Interdimensional Observer

I've seen a similar premise in a JRPG before- a Macguffin that emits harmless ambient power even when secured by a seal, a Macguffin that likewise had darkness in its composition. The Macguffin in question was sealed perhaps in a small dimensional fold. Said Macguffin and most of its fellow sealed Macguffins were responsible for creating very rich natural environments- entirely devoid of the tinge of darkness. And the evil empire was able to use an unreachable sealed Macguffin's ambient power to strengthen to an extent a few human soldiers with a dark touch. If the disease was cancer, a cure would mean magically stopping unregulated cell growth. If it was caused by a virus or bacterium, you'd have to kill the microbe for a cure, or at a minimum repair affected cells faster than the pathogen can cause them. Healing burns is repairing damaged tissue and or encouraging the growth of new tissue, but there is no active agent creating new damages- a pathogen or cells that've lost control. Although IS couldn't have put very much thought into it, I'd pick cancer as Vigarde's killer. Since treating a burn and treating (but not curing, but treatments can be very important- see HIV/AIDS) a viral/bacterial ailment, should not be so different for magic. Treating cancer means correcting DNA or killing bad cells, and healing burns does not suggesting killing power. She doesn't get a support with him, but her little sis does and it ends in marriage to the prince. Syrene never yearns for him in her supports, and instead can happily wed Kyle or Gilliam with not a single visible regret.

'Eleki is too small for a Regi. Looking over the trio's heights, I'm surprised they're between 5'7'' and 6'3'', I tie for the tallest's height and that feels wrong. 'Eleki being yet smaller isn't the right thing. The Regis need to retconned closer to Regigigas's 12'2''. And for Regidrago, the colors are bad and it's too round, it doesn't give the impression of sturdiness, forbearance, endurance, rock-solid reliability across the ages- terms I'd like to associate with the Regis. It looks downright squishy like a berry, and Eleki is as devoid of this durability. -Is this because it's easier for GameFreak to draw rounded forms in 3D and they're lazy? And worst of all, the dislocated dragon skull devouring this dotted berry is blatantly that of a black Charizard- Gen 1 favoritism why?

It doesn't look the part to me actually. There is no central focus for it. Where in very center where those three long pointy sticks are should be a mouth, or an eyeball, or naked lady fused to the monstrosity. Without a focal point, there is nothing to readily venerate or direct one's bellicosity at, which I would usually want in a final boss. It befits more a pawn of the boss or an appendage of it than its heart and soul. -I critique with no emotion behind it, these are but mild observations. Is it all Collectibles and monster drops, or a limited assortment they were kind enough to put the Black Liver Beans on? -An inquiry on if they've gone back to the universal versatility (of monster drops only- but Collectibles had very little use in XCX) of XCX's Blade Tickets with XC1 Noponstone.

I forgot about MM in the history of LoZ here. Thanks. You're right that the forced first cycle is slow, I remember waiting tens of ingame hours on the platform you need the Deku Flower to reach. -But I did have a game guide, and I'm not sure how long it'd take the "average, unaided player" to do everything needed. Having not played MM in forever, I'm not sure direct the game is with its guidance towards what you need to do, but there isn't a whole lot you can do cursed either. The very first cycle is faster than the rest, being 40% shorter, so you have ~30 minutes in total to do it. And the slight oddity of this, is that after the first cycle, Majora's Mask quickly rolls into one of the most anti-beginner Zeldas, at least in its 64 incarnation. Because MM had Ocarina of Time preceding it on the same system, it was made virtually assuming you had played OoT first. Time is infinitely repeatable, so I'm not talking about that, everything else starts harder than most standard LoZs I think.

The silver lining, if there is one, to RD's imbalance, is that, to an extent, you may end up using a lot of characters a little in the short term. The part system and rotating armies leads can cause that. But, it isn't true balance, and it isn't guaranteed to happen. While I still love RD, I am increasingly souring on simultaneous route splits- as in RD, SoV, and TearRing Saga. Narratively and in gameplay principle, it's good. However, I feel that in every game, there are characters who get the shaft because although there might be a good number of chapters left when they join, the route split means the reality is they won't get substantial and real time to shine. This applies mostly those in need of training, such as Kieran, Conrad, and even the fairly early Sharon. People like Caineghis and Yoda aren't affected by it, because they will shine brightly in their limited time because they are so very strong to start.

