henrymidfields

A Poliwrath I can expect if you've already played RBY. Point taken about Steelix. As for Morty, and lack of Dark types that's the shortcoming of Gen 2; they've didn't showcase the new Dark (and Steel) type as much as they should - and essentially repeated the similar problem with Sabrina, though perhaps not as bad. Heck, they didn't showcase Johto Pokemon as much as they should have! Clair I can accept as she's the final gym leader and it's just one Pokemon out of her four. That's the point. As the Generations gets later, you have less idea what to expect. The thing that was keeping the real difficulty back overall was that things in general (barring some exceptions like Sabrina) back then were generally more predictable in earlier generations to compensate for your limitations. Also the affection mechanic is mostly optional unless you're playing BDSP - it's only raised by Amie or Camping as far as I am aware (not sure the equivalent for Gen 7). Looking back, BW2 I found one of the closest to being optimal in that regard. The Gym Leaders were hardly pushovers, and some like Elesa had great coverage, but at the same time, you had a lot of different Pokemon (more than BW1 anyway) you could use to address them. The segment of the first two gym leaders of XY was close to this. So many Pokemon I could catch, yet Viola and Grant somehow managed to throw a curveball at me. And in case you're wondering, I didn't use Amie outside of evolving Sylveon (at least until much later), and even when I started doing that, I spread both Amie and the EXP share thin across the entire 30 Pokemon Box as my rotation so there are that too.

Apples and Oranges. FE's actually pretty basic in addressing strengths and weaknesses. You've got a handful of classes and weapons you can use, and positioning in the battle map is also a thing, so barring occasional cases like Henning in FE6, there's always one way or another against enemies. Most importantly, you actually have info of the enemy, so you actually can prepare for tgem. Pokemon nowadays, you just cannot predict what the gym leaders have in terms of their Pokemon's abilities, movepools, and double-typings anymore. There are over 800 Pokemon now and dozens of possible movepools they could use, and unless if you have Bulbapedia open, you're just not going to know what you're up against. Your case and others mentioning your experience of the early gamed illustrates the point. Everything was basically predictable back then. Now, not so much. I'd very much prefer the available variety of Pokemon similar to ShSw, and just straight up make gym battles actually more strategic to make up the game's difficulty.

Yes, thanks for reminding me about the specifics of Lance's Dragonite. Just goes to show how much you can break that game. What would stop you from just outright buying the coins at the Game Corners and get yourself the TM? I did this once with Ice Punch in GSC, and never regretted it. (Ah, I also remember Ice Punch was also a thing.) On the other hand, I wonder if the wild Sandiles constantly demolishing my Pokemon in Route 4 was an unsubtle hint that he was recommended against Elesa and onwards? Admittedly that is true. They could have at least raised his level to be 65 and raise all the trainers prior to him accordingly. It'll also smooth over the post-game area's trainers'/wild Pokemon's levels which are around that to 70+ IIRC. Forgot that there was also the special split with Calm Mind. Either way, Psychic was too busted back then. Almost forgot about that one. So even GF devs themselves thought it was too limiting in GSC... I've been doing this in Gym Battles since XY (though I accidentally failed this with Alistair in SwSh). Makes you think of your movepools and the like. Maybe higher difficulties for Gym Battles should be similar to standard VGC rules.

