#so much of the dialogue and in-universe stuff in the newer games being ABOUT everything being made of paper makes me want to kill people

[infizero]

i just watched a video essay about the decline of paper mario and now im sad and mad thinking about paper mario again. can we have a violent overthrowing of nintendo

[papermariosuggestion]

So I get the complaints about partners, combat, story, worldbuilding, settings, characterization, all of that but I’ve never quite understood why people seem to dislike the newer games leaning more into the paper aspects? At least in concept it seems like it could lead to some fun gameplay mechanics — TTYD made paper-based powers cool in the first place, I’d love more stuff like that

Making a Paper Mario game about a paper world is a bit like making a sponge cake out of literal sponges (the dish or the sea variety); sure it follows the letter of the name, but it doesn’t follow the spirit, and the end result isn’t something that a sponge-cake-fan would typically want to eat.

Some fans are quick to point out that Paper Mario was originally called “Mario Story” in Japan and just renamed for its international release, but I feel like a lot of people gloss over why the game was renamed. At the time, the game was something of a technical marvel; it was rare to see a game so expansive and so complex that could still manage to run on commercially available hardware. It’s the game’s presentation, its ability to make 2D characters and a 3D world feel cohesive and purposeful, that made this possible, allowing it to have great combat, and story, and world-building, and settings, and characters. The “paper” look was a means to an end that also happened to carry some aesthetic charm.

Focusing on that look so intently that everything else falls to the wayside is missing the forest for the soil. To remove the world and characters and dialogue and combat of the first two games and replace all of that with paper is- to extend the metaphor- deforestation, it’s cutting down everything that the first two games had grown.

If you were to compare all of the references to paper found in the original games, which could mostly be chalked up to fourth-wall-breaking nods to the aesthetic, and all of the references to paper found from Sticker Star onward, the difference would be astounding. In that fateful year of 2012, Paper Mario games shifted from being primarily about Mario to being primarily about Paper, and more specifically, about arts and crafts items found in the same store as paper.

In TTYD, the “curses” that Mario gets are supernatural; his ability to fold and bend in strange ways is exceptional, not the standard for all of the characters in the world. No one in Paper Mario, TTYD, or Super Paper Mario is physically made of paper in-universe, that’s just how they’re presented to us as the player. This means that the world we’re in could be, and was most likely intended to be, the standard world that any old Mario inhabits, not some other universe with some other Mario. That’s important to me as a Mario fan because those first two games were loaded with information about this world that other Mario games only gave us a glimpse of. To say that all of that’s happening in some other universe, or worse yet, a book [glares at Paper Jam], is doing Mario fans a disservice because it’s saying that everything we’re seeing and doing could easily be non-canonical. It would be dissatisfying in the same way that “it was all a dream” endings are dissatisfying.

After playing TTYD, I also wanted to see more paper abilities in future Paper Mario games, but never at the cost of everything else that fans loved about it; it’s just not a fair trade.

I had another anon ask recently, that I literally can’t answer because Tumblr gives me an error message when I try to reply, asking, “Has your opinion on The Origami King changed at all in the past few weeks?” and I feel that it’s relevant here. The Origami King still appears to be pretty much exactly what I expected it to be from the start, a game about paper, and not only that, but a game more heavily focused on paper than either of the two before it, so my stance has remained the same.

I can get paper anywhere; I can find plenty of games that involve paper, animatics on YouTube that involve paper, commercials on TV that involve paper, images on Shutterstock, paintings on DeviantArt, and of course, just office supplies stores that all involve paper. There’s a lot of paper in this world, with or without Paper Mario games, so when I play a Paper Mario game, I’m not playing for the Paper, I’m playing for the Mario, the world-building, the characters, the dialogue, etc. that can only be found in Paper Mario, the deceased Super Mario RPG series, or the presumably dead Mario & Luigi series.

Maybe I’ll enjoy The Origami King as its own thing, as something that isn’t meant to fill that role, but I have significant doubts about that based on what I’ve seen. If you enjoy it, then good for you, and I mean that sincerely, but please, be mindful of us, of the people who would love to play another Paper Mario game that’s more about Mario than about Paper, because every dollar that The Origami King makes and every positive review it receives decreases the already practically non-existent chances of us getting another true Paper Mario game. If you don’t care, that’s fine, that’s your prerogative, but I, and I’d imagine most other fans, would appreciate some compassion.

