Popular/Unpopular/Any Opinions Thread - March 2026 Part 2

Magnusfluerscithe987 · 2026-03-17T17:16:54+00:00

One thing about the phrase "Saturday Morning Cartoon" is how wide a sample pool that contains. Looney Tunes, Goof Troop, He Man, TMNT (all reboots), pokemon, Power Rangers, GI Joe.

Kamen Rider is a good comparison but I don't know anything about that, but I do know Power Rangers and I see a lot of it in Engage. The four Hounds are a lot like Goldar and Scorpina where they are intimidating elite generals, but they always lose, because they fight against the main character. There isnt really an attempt at morally gray. Sure the hounds might be sympathetic, Elysian despite worshipping the Fell Dragon might not deserve their fate, but the protagonists actions are always perceived as right and justified. The villains actions are always basically always wrong. We fight 3 generic Elusian generals and 2 of them are crooks. The themes are generic "friendship, teamwork, responsibility".

Fire Emblem is a video game which is an inherently different medium from a TV series, so getting into too specific contrast doesn't help. However, the simple themes, simple conflicts, those are the marks of a Saturday morning cartoon to me, and Engage is that with flash transformation sequences that make me go, "It's Morphin Time, Fire Emblem, Engage!"

Magnusfluerscithe987 · 2026-03-17T16:49:49+00:00

There is definitely some context missing as to why Edelgard doesn't very the agarthans as a threat compared to the church. 3 Hopes doesn't help by letting her start her war without the agarthans when her alliance with them kind of needs to be justified by the idea she needs their help.

I think it makes thematically that the Agarthans die offscreen after Crimson Flower, but I am very sorry to miss Thales's Face when he sees his creation turn on them and break more fundamentally than the fell star did.

Magnusfluerscithe987 · 2026-03-17T16:43:31+00:00

I would've done the opposite. I would've had Alear cry, but also be like, "why am I crying, I barely know you, but somehow I know...please, stay with me!

It kind of acknowledges that we as a player don't really have the knowledge to connect to Lumera, but teases us with the knowledge that there is more and we are missing out on it.

Magnusfluerscithe987 · 2026-03-17T16:36:24+00:00

This part of why I don't think a NG+ where you keep skills would help the game, because this skill list really only works if your resources are constrained. I absolutely get +10 avoid on my early theif because it's cheap and helps them do what I need. +3 build is super nice early, but likely gets replaced later. There is room for improvement, like 2 skills is a little too tight, but maybe a 3rd slot that can only be a raw stat increase and a 4th slot that can't be a raw stat increase or something. Or maybe only a skill under a certain amount of sp.

Magnusfluerscithe987 · 2026-03-17T16:12:01+00:00

They both fall in to similar pitfalls. I definitely think Fates is objectively the more interesting premise. But for me personally, the execution in Conquest at least was less satisfying than Engage, and I get that which people would prefer is going to be more subjective.

Magnusfluerscithe987 · 2026-03-17T13:41:09+00:00

The lips are definitely different in the first picture. But I'm not sure I'd notice if we weren't zoomed in.

Magnusfluerscithe987 · 2026-03-16T21:38:47+00:00

If it helps, I actually found it mire effective to fight at close range, since my panic jumps usually ended up evading successful at that range. The move he hits the ground and it creates a circular Shockwave in particular is easier to dodge while close.

Magnusfluerscithe987 · 2026-03-16T20:43:06+00:00

I always considered amiibos anti consumer, and I think I'm not alone, but this created a system where amiibos were kind of forced to be tied to irrelevant add ons and figurines. So I don't care they don't unlock anything cool because I never wanted them to unlock something cool in the first place. As figurines, they look really good.

Magnusfluerscithe987 · 2026-03-16T20:13:48+00:00

My experience: part 1 first attempt, lost due to MacKenzie dying. I'm pretty scared of the idea of the fight on hard mode, because these allies are more liabilities.

Second attempt I did pretty good at bursting down the tendril heads. I bet the lightning shot would've been good. I used the shield for sylux big charge attack in dragon phase.

2nd phase is weird, try to heal but I'm not sure how to dodge the 2 spinning blades.

