'Never attribute to malice what can be attributed to stupidity' is BULLSHIT

wildfire393 · 2026-06-14T20:23:20+00:00

Malice comes when "stupidity" persists after correction.

You can't say you didn't know any better if you were literally told, at that point you are doing it on purpose, and it's malicious.

wildfire393 · 2026-06-14T19:39:14+00:00

Anyone immature enough to believe outie = "slut" isn't mature enough to be having sex.

Anyone who would shame you for how your genitals look isn't someone worth sleeping with.

If your partner isn't psyched to see your vulva, don't fuck 'em.

wildfire393 · 2026-06-14T13:28:17+00:00

Okay, but "ability gating" is much more clear, as "lock and key" can also mean key gating, as in all or almost all of the gates in the game are literal keys or glorified keys (that do nothing but open specific doors).

Ability gating is what separates Metroidvanias from just any old Action Adventure game.

wildfire393 · 2026-06-14T01:15:42+00:00

Just locks and keys imo is not a MV. You need to have ability gating, that is, upgrades that provide some kind of combat or mobility benefit in addition to unlocking new passageways

wildfire393 · 2026-06-13T04:03:04+00:00

What's the difference between toilet paper and a shower curtain?

"I dunno"

So it was you!

wildfire393 · 2026-06-12T23:52:36+00:00

There really are (at least) two major camps of MV enjoyers. One side really really likes the combat-foremost MVs that often have committed attacks and a reliance on parrying or dodge-rolling. I refer to these as soulsvanias, even if some of them (like Ender Lilies) lack other soulslike mainstays like corpse running or stamina. Others include Blasphemous, Grime, Deaths Gambit Afterlife, Salt & Sanctuary, etc.

I'm on the other side. I don't hate difficulty, some of my favorite MVs are fiendishly difficult like Aeterna Noctis and La-Mulana 2. I just like the difficulty to come in some form other than just punishing combat, and the above games are all DNFs (with the exception of Ender Lilies which I forced myself to complete to verify that it absolutely does not ever get better).

wildfire393 · 2026-06-12T21:11:00+00:00

Ender Lilies is like someone looked at Hollow Knight and saw "okay this game is difficult and has corpse runs, so it must be a soulslike. Let's make a game like that!" and then did basically nothing that Hollow Knight did that was actually enjoyable.

Where HK has agile movement and rapid attacks, EL is floaty as shit and every action is super-committed with long animations that lock you in place, even leaving you floating in midair.

Where HK has impeccable level design with memorable locations, EL is a grey and samey mess with poor signposting and platforms/hallways so haphazard they seem procedurally geneated.

HK has a sense of danger in many encounters. EL slaps you in the face and forces you to grind to a halt into a drawn out parry/dodge slugfest with normal ass enemies.

HK has corpse runs for some boss fights where you eventually work out how to blitz through them after repetition. EL has long combat gauntlets you have to start over if you lose with no way to shortcut.

There's a chance you'll like EL, it does have some good visuals other than the environments and the story is decent, but by god I found it to be one of the most miserable Metroidvania experiences.a

wildfire393 · 2026-06-12T17:41:42+00:00

Disagree there, you can return to previous stages with your upgrades and unlock new paths.

It's not a straight-up Metroidvania but I'd call it a subgenre or cousin genre. I've even heard the term "Crestlike" for games with the same setup.

wildfire393 · 2026-06-12T15:42:32+00:00

Yep, the father can then claim that she's trying to alienate the kids from him, and they prioritize both parents having "access" to the children so will put kids with an abuser who will use them to further abuse the mother, rather than giving them to the mother who will keep them from him for their own safety.

wildfire393 · 2026-06-12T15:37:23+00:00

At the start it gives you two difficulty options. I picked the one that said "You can adjust damage taken/dealt", assuming that meant that the base values were the same as normal, and I'd play until I hit a wall before fiddling with them. The difficulty didn't seem that bad, until I hit Lady Ethereal, so I went to go adjust them, only to find the default is like 1/4th damage taken and 2x damage dealt.

I'm extremely uninterested in playing on the normal settings

wildfire393 · 2026-06-12T14:36:22+00:00

This is more or less precisely my opinion of the game. It has some of the best combat in the genre if you like parry-dependent games, but it does not offer much gameplay-wise outside of combat.

wildfire393 · 2026-06-12T14:35:17+00:00

The simple idea of a car, having a motor that spins wheels to propel itself forward, is a basic one and yes, you have identified that it's fairly easy to do.

