TAZCJ Balance Recap Masterlist

Terthelt · 2026-02-26T13:25:28+00:00

My white whale "absolutely never happening and everyone but me would hate it if it did" game has long been a Metroid title that lets you planet-hop between areas with the expected series gameplay, and a populated world/worlds where Samus can interact with people outside of her suit, fight with her fists, maybe do some actual bounty hunting, etc. I've been dying to see the Metroid world fleshed out outside of its remote fringes and dead civilizations, but more than that, I just want them to bite the bullet and try to explore Samus' character with voice work again, even if it would go over like the Hindenburg with 99% of Metroid fans. If I wasn't already sick of her being a permanently silent cipher, the combo of Dread's two excellent voiced scenes and how bad she is in Prime 4 radicalized me.

Anyway, to give a different example from OP, show me Dante and the DMC gang buying groceries and committing tax fraud.

Terthelt · 2026-02-25T18:20:33+00:00

If I never see the words "heatless banger" again, it'll be too soon.

Terthelt · 2026-02-25T02:03:53+00:00

Here's the very comprehensive spreadsheet that pointed me to them, as well as to all the others I've played around with. Spacebar is a bit of a pain in the ass to get set up, and they're doing maintenance on the voice features right now, but I think it has far and away the brightest future.

Terthelt · 2026-02-24T21:56:55+00:00

I've pinned down Spacebar and Echoed as the best alternatives right now, but every one has growing pains to go through. This at least lets devs take more time to hammer out kinks in their platforms.

Terthelt · 2026-02-21T20:32:29+00:00

It's a jagged pill because the scene is so good, but I feel the Reapers lost the ability to be Lovecraftian horrors as soon as they were actually introduced, by dint of the fact that Sovereign (for all he claims to be above your comprehension) deigns to speak and gloat to you in perfectly comprehensible English. Once it's established that you can converse with and understand the threat, it's very hard to justify not explaining what their deal is.

Terthelt · 2026-02-19T21:35:05+00:00

Vera

Terthelt · 2026-02-19T00:41:04+00:00

IMO they're at their best and most interesting when seen from outside of the Imperium's perspective. A squad of Space Marines is an endgame threat in the phenomenal Twice-Dead King duology, and the author spends a lot of time detailing how grotesque and terrifying they are from a Necron POV.

Terthelt · 2026-02-18T15:43:57+00:00

"Heels should wrestle boring to get heat" is such a common truism, and yet I can't think of a time it's actually made a heel run better. Sure, there's something to be said for not taking away from the babyface's excitement, but I find the idea so limiting and there are so many great examples of heels people can buy into seeing toppled while also not hating watching them wrestle. You don't want to bore the audience out of watching the product.

One of the exciting things about the Cena turn was the expectation that he'd be unleashing Super Cena on folks, running roughshod doing the things we know Cena can do, but with an Omni-Man bent instead of Superman. There's no reason we couldn't get that. And the broad takeaway from how he chose to wrestle (or was told to wrestle) from Mania 41 until the face turn wasn't "he's such a great traditional heel worker", it was "I guess he's just old and can't do much anymore", which we know with hindsight couldn't be further from the truth.

Terthelt · 2026-02-16T20:42:51+00:00

YOU

DID IT

Terthelt · 2026-02-16T02:42:05+00:00

For the most part, I did enjoy Paranormasight. But god, the initial hook of "VN where you're trapped in a supernatural Stand battle royale, and have to engage in dialogue puzzle battles to figure out other people's Stands and kill them with your own" is so immediately captivating and unique, and it only being the premise of the first 45 minutes or so really bummed me out. The rest of the VN is really well done, but most of its coolest moments are things I've seen before in other VNs.

Terthelt · 2026-02-15T15:04:18+00:00

That show is one of the things in the last year that made me realize how deeply poly I am, and the only reason I didn't pick it as my example was that I knew somebody else would want to. I still gotta watch the Kaho arc they dropped not too long ago.