Many people say that newer Pokemon games lack the challenge of the older games. But do they really? The more I had a look back at RBY and GSC, the more I believe that the difficulties there are for the wrong reasons, the wrong kind that is essentially a rigged game again st the player. And this is coming from a veteran that played Pokemon since the 90s. It's not like Gen 1-2 Gym Leaders are fricking beasts. Their movepools are pathetically predictable (Falker's Pidgeotto is one exception), and their AI is just as bad. What other game would have the E4 spam Extreme Speed over and over while your Pokemon is chipping their HP away? Sabrina was only difficult because of Ghost and Bug being awful counters. Other Gym Leaders like Whitney are only difficult because of a lack of variety in viable Pokemon choices available to you in general - and maybe some lack of reusable and good TMs back then, and levelling up being a pain in the ass in general. Lance outright cheated with his Aerodactyl learning Barrier, and bringing in multiple Dragonites that can all be 1/2-shotted by Ice Beam. Of all the Gym Leaders I faced when I was 12, only Falkner and Misty in GSC had some semblance of good trainership with actual strategy, and even then, there was the issue of Mareep being still inaccessible by the time you challenge the former, and the latter still had three Pokemon weak to Electric types (and her Rain Dance could even backfire to one of them). Heck, you arguably still have examples of (albeit isolated) of artificial difficulty as late as BW1. With Elesa, Ice Beam isn't an available option against her Emolga, or any pre-Championship opponent unlike past games. (And I remember reading that Emolga has a higher BST than many other Pokemon available.) With Cilan, you can't access Route 3 and thus the Pidove line before facing him. And don't get me started on Ghetsis's underlevelled Hydreigon (and Hydreigon in general evolving unusually late). Not to mention the lack of Fire Types plauging Flint... BW2 and Platinum alleviated this with the availability of past gen Pokemon. XY got rid of the artificial difficulty entirely by making various Pokemon available from the get-go, although it admittedly also got rid of the legit difficulty - particularly Korrina. Even with that, though, Viola and Grant threw some curveballs with dual-typings to address at least one of their common weaknesses. The latter also had strong attack moves made borderline busted by both abilities and STAB, and brought in a Dragon type much at a much earlier stage than you'd expect in a Pokemon game. It's a massive shame they didn't continue with that with later Pokemon (I was fully expecting Korrina's Pokemon with Dark-type moves shutting down my Ghost-types), and even then I had Clemont's Emolga switching over to his Heliolisk and Grass-knotting my unsuspecting Ground Type. If you still think older games had the challenge you needed, then well, I can't say anything more. But I think it is time to stop pretending that older games were the gold standard in difficulty. They're not. To varying extents, the older games have relied on artificial ways of raising difficulties. Them being gone in the newer games are actually a good thing. The real problem? Actually making a difficulty option (and not just toggling Exp Share on or off) and make Gym Leaders there actually able to counter their common weaknesses consistently. And that's what's been lacking.

I don't know if this is entirely correct, but Link's Awakening feels more like a reskin /re-port. Apart from some graphic upgrades and maybe some QoL, it's hardly any different from the original.

Can we maybe have a Lord that goes through negative character development? Maybe a Lord that is so set in his or her ways that struggles with societal changes and ends up being completely left out of touch even by his/her own people, and becomes a poster child for reactionism. And s/he gets dumped at the sometime after the war ends like Churchill's 1945 General Election. Even 3H is too sanitised with its endings, and I'd like to see a lord that doesn't leave a 100% positive legacy for once.

Right. That would be something I'll change if I ever do an AM LP fanfic similar to Fates, and something I'd happy to see changed in a remake. Make Edelgard actually rule parts of Faerghus, and rule it well. Since 3H's conflict is much less black and white unlike other FE games, I'd like to see this pushed further in a hypothetical remake or retelling (like what's done in for example Pokemon Ultra SM as opposed to original SM). That should also be something that should be further brought up if there's ever a remake or an update. That's indeed my point. BL reminds me of unpleasant toxic conservatism and honor-based culture in Japan that has difficulty in actually improving society and instead continues with its obsession of honour. And I'd like to see this more explored in a remake. See, I think that conversation between Dimi vs Edie was botched. I would have Edie bring out the question of crests, and I'll even bring out her manifesto, not only in CF but also in AM. And alongside how she grivances she does have of the church. And I would add further dialogue between Rhea and Dimi/Byleth afterwards and reflect how she also (unintentionally) had a hand in causing the conflict in the first place, and decides to entrust Byleth who at least have more interactions with people across Fodlan. TLDR, as with above, I'd rewrite this entirely and add extra dialogue, so that Dimi and Rhea realises their shortcomings - and this goes back to how BL is emotionally unhealthy as you pointed out. And how they need to change if they and their society wants to survive.