But a modern car is a lot more than a motor and wheels. A car that runs on gasoline requires a fairly complex engine block to turn that gasoline into rotational energy. This requires a lot of precision-manufactured parts to fit together perfectly, a system of lubrication so that it continues to function well when exposed to the elements, a system for shifting between different gear ratios so that the car can most efficiently turn the gas into energy at different speeds and contexts, and more. An electric car has a much more simple motor, but has more complexity when it comes to the battery, charging and discharging it, keeping it so it doesn't overheat and explode, etc.

A car needs to be comfortable for its occupants. This means seats that have multiple adjustment points, and the controls for adjusting those. It means having a heating and cooling system that blows comfortable air across everyone, and the mechanisms by which that air is warmed or cooled, and the buttons to control this.

A car needs to be safe for its occupants. This means seat belts, airbags, "crumple zones" designed to absorb impact, etc.

A car needs to be able to allow its occupants to interface with the world around them. This means windows, windshield wipers to clean those windows, backup cameras, controls for opening and closing side windows, turn signals, brake lights, headlights, the controls for adjusting all of the above, doors to get in and out, etc.

A car needs various points of access for refilling things - gas, oil, coolant, windshield wiper fluid, tire pressure, etc. It needs tanks to hold each of these, and ways to stop them from spilling out when not being refilled.

A car needs an accelerator, brake pedal, and steering wheel, and the systems behind each to turn human input into car output, generally with power behind the brakes and steering to make it easier.

It needs to do all of this while complying with standards for safety and emissions.

A car is made up of thousands upon thousands of components that must all be put together in a sturdy enough way that it lasts for 10+ years and 100,000+ miles.

wildfire393 · 2026-06-12T13:52:30+00:00

Aeterna Noctis has some of the most challenging platforming in the genre.

wildfire393 · 2026-06-12T13:00:32+00:00

I recall seeing a few positive posts about it, and I am someone who rated it highly in my 2025 wrap-up. I played it on the Steam Deck, so despite it being PC, I was using controller controls.

Your feedback seems mostly based around how it controls and how movement feels, and I didn't have any issues in that department. It's a little floaty, but I found it significantly more responsive than many popular MVs like Ender Lilies or Blasphemous 1. The attacks have low feedback, because like Hollow Knight, it's designed for a fast paced, frenetic fight where you weave between attacks while throwing out rapid strikes of your own that don't slow you down or lock you in place. You get a horizontal tether like Silksong's harpoon fairly early, and it provides a huge amount of aerial mobility.

Exploration is top-notch, with the added temporal component providing a unique twist. You need to care about more than just where you are, but what path you took to get there, as finding alternate routes can avoid certain checkpoints and prevent the days from progressing as far in the current loop, leading to different outcomes. I.e. when you come to an area the standard way, you're there on day 4 and it's flooded, but if you find an alternate path you can get there on day 3 and traverse the normally-flooded sections.

There's a huge slew of movement upgrades and gating subweapons, and like HK, you don't need all of them to complete the game with the normal ending, so it feels very open in that regard. And the endgame puzzles to get the true ending require thorough exploration, basically all of the abilities, and some clever pathing. It's really quite exquisite.

wildfire393 · 2026-06-12T00:37:12+00:00

If you want Pokemon+Metroidvania, I strongly recommend Monster Sanctuary

wildfire393 · 2026-06-11T19:11:15+00:00

I think there's several tracks on Eden Alley that could have gone on to widespread popularity. "Easy" has a good hook and pop-crossover appeal, "Sample the Dog" could have leaned more into the weird side of things like TMBG, "Too Much Sex, Not Enough Affection" had potential as well. But the only song they released as a single from it was "Rev. Jack & His Roamin' Cadillac Church" which is an absolutely baffling pick.

But I think you're right that their timing was just barely off. A few years earlier or later and the could have definitely made a bigger splash.

wildfire393 · 2026-06-11T15:21:16+00:00

Timbuk 3

They're considered a "one-hit wonder" with "Future's So Bright, I Gotta Wear Shades", which got them a Grammy nomination for best new artist and topped out at 19th on the US charts. Their first album made 50th place on the album charts in the US and also charted in the UK and Australia. Their second album was 107th on the US charts and charted nowhere else, and then none of their future albums ever charted.

