vanguard333

Byleth and Edelgard is pretty good. Most Byleth x another character romances are hindered by Byleth being a blank slate that hardly shows expression and doesn't really have dialogue (well, they have dialogue options, but they don't amount to much and you don't actually see/hear Byleth say anything), but I think, with Byleth and Edelgard, they did sort-of manage to work around it and make the dynamic more mutual. By mutual, I mean that their dynamic and s-support are able to show that Byleth helps Edelgard learn to trust, and Edelgard helps Byleth learn how to feel.

I haven't really done any pure magic builds for Byleth, but my preferred setup for Byleth that I like using a lot is a hybrid build where I mainly train him in swords, faith and authority, I keep him as an Enlightened One, and I give him a rapier+ and a levin sword+. Since Byleth learns the Grounder and Bane of Monsters combat arts, that plus the rapier+ means he can deal effective damage against any unit that can take effective damage. Him having a levin sword+ gives him 1-3 range and a magic attack (as does aura, but that's only 1-2 range and doesn't utilize Swordfaire). Byleth's white magic spells are very unremarkable: heal, nosferatu, recover and aura. But, since Enlightened One Byleth can dodge frequently (and because I like giving him the Shield of Seiros and Weight -3), he can be a front line unit that can also heal, which is very useful. I did try training him in reason after training everything else, but I never ended up using his reason spells; he gets far more mileage out of healing and using a levin sword+.

That's exactly what it was; as I explained to Etrurian Emperor, by finding out that she's Zelda, it sinks in to her that everything: Aryll and the others being kidnapped and Link being roped into all this, was because Ganondorf was after her, and so, in that moment, she was remorseful and apologetic to Link. It was not out-of-character for Tetra, nor was it her suddenly becoming a demure damsel; it was a moment of remorse after finding out that she inadvertently dragged Link and Aryll into all this. Yes; Phantom Hourglass was the real waste of Tetra's character. Who was it on the Zelda team that thought: "Okay, Wind Waker ended on Link and Tetra setting out together to find new lands, so the logical progression from that would be for Tetra to spend the sequel as a statue and for Link to explore islands with two other people rather than Tetra and her pirates"? Who thought that was a good idea. Don't get me wrong; Linebeck is a great character, but we really should've gotten a game of Link, Tetra and her pirates.

Why do so many people interpret that scene that way? Tetra did not become "suddenly all demure and helpless". One aspect of Tetra's character that was established very early on was that, for all her sassiness and fierceness, she is quick to blame herself for things; when Link's sister gets abducted by the Helmaroc King, Tetra initially refused to help until the Postman pointed out that the bird was originally after Tetra, at which point Tetra immediately agreed to help Link. When Tetra finds out that she's Zelda, it basically sinks in to her that, the whole time, Ganondorf was after her; that all the abductions, as well as Link being pulled into this, were a result of Ganondorf being after her, and she expresses remorse. It's an understandable moment of weakness and remorse. The next moment that we see Tetra: when she wakes up during the fight against Ganondorf, she's right back to her sassy and fierce self; further reinforcing that before was just one moment of weakness. What I especially don't get is, not only is it a bad interpretation, but there's a game where Tetra is treated far worse: Phantom Hourglass, yet all I ever hear lately is how badly Wind Waker mishandled her character (when it didn't do so at all). Let's not forget that Wind Waker ended on Link and Tetra setting out together, and Phantom Hourglass' idea of following up on that was having Tetra immediately get abducted by Bellum before spending the rest of the game as a statue. The whole thing about a character suddenly having the damsel mindset is that all there agency is lost, and it doesn't get any more agency-reducing than being reduced to a literal block of stone for the entire story. @Lord_Brand Link and Zelda in Breath of the Wild is definitely a good example of a romantic dynamic between characters, but the best example in the Zelda series is undoubtedly Link and Zelda in Spirit Tracks.

I finally finished World of Light in Smash Bros. Ultimate. That's one game finished that is actually on the list of games I wanted to finish. At this point, I just need to finish Three Houses and I'll have finished all the games on that list that I actually still want to finish: I'm not going to finish The Witcher 3; I can see why people like it, but I'm just not a fan of certain aspects of the gameplay, nor am I probably going to finish Ys 8 since I've read the ending and it stinks, and I can't finish FF7 Remake right now since my PS4 isn't plugged in.

Well, I've been playing Metroid Dread. There's a separate thread for discussing that game, so I'll just say here that it's certainly interesting game, and that I'm saying this as someone whose first experience with the Metroidvania genre was playing Super Metroid a few weeks ago.

