Interdimensional Observer

I was thinking something like old Soulcalibur II's Necrid's weapon: It's not as creative as I remember it was, but it still makes a point. At different times in the above video, Necrid's weapon takes the forms of: One large sword. Twin swords. One large axe. Whip sword. A handheld sphere- this it its default form tucked away when he isn't using his weapon. Yet, at its essence, Necrid wields pure energy, it simply changes its form as Necrid attacks. -But now I've realized the titular weapons of the franchise are even better examples. The Soulcalibur weapon and its evil counterpart the Soul Edge have no definitive form, they take the form most suited to the fighting style of its current wielder. If Nightmare/Siegfried uses Soulcalibur or Soul Edge, they take the form of a giant two-handed zweihander. If Cassandra/Sophitia/Link use one of these, it takes the form of a one-handed sword and shield, with the exact sword and shield differing for each of these characters. Raphael gets a rapier. Ivy gets a whip sword. Cervantes gets two double-edged swords, the smaller one with a gun in its hilt. Mitsurugi gets a katana. Yoshimitsu gets a katana and a banner flag. Take has ninja knives/kodachi. Kilik gets a long bo staff. Seong Mi-na a Zanbatou- bladed polearm like a naginata. Yun-seong a dao sword. Xianghua a jian sword. Voldo, dual katars. Taki, dual bladed tonfas. Maxi has nunchaku. Astaroth gets a giant axe. Spawn has a smaller axe. Heihachi has gauntlets. The possible forms for Soulcalibur and Soul Edge are as endless as there are unique fighting styles. Why not just give Makrocoby the 6th the Soulcalibur/Edge? Does he/she prefer swords- it's a sword. Do they prefer lances or axes? It's a lance or axe. A gauntlet? Let there be one for each hand. A bow or throwing knives? Why not? Takumi has laser arrows, so Soulcalibur ammo isn't a problem. Does he/she prefer magic? Well, just convert it into a powerful spell, Necrid's Soul Edge is a sphere of malevolent energy "Enigma" in its unaltered form, that's pretty "magical" to me.

I was being lazy, I wasn't sure how to spell it, and I didn't want to try looking it up. It's "Elagabalus", one of the prettiest Roman names around, isn't it? It rolls off the tongue after shoving a basket of chocolate bonbons in your mouth following some dental work. Would you want her throwing outdoors parties lit by saints burning their calories? Having her call for more "firewood" whenever the lighting got dim? Nero also needs Agrippina, his mother, the woman who might have arranged for his early ascension to the throne via a poisoning. And, who he later had killed, mommy issues are fun.

I haven't actually played a Pokemon game since Gen 5 as a disclaimer. And, I know SwSh is leading to a lot of bitterness, but do realize my musings won't go to Game Freak HQ, so don't point a shiny knife at my neck if you think what I'm about to say is bad (but it shouldn't be incendiary). Shiny Pokemon, a little detail thats been in the franchise since Gen 2, with that glorious freebie Red Gyarados at the Lake of Rage. Shiny Pokemon have always fascinated some people with their distinctive colors and extreme rarity, such that you'd be severely disappointed for fifteen minutes if you failed to catch one. Not like you'd miss out on anything in gameplay, since, thankfully, Shiny Pokemon differ only visually, they're no better or different than the other 99.9% of their species. But, thinking on it, should Shiny Pokemon be so rare? In other RPGs, alternate monster colors are usually taken as a sign of laziness, rehashing the same designs for later in a game. And if I turn on Smash Bros., I'm treated to the ability to pick from eight different colors at any time for Mewtwo, Lucario, Greninja, and Incineroar. I know Pokemon isn't so lazy in monster designs, there are about one-thousand of them now; and Smash is a fighting game, not a JRPG. But, Shiny Pokemon are only different in colors, their size and shape match every other in their species. Recoloring the mere surface of things shouldn't be at all difficult to do, and some of them already are fairly lazy, Espeon is just dunked in a can of alien-green paint. There are more significant physical alterations, but they're not used in the Shiny status, they're forms, Formes, and Unknown and the ilk. So, why not make Shiny Pokemon less rare, why not include more Shiny variants for each and every Pokemon? Why not take the concept and bring it out of the heavens down to earth? I have a red Solrock, so what if it isn't orange? Why not have a black Solrock and a yellow Solrock as well, and have them all have an appearance rate of at least 5% whenever a Solrock appears?

