vanguard333

I see. That makes sense. Rise definitely has really good visuals. I dislike that as well; I tried to include that in my list of problems with the level-up system (the part where I say, "it makes a ton of sense that a newly-hatched monstie starts at a low level, but it does mean that you have to grind if you want that monstie to catch up to the team". I realize now that the subsequent sentences may have mitigated this when the intent was to show problems compounding on each other.

Cool. I've played Stories 2 as well; I played all the way to the end, and then didn't do any of the postgame content. There is a way to guarantee which type of monstie you get from an egg: fight the monster in the overworld, and use the item that makes it more likely for the monster to retreat back to its nest after bein defeated. That's how I got a tigrex and a monoblos in the second area of the game (when those two are sleeping monsters you do not want to wake unless you're skilled or overlevelled enough to defeat it). Yeah, that's how I feel as well: the bones of a truly great game are here. I don't have a problem with the graphics, but I do have some problems with its structure, namely that it's way too easy to end up overlevelled. Whenever I play an RPG these days, I always ask myself, "Is the level-up system in this game necessary?" because of just how many times having a level-up system didn't add anything and, if anything, detracted from the game (The Witcher 3 is a good example). For all Pokémon's faults, the level-up system is necessary, as stuff like evolution are directly tied to it and it complements IVs and natures, which differentiate different examples of the same Pokémon. With Monster Hunter Stories 2, however, I feel that it clashes with the game's other mechanics. For one example, it makes a ton of sense that a newly-hatched monstie starts at a low level, but it does mean that you have to grind if you want that monstie to catch up to the team. This wouldn't be much of a problem if not for the fact that the rider and every other monstie in the group also gains experience points, so if you just got a monstie that you want to use, you're going to end up overlevelled. This again wouldn't be much of a problem if the game encouraged sticking to a core team, but the game does just the opposite; a lot of monsties the player finds later in the game will be outright better than a lot of the earlier monsties in every way: there's no reason to keep a Bulldrome once the player can get a Monoblos/Diablos, there's no reason to keep a red Yian Kut-Ku once the player can get a blue Yian Kut-Ku, etc. There are some early-game monsties that retain their relevance. One thing I like to do in monster-collecting RPGs is do a playthrough where I use a team consisting entirely of monsters that are underdogs, and I felt strongly discouraged from doing so when playing Stories 2.

Why did my suspicion have to be correct? Oh, well; at least I got Prime Trilogy a year before the Wii U eshop closes.

I see. At least it's something. I hope so as well. I have yet to get Fire Emblem Engage, and my current plan is to just give Alear the Tiki emblem bracelet and pretend that that emblem's transformation is Alear's dragon form.

So, this DLC-exclusive "Nel" character has a dragon form that can be used in gameplay, but Alear is still essentially a human-in-all-but-name. Why does IS continue to torture those who wanted to see an actual dragon protagonist? Anyway, I wonder how Nel's dragon form works; do they just stay in dragon form for the whole battle, or are there limits on its duration?

I see. Thanks for the info. I'm probably still not going to watch that arc, but it's nice to know that that character was "interesting enough". Anyway, going back to the topic, are there any other examples you can think of for an adaptation whose biggest flaw is its source material?

Ah; okay. To be clear, are you referring to the one who causes all damage/thoughts of damage to hit the attacker instead? If so, then I know who you're talking about, and yeah; their powers are stupid. I think what threw me off was you calling them "androids", which, to me, means "humanoid robot". I think the correct word for those two is "cyborg". I figured that, since it's a leak (and therefore not official or even guaranteed), it would be fine since it's not a spoiler unless it actually happens. I suppose. My main problem with it is that Momoshiki said that Boruto's own blue eyes would, "Take everything from [Boruto]", but this would make that Eida's doing. Going back to the anime, is it true that the anime arc where Boruto gets trapped in some weird squid game (the arc after the Kawaki-&-Himawari at the academy arc), revealed the missing 8th Kara Inner... even though all the Inners besides Code were supposed to be dead?

