Board 8 > Mercs Offseason Topic: Now with Less Purge

(+) Yeah! (+)

Got an announcement incoming tonight. Standby for details.
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You're pregnant
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1OlCVNn9ZeY" data-time="
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Also nice that Lara gets respect for her new weapons. All she had going for her in Mercs 4 was her durability...which wasn't that respected, for whatever reason
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DeathChicken posted...

Also nice that Lara gets respect for her new weapons. All she had going for her in Mercs 4 was her durability...which wasn't that respected, for whatever reason

Yeah, I thought about using the M4 writeups for both Lara and Drake but it made no sense after seeing how she was missing a bunch of tools. She gets too much neat stuff in Rise to give her a gimpy 'gunner with basic ballistics' build like she had in M4.
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oh btw since Kanz never posted it

Lara Croft def. Nathan Drake 6-3

also Charizard got one vote
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https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/boards/8-gamefaqs-contests/76995866

Strap yourselves in, boys. We got lots to talk about.
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when the offseason becomes THE PRESEASON
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Digging this topic back up to post some details for a hypothetical dance-off match. Based on a few random rolls, I got Boko and FFD's M4 teams. Out of those, I selected the following five fighters for each:

Rikku, Cloud, Jill, Terry and Samus vs Lightning (just one), Claire, Zack, Chief and Ammy

Eerily symmetrical mirror match, isn't it? With Kamek's help, we've narrowed it down to three potential song choices. Lemme know which one you'd prefer:

Final Fantasy Threatrhythm: Curtain Call - Battle at the Big Bridge

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fGx_tpd3xHw" data-time="

Miku Hatsune - World Is Mine

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NY__VTIUsiU" data-time="

Dance Dance Revolution Extreme (USA) - YMCA:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VAFVwBXKIdk" data-time="

If anyone's interested in arguing for either team as well, hit me up. We'd appreciate temporary team leaders to stan for each side.
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From: TheCodeisBosco | #006

You serious?!? Dude! That's awesome! Are they the classic 90s cans, or the sleeker ones from the early '00s?

I think I have one of each. A few Pepsi Blues left as well. :D

Any point in keeping this bumped?
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trdl23 posted...

Any point in keeping this bumped?

It's a good place for putting builds in and discussing characters and potential matches I feel. Once it 500s we'll need to replace it with a Preseason topic tho
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yeah keep it alive
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I've been reading the Game of Thrones books, and Gregor really comes across as better there than he does in the show. Probably just because the show doesn't properly convey the stuff about "This guy is much faster than an 8 foot guy in armor should be"

Granted he has the book stuff in his writeup, but no one in his topics ever seemed to acknowledge them
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TheCodeisBosco posted...
GenesisSaga posted...
Farfetch'd

>_>

LMAO!! You probably hate yourself right now, don't you? :P

No I hate Poke and GTM for beating the image of that duck into my brain throughout the past two days.

Briefly tabling the match above because there's a much more important one I need to run

BEHOLD

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Yu Narukami is as he appears in Persona 4. He has the persona Izanagi available, with all default skills from P4 learned in addition to all the moves from Persona 4 Arena, with the exception of his mortal blow or gameplay mechanics (invincibility frames, etc). He also can freely switch to his personas Magatsu-Izanagi and Kohryu, who have all of their skills and elemental affinities, save for Ghastly Wail.

~VS~

The Quad City DJs (AKA Charles Barkley, Hoopz Barkley, Balthios James and the Cyberdwarf) are as they appear in Barkley, Shut Up and Jam: Gaiden, Chapter 1 of the Hoopz Barkley SaGa, equipped with their best weapons and items, with full access to all of their skills and with five Ecto-coolers, three servings of B-ball Juice, and five stubs of tobacco available to each. A mash-up version of Reach Out to the Truth and the Space Jam Theme will play continuously for the duration of this match, greatly pumping up the mercenaries on both teams to do their best for the week's match.

Terrain: Secret Laboratory - A multi-layered underground base, full of sentai-styled flashing gadgets and mechanical doors, leading to a large operating room at the bottom, as seen in Persona 4. All doors are unlocked, all shadows have been removed, and access to the rest of the TV World is denied. Attackers will start at the entrance, with defenders starting at the operating room.
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Why the Secret Lab instead of Yasogami High?
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Mewtwo59 posted...

