vanguard333
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Posts posted by vanguard333
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To quote the YouTuber Arlo, "The joy-con war is over. We lost."
Apparently, there have been at least three lawsuits against Nintendo over joy-con drift, one of which was dismissed a couple years ago. Recently, the remaining two lawsuits were also dismissed.
The Switch was a great console, but the joy-con drift is perhaps Nintendo's lowest point in terms of hardware quality, and now they've pretty much been told that they don't have to improve. Anyone else remember when Nintendo made a console so durable that it would work perfectly after being hit with a sledgehammer?
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Arkane Austin closing was sad, but predictable: they received the same higher-up-driven death spiral that many game studios have received over the years. Tango Gameworks, however, makes zero sense.
The fact is that Hi-Fi Rush surpassed all expectations and was a surprise hit in every sense of the word, drawing a lot of unexpected attention. All eyes would be on what they produce next; even if I try to imagine the perspective of a corporate executive obsessed with profits, market share and stock price going up, the logical step would be to throw more money at Tango Gameworks for their next game to be an even bigger hit, not shut it down. What were they thinking?
On 5/10/2024 at 7:00 AM, Lord_Brand said:I wouldn't be opposed to anti-megacorp laws alongside anti-monopoly laws. I'd sooner invest in ten small businesses than one big empire.
The sad thing is that there are anti-monopoly laws, but they aren't being updated or enforced because corporations rule America and America is an empire in all but name.
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On 4/24/2024 at 7:09 AM, Jotari said:
That's kind of the issue, isn't it? Fliers have a built in weakness to bows. Armoured have an effective weakness to magic. But there's no weapon wide counter to horses. Horses just win. Even though pike walls were the famous counter to cavalry; certainly a lot more so than shooting down a freaking flying horse or using a flame thrower on someone in plate mail. But make horses weak to lances and you have an issue that it's just weird for the weapon triangle and probably nerfs cavalry too much. But if we had beast units just casually in the enemy ranks at the same ratio as bows then cavalry would have a pretty solid counter.
Or, yeah, just more ridersbanes on the enemy in general. Now that they've innovated that little exclamation mark bubble there's really no good reason not to kit the enemy out in them more if horses are dominating things. That being said, cavalry domination hasn't been too bad in the most recent releases.
One idea I had was to give each weapon type an infantry-only subtype that has additional effects: for swords, it would be greatswords (very large two-handed swords used by bodyguards in the 16th century), and the subtype for lances would be pikes, which would have an anti-cavalry effect. Ridersbane can then remain as an anti-cavalry lance that can be used by anyone.
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7 hours ago, Integrity said:
ok hater jeez lol. nomura kicks ass i'm sorry for your disorder
2 minutes ago, Integrity said:i'm sorry i violated decorum by taking badly to you
I can honestly say that I expected better behaviour from an administrator. Speaking as someone who actually has a neurodevelopmental disorder (specifically, autism spectrum disorder), accusing another person of having a disorder as a way to mock them goes beyond "violating decorum"; it's outright crass and disrespectful.
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I don't have a PS5, so this should make it easier for me to get Square Enix games. However, there aren't really any that interest me. I liked the gameplay and presentation of FF7 Remake, but, as a complete newcomer to Final Fantasy, it lost me when it turned out to not actually be a remake, but a weird alternate-timeline sequel metanarrative that may as well have held up a big neon sign saying, "Come back after you've played FF7!" So, even if I did have a PS5, I wouldn't have bought FF7Rebirth.
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5 hours ago, Zapp Branniglenn said:
Zelda - Blossom Tales, Oceanhorn
Did you mean Ocean's Heart? Or is there another 2D Zelda-like with "Ocean" in its name?
10 hours ago, Randoman said:Mega Man: Shovel Knight (and its side campaigns), Mighty No. 9
I'm not sure if Shovel Knight really counts as a Mega Man equivalent; it does borrow heavily from Mega Man, but it also borrows from The Adventure of Link, Super Mario Bros., classic Castlevania, and other 2D NES side-scrollers. It's really a combination of multiple NES-era side-scrollers.
