#which means it’s time to do some mild team revamping

[marinecorvid]

7.27.23 - pokemon sketches instead of sleeping. working on moon/lune outfits and figuring out postgame fanfic team; giving kalos fairies some semi realistic love

[phoenixyfriend]

Voltron Paladins on: Who’s the hottest Young Avenger?

I’m posting this as a one-shot to tumblr because it can feasibly stand alone as a fic, but it’s actually an omake of sorts for the Voltron fic Just a Little Death. The only things you need to know are:

1. The paladins figured out a way to get into contact with home, and have gotten some things. Lance’s family sent him a kindle loaded with a bunch of things he likes, including comics. 2. Some of the characterization may seem a bit unusual, because this scene takes place after after eighteen chapters in JaLD.

Other than that... well, warnings and such under the cut. This is almost three thousand words of nonsense.

If you happen to be a fan of Cheung's V1 artwork or aren't comfortable with the idea of someone poking fun at Tommy Shepherd, maaaybe skip this. I’m not as careful as usual about keeping my biases under wraps here.

Anyways! There's a bit of a ramble in there about Noh-Varr, so I need to lay out some warnings.

WARNINGS: Mentions of mind control, torture, medical experimentation, and mass murder (all to or by a minor, because Noh's life is a shitshow for a while).

o.o.o.o.o

“Bullshit,” Lance said, slamming a hand down on the table. “That is just… such bullshit.”

“My tastes and your tastes are not the same,” Hunk said. “You asked who I thought the hottest character was, and my answer is Teddy.”

“How?” Lance whined. “How can you pick anyone other than Noh-Varr? Like, I can maybe see Kate or America, but anyone else? Sorry, buddy. The space roach wins.”

“You know,” Pidge said from the doorway. “I have no idea what you’re talking about, but I kind of want to know just based on the fact that I heard something that was almost my name.”

“There’s a comic that Lance likes from like… the turn of the century,” Hunk said.

“2012 was not the turn of the century,” Lance argued.

“Called Young Avengers,” Hunk continued, like Lance hadn’t just interrupted.

“Written by Kieron Gillen, illustrated by Jamie McKelvie,” Lance said. “A dynamic duo of comics if there ever was one.”

Hunk shot him a look.

“…fine, for that era. Stan Lee and Jack Kirby are the true heroes, as always, may their souls rest in peace despite the misogyny of many of their works,” Lance allowed. “Anyway, I got Hunk to read the comics a while back, and I was expecting him to make the obvious choice when asked who the hottest Young Avenger was.”

“I still say it’s Teddy.”

“And I still say you’re wrong. Noh-Varr is straight up pin-up boy material.”

“This is exactly the kind of bullshit that I’m glad I missed out on back at the Garrison,” Pidge said.

Keith poked his head into the room. “I heard yelling. Is there a fight happening?”

“Why don’t we get Pidge and Keith to weigh in?” Hunk suggested.

“Fine,” Lance sniffed. “I’m sure they’ll make the right choice. Let me just get the right pictures up.”

He fiddled with the tablet his siblings had sent along.

“Your brother and sister sent you digital comics from half a century ago?” Keith asked.

“I think Tío Ricardo just added everything he thought I might miss, and since this is my favorite series…” Lance shrugged. “Okay, so I’ve got a group shot and a couple of solos.”

“Which group shot?”

“Kate’s getting a call from Freud.”

“…right, the harpoon! Okay, so the solos: anyone from V1?”

“Nah. Cassie’s too young for it to be comfortable during her time with the team, especially with how unnecessarily sexual some of the art of her gets in V1. Like, she’s fourteen? Stop ripping her clothes off and highlighting her boobs? Same goes for Nate and Jonas on the age thing, and Eli is an age thing too, but also just… I love him, but Cheung’s art style. It doesn’t do anyone favors, but it’s especially harsh on Eli.”

“Why do you hate Cheung’s art style so much?”

“Have you looked at V1 or Children’s Crusade?”

“The writing wasn’t bad!”

“The writing was mostly fine and absolutely what made me love Eli. But you have to admit that Cheung’s art style is really same-face syndrome and that it’s just plain messy and… why. Why. McKelvie’s got a bunch of same-face too, but at least it’s clean and I can tell who’s who in the close-ups and he isn’t sexualizing fourteen-year-olds.” Lance buried his face in his hands. Hunk patted him on the back.

“Moving on… Kid Loki shape or Agent Loki shape?”

“He’s kid shape in the group shot, but just after the age-up in the solo.”

“David?”

“Tried to find something out of uniform, but no dice except the party, and his big scene wasn’t even in McKelvie’s style, so… yeah, uniform.”

“Tommy?”

“Do I have to?”

“Lance…”

“He’s such a fuckboy, though!”

“Still part of the team.”

“Barely.”

“They traveled dozens, if not hundreds, of universes to save him.”

“…I mean, I did add his picture to the set. I just, you know, don’t want him to win.”

Hunk snorted. “Okay, thene. I’m guessing you probably added those shirtless Noh shots from the first issue.”

“Noh-Varr’s hot, okay?” Lance brought the back of his hand up to his forehead. “Like, absolutely smoking hot. Like Uptown Funk ‘Hot damn’ hot. Like, ‘the things I would do to that man…’ hot.”

“Lance, are you okay?”

“No.”

Hunk bit his lip, suppressing a grin, and then seemed to realize something. “Wait, are we including villains?”

“I mean… I guess? Why? You’re not going for Oubliette, right?”

“What? No, of course, not. But dude… Leah.”

“This is true.” Lance nodded. “I mean, she’s terrifying, but at least that version of her isn’t entirely real even in-universe?”

“Or Loki would be dead.”

“So dead,” Lance said emphatically. “Also, if we’re talking hot YA villains, then…”

“Don’t.”

“Sylvie Lushton.”

“How is your taste in comic book villains so bad?”

“I’m not saying she’s a good person! But, you know, she’s hot!” Lance protested.

“Also kind of evil and not exactly the brightest bulb in the box.”

“Still hot, Hunk.”

“Hi, I have a question,” Pidge interrupted. “Which of these guys is the smartest?”

Lance put a hand over Hunk’s face before he could answer. “We’re talking aesthetics only. No choosing based on intelligence. You can revamp your choice later if we change criteria, but right now we’re only going on aesthetic hotness.”

“Boo you, whore,” Pidge said, then stuck out her tongue at him. She looked down at the page again, and then pointed. “Okay, in that case… her.”

“America Chavez?” Lance eyed Pidge for a moment, and then nodded. “Acceptable.”

“You’re ridiculous,” she told him. “But yeah. She looks ready to kick ass and I guess the expression on her face is appealing? She looks like she’s not taking anyone’s shit, and also I like her hair.”

“This is a pretty good summary of her basic surface personality,” Lance acknowledged. “She’s deeper than that, but it takes some reading between the lines, or rereading after the reveal at the end, to realize, especially if you don’t read the point one issue.”

“I’m torn,” Keith announced. “Can I get names for these guys, at least?”

“Real or code?”

“…real?”

Lance pointed to each character in turn. “Noh-Varr, Kate Bishop, Loki, Billy Kaplan, Tommy Shepherd, Teddy Altman, David Alleyne, America Chavez.”

“Tommy and Billy are identical twins, but Tommy’s hair and eyes changed color when his mutant powers manifested,” Hunk added.

“The Tommy guy is in a different style from the others,” Keith noted.

“They had guest artists for the issues he featured in most,” Lance explained. “Couldn’t really find a clear picture of him in McKelvie’s style.”

Keith nodded, looking down at the pictures. After a moment, he pointed at David and Tommy.

“No,” Lance gasped dramatically. “You traitor.”

“Oh boy,” Hunk muttered.

“Listen,” Keith said, obviously holding back a laugh. “I have my reasons.”

“How could you choose Tommy over Noh-Varr?”

“Well, the Noh-Varr guy looks like he’s about to try to convince me to try his weed brownies or free range quinoa,” Keith said.

