vanguard333

Yeah; his Majora's Mask remake video was the first video of his (though definitely far from the last) that I watched. Oh, yeah; for me, going back to these games (namely Ocarina and Majora) after experiencing IR pointer aiming with the Wii version of Twilight Princess and gyro aim with Wind Waker HD and Breath of the Wild just makes the aiming in these games feel very stiff and clunky. It really shows just how bad the control stick is for aiming.

I know it would require failing a lot of attempts; I was just saying the possibility is there. I see. I read it online in a few places, but here's a video that actually shows the cave in question (go to 2:30 and watch until about 2:52)

I see. That is definitely a good change, though I suspect it was born out of necessity due to the 3DS' small screen. Perhaps. But, if you're going for the piece of heart that you get from the mini-game, you have to beat the time record on all three days within the same cycle. If you fail to do so on any particular day (most likely on the Second Day, when all the platforms move horizontally at different speeds), you have to go back to the Dawn of the First Day and start all over again. So, one could argue that the mini-game also has the potential for backtracking issues, albeit only if you miss too many times. By the way, regarding Deku Link, I heard that the 3DS changed his movement in ways that made the swamp more tedious. It made it that he takes a bit of time to get up to speed, which apparently made it a lot harder (and not in a good way) to hop from lily pad to lily pad, and I heard that it removed the ability to hop faster & further if you spin-attack on your way into the water. Apparently, these things combined even made it that you could not escape a certain cave in the swamp without either using the song of soaring or awkwardly and carefully running along the mouth of the cave to build up momentum.

All this talk about the Zora swimming, meanwhile I'm currently still in Clock Town playing the deku flower minigame three in-game days in a row to get a piece of heart. I heard that the 3DS added a target reticle and a way to look straight down by holding R, which struck me as a good change... until I played the flower minigame. There's already a shadow that you can use to tell where Deku Link will land, and since you can only fly for so long before Deku Link drops to the ground, I don't think having to switch to an alternate view to see a reticle for landing is a good idea. Someone who has played the 3DS version can tell me if I'm wrong about that assumption, but I can't help but think that putting the reticle in the standard view to make the shadow more obvious (since it is a rather small circle that can be hard to notice in dark areas) would've been a better change, especially for trying to land on the platforms that move horizontally on the Second Day. Speaking of landing on moving platforms, I heard that the 3DS remake changed the Deku Palace so the moving platforms now only move after you've landed on them, which kind-of strikes me as missing the point. I have to ask, was the deku flower minigame similarly nerfed in terms of challenge in the 3DS version?

I find it interesting seeing all this back and forth about Path of Radiance and how it was for growth units vs base-stat units, mainly because Path of Radiance was my first FE game, and it was the one that made me think that it really came down to each individual unit, rather than any general trend of growth vs pre-promote. I think the reason for that is that almost everyone in the game is a viable unit, thanks to BEXP and just how the game's balanced overall. That said, I usually considered BEXP as something best used mainly on a character that's just a few levels away from level 20 and has already hit some of the stat caps, so perhaps I leaned a bit more towards growth units in that particular respect? I don't know; I pretty much always ended up with a mix of different units.

Okay. That makes a lot of sense. Anyway, for a quick update: I started playing the game. I completed the first 3-Day Cycle... and that's as far as I've gotten so far; I haven't even turned Link back into a human yet. I'm hoping for the best and preparing for the worst. Interestingly, when I selected Majora's Mask, the Collector's Edition immediately warned me about potential audio issues unique to this game specifically; stating that it's due to the way in which it had to be emulated for the Collector's Edition. That's interesting that they knew about the audio issue and warned the player going in.

I see. As I said, I probably won't watch it, but I might watch a "best of" or something like that. Well, I decided to start playing Majora's Mask. It's the GameCube version that's on the Collector's Edition, which, unbeknownst to me until fairly recently, was apparently infamous for a number of issues that came about as a result of how it was emulated for the Collector's Edition. So, I'm hoping for the best in that I have a bit of minor audio issues at worst (which the collector's edition does warn the player about when starting up the game, interestingly enough) while also preparing for the worst and making sure to go back to the Dawn of the First Day often in case of a crash.

