vanguard333

I will readily admit bias since Path of Radiance is my favourite video game, but I do think Path of Radiance is the better game. The narrative is more refined, there are actual support conversations (which are the best set of support conversations in the series), the characters are fantastic, the non-royal Laguz are more useful in this game, nothing in the main story can only be unlocked on a 2nd playthrough, etc. I can completely understand seeing Radiant Dawn as the better game; in many regards (particularly in terms of gameplay), it is better: the ability to remove and reassign skills is great, the addition of 1-2 range swords and heavy axes & lances means the weapons are a lot better balanced, ledges are a great addition to the map design and it's disappointing that no FE game has used them since, crossbows are a great addition, dark magic is woefully underutilized due to the 2nd playthrough requirement but is a cool addition nonetheless, etc. However, the game's grander scale and ambition is a double-edged sword; the new characters are underutilized because they have less time in their own game than the established characters got in PoR, the 4-part storyline enables a lot of cool things like playable armies vs playable armies in part 3 but also means some entire groups of characters are far less available than others, etc.

I recently tried a rom-com called Horimiya, and at a rather good time to do so, as it turned out, as I began watching it right around the time trailers released for season 2. I'm most of the way through season 1, and I enjoyed it overall. I like that the two main characters get together fairly quickly and most of the show is about the two of them being in a relationship, unlike most shows which drag things out endlessly and end the moment the relationship starts (if it does actually start).

Why does Raikou have Trombone-Patrick neck? I can't decide if it looks hilarious or terrifying. Anyway, the DLC for Scarlet/Violet looks neat; I won't get it though since I didn't get Scarlet or Violet.

1st Playthrough, Normal Difficulty. Ivy is, in my opinion, the best unit in the game (as well as the best-written character in the game, but that's not what this forum topic is about). Lindwurm is easily the best class in the game: it's durable, it flies, and it has access to tomes and staves. It also has a higher build than other magic classes, meaning it has less problem using heavier tomes; it is the only magic class that can use the nova tome without suffering any loss in speed. It's only real issue is speed, but there are multiple ways to remedy that: namely speedwings and Lyn's skills. For me, I just left the Lyn Emblem on her for the entire game. Speaking of emblems, she does appear immediately after the player loses the emblems that they had, but it's not much of a hinderance as she comes with an emblem ring that's great for her in the form of Emblem Lyn. Overall, I would say 10/10.

I'm a fair bit further in Persona 5 Royal. Due to an unfortunate glitch I cannot undo; only leave a note to myself for how to avoid it occurring in any subsequent playthrough, I am locked out of one of completing one of the things that can be done. Other than that, the game has mostly been fun. I just completed October in the game itself. I was critical of how little the player is able to do in September in the game, but October is almost just as bad in this regard. It doesn't help that there is a confidant character in Royal whose bond rank must reach rank 9 before November 18th in order to access the Royal-exclusive story arc. Thankfully, I'm at rank 7 for that character and I've only just started November, but it is frustrating that there were plenty of days in September and October that could've been used for reaching rank 9. Similarly, there's another character whose bond rank must be rank 8 before November 18th or the rest of their bond conversations will be locked, and both of these characters use the exact same time slot (daytime) for their bond conversations. I really dislike permanently-missable content in games, and I suppose one of the main reasons I dislike time-management games is that they're built around the idea of being able to permanently miss out on content. All that said, there was some stuff I enjoyed in the October section of the game: EDIT: One of the characters I mentioned above actually uses the evening timeslot for the last two bond conversations thankfully, so that helps.

Um... what? …Old cartoon/10? It's displaying as a link because YouTube does not allow it to be embedded. I guess YouTube considers anything animated, even if it is a scene from a movie that was rated PG-13, as belonging under "YouTube Kids". And here I thought that it was only for stuff actually meant for kids. The movie in question is Batman Beyond: return of the Joker. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8LikMS5gDDI

They've made every other type of Persona 5 spinoff, so that would honestly be a good idea with that in mind. Makoto is definitely a cool character; I can definitely see why she is a popular romance choice for this game. Funny enough, perhaps because I'm playing Royal, it's Kasumi that feels canon to me.

