#and the gameplay is still top tier imo

[im-no-jedi]

day ??? of me continuing to lament about my estranged relationship with Destiny 2, a moment of silence please 😔✊🏻

[ouroboros-hideout]

Project Garmr

This is just a wild list of ideas I had after finishing Phantom Liberty and beeing slightly dissapointed how they treated Kurt Hansen as a character.

- Spoilers ahead -

First of all: I love PL but I think it has its weaknesses. But that's for another post.

I am manly dissapointed, that he was introduced as the main antagonist (Myers is the actual villian if you ask me) but got very little screentime or impact on your choices or story imo. He was there, the quests involving him where epic but in the end he just got low to medium depth lore and an unspectacular death. I could rant about the problems I have with the fight (gameplay was sick but the story was meh) or the not-fight if Alex is taking care of him. But that's for another post aswell.

I just want to write down some ideas and headcanons about how things could have turned out differently, if he didn't die.

- I'll give it to V or Alex, that they're actually able to defeat him

- But he'll survive the attack, badly wounded but alive

- He'll then recover in the hospital, maybe getting new chrome to compensate the injuries

If you leave Hansen alive after the fight, you'll later get informed by Mr. Hands that he was assassinated in the hospital.

But what if that's not true. What if Kurt faked his death and spread this missinformation. By placing a body double at his funeral and asigning Bennett and Jago to give the public some drama to make his disguise waterproof but secretly still pulling the strings in the back.

Why? Because it's an opportunity. An opportunity for revenge. Playing hide and seek spygames against the spies and government, who got him into this situation in the first place.

He failed to kill or capture Myers and that's grinding his gears. The grudge he's holding against her is becoming unberable. After Song and the agents of the FIA screwed him over he's more than done fucking around with the marionetts and wants to start a last attempt to kill the puppet master.

He basically wants Myers head on a silver plate.

- This top secret plan is communicted as 'Project Garmr' within the structures of Barghest and Dogtown

- only Kurts most trusted associates know about his plans and that he is still alive

- the risk of someone spilling the tea in the lower ranks of Barghest are to high

- means he needs to get along without the manpower of his militia. At least in the beginning

- in addition to that he doesn't want that his smuggling business or Dogtown in general gets involved too far

- he worked to hard and is proud of his achivements to throw everything into the trash for his personal revenge

- he reaches out to his contacts all over the world, asking around who'd profit from the death of Mrs. President and shifting powers

- all or most of it undercover, so his disguise stays in tact

- building kind of an army

- the course and outcome of this plan would highly depend on the people or organisations Kurt's siding with

-  because after all he wants Myers dead  and in the best case replace her with someone in his favor

- could mean he's 'accidentally' starting the next war or does it in a more discrete manner

- it would suit his character if he used all his wits, instead of just sending some missels to her face. He would not make this mistake again

If this would evolve into a legit fanfic or what ever there are a lot of possibilities to give the Colonel additional lore and depth. For example:

- Meeting people of his past, friends, lovers or enemies alike

- Showing different sides of him (vulnerability because of a trauma or cyberpsychosis or smth like that)

- more of his top tier interrogation skills

- knife fights! Oh yeah

Yeah that's it. For now. A big 'What If'. Don't know, really like the idea somehow. All of it is a WIP that I came up with in the middle of the night but I would like to make it a little project in some way. Even though Kurt didn't had the impact I'd hoped for in the game, he managed to get into the top 3 of my fav chars within the blink of an eye lol.

Side note: Garmr is a dog/wolf mentioned in norse mythologie (who has a lot in common with Fenrir, who is probably more popular). He's described as a fucking huge, blood-stained dog caught in chains, guarding Hel's gate, the door to the underworld. He is ascociated with the beginning of Ragnarök, the final battle between beasts and gods. Once he breaks free from his chains, he's ultimately responsible for plunging the world into chaos.

Think that's an appropriate name Kurt would choose. He's a mythology nerd lol.

Bark. Bark.

[mocolococoffeesimp]

Wanted to do a gg characters tierlist. This is strictly my tierlist, I have not taken gameplay into consideration. This is purely how much I enjoy them as characters and their designs imo. I don't hate any of the characters, indifferent just means, I don't mind them. I do still like them, the ones in the like tier, I like more, lmao.

Top 10 is self-explanatory.

[maximuswolf]

What makes Still Wakes the Deep so compelling? Spoilers

What makes Still Wakes the Deep so compelling? *Spoilers* I’m seeing 10/10s from people. To be transparent I haven’t finished the game, I am towards the end after picking up Roys insulin and starting at the rooftop. Personally I’d give this game a 7/10 at best. I don’t see it cracking my top ten 2024 games.There’s pros and cons:Pros:Voice Acting - My favorite thing about this game. Top tier. Unique. Grounded. Loving the inclusion of slang and given the tone and suspense of game I feel like the dialogue is VERY realistic. And great delivery by everyone. Tone - Gloomy. Suspenseful. Nice mix of realism with supernatural. The unique setting, time period/technology, and escalation of the conflict strengthen the tone tremendously. And the isolationism. Narrative - Both the main characters personal journey and the supernatural mystery of the rig. No combat - Great choice imo. Dials up the desperation, realistic, and makes the conflict more intense. Cons: Level Design - Excruciatingly basic. Some verticality and varied traversal but egregious signposting breaks immersion. Disappointingly linear, very little exploration. Feel like this game better set up like a Metroidvania. Cut and paste design throughout. Gameplay - Basic. Littered with QTEs. You can get through monster encounters very easily. Graphics - On console, not great. Performance is good. I don’t get motion sick but the motion blur is nauseating. Immediate toggle off. Weak horror - Frankly put, not very scary at all. The homunculi-like monster design is not very grotesque or frightening. Not enough time to develop characters - it gets silly. “Who’s Dobbie? Scooby? Trots? O’Conner?” I don’t remember meeting Addair. The accents and dialogue is so compelling I wish that I had more connection and backstory to these characters. Feels like the shortcomings are result of not doing what the game does well enough. What do y’all think? What makes this game a 10/10 in your opinion? Submitted June 21, 2024 at 03:00PM by tim_timmayy https://ift.tt/hriR8eo via /r/gaming

[oddygaul]

Oneechanbara Origin

Look, I knew what this game was going in. I wasn’t expecting a fuckin masterpiece. I just wanted a fun, trashy game with big anime titties and a satisfying combat system. And still I was let down.

Credit where it’s due, the animation is actually quite good for all three characters - you can for sure tell that’s where all the effort went here. There’s a lot of really sick keyframing on all the combos, and the incredibly generous hitstop will nearly freezeframe you if you hit enough enemies, which is deeply satisfying if you trigger it on one of the cooler combo poses. Saki’s easily my favorite for this reason; all of her huge arcing launch attacks feel great to land after the huge windup.

Shame, then, that every character basically has three entire combos. Three. I know it’s unreasonable to expect full DMC levels of moveset variety, but this is bottom-of-the-barrel, Dynasty Warriors-ass, one square combo, one triangle combo, and one square into triangle combo stuff. Rough, man. The game tries to add a few systems on top of this to add depth to the gameplay, but they’re so incidental they don’t feel like they add any player expression.

The Cool Combinations are supposed to be this game’s signature system, I think; if you time the next hit in a combo just right, your character flashes a bit with Glowing Anime Power and the move will come out faster and charge your energy up a bit. It’s kind of reminiscent of the Exceed system on Nero’s Red Queen, except… way less impactful and not as cool lol. Your game has to be really damn good for me to even consider engaging with any system that requires me to memorize the timing of every single one of a character’s attacks - hell, DMC5 fucking rules and I still haven't taken the time to practice getting consistent exceeds - and if the system is even more finicky than usual due to the timing constantly changing due to the massive hitstun when fighting groups… I’m good, man.

The two tiered berserk system is kinda fun; aesthetically, I’m here for the big dumb Kill la Kill-lookin Baneful Blood forms. But between the fact that it triggers automatically and not on-command, and the fact that it’ll often run out almost immediately because it triggered right before you need to sprint down a sewer pipe for 30 seconds (a common occurrence in this game), it feels pretty half baked.

I will say, I was surprised and impressed by how good some of the boss fights are, though. The game’s enemies are largely either hapless potatoes or frustrating little bastards with poorly-telegraphed attack windups, and the larger zombie bosses follow those trends. But man, basically every fight against a sword-wielder turns into a mini-Sekiro fight. Suddenly you remember there’s a parry and a perfect dodge, and you really have to nail them and get the attack patterns down pat to make it through. While it doesn’t have anything like the posture bar, nailing the perfect dodge / parry builds your special meter real quick, so if you’re nailing every evade, the play pattern of most bosses essentially becomes a 100% uptime of your character either doing a flip or an iaido slash, which is fun as hell.

Oh, and my other big criticism of this game is that all the outfits are paid DLC. IMO if you’re making a game with this much Big PS2 Energy, it’s just way more thematically appropriate to have a bunch of stupid costumes to unlock in-game, to give the players a carrot to chase. Miss me with that paid shit.

Eh, I know this is how it goes with B games, I shouldn’t be expecting the world. I feel like lately I’m just used to finding gems in that space, so it’s a bummer to play something that’s about what you'd expect it to be. The search continues! Capcom give new Sengoku Basara pls 🥺

[smoqueen]

what is the tekken community opinion of Neegan are you a pariah because of your main or are people chill. is Neegan a high tier character. is he "cheap" whats the deal

here it comes. read more to spare you

at low levels, negan is EXTREMELY strong. armors through whatever, launches you for nothing. this makes noobs think he is overpowered. in a way, it IS cheesy.

at a high level he is very honest. a lot of his “iconic��� moves are easily counterable or unsafe and his kit is limited and small compared to many characters. but the moves that he DOES have are still solid, and he has some amazing generic tools, good movement, and good frames.

some people say he is high tier, some say he is high-mid, some say mid, some say low, some say bottom (!) due to how solvable he is. none say he is top tier besides noobs .

a top player, arslan ash - maybe best in the world, absolutely the best in pakistan IMO - puts negan firmly in A tier. i outlined why i think this in a previous post (i really need to find a vid or tweet where he explains i know it’s out there) but a lot of pakistani pros have pocket negans. they think he’s cool and he has a good matchup against akuma, who is SSS tier, and also popular in pakistan. they also are absolute fucking gods of the poking/jailing/movement gameplay that forms his high level gameplan.

i personally think he’s high-mid tier and although his issues are glaring, i love competing with him and winning with him. like the entire cast he’s still viable. it is absolutely possible to beat the literal best players (knee, arslan ash) with negan. knee plays negan, though he plays higher tier characters during tournies typically, like feng. there are no comparable players that are solo negan mains. (top level solo mains are rare but they exist. anakin is the best na player debatably and mains jack). that’s the most “pariah like” thing about me is that i’m basically a negan solo main - my jack is ALMOST as good arguably but i prefer to keep repping negan

on the real good players are actually chill about negan they do get mad losing to certain things thoufh just like anyone. eating a fat “not cool” to the face sucks shit but that’s no different from eating a fucking bryan’s fisherman hook or eating hwoarang’s backlash. many pros just have an opinion on his inclusion mirroring the wider public. some think he doesn’t fit or is annoying some people think he’s cool

plenty think he is “cheesy” because he has a lot of voice lines during the game. jin doesn’t Say anything during the match. neither does jack. not even when they rage art. just intros/outros (for jack). now that i think about it, lot of silent characters.

negan is constantly talking. he says “shit” and “god damn” while getting hit. multiple times during combos. he has phrases while doing certain moves. no exceptions! not cool! holy smokes! feels good, sounds good. iiits ooover! oh my goodness!! he even chuckles AT you. his intros and outros are very fucking long

so, he’s polarizing. has a high play rate at low levels, and a low play rate at high levels. lots of people love him, lots of people hate him - much like many new tekken characters, like fakhumram, kunimitsu, lucky chloe, etc. i adore his insane inclusion in the game, he is swag as fuck and extremely fun to play, hope the moveset returns for 8 even if the character doesn’t OR we get some other equally insane character like tony soprano or will graham or zagreus or one of the jacked guys from white lotus season 2

[psianabel]

Loose Legends Arceus thoughts, because I need to put them somewhere lmao tl;dr: I fucking love this game

Obvious Spoiler warning for literally everything

This game feels like a love letter to Gen 4 and Pokemon in general. So many ideas from previous games (catching priority from Let’s Go games, Wild Area from S/W) polished and put together, using pre-existing characters known to fans and making them “new”, giving them a new role while still keeping their characters alive - Oh my god how goddamn amazing this was. 