I agree with your overall point in the first paragraph. However, the manga repeating the movie was the far greater waste of time than the anime repeating the movie. At least the anime expanded upon the movie's story and actually made it something resembling good. The anime version of the movie's plot was yet another example of the anime being shackled by having to improve upon its source material: the pre-movie arcs having to recontextualize Naruto not being around as a difficult transition after previously being able to spend the whole day with his kids, the movie arc having to add back in characters and plotlines that were cut from the movie for runtime (namely everything involving Urashiki), having to rewrite the scene where Boruto gets caught cheating to have it actually mean something, and having to add the belated-birthday scene so that the central character arc could actually have some resolution. By contrast, all the manga added was the scene where Momoshiki places the karma seal on Boruto; something the manga did not need to repeat the entire movie just to show; a simple opening flashback scene would've sufficed. Wow; I thought I knew everything that was going on in the manga, but I had no idea about the random robot. That sounds terrible. As for how side characters are supposed to remain relevant, therein lies the problem: as far as the manga is concerned, that's not its problem, as the manga doesn't spend any time on Inojin, Iwabe or Konohamaru except when they want Konohamaru to be the latest villain's punching bag for the millionth time. I imagine that, every time the manga pulls out a new villain, the anime writers furiously wonder how they're possibly going to have the side characters stay relevant. Have you seen the leaks for the newest chapter? It looks like the blue-haired girl that's obsessed with Kawaki pulls a village-wide Book of the End (if you'll pardon the Bleach reference) out of nowhere: basically rewriting history to have swap Kawaki and Boruto's backstories in the minds of everyone in the village. It's ridiculous.

I don't hate dodge-rolling; I dislike that the Souls series relies on dodge-rolling as a crutch. Imagine, for just one moment, if the i-frames were removed from dodge-rolling from one of the Dark Souls games or Elden Ring. I imagine the vast majority of players would consider the game unplayable, especially the ones that cry "Git gud" at the sight of any criticism of the series, despite the fact that blocking and parrying are options that exist and are supposed to be viable. Wanting a more engaged and reactive enemy is probably a lot closer to what I'm talking about. I haven't fought any of those three (and I have only heard of that first one); I've only played Monster Hunter Rise, and those three aren't in Rise. I am aware that Monster Hunter is a different type of game; Monster Hunter revolves around the hunt as a gameplay loop, while Souls games are supposed to be about exploring a world, and less of the player's time is spent fighting bosses. The answer is: basically all of them. Name one boss fight in DS3 where the boss fight doesn't revolve around memorizing the attack patterns and pressing dodge-roll at the right time. At least the Dancer was designed so its rhythm matches the song, so the player also keeping up with the song provides an advantage, but that's the only thing I can think of in any of the DS3 boss fights that goes beyond "roll when they attack, attack when they pause". I don't dislike the dodge-rolling itself; I dislike dodge-rolling over and over again with the only variation in the fights being the specific attack pattern; an attack pattern which, after I memorize and beat the boss, I never have to think about ever again and that will never help me ever again unless another boss copies that attack pattern. Suicide Squad isn't getting bad reception because it's a looter shooter; it's getting a bad reception because it's another live-service game. I don't know anyone who has a problem with the concept of a looter shooter in-of-itself; I do know a lot of people who are sick of live-service games for completely understandable reasons (Anthem, Avengers, Babylon's Fall, the list goes on).

Okay; even if it has to be provided by the player, winning because the developers provided something about the situation that I can exploit is far better than just memorizing an attack pattern and exploiting i-frames. I'll try, but I'm not very good at explaining due to my autism. Let me put it this way: I like to think of "challenge" and "difficulty" as two different things: for me, challenge is how much I need to understand the game and what the developers have provided and think about what I'm doing, while "difficulty" is how mechanically hard things are (example: how precisely I need to press the "roll" button at the right time). My criticism of games like Dark Souls 3 is that they are all difficulty, no challenge. In the case of Monster Hunter, there is far more than exploiting monster weakpoints. There are a ton of nuances and different mechanics that can provide an advantage, and a number of ways to gain an advantage through utilizing the area and situation; this is especially true in the newest game: Monster Hunter Rise, thanks to the introduction of endemic life and wyvern riding. For one thing: preparation is important. There are a ton of items the player can bring with them including traps, poisoned meat, flash bombs, sonic bombs, potions, etc., to gain an advantage, but not all of them will be useful against the specific monster, and the player must store them in the same item pouch in which items obtained during the hunt are stored, meaning the player has to decide which specific items they might need the most. Not only that, but each monster has something about them that the player can exploit to gain an advantage; all of which are contextualized and are intuitive if the player thinks about the situation. Here's a list of examples off the top of my head: Plus, when I said that Monster Hunter's combat "made more sense", I was also talking about there being far less emphasis on dodging: only a few weapon types, such as Sword & Shield and Dual Blades, even has dodge-rolling at all, and unlike Dark Souls, it isn't a crutch; it is a lot more situational in its usefulness.

