What Are Your Unpopular Gaming Opinions? (Ver. 2)

[finalark]

Not at all, I play Akuma in Marvel.

I don't agree with you that SF is bad, but Hearthstone. Man oh man, Hearthstone is something.

Let me preface this by saying that I have played many, many TCGs competitively. And not just the big three either, I've also been into the competitive scene for more obscure ones like Force of Will, Duel Masters even the original WoW TCG. Hearthstone, at least from when I gave the game a chance and from what I've heard from people who still play it, is not a great game.

The blatant power creep is strong, from what I've heard it has a bad habit of learning towards tier-0 formats and while I won't rag on it for its simplicity (there's plenty of simple TCGs I like), I will say that it really underwhelming and disappointing if you're familiar with its source material. Going from one of the most complex, creative and satisfying TCGs ever printed to one of the most simple and straight forward certainly is underwhelming. At least they're making an effort to incorporate a few of the mechanics from the WoW TCG, from what I've heard.

ALSO THE RNG IS RIDICULOUS. TCGs are already heavily reliant on it due to the nature of card draws but man, there is no reason to put even more RNG into the game just because you can on a digital format.

 

[FallenHero]

For as much hate as SFV gets, it is honestly the most street fighter a street fighter game has ever been since the SFII. Also SFV is a decent fighting game in my opinion.

 

[finalark]

For as much hate as SFV gets, it is honestly the most street fighter a street fighter game has ever been since the SFII. Also SFV is a decent fighting game in my opinion.

I haven't kept up on SFV since launch. Occasionally some friends and I pop it in for a few rounds but that's really it. I'm not particularly attuned to the meta. Aside from its issues at launch, what's supposedly so bad about it?

 

[wedl!!]

It's the most "Street Fighter" game since 2 because they stripped it of gameplay personality and made it so you could win without like, learning footsies

SF2 is a pretty bad game by today's standards anyhow but it's so exhilarating that it really doesn't matter much

I haven't kept up on SFV since launch. Occasionally some friends and I pop it in for a few rounds but that's really it. I'm not particularly attuned to the meta. Aside from its issues at launch, what's supposedly so bad about it?

Inane balance (Alex, FANG, S2 Ryu/Nash, Urien, Balrog), stubby normals all across the board, no meterless wakeup (which killed Ryu, a character who got pretty heavily nerfed in the Season 2 patch), still 6.5 frames of delay making the game feel kinda clunky, incredibly snowbally, crush counter sucks, mostly because of super broken buttons like Urien standing fierce, godawful netcode

There are a lot of reasons why SFV isn't that great but that's the basic gist of it

 

[FallenHero]

It's the most "Street Fighter" game since 2 because they stripped it of gameplay personality and made it so you could win without like, learning footsies

SF2 is a pretty bad game by today's standards anyhow but it's so exhilarating that it really doesn't matter much



Inane balance (Alex, FANG, S2 Ryu/Nash, Urien, Balrog), stubby normals all across the board, no meterless wakeup (which killed Ryu, a character who got pretty heavily nerfed in the Season 2 patch), still 6.5 frames of delay making the game feel kinda clunky, incredibly snowbally, crush counter sucks, mostly because of super broken buttons like Urien standing fierce, godawful netcode

There are a lot of reasons why SFV isn't that great but that's the basic gist of it

Yeah it has its problems, but I enjoyed the game when the netcode wasn't being horrible or fighting against Mika, Ibuki, Guile and Nash. I haven't played since late last year and I main Ryu, so I'm kind of worried now.....I do definitely agree about a lot of the balance changes making absolutely no sense and the snowbally nature of the game (I swear Ibuki and Mika both will destroy anyone off of just two mistakes, but nobody ever mentioned that about Ibuki from what I've seen). My biggest problem with CC in SFV is how some of them come out too quickly for how much more damage you can get off of them, while other CCs are almost useless (Ryu St.HP has NO followups without V-trigger, and they aren't even worth it anyways).

Also Guile in SFV is seriously one of the most anti-fun fighting game characters I've ever fought against. A lot of people talk about how cool it is to watch people play Guile in SFV, but I don't even find him that fun to watch in most cases. Guile just spends half the round spamming sonic booms and generally being nearly impossible to attack, and then once he has V-trigger and CA he FINALLY stops playing like a ***** and just takes out over half your HP with one combo. Not dead yet? Well have fun trying to make a comeback when the Guile player goes back to fighting like a ***** until the time runs out or just snowballing you to death, because a lot of characters don't have many options of stopping a player when they begin snowballing (though wake up parry as Ryu has allowed me to start some crazy comebacks before). This happens EVERY SINGLE MATCH against a Guile player and it not fun to watch for the 50th time, and certainly not fun for whoever is fighting the Guile player.

 

[DarkAuraful]

• FE: The Binding Blade > Blazing Sword and Sacred Stones easily.
• Brawl Fox voice is Fox's best voice in Smash. His Melee voice is overrated. Not gonna speak for his other voices outside of Smash since I haven't / won't play the Star Fox series.
• Tales of Legendia R > Tales of Symphonia and Abyss R. (Like holy **** people of gamefaqs, stop asking for even MORE updated iterations for these two games. Symphonia and Abyss are great games in their own rights, but they have more than enough accessibility.)
• Final Fantasy XV = Persona 5. Yeah that's right. I'm a big Persona fan and even I can tell that Final Fantasy XV is equal or can possibly be better than Persona 5. People need to get over themselves and accept that both are great games.
• I liked Final Fantasy XIII. I mean, I thought it was pretty good from a brief impression. I was even thinking of going back into it.
• Saint's Row > Grand Theft Auto.