Incidentally, there are a ton of indie equivalents of Metroid and Castlevania to the point where "Metroidvania" is a very large subgenre. I know this because one YouTube channel I watch, Nerrel, has at least five videos that each review several Metroidvanias. At least one of them was a fan-made remake of Metroid 2 called AM2R, or "Another Metroid 2 Remake".
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I'm not sure what is going on in the scene; I'm guessing that it's funnier with context.
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I've been continuing to play the Advance Wars 1+2 remake. I finished the final mission of Advance Wars 1, and I'm not eager to play any of the additional missions in that game because of how much the game could sometimes become very tedious. So, I moved on to Advance Wars 2, hoping that that game has enough refinements that I will feel a lot better playing it than Advance Wars 1.
One thing that's obvious from the start is that there's a greater narrative focus in Advance Wars 2, which isn't saying much as the plot of Advance Wars 1 can be summed up as "everyone is tricked into fighting each other until the end", but it's nice to see.
I also found the missions went a lot smoother this time; perhaps it's a difference in AI from me selecting classic difficulty rather than casual as I did for Advance Wars 1, or it could just be me getting used to the game. The only thing that I'm not a fan of is that the initial enemy's CO power introduces an element of chance: when he uses it, his units can do anywhere between very little damage and a lot of damage. I don't like chance in a game where you're not only graded on whether or not you complete the mission, but how efficiently and thoroughly you complete the mission with as many units left as possible; it really doesn't fit and it can be the difference between a perfect score and a lower rank.
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I've never seen this show. I am a history enthusiast, so I'm almost glad that I don't know the context, as otherwise, my mind would've spent the whole video comparing it to the actual history and criticizing the inaccuracies (incidentally, Ancient Romans didn't wear leather bracelets).
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Just now, FRZNHeir said:
So Maddening Mode/Lunatic mode but as the base difficulty?
Yes, and taken even further than maddening/lunatic modes.
What did you think of the rest of my ideas?
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A game that outright lies to the player about all the stats. A character that has a "100%" chance to hit actually has a 0% chance to hit, while a character with a 50% chance to hit actually has a 75% chance to hit. To catch people thinking, "the lower number is better", the lower numbers below 50% are still low, but jumbled around. The weapon damage is also lies. Weapon durability works by each weapon being assigned a random, small number of uses that is invisible to the player.
Not only that, but enemies blatantly do not follow the same rules as the player characters. All enemy units have greater movement and greater attack range, blatantly ignore fog of war and don't even pretend to be unable to see the player characters, and they can blatantly go through walls and objects in addition to being able to pass through player characters without the need for the pass skill. Finally, all weapons do not lose durability when wielded by enemy units.
All maps are fog of war maps in swamps and deserts, and there are no playable flying units; only enemies have flying units.
Every line of dialogue is an outdated meme, and they aren't even Fire Emblem memes.
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34 minutes ago, Revier said:
Isn't that the Bible book that's borderline pornography? Not trying to belittle the point, just find the bit funny.
Same name, different book. Incidentally, in my Bible, the book that you're referring to is titled, "Song of Songs".
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7 hours ago, Interdimensional Observer said:
If you need help for this specifically...
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Andy is going to get clobbered right away, just focus on surviving with him.
- Maybe let Sturm take the nearby neutral airport so he'll churn out air units there, within easy reach of any Anti-Airs you build.
- Try to get Andy to scapegoat the first Meteor Strike (not if an Infantry cluster is as effective as it used to be at baiting it). If need be, have your two other armies scatter their units the turn you're expecting a Meteor Strike so that the 3x3 +shape is less likely to hit them, or at least cause less damage.
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While Andy holds out, the two side armies need to rush to his aid.
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As I was used to the GBA originals and cleared the old unlock requirements, I'm not sure if Grit & Olaf and Drake, Eagle, & Kanbei are already unlocked.
- If you do have a choice, the pick Max for the left side, and pick either Kanbei or Eagle for the right side, that'll be the strongest pair. Don't pick Sami for the right, she's the worst choice here.
