Social NintenZone Social 5 - Thanks, Everyone

[Deleted member]

I'm aware but none of those styles fix this issue.


This same stuff applies for the other fighters too. Even if Tekken has characters like Kuma, they aren't particularly agile or fight like Pokemon have been shown to do. The reason Pokken has wide open spaces is so that Pokemon can show how they move and several key and iconic attacks that are projectiles or just wouldn't work in a Tekken,DoA, SC or VF game. Characters like Pikachu would be impossible due to the huge difference in size or we have a situation like Yoda in SC.


In what ways though?

You haven't even brought up how you'd change it more.

You just said this.


Which Pokken has. Pokken is fun and has a surprisingly high skill ceiling.

Kurri I love ya, but this sounds less like Pokken critique and more like Tekken hype.

All I have to say is that Yoda is a pretty bad example of an unstoppable short character. He's the worst character in that game.

 

[PLATINUM7]

So Gon and Yoda are bad examples.

Clearly, Servbot is the best.

 

[Deleted member]

So Gon and Yoda are bad examples.

Clearly, Servbot is the best.

Nah, Iggy is the best example, just ask @Shishœ.

 

[ChikoLad]

Already responded to that bud.


Now see its the opposite for me.

I understood Pokken pretty quickly but Tekken took some real work.

Devil Jin and Alisa can fly around the stage at rapid speeds. Devil Jin also has laser eyes and Alisa has chainsaw arms that she can use while flying, as well as exploding head bombs. How is this not agile? My main, Lili, has an extremely simple to execute jump attack where she flips over an enemy's head like Mario jumping on a Goomba, and jumps backwards off them to kick them twice in the face, that is half of the reason I main her. My secondary, Lars, has a moveset focused around anime-esque flips and jump attacks, as well as lightning powered attacks.

Jack is like a life size action figure, he has rocket punches and can use his arms like a helicopter despite his huge size.

I could go on with this. Nobody plays Tekken for "grounded realism".

Hey uh. If you're playing Pokken "hardcore", that might be a sign that you need some fresh air. Just saying.

That or you're backwards simplistic. I dunno if that's a thing, but that's what I'm calling it. Getting the harder stuff better then the easier stuff.

Tekken has an extremely easy to understand basic control system. Two punch buttons, two kick buttons tied to one side of the body each. Pressing two buttons at the same time usually results in a grab move or special move. Pressing them with a direction can also be a special move. Pressing different punch and kick buttons in succession usually results in simple, basic combo moves.
The complicated combos in the move list are for more advanced players but aren't at all necessary for just playing the game for fun. Some characters are also more complex than others - Lili, my main, is considered beginner friendly, only having about 80 or so moveset listings, with a good number being easy to execute. Yoshimitsu on the other hand has close to 200. Tekken also usually has plenty of side modes for casual play.

Pokken literally requires me to learn both a Street Fighter-esque gameplay system, AND the game play system of Naruto Ultimate Ninja Storm, to play it properly, and be capable of triggering switches at will, which was something I never quite could grasp. It's literally two different games and it took me two hours to get through the game's tutorials, and story mode started off so easy that I couldn't apply anything I learned in a meaningful fashion. If I wanted to play the game again, I would have to re-learn both it's gameplay styles, which is why I have never gone back to it. Tekken on the other hand, has one simple and intuitive basic gameplay system that simply facilitates high level, complex combos if you want to go that far.

 

[Arcanir]

So I've been wanting to bring this up as a discussion topic for quite some time, but I wanted to wait until a good number of people here finished playing Echoes. Now that a good number of people have finished playing Echoes, I have a question to ask to all those that have either beat the game or at least reached the middle of Act 4 on Celica's route:

There were a few new characters added into the game that were absent from the game. One of these was Faye, but she has been heavily discussed here already. Another new character that was added was this guy: The Masked Knight.

Let's talk about him:

1) What is your opinion of the Masked Knight? Do you like him or not?
2) Would you say that the Masked Knight is the Hinoka* of Echoes?

*When I mean "Hinoka", I use the term to describe character who is considered to be completely irrelevant to said character's plot and was very unmemorable overall, to the point you could remove said character from the story and it wouldn't make a difference.

If you choose to answer this topic, I encourage you to enclose your answer in spoiler tags just to be safe. You are also open to use the Masked Knight's real name in your answer.

