#anyway this was fun! i enjoyed these! i always enjoy thinking about movesets and such and breaking 'the rules' in games

[starflungwaddledee]

🕰️🩷🧋and 🥘 for starstuck Dee please and thank you.

[ >>> kirby oc ask meme <<< ]

🕰️ (Clock) - What would a Dreamy Gear version of them look like? What sort of accessories would they have? What kind of role do they play?

well i couldn't resist drawing it once i'd thought about it, so here she is! still pretty recognisable, but i think that large elements of her story and the suspicions surrounding her would be different, due to the fact that waddle dee/bandee is usually the one and only waddle dee. i think she'd still be found in a meteor crater at the edge of town by meta knight, but i think this time he'd bring her to bandee instead of president dedede, mostly due to the clear visual similarities. bandee would take her in instantly, and she'd follow him around the mechanic shop, learning to tinker and serving as his glorified assistant. learns to make really good apple tea instead of being a friendly chatterbox she would be shy and selectively mute, speaking out loud exclusively to bandee. though she still forms relationships with kirby and meta knight, i think that sadly in this world president dedede would frighten her, despite how highly bandee thinks of him 😭 at meta knight's suggestion, after he finds her squinting skyward on the roof at night a few too many times, she makes herself a pocket telescope for looking at stars and surveying the weather. she uses it to give bandee reports, which he discretely passes on to kirby and dedede for their races.

🩷 (Pink Heart) - If they were a Dream Friend, what would their moveset be like? How much HP do they have? Would they be a strong attacker, or would they take on more of a support role?

she would be a support role for sure, but i also can't resist also giving her some specialised abilities... > hp: small health bar, but practically immune to damage. will still die in insta-kill scenarios like lava or crush blocks > basic attack: if bandana waddle dee, meta knight, or king dedede are on the team she'll get a simple swing attack with a toy/training version of their weapon. if at least two are on the team, it's upgraded to an attack with a three-swing combo, and she'll alternate at random between which weapon she pulls > basic support: drawing magic from the environment around her or other allies or enemies present, she can give a wide variety of power effects. i previously said she'd give blustery and i stand by it, because even if there are no other elements around there's always air, but i think she could give the others too. she cannot attack with any of these herself > healing: under CPU control she'll focus on running ahead to pick up heal items, and bring them back. if everybody has full health, she'll actually store the item and bring it out later whenever anyone gets below half health; tdlx bandee style > meteor shower: this is a charge attack that starts with a 3 minute cooldown. after charging, she can use it by jumping in the air and pressing a multi-button combo, to avoid accidental activation. this is a full screen, crash-like attack with a shooting star visual, similar to team meteor. all on screen enemies defeated, and most bosses down to at least 1/3 health. > downed: unfortunately after using the charged attack she will drop her inventory, pass out, and need to be piggy backed for about 5 minutes if you want to keep her on the team (walking over to her will activate a 'piggy back' bar instead of the standard 'revive'). she cannot heal or give buffs during this time, but can be dropped by accident or when attacked, and can take damage that cannot be healed. if she makes it she wakes up at partial health, but returns to being invulnerable while conscious

🧋 and 🥘 both answered here!

[retphienix]

Hell yeah!

I shouldn't be alive!

Due to nerves I ran into not one but AT LEAST 2 lasers at the end and my ass was saved by squeaky!

I fell down to like single digits health and here I am!

Now in all honesty, I don't feel like this is a fluke victory since I had MUCH stronger runs prior and just let nerves hit my ass this time (but got carried despite that)- it's earned, complain about it on your own time lmao

But I did it!

Yippee!

Now I can farm a ton of stuff and make a ton of stuff and become ultra powerful (maybe) and then die 10k times to the end-game bosses of Fargo Souls and maybe give up if I become convinced I just can't properly acquire the bullet hell skills necessary for them!

We'll see!

Mostly excited and happy! lol

I will say, as a remix this is one of my favorites in the mod at the moment.

Normal moonlord is kind of... 'spammy' would be how I describe it? He's just constantly throwing projectiles all over the place and when his true eyes are busted out you start getting lasers at inopportune times and most of my victories against him have involved going "Actually, fuck this" and making a giant asphalt road from one end of the world to the other so that I can basically outpace his eyes the entire fight. THIS? It feels like a genuinely enjoyable bullet hell. Not like, Ikaruga levels, but I really- really can't express how much I would not enjoy it if it was lol

Keep it lighter, for my sanity, please :( And this was! This is a good remix :) If the damage was lower I'd be clambering for it to be base game- same with the pillars tbh! The weapon type demands for both moonlord and the pillars are neat to me- definitely a "Please make this expert+ only, thank you" mechanic, but I think if it was softened a bit to just a damage penalty and not immunity it could work as nice flavor :)

Honestly I think almost all of the eternity remixes have been really fun- some of which felt so nice I wish they were slapped in base game as well with the same considerations for nerfing to match base equipment- with only a couple feeling.... "Not Right" for base game and not more fun for my preferences I guess I'd say.

(TANGENT INCOMING)

Like I didn't think bee was any more fun or interesting, it was just different and trying to be harder. I DO NOT think Duke is more fun in large part because I genuinely think the debuff associated with his fight is entirely unfun.

Same with plantera's debuff to be honest but her debuff only hurt me once in all my matches, Duke's debuff is like "Haha! Clipped you with my phase 3 mega speed, you lost all your max health and die in one hit now" that's not fun for a lower experience player like me.

I will say almost all the adjustments to his moveset are actually really nice- the horizontal/vertical sharks that phase in before he dashes at you were 10/10 extra gameplay, his bubble patterns were honestly nice even if they screwed me over a few times. His final phase just wasn't it at all for me, it became "Just dash away a lot and you'll win, this is bullshit"- and the use of his tornados sucked ass in my opinion- I just genuinely don't like them at all.

It felt like a lot of "I'm a boss that moves REALLY fast and demands you keep moving constantly- oh- also I sometimes set up stage hazards that WILL INSTANTLY SHRED YOU just out of sight off screen- good luck :)" didn't like that, feel like they almost needed a built in boss arrow to always denote where they were. Or, you know, to not have hitboxes at all because they added nothing to his fight. That'd be nice.

(TANGENT OVER)

ANYWAYS. Eternity mode bosses fucking rule, like genuinely I turned on eternity mode because I saw that most of the content was locked behind it and I wanted to /try/ to see what I could- I mostly turned it on for the accessories- I wanted to explore the new gear.

But I KEPT it on because the boss remixes RULE in this mod.

Anyways marching on to whatever's next- be that a wall I can't overcome or awesome gear I fall in love with lol

[lanatusnebula]

I Want To Like Aeolus

I'm going to type "Helios" because I played a fan translated version of the game so I could avoid the eng voice actors. (I refuse to buy anything else Capcom releases related to Megaman because I physically own most of this stuff anyway LOL)

So, so good points about Helios;

he has a cool head on his shoulders (deisgn-wise)

he had model H (my favorite MMZ character is Harpuia and ZX I love Model H big)

I like his face and hair! It's super silly but the more I look at it, the more he reminds me of SOMEONE I can't actually put my finger on. It's funny. And he has... one earring? Hanging off the ear mechanic things? Not sure what to call them... audio enhancement device? Vestibular Enhancement Piece? I wish they got some nerd to official label the reploid/cyborg body parts...

He's pretty neat in that regard, haha!

Model H is super fun in ZX! I enjoyed it in ZX. In ZX it is my favorite! So good on him that he's a biomatch for pocket Harpuia.

--

From here downward i will slander Helios's name and everything he will ever stand for.

nb4, "dude if you dont like him, then ignore his existence like you do with everything else you dont like" bro you dont understand this is a struggle i must endure for the sake of my own completeness (self-torture)

This whole this is biased and abandoned by reason, but I will put on a brave face and embarass myself anyway...! ò 0 ó

Points to touch on;

his design

his writing

his personality

biomatching with Model H

background

moveset

Design

I hate his design so freakin much. He has a sleeveless vest (ok), the weird skin-tight extra padding (sure) a skirt attached to ABSOLUTELY NOTHING (ok) and PANTS (dress pants). Each of these things on a character in the Z series would be like "eh whatever". But looking at how everyone else dresses, I always wondered "what happened HERE???". I'm hoping that it was a mistranslation of the concept art to the official marketed stuff, and they added volume to the skirt when it was supposed to be attached to the torso piece. I just can't mentally comprehend his layers otherwise? Like I'm picturing he and Ciel had the same thing going on, except he has dress pants instead of tights.

I'm more than aware that fashion in the Z/ZX series is a bit unhinged and abnormal. That it might even be lore related or somehow touched on by the fact that every human is a cyborg. Maybe he's a reploid and we can't see it? I'm holding onto the hope that Atlas and Helios are reploids who hide this fact. (Unlikely)

His Writing

Because I am an ugly Harpuia fan, I was expecting more than the game actually gave. This section is my personal gripes that have no real basis for complaints. They are, as a whole, completely unnecessary and ignorable.

Siarnaq has a backstory that is briefly mentioned in his little disk thing. Okay!

Thetis has some sort of motivation that hints that something else could be there, but doesn't have a backstory in in the disk thing. Okay!

Atlas has a backstory that is briefly mentioned in her little disk thing. Okay! (she has been ruined by the fanart in select places and thus she does not exist to me LOL - same with Ashe tbh)

Helios has... a shallower motivation than even Thetis *and* lacks a backstory. I mean, sure I guess? I am biased towards Thetis because I figured for a reploid to have that much of an interest in oceans - something *happened*. It isn't even suggested that anything did happen, it's just... a good set up for me to fart out fandom crap. But Helios... I... man.

Man.

"Everything is imperfect and full of foolish fools I will kill everyone." His personality is so god damn bland. Harpuia was the highlighted guardian for most of the MMZ games and I ended up really enjoying how he evolved and how he struggled in the drama CDs. There was a lot to work with! Part of me thinks, "yes well Fefnir had jack shit going for him and you'd die for him". I DIG HIS DESIGN A REALLY LOT. But THIS GUY I simply struggle with! I want to like him because bootleg model H biomatch but I got nothing to workmwith! And that frustrates me. :(

Bland personality (I like Death the Kid ffs), shit motivation, no background - I know this is grounds for "blank slate, do what you want" but I just don't operate like that for this guy specifically.

His Personality

This section is biased.

Helios's personality doesn't really go beyond "I am a pretentious snob." He has... four lines? Maybe? I can recall four instances of dialogue off the top of my head.

"I don't have time for this lol"

"Fuck you, you imperfect crackhead" (I played as Grey).

"Fuck everyone on this planet for being imperfect."

"Self sacrifice is beautiful for friendship."

Maybe I can work with these? They are not obviously direct quotes, and are obviously played up for the hahateehee, but... I dunno man. It Should be enough to work with but I can't get into mindset of doing something with it.

Biomatching With Model H

This one is a little tricky. I assumed the biometals were either broken, muted somehow, or ditched by whatever personalities lived within them. Model Z kinda suggests to me that it IS the original inside of the biometal, but it's pure speculation based on a few lines.

I understandnthe relations some of the MegaMen have with their biometles, right

Atlas is powerhungry, which can loosely be connected to Fefnir in a very idiot way

Thetis has a "childlike innocence with attached cruelty" that we can poke ourselves in the eyes and say Leviathan had. Also ice water go brr

Siarnaq is a freaky little somethin ninja who is the complete opposite of what we assume Phantom is like based on the extremely limited dialogue he gives us. (but is substantially more to work with than what Helios gives us)

For Helios, we have to accept the "pompous homogeneous ruler mentality" as Harpuia's link. Which I don't get. What is the point of the entire Z series then? Aren't we supposed to look at Harpuia's growth and go "oh he actually is dedicated to his cause but was stuck in some muddy circumstances"? He had pride, absolutely (thinking about his post-repairs in Z3) but it's such a small part of who I thought he was personally? Granted, I did not write the game. I have no say in this; pride could have been his very essence. I just thought it was... justice.

We can say Helios is very much connected to justice - that he feels there is a sense of justice in nuking the flawed beings off this planet. (which is somewhat skewed by the fact that humans get bot'd after a while - what age? 13??? - and are basically cyborgs or robots themselves. So in a sense, they're already leaving behind their imperfect bodies) But... the super secret ending - the fact that he is present AT ALL makes no sense. If the goal is to put an emphasis on human bodies in the future, then... why is Helios present for this? Humans are the epitome of imperfection - we know this. It's blatant. It's why they do these mechanical enhancements to begin with.

Helios can't even commit to a cause right? I know all the MegaMen are exceedingly braindead and that's cool. But at least the others COMMIT to it. Thetis doesn't go "I'm gonna eliminate an entire race for the ocean" and then piss in the sea. Atlas doesn't go "Power is everything." and then break down crying and throwing away her biometal to embrace her weakness. Siarnaq doesnt go "HYPERFOCUSING ON TASK AT HAND" and then hold hands with everyone at the amusement park with a smile. THEY COMMIT.

Helios is stupid. He doesn't commit. Not if that is the truest ending leading up to this ZXC they planned.

His Background

Helios has no background. Okay. That is fine. Thetis doesn't have one either. Two focusing on the present and two focusing on the past.

But what could his background have been? Aristocrat? Poor? Feral child? Living in squalor? No parents? Abusive parents? Was he training to be one of the Sage Trinity? Albert came out of nowhere right? Maybe anyone qualifies - clearly they don't do background checks on anyone.

Maybe he was a sword enthusiast? Maybe the sword plays a part in this? Maybe he idolizes Thomas and felt his methods weren't extreme enough? I feel like the sword is very important to him as a character.

But why didn't they elaborate? They spent so much time making the Floating Islands a Shit Stage and Ouroboros absolutely mind breaking they didn't think to go "maybe we should add a line about his sword that he never actually uses." Are the writers andnstage designers different people? I don't actually know. Might be in the credits. Sure doesn't feel like it in ZXA.

His Moveset

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

why is model zx's reach so short

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

[heat--end]

4, 5, 17, 25 and 45 for the fic writer questions!

4. What detail in [insert fic] are you really proud of?

hmmm, that's kinda hard. honestly there's a few things, but if i had to pick one, it might be the theming of lake verity being connected to emotional scenes every time i write it in SBS. it makes sense, given mesprit - my intent wasn't to have that be the case, i was just thinking "a lakeside is generally a good spot for emotional scenes given the atmosphere", but as it's gone on, i've really enjoyed that detail. mesprit gets to experience so much emotion from the people she gave it to, so many people over the years. and dawn is perhaps her most frequent visitor, so it makes sense mesprit is friendly with her, especially after PLA

5. What do you wish someone would ask you about [insert fic]? Answer it now!

oh fuck, that's hard... i honestly never know haha. i usually just end up talking about it anyway...

i guess maybe one i can think of is why does candice go to the battle frontier and give up her gym job, since in SBS, irida takes on her role. i think for candice, it was a matter of the battle frontier option being more interesting with an open position to her, being able to battle with so many interesting types and options (she still LOVES ice types though), and irida's fire for the role really wanting to help push her into it, especially given her own affinity to ice types. just kinda ended up working out on all bases

17. What highly specific AU do you want to read or write even though you might be the only person to appreciate it?

looks at build fighters shining. I Mean. I May Already Be Writing It.

honestly though, if i DID have to think of one, it might be the vampire/vampire hunter idea(s) ive been rolling about in my head. i genuinely think its the breaking point for my brainrot. but i will do it one day and have fun with it

25. What other websites or resources do you use most often when you write?

bulbapedia for character quotes/pokemon stats and movesets/maps and details that i can include in my writing, a youtube video of cutscenes for whatever thing i'm writing/referencing, and sometimes song lyric sites so i can have a translation/accurate line for the thing i want to use as a chapter title

45. What’s something you’ve improved on since you started writing fic?

atmospheres and really setting up a scene, i think. ive had a lot of help thanks to my editor/beta reader @rhapsodicsongbird, and i feel i've really been able to improve on that as well as just generally getting more emotion out of scenes, which is always something i strive to do. but i really think my description of an atmosphere has improved, in the sounds, visuals, and the ongoings in the background

[bahamutgames]

AFTERTHOUGHTS - ROUNDUP ROUND 7

September 2023

Happy October! I'm a little late here because I had to take a health break from being online for a few days. But I'm back now! It's getting colder outside, and Halloween (my favorite holiday!) is right around the corner!

Also... hello new followers! This blog has basically been a ghost town since I started it but unexpectedly, some gifsets I made last month REALLY took off! So now I've got almost 50 followers. Usually I wouldn't do so much preamble on a roundup post but I feel the need to explain myself a little bit. This is what this blog is mostly for, posting my thoughts and opinions on games I played recently. To keep them neatly organized and also not clogging up everyone's feeds. I understand this is NOT what most of you followed for, so feel free to unfollow if you like. If not, I hope you enjoy what I have to say!

As with EVERYTHING I share here, these are not reviews. This is just word vomit from me sharing my thoughts on games. Nothing I say should be taken as fact, and if anything I talk about is interesting to you, you should absolutely play it and form your own opinion!

That's that on that, let's tackle the September games!

Rayman Origins (November 15, 2011) - PS3

Hey! Look! I beat my first Rayman game! Similarly to BB, I actually got this game years ago, but never managed to beat it at the time. But with the Rayman Mario + Rabbids DLC out (which I still haven't bought lol BUT I WANT TO REAL BAD!) I figured it was time to finally take the plunge into this series! And I LOVED it! I was having such a killer time with it! Super gorgeous visuals, AMAZING music (I love how goofy it is the lum song was stuck in my head forever afterwards lol), genuinely funny plot, very fun gameplay, the works. But... Partway through the game, suddenly the whole plot changes and you're no longer dealing with demons? And then you have to go through all the worlds a second time and fight a final boss that has nothing to do with the story? Only to then afterwards be told to go through AGAIN and collect almost all the electoons so you can fight the ACTUAL final boss in a super long, super brutal level that's just a long string of memorization. It felt like the second half of the game was made by a different team, it just didn't feel nearly as good and it kinda killed the game for me in the end. I did enjoy the first half a lot though, so I will absolutely check out some of the 3D Rayman games soon, but I might steer clear of Legends atm.