I realize now that I never provided an example. I have one: Boruto: Naruto Next Generations (the anime) This one is an odd example: originally, the anime wasn't presented as an adaptation of the manga; the idea was that, since the manga is a monthly release, both versions would be canon, with the manga being the more skeletal version of events and the anime being the version with more flesh and more time spent on side-characters. That was the idea anyway; it's become increasingly clear that, due to poor planning (and I suspect poor communication), the anime is basically an adaptation of the manga. I enjoyed the anime initially; the protagonist: Boruto, was easily my least favourite part of the story until the fifth arc (the arc that adapted the movie), but I really liked the side characters and I liked some of the story arcs overall. However, after over 200 episodes and after seeing what the manga is like, it has become clear to me that all the things I liked were either anime-only or things the anime expanded and improved, and all the worst stuff was stuff from the manga that the anime just couldn't fix. One major example is the death of Kurama; I have no problem with Kurama being killed off, so long as it was done well. The way the manga handled it was extremely bad, and the anime tried desperately to improve it, but there was very little that the anime could do. After watching a fun anime-only arc focused on Himawari and Kawaki, I gave up on the show, because I saw what was happening in the manga and I just knew there was no way the anime could save it. Over a year's worth of chapters consisting of nothing but poorly-written expository dialogue, mysteries being immediately and anti-climactically resolved in dumb ways through even more bad expository dialogue, and that's it. The leaks of the most recent chapter finally had something happen, and it was somehow even more insulting.

My favourite is definitely Edge of Dawn. It's a good song that's nicely sung. The song being from Edelgard's perspective and being about her internal conflict is really interesting and it certainly helps that Edelgard is actually a compelling character, unlike Byleth or Anankos, giving the song a clear edge over Lost in Thoughts, All Alone in that regard, but the latter is definitely in second place. I don't remember Heritors of Arcadia at all; not only has it been a long time since I played Shadows of Valentia, but none of the music really grabbed my attention when I did play it. I have yet to play Engage or watch any videos that include its theme song, so I can't say anything about Fiery Bonds.

Interesting argument, but this topic isn't about parodies of parodies; this is about a franchise unironically doing something that a parody did as a joke, some time after the parody released.

Yeah, Corrin doesn't look like they have fangs or claws. Now that I think about it, Anankos had claws but no fangs. That's a good point; Corrin and Alear are both disappointing, but in opposite ways. Combine Corrin actually having a dragon form with Alear's being a dragon being plot-relevant and we would finally get a dragon protagonist. However, IS is probably more likely to do the opposite: combine Corrin's lack of status or importance as a dragon with Alear's lack of a dragon form to get yet another sword-wielding human FE protagonist.

I haven't played the game yet, so there isn't much I can say. There is one thing I can mention, but I'm not sure if it counts as a feature: "Dragon" protagonists who don't actually have a dragon form: I hope this doesn't come back at all. It was underwhelming enough when Corrin's dragon form was heavily advertised only to be relevant for one chapter and be completely barebones in terms of gameplay; Alear supposedly being a dragon only to basically be a human in all but name is even worse. I don't see any scales, wings, fangs, claws or magic breath from Alear; all I see is yet another teenage sword-wielding human. If IS is going to say that the protagonist of a new FE game is a dragon, then they should actually be a dragon.

