Lurker > HeroDelTiempo17

Honestly the more completely insane shit comes out about Ezra the more I'm interested in watching the movie just to see why the fuck they insist on going forward with it. Maybe they're counting on this sicko effect to make them money.

I mean personally I would just pirate it. But they seem willing to risk a return.

swordz9 posted...

The presentation is hilarious from images Im seeing online.

man you weren't fucking kidding

https://twitter.com/BrianDuffield/status/1555296961942523904

I can't distinguish parody from reality

masterplum posted...

I thought Tuca was weird.

Like I kind of can buy this alternate universe where people hang with humanoids.

But Tuca is humanoids hanging out with ... sentinent objects.

It was strange for me

Look they just wanted an excuse to draw thicc plant people.

It's not really supposed to be a coherent alternate universe in the exact same way Bojack is, it's cartoon logic. Despite being considered a serious show, Bojack could actually get pretty wacky, and if you invert the wacky:serious ratio you wind up with Tuca & Bertie.

Man. Looks great but I'm still bummed after SMTV, which deserved to look this slick. I never finished it due to the last area turning into a tedious grindfest on top of the performance issues. This should avoid at least one of those problems but I'll still probably wait for a discount.

I have seen no reason to try it other than "it's good!" and it takes a lot of commitment for me to sit down and give something my time.

That's why I'm asking what specifically I am missing. I don't care about spoilers if there's some weird twist.

Hope the Bojack enjoyers in the topic also support Tuca & Bertie! Undone also pretty solid and has rotoscoped Bob Odenkirk although I have not gotten around to S2 yet

Is there something I'm missing about Smiling Friends? I see a lot of praise but every clip from the first few eps I saw posted struck me as unfunny. And I loved Bushland Adventures so I know that style of humor can land for me. I don't really get it.

This sounds goofy as hell and I hope they lean into it

Welp.

Tuca & Bertie is still airing so after that finishes it's probably gonna be time to cancel.

Also keeping an eye out for news on Our Flag Means Death which was only renewed and entered filming for S2 not too long ago.

Yeah it's not that Santa is inherently religious but that Christmas is only as prevalent as it is because it was historically a Christian tradition and spread that way. It doesn't really matter if it still predominately Christian, religious concepts get absorbed into the secular mainstream all the time.

Also saying "Mickey is mostly just in parks" I think is hugely underestimating how central the Disney parks are to their brand. These things are the end all be all of tourist traps designed to cycle through 150+ million people per year. I think the conception that it's mostly Disney fans going to them is a relatively recent phenomenon, Disney's market strategy has been to make sure everyone in a rich country with disposable income is aware they can go to Disney World. Mickey, Mario, Pikachu, Sonic, etc. are literally things that were designed by international corporations for international appeal, and I'm pretty sure Mickey is still at the top. The other answers are pretty laughable. Besides Santa ofc who, let's be real, is just being hard carried by 2000 years of spreading Christianity.

damn I can't even imagine living in a world where blockbuster movies just keep recycling the same IPs

UshiromiyaEva posted...

Yeah it's not a revival, it's meant to be a conclusion film.

I think all we know for sure is they wrapped recording 6-8 months ago.

Yeah I think I knew the first part. I guess it's good we know it's being actively worked on, but I'm still thinking no guarantees. Pretty sure voice recording gets done before the bulk of the animation work, and the show runners are notoriously slow on getting details right every step of the way. Not to be overly pessimistic, but there's plenty of time for the plug to get pulled.

UshiromiyaEva posted...

The last Xenoblade Chronicles 3 direct was absolutely incredible! I've never pre-ordered a game so fast after a presentation.

Didnt you play through that whole series in like a week? You might be the target audience for that one lol

But yeah I did skip that one because XB2 failed to hold my interest and the information I needed to know if XB3 would be worth my time was always gonna come from after release. And hey, it sounds like it's pretty good! I'm looking forward to playing it in a year or two when I have time and they've probably released some DLC.

Actually you know what I'm just gonna say it.

Directs are bad. They are just bad. Once the initial novelty wore off they just became a way to cynically raise expectations and then underdeliver to drive engagement. I can't remember the last time I saw a "good" direct and yet I'll still watch them if I'm around when one's on because they're mind poison.

