vanguard333

I recently completed my first Azure Moon playthrough. Since I previously played through Crimson Flower and Verdant Wind, all that remains is Silver Snow. I try to limit the number of student characters that I recruit, both for story reasons and so that I don't risk training characters that I won't accidentally train units that I ultimately won't use. With Silver Snow, there is extra incentive to recruit characters as you lose Edelgard and Hubert, but at the same time, once they leave, there's one less slot compared to Verdant Wind. I also want to consider using the church units; I've basically ignored all of them except for Flayn in my previous playthroughs, and even then, I usually end up dropping Flayn, so it would be neat to maybe use some of them here; it is the church route after all. I immediately knew I would be recruiting Lysithea, as she's basically the perfect replacement for Hubert, she's necessary for Ferdinand's paralogue and her pairing with Linhardt is sweet. If I'm recruiting Lysithea, then I'm probably recruiting Lorenz (but not using him as he isn't very good or relevant) for his relic so I can give it to Lysithea. For paralogues, I'd have to recruit Mercedes for Caspar's and Leonie for Linhardt's. However, I don't know if I really want to use them; in Mercedes' case, there's already Linhardt, Flayn and Dorothea for healing, and for Leonie, there's already Bernadetta for horseback archery. One issue that I have is that I like to have everyone paired up with someone at the end, and with my plan to have Byleth s-support either Rhea or one of the other church units such as Shamir, my current roster leaves Petra single. Usually, I pair her with Ashe, but he's just as redundant as Leonie. Anyway, what recruits do you recommend for Silver Snow?

Spoilers for FF7 Remake:

I finished Portal 1 and Portal 2. Portal 2 was definitely more... elaborate than Portal 1. Both games are really good; the puzzles are fun and the story is neat. My main criticism of Portal 2 would be that there are no single-player bonus puzzles; there's only the single-player campaign and the multiplayer.

…It turns out that I was rather quick to criticize Crisis Core Reunion. A recent interview with the game's producer revealed that the tweet referring to the game as "a prequel to Final Fantasy 7 Remake" was just for marketing purposes and Reunion will in fact be a "faithful retelling" of the original Crisis Core with the story intact. In other words: I don't know if I should edit my topic to reflect this new information or not; on the one hand, it means it's no longer a valid example, but on the other hand, the concern over whether or not Crisis Core Reunion would alter things to reflect FF7R was the thing that inspired me to make this topic.

I never played the original either, and I did know about most of FF7's twists thanks to cultural osmosis as well, and I still found the alternate-timeline reveal a little alienating. I knew the major twists, but I don't know all the events of the original FF7; not even close, so a lot of the stuff where it went "we're being an alternate timeline" threw me off. All those changes could still have been done with a remake rather than an alternate timeline. Your last sentence even says, "a remake can be a tool to expand on certain characters or update characters that might not be acceptable anymore", so I'm kind-of confused. Yeah; the boss fight with Sephiroth in particular was weird. I was a little forgiving of his early appearances in the game as hallucinations, as everyone today knows that Sephiroth is the villain where back when FF7 released it was a twist that he was the villain, but then it just went really weird and, as you said, boring.

I suppose. I do agree however with those that argue that the plot of AoC goes against Breath of the Wild's theme of bouncing back after failure. I did say that I consider Three Hopes to be a benign example. The problem I see with that is that there already was plenty of opportunity for the remake to tell new things while still being a remake; speaking as a newcomer who never played a Final Fantasy game before FF7R and did feel alienated by the reveal that the game was actually an alternate timeline, I found stuff like the Jessie backstory chapter a lot more fun and interesting than anything involving the Whispers.

Good point; I'll fix that now. Thanks. Yeah, I definitely don't see many people playing Age of Calamity without having played Breath of the Wild first; my point with Age of Calamity was more that the number is not zero. True; the "what-if" scenario is the main appeal of these games. I don't want to say that these games are complete wastes of opportunities; just that they can present opportunities that now will likely not happen, and I agree that the missed opportunity when it comes to Age of Calamity was more the fault of its marketing rather than the game itself. That's the reason I tried to put more emphasis on the Crisis Core remake and how only people who still own a PSP can play the original Crisis Core, so changing Crisis Core to be in line with FF7R is a disservice to anyone who wanted to play Crisis Core and didn't own a PSP. A version of Age of Calamity that had both the original timeline and the alternate timeline as separate campaigns would have been amazing. Thanks. Yeah; I agree that Three Hopes is pretty much harmless and that Three Houses already having multiple routes made it a perfect fit for having an alternate-timeline spinoff. Thanks; I'll shorten the title.

