Splodge

/in. As a new player, will this game be "beginner" friendly?

I'd like to see a game with two female lords, since It's never been done before. Though, like people have said before, I would hope that they didn't capitalise on that fact. It still wouldn't put me off though. It somewhat annoys me that people are saying "only if they're written well", as if to say that poorly written male lords are excusable? It also makes it seem like you are opposed to the idea of a female lord. I think simply playing as these two female main characters would be really interesting, as it's never been done in Fire Emblem before. I think though that every FE game from now on will feature an avatar MC, so I even think the chances of the main character being a male is unlikely.

I think that an FE Dynasty Warriors game would work really well, just like others have said, considering all the games are set during wartime. I think using Hyrule Warriors as a template would work really well for the game, and considering they've already worked with Nintendo before, it could turn our magnificently. A mode similar to HW's adventure mode would fit right into an FE spin-off, and perhaps even include weather conditions. (Even if most FE players hate them) As for characters, having it lord only would make sense, although it would very limiting. Ask Smash, it would be full of swords. Whilst this isn't necessarily a bad thing from a DW perspective, I'm sure it would piss off a lot of fans. Robin, Micaiah, Celica and probably Kamui are the only lords to use magic, and there's a fat fucking chance that Celica will appear, and a slim chance for Micaiah to appear, really only leaving the avatars, and they probably wouldn't even end up being magic characters anyway. Same goes for Axes, Lances and Bows, only Hector can use axes pre-premote, only Sigurd and Ephraim can use Lances pre-premote, and only Lynn can use Bows, and even then that's as a Great Lord. Although there is a higher chance of Hector, Lynn and Ephraim to appear than Celica and Micaiah, I still think the chances would be slim compared to Eliwood. I'm sure that fighting bosses would be incredibly fun as well. Having only sent units to attack them before, having the chance to beat them up first hand would be a fan's dream. The chances of it happening though, as much as I hate to be that guy, are pretty much zero. Even though the series is more popular than it's ever been, it's still not nearly popular enough to warrant a spin-off that huge, despite how fun it would be.

I didn't like FE4 the first time I played it. Don't worry, I like it now.

While I enjoy games all the way back to the Atari 2600, I'd say the first generation of games I would unanimously enjoy would be the 16-bit era (4th generation). Whilst I enjoy the older 2nd generation classics, it's only the classics I enjoy, because they're classics. For the majority of the games I find it hard to squeeze any enjoyment out of them. I would have gone for the 8-bit era (3rd generation), but the vast majority of NES games, I find anyway, are complete bullshit in terms of design, and it's only the 16-bit era where I can fully enjoy most games of that generation. Don't get me wrong though, I still think the NES is a fantastic system.

Even if you don't make any mistakes, Blood Falcon and Black Shadow still make your life an absolute nightmare. Funnily enough though, on the harder difficulties, since they're more aggressive, they also become more likely to end up being killed by other racers.

I personally think that it's a good thing. It leaves a lot of room for replayability, and more options for unique runs. I can only see it as a major problem if you're the kind of player that likes to at least use all the units for a few maps. I also really like the idea of multiple versions of a unit, because of it even the same unit could be different in another run (even if some are clearly better than others), making it feel more unique and personal. Though I will admit that getting, often multiple, new characters for the vast majority of chapters was kind of annoying. It was hard to feel like the game was coming to a close when you're getting new units all the time, but I still think that the good outweighs the bad.

I'm not entirely sure if it's the hardest moment I've ever played in a video game, but the World Balance boss from Persona 3 was straight from hell. All the -dyne spells, medigoloan AND mahamaon/mamudoon? No thank you.

