The Last To Post Wins!

[Interdimensional Observer]

2 hours ago, DragonFlames said:

Mario, Zelda and Fire Emblem released games on the Switch that are widely considered to be milestones for their respective franchises.

People do complain of frame rate issues in BotW, and not enough music, and too empty. And blah de blah de blah for 3H, and some people don't love SMO either.

But, all of these games did something right in the old way, or different and not bad in itself. Generally speaking that is, individual players can always differ, and not always for bad reasons.

 

2 hours ago, DragonFlames said:

And that's not even getting into the actual spin-offs like Snap, Ranger, and Mystery Dungeon

Has anyone found textures or some other little detail from Stadium or Snap or Hey You Pikachu! that is better than what SwSh has? I don't mean to bash SwSh this way, I'm just curious from the Ocarina of Time tree comparisons.

 

2 hours ago, Armagon said:

God, a Monolith Soft-developed Pokemon game would be something i buy in a heartbeat.

I've come to the realization that when I loved Pokemon, besides the Pokes themselves, it was the world that got me. Not the storyline, not the people, those could be nice, but I think it might been exploring the world which I loved the most, which is why I'd like a true open-world Pokemon game.

Monolith would be able to deliver me and maybe three 'mons of my choosing following me in the field (or if I'm with two other trainers, one Poke), climbing, flying, and surfing all over the place. (Did they ever bring back the whole "lead Pokemon can follow you around" thing of HG/SS?) XC2 is chibi-enough that the aesthetic would almost perfectly work for a more "mature" but still lighthearted and child-friendly Pokemon experience. 

Unique Monsters/Tyrants would end up being replaced with awesome rare Pokemon. Weather conditions, which XC1 and X already used to control the spawning of certain enemies, could easily bring out certain Pokemon. "Intense Sunlight" could bring out the Sunkerns and Glooms, besides maybe spawning Groudon/Solgaleo in the postgame. And, every little area could be cleverly thought out to include different Pokemon, and perhaps be designed with those Pokemon in mind.

Those are pretty basic XC things, but when you replace all the ordinary monsters with Pocket Monsters, things could really pop. A Gaur Plain of Armus is one thing, a "Rolgren Plain" of Tauros, Miltanks, Poochyenas, Starlys and one pesky roaming Darmanitan is gloriously another, by virtue of Pokemon being all about the Pokemon. Whereas the Xenomonsters fill the beautiful plain to make it not empty and therefore feel natural, the life of Pokemon would be as significant as the beautiful plain itself.

 

I was thinking that besides: exploration, catching, battling, some obligatory crafting element, and maybe those old Hoenn-Sinnoh Contests, that they could add another gameplay aspect. I read a plot summary of Undertale once, and its whole promotion of pacifism wouldn't be out of place in a Pokemon game. Rather than KO/catch wild Pokes all the time, why not include the option to calm them?

You wouldn't catch them, nor would you get a lot or any normal EXP for doing so, but you'd adjust the aggressive wilds to your presence and they'd stop attacking you unless you attacked/tried to catch them. You'd need an arsenal of pacifist items and techniques added for this to work, and being reminded of XD's Purification Chamber, why not allow your own Pokemon to assist in the calming of wilds? Since any open world game would have to have plentiful enemy drops, using pacifist techniques on a harmless wild Happiny could still yield benefits if it decided to treat you with some materials. Would the Ranger games be worth drawing influence from here -aren't they about using wild Pokemon to temporarily help you?

 

 

Until Monolith can snatch Pokemon for a project, I'll just imagine myself spraypainting a Millesaur green and brown, and using giant leaves from Noctilum and some bananas, to make it look like a Tropius. My imaginary self would probably be squished by the agitated Millesaur, oh well.

Edited November 13, 2019 by Interdimensional Observer

[Acacia Sgt]

That would certainly be an awesome game.

[Shrimpica]

a Game we will never get

[Armagon]

2 hours ago, DragonFlames said:

Unrelated: Why is Ryza so memeable?

I came up with the meme template at 1 in the morning.