Why the Secret Lab instead of Yasogami High?

More room to fight, primarily. I wanted a place where Yu still had home field advantage but couldn't potentially just get swarmed.
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I have never played Shut Up and Jam, but...how weak are those guys that they can't beat Yu?

And I like Yu and think he's pretty good, but a four on one is a four on one
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DeathChicken posted...

I have never played Shut Up and Jam, but...how weak are those guys that they can't solo Yu?

And I like Yu and think he's pretty good, but a four on one is a four on one

DC what are you doin with your life not playing that game

It's, like, six hours long and amazing, absolutely play it

But yeah, the reason it's like that is that I'd say each of the QCDs are about 2/week range. So it's kind of a test to see if they're being undervalued and should be 5s or if they're just about properly placed at that level. Sort of like a less unwieldy version of the FF4 team. Yu was chosen because he basically does the same things you'd expect the QCDs to do (launch various spells, buff and support teammates) with a bit less overall durability but more melee power. So if the QCDs beat him very cleanly they probably need to be 5s, if they lose cleanly they could go as low as being a team of 3s that takes two slots in low, and if they have a solid match they're probably properly placed.
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Well, I just had the dumbest Mercs dream ever, which is impressive considering that I'm neither a player nor a regular voter. Someone had raged quit and disbanded their team in the middle of a game, people were angry that whoever they were going to be fighting got a free win without having to use any Abilities, and Kanz decided to run the match "for fun" to see what would happen.

Somehow I wound up getting stuck with the quitter's team, in spite of absolutely no idea what I was doing. I can't recall the full roster, but I recall some of the convoluted mess:

My Team

108 Stars of Destiny: Each match, you can pick any six members of the 108 Stars of Destiny from Suikoden 1 and field them for one roster slot. The character was upgraded, further allowing the Stars of Destiny from Suikoden 2 to be selected.

I had Tir McDohl (main character of Suikoden I ; Soul Eater was fully upgraded, but could not use any of its Instant Kill abilities) & Riou (main character of Suikoden 2 ; Bright Shield fully upgraded). The other four slots were randomized when I ran out of time trying to do research to see if I could plausibly argue anyone from either game to do anything.

Luca Blight: As seen in whatever version of Mercs he most recently appeared in.

Luc: As seen in Suikoden 3 during his boss fights. There was debate on if Suikoden 1 or 2 Luc could be chosen while 3 Luc was in play; conclusion was "yes, yes they could".

Opponent Team

Ansem, Seeker of Darkness: As seen in his Kingdom Hearts 1 final battle with access to all forms.

Justin Timberlake's Ghost: Possesses the body of a random post-roster's Enemy Merc. Justin will start near his teammate's and have a vague idea of what his victim's powers are, but has no training with any said powers or weapons. He hit one of the randomized stars of destiny.

And then two other RPG villains that I can't recall.

Opponent Team had some effect that would allow them to pick any terrain in the entire game, but they had not chosen one at the time in the dream, because they were as lost as I was.

Third Party

Thomas: From Suikoden 3. He and his immediate circle of allies ("Cecile, the then self-appointed commander of the Castle Guards, Juan, a rather lazy Bujustu instructor, Piccolo, an old fortune teller, Martha, an old Karayan lottery ticket seller, Muto, a scatterbrained Kobold warehouse keeper, Sebastian, the worrywart butler, and Eike, the castle's gloomy librarian" from the Suikoden Wiki) have chosen the selected terrain to be the home of their new headquarters!

They have set up a base camp in the exact center of the terrain. While they wish to avoid the battle, they will defend their new home if need be. In addition, they consider everyone on my team to be very good friends of their and may be persuaded to join the battle.



No, this didn't make any more sense in the dream than it does here.
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...I actually like the idea of the Suikoden scrubs getting to team up. Though Tir/Riou are probably 3s on their own. Tir was in a previous game, people liked him well enough

Riou's trickier, since if I remember half of his moves in S2 are instadeath. Those aren't allowed
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I thought Bright Shield was just healing and damage? The last move was pretty broken (massive healing and damage to everyone), but I don't recall it having actual death moves.

