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The Arcade: INSERT COIN

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Legacy custom music
A site with a non-useless dislike button
SMW hacking channel


Legacy custom music
A site with a non-useless dislike button
SMW hacking channel

Layout by Mirann <3

I'm probably retired tbh
Dang, I have a lot of stuff to get through again. Let's see how short I can manage to keep myself.














Feel free to visit my website/blog - it's updated rarely, but it looks pretty cool!



Legacy custom music
A site with a non-useless dislike button
SMW hacking channel

Originally posted by RPG Hacker
I can only think of two games that I feel actually were enhanced by ATB (Chrono Trigger and Final Fantasy XII). All other games, in my opinion, only suffer from it, and this is one of them.

Freaking seriously. How did that horrible battle system get used so many times? I'm also completely in agreement about the random encounters; those overstayed their welcome even longer than ATB systems (and no, hardware limitations were never a valid excuse for them), and the only games with random encounters that I didn't mind were Bravely Default and Bravely Second, which had an option to change the rate of them. I do like turn-based battles, though. Have you ever played any Trails games?

Also, you should do game reviews on a blog or something.

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I'm working on a hack! Check it out here. Progress: 64/95 levels.
Currently playing Pokemon Sword, I'm hatching eggs (rowlet) to be exact because I want a Shiny version of it. But even though I have the Shiny charm, I still have a lot of bad luck.
I was playing Pokemon Sword for a bit when suddenly a Shiny Purrloin appeared

Originally posted by imamelia
How did that horrible battle system get used so many times?


Yeah, honestly? I think the failure of ATB systems already lies within their very concept. From what I understand, ATB was invented to add a bit of action to turn-based battle systems - but I think that mere idea is already silly. If action is what you want, you don't make a turn-based game in the first place. I can't really say ATB systems ever accomplished that for me. I only got a stress from them. I mean, I certainly don't get a sense of action from still being teleported to a separate battle screen every single time.

That being said, as mentioned above, I do still think there's a few exceptions. A few ATB systems actually work quite well in my opinion. Final Fantasy XII is one of them, mainly because it actually features real-time combat and ditches dedicated battle screens. Your characters fight directly on the overworld, and the time bar in those battles primarily serves the purpose of dictating the speed of your characters, rather than their order. Additionally, the game has the gambit system, which allows you to "program" your characters. They will carry out certain actions on their own, based on conditions you dictate. This removes a huge chunk of the stress that comes from ATB systems, since you no longer have to select every single action manually. Even when you DO select actions manually, the game just pauses, so you can fully take your time and think about what to do. You could say that FFXII does all of the things with its gameplay that prior Final Fantasy games were too afraid of doing. "Wait mode" in prior FF games always just felt like a half-cooked, shoddily implemented mechanic that didn't do the thing it advertised.

Then there's Chrono Trigger. Once again, Chrono Trigger ditches dedicated battle screens (as well as random encounters), which actually DOES provide a sense of action in battles. More importantly, Chrono Trigger introduced double and tripple techs. By using the turns of multiple of your characters at once, you get powerful combo techniques. This adds a whole second purpose to the ATB's time bar, which ends up mattering a lot. The bar is no longer just the thing that wastes time between your characters' turns, but it's now a valueable resource. Instead of using a character's turn right away, you can decide to wait a little longer so that another character gets ready and a powerful double tech becomes available to you - of course at the risk of either character taking damage in the mean time. This one simple change alone adds both depth, as well as a small risk-reward mechanic to the game. Waiting becomes part of the gameplay itself, rather than just being a consequence of it.

I think the most unfortunate thing here is that even many games inspired by Chrono Trigger don't really get what made it so fun. For example, Chrono Cross re-introduced dedicated battle screens. Maybe that was due to hardware limitations on the PS1, I don't know, but the consequence is that it feels more like the Final Fantasy games on PS1 than it does like Chrono Trigger. Another examples is Lost Sphear. The game is heavily inspird by Chrono Trigger, and it even made a meaningful addition to the combat (you can now manually direct your attacks). However, the game really didn't get the purpose of double techs. In Lost Sphear, those are just the special ability of a single character, and they don't even use the turns of his companions, so they're really just regular techniques with special animations. Way to miss the point, game!

The upcoming Sea of Stars seems to take a way more reasonable approach here. It's also greatly inspired by Chrono Trigger, but understand that it doesn't actually have to copy its ATB. Battles happen directly on the overworld again with no random encounters, but use a more traditional turn-based battle system. I'm actually kinda excited for this, despite usually disliking turn-based battle systems in general.

Originally posted by imamelia
Have you ever played any Trails games?


Not yet! I do have some interest in the series, but the one thing about it that has somehow always stuck in my mind is how long some of its games supposedly are - and that kinda scares me away. I already have such an immense backlog of games I'd like to play and seemingly way too little time to play them all. I'm not sure how I would fit another RPG series in there that would potentially cost me a few hundred more hours.

Originally posted by imamelia
Also, you should do game reviews on a blog or something.


Honestly? I actually considered doing that a few times, since I do have a website I pay for and just didn't really know what to do with it so far.

The main reason I didn't do that yet is because I always kinda kept forgetting, but also because on my website, I'd try to achieve a certain level of quality with my reviews. I'm kinda scared I would put too much pressure on myself that way, and thus demotivate myself from writing anything at all. At least over here, I feel like I can be more casual with my reviews, though even then I still often don't have the motivation to write about my thoughts on a game immediately. It usually takes a while until I force myself to finally start a new post, leading to the huge review dumps that have gotten all too common for me in this thread. Kinda like this post itself, to be honest.

That being said, I might still use my website to write about games occasionally, and then only link to my website from here.