 

[finalark]

• Final Fantasy XV = Persona 5. Yeah that's right. I'm a big Persona fan and even I can tell that Final Fantasy XV is equal or can possibly be better than Persona 5. People need to get over themselves and accept that both are great games.

You've played P5? Are you one of those lucky few who have the magic of Japanese proficiency and imports? Because I'm jelly that I got to wait anther month.

• I liked Final Fantasy XIII. I mean, I thought it was pretty good from a brief impression. I was even thinking of going back into it.

IMO FFXIII isn't the worst JRPG I've ever played. Hell, it's not even the worst Final Fantasy. Underwhelming? Average? Certainly. Offensively terrible? No way.

EDIT: Although on the note of FFXV, I know the game gets a lot of (admittedly deserved) flak but I still appreciate it for what it was trying to do. TBH everything from the start of the game to the Leviathan fight was some of the most fun I have ever had playing a Final Fantasy. Yes, the second half is dull and filled with missed opportunities (why do all of the cool story moments in this game happen off screen?) but I still feel like the first half is well worth the investment.

In retrospect I really feel like the game's hyper focus on Noct and his crew, while a great idea thematically, actually really restricted the game. There's a lot of cool, likable characters that only temporarily join your party. It would have been really neat, and provided the game with some more customization options, had these characters been permanent additions you could swap in and out of your party like the older games. Not only that, but because the game is so dedicated to exclusively sticking to the four main boys' perspectives you miss out on damn near the entire story. You see these really interesting characters who show up maybe once or twice before either kicking the bucket or vanishing into thin air. Not to mention all of the cool things you get to hear about but never see.

Speaking of the older games, I can't be the only one who was disappointed that after the time skip the game shoved you right into the final dungeon instead of reopening up the world. I was really hoping the game was going to shift gears to be about revisiting familiar places and gathering up forces to fight the final boss like in Final Fantasy VI. This could have been a great chance to completely redeem the second half of the game if it was as well executed and engaging as the first half. I'm not going to say I was too surprised by the game's lackluster second half, though. I don't think I've ever played a game with a troubled production in my life that didn't have some glaring flaws in the final product.

Man that turned into a wall of text.

 

[DarkAuraful]

Lol No I'm not one of those people who have the Japanese Persona 5. Just that I recall that the reason Final Fantasy XV got moved a month later than its original release date was because the developers were afraid of Persona 5 topping it. I even heard people say that the FF team made a poll asking fans if they prefer FFXV and Persona 5 before.

I personally think that the FF team was being paranoid and overthinking about the competition. In my opinion, I just can't possibly think how Persona 5 (b/c people were over-hyping it, saying its going to be the 2017 JRPG game because obligatory Atlus is the JRPG king) is going to easily top a game that's been developed for fifteen years; all of which I think REALLY payed off.

I'm getting Persona 5 because I played Persona 4 (top 5 of all time in my list) and really loved it. So I'm excited how much of a contrast that Persona 5 is going to be in comparison. The sequel itself could even top Persona 4! (except the music, because Persona 5 doesn't have a reincarnation remix.)

Although I wouldn't actually mind playing Final Fantasy XV myself. Looks like a masterpiece from the first hour my older brother played the full game. That's why I think Persona 5 won't top Final Fantasy XV.

But yeah I am serious of going back to FFXIII. I don't think it was the worst FF either, let alone worst JRPG. That goes to Tales of Xillia. But in it's defense, I suppose even that was because it was rushed.

 

[finalark]

Although I wouldn't actually mind playing Final Fantasy XV myself. Looks like a masterpiece from the first hour my older brother played the full game. That's why I think Persona 5 won't top Final Fantasy XV.

Eh, keep your hype in check. Its got some good **** in it, but man is it a flawed, flawed game.

 

[FallenHero]

I wouldn't mind having just one Zelda game where Link is not just a projection of the player. I know that in BotW you can't name him, but from what I seen of the game he is still a mute. If there was a Zelda game where he is just as fleshed out as the other main characters, I think it would be fine as long as you are playing as a new Link instead of one from another Zelda game. Would be pretty weird if OoT/MM Link all of a sudden starts talking.

 

[wedl!!]

I'd personally like a game where Link is a girl but he'll always just be on the brink of androgyny forever

At least Link is goofy and bashful in BoTW, which is more character than he's ever received before. He's the Hero of Time but he's still a shy teenager who gets chilly and embarrassed. Nintendo shifting away from making Link like, psudeo-masculine is an excellent thing for the series, especially considering how popular it is among feminine audiences. (making everyone ****able also helps bolster that audience, btw)

 

[finalark]

I'd personally like a game where Link is a girl but he'll always just be on the brink of androgyny forever

I'm still surprised that they didn't give you the option to be a female link in BotW, seeing how much that game takes from western RPGs. Link is supposed to be our link (heh) to the game world, and women like video games too.