Okay, let me dispute this one by one. Bear with me as there's a lot to cover. Yes, Edie didn't start her reforms in CF, but I think that was because she was more behind in her conquering compared to other routes. I think it is worth pointing out that AM, CF etc are all alternate histories with the point of divergence being when Byleth chooses the house. Hasn't she already conquered the majority of the Kingdom in AM thanks to Cornelia? Admittedly, I'm a bit hazy with how much the Alliance is conquered, but I think she's in much better position by AM's Chapter 13 with Rhea caught, Dimitri missing, and the Kingdom annexed compared to CF's Chapter 13 which she hasn't had anything yet. Even if she can't push all of her reforms, I wouldn't be surprised if she can reform the military at least (and maybe a couple of other stuff) to recruit talented commoners to rise up through the ranks. She needs all of the help she can get. Point taken about Sylvain's needing the Crests to protect their territory from Sreng. It still doesn't negate his own problems with how the crests negatively affected his parents' (resultant) attitude towards the kids, or how Sylvain was seen as a trophy while Miklan was neglected. This shows up in his supports with Blyeth (B), Mercedes (B and A) and Dorothea (A) - though I noticed it didn't show up in the main story for some reason. And when I checked the former two conversations, Sylvain acts resentful too. And here's one between Sylvain and Mercedes: Surprisingly, I couldn't find the similar things with either Sylvain x Ingrid/Dimitri. (Or could it be in the main story and I've just missed it?) You know, two people who should actually know about Sylvain better than Byleth or Mercedes. Now, I know this could mean a whole lot of things, but it raises a couple of yellow flags with me that the people who are supposed to be close friends don't actually discuss then proverbial elephant inside Sylvain's emotional room. At the very least Dimitri could have more explicitly acknowledge Sylvain's (and Mercedes's) situation and more explicitly realise the negative side of crests on society. (Again, maybe this was in a conversation that I missed.) And this includes him trying to understand why Edelgard acted the way she did, even if he cannot completely forgive her. Now that I think about it, it was a step too far. But even if this isn't possible, I would have liked to have seen Dimitri realize that things aren't black and white, things don't happen in a vaccuum, and he's not completely the hero either. I mean, Dimi's story is still fairly close to a typical FE story, and this actually comes after 15+ games of the typical hero saves the continent story. I would totally not mind having the typical FE lord having to learn why things happened as they are, and that he has to admit his society's own shortcomings being a factor in setting off the events as they are, and that he cannot maintain the status quo. And the ending should show that there are way more stuff Dimi needs to sort out before he can finally rule with stability, and that the Kingdom had to contend with a lot of changes in its rule, ironically fulfilling Edelgard's wish to some degree. And if this sounds antithetical to what people think of AM, I would like to point out that my idea has some historical precedence. Napoleon may have failed as Emperor, but his ideas ended up setting up revolutions later down the track such as 1849 in Austria. The Sepoy rebellion in India failed, but did lead to a change in how India was governed. Communism eventually failed, but it did prompt western governments adopt social programs and civil rights - if nothing more than pragmatism to ironically keep people away from Communism. (See the end of this article from the Atlantic, quoted below.) I'll have to continue this on some other day as I am in the middle of work.

Now that I think about it, what would you improve for Azure Moon? I wouldn't mind if they also modify AM's story. Say Dimitri's reconquest of his Kingdom isn't going as well and is a constant uphill battle, trying to quell rebellions on the southern half. Turns out, those people were actually kind of content with the Empire's rule thanks to Edelgard's egalitarian policies. And turns out, Edelgard was kinda right about Rhea not having the best interests of the Fodlanese people. And suddenly Dimitri's leadership is called into question when the whole Blue Lions teams finds out. Some like Felix gets all high and mighty about it, revealing that he knew that Dimi was not doing his homework in governance all along. Some like Sylvain and Mercedes lashes out at Dimi for being constantly self-absorbed for the majority of the War Phase, disappointed that Dimi has no plans for what to do with the constant crest-based injustice the two faced. Others like Ingrid refuses to believe any of Edie's claims and yells at the others for not knowing which side the students are on. In the end, I would make it explicit that Edie ended up having the last laugh in her grave. Either Dimi gets forced into a figurehead, or he ends up passing a less extreme version of Edelgard's reforms. Rhea and Seteth ends up being forced to fess up under Byleth's coercion, and steps down. And while everyone eventually makes amends, I'd make it so that that too had been an uphill struggle.

I say this is a case of "If it ain't broke don't fix it." So the percentage in FE6 is not true. So what? It hasn't made the game any less enjoyable, and 2-RNG has been a staple of the series for several games until Fates came up. If anything I actually liked that dodgetanking was a thing in FE6 courtesy of 2-RNG. I feel no need to change the formula unless if there is a specific reason for otherwise. Fates can be an exception, since I can see that 2-RNG would arguably make Hoshidan units broken in terms of accuracy and avoid. Remakes may be another exception, especially if the game is designed around a particular chance calculation. I don't know about Navarre in the original FE1, but him in my playthrough of the DS remake was not the best Swordmaster due to the already low dodge rate in the latter half of the game made even worse by 2-RNG.

