vanguard333

In what way, shape or form? I think the fact that this thread is basically a discussion on whether or not she gets overshadowed is conclusive proof that she's about as far from a Mary Sue as it gets. Characters like Corrin and Alm are Mary Sues because they overtake and overshadow everyone else and the plot itself. They bend and distort the story around themselves. A protagonist that arguably gets overshadowed is far from a Mary Sue, so I have to ask: what did you mean by "a little Mary Sue-ish"? 1) I completely agree; Radiant Dawn does do a lot to make non-lord characters also have a lot of involvement in the plot. It and Path of Radiance both did a good job in that regard. 2) I kind-of agree/kind-of disagree. I agree that the game does a lot of painting Zelgius as a noble character in a rather overt way (personally I think it could've been toned down), but I never really saw it as conflicting with the other aspects of him. He's a loyal dog of Sephiran with only one ambition that's entirely his own: surpassing his former teacher in combat, and to either end, he'll be as nice or ruthless as he feels he needs to be. I guess I'm just used to it because it's a lot closer to what chivalry actually was like more often in Europe: chivalry, in the practical sense rather than the romanticized sense, was really whatever a knight's master said he wanted out of his knights, and that usually basically amounted to being a loyal, competent thug, if put a bit reductively. Their "honor" did not stop them from being able to do some terrible things; just look at chevauchee warfare for an example.

It's a good question. Honestly, Radiant Dawn's plot was juggling a lot, and, in retrospect, it is impressive that it turned out as well as it did. Ike: I think Ike was well-utilized. He had his story and growth in Path of Radiance, so I like that the story uses him as an experienced protagonist and more just checks off the last few things on the checklist of things to do with Ike as a character. I like that he doesn't appear until part 3, but is mentioned by characters at different points where it would be natural for him to be brought up. As for whether or not the plot favoured him too much in parts 3 and 4, I can kind-of see it, but I think it's more from the other characters needing to have been given a bit more, rather than Ike needing to have been given a bit less, if that makes sense. Micaiah: Micaiah certainly starts off strong. She's definitely well-utilized in part 1. In part 3, …I'm torn. I do think that the Dawn Brigade could've used a few more chapters. I like that there is a fair amount of attention put on her and the Dawn Brigade in the latter half, and it makes sense that they're not present in the first half, but I really don't like how the Dawn Brigade in part 3 is basically a better-written prototype of Conquest: protagonist is having to work for bad guy until they find a way to undermine the bad guy. I think Radiant Dawn, even with blood pacts being the reason Micaiah's having to help Begnion, is handled better than Conquest, but it doesn't even get the "undermine the villains" until part 4, and I feel like there needed to be more for Micaiah in these chapters. As for part 4, there she really needed more. It's possible to make a host character still relevant to a story, but it requires for them to still be making a lot of decisions and doing things. Micaiah gets some dialogue with Ike and Sothe, and I honestly can't remember anything else she does. If she had some important conversations with Yune (such conversations would obviously have to be in their shared head due when Micaiah is being Yune's host), if there was more reason for Yune and Micaiah to swap between who's in control, etc. One of the biggest issues is that there's really no conflict left that's Micaiah's battle to fight outside of Numida; there's no antagonist that makes things personal or really has any dynamic with Micaiah that actually gets explored: Lekain is Sanaki's foe, the Black Knight is Ike's, Degihnsea is Kurthnaga's, Sephiran is Sanaki's again, and Ashera doesn't have any dynamic with anyone outside of Sephiran if you recruit him. It's almost as if they wrote Micaiah, and then tried to write how she'd be relevant in later chapters, and the rest of the Dawn Brigade have this problem to. Elincia: Her story in part 2 is interesting; she really shows the end result of her character growth in Path of Radiance and even manages to develop even further. The problem is that part 2 has no impact on part 3 or 4. I've seen people call it filler, and I agree with that insofar as it does nothing to push the plot forward. All it's really doing is worldbuilding and bringing the audience up to speed on what's going on in Tellius three years after the events of Path of Radiance. It establishes that Crimea is still recovering and cannot afford to risk another war; setting the stage for the neutrality conflict in part 3. The worst part is that it really wouldn't take much to make Elincia's arc push the plot forward; all one really has to do to make it relevant is establish that Ludveck's coup is being helped by outside forces. Sephiran was working behind the scenes to restore Daein's independence (while also making Pelleas sign Lekain's blood pact) in order to make Daein able to take part in war. All we needed was for him to be trying to pull similar strings in Crimea and this time failing. Of course, that only fixes the problem of it being disconnected from the rest of the plot; it doesn't really fix its lack of relevance. Elincia doesn't really see much involvement in parts 3 or 4 outside of the neutrality conflict, but, with how many main characters the story's having to juggle, I don't think she really needed much more, especially since she does get to confront Valtome in part 4. All she really needs is for part 2 to be better connected and relevant to the rest of the plot.

