#with the extra context being that its a sword that my fighter got and that the dm of this next scenario tipped me off that the sword

[waywardsalt]

chat how do we feel about me deciding that if the other dnd party members want a specific item my character has, they need to succeed a persuasion check with a somewhat high dc

[owlixx]

Kirby Spinoff/Demo Wrap Up

So, I am done with all the mainline pre-switch Kirby games! But after Robobot, I poked my head into some of the later spinoff games and played the demos of the switch games and wanted to share my thoughts on those.

Rainbow Curse

Great art style hampered by playing on gamepad

weird multiplayer that trivializes the core gameplay

I just popped in and bopped Wispy Woods

It's not...bad, but I don't have the itch to play more

Blowout Blast

I tried a level each from the sub-game and the standalone release

Pretty cute and fun, if a bit plain

Standalone game is definitely worth the upgrade with its actual levels and much longer length

The combo system and grading does stress me out a little

I wouldn't mind beating each of these sometime

Battle Royale

Booting this up with no prior knowledge is a baffling experience

I thought this game was 9 different genres before figuring it out

Seems like Blowout Blast with combat at first

Then it seems like top down Smash Bros

Only for it to end up being...a poor man's Mario Party?

Seems like this game should have either leaned into being more of a fighting game with light MOBA elements (like the tutorial also kind of made it seem with highlighted friends/enemies, revives, a mix of small and big enemies)

...or it should have leaned into being a party game and focused on variety and having game boards

I could see myself doing the story mode out of morbid curiosity but I don't think I would immensely enjoy it based on my reaction to the stupid apple collecting minigame

Star Allies

I had played this demo before multiple times, both single player and multi player

This time, what occurred to me was the absurdity of porting Return to Dream Land to Switch FIVE YEARS after releasing a near-identical game on Switch, where the biggest issue is how similar the two games are.

And both games are still 60 dollars! They are literally both games right now as part of Nintendo's special "voucher deal" where you can get two full priced games at a marginally reduced price. FIVE YEARS LATER

For context, 2018 also had such beloved games as Red Dead Redemption 2, Assassin's Creed Odyssey, Spider-Man, and God of War, all of which drop to 10-20 dollars regularly now. Hell, God of War got ported to PC starting at 50 dollars since it was SO OLD and that was over a year ago

30 fps :( Triple Deluxe really spoiled me (I am the first person to ever say that, from what I've seen)

Anyways, its just Return to Dream Land but with the friend system of Super Star (roughly) and ability mixing inspired by Squeak Squad's upgraded sword (rouhgly)

Having 4 helpers makes things too easy, maybe I'd try the story solo if I ever got this

Everyone dunks on Star Allies online so I was expecting to see what they see, and I do, but the game is still a fun Kirby game

After some research however, I am extremely tempted to purchase the game for all the extra modes

Especially Guest Star: the idea of letting you replay an entire Kirby game locked into one power, allowing for 20 something unique playthroughs each with their own best-time is so tempting and I wish every game had it

Plus, it is so cool to see DLC friends from every mainline Kirby now that I get all those references!

This game goes on sale a bit sometimes, so it is now an actual contender to purchase

Super Kirby Clash

I mean, it's not great, but it is cute enough and a decent splitscreen timekiller

I kind of wish that now they'd just patch the game to be a bit less money-grubbing

More free to play games should have flawless splitscreen

Fighters 2

Let me just say: WOW

The gameplay is not super sophisticated, but the polish and sheen are off the charts

Literally Star Allies engine but in 60 fps!

Two player roguelike story mode????

Exclusive copy abilitity?

Unique helper characters???

This game is clearly so much more than a sequel to the sub-game

Hilariously blows Fighters Deluxe out of the water in terms of...everything

Might get this if it ends up being fun splitscreen in the demo

Forgotten Land

Pretty fun demo

Only did the first level on "wild style", waiting to do the whole demo coop

30 fps :(((

Mario Odyssey was 60 fps SIX YEARS AGO

And speaking of, this game I think was expected to be "Kirby Odyssey" or "Kirby Breath of the Wild"

But it doesn't even feel like "Kirby's Mario 64" or "Kirby Ocarina of Time"

It feels more like "Kirby 3D Land"

It seems almost offensive that Kirby is a series with its identity rooted in novelty and unique gimmicks, yet the only 3D games before were a racing game, a minigame (with no copy abliities!), and a minigame collection kind of

Seems like a promising start, but I am not sure I want to drop 60 bucks just for a few more hours of this

Don't get me wrong, its cute and fun and wonderful, but it seems like "A fun Kirby game" and not "the Kirby game to end all Kirby games"

Might be tempted though if the local coop is really good

Dream Buffet

No demo for this one but I've got my eye on it

[demonslayedher]

Tanjiro Is Not Hot Stuff

 and this is a good thing

It's easy to dismiss Tanjiro as overpowered, but in this post I'd like to disagree. For all his ability, Tanjiro is still a scrappy fighter, and his abilities have concrete reasons within the context of his shounen manga universe. Furthermore, despite Tanjiro's unique connection to the legendary Yoriichi, Gotouge continually drives home that he is just one character among many united in a common goal to eliminate all evil demons.

That phrase, 悪鬼滅殺, being the backbone of the Demon Slayer Corp, is engraved into each of the Pillars' swords. On that note, I'd like to first address that this may not be Yoriichi's sword. EDIT: On further reflection, because the color of the sword is only dyed once and being held by another swordsman doesn't change it, I've recounted on this theory and feel pretty certain it's Yoriichi's. But it was fun to consider other possibilities, and I'm going to italicize everything that I now consider an incorrect theory.

It's praised for it's Warring States/Sengoku era craftsmanship. This was a time with the swordsmen were first learning the Breath techniques (despite the Corp already having been around for centuries already). It’s also praised for its use of the singular "eliminate" idea encapsulated in the lone 滅 character. Haganezuka himself states that the person who wielded this sword must had been extraordinarily skilled. It's implied that, since Yoriichi also used a black blade (when it wasn’t red), and since this was inside the Yoriichi Zero Type battle doll, it must had been Yoriiichi's sword and therefore well suited to Tanjiro’s Hinokami Kagura techniques which he focuses on for the remainder of his battles.

However, let's think backwards a moment. This sword was produced in a time when Yoriichi, as an outright genius, had profound influence on the Demon Slayer Corp. Although everyone tried, no one could quite pick up his Sun Breathing, but they took the parts that worked for them and the Flame, Thunder, Wind, Water, and Rock techniques took form. We know that since the quality of demon slayers decreased after this generation (my guess is this is due to the mark killing them all off and therefore the lack of a mark in following generations made them seem less skilled over all). 

