him someone very hard to predict and strategize against, which is fun. He can complete his goals in any order, which is nice, but he's hampered by the fact that since the goals are all mini-goals, none are really exciting and are often just basic variations of other villains' win conditions. His goals also aren't created equal with some of them being stupidly easy to accomplish and others being tedious, so, as a result, you can end up getting stalled unable to win right at the finish line depending on the order you've performed your goals.

Mother Gothel - Gothel has the unique mechanic of a hero card, namely Rapunzel, constantly being on the board. Gothel wins by accumulating 10 trust tokens to control Rapunzel, but Rapunzel is constantly moving towards Corona at the end of every turn and the longer Rapunzel stays in Corona, the less she trusts Gothel. What I like about Gothel is that her gameplay genuinely does simulate the feeling of Gothel with her simultaneously having to wrangle a Rapunzel who doesn't want to stay still and still build up her trustworthiness through her actions even as she's doing villainous things. The mechanics with her were really clever in that respect, and she was straight-forward enough that I found her to be easy to pick up. However, playing as her against fun villains like Ratigan or the Evil Queen really highlighted how her play style lacks a lot of excitement and pizazz.

Despicable Plots

Gaston - At the end of the day, I find Gaston's play style to be pretty underwhelming. Despite having some fun cards, his gameplay is straightforward with him having to remove eight obstacle tokens from his board. The thing is that, naming aside, the tokens don't really correspond to anything in particular, and so it just feels like a generic board game mechanic instead of anything that really brings you into the world of Beauty and the Beast or into Gaston's personality. He has some fun cards, but several of his cards are about the Beast doing things wrong that have nothing to do with Gaston. His Fate deck also is ineffective. When playing against Gaston, I burned through Gaston's Fate deck twice as the Horned King and still lost pretty handily with my opponent only reactively Fating me. He just doesn't feel like a challenge that's satisfying and his style is so generic that I'm underwhelmed with the Gaston design. Something more like Ratigan's playstyle would have been a much better fit.

The Horned King - I like playing as the Horned King, but I've lost with him both times I've played as him so he's not quite as satisfying to me at this point compared other villains. The Horned King has to find the Black Cauldron, unleash its power, and convert four Ancient Soldiers into Cauldron Born. The fact that the Horned King has so many steps to take means that he's constantly working towards his goal, and each turn you play with him feels like you're actively doing something. The Cauldron Born being invincible allies is really cool, and I really just love the artwork and the novelty of his inclusion in the game. He can be frustrating in the respect that he hurts for power often and because he's so multi-stepped that being impeded feels more frustrating because there's often multi-steps that are necessary to come back from certain punishing fates. That being said, I've really enjoyed playing as the Horned King, and I'm hoping I can win with him eventually.

Lady Tremaine - What I appreciate about Lady Tremaine is that she is a fun character to play as and an absolutely PUNISHING character to play against. Lady Tremaine is one of the cruelest Disney villains and her cruelty is basically built into the game with her ability to be absolutely PUNISHING in terms of Fate actions with a competent Tremaine player usually able to Fate every single turn. And what's better for her and worse for everyone else is that even though she is the only villain who can't vanquish heroes, only lock them away, she has cards in her deck which allow her to control the way Fate actions get used against her. She's very difficult to impede for long, and her process of marrying either Drizella or Anastasia to the Prince is I think both very true to the character and does a good job of simulating her villainy. I also love how useful and how big of a part in her gameplay Lucifer is as basically her only ally capable of dealing with heroes. Also NEVER EVER PLAY SCAR AGAINST HER, THAT WAS THE WORST GAME OF VILLAINOUS I'VE EVER PLAYED.

[brotato-chibs]

I have Diona with my Xiao too lol, and she hard carried him with my beidou and diluc when i first got him. I'm probably never going to drop her tho- she's my favourite in the team rn and I have almost perfected her build, so she's too good for me to lose... Well at least until Fontaine comes out and I can get the twins Lyney and Lynette bc they seem to have a fun playstyle - Anon with a deep hatred for the new boss and my lack of mora...

!!! Diona and Xiao in the same team  🤝 Diona is so precious i love her and Xiao can be her not-cat bro. Hi, you’re adopted into the adepti fam

It was my Xiangling and Barbara mainly carrying as I got used to using him, bless Barbara’s skill- he wont die that quick😭😭😭 Also I feel guilty giving one of Xiangling’s gladiator flower to him. Her attack went down a little ;;-;; 

Man, you’re excited for Fountaine, I’m just excited for Inazuma hahaha I want to explore new places p l e a s  e 

((the new boss is.. quite okay ahahah. Just stupidly tankie. BUT I AM WITH YOU ON BEING BROKE or on the way to being broke. Xiao ate so fucking much AAA))

sorry for the rambles, there’s so much about this game i want to scream about

[claitea]

would you recommend dragalia? ive been eyeing it for a while (not like i need another gacha game) but idk how it works

OOO HELL YEAH I RECOMMEND DRAGALIA

first off, it's one of the fairest gacha games i've ever played. i've tried a few — the battle cats, kh union cross, animal crossing pocket camp, pokemon masters, ff brave exvius — and none of them come CLOSE to how generous dragalia is. very steady stream of summon currency, they lowered it a bit recently but its still pretty decent, 250~ summons a month if i remember correctly but that sounds really off haha... its summon system also features a pity rate, where every 10 summons you do without summoning a 5-star, you get an increased chance to summon one in subsequent summons. they also recently introduced wyrmsigils: every summon you do earns you a wyrmsigil, get 300 and you can just pick from the rate-up characters on the banner. 300 sounds like a lot but its not really!!

even if you didn't summon a 5-star, a lot of 4 and even 3 stars are just as good if not better sometimes. they're constantly buffing old adventurers, so you don't have to continously summon the new ones bc of powercreep!

adding to how generous it is, its very kind to newbies and free-to-players. upgrade materials aren't stupidly hard to come by and newbies get so many rewards to start them off. i will say the recent update made the wyrmprint system harder to access especially for newcomers, bc the cost of upgrading your prints has skyrocketed... lots of people complained so i'm hoping they change it, even i'm struggling with the stupid thing

the game itself is really fun imo, just the right level of difficulty for me, lots of different playstyles for all the weapon types and adventurers. its just repeatedly tapping the screen to hit things but like? its so fun??? the 2nd anniversary happened 2 months ago and it overhauled nearly the entire game, including buffing almost the whole roster so EVERYONE is at least decent (except vice. he got nerfed. such an injustice.)

along with that the game is constantly uodated with new events every 1-2 weeks, they may all kind of be the exact same gameplay but somehow i barely ever get tired of it.