@Lord_Brand That sounds interesting, though it also sounds like it would be more complicated to implement. There's a reason that the world maps of Subspace and World of Light were static images with not much to them. Don't get me wrong; I would like to see the next game have the map be more than level/fight select.

I decided to go back to Smash Bros. Ultimate, now that I have a joy-con that doesn't drift. I haven't played it since around the time of the first wave of DLC fighters, so the updates took over half an hour. I decided to finish World of Light, since I was midway through it when I stopped playing. I have to say, repeatedly battling spirits, even if the better ones are almost like a puzzle for finding the best way to counter them, is a chore, as was going back and forth between fighting Dharkon's spirits and fighting Galeem's spirits in the third part in order to avoid either of the bad endings. However, the final part does have a proper epic weight to it, and not just in presentation. It doesn't have quite the gameplay/narrative buildup to it that the fight against Tabuu had in Subspace Emissary, but it honestly surpasses that in a lot of ways: Being able to play as Master Hand and beat a huge wave of enemies is just awesome. Picking three fighters with which to do the final part was neat. The climb, while a little frustrating, helped a lot in providing buildup to the fight against Galeem and Dharkon while also reminding me a bit of the platforming in Subspace Emissary, fighting all the prior bosses was cool; I particularly liked the way in which the player gets to select the order in which they want to fight each of the bosses. Then, fighting Galeem and Dharkon simultaneously; not only is it a fitting final boss fight, but I like how their own attacks hurt each other, which is a great help for fighting against two bosses that will often attack simultaneously. If the next Smash Bros. game acts as something of a relaunch, I hope it has an adventure mode that takes the best of all three adventure modes: Melee's, Subspace Emissary and World of Light. For World of Light, it would definitely be presentation and there being more to the world map than just as a level select.

It goes as far as shortly after you beat the first intact E.M.M.I and get the ability to stick to magnetized walls and ceilings. Once you go through a particular door that can only be opened by clinging to the magnetized wall in front of it and bringing down said magnetized wall, the demo ends. EDIT: Well, I bought Metroid Dread. A lot of what I said about the demo stands (mainly because I'm not far past the demo's content; I just beat the scorpion monster that had the invisibility device). One thing that I didn't consider too much but I've grown to far more strongly notice and dislike is the way in which the game railroads the player into going forward: if you want to backtrack after obtaining a new item to see if any of the collectibles you had to pass by can now be collected, the game will not let you; it will add new obstacles just to make it that you're stuck; unable to do anything except go forward. I just want to collect one missile tank near the starting area that can be accessed via the magnet upgrade, and yet, from the moment I got that magnet upgrade, the game has contrived its way into making impossible for me to go back including, from debris and lava-mushroom monsters suddenly appearing in hallways to doors becoming unusable for no reason except to make the player unable to go back. It is beyond infuriating. EDIT: Well, I just completed Metroid Dread with 99% item completion. It would've been 100%, but there was this shinespark puzzle in Burenia that I just found to be impossible. Even after watching a video and figuring out how to do it, I just was not physically capable of doing it, no matter how many times I tried; I just didn't have the reflexes necessary. That to me is what separates challenge from difficulty: challenge is how much you have to figure out, and difficulty is how much you have to succeed in doing, and this particular shinespark puzzle was just too difficult for me. The rest of the game, while presenting similar level of challenge, was far more manageable in terms of difficulty.