I don’t even know where to start. 

I’m so glad they shifted the focus of this game to the exploring side, it is such a well needed shift Pokemon needed. Yeah, it always was Gotta catch them all, but was it truly? Between the battles you had, going to gym to gym, battling and defeating over and over ... Legend Arceus just lives this phrase like no other game has before. And it’s the best decision they’ve ever done imo. To use the opportunity of creating the first Pokemon of a region is just top tier - wasn’t that why Pokemon exists in the first place? It goes back to its roots on a whole other direction ... Anyways enough about this, but while we’re at the core, let’s talk about the gameplay.

Fantastic.

It fits so nicely into everything. Not on a real competitive level, no items, no abilities - the fighting styles is more than enough to make battling interesting and honestly more than that would make this just Too Much. I don’t even want to think about some Pokemon having Levitate or Pressure in this game and in the end I’m so glad they don’t lol And really I don’t miss it. The battles were hard but enjoyable, especially boss battles. Not much else to say than this. 

This game makes me want to explore. The joy you feel encountering a new Pokemon you haven’t seen / caught before. To say “I want to go there” and you can just Go There. This wildnerness. Indescribable feeling. I don’t give a damn about graphics, and eventually you just get used to it. It just doesn’t matter tbh. (Still, had to smile and sigh when the models had white lines around them in dark areas. Ah well. They tried.) ENOUGH ABOUT EVERYTHING, THIS STORY GOD.  I honestly want to say this is by far my favorite story of all main games. The mythology, this reversal to Diamond and Pearl, with these characters - All these NPCs are so loveable on their own kind. This decision to make them “ancestors” or whatever connection they have, baited me right into it lmfao. Absolutely perfect on its own. 

We’re all here for Volo let’s be real and I’m so 100% with you there. 

He was the first “trainer” we battled - and honestly I didn’t even think this game had trainer battles but hey - so when he sent out Togepi I didn’t think much about it, but smiled at the Togekiss relation ... Cue me having a slight heart attack when he sent out a Gible in the second battle. A literal “oh no” came out of me, not knowing where this will lead.

Little could I have KNOWN. They pull THIS. But oh my GOD was it good. 

OH MY GODDD WAS THIS GOOD. anyways

“Pokemon Wielder” is such a cool term, I dig it so hard. My heart dropped as I heard the battle music. And when he sent out the Spiritomb. Oh my god kicked he my ass. Who in their right mind thought it was a good idea to battle Giratina after this without giving us a heal AAAAA

This was the hardest shit ever. This Origin Form takes no prisoners. This CUTSCENEEEE holy SHIITTTT

I want to talk about on and on how incredibly amazing this is in correlation with the story of Diamond and Pearl. Team Galactic on one side and the Galaxy Team on another, Cynthia vs Volo, the search for knowledge and obsession with ruins and legends, the curious and calm and helpful vs the same but More. Much more. 

Volo is such a good character and I did not see this plottwist coming, but it’s still so Good and fitting. Who would have thought, who would have thought ... This game is just so wonderful. There can be so much more to say. The music, the dynamic music - that legendary battle theme. 10/10. That’s all I can say. There could definitely be more, but man. 

Such ... such a beautiful game. Please play it. 

[actualaster]

Alright, so, Thoughts on Lightfall.

Overall I enjoyed it quite a bit, though it's not without issues. On the whole I feel it did more right than wrong, and I can very much admit that several of the things I find to be flaws may very well just be down to personal taste in writing choices rather than objective problems.

So, in general, it's mostly positive with some discussion of areas that I think might have been better handled.

Naturally spoilers abound below.

Also discussions of new/revamped gameplay mechanics in addition to the storyline stuff.

Going to be a bit disjointed and achronological because my brain does not vibe with the concept of time in general.

So, first of all, NIMBUS. I love them. They're a great character. I want to see more of them in the future. Canon on-screen nonbinary rep in a character who is great, who has speaking lines AND is a major character in the expansion, AND doesn't just get killed off? YES. It seems like a previous Cloud Strider, Stargazer, may also have been they/them? There's definitely another they/them as an average citizen in the lorebook AND somebody who seems genderfluid.

So Neomuna just casually embraces being nonbinary and it's NOT just a Cloud Strider thing it's just a normal part of their culture. Love that~

Alright, now for everything else.

I really enjoyed the new aesthetics of Neomuna! Very pretty~ I especially love the sparkly, glittery stone (or whatever) ground and caves, that's just such a pretty thing and it's always a top tier design choice. Also really love how they made the Cloud Striders so dang tall! Makes sense with their augments and whatnot, but still, great choice~

Still haven't poked around all the Lost Sectors but I loved the arcade (and the Goblin just... scanning a game cabinet lol. Absolute favorite Vex right there, a shame I had to kill it)

Haven't messed around too much with the new weapons and such, so I can't speak to how I enjoy the new perks or anything yet thought I like the aesthetics of them again.

The re-worked mod system is pretty solid, IMO. It streamlines a lot of stuff. Could use more tweaks, I miss some of the older mods and such, but the team will absolutely be monitoring things and adding new mods and tweaking existing ones and such as we go. It's a massive overhaul so it'll take time for things to fully settle, and I'll probably tweak things around further in the future.

I do prefer the perk system for the seasonal artifact as well, by the way, less of a pain than trying to slot mods into your gear and sacrificing stuff. Still struggling with stunning Champions but that's mostly because I'm still getting used to the new setup and fiddling with weapons and such.

Loudout system is great, no more needing to change up mods or appearances when you swap classes lol.

I do wish they'd maybe increase the slots we have for weapons, or something. It's getting hard to juggle and energy slots between what i need to complete bounties, what I need to stun champions, and what I run for everything else, especially if I've got an exotic catalyst or two I'm trying to work on...

Also, while Strand is fun, it feels... Slower for abilities to recharge, somehow? Might just be because most of my other sub-classes have ways to recharge themselves in PvE faster and all. Especially the loading time on the grapple grenade. I very much get why it's like that but also since it doubles as a movement mechanic and not just a combat mechanic it's a little... Tedious. But there's not really a good way to adjust that, I think, because it's not like destiny has a dedicated "extra movement method" button or anything.

Anyway that might feel a little less clunky as I unlock aspects and try to put together a decent Strand build. Need to find a decent high-stat Exotic to pair it with, tbh, the one I'm running now is just kinda.. Meh, it's what I've got on hand lol. So that might very well be coloring my opinions on it, I can fully admit that's a strong possibility. (But, also, I fully expect Bungie to tweak Strand going forwards as more and more players get their hands on it and they can see on a large scale how it's working and where it's struggling).

ANYWAY enough about that! ON TO OTHER STUFF.

So, overall, I liked the story they told. I do wish we'd delved more into the what the Veil is, however. It's obvious by the time you're doing some of the post-campaign stuff that not even the people of Neomuna have a solid grasp on what it is, and I would have liked to see that explored more... I know they're probably going to drip feed us some of that info over the seasons but I feel like that's extremely relevant to THIS expansion and I feel that expansions should balance being self-contained and setting up the next part of the story (unless it's a standalone expansion in which case it should be entirely self-contained).

Lightfall... Felt like it leaned a little too heavily on the "setting up for the next part" side of things. It wasn't bad, but I feel like we could have explored a bit more in the expansion itself. Maybe not part of the main campaign, but as a post-campaign quest or something to learn a little more about the Veil, and such.

I don't want to describe it as "filler", because it's not, but it did... Hrm... How to explain it... Like, obviously it's the link between Witch Queen and The Final Shape, that's just kind of what the expansions are--continuing the story and linking the entries that came before with those that came after. But Lightfall... It felt a little more like it was meant to just be a bridge and less like it was taking itself seriously as a full story in it's own right.

It's not bad, exactly, but it felt a little... Off. Like it wasn't quite able to come into it's own as an expansion outside of it's role linking WQ and TFS. An excellent effort was made, and that is a fine line to walk so I don't want to give the devs too much grief over it! But it does feel like it managed to fall a bit short on that.

Some of it was the pacing. The pacing felt a little... Inconsistent? Like some areas, such as Rohan's death, felt kind of rushed--we barely had time to get to know or care about these characters before he's sacrificing himself for us! And others felt like they dragged a little--Strand mastery, mostly. That somehow manage to feel like it both took up too much time and too little time.

I think that part is more... It felt like it took forever to get to the serious training to master it, and once we hit that it came very rapidly. I think that maybe if it had been a focus for one more or one less mission it would have felt better paced.

But also part of that might be less to do with the actual Strand and more to do with the content of the missions themselves. I did notice several of them had extended "no respawn" segments which were... Grueling, if you weren't very well-prepared and that can absolutely be coloring my perception of the pacing. It's hard to pull them apart, really.

Battles in segments did seem to drag on a bit, and some of the new stuff you do in Neomuna (the "terminal override" activity) seem to drag on, becoming more of a test of endurance than anything else.

Now, some of this is undoubtedly because we're all still adjusting to the new mod system and we all started out at low light compared to the recommended stuff with the new expansion and all. As we all start to get up there in light level, get better gear, get a handle on the new system, etc. I suspect these will start going faster.

So I don't want to be too hard on that aspect because, y'know, we just came off a "we've got YEARS of experience mastering the system and we're at the top of our game" in terms of gameplay so there's gonna be a learning curve for many of us again and I don't want to ding the devs on that too badly if it really just feels tedious due to needing to get familiar with things and better gear and such.

Plus, like. I know I'm not as big a fan of the battlegrounds style stuff because they take longer and I prefer quick, intense bursts of combat rather than extended firefights, so that's likely also my personal taste coloring how I feel there.

That said, not all the battle segments seemed to drag on--and several of those that were longer absolutely made sense and it really added to the emotional feelings of the mission with how they lasted longer.

Like, the run-up to fighting Calus?

When Caitatl shows up to fight alongside you with her troops through wave after wave of enemy? It felt like that fight took forever--but that worked great because it really fed the sense of "shit, fuck, NO, we have to hurry, we don't have time for this!" and that sense of "can we make it? No, we have to! We have to endure!" desperation that really, really fit the "the enemy is about to fucking win we HAVE to stop them!" that was being built up.

Actually, honestly, the more I think about it... The more I think that may have been the point all along with the combat segments that felt like took longer? To build that "we don't have time to be wasting here" sense of impatience to hurry and try to stop the Witness from getting the Veil.