None at the moment, as I'm busy retraining after being stood down at work. Besides, I haven't finished Pokemon Shield, I haven't started Final Fantasy 12, and there's also the non-CF routes for FE3H.

I wouldn't mind if Silver Snow is completely merged with Azure Moon, and Rhea being romancable because those two are the closest political stance to each other. It''ll also bring much needed world-building to Azure Moon as well. As for Verdant Wind, I wouldn't mind if there was a pro-Empire route under certain conditions. The default route would be as canon, of course. As for the other route, Byleth/Claude can initiate support conversations with the Black Eagles students. After a certain amount of it, Byleth and Claude finds out more about what Edelgard wants, while Edelgard and her students finds out what Byleth/Claude wants. Because of this, one or the other decides to offer an alliance after the timeskip. The pro-Empire route is a modified version of Crimson Flower, but Edelgard dies in the Arianrod Incident, and Byleth has to carry her wishes in her stead. I'll probably replace some of the GM explorations with explorations in, say, Enbarr, Firidhad/Arianrhod, or Deidre, depending on which route you eventually take. And some other of the exploration rounds would be in a barracks on the move.

A third hot take from a Japanese: I never completely understand the romanticization of Shinsengumi, Byakkotai (two loyalist samurai groups against the new Meiji government), or any faction of the old order fighting to the death in historical drama. At some point, you have to see the writing on the wall. Now, if it was something like the 1930s where the usurpers are fascists and the loyalists are more democratic (or at least not as authoritarian), then yes, I can understand, because you're trying to protect your society from actual harm. As for the Shinsengumi or the Byakkotai I consider them to be more a case of tragedy where one is too ingrained in his/her culture, and cannot shake out of it.

Did that actually happen to your (recruited) Ingrid in CF? Serious question. No, I think that was Deranged Dimitri lol. Either that or it was Corny Cornelia lolol. Back to the topic: Fallen Edelgard (and her Fallen Mega-Charizard X) secretly got me hooked on Pokemon Masters instead of FE Heroes.

I've just came back from the Japanese consulate in Sydney the other week for the parliamentary elections (we call it the National Diet, but it's essentially like the national parliament in Commonwealth countries), and boy, I really wish there was preferential voting available, because I'd really like to prioritize my vote towards the non-LDP parties and hope one of them actually becomes a proper opposition party to better keep LDP (Liberal Democrat Party, or Jiminto) held accountable.

While avatars in recent FE games haven't been all that popular in this forum, I wonder what are your thoughts for avatars and silent protagonists in other games? We're talking about characters like Minako, Yu, or Ren in Persona 3-5 (which I think Byleth was based on) or any other avatars. I haven't really experienced Ren in Persona 5, so I won't comment on that one. I liked Minako in Persona 3 and to a lesser extent Yu in Persona 4. Specifically, I liked that for example, both had an implied personality in a few of their possible replies to NPCs, yet I still have a sense of agency as myself in moving the story forward. I personally prefer Minako, as she seem to have a clearer personality with her answers, and that a few of Yu's responses in Persona 4 (particularly his response to Yosuke) kind of comes off as insensitive.

I have a massive one for Persona which I'm thinking of writing for my next LP fanfic: Link here

Oooooh that would be cool. I'd happily play an FE entry with this.

I wouldn't mind if we went back to the third-person narrative with Lords with personality. At the same time, I didn't have a problem with Byleth either. I didn't see it any different from when I was playing as Yu or Minako from Persona 3-4, as they're also complete self-inserts too. If anything, I liked that I myself had a sense of agency and had the sense that I actually made some difficult choices in who I allied with, and stuck with that choice, thanks to things being genuinely greyer. This is unlike a certain someone else from a previous entry sides with a country that is Saturday-Cartoon levels of obviously evil and acts all spineless to the obviously evil king, yet constantly whinges about it until the last two chapters.