My answer:

Spoiler: Echoes spoilers

1) Well if my current avatar didn't made make it clear, Conrad is one of my favorite characters in Echoes (in the top 3 if I'm being honest). What really draws me to him is that he has two different personas depending on whether or not he wears a mask. If the mask is on, he is a calm and collected badass. When he doesn't wear the mask, he's dorky. Most masked characters I see in video games or other media usually retain their personality even when not wearing a mask. Conrad stands out he's a masked character who is secretly dorky yet kind deep-down. We also learn he can be quite the sensitive individual, demonstrated how he decides whether or not to wear the mask in his supports with Celica, and I'm drawn to characters that are very sensitive. Takumi and Forsyth are also like that, and I love them both. I'm a sensitive guy myself, so I consider Conrad relatable just like the other two.

I also enjoyed Conrad's backstory. Turns out he was bullied by the other Zofian children because he was the ******* children to the king and a Rigelian woman, but Celica and Liprica were the only two people that were kind to him. It's due to this that he is attached to Celica. What I really like about his relationship with Celica is that he has genuine kind of sibling affection her. I really appreciate that, especially after how disappointing Camilla was with the way how she viewed Corrin more than a sibling. I also like how his attachment to Celica doesn't reach creepy, obsessive levels, unlike how Camilla and Faye are to their respective lovers.

Although he joins late, I managed to grind Conrad up in the Treescape dungeon and promote him before tackling Jamil's map, and he easily became one of my best units. He takes on mages really well, and he got some solid level ups to the point he could double enemies and tank most hits. He was my MVP during the Duma Tower dungeon, able to tank hits and deliver some pretty good damage with a forged Silver Lance. He was also one of my most reliable units during the final map, and he even did pretty well in the postgame pirate maps and the first half of the Thames Labyrinth before I had to retreat for the time being. The only Cavalier that outclassed him was War Goddess Mathilda.

Now, do I think Conrad is the best thing to happen in Echoes? Heck no! I won't deny there were issues how he was handled in the plot. He felt like a walking deus ex machina in his three appearances prior to his identity reveal: saving Celica and Saber from the Arcanist at the front of Zofia Castle, warning Celica and then saving her from a landslide after her argument with Alm, and giving Celica the Circlet that was thought to have went missing. While I did enjoy the scene when he slapped Celica for saying no one cared about her and then revealing his identity afterward, the scene's importance went down the drain when Celica decided to still be a moron and offer up her soul to Jedah.

I do appreciate he at least called her out on it before being teleported away, and I really liked how he smack-talked Saber and Boey when they had to deal with the Moghalls. The latter of which actually made me go, "Damn Conrad, you tell them!"

I also wish Conrad had more supports. He definitely could've supported with Boey considering how Celica told Boey that he reminded her of his brother, so Boey and Conrad's supports could've involved the two discussing their similarities. I think Conrad could've had a support with Atlas as well. Maybe Atlas could ask what life was like in the Sage's Hamlet because he wants to learn about what other villages are like, and Conrad could take more about his time there. I also think it'd be pretty cool to see a DLC map in the future that fleshed out Conrad more similar to what the Rise of the Deliverance DLC did to the main Deliverance members.

So while Conrad was not the best in the story and definitely could've been handled better in that regard, I still really like Conrad as a character and as a unit, and when compared to Faye, the other new playable character, he is a far better and more likable individual. I don't think Conrad is dropping out of my favorite Echoes character list anytime soon.

2) This is a tough one to lay my finger on. In the original Gaiden, Conrad didn't exist. If Conrad wasn't around during the landslide scene, the Zofia Castle scene, and Celica's promotion scene in the original game, that tells me he wasn't a necessity to the story. Similarly, Hinoka wasn't in the original script, and the way she was handled in Fates made her feel like she didn't have to show up in the story at all. I guess this means Conrad is like Hinoka in that regard. In terms of being unmemorable overall? Well, to me, they weren't unmemorable. I like them both as characters, but I do think they could've been better handled in their respective plots.

I am curious to hear if any of you would call Conrad the Hinoka of Echoes, because something tells me this is debatable.

Spoiler

I feel he got held back by his role. In the first few acts, he's supposed to be the character that's enigmatic and we know little about, we have hints to his true identity, but we won't learn about it until later. That is fine on its own as many story have done it and done it well, but unfortunately that role cost him a large chunk of potential development since he just pops in, moves the plot, then leaves, so it doesn't do much for him. Once we get to Act 4 and he reveals himself, he becomes more definable as a character, but I feel what happens afterwards undermines him as the point of the reveal was to keep Celica from throwing her life away and give her someone to rely on... the former of which she pretty much does anyway and the latter of which she ignores to be a martyr. So in terms of his role in the plot, he ends up being a plot device for the first few acts and then becomes superfluous due to Celica's character writing, neither of which does his character any justice.

