#why so many fire monsters capcom

[thevaudevilledemon]

Rap Battle: Stan Pines vs Scrooge McDuck

Don’t judge me, I had fun writing this.

In this battle, two money loving great uncles will verbally duke it out to establish grunkle dominance, it is the world famous trillionaire adventuring Scotsman, Scrooge McDuck, versus the old conning tourist trap runner, Stan Pines!

Scrooge McDuck:

Life is like a hurricane, when you fight me Multi-trillion business man, you can, bite me

World famous adventurer Through all opponents I'll be breezin' I could have figured out how to beat Bill Cipher in only one season

I've faced witches and monsters and obstacles of every kind So I'll have no issue with this crooked scammer's wrinkly behind

Been around the world inspired Indiana and Cobb Star of one of the greatest retro-games courtesy of Capcom

I'm a hard as nails, thrill seeking treasure hunting man of action I don't need a shabby run-down twelfth rate roadside attraction

I made my fortune square being tougher and smarter You got your money by swindling and making back-handed barters

From the klondike to the combat mic my battles have changed But my opponents are always greedy slimy, stupid and deranged

Stan Pines:

You got guts duck a hard working core But now you're boarding the Stan-O-War

You want to dive into this like your coin bin With all your tact and grace? Are you aware of everything I've punched in the face?

Dinosaurs, Zombies, Eagles and a trans-dimensional God of chaos And now, a dumb rich duck with no morals or pathos

So you're gonna need more than your bark, bark, Barks You need to spit fire but you're just coughing sparks

Now we've both had familial issues and the reunion’s always sweet But my brother was trapped in another dimension You couldn't just see your nephew down the street?

The Scott can call me the Kingdom of England because I'm endlessly attacking you The only thing that could make your rhymes worse Is if you had the bag-pipes backing you

I'm on my toes can't stay stagnant like you  Face it, You're not Young anymore Everyone is saying, Scrooge Who?

I got through the government when gravity was in flux I'll admit, I'm no real prize but you look like a million bucks.

Scrooge:

Is that the best you can do, You dirty swindling conning old crone? You're as lucky as my nephew Donald and as Lazy as Gladstone

For ten cents I started my own business empire With a single cent I could set your world on fire

This frugal plaid clad warrior never steps away from a fight I Rosa to the challenge of this verbal Scarpa to bring your cons to light

You're getting eaten alive I'm the sea monster and you're the ice cream You couldn't get the drop on me if you were Darkwing on a high beam

You're crashing like Launchpad in your hot air balloon It's time for the greatest great uncle to claim victory A-Woo-oo!

Stan:

Look, I came back from amnesia you need to punch harder than that I can't expect to lose against a duck in that inferior top hat

Why don't you get Gyro to build a rapping machine for you? Your rhymes were so bad I think your family would implore you

You've gone to the moon and back And the bottom of the deepest sea I've built interdimensional rifts Caused a tear in my reality

Soos couldn't fix your rhymes You've got too many issues Flaunting all that wealth over the family you misuse

And that is where we differ in how we see our family You'd cut down your family tree If it was profitable for your logging company

You think you can be saved by all that wealth that you've boasted? It must be a holiday because a duck just got roasted

[korenlesthe]

Writing & stuff (Part 1)

So, I think it's time i use this blog for what it is : a blog ! Note : all french terms will be translated in parenthesis.

Writing : how it all started I'm a french writer, almost 40yo, gay, soon to be "Pacsé" (PACS) to my lovely Marine boyfriend (French Navy). Since I was a child I wanter to tell stories but at the time, i couldn't even try, too affraid and never had enough motivation.

Like a lot of people, videogames played a big part in my inspirations. One of the very first game that made me think about how deep a story could be was The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening for the Nintendo GameBoy. I was around 10 years old when I got the game and, as a kid, it blew me away (the ending still brings tears to my eyes 29 years later).

It was so different to everything I played so far on the Amstrad CPC & Amiga. And the first one to make me cry at the end. Not long after that, my brother got a Super Nintendo and I got The Legend of Zelda: A Link To The Past for my birthday and it unlocked something in me : medieval setting, magic, swords, secrets, exploration... basically everything I loved.

And a few years after that, my brother brought what probably motivated me the most to start telling stories : Secret of Mana (Seiken Densetsu 2 in Japan). I vividly remember when my brother started the game, a loud yet distant cry of a monster is heard while the "Nintendo" & "Squaresoft" logos appears. I said "Wow". My sister said "Why do you 'wow' ? There's nothing !" but then the title screen appeared with the amazing theme song "Fear of the Heavens" by Hiroki Kikuta. I knew there was something more than just the roar of a powerful creature on a black screen.

This game even made me fall in love with dragons ; I loved calling "Flammy" the dragon to fly all around the massive world, always felt sad to kill a dragon to advance the story and even the final one. I didn't knew back then "why" I loved dragons ; I just loved their design, how majestic they looked, and wondered what their stories was, why were they attacking the heroes while Flammy was helping us etc.

Off course, other games added their stone like Breath of Fire III from Capcom, Illusion of Time (Illusion of Gaia in the US), Terranigma, Secret of Evermore and so many more... even games like Metroid and Turrican, two of my most beloved franchises.

I finally started working on my first book : "Denaris I : Le Mot Oublié" (Denaris I: The Forgotten Word) -Note : The title of the first volume was originally "Les Seigneur d'Yseïr" (Lords of Yseir)- in August 2003 (the 08/06/2003 to be exact). It went throught publishing for the first time on the 6th of February 2010 but after my publisher lied to me (no corrections, never read the manuscrit, published the unfinished version instead of the one I completed) and tried to keep selling the books after I ordered their destruction, I got my rights back and took a break. I came back to work on it in January 2011 but I was never satisfied and I left the first volume in a corner to work on the second and third volumes. Then, between 2015 and 2019, I managed to fix the whole first volume.

It was exhausting and massively crushed my motivation. Feeling that I would never write again if I kept working on the first or even the other three volumes, I started another story, more or less linked to Denaris, in a different setting.

Another world, another story

I felt the urge to write something that was NOT about Denaris but yet, always wanted to link both stories, just with a few characters and never, ever force anyone to have read a story to understand the other. Denaris was medieval fantasy, so the next story would be its exact opposite : science fiction with a little bit of cyberpunk.

Thus, Soleil Lirien : Contrôle Total (Lirian Sun: Full Control) was born... but I couldn't even start the damn thing ! I was always fumbling around with the main character : A man ? Ok, another one. Probably gay. What's his story ? Linked to one of the characters from Denaris ? But if I do so, I'll have to tell everything to get to the point where it makes sense in both Denaris and Lirian Sun...

It went like that for a long time until I started watching "The Jimquisition" by James Stephanie Sterling. While I loved the show (and still do), the opening song of their show clicked right away with me. "I love the style and the lyrics", I thought. I searched for the artist, "DrillQueen" and looked at the cover art of her album and "voilà". I instantly knew what I wanted to do. Who would become the main character of Lirian Sun.

Jenneth McGuire was born this day and my brain became filled with lots of ideas. Working on Lirian Sun helped me so much, it made me like writing again. It made me cry, smile and laugh and care so much about the characters. This is also during this moment that I became much more aware of a lot of things I was very late to, like supporting Trans people (and I would like to thanks again James Stephanie Sterling and Laura Kate Dale for everything).

Thank God for them.

End of part 1. Coming soon : what went wrong, how not to write a book (aka : every mistake I did), motivation, troubles, characters, stories... I think I'll use this blog to talk about Lirian Sun & Denaris in the near future. If I'm confident enough, I might talk more about me but that's clearly something I'm not ready yet.

[justazephyrian]

Monster Hunter Rise: Sunbreak variants, subspecies, rare species and TU monsters in a nutshell...

[ponett]

(I was gonna ask this on TKP since it's megaman-related, but then I said "maybe it's too derivative", so I'm asking here) Why did Inafune leave Capcom actually? I mean, I'd not be surprised if he was underpaid and/or overworked, but I've heard something about "creative differences", maybe? I'm also not sure if he came back for Megaman 11 and then left again.

he was vocally very critical of the state of the japanese AAA game industry around 2010-2012, saying that a lot of devs had become complacent and that big budget japanese games were lagging behind their overseas counterparts. whether or not you agree with this in hindsight is another discussion, but it was a pretty common belief at the time

at capcom especially, they were kind of in a rough patch. street fighter was doing well, and monster hunter continued to be popular in japan, and they published some great small scale stuff like ghost trick and mega man 9 and 10. but they also published a lot of big budget games targeting a mainstream western audience that failed to set the world on fire, be it critically or commercially or both. resident evils 5 and 6, the bionic commando reboot, dark void, the lost planet trilogy, the wii dead rising game, etc. it's easy to see how he would have that mental image of the state of the japanese industry if capcom was floundering so much

so he wanted to start over at his own company. but then they promised way too many kickstarter stretch goals for mighty no. 9 and had to launch simultaneously on eight platforms across two console generations with online multiplayer features included, and it turns out it's very difficult for a new studio to handle all that in-house. so uh, that didn't go well

[aion-rsa]

15 Best SNES Platformers Ever

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Platformers have long been an entry point for new gamers. Video games may have greatly expanded in scope over the years and now offer so many different genres and experiences that it’s nearly impossible to keep track of them, but that’s actually a big part of the reason why it’s still so much fun to look back at these timeless games where the main objective was often to simply jump from one place to the next.

There is no console that celebrated the brilliance of the platformer better than the Super Nintendo Entertainment System. The SNES may be best known for expanding the adventure and RPG genres, as well as raising a generation’s expectations for video game graphics, but few consoles have come close to rivaling the Super Nintendo’s library of classic platforming titles.

It’s hard to narrow this list down to just 15 games, but from action-based platformers to pure platforming classics, these are the best examples of this timeless genre that the SNES gifted the gaming world. 

15. Jelly Boy 

Putting you in control of a jelly baby (a candy that is popular in the U.K. and surrounding areas), Jelly Boy was only released in Europe when it debuted in 1994. The game has a colorful aesthetic and some unique platforming elements built around the main character’s ability to transform into a myriad of vehicles, tools, and other objects. Those metamorphoses will be familiar to anyone who has played a Wario Land title or Kirby’s Epic Yarn. 

Admittedly, Jelly Boy‘s mechanics can be a little clunky and the controls are deficient compared to some of the later games on this list. Still, you will be hard-pressed to find a more original platformer on the console that isn’t made by Nintendo themselves. You can even play it now via the Nintendo Switch Online service.

14. Demon’s Crest

Released by Capcom in 1994 as the third game featuring the character Firebrand (who debuted in the Ghosts ‘n Goblins series), Demon’s Crest is a forgotten gem in the SNES catalog. It adds some variety to the traditional action-platformer by giving the playable protagonist the ability to fly and shoot fireballs as well as access other upgradeable attacks and maneuvers as their quest rolls along. That feature adds a little Zelda-like adventuring to the mix, and you’ll certainly need those late-game power-ups because this platformer means business.

There are many difficult platformers on this list, but few boast the plethora of boss battles seen in this one. It’s actually similar to Mega Man in terms of its fighting style and jumping requirements, so if you are looking for an alternative to the Blue Bomber that keeps the basics of the genre intact, you’ll have a hard time doing better than Demon’s Crest.  

13. Joe & Mac

Joe & Mac is honestly a fairly basic platformer for its era. What gets it onto this list of the best games in that genre, though, is the creativity and execution of its setting.

The game sees you control two different cavemen who rely on basic prehistoric items such as fire, bats, bones, etc. The bosses are pretty cool (dinosaurs are fun for all ages) and the controls hold up well enough that you won’t ever feel like you have to force the avatar into doing something that the interface simply won’t allow for. The game spawned a sequel that was also released on SNES, but the original is unique enough to get the nod here. 

12. Super Ghouls ‘n Ghosts

Despite what the title may suggest, Super Ghouls ‘n Ghosts is actually the third game in the Ghosts ‘n Goblins series. Like the previous games, this classic sees you battle various monsters and bosses that fit the setting nicely. Although the game is maybe a little too action-heavy to get the nod over the SNES’ best platformers, it uses its platforming elements to elevate the entire experience. 

The difficulty is insanely high and the sheer amount of sprites on screen at once can lead to some lag that only adds to the frustrations of this arduous journey, but the game has a way of keeping things light and humorous when the frustration sets in. How many other games see the protagonist stripped of their armor, quite literally, when he takes too many hits?

11. Donkey Kong Country 3: Dixie Kong’s Double Trouble!

The third installment in the beloved Donkey Kong Country trilogy certainly isn’t hated by many, but it is usually viewed as a step down from the first two games. Whether that has to do with a change in composer for the soundtrack, the inability to play as Donkey or Diddy, or the fact it was released after the Nintendo 64 was on the market, the title’s sometimes mixed reputation often prevents it from being appreciated as a divine platforming experience. 

