#i am Not a fan of combo as a game mechanic

[ellstersmash]

Veilguard loves & hates:

Love It:

the banter!!

overall the armor is very cool looking

don't really have to take a balanced party (but detonations help A Lot)

enjoyable mix of linear quests and exploration

at least some puzzles

more qunari lore that isn't "qun bad chantry normal"

GORGEOUS locations fr. like under the sea? you kiddin???

a lot of the quest location and actual quest designs were intriguing and engaging

the soundtrack on the quests was better than the main theme, in most cases

only experienced one bug (on PS5) so far and it was fixed with a reload

THE HAIR!! love that I can change it often—and I DO because there are so many cool options!

honestly the whole CC is very excellent

im in love with all my friends 🥴 and my friends love each other!! much more successful found-family vibes than Inquisition; more akin to DA2

so much talk about food and using food to come together and show love!!! big fan of that

I CAN PET AND HUG ASSAN (and will. all day.)

I do wish I could hug or interact with my romanced companion....but the overall romance and amount of references to it were acceptable. more than enough to get me daydreaming about my Rook and Taash 🥰

Rook's idle animations near the edge of something make me smile

the final battle (like the whole set of quests) felt appropriately dramatic and significant

my completionism paid off :}

the emotional stakes!! I cried like a baby more than once.

DREAD WOOF \o/

the ending (the one I got this round anyway) felt relatively satisfying, even though **

Hate It:

no lighting swap for the Inquisitor CC

no warning before the first major decision point/point of no return. never had my coffee date :(

no armor/outfit dye mechanic, and my god some of the color combos are.. certainly choices

no crafting system

very few legitimately casual outfit options

the main theme sounds like Harry Potter to me

so few meaningful callbacks to past games and choices... it felt impersonal and disconnected from previous game experiences

the way certain areas are walled off (either exploration areas during quests or vice versa) by some nebulous white haze is lazy

I love a DIY home base in my viddy games, but the decor mode is basically pointless. like that's time that could've been better spent elsewhere (like maybe improving the above point??)

loading a save drops you at a respawn beacon, so I'm always forgetting what undiscovered location I was gonna explore next

combat can be fun but is often an exhausting mash of swipe-and-dodge, since unless you use a companion's Taunt skill, every enemy will prioritize Rook for no reason, minus a few swings at the companions here and there (in Adventure mode)

no dedicated Open Map or Open Journal buttons

can't talk to solas whenever I want :(

the evanuris altars are boring. at least the fen'harel ones have some challenge to them, even if it's not a very difficult one

Davrin's talk about the Dalish is.. idk. mixed bag (update: I like his arc though, and Bellara provides another great perspective!)

the Crows are a good and benevolent organization now?? I thought Caterina abused Lucanis? I need to reread his story but it really felt like the writers didn't.

humorous dialogue options are rarely actually funny

dialogue trees don't flow very well, especially if you take one of "more information" options. they need better transitions

too much mythal 😤

**the ending left me with quite a few unanswered questions AND made my Lavellan look a whole-ass fool (I will be headcanoning otherwise, because I am a whole-ass fool)

[chacusha]

Visions of Mana review

Non-spoilery thoughts:

I really like this game! I was a bit worried about combat from the demo, but I really like the combat in this game, actually. The different weapons all have their own combos and situationally helpful moves (dishing out a lot of damage, attacking in a wide area, launching enemies, staggering them, etc.), so there is quite a bit of satisfaction in learning different fighting styles for each weapon. It almost feels like a fighting game rather than an action/adventure game, which I like.

I feel like this game successfully captures a lot of recurring elements of the Mana series (multiple weapon systems, finding elemental spirits, familiar monsters and bosses, world in decline, simple environmental puzzle-solving) while also being a fresh story and world with its own rules, which is pretty ideal for me. I also think this game does a better job of merging Legend of Mana worldbuilding elements with non-Legend of Mana elements than any other Mana game, and I find that pretty impressive because the aesthetics kind of clash, in my opinion. But they did a good job of merging them here.

The characters are really fun and I like the party dialogues that happen as you go around the world. I think the game could probably use some sidequests or subplots (rather than fairly simple fetch/hunt quests) to flesh out the world a bit and give the story a bit of nonlinearity (it is *quite* linear, although this is pretty normal for the Mana series (LOM aside)...), but I am not complaining. Even though they were fairly simple, I enjoyed the quests here, and they got pretty elaborate in the end.

The progression and gradual unlock of skills that make your characters stronger is also really satisfying. I'm also a big fan of the way that they incorporated a game mechanic (random corestone drops) into the story, and I felt the corestone ability trading added a bit of depth to the gameplay.

Overall, I rate this game like 9/10. It could be better, but there is a lot here to love and the gameplay is pretty polished (game crashes a lot, though -- be sure to save frequently!).

Spoilery thoughts:

My partner keeps joking that Careena is somehow this world's only Texan. (How come her parents have no accent?!)

Magical girl transformation sequences was SUCH a good idea. I approve. (Is there a way to toggle these back on...?)

The tragedy/tragic backstories in this game are exquisite.

At the same time, I really like the humor and cuteness in this game. It's important to have both in a Mana game, I feel.

I wasn't expecting anti-capitalist propaganda in this game, haha.

I like that there's a bit of a nudge in this game about which elemental vessels to assign to which character. Like, Careena's Wind class has pretty nice passives compared to the others and same with Morley's Moon class -- kind of nudges you to start them off with those classes.

It's interesting having Niccolo in this game be such a nice guy. In most games, he's pretty sketchy and self-interested (although he is a pretty great guy in Trials of Mana too). I like that he's Morley's adoptive dad and Palamena's confidante too.

Val is the himbo we all need.

Hinna 😭 They were so ready to be happy together too. I guess Hinna dying this early means she has a reasonable chance of coming back by the end.

SOMEONE high-up in the development team definitely has a foot fetish. But I like seeing Palamena's stylish footwear so I don't mind.

I'm a big fan of Pikuls for land transport and Vuscav for sea transport. Love that we got Vuscav's theme back for this game.

Oh snap I'm in The Lion King right now. XD In general, I was a bit meh about the areas featured in the demo (Rime Falls, Fallow Steppe, and Rhata Harbor), but I've been pretty impressed by the other areas. I liked the Charred Passage, Ledgas Bay, Pritta Ridge, Illystana, Dura Gorge (love the music of this one), Deade Cliffs, and quite a lot of the dungeons.

Von Boyage / Professor Bomb is here! Great cameo.

I like how this game strikes a balance between SOM/TOM-style "there is one of each elemental spirit" and LOM/World of Mana-style "there are many spirits for each element" by having one main elemental spirit but a bunch of mini/lesser elemental spirits with a slightly different design (and they're very cute!).

I like how Khoda looks exactly halfway between Sumo/FFA protagonist and Randi. Well done.

Lol, I thought Aesh was going to be evil. I do like how he occasionally goes into "mad scientist" mode, though. The parts of the game where he has bonding time with the party were some of the best. (His initial introduction was sooo good. When you introduce your friend to your other friends and he's the worrrrst, lol. I like how Morley went from jealous of Aesh to Worried Mother Hen lol.)

Overall, I like the boss battles in this game. I like some of them have a gimmick or puzzle-solving aspect to them, and I like that none of them dragged on too long, which is the main thing I hate about modern action RPGs. The Earth Benevodon battle in particular was a favorite -- epic! Some of the other benevodons sadly went down a bit too quickly (I kind of felt sorry for them having to fight my overleveled party XD).

Okay I guess Hinna isn't coming back. I do like the theme here of it being important to accept the death of loved ones. Ephemeral beauty i.e. things are valuable because they don't last forever. (Ever since my partner pointed out this is an extremely common theme in Japanese art, I am unable to unsee it...)

Some of these late game areas are also really beautiful. *o* I really love the floating island, the Entwine Pass boss battle with all the flowers in the background, and the lighting in the corrupted Mana Sanctuary areas.

Being able to see the previous alm contingents (including Lyza's group!) made me emotional. ;_;

Oh snap, I can't believe Passar was the big bad.

I haven't finished all the postgame content, and I'm not sure if I'll have time. I do eventually want to farm all the abilities and play around with different party setups, and I also want to try playing on Expert difficulty and also with Japanese voices, but we'll see.

Overall, I liked the story! You didn't get Hinna back, but you did manage to fix the world, so there is still that bittersweetness that is important for a Mana game.

[mw567152]

Ranking rpgs based on their combat

(this is only ones that i play and i know the older games are hard to compare to the newer games but i just think it’s nice to see the progression)

10: Mass Effect 1-I genuinely love playing this game but the combat really feels clunky and I HATE the overheating mechanic. I understand for lore reasons why it exists but they ditched the idea in the other games so honestly i’m not a fan. Overall it’s fun but the combat feels very annoying to me but i’ll give it grace for being basically as old as me.

9: Diablo 3-So it’s the only diablo game that iv played but honestly i just think the mechanics feel too repetitive. Like genuinely my biggest complaint with it is that i just get too bored with it even with all the powers you eventually can get. It all kinda feels like your doing the same thing over and over again (unless you find some really good combos).

8: Mass Effect 2-it feels a lot better than ME1 and using biotics is a million times better. However the leveling system kinda sucks and i think they should have just stuck with the system they used in ME1. But the fighting feels a lot better, not great but better.

7: Dragon Age Origins-it physically pains me to put it so low but this game is also old. I like the tactics system a lot and the abilities are so fun but basic combat is just very weird and can be super buggy, especially when bigger enemies can still hit you when you move out of the way so it feels like there’s no point at using certain tactics and you just gotta hit it with as much power as you can.

6: Greedfall-I genuinely love the combat in this game but it gets very boring after awhile. You have very limited abilities and honestly bigger fights just get frustrating because it feels like your just waiting for when you can use your abilities again. But it feels very smooth (for the most part).

5: Mass Effect 3-I love that they added being able to jump over certain things and roll away, it makes me feel more engaged in the fights. The biotics in this game are amazing but again, i hate the leveling system. Can they please just bring back the ME1 level system i’m begging them.