In terms of what we learn about the character (the Memory Prism, Celica Support, and three Base Conversations), I like him enough. He has a goofy side to him, his interactions with Celica are nice, and his background of being the son of a Rigelian Noblewoman forced into marriage was an interesting element. However, as with his role in the plot, he could've used another support to help develop him a bit more as most of his interactions are through Celica. It would've been nice to see him interact with characters like Boey or Saber to see how he bounces off of them and potentially develop him a bit more through said interactions. Unfortunately, he's just left with the one support, and while said support at least gives him a good conversation unlike some others in the game, it's still only one. So while I liked what I got, I would've liked to have gotten more out of him.

In short, I liked him as a character, he's just limited by what the plot does with him and could've used a couple more character moments to solidify him into the story and world.

 

[PLATINUM7]

Devil Jin and Alisa can fly around the stage at rapid speeds. Devil Jin also has laser eyes and Alisa has chainsaw arms that she can use while flying, as well as exploding head bombs. How is this not agile? My main, Lili, has an extremely simple to execute jump attack where she flips over an enemy's head like Mario jumping on a Goomba, and jumps backwards off them to kick them twice in the face, that is half of the reason I main her. My secondary, Lars, has a moveset focused around anime-esque flips and jump attacks, as well as lightning powered attacks.

Jack is like a life size action figure, he has rocket punches and can use his arms like a helicopter despite his huge size.

I could go on with this. Nobody plays Tekken for "grounded realism".



Tekken has an extremely easy to understand basic control system. Two punch buttons, two kick buttons tied to one side of the body each. Pressing two buttons at the same time usually results in a grab move or special move. Pressing them with a direction can also be a special move. Pressing different punch and kick buttons in succession usually results in simple, basic combo moves.
The complicated combos in the move list are for more advanced players but aren't at all necessary for just playing the game for fun. Some characters are also more complex than others - Lili, my main, is considered beginner friendly, only having about 80 or so moveset listings, with a good number being easy to execute. Yoshimitsu on the other hand has close to 200. Tekken also usually has plenty of side modes for casual play.

Pokken literally requires me to learn both a Street Fighter-esque gameplay system, AND the game play system of Naruto Ultimate Ninja Storm, to play it properly, and be capable of triggering switches at will, which was something I never quite could grasp. It's literally two different games and it took me two hours to get through the game's tutorials, and story mode started off so easy that I couldn't apply anything I learned in a meaningful fashion. If I wanted to play the game again, I would have to re-learn both it's gameplay styles, which is why I have never gone back to it. Tekken on the other hand, has one simple and intuitive basic gameplay system that simply facilitates high level, complex combos if you want to go that far.

"Only 80 or so moveset listings" doesn't sound all that beginner friendly. Sure compared to Yoshimitsu it's not that bad but tell someone who's playing Tekken or fighting games in general for the first time and you can see why so many people get put off.

 

[ChikoLad]

"Only 80 or so moveset listings" doesn't sound all that beginner friendly. Sure compared to Yoshimitsu it's not that bad but tell someone who's playing Tekken or fighting games in general for the first time and you can see why so many people get put off.

Most of Lili's moveset listings are simple to execute though.

The point isn't to memorise all of it, but just pick a few moves you find useful and run with those. A lot of Lili's moves are just strings of multiple moves that connect together and are given a flashy name, but aren't truly separate moves. They're more like, combo suggestions.

With that in mind, Lili isn't much more complicated than the average Smash Bros character, whom have close to 40 wholly unique moves before getting into combo strings that players create themselves.

 

[PLATINUM7]

Most of Lili's moveset listings are simple to execute though.

The point isn't to memorise all of it, but just pick a few moves you find useful and run with those. A lot of Lili's moves are just strings of multiple moves that connect together and are given a flashy name, but aren't truly separate moves. They're more like, combo suggestions.

With that in mind, Lili isn't much more complicated than the average Smash Bros character, whom have close to 40 wholly unique moves before getting into combo strings that players create themselves.

With Smash though, most moves are just a button and a direction. There's no combinations to memorise other than linking moves together, whereas other fighters require you to remember input combinations for a single move. Even harder to learn is that the move inputs aren't the same for each character and some games don't even tell you how to perform all of them.

And even if you don't memorise all a character's moves, it's still 80+ things you'd have to try out and recognise what to use and when to use them.

