vanguard333

Honestly, I feel stringing along characters as if they have a chance, when they don't, is the real waste, so I really liked how Tonikawa handled the childhood friend character. Since the author isn't trying to pretend that she has a chance, the story instead does other things with her character, though admittedly most of those are in the form of comic relief. That said, I would say a far better example would be Kamiya from Shikimori's Not Just a Cutie: her finding out that she has no chance with Izumi is handled dramatically rather than comedically and she forms a strong friendship with Shikimori.

I'm responding to the whole thing and just cutting the quote for space. Interesting points. I agree that content is cut from video games for all sorts of reasons, and that restoring cut content in a remake or remaster shouldn't be expected. I just think seeing cut content restored, especially as bonus/extra content, is interesting because this stuff is part of the game's history, if that makes sense. Something I just remembered that I forgot to mention before that probably would've made my point clearer: in the case of Wind Waker HD, Aonuma said in an interview that the reason the two cut dungeons weren't included is that, in their original form, they don't exist anymore; they got recycled and placed in later 3D Zelda games (some have speculated that the Goron Mines in Twilight Princess is the recycled version of one of those two cut Wind Waker dungeons, since there is concept art of a steampunk volcano island with a great resemblance to the mines). So I definitely understand why they didn't add the cut content in Wind Waker HD's case. The point I just wanted to make with Wind Waker HD was that, even in the case of a game like Wind Waker where they wrote around the cut content with stuff like the destruction of Greatfish Isle, they could theoretically have still added cut content by making a "restored/uncut adventure", if that makes sense.

I recently started watching a romance anime called The Ice Guy and his Cool Female Colleague. Basically, a woman who doesn't show emotion often meets her new co-worker: a guy who is descended from a Yuki-Onna (a creature of Japanese Folklore that is basically a woman with snow magic), and, when the guy gets emotional, ice and snow form around him. For example, on his first day of work, his nervousness and ice powers causes him to literally have cold feet: his legs end up completed encased in a large icicle. Normally, I only watch romance shows that are about two people who are already a couple at the start of the series, as that guarantees at least some level of creativity and that the show will avoid a lot of the cliches that I really dislike in romance stories. However, I saw some trailers for this show and thought it looked interesting, so I decided to try it. Overall, the show's pretty good so far. The show has been fairly creative with the ways in which the guy's ice powers reflect his emotional state, I like that the guy is a romantic at heart and his need to keep his emotions in check to avoid giving his co-workers hypothermia just barely hides it, and I like how, even though both of them are quite shy, they do make real progress in the early episodes, so I'm glad that the story isn't just going to string along the audience with "They might make some progress soon; keep watching to find out! (300 episodes later) They might make some progress soon; keep watching to find out!"

Interesting points. In the case of a remake, I do agree that more content doesn't inherently make a remake more enjoyable. That said, I definitely can see an argument to be made that a remake is the best opportunity to restore things that were lost or add things that were included in later re-releases and bundles. Here's some examples: Years later, what stands out to me the most about Ocarina of Time 3D is not the graphical overhaul, but that they bothered to include Master Quest: a version of Ocarina of Time that was released on the GameCube that remixed the dungeons and puzzles and increased the difficulty. I've never played Master Quest and I don't really intend on playing it, but I think it's extremely cool that they went out of their way to include it. Similarly, while I really enjoyed Wind Waker HD, I couldn't help but feel that it missed an opportunity: Wind Waker, like a few prominent GameCube titles including Mario Sunshine and Smash Bros. Melee, was rushed because of the GameCube's poor sales, resulting in a lot of things being cut, including a more elaborate underwater Hyrule, underwater sections of the Earth and Wind Temples, the dungeon where the player was originally supposed to retrieve Nayru's Pearl, and a third temple. If the idea was to preserve the ways the game was altered to account for the removal of these things, like the destruction of Greatfish Isle, that's fair, but there was nothing stopping them from having the HD remaster have an "original adventure" and an "restored/uncut adventure" kind-of like how Ocarina of Time 3D included Master Quest. Things like Master Quest and cut content are part of these games' history, so I can definitely see the argument that those are probably among the first things that should be considered when making a remake, much like how legacy collections will include stuff like original artwork. …I guess kind-of both? I really meant is as an umbrella for things like gameplay, design, amount of stuff to do, etc. One reason I kept the opening paragraph about Metroid Prime Remastered was that I hoped that mentioning stuff like Prime Trilogy and the cut Kraid fight would help illustrate what I meant, since I couldn't think of a way to be more specific.