 

[Ten of Nine]

Link's Awakening is my favorite 2D Zelda

and now Breath of the Wild is my favorite 3D Zelda, Twilight Princess was before that, Wind Waker is now 3rd

I don't really care for Ocarina of Time or Majora's Mask; obviously well made, amazing music, and important to 3D videogame development.....but the story is derivative and predictable, characters suck, the game-play really didn't make up for it. But that is partly due to my dislike with how N64 games look and play, even at the time of their release I never thought the system/games were any good aside from Goldeneye and Conker's (both which still had garbage graphics and frame rates). N64 also had a crappy small library of same-ish type games, the controller wasn't good, games were expensive, had to get expansion pak, etc....

Derailed myself there....to be honest most Nintendo franchises have dumb stories except Metroid (minus Other M). Breath of the Wild isn't any different, they finally realized that they need to actually have good varied game-play to make up for it. P.S. the voice acting is atrocious in BotW.

 

[DarkAuraful]

Eh, keep your hype in check. Its got some good **** in it, but man is it a flawed, flawed game.

Would you say the combat is an example of a flaw? I've seen my brother get heavily punished for not executing perfect timing on a skill one time and that the enemies the game spawns at you are stupidly hard. It was during when he was exploring this ice dungeon for a quest so yeah... The battle system doesn't appear to be very forgiving in my first impressions of it.

 

[finalark]

Would you say the combat is an example of a flaw? I've seen my brother get heavily punished for not executing perfect timing on a skill one time and that the enemies the game spawns at you are stupidly hard. It was during when he was exploring this ice dungeon for a quest so yeah... The battle system doesn't appear to be very forgiving in my first impressions of it.

Yeah, the battle system can be very, very punishing. It doesn't help that said ice dungeon is a maze of samey looking rooms.

That being said, the combat is a blast once you get the hang of it. It can just take a bit of getting used to if you wanna git gud. Or you can just do all the side quests and faceroll the game.

I don't really care for Ocarina of Time or Majora's Mask; obviously well made, amazing music, and important to 3D videogame development.....but the story is derivative and predictable, characters suck, the game-play really didn't make up for it.

A friend of mine and I replayed OoT to get some BotW hype before the game came out. Man, certain parts of OoT really haven't aged well. The combat (although after a certain famous Youtuber put out a video on it this point has been talked to death), the sheer amount of long distances you have to travel just because and some really obtuse dungeon design (have you played the Fire Temple recently? Constantly climbing up and down things is a real slog).

I'm not going to rag on it for the 20ish FPS it runs out simply because that's a really modern techspecation to put on a game that really didn't have a way to achieve it.

But that is partly due to my dislike with how N64 games look and play, even at the time of their release I never thought the system/games were any good aside from Goldeneye and Conker's (both which still had garbage graphics and frame rates). N64 also had a crappy small library of same-ish type games, the controller wasn't good, games were expensive, had to get expansion pak, etc....

TBH most games from the PS1/N64/SAT era haven't aged well. 3D gaming was new and nobody really knew how to make the most of it yet.

On the mention of Goldeneye; that game borderline unplayable these days. Even compared to other FPS' that were out at the time its still a mess of a game. How it became such an acclaimed classic is beyond me.

Aside from it being a lot of people's first FPS, but that's the obvious answer.

Derailed myself there....to be honest most Nintendo franchises have dumb stories except Metroid (minus Other M). Breath of the Wild isn't any different, they finally realized that they need to actually have good varied game-play to make up for it. P.S. the voice acting is atrocious in BotW.

Yeah, but most Nintendo games aren't about story. And that's perfectly fine.

I wouldn't say the voice acting in BotW is terrible, just kind of average. Like, its the kind of voice acting that probably would have been considered stellar in the 2000s but is just kind of forgettable now.

 

[Ten of Nine]

Yeah, the battle system can be very, very punishing. It doesn't help that said ice dungeon is a maze of samey looking rooms.

That being said, the combat is a blast once you get the hang of it. It can just take a bit of getting used to if you wanna git gud. Or you can just do all the side quests and faceroll the game.



A friend of mine and I replayed OoT to get some BotW hype before the game came out. Man, certain parts of OoT really haven't aged well. The combat (although after a certain famous Youtuber put out a video on it this point has been talked to death), the sheer amount of long distances you have to travel just because and some really obtuse dungeon design (have you played the Fire Temple recently? Constantly climbing up and down things is a real slog).

I'm not going to rag on it for the 20ish FPS it runs out simply because that's a really modern techspecation to put on a game that really didn't have a way to achieve it.



TBH most games from the PS1/N64/SAT era haven't aged well. 3D gaming was new and nobody really knew how to make the most of it yet.

On the mention of Goldeneye; that game borderline unplayable these days. Even compared to other FPS' that were out at the time its still a mess of a game. How it became such an acclaimed classic is beyond me.

Aside from it being a lot of people's first FPS, but that's the obvious answer.



Yeah, but most Nintendo games aren't about story. And that's perfectly fine.

I wouldn't say the voice acting in BotW is terrible, just kind of average. Like, its the kind of voice acting that probably would have been considered stellar in the 2000s but is just kind of forgettable now.

I'm a little bit biased but I would really have to disagree about the PS1 not aging well and certainly not as bad as N64....