It's unlikely that Yoriichi, the Sun Breath user himself, would have had any use for this training doll; instead it must had been used by one of those early Breath creators trying desperately to match Yoriichi's skill, and probably using a sword that was modeled with the ideal Sun Breath in mind, and not yet taken shape to suit the Breath that user would later polish. It was perhaps after further definition of their new techniques that they left the old sword behind.

Two more reasons I don't believe this is Yoriichi's sword: Yoriichi, a genius who probably didn't allow his sword to break with improper technique, was still using a sword with a single 滅 inscription when he faced Kokushibo in his old age, and we only see him use a sword with a hilt guard of this shape.

So then who used one with this shape?

We don’t quite see if any of the other Sengoku era swords are likewise inscribed with 滅 (and the lack of the swordsmith’s name implies that this was the swordsmith’s creative choice), but we do get a peek at a few other swords. None of them have a hilt guard quite the same, but this is as similar as it gets: 

The character whom we see using a sword like this has hair in a black ponytail. It’s a little different from the Water Breath user who makes a few appearances, but not that different, and we never see what blade the Water Breath user is wielding. 

I theorize that Tanjiro inherited an early Water Breath user's sword, which made it extra suitable for his techniques. Despite the differences between Hinokami Kagura and Water Breathing being stark enough that switching takes a huge physical toll on Tanjiro, I believe that Water Breathing will always have an influence on his performance of Hinokami Kagura, or at least draws out the aspects from which Water Breathing was based.

That brings me to another thought: Tanjiro’s seemingly overpowered ability to pick up other people's techniques, like the Thunder Breathing speed he heard about from Zenitsu. With Sun Breathing being the root of all other Breath techniques, Tanjiro has grown up already practicing the formative basis of all the other techniques, including Thunder Breathing. His speed (no pun intended) in adopting new techniques does feel more than a little overpowered, but Tanjiro has long shown a history of adopting new techniques and strategies in the middle of a fight. It's also a characteristic of Tanjiro to be constantly analyzing his fighting style and battle experiences even in his sleep, so that shows it's the result of his hardworking, eldest son personality to rely more on perseverance and practice than on natural ability.

That being said, the family history under the influence of tending fire does seem to give Tanjiro some innate suitability for Sun Breathing techniques, as implied by other characters like Haganezuka pointing out his red eyes and Shinjuro noticing Tanjiro's supposed mark right away and immediately interpreting this as an unfair amount of talent. Bring a humble charcoal farmer as opposed to a hardened swordsman may be what gave Sumiyoshi the ability to grasp the essence of Sun Breathing so thoroughly and efficiently (though we know Yoriichi taught his technique to others whom Kokushibo later eliminated, we don’t know if they could perform it as accurately, especially since the rest of the swordsman had so much difficulty with it). This point was so important that Gotouge even considered including charcoal references or the name of the fire god Kagutsuchi (commonly associated with hearths and purification) in the title of the series (see more about that here.)

But, get this, Tanjiro was not originally meant to be the main character. According to an interview in the first official fanbook with the first editor, Katayama, the following exchange took place after reviewing Gotouge’s sketches for a manga idea, “Kisatsu no Nagare,” in which the main character, Nagare, is a quiet, stoic type with fake limbs in place of ones he lost in the Final Selection (he feels a lot like Giyuu, in my opinion):

What changed it from “Kisatsu no Nagare” to “Kimetsu no Yaiba”:

(Continued from criticism of Nagare being a difficult character to build a series around:)

“...after determining that with these small changes we still wouldn’t be able to change the impact much, we threw around the idea of changing the protagonist. Since [Gotouge-]Sensei hadn’t yet moved to Tokyo from the countryside, I asked one day on the phone, “Is there any other character besides Nagare (in the world of “Kisatsu no Nagare”) that’s may a little more cheerful and normal?”

Sensei answered, “There is, but I don’t know if he’s interesting or not.” When I asked, “What sort of character is he?” the response was, “He’s a boy who sells charcoal, and his little sister got turned into a demon, so he enters the Demon Slayer Corp to try to turn her back.” And I thought, that’s it, that’s THE protagonist, and said, “Let’s go with that! A normal kid is good!” 

I think we can all agree that Tanjiro’s oldest son personality is a big part of what makes him stick out as a protagonist. But, for as hard as he works and strongly as he feels, he is constantly aware of everyone else’s efforts and wishes, and he states over and over throughout the series that even if he should die in pursuit of his goals, someone else in the organization is absolutely certain to accomplish them in his place. We see the same sentiment among other characters who meet their doom, even powerful characters like Pillars, so it really drives home that this series is about the Demon Slayer Corp more than it is about any single child who has lost his family to demons. It’s for reasons like this that I really, really appreciate how the fanbooks, in how they present basic info, refer to Tanjiro like he’s just one example of a Corp swordsman; he’s not even worth introducing right away. It’s because of this focus on on everyone’s collective efforts that even if Tanjiro as the protagonist, I think it totally could have fit the story to have him die like implied in chapter 200, or proven right about his faith in everyone and be killed when he’s a demon.

Finally, a Taisho Secret around chapter 193 specifies that although Tanjiro has made a significant amount of progress in Hinokami Kagura, he's still not such Hot Stuff. If you break it into three levels, being able to go through the motions of something, then being able to refine and adapt it, and then being able to perform something in a way that maximizing its potential is all different. Even deep in the battle again Muzan, Tanjiro is only right about at the beginning points of being able to refine and adapt his techniques. 

So there you have it, Tanjiro is special, especially for his naturally positive, hardworking, and empathetic personality. But, he's no Pillar (yet), nor is his will and experience worth any more or less than all the other Demon Slayers, swordsmiths, Kakushi, wisteria house owners, crows, Ubuyashiki Clan members, and all the other supporters across centuries of history working toward one common goal, one eternal feeling: eliminate all evil demons.

[recurring-polynya]

I was wondering: what do you think Kazui and Ichika's powers would be? Their parents are super powerful, so would their powers reflect their parents' powers, or would it be something more original? I've heard theories that Ichika is some sort of genius or something, because she had on the Soul Reaper outfit instead of the school clothes. And Kazui is probably strong too, considering he knows how to become a Soul Reaper. And they're both just kids!! (It's a random question, but I'm curious.)