I'll put my reply in spoilers: I already knew about that and I have no intention of watching the anime, but thanks. Hm... Honestly; I'd say that each story had different strengths and weaknesses, and I'm not sure which one I'd say was better, and same with the characters to some extent. I'll put the rest in spoilers: Honestly, one thing I really enjoyed about these games is that, unlike Fire Emblem, you can use different units in different missions and not have to stick to one core group no matter what the situation, thanks to how the level-up system works. That said, there were a few characters (outside of the main characters that you'll deploy anyway for the additional CP) in VC1 that I gravitated towards using more often than others: whenever I felt I needed another shocktrooper, it was always Lynn, thanks to her personal potential that lets her sometimes do two actions in one turn. I even gave her the Ruhm and the best flamethrower rather than give that equipment to Rosie, and I used Lynn to bring down the Marmota's engines and later to defeat Maximillian. When I needed an engineer, I mainly used Karl, mainly because I usually was using Lynn as a shocktrooper. When I needed a sniper, I mainly used Marina, with Catherine being my second choice for sniper. With VC4, it was even more flexible and gave a lot more incentive to try out all the different units available. I honestly can't even remember if I gravitated towards anyone in particular outside of the main characters. The only unit I remember consistently choosing to use over other options was that, for my second tank unit, I always picked the APC rather than the Glory; the APC was just too versatile not to use, and the Glory is really redundant in VC4, unlike the Shamrock in VC1 that I liked using with the flamethrower selected.

I just finished Valkyria Chronicles 1 a bit less than an hour ago. I have to say, it is interesting playing it for the first time after having played VC4 as the first game in the series that I played, and seeing where I feel each of them was better than the other. In terms of gameplay, VC4 was definitely a refinement in a number of ways. But there are a few places where I think VC1 was actually better than VC4, and the biggest one would be what I'm going to call: "Boss Fight" missions. Both games like to have multiple missions where the player goes up against a major antagonist while having that antagonist be extremely powerful and usually unable to be taken out by typical methods, either due to an absurd war machine or due to said antagonist being a Valkyria, and I honestly think that, for the most part, VC1 did these better than VC4. Gregor & the Equus, Jeager & his tank, Selvaria, Maximillian & the Batomys, the Marmota & Valkof, and Maximillian, while not perfect, were all great boss fights that fit the gameplay very well. I especially enjoyed the fights against the Batomys, the Equus, Selvaria, and Marmota & Valkof the most. With VC4... they had some great ideas, but the "Boss fight" missions were hit-&-miss. The closest ones I'd say to being good were Klaus Walz and Crymaria. But Klaus Walz is fought four times, and every time, the strategy is the same: Riley + anti-tank mortar + either aim boost or save-scumming. One or two blows to the radiator of his tank and he's down. It is a bit more interesting when he's paired with Crymaria, but still not great. Crymaria herself, when the player actually becomes expected to fight her, is interesting, especially since the main characters are having to do something that squad 7 in the first game couldn't do: defeat a Valkyria (that's using her powers) without a valkyria of their own. But the fight has one thing that brings it down: there's too many random generic minions, which is a recurring problem in a lot of VC4 "boss fight" chapters. VC1 often kept the number of random minions down when putting them against a boss, as the focus is on beating the boss. This game doesn't. I'd list the rest of them, but there's only one other main villain that's actually a boss fight (not counting the assassin girls): Belgar, and his fight is an atrocious, tedious, buggy mess that can be easily bypassed with an anti-tank mortar and the order that increases the radius of explosions (and it's honestly better to face him that way rather than the way the player was meant to defeat him even if it makes him an anti-climax). You never fight Forseti, and while I initially felt that makes sense: he's a strategist with a limp; you can't really make him a boss fight, I then played VC1: Gregor is a strategist with a limp, yet he has a boss fight thanks to the Equus. Another area where I thought VC1 was better than VC4 was with its final antagonist. Both games' final villains: Prince Maximillian for VC1 and Heinrich Belgar for VC4 are remarkably similar: both are leaders who pretend to be pragmatic while in reality being completely nuts and obsessed with power (valkyria power in Maximillian's case and a fantasy version of nuclear reaction in Belgar's case), and yet, despite both of them being very involved in the story of their respective games and driving forces in the conflicts, when it came time to actually confront them in the final mission, Maximillian was a proper climax and final threat, while Belgar... it was as if the writers had almost forgotten about him; he almost comes across as hurriedly stapled-on at the end. VC1 Spoilers: VC4 Spoilers: Since I bought the remastered version of VC1, I was able to play what in the original version was DLC: namely two side-missions: one about "the Edy detachment" and the other about Selvaria Bles and her army. The Edy detachment mission was... okay; it was fairly well-structured overall, but it was just a bit of fluff. I will admit though that the joke at the end where, if you get A rank on the mission, Edy sings to the rest of the detachment and is so terrible that they all pass out, did get a bit of a chuckle out of me. The Selvaria missions, however, were far better, both in story and in gameplay. Personally, I'm not usually a fan of side-missions in these games were the bulk of the army is a bunch of random grunts, as they're usually terrible in gameplay, but this one shakes things up by them being imperial grunts using imperial weapons. I liked the insight the DLC story gave into Selvaria as a character, and I really liked the Oswald character and his interactions with Selvaria, to the point where I almost wish Oswald had been in the main game as more than a random ace scout. Plus, after going through the bulk of the main story with General Damon being a jerk the main characters can do nothing about because he's their general, it was fun to play two missions where he's the enemy leader and the player can blow up his tank in each mission. And of course, after getting A-rank in all three main Selvaria missions in the DLC, you unlock a bonus missions where you can use her with all of her Valkyria powers. The mission was very easy, but a lot of fun. Now, I'm not sure what to play next, though I do have a few ideas (finish Three Houses, start playing Majora's Mask, etc.)