I'm currently a bit more than midway through Persona 5 Royal... I think; I'm near the end of September in the game itself. Overall, I am really enjoying the game, though there are a couple of small things I found a bit annoying: Other than that, the game has been a lot of fun. The characters are interesting and compelling, the story's been interesting so far, the dungeon exploring is a lot of fun, and the time management aspect is growing on me. Oh, and since I'm sure someone will inevitably ask:

Yeah; the dark emblems were really disappointing. When I completed the game for the first time a bit over a week ago, I willfully held back and made sure not to defeat Sombron too quickly just so I would see all the dark emblems, and, looking back, I honestly would've preferred to have just defeated Sombron as soon as possible. The dark emblems are the main letdown in what otherwise was honestly a really good final boss fight (although one of the main reasons it's a good boss fight is that it's the only time in the game outside of four cutscenes that anyone actually is a dragon). I'm honestly not sure how to improve them; do too much and they risk overshadowing Sombron himself. I like the idea of Engage weapons: the Ashera Emblem could have judgement, the Ashnard Emblem could have Gurgurant, Loptyr could have, well, the book of Loptyr, Nemesis could have the counterfeit Sword of the Creator, etc. I'm not sure what emblem weapons could be provided, however, by the ones that are dragons/eldritch abominations.

Yeah, I understand; for me though, it gets a bit overwhelming. It doesn't help that, largely thanks to my autism, I don't tend to do well at dialogue checks, as my many failed attempts at recruiting personae (even with Morgana outright telling me what type of answers to give) can attest (I do succeed often enough to get enough useful personae thankfully, but I have had more failures than successes), so I mainly use the walkthrough for dialogue checks with the party and confidants. Don't get me wrong; if I felt I was going to do another playthrough soon after this one, and if I hadn't already known enough about the game to want specific outcomes, I probably would've tried to go through this playthrough completely blind. Next time I play the game, and there probably will be a next time since I am enjoying the game a lot, I probably won't even glance at a walkthrough or anything like that.

I see. In that case, do you have any advice for beginners that's relevant to where I currently am in the game (7/20 in the in-game calendar)? For an example, are physical-attack skills useful at all? I tend to avoid them because they cost HP to use.

Cool; I'm currently playing Persona 5 Royal right now; I'm at 7/19 in the in-game calendar. This is my first time playing a Persona game and I have been enjoying it a lot. I admittedly have been using a walkthrough for some guidance, but I play offline and I know the game has a feature where, when the player plays the game online, they can see what other people recommend doing each day, so I'm only using the walkthrough to make up for not having that feature. By the way, I do have one question:

@martystarboy Thank you; I actually completed my first playthrough a week ago, and I already knew about dogs providing ores and that investing in the kingdoms past the first level is largely a waste of money, but I appreciate the advice and it should help anyone who reads this who has yet to play Engage. Thanks for the advice about doing the divine paralogues before the fell xenologue; that will help my next playthrough.

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Sadly, much like the biggest the biggest problem with seeing a Castlevania reboot is Konami, the biggest problem with an Assassin's Creed reboot is Ubisoft. I don't see Ubisoft truly rebooting Assassin's Creed at any point; even the game that they advertised as going back to the series' roots looks a lot like yet another dull and dreary Ubisoft game. Honestly, what Assassin's Creed needs isn't a reboot; it needs an indie game studio to make a "like the old Assassin's Creed games but legally distinct" game; what Bloodstained is to Castlevania, what Bug Fables is to Paper Mario, etc. An indie studio would be far less likely than Ubisoft to, for some examples, glorify an act of proto-colonialism (the Viking invasions of Britain) or depict an at-the-time-period marginalized group almost-solely through harmful and inaccurate stereotypes (the way Assassin's Creed: Valhalla depicts the Celts that still lived in Anglo-Saxon England). Indeed. Let's not forget Konami's one attempt at continuing the Metal Gear franchise (Metal Gear Survive).

Megaman is made by Capcom, not Nintendo. I'm torn on the idea of a reboot of Megaman Battle Network. I would love to see that fantastic combat system return, and you're right that Battle Network's focus on AI and the internet was a bit ahead of its time, but I'm not sure what a reboot could do that the six games didn't already do. @Jotari I think the main reason that there hasn't been a new Castlevania game is Konami; for the longest time, they've just been sitting on their main franchises now that most of the creative leads behind those franchises have long since left the company, and their attempts at making new installments on their own have not been well-received. A new Castlevania title will come along the moment Konami can be convinced to have a different studio make the game for them. A new Castlevania game would be nice, so long as it is made by a competent studio that has good ideas for a Castlevania game.