But, also, again, they may have just taken longer and feel too long because I'm not totally used to the new system and still building myself up again--and I would imagine that the same could be true for others who also felt they were lengthy.

Calus' death, though, that was great. The battle was annoying because I was still trying to get a hang of swinging around with Strand and kept getting knocked off, but that was a skill issue not a game design issue lol.

I liked how in the end he became desperate, and his death just... Felt fitting. He met the end he was always destined for. Honestly a of the imagery around Calus was great, they did a great job of showing that while he gives service to the Witness he's still not actually satisfied and that his "gains" are just... Hollow. Empty. Just like him, really. All superficial opulence with no substantial filling.

His Chalice, a beautiful thing that was never filled, was a fantastic metaphor for Calus himself.

Speaking of interesting things, though.

The Cloud Striders vs the Guardians. One that chooses a life cut drastically short, not as a tragedy, but as a joyful sacrifice to protect and serve their people, a heavy mantle but one taken up willingly by those who are passionate about the cause. And one that has immortality thrust upon them without warning, without consent, and without any sort of purpose innate to the lifespan change.

They're a fun little twisted reflection of each other, and something I hope gets explored further even if only in the lore--that's a really, really neat concept that has a lot of fun potential for compare/contrast, you know?

AND, ON TOP OF THAT, the Guardian hesitates to cut their own existence short--the choice to shoot their Ghost, to save everything? (Or at least delay the Witness' plan)? And they hesitate, they can't quite do it in time (and once it's over there's no point). It's understandable, Ghost is your friend, somebody you care about and I think it makes perfect sense that we'd hesitate. I mean even outside of the narrative of "they can't have us kill Ghost because then we wouldn't be immortal anymore and that would really kind of screw with the whole 'players are immortal beings who come back over and over and over and just Get Better from grievous wounds on the fly'" thing. It just makes sense in general.

But there's also, there, that moment of hesitation in the face of sacrificing their immortality--when Rohan chose to cut his already truncated life short without hesitation to the same end.

It's not that I think we were wrong for our choice, or that his sacrifice was better or anything.

I just thing they're fascinating inversions of each other--parallel lines traveling in opposite direction.

And I think that was really well-done.

Also, speaking of well-done, the cutscene at the end of the new exotic quest for Deterministic Chaos, where the remains of Sagira's shell are enshrined in the Hall of Heroes right behind Rohan's monument/server. That was such a good touch, it was so perfect. It just feels right.

I just.

Yeah, the expansion had it's issues (what doesn't?) and things I would have changed up a bit but overall it was very enjoyable and did some amazing stuff with imagery, metaphor, and implied parallels for players to take note of. My biggest gripes are with gameplay, and those will very likely be lessened as the new mod system and subclass get tweaked and we all start getting more experience with them and such.

A fun time that deserves some criticism but really doesn't seem to deserve the more vitriolic hate I've seen.

So, on the whole, I'd give it a very solid 8/10.

[blueskittlesart]

unless you’ve already done it can we get a ranking / tier list of the zelda games you’ve played?

oh god this is going to be difficult. ok let’s go!! (note: i left out nes zelda, zelda II, and a link between worlds because i haven’t played enough of them yet to have formed strong opinions)

1. botw. oot almost beats it out but even i can recognize that oot cant REALLY compare to botw in terms of gameplay or story no matter how much i want it to in my mind. botw is just a new level of character development and storytelling for loz imo and the way it was implemented into the gameplay was so incredible i wish i could go back and experience it blind again

2. oot my beloved. incredible story incredible characters. the og. literally the baseline which i compare all other zelda games to bc it’s just. so strong all around. absolutely one of the games of all time everyone go play oot

3. skyward sword!! i know it gets bumped down on a lot of people’s lists because of the controls (and trust me, i know why. i played it on the wii) but the story was so compelling to me that it’s one of my top favs regardless!! i also really REALLY love the art direction in this game it was so good

4. a link to the past. classic!! i think it’s the strongest of the 2d zeldas i’ve played so far, and it still holds up on its own (though when compared to other games it’s pretty bare-bones) plus it gave us bunny link which. UGH i could go on and on about how obsessed i am with that plot point

5. majoras mask. i LOVE the story of this one and it makes me insane but the timer makes me so anxious that it’s functionally unplayable. which is 100% a me problem but that’s why it’s so low on the list

6. links awakening. i don’t. really have much to say about this one tbh. like it’s not BAD but it just wasn’t super memorable for me plus the final battle was so fucking difficult to beat it annoyed the shit out of me

7. twilight princess. i hate this game lol ❤️ don’t defend it in the comments either because i’m correct and i don’t care how you feel

[muffinrecord]

one thing I’d like is for magireco to get more creative with their unit gameplay builds.

some of the recent stuff is good imo. I mention perenelle a lot, but I really like her gameplay design. IT’S AWFUL for the game, but it’s a new niche and I like it. She’s defensive, but not actually a tank. In fact, in a way she almost doesn’t want to be hit at all. yeah yeah she’s got mp up when damaged, but she’s not a sudachi, okay? she’s all about defense and raising the defense of her allies. I like it.

I also like that while Isabeau is kimochi bait, she still at least has some uniqueness to her. she’s like vamp kanagi, but while vnagi is all about evade, isabeau is all about hp regen. nice way to expand a niche without powercreeping it. 

-

I do think that you can find weird ways that characters can tier in niches. for example, in the “surive attacks they shouldn’t and deal magia damage” niche you’ve got:

ftp: Oriko. magia cheese, easy to aquire compared to other girls and easy to slot. However, she still requires an investment so f2p have stuff to work on.

average: Ren SORT OF fills this. she has a lot going on, okay. but at her core, she’s about getting low on health, dealing lots of damage with a doppel, then evading and healing herself up. 

limited: vampire kanagi- top of the line here. this is shown by how she’s limited too. best of the best for this niche. fuck you vnagi for taking over oriko’s job.

-

Once you see this, you see it in a lot of characters. kako is the f2p version of madoka. both are healers with accele draw. however f2p will never be as good as average 4* units through some fatal flaw or lack of coverage. Kako doesn’t give mp directly. Manaka buffs like sayuki/mikage does, but she doesn’t give mp either. Emiri is a worse version of Mifuyu. Sasara (was? is?) a worse version of kokoro. Corbeau is like a worse version of Hanna. Hotaru is a worse version of mayu etc.

to be fair, this is a very basic view and im oversimplifying shit to hell and back right now. For example, Emiri is more protective of her team than Mifuyu is, who is more... mp-focused? also I didn’t know her magia/doppel could remove buffs. neat.

also compare poor Miyuri with Tanabata Yachiyo. nonlimited versus limited. sorry miyuri.

anyways what I am trying to say is that this is all well and good but I WANT MORE VARIETY

--

fuck this highly-tuned kimochi bait shit. I want more units like Yuna. Yuna is great an unique. increased damage when health is low? fucking amazing. let’s see more shit like that. unique shit.

I want a tank who gives herself provoke when she connects to another person. make me want to actually use her disks pls.

I want a tank who increases the damage done by her party based on how much damage she’s taken. make her a weird tank-support hybrid. I don’t care if she isn’t the most amazing 100% unit ever, just make something unusual. let’s change up gameplay.

I want a character who is a sniper, who has like crazy 80% attac up when max health but she also has like -2 hp and she’ll die if a leaf gently rests on her foot.

I want a charge unit who has a weird gimick. each time she attacks, her damage goes up. so she her first attack feels like the soft shell of a peanut against you, but then her 10th attack feels like a fucking airplane tearing you into pieces.

gIVE me a girl who deals increased damage based on her target’s attack. If the enemy has shit attack, she deals shit attack. fuck that’ll be hard to balance, but make it weird.

also I still wnat a total wild card character who is just as likely to screw you over as she is the enemy. her magia has a 50% chance to kill your team lmao. you might tell her to attack an enemy with a disc but instead she takes a nap. maybe she’s a free character and you get rewards for using her in hard content.

I want a character who deals increased damage for every status ailment that she has ON HERSELF

I want a character who deals increased damage based on how low her mp is. high mp = low damage. no mp = fucking canon. also she is all accele disks.

I want a character who throws shitty status ailments like poison, charm, and uhhhhhhhhhh fog, but the gimick is that they last forever until the battle ends.

--

these are all fuckign garbage ideas but I WANT THEM I WANT NEW SHIT I WANT VARIETY

[irrelevantnostalgia]

3. Cake Mania 3 (2008)

𝓟𝓵𝓸𝓽: The developments of Cake Mania 2 led to two very important developments in Jill’s life. The silver lining of sniffing sea creatures while trying to serve cake was the romance that bloomed between her and her friend Jack, which led to a marriage proposal. Alongside that, her journey into the future where she revived the tradition of cake baking led to her being gifted with the time bender. Cake Mania 3′s plot is an intersection of these two endings of Cake Mania 2. Jill is preparing for her wedding day and everything is normal, until the time bender which was just hanging around (for some reason) gets knocked over and broken into 5 pieces. Each piece sends one member of Jill’s entourage back into a different time period (Ancient Egypt, Some Chinese Dynasty idk which one, Jurassic Era, Revolutionary-Era France, and Medieval England). Jill, yet again, has to use the power of baking to rescue her family and friends.

𝒲𝒽𝒶𝓉'𝓈 𝒩𝑒𝓌

Animated Cutscenes with Voice Acting: They are incredibly uncanny looking because the only animation are the characters’ eyes blinking and the mouth moving. I personally prefer the original format because I don’t feel like this has really added anything. 

Cheaper Cakes: Cakes in this game are much cheaper. One single layer cake is ~$18-25 instead of ~$30-something in the previous two games. A 2x tier cake is ~$30 and a 3x tier cake is $40. This has a lot of implications for upgrading, especially since there are. . . . 

More Expensive Upgrades: The strategy that I proposed to dominating every Cake Mania game still stands, but it has a minor bump now. Cake decorators have an interesting upgrade style, where each topping is >$1000 and comes along with a speed upgrade. So rather than having to pay for all the toppings and then the speed upgrades afterwards, you can now increase toppings and speed at the same time. In the first few levels this is a little inconvenient since you can’t purchase a topping for cheap and then churn out more expensive cakes, but the profit goals have been adjusted to account for the cake prices. The baking equipment is also more expensive now, with the fastest oven upgrade being $4000.

Phone: You can buy a phone that will occasionally ring (typically not more than once, but there were a few times were it rang twice for me) to give you an extra order. You won’t get penalized if you don’t pick it up if you are too busy at the moment, which is nice. I think this is something that is nice to have if you aren’t quite reaching those baking goals so you can get an extra~ customer if you’re also having trouble clearing them out. Otherwise it is just a nice bonus

Drink Station: The developers added a little treat to help branch off from just making cakes and included the option for customers to get some tea, coffee, or hot chocolate as well. It is a nice break to have to do only one task for an order rather than up to 5 so I think this is a welcome addition. 

Power-ups: There are several power-ups in this game to help you manage dealing with customers. Most of them are stage-dependent and you can use them once per level. 

Ancient Egypt

I didn’t find this one to be all that helpful because it didn’t feel like a substantial amount of time was added on. 

Medieval England

This power-up was nice to have around, but I don’t think it made gameplay significantly easier since imo it doesn’t take a long time for a customer to make up their mind

Revolutionary-Era France

I think this one a pretty useful to have, especially if you’re prone to making mistakes. Not to flex, but I also didn’t find this one to be useful because I rarely make these kinds of errors and just stick the mistake cakes into the cake display fridge lol

Jurassic Era

I, surprise surprise, also never needed to use this one. I think this is useful if you are dealing with too many customers going ballistic or borderline ballistic to keep the line moving.