1. I knew it wasn't what you meant; I was more trying to say, "Monolith and IS working together would be a great idea; perhaps they could also do so for an FE spin-off (in addition to what you were suggesting)". Sorry that didn't come across. 2. I honestly thought that X did a good job with its avatar and the story flow. I really disliked the postgame grind as well, but as @Interdimensional Observer pointed out, it's not the avatar character's fault; it's the fault of how they handled making augments, the level 60 skells and Ares 90, and the skell superweapons. I grinded for a long time to get the Ares 90 and didn't get any augments, and the grind was such a pain that I ended up not even fighting most of the postgame tyrants even though I could've with the Ares 90.

I honestly forgot about our discussion on the Age of Calamity thread as I'm terrible at remembering names. Plus, I didn't specifically ask you so much as ask, "Hey, at least one of the two that replied to the thing I mentioned about Paper Mario, what did you think of the rest of the stuff I brought up". In hindsight, I would have either just asked Interdimensional Observer or only asked your opinion on the second and third things I mentioned, as I should've remembered how you proceeded to stretched some of what I said into a strawman accused me of things I never said; including falsely accusing me of arguing in bad faith. They are easier to find on spoiled reviews and videos discussing the plot because of course they are. As for "overwhelming majority" that's an extremely high bar to clear and a blatant moving of the goalpost. I've had this argument before with someone where I said something along the lines of "a significant amount" and they, in bad faith, moved the goalpost by trying to say that anything less than an overwhelming majority would mean I was wrong when that absolutely wasn't the case as I never said anything like an absolute majority. It certainly isn't me; for one thing, I don't even have an account on TV Tropes. I just browse the site occasionally because I'm an aspiring writer. I remember that argument now (and I'm also looking back at it to help jog my memory); you falsely accused me of arguing in bad faith, which was irritating as I don't argue in bad faith; I work very hard to make sure my argumentation is clear and in good faith because I struggle to communicate due to my autism, so I don't take accusations of arguing in bad faith lightly, and you also accused me of judging a game's plot without having played the game; something which I didn't even do, as my criticisms were about the marketing, not the quality of the plot. Hey; guess what? I have no patience for being falsely-accused of arguing in bad faith by someone making bad-faith arguments, nor did I want this thread to be round two of an argument that I hated because of your accusatorial and reductive behavior, and so yeah; let's drop it and move on. I'm tired of it. A new Xenoblade would be interesting, especially if it's a sequel to X. That game left a lot of loose threads and sequel hooks. Monolith Soft and IS working together on an FE spin-off would be a great idea; perhaps then they could an FE action rpg like that one they were planning for the WIi and got cancelled.

But, then what about all the bird Pokémon that are Normal/Flying? Wouldn't they then have to be just Flying or something like that, as they aren't beasts?