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Talking about that, here's a few games I've been playing recently.






Feel free to visit my website/blog - it's updated rarely, but it looks pretty cool!
Played a few more games recently.






Feel free to visit my website/blog - it's updated rarely, but it looks pretty cool!

Legacy custom music
A site with a non-useless dislike button
SMW hacking channel

Now I've beaten Mortimer Freeze. His first phase became much easier with Chaser equipped and as a result made it one of the easier bosses in the DLC. Also beat the Howling Aces, which is also one of the easier bosses, tho the final phase of that was disorienting. That interface screw where you're either 90 degrees relative to normal or upside down, and the option to pick a control scheme specific to that boss's final phase. Meanwhile Esther Winchester very easily feels like Inkwell Isle 3 difficulty, and it seems like plane bosses are inherently harder than regular bosses.
Also I've bought all the items in Porkrind's shop except for the Crackshot. I'm just one coin short of being able to buy it and I've no clue where that last coin is.
Legacy custom music
A site with a non-useless dislike button
SMW hacking channel

I have now since beaten the DLC
as well as the hidden Dream Devil boss.
Despite me saying and thinking whatever vulgar things come to mind, it still felt like the fun kind of challenging. In contrast to some of the bosses that use black comedy, the
Chef Saltbaker
fight felt like the horror genre and played pretty seriously, even reminding me of the Coachman from Pinocchio.
The ingredients that you've been collecting for him are sentient and don't look at all like they wanna be there and they're used as bullet hell projectiles during the first 2 phases but more-so on the 1st phase.
The music also sounds very different from the upbeat jazz elsewhere in the game.
Also I haven't beaten any of the bosses as Chalice since she felt too awkward to play as for me and would require a bunch of re-learning.
Legacy custom music
A site with a non-useless dislike button
SMW hacking channel




Legacy custom music
A site with a non-useless dislike button
SMW hacking channel

About to start playing a new hack.
New Super Mario World 1: The Twelve Magic Orbs by Pink Gold Peach. I was looking for something on the 'hard' difficulty after the crazy hard of Vip2 so something I could do without the need for tools. Looking forward to playing this one through! The title screen is pretty.

                                                                                                                  
                              
Trying Xenoblade 3 and I... don't really get it. I fundamentally disagree with the battle system so far. It feels simultaneously convoluted beyond reason and too restrictive to feel like I'm really "playing" it. So far battles just feel like big noisy chaotic messes that just kinda "happen".
Funnily enough, I don't feel that at all. I'm currently just over 10 hours into XC3, and I already feel like its battle system easily has the most depth in the entire series. I guess technically, Xenoblade games have always had a somewhat "passive" battle system, where most of your strategy comes down to how you prepare your character before battle, and less to what you actually do doring a battle. However, that being said, Xenoblade Chronicles 3 definitely seems to have the highest amount of flexibility in-battle. You can even switch characters mid-battle in this game, which I think is a first for the series and very appreciated. Since chapter 1 is also essentially a very long tutorial, I feel like the game gives you enough time to get accustomed with its combat.

That being said, I did play all of the prior Xenoblade games, and I find that being familiar with them definitely makes getting into XC3 a lot easier, since I don't have to re-learn basic mechanics and can instead focus on just the things that are new. Really like how the game flows so far, though. Cutscenes have maybe been a bit lengthy, but whenver you do get into gameplay, it's very fast-paced, and there's lots of things you can do.

I think so far, I really have only one minor complaint: I'm playing the game on Hard, and I find that the beginning was a little bit too rough on this difficulty. The early bosses are already quite intense, and at that point, most character customization isn't unlocked yet, and you don't have great opportunites to level up. One boss was so tough that I briefly had to switch down to Normal, at which point they went down with no effort at all. I think they could have saved up these tough boss battles until after unlocking full character customization.

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Anyways, I completed a few more games recently.








Feel free to visit my website/blog - it's updated rarely, but it looks pretty cool!
It's the first game I've played. I'm currently at the part where
I swapped over to Mio's party
and combat feels a bit mindless. This might be a case of the game both failing to teach a new player and also failing to pace its introduction of new mechanics. Being able to change characters mid-battle sounds like a blessing.
Maybe. Though it's also possible this kind of combat just doesn't click with you in general. It wouldn't surprise me, since everyone likes different kind of combat. I, for example, don't like turn-based combat, because it almost always feels like a pace killer to me. I vastly prefer a combat system that is a lot less strategic, but faster. Xenoblade definitely delivers that.

I think the combat in Xenoblade games won't stop feeling a alot more passive than a lot of RPGs, but that being said, you'll definitely still unlock a lot more mechanics in this one. I'm now 13+ hours in and just unlocked like three more mechanics since my last post.

Chain attacks are probably the biggest game changer in this regard for taking on tough foes, which isn't surprising, because they were already super powerful in the previous games. They also do give you a means of taking direct control in battle, so maybe that'll help you a bit. Downside being, you can usually only use them in long battles.
Feel free to visit my website/blog - it's updated rarely, but it looks pretty cool!
How's the story so far? I suppose I'm not really in a terrific position to ask this when I've still never played XC2 - but the plot was one of my favorite aspects of XC1, so I feel concerned about it nevertheless.

To be honest, this game's release snuck up on me. I've never really kept up with video game news, so I think I'd heard mentions of a XC3 announcement a grand total of once before today, and now the game is out.

Originally posted by kyasarintsu
This might be a case of the game both failing to teach a new player and also failing to pace its introduction of new mechanics.

Yeah, this is actually a problem I had with XC1, too. It wasn't until more than halfway through the game that I finally felt confident that I understood every nuance of the gameplay, with how many bells and whistles there were in the interface.
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