Comments 1,584

Re: Review: Octopath Traveler II - A Confident Follow-Up And One Of Switch's Finest RPGs

Blizzia

Thanks for the review, Dom. This has made it abundantly clear that Octopath Traveler II is not for me. I hated how the story completely ignored the party and pretended each member was on some solitary journey in the first game, and it was the thing I was hoping would be fixed the most.

That the second game doubles down on it (I don't care about sidestories that pretend to give them a common minigoal, it doesn't fix the issue) just means I'd be frustrated the entire playthrough because it makes no sense for them to be a party if 75% of your party just... isn't there while being there, isn't accounted for despite having crucial roles or required for you to complete the gameplay tasks in a reasonable time? I find that to be extremely bad storytelling.

Oh well. I'm happy it goes hard in the other areas, but I'm not sitting through 8 stories where the protagonist of each story pretends the others are imaginary friends that they can't talk to.

Re: Poll: What Did You Think Of The February 2023 Nintendo Direct?

Blizzia

I thoroughly enjoyed myself until they slapped me so hard I lost feeling in my face

Etrian Odyssey 1-3 HD? REALLY? After what, SEVEN YEARS? I was so mad I just stopped watching there for like a few hours.

At this point I simply need a flat yes or no to the question of "are you actually working on a new bloody Etrian Odyssey game?" because it's getting silly. Radio silence for that many years, and then out of nowhere a HD collection of games where two out of three had already received updated versions? Absolutely terrible.

(I later returned to finish the direct and the ToTK trailer was dope but left me with many questions and zero answers).

My wife has been complaining about there being no Professor Layton games for Switch so seeing that there's one on the way is great. (His daughter doesn't count she says, "like father like child" didn't seem to be the case I guess.)

Re: Soapbox: Fire Emblem Engage's Nintendo NYC Launch Felt Pretty Unengaging

Blizzia

@Arawn93 I honestly don't see how you can have played the opening hours of Engage and not felt more, well, "engaged" than with Three Houses. Three Houses gameplay was substandard and a downright bore until getting plenty of unlocks, and the removal of the attack triangle just turned the first half into a downright snoozefest. Pick X unit effective against target with low def/res, kill target. Rinse/repeat. No other considerations bar personal weaknesses or a personal skill. ZZZ.

Meanwhile the first playthrough in Engage basically almost started us out using the engage mechanic with several units, giving us really pivotal ones such as Sigurd and Celica in the first few chapters that really make a difference, as well as making opening maps specifically favor the units you chose to pop them on (besides the obvious boosts). Already at chapter 5 you've had basically new skills coming in left and right during engage mode and even the obscurest choice of engage unit has some merit.

I, for example, enjoy using Sigurd with Etie or Framme because the offered mobility let me easily position them to take out key targets or provide strong quick guards / heals without needing to worry about how it affects their general map positioning e.g. falling behind or being too far forward.

As far as story goes, Three Houses set the initial bar higher but frankly the character designs and attire/fashion choices of that game were downright atrocious, and fortunately Engage (bar toothpaste-chan) has made up for that aplenty.

Re: Fire Emblem Engage - Tips And Tricks To Get You Started

Blizzia

Engage has been a blast so far. I'm doing my first playthrough on Maddening (I always pick the hardest difficulty) and finding it moderately challenging but nothing crazy so far. I play it the classic way too with permadeath and stuff, really makes it intense.

It may change as I hit the final chapters but so far I haven't really found any specific need to do the relay stuff or focus overly hard on all sorts of extras. Not to mention I keep forgetting chain attacks exist despite the enemies using it constantly. It makes a difference but not one that means the difference between life and death if you strategize properly. May mean a turn count or two more for the chapter, but for a first playthrough I'm not optimizing anything, just playing.

Re: Good Smile Company Reveals Stunning New Fire Emblem Figure, Pre-Orders Live

Blizzia

@EaglyTheKawaiiShika Not gonna bother replying to the rest of the corporate sausage enjoyers, but I'll reply to you since your analogy doesn't work: FEH isn't canon, so yeah. How the universe "works" is canon in that there are several worlds within Fire Emblem, but nothing in FEH itself is canon. It's not contained within the continuity of the series, and neither characters nor the worlds will reflect on or "benefit from" anything contained within FEH.

This makes it as different from your Harry Potter example as humanly possible.