Interesting. I have yet to play Bug Fables, but I have heard that it's really good, and that it does expand upon the old Paper Mario formula rather than just copy it. I was talking to you and Interdimensional Observer. 1. Who said anything about "having to"? I was just trying to say that a DLC campaign would be a really nice thing to do, but if they do it, it should probably be free or it would detract from it being a nice thing to do and potentially seem more like an attempt to profit from discontent. 2. It ain't hidden; just look at the comments section of almost any Age of Calamity video and you'll see a lot of comments saying things like, "Wasn't this game supposed to be a prequel?", "Nice game, but I feel like I got lied to by the trailers", "I honestly would've preferred if it just did the actual events leading up to Breath of the Wild", etc. There are a ton of comments like these. Lots of people were misled by the marketing and bought the game thinking it would be a prequel. Even the YMMV page for Age of Calamity on TV Tropes acknowledges this: Age of Calamity did kind-of break the fanbase to some extent, and normally when a game in the Zelda series does that, Nintendo does respond to feedback and criticism (if anything, they might almost have a tendency to overcorrect). Also, could you not be so reductive? Well, considering I said I don't think a Zelda 3D All-Stars would be a good idea, that's actually reassuring. I don't really hope for them to do a lot; I just hope that, if they do anything for Zelda's 35th, it's done well and doesn't get tainted in the eyes of the public by a marketing decision like limited-release or anything like that. I don't even expect BOTW2 to be released next year; I just hope we get more info about it.

If we're just talking about the animations (as in the movement of the characters, spells and such), DS Fire Emblem; not even close. Don't get me wrong; the NES animations are good for their time, but it is sprite walks up, hits, moves back, and I'm not even being reductive. The DS animations are more fluid, the weapon attacks have a weight to them while still being fast, and the spells look really cool. Honestly, I never understood the criticisms of Shadow Dragon's graphics or art style; I thought they gave the game a nice retro look without looking 16-bit; nothing wrong with 16-bit graphics; I'm just saying that it did a good job looking retro without resorting to 16-bit graphics like everything else that tries to call back to JRPGs from the early 1990s, making it also a bit distinct in that regard.

So, basically, you guys are saying that, if we should hope for something, it should be Bug Fables 2? Anyway, what did you think of the other things I listed?

I could see the no OCs being a Nintendo policy (though if it is no OCs, then what happened to Toadsworth? He was in Super Mario Sunshine and some of the Mario sport games, so he's not an OC, and yet he's been absent from all the Tanabe-helmed Paper Marios; his role being filled in by a generic toad). However, all the changes to the gameplay, and the fact that it keeps changing rather than evolving or upgrading, seems to be entirely Tanabe's MO: he becomes producer of a pre-established franchise, tells the devs to make a brand new gameplay system completely outside their area of expertise, and the games receive severe backlash from fans. From what I've seen, it previously happened with Chibi-Robo with Chibi-Robo! Zip Lash and Metroid Prime with Metroid Prime: Federation Force. He's even said multiple times in interviews that his game philosophy is that new games in a series need to be fundamentally changed from the ground up in order to surprise fans. Even I, who enjoys when sequels try to do something new with the formula, think that philosophy is toxic (or at least, rather flawed), as it's not doing something new with the old formula; it's arbitrarily throwing away the old formula and starting from scratch.

I'm pretty sure that Byleth still needed the stone to live. Also, the sword of the creator is useless without the crest stone.

My argument wasn't to slow down the releases. My argument was that the time between releases shrank at the start of the 3DS era, despite there being just as many remakes and other things Game Freak was working on, and didn't go back up for a new game on the Switch. If they can't slow it down, that's fine as long as they have a way of getting around it so they don't have to rush, and based on the reviews I've seen of Sword and Shield, they either did not have a way around it or the workarounds that were in place weren't enough. I agree with your point about Game Freak having too much on their plate; 2019 saw them releasing both Pokémon Sword & Shield and Little Town Hero, and between X & Y and Sun & Moon was both Omega Ruby & Alpha Sapphire and Tembo the Badass Elephant.

I know how long it takes. I'm just saying that if they needed four years to make Diamond and Pearl, then another four years to make Black and White, and then used only three to make a game on a home console when they'd previously been making games for portable consoles, then they probably rushed it. That's because I didn't count any of the remakes, though I probably should've.

