Lurker > Calwings

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I don't think HSR needs its own general topic considering we already have the gacha game general and HSR discussion isn't making it move that much faster than it normally goes. That being said, I'm definitely enjoying the game a lot so far. It's made for a very worthy replacement for Princess Connect ReDive (RIP global server) on my phone.

Funkydog posted...

Good to see others interested in it. Is a lot of fun, who couldn't like a trash gremlin memeing main character?

Agreed, the fanbase's characterization of the main character has been a lot of fun.

GrandConjuraton posted...

I want Silver Wolf already, x.x . I'm sitting on a lot of wishes while waiting, and my gambling senses are gnawing at me.

I'm saving for Silver Wolf as well.

Godnorgosh posted...

None of the newer games since Awakening has topped FE7-9

Kind of annoying that the games with the better gameplay and art direction never did as well, it's what I hate most about FE's history

IMO Engage is almost as good, if not as good, as those golden age FE games in terms of gameplay. The Emblem Rings and the Engage mechanic add a ton of depth to the game, then you throw in the class system and the way this game does skill inheritance, and you can completely change how a character plays. The customization is to the point where you can even make a playthrough with the same characters as your last one still feel almost completely different. That depth adds to the already great core gameplay and makes me feel something that I haven't felt from FE in a long time: an actual desire to replay the game more than once or twice.

tremain07 posted...

Apologize

I have nothing to apologize for because I've liked this adorable toothpaste-haired dork since the original leak first surfaced. I celebrated when the leaks were confirmed. I was hyped for Engage since the reveal trailer. I laughed at every single joke and meme about this game, from the Toothpaste memes to the JoJo reference memes to the Nokia N-Gage memes and everything in between.

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Srk700 posted...

The gameplay is fantastic though.

100% agreed. Engage was the first time in modern FE (AKA since Awakening "saved" the series) where I felt like they actually put as much effort in making the gameplay great as they put into the characters/waifus being appealing. It's the most fun I've had playing FE since the Tellius games (I've done 2 full playthroughs and I still have more in mind, a lot more than I could say about Fates or 3H) and it still had a lot of the fun waifu aspects of the modern FE games too. The writing could use some work so it's not perfect, but Engage is amazing IMO.

Gobstoppers12 posted...

I had too much faith in Claw Viper and Bloodsport, so my bracket is falling behind already lol. I swear, Bloodsport was a more effective and durable bot when it was hockey puck shaped. Ever since it went square it seems to have more issues.

I missed those two as well. Also, we're past the 24-hour spoiler period, so the spoiler tags are no longer necessary this week.

Based on the latest "Fight of the Week" video upload to the official BattleBots Youtube channel, sadly it feels like they're really leaning into this Riptide drama. The comments section of the video is predictably a dumpster fire of toxicity as well.

I'm going to say this right now: If Team Riptide is allowed back for next season after everything that's happened with them this season, then I will not be watching that season. Them being allowed back without any significant consequences would just be a sure sign that the higher-ups care more about this drama than they do about integrity, sportsmanship, and respect, and that's not a sport that I want to support.

I love how the HSR fanbase's two most common characterizations for the HSR main character are "no thoughts head empty" and "trash gremlin"

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Tennousu posted...

Turn based is more tolerable in phone.

Agreed, turn-based is great. The main reason I never touched Genshin or HI3 is because I honestly can't imagine playing an action game like those on a phone. Now if Genshin ever actually got that Switch port they were considering at one point... that would be another story.

FigureOfSpeech posted...

I've had things defend gyms for more than a week at a time. I don't think anyone healed them. Just no one fuckin went to the gyms to take them out >_>

Same here. I reinstalled Go a couple of months ago after the update that let you send postcards to Scarlet/Violet, and my area is basically dead when it comes to Go. If I put a Pokemon in a gym, it often stays there for several days before anyone takes it out.

NightRender posted...

The entirety of my mental health and wellbeing hinges on the success of that cute little dinosaur flipper boy.

Sorry, but Disarray is designed after one of my favorite animals and its name is a pun. I have to cheer for it over your dinosaur.

Questionmarktarius posted...

Who made the Conference Call?

https://borderlands.fandom.com/wiki/Conference_Call

Hyperion, actually. And it can't have the explosive element.