4: Dragon Age 2- So i am in fact the da2 combat target audience. I love how fun and flashy it is, i love having big aoes to use on hordes on enemies, i love being able to swing my weapons around and knock over people like bowling pins, it’s so fucking fun. Obviously it’s not like, the best but i genuinely adore it.

3: Mass Effect Andromeda-Unpopular opinion maybe, but i think combat in this game is fantastic. The jumping while fighting is so fucking fun, the biotics are so cool to use and i actually love the leveling system. The weapons are actually really good and overall i really love fighting in this game. If MEA has no fans i’m fucking dead what can i say.

2: Dragon Age Inqusition-I LOVE IT SO MUCH. I love jumping i love all the different abilities different classes get, i’m obsessed with the weapons and armor crafting. It has some of the flashy-ness that i love from DA2 but still has really good combat abilities and tactics.

1: Baldurs Gate 3-It is hard to compare this game to the others because it’s much more recent and it uses a different system than the others, but i think it provides a great example of what an amazing rpg should do. The different classes are so unique and the combat is genuinely so fun and actually makes me think.

[marciiarts]

Since Lorwolf has been out for a couple months now have a Lorwolf Guide/Review as a seasoned Flight Rising player

Breeding mechanics:

- Seems to be very similar to FR. Wolves have different genes like accents and under coats that can be passed down to offspring via a rarity system.

- You can preview possible offspring when choosing which wolves to pair.

- There are 6 different breeds with different rarities including a Kickstarter breed. They look like various types of canines plus a bat-wolf hybrid breed called Volmyr that I am personally a big fan of.

- Eye color is another color value just like fur color. You can breed for specific eye colors and if you don't like an eye color you can buy an eye color scatter for just scattering eye color!

- Scrying dream wolves is possible using the Demo feature and fantastic.net also has a Lorwolf color predictor.

- Wolves have a breeding period of 3 days then you send the pregnant wolf to your nest to give birth in another 24 hours. Meaning you don't have to check in everyday to nest your pair. Breeding cool down varies by species.

- An interesting feature that Lorwolf has is studding out male wolves. It uses the same mechanics of selling wolves on the flea market to other users, but instead purchased wolves are used for breeding and are always in the possession of the wolf's owner. So you can breed with other users and still keep your wolf, though the offspring will belong to whomever purchased the wolf stud service.

Exploring

- This is like FR coliseum. But the battles are auto-fought. No way to manually fight. Also levels your wolf.

- Only way, other than player trading, to get Wild Wolves (WW) which are similar to FR eggs, except they are fully grown and you can see their colors right away.

- Even if you come across a WW encounter, it is very unlikely they will want to join your pack. But even if they don't they will drop a token. 50 tokens can be used to make one WW.

- Trading 50 tokens is similar to trading eggs in that the colors have yet to be generated.

- Also includes a story mode!

Activities

- I don't find any of the activities to be the most enjoyable but they aren't annoying to do daily either and can be completed in a minute or less. All unlock more features as you gain experience for doing the activity. And most require an assigned wolf and an energy cost from that wolf.

- As of now, there are 6 different ones but the devs plan on adding more. They are:

- Fishing: a tap/click game with a minute timer. Rewards fish, and occasionally other materials.

- Crafting: sole method of getting apparel currently, aside from buying from other players.

- Mining: my current favorite. Involves clicking on a place to mine, waiting for your wolf to mine, then clicking your furnace to melt the ores and getting back a bar for every 5 one kind of ore you found.

- Cooking: you learn recipes by trying things to see if they are cook-able. Some items can only be cooked in combo with others. There are guides on what items can be cooked in what combos.

- Farming: you buy seeds, collect water and compost, then wait the time it takes for those crops to grow, then harvest. You don't need to do anything once they have started growing but adding more water and compost when the bar starts to get empty will yield more crops based on the amount you were able to add.

- Hunting: this is basically sending your wolf out on a hunt that will complete in a set time and then getting a mix of material and other rewards when the timer completes. There are more requirements then just energy cost the higher the hunt level is, but also better rewards.

- Also while not an "Activity" there is also a weekly pageant that lets you enter one wolf per week then the day after you enter a wolf, you can vote on a wolf once per day. Winners get currency and a medal apparel based on what rank you won, 1st, 2nd or 3rd.

Companions

- Similar to FR familiars. One companion per wolf and they can be leveled up.

- Different in that if you have multiple of one companion, you can have multiple wolves with the same companion.

- They can also be leveled faster since you can bond with them on a timer basis depending on their rarity with the lowest being every hour. And they can be leveled by exploring with them like a wolf would gain levels.

Tabs and slots

- Start off with 1 tab and 20 slots then you can purchase more tabs, each tab starting at 20 slots, using the premium currency similar to FR gems.

- On each tab, you can purchase more slots for an increasing amount of regular currency.

Apparel

- Official apparel is limited and mainly gained by crafting and trading with other players.

- But there is a lot of customization in player made custom apparel. Unlike FR, this is not limited by the line work, meaning custom apparel can be a hat or a dog or a background that is not part of the wolf itself.

Final thoughts

- Wolves do not go hungry over time! Hunger bar is really an energy bar that is replenished with time or instantly with food, and used when performing actions like exploring and activities.

- Naming does not cost anything no matter how many times you rename. Happy no stress naming!

- Studding your wolves out is a very interesting feature that allows you to breed with other players while keeping your wolves.

- Nice to not have to check in everyday to progress getting offspring from a pair.

- Biggest issue is that content a bit limited since it is so new. Not many breeds, genes, apparel, or activities. And forums are not as active as FR forums.

- Devs are pretty good about communicating updates and plans for the future. They also have occasional polls to vote on the next thing they'll work on adding to Lorwolf.

- Also, my Lorwolf user is Vamp, friend me! Plus a referral link to get 100 x moonwater (a type of food) and a dog companion (once your total companion level hits 50) if you are interested in joining Lorwolf: https://www.lorwolf.com/Refer/6048

[terra-drone]

My gripes with Rift Apart

Consider this a review of Rift Apart (PC ver). After playing this game twice on Renegade Legend, I have... opinions. Being a fan of the franchise since Going Command/Locked & Loaded, I admittedly have some strong biases for both the PS2 saga and the Future Trilogy for various reasons. But before I go lambasting this entry into the franchise, a TLDR summary;

Pros:

The game is pretty and well executed on a technical level (for the most part).

The platforming and movement is refined and a step up from previous titles.

Cons:

Quite literally almost everything else.

Also has a propensity for crashing (both freezing and blue screen of death).

Movement & Platforming

One of the core aspects of RaC that I am happy RA got right. The movement is buttery smooth and chain daisying from one platform to the next using wall runs, dashes and rift pulls is excellently designed. The addition of the dash function adds an extra dodge ability that was absent in previous entries although granted we can still use the age-old side jumping while aiming/shooting.

I do wish however that the hoverboots were more integrated into the platforming since most of the time you only ever need it for super long leaps or the timed step puzzles. Something like the jump pads from ACIT would be nice to see paired with the new wall run and dash mechanic. You hardly need to use it outside of Savali and Torren IV and the last part of the Nef Mech fight.

What I wished they truncated however was the glide mechanic the hoverboots had. Given that the hoverboots could both glide and make you go fast, it makes this better than whatever Clank could possibly offer. @erablisme has done a wonderful breakdown on this matter (see here), but essentially having the hoverboots be an upgrade of both the charge boots and fulfilling Clank’s contribution to Ratchet’s mobility (gliding) renders Clank, from a gameplay standpoint, moot. It renders Clank into nothing more than a glorified backpack/exposition device, which beats the entire purpose of the franchise’s own title.

Gameplay

Weapons

The arsenal, while fun to use, is too bloated. A lot of the guns overlap in functionality:

Shotguns: Enforcer, Pixelizer, Void Repulser

Seeker/Turret weapons: Agents of Doom, Bombardier, Mr Fungi

Crowd Control: Topiary Sprinkler, Cold Snap

Grenades: Shatterbomb, Bouncer

Rapid fire: Burst Pistol, Blackhole Storm

Lock-on weapons: Drillhound, Richochet, Buzzsaw, Lightning Rod

Heavy hitter: RYNO, Negatron Collider, Warmonger

Do we really need multiple weapons that do the same thing just with different particle effects?

The level up mechanic, while a staple of RaC games, is frankly outdated by this point and actively hinders the game. If anything, it punishes players for sticking to guns they enjoy once they hit max level. It makes the motivator for using weapons not be its function but rather to chase that arbitrary level cap. Plus, there’s no telling what the level up actually did for a weapon aside from damage buffs.

It’s not like they couldn’t do away with this feature, Deadlocked made the guns increase so many levels it frankly deemphasises them in favour of choosing the best weapon for any given scenario, ItN decreased the max level to 3 (6 on challenge) in favour of more meaningful weapon upgrades, and ACiT had the Constructo weapons and mods (which Deadlocked also had called Omega Mods) that incentivises experimentation on what combos worked best while allowing you to spice things up post max level. Why not tie weapon upgrades to collectibles? They already had the Raritanium collection, sprinkling effect mods for weapons throughout the locations shouldn’t be too difficult. They already did this for the armour system, so why not do it for the weapons too? Heck, why not make all the weapons customisable like the Constructo weapons? It would solve the bloated arsenal problem.

Enemy Design

The enemy design in this game just isn’t great. While it makes sense considering you’re fighting an army so it’s obvious they’re gonna have standardised units, you would think they would spice up their combat stratagem when they know they couldn’t beat our protagonists by throwing the same old shtick over and over. Instead, we keep having to fight the same miniboss Juggernaut over and over and over again. Sometimes there’s two of them! Make it three during the Juice fight!

