Slumber

Seriously, you'll never hear the word "Dark" the same after playing the games.

Just so long as you don't bend it or separate discs, your spine is surprisingly durable. If he's already moving again, he'll probably make a full recovery. Can't say that seeing him scrunch like a slinky didn't make me wince, though.

Long story short, it's a convoluted mess of a franchise that will never live up to the potential that KH1 displayed, and squandered 90% of the good will that came with Final Fantasy and Disney by the second game. I'm not a fan. Just listen to the soundtracks, or skip the story if you think you might be interested in the game play.

The AFC really has like, 3 teams who can shake things up right now, so I'm not sure if I'd say the Pats are far from shoo-ins. It's probably going to come down to either the Jags of the Steelers to take the conference from them, though neither team is particularly well balanced right now. The Patriots have had a pretty easy regular season schedule(Most of their difficult games have been at home), though, and I can see play-offs being a wake-up call for them when they have to play teams that aren't pushovers. But yeah, I mentioned it last week, and the competition in the AFC is laughable compared to the competition in the NFC right now.

I never knew a team out of Ohio could be so passionate about the game. Blowing a 14 point lead is pretty impressive.

The Crash 1 stuff is weird. As faithfully as they tried to recreate the game while making certain unreasonable things(Getting 100% and the gems) much easier, the jump animations are slightly off. Or, more specifically, the landing animations are slightly off. It is far easier to slip off platforms in Crash 1 than it was in the original. It's not as apparent in the beginning where the game doesn't ask you to make precise jumps, but later on you notice it more. It's especially noticeable in Road to Nowhere and The High Road if you try to cheese and run the ropes. You could do this pretty reliably on the PS1 version. Not quite on the N. Sane version, because Crash will slip all over the place, seemingly randomly.

Gaming journalism hasn't changed THAT much since the last Mega Man game, and Mega Man, despite its disappearance over the last few years, is absolutely a gaming staple. Crash Bandicoot kept getting coverage for how difficult it was because there was a 21 year gap in between Crash 1 and the N. Sane Trilogy. That was a lot of time for journalists to forget and make obnoxious articles. Cuphead, having Mega Man as one of its major influences, SHOULD have been predicted as being tough, but game journalists thrive on sensationalism. "Cuphead is just as tough as its influences" doesn't get the mouth breathers clicking articles like "THE DARK SOULS OF 2D PLATFORMERS" does. With Mega Man 11, supposing it is just as hard as its predecessors, is probably going to be a lot of articles going "Mega Man is as difficult as ever". If there are game journalists who have not played Mega Man in the 30 years the franchise has been around, and start making articles "These Mega Man games are too hard." with MM11, I imagine they'll get torn apart.