Torterra. I genuinely can't really point to any particular reason why that is; I just like Torterra. The ones after Torterra would be Gallade, Aegislash, Decidueye and Mimikyu, not in that order.

Thanks for the input; I didn't think the questions were very well put either when I wrote them. Originally, I was going to have the topic just be about Metroid Prime Remastered before I decided to have it instead be about a much more broad topic. I kind-of agree that remasters and remakes are very different things (the only reason for the "kind-of" is that "remaster" is very loosely defined); I lumped them in together because the question was more meant to be along the lines of, 'when a game gets re-released in a way meant to update/upgrade it, which do you consider more important?' Regarding your examples of remakes, there is no Metroid Prime Remake; it's a remaster. Final Fantasy VII Remake, despite the name, isn't a remake either, as it's actually an alternate-timeline sequel. Speaking as someone who played it without ever having played a Final Fantasy game before, I can safely say that the developers not only didn't pretend FF7 doesn't exist, but actively assumed everyone playing FF7R has played the original, as anyone who hasn't played it would get lost the moment it starts involving timeline and "Arbiters of Fate" nonsense (I know I did). Also, the Crash N-Sane Trilogy added more than just QoL changes; it added new levels and restored levels that had been cut during the original games' developments. Oh, I agree that it's a false dichotomy; my intent behind this topic was not to perpetuate the false dichotomy in any way (that's the reason I included more than two answers to the poll questions), but to invite discussion. Any mention of it as a supposed dichotomy was meant to only be in the form of 'this has commonly been presented and discussed as if it were a dichotomy'. Any suggestions for making that more clear?

Metroid Prime Remastered released recently. The overall reaction to it has been fairly positive due it not being full price, having an extensive graphical overhaul, and multiple control options, with the graphical update easily being the most brought up aspect of the remaster. However, some, including myself, have pointed out that the Prime Trilogy is still available on the Wii U eshop at half of the Prime 1 remaster until the eshop closes in March, and, when compared to Prime Trilogy, Prime Remastered is essentially 1/3 of the content at double the price in exchange for new visuals and control options. Others have suggested that the remaster could've been an opportunity to restore content that had been cut from Prime 1 during development, such as the Kraid fight. In a way, however, this discussion is nothing new; graphics/visuals vs content is an argument that has appeared many times in various forms since at least the last several years, and probably longer than that. The discussions around Prime Remastered are simply the newest example of this discussion. So, I thought I'd ask: which is more important?

I wasn't a fan of any of the Fates characters. As a Fire Emblem fan that began with Path of Radiance, one thing I thought I could always look forward to was an interesting set of characters, and Fates couldn't even provide that. They weren't characters; they were either gimmicks or plot devices. It was really disappointing. As for Camilla specifically, I was part of the group that, when the trailer that revealed all the royal siblings showed her, thought that her design was so blatant and outrageous that it was off-putting rather than appealing. My opinion of her did not improve. There's a potentially interesting character somewhere, but it's buried under a pile of terrible writing and shallow fanservice. She was useful in gameplay, and that's about it. I probably would've largely forgotten about Camilla by now, if not for the fact that she just keeps appearing in celebration games (and we all know the only two reasons why that is). I'm tired of it; Corrin I understand since they're the protagonist of Fates, and, since Azura is the deuteragonist of Fates, I would understand her appearing in crossovers and celebrations (she never does, but I'd understand it if she did), but the royals should've been forgotten by now, but instead, they keep coming back; Camilla most often of them all, and they take spots away from actually interesting characters. You said in two small sentences what took me three paragraphs to say.

I've never seen the movie, but I've heard of this scene. It's a good scene. Apparently, the actor improvised the "tears in the rain" line.

In the past couple decades, we have been getting a lot of adaptations of different media, and a fairly significant number of them have been met with significant criticism from fans for being inferior to their source material; perhaps they were rushed out by a team that was uncaring or didn't understand what people liked about the original, perhaps the original was simply really hard to adapt to other mediums due to something about it, perhaps it was going to be a strong adaptation but it suffered severe meddling or a troubled developed, or any other reason. This is not a thread about those types of adaptations. Instead, I wanted to discuss the cases where it's almost the opposite: you saw an adaptation and its source material, and not only did you come away thinking that the adaptation was the better version, but also that the adaptation actively tried to fix that which you didn't like about the original. Basically, the kind of adaptation where, in your opinion, the biggest problem it had was the source material itself. Note: this thread is not an excuse to just rant about a story you did not enjoy; for every example you give about a problem with a specific source material, please also provide what you thought the adaptation(s) did to try to fix it.