The environments and storytelling in this game are well-executed. If you’re observant, you may even notice that the developers were trying to say something about the sad state of ape habitats and pollution in the wild. Even if you didn’t dive too deep into that surprising bit of social commentary, you’ll likely find that the platforming in this one remains top-notch and that the overall experience remains severely underrated. 

10. DoReMi Fantasy: Milon’s DokiDoki Adventure 

As the only game on this list that wasn’t initially released outside of Japan, many gamers may not know that DoReMi Fantasy is a whimsical experience that features some of the key elements of Mario and Kirby’s best adventures in terms of gameplay and graphics. Starring a young child whose objective is to reclaim music for the forest, DoReMi utilizes some clever puzzles that may not be unusual for the platformer genre but certainly add to the fun.

The game got a Virtual Console release in North America in 2008, but that’s sadly the best chance many gamers have had in recent years to take a chance on this title. It’s a great example of how people should be more open to experiencing games that weren’t localized the first time around.

9. Donkey Kong Country

Perhaps the most famous game starring Nintendo’s lovable ape, the original Donkey Kong Country was Rare’s first big title for the SNES and practically started their decade-plus long relationship as a second-party developer with the Big N. Tasked with showing off off the console’s pre-rendered graphics system, the crew from Britain proved to be up to the task. Honestly, this game still looks halfway decent in 2021. 

While the actual platforming is not as good as the Super Mario games on the SNES, it offered a different flavor of jumping that is still very much appreciated. The “weight” of Donkey Kong and Diddy means that the platforming is less flighty than in Super Mario games, and the rideable animal buddies you encounter along the way add a little flair to the experience. 

8. ActRaiser

As a game that serves as both an action-platformer and a God simulator, this underrated and forgotten gem from Enix and developer Quintet showed off the visual and audio capabilities of the SNES in the early days of the console. You play as the “Master” who is tasked with building towns around the world and fending off the evils that threaten them. It’s hard to juggle two completely different genres like that, but ActRaiser finds a great balance. 

The game was re-released for the Wii Virtual Console in 2007 but has otherwise been paid little attention in the years since its release. That’s unfortunate because there aren’t many games from 30 years ago that provide this much depth and versatility. Both parts of the experience are extremely solid in their own right, and together add up to become something truly special. 

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7. Kirby Super Star

Even the most ardent Kirby fans would probably agree that the franchise can get a little stale at times. There are only so many ways Kirby can suck an enemy up, transform his powers to match theirs, and ultimately defeat King Dedede. That’s why Kirby Super Star is still arguably the best game that the pink cutie pie has ever starred in.

Featuring eight different games within the game, the genre-mixing in this one is really off the charts. There are racing elements, adventure tones, and shooting sequences amongst the different sections of the playthrough. The experience was so beloved that it was eventually remade for the Nintendo DS as Kirby Super Star Deluxe. There is something for everyone in this package, and it shows the best parts of Kirby’s history.

6. Mega Man X

The original run of NES Mega Man titles are arguably still more famous than all of the others, but Mega Man X just has more of what makes those games great. It retains the eight bosses and weapon upgrades that can be completed/acquired in whatever order the player chooses, and it even has that same incredible soundtrack that the Blue Bomber’s adventures are always famous for.

Mega Man X‘s graphical upgrades admittedly take some of that eight-bit nostalgia out of the experience, but the game ultimately makes up for it by offering new gameplay experiences. Jumping on walls and acquiring upgrades to defensive maneuvers gives Mega Man an even more badass skillset, and the game generally does an excellent job of emphasizing the “platforming” parts of its action-platformer mix.

5. Super Castlevania 4

Super Castlevania 4 is actually a kind of soft remake of the original game, and the developers at Konami did a great job of making that game more digestible for newcomers while keeping all of the iconic elements from the classic NES title.

The Castlevania basics are all here (you still control Simon Belmont, equipped with his famous whip and ax, and battle through the game’s 11 stages before reaching Dracula), but an ideal mix of combat and platforming makes this one of the most irreplaceable platformers in the SNES catalog. It’s still an airtight action-platformer experience in 2021. 

4. Donkey Kong Country 2: Diddy’s Kong Quest

The second game in the DKC trilogy took all of the best parts of the first title and refined them to create a truly unique platforming game that was a lot more than fancy graphics (a reputation the original game has had a hard time shaking). Diddy’s Kong Quest expanded upon the game design that fans loved while keeping the jungle hijinx, masterful soundtrack, and weighted platforming intact. 

That last part is what truly separates the middle installment of this franchise from the other two. Many people have said that these games were sometimes more style than substance, but after playing through the myriad of environments on display in DKC 2, it becomes clear that this title has endured over the years because its tight mechanics are executed at a high level.  

3. Super Metroid

If this list were just a ranking of 2D games or if it encapsulated the entire SNES library regardless of genre, Super Metroid would most likely take the top spot. Alas, this icon of game design settles in the third spot because it isn’t the best example of a “pure platformer.” It’s more of an action/adventure affair, though the game’s platforming elements are still as satisfying now as they were in the 1990s.

What separates this game from so many that have tried to emulate it in the nearly three decades since release is that every ability upgrade and every part of the map fits together with nearly flawless foresight and execution. It’s never a hassle to re-explore a section that you’ve already seen. The game has a masterful flow that is incredibly modern and perhaps even more popular today because of the prominence of this design style on the indie game scene. 

2. Super Mario World

With its flawless controls, colorful sprites, cheerful soundtrack, and ageless platforming, Super Mario World is the title that all other 2D games in the genre are still compared to. The extra graphical power of the SNES gave Nintendo the opportunity to expand upon Super Mario Bros. 3‘s best ideas while exploring new concepts that simply weren’t possible before.

That is why this game remains so playable. Super Mario World combines the most enjoyable elements of the NES Super Mario classics and then elevates them to fully realize the world that Miyamoto imagined when this basic concept was created. It still doesn’t make sense to have a plumber jumping on top of turtles and occasionally getting lost inside of a house full of ghosts (those damn Boo mansions still haunt me), but when you combine this much creativity into one package, you have no choice but to admit how special it all is.

1. Super Mario World 2: Yoshi’s Island

Shigeru Miyamoto and his team knew that it was futile to try and surpass Super Mario World simply by emulating it. So when developing the sequel, they made the decision to craft an entirely different type of platformer in which Mario isn’t even the main protagonist. The concept was bold, but the execution needed to be flawless if the game was ever going to be more than another disappointing follow-up. 

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It’s safe to say Yoshi’s Island exceeded all expectations. Putting Yoshi at the forefront of a platformer that included mini-games, evasion, puzzle-solving, item collection, and the most timeless color palette in gaming history was brilliance personified. Yoshi’s Island is not as famous as its older sibling, but its daring creativity and irreplaceable charm have inspired many to argue that it is the better game in retrospect. Whatever your opinion is, the fun and escapism of the green dinosaur’s finest hour (as well as the horrors of Baby Mario’s screams) will be remembered until the end of gaming.

The post 15 Best SNES Platformers Ever appeared first on Den of Geek.

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[beardycarrot]

It is entirely possible that tomorrow, we’ll finally get a real look at the Breath of the Wild sequel. I’d like to make a few called shots... or at least state what I would like to see.

So, in my mind, that scene from the teaser was right at the beginning of the game, almost definitely in some catacombs under Hyrule Castle. Ganon launched his attack from down there, and it seems that up until the calamity began, his influence could only reach so far, right? I don’t have a solid guess as to why Link and Zelda have gone down there... maybe there have been strange rumblings from under the castle, maybe they’re doing research on ancient Sheikah tech, who knows.

I think this is going to be the very start of the game, with you immediately taking control of Link and leading the way through the underground ruins. You’ll occasionally have to fight small enemies like rats, Keese and Chuchus, and use the companion button (formerly the “whistle to horse” button) to sooth your pack animal. A couple times, you’ll have to take control of Zelda (OR, your friend will control her, because this game has co-op) and use the Sheikah Slate to solve simple puzzles. Maybe hold the companion button down to switch characters? At some point, Zelda suggests that you make camp for the night, and you get a cutscene with a bit of exposition.

After you resume, you eventually find your way to Ganondorf’s mummified remains, and... I don’t even know, man. Maybe Zelda, overcome with scholarly curiosity, accidentally disengages the magic holding him in place. Maybe the Triforce, which was basically not even mentioned in BotW, allows him to break free. Sheikah techology? Whatever the case, Ganon escapes, and the magic that was used to seal him latches onto Link’s arm for some reason. Ganon, freed, then... I guess raises Hyrule Castle from the ground? That’s what it looked like the original trailer was ending with. Who knows what he does then, hopefully time travel is involved and he sends them into a future fully controlled by him a la Samurai Jack, or into the distant past, or an alternate reality, or a dream world, or SOMETHING. So long as it’s not an ugly dreary Dark World (I likes me some green grass and blue skies) I’ll be happy... and speaking of, it would be cool to be able to travel between that setting and the one from BotW, just to do Tarrey Town-esque projects and rebuild the ruins of Hyrule. Or the ruins of whatever this new setting is.

Anyway, it’s only after this short tutorial area, maybe during the scene of Hyrule Castle being... whatever’d, that you get the title screen. The Legend of Zelda: Reach of the Abyss. Or uh. Hand of Eternity. Or maybe... Grasp at Some Straws. Yeah, the title could be anything, depending on the setting and plot. That magic hand power Link gets is definitely going to be a major gameplay mechanic though, so I feel like it’s probably going to be part of the title.

I’m fairly confident that the hand is going to be the new version of dungeon items, with Link gaining new powers for it throughout the game, while Zelda has the Sheikah Slate. Ideally, you’d have the ability to control both of them the entire time, with Zelda also getting new Sheikah Slate abilities... but that’s probably wishful thinking. I can also definitely see the revived Ganon just straight up kidnapping Zelda. Anyway, the most obvious use for the arm is having it stretch, to work like a hookshot. It’s glowy, so maybe it just naturally functions as a torch? Big fist to act as a hammer, maybe an ability to repel Ganon’s malice? An ability to stop time would be neat.

What else... the ability to enlist the help of a wide array of characters and creatures would be cool, as would expanded cooking and outfits consisting of more pieces. I also like to see underwater stuff in games, especially with free movement... and I’ve always wanted Nintendo to do another thing where Link can take on various different forms. It was cool in Majora’s Mask, it was cool in Kameo: Elements of Power, it was cool in Summoner: A Goddess Reborn, it... actually looks kinda lame in Balan Wonderworld, but that could just be me not liking the NiGHTS Into Dreams style. I’m pretty sure that glowy hand is the game’s major gameplay mechanic though, so unless they pull a Super Mario Odyssey and allow Link to turn into any creature he touches, I unfortunately can’t see this happening.

Just think... by this time tomorrow, we could know what the next Zelda game’s like. If they’re doing a Direct now, they could also tease Pokemon Diamond/Peal remakes, promising a closer look on the anniversary in like a week and a half... or even just do a full reveal, since the presentation is nearly an hour long. We could get Mario Odyssey 2, a new Donkey Kong game... hell, now that I think about it, wasn’t Smash was mentioned in the announcement of the Direct? Sephiroth was two months ago, and Steve two months before that... who’s next?

The safe bet is Crash Bandicoot, but I wouldn’t be at all surprised if the Direct announced a new Fire Emblem, and its protagonist was in Smash. I’d be... annoyed, frustrated, underwhelmed... but not surprised. Dr. Eggman’s another likely choice, especially with a moveset reliant on robotic vehicles, but if I were to choose a character I actually wanted... I would go with Goemon, who isn’t going to happen because he’s already in as a costume, or Alis Landale, who isn’t going to happen because nobody knows who she is.

Honestly, I’m expecting another Capcom, Sega, or Namco character. Crono or Sora would be great, but two Squeenix characters in a row seems unlikely. I want Monster Hunter or Phoenix Wright, but y’know what? Namco’s kinda owed another character, in my opinion, so my official guess for the next Smash character is either Klonoa or Lloyd Irving. I don’t know that either of them would have a really unique, compelling play style, but the alternative is, what... someone from Tekken or Soul Calibur? Meh. I’m sure they could do something clever with Klonoa if they wanted. Like, how many people seriously thought Steve would have mining, crafting, and building as part of a fighting game moveset?

[lewa358]

Game Retrospective: Resident Evil 7: Biohazard

Note: this post contains vague spoilers.

Screw it, I love horror games now.

I was always a bit of a coward growing up. I remember refusing to watch the first Harry Potter flick because the three-headed doggo in the trailer scared me too much. But I’m much older now, and with that age came maturity--at least, enough maturity to slap on a VR headset t creep through a dilapidated old house filled with people and monsters that want to do god knows what to me.

So I’ve beaten this. My second RE game after 4 (third if you count Leon A as beating REmake 2), though I played quite a bit of the first Revelations before the final boss decided to be obnoxious, and that shitty version of RE1. But that doesn’t really go into how brave I’ve become, at least when it comes to experiencing horror media.