First Playthrough, Normal Difficulty. Alcryst was really good on my playthrough. As far as default archers go, there's Etie, Alcryst and Fogado. Alcryst easily replaced Etie for me since all his stats were better, and I ended up not using Fogado, so I can't compare Alcryst to Fogado. Obviously, Luna is a really good skill, and his high dexterity means that it will occur quite often. That said, I didn't encounter any strength issues with him at all; part of it may have been from playing on normal, but, honestly, my Alcryst grew his strength stat regularly enough that I think he wouldn't have had any problems even on higher difficulties. Archers often have the issue of not being able to counterattack an enemy unit that gets near them, and Engage is no exception, and Alcryst wants to be in his unique class to obtain Luna, so that is an issue. An emblem that provides melee weapons can help, though only when engaged. I ended up giving Alcryst the Roy emblem in the late game as a result of needing to give the Roy emblem to someone, and the extra strength was nice. I doubt that's the best emblem for him though; there are definitely far better emblems for him. Overall, I'd say 8/10. He's an archer, he's really good at being an archer, and he still has all the weaknesses of an archer.

I just finished my first playthrough of Fire Emblem Engage. It was okay. I'm going to eventually do another playthrough where I complete the DLC content, but, before that, I'm going to play a game that I was torn on whether or not to try, but I decided to get the game after seeing it on sale: Persona 5 Royal. I know that time management is a big part of Persona games as far as choosing what to have the protagonist do in each time slot and stuff like that, so, to anyone here who has already played Persona 5, I have to ask: any advise? No spoilers; just advice that you either received before you started playing, or that you wish you had received before you started playing. EDIT: I just started playing Persona 5 Royal. I am still early in the first month, so most of what I've experienced has been cutscenes and scripted sequences, so I really can't say if the game is fun so far since since it's nowhere near done with tutorials and such. One thing I did personally find a little annoying is that the cat Morgana is the one that gets the "Zorro" persona. I thought to myself, "Why does Morgana get the Zorro persona? Why does the talking cat get the persona of a legendary fictional swashbuckling hero that was famously played by Antonio Banderas- oh, now I get it; very funny." Jokes aside, I'm surprised that they were allowed to use the name "Zorro". As far as I know, Zorro is not yet public domain in most places; he will be public domain in five years, but he isn't yet. EDIT: I've played a bit further in the game; still in the first month, but further into the month. I've been exploring the first palace, and I have been enjoying the game, but there is one thing I don't like: the player character can only carry up to six Personas at a time, and, unlike Pokémon, extra Personas are released instead of stored and getting a replacement requires either money or finding them again in a palace. I've come across at least a few Personas that I wanted to keep but couldn't.

I just finished my first playthrough of Fire Emblem Engage, so I can finally give an overall opinion on the game itself, or rather an overall opinion on the base game, as I deliberately avoided all the DLC content except Emblem Tiki for this playthrough (and I only gave Emblem Tiki to Alear so that Alear would actually have a dragon form). I will do another playthrough where I go through the DLC content, but I'm going to take a break and play a different game first. So, here's my opinion on the base game: I don't think it's the worst Fire Emblem story; Fates is still definitely the worst, but it is definitely in the lower tier. I don't mind its lack of ambition; what bugs me is that the story still has a lot of issues despite being a simpler FE narrative. I've been saying for a while now that ambition has tended to be the enemy of a good FE story and that a new FE game should go for a simpler story that the team would then have time to refine and fully explore and develop. This game has the simpler, less ambitious narrative I was hoping for, but it isn't refined and it doesn't fully explore and develop. Another problem with the game is that, even though there are five characters in it that are referred to as dragons, only two actually have dragon forms that see use at any point, and only one of those two actually sees it be used in the gameplay. I could definitely understand wanting to focus more on the emblems, but then the game shouldn't pretend to also be a story about dragons. The characters are fairly interesting overall. Granted, I didn't see all the different supports, but, while these characters can get a bit gimmicky at times, they are nowhere near as bad as Fates could get at character-writing. My personal favourite would have to be Ivy. I also think this game has the best variation of Anna in a long time. The worldbuilding is surprisingly okay; I was expecting almost Fates-levels of worldbuilding (i.e. practically none), with the ring shaped continent and the four kingdoms each having one specific gimmick, but instead, it's closer to Awakening (so about average). Where this game definitely shines is the gameplay; I can't say anything new here. The Emblems are a really good mechanic. I don't think the break mechanic should appear in future games, but I liked it here. One thing that I don't like is the weapons that have to attack last and only attack once; unless they're in the hands of someone who can't double-attack anyway, like Louis, they're useless. I don't mind arts, but I almost never really found myself using them, unlike in Three Houses where I always had one fist-weapon unit. The Somniel really makes me miss the menu-based system from the Tellius games. I am tired of mind-numbing mini-games that I have to play anyway because they provide gameplay benefits and I'm tired of returning to the same base over and over again rather than letting the game feel more like a journey.