“That’s not a thing,” Hunk said. “That’s… that’s not even logically possible. Quinoa’s not an animal product. It can’t be free-range.”

“Exactly,” Keith said, as though that explained everything, which it kind of did. “Meanwhile, this Tommy guy looks like he’s about to ask me to help him hotwire a car for the hell of it.”

Lance’s mouth opened and closed a few times, and then he whirled around and draped himself over Hunk. He wailed, “Betrayed! By the one closest to me!”

“What does that make me, then?” Hunk asked. “If Keith is the closest?”

“You’re not just close to me, Hunk, you’re part of me,” Lance said, as though it should have been obvious.

“Ah, right, of course.” Hunk nodded and patted Lance’s back.

“Anyway,” Lance said, and then went back to wailing. “Oh, the horror! The humanity! Keith has betrayed me!”

“I really hope this is just Lance being dramatic about something relatively inconsequential again instead of something serious,” Shiro said from the door. “Please tell me this isn’t something I need to actually worry about.”

“Keith thinks that Lance’s favorite character isn’t as hot as Lance’s least favorite,” Pidge said.

“Tommy Shepherd is a fuckboy, okay?” Lance whined.

“You mean like you?” Shiro asked, keeping his voice mild.

Dead silence reigned for a moment.

“…Should I not have said that?” Shiro asked, sounding a little more nervous. “I may have overstepped a line. Ah. I’m sor—”

“Ooooooooooooooooh!” Pidge yelled, Hunk joining in after a moment.

Lance let his eyes roll up and pretended to faint, right into Hunk’s loving arms.

“Lance Álvarez has been found dead in Miami,” Pidge announced, deadpan.

“Oh god, is he okay?” Hunk asked, not even looking down at Lance in his arms.

“Yeah, but he’s dead.”

“You guys suck,” Lance moaned, getting back up. He turned back to Keith. “Wait, what about David?”

“He looks like he could stare down a bomb without even twitching. Like he’s just that dead inside because he’s seen so much shit.” Keith tapped the picture. “Basically, he seems like the guy that’s sitting off to the side mostly quiet but offering sarcastic comments whenever someone does something stupid.”

“You’re not that far off,” Shiro said. “David’s experiences in everything are fairly expansive, due to the mental osmosis that his original powerset consisted of.”

“Wait, Shiro, you’ve read YA?” Lance demanded.

“…yes? I preferred Runaways, but—”

“Which Young Avenger is the hottest?” Lance demanded, scrambling away from Hunk and towards Shiro. He stopped just a foot or two away, visibly restraining himself from grabbing Shiro’s hands and pulling them up to his chin.

Shiro looked at him for a long moment, wide-eyed and surprised. “Um… I haven’t thought about it in a while?”

“Stick to V2 since all the V1-only characters are too young,” Lance suggested. “Aesthetic hotness only.”

Shiro looked down at the tablet that was still on the table and bit his lip. “I’m… going to have to with Marvel Boy and Hawkeye?”

“Yes!” Lance yelled, pumping his fist in the air. “Fuck yeah! Noh-Varr’s the hottest!”

“Ah,” Shiro said. “Who did the rest of you choose?”

“Teddy,” Hunk said. “Pidge chose America. Keith decided that he was torn between Tommy and David.”

“Nobody chose Billy, then?” Shiro asked. “Or Loki?”

“Billy’s more sweet than hot, I think,” Lance said. “Even aesthetically. Same thing goes for Teddy, I’d say, but Hunk’s got his own weird tastes.”

“And Loki just doesn’t suit anyone’s tastes?”

“He spends two-thirds of the comic as a twelve-year-old, and the last third looking like he’s about to try to sell you snake oil as a hair tonic,” Lance mused. “So. That might be it. Loki’s more appealing in AoA, honestly. I feel like Lee Garbett’s style is better suited to that Loki than Jamie McKelvie’s.”

“Hm. I’d have expected Pidge to like David the most, but I guess if she doesn’t know anything about him, and just had to go by image, America makes sense.” Shiro swiped through the tablet. “That is… definitely a lot of shirtless Noh-Varr shots.”

“I’m not sure what you expected from me,” Lance said.

“What’s so special about David?” Pidge asked. “Why does Shiro think I should like David the most?”

Lance exchanged a look with Hunk and Shiro, then turned back to Pidge. “Do you want to download some of my comics so you and Keith can read some? My uncle downloaded pretty much my entire online comics library onto here.”

“I don’t know… I’m more of a DC kind of girl.”

“I’ve got some DC and Image on here, too.”

“The Image comics are more Gillen and McKelvie, unsurprisingly,” Hunk said.

“Phonogram and WicDiv are fucking works of art, Hunk!”

“I never finished WicDiv…” Shiro mused. “I got spoilers, but…”

Lance pressed his tablet into Shiro’s chest, wide-eyed. “My poor man: I have them. Read.”

Allura and Coran walked in on five paladins near-silently reading comics half an hour later.

“Allura!” Lance yelled, scrambling to his feet and switching windows on his tablet to the earlier set of pictures. “Quick question: which of these characters would you say is the most physically attractive?”

Allura blinked at him, and then down at the tablet. “Why are there so many pictures of this one shirtless?”

“Because he’s my favorite,” Lance said, utterly unashamed.

“…I can see why, but that one hanging bang of white hair reminds me too much of Lotor,” Allura admitted. “Both of the girls are very attractive, though, and I like the hairstyle and the fabric that this one is wearing.”

She tapped the screen, right over Billy.

Lance squinted down at the photo, and then back up at Allura. “At least you didn’t betray me like Keith.”

“Are you serious?” Keith asked. “Are you going to bring that up forever?”

“You picked Tommy,” Lance repeated. “You picked Tommy in an argument of attractiveness when Noh-Varr was an option.”

“You do realize that half the reason he did that was to fuck with you, right?” Pidge said.

“Well, yeah, but pretending to be pissed off about something inconsequential is fun,” Lance said. “I don’t even dislike Tommy, but like… it’s fun to talk trash about one of the most popular characters. I shit talk with love, I promise.”

“Also, if we were going by personality as well…” Shiro trailed off. “Actually, assuming that a decent pattern of communication was in place and Noh-Varr wasn’t self-sabotaging with his own PTSD, he probably wouldn’t be that bad of a romantic partner. At least you’d always have music.”

“And a meat shield, apparently,” Pidge piped up. A glance told Lance that she was partway through the Marvel Boy miniseries, which meant she’d probably run into something about his indestructability by this point.

“Wouldn’t have to worry about being widowed, since he’s nearly impossible to kill,” Hunk added.

“And he can eat all the leftovers, including the parts that aren’t actually food,” Keith said.

“Life wouldn’t be boring either, given the extensive number of people that would gladly try to kill him for the Phoenix debacle or what he did to Manhattan,” Shiro added.

“He served his time for both of those incidents, did his reparation work, and got tortured a lot as punishment! I really don’t think you can hold all of that against him, given his circumstances!” Lance protested.

“I mean… the Phoenix was a result of misinformation, true, but Manhattan?” Shiro wiggled a hand in the air. “I’m only giving it a pass because I’d say all the torture, mind control, and so on, both before and after, is punishment enough for just about anything.”

“I’m not,” Hunk said. “But he actually tried to do charity work in his own weird superhero way afterwards, so… that’s not bad?”

“This isn’t a real person, correct?” Allura asked. “Just a fictional character?”

“Yes,” the paladins answered in unison.

“Trust me, I wouldn’t be trying to explain away the Fuck You Fires if he were a real person,” Lance said. “However, he is in fact fictional, and his circumstances were weird as shit—”

“Being part of a hive mind and feeling your entire family die and then watching them get dissected while you’re tortured by your captors will do some interesting things to a fifteen-year-old’s mind,” Shiro acknowledged.

“And then the Cube,” Lance added. “We do not forget the fuckery that happened at the Cube.”