I gave that to Finn myself, owing to him having the 2nd Gen to put it to use. So you'd get the most use on paper by doing so, in practice, Finn isn't that valuable in Gen 2 I discovered. But, neither do you need that much more offense for what remains of Gen 1. Claude of Somewhere in Britain will have his name pronounced as "Cloud-ee" or "Cloud-day". Choose Your Legends for FE Heroes decided on "Claud", no "e" at the end for the Duke of Edda. Maybe it'll be changed later, nothing is permanent until FE4 gets a remake, but this is the best we have to go on at the moment. And, FEH chose "Tailtiu" for Miss Thunder Mage, which is apparently the accurate old spelling of an Irish goddess's name. "Tailte" might be a modern update closer to the pronunciation? That was precisely my problem I think, I didn't have a promoted Lach for this. Since fighting Eldigan is very dangerous, and getting him gone doesn't make the Cross Knights disappear, an unpromoted Lachesis means a big headache of positioning her to talk to her brother, and then protecting Lach/killing enough Cross Knights so she won't die. Or she could die, Claud and Valkyrie is here now. Except for this game for sure. Since by the time Altena shows up, the next two chapters appreciate a high Res stat she can only barely reach if at all with a Barrier Sword and Ring. Claud!Fee should probably be able to pass the Res check with only one of those two things, or even neither. Heath is pretty equal to the F Sisters in FE7. FE12 should have instances on Maniac/Lunatic where the higher Spd cap of Falco will matter. And Awakening probably has Wyverns and Pegasi as equals- tankiness vs. flying magic/Rescue and all.

Whilst I sense the from glancing this discussion that meaning was lost in this particular instance, how well something sounds is more important than you give it credit for. Yes, things can become normalized into sounding cool, but not always. Would you rather Lorelei, Bruno, Agatha, and Lance comprise the Four Heavenly Rulers of Kanto in Pokemon? Or Gharnef be called a Demon Ruler when Archanea has no demons? "Seeking Flame" would be on par with "Radiant Hero" as a translation perhaps if Byleth's title were changed to that. Whether it'd be good enough, depends on how crucial one deems it that what is being sought be stated. Ike is the "Hero of the Blue Flames" in Japanese, the English "Radiant Hero" leaves it open to interpretation what makes him radiant. It could be the chaotic flames of Lehran's Medallion, or it could be friendship, or it could be his shiny Ragnell, or an expressive upbeat outlook on life, or he sells lightbulbs like no else can. But, do the blue flames matter that much? Sure it ties him to Tellius's Fire Emblem, but I dunno, Ike doesn't need that close a clearly-stated association to it.

Oh, so I guess this was just a total joke then? This is all I've ever seen of Dante with one of his female friends.:

I'd say so, particularly with all the liberties Musou takes with its historical inspirations. Zhang He anyone? Whilst as a character I prefer Nobunaga and Cao Cao, I'd take Yukimura or... *has to look up name again* Zhao Yun as a Smash playable. The fact I couldn't remember Zhao's name offhand indicates I don't really notice him all that much, but he and Yukimura are polearm users (admittedly, so is Lu Bu). Lu Bu has been intraseries memey, but Zhao Yun and Yukimura are franchise posterboys who find themselves plastered onto the boxart for every game. If they really wanted to, they could easily make Yukimura Zhao Yun's Echo Fighter, to get both of the Musou classics in. Lu Bu can be a boss or something, and Cao Cao or Nobunaga a costume for the Mii Swordfighter. Include a cute girl or two (Sun Shangxiang isn't too scantily clad IIRC, and doubles as a pinch of Wu) in the Spirit selection. Doesn't Dante already have a woman named Trish or something? Maybe Bayo or Dante could make a threesome joke, but go no further than that and leave things as a loose battlefield badass rivalry that turns into cooperation when confronted with a common threat. I've this weird feeling where I wouldn't want any additional characters added to Smash b/c too much 3rd party ruins it. But I'm not seriously going to assert said feeling, knowing that Smash has little 1st party growth room left but I still want Elma, and not being of the mind that Smash must stop expanding either. Maybe I'm just being crotchety conservative, but I do not yearn for any "good old days" that don't exist.

Maybe a glimpse of him was where Vampire Emblem came from? He looks like he'd be an arrogant one chapter generic boss in other FEs.

