#but with a lot of heart and solid gameplay as usual for a fired emblem

[didsomeonesayventus]

Okay, I trust you as a source for all things Fire Emblem - can you please tell me if Fire Emblem Engage is worth getting? It's a lot of money, and I've seen a real mixed reception for it. I've read reviews that call it uninspired and shallow, storywise, and that some characters are difficult to enjoy. Is it actually worth it, or am I better off just replaying Fates? I am TORN over here.

SO! Good news in brief: if you liked Fates I'm fairly certain that you've got a good chance of liking Engage. I honestly see Engage as Fates 2 with a much better focus on what it wants to be and do! In fact if I HAD to pick a previous entry for fair comparison/vibe similarities, I'd pick Fates, maybe Sacred Stones (though I've yet to finish that one).

Engage is right now my favorite entry of the series.

MORE DETAILED ANSWER UNDER THE CUT (I have only played thru once on normal + casual as of writing)

I still maintain it's a good game and worth it, but you HAVE to be open-hearted about it. It's going to be silly. It's going to be hammy and subtle as a sledgehammer. It will even say the most cringe ass shit with it's whole heart. It's just about the farthest from 3H you can get on the fire emblem scale to the point you could have it sitting next to Kingdom Hearts and I, personally, love that for it, but feel like comparing it to 3H's darker tones is the thing most negative reviewers fall prey to.

Is it simple? Yeah. Absolutely. Terribly predictable, even. Is it heartfelt? YES! ABSOLUTELY! Engage has no time for "wow that was cheesy" because it LOVES cheese and it wants you to know that LOVE IS THE MOST POWERFUL THING EVER. It knows it's running a trite and cliched story and it doesn't care about that so much as trying to hit its notes with just the right vibe- and I argue it does a majority of the time, but can concede some things are rather silly. It's full steam ahead with the power of love and friendship and it does that with about as much reverence as a Sat. A.M. cartoon. A good Sat. A.M. cartoon that you're still thinking of years down the line that was a formative childhood joy.

And it's not about romantic love, actually! Hardly at all! There's a lot more focus on familial and platonic love than romance!! There are explicit "I love you"s regarding family bonds and multiple sibling relationships that make it clear they would do everything for their family. The only romantic aspect is whoever you choose to have Alear S-Rank (the game calls it a ring rank for Reasons but its essentially an S-Rank), and everyone else's supports end at A. Even then there's room in a fair number of Alear's S-Ranks to get interpreted as Really Good Friends, as the focus is not on "I Love You" but moreso the fact Alear and the blorbo in question have a deep, deep bond (though there are S-Ranks that are romantic-tinted and some who will explicitly say they love Alear, and regardless of gender picked! wow! diversity win!). If you were looking for pairing up your sexy chess pieces and getting paired endings, though, there'll be a bit left to be desired.

Again if you like Fates, or Kingdom Hearts, or stories that are cheesy, simple, cliched, but heartfelt, you're going to like this one. The cast is wonderful, and the story has some surprisingly good emotional beats. Oh, and also some of the FUNNIEST supports I have seen. Ever.

Alear in particular has become my favorite lord of the series, just barely scooting ahead of Corrin by virtue of having a more solid characterization and arc that Fates didn't quite let Corrin have. Which, yes, you can rename Alear and give them their own birthday, but there is NO question that Alear is their own character; hats off to Laura Stahl and Brandon McInnis for bringing stellar performances that are essential to the character. Frankly hats off in general to the voice cast as a whole they really bring a charm to the game that cannot be ignored.

I will say that supports are pretty hard to grind out, though, requiring units to be adjacent, and the leveling curve leaves a lot of... wonkiness? It's VERY easy with the rate of receiving new units + leveling funk to have units fall behind, or your army to feel underleveled, if you're like me and mostly skip the side skirmishes (bad gamer, I know). I hear the skirmishes are also kind of wonky and scaled to Alear's level which. Can Be A Problem if you're trying to level or support grind weaker units. Though I will say that playing Normal + Casual playing straight through the main story, while it occasionally made me sweat, it did not make me have to completely redo a map (or, if it did, it was probably only once or twice and I've simply forgotten about the inconvenience). Just made unlocking supports irksome as units fell off and/or made it hard to keep some characters off the bench.

There's also an OBSCENE amount of freedom in what you can do with your units. Go crazy go stupid try not to die. Resource management can get tricky, there's not quite enough gold or bond points to do everything, but you can do a lot of stuff, especially if you find a favorite to focus in on. As for the Engage mechanic: very powerful, but not to the point of sapping all the challenge out of things, and fairly balanced. The Break mechanic introduced I think is a great addition to the weapon triangle mechanics and adds a nicer layer of consideration to unit placement + weapon diversity in your army than before.

Also, if you're worried Engage overly relies on it's intent as an anniversary celebration, don't! Engage still is doing its own thing, and moreso uses references to past entries as spice or flourishes of color. They add some fun easter eggs and flavoring to the story, but it doesn't rely on the emblems or any throwbacks to tell the story it's trying to tell. Are Firene and Brodia a 1:1 for Zofia and Rigel? Yeah! Probably on purpose! They literally got the guy who voices Duma in FEH to do King Morion! Do you need to know anything about Shadows of Valentia to appreciate that? Nope! Just nice to know. Corrin's ring is found in a Northern Fortress, to further help illuminate the cute nods involved.

