Engage Uber Challenge

[stevezuu0829]

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1Sm0LCcNtby9Ro4lYb2jLwFJHibJWz-j4_IMwqwmp_c8/

I want to share a special challenge run I did of the game to showcase how little resources you actually need to beat Maddening. A short summary of this is that the team I use is made up of units that are commonly regarded as "the worst" along with banning several mechanics that make the game so easy that who you use specifically hardly matters(Goddess Dance, Bonded Shield, Killer forges, etc.).

Too often across the fandom when it comes to discussing Engage gameplay, people overvalue certain things and spread misinformation about how you need to do x thing or use y unit when it's actually much more lenient than it looks. And so, I've made a very in-depth progress log that goes over basically everything I do in the game to not only prove the overall viability of Engage units but attempt to clear up misconceptions still plaguing the fandom.

[SnowFire]

Interesting write-up.  A cool achievement!

I will say...  and this is not a big deal...  but you come across as rather needlessly defensive on your choice of team?  As if phantom people would be harassing you for not running Jean / Yunaka / etc., and they're WRONG?  Like, it's cool.  Readers understand that every player's own "bottom 10" characters will differ a little.  All you really needed to say was "this team doesn't include any standouts other than Alear (for obvious reasons); here are some other units some other people consider weak but I didn't use because [XYZ] and there weren't enough team slots."  This may deter people from reading the rest of the writeup from the eye-rolling.

EDIT: Reading deeper in...  again, not trying to be a hater, it is an interesting challenge.  But the tone is just...  far too hostile and defensive.  I would politely suggest you keep that in mind for any future writeups?  Good challenge read-alongs are supposed to be fun things where you get in the mindset of the person doing the challenge and see what works, what doesn't, cool tricks done that normally aren't necessary due to other strategies, etc.  A lot of this document comes across as axe-grinding against imaginary Internet people - haha you thought Chloé was good but see, I "barely struggled" without her!  I think most people would agree that you can beat the game with any team, but that doesn't mean Chloé is bad, or that there's some cabal of "Chloé is absolutely necessary to win" players that need to be disproven.  Similarly, other parts come across as, like, a challenge to the reader that they're expected to do this exact challenge themselves ("have fun training him [Seadall] by punching people!") to show they're not a scrub, when I suspect that is very rare.  Again, I mean this constructively - I think write-ups like these can be very cool.  I just think you'll get better reception if you have a friendlier slant to it.

Edited April 8 by SnowFire

[stevezuu0829]

It's more that when I tried a bad units run to prove nobody is bad, people pointed out that I was just "getting carried" by certain units so I had to go out of my way to pick worse units. That's why I also excruciating describe almost everything I did as even though it's more widely known how viable units are, getting a complete play-by-play is the most definite proof to provide.

This was kinda more of a personal log for me to keep track of than something professional to share(there are comments that sound like it's acknowledging the reader, but I thought it'd read better that way to me), originally I wasn't even going to share it but I didn't want the Engage era to end with people still going off Day 1 opinions like Yunaka is broken and Kagetsu/Ivy/Panette >>>>>>>>>>>>>> everyone else.

I am a bit edgy on some points because discussing Engage in the past with some people has annoyed me as they really do think the way I was criticizing so sorry if it seems too hostile. But I bring in outside thinking(which I still see floating around the fanbase) for comparison because I disprove it with things I do in the challenge.

Edited April 9 by stevezuu0829