2 hours ago, Nobody said:

I actually really really liked the new pokemon, which makes it hurt even more lol

Same. There's so many cool ones and i appreciate the Galarian forms being more spread out as opposed to just being Kanto pandering. I even like how some have Galarian-exclusive evolutions. It's been a long time since we got evolutions to already existing Pokemon that wasn't Eevee.

2 hours ago, DragonFlames said:

Sorry for the double post, but we already have Pokémon games not made by GameFreak (with mainline gameplay at that) that I would consider better than any mainline game: Pokémon Colosseum and Pokémon XD, to be exact.
And that's not even getting into the actual spin-offs like Snap, Ranger, and Mystery Dungeon (up to and including Sky at least).

My knowledge only extends to the Mystery Dungeon games but the Explorer games especially also had better soundtracks. 

• Dialga's Fight to the Finish
• Temporal Tower
• Monster House

1 hour ago, Strullemia said:

I just took a quick look at the price of Pokémon Soulsilver/Heartgold and damn...they’re worth as much as FE PoR/RD.

What? How? It's not like those games were rare.

1 hour ago, Interdimensional Observer said:

Has anyone found textures or some other little detail from Stadium or Snap or Hey You Pikachu! that is better than what SwSh has?

Well when it comes to move animations, Stadium definitly has SwSh beat.

You know, sometimes i feel like mainline Pokemon should've never gone 3D. Oh God. Am i.......a Sonic fan?

 

1 hour ago, Interdimensional Observer said:

Monolith would be able to deliver me and maybe three 'mons of my choosing following me in the field (or if I'm with two other trainers, one Poke), climbing, flying, and surfing all over the place. (Did they ever bring back the whole "lead Pokemon can follow you around" thing of HG/SS?) XC2 is chibi-enough that the aesthetic would almost perfectly work for a more "mature" but still lighthearted and child-friendly Pokemon experience. 

Unique Monsters/Tyrants would end up being replaced with awesome rare Pokemon. Weather conditions, which XC1 and X already used to control the spawning of certain enemies, could easily bring out certain Pokemon. "Intense Sunlight" could bring out the Sunkerns and Glooms, besides maybe spawning Groudon/Solgaleo in the postgame. And, every little area could be cleverly thought out to include different Pokemon, and perhaps be designed with those Pokemon in mind.

Those are pretty basic XC things, but when you replace all the ordinary monsters with Pocket Monsters, things could really pop. A Gaur Plain of Armus is one thing, a "Rolgren Plain" of Tauros, Miltanks, Poochyenas, Starlys and one pesky roaming Darmanitan is gloriously another, by virtue of Pokemon being all about the Pokemon. Whereas the Xenomonsters fill the beautiful plain to make it not empty and therefore feel natural, the life of Pokemon would be as significant as the beautiful plain itself.

 

I was thinking that besides: exploration, catching, battling, some obligatory crafting element, and maybe those old Hoenn-Sinnoh Contests, that they could add another gameplay aspect. I read a plot summary of Undertale once, and its whole promotion of pacifism wouldn't be out of place in a Pokemon game. Rather than KO/catch wild Pokes all the time, why not include the option to calm them?

You wouldn't catch them, nor would you get a lot or any normal EXP for doing so, but you'd adjust the aggressive wilds to your presence and they'd stop attacking you unless you attacked/tried to catch them. You'd need an arsenal of pacifist items and techniques added for this to work, and being reminded of XD's Purification Chamber, why not allow your own Pokemon to assist in the calming of wilds? Since any open world game would have to have plentiful enemy drops, using pacifist techniques on a harmless wild Happiny could still yield benefits if it decided to treat you with some materials. Would the Ranger games be worth drawing influence from here -aren't they about using wild Pokemon to temporarily help you?

All this talk about Monolith Soft developing Pokemon has me thinking: if Pokemon is gonna have a Wild Area in the next game (assuming it's not a one-off gimmick but it probably is), Game Freak should at least contract Monolith Soft to do that part of the game. Because in concept, the Wild Area is a good idea. But it's so barren, falling victim to the "big but empty" syndrome, something Monolith Soft has been able to avoid (some people call BotW empty, personally i disagree since i had a lot of fun exploring the world there).