It’s not a problem with just the Nefarious troopers, it’s an issue across multiple factions too. Across all three factions (Space Pirates, Goons & Nef’s army), they all follow the same formula; 

the one with the gun: Pirate Corsair, Goon, Nef Lasertrooper

the one that does melee: Space Pirate & Shield Pirate, Goon Rusher & Undead Goon, Nef Slugger

the tiny short range/melee swarmer: Cutlassies, Robomutt, Nef Trooper

the vehicle one: Goon Dropship, Nef Dropship

the flying one: Zoom Goon, Nef Sniperbot & Blitztrooper & Sniperbot

the heavy flying one: Vroom Goon, Nef Peacekeeper

the rinse repeat miniboss: Pirate Marauder, Nef Juggernaut

While stylistically different, they don’t differ much from how they shoot/do damage at you. It would have been great if they did some things different from one another. Some really simple fixes;

While I think giving shields to pirates makes little sense, it is some variety at least. Expand on that. Maybe make the Goon Rusher actually rush towards you faster than the others, or make the Nefarious Slugger can do 360 attacks or have more range since it’s a) a robot, and b) basically has the Scorpion Flail for arms. 

Make the Vroom Goons try to ram you instead of just having to avoid the taser things it shoots cuz that’s the exact same thing that the Nefarious Sniperbot does since all you need to do to avoid both attacks is sidestepping it.

Make the Pirate Corsair shoot high damage while the standard Goon does horizontal strafing rapid fire compared to the Nef Trooper’s vertical one

Make the Zoom Goons dodge your attacks, maybe give it a ground pound that opens it up to attack so it's at least somewhat different from the Nef Peacekeeper other than being a slightly squishier variant.

For a game so pretty it is bizarre they couldn’t put more effort into gameplay itself. The repeating minibosses get stale very quickly since once you’ve figured out a tactic that worked, it is rinse and repeat across the whole game.

Two Protagonists, Same Shtick

The gameplay doesn’t differentiate itself between Ratchet and Rivet. They play the exact same way, with the exact same arsenal, and the exact same progression. What is the point of having separate playable protagonists if they’re just gonna end up the same? You could replace Rivet with Ratchet and vice versa for 90% of the game and nothing would change. It would be something if they had separate weapons or separate movement gimmicks that make them distinct, but we didn’t get that for some reason.

Character Issues

The character writing is just abysmal, even when compared to the Future trilogy. While the Future trilogy (and by extension A4O, FFA and ItN) had plenty, and I mean plenty, of plotholes from a worldbuilding standpoint, the character writing was solid and fairly consistent. I cannot say the same for RA. Some examples;

Ratchet(?) & Clank(?)

I can hardly recognise Ratchet as the same character we had over the PS2 and PS3 instalments. He feels more like the 2016 reboot version just haphazardly retconned as the ItN version that RA was supposedly a continuation of. Being afraid of being a washed-up hero was Qwark’s thing, not Ratchet’s. Why would he even care? The man was downright tired of being a hero come ItN. And why is he even worried about meeting the Lombaxes? He saved Polaris multiple times and beat Tachyon, y’know, the reason why they left in the first place? The reason he gave up searching for the Lombaxes was because he had more going on with Talwyn and was assured the Lombaxes would do just fine without him. Why the sudden change of reason? What, is acknowledging Talwyn one too many female characters for Insomniac?

And why would Clank, despite knowing Ratchet not wanting to pursue the Lombaxes, go out of his way to make a whole ass parade about the Dimensionator? If he was just trying to cheer Ratchet up from his fear of being a washed-up hero (which, again, made no sense for his character) he would have just done the parade and given him the Dimensionator in private. The entire premise of Rift Apart hinges on the fact that Clank decides to give Ratchet what can be considered as a WMD since the Lombaxes used the Dimensionator to get rid of the Cragmites in an open public setting. Had he not done this, had he not told Qwark he wanted to surprise Ratchet, Nefarious probably wouldn’t have found out about the new Dimensionator, and the entire game wouldn’t have happened.

Another gripe I have with how Clank was handled was that his Zoni heritage was conveniently forgotten about. They could have tied the Zoni more deeply into the mysticism of the RaC universe and be the reason why he was able to fix the dimensional anomalies, but instead it was tied to Gary and... the Lombaxes. Huh.

Rivet, or as I like to call her, “Furbait”

There is so much missed potential with Rivet. Where to start? Instead of a grizzled, closed-off survivor of a robot dystopia, we just get miss middle-of-the-road, clearly made for pandering, furbait. Design wise, she would have been perfectly serviceable had this NOT been a robot dystopia. The only physical giveaway to show that she was a survivor/rebel fighter was her arm. It is the only thing that shows she’s a rebel fighter survivor. Her suit is well made, her eyelashes are on fleek, her hair is silky smooth, her tail is all fluffy and clean. Nothing about her says she was a survivor. No scars, no dirt, nothing other than the obvious robot arm. It is lazy. Lazy and stupid.

Her personality doesn’t make sense for the universe she supposedly inhabits either. Heck, no one in this franchise fits well in this robot dystopia, tbh. She distrusts robots due to past experience, yet  is chummy with both Clank and Kit (and by some extension, the Zurkons & Pierre) relatively quickly. For someone who should have gone through a lot of adversity, she hardly acts like it. She’s confident, has a lot of friends, and whatever negative aspect she does have (which is just distrust instead of the obvious robot racist she should have been) that would have given her an opportunity to grow as a character is watered down and conveniently forgotten, so she hardly grows as a character, if any.

Ultimately, Rivet boils down to being “What if Ratchet, but a girl?”. There’s work put into trying to make her her own thing, but there’s also the narrative yanking her by the collar to be Ratchet’s other self. She’s the last Lombax in her dimension, she also wonders where the Lombaxes went, and she’s trying to be a hero. At that point, how is she any different than Ratchet? They don’t even differ much personality wise for a version of Ratchet who never met her Clank, so to speak. One would think she would be the spunky RaC1 Ratchet since it was meeting Clank that got Ratchet to grow as a person. Instead she’s just your lovely neighbourhood Rivet, friend to all except robots except the ones she meets I guess. What is the point of having two main characters if they are just gonna end up the same?

Kit

While arguably the better other of the new duo, she has issues as well in the writing department. She had the most growth out of our titular cast, however how she got there is ramshackled at best. 

In comparison to Clank, he was a defective warbot, which made sense why he was small. Kit on the other hand was tailor made by the supposedly competent Emperor Nefarious, so why does she have a cutesy mode? Why does she even have a character crisis from hurting Rivet, for that matter? Stopping rebels was what she was designed to do, and she suddenly gained a conscience from doing her job? If Kit is so effective at what she did, why did Emp Nef stop at making just one of her? Shouldn’t there be multiple Kit models roaming about? She could mow down hordes of newer Nefarious Troopers and Juggernauts, so why didn’t Emp Nef expand on that?

These inconsistencies make Kit as a character start falling apart as soon as you give it more scrutiny than a surface level glance. The writers could have easily solved these issues by just alluding that she might have been an outdated model, or was damaged and abandoned on Savali where Gary and the monks fixed her up and gave her a new purpose — protecting the Archives. Instead of an exterminator, she became a guardian. They could have taught her how to be more “human” as it were, too,  which would tie up nicely to why she regrets her actions in her previous line of work. Instead, they went with the “Oh no, what have I done, I did my job and injured a trespasser, now I’m gonna be a recluse on Savali” route.

She doesn’t gel well with Rivet either because the only one actively having something to overcome was Kit. Had Rivet been written better (having to overcome her prejudices, letting go of her past trauma, solving her trust issues) it could work with Kit growing out of her self doubt and regrets, but it just isn’t there. Plus, there weren't enough scenes of them together to build towards that conflict resolution that would make their friendship more believable. She has more of a relationship with Ratchet than Rivet.

“EmPeRoR” Nefarious

He is boring. Simple as. There is no driving motivation to him other than “conquer everything”. We could have gotten an Ultron (which would make a perfectly sensible callback to the Biobliterator shtick our Nef pulled from UYA) but we just end up with a sassy English bastard with the personality of wet bread. There was no fun interplay between him and our Neffy, anything to make both their personalities shine as they work together or grind against each other, it just sucks.

The Plot(holes)

Imma just list it down.

How does a helmet clearly designed to fit a Lombax head is supposedly “one size fits all”?

How did the fish kid Rivet saved in the intro made it around Nef City in the first place if this was supposedly a robot dystopia that eradicated all squishies? What, was he just having a stroll, taking some fresh dystopian air? Could have made it that this was a fellow rebel she was tasked to save cuz he had some intel that he swiped and Rivet decided to use herself as bait to draw attention away from him so he could get the intel out of there, but no.

On that matter, why do planets like Savali and Torren IV still have organic inhabitants?

What was Skidd trying to achieve by hacking the propaganda blimp? This served no purpose at all narratively since it didn't even turn any robots against the Neffies.

Why was Skidd even in Nef City, for that matter? What was his original mission that he was going undercover for? Busting Rivet out of prison? Couldn’t be, since he made no mention of it.

Why did none of Emp Nef's cronies question our Nef just popping in despite looking clearly different? He’s a whole head shorter and the wrong colour. What, do they not have colour vision?

How did Emp Nef know about the existence of the dimensional map? He barely knew about the Dimensionator so how does that make sense?

If Ratchet already has hoverboots, why couldn’t he dash/sprint with it until he gets to Savali?

Where and when did Rivet get a rift tether?

Where and when did Rivet get a pair of hoverboots?

Wasn’t the Space Pirates/Decadroids designed by Tachyon? Why do they exist in this dimension? Why aren’t they allied with Emp Nef since they too are robots? None of this is explained.

Where did the Lombaxes of Rivet’s dimension disappear to? Did they have a Tachyon-like threat in this dimension too? Did Emp Nef wipe them out? Don’t know, and the game doesn’t bother explaining it cuz Rivet is supposed to be girl Ratchet and nothing beyond that.

Why would Emperor Nefarious announce for the whole galaxy to see where he was going during the finale? Did he lose that much intelligence in the short timeframe we’ve known him? This is the guy who conquered the galaxy?

Why would he leave a portal for our protagonists to conveniently follow him through? 

Where did that telekinetic abilities of him suddenly disappear to?

Where was this dimension’s Lawrence counterpart? That stupid little secretary is so dumb as to not recognise her own boss she couldn’t possibly be the Lawrence replacement.