Caeneghis. He's a cool character and I like lions. I get the feeling that IS would probably pick Ena, Nasir or Kurthnaga. They wouldn't be bad choices since they are all major characters, but them being dragons would make it a bit of a missed opportunity, and it would lead me to say, "They should stop putting in new dragons and just make Alear actually be a dragon already!" Lethe, Mordecai and especially Ranulf would be good choices in this regard, in that they're major characters and they would be unique among emblems thanks to being beast tribe laguz. For Metroid Prime Remaster, I have warmed up to it a little since it's not full price and the graphics overhaul is more than just an HD filter. But it is still $40 for a 21-year-old GameCube game that hasn't had anything added to it except control options and a new coat of paint. Just a year ago, I bought Metroid Prime Trilogy on the Wii U eshop for $20. Hm... $20 for all three games, or $40 for only one game with a new coat of paint? I think it's obvious which one is the better deal. Content is more important than graphics; it's not even close. And Metroid Prime wasn't exactly begging for a graphical overhaul anyway; it's one of a handful of GameCube games that still looks good. It's kind-of funny: Nintendo will give large graphical overhauls to games that don't need them, like Wind Waker and Metroid Prime, but then they won't give graphical overhauls to games that really do need them, like Twilight Princess. Adding to that, the Wii U eshop is closing next month; soon there won't be a way to purchase either of Metroid Prime's sequels. How is this not similar to when they would delist Wii U games from the eshop after making more expensive 'remasters' on the Switch? And yet, all I've been are people celebrating that the remaster isn't full price and that it got a large graphical overhaul. What happened to all the Nintendo fans who would say graphics don't matter nearly as much as good content? I stood alongside them, but apparently, I was the only one who actually believed it.

Thanks. I agree that it is a good way to say it, but I somehow didn't think of it until afterwards. Yeah, I doubt IS had that in mind either when picking Camilla. As I said before, if they wanted a flying emblem, the obvious choices would've been Caeda or Elincia. They undoubtedly picked Camilla because of fanservice, which I honestly find just a little funny because I remember myself and quite a few people originally finding her design so blatant and outrageous that it was off-putting rather than appealing. Oh, apparently (someone correct me if I'm wrong) Camilla's emblem title in the original Japanese is "emblem of dark night", which makes more sense than "emblem of revelation".

Yeah, fanservice was my first thought as well, but I couldn't think of a good way to say "Was Camilla picked because of fanservice?" Even for that, Azura would've been a good choice as, while her design is tame compared to Camilla's, it does have some amount of fanservice, and Azura would've made far more sense as the Emblem of Revelation. Now that I think about it, I can think of one more possible reason why they chose Camilla: someone said, "There's a lot of infantry emblems and a couple cavalry emblems, but there's no flying emblem". But, in that case, they could've swapped any of the infantry DLC emblems with someone like Caeda or Elincia.

Soren I like. I personally would've preferred Elincia, but Soren is definitely not a bad option. Camilla... why? As far as supporting characters in Fates go, she's not exactly at the top of the list. Why not Azura? Azura is the deuteragonist (secondary protagonist) of all three routes, especially Revelation. Did Camilla win a popularity poll? Why her? It's an especially jarring choice since she imbalances things; now people will be asking where's the Hoshido Royal Emblem. Chrom and Robin is an odd choice, but I don't like it or dislike it. I do think that spot should probably have gone to a different game than Awakening, but it's okay. Hector is neat. I don't really have anything else to say about him. I'm honestly just surprised they included a Heroes emblem at all. I guess if you want to celebrate every FE game, that includes the mobile gatcha game. But, in that case, when can we expect Vesteria/Berwick/TearRing emblems?

Whelmed is indeed a word. It doesn't mean indifferent though; it was supposed to be used the way that people generally use overwhelmed. Perhaps the word you're looking for is "placid". If you have a Wii U, the Prime Trilogy is available for $20 on the eshop until March 27 (of course they release the Prime remaster only a month before the eshop closes; real anti-consumer move). Well, at least it's not full price, but that's still twice the cost of Metroid Prime Trilogy on the Wii U eshop. They definitely timed this so that, very soon, that $20 for all three games option will disappear. $40 for a remaster of the whole trilogy, I could understand, especially since Prime 3 was built around the wii pointer and gyro aim isn't as fast, but it's just the first game, and it just looks like a graphical update; that's not a remaster, that's a port, especially since it looks like they just put the original graphics through an HD filter and called it a day. Granted, the Prime games don't really need any more of a graphical update than that since they hold up extremely well, but an extra $20 for an HD filter and two less games is a really terrible deal.