Yeah, I agree; Lumera surviving and her motherly relationship with Alear developing would've been more interesting than her being yet another dead Fire Emblem parent. The main theme of the game is found family, and Alear and Lumera are supposed to be the biggest example of that, but we don't actually get to see it; we meet Lumera at the end of chapter 1, she gets killed off at the end of chapter 3 after having spent chapter 2 doing nothing but saying lines that are only given to characters that are about to be killed off, we get a flashback-of-sorts to how Alear and Lumera first meet, and they have one more dying-Lumera conversation after the player defeats Corrupted-Lumera. We never actually get to see the game explore them being family. Plus, it would've been nice having a divine dragon that still has their dragonstone. I get Corrupted-Lumera only having her human form, since dragonstones in this game shatter when a dragon dies, but that makes it all the more disappointing that Lumera never uses her dragon form outside of cutscenes when alive. Sombron is the one who suggested that Zephia have kids, and it's clear from the way he suggests it (and from his surprise when Zephia asks that he be the father of her child) that he meant with someone other than him, so he at least thought she would be able to have kids without him. Also, Zelestia becomes the leader of a new village of mage dragons in her solo ending, though it doesn't say that she has kids and it's possible this village could've originated from her finding surviving mage dragons after the war.

@Fabulously Olivier I've never played the Arkham games, but I can believe that Arkham Knight is bad; the thing I remember most about the game was seeing the game devs and publisher hype up the titular villain, the Arkham Knight, as a brand new villain they hope would one day become part of Batman's Rouge Gallery, only for me to later hear a non-spoilers review of the game briefly describe the Arkham Knight and immediately think, "It's Jason Todd; isn't it?" I see. I never go to Pontiff, so thanks for the information. I see. It sounds like it's just a badly-designed boss. I'm pretty sure even a one-on-one-fight boss that could easily swipe the player character into a gravity death would be a terrible boss, yet I see Bed of Chaos used by hardcore fans online as a reason the series shouldn't have "gimmick bosses".

I just completed chapter 22 and Marth's paralogue. Overall, a neat chapter and paralogue. However, there is one thing that confuses me: If I understand correctly, chapter 22 reveals that the ring Lumera wanted to give Alear contained the rest of Lumera's divine dragon essence, which would've made Alear completely divine dragon as a result, and Alear now has the ring, infusing them with that power and making their hair and eyes completely blue. At the same time, after Alear dies a 2nd time, the twelve emblems use their secret one-time ability: the Miracle, to revive Alear as a living Emblem, and they convert the ring into an Emblem ring that stores Alear's Emblem powers. The Emblems say that they could've used this ability at any time, and it was shown in an earlier chapter that they originally were considering using the Miracle to revive Lumera, so it evidently wasn't necessary that Lumera's gift be used as the emblem ring; any ring would've worked. However, Alear is only completely blue-haired while in Emblem form; they are still blue-and-red by default. The other emblems' hair colours aren't all blue, so Alear's hair being completely blue in emblem form is from being infused with the essence Lumera stored in the ring. But, if it is from being infused with more divine dragon essence and not from becoming an Emblem, then shouldn't Alear's hair and eyes be completely blue all the time by now? Making this even weirder is that, as I learned from using engage+ in the Marth paralogue, the person that is using the Alear Emblem (in this case, it was Ivy) has blue-and-red hair even though Alear's hair is completely blue as an Emblem. Maybe I'm overthinking this, but I just find this really confusing. Is there an explanation that I missed?

Same; I only did the mini-games in Engage because they provided bond fragments, items, temporary stat upgrades, etc. I think one of the reasons why the mini-games are more tolerable in Three Houses is context; Three Houses was essentially tactical RPG half the time and fantasy teacher simulator the other half, and the mini-games in the monastery reflected the second half. By contrast, there is no real reason for most of the mini-games in Engage to exist. Why would Alear borrow Ivy's wyvern to shoot at targets? Why are there fish in a tiny pond in the sky? I guess maybe fitness training makes sense, but fitness training in most FE games is sparring/tournaments, which the Somneil also has. I suppose the wyvern flying could've had context if, instead of wyvern riding, it was Alear's dragon form and Alear is practicing being a dragon, but this game is allergic to actually having dragons in it. Oh, yeah; the speed of the mini-games in Three Houses is definitely another reason that they're a lot more tolerable. Answering the questions is on a timer so it's very quick, the fishing is just a few timed button presses, and almost all the rest barely qualify as minigames as most of them are over the moment the characters that will partake in them are selected. The longest mini-games in Three Houses are the tournament and tea.

