#im a bit underleveled

[trixibebe]

Assorted Zhao in You Tian screencaps for no reason.

[arkhavens]

whos brilliant fucking idea was it to make all flashpoints(including, ya know SOLO ONES) reset entirely if you disconnect at all? bc i just wanna talk

[greetingsfromuranus]

I finally beat grigori in dragons dogma that was wayyy to easy

Maybe I shouldn't have pulled up as a level 65 magic archer shit is overpowered

[jils-things]

pkmn soulsilver babbles c:

i have reached the tag limit writing my thoughts help. im not even done but ig ill just leave it at that AHAHSHSHSH

[ragnar0c]

I fr be playing etrian odyssey games too fast. Why is my guild on floor 4 on emperor 8th? No wonder we are getting our asses beat! Slow DOWN!

[taffy-glitch]

FINISHED THRONÉ'S STORY!!! now i can finally take her out of my party for a little bit lol

[ajdrawshq]

also uh before i sleep. was anyone gonna tell me i can fight the p3 and p4 protags in the velvet room for funsies or

[zarafey]

Me 2 days ago: yeah sure I'll try out this endgame mode i just unlocked, my characters are a bit underleveled and everything but ill be happy if i at least get some of the early sage rewards! :)

Me now, constantly getting stuck at the last phase of the last boss with 25% hp left: WHY WON'T YOU DIEEEE

[comet-frog]

skill battles still pretty fun woo

[sexhaver]

ive been playing Cassette Beasts for a minute and it never stops being funny to me how flagrant they are about making this "Pokemon but with features you didn't know Pokemon has always needed". off the top of my head:

super effective/NVE hits have added benefits/debuffs beyond just doubling/halving the damage (hitting Electric types with Ground reduces their evasion and speed, hitting Steel types with Poison gives them poison-coated spikes that do contact damage, etc)

legally-distinct-Pokemon will learn new moves while in your party without having to battle, and you can then straight up steal these moves from them and put them on a not-Pokemon you actually care about using, which gives an actual incentive to hunt down and raise otherwise fringe not-mons beyond completing the not-Pokedex

we all played the Pokemon Infinite Fusion fangame right? we know how fusions work? okay so this game has them as temporary per-battle things instead of permanent ones, which is only marginally less cool while being infinitely easier to balance around

attempting to catch something shows you the percentage chance of success so you know whether you just got unlucky or if you should save your Pokeballs-i-mean-blank-cassette-tapes

leveling up is tied to your not-trainer instead of your not-pokemon, so you don't end up in the classic trap where your starter is way overleveled and everything else is underleveled and then you hit a fight your starter can't solo and have to spend an hour grinding to get the weaker not-mons up to par (funnily enough most Pokemon Nuzlocke romhacks have already figured this out and give you infinite rare candies with the only restriction being that you can't level past the next gym leader's ace pokemon, because Pokemon fans have realized that grinding is the worst part of the game way before Game Freak has)

moves, not-Pokeballs, not-PokeCenter visits, and healing items are all bought using entirely separate currencies which stops you from trivially breaking the economy in half

the soundtrack, fittingly, is pretty good! the vocals were a bit much for my taste but there's an option in the settings menu to straight up turn them off (letting the BGM play on its own), which i've never seen in any other game and really appreciate

downsides:

on a game design level, i understand why can i only carry a max of 5 not-Potions and 1 not-Revive at a time - it's to put a limit on how far away from fast travel points i can get by just running away from everything and healing off damage. on a gameplay level, however, this feels pretty bad

the pixel art style is trying to look as much like Pokemon as possible without actually being Pokemon so the overworld sprites look more like beta stuff from Pokemon that they cut for looking too weird. i have yet to find a haircut that doesn't look bad

this is super petty of me but something about the bloom and lighting of the 3d environments combined with pixelated 2d sprites that still cast shadows makes me painfully aware im playing a video game. it's like they were going for the same aesthetic as Octopath Traveler but fell just barely short. i can't think of a better way to articulate this feeling but if you know you know

it does that really obnoxious half-assed style of voice acting where plot-relevant characters will sometimes (maybe every third or fourth textbox) speak the first two or three words of dialogue before trailing off. mashing through textboxes (as one does) means constantly getting jumpscared by "hmm"s and "haha!"s "okay then!"s

i get that they wanted to make the player feel involved in the story, and it has a pretty decent hook so far, but oh my god. the amount of dialogue "choices" that just transparently do not matter. you know how people memed on Fallout 3 and 4's dialogue choices all leading to the same outcome, to the extent that you were basically choosing between "yes" and "yes (rude)"? and you know how Bethesda would at least attempt to justify how both options led to you accepting the quest anyways, even if it was really dumb? Cassette Beasts has streamlined this process even further by making the options in most of their binary decisions so identical that they don't even require different followup dailogue before rejoining into the main conversation thread. a solid 2/3rds of the dialogue options in this game so far feel like checks that you're still awake. i know this is a minor issue because people aren't playing Pokemon-likes for the engaging "choices matter" approach to storytelling, and i did ignore it at first, but it's so pervasive that you really can't ignore it

[codexbrainhasbrokenfree]

Hey Codex!!!! :> Hope yer doin' well, dude

Wanted to know yer first thoughts and if ya have any opinions on Nanba's betrayal to the ichi-gang?