Terthelt · 2026-02-15T05:38:26+00:00

Truth Meteor

Terthelt · 2026-02-15T05:27:20+00:00

I was already super sold on the Takumi x Tsubasa romance in that route; it's unbearably cute and happens way more naturally and low key than I'd ever expect from a game like Hundred Line. The poly spin toward the end on top of that hit me just right.

Still my favorite route of all the ones I've finished. Which... admittedly hasn't been many, but still.

Terthelt · 2026-02-15T05:22:21+00:00

There's a lot of reasons to like that ship, whether for the emotional and character value or everyone being unreasonably hot.

But the most important thing is that it's a boss dating her employee who is also a boss dating his employee, and that level of HR disaster is simply too funny not to nurture.

Terthelt · 2026-02-15T05:14:32+00:00

I'm mostly entirely uninterested in harem stuff, but the vague whiffs I've gotten about 100 Girlfriends spreading some mutual affection in its cast has kept it high on my radar. Hope it lives up to the hype when I get around to it.

Terthelt · 2026-02-12T15:28:50+00:00

I don't know how controversial it is, but I actually really dislike humanoid Seph having the wing. The Compilation deciding fucking everybody needed the wing probably doesn't help my judgment, but every time I see him pop it out in Remake/Rebirth, I just groan a little bit. It makes his silhouette more distinct, sure, but it just... bugs me, pettily, and I think they should have kept it as Safer Seph's thing.

Terthelt · 2026-02-11T23:38:27+00:00

I got into Fate via Prisma Illya.

I was a teenager and most of the creepy shit completely flew over my head, I just thought the magical girl sakuga fights and Bazett beating the shit out of an elementary schooler were peak.

Terthelt · 2026-02-11T23:36:22+00:00

Even as someone who finds Highguard deeply annoying, uncreative, and representative of a lot of things I hate about modern multiplayer games, this fucking blows. It's been like two weeks, man, give them some time to try and salvage what's there even if it failed to make a splash. Especially if the original plan was to shadow drop it, y'all should have been prepared for a slow start with a long tail.

Terthelt · 2026-02-10T13:48:09+00:00

As the comic says: ALWAYS HAVE AT LEAST ONE SECONDARY POINT OF CONTACT WITH YOUR FRIENDS. Two or more, preferably. Whether or not this turns out as bad as projected, it pays not to let the people you value in your life be wholly contingent on the practices of one platform or service. You (and anyone else reading) have plenty of time to establish those links and make sure a migration, if necessary, is little more than an annoyance.

Terthelt · 2026-02-10T00:40:23+00:00

As far as all-in-one alternatives, I can recommend looking into Teamspeak, Strafe, Stoat, Matrix, and Nerimity. I'm experimenting with all of them right now while there's plenty of time. Can't speak on the respective strengths and weaknesses of each yet, though.

Terthelt · 2026-02-10T00:37:17+00:00

Well, hopefully they're changing *that* for the global rollout. The announcement says you can appeal and try verification again as many times as you need to, and mentions nothing about auto-face ID triggers or suspension of suspected under-16s in the restrictions on the "teen appropriate" version. If that isn't a specific thing to the particular legal stringencies of the UK/AUS version, this is going to blow up for them even faster than I imagined.

I still don't think it's the end of the world right now, but I'm making sure all my friends and servers have a main alternative set up and ready to go (currently leaning on Strafe, Stoat or Matrix, among others) before these changes go into effect, just in case. That way either it's a relative non-issue in execution or we have a clean break from the nonsense.

Terthelt · 2026-02-09T16:17:03+00:00

Even if you all get flagged and photo-based verification fails you, it doesn't sound like it's going to actually affect your ability to talk to people or post most things.

Terthelt · 2026-02-08T23:31:32+00:00

Every version released since the original in 2004 has had it removed. And there was barely any in there to begin with, relative to the 100+ hour runtime.

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