Speculating about Pokémon lore for a Pokémon game that my older brother has played and I haven't, in a video almost twice as long as the maximum video length for this thread. …/10

Whenever a franchise is successful enough, it is inevitable that parodies are made. Sometimes, a later installment of the original franchise, made after the parody, will, with complete seriousness, do something that the parody had already done as a joke, and expect the audience to take it seriously. If you know of any examples of this, list them here. I'll start: 1. In Star Wars Episode 8: The Last Jedi (made in 2017), one plot point has two of the main characters go to a resort planet to find a way to break into an enemy ship, and, upon arriving, they are immediately arrested for a parking violation. In Spaceballs: a Mel Brooks parody of Star Wars made in 1987, there is a funny scene where the main characters break into an enemy base by deliberately committing a parking violation to lure away the guards. 2. In the 2021 Star Wars Spin-off series Book of Boba Fett, there is a scene where, in the background, a Tusken Raider is raking the desert sand for no discernable reason. Again, in Spaceballs, there is a joke where the villains are ordered to search for the main characters in a desert, with the order being "Comb the desert!" and the joke is that they take it literally: they rake the desert sand using giant combs. 3. (Spoilers for the 2015 Bond Movie Spectre, as well as the third Austin Powers movie): If it is just a small moment, no need for a spoiler tag, but if it is a major plot point, please put it in a spoiler tag. If you can't think of any examples to list, feel free to discuss examples that others have already listed.

I just defeated Crimson Glow Valstrax in Monster Hunter Rise. With Valstrax defeated, I have completed all the base game's content. So, I will now be moving on to the Sunbreak expansion. I'm very much looking forward to it; Monster Hunter Rise hasn't disappointed yet.

DX isn't the original Gameboy version; it's the Gameboy Colour version that added the colour dungeon and the photo sidequest. I suppose, especially since Nintendo is keeping their cards close to their chest in regards to Zelda's role in the game. However, we have repeatedly seen Link travelling alone, so, unless Zelda somehow is Link's new green magic arm, Link is travelling alone again. You might have gotten flack for saying that between the years 2003 and 2006, but nowadays, you're not going to get flack from anyone except the odd, extremely rare anti-Wind Waker fanatic (which I have encountered only once in my time on the internet). Perception of Wind Waker when it initially released was marred by people crying about the 'cartoony' graphics and demanding something more like Ocarina of Time in visuals and gameplay. After Twilight Princess released and was exactly that: an Ocarina of Time 2 for better and for worse, overall reception of Wind Waker improved immensely, especially since Wind Waker's art style and graphics have aged extremely well over the years, while Twilight Princess' graphics... haven't. This was the start of what people called the "Zelda Cycle": where the release of a new 3D Zelda game caused Zelda fans to look back on the previous 3D Zelda game more fondly.

I would say that there's no need for the word "technically"; it's a mainline Zelda game where the player controls Zelda alongside Link throughout the game, therefore it's a Zelda game with a playable Zelda. Yeah, I was really hoping that Zelda would be adventuring alongside Link in Tears of the Kingdom. Even at their worst (Navi and Fi), adventuring companions have always been a good complement to Link, and I really felt their absence when playing Breath of the Wild. Plus, Breath of the Wild ended on Link and Zelda reuniting and setting out together, so it would only make sense for the sequel to follow up on that, and the first trailer made it look like the game would be doing exactly that. Alas, it seems Link will be adventuring solo again.

Well, I can think of one way in which content is more important to me personally than graphics: accessibility options, particularly options that accommodate different handedness (in my case, being left-handed). I mentioned Metroid Prime Remaster as an example of content vs graphics being treated as if it were a dichotomy. Well, Metroid Prime Remastered includes various control options: among others, there's dual stick, stick + gyro, and a "pointer (actually gyro since joy-cons don't have pointers)" setting that recreates the Wii-version controls. That's great for most people, and that would've been great for me as someone who began with Prime Trilogy (i.e. the Wii version) if not for one thing: from what I've gathered from people who've played the remaster, the "pointer" setting is locked to the right joy-con. I played every Wii game that I ever bought with the Wii remote in my left hand and the nunchuck in my right; the Wii remote was designed so it could be held in either hand, and playing the games that way was better for me. For the Switch, both joy-cons have the exact same motion control hardware: an accelerometer and a gyro, so, if Nintendo ever bothered to implement remapping for the motion controls, the Switch would be even better for me than the Wii was. And yet, every single Switch port or remaster of a game that had Wii controls has mapped those Wii controls exclusively to the right joy-con with no remapping options to speak of (oh, and the Switch's system-wide remapping only remaps the buttons and sticks; not the motion controls). I'm serious; every single one: Mario Galaxy (3D All-Stars) Pikmin 3 Deluxe Skyward Sword HD Metroid Prime Remastered And I'm sure I'm forgetting some.

