DragonFlames

I actually prefer Odin's apocalypse design because they incorporated one of the ravens the "real" Odin always had with him. I liked Apocalypse, too. It was a fun ride (I'm not TOO hardcore of an SMT fan, as I've only played this, IV and Strange Journey Redux, the last of which I wasn't impressed with), but there is one part of the game that kinda killed the replay value for me. I won't say which part that is for spoiler-y reasons, so rest assured. I agree with most everything you said in the spoilers, though. The only character I could really get behind was Toki (and Isabeau, I guess, but she's a returnee from the previous game) and that's mostly for her voice actress. Fun fact: I actually played Apocalypse BEFORE the original SMTIV. I guess I should probably rephrase this into something more constructive. Atelier Sophie was a fun game and really cute. Here's what I liked: The characters are varied and interesting, all with their own quirks and developments that made for fun puzzles and character arcs, all beautifully integrated into the alchemy gameplay, as quest progression usually involves making new stuff with alchemy. I find it a stroke of genius that overlevelling does pretty much nothing for you. The level cap is 20, anyway, but your main damage output during battles is through the items you create via alchemy. From accessories to bombs to stuff to help you while exploring, you'll spend a lot of time in front of that ol' pot in your room, which is a good thing, because... ... combining materials through alchemy and seeing which abilities and qualities the items you create come out with is easily the main draw of this game and one of the main reasons I love it so much. The alchemy system looks complicated at first (as you mix and match colours and shapes on grids not unlike Tetris for maximum effect), but it is all really accessible and intuitive. You get a small tutorial, but it is more of a learning by doing affair. The protagonist Sophie. Full stop. The music fits the mood and atmosphere incredibly well. You even have different battle themes depending on how strong you are compared to your enemies. The overall atmosphere of the game feels really peaceful and inviting. As I've said before, this is what sets it apart from other, darker JRPGs (like Nights of Azure or SMT), which I appreciate. The humour is on point (I fondly remember one moment where Sophie tries to turn her talking book into a person by throwing it and random stuff into her pot. It's hysterical. I did have a few gripes with the game, too, though they are mostly nitpicks, I think: Early on, there are some weird discrepancies in the difficulty of certain battles. You're running around in an area where you can pretty much one-hit kill everything that moves - even with your standard attack - and then all of a sudden an enemy pops up that sends you packing. Had this happen to me quite often early on and I remember getting a bit miffed, especially because you lose about 75% of the items you collected during that trip and if you needed any of them for a quest, well... you're SOL, I guess. Some of the alchemy recipes can get tricky / cryptic to unlock if you don't know what you're doing In the same vein some monster slaying quests - all of which have a time limit attached to them - require you to beat a certain enemy that may or may not appear in an area you haven't unlocked yet and you'd be none the wiser The game's pace picks up toward the end. And when I say it picks up, I mean it goes from 0 to 100 in no time at all. It was a slow burn in the beginning and middle and I thought "it would be nice if it continued like this". Hooo boy, was I ever wrong about that. While I didn't really mind it that much, it was nevertheless a bit jarring. There are moments where characters just repeat phrases at each other, like Character A: "Items can be created through alchemy!" Character B: "Alchemy can be used to create items." Character C: "Did you know that you can create items using alchemy?" Again, nothing major, just something I noticed.

During my month-long break from anything internet, I dipped my head into the Atelier games. Since I liked playing as Sophie in Warriors All-Stars, I tried Atelier Sophie (not just because Sophie was in it and I knew her from WAS, but also because it was on sale that day). It's a really, really cute game, I'd say would be the best way to describe it. The story is sweet, if minimalistic, the graphics are really cool and the music and atmosphere are peaceful and give off the vibe of a friendly and inviting world. The alchemy stuff is also a really interesting mechanic, probably one of if not the most interesting and intuitive crafting mechanic I have ever seen in any game I've played (for shame, Minecraft, for shame). I think it's a nice change of pace from all the other doom and gloom JRPGs out there. Sorry if I was gushing there for a bit, I just really fell in love with the game, even though it's supposed to be the worst one in the franchise according to some reviews and fans. If this one's the worst, I can only imagine how good the others must be.

True enough. I haven't bought nor played DW9, but I have seen Jim Sterling's videos on it and I was less than impressed by what I saw (except for the rain effects. That stuff was great). I still wonder why DW9 turned out to be such a mess, I mean the previous Warriors titles before it (which were all spin-offs, but still) are all really good games. All-Stars is fantastic (I even prefer it to Orochi so far), Fire Emblem is great and Hyrule is awesome, so the only question I have is what the hell happened? Hopefully, Orochi 4 can mend the wound DW9 inflicted a bit. It would be really said to see the game go down the route of so many other over-hyped games before it.