It’s funny that anyone would ask me this, because to be honest, I am Not That Into Ichika and Kazui. Part of it is that what is so enchanting about Bleach to me is everyone’s rich and layered backstories, and “kid of existing characters” is about as uninteresting as you can get. I mean, epilogue children are fine, I have no problem with that, but I’m not sure I care that much about them. Two, I have my own kids, I am on Tumblr to *get a break from* children. Three, I find it vaguely upsetting that Renji and Rukia had a kid so soon after getting married, I wish they had more time to have gonzo sex on every flat surface in their house, you know both of them are ~bananas~ in bed. (I mean, they probably had sex before they got married, but I tend to assume they got together fairly late in the game, also newly married sex is its Own Thing) My only explanation there is that they got married *because* they were ready to have a kid, I am sticking with that. I also would have accepted Ichika being conceived in the Royal Realm, but the timing doesn’t work out. I am generally against accidental pregnancies, but that would have been lit as f. I am not even all that sure that Rukia would want kids, although Renji is Extremely a Dad, and I think she would enjoy raising a family with him (I legit think he does most of the work and it works out very well for everyone).

Back to the business at hand. Uh, so I have seen several people give Ichika lightning powers (I am specifically thinking of @gizkasparadise, see here or @acompletenonentity ‘s very cool bankai design) and I generally approve. The tsuba of her zanpakutou is lightning shaped, which picks up the lightning designs on Renji’s. Also, Rukia’s powers are wintery and Byakuya’s are spring, so having some summer thunderstorm powers would be cool. In battle, I want her to have Big Renji energy. I love Renji in a fight, and I especially love him in a group fight, picking off a hundred low-level dudes so that Rukia or Ichigo can get to the boss. To that end, I’d like Ichika to have something with some reach, maybe a kusarigama or a naginata? 

Kazui is baby, I have never given a second of thought to his powers.

That being said, you asked ME this question, and you’re gonna get a Polynya Answer, whether you wanted one or not, and that means I am only capable of thinking about this in the context of The Narrative.

So, if I were charged with writing a Bleach Continuation, the premise would be this: Yamamoto died in the Quincy War, which means he gets reborn in the World of the Living and is a only few years older than Our Kids. My manga would revolve around Shitty Teen Yamamoto getting attacked by 1,000,000 very powerful people he does not remember doing dirty. Furthermore, there’s something that Yamamoto sealed up or whatever he’s the key to unlocking again, so Soul Society can’t just let him get killed like a bitch, he needs to regain some powers and learn the power of friendship, blah blah blah. For Reasons, he ends up in the protectorship of the Disaster Duo of Ichika and Kazui.

During one of my first watches of Bleach, I had the idea that the zanpakutou spirits were either “reincarnated” Soul Reapers, or that they were re-used, as in when a Soul Reaper dies, their zanpakutou spirit will, at some point, attach themselves to a new one. I still like this idea (I think Hyourinmaru is canonically like this, actually?) To that end, Ichika, who fancies herself a rough-and-ready dirtbag like her folks, Big Squad 11 energy, ends up with the Extremely Venerable zanpakutou spirit of some famous Kuchiki hero who died 900 years ago. I’m thinking some ancient dragon-spirit/world turtle thing who with long mustaches who is just So Extra and Ichika is like “uhhhh” and Renji and Rukia are like “uhhhhh” and the Kuchiki are like “NO PLEASE” and Byakuya, who has still not managed to get remarried and have heirs is like “THIS IS MY TIME.” Anyway, her zanpakutou is a Chinese long chuan sword like Green Destiny from Crouching Tiger. She’s primarily a physical fighter like her dad, but she’s also a very skilled kidou user, and is a well-rounded fighter overall. She’s not exactly by-the-book, but she knows the Correct Way to Do Everything.

Kazui’s powers are just batshit chaos, he does what he wants. Half the time, he’s like “I’m just gonna reverse the flow of time which will suck us into another dimension” and Ichika’s like “that’s not a thing, you can’t–” and then he does it. “I’m just gonna go into my Resurrection.” “You don’t– oh dang, you do.” And then, the other half of the time, he can’t even do simple normal things, like he can’t sense other peoples’ reiatsu or something. He absolutely cannot do kidou. His zanpakutou spirit is straight up teen Masaki. 

I LOVE Everything But the Rain, and the first time I read it, when Masaki and Isshin throw their lives away for 0 dollars in order to save each other, my first reaction was “These people are 100% Ichigo’s parents, this is perfect” and then being Orihime’s son on top of that, Kazui is just an elemental force of rescuing his precious friends and having Masaki riding shotgun Does Not Help. Ichika likes to think she’s a wild improvisor, but she’s been a shinigami since the day she was conceived. Like her father before her, she is actually the counterintuitive order muppet of the relationship.

Finally, I will not accept a fully grown Ichika who is less than 5’11” with her hair down. You bet your ass she’s covered in tattoos and owns 800 pairs of sunglasses.

Kazui is 5’5”.

Thank you for coming to my TED talk.

[maeamian]

Some D&D theorycrafting for y’all, since unearthed arcana came out with a playable centaur I wanted to take a look at the mounted combatant/sentinel combo in that context. It’s probably gonna be a bit wordy so here’s a cut underneath which it is (sorry mobile users):

So my current dude is a dwarven druid, and one of the interesting paths you can take with the moon druid is specing into full time mount duties for a qualified rider, but the key to that long term is the rider taking mounted combatant and the druid taking sentinel. The rider gets advantage on attacks against creatures smaller than their mount, which is pretty nice, and can force attacks directed at the mount to instead be directed at them. The mount meanwhile gets an improved evasion where they take half spell damage on failed saves and none on successful ones. Sentinel meanwhile gives you an attack of opportunity against creatures who attack your allies and hitting with an AoO means their speed for the turn becomes 0. 

A rider with mounted combatant provides a huge amount of frontline survivability to an otherwise squishy mount, which in the druid’s case means fewer burnt wild shapes and better damage output, but for a centaur it means you can put a normally squishy character on the frontline with a much more limited risk than usual, since mounted combatant provides good cover against both attack and spell damage, excepting pretty much the no save spells like magic missile. It’s not quite as good for the rider here as it is for the druid who has access to very big shapes while a centaur is gonna be the same size barring an enlarge spell. Sentinel in a mounted target meanwhile means that your rider is constantly drawing attacks meant for you which in turn means you get to use your attack of opportunity every single turn and it has the added bonus of forcing lockdown by setting that target’s speed to 0, it’s helpful not essential if we don’t go a class that uses attack damage, but if we go this route we do want to keep an eye on our AoOs. 