Chinese Dynasty

This one is the only power-up that I used regularly. Sometimes you just don’t feel like having to put down what you’re doing and give everyone in line a distraction cookie, or have to strategize on what TV show to put on (especially when that opera star is around). 

𝔽𝕌𝕌𝕋𝕌ℝ𝔼

I also didn’t use this one. Holy shit, I really didn’t need any of these power-ups besides just for the novelty. 

There are two additional power-ups that you can use that are re-charged by playing the mini-games. They are both located in the bottom left corner of the screen and are called “stop time” and “lightning feet.” These really weren’t all that amazing or helpful, and lightning feet becomes especially useless once you get Jill some better shoes. Sometimes I forgot these were even an option.

Mini-games: Every four levels in each stage a mini game becomes available to play where you can earn extra cash. There are three available to play and the difficulty of the game increases as you move across the stages. 

Serve-O-Rama

This is a fairly easy game to play. Even when the game speeds up and the stakes are higher, I can keep up with it fairly well. Not much to say.

Copy Cakes

This is the easiest mini-game in this entire game. Even when the cakes you have to copy become extremely elaborate, you can put the most piece of shit composition together and still pass with a B. You have to try to get a bad score. The only thing you will probably miss out on as the game gets difficult is extra points and cash you can win for the “time bonus.”

Cakey Makey

Man fuck this game. As the game speeds up and gets more difficult you basically can not make a single mistake or pause because so much shit is flying at you. Sure, if I really tried I could make this work and beat the levels. However, this is not worth the effort. I stop playing this mini-game once it becomes too much trouble. 

Cake Display Upgrade

This upgrade was revolutionary for the Cake Mania series. With this update we can bake the most expensive cakes, have them on display, and not be penalized if they don’t sell out by the end of the level. The common strategy with this new display update for players is to wait until the last customers leaves and not collect the currency laid out by the customers (because that signals the end of the level), bake 3 cakes with the most expensive toppings, and put them in the display case you have some solid $$-making cakes that you can just dish right out for the next level. 

Sugar Rush

As you get more upgrades to increase the speed of the equipment, you can churn out more cakes in a short amount of time. By the time you are able to get the really fast stuff, you’re going to be in the levels when customers are consistently ordering more and more elaborate cakes. The combination of these two factors creates the perfect environment for the sugar rush bonus. Literally just continually doing more and more tasks in a short amount of time causes the above bar to fill up, and once it is full you get the sugar rush where everything you do automatically happens (i.e. the cake immediately pops out and immediately gets frosted and decorated as well).

Now it is time to go over the various locations and the customers that are present there. Before I do, there is something interesting to point out. 

Back when I was a kid and I played this game mindlessly, I would just pick the first location to play at random. Unlike Cake Mania 2 where you only had the option to pick between 2 stages to progress through the game, in this game you have all 5 locations laid out and can pick whichever one you want to play next. I would want to spice it up each time I played this game and let’s just say I wasn’t the best at strategically upgrading my equipment at that point. What would end up happening is that I would practically be unable to reach even the minimum baking goal because I would be well into the game with shoddy equipment and the customers at full speed. 

Well, here is why

𝓔𝓰𝔂𝓹𝓽

Pharaoh

Favorite TV Channel: Caveman Comedy

♥Queen♥

Favorite TV Channel: Soap Opera

Since she makes customers happy, she gets a heart. Other customers that have the same effect will get the heart as well

Lady-in-Waiting

Favorite TV Channel: Caveman Comedy

♥Horus♥

Favorite TV Channel: News

Anubis

Favorite TV Channel: News

This is the first game with the Blue Bubble customer. Blue Bubble customers always do some fuckshit to the other customer which messes up the flow of the game. This dog of the dead turns the other customers into mummies after a few seconds have passed. What that means is, you will be 3/4 of the way done with an order and then Anubis shows up. You are hoping that the ammonite shell topping will be added on before Anubis does the inevitable. Then you remember that all of your equipment is of the snail green variety, and when the topping is half way added on Anubis changes the customer to a mummy. Not only does the customer change, but their order changes as well. Hope you have a cake stand to put the cake on!

Speaking of mummies....

Mummy 

Favorite TV Channel: Bad Girls Club

This is the first game where the effects that customers have on each other is as subtle as a stop sign. While the Queen and Horus make your life easier, the mummy is going to be the reason why you’re $10 off from reaching the superstar baking goal. The mummy is especially egregious because it feels like it shows up so often compared to other horrible customers. This is why many other players online recommend that you play Egypt first, so you can deal with the negative consequences of the mummy with lower stakes.

𝓜𝓮𝓭𝓲𝓮𝓿𝓪𝓵 𝓔𝓷𝓰𝓵𝓪𝓷𝓭

Is that a Pharaoh and Egyptian lady-in-waiting in line as well? Yes. The time bender didn’t just affect present-day!

Wizard

Favorite TV channel: Caveman Comedy

♥“Unicorn”♥

Favorite TV Channel: News

Looks like the sad sack finally got a promotion

Fairy

Favorite TV Channel: Caveman Comedy

Witch

Favorite TV Channel: Soap Opera

Not only does she piss other customers off, but she comes in with a nasty ass attitude with like 2 hearts present. What a customer.

Blue Bubble Witch

Favorite TV Channel: Soap Opera

She is the Anubis equivalent of this stage, where she turns customers into Monkeys instead. 

Robin Hood

Favorite TV Channel: Bad Girls Club

This is the other Blue Bubble customer for this stage. The strategy in Cake Mania and Cake Mania 2 when levels started getting crazy was to serve the customers that were present and not pick up the money they leave until all the present customers were served. I mentioned in the Cake Mania review that this strategy wouldn’t be useful all the time, and this is where it is not. Robin Hood’s quirk is that he steals money that you leave out on the counter :) Him and the Witch are most likely the reasons why Medieval England is encouraged to be the second stage when things are still relatively calm. 

𝓒𝓱𝓲𝓷𝓮𝓼𝓮 𝓓𝔂𝓷𝓪𝓼𝓽𝔂

Empress

Favorite TV Channel: Caveman Comedy

Palace Guard

Favorite TV Channel: Caveman Comedy

♥Opera Star♥

Favorite TV Channel: Soap Opera

Watch out! When you put on the TV, the opera star will automatically change the channel to the soap opera. Good thing we have this stage’s power up when we need it. 

♥Golden Dragon♥

Favorite TV Channel: Bad Girls Club

If two golden dragons are in line together, they pair up.

Green Dragon

Favorite TV Channel: Bad Girls Club

The Green Dragon orders multiple times.

Emperor

Favorite TV Channel: Bad Girls Club

He pisses everyone off, including me! I lose profit because people get so pissed they leave!

Blue Bubble Emperor

Favorite TV Channel: Bad Girls Club

This guy is super fun because his Blue Bubble power is to demand to be served before everyone else and blocks off contact between you and other customers.

𝓡𝓮𝓿𝓸𝓵𝓾𝓽𝓲𝓸𝓷𝓪𝓻𝔂-𝓔𝓻𝓪 𝓕𝓻𝓪𝓷𝓬𝓮

♥Marquis♥

Favorite TV Channel: Soap Opera

♥Sugar Rush Marquis♥

Favorite TV Channel: Soap Opera

The moment he arrives, you get the sugar rush bonus. His presence really helps make this overall stage easier to play. 

Executioner 

Favorite TV Channel: Caveman Comedy

Quasimodo 

Favorite TV Channel: Caveman Comedy

Marie Antoinette 

Favorite TV Channel: Soap Opera

Jill is serving cakes. Marie Antoinette is serving LOOKS. She belongs at the Met Gala.

Napoleon

Favorite TV Channel:  Bad Girls Club

He does the same thing as the Blue Bubble Emperor.

Once you get to this level, you should have most of your shit together which should make it less difficult. 

𝓙𝓾𝓻𝓪𝓼𝓼𝓲𝓬 𝓔𝓻𝓪

T-Rex

Favorite TV Channel: News 

Lady D(iana)

Favorite Channel: Caveman Comedy

Hominid Ancestor

Favorite Channel: News

Rhino

Favorite Channel: Caveman Comedy

♥Monkey♥

Favorite Channel: News

♥Purple Monkey♥

Favorite Channel: News

They pair up with each other in line

None of the customers in this stage are over-the-top, and there are no Blue Bubble customers from this era which is why this stage is recommended to play last. At worst, you just get super impatient customers like the T-Rex, but the later stages of these games always get sped up with impatient customers.

Now that we helped rescue the members of Jill’s entourage, there is still the problem with everyone else appearing in the wrong time periods. To finish off Jill’s third hero’s journey, we must travel into the 𝔽𝕌𝕌𝕋𝕌ℝ𝔼:

I think these levels are fun since not all the customers from each stage get to “time travel” into subsequent stages, but in the 𝔽𝕌𝕌𝕋𝕌ℝ𝔼 levels we get to see everyone again.

When order is finally restored across the space-time continuum, Jill can finally have her wedding! You have the ability to design her cake. This is what I ended up making:

I had to honor the time-bender. 

𝓣𝓻𝓸𝓹𝓱𝓲𝓮𝓼

Trophies are given out like candy in this game. There’s trophies for getting superstar baking goal for every level, which makes sense. After all, you had to go above and beyond during gameplay to achieve that. There are trophies for getting the high score in storymode and in the mini-games, which also makes sense. Then we get trophies for fully upgrading equipment like the oven and the fridge. It’s like..okay..sure, I guess? That’s more like fulfilling a requirement on a checklist than an accomplishment that needs a trophy, but OK. There are also trophies for beating the different stages, as well trophies for beating each of the stages first. I suppose that is there to increase the replay value on the game. The oddest ones are trophies for using the “stop time” and “lightning feet” power-ups 3 times. Like……? I don’t know about y’all, but I’m more of a “quality” over “quantity” kind of gal and this is a bit much. 

Here is my collection:

I don’t gaf enough about filling the trophy room to overcome my apathy towards the “lightning feet” power-up (I got the trophy for the other power-up just by sheer coincidence) and my hatred towards cakey-makey.

𝓞𝓿𝓮𝓻𝓪𝓵𝓵 𝓞𝓹𝓲𝓷𝓲𝓸𝓷

Gameplay wise, this is just the Cake Mania that we all know and love. This is fine because this recipe has held up so far. I’ve hinted in previous reviews that these games become much more elaborate with each new installation, and Cake Mania 3 does represent an exponential increase regarding elaborate presentation. Everything is much more bright and animated, which is definitely much nicer to look at, but how much of this is just underbaked fluff?

Most of the power-ups for this game didn’t add anything for me, but they also didn’t detract from the game either (especially considering I forgot they were even an option sometimes). I think the stage-specific ones are a cute idea since it gives the stage a little something extra. However, for me it just felt decorative. I think they can be helpful in the earlier levels when you’re still upgrading equipment, but a lot of these become kind of useless once you upgrade the equipment. I think the “Tao of Cake” is the most helpful overall. The one power-up that I really like is the sugar rush power-up, since the boost from it does beat even the fastest equipment. The mini-games are another addition that I didn’t love or hate since, again, it was just kind of there for me.

The addition of extra money-making strategies like the phone and the drink station is not something that I desperately needed from this game, but honestly I’m not mad. It’s simple and it weaves itself right in to the main gameplay. There are even times where I would hope to get some customers who just wanted tea once everything got crazy.