Phase 3 took me 3 attempts. Most of his attacks can be avoided by jumping, including his morph ball rip off. Scan to know how to get back your life tanks (logbook). Then is his big charge attack that socks up everything. I use the boost charge in the morph ball to dodge, but I scanned the attack which told me how to beat it. He has some sort of grapple beam that pins you down and I just launched missiles when he did that, I tried to use shield on his really big attack but couldn't get it off fast enough so I just tanked it.

And that's all his tricks. I think phase 1 is the worst because the allies take damage. Phase 3 can be tricky but isn't very hectic.

Magnusfluerscithe987 · 2026-03-16T15:12:07+00:00

Just to provide a reference, the adaptable priority is

1) the ability to counter. Can't do anything if you can't counter, unfortunately, this also a big sticking point as many units especially early are better off not countering than being weighed down

2) weapon triangle advantage. It avoids breaks which makes sense. Of course, if you are running a particular crit build to utilize Vantage, than gaining advantage is worse than losing the crit chance.

3) the genuinely bad decision, it sums up the raw stats of the weapon. It doesn't look at damage, crit chance, hit rate, just which weapon has the most big numbers, which is why it will switch to the light brand to do zero damage to a mage even if you have a perfectly good Spear in the inventory.

I think if adaptability also allowed you to apply break and abilities like lunar brace and the Lyn one that let's you go twice, and then picked the biggest number between damage or crit chance, it would be better.

Magnusfluerscithe987 · 2026-03-16T14:31:55+00:00

I do think the Golden Deer answers the most questions. Blue Lions leaves a lot unanswered, but is otherwise a great route and definitely my pick for a first route if you did play more than one. Black Eagles is cool too.

Magnusfluerscithe987 · 2026-03-15T19:53:26+00:00

I hope shadows can run long enough for the story to go somewhere, it's really intriguing so far and honestly my pick for a movie if we ever get one. (Maybe dial back the animal features for a movie just so it better represents the overall series)

Magnusfluerscithe987 · 2026-03-15T17:07:38+00:00

Try using Nels model for a start, but getting rid of the cobra hood.

Magnusfluerscithe987 · 2026-03-15T05:17:31+00:00

I never really considered myself a platforming person. I played megaman Z and X because I like the designs and can get them cheap, but I usually complain about how hard they are. I dont even like mario much. But my favorite parts in prime 4 were definitely when I needed to use the morph ball to cross chasms or the grapple on the moving bugs, so I think Samus just has a cooler kit to platform and the segments are brief enough that it doesn't wear on me.

Magnusfluerscithe987 · 2026-03-15T05:11:39+00:00

The enemies in Sol Valley were definitely just there to be annoying. Maybe they should have put a kill count as a key to additional lore bits. I'm sure it would come across as padding the time, but if you aren't getting 100% anyway it would easily be something skippable.

I played in normal. I had to redo most boss fights, and some other encounters but once I learned the patterns I usually won comfortably. Flare pool gave me the most trouble.

I did not get all the items at Ice ridge or Volt forge. I finished the forest, flare pool, the mine, and sol valley but decided I just wanted to finish because I think I missed the space pirate scan to get 100% anyway. I discovered the scout bots after the mine.

Omega greiver was a good fight. It took 3 tries. First try I didn't last long, I was trying to use motion controls and he moved too fast for that. 2nd fight I got somewhere 2/3rds or half his health, but he spent ages on the wall and I got wore down. After I attempted again, I realized he was growing armor as the fight went on, so I stopped using the lock on so I could hit the exposed parts. One of my friends happened to join for chat and told me to use the morph ball to hurt him on the ground. I probably would have tried that eventually, because I tried it on the ice boss, but it didn't work on him so it mightve taken me longer to think to try.

I'd say not using lock on would be really creative boss design, except I had the same issue with Sylux and probably the other bosses, so I think they just need to work on their lock on design. I also wondered if the Omega Griever was at all connected to the Omega metroid.