what i really like is all the extra content you get alongside the main campaign and events!! every adventurer and dragon you can get comes with a story you can read, there's extra castle stories which are similar little skits, and it has a joke comic strip, reminiscent of newspaper funnies, with an ultra cute art style that i ADORE. honestly some of the side plotlines are better than the main one... (i am talking specifically about heinwald, curran and lathna)

almost every character is really unique and charming, so many really varied designs which i love. best one is orsem of course, i will not be persuaded otherwise this is non-negotiable

OOOO AND THE MUSIC IS SO GOOD... they collaborate with a lot of different artists so a lot of the recent events especially have unique themes. checkmate, we are the lights, bon fever, force your way, cinderella step and bokurano network are personal favorites! and the menu theme from the fire emblem collab... so good

speaking of collabs, its also done ones with mega man and monster hunter, granblue fantasy characters make appearances and theres the princess connect collab coming up! i know nothing about those series but maybe you do? idk

main drawback is the 5+gb space it requires hdgjfjtdjf i can't even try genshin impact bc of it... i have no room :(

tl;dr: i adore dragalia because its a quality game and its super underappreciated so i want more people to play it. please play it. this was not a sponsored post.

[nuttyrabbit]

Sonic Forces Thoughts

The title may seem a bit strange, given that the game is 3 years old already, and I’ve given my thoughts on the story plenty of times before as well as shared those of others, but I wanted to make this post because I decided to actually sit down and play Sonic Forces front to back for the first time since the game was on sale on the Nintendo Switch Eshop for a stupidly cheap price (10 dollars as of the time of this post)

Now that I’ve actually beaten the game and seen pretty much all the game has to offer (outside of Episode Shadow), I might as well give my thoughts on it.

On the whole, the best way to describe Sonic Forces is “mediocre”, because almost everything about it is just mediocre. The story, the  music (which kills me to say), the level design, everything about the game just reeks of unfiltered mediocrity.   It’s not terrible, but it’s not good either, it’s just kinda....there.

Now I could leave it there but I actually want to go into detail, so I’ll break it down into a couple of sections to get my thoughts out in an organized way under the readmore, starting with 

STORY:  As I said at the start of the post, I’ve said my piece about the story many times over and agreed with the thoughts of others on that matter, so I’ll keep this quick. 

The story feels incredibly undercooked and doesn’t even come close to fulfilling its potential, especially when it comes to Infinite. Holy shit I could spend 2 hours ranting about how much wasted potential this fucking character is on a story and gameplay level but at this point it’s beating a dead horse.  

The characters and their characterization is generally fine (except Tails holy shit what did they do to you) but like Infinite, they feel grossly underutilized and feel like they’re there for the sake of it rather than because they contribute anything of meaning. 

I don’t have much else to say other than that the story shares a common problem with the rest of the game in that it is very short. Like, I got Forces yesterday and I beat it in the span of what? 5 or 6 hours? As such, the story feels incredibly rushed because of that.  This segues into my next topic 

Gameplay:  This is a bit of a broad topic but I’ll break it down into something manageable, going from general to specific

Difficulty: Starting with difficulty, Forces is, for the most part, an incredibly easy game. The game defaults to the “hard” difficulty but it should really be called “normal” because nothing in this game will give you too much trouble (at least for reasons of actual difficulty). The boss fights, especially the final one, are pitifully easy and simplistic, especially if you use the Burst Wisp. Seriously, that thing destroys all the Avatar bosses with no issue. As such, the incredibly low difficulty makes the games’ length that much more noticeable, which speaking of

Length: The game, as I’ve said before, is incredibly short. I beat it in 5-6 hours but you could easily beat it in around 3 or 4. There’s 30 stages plus the Episode Shadow stuff and some bonus stages you unlock with Red Rings, but almost all of them are laughably short, the longest of them clocking in at around 4 or 5 minutes and the shortest being barely a minute and a half (the bonus stages are ~45 seconds long).  The only time I spent more than 5 minutes in a level is if I repeatedly died on a certain part, which happened only once or twice and for reasons I will get into.   It somehow feels shorter than Mania, a game that was sold for half the price initially and has less levels.

Controls: Next up is the controls and holy shit this is where the bulk of my complaints lie.  I don’t know how, but Classic and Modern Sonic control noticeably worse than they did in Generations or pretty much any other Classic or Boost game.  

Classic Sonic feels incredibly heavy, making each platforming section feel less I’m controlling Sonic the Hedgehog and more like I’m controlling an immobile brick.  That’s not even getting into how badly they fucked up his physics. The fact that this came out months after Mania is laughable.

Modern Sonic on the other hand, feels way too loose.  Whether it be in 3D or 2D, I feel like I’m barely in control of him when I start to gain speed, and there’s been multiple times where I careened off a cliff despite steering him away from it. It’s made even worse by the fact that for some fucking reason, they took away the drift, something that’s been in I think every 3D boost game since Unleashed.

They also gave Modern a double jump, but the double jump is so worthless and heavy that it’s gotten me killed more times than it’s actually helped me. It feels so stiff and awkward to use and combined with Modern’s loose controls, most of my deaths in this game came from Modern deciding to just randomly plummet into a pit because  I couldn’t correct a jump or he just slid off the edge of a runway for no good reason. Stage 27 is the best example of what I’m talking about because holy shit.

Finally there’ the Avatar, and he probably controls the best of the three, so I don’t have too many complaints on that end other than the fact that his jumps are incredibly slow and floaty.

Level design:  As I said before, most levels are incredibly short, being over pretty much as soon as they begin.  The design in the levels themselves is at best momentarily interesting (The 2nd Modern level for instance), and at worst is absolutely atrocious and terrible (Whoever decided to put an autoscroller in a Sonic level is just awful). and most of the time it just evens out to being incredibly boring and forgettable. This isn’t helped by the fact that most of the levels themselves are either throwbacks to previous games,  generic cityscapes covered in white or on fire, or that ugly, ugly jungle aesthetic.  There’s no levels in this game that really wowed me aesthetically or on a gameplay level. Hell, I can barely remember the names of most of the levels 

Music: The music in this game ranges from forgettable (most of the Modern tracks) to skullfuckingly awful (Every. Single. Classic. Song). Though that being said, I did like a couple of the Avatar themes, and the vocal tracks (Fist Bump, Infinite’s Theme, Light of Hope) were all pretty decent, though not nearly on the same level as prior games.  This is probably the most forgettable soundtrack in all of 3D Sonic. Even Lost World had more memorable and interesting tracks than this. 