See, most RE games are silly nonsense. Gory, dark, and powerfully atmospheric, sure—but also remorselessly goofy. Be it the hokey FMVs and voice acting of the first game, Claire’s silly outfit in the third, the demon Napoleon Bonaparte in the fourth, or the gonzo action gameplay and frenetic pacing of Revelations, this franchise has only rarely be truly horrifying. Don’t misunderstand: these games can absolutely be scary as hell when they want to. But the tone of the series as a whole has veered more towards the silly than the scary, especially after 4.

Which is why 7 felt so radically different. Damn near all of the earlier games’ inherent goofiness suddenly vanished, and instead we have a story of a guy trapped in a house with insane, seemingly cannibalistic freaks that refuse to die. The rooms ooze with grotesque detail, and the story is told in cutscenes that are as serious and polished in their animation and delivery as any western game. The whole thing is in first-person as well!

The gameplay is a nice change as well. What I really liked about RE2’s remake is that, in terms of level design, it felt halfway between an adventure game and a Metroidvania. You had to explore and backtrack across a cramped, claustrophobic environment to collect items that are used in other rooms to solve puzzles and explore more of the environment. Unlike an adventure game, these “puzzles” are usually relatively simple, but unlike a Metroidvania, the items rarely granted you extra abilities. And unlike in either genre, you had to carefully manage inventory space, ensuring that you had enough room for both key items and gameplay stuff like ammunition, weapons, and healing items.

And there’s also the enemies. Strong, brutal enemies, but the most reliable way to kill them is to use your incredibly limited ammunition, so simply running from them is a legitimate strategy.

I like that general design, and it’s here in RE7—mostly.

See, RE7 barely has normal enemies. For the first 6-ish hours of the game, your only opponents (with like 2 exceptions) are the Bakers--fully fleshed-out NPCs who are either completely unkillable or tied to a boss fight. This honestly works very well—it ensures that the enemies you fight are genuinely intimidating. That first house is horribly creepy, with fantastic detail crammed everywhere, and quite a lot of fiendishly creative tricks played on our woeful protagonist.

But after a while the game gleefully reconstructs the previous games’ approach, and honestly I liked that too. The game is great at both slow-paced, spooky exploration and relatively linear gunslinging, so I welcomed the change, especially given how hard the first half of the game was, and how satisfying the guns were to fire. And those boss fights are brilliant! Chainsaw duel! Running a guy over with a car in his own garage! Whatever the hell Jack was, with the upside-down head!

Now all this is great on a flat screen…but in VR, it’s a completely different beast. Being able to look around the Baker mansion and its related areas by moving your actual neck, and seeing it all in stereoscopic 3D, is wonderfully and disturbingly immersive. Being able to aim by looking at enemies is also a blast. It fully confirmed that VR is my favorite way to play games like this…even if the implementation here is drowning in caveats:

The resolution and other graphical capabilities of PSVR are extremely limited. This isn’t a problem in graphically simple games like SUPERHOT VR or games designed from the ground up for the platform like Astro Bot (which is still my favorite VR game)—but in a game as intricately detailed as RE7, you run into a lot of problems. All the character models look janky, with jagged edges and other limited details. Still incredibly immersive, but the issues are there.

As mentioned, you aim with your neck (or, in other words, moving the headset) rather than pointing a controller. The former is fine, but the latter would be much more immersive, and allow me to shoot without looking at these hideous beasts. There is, of course, no support for the Move or Aim controllers. Playing with the standard PS4 controller works perfectly fine, and aiming with my neck is definitely better than aiming with the control stick (or, dare I say it, a mouse), but it’s an odd choice that few VR games make.

Many times, the game switches from in-engine cinematics to pre-rendered ones. The former work in VR…but the latter do not. This is intended to be a subtle switch, but it’s jarringly obvious in VR, since it suddenly goes from a full immersive environment to a flat screen. This has the effect of lessening the impact of some twists and scripted sequences, especially in the final boss fight. 

Despite how seriously the game takes itself, I was never truly horrified like I was with, say, SOMA. The game never really dives into any deep, thematically resonant territory—at least, not themes so simplistic, or maybe just subtle, that I dismissed them outright. It’s just Spooky House With Kooky Killers, The Game. There’s nothing really wrong with that, but I honestly feel like it should be more. The game is so damn good at being a Spooky House game, and does it so artfully, that I feel that something deeper should be easy for the game’s writers.

Like, what is there? Parental abandonment? You can’t really claim that’s a theme when the “parent” is an evil creator and manager of B.O.W.s and the “child” is an explicitly insane eldritch abomination. Those things completely ruin any chance of the story working as an allegory.

But still a great game besides that.

Game notes:

Developer/Publisher: Capcom

Time to beat: about 10 hours

Got Ending 1, normal difficulty, playing mostly in VR

Header image from the game’s Steam page; other images are screenshots from the game’s PC “Beginning Hour” Demo (and thus are not representative of how the game looked when I played it, especially in VR).

[teratonomy]

How did you come up with all the binomial names?

By drawing a pentagram on my bedroom floor and sacrificing a goat to some eldritch monstrosity, in exchange for arcane knowledge.

Honestly, my approach to creating binomen varies from monster to monster. I always set out with the intention of keeping the names as grammatically correct as possible, in line with the declensions for Greek and Latin. I do my best to adhere to the International Code of Zoological Nomenclature, but at the end of the day, I’m just one nerd with no formal training. I’m very much an armchair linguist, and while there’s nothing wrong with being an autodidact, it does make me prone to second-guessing. Doesn’t really help that I don’t have a list of acquaintances to consult, who would actually be able to give me reliable feedback.

Sometimes, though, I think a little inexperience makes the naming process more authentic. Because scientists are people, and you can never underestimate the capacity of people to be Extra As Hell.

Let me give you a few examples:

In 2004, entomologists Kelly B. Miller and Quentin D. Wheeler reclassified a genus of leiodid fungus beetles as Gelae (/ˈdʒɛli/). Yes, it is pronounced exactly the way you think it is. The species in this newly-christened genus include G. baen (“jelly bean”), G. belae (“jelly belly”), G. donut (“jelly doughnut”), G. fish (“jelly fish”), and G. rol (“jelly roll”). The authors said that they were merely wordplays without any taxonomical jargon; a “whimsical arrangement of letters.”

And then there’s the lovely Heteropoda davidbowie, described by Peter Jäger. The name was selected for a few reasons: (1), the colors and patterns on the spider’s face resemble the painted face makeup David Bowie wore in his early career; (2), the name references the song “Glass Spider,” as well as his album The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars; (3), the species has an estimated 500 individuals left, so Jäger hoped that giving it a catchy name would draw headlines and help with conservation efforts.

Allow me to introduce you to a trilobite described by Samuel Turvey in 2005. Its name? Han solo. Turvey called it that because a couple of his friends dared him to name a species after a Star Wars character. And while you might roll your eyes at that, the name is actually really clever. The generic name Han is a reference to the Han people, the largest ethnic group in China (where the trilobite was found); the specific epithet solo refers to the fact it’s the sole species belonging to that genus; and like many trilobites, the fossils tend to be extremely well-preserved, similar to how Harrison Ford was preserved in carbonite.

I could literally go on for days. There’s even a website dedicated to compiling all of the ridiculous names out there called Curiosities of Biological Nomenclature. The person who does the heavy-lifting is a bloke named Mark Isaak, and they deserve mad respect.

There’s a point I’m trying to make, I swear.

You see, if professional scientists with degrees can get away with making nerdy references and butchering the grammar of Latin and Greek, THEN SO CAN I.

Sometimes I’ll give monsters really cool or epic-sounding names that try to capture a quality about them, whether that’s their appearance, geographic range, behavior, or some historical fact pertaining to their discovery.

Some of my favorites include:

The verdant qurupeco, Cantio sirenius. Its name means “siren’s song” in Latin, a reference to the high fidelity of its vocal mimicry.

The dire miralis, Pyrothalassion basileus. Its name translates to “Greek fire emperor.” Its generic name comes from an incendiary weapon used by the Byzantine navy. Remember the wildfire from Game of Thrones? It’s basically that. The name felt pretty appropriate for a sea-dwelling dragon that breathes fire.

The black nargacuga, Xyrafiptera cervarius. Its name means “razor-winged deer-hunter” in Latin, a combination of physical descriptors and behavior. It also sounds rad as hell.

And then…we have those names.

The disufiroa, Apparentia absurda. You can take a wild guess what that translates to. I mean, just look at this thing. It’s got weird, inverted, spike-things on its chest. No idea what the fuck those are for.

The harudomerugu, Retentio incredulitatis. Its name is the closest I could get to “suspension of disbelief” in Latin. By now you might have noticed that scientific names are basically my way of bullying the Frontier monsters, because seriously, what the hell, Capcom?

The baruragaru, Stercusanctum currite. Okay, so this one isn’t me taking the piss out of the Frontier design team, because I actually like this monster. Its name is based on my reaction when I first saw the G3 trailer: Jesus Christ, what is that thing? The baruragaru was given the dubious honor of being named “holy shit, run,” because if I saw that thing in real life I’d be trying to put as many doors, walls, and preferably continents between it and myself as possible.

The great jaggi, Magnaraptor ebrius. Also known as the “drunken great thief.” Full disclosure: I’m a big fan of NCHProductions and wanted to sneak in a fun reference to their videos. Whenever they animate the great jaggi it’s always drunk, so I named it in honor of its alcoholism.

The pariapuria, Haustranguis amphibious. Its name means “amphibious bucket dragon” in Latin, and there’s a reason for that. You see, The Encyclopedia wasn’t just intended as a fun creative exercise, but as a learning tool for people interested in zoological classification. In taxonomy there’s this thing called a wastebasket taxon—when a species is incertae sedis, or of uncertain placement, it might get dumped into a poly- or paraphyletic taxon. Academically, this is what’s known as “this thing is weird and I don’t know where it goes, so for now I’m putting it in time out.” When I first tried to classify the pariapuria I couldn’t really figure out what it was related to: The tigrexes? The nargas? Neither? And then it hit me: I didn’t have to have an answer. Instead, I decided to put it in a wastebasket taxon. It’s meant to be a nod to the harrows of IRL taxonomy, and just how much of a clusterfuck it can be sometimes. As for why it’s called “bucket dragon,” and not “basket dragon,” well. I couldn’t exactly find a translation for “basket” in Latin, so I asked myself, “Okay, what’s the next best thing?” And thus we have bucket dragon.

Isn’t taxonomy fun?

[ginnyzero]

Not All Powerful Female Characters are Warriors: Okami

Okami is a video game that I was exposed to back in college. (My friends were computer game majors.) And I was introduced to it by my roommate who had been following the development of the game for a long time. She adored the game since it featured a wolf as the lead. (For once, a reason for the silent lead to actually be silent! Woof!) We were both lovers of all things Japan and the game's art style was in Japanese ink painting. Which, if you know anything about gaming, 3D realistic was the way to go even back then. Clover studios tried it and didn't like the results. (To put this friend into perspective, she also loved SMT: Digital Devil Saga, the RPG where you play part demons that can eat enemies. Yes. EAT. But that was also based on Bhuddism and Hindu Mythology sooo..)

Okami was about Okami Amaterasu and her fight against the minions of Yame in order to cleanse and defend Nippon. The story line too many of the stories and legends of ancient Nippon (and before) and wove them into a cohesive story about Amaterasu and the people she was helping. The goal of the story was to earn praise of the locals by helping them, cleanse the land of cursed zone and solve logic puzzles, oh and fight monsters. Lots, and lots, and lots of monsters. As Amaterasu progressed through the game and overcame challenges or inspired the people of Nippon, she would regain her 13 powers of the brush.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=evRYEFzAY8w

With the brush, you could 'draw' on the screen using your controller to do magic spells. These magic spells ranged from restoring/mending objects, growing plants, moving water/fire/lightning/ice, walking on walls and slowing down time. This was a really innovative style of game play at that time and inspired other games.

I always felt that Okami was a game that not only would appeal to boys (most game studio's target demo) because of the fights and the bosses, and also to girls because of well, the pretty graphics, the style of game play (at least the first half of it) and the multiple female characters. Though it's not for children. (Sake, bouncing boobs, and so on and so forth.)

Amaterasu, the silent wolf lead, is well, a female, based on the Japanese Goddess of the Sun, Amaterasu with her divine mirror and beads. (The third divine weapon was the sword, which also had significance to Amaterasu in Japanese Mythology.) There were also several major female characters throughout the game that were important, even if they weren't all warriors. Female characters don't have to be warriors to be strong characters and strong women.

Kushi's bravery to face Orochi and her sake brewing helped Amaterasu and Susano (a male warrior) defeat the 8 headed dragon. Himiko and Otohime were two Queens whose bravery, abilities and willingness to sacrifice themselves for a cause they believed in, helped find Oni Island and allowed Amaterasu to actually get there. (Otohime did this while pregnant too. Multiple props to her badassery.) There was a female villainess and despite the fact the game has been out for 10 years or so now, I don't want to spoil it for you! Just to say, that she is there and man does the game keep you guessing. Then Kai and Lika in the last arc are important in helping Amaterasu navigate the forest of confusion and keeping Nippon from turning into a frozen wasteland. Plus, there were other female characters that Amaterasu helped too, Princess Fuse, Moon Maiden Kaguya, the Sasa Sanctuary daughter and so on and so forth.

