henrymidfields

Pokemon Sun: After seeing how certain battles (and these are wild battles) can drag out in this game, and especially after playing Persona 4 Golden (and 3 Portable) and witnessing how quick and easy the battles are, I just don't have the patience for level grinding in Pokemon anymore. I wonder if I should just do all of my grinding in my Pokemon Y, and transfer those Pokemon over to Sun...

I do wonder about the politics behind the Lycian army and others, considering Lilina would be one of the political leaders of the alliance after Hector dies. I wouldn't mind seeing an Echoes version where Lilina takes the helm on certain chapters (or alternately, if Roy dies during the main story as an DLC)...

Finally finished my first run of Persona 3 Portable! I might do a second run, though - hopefully, it'll be less grinding than my first run.

Minako from Persona 3!

@Anacybele: Nice one. I haven't been to Pittsburgh, only to Philly to attend a friend's wedding. Funnily enough, there are a number of "Silver Citi"es in the US, though ironically none in Pennsylvania. I've also created surnames and what not for the key characters in Pokemon. Here are a collection of the gym leaders from Gen 1. Keep in mind that I consider the Japanese names for Gen 1-4 to be canon, with some exceptions made. Also keep in mind that Shoyo is essentially an alternate timeline for Japan too, so many of the history events will develop differently from their real-life counterparts. Takeshi (Gen 1) and Tsutsuji (Gen 3) Iwasaki 岩崎剛・つつじ (Brock and Roxanne Slaton) Cousins hailing from Nivi [Pewter] and Kanazumi [Rustboro] Cities, whose common ancestor is Yataro Iwasaki, the founder of the Mitsubishi conglomerate who (like in RL!Japan) had a major hand in the rapid modernisation and industrialisation of modern Shoyo. Takeshi's immediate family has been estranged from the rest, however, due to his father Munou's slack attitude at study, and his mother Mizuho also being of commoner status, considered unacceptable in the Iwasaki family's long tradition. Kasumi Yawa 矢輪 霞 (Misty Waterflower) Kasumi's [Misty] family and ancestors are ethnically Kievanian [Russian], who fled the country during the Kievanian Revolution during World War 1 - explaining her European eyes and hair. They first settled down in Sinnoh as refugees, and had lived in Shoyo ever since. Their former Kievanian name was Yavanov, which was changed to Yawa (矢輪) during World War 2, when the Misty's grandparents were pressured to adopt Japanese surnames amidst the heightened xenophobia. Lt Matthias Surge マシアス（マチス）サージ Originally from Virbank, Unova, United States of Columbia [America], and stationed in US Navy Base in Kuchiba [Vermillion] City. The Shoyoese locals call him Machisu-taisa, with Machisu being a corruption of Matthias. Also, I've adopted both the English and Japanese names for Lt Surge. Erika Tokugawa 徳川 絵里香 One of the youngest descendants of Tokugawa Ienari, the last shogun of Yamabuki-era Shoyo [Edo-era Japan], until the new Imperial government took power from the 1820s. The pretenders after the fall of the shogunate made their names in the arts and philosophy, and Erica, born under a particularly traditional branch, happened to take up traditional flower arrangements. Kyo, Aya, and Anzu (Janine; Gen 2) Koga 古河 享 ・綾・杏 I forgot what their backstory supposed to be. Natsume, Itsuki (Gen 2), and Yu (crossover from Persona) Narigami 成神 奈津女・斎・勇 (Sabrina, Will, and Julian Gustavson) As some of you can probably see, this is a homage to the Persona series, which has a lot to do with psychology (and therefore has the Psychic connection). Natsume, Itsuki, and Yu are all cousins from different families. Itsuki filled in for Natsume as the interim Gym Leader when Natsume was in Unova for her movies. when Other members of the family includes Yu's parents: Sayuri 佐勇理, who was a senior bureaucrat and is now the minister of the National Police Agency in Yamabuki City, and Yuji 勇慈, who is the head of the Faculty of Psychology in Yamabuki University [RL! Tokyo University]. *Gustavson was from Carl Gustav Jung, whose theory on persona and shadows form the basis of the Persona series's stories. Katsura Atayama 熱山 桂 (Blaine Burgandy) The surname Atayama was formed with Atami (熱海, or hot sea) with yama, or mountain. Burgandy is from Ron Burgandy in Anchorman, who I believe has a similar level of hot-headed emotion to Blaine. Sakaki and Hideko Sumiyoshi 住吉 榊・英子 (Giovanni and Helena Corleone) Sakaki is the current head of the far-right yakuza and terror group Sho-en Kai 昇炎会, which has been codenamed as Team Rocket by the National Police Agency. The group consists of Yakuzas and many descendants of the members in the former Imperial government and military, who were ousted when the people rose up against them during World War 2, formed the Shoyoese Republic (headquartered in Kogane/Goldenrod), sided with the Allies, and also prepared their government to be the post-WW2 democracy. (Though, not without a couple of compromises - for example, the Imperial House was to continue to be the figurehead, although Hirohito abdicated, and Akihito ascended to the throne much earlier than real life.) Madame Boss Hideko was the daughter of Hideki Tojo, who became destitute after facing persecution for her father's role in the fascist government.