Look at the beautiful pre-rendered backgrounds in FF7, 8, 9, Chrono Cross (pretty much every survival horror and RPG) even the limited polygon characters still stand out and look sort of clean but at the same time they fit into the world. The color palettes and sound still hold up really well, and I haven't even talked about the intricate high quality pixel art games like Symphony of the Night or the many impressive SHMUPs. The PS1 had a massive library, most of the greats people overlooked, and even more games that never made it overseas (such as simple but stylish games like Vib Ribbon.)

 

[finalark]

I'm a little bit biased but I would really have to disagree about the PS1 not aging well and certainly not as bad as N64....

Look at the beautiful pre-rendered backgrounds in FF7, 8, 9, Chrono Cross (pretty much every survival horror and RPG) even the limited polygon characters still stand out and look sort of clean but at the same time they fit into the world. The color palettes and sound still hold up really well, and I haven't even talked about the intricate high quality pixel art games like Symphony of the Night or the many impressive SHMUPs. The PS1 had a massive library, most of the greats people overlooked, and even more games that never made it overseas (such as simple but stylish games like Vib Ribbon.)

I'm talking about the game part of the game here. Visually speaking, yes there are quite a number of PS1 games that are still impressive but for a lot of those games the game play has aged poorly.

 

[Ten of Nine]

I'm talking about the game part of the game here. Visually speaking, yes there are quite a number of PS1 games that are still impressive but for a lot of those games the game play has aged poorly.

For Symphony of the Night - arcade platform types and all the Fighting games, Racing games, SHMUPs I would argue that til the cows came home. For most of the survival horror and RPGs I could see someone thinking the gameplay aged poorly (there are a few that hold up like Clock Tower, plus strict Adventure style games like MYST, Riven, Blazing Dragons, and Broken Sword)

There are so many genres that are abundant on the PS1 that don't even exist in the N64 library anywhere. It's just strange to me, but it's all opinions at the end of the day.

 

[finalark]

For Symphony of the Night

TBH I think SotN is one of the weaker Castlevania RPGs. Like, it's not a bad game or anything but most of its successors improved so much upon it. Going back and playing it after playing something like Portrait of Ruin or Aria of Sorrow just kind of makes the game feel clunky, poorly paced and really padded out.

There are so many genres that are abundant on the PS1 that don't even exist in the N64 library anywhere. It's just strange to me, but it's all opinions at the end of the day.

You can blane Nintendo's poor third party relations for that one.

 

[Ten of Nine]

TBH I think SotN is one of the weaker Castlevania RPGs. Like, it's not a bad game or anything but most of its successors improved so much upon it. Going back and playing it after playing something like Portrait of Ruin or Aria of Sorrow just kind of makes the game feel clunky, poorly paced and really padded out.



You can blane Nintendo's poor third party relations for that one.

Yes a trend that still continues to this day. The Switch has a lot of hope supposedly at least from what's been reported.

I hope we see SNES levels of support and a large quality library to match.

 

[FallenHero]

Would you say the combat is an example of a flaw? I've seen my brother get heavily punished for not executing perfect timing on a skill one time and that the enemies the game spawns at you are stupidly hard

The game was pretty easy for me, because you can parry attacks by just holding the button when the prompt shows up (I thought you had to time it at first) and you can stay in a fight pretty much forever if you have enough healing items. The combat can be pretty challenging, but I never got a game over once. I rarely even had to use a phoenix down more than once in a boss fight until a certain boss late in the game. I really liked FF15, but I just wish they did something with the danger mode so that after you go into it a certain amount of times you just get KOed. Danger mode alone was what made the game so easy. I think the rest of the combat mechanics are good though. I felt that it was simple, but still complex and flashy enough to still be fun.

 

[ThatsBullocks]

Two regarding Zelda: Breath of the Wild

• the English dub isn't great, but I feel that people are horrendously exaggerating its supposed low quality. It's nowhere near Super Mario Sunshine or CD-i quality voice acting. At worst, there are a couple lines delivered flatly or a bit over-the-top.

(NEXT ONE CONTAINS BoTW EQUIPMENT SPOILERS)

Spoiler

Zelda: BotW is easily the best Nintendo game I've played in at least a decade, but a nitpick I have is that I really dislike how Nintendo did away with two of Link's most iconic character aspects so hard: his left-handedness and his green tunic and hat getup. The lack of left-handedness honestly wouldn't bug me as much if Eiji Aunoma didn't give a blatantly BS excuse for it. As for the tunic, it's in the game, but you either have to pay real money for a toy to get a chance to get a classic tunic getup, piecemeal, or clear out all 120 Shrines for the proper new green getup... why is his traditional look so taboo this time? Either have it available relatively easily or not at all.

Personal taste, but I really hope the Champion's Tunic isn't Link's only getup in Smash 5, if they go BotW for him at all.

 

[finalark]

Personal taste, but I really hope the Champion's Tunic isn't Link's only getup in Smash 5, if they go BotW for him at all.[/spoiler]

If anything, the sheer amount of gear sets in BotW should give the dev team plenty of opportunities for alternate costumes.

 

[FamilyTeam]

FE: The Binding Blade > Blazing Sword and Sacred Stones easily.