[Shrimpica]

So yesterday on Neppit someone posted Neptune from Super Neptunia holding Histy tome, and someone asked if Neptune could cast Magic with it. Being the FE fan that i am, i made this:

Neptune

Class: Swordmage

Weapon Ranks:

Swords A Wind Magic D Fire Magic D Thunder Magic D Staves E Light Magic S*

Skills:

Leader Aura: +20Hit/Avo to nearby allies.

Histoire: The World's Tome. Gives access to S Rank Light Magic. +10 Magic, +20% Mag growth. Since everything is 3, S Light Magic has a 3 turn recharge time.

Elemental Blades: Can use Magic Blades.

HDD: has access to HDD. Grants Flight and Bonus stats/Authority.

No Caps: Stats and Damage don't have a Cap.

Pudding: Pudding Pudding.

Stat Growth Rates: HP 75% STR 70% DEF 40% MAG 15%(+20%) RES 10% SPD 50% SKL 40% LCK 80%.

Authority: 5 (HDD: 10)

Supports: Nepgear, Plutia, Uzume, B-Sha, IF, Compa

XD

[Interdimensional Observer]

33 minutes ago, Armagon said:

You know, sometimes i feel like mainline Pokemon should've never gone 3D. Oh God. Am i.......a Sonic fan?

Sonic and Pokemon are entirely different matters in 3D though. Sonic has to contend with gameplay changes, Pokemon remains the same in any dimension.

3D Sonic adding Z-axis movement and the need of a good camera when you're rolling around at the speed of sound. Sonic fans also bicker over 2D sidescrolling and 3D linear platforming (not-SM64/S/O style), with Sega trying to cater to both.

Meanwhile, Pokemon did have the technical load increased from going 3D, but the fundamentals remained the same. 3D does nothing to affect battles, nothing to affect catching, and its impact on exploring is minimal when Pokemon was top-down beforehand and the camera angle wasn't quite changed the way Zelda went from top-down ALttP to behind-the-back OoT. Pokemon going 3D was like Final Fantasy going 3D, it didn't change the gameplay whatsoever (besides shrinking the usual combat team from 4 to 3), and whilst the graphics have aged terribly, FFVII and VIII for their time did spectacularly nail the presentation.

Sonic's failures are understandable. Speed and the extra dimension are difficult to keep in a stable emulsion, they want to separate and leave Sonic falling into a glitched bottomless void that loses him a life. Pokemon is just what happens when an old team used to working on weak portable systems, fails to rise to new and far great technical heights of a home-hybrid console with the power of a smartphone, combined with a lack of time b/c somebody at GF or TPC is greedy.

Edited November 13, 2019 by Interdimensional Observer

[Strullemia]

Speaking off a good Pokémon game. I saw these screenshots on Resetera and they look pretty good, kind of the game a lot of people wanted.

This looks pretty damn cool.

39 minutes ago, Armagon said:

My knowledge only extends to the Mystery Dungeon games but the Explorer games especially also had better soundtracks. 

• Dialga's Fight to the Finish
• Temporal Tower
• Monster House

What? How? It's not like those games were rare.

Explorers of Time/Darkness/Sky has some fantastic OST. I just love it.

---

I honestly have no clue. Maaaaaaybe it's because it's the only DS game that has something like the pokewalker?

[Acacia Sgt]

Now that's a Territorial Gyarados, hehehe...

[Shrimpica]

...i think i should leave the forum for a while. My thesis is due in 3 weeks, and i didn't progress much with the documentation yet...

[Interdimensional Observer]

1 hour ago, Strullemia said:

This looks pretty damn cool.

Well it is hand-drawn fanart, but the Arcanine was given enough dimensionality that I can envision it as a 3D object flowing through the fields.

The Lapras has either the shadows or something on its back being  a little off to me, but otherwise it's good too. The Ponyta I can see dimensionality in (if a little poor) graphically), but the Gyarados seems too flat.

-Just me and a little lightly meant art criticism.

 

7 minutes ago, Shrimperor said:

...i think i should leave the forum for a while. My thesis is due in 3 weeks, and i didn't progress much with the documentation yet...

Ask a mod for a 3 week ban then, if removing your power to post helps with self control, I've done that before.