The customers in this game are the biggest improvement compared to previous games. I think the behavior of these customers is partly a continuation of what the approach was in Cake Mania 2 where there are mostly normal-behaving customers and then the crazies. This game also took a step further and made it very obvious who the bad customers were (there were even sfx to indicate when a bad customer would arrive) as well as the addition of the Blue Bubble customers. I think this did a great job of helping break the monotony of later levels, which is really the problem I think this type of game faces as you keep playing.

 I think this is a solid game overall, and the attempts at adding new features to the game was fairly okay. At worst, it just felt decorative and unnecessary which in the grand scheme of things isn’t really bad. I can understand wanting to do something besides changing up the plot and making it wackier to justify a sequel, so I don’t really blame them for experimenting a little bit. However, a lot of this is really surface level and I think more can be done to spice sugar up the franchise. The customers are much more interesting this time around, and I think the “sugar rush” and drink station can stay, so it wasn’t all fluff

I give this game a-little-too-much-buttercream-frosting on an otherwise good cake/10

I wonder what is next for these two lovebirds?

Before I forget, here are some choice screenshots

She’s right!

[avirams]

for the aa game, questions number 16, 19, 20, and 21? im kinda curious about your thoughts on those

yeyyyses aa asks thank you nonnie :DD

(somehow, these answers are even longer than last time. proceed with caution)

16. If there was anything you could change about the series, what would it be?

ohhh man there is SO much to discuss on this one. for starters, id probably keep shu takumi as the director for aa5 and aa6 because yeah. yep. while the characters were written really awesomely in those games imo, the plots execution kinda,,, ruined all that potential. soo many holes, and nothing made sense DLJLDK

next, id actually like!! keep the focus on whatever new characters are supposed to star in the games!! i talked about this too on my meta blog. phoenix is great and all, but bringing him back as a protag in everything just for the Brand(tm) was,,, a really bad choice. so give apollo the spotlight, athena her own game, and keep phoenix off to the side plEase. 

same with edgeworth!! we need more focus on the other rivals (klavier, franziska, etc etc). love him and all, but his arc ended ages ago back in the triology. and it really bugs me when they use him for everything, because like, we know capcom has the ability to write great character arcs!! edgeworth is a great sign on that!! but they just forgot about SO many other people for his sake!! 

oh oh also, they just need to bring back other characters in general. gumshoe, lana, klavier, yknow like. give other characters CRUMBS of what phoenix and edgeworth get pl

and finally, i just want them to talk about what happened in previous games. in the og triology, it was good cuz YES it was annoying when we got a flashback of dl6 every time but ALSO. also!!! dl6 is like, a crucial part of edgeworth and mayas and a couple other peoples development!!! the issue in aa5 and aa6 mostly, is that theyre SO scared of spoiling previous games, which reallllyyy hindered any possible development we couldve gotten :(

19. Favorite character design?

i talked about this more in emas opinion thingy, but definitely hers. everyone else kinda goes bloo blah on keeping the same outfit for literal decades,,, but hers actually changed a lot, while still keeping the lab coat and goggles!! theres also a lot of easter eggs in her design? like the pink princess pin? and the badge thingy as well, b/c those appeared on other peoples outfits and plot and that was just a really nice detail imo

20. Worst motive?

hoo boy. okay. i cant reeeally think of anything off the top of my head, because most of them were pretty cool, but yknow whos really sucked? ambassador albas!!!!! aai was SUPER fun and i loved a lot of the reveals!!! but the drug dealing subplot was,,,, really boring and gave me a headache. it took me an actual week of gameplay to finally convict him, all because he didnt want to be found out as the leader of the smuggling ring. really stupid

21. Favorite backstory?

hmhmhmhm,,, tbh, a lot of the main people have super fascinating backstories? i wont say edgeworth for this because it does get kinda tiring hearing it, apollo has 50, klavier has none and phoenix just gets like. 3 big things that happened in the past and we dont know anything else

after all that,,, probably lanas. i know she only appears for ONE case, but since i already answered ema, i really liked hers. because shes a strong person!! but even after all that, she couldnt do what she really wanted,,, and when she became a prosecutor it was gants fault,,, and everything was getting corrupted right in front of her,,, but she couldnt do anything cuz ema,,, yep. top tier stuff. itd be even better if we could get some context on intellectual attraction tho,,, :(

oh my GOSH i can fit so much rambling into these i apologize <//3 but thank you thank you thank you for wanting to hear these!! it means so much that people  dont mind me talking this much dfkmgkfdm

[harusha]

What are your top pokemon games??

Official or fangame? I’ll just list both. I will say Pokemon Reborn is my top-rated overall if we combine both lists (with HGSS and Collesseum/XD following as 2 and 3 respectively.)

On Official, it’s 

1. Heartgold/Soulsilver (My favorite region is Johto, and Ethan is my favorite Pokemon protagonist so…unsurprising. The games are still genuinely good though imo because of the massive amount of content and post-game and QoL stuff like following Pokemon, auto-run, etc.) I also love the nostalgic feeling of the region. Lance is also here, and I like him and his design a lot, not as much as Volkner though. Also Proton is here, and I love the dude so. Pedometer is included here.

2. Pokemon Colosseum/Pokemon XD; I include this together since they’re a duo set in terms of story. XD is the better one gameplay-wise because of the new additions of Shadow moves, more Pokemon choices, QoL changes like saving, etc. but Colosseum is the harder of the two games imo b/c of the sparsity of Pokemon–if you can play it on laptop, mod XD with Pokemon XG for massive QoL changes (Fairy Type, more shadow Pokemon, upped difficulty, etc.)

I like how this set tries new stuff and it honestly showcases how if you the Pokemon IP to a third-party, you end up with something that tries to be different and actually plays pretty well.

3. Pokemon BWBW2; included as a set because of joint story line. Honestly, I feel like BWBW2 are objectively the last great mainline series additions. Even if you didn’t care for the story, they at least tried with it and the rivals. You had the nice rival in Bianca and the “focused/ruder” rival in Cheren, and both encompassed the themes of the game (Truth with Bianca as she realizes her ineptness as a trainer and Ideals with Cheren who strives to overcome his boundaries and the player even if he never can). N is pretty awesome, and I think Ghetsis is a better Lusamine (sorry, idc for how Lusamine’s actions are brushed over and blamed on the space jellyfish). There’s a lot to enjoy in Unova imo.

Also massive post-game stuff like Join Avenue (which encourages one of the main tenets of Pokemon, interacting with others and trading; ex. “Magnemite Coil”), half the region opening up for Post-game (White Treehollow, Kyurem’s abode, etc.). The Legendaries also have home locations for the most part, and their items aren’t just given to you by random people. A lot of stuff to do that isn’t just breeding mindlessly for shinies (I mean I love doing that, but options ya know?) or online battle.

4. Pokemon Conquest; Fire Emblem (or more accurately, Nobunaga’s ambition) meets Pokemon. I like turn-based grid tactic games, and this one’s actually pretty fun. You’re encouraged to roam around and give people different Pokemon to see which ones they’re compatible with. Also another example of what can be done if Pokemon is given to a another developer.

5. Pokemon Explores of Sky (and to a lesser extent since it’s the base, Time/Darkness); you can swap this with Colloseum/XD, BWBW2 or Pokemon Conquest depending on if you prefer Pokemon’s style of play, tactics games, or dungeon crawlers. I like this one since the story’s actually pretty good, the difficulty’s nice, and especially the post-game dungeons and content.

6. Pokemon Platinum and Diamond+Pearl to a lesser extent– the region that actually has a reasonably difficult Elite Four and champion. I love the additions they have like distortion world, the melancholic feel you get at times in the Chateau area and snowfields, and the post-game Battle Frontier. However, the games run so slow without Drayano’s mods. In terms of husbandos, Volkner’s pretty nice as well, and he’s pretty high-tier for me. Cynthia’s here as well, so I guess she counts since she’s a feature every time she shows up.

7. Pokemon FRLG-The definite version of Kanto for me. Sevii Islands, callbacks (callforwards?) to the Johto games with the Rocket Admins, decent difficulty and ability to sequence break somewhat, etc. It gives new experiences for those who’ve played the OG versions, but doesn’t change them drastically. The “you can’t evolve anything outside of the OG 151 before post-game” is stupid though. Lance is here as well, but his half Dragonite/Dragonair team annoys me b/c of how repetitive it is, but product of the time as well and the HGSS first battle had that as well but at least they’re all evolved.

8. Pokemon Red/Blue Rescue Team-I like this one since the story’s still good and incorporates the idea of a human being transported to a Pokemon world, but I just feel like Sky’s gameplay improvements and portraits for everyone trumps this one. I like Gengar a lot and his team. I also think the difficulty on this one (depending on starter and partner) is fairly good at times (The Moltres fight is actually pretty difficult if you don’t have Pikachu or a water type partner).

9. Pokemon Emerald and to a lesser extent Ruby/Sapphire–Battle Frontier, Scott and Smeargle cave (ie. post-game content), beautiful promotional artwork (including ORAS’s), fairly difficult battles at time if you aren’t prepared/going in blind with no excessive grinding (2nd May battle, Flannery, etc.), hidden secrets like Regis and Secret Bases. However, the latter half is so boring with the excessive surfing and lackluster variety. Steven’s here, and he’s a dreamboat even with the sprite graphics.

10. Pokemon Channel and Hey you, Pikachu!-Weird I know. This would be higher if I didn’t think this was a niche pick. It’s just really relaxing, and I want another one, especially if you can get more Pokemon to raise. It’s a lot more fun once you play it. I like exploring with Pikachu and it offers a look into the world of Pokemon as a non-trainer. I really want another one tbh.

11. Pokemon Rangers series (Ranked from favorite to lowest; Shadows of Almia–>OG–>Guardian Signs; all are good but that’s my preference) The gameplay is actually pretty fun, and I wish we got another one. They could use Joycons as a styler. Spencer, Sven, and Lunick are also pretty cute

12. Pokken Tournament- What battles should feel like in mainline if they injected millions of dollars into the mainline, so unrealistic expectation. I think Pokken is a decent fighting game. The moves are nice, and the music is good. This can go lower if you don’t care for fighting games.

13. Pokemon Battle Revolution and Stadium games-They’re mostly battle simulators with some mini-games. The animations are actually pretty lively and fun compared to SWSH’s. I would like to rank this higher, but there is no story mode sadly. It’s great if you want to see what Pokemon would look like in-scale.

14. Pokemon X/Y-I think these are actually pretty nice if only for the fact there isn’t excessive handholding; it’s there but it doesn’t force me to put down the game out of boredom. The outfits are genuinely pretty cute. However, the rivals are ridiculously terrible, difficulty is either too low or unbalanced if you use/turn off exp. share. Let’s put ORAS here as well b/c I think the lack of Battle Frontier and mediocre post-game, getting Lati@s early, etc. drops it down from Emerald. The PSS system is amazing though.

15. Pokemon Trozei and Pokemon Pinball series-Yeah, I’ve played these. Trozei’s actually pretty cool as a match-3 game, and pinball is pinball. You also get slightly more lore into the Pokemon world with Lucy Fleetfoot. I like match-3 and pinball so very much a YMMV. Pop Gates to Infinity and Super Mystery Dungeon here as well. Idk, they just lack the magic of the first two entries.