Environmental Storytelling & Worldbuilding

Environmental storytelling & worldbuilding has never really been Insomniac’s strong suit. RA is pretty and all, but aside from Blizar Prime, none of the other locales did anything different from Ratchet’s dimension. If this was supposed to be a galaxy where Emp Nef has conquered it all, you would think that there’d be more neon, more cyberpunk, more Emp Nef aesthetic, more robots flying about. Instead, we just got the same thing we had from Ratchet’s dimension, just in prettier graphics. It is set dressing with no story to tell. It's a puddle pretending it was an ocean. While I appreciate seeing the graphical glow up the locations got, it’s a missed opportunity to actually show the impact Emp Nef had. 

Take Nefarious City for example;

How was Ratchet able to move around Nef City without raising alarms? This negates the entire point of Rivet needing a robot disguise in the first place.

Why does a static statue in the middle of a city have a terminal that activates a platform that leads to Emp Nef's office in the first place?

On that note, why is an EMPEROR working from an office? Where’s the throne? The grand palace and palisades? The royal guards? If he’s an authoritarian that likes to take control, where’s the giant screen with a hundred monitors that watch every inch of Nef City?

Why does Emp Nef have a tiny four seater shuttle? If he needed to commute planet-side, wouldn’t he have something more posh? More grand? A Rolls Royce of shuttles instead of what can be considered a slightly pricier but still shitty Tesla model? They could have made Ratchet or Rivet have to steal a fighter jet and that would make infinitely more sense than what we got.

The same can be said with the inhabitants of this universe. They only exist to serve as plot devices or to point the protagonists to the next goal rather than actual people. There is no culture, no differing beliefs, nothing to tell you about what they are about or what they do. If all they exist to do is to be exposition devices/mission pointers, what was the point of even making distinct characters? Then again, the Future trilogy suffered the same problem with environmental characters being practically stand-in cardboards so points for consistency, I guess.

Verdict

Essentially, Rift Apart is a creatively bankrupt, designed-by-committee tech demo for Sony Playstation. What used to be a franchise that does satirical commentary on capitalism that later tried to delve into narrative/character driven sci-fi story, has ended up being the most capitalistic-designed entry imaginable. Which is unfortunate because I want to like this game. God, do I want to like it.

Did I enjoy playing it? When it works and doesn't crash on me, sure.

Do I like it enough as an entry to the franchise though? No, no I don't. The gameplay hardly expanded on the RaC formula, and the narrative just killed it for me.

But of course, that's just me. If you enjoyed RA, more power to ya. If you told me to play it again, I'll probably do it. It's just not for me for the long run.

[onedismay]

Mass Effect Tag Game

Stole this thing from @messydiabolical. :)c Anyone is welcome to steal it from me as well!

-

I am a fan since: Forgot what year it was but I remember ME2 had already been out for a while before I bought ME1. But I caught up quickly and got to experience the release of the Arrival DLC in real time. :D

Favourite game of the series?: It's hard to pick between 1 and 2, but I'll say 2 because the concept of loyalty missions is MY JAM. Also ME2 is my favorite graphics-wise, it's got that high contrast I love so much. (hate the simplified skill trees though)

MShep or FShep?: Most of my Sheps are fSheps because the character creator for mSheps isn't versatile enough for me. :( Where's the long hair! Let me look impractical!

Earthborn, Colonist or Spacer?: I might slightly prefer Earthborn. I enjoy playing characters who've had a rough start in life and made some bad decisions, but grew up to become decent people anyway.

Biotics or Tech: Can't pick, I like variety!

Paragon or Renegade: peace for everybody in the galaxy :') But I reeeaally love the Renegade eyes so I do have some mean Sheps as well.

Favourite Class: I used to main the Infiltrator class but in my most recent run I really enjoyed the Adept. Hard to pick a favorite but I do know my favorite class is NOT the Sentinel, it always feels clunky to me somehow.

Favourite Companion: Tali or Javik. Kaidan and Thane are nearby too. Tali's character development feels very natural and wonderful to me on every playthrough and I always love to see it. Javik is a fave because he's haunted and completely alone and that combo always hooks me like, I MUST see to it that this sad man has at least one nice thing in his life.

Least favourite Companion: It's the writers' fault but Liara. It gets really old when the same companion treats you like her love interest in all 3 games no matter what. I haaaate forced hugs in roleplaying games, don't put me through that, it'll ruin the character for me.

My squad selection: In my most recent playthrough it was unsurprisingly Javik and Tali. But I also ran with Vega quite often in the early game and I kinda missed him in the end game, haha.

Favourite In-game romance: Kaidan, especially with mShep because I really enjoy a slow burn of several years. 🔥

Other pairings I like: I am motioning at my blog and presenting to you Tazzik and the Shadow Broker...... no i don't have anything else to offer at this time

Favourite NPC: I like all these shady-ass salarians like Anoleis and Jaroth and Maelon and Linron (yes) (no i'm not defending her, i just find mean characters interesting sometimes) and Chorban and probably others. Valern isn't all that shady but still a fave. Charn! And Balak, I always look forward to finding out how my Shepard reacts to him. Zaal'Koris vas Qwib-Qwib I always loved you and I knew you were the best admiral before ME3 ever happened

Favourite Antagonist: the Shadow Broker, I was so into the mystery in ME1 and man I was not disappointed when we got the reveal. I would have loved to learn more about his early life.

Favourite Mission: ME2's Suicide Mission because I lovvve how it's a culmination of all your previous actions. It felt really scary and chaotic on my first playthrough and like anything could happen. Now I know all the mechanics so nothing surprises me, but I still look forward to seeing every little detail play out.

Favourite Loyalty Mission: Tali. Also Mordin. And Samara, ugghhh I love Omega and I love playing bait uwu

Favourite DLC: Hmmm I love about half of LotSB very much but I might like Bring Down the Sky more as a whole? The mood is great, it's not super long, and nothing about it annoys me. :D I've only played the Leviathan DLC once so far so I'm not confident enough to call it a fave yet but I liked it a lot, too.

Control, Synthesis or Destroy: I just wanted an ending where we finally talk the Reapers down and they go "yeah u right actually, let's not fight anymore. :( handshake?". All this star child borderline magic stuff is kinda goofy to me. I've picked Destroy almost every time tho.

Favourite Weapon: Recently enjoyed the Blood Pack Executioner... Historically I've probably used the Widow the most. Also I LOVE the way the Revenant looks but I can't stand using it myself lmao. My hand hurts just thinking about it.

Favourite Place: nnnoooo there's so many good places. I adore the Shadow Broker's ship, first of all. Such a cool concept. Noveria for the snow and miserable people. Feels like home. I loved visiting the Migrant Fleet! But my absolute favorite place is probably Omega because it's so rough yet there's still a weird sense of community.

A quote I like: The first that came to mind is "I have a home." Idk, I don't really remember quotes unless they're repeated over and over and by that point I start hating them.

[gaymer-hag-stan]

A Tekken 8 Review That Nobody Asked for From a Longtime Fan Who Has Been Playing for Ages But Is Not a Pro - That Title Is Too Long

Having spent a little over 24 hours playing the game on my PS5, I feel like it's an appropriate amount of time to share my first thoughts on it. I will try to keep spoilers to a minimum so just skip the "Story" section and you should be fine.

General Thoughts

A pretty healthy roster, overall happy with who we got. I do wish Anna and Christie were here, and I also miss Lucky Chloe. With Eddy already announced and Azucena taking over the "cooky dance-y character" I unfortunately don't see Christie or Chloe returning, but Anna better fucking do!

They all look great, even the ugly ones, they look satisfyingly ugly, if that makes any sense. The girls still suffer from the Madame Tussaud's wax figure syndrome that plagued the entirety of Tekken 7's roster, but, maybe I'm gaslighting myself, I do feel like they look a bit less plasticky than some of the initial teasers? Most of the redesigns are great, the hair (Lili's hair has never looked better), water and dirt physics all finally WORK and I love how all the clothing animates with the wind effect, the Fallen Destiny stage is a great one to illustrate all of the above. We can see Yoshimitsu's fingers after three decades! I'd love to know the thought process behind this redesign lmao

I love that they finally, after so many years of other fighting games having it but being inexplicably absent from Tekken, they finally added Player vs CPU matches! FINALLY! Finally I can pick my character and my opponent of choice, pick their costumes and set a stage for them to battle. I'm so happy for this even though it might not make any sense to anyone.

Combo Challenges! We finally have combo challenge in Tekken! Another common fighting game feature inexplicably missing up until now.

Gameplay feels a lot of fun. I wasn't sure about the heat mechanic but it's actually a lot more fun than I initially thought! I tried out all of the cast and am slowly completing both their story episodes and an Arcade run for good measure. I am obviously still maining Nina. They have decided to simplify a lot of her combo throws and I am having fun terrorizing people online with them by breaking their bones! I'm also using Arcade Quest to learn how to play as Lili and Azucena, some basic moves and combos and whatnot. I wanna also do Zafina, Jun, Jin, Hwoarang and Xiaoyu as well eventually. I think these eight will be my main squad for the time being. As a side note, King and Steve feel extremely fun to play, I haven't picked either in ages, but with King I was really close!

The netcode is, surprisingly functional??? We did recently switch to an optic fiber connection type, but I'm still on WiFi and I am having zero problems!

Jukebox is thankfully back again! I literally spent an hour or more before playing the game at all to decide which song goes where lol

Something that scares me regarding upcoming DLC, is that I do not see a season pass being sold anywhere except the Deluxe Edition bundle that costs 40€... I'm sorry but I don't give a fuck about owning 32 identical gold costumes or Tetsujin or whoever the fuck as my Arcade Quest avatar... I only want Eddy and the other three (one of them better be Anna!) thank you very much!