 

2 hours ago, Shrimperor said:

Being the FE fan that i am, i made this:

Interesting! I think I'll actually do my hand at a non-FE character as an FE unit. 3H style to be precise, because it has something that suits this character.

 

Guillo (Male- even if it's an it being an artificial construct.)

Class: Machina? (Armor, can use Magic. Has 6 Move.)

Class Abilities: Fistfaire, Black Tomefaire, Crit +20. (So, a War Master that goes hybrid.)

Special Note: As is the case with the Taguel and Manaketes in Awakening, even when reclassed, this will maintain a unit type designation as "Armor" and gain Armor Skill Experience for it.

Proficiencies:

• Swords
• Lances
• Axes
• Bows
• Brawling
• Reason
• Faith (Budding Talent- learns Fortify. Yes I see nobody gets a spell as a Budding Talent, but some do get Combat Arts.)
• Authority
• Armor
• Riding
• Flying

Personal Ability: Shining Arms- Increases damage against Monsters by 6.

Relic Weapon: Deluge the Seabane- 5 Mt, 85 Hit, 10 Crit, 6 Wt, 1 Rng. When initiating combat, deals 2 consecutive hits. Deals magic-based damage. For Guillo, enables Dustwake Sky.

Dustwake Sky: +7 Mt, +10 Hit, +10 Crit, 1-2 Range, costs 3 Durability. Deals magic damage, Mt increases based on user's Str. (Is this too weak given everything else about Guillo?) It's Ruptured Sky, but targeting Res and increasing damage with Str, and no anti-dragon.

 

Learned Black/Dark Magic:

• Fire
• Thunder
• Sagittae
• Fimbulvetr
• Dark Spikes T

Learned White Magic:

• Heal
• Nosferatu
• Abraxas
• Fortify

-I don't feel like doing Combat Arts right now.😗

 

Stats-wise, I'm not familiar with what constitutes good growths in 3H, I'm not going to look at those until I at least have a Blue Lions play done, and I don't intend to play that path for months. Nor am I familiar with class stats, or Mastery Combat Arts/Abilities.

But as a guideline for growths:

• HP- Poor.
• Str- Good.
• Magic- Great.
• Dex- Average.
• Spd- A little above average.
• Lck- Poor.
• Def- A little below average.
• Res- Great.

[Armagon]

3 hours ago, Interdimensional Observer said:

Sonic and Pokemon are entirely different matters in 3D though. Sonic has to contend with gameplay changes, Pokemon remains the same in any dimension.

3D Sonic adding Z-axis movement and the need of a good camera when you're rolling around at the speed of sound. Sonic fans also bicker over 2D sidescrolling and 3D linear platforming (not-SM64/S/O style), with Sega trying to cater to both.

Meanwhile, Pokemon did have the technical load increased from going 3D, but the fundamentals remained the same. 3D does nothing to affect battles, nothing to affect catching, and its impact on exploring is minimal when Pokemon was top-down beforehand and the camera angle wasn't quite changed the way Zelda went from top-down ALttP to behind-the-back OoT. Pokemon going 3D was like Final Fantasy going 3D, it didn't change the gameplay whatsoever (besides shrinking the usual combat team from 4 to 3), and whilst the graphics have aged terribly, FFVII and VIII for their time did spectacularly nail the presentation.

Sonic's failures are understandable. Speed and the extra dimension are difficult to keep in a stable emulsion, they want to separate and leave Sonic falling into a glitched bottomless void that loses him a life. Pokemon is just what happens when an old team used to working on weak portable systems, fails to rise to new and far great technical heights of a home-hybrid console with the power of a smartphone, combined with a lack of time b/c somebody at GF or TPC is greedy.

Oh i know. I was just trying to be funny.

I will say though that 2D Pokemon was more charming. Back when X/Y were announced, 13-year old me thought it was really cool that mainline Pokemon was finally going 3D. But recently (and i mean before SwSh were even announced, this isn't a new sentiment i have), i've been missing the 2D sprites of Pokemon. Gen 5 had some of the best sprite work period.