Pokemon Mystery Dungeon never quite got me. I did finish Blue Rescue Team once, and I had Explorers of Time, but I only got past the Groudon fight there. Mystery dungeon gameplay mustn't have been enticing enough for me. Finally got to finishing the first Boktai, the game is a solid B-rate GBA title, if nothing better. A little stealth, a little action, a little puzzling, and oddly produced by Kojima (and Konami, so good luck seeing it ever surface again). The penultimate battle was different and I liked that, if in ways unfair I felt. The final battle was just unexpected in what I'd have to do, how does flinging a very bright sunflower at Queen Hel kill her? I'm going to wait until the days lengthen before I play the sequel, due to IRL time affecting ingame sunset time. Instead, I have 7th Dragon 2020-II to wrap up. And then my emulation backlog will be cleared, and I can start some new stuff, maybe Soma Bringer, maybe Persona 1 or 2EP, or Summon Night Swordcraft Story 2, or Yggdra Union- I have to decide.

And there was that horny teenage emperor who got put on the throne (and later killed) by the influence of his grandmother. The one who married a Vestal Virgin, asked to be called empress when speaking to a lover and supposedly offered to a pay a doctor to make him a woman. Not that we can be sure he said those things or if it is just post-death damnatio memoriae(?) of sorts. For what reason then did they want to disembowel and splay common prostitutes? Well, it might be better than a cartoon character: Apparently, the mythological Ishtar was humiliatingly forced to strip nude as she entered the underworld. She also had a temper on a number of occasions, sometimes for good, other times not so good.: "If you do not open the gate for me to come in,I shall smash the door and shatter the bolt,I shall smash the doorpost and overturn the doors,I shall raise up the dead and they shall eat the living:And the dead shall outnumber the living!" -Or so I see on Wikipedia.

Agreed. Sora has no chance. Disney doesn't even trust Nomura with its IPs very much, I've heard they more or less forbade real character interactions in KHIII between Nomura's OCs and the Frozen cast. A friendship got Snake in IIRC, Capcom's friendliness with Nintendo allowed Mega Man and Ryu/Ken, good terms with Sega got Sonic and Bayonetta (which Nintendo published the sequel of). Atlus is now owned by Sega, and outside of mainline Persona itself (ironic) is very friendly to Nintendo. Namco has shared in Smash development now and so we have Pac Man. SNK is trying to revive itself. Microsoft was willing to be nice to Nintendo. Konami is a dead game developer turned pachinko company that gave a little love to its dead-in-the-games IP. Square and Disney- do they at all have a certain amicability with Nintendo? They'll release games on their systems, but do we know of any particular statements or moves of goodwill? I don't know.

Looking back at it on Bulbapedia, I see what you mean. Pokemon just look better in two dimensions sometimes (but Colosseum/XD/BR were good), I am personally drawn to all the official artwork. Really good pixel art or a hand-drawn aesthetic that makes the official art literally what you fight, would be great for Pokemon. Either works, I think it depends on the direction you'd want for Pokemon, pixel art for the 2D sprites is more gamey, while hand-drawn would be more artsy (and possibly like it's ripped from the anime). The world would have to stay 3D of course, but is there a good alternative to the visual direction things have currently gone in? One that might work better with the return to sprites? Wish you luck on your thesis! 😃🤞🍀🎋😉

Well it is hand-drawn fanart, but the Arcanine was given enough dimensionality that I can envision it as a 3D object flowing through the fields. The Lapras has either the shadows or something on its back being a little off to me, but otherwise it's good too. The Ponyta I can see dimensionality in (if a little poor) graphically), but the Gyarados seems too flat. -Just me and a little lightly meant art criticism. Ask a mod for a 3 week ban then, if removing your power to post helps with self control, I've done that before. Interesting! I think I'll actually do my hand at a non-FE character as an FE unit. 3H style to be precise, because it has something that suits this character. Guillo (Male- even if it's an it being an artificial construct.) Class: Machina? (Armor, can use Magic. Has 6 Move.) Class Abilities: Fistfaire, Black Tomefaire, Crit +20. (So, a War Master that goes hybrid.) Special Note: As is the case with the Taguel and Manaketes in Awakening, even when reclassed, this will maintain a unit type designation as "Armor" and gain Armor Skill Experience for it. Proficiencies: Swords Lances Axes Bows Brawling Reason Faith (Budding Talent- learns Fortify. Yes I see nobody gets a spell as a Budding Talent, but some do get Combat Arts.) Authority Armor Riding Flying Personal Ability: Shining Arms- Increases damage against Monsters by 6. Relic Weapon: Deluge the Seabane- 5 Mt, 85 Hit, 10 Crit, 6 Wt, 1 Rng. When initiating combat, deals 2 consecutive hits. Deals magic-based damage. For Guillo, enables Dustwake Sky. Dustwake Sky: +7 Mt, +10 Hit, +10 Crit, 1-2 Range, costs 3 Durability. Deals magic damage, Mt increases based on user's Str. (Is this too weak given everything else about Guillo?) It's Ruptured Sky, but targeting Res and increasing damage with Str, and no anti-dragon. Learned Black/Dark Magic: Fire Thunder Sagittae Fimbulvetr Dark Spikes T Learned White Magic: Heal Nosferatu Abraxas Fortify -I don't feel like doing Combat Arts right now.😗 Stats-wise, I'm not familiar with what constitutes good growths in 3H, I'm not going to look at those until I at least have a Blue Lions play done, and I don't intend to play that path for months. Nor am I familiar with class stats, or Mastery Combat Arts/Abilities. But as a guideline for growths: HP- Poor. Str- Good. Magic- Great. Dex- Average. Spd- A little above average. Lck- Poor. Def- A little below average. Res- Great.