[time-to-write-and-suffer]

I wouldn't mind that post on VNs!

So I was gonna write three different lists, but then after writing the first part I realized this is very long and takes a while to write and nobody cares anyway so I’ll just post my recommended list only. Well, I mean, you asked, but I doubt you wanted all this lol. Thank you for giving me an excuse to talk about this stuff, though. Hope you enjoy my ramblings!

An explanation for what this list is: Sometimes I know a game isn't perfect in many aspects but I still had a genuinely good time playing it, hence why I'm recommending it. Also I should mention that I could talk for hours about some of these games so if anyone’s curious about more of my thoughts, let me know.

Alright, now that that's out of the way ...

How to Take Off Your Mask / How to Fool a Liar King / How to Sing to Open Your Heart (f/m): This is a trilogy of smaller, single-RO games where you can take one of two routes depending on how you act, and they’re all interconnected where you get to meet and interact with the previous games’ characters in the sequel games. I went into this expecting very little but what I got blew me away with how funny, charming and cute the games were. They don’t take themselves too seriously, at one point an angsty male character monologues deeply about some shit, and another one just slides into frame and starts mocking him. It was so fucking funny, holy shit. Also, a central theme is literally racism against catgirls? Which is monumentally stupid, and probably the games’ main flaw, especially in the final game where it pairs up a catgirl with a catgirl racist, but that one still ends with a literal bisexual queen literally making a man her malewife because she fell in love with his cooking, so like ... It speaks for itself. My favorite game of the three is the second one, where you get to play a punchy fake catgirl and romance a pink-haired prince. And honestly, all the female protags in these games are lovely and a breath of fresh air, and the male characters are fun and not abusive assholes either. There’s full Japanese voice acting, and two out of three female protags are literal catgirls who pepper in “nya” and “mya” into their dialogue, and it’s just treated as a quirk of their catgirl race. I AM NOT KIDDING. Yet somehow it never comes off as cringe, because it doesn’t take it self too seriously. These games are just cozy. That’s the only way I can describe them. Cozy and hilarious. Play them yesterday. Dream Daddy (m/m): Man tumblr did this game dirty. This is just a cute, wholesome daddy dating simulator with gorgeous art. Coming out on Top (m/m): So you know Dream Daddy? What if it was EXTREMELY, MAJORLY NSFW? Though I realize how bad the comparison really is, the only thing these games have in common is that they’re gay dating sims and don’t have an anime art style and oh, yeah, they’re both really well-written. Or at least, extremely funny. COOT (heh) is DDADDS’ horny older cousin, and I first encountered the game on a lesbian letsplayer’s YouTube channel. Yes I watched a lesbian play a gay porn game and it was GOOD. I was there for the cringe and fun and got surprised by how genuinely funny and sometimes actually touching the game was. I can’t give it my universal endorsement because it’s not a game for everyone, as I said, it’s extremely NSFW and the menu theme literally includes the singers screaming “SEX SEX” at the top of their lungs. There’s more to this game than the porn, but there’s just so much porn. It can be censored in the settings but it’s unavoidable. However, I still think it’s worth a look just because of how funny it is and how charming the characters are. If you don’t want to play it yourself, at least watch Anima’s playthrough of it. It hasn’t aged super well in some spots but I still go back to it every now and then. Akash: Path of the Five (f/m): This game markets itself as a more “professionally produced” western dating sim, and that’s accurate in some superficial aspects. The game is pretty poorly written, but it’s absolutely gorgeous and has really good English voice acting by actual professional voice actors. The premise is quite self-indulgent, but I genuinely respect that about it. You play as the only female elemental in a village with only men, and all five of your classmates want a piece of you. It’s clear the writers have put some thought into the lore and worldbuilding of this world, but barely any of it comes through in the actual writing and plot, which is basically just a vehicle for you to get together with your boy of choice. The ROs aren’t very well-developed either, and the plot is the same in every route with only minor variations depending on which guy you pick, up to the point where the protag has the same voice lines in some parts regardless of which guy she’s talking about. It also has one extra half-route that’s so bad and pointless I genuinely wonder why they wasted resources on making it instead of spending a bit more on the writing/adding some variations to the main plot. So why am I recommending this game? Well, it’s pretty, and it sounds nice. This game is a himbo, gorgeous but dumb as rocks. Enjoy it for what it is. I know I did. Get it when it’s on sale, I think if I hadn’t gotten it at half-price I would’ve felt a bit more cranky about it. Also Rocco is bae. Mystic Destinies: Serendipity of Aeons (f/m): Yes that’s the full title, no I don’t know what it means either. You may have noticed how most of the games so far I’ve enjoyed because they don’t take themselves too seriously? Well, this one does. It takes itself SO FUCKING SERIOUSLY. Like, way too seriously. It’s a little embarrassing at points