Sasori

Yeah Riev. Humans will never conquer darkness. So why go up against 4 dark mages? Bringing 4 red mages to blue mage and fridge land was not my best idea, but I managed to beat it anyway. @Landmaster Blue fridges don't mean much to 3 out of 4 of your Elise's. Far save did't save them. Also cool to see the christmas weapon on Selise. I was considering pulling for Lugh, but my pulls weren't blessed that Banner. @Diovani Bressan @BoaFerox @SatsumaFSoysoy

(Double post. Ignore this one)

Its my first unpopular opinion of the year I find myself prefering the original version of Black Knight's loss over the one that the western version got. The whole 'my spirit arrived, but my body did't' or something does sound incredibly stupid, but warp power being to blame did't come out of nowhere. POR already mentioned that warp powder is a dangerous tool and RD Lekain mentions that the warp staff takes care of all those nasty side effects like feeling drained. So BK not being at the top of his game thanks to warp powder is perfectly acceptable for me. I suppose the new reason does fit his character...but I never cared much for that aspect of his character. I felt it robbed BK of his mystique and just made him come across as some really vain killer. I did't care much for the 'warrior spirit' part of him, especially not when his most defining kill was purely to stroke his own ego.

@Landmaster: NinCorin did put in some impressive kills, but the true stars where still the normal Elise's. I did't expect to see Selise to one shot Byleth like that. And OG gravitying people in their place and killing everything is as powerfull as ever. @Diovani Bressan: Bullying Chad is always a bad idea. It was accidently very (un)fitting to bring gatekeeper along, but I thought it was funny as well. @MagicCanonBalls: Thats probably the first Arthur i've seen in...anything Feh related. But not only did he tank Byleth, but also the entire magic half of the map. Nice clear.

Not the most exiting of banners. But beating up Shinon with a bunch of sub humans is always a good idea. I think this is the first time i've brought Kaden and Kurth along. @Diovani Bressan: Thats certainly a boon/bane combo on your Marienne. Groom Marth wasn't able to galeforce, but he did a pretty nice job with Gatrie. I can only assume Og Marth is much too strong for a slaying edge and thats why he's waving a killer edge around? @Landmaster @BoaFerox @SatsumaFSoysoy

I never cared too much for new year as a theme. So I actually don't mind that I care about no one other then the giant twins. It has no weapons to fodder of either. So me and my orbs are perfectly safe. I would say Kyza was a surprise, but I actually suspected he'd be in too. The whole banner wasn't a surprise which made things a bit too unexiting for my liking. I will say Reginn's art looks really nice though.

Well that was a pain. A teleporting teacher with a one shot kill move makes for a very tricky map. So it was Gatekeeper who kept the Araphen Orphans safe from Fembeth's warping wrath. It got a bit tricky after Byleth was out, but I eventually figured out how to make it work. Infantry hexblade worked well in ensuring that Chad could both damage and tank wave one. Lugh did some nice damage and Raigh came in handy for the anti cav/res tanking job. @Diovani Bressan Nice clear with a nice seteth I haven't pulled one in months🤬 . Leavatain is doing pretty nicely as well. She's almost too strong for galeforce with her nearly one shotting her foe. @SatsumaFSoysoy: Oh Xenoblade music. Nice. Having Belica just carve through Byleth is certainly one way to deal with her...and the rest of the map fell just as easily to her. Nice to see the dancer getting the kill too. @Xenomata Neat clear with a interesting team. I haven't seen a lot of Nina time, but she hit like a truck. Walhart's new refine does look crazy with him hitting half the map with his prf. +10 Alfonse is also cool to see. @Landmaster @BoaFerox @Unknown Gamer11

I have some complaints about the Tellius series that I don't see mentioned all that often. First of all is the music. The Tellius series has some great tracks like Elincia's theme, Power hungry fool and most of the custscene music actually. But I find myself not liking the battle music at all in those games. Especially Clash with its loud...trumpets? I also found the portraits to have made a big downgrade between POR and RD. The new characters are fine, but characters like Titania, Astrid or Boyd just don't look all that good to me. Its either the hair, the eyes or the much darker colour pallette that doesn't look good to me. As for Fates. I do think that it does a lot of pandering and that it hurtx the story. I don't think that is my biggest problem with Fates story though. My biggest problem is just how unintersted the game feels about its own world. The world not having a name is a bit of a meme, but I think it goes a bit further then that. The game's structure feels a bit episodic in nature and many of the more wordly characters being demoted to 'corrinsexual' just mean that many places such as Chev, Nestra and Izana's place feel kind of empty and irrelevent. Now that would be a very minor gripe normally. Every Fire emblem game has unimportant places. It would be fine if Hoshido and Nohr could pick up the slack and be compelling places themselves, but they don't really manange to do so for me. I do blame Garon too for being so evil that it kind of drains everything interesting about the conflict. That is not to say Fates is devoid of good idea's, supports or merrit. I just found it had a great idea, but that it did't live up to its potential.

I most remember Awakening for their counter reinforcement. Few things in FE felt more unfair then a unit dying just because you could't foresee a enemy with such a annoying skill on it.