Questionmarktarius posted...

ohshit, that was Tediore.

Yeah, Tediore were the ones that made the guns themselves into explosives. Torgue guns just shoot out a bunch of explosions. Simple mistake, they both start with a "T" and involve guns and explosions, no big deal.

The_Punisher_69 posted...

Read this as make guns more explosive like holy shit

Tediore weapons in Borderlands 2 be like

Priere posted...

So if someone steals your gun and kills someone should they nail you to a cross as well?

If you want to own a gun, it should also be your responsibility to take proper safety precautions and ensure that it never falls into the hands of someone who would use it to kill someone. If a thief steals your gun and kills someone with it, or if your kid gets a hold of your gun and naively shoots another family member with it without knowing better, then that means you didn't secure your gun well enough. It means that you failed your responsibility as a safe gun owner, and you should face consequences for it.

ZMythos posted...

Implementing stronger background checks, expanding and enforcing a national gun registry, and having a mandatory waiting period on gun purchases.

This. The problem isn't that people have access to guns. The problem is that dangerous and violent people have access to guns, and that it's too easy to skirt around existing restrictions and acquire guns through "unofficial means".

IMO, if a gun is used in a murder, then the person who the gun is officially registered to (whether they sold it to the person who committed the murder or let it fall into their possession through some other means) and the person/store who initially sold that gun should all face criminal charges. Hell, I'd even say to punish the gun manufacturer themselves (with a monetary fine or some other kind of sanction) every time a murder is committed with their gun. The responsibility and accountability for a gun needs to be applied to every single link of the chain, from the bottom to the top.

The last two fights were awesome. Coppehead and End Game move on, and my bracket is safe. I went 6-2 in my predictions tonight, only missing on Bloodsport and Claw Viper, but I had both of them losing in the next round anyways so it's not a big deal.

Mad Catter vs. Claw Viper was a fantastic fight. I would have scored it 6-5 for Claw Viper because IMO they controlled more of the fight and Mad Catter ended with more damage (even though part of it was self-inflicted) but it was close enough that I understand why it would go the other way.

And then Huge absolutely fucked up Skorpios. That was brutal.

Starks posted...

Watch the special coverage at the end if you need clarification on that.

Riptide met weight and tip speed.

Even if the bot met the requirements on every single check, the team still broke a BattleBots rule (not an unwritten rule based on respect and being a decent human being, one that's actually in the rule book) by doing something to modify their bot after the weigh-in and essentially got off scot-free.

I didn't need another reason to hate team Riptide, but them breaking BattleBots rules by modifying their bot after the weigh-in but somehow not getting DQ'd and being allowed to still fight anyways certainly gives me another one. Fuck Riptide, fuck Ethan Kurtz, fuck the whole team.

Man, that's a really tough way to go out. Bloodsport's self-righter fails it in a crucial moment once again and Lock-Jaw moves on.

Up next is Riptide (BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!) vs. Shatter.

IT'S ROBOT FIGHTIN' TIME! It looks like tonight's fights will be the first round fights on the right side of the bracket. #3 seed Witch Doctor vs. Jackpot leads off the tournament, and Jackpot didn't stand a chance. Witch Doctor absolutely decimated it.

ANort175 posted...

Says the episode is 2 and a half hours long, does that mean we're actually gonna see all 8 fights instead of just 7+highlights from 1 like last year?

Probably. I also heard something about that last half-hour being a "post-game show" of sorts, with interviews, damage reports, and other extra stuff.

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The postseason has finally arrived! The first round of the BattleBots postseason tournament begins tonight. I don't actually know which first round matches we'll see tonight, but we know it'll be hype. You can also use this topic to post your final predictions for the tournament as well... I've got Minotaur winning it all on my bracket. As a reminder, please put any discussion of match results under spoiler tags until 24 hours after the episode airs out of consideration for people who can't watch the episode live, especially if you decide to watch the episode early on Discovery+ before it airs on TV.

TaylorHeinicke posted...

and theyre certainly better than tera battles, even with AI

Hard disagree. With the Tera raids in S/V, I can build Pokemon to solo pretty much any raid no matter what the AI partners do to help/hinder the situation. But the fact that the Dynamax Adventures in Sw/Sh force you to only use awful rental Pokemon eliminates that possibility.