(only if yer comfortable talkin abt this sorta shit, Ik sm people may not want to talk abt betrayal)

HIIII im doing well thanks!

Nanba's betrayal is one of my FAVORITE moments of the game!! Each time I replayed/watched someone else play the game, Im always excited to reach that part (which is around Ch7 : The Spider's Web and Ch8 : Bleached Black I believe?) because the emotional bits never miss, and I think this is THE moment when the ichigang stops feeling like a group of acquaintances who ended up together because of circumstances, and starts feeling like the ULTIMATE friend group, a family, or a polycule (pick one).

(There's no way this shit isn't going to be absurdly long so I'm putting a Read More here. Let's see if I can keep this spoiler-free too)

First and foremost, before talking about the impact of the betrayal on the characters and story, I want to talk about how it impacts the gameplay, and why I think removing Nanba from the party is a genius idea.

Nanba is a fascinating party member to me because he is SO USEFUL at the beginning of the game, because he is one of the only characters able to cast healing spells AND ALSO the first healer character the party gets (and also the fact he teams up with Ichiban and Adachi, both characters archetypes that greatly benefit from a healer in the team), but because his base stats are simply just the lowest of the entire team, he quickly becomes sub-optimal to play once Joongi and Zhao join the team.

But my point is that, at Ch7-8, Nanba is almost THE PILLAR of the team! Even once Saeko joins the team, Nanba's role doesn't change from the appointed healer of the group (mainly because his spell Healing Powder is a character skill and thus stays available no matter what job Nanba takes)! Even if the player chooses to give Saeko the Idol job, which is a choice I saw my brother take during his playthrough, it may make the absence of Nanba a lot more manageable, but Saeko's very low base HP and defense makes her a lot more difficult to keep alive than Nanba. Not to mention the fact that Saeko was only introduced in Ch5 : The Liumang Man, and didn't always stayed in the team, so the player is bound to be less familiar with her character and her unique jobs than they are for Nanba, who was introduced in Ch3 : The Town at Rock Bottom at a time where Ichiban/the player had NO OTHER ALLIES and thus had to rely a lot on his new found friend (which is also an amazing way to convey Ichiban's feelings towards Nanba and lead the player to feel as strong of an attachement to Nanba as him).

But even without all of this, if I wanted to be concise about it (which i don't), Nanba leaving the team simply amputates the group of one party member, forcing the player to only play with 3 characters (or 4, if they put some time in Ichiban Confections and unlocked Eri, but in that case the player would be playing with 3 characters, and an underleveled Eri with no equipped gear and with a weird unknown job that DOESN'T heal allies), and only this fact makes his absence impactful in the way the game is played and felt by the player.

And a similar manner, when he comes back near the end of Ch8, he has a new ability which is very likely to be the first Essence the player has (aside from Essence of Mayhem). This further enhances the euphoric feeling the player gets once Nanba gets back in the team.

From a narrative standpoint, the betrayal is a lot more complex to talk about.

I think the idea of making the initial betrayal feel kind of trivial (Nanba at that point has ONLY lied about his motivations to follow Ichiban) is a great excuse to display Nanba's low self-esteem as well as Ichiban's unrelenting loyalty towards the ones he loves. The triviality of the initial lie makes it all the more satisfying when Ichiban clearly states that it doesn't change anything to his friendship with Nanba, and seeing Nanba deeming himself unworthy of Ichiban's trust because of it is a nice way to contrast the two character's philosophies on trust and friendship, as well as establishing an arc for Nanba's character that isn't exactly revolving around "learning not to betray people", but more so around "learning to forgive himself and see himself worthy of love". Which I believe to be a nice twist on the regular betrayal plot we usually see in fictions akin to Y7.

With that starting point, the evolution of the betrayal into something increasingly worthy of the word "betrayal" (it started with an insignifficant lie, but then Nanba allied himself with Bleach Japan, who were in cahoots with Mabuchi, which led him to help them raid the Geomijul's HQ, resulting in their destruction) truly feels like a downward spiral for Nanba! And the most interesting thing for me concerning Nanba's actions in these chapters, is that he doesn't feel forced to keep pursuing his goal against the rest of the ichigang because of some cognitive dissonance or true conviction that he is in the right, but because he wants them to hate him. Because he believes himself to be a bad friend to them, he keeps giving them more and more reasons to despise him.