The thing here is that you're arguing that Asvel would even be competitive for these. Asvel's a great boss killer with Grafcalibur, but for regular use, it's difficult to get him going. As a level 1 Mage with 0 base defense, you have to keep him at a pretty safe distance, and out of harm's way on enemy turns. You also have to regularly be capturing Mages, a bit risk for early game physical units, since there's no way to reliably get a hold of Magic he actually wants until chapter 12(You get no magic aside from Thunder outside of capturing up until this point, which is going to drop Asvel's AS by a noticeable amount, and Fire, the only other magic you're likely to get, isn't much better). 4x has walls, tight rooms and a lot of armor units, which SHOULD make it easy pickings for Asvel, but it all depends on how much you want to start using his Grafcalibur. He can go through it very quickly here, as he'll need to double a lot of the Armor Knights to get them down of his crits don't come out reliably. You can steal some magic here, but Asvel's not going to be doubling anymore with Thunder or Fire. It's also a giant clusterfuck to try to capture a Mage in the tiny room near the end while also fighting off a wave of Armor units and Archers and also recruiting Dalsin. Chapters 5 and 6 are escape chapters with a lot of physical units where he's not going to be leading the charge. You can go out of your way to take out the Dark Mages near the end, but that's about two/three enemies in the whole stretch where I'd feel comfortable letting Asvel depleting Grafcalibur uses, if you didn't capture any of the Mages previous maps and steal their magic(Even then, I'm not sure any of them have Wind, so Asvel's going to be weighed down quite a bit). Chapter 7 is one where you can safely plink from the back, but the left side is full of Hand-Axe bandits and a Berserker. It's a risky spot to put Asvel in. Going the right path is easier for him, but you risk putting yourself in a situation where Safy can't safely reach Shiva, and you're more open to Eisenhow's surprisingly tough ambush squad. Chapter 8 is a relatively safe chapter for Asvel to get a few hits in, but it's a small map, and you have to watch out for Hand-Axe bandits. It's also a map where Asvel's strength as a boss killer can't be utilized. 8x is a nightmare for him, and again, he's not going to want to be on the front lines for this as you rush to rescue Tanya and Dagdar. Gomes is also not really a boss you want him trying to take out with Grafcalibur, since missing a crit on the first hit means Asvel's probably going to get one-shot by Gomes. Asvel's likely not going to have the speed to double him here, so relying on his PCC+Graf crit won't be likely. You'd really need him promoted here to make it work. Chapter 9 and 10 are large maps with flying units and Ballista that make Asvel risky to use aggressively. Chapter 11 has nasty choke points with Archers that make it difficult to utilize Asvel. He can definitely get a few kills in, but it's risky. Chapter 12, when he can start getting access to more Wind and there's enough forest to let him comfortably attack physical units without nearly as much worry, is about when I'd say Asvel starts becoming somebody who you can use with frequency and he'll start being promotion ready. I don't see him being promotion ready by chapter 8 without serious babying and completely using up Grafcalibur(Even then, the I'm not sure if the 20 or so kills he'd get from it would get him completely to promotion). I'm not saying it's impossible but I really don't think the promotion gains and an extra staff user at chapter 8 is really THAT appealing that you use up the one thing that makes Asvel special, or put in a lot of effort to get him there. Compare to Fergus, who is probably your best enemy phase unit until Orsin comes back in chapter 8, Karin, who excels at hit and run, can fly and can take a hit or two of her own as she levels, Nanna, who is your dedicated healer until Safy and also has some enemy phase bulk with the Earth Sword, and Orsin, who is Orsin... I don't see Asvel as being realistically THAT competitive for promotion until quite a few chapters after chapter 8, not at chapter 8. Even if you are just hounding for those promotion gains, there's a lot more you have to do to get there for Asvel compared to many others who get there a bit more naturally.

Orsin because he's basically "the enemy phase unit", so him getting every advantage as early as he can contributes to his already immense strength. The rest because beefier utility is more important for the following few chapters. Karin, specifically, having promoted by chapter 9, and especially 10 is very nice. Her not having to worry about ballistas(At promotion she can reach Ballistas with a javelin without ever coming into range) as much while being able to move freely around the heavily forested, mountainous and rivery map. This extends to later maps like 13 and 14, where having her trained up even more is incredibly helpful.

Your usecase for Asvel's staff rank is him promoting by chapter 8. I'd say it's much, much, much more likely that Nanna heals 20 times(And then some) in between chapter 5 and chapter 8 than it is for Asvel to be promotion ready and competitive for those first Knight Crests.

It's 20. https://serenesforest.net/thracia-776/characters/other-data/ Nanna starts with +30.