This isn't really about HMs; this is about exploration and map design. All that exploration can still be achieved without HMs. I agree that, over time, the series has had less and less exploration in it. I don't think it's because of HMs though; I think it's because of one thing in particular: rush. Look at the release dates for the first mainline games in each generation: Red & Blue: 1996 Gold & Silver: 1999 Ruby & Sapphire: 2002 Diamond & Pearl: 2006 Black & White: 2010 X & Y: 2013 Sun & Moon: 2016 Sword & Shield: 2019 So it was 3 years between each Gameboy generation, increased to 4 years for the DS games, then went back down to three years for the 3DS games and stayed at 3 years for the Switch games. If anything, one would want to give the dev team an extra year for transitioning to new hardware (especially for going from something completely portable to a home console). I honestly think that the regions becoming increasingly linear and having less exploration is entirely to do with the dev team having to make essentially bigger and bigger games without getting the time they need, and the game's world takes a hit because it's not on the list of priorities.

Isn't Azura from FE: Fates basically a dancer lord? Might be a good idea to look at her and see what worked and what didn't gameplay-wise. A fair number of FE lords weren't all that useful. I basically mainly used Marth for his ability to access the convoy. Having a lord also be a dancer would be a good way to make them more useful. I agree with a lot of the pros you mentioned. One that I would like to add is that the dancer lord could theoretically access the convoy, give another unit an item, and then use dance on that unit all in the same turn. As for the cons, I rather disagree with them: Why would they ever need to dance and seize in the same turn? If the lord is in a position to seize and end the map, and you want the lord to use dance on another unit, then you probably don't want to end the chapter that turn anyway. Why wouldn't the lord get the rapier? I can see it still seeing use, and if you're really worried about it, you could make the rapier a weapon available for any infantry unit. A dancer lord doesn't necessarily have to be frail and ineffective in combat; Azura was a good glass cannon even if you kept her as a dancer due to her high strength and speed growths.

So, I'm at this place that's basically made of coral and is full of creatures that I can't tell if they're supposed to resemble spiders or crabs. I found a fat obnoxious noble that in typical "stranded somewhere deserted" stories would get killed early on, and a doctor whose presence is suspicious (gameplay/plot-wise) simply because everyone goes on about how useful he will be, but I as a player know I can treat any wound by brewing the right item, so he clearly can't provide much that would be integrated into the gameplay. Anyway, I have to say that I'm finding the game surprisingly more linear than I was expecting. I certainly was expecting every section to open up gradually, but even the sections are surprisingly linear: I enter this coral dungeon, for example, and there you can immediately go left or right, except left is immediately a dead end before you've even taken maybe ten in-game steps, so the only way is right. Left ends up turning out to be an unlockable shortcut. I'm not saying it's a bad thing; I'm just saying it's a bit surprising for a game that takes place on an island and has a protagonist that's an explorer. I am getting a lot more used to the combat, though I'm still finding it just a bit unintuitive. I'm not sure what it is really. I'm certainly enjoying it a lot more than I did Xenoblade Chronicles 1 and X's combat, though less than I did FF7 Remake's combat.

As with last year, my main hope is that I'm able to finish all the games that I've been meaning to finish. As for new games, well, I guess here's what I'm hoping for: 1. A free DLC for Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity that is the direct prequel that Age of Calamity was advertised to be, right down to the fall of Hyrule, death of the champions, Link being taken to the shrine of resurrection, and Zelda sealing away Ganon for 100 years. I've seen some people have basically asked people who expected a direct prequel why they would want a game with such a gloomy ending where everyone loses, and the answer, for me at least, is that I don't; seeing how such a prequel would end as completely doom and gloom would be completely missing the whole point of such a story; sure, the heroes lose round one; failure is sometimes inevitable, but overcoming that initial failure; what you do about it; that's what's really important, and I think that a proper prequel, especially if it's last mission had the player play as Zelda sealing away Ganon for 100 years, and end on a shot of Hyrule 100 years later as we hear the familiar line, "Open your eyes. Wake up, Link" would highlight and reinforce this aspect of BOTW's plot, where Age of Calamity, with its time-travel plot, kind-of throws a wrench in it (not saying that's necessarily a bad thing). Plus, it would go a long way towards Nintendo and Koei Tecmo mending fences with fans who were understandably upset by the game's false advertising (and please don't reply to me with any "Well, technically they didn't..." as getting into that kind of argument is pretty much the exact opposite of the point I'm trying to make about mending fences). 2. More information about the Breath of the Wild Sequel, and honest information to be a bit more precise. 3. Zelda 35th Anniversary goes well. It doesn't have to be a huge celebration; I just hope that they don't try to pull something like a limited-time "Zelda 3D All-Stars" that forgets two of the 3D Zelda games or something like that. 4. Kensuke Tanabe stepping down as producer of the Paper Mario games and moving on to a brand new project. It's obvious that this guy has ideas, but he should really stop trying to bend established franchises to suit his ideas and just make his own franchise. He's a noteworthy producer at Nintendo; I'm sure they would let him make his own IP if he pitched one. I honestly don't have anything against him as a producer; I've just noticed how divided the Paper Mario fanbase has become ever since he became in charge of the series and the reasons why this division happened, and I think this could help with that.