1. I see. I looked online to double-check and yeah; Kishimoto did draw it. 2. I see. That makes sense. I watched them thinking they were manga content, and it wasn't until after those episodes that I double-checked the filler list I found online. At least checking it at that point meant I knew to skip the filler episodes going into the Sage of Six Paths' post-Kaguya backstory (I kid you not; there were at least six episodes dedicated to that, with the framing device being that the sage is telling all this to the four reanimated hokages while they prepare the teleportation jutsu to bring back the heroes). 3. Ah; that makes sense. Thanks for the info. True. It might also have been because Samurai 8 ended prematurely (he apparently planned for it to be ten volumes long, but it was cancelled after just five volumes), so he might not have been ready to take a break just yet.

1. That's interesting. Speaking of things that were due to them making the war arc and the movies at the same time, what did you think of that thing I mentioned involving the Kaguya episodes and the Boruto movie? 2. Yes; that's what I'm referring to. I see; I knew it was an adaptation of something Kishimoto wrote, but I didn't know the exact specifics. I'm surprised to hear that he also drew it, as I thought he said in an interview that he couldn't really come back to draw because of the physical toll drawing for Naruto took on him or something along those lines. Samurai 8 was even drawn by someone else. But I guess it being just a one-volume mini-story would explain that. 3. Oh; I honestly forgot that there was a separate writer and artist for the manga. I'll edit my statements to account for that. Yeah; I heard about Kishimoto taking over. Does that mean he will be the one actually writing, or does it mean that he's now just overseeing the writing a lot more directly or something like that?

That's true. I can think of two other possible reasons they did that: The Last: Naruto the Movie, and Boruto the Movie. By that, I mean that they were probably making the movies at the same time, since the movies were made after the manga ended, but over two years and over a year respectively before the anime ended. I don't know if they went on hiatus to make the movies (probably not), and if they weren't, then making filler would've been a way to be able to put more time into the movie. Indeed, and those episodes (480-500) were pretty good overall; I especially liked the episodes about Naruto and Hinata's wedding. Funny; I was about to say that another reason for the filler was probably those two movies. Incidentally, in the episodes that added more to Kaguya's backstory (I don't know if they're considered filler or anime canon), still images of Momoshiki, Kinshiki and Urashiki Otsutsuki appear when Kaguya gives a motive-rant to her two sons. This was undoubtedly to build up the Boruto movie, but it also shows how the episode was made before they were finished editing the movie, as Urashiki Otsutsuki was cut from the final movie for runtime (the Boruto anime then added him back in when it covered the movie arc). Interesting; I didn't know that about Dragon Ball Super. Yeah; it was probably also for that. Another reason they did that, which the creator of the anime confirmed in an interview, was so that he could add back into the movie arc everything that was cut from the Boruto movie (which he also created) for runtime and have that stuff still be canon. Urashiki and Toneri's involvement in the story were examples he gave for this; it's unknown if anything else the anime added were also things that originally hit the movie's cutting room floor. Yeah; it definitely wasn't well planned, and I honestly think there needed to be a lot more communication between the manga writer and the anime team as there were just a number of things that obviously were due to bad communication: I would definitely argue that; starting when it did also meant that they could adapt another one of the light novels (the second arc: the one that's basically entirely about Sarada, was adapted from a light novel, and it's generally considered an improvement over the light novel in a number of ways). For me, one reason I would've preferred a lot more communication between the anime team and the manga writer has to do with some more relatively recent plot points: Anyway, I don't think the manga going over the movie again was to stall for time; if it was, it probably would've done the same expansion on events that the anime ended up doing (like adding back in Toneri and Urashiki). I think there were two reasons the manga started off by retreading the movie arc: It enabled the artist to, for lack of a better way of putting it, find his drawing style. Apparently, the artist was unsure what exactly he wanted to do in terms of art style, and Kishimoto (the author of Naruto) liked the art style the author ultimately came up with and had to tell the artist not to try to imitate his own drawing style. In order to add the scene of Momoshiki planting the karma seal on Boruto, as I'm pretty sure that scene wasn't in the movie, and the karma seal is a very important plot device in the manga.