Sonic and Pokemon are entirely different matters in 3D though. Sonic has to contend with gameplay changes, Pokemon remains the same in any dimension. 3D Sonic adding Z-axis movement and the need of a good camera when you're rolling around at the speed of sound. Sonic fans also bicker over 2D sidescrolling and 3D linear platforming (not-SM64/S/O style), with Sega trying to cater to both. Meanwhile, Pokemon did have the technical load increased from going 3D, but the fundamentals remained the same. 3D does nothing to affect battles, nothing to affect catching, and its impact on exploring is minimal when Pokemon was top-down beforehand and the camera angle wasn't quite changed the way Zelda went from top-down ALttP to behind-the-back OoT. Pokemon going 3D was like Final Fantasy going 3D, it didn't change the gameplay whatsoever (besides shrinking the usual combat team from 4 to 3), and whilst the graphics have aged terribly, FFVII and VIII for their time did spectacularly nail the presentation. Sonic's failures are understandable. Speed and the extra dimension are difficult to keep in a stable emulsion, they want to separate and leave Sonic falling into a glitched bottomless void that loses him a life. Pokemon is just what happens when an old team used to working on weak portable systems, fails to rise to new and far great technical heights of a home-hybrid console with the power of a smartphone, combined with a lack of time b/c somebody at GF or TPC is greedy.

Oddly, every time I finish the pre-route split, Vanessa ends up with stats comparable to base Tana. So, why did I even invest in her all these times when she isn't much better than a no-invest Tana? And Ephraim gets that early Cormag who can Pure Water his Res to Vanessa's unadulterated levels, with significantly more HP, and comparable AS b/c Pegs have no Con. I recall someone telling me Vanessa needs the early statboosters to start rolling, not unlike FE7 Florina actually, but I've seen the hype of Florina realized more often. Even though I still usually use Vanessa too, despite being not so amazing, because fliers are nice.

We found a cure for your baldness!😁 -It'll require we amputate both your legs.😐 *Hair doesn't grow back*🤬 -Strawman yes, but the point is made. Fans were willing to put up with the graphics as is when they knew all the Pokemon would be returning, because they loved Pokemon and were willing to bear with Game Freak's usual flaws. A promise was made that sweetened the bitter pill of losing out on hundreds of Pokemon- it would be bearable if the graphical quality of those Pokemon who made it in the game went up. The promise was broken- there is not a quality increase in the models at all, hundreds of Pokemon have been sacrificed for nothing gained. Looking at the graphics and other technical aspects of the world, fans haven't found significant improvements either. Why then the sacrifice? Time is the fans' assumption. That time is money, and money is more games regardless of quality. Fans can accept the quality of the old games in the new, even if they shouldn't, but now it appears to be a watered down product for more money. Not really a good deal. And unlike clothes, you can't try out a game and return it for the full price because you later found it be cheap and lazily made. Game purchases are final, so fans have to decide before they buy whether it is worth their time.