Agreed! LoZ openings began utterly directionless on the NES, was followed by the glorious A Link to the Past start b/c the first dungeon is five minutes in. Link's Awakening was fine. Ocarina of Time did a good job making Kokori Forest an open place for teaching 3D newbies- aka everyone at its release- and then tossing you into the first dungeon very quickly. The Oracle games were acceptable on their starts too, though Ages was drawn out more. But, Wind Waker came to be, and with it godForsaken Fortress. Of everything in WW's beginning- until I get to Dragon Roost Cavern, the tiny bit of battle in the forests on Outset Island is the only bit thats fun to me. And honestly, Wind Waker doesn't get gud overall freed from its bumpiness until after the Tower of the Gods or Forsaken Fortress 2 (technically the breaking of the eternal night curse is what enables freedom- but the Reefs don't become active until FF2 and you want the cyclone warp spell which needs the Bow). Twilight Princess didn't learn much from WW. It's not until the first half is done that the game is free to be fun in the overworld, and it takes forever to get to the fungeons. Although ALttP and OoT do restrict you in the first half, they give you enough wiggle room that it doesn't feel chafing and weighed down by the usual overworld between dungeons stuff. Skyward Sword wasn't much of an improvement on TP, but it is a step better. Phantom Hourglass is small, and Spirit Tracks is literally on rails. A Link Between Worlds was heavenly however. The illusion of lots of freeeeeeeeedooooom! Don't mistake me for a superfan of Breath of the Wild though. It's too quiet, more enemy variety is needed, and some other fixes are in order. It's a great base, but this vanilla could use some chocolate-covered waffle cone and caramel mixed in. Or some swirled solid chunks of peanut butter and chocolate crunchies. A loose LoZ tier list of mine. I don't like tiering things FYI, and I did find entertainment in every game here. Majora's Mask isn't so much disliked as "Ikana Canyon has too many Redeads, and my mind is wracked thinking about every cycle where you don't save Romani from getting lobotomized". The Zelda gameplay overall is still solid in MM- but I haven't played it in more than a decade. Subspace Emissary is a Kirby game in disguise, modified to account for Smash mechanics and its great variety of characters. Action with mild platforming and the optional puzzle for goodies once in a while- the Kirby formula. SSE never entirely worked for me. I think swapping damage %s and being KO'ed by being sent flying off the screen to a life-bar would've made it a lot better in retrospect. Though it'd still be hindered by the Smash fighters not being made for action platforming and hence some characters feel weak.

Cybuster... yeah, after I finish Exceed, I think Gaiden/Masoukishin would be my next game for when I want SRW goodness. The Cybuster I overheard might have been invented as a substitute when they couldn't get the license for a different mecha, not sure which one though. Thats odd given the Cybuster is one of the more recurring mechs of SRW. City Trial was already remixed in SSB4- Smash Run anyone? I don't have Ultimate, so thanks for bringing this to my attention. It's wicked.

Coirpre comes late, so if they wanted it to be possible for him to fall in love with someone, a high Love base is almost necessary. Marriage is not important in the 2nd Gen, so they didn't need to give him high Love points across the board the way every latecomer in Gen 1 did. Lana I get being chosen b/c ClericxPriest, but I don't see a reason for PattyxCoirpre. They do get a conversation giving extra LP, but I remember they don't like each other in it.

I wasn't aware of this until now. Looking it up, it's "Blue Blood", with "B.B" instead of "Mim(s)" for the shorthand. Blue Blood sounds weird, and is a lot less scientific, I like mimeosome more. But Blue Blood does I'll concur it's simple, easy, and that it could use more racetracks (and unusually for a racer it has no Grand Prix). But its bones are that of a competent Kirby spinoff. Air Ride mode is a traditional racer, City Trial is very different, and Top Ride is small tracks over many laps with a plethora of items to use- "Kirby Kart Melee" in a way. A sequel would be much desired, but I don't think Nintendo will ever make a non-Mario Kart racer now, too much cost, not enough profit. Isn't one of these possibly impossible on modern computer due to the time allotted being tailored to an N64 experience standard amounts of lag and other hiccups in its not-modern-fast processing. -A patch has to be around to fix that though if it is.

I'd love an HD remake of Sunshine, the tropical theme of the game is fun. Though I'd in a pipe dream want to cut back on the Blue Coins and add a brand new 11 Shrine Sprite world or two to Isle Defino. Partly because content, partly because I want more pretty destinations. Maybe more mountains? Bianco Hills, Corona Mountain bad name now I know, and Pianta Village don't adequately capture the feeling of "hiking on tropical hills and mountains". I can imagine it not being necessary, if not ruled out either.