Hype is useless. Down with hype.

Man I specifically said hype is just marketing and yet the conversation immediately went to sales. 1) lol and 2) lmao.

UshiromiyaEva posted...

Now, I DO think a lot of that is that the generation specific battle gimmick has reached critical mass, and people are being turned off by the crystallization thing. The minute details of the gameplay changes are being overshadowed by the focus of the direct being a big stinker.

I also don't get how you can say this while also complaining the series doesn't have enough shakeups (I didn't play Legends so I'll put it aside). I know everyone is sick of having a new major mechanic every gen but honestly Gamefreak has yet to find a GOOD one to iterate on. I miss Megas but they had a serious design and gameplay problem of having to choose from a limited selection of individually crafted powerups. The subsequent mechanics trying to universalize it is good imo, it's just that Z-moves were both clunky and unappealing and Dynamax was TOO BIG. This crystal thing is visually unappealing but honestly I think simpler might be better for once. Totally get why people are down on it but I think it's got a lot of potential to dodge those past mistakes.

I've been a Pokemon skeptic for a while but it's weird to me to see people so down. The second set of games on a console is generally where the games hit their stride. It really just seems like people are burned on the failure of SwSh and the very questionable drip marketing Pokemon games have now.

UshiromiyaEva posted...

I mean the movie is already well underway, but it could get cancelled I guess!

Oh really? I hadn't heard.

But uh...yeah. How underway are we talking here? I have to worry it might not even matter.

Ugh this sucks. DC was on a bit of an upswing with all of its smaller, weirder projects. I hope Doom Patrol manages to have a solid enough conclusion. Losing hope for Blue Beetle though.

I know capitalism says the number must go up but I am still awed by the stupidity and hubris of other studios chasing MCU-tier blockbuster consistency without Disney's lisence to print money.

Worst part is it spreading to other channels like Adult Swim. I finally have to bury my dream of a Venture Bros. revival.

I think this game looks like it's gonna be better than Sword and Shield. It looks more polished, the gimmick looks more manageable, and the leaks have some neat stuff. The "hype" being dead is not a real issue. That's just marketing.

That said I don't disagree that Gamefreak could still use more time to bake their games in the oven.

I think it's just the human character designs because the rest of the art looks good. Most of the people look bad except for Grusha and Penny. I can already tell the enbys will claim them.

If the leaks are accurate you will probably want C2 anyways.

Speaking of the new characters I gotta start farming the most recent weekly boss since they'll almost certainly be using those mats until another boss drops. None of my characters use them so I've been putting it off. The electro armor phase is just a huge pain for my current teams, getting through all that HP takes way too long.

joevid

StartTheMachine posted...

Maybe I haven't been paying attention to Yang. He didn't do some Tulsi like right-wing shit did he?

Also: yes

https://www.axios.com/2022/07/28/andrew-yang-forward-party-merger

The new party will be co-chaired by Yang and Christine Todd Whitman, the former Republican governor of New Jersey. Its founding base consists of members of the Renew America Movement (RAM), the Serve America Movement (SAM) and Yang's Forward Party, Reuters first reported.

RAM was created by dozens of former officials in previous Republican administrations and is led by former Trump White House official Miles Taylor, while SAM is a political organization made up of Democrats, independents and Republicans that was founded by former Rep. David Jolly (R-Fla.).

He has gone full centrist and allied with neocons, the Tulsi lib -> conservative centrist -> conservative pipeline was always in effect for him but he just keeps going further down it.

Hillary would probably have governed exactly the same as Biden is. Who the fuck cares

StartTheMachine posted...

Yep, since Godhome I've learned to use spells way more frequently, and a Spell Twister + Shaman Stone (+ Quick Nail if you fancy) build is pretty overpowered for damage output. That said, there's too many charms I like more than Shaman Stone to use it very often. 3 charm notches is too much! But I have learned to use spells a whole lot now anyway, where yeah, I rarely bothered before.