Which is why his betrayal and mini-redemption arc never felt cheap to me, because the problem never was Nanba's actions (i mean, they WERE bad, but they weren't the root of the issue), but instead an internal struggle he had to get through, and that he managed in a very bad way. Yeah it is messy and kinda over-dramatized objectively speaking, but from Nanba's perspective everything he does and all of his reactions make sense, which is what i find the most important in any story ; to make the situation makes sense for the characters, even if it seems weird for the player.

Because of this, I really really REALLY like everything surrounding Nanba's betrayal in Y7. Not only does it give the player a more personal objective to pursue during a time in the game where the plot slows down a bit because of exposition (the Ijin Three's alliance's revelation and Aoki's introduction takes a lot of time and makes the story slow down considerably), but it also explores major character traits of two main characters, Ichiban and Nanba. And for that, I think that all of the small flaws this story arc has can easily be overlooked for the great qualities it offers ^^ also, i could talk about him here as well because Nanba's betrayal was directly linked to him : Shoichi Nanba is a fascinating character to think about for me.

Sure we don't ever see him in-game, but that is ALREADY something worth discussing! Do you know another character whose face we never see in-game, who is one of the main character's sibling? YEAH the only time we saw something similar to this, as far as I can tell, is with Yuko and Nishiki! WHY ON EARTH is Nanba's brother treated like Nishiki's sister?? is there a PARALLEL to be read here?? or am I just overthinking things?????

and in both cases, the unseen sibling is mainly used as a motivation for the main character to become the "bad guy of the story... Maybe it was done on purpose, maybe it wasn't, but the similarities are there and anyone can read into them now!

I think it would be kind of nice to read a parallel between Nishiki & Yuko and Nanba & Shoichi, because we know for a fact Ichiban is meant to be both a parallel to Kiryu (he's the new protagonist, he's called "the new dragon" and his irezumi is a callback to Kiryu's dragon) AND Nishiki (he shares a voice actor with him, he is the least favorite child of his father figure and his irezumi is ALSO a callback to Nishiki's, kind of like a fusion between Nishiki's koi and Kiryu's dragon), so for Nanba to be some kind of parallel to Nishiki could potentially be very satisfying considering his relationship to Ichiban.

After all, Ichiban DID say about Nanba that ""Friend" doesn't even begin to describe him". So maybe he views him as some sort of brother? I can't tell for sure regarding the japanese version because i don't speak japanese, but i think it's interesting in the japanese version to see how many times Ichiban calls Nanba "bro" during their discussions compared to any other characters. It makes sense, after all, that both of them would eventually see each other as brothers, as they both met each other at a time when they both believed their brother to be dead. Anyway. Not to bring any conversation back to HIM hehe

And regarding Shoichi, it is kinda crazy to realize that Nanba is the only member of the ichigang who actually SOLVED his family problems! He found back his brother, who was alive and happy. Unbelievable luck for a guy in a group full of people who either lost their siblings or are forever blacklisted from their lives! This little detail makes Nanba's pessimistic attitude within the group all the more interesting to think about, because he IS the luckiest one of them all, and yet he truly doesn't act like it... maybe because he cannot believe his luck? Maybe because deep inside him, he's still not persuaded that he deserves this place surrounded by people he loves? Maybe.

[quenthel]

anyway i beat all of bg3 yesterday on honor mode but i died a few times so yk no chivo. The only two fights that gave me trouble were the gith inquisitor and dueling orin. i did both of those things in a sub optimal way tho (dueling orin is harder than just fighting her but i love durge shit and the inquisitor you can go back in act2 to get him but i did it underleveled. overall it was a very fun experience bc having only one save meant i had to live with my choices and fuckups so i saw some new stuff. very nice for roleplay reasons too. the combat on the other hard was not nearly hard enough imo like i managed almost everything without reading up on what the new boss abilities are easily. like a run like this imo should be juust a little bit more challenging. but also this game is not hard at all ig compared to other crpgs.

My biggest regrets are killing Minthara on accident (so i couldnt see her storyline once again...), killing the Owlbear Cub (bc the ogres i summoned aggroed it) and Rolan dying to Lorroakan (he like one shot him first round). Otherwise it was like a perfect run where i did everything very well and i got the endings i was going for for everyone pretty much.

idk if i want to touch the game anymore tho and im a bit exhausted by most of the fan discussions around the game too... eventho i really love the parts of it i do love and i see a lot of cool art. ah well

[the-mighty-mittens]

Im only partway through end roll (3rd night I think? I'm stuck on the tree lady fight, I think I might be a bit underleveled oops) but I had the urge to draw Russel (tbh, I think he's growing on me just a little)

(cw/ tw: needles)

He's just a quirky guy

I haven't been able to play for a little while but now that I think about it I think the medication was changing color? It was orange last time I checked but I swear it was pinkish the first time, I could be crazy though.