Even compared to the normal Dynamax raids where you can use your own Pokemon, I still think the Tera raids are much better. The fact that they work based on a timer and not number of teammates KO'd is better, especially because the AI partners getting KO'd can screw you over in Dynamax raids when playing solo, but not in Tera raids. I find it much easier to do Tera raids consistently while playing solo.

Proto_Spark posted...

This. Dynamax Adventures is IMO the most fun one of these multiplayer Raid modes done so far, but by artificially limiting the power level like that it made it frustrating to play solo.

Exactly. With RPG's like Pokemon, I would rather do as much of the game solo as I possibly can and only deal with other players when it's absolutely necessary like trade evolutions. The fact that Dynamax Adventures is such an annoying mode to play solo but is also the only way to acquire many legendary Pokemon without transferring them from the DS/3DS generations is just really frustrating.

I wanted to update my living dex in Pokemon Home to replace Pokemon that I'm not the original trainer of with Pokemon that I am the OT of, and I figured that the Dynamax Adventures mode in the Sw/Sh DLC would be an easy way to get some of the legendaries that I was missing. At least, I thought it would be easier than replaying entire gen 5-7 games to catch them in the post-game (which I'll still need to do for Tornadus since it's only available in this mode in Sword and not Shield) but man, was I wrong.

This mode is fucking horrendous. Needing to rely on both rental Pokemon with terrible movesets and AI partners making braindead move choices adds a ton of annoying RNG checks to the mode, so even when I find the Pokemon I'm looking for, chances are my team doesn't win the raid battle against it. Plus, you have little control over what legendary you go for too. Once you run into a legendary, you can make a "note" of it to immediately go back to it (which led to me trying and failing to beat Zygarde 20 times in a row before I gave up on it) but after over 200 runs through the mode I still haven't seen Thundurus a single time, who's the only legendary I can get from the mode that I still need besides Zygarde.

Sorry for the /blogFAQs rant, I just needed to vent. But seriously, fuck this mode. Honestly, just fuck Pokemon Sw/Sh in general.

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Very yay, one of my favorite game franchises ever.

Now that Princess Connect ReDive's global server has shut down (RIP), I've fully replaced it with Honkai Star Rail, and that plus Revue Starlight ReLive are the only two gacha games that I'm currently playing. There's one announced global release coming this year that I'm really looking forward to (Takt Op Symphony) but for now I'm still sticking with just two games like I have been for a while.

Stagmar posted...

So I got rid of my Star Rail account. Sure, 32 tickets on a banner that just disappeared on me is nothing in the grand scheme of things but I wanted my 50 pull guaranteed 5 star :(. I kinda want to create a new account since I like the game, but I don't want to redo everything.

That's a shame, but I understand how bad wasting pulls like that can feel. If you decide to come back and start over, the free characters have been doing just fine for me so far, so you can just coast on those while you save pulls for whatever future 5* you really want.

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This topic is for discussion of all the various games where you put in your time and money effort in hopes of recruiting the hero or waifu of your dreams... yes, welcome to the wonderful world of gacha games! Honkai Star Rail, Arknights, Counterside, Fate Grand Order, Goddess of Victory: Nikke, and many, many more unique games are waiting for you to happily spend your money enjoy your time playing them.

So let's continue our discussion: what gacha games are you playing or looking forward to these days? Which do you spend the most time on, and which are you just collecting login bonuses in until you feel like actually playing them again? Feel free to name your favorite games, show off your heroes and teams, talk about games coming in the future that you're excited for, talk about anime adaptations and other media associated with gacha games, and just have fun. But remember: play responsibly!

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We're officially past the 24 hour spoiler period, so here's a link to the bracket for anyone who hasn't seen it yet or wants to print one out:

https://battlebots.com/bracket/

Top-left Quadrant = Minotaur's for the taking IMO. The only bot that I think can take it down is Sawblaze, but the Minotaur we're seeing this year seems like it's on a whole different level from the one that lost to Sawblaze in its first fight of last year's regular season. I'll still pick Minotaur though, because it has a good chance to avenge that loss to Sawblaze, or Sawblaze might even lose to Cobalt or Blip before then. As much as I'd like to root for Cobalt or Blip, Minotaur has beaten Cobalt twice before, and a flipper's not going to do much against an invertible killing machine like Minotaur unless they get an unlikely out-of-the-arena flip.

