Slumber

I kind of love having the Lions and the Bears in my division. It means that the division championship almost ALWAYS comes down to Packers vs. Vikings, which is when I think both Packers fans and Vikings fans are happiest. Though the Lions are inconsistent enough that sometimes they take the Vikings' spot, which isn't fun.

The Bengals vs. The Texans were like the reverse Superbowl. A team that has been historically bad(Maybe not Browns bad, but still pretty bad) vs. a very young franchise that has yet to really put itself together(They're getting there, though). Looks like it'll be another bad year for the Bengals.

That'll be a much better test of the Vikings' current roster than the Saints were, that's for sure. Either way, I'm sure it will be a decent game to watch, unless the Vikings get completely shut out.

Can't say I expected that. Though if IS told them to use the popularity polls to pick characters, I guess I shouldn't be surprised.

GOD, YES! GOD, NO! I mean, I'm sure it'd be fine and 99% of people wouldn't even really notice, but Mashima's not great at dealing with sameface, and my hang-ups with Fairy Tail would really get in the way of me enjoying whoever he draws(I kind of have a feeling I'm not the only one). I might actually end up disliking the character altogether, because then I'll have to associate that character with his art. Which means I'll have to associate that character with his writing. Him drawing Soliel in particular would be bad, because she'd probably look like Erza with whatever haircolor they go with(Which would probably be red). That would be the worst outcome. Anyway, if we're talking manga artists, I'd toss my hat in for Yukimura Makoto. He's an artist/author that's obscure enough to be plausible, while also being the author/illustrator for Vinland Saga, which is well known enough that getting him would still probably be a big get. I mean this in the nicest way, but he's basically discount Kentaro Miura. The more kind of severe, exaggerated realism that I think would be interesting to see in Heroes, and he's got plenty of practice drawing people from Medieval Europe. Mostly vikings, but hey. He could probably do some of the kid thieves justice, since that's more or less what Thorfinn is. As for people who have already drawn for Heroes, I like Sashima Suisei, who did Abel. I just like the coloring.

As a Minnesotan that really only gives a shit about the Vikings when they're not falling apart, the current line-up has so much potential that it makes me interested in the Vikings even when they screw up royally(See all games after their bye week last season). I had inklings that I really liked the Diggs/Bradford combo last season, and last night pretty much sealed that it wasn't a fluke. I REALLY like seeing those two play. Diggs basically just doing everything he can to play and act like Randy Moss helps a lot, since Randy Moss probably is my favorite pro football player of all time. The fact that last night's game was against Adrian Peterson helped a lot, since it not only reaffirmed that the Vikings can still be good without him, it shows that they can out-Peterson Peterson. Dalvin Cook was another impressive rookie that makes the Vikings a promising future if they can keep it together. But given that the Vikings' MO is squandering talent and not keeping it together, that remains to be seen. But as they are now, they're a bit rough around the edges, and I hope they can tighten up their defense a bit and polish their offense.

I'm guessing this will be a lot about the games coming out in the holiday season. FEW, BotW DLC, Mario Odyssey, Pokemon USUM, Xenoblade 2. Maybe a few announcements(Maybe some Switch ports/remasters for the holiday). Probably one last trailer for Samus Returns. I'd be surprised if we saw/heard anything about FE: Switch proper.

If you want a system that'll pay off immediately and already has a good library, PS4. If you want a system that has a promising, but currently passable, still pretty spotty library that can be played on the go, get a Switch. However, remember that the Switch is just barely 6 months old, and has been attracting a lot of attention from developers, so it will likely get the library it needs before long. But that's still to be determined. As it stands now, you might get tired of the Switch quickly.

Arden, Ralph(Plain), Dorothy(Plain), Gonzales, Merlinus, Meg, and Brom, really. And that's about it. And about half of those aren't treated particularly well. For Ralph, Gonzales, Dorothy, Meg and Brom, it's basically a part of their character that they're unattractive. Ralph is the epitome of average/normal in his game, Gonzales is treated like a monster because of his face and his size, Dorothy's the one girl who Saul refuses to hit on because she's so plain, Meg is treated like the punchline of a joke when it turns out she's the one Brom wanted Zihark to marry, and Brom's a hearty country boy. Merlinus is basically a walking joke himself, but it's not because of his looks. I'm sure Meg and Brom would have been treated a bit better if(Moreso in Meg's case) their extra size was clearly more muscle than fat. Arden's the odd one out in that he's pretty hideous, but nobody really ever brings it up. Though I guess every pairing of his does have some conversation where the woman thinks he has more charm and charisma than they expected from looking at him. Then again, his more modern artwork is far easier on the eyes than his old artwork.