“Comics are convoluted,” Keith said, staring down at the tablet in his own lap. “Very convoluted. Why are they so convoluted?”

“Because you have about twenty different writers at any given time writing the same characters in new situations, frequently causing crossovers between individual groups of characters, switching out at least three or four writers per year for someone new, passing on the characters to new writers who must then find something original to do with them, resulting in increasingly ridiculous plots as the writers struggle to find something new and interesting to do so that the audience doesn’t lose interest,” Lance rattled off.

“Often commenting on contemporary events,” Shiro added, “and matters of social justice.”

“Never forget that Captain America was the creation of two Jewish men in response to widespread support of Hitler in the early days of World War II,” Lance added.

The Alteans stared at him and Shiro in blank confusion.

“Hey, Allura, want to see something funny?” Hunk asked.

“I’m getting a bad feeling about this,” Keith said. “But also I kind of want to see what you’re planning.”

“Same,” Pidge said.

Allura looked at Hunk for a long moment. “I have no idea what’s going on, but alright.”

Hunk grinned and turned to Lance. “Hey Lance, is Magneto the Maximoff twins’ dad or not?”

(It took fifteen minutes for the team to get Lance to stop ranting.)

o.o.o.o.o

“Okay, Shiro was right. David’s my favorite now. Programming a miniature Cerebro in five minutes?” Pidge pretended to fan herself. “If I wasn’t ace… I mean, I still want to marry his brain anyway. Platonically. Just… damn. I have a favorite Marvel character now. I’m supposed to be a DC girl, but this has me hooked. Damn you, Lance. Damn you.”

“…just read the comic, short shit.”

o.o.o.o.o

A/N:There were a couple of characters I couldn't find decent V2 reference pics for; Tommy in particular doesn't show up in McKelvie's style much, since his two biggest appearances in V2 are both in issues that have guest artists.

I feel like Lance would have really strong opinions about bigoted retcons and the importance of remembering the minority influence on comics as a medium.

[operationrainfall]

Title Ara Fell: Enhanced Edition Developer Stegosoft Games Publisher DANGEN Entertainment Release Date March 26th, 2020 Genre RPG Platform PC, Mobile, Nintendo Switch, PS4, Xbox One Age Rating E for Everyone 10+ – Alcohol Reference, Fantasy Violence, Mild Blood, Mild Language Official Website

It’s kind of remarkable I didn’t play Ara Fell a lot sooner. After all, a friend gifted me the original game at least a couple years ago, where it quickly got lost in my massive Steam backlog. But then something wonderful happened – Stegosoft Games went and remastered the original game as Ara Fell: Enhanced Edition. That same friend suggested I review it for the oprainfall site, and I’m incredibly happy I finally listened. And while you could make the argument I would have enjoyed this whimsical adventure sooner, I’m glad I waited. Because Ara Fell: Enhanced Edition is just a much smoother, easier to access game with the same meaningful story intact.

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For all intents and purposes, Ara Fell: Enhanced Edition is the same game that was reviewed on the oprainfall site 4 years ago. However, there are some key differences. The battle system has been revamped, the user interface for menus is really easy to parse, and they even added new character classes and skills, apparently. They also upgraded the systems present in the game, such as crafting and enchanting, added difficulty modes, a handy autosave and more. While I wasn’t able to compare and contrast these changes much, not having played the original, I did find a few videos online, and I can say the UI has been wonderfully streamlined. Battle menus aren’t clunky, and it’s clear and obvious what your options are, and even in what order attacks will happen. And while I’m not usually a fan of crafting, here it’s very well implemented. All you need is to buy the recipe for an item, have enough of the requisite ingredients, then hold A to craft. You can craft single use items, as well as upgrade your equipment to provide better stats for your team. Enchanting is also very easy to do, and works pretty much identically. The key difference is you can attach up to 4 passive enchantments of your choice to character equipment, such as increased health, critical hit rate, the capacity to poison with regular attacks and much more. By contrast, crafted items have set properties.

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Steve was dead on when he said the game is one of the best RPG Maker games ever. I honestly didn’t even realize this was a RPG Maker title at first, since it has such polish and poise. Sure it looks like an old game, the same way Chrono Trigger looks like an old game. Meaning this looks totally authentic to a certain time period, and that’s not a complaint. Ara Fell: Enhanced Edition could easily have been a touchstone RPG from the 90s, chock full of heart, great gameplay and a really interesting story. Take it from a wannabe fantasy author, that last part is hard to do, especially in a genre full of cliches and overused tropes. And while the story isn’t the most complex, it also does a great job of introducing key elements organically and tying them together in a satisfying arc. The tale revolves around a floating continent, a mysterious relic, elves, vampires and one fierce young woman. I don’t want to ruin it by saying too much, but trust me that it’s a joy to experience, and the lore of the world of Ara Fell is really intriguing.

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A large reason I enjoyed the story of Ara Fell: Enhanced Edition so much is because of the characters that populate it. Lita LeCotta is the spunkiest, most deadpan little tomboy you could ever want. She’s delightfully snarky and full of personality, with hilarious one liners aplenty. What I especially love about Lita is that she fights against the mantle of hero, and just sees herself as someone that stumbled upon her destiny. But her strength of character, determination and desire to protect her loved ones makes her truly heroic. Or take Adrian, Lita’s childhood friend who has grown up in harsh circumstances, yet found the drive to become a knight. Sure he gets taken by the occasional schemer, but he’s always there to protect his friends, and he may even have some feelings for Lita. Then there’s Seri Kesu, a strong and beautiful sorceress with some serious hard edges. She’s a master of her craft, and her only weakness is one bad relationship that’s soured her to this day. Finally there’s Doren, a mysterious turban wearing bard that’s immensely passive aggressive, and who seems to have a surprising reservoir of knowledge of ancient times. It’s a great cast, and their interactions make the whole story a delight to experience. Even the villains set against them are complex and unexpected. All in all, the entire cast of Ara Fell: Enhanced Edition makes for a very compelling tale.

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None of that would matter if the game wasn’t fun to play, but I can say that Ara Fell: Enhanced Edition is a glorious retro RPG. I played on the normal difficulty, and found the combat easy to understand, yet challenging. It’s turn based, with an ATB showing the turn order. One unique aspect is the Injury system, where your character is weakened if they perish and are revived, and only fully recovers by healing at an Inn or other safe location. As the game progresses and your team fills out, the challenge scales accordingly, but I never found anything unbalanced. It’s really fun and hard to put down. You select attacks and engage the foe, and as you battle your Ultimate bar fills up. This allows characters to use super powerful attacks against the foe, but you can’t rely on these. Each character’s Ultimate takes a different amount of time to charge, and your entire team uses the same Ultimate bar. So once I use any Ultimate attack, the bar resets. Thankfully, you have a lot of control over how your team grows, and even can tweak how they fight. Every time you level up, you are allocated points to distribute to various stats, and the game clearly tells you what each corresponds to. I decided to focus on making Lita a speedy assassin, while I supercharged Seri’s spellcasting at the cost of her speed and defense. As you wander the world, you’ll find magical stones that an be used to augment your character’s abilities. At first all you can do is make them more powerful, but once you have fulfilled their class quests, your options blossom. You can pick from one of two advanced classes for each character, with pros and cons. Once that’s done, you can choose branching options for your abilities, such as Adrian’s Whirlwind attack healing your team, or Doren’s Holy Light affecting all foes. You can even tweak their Ultimate attacks, allowing for a lot of customization options. By the end of the game, I had a really powerful team that was capable of taking on any foe without worry.