One thing I have to say though: dude the Nymphs are SO hot! Like, they are SO fine it's actually insane. A lot of games will make horny character designs and flaunt them constantly and they're just okay. But no, Rayman Origins earned it. I'm so thirsty for them, that character designer deserves a raise. ANYWAY-

Mortal Kombat 11 (April 23, 2019) - Xbox One

And here we go with my first gamepass game of the month lol. My sister was very kind and gave me a month for my birthday, and one of the first things I beat was a simple arcade run of MK11! MK is a series I actually have an odd amount of history with, but it's also a series I just never really got into. But I did find myself watching the 11 story mode, and I'll try it out whenever it comes into my path. So, here we are. I played as Scorpion, who tends to be my favorite especially whenever Reptile isn't available, and just did a run of the Arcade ladder. I had a good time with it! I'm always impressed with how simple it is despite how edgy it is. And I think being able to make your own custom movesets is super cool (mine mostly just consisted of his classic moves cause they're all I know lol.) Game looks great, has some really gorgeous stages, again, considering how edgy it is, and I thought the final boss was really neat. My only complaints come from the lootbox stuff, I know you can unlock everything for free but I really hate when games put all the customization options behind random chance rather than just putting it in a shop where I can pick and choose what I want. Injustice 2 did the same thing, but thankfully in MK it looks like you don't have to pay for anything. Neat time other than that though.

Gyromite (August 13, 1985) - NES

Next up is a game I didn't technically "beat" since it has like 99 levels. But I did play through the first few levels out of curiosity and I actually enjoyed it so much I wanted to give it a shout out! Gyromite is actually one of the NES games made to work with ROB from Super Smash Bros. Brawl (they made the NES after that game came out). And I wanted to see if I could emulate ROB... I could not. But I already had Gyromite downloaded so I decided to play it myself, and I gotta say. I think it's more fun by yourself with 2 controllers! You play as a scientist trying to get all the bombs without getting touched, and you use the second controller to lift and raise gates to help bridge gaps or stop enemies. Also, you can collect carrots to distract enemies. It's really basic but it's actually a SUPER fun game that I think deserves more love! If you haven't tried it, I do think it's a neat little experience that really deserves to be on NSO.

Dracula X (July 21, 1995) - SNES

Hey, my second Castlevania game! And uh... man idk I did not like this nearly as much as Super Castlevania 4 lol. Idk what the consensus on this is, I know fans consider it to be a non canon stripped down version of a much better game. But I figured I could play this in a night, and I was right! Also, I'm no good at Metroidvanias so I figured I'd play the platformer. And yeah, this game kinda sucks. Feels super clunky to play, has some bizarre enemy placements that make the game almost impossible at some scenes. And generally, outside of some nice sprites and the always BANGING Castlevania music, it's just kinda boring. The only real praise I can sing (outside of the super good music) is that the Wolfman totally kicks ass! He was so cool and genuinely the best boss fight in the game. So while I wasn't really into it, I know that if I had played the REAL game this was based on, it would probably have been a lot better.

Venba (July 31, 2023) - PC

Next up is another Gamepass game! I wanted to play Venba since I first saw it because it just looked really nice and cute! And that's exactly how I'd describe it now that I've played it! It's a very nice story about an immigrant mother, her relationship with her husband, her child, and the food she cooks. And so each level consists of you trying to cook a meal with your mother's cookbook, which has become really messed up over the years. Each level is a puzzle where you try to figure out the right way to cook, and see how it brings the family together. I really had a great time with it! These simple and cute games are always a blast to play and a nice breath of fresh air. And it actually made me pretty emotional. Obviously it's not the same experience at all cause I'm white but it did seriously make me think about my relationship with my mother who also came to America for similar reasons. The game actually almost made me cry lol, but more importantly, it made me hungry! I might have to try cooking some stuff they showed in it! Biriyani in particular really caught my interest as something that just looks CRAZY tasty. And hey, maybe I'll ask my mom to help me make some Romanian food too haha.

Outside of that, the music is really nice, I think most of it is licensed? Or at least is lyrical music performed for the game and it's great. And I particularly loved the art style, which no outlines and a more spraypaint looking brush. It's incredibly unique looking! And Venba herself is SO cute, she's so fine. I love her. I want her to be happy. If you're looking for a nice, short game to play through for an easy and relaxed experience, I can't recommend Venba enough!

Metroid: Zero Mission (February 9, 2004) - Gameboy Advance

Remember when I said I didn't like Metroidvanias a game or two ago? Well, sometimes you gotta step out of your comfort zone. I've only beaten 2 games in the genre before, Ori and Radical Rescue. Ori was good and RR was... neat. But I've never beaten a single metroid in my life until now! I chose Zero Mission for a few reasons, but two big ones are that it's a remake of the first game. And the second is that I actually did play and enjoy this one in the past. But clearly I did not get very far cause I didn't remember SHIT lmao. I planned on playing this side by side with a walkthrough, but I'll admit I actually had a faster and way more fun time just genuinely using the maps the game gave me and just running around. It's fun to figure it out and get upgrades and be like "OH I can do that thing now!" it's like a collectathon lol. The music is nice, the sprites are KILLER (I'm a huge GBA sucker after all).

But of particular interest. Dude. Oh my god. The Zero Suit scene. Holy shit. It's so scary! I was seriously screaming during it! It does such a good job of building tension and just making the situation so scary and dire, and then jump scaring you when the space pirates actually go through doors and climb through vents. It was seriously so bone chilling. But then getting the full power suit and running back through the ship and seeing all the space pirates cower in fear at your might, even hiding in the places you had to hide before? Genuinely brilliant. It was so exhilarating and got such a good reaction out of me. I absolutely ADORED this game! Idk if I'll play many more Metroidvanias past this but damn am I glad I gave this one a go!

Punch-Out!! (May 18, 2009) - Wii

And last, and least! Punch-Out!! Another game series I've never beaten any games in before! I could have played the NES one which probably would've been shorter, but again for a few reasons I decided on the Wii one. It's the newest, seems to be the most popular(?), and also was new when I was a lot younger so I have some nostalgia for when it was coming out. So I played it and uh... Yeah I really did not enjoy this game at all. I know this series is SUPER beloved with tons of fans but I just do not get the appeal. Tons of memorization, the characters are all kinda ugly and also yeah it's kinda racist, boring gameplay. Idk I just was not really into it. Full disclosure, it is a bit of a skill issue. I could not beat Soda Popinsky so I had to use an infinite Star Punch cheat lol. Everyone else I beat legit or at least did the first round and then cheated (I only did this for the characters after Soda, when I stopped caring). But not, him I could not do.

It's not all doom and gloom though. I do think the music is also pretty good in it. And I do have to give the game some props, everyone who comes from another region does legit speak their native language I believe. Which fucking rules actually. And I guess it gave us Little Mac in Smash Bros. Who is fun. But idk, yeah I just wasn't really into this. Oh well, different strokes for different folks. At least I played it!

[crystalelemental]

“books-are-my-life-stuff: Oh yeah, I do think Armaldo only started redeeming himself after meeting Igglybuff. And yeah, I did recruit Darkrai, and they lost their memories. They're not as hostile as they were, yes, but we also don't get to interact much with the amnesiac Darkrai either, they become just a party member. I think it'd be more interesting if there's more story to the amnesiac Darkrai, maybe that'll make him as impactful as Dusknoir.“

It could definitely be interesting to get a bit more out of Darkrai after the events, even if it’s just implied things like what set him down that course.  For me, I always just kinda interpreted it as...Darkrai’s powers are known and feared for the nightmares they cause, and it’s an automatic process.  While many Darkrai carry that kind of sense of being just misunderstood, it made sense that some would respond with “Okay, if that’s how everyone’s going to be, welcome to hell world.”  It just kinda checked out.

“Yeah, skills and luck, but mostly luck to survive that level 5 dungeons, really. And good party members with good starting movesets.

That happened to me too, but I dunno if it's Gyarados who did that, and it's not Hyper Beam, but Hydro Pump, which was overpowered as hell to be able to attack many enemies across the room. My team members that I recruited fainted, ran out of Reviver Seeds, and the Pokemon Mega Evolved AND used Hydro Pump again. That was amazing lol.”

Good starting movesets, low EXP requirements to level up early on, and a whole lotta luck.  I really don’t enjoy those challenge dungeons...  And it’s super frustrating when that happens in the moment, but it’s hilarious in hindsight.

“Oh yeah, no worries. Gates to Infinity was kinda tedious in the beginning to mid part anyway. You gotta find the right time for it.”

I might try again.  I never really got super into it, but I kept going back when I still owned a copy, and just never did anything past the final boss.  I really should some day.

“The Salamence quest was the one that made me finally use walkthroughs for Super Mystery Dungeon. I think that Salamence was around level 40, while the quest was gotten when the I was around level 20s. The rest of the game was pretty tough too, even in the main story. And yeah, Super is more strategic and more leaning to rogue-like. It's still pretty fun. Also since it's made at XY era, you can expect Xerneas and Yveltal to be there too, they're pretty cool!”

Valid.  I’m stubborn and don’t like to use consumables, so I just tried until it was clear this was going to be “level a ton and come back, or get ready to use your items.”  I wasn’t happy about it.  And then was further dissatisfied because okay, I can just get a level 50 partner at an early phase of the game, very normal.  But given what you’re telling me, I might wind up liking it a lot more if I gave it another try.  And I do really like Yveltal, so kinda curious there, too.

Actually wait, that was another thing I didn’t like about Gates!  You couldn’t recruit legends, right?  The recruitable roster was like weirdly small, with only the gen 5 starters, Axew, and like Pikachu as starters, if I’m remembering right, and you couldn’t actually recruit any of the legendary Pokemon.  I didn’t love that.

[worm-man-gaming]

My top 10 list for who I WANT as DLC in Smash

We’re reaching the end of an era. Smash Ultimate’s DLC is going to end eventually, with four more characters to be announced. They could release some kind of ‘Echo Pack’ in the future, which I would be hyped about (They didn’t really do much with the echo fighter mechanic), But I have a feeling that after this, there won’t be any more. So I wanted to post my list of who I, specifically, would like to see in the game.

This is not based off of likelihood, as some of these characters probably don’t even have a chance of making it in. I just think they would be neat.

Full list under the cut, counting up from #10

- Papyrus (UNDERTALE)

Okay, so hear me out.

We got the Sans mii skin, and that was by far one of the most popular mii skins since Geno, probably. People were more excited for the Sans mii skin than Terry Bogard and maybe even Banjo. They probably made a lot more money than expected from it. So why not try it again? 

And while Sans is the popular character, he definitely is not a fighter. He’s a lazy, laid back character that just wants to have fun, but he’s far too weak to go into an all-out battle without risking his own safety. 

HOWEVER!

Sans’s brother, Papyrus, is the polar opposite. He’s dedicated, hardworking, and can take quite a few hits. He’s got plenty of moveset opportunity. And it would be another indie rep, which is really really good for someone like me, who wants to go into game design. 

Another thing: When we got the Cuphead mii skin, we also got Cuphead Spirits. They could have easily done that with Undertale, there’s enough characters. So maybe they’re saving it for a DLC Spirit board? I don’t know, just a theory.

He would be primarily a ground-based fighter, with projectiles that could crawl across the stage like that one sparky item. He could also use his blue attack, which could be good for an easy spike on airborne characters. And, who knows, maybe for his final smash we could finally see his special attack.

I really enjoy Undertale, and seeing Sans as a mii skin made me super happy. Getting a whole fighter from the series would be even cooler. 

- Paper Mario (Super Paper Mario)

Nintendo, we’ve got three whole Links in this game, but only two Marios? Preposterous!

With that being said, Super Paper Mario was one of my favorite Wii games (Although I didn’t play it until very recently) And it’s a very popular series. He’s essentially his own character separate from Mario at this point. The games have so much lore put into them, and we already have a Paper Mario Stage in the game, so maybe we could get Dimentio’s dimension, or the Origami Palace or something.

He’s been in enough games and done enough crazy things to earn a pretty diverse kit for himself. He could use Pixils, the 1000-Fold arms, or even summon Paper Bowser, Peach and Luigi for some attacks. 

I think he would be super fun to play. I’m terrible at vanilla Mario, but I think Paper Mario would be a good fit for the game AND be a super good-feeling character. However, this comes from a G&W main, so take from that what you will.

- King Boo (Luigi’s Mansion)

I 👏 want 👏 more 👏 villains 👏 in 👏 Smash! 👏 

King Boo is a staple of the Luigi’s Mansion series as well as being an enemy for Mario in some games like Sunshine. He’s the Big Bad Evil Guy for Luigi. 

And I DEFINITELY want him in this game. 

It’s not so much the character himself, although King Boo is really good, I want him in for his kit. Think about it. A large character but with floaty jumps like Jigglypuff and an aerial based moveset AND a teleport? He’d be ruthless. And really fun. And that’s what I’m looking for in a character.

- BOTW Zelda (Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity)

Yes, I know. “But Worm, the Zelda we have now is annoying and awful, and you say you want ANOTHER one?!?!?” Well, you’re half right.

Yes, Zelda is known for her darkness-sealing powers in BOTW, BUT, in the recent Age of Calamity game, her moveset for almost have the game revolves around the Sheikah Slate. She uses it creatively, hopping around on ice and whirling metal slabs around with a magnet. And I think that would be a SUPER cool moveset for Smash Bros. 

And who knows, maybe they would call back to older games and allow her to switch to using her powers, like Zelda used to change into Sheik. 

She would be very technical, with her attacks being powerful but with some startup, almost similar to Snake of all characters. And for her final smash she could use a Weak Point Smash or they could bring back Bow of Light (Which was MUCH more fair than the current one, by the way). She’d be fun, and that’s what I want.

- Maxwell (Scribblenauts)

Maxwell is from Scribblenauts, a game where you have to solve puzzles by writing words in a notebook and those words coming to life. So he’s work in the same way in Smash, although much more randomized. 

For his neutral special, maybe he could write a random item and it shows up in his hand. That would be funny AND cool, and it’s possible (because Peach does the same thing with Turnips!). He could use projectiles but also have plenty of close range options, and for a Final Smash he could use the Meteor, which in the game clears the screen of living things. Brutal! He also uses Adjectives on both his creations AND himself, so maybe for some moves he could effect the other opponent with a poison or freeze effect.

Would he be banned in competitive play? Yes. Would he still be fun? Definitely!

- Jibanyan (Yo-Kai Watch)

I may be in the minority here, but I REALLY liked Yo-Kai Watch as a game. It may seem like a cheap Pokemon ripoff, but the gameplay is nothing like it at all. You’re given a map to explore and various objectives within the map, and the battle system is really creative and fun. It’s actually the inspiration for some of my own games. Yo-Kai watch deserved more credit than it got.

Jibanyan is the poster boy for the series (and also has the saddest backstory of any cat-based character ever), and mainly attacks with both his paws and fire attacks. He could have fire-based moves and would almost play similar to Pichu. His final smash could be Paws of Fury, his soultimate move, that would hit like Donkey Kong’s final smash as a flurry of blows. 

This series is really well made and thought out, and it deserves more than it got. So please put my boy in Smash, I’m begging you.

- Specter Knight (Shovel Knight: Specter of Torment)

Okay, yes. I know Shovel Knight is the main character of this series. But again, hear me out.

Specter Knight is either the first or second boss you encounter in the main Shovel Knight game, and he’s already got some moveset potential from that alone. However, he also had his own story mode, Specter of Torment, ad let me say, that is a phenomenal game. I’d go so far as to say it’s better than the main Shovel Knight game itself. His controls are quick and easy to pick up. And he has a whole bunch of special abilities you can get as the game progresses, such as a boomerang or even a shadow clone. 

His smash moveset would pull most of the specials from the unlockable items he can get, leaving room for an incredible spacing game as well as a good aerial defense, as Specter Knight can both float and do a Dash Slash through enemies for some extra air time. 

Shovel Knight is the main character, but Specter Knight obviously has the most soul put into him (Pun not intended). And, again, he’d be fun to control. 

- Master Hand / Fighter Hand (Super Smash Bros. Series)

This is mostly me just being mad at the game for giving us a playable Master Hand, but only once. We couldn’t have even gotten a Master Mode in extras, huh? 

Yes, yes, I know Master Hand is the staple boss character for Smash Bros. He’s been in every game, for crying out loud! I’m honestly surprised it took them this long to give us a playable Master Hand. But this leads into my idea:

A new hand, made specifically to fight in Smash Bros, called Fighter Hand.

Yes, it’s cheesy. Yes, it’s stupid. But hey, it would be fun.

He would have scaled-down versions of Master Hand’s moves, with mainly projectile-based specials and tilts. He would be floaty, although introducing a flying character would be interesting to see how they balance it. For a final smash, maybe they could bring back Master Core from Smash 4 for a Giga Bowser-esque punch.

- The Knight (Hollow Knight)

Hollow Knight is an Indie Game that I never finished (I’m working on it, okay?) that’s kind of like Metroid in the way it’s played. It's also a very popular game, and I like bugs, so they get the number two spot because I like him.

And the special Soul moves you unlock translate well into Specials. Platformers always translate well into Smash, so he would work very well in the game. I don’t know what their moveset would be (as I haven’t finished the game yet), but I know they would be a small, fast character that mainly uses their nail to attack like a sword.

And my most wanted character in Super Smash Brothers: Ultimate is...

- Beatrix LeBeau (Slime Rancher)

Okay, look. I’m aware this has zero chance of happening. Slime Rancher was never the most popular game, and Nintendo has never mentioned it ever. But it’s one of my favorite games, and I just think Beatrix would be an incredible character in Smash Bros. 

She would use her jetpack to recover, she would shoot plorts as projectiles, use he vacpac to suck up both fighters and projectiles, and maybe shoot a boom slime as an explosive and unpredictable bouncing hazard. Her smash attacks and aerials would use the various slimes you can vacuum up and feed in the game, like the Rad Slime and Rock Slimes. She would be really good offstage and onstage with her weakness being her speed. 

She could bring a LOT to this series, and it would be another inspirational indie rep. And, hey, Minecraft Steve got in. Who knows at this point.

Anyway, there’s my list. Feel free to argue with me or explain why Geno should be on my list (I will not care) in the comments or reblogs, this list is not changing unless I play some new game that I feel should be represented. 

[askkrenko]

Krenko’s Guide to Pokemon: Exeggcute line

They’re not even eggs. You all know that, right? They’re not eggs.

DESIGN: 

Exeggcute is a handful of cracked Exeggutor seeds hanging out together. Individually, they’d be kind of boring, but as a bunch of seeds, it gives it a unique appearance that, especially when they bounce and move around each other.

Exeggcute really raises an interesting question of ‘what is a Pokemon’ though, because while Magnemite suddenly gets two more Magnemites on evolution, Exeggcute is clearly six seeds, but they only become one tree. While we know the six seeds are telepathically linked, aren’t they still six different Pokemon? And why do they hatch from one egg?

And it can’t be that the Pokeball just counts minds, because while Exeggcute and Exeggutor are telepathically linked, there’s other multi-headed Pokemon that don’t get along well with themselves at all.

My brain hurts. On to the coconut tree.