Re: Good Smile Company Shares First Look At Stunning New Fire Emblem Figure

Blizzia

@GoshJosh @locky-mavo @nukatha @nhSnork You guys can preach all you wish - FE Heroes isn't a Fire Emblem game.

It doesn't matter who holds the rights - Fire Emblem games play a certain way and are buy-to-play experiences only available on Nintendo consoles. They always have been, and still are. FEH doesn't fit that MO, and as such, isn't a Fire Emblem game. End of story.

Re: Pokémon Scarlet & Violet Surpass 10 Million Sales In First Three Days, Setting New Nintendo Record

Blizzia

Fact is the games are good. Great, even. They're incredibly fun and in a completely different league from previous Pokémon games.

I didn't enjoy Let's Go/SWSH/Arceus Legends, but I've thoroughly enjoyed SV.

The tech issues suck and are frankly inexcusable but I'm not gonna sit here and say the games aren't great, because everything NOT on the tech side... Is spectacular. Simply spectacular.

If only they'd devote more dev time per game. Clearly they can spend an entire year more on JUST optimization and nothing else, since they can pump out an amazing game in the current dev cycle. Just not one that performs even acceptably well on the tech side.

Re: Fire Emblem Engage Continues To Look Stunning In New Gameplay Clips

Blizzia

@Dom_31 what's even more funny is it's easy to see that straying from the path of "what's the most popular style" is what almost destroyed the franchise. The DS entries were very unpopular because the artstyle sucked hard. Awakening revitalized the entire franchise, and it's been going strong since.

(by unpopular I don't mean their sales sucked - the sales were just about in line with expectations, but there was no growth which meant the franchise, after many years without noticeable growth might not be viable for the future. Awakening changed that, propelling the series from an avg of 200-400k sales per game to 1.5m+ sales per game with Awakening having 1.9m, Fates 1.6m and Three Houses hitting 3.82m as of 31/12/2021 ).

Re: Fire Emblem Engage Continues To Look Stunning In New Gameplay Clips

Blizzia

@Axecon It's a shame if you missed Awakening tbh. Fates had fun gameplay but garbage story, but Awakening was just overall incredibly solid as an entry. Definitely give it a try if you get the urge to play some Fire Emblem.

Also, Awakening/Fates/Three Houses/Engage are following the same path. The Awakening direction is the path the franchise went down, and the path that saved the franchise. While I enjoyed the older games (especially Blazing Sword which is my favorite older entry, Lyndis represent), the newer games are simply superior. Three Houses was a bit of a miss for me personally but a solid entry in its own right.

Re: The New Fire Emblem Hero Was Created By A VTuber Designer

Blizzia

@LUIGITORNADO Please god no.

I love Lyndis & co, but Awakening and Fates had top tier character design. Fates fell short elsewhere but yeah. Three Houses was a step back, and despite the blandness of Pepsiman and Pepsigirl, some of the other characters look great and like a return to Awakening/Fates style.

Re: Talking Point: What Did You Think Of The September 2022 Nintendo Direct?

Blizzia

It was an amazing Direct tbh. Usually I only have 1-2 games pique my interest in a Direct, which turns into 0-1 purchases at release. This time there was a lot of stuff which was unusual and appreciated.
Fire Emblem Engage really got me hyped up as Fire Emblem is my favorite franchise of all time.
Octopath Traveler 2 was a welcome announcement, especially seeing as they made sure to emphasize INTERTWINED STORIES which the first title sorely lacked.
Tunic seems like an interesting 2d zelda-like game so if performance is ok ill probs get it.
Ryza 3 is more of Atelier Ryza, and im here for it.
Master Detective Archies: RAIN CODE... Made by creators of danganronpa, instant purchase. Can't wait.
Botw2 aka Tears of the Kingdom... GIMME. So happy we got a date.

Re: Talking Point: Would You Mind If Nintendo Retired The 'Big' Nintendo Direct Format?

Blizzia

I would mind tremendously. Nintendo Directs are a lot of fun for me, and something I watch with a few friends. Whether there is anything interesting or not, it's still enjoyable to guess and see how many of the things we want actually happen.

If Nintendo stopped doing Directs I'd probably buy a lot less Nintendo games. I simply don't keep up enough with daily drops of news or visit the eshop at all unprompted.

Re: Poll: What Are You Hoping To See In The Nintendo Direct Mini?