Basically what we want from this is a rider who can be the target of a lot of attacks without dying from it as well as crowd control options, your traditional tank essentially, and a centaur who can output a lot of damage or some other form of utility and take advantage of frontline positioning that they might otherwise die super hard in. What follows is a quick overview of the 12 classes and where they might fit in in all of this:

Barbarian: Raging barbarians can output a lot of damage per weapon attack, meaning that your AoO is gonna get decent value, and since barding is pricy the unarmored defense could help in the early game, but the huge hit pool is a bit redundant with the damage avoidance you’ve got. Those hitpoints make it good for a rider who will be taking more hits than usual and should armor themselves accordingly, but none of the paths really offer the combat synergy that other later options will. Overall Barb is a great frontline class, but it isn’t going to really benefit from either side of this combo.

Bard: This one’s pretty funny to imagine, consider a decked out knight charging you down on a horse whose head is a human with a fuckin’ hammered dulcimer and rage in their eyes. With the college of Valor it’s also fairly plausible, it gives you the proficiencies you need to stay safe at later levels in shields and armor and it also gives you the ability to use inspiration to improve your rider’s AC which they’ll be thankful for. The College of Swords (Xanathar’s) also offers some interesting options for combining attacks with your bardic inspiration to get some neat effects as well as some improved damage as a baseline. Not the strongest choice here, IMO, but there’s a lot to work with mechanically and concept wise.

Cleric: Clerics are generally already known for being able to kick it on the frontline without having to worry too much, so they don’t need the extra survivability as much. Clerics have access to a powerful selection of buffs and healing spells that are nice to have on hand up front, which is why they tend to be there even with their generally lower HP.  The life domain is an obvious choice and makes you very good at healing and buffing, but overall I think it loses value by not being able to do other things and I don’t think it takes advantage of the combo. The War domain offers that utility in combat and provides some very nice buffs as a constant on your spell list. The Grave domain (Xan’s) offers some interesting combo options including cursing them to take double damage from your rider and turning crits against them into normal hits. Solid choice for our centaur, and there’s some excellent RP options with your rider if they’re a Pally, and an interesting choice for a rider if you’re looking to get a bit more support from that portion of the combo

Druid:  Druids have a lot of spells that work good at the front like gust and vine whip, but generally want to stay back due to their prohibition on having good AC, since you’re not taking the hits you don’t need the AC, so Land druid and their stronger spell casting focus may be the way to go here. The circle of dreams (X’s) is also a good option with healing, rest protection and later on combat teleportation which you can use to get space in which to charge. The circle of shephards lets you overwhelm the front with summoned creatures and change battles with powerful totem effects to your allies. A lot of the best druid spells require concentration which means you’ll need to grab war caster too, which is a solid pickup for any caster on this list. A solid centaur choice too, but in many ways redundant.

Fighter: This is the first of our rider choices, a protection fighter lets you impose disadvantage on attacks that you don’t chose to soak, and of course fighters can put together some of the highest AC in the game, and the battlemaster archetype has some very powerful combo moves in its maneuvers, for instance pushing attack plus sentinel can strand a frontline enemy in the backline for a turn letting you charge into the backline and mess it up, while trip+sentinel lets you keep an enemy prone by leaving them without movement speed to stand up with. Cavalier (X) seems like it would be good for a mounted combatant, but ends up being fairly redundant or else unhelpful for the play style this combo encourages, since your mount won’t be taking many hits. Fighter is a very strong option for the rider, and a bit less definied in characterization than our other major rider options.

Monk: Monks are the quintessential wants to be upfront and doesn’t want to get hit class, and combos alright with your extant hoof attacks, for the first four levels your unarmed strikes are a die better than they would be, but that’s a problem regular monks can solve with a monk weapon. Even the baseline options for spending ki can do you a lot of good, the disengage bonus action can prep charges and extra attacks are nothing to sneeze at. The way of the open fist offers even more melee options as well as bonuses to your flurry of blows. Way of the shadow offers solid ambush options if your party is more built for opening bursts, as well as movement options. A very strong centaur candidate, but miss this class for your rider.

Paladin: Now here’s a fuckin class for the rider. the 6th level aura of protection improves the already excellent spell protection from mounted combatant by adding the rider’s cha bonus to saves vs spells, the healing options and high AC let the Pally kick it up front and soak those nasty shots intended for his centaur friend. Oath of the Ancients is a strong choice here with good buffs added to the spell list and can use the channel divinity to cast a targeted entangling vines. Oath of conquest (X) has powerful combat options especially for lockdown, but not everyone wants to play that character style and I get why. A generous interpretation of the Find Steed spell gives you some nice combo bonuses allowing the paladin to target the mount with self-only spells, nice if your GM allows it, but don’t be shocked if they don’t. One of the go to choices for a rider

Ranger: ,The Hunter archetype offers some really powerful combat options, especially for someone who doesn’t have to worry too much about getting hit.  Monster Slayer (X) has some really strong options for dealing extra damage and punishing strong targets as well as locking down the backline once you truck your way into it. Strong choice for the centaur.

Rogue: Sneak attack reads “You don't need advantage on the attack roll if another enemy of the target is within 5 feet of it, that enemy isn't incapacitated, and you don't have disadvantage on the attack roll.” If you’ve got a rider you’ve always got an ally within 5 feet of your target. This is very good to get every single round. The rogue’s evasion feature is wasted here, but a your cunning action can let you zip around the battle field really fucking shit up. None of the thief archetypes really offers too much, although the thief’s second story work seems to negate the one major drawback of the centaur: garbage climbing skills. Swashbuckler (X) seems to be the only option that actively benefits the play style, but the rogue’s base kit is very strong in this anyhow so all of the archetypes are going to be somewhat viable. Alternatively, this is an interesting option for a rider who gets that sneak attack advantage and can wrangle a rather high AC out of dexterity. A great choice for our centaur and a maverick choice for the rider

Sorcerer/Wizard: WotC tried to separate these two more, but essentially these are both backline casters and have no place on the front line even in the context of this combo, they’re good to support it especially benefiting from spells like flaming sphere that hurt opponents who stay in the same place a lot, a useful member of this party perhaps but not someone who should be involved as the rider or the mount

Warlock: is pretty similar to the above, but offers one somewhat interesting frontline option in the Pact of the Blade, particularly down the Fiend path. Their play style is to get hit and deal out massive retribution through hexes and curses, so in this context you’d want them as the rider more than as a mount. That means you’re going to want a more supportive class like cleric on the mount to make sure that as they’re taking in the hits they’re also staying up. The hexblade version might work for your centaur

A few generic notes if you’re considering this route: First, the strength of the feat combo runs on AoOs so you want to be careful about things that use your reaction to do things other than hit. Secondly, since this feat is best applied on single strong targets, you’ll want to make sure you or your parties have some strong AoE options to deal with larger groups of enemies

Anyhow, this has been one person’s thoughts about an fun D&D roleplaying thing you can do and how to make it mechanically powerful, by no means am I an expert except that I’ve thought about this sort of thing a lot. It definitely has the opportunity for a very cool interpersonal dynamic for the two of you in addition to some of the best single target lockdown available in the game.