because baby, you’re an urban fantasy dating sim. Calm down. But the game has gorgeous art and 3 out of 5 routes are very good. The last route, the one with your teacher, is both the most problematic yet somehow the one that breaks down the very concept of a dating sim within its own narrative (yes, this shit gets fucking META) and it got so wild at the end that 1) I still listen to the soundtrack for that route and 2) I still remember it to this day despite finishing it ages ago. My favorite route is Shou, he’s a sweetheart, but the mindfuck route is so buckwild that I think the game is worth playing just for that. There’s also a route that’s like a neo-noir mystery? I Do Not Know. This game is many, many things and it does them so sincerely and tries so hard, you can’t help but respect it. It doesn’t always stick the landing but man, just let this thing take your hand and wax poetic at you for a bit. Also get this one at a sale because it’s very expensive to get the full version. I got it for 9 bucks on itch.io and I felt that was a fair enough price, I’d say I wouldn’t have minded paying more for it because there’s a lot of content to enjoy and/or be baffled by. Arcade Spirits: This one’s a bit more weird from what I recall, and I honestly couldn’t tell you much about it, but I remember having a very good time with it and recommending it to a friend when she was going through some tough times and she said it made her feel better. I remember it making me feel better, as well. This is a VN about an arcade and the ROs are wonderfully diverse, with very real human conflicts that get explored in each of their routes. It can get quite existential and heavy at times, but in the end it’s a kindhearted game that I think everyone can enjoy. The main character was also, how you say, mood. It’s a game about getting possessed by a video game and then learning self-love. Ebon Light (f/m): This one’s free/name your own price on itch.io so go play it. It’s a weird plot where you play as a girl who ate an elven relic? And then the elves kidnap you because you’re the relic now. All the ROs are extremely pasty (like, literally white, as in literally the color white) dark-haired elves, except for one, who’s an extremely pasty blond elf, so ... diversity? I honestly don’t know what this game is aside from unique. I used to be a bit put off by the art style but now I think it contributes to the general atmosphere. It’s a weird game that technically doesn’t do anything groundbreaking but still left an impression of “huh. weird” in my mind and I think more people should play it. The ROs are all pretty generic dating sim archetypes but done well, with bonus points to Duliae who’s just a massive creep and I love him, and also Vadeyn who’s the only bitch in this house I respect. The worldbuilding is honestly a bit buckwild and I can’t give enough credit for how unique the elves’ culture is in this game. Definitely give it a go. Hakuoki: Kyoto Winds / Hakuoki: Edo Blossoms (f/m): These two are newer releases of an older Japanese visual novel. I wouldn’t call it a dating sim, it’s ... it’s more of a super depressing historical fantasy epic with some minor romance aspects awkwardly wedged in. It’s seriously some of the heaviest and most grimdark shit I’ve ever played in a VN/otome. I don’t understand why it’s a dating sim, it doesn’t read like one, it’s just historical fantasy based on real world events with characters based on real people, and they kill and they die and they grieve and they suffer. The games are literally about the downfall of the Shinsengumi, there’s no way of avoiding everything going to shit and you get to watch and be in the middle of it all as they struggle to stay alive and relevant in a world that doesn’t need them anymore. And there’s the protag in the middle of it all, being useless and submissive and bland just the way the usual otome protag is. I don’t think these games are necessarily fun, and the romance is certainly a lot more downplayed and deeply problematic just based on the age differences alone with some of the men, but the sheer amount of horror and sadness in these games make them stand out above its peers. It’s like watching a war movie. Since most of the characters are based on real people, they feel like real people instead of the usual otome archetypes, and they are so, SO flawed, it’s interesting to just watch them deal with the shit the world throws at them. It’s an Experience, and if you’re up for it, I think it’s worth the time. Cinderella Phenomenon (f/m): This game is free on Steam so go get it. You play as a really, genuinely shitty princess who gets cursed to be poor and forgotten and she has to help one of the ROs break his fairy tale curse so that she can learn about being a good person herself and return to her normal life. This game doesn’t look like much, but it has a genuinely well-written main character who’s actually at the center of each of the stories and in the overarching plot instead of just being around to make eyes at the real protagonists, aka the love interests. Aside from the main character, my favorite part of this game’s writing is how each route slowly but very smoothly expands upon the overarching intrigue. If you play them in a certain order, you get more and more info revealed to you that you didn’t see in other routes, gaps are filled in as you find out more about what actually happened and why, but every route also stands on its own as a full experience and none is more canon than the rest. There’s also some really heavy emotional parental abuse explored, which I found quite potent at times. The romances themselves were alright, I think Karma and Waltz were my faves.