1st playthrough, currently at chapter 21, Lance Armour -> General, normal difficulty: Louis, like Chloe, is one of two early-game units who continues to remain very useful, entirely because of a particular niche that he fulfills extremely well: being a brick wall. His only stats that can be expected to regularly increase are HP, strength, and defense, but those are the only stats that he needs to fulfill the role of a brick wall, and he fills that role extremely well because those stats will almost always increase with every level if kept as an armour/general, so being a brick wall is the only thing he can do, but he can do it extremely well for the entire game. By the midgame, some competition starts appearing in the form of dodge-tanks such as Yunaka, Kagetsu and Zelkov, but dodge-tanks aren't as reliable in my experience, even on normal. I don't know the RNG was changed in this game, but in this game, and only in this game, I have regularly seen enemy attacks hit with less than 30% chance to hit while also regularly seeing my units miss with 75-90% chance to hit, so having a unit to whom all physical-damage enemy units will reliably deal 0 damage is very useful even after dodge-tanks appear. Louis possesses two main weaknesses: low movement, and enemy magic units. For the latter, the player does need to keep him away from enemy magic units, though he does usually have enough HP to survive one magic unit on enemy phase. For the former, there is one remedy: early access to Emblem Sigurd. Up until chapter 10, Louis with Emblem Sigurd has high movement, canter and momentum, which, combined with his almost-monstrous strength, means he will travel far, take no damage, inflict a ton of damage, and be able to reposition afterwards. Not only that, but unpromoted Louis' movement is the same as that of other unpromoted infantry units; his movement will only appear low once everyone promotes. The loss of Sigurd from chapter 10 to chapter 17 does hurt Louis a bit, but access to Sigurd before chapter 10 means an opportunity to inherit canter; an opportunity I used. Having Sigurd be able to reposition after each fight more than makes up for his movement remaining the same after promotion. I can't give Louis a 10/10, as enemy magic units are a big weakness, but 9/10 is still excellent.

I suppose; it's still weird that they rant about how much they can't afford to lose any more emblem rings, and then turn around and willfully give up another emblem ring to test their theory when another option was available, all within the same chapter. Griss even outright says to Marni and Mauvier that there's no point in attempting to steal the rings Alear has if they keep losing theirs. EDIT: After playing through chapter 21, I now know what you @Jotari mean when you say it is trivially easy for the villains to steal the rings. At least in chapter 10, the reason given was that Evil-Veyle had to use a momentary distraction and a time crystal to steal them; it's still bizarre that she managed to remove the rings from everyone's fingers, but I guess she's just a really good pickpocket. For chapter 21, Alear dies, and then the rings are suddenly in Sombron's possession. I kind-of understand it; the devs obviously don't want to actually show the moment of the rings being stolen because they have no way of predicting which rings any individual player will give to which characters, but some clever editing should be able to get around that; maybe even a dialogue scene where the characters say that the rings are being taken via fell magic and then the rings fly to Sombron in a cutscene, but the way that the cutscenes actually handle it just make it seem like the heroes just drop their rings to the ground of their own volition the moment Sombron even breathes within their vicinity. EDIT: I just completed 23. A trend I've been seeing in quite a few stories lately is the main motivation of a female antagonist being that they want a child and they only see one extremely contrived and nonsensical way of doing so when they have other options, and it is a bit of a shame that this game is an example. I get Zephia being narrowly focused on wanting a biological child; it reflects the game's themes of found family with her failing to realize Griss is true family to her until its too late, it's a neat contrast with Lumera who happily adopted the protagonist, and I guess it makes sense. There is one thing though that makes no sense to me: why did she want Sombron as the father? Zephia does not provide a reason for why it had to be Sombron and not a human or another mage dragon before she dies, and I fail to see any reason that makes sense given her backstory, experiences and motivation. She makes it clear that she cares nothing for Sombron; she just wanted a child. She also knows that Sombron tried to murder every single one of his kids once he inevitably considered them "defective" in his eyes or he ran out of use for them; she even said that she didn't bother remembering them all because of how often Sombron would kill them, so she would know better than anyone that he would try to kill any child he had with her. She had thousands of years to find a human or another mage dragon.