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The combat is a lot of fun, but so is just exploring the world of Ara Fell: Enhanced Edition. Normally I don’t like getting lost in games, but this one was built to accommodate exploration and reward you for it. You’ll constantly come across natural resources you can harvest for use with crafting and enchanting. Lita will grab fish from the water, pluck leaves from various plants and mine ore from cavern walls. I just wandered and wandered, and probably spent a good extra 4-5 hours enjoying myself. It’s fun to jump across ravines, crawl through narrow tunnels and swim all around. The world of Ara Fell is a big one, and it’s truly beautiful. Since the entirety of the game takes place on a floating continent, you’ll see eerie sights like waterfalls descending hundreds of miles, or haunting ruins suspended in mid air. Yet, as much as I explored, I only got lost a handful of times in my 20+ hour playthrough. Once was late in the game when a group of damn faeries got me mixed up, and later I couldn’t find the class quest for Doren. Thankfully most activities are well signposted, and you can always check the pause screen for a reminder where you’re supposed to go for continuing the main quest. The only optional quests that were really flummoxing to locate were the various Bounties, of which I only managed to find half.

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Visually, this is a really attractive game. The portrait art for the characters does a great job of expressing their personality. Meanwhile, the overworld and sprite work is both faithful to the retro focus and eye catching. Pretty much all the enemies are distinct, with no color swapped nonsense. The game runs at a smooth clip most of time, and I only had very few moments of slowdown, and only while exploring. The music does its job. I wouldn’t say it was the best soundtrack ever, since it’s mostly low key, melodic and occasionally haunting. If you’re coming here for snazzy rock and roll tracks, don’t bother. But all the music and sound effects do their jobs well, if perhaps without much distinction.

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Honestly the biggest negative for me is that Ara Fell: Enhanced Edition ends at all. I really got lost in this wonderful RPG world, and was sad to see it end. I know I love a game when I even enjoy the puzzles in it. Thankfully there’s an epilogue after the credits roll, which does a decent job of tying up plot threads while still leaving room for a potential sequel. Suffice to say, I really hope Stegosoft Games has a sequel in the works, cause I desperately want to return to this fascinating world. If you love classic RPGs and want something you can get lost in for only $14.99, look no further. It’s easily one of my favorite RPGs of 2020 thus far.

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[easyreview cat1title=”Overall” cat1detail=”” cat1rating=”4.5″]

Review Copy Provided by Publisher

REVIEW: Ara Fell: Enhanced Edition Title Ara Fell: Enhanced Edition

[thomasroach]

Is it Too Late to Play Elder Scrolls Online?

The post Is it Too Late to Play Elder Scrolls Online? appeared first on Fextralife.

It’s hard to believe that the Elder Scrolls Online has been around for 5 year now, and it seems like only yesterday we were playing the beta, wondering what the future held for ESO. 5 years is a long time to be playing an MMO, and this tends to create a wide separation between veterans and new players. This happens because, bluntly, new players have years of content and knowledge to catch up on, and this can be quite intimidating. In fact, the most frequent question I am asked is, “Is it Too Late to Get Into Elder Scrolls Online?”.

In this article that is the exact question we will aim to answer. However, I am going to assume that if you’re reading this then you already have mild interest in the game, so we won’t discuss what makes the game fun to play.

Is it Too Late to Play Elder Scrolls Online?

Anytime you jump into an MMO after it launches you are essentially the “new kid on the block”. This is a tough position for anyone to be in, and this is before you take into account how a game is performing, and where it may or may not be in its life cycle. Nobody wants to join an MMO that’s on its way out, investing time and money into something that won’t last. So, before we jump into whether or not you should try out Elder Scrolls Online, let me give you some information on MMOs in general that you may not be aware of.

The MMO Life Cycle

All MMOs have a similar “Life Cycle” that they inevitably follow (unless they are WoW), and Elder Scroll Online is no exception. The game is just over 5 years old now, as mentioned above, so players maybe wondering how much longer its got in the tank. Let’s take a look at this Life Cycle so we can pinpoint just where ESO falls.

Game Launch

Large influx of players

Game plateaus

Player Base declines

Subscription ends

Resurgence of Player Base <—————– ESO is here

Player Base plateaus

Player Base declines

Game goes F2P

Resurgence of Player Base

Player Base Plateaus

Player Base declines

Server consolidation

Further Player Base decline

In-game store becomes focus of the game

Player Base dwindles further

Servers close

To give you some comparisons of MMOs: Lord of the Rings Online launched in 2007 and went Free-to-Play in 2010. Rift launched in 2011 and went Free-to-Play in 2013. Star Wars the Old Republic launched in 2011 and went Free-to-Play in 2012. Wildstar launched in 2014 and went Free-to-Play in 2015. This means that games are going Free-to-Play faster and faster on average, or are simply being created as F2P from the very beginning.

Lord of the Rings Online launched in 2007 and became free-to-play by 2010.

Elder Scrolls Online was released in 2014, and if I’m being totally honest, I’ve been anticipating F2P to come for two years now based on the averages. Just looking down the list you can see that even after 5 years Elder Scrolls Online is still hanging tough, and this is partly because of the frequent content Updates that it gets. But it is also because of some quick thinking by the Zenimax development team, adding many quality of life improvements with each Update, and I’ll cover these in the next section.

ESO’s Evolution & It’s Golden Age

The Elder Scroll Online released with an extremely rocky launch, and the game had a major identity crisis that lead to bad reviews. Many players tried the game once and then never came back, and I see many players now asking if it’s worth the return to check out what’s changed. In this section I’d like to show you what’s been added to the game since launch, which is a very extensive list and might blow your mind a bit. I’ve not included DLC content that was added to the game here, but simply quality of life improvements:

12 Man Trials added to the game. These are essentially “Raids” that have Normal and Veteran difficulties.

Guild Traders added, allowing players to buy from Guilds they are not a part of

Guild Heraldry added, allowing players to represent their Guilds visibly

Armor Dies added to the game

2 and 4 piece Set Bonuses added

Pledges (Dungeon Daily Challenges) added to the game

Dungeon Finder added to the game

Crafting Writs, allowing players to gain xp from daily crafting quests, as well as materials and other special items

Justice System added allowing you to commit crime and be punished if caught

The Champion System added, allowing for progression after reaching max level (50)

Tamriel Unlimited (Removal of the the Subscription Model)

Sets Dropped now match your level, previously these had fixed level ranges and did not scale

ESO released on Consoles

New Crafting Material tier added for Champion Level 150/160 gear

Several new Skill Lines added based on new Guilds

Assistants that allow you to manage your items on the fly

Can now murder citizens and punished if caught

Veteran Ranks removed from the game

Personalities added to the game

Console text chat added, previously they only had voice chat

One Tamriel (Players can now play with any player of any faction ,and level, in any zone except Cyrodiil)

Witches Festival, and other Holiday Events added to the game. These are now about 6 times or so a year.

Player Housing added to the game

Warden Class added to the game

Transmutation added, allowing you to change the Traits of equipment

Jewelry Crafting added

2 Handed Weapons became 2 Set pieces instead of 1

Werewolf was overhauled

Necromancer Class Added

Guild Finder Added

None of these things were part of the game at launch, and it’s easy to see why the game wasn’t quite so good back then. It was hard to play with your friends, you couldn’t do Dungeons with players of other Factions, and there was no Dungeon Finder. And on console, for a period of time, you couldn’t even communicate via text, making things worse.

Now anyone can play with anyone, and Level and Faction are not important. Players can do any Zone they wish in any order, maximizing the potential to play with others, friends or not. Equipment and Sets are now much better than ever before, and Zenimax continues to revamp and improve these with every major Update, including Elsweyr.

Elsweyr & Elder Scrolls Online

Elsweyr, the third Expansion for Elder Scrolls Online is releasing on June 4th on all platforms. Expansions are now a once a year occurrence for ESO, and with them come some very very good deals on the game. For instance, right now you can purchase the Elsweyr Digital Standard Edition from the Elder Scrolls Online Store for 59.99 USD, and this will come with the base game, Elsweyr and also the other two Expansions: Morrowind and Summerset. These Expansions are otherwise a few thousand Crowns each in the Crown Store, which is roughly 70 USD by themselves. You simply won’t find a better deal than this until next year’s Expansion, so I strongly recommend this edition if you like what you see of the game.