Yup Manuela is a armour unit and Ignatz will likely be one too. I'm A bit annoyed Mirabelis gets to break tradition while the units I do like don't. I know she's a dancer and all that, but still. I'm not a fan of still no inheritable daggers either. So all in all i'm a bit frosty towards this banner. Remembering that Christmas is a dumping ground for armour units makes me even more pleased that Roy got to skip this one.

Hmm I was looking forward to But then I realised that both will probably end up as armour units. So my interest started to fade again....at least their weapons look nice.

I've been playing a bit of Ninja storm 4 now that the entire set is on sale and boy does that story mode have a looot of Tobi and Madara in it. I stopped paying attention around that time in the manga/anime so it was a perfect pick up point for me. Although it did't stop the story from feeling kinda samy with the same antagonists. And with the heroes the same even some of the boss battles blend into each other with all those Susano's and giant explosions. I found that the third game struck a much better balance between them. But anyway rewatching some stuff did make me warm up a little towards 'Tobi'. I won't say that I find his cause that symphethic and I certainly did't find him 'the coolest'. But his story otherwise is told pretty well and I found his redemption to be genuinely well done. He comes across as sorry and he's being genuinely helpfull. Unlike mister splendid soul from Xenoblade chronicles 2.

@BoaFerox: I was briefly confused why Stana had a 'brave tome', but of course thats Bridal Catria being completely bonkers. But some very good numbers. Mostly just surprised that lance flier survived his first encounter @Diovani Bressan Oh great job not cheating using dual skills. Leavapain was great in taking down these two heroes with her absurd damage. And Asbel did. I did that build on a whimp, but I like the results @Landmaster Ninjorin packs a real big punch. Not even bulky reds where a problem. Also cool to see Dagger Elise with a desperation weapon. It made short work of Etri. My Og Leif does have some premium skills on him....not that he could make that much use of it here. @SatsumaFSoysoy The Araphen boys got a break this month. I had some new units I wanted to play with...though they probably would't have done well in this map either way. But i'm not the only one with a new team. Cool to see a (blind) leagyarn. Fjorm also held up really well. She might not double, but she can sure tank mages/archers

Basilio is the four star demote....really? This banner includes 3(!) different sword units with prfs. Maybe they should get the fun seasonal demote weapon and axes that already get every single inheritable weapon ever should get a break. That aside the Banner is good. I wanted Flavia and Bassilio in and Miriel is also cool. I would have switched Priam around for Gregor/Ricken/Laurent, but thats just me.

@Some Jerk Thats one nifty Larum. I never see watersweep, but it and courtly fan made short work of Etri. Also cool to see a swordy take down Thor. My Leif was struggling to do do any damage to her. The plan was to showcase my Altena on this map, but this wasn't really the map for it. Two super strong greens, mages, archers and flyers everywhere. That red fridge, Eitri with her damage reduction/followup negation/autodoubles and Thor and her deflect magic where a thorn in my plans too But if the map uses cheesy tactics, then so can I. Duo Leif got to use all of his disgusting tricks to turn the tables. It was a nice map for Asbel too @Landmaster @Diovani Bressan @BoaFerox @Unknown Gamer11

I'd like to say that Konohamaru being captured is all just part of a test. Sarada is a chuunin now and this is just so Konohamaru can see her leadership skills. Thats what I like to say, but Konohamaru played jobber so many times that this might be just him being captured. Kakashi was also often used to hype up his opponents, but he rarely came across as a jobber.

I did hear a lot of good things about it. I'll probably end up checking it out when I rewatch the series again. Ah yeah of course it was mask guy. I must admit I dropped the first Boruto chuunin exam midway through because I lost interest in that arc quickly. So I probably mixed one or two things up from reading the clifnotes. And yeah filler might not be the best word. I think slice of life stuff might be more accurate? I like Boruto more for the silly/cutesy stories then for the grand plot. Though I am watching the second chuunin exam again. Though now you mention Shikadai I also must say that I could't help, but not like his ascension to Chuunin all that much. It felt like it was retreading old ground with the same twist ending. Naruto made it perfectly clear why Shikamaru was the chuunin and that it was the correct answer. But now it looked like like it was the only possible answer. So in summary I just really don't like that Chuunin exam😅

I've never got around to the last. I remember dropping the series for a while after Madara started to overstay his welcome. I am however a (very casual) Boruto watcher. I think it fixes my main complain with Shippuden, but also has some problems of its own. The best thing about Boruto is that I feel it has a very strong cast. Everyone on team 7 are interesting characters and the support cast are both fun and well utilised. The new Ino chika cho group has a fun dynamic, but even the other genins have stuff to do. Even the really unimportant genin like mini Kakashi and monster girl get some small filler stuff. My main problem is that the main plot tends to leave me uninterested. The moon people kinda blend together for me, but I even got my problems with the more normal Naruto stuff. The first chuunin exam for example felt like it did't have the same 'oomph' as the original. The second round was a real trial in OG Naruto where we got to see all those new ninja's in a survial setting. Here it was just one short episode that was there to introduce the cheating. The last round also really felt like it was rushing to the things already seen in the movie. I remember many of the 'unimportant' battles such as Inojin vs sand girl only lasting 10 seconds or so. So I enjoy Boruto, but its pretty much the only anime where I stick around for the fillers and kinda skim through the main plot.