16. Pokemon Snap, Pokemon Dash, all the other spin-offs I didn’t talk about-they all offer something fun, but I just wish it was either updated for modern times and not released again (like with Snap) or a bit more (in the case of Detective Pikachu and Pokepark series). Pop Puzzle League games here as well. I like them, but they aren’t much besides Tetris games. Same goes for the Pokemon Trading Card games; they’re nice, but not super great imo.

???. Pokemon Box/Ranch/all the other storage games and stuff like Dream Radar-Idk what you’d want me to say since they’re storage space or gimmick games to catch HA Pokemon. You do get Extremespeed Zigzagoon which I love since the little buggers are very adorable.

Bottom Tier. Pokemon SM and USUM. I hate these games. They’re cash grabs (more so than usual) with being $40 a piece and the updated versions being barely changed (and actually feeling like what should have been released first). Incredibly handholding, areas feel half-baked, lacks areas to explore for the most part, Lillie is kinda annoying for me tbh (which hurts because you’re supposed to feel for her and the game’s story hinges on that), and the player is an actual detriment to what they’re trying to achieve story-wise. A big shame b/c Alola is a pretty region and Team Skull is great in concept, but execution is awful. Stated as someone who has bought all 4 versions to keep, and 2 extras for gifting.

Absolute Bottom Tier- Pokemon Masters, incredibly terrible mobage game coming from someone who plays FGO, FEH, etc. lack of meaningful content, grinding but meaningless b/c of said lack of content (ex. FGO gates you with mats but it makes you feel like you’re growing with your servants and offers a story and events to compensate; basically, a sense of achievement). CO-OP is pretty bad when you can just hop over to GBF or something if you want guilds and group content. I’m still gonna wait for Ethan and Volkner to appear though.

Unrated-OG RBGY and OG GSC (the remakes are superior outside of nostalgia factor imo so I think it’d be unfair for them to take a spot), LGPE (didn’t buy them b/c pricing but the colors are vibrant and I love that), SWSH (didn’t buy them because I have opinions on the cuts and stuff and price point doesn’t look appealing for what’s offered), Pokemon Mini (these were included with Pokemon Channel), Magikarp Jump+Duel (Duel was a cash grab and Magikarp Jump is cute but no real opinion on it), Pokemon Go (weird spot where I like it, but I don’t live in an area with safe walking areas so very much area-dependent), Arcade games (I don’t live in Japan for that), Perdue Farm games (they’re flash games made to promote so…), Pokemon Rumble (enjoyable but not memorable for me imo) etc.

Fangames-

1. Pokemon Reborn-150+ hours of content, visible themes that permeate the story and characters, beautiful spritework for some of the areas, intuitive usage of TMs/HMs and some logic (ex. Field Effects that emulate anime battling in turn-based rpg such as Corrosive Field; using Rock Smash to break the glass in some areas to solve puzzles, etc.), actual difficulty that hinges on how much you understand Pokemon (ex. IVs, stats, EVs, etc.) that’s fair but still difficult, puzzles and rewards for exploring and coming back to areas, etc. Fantastic game that I wish Gamefreak had attempted to emulate (perhaps not the darker themes but the ambition basically). Has some kinks with the revolving door of characters and such but still fantastic. Also offers custom shiny sprites, custom egg sprites, and online play like Wonder Trade and battling.

2. Pokemon Rocket Edition-Not done but I think this is a fantastic hack so far story-wise and how it implements its mechanics. You’re a Rocket Grunt, but you aren’t OP. It deals with the politics behind Kanto and Team Rocket. Still being worked on.

3. Pokemon Viridian Version-Another “play as a Rocket” game. Funny yet still can be serious; it takes the tone of the anime and understands when to be serious and when to not be. It feels like it would fit into the canon tone-wise, and deconstructs the “it’s cool to be a Rocket!” thing.

4. Pokemon Gaia-Excellent and a huge callback to classic Pokemon in story. It’s an OG region and offers a lot to do.

5. Drayano hacks- QoL updates but his work actually adds a lot to the games+new events.

Anyways, that’s my list. There’s a lot of Pokemon content, but this is how I feel for the most part.

[bbs-backlog-challenge]

BB’s Games Of 2019

2019 as a year felt like it lasted two years, and a lot happened in my personal life. Got a new job, learned to drive, got my first car, moved out of the in-laws’ basement into our first real apartment, started my first long-term game of DnD (which in itself has involved a new relationship and an emotional breakdown)- and between it all I somehow managed to play 77 games. Backlog’s down to 35 titles, lads- at this rate, I’ll be down to zero by July 2020. (Not gonna happen.) In 2020, I’d like to explore the SNES catalogue a little more, but before that happens we have to review everything 2019 brought me, in a somewhat chronological order.