Goddamn you say things that make it really hard to ignore you. Do you actually know what mercenaries are? Yes, mercenaries IRL fight for money, but that's not the ONLY thing that drives a mercenary. In short, they made fighting a business. And like any good business, they often had discriminatory practices that kept them from serving certain causes for ethical or other potentical financial reasons. There are many accounts of mercenary leaders being killed by their own men because the leaders were making their men do too many unethical atrocities. Many mercenaries bands also sided with armies that benefited their countries as a whole(IE Welsh mercenaries siding with France against England during the 100 Years War because England was in the middle of annexing Wales) over greater potential personal gain. Now, obviously there are plenty of mercenaries throughout history who completely tossed morals and ethics to the side for financial gain, but mercenaries are/were humans. Many were likely sociopaths(You'd kind of have to be to go out and harm/kill people when money was tossed your way, no money asked), but they weren't just mindless drones who had a murder switch flipped when money was tossed their way. And obviously of the Fire Emblem mercenaries, we tend to get the ones who aren't sociopaths, because otherwise we'd have a hard time rooting for them. Same reason we get sympathetic assassins(No explanation needed) and berserkers(Who IRL likely did hallucinogenic drugs and murdered their own comrades in the middle of fights). Even when we get implicitly sociopathic assassins(Volke), they're not outright bad or immoral. We've only ever gotten a handful of characters in the franchise without any clear morals or ethics(Lifis, Oliver). I think if there was a WHOLE class that had to be devoid of ethics and morals, we'd get the same character over and over, and we'd know exactly what we'd be getting each time. I don't even know what you mean by saying "Raven follows this", since Raven's one of the mercs in the series never asks for a single gold coin in his game, is motivated almost purely by his hatred of Ostia, and only switches sides because he loves his sister. Hell, he offers to fight for Laus for free. List of things Raven does in FE7: 1) Fight for his sister and close friend 2) Not ask for any money By your own definition, Raven is the opposite of a mercenary.

I'm having a hard time thinking of fictional stories where gods are wholly good and actually do their jobs. Even if I were to sit for hours and try to come up with a list, I imagine based on my knowledge, you'd be able to count the amount of gods who fit that criteria on one hand. Shit, even in my favorite game(Dragon Quest 7),

I understand the comparisons to Metroidvanias. In the Souls games, it's not just going back to old areas, it's going back to old areas with new items so you can find new areas/secrets, which is pretty core to what makes a Metroidvania. Obviously there's basically no platforming, but there's something at the core of Metroidvanias and Souls games that is similar. They have somewhat similar design philosophies. That said, no. There's no Souls-like games on the Switch yet.

I mean, SS falls into the Awakening territory of not relying on grinding by simply just being too easy.

Tumblr really shouldn't be taken that seriously. I know they were ground zero for stuff like the Soliel controversy, and that was somewhat justified, but most of their attempts to seem all-inclusive and forward thinking come off more as ignorant and short-sighted. They mean well, but while their hearts are in the right place, their heads are usually somewhere else. Anyway. Back to unpopular opinions: As much as people want the series to branch out and try wildly different things, too many mechanics would do more harm than good. Playing a Disgaea game(5) for the first time in nearly a decade, and it's really kind of a chore to get through. It reminds me why I've never held the series in a very high regard in the first place. It's quirky anime stuff, and it's mindless fun in short bursts, but for a STRATEGY game that's supposed to last for dozens and dozens of hours, it really shouldn't be mindless fun in short bursts. Of the two strategy RPGs I played this year, the one that was a fairly barebones remake of a 20 year old game was the better one by a country mile. Similarly, while I doubt FE will EVER reach the grindy-ness that Disgaea requires, it is a constant worry I have with more modern FEs: The ability to grind gives the developers an excuse to not make well balanced content and encourage grinding. Awakening, despite its random difficulty spikes, avoided this by being so damn easy, Fates avoided this by mostly discouraging grinding with how random encounters worked, and Echoes was a pretty straightforward experience that didn't really require it. But the post-game of Echoes did, for the most part, require grinding. And Thabes is worse off for it. I worry what FEs will be when we start hitting Thabes level difficulty jumps in the main storylines of FE games.

By knowing that I wouldn't get paid or my grades would drop.

I'm enjoying Bard a lot so far. I was kind of procrastinating until the Perform ability was revealed in the 4.1 stuff, and I was like "Alright. I gotta main Bard now." I secretly kind of hope you have to be musically literate to construct custom songs, just because it'd be easy for me to make them, and it'd keep too many people from spamming songs. Still chugging away. Armorer, Goldsmith and Culinarian are still about 10 levels away, then all of my crafters will be at least 50. Unlocking the Moogle quests was an ordeal. I still haven't tried Savage SB Primals. I plan on doing them+Attempting Omega Savage before 4.1 drops. On the other hand, I've been going through old Savage content with my FC. Got my Nidhogg birb, and despite doing it unsynced, Nidhogg EX is still probably the hardest thing I've done in the game.