There is definitely some great battle shonen, though the only ones I've watched are One-Punch Man (a parody, so I'm not sure if it counts), Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood (if that counts as battle shonen; it's shonen, it has fighting, but is it a battle shonen?), My Hero Academia, Naruto, Boruto, and Black Clover. Yeah; when I was looking online for a list of the filler episodes in Naruto so I knew what to skip, I found out that something like 40% of the anime's content is filler and padding. The desire to avoid that happening again for Boruto, especially since the manga is a monthly release rather than weekly, is the reason why the creators of the anime and manga have stated that both are canon, with the manga basically being the barebones version of the plot and the anime taking its time and expanding on everything (as well as adding back in things that had originally been cut from the Boruto movie for runtime). It's definitely a good idea, though it has apparently led to a lot of people not knowing that and thinking that something like 90% of the Boruto anime is filler.

Ah, I see. That makes sense. Well, I figured that people didn't like SAO given the answers that I got, but I definitely did not know about any hatred; is there really a level of anger directed at it? When I asked people, if anything, it more came across as dispassionate ridicule than anger, and even then, ridicule would be a strong word for it. I guess I've only really seen more or less the calmer sides of the anime community with some exceptions.

I see. I've heard plenty of good stuff about DBZ, but almost much everyone I ask about SAO has said the exact same thing: the first five/six episodes are okay, then the rest is bad. Of course, I asked this a couple years ago, so is it an "outdated" opinion so-to-speak (like the additional seasons didn't exist when I asked or something like that), or is it an opinion that's still held by a lot of people? ( @Ottservia By the way, in that anime conversation we were having, I made a response to that odd take someone had on Black Clover that you showed me. I'm letting you know here in case you didn't see it) Kirishima is definitely really good, and I liked how season 4 revealed that he's scared, and that the hero he looked up to openly admitted to being scared too, but always leapt into danger anyway because he knew the consequences of hesitating. Oh, that's true. For another example, the guy with a tail, Ojiro, hasn't been used at all, and the running joke throughout the series so far is that he's generic and bland and that there's nothing really to him. He really is a background character, and I can't even call him a glorified background character because the story itself mocks him for pretty much being a background character, so he's not exactly glorified.

(I'm responding to the whole thing and cutting for length) I see. That's interesting. I haven't used the machine guns with the extra clip size; it's better on the player's turn, but it's worse at interception fire. I haven't yet found that that trade-off to be worth it in a chapter where the upgrade was available. I have, however, begun having my scouts use the rifles that fire seven shots instead of five. I agree that mortar lances should've been an add-on rather than a separate weapon; the tanks can carry both an anti-tank shell and a mortar. And the worst part is that VC4 didn't fix this either; again, I feel like Valkyria Chronicles 4 improved all the classes except the one with the most obvious problems.

