Lurker > NeoElfboy

It never occurred to me that someone might not consider Mega Man a platformer. I feel like I've introduced my gaming tastes with "I like platformers, like Mario and Mega Man" many times and never even been questioned on that statement.

As far as I'm concerned, if jumping is a major part of the gameplay, it's a platformer. Mega Man: yes. Devil May Cry: no.

Odyssey is interesting because I'm not sure I consider its gameplay that important, so I can see calling it some sort of exploration/adventure game instead... I kinda felt like sometimes I was playing a Zelda variant and sometimes I was playing a platformer. Meanwhile Galaxy is unquestionably a platformer.

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Good read as always; thanks for sharing!

Given how much I enjoyed the rest of your top four, maybe I should give N++ a spin at some point...

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Mega Man 2 is obviously great, though exactly where I rank it compared to the other Mega Man games varies. It gets a lot of credit for executing a very solid game (MM2's controls feel soo good compared to many NES platformers) and setting out the Mega Man formula so well. Yet obviously many other iterations on that formula (not all of them, but several anyway) are better executions of it: MM2 certainly has a few clunky stages: Quick Man is rote memorization, Crash has too much ladder-climbing (one underrated improvement is how MM3 sped up ladders), Heat has... not the best vanishing block implementation, and of course Wily 4 is terrible.

I still love the game to be clear! Just it's hard to know exactly where I would rate it on a list today, even compared to other games in its own series.

I haven't played AM2R, might give it a look sometime. I liked Samus Returns pretty well? Loved the omni-directional aiming in particular. It doesn't really measure up to Super or Fusion in terms of tone and atmosphere, but not much does IMO.

Obviously I second any and all FFT hype, and even agree with your criticism. It's just a game you can do so much with on replays, on top of being a great base experience. That job system is so, so good; I've played many job system games but few do what FFT does and also let you pick your abilities (for some reason FF5's "you get these abilities in this order" seems much more common) which is what the brings the customization to a new level. It's even better in hacks that smooth out the balance of these choices.

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Chapter 14 is indeed very fun, enjoyed the war log. Do you know about dismounting, by the way? You can do it as a free action before or after moving (but not both), and it allows your fliers to basically cheat their arrow weakness. (Aurora Shield is still very useful anyway, because on top of its obvious perk it gives 3 defence for 0 weight.)

Alanna82 posted...

The thing with the portrait she paints of Byleth seems really out of character.

And the fact Edelgard is supposed to get rid of the nobility, but most of the endings still mention people as nobles. Spoilers for a few endings:Sylvain's ending- Still a Margrave. Marianne's endings mention her inheritance. I could see maybe having the rest of the black eagles keep their titles, but these are kingdom and alliance nobles mentioned. I guess this isn't out of character exactly, but it doesn't seem to line up with "destroying nobility" and giving titles on merit.

And the thing with Byleth's crest stone shattering even though Rhea dies in other routes is total fan fic.

For the first point: why? What part of her character does it contradict? She's a bit of a dork and she likes Byleth. Part of the point of the route is that you see the human underneath the emperor exterior.

For the third point: In Crimson Flower and only in Crimson Flower, Byleth makes a conscious choice to reject his/her "fate" as a vessel of Sothis. The crest stone crumbling symbolizes their freedom from the godess / the church, paralleling the choice that s/he and Edelgard made for Fodlan. I found it very powerful and effective and consider it a wonderful ending for that route. That said, it would have felt weird and out of place on other routes. I don't think Rhea dying is the direct trigger; I agree that wouldn't make much sense since it's Sothis's crest stone, not Rhea's. Rather, it probably happens due to the will of Byleth, Sothis, or both.

EDIT: Had to fix the spoiler tags. Is there any HTML-like way to do them?

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Aw yeah Mega Man 9 love. MM games do best when they're giving you really powerful weapons and then challenging the heck out of you to make you use them, and MM9 does that beautifully, and has top-notch stage design on top of that (even if, as you note, probably a little too reliant on instant death). I also kinda like that it doesn't have the charged buster; maybe I'm just getting old and cranky but I really appreciate platformers that don't force you to hold a button down a lot of the time (while doing other platformy things). MM11 gets around this in a different way by just letting the buster auto-charge as soon as you buy a cheap upgrade.

FF1 is a weird game for me. It doesn't even make my top 100 RPGs, let alone top 100 games, yet I understand very well the feelings you posted for it. It was an important game for me too and I always have a lingering desire to replay it in the back of my mind.

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Beat CF Maddening today. Raging Storm on a wyvern is crazy good.

Alanna82 posted...

Edelgard is a completely different character in it. It reads like her fan fiction she wrote.

Yeah I'm going to have to ask you to elaborate on that, because as Mac Arrowny said her behaviour and attitude is pretty darn similar regardless of route. She's driven, she's willing to do anything to win, she truly believes that the future she envisions is what's best for Fodlan. What specific examples do you have in mind of behaviour on one route that you would consider vastly out of character on another?