Could you explain?
I am playing through Binding Blade right now, actually. My first time.
If it weren't for the fact that finishing a Chapter feels bloody amazing, then it wouldn't even have much in the way of good qualities. It feels clunky, the map design is arse, the story is alright at best, there are way too many underpowered units (everybody pokes fun at Roy because he's terrible, but really what's sad is that most units aren't that much better than him), and overall Blazing Blade and Sacred Stones feel way more refined.
Still, it's not my least favourite FE game. That title goes to Birthright at the moment (though barely so).

 

[DarkAuraful]

FamilyTeam Sure. You're playing Binding Blade for the first time, which probably means you haven't of the Redux Patch. This patch fixes ALOT things wrong with the characters and balance in the game. I'm playing it, and its much more playable in comparison to Vanilla Binding Blade (though it's still hell in Hard Mode, what with the Wyvern Lords + Bersek/Silent/ staves the bishops will keep spamming you at when you reach that point mid on).

And yes, obviously Blazing Sword and Sacred Stones are better designed and much more refined. I played through all three of them. Blazing Sword is objectively the best out of the three in terms of design and balance. Sacred Stones is too easy though. Blazing Sword was alright (I'm actually replaying it right now, so maybe it might change).

Personally, I just favor Binding Blade overall in terms of the difficulty level. With a total of 50ish characters the game throws at you (I'm a arena optimizer, so I like to experiment with as much as I can fit on maps with arenas asap), and the challenge (despite the stupid reinforcements and fog of war), I feel more at home pushing + optimizing my strategy in that game.

Not much units may be better than Roy true, but the main problem with him is that he promotes way to late. That means you'll get him Lv. 1 in a map full of Lv. 10+ promoted enemies in the final maps (assuming you haven't acquired all the Legendary Weapons). He's actually a decent unit, and his Sword of Seals is OP, but that's not enough to compensate that his promotion is last minute.

Even still, he's the worst lord if you compare him to the other lords in the GBA Fire Emblem.

 

[FamilyTeam]

FamilyTeam Sure. You're playing Binding Blade for the first time, which probably means you haven't of the Redux Patch. This patch fixes ALOT things wrong with the characters and balance in the game. I'm playing it, and its much more playable in comparison to Vanilla Binding Blade (though it's still hell in Hard Mode, what with the Wyvern Lords + Bersek/Silent/ staves the bishops will keep spamming you at when you reach that point mid on).

And yes, obviously Blazing Sword and Sacred Stones are better designed and much more refined. I played through all three of them. Blazing Sword is objectively the best out of the three in terms of design and balance. Sacred Stones is too easy though. Blazing Sword was alright (I'm actually replaying it right now, so maybe it might change).

Personally, I just favor Binding Blade overall in terms of the difficulty level. With a total of 50ish characters the game throws at you (I'm a arena optimizer, so I like to experiment with as much as I can fit on maps with arenas asap), and the challenge (despite the stupid reinforcements and fog of war), I feel more at home pushing + optimizing my strategy in that game.

Not much units may be better than Roy true, but the main problem with him is that he promotes way to late. That means you'll get him Lv. 1 in a map full of Lv. 10+ promoted enemies in the final maps (assuming you haven't acquired all the Legendary Weapons). He's actually a decent unit, and his Sword of Seals is OP, but that's not enough to compensate that his promotion is last minute.

Even still, he's the worst lord if you compare him to the other lords in the GBA Fire Emblem.

Yep. Just talking about vanilla Binding Blade, I honestly do not think it's that great of a game. I'm glad to see there's a patch that makes it far more bearable, but I'm afraid I'm some 80% through the game right now (Chapter 20A, yes I did get all of the Sacred Weapons up until this point) and it's probably better to finish it as is for consitency's sake alone.
When people told me Roy was terrible, I was expecting him to be, like, unusable, or something, which he definitely isn't. He's just an average unit, but the problem is that most other Lords in the series definitely aren't average. Lucina and Ike definitely come to mind. So a Lord being just "an average unit" really sticks out, and with how difficult Binding Blade is, coupled with how you have to carry his sorry arse to every chapter, how just "average" units don't really cut it for Binding Blade and how he promotes so late that it feels more like the game is just laughing at your face, is what gave him this reputation. A lot of it is deserved, but some of it is exaggeration.
Atleast I appreciate that Binding Blade is the FE game that definitely made me think the most by a long margin, so far.

 

[DarkAuraful]

FamilyTeam
That is true, and actually a good point. Compared to everyone else, Roy just doesn't have much coming to him. Sure he gets a deadly sword, but his upgrade is lackluster compared to everyone else. All he gets is 20 extra levels.

• All the lords in Blazing Sword can be promoted anytime with an Earth Seal depending on the story of the character you pick. All three of them get an extra weapon slot to add to their versatility; Lyn getting bows, Eliwood getting lances (he benefits most out of the three because he becomes mounted), and Hector getting swords.
• Eirika and Ephraim become Great Lords by becoming mounted. And if I recall, they also get class skills too.
• Ike is pretty much an overpowered version of Roy. Being promoted at a reasonable length, his Ragnell being unbreakable, and LOL!Aether. His growths are also just godly.
• Lucina is just... yeah broken. She's probably the strongest out of all the lords so far. Being in a game where she can inherit skills because she's second generation, and having an unbreakable Flachion that heals her, customizing her optimally as much as you please is what ultimately adds to her favor.

And yeah, it is funny because Roy's game is the hardest out of all I played (Fates Conquest could be harder, but I won't play it considering since I was disappointed in Fates). I suppose it makes it the most rewarding out of the three FE games too, despite it being horribly designed.