My charm loadout is pretty basic honestly. Fragile Strength + Shaman Stone + Quick Slash + Fragile Heart. Simple and effective DPS and survival. Switch out Heart for Dashmaster if I'm running around.

Actually one of my few complaints with the game is that the charm system is pretty cool, there's some neat combinations, but they're all pretty undertuned compared to the simple damage boosting ones.

9.5

The only reason it's not a 10 for me is that there is actually too much going on in this game. In a lot of ways the specific beats about anxiety made it an exhausting experience to get through, and some of the other context was definitely lost. It's something I'd both love to revisit and feel like it's too hard to do so. After all there's friend hangouts I missed! But like...you can't ever really go back.

Anyways. That game being a bit too good at what it's doing for me personally is how I know it's a masterpiece.

I've beaten the Pantheon of Hallownest but like I said only after leveling up my skills considerably with rando tricks. Really the biggest hassle with it is that it's so time consuming and until you get to the final tier, the fights themselves aren't really too difficult. And you can be strategic about it, Markoth for example it's very easy to go into his fight with high Soul and scream him to death. It just sucks to lose 20-30 minutes of progress because you get punked by Grey Prince Zote or Pure Vessel at the very end.

I only ever made it to the final fight twice. Died the first time, practiced it a bit in the practice room, and killed it the second time I managed to get there. It really is that timesink of a gauntlet that gets you.

The biggest tip I can give about combat in HK is to slap on Shaman Stone and abuse the hell out of spells. Dive especially gives a shitload of iframes, it is secretly a dodge that also deals a ton of damage. It's the biggest thing most people never picked up casually and it radically alters how you approach combat in this game

I finished the summer event story and just need to get the rest of the conches. Then it's chest time.

I apparently have like 100 more chest missing? That's like...300-400 primos? Idk if it's worth the hassle with how obnoxious some of these islands are.

plasmabeam posted...

HK has the best exploration of any Metroidvania I've played. Whereas most games in the genre encourage you to "beat" an area then return later for bonuses/powerups, HK sends you through areas you're not equipped to explore (the jellyfish section) or not equipped to complete (City of Tears) and creates this "setup/payoff" style of exploration. I love it.

also yeah HK is my favorite Metroidvania by a long shot and this is a huge reason why. Not only do I just love the visual and sound design of the map, but more than just a maze or obstacle to navigate, many parts of the map feel actively hostile to the player. Deepnest is the biggest example but what you're describing counts too. It makes it extremely satisfying not just for exploration but also for mastering traversal. Cautious traversal is why fresh playthroughs take so long (plus the relatively sparse warp points), but it's really remarkable how much faster game knowledge makes it play.

Gotta love a classic Castlevania fakeout ending.

Note: you do not, in fact, gotta love em. I hate most of them but actually HK's is done super well!

And yes, adding my agreement about the DLCs. The Grim Troupe is worth attempting but Godhome is a huge pain. I could only bother completing the boss rushes after playing a ton of randomizer and leveling up my skills considerably, and even then it was very rough. Just look up what you're missing whenever you decide to throw in the towel.

drag-in

ram...away

-hotdogturtle-- posted...

Would there have been an audience for a traditional styled Popeye movie in 2013? I feel like Popeye is one of the stereotypical "old cartoons" that most people know about as being a thing from before their time, but I don't know if they would be willing to watch a straight-played, full length movie in the current century.

Not that what we got in exchange was any better, but still.

Absolutely not, that's why it was canned.

But it's also looking at it wrong, this was a niche pet project for huge animation fans made by an industry great. Weirdly enough this concept is a couple years ahead of its time. This probably would have worked way better now in the streaming wars era, now that millennials who grew up with Dexter's Lab and Samurai Jack are the Marketable Demographic, and CG animation is getting more ambitious with projects like Spider-Verse, Arkane, Mitchels vs Machines, and Pixar's recent stuff (minus Lightyear).

Conceptually anyways. I haven't been able to watch it yet, hopefully I can find it somewhere else...

There's no good 5* waifus in sight for me so I must satisfy myself with Husbando Impact. I'm not really in love with Tighnari's design though, I just want a strong Dendro user to play with. But since Baizhu is still MIA, looks like he'll be my only option. If C0 Collei and/or Dendro Traveler (doubt.) are good enough to carry my Dendro needs then I can skip him. Otherwise, if Tighnari is strong I'll probably pull. Even better if he's a strong main DPS.