A while back, Square Enix announced a game called Final Fantasy 7 Remake, and in all their advertising insisted that the game really was a remake to Final Fantasy 7... and then the game turned out to actually be an alternate-timeline storyline where certain characters are aware of what happened in the original FF7 and try to change the course of events while other characters try to maintain the original course of events. A year later, Nintendo announced a game called Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity, a spinoff to Breath of the Wild that they kept declaring was a game set 100 years before Breath of the Wild... and then the game turned out to be an alternate-timeline storyline where a good robot egg from the future tries to prevent the calamity while a corrupted robot egg tries to ensure the calamity succeeds, and the events of the great calamity are ultimately prevented before they can happen. On the same day that Square Enix announced part 2 of the FF7R series, they also announced a remake of Crisis Core: the prequel to FF7... and they just recently announced that this remake of Crisis Core will actually be a prequel to FF7R, not FF7. I have in the past criticized those first two games for their false-advertising and appreciated Fire Emblem Warriors: Three Hopes for being upfront about being an alternate timeline, but with even more of these games appearing, I've begun to think that there are genuine problems with these games beyond marketing that are generally overlooked, and I wanted to address some of them here now that these kinds of games seem to have become a trend: 1. They are alienating to newcomers. This is hardly unique to these games; hard sequels can risk doing so as well, but in these games, it is pretty much unavoidable that a newcomer who isn't familiar with the original game will be confused by the alternate-timeline. One might argue that this isn't inherently a problem as these games are made for pre-existing fans, and fair enough, but even so, this would've been problematic for Final Fantasy 7 Remake and Age of Calamity, as their marketing definitely attracted newcomers. I know a number of people who bought FF7R having never played FF7; with more casual audiences, a modern remake with up-to-date presentation sounds more appealing than playing a port of a game from 1997; I know I bought FF7R because I thought a remake of FF7 would be a perfect entry point into the series for me and that it would likely be easier to get into than a game that's a year older than Ocarina of Time, and I did see people wonder, back in the days when everyone thought Age of Calamity was going to be a prequel, if perhaps it would be better for newcomers to start with Age of Calamity. But anyway, even if this isn't necessarily a problem for the consumer, it is a potential problem for the publisher if they fail to realize that they are making a game that can only appeal to established fans, and given how much these games are becoming a trend and how much attention most of them have been getting, I don't think they realize that; I genuinely think at least some of them think these games can appeal to newcomers. 2. They present missed opportunities. This admittedly isn't always the case; Fire Emblem Warriors: Three Hopes certainly doesn't. But at least a few of these games present opportunities only for these opportunities to be wasted by the alternate-timeline. Age of Calamity presented the idea of a game that took place during the great calamity, and now, that's likely never to actually happen. Similarly, one problem I see with Crisis Core Reunion is that, while people disappointed with FF7R can still play the original FF7 as ports of it are everywhere, the same is not true of the original Crisis Core. The original Crisis Core was a PSP-exclusive, and Square Enix never ported it to another console, so the remake was a perfect opportunity for people who never owned a PSP, lost their PSP, sold their PSP, broke their PSP, etc., to be able to play Crisis Core, and now that we know that the game's going to be adjusted to line up to FF7R rather than FF7, that opportunity is gone for anyone who just wanted to be able to play Crisis Core. 3. They can undermine important parts of the original. (spoilers ahead) Now, please don't take this as me saying that these alternate-timeline games need to stop; far from it. I don't think anything negative of Fire Emblem Warriors: Three Hopes for instance; it's just a benign fun little spinoff. But I think that developers need to be more careful with these games and not overhype them as something more than they are so as not to disappoint or alienate. What do you think? Side-Note: Apologies if the title sounds a little like clickbait; it honestly was the least clickbait title I could think of; if anyone can think of a better title for this, please let me know.

I understand why people would like the idea: Zelda games have never really been one to pull punches with their endings; even Wind Waker ended with Hyrule being washed away and the king drowning to death. That said, when they do give happy endings, it usually is one that fits the themes of the game; Majora's Mask had a strong theme of defying seemingly-inevitable doom; that even when things look absolutely bleak and hopeless, they aren't, and the game's best ending fits that by showing that everything you did to help everyone across the many 3-day cycles ultimately did matter in the end. I've seen people who only saw the bleakness of the game argue that the ending was an anti-climax, and I couldn't help but think that they were missing the point. In the case of Zelda being her young self when saved, I think it does fit the themes of the game: Breath of the Wild's story, what amount of it there is, does have a strong theme of bouncing back after failure: you can't undo past failures, but it's what you do about it now that matters (that's one reason I'm not a fan of Age of Calamity's plot even outside of it having been falsely-advertised, as it does go back and undo past failures). I think Link and Zelda being reunited the way they are does fit that theme far better than if she returned as an old lady.