3 hours ago, Strullemia said:

I honestly have no clue. Maaaaaaybe it's because it's the only DS game that has something like the pokewalker?

Yeah but the Pokewalker only came with sealed copies. 

But i remember buying a used copy of HeartGold at GameStop for $15 so having those games be Tellius prices can't be right.

Edited November 14, 2019 by Armagon

[Shrimpica]

18 minutes ago, Interdimensional Observer said:

Ask a mod for a 3 week ban then, if removing your power to post helps with self control, I've done that before.

 

... i think i should do that...

yeah, would probably help, i have no more itme for joking around and i need to go full serious mode for the next 3 weeks. After i can play as many games as i want and slack off on forums/reddit as much as i want.

21 minutes ago, Interdimensional Observer said:

Guillo -snip-

Interesting 😄

So a hybrid fighter with bad physical defence and a crit risk.

 

Anyway, cya all in 3 Weeks, hopefully

[Interdimensional Observer]

11 minutes ago, Armagon said:

I will say though that 2D Pokemon was more charming. Back when X/Y were announced, 13-year old me thought it was really cool that mainline Pokemon was finally going 3D. But recently (and i mean before SwSh were even announced, this isn't a new sentiment i have), i've been missing the 2D sprites of Pokemon. Gen 5 had some of the best sprite work period.

Looking back at it on Bulbapedia, I see what you mean. Pokemon just look better in two dimensions sometimes (but Colosseum/XD/BR were good), I am personally drawn to all the official artwork. Really good pixel art or a hand-drawn aesthetic that makes the official art literally what you fight, would be great for Pokemon. Either works, I think it depends on the direction you'd want for Pokemon, pixel art for the 2D sprites is more gamey, while hand-drawn would be more artsy (and possibly like it's ripped from the anime).

The world would have to stay 3D of course, but is there a good alternative to the visual direction things have currently gone in? One that might work better with the return to sprites?

 

20 minutes ago, Shrimperor said:

Anyway, cya all in 3 Weeks, hopefully

Wish you luck on your thesis! 😃🤞🍀🎋😉

 

[Armagon]

Man, i really like this song. It just captures that feel of a space western. I have high hopes for The Mandalorian after that first episode. I really like the Star Wars stories that are rather disconnected from the movies. Gives them more freedom to work with.

 

26 minutes ago, Interdimensional Observer said:

Looking back at it on Bulbapedia, I see what you mean. Pokemon just look better in two dimensions sometimes (but Colosseum/XD/BR were good), I am personally drawn to all the official artwork. Really good pixel art or a hand-drawn aesthetic that makes the official art literally what you fight, would be great for Pokemon. Either works, I think it depends on the direction you'd want for Pokemon, pixel art for the 2D sprites is more gamey, while hand-drawn would be more artsy (and possibly like it's ripped from the anime).

Well that but i also felt that with the sprites, moves had a certain more "oomph" to them. Not all of them, some moves got that "oomph" when used in 3D but in general, moves just looked and felt better when they were sprites.

 

[DragonFlames]

8 hours ago, Strullemia said:

 

Maaaaaaaan, that game made me feel more than any of the stories in the mainline games did.

I mean fuck when this started playing ;_;

And then the events after that....the endgame messed with my emotions so much and when Eplorers of the Sky released they only made it worse by including Special Mission 5. Seeing Dusknoir's arc and Grovyle holding Celebi ;_;

Oh yeah... Good old Grovyle. The feels, man. The feels.

7 hours ago, Interdimensional Observer said:

Has anyone found textures or some other little detail from Stadium or Snap or Hey You Pikachu! that is better than what SwSh has? I don't mean to bash SwSh this way, I'm just curious from the Ocarina of Time tree comparisons.

I actually have no idea. To be quite honest, I have no doubt that the models themselves are of better quality than the N64 ones. I was mainly talking about the animations that looked better than what SwSh offers.

5 hours ago, Armagon said:

I came up with the meme template at 1 in the morning.

Nice! I love it.

5 hours ago, Armagon said:

My knowledge only extends to the Mystery Dungeon games but the Explorer games especially also had better soundtracks. 