Yes, they were all supporting players. Without their help, and prayers, and belief, Amaterasu wouldn't have been able to succeed in her quest.

The end of the game in the fight against Yame (who was a big ball, sigh, what is it with the Japanese...) there was a large emotional pay out because of the structure of the game and all the work and help Amaterasu had provided to the people. (In order to level Ammy up, you had to get praise to increase health, ink pots for magic, lives and increase the money pouch.)

I was really sad and upset when Capcom closed Clover Studios in favor of making another Resident Evil rather than Okami 2 that they'd clearly set up in the end of the first game! Because, I wanted more cleansing, helping people and earning praise shenanigans.

That's the upside of Okami.

But there is a downside to the game. It's long. I mean, it's long. Don't start unless you've got 40 to 60 hours to put into it. There are a lot of side quests and a whole bunch of collectibles to find. And yeah, you need a lot of money in order to get some of the higher level magic spells and divine instruments and fighting techniques, so you will be doing a large amount of fishing and minion fighting.

And because it's long and because they spaced out getting the brush techniques. It's A) easy to forget the earlier techniques and when you need to use them. And B) the later techniques and even some of the middle techniques aren't explored to their full potential. Ice in particular and even Wind falls into this category.

The second half of the game also becomes less about restoring the land and more about dungeons and monster fighting which makes it less innovative and more like every other platformer game out there ever. In fact, the last third of the game, the Northern arc after Ninetails and before going into the Ark of Yamato, is mostly exposition. I mean lots of boring, repetitive, exposition, where they tell you the same things at least three times. The first 2/3 of the game, they spend that time having you "relive" the story and hand holding your way on what to do next in Sei-an City. (Kusa Village is also unmemorable despite being between Kamiki and Sei-an.) The last 1/3 of the game, forget hand holding (trying to figure out what to do next can be a bit of a chore and it's a bit jarring) and the tale of the Ark of Yamato gets told, over, and over, and over. ENOUGH ALREADY. I GET IT.

I mean, sure the stump city of the Poncles was great and going back in time was sort of fun? (Except this means you defeat Orochi 3 times in the game. And let me tell you, he's not that interesting of a boss.)

Thus, I tend to forget the second half of the game. It's annoying. It's boring. I dislike dungeons and racing clocks. I spend too much time facing bosses that I've already defeated. Can I please go back to clearing cursed zones and making cherry trees BLOOM?

Despite this, I do love the game. I think it had a lot of potential and really did break some boundaries of the way games were made and stories were told. It was also beautiful. Don't let the video fool you. The PS2 version wasn't that fuzzy. If it had been that fuzzy, it would have been unplayable.

They did make a digital HD download of Okami for PS3, which is too bad because I prefer hard copies of my games. (Just a quirk.) Otherwise, in order to play it again, I will have to open and set up my PS2. Fortunately, the let's play on Youtube reminded me why I won't be bothering anytime soon. (Even if I did yell at the screen a lot at the player.)

If you have the time for it, love Japanese legends and lore and enjoy platformers. I do recommend Okami.

[xeno-odyssey]

Top 10 (Slightly Revised) Smash Ultimate - Fighters Pass Predictions

Keep in mind, these are fighters I personally want in Smash Ultimate. With the surprise reveal of Joker, and that he’ll be joining the roster soon with only a month away, anything is possible at this point. Also, Mii Costumes and Spirits usually does not mean a fighter is de-confirmed. For example, Mario is a fighter and he has multiple Spirits of himself from other Mario games. This will be a slightly lengthy list, so I’ll put a cut underneath.

Rex & Pyra/Mythra - Xenoblade Chronicles 2 Unfortunately they did not make it into the final roster as Smash Ultimate’s development period was around the time Xenoblade 2 released in December 2017, and Smash Ultimate released the next year. As compensation, we got a Mii Fighter costume of Rex if we pre-purchased the Fighters Pass DLC for free. I still have hope for Rex being in Smash. Some people say they want Pyra & Mythra as solo fighters, I have to disagree on that. They share their life-force with Rex, and without him as the Driver, they’re not at full strength, even if they are the Aegises. I COULD see Mythra as a solo fighter, should Sakurai and his team choose to use her Torna iteration. For their special attacks and Final Smash, here’s what I got: Sword Bash in Neutral-B, Rolling Smash is Side-B, Double Spinning Edge is Up-B akin to Link’s Spin Attack, and Down-B can be Blade Switch by changing between Pyra or Mythra respectively. For Rex’s Grab, it can be Anchor Shot akin to Young/Toon Link’s Hookshot, and it can also work as a tether-grab on ledges. For their Final Smash, it can be something like how Ryu and Ken have a 2-in-one Final Smash; Chain Attack - Burning Sword (Pyra), and Chain Attack - Sacred Arrow (Mythra). Rex call upon either Nia & Dromarch, Tora & Poppi, Mòrag & Brighid, and/or Zeke & Pandoria. They let their Blades go all out with the Special Attacks, and Rex deals the finishing blow with Pyra or Mythra using either of their respective Level 4 Special Attack.

Elma - Xenoblade Chronicles X Elma is one of many highly requested fighters to be in Smash, especially during the Fighter Ballot back in 2016 for Smash 4. Even if Elma doesn’t make, I can see the avatar, Cross, be in it. Elma’s moveset can be directly pulled from her origin game, and from Xenoblade 2: Neutral-B is Stream Edge, Side-B is Sliding Slinger, Up-B is Shadow Strike, and Down-B is Ghost Factory as counter akin to Lucario’s Double Team. For her Final Smash, it can be call Full Metal Jaguar Overdrive: This can be similar to Shulk’s Chain Attack in a way. Elma activates Overdrive, then splits clones of herself with Ghost Factory like in her boss fight from Xenoblade 2. Elma and her clones then go all out using moves like Violent Streak, Executioner, Electric Surge, Hundred Shells, and the original Elma finishes the attack with her signature Art being Shadow Strike. For a special aesthetic, one of Elma’s alternate costumes can be her True Form, where she’s actually one of the mysterious peaceful aliens trying to protect humanity from the Ganglion Alliance.

Kazuma Kiryu - Yakuza series I know what some of you might be thinking; “But Kiryu has never been on a Nintendo console before!” This is where I say, not true! The first two Yakuza games had HD ports on the Wii U. Sales didn’t do so well though.... But that’s okay! If we can get characters like Bayonetta and Joker, why not Kiryu? For Kiryu’s fighting style taken straight from 0 and Kiwami 1 & 2, he has Brawler, Rush, Beast, and Dragon of Dojima. For most of his standard and aerial attacks, Kiryu can use both Brawler and DoD styles. When dodging, that’s where Rush Style comes in. For his grab attacks and throws, Beast Style is in play. So all in all, Kiryu will mainly be using Dragon of Dojima with hints of his other 3 fighting styles mixed into one, just like in Kiwami 2 and onward. I’m not entirely sure what his B-specials can be like, but they’ll be something straight out of his DoD style. For example, his Down-B can be the Tiger Drop as a counterattack, where Kiryu gut-punches foes causing them to be stunned, similar to Ryu & Ken’s Focus Attack. For his Final Smash, Kiryu goes into Extreme Heat, unleashing powerful Heat Action attacks on anyone that gets in his way. The finisher is using his signature high kick, causing foes to be sent flying. A Kiwami symbol (極) will appear as an aesthetic when the Final Smash is finished.

Byleth - Fire Emblem: Three Houses With FE: 3 Houses recently announced and coming to Nintendo Switch soon, it won’t be a surprise if yet another FE avatar makes it into the roster alongside Robin and Corrin. Corrin especially since both them and Roy were originally put into Smash to promote both of their respective origin games. Roy being The Binding Blade, and Corrin being Fates of course. Robin, Corrin, and Byleth. Wouldn’t that be amazing? As of making this list, we don’t know much of Byleth other than they can use swords and have mysterious powers in Three Houses and how that’ll be incorporated into Smash Ultimate, but I have a feeling they’ll be an original FE fighter much like Robin & Corrin. Robin using their tomes & Levin Sword, Corrin wielding the Omega Yato & using their Dragon Fang ability, so I’m curious and I’d like to see what Byleth could bring to the table.

Shantae - Shantae series Reminder once again, Spirits don’t usually de-confirm fighters. In Smash Ultimate, Shantae & Risky’s Spirits are represented in their Half-Genie Hero appearances & design. So what I’m thinking is that we can bring in the “recent” Shantae iteration from one of her more popular games being The Pirate’s Curse. Shantae’s Smash design can be a mix of all of her past and present iterations, like her vest from PC. All of Shantae’s attacks can derive from all of her games. She can use her magic, and use other means of weapons & attacks from Pirate’s Curse. Shantae can be slightly similar to Robin, and how they use swords & magic. Like she can use her signature Hair Whip attack on the ground, shoot magic fireballs or use a flintlock pistol for projectile attacks, and use a pirate cutlass for her aerial attacks. She can even use moves like Power, Drill & Uppercut Kicks. Her dodge can even come from her notable Backdash. Her most iconic magical bellydances can be her special attacks, and her taunts. Shantae’s Final Smash can be something like unleashing powerful Genie Magic via her magic bellydancing.

Phoenix Wright - Ace Attorney series & VS. Capcom series I mean, c’mon now. We gotta have another joke-fighter in Smash. Nick works as a joke fighter in the VS. Capcom games because most of his moves are taken from his games and from Project X Zone 2. Shouting an “Objection!” can be a forward-Smash attack, his Up-B can be a powerful sneeze, and other attacks can involve his partners such as Maya & Pearl Fey (with the Steel Samurai), Apollo Justice, and Athena Cykes. For his Final Smash, the name can be something like “Final Evidence Presentation” A.K.A., “TAKE THAT!” Phoenix presents the final key evidence on the “suspect”, belittling them even further that they were at the crime scene with no alibi and hope left, with the finisher being a powerful “TAKE THAT!” shout sending the suspects flying. For this, both Apollo and Athena join Nick like they both did in Dual Destinies.

Neku Sakuraba - The World Ends With You I was one of the people that voted for Neku to be in Smash during the Fighter Ballot. If you’ve played TWEWY, you probably already know how Neku can fight. Most of Neku’s powers come from pins, allowing him to use pyrokinesis, electrokinesis, shockwaves, energy projectiles, quakes, soundwaves, and more. If he were to be a fighter, Neku can be similar to Robin. In his game, the pins’ powers have a limit use and time limit. After a certain amount of use, Neku must wait to use the pin again until it reboots. This goes for all of his special attacks. Neutral-B can be Energy/Force Rounds, Side-B can be Shockwave akin to Marth/Lucina/Roy’s Dancing Blade, Up-B is Vulcan Uppercut or Teleport, and his Down-B is Pyrokinesis which is controllable. Neku’s Final Smash will be Final Fusion. He summons Shiki, Joshua and Beat where they put all of their power in the Harmonizer Pin with Neku dealing the finishing blow. If Final Fusion manages to KO opponents, this fully reboots all of Neku’s pins.

Monster Hunter - Monster Hunter series Smash Ultimate feels nearly complete as it already has the armor as Mii Costumes and Rathalos as a boss & Assist Trophy. I know very little of the Monster Hunter games, but they can work as a fighter with their various weapons.

Ruby Rose - RWBY series Ruby seems very unlikely for a fighting game like Smash Ultimate, but she already has her own game which is RWBY: Grimm Eclipse, and stars in another crossover fighting game being BLAZBLUE: Cross Tag Battle. But what she can bring to the table is that she’s the most unique fighter out of everyone in Smash. Ruby wields her favorite weapon, Crescent Rose, a high-impact sniper-rifle scythe hybrid weapon. Most of her attacks from the show involve using her Speed Semblance, and attacking from a distance thanks to the rifle part. In a way, she can be similar to Bayonetta as both characters uses guns and attack from far away. Her speed can even match Sonic’s and Shulk’s Monado Speed. For Ruby’s Final Smash, it can be similar to Shulk’s Chain Attack, where she summons the rest of Team RWBY; Weiss, Blake, and Yang. All four girls use their unique team attacks, and the finishing blow is all four of them attacking together with their respective weapons.