Exeggcute’s evolved form, the thing that grows from the seeds, is a tree. A short, stumpy, multi-headed coconut tree.

At six feet tall, it’s pretty short for a tree, but it gets the job across as a tree Pokemon. It has legs for walking, no arms because it’s telekinetic, and three heads that think independently but work together.  Supposedly, Exeggcute fall from Exeggcutor, and maybe that is how it works because even though everything comes from eggs, nobody’s ever seen a Pokemon lay an egg.

So here’s my theory: Exeggcute ‘eggs’ grow on Exeggutors but they’re actually nuts. When they break open, there’s six Exeggcute inside, which work together, and then later grow into a full-sized Exeggutor.

Anyway, as far as its design goes, I love this goofy tree thing. It’s clearly a coconut tree, but it’s also clearly some sort of monster, and the big coconut heads give it a unique visual that really nothing else compares to. It’s likely based on a creature from Japanese mythology, but there’s still enough differences between Exeggutor and the Jinmenju that you wouldn’t confuse the two.

Its Alolan form is mostly the same except... more correct. 

See, we had hints pretty early on that the Exeggutor we knew and loved was wrong. Pokedex entries stated that it originally came from the tropics, and that harsh sunlight makes it grow more.  And the thing is, we first saw Alolan Exeggutor back in 1997, before Pokemon even came to the US, as a piece of art for the TCG featured a “Jungle Exeggutor.”

Nineteen years later, here’s Alolan Exeggutor.

So yeah, that’s our palm tree pokemon. Also it’s a dragon. This thing is basically the same as foreign Exeggutor, except bigger and even sillier, with an extra coconut tail. Why is it a dragon? There’s a few theories on that, but the best theory is that it’s based on one of a few types of trees called “Dragon Trees” that live in Hawaii.  There’s a variety of Dragon Trees, and some look more like Exeggutor than others, but considering there’s Dragon Pokemon based off of Sea Dragons, Dragon Slugs, and Dragonflies, and one extended pun involving a Wyrm in an Apple, well...  I’m willing to believe “Dragon Tree” is just the sort of thing they’d do.

Art by Ninjendo, which I have to assume is a Nintendo that flips out and kills things

EVOLUTIONS: 

Exeggcute evolves with a leaf stone. If you evolve it in Alola, you get a proper Exeggutor, and if you evolve it anywhere else, you get a short Exeggutor. This is a bit of a problem for introducing Alolan Exeggutor to other games. What I'd like to see in the future is some alternate item or something to get an Alolan Exeggutor (maybe just have it evolve with the Sun Stone instead of the Leaf Stone) but I suppose that defeats the purpose of regional forms. If we get another warm region, hopefully we’ll see Alolan Exeggutors there. 

Stats are such that there’s no need for anything before Exeggute or after Exeggutor, though a Mega Exeggutor could be fun and funny. 

Exeggutor Mirrored by TamberElla

TYPING:

Exeggutor benefits from pretty rare typings, as there’s not much competition for its specific movesets. 

Defensively, neither’s particularly special, with more weakensses than resistances, and each coming with a x4 weakness. What is noteworthy about Alolan Exeggutor is that it doubly resists water, grass, and electricity. While there’s plenty of types it’s weak to, those are some very common attacks that it can effectively no-sell.

Offensively, grass is resisted by a lot, but Psychic and Dragon are both hard to stop. Steel stops all three types, but stumpy Exeggutor is super-effective against five types, and Alolan Exeggutor is super-effective against four types. Neither case is anything special, but it’s still a lot better than being pure grass.

Enjoy the Alolan Way by limb92

STATS: 

The two forms of Exeggutor basically have the same stats: 125 Special Attack with higher-than-average defenses and low speed. Yes, Alolan has more Attack and less Speed, but Special is still better than Attack by far, and speed is poor on both. 

125 is a really solid special attack stat, and while low speed is a problem, Exeggutor can take a few hits as long as the type matchups aren’t actively going against it.

Art by elyoncat

ABILITIES: 

Alolan Exeggutor’s normal ability is Frisk. Nobody cares. 

Malnourished Exggutor’s normal ability is Chlorophyll. This is quite good. Chlorophyll doubles its speed during Sunny Day, and while Exeggutor is slow, it’s not so slow that doubling its speed won’t make it faster than most opponents. Couple this with the ability to use Solar Beam, and Exeggutor has a place on a Sun team.

Both versions share a hidden ability of Harvest, which has a 50% chance each turn to replenish a consumed (but not otherwise lost) berry. During harsh sunlight, this chance increases to 100%. This requires a lot more strategy to use than Chlorophyll, certainly, but there’s plenty that can be done with it.

Obviously if you don’t plan to use a berry, Alolan Exeggutor gets Frisk, but it’s really not impressive.

MOVES: 

Exeggutor has two signature abilities in Barrage and Dragon Hammer, but they’re both Physical and neither’s impressive enough to warrant the 20-30 point stat hit for using physical attacks, so ignore them.

For a Grass type move, the primary question is, of course “am I taking advantage of the sun?” If you are, it’s Solar Beam.  If not, even with it making you weaker each time you use it, Leaf Storm is an absurdly powerful hit.  On a similar note, Alolan Exeggutor is going to want Draco Meteor. Look, this Pokemon’s not a tank, your goal is to kill the opponent as fast as possible. By the time you get to a third Draco Meteor or Leaf Storm, your Exeggutor’s probably falling down anyway.

On the other hand, if you want to try more defensive fighting, Giga Drain’s a solid special attack that helps keep you going. You could also take both Giga Drain and Leaf Storm, softening them up with Giga Drain and only using Leaf Storm when you expect it to kill.

Psychic Exeggutor’s Psychic move is Psychic. I shouldn’t need to explain that one. It’s been using it since Gen 1. There’s an argument to be made for using Psyshock, but that really depends on the meta.

For coverage purposes, True Exeggutor can learn Flamethrower, which is especially good if using the Sunny Day route, and both can learn Sludge Bomb, though I’d only really recommend it on the Dragon type who wants to have Super Effective damage against Fairies. 

Exeggutor naturally learns Hypnosis, which is a great move, but also a trick. With breeding, an Exeggutor can have Sleep Powder, which is the same move but with higher accuracy. Take Sleep Powder.

Art by I don’t know I searched and couldn’t find the original posting

OVERALL: 

I love this stupid tree. It’s so goofy. Chlorophyll and Harvest are both interesting, build-around abilities, and it’s got a reasonable stat lineup. My only big problem is that its signature attacks are Physical and it’s primarily Special. Dragon Hammer’s a good move, but with the attack difference an Exeggutor gets more damage out of Dragon Pulse. And Barrage is just garbage. 

You know, in the old days, Exeggutor was literally one of the strongest Pokemon there was. Now, it’s basically a relic. It’s still mostly fine, but the Physical/Special move divide isn’t always kind to it. 

[animatedminds]

What If: Every Character In Dragonball FighterZ Had a Dramatic Finish? (Pt. 1)

Consider this a nerdy thought experiment. I’m a big Dragonball fan, and a big FighterZ fan, and anyone who is either probably knows well by know what Dramatic Finishers are: in one of the most amazing steps of fanservice in recent memory, Arcsys created intricate animated adaptations of some of Dragonball’s greatest moments, which can be triggered in special situations. Huge explosions, great comebacks, cool ends to some of the series hypest fights.

But it gets you thinking - and its something that a lot of fans have asked since the game started: which if X or Y character had a Dramatic Finish, instead of the select few who have some in the current build?

Well, over the next few days we’re going to figure that out. With DLC on the way bringing us a brand new and thoroughly expected Finish for Kefla, this seemed like a great time to do it. Now, let’s be clear: this isn’t an attempt to say that all of these characters should get a Dramatic Finish. Arcsys’ style of animation these days is very intricate and extremely time consuming, which makes any new animation something of a godsend in the first place. As a result, not only are most of the characters who don’t already have one probably not going to get one, I wouldn’t be surprised if most of them weren’t ever considered at all. This is more as a hypothetical: if these characters were considered, what would their Finishes be? What references would be best for them, to give cool moments from Dragonball history? To give another note, for this the point is to ensure every character gets an appearance in a Dramatic Finish. Not necessarily a win (that’s simply not possible for everyone). Some of these characters are going to have losses listed. Some might even have to make due with Dramatic Openings instead. For the most part, we won’t be assuming the existence of any characters who aren’t currently in the game: it has to be within the current roster.

You can listen along to the entire list right now if you don’t want to read a wall of text over the course of several day: just check out the track on Soundcloud! It’s everyone from the beginning to the end of the roster, with dulcet tones and some neat Dragonball music.

But... if you don’t have the time to hear nerd talk for twenty minutes, go ahead: we’re skipping the ones who already have one - I mention them all on the audio even though I still skip them, just for completeness (and so people don’t ask me why I didn’t think of other ones for existing characters) and in order to make quips - but this is going to be shorter.

Part 1, we’ll go over the first three characters - mostly the Dragonball era with one addition - and so the first character to not to have a Dramatic Finish is...

Tien (or Tenshinhan, depending on your version)

Tien spends a lot of time away from the plot - unlike most of the cast, when he’s not there to do something significant he’s typically just absent, only appearing when he does. However, that doesn’t mean he doesn’t have options for a Finish: far from it. I can think of at least two that would make decent choices.

The first is probably the one everyone thinks of when they think of Tien: the moment where stalls Cell with the Kikoho, blasting him into the dirt repeatedly to give 18 and 16 time to escape. It’s a classic epic scene with Tien, and one that a lot of people remember:

A couple caveats with this one: first being that this wasn’t actually a Finish - Cell gets ups just fine afterwards - but if Base Goku’s Finish against Freeza is any indication, that’s not necessarily a problem if the scene is a strong enough moment. The other is that the version of Cell that this happens to - Semi-Perfect Cell - is not strictly in the game: its Perfect Cell. But the game has cheated with this as well in the past. The stage this would happen, however, is already in the game - so no problems there.

It’s not hard to  see how this would work. The typical Dramatic Finish beginning, Cell  looks up and finds Tien already above him, ready to rain Kikohos down  upon him. The way I see this working best is similar to those infamous  Quan Chi and Chronika fatalities in the Mortal Kombat series - the ones  that don’t ever actually end, they just keep going over and over until  the players ends or (more likely for this game) the screen transitions  to the next on its own. Here, you could have Tien just keep Kikohoing  again and again until the Victory Marquee comes up on its own. Very funny, very epic.

The second idea, however, is one I think is  better reference for Tien himself - one of the classic moments from when  his character was more current: the time he narrowly defeated Kid Goku  at the Tenkaichi Budokai:

Albeit without the blowing up the stage on this one.

This fight involved Goku and Tien going at it in midair: Tien able to fly, while Goku couldn’t at the time - they end up plummeting to the ground, but only one is able to avoid a ring out. It’s another one with that same caveat: Kid Goku is technically not in the game, but GT Goku is basically the same character with  few additions, so he can easily be used as a stand-in. This one would also give the World Martial Arts Tournament stage something special, which it doesn’t have yet.

For this, have the fight continue into the scene - a la Super Broly’s - and end up in midair, where they both start to lose steam. Goku knocks Tien down, but Tien is able to knock Goku away. A fun extra they could do is - since the original version had Goku fall into a highway and get his by a car - do like the Jiren Finish and change stages in the middle of the scene, ending at the City. Goku crashes (complete with car, for fun), Tien doesn’t, and the latter enjoys a weary victory pose. Next up:

Piccolo (or if you know what moment I’m thinking of already, Piccolo Jr)

Piccolo, while he’s always around in roles of semi-importance, is another who was phased out of a major slot in favor of stronger rivals and later characters. But he’s always good for a least one awesome moment per arc, and there’s one major scene in particular that I think would be perfect for a Dramatic Finish:

The end of his fight against Goku at the World Martial Arts tournament.

This scene is actually - to me - a no brainer: it and the moment against Piccolo Daimao where the moments where the series really started getting into having villain defeats with built-up, dramatic physical conclusions, and the defeat of Piccolo Jr in particular was the culmination of everything that came before it. I was actually surprised that when Base Goku was released, and this moment wasn’t added in addition to the Saiyan Saga content: I was at least expecting moments from this fight to be represented in Base Goku’s moveset, as it features such identifiable things to draw from. Either way, there are two moments from this fight that would work in a Finish - the second, incidentally, happens immediately after the first, but either would work. The first being what the Budokai games eventually named the “Meteor Combination” - where Goku seems to defeat Piccolo once and for all after blocking his ultimate attack.

Not going to lie, this ranks pretty high one my personal list of the best action sequences in the entire franchise - it’s pictured above for a reason - and I’m a little disappointed I couldn’t find a video clip with the whole bit beforehand with Piccolo’s explosive attack as well.

It’s a triumphant turnaround, a very dramatic conclusion with a lot of flow and weight, and would be perfect animated in a Dramatic finish. Plus, it’s another that gives the Tournament stage some content. You could either have it begin like Cell’s Dramatic Finish - where Piccolo attempts an attack (the Destructive Wave, in this case), only for Goku to turn it around, or you could simply have Goku go straight into the attack, knocking Piccolo to the ground and finishing with a titanic Kamehameha from above.

As I said before, it’s a little surprising they didn’t add it in some way already. End it with a thumbs up to the camera, like in the original scene, and you’re gold. Or...

The moment right after, where it turns out Piccolo is just faking his defeat, and turns it around only to be defeated by Goku in the end anyway:

This is the infamous one where Piccolo tortures Goku, but that doesn’t have to fully be in the Finish. In this one, you would start the Dramatic Finish with Piccolo getting knocked down, and Goku giving that thumbs up I was telling you about... but then Piccolo hops up and blasts Goku through the shoulder - which is easily done bloodlessly. He then presses the attack, laying on the ground, broken, and is about to torture him, when... For this next part, you could either require Tien and Krillin (or Yamcha) on our team alongside Base Goku to perform, or you could do it with whatever teammates you have: they jump in to help Goku, but Piccolo blocks them with a ki attack. Then he looks down, and finds that Goku is gone! He looks about to find Goku rocketing at him to deliver a titanic headbutt that ends the fight for good. In the source, after getting healed Goku did a dramatic leap into the air to celebrate finally winning the tournament - without a healing segment, that can just happen automatically, and that would be a fine last image of the Finish.

With Piccolo out of the way, the next characters up for a Finish skip a whole saga, and go straight to...

The Ginyu Force

This one took a bit of thinking, as all the Ginyu members fought individually, and most against different characters, but I realized if I was going to pick one there was really only the one option: The moment where Ginyu tries to body change with Vegeta, and ends up in the form of a frog.

Forgive the lack of embedded video on this one - it’s potholed above, but I didn’t want the first post to just be two characters, and alas with the combination of Tumblr’s five vid limit, my coming up with two legit ideas each for the previous two (that won’t happen often for the rest), and needing two entire videos for just one of the Piccolo ideas, I ran out of embeds. Still, this one is a keeper.

This would be a Base Vegeta win, requiring Base Goku to be on his team. The original moment was all vertical: Ginyu flew up in the air and Vegeta flew up after him, but you could just finagle it and do it horizontally instead to cut back on extra animation. The set up for this is simple as anything: do the knockback, trigger the Finish, Ginyu gets furious - while Vegeta is too arrogant to notice - and starts the Body Change, catching Vegeta off guard. At the last second, Goku throws a frog in between them, and Ginyu is left stuck croaking. The last shot - like the Janemba Finish - could be the POV of Frog Ginyu as he runs away, while regular Ginyu hops around like a frog. This more funny that epic, but it is a very memorable part of the Freeza arc, and definitely the most memorable thing attached to Captain Ginyu himself, so in my opinion its the best bet for him.

And that’s the first three: 

There’ll be more than three in the next segment, trust me.

If you like the idea, happy to have you. Make sure to listen to the full track on Soundcloud if you just want the list right away without waiting a day for each installment, and let me know if you agree with the list or not - what you would pick instead, that sort of thing. Either way, stay Sparking!

[schalaasha]

Top 20 Games of the Decade

Hi, I felt like writing about my top 20 games of the decade because I kept thinking about it. This is a semi-ranked list, but I decided not to throw numbers into the mix since, really, outside of the top 2, I can’t think of how to rank the games prior to them. I also commissioned hyiroaerak (@/HRAK__S2 on twitter, https://hyiroaerak.weebly.com/work.html) for art to commemorate this occasion.  Our characters are cosplaying as characters from our games of the decade!

Mega Man 10

I actually like Mega Man 10 more than Mega Man 9 out of the two platformer revival games in this series. Though a bit of background on this: Mega Man 4 is my favourite, and I prefer the games that are not 2, 6, 7, or 11, so I suppose that contextualises this for others.         Either way, despite it not having weapons that were as useful as Mega Man 9’s, I felt like 10’s level design and pacing worked more for me in my favour. Though I’m saying that as someone who liked the double fortress design in earlier games so that might invalidate how I feel.

 Time Attack mode from Mega Man 9 returns as well as Proto Man (but he’s unlockable right off the bat). It also has a proper Challenge Mode compared to Mega Man 9’s challenges, whereby challenges for certain levels or bosses are unlocked when you actually do it in the main game. Being able to play as Proto Man off the bat allows for the fluidity Mega Man had in 3 and beyond by letting you slide and use charged shots. I personally liked being able to play as Proto Man off the bat as while he has the 3 and beyond advantages for his moveset, he is a glass cannon and you still have to watch where you’re going.

 I feel like the levels were a little better designed and if I needed more of a challenge, Hard Mode was still there to cut my teeth on. I liked the colour schemes throughout the level maps a lot more than 9’s as well. The bosses felt particularly gripping and trading blows with them fit into a nice rhythm.

 It has more content than Mega Man 9 and I had a lot more fun with 10 than I did with either 9 or 11. The formula itself is pretty static compared to other Mega Man games, but I like simple things. Why fix what isn’t broken? It’s just a nice piece of cake at the end of the day and that’s all I really want.

  Trauma Team / HOSPITAL: 6人の医師

When I started university for the first time in 2006, I was pre-med.  I eventually got sick and tired of the politics and people in the program (ie: folks saying they only wanted to go to med school so they can get rich or make friends with pharma reps who might give them perks), and I left the program to pursue program majors and a minor to prepare me for speech-language pathology instead.

 We had a Wii in our student lounge. My main university campus wasn’t exactly big and a lot of the people who hung out in the student center were kind of cliquey. I think I had the benefit of being really good friends with one of the guys who was the biggest social butterflies at the school so I got to meet a lot of people or get involved with stuff if I felt like it. So that meant I got to play with other students in games or wi-fi sessions during classes or after classes if I didn’t have to commute home right away.