 

[FamilyTeam]

FamilyTeam
That is true, and actually a good point. Compared to everyone else, Roy just doesn't have much coming to him. Sure he gets a deadly sword, but his upgrade is lackluster compared to everyone else. All he gets is 20 extra levels.

• All the lords in Blazing Sword can be promoted anytime with an Earth Seal depending on the story of the character you pick. All three of them get an extra weapon slot to add to their versatility; Lyn getting bows, Eliwood getting lances (he benefits most out of the three because he becomes mounted), and Hector getting swords.
• Eirika and Ephraim become Great Lords by becoming mounted. And if I recall, they also get class skills too.
• Ike is pretty much an overpowered version of Roy. Being promoted at a reasonable length, his Ragnell being unbreakable, and LOL!Aether. His growths are also just godly.
• Lucina is just... yeah broken. She's probably the strongest out of all the lords so far. Being in a game where she can inherit skills because she's second generation, and having an unbreakable Flachion that heals her, customizing her optimally as much as you please is what ultimately adds to her favor.

And yeah, it is funny because Roy's game is the hardest out of all I played (Fates Conquest could be harder, but I won't play it considering since I was disappointed in Fates). I suppose it makes it the most rewarding out of the three FE games too, despite it being horribly designed.

As far as I know, the Top 4 hardest FE games are universally agreed to be Binding Blade, Thracia 776, Radiant Dawn and Fates Conquest, but what's not really agreed upon is how they're ordered.
I think the most common way I see it ordered is 776>BB>RD>CQ, and the second most common is RD>BB>776>CQ. I am going to play Conquest after I finish Binding Blade (I'm binge playing a bunch of FE games, and in this batch I played BB, PoR and Fates BR) and I simply refuse to believe any game that runs on the Awakening/Fates engine is gonna even compare on difficulty to RD/BB/776 unless every Chapter is a gimmickfest and/or the game just makes RNG hate you (see: Lunatic). But I don't really have a problem with the games on the Awakening engine being easier (to be honest, much of the opposite. Unpopular opinion time: I actually prefer easier games, funnily enough, even though I'm always playing really difficult ones).

Ike and Lucina are two comically OP lords, yes. Lucina being one of the Top 3 units in Awakening, which is a game full of absolutely broken units, is nothing to sneeze at. And post promotion Ike having a really big shot at maxing out all his stats through his growths alone, plus Ragnell, plus his skills, really makes him absolutely bonkers.
Meanwhile, you have Roy. An okay unit in a massively relentless game that only becomes half useful in the last hour or so of a 40 hour long experience. How nice, Roy.
I really wanted to like Roy. It's the sole reason I decided I wanted to play this game so much. But if anybody still likes Roy after playing through Binding Blade... wow, honestly Kudos to you, you have earned my respect.

 

[Rashyboy05]

I really wanted to like Roy. It's the sole reason I decided I wanted to play this game so much. But if anybody still likes Roy after playing through Binding Blade... wow, honestly Kudos to you, you have earned my respect.

I personally like Roy just because of his supports. His support conversation are pretty nice to read. Of course, not everyone reads on a normal playthrough because lolgbasupports but I feel like they flesh him and his support partners out as characters. Same reason why I like Eliwood more than Hector tbh.

I don't think BB can be considered among the top 3 of difficult. Conquest, Thracia, and RD are harder than BB imo. BB and its hard mode is hilariously easy to break once you get the necessary supports and recruit some broken units.

 

[FallenHero]

Two regarding Zelda: Breath of the Wild

• the English dub isn't great, but I feel that people are horrendously exaggerating its supposed low quality. It's nowhere near Super Mario Sunshine or CD-i quality voice acting. At worst, there are a couple lines delivered flatly or a bit over-the-top.

(NEXT ONE CONTAINS BoTW EQUIPMENT SPOILERS)

Spoiler

Zelda: BotW is easily the best Nintendo game I've played in at least a decade, but a nitpick I have is that I really dislike how Nintendo did away with two of Link's most iconic character aspects so hard: his left-handedness and his green tunic and hat getup. The lack of left-handedness honestly wouldn't bug me as much if Eiji Aunoma didn't give a blatantly BS excuse for it. As for the tunic, it's in the game, but you either have to pay real money for a toy to get a chance to get a classic tunic getup, piecemeal, or clear out all 120 Shrines for the proper new green getup... why is his traditional look so taboo this time? Either have it available relatively easily or not at all.

Personal taste, but I really hope the Champion's Tunic isn't Link's only getup in Smash 5, if they go BotW for him at all.

Being left handed I always liked that Link was left handed too. Sucks that he wasn't left handed in BotW. One of the main reasons I could never get through Skyward Sword when I borrowed it years ago was that I had to hold the controller with my right hand. I already didn't like having my hand held so much and it was even worse that I couldn't use my dominant hand to use the sword.

 

[ThatsBullocks]

Being left handed I always liked that Link was left handed too. Sucks that he wasn't left handed in BotW. One of the main reasons I could never get through Skyward Sword when I borrowed it years ago was that I had to hold the controller with my right hand. I already didn't like having my hand held so much and it was even worse that I couldn't use my dominant hand to use the sword.