Sora - Kingdom Hearts series Sora is on the very bottom for this list because I feel he’s highly unlikely to be the next DLC fighter. He’s technically a Disney character, and Square-Enix is usually careful with their IPs, though some producers seem to be okay with his inclusion in Smash Ultimate. Anyway, should Sora become a fighter, of course he would bring his Keyblade, the Kingdom Key to the battle. All of his attacks can derive from his origin games, like moves from Limit & Second Form. Sliding Dash is his Dash-Attack, Ripple Drive can be his Up-Smash, Stun Impact can be his Down-Smash akin to Zero Suit Samus’s, and Magnet Burst can be a Neutral-Air as an example. I’m not sure what his Neutral-B will be like though for the rest of the Special Attacks; Side-B will be Strike Raid akin to Link’s boomerang, Up-B is Aeroga, and Down-B is a Counterattack being Zantetzuken (or even his latest reprisals from KH3). Sora’s Final Smash is a bit tricky as he has a lot of powerful finishers and attacks. They can be either Ragnarok, Sonic Blade, Ars Arcanum, Union χ, Ancient Light, or Trinity where he teams up with Donald & Goofy to unleash a powerful attack.

[garrettsthings]

My Reaction to the 9-13-2018 Nintendo Direct

Like I did with the E3 presentation, I plan on going through each individual game showcased here and posting my thoughts on each. Then I’ll summarize with my thoughts about the entire thing. So without further ado:

Luigi’s Mansion 3: Back from the dead, Luigi has sworn to destroy the monsters that were briefly his brothers. In all seriousness though, this game was completely unexpected and I think it looks great. I like the fact that it seems to be hotel setting this time.

Kirby’s Extra Epic Yarn: I did not own the original game, though I did play it and I loved how stress-free and charming it was. I might even get this one.

Mario and Luigi Bowser’s Inside Story: I’m a little salty they skipped Partners in Time. That one was one of my favorite Mario and Luigi games. This one looks good though, and I like the idea of a Bowser Jr. focused mode.

Luigi’s Mansion 3DS: I actually can’t wait for this one. I only very briefly played the original one, but I loved its creepy atmosphere and sometimes legitimately scary moments. I’m absolutely getting this version.

Yo-Kai Watch Blasters Moon Rabbit Crew: I actually got this game a little while ago on a whim, and while it hasn’t wowed me yet I also haven’t gotten super far. I’m still not 100% sure what Moon Rabbit Crew even IS yet, but if its a free update there’s no harm in getting it.

Splatoon 2 Ver. 4: I don’t play Splatoon anymore, so this trailer didn’t really mean anything to me, but I loved how they went full anime with it, and I absolutely adore the effort and creativity that Nintendo is putting into this franchise.

Mega Man 11: I’ll admit that I was never a fan of old-school Mega Man due to its difficulty (yes, I know. I’m the worst), but this was my first time seeing any footage of Mega Man 11 and I liked what I saw. I might need to try out the demo.

Mario Tennis Aces Ver. 2: I didn’t wind up getting this game, but I’m happy it’s getting tons of post-launch content. I just hope the Switch eventually gets a Mario Golf game with the same treatment.

Capcom Beat ‘Em Up Bundle: This is probably one of the highlights of this Direct for me. I did not grow up near an Arcade so I never played any of these games, but I was aware of a few of them. So this bundle will be my first time playing any of them and for $20 that’s a steal. I just hope there’s a physical release.

New Super Mario Bros. U Deluxe: I might skip this one since I prefer modern Mario games to the classic side scrollers (I know. I’m the worst.).

Katamri Damacy Reroll: Oh boy! I have never played a Katamari game, though I have always been aware of how delightfully bizarre they are. And now you’re telling me I get to play the original? Oh you better believe I am getting this.

Nintendo Switch Online: I’ve seen a lot of people upset by this and I get why, but this isn’t something Nintendo just sprung on us. They’ve made it very clear before the Switch even launched that a paid online service was coming just like what Xbox and Playstation have. So while it does suck that we have to pay for something that has been free for over a year now, the jaw-droppingly low price of $20 a year (I’m an unemployed student and even I can afford that!) and bonus NES games are enough to make me be alright with it.

Pokemon Let’s Go: Already got my copy pre-ordered (Amazon had a price error so I got it for $20 less), so Nintendo doesn’t need to sell me on this game, but I’m still excited for it. I don’t care how kiddy or easy it looks, the game looks absolutely charming and I love it! I do hope those Pikachu and Eevee Joycons are sold separately though, because I want them.

Diablo III Eternal Edition: I’m not a huge Diablo fan, so I don’t know if I’ll get this game, but I just want to bring everyone’s attention to the upbeat Nintendo Announcer saying “The Burning Hells”.

Super Mario Party: I’m getting this. I am making my friends play it with me. We will never speak again. It will be glorious.

Town: To quote the best character in Monster Prom: YAAAAAAAAAAASSSSSSS!!! I am a huge Pokemon fan, so Game Freak has my loyalty 100%. Especially after how addicting Pocket Card Jockey was. This trailer only showed us a little bit about the game, but I am already all in.

Cities Skylines: This game isn’t really the kind of game I usually go for but I’m happy for people who enjoy city simulators.

Daemon X Machina: This clip didn’t give us any info we didn’t already know from E3, but the game still looks great and I have every intention of getting it.

Yoshi’s Crafted World: I don’t know what Nintendo’s obsession with handicrafts is, but if it keeps resulting in charming, clever looking games like this, I hope it never stops.

Asmodee Digital Board Games: I’m all for digital board games, especially since they’ll likely be more affordable and less reliant on human deck-shuffling than regular board games. I would love to play Pandemic, but since that would probably work best online and since I refuse to use voice chat when playing online (see my above comments regarding my being the worst), I doubt that’ll work out well for me since Pandemic kind of requires a lot of coordination and strategy between players. That Munchkin Dungeon Crawler sounds great though!

Civilization VI: The only Civ game I played was Civ Revolution and I was absolutely enamored by it. I would love to play Civ VI on my Switch, since my PC is not even close to Civilization capable.

Starlink: I don’t know if I’ll get this game, but I do like the Star Fox content. I especially love Wolf’s voice in this trailer. It reminds me of Beast Wars’ Megatron.

The World Ends With You and Xenoblade DLC: My excitement for TWEWY dwindled considerably when I found out the game relies on touch and motion controls, but I still kind of want to get it. And the Xenoblade DLC looks great, but I need to get back in to Xenoblade.

Normies Showcase: Out of the third party games shown here, the only ones I feel like I NEED to get (and definitely on Switch) are Team Sonic Racing and LEGO DC Villains.

SO MANY FINAL FANTASIES: GOOD LORD. I’m not going to go through every single game shown here but... damn. Way to justify putting Cloud in Smash. And yes, I am very tempted to get all of them. Especially Crystal Chronicles.

Isabelle for Smash: AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA-

New Animal Crossing: AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA-

So in conclusion, I was very, very happy with today’s Direct. There were so many games that I wanted that I can hear my bank account actively weeping right now. If I have one complaint though, it would be the lack of information about Fire Emblem Three Houses. Nintendo has been so quiet about that game since announcing it that I’m beginning to think that all of us collectively imagined it at E3.

Jokes aside, I’m sure they’ll reveal more information soon, and we have plenty to tide us over until then! Now, to play Luigi’s Mansion Dark Moon until the 3DS version of the original comes out.

[spvg]

(Not so) Secret things about Legend of Zelda: Breath of The Wild’s development

So last year, between august 30th and September 1st Yokohama, Japan, held the Computer Entertainment Developers Conference or CEDEC.

The information gathered here has been talked about before but I wanted to analyze it, and thanks to Matt Walker, a Production manager at Capcom who translated a lot of the exposition done at the conference, through articles in 4games, Esuteru and IGN Japan, I can talk about the development of an amazing game, even one of the best games I’ve ever played, Legend of Zelda: Breath of The Wild!

The beginning of the presentation was about fun in the game, one could argue that is something obvious in a game, but there are a lot of details needed to have in mind when thinking about how players will find fun in your game, and in BOTW that is no exception, changes were made constantly during the game’s development, and the big question was always, “How to make this game more enjoyable to players” In the picture below are two maps, where you can see marked the diference in paths players would make, when playing first time through. In the left map, we can see players were making fairly the same journey, as shown by the dark blue lines, everyone was having a similar experience while ignoring smaller trails, and landmarks that strafed from the main roads. After the changes though we have a much more disperse map traversal, with a significant change, not only in the amount of people that go near the edges of the map, but how people travel along the center of it as well, there’s a  significant increase in the overall exploration of the terrain,

These changes, made after testing the design of the first map incite players into exploring and traverse the map in different ways depending on what sparks their curiosity, and leads to a better distribution, not only of the exploration players have, but the experience they have while playing. The problem with the first map was that initially the team though they could place Sheikah towers scattered around the map and place events and game interactions in between the paths that connected them, this wasn’t the case though because players weren’t compelled by that way of exploration, test players said that they felt guided through the game or it felt too linear, (now you see why most players were having a narrow route on a map that spans quite wide) Weirdly enough this was diving players into two very different experiences, either they would follow the intended path and found a lot of what the team wanted but in a very short time, or they would miss most things because they strafed away from the Sheikah towers and connecting roads trying to explore the world map, their travels were just empty. This lead to the team creating a solution based on the concept of Gravity, that’s right, placing structures with different visibility and importance in different places, they could attract player’s attention to various areas of the world, and appeal to their curiosity, leading players away from the main path and into their own adventure. This was the spark that lead to the notion of “infinity gameplay” an idea that focuses on having the player travel between various landmarks depending on their curiosity at any given moment, plus the map will change its look depending on the time of day, as light creates changing shadows, and visibility changes from night to day, places like the Sheikah Shrines like you can see in the image below will have pretty low visibility during the day, because they’re small, usually hidden, and you can see much better big natural landmarks, roads on the ground and the Sheikah towers.  

During the night however structures that emit light will pop much more in the darkness, the glowing blue and orange veins of the Sheikah shrines become the most noticeable thing on the map, along with stables and enemy camps, because of it’s fires and torches. This interchanging noticeability between structures means that not only will the player be excited to travel to new places but they may even run back and forth between things they might have missed during the day and only realized were there at night, this actually happened a lot to me while playing (and still does sometimes) where I want to climb a mountain and when I reach the top it’s getting dark already, from there I look on the world only to realize there are a bunch of shiny spots on the map for me to explore! and who doesn’t like shiny things?!

This obviously might change depending on how players tend to play a game, but it only means that more people will experience the same game different ways and it will be better tailored to their way of being and interacting, it makes the game more of a personal experience. players not interested in fighting monsters will gladly avoid their campfires at night and might instead look for stables, and vice versa, this means the way people will interact with the world is tied to the way they perceive the surrounding environment.

Now for the thing I see as the greatest design idea of BOTW, to lead players into that amazing sense of mystery and adventure. this is a technic of environmental design the developers call “Triangle rule” it is part of the whole gravity idea and it is pretty much what it sounds like, a rule based on using triangles to hide, show and guide players, all at the same time,  we can see how the rule is implemented all across the map in the image below 

What does this effectively do? The utilization of the triangle offers different options to the player, on how to face the obstacle ahead, you could climb up to it and get a better view of your surroundings, you could go around it keep ing a low level, and both these interactions will produce a different  outcome on how you see what’s ahead of you, the triangle can also be used to partially or completely hide an item behind it

These were divided in three different scales, each one with its own purpose when it comes to player’s interaction, and gameplay, if you’ve played the game you certainly can remember which ones they are and how they are used. Out of many I think the most notorious are the small hills or rocks used to hide chests or enemies, (among others), big triangles to hide larger landmarks such as big bridges or ruins, as well as orient player’s movement, and finally Gigantic triangles in the form of mountains, to serve as not only points of interest but reference when traveling around, these are locations you can see almost from everywhere on the map, and are great guiding aids.

The rectangle is also an important shape, even if not as noticeable, mainly used to completely hide other elements on the map or important map locations (but you can also see it as trees hiding enemies in the woods or gathering items for instance). This kind of layout gives the world a dynamic and fluid feel, that is very organic and real, but thought to give players a greater feeling of discovery and adventure that the legend of Zelda games tend to strive for. we can see this working in a sequence of pictures used at CEDEC 2017  

This environmental construction creates a chain of interest, in this particular case it works like this: Hill -> Bridge Entrance -> Sheikah Tower, So we have a triangle hiding a rectangular structure of interest that is hiding another structure behind it. And if you pay close attention left of the Sheikah tower behind the right hill you can partially see an enemy camp, all the rules of this particular design are in play here! Now that’s all for game design (for now), but what about the tech that got the team there? As far as tech goes the team as also implemented some new ideas, most noticeably, integration of editing control tools into the game itself, this way no two people would ever see something in the debug log and work on it at the same time, for lack of communication. So a job could be created inside the game and a signal would pop up in the world, clicking the sign would reveal all the technical details as well as a way to contact the dev who put up the task. A “Field task view” was created, as a window of observation so the team could see and manage tasks of greater importance.