 Because almost everyone I knew at my school wanted to go into medicine, everyone played the Trauma series. Some kids played Under the Knife during class. Some kids played Second Opinion on the Wii in the student lounge. Some kids played New Blood. This was before like… Farmville took over everyone’s computers at the time.

 Trauma Team came out way after that, and some of us were either graduating or staying in school an extra year because we didn’t know what to do after the recession or knew what to do but needed extra courses for graduate school.  So the Wii was free to use.  I don’t think people hooked it up as often anymore anyway. By 2010, a lot of us who had met each other in first year decided to go our separate ways, not even in the same majors or programs anymore. A lot of us either branched out into research, psychology, neurology (like me), kinesiology, epidemiology, forensics, genetics, etc. So Trauma Team for the rest of us who were still there was a good fit.

 Trauma Team took some influences from the 2009 Swine Flu pandemic considering that was when the development phase occurred. Now, I live in Canada, and Canada was one of the focal points for the 2003 SARS outbreak. This was when health bodies in the country decided to make some changes to how they respond to potential pandemics. A lot of things they tell medical students or any students studying health policy (like I was at the time) emphasized how different parts of the hospital or medical or health care staff need to work together in order to care for a patient. I actually find the different professions involved in Trauma Team useful and a reflection of what my class of 2010/2011 became later on (a lot of us graduated in 2011 and took an extra year).

 Diagnostics and Forensics were what I was really interested in since they don’t play the same as surgery/emergency medicine since they played out like a point-and-click. Later on in life, I had to look at so many medical reports and radiology reports and file them but by then I realised what my patients had but I can’t tell them myself since I’m not a doctor. But Trauma Team gave me a chance to do so and practice my terminology as a student. A friend of mine, who ended up becoming a doctor at a hospital in Toronto, really enjoyed endoscopy since it merely involved using the Wiimote as an endoscope and the nunchuk to steer. A lot of us played co-op too.

 The difficulty in Trauma Team, I felt, was decreased from previous games. But that doesn’t really spoil it. It was a varied game and it looks fantastic. It’s a shame that the game style hasn’t been replicated or given a sequel in later years, because while I’m older and my classmates are doing completely different things and I haven’t seen some of them in years, I’d love to take a stab at these types of games with a well-practiced laboratory technologist’s hand.

  Sonic Colours

I think it goes without saying. My first community when I joined the old forum was the Sonic community. Just a bunch of people who were interested in talking about Sonic so much in almost every thread that we ended up making a community thread together. I don’t post in the new forum everyone is at but I still talk to mostly everyone via different social mediums.

 I wasn’t around when Sonic Colours came out but I think I remember reading the joy everyone felt when nearly universally everyone in that thread seemed to really like Sonic Colours. I remember the thread title still. I preordered Sonic Colours because apparently previews were saying it was… good? I didn’t bother playing Sonic Unleashed until after I’d joined the forum, but hearing Sonic Colours would be a return to form since I was one of those people who didn’t adjust well to the 3D games made me interested.

 Sonic Colours is everything I wanted from a 3D Sonic game. Or rather, a 3D version of a platformer. I didn’t really like where 3D platformers were going because they were hard to look at, hard for me to pay attention to, and to be honest I got dizzy while playing a lot of them since you’re expected to work in a 3D space as opposed to a 2D space so it was really hard for me to process. I really like the hybrid nature of the level designs that’s where Sonic Colours got me.

 Sonic Colours isn’t without its hangups: some of the levels are really short; existing mostly for ranking/getting red rings. Sonic’s jump is pretty floaty. The script is fairly short even if the jokes can be funny. Bosses are reused. Sonic Colours is not a perfect game, but the attempts it made were fantastic enough in its own right.

 The music continues to be great, but the areas are visual spectacles. Whatever you think of the series, it’s fairly undeniable that the games try to have style. From the lighting, to posing, to setpieces, to colours used in assets in the level design – Sonic has always had really great ideas.  Sonic Colours is no exception – areas like Aquarium Park, Planet Wisp, and Sweet Mountain have a variety of neat level ideas and they look good trying to execute it. From popcorn on the floor to one of the best darned water levels in all of video games due to the drill wisp, to a fresh take on a grassy knoll with beautiful music, Sonic Colours can bring tears to your eyes because of what it attempts. Terminal Velocity Act 2 is also one of my favourite parts of the Uncolourations games partially because it’s a well-executed setpiece, but it also showed me that maybe those 3D racing bits aren’t that bad.

 The bosses may be really easy, and the final boss ends far sooner than it should before it could perfectly execute its Kamen Rider reference, but I think the point was to fully enjoy the theme park that Sonic Team threw at you this time.

 In 2020 I like to say that out of all of the Uncolourations games, Sonic Unleashed is my favourite due to the balance it struck and its presentation/artstyle, and basically having one of the best soundtracks of the previous decade. But I recognise everything that Sonic Colours brought to the table. If it wasn’t for Sonic Colours, I wouldn’t be friends or acquaintances with so many people that I am with now.

  Kirby’s Epic Yarn

Have you ever played a game that made you feel warm and toasty? Canadian winters can be really cold, you know.

 When I lived at my old run-down house, my old room didn’t have good insulation. Whenever it got cold, my room got really cold. I had my own personal heater because we didn’t really have a good heating system in my room either. So I only wore flannel pyjamas, wrapped myself in faux-wool blankets all the time, and went to sleep covered in at least four quilts or comforters (which is something I still do out of habit sorry). I used to make hot choco every day because it was just so cold in my room.

 I love Kirby’s Epic Yarn. Kirby’s Epic Yarn makes me feel warm and toasty inside because I think of being wrapped up in yarn and sheets and scarves and I just feel so happy. There are so many pastels used in KEY’s earlier stages that I can’t help but to feel toasty and happy when I’m playing it. It’s not the most challenging game. The game is really easy and all you mostly do is collect furniture, music, beads, and parts of the results wheel in every level, but I don’t think that’s the point of it. The point is just to have fun. Watching Kirby turn into a car to sprint, watching him turn into a little parachute or transform during those vehicle bits, you just can’t help but to feel so enveloped by the cute.

 Being able to interact with cloth by pulling a loose button and releasing something, taking off tags, pulling on stray thread, spin balls of yarn… it feels so fulfilling because it’s a clever use of the medium. It’s exactly what you’d do if you’re stitching or knitting. Placing furniture around Kirby’s little apartment makes the Animal Crossing fan in me so happy.

 I appreciate the lengths Good-Feel went to producing the level designs. They took photos of the fabric they bought and created the graphics that way. The music is calm and relaxing, with lots of woodwind and piano and lighter sounding instruments. The entire game feels so soft and sweet. It’s a visually-impressive game since everything animates incredibly fluidly.

  Cuphead

Like anyone my age or older, I grew up watching a lot of older cartoons by Max Fleischer with watercolour backgrounds, hand-drawn characters with a lot of focus on expressions, rotoscoping, etc Lots of slapstick and musical scores out of that decade.  I would have never believed I’d play a video game that looks like that but here we are playing Cuphead this decade.

 Cuphead is a blend of that artstyle with older run and gun style games. It combines a gunning experience with puzzles, reflexive actions, and dying… and dying a lot. And learning. Underneath it’s cartoony and child-friendly veneer lies a game that is unrelentingly difficult. There aren’t really any checkpoints in the game save for one. You can’t regain lost health. It’s just you versus the game. You may spend hours on one single level learning everything about it. And you can’t beat the game until you finish off every other level on regular difficulty.

 Different levels have different forms: they can be run and guns á la Contra, which are actually, oddly enough, breathing room levels. They’re probably the “easiest” levels in the game. Other types of levels can be straight up shmup-like boss fights where you’re flying in a plane. They can be hard as a regular shmup.

 The best crafted types of levels are the ones that include platforming as part of their boss battles because they use the artstyle and ideas involved in the art piece as interesting platforming mechanics. You have a more limited control scheme but the scenario you’re involved in is really interesting and unique. You fight a woman in a play and the setpieces in the play change according to how far you are in the boss fight, for example. The game also has a parry mechanic whereby you can double-jump off of anything that’s coloured pink and fill your super meter in order to kill bosses faster. The parry cues change per boss so it’s really cool to see what they look like every time you encounter something new.

 I think while Cuphead can be utterly unforgiving, I think it should be experienced at least once for how much work was put into making things look so fluid and how creative every boss and level can be. It’s what I wanted the UBIart framework to eventually evolve into. I think the game’s aesthetics and sound are its own reward in addition to that feeling when you finally conquer That One Boss.

  Asura’s Wrath

Asura’s Wrath was a game I was incredibly iffy on even buying at all. I heard about how the ending was part of paid DLC, that the game didn’t have a lot of gameplay, and that it was incredibly unremarkable. I don’t think I had a remarkably low bar or anything for this, but I decided to purchase it on the cheap.

 Asura’s Wrath definitely isn’t a game for everyone, and I feel as though it’s an acquired taste. The main character’s art might not jive well with everyone, the lack of ‘play’ will probably deter some folks, and its episodic nature/final chapter unlock sequence would probably get on people’s nerves. With that said, at first, it seems to be an action-cinematic game without necessarily expanding on the “action” part. A lot of it at first seems to be a bunch of QTEs to move the narrative along, with the narrative not necessarily being that strong in the first place. I think that’s due in part to the game’s structure initially. The first few chapters and the first act truly don’t seem very remarkable. The Buddhist and Hindu aspects of the game are very obvious and very central to the game’s plot, but at the same time, they don’t seem to be specifically mentioned whenever someone talks about the game to me. The Asuras were not one singular character or a god, but a race of warlike beings exhibiting wrath and pride. They were incorporated into Hinduism and Buddhism through their mention in The Rigveda. With that said, I was continually impressed by how many references—whether it was mere mention of regular terms/concepts/people, the artstyle and inclusions of things like lacquer skin, mandorlas, Vajras and Pretas, and also Siddham script—was included in this game. Asura’s Wrath ended up feeling incredibly natural and a nice way of shedding some light on non-Judeo-Christian religions.

 Anyway, I genuinely liked that the game felt like a playable anime. I don’t feel like the game would be as effective if it were put into another genre, or were less cinematic. It ends up getting its message across with its carefully-researched artstyle, great scene direction, well-composed music, and penchant for feeling like it was a fantastic shounen anime. I also feel like the game has more combo-based gameplay than people give it credit for. A lot of the complexities come to the forefront on Hard mode, and going for S-ranks and finding ways to do that quickly and effectively on higher difficulty modes is always an interesting affair.

  Ghost Trick: Phantom Detective

I finished marathoning all of the Ace Attorney games in 2010. I don’t recall if I was doing it before Ghost Trick but I think what enticed me to get the game was its amazing animation. I hadn’t seen 2D sprites move that fluidly in a very long time. Characters have exaggerated movements, exaggerated dances (ie: the panic dance), and they have big flashy gestures to show off the game’s animation engine.

 You’re introduced to all sorts of eccentric characters, many of whom don’t overstay their welcome (Circus case from AA2, I’m looking at you). You have a desk lamp, a doggo, a dancing detective, a little girl who’s the focal point for one episode, etc. Everyone’s dialogue is relatively snappy, their expressions and animations make them stand out from others, and due to how everything is presented right down to the character art portraits, everything just jumps off the screen.

 Because you’re a spirit with amnesia, you’re given the ability to go through time, and also the ability to through environments by hopping from object to object and possessing them in order to influence what happens in the past to save people in the present.  This is just a path to trying to figure out who you really are or to find who or what killed you. A lot of the gameplay revolves around trying to figure out which objects to manipulate and when in order to influence an outcome. It makes the game partially point and click, but also partially a physics puzzler. I don’t think I remember a single object in the puzzle segments that was wasted. In other circumstances, you must manipulate time in order to save someone in their last four minutes.

 If anything, I feel like Ghost Trick is a necessary inclusion simply because of its style and attention to detail, as well as its sort but sweet story where nothing overstays its welcome. Its soundtrack also feels similar. The game is fairly consistent and nothing really changes in terms of progression over most of the game. But I see that as a plus as opposed to a minus for the most part. It helps to bring the game to a compelling and surprising conclusion.

  Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood

I marathoned all of the Assassin’s Creed games in one year prior to Assassin’s Creed III since I wanted to see what the deal was with the series because the first game wasn’t that great from a play perspective for me. The thing that resonates the most with respect to Assassin’s Creed for me is marshmallow-flavoured birthday cake and a bag of regular Bugles. I started this marathon on one of my birthdays that decade.

 Assassin’s Creed II is one of my favourite games out there, but Brotherhood adds so much to the formula despite its middling storyline compared to its predecessor. But that’s because most of Ezio’s growth happened in the previous game. He is a middle-aged man searching for the Apple of Eden, and while the story does not carry as much emotional impact, that isn’t exactly what I’m looking for with respect to the earlier AC games.

 One of the things I absolutely love about the earlier AC games is its attention to detail even if it isn’t necessarily completely accurate. At first I missed the fact that I could explore many different towns like I could in AC2. But then I realised how big Rome and its surrounding area is. Rome is gigantic, and it has so much attention to detail with historical buildings everywhere (which you need to pay to rebuild), old tapestries from the era, citizens dancing in the streets, lovers flirting with each other behind pillars, etc. There are more roofs and buildings to parkour over and between. The game adds towards that require you to take over them before you can use them to gain access to vendors and things to renovate. You can also find the glyphs (much like the ones from the previous game) to solve puzzles in order to gain access to more lore.

 I genuinely love the renovation aspect of this game. It’s more involved and a lot better than what the previous game tried to do with its economy. You renovate in order to gain access to shops, which in-turn generates income for you, and then you can renovate other stuff based on the income that you generate. It’s something that I’ve come to miss in later AC games. It felt a lot like a Suikoden game in some aspects.

 Platforming missions return in the form of finding parts of a cult and cutting the beginnings of a conspiracy off by its limbs. They’re faster paced than AC2’s tombs and there is more variety in terms of what you platform through. I like both types equally since one allows you to marvel at the beauty of a cathedral, while the other allows you to clock a few folks while making your way through a lair.

 In addition to the lairs, there are different types of missions for each faction that you forge alliances with, there are Da Vinci missions that involve new war toys and blowing things up in a scripted way. Assassin missions can vary in terms of how you carry out the assassins (albeit still scripted; improvisation was not a thing until ACUnity).

 The crux of AC: Brotherhood is being able to recruit assassins to your cause. Random citizens throughout Rome may be under attack by Borgia soldiers, and once you save them, they are recruited to join your cause. You level them up, send them out on missions, improve their gear, and ask for their help when you can and when they’re available. This feature gets expanded upon in later AC games but it gets a very good start here.

 Brotherhood is so full of content and a lot of little things that playing it for me makes it feel like comfort food for me. It may not have the best story and it certainly isn’t as memorable in that sense as its predecessor. But it’s so fun that I can’t help but to feel satisfied every time I turn it on.

  Pac-Man Championship Edition DX

I played the original Pac-Man CE on 360 years ago at my cousin’s house, where they added a timer and a morphing maze to the base original game. I thought it was a neat novel thing at the time but didn’t think further.

 Pac-Man CE DX adds more mazes and more mechanics and more modes to the championship edition base. It added sleeping ghosts where, if Pac-Man moves near them, they wake up and they chase him around the maze in a line until you can finally eat them all and rack up a huge score. You can also elect to use a bomb at a small expense in order to save yourself and send ghosts to the middle of the maze again. These changes assist in maintaining the game’s flow and it never makes a score attack daunting or boring.

 Devouring big long conga lines of ghosts following you is so satisfying while you’re listening to a bumpin’ soundtrack and chilling out looking at the cool lights on the maze. Really and truly, while at its core, PMCEDX is a score attack game, it makes for a beautiful loving chill sensory experience and I couldn’t ask anything more from it.

  Deadly Premonition / レッドシーズプロファイル

I think I, like a lot of people, was introduced to this game via the GB series. I didn’t have an Xbox 360 so I eventually imported the Japanese version for the PS3. The game’s dub was already in English; the text was in Japanese and it was pretty easy and reasonable to get through. Deadly Premonition actually the Guinness World Record winner for most critically polarizing horror video game since the reviews at the time were so all over the place. And yes, I will contend that Deadly Premonition is definitely not for everyone.

 I am not the type of person to play shooters. I actually hate them a lot. I don’t like gushing blood in video games, and I don’t really like the act of murdering someone in a game. I used to play a lot of survival horror games when I was younger on the PS1 and PS2, but a lot of the time you’re dealing with the undead or oddball things going on around you so it’s not nearly as bad I think. It’s funny; I deal with people’s bodily fluids and body parts all the time in real life as part of my job (ie: I’ve had to help dissect someone’s stomach before fresh out of the operating room), and it doesn’t bother me. But the mere act of seeing it done or doing it, makes me feel squeamish. I don’t like it. I don’t even like watching blood being drawn from me or needles being stuck into me, even though I’ve done it to other people as part of my work.

 For the most part, inexplicably, in Deadly Premonition, you’re dealing with the undead anyhow. I’m not the best person at shooters, but I certainly know what’s a good one and what isn’t.  Deadly Premonition is not a very good shooter. It’s really janky. Some of the weapons don’t make sense in terms of how balanced they are. The controls are also really janky. This is not really a surprise considering the game’s strength wasn’t supposed to be its shooter aspects. In fact, those parts weren’t even supposed to be there.

 Deadly Premonition is often cited as an artistic piece or a good game simply because of its story and character writing.  It has an excellent main character who was cast almost perfectly. It has a lot of eccentric characters filling the town of Greenvale to help you solve the murder mystery or help obstruct it. The end result of having an unreliable narrator works out in the game’s favour. It helped sprout pop culture references, weird humour, quirky dialogue and more. I have certainly never watched Twin Peaks but I got the allusions either way since the show was so big. Slowly uncovering how every cast member lives their lives throughout the town and every day makes you more emotionally connected with them.

 Greenvale is more of a sandbox than just a place where a crime is committed. You can play darts. You can race cars. You can do a ton of sidequests somewhere that will reward you elsewhere. You can collect trading cards??? You can carry some lady holding a pot everywhere? You can taste-test for one of your coworkers? You can do a lot of stuff that makes zero sense but I still end up enjoying it all anyway.

 It looks like a PS2 or Dreamcast game or something and I almost found that utterly endearing in the era in which it was released. The soundtrack itself is so dissonant and doesn’t always fit the situation. Sometimes the sound mixing is so all over the place that it often results in making a scene more hilarious than it should be. There’s a song that’s just… American Idiot… on the soundtrack for some reason. Along the way, you start wondering “is this game real? Am I real? Is this really happening right now?” and yes, yes it is.

