Samias

I like a mix of both but if the moveset feels bad or just isn't my style then I won't play a character. I ended up losing all hype for Lucina and Marth because they play so poorly. Same with Zelda. Meanwhile Ike is very precious to me as a character I love with moves that feel good to use. And then I liked how diverse every newcomer barring the last minute cloneland was. I might not like Duck Hunt Dog as a character much but I feel like the trap and distance maintaining playstyle is a cool addition.

There's a Realm Reborn thread still on page 1 but it's like 1 1/2 years since the last post. Since then, the game had its first expansion drop and the game is well into the 3.2 patch cycle. Is anyone else playing? I'm Samias Lemura on Behemoth and I have a current addiction of trying out every class that I can just because I like their class exclusive gear. My current state of glamour in Final Fantasy Dress-Up XIV... My character on the Lodestone For old subscribers, there's currently a free login period for 4 days of your choice (in a row, once it's activated it runs for 4 days) until April 13th, 2016. HOWEVER, if you haven't patched since Heavensward hit, expect to lose one of those days to patching as SE is fickle about patching the client without an active subscription. Dumb, I know. Free login period is now over.

Stardew Valley has been really fun so far. A little barebones compared to Rune Factory 4 at times since they tried to bring in an element of combat, but it's more along the lines of Harvest Moon: Back to Nature/64 if you ignore the monster mine. Has a lot of potential down the road since it's got a growing mod community. Out of all the new games I've gotten so far this year, it has the most playtime under FFXIV. I want to like Fire Emblem more than I do but FFXIV patch 3.2 dropped at the same time. When I start working again tomorrow Fire Emblem will likely pick up traction as I spend 2 hours a day on public transit.

Sim City Final Fantasy IV/V/VI Everyone else has mentioned pretty much everything else I would list.

If you plan to use Ena, she's one of those units you have to think of how to raise ahead of time. A lot of people run from the Black Knight for efficiency and consistency and thus receive Ena over Nasir. Honestly if I plan on using her, I will set aside BEXP for her and rig some strength levels. Her unique value is to be another potential source of damage vs Ashnard but she needs as much strength as you can get her so she can overcome his defense. You may need to even save the chapter 21 energy drop for her (if you decided to get it). She's not very good even with all the favouritism you can give her and relying on her as an Ashnard killer is kind of a last resort for themed runs or a profoundly gimped Ike. In general laguz units in this game are weak combat units in the late game due to their fixed weapons. Ena also has poor movement and not enough con to push any mounted units even when transformed, so she's also not very good for shove/smite chains.

Some of us did enjoy the stories of older games. But it was a lot easier when the games were strictly linear. I feel like Path of Radiance did it best with supports locked on a chapter deployment basis so you could expand the story through supports and not have to consider anything being unlocked before a certain event happens. And the story didn't get very complicated until Radiant Dawn, where people did become concerned about plot holes and plot contrivances. But in Awakening and Birthright/Revelation Fates, the flow gets obliterated by paralogues, DLC and potentially skirmishes. It doesn't help that the narrative itself seems to reset in tone after each chapter. [spoiler=Awakening]Who can forget Emmeryn's sacrifice and the big escape.... seperated by the unlock of Anna's paralogue?! What a way to ruin an emotional moment if you're the type to do paralogues as soon as they unlock. I noticed someone bring up that Fates characters feel like Advance Wars at this point. Everyone seems defined solely by quirks. In fact I feel like Advance Wars Dual Strike probably has a more quality campaign writing-wise than Fates because they didn't try to handle too much at once. There's something to be said of the power of simplicity. Also we have the trend of having certain characters with potential be completely hamstrung support-wise because IS is too focused on pairings and marriage. We have the literal baby dimension now. I can't stress enough how dumb the existence of children is in this game. It attracts its own crowd of fans but I mean, we had ships before Awakening without requiring every eligible bachelor pair with every bachelorette and shoehorning breeding simulator into every title. It was fun in Awakening. In Fates it amounts to "free units" but their actual stories and parental-child bond feel so insincere and fanservicey. Especially when some of their personalities are so hamstrung by tropes. Nina is probably the worst of them all, having so many of her supports revolve around being a yaoi fangirl. The only child I genuinely enjoy is Mitama, because her haikus at least have a level of creativity to them and I can pretend I just picked her up from someplace and forget the horrors of pairing Azama. Then you have things like Mikoto's retainers having no supports with each other, Crimson having no support with Ryoma, etc. They clearly don't have the writing resources to make the volume of supports they have for having children pairings. There's always going to be bad supports but in Fates, but the reality is triple routes with different stories and recruitment orders but with shared supports and babyworld really drags down every character. The positive of Awakening/Fates is at least supports don't take 20 million years to unlock. I think everyone can agree the turncounts for supports from the GBA era were impractical at the best of times and absolutely ridiculous with the +1 growths many units had for lackluster supports (looking at you, Vaida).