According to the team, this was a great way for devs to share ideas with each other about different tasks. In an interview with IGN japan it was said, about the debugging process, that a member of the team realized how hard it would be to wait until the end of production to begin the working on the debugging, so they tried to implement an action of constant debugging side by side with the regular development. This way the team could block specific errors and tag programmers specifically to make sure these were fixed. Along with this a tool was created that allowed any member of the team to report an error, practically fusing the tools to find and fix bugs creating an in game system called “#ZELDA_ERROR” Finally I want to tall about the way the game looks, how the UI looks more specifically, the thing most players will have in front of them for the longest time. The user interface or UI, is the first thing a player sees when they boot up the game, and in this game there was a very important message to give straight away, this is a new Legend of Zelda, this is a new generation of games. So the look of the UI had to be new, reformed, the team had to rethink how a new look would be born, maintaining a very crucial integration between four categories, Graphics, Font, Design, and Animation. following one simple concept, only the necessary should be visible, nothing should stand out in a negative way, and all the information should be concise so players wouldn’t have to look around, and would find everything relevant to them in the same space. Having this in mind we can see it working from the very first screen. Pay attention to how the space is used as soon as you turn the game on.

See how all the information is stored on the right side of the screen and you have this huge open landscape with Link in front of it (triangles again see) what’s beyond link? what is he seeing? just hit play already! these are the things this first screen wants you to feel. ( Side note: the devs even created the color “ZELDA white” which is basically a slightly yellow tinted white, to make sure the UI was clean but not to tiresome to look at. Sweet devs are aware of your eyes.)

Now, there are things that will be different if you have the Original Japanese version or a translated version of the game, in Japan the letter font goes much more in line with the less is more philosophy of the game’s UI, in japan the fonts already existed, they’re “Logo G Black” for Katakana, and “Raguran Punch” for Kanji (Katakana and Kanji are two different ways of writing in Japanese). Now even if the western versions of the game don’t exactly break the rules, they do shy away from them a little and there was a specific font made at least for the Latin alphabet.

(If you’ve played the game you might have also seen the Pro HUD, this is an even cleaner version of the UI Presumably made as a request from Nintendo America or Europe, in an attempt to clean and help with the immersion in the game) Even the Sheikah Slate was designed along with the artists, specifically so it would have a more decorated design that would separate Sheikah objects as artifacts from an older age than when the game takes place. This is particularly more interesting when you realize that the team only had two UI designers, and they were so overwhelmed with work that they had to work together with programmers to implement small tricks, expanding the exclusive nintendo system “Layout Editor” which is a system to edit the visual composition of the game, this way designers could animate sections of the game and give programmers control over them, the big change BOTW brought to this system was the ability to see various interface images and their animations running at the same time over the main game.

Next, to make the work over the great map easier this was divided into 120 different sections, distinguishing between outdoors and indoors (done through colors) these could be loaded as needed with 4 zoom levels so the map would be easy o analyze with precision, because of this technic 2,344 different areas were created that would be impossible to fully make manually, so the map was procedurally generated (as a Minecraft map would be for instance) and every night textures were generated to each section of the map, so environmental artists would work with them later, this was done using a screen capture technology which allowed artists to add filters and make color adjustments to later harmonize with the UI, after this they’d copy the environment and hide anything that needed hiding using masks, any handmade redesign in the environment was also done here to create a real and dynamic world.

Now making a game of course is no easy task, much less a game with the scale BOTW has, and I find it very impressive to play a game that is so consistently good is so many different aspects, even if you’re accustomed by now to that sweet nintendo polish, but in my opinion, it is always great for us consumers, when we get the opportunity to dive a little into the amazing work and dedication put into the games we play, and learn a bit more about them.

Have different ideas? something that I clearly missed, suggestions? Write them to me, and we’ll be Speaking of Video Games!

To write this post I went around to these cool places on the web: 4gamer - http://www.4gamer.net/games/341/G034168/20170901120/ ESUTERU - http://blog.esuteru.com/archives/20018343.html

IGN JAPAN - http://jp.ign.com/cedec-2017/16963/news/botw

Matt Walker’s page - https://medium.com/@gypsyOtoko Polygon article on Matt Walker’s translations - https://www.polygon.com/2017/10/3/16412614/legend-of-zelda-breath-of-the-wild-development-game-design

[aion-rsa]

15 Best Resident Evil Bosses and Monsters Ranked

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You don’t go 25 years with a name like Resident Evil without introducing a good mix of macabre monsters primed to haunt the nightmares of players everywhere. At their best, these frightening beasties make you want to run away and hide, challenging you to use your limited resources wisely while trying to survive the night. Even at their worst, any Resident Evil monster worth its weight in viscera will still have you gawping at just how disgusting it appears. Eugh!

With the release of Resident Evil Village and the arrival of nine-foot-tall vampire Lady Dimitrescu, we thought it worth ranking the 15 scariest monsters in Resident Evil history. That’s right – not even a top 10 would be good enough to do the creatures of Capcom’s iconic survival horror franchise justice.

15. Ustanak – Resident Evil 6

Resident Evil’s much maligned sixth entry has a lot of problems, we’ll admit, but one area where it does succeed is in its litany of boss fights. While the game features four interconnected campaigns with plenty of unique enemies, Ustanak breaks away from the crowded roster of other monsters thanks to his relentless pursuing of Jake Muller and appearance (however brief) in almost all of the featured storylines. As far as bioweapons go, he’s also one of the most mean-looking, boasting a tank-like physique and threatening mechanical claw. 

You’ll fight Ustanak multiple times as part of Jake’s Resident Evil 6 campaign, first within a wintery Eastern European town as he clambers from chopper to chopper to get to you, then as part of a team-up with Leon in a shipment yard, before eventually finishing him off in a fist fight as boiling lava bubbles below you. Very much following the Nemesis template of growing persistently stronger, Ustanak is easily one of the redeeming elements of Resident Evil 6’s overt bloat.

14. Comms Officer/Scaghead – Resident Evil: Revelations

The mutated Comms Officer in spin-off title Revelations is one of the first major hurdles you come across. After learning that Chris isn’t aboard the Queen Zenobia, Jill is forced to venture into the bowels of the cruise ship, and this oversized piece of sludge is the only thing standing in your way. Taking down this two-headed behemoth involves getting him close to the various gas cylinders littered around and firing, all while keeping his many ghoulish minions at bay.

The comms officer’s human half is where the monster is at its weakest, so by placing a few well-timed sniper shots in this area players shouldn’t have too much trouble. Even still, only having a limited number of windows to jump through and tight passages to go down makes him a real problem early on. That’s why it pays to be patient (as well as smart) with this lumbering mass of goo. 

13. Regenerador – Resident Evil 4

Capable of regrowing any limbs you shoot off with relative ease, the first time you encounter a regenerador in Resident Evil 4 is easily one of the adventure’s scariest moments. Though Leon is by this point well-equipped, and without Ashley as his tag-a-long helper, these sludgy beings are still quite the challenge, as they continue chasing you unless you equip your thermal vision and target their specific weakness points.

An enhanced version of the Regenerador greets you a little later in the form of an Iron Maiden. This hellish creature would enjoy nothing more than to hug Leon and impale him on the long nails that protrude from its flesh. You have to be sure to not get to close and maintain your distance, all while targeting the leech-like Las Plagas cells scattered all over its body to make it out safely.

12. Executioner – Resident Evil 5

It may have been the entry that saw the series swerve fully into action blockbuster territory, yet Resident Evil 5 also features some extremely unsettling monsters that still haunt us to this day. One of the first you come across are the handful of executioners who look and act exactly as their name would suggest. These immense figures have pins sticking out of their arms and wield a deadly axe, one swing of which is enough to turn Chris and Sheva into nothing but jam.

The executioners pose a real problem early on in Resident Evil 5’s campaign, as your weapons are severely underpowered, and you’re only given limited space in which to lead them around. Hold out for long enough, though, and you’ll manage to avoid the edge of their blade, only to encounter a more imposing version of them later on in the Desperate Escape DLC. It’s here where their axe is now laden in flames and primed to roast your skin.

11. Licker – Resident Evil 2

Arguably not just one of the scariest but also one of the most iconic monster designs to come out of Resident Evil, lickers are known for their ability to move fast, climb walls, and trip players up using their incredibly far-reaching tongue. The lickers’ one weakness is lack of sight, which Leon and Claire are wise to take advantage of when exploring the zombie-infested R.P.D building. Sometimes, however, these brain-exposed mutants are simply impossible to avoid, forcing you to outwit them and stay at a distance. 

Believe it or not, lickers are thought to be an advanced form of zombie. These particular subjects were designed to be even deadlier bioweapons. We’d say they succeeded. While lickers are easily dealt with in most of the games (provided you know what you’re doing), their arrival is always unsettling since you need to remain quiet, often while trying to contend with other undead threats. 

10. Lisa Trevor – Resident Evil 

Altering an existing game’s story or structure is always a tricky prospect. On the one hand, you want to be true to what fans know, yet at the same time sprinkle in a few surprises. This was the case with Lisa Trevor’s debut appearance in the 2002 remake of the first Resident Evil game. She isn’t just a ho-hum boss fight, but rather a fully formed character with a surprisingly sad back story that involves her being experimented on by Umbrella for at least 20 years.

Lisa Trevor’s animal-like posture and distorted appearance is a result of this constant testing, which makes having to slay her alongside a true series villain (Albert Wesker) all the more heart breaking. The encounter itself may be relatively straightforward, but hearing Lisa wail and cry out as you’re forced to pump rounds into her is genuinely unsettling. Lisa Trevor is a welcome addition to the original Resident Evil’s canon, not least due to how terrifying her circumstances are.

9. Dr. Salvador – Resident Evil 4

What makes Dr. Salvador from Resident Evil 4 even scarier than he looks is the fact he’s not even a boss. No, all this relentless, bag-wearing maniac needs to try and keep Leon Kennedy at bay is a thirst for blood and a ripping chainsaw primed to rip our protagonist to shreds. He’s surprisingly fast and nimble in spite of his wide-set frame, which makes for a deadly combination when you’ve just heard the rumble of his tool-turned-weapon from a distance and are trying to get an accurate lock on him. 

Typical handgun bullets will do very little to stop the swing of Dr. Salvador’s chainsaw. Instead, your best bet is to barrage him with shotgun shells or attempt a stun with a flash grenade. Either way, every die-hard Resident Evil fan remembers where they were the first time they heard the grinding of a metal chain so soon after entering Resident Evil 4’s Spanish village. 

8. Cerberus – Resident Evil

Dogs have always played a huge role in Resident Evil, but most players will never forget the first time they smashed onto the screen. Slowly traversing down an innocent hallway of the Spencer Mansion in the original Resident Evil, the unsettling silence is suddenly disrupted by the sound of windows shattering and what appears to be two undead Dobermans. They are, in fact, four-legged monsters known in canon as Cerberuses – bio-organic weapons infected by the T-virus strain.

These doggos are far from the good boys you first expect them to be, leaving a mark on your mind as well as the hallway floor thanks to the amount of blood they drip. Their introduction kicked off the classic Resident Evil tradition of having to take down zombie canines quickly. If you don’t, they’ll continue to pursue you around most corridors or until you can bide your time in the nearest safe room. Cerberus dogs are living proof that no mammal is safe from Umbrella’s experiments. 

7. Nosferatu – Resident Evil Code: Veronica 

Code: Veronica often gets forgotten about as far as Resident Evil games go. This is a shame considering its host to two of the most merciless franchise villains in siblings Alexander and Alexia Ashford. What makes them so monstrous? Possibly their willingness to experiment on their own father, eventually transforming him into the near unkillable monster known as Nosferatu. Strung up, blinded, and suffering from a gaping hole in the chest, he serves as one of Code: Veronica’s most nightmarish monsters and boss fights.

Nosferatu is another Resident Evil monster with a deep and disturbing back story, which makes fighting him even creepier. After whipping Claire whips her partner Steve Burnside away to one side, she faces Nosferatu on a wintery helipad without much visibility. It may be fairly obvious where his weak spot is, but you’ll quite literally need to play it cool to pump enough rounds in.

6. Deborah Harper – Resident Evil 6

Bombing it through the underground cavern in a minecart while trying to avoid the clutches of Helena’s gloopy sister is one of Resident Evil 6’s best sequences. At first it seems like you may have rescued Deborah in time, but it isn’t long until Leon and his partner discover she’s already been subjected to the C-virus, causing her to catch alight before birthing a more monstrous version of herself from out of her own back. 

If this imagery alone isn’t enough to make you fear Deborah, just wait until she comes at you with her four whip-like tentacles. First you face her head-on while trying not to get repeatedly lashed as the caverns crumble around you, before gunning at her from the back of a racing minecart as mentioned. The fight culminates once you hit a ridge and squeaky Deborah is forced to fall to her death. For a short while there, though, this gruesome bioweapon gets close to giving Leon and Helena the kiss of death.

5. Queen Leech – Resident Evil 0

Don’t be fooled by how regal the monster known as Queen Leech looks in human form. By the time Billy and Sherry come across her in Resident Evil Zero, she’s increased in height, gained multiple flaps, and sports a face full of enough teeth to finish you in one bite. This boss fight serves as the climax of this prequel adventure, and as such she chases you throughout multiple areas.