Well, I just tried the Metroid Dread demo. One thing I will point out right away is that, normally, demos that are the first portion of the game let you save your progress so that, if you decide to purchase the full game afterward, you don't have to start from scratch; you can continue from where you left off, but the Metroid Dread demo, despite being the first portion of the game, doesn't let you save. If you buy the full game, you have to start from scratch. I really do not understand why they did that. Anyway, as for my first impressions of the game: it was interesting. I expected Samus to have a lot more mobility than she did in Super Metroid, both because it's been 27 years and because I've watched reviews of Metroid Dread, but it still caught me off-guard quite a bit. I suppose one thing is that I never played Samus Returns, so I'm not at all used to the melee counter. Even so, when I am able to pull off the melee counter, especially when I'm able to do so while moving, it is a lot of fun. Another thing that surprised me was the wall jump; it was far easier than in Super Metroid, to the point of feeling automatic. I expected it to be easier than in Super Metroid, but I wasn't expecting it to be this easy. That said, there are a few things that feel a bit clunky to me: for example, shooting while moving is more awkward for me in this game than in Super Metroid, and I think it's because, in Super Metroid, you used L and R to change aiming direction and the d-pad to move, whereas in Super Metroid, you have to do all that on one control stick. It's not as easy for me to get used to it as it was for Super Metroid, and I'm someone who was not at all used to using the d-pad for movement until fairly recently. Granted, the game does provide 360 degree aiming by holding L, but it does mean coming to a halt as far as I can tell (someone correct me if I'm wrong). That actually would've been perfect in Super Metroid, where I was a lot more slow and methodical. Here though, I feel encouraged to try and maintain some momentum, so coming to a halt every now and then does feel a bit weird. This is admittedly just a minor issue. In regards to the E.M.M.Is, I'm not normally a fan of this brand of stealth, especially since, in the first bit at least, it's not really stealth; it's running from the indestructible instant-kill monster, and I don't think I've ever liked that in a game. But it's honestly well-integrated and fairly fun. I like that it's clear which sections the E.M.M.Is reside within, so there's no reason to be surprised when one shows up. Overall, it's a very interesting game. I might get the full version. But, if I do, I won't like having to retread the whole first section all over again.

Yeah; Nintendo wasn't perfect under Iwata, but it was a lot less anti-consumer, and it was obvious that he actually cared about the products rather than just profit. You're an aspiring game developer? That's cool. I hope that goes well (and if you ever have any advice for me, since I'm also trying to make my own game, please don't hesitate to offer it). As for making a console, these days, the only way a console can survive is by offering something substantial that PC can't provide; Sony and Microsoft's wars over exclusive titles are only postponing the inevitable. Nintendo found this out the hard way with the Wii U: they never found a reason why the second screen would be a substantial benefit compared to what it cost in terms of performance, whereas the Switch actually offers convenient portability.

I see. That must've been what I was remembering. It went well. I made it as far as beating the second Dark World dungeon before my free trial ran out. It would be neat to finish the game, but I don't see myself paying for NSO just to finish A Link to the Past. If the standard version had another game I was interested in, such as the Oracle games, then I might consider it. I really dislike the thieves in the lost woods: they're indestructible, they're just as fast as you, you're in too confined an area to make use of the pegasus boots and, unlike the thieves in Four Swords Adventures, the thieves in A Link to the Past can't be stunned. But, once I obtained the Master Sword, I could forget about them. And the Master Sword is definitely a great upgrade: the sword finally has decent reach, and it's good to have the sword beam (though again, only having the sword beam at full health is rather annoying). The Hyrule Castle revisit was pretty good. I like how, rather than it be a coincidence that you arrive just too late to save Zelda (something other video games are guilty of), Aghanim deliberately waits until Link shows up in order to make Link feel helpless to stop him. Speaking of Aghanim, the fight against him is rather neat. He's the original tennis boss. Of course, one thing I always found odd about these kinds of bosses is that they have one attack that can be used against them and two that can't, so if they just used the other two attacks, they'd be invincible, and yet they never think to do that despite being portrayed as cunning masterminds. This is the reason I think the Ganondorf boss fight in Ocarina of Time is the best execution of this type of boss fight, as all of his attacks can be deflected back at him if you're careful. Still, Aghanim is a fun boss fight. One criticism I have with the first Dark World dungeon has to do with bombable walls: they have cracks on them to indicate that they can be destroyed, but there are lots of other non-bombable walls that have the exact same cracks. I was stuck for a while figuring out how to obtain a key just because all the cracked walls in a particular room looked like they were just decorative. Other than that, it was a decent dungeon with not much worth mentioning. The second Dark World dungeon was interesting. Raising the water level in certain rooms to gain access was interesting. It's a bit underdeveloped as an idea compared to Ocarina of Time's Water Temple or A Link Between World's water dungeon where you have to think about raising and lowering the water level multiple times, but it was interesting to see the beginnings of that concept and I can understand them not wanting to overcomplicate it. My one criticism would be how you access the dungeon: flooding that area in the light world to drain it in the dark world. It is pretty much spelled out to the player to do this, and the explanation for why it works: that what you do in the light world affects the dark world, sounds like a neat idea only if that idea is done for more than just the one dungeon, and I suspect that that isn't the case. I looked online and found out that that's apparently the only case where you do something in the light world to directly affect the dark world. And... yeah; that's pretty much it in terms of what I have to say about what I played of A Link to the Past. Same; I wasn't expecting much from the cards, but I was expecting at least something other than just presentation. Having the enemies be cards that are flipped over would've been really interesting, especially since unexplored non-adjacent cards are always face-down, so flipping a card over and it being an enemy could've been interesting. Same; I'm neither of those things, so the game really isn't all that interesting to me. Since typing my review of the demo, I've decided that I won't get the full game.