• Dialga's Fight to the Finish
• Temporal Tower
• Monster House

Indeed they did. You listed my top two already.
Here are some beauties from the other spin-offs that I would put on a pretty high pedestal, too.

• Sky Tower (Mystery Dungeon Red Rescue Team)
• Legendary Pokémon Theme (Ranger Guardian Signs)
• Legendary Pokémon Battle Theme (Ranger Guardian Signs)
• Miror B Battle (XD: Gale of Darkness)
• Final Battle (XD: Gale of Darkness)
• Shadow Lugia Battle Theme (XD: Gale of Darkness)
• Final Battle (Colosseum)

And one more bonus from the Explorer games to tug at your heartstrings:

• Don't ever forget

Man, listening to that music really makes me want to play these games again...

[MisterIceTeaPeach]

20 hours ago, DragonFlames said:

Nostalgia reaching critical amounts.

I have DVDs of Darkwing Duck and DuckTales. 

This is better entertainment than children programm of today. 

Also still have the DuckTales game for Gameboy but unfortunately no Gameboy. 

 

What good PS4 JRPGs aside of Trails of Cold Steel III and upcoming Tales of Arise exist?

[DragonFlames]

24 minutes ago, Lysithea said:

What good PS4 JRPGs aside of Trails of Cold Steel III and upcoming Tales of Arise exist?

*cracks knuckles*
Here we go:

• Nights of Azure
• Nights of Azure 2: Bride of the New Moon
• Megadimension Neptunia VII
• Shining Resonance Refrain
• Atelier Sophie: The Alchemist of the Mysterious Book
• Atelier Lulua: The Scion of Arland
• Atelier Ryza: Ever Darkness and the Secret Hideout
• Digimon Story Cyber Sleuth
• Digimon Story Cyber Sleuth: Hacker's Memory
• Tales of Berseria
• Persona 5
• Fairy Fencer f Advent Dark Force (I got the Switch version of this one, but it's also on PS4)
• Labyrinth of Refrain: Coven of Dusk
• Ys VIII: Lacrimosa of Dana (I still need to get back to this one)

Games in bold are also available on the Switch. There may be more, but those are the ones I know for sure.
These are just the ones I've played, too. There are many other JRPGs on the system that I haven't tried yet, thus I have no clue how good or bad they are, which is why I left them out.

Edited November 14, 2019 by DragonFlames

[MisterIceTeaPeach]

I have some of these games for other consoles. 

I am still waiting for a price drop for Atelier games on Switch. 

The gacha of Night Azure received positive criticism, so I might check this series out. 

 

[DragonFlames]

If you do check it out, have fun! I know I did.
Nights of Azure and the sequel became two of my favorite games pretty much ever, and the protagonist of the first one is my absolute favorite video game character.

If you want, I could tell you what it's about and how the gameplay works, so you're not walking into it blindly.

Edited November 14, 2019 by DragonFlames

[MisterIceTeaPeach]

56 minutes ago, DragonFlames said:

If you want, I could tell you what it's about and how the gameplay works, so you're not walking into it blindly.

If you want, I would appreciate it. 

Though I would not buy it for 60 € right now. 

[Armagon]

[DragonFlames]

25 minutes ago, Armagon said:

This is high-class art.

1 hour ago, Lysithea said:

If you want, I would appreciate it. 

Though I would not buy it for 60 € right now. 

Okay, here goes:

Nights of Azure mini-review.

Story:
Basically what happened is that in the past, a Demon King known as the Nightlord descended upon the world to plunge it into an Eternal Night. He got defeated and sealed away by a woman henceforth known as the First Saint. The Nightlord's blood, the Blue Blood, rained down on the ground upon his defeat and turned people and objects into monsters known as Fiends, creatures who are active only at night, making the world into a "land without night" (which is literally what the Japanese title of the game, "yoru no nai kuni" translates to). Now, several centuries later on a small island city known as Ruswal, a ritual is to take place to keep the Nightlord sealed away. To maintain the seal, a maiden and a knight to protect her is chosen to perform a certain ritual, overseen by the church known as the Curia. The chosen maiden is a young woman named Lilysse, who is very close friends (and I mean VERY close - you can imagine what I mean, I believe) with the Agent of the Curia assigned to protect her, Arnice (a.k.a. best girl to end all best girls).
And that's about as far as I can tell you without spoiling any major developments.