She’s one of the scariest Resident Evil monsters due to her disgusting final form, coupled with her ability to control loads of smaller leeches, too. Players with a hatred of slithery creatures are sure to find her disgusting.

4. Marguerite Baker – Resident Evil 7

Almost any member of Resident Evil 7’s Baker family would have been a good choice for this list, but we had to pick Marguerite due to how distinctly spooky your boss encounter with her is. Not only has she grown abnormally long limbs by the time you take her on in an abandoned outhouse but the majority of the fight also takes place in the dark. This makes your attempt to burn her all the more unnerving since she’s prone to sneak up on you and strike.

Players will likely have already developed a deep hatred for Marguerite even before this fight, though, due to the handful Metal Gear Solid-esque missions where you’re forced to sneak past her as Mia. However, all bets are off by the time you face her as Ethan. It’s just a simple case of knowing where to look and what nooks she may pop out of. Sending both Marguerite and her army of insects to Hell is satisfyingly tense and a good showcase of Resident Evil 7’s more claustrophobic first-person perspective.

3. G-virus William Birkin – Resident Evil 2 Remake

The mutated version of William Birkin already looked grotesque in Resident Evil 2 on PlayStation One, but Capcom outdid itself when returning to the character for the 2019 remake. Transformed into a ghoulish monstrosity as a result of injecting himself with the G-Virus strain, Birkin constantly cries out in pain to his wife and daughter as players concentrate fire on the gaping eye bulging out of his right-side shoulder. This final hint of humanity makes fighting him feel devastating.

Dr. Birkin loses more control of himself as the Resident Evil 2 campaign barrels towards its end, eventually transforming into a wall-crawling mass of daggers that tries to tear your head off. His pursuit of Leon and Claire eventually leads to his downfall, however, after his attempt to derail the train escaping Raccoon City is thwarted by a few pokes. Still, Birkin goes down as one of the gooiest monsters in Resident Evil history.

2. Nemesis – Resident Evil 3

Resident Evil’s original hulking stalker is still one of the scariest. First appearing in the original PS One version of Resident Evil 3 before being slightly modernized for last year’s remake, Nemesis is a massive pain the ass for ex-S.T.A.R.S member Jill Valentine because he just doesn’t stop and can appear unannounced at almost any time. His Terminator-like determination to pursue means that you’re never safe when exploring the streets of Racoon City.

Nemesis is easily recognisable by his missing lips and stitched-together skull, both of which result in a face that only a mother could love. He becomes more deformed the longer Resident Evil 3’s campaign progresses, too, making each fight feel scarier than the last. Nemesis has only ever returned in spin-offs, but you never know when he’ll pop around the corner next.

1. Mr. X – Resident Evil 2 Remake

Mr. X is the reason many players start panicking whenever they hear the sound of approaching footsteps in Resident Evil 2 Remake. Don’t be fooled by his bowler hat and trench coat, this Tyrant model T-103 looks like a wardrobe but moves at a brisk pace. As such, facing him head-on is always a bad idea, especially since he won’t stay down for long, even after pumping him full of explosive rounds. The opposite direction is always your best bet whenever Mr. X unexpectedly shows up. 

While he gradually evolves into something more monstrous and unsightly towards the end of Leon and Claire’s adventure, even Mr. X’s initially plain appearance is unsettling. You simply have no way of defeating or halting this 7-foot-tall stalker, and you’re instead forced to navigate R.P.D headquarters using an entirely different route than you first intended. This endless game of cat and mouse never fails to get the heart pumping, especially since he follows you in real time.

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[pagutheshadydealer]

Ok, so one thing I want to ask is why opinions are allowed to go so far into judgement territory that people are bashing on things they refuse to have any other knowledge on.

Cases in point

A friend of mine hates the company of capcom and monster hunter world. Not because it's a bad game but because the talking animation doesn't match up with the dialogue in the cutscenes and he therefore cannot play the game and hates the company because It doesnt matter if they can make the game look as good as it does or how successful it became, they can match up the animation with the dialogue. Normally I would agree but with how much hate the hate filled opinion has, its fucked up on so many levels. Plus I know that companies are sometimes rushed or other things happen so they cant get everything they want to do in the game sometimes. Whether or not a game has a very minor animation issue, which monster hunter worlds dialogue not matching up with the talking animation on their cutscenes is, its very minor most likely ignorable so in conclusion. Get the fuck over it, play and enjoy the game and have fun

Sherwin-williams and firing a guy because he was actually passionate about his job. Ok I have never been a fan of Sherwin-Williams or other similar companies because I never got into paints that much when I was growing up but fuck that company for doing that. That's just wrong. People are allowed to like and be passionate about their own jobs. hell that's a employees that will be one of the best. And the fact that same employee got hired by another company... *chuckles* well, sherwin-Williams get fucked

Same friend going absolutely batshit crazy and telling me I dont know biology because dbs gohan is stupidly weak looking when wearing his tracksuit. Yes I got into an actual argument with the guy over this. He literally refused to believe that clothes, posture, angles, lighting and more affect the look of a character and then tried telling me that atrophy of muscles doesnt work for saiyans because they are built to be muscular and such. Ok some counter points

Super saiyan bulks goku up a bit to handle the new power

Gohan bulks up considerably more when first achieving super saiyan 2

Goku and gotenks bulk up even more due to super saiyan 3 because its power based and not balanced. That's why the muscles are so big

GOHAN IS A HALF HUMAN HALF SAIYAN HYBRID! AGAIN HALF HUMAN HALF SAIYAN!!! If you honestly believe that being only half human doesnt mean shit in db/dbz/DBS then clearly gohan will get sick and die at any age from any space disease, toxin, atmosphere etc, no matter what his half saiyan biology says...oh wait it does matter, humans are one of the most adaptable races out there. Not only that but being half saiyan would bring massive benefits to a half human being, like resistence to diseases and such. Also broly and kale (especially kale) look and are positively meek compared to regular saiyans but have completely different transformation and a demonic inner personality that can affect their consciousness.

Yes clothes can make someone look bigger or smaller depending on the type of clothes used. Body builders will use tight fitting clothes that emphasise their bodies while others will wear dresses and tuxes that will make them look regal and powerful. Yes angles can make something look completely different because have you ever seen fun house mirrors? Yes lighting can make something look different, lighting can make something look demonic and evil or cheerful and good. Posture can effect someone or something as well, take mr crocker from fairly odd parents for example he is very creepy looking and obsesses about fairies. Part of that is due to his posture. Posing also effects, do a superman pose with your hands balled into fists and at your hips with your legs spread a bit apart. It makes you appear heroic.

Literally these are things that I have experienced or witnessed in life in the last 3 months or so I could say more but not sure how long the word count is so this is all you are gonna get. Have a good day/night. I would love to see comments and thoughts on this. However fair warning in advance if you disrespect me or my life or anybody else in those same categories for any reason you can come up with i will block your ass either respect and be kind to others or dont and be blocked. Your choice

[acradaunt]

Wanted to gab about Monster Hunter World for a while. It's probably going to be really rambly and sound overly negative, but hey. I tend to be like that. Super negative. It's easier to pinpoint and hammer on a weakness than a strong point.

I guess let's start at the very, very beginning. While it doesn't bother me even slightly, the concept of Capcom pouring all this money and focus onto Monster Hunter, but then not even remotely trying any sort of lip-syncing for the very first cutscene was... jarring. I don't really get complaints about it being too hand-holdy, though. You're fighting Jagras by the third quest and maybe an hour and ten minutes, compared to like three for Jaggi/Jaggi/Maccao in the previous games. Yeah, that first hour is like 105% cutscenes and scripted as heck, but that's them trying to be 'cinematic'. It's not great, but it's better than kicking you back and forth between town and the plains level for ten missions of gather honey/bones/ore/Aptonoth. NPCs tend to feel kind of like completely worthless human beings, but that's just a global videogame issue. Of course nobody else could actually show up and fight something. I guess not showing up at all is better than the Huntsman/Field Leader/Ace Cadet getting bodied time and again.

While yeah, no loading zones are nice, and most of maps are absolutely stellar (though Forest has that confounding middle floors region and Coral Highlands has waaay too many huge pointless regions), I think weapon and quality of life changes are what matters the most. While I think I prefer Gen's (Guild style for both) SnS (World's feels a touch too spammy, and the backleap suuuucks now; Gen's SnS required some finesse) and Greatsword (in spite of the fact that MHWorld's GS is designed around my 'stay in there' playstyle and not running away like everyone else does), almost every other weapon feels at its best. I've found love for Dual Blades, Gunlance, Bowguns, the Bow itself, and even slightly the Katana in this one. Still hate Insect Glaive, but at least they fixed the bugs. I like the LBG and Dual Blades enough to break them into regular usage. Hammer is just so pure and powerful that it kinda makes the Greatsword's damage feel woefully inept. Lance is amazing with guard being worth a damn and being more mobile than ever. Switch Axe makes actual use of both switching and axing. All shields are good. Blocking Nergigante's dive with a SnS shield like it's no huge deal is glorious and refreshing, because that would NEVER have flown before.

Seeing the weapon tree is great, even if what's on the tree is a bit barren. Like, really, I'm not even gonna whine about the boring weapon designs; why are old designs like the Rathian Switch Axe and Dual Blades missing? Poor things don't even GET poison without Awakening. Lots of weapons have huge holes without Awakening. The clear winner is armour skills. It's just so simple and intuitive, it's honestly baffling they didn't do this ages ago. My only quibbles are that you might possibly get TOO many skills now. You're packing more goods than an endgame G-Rank character in 4U. Also, sometimes some Alpha pieces feel exceptionally dumb. Like, is anyone ever going to take the version with, like, freaking Entomologist on it over a free socket? I do think I'd have preferred seeing more Set Skills to scale things down slightly so you had to get a few subpar pieces to get a better, prominent skill, but hey. Set Skills only needing typically 3 makes them a lot more palatable to me.

I might be in the minority here, but I like the switching of decorations and charms. Getting that one good charm completely changed your armour sets, and the 5000 others you got until then were wholly worthless. With decorations, you can equip multiple at a time, sometimes nearly a dozen. You can actually get lots of use out of 'okay' ones. The weekly gold tickets for free gems is really fair. And kinda necessary for upgrading charms. A couple skills really stand out, which I guess isn't anything new. Health Boost went from wholly worthless to the single best skill, allowing for 200 HP, Fire Res stops fire's constant burn damage and near global usage (especially with Bazel and Rathalos' interruptions), and Stun Res is more useful than ever, with Stun taking thrice as long to recover from. I'm sure the 'metagame' is still herp derp handicraft and crit boost or whatever, but I prefer not dying. Ever. I can run all that stuff handily and still get a pricier skill like Elemental Crit or some serious Guard points and not look like complete clownshoes, so that's always a huge plus. Oh, however. Female armour design is at its all-time low. One of the plusses of switching primary genders every game is that I dodged that bullet. Course, in Gen, I knew going in that I wanted Tigrex for Hearing and Eating, so I could use the name Amber quite fittingly. Two armour styles helps sometimes, but. Just. Stop. Making. Everything. Be metal thighhighs and have random-ass patches of bare skin.

A lot of the new monsters are mostly just rehashes. Which is... reasonable, really. There's only so many moves and so many ways to do stuff. Legiana is a less threatening ice Rathalos. Anjanath is a more aggressive, less burly Deviljho. Even Paolumu is Kecha Wacha with a few low-grade Kush attacks. Bazelgeuse  certainly stands out among the crowd, because his moves are wholly unique, and he's actually a threatening party-crasher, unlike Deviljho. The fact he's mostly about area of effect makes him incredibly dangerous (and/or helpful) when you're preoccupied, but when the focus is on him, he crumples surprisingly easily. I think most people have a love/hate relationship with him and the 3-monsters in the field. It does spice things up, but it also sometimes turns into an absolute fustercluck.

What's less thrilling is the near universal amount presence of fire. It's one thing that ALL the old guys are fire (minus Diablos, Kushala, and Kirin), but the fact that several of the new monsters (Anjanath, Bazelgeuse, Xeno'jiiva) are fire too is just pouring gasoline on the, well, fire. Kirin, Paolumu, and Vaal Hazak are the only three weak to it, I think, while each weapon gets two-four trees for fire. The free DLC doesn't change matters, with both Lunastra and maybe Alatreon doing fire too. I don't actually remember if Alatreon can light you up. For the other elements, Thunder and Ice get two (plus Oroshi, later). Water has just Jyuratodus and nobody even does Dragonblight. This means if you want elemental weapons, you'll be killing a shitton of Jyuratodus, Tobi-Kodachi, and Legiana. It also makes Fire Res probably the second best general-purpose skill, but I've already been there.