I noticed it immediately. I once saw someone claim that, early in Three Houses' development, one reason Edelgard had the Crest of Flames was that it would enable her to manipulate space much like Byleth could manipulate time, but it was scrapped. If that claim is true, then Arval being able to manipulate space would be a clever recycling of that scrapped concept.

Less of a personal policy and more just a combination of not knowing enough of how to use emulators and not wanting to then have to navigate the minefield of making sure the ROMs I would then have to use are legally-obtained (emulators are 100% legal, but obtaining the ROMs is a complex legal grey area). Anyway, going back to Radiant Dawn and Micaiah, what's your opinion on @henrymidfields saying that Micaiah and Ike give the impression of "Radiant Dawn [pretending] to be not black-&-white when it is"?

No, I do not emulate games. I have great respect for video game preservation, but I don't personally emulate games.

I suggest you see the story for yourself before jumping to conclusions... at least, once the Tellius games are affordable. Hopefully a remake or remaster will come along. As for whether or not RD "pretends to be not b/w when it still is", I have played RD multiple times, and I think that's tricky to answer (though part of that may be because I haven't played Radiant Dawn in a long time). I'd say that it overall is a fairly b/w story that dabbles in grey, if that makes sense. The thing to remember in any discussion about part 3's storyline in particular is that everyone is being played; it's just the most transparent in Micaiah's case because they know they're being played as their being forced against their will to join the war, and that really greys a lot of what was seemingly b/w earlier in the game.

Old anime trailer/10. The title for this video was more-than-likely supposed to be "Anya Tries Extracurriculars", and they just didn't bother to fix the mistake:

For one thing, how is the royal line supposed to continue if Zelda reappears as an old lady? Hyrule would be doomed to lose the bloodline that carries the very important sealing power.

Just a little heads-up to anyone considering buying the Portal 1 & 2 bundle: it is literally just Portal 1 & 2 (they're even downloaded separately). I can't see any reason why they're not being sold individually... actually; I can think of one reason why: forcing people to buy both games means more money.

Thanks for the information. 1. Okay; good to know that there is a way to just practice each character/class moveset. And thanks for the quick description of each combo. EDIT: I'm now far enough that the mock battle option is available, and it has been decent practice. 2. Yeah; I figured I could just main Shez. I still want to play the game at least somewhat optimally though, as you get better rewards by getting higher ranks. That last tactic (swapping between characters so I don't have to run as much) is mainly what I've been trying to do. Going back to my first impressions of the game: is it just me, or does anyone else think that this game's plot would be pretty much impossible for anyone who hasn't played Three Houses to understand?

I just started the demo and just completed the third chapter, so I thought I'd give my first impressions of the game. Please bear in mind that I've never played a Warriors game before. The combat is... interesting. It is taking a bit of getting used to, as I'm really not used to combo-based combat like this; my main experience with it has been fighting games (which I don't really play all that much) and Monster Hunter Rise, and for that game, I picked sword-&-shield for its ease of use and the fact that I could quickly use items at any time to compensate for my struggles with pulling off combos while also trying to remain observant of the situation. Personally, I would've liked a way to freely practice using each character and learning their particular combos and abilities; a training grounds, essentially. Monster Hunter Rise offered that, and it was a massive help. As it is, the first two chapters helped a bit, but it meant that I only got used to using Shez and the three house leaders. Managing the different units during the battle has reminded me why I'm not a fan of real-time strategy games; the reason I like strategy RPGs is that they allow me to take my time and come up with strategies for an efficient and complete victory; having to do it all in real time makes into more of a game of keeping up with everything around you. Fortunately, keeping up has been straightforward, and so far I've been getting A and S in everything, but I can't escape the feeling that the difficulty is going to spike and it's going to be harder to keep up. Is it? Opening the game with Shez losing against Byleth was a fun surprise... or at least it would be if I didn't already know about it. But I didn't know what kind of forced defeat it would be, so I was still caught off-guard. When I saw that Shez deals some damage to Byleth, albeit scratch damage, I thought it might've been possible to "win", so I kept avoiding Byleth's attacks and attacked when I had an opening as I wanted to see what would happen. The answer of course was that it's a timed battle the player can't win: survive long enough and the cutscene of Shez losing plays. That felt a little anticlimactic, but it probably wouldn't have been if I hadn't known in advance that the fight is unwinnable. I chose to pick the Black Eagles. They were my favourite house in Three Houses, and I heard about some of the ways that the game's plot changes (like Monica surviving) and I thought that the Black Eagles would be the most interesting to try first because of it. I found how long the player stays at the school (i.e. not at all) rather amusing. I was kind-of looking forward to seeing how being a student rather than a professor would change things, and the answer is school effectively stops after only one chapter. A little disappointing, but I understand wanting to get straight to the war part in a Warriors game. Still, it would've been nice to see Shez spend just a little bit of time as a student, even if entirely in cutscenes. Overall, I thought it was kind-of fun. Trying to get used to it is a bit awkward, but it is fun.