I guess according to the waifu rumor mill Dehya could be getting delayed and upgraded to a 5* but I consider this copium until further notice so I'm not planning for her. If I'm wrong then I'll be glad to take the L, but my wallet might not be.

Meanwhile I'm sitting on around 150 and want to pull for Tighnari in 3.0 and Cyno whenever he drops if they're any good. I'm on guarantee but if they release too close together or rerun someone I could really use (like Zhongli for my Itto team) I will be hurting.

Praying for actually good anniversary rewards this year...

Goddd I have missed so many treasure chests in these last few domains. Really not a fan of the area design going on with the islands either. It was neat at first but is getting pretty tedious.

Where do you go to see how many chests you've opened?

Suprak_the_Stud posted...

As someone who lives in Illinois, there wasn't a "not worse" option between Richard Irvin and Darren Bailey which was one of the two "successful" cases the article outlines. Richard Irvin was just slightly smarter about not saying all the horrible stuff out loud right away. He's every bit as bad in policy.

I think where we differ on this is that saying horrible stuff out loud - i.e. openly spreading fascist propaganda - is significantly worse, and we definitely should not fucking pay for people to do it.

Not really about votes or policy. This is just flatly bad for a bunch of other reasons.

Suprak_the_Stud posted...

I don't imagine it can backfire, because that would assume there are "good" republican candidates and I simply do not believe that. There's no difference.

I also don't think this will work and is a waste of money, fwiw. I just don't think there is a risk of backfire.

There are bad Republicans, and there are worse Republicans. The backfire is that if you pay to make the worse ones louder and more popular, you're just...actively making your opponents more dangerous. Even if they lose you have to deal with them eventually, they don't just disappear, they'll have a better chance of remaining active in politics.

the fuck is this galaxy brain shit?

https://twitter.com/OpenSecretsDC/status/1549810704278032385

my problems here:

1) I don't believe this will work
2) Even if it does work, funding the far-right seems like it could backfire later
3) This is like...the most cynical, morally bankrupt use of campaign money I can imagine lmao

alright are they done slowly adding the chests? is it safe to explore the new map like a normal person now?

(still probably gonna end up using a guide to find everything lol)

Yeah I'm with Para, the least believable thing here is the amount of new Pokemon.

The rest of it isn't too crazy. The time travel gimmick is a bit weird but also doesn't sound complicated enough to be hugely impactful, if it's just a framing device for weird new Pokemon forms.

I do have a R4 Widsith gathering dust (Yanfei has a Skyward Atlas) and a lack of real claymore options besides the fish. Used all my bilets on Itto as well. I guess I'll give Mona a shot.

It's not always stronger. Tcaz just told you the psychological tricks would not work that way for them and you just dismissed them and said it would. You also brought up Spec Ops, plenty of people think that game just doesn't work at all. Not in a way where they gain understanding of it via things they hate, but because they disagree with the actual mechanisms of presentation.

I did consider Yun Jin for Itto team but unfortunately her ability only buffs normal attacks and not charge attacks which is not good. And Noelle is low cons and produces no energy so it's not ideal either.

My cons situation is something like...Sara is C2, Thoma is C2, Fischl will be C2 from the event, everyone else is C1 or 0. Except for Barbara who is maxed out, probably C8 or some shit lol.

I'm still deciding if I want to pull for Heizhou. I don't really have another anemo besides Sucrose (wind traveler isn't real) but also not sure if I actually need one. He is pretty cool as a punchy "catalyst" user, that is a neat design.

Speaking of which, which one of my characters should I focus on next?

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/0/2/1/AAMkRCAADdcN.jpg

Was thinking Beidou or maybe Diluc just for fun. And...ugh maybe Mona? I have no other support Hydro applier other than XQ.

foolm0r0n posted...

Right, and which other games really put this question in front of the player? It's a choice you make every single time you play any game, but you never examine it until here.

I mean the video also puts that question in front of you, pretty directly. It's the same.

foolm0r0n posted...