Blizzia

Unless they're showcasing a new Etrian Odyssey games I really don't care what's in the Direct. It's disappointing beyond measure to not get a full-fledged E3-style Direct with first party announcements.

Third parties are the filler that makes the wait for first parties seem shorter - they're never the main event. So why we're getting a Direct pretending they are, is beyond me. Any other time of the year I'd be fine with a third party Direct, but this is the one time a year I expect a big fully fleshed out Direct with first parties.

Re: Labyrinth of Galleria: The Moon Society Dungeon Crawls Onto Switch in 2023

Blizzia

I tried to like Labyrinth of Refrain (was REALLY missing an Etrian Odyssey entry, and still am) but I just don't appreciate the "skill" system. Labyrinth of Refrain had me spamming basic attacks 99% of the time and that just wasn't really fun. I tend to make very intricate combo-based skill-heavy teams in EO so it just didn't appeal a lot to me really.

Re: Review: Soundfall - A Beat-Based Shooter That Can't Hit The High Notes But Still Rocks

Blizzia

I'd give it an 8 personally. The enemy variety really isn't too bad considering how quickly a situation can spiral out of control if you don't execute key targets very fast.

Without the metronome sound the game is quite hard but with it I found myself breezing through it - Silver first time, 3rd-5th time I'd get the gold and/or plat.

Great game, soundtrack is what it is but on pc you can at least play your favorite songs as levels in free play by importing them.

Re: Reggie Fils-Aimé Is A Big Believer In Blockchain And "Play To Own"

Blizzia

@ItsATM What do you mean that's all it took? Dude just endorsed blockchain technology, a technology that is basically useless because we already have smarter better systems.

A technology that's basically the #1 way to scam nowadays.

It doesn't matter if he went "it needs to make sense for the player" because it won't, at any point, ever, make sense for the player.

Businesses wouldn't waste money making something useful for the player, that'd be dumb as hell in their eyes. They'd make it for their own gain and profit. Which means the tech is useless.

Re: Take-Two Faces Lawsuit Over "Deceptive And Unlawful" Loot Boxes In NBA 2K

Blizzia

@MostHandsieBoy The parent was dumb, but the child was innocently doing something the game allowed them to do.

Regardless of the lack of intelligence at play here, the company is still in the wrong.

Why do you think games keep inventing other currencies for you to purchase with real money instead of just letting you buy things for the actual real $$ amount? It's to deceive you and attempt to delay you from realizing you just blew $100 on nothing.

Re: Review: Voice Of Cards: The Forsaken Maiden - A Fine Follow-Up To Yoko Taro's Cosy Card RPG

Blizzia

@Henmii Tbh if the quality remains consistent, I'll take 3 releases a year without complaints.

It doesn't need to be a masterpiece, it just needs to be consistently good. Playing through this game felt like sitting down with a great audiobook - not the best you've ever consumed, not absolutely amazing in every way, but well-paced, relaxing and most of all, enjoyable, and at times one that even lets you "come up and breathe" by ever so slightly letting up on the narrative.

Re: Round Up: The Reviews Are In For Capcom's Monster Hunter Rise PC Port

Blizzia

@HenHiro You literally state my argument is invalid due to being subjective, then follow it up with subjective statements xD

You defined Rise as the "mobile spin-off". Yes yes you said "not really a spin off but you get what I mean". But Rise follows and improves upon the MH formula, so that's not exactly true.

By that logic, World is the mobile spin-off, seeing as it featured a worse form of multiplayer (players disliked it), the weapon weighting was totally off and player power was beyond ridiculous.

Re: Round Up: The Reviews Are In For Capcom's Monster Hunter Rise PC Port

Blizzia

@HenHiro I didn't say World isn't a mainline game, I said it FEELS like a spin-off because it doesn't follow the MH formula for combat or multiplayer at all.

I'm not sure about your comparisons, especially since Links Awakening is a remake...

BOTW feels like an evolution of the Zelda formula - World felt like a regression. The two most important elements were changed for the worse.

Re: Round Up: The Reviews Are In For Capcom's Monster Hunter Rise PC Port

Blizzia

@HenHiro What are you even talking about?
World is what feels like a spin-off as it completely eradicates the MH formula and destroys weapon weighting and multiplayer.

Rise feels like the evolution of the mainline entries in pretty much all areas.

Pretty much all areas bar visuals are greatly improved and the weapon weighting is near incomparable in terms of improvement. World destroyed it and Rise brought it back which is extremely pleasing.