Personally, I don't think so, because I don't know half as much about Star Wars as some other fans do as I have only watched the original and prequel trilogies and haven't really stuck my nose into the Expanded Universe where they explain a lot of the stuff that goes unmentioned in the movies. Joke answer: Yes, yes I could. Just cut all the forced (and unfunny) jokes and political agenda bullcrap and you're golden. Oh, and don't kill off beloved characters for no reason, 'mkay? What's cooler: A fridge or the Antarctic?

Yup, me too! Welcome to the Forest!

Thank you! Well "fun" in the sense that this bear was apparently one they released into the wild after raising it at a zoo, so it was used to people and it was really friendly, too. It knew our guide (who used to work at that zoo) as well, so we weren't actually in any danger. Our guide said that as long as they don't have cubs, bears aren't actually aggressive at all and tend to avoid people when they can. It was a great experience for me, since I really like animals, bears included. Sehr schön und vielen Dank!

Interesting. I heard fans were afraid Warriors All-Stars would replace Warriors Orochi, so it's cool to see that those fears were groundless. I am actually playing through Warriors Orochi 3 Ultimate at the moment and this is the first I hear about a 4th game.

When I was small, I had trouble sleeping (long story), so my dad told me that the moon was actually watching over me so I could feel safe at night. That "lie" actually sparked my interest in astronomy which in turn caused me to get into mythology and stuff.

The way I see it, a completely "free" will as in, every choice you make is without any and all influence, doesn't exist, since every choice you make is influenced by the way you were raised, by the experiences you had in the past and of course the context in which you have to make a choice. That is what influences and restricts the "horizon" of our choices somewhat. Does that mean free will doesn't exist? No, because you can still choose to act against "yourself" and do something you normally wouldn't do if you followed your education and / or your past experiences, even if you are less likely to do so.

"We are a totally normal and happy family and there is nothing wrong at all."

Hello, friends of the Forest, DragonFlames here! As I said about a month ago, I took a break from everything and went to the mountains for two weeks (ran into a bear. That was fun) to clear my head of everything and now I feel much better and at peace with myself. Why am I writing this into the introduction section? Well, I noticed how I never formally introduced myself to everyone here for whatever reason (probably a brain fart or something), so I figured now is as good a time as any.

Been wondering that myself, actually. It falls into the same category as coincidences, I think, since you can't exactly prove either to be 100% legitimate. Did you know that there is a type of spider that jumps?

Yes. Yes, I would. When Ninian dies and Eliwood gets all sad, Nergal is like "Psych!" and a bunch of jesters jump out of the shrubbery and laugh at Eliwood while Ninian just gets up as if nothing ever happened.

Interesting. I had no idea that was the case. Thank you! I can definitely see where people are coming from with that. I haven't played the Warriors Orochi games (which I assume is the series you meant with WO), so I went in pretty much unbiased in that regard (the only Warriors game I've played before Hyrule Warriors Legends was Samurai Warriors on the Wii at a friend's house). I'm personally fine with the number of playable characters, given how my inner completionist wants to max out their Regard with every other character... Understandable. I personally wished the original Nobunaga Oda would be in the game too, if only to see the hilarity of him interacting with his cat version. Also, I want a sequel with characters from Nights of Azure 2, like Ruenheid or even Malvasia.

What the hell was I thinking writing this? I'm sorry, everyone. Lately, my head is in all the wrong places and I just babble on about things I don't understand. I didn't mean to offend anyone and I don't even know why I even wrote that garbage in the first place. If you don't want to accept my apology, that's fine, too. I think I really need to take a break from... basically everything.

BOTH! This is a joke, btw. I like his character well enough and he turned out pretty tanky in one of my playthroughs, though I usually tend to stay away from any infantry axe users not named Hawkeye (or Geitz if I get him).

This could be actually a really sweet scene when you think about it (not the facerubbing, I mean). Corrin invites Felicia to his room to comfort her after losing her sister. To be honest, I missed a scene like that in the game, since Felicia and Corrin are pretty close, regardless of whether or not you decide to hook them up with each other. More on topic: Birthright chapter 15, when Kaze falls off the cliff and seemingly dies, it's revealed that the cliff was actually only around one and a half metres deep and you couldn't see the ground only because of the mist from the explosion and the fact that it was night at the time, so Kaze isn't actually dead.

Maybe this could be the first game that doesn't require a meat shield for the first few chapters or the Jeigan could have some way of easily healing himself aside from Vulneraries like Live to Serve, Renewal or a new skill that restores some HP every time he gets hit or something. It would be more of a utility Jeigan, really, so his meat shield capabilities would drop off fairly quickly anyway. Though if we factor in Shields, they could always just have him start with one that brings his defence to pretty tanky levels for the earlygame.