 

[Swamp Sensei]

All I have to say is that Yoda is a pretty bad example of an unstoppable short character. He's the worst character in that game.

Never said unstoppable.

evil Jin and Alisa can fly around the stage at rapid speeds. Devil Jin also has laser eyes and Alisa has chainsaw arms that she can use while flying, as well as exploding head bombs. How is this not agile? My main, Lili, has an extremely simple to execute jump attack where she flips over an enemy's head like Mario jumping on a Goomba, and jumps backwards off them to kick them twice in the face, that is half of the reason I main her. My secondary, Lars, has a moveset focused around anime-esque flips and jump attacks, as well as lightning powered attacks.

Jack is like a life size action figure, he has rocket punches and can use his arms like a helicopter despite his huge size.

I could go on with this. Nobody plays Tekken for "grounded realism".

Grounded in feel. The Tekken characters feel rooted to the ground. There isn't much jumping around in the gameplay or air play in general. It's realistic in that sense.

Like Marvel vs Capcom has tons of that and it works because its superheroes fighting. I feel Pokemon needs a similar feeling.

I first said the characters were wacky. Think I forgot Ogre of all people?

 

[ChikoLad]

With Smash though, most moves are just a button and a direction. There's no combinations to memorise other than linking moves together, whereas other fighters require you to remember input combinations for a single move. Even harder to learn is that the move inputs aren't the same for each character and some games don't even tell you how to perform all of them.

But that's just an arbitrary difference. Smash could easily have a movelist and list the bread and butter combos of each character, which would actually help players learn the characters. It just chooses not to. Tekken having those listings isn't what makes it inherently complicated since a lot of combos are simple and come naturally even without looking at a move list, like a Smash combo.

Never said unstoppable.


Grounded in feel. The Tekken characters feel rooted to the ground. There isn't much jumping around in the gameplay or air play in general. It's realistic in that sense.

Like Marvel vs Capcom has tons of that and it works because its superheroes fighting. I feel Pokemon needs a similar feeling.

I first said the characters were wacky. Think I forgot Ogre of all people?

...but plenty of characters do have air play, that was what I was saying in my previous post.

 

[Swamp Sensei]

...but plenty of characters do have air play, that was what I was saying in my previous post.

Not really.

You're not going to combo people in the air and you almost never want to be in the air in Tekken or else you'll get juggled.

 

[Aurane]

ChikoLad Look, I ain't got much of an argument other then when I played it, it clicked. Immediately. And the majority of who I've played with say the same thing.

But I will say this. Talking about it makes me want to play it. Once I get the dough, I'll buy a Switch and get Pokken again maybe.

 

[PLATINUM7]

But that's just an arbitrary difference. Smash could easily have a movelist and list the bread and butter combos of each character, which would actually help players learn the characters. It just chooses not to. Tekken having those listings isn't what makes it inherently complicated since a lot of combos are simple and come naturally even without looking at a move list, like a Smash combo.

I do agree with you about Tekken having simple and natural combos but learning characters in Smash is, imo, 1000x easier than learning characters in Tekken. Even without giving you tutorials on how to play individual characters, it's not that hard to learn a character's entire moveset. There's only a few moves which would really trip up someone new to the game, such as what Rest does or recovering with PK Thunder. A big difference there, however, is learning how to do it can be done from watching others. You could easily figure out which move it is just by testing the character and finding which button and direction to press. Can you do that in Tekken? Not really, you have no idea what inputs were used for moves that aren't just basic punches, kicks or throws. Then if you want to learn combos, it's still 80+ options to choose for each move, which extend beyond a button and a direction. Now with experience, you'll know which ones to use and when but it's still 80+ options to choose from.

 

[Kurri ★]

I dunno about Tekken being easier or more beginner friendly. I mean, sure there's less to learn to get the basics, but there's a **** ton to learn after that. Meanwhile Pokken takes a bit to get the basics, but doesn't really require much more after that (at least in comparison to Tekken).

 

[Aurane]

Oh man. I just found something awesome. On my phone, I can either go on my YouTube app or just from browser. Well it turns out videos load faster on browser versus app. So if you'll excuse me, I'm gonna watch the rest of the Gravity Falls episodes I missed.

 

[WeirdChillFever]

Oh man. I just found something awesome. On my phone, I can either go on my YouTube app or just from browser. Well it turns out videos load faster on browser versus app. So if you'll excuse me, I'm gonna watch the rest of the Gravity Falls episodes I missed.