Tir did, but even in a dream with Ghost Timberlake, I knew those didn't work.
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Riou's Bright Shield has no instant death. Tir's Soul Eater is the one that has 2/4 instant death moves. Or perhaps Jowy's Black Sword is what you're thinking of which has 1/4 instant deaths on it.

I dig the idea of a stars of destiny merc in any case. Thing is you have such an imbalance in the power levels of the stars that it's actually a trap merc since I'm pretty sure you can actually solve the right 6 to pick most of the time.
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Lopen posted...

Riou's Bright Shield has no instant death. Tir's Soul Eater is the one that has 2/4 instant death moves. Or perhaps Jowy's Black Sword is what you're thinking of which has 1/4 instant deaths on it.

I dig the idea of a stars of destiny merc in any case. Thing is you have such an imbalance in the power levels of the stars that it's actually a trap merc since I'm pretty sure you can actually solve the right 6 to pick most of the time.

Georg IIRC is almost certainly one of them, he got huge hype when he was allowed to fight in M3.
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Justin Timberlake's Ghost for M5 but

Luca
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Might be mentally flipping them around, yeah. I imagine in practicality, anyone given a choice of Suikoden 1/2 characters would probably roll with Georg Prime/Viktor/Luc and then whatever grab bag you like of the good characters
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I don't really think Viktor rates.

I think you use Tir, Riou, Georg, Pesmerga, Luc... and like... Sierra maybe?

There are probably some overpowered characters I'm forgetting though. I feel like 95% of the cast are traps though, which is unfortunate.
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relatedly, I had an interesting discussion with Gravy a little while ago - he said he thought Necron was a balance fumble, as even with the SDS restriction he was STILL too powerful for 3/week. Do you guys agree with that? One of the main points of contention was that the SDS was not a strict enough check on his power, IIRC.
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Viki teleports the enemy team all the way back to Mercs 2, gg
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I think Neclord had some issues as a merc but I don't think he was too strong for a 3/week unless you had no swordsmen on your team.

Whether that was too easy a condition to attain is a question. Maybe make it so you can replace the merc who has the sword with an immune to abilities Viktor if you want to or something.
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Would you believe it if I said that was my first instinct too? Except it was 'Viktor comes in as a free assist' instead as a default and the upgrade downgrades it to having to designate a carrier (and it doesn't come into sidetopics obv).
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Viktor as an assist seems too weak I think in that you're giving them a decent 2/week for nothing. I like the idea of being able to roster an ability immune Viktor in the slot of the swordsman though.

Alternatively just make the Star Dragon Sword user gain some ability protection of some sort, on upgrade it becomes "you become Viktor"

Basically what I'm saying is I like the merc played honestly but I just don't like the idea of throwing abilities at the SDS wielder to eliminate them so solving that fixes the merc (well, that problem with the merc)
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the other thing was that I think Neclord was often overpowered because people just forgot that they could counter him with the SDS. I feel like the 'whoops SDS gets randomed' percentage musta been like, 50% or so. Something that helps address that somehow would go a very long way.
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Lopen posted...

I dig the idea of a stars of destiny merc in any case. Thing is you have such an imbalance in the power levels of the stars that it's actually a trap merc since I'm pretty sure you can actually solve the right 6 to pick most of the time.

So what if you just choose the 6 best ones and made a merc out of them?
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It loses a lot of charm that way because a lot of the appeal of the Suikoden series is that the cast is so large and everyone has their pet characters. At that point you might as well just make the 6 you're saying to put on the merc as individual ones.
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Which tbf, few people would object to Georg , Luc and Tir/Riou joining Luca if we need a couple new dudes. RIP Suikoden, we miss you :(
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Match is live. Let's go!

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/boards/8-gamefaqs-contests/77013067
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Personally I never used Luc much when Mazus was right there. Luc was a dick
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Some JT abilities:

Cry Me A River (Start of Battle) - Once every three weeks, one preselected enemy will be severely depressed for this week's battle.

Bye Bye Bye (Passive) - If your team has a Bye this week, you gain 1 additional Infra.

Don't Be So Quick To Walk Away (Start of Battle) - Once every three weeks, one preselected enemy will move 50% slower when moving away from member's of JT's team.