- Send these armies up the left and right, capturing all the properties they can along the way. Churn out Tanks, AA, and aircraft to send Sturm back over the river. He has -20 Defense in AW1's Campaign, his units are squishier than normal. Unless you're Grit, don't bother with indirects, this map has too much movement for them.
- Given your starting positions, need to take the forward deployment facilities, and not overly abundant funds, it will take a few turns to get to Sturm.
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As I was used to the GBA originals and cleared the old unlock requirements, I'm not sure if Grit & Olaf and Drake, Eagle, & Kanbei are already unlocked.
Interesting. I think this is mostly what I tried to do, but I and the guide had Kanbei on the left and Eagle on the right. My problem was that the AI behaved differently from how it did in the guide in a few key ways (for an example: early on, it positioned one of its medium tanks in a way that made it out of reach of Eagle's helicopters on the turn the guide used them to attack that tank).
All those characters are unlocked in the remake if I recall correctly.
7 hours ago, Interdimensional Observer said:This won't be an option in the Black Hole Rising campaign. There, for the majority of maps, you'll be assigned a specific CO for a given mission. If they have certain strengths, you can usually expect their maps will emphasize them.
You do know there is a Turnwheel-like feature that was added in Re-Boot Camp, right?
It can only reset the current turn you are on. But if you realize you messed up during the enemy phase, you can exit the game before it's done and you should go back to the end of the player phase, I think?
That sounds good. I was just saying that, when given a choice, I usually picked Andy as the CO.
There is? I don't recall the game ever mentioning it at any point. I'm definitely going to look for it now, as that can be a big help, though it only being for the current turn is a little disappointing.
Thanks for the unit advice.
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Andy is going to get clobbered right away, just focus on surviving with him.
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Recently, I've been playing Advance Wars 1+2: Re-Boot Camp. I thought I'd try it since its turn-based strategy is very different from Fire Emblem's and looked very interesting. I'm currently at the final mission of the first game, and I've been struggling with whether or not I've been enjoying the game.
There is a lot that I like: I like that the game encourages aggressive tactics while also punishing leaving troops in the open, I like that the troops being disposable means I need a different mindset from when I'm playing games like Fire Emblem or Valkyria Chronicles, and I like the variety of different units and the ways different commanders affect those units (Incidentally, I mainly use Andy, as I like being well-rounded and his power healing his units makes them less disposable).
However, I have found that, far too often, all it takes is one tiny mistake, or even doing everything in a way that should work, but the enemy AI does something bizarre, for what should've been a quick victory to instead become a slog. I can roll with making mistakes in Fire Emblem so long as a unit doesn't die, as Fire Emblem is more flexible, but it is just not fun to roll with mistakes in this game because of how much those mistakes compound. Mistakes can also compound in Valkyria Chronicles, but Valkyria Chronicles has two things this game doesn't have: the ability to save at any time, and multiple save slots.
It's to the point where, quite often, I'm having to resort to a guide. However, even then, the enemy AI almost always behaves differently from how it does in the guide, ruining the strategies provided by the guides. In those cases, I usually am eventually able to find a way to modify the strategy to make it work, and it is fun when it finally works. Before then, however, are multiple restarts of the map and exercises in frustration.
I have heard that the second game is better than the first, but I don't know if it will be any less frustrating. I want to keep playing it, as it can be a lot of fun. But, unless I find a way to mitigate the amount of times I have to restart an entire map because it's become a slog as a result of one small mistake, I may have to stop playing it.
Anyone have any advice?
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4 hours ago, Jotari said:
I'm very sure the Paper Mario games used models. They were just, very, very spritey looking models. But they were 3D interacting with a 3D environment. But, yeah, that's why I prefaced my own comment with first "real" attempt at 3D.
I suppose it's possible. If so, then the Paper Mario games would be a reverse of Mario Kart 64 (the N64 couldn't handle all eight karts being models, so they're actually sprites).
What did you think of the other points that I made?
4 hours ago, Jotari said:Yes. Ledges good. And it's a shame Radiant Dawn is the only game to have them. You're right that they basically have no counter play. On retrospect, given that later games give magic attacks the ability to ignore terrain, mages being the counter play to ledges would work pretty well. Especially given mages are probably at their weakest overall in Radiant Dawn.