@Landmaster : Oh Palla is the first time I saw someone counter gravity bullying. It did't matter much though since now she got bullied by Miracle instead. @Diovani Bressan Poor Catria. Getting beat up by a Marth army. Also cool to see Groom Marth. Are you going to +10 him? Anyway I made this into a sister showdown. I've been trying to see what I am able to do with Fiora. @BoaFerox @SatsumaFSoysoy

I completely forgot I named my username after a Naruto character for a moment. Aaanyway. After thinking back on it I found the OG Naruto a bit better then the Shippuden. Mostly because I found it consistently good and the smaller power scale gave it a unique vibe. It wasn't flawless, but I still found it a very solid and straightforward way to move the story and world along 1. The Zabuza arc gives a good insight into the ninja life and the new genin being thrown in it 2. The chuunin exam expands the cast greatly and introduced the first main bad guy 3. The before Sasuke retrieval arc introduces Akatsuki and afterwards gives somewhat breezier story in the search for Tsunade 4. And the Sasuke retrieval arc gives the B cast a good time to shine. Giving them good fights and developments Its that last part where I think Shippuden struggles with. Naruto introduced a lot of interesting characters, but the series struggle to give the younger leaf members things to do. Team Guy fights some clones and team 8 gets a REALLY small escorting job. Team 10 of course is the exception getting their very good time to shine against Kakuzu...and then getting several moments after that too. The war arc gave the non team 10 some scenes, but I still did't feel they got a lot of focus. On the whole I think Shippuden has a lot of good moments. The Sasori fight, team 10 vs Kakuzu and Hiden, Pain and his (at that point) unique and exotic powers. Introducing the rest of the kage and other village ninja's. But while there where a lot of good moments I also found myself uninvested a lot more often. I know its a subjective take, but I did't feel much sympathy for Shippuden Sasuke and that did impact how I viewed his chapters and the story of the Uchiha as a whole. Unlike OG Naruto Shippuden also ended up dissapointing me from time to time. The zombie apocalypse gave me some Sasuke retrieval vibes. A chance for the less important cast members to show what they where made off and it did start out doing just that. Still the 'everyone is here' aprouch backfired for me because when you tease a Chiyo or a Kimimaru, then I expect them to have a role.

I am currently playing through the game and i'm still having fun, but I am also at the point where I start to get annoyed. The main cause for that is the forced exp share and I can't really say I did't see that one coming. On the bright side I ended up around the same level as Gardenia's strongest pokemon. So that was not too bad...on the other hand the random trainers are getting outpaced really quickly. I'm not on route 209 and my team of level 25/27 pokemon are mopping the floor with trainers who have pokemon ranging from around level 15/19. At this point the difficulty goes from breezy to unengaging. I did hear it would get better somewhere and I hope thats the case. Because fumbling around with the box and constantly switching in and out is a extra hassle I don't care for.

@Landmaster : Hopefully they'll include a new feature in which you can swap duo heroes around. But in the meantime the rest of the Elise's did great. I keep forgetting that there is a anti cav dagger in my manual list. @BoaFerox : Maybe I should pick up my own STana eventually. That teleportation range looked cool. As did Amelia and her fancy new outfit This GHB is a bit like Bertram himself...not exiting at all. So I decided to entertain myself by going for my second one turn clear. I might have cheated a little by bringing someone like Festival Leif along. @Diovani Bressan @SatsumaFSoysoy

I have some small preferences for existing seasonal banners Camping: I can see Bernadetta being a good fit for that. With her being a armour unit that refuses to leave her tent. Hilda too can work as another character trapped in her personal hell. Boey could be a more responsible camper. Ninja: Owain, Cynthia and Male Morgan would fit right in as a trio of 'anime ninja's'. Loudly roleplaying while the others on the banner would be the serious kind of ninja. Pirate: Tormod would make for a good wild Pirate, while Lyn and Rowan would be very unhappy to play dress up as Pirates. It hasn't been a banner theme yet, but I think there is enough stuff to make for a entertaining circus banner. My picks would be. Stage Magician Roy: He needs at least one tome alt so he can live out that mage fantasy Lion tamer Lachesis: Hehehe lion tamer😏 Knife throwing/Fire breathing Saizo: Saizo needs a alt and what better alt then a clown alt for such a serious character. Clown duo of Gangrel and Daniela: Also featuring Daniela's flying horse.

Its a good thing I already knew this banner in advance. I might have been a little dissapointed otherwise. My most wanted Tellius characters are Tormod, Muarim, Lucia, Bastian, Calill, Janaff, Ulki, Boyd, Tauronio. Its a big list, but all of them are sadly absent on this banner. The characters that we have here are on my 'ok list'. Good characters, but not who I have any interest in. On the bright side I did like Tanith and she ends up being free. It means I can be saving orbs again.