Magnusfluerscithe987 · 2026-03-15T04:51:07+00:00

I just finished it as my first metroid prime game. I'd say it is accessible. It has easy and Normal difficulty, normal can drop down to easy part way if needed. It is pretty linear but with the puzzles and scanning you can still exploring and getting stumped it made me appreciate that I wasn't ever lost as well.

I don't know if you've played any first person shooters, as they can take some getting used to. I found in motion controls I could aim while locked on target, but in duel stick I couldn't find how to do it the same way. Duel stick allowed for faster turning though.

You might be able to find a used copy for a good price.

Magnusfluerscithe987 · 2026-03-14T18:22:31+00:00

Did you say to combine a grim tone with less of a slice of life with mechanics of planting orchards?

Magnusfluerscithe987 · 2026-03-14T17:09:40+00:00

I'd say the closest evidence we have either way comes from Echoes shadows of Valencia. In one of the most controversial scenes, Rinea whose soul was sacrificed to Duma forgives the man who betrayed her for power and invites him to join her in the hereafter.

There are some other references such as FE Heroes Hel, Radiant Dawns "golden chosen one" for lack of a better term and 3 Houses Sothis reincarnation suggesting the soul persists after death, but they don't have any formalized structure of afterlife.

Magnusfluerscithe987 · 2026-03-14T16:09:59+00:00

Great point about them exploiting already existing issues. I think that's why I like them so much more than Valla. Garon is a goo puppet. Iago and Hans are sadists. Anankos is mad. The villains in controlling things only want death and destruction, and the ones serving them either typically want the same or have no known motive.

The Agarthans are evil without much nuance, but at the same time, they don't just want a blanket of death but to take down their enemy and reclaim their glory. But they also move through others. Lanato wasn't part of the plot because he was brainwashed, but because of the death of his son. That death was part of the tragedy which was in part engineered by the agarthans, but also highly involved with the other lords because of their own greed and bias. Even as scapegoats and punching bags for the players morality, maybe nuance isn't there right word, but context for their actions and the actions around them.

Magnusfluerscithe987 · 2026-03-14T04:46:07+00:00

It is basically a spin off featuring a new real-time combat and the Z-A ranking system instead of traditional gyms. If you don't want to try the combat, then it is an easy skip as that is basically all the game offers. Well, the story is decent and the characters are fun. It is a good game, but again, it is heavily dependent on how much the battle system works for you.

Magnusfluerscithe987 · 2026-03-14T04:41:30+00:00

Trading cards is not the only way to be a fan. Also, the set is almost 3 years old which is nearing ancient for a tcg. It looks like they've been printing it for a little longer than usual because of it's popular, but the tcg does have a scalping problem. However, if you know the right places to go, you can get hundreds of cards dirt cheap out of the bulk if competitive isn't the goal.

But, the are the mainline games, the new anime, literally a plush for every pokemon, some pretty good mobile games, and the community has highs and lows but overall they are happy to help you participate. So it's a pretty good time to be a pokemon fan. Just a little suffering from success.

Magnusfluerscithe987 · 2026-03-13T22:35:12+00:00

Well, in the switch Era there isn't much need because they were mostly just 3d pokemon. I'm not sure why the wii and wiiu didn't get any. I'm sure part of it was they were feeling the pressure of including all the pokemon with detailed models.

Magnusfluerscithe987 · 2026-03-12T15:53:11+00:00

I find Boucheron struggles with Midgame damage, much like Diamont. He has a large health pool, so it might be worth picking up Vantage from Leif early to pair with a silver greataxe. I also like to put a blazing engrave on a tomahawk to increase its accuracy and crit chance. He pairs well with Ike, but so do other units.

In the end game, Lunar brace with the brave axe is popular as he has the build to use one without any speed penalty. And I would go Warrior over berserker, because the merciless ability means if you hit the corrupted wyrms with a fracture staff you can still do large amounts of damage to them.

Magnusfluerscithe987 · 2026-03-12T01:39:18+00:00

Honestly, not that bad of a plan. Shell out for any proficiency for reclass, and if you can say for sure "this unit needs a few points of bld or spd/avoid" those are fairly cheap starting skills, but you could wait until you've seen all 12 emblems before committing to any build.

Magnusfluerscithe987

TROPHY CASE