You missed Gravity Falls episodes?
At least your aim is getting better!

 

[Aurane]

You missed Gravity Falls episodes?
At least your aim is getting better!

I saw that episode! I got the reference and chuckled! I feel like I'm actually a part of the modern society!

 

[Schnee117]

Finally got my E3 bingo done.

Spoiler

inb4 someone misses the GAF reference

Also a reminder about the schedule:

 

[ChikoLad]

I do agree with you about Tekken having simple and natural combos but learning characters in Smash is, imo, 1000x easier than learning characters in Tekken. Even without giving you tutorials on how to play individual characters, it's not that hard to learn a character's entire moveset. There's only a few moves which would really trip up someone new to the game, such as what Rest does or recovering with PK Thunder. A big difference there, however, is learning how to do it can be done from watching others. You could easily figure out which move it is just by testing the character and finding which button and direction to press. Can you do that in Tekken? Not really, you have no idea what inputs were used for moves that aren't just basic punches, kicks or throws. Then if you want to learn combos, it's still 80+ options to choose for each move, which extend beyond a button and a direction. Now with experience, you'll know which ones to use and when but it's still 80+ options to choose from.

Not necessarily, since learning to play a character competitively in Smash entails knowing the exact percent value at which combos work and being able to get your opponents to that percent value to execute your clutch combo, which you do by knowing exactly how much damage each attack does. You also have to be half decent at platforming type gameplay. You also have to learn the weird nuances the different characters have, like Shulk's Monado Arts, Rosalina's Luma and how she controls it, Ryu and Bayonetta's unique controls, Sonic's Spin Dash, Marth's tipper, etc.

Through reading the responses here, it seems people aren't sure on whether we're talking a competitive context or a casual one. I was talking a casual one before because not many people here even play in tournaments so they can't say they are competitive players.

In a casual context, Tekken is one of the easiest fighting games to pick up and play. Two punch and kick buttons isn't hard to learn at all and clicks immediately. And people will naturally try pressing buttons at the same time or pressing different buttons in combination with each other (i.e. button mashing), and notice the different results. Most people I know do this before ever checking the move list, as it's a better way of learning characters.

Pokken, by contrast, has a lot of arbitrary mechanics that aren't intuitive. For starters, it has two gameplay systems you have to learn, heavily inspired by two completely different, existing games (Duel Phase is Street Fighter, Field Phase is Naruto Ultimate Ninja Storm). Then it has the arbitrary conditions of what triggers a Phase Shift (which I never fully grasped - I know grabs cause it but it doesn't make sense to me why they would, and I know it can be caused by other means but I've never understood them). There's also the fact that the two different phases are different even dimensionally - one is 2D, one is 3D, and as such, you have to remember the arbitrary differences that come with that. In Duel Phase, Pikachu can't just sidestep an incoming attack because I don't know. But he can in Field Phase. Again, it's arbitrary. Both phases have completely different control schemes too. In essence, learning a single Pokken character is actually learning how to play two completely different characters from two completely different games. And I do mean that literally, because like I said, both of Pokken's gameplay phases are ripped from different games that play totally differently.

I also don't like Duel Phase very much period. It's just a dumbed down Street Fighter, and I don't even like actual Street Fighter that much (which is purely personal taste, I don't think it's a bad game or anything). And it baffles me that the developers designed Pokken around two completely different gameplay styles, as if to assume everyone would like both. Sure, if it was just Field Phase but more fleshed out, it wouldn't be an actual competitive game, but it's Pokemon, it doesn't need to be.

 

[PLATINUM7]

So the Australian price for the Switch's online service is $AU29.95 for a year.
For comparison, it's $AU69.95 for a year of PS+ and $AU79.95 for a year of Xbox Live Gold.

I can't be stuffed paying for PS+ on my PS4 and while Nintendo's option is still much cheaper, it's going to need a strong offering of online titles and classic games to get me to pay. I guess knowing I'm paying for it would make me play online more but I find I don't get to play online much now anyway (even though I really just play Smash online).

 

[Cutie Gwen]

Holy ****
Trump is taxing stores that accept food stamps
**** America and everyone who got this Looney Tunes character in the white house
http://www.cnbc.com/2017/06/07/trump-wants-to-start-charging-stores-to-accept-food-stamps.html

 

[Robertman2]

Holy ****
Trump is taxing stores that accept food stamps
**** America and everyone who got this Looney Tunes character in the white house
http://www.cnbc.com/2017/06/07/trump-wants-to-start-charging-stores-to-accept-food-stamps.html

I wish the Phantom Thieves were real and would do their thing on Trump

 

[ChikoLad]

Anyone else tried out the new Tempest Trials in FE Heroes?