One thing I really did like is how HR just opened up pretty completely. It was fun seeing if you could immediately tackle Rathain or whoever to get some solid HR armour right away. The only shortcoming was the sad, sad excuse at 'oh no, monsters are invading other envir-- Anjie and Pukei are the in desert. That's it. It would've been a nice change of pace to see different guys different places, not to mention it could better use certain otherwise barren rooms and cause 'party chambers' to sometimes be more or less dangerous. Because I've never once fought Dodogama without in the main crystal room without it being a four-way. Lavasioth won't go there, but the three others are mighty fond of the room, too. On this thought, why the hell doesn't Nergigante show in the desert? They had his AI working there for the beta, and you first find traces of him in the swamp. :|

Investigations, Expeditions, and Bounties are all nice enough ideas, but I really think it would've worked better if they reworked how they functioned. Expeditions are kinda... pointless? Other than stupid gather-y bullshit like the ultra-rare endemic life and tempered tracks only show up there. Bounties are an alright way to guide your hand to specific quests, but it's flow breaking early on, and once you don't need armour spheres, you can just forget all about it. Investigations giving bonus rewards with stricter demands is genuinely nice, although there's always the issue of running a quest dry before you have enough Jyuratodus Fins or whatever. I'd more prefer these be like sliders that you can play with to set it to be as hard and rewarding as you can handle, but hey. I'll take it any day over 4U's Guild Quests.

It's kinda a half-baked idea, but I could sort of see a revision of these ideas into one bigger thing. Like, you'd choose a set of three or so investigations at once (like bounties), and when you go to a viable locale, those goals slot themselves in. If it's 30 minutes for Rathian and 50 for Barroth, she'll leave at 30 minutes and Barroth will stay for 50. Or once room opens and Diablos shows, Diablos' timer starts. I'm not sure how death would work. Take ten minutes away? It's not perfect, but it would flow a lot better than having to reload the same map twice every ten minutes when something dies.

Tempereds are just the stupidest attempt at harder monsters yet. Frenzy wasn't great either, as they gave nothing better compared to their normal counterpart, but at least there was a mechanic beyond 'hits harder'. And I seriously think half the G-Rank monsters don't have non-frenzied quests, so it's not much of an option. Hyper was never explained at all, but its heads above the other two. Specific stronger attacks with weaker weak points. Further, with Hypers, you still needed to fight the appropriate monster to get their parts (with some more variety for semi-generic parts like Hyper Horns). With Tempereds, your goal isn't to get parts, but horrifically rare drops, so there's no reason to do anybody but the easiest guy of that tier. You gain nothing more from fighting Radobaan versus Jagras. While I can live with never getting those amazing decorations, streamstones and augmenting are just awful to be linked to luck. Yeah, it's post-postgame, but that junk alone makes me feel I'd rather see a new game that refines World's new ideas rather than it get a G-Rank expansion. Generations was content to have the end be the end, not involving any roulette crap. ...Double Cross might've done some wacky random-luck bullshit. I don't know, come to think of it.

I feel like I had other, nicer, things to say, but this is already waay too damn long and sounds bit too bitter, so I think I'll just stop. Oh yeah, and needing a subscription to play online sucks, so I haven't even attempted to enter or use an SOS out of curiosity. But from what I hear about it only having two scales, one for one player, and one for four, is really stupid. It reeaallly favours single player, which, hey, is working for me, but might've missed the point of the series. See? I can't even end this without sounding negative. :|

[miniforce]

Batch of Miniforce tropes, part 7

MAIN

-Batman Gambit: In “Miniforce and Baby Iguana”, Pascal has stolen the Iguana Queen’s egg and placed it near Susie’s house so that the Miniforce will take care of it when it hatches (NOTE: Link to “Parents for a Day”), then lie to the Iguana Queen herself that the Miniforce has stolen it so that her trust towards them gets broken and that she will try to fight the Miniforce when they approach her. (NOTE: SPOILER STARTS HERE) Pascal does it once again near the end of the first season, when he disguised himself as Volt to attack Ray, get Ray to join his side to attack the Miniforce, while Pascal himself kidnaps Dr. Tao to get him to activate a powerful dinosaur mechamon (SPOILER ENDS HERE) -Bears are Bad News: The teddy bear-like mechamon in “Dangerous Curiosity” -Blue is Heroic: Volt the squirrel -Color-Coded Characters: The Miniforce team are colored very specifically to make them easier to identify, and this not only applies to their normal forms, but it extends to their battle suits and Force Cars/Bots too. Volt is blue, Sammy is red, Max is yellow, and Lucy is pink. -Chekov’s Gun: (NOTE: SPOILER) Remember the second episode where it was revealed that Pascal can disguise himself as Volt in the beginning? It doesn’t come into play (not even in the episode where the ability is introduced) until over 20 episodes later, when he uses that ability to trick Ray into believing that the Miniforce was betraying him. (SPOILER OVER) -Conspiracy Theorist: Eden the human in “Dangerous Curiosity” believes that the animals (i.e. the Miniforce team) are doing strange things and out to harm humans. Well, he’s only HALF-right… -Cut Lex Luthor A Check: Nein and Pascal must waste a boatload of money for funding all those mechamons and inventions. It’s a miracle that they’re nowhere near being in huge debt by now. While most of them do in fact can only serve an evil purpose, some of them in fact can potentially be sold or implemented legitimately and legally if they are used for good, like self-walking soda vending machines, candy trees, and even vacuum robots (heck, for that last one, Volt even once jokingly suggested that Susie’s room would be clean if they had the vacuum robot in their house). If they just marketed and patented these inventions, they could easily be rolling in enough dough to BUY the land for both the animals’ forest AND the Miniforce squad. But no, all Nein and Pascal ever care about is damaging the well-being and health of innocent animals, taking over the world, and getting rid of “those pesky Miniforce brats”, so of course the Miniforce has to stop Pascal and destroy his inventions! -The Door Slams You: In “Black Miniforce”, an amnesiac Volt attemped to transform into his battle suit form, but was stopped by this trope by Susie’s little brother. This may or may not have been the event that ultimately returned his memory back to normal. -Easy Amnesia: Volt suffers memory loss simply from a hit in the head by a rock from Ray’s attack in “Black Miniforce”. He gets his memory back either from a door slam or Susie telling him she’ll buy peanuts. -Everything’s Better With Monkeys: Dr. Tao the Miniforce scientist -Forced Into Evil: In “There’s Something About Ipas”, Ipas, a former Miniforce agent, was forced by Pascal to spy on the Miniforce and steal their devices so that Pascal can finally leave her alone (not that she even wanted to be on the evil side). But since Pascal broke his promise to her, coupled with Ipas’ and Volt’s crushes on each other, she decided on her own accord to no longer serve Pascal. -Friendly Rivals: Hawk the retired green Miniforce ranger in “Destined Rivals” is this to Sammy. Hawk wants to be stronger than Sammy and one day beat him in a one-on-one fight. -Heel-Face Turn: Ray goes through one once he realizes that Pascal tricked him. -Interspecies Romance: Volt the squirrel and Ipas the cat in “There’s Something About Ipas”. Sammy the owl’s crush on Minnie the human in “Destined Rivals” is a one-sided version of this trope that gets dropped pretty quickly. -Humans Are The Real Monsters: Pascal firmly believes this, while the Miniforce stands by the ideal that humans and animals can co-exist peacefully. Is it any wonder why Pascal is a villain who hates the Miniforce? -Good Colors, Evil Colors: The Miniforce hero team each wear blue, red, yellow and pink in every situation. As for the villains, Nein wears black and grey, and Pascal and the mook robots are purple. Ray manages to pass for both good and evil with his black motif. -Mix and Match Animals: Ray in “Black Miniforce” is said to be a mutant of one of these in his normal animal form, but it is never specified what animals he is a mix of. Nonetheless, he was ostracized by humans for being this trope prior to his meeting Dr. Tao and subsequent Miniforce membership. -My God, What Have I Done?: Ray after realizing that he was tricked by Pascal into fighting the Miniforce in “Saving Dr. Tao”. He then decides to fight off Pascal’s mooks alone while the Miniforce move on to fighting Pascal’s powerful dinosaur mechamon. -Laser-Guided Amnesia: In “Black Miniforce”, Volt has gained amnesia from a blunt hit on the head, and can’t remember who the rest of the Miniforce or Susie is, thinks that they are enemies of his, and he is in some “human lair”. Yet he still properly remembers that he is a Miniforce agent, and even attempted (but failed) to transform into his battle suit form in front of Susie (though he didn’t remember that he wasn’t supposed to transform in front of humans). -Manipulative Bastard: Pascal -Non-Standard Character Design: In a show with a few categories of character designs (regular chibi-style animals, Miniforce-style hero battle suits, Pascal-style evil battle suits, mechamons, and humans), there can be quite a few minor characters that fit none of those categories: The Iguana Queen in “Miniforce and Baby Iguana” really doesn’t fit well with the rest of the cast. Even her baby iguana Bebe is a bit different from the other animals, though still somewhat fits the style. Dr. Tao the monkey scientist really looks like he belongs in another cartoon with a different style than Miniforce, where the shapes and style of animals are somewhat standardized (in fact, he resembles Cranky Kong more (NOTE: Link to the “Donkey Kong Country” series)). Especially jarring when in “Saving Dr. Tao” we are shown a picture of him right next to his grandson, and the grandson looks more like a Miniforce animal character than he does. -Red is Heroic: Sammy the owl -Super Dickery: In “Black Miniforce”, Ray’s reasoning for joining Pascal’s side was told through a flashback where Volt appeared to betray and attack Ray and was told it was under Dr. Tao’s orders. (NOTE: SPOILER STARTS HERE) In “Saving Dr. Cho”, it was revealed that it was really Pascal disguised as Volt, and it was all part of his Batman Gambit to turn Ray to his side, kidnap Dr. Tao, and get the blueprints to a powerful dinosaur mechamon (END OF SPOILER) -We Will Meet Again: Pascal says this so often throughout this series, Volt even lampshades it in the season 1 finale “Invincible Miniforce”.

ADDENDUMS TO PREVIOUS LISTS MAIN -The Cameo: And Susie and Volt are seen watching Vroomiz again in the first part of the two-parter “Black Miniforce”. Gosh, SAMG must really love inserting Vroomiz into Miniforce, don’t they. -Captain Ersatz: Dr. Tao the monkey near the end of the first season resembles Cranky Kong from the Donkey Kong Country series, only instead of being a grumpy rambling on about how much things used to be better back in his day, he is a respected Miniforce-affiliated scientist. Pascal’s dinosaur mechamon in “Invincible Miniforce” sure resembles a purple version of Grimlock’s dinosaur form (NOTE: Link to “Transformers”) -Cute Bruiser: Susie was even able to PUNCH A TINY BEE, and even score 3,000 points on the punching bag arcade machine in “Invincible Miniforce”. -Eye Beams: The bear mechamon in “Dangerous Curiosity” fires Cyclops-like beams (NOTE: Link to the “X-Men” comics, or maybe “Capcom Vs Whatever”) Ray’s forcebot can do this. -Fallen Hero: Ray from the two-parter “Black Miniforce”. -Meaningful Name: Lao Shu from “Kungfu Master Cho” has a Chinese name (老鼠) that means “mouse” (literal meaning “old rodent”) in Chinese. Though in the show itself, Lao Shu is actually stated by commander Chen to be a “mole”, though to be fair, it doesn’t help that it’s common for Chinese words of various rodents and rodent-like animals to use the “鼠” (“shǔ”) hanzi character, which means “mouse” or “rodent”, and the actual Chinese word for “mole”, 鼹鼠 (“yǎn shǔ”), so happens to also be spelled with 鼠, so it could be just a simple Korean to Chinese translation error based on that. They could also possibly be going for the super-literal “old rodent” translation, since Lao Shu has been sealed off for many years before his escape. However, if Wiktionary is to be believed, 老鼠 is also defined as an idiom for a “cunning, deceitful person”, which definitely fits Lao Shu’s villain persona. -Talking Animal: Eden in “Dangerous Curiosity” was actually shocked to hear that the Miniforce (in their normal forms) can speak, despite the fact that Susie and her little brother hear and communicate with the Miniforce fine with no problems or shock. Heck, Susie’s best friend Minnie from the previous episode “Destined Rivals” has JUST first met the Miniforce without any sort of shock or surprise when they spoke to her. So it’s really jarring that there was no indication of talking animals being considered weird and unusual to humans In-Universe for the previous 21 episodes before that point.

YMMV - Hilarious in Hindsight: The teddy bear mechamon in “Dangerous Curiosity” resembles Stufful and Bewear (NOTE: Link to “Pokemon Sun and Moon”) in both appearance and color scheme. To top it off, the robot even has a “seems cuddly but really dangerous” motif that was also stated in Stufful and Bewear’s Pokedex entries.

(OK, I believe that’s it for the season 1 trope list for now, sufficient enough to warrant a proper page (albeit with a “Needs Wiki Magic Love” note saying that season 2 tropes and more general tropes I might have missed should be added). All that’s needed now is to combine all 7 lists, alphabetize them, give it proper TV Tropes wiki formatting, and submit it. Will let you know when the actual page is up)