In focusing something less discussed, has anyone here attempted to write up a backstory history for the Pokemon regions? I was quite intrigued to first see Pokemon as an alternate version of real-life Earth when the Pokemon craze came out in the 90s, with real-life countries explicitly named (at least in the Japanese version), some real-life events referred to, such as the Columbia Shuttle. Up then, the only other RPG that I was able to think of that was also explicitly based in our world we live in was Shin Megami Tensei. (Yokai Watch came 2 decades later, Persona was an extension of SMT back then rather than its own stuff in its own right like it is now, and Earthbound is a bit borderline with its geography.) It was for this reason I was quite displeased with Gen 3, where Hoenn became the region after Gen 1-2, instead of either an actual reinterpretation of Kyushu, or going overseas at this point to Guam-Saipan, Hawaii, or coastal Queensland around the Brisbane/Gold Coast area. It was only until Gen 6, where the Kalosian region actually looked like northern France, and the two regions after that followed a closer imitation of the culture and geography of the real-life origins like Kalos attempted. It was through this, and also an attempt to learn my country's geography and history that I have been working on my History of Shoyo project below. This was an attempt mainly to fill in the other unexplored regions of Japan, reinterpret Gen 1-2 as actual places people would possibly live in (while reconstructing the premise of Pokemon), and re-align Gen 3/4's regions to have a more consistent backstory design closer to the alternate!real-life!Earth approach from Gen 1-2 and Gen 6 onwards. So let's discuss our backstories and headcanons.

I don't really have many, as I usually ditch them without finishing or ignore them in the first place. Spirit Tracks would be the closest of all. Zelda gameplay that disallows the majority of buttons to control Link was just awkward compared to OoT and Majora 3DS, and the story was just very meh. I'm sure the Link/Zelda shipping some people pointed out as a highlight would be far better portrayed in Skyward Sword too.

The only Mario game that got me any reaction other than contempt for Shit-Geru was Galaxy 1. Honestly, it was a real nice "fuck you" to him when it turned out that some creation staff under him actually sneaked in Rosalina's backstory. That old dinosaur should stick himself into a glass box in a museum. Mario Kart is also I no longer play. The AI cheating is just too cheap now, and they even had the galls to create retarded kiddy kindergarten version of F-Zero stages that does not even resemble the lightning speed of the latter game. I was looking forward to Pokemon RSE, only to be disappointed with RSE's worldbuilding that departed from the alternate universe versions of real-life Earth RBY and GSC did. They should have gone overseas to Alola, Guam/Saipain, Southern California, or coastal Queensland from that point onwards instead of making an inaccurate version of Kyushu which the real-life version is nowhere near as tropical. Dishonourable mention to ORAS, where they did the same thing yet again after how XY went back closer to a well-imitated version of northern France, when they could have made the region to actually be connected to Johto like below, and explicitly confirm it as an alternate RL!Japan:

Story Main Plot See here for my overview. As the story in the above link shows, the whole story is a big "fuck you" against the netouyo-s in Japan. (They are basically the ultraconservative netizens who ironically either is ignorant of, or even outright ignores how, say, former Emperor Akihito is happy to be the figurehead as opposed to an absolute monarch of Prewar Japan, amongst other things.) Final boss The link above describes as such, but the final boss is entirely human, without any supernatural powers seen in other ultimate bosses. What is made up of difficulty, is the sheer number of supporters they have, and how well-equipped and well-skilled they are, as well as some markedly improved AI rivalling/exceeding that of Fates Conquest. An additional difficulty is that the political outcome (or the story's ending) changes depending on how many of the supporters the protagonist managed to convince to turn away form their politically toxic goal in the final 2-3 chapters. Slaughter them all, and the anti-protagonist movement will fester, resulting in the protagonist being assasinated, and another civil war ensuing. Convince many, and the political movement against the protagonist will be discredited, the protagonist's rule sees stability and maybe even a future golden age. Gameplay Battle Most of the battle aspects will be based on Fates Conquest, in which sheer stat numbers alone cannot rule the chapter. Enemy placements, improved AI, and experience payout scaling, and the increase in their magnitude on upper difficulties means that low-manning in general is not an option, and your team need to be coordinated properly. (One-man army-ing with what would otherwise be a gamebreaker in other FE entries, is out of the possibility here.) This is not a problem in lower difficulties, where enemies have AIs as dumb as past entries. Customisable leadership stars will be incorporated into the game, which involved several things. The protagonist's intelligence, (which can be trained/raised), her (she is the princess-heir and future Queen) charisma (which can also be trained/raised), her advisors or lack thereof, how far one progresses in the game, all contributes to her leadership stars, which can be distributed to affect various stats for various classes. Her leadership level also can enable her to convince other enemy units to join her side instead of having to field other certain units, and some units can only be recruited through being convinced at her leadership. Again, this is more crucial for higher difficulties, where the enemies also have leadership stars, and required leadership stars for recruitment are higher. This is basically reconstructing Binding Blade's Roy in gameplay terms. Enemy units will all have improved weapons on higher difficulties, and they will equip effective weapons more often. Thus, your cavalry and wyvern knights that were effective steamrollers in other FE entries will not be as viable, forcing you to diversify. To make the Luck stat more useful: All swordmasters and berserkers will have the critical bonus raised again. Definitely +20%, or maybe even back up to +30% from Binding Blade. Characters with higher luck has better chance of recovering random dropped items. Luck stat contributes more to avoid and dodge, also from Binding Blade. Some chapters start with an ambush, where characters with lower Luck stats are forced to start with half, or even a quarter of their maximum HP. The required luck stat for avoiding said adverse outcomes is raised further on higher difficulty modes. The effects of an ambush start can be mitigated in general by the protagonist's intelligence, however - as the protagonist can predict at least the possibility and prepare accordingly. Other chapters can start with the protagonists initiating the ambush. Here, characters with higher luck starts with boosted avoid, accuracy, and critical. To offset increased frustration, however, checkpoints within chapters will be introduced, as well as Mila's turnwheel on lower difficulties.

I'd like to see a endgame chapter that is just purely human, without any supernatural/god villains whatsoever. And the difficulty comes with the numbers and the skills of the enemy units. It's basically Binding Blade in general except without Idoun and Jahn's chapter, and Chapter 22 in particular except with tougher enemies and Fates Conquest battle/stat systems and enemy placements, where you really need to work as a team to finish the chapter. And the most difficult part is to convince the enemy that their cause is lost - which involves fielding various units - including those you haven't used in the game. Otherwise you'll miss out on the best ending out of the multiple ones. No, problem, just kill them all, you say? Sorry, but that is a one-way ticket to the worst ending, where the former invaded country ends up resenting your nation, and other nations see you as just as bad as the villain nation, and a "revenge" war happens further down. This is the main reason why I like Zephyr as a FE villain - he relied less of the supermagic stuff like other FE did, and more on his political leadership and, implicitly, his country's economic-military complex to realise his continent-wide invasion. (He did use war dragons, but other FE villainous groups used dragons too.)