A lot of us ARE playing the games, though. Hell, I own the special edition so I am going to work my way through all three games. But anyone who has played titles before Fates and Awakening can see a real shift in how emotional hits are handled. We've gone from simple political stories to ones that try to be too complicated and handle too much. This series has always been rooted in anime tropes, but modern anime is weighing this game down. Every chapter feels disconnected from the previous one. Characters will die and then people will quietly stop talking about it until the very end of the game. Every Fire Emblem game has characters die that the protagonist cares about but Fates seems to go the extra mile in reckless kill-offs for shock value and little else, fixing none of the criticisms from Awakening or even Radiant Dawn. The fact that we need DLC to answer the natural questions raised between characters who support because the devs didn't write an adequate support to begin with is just disappointing. Previous games weren't perfect. We've always had one note characters like Vaida, Kieran, everyone who isn't royal in Shadow Dragon, etc, and there are characters we consider boring like Roy and Eliwood, but at least they didn't try to cover the flaws with a copious amount of T&A. At least Conquest has some really good maps as a saving grace, plus some good new/adjusted mechanics for the series as a whole, but they could have done so much in the story department and accomplished so little. And now they want additional money to get conversations that are actually meaningful.

I think that last line is the real villain in all of this. People die. We feel bad for certain characters because they are dwelled upon long enough and their relationship is communicated to the player effectively, not just relying on the knowledge that Corrin knows that character well. And then Corrin's reaction to most deaths in this game is just baffling. Like Gunther's early death, Corrin spends 90% of the game not even caring. They make it to Hoshido and have nothing to say, not even to their servant. His name is just an afterthought to add to the pile of dead people. He's just as important to Corrin as Flora and Lilith but doesn't get the decency to even get name dropped until well into the game where you get frustrated he's been forgotten. The story is so disconnected between chapters at times it feels like the story team wrote one chapter, someone else wrote the next, and no one got the message to have characters emote about that important thing that just happened. [spoiler=Awakening spoilers]It's like Phila's death in Awakening. There was a character with a ton of potential just unceremoniously killed off alongside Emmeryn and no one seemed to care about her at all despite her being the captain of Ylissian pegasus knights. The supports can't talk about it either because Sumia and Cordelia don't support with anyone who arrives after Emmeryn and Phila's death other than their own kids. The lack of ability to lock support conversations to chapter requirements means the story team can't talk about what happened in the story unless the recruitment happens after the plot point. And even still the writing team didn't bother to elaborate and went with a bunch of fluff supports or "let's talk about the main character" supports. People have a lot of good things to say about Path of Radiance supports because they have chapter requirements and many of the supports between main characters supplement the main plot. And there's many secret backstory plots that require a lot of asinine work, but at least the primary plot functions without that information. There's still some supports that are simply fluff, but those characters are not the primary drivers of the story. [spoiler=Path of Radiance spoilers]When Greil dies, the weight of his death literally pulls apart the Greil Mercenaries. Shinon and Gatrie pack up their bags and leave to pursue other work. You might even never convince Shinon to come back. People relate to Greil's death even well after the event. When you compare that to Fates, where death makes people sad for a chapter and then everyone seemingly forgets about it, that's where people have issues with how the plot is being handled.