However, if you aren’t interested in shelling out that kind of money just now, you can also pick up the base game for around 19.99 USD. In addition, there are often sales on the game that go as low as 9.99 USD, like the one on Humble Bundle just the other day. This is next to nothing for a game that gets constant Updates, and almost all quality of life improvements also effect the base game. It’s a very low risk proposition at this price.

Conclusion

Elder Scrolls Online is defying all expectations by continuing to sell their game at retail, and hang on to/expand their player base. Zenimax’s commitment to frequent content Updates has won Elder Scrolls Online countless MMO of the Year awards, and is even starting to convert WoW players over to the Tamriel side of things. Whether you’re looking for a new MMO to play, or you’re a returning player who was disappointed at launch, I highly recommend this game.

It is, of course inevitable that the game will become F2P at some point, and begin its gradual decent into to mediocridum. However, at the rate that ESO is going, I don’t expect this to happen for several years, and I do believe that we are right smack in the middle of its “Golden Age”.

Right now is the best time to be playing the Elder Scrolls Online, so if you are really wondering whether or not it’s too late to get into, the answer is a resounding “No”.

Stay tuned for more ESO Builds and ESO Content through out June as we dive deeper into Elsweyr! You can also learn all the biggest changes with the latest expansion in Elder Scrolls Online Elsweyr: 6 Biggest Changes

You can also stop by the Elder Scrolls Online wiki for further info.

The post Is it Too Late to Play Elder Scrolls Online? appeared first on Fextralife.

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[flauntpage]

Bill Simmons Pulled a Muscle Doing a 180 on Markelle Fultz

Let me just start off by saying that I LIKE BILL SIMMONS. I’m not one of the haters. Most of the sports media complex simply rags on him because he is more successful than them.

But, his reversal on Markelle Fultz is laughable.

Bill Simmons on Markelle Fultz, then and now @BillSimmons http://pic.twitter.com/5PvjpdmVgY

— Kyle Scott (@CrossingBroad) October 4, 2017

If you followed Simmons prior to the draft or listened to his podcast when it looked like Markelle Fultz would be drafted by the Celtics, you’d know that he fawned all over Fultz like he was the second coming of James Harden (HE MIGHT BE!) and declared in no uncertain terms that he would be the number one pick. But now that the Fultz buzz has waned, with Lonzo Ball and Jayson Tatum commanding the bulk of summer attention, Simmons has shifted course, and by shifted course, I mean he literally starting running the other way screaming his head off (fun starts around 40:00):

“Crunch time: I’m looking at Saric, Simmons, Covington, Redick and T.J. McConnell. Notice who I didn’t mention– Joel Embiid or Markelle Fultz, because I don’t think either of them are going to play crunch time for this team in Year 1, because I’m not sure Embiid is even gonna be on the floor.”

“There’s a lot of Fultz red flags. A lot. It’s concerning… he seems a little immature, which isn’t necessarily a bad thing. Really high expectations, they traded up for him, which is a bad thing. He messed with his shot already, which is a bad thing. He’s already got hurt in summer league and he was hurt last year. There’s red flags.”

“Here’s the problem if you’re a Philly fan, and you have to be careful becaues they’re fucking maniacs and you can’t say anything about them. They are the most tense fan base in the NBA that we have right now. They are just on-call all the time to get mad. But, the Celtics would do that Tatum trade again in a millisecond. They’d do it in a millisecond. And they’d be like this is great, we have Jayson Tatum and this awesome other high lottery pick that’s great. If I was a Philly fan, I’d be nervous about Lonzo.”

Come on.

Things that have happened since the draft: Markelle Fultz suffered a minor ankle injury in the summer league and admitted to tweaking his shot.

That’s it. That’s everything. Lonzo Ball has been as advertised, and Tatum, who is more polished at this stage of his career, dominated summer league scrubs who will be bagging groceries next week. Fultz was excellent in two summer league games and then mediocre in another before spraining his ankle.

Now, to fair, and at the risk of sounding takey, there is some negative Fultz buzz of late. Let’s unpack it:

He changed his shot: I’d rate this somewhere above being a nothingburger. There was, by most accounts, nothing wrong with Fultz’s shot. He was an over 40% three-point shooter in college and looked just fine in the summer league. Could it have used some mild tweaking at the hands of experienced NBA professionals while under the watchful eye of his coaches and trainers? Yes. Did he need to spend the summer revamping it on his own, putting the team in the unenviable position of trying to dial back the changes to their number one overall pick’s form? No. While Brett Brown was diplomatic about it and told our Kevin Kinkead that everyone was reading too much into it, it’s not a great first impression to go off on your own and screw with your ($$$) shot.

Chick-fil-A: This was actually a topic on Simmons’ podcast. It was on ours, too. The Chick-fil-A thing is delicious fun and led to a marketing deal for the Sixers, but I can do without Fultz loading up on it. I’m sure that the Sixers, who have a 5-star chef in their complex and closely monitor each player, don’t allow Fultz to grab a 12-count for lunch every day (except for that one time they literally gave him a table full of nuggets). But a part of me thinks that Fultz stops by one every. single. day. on the way to and fro practice.

Maturity: I can add some insight here– Fultz is a good kid and will do what he’s told, but he does have to be told what to do. He’s 19. Compared to Ben Simmons, who is two years older, Fultz, who was cut from his high school team his sophomore year, has been in the spotlight for a much shorter period of time. Simmons has essentially been a superstar for 10 years, and you get the sense that his training regimen is a tad more structured at this point. That last part is just my view, but Fultz is young. He may be a year or two behind his peers, who’ve dealt with the spotlight for much longer.

But that’s it. Nothing else has changed with Fultz. He’s the same guy the Sixers drafted. You know, the one Bill Simmons loved so much at the time.

Bill Simmons Pulled a Muscle Doing a 180 on Markelle Fultz published first on http://ift.tt/2pLTmlv

[aion-rsa]

Rebirth Hints, Dark Foes Revealed in Justice League vs. Suicide Squad

SPOILER WARNING: The following article contains major spoilers for “Justice League vs. Suicide Squad” #4, on sale now.

The “Justice League vs. Suicide Squad” miniseries has been dishing out pieces of information about both heroes and villains alike with each chapter released, and Issue #4 is no exception to that rule. With a mixture of revelations, intriguing hints, and the arrival of another major DC villain, there’s a lot packed into this issue, with Green Lantern, Harley Quinn and one particularly dark foe at center-stage.

THE MEAN GREEN (TIME) MACHINE

Throughout this miniseries, we’ve been learning more and more about the Emerald Empress. We’ve had confirmed that this is the same Emerald Empress from 1000 years in the future, the age of the Legion of Super-Heroes, where she was one of the team’s major foes. We’ve also seen that she’s here primarily to find Saturn Girl, one of the founders of the Legion of Super-Heroes. (As seen first in “DC Universe: Rebirth” #1 and then “Batman,” Saturn Girl appears to be in the 21st century as a prisoner in Arkham Asylum.) And based on “Suicide Squad” #9, that quest was important enough to join the Suicide Squad in order to find that answer.

Here, though, we’ve had two non-Saturn Girl revelations involving not only the Emerald Empress, but the source of her power: the Emerald Eye of Ekron. First is an overall reminder that whatever is happening to the DC Universe these days, Superman is at the heart of its mysteries. When the Empress attacks Superman, she taunts him that, “If you only knew what the future holds, Superman… You’d let Max get what he wants!” With a follow-up of, “You’re better off dead than ever knowing the truth!” it’s a hint that Superman’s path forward will have some major twists and turns, and not for the better. If Superman’s fate is big enough to be remembered a millennium ahead (and this is the same future where there are no records on where Saturn Girl is hiding in our present day, so clearly only the greatest events are common knowledge), this promises to be a doozy.