Avatar:  I already talked about my grievances and thoughts on Modern and Classic in the control section, but I wanted to give the Avatar his own section because it’s easily the best part of the game.  Getting new gear for your Avatar and customizing them is admittedly really fun,  and I had a good time making my new OC Kick the Dog (do not steal).  The Wispons give a decent amount of variety and replayability to the levels that the other playstyles don’t have (Red Rings do dick in this game other than unlock clothes and EX levels which are so insignificant they ain’t worth it) and their levels are easily the most fleshed out and interesting of the bunch.    If I ever come back to Forces, it’ll probably be to replay Avatar levels

Content:  This game has barebones content, with the most pressing things outside of the main levels being Episode Shadow (which is 3 stages long), the bonus levels (pitifully short), the SOS missions (replay the levels again), and collecting the red rings/ silver moons/ whatever (Only unlocks more clothes and bad bonus levels).  Compared to something like Generations, which was also pretty short but had a lot of side content and unlockables that made it worth coming back to, and something like Mania which is packed to the brim with content and replayability, Forces is just kind of pathetic.  

Graphics:  One thing I’ll give the game is that the pre-rendered cutscenes and even some of the real time cutscenes look really damn good, at least aesthetically. Character animations still leave a lot to be desired though. The in-game graphics look fine. Nothing great but not terrible.  Keep in mind I played it on Switch so that could easily affect things, but generally the game looked....okay.

FINAL THOUGHTS:  As I said before,  Sonic Forces is the definition of “mediocre”. It’s a completely unremarkable game from start to finish, and most of what it does is done better by just about any other competent 2D or 3D Sonic game.  The  Avatar is fun and interesting and I want the playstyle to make a return, but that isn’t enough to save the game from being incredibly mediocre and just plain forgettable.   

If you really want to try Forces out yourself, I’d recommend getting it at a deep, deep discount. I got it at around 10 dollars and I’d say it’s worth between 10 and 20 dollars. Do not pay full price for this game. 

But otherwise, just skip it.

[pangtasias-atelier]

Random questions but who's a character that you liked design wise but once their personality or their stats/usability in-game were revealed, you just hated them? Also, who's a character you hated design wise but ended up loving their personality or stats/ usability? (Characters can be from any game, not just FE)

THIS POST DOES INCLUDE CHARACTER HATE (AND LOTS OF IT LMAO)

Ooh, I love questions like these!!! This also turned out pretty long lmao

Characters I liked design wise but personality made me hate them:

Xander. (Fates) I can't stand him outside of a kink context. When the very first Fates trailer was shown (before we even knew it was the shitshow of different routes) he looked cute. But he's just so frustrating. I get that he's supposed to be the Camus archetype but he just falls so flat and doesn't work well. And that's cause there's absolutely no world building or any development at all to help give reasoning! It's just "I'm crown prince, and that's my father you're trying to kill," which like okay that's a fair reason. But the game doesn't do much more to justify it and Garon is so stupidly obviously evil that like, it makes Xander look so stupid. Plus the games keep trying to make him this badass warrior but Fates LOVES to tell not show so it's just informed attributes. Even in Conquest, he's not much better than he is in Birthright imo. If anything, Xander is worse in Conquest cause Conquest has the worst writing in the series by far. At the very least, he along with Camilla help make Lunatic conquest bearable. (Still haven't beaten it lol, but CQ Lunatic is just so unfair, and BS. Plus the last 2 chapters being back to back with no saves is the worst idea ever)

Sylvain. (Three Houses) His design was alright and I even manages to accidentally recruit him on my first playthrough while going for Ashe and Mercedes. But GOD his personality is just bleh. Womanizer types aren't inherently bad but the crests system being pushed as this unique thing makes Sylvain much more annoying since crest's aren't even unique or well done. Like, sure, people want him for his crest, but that's literally nobility in fucking general and also, Mercedes is right there with it being worse and she's so fucking sweet! Also, FE characters are lot deep, let's face it. Their interesting moments basically come from snippets of info about their past and intys makes it sad cause they know that catches people's attention. But most FE characters are pretty static. And that's fine! I love Grima and Corrin and they're pretty fucking godamn bland! But I'm not gonna act like they're these riveting 3 dimensional characters. Which people love to do for Sylvain and it just makes me hate him even more.

Felix. (Three Houses) I really enjoyed the Navarre archetypes. But Felix exaggerates it so much. And yeah, his scathing remarks and refusal to be anyway (I can't think of the word, FUCK) like willing to talk or come to an agreement is so just awful. Like, it makes sense since he's more like that with people he knows, but he's just such a fucking jackass. And the fandom praises it when he's really just a dick imo. Glad Seteth calls him out on it lmao. Also, sylvix is such a fucking straight ship, I cannot with it.

Characters I liked design wise but play style made me dislike them:

Regal Bryant. (Tales of Symphonia) Now, he's not a bad character or anyone I really hate at all! He's just so awful to actually play as in ToS. His attacks feel like they struggle to connect oftentimes and he has a much higher skill floor than other characters such as Lloyd, Kratos/Zelos, Sheena, and Presea. Genis and Raine should just never be used in the players hands cause magic casting times and the AI targeting the player lmao. Colette isn't too bad but like, honestly, just spam her paraball. Regal also gets shafted storywise but they at least fix it in the sequel. Also, he's a SPLENDID character. Regal being this buff man, yet he's just so calm and reserved while also having a playstyle usually reserved for women makes me love him even more. I just hate playing as him lol.

Assasin of Shinjuku/Yan Qing. (Fate/Grand Order) His part in Shinjuku was great, except for that wierd ending upon him fading away and all of sudden remembering, like it felt it was gonna make fun about the whole last limited rushed sympathy yet they play it so straight lmao. He's incredibly hot and he was so great in the Halloween Event. (The Mecha Eli and Osakabehime one. I forget the name) Yan Qing just literally offers no real meaningful team support and he also doesn't have any actual buffs to help boost his own damage. He has a use, it's just so pointless diverting crit stars when you can use a better servant with star generation to just make a bunch consistently. So, Yan Qing hits like a noodle and also dies to vasically any NP since he has no defensive skills. Even with his upgrade coming next year? he still just is so bad. I love him and he's lvl 90 but he's awful gameplay wise.

Byakuren Hijiri. (Touhou) I love Byakuren so much but she's just so unwieldy in the fighting games. I still tried to use her, but like, o was just so much better with Miko that I basically stayed Miko the entire time. Miko/Byakuren's story in Antinomy of Common Flowers.

Marisa Kirisame (Touhou) Marisa always gets the straightforward shot that does great damage. The problem with that is, she really really really REALLY struggles with stages and even some boss attacks. Plus Reimu has homing while unfocused and straightforward shot while focused PLUS smaller hitbox so Marisa is always at a disadvantage. Marisa being being the best shottype (to some, I prefer Youmu but Reimu is infact the worst shottype imo) in Wily Beast and Weakest Creature doesn't make up for Marisa being worse than Reimu in all other games besides maybe Embodiment of Scarlet Devil.