Story

"The Dark Awakens"

Believe it or not I haven't even finished the main story yet as I'm trying to pace myself through all the modes and enjoy them, savouring every moment. At the moment of typing this I am almost halfway through and I must say, even though I am still firmly in the "Drop the cinematic NRS style story modes" camp, and I would much rather have had either arcade mode with proper, canon endings back, or a revival and repurposing of the Tekken Force mode, in an SF6 World Tour mode type of way, out of all of Bandai Namco's attempts at a cinematic story mode, from SCV to Tekken 8, this has been the most satisfying attempt so far. I love that they are fully embracing the overdramatic nature of Tekken along with its campy side and it's present from the very beginning, with Jin throwing his bike at Kazuya's helicopter! "A Fate Decided by Fists" were we actually get to choose which fighters advance through the first round was the biggest highlight so far! I did not expect to fight Azazel again in 2024! I miss his Tekken 6 design though, he no longer glows according to his remaining health or has his limbs crumble away into scarabs according to which parts of him you're hitting. Also, I do understand why they felt the need to overemphasize how "Jin was a good guy all along and he's not like Kazuya" to redeem him and attempt to portray him as a more traditional hero, but I think they went way too far. Literally every single cast member, characters who've never met him before especially, makes a point of how good a person Jin is. Also, I do understand that there were a lot of people complaining that most of the cast were ignored in Tekken 7's story mode and I appreciate that they tried to include more of them this time, but it's so half assed and superficial. Like, Lili, Asuka, Hwoarang, Leo (who finds their missing father, a forgotten plot point from Tekken 6 of screen without a single explanation) Xiaoyu, PANDA offer absolutely nothing to the story so far other than to just be there and tell Jin what a good guy he is. And I say all that as someone who is firmly on Jin's side and despises Kazuya.

Character Episodes

Thank god they have more than one single fight this time! I would have liked it if they found a way to make each of them be canon. Like, I think every single one of the Arcade mode endings of SF6 is canon, if I'm not mistaken, and most of them seem to take place before the events of the main story, as a way to give us a clearer understanding of why each fighter fights. I think Guilty Gear does exactly that too. Nevertheless, I do appreciate that each fighter has fights specifically tailored to them, with specific opponents. It's not clear to me yet if they're completely non-canon or not, as in Nina's she seems to have been hired by Lee to sabotage G Corporation and Kazuya, I pray to God this is true and she's not actually, willingly working for that asshole, like, I'm still in complete denial that they threw her entire character development from Tekken 4 to Tekken 7 to the trash can just to go "NInA WiLl WoRK FoR WhOmEvEr"... She's also suspiciously missing from the actual story like, she simply just appeared in ONE scene so far and then left without doing literally anything. She also seems to only have special interactions with Steve and Lee so far when others get a lot more. Her handling story wise in this installment is insulting, considering she's the most popular female fighter in the series and one of the most popular in the genre...

Offline Modes

Arcade Quest

It's cute... It's certainly a cool way to mask your tutorial and the avatars are kinda cool, but they're nowhere near as good as what Capcom did with SF6 and World Tour. I must say I prefer Tag 2's Tekken Lab over this.

Super Ghost Battle

Ghost battle, after five attempts is finally fun! Tekken 7's was by far the worst attempt as the game would automatically pick opponents for you, matching you with much harder ones if you were winning too much and much lower ones if you were losing too much so that you wouldn't climb the ranks as fast and it would artificially increase playtime. Now that Tekken has actual single player modes other that the story there's no need for that, and they made it work. You simply choose from a list, and the ones that contain unlockable (useless) customisation options for specific characters are actually marked so that you can attempt to get the item you want.

Arcade Battle

I love that they still included a traditional eight battle long Arcade mode, even though they could have just had the character episodes and call it a day. My slight nitpick, again, is that they're still doing this thing that they've been doing since Tekken 5 or 6 where the first few battles are characters in their default costumes and then a horde of Namco's customized monstrosities attack your eyes... This is a huge pet peeve of mine, I understand it in the context of Ghost Battle, and Arcade Quest, but I do not want to see goofy customs in other, "serious" modes. On top of that, the ghosts you get seem to be from the Super Ghost Battle's catalogue of freaks, and are therefore higher difficulty than most, which in turn makes them actively harder than the mode's final boss which I think is kinda hilarious!

Tekken Ball

I will admit, I only played a single match and never touched it again. It is actually challenging, I'll give it that, but I don't see the appeal. I'd much rather have Tekken Bowl again back instead tbh. Also I wish that stage was playable in normal modes too.

Customization

Avatar customization is kinda whatever, but it works well enough for Arcade Quest and I don't really visit the Tekken Fight Lounge.

Character Customization however is where I have an issue. While I've seen lots of cool customs of various characters from other games and IPs, including Shimbori himself dressing up Super Battle ghosts as DOA characters!, I don't really care for the customization options? My only real use for Character Customization in Tekken so far was to recreate past / alternate outfits. Like, in Tekken 6 I would buy the schoolgirl outfit parts for all the teen girlies, in Tekken 7 I recreated Nina's 2P outfit from Tekken 4 using her Blood Vengeance catsuit as a base, stuff like that. In Tekken 8 all I'm getting is a huge catalogue of Zara's apparel... And all the unlockable outfits are either their default look with less clothes on, or weird cosplays of other characters. Why? Tekken Character Customization peaked in Tekken 6, where every single one of the 40 (41 if you count Panda, who I think had some different options from Kuma) characters had his own personal selection of outfits and items, matching their personality and look. I don't want to play as Nina dressed up as Ada Wong or in a business casual for a 9-5 desk job. They made everything way too generic and bland and, on top of that, we don't even have trademark pieces like Nina's purple catsuit, her ponytail, Hwoarang's taekwondo garb, Xiaoyu's Tekken 6 battle costume. The Tekken 5 veterans should have had their Tekken 5/6/TTT2 costumes and hairstyles on top of their Tekken 7 ones.

Overall, I am very very happy with this game! It seemingly does almost everything right and I am glad to see it improving on, literally, every single thing over Tekken 7.

Score: 9 / 10

[satoshi-mochida]

Dragon Ball: Sparking! ZERO ‘Power vs. Speed’ trailer and gameplay showcase; new systems and 11 new characters announced

From Gematsu

Publisher Bandai Namco and developer Spike Chunsoft have released a new trailer and 13-minute gameplay showcase video for Dragon Ball: Sparking! ZERO, introducing new and returning gameplay elements and 11 new playable characters. The newly confirmed characters include:

Burter

Dyspo

Hit

Jeice

Kakunsa

Master Roshi, Max Power

Nappa

Super Saiyan Broly (Full Power)

Super Saiyan Kale (Berserk)

Super Trunks

Toppo

Elements that the Budokai Tenkaichi series is known for are back and enhanced in Dragon Ball: Sparking! ZERO, and evolved features such as “Skill Count,” “Revenge Counter,” and “Vanishing Assaults” have been added. Here are the details, via producer Jun Furutani:

“Because this game is a genuine sequel and evolution of the series, one of our goals was to preserve the essence of what made the Budokai Tenkaichi series so popular: an enjoyable, dynamic 3D-action battle experience that deeply captures the elements of Dragon Ball. “To do so, in addition to close-range attacks with rush attacks and combos, we kept battle systems such as the Dragon Dash, which enables high-speed movement, the iconic counter system that fans know and love, as well as the ‘Impact Action,’ which allows intense fisticuffs or the exchange of energy blasts. “We have also paid attention to the graphic aspects so that you can enjoy not only the challenge of the battles themselves, but also the fun of just watching battles. “Ultimate Blast is one of the references in terms of stunning effects that can only be achieved on the current generation of consoles. I hope you will feel as stunned as I am by the dynamism and intensity of the Dragon Ball-like battles we have created in this game. “So far I’ve been talking about the elements that we value in the series, but I’d like to take this opportunity to go a bit more into detail on the new features as well. “As I said before, the game keeps the core mechanics of the series, but after some considerations we’ve tweaked some and added new ones to better express the high-speed and authentic battles unique to the Dragon Ball action. Let’s break down four of them in detail using the battle video shown earlier. “One of the biggest changes was to boost the normal movement, making it as fast as the dash in the previous title, and to allow a short dash that lets you move at lightning speed with a button that used to be for dashing. This change opens up more possibilities for movement, attacks on the go, and even more complex actions. In fact, you can perform various actions to suit your style, such as dodging an opponent’s attack with a short dash, unleashing a charged attack, or even a Ki Blast while moving, or linking to a Dragon Dash to pull off a huge move in one go. “Besides the basic actions, this new entry also introduces actions using ‘Skill Count’ that builds up over time during battle. ‘Revenge Counter,’ which lets you strike back while absorbing an opponent’s attack, is an action that enables high-speed attack and defense that are unique to Dragon Ball, as seen in the original story, where characters launch an attack even while being hit. “‘Super Perception,’ a counter command that lets you counterattack in anticipation of various attacks—even Ki Wave types of blasts. Both can only be triggered when you have enough ‘Skill Count,’ and this new element expands the choices you have in the fight and makes the game more fun, while enjoying the distinctive elements from Dragon Ball. “Last but not least, we’ve added a new action using Ki called ‘Vanishing Assaults’ that lets you approach an opponent instantly and swoop in. I’m sure you’ll love this new option at mid-range, where it’s hard to choose whether to attack from afar or get up close and personal. “We believe these new features will make the battles more Dragon Ball-like and more strategic.”

Dragon Ball: Sparking! ZERO is in development for PlayStation 5, Xbox Series, and PC (Steam). A release date has yet to be announced.

Watch the new trailer and gameplay showcase below. View a new set of screenshots at the gallery.

Power Vs. Speed Trailer

English

Gameplay Showcase

English

Japanese

[aeondeug]

So now that it's been a bit and I've played a lot more of the game it is time for my thoughts on Tears of the Kingdom. I'm not the biggest fan of Breath of the Wild though I've come to appreciate it more over time. It's still a game I've never beat because I generally get bored part way through, though. Similar to other openworld games I've liked. I enjoy playing it but not enough to beat the game and certainly not enough to get all 120 shrines done. This is for a lot of reasons and thankfully TotK has addressed basically all of them.