If you're on the fence, totally get that, especially since dropping 60$ on a game in this economy- ~90$ if you wanna add DLC -is a lot of money to ask for. But I've thoroughly enjoyed what Engage has to offer, and currently am hopping along through playthrough #2 and trying to tell myself to S-Rank someone who isn't Alcryst (I will probably S-Rank Alcryst again). I'd suggest looking into the first few eps of a playthrough if you're still not quite sure, and, frankly, imo there's no shame in just purely enjoying it from a "watched a playthrough" perspective, if you have to.

and, if none of this has persuaded you, please direct your attention to Zelkov and this Honest-To-Alear real support exchange: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F1_lsOLB68g

#katie rambles #fe engage #fe17 #in short: I like this game and I think if you liked fates you'll probably like it too!!! #I didn't get into spoilers because idk how spoiler free u wish to be #but there is a link to part of a support (missing context + no plot mentions) #but I think engage does a very good job of being what it is #a simple romp to go kill the problems dragon and collect the emblems and save the day #but with a lot of heart and solid gameplay as usual for a fired emblem #alear reminds me a lot of the way i've strived to write corrin #and i think the plot absolutely benefits from the focus of a single campaign that allows it to hit good vibes #does it cover everything in super detail? not entirely. #does it completely avoid being silly? NOPE #are there missed opportunities? sure always are #but this game has reignited a lot of my joy and interest and creative energy #and it's going on month 3 of loving this world and what it offers #no doubt to still last as I have a fic or two still in the works and the Fell Xenologue DLC has me like MASSIVE EYE EMOJIS #but i do totally get that 60$ USD for the base game is. a lot of money #I think its worth saving up for tho! and if it's hard I won't fault you for just checking out a playthrough #but I really. really like this entry and i think if you come in with an open heart you will too

[ac-liveblogs]

it’s been less than a year and i already have massive concerns about genshin’s longevity - or at the very least its meta. 

My experience with gacha games boils down to Fate/Grand Order, Fire Emblem Heroes, Kingdom Hearts Union Cross and Final Fantasy Dissidia Opera Omnia. All of these had their own ways of keeping people spending money rolling:

FEH and KHUX have aggressive PVP with constantly updating metas that mean if you want to keep up, you have to get the newest Hero/Medals. Sometimes, they even deign to tell a story. 

FEH also sells characters you already like in cute costumes, which is something.

Dissidia also has a constantly evolving meta, but it’s centred around raid battles and events that are hard to keep up with if you aren’t keeping up to date. It also drops large story updates pretty regularly for the folks just here for that.

FGO has no multiplayer aspects that actually matter, but frequently drops huge story events along with almost every new Servant. You can play FGO completely F2P with a bit of ingenuity, but the game keeps you rolling by getting you emotionally invested in its characters, the bastards. FGO drops more story content in one event than others do in a year and usually has better/more engaging storytelling to boot.

Genshin has none of these things. It’s already getting pretty bad with powercreep in its new units, but the gameplay isn’t difficult enough to actually need it. There’s no PVP or any substitute, so it’s not like you’re being pressured to roll to keep up with the game.

Storytelling? Not really. Genshin’s story is very weak, and it relies on pretty trailers and cramming as much information as possible into a character’s profile than actually doing anything engaging with any of the units it drops on-screen. (I will actually never forgive Genshin for hyping up Xiao’s demon-fighting dance in the Lantern Rite in his profile and then not actually even mentioning it in the damn Lantern Rite event. I was already pretty :/ after the anticlimactic Fischl/Mona and Albedo events, but that? Holy shit, that was bad.)

Genshin has character chapters, but they’re very short and not super meaty. I don’t want to say FGO gave me standards, but it gave me standards - even if I don’t even like the new character being sold to me an event, the event is usually pretty long and tells an entire complete story. An FGO event can take days and at the very least has a lot of rewards and challenge quests - a Genshin character story takes like. Half an hour. You might get 4exp books. Maybe some primos. 

Genshin is constantly just dangling characters over your head either saying “look how cool this character used to be!” or “maybe this character’s backstory will payoff in the future!” to distract you from the fact that these characters aren’t really doing anything now, and both of those things are deeply uninteresting to me. Or, well, the things the characters are doing now are painfully mundane. One of the 3. About the only successful subversion so far has been Childe’s quest, which was actually pretty solid. There’s been an Attempt with Zhongli and Xiao, but... Zhongli’s quests are... pretty indicative of the issues with his writing, and Xiao.... see: lantern rite salt

And... there’s very little to do in game once you’ve reached a certain point. You can grind dailies (the same ones on loop), you can artifact farm (at this point I’m pretty sure artifact farming is just self harm) or you can do Spiral Abyss... again... it’s been exactly the same since January... yay...

All of this added up makes me seriously concerned about Genshin’s longevity - which sucks because, well, I’m sure there’s an interesting plot in there somewhere, but I’m really not sure that Mihoyo is up to telling it. 

(because oh man; did i mention genshin’s writing is bad? because it’s so bad)

#ac plays genshin impact #i will play genshin until lostbelt 4 drops.... and then i will hiatus to see if it improves #genshin impact is genuinely one of the worst cases of telling not showing i've seen in a really really long time

[saijspellhart]

A, K, L for the video game ask!!

A: Favorite Game of all time? Oh god. Uhhhhh... well my three favorite franchises are Pokémon, Zelda, and Fire Emblem. And the games I go back to the most and enjoy the most from those franchises are: Heart Gold and Soul Silver, Ocarina of Time, and FE The Sacred Stones. I’ve sank so many hours into all those games, and could replay them again and again. I can’t pick one I love more than the other because they are all very different. But those would be three of my favorite games.

K: Game you’re most looking forward to? Pokémon Snap 2! I literally screamed when it was announced. I lost my shit. I LOOOVVEEDD Pokémon snap on the N64. I cannot wait to play the new one. You bet your ass I’m preordering it.

L: Favorite Licensed title? I don’t play a lot of licensed games, they are usually low quality and use their “product name” as a selling point. But one licensed game I will always think fondly of was Addams Family for the Super Nintendo. It had solid gameplay, excellent soundtrack, fun bosses, levels, exploration, multiple paths, and I just have so many fond memories of it.

But also, Indiana Jones and the City of Atlantis was killer. Like, voice acting? Check. Interesting story? Check. Engaging gameplay? Check. Decent animations and soundtrack? Check. Fun puzzles? Check. It was an old computer game though, and I don’t know how to find it again, or even if a newer computer could run the game.

#ask answers #saijspellhart answers #ask meme game #video game ask meme

[edgy-ella]

I’m getting really tired of defending why I think silent protagonists are dumb and why I think that Byleth in particular is the weakest character in Three Houses, so I’m just going to rant here for a second and link everyone to this whenever it comes up.

First of all, I think that silent protagonists are a tired concept to begin with. In theory; having a silent protagonist allows the player to project themselves onto the character and allow them to relate more with the character. In practice, I find that this does the opposite. Why would I be interested in this, bland, emotionless piece of cardboard? Silent protagonists can be acceptable when the game is purely gameplay focused, but in the context of an RPG, I think that you either need to have a character with a strong, established personality; or have a dialogue tree so that the player can actually role play as the character. Some silent protagonists will use a pseudo-dialogue tree in their interactions, but they usually just boil down to saying yes or no, asking questions about lore, or saying one thing and then another option to say the same thing but worded slightly differently. In my opinion, this doesn’t really count as “expansive dialogue options” since you can’t really develop the character’s personality with these options.