In general there's not many characters that I hate due to design so these were harder

Character I hated design wise but loved due to gameplay.

Zhuge Liang (Fate/Grand Order) Granted, I basically know nothing about the Fate Series outside of FGO so I don't really know about Waver. But I just wasn't crazy about his design. And how he gets younger as you ascend him. But MY FUCKING GOODNESS! 50%NP charge is just way too good to pass up and he fits on literally any team whatsoever. Team Attack up, team efense up, targetable crit damage up, and NP drain+ stun chance on his NP makes him so versatile. And he's charging up people's NPs!! I use him for everything at this point lmao.

Character I hated due to design but liked due to character:

Scáthach=Skaði (Fate/Grand Order) The fact that Skaði looks like Scáthach really has no purpose in any meaningful way imo. Like, it's not Scáthach at all. And while I honestly would've preferred a brand new design, Skaði was just so wonderful in LB2. Especially since Ivan was kinda meh in LB1, so it really makes me look forward to the other Lostbelt Kings (Qin Shi Huang and Arjuna Alter. Both who I already love lmao) But yeah! Skaði being this kinda benevolent ruler who's doing everything she can to suppress Surtr's flames while trying to keep humans and giants from growing extinct due to her mother/goddess complex makes her so compelling to me. Also, LB2 focusing on women and the general theme of love was so touching. I didn't even care for her amazing gameplay, I was still gonna try for Skaði cause she was so great in Gotterdamerung.

[havoc-warband]

(From Horncleaver) How do you view ranger/soul beast's magical implications from a charr viewpoint? How does Vikaros view it? How do you characterize your playstyle for him?

Ohh, I haven't actually put much if any thought into this because I've been focusing on the pre-Elona story so much so far! So I will take this opportunity to figure it out >:) Thank you very much @commanderhorncleaver for this fantastic ask, I had a lot of fun with it!

Apologies for the not-quite-asked-for infodump, but I'm not really sorry

So, he's always had this bond with animals. And when he tamed a Lynx while on a mission to Ebonhawke, he really developed this bond with it. He called it Swiffer, because he has a severely under-developed sense of humor, and if it could speak, it would've become part of the warband once he really integrated it into his fighting style. It was still a wild animal, but there seemed to be an understanding between it and the charr, and some nights, if someone couldn't sleep, mostly Vikaros, because leadership is something he IS good at but that doesn't mean he doesn't get stress dreams because of it, they'd hang out with the lynx, sometimes racing it, sometimes just petting it or taking care of it like feeding it.

So, this is going on, the whole maguuma debacle happens, Vikaros also adopts a Bristleback. Calls it Spikeface, because his sense of humor still hasn't evolved, and it becomes friends with the lynx, even though it still separates itself from the charr, because it's not quite as close to them in psychology/biology as the lynx. But still, Vikaros relates to it in that solitary way, because he also does that. So that's the pre-existing psychology for his pets.

They eventually get around to going to Elona. They find out about Soulbeasts. Vikaros feels like that's something that just... Clicks in him, there, like. The whole philosophy around soulbeast-ness, it fits perfectly with what he was already experiencing. So he picks up the actual practice of it stupidly fast. The warband itself doesn't mind magic-users, hasn't done so since the fahrar, so they have no problems with it. In charr society, he has to Not Talk About It, because that's still mildly taboo, and I don't imagine them particularly approving of it, but like, that's the Commander, so bite your tongue and give him a salute if you know what's good for you, soldier. Vikaros himself, like the rest of the warband, hasn't had problems with magic... pretty much ever. He's very practical-minded, and magic is a very practical tool in a fight. Maybe he's even a little thrilled, privately, at finally having some magic of his own.

Being a Soulbeast, to Vikaros, is pretty much second nature at this point. My playstyle as Soulbeast is, while in combat, I'm pretty much 90% in Beastmode. Out of combat barely ever, because I don't really like the Beastmode particle effect. This could tie in to Vik needing all his focus during battle, and keeping track of his pet(s) pre-Soulbeast was a pain (playstyle-wise, god, keeping track of their health bar, and swapping them out constantly... i got used to it in the end, but it was a decent chunk of Focus) and the instincts from his pets come in handy too while Merged.

Ohh, about that. While in Beastmode, the whole merging business... Mechanically, the pet model entirely disappears, and is One With You. Lore-wise, for Vik, I think he would take on the instincts of the pet like that, and perhaps some appearance traits as well, in addition to the skills he gains.

So out of combat, no Beastmode, because then he'd like to be himself still, and be able to interact with his pets normally. Because being One is interesting, especially in combat (and isn't that a thought, combat already being his second nature as High Legions charr, combined with the above thoughts on Soulbeast-ness) but outside of it he'd prefer to still be able to scratch Swiffer between the ears and watch Spikeface waddle around, and have his thoughts to himself again. Because being part Lynx or Bristleback muddles his thoughts a little bit, leaving his combat-instincts and enough of his speech faculties online to still communicate with the team, but not enough to, for example, develop complex battle-strategies, or write, or work on some tech/mech.

[seelestia]

can't blame him, his intuition is v v good~

yes yes as a wise and incredibly good-looking man once said, "every journey has its final day. there is no need to rush." 😌

hskdjskdj if you provide me with the art or video of your oc then most definitely!!! but also if you wanna do something similar just for a post or for a series for your blog, do lemme know, i can code it for you! i have the base code so creating something similar shouldn't take too much work! i don't mind doing it for my friends hehe c:

a walk alongside the harbor sounds so nice... sighhh oh to walk arm-in-arm with such a refined gentleman.... yes yes feel free to openly gush about your faves too, i love it when people get all excited talking about their favorite characters hehe

"a jar of expensive candied petals" i'm-- slfjsldkdl you're making me blush stoppp 🙈 ofc, let us release the plot bunnies into the wild!!! or, well, i'm holding back from releasing them in my blog for now bc tumblr put me in shadowban jail- BUT as soon as they release me i'm releasing a hoard of them and no one can stop me >:/

xiao do be like that... but i think it's good cause i get distracted too easily sometimes!! so he keeps my attention on the game hehe and my gosh kazuha is my first character for crowd control ( i mean ig jean is too but i like kazuha more oops sorry jean ;| ) and he's so good!!!

kazuha sees my simping and he's just like "nope" lol i love my anemo team it's so fun to have xiao-kazuha-jean <3 one day, i will build heizou... one day....