For me, there's quite a few, but the one that completely drains my fun more than anything is unskippable cutscenes and tutorials. I've never played games for the story (except for VNs obviously), but when there's a good story, I'll enjoy it, though I should still have the option to skip it if I don't give a monkey's. The same thing applies for tutorials, especially since so many of them can go on for far too long. I'd rather be stumbling around in the dark for twice the time and then discover that gameplay element. To give an example, Mega Man 7 would definitely be my favourite entry in the series, if it wasn't for the long, unskippable tutorials and cutscenes. The beginning cutscene takes around a minute and a half, opposed to the other games in the series where the literal second you push start you are playing. It really grates on me. I think that the game forcing the player to do certain things, or go to certain areas is equally unforgivable. Nobody enjoys that, people just want to continue playing the game. This is one of the only problems I have with Wind Waker, for the first two temples of the game, you can't go anywhere else but where you're supposed to go. You'll see an island in the distance and want to got there, only for the game to say "no". Simplification of game mechanics also extremely annoys me. FF 15 seems to just be a one button game, and that really irks me. I want variance and new experiences, not simple button mashing. This is especially annoying when elements are removed from later installments of a series. Like in Smash 4, reaching 100% doesn't make your ledge recoveries slow down. Why? Because it makes the game harder? Surely that's a good thing, challenging the player. For me, that's the equivalent of removing aspects of what made a game fun.

I would find it hard to think of many, many games that would be "must plays" as for the most part it's rather subjective, but the games I would go for would be the ones that show a real knack for game design, mostly NES games. Your Megaman, Castlevania etc., as they really do just serve as the ultimate testament of great game design. The only other game I would give a "must play" status would definitely be Majora's Mask. I think that game has the best co-existence of setting, plot and mechanics of any other game. The game I most frequently recommend to someone however, is 999: 9 Hours 9 Persons 9 Doors, because that game blew my fucking mind. There is a revelation at the end of the game that quite literally makes you rethink the entire game. Though I think games the title is most appropriate for is either Pac-Man or Pong.

It seems like whenever I talk to anybody about rhythm games, nobody every seems to like them. In fact, I only personally know one person who enjoys them, and he really enjoys them. I never really enjoyed rhythm games too terribly, but even still, I never understood the almost unanimous dislike for them, with the possible exception of DDR. They're not the most engaging or imaginative game genre ever created, granted, but they're fun enough if you let yourself enjoy them in small doses.

You might want to check out IS' Nintendo Wars. Only the Advance wars line has been released in english, but there's patches for the rest of them. I'd also recommend Code name S.T.E.A.M. if you don't mind 3rd person shooter elements. I'd also highly recommend Front Mission. It's made by the good guys over at Square and really fun. If you like that you should also try Super Robot Wars. Only the Original Generation games for the GBA have gotten english releases, but there's plenty of fan translations out there. Just watch out, the one for the DS isn't an SRPG. Phantom Brave is a personal favourite of mine. It's made by Nippon Ichi, who also make Disgaea (which I'd also recommend), so it's very reminiscent of that, but is different enough to stand on it's own. All of NI SRPGs are great, but Phantom Brave is just my favourite. Vandal Hearts is also extremely fun, and probably the most similar game to FE I've mentioned. Like really, the two series are almost indistinguishable. FF Tactics is really, really deep, and quite a bit different from FE. Needless to say, if you're aware it's different it shouldn't be too hard to start playing. The tactics advance games are good in their own right, but they don't even compare to the PS1 game. Shin Megami Tensei: Devil Survivor is another great one. It plays pretty much how you'd imagine SMT would on a grid, but that doesn't mean if you haven't played those games it's going to be confusing. Just be wary of huge difficulty spikes, even from an FE perspective they're huge.

I can't remember exactly which but it was either A Link to the Past or (nobody's heard of this) Galactic Patrol. Galactic Patrol's a mish-mash of 3D, vertical and horizontal shmups. I saw my dad playing it on his computer and I immediately wanted to try, needless to say I was horrible, but one of favourite genres to this day is shmups, so it clearly left and impression. It was a similar story with ALttP. I even remember which temple I started playing from, which was Misery Mire. I don't even think I had the blue mail at that point, and that just makes me feel incredibly sad for child me playing the game.

I would have gone for my original DS, but that broke a few years ago, so I'd go with my Gamecube. I don't have a "favourite" console, but if I did it would probably be the Gamecube. Nintendo was different with the Gamcube, no main series Mario launch title, "cartoony" zelda, co-op mario kart etc. That's basically why I love it so much, it's different. It's also the birth place of Pikmin and Baten Kaitos, both of which I adore.

I remember Takahashi saying something about this, and it was basically that this game has no direct relation with Xenoblade, other than the name, and obvious gameplay influences. That works all the better for me too, as I'd prefer a completely new universe than the Xenoblade one. Yes, the player character is fully customizable, from sex, voice, and iirc even their height. This is kinda disappointing due to the fact that previous "X" games have had really good fleshed out protagonists, and generally avatar protagonists don't get that same kind of development. Though this all plays into their idea to rival Western RPGs, so do what they must.