- Near A Tomato Carry-over from last year’s post since I was in the middle of playing it at the time. I definitely never quite got a handle on the combat and I think some of the themes went over my head, but I still had fun here, and the 9S hacking minigame never got old. It was a gift from an old friend who I miss. Was nice to reconnect. - SSBU With my new main Zelda, I cleared all of WoL and got every spirit on the Spirit Board. I never really used her before but she’s cute now! Really liked the attention to detail in the spirit encounters. Unfortunately, Cloud is still in the game. - Mega Mans 1 2 and 3 I actually spoke about my experiences with the Mega Men in my BBLC post for Mega Man Eggs, so you should read that right now. - Metroid Samus Returns It’s Good. Like, a solid Good. Never Great, never Bad, just Good. It’s nice to see one of the least accessible games in the series get a remaster, but it feels very disposable, if that makes sense. Like they just needed a Metroid to keep people busy while they reboot Prime 4 development. AM2R is vastly superior, go play that. One point of amusement- the game tells its story without narration, and also seems to pre-suppose you know Metroid lore. I was entertained by the thought of a newcomer to the series being completely mystified by the sudden space-dragon that comes out of nowhere to wreck you at the end of the game. - Khimera: Destroy All Monster Girls You can click here to download it, ‘cos it’s free, which is almost criminal. This is one of the higher tier games I’ve played this year. A little bit Mega Man, a bit Metroid, with hints of Touhou and Undertale, it’s pretty tough at times but never to ‘precision platformer’ levels. It’s a lot of fun and the dev deserves your support. - Steve And Ollie RPG Oh, I made this one. Making something else next year? Question mark? - Prof Layton 3 Feels like these are getting weaker as they go along. The story has always been absolute boohockey, but the puzzles feel like they’re degrading in quality too. With over 200 in each game, that’s not super surprising, and I’m glad they didn’t bulk it out with a load of the awful block-slider puzzles. Still, it’s Layton, if you liked any of the other games you’ll like this cos it’s the exact same thing. - Fault Milestone Two Yo, there ain’t a damned thing I can say about Fault, so go play the first one and then play this and you’ll understand. - Full Throttle I never bothered to finish it. The obtuse old Sierra puzzlers were hard enough to deal with back in the day, and just feel kind of inexcusable now. I don’t have the patience for it. - eXceed 3rd Slick and fun bullet hell with a nigh-incomprehensible story and great music. Touhou fans will like it. Music by SSH who is relatively well known in doujin circles. - ASAMU Finished it before writing my BBLC post! - Eternal Senia Everything I said in my post rings true- do your best to look past the wonky translation, because there’s a heartfelt story underneath it. Very accessible gameplay, by design. - Inivisble Inc You have never before been, nor will you ever again be, so aware of having left a door open. I fully expected to hate Invisible, but I got hooked pretty hard. Quite tempted to do another run of it once the backlog is clear. - Pyre GOTY. Supergiant’s best game so far, and that’s not an easy thing to say for this Bastion veteran. I sobbed by the end. I’m not being dramatic- literally sobbed. Please play it. Music and writing and, just, heart, are all top tier. All the Nightwings are the best, but Hedwyn is the best best. - Ellipsis Finished it before writing my BBLC post! - Just Cause 2 I found myself getting bored very quickly. The main missions are all identical (really, they are) and the side missions are very uninspired. Blitzing around in a jet or grappling around a mission target is a lot of fun but it feels very shallow. There’s a lot to do but not really any reason to do any of it. I dunno, it’s a kind of hollow experience, that I nonetheless had fun with. - LiEat It went over my head a little, but that’s more on me I think. These horror-esque, eccentric japanese RPG Maker games usually do. But, it’s neat, and short. If this sort of thing usually sticks on you, I think this is a good title. - Shantae Pirates Curse These games always felt non-essential to me; I’m not sure why they never stuck. They never really go below or above Good. Entirely enjoyable but I don’t feel like I’d have really missed anything if I hadn’t played them. It is, however, absolutely worth investing in for the utterly superb sprite work. That doesn’t sell a game by itself, I know, but Shantae is a pixel art masterclass. - FF5 I’d more or less finished it by the time I wrote my BBLC post, so I don’t have much to add. It’s a refreshingly goofy entry in a series known for taking itself too seriously, even compared to its predecessor. Look forward to my entry for this game in my Games Of 2020 post, having played the Four Job Fiesta! - Touhou 17 It’s mid-tier in the touhou hierarchy, IMO. Didn’t set my soul alight but I did enjoy it. Playing as Wolf Marisa makes the final boss too chaotic to really enjoy, but playing through again with Reimu made it more fun. I beat Extra on my third run through, which gave me false confidence that after 10 years I might actually be good at these games- to then be quickly humbled by attempting Th11’s Extra. Final Boss’ theme song has one of the greatest lead-ins of all time, especially given you start the fight by running away from her! Also really loved the Stage 4 theme as you barrel head-first into Hell (the real one this time), and the haunting, calm-before-the-storm serenity of Stage 5, overlooking the City Of Beasts. - HackNet + Labyrinths GOTY. (Yes, I know I already said Pyre was GOTY; it’s my post, I can have two GOTYs. Make your own damned post!) It’s hard to say what I loved about these games without spoiling too much- just know that they play very much like investigation games, and figuring out the puzzles feels great. Labyrinths technically takes place during the events of Hacknet, with a somewhat more Black Hat approach to things- despite this, play all of Hacknet first, and then play Labyrinths. The expansion introduces a lot of new stuff and much trickier challenges, such that going back to the base game afterwards to finish that would leave it a little hollow- a disservice to how great the ending is. - Mega Man X I said everything I wanted to say in my BBLC post, and anything I didn’t cover was better said by Egoraptor. - Octodad Finished it before my BBLC post! - Chroma Squad The final mission is disappointingly poor, but everything up to that point was pretty good. Huge variance and creativity in the bosses. However, the most fun I got from it was when I realised the game allowed me to customise my team name, transformation name, and other such terminology. Dave, Dayve, Davy, Davina, and Dehve shouting “It’s time to Chromatise, Chroma Squad!” very quickly became “It’s time to shit, you bunch of fucks!” and it was funny every single time. (Personal favourite bit of dialogue- “I tried to shit! It worked!”) - Pyrite Heart Finished it before my BBLC post! - Starfox 2 Finished it before my BBLC post! - Burly Men At Sea Finished it before my BBLC post! - Disc Room Finished it before my BBLC post! - Kokurase Finished it before my BBLC post! Should have broken these ones up a bit! - Metroid Rogue Dawn Very, very impressive romhack let down by a distinctly un-fun final section. They managed to fix so many of OG Metroid’s problems, I’m surprised the gauntlet of terribleness that is Tourian escaped with only a cosmetic change. Nonetheless, it’s free, and the other 95% of the game is superb, even from a purely technical standpoint. - Wuppo I dunno what happened here! I was full of praise for Wuppo when I played it, but somehow I just couldn’t stick with it and just never felt like playing it. It’s a very aimless game, and I wonder if that might be why? It’s a shame, I feel disappointed in myself for not seeing it through, but ultimately I play games to have fun and I just wasn’t quite there with Wuppo. - Super Mario Odyssey I loved it, obviously. I wrote my BBLC post towards the end of my time with Odyssey so most of that stands- I do want to add that the controls always felt a little loose, like I wasn’t quite as in-control as I was in Galaxy. Also Mario prioritises walljumping over ledge-grabbing and it’s super-hard to unlearn that instinct after 20 years. Finally- Long Journey’s End is just bullshit. - Secret Of Mana Dropped it pretty soon after Finning it. There’s some logic to the way the game works, some kind of hidden turn-order system, that I could not at all figure out. My AI companions (useless, btw) would hit an enemy which meant I couldn’t, except sometimes the hit would still register but only actually go through 3 seconds later, without any way to tell which way it was going to go. It takes like 7 months for your character to get back up after taking a hit. It’s just, wonky, and I couldn’t solve the puzzle of how to make the game do what I wanted to do. - Pokemon Shield Still working my way through it. It’s- yeah, it’s pokemon. Get a similar vibe to Sun/Moon with it that it’s kind of unfinished- lots of small (and some not so small) parts of the game just feel like there were bigger plans that couldn’t be realised in time. I’m still enjoying it! They did a great job of making the gym battles, and the whole process of 8-badges-then-champion, feel like a spectacle. I think only the anime has managed it to this degree before. - Earthbound Man, I really, really want to like this game, but the battle system is terrible. I need to play through the game again buffing my party up with cheats or something, because it’s so unbalanced and cheap. Everything else about the game is wonderful, but I got so frustrated with the fights! - Mario Kart 8 Didn’t play any of the single player this time, it was midgi’s christmas present so I just joined a couple of multiplayer games. Absolutely baffled that the game features F-Zero style anti-gravity courses, has Mute City and Big Blue, and even has the Blue Falcon as a selectable vehicle, but they haven’t put Captain Falcon in it. Like he’s ever going to get another game of his own? Let him have this! - Carmageddon 2 It’s pretty clunky by now, being 20 years old, but still plays well enough. The physics are super loose so you slide around like your tires have been buttered. It was more fun when they were zombies instead of just normal people. Missions are brutally hard and should be skipped with cheats. - Neopets After 15 years of playing, I finally got a Ghostkersword. The site as a whole has gone through a lot, and certainly its heyday is long gone, but there’s no other game quite like it. I’m playing the Food Club every day, still. - SIF New phone can’t run the actual gameplay section well enough, so I just log in occasionally to grab free scouts. Here’s another one whose golden years are behind it, sadly, but I certainly still have a lot of affection for SIF. - FF1 Mobile version, which fixes a lot of the bugs with the NES original. This year I completed a solo run with 1 Red Mage, a 4-black belts run, a low-level run, and a 4 White Mages run (which ended up being a lower-level run than the low-level run). I’m fairly comfortable in calling myself an expert in FF1, now. There’s still not really any other games like it- build a party as balanced or imbalanced as you like, and see how they fare. I’d like to build my own game in a similar style, one day. - Re: Live Gacha games and RPG just don’t mix! Both gacha and events do not gel with core RPG mechanics of your character(s) developing in strength as the game goes. It seems impossible to balance the game well- do you cater to the whales who spend and spend until they have the strongest teams possible, meaning the free players or the terminally unlucky can’t stand a chance, or do you cater to those players and give them no reason to spend for the more powerful characters? It’s a shame, because the anime was baffling but in that enjoyable way where you just kind of go with whatever it throws at you, and exploring that in a non-freemium game with a solid beginning middle and end would be really interesting. - Tiny Thief Mobile game that’s not available any more, I think my BBLC post covered it well enough. - F-Zero One of the criticisms most commonly levied against F-Zero is that it wont hold your attention for long. While that’s true, it’s not like you have to make a purchasing decision about it any more- it comes bundled in with the other games you’re buying, so the only investment is time. Ignoring that, it’s still fun to burn around the tracks, and the sense of speed hasn’t ever diminished. The music, too, is underappreciated, with Port Town being my personal fave. - F-Zero GX I can’t believe Nintendo hasn’t done anything with this ridiculous universe for 15 years now. The cutscenes are so hilariously overwrought, and the cast of characters is huge! It could so seamlessly intersect with the Starfox universe, too. There were rumours of a Starfox Racing title some time ago, and I really hope that’s the case. It’d work so well (by which I mean, a particularly enjoyable kind of awful). Anyway, the game still plays great, Story Mode is WAY too hard, Dr Stewart’s theme is a Tune. - Stratosphere This game is from 1998! Build a flying fortress, deck it out with fortifications and weapons and power supplies, then use it to destroy other fortresses. I only ever played the demo as a kid, never got the full game. Took some cajoling to get it to work on modern hardware, but eventually I got in and it wasn’t worth it at all. Wow, that performance, apparently it was designed to run at a terrible frame rate and it wasn’t just a result of my 1998 PC not being up to the task! A shame, but I guess it put one of my ghosts to rest. - DKC 2 The best of the three SNES games, despite the inclusion (and protagonism) of Diddy Kong. Lots to love here, but the OST is top notch. - DKC 3 Not as good as 2, but IMO better than 1. There was a much heavier emphasis on gimmick levels in 3, not all of which hit their target, but does provide a great deal of variety. Consensus is that 2 is better, but if someone claimed 3 was the best DKC, I’d let them get away with it. - King Arthur’s World (SNES) Speaking of putting ghosts to rest… We somehow always managed to get this game whenever we got a SNES, and kid!Beebs most certainly didn’t have the patience for it. Adult!Beebs barely does, either. It’s a very ambitious attempt at some sort of RTS/Puzzle hybrid, somewhat comparable to Lemmings? King Arthur must make his way from his starting position to the throne elsewhere in the map to claim it as his own, using the myriad abilities of his soldiers to get him there in one piece. I decided this year that I was finally going to play through the whole damn thing, start to finish, for the first time ever. With copious use of save states and rewinds, I was finally able to slay this demon. For as fiddly and frustrating as it is, I would still say people should check it out if they have the tools to do so- there’s not really anything else like it, on SNES or otherwise; you’re guaranteed a unique experience, if nothing else. - Oscar (SNES) Terrible. - Spanky’s Quest (SNES) With a name like that, how could I refuse? It’s a weird little puzzler, aping (wahey!) Bubble Bobble and Parasol Stars a little. You’re a monkey who can blow bubbles that stun enemies, but if you bounce the bubble on your head it gets progressively larger and can be burst to send a barrage of similarly-sized sports balls at your opponents to knock them out. You know, just like real life. - Addam’s Family (SNES) This easily-dismissible movie tie-in is actually a very competent platformer with some very, very light metroidvania exploration involved. Gomez has to go through Addams Mansion and rescue the members of his family who have been kidnapped by… something. There’s hidden secrets everywhere and the family can be rescued in any order you like. Genuine recommendation. - Panel DePon/Tetris Attack The only vs puzzler I enjoy (yep. Not even puyo puyo. I know.) I played the HECK out of this in my teenage years, and got crazy good at it. Tendonitis says I’m not allowed to do that any more, but once I shook the rust off I was still pretty strong! It was released as Panel DePon in Japan and was fairy themed, but for the western release they replaced all the fairies with Yoshi characters and renamed it Tetris Attack despite having nothing to do with Tetris at all. Up to you which you prefer- language isn't too much of a barrier here. Soundtrack is killer. - Subsurface Circular Finished it before my BBLC post. Still not decided if I liked the way it ended. - Master Of Orion 2 C’mon. After playing three other pretenders to MoO2’s throne, I had to give the real deal a couple of spins too. It’s Civ 5 in space. Customisable race builds. A whole galaxy to bring peace to, by whichever means you prefer. Would love for someone else to get into it. - Touhou 8 Last minute entry I just played yesterday ‘cos I wanted some Touhou and I haven’t played this entry in a long while. A Solo Marisa Normal Final B run, if you’re interested. Kaguya beast-mode tearing apart the Spell Of Imperishable Night at the end of the game is still an awesome moment, but it’s a shame you can miss the last couple of spells if you take some unlucky hits. - And here’s the list of Bins, which are all covered in their BBLC post: No Time To Explain MoO Skyborn Jumpjet Rex StH 4 Ballistick Munch’s Oddysee Outland Project CARS RiME Magicka Waking Mars Urban Chaos Divinity: Dragon Commander Strike Suit Zero Hell Yeah! Lambda Wars Beta Stranger’s Wrath MoO 3 XCOM Lots more Fins than Bins this year! Good to see!

[pixelgrotto]

The horrific Resident Evil playthrough, finale

Approximately one year ago I began the somewhat mad quest to shove as much Resident Evil into my brain as quickly as possible. I blazed through thirteen games, a handful of spin-offs, and as much supplementary material I could get my hands on. I chronicled my thoughts each step of the way via posts here, on Twitter and in a massive ResetERA thread where a lot of good people gave me advice on how to proceed with the series. Not all of the stuff I experienced was great (those Paul W.S. Anderson movies come to mind), and sometimes this massive undertaking felt like work, but now that I’ve come to the end, I can say that it was worth it, because it’s quite the feeling to bring yourself from having zero knowledge of something to morphing into a Wiki-reading fiend in just a year. At this time in 2018, I had only the barest notion of what this series was about and who characters like Jill Valentine or Leon Kennedy were. Now, I could probably write a pretty heated Twitter thread about how Jill needs to be brought back to the forefront of the series not just with a remake of Resident Evil 3, but with an entirely new game, because she’s been sidelined for years despite being the central figure in promotional material like the fancy artwork that I’ve posted above! Ahem. 

My initial desire to become more familiar with Resident Evil has been part of a larger push in recent years to consume more horror media, mostly because as I get older I find myself increasingly attracted to eerie stories that I was too much of a weenie to dive into when I was younger. Some of it probably has to do with the fact that as an adult I now find stuff like health concerns, existential dread and paying taxes to be more horrifying than things that go bump in the night, but part of it is also because that even as a scaredy cat kid, I was always kinda intrigued by macabre stuff like Resident Evil, even if I couldn’t bring myself to play through the games. 

Now that I’ve plowed through the franchise, I wish I could go back and whisper to my younger self that aside from the first game, RE7 and perhaps bits and pieces of both versions of RE2...Resident Evil isn’t all that frightening. The series does have its jump scares and gore, but it quickly crosses genres into the realm of action, and even in its more tense entries, Resident Evil stays dripping with a fine dollop of cheese, either through B-movie dialogue or moments when the main characters wink at the camera and suddenly take a zombie to suplex city. Action, comedy and horror are unusual but frequent bedfellows, I’ve learned, and with RE embodying all three of these genres, translating them to the realm of electronic entertainment via a format emphasizing survival, it’s only appropriate that this is the franchise that has come to serve as the face of spooky thrills in the video game world.