qiqi is so adorable i love her yes i'd like to adopt her thank you wait whatttt omg she's came home to me twice now... mona has yet to grace me with her presence... but tbh i played her on the gaa event and i... didn't really like her playstyle that much, so i'll take another qiqi if i lose another 50/50. or a diluc. i have his stupidly handsome outfit ready for him.

hubby is a good shielder and dps!!! try your luck and pull for him!!! i don't have him on my acc but i played him so much using my brother's acc where's he built as a dps- and hskdjsjdh he's so good ;w; oh is al haitham a 5-star character?? big oof, i thought he was gonna be a 4-star 😶 welp in that case he might not come home then... cause i'm prepared to spend whatever is necessary to bring zhongli home...... 🙃

also my day has been good so far!!! i hope yours has been great too <3

ty, zhongli, but we're like 12 minutes late and you're walking so slowly. (/lh) djwkkdkks ty, rin !! i don't have a genshin oc but if i ever need your help for similar things, i'll keep that in mind ;D

zhongli's voice is very calming, 100/10 would ask him to serenade me to sleep while he talks about cor lapis 🙏 aaaaa, me too !! when people talk about the things they love >>> nooooo, rin, have you seen the way i talk about those two??? i swear i word-vomit about them so much it's crazy 🏃 but ty tho! i'm terrible at holding back, hehe. just know you're always welcome to do the same about *cough* zhongli *cough*.

( discussions about banner leaks !! )

how dare tumblr put one of my fav writers in shadowban jail <//3 having to email them and then wait and then do a test post... it's definitely not a pleasant experience. please give rin's acc back and let her post more wonderful stuff??? i just saw that you moved blogs btw, so i'll follow real quick hehe! when you release new works, i'll be there to read and gush about them !!

ayato and al-haitham need company on my manifestation list, so i'll be adding xiao and zhongli to it >:) and oooo, if you build heizou, does this mean you'll be playing a mono anemo team??? 👀 that'd be super cool, people who build mono-element teams really have my respect 😭🤝

as a heizou main, the last part is so funny because i only recently got him to lvl 80 after maining at lvl 70 ever since i got him (but he still slays hilichurls like a pro) <//3 good luck with farming, rin !! go beat that ruin serpent to a pulp and as for the onikabuto's, i mostly search through the places we visited for the cleansing ritual, tatarasuna, and the thunder sakura trees! or you can search up farming routes~

the fact that you have no mona and c1 qiqi while i have no qiqi and c1 mona... ah yes, the contrasting destinies taste absolutely delicious here fjkwkdkskf mona is a good buff support, but i can understand why her playstyle isn't everybody's cup of tea !! at least, you got to a free trial for her from the event kfkwkkds >:)

DILUC <3 i have mine benched since i'm not much of a claymore enjoyer (maybe i should try to main him with klee artifacts for one day) but i'll be manifesting him for you !! his playstyle is super cool >:) i was busy fawning over his smile until i read kaeya's letters which was a cold angsty slap to the face <//3

from what i heard, al-haitham will be a five-star !! but dw, i think his banner is going to arrive later than zhongli's, so go all out for hubby !! hmm, maybe you might even have enough to pull al-haitham if you're not tempted by other banners??? 👀

[demos-cloud]

Opinions on 3rd job designs? (as many as you feel like sharing)

I’m still very sick but I dislike responding to asks late so here we are! It’s quite long so everything is under the cut.

– Elsword –

Knight Emperor isn’t particularly bad at all. His design is generic but then again, Elboy’s Imperial path has always been that of the traditional RPG knight. I like the addition of his eyes turning blue as a result of the El’s influence, but it’s not consistent with Elboy’s other two classes so… Shrugs. I find his Battle Ready passive to be a bit strong, especially with the first skill costing 20% less, but everything else seems pretty fine to me.

Rune Master looks weird. Rather, he looks and practically acts like Zelos Wilder (Tales of Symphonia) and so I can’t help but have see RuneM in that sort of similar, negative light. His stationary runes are a neat concept, but they’re stupid and kill my FPS and so I dislike him for that.

I’m not a big fan of Infinity Sword or his path in general, but I like Immortal’s design the most out of all of Elsword’s third jobs. I could do without the long hair, but I really like the slightly more casual tone in his outfit (that shirt especially, is really cool). It also feels like an intentional design to remind players that even with all his arrogance and battle-lust, Immortal is still essentially the same old Elsword. All his force change skills look pretty cool (although I’ve heard some of them are less than practical), but I would really like a change to his Master of Combat passive. That +20% damage to Conwell skills is. Really strong.

– Aisha –

Aether Sage’s new earth combo is super cool but I rarely get to see it used so that’s lame. I like her design a lot (I’m very weak to large lab-esque coats but that aside), and it feels like an appropriate advancement from Elemental Master. That being said, her backstory feels really lacking. There isn’t much detail and Aisha just seemingly gains all this power out of nowhere. Her chain skill options are… A bit odd as most of them are a combination of close-range + long-range skills, but that’s speaking as a non-Aisha player. Her passives, too, seem very underwhelming. I’m disappointed with her new hyper, Aether Immersion, as well. It. Feels like a rehash of her first hyper, Elemental Storm.

Oz Sorcerer on the other hand seems like a logical advancement from Void Princess, and her design is absolutely beautiful. I adore the consistency in her outfits throughout all her Rebellion jobs, and her hair is both fantastic both in artwork and in-game as always. Her force change skills are cool in concept, but not in practice. It feels the same for her combos but I can’t say for certain.

Metamorphy’s design is a bit iffy to me, but her new awakening is 💯💯💯💯. I’ve no qualms about her skills and I’m admittedly fond of how her new hyper is like. I feel like Metamorphy has too many stoic options, but again, I’m not an Aisha player so I can’t say much about that topic. I would’ve liked KoG to elaborate more on her backstory, however.

– Rena –

I quite like Daybreaker’s backstory, how it addresses the long-standing issue regarding Rena’s potential return, seeing as her mission has long been completed. Everything else about her though… Is a bit lackluster. I don’t understand the skin suit either. Why.

As for Anemos, I like her deeper connection with the spirits and Ventus, but everything else is not particularly appealing to me. Her design seems very nice in her promotional artwork, but the in-game model carries a very different feeling in comparison.

Twilight’s in-game model looks really poorly done. Actually her design as a whole seems a bit oddly done. What’s with the hole in the hood for her ponytail. Why a leotard? What’s with all the skin exposure? What are those rings around her ankles? Nothing makes sense and I am confusion.

– Raven –

I honestly feel like Furious Blade is one of the better third jobs released in the first wave. His design is very appealing and I like that he’s decided to utilize his Nasod arm as a means of improving his swordsmanship, rather than abandoning it completely. It’s nice that this transitions into his new Overpower passive, too, increasing the attack speed of Nasod arm combos. That being said, his passives seem very weak compared to other third jobs.