 In the end, because of its cult success and getting people talking, it allowed Swery 65 to make more games. Deadly Premonition was lightning in a bottle for him. He followed up with D4: Dark Dreams Don’t Die (unfortunately in limbo). He cowrote Lord of Arcana and Lord of Apocalypse. He recently released The Missing. If anything, I’m more interested in what he makes. I’m eagerly looking forward to The Good Life.

  999: Nine Hours, Nine Persons, Nine Doors

Text/Puzzle-adventures, rather than pure visual novels, became a staple of some players’ libraries due in part of the popular Ace Attorney series, Professor Layton series, and whatever Mystery Case File games that were published by Nintendo. 999 is not a pure visual novel. It’s a puzzle adventure game with visual novel elements. With art by Kinu Nishimura and a story written by Kotaro Uchikoshi (who had a few visual novels under his belt), it was difficult for me to ignore this game. I was also at a point where I really wanted to get into a lot of the games that Aksys published so it was a natural choice to buy.

 A lot of the localization and language in this game was edited so that while it stays true to the spirit of the original language, a lot of care was put into making the dialogue and writing sound natural in the English language versus going line by line exactly. It worked out in the game’s favour because the script was fairly large. Based on Uchikoshi’s past games, he likes to ask a question and generally incorporate some pseudoscience in his narratives. 999’s version of pseudoscience ended up being morphogenetic fields (see: Rupert Sheldrake). This theory ended up the basis for a few characters and it is the way the story unravels. He also took inspiration from another older game of Chunsoft’s: Banshee’s Last Cry where the player is put into an unsettling position right off the bat. Indeed, 999 starts the player in media res, but the player is already in trouble when you begin to control the main character.

 The puzzles were added to the game so that it would be received well by a wider audience than just visual novel readers. They were naturally and seamlessly integrated into the experience that the game became almost wholly about the puzzle rooms and whatever flavour dialogue occurred during the puzzle rooms. A lot of inspiration seems to have been taken from browser-based escape games like the Crimson Room from 2004. Escape the Room games were a subgenre of point and click adventure games and it was nice seeing the concept integrated in a narrative experience that wasn’t Myst (see: http://www.fasco-cs.net/ for more information). Due to the puzzles being a fundamental part of the game’s story, with them getting more and more difficult, the final puzzle for the entire game at the end of the true route is both a relief and also incredibly impactful due to using both of the DS screens and also revealing a lot to the player about the narrative.

 If I had criticism for the game, I feel like it would be having to play the game repeatedly, doing the same puzzles repeatedly in order to unlock another prerequisite ending for the true ending. I did not play the later port which rectifies this but I’m not entirely sure that being able to see the branches would be great for the game either. I also feel like, just like a lot of Uchikoshi’s writing and previous games, that when the characters start cracking jokes when they have to urgently do things to not die, the tone feels a little off.

 With that said, 999 is one of the more compelling text/puzzle-adventures from last decade, and it uses its native platform to its advantage. There weren’t a lot of games that used the DS screens to convey a narrative properly but when you are faced with the revelation that the game was using the two screens for a remarkable reason, you feel like the game is a natural and powerful addition to any DS library and gives significance for the dual screens.

  Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance

The funniest thing about Metal Gear Rising was that I actually disliked it at the beginning when I first started playing it. I didn’t know what I was doing half the time, and I didn’t ‘get’ the parry mechanic. At first, I guess I was playing it for the sake of playing it? It definitely took me a while to even warm up to it. The camera was obnoxious (and still gets to be obnoxious in some places), and I felt incredibly nauseous while playing it sometimes.

 It wasn’t until I got to the Mistral boss that I finally … found what I was looking for… I’m sorry. I’m serious, though. Metal Gear Rising truly shines during the boss battles. When I finished that particular boss battle, I’d reflected that I was smiling like an idiot the entire way through. I don’t think I’d fought satisfying boss battles in years prior to that. Returning to previous chapters told me that Platinum really likes to frame and teach players via trial by fire. Learn to parry yourself, here’s a test to see if you can parry well and you can get a trophy for it, here’s the final test to see if you can even parry (Monsoon). I loved that Metal Gear Rising threw a lot of what we knew about Metal Gear Solid out of the window, with a significantly interesting score, boss battles that centre around the climax of a battle (expertly done via excellent sound design as I noted in my SotY writeup this year), and a more interesting and personable version of Raiden. It relies far more on offense than defense and stealth, and that’s okay to me. It ends up separating Raiden even more from Snake.

 The final boss is a love-it-or-hate-it sort of affair, and I ended up loving every single part of it. I felt like it was one of the best final bosses in years. Don’t know how to parry? You’re fucked. Don’t know how to use the game’s other offensive rush tactics like Defensive Offense and running? Good luck. The game makes sure you try to know how to do these things before even bothering to attempt the boss, with the major roadblock being Monsoon. And if you can’t parry by then, the game brutally tells you that you aren’t doing it right by making the boss battles ramp up to significantly require you to use one of the game’s core mechanics for elegant combat. This isn’t the most elegantly-designed game whatsoever. In fact, it can be really sloppy. With that said, it’s one of the better action games I played all decade.

  Papers, Please!

Papers, Please is work. It feels like work because it is work. You can grant freedom and admittance to people, or you can just take their freedom away or not permit them to cross the border. Everything you do is controlled by the government, or by rules and regulations. If you do something wrong, you’re written up. Do enough wrong, and your pay is cut. Do enough wrong and your pay is cut multiple times, and you can’t provide enough for your family. Everything about the game just feels like work. Even right down to the end of the day when the whole thing feels like a budget calculation and spreadsheets. Everything about the game’s UI feels a lot like work. Where do you allocate space to do your job? How much money do you allocate to heat/food/medicine? It ends up feeling very tedious, but somehow fulfilling.

 You are an immigration officer in a fictional Soviet state. The interesting part of the game is that it doesn’t only feel like a job, but it also feels like government and self-evaluation. You end up studying why the government keeps regulating the border the way they do, and thinking about how mundane the job can be. You know that people’s livelihood and family lives hinge on whether or not they cross the border, and sometimes your penchant for following the rules and disallowing people across the border may be called into question when people plead with you to go through. Do you accept docked pay so you can reunite people or save people from slavery, or do you do as you’re told and live with the consequences of your actions. In a small way, your ethics are called into question. It’s a nice reminder that a lot of things, despite people being people and having their own stories, generally seem to come down to bureaucracy and pieces of paper as opposed to a full understanding of humanity or extenuating circumstances.

 I’d also like to add that Jorji is one of the best characters of 2013 to me. I think his glass half-full philosophy / if at first you don’t succeed, try, try again philosophy is something to look forward to whenever I encounter him in-game.

 In many ways, Papers, Please feels a lot like the Milgram experiment. Are you going to make cruel judgement calls to separate a family, or keep people in slavery because the authorities and higher-ups essentially tell you to do your job so you can keep your family healthy? Papers, Please in many ways is written incredibly well. It doesn’t use reams of text to make you understand the overall premise of the game but through your actions, you’re also helping to tell the story. That’s the sort of weird and wonky player “agency” that I find interesting.

  World of Final Fantasy

The Final Fantasy series had a better decade than the last decade, I feel, considering the quantity of releases increase from the previous decade.  However, it had a lot of growing pains to deal with at the beginning of the decade. Final Fantasy games sell well all the time, and more people playing games than ever, it makes sense that sales numbers continuously increase. Attach rates aren’t as large.  Final Fantasy XIV came out in 2010 and it was not a good game at all to the point of having to be structured for its 2013 re-release. Final Fantasy XIII had mixed reviews, as well as its subsequent direct sequels.  Final Fantasy All the Bravest wasn’t exactly the best mobile debut for the series. The brand also suffered from dilution – the Final Fantasy name was attached to almost anything and everything for the sake of sales, and numerous spinoffs were released and the quality varied.

 Final Fantasy Versus XIII and Final Fantasy Agito XIII, originally planned to be part of the Fabula Nova Crystallis setting with Final Fantasy XIII were renamed and rebranded/redesigned to be their own titles: Final Fantasy XV and Final Fantasy Type-0. Both games also had mixed reviews and multiple delays. If anything, I can probably say that this decade was the most divisive for Final Fantasy fans.

 World of Final Fantasy came out during the same year Final Fantasy XV. I think I’ve made my feelings about Final Fantasy XV fairly well-known.  Perhaps my feelings about that game influenced how I felt about World of Final Fantasy but as someone who has played this series for decades (for reference: the first game is one year older than I am, and my first Final Fantasy was the first game), I felt like World of Final Fantasy was a love letter written to fans like me. I am a long-standing fan of the series over the course of decades and have been through its up and downs, and while I don’t like every game in the series (we all know how I feel about half of the games in the series, after all), I can still look at them for their influence on the rest of the series.  I also like the newer games equally as the older games and dislike and like games from all of the eras, so I don’t really have issues with how the series is represented in general unless the games are really bad.

 World of Final Fantasy feels like a Kingdom Hearts-esque exploration of the Final Fantasy games while throwing Pokemon into the mix. It involves a lot of older references as well as bringing new references in and throwing it into a presentation mode that fans of all ages can enjoy. The main characters are chibi which fits right into how the older games represented characters, but they can also grow taller to represent how the newer games are represented. You can create stacks of party members according to their height and balance well accordingly out of classic Final Fantasy enemies and characters in order to battle against other classic Final Fantasy characters, villains, and monsters.

 The game is exactly what I wanted a mainline Final Fantasy to look. It retains a cartoony look, embracing stylization while adding so much detail to the areas’ setpieces so that they also stand out while the characters move around on the map. I also felt like the score was also a brilliant blend of old and new: with Masashi Hamauzu composing the score but also remixing older Uematsu themes to fit within the context of the score. The score was loftier compared to Hamauzu’s older works and the strings, synth, and piano works incredibly well to bring the game’s world to life.

 The idea for WoFF was to try to bring younger fans into the fold, hence the Pokemon-like influence for using and rearing many classic FF enemies so that children could start to recognise them. The loftier script was also written in-mind taking into account both lighter storytelling from older FF titles and some darker bits taking into account newer Final Fantasy games. I’m not too sure that SE was very successful with bringing younger fans into the fold, but the way the game was written fit well with what I remember liking about FF for the first few games I had played. I also enjoyed that characters were chosen for their involvement to the plot versus them simply picking the most popular ones. This is why we got characters like Eiko and Shelke as well as regular FF mainstays. All of the characters were woven into the story well, as citizens of Grymoire as opposed to characters who just have their regular identities transported into Grymoire instead.

 I felt like the Pokemon mechanic was handled well. I even loved it enough to have the idea commissioned in combination with our FFXIV characters.  I liked that it changed up whatever skills you had access to, it influenced your stats, and it looked adorable to boot.

 I would absolutely love to see a mainline game made by this team because I felt like the loose style of storytelling and worldbuilding made for a very good Final Fantasy game, and in essence, WoFF was the real Final Fantasy XV to me. It felt more “Final Fantasy” than a lot of the games released in the same decade, or even compared to ones released in the previous decade. It was a nice step and touch to demonstrating that there were staff members who remembered what Final Fantasy is to older fans.

  Va-11 Hall-A

I’m too young to have a big attachment to older PC games like the ones on the MSX or the PC-88/98. But I’ve always had a fondness for their graphics and their music, like sometimes I feel like I was born in the wrong time or something. It’s one of the reasons why I gravitated hard to the PC Engine—I felt like it was a way for me to finally experience stuff like that.

 Valhalla is supposed to be a bartending simulator but in reality, mixing drinks is a bit of a break and distraction between the visual novel bits. Usually if you’re stuck in a futuristic landscape akin to Bubblegum Crisis or Blade Runner, you’re asked to investigate a mystery or explore it. But nope, you’re a bartender making drinks and making enough to scrape by and pay your rent. You hear a lot about the world from various clientele while you serve them drinks but you don’t necessarily have to do anything with the information they give you.

 I worked as a medical administrator for a few years and over that time, I got to hear a lot of stories, meet some famous people (like been on TV people or youtubers or people who got paid to do things for celebrities), and just meet a lot of neat and interesting regular people. I got to hear stories about people’s health or their personal lives or witness people falling in or out of love. You don’t necessarily have to do anything with that information (in fact you can’t due to patient confidentiality), but the stories become sealed in your head. I can’t help but to think of some of these people I met for those few years or where they are now. I actually run into some of them at my current lab so I keep getting to see some of their stories. You eventually learn how quickly icebreak in situations like these to make people feel at ease or find a topic of conversation while they’re waiting. I even used my phone to gauge news because a lot of the time when I got home, I was too tired to do anything or getting news in the palm of my hand was incredibly easy to do.

 In this sense, I understood Valhalla. It may look dull and it doesn’t look special but you’re the one who makes it so that it doesn’t have a dull moment in the bar. You’re the one who has to make it enjoyable even if your pay sucks. Because you don’t want to be miserable either. It’s through the conversations with others that you learn about Jill because she has to add commentary too. Everyone has a different way of requesting something and it’s up to you to figure out how to decipher it. It’s a lot of like practice in being in the service industry.  You need to consistently gauge a conversation in order to actually give the client what they want to unlock more conversation.

 The pacing in this game may be a little slow, but it doesn’t feel like a hindrance because the writing is really good. Something always happens to keep you interested or you have to mix drinks to keep yourself on your toes. The humour comes across well, and nothing really falls flat. Part of the reason why I feel like the writing is genuine is because the game’s developers wanted to write something that reflected how they live in Venezuela, akin to laughter in the middle of despair according to the developers. The writing is balanced well with the music and the visuals which makes the whole package a wonderful experience.

 This game also has Rad Shiba so it belongs on the list by default.  

  El Shaddai: Ascension of the Metatron

I had gone to Catholic Schools all my life. I was even in a nursery school operated by nuns when I was a toddler, and they always tried to get me to write with my right hand instead of my left (which left me ambidextrous for some things lol).  Because of my experiences with religion growing up, I absolutely had questions and doubts and concerns with metaphysics, theology, and epistemology. Every Catholic, I think, as they grow up and have to take religion classes, and having to take what the province mandates as metaphysics are somehow inserted into math and biology syllabi without even being mentioned in the coursework at all, questions it. And that’s okay. You should. The best religion and philosophy teacher I ever had growing up always said we should question everything we learn including what he taught us.

 Going through school, though, and reading the Bible and having Bible study, my friends and I always sorta wondered what it’d be like if a game was made about this stuff?  I know it may be a little sacrilegious but there are so many stories in there that would fit a game. Throughout my life, as I became acquainted with others from different branches of Christianity or other western religions, I talked with others who played games who… surprisingly had the same ideas and desires?  It probably won’t ever be done. El Shaddai is inspired by the Book of Enoch and while it is considered as non-canon in most Christian and Jewish sects, I guess it might come close to what some of us wanted.

 El Shaddai was a game that I picked up mostly because I bought almost every niche game back then. I just looked at some of the trailers, thought it looked just okay, and picked it up because I felt like Ignition was going out of business and it would be a novelty item. Ignition did not have the best reputation among the people I talked to back then. I played Lux-Pain whose localization left a lot to be desired. Nostalgia was a middling RPG. Arc Rise Fantasia’s localization left a lot to be desired despite being a good game. Deadly Premonition had an English dub already but the text localization wasn’t that great. I felt like El Shaddai was the most polished game that Ignition released. They got incredibly great voice actors, including Jason Isaacs. They developed a score attack combo ranking system for replayability. They had a fantastic art director and background art. They made two bishounen that screamed for female audiences to pay attention.

 All of it didn’t exactly work out for the time the game came out, and I always contended that the game was released before its time. Unfortunately, all the effort put into El Shaddai didn’t exactly save Ignition. I feel like if El Shaddai were released in the later half of the decade, it would have been accepted. However, I also feel like its marketing was mishandled. It doesn’t feel like a Devil May Cry successor. It shifts between genres continuously. It is very much like Nier in this regard: it is not for everyone and it has its own unique feel that sets it apart from other games.  It is also a score attack action game, not a hard character action game.

 One thing I really enjoyed about El Shaddai was that all of the setpieces aren’t exactly the same. It ranges from a watercolour painting to abstraction to 2D children art to more abstraction to Final Fantasy VII and keep going like that. It references rhythm games, 2D Platformers, racing games, action games, Devil May Cry (with its own brand of Devil Trigger to boot), and other genres to create something that syncs up very well with the rest of the game due to lore reasons: different enemies prefer different things so that’s why each environment looks different or the gameplay styles may be a little different. I’m okay with this because it shakes things up per chapter and the game doesn’t feel stale at all. You’re expected to adjust to new mechanics per area.

 The combat is a lot like Rock-Paper-Scissors, where certain weapons beat other weapons, or some bosses change which weapons they’re weak against (and the game gives you other weapons so you can adjust accordingly during fights). The weapon you wield also modify your platforming abilities (ex: one allows Enoch to dash, one weighs him down, etc), and they also vary in terms of character strength. In order to obtain G-rankings for each stage, the player needs to analyse which weapon would be the most useful for certain enemies and combo while guarding, guard-breaking, and stealing enemies’ weapons.

 I am putting El Shaddai on this list because I really enjoyed it for what it was. It’s a brilliant score attack action game with a fantastic soundtrack and fantastic art design. It made for a pleasant sensory experience and made some religious figures fairly compelling with good character designs. It’s definitely one of the most rewarding and prettiest score attack games I’ve played this decade.

  To the Moon

Everyone goes through life with regrets. I’m in my thirties now and I think I’ve done things I’ve regretted, or I didn’t other to do something and I’ve regretted that. Kan Gao was inspired by his grandfather’s illness when he was writing and making To the Moon, he’s noted that when he gets old and when his time would come, he might end up regretting some decision he’d made throughout his entire life.  Everyone goes through that when faced with introspection. You can have the courage to love, you can feel pain, you can live your life fully, or not live it enough. To the Moon explores this, and while the writing isn’t the best and can be a little messy (this gets improved on in Gao’s later sequels to this game: A Bird Story and Finding Paradise), I understand what To the Moon was trying to accomplish. To the Moon is an exploration of everything that life throws at us, and the results of the decisions made throughout our lives that touches everyone and everything around us until our time passes.

 Eventually you build up so many wishes and have a big bucket list but eventually there will come a time where you won’t remember why half of those things are on those lists.  To the Moon relates the story of Johnny Wyles, an elderly man on his deathbed with one wish: to go to the moon. The problem is that he could not remember why. The general flow of Gao’s games have involved two scientists from Sigmund Corp, specialising in wish fulfillment at the end of someone’s life, creating memories for people in their final moments to generate comfort for the patient. How ever you may feel about the moral implications of generating false memories for someone prior to their end of life, this is merely a set up for traveling through time to understand what the patient had wanted and what they’d accomplished.  