Also, I think it’s worth pointing out that there are some games that will use the silent protagonist trope for the sake of comedy and/or to parody it (examples: Portal 2, a Hat in Time). This approach has varying degrees of success. Some games will also carry the slack of a character being mute by instead making them incredibly expressive physically (Mario Odyssey, Wind Waker, and a Hat in Time all do this fairly well), and I think that this can work well in a game that isn’t very text heavy, but it’s not easy to pull off.

Now, onto our main specimen.

Three Houses is a game full of complex, well written characters, but Byleth is not one of them. They’re a silent protagonist in a game where everyone else is fully voiced. It also seems really weird that this was the game where Intelligent Systems decided to take this direction since Byleth has far fewer customization options than the avatar characters that preceeded them, which thus makes the character feel less like a personification of yourself and more like a completely separate character. And if they wanted to make Byleth their own character, not tied to “being projectable,” then I’d be all for it. But instead we got a literal piece of bread. And it really sucks because Byleth more so than any other Fire Emblem protagonist (let alone the avatar characters) has the most significance put on them because of the fact that they’re basically a reborn god. Hearing Seteth and the house leaders talk about how it’s Byleth’s destiny to lead Fodlan and all this other stuff feels so much less impactful because Byleth just responds to them by nodding or widening their eyes. Hell, even if the minimal voice options were voiced, there’d be some more impact. And before you say “Oh they can’t do that, there’s too much Byleth dialogue,” A) Everyone else in the game is fully voiced and has much, much more to say, B) Most of their current dialogue options are so basic that they can be interchangable between cutscenes, and C) Psychonauts got this right all the way back in 2005 and there are probably a lot of games from even earlier that do it too.

The first thing that a lot of people counter with is that “Byleth’s emotionless and bland personality has story importance,” but the reason for the plot significance feels ham fisted and forced in just to justify the trope. Breath of the Wild did this too, and it was also bad there (Nintendo probably doesn’t want to give any of their major characters voices because they don’t want another Other M on their hands), but it’s even worse in Three Houses because Three Houses is a much more character driven game. Baby Byleth doesn’t need to be emotionless to scare Jeralt into faking their death and leaving the monestary, the fact that they don’t have a heartbeat should be reason enough. Three Houses doesn’t subvert the trope in any meaningful way either since bringing Byleth out of their shell isn’t a major plot element, it just gets played around with a bit.

It also just feels like such a missed opportunity. What if Byleth was totally emotionless for the first half of the game not because of the Sothis’ heart bullshit, but because they spent their entire life as a mercenary not knowing any better? And then as you progress through the game, Byleth does slowly show more emotions and develop into a different kind of person depending on what route you take? They play around with the idea of Byleth gaining emotions as the story goes on (Jeralt remorsing about the fact that the first time he saw Byleth cry was as he was dying was pretty powerful), but aside from that aspect of the plot gets shoved aside in favor of developing the house leaders. Which is all fine and dandy if you want them to be the focus, but if that’s the case, why not have them be the main characters and Byleth be a simple side character without all this “it’s your destiny to rule the land and you are so powerful and cool” type of stuff? You can’t have your cake and eat it too.

All and all, I’m just really sick of silent protagonists and Byleth is kind of my breaking point. Corrin had a lackluster personality, but at least they were allowed to speak. Byleth honestly feels like a step back. I hope that for the next FE game, we get a Lord/protagonist with a strong, defined personality like in days past instead of being tied to avatar characters forever.

Other common silent protagonist tropes that bug me:

Another character asks the silent protagonist about what happened, and instead of the silent protagonist just having dialogue to answer the question, the screen will fade to black and/or the character will do a “talking” animation by moving their hands around a bit as they “speak,” and then the other character solid snake’s by responding by just repeating what the silent protagonist would have just said.

A character has clearly demonstrated the ability to speak/emote in other canon games, but then once they get the protagonist shoes, they go silent.

Also, Byleth is a mid tier in smash at best don’t @ me.

#fire emblem #fire emblem three houses #byleth #silent protagonist #rant #I probably forgot something so I’ll update this as my rage grows

[biscuitreviews]

Biscuit Talks About E3 2019

With E3 2019 come and gone, I wanted to talk about the stuff that got me excited from this year’s E3 talking about what we can expect this year and next year.

This year surprisingly is pretty bare bones, at least for me personally. There’s only a few games for 2018 that I’m like 100% looking forward to. With that, let’s talk about the games from E3 2019 that caught my attention:

Cadence of Hyrule: This game came out during E3 week and although I don’t have it yet, I will be getting this game soon. This is perhaps the one game that has my overall general curiosity. A Zelda game fused as a rhythm game, at least that's what it looks like with some of the gameplay I’ve seen from it. Also it’s Nintendo giving the Zelda IP to an indie company, which is something that I do want to support as maybe this will have companies give other indie studios a chance at their IP to see what can happen.

Animal Crossing: I will admit, I am not a big fan of Animal Crossing, but I’m excited because the fans are excited and I’m also proud of Nintendo for delaying this game to focus on the health of the developers, rather than try to push their employees to meet demand. This should be further encouraged for other developers. As for the stock holders reacting negatively to this, fuck you guys, you’re part of the problem!

Fire Emblem Three Houses: Fire Emblem for Switch, all I need and from how they expanded on how armies look like armies, it’s kind of cool.

Breath of the Wild 2: Did not see that coming. Here’s looking at you 2022.

Smash DLC Fighters: “OH MY GOD, THEY DID IT, BANJO IN SMASH, BANJO IS GOING TO BE IN SMASH.” Was exactly what I did in my office as I was watching Nintendo’s E3 direct...yeah.

Pokemon Sword and Shield: I don’t know guys, I’m just not feeling this one. Maybe because Sun and Moon burned me pretty badly.