Bottom-left Quadrant = This might be a ballsy and wishful pick, but I'm going with Quantum. I think Quantum can beat any other bot in the bracket besides Ripperoni or Death Roll (vertical spinners that can reach and hit their crusher are their big weakness) but I think Black Dragon will upset Ripperoni in the first round and I don't see Death Roll making it past Hydra either. Hydra, Beta, or Whiplash would be a tough fight in the round of 8, but I think Quantum can beat any of them.

Top-left Quadrant = The group of death, with two former BattleBots champions and plenty of devastating spinners that could take home the prize... plus poor Lucky and Shatter getting thrown in the middle of them. I see End Game weathering the storm and making it out of this quadrant. I think they can crack Tantrum, and I think they can be the ones to finally shut Ethan Kurtz and Riptide up once and for all. At least, I sure hope so.

Bottom-left Quadrant = This one's a really tough call. I think Witch Doctor is the best bot in this quadrant on paper, but I don't think they have a good chance to make it out. I think Bloodsport has a decent chance to upset them in the second round, and Huge would be a horrible matchup for them if they get past Bloodsport because WD's weapon is so compact and low to the ground. But if Bloodsport does pull that upset on WD, then I think they would rip Huge's wheels apart and move on. I'm going to make my pick based on Bloodsport not pulling that upset and go with Huge coming out of this quadrant.

Final Four = As much as I would love to see Quantum upset Minotaur, I don't see it happening. Minotaur's gyroscopic movement (that thing where it stands up on one wheel when it turns) and Daniel Freitas' driving will make it too hard for Quantum to grab it from anywhere but head on, but the weapon is just too powerful to try and grab it head on. Then on the other side, I'm pretty sure End Game's weapon is high enough off the ground to hit Huge's central body and chop the giant down. That makes the final a rematch of a match we already saw in then round of 16 last year, and I don't see it going any different the second time. That means Minotaur is my pick to win the championship and take home the Giant Nut this season.

Ronald McDonald isn't (as far as I know) a bigoted fascist asshole

Yeah, the End Game vs. Tantrum match-up in the first round and seeding a pair of 3-1 bots above the undefeated Huge and Quantum seem like questionable choices, but aside from those minor gripes, I don't really have any problem with the way the bracket was put together.

Minotaur beat Witch Doctor in one hell of a slobberknocker to cap off the regular season and take home the #1 overall seed in the tournament. The bracket looks really interesting, but I'll wait until tomorrow night after the 24 hour spoiler period is done to post my full thoughts and predictions.

Switchback ripping off Hijinx's blade and sending it helicoptering across the arena was pretty exciting, but that was really the only great moment from the undercard fights tonight. Pretty meh episode so far, unfortunately. All that's left is the main event and then the bracket reveal.

Blip vs. Banshee was a total dud, and Monsoon KO'd Death Roll pretty quickly and anticlimactically. The fights tonight have been kinda meh so far aside from Cobalt's explosive KO.

IT'S ROBOT FIGHTIN' TIME! Lucky vs. Cobalt kicks off the last night of the regular season and Lucky got fucky'd up. Cobalt ripped the battery clean out of its body. It was almost surgical.

Then just watch BattleBots instead. All of the violence of combat sports without any of the guilt of seeing living creatures in pain.

The postseason is finally almost upon us!

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The final main event of this year's regular season pits two undefeated Giant Nut contenders against each other as Minotaur and Witch Doctor run it back after their controversial, rulebook-changing showdown in last year's postseason tournament. Also among the bots in action tonight are another unexpectedly 3-0 bot in Lucky and the defending BattleBots champion Tantrum. And finally, at the end of tonight's show, the full bracket for this year's postseason tournament will be revealed, with the tournament beginning next week.

As a reminder, please put any discussion of match results under spoiler tags until 24 hours after the episode airs out of consideration for people who can't watch the episode live, especially if you decide to watch the episode early on Discovery+ before it airs on TV. For this week, the 24 hour spoiler period also covers discussion of the postseason bracket and predictions for the tournament. Showtime is about an hour away.