An FE version of Persona 5's morals?

Not sure about Jugdral or Tellius, but outside of them, Zephyr. He is probably one of the few major villains that relied less on superpowers (Okay he's got dragons, but other armies from the series also had them too.), and more on his political leadership (and, implicitly, his management of the Bernese economic-military complex) to mobilize the entire Bernese army, find supporters elsewhere to try sabotaging Roy's campaign, and ravage the whole continent.

I would make a succession crisis based on the debate of the Imperial Family in Japan in the present day, as well as elements from Elizabethan Britain and Austria during Maria Teresa's days. The royal family has a crisis - while the family itself has a young princess (the protagonist), and an only child, currently the only possible heir to the monarch. However the extended relatives and their supporters are not too happy about that, and points out any of the male descendants from the other branches would rule the kingdom just fine. Furthermore, the neighboring kingdoms, who fought against the protagonists' homeland previously, were looking for any excuse to sack the latter, having fought in a bitter war that nearly led to a societal breakdown. And just if you think they were the agressors, it's actually the protagonist's grandfather that started the whole mess - so it's not as simple as a typical FE game either. And the effects are still seen in the present - many people from those countries live impoverished, and their governments have only recently started keeping law and order in control. The protagonist's parents, ashamed at their own parent's past, are doing their best to renew the royal family and break away from the warmongering past, but it's not so easy when the old aristocrats, wealthy merchants, and anyone else who supported the grandfather are bitter about being ushered into a new era. The whole situation could come to a boiling point where some of the opposing vassals/local lords would plot an assasination against the protagonist's family. The protagonist is safe, but her parents were not as lucky. And with it, a civil war ensues - a struggle between the old values and the new, a struggle for the protagonist's rightful place as ruler, and a struggle for her voice to be heard in a world where kings and emperors ruled in the past. The final bosses would be a family from one of the branches and their supporters, and different endings will play out depending on how many of the supporters you managed to convince to switch sides/surrender. The more people surrendering, the better the Protagonist's/Princess's/future Queen's political outcome. The least favorable case would be if the protagonist's army killed most of the enemy units throughout the final chapters, in which the protagonist who is now the new Queen gets assassinated several years later in a coup d'etat. The most favourable case is when the protagonist's army convinced at least 60% of the people to lay down their arms and even convinced some of the final antagonists's cousins to reconcile, in which the Queen would realise a new Golden Age during her reign, and would lead to another of her female descendant take the crown. Much of the supernatural would be downplayed, with dragons only being used for warfare like Pokemon, and the final bosses are all normal humans.

Gamers may love the Xenoblade series; Armagon lives in them.

Eh, I think they have their place. But I don't think they shouldn't be there for the sake of being there, and they shouldn't be the be-all and end-all type of characters. If for example, Camilla from Fates was implied in the main game, and only outright shown her assets in a summer-related DLC, then I think the majority of us wouldn't be in a huge uproar. The majority of fanservice in TMSFE is a better example, as that is more in line with the idol image that the TMSFE recreates in the game. Rise in Persona 4 (not sure about Ann Takamaki, as I haven't played Persona 5), and the entirety of Kanamin Kitchin in the Dancing All Night sequel are fanservice done right, in my opinion. Firstly, the idol archetype is deconstructed in both cases, and is shown to be not necessarily a good thing in-universe (and in RL!Japan). In Rise's case, her role as the fanservicey idol in Persona 4 contributes to a bigger narrative about how there is more to people than how the media and rumors portrays them as. In the Kanamin Kitchen's case, Atlus went even further, and narrates how fanservice can negatively affect the idols themselves. And in both cases, we also have other playables, which are, Chie, Yukiko, and Naoto, who are quite attractive without being outright fanservicey like Rise is, or the boys who also show their attractive physiques - Yu, Kanji (bulging muscles!) and Teddie in my opinion. And while there are moments of outright fanservice events and contents, they are relatively few and far between, and are just shown as breather episodes or mostly hidden under DLCs.