I've never tried it, but apparently using only Ike is one of the easiest ways to play Path of Radiance if you just want to beat the game and don't necessarily care about recruiting everyone or getting every item.

It all depends on whether I like them or not. For almost all the anime I've seen, I either like all the openings with a couple exceptions, or dislike them all with a couple of exceptions. Where I liked the openings overall: One-Punch Man (both openings, no exceptions) Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood (the exception being opening 2) Violet Evergarden (the one opening it did have; it was a short anime) Record of Grancrest War (both openings, no exceptions) Black Clover (all 12 openings, no exceptions) TONIKAWA: Fly Me to the Moon (the one opening it has so far; it's brand new) Where I disliked the openings overall: Naruto (no exceptions) Naruto Shippuden (the exceptions being openings 3, 6 and 7) Boruto: Naruto Next Generations (no exceptions, though weirdly, I like endings 2 and 5 enough that I would've preferred if they had been openings) My Hero Academia (the exceptions being openings 1 and 6) Usually, both the song and the visuals have to be good for me to enjoy it, which makes it amazing that Black Clover in particular has managed to have twelve consistently good openings in a row; I know I haven't watched much anime, but how many of you have watched a show with that many openings and never skipped a single one?

Oh, right! I planned on also getting Valkyria Chronicles during the recent sales like I did for Ys VIII, but I completely forgot. Thanks for reminding me. Hopefully it's still on sale.

I honestly have found the map a lot more linear than I expected so far (in the sense of only having one way to go with all the other ways blocked off), but that could be because I just started chapter 2 yesterday.

I decided I would try some JRPGs that I had been looking at for a while. I got the free demo of Dragon Quest XI S: Echoes of an Elusive Age: Definitive Edition (definitely a Square Enix game) on the Switch, and I bought Ys VIII: Lacrimosa of Dana on the PS4 since it was on sale for 67% off and I had been meaning to get the game for some time. I am fairly new to JRPGs; for the longest time, the only ones I played were Fire Emblem, and it was only within the last few years that I also played Xenoblade 1 & X, Valkyria Chronicles 4, and Final Fantasy 7 Remake. Of the two games, I have to say that I find Dragon Quest XI's gameplay more intuitive so far, though that may only really be because it being turn-based gives me more time to get used to how it works, and also because I used to play some online RPGs that had similar turn-based combat with menu systems. I can't really think of anything I've played that's similar to Ys VIII's combat. Both games have interesting stories so far, but in different ways: Dragon Quest XI is a rather familiar fantasy story of an adopted chosen hero (at least so far; I suspect it might have some subtle twists well past where the demo ends), while I haven't really experienced anything like Ys VIII's story before; I haven't really seen many castaway-on-a-magical-deserted-island stories (though I know they exist), but the closest video game story to Ys' among the games I've played would probably have to be Xenoblade X's, and even that one had a last-of-humanity sci-fi angle on top of the stranded-on-an-unknown-magical-land story.

I think flash-guarding gets introduced at a point in the game that I'm not at yet. I see. Thanks for letting me know.