[dlamp-dictator]

Allen’s Rambling: Playing a Fighting Game for Story (Under Night In-Birth)

Recently, I got my hands on Under Night In-Birth Exe:Late[st], or UNIEST for short, a fighting game I’ve been looking forward to playing for almost half a year now. I know Dragonball Fighter Z is the fighting game that everyone cares about at the moment, but this is a game I’ve been wanting a little more... and DBFZ has too many problems with its... everything as a fighting game (a lacking tutorial, a tragically basic challenge mode, not explaining tools for high-level play within the game, etc.). So, I feel like talking about UNIEST for a bit while I’m taking a break from its Chronicle Mode, give my first impressions and all that now that I’ve only got about 7 prologues left to get through. Hopefully I won’t Ramble on about this, but... we’ll see. Yeah too late, I rambled, as usual... jeez, saying that phrase tends screws me over way to much and gives me a butt load of editing to do. But anyway, here goes.

Expanding and Explain the Lore 

I like how Chronicle Mode gives us much more context to the arcade mode. It’s sort of the reverse of how Guilty Gear Xrd did it’s arcade and story modes. Rather than the Arcade mode being the prologue to the story mode, the story mode explains what is going on in everyone’s arcade mode, with each new prologue giving more and more context to each character and the setting overall. Every character has their own little prologue selection that goes on for about 3 to 4 chapters that explains their motives and past, with each prologue in itself being about 1 to 2 hours long depending on your reading speed. The only exception at this point seems to be Vatista, who is moreso giving exposition to the lore of the world in her prologue chapters. That’s harmless overall given her role in the story is more of an observer than an actual character moving the plot, and her own Arcade mode being her finally going out and observing things.

While the game was coming out I often found myself jokingly thinking that the world of UNIEST was going to be some extension of the Nasuverse given the inclusion of Sion as a character. Though I was joking at the time it really feels like Nasu had his hand in this series in terms of writing, as I see some of the same issues I had when playing Fate/Extella. 

I have two major issues with the game as far as its story mode and writing is concerned: the pacing, and the localization.

Pacing

This is where most of the Nasuverse comparisons come from. Now to be fair to UNIEST, “bad pacing” is kind of a subjective critique nowadays due to it being thrown out far too much for its own good (my own posts and critiques not helping), so I’ll say that the pacing just feels slow to me personally. I feel like there’s too much idle chatter going on with people talking about things that aren’t important to the plot. For an example, in Orie’s prologue she’s talking to her friend/partner Lex about moving to Kanzakai, the location of the game. They discuss a bit about the mission, Orie goes into thought about her opinions of it, we learn a lot about Orie’s personality and nature when she isn’t in Licht Kreis Mode and slaying Voids, and so on. This is fine, but sometimes it felt like their friendly conversations about sweets, fashion, what restaurant to eat at, and adjusting to Japanese customs felt more like padding at times than characterization. This is all fine on paper, as it expands on both Orie and Lex’s personality, and it does lead to some interested interactions with Wagner when she appears, but for me it just feel like it drags. The main takeaways from Orie’s prologue is that she’s going to Kanzakai on an undercover/infiltration mission to learn about Amnesia and Paradox, work as something close to Wagner’s probation officer and make sure she doesn’t go to wild, and show off her personality when she isn’t in Licht Kreis Mode. The extra bits just feel unneeded to an extent. You could just skip to the restaurant scene after Orie and Lex get to Kanzakai, cut out half the dialogue about cakes and uniforms, and things would flow a little better. Though... that’s just my own opinion.

I think a better prologue that did this sort of small talk/tangent thing well was Yuzuriha’s and Wagner’s. In Yurzuriha’s prologue we learn that she’s reluctantly the In-Birth Guardian of Kanzakai due to her older sister losing her powers on her first day of the job, and that while she knows that big things are going down in the city and is knowledgeable the Hallow Night, she’d rather just do nothing to draw attention to herself and keeps the peace by slowly crushing any rising powers making a ruckus. We also learn about the formation of Bankikai and #BestBoy Ogre. The writing goes into its usual smaller conversations and small talk, but it works a lot better in this case. Yuzuriha going on and explaining the Hallow Night in depth to Ogre makes since due to her wanting to make sure he understands that forming organizations will only worsen the situation as rising powers clash and only give rise to more Voids and more In-Births to create an endless cycle. It also shows that as knowledgeable as she is about it, Yuzuriha doesn’t give a damn about what goes on in the Hallow Night outside of keeping the peace and is only explaining things to Ogre because she doesn’t want to deal with him later... and she only had a broom to fight with at the time. On Ogre’s end, he was the type of character to make small talk, flirt, and go on long, hammy spiels about his goals, which constantly annoyed Yuzuriha, but it played well with the tone of the scenes and honestly made Ogre very endearing.

Speaking of endearing characters, the writing style of the prologues also helped Wagner’s character well too. She’s the newest playable character that I was personally interested in learning about. Wagner’s name actually came up several times in the the arcade modes of the previous game. From what we knew she was a mix of a merciless Templar that slaughtered anyone and everyone under the name of Licht Kreis, a wildcard that was Licht Kreis’s ace in the hole, and someone that Orie either feared, despised, or saw as a rival of some kind. The main takeaways from her prologue is that she is on probation after “overdoing it” in a past mission and has to live in Japan to cool her head with two attendants managing/confiscating her sword and shield, and while she personally views Orie as a rival Orie herself just sees her as a dangerous person that’s a pain to deal with. Those were the takeways, but the prologue does a lot to humanize Wagner and make her an interesting character. When not in Licht Kreis Mode she’s actually very endearing, being someone that knows little about society outside of battle. She struggles with academics due to her not liking the structure of Japanese schools, but slowly loving the more social aspect of it. She has a slight dependence on her attendants for more social activities. She’s a horrible actor to the point that her undercover backstory was that of being a shelter rich girl so she didn’t have to force herself to act in anyway and blow her cover. It’s all humanizing stuff from someone that was hyped up as a fiery, brutal killer of Voids throughout the series. She’s just... a socially awkward rich girl outside of battle, and it’s pretty enduring.