MawiIe posted...

The other routes show definitively that Edelgard is a power-hungry monster with no redeeming characteristics, so playing as her route after feels gross and watching the characters around Edel follow her and show commitment seems disturbing in an almost fan fiction way, so I totally get what Alanna is saying

Even if Edelgard were utterly reprehensible (and the truth definitely lies somewhere in the middle, that's the point), people following her around and showing commitment to her would still be realistic, not "fan fiction". People did these things with Hitler for crying out loud. As is, the game goes out of its way to demonstrate why each of the Black Eagles follows her, and Byleth only follows her if you as the player make the conscious decision to have them do so.

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Tagging this, I always enjoy these!

I thought SH2 held up decently when I played it last (a few years ago); yeah it's cheesy 2000's, but the writing does some fun things (especially in the second half as you note) and the gameplay is exactly what I want for a game of its type: fast and fun to break, with irrelevant little rewards for doing well even while it's too easy to actually slow you down from getting to the things you're actually playing for. Dungeon design's not great but oh well.

FF4's not a game I really see the appeal of. I played it shortly after FF6 and it just seemed dramatically worse in every way, and that opinion hasn't changed with time and as I've discovered more and more RPGs that seem to do everything it does better. I guess it's important for the time but no moreso than a bunch of other 8-bit RPGs and as far as those go I'd rather play FF1 or FF3 today.

Dual Destinies is one of the best Ace Attornies IMO. Every new major character is great (and the minor ones bat a very high average), I love cases 2 / 5 / DLC (and case 3 has that amazing Athena/Simon interaction even if the case itself is kinda eh to me). Just an all-around fun game.

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UltimaterializerX posted...

Okay. The way this game tells its story is really off. When you play the other two routes, Edelgard is portrayed as a tyrant. In this route, Rhea is. The multiple choices are not handled well, because character personalities change too much.

I actually think the characters are very consistent. The point is that who is a villain is a matter of perspective.

(Rhea is always a tyrant whenever she has power, the only time she isn't one is when she is a captive i.e. she has no power. For Edelgard, I think the key word there is <i>portrayed</i>, her behaviour is pretty darn similar regardless though, both the good and the bad.)

Two chapters from the end of CF Maddening here!

Alanna82 posted...

That is why I don't really like Crimson Flower. It reads like fan fic to me.

I have to strongly disagree, CF is an essential part of the game's experience. You can't really claim to understand Three Houses until you've played Crimson Flower and at least one other route; doing so is essential to understanding both Edelgard and Rhea who are arguably the two most important characters to the overall narrative.

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UltimaterializerX posted...

?

Basically go watch the Felix/Seteth B support where Felix makes his opinion clear on the subject. Or his conflict with his father in his paralogue. He's abrasive but he's almost always right. Or consider Gilbert in general and how completely messed up his family situation is, all because of his cultural hang-up over "failing" to be a proper knight and outliving his liege.

Faerghus is a culture that glorifies war and chivalry and worships dying in combat and this directly ****s up like half the Blue Lions PCs.

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Buffy_Summers posted...

I beat my first route. Black Eagles Church Route

I was only able to recruit two people from other houses: Lysethia and Sylvain. Both were really useful, though. Petra and Bernadetta were the most useful. But I imagine it's probably different on higher difficulties. Dorthea was also invaluable.

Started the Blue Lions route now, and I'm not liking most of the class. But it's still really early.

Petra is still really damn useful on higher difficulties, because wyvern is the best class and she gets talent in both its main skill reqs, and her speed is crazy. I didn't used to think that highly of Bernadetta but I put her on a pegasus this run and she's been way more useful because it's much easier to hang out at low HP for Persecution Complex/Vengeance nonsense when you have mobility.

I like most of the Lions characters a lot but that's because I enjoy the way they're twisted by toxic Faerghus culture.

Alanna82 posted...

Edit: OMG its NeoElfBoy! Long time no see! is the rpgdl even still around?

We're still around (if we ever stopped being around entirely, I'd have to change my 15-year-old GameFAQs sig!), though the boards are mostly dead these days and the actual tournament is long gone.

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Oh nice. I'm doing BE Maddening as well, almost in exactly the same place.

Fourth playthrough here, second on Maddening. Really love this game.

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Logience posted...

NeoElfboy posted...

I definitely think Charm being underrated here. One point of Charm = +5 hit with and +5 avoid with gambits, which both definitely matter. (Compare Dex being a meager +0.5~1 hit and +0.5 crit.) It's no strength/magic or speed, but it's still definitely a relevant stat you should compare about when comparing units, especially for tanks (dodge-based or otherwise) who will have a big hole in their defensive game if their charm is low.

You got any assured proof that's how Charisma works? Serenes still doesn't have calculations up.