Mages ignoring ledge disadvantage when below a ledge, at the cost of not having ledge advantage when standing on a ledge, would be a neat idea.
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Path of Radiance is my favourite game in the franchise, and my favourite game of all time, but there are definitely areas where Radiant Dawn made improvements.
1 hour ago, Uscari said:6. 3D Visuals
Honestly, I don't like most of the 2D artstyle in RD and find that the character portraits look kind of lifeless compared to PoR, but the 3D presentation saw a huge improvement. Playing both games I find that the one created only 2 years later has aged much better visually in terms of the in-game animations and models compared to PoR. Yes it was done on slightly stronger hardware than PoR, but RD also artistically improved the maps, the animations, and the models noticeably over PoR.
7. Player Phase Oriented Combat
I touched on this earlier but I think it's worth expanding on. Although RD has its fair share of squatting on a choke and letting waves of enemies crash into your wall one enemy phase, it does seem to balance the maps somewhat more in favor of encouraging the player to be more proactive in securing loot/objectives. Although I feel PoR compensates for being too enemy phase heavy by having a resource management metagame, I am willing to acknowledge that PoR would have benefited from more maps where the player is encouraged to be aggressive and use all units to secure decisive kills on player phase.
6. The 3D visuals were definitely an improvement. I don't think it has much to do with hardware, as the Wii was almost the same as the GameCube in terms of its power, but more a matter of Path of Radiance being the first 3D Fire Emblem game. Before it, they were all 2D games that relied on sprites. In fact, I think it might be the first game Intelligent Systems ever made that used 3D models; everything before then in their list of games used sprites as far as I can tell, with the possible exception of Cubivore; a game I never heard of until I saw it on Intelligent Systems' list of games.
7. I'm not sure that's a plus. I honestly really liked Path of Radiance's emphasis on enemy phase combat; with how much every FE game since has been entirely focused on the player-phase, Path of Radiance's emphasis on the enemy phase is something that I do miss.
One big improvement that I can think of is in the area of weapons. All three melee weapons having a "strong, but heavy" version and the existence of 1-2 range non-magical swords was definitely a big improvement over the only 1-2 range swords really only being useful in the hands of Mist and/or Elincia.
Another improvement would be that skills can be removed without being completely erased. One thing I didn't like in Path of Radiance was that deleting a skill meant it being completely erased; in Radiant Dawn, it instead becomes a skill scroll that can be given to another unit. I also like that skills that characters have by default don't cost skill points, meaning there's still incentive to have units keep the skills they already have.
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One trend that I'm tired of seeing, and that thankfully has diminished, is writers being obsessed with trying to surprise the audience and/or get them speculating.
Take plot twists for an example: for me, what defines a good twist is the impact that it leaves on the plot and the characters; some of my favourite twists were extremely predictable but left a huge impact on the characters, making them amazing. But, for quite a while, it felt like almost every writer was obsessed with trying to make their stories' twists as surprising as possible even if it came at the expense of the story, and it didn't help that there were almost always a ton of defenders saying stuff along the lines of, "Better that than something predictable, as predictable = bad".
Even the director of Three Houses: Toshiyuki Kusakihara, had that mindset; saying in an interview about Three Houses' development that, "I don't think there's much value to a story you can easily predict."
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2 hours ago, lenticular said:
Grimdark. Definitely grimdark. We have passed peak grimdark at this point and it's on the wane now, but there's still too much of it for my tastes. I don't mind fiction that has a dark edge to it, but I need for there to be some sort of light in the darkness if I'm going to stay interested. Unending doom and gloom just doesn't do it for me. And there's also the related phenomenon of "edgy for the sake of edgy" which is extremely tiresome.
Ike is/isn't a commoner, maybe? I've seen that being argued from both sides by people who are convinced that their take is Objective Reality and not just their interpretation.
Yeah, grimdark was a really annoying trend for a while; I'm really glad that it's waning. Unending doom and gloom just doesn't hold interesting, and I'm sorry, but trying to make a story seem "more mature" by making it all doom and gloom just makes it come across as immature.