That's what I mean by better. It's 1 choice in 1 game that changes your perception of the 100s of games you've played and will play. If you can get that from watching the video then cool, but I don't think you can.

You can though. This topic is proof of that. Let me get meta about the structure for a moment.

Flowey talking about people watching videos is not just a concession to the people who won't play the route. By anticipating it before it happens and directly referencing playthrough videos in text, they become part of the game. Watching a video, therefore, IS playing Undertale, because Undertale already knows this is a choice the player has and has planned for it.

So when someone makes a topic on a message board and people start arguing about Genocide route and trying to convince them one way or another, we are essentially all backseat gaming. We are trying to influence how someone plays the game (depending on if you consider backseat gaming also "playing the game," this is also "playing" Undertale). KP links a video, knowing what happens in the route that makes that interesting. This whole conversation, about if playing or watching a video is "better" is also being facilitated by Flowey's dialogue. This is all just metanarrative, determined by the game design!

Does the Mondstadt treasure compass work in the Golden Island Archipelago? It's the only one I don't have

I saw people saying it's probably because she uses colored contacts since she's basically a cosplayer

Also I think this is the first time I have ever seen Fischl show up in an actual quest line

Incryption

Yeah, I'm most familiar with M:TG and Hearthstone, and there are a lot of references mechanically to those games as well as memes in individual cards. The wizard guy's orbs are a references to MTG lands and mana, and P03's robot deck giving you one energy per turn is modeled after Hearthstone. The MTG player psychographics, IMO, were pretty load-bearing too. Leshy is a Vorthos - MTG's word for a player who cares about flavor and lore. P03 is a Spike - they care about winning above all else. Those are the big obvious ones that it does a pretty good job elaborating though the story, but it also applies to the other two. The witch is a Johnny or Melvin that gets joy out of deckbuilding or designing mechanics that tell a story. The wizard is a Timmy, they just love the experience of playing the game and feeling BIG which syncs up perfectly with YuGiOh's serious card game drama. Ultimately this made the ending sequence come together in a really satisfying way for me, it's about celebrating the different things people love about card games and how no one can stand the dick at the card shop who only plays to win.

Out of curiosity, are you familiar with other card games besides Slay the Spire? I find that while STS is a big influence, it's also drawing from other things. I fucking love Inscryption, and I have never played STS.

There are so many references to other card games, Magic: The Gathering in particular. I'm not certain, but I am pretty sure the 4 major NPCs are modeled off of player psychographics from that game. Also, while there's a focus on horror, and for good reason because Act 1 really sells the atmosphere, something I think that gets lost is that this game is fucking hilarious. It is such a delightful mix of horror and comedy and weirdness, just this wonderful love letter to card games of all sorts. For instance, like you I thought the "meat" of the ARG stuff was pretty trite. I do not care about the satanic game aspect, although the part about a game that completes and replicates itself though exploiting the player/designer I think is pretty interesting. But anyways, the thing that really sells the meta element is that the character it's being told through is such a spot on example of a real type of guy who plays card games. The mannerisms and way he talks about cards while interjecting over your gameplay is just spot on. It's incredible. I laughed a lot during the video sections.

I actually didn't care nearly as much for Act 1 as others did, I actually thought it dragged on a bit too long. The other parts were a lot easier to break mechanically and didn't overstay their welcome too much, though Act 3 is pretty long. But overall, the rote mechanics of the game aren't exactly what kept me coming back - it was more interesting to me just to see how those mechanics are used, and how they are are twisted versions of mechanics from other card games. Anyways, I feel weird talking about this game because my experience seems pretty out of step from the norm? Or maybe it's not. I feel like these things are underdiscussed, but also who even the fuck knows because all discussions of this game have to be hidden away.

Oh my god don't do 100% completion if it sucks

Kill the gamer that lives inside your brain

Weirdly enough, Final Fantasy.

Top two are Zelda and Mario. The inclusion of Mother forced me to realize I value two of its games more than the output of entire franchises so, it's gotta be this way.

After that it's Metroid or Mega Man depending on my mood and then I have no strong feelings on the rest.