Perhaps more important, though, is the conflict between the Emerald Empress and the Justice League’s pair of Green Lanterns. The Empress quickly dispatches Simon Baz, blasting him a huge distance away in the blink of an eye, even as he’s distracted by his ring’s warning that the Eye is some form of, “unknown Lantern technology.” It’s when Jessica Cruz attacks the Empress and the Eye that things start to get strange. After Jessica and the Empress trade an initial set of blasts, the Eye ceases its attack entirely, specifically staring at Jessica. It’s made clear that this isn’t the Empress’s decision, as she’s as surprised as Jessica. Jessica’s ring notes the presence of temporal energy, and a moment later, Simon’s new attack on the Eye begins to splinter the orb’s surface. The Eye’s fragility to Green Lantern energies can’t be discounted. With the warning that Lantern technology was discovered, could the Eye be some sort of final form of either the great Power Battery, or a specific ring?

Then there’s its refusal to attack Jessica (after having already walloped Simon), and Jessica’s ring calling out temporal energy. The Eye refusing to attack Jessica after the first attack could be a hint that there’s some sort of crossing of time streams at this point. Can the past of the Emerald Eye of Ekron be directly connected to Jessica Cruz’s Green Lantern ring?

DON’T CRY FOR ME, HARLEY QUINN

One of the most dangerous members of the “Squad Zero” team is Johnny Sorrow, who can not only summon up monstrous creatures from the world of the demonic King of Tears, but who destroys those who look at his unmasked face. It’s a threat that up until now has been mostly under wraps, with Sorrow content to summon up the monsters to do his dirty work. That all changes, though, when Sorrow decides to pull off his mask to eliminate Wonder Woman.

Harley Quinn’s mild obsession with Wonder Woman comes to a head here, with the erratic villain not only pushing Wonder Woman behind her, but daring to look directly into Johnny Sorrow’s face. Instead of death, though, we get Harley merely squinting her eyes before sarcastically commenting, “Cute face.” We also discover here that Sorrow himself cannot bear to look at his own face; doing so (courtesy Wonder Woman’s gauntlets) blasts Sorrow into the dimension of the King of Tears. In the scuffle, Sorrow refers to his visage as, “the true face of madness,” which is then given as Harley’s justification for surviving. As she puts it, “Once you’ve looked into one abyss you’ve seen ’em all.” Clearly, Sorrow’s face is no match for dating the Joker.

SAVING THE DARKEST FOR LAST

It’s not until the end of the issue, though, that Maxwell Lord’s ultimate target is revealed. With the assistance of a mind-controlled Killer Frost, Max is able to break into Amanda Waller’s deepest, darkest vault. It’s an apt location for one of the darkest artifacts in the DC Universe, literally: the Heart of Darkness, the black diamond that imprisons the dreaded demi-god Eclipso.

First introduced in the ’60s, solar energy genius Bruce Gordon was cursed by a sorcerer using a black diamond so that whenever Gordon was near an eclipse, he would transform into the dreaded Eclipso. As soon as he was struck by sunlight, though, he would revert to normal. Eclipso was a bit of a nuisance more than anything else, although it was quite impressive that the DC Universe seemed to have eclipses on an almost daily basis in order for new Eclipso stories to appear.

Famously revamped in the ’90s, Eclipso was revealed as a malevolent being who could manifest in anyone who touched one of a thousand perfectly carved black diamonds, all of which were originally part of the massive Heart of Darkness. A storyline from “The Spectre” revealed Eclipso to be a precursor to the Spectre (and the being who brought the biblical plagues to Egypt), and over the years he proved to be nigh-unstoppable. Even after all of the diamonds being reunited into the Heart of Darkness (and re-imprisoning Eclipso), the foe would periodically surface to bring out people’s darkest sides, with sunlight being Eclipso’s only weakness.

The New 52 world has seen Eclipso and the Heart of Darkness a few times, but never quite in such a central role. An early “Catwoman” storyline had Selina Kyle briefly attempt to steal the Heart of Darkness from the A.R.G.U.S. vaults, although the dark corrupting nature of the Heart of Darkness ultimately brought that attempt to a close before it could be completed. We next saw Eclipso in the alternate dimension of Gemworld, where the short-lived “Sword of Sorcery” series had Eclipso and the House of Amethyst revealed to be long-time enemies. Princess Amaya herself was able to imprison Eclipso inside the Heart of Darkness using her Amethyst abilities, but the gem immediately vanished, with Amaya theorizing that it had teleported itself to Earth. If that was the case, it seems to have since found itself into the hands of Amanda Waller.

While the Heart of Darkness is still intact, Eclipso’s corrupting influence is already in full effect. In a matter of seconds, Max Lord is not only possessed by Eclipso, he’s then able to do the same to the entire Justice League. Next up? Eclipso vs. the Suicide Squad. But can a group of super-villains do anything against the quintessence of one’s inner demon? Or will Eclipso’s presence make the Suicide Squad even more powerful than they already are? Dark days are, indeed, ahead.

The post Rebirth Hints, Dark Foes Revealed in Justice League vs. Suicide Squad appeared first on CBR.com.

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[operationrainfall]

Title Tokyo Mirage Sessions #FE Encore Developer Atlus, Nintendo Publisher Nintendo Release Date January 17th, 2020 Genre RPG Platform Nintendo Switch Age Rating T for Teen – Fantasy Violence, Language, Suggestive Themes, Use of Alcohol Official Website

Let me just get this out of the way – I was a big fan of the original Tokyo Mirage Sessions #FE. I’m well aware of the so called controversy of the original game, and it in no way impacted my enjoyment. So when I saw the original game was getting an upgraded port in Encore, I knew I had to play it. Not only did it feature a revamped build of the original Wii U exclusive, it came packaged with the optional DLC as well as some entirely new content in the EX Story. Thanks to the kind folks at Nintendo providing us the opportunity to review the game, I buckled down and got through as fast as possible. Four years later, am I still a fan of Tokyo Mirage Sessions, or did this Encore fall flat?

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The first thing you should all know about Tokyo Mirage Sessions #FE Encore is that it’s a game all about the theme of spreading happiness and creativity through art. In the game proper, that art is predominantly split between musical performances and stage acting. It embraces Japanese culture and all its many quirks, while showcasing the glamour of the entertainment industry. Besides that, the game is also a hybrid of two rather different series – Shin Megami Tensei and Fire Emblem. You wouldn’t be faulted for wondering how easily those mesh together, but I can assure you it works shockingly well. Not only does Encore have key elements of both series, such as various character classes, a weapon triangle, exploiting enemy weaknesses and crazed extra-dimensional dungeons, it manages to also stand on its own two feet while inheriting the best aspects of both source materials. That said, for the majority of game, you’re going to see more SMT influence than FE, but once the credits roll, I felt both were well represented. This is also a game that benefits from being a JRPG, for one simple reason – this game’s strong suit isn’t the plot. That’s not to say the story isn’t interesting or entertaining, but after playing it a second time, I couldn’t help but notice several things the plot doesn’t adequately address. Thankfully, the genre is also known for having captivating personalities, and Encore has that in spades. You’ll really grow to love every character in the story, from the main cast to the supporting characters. They’ll all grow and become more fully realized as you play, and if you devote yourself to all the Side Story content (which I highly recommend), you’ll really get rewarded with some touching and hilarious moments.

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While the story (split into several chapters broken up with Intermissions) isn’t the tightest or most complex, it does provide a good structure for how things progress. Tokyo is under assault by invisible forces called Mirages. They are after the distilled creative essence of humanity, called Performa. It’s found in crowds that are inspired by music or theater, so every time some big event happens, Mirages strike. They drain our Performa until we’re just empty husks, and it provides a powerful boost of strength to these Mirages. You’re probably wondering how you fight back against such a threat, at least if you haven’t played a Persona or SMT game before. If you have, you know that it takes fire to fight fire. A small percentage of humans can see Mirages, and by joining forces with heroic ones, they become Mirage Masters. These humans are empowered by their Mirage, granted powerful armor as the Mirage itself turns into their primary weapon, called Carnage. Thus equipped, you and your band of heroes fights back, repelling these otherworldly invaders (portrayed on the map as floating red wraiths) and returning things to normal. Just be wary, since some evil Mirages have possessed prominent humans to do their bidding. There’s other parts to the story, such as the mystery of Tiki’s lost memories and an incident a few years back where a group of people vanished, including Tsubasa’s sister, but I’ll leave those portions for you to discover.