The problem is, is that you have zero backstory for Flora in Birthright, but that's the route where she dies. When I got to that point in the game and Birthright is the first part of Fates I played, I found her death so sudden and a complete inability to feel anything for her. You interact with Flora so incredibly briefly, you could practically swap her out for anyone. I felt bad for Felicia but I also only JUST got Felicia back (female avatar) and no supports, so Flora's death pretty much felt like a random NPC death. To make matters worse, the characters react more to Flora's death than anyone does to Gunther's, who gets MAYBE a line about it 24 chapters later. What the hell? [spoiler=Later on in Birthright]Elise's death is far more impactful. Even if you don't get to read any supports about her, you get far more exposure to her personality and goals. Compared to Flora who we get ZERO insight into in this route, Elise still feels like family to Corrin AND to the player. Xander's death is also pretty much a suicide but we at least understand his despair as a player and have proper justification for why he can't reconcile with Hoshidan forces at all.

This is why I haven't bought any DLC for the game. While the DLC offerings for Awakening certainly got better and it looks like the writing improved in 2nd season DLC in Japan, locking classes that are on the cart to DLC is plain scummy. Not to mention they have some broken abilities. People have called out EA, Capcom, and countless other companies, and people should be criticizing Nintendo, too. The price of the DLC is also outrageous for what you get in terms of production quality.

With regards to Soleil and Ophelia, I think their A support resolution is sweet but the C and B remind me so much of consent issues at anime conventions. It's like 100% glomp culture where someone will try to physically touch the cosplayers out of respect and/or envy, but obviously if you don't want to be touched, you don't want to be touched. Doesn't matter if the cosplayer is dressed conservatively or if they're in something crazy revealing. People really don't like fawning, overly grabby hero worship. It sounds OK in text but this is actually a huge real life problem even in the most innocent context.

No I understood you and agreed with you. I actually didn't like that the original referenced the Summer Scramble because I didn't like the Summer Scramble convo, though it was a beach episode so the "bodies in bikinis" comparison could actually work in that context. But then in Fates it ended up being "How can I have a sexy body like yours?" and it was so cringeworthy. Considering the Scramble DLC was also optional and not free, the reference would probably go over the heads of 90% of Fates players (we don't know how many people bought the Scramble DLC but the adoption rate is surely not 100%). Cordelia's boob anxiety was a front-and-center part of her personality in JP Awakening as well, going so far as to straight up ask M!Avatar to grope her. Absolutely abysmal characterization.

The boob jokes from Awakening weren't good and they're still not good in JP Fates. I'm so glad NoA/NoE tactically nuked everything to do with Cordelia/Caeldori's boob angst. Yes, some girls wish they could be bigger. No it's not good for a repeat gag in a game aimed for teenagers/young adults who probably already have body issues. Not in the context they try to present anyway. Speaking of boobs, I know people are praising it with heavy sarcasm as it was actually terrible, but Azama x Kagero was also just... there is no words for that, really. Even if it was made into something boring, it's still a step above sexual harassment. It's a shame Soleil x Ophelia still made it in, but even Soleil is at least apologetic. http://megidoladying.tumblr.com/post/133858152324/asama-and-kagerou-supports-c-s Whoever wrote this should honestly work on another game where this might be appropriate.

I followed through on Azama and Orochi. It's one of Azama's less offensive pairings. I was ok with it. It also gives you a hybrid Mitama who will be good at being a staffbot with a naturally decent strength and magic base. I was fine with it. However some people don't find it a good longterm pairing because of clashing growths and caps. But still, I found my Mitama to be a perfect slot in for an additional healer that I sorely needed towards the endgame of Birthright. Also she looks fantastic with purple hair.