Watch Dogs Legion: I can play as an old lady. That sounds like an interesting concept, but will probably be under utilized like a lot of other cool sounding ideas Ubisoft does. Don’t get me wrong, Ubisoft makes solid games and they have some really good ideas, but sometimes they tend to undershoot things that have great potential.

Ubisoft conference: LOOK AT ALL THE TOM CLANCY GAMES! Oh, here’s some updates to all our live services games as well and a TV show! Look a puppy!

EA Conference: Huh, that Star Wars game actually looks cool.

Cyberpunk 2077: “Oh yeah, new trailer - HOLY SHIT KEANU REEVES! IT’S FUCKING KEANU REEVES. KEANU REEVES IN CYBERPUNK.” Which is exactly what the internet did for 3 whole days.

12 Minutes: A game about a man trapped in a time loop, that was all I needed to be sold on this game. I am a sucker for stories that involve time travel in some form. Traveling to the future, traveling to the past, getting stuck in time loops. I guess it’s just the idea of a person learning about events or experiencing things from another era first hand is what attracts me to these stories.

Gears 5: My wife: Is that Billie Ellish playing?

Me: Huh, sure is. Looks like Gears 5 is going back to being dark and creepy. Nice.

Halo Infinite: Again, not really feeling this one, Halo 4 and Halo 5 have just been weird. Halo 4 had an excellent campaign but not so great multiplayer. Halo 5 has a terrible campaign and some pretty good multiplayer. Who knows, third times a charm afterall.

Bethesda: I felt bad that they turned my wife’s childhood game series into a mobile game. Also, the internet proceeded to adopt Ghostwire Tokyo’s Creative Director Ikumi Nakamura.

Final Fantasy 7 Remake: That looks pretty cool actually. Still disappointed that Square is chopping it up into a multi-part game, but it looks awesome. I’m impressed.

Avengers: Everybody looks...off. Gameplay looks fun though.

Final Fantasy 8 Remaster: HOLY FUCK, SQUARE DID WHAT!?!?! Out of all the games I’m looking forward to the most for 2019, it’s this one!

Kingdom Hearts III DLC: ...why?! I get it, basically bringing Final Mix to Kingdom Hearts III, but WHY?! Usually Final Mix adds stuff to expand the story. This DLC looks like it’s putting in story elements that should have been in the game already! Like with Final Fantasy XV. Also this DLC will supposedly have Final Fantasy characters. Something that should have been in the main release already, not sold to us as DLC!

Also, is it just me or does 2020, especially the first four months of 2020, look to be a really busy time for video games. Like seriously devs and companies, why did you all do this? Spread it out through 2020, don’t jam pack it all in the same time frame. I get it, next gen is coming and is starting at the end of 2020, but really, there’s too many games in these first few months. Let’s have some delays or something!

That was just the announcements made around E3, there’s no telling what Sony has planned for 2020 or even this year. Last of Us II already has a rumored release window of February 2020, which again is competing in an already heavy 2020 timeframe. I seriously hope that some of these titles do get delayed as it could be a really tough time for heavy hitting titles competing against one another.

#E3 2019 #E3 2019 Review #video game review #game review #Zelda #Final Fantasy #cyberpunk 2077 #Smash #gaming review #video games #gaming #biscuit reviews

[kinsie]

Overly Belated Game Impressions from PAX Aus 2018

Every year I go to PAX Aus with some close friends to check out the Incredible Future of Games that everyone else already checked out six months ago. This is usually coupled with checking out some wonderfully well-preserved old games and hardware, along with some typically wonderfully weird indie stuff I've never heard about before. Every year, I've written up a little review of things I've played (or watched get played) on an old private forum some friends maintain, but this year, I've figured, fuck it, I might as well post it publicly, right?

Not Indie Games

Super Smash Bros Ultimate sure is a Smash game. That's not a bad thing, but since this was the same demo build from E3 (so before the Castlevania reveals) there wasn't a huge amount of surprises - just a damn good fightfest. Amusingly, the demo booths were split into two groups - For Fun (items on, Switch Pro Controller) and For Glory (items off, the new Gamecube controllers). New Super Mario Bros. U Deluxe has a nonsensical name and spawned an even more nonsensical meme. The demo had six levels to play - three from the base game, three from the Luigi expansion - with both the new and old characters to play. It doesn't look like anyone other than Toadette can get the meme crown, meaning players using that character won't have to jostle for powerups in multiplayer. I didn't play Pokemon Let's Go Eevee because the queue was like 90 minutes long, but my friend braved it and gave it a resounding "ehhhh" with a hand gesture resembling a teetering see-saw. Apparently the co-op stuff wasn’t available in the demo, either, which concerned my friend since that was specifically what he was interested in.

V-Rally 4 looks nice aesthetically, but the gameplay seems pretty "eh". The name seems to be about the most interesting part. Dragonball FighterZ for Switch seems like a pretty decent port. I don’t know much about the source material or original game, but it ran fast and I didn't notice any obvious hitching or whatever.

Luigi's Mansion for Nintendo 3DS is... a 3DS port of the Gamecube launch title. It ran at a solid 30fps... a whole lot better than I recall Luigi's Mansion 2/Dark Moon running, but I was also using a vanilla 3DS for that game while the demo units at PAX were New models.

Indie Stuff

The Xbox Adaptive Controller was present as part of a demo setup for a version of One More Line. I wasn't expecting to have to push the Big Novelty Button as hard as I did, I thought it'd be a lighter touch for some reason. Although I know the button kinda isn't the point of the thing...

Supertrucks Offroad is a PC adaption of a mobile take on old top-down racing games. There's promise here, but the current handling and physics leave a lot to be desired. Hopefully it continues to develop and evolve.

Infinity Heroes is a card game with some simplified mechanics and animated versions of all the card graphics. Has potential, but still plenty of rough edges and pre-alpha grit to sand out.

Metal Wolf Chaos XD sure is a port of an Xbox game. It feels pretty well done, all things considered - the framerate is great, the controls are responsive, and the English subtitles are sometimes even connected to what's being said by the characters!

Ghoul Britannia: Land of Hope and Gorey is a point-and-click adventure game that, unexpectedly, uses a Fallout-esque isometric perspective instead of the usual side-on.