I don’t like Rage Heart’s hair. I’m also mildly bothered how Reckless Fist suddenly gained control of his Nasod arm. It doesn’t feel like a proper progression, especially given RF’s backstory and his views on his Nasod arm. Force Wild Charge is fun to watch when it bugs out though.

It’s interesting seeing Nova Imperator’s character progression, going from someone who hates Nasods, to someone who gradually opens up to their technology, to willingly merging himself with a Nasod core. There’s something about his legs that bother me, but overall his design is quite nice and solid. I do think recovering 40% HP upon death, as a result of his Last Resort passive, is a bit too much however.

– Eve –

Code Esencia’s passives are outright broken and although it pains me to say this, she really needs a huge nerf. Her force change skills are questionable, but I do like her new combos, and it’s wonderful seeing her show even more personality through her skills. I like her design, too, but there’s a few elements that bother me: what’s with the halos? Given their length, why not change her thigh high boots to just pants? What’s with the excessively large cape? Why did we go from descriptive names for her job paths to “Code: Esencia”? Code Architecture is a class who builds something (Oberon); Code Empress is an empress. Esencia means “essence” in Spanish, but what the heck is an essence?? I am confusion, America explain.

Code Ultimate is bad and I hate her so much. Her Nasod Weapon Restrengthening passive is nice to have, but why is it only spears?? What about all her guns? Those are Nasod weapons, too! Why is her Queen’s Wings passive RNG when Code Nemesis’ path is all about precision and lack of RNG??? Also what is with that b.s. backstory. There’s absolutely no relation to Code Nemesis, and there’s no character development whatsoever. All it does is create more unanswered questions. Anyhow Code Ultimate is dead to me and you can read more here if you want to.

Neophix and I were complaining talking the other day about how Code Sariel’s skill cut-in covers the entire screen. I still find her design to be very pretty though. Her Overload passive addresses her issues with long skill cooldowns as Code Battle Seraph, but her Evolution passive is flat-out useless… It makes me a little sad. Also force Giga Stream is outright broken, how did this get past quality control.

– Chung –

I feel that they went too far with Comet Crusader’s hair and crown, but I do like his overall design. It feels like a more refined variation of Iron Paladin’s armor. Both his passives need adjusting, they’re way too beneficial with little to no drawbacks.

I don’t understand Fatal Phantom’s coat things. Or the blue aura thing around his helmet in Berserker mode. His passives are stupid. Also guns do not work that way.

Centurion’s design feels pretty solid overall, but I dislike the inconsistency with the armor - true to his path line, it’s very bulky. …Except for his torso area. Don’t get me wrong - his jacket looks very nice, but it’s very noticeably out of place. The trend of Chung’s third jobs having stupidly strong passives continues.

– Ara –

“Vishnu is too masculine of a name for Ara so we’re demoting her, despite her previous job paths also having “masculine” names.”Vishnu’s passives are. Weird. It doesn’t help that the tooltips display incorrect information. Force Moonlight Slash is great except when it doesn’t drag mobs back and you end up completely whiffing your Dragon Arts. New combos are fun. Her design is definitely very pretty, too. One of the better classes from the first wave.

Brahmadeva is super pretty and her combos are also very fun. Passives are still weird. Force skills are better than Vishnu’s. She finally gets a strong magical attack modifier. Her backstory of slipping into insanity feels really half-baked (is that the right term?).

Shiva’s backstory is inconsistent with Asura’s but her design is still 💯💯💯💯💯. Passives are still weird. She kind of got scammed with her force skills lol. Also please give her something to wear under her robe, and a more practical spear. Her playstyle doesn’t change much, which is nice, but it doesn’t really feel like a job advancement either…

– Elesis –

I like Empire Sword’s design purely because it reminds me of her Savior class in Grand Chase. That being said, I don’t feel like it’s an appropriate progression from Grand Master. Her Tranquility passive is weird.

Flame Lord’s design looks weird. What’s with the skin suit that reveals just one leg? What’s with the whole “incarnation of fire” deal? Why is it not explained better? Why the awakening change? At least try to explain things better, KoG…

For a zombie, Bloody Queen is surprisingly very emotional. Also her shoes are the worst I’ve ever seen. I do like her overall design, though. Her Thirst passive is. Weird, to say the least.

– Add –

I’m lowkey crying as a result of the inconsistencies in Dominator’s backstory. It kind of makes sense, but at the same time, it doesn’t match up with MasterMind’s story. I know a lot of players are upset with his short hair, but I personally quite like it. His design is very solid.

Why does Doom Bringer not wear any socks. Why. That’s gross Add, put some socks on. I like how Doom Bringer retains the “add an extra belt-tail with each job change” that Psychic Tracer and Lunatic Psyker had. Much like Dominator, his design is very well coordinated. I was expecting him to retain some of the more classy clothing style he had as Lunatic Psyker, but I don’t mind his clothing tastes reverting back to that of a street gangster.

Mad Paradox totally ripped off of DFO’s Dimension Walker and no one can convince me otherwise. I’m salty. He doesn’t even look as nice as Dimension Walker. Also his passives are outright broken and incredibly stupid, and I’m so glad KoG realized this and proceeded to nerf their effects.

– Lu and Ciel –

Ishtar doesn’t look half bad, and it’s nice to see Lu gradually regain her true form throughout her Imperial line. Chevalier on the other hand… The fur coat is a bit excessive. I do like the retained trend of using French words (or related terms) for their class names, but I’m mostly neutral towards their designs.

I find Timoria and Abysser’s designs to be a bit on the messy side. There’s a lot of different elements in their promotional artwork, and it feels like they clash. I do like their character development and how they become two separate - but equal - entities. Their hats are dumb though.

Anular looks bad™. The jump from Demonio to Anular is very drastic, although the transition from Madness-state Demonio to Madness-state Anular is much more reasonable. Iblis’ hair is pretty but she also looks bad™. Her Madness state also looks very bad™. I find it strange how her shirt and dress eventually merge into her arms and torso, respectively, and the markings on her face seem out of place. Their backstory is also poorly written but then again, Lu/Ciel’s Transform path as a whole is pretty badly written.

– Rose –

Black Massacre’s design honestly looks pretty nice to me, though I can definitely do without the hat. I’m sick and tired of KoG trying to push F. Ranger as Rose’s “dark and evil” class, however. Her Research Target passive is flat-out broken. Why can it debuff mobs that are normally debuff-immune.

Tempest Burster is an abomination. KoG essentially took Storm Trooper’s design and turned her into the classic action girl who’s good for nothing but fanservice™. I hate her design almost as much as I hate Code Ultimate’s. Almost.