Well

Yeah

A third Tyrfing incarnation doesn't sound cool to me. But, what can they do? They understandably won't break from canon and throw him Naga. In the case it is Seliph but don't forget Zigludo could work too, it'd probably be on horseback b/c promotion. Yet since FEH doesn't have Emperor Arvis yet, even if 85% of Emperor Arvis desire stems from Red Tome Armor, I think Seliph in Emperor armor would be fun. Grannvale reverts to a kingdom in the ending IIRC, but distinctly imperial regalia even on a glorious world-liberating king would be okay I think. I'm thinking of this mostly because of how if a kingdom didn't have an heir, Seliph receives it in the ending.

So you've seen... set of Affinity Missions then? I've mistakenly beating around the bush then.

Wasn't the Numbers Patch, at least originally, not balanced for the Hard earlygame? Fixing Axeurracy is good for the player later, but not so much at the fragile start when a more precise Wade is less desirable than a lower chance of getting axes in your faces? If you're not great at FE, FE6 can be a bit rough, enemy quality is much higher than in FE7 and same-turn reinforcements might bite you from time to time. So I wouldn't start with Hard, which normally isn't available from the start actually. Just keep in mind the difficulty is wavy, up to and including 7 or 8x can be difficult, but then it lowers for a midgame dip, which starts inconsistently picking up again around 14. So if you're frustrated early on, keep in mind it'll get better.

Interesting, it's been left ambiguous. Thats great for one thing that aggravates fans but they it adore it too: spe-cu-lation. Forgot my mandatory "YAAAAAAAAAAAAY!" earlier. This is great, no more resetting to see both dialogue paths! And I can relive the little joys whenever. I get your point then. I assume you still haven't watched the Affinity Missions yet? Just asking. Did they increase the amount of QTE flower petals here? They didn't include this in XC2 or Torna, considering it's in both of the prior games and powerful (and memey in the first), ya think they'd try to make a tradition out of it and maybe make it a special for a Chroma Katana Rare Blade, but nope, none have it. The closest we got name-wise appears to be Sword Blossom on Addam. He woulda been a fine choice for Blossom Dance, because Torna is aesthetically Japanese and he's the great hero of legend- a worthy dancing companion for Dunban and Nagi.

So, do these words uttered by Takahashi actually ring true?: "Well, that’s because this scenario isn’t simply a new story to be told, but a way stone of sorts, pointing towards the future. The events that take place and the words spoken by the characters in Future Connected are linked to the future of Xenoblade Chronicles itself. It’s our hope at Monolith that, as you experience this new scenario, you’ll enjoy dreaming of what sort of future that might be." Is there a clear narrative direction Future Connected points in for the next game? Or is the above merely a vague marketing ploy? You do not need to say any spoilers, a simple confirm/deny will do. Toss it in spoilers if you want for those who want to be in complete surprise. The way you speak of FC, I can't envision it as being what Takahashi claims it to be. An Affinity Mission wasn't usually overly substantial in the grand (as in, not personal, about the world at large) scheme of things.

Why did they feel compelled to give Sharla a Talent Art thats purely a malus? Isn't standard Art cooldown enough of a balance on her healing and support? Not to mention her general lack of damage. Buuuuuut, Kino has to be there as a safety mechanism I guess. Someone with overkill healing just in case you're "not good enough" to get by without it. Although it distracts me from another game or three I should be working on, I did start the DQXI postgame that in a way shouldn't be a postgame. It's okay, but narratively POSTGAME DQXI SPOILERS!... ---- And very random Xenothought, could they give us a female Van- next time? For a double whammy, make it Vanhouten.😛