And just before I move on to talk about the localization I’ll just say that Carmine and Enkidu’s prologues could had easily been two chapters instead of three. The long conversations and small talk were just... out of character for those two, Carmine especially, though he is a lot more likable to me now, and Enkidu might just be my favorite character story-wise for his simplicity and how he bounces off Chaos and Hilda in Amnesia.

Now then...

The Localization

The localization... is terrible. 

No, I’m not kidding, this is some godawful localizing. Spell check apparently didn’t even exist when translating this script. Seriously, take a shot everytime you see a spelling or grammar error. Actually, don’t do that, you’ll die before you finish the first prologue. I mean... jeez, I know mistakes happen, and my own writings tend to be riddled with grammar issues here and there, but the amount I’m seeing here is just inexcusable. The misspellings especially. Serious, was spell check a thing when they translated this? Especially since there’s no dub every moment of grammar errors and misspellings seems more egregious. Reading these cutscenes and visual novel moments are a pain when I have to figure out what a character is actually saying. Which brings me to another issue.

There’s no dub, and that rustles my jimmies something fierce.

I don’t care how controversial it is for me to talk about this anymore. I don’t care how little the FGC cares for dubs and stories in fighting games. I don’t care about EVO, NorCal, SoCal, or anything other bull excuse used for a proper lacking localization. I kept my mouth shut about this when it came to Blazblue and Guilty Gear outside of some grumbles and general reactive whining, but now I’m actually pissed. There was no excuse this time for lacking a dub here, especially with the large window of time between the JP and NA release dates. 

For those that are curious, it was about 6 months. I remember Arc System saying something to the effect of having to delay Blazblue Central Fiction by about 6 month if they were to dub it. Six months... and this game has much less story stuff going on than in Blazblue. I remember people saying that BBCF needed to come out sooner so people outside of Japan could train for EVO. Folks, anyone that gives a damn about fighting games on a competitive level will import unless the time gap is a week’s difference or less. Period. Everyone else will either just do local tournaments, or is playing casually by extension of the more series side of the FGC. And frankly, EVO tends to be dominated by Japanese players anyway, so... I’m narrowing my eyes when I hear things like that. When this game had such a large time gap I think most of us figured it was for a dub, especially with Dragonball Fighter Z coming out just barely a month beforehand. However... no such luck, this game was basically delayed, had a poor release time, and I’m willing to bet money it was so this game could flop and they’d have an excuse to probably not dub Cross Tag Battle due to low interest in what would be one fourth of that game’s rooster (technically one eighth, but that’s a Rambling for another day).

Ugh, but I won’t whine about that any further, continuing to type this is only making me angrier... moving on.

Themes of Under Night

Now what kind of writer would I be if I didn’t at least try to talk about the narrative themes of UNIEST’s story? I’ll be honest. I’m having a hard time thinking of its themes. Not that it doesn’t have any mind you, but... I can’t really place my finger on it yet. Maybe it’s because I haven’t completed Chronicle Mode yet, but there is a theme in this game’s story. 

And it’s probably something really Japanese.

I’m not just saying that because this is a Japanese Anime Fighting Game, but... the story is constantly drilling in how peaceful Japan is despite how combative the Hallow Night is by nature. Wald and Enkidu are constantly going on about how they feel out of play being warriors in such peaceful times. Carmine talks about how hard it is to be a street punk picking fights in modern times. Orie and Wagner are bring up how peaceful and different Japan is compared to the warzones they’ve been in while in Licht Kreis. The list goes on, but the fact that this story takes place in a peaceful country like Japan is drilled into you. I still have quite a few characters to finish in terms of prologues, but... there’s something, some kind of commentary on peace and violence. Chaos heavily stresses that Amnesia never goes too far to kill people in these modern times in Enkidu’s prologue, Gordeu remarks how fights aren’t to the death despite the tension between warring groups. 

There’s... something here, but I can’t put my finger on it, probably due to my Western origins and beliefs. I’m sure if I talked about this with my Xenny might be able to piece together something since he’s learning the language and I get the feeling the theme might be lost in translation somewhere, but... for now, it’s all speculation until I finish the prologues.

As a game overall, this is a huge improvement to the original Under Night. There’s an in depth tutorial mode, there’s a Mission Mode to learn combos, there’s an network mode that’s leagues better than DBFZ at this point in terms of structure and netcode. If anyone in the FGC felt a little burnt by how Dragonball Fighter Z handled things like the tutorial and challenge mode and just generally not providing things for high-level play, I highly recommend giving UNIEST a shot, especially if you’re interested in Blazblue Cross Tag Battle.

Lastly, I would a moment of silence for Ogre, who has a great character design, interesting personality, had the coolest name for a special ability (Gate of Hades), but will never be playable due to... plot reasons. Farewell playboy fedora man, I would had definitely subbed you if you were playable.

[justanothercinemaniac]

Epic Movie (Re)Watch #193 - Pacific Rim

Spoilers Below

Have I seen it before: Yes

Did I like it then: Yes.

Do I remember it: Yes.

Did I see it in theaters: Yes.

Was it a movie I saw since August 22nd, 2009: Yes, #242.

Format: Blu-ray

1)

Raleigh: “When alien life entered our world it was from deep beneath the Pacific Ocean.”

This is actually a really interesting concept and break from the usual alien invasion movies. It keeps the movie incredibly sci-fi but gives the monsters a much more earthy quality to them. And opening the movie with the idea establishes the world we live in right away. In fact, the entire prologue does an excellent job of clearly and quickly establishing the world of Pacific Rim (I consider the prologue everything before Raleigh and Yancy go and fight the monster, even though the film’s title takes 16 minutes to show up).

2) The monsters in this film are referred to as Kaiju and that fact shows the incredible respect the filmmakers are showing to the genre they’re playing in. For those of you who don’t know, giant monster movies made in Japan like Godzilla, Mothra, Rodan, etc. are referred to as Kaiju films so just by embracing that genre name for this film shows they’re playing in a similar world. I just like that that’s the path they went down.