Prime Operator looks so beautiful and I am very gay. Unfortunately my heart remains loyal to MetalHeart, even through all of Drive’s attempts to sway me away. I’m a little bit sad that she doesn’t look remotely like a researcher, but hey, none of the Seven Shards members really look like researchers either. Also her in-game hair model is really ugly - it’s just a block of waves; it reminds me of uncooked instant ramen noodles…

I also like Minerva’s design, and I must admit I like what KoG did to her Nitro motors. There’s definitely more emphasis on them and they do feel like they’ve been upgraded in an “Elsword”-esque way. Her hair is also very pretty, and I like how she went back to a more uniformed look, similar to Valkyrie.

– Ain –

I really like Richter’s design! …Though his non-Spiritualism hair bothers me. I’m not sure why, but something about it really bothers me. It looks very nice in Spiritualism mode, at least. His wings in Spiritualism mode are as beautiful as ever, too. His character progression is also consistent, which is always nice.

Bluhen doesn’t look much different from Erbluhen Emotion, in my opinion. It’s not bad, but I feel like more effort could’ve been put into his design. Also his passives are too strong yo.

I miss Apostasia’s let-down hair and his eyes, but Herrscher’s hair and eyes are also very fantastic! They both look great in-game too, which is a huge bonus. Although I feel that Ain’s Transform path’s story is a big stretch (and a bit… out of character), I appreciate how consistent KoG has been with each stage. His deteriorating body is also very appealing, though I’m definitely going to miss the eye-themed wings from Apostasia’s Spiritualism mode.

...And that’s all of it! Thank you for the ask anon, this was enjoyable for me to think about and answer. It definitely helped to take my mind off of my sickness as well, haha.

[acradaunt]

Thought I should write up my own thoughts on the MHWorld demo for a certain particular XBox owner.

Thoughts are quite positive, but I don't think that's a huge surprise. Definitely the biggest downer is that female armour still completely suuucks. 0/6 sets contain actual pants. Male Anjanath is basically male Pink Rathian armour (full plate, helm and all), while female Anjanath is basically Dalamadur's G-Rank armour (worn by the GS in the 4U demo). Basically a metal bikini with a big furry/spiky cape-thing. Great for a barbarian look, absolutely, and perhaps fits Anjanath's personality better. But, uh, it's a drastic design difference from the simple and understated male version. And if you wanna be a tankgirl, it's kind of a big ol' middle finger.

The new way skills work is about 40000x better and more intuitive. Every part gives a level in a skill, and every level has some value. I seriously wonder why it took this long to come up with such a simple and elegant solution. I believe that random charms, sockets, and decorations are all gone. I honestly wouldn't mind one bit.

Jagras (and most of the non-critical wandering monsters; Kulu Ya-Ku, not-Chameleos, and not-Lavasioth) were complete jokes. Like, less threatening than Great Jaggi. Barroth was a bit easy, but all-in-all, felt the most fun to fight. He certainly wasn't the towering, mud-spamming titanic jackass he was in Tri. Anjanath takes like 12-15 minutes to kill, and varies between hitting for like 20-30 damage and 110 damage (of 150, in case that wasn't clear). Rathalos likewise does 25-40 on basic nicks, but taking that fireball or homing claws to the face does 135 damage, and is basically instant death. It reminds me of the Hypers and Deviants having certain random attacks do absolutely ridiculous amounts of damage. It doesn't feel all that great, but it's probably more honest. It puts emphasis back on the big, flashy attacks, and them bumping you to death isn't as big a deal. Roars and Stuns aren't as impactful, but annoying as ever. I kinda feel like 'hey, why can't I move?' and don't really feel like what's causing it. Probably because Gen really kicked up the roar's effect, and with Earplugs, I used that all the time as my golden opportunity to fire out a big Hunter Art.

Noooow, weapon changes. I'm feeling pretty smug about the changes to the GS; it basically confirmed for me that my GS playstyle, and Guild Style for the GS, was the 'correct' method to use it, and all the people who called me a dumb c*** for not running away after every draw were wrong. ANd assholes. You can charge even more than ever, and Tackle you can do can stop you from getting ragdolled every four seconds.

I was pretty sure I'd be back to feeling rather lukewarm about the Lance, after losing Absolute Evade and Shield Assault for quick-sheathes and/or 'get-out-of-bullshit-free', but I think I like it more than ever. The decreased loss of Stamina completely makes up for its losses. Dashing for days and getting loads of free pot-shots on fleeing monsters is hilarious. Blocking also seems to be worth a damn, as not EVERY. SINGLE. attack causes kickback, nullifying your counter-attack, or does multi-hit, causing you to get murdered during your counterattack frames (Astalos notably did this on every attack). Or maybe it's just that most guys in the demo aren't that big of dudes. Getting joust & jump back is also great, and seriously might put Lance in the running for best mounting weapon. That said, mounting itself doesn't feel as good as it did in 4U/Gen. Maybe it's just the less clear interface.

I like to think that for Maces they took the Striker-combo (the version without a golf-swing) and made that the Circle attack, rather than a wholly useless side slap. I felt like I totally devastated Anjanath with it (who, unlike every other Brute Wyvern, is graceful enough to have his head low enough to reach with the Mace), but still timed out. Maybe I spent too much time wandering first (probable), or maybe the demo Mace is exceptionally weak, as it has Paralysis on it, and Gen's Para/Sleep weapons were remarkably bad in raw offense.

Easily the 'most improved' award goes to the Bowguns. Maybe not surprising, but having a decent second stick makes a lot of difference. More than that, though, is you can move and shoot; you're not a total sitting duck when multi-shotting bullets. I fought Barroth with a LBG, and got hit exactly once, and Barroth did pretty unimpressive damage, instead of the insta-kill it woulda been in the past. Thinking on it, I have LITERALLY never not seen a bowgunner NOT triple cart. Or at least double cart. The non-dedication of armour and defense boost involved alone makes them actually usable. The new bonus fire stuff is wacky. LBG's mines are hilarious; dump 'em on a downed monster, and you can get multiple melee punches in for 100+ damage. HGB has long-range mortars (they might not be new, though, TBH) and the machine-gun thing from the first trailer. It also has a sniping thing, but that seemed astoundingly unimpressive.

Switch Axe's explosive discharge now just freaking grabs you onto the monster, and between that very distinct confirmation and the numbers, actually feels great, and not the 'oh, did I miss? It didn't even react to my huge explosion' of the past. Previously, you could enter Sword Mode at 50%, and reloading it gave a full 50%. Add on Gen's Demon Riot and Energy Charge, and the Switch Axe half might as well not have existed. Now, while you can enter at about 33% charge, reloading only gives 33%, too, and it can drain kinda fast, so there's reason to use it in Switch Axe mode. It's weaker than Gen's SA, sure, but it feels like a far better weapon. It helps that the transformations now include attacks themselves, making Switch Axing mid-fight an actual thing.