Hey hey, southpaws represent!

Skyward Sword did bother me too on this front, but if they only had time to implement one motion control setup, I can at least sorta understand the rationale of making Link a righty there. The game had many major issues so being forced to use my right arm for the sword was the least of my worries.

For BotW, though, it's completely unnecessary. My theory is that they started the base work with SS assets and are probably too embarrassed to admit that they got really far into development before catching that they left out a relatively significant quirk of Link's.

The next most significant left-handed game protagonist I can think of is, um... Crono from Chrono Trigger?

 

[FamilyTeam]

I'm righty, but due to an interesting mistake I made over a decade ago, if I can choose the handedness of a customizable character, I always set it as lefty. I was a very big fan of tennis and tennis games as a child, and somehow, in three different games (Topspin, Mario Tennis and Virtua Tennis 2), I managed to make the exact same mistake of making my player left handed. After I noticed that, I just decided to make every character I customized that was supposed to represent me as lefty if possible.
But in the end, I don't think it matters much anyway... it doesn't change my view on the characters. When I first played through TP (before dropping it because I didn't like it), I didn't even notice Link was left handed. I didn't even really pay attention to the fact Lucina is right handed until writing this.

 

[DarkAuraful]

Alright. Going back to you two...

Yeah, the battle system can be very, very punishing. It doesn't help that said ice dungeon is a maze of samey looking rooms.

That being said, the combat is a blast once you get the hang of it. It can just take a bit of getting used to if you wanna git gud. Or you can just do all the side quests and faceroll the game.

The game was pretty easy for me, because you can parry attacks by just holding the button when the prompt shows up (I thought you had to time it at first) and you can stay in a fight pretty much forever if you have enough healing items. The combat can be pretty challenging, but I never got a game over once. I rarely even had to use a phoenix down more than once in a boss fight until a certain boss late in the game. I really liked FF15, but I just wish they did something with the danger mode so that after you go into it a certain amount of times you just get KOed. Danger mode alone was what made the game so easy. I think the rest of the combat mechanics are good though. I felt that it was simple, but still complex and flashy enough to still be fun.

Well the battle system learn curve sounds definitely similar to God Eater and that's one of my most favorite games top 5. Even though back then, it made me rage so loud I woke people up and broke my PSP screen. Lol.

But yeah, I'm always down for a challenge. Plus, if that's also the combat system they're going to use for Kingdom Hearts 3, then here's hoping for a REAL critical mode. (I don't have Kingdom Hearts 2.5 HD Remix, so no KH2 Final Mix Terra critical mode for me XD. I've only experienced critical mode through Birth by Sleep, which was kinda pathetic.)

 

[FallenHero]

Oh man I am probably going to get a lot of hate for this....

When I first got into KH I loved the story, but now I can't take it seriously at all. I've only played through 358 days and DDD, but I know the story of the whole series besides Re:Coded. I will probably just laugh through half of the cutscenes in KH3 and be confused through the other half. If I don't find myself engaged by the story in KH3, I will most likely skip all the cutscenes.

I guess I started feeling this way about the story of the whole series after I got into Metal Gear Solid and experienced one of the most well written stories for a series I've ever seen, minus some of the writing in MGS4. The story in KH is like the story of a Disney movie, but if the story was really hard to follow, used the word "darkness" way too much, and was overall poorly written. The only parts of the story I can kind of take seriously is stuff involving Roxas, Organization XIII, and the characters from BBS.

 

[finalark]

Metal Gear Solid

well written

lolwat?

Like, I'll agree with you that KH's narrative is dumb, all over the goddamn place and raises a hell of a lot more questions than it answers, but I'll say the same exact things about MGS. Don't get me wrong here, I absolutely adore the series, and it certainly has its powerful moments, but I wouldn't exactly call MGS well written by any extent of the word. Passionate? Yes. Spirited? Certainly. Well written? Na.

At least with KH they can get a point across with three lines of dialog where with MGS it will take a fully twenty minute cut scene interrupted by three five minute codec calls.

 

[FallenHero]

lolwat?

Like, I'll agree with you that KH's narrative is dumb, all over the goddamn place and raises a hell of a lot more questions than it answers, but I'll say the same exact things about MGS. Don't get me wrong here, I absolutely adore the series, and it certainly has its powerful moments, but I wouldn't exactly call MGS well written by any extent of the word. Passionate? Yes. Spirited? Certainly. Well written? Na.

At least with KH they can get a point across with three lines of dialog where with MGS it will take a fully twenty minute cut scene interrupted by three five minute codec calls.

I guess I shouldn't have said "well written", but the MGS series is able to have a big connected story through so many games like KH has while being able to keep me interested. With KH I could no longer care what happened next in the story after I turned 14. In MGS I can laugh when the game is trying to be funny and take it seriously when it is trying to be serious. With KH when I get confused by the story I just think: "What? Whatever I don't care". With MGS I think: "What? How? Why?". Even by the end of MGSV's lackluster story I still felt like mostof my questions were answered. My opinions on the story in KH might change if the story somehow wraps up in a way that ties everything together so that it is not so hard to understand or even care about.

 

[DarkAuraful]

Oh man I am probably going to get a lot of hate for this....