Hm. You're right on Linoan being the first Restore. For some reason I thought you got one before chapter 10. Regardless, Nanna starts high with E. I believe she only needs to Heal 10 times to hit rank D, which should be more than doable by chapter 8. If it IS 10 uses(It might be 20), Nanna may very well reach rank D in the pit with Eyvel, or shortly after. Point is, even with very conservative use, Nanna should still have a lead on Asbel with Staff ranks. This also compounds with the "What do you need 3 staff users before 12x for?" question. While Nanna is primarily a Healer who eventually grows into more of a frontline unit, Asbel is almost always going to be a much more effective damage dealer than he is going to be a healer. His opportunities to be a staffbot after promotion is going to generally be more limited. His main appeal will be to be able to heal on the frontlines, but Vulneraries are readily available and heal to full. Needing a secondary source of healing on the frontlines really only starts to feel necessary, again, around the route split, when you'll start wanting to use your player turns more offensively. And even then, compared to most of your other frontline units, Asbel's probably the one who is going to need healing as opposed to being the one healing. Dodgetanking's not quite as reliable in the old games if you don't have Holsety or Balmung.

This is all true, but beefier utility units and offensive powerhouses with more room to grow never really hurts when they arguably have more important roles to fill than a third staff user by chapter 12x. As staff-centric as Thracia is, it doesn't become "The Staff Game" until the mid/late game. By and large you're mostly using staves just to heal in the early game, which isn't that vital to your team prior to the route split. Especially given that Vulneraries heal to full and most bosses carry them. The most important part is being able to Restore status ailments, which Asvel's going to take a while to reach, even with an early promotion. By the time you really NEED Restore, Safy and Nanna will be able to carry you until Tina and Linoan join. Promoting Asbel early purely to build up his staff rank has, again, never, ever crossed my mind as a high priority.

The only thing that really looks off to me is Mega Man's run animation, which I imagine they'll fix within the year they still have developing this. If not, it's a small price to pay for a new Mega Man.

As much as I'm not a mobile game fan, even to me it's readily apparent the massive difference in quality that Heroes has compared to most gacha games like this. The developers are clearly listening to feedback, and seem to be having fun with the game. So yeah, it probably deserves it. But again, I'm not a mobile game fan.

That post was more of a goofy "pls use Homer" post than an actual "Homer's the best, all other sages suck" post. All Sages in T776 are, by and large, amazing units. But Homer's my favorite. I don't ever need to level Asbel's staff rank like that? The game tosses so many amazing staff bots at you that getting Asbel to promotion and promoting him ASAP has never been a priority to me, especially not so I can start grinding his staff rank. I'd rather give Knight Crests to Nanna, Orsin, Fergus, or Karin first, all of who offer more utility or long-term offensive potential sooner than Asbel. Part of the reason I like Homer more is because at about the time I'd consider promoting Asbel, is also around the point Homer shows up. And at that point, I would rather build up Homer, who has better stats than Asbel, and thanks to Paragon, you can get up to promotion within his join chapter. And after that, Homer will continue to gain levels like crazy. Homer also has more potential with Scroll leveling than Asbel, with the Dain Scroll being acquired the same chapter. Homer's 5 PCC makes him a much more effective unit than Asvel with Wind's innate 10% critical boost. Once Grafcalibur runs out and Asbel's no longer being guaranteed crits on double attacks, my reasons for using Asbel above any of the other sages also generally runs out. Even with an early promote Asbel early, Homer likely would catch up to him fairly quickly, and the argument goes back to Homer just having better stats, barring potentially a rank or so in staves. And I don't think Sage is a class you should avoid redundancy on. As for never matching Linoan and Sara's utility, sure. Them being able to use staves before promotion more or less already makes them amazing utility units. But they'll be slow going. Linoan lacking Paragon and being squishy hurts her a lot, since she will ultimately be a staff bot until promotion. Resire doesn't salvage her bad durability nearly enough to risk having her fighting even weaker opponents. Even with the generous EXP gains from staves, it will be a while for her. Sara gets off a bit easier due to being close to promotion when she joins and having Paragon, but she's also squishy. Squishier than Linoan. And she joins at about the point the game starts throwing mooks with stats higher than 8 at you. So again, she'll be relegated to Staffbot for quite some time before she starts being able to show some versatility. But again, these are more my fanboy feelings and not a concrete list of reasons why Homer's the best, or anything.