I see. Thanks for letting me know. That makes sense. For me, speaking as someone who only played the demo, elemental weaknesses were straightforward to deduce but difficult to remember. I tried looking at the enemy cards to see if there was a spot that showed the enemy's weakness, and I couldn't find it. Yes; the use of different dice without anything to indicate which dice was rather annoying. Being only able to equip four skills at a time does sound at least somewhat interesting.

Yeah; I didn't know about that (or even about Drakengard itself) until after I played the demo and decided to do a bit of research about Voice of Cards. Even now, I only did about 1 minute of research into the Drakengard series and my impression of it is that the characters are deeply messed up. What do you mean by "Drakengard-style trolling"? I see. Yeah; I figured that the demo would be easy compared to the full game. Weapons mattering sounds good, though I'm generally not a fan of how, in most RPGs, weapons are basically just numeric increments that you'll quickly replace with new ones that have slightly higher numbers. I've always been more a fan of different weapons having different pros and cons instead, but RPGs almost never do that.

I decided to try the demo for Voice of Cards: The Isle Dragon Roars. I'm not typically a fan of JRPGs; they only really catch my eye if they do something rather creative. This one seemed really interesting: a JRPG presented through cards and overall a bit more willing to acknowledge that it's a game. So, you want to know how much the cards actually matter to the gameplay, story, etc.? Based on the demo, not one little bit; it's just a standard JRPG with the cards only being presentation. While that means people who dislike card games won't automatically dislike this, I couldn't help but think that the card aspect could've been more than just visuals without having to become gimmicky. That said, the card presentation is pretty good aesthetically and honestly ingenious at times. Traversal is done through hexagonal, one card at a time movement that can get annoying, but I like how you can immediately backtrack to any previous card unless you're in a dark area like a dungeon. The game master is a decent voice actor, and I like how the card-game presentation does justify a lot of JRPG tropes that I'd normally have to suspend my disbelief on; mostly smaller stuff like equipment selection and dialogue choices, but I particularly like how the game master will stop the player from traversing certain areas by breaking the fourth wall with stuff like, "I haven't yet finished the story for that area yet". As for how it fares as a JRPG, it's rather standard and straightforward. It's party-based turn-based combat with a character's speed stat determining who attacks first. One thing that I do like and that I think is at least somewhat unique (someone correct me if I'm wrong about this being unique) is how it handles skills: you have a certain number of gems, with you gaining a gem every time one of your characters uses their turn, basic attacks don't cost gems while skills do cost gems. Unlike a mana system, this means you can't render yourself unable to use skills/spells for the rest of a battle, while simultaneously making you need to think about whether or not you want to use more costly skills. Overall, it's a decent demo for what is probably a decent game. Don't go into it with high expectations, and don't expect the cards to actually be important. But it is a decent JRPG that's well-presented. Overall, decent/10. Now just to decide if I actually want the full game or not.

Yeah; I figured they were either a result of instruction manuals that no longer exist or being a hold over from a previous game. Yeah; it wasn't so much the section in-of-itself so much as the strict timing for the wall-jumping (I eventually figured out a trick that enabled me to wall-jump semi-reliably) and the hallway just before the part where you have to wall jump; the one filled with spikes and endlessly-respawning enemies. I'm glad that spikes aren't an instant-kill (cough Mega Man and Shovel Knight cough), but they're still rather annoying; particularly in that section. Hm... maybe. As I said, I'll probably try the demo.

Ah; I see. I probably should've clarified that I finished Super Metroid (I got 75% on my first playthrough with extremely minimal use of a walkthrough, and given what I said about the red doors, you can probably guess what the walkthrough was for). Hm... I liked exploring and getting lost, I liked Samus' arsenal of ranged weaponry (I generally prefer melee combat in video games, but with side-scrollers, I prefer ranged combat, probably because of Mega Man, but also because of how collision usually works in side-scrollers), it kind-of felt like playing through one giant Zelda Dungeon that had multiple items and bosses (but with platforming instead of puzzles), and I liked the backtracking. One thing I didn't like was being presented with several doors, all but one leading to side-content, and somehow picking the only door that's the way forward when I was wanting to find side-content. I really don't know if I think it will be worth it. Ah; perfect timing. I'll try the demo then to see if I want the game.