[hailqiqi]

2019 Fic Round-Up

Writer buddies, let’s do this (as in, if you haven’t yet, do yours too!)

Stats:

(I’m going with a random quote from each one because I’m a fan of long summaries.)

Fics Posted (Gen): 3

A Little Taste of What Should Have Been

And that was how Pidge found herself kneeling sideways on the couch, face inches away from Lance’s shoulder as he disinfected first two sewing needles and then the earrings with a professional air.

Wriggle, Jiggle, Bake!

“Okay, so you’ve been magically de-aged — because apparently that’s a thing. Why is that a thing? Whatever. Of course it’s a thing out here."

Here

“Don’t make it weird, Lance,” she huffed, already tugging him into the room and closing the door behind them. “C’mon. I’ll help you wash all that off.”

Fics Posted (Plance Oneshots): 7

2 x 100 word drabbles

(Domestic Fantasy & Kabedon)

The Advantages of Being Small

“I couldn’t help it! It was just too tempting!”

Untangle to Wait, Unravel to See

Of course a fortune teller would appear as soon as he started talking about one. They were on a magical world with magical aliens and Lance was like, the hero of the story, so it made sense that events would be tied to his dialogue. Most importantly, it was not creepy at all, and anyone who said Lance was creeped out could go suck it.

the world is out there, my dear, but we're in here

Pidge froze. The reaction was so subtle that Lance would have missed it if he hadn't been watching for it -- she relaxed herself almost immediately, eyebrows raised in casual challenge -- but she'd reacted, all the same.

so it turns out I kinda missed you

Grumbling, Lance crossed his arms and sunk back into his seat. “I could’ve come to get her on my own, you know.” “Yeah, but then you wouldn’t be able to make out in the back seat on the way home.”

The Stars Aren't the Same for You and I

Dancing with Pidge was fun.

Fics Posted (Plance Chaptered): 2 (1.5?)

Skirting Katabasis

"So... Do you think you could put it back together?" Pidge tilted the tablet towards her and looked at him hard. His expression was hesitant, but his eyes were soft...almost pleading. She smirked. "Who do you think I am, Keith?”

The Future in Snippets (Chapters 3-5)

In truth, she had no idea what was fine. Her brain had switched off several heartbeats ago, but she couldn’t really find it in herself to care.

Fics Posted (Plance Collabs): 2

Smack, Kiss, Fall in Love (even chapters)

The prince doesn’t ignore the princess for the nerdy sidekick. Even if that sidekick was a badass fighter who’d saved his life countless times. Or a genius who constantly left his head spinning. Or totally into the same video games that defined Lance’s childhood, and the owner of a smile so blinding it made the stars look dim.

(shoutout to @sp4c3-0ddity​, my co-conspirator who made Pidge’s star so bright!)

It's Beginning to Look a Lot like A Christmas Carol  (Prologue & Chap 1)

“An intervention?” “Sure. Have you ever seen A Christmas Carol?” His mind freezes. “You mean the Dickens book?” “Uh…” Keith’s dad trails off, blinking. “No, the movie. With the little green man? I think they made a version with the grouchy duck, too.”

(shoutout to the awesome @rueitae​ and @sp4c3-0ddity​ who brought both the crack and the tears essential items for any Christmas party all we’re missing is the food fight and divorce)

Total Fics Posted: 14

Oooh wow. That’s more than one a month!

 Ship/Character Breakdown:

Ship Breakdown: Plance, with over 75%

[colleen image]

Character Breakdown: Pidge and Lance are in 100% of my fics. Hunk is next in 5 (with 1 POV!), then Keith and Allura both get 3 (both even get POV parts and Keith’s a major focus in Skirting Katabasis), then Shiro, Coran and Lance/Pidge’s families are more bit players.