Just a little TearRing Saga character I whipped up, didn't put too much thought into it, not playing FEH I don't really know what'd work. It's just a fantasy, IS would never recognize TRS as FE's kin. Sorrowful Knight: Zieg Lance Cavalry (or Infantry b/c dismounting and he first shows up dismounted) Devil Lance- Wrath 2, Fury 2. Uninheritable. Special: Draconic Aura A Skill: Def/Res Solo 3 B Skill: Shadows' Protection- halves post-battle damage taken (both player and enemy-inflicted alike and Poison Strike/Savage Blow alike). Uninheritable? C Skill: Lance Valor 3 The Devil Lance in TRS functions as the Devil Sword and Axe usually have- a chance of dealing damage to oneself instead of the enemy, that decreases with higher Lck. Zieg joins with a Devil Lance, so I gave him one. The backfire is replaced by Fury, taking a lead from Three Houses and its Devil weapons. I didn't make the Devil Lance inheritable so I could slap Wrath on it too, because Zieg has Life or Death in TRS (called "Wrath" for FE familiarity in the fan translation), which does increase his Crit as his HP drops. Shadows' Protection is because, the game never tells you, but Zieg's class- Dark (or Shadow I think the fan translation uses) Knight- is immune to the backfire of the Devil Lance- it will never happen. Full after-battle damage immunity means stacking Fury would possibly be too good, so I made it only halving said damage. Too weak? Def/Res Solo was chosen because I didn't want to full kit him in Fury off the bat. And Zieg doesn't want to open up to others, so a Solo suits him personally. No real reason only than rarity for why I gave him Def/Res specifically. Lance Valor is only on one unit as is, and Zieg has Paragon in TRS, so it works. Draconic Aura was picked for a random Special so his Wrath could buff something, it could be anything else offensive.

RD was particularly nice to SMs via a tiny bit of endgame liking their extra Spd, and buyable physical Wind Edges solving Swordlock. As for the general audience liking SMs, it's a combination of: Don't play "efficiently"/LTC so turn counts = "who cares?" and Move is therefore not so important. Same "who cares" means the Swordlock isn't a problem in the games where it is one. A lack of concern about consistency, so the "high" yet still only 20-60 at most Crit rates are awesome. When for more "advanced" players outside of FE6 and RNG rigging, those Crit rates are only okay because they're still too unreliable. Defensively, the dodgetankiness of SMs is loved more because here too, because there is less concern about consistency? And when you playing less efficiently, it becomes easier to build up dodgetankiness? -I'm less sure of this reason. "Performance" at the end of the day is: consistency, speed, and as few "unwise" investments as possible to allow for "wise" investment of resources in other units. Performance assumes averages, performance assumes no biases against any unit's personality and character. They're the criterion of an elite, if sincerely benevolently intended to help guide the masses as well.

People do complain of frame rate issues in BotW, and not enough music, and too empty. And blah de blah de blah for 3H, and some people don't love SMO either. But, all of these games did something right in the old way, or different and not bad in itself. Generally speaking that is, individual players can always differ, and not always for bad reasons. Has anyone found textures or some other little detail from Stadium or Snap or Hey You Pikachu! that is better than what SwSh has? I don't mean to bash SwSh this way, I'm just curious from the Ocarina of Time tree comparisons. I've come to the realization that when I loved Pokemon, besides the Pokes themselves, it was the world that got me. Not the storyline, not the people, those could be nice, but I think it might been exploring the world which I loved the most, which is why I'd like a true open-world Pokemon game. Monolith would be able to deliver me and maybe three 'mons of my choosing following me in the field (or if I'm with two other trainers, one Poke), climbing, flying, and surfing all over the place. (Did they ever bring back the whole "lead Pokemon can follow you around" thing of HG/SS?) XC2 is chibi-enough that the aesthetic would almost perfectly work for a more "mature" but still lighthearted and child-friendly Pokemon experience. Unique Monsters/Tyrants would end up being replaced with awesome rare Pokemon. Weather conditions, which XC1 and X already used to control the spawning of certain enemies, could easily bring out certain Pokemon. "Intense Sunlight" could bring out the Sunkerns and Glooms, besides maybe spawning Groudon/Solgaleo in the postgame. And, every little area could be cleverly thought out to include different Pokemon, and perhaps be designed with those Pokemon in mind. Those are pretty basic XC things, but when you replace all the ordinary monsters with Pocket Monsters, things could really pop. A Gaur Plain of Armus is one thing, a "Rolgren Plain" of Tauros, Miltanks, Poochyenas, Starlys and one pesky roaming Darmanitan is gloriously another, by virtue of Pokemon being all about the Pokemon. Whereas the Xenomonsters fill the beautiful plain to make it not empty and therefore feel natural, the life of Pokemon would be as significant as the beautiful plain itself. I was thinking that besides: exploration, catching, battling, some obligatory crafting element, and maybe those old Hoenn-Sinnoh Contests, that they could add another gameplay aspect. I read a plot summary of Undertale once, and its whole promotion of pacifism wouldn't be out of place in a Pokemon game. Rather than KO/catch wild Pokes all the time, why not include the option to calm them? You wouldn't catch them, nor would you get a lot or any normal EXP for doing so, but you'd adjust the aggressive wilds to your presence and they'd stop attacking you unless you attacked/tried to catch them. You'd need an arsenal of pacifist items and techniques added for this to work, and being reminded of XD's Purification Chamber, why not allow your own Pokemon to assist in the calming of wilds? Since any open world game would have to have plentiful enemy drops, using pacifist techniques on a harmless wild Happiny could still yield benefits if it decided to treat you with some materials. Would the Ranger games be worth drawing influence from here -aren't they about using wild Pokemon to temporarily help you? Until Monolith can snatch Pokemon for a project, I'll just imagine myself spraypainting a Millesaur green and brown, and using giant leaves from Noctilum and some bananas, to make it look like a Tropius. My imaginary self would probably be squished by the agitated Millesaur, oh well.