I suppose the one that most people can agree on is the durability issue. I hated BotW's durability system as it made me afraid to use any of my cooler weapons. TotK's fuse mechanic has mostly solved this issue since I no longer go "But what if I need this?" since I can realistically just make another one and even if I don't have the materials, I likely have access to a zonai device or a consumable that'll have a similar effect if thrown/shot. I think this is not just the fuse power that is achieving this effect. I think it's the mixture of fuse, the throwables, the greater availability of arrows, the zonai devices and things like the grave weapon spawns. There's just such a great variety of ways I can hurt things that I'm no longer afraid of actually using my shit because I feel like I always have access to other things. The combination has beat my anxiety around item use.

The other big area that I wanted improvement on was dungeons and the dungeon quests. This has generally been achieved. The dungeons are better designed than BotW's I feel but most importantly they are different in their theming and have unique bosses per temple. Colgera and Armored Gohma are two very different bosses, not just in looks but in function. Also they feel a lot more traditionally Zelda boss than the Blights did. Because they're little puzzle bosses that you solve that aren't very hard once you do figure out that solution. And the solutions aren't that hard to figure out. I also think they're better spectacles than the Blights? Which is the other thing with Zelda bosses in the 3D games. They're big spectacle set pieces.

Lead ups to the dungeons have felt more varied than BotW's and these have generally been very fun to do. I still haven't done the Zora one but I have done the other three and liked them each quite a bit. My favorite being the Rito one because that's just a very fun little thing to do. I do think the story is very truncated, though. More akin to the amount of story you'd get out of a Ocarina of Time dungeon lead up than a Twilight Princess one. Which is fine. I do ultimately prefer the more story heavy stuff but this is a decent amount of it.

I think my favorite discovery with the dungeons though is that dungeon items and companions are back in a one-two combo. They function differently than they did in the older games and the things are just conveniences when taken out of their respective dungeons but I really, really love that two of my favorite Zelda elements are back. I do think that the method of power activation is awkward, though. I'd far prefer it be a wheel or something. Or like in the next game they remove the fucking horse whistle button and make that the menu for dungeon powers. As is, having to chase Riju down during combat to activate her power kind of sucks ass. I do generally like the powers and the companions though. I especially like how they tie into the final boss (I've only seen phase 1 of this due to dying and being like "Well we're not doing that now").

Variety was another big issue I had and that's thankfully been solved. As in addition to the shrines there's caves. There's also a lot more shrines that have their puzzles solved outside them. Which helps keep the dreaded "I am tired of looking at these fucking walls" feelings at bay. The addition of two different kinds of overworld traversal on top of that is helping too. The sky islands are basically what I wanted Wind Waker's islands to be and they're extremely nice uses of the new traversal tools you have in TotK. And the Depths, while a simple mirroring of the top, do have the light mechanic and the different shaped terrain and gloom to deal with. I do think that more could be done with the Depths, though. It needed more quests associated with it I feel. Maybe a town down there to serve as a hub.

The story is where I am more conflicted. I do prefer this structure to BotW's. There are a lot more discrete steps to the main story. But the cutscenes are still limited basically to just the memories. I would prefer the cutscenes occur during the actual game more, as opposed to some other shit I don't interact with at all. In terms of the actual story itself...I have never been under any impression that Ganondorf or Zelda would be better handled in this game than in past ones. I am extremely fucking disappointed they aren't but I was also expecting this. Ganondorf's just an evil power hungry asshole with little else going on and Zelda is continuing to have to sacrifice herself so Hylia's favorite himbo can do cool shit.

The way Zelda is handled in particular bothers me. I like her story overall but when viewed in context with the entire rest of the franchise and with BotW versus Age of Calamity it's just kind of infuriating. So congratulations WW and TP Zeldas. You are no longer the Zeldas done most dirty. That prize now is awarded to BotW Zelda. Handily. In a series where I have to say that OoT Zelda was one of the more impressively handled ones. When all she did was dress up as a ninja, say cryptic shit and give you songs. I am really kind of Unhappy with this doubling down. Especially when she is walking around with you in the opening bit. Also fucking christ they took her personality away again when she put on the fucking dress. This is a series where any time anyone but Nintendo gets their hands on the property they give her more to do because turns out people really love Zelda. But Nintendo cannot give up on their rigid bullshit.

Overall I do like the story but I am growing increasingly sick of how Zelda is consistently treated.

Let's get back to more positive things...The shrine design is ultimately much better I think. There aren't any that overstay their welcome and, again, many of them have their puzzles done in the overworld. Of the kinds of puzzles you see inside them, I think these are done a lot better. The Proving Grounds in particular fuck. They took the best elements of Eventide Island and replaced the fucking Tests of Strength with something that is actually fun and interesting. The only problem I have with Proving Grounds is that there aren't enough of them. I'm also super happy to see the awful motion control shrines are gone, as are the golf shrines. There are still some physics shrines like the god awful baseball one but these are fewer and far between. And even with the ones that show up their concepts are unique as opposed to "Here's another golf course, asshole". I also think that the way the shrines actually teach you things that are useful outside of them is nice. Both the building shrines and Proving Grounds teach you useful concepts you can make use of in the rest of the game.

Progression through the game I am also finding a lot better for a player like me. I did not work as well with the breadcrumbing method as many others did. So having a lot more things be tied to main story progression and having a lot more things be based around talking to the NPCs is doing a lot for me. This along with the greater amount of shit in the overworld to explore has made it so I'm never struggling to find interesting things to do. This does frustrate other players though and I am wondering if some better method of this can be done in the next game. One that satisfies players like me who need the greater amount of guidance and those who feel very stifled by it.

TotK is thus far one of the most engaging Zelda experiences I've had. And as a diehard for the older Zelda games this has done a lot to help ease me into this new direction for the series. I think if the team can take the things they did well here and keep expanding on this then Zelda is in a very good spot for both varieties of Zelda fan. They do still have a lot of work that needs to be done though. The story's still not quite there yet and the dungeon items can be improved. But this is a very good step forward. Still no double clawshots though so 0/10.

[cigaretterivals]

DSMP Rivals and Fighting Game Archetypes

Also relating to the last post because now I have fighting game brainrot, its been a handful of years since I was more interested in a few of them but I've always been a sucker for the character archetypes

You already have plenty of locations that you can choose from for the maps considering the entire dsmp map is your oyster in that regard. Community house, L'manburg, Las Nevadas, Artic Commune, etc etc you get what I mean. Pandora's Vault could definitely be thrown in there as well and whether its inside or outside would be up to how much room exactly you would need but I think main cell could be feasible imo

I'm not the most WELL versed in the actual specific archetypes, also because some characters are either super niche or feel like they could overlap multiple archetypes (and the websites im looking at are bombarding me with ads) so we're gonna take all this in a lighthearted fun way okay? perfect, anyway

c!Dream is either a rushdown archetype OR hes hit & run. I'm more inclined to say rushdown soley for the fact that Dream feels very much like he would come with a moveset that rewards juggling your opponent with long complicated combos. He would probably have a good reset ability, and his character would be the reason the game has a burst mechanic so that you don't get stuck in an endless loop of getting your ass kicked (unless you get baited into that burst which is the worst thing ever esp when you can practically hear the clown music in the background)

However combos can't last forever, and to keep things fair, his heavy hitters would most likely be something that launches his opponents away from him. Dealing stronger damage, but also giving the opponent a chance to regroup away from his onslaught until rushdown characters do what they do best

I'm inclined to say he probably wouldn't have a projectile move, if it worked with his kit he could have one maaaaaaaybe two as a treat, but for the most part his utility comes out of getting up close and personal. Aka he would not be having a fun time against zoning characters

Special move wise I can't think of many specifics right now, but for almost all of the characters they would probably be references just cause I think that's fun. One of them would have to be related to the revive book because how could it not be, and the others could even be references to some of his best manhunt moments if you're in the camp that believes manhunt is canon to the dsmp (which I personally am)

c!Techno is a bit trickier because his fan interpretation really depends on whether or not you picture him as a hybrid with a more human appearance OR if you go full piglin/hoglin. You could also have your "both is good" moment by having him start off with the more human looking hybrid form and have his Piglin form be one of his special abilities. Going with that version though would most likely make Techno an Install archetype (or even Stance? Listen these ones were too complicated for me in case it wasn't obvious yet I played characters that either hit fast or hit hard)

But Stance or Install aside, I'm a bit torn on his actual moveset/ combo ability. Techno often tanks a lot of hits because he makes up for his physical lack of a shield by use of potions to keep him up and running and increasing his damage output (which could fit into the Stance archetype if he had a move that essentially let him power up by giving him a potion ability? Or would that be more like a Charge character?)

Giving him a secendary archetype after Install/Stance he would probably be a Punisher or Reversal or whatever the archetype is called for when he's stuck in a block chain but the second the opponent fucks up and drops that chain he's able to jump on that oppurtunity and absolutely ruin the other persons day. I also like how it feels like it plays well into his "I shall repay that injustice a thousand times over." general vibe. Not a defensive fighting style, but one that does play more into countering an ongoing attack vs being the one immediately on the offensive. While his combos would deal a lot of damage, to balance that out I would say he doesn't have good juggle/reset ability so he eventually needs to back off to recoup and wait for his next moment of oppurtunity.

Special moves again not really sure, like the most my brain can come up with right now is him absolutely chucking a human sized potato into his opponent. Other than that his 3-5 meter special could also be wither related

c!Tubbo is a zoner you can't tell me that little shit is not spamming the HELL out of the stage with bombs and mini nukes and bees and who knows what else tell me I'm wrong.

If I get more fighting game thoughts for any of the other characters I'll probably be back but thats all for now k thanks <3

[badassbarmaid]

My initial thoughts on Rebirth.

Disclaimer: I shouldn't have to do this but I know how toxic the fandom has become in some ways, so know this is my opinion only, you don't have to agree or disagree, and I'm not here to say anyone who feels differently is less than. I'm just sharing my own thoughts as I process what I experienced playing through the game the first time.

I'm going to first go over what I loved about this game.

The world building. I was blown away with how large and complex each village/town/city was. Kalm, Corel, Costa Del Sol, Under Junon, Nibelheim...these were tiny little areas in the OG. I was in awe as we entered the spaces, got introduced to so many new characters and side stories, it was wonderful. This approach made me fall in love with Cosmo Canyon especially. This historical and regional intel quests have been amazing, too, in that it gives so much more inside into this universe. I'm still working through the side content to expand on this, but so far, I have been really enjoying the storytelling. Also - chocobo riding is SO FUN.