Gameplay:
You play as the aforementioned Arnice. She commands friendly fiends known as Servans, who all have different abilities depending on what species they are. She starts out with three, but you can acquire more in the game to form up to three parties of four Servans each (additional parties must be unlocked via leveling up, though). The way it works is that you have a hub in the form of the Ende Hotel (subtle, ain't it?), from which you pick different parts of the town of Ruswal to explore at night. For each exploration, you have a time limit of 10 minutes initially (it might be 15, I'm not sure), which extends the stronger you get. The justification is that Arnice, being a half-demon, succumbs to her demonic side if she's exposed to the night for too long.

In the field, you kill fiends of all kinds (some of which drop items that can be used to summon new Servans) in a free-flowing action combat style not unlike the Warriors games. Your Servans will act mostly independently, but you can switch tactics on the fly to change their behavior and every Servan possesses a special action (basically a pretty powerful special attack - Alraune's, for example, heals the entire party to full) that you can make them do whenever you want.
Defeating fiends will net you Blue Blood (this game's EXP), which you can spend on levelling up and getting new abilities. Bosses of course will get you much more of the stuff.

There is also a plentiful amount of practically infinitely repeatable sidequests, which are divided into two categories: daytime quests, which have Arnice do some activities during the day to get points for learning new abilities (these are done automatically, all you get is a diary entry that shows what happens and Arnice' thoughts on it), and nighttime quests, which work more like traditional quests (go to a place, fetch an item, kill fiends, that kind of stuff).

Your goal in the game is to explore Ruswal and uncover the truth behind the Curia, the Nightlord, the ritual, and the Saints. You also meet with a colorful cast of characters such as the receptionist Simon, the skirt-chasing scoundrel Lloyd, his buddy and resident Mad Scientist Professor Alucard (who wants to hire Arnice as his "research assistant"), and of course the second best character in the game, after Arnice herself, the enigmatic masked pureblood demon (so called because she doesn't have any human blood like Arnice does) Christophorus (male name, but it's a female character), who is voiced by the wonderful Tomoyo Kurosawa, otherwise known as the Japanese voice of Sothis.

Phew, that got wall-of-text-y again. My apologies for that.

[Interdimensional Observer]

Pokemon Mystery Dungeon never quite got me. I did finish Blue Rescue Team once, and I had Explorers of Time, but I only got past the Groudon fight there. Mystery dungeon gameplay mustn't have been enticing enough for me.

 

Finally got to finishing the first Boktai, the game is a solid B-rate GBA title, if nothing better. A little stealth, a little action, a little puzzling, and oddly produced by Kojima (and Konami, so good luck seeing it ever surface again). The penultimate battle was different and I liked that, if in ways unfair I felt. The final battle was just unexpected in what I'd have to do, how does flinging a very bright sunflower at Queen Hel kill her?

I'm going to wait until the days lengthen before I play the sequel, due to IRL time affecting ingame sunset time. Instead, I have 7th Dragon 2020-II to wrap up. And then my emulation backlog will be cleared, and I can start some new stuff, maybe Soma Bringer, maybe Persona 1 or 2EP, or Summon Night Swordcraft Story 2, or Yggdra Union- I have to decide.

Edited November 14, 2019 by Interdimensional Observer

[Strullemia]

I saw the new Sonic trailer and I decided to watch the movie when it comes out with a friend. I mean I'm not expecting anything special but if it's at least as "good" as the pokémon movie then it'll be worth it and I also really appreciate that they actually listened to people's criticism.

[Armagon]

3 hours ago, DragonFlames said:

This is high-class art.

More

 

1 hour ago, Strullemia said:

I saw the new Sonic trailer and I decided to watch the movie when it comes out with a friend. I mean I'm not expecting anything special but if it's at least as "good" as the pokémon movie then it'll be worth it and I also really appreciate that they actually listened to people's criticism.

I was gonna see it even with the cursed human Sonic desgin.

I'll be pleasently surprised if the movie is good but i'm expecting it to be "so bad it's good".