I see. Yeah; that makes sense. The side I left open was the left side of the tank (the one always facing the edges of the map), so the tank itself protected the engineer from Selvaria. Incidentally, I initially thought Selvaria was going to come from the bottom-left, so I initially planned to keep the Edelweiss around there to shield against Selvaria's approach. Then I thought about it and realized it would make more sense if Selvaria appeared where the tank began, so I moved the Edelweiss near the cliff overlooking where the tank began. Said cliff turned out to be where Selvaria actually appears. So... yeah; I don't know if it was planning or if I was fortunate. I don't have the penetrate order yet. Also, while I haven't checked the actual numbers, shocktroopers and lancers in VC1 seem to have effectively the same amount of AP (if not the same amount, then a small enough difference that it doesn't really make a difference as the lancers can easily keep up). I might try that one day with the shocktrooper Lynn (as her personal makes it that she can sometimes do multiple actions in one go), but that sounds like it costs more AP from the orders than its worth, especially since you usually want to deploy Largo anyway for the CP he provides. EDIT: I just double-checked the numbers, and shocktroopers have 450 AP while lancers have 400 AP; a difference of just 50 AP (to put that in context, 50 AP is the minimum amount that a unit can have on any turn).

(I'm responding to the whole thing but cutting it so my reply isn't too long) I'm currently playing Valkyria Chronicles; I just finished chapter 11 (My reaction to it: "it is a sad day for rain", "But, it isn't raining." "(crying) Yes, it is raining."). Incidentally, I'm playing it after having played VC4. Low-manning definitely is a good idea most of the time; the only times where it isn't that I can think of are times where you want to leave units behind at the starting base, either because you need to defend it or, in the case of chapter 10 part 2, you can unlock a shortcut from the base to the next part of the map. 2 CP every time I want to use one of the tanks is really irritating and makes me miss that, in VC4, tanks only used 1 CP like every other unit. That said, the second tank is actually useful in this game as an armoured flamethrower that's a lot more powerful (and has greater range) than the shocktrooper flamethrowers. VC4 provides both a second tank and an armoured personnel carrier, and you will pretty much always want to pick the APC over the second tank. Scouts are definitely overpowered in this game because they just have such high movement, and this creates a problem because you want to clear the missions in few enough turns to get A rank for maximum rewards (including royal weapons), but you also get rewards for destroying the tanks and defeating the enemy leaders & aces, and the story missions are not replayable until you beat the game. There were one or two times early on where I felt like I had to choose between securing A rank and getting some of the rewards, though thankfully that was just one or two times. This next chapter, however, looks like it will be another one of those cases: two enemy aces (with one of them being a tank) and I can only get A rank if I clear the mission in one turn. I agree about the rest of the classes being better balanced. Personally, it isn't greater power that I wish lancers had; it's greater accuracy. Most units do have accuracy issues early in the game (even the snipers for some reason), but the lancers take it up to eleven. Your only options for destroying enemy tanks in one hit (shooting the radiator) is only really feasible either through shooting at almost point-blank range or saving just before then and retrying over and over again until you get it right. Not only that, but I'm on chapter 12 now, and the lancers are my only units that still have accuracy issues. And, unfortunately, this isn't something that VC4 fixed. I can't say anything about 2, but I can say that 4 is mostly a straight improvement over 1. Admittedly, in terms of gameplay, it seemed to more be about refining the formula than expanding on it, though there is still some expanding on the formula. As I mentioned, there's now an APC (though that might have been in some of the other games; I don't know), there's a new unit type called grenadier that basically uses portable mortars (and it is really useful, though enemy grenadiers are a serious pain), a ship becomes your base halfway through the game and that provides additional options beyond orders, there's now a "command" action where, once per turn, an infantry leader unit (someone who provides an extra command point when deployed) can order up to two nearby units to follow them, and there's a new type of unlockable side-missions called "Squad Stories", where up to three of the non-main-character members of the squad have their own little story and mission; it provides more missions and it also fleshes out the characters a lot more. As far as refinements go, there are a ton. Some big ones include snipers being more accurate from the start (and having intercept fire when they become elites), shocktroopers having improved movement that puts them somewhere between scouts and the other units, order-stacking no longer being nearly as overpowered, missions no longer requiring clearing in absurdly few turns to get A rank, story missions being replayable, tanks now just using 1 CP, etc. Even without getting nerfed, Scouts are no longer overpowered; it's now just one particular scout that's overpowered: Minerva Victor, and she's both a leader unit and one of the main characters, so odds are that you're going to use her a lot. What infamous sand chapter? If you're talking about chapter 7 (the one where the prince fights you using that giant tank and Selvaria eventually shows up), I actually quite liked that one as a sort-of "boss fight" chapter. I liked how there are only a small handful of enemy units other than the boss (thus keeping the focus on the boss), I liked that it's made clear to the player that Selvaria will show up but you don't know exactly where (I guessed completely wrong, though thankfully most of my units were already hiding, so when one or two of the ones that weren't hiding were defeated by her, I simply loaded an only-slightly-earlier save and moved them into hiding nearby, and I incidentally had my tank nearby, so I fired a mortar at the new enemy units and took out most of them, leaving the rest to be brought down by the tank's interception fire). I thought it was cool that you have to be systematic and employ hit-and-run (or rather hit-and-hide) by targeting the turrets on the tank with the lancers to destroy them, and then sending someone up the tank when the radiators are exposed to drop a grenade down the radiators (and I like how the fact that each radiator can be destroyed in one hit by dropping a grenade down them is hinted at by the radiators being shaped like bins), and then, once you do destroy all three radiators, blasting the tank with lances and the Edelweiss is a very fun moment. …But I can definitely see how it would be infamous; the radiators are only exposed on turns where he has to shoot debris that's in his way, so if you don't knock down all those pillars in time, it's basically game over, and if your infantry units are in plain sight when Selvaria shows up (though why would they be?), they're going to be destroyed.