I only just realized that the chapter in Smack, Kiss, Fall in Love is the only time I’ve really written Shiro. And now I’m horrified because Shiro was my first love.

Characters that had the Main Focus: 6 +1 Lance POV, 4+2 Pidge POV, 2 Switching POV fics and then the drabbles don’t count.  I actually started out the year tearing my hair out because I related to Pidge so much more, but now I really enjoy writing Lance. It’s actually a little tricky to get into Pidge’s headspace to work on my chaptereds sometimes.

Specifics

 Best/Worst Title?

Best Skirting Katabasis. C’mon. That’s like, literary (Katabasis being hell or destruction in Greek mythos). Worst Untangle to Wait, Unravel to See. I had help with it but this fic was just so hard to name.

Best/worst last line?

Best I tend to structure my chapters/one-shots around the last line so…this is hard.

"What took you so long? I've been waiting for you."

(Untangle to Wait, Unravel to See)

My personal favourite, though, is from so it turns out I kinda missed you:

Luis laughed. “Hi, Not-My-Girlfriend. I’m Not-His-Brother, Luis.”

Worst

Hunk just laughed. “You can’t fix that right now, so you might as well have some fun!”

(Wriggle, Jiggle, Bake!) So cheesey.

The last line that gives me personal arghs is from Here:

He buried his face in her sodden hair and cried.

...because a day after posting I realised that I should’ve written wept, dammit, and now it annoys me every time I see it.

Honourable mention to The Advantages of Being Small for winning the no-context award:

“Reckon I could fit three fingers up there?”

 General Questions

 Looking back, did you write more fics than you thought you would this year, less than you thought, or about what you predicted?

Way more than I thought!  I think I had planned out about 8? Of those I wrote two (zine fics), started but haven’t finished 2, and the other 4 are still pending.

What pairing/genre/fandom did you write that you would never have predicted last year?

None, my obsessions are long-lasting and constant.

What’s your favorite story this year? Not the most popular, but the one that makes you the happiest.

Skirting Katabasis or It’s Beginning to Look a Lot like A Christmas Carol. Though TBH I enjoy re-reading most of the stuff I posted in the last 6 months.

Okay, NOW your most popular story.

In every single metric on AO3 it’s The Future in Snippets. Y’all like your porn (even if there’s not much of it).

On tumblr it’s Wriggle, Jiggle, Bake! by like 100 notes.

Story most underappreciated by the universe?

If this is a roundabout way of saying ‘What’s your LEAST popular story?’ it’s The Advantages of Being Small, but TBH that’s a very short crack-ficlet so it doesn’t bother me (same with the drabbles).

If the question is “What fic do you think people should like MORE?” the answer is Skirting Katabasis. It’s fifth on the list for bookmarks and 9th for Kudos, and I’m not sure why?? Does it sound too gen? Do you not like Platonic Adventure Kidge? Honestly y’all are missing out it’s like the best thing I’ve ever written. Hands down.

Story that could have been better?

The Future in Snippets. Hands down. It was started on a whim, as a practice fic for another idea I’ve been nurturing for even longer, and back when I was newer at this writing thing. It wasn’t very tightly plotted – in fact the plot was expanded upon and changed multiple times before I settled on what I have now, several chapters in – and certain things that should have been seeded were left out of earlier chapters because I wasn’t experienced enough to figure out how to work them in and foolishly thought ‘oh, it won’t matter! Such a small detail!’, so now I’m scratching my head trying to figure out how to compensate.

I tend to work off very tight outlines, but Snippets was missing that for a large part of the process and I think it shows. I do think I’ve done a good job nailing the emotion in it, though, and that’s like 95% of the fic so as long as I keep that up it’ll all be fine.

Sexiest story?

The Future in Snippets is smut so… First place for SFW sexy goes to the world is out there, my dear, but we’re in here.

Saddest story?

I think The Stars Aren’t the Same for You and I wins because it’s a heartbreaking situation with no good resolution. There’s no comfort to be found there.

Most fun?

A Little Taste of What Should Have Been. It’s just…fun!

The most fun I had writing was Smack, Kiss, Fall in Love, because it was challenging, and I’d wake up every day excited to find out what had happened in the last chapter overnight.