I can't say anything for his Conquest supports, but his Birthright supports are embarrassingly poor. I paired him up with Hana so she could pick up cavalier and I regretted every moment of it. He's a total ass for no reason to her. He wasn't much better to Rinkah either. He comes across as super cocky and superior to everyone else and in Hana's support in particular, it never seems to acknowledge he was being a dick. As far as supports I've gotten that I'm wholly unimpressed with, Takumi and Hinoka was an utter letdown. Could be summed up as "Don't rush ahead!" "No!" twice over and then "Don't rush ahead!" "ok...". Boring as hell. With the royals they could have talked more about their family to fill out backstory and instead Hinoka spends the whole time admonishing Takumi for a thing he did once. Also pairing Azama with anyone is just a travesty. His supports would be fine in previous eras where max rank didn't mean marriage, but people have kids with this guy? Ugh. He's funny but I wouldn't wish him as a husband for anyone in this game. Which is a damn shame because I think Mitama is hilarious without constantly demeaning her partners.

Whoops, I meant Argorok. Though Aeralfos probably is tougher than some of the early bosses.

Yeah, SFX is definitely more neglected than BGM. You can having a boring but properly atmospheric BGM and it will be okay as long as it isn't too obtrusive or overly repetitive. But bad SFX or VA? Blarg. Baten Kaitos really suffers from poor VA, I have to turn it off. Same with Suikoden Tierkreis. It's awful. There's also the issue of poor audio balance and quality and crackling in SFX more often than in BGMs, or having too few SFXs that get repetitive. Even in well known games, if a SFX isn't right it destroys the feeling of weight and impact of a move. Just look at poor Ike in Smash Bros 4, his sword sounds like beating people with a pool noodle compared to the meaty hits in Brawl.

Yeah, it's hard to die against Kalle Demos, but it's hard to not take any damage whatsoever. I manage to get snagged by the swallow move every so often and the whips are pretty fast. Whereas in Twilight Princess, Fyrus is really pathetic and you can literally lock him in place so he never gets to move. Same with Morpheel part 2. There's not really an equivalent to Morpheel in WW since in WW there's no real underwater content, though. That said Morpheel tetters between depressingly easy (especially phase 2) or "I forgot to take off my iron boots when I got grabbed and now I'm locked in the infinite trap" which happened to me once. Other than that, Stallord, Blizzeta, and Aeralfos are the only dungeon bosses who can't be locked down in hitstun the whole fight.

The original Rune Factory was so damn buggy. Marrying Melody literally broke the hotspring and you could never take a bath again. Sharron could be wooed in like 5 minutes with rubies and other gemstones. And when you did marry her, all her lines were just so damn depressing, along the lines of "why am I here?" Also, farming was pretty much worthless for making money when you could just mine diamonds and have the biggest house and all the monster barns within the first month. There was just so many ways to break the game over your knee and the power spike between enemies and bosses was enormous. Later games smoothed out the difficulty curve and fixed some broken aspects. As such, there is no reason for me to ever go back to the first game. It had its charms but Rune Factory 3 and 4 blow it out of the water. Speaking of Harvest Moon, A Wonderful Life has some good ideas such as the concept of aging and death, and continuation of the family as a gameplay mechanic rather than the wife and child becoming afterthoughts, but each segment of the game lasts soooooo long. To get to the very end is an exercise in patience as the gameplay moves too fast to get a lot accomplished in one day, but long enough that making it to year 10 takes a lot of time. There's also pretty much nothing to break up the gameplay and the new animals for the barn and coop are pretty bad. The only goat you can get is useless after a year compared to the cows you can replenish, and the ducks are similarly useless compared to chickens. I start to lose my mind around the end of year 3 trying to get through this game.

I have a question for people replying. Has anyone here played a game that has bad music but gameplay that was OK or better? It's only my personal experience but I've only ever seen poor games also have poor soundtracks. There are even many poor games with good soundtracks. The worst I've experienced is probably a forgettable soundtrack in most AAA titles. I wonder if anyone has experienced a game that was fun but with music that was also memorably bad.