 Johnny’s character revolves around another character with an ASD. I will also note that my brother has autism (compounded with a multisystem syndrome). While the central focus was on Asperger’s Syndrome (Tony Attwood books being mentioned in the game), I’m a little happy that ASDs are being brought up in games and the game truly hit home for me. The writing may not be stellar, but I felt that the theme of the impact of medical disorders was communicated well. Particularly the theme of why communication and connections with others is so difficult for those with ASDs and those who take care of those who have ASDs. It’s easy to sympathize with the characters trying to express what they mean to each other.

 The game itself is relatively short. Regardless of its length, players must confront some uncomfortable situations and emotions that people struggle with daily or even at different points in our lives. I’m older now and I appreciate this game a little more since I’ve come to experience more of what the game had been trying to tell me a decade ago. The writing may not be the best, and it can be a little messy at times with respect to how it’s presented and written, but a lot of its messages come across as utterly genuine. Slowly unraveling the reasoning behind Johnny’s desire to go to the moon is beautiful. This game is quite human and I appreciate all three games that are a part of this subseries that came out this decade.  I am looking forward to more.

  Nier Gestalt

If you’ve played a Drakengard game or the first Nier game at all, you kind of know what you’re getting into.  Not the best graphics of the decade, plays pretty janky, having bosses that can be difficult to manage, etc.  So going into Nier Gestalt in 2010, I knew what I was getting into. Not a lot of people bothered playing this game since I don’t think it got as much promotion considering it came out during the same year a mainline Final Fantasy game got localized.  Nier also got a little scrutiny since the west got a different protagonist from the Japanese version.  I will say that this worked out in its favour, since the protagonist being one of the central character’s father versus her brother makes for a better, more interesting story than having yet another shounen protagonist.

 I will support the case that, like the Drakengard games before it, Nier Gestalt was difficult to get into. The gameplay is jank.  Easy is too easy.  Normal doesn’t drop enough stuff to warrant playing on the mode. Hard can be a little hard but eventually it evens out. I generally used spears for the charge portion of the combo but in the end it doesn’t necessarily matter what weapon type you use. It doesn’t even matter if you use magic or not unless the game prompts you to do so. It’s either broken or not and the game doesn’t have a set balance for anything. Combos are boring and you’re essentially mashing a button. Even playing through the Nightmare DLC for extra drops, it continues being like this. I was used to playing shmups so it wasn’t necessarily revolutionary that AoE attacks looked as though they were spat out from a shmup either.

 I wasn’t quite understanding why game started acquiring a cult following, because what I’d played of it was pretty boring and standard. “It’s just a regular ARPG starring an older character versus a young protagonist,” I said to myself. I guess that was the reason.  I didn’t quite understand why, even past acquiring Kaine, because I guess I accepted that there weren’t a lot of NPCs and certain towns were the way they were due to, what I surmised were, RPG conventions. It wasn’t until I finished the questline for the brothers, where their mother tried to run away with a man and abandon her children, that I finally started to understand.

 Within every substory, there was something that resonated with someone.  I couldn’t fathom why someone would want to abandon their responsibilities, and at the same time I understood. Sometimes you just want to take care of yourself. With the way the older brother sort of understood why even through his anger and disappointment, it resonated with me. I finally ‘got’ the story, so I wanted to play more. This became one of those rare games where I played only for the story and lore and abandoned any hopes of the gameplay getting better.  I fished, I upgraded weapons, I did enough sidequests for the trophies. I almost platinumed this game, but since the drop rates are so terrible for this game, I didn’t.

 I started enjoying the game for what it was. It was genuinely a fun romp where it feels like everyone taking part in the game’s design contributed something unique and something they were fond of.  If you read any interview from Emi Evans from this time period, you’d realise language is something she’s particularly fond of, so much of the composition and lyrical content of every song was a phoneme from any language that would make it sound like an evolved or a sort of Esperanto version of a current language. This came into play with the game’s lore, and many of the interviews were interesting to read from back then.

 Many of the game’s stages borrowed from different genres of video games. There were the obvious shmup references, the rail shooter reference, the visual novel reference, the Resident Evil/fixed angle horror game reference, the Shadow of the Colossus references, the 2D platformer references, the Zelda references, the top-down puzzle game references, etc. For what the game lacked with respect to its combat, the game excelled at reliving genres and putting maps together in such a way that it felt like an ode to other games and genres that inspired it. The City of Façade’s language being a loose phoneme reconstruction of Japanese felt right at home with the dungeon’s Zelda references complete with Zelda fanfare for me. The Forest of Myth being one long visual novel was so hilarious and unique at the same time.  

 Playing more of the game and opening up the lore with every playthrough was neat. I don’t particularly like when games waste my time, but Nier made each new playthrough worth it. Killing bosses quickly for a trophy, redoing dungeons to see the enemies’ perspectives, and unlocking more of the story and learning more about the world that came from a Drakengard ending felt satisfying. As someone who was studying linguistics at the time, constructing nonsense words from drops out of different morphemes to act as accessories or armour was really amazing for me.

 Much of Nier felt organically put together, from characters’ writing and what they wanted from each other, to the dungeon design, to maybe even the combat design… it felt like a truly special game made from the heart with as much lore as it could possibly include. I had purchased the Nightmare DLC primarily to get weapon drops and while it isn’t nearly as interesting as the rest of the game, it has some implications for the lore. The music and resulting soundscape lends so much to the worldbuilding and includes many peoples’ languages from the area with French, Japanese, English, German, etc phonemes thrown around to sound utterly organic and special.

 At the end of this, I have come to realise that despite saying to myself that I never played this game for the game… I’ve been lying to myself this entire time. I actually did play the game for its game parts. Those are the bits I remember the most about it, and they’re the reasons why I genuinely loved the game. It’s unforgettable for me and it’s why it’s one of my favourites in general.

  Final Fantasy XIV: Heavensward

I did not care about MMOs in my late 20s because I was far more focused on finishing school and actually working hard in my field. I think by the end of university, I barely played games because I literally didn’t have time for them. I probably stressed myself out a lot. I threw myself into a semester where I had what felt like 500 evaluations, had to study a lot, had to write papers, and I ended up breaking up with my ex-boyfriend amicably. I was on my own a lot and to be honest, I think I felt okay that way. I think maybe others thought I was unapproachable.

 My best friend now turned fiancé had been begging me to start playing Final Fantasy XIV for a really long time, since he was in the beta prior to its 2.0 release. I made excuses and said I won’t play until a speedster class was implemented since nothing really stuck out at me. In reality, I was mostly busy. Well, Ninja got implemented late 2014, so I ran out of excuses. I got a copy of ARR but to be honest, I didn’t have time for it and I didn’t play it much so I didn’t bother to try harder since my focus was elsewhere.

 Luckily, I got into a semester where I didn’t have that much coursework to think about so I ended up playing XIV more. I caught up during ARR and really my intention was to only play through ARR and finish the story and quit. But my fiancé’s friends were so nice and welcoming to me. When the servers shut down for Heavensward maintainance and I’d finished the ARR storyline literally that night, I made the conscious decision to buy Heavensward. By that time, I was falling a little too hard for my best friend and I really liked my newfound friends. I wasn’t ready to leave Eorzea yet.

 Of course, I had some quests to finish up during Early Access so I didn’t get the opportunity to play with anyone I knew during the main storyline for Heavensward. Heavensward was leaps and bounds above anything I experienced in ARR. The story was well-written, the English voices were recast and given better direction, character deaths were meaningful, a smaller cast made for good character building, the environments were large and you could only assume things happened in each area eventually (they didn’t in the long run), each area was different, it reminded me of Canada… Heavensward made me feel at home.

 Almost every job felt built on, since nothing was really truly culled. A lot of what you got felt like an extension of what you already did. The three new jobs didn’t start out too well or too balanced. Machinist was a mess. Astrologian felt weird. Dark Knight had some growing pains but probably performed the best out of the three once the Alexander raid was implemented given that its specialty at the time centered on magic defense. I was one of the five people who really liked bowmage since it required you to think before you cast but you still did a lot of damage if you thought before firing. I swapped to an omnihealer main officially halfway through the patches because my fiancé requested it.

 Heavensward had a lot of growing pains. For all the team did for the base game, they took a six-month vacation to recharge. 3.1 wasn’t really worth the wait and a lot of people quit the game or stopped playing because nothing really meaningful was added to the game other than a faceroll raid, poorly-tuned exploration missions, and two dungeons. Gordias earlier in the expansion nearly killed the raiding community as a whole.  3.2 didn’t fare too much better, though it did add the best raid tier that has yet to be topped. 3.3 was when FFXIV solidified itself as an MMO with a grand story to tell, with one of the best conclusions a Final Fantasy game had seen in almost a decade. The sound design was near-perfect for this patch, and it was when a lot of us genuinely felt comfortable with the game and its future. Heavensward wasn’t perfect; it still had its missteps and balancing issues, but it was the most comfortable and profoundly skilled I’d ever felt with the game.

 Final Fantasy XIV may not be what it used to be.  I feel old and I feel like I’ve played the game for a really long time.  Now while it’s riding the wave of success, currently having the best story Final Fantasy has seen in a very long time, I can’t help but to remember Heavensward when we finally felt assured about the game and it felt like a cohesive gift to players who were active at that time.  I got to know so many people during Heavensward, and now I’m engaged to my best friend partially due to our experiences together playing at that time.

  Undertale

The late half of 2015 was a really bad year for me. The first half was really great. I started playing FFXIV often, I finished the hardest year I’ve ever had of my 9 years of university so far with high grades and was going full-on hard into my residency year, I fell in love with my best friend.  I was pretty happy since I finally felt very successful.

 If anyone can recall (or this may be new to the person who is reading this), towards the end of 2015 my dad was falsely accused by our neighbour of possession of a weapon (it was a gardening tool), and he had a restraining order put against him so he couldn’t live with us anymore.  My little brother is severely disabled so that’s why I still lived at home so I could help out.  Without my dad around, it was so much harder.  I came home from my days at the hospital every day after a 12-hour day, had to babysit my brother since my mom still cooked food to carry for my dad who had to live at my aunt’s, somehow had to find time to study for my licensing exam and do some work for school and my thesis, had to find time to socialise a tiny bit otherwise I’d go crazy, maybe had to take my brother to his appointments by coming home a little early, and then had to find whatever time I had left to sleep.  I stopped posting on message boards because I literally had no time to do so and I wouldn’t have anything of value to contribute to discussions either.  

 I detached myself from a lot of people. It was actually kind of lonely. It was really hard. I lashed out at people when I shouldn’t have. I don’t look back on those days other than the bright spots with fondness at all.

 Before that, everyone was telling me to play Undertale but I sort of didn’t want to? I felt like the fanbase was sort of making the game unapproachable around the time it came out. By the end of the year, I was so out of the loop about games that I didn’t give a hoot.  A friend of mine, Shadow Hog, bought the game for me on Steam. I still have the e-mail message for it.

 My now-fiancé got his own copy so we could play it together because at that point I didn’t want to do much of anything alone. I was actually sinking deeper into depression and verging on a mental breakdown. I was not mentally sound and every single week it felt like someone had to save me from doing something stupid.

 I started Undertale and I didn’t really think much of it at the start.  I can’t remember when it started clicking with me but maybe it was around the time I got into a battle with Tsunderplane and Vulkin and got to Hotland that I gave up and started having fun with it because it was just… silly. It was time to let down your hair and have some fun for once and not feel completely guilty about it.

 The idea of having to win and achieving a certain ending by sparing your enemy isn’t necessarily new – SMT’s demon negotiation, Silent Hill 2’s morality system, and MGS3’s fight with the Sorrow have some sort of sparing mechanic. The hybrid of a turn-based battle system with enemy negotiation, as well as dodge system inspired by a shmup makes every encounter both strategic (ie: having to avoid bullets while also sparing enemies in a set order per battle) and consistently active.  Unless you are going for a certain other ending, you cannot just sit there and hold down the attack button and expect to win.  That said, this makes a lot of encounters a little longer than a standard RPG battle, but the flavour text for each uniquely-designed enemy makes many of the battle worth it. Undertale isn’t a hard game unless you’re playing on a certain route. But I don’t necessarily think the gameplay part of Undertale speaks properly for it. The dungeon maps are relatively simple. They all have their little gimmicks. The battle system is relatively easy to understand.

 The reason why Undertale has such a prolific fanbase is primarily because of its character writing and ability to make and use memes properly enough that they catch on. Many of the characters are easily encountered early, are easy to draw (propels a lot of fanart), and understand due to the character writing. What also helps is that the game is 4-6 hours long, and it came out at the right time with the right kind of word of mouth.  Undertale could have easily fallen into the sea like so many other RPGs before it but it didn’t.  My fiancé and I were shopping for work clothes one day at a store that sells business clothing, construction clothing, and scrubs. He was wearing a shirt with the Delta Rune on it since he loves game shirts that are relatively subtle. Even then, one of the sales clerks pointed it out and was pretty excited to see it.  It was pretty crazy to both of us how popular Undertale had gotten.  I don’t think the popularity was unwarranted. I think it’s a fantastic game, helped by a considerably lengthy varied and catchy soundtrack. Granted, I was not as exposed to how explosive its popularity was when it came out. But I understood why so many people liked it. It wasn’t for its gameplay.

 As I progressed through Undertale, instead of thinking of the lore (which was well-written), I was thinking of how the monsters treated your character with respect and love because you treated them that way.  They didn’t go out of their way to fear you, and welcomed you as one of their own.  In the end, they were hesitant to even kill you, and you were hesitant to kill them.  Even then you still had the spare/save commands.

 At the very end, you only had the Save command.

 And that’s how I felt. When Hopes and Dreams started playing, I couldn’t help but to cry. When I was repeatedly nudged to press the Save command, I didn’t actually feel like the game nudged me to do so. That was something I wanted to do. Just remembering how depressed I was when I started playing this game and then progressing to its true end with Hopes and Dreams and SAVE the World playing, I couldn’t help but to feel like my hopes and dreams were still alive.

 Even if I was going through a really hard time in my life, hope was still there as long as I had people around me that supported me all the way through. That was the time in my life that I realised who my real friends were. And in the end, I felt like Undertale told me my friends saved me and that my dreams weren’t crushed, now matter what threw at me.

 And that’s why it’s my game of the decade. It may not be the most perfect game that came out this decade or the objectively best-crafted, but it did so much for me. When I was prompted for my game of the decade, Undertale was the first thing that popped into my head. I didn’t question it. I just knew. I don’t think we’ll get another Undertale again in my lifetime, but I’m glad to say that I gave it a shot and I love it for what it is.

[sapphic-sppider]

i mean if ever an ask prompt to get a load of asks on, this is the one.  it’s also going under a cut because goddamn i do like to ramble about kirbo @carolofthedailydays @tsukuyomishirabes and @ them two anons i guess

1- Favorite character i got this three times, so i feel like three answers are warranted.  top of the heap is marx of course, my bastard son and favorite boss, whose moveset has inspired at least one move in every final boss arsenal in every kirby game since his soul incarnation in kssu.  and i’m still not over him being playable in star allies aaaaaaaaa speaking of, susie is an equally fun dream friend, but my reasons for liking her are completely different;  where marx has a very basic story arc, susie’s is complex (for kirby anyway) and lore-laden.  plus she’s gorl so like.  i gotta. rounding out my top three would be sectonia, and by extension taranza.  i won’t go into details, if you’ve played triple deluxe/dededetour, you know why, if not go play it, also it’s hip

2- Favorite final boss two answers for two asks;  i already went over them in the previous answer, but marx and sectonia are two very different boss fights.  marx i like mostly out of nostalgia, like, i played the everloving shit out of kssu, i know that bossfight front to back, and i still enjoy it.  sectonia on the other hand is set over three different forms, and i hate to use the word but it feels “epic” in the same way that star dream does, but without the starfox battle style.  plus the music...  oo we’ll get to that later

3- Favorite animal friend chuchu!  she’s adowabwe!  and her combo abilities are unique and strong, in most cases

5- Favorite main game nostalgia wants me to say super star/ultra, but honestly star allies blew me away in terms of how much fun i had.  recent kirby games have been very fun, but also maybe a bit too reliant on gimmicks?  like stomping around in robobot armor was fun, don’t get me wrong, and the background/foreground stuff in td was cute, but the main game in sa is like...  really good core kirby.  like if you’re going for 100% yeah you gotta switch around powers and spawn ai if you don’t have a co-op partner, but the solid classic gameplay combined with the ability to play all these fuckin old characters and the absolute lore bombs that get dropped later on...  it’s just about everything i wanted in a kirby game

6- Favorite spin-off game i’ve had a lot of good times with air ride over the years, and like a lot of fans i hope we see a remake at some point.  until then i’m content to putz around in city trial with my best friend

8- Favorite copy ability i’ve always been a hammer girl at heart, i like big burst damage, but suplex is just somethin i can’t pass up.  it’s just fun to YEET fuckers around, even if it is a subpar boss-fighting ability

9- Favorite song / 10- Favorite Final Boss Theme three asks for this one too, i won’t go into detail, but i will provide links Moonstruck Blossom Vagrant Counting Song of Retrospection/Soul 0 System VS. Marx okay i lied i will go into detail, why the fuck do most of the other dream friend morpho knight fights get these kickass titles like “The Maidens’ Battle with Darkness”, “Crowning of the Supreme King ~OVERLORD~”, “Deus Ex Machina at a Young Age” and yet marx is just left with “oh yeah it’s the star allies version homie we gotchu”  like??????

15- A song you would like to be remixed  zero.  why the hell they were able to seamless mix both parts of kdl2 dark matter into the dm clone fight in robobot, but for gooey’s morpho knight fight it’s just kdl3 dark matter?  the two pairs of fights are just as consecutive, dark matter blade bleeding right into true dark matter, and the hyperzone fights being just the same.  and i’m not counting the celebration pic theme, i want an actual boss remix.  hell i just want zero back in some canon form.  void is close but like, it’s still ambiguous...

