Off Topic Discussion Megathread

[NekoMataMata]

Sun & Moon were very good story-wise. I don't know about the "Ultra" updated versions, there wasn't enough new content in those for me to bother with them.

Sword & Shield were mid at best.

Legends: Arceus greatly shakes up the formula. Its story is nothing special, but I greatly enjoyed it all the same - much more than I have any Pokémon game since... what, Black & White? Fortunately it looks like Scarlet & Violet are taking a page from this one...

Not interested in the Gen 4 remakes. They take steps backwards, unlike the other remake games that kept the modern feel but applied it to older regions.

So since the 3DS eras-

XY: Cute. Adorable and actually really fun. The post game is non-existent(holed up in Kiloude city outside of Looker) though... Think we were supposed to get Pokemon Z but it just never happened. Also still the Pokemon game with my favorite outfit choices and just so much nostalgia cause 3D Pokemon.

ORAS: I never played the originals before hand and when I tried them years later on my pc I really, really disliked them. The only thing they really had over ORAS was the post game(again, Zinnia was crazy). They really evened out all the worst parts of the originals though and they also improved the mechanics they brought from XY(hoards in rain!!).

SM: First time playing what you'd call a base game I guess. Started with Plat when I was 7, never played BW but played W2 the year before XY. SM was just super barebones and you could feel it. No post game areas, not even a post game story.

USM: Better story, less dragging your feet at the start, MANTINE SURFING (!!!), festival plaza improvements, ultra wormholes, rainbow rocket.

Sh/Sw: The DLC was more interesting than the main story :/ You had access to the endgame from the start basically and farming raid dens was fun for a little bit. Then the randomness and reset heavyness of it all got boring. Then people started hosting specific raid dens and it was fun for a while again. Crown Tundra > Isle of Armour. Snow, ancient ruins, regi temples, catching all 4 swords of justice(cause they actually put Keldeo in the game), and Calyrex were all awesome.

Diamond/Pearl Remake: Art style didn't bother me but plat was my first game and this felt really bad for the most part. Why can't I get an eevee in hearthome city? what did you do to Gardenia and Fantina's gyms? Oh so this is where the no fire types meme came from... Oh right, no battle facilities or little battle hut where I can battle all the gym leaders again.

PLA: Fresh and new. Needs more battles and the battle system itself could use a few touches but it was fun. Kind of sad that the only real post game activity is shiny hunting. Also it's not really fun to replay. Your team just doesn't matter that much for the most part because so much of the game is focused around catching or dodging.

[Neoyoshi]

The tower of hate is back!

[TheMightyMollusk]

But Kugane never left.

[Misplaced_Marbles]

The tower of hate is back!

Yeah, GW2 had more numerous, usually longer and WAY, WAY, WAY MORE HORRIBLE jumping puzzles than this (especially the aptly named "chalice of tears"), easily enough to last a lifetime, so i'll just let everyone else suffer.

Rewards? what ever it is, it's not worth it. Some learn to love them (stockholm syndrome?), i grew to loathe them.

EDIT: Ok, i take it back. I just watched someone do it and i can't believe some devs went even further in attempting to emulate what it feels like to have the player biting the curb while the dev stomps on their head without literally doing it. Sheesh...

[Renalt]

But Kugane never left.

I totally cheated that one by blowing myself up and getting rezzed onto the points. Best 1 million gil ever spent.

[Larirawiel]

OK, tried Tower of Fantasy. But i am absolutely not into it. I cannot grasp what is going on in the game. The characters are strange, the NPC dialogs make no sense to me.


Cheers

[Midareyukki]

TIL Natsuko Ishiwaka (the writer lady that people loved for DRK and Shadowbringers storylines) helped Kinoko Nasu write Fate\Extra CCC.

On one hand, given how CCC is like... respect.
On the other hand, yeah don't mess with that lady, or she'll C.C.C. you.

[Raoabolic]

OK, tried Tower of Fantasy. But i am absolutely not into it. I cannot grasp what is going on in the game. The characters are strange, the NPC dialogs make no sense to me.


Cheers

Speaking of things that make no sense, I tried out YGO: Master Duel after getting a card game itch. As someone who stopped playing when the Hero architype was released it was crazy seeing a deck that can summon 6+ monsters that can be used for fusion, the white fusion, the blue fusion, and finally the black fusion. I might duck out and just check out Legacy of the Duelist and save myself the FOMO and just make fun meme decks, lol.

[Skivvy]

Yeah, GW2 had more numerous, usually longer and WAY, WAY, WAY MORE HORRIBLE jumping puzzles than this (especially the aptly named "chalice of tears"), easily enough to last a lifetime, so i'll just let everyone else suffer.

Rewards? what ever it is, it's not worth it. Some learn to love them (stockholm syndrome?), i grew to loathe them.

EDIT: Ok, i take it back. I just watched someone do it and i can't believe some devs went even further in attempting to emulate what it feels like to have the player biting the curb while the dev stomps on their head without literally doing it. Sheesh...

Ooooh see, I LOVE the JPs in GW2. I like that they're scattered about the open world and built into various environments and also appreciate the varying levels of difficulty in 1) the jumps and 2) even trying to find the right path. Probably helps that I also run as a mesmer spec and have a safety portal up for jumps when I'm not feeling too confident.

Now...that's not to say some aren't incredibly frustrating, but at least in GW2, it feels like the game controls actually support having JPs be a thing. You can change your direction & momentum of a jump in mid-air, and they don't have an insane amount of invisible walls in the middle of a jump that you have to keep track of.

My biggest gripe is probably when they're combined with a diving goggle location near the end of a more annoying JP. Nothing like struggling to do the JP and then attempting & failing the diving goggles bit and getting to do it all over again! D: For those who don't play, it's sort of like the lamppost vista you can jump to after climbing Kugane Tower but more annoying, and with no way to cheese the dive itself (a la being raised up onto the lamppost as we can in XIV).

[Cilia]

TIL Natsuko Ishiwaka (the writer lady that people loved for DRK and Shadowbringers storylines) helped Kinoko Nasu write Fate\Extra CCC.

On one hand, given how CCC is like... respect.
On the other hand, yeah don't mess with that lady, or she'll C.C.C. you.

She also wrote the Crystal Tower raids, the Far Eastern "half" of Stormblood, and Endwalker (which despite the strident criticism on this forum was well received in the wider community).

Have yet to encounter work of Ishikawa's I don't enjoy.

Speaking of things that make no sense, I tried out YGO: Master Duel after getting a card game itch. As someone who stopped playing when the Hero architype was released it was crazy seeing a deck that can summon 6+ monsters that can be used for fusion, the white fusion, the blue fusion, and finally the black fusion. I might duck out and just check out Legacy of the Duelist and save myself the FOMO and just make fun meme decks, lol.

I played Master Duel for a few months but then they changed it so you only got matched with people of the same ranking (before it was bracket based, so Gold could play any other Gold player etc.) and being able to play fun decks wasn't viable for even daily progress. Built a meta deck and clawed my way to Diamond, then noped out because it remined me metagaming is a necessity in TCG / CCGs and I just want to play my big dumb Red Supernova Dragon (poor boy doesn't get an animation). Plus the pull rates are ass.

I understand how to play it, but the level of metagaming necessary to scrape out wins past Gold V is egregious. Plus Master Duel is JP format only (or was when I played it), which allows obnoxiously oppressive cards like V.F.D., Rhongo, Imperial Order, etc. Yeah, just get Legacy of the Duelist if you're just looking to play... only problem is it's a few years out of date (Master Duel isn't quite current, but it gets regular updates that keep it closer).