I know you weren't replying to me, but I fully agree with that first sentence; I don't consider anyone an "enemy" for liking/disliking something that I dislike/like; in fact, I love hearing different opinions on a piece of media because I find different interpretations fascinating and I often learn something from it; be it something that I didn't notice when watching the piece of media or something else. As for the second paragraph, I haven't seen either DragonBall Z or SAO, so I have no opinion on either of them and can't agree or disagree. Very true; the characters in MHA are really good (except Mineta of course, but at least him getting comeuppance for his actions is always good for a laugh).

Uh... what? I wasn't angry at all; if that's how it came across, that was absolutely not my intent, and I apologize for the miscommunication. I was just trying to clarify something while also replying to your stab with a (not meant to be mean-spirited in any way, so again: sorry if that was unintentionally how it came across) stab. That was all. I see. I don't really read manga, so I wouldn't be able to compare them. Okay. Yeah; 86 isn't really in any of your preferences; I was just recommending it because I saw it and it was really good. Drifting Dragons would definitely fall into that "slice-of-life" category though despite being fantasy.

No, not defend it. I just wanted to discuss it. If you notice, I made a response for every show he listed that I've seen. Besides, I'm honestly surprised that it didn't bring you running before I even had the chance to notice it. Anyway, by any chance, now that the first seasons of Drifting Dragons and TONIKAWA (the previous two anime that I recommended) are finished, have you had a chance to try either of them? Oh, and fairly recently, I also mentioned and recommended a new show called 86 EIGHTY-SIX and posted the trailer for it. It's a really good show and it just finished the first half of its first season (it's split-cour; they haven't said when the second half will release). (I'm responding to the whole thing but cutting it down so my reply isn't too long) I see. Honestly, I can completely understand that; I honestly was on-the-verge of just dismissing it as mediocre a couple times while watching it (particularly after a certain scene at the end of episode 9), but I stuck with the show all the way to the end because it intrigued me, and I'm honestly glad that I did. In regards to your criticisms of its first half: 1. I honestly didn't see him as passive, except maybe for the first few episodes. But, I can definitely see where you're coming from; his driving motivations that he mentioned at the start of the show, such as gaining enough power to liberate his island home of Sicily Sistina from the Rossini family, did go understated until the Rossini family appeared at that meeting, and since he's a fish-out-of-water, he does defer a lot to Siluca at the start. You'd probably enjoy part 2 then a lot more in this particular regard: the first three episodes are about him going back to Sistina and attempting to liberate it from the Rossini family, then there's the conflict between him and Milza that's both political and personal, and he does take charge a lot more. 2. Um... their neighbours attempting to quickly dogpile them is what happened, it's exactly what Siluca and the other advisor said would happen, and it's exactly what Siluca wanted. It was insanely risky and definitely an example of Siluca overplaying her hand (something she does a lot in the earlier episodes and that others call her out on), but it meant that their opponents came to them. As for them wanting to change sides getting rejected, I'd have to watch it again, but I'm pretty sure the reason wasn't that Siluca might've been plotting something (though it does make sense that one would be hesitant to accept someone who seems willing to change sides at the drop of a hat), but that it would set a very dangerous precedent or something like that. Again; I'd have to watch it again. 3. She's not the best fighter in the world; she's powerful thanks to being an Artist (someone who uses magic to enhance their physical attributes, like that guy who works for Lassic that can turn into steel), but her losing to those knights was to demonstrate that even she can be overwhelmed. 4. I completely agree about the faction conflict being poorly explained; it's probably one of my biggest issues with the show. As for that specific example, the princess' exact motives are intentionally kept a mystery until part 2, but I think it was explained at some point (can't remember when unfortunately) that the reason that monster attacking the wedding threw everything back into war was the fact that it obviously wasn't random; it was deliberate sabotage, and someone had to have summoned that creature. It's not even close to the best explanation ever written, but I just thought I'd try to answer that one.