3) Ramin Djawdi’s score for Pacific Rim is absolutely kickass. The German composer is probably most known for his work on the first Iron Man and “Game of Thrones”, so audiences for those projects are familiar with the fact that Djawdi can get you pumped through music. Pacific Rim is no battle, with the main theme being an electric guitar heavy and absolutely energizing anthem of badassery that gets the audience ready for battle. I suggest everyone listens to it.

4) Charlie Hunam as Raleigh

Raleigh is rough around the edges but in a way the audience can appreciate. He’s not a jackass, he’s not a jerk, he’s just a bit macho. But he’s still a nice guy (not Nice Guy™), showing kindness to much of the cast of characters throughout the film (Mako, Pentecost). There’s an old school roguish charm to him, but Hunam is also able to play the grief that marks Raleigh for a lot of the film.

Raleigh: “I was still connected to my brother when he died.”

That is an incredibly rich and unique conflict, to know what it feels like to die and live while also knowing that’s what your family felt in their last moments. Hunam is able to work with this well in a number of scenes and while at time his American accent can be a bit distracting his performance overall is damn good.

5) This film does a very good job of establishing minor and supporting characters so that even if they only have a few minutes of screen time you remember them. This includes Yancy, Choi, and all the other Jaeger pilots. Through combined visual design and unique character writing, they stand out.

6) The first Kaiju/Jaeger fight - while not the best in the film - still strongly establishes the film’s intense action. It is important for the audience to know the rules in these fights early on. To know that the Kaiju and Jaeger are close to equally matched; neither is swifter, neither is bigger, it’s a really intense skirmish between opponent of equal size and strength. Establishing that well early on is important and exactly what this film did.

7) Idris Elba as Marshall Pentecost

I think Elba gives the best performance in the entire film. Pentecost is such an enigmatic character, he’s not an open book, but instead of feeling underdeveloped (which is a risk with such characters) he’s interesting. You can tell there’s more to Pentecost than we’re being told because Elba works so well wight he part. He just radiates leadership and authority in a multifaceted performance. You get his hard edges, his no nonsense behavior, his occasional jackassery, a caring father figure, a loyal soldier, and a driven man all in one package that is Idris Elba. I fucking love Elba in this film.

8) Rinko Kikuchi as Mako.

Mako’s awesome. I love Mako. She’s…it’s hard to put into words. She’s an incredible strong character with deep rooted conflict and motivations which Kikuchi is able to carry with her always. This conflict is good because it strongly influences Mako’s choices in the film, which in and of themselves can breed more conflict. You can just tell that while Mako is good in her current position as Pentecost’s assistant(?) that she can do SO much more. You understand that through the way she interacts with Raleigh, the ease she handles the tasks given to her, you know she’s not reached her full potential yet even though she wants to. And you just freaking root for her to go further, to get what she wants, something which I think is equal parts Kikuchi’s performance and the writing for the character. It’s also worth noting her platonic relationship with Elba is very strong and helps develop both characters.

9) Burn Gorman and Charlie Day as both crazy strong in their roles also, breathing such life and fun into their parts and the film as large. The strong bickering Newt and Herman is incredibly fun to watch and while Day does get more time to shine as Newt that doesn’t mean Herman is any less interesting. They’re both such a fun team to watch.

10) Something director Guillermo Del Toro is able to do incredibly well across all his films - largely through production design and practical sets/effects - is that he creates a world which is fully alive. Just from looking at it you get an understanding of how it works, how it’s different from our world. It is striking, full of life, and totally unique.

11) Mako’s candidate trial.

Did I mention I love Mako? Because I do. And this scene just makes me love her more. The connection and kinship she is able to immediately establish with Raleigh is crazy good. It just FEELS right watching the pair of them on screen. Their relationship is in many ways the heart of this film and this scene gets you invested in them. You just know that they’re the right for each other.

12) Newt’s decision to drift with a Kaiju is a strong example of stakes. How far he’ll go to do what he think is the best thing to do because the alternative of doing nothing isn’t good enough. I dig it.

13) One thing I like is that Mako isn’t really sexualized or objectified in any way. I don’t even think we get a shot of her half naked or anything. The film shows off how sexy Raleigh’s body is more than it does Mako’s and I really freaking love that.

14) There are a few comparisons to make between this film and Independence Day. The fact that it’s humanity fighting against alien invaders (even though these aliens are from below the sea) is one thing, but then we learn this.

Newt: “These being, these colonists, they take over worlds…”

It’s very similar to how Bill Pullman notes the aliens in Independence Day are like locusts, moving from world to world and taking over natural resources. There are more coming up, and it’s not even a comparison of quality or saying one is a ripoff of the other, it’s more just I like the similarities because I like both films.

15) Mako’s backstory.

Through showing us Mako’s backstory, not just telling us, the film makes it all the stronger. It perfectly explains her motivations and stakes throughout the film in a way which is simple, elegant, and ready to remember. Also the way the film cuts between Mako’s memory, Raleigh in Mako’s memory, and the real world of Gypsy Danger is very strong. All in all, it’s just a strong example of backstory.

16) Ron Perlman as Hannibal Chou.

Okay, Ron Perlman is always a wonderful character actor. I have never seen a Ron Perlman performance which I have not liked. He just breathes this consistent charisma, energy, and fun into every performance he has ever given so Chou is no different. While he may be more devious and deceitful than say Hellboy, Perlman has no less fun with the part and just makes Hannibal Chou one of the surprise stand out characters in the film.

17) The first Jaeger fight with the Kaiju in Tokyo is just plain fun, a nice prologue to the upcoming Gypsy Danger fight but one that steps up the Kaiju VS Jaeger fun introduced in the film’s opening.

18) Gypsy Danger VS Kaiju.

The extended fight sequence is 100% fucking awesome! A perfect collaboration of, “oh that’s so cool!” and some, “oh that’s so stupid!” moments but in a way that is totally fun. It’s giant robot vs giant monster entertainment at its purest in a way which is just totally entertaining. Some highlights from the fight include:

Raleigh: “I think this guy’s dead, but let’s check for a pulse. (They shoot him with a plasma gun.) No pulse.”

THEY USE A FREAKING CARGO BOAT TO BEAT ON THE KAIJU LIKE IT’S A BASEBALL BAT!

THE KAIJU HAS WINGS! OH MY GOD THAT’S SO COOL!

And of course…

THEY’VE GOT A FREAKING SWORD!!!!!