Jesus Christ the highlights from that game. That looked like a group of dudes pit fighting more than a football game.

True, there's room for them to screw it up. I just don't see this as something like Sonic Forces or Mighty No. 9.

I don't have any confidence that these leaks are true. I've never, ever, ever seen leaks handled like this. It's ALWAYS "Take these bits of information that I have since I only work on this specific part of the game". Much like how actors barely even know what the movie they're making is about until they see it, game developers generally don't have a clear idea of what they're making until the product is complete. I've never seen anyone go "Oh yeah, I have this contact at this company, let me ask them about every single aspect of this game". Especially this far away from release. You'd have to be the director of the game to know about damn near every aspect of the game like this. I doubt any game director would leak their own game like this. It'd be career suicide. The way the leaks are handled only makes it more suspect to me. Any time the leaker says something that the fandom doesn't like, she shows up an update or two later re-explaining the thing people didn't like that makes them like it more. Compare these leaks versus the Pokemon Sun/Moon leaks. The leaker there posted riddles/vague descriptions, and if people didn't like an aspect, it was more or less tough shit. There's a reason I'm talking about it here and not the leak thread. People are obviously having fun there and I don't want to rain on their parade. But I don't put stock in them, and if they turned out to be true, I'd be wholly disappointed.

I mean, the main difference between this and Sonic Forces is that Capcom at least KNOWS Mega Man. They've got the formula down pat for the most part. There were a few missteps in the X series near the end, but Mega Man 9 is one of the best main entries in the series, and while 10 wasn't a classic return to form like 9, and at the same time didn't really do a lot to differentiate itself from 9, 10 was still one of the better Mega Man games. If there was one thing you could say to describe proper 2D Mega Man, it's that the quality of the games didn't vary a whole lot. There are a few anomalies(Mostly in the X series), but the highs and the lows generally weren't crazy different. With Sonic Forces... I think even people who like some 3D Sonic would agree that Sonic Team has never really had a grasp on what works with 3D Sonic. Sometimes they got some things right, but most of the time, they didn't. You could probably play darts blind and be more consistent than 3D Sonic. Mighty No. 9 isn't even really worth going into. The first few looks of the game were the most promising, and the more we saw and learned, the more it was obvious that it was a pale imitation and not a proper spiritual successor.

Do people really underrate/overlook Rath? Most people I see seem to acknowledge him as the only primary bow unit worth using. Even usually above Louise, a prepromote who comes with an A rank support with one of the most useful units in the game. If people are gone use a bow, it usually comes down to Rath and Geitz. Generally his main complaint is that he's underleveled. Which absolutely is a valid reason to not use him in certain runs, but I don't think people not doing strict turn/efficiency runs overlook him.

I'm gonna have a ton of Megaman to play on the Switch.

Hell. Yes. These will be perfect on the Switch. I'm unreasonably happy to see new Megaman. I get how Metroid fans felt at the announcement of Samus Returns. Now everybody buy this so we can get Legends 3 so I can feel what Metroid fans felt about Prime 4.

Look, I wasn't rooting for the Ravens because Ray Lewis was smart.

Yeah, the Packers thing is just because I'm in the Twin Cities. I'm really close to Wisconsin, and there's definitely a strong Green Bay presence around the Twin Cities, so I have a little too much experience with Cheese Heads. I'm gonna go out on a limb and say that they're probably the sports fandom who takes their team the most seriously outside of the east coast(Professional sports, at least. Nothing holds a candle to the south and college football.), which seems really antithetical to the spirit of getting drunk, wearing cheese on your head, and watching the game. I should be completely down with a fandom that does that, but they always manage to suck the fun out of everything. Aaron Rodgers I like, I think the NFL is more interesting with him in it, but there are roughly 20 better teams he could be playing for. Imagine any team with a good coach, coordinators, and a solid defense and/or offense with him. That team would be unstoppable.