I've been trying to avoid the "Ike is/isn't a commoner" argument, since it's not what this topic is about, but with it continuing to come up, I will respond just once, then ask that this topic not get derailed:
Ike was a commoner: he was born a commoner, raised a commoner, and, perhaps most importantly given the statement someone made about headcanons: the story frames him as a commoner and treats him as a commoner, so it doesn't matter what I say: the story says he's a commoner.
56 minutes ago, Jotari said:I think that's something that definitely can be argued though. Because Greil no doubt was a noble being a general in the pre-Ashnard regime, with it specifically being noted that Ashnard made it possible for commoners to achieve such ranks ergo someone from before had to have been a noble. It's more deductive than fanfiction. But then maybe I'm exactly the kind of person who was being called out, lol.
There is no doubt that Greil was a noble; emphasis on "was"; before Ike was born, he had fled Daein and been made an outlaw, and an outlaw was even lower than a peasant: they had zero rights and it was not a crime to kill them. Ike was born the son of an outlaw and a priestess; not exactly high-status.
22 minutes ago, Acacia Sgt said:Even if you don't count the Gawain bit, there's still the fact Ike is still effectively a "Mercenary Prince". So not exactly "common" either, even if he wasn't of noble origins.
Everyone inherited from their parents in the middle ages: the farmer's son inherited the farm, the smith's son, unless he got an apprenticeship elsewhere, would inherit the forge. Calling him a prince just because he inherits something is misleading.
10 minutes ago, Jotari said:But it is a bit of a misconception that he's unique or unprecedented in that regard, as he hits a lot of the same plot beats as Alm. And later Byleth too as commoner raised mercenary protagonists. It's the less common of Fire Emblem's stock character tropes, but "Seemingly ordinary guy raised by a gruff old dude of renowned martial skill with a secret origin" is one of the two Fire Emblem protagonist along with "Lordling with responsibilities".
There are two major differences though: first, Alm is treated throughout the game as someone special with everyone fawning over him and saying he was born special and better than them, with the explanation for it given by the second difference: Alm is secret royalty, and him being secret royalty plays into the plot as he inherits the empire. Alm's plot is a King Arthur and the Sword in the Stone plot. Also, Alm wasn't raised by a mercenary, but by a renowned knight and he was told that he was that knight's grandson, which gave him political perks.
Anyway, I have said all that I wanted to say. I will say no more so as not to derail the topic.
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13 hours ago, Jotari said:
I guess to more clearly put what I wanted to say, would be that I wouldn't mind a huge surge in multiverse stories of they consistently engaged with and utilized the idea well.
I see.
12 hours ago, indigoasis said:I saw a post on Twitter the other day explaining how a common theme among Final Fantasy games is defying fate (the exception being XV if you don't count alternate endings). Remake does exactly this, but in regards to defying the story of the original game (in a very obvious manner).
Okay; that doesn't really change how, in execution, the multiverse aspect was extremely stapled-on and made the game alienating to me as a newcomer who had never played FF7. Rather hard to appreciate a multiverse metanarrative about defying the events of FF7 when I haven't played FF7.
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19 minutes ago, Jotari said:
I wouldn't say there's any individual tropes I'm sick of seeing in of themselves. And multiverse is a really good example of this. I'm sick of seeing it done poorly or for no real reason. But Everything, Everywhere, All At Once is a genuinely great movie that properly engages with it's multiverse premise to tell a genuinely heartwarming and philosophical story (fight scenes could drag on a little long though). I wouldn't want to see something like that not made just because the market is saturated.
This is the reason I said, "appear less often" rather than the more specific, "not appear at all anymore" and titled this "Trends in Media That You're Tired of Seeing" and not "Tropes in Media That You're Tired of Seeing". I agree that Everything, Everywhere All At Once was great, and I don't want to see multiverse stories end; I want to see the huge surge in multiverse stories end.