16- A character you would like to see back ZERO PLEASE CMON GUYS THERE’S SO MUCH DARK MATTER LORE TO BE EXPLORED AAAAAAAAA

17- A copy ability you would like to see back see that’s tough because star allies has representation of a helluva lot of abilities, even if they aren’t necessarily copy abilities kirby can use.  even then, the other really unique abilities haven’t been gone for that long so like...  animal would be fun to see back, with some new tricks of course.  iunno i feel like i’m scraping the bottom of the barrel for this one, which is a good problem to have in this case

23- Any kirby-related memory you have i played a lot of return to dreamland with my best friend in college, and one of the bosses, mr. dooter, we’d just like...  say his name in increasingly goofy and stupid ways.  i dunno why that stuck with me but like...  fuckin dooter...  iunno i guess i just wanna get back to that.  which i mean, i guess i’ll get the opportunity to, since he’s comin into town for a week pretty soon.  so we’ll get to do all that again, only with star allies.  and a lot of other games.  ...fuck i didn’t think this’d turn into somethin this personal but like, kirby’s just that important to me.  got a lotta good memories with the series

[ertrunkenerwassergeist]

Thoughts about Episode Ardyn

After my near incoherent rambling yesterday I tried to put something a bit more coherent together. It will be 100% subjective so not really a review. Not an objective one anyway. This will be quite long so I will put it under the cut for everyone interested.

First off, like I said before, I quite enjoyed Episode Ardyn and had great fun with it. I liked Ardyns moveset quite a lot. It’s like they finally finished fleshing out the combat system. Traversal was also much faster. You could sptint, but I loved to just devolve into dark particles. 

The exploration was also interesting. To be finally able to walk through the streets of Insomnia myself. I would have loved to see the lower levels also, but this was enough for me. The destruction part was also really cool and that you could get points for it. It was quite in character that Ardyn would do something like that.

Concerning the voice acting, I played the game in German, so I can’t really say anything about the English line delivery. I heard a few clips of Darin de Paul and he is very very good. The German voice actor for Ardyn is Jo van Nelsen and I think he did a really great job. The only one whose line delivery came across as really woody in some places was Regis (Richard van Weyden). Otherwise it was all solid enough in my opinion.

Now the plot. Oh my cheesecake, the plot. Cheese is a good word for it, I think. Those plotholes. At first glance it seems to fit together easy enough, but after thinking about it... 

Why does no one say anything about Ifrit ramaging through the city in the main game or the movie? Did they collectively all just forget it? How do Ardyns memory powers work? What’s up with Somnus? Ardyns logic at the end doesn’t make any sense. The whole ending doesn’t make any sense. 

I liked Ardyns character after he was found by Besithia. He was old and tired and just wanted to be left alone and I thought it would be interesting to see how he got from that to that lovely spiky ball of spite and sarcasm we all know. They did a decent job at it. 

How he went from tired to angry to downright vengeful and full of hatred. His reaction to his powers. What I find very aprubt is his insistence that he helps people doing a 180 in the span of a few minutes. It might be months for Ardyn to come to that conclusion but we get it in a few sentences.

Besithia having Ifirt in his labs is... terribly convenient? Yes, let’s go with that. I think it would have been way more rewarding if Ardyn had gone out to confront one of the Gods for answers and in the process he then would have infected Ifrit. But this is a DLC and that means the story is on a short leash, so it’s not bad, I guess.

With the memory magic Ardyn has going I would have loved to see more about the Astral War. Especially since Ifrit was on the opposite side, the devils side, so to speak. We got Shivas account of it, but the winners write the history so... yeah. 

The interaction with Somnus are also wasted potential. I like the fallen messiah trope they have going with Ardyn and from everything I heard about and saw of Somnus I think they wanted to do him as a moraly grey character. They totally shot themselves in the foot with the last one because he just comes off as a douchebag in the Prologue and what he actually says in the DLC... He totally flips in tone from ‘I knew you were evil and had no right to be king because you would have destroyed us all’ to ‘I will pray for you and I’m deeply sorry for what I did to you’. WTF??

Maybe all of this would have made more snese if we had seen the both of them interact as actual brothers and not only as rivals for a throne.

Bahamut is like the ultimate evil in this. The mastermind that pulled all the strings. I always knew he was a dick, but this? This is like ‘I planned all along for you to be the bad guy’ instead of ‘I made a mistake and now try to cover up my blunder’. From the actual game I kind of got the vibe of the latter, but who am I but a lowly fan, right? I also find it wierd that Bahamut is apparently not well known outside of the cosmogony? The others are all well known, even Ifrit. What did Bahamut do all these years? Take a vacation on the Bahamas? You know, that wouldn’t surprise me in the least.

Also what is going on with Aera? I like her, but I get the feeling that she has no clue about anything. She is there to die (like Luna, that’s why I said the two were alike in the worst of ways) and look pretty. She just needed to speak up and she didn’t. And she stabbed Ardyn at the end. I don’t get her character. At all. Was she in league with Bahamut all along? If yes, that would totally come out of left field and not be a good twist at all.

Her character motivation is just non-existant and it’s buggibg me to no end. Here she comes across like an will-less puppet. 

Or the whole her stabbing him thing was an illusion. But that would be equally dumb.

Before this gets too long, can we talk about the ending? It doesn’t make any sense. If someone actually has a decent rationale about it I would love to hear it. Ardyn is super spiteful of Bahamut and would kill him given half a chance. We get two chioces at the end, to follow Bahamuts decree or not to follow it. It would be in character to not follow it, and I chose that option and... you still do what Bahamut says anyway?

I talked with a few people about it and we all don’t get it. If this was the divergence point for all the other canceled DLC they should have pulled it because it’s not going anywhere. I like choices in video games, but those choices should then actually change something and not be there to look pretty and do nothing.

[velzeria]

Is fe warriors good? I played a lot of hyrule warriors and liked it but for this one ive always heard mixed results

yeah I think it’s really fun lmao, I have around 150 hours on it + all the DLCs (apologies for being a geek)

I have……. SO MUCH i wanna say about this game I’m physically restraining myself from ADHDing about warriors. Uhh I made a pros and cons list under the cut because it accidentally got long :/ sorry

Pros: Story is simple but i liked it, gameplay is REALLY fun, the writing is surprisingly good, some of the supports are genuinely really funny, history mode is great, I’m having a Lot of fun going through and full-clearing the game, the soundtrack is actually overall stellar with a few terrible songs mixed in, Xander Mobus killed it as Darios, and the ending actually ended up making me cry which is more than fates can say

Bonus pro for Minerva she has a voiceline for taking over a fort and i always mishear it as “this place is now OUR place”

Cons: story is simple, It’s all fe13/fe14, there’s hardly any archanea, despite marketing it with marth he only appears in the second last map, the warriors exclusive characters are pretty shallow, gameplay can absolutely get repetitive, most of the characters are infantry sword users and outside of that there’s not a lot of variety, all the archers share movesets and all of the pegasus riders do too, every DLC character is a rehash of another character in the game (Navarre = lyn, Owain = ryoma, minerva = camilla, etc), camilla and niles fucking exist and force me to look at them

EDIT: final con i forgot.   Most of the non-lord characters in the game so not get a signature weapon unless you buy the DLC.  I bought the awakening dlc for Owain specifically, and was actually surprised to see Frederick and Lissa were given weapons, so...... that actually sucks lmao I really wish they were treated better

so uhh……Yeah idk what I was trying to do with this.  Anyways TL;DR i absolutely enjoy the game but it’s definitely not for everyone……. i guess

[hazyheel]

NJPW 47th Anniversary Review

The night started with a big 10 man tag, pitting Ren Narita, Shota Umino, Ayato Yoshida, Togi Makabe and Toru Yano, up against the BULLET CLUB team of HIKULEO, Chase Owens, Tonga Loa, Tama Tonga and Bad Luck Fale. Early on in the match, Narita started to target Jado on the outside, causing the heels to attack all the young lions viciously. Narita got beat down for a long portion of the match, until Makabe got the hot tag, but even that didn’t last long. BULLET CLUB was just way better functioning as a unit. Chase Owens was able to pick up the win with a package pile driver to Yoshida for the win.

Grade: C. A bit boring, but I always like to see the young lions in action. Owens needed the win so that he would have momentum going into his match with Juice Robinson. Good booking, match that was just a bit pointless.

Next up, a tag match pitting Tomohiro Ishii and YOSHI-HASHI against Toa Henare and Yuji Nagata. Nagata and Ishii started out, their rivalry finally making its way into the ring. Henare looked especially good, with several strong, two handed chops, and speed that I just didn’t think he had. Henare and YOSHI-HASHI had a really stiff striking contest in the corner, one that YOSHI-HASHI came out ahead of, to my delight and surprise. There was an interesting spot where YOSHI-HASHI was attempting to break up a submission from Nagata, and the crowd just booed the shit out of YOSHI-HASHI. I was surprised at how much they liked Yuji Nagata, but he was impressive. YOSHI-HASHI picked up the win with a new twist on a brain buster.

Grade: B-. I didn’t expect this match to be anything special, but I enjoyed it. I hadn’t really given much credit to either Henare nor Nagata, but they put on a good match. YOSHI-HASHI picking up the win is a good sign, gives him momentum going into a match with Nakanishi, where he is apparently the underdog. I was not aware of that. Anyway, fun match. Looking forward to seeing all these guys in the New Japan Cup.

Next match was another 10 man tag. It was Suzuki-gun, consisting of Minoru Suzuki, Taichi, El Desperado, Yoshinobi Kanemaru and TAKA Michinoku, up against a rag tag team, Dragon Lee (yay) Ryusuke Taguchi, Tiger Mask, Tomoaki Honma and Satoshi Kojima. Taichi made a show of having the Iron Glove with him, the weapon he inherited from Iizuka. A lot of moving parts in this match, with several previews of the New Japan Cup, along with Desperado and Lee renewing their rivalry from the Best of the Super Juniors tournament last year. Also, I don’t know why this stuck out to me, but Honma’s voice sounds very raspy. Must be a smoker. Future opponents Kojima and Suzuki faced off, with Kojima hitting enough machine gun chops to cut Suzuki’s chest open. There was also a very brief technical exchange between Taguchi and TAKA, showing that TAKA still has it. Taguchi then hit Dodon for the win. After the match, Suzuki beat the crap out of the young boys at ringside, while Don laughed

Grade: C+. Good match, very excited for what will follow in the tournament. Taguchi did need a win before the tournament, so this made sense.

Then came BUSHI and Shinto Takagi defending the IWGP Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Championships against Roppongi 3k. Don and Colt Cabanna argued on commentary on the merits of Rocky Romero, but the match started fast and furious. Takagi and Sho started out, and really brutalized each other with hard clothesline’s. It didn’t take long before Roppongi hit dual Tope con Hilo’s, with Sho even overshooting and nearly landing on top of the barricade. As Los Ingobernables got control, the match slowed a bit, but it remained exciting due to the crowd’s desperation for Roppongi 3k to win. A big story throughout the match was Takagi’s injured knee. Despite him being the powerhouse of his team, he was very vulnerable, and that was exploited through various submissions throughout the match. Some awesome interactions between Sho and Takagi, where Sho countered the pumping bomber with a German suplex. However, BUSHI was able to hit Sho with the mist allowing for a Pumping Bomber and then Rebellion for a great near fall. BUSHI looked to finish the match with an MX, but Sho caught him by the knees and the faces were able to hit 3k for the win. As Rocky celebrated with his team, Takagi attacked him a bit, but eventually backed off

Grade: B+. Very good match. While the intensity was not constant throughout, it picked up at the perfect moments. Yoh had incredible timing throughout the match, always being there to rescue Sho. As stated, the interactions between Takagi and Sho highlighted the match, and they showed incredible chemistry. And Bushi was able to hit several important spots, and did a great job of being a sort of crafty wildcard throughout the match. Very good stuff amongst these guys, and I thought it was a surprising outcome, so I enjoyed it.

Next up was Jushin Thunder Liger vs Taiji Ishimori for the IWGP Junior Heavyweight Championship. An interesting story built for this, where Ishimori challenged Liger. Commentary built it up as a rite of passage match: if Ishimori can beat Liger, then he will be confirmed as the top guy of the division, no question. Liger has control for much of the beginning of the match, firmly keeping Ishimori on the mat. However, Ishimori took every inch and made it a mile, speeding around the ring and flipping around. Generally being incredibly vicious. Liger even took the match into the crowd, hitting a brain buster on the floor and going for a count out. Ishimori showed off some awesome offense, hitting a moonsault to the outside off the middle turnbuckle. At one point, Liger looked to be completely out after double knees into the turnbuckle, and then a gut buster for a near fall. Liger still had something left. Liger hit the Liger bomb for a big pop and a near fall. Liger showed off some impressive resilience, especially in a spot where he was locked in a cross face for a long time, and was able to barely crawl to the other rope. In the finish, Ishimori locked in the submission again, and Liger couldn’t escape this time. He tapped out, and Ishimori retained.

Grade: A-. Another surprisingly good match. Liger is very impressive in singles matches, especially for his age. Ishimori did a great job selling the sunmissions, and hitting some awesome offense in the process. The match was not as quick as other Junior Heavyweight matches might be, but the storytelling was on point, the mat exchanges were very cool, and Liger put on another great match. And the right guy won too. Ticks all the boxes.

After the match, Ishimori cut a promo asking for another challenger, and Dragon Lee answered the call. The match was booked for the G1 Supercard. Dream match, I am now super excited. They also revealed the schedule for the G1 climax, with a couple dates in the US.

Into a special 6-man tag, pitting Hirooki Goto, Kazuchika Okada and Hiroshi Tanahashi against Tetsuya Naito, SANADA, and EVIL. Naito and Okada started the match together, and they went at it quick and hard. Goto and Sanada had time together, and they are in a first round match together. There was some emphasis put on the fact that, while Goto, Okada and Tanahashi is a dream team, they are not always on the same page. This was evident when they hit a triple team move, but didn’t have a pose for afterwards. Tanahashi had his knee worked over throughout the match, and there were a lot of awesome technical exchanges. Most members of the match were taken out of the ring in one of those “big move fests,” followed by Goto wrapping SANADA up in a pinning predicament for the win. After the match, all members of the winning team said they would win the New Japan Cup

Grade: B+. Very fun match, with 6 of the companies top guys. This match couldn’t have been bad. Plus the finish implied some foreshadowing in the Goto Sanada match. Definitely worth a watch if you haven’t seen it. Very hard hitting and exciting.

And in the main event, we had the NEVER Openweight Champion Will Ospreay take on the IWGP Heavyweight Champion Jay White in a special, non title match. Immediately when the match started, White backed out of the ring. Ospreay had the advantage early on, using his speed to amplify his strength. They tore into each other like their rivalry has extended back for years. White targeted the ribs of Ospreay, playing to his injury that took him out of wrestling for a few months last year. Using that injury, he slowed Ospreay down just enough to be able to counter Ospreay’s moveset. And Ospreay played an awesome underdog, even fooling me into thinking the match was ending in a countout (I’m gullible). As the match wore on, Ospreay got more and more frustrated and violent. He wanted to get his hands on both Gedo and white himself. Ospreay even nailed an awesome avalanche electric chair for a near fall. As Ospreay was about to finish up the match, Gedo distracted the ref, allowing white to hit a low blow, into a half and half suplex. White then nailed a sort of Bloody Sunday for a near fall. White went for Blade Runner, but Ospreay flipped around his arm, and hit a huge power bomb for a near fall, then an inverted 450 for another near fall injuring the ribs as he hit. In the finish, Jay white countered he Os Cutter into a blade runner, before hitting another for good measure and winning. After the match, Gedo attacked Ospreay with a chair, but Ibushi made the save. The rest of BULLET CLUB beat down Ibushi, only for Tanahashi, Goto and Okada to back him up. White then held his belt aloft for his New Japan Cup contenders, mocking them.

Grade: A. Phenomenal match. They were incredibly stiff, and nailed their power moves with such authority, and even flew in a smooth fashion. The match really highlighted their underrated strength, and showed an awesome side to a possible future rivalry. Easily match of the night, it was awesome. The best striking contest I’ve seen in a while.

Overall Grade: B +

Pros- young lions :) ;Dragon Lee is back; awesome title matches, Champion vs champion

Cons- multi man tags were a bit boring

[swordglowsblue]

Now that I've actually had my hands on the game for a while, I think this about sums up my updated roster. I'm not the type to stick religiously to my mains - I like to mess around a fair bit, and try out other characters to keep myself from getting bored - but these are the characters I see myself playing the most often.

Red: Mains. My primary picks for serious matches.

Orange: Secondaries/flex. Good for covering bad matchups or taking a break, and reliable enough to get me out of a pinch.

Blue: For fun. Really only gong to use them when I'm messing around.

Green: Reserving judgment (PP shown, goes for all DLC)

Lucina is the same as she's ever been - solid, reliable, and just my style. She was my main in Smash 4, and I can't imagine her not staying one of my primary picks going forward in Ultimate.

Dark Samus is honestly just Samus but better. I like to think I'm fairly decent at Samus, but something about DS just clicks with me more than Samus ever has. I'll probably end up playing both a fair amount, but between the two I think DS will be my go-to.

Zelda... well, Zelda isn't great. She's by far better than she's ever been, but she still lags behind a fair bit. Her frame data is mediocre at best, her sweet spots are powerful but tiny, and her moveset just doesn't flow amazingly well. That said, I mained her in Brawl for a fair while and I've always enjoyed playing as her, so I'm more than willing to put up with the tough fights and the inevitable losing streaks, especially now that she's the best she's ever been.

Lightning Round

Palutena: Same story as Zelda, but I'd hesitantly call her good overall.

Pichu: A total meme, but actually surprisingly strong.

Little Mac: Recovery still sucks. I still don't care.

Pit: My first main in my first Smash game, and in the best shape ever.

Lucario: Another former main. A solid, reliable pick in every way.

Mewtwo: Mediocre at best in my hands, but I enjoy him anyway.

Inkling: Too much work to play seriously, but fun to just goof off with.

Sonic: YOU'RE TOO SLOW! (kinda salty that line's gone, ngl)

Mii S: Honestly way better than I expected. Worth messing with, at least.

DLC: Reserving judgement for now, but I intend to give them all a chance.

This game is 100% the best installment in the Smash Bros. series to date. Melee is legendary, of course, and Brawl will always hold my heart for nostalgia-related reasons, but I get the feeling I'll be playing Ultimate regularly for a long time to come.

[ghostmartyr]

Pokémon White Randomized Nuzlocke Run [Part 4]

We have an invitation to run off and battle one of our rival characters for free exp, so in the immediate wake of earning the third badge, that is where those still remaining shall march off.

Still breathing:

Frogger (Seismitoad)

Ptera (Archeops)

Palm (Breloom)

Batman (Escavalier)

But instead of running where game progression wants us to...

Back to the bridge. I wish I had my bike. As much as I love these monstrosities in this game, I’ve done a lot of back and forth in my grinding quest. This should hopefully cover it for a while. One last time for grins.

Or. Not.

My memory was that this guy left after you earned the Bug badge. I guess that was mistaken. So I guess I get to run all the way back across the bridge, since I just wasted my time.

I know I can’t catch whatever’s in the dark grass he’s blocking off, but I still really want to know what’s available. I guess I am doomed to wait until later.