Hunting Horn is improved enough just be seeing the notes like XX would've added, but the fact you can chain songs into each other means you always have ALL your songs active, all the time. It kinda feels less interesting, weirdly. You're like, 'oh, now what should I do' during the fight, instead of desperately going into the menu repeatedly mid-fight because you have the memory of a knat while doing sick flips off everything's back so you can play the notes in relative peace in midair.

Sword and Shield is more like Shield and Sword, having even better Shield attacks added again. The reverse-shoryuken after the leaping attack is kinda spotty and inaccurate, but the leaping attack itself isn't as important for re-positioning, either. The loss of Whirlwind Slash and Oils ultimately results in me liking World SnS less than the Gen version of it.

Katana has a couple more moves than just 'try to spam out Spirit, uh, whatsitcalled', but is still mostly the same. If you're not a fan of the Spirit Gauge, not caring via Sakura Slash is still probably the more fun version of the weapon. Bow is the same, but with one special attack that takes forever and a day to charge. It's still the best the Bow's been, but I'm still not 100% sold on it. Charge Blade has a weird slidey-thing and can charge the blade itself, too. Nifty, but feels like it'd be impossible to do within actual combat. Dual Blades are almost identical. I still don't give a damn about Insect Glaive and Gunlance.

Mantles and such are pretty much better, global, Hunter Arts with a more honest recharge time. Challenger is Mace's Taunt and the Healing spike is one of the generic HAs nobody ever uses. It's hard to get a feel for a Palico's value and options from the demo, but the fact you can personally tell it to heal/flash/taunt, rather than having to hope they don't do something stupid is a huuuge step up.

I saw you can save 140+ armour sets, so I can most certainly redo the 'save a set for every monster' thing that I did in Gen. Couldn't set items, but I imagine it's also an unreasonably high number. You lose out on that 4th excess item pouch that Gen/4U had, but instead, all ore and monster parts have a whole separate, even bigger bag they get dumped into. Mining is stupidly fast, and you get a whole whack of 2-5 mushrooms/honey in a single pick. Gathering for supplies in the middle of a rough fight absolutely seems viable. Potion drinking-and-moving is great, but all-in-all, it feels like other things even it out. Changing sets at camp could be stellar for multi-monster fights, or even just 'oh, face is busted, time to put away the gun, and stab it in the face directly'.

I'm sure there's other things I have to say buuuut somehow I've taken like an hour and a half to write what I meant to do in like ten minutes sooo that's probably a good reason to stop blabbing.

[gaminghardware0]

Total War Troy Menelaus guide: start position, campaign mechanics, and unique units

The very angry boy Menelaus probably edges his megalomaniac brother Agamemnon for the easiest 'beginner' faction. Neither of them have any downside in their campaign mechanics or their battle playstyle, but there's some nuance required in using Agamemnon correctly whereas everything about Menelaus is simple, straightforward, and strong.

Menelaus is the only leader who can use Total War's traditional global recruitment pool, giving him access to his best units from anywhere in the world in exchange for waiting a little longer and paying a little more to recruit them. On top of this, he can get his allies' best units too - an amazing advantage if you're buddies with, say, Achilles, who has the most and some of the best elite units in the game.

As ever in Total War, be wary about making alliances indiscriminately: if a defensive ally is attacked, you have to go to war against their aggressor, and if a military ally attacks someone else, you're obligated to join them. If you decline, breaking the terms of the alliance, everyone will know you can't be trusted. This makes it harder to agree deals in the future, and that's especially bad in Troy given how important bartering is in the new multi-resource economy. Call to Arms gives Menelaus a better reason than anyone else to forge alliances. Just be judicious when doing so.

The Spartan colonies mechanic enables you to settle any ruins that you can see without needing a local army, which is obviously amazing, but don't forget it also enables you to settle ruins in the usual way without losing any men from said army. This means you can raze cities for their resources and then settle them on the very next turn without waiting ages for your forces to replenish, so Menelaus can rampage through enemy territory without losing any momentum. Remember also that military allies give you their line of sight, so the ability to remote-settle means you can watch Achilles go around burning down cities and then nab them yourself before anyone else without even needing to be there. Seriously, Menelaus can be stupidly strong, and he's simple and fun to play. Recommended.

View the full site

RELATED LINKS: A Total War Saga: Troy review, Best Total War games, Best strategy games from https://www.pcgamesn.com/total-war-saga-troy/menelaus-guide-start-position-campaign-mechanics-unique-units

[gaminghardware0]

Total War Troy Menelaus guide: start position, campaign mechanics, and unique units

The very angry boy Menelaus probably edges his megalomaniac brother Agamemnon for the easiest 'beginner' faction. Neither of them have any downside in their campaign mechanics or their battle playstyle, but there's some nuance required in using Agamemnon correctly whereas everything about Menelaus is simple, straightforward, and strong.

Menelaus is the only leader who can use Total War's traditional global recruitment pool, giving him access to his best units from anywhere in the world in exchange for waiting a little longer and paying a little more to recruit them. On top of this, he can get his allies' best units too - an amazing advantage if you're buddies with, say, Achilles, who has the most and some of the best elite units in the game.

As ever in Total War, be wary about making alliances indiscriminately: if a defensive ally is attacked, you have to go to war against their aggressor, and if a military ally attacks someone else, you're obligated to join them. If you decline, breaking the terms of the alliance, everyone will know you can't be trusted. This makes it harder to agree deals in the future, and that's especially bad in Troy given how important bartering is in the new multi-resource economy. Call to Arms gives Menelaus a better reason than anyone else to forge alliances. Just be judicious when doing so.

The Spartan colonies mechanic enables you to settle any ruins that you can see without needing a local army, which is obviously amazing, but don't forget it also enables you to settle ruins in the usual way without losing any men from said army. This means you can raze cities for their resources and then settle them on the very next turn without waiting ages for your forces to replenish, so Menelaus can rampage through enemy territory without losing any momentum. Remember also that military allies give you their line of sight, so the ability to remote-settle means you can watch Achilles go around burning down cities and then nab them yourself before anyone else without even needing to be there. Seriously, Menelaus can be stupidly strong, and he's simple and fun to play. Recommended.

View the full site

RELATED LINKS: A Total War Saga: Troy review, Best Total War games, Best strategy games from https://www.pcgamesn.com/total-war-saga-troy/menelaus-guide-start-position-campaign-mechanics-unique-units