So after @Shadow Mir told me that Christophorus from Nights of Azure (the character you see in my profile picture) was playable in this Koei Tecmo-internal crossover game, I just knew I had to give it a try (yes, I bought this game just because it featured a character from a game I liked, sue me). And now that I'm playing it and now that I've checked some of the reviews, I thought I would throw in my own two cents about it. Note that this isn't a review, just my thoughts on the game. I saw that the reception for this game was all around a resounding "meh" and even the greatest defender of Dynasty Warriors Jim Sterling himself called it a lazy cash grab in one of his videos. And I don't find myself agreeing with that (though I won't dismiss his opinion, or anyone's for that matter, as wrong, either). I think this is the most fun I've ever had with a Warriors-style game. The gameplay is really fluid, mission types are pretty varied and the interactions between the characters from different games are really endearing and sometimes quite hilarious, too. At the same time, this is probably one of the weirdest and funniest games I've ever played just going off of the many funny team combinations you can make. To elaborate, you can make a team of up to five people, one person you play as and four characters that provide support. During battle, you can use their Hero Skills for various effects such as boosting stats, healing or helping to dispatch some enemies. Granted, going in, I only really knew three of the characters (Arnice and Christophorus from Nights of Azure, as well as William from Nioh) and one of them only through a video I watched about his home game (that being William), so I was pretty excited to see all those new faces I had no idea existed and I've even come to like most of them, with Sophie, Horo, Ryu Hayabusa, Nobunyaga Oda and Wang Yuanji (who is pronounced "Ou Genki" in the in-game VO for some weird reason) being notable favourites of mine. And I don't even mind the original characters, even though people at large seem to be put off by them being "furries", which I can understand, because at first, it was a little odd, but I've gotten used to it because the three main people you get to accompany are all pretty well thought out characters. Special shout-out to precious cinnamon roll Tamaki, who is also a badass on the battlefield and has also become one of my favourites gameplay-wise. I can safely say that I am now interested in trying out some of the games the characters came from, Tokiden and Atelier in particular. Though I do have some gripes with the game, too. That doesn't mean that the game is bad, just that there are some flaws. The story is very basic and basically exists as an excuse for all these different characters to interact in the same universe. Though I can't say that I dislike the story. I've only unlocked three endings so far (oh yeah, there's multiple endings, too) and through all three playthroughs, I was really invested in the characters of Shiki, Setsuna and Tamaki and their fates and felt like I wanted to help them and their world. Other, more glaring flaws include the fact that enemy captains and heroes are temporarily invincible whenever they use their Hero Skills, so whenever they use them, it takes longer to kill them (duh!), which is especially stressful when you're on a timed mission. And then there's Oka and Naotora Ii who become straight up invincible when they use their Hero Skills against you, though you can use these same skills if you put them in your party. That doesn't change the fact that they're pretty annoying to fight. Another thing that bugged me is that some parts of some maps are entirely empty, so you have periods where you just traverse the battlefield to your next objective and nothing happens. At least the mission log isn't as slow as FE Warriors, I guess? There is also no Free Mode or Adventure Mode, which doesn't bother me personally, but it still needs to be pointed out. Overall, I really like this game and would recommend it to anyone who likes Warriors-style games. What do you think? Did you like this game? Hate it? Who is your favourite character to play as (for me, it's a tie between Arnice, Christophorus, Wang Yuanji and Sophie)? Side Note: If this is the wrong section for this topic, I sincerely apologize for the inconvenience.

Same here, actually. Even when she's just supposed to be a meat shield, she still gets kills regularly, so I don't even need to touch Oscar or Kieran, because they aren't anywhere near as good as she is (though both of them are still good units, don't get me wrong). Adding on to the healer Jeigan point: Correct me if I'm wrong, but aside from a few fan games perhaps, I don't think we ever had a magic-based Jeigan before. Unless of course you count Nomah as one, though he's more of a Gotoh, I'd say.

Agreed. Stats on a healer don't really matter, so no one can complain about his potentially atrocious growth rates, as they are really only there to heal and not for combat purposes. Though I think he should be given low level (Light) magic as well, so he can at least defend himself. I think this would strike a nice balance for a Jeigan that is useful throughout the entire game and doesn't make any other unit superfluous simply by existing (as Titania, Marcus, Seth and others so infamously do).

The reactions are very generic and impersonal and don't change based on support levels. Also, some death quotes will be "hilarious" quips and jokes and a huge number of people will feel (perhaps rightfully) offended by that, creating a huge backlash against IntSys that will get the studio shut down and Fire Emblem into the ground. I wish the next game puts more emphasis on terrain.

It's a text adventure that details his "exciting" life as a librarian. I wish there was a game, anime or manga about the book Genny wanted to write in SOV.

Well said. I will definitely learn from that. Thank you, Florete!

Gern geschehen! OT: Changed profile picture to a character with black and white hair.