Story with single sweetest moment?

The Future in Snippets (Chapter 4) 

“Um…” She turned the brush in her hands over again before holding it up sheepishly. “Do you remember how you said you’d braid my hair?”

Lance’s whole face lit up like a Christmas tree. “Really?!”

A giggle escaped her lips and she smiled, nodding. “Really.”

Hardest story to write?

The Future in Snippets. The emotions in this fic have become a convoluted mess and it is growing exponentially harder to write as I continue. I simply don’t have the level of skill required, but by God I will find it so that I can finish it properly.

Easiest/most fun story to write?

Skirting Katabasis!  The outline for this fic is tight, and I freaking love writing this fic. Like I just feel like smiling the whole process. I don’t know why. It feels like the wrong answer because it’s a fairly involved fic, but I just enjoy everything about it.

Did any stories shift your perceptions of the characters?

Smack, Kiss, Fall in Love actually gave me a much better understanding of Lance. Skirting Katabasis made me really look at Keith and realise that hey – the dude is actually very emotional, very chatty, and very soft (he’s so often typecast as the ‘moody loner’ because that’s what they call him in the show but he really doesn’t act like that).

Most overdue story?

Uh. The Future in Snippets was originally scheduled to be finished in January 2018, so… I also have a soulmate WIP which was meant to be for V-Day 2018.

Did you take any writing risks this year? What did you learn from them?

I started to play about with other POVs, and discovered that I can write other POVs? I also did two collabs!  The first one I discovered that Reem really is a sweetheart, and with the second I discovered that either I’m really bossy or really persuasive or both maybe I should go into politics.

I also did a couple of events and zines and exchanges. I discovered that piece-writing – like writing with a target/deadline/outside expectation – does not agree with me, and I will no longer sign up for events/zines/exchanges.

What are your fic writing goals for next year?

1.     Finish my WIPs.

2.     Write my Pidge Makes Bad Decisions fic!

3.     That’s about it really. Can you take over the world by writing fic? If so, that’s going on the list.

[notajinn]

Video Games of 2017 - My Ranking

8. Fire Emblem Heroes

I've spoken much here about how much I love Fire Emblem, and my general disappointment with the direction that Awakening and Fates have been taking the series. So I was both excited and cautious when Nintendo announced a Fire Emblem presentation for February.

The core game they focused on during that presentation was Fire Emblem Heroes, their mobile game. At the time I was pretty neutral on it, and more interested in the other games they announced. Over time, I would come to put more hours into this than Fire Emblem Echoes, and would not even buy Fire Emblem Warriors (something I have spoken about at length on this blog). But despite all that time, Heroes was a mixed experience. It uses a version of the traditional battle system that is both simplified (no dodging, no criticals, no weapon durability, smaller maps) but also has its own unique strategy in the less random nature of battles, and the range of skills.

Where It Excels

By far the best part of Heroes is the  characters. We get to see characters from across the series with new art, with voice acting (in most cases for the first time ever) and with at least some new dialogue. This game is all about playing with your favourite characters. I was lucky enough that my favourite, Matthew of Blazing Sword, was one of the default characters available. The majority of these characters were adapted very well (albeit very simplified in their tropes due to the limited dialogue) and can invoke nostalgia no matter which game you started with.

Though the skill inheritance system, we can also make the weaker characters (like Matthew) significantly more useful by grabbing the right skills. This also works into the Pokemon mentality in letting you create your own movesets and strategies for your team since you have so many choices.My version of Matthew is pictured above.

The game has regularly been adding addition things to help strengthen characters such as Seals (universal skills you can easily equip and un-equip), and weapon forging.

We get a decent handful of free characters between modes like Tempest Trials and Grand Hero Battles, and also get one free summon per banner so we can get more random heroes in our team. In general, the developers have been wonderful over the year in listening to player feedback and implementing changes. They even streamlined things that were problematic the first time, such as the difficulty of the first Tempest Trials.

The variety of modes also helps give you more to do than something like Animal Crossing Pocket Camp. Even if there isn't a new mode to do, it's fun to train your characters and inherit skills onto them.

Some of the art is also spectacular, and all the map music is from whichever game they are representing at the time. For the first six or so months of this game, everything was wonderful.

The gameplay itself as I mentioned is much more calculated, which is fun once you release yourself from an older Fire Emblem mentality. You can actually plan ahead without having to worry about random criticals or misses. And while the maps are small, they tend to have enough variety to make for different strategies.