Minoth in the maingame is an old man, his development is over. And Old Man Minoth is a less direct case of "prequel-original contradiction" I'd say, he shows none of the disgust for Amalthus he does in Torna, if anything he's cheery towards him. Hugo is likewise another less direct "prequel-original contradiction" I'd say. You'd think Mor Ardain would celebrate its young emperor who valiantly died fighting Malos and that Brighid would know about it. But, we get nothing. -Though prequel-original contradictions are almost inevitable in any set of stories. As for Addam, where Addam ends up isn't the same as what happened to him during the journey that gets him there. He begins in Torna, he defeats Malos, he ends sealing Mythra and fleeing to Leftheria. But here is the thing- knowing the beginning and ending does not make the road between these two points irrelevant. Shakespeare's tragedies all end in the hero dying, does knowing this make Hamlet worst than a cheap romance novel? No. The end is only the end, it's not the duel where everybody dies by itself that makes Hamlet a great work. The majesty of Hamlet includes the "Alas poor Yurick!", the "To be or not to be?", the "Doubt that stars are fire", the play within a play, the herbal insanity of Ophelia, and all of these are laced between the watch where a ghost appears and the death of the Prince of Denmark. So, knowing Malos is defeated but survives injured, Torna is destroyed, Jin turns Flesh Eater, Mythra is broken, Addam flees to the Archipelago, does not prevent everything before it from being great. It doesn't do anything directly for XC2 maingame, it merely adds to the characters and places themselves, which could include Jin and Mythra- the two characters by far most relevant to the maingame. The rest of the cast really isn't stuck in stone b/c maingame. Addam outside of a few details they could've done anything with- he didn't have a personality in the XC2 maingame. Haze's personality aside, there wasn't much to her from the maingame, backstory was open to be whatever. Lora other than snippets of flashback showing she trained besides Addam, was a cadaver in ice, they had a lot of flexibility with her personality and backstory. Team Hugo exists in Torna because Mythra met Brighid in the past, but they were free to interpret that as they wanted to, and they could've done anything with Ardain trio. Brighid had a tweaked personality and Aegaeon's was very different in Torna to boot. And even if we knew Mythra must split apart, Torna did a spectacular job of showing that split. The known can still be executed with great precision. Knowing Spartacus must die in the Spartacus ballet did not stop the final dance from being beautifully sad to me. Normally, I would be 100% in agreement with you, I toss aside "prequels based on the legends in the original game" that a few fans will always desire as a bad idea. Yet here, I'm in disagreement. Whether I should be or not I do not know.

I operated under the assumption the turn to massive questing and cutting of scenes we should've gotten was for lack of budget to create more assets for more places, Torna as is isn't that big. And I would assume the largest investment of time, labor, and finances in modern games goes into creating good graphics. Plotwise, if "Torna the Golden Country" became "The Aegis War, and Torna" I would say this would lead to a shift in emphasis from Lora and Jin, to Addam and Mythra. And therein lay a writing flaw with Torna, although Mythra does take the stage she deserves in the end, the game wanted to bolster Jin's story, and Lora as a crucial part of that- they get the center position of game's boxart. This choice may have limited the Aegis War we got to see, because the Aegis War isn't about Jin, it's never even stated in XC2 proper that he fought in it, much less tried killing the Aegis of Darkness he would bromance with later. It wouldn't be impossible to keep Jin relevant in a rewritten Torna, I can sketch an outline of one. But if they shifted Jin to deuteragonist and made Addam and Mythra indisputably the central protagonists, then they could've done more more easily. They did a splendid job of breathing life into that soulless hooded figure called "Addam" in XC2 into an actual character, and Mythra's pre-trauma personality was handled well too. The issue would become taking the combat we currently have and expanding that for a longer game.

I think this is the reason. Where else but Renais would suffice for Eir & Eph to get promoted and their ultimates? This narrative priority overrode any logical in-universe explanations. It's called "being polite to your necrophilic crony and not invading on their privacy without consent".😛 Let's just imagine Seth is stating exaggerations of facts. Orson eats and emerges from his bedroom, but infrequently enough that his behavior is very peculiar and not normal. Are you referring to the reinforcements that come in to the east below the treasure chests? They are the tricky part of this map I've floundered on time and again. By the time you push through empty space and soft opposition, most of your units or everyone are within their range when they show up and can't easily get out. You can't exactly plow through to them either due to the wall of separation and the hard opposition in the throne room. According to Wikipedia: "The Sacred Stones was produced by long-time developer Intelligent Systems, running parallel to the development of Fire Emblem: Path of Radiance, an entry for the GameCube. According to staff, development began unexpectedly in 2003 alongside Path of Radiance: the staff thought they would not be developing another entry for the Game Boy Advance. Production on the two titles ran parallel to each other. In addition to Intelligent Systems staff, freelance staff were brought in to help with development, including former Capcom developers." Reads to me like SS was an afterthought, a side project, PoR being the main priority of IS. Freelancers to me implies IS chose to reserve more of its core staff for Path of Radiance, implying favoritism. There is a little irony here, because SS was inspired by Gaiden, and SoV like SS was the 3rd and unexpected side project of a portable system at the end of its lifespan.