Bet I'll Have You Naked By The End of This Song (Start of Battle/Mid-Battle) Once every three weeks, one preselected enemy will have all of their armor, clothes, and equipment fall off five minutes into this week's battle.

Sexyback (Start of Battle) - Once every three weeks, one allied mercenary will become incredibly attractive to every member of the opposing team. Them other boys won't know how to act.
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Because it's 1:00 AM and I'm amusing myself

Viki (Suikoden)
Heroic Female Human
3/Week

Viki is as she appears in Suikoden 2 with all abilities of the Blinking Rune.

Achoo! (Trigger) - As powerful as Viki is, her control is lacking. As such, should Viki's owner roster her, she will sneeze after rosters are chosen, removing herself from the fight. A random merc equal to her upkeep (or the next lesser upkeep if not applicable) from the opposing team will also be removed, and the battle will commence with both teams fielding their remaining chosen mercs.

Upgrades

Ability Upgrade

Preselect the enemy merc of equal upkeep Viki removes.

New Ability

Victory Banquet (Results) - As it happens, the army Viki sides with always manages to win. She never gets to celebrate though as her pesky sneezing habit kicks in. Should her team win a match in a week where she was rostered and removed via Achoo, she may also use this ability. Viki will be removed from her team, joining a team of her owner's choosing, who will have to pay her upkeep the following week. In addition, Viki will automatically force herself into a roster slot that week on her new team, at which point she will use Achoo, disappear and reemerge on her original team in Results.
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Whoever said they had a mercs dream fucked me up because I had one last night but it was about solving and streamlining the game and I had it all worked out and now I cant remember shit
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ScareChan posted...

Whoever said they had a mercs dream fucked me up because I had one last night but it was about solving and streamlining the game and I had it all worked out and now I cant remember shit

big mood for me erry night
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Tirofog posted...

Some JT abilities:

Cry Me A River (Start of Battle) - Once every three weeks, one preselected enemy will be severely depressed for this week's battle.

Bye Bye Bye (Passive) - If your team has a Bye this week, you gain 1 additional Infra.

Don't Be So Quick To Walk Away (Start of Battle) - Once every three weeks, one preselected enemy will move 50% slower when moving away from member's of JT's team.

Bet I'll Have You Naked By The End of This Song (Start of Battle/Mid-Battle) Once every three weeks, one preselected enemy will have all of their armor, clothes, and equipment fall off five minutes into this week's battle.

Sexyback (Start of Battle) - Once every three weeks, one allied mercenary will become incredibly attractive to every member of the opposing team. Them other boys won't know how to act.

all of this is great
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The Quad City DJs defeat Yu Narukami, 4-2 (with a slightly late vote in their favor not being counted).

A relatively clean win. Out of curiosity, would anyone have taken them if Yu was accompanied by another P4 alum?
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it has been a few months since I came up with a weird mercs spinoff and brought it to fruition for little reason beyond mental exercise and self-satisfaction, so I've started percolating some ideas. I would like please some help coming up with binary "traits" for mercs. I've already got

Roles (Melee, Ranged, Support)
Types (Male, Good, Robot, etc.)
and Attributes (Flight, Strength, Speed, Intelligence, Stealth, Magic....???)

The Attributes are what I want some help with- I wanna ultimately have a list of like 10-15, where most mercs could check like 2-5 boxes. Anybody got good ideas? The idea I have is revolving around simple pass/fail checks for random attributes (IE, maybe a stage hazard gives Flight mercs a chance to get a hit in, or there's an opening for your Ranged mercs to attack)
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Strong, Fast, Flying, Mental, Vehicle, Tough, AoE, Healing, Buffs, Debuffs, Magic, Martial, Tech?
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that is better than anything I have so far!
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Again I'm not familiar with the Gaiden cast, but give Yu basically anyone else from P4 and I have a real hard time seeing him lose. Dude is a born leader, he wouldn't let his friend be hurt
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I am taking this assessment mainly from the story mode of Arena. Which I dug a whole hell of a lot. The P4 cast's defining trait was "We will follow Yu into the depths of hell if we gotta, he a Bro Elemental"
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