I said "Can be", not "Will be". Bartre CAN be solid if he gets enough early speed procs, which isn't that unlikely, since he has a decent enough speed growth. I think you're overhyping Hawkeye a bit. Hawkeye definitely doesn't tie Dart in strength, since he starts as a prepromote with only 6 more points of Str than Dart, and Dart has 25% in strength growth over him. Dart will comfortably beat Hawkeye in strength. Hawkeye does beat Dart in durability, but it's not nearly enough to offset the BIG difference between the two. Hawkeye averages out to 3 points more of Def, and while he does have quite a bit more Res, FE7 rarely tosses mages at you outside of boss encounters where you should usually have the advantage. They'll both cap HP. But, the BIG difference is the speed. Dart will nearly double Hawkeye in his total speed stat. Hawkeye turns out barely any faster than Dorcas does, the second slowest character in the game. Hawkeye will have a hard time doubling even common mooks near the endgame(I think they're usually around 13-14 speed on average even on normal?). Hawkeye's defense and res can only get him so far as an offensive class, while his offense will be sorely lacking if he doesn't proc crits every time. The first part is true, I was mostly mentioning Marcus as somebody who could potentially wield Basilikos, since he's the only Pally that will likely get a half decent axe rank. Though he'd end up likely with the same effective speed as Hawkeye. And while Basilikos is available for one chapter, it is a goal to aim for that justifies a second axe user. I never said it was the ONLY reason to use an axer besides Hector. If you're not doing a ranked run, Dart will be a cannon with an offense that damn near can't be topped. But it is a decent excuse to level one up for the long term and bring another one into the final fight. True, Harken does exist, and he is a solid, pretty much RNG-proof unit, but his con really doesn't emphasize axe usage. Not saying he can't use axes, but he'll probably get more out of using swords, or swords and axes equally, which means it might be tight on if he ever gets an S axe rank.

It makes too much sense.

You do get Basilikos, which does somewhat justify using another axer. Of the ones left, Geitz is better off as a bow user and potential Rienfleche wielder, and the rest simply aren't as good as Dart. Barte can be solid, and Hawkeye starts off with decent bases, but his growths are terrible. Dorcas is... Dorcas. You could make any of the Paladins use axes, but most of them are better off with Lances or Swords, and Marcus' speed and con don't really justify making him use axes for the hell of it.

This isn't true. Once you unlock the combo, which is done automatically, the game tells you the combo in the status menu. AND when you press the first button OF a combo in combat, the game will tell you which combos you'll get with the next series of button presses. You might be confusing Xenogears with Legend of Legaia, where you did actually have to figure out button combos to unlock new techs.

For ranked runs, that Ocean Seal is way more valuable being unused.

The monster classes are more varied, but it really doesn't add much to the game outside of 3 or 4 cases. A good chunk of them are substitutes for normal human classes, just without dialogue or unique portraits. There's no reason Ephraim 11 couldn't have been a Wyvern siege map with some Baals for good measure(Hell, the next chapter straight up shows the baddies working with monsters), instead it's a gargoyle(Essentially just wyverns) siege that doesn't add anything to the game because the gargoyles come out of nowhere and can't talk. Same goes for any bone walker maps that could have just been a mix of mercs, soldiers and archers. And, as Levant has mentioned, in pretty much all cases where monster units are subbed for normal human enemies, the monster units are weaker than the already weak human enemies. The faceless cyclops boss of Ephraim 12 could have easily been a Warrior or Berserker boss, and it probably would been a much tougher boss, and there could have been actual dialogue. And again, the big problem with this is that they make up a quarter of the story maps.

I'm mostly talking gameplay. They're not very fun to fight, and get old pretty quick in the main story. Oddly, I'm fine with them in the post-game. From a story perspective, monsters could have worked, but pretty much all of the monster maps outside of Ephraim 12(Which eventually turns into this), and the last two monster maps are "Oh crap, monsters". They were lazily put in the game and clearly filler. Gaiden/SoV managed to work monsters into the plot a bit better, since usually they're accompanied by a Duma Faithful, so it isn't just a random thing that happens in the story. The big part is that the use of monsters in SS is lazy. It's not wasted potential purely because they exist, it's because the game makers didn't really seem to have a good idea on what to do with them.

4, 11+12 on both routes, 18, 20 and the final map make up 8 chapters of a game that effectively has ~30 chapters. 1/4 of the game is just fighting monsters.

From a gameplay perspective, Sacred Stones. FE7 was generally a more balanced, improved version of FE6 in most gameplay ways(They nerfed the shit out of enemies, but otherwise...). Map design, and scenarios/objectives were mostly a step up, too. Sacred Stones seemed to put all of its eggs in branched promotions and the world map, and neglected mostly everything else. The former was a decent addition, but the latter was pointless. Maps weren't particularly great, the objectives and scenarios weren't very engaging, the enemy balance is some of the worst in the franchise, and way too many maps are just your army fighting faceless monsters. Aside from games that were hardware jumps, I can't think of any other FE sequel that didn't try something new, or wasn't an improvement in terms of game design. SS didn't really try anything new, and it was a step back from FE7 in terms of design.