When I first got into KH I loved the story, but now I can't take it seriously at all. I've only played through 358 days and DDD, but I know the story of the whole series besides Re:Coded. I will probably just laugh through half of the cutscenes in KH3 and be confused through the other half. If I don't find myself engaged by the story in KH3, I will most likely skip all the cutscenes.

I guess I started feeling this way about the story of the whole series after I got into Metal Gear Solid and experienced one of the most well written stories for a series I've ever seen, minus some of the writing in MGS4. The story in KH is like the story of a Disney movie, but if the story was really hard to follow, used the word "darkness" way too much, and was overall poorly written. The only parts of the story I can kind of take seriously is stuff involving Roxas, Organization XIII, and the characters from BBS.

Nothing wrong with that. I also thought the story was too standard. I will agree with the Organization and Roxas having a great amount of depth both story and character. The problem I had with the Kingdom Hearts series was that most of the games were launched on different consoles, most of them being on Nintendo consoles. Thankfully that's fixed with the HD remaster packs. I kinda wanna go back and re-experience so I can get to know Riku's character and his struggle prior to Kingdom Hearts 2. He's the most interesting character to me by this point.

To be honest, I'm starting to lose hype for Kingdom Hearts 3. I've alongside everyone else were waiting for its release, but eventually my interests broadened to other series such as the Last of Us and Persona (also trying to get back into Zelda). I'll still be excited for its release, but I won't expect much. Though Project Destati is definitely a sight to behold that I personally wouldn't miss any time of the day.

 

[FallenHero]

I kinda wanna go back and re-experience so I can get to know Riku's character and his struggle prior to Kingdom Hearts 2.

From what I remember, that is actually where a lot of my gripes with the dialogue in cutscenes having the word "darkness" way too much.

To be honest, I'm starting to lose hype for Kingdom Hearts 3. I've alongside everyone else were waiting for its release, but eventually my interests broadened to other series such as the Last of Us and Persona (also trying to get back into Zelda)

That has happened with me a lot too. When a game takes more than a year and a half to come out after being announced, I just get hyped with it is first announced and stop caring about it until just shortly before it is released. I think it is a lot better that way, because it spares me from being disappointed after waiting for 2+ years for a game to come out and it not being the greatest thing ever.

Project Destati

Whats that?

 

[InsaneAlchemist]

To be honest, I think making completely original movesets for Pokemon competitive is a good idea on Smogon play, in addition to using UU or under Pokemon if they work too (when playing on the OU tier). While some UU and under Pokemon are indeed weak, I've come up with some movesets I'm pretty proud of, like Choice Specs Houndoom or a stall Umbreon. Though when I bring up the fact I'm being experimental with my movesets, some Smogon players made a hissy fit over the fact I didn't use the Smogon suggested sets. Yes, I know they were ones proven effective, and I have some favorites like the sweeper Mega Charizard Y set and the Ferrothorn defensive set, but just because they're effective doesn't mean I'm obligated to use them. It's not like I'm going to turn a Ferrothorn into a fast physical sweeper, I know what niches Pokemon are built for.

 

[FallenHero]

To be honest, I think making completely original movesets for Pokemon competitive is a good idea on Smogon play, in addition to using UU or under Pokemon if they work too (when playing on the OU tier). While some UU and under Pokemon are indeed weak, I've come up with some movesets I'm pretty proud of, like Choice Specs Houndoom or a stall Umbreon. Though when I bring up the fact I'm being experimental with my movesets, some Smogon players made a hissy fit over the fact I didn't use the Smogon suggested sets. Yes, I know they were ones proven effective, and I have some favorites like the sweeper Mega Charizard Y set and the Ferrothorn defensive set, but just because they're effective doesn't mean I'm obligated to use them. It's not like I'm going to turn a Ferrothorn into a fast physical sweeper, I know what niches Pokemon are built for.

Back when I used to battle against my friends in ORAS (I'm not going to get Sun & Moon because a third version on the Switch seems very likely) I loved to beat them using Pokemon like Pangoro or Exploud, when my friends usually stuck with the more standard OU Pokemon with the standard movesets. I also used some unorthodox moves on commonly used Pokemon as well and managed to win a lot. In my opinion, there is NO good reason to run Flare Blitz/Close Combat on Infernape instead of power up punch/mach punch/U-turn. Fire punch alone was able to OHKO most Pokemon weak to fire anyways, and Infernape could easily OHKO a Greninja with just mach punch. If I knew my Infernape would outspeed and just need to land one last attack to KO, I would use power up punch. That move can set up a sweep, because after you get +2 attack, mach punch just OHKOs almost anything that isn't either resistant to fighting or is a tank. Sweeping teams by using Pangoro, Infernape, Heliolisk or Zoroark was some of the most fun I've ever had playing Pokemon.

I never really understood the point in smogon sending Greninja to UU, because I always had at least 2 Pokemon on my team that in some way were able to deal with him very easily (Infernape with mach punch deals with him the second Greninja comes out if they don't know you have that move on you, which I can assure you that they don't if they are just some random player). I also never understood why they didn't send Talonflame to UU (unless they did after I stopped playing). Talonflame alone forced me to have to bring a Skarmory in my team literally EVERY. SINGLE. BATTLE. If I didn't then there was about an 90% chance of most of my team getting sweeped by Talonflame alone, because 90% of the people I played against online used Talonflame on their team. People who used Talonflame were basically the fun police in Pokemon.