9 hours ago, Etrurian emperor said:I've been pretty tired of multiverse stories for a while now with Bayonetta 3 being the point I got most annoyed with it. FF7 gets kind of a pass since it doesn't really adhere to the multiverse style. Its just the same story told a bit different rather than ''Wutai Sephirot and Shinra executive Barret''
For me, the annoying thing about FF7R is that, as a complete newcomer, I just wanted a remake of FF7, and that's what FF7Remake was marketed as being. Instead, all the multiverse stuff meant that the game may as well have thrown up a big neon sign saying, "Come back after you've played FF7!"
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Tropes are tools; ultimately, it's about how they are used. However, often when one is used well, it inevitably spawns imitators who use it poorly, leading to storytelling trends that boom and then bust. I recently made a thread about storytelling tropes that you don't see often and would like to see appear more; this thread is the opposite: this is about storytelling tropes that you feel you see too often, even if they're used well, and that you think should appear less often.
Here's an example:
1. Timeline/Multiverse Stories:
For the past few years, there have been a ton of branching-timeline/multiverse stories: Into the Spider-verse, Across the Spider-verse, No Way Home, Everything Everywhere All at Once, Loki, Multiverse of Madness, Quantumania, The Flash, Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity, the Final Fantasy 7R project (Remake, Rebirth, and the untitled part 3), and even Fire Emblem Engage to some extent, for just a few of the many examples I could list. And I'm tired of them.
To be clear, I am not saying that all these examples are bad or that timeline/multiverse stories are inherently bad: Into the Spider-verse and Everything Everywhere All at Once were great movies that did a good job handling their multiverse stories, and I have yet to see Across the Spider-verse, but I've heard that it's really good. What I'm trying to say is that there has been a ton of them recently, and, for a lot of them, the timeline/multiverse aspect hurts more than it helps, and the timeline/multiverse aspect is sometimes stapled on to a story that would've been better without it.
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Since Ganondorf in the next game is undoubtedly going to be based on his Tears of the Kingdom version, part of me hopes that his final smash is his Demon Dragon form. Another part of me, however, hopes that the Demon Dragon and the Light Dragon will be a stage instead, and I'm not sure which of those two options I think would be more interesting.
What do you think? Would the Demon Dragon be better as a final smash or as part of a stage?
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I have played both games and Path of Radiance is my favourite video game of all time. I will just point out one thing:
10 hours ago, Uscari said:3. Story
The Black Knight's character was also ruined when it was revealed that he killed a man in cold blood just because he wanted to beat his master.
The Black Knight wanting to beat his master was established all the way back in Path of Radiance during the cutscene fight between him and Greil:
Black Knight: Here. Use this blade.
[Black Knight throws Ragnell near Greil]
Greil: What are you doing?
[Black Knight draws Alondite]
Black Knight: I’ve been waiting for this for a long time. I would prefer it if you used your proper weapon, so that I might see you at your full strength…
[Black Knight points Alondite at Greil]
Black Knight: General Gawain, Rider of Daein.
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My personal favourite is Torterra. It being my favourite starter in gen 4 is probably a big reason why, but I also just like Torterra.
I also like Gallade, Aegislash, Altaria, Mimikyu and Decidueye.
- Gallade is a cool knight-in-shining-armour
- A Pokémon that's a sword & shield is really cool
- I think Altaria is cool and adorable. That said, I would've preferred if normal Altaria was Dragon/Fairy type, not just its mega evolution.
- Mimikyu is adorable with its sad backstory that it just wants to not be lonely so it tries to pretend to be Pikachu, and its disguise is adorable and a really powerful ability (that apparently was sadly nerfed in gen 8; I wouldn't know as I haven't played any gen 8 or 9 games).
- Decidueye has a cool design and the idea of an owl archer is cool.
Favorite Starters
in Pokémon
Posted
Overall, I'm not sure which set of starter Pokémon is my favourite. I ended up picking gen 4 because Torterra is my favourite and Chimchar and Piplup are also pretty cool.
My favourite fire starter would be Charmander, as I like Charizard.
My favourite water starter would probably be Froakie, since that's the only water starter that I have actually preferred over the other two starters.
My favourite grass starter would have to be Turtwig, as Torterra is my favourite Pokémon and a turtle with a tree on its back is a cool design. My second favourite grass starter would have to be Rowlett because Decidueye being an owl archer is pretty cool.