Off to fight Bianca.

I haven’t given my Amulet Coin to anyone yet. I’ll give it to Frogger. Ptera’s still batting first because there’s no reason not to, but he has Acrobatics, so no items for him. He will have to play with other people and pokemon, not toys.

Frogger has seniority. He will care for our finances.

Heeeeey, Bianca.

Give me levels.

I love how these fights always reference the mess me and my friends made of my room in the first five seconds. We’ve learned so much. Now we ask before we have fights indoors, and keep in mind the expensive electronics nearby.

She has a level 18 Herdier. It doubtless knows Bite.

That no longer concerns us.

Frogger is permitted to duel with her bloodthirsty level 20 Patrat. A dangerous foe, to be sure. Arrogance has been no friend to us in past altercations with it.

I am ridiculously overleveled.

A level 18 Munna and Pansear will round out her team, and Frogger will slay them both with distinction, granting us no levels and money. We can settle for money.

Bianca always makes me so sad. Watching a character’s enthusiasm dwindle is never fun, no matter the game, and she’s such a sweetheart. It isn’t her fault the plot won’t let her win. She calls me her friend and remembers to ask permission to have pokemon battles indoors.

Then she says more stuff and me being sad about her sad feelings is less important because she’s talking about all of her happy feelings thanks to the journey.

Maybe I should stop talking about parts of the story I barely remember as they’re happening and just read.

See now, you, you I have no problems beating.

Opening move is a level 20 Pidove. I think we can safely switch that to past tense. Same for the level 20 Pansage, level 22 Meganium I keep forgetting he has, and level 20 Liepard.

Palm was given the Liepard to feast upon.

The rest were tribute for Ptera.

Hello what is up, are we doing a thing?

Oh. No, she just called to let us know she’ll be waiting for us at the next city. You know, in the old days, professors would just show up unannounced and throw eggs at whatever ten-year-old happened to be closest and tell them to run around so it’ll hatch.

I’m not sure I like this more modern approach of politeness.

Three cheers for being allowed to move forward again. Onward, to trainers who will not expect a level 32 Archeops!

Naturally, what all this time I spend being ridiculously overpowered is going to do is build a false sense of confidence, and at some point in the future I will, once again, suffer horrific losses that shine a light on my hubris.

Then I’ll go through another grind session, whining all the way, and the segment after that, I’ll be back to being superpowered.

Knowing this should theoretically protect me from letting it happen. Let’s watch.

!

It’s a new area!

Is it... could that possibly mean...?

...

Hey Randomizer what in the fuck.

Uh.

Um.

...Game, the dramatic legendary music is not helping much with thought. At all. Let me think... I know it’s at least partly Flying (in as much as I know anything, so without looking it up, I don’t actually have a clue). I don’t know a thing about its moveset in general, forget at this level.

I guess before I start asking complicated questions like what’s best suited to wound it and not die, I should try throwing a Quick Ball.

I have those.

I sometimes have luck to go with. Let’s hope now is one of those times.

I do not foresee enjoying this encounter.

Adding to the trouble, whatever this thing’s typing is, it is not resistant to sandstorms. It’s going to take damage every single turn, and has an abysmal catch rate to boot.

I think Palm can get a hit in without killing it. Mach Punch is weak against Flying.

So it knows Gust and Swagger. One Mach Punch without the aid of Swagger got it to almost mid health. I don’t think I get to attack it again. I should just let the sandstorm do its work. Frogger knows how to stand still.

Add Bite to the moveset list, but nothing on my team cares anymore! Insert sobs here.

You know. I’m looking at the Poke Balls I have available, and I can’t help but notice that my stock does not have legendaries in mind. I have ten of the standard model, but everything else is in the single digits. Single digits that don’t even fill up one hand.

...It’s going to die to Sandstorm before I can catch it, isn’t it?

My only Ultra Ball is now gone.

I don’t think I’ve gotten a single roll for it yet. I have maybe four more chances.

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

GLORY TO THE POWER OF THE DUSK BALL!

Pure Flying, you do not fill any gaps in my team at all except for conceivably the most crucial: The number gap. If I’d lost another route, I would have been very sad indeed.

What do I name you, though?

Gelding.

Because I can’t look at this set of legendaries without thinking about Wind Waker, so you get Zelda, then gusts and gales and all things blustery tend to start with G, and ‘ing’ is just a nice finisher.

(Looking up pokemon stuff is against my self-imposed rules, but dictionary stuff isn’t. I knew when I picked the name that it was an actual word, and something to do with animals, maybe to do with leggy ones, but did not remember what, just that it is a nice sounding word. I was banking on it being deer related.

Nope.

Sorry about your name, Gelding. It’s staying now.)

Gelding is Lax and proud of his power. I never like seeing either of the Defense stats in the blue, but I have zero memory of what this legendary is good for anyway. Presumably you’re going to be an overpowered monstrosity that I accidentally kill.

I think, rather than exploring the Resort area further (there’s some sort of underground section that it’s own area somewhere in there, so maybe, maybe teammate number six lurks beneath), I’m going to head to the next town and buy some more catching supplies.

That was far from a chill catch.

In lieu of thinking, I’m going to throw the Exp. Share on Gelding. He is twenty levels behind. As a responsible trainer who is absolutely not going to be his leading cause of death, I wish to correct that imbalance.

Oh yeah, you wanted me for something.

Free stuff! Free stuff I actually want! Thank you Professor Juniper, I will remember this the next time I complain about you interrupting my wanderings with things like story progression!

ffs guys, I just want to hit the PokeCenter. Could you stop stealing things for five scenes?

Could you also stop having things like Watchdogs? I do not enjoy fighting such creatures, as they make me needlessly paranoid and cast lingering glances at the empty spots in my roster.

Yo, I have a bike! I didn’t think you got that so early in this one. Thank you, random old person. My bridge-traversing ways are forever in your debt. Oh, wait, not so random. He runs a Day Care.

The store in this town does not sell Ultra Balls.

I’m not going to stock up too much, just in case healing items become as desirable as I think they might in the future, but I grab thirty Poke Balls and twenty Great Balls. I might not need them, but I don’t want to be thrown into a situation where the one thing I can catch on a route is a legendary, and I can’t catch it.

Having said that, there will be no more legendaries anywhere in the rest of the map.

But okay, healed up, time to head back to the Resort and maybe meet lucky number six.

[Pictured above: First of the things not caught in Desert Resort]

I need to make a note to enjoy myself properly with the Randomizer at some point. Part of me is a little sad that my first experience is being spent on a Nuzlocke run.

Then the rest of me considers my self control, and considers that having some clear boundaries the first time out isn’t such a bad thing.

-rubs hands together-

Show me something good, game.

Excuse me, what in the fuck.

Quick Ball?

Yeah, that’s a strong no.

Ptera will chomp right through it. I don’t know its moves. Fire would murder Batman and Palm, but Frogger doesn’t have anything that wouldn’t murder Entei. Risking Gelding feels wrong, but Gelding has the best Type for this.

Okay, buddy.

Try. Not to die.

Entei has Bite and Ember.

Gelding at 13 HP put Entei just into the orange. So.

I’m going to use up my Premier Balls, because if it comes down to it, I do have a couple of Timer Balls. I don’t think I can do anything to damage it further without risking death on one side. Besides, who knows, maybe one will work.

(No.)

Entei also has Leer.

That’s a much scarier move when it has all the time in the world to use it.

...And it has Roar.

Oh please no. Do not let this fool’s errand end that way.

I’ve watched a Ultra Ball roll three times twice now. This is torture.

I am really glad Roar keeps failing, but I don’t know enough about why it is to know if that will continue or not. Usually with things in the wild, Roar just ends the fight, and I don’t have any Ability that I know of to counter it.

I have one Ultra Ball left.

Aaaaaand it’s gone.

Sigh.

Thanks, Professor Juniper.

Holy fuck, casual Heal Ball of despair for the win.

What to call you, what to call you...

You have a cloud on your back... Cloud is a Final Fantasy character... F is for... Fido!

Good dog!

Do you know what that means?

I have six!

Time for healing and grinding and finding out what non-legendary things I could have gotten instead, not that I would have preferred less heart stress in rounding out my team!

Having a Fire type is also really, really useful. I tend to use Fire as my multipurpose enforcers, especially against things like Electric types, so Fido is a high quality boon.

Is this Randomizer accidentally set to Badass Mode?

There’s also Altaria here. The first non-heart eyes option is Lickitung. Look at all these things that aren’t legendaries. Of course, now I’ve been spoiled, and just want to run ahead to the next area where I can catch a thing again. I want to know what it will be. The curiosity. It drives progress.

I found a Fire Stone in the Resort. This is worth mentioning because out of the options, a Fire Stone is the evolutionary stone I already chose to have in my collection.

A lot of my choices don’t seem to result in anything nearly as helpful as I intended for them.

I forgot out big the Resort area is. Or maybe it just feels larger because all the sand kills visibility.

I have no memory of this place.

Wait. Something about... the Fire/Bug type Alder has? Champion’s name is Alder, right? I think at some point in the game you can come across that somewhere in here? Maybe?

I dunno, let’s explore.

Still Relic Castle, so nothing to catch here, sadly.

Is this the way out if you go down the quick sand portals on the other side? Probably.

Aw, there’s Kangaskhan down here. I’ve never played through a game with one of those. I think I always trade to get it. That would have been cool.

Not that I’m judging Fido’s place in the team or anything. I am just providing color commentary.

There’s also Vanillish.

I need an area where I can catch something again. All this cool stuff is tormenting me.

The problem with Ptera being so strong, and resisting the Sandstorm, is that I’m coming up short on a compelling reason to swap him out for someone else. He’s just so perfectly competent.

Resort also has Mareep. So many treasures.

I’m trying to hit all the trainers here, but I think I’m mostly making myself lost.

Would this randomized mode perhaps like to chill?

It’s another Relic Castle one, so I don’t get to try to catch it, but honestly, what in the fuck. I am going to run out of legendaries to catch by my sixth badge at this rate.

...Well. Probably not. I don’t care to do the math on that, but there are kind of a lot of legendaries at this point. But still, what the heck.

Oh hey, a Walrein! That’s not a legendary! What a twist.

I should consider switching Ptera’s spot more strongly. He is four levels higher than the next highest.

Hello, there.

So it hasn’t really come up, but I think the rules I’m choosing to use are that I can use gift pokemon, but only if they’re randomized. I’m not sure if the fossils will be their usual selves or not. I’m going to pick the Cover Fossil either way, since Ptera doesn’t need to have an insecurity added to life, but it would be neat if it turned out to be something new.

Ugh, but that would mean going all the way back to the fossil gym.

...When do I get Fly?

Eh, I have six at the moment anyway. There’s no rush.

...

I need to know.

No such luck. Dear turtle friend, were this a normal run, you would be a grand addition, and I would love you muchly, but as we are doing what we’re doing here, you must go unnamed and into a box. Fear not, you are not dead, merely forever frozen and unused.

Back to Resort grinding.

(Hooray for bicycles.)

Relic Castle continues to astound.

This is so awesome. I hope whoever programmed Randomizer is out living their best life.

Okay, Ptera’s 35. I need to give something else a chance. Palm, show me what you’re made of and train up our new legendary pals. Though as long as I’m doing this in a specific area... I mean, I won’t go out of my way to EV train, but Palm is already swimming upstream with his Nature. Maybe I’ll just give him a level and switch over to Frogger.

Not that I even remember what any of these things dish out. HP, maybe?

...Ptera really is the best thing on my team to manage this stuff. Maybe I should just go deal with the next gym.

Batman, how about you go ahead and murder a bunch of Cresselia for me. It’ll be our bonding experience. You like killing Psychic things, right? I seem to recall something about our first meeting...

No, okay, fine, I won’t hold that grudge. We’re partners now, and that’s all that matters.

On fourth thought, I’m just gonna stay upstairs and let Frogger take out Entei when Fido isn’t clearing out the Budew. Gelding’s almost 30, so I won’t feel obligated to keep the Exp. Share on for much longer.

Fido is at a level where this is actually annoying. My kingdom for a legendary that learns good moves early. Ember is just not all that great, and Budew’s Water Sport is annoying to work through.

Roar keeps not working for the wild Entei. I have no idea why that is, but it’s convenient. Having my free exp scare me away every other time would be frustrating as heck.

Eh, Fido learned Fire Spin. Yay. Its leading quality is being slightly more appealing to me than Roar.

Wait a moment. Fido. I didn’t take a look at what you’re like. I was so excited to have six that I completely forgot to check up on you.

Fido is Sassy and often dozes off. What that means is largely lost on me, but in general losing out on some Speed to up a Defense stat is okay in my book. The ability never had the option of being something else, I don’t think.

A belated welcome, doggo.

...Good grief you need better moves.

...It learned Stomp.

Okay, everyone’s 30 or higher, time to return to the plot.

Wow, I did not expect that. It’s so weird when random NPCs just hand out HMs.

I’d forgotten about the stadium trainers. I think every day they have different sports going on, and each set contains trainers. I have vague memories of grinding using them. ..I probably could have just hung around here instead of Relic Castle.

Oh well, more levels for me.

Is this where we have our Ferris Wheel thing?

(I remember so little of these games, yet N possibly having a thing for the protagonist has stuck in the consciousness of the internet for so long that it is what sticks.)

Yeah, this happens.

Tale as old as time.

I want N’s hat. Will Pokemon Go make his outfit available at some point? That would be neat. The protagonist gear always looks a bit dorky. Unlike turtlenecks and button-up shirts.

He has a nice hat.

Elesa, why does your gym look like this. It makes me want to go play laser tag.

Time for some exp I don’t really need.

Nimbasa has a lot going for it. I think this is the generation where I realized how you could breed things and EV train them, so I spent a lot of time messing around with the subway features. I wasn’t very good. I think I wanted my trainer card to reach a higher tier of color?

Yeah, that didn’t work. It was all confusing, and mostly I just wasn’t good enough at coming up with strategies. Or copying them efficiently.

...Are there really only two trainers here? And the other sport court has a game in progress. Dang it.

I don’t remember if I have to participate in the Pokemon Musical.

I know I don’t wanna.

Bianca is walking me inward. This does not bode well.

I have a Prop Case now.

What part of “I don’t wanna” is so hard to understand. ;-;

Gelding, you want to put on a show? You’re probably most likely to be swapped out if I see anything I like in future routes, so we should treasure our time together while we can.

By which I mean we will participate in mutual suffering.

It’s an expression of love, Gelding.

Bianca leaves before I’m asked to do anything else. Do I stay and check it off the list, or flee and hope that this is not necessary to progress?

...Maybe I will go back inside.

Dude, all I remember about this encounter is that Elesa is better than you. And most everyone else. It’s time for Bianca to lay proper claim to her independence, right?

...Wait, this ends well?

Right, I guess all the truly terrible parenting has to be saved up for N.

Congrats, Bianca!

I think I’ll actually go ahead and deal with the gym now.

...No, I won’t. I want to check and see if I have access to the other routes yet. Mayhaps it is time to catch things. Or meet Alder. That’s his name, I think. I think we see him for the first time on the route to the left. So I shall go right.

Huh. This is a fun thing.

The next badge probably makes Strength usable outside of battle. So if I go and do the gym, I’ll have the choice between two spots of grass. Darker grass doesn’t necessarily have better stuff, because it’s all random, but it will have things of higher levels, which means less grinding.

...I’m gonna check out the other side. Possibly get a badge.

Then will come the decision.

Which may or may not be dependent on how much I want to put off giving something on my team Strength.

Here, things do not appear to be nearly so complicated.

There is dark grass, but I think it’s impossible to get to without walking through the normal grass. Maybe I’ll find something in the normal grass on this side, then use Strength and deal in the dark grass on the other side.

Plan? Plan.

...Still largely dependent on what I have that can learn Strength.

I guess that’s one nice thing about these legendaries with the awkward movesets. Fido can probably handle not fainting our new teammate. Probably.

...Hey Gelding guess what you get to stay.

I’m gonna name you Bandit. If we’re both very lucky, we’ll never, ever use you.

Next thing to pop up in the grass is a Maractus, then a Bonsly. This is like. A sane route. Weird.

Meanwhile, over in the dark grass.

Chikorita, Munna... Samurott.

By the standards of this run, I’d still call it pretty sane. The Samurott is darn near level appropriate. I don’t know what I would have picked out of this set. Bandit has some proper charm. That’s hard to say no to in the midst of such chaos.

OH!

Bandit can learn Strength!

Awesome!

Who’s a good girl? You’re a good girl!

Gym time!

This makes me want to hit the arcade so bad.

I haven’t really decided what to use here. Fido was the assumption, but Fido’s moveset is terrible. I think half the things in here are likely to have Static, and its only decent moves are all physical attacks.

Gelding shouldn’t go anywhere near anything here.

Ptera would probably be fine, but his Defense is abysmal, so all it would take is one round of not being fine to ruin that.

Batman would be pretty okay all around, but not a great damage dealer. She does know Headbutt, though...

Palm I’m paranoid about letting loose against things he doesn’t have a Type advantage with, but I think he’d mostly be okay. I just don’t want to risk my precious Breloom coming to harm.

...Fido and Frogger will have to do, I think.

What even is the deal with this gym. Elesa has so much style that it would cause poisoning in a real world setting.

The trainers so far have dealt in mid-20s pokes. Elesa’s might hit 30, but my guess would be that 28 might be closer to the mark.

...Elesa’s gym is full of neon, rich kids, and roller coasters, and I just love it so very much. And Ember isn’t doing too shabbily. I would still prefer having something better to work with, but as long as Emolga are so popular, Frogger’s not the best choice, so it’s good that Fido can put in the proper work.

Can I say for the hundredth time how much I love the work they put into the gyms in this gen? Because it is one of my primary joys of the games. Pokemon are great and all, but the aesthetic.

Firs up is a level 25 Emolga. With Volt Switch, so that will leave the stage after one Ember to let loose a different level 25 Emolga. Who will also use Volt Switch, bringing the first Emolga back out. That Emolga faints, Fido grows to level 34, and time to find out if that’s enough to push the second Emolga into fainting with two Embers instead of three. Apparently there’s a Special Defense difference between the beasts.

Yep, that did it. Emolgas down, and I’ll switch to Frogger for the Zebstrika.

Dang, I was off. It’s level 27.

Frogger downs it, getting up to 34 as well, and we have another relatively painless gym experience!

Go team!

Elesa also promises to deal with the pesky bridge problem I didn’t bother screencapping. I think the next Leader is a Ground type. Cowboy dude who has to be pestered into letting pedestrians use the drawbridge.

But that will have to wait for next time!