The characterizations. Just like in Remake, we get personalities for all the characters, main and NPC. Even for the glimpses we get of Cid and Vincent, I love how they are portrayed and make you already drawn into who they are and how they could fit into the story in part 3. This game made me really enjoy Yuffie and Cait Sith especially - characters I mostly ignored in the OG because I didn't like their personalities or gameplay mechanics. The smaller characters, from townsfolk in Nibelheim, other rebels in Junon, the GI tribe, or even the Black Robes...it's all so interesting and complex. I loved it. Getting the chance to see Myrna, Ifalna, Zangan, and even Tifa's father...peak narrative writing right there.

The relationship building among the main cast. I also loved how deep the primary relationships got among the characters. We see bestie scenes with Tifa and Aerith, bonding between Barret and Cloud, Nanaki and Aerith...it's all so real and deep and funny. The banter is hilarious, especially where Yuffie is involved or Cait Sith, but not obnoxious.

The additions to the battle system. I really like the synergy combinations. I thought that was a fun new mechanic and really makes you want to flesh out your parties. I also really like that they make you split off into different party combos throughout the story, which forces you to play with everyone but not so much that it hinders anything. Now as I am in post game, I'm really having fun swapping people in and out, unlike during the OG when I kept it to really only a core party.

The easter eggs to the OG. I loved the Fort Condor minigame/3D brawler nod to the polygon vibes. The hints to different areas of the OG game we haven't seen yet, the music choices, the direct lines. It's so evident that the developers wanted it feeling like we were going into our old stomping grounds, but with some new tweaks and twists, much like Remake. I'm going to enjoy seeing more as I do more of the sidequests.

The balance of the "romance". Of course we all know I am a cloti fan, but i think they did a good job balancing it all out throughout the game/ The first half is very Tifa heavy, the second half is more Aerith heavy, but it shows the complexities of these relationships and that they aren't cut and dry. Now, I will say though that it does seems to be tipped more in Tifa's favor, but I personally find that making more sense overall, but that's me. Independent of my own preferences, I think they did a good job not shoving one over the other in the main story.

I LOVED being able to play as Zack and have him and Cloud fight together, as brief as it was, because it was just so nice to see.

Okay, now onto the things I have concerns/qualms/issues with.

The pacing was rough at times. We would go through stretches of heavy, dense plot, to random long bouts of minigames. It was jarring at points in the story and seemed out of place besides Gold Saucer (Costa Del Sol, the moogle houses, the Queen's Blood game, etc. seemed odd). While I love minigames, it felt bloated. Clearly they needed filler in the game to make up for not doing the whole story plot.

It pulled a FF15 with plugging in characters and plot that required you to know the side stories like homework before playing. While I played Intergrade, I never played Ever Crisis/First Soldier so despite doing my research, I'm still confused over Glenn and that whole side plot. I felt for people who didn't play those games too, or if someone hadn't experienced Yuffie's DLC.

The ending was convoluted and confusing. It's evident that this game knew it was a middle child, so I knew there would be no resolution, but I am so confused by their narrative choices. The fusion of worlds? Aerith may be dead or may not be dead? Zack is still bouncing between realities? While I didn't know if I wanted Aerith killed off or saved, the fact that we don't have a committed decision on it and it's now vague...I don't like that.

The lack of reaction by characters to bizarre behavior. I know I wasn't the only one confused by the fact that Cloud would very obviously act out of character and folks seemed ignorant of it, beyond a few comments. He slaughtered people, spoke unlike himself, and nearly killed Tifa and Aerith, yet no one really bat an eye to it. On top of that, when Sephiroth did appear to more than just Cloud, folks didn't seem to react much at all to it. There were times in the last few chapters of the game that my partner (who watched me play) was very much like what the fuck?! It's one thing to have but muted in the OG because they had limitations...but this was just strange.

The buggy mechanics suck. I wish I could stick to chocobos; I hate navigating the buggy; the controls are just god awful for me. The load in and out time is long, it's hard to make turns or even stop, and I can never tell what terrain i can actually go on or not.

The puzzle mechanics also suck. I hated the sequence as Cait Sith in the ShinRa manor and the Temple of the Ancients. I felt like they were tedious or confusing and also bloated the story out too much.

Ultimately, I loved the game. I like the story choices, the music, the visuals, the exploration....as someone that has loved this story since I was 10 when it came out, I am very happy with it overall and will be replaying it a few times to catch everything I missed.

My partner said it best when he alluded that this has Nomura all over it. I hope the third game answers these questions and gives us a proper and committed resolution, whatever it may look like.

[scharfkugel]

Thanks for asking me about uni2! What did you think about it yourself?

- founvencha

Astute followers will know this already from a salty tag-rant I made some time ago when I rbed a post from @ohwyrd, but tl;dr is that I think the story of uni2 was a giant disappointment, especially when you compare it to what we had in uni1. Majority of the arcade modes are boring, convoluted, plot ass-pulls, or all three at once. There is a very small select few that are genuinely interesting and cool but eventually I found myself playing the arcade modes just to 'get them out of the way' so I could say I'd done them.

This is a very common opinion in the uni fandom, but one I came to myself as someone who is very much a fan of visual novels, but the lack of chronicle mode/VN story was an enormous loss.

However to speak on a positive note, the gameplay is top tier as always and has never been better. Rollback (shitty as it might be) makes the game finally playable with my friends and I'm finding uni2 to be what I would confidently say is the 2nd best fighting game I've ever played (#1 will always be Melty Blood Actress Again sorry uni fans). French Bread never misses on making god tier system mechanics, characters, and combo structure. In this sense, I don't regret my purchase because I am primarily playing this for the gameplay and I got what I wanted out of my money.

[elliewiltarwyn]

for the meme!: Top 5 Jobs (ICly and/or what you prefer to play)

this was harder than I thought, considering that if I like a job I tend to bend my own personal canon to make it work in-character -- like Ellie picked up reaper because deep down she knew she wanted to go head-to-head with Zenos on his own terms. but that doesn't mean it's actually still what I prefer to play, either, so it got weird. I decided to make this about which job I like playing most in each role...though I am pretty bad at ranged and caster. and healer. I have a very obviously in-your-face playstyle, I'm pretty sure.

at any rate!

-------------------------

Tank: Dark Knight

i have. exulted quite a bit about dark knight in these answers lmao. but part of the reason i love it so much is because I genuinely have a blast playing it. It feels big and powerful, it feels risky, it really nails the feel of making yourself bleed to protect your comrades. The burst phase when you just throw absolutely everything you have at the enemy is an incredibly satisfying, violent rampage. They made it an ability to call upon your dark twin to help you in combat, and I've mentioned how much of a sucker I am for dark twin shit. Blackest Night, imo, is the most rewarding "super shield" tank ability. And post-buff, I'd argue Living Dead is the best invuln.

plus you know, everything about the entire storyline and Esteem and the image of playing through Shadowbringers in this job. it's all just so good. Immensely satisfying to play and is probably the best at fulfilling its "job fantasy" for me.

2. Melee: Monk

I always like the hand-to-hand characters or movesets in fantasy settings; there's something very appealing to me about facing a bunch of fantastic supernatural beings and just punching them in the face. That said, I actually had several false starts with FFXIV before it finally hooked me about... four years ago. Every one of those times I picked pugilist as my starting class, got frustrated by never being able to hit positionals (it was because i was using lockon. why does the lockon in this game exist lmao.), and would give up. Once I was finally properly playing, I pushed through leveling pugilist into monk and thought it was... alright, but felt incredibly high-strung, like they were putting in more effort to do the same damage. Then Endwalker completely reworked the kit.

They lowered the level requirements for the chakra moves, making them actually fun and usable long before Stormblood. They made Greased Lightning a constant trait instead of having to struggle to keep it up so your GCD wasn't ass. They added the Masterful Blitz mechanic to dial in combos that end with kickass finishers. They... didn't give it any new buttons for the actual 80-90 level range that EW covered, but that was okay because I was suddenly having way more fun working this rotation than almost anything else in the whole game. It's either tied with or above DRK for my absolute favorite to play, because it's fun, rewards skilled play, and I get to do DBZ shit and zip all over to kick my enemies into oblivion. Plus, I'm doing almost as much damage as my co-melee in my static who uses the hanzo steel of a samurai, but I'm using my bare fists. It rules.

(not really a fan of the storyline, though. hence why canonically Ellie trains with Lyse instead of Erik and Widargelt. :V)

3. Healer: Sage

I kinda feel bad that I started as a conjurer, and yet I am by far worse at healing than any other role. At least with White Mage you can kinda get away with spamming Medica II through most of the MSQ, but y'know... that's pretty boring. Pretty effective, and I'd still probably prefer WHM if I ever attempted to heal high-end content, but I'd struggle.

Sage though, I have an absolute blast playing even if I'm not necessarily being a great healer. The aesthetic rules and can pretty easily be written as magitek-y: hence, Mia canonically can use Sage even though she's Garlean and can't usually do a caster job. I love flipping Eukrasia to activate powerful energy shields, even though it also means one more button press than all the other healers to apply the DoT. I love zapping dudes with Gundam-esque funnels and having that channel heals to whoever I want, I love throwing out Physis+Kerachole before a big raidwide, or Krasis+Haima onto the tank before a buster. I even kinda love that it really encourages you to be constantly using your Addersgall pips to help manage your MP. It makes high demands kinda like monk did pre-EW, but for some reason it's a lot more fun as sage. Maybe because of all the sick twists and dramatic pointing you do while firing lasers from Gundam funnels.

I always forget Holos exists though. I have no idea why.