It won't be my first; it'll be my second. As I said, Super Metroid is already my first. I thought that it held up fairly well overall aside from some smaller stuff like the limited aiming, some cramped boss rooms (not cramped in a "makes the player feel claustrophobic" way, but in an annoying, "There's nowhere to go to dodge this attack" way), the red doors requiring five missiles to open without anything to tell you that it takes five missiles, and that one optional section where you have to learn how to wall jump to escape. I can't really play either of those; I don't have a working Gameboy Advance or emulators.

I've been considering whether or not to get this game. I am brand new to Metroidvanias: my first, and so far only, experience with them was playing Super Metroid for the first time a couple weeks ago via the Switch Online free trial. My thoughts on it were that it didn't make me an instant fan of Metroidvanias, but I can see why Super Metroid is considered a classic.

I see. I liked that we got to see all of class b, though I agree that a large number of them could've been more interesting. I agree about the Endeavor arc. Yeah; real shame about the Villain Academia arc and Re-Destro. Yeah; I agree. The thing about that episode that makes it even worse is that it's a tie-in episode for the movie, and yet, like with the tie-in episode for the Two Heroes movie back in season 3, the actual tie-in only really happened at the end. I mean, yes, the whole episode is about chasing pirates that are smuggling drugs for the movie villains, but the actual tie-in part of that is only the last 30 seconds of the episode, and it probably isn't even an important setup like All Might receiving the email from Melissa Shield and inviting Deku to I-Island was for Two Heroes. Plus, the second movie, Heroes Rising, didn't even have a tie-in episode. So, there's no real point to the filler episode in regards to the upcoming movie.

That all actually sounds very neat and interesting. I've seen this "Zelda has her own side story underground" theory a lot. It could be neat, but I honestly think it would be best if they keep Zelda and Link together. Yeah; I can agree. Phantom Hourglass is a very neat side-story, but never getting a game with Link, Tetra and her pirates as the main characters is a real shame. Since Phantom Hourglass and Spirit Tracks were both going for a semi-steampunk idea (a paddle steamer and a train), perhaps an airship or a hot air balloon would be a better idea than a plane, especially since lighter-than-air aircraft can stop in midair.

Yeah; having Zelda accompany Link was easily my favourite part of Spirit Tracks. That could be neat, though I don't think it would necessarily work for a remake of the original The Legend of Zelda. One of the main points of the original is that you're free to go wherever you want and tackle the challenges in almost any order; you could even go most of the game without acquiring a sword if you wanted to do so. Right at the beginning of the game, the player has to make a choice: go into the cave or go down one of the three paths. I don't think inserting a mandatory section at the start of that game is a good idea. I still hope, despite the trailers making it seem unlikely, that BOTW2 will have Zelda accompany Link. I hope this not only because it would be really cool and it would have a ton of gameplay potential, but also because BOTW ended on Link and Zelda being finally reunited and setting out together; opening BOTW2 with a massive visual, "What? You thought these two would be adventuring together because we ended the first game that way? Sike! They're separated again and you're going to have to go through this whole new game just to see them get right back to where already were at the end of the previous game!" would be a massive disservice to the characters and to the fans, and fans will see it as a massive disservice. And I'm not saying that as my opinion or prediction, but as something I 100% know will happen as a simple fact of cause & effect, simply because we've been down this road before: Wind Waker gave us Tetra: a really cool incarnation of Zelda that was an adventurer and a pirate captain, and it ended on Link and Tetra setting out together. Then Phantom Hourglass opened with Tetra getting abducted by the Ghost Ship and then spending the rest of the game as a statue, and I distinctly remember Tetra getting sidelined like that being the most widely-criticized thing about Phantom Hourglass, and just think about what a high bar that is! I remember Tetra getting sidelined like that getting more complaints than the touchscreen controls and the temple of the ocean king combined.

@Etrurian emperor Well, all of season 5 of My Hero Academia has released; what did you think of it overall (and what do you think of how it handled the Villain Academia arc overall, arc-shuffling aside)?

Huh. Okay. I thought I read somewhere about the dream-weaving/invading aspect was used in one of the Castlevania games; I'm guessing it must've been one of the other Castlevania games.

I admittedly haven't played the game that you're talking about, but in regards to that hint, succubi traditionally invade men's dreams in folklore and medieval literature, so "beautiful nightmare" would make sense in terms of referring to them specifically, assuming of course that that dream-weaving aspect of succubi is actually in the game.