I just beat Azure Moon, so I know what you mean by bosses relying on critical rates to be dangerous. I had Caspar defeat the Death Knight in the paralogue, so the Death Knight had a brave lance instead of the scythe and he went down fairly easily, but when I saw Hegemon Edelgard suddenly have a high crit rate, I breathed a deep sigh of relief when she didn't critical hit. In retrospect, I should've given Dimitri the Rafail Gem (my flying and riding units got the shields that nullify effectiveness so I gave it to Mercedes).

I just finished my first Azure Moon playthrough of Three Houses. I quite liked it overall. One thing I definitely liked was that the route definitely stands out on its own and is a story about Dimitri, unlike Verdant Wind where it was very clearly a recycling of Silver Snow and almost not really about Claude. Dedue suffers from nonexistent speed and being gone for multiple chapters post-timeskip, but he is pretty much the ultimate War Master if he masters the class. His monstrous strength and defense combined with his personal skill and quick riposte means that he will always deliver two extremely powerful attacks per opponent on enemy phase without taking much damage so long as you keep him away from magic. He wasn't my best unit, but I was surprised by how good a unit he was by the end. I chose to have my Byleth s-support Ingrid. I quite liked their s-support conversation. Now just to decide if I want to try Silver Snow; it's the only route that I have yet to try. I just started playing a small indie puzzle-platformer called ElecHead. Basically, you play as a robot in a world without electricity, and everything the robot touches (or, more specifically, everything the robot's head touches) becomes electrified. It's been very fun. EDIT: I finished ElecHead. It was very fun, and, as expected from a small indie puzzle-platformer, very short. I moved on to Portal, and I'm starting to wonder if there are any puzzle-platformers longer than ten hours aside from maybe Captain Toad: Treasure Tracker. I figured that Portal wouldn't be a large game, but I was still surprised by how quickly I finished it. In any case, I can see why Portal is so revered. The game presents a good façade of being a mundane puzzle-game with a thin excuse plot of being a human guinea pig in an evil company's test, only for the façade to slowly crack as you find "the cake is a lie" written on the wall and for GLaDOS, who initially just seems like nothing more than an automated guide saying scripted lines, says very... eerie things, and then the reveal happens when the end of the test is a death trap, the player escapes, and GLaDOS reacts to the escape. I already knew about GLaDOS and the deception thanks to pop-culture osmosis, I still appreciated just how well set-up the twist is and the fire trap still managed to be a scary moment. The puzzles were very fun and imaginative, though I was surprised by how easy it was for the most part. I will admit that I was stumped once or twice, but those times generally were from things like not noticing that a wall section could have a portal placed on it due to a shadow making it look like a non-portal wall. Even most of the bonus puzzles weren't hard. my one problem with it would be the moments that require platforming, such as jumping, in 1st person perspective; I thought that Metroid Prime Trilogy made me more used to 1st-person platforming, but I'm just thinking that 1st-person and platforming are incompatible. Mercifully, jumping isn't used too much, so it's only a minor problem.

I keep seeing videos like this pop up on my recommended when I'm on YouTube, even though I haven't watched a single one until now; did this meme suddenly become really popular?

Yeah, it is really cool to see. As someone whose favourite version of Mega Man is Battle Network, I have been looking forward to this. Ah, I see. Thanks for the clarification. Wow; that's quite a few spinoffs. I think I've only heard of two of those. I genuinely thought it was a Rune Factory game at first; I was thinking, "Rune Factory 5 just came out though. Is this an expansion? A remake of one of the older Rune Factory games?" Maybe they heard about how Rune Factory 5 was received and thought they could provide competition?

Officially, there were six games, but the last four games had multiple versions: Battle Network 3 was divided into Blue and White versions (but apparently only outside Japan), Battle Network 4's versions were Red Sun and Blue Moon, Battle Network 5 had Team Proto Man and Team Colonel, and Battle Network 6 had Cybeast Gregar and Cybeast Falzar. So, if you consider the different versions as separate games, it adds up to ten.

Megaman Battle Network Legacy Collection... finally! I am definitely hyped for it. Battle Network was my introduction to Mega Man, and I was only able to play the last two games in the series: Battle Network 5 (team Colonel) and Battle Network 6 (Cybeast Gregar), so I am looking forward to this chance to play the earlier games as well. I wonder if they'll also create a Star Force Legacy Collection. Persona on Switch sounds interesting. I've never actually played those games, but I've heard that they're good.

If there were Star Wars themed FE classes, I can see a "General Grievous" class that is absolutely OP and scary in its debut and then is a complete joke in subsequent games.