I've only seen the first and third ones you listed (FMA:B and Code Geass). FMA:B is absolutely fantastic; one of the best shonen anime if not the best shonen anime. Code Geass… had some really interesting concepts; real shame how those concepts ended up in execution. My Hero Academia is definitely good, and Deku is definitely a good protagonist. As for what you said about Black Clover, Asta only screams a lot in the first few episodes, and that was mainly because it was the voice actor's first ever role. After those first several episodes or so, the screaming gets seriously dialed back and the voice actor improves a lot. I know you're referring to the type of shonen protagonist rather than the screaming specifically, but I thought it was worth pointing out. Huh; I've heard people say Grancrest is good, I've heard people say Grancrest is bad, but I've never seen someone say it was mediocre before. That's new. What conveniences and a**-pulls? I don't recall any such things except maybe Theo encountering Siluca, and that one I give a partial-pass to because: 1) it's right at the beginning, so there's some allowance there, and 2) Theo's basically a vagabond at the start of the show, so it's not implausible. I agree about the show rushing from point a to b and not taking the time to properly introduce the viewer to the setting; that is absolutely one of its biggest problems. I wouldn't say that the setting is unimmersive though; it's fairly well-realized with the different factions and cultures as well as Chaos and the Crests and such. Funny that you describe it as "video gamey" since the original light novel was developed in parallel to a tabletop RPG. I suppose that bit about the protagonist is true early on, but it quickly got deconstructed with characters beginning to suspect that Theo's just a puppet for Siluca, and when Siluca learns about that, she begins trying to avoid just setting everything up for him and Theo starts taking a lot more initiative, and I kind-of liked that and I thought it was an interesting way to develop their dynamic. I haven't seen Shield Hero so I don't really understand the comparison. By the way, given your list of anime includes stuff like Grancrest, FMA:B and Code Geass, I think you would really like 86 EIGHTY-SIX which I mentioned earlier in an earlier reply.

Thanks for the answer. I don't know if it's fortunate or unfortunate, but as much as I want to play it blind, the fact that I already know a fair amount about the game means I'll be going in semi-blind at most (I'll still avoid walkthroughs as much as possible as I want to see how much stuff that I don't already know and can figure out on my own). I'll make sure to play the Song of Time often; I won't be a Majora's Mask player that tries to cram as much as possible into each cycle. Very true; Path of Radiance is my favourite video game, but it is definitely infuriating how easy it is to lose progress on battles because there's only a suspend-save during battles. Thanks for the answer. I wasn't trying to list all the changes, but I do remember Captain Keeta being rendered a joke was one of them, as was making the Twinmold fight infuriatingly long when just making it that you don't get the Giant's Mask until after slaying one of them without it was enough. Yeah; I heard about the owls being turned into permanent saves, which was probably to accommodate the game being on a portable console (and because the original save system was born out of technical limitations). The one complaint I've heard is not the addition of the new save system, but that the old one was taken away. Yeah; I figured that would be a problem when I heard about the removal of the old save system.

I agree; pre-promoted units are not inherently base units; that's one reason I mentioned that the only two pre-promotes I ever see anyone recommend are the two with absurdly high growths. Palla is probably one of the few bases units I have seen people recommend.

I have to say, getting a notification that someone quoted me in a topic I had never heard of was a weird experience. Also, I've never heard the idea that pre-promotes are generally better than growth units. I always figured that it's more complicated than that and that it's more down to how viable each individual unit is, so I never really considered "pre-promotes vs growth units". To answer your question, Shadow Dragon is definitely a game that largely favours growth units over pre-promotes. The only two pre-promotes that I ever see anyone recommend are Wolf and Sedgar due to their extremely high growths. The units I usually see recommended the most are ones like Caeda, Ogma, Barst, etc.: units with high growths.