Table of Tales is a VR tabletop RPG where you control an entire party of Scoundrels by moving pieces around a constantly-changing board and playing ability cards. Since it was a VR game, there was a long sign-up queue to play, so the developers set up a little booth where Arbitrix, the game's DM (and, incidentally, a mechanical talking bird), would cheerfully explain the game for you. He said my goatee was perfect for a pirate adventure. It was probably intended as a compliment.

Supermarket Shriek is very similar to a game I prototyped years ago, except it's got a Supermarket Sweep theme and shrieking goats. Also, it's actually getting finished and has more than one level, which is another differentiator. Use the shoulder triggers to make the characters inside a shopping trolley scream their lungs out, propelling the trolley and allowing you to steer it through silly retail-themed obstacle courses.

You probably think, based on the squat protagonist and camera angle, that Tunic is a riff on Zelda: A Link to the Past. Surprise! It's actually a riff on Zelda: Ocarina of Time! The combat is very similar, with a dodge/roll button and Z-targeting (although I guess it's more RT-targeting now) that jumps to the next enemy upon beating your current one. I can't say enough nice things about the graphics... One thing that's interesting is that the entire game is in a fictional language. This includes stuff like the pause menu!

Dash Blitz is a pretty amateurish attempt at a Smash-esque platform fighter. The "feel" just isn't there, sadly.

Nom Nom Apocalypse is a top-down dual-stick roguelite about fighting off food monsters. It looks pretty interesting, but sadly I didn’t get to go back and give it a hands-on look.

Henry Mosse and the Wormhole Conspiracy is a good old-fashioned point and click adventure. The graphics are wonderfully drawn in a cartoon style, but they suffer from really puppet-y animation like an old Flash cartoon, and it breaks my heart.

No Moss Studios bought along Beam Team, a couch co-op game about fighting a giant donut that I didn’t get to try, as well as a collection of weird little Patreon-funded oddities like Sprout Up, a simple little mobile game about weaving through vines, and My Magpie, a bird-aiding simulator of sorts. 

Little Reaper is a platformer with a fun movement twist in that you can throw your scythe - which travels in an arc like a hammer in Mario - and teleport to where it lands. I'll have to give this a closer look.

Mars Underground is an Earthbound-esque RPG-style adventure game with a Groundhog Day-style conceit of being stuck in a time-loop. I can't really say it struck me, to be honest.

Scout's Honor is a co-op party game where four players team up to set-up a camp-site in a limited amount of time while dealing with hazards and such. It looks kinda cute, reminds me of Overcooked a bit.

Ice Caves of Europa is a rather odd-controlling game where you pilot a hover-drone controlled by an artificial intelligence. This one probably takes a bit more time to wrap your head around than a convention center allows.

Introspect looks really cool - a Shadow of the Colossus-style boss rush with an emphasis on movement tricks and agility. I didn't get to play it while I was there, but the developers were handing out download codes for the show floor build. It seems pretty fun, although it still needs a good deal of polish.

Soundfall is a dual-stick rhythm-shooter where you have to get to the end of a course before the song ends, with rewards for shooting and slashing to the beat ala Crypt of the NecroDancer. One to watch. 

Ticket to Earth is a tactical strategy RPG ala Fire Emblem with a tile-matching mechanic that makes how you move to your enemies even more important by limiting your movement and charging your special abilities. The comic artwork is nice, although the talking heads only seem to have one or two facial expressions.

Nova Flow is a first-person speedrunner that reminds me of a blend of Mirror's Edge's DLC maps and that one paint game that got incorporated into Portal 2. One of the demo levels was apparently one of the hardest levels in the game, and the developer was quite impressed at my getting within inches of completing it before the demo timer ran out...

Dawnblade seems to be an attempt at doing the whole Diablo thing on a phone, with the player hacking their way through short, pre-made maps. Visually, it looks like any of a million other games riffing off of Warcraft 3, and it seems to have some weird mobile game trappings like a stamina system to limit the amount of time you can play in a period of time.

Little Bit Lost is a survival game where you've been shrunk down to the point where ants tower over you and are powerful monsters. This one felt real early. It has promise, but needs a lot of polish to truly deliver on it.

Rogue Singularity is a 3D platformer with procgen levels. The feel didn't gel with me, and I can't really say I liked it all that much. It didn't help that the Switch port I played seemed to lack anti-aliasing entirely, giving the entire scene an unpleasant jagged look.

Ashen looks utterly fascinating - an open-world Souls-esque action RPG with Journey-style "passive" co-op where you can occasionally meet other, anonymous players out in the world and either help them or leave them to their fate. It looks really pretty.

Speaking Simulator is a hilarious puzzler where you have to manually operate a human mouth in order to say Entirely Normal Phrases in order to convince people that you are absolutely a human and not a murder robot in disguise.

Untitled Goose Game had a massive queue that I was absolutely not going to fuck with. :(

yeop

#gaming #paxaus2018

[hippomanblog]

My Fire Emblem Rankings

I’ve had a few questions about my legitimate Fire Emblem opinions and thoughts, so I figured I’d write this up while I’m waiting for some things to process. This is all just personal opinion, no shade is meant to be being thrown, and this probably won’t interest you too much.  But, hey, here it is.  I’ll list the Fire Emblems going from favorite to least favorite, and explain a little bit about why I feel that way. Note that I won’t be including 1-5.  I’m considering the remakes the “definitive” versions of 1/2/3, and I haven’t actually played the Jugdral games.  I’m also not counting Heroes because it’s kinda hard to “judge”, but I do like it a lot and play on a pretty regular basis. THIS POST WILL CONTAIN SPOILERS FOR EACH GAME!