I see. Thanks for letting me know. Okay. I haven't reached that point yet. By the way, is it ever explained where she found a clean, white, dry towel on a tropical deserted island? Or is that just something we're not supposed to think about? Also, I think I read somewhere about the game having multiple endings. Is that true?

@Sweet Summer Tana Thanks. Yeah; the game definitely has good presentation and art style. Okay, I'll try to do all the character quests. Yeah; I already figured out to save often and gather/forage stuff. Thanks for the levelling advice; one thing that has always annoyed me about games with party-based systems is that, while some games have it that all characters get experience, the majority of the ones I've played don't. It's a bit of a shame to hear that this game goes for the latter option of making the player have to go out of their way to level everyone evenly. By the way, does this game have multiple endings or anything like that? Also, regarding the story, I must admit that I haven't gotten very far at all, but first impressions are overall pretty good. The game does start strongly with the time spent on the ship; some clunky exposition aside, and the first few minutes on the island has been alright. However, there is one small thing: When I first saw this game, I thought it looked like it had an interesting story to tell, but I also thought it looked very... anime (this was before I actually started watching anime). Today there's a fair bit of anime that I enjoy, though there are some recurring tropes I do find annoying, and Ys VIII managed to have one of them in the first thirty minutes of me playing it: a mistaken-for-pervert scene where the protagonist accidentally walks in on a girl bathing and is mistaken for a pervert. In this case, Adol wakes up on the island and looks for survivors, the first one he finds is Laxia, and then the scene happens as I just described. I know these scenes are supposed to be funny, but I honestly just find them annoying, and it didn't help that this is the first time Adol runs into one of the other castaways. I suspect that it was also there to introduce an aspect of her character: she assumes the worst about the men in her life or something like that, but honestly all that scene did was leave me wondering: "She couldn't have been on this island much longer than Adol; where did she find a clean white towel?"

One thing I should get out of the way is that I have been wanting this game since it was announced for the Switch in... was it 2017 or 2018? I can't remember. Anyway; the premise seemed really interesting and I saw a lot of people praising the game's story, which naturally caught my eye. I After a bunch of research online and asking others about this series (including on this forum), I decided I would get the PS4 version. However, the series is so, for lack of a better word, niche, that when I went to the EB Games that I usually went to to buy games, the store staff (who are usually very knowledgeable about new releases) had never even heard of it. Eventually, other games caught my eye, though I never forgot it. Then, I saw it was 67% off on the playstation store yesterday and I finally got it. I have made very little progress in the game; having just gotten to the part where you find the captain and set up a base. So far, the game is... interesting. Gameplay-wise, when I saw it was real-time action combat, I was concerned it would be a lot like Xenoblade, with the combat being built around auto-attack and cooldown-based abilities like an MMO. Mercifully, it is not that at all; attacks require manual input and the skill system uses skill points that are refilled by landing fully-charged attacks. That's great, and I like how different party members have different types of attacks that are more effective against specific types of creatures. However, there are a few things about the combat that I'm initially finding a bit awkward: Immediately, the lack of a block button threw me off. There's only roll and dodge. Mercifully, roll is just roll out of the way and isn't like Dark Souls combat where it's all about i-frames, but the lack of a block took some getting used to. Then there was switching between party members. In FF7 Remake, for example, when you switch to controlling a different party member during combat, the party member you switch to is where they were before the switch, and I can honestly say I never found that unintuitive. In this game, however, when you switch, the characters swap places. I can't tell you how many times I swapped from Adol to Laxia or vice-versa and was looking at where the other person was, expecting to end up there, only to still be where I was before. I'm sure this has its advantages, but it is taking some getting used to. I should probably stress that I have very limited experience with JRPGs. It was basically just Fire Emblem for the longest time, and now it's Fire Emblem, Xenoblade Chronicles (1 & X), Valkyria Chronicles 4, Final Fantasy 7 Remake (which I'm only halfway through), a demo for Dragon Quest 11, and that's it. So... yeah; any advice for a complete newbie to the series with limited understanding of how JRPGs work? Any helpful tips?