There are very little fighting games (If games at all) that I play for any semblance of a plot, but arcsys fighters actually tend to have pretty solid plotlines. Whilst I've never played BlazBlue, Guilty Gear's plot is thoroughly enjoyable, as well as Persona 4 arena, though that tends to stem from the source material. There's other game's like that as well, particularity the previously mentioned Melty Blood, that has a strong plot due to it's source material. Though I wouldn't say I would specifically play any of these games because of the plot. Though it seems unfair to just flatly say "no", because some have genuinely enjoyable plots and characters. So I'm just going to go with "depends on the game".

Ubers is predictable and boring online, but with friends, I find anyway, is extremely fun. OU is even more boring than Ubers, and not that exciting. Nobody I play it with seems to ever have any fun doing so, which puts me off even more. UU is my most played tier, and the one I'm most familiar with. It's really fun, and not very predictable, which is obviously a good thing. RU is a really good tier. It sometimes annoys me because it's slow, but you can get real creative. Kudos for the tier with the most tense match I've played. NU is my favourite tier, as I feel there's more team options in this tier than in any other. I also just really like using bad pokemon. PU is just extreme NU, but with all the pokemon I DON'T like, so whilst fun, I cringe a bit whenever I play it. FU is the one tier I haven't played, so I have no opinion on it. Mixed really depends on what the spread is, but more often that not, I find it works pretty well Doubles is a whole load of fun, especially with friends, and provide nice short matches. Triples is something I never really got into, and didn't really enjoy the matches I played. Rotation is really different if you can find anyone to play with. Though that rarely happens, which is a real shame, as I think it has a lot of potential. Little Cup is kind of boring for me. I like the idea, but it never struck home for me. Monotype is right in the middle of my preferences, I don't like it, but I don't dislike it. STABmon is okay I guess. I've never really made a great team, but the matches I've hard were fun. Hackmon is either extremely fun or extremely aggravating. Most of the time I just get annoyed, so no. Randoms is my second favourite tier, as I really hate team building, and you also get some of the funniest movesets you'll ever see. Not to mention some awesome match turning moments.

I really like this idea, although I have no idea how it could work. It would be difficult to work into the thief archetype as being really weak besides their speed stats. Perhaps, like knives, these units could have their own axe-like weapon? Fitting enough, dagger-axes exist. Though don't get your hopes up, they aren't as cool as they sound. If nor for third tier promotion, I doubt that all three of these classes would exist in one game. It would lead to too many axe users, probably. If not that, they would be any enemy only class, like the soldier class from many of the installments. The main problem I see is that all three of the classes fill a similar role, and so if all three of these classes were to exist, they would all need to have stat adjustments. Considering the fact axe users are already pretty similar to one another, I think it would lead to confusion. If it could work though, I see no problem with it. More classes=more fun.

Xenoblade, Xenoblade, Xenoblade. It's proabably my favourite soundtrack of all time, and for good reason Persona 3 is another fantastic one, albeit very strange. You'll soon hear why. Don't listen though if engrish annoys you. Hydorah, if you like short chiptunes

The list should have included the optional 4th and 5th skill trees and monado arts as a "tip", because IIRC the game doesn't give you any hints about them. For those that don't know, basically, there are specific quests that grant characters additional skill tress or monado art books for completion. There are two skills to get from these books, and one of them is one of the better monado arts, Armour, so they should definitely be picked up. The quest that give out of these 5th skills trees are generally unlocked when an area's affinity reaches level 4, and having that charater as the leader is necessary to get the quest. The 5th trees are unlocked after the mechonis core event, and are really only doable with extreme grinding/NG+, as the enemies tend to about in the late 90s range. I'm not going to list the locations because it would just take too much room, and because it's all on the wiki.

Considering it started back in December I thought it would start relatively soon. I guess not though, lol.

Super Punch Out!! and Persona 3 FES. Now I am imaging Bear Hugger and Bald Bull summoning their personas, and that Akikihiko is the new final boss of Punch-Out. I really want both of them to happen.

/in. Though I won't be able to play until the 22nd, so keep that in mind. Just wanted to post to confirm my interest.