#1. Awakening

Awakening is a game that gets a few things wrong but most things right.  What don’t I like about it?  I preferred the art style of the Tellius games.  The maps aren’t very creative.  Pair Up is a thematically cool mechanic that really doesn’t hold up to scrutiny and trivializes many encounters.  The story is simple, with the exception of a couple twists, and Validar is a dull villain. I like pretty much everything else.  Awakening managed to be accessible to new fans and still provide a nice challenge for series veterans.  There’s a diverse selection of characters who are all pretty viable, meaning you can use your favorites.  Most characters have a lot of personality and depth to their lines, like with how they turned Frederick from a typical stoic Jagen-type into this goofy obsessive pyromaniac without making him a complete joke character.   The SpotPass characters are also a lovely addition if you adore the series like I do, and there’s just so much to do in this game, so it feels like a celebration of the franchise as a whole.  If I’m trying to get someone into Fire Emblem, I will tell them to play Awakening. Favorite Character: Gregor or Owain. Least Favorite Character: Yarne #2. New Mystery Of The Emblem

This is bias, yes, but I love New Mystery.  I was really excited for this game, because I was pretty new to the fanbase when it was announced, and couldn’t wait for an English release.  I waited, and waited, and waited, and... Once I finished playing my JP copy I just lamented that we didn’t get to play this game here.  I think that while Awakening reinvents Fire Emblem, New Mystery is sort of the pinnacle of “classic” FE.  The game is just fun, the maps are diverse and challenging, and the combination of reclass and the sheer amount of playable characters gives it immense replay value. The plot is nothing to really write home about, but after the vast wasteland of Shadow Dragon Plot, I really liked what was there.  It’s nothing that’ll blow your mind, but there are some nice moments.  I know a lot of people hate Kris, but I don’t mind them.  I won’t go to bat for them being any kind of great character or vital addition to the story, but as a sounding board to give other Archanea characters a little personality, and a way to customize your own unit and give them all sorts of terrible hats, they work just fine.  I also like the idea of Marth as a bit of a shell-shocked, reluctant king who relies on his friends to rise to greatness.  It prevents him from being “too perfect”, like RD Ike.  But I can see where people have problems with this. I wish this were a more accessible entry in the series, because I think it has a little bit of something for every Fire Emblem fan. Favorite Character: Honestly?  I like Caeda and Ogma, they’re cool people. Least Favorite Character: matthis is creepy and I hate him 3. Blazing Sword

Like a lot of people, Blazing Sword was my first exposure to the series (through an LP on Youtube for me), and it does a great job.  You could honestly probably swap these first three around in any order, to be frank. The balance in this one is a little wonky, and it goes on a little too long.  But I like what it does with its extra time.  You get some clever gaidens that mix up the formula, have room to use lots of units, and the sprite animations are just wonderful to watch.  The three lords all bring something to the table, even though you’re honestly probably just going to play Hector Mode once you’ve unlocked it.  Lyn has a story about claiming your birthright and using nobility to help people, Hector’s brash and boorish nature is offset as he learns how to be a better person on his journey (That scene with Matthew on the Dread Isle is great.), and Eliwood...exists. With maps ranging from cramped and objective based to sprawling battlefields, there’s a lot of variety in gameplay and room for different units to shine.  It’s also got some of the best supports in the series.  It’s a must-play for any Fire Emblem fan. Favorite: Hector is a good boy and a friend.  Legault is also a surprisingly involved side-character with some great lines and dialogue with almost every Morph in the final map! Least Favorite: Jaffar, because it’s hard to tell if I hate him more for killing Leila or ramming his face into the paladin in Battle Before Dawn and getting slaughtered so many times.

4. Path Of Radiance

I guess only the top 3 are getting thumbnails, sorry.  PoR sticks with me because it tries a lot of new things and most of them work out.  The bonus experience is a good system, I think this game does support unlocks better than any other, Laguz units are fun to use, and the conversion to pseudo-3D maps feels smooth and never gets in the way of gameplay. There are issues, though.  I’m not a fan of the way the full-body portraits look in the cutscenes of this game, biorhythm is silly, and that Bridge Map sure does Exist.  The reason this isn’t breaking Top 3, though, is that I just never really got attached to the cast.  Characters are a big part of Fire Emblem for me, and while there are some great ones in PoR, there are also several that feel very forgettable.  The plot is also a little...iffy, because it’s all FANTASY RACISM and it feels like it’s trying to punch above its pay grade sometimes.  Like, be honest, did you give a shit that you had to kill Jill’s dad?  That character who showed up maybe once?  The maps also tend to blend together, with a few notable exceptions (because they’re annoying, mostly).   In Minor Nitpick Town, the 3D cutscenes are hilariously goofy and the Trial characters have really awful unlock conditions. Still, PoR is a very solid entry and I’d give it a hearty recommendation. Favorite: Ranulf, probably. Least Favorite: makalov shouldn’t have been recruitable

5. Sacred Stones I balked a little at putting this one this low, like “Really?  This is FIFTH?”  But I guess that’s just a testament to how much I enjoy all these games.  Like with the top three, you could probably swap this with PoR. Sacred Stones gets a lot of shit for being “too easy”, and I don’t think that’s necessarily wrong, but I also don’t think it’s that big a deal.  This game takes risks, but they’re good risks that frequently pay off.  This was the ideal game for the Trainee classes to come in, because you can actually feasibly use them!  The monsters add variation to the types of enemies you encounter!  Split promotions are interesting tactical decisions that give the player more control over their personal experience! There’s just...not a ton of substance to SS, though.  The monsters, at heart, aren’t really interesting to fight.  The game’s plot often feels like it’s on fast forward, and it ends before any real tension builds.  The villains are, with the exception of Lyon, who’s great, mostly just cardboard cutouts of bad guy stereotypes.  The postgame is mostly just grindy and once you’ve beaten the Tower or Ruins once, you’ll probably say “okay, I’m done!”  Well, you aren’t, not if you want 100%!  Get back in there and kill more Dracozombies to unlock your underleveled Druid! If you really crave that “challenge” as an essential part of your FE experience, although I think SS is often made out to be easier than it really is, you can probably skip it.  But for most fans, it’s not to be passed up. Favorite: L’Arachel, of course. Least Favorite: I usually forget Syrene is in the game until she appears. 6. Fates: Conquest Yes, I’m dividing Fates into three games.  Sue me.  Conquest feels like the best of the Fates routes, because it’s creative.  In... a lot of ways.  The maps are creative.  While some just amount to gimmicks, several are, in my opinion, series standouts.  Chapter 9 is a Defense map that actually feels like a Defense map.  You’ve got anti-siege weapons, you’re scrambling to keep the Hoshidans from flooding in, and when Takumi drains the water the whole dynamic of the map suddenly changes.  It rules.  To me, that map encompasses all the best parts of Conquest. It’s too bad it’s still in Fates, though.  Let’s get it out of the way: Plot Bad.  But, unique to Conquest, I think, is a plot so utterly ridiculous and convoluted that it actually becomes actively enjoyable.  This is a story where your cousin puts on a different colored costume to COMPLETELY FOOL your adoptive dad, who she reveals is actually a jelly monster, but cannot tell anyone else because of a terrible curse inflicted by the King Of The Jelly Monsters, so you organize an invasion of an entire country to unmask Jelly Dad by making him sit on the Super Special Chair that will reveal his gelatinous form.  I love it, to be honest. Otherwise my issues are mostly just the standard Fates Problems.  The game tries to take what worked in Awakening and amp it up to 11, which ruins most of it.  The child characters are unmemorable and the plot explanation is bafflingly nonsensical (BABY DIMENSIONS), the characters often feel like they’re just gimmicks that smash into eachother and then get married for some reason, and the game tries to be so many things at once that most of them feel half-assed or over-complicated. Jelly King Dad though. Favorite: Arthur cracks me up. Least Favorite: Peri Peri Peri peri peri p e r i   p  e  r  i 7. Echoes: Shadows Of Valentia