More than anything else the best scene in the film (which this is) shows off all the imagination which can go into one of these fights and all of Gypsy Danger’s skills as a fighter.

19) Is this really necessary?

Newt [examining the dead Kaiju]: “It’s pregnant.”

This whole moment feels a little extra. Like, couldn’t the Kaiju brain just be intact after the fight? Although it does lead to Hannibal’s “death” and a great post credits scene.

20) Okay, I’m tearing up a little bit at the goodbye Pentecost has with Mako before he gets in a Jaeger. Because they both know this will kill him and I just…okay, I’m good.

21) The best speech since Independence Day.

22) Something I haven’t really talked about yet is drifting. Drifting with another person in the context of the film is such an intimate and strong connection. It is pure relationship, pure honesty, and I freaking love it.

23) The climactic fight with the category five fight is really a dual fight between the two Kaiju in a well paced, choreographed, and smoothly edited moment. You are never taken out of the moment during the fight due to shoddy craftsmanship, it is all just really smooth.

24) I think the final dive into the breach is really well done because there is a genuine question of if Raleigh will survive or not. The first time I saw this I thought for sure he would die and they wait until the last minute possible to get him out there, just upping the tension throughout. It’s really strong.

24.1) The final thing in this movie that reminds me of Independence Day is Raleigh sending his ship right into the enemy to explode feels a lot like this:

(GIF source unknown [if this is your GIF please let me know].)

25) I actually love that this movie doesn’t end with Raleigh and Mako kissing. You can head canon it as anyway you want. I see it as platonic, but you can also see it as they know each other better than anyone else so they don’t need to kiss to know how they feel about each other. I just find it very strong.

26) Remember how I mentioned a post credits scene in note #19?

Pacific Rim is just really incredibly fun. You can tell that Guillermo Del Toro is enjoying the world he helps to build, with sheer amazing giant robot vs giant monster action. The character drama and motivations are surprisingly poignant, the actors are incredibly strong, the writing is top notch, and it’s just...it’s so freaking good. It’s so freaking FUN! Go watch it. Now. Do it! Please! It’s that good.

[jasonitalic-blog]

[legacy content] 12 Weeks Of Smashness - 03 - Link

Welcome back to another post in the 12 Weeks Of Smashness!

I mean, if you’re reading these. Not gonna lie, the lack of feedback is starting to hurt a little.

But enough of pain! Except for inflicting it on other characters! And who do we have to accomplish that today?

LINK, he come to town! Come to save, the princess Zelda!

I’m going to level with you, I don’t have any more silly lyric references to make for any of the other characters.

But anyways, the Hero Of Time himself...well, mostly the Hero Of Time, at any rate. Link in 64 in particular is a bit all over the place, aesthetically. As far as we can tell, a lot of this comes down to simple timing; his design during the development of Ocarina of Time changed and got tweaked several times before release, and Super Smash Bros would have had its designs locked down before the final version. Throw in the toy-like aesthetic in 64, and the...not super great graphics, and there you are. It would take until Melee to get a Link who really looked like he did in his then-latest game. This whole thing with the design changes overlapping even affects the character’s moveset in Smash, but...we’ll come back to that.

Because before we look at any specific moves and context, I want to consider Link as a whole. Because, going in this order, Link is a very important character, packed with firsts. And we’ll get to a lot of them, but perhaps the most pervasive, and the one that would be relevant no matter which order we were doing this roster in, is thus:

Link is Smash’s first swordsman.

Swords! How you kill a man in a time before guns but after rocks! Anime swordsfolk are a bane upon certain Smash players, and even as a fan, I can see their points. By the time of Smash 4, the series will have, depending on how loosely you define it, somewhere between 8 and 15 sword-wielding fighters. That’s as many as some games have entire rosters!

Of course, a lot of the anime swordfolk, and their problem, is defined in how many of them share quite similar movesets, and Link certainly does not fit in that category. While he brings the surprising reach that most swordsfolk have, as well as the extra safety of a disjointed hitbox, his moveset is nothing like the Fire Emblem crew. No, instead, Link’s moveset, particularly his specials, are built around his items.

This helps make Link one of the more evocative characters, moveset-wise, in the original cast. It also introduces us to several things that build up the core Smash design toolset. Link’s bombs are an actual item that he spawns, with all the mechanics and traits that an item has, and his hookshot is the first instance we’ve seen so far of the grapple style grab; while both of these are relatively uncommon, neither are truly unique mechanics, showing up on other characters to build their own unique movesets.

Where Link gets a little more wobbly, is his boomerang.

Adult Link doesn’t use a boomerang. It’s solely a young Link thing in OoT, and it wouldn’t be until later games in both franchises that they were able to clear up this discrepancy. (Mostly by not even having the time travel gimmick, and so having to give cool grown-up Link all the tools) This is a problem that, again, comes from that overlapping design space. Splitting off the boomerang as a kid-only tool was, from what we know, a relatively late decision in OoT’s development, and it absolutely affected the decisions made in turning Link into a Smash character.

That said, solely as a Smash character, it’s a solid tool. Later games will shift it over to the side-B, making his new neutral an arrow, but that’s for later. But to look back at him again as a character, Link is...kind of funky. Despite his specials arguably being the most projectile and ranged focused in the entire game, his normals only give him some modest spacing options and are tuned more to the heavy-hitter style of a few strong strikes. He’s somewhat stuck in the middle, and ends up playing downright defensively in 64.

But Link’s real problem is how many changes stacked up, when the game came to the West. In Japan, Link is a low-tier but pretty functional. In the West, with a lot of his combo capacity and his recovery made worse(just barely better than DK’s), he’s often considered the second-worst character in the game, without even the options the big gorilla has. It’s honestly kind of odd that they thought him such a threat to the game’s balance that he had to be nerfed so heavily.

But the poor guy does have one more thing to offer, and that’s the stage Hyrule Castle. This might actually be my favorite stage of the original set, and it’s the first one on our list to show the breadth of stage design possibilities. Instead of going for a tight arena, Hyrule Castle is wide and sprawling, with a vertical choice near the center with a series of platforms, and a smaller option to one side with the little gazebo. Like many stages, it comes with a hazard, in this case being a series of small tornadoes that can catch you up, deal you some damage, and then kick you out. But alas, as fun as the stage can be, these hazards and the high damage factors of the gazebo (because it’s an enclosed space, you can rack up a lot of damage before your opponent bounces out) mean it’s been banned from competitive play for the last few years.

A shame, really. But such is life. We’ll just have to see if our next fighter fares better!