I think this whole experiment is pretty messed up, especially using it on a literal child. I also dislike the lady calling Russel a "deranged maniac" every morning. But I wonder if, by calling him a deranged maniac and throwing all the stuff he's done onto me without much other info about his personality, the game is trying to dehumanize him in a way? Maybe to make the player care less about him? To make him care less about himself? Idk

Earlier I said I think he knows what he's done and doesn't care, (based on his diary stating he doesn't feel guilty), but I'm not entirely sure if that's the case now? I still don't know, I don't think it's like in Omori where Sunny just forgets, but I feel like I was maybe a little too quick to judge the kid.

[boyswillbedogz]

dog rambles about pokemon PLEASE ask me about pokemon im so normal pls

LYCANROC is my lowest level main pokemon as he is so recently evolved. i have a midnight lycanroc twice his level, but the minute i got my paws on a rockruff with Own Tempo i couldnt resist having my all time fave pokemon. might name him chester after the cheetos mascot.

SMAMEY is named aftee one of my friends who really likes garchomp! he’s my highest level pokemon and quite strong and tanks damage like a brick fucking wall

SNURK is also pretty new and i need to patch up his stats but but Noivern is ine of my all time favorite pokemon and pretty useful :3

FENTANYL was my starter pokemon and my main for a very long time. i am deeply attatched to this silly little weed cat, whose a strong pokemon and has accompanied me for many many battles.

F1NN was my first eeveelution (i now have all but flareon uwu) and i love his cute little face from the bottom of my soul. its also just rlly useful to have a fairy type imo. yes hes named after F1nnst5r, at the time i got F1nn i was watching more and more of them and yknow,,, trans colors. i got him at like lv50 wayy before i was ready and i remember jumping up and down in excitement lol.

DAISY is probably my strongest pokemon! he’s named after a TMA character. Daisy is my second oldest main pokemon, and i got him while i was wayy underleveled. lucario was my fave pokemon as a puppy so im pretty attatched and also Daisy’s just a good pokemon!

most of my eeveelutions are swapins (equally leveled pokemon i sometimes switch out during important battles to use type matchups to my advantage) but i also have dual types for the same rzn. i also have a couple i just keep for sentiment or cuteness, like my dashbun m0ist (named after a youtuber yeh) who was one of my first pokemon and the first pokemon i ever evolved. obv ive caught more pokemon than i have but i released the ones i dont use or want for organization.

i have all my gym badges, all the titan badges, and all the team star base badges (yay!) and 40hrs playtime (for reference i got the game on may 5th but only started playing any time other than weekends on the 15th) idrc to fill up the pokedex, i like the battling & story aspects. might make my team as furries for the bit

[sadlazzle]

still thinkin abt elden ring .. do u think im a lil underleveled for raya lucaria rn ?? or should i keep wandering for a bit n jst dong some random bosses in ~ the wild ~

[narzissenkreuz-ordo]

ok so

ardyn fight? sexy as hell. a bit anti climatic at the end but i was out of any sort of healing potions so i will TAKE IT (i went in. very underleveled i think)

the chapter title 'cure for insomnia' oh my god fuckin genius. it took me 25 hrs to realize that. insomnia. darkness. good shit

the end cutscenes were rlly nice and i was like. oh wow ok this is it i didnt cry. huh weird.

and then. the screen went black and. the voice over from the very beginning of the game starts playing and i fucking lost it

ALL THE FUCKIN PHOTOS YOU TAKE......... LIKE. OH MY GOD........... i always already crying at then. the credits stop and im like ok ok ok its over for real now i can stop crying

then the fuckin. campsite scene. what the fuck was that i was bawling

and then i was like. SURELY after these credits roll its over yeah its finally over

AND THEN THE SUNRISE AND THE FUCKIN MONTAGE OF ALL THE PLACES U WENT.... noctis and luna's afterlife wedding.......... and they pick up the picture you chose for noctis to take...........

and. THE FUCKIN FADE TO THE TITLE SCREEN..... like oh my god

its was great and very enjoyable and im glad im finally played the game after years of people telling me to

(shout out the anon who told me ardyn was my time. ur the one who pushed me over the edge thank you)

i skipped a lot of the side content (all of it) bc i just wanted to Know the story and figured you'd be able to pick back up for dlc and stuff. will DEF be playing the ardyn chapter asap