Confession time.  I still haven’t finished this one all the way.  I’ve seen the ending, though. Let’s get the problems out of the way first.  The gameplay is not very fun.  The map design delights in sticking you in poisonous swamps, slow and dreary deserts, or Nuibaba’s Abode, which I would personally say is the worst map in the series.  While some of Awakening and Birthright’s maps feel lazy, most maps in this game feel like they were designed either just to frustrate you or with a series of random dice rolls that somehow plant a single Cavalier at the ass-end of nowhere and extend the map for three turns with zero rhyme or reason.  Class balance is all over the place and you basically just want all the Dread Fighters possible, with a Cleric to summon more Dread Fighters.  The dungeon crawling doesn’t add much, most of the game mechanics go woefully underexplained, and the voiced supports feel minimalist and shallow. But when Echoes works?  It really, really works.  I don’t like playing it, but watching someone play Echoes is a treat.  The game is bursting with personality thanks to some phenomenal voice acting, which leaves the story with some unforgettable moments, both comic (the boey scream) and dramatic (Berkut Loses His Shit).  Even though the characters don’t have a lot of explicit backstory, their voices and conversations are so expressive that it’s easy to sort of form your own ideas about their personalities and lives.  The art is some of the best in the series, and each portrait is expressive and well done.  It’s clear that this remake had a lot of care put into it, and it produced some of the series best lords and a wonderful new villain in the sinister Berkut. 8. Radiant Dawn

A lot of good things from Path Of Radiance carry over to Radiant Dawn.  Namely, the stuff I mentioned earlier, I won’t go into it all again.  All of that is good, but the new additions and changes often don’t work. The multiple viewpoints has a few cool moments, like facing down Ike and friends in 3-13 (with the greatest faceless NPC of all time on your side), but often just contributes to making the game way too long and making the characters often appear outright stupid or contradictory for the sake of moving the plot along.  Remember when Micaiah, who spared one of the most vile people in FE history in Part 1, dumped flaming oil on a 13 year old girl and her guards in Part 3?  Remember when Ranulf just walks up and tells you who the Black Knight is, ending a mystery that had been developed since the previous game with the dialogue equivalent of showing you a spoiler on the internet?  Remember blood pacts? The massive split in characters also makes some of them completely worthless.  Never forget the sad case of Vika, who suddenly disappears and doesn’t return until almost the final chapter, still at her Part 1 level.  Yikes. I do enjoy the Finale maps a lot, however, and the final boss encounter is fairly memorable, though it does carry its own problem with Ike being basically hero worshipped by the entire cast, to the point where only he can strike down Ashera.  I like Ike, but RD kind of feels like it’s forcing him down your throat sometimes. Favorite: Out of the new characters, Nolan, probably? Least Favorite: surprise it’s still makalov 9. Shadow Dragon I’m sure this is bottoming out a lot of people’s lists, but let me make my case. 1. Reclass is cool and they introduced it in this.

2. Hardin’s turban.

3. The Prologue, where IS got to make new stuff, is a lot of fun and has personality.

4.

Okay, so Shadow Dragon is disappointing.  It’s a remake that did not change enough, and if the FE games were yogurt flavors, Shadow Dragon would be the batch they just forgot to put flavoring in.  Everything, down to the graphics, is covered in this thin veneer of blandness, and it’s sort of a muddy march to the finale, so you can finally take down a villain who literally gets about four lines in the whole game. The Gaiden chapters also feel like a rude prank.  If you want to get at the fun maps with the interesting characters with good dialogue, you have to slaughter all of your friends on purpose!  At least it’s in Shadow Dragon so you probably won’t like most of them anyway! Favorite: The guy who calls Gordin “Gaggles”. Least Favorite: surprise it’s still makalovmatthis 10. Binding Blade I admit that this is bizarre placement.  I just...don’t like Binding Blade.  It’s mostly due to stat distribution in gameplay, honestly.  The skill/luck formula in this one results in a lot of boss fights that are just two 40% characters whiffing on eachother for ages.  Several of the maps are giant slogs, especially 14, but I don’t remember any in particular that I really enjoyed.  The plot is okay, but not memorable.  Idunn is a bit of a letdown encounter.  Hector deserved better.  To summarize, I guess I just don’t think this is a game that does anything that Blazing Sword didn’t do better.  So I’m gonna play that one instead. Favorite: Bors because of a terrible stupid inside joke I have with a friend. Least Favorite: I don’t remember anyone I cared enough to dislike, really.  Let’s go with Cath for having the worst recruitment for a Worse Chad. 11. Fates: Birthright Remember all those cool things Conquest did?  What if they didn’t? Birthright! While the story is still bad, it’s not nearly as funny-bad, although I do have to give props to the scene where Flora sets herself on fire and Jakob spends about a solid minute screaming out how pointless this is, echoing the player’s thoughts perfectly.  The maps are mostly just stat-checks and open fields, and the answer to your problems often isn’t “make a better plan”, it’s “go grind a bit and then just roll through it”, especially on some late-game maps.  Iago’s comes to mind, with the whole Entrap into Berzerker combo?  Screw that. Favorite: Azama is a treasure.  On the NPC (in this route) side, Elise is a beacon of rationality and kindness.  I sure hope nothing happens to h-Oh. Least Favorite: I remember literally nothing about the personalities of Hana and Hinata so them, I guess.