Well, that direct was neat; some good, some bad, some boring, some interesting; it had it all. The Tears of the Kingdom footage at the end with both story and gameplay footage is pretty good overall. I'm not sure about the new Ganondorf voice; I guess I expected something different from a mummified corpse, but the rest looks really interesting. And we finally saw a bit more footage of Zelda herself, though it was just in a story cutscene. I'm still a little saddened that it looks like Link will still be travelling alone in this game. Yeah, I agree. Nintendo really is keeping their cards close to their chest with Tears of the Kingdom, and it is starting to get a little annoying. I knew a Metroid Prime remaster was inevitable, given how Metroid Prime 4 is coming and, with Metroid Dread having renewed interest in the series, they'd inevitably want to introduce new fans to the Prime games. My main criticism is that it is only a remaster of Prime 1. I just bought the entire trilogy for $20 on the Wii U a bit over a year ago; if this remaster is full price, then this will be yet another example of Nintendo charging full price for a Switch version of something you can get at much lower price on a previous console for the simple reason that they know most Switch owners don't have a Wii U. And, even if it doesn't end up being full price, it will still be a little bittersweet. If you're going to only sell the first Metroid Prime game, at least make it a full remake. Gameboy and Gameboy Advance being on Switch Online is interesting. I'm glad that Gameboy at least doesn't require an expansion pass, but we'll have to see how good the emulation is for these games; I wonder if we'll have another N64 Switch Online situation again or if the emulation will actually be good. That said, there are a number of games that they listed that I want to play: the Oracle games, Minish Cap, Fire Emblem Blazing Sword, etc., but I don't want to play them under a time crunch; I only have so much time each week that I can set aside for playing games; I don't want to have to spend several months' worth of Switch Online for the few hours I could maybe spend on these games, and I think this is the biggest weakness of Switch Online. TV Shows and movies make sense for a subscription model because they're short; one movie is about two hours, and TV shows are divided into 30 minute-to-1 hour episodes. They fit the time one would spend logged in to the service. Games; even old games, take longer, so the lack of permanence really is more of a potential deal-breaker.

I'm surprised for the following reasons: 1. It only diverges if you pick the Black Eagles house; it doesn't diverge for any other house. 2. These maps are supposed to be important to the emblem; the 3H choice was only important to Byleth if the Black Eagle house is picked, as it's only then that Edelgard being the Flame Emperor matters to them. I agree that Gronder Field wouldn't make sense for Byleth (it would make sense for the House Leaders, but it only being in two routes hurts it); that's the reason I instead suggested the chapter where Kronya and Solon are fought.

I don't mind these protagonists being related to dragons in some form, but I'm tired of their relation to dragons being used to make them seem more unique when they really are just another sword-wielding teenage human in all but name. It's especially irritating that Engage's protagonist is supposed to be a dragon; not a human with a relation to a dragon; a dragon, and yet they are just another sword-wielding teenager; at least Corrin actually had a dragon form. Almedha is a dragon laguz and she was Ashnard's wife-in-all-but-name and the mother of his child. I'd consider that as Ashnard having a direct connection to a dragon.

I haven't played the game, and I don't really ship characters, but I'll lend my input in terms of what I think are interesting pairings based on what I've seen of the game: Alear and Ivy. I watched a video of their support conversations and some of Ivy's wake-up dialogue, and their dynamic seems really interesting: the divine dragon and the first princess of a kingdom that reveres the fell dragon, with it turning out that she's actually always revered the divine dragon as an act of silent defiance against the extremely corrupt court in which she grew up. And... that's about it, really. I guess I also liked what I saw of Alear and Chloe's support conversations and other dialogue to some extent; I particularly like how, in one of the wake-up dialogues, she acknowledges that Alear will outlive her by thousands of years, but she hopes that the stories that will inevitably be made about the two of them will be of comfort to Alear when she's gone. But I don't think I'll be having Alear give her the pact ring.

Predictions: 1. New information about, and footage of, Tears of the Kingdom. Nintendo has been keeping their cards really close to their chest with this game; we know far less about it now than we did about Breath of the Wild back when it was this close to being released. They will either reveal more information here, or reveal nothing more until the game releases, and the former is more likely. 2. More info on the next couple waves of DLC for Engage. Hopes: 1. Xenoblade X Switch port announcement. 2. Tears of the Kingdom has Zelda travel alongside Link at different points in the game. 3. Engage gets a free update that gives Alear a proper dragon transformation.