It's easily my favourite thing about the game and I've wanted a mode like this since the game launched. Gives me something to actually work towards, especially right now with Masked Lucina Marth being a prize.

 

[WeirdChillFever]

Anyone else tried out the new Tempest Trials in FE Heroes?

It's easily my favourite thing about the game and I've wanted a mode like this since the game launched. Gives me something to actually work towards, especially right now with Masked Lucina Marth being a prize.

I tried but I'm getting bopped at any level higher than the first two.
So I'm slowly crawling towards Masky Marf 4 star edition

 

[Swamp Sensei]

Holy ****
Trump is taxing stores that accept food stamps
**** America and everyone who got this Looney Tunes character in the white house
http://www.cnbc.com/2017/06/07/trump-wants-to-start-charging-stores-to-accept-food-stamps.html

This hasn't actually happened yet.

 

[redfeatherraven]

This hasn't actually happened yet.

The fact that it could is concern enough.

 

[praline]

It'd be pretty cool if they made a new Soul Calibur game and it was on the switch and had a couple FE characters as guests.

Though they'd probably put someone from Fates or Awakening in it. :/

 

[ChikoLad]

It'd be pretty cool if they made a new Soul Calibur game and it was on the switch and had a couple FE characters as guests.

Though they'd probably put someone from Fates or Awakening in it. :/

Marth, Chrom, Lucina, and Corrin are the the only ones I would see them even considering.

----------

Super Nintendo World will have a Mario Kart attraction. I guess that's why they went after MariCar.

【SUPER NINTENDO WORLD™】オープンへ向けて、いよいよ始動！本日開催された建設着工式では、あの『マリオカート』がテーマパークの常識を覆す世界最新鋭アトラクションとなって登場することが発表されました！ https://t.co/Vzq8maOmZe #USJ pic.twitter.com/J3eQkBlvFh

— ユニバーサル・スタジオ・ジャパン公式 (@USJ_Official) June 8, 2017

 

[Deleted member]

I will once you try Persona Q

No

So I've been wanting to bring this up as a discussion topic for quite some time, but I wanted to wait until a good number of people here finished playing Echoes. Now that a good number of people have finished playing Echoes, I have a question to ask to all those that have either beat the game or at least reached the middle of Act 4 on Celica's route:

There were a few new characters added into the game that were absent from the game. One of these was Faye, but she has been heavily discussed here already. Another new character that was added was this guy: The Masked Knight.

Let's talk about him:

1) What is your opinion of the Masked Knight? Do you like him or not?
2) Would you say that the Masked Knight is the Hinoka* of Echoes?

*When I mean "Hinoka", I use the term to describe character who is considered to be completely irrelevant to said character's plot and was very unmemorable overall, to the point you could remove said character from the story and it wouldn't make a difference.

If you choose to answer this topic, I encourage you to enclose your answer in spoiler tags just to be safe. You are also open to use the Masked Knight's real name in your answer.

My answer:

Spoiler: Echoes spoilers

1) Well if my current avatar didn't made make it clear, Conrad is one of my favorite characters in Echoes (in the top 3 if I'm being honest). What really draws me to him is that he has two different personas depending on whether or not he wears a mask. If the mask is on, he is a calm and collected badass. When he doesn't wear the mask, he's dorky. Most masked characters I see in video games or other media usually retain their personality even when not wearing a mask. Conrad stands out he's a masked character who is secretly dorky yet kind deep-down. We also learn he can be quite the sensitive individual, demonstrated how he decides whether or not to wear the mask in his supports with Celica, and I'm drawn to characters that are very sensitive. Takumi and Forsyth are also like that, and I love them both. I'm a sensitive guy myself, so I consider Conrad relatable just like the other two.

I also enjoyed Conrad's backstory. Turns out he was bullied by the other Zofian children because he was the ******* children to the king and a Rigelian woman, but Celica and Liprica were the only two people that were kind to him. It's due to this that he is attached to Celica. What I really like about his relationship with Celica is that he has genuine kind of sibling affection her. I really appreciate that, especially after how disappointing Camilla was with the way how she viewed Corrin more than a sibling. I also like how his attachment to Celica doesn't reach creepy, obsessive levels, unlike how Camilla and Faye are to their respective lovers.