I think Stallord and Blizzeta are the only two remotely challenging bosses of TP, other than Ganon. Meanwhile WW Gohma can actually stump new players as you use a relatively non offensive item to indirectly harm the boss, and Kalle Demos's vulnerability ends with a nasty attack if you keep wailing on it whereas TP bosses tend to have a slower recovery. Gohdan is quite aggressive with its energy blasts. Jalhalla and Molgera are extremely easy though. Then Puppet Ganon is quite the marathon, and Ganon at the very end is definitely one of the greatest Ganon battles in Zelda. Also, there's more darknuts in Wind Waker to contend with and they'll use any weapon they can get their hands on. When you have to fight multiple darknuts and a wizzrobe, things get fairly messy. TP barely makes use of its elite enemies. However both games are significantly easier than OoT, MM or SS. Few of the enemies ever deal more than half a heart of damage at a time. It's pretty much impossible to die in any of the fights in either game but WW's tend to take more hearts off me.

Hmmm I don't know. People disliked WW visually but then they grew older and learned what aesthetic was. Twilight Princess has kind of always been the red headed step child, with waggle and BLOOM memes at launch. And it was always easy. Wind Waker is pretty easy too but the boss battles are a little bit more involved. Even the first boss in Wind Waker is one of the more threatening first bosses in the series, up there with Odolwa in Majora's Mask. And of course LTTP was far and away better than its NES counterparts, and OoT was again a radical change, while MM follows completely different themes. Honestly I don't think there is any such thing as the Zelda cycle as all the recent console games have had obvious strengths and flaws. Skyward Sword can have motion calibration issues and reuses too many fights, the sky is boring, and has the most annoying assistance character. Twilight Princess is too easy and is visually super blown out. Wind Waker has too sparse of an overworld and too much time is spent doing nothing between islands. Majora's Mask's timer is too stressful for some and there are only 4 dungeons. Ocarina of Time is perfect isn't LTTP. Actually as a kid I found the horror elements of OOT were too intense. It took all my courage to ever get through the Bottom of the Well. But as for strengths, Skyward Sword had great dungeons and great characters and the combat was definitely more challenging than TP or WW. Twilight Princess has the most full length dungeons of any 3D Zelda game and some extremely creative new items. Wind Waker has an amazing soundtrack and wonderful visuals and its overhaul on combat was sorely needed. Plus it's the one game to really make the story of Ganondorf seem tragic. Majora's Mask has a rich world and tons of sidequests and has the most sense of urgency in terms of atmosphere. Even the side characters all had stories that unfolded over the 3 day cycle. Also, by excluding Zelda and Ganondorf (or any Zelda/Ganondorf stand-in like Vaati), it was free to explore new motivation for Link. Ocarina of Time has great pacing, with just enough story bits to feel complete but nothing too heavy. It's just a fun romp with a lot of dungeons and a good amount of side content. Link to the Past is easy enough to be completed by anyone, but hard enough to feel rewarding. Also, it's the start of the Zelda formula moving forward. Link's Adventure is uh... it's something. Insanely hard but actually has some really cool ideas for an NES game. LoZ OG is just so confusing I have nothing good to say about it <_< but I know some people like that level of exploration and extreme danger at every turn.

I started Final Fantasy VIII on PC and immediately turned the game off after my first battle. The MIDI this game uses is a butchery of the original music. I was OK going through Balamb Garden but it just got worse from there. Now I have Roses and Wine (a mod to replace the sound files with looping OGGs from the OST) and all is right in the world. If the soundtrack is bad I can generally tune it out, but my impression of the game will definitely be worse. Generally speaking I haven't played any games with truly horrible soundtracks, though sometimes the Tales of games have a track that is really bad (Symphonia's danger theme, Graces' Barona Cavern)

To be honest that fight took more hearts off me than any boss battle. He's like, one of two encounters to put me into critical hearts. The only other enemy who has made me feel in danger was the ball and chain midboss because I forgot where his weak spot was... Every boss in the game has done anywhere from no damage to a heart and a half. I should have played hero mode @_@

I think the legs are looking pretty solid and the bunnies sure are cute! That hand angle is pretty tough to draw, I think the biggest thing is that arm bend could be drawn with a curved line in the back and it would already look more foreshortened. That, and the way the cloak line is touching the hand makes it look a little off. The cloak follows the sleeve and then goes into the hand making it look like one continuous line. Maybe redraw the cloak to appear more like it's flowing over the arm by adding some more lines across, then define the arm more. I'm not sure if this makes any sense in text.