I remember seeing Pikachu crawl up the ceiling in Celadon City's Team Rocket's Hideout in the Let's Go remakes! Maybe we could expand this idea in Gen 9, or Pokemon SwSh2/Lance! Your mere mention of this just made me want to see an Azurill ferrying an Onix, and a Fletchling flying its trainer. Yeah, I know it's ridiculous lol. I'm sadistic😈, and I also want to see how it looks like lolol. 😜 Back to a serious note, I always wonder why that hasn't been a thing even now. There's been friendly interactions between Ash and Co and wild Pokemon in the anime (not sure about the Adventures manga) - it'll be nice to see similar things in the game, even just to add the detail touches in worldbuilding the Pokeverse and its culture.

I've mentioned this in r/pokemon in Reddit, but how about introducing field-battle moves split? For example, each specific Pokemon have specific field moves; Gyarados has Surf and Waterfall for example. There is no other limitation on the type of field moves you can use, as long as the specific Pokemon inherently knows them. They don't cost moveslots in battle as long as they remain as field moves to navigate lakes, rivers, and waterfalls in the field. However, you can also assign them into the battle moveslots for battle usage, in which case, of course it will use a slot. Thus Gyarados knows both Surf and Waterfall in the field, but in battle, you can make it such that Gyarados only knows Waterfall as a battle move, alongside Dragon Dance, Ice Fang, and Power Whip. Thus, Surf can only used for field navigation, but Waterfall can be both used for navigation and battle.

Only if it's Yukari from Persona 3. Because that at least shows (close-to-)real-life ramifications of why she's like that and how it is emotionally unhealthy for her. Yukari...also having an elabourate, complicated, and fully-fleshed personality on par with most other Persona characters also helps. Actually, no, sorry. Felix from 3H is another one that I actually like. There, people actually call out his behaviour as worst practice to good teamwork, and Felix often has good/valid points about the shortcomings of Blue Lions or Faerghussian society. If anything, given how most of the protagonistic characters of FE are goody two shoes, I actually wish Felix went even further with his jerkass devil-advocate's behaviour. One-note villains are starting to get too boring for me. Validar, Garon, Iago, and Hans especially. But for some reason, I...actually like Valter in Sacred Stones. I don't know why, but I always get a sense of thrill when I see him on the scene. Outside of FE, I never minded the Pokemon villians (which are generally even more one-note than FE villains are), and to this day, I still love Sakaki/Giovanni and his "experience a world of pain" speech.

Shadow Dragon: Oh everything's such a slog without Canto or Pair Up/Rescue... Binding Blade: Chapter 14 and Cecilia. Sophia's sort of okay, because she doesn't have the desert movement handicap, and she at least has story-related justification to be deployed. Why I can't even be given the option to bench Cecilia on Chapter 14, I don't know. The first half of Chapter 15's quite tricky as well. There's a village you need to rush, and one of the bandits to recruit with Lilina, but you can't rush too much because there is at least one enemy that have an anti-cavalry weapon, and they're not exactly pushovers in general. Sacred Stones: None. Everything's too easy. Awakening: The game lacks substance in both story and gameplay aspects. Fates Conquest: The story. OMG. Three Houses Crimson Flower: There are too many triggers/tripwires for reinforcements, and because of skills and battalions, they're no joke. And...is it just me, or are there more cases of infinite reinforcements in this game than in past games? Because I remember even Chapter 22 and 24 of Binding Blade have a limit in the max amount of reinforcements.

More a rediscovery, but if there is an ensemble or orchestra that does orchestral (or orchestral-sounding) arrangements of jazz music right, it has to by Tokyo Kosei Wind Orchestra, and their New Sounds in Brass recordings. In most other orchestral arrangements including arrangements done for Boston Pops Orchestra, the jazz rhythm and improvizations are greatly watered/dumbed down - particularly the strings part where they don't have any swing/syncopated rhythms. The arrangements for Tokyo Kosei, however, keeps much of the jazz idiom intact and have improvisations, so for the most part it actually is jazz music that happens to be arranged for concert band. Here's a list of Youtube clips: One O'Clock Jump - Composed by Count Basie, Arranged by Shoji Yokouchi Glenn Miller Medley (Little Brown Jug - In The Mood - Tuxedo Junction - American Patrol - Moonlight Serenade) - Composed/arranged by Glenn Miller and others, Arranged by Naohiro Iwai Artistry Jumps - Composed by Stan Kenton, Arranged by Naohiro Iwai Night in Tunisia - Composed by Dizzy Gillespie, Arranged by Toshio Mashima