Resident Evil’s also in a very good place at this moment in time. RE2Make has gotten well-deserved praise from just about everyone who’s played it, and after a moment where it looked like Capcom was going to tilt the mattress and upset the delicately placed bedfellows - emphasizing action and over-the-top comedy more than horror - now it appears that the devs have gotten their heads straight and maintained the balance once more. There’s still room for improvement and careful experimentation though. As the series forges ahead into the 2020s, I hope that Capcom doesn’t get drunk off of RE2Make’s success, milking its formula to exhaustion. I want at least another mainline game to utilize the first-person perspective of Resident Evil 7, which worked better than I ever would’ve imagined, and I’d also like to see the Revelations sub-series, which was supposed to focus on stories that took place in between the main games, continue - in spirit if not in name. (A Revelations 3 or similar spin-off with fixed camera angles - perhaps in a mid-tier budget point ‘n click style a la Detention - would be something that I’d love, though Capcom probably will never go in that direction.) Finally, I’d like Resident Evil to remember that it had fabulous female representation in its earlier entries. The later titles have mostly had male protagonists front and center, which directly reinforces the trope that it’s okay for survival horror games to star the “must be protected” ladies, but anything action-orientated should star dudes so that male players can have their power fantasy trip. This can easily be fixed by doing what I said in the first paragraph - bring the queen Jill Valentine back. 

Finally, because these sorts of franchise reflections are never complete without a good ol’ fashioned list... Here’s how I’d rank the mainline games, complete with a snappy sentence or two for each.

Resident Evil REmake - Because if I had to recommend just ONE game for someone to get a decent idea of this series’ mechanics and themes, it would be this one.

Resident Evil 4 - It’s survival action instead of survival horror, but when the gameplay’s this good, can you really complain?

Resident Evil 2 - Over 20 years old and still a thrilling experience. The epitome of the fixed camera angle games.

Resident Evil 7 - I was afraid that the change to a first-person perspective would alienate me, but I beat this game in two days and couldn’t put it down.

Resident Evil RE2make - Almost as good as the original, and a great sign of the franchise’s future. 

Resident Evil Revelations 2 - Worth playing for the return of Barry Burton and the moving story alone, which is basically about fathers and daughters, loss and acceptance.

Resident Evil 1 - The OG that started it all. A little clunky to play in this day and age, but the magic’s still there. 

Resident Evil 6 - The equivalent of an overstuffed exploding cake, RE6 is excessive as hell and sometimes infuriating...but one thing you could never call it is boring.

Resident Evil 5 - A solid series entry about Chris Redfield punching boulders in Africa, this one’s excellent if you play it co-op. Solo, a little less excellent.

Resident Evil Zero - RE probably didn’t need this prequel showing what Rebecca Chambers was doing on the night before she got stuck in Spencer Mansion, but good chemistry between the main characters makes it worth experiencing.

Resident Evil 3: Nemesis - A lot of folks love this one, but IMO it feels less noteworthy than RE2 and RE1, probably because it was originally designed as a spin-off. I rank it low but am eager to see how a RE3make could boost it. 

Resident Evil Revelations - Jill Valentine’s in a wetsuit that clings to her booty this whole game and she hangs out with a partner who looks like Russell Crowe. Aside from that, Revelations is fine but kinda forgettable.

Resident Evil: Code Veronica - The only RE that truly annoyed me with backtracking and some cheap bosses, Code Veronica is technically still an okay game. But Steve Burnside is a garbage character. 

Thus, we bring the horrific, 2018-2019 Pixel Grotto Resident Evil playthrough to a gentle finish. *Cue relaxing save room theme here.* It’s been fun, ladies and gents. I need to rest up a bit and try some other games that aren’t survival horror for a while. But I like the idea of doing more series playthroughs in the future...

And I think Silent Hill might be a good choice for the next one. 

The header artwork is a textless version of the radical Biohazard 20th Anniversary poster that Capcom put out in 2016. 

[thedeadflag]

Hey, pretty soon I'll be playing a friend of mine is gonna be DMing Tyranny Of Dragons for me and a couple of friends, and I can't decide whether I should play a Monk (probably Open Hand, maybe Kensei) or a Ranger (either Beastmaster or Horizon Walker), 'cause I've never played either of those classes, nor has anyone at the tables I've played. Can you tell me a little about your experiences with these classes?

The Ranger has been one of my favourite classes throughout the editions of D&D in terms of flavour, and I’ve had some fun with monks as well. In 5th edition, both took a fair bit of a hit in utility (individual and within group dynamics) and power at pretty much all ranges. The Ranger was propped back up a little bit in Unearthed Arcana in the revised ranger archetype, but both are still largely considered at best middle of the road classes, and at worst, the lowest tier of classes in the game in utility and character. 

That’s not to say they can’t be fun and have a lot of flavour, and still find use. If you’ve watched Critical Role, you can see Vex and Beau weren’t useless by any stretch. No class is junk in 5e due to the improved parity compared to some past editions. So power and utility aside, if you feel drawn to any class/subclass, and you want to dive into its particular brand of flavour, then I say go for it. I would gauge the rest of the party’s makeup in making your decision, because group synergy is important, but you have to make yourself happy, too, right?

Anywho, I’ll break down my take on both.

When it comes to Monks, I like Open Hand the best. If you want to have a Monk-style gameplay with weapons, then Mystic or Fighter are probably better options with some more flair and utility involved than Kensei imo, but if that’s the route you want to take, it’d be alright. However, Open Hand has quivering palm, which is pretty incredible late game as far as damage and flexible timing from a single person through 3 ki pts and an action. If you do ever reach level 17, I would recommend multiclassing after that if you’re allowed, since the rest of the Monk’s class progression is kind of junk in comparison, and it could use some much needed utility from 3 levels of another class. Anywho, I like open hand not just for the flavor of being a class that’s capable of being an unarmed beast in battle, but also because of the way it can work in alignment with fighters who can also control the battlefield, like any fighter with a sentinel/polearm master. The ability to shove an enemy up to 15ft with one of your flurry attacks, launching them into the range of a fighter who gets a free opp attack against them and can from then on lock down their movement with a successful hit? That can be an excellent tag team. The Monk isn’t excellent for utility, but the Open Hand technique is probably the best at providing utility in combat among all the monk disciplines. Like, another option after hitting with flurry of blows is to steal all reactions for the opponent until the end of your next turn. This can be especially helpful against casters, as stealing reactions = preventing counterspells. And Monks can get a lot of attacks = lots of attempts to disrupt concentration of enemy casters, so the open hand monk is especially helpful at being a designated mage wrecker with having the mobility to reach casters and the ability to destabilize them. It’s arguably the one thing (aside from unarmed damage) that (this one kind of) monks do better than just about anyone else, arguably.

Now, to Rangers.

Honestly, I don’t like beast-focused Rangers. I think they’re a lot of work in order to get the mechanical payoff most other classes can achieve without a lot of thought or effort. Generally, any class that can let me focus more on flavour and RP is one I’m going to prefer, and beast master’s just…unwieldy. A lot of people say the class is junk, and if you run it without getting into the headspace for optimizing, it’s probably going to be more of a frustrating experience than you’d have hoped for. With BMs, you’re managing not just your character, but your companion, and you have to keep up with the different mechanics of both, you need to be 100% on top of choices made while leveling up, you need to have a strong understanding of battlefield control and your companion’s capabilities from the get go, and you really ought to be the kind of player who is happy to take a backseat to everyone else in and out of combat because the way you’ll shine is by helping everyone else do what they do with a little bit higher odds of success than otherwise. Personally, I like playing that sort of character, but I can do all of that with other classes a lot easier, and usually better, so this isn’t the kind of archetype I’d choose for a character myself. If you really want to, and think it’s cool, go for it, though.

The first thing I’d do is ask if you can use the UA revised ranger instead of the PHB ranger if you’re going the beast route (it’s “beast conclave” archetype in UA). If your DM allows that and insists you choose your companion from the list provided here, take the wolf (pack tactics is v helpful, same with 40ft speed and being able to send enemies prone after attacking) or ape (climb 30ft, melee/ranged ability, good stat baselines). 

The second thing you’ll need is to lock down a quality companion, and that can take a bit of wheeling and dealing with your DM to let you use one of the supplementary books as a source, which is especially necessary if you’re not able to use the revised ranger class from UA. You do not want a hawk, mastiff, or panther, the PHB offers some shit examples out of the gate (panther and hawk are only conditionally good if you’re only ever going to have your companion rushing around the map using the ‘help’ action, or scouting to some extent, and the latter becomes less useful and reliable the higher level you become). Don’t choose a CR 0 companion, or one under ¼. If you absolutely must use a hawk for character flavor, then a blood hawk that at least has pack tactics would be a must. But if you are hoping for a companion that can do damage, look for something with certain damage if it hits, like added poison damage. Look for good AC if you want a tank. Look for versatility in mobility and senses. Look for special abilities (the boar having a relentless ability where it’ll go back to 1HP if it falls below 0; the wolf spider has web walk and web sense which can really help with casters using web if players don’t want to wade into the difficult terrain or are having difficulty finding enemies caught in the web; etc.)

But yeah, beast-focused rangers  will be best when they’re spamming the help action with their beasts, using their beasts to get enemies out of cover, using their beasts to help control the field and give others advantage/take advantage, etc. You need to be quick mentally to know what you want to do with your character and your companion each time your turn comes around (most DMs, myself included, aren’t going to let you have as much time as you need to figure out what you want to do on both fronts, so if you can’t juggle two characters at once without losing a step, it might not be the archetype for you). This type of ranger requires you to know exactly what you want to be able to accomplish for yourself and your party right out of the gate, so you’ll want to gauge what your party members will be specializing in, what they want to be able to do, and see if there’s a way to shape your ranger to aid in that, particularly in choosing a beast that can be the most effective in ensuring that. Group cohesion is the name of the game with this form of ranger, so you’ll want to consider race selection a part of this process, too. I’ve had one player bomb hard as a BM and re-roll a different ranger, and I’ve had a friend who ran one who was the group’s unsung hero a lot of the time during their campaign. If you’re looking at Vex from CR as inspiration, keep in mind she had an excellent set of stats from lvl 9 onwards, and plenty of magical weapons to make up for much of any class shortcomings as characters scale up…look at how often Trinket was useful (very rarely) and understand that the bear was essentially just flavour for most of the campaign, and Vex would have been considerable underpowered compared to the rest of the party if not for some considerable DM intervention in ways that make things a lot trickier for DMs (adding magical weapons/items can easily unbalance a campaign, and it’s a matter of experience in knowing how to dole them out without throwing balance aside…Matt Mercer’s comfortable handing out flying carpets and multiple +2AC items  and superpowered magical weapons by level 9, I wouldn’t give them out before level 14 or 15 and it would really only be if a player was severely struggling and refused to re-roll a more appropriate character while dying or nearly dying most combats). Other classes and archetypes have features and abilities that scale as you level, some earn specific spells as they level up that others can’t get, etc., but with beast conclave rangers, it’s their beast that slightly improves in a few meaningful ways. So if you’re going that route, you need to commit to a great beasts that’s a great fit for you and your party, and you need to commit to making the absolute most out of them and knowing how to make the most out of them.

Horizon Walker’s a simpler archetype that has some badass spells, but the flavour for the class can be a bit…strange in some adventures. It might not fit well with Tyranny of Dragons, I’m not sure how much planar travel’s involved in that adventure. Which might not be a problem for the DM, or you. I still prefer the UA ranger conclaves, but out of the PHB ones, this one’s probably the best of the bunch, even if it’s mostly going to lean towards being a melee build (which, again, check your party comp to see if that’s something that is workable). 

Anywho, those are my late night D&D ramblings. You can take my words with a grain of salt if you’d like, and as always the rule of cool applies…if you think it’s cool and you really want to go with something, go for it and I hope the DM will find a way to help you make it work, but yeah, these classes can be a bit of an uphill battle, though I suppose potentially a rewarding challenge if that’s what you’re looking for.

Best of luck with the campaign, I’m sure you’ll have fun!