Although he joins late, I managed to grind Conrad up in the Treescape dungeon and promote him before tackling Jamil's map, and he easily became one of my best units. He takes on mages really well, and he got some solid level ups to the point he could double enemies and tank most hits. He was my MVP during the Duma Tower dungeon, able to tank hits and deliver some pretty good damage with a forged Silver Lance. He was also one of my most reliable units during the final map, and he even did pretty well in the postgame pirate maps and the first half of the Thames Labyrinth before I had to retreat for the time being. The only Cavalier that outclassed him was War Goddess Mathilda.

Now, do I think Conrad is the best thing to happen in Echoes? Heck no! I won't deny there were issues how he was handled in the plot. He felt like a walking deus ex machina in his three appearances prior to his identity reveal: saving Celica and Saber from the Arcanist at the front of Zofia Castle, warning Celica and then saving her from a landslide after her argument with Alm, and giving Celica the Circlet that was thought to have went missing. While I did enjoy the scene when he slapped Celica for saying no one cared about her and then revealing his identity afterward, the scene's importance went down the drain when Celica decided to still be a moron and offer up her soul to Jedah.

I do appreciate he at least called her out on it before being teleported away, and I really liked how he smack-talked Saber and Boey when they had to deal with the Moghalls. The latter of which actually made me go, "Damn Conrad, you tell them!"

I also wish Conrad had more supports. He definitely could've supported with Boey considering how Celica told Boey that he reminded her of his brother, so Boey and Conrad's supports could've involved the two discussing their similarities. I think Conrad could've had a support with Atlas as well. Maybe Atlas could ask what life was like in the Sage's Hamlet because he wants to learn about what other villages are like, and Conrad could take more about his time there. I also think it'd be pretty cool to see a DLC map in the future that fleshed out Conrad more similar to what the Rise of the Deliverance DLC did to the main Deliverance members.

So while Conrad was not the best in the story and definitely could've been handled better in that regard, I still really like Conrad as a character and as a unit, and when compared to Faye, the other new playable character, he is a far better and more likable individual. I don't think Conrad is dropping out of my favorite Echoes character list anytime soon.

2) This is a tough one to lay my finger on. In the original Gaiden, Conrad didn't exist. If Conrad wasn't around during the landslide scene, the Zofia Castle scene, and Celica's promotion scene in the original game, that tells me he wasn't a necessity to the story. Similarly, Hinoka wasn't in the original script, and the way she was handled in Fates made her feel like she didn't have to show up in the story at all. I guess this means Conrad is like Hinoka in that regard. In terms of being unmemorable overall? Well, to me, they weren't unmemorable. I like them both as characters, but I do think they could've been better handled in their respective plots.

I am curious to hear if any of you would call Conrad the Hinoka of Echoes, because something tells me this is debatable.

Spoiler

Tbh, I really like his character, I just feel that the story underuses him for the "mysterious helper" sideplot... which we had two games ago and I guess Lucina was popular. Everything he does up until Act 3 is fix a plot point when he could have gotten more development, at least make him join at the temple of Mila as "Masked Knight" and have his name change after Dolth's Keep.
I actually really like that scene though, calling out Celica like that. But she still goes with it in the end so... (they should have made Jedah's propose to release Mila a genuine thing, I think it would have put more weight to it since he's so obviously evil but I'm getting sidelined here).

I like when Conrad has his mask off, because his goofy personality is actually charming and cute and it's funny to see that such a stoic knight is actually a dork.
Still, I wish he had more room to show this side because one support only is a problem that affects many characters in this game(no GennyXSaber still bothers me and it's not because of the ship but because there's a lot they could do with it). But I definitely enjoy his story scenes post-recruitment more than the pre ones.

As an unit, he wasn't that good for me, he joined as T2 when all of my main units were fully promoted(except maybe Sonya, can't remember) and he only promoted by DUMA'S TOWER, like, in the Mila Idol inside it. He was definitely better than Clive but I couldn't find a reason to bring him to the final map when Zeke and Mathilda were outdoing everything but Res(I think he got one level up in it too, bless 11% growths) and even my Cav!Forsyth was benched. Ended up benching him and deploying Silque instead for Warp and Invoke.

Overall, I really like his character, but he suffers from how the plot handles him.
We at least finally have a natural sibling relationship since, what, Ike and Mist?

Nah, Iggy is the best example, just ask @Shishœ.

**** you

It'd be pretty cool if they made a new Soul Calibur game and it was on the switch and had a couple FE characters as guests.

