Thoughts on the Yoshi P AMA?

[Ath192]

"Criterion is leagues easier than an Ultimate" is one of the funniest things I've read on these forums. Tell me you've never touched either without telling me. All 3 of the Criterion dungeons are more demanding UWU and UCOB on a pure design standpoint and contain a mix of Extreme, Savage and Ultimate difficulty mechanics. Savage Criterion outright is a mini Ultimate. There are mechanics in Aloalo that are straight-up more taxing than any individual mechanic in Dragonsong or Omega Protocol (looking at you star cursed star pattern in Statice). Mechanically they are all well designed and anyone who has actually done them will probably give me that nod. I am critical as hell about the implementation of the savage reward system and the rarity of drops in the Another format, but they are not lacking in quality, challenge or innovation.

You probably don't remember or have done ultimate enough it's become second nature. If you did criterion savage every week it would become super easy too. You're probably comparing Ultimates in farm mode to Criterion savage in prog mode and thats not an accurate comparison. Understanding all the mechanics that go in an ultimate is always going to be way harder, even the tempo is different. The thing is once memorized and repeated ad nauseum it seems simple in retrospect.

[Caro178]

You probably don't remember or have done ultimate enough it's become second nature. If you did criterion savage every week it would become super easy too. You're probably comparing Ultimates in farm mode to Criterion savage in prog mode and thats not an accurate comparison. Understanding all the mechanics that go in an ultimate is always going to be way harder, even the tempo is different. The thing is once memorized and repeated ad nauseum it seems simple in retrospect.

I've progged and cleared and farmed plenty. It is simply my opinion that Ultimates (especially UWU-UCOB) are not LEAGUES harder than a Criterion, and certainly not harder than Criterion savage, which was the entire point I was replying to. I've done both TOP and Aloalo and there is no one mechanic in TOP that out ranks the downtime chain mechanic at the end of Statice in terms of precise and fast positioning. That is the reason the Criterions are lacking in engagement - they are too difficult to appeal to the more casual audience that might be interested and don't provide enough incentive for the hardcore crowd. It's really a case of "who is this even for", but the instances in their own are still well designed if you happen to be someone looking for exactly this type of thing.