I should try my hand at Pokefanficting again, or just silently pray that Monolith could swipe Pokemon for a single open world spinoff that shows GF how to do better in certain ways. I'd be fine if said open world was a new region born of a Legendary's dream that spliced together old locations (hence the region being pure wilderness untouched by humans), since Monolith could make the waters of Hoenn, the mountains of Sinnoh, the Viridian Forest, the Dragon's Den, and the whatevs of everywhere else, look better than GF ever could. I mean, GF has put out a statement hoping people are excited by the free-moving camera, which is a little pathetic when that has existed since Super Mario 64. As times change, workers might need reeducation for job performance, if Nintendo is a buddy-buddy family of different dev teams, the Game Freak should look to others within the company praised for certain things, and ask them how they do what they do. On a totally unrelated note: I'd play with this mod.

Name brand triumphs over all. That isn't entirely insane, as humans tend in a world of very many choices, tend to want some landmarks that they assume to be good. Nonetheless, it speaks to the inability of humans to be truly independent-minded and unbiased- even if this applies to us herd of critics too. To take the summary of the Nintendo Life review: Pokémon Sword and Shield succeed in bringing some new ideas to the table, but they’re also somewhat guilty of not pushing things far enough. What’s done right is done right, but what’s done wrong feels like it’s come from a decade-old design document. There are moments contained within that are best the series has ever been, but this joy is at times spoiled by contrasting moments that left us disappointed and did not match up to the rest of what the rest of these games can offer. What we've got here is an experience full of highs and lows, from the unadulterated wonder and joy of seeing a brand-new Pokémon in a stadium full of cheering crowds, to the monotonous and dragged-out dialogue we just wanted to skip. The wonders of exploring the Wild Area feels like the true evolution of the series, but even this brave stride forward is balanced out by the inclusion of restrictive and boring Routes from games of old. The niggling issues are impossible to ignore, then, but on the whole, Pokémon Sword and Shield are a solid start to the HD generation of Pokémon games, but there's ample room for improvement with the next outing. New Pokémon are just lovely Scope and scale are largely excellent The Wild Area is the best thing to happen to the series Plenty of little quality of life improvements Some visuals are pretty great Relying too much on 20 year-old design choices The Wild Area is sidelined by boring old Routes Some visuals are pretty rough This was given a 8/10, a lower score than the 9s of other reviews. But then there is this: "Camping is a particular highlight, with your party ‘mon running up to you in all their high-tri-count glory" And yet dataminers showed this is same old, same old.

Considering there is already an icon for "enemy with effective weapon", one of my bigger concerns- Grounder, Knightkneeler, and Helm Splitter- wouldn't be an issue. If the effective exclamation point applied to enemies with effective Combat Arts, then I think just a vague "has Combat Arts" icon would work. If you don't see exclamation with the CA icon then, you know for Sword/Lance/Axe, that the enemy can't be running those CAs. And assuming only one CA per enemy (should any of them have more?), then exclamation + CA icon means you aren't fighting a Smash Axer or Tempest Lancer.

This is true. For Battalions you couldn't identify the exact gambits, but since they're rather samey, the green triforce was all you needed, as you only needed to know an enemy had a gambit at all. Would an additional icon just to point out a Combat Art's presence be enough? You could fathom an idea of what an enemy would have via their weapon, if requiring a look at the particular unit to narrow it down.

I love how experts make things look so easy.: Not the hardest or most complex game for sure, but I still appreciate the effort.

And there goes their one big excuse. The crumbling edifice is now but a plain of dust.