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Speaking of characters, let’s spend some time discussing the main ones. You play as Itsuki Aoi. He’s a mild mannered boy known as the Prince of Denseness, yet his support helps all his friends grow and reach their ultimate potential. He’s not quite an avatar, but he’s also the least fleshed out character in the game. Then there’s Itsuki’s childhood friend, Tsubasa. She suffered some serious trauma as a child, yet has still managed to grow into a loving and strong person. She’s also a ridiculous fangirl, and often gets so perplexed she walks into walls and gets tongue tied, inverting word order. Or take Touma, a hot headed action hero in training that uses confidence to hide his insecurity. There’s the old pro Kiria, entertainer extraordinaire and literal ice queen, at least until you reveal her soft and fluffy side. Then there’s Ellie, a girl of mixed ethnicity with a sharp tongue who has aspirations of Hollywood fame. For those who prefer innocence, there’s the sweet and demure Mamori, a young actress with her own popular cooking show that wants to protect those she loves. Finally, there’s the cold and brutally honest Yashiro. He starts out as a bitter rival to your team, but eventually you convince him to look past his misconceptions and discover the pain he’s hiding.

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But that’s just the main characters. There’s three other important supporting characters, and they’re all tremendous as well. Your boss is the busty and flirtatious Maiko, a one time model that runs the Fortuna agency with iron determination. There’s nothing she won’t do to help her stable of artists prosper, and that especially includes getting completely drunk while making connections. Or there’s Tiki, an ethereal green haired maiden whose name may sound familiar to Fire Emblem fans. Devoid of any physical form, Tiki only exists in the Bloom Palace, a extra-dimensional realm accessible from the Fortuna office. Though she has no memories, that doesn’t prevent her from showing off her loving and helpful side, always willing to help out her Big Brother! And finally there’s my favorite, Barry Goodman. A former metal rocker and Mirage Master, Barry has seen better days, but he’s always willing to train new talent. He’s also a worse fanboy than Tsubasa, and his brash and quirky personality provided some of my biggest laughs.

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Now, none of the plot or character would much matter if the game wasn’t fun, but Encore is a delight. In large part, that’s due to the complex and kinetic combat. You fight with a team of 3, and your goal is to attack the enemy to pinpoint their weaknesses. Once you’ve done that, by using a Skill that exploits it, you’ll initiate the titular Sessions. Essentially, this is a giant chain of attacks that proceeds from a single one, ignoring enemy defenses. Initially this only involves your current team, but eventually you’ll acquire the ability to include your sub cast of characters, leading to massive combos. When you have one foe left, you’ll deal Overkill damage, providing great rewards of cash and Performa. As you level up, your Carnage learn new Skills, and you get to choose which you keep and which you toss. Additionally, you can change out any member of your team whenever you want, other than Itsuki. This allows you to bring in the right character for the task at hand, and manipulate the field of battle to your advantage. Just keep in mind, only the characters in combat level up their Carnage, while everybody levels up their character level regardless.

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You also have at your disposal powerful Special and Ad-lib Performances. Special Performances use energy you’ve filled up in your meter by attacking, and has some tremendously powerful effects. Some of my favorite examples are temporarily increasing enemy weaknesses, healing your entire team, fatally killing enemies and much more. Ad-lib are also quite powerful, but only activate randomly when characters use Skills with the corresponding attack type. For example, if Ellie uses a Bow attack, she may use One-Sided Love, which damages all your foes and charms them to boot. If instead you use a Lightning Skill like Maziodyne with Itsuki, you might activate Back Chorus, zapping the entire field. Last of all are Duo Arts. You won’t have access to these until the latter portion of the game, but once you do, they make a big difference. They often trigger during long Sessions, and have two of your teammates join together for tremendous and powerful attacks. A great example is The Tunnel Home, where Barry, dressed like a giant dog, races to catch Mamori’s axe, and then charges the foe headfirst with it, ripping them to shreds. Keep in mind that while both Ad-lib Performances and Duo Arts are random, having a higher Luck stat seems to trigger them more often, since Ellie, who has very high luck, seemed to trigger these types of attack the most.

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Like any good RPG, you can upgrade your gear, crafting more powerful weapons. This process is called Unity, and it’s done at the Bloom Palace with Performa dropped by defeated foes. When you gather enough, you can have Tiki conduct a Carnage Unity, making a new weapon with enhanced stats and differing weaknesses by fusing the gathered Performa with your Mirage. Eventually you can craft +1 or higher versions of the same Carnage, which is useful when you can’t find the right Performa to make a new weapon. Also, whenever you make a new one, you have a chance to learn a new Special Performance, meaning it’s in your best interest to keep on fighting so you can make stronger weapons and learn more abilities. For the most part, I felt this loop worked very well, and only hit a wall that forced me to grind for parts a couple of times in my near 50 hour experience. Another type of Unity is Radiant Unity, where you use special Performa found only in the many Side Stories to learn new abilities that you don’t have to equip and which are constantly in use. A good example is Open Audition, which lets your sub cast of characters jump into Sessions. An integral one is learned by Itsuki, called Director Itsuki, which lets you switch foes after you kill one and keep the Session going. Finally, like any good Fire Emblem, you can change your class. You do this with (you guessed it) Master Seals, which are either mission rewards or found in hard to reach corners of dungeons. This lets you further customize your experience and changes the look of your Mirage, though I admit I found the starting forms preferable to many of the downright strange looking upgraded classes. But that’s just a matter of personal preference, you might find that you love the look of these new forms.

The Show Must Continue on Page 2 ->

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Although the plot isn’t Encore’s strong suit, that isn’t the same as saying the writing falls flat. I found most of the dialogue very funny and revealing, whether it be conveyed in some grand speech or in digital messages called Topics. In the original Tokyo Mirage Sessions, Topics were relegated to the Gamepad, and notified you when one of your characters had something to say, or when you could start a new Side Story. Though Topics are alive and well here, instead they’re relegated to the + button. This wasn’t problematic per se, but oftentimes I would open up the main menu, which is separate from the Topic menu. This only cost me a few seconds to close it out and open the right one, but it was far less intuitive than originally on the Wii U. That said, the Topics are often hilarious, showing banter between Itsuki and his friends. The Topic menu also helps keep track of which Side Stories are in progress, and is where you’ll find the dungeon maps. I loved the Side Stories in the game, since not only did they showcase more of the cast’s personalities, but they provided powerful upgrades and Backup Skills for the sub characters. My only issue was when it wasn’t clear how to progress certain missions, such as when Tsubasa is on the hunt for a stray cat, and the clues you’re given are entirely open ended and unnecessarily vague. The missions that involved combat or just progressed like a Visual Novel were much more to my liking, since I get frustrated whenever I get stuck. That said, it occurred to me as I played that if there’s ever a VN made of Encore, it would most definitely be a Harem VN. Itsuki becomes the love interest of ALL the female characters, even though he’s too dense to realize it. Even the men all respect and admire him. In other words, there’s a universe in which Itsuki finally learns the full extent of Maiko’s many charms, and that’s a tale I would definitely read.