12. Fates: Revelations Do you remember when I said Shadow Dragon was like unflavored yogurt?  What if all the flavorings got mixed into one batch?  And then you add chocolate and cherries and sprinkles and nuts and caramel and parsley and cinnamon and more cherries and shaved ice and spaghetti and then you tell it to explain the plot of Fates.  That’ll be 20 dollars. Revelations actively harms the other two routes of the game by being the obvious “true route”, where nobody has to get hurt (except the best characters, r.i.p. Scarlet and Izana) and everything turns out just fine, negating any sort of moral ambiguity present!  Anankos is a non-entity and a dull villain, and to add insult to injury, you don’t get to learn shit about him unless you buy the other DLC for this DLC that also decides to crib from Awakening and mess with some of the characters from that one.  Almost every map has a bizarre gimmick that’s just weirdly cumbersome, and the amount of plot twists the game shoves at you in an attempt to explain EVERYTHING is just exhausting.  You can play as any character in the Fates package (almost, double r.i.p. Izana) but the balance is tossed out the window to the point where once Niles and Odin come crawling in, they’re nigh-unusable in their joining chapter. It doesn’t feel like any part of it really comes together. Favorite: not this Least Favorite: Thinking about what else I could have bought with those 20 dollars. Well, that took about two hours, but this is my list.  If you have any questions, I’m open.  Sorry if I dissed your favorite, but if it helps, know that I can see why someone would enjoy any game in the series, even my least favorites.  Also, know that I’m an idiot on the internet and that my opinion doesn’t have to impact what you enjoy!  Just love the games you love, I’ll stick with mine, and we’re cool! I’m going to stop typing now.

#fire emblem #hippoman #ranking #opinion #awakening #favorites #spoilers

[twiceinwonderland-blog]

Fire Symbol Heroes Apk V1.1.0 Terbaru 2017.

I'm a long period of time FE fan as well as I have played every one/ other than/ the initial Gaiden. Fire Emblem Fates wisely modifies a quarter-century old fight system as well as offers ever a lot more reasons to respect your little chess items, but neither variation does enough to invite brand-new gamers. Fire Emblem Echoes is not below to make waves in an attempted and true formula-certainly not as a remake of a very old game. Yet if we were mosting likely to bring Fire Emblem to mobile, we truly couldn't shed just what was essential regarding Fire Emblem, that calculated gameplay. As a matter of fact, it's difficult to produce a checklist of the leading Video game child breakthrough games without consisting of these vibrant as well as highly pleasing games which include cuddly, adorable, as well as solid battle animals. He could likewise be describing Paralogues, worlds that tease Heroes you will not locate anywhere else" and have a spot on the 'Story Maps' menu. In conclusion, I extremely suggest Fire Emblem: Awakening also if you have actually never ever played any type of previous access from the franchise business. SM: Thanks for. considering the Advance Battles collection as well, and supporting that collection in addition to Fire Emblem. Expect to spend a lot of time on the majority of these menus, because they are your methods of transforming your little band of heroes into a near-unstoppable pressure. This hub is going to offer relevant details for Cherche, the Wyvern Rider that you enter Fire Emblem: Awakening. You need an overall of 20 orbs, Heroes' currency for a cost effective multi-summon," clarifies an overview of the process Players get 15 for finishing the tutorial, 2 for logging in and also 3 from each of the initial three objectives. So far, I've discovered it easy to play Fire Emblem Heroes without spending a cent. This center is mosting likely to offer pertinent info for Brady, Maribelle's son as well as the 2nd generation Clergyman that you enter Fire Emblem: Awakening. Con Fire Symbol Heroes, Nintendo tomó un camino distinto, el de los pagos en el interior de la aplicación y que, todo sea dicho, ha demostrado ser el más efectivo del lado de lo ingresos. We were really wishing for something impressive with Fire Emblem Heroes and, initially, our companied believe it was going to provide a terrific Fire Emblem experience. For them, it's simply an additional excellent reason for purchasing 3DS, and to attempt Fire Symbol finally. While real that the Fire Emblem brand has actually grown into a rather household name outside of Japan in the latter years of its life (thanks, Super Smash Bros Yet I assume when you take a look at Nintendo's different franchises, the Fire Emblem series, the gameplay of the series fits well with mobile devices and also mobile gameplay. For instance, there are usually troubles as well as mistakes with Fire Emblem Heroes that cause the game to fall short. Taking the tried as well as verified formula, Oceanhorn includes a great deal of it's one-of-a-kind ideas as well as plans it right into a remarkable alternative for both PC as well as iOS systems. Bare følg vejledningen for at fuldføre installationen af Fire Symbol Heroes Hack. Evidence that the 3DS still lives left in it yet, Echoes is an extraordinary Fire Emblem and also a wonderful tactical title to put into. This hub is mosting likely to give relevant information for Sumia, the initial of 2 Pegasus Knights you get in Fire Symbol: Awakening. Regardless- Fire Symbol Fates is aI have, at the moment, no time at all to give a complete evaluation on all facets, or clarify why I dislike this video game. On top of that, a Select Your Tales event started today, bringing four even more characters from the appeal poll to the video game. It lacks the depth from Fire Symbol Fates, and the battle system isn't really nearly as enjoyable. I have actually finished https://fireemblemheroeshack.mobi/ the Typical Modes w/ my characters all over L25-30 as well as am now working through the Hard settings. Added with a vast variety of weapons as well as shields to pick from, tough degrees, as well as personality modification options, it's not a large shock why Fire Symbol easily caught the hearts of RPG enthusiasts. Pay very close attention to any heroes that you summon, making certain that you are placing one of the most beneficial allies on your energetic teams. Actually, development ablaze Symbol Heroes began before Super Mario Run, as well as we kind of stuck to our advancement plan. Here's an additional freemium trope that's present in Fire Emblem: Heroes - your group has a stamina bar that is diminished by battling battles. It is generally brought to let portable console users delight in the video game that can just be used PC. Stiring up drank things up by introducing an optional Casual setting, where all heroes are restored at a fight's end. If you are among those individuals that raged against having to pay a princely ₤ 8 to open Super Mario Run, you'll be delighted to listen to that Nintendo has chosen a standard freemium structure for Fire Emblem: Heroes.