Where It Fell Short

Heroes is peculiar in that there is a clear time indication where the game became problematic. As I mentioned, the game mostly continued to improve up until around fall. There were definitely problems visible in new units being clearly superior to old ones, and the seasonal banners with limited characters (not to mention almost exclusively 3DS characters), but they didn't feel as large.

But it seemed like the improvements slowed down while the problems kept coming. More and more we found ourselves getting new rare units added that were objectively superior to old ones, and incredibly difficult to get. One particular notable case is of a character named Ayra. For those who don't know, let me quickly explain the monetization aspect of the game.

We get items called Orbs which we spend to summon a new hero. There are different banners which each have slightly higher  chances of getting certain characters. Each character falls into one of four colours (Red, Green, Blue, Colourless), and when you summon you are randomly giving five coloured orbs to pull from. You'll only pull red characters from red orbs, for example. During a banner, if two focus characters are red, it's harder to aim for one over the other. Also as you continue to summon on a banner and fail to get at 5-Star character, your rate for getting one will slightly increase until you succeed.

Really this is the fatal flaw of the game; you need to play a Gacha system to get characters. Will this make them money? Hell yes; this game blew Super Mario Run out of the water in profits. You know who did this much better for the players? Final Fantasy Record Keeper. I called it one of my top games a few years back, and outside of having gotten a little boring it’s still great. By far the biggest benefit is that, in a game where you want to collect characters across multiple games in the series, you don’t have to play a Gacha system. You get characters from events which aren’t too difficult, and since they change throughout the year you still have an incentive to check in regularly. You still have a Gacha system in the form of equipment, and it’s just as important to higher level stuff, but at least you know you can get the characters you want so long as you are around in time, random number generator be damned.

Getting to Ayra, who was not only significantly better than other characters of her type, but also added onto a banner separate from the main banner she could have been on which featured characters from the same game she was in. This means we couldn't get the added multiplier when trying to summon her. A bigger problem is that a second red character who had been in the game for some time was on the same banner, so many people (like me), got him instead of Ayra. Finally there is the fact that Ayra is the only character who was added without an announcement, meaning the developers were likely trying to sneak past the dubious way she was being included.

From here is where the fanbase, myself included, started to notice the problems with the game more clearly. We continued to get seasonal banners with broken, 3DS only characters. We continued to see these 5-Star characters not be demoted to lower ranks (unlike 5-Star characters added during the first few months of the game, who would often be demoted). We stopped getting unique Grand Hero Battles and instead go repeats (except for the two really good characters, who never got repeats).

And even with skill inheritance and weapon refinement, the older characters just couldn't compare to the newer ones. More than ever, it became about spending orbs/money to get those rare characters if you really wanted a chance in the pseudo PvP mode, which is the main endgame mode people play.

Moving past those issues, there were some problems from the start. Some characters got the short end of the stick when being adapted. Raven, a sword-toting mercenary from Blazing Sword, was added as an axe-user. The Light-Magic wielding monk Lucius from the same game was added as a healer.

And a character named Lachesis from one of the Japanese games is able to use a huge variety of weapons and is a female warrior, but was added as a healer and give extra cute artwork that misrepresents her.Compare this from Heroes:

To this, based on her Genealogy of the Holy War design:

Dagger users, like my boy Matthew, are also very underpowered do to their style of gameplay (buffing and debuffing) being too risky compared to something traditional when you only have a 4-character party.

Meanwhile certain setups, like a team of cavalry units with all the easily obtainable “Horse Buffs”, are extremely overpowered. The equivalent Flying and Armor buffs are comparatively much harder to obtain since some skills are locked to 5-Star units.

Have I mentioned how much I hate that all the seasonal banners are only 3DS characters? The exceptions are Bride Caeda/Sheeda) from Shadow Dragon (which is fine) and the abomination that is Blazing Sword's Bride Lyn, which shouldn't exist.How about Christmas Hector?

Final Thoughts

I play this game a lot, and I will likely continue to. I also don't spend money on this game, and I will continue to stay that way. The game is starting to wear off its charm now that I've been able to get and train most of my favourites, and the fact that the last few months of updates have been more negative than positive certainly don't help. I'm glad this game exists, but I think it's likely going to stay at about this quality at best.