Though they'd probably put someone from Fates or Awakening in it. :/

Either Marth or Chrom would be cool.
Hell, maybe Ike for the heavy sword playstyle.
As long as Link was brought back

 

[wedl!!]

pokken being two different games is what kills it in my eyes. both modes clash with each other and it's a total mess.

that and the dumbass damage scaling that makes learning interesting combos totally worthless. I get that the game's supposed to be accessible but it just makes it feel like they're punishing you for experimenting when you could just hit a few buttons and get sufficient damage.

also ChikoLad tekken has wacky characters but it's still a pretty "realistic" game in terms of the weight attacks have and the general fighting styles. like, if you look at tekken 3 pretty much every character is "realistic" to a certain extent (excluding Kuma/Yoshi)

 

[ChikoLad]

pokken being two different games is what kills it in my eyes. both modes clash with each other and it's a total mess.

that and the ******* damage scaling that makes learning interesting combos totally worthless. I get that the game's supposed to be accessible but it just makes it feel like they're punishing you for experimenting when you could just hit a few buttons and get sufficient damage.

also ChikoLad tekken has wacky characters but it's still a pretty "realistic" game in terms of the weight attacks have and the general fighting styles. like, if you look at tekken 3 pretty much every character is "realistic" to a certain extent (excluding Kuma/Yoshi)

It's realistic in terms of weight most of the time but they can completely break even that if they want to with some characters, like Alisa.

In any case, I don't see that or accessibility as the reason Pokken didn't use a Tekken-esque combat system. It's simply because doing so would limit them to bipedal Pokemon. Suicuine and Chandeleure would not work with Tekken's limb-based system. Still doesn't make using two completely different gameplay styles a good idea, though.

 

[Professor Pumpkaboo]

Super Nintendo World will have a Mario Kart attraction. I guess that's why they went after MariCar.

Guess that means that Maricar has to really stop now

 

[praline]

Chapter 2 of Dragon Quest Builders is definitely working that creepy Dragon Quest aspect it has sometimes.

 

[SegaNintendoUbisoft]

Chemical Plant Zone has been revealed for Sonic Mania.

The new gimmicks look really neat, though I honestly would have preferred a level that wasn't in Generations. Still, that doesn't mean there won't be more Sonic 2 stages.

 

[Professor Pumpkaboo]

Chemical Plant Zone has been revealed for Sonic Mania.

The new gimmicks look really neat, though I honestly would have preferred a level that wasn't in Generations. Still, that doesn't mean there won't be more Sonic 2 stages.

mmmm that music is sexy

I mean the music is good

 

[AwesomeAussie27]

Nemesis was easily the king of the monsters. As in he literally dominated the whole poll by himself due to his popularity. Hunter and Tyrant had some support while I guess William is considered too gruesome for a game like Smash.

Next will be the last Resident Evil poll with a certain egotistical megalomaniac that we all know and love. Along with some Resident Evil 7 faces and Leon's knife wielding rival from Resident Evil 4. Your choices are Ethan Winters, Albert Wesker, Jack Muller, and Jack Krauser.

There was a problem fetching the tweet

I'm thinking about doing Captain Commando next.

 

[---]

Chemical Plant Zone has been revealed for Sonic Mania.

The new gimmicks look really neat, though I honestly would have preferred a level that wasn't in Generations. Still, that doesn't mean there won't be more Sonic 2 stages.

Sweet. One of my favorite levels in Sonic. I could listen to Chemical Plant's theme for hours.

 

[SegaNintendoUbisoft]

mmmm that music is sexy

I mean the music is good

It's pretty good, but I think it may be my least favorite of the tracks we've heard.

It's hard to top the original Chemical Plant Zone theme.

 

[Professor Pumpkaboo]

It's pretty good, but I think it may be my least favorite of the tracks we've heard.

It's hard to top the original Chemical Plant Zone theme.

yeah, the original will always be #1 in my heart also

 

[Deleted member]

Echoes Act 6 spoilers

Spoiler

Do I seriously have to fight that Fire Dragon on B5 everytime I come back to this dungeon? Doesn't IS know how to handle these forced fights?

Also, how strong is Grima on Hard? I already got to B10 once but decided to evacuate to save all the loot I got. I've been mostly avoiding fights on B6 and lower because holy **** I hate Dragons.
And does he have "only Falchion can deal the final blow" stuff like Duma? Considering you can bench Alm here, I doubt it but I still want to be sure

At least Zeke learned Vendetta on the Duma Lance and I'm suddenly having Awakening flashbacks, oh boy