Any Zelda game where Link is right-handed is not perfect; any Zelda game where Link is right-handed is an abomination I mean betrays every left-handed person on the planet I mean takes away one of the pivotal examples of positive left-handed representation in fiction, and, in Skyward Sword's case, also needlessly limits its potential audience with its lack of accessibility in this regard: I'd love to swing the sword via motion control like the game says I can do, but if I were to do so using the same hand I and Link himself in every other game would use for that, the game would register it as me raising the shield. That out of the way, my favourite Zelda game is Spirit Tracks. I know it's not the best Zelda game, and it does have some problems, such as the spirit flute being by far the worst instrument in Zelda history, but I really enjoy it for all the things that it does really well: the spirit train is really fun, the game has a ton of charm, I love how it lightheartedly parodies and sometimes outright mocks various tired Zelda cliches in hilarious and clever ways, and of course: Spirit Zelda. Spirit Tracks is the only Zelda game to have Zelda adventure alongside Link and work with him as a partner and equal throughout the whole adventure, and it is amazing; in gameplay, Zelda taking over Phantoms among other things enables her and Link to complement each other extremely well and makes her by far the most useful adventuring companion any Link has ever had, and in the story, she's a great character, and her dynamic with Link is absolutely adorable. Oh, and it bothered to remember that left-handed players exist: right at the start, it asks if the player is left-handed or right-handed, and the touchscreen controls are adjusted accordingly.

That pretty much sums up my problem with Souls games like Dark Souls 3: I'm up against this monstrosity that is stronger than my character in every conceivable way; do I win by being smarter than it? No; I win by exploiting that it's an AI with limited attack options, memorize the attack options, then rely on the i-frames provided by dodge-rolling to victory. Monster Hunter is deliberately ludicrous and operating entirely on rule-of-cool, and yet, it actually makes more sense than Souls fights. I have previously brought this up with Souls fans, and the usual responses are either "That's the point", "Git gud", or "Try Demon's Souls then; the bosses in that one are more like Zelda bosses and you'll probably like those." Yeah, I'm aware that the High Wall of Lothric is extremely early in the game. But I mean, I didn't see how to progress as I kept getting lost, and where normally my enjoyment of a game would propel me to keep going, I wasn't enjoying Dark Souls 3 at all, so I couldn't really keep going. Incidentally, I once saw a video by a video game reviewer where they basically summed up their problems with the later Souls games by bringing up what they thought Demon's Souls excelled at the most, and one of the things they brought up as a problem was the games being increasingly reliant on memorizing attack patterns. I wonder what you think of it:

I believe so, yes. It's available on Crunchyroll thanks to Crunchyroll's recent merger with Funimation. Um... no; not really; Lodoss War is the oldest anime that I've watched. The next-oldest on the list of anime I've seen are Naruto and Bleach; both of which began in the early 2000s. And I began my existence in the late 90s, so please don't say the early 2000s is old.

Yes; I originally made the point, then I provided an example to illustrate my point (the "did I just describe Lodoss War or Fire Emblem?" was rhetorical and was there to reinforce the point). I watched the original OVAs from 1990. I haven't read the light novels, so I can't really say exactly how much of the source material the OVAs adapt, but, if I remember correctly, the OVAs cover the first couple volumes, and then the later anime picks up roughly where the OVAs left off only to also end before the end of the novels. That said, while the OVAs do end long before the end of the light novels, they don't end on a cliffhanger; they do have a proper conclusion.