I haven't played the game, but, sadly, I already know which map was chosen for Ike. There would've been a couple good choices from Path of Radiance that would've been significant for Ike as well as good maps in general, but the defining one would probably be the map from Chapter 8: Despair and Hope. In terms of being the most important to the character, it was Ike's first time having to lead the Greil Mercenaries after the death of his father; the chapter where he is thrust into the leadership role that he was not ready for. Ike and Elincia's character arcs in Path of Radiance can be summed up as the two of them being thrust into leadership roles they weren't ready for and having to grow into those roles, so, picking the chapter where Ike had to do that makes the most sense. In terms of gameplay, it was probably the best defense mission in the game which had the best variety of map objectives. It had it all, so I cannot think of a chapter of Path of Radiance that would be more 'definitive' than that one. For Marth, either Talys or Altea Castle. Talys would be the opening chapter, when he finally demonstrates that he's ready to fight Dolhr, but it's an opening chapter. Altea Castle is him finally retaking his homeland, and it's a proper chapter rather than an intro. So... Altea Castle. For Celica... the maps stink in terms of gameplay, and I can't think of one that's really important to Celica and her character journey. Most of the big character stuff: Alm and Celica reuniting for the second time being a good example, happened well outside the maps and often in dungeons. If it were Alm, I'd say Rigel Castle because that's the only map with a big character moment tied to it (or at least, what should've been a big character moment but wasn't because the remake squandered an opportunity it should've utilized): Alm unknowingly killing his own dad as a result of the warpath he and Rudolph both chose. Celica's moments almost all happen in dungeons or villages. Haven't played the Judgral games, the Elibe games (that is the name of Roy's continent, correct?), or Sacred Stones, so I can't say. For Micaiah... that's tricky. There are chapters that are tied to her character: part 1 chapter 9 when she gets ambushed by Jarod and saved by the Black Knight (which wouldn't work for a chapter), part 3 chapter 13: where she's desperately trying to defend Daein from both the Laguz Alliance, the Greil Mercenaries and the blood pact (which would make a good chapter, but both of the Tellius chapters being defend chapters would be weird, and this game doesn't have laguz, which are the bulk of the attacking forces in that chapter), I suppose part 1 chapter 8: where Micaiah rescues Daein citizens from the Begnion occupation and is hailed as a hero and Joan-of-Arc figure by the people of Daein (it's important for Micaiah's growth, but it's also a swamp chapter)… I just don't know. I guess either 3-13 or 1-8; one of those two. For Lucina, Arena Ferox, both because that's when she fights her dad while pretending to be Marth, and because of Smash Bros. For Fates, the field in chapter 6 where Corrin has to make the choice: Hoshido, Nohr, or neither. If it had been Azura, I would've suggested the opera map, but it's Corrin, and the most important map for Corrin would be the one where they had to choose. For Byleth... that's tricky. There are some good contenders: the first chapter when they meet the students (but that's a tutorial mission), the Battle of Eagle and Lion field because of the contrast between part 1 and part 2 (but that field was only in part 2 in 2 routes: Azure Moon and Verdant Wind, and I guess that field is more about the students than it is about Byleth), the Monastery (so, chapter 12): as the monastery is extremely important to Byleth (but they'd then have to choose which version of chapter 12)… it would have to be somewhere really important, but also somewhere that is before the points at which the routes branch off... I can only think of two places: the forest where Kronya is fought, and the Holy Tomb. Of the two, the forest where Kronya is fought makes the most sense to me. The Holy Tomb only really matters to Byleth in Silver Snow and Crimson Flower, as those are the routes where Edelgard being the Flame Emperor would actually affect them emotionally. Fighting Kronya and then fusing with Sothis, however, is important to Byleth in every route. It is a slightly more boring chapter, but very few chapters in Three Houses are not boring on some level. Let's see:

I don't get it either. Between that and Corrin's dragon form only being relevant in chapter 5 and then never brought up again, I can't help but get the feeling that IS are the only fantasy storytellers/game developers in the world that think that dragons are somehow boring, despite dragons being in every FE game. But yeah; the only way for Alear to have a dragon form in Engage is apparently to use the Tiki Emblem, which a) is DLC, and b) gives anyone who equips it a dragon form.

I see. I'm probably just going to get Emblem Tiki ASAP when I get the game so I can give it to Alear and pretend that it's Alear's dragon form.

Thanks. Another mage lord would potentially be really cool. I haven't played Engage yet either; I just know that Alear, despite being a dragon, spends the whole game in human form and is instead built around using the emblem rings.