Yeah, Serenes has gotten lazy with the calculations pages these days but people have posted it on the forums themselves. I couldn't find the post with most of them but I did find this:

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1gZgsmLXotKzW7f-t55rJXL-6J0N73wvv0MzHWd2znbY/edit#gid=111164076
(it's an Azure Moon enemy list, so it eventually contains spoilers for the enemies on that route, but the first page includes the calculations and is safe)

One thing I didn't mention is that the Charm difference is capped at +/-6, so that's why you often see 80% and 20% since many gambits are 50 base accuracy. Gambit accuracy is also modified by direct additions to accuracy (and I think evade?) from skills/equips so the accessories that raise those are better than you might think.

Charm also adds +1 atk/def for gambits for every 5 points!!! yeah that effect is basically meaningless.
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I definitely think Charm being underrated here. One point of Charm = +5 hit with and +5 avoid with gambits, which both definitely matter. (Compare Dex being a meager +0.5~1 hit and +0.5 crit.) It's no strength/magic or speed, but it's still definitely a relevant stat you should compare about when comparing units, especially for tanks (dodge-based or otherwise) who will have a big hole in their defensive game if their charm is low.

Unfortunately Byleth doesn't really need more after a certain point so you're only getting +1 useful point per tea time so yeah tea's not the greatest choice gameplaywise. I still enjoy 'em, though. (Also no idea why you'd find them creepy? Maybe the optional "observe" part at the end I can see, but not the rest.)
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Seteth's average stats don't really stand out (he's basically Hilda minus a few points of speed and luck), but you can't go wrong with wyvern riders in this game, and if one of them gets blessed, watch out.

Snrkiko posted...

sylvain's archetype is generally boring but I thought they added a cool spin with the crest angle

Yeah I normally don't care for his archetype but him being a cyncial, depressive person who fears that nobody can ever truly love him (including his own parents) puts a neat spin on him and I ended up enjoying his character a lot.
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For what it's worth I do think that several of the individual character stories get better as they go along. Nothing big and epic, but they raise some interesting issues IMO.

But yeah overall it's mostly a game I played for an excellent battle system and being decent enough otherwise.
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barreldragon88 posted...

Makes no sense when they've been powercreeping everything else

It makes perfect sense, since they've "powercrept" the types of units who were weaker at base. That's why infantry have been buffed so much statwise and ranged units have been buffed less than melee units generally (not just in terms of raw stats, but also refines).

Mages are better than archers/daggers in this game because Def is lower than Res and because tomes are generally better to boot (especially blade/raven, but then also various things made to compete with those), IS seems to be finally acknowledging that.
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FEH makes it very tough to be a Leo fan. Though yes, at least he's popular enough there's a chance he gets a good alt eventually.
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Lopen posted...

Do you have a unit that can 1v1 a spear unit with stats

While not 1v1, the easiest way to beat that unit on an open field would probably involve a green mage (or archer/knife-user I suppose) with Reposition/Draw Back and a dancer.
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Fun bracket. Minor nitpicks in the comments:

I would best describe Kefka as The Joker of gaming. Not only due to his appearance, but how he is the iconic villain of the Final Fantasy series, and one of the most iconic villains of gaming in general.

Despite personally preferring Kefka, I don't know how you can say (if that was your intention) that Kefka is more iconic than Sephiroth. There is a reason that Sephiroth is/was the only villain in the Noble Nine.

Dante is the very embodiment of the cool protagonist. His design, personality and over-the-top fighting style - its all there. Not to mention his six-pack. . . Ladies. His games are known for their lightning fast gameplay and difficulty. DMC3 is often cited as a classic action game, and the others are a bit polarizing.

DMC1 is polarizing? It got a 94 on Metacritic and basically established a genre. I guess there's a bit of a minor division between those who think later games improved on it versus those who don't but you'd be hard-pressed to find many 3D action game fans who don't regard it highly. For the matter I don't think DMC4 is polarizing either; it's generally well-liked but few call it the best in the series, your classic "respectable but not exceptional" sequel.
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Luis_Sera89 posted...

Some interesting stuff coming out of the inquest going over on the subreddit. When the voting minigame began it would start from one of four fixed points on the map. 20 units appear on the screen from these initial points, and 12 of them finished in the top 30, including oddball picks like OG Robin, Chrom and L!Lyn.

What's worse - people not realising you can vote for rare seasonals and just voting for the base version, or people not realising you can scroll the screen?

I guess ultimately the winners were still 3 legendary heroes and a seasonal, but it doesn't show a large portion of the playerbase in the most flattering light. Much more so than CYL ever did.

I wouldn't use this to speak ill of the fanbase. It's a well-documented issue in polling that if you present some choices immediately, those are more likely to be picked, and it's likely even more extreme here when you have to scroll around on that laggy interface they used for that silly mini-game.

Lyn, Chrom, and Robin are all popular, not too surprising that someone logged in and said "ooh, I like that person!" and tossed them a vote.

Plus people who want Speed Tactic! I'm happy with Lyn winning myself, she's probably the second most desirable unit there for me because I do not particularly value armours nor their SI which are only good for armours. Speed Tactic is even rarer than DC for some reason.
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