4. Caster: Red Mage

look, the more red you wear, the more damage you do as red mage. it's scientific. Ellie's favorite color is red, idk how obvious it is. :V

Canonically, I don't think any of my WoLs actually use this. But of the three current casters, RDM strikes the best balance for me of a complex rotation with rewarding mechanics, balancing black and white levels and trying to keep them unsynced so you can keep properly proccing your real attacks, without being overly-demanding like Black Mage or sort of basic with not much room for variations like Summoner (I'm sorry SMN mains! I do like SMN! it's really good for me when I'm having a bad brain day, which is frequent. >.>). You also get to completely save disaster runs with instant-rezzes and double heals, and then never get any comms for it! /eyetwitch

And above all else, it's stylish as fuck to the extent that I kinda wish I had the physical ability to try fencing.

5. Ranged: Dancer

Funny, I actually thought I was going to choose MCH because gun, but then I thought about what actually satisfies me the most to play, and... it's massively buffing the whole party and then just whaling on every button on your hotbar that lights up, and suddenly I understand how people get addicted to like, pachinko and such games. But seriously, it's fun, it's stylish, the rotation's easy to pick up, you get to feel good about making a buddy do mega damage, and you get to make big damage numbers yourself (I mean obviously it's because of how long it takes to activate the dances but damn it's still satisfying to see that many numbers).

I haven't remotely figured out how, but I do want Lily to canonically pick up and use Dancer. You look like you're having fun when you dance on the battlefield, and Lily deserves good things like having fun in the middle of combat.

and now you're way too familiar with how I play this game. :3 thanks for the prompt, @viiioca!!

[eldritchmochi]

A N T for that alphabet ask game

A - Ships that you currently like a lot. (They don’t have to be OTPs because not everyone has OTPs.) Friendships, pairings, threesomes, etc. are allowed.

okay uuuuh i mean, obviously shadowgast i have only written like 300k of it in the past few years. im also quite the fan of ashrym/dashrym and callowmore (tho i like my callowmore on the platonic side personally). i will happily make the dirt wizards kiss ANYONE i do have a widomauk fic in the works and i have an idea for a caleb/yussa fic percolating and theres that one porny art by newt with c3 era caleb paired with ashton and orym that im just :lasereyes: yes i will one day write something for it i stg. also fun fact my First Ship for cr was beauyasha like, ep one. i got like 30 seconds into their first interaction and immediately texted cherry at like two am like PLEASE TELL ME THEYRE A SHIP and lo, they were cannon fucking incredible

outside of cr.... stucky, my beloved, especially with skinny steve because i love that sickly twink; big brother hobie creating Situations for gwen and miles (its hard being wingman to two people when you want them to kiss each other and also theyre idiots); kylux, obvs; rey/finn/poe/rose in basically any combination (i wish i didnt have One Hyperfixation Only type adhd because i would LOVE to write my rey/finn/rose idea where rey and rose are mechanics and finn is having car trouble and then they double team him in the office dont ask me why they have straps in the filing cabinet this is pwp); with hs at one point i would literally randomly generate pwp ideas. i didn't often finish them but it was a good exercise especially in characterization but i was mostly read davekat, daverose, any combo of erisolkat, and davejohn because i fukken pavlov'd myself into liking the ship lmao

shit this is gonna get long here is a read more

N - Name three things you wish you saw more or in your main fandom (or a fandom of choice).

hhhh i am so sorry if this sounds mean but the bulk of why i dont read a ton of cr fic when i was constantly devouring kylux fic largely boils down to two things

1. the technical stuff is eeh and 2. there is just not a ton of nuance in characterization or plot

both results in me being perpetually frustrated whenever i try to read most of what i open. theres been some gems!! theres also been a lot of stuff with promise where i can tell in a couple years the writer will knock it out of the park!!! but theres also a god awful amount where i'm just like that is not how dicks work lmao

i am sure a lot of that is because the cr fandom skews a lot younger than kylux (where folks are like 20-30 on average instead of 35-50 kinda younger) plus cr has a LOT of esl speakers compared to kylux whereas a TON of kyluxers have degrees in literature or library science, so like, it makes sense that there's a difference, but it still drive me bonkers that i cant just open a fic and read it without closing it halfway through because its too one note :I

T - Do you have any hard and fast headcanons that you will die defending? 

nope!! i am very ship and let ship in all regards. there are many things i enjoy (like short!essek or the idea that caleb would and probably has made out with all of his friends) that crop up repeatedly across my fic but i'm down for basically any good faith interpretation and i LOVE when someone writes a weird headcannon so well i have to steal it

there are many letters left of this ask meme if anyone else wants to send me a q!! pls enrich the mochi this is fun

[semifinel]

January - 2023

Games

High on life- not funny, not novel, pretty boring, enjoyable enough to finish once you get around the end but was about so close to dropping it a few hours in.

I don’t know if it makes sense but instead of being subversive it’s superficially subversive. It’s like “look at us we’re doing stuff differently” (this might be a direct quote) for all of like 2 seconds before going back to being the blandest shit I ever played. The 2 seconds aren’t even cool.

Tunic- deserves a game award, made me pull out sticky notes to decipher secrets. But it’s a wonderful game even if you don’t engage with the secrets (but they are amazing and you should). Talked several peoples ear off about it and will maybe do it again. I don’t know if I can add any praise that hasn’t been said before me. This game rocks.

Road 96- I saw a review calling it “it’s as if a taletell game didn’t want to waste your time” and honestly (as a taletell games fan) I see what they mean.

It’s fun, it’s intriguing, having to find a new way to escape each chapter, interacting with the characters and discovering the story that is happening around you- all were interesting.

I liked how locations felt very open sometimes. Some scenes are basically cutscenes where you have very little choice. While other are more open location where you can explore backrooms and get rewarded with resources for your journey.

As a game who prides itself on being on being procedurally generated you’d think it would lend itself for replayability but second time around I was bored going through mostly same scenes as my first playthough. Even with the selecting different options they would mostly got he same way, made me wish there was more option I could do sometimes but it’s a game and can’t let me do everything ever so I don’t blame them for that.

If found- a queer story wonderfully told with an interesting mechanic, beautiful art style and music. I am the target audience for this and I enjoyed it lots.

Story hit me hard, the eraser mechanic surprisingly kept me focused while being just like wonderful way to keep the story moving, especially with how it was used to transition certain scenes.

The credits song slaps hard.

And the Ireland trivia is very cool actually.

Hi Fi rush- for the lack of a better term, it’s so fucking cringe. The most uninspired story and cast, every cliche and trope ever rolled around into one painful story. They try to use like jokes that make no sense and then they are like “isn’t it funny that it doesn’t make sense” - no it’s not

It’s as if they wanted to recreate the feel of Deadpool 2013 game only the main character is the most main insufferable anime boy character also the year is 2023 and nobody told the writers.

They had one good joke and it’s in the trailer and it’s about the writers of the game and not a ingame thing. The trailer starts with *freezeframe* “you gotta be wondering how I got myself here” and it kept going about the same level of humor.

Game mechanics wise it’s actually interesting and even fun! Chaining combos to the rhythm of a beat is actually cool (even if I kinda suck at it). I wish it was in a different game tho. Why can I guess every characters whole deal without hearing them. Why is there a character who’s just a jojo reference and the reference is look he does poses and got Japanese letter floating around? Why is the only time that I felt joy about the story in game is when the main character got hit so he shut the fuck up. At least the naming conventions of chracters is fun. If I could play this game on mute just so I didn’t need to hear the story I would but it’s a rhythm game so :/

Movies

Puss in boots- slaps, watch it

Glass onion- slaps, watch it

Predestination- it was a rewatch and honestly it’s not only fun cause you can see all the hints and joke they drop early before you know the twist that would go over your head. But it’s also fun since I watched it with a bunch of people who never watched it before and seeing them trying to guess what’s going on and then figure it out in real time was a blast. Span off my favorite in joke of the day with that group.

Akira- I can see why it’s a certified classic. I don’t know why there is a man having a asthma attack as a leitmotif in the soundtrack but it slaps.

Disclosure- been told by my friend I should watch it, I watched it, I would have watched it earlier, you should watch it.

Shows

Mob psycho s1- I’m rewatching it (watched season 1 and 2 and want to remember all before I go into season 3) as a watch party with friends and I’m having a blast. Missed my boy my son.

The last of us- so far- I could talk how it reignited my love for it, and how I forgot how cool is the specific way they made zombies, and how much I missed all the creature design. But episode 3 just came out and I’m weak. Good adaptation I was skeptical before it came out (I mean a video game adaptation,, you know how it usually goes down) and also didn’t get why does it need to exist. However good show so far love it love it love it.

[jones-friend]

Jones, i am lookikg for recommendations for deck building gamesa. Im q fan of Cryptozoic (specifically the dc one but they are all designed to work together), Ascension, and Slay the Spire. Basically I'm looking something to capture the feel of booster draft without having to buy packs everytime or build a cube. Any good recommendations?

There’s a number of good ones!

The grandaddy of all deckbuilders is Dominion. If you enjoy reconfiguring your deck and forming a strategy nearly all deckbuilders afterwards take inspiration from its mechanics. It’s solid through and through, easy to onboard new people with mechanical depth to keep your interest. It’s also loaded with expansions.

I would also make special mentions to Res Arcana and its expansions. Res Arcana is a game where we’re all wizards using magical artifacts to claim places of power and monuments to reach a threshold of victory points the fastest. It has a draft variant with mechanics similar to combo building with magic the gathering. You want to see the interactions between your cards and how they produce resources that work together, and with expansions the draft variant for Res Arcana has been an absolute delight.

Now if you’re looking for DRAFT specifically there’s lots of games that utilize draft as a game. 7 Wonders is fantastic for it. Like Dominion it’s got simplicity and depth letting you introduce people to it easy.

Flourish is another good drafter with some interesting bits on how your hand doesn’t get passed around, with scoring relying on your neighbors’ gardens making you consider what cards you leave over their garden wall.

Sushi Go is also a very solid and easy drafting game. More experienced players might lose interest, but Sushi Go Party can host 8 people and doesn’t slow down for it. And the art is cute as fuck.

I’m also going to recommend Wingspan to you. It’s an engine building game with delightful bird art, and while it doesn’t have straight deck building or booster drafting you are playing bird cards down to form engines so when you pick different actions you set off chains of actions to play more efficiently. It’s good fun with three expansions out!