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The dungeons in Encore play out very much like a Persona game. Enemies will appear and chase you, though most can be stunned with Itsuki’s sword to gain First Strike during battle. There’s also terrifying Savage enemies, black wraiths that can’t be knocked down and which generally are 10+ levels higher than your team. Though dungeons aren’t littered with traps and false floors, they each have a unique gimmick that makes traversal a challenge. While the very first one is incredibly basic, the one immediately after that is a giant step up in terms of complexity and difficulty. It has you manipulate empty mannequins, raising or lowering their arms, then progressing through the cuffs to reach new areas. There’s another that is full of devious cameras that take your picture and return you to the very beginning, not unlike the Wallmasters in Zelda. Pretty much each dungeon is distinct looking and offers a robust challenge, and none other than the first can be breezed through. Most took me more than 2 hours, and the final one easily took 8 or more. Thankfully, early on Tsubasa acquires the Traport skill, which lets you transport yourself back to Fortuna HQ, where you can heal your team with a soda. Depending on the type of can, you will also increase the luck of certain characters temporarily. I had no issue with this, other than my confusion about the very first dungeon having a heal spot, and none of the others. But so long as you don’t mind a little back and forth teleportation, you shouldn’t have any problems getting through these dungeons. Just put on your thinking cap and get ready to fight back hordes of Mirages.

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It wouldn’t be a satisfying RPG without tough bosses, and Tokyo Mirage Sessions #FE Encore delivers. Every time I thought I was getting overpowered in the game, the next boss would prove me wrong. None of the bosses here are easy, at least on the Normal difficulty I chose. Most of them can wipe you out in a couple turns, especially if your team is weak to any of their attacks. Each boss usually has a posse of minor foes, and while that might seem unfair, since they can summon more, they’re there for a reason. Namely, so you can defeat the minor foes to build up your Session meter and then unleash powerful attacks on the bosses. I enjoyed the challenge provided by these fights, and only found a handful to be a pain. One was a doppleganger of Yashiro that could split himself into clones, and which would go into a counter stance to parry any physical attacks. Another was Excellus, a floating mechanical mage that changed his resistances during the fight, and which could hit my team with unrelenting magical attacks. There’s a couple others, but overall I wasn’t upset with the more difficult bosses. They just required I be willing to grind up my levels and equipment a bit, a skill I gathered recently thanks to games like Persona Q.

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Now, it wouldn’t be fair to talk about Encore without touching upon the new content. First of all, you have a rather silly (yet awesome) ability at the start to choose whether or not Tsubasa wears glasses in the game. As a fan of the sexy librarian trope, I opted for it. Besides that, the DLC which was previously only available to those that paid for it is part of the main package now. It’s essentially free, since this version of the game costs as much as the base version of the original, $59.99. The DLC, which opens up a couple dungeons into the game, includes 3 areas you can tackle. One is full of Savage enemies that reward you with Tomes which help level up faster; another area gives you Skill Books, for learning new Skills much faster; and lastly one has Detritus, which can be traded for stat boosting Incense. While I’m fine with these options, I didn’t use them much. Mostly cause there was no story there, you can’t save in these areas, and frankly Savage foes are a giant pain in the ass. What I would have preferred was an area full of Rare Mirages, which often drop hard to find Performa necessary for powerful Carnage Unity. In my entire playthrough, I maybe encountered 10 of these Mirages, and what’s worse, they aren’t tied to any specific area. That wasn’t a huge problem til later in the game, but it is worth mention.

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However, the real draw for Encore is the EX Story. It all takes place in a new dungeon called the Area of Aspiration, where supposedly your dreams are brought into physical form. I admit I was tentatively very excited about the EX Story, as I hoped it would provide an excuse to spend more time with this world. Unfortunately, I have to confirm it’s rather short and insubstantial. The story tied to the Area of Aspiration only involves Itsuki, Tsubasa and Kiria, and none of the others. While it’s cool you can find new costumes there, and I appreciated unlocking the use of Tiki, Maiko and Barry in Sessions, that’s also not the same as them being playable characters. Don’t get me wrong, I’m all for tiny green dragons, busty ninjas and knights clad in dog-armor, but I also don’t feel like the process of unlocking them was fulfilling. In the main story, you progress in Side Stories and learn more about your teammates, and then those revelations empower them. Here, you just open a chest and get new features. Plus, I’m still not clear how Maiko and Barry, who lack Mirages, magically get the ability to fight Mirages, which the game states over and over again is the sole province of a Mirage Master. And though you can’t get through the Area of Aspiration all at once, since parts of it are gated behind other content, it’s still over way too soon. It only has 3 chapters and one boss. I was really hoping for a meaty dungeon to spend hours and hours in after I beat the final boss. Instead, I got maybe a couple hours of extra content that left me wanting more than the one new song, “She Is”, rewarded to you at the very end of the experience. Which isn’t to say I hated the EX Story, I didn’t. I just feel a game of this caliber deserved better.

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As for how the game game looks and plays, both are fantastic. Even though the original Tokyo Mirage Sessions was on the Wii U, and while the limitations of that console are still apparent (reused enemy models, limited draw distance, a seemingly sprawling map that’s only composed of a few areas), it in no way prevents this from being a beautiful game. I love how random passerby are rainbow colored, or how the Fortuna office gets decorated after various performances with posters, or even the neon portraits of your team during battle. Hell, even though they reuse enemy models with a new coat of paint, there’s a good variety of foes, from giant clown heads to winged raiders to hideous giants and top-hat wearing ghosts. Of special note are the game’s bosses, which each are stunning looking and showcase a distinct aesthetic style. And each of the characters’ different Mirages are all full of personality that is matched by their design. Musically, I love the game equally. While the main combat and exploration themes are somewhat laid back, I live for when the music of performances enters the fray of battle. I still tap my feet to the Duo Arts “Dream Catcher” and “Give Me”, and am always impressed by the Kiria’s bad ass tunes, such as her Ad-lib Performance “The Labyrinth.” There’s tons of rocking tunes in Encore, from a wide range of genres. I never thought I liked J-pop, but Tokyo Mirage Sessions may have proven me wrong. Oh and though I am not fluent in Japanese in the slightest, I loved the personality and pop provided by the vocal cast, in and out of combat.

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Now, while I like almost everything about Tokyo Mirage Sessions #FE Encore, reviewing games for this many years has trained me to view things critically. As such, the following are minor frustrations that dragged the experience down a bit. One are the bestiary’s enemy locations. These can be viewed from your main menu, and are integral when you need to farm the right Performa for weapons and skills. Unfortunately, the enemy locations found here don’t correspond to the actual area map. Another issue is that I wish that once you see a scene, you can skip it entirely the next time. Often right before a boss fight there’s a ton of dialogue, and while you can speed through it, you can’t skip it, and you definitely can’t skip Topic notifications that are story related. This made the final boss fight all the harder, since there’s a massive scene right before it, and it takes a good minute and a half to speed through it. I also kind of wish the map wasn’t on the Topic menu, but the other huge main menu, since it can be time consuming transitioning between them. It’s also a bit irritating that you’ll get notifications of a side story about to open up, then have to wait til it’s triggered. This is after you level up your Stage Rank, which is in itself a nebulous process, since there’s no counter that tells you when it’s full, unlike character and Carnage level. And one last thing that really irritated me was that I always had tons of money in-game, literally millions, but not enough things to spend it on. The Carabia boutique has a very limited supply of equipment, and none that is really game changing. Even buying all the costumes from Harajuka left me millions in the bank. I almost wish this game took mechanics from a game like Persona Q, letting you farm materials that you trade in to create new equipment regularly. Other than these, I very much enjoyed the game.

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All in all, I’m still very much a fan of Tokyo Mirage Sessions #FE after beating Encore. It’s basically the same game, just with a bit of extra content thrown in and some minor quality of life improvements such as the Quick Session option and faster load times. While I was ultimately unimpressed with the EX Story, I still appreciate being able to play one of my favorite Wii U exclusives on my Switch portably. If you’re a fan of Japanese culture and love crazy RPGs full of heart, you owe it to yourself to play Encore. Now I just have to cross my fingers and pray we get a true sequel that improves on this already fantastic experience.

[easyreview cat1title=”Overall” cat1detail=”” cat1rating=”4.5″]

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REVIEW: Tokyo Mirage Sessions #FE Encore Title Tokyo Mirage Sessions #FE Encore