Thats fair, longer isn't always better and not everyone has the luxury of investing 60 hrs into a game, or wants to. And I didn't mind the mandatory quests myself. Yet now when I look back at Torna, I can't help but envision if it had more, because I can see from the XC2 maingame what could've and perhaps should've been. It's a wanting born of love, not dislike. And I suppose it's accompanied by a tolerance for increased development time, price, and time investment on my part. Though to choose between Torna as is, and no Torna at all if it couldn't match it's loftiest potentials, I'd obviously chose to have what we have.

Indol as is, is small though, not very much to explore. They'd have to retcon in a much bigger version for Torna for it to be a substantial second Titan. Torna to me is not merely some superficial DLC story/gameplay content, it is much more than FE's DLC ventures, more than Breath of the Wild's probably too. Monolith's wants to portray Torna as an independent, fledged game and prequel, but I feel it doesn't live up to that either. If you want to see a Monolith Soft game that developmentally is a more independent prequel (which is not to say narratively), see Baten Kaitos: Origins.* Torna is in limbo, its identity stuck between that of cash-grab story/gameplay DLC, and a finished, separate game. Torna's sudden turn to lots of mandatory (but quality) sidequests** I would want to say is a result of being short on resources to create more costly and substantial content. The reuse of Gormott over expanding Indol or making Torna even bigger, is partly I believe because it'd be cheaper to modify an existing environment than it would be to create more assets and locations out of nothing. Then there is the first Titan sinking by Malos going unseen and the second being brushed aside in the opening. The ending, although more might've been too bleak, was lacking for certain important scenes you'd expect too. This is not to say I dislike Torna, I really enjoyed it. But I do think if you removed it from XC2's DLC, gave it a longer development cycle, and raised the retail price on it, you wouldn't see the "faults" that it currently has. I do not discredit the many complete experiences available in gaming at a lower than $60 USD price point, experiences that are perfectly good games with 30 (or 15) hrs or less in length. But I feel Torna was worthy of $60 USD and 40-60 hrs of playtime, I think it might've wanted to be that. But it wasn't. * To return to BKO, I admit it does recycle with modifications locations from Eternal Wings and the Lost Ocean, it quantitatively recycles more even. But, it is a longer game (still shorter than the original) and does have more new areas too. Torna's problem is that Gormott exists alongside just 5 regions of Torna- one of which is a town, thats one-sixth of a geographically small game. While not entirely disconnected from EWatLO, if you picked Origins or Torna and didn't play the game it's a prequel to, Origins would make more sense. Torna existing as DLC for XC2 means it didn't feel compelled to show everything that it should've, because it could be assumed you played XC2 first and there was a benefit to saving resources in not reexplaining something. BKO definitely should've provided more content too I'd say in certain aspects, but the critical fault here is overambition, not Torna's cutting of corners that happened because its developmental mindset wasn't entirely dedicated to making it a fully independent game. ** Xenoblade Chronicles X relies heavily on quality writing in sidequests to world-build and create its experience. The difference between it and Torna is that Torna has a strong central narrative, or wanted to have one at least. XCX was made with the main story deemphasized, still dramatized and not entirely neglected, but the difference in priorities means the post-Malos-in-Auresco battle shift to Community completion is to Torna's unexpected detriment. In XCX, it's very expectable you'd do tens of quests between between the occasional story mission, it fit its game-beat a way Torna's Community does not. Again, not to overly criticize Torna, I still cherished it.

The silver lining side of Witches is that they never have very high stats, and like always Fire or Thunder, nothing better. Well, in SoV, TRS gives some 20 Crt Death and 8 Mt Swarm. So in the long term they're weak and deal very manageable damage. And, as others have pointed out, they tend to pick on the isolated and those at the edges of your pack, so you can affect who they target to an extent.

It was the beginning of FF's sea of modern troubles it struggles to free itself from, it broke the image of a universally-loved franchise that everyone could agree could do no wrong. Although XIV in a way much more definitively qualitatively damaging- shutting the game down and having to rebuild it from scratch is terrible. I do have XIII, got it used for $5 to see for myself how bad or not this divisive game was, can't hurt to investigate at that price. But I've never gotten around to actually playing it.