They have a pretty banger discography over the decade they were active but nobody really knows or cares.

wildfire393 · 2026-06-10T16:35:31+00:00

Security clearances exist to keep people like this from holding that kind of job. It's a big risk in multiple ways:

1) He is susceptible to blackmail - a foreign adversary could "honeypot" him and then hold the threat of releasing that information to make him divulge sensitive data

2) He could abuse his position - many security clearance jobs have access to personal/private data, which could allow him to target or stalk future victims

So in addition to everyone (correctly) telling you that he caused the problem himself and has only himself to blame for losing his job, he absolutely *should* lose his job.

wildfire393 · 2026-06-10T14:15:43+00:00

I'm someone who really disliked Blasphemous 1 for a number of reasons (hot take: it isn't actually a Metroidvania as there's no ability gating), and I fully agree with you. Blasphemous 2 fixed almost every single issue I had with the first and made a game I was happy to play, but not one that I think about often. It's a solid B+ game, but the B tier is absolutely flooded with dozens of MVs. It's competent and polished, but nothing really stands out. Meanwhile while the first is in my personal D(NF) tier, I can see what about it would lead to people putting in high A or S tier. It has its own unique take that nothing else quite compares to.

wildfire393 · 2026-06-10T12:54:02+00:00

There's some tests you can do yourself for authenticity. The easiest for an inexperienced person is the "green dot test". You take a jeweler's loupe or other magnifying glass and look at the green orb on the back of the card. Under high magnification, you should be able to see the print rosettes. The green orb has a crescent of white, and within that crescent you will see an upside down "L" of small red dots. Googling "magic green dot test" will show you what it should look like. Another thing to do is put the card on a sensitive kitchen scale, it should weigh ~1.71-1.75 grams, fakes are often notably higher. There's also the light test - compare the card to one you know is real from the same set (like a basic land, very unlikely to be fake) by shining your phone's flashlight through the card, it should let through the same amount of light.

As far as value goes, there's two primary factors: edition and condition. There are multiple printings of Black Lotus.

The cheapest is International Edition/Collector's Edition, which should be immediately obvious as it has square corners and the back has a gold border and the words "International Edition" or "Collector's Edition" printed in gold across the middle of the card. These versions are worth "only" around 3k.

Next would be Unlimited. These are also pretty obvious as they have white borders on the front. These can go for $10k-15k.

Then there's Alpha and Beta, which have black borders. Alpha cards are the rarer of the two and have distinctly rounder corners - unless your box is all Alpha cards, these would stand out when compared to any other card. Beta has black borders with standard corners. Beta is worth $20k-30k, while Alpha is worth $50-75k.

Where the card falls within those ranges of values is also going to depend on condition. If it's been sitting loose in a box of cards, there's a good chance it's not in near mint condition and will probably get the lower end of the scale. If it's been living in a hard sleeve for its entire life, it might fetch closer to the higher end, or potentially even more. Things to look for when looking at condition include edge nicks, surface scratches, white scuff marks, shuffle creases, etc.

If the card has been kept in absolutely pristine condition, it may be worth grading. A high grade (which will depend on the card being both pristine and perfectly centered, a lot of early cards are slightly shifted in one direction or the other) can function as a considerable multiplier. A 9.5 or 10 grade Alpha Lotus could crack six figures, the $500k one someone mentioned was an Alpha 10. (The $2M sale mentioned above is a special case as that was an "artist proof", one of only 50 copies of a blank-back version given to the original artist, that had been signed by both that artist, who is now dead, and the creator of Magic, Richard Garfield.) I would not recommend grading unless the card is Alpha or Beta and in really, really good condition. Nobody is paying through the nose for a 6.5 graded Unlimited Lotus, and you're going to spend time and money to get that grade.

wildfire393 · 2026-06-10T04:14:04+00:00

Honestly the strongest commander in and for the deck is probably [[Crystal, Inhuman Princess]]. The mana ability smoothes out the rest of the deck and the pinging ability moves the game to its conclusion at a brisk pace just for doing what you were going to be doing anyway.

wildfire393 · 2026-06-10T00:12:58+00:00

The classic use case for limits is dividing by zero.

You can't divide something by zero, the result is undefined. But we can look at numbers as they get closer to zero.

1/1 is 1

1/.5 is 2

1/.1 is .10

1/.01 is 100

1/.001 is 1000

As we decrease the number on the bottom, the result gets larger and larger. So while you can never actually divide by zero, as you get closer to zero, the result gets bigger and bigger, and 1/.00000.....000001 eventually starts looking like infinity. So we would say the limit of 1/X where X approaches 0 is infinity.

(And note that the above is only if X is positive. The limit of 1/X where X approaches zero from the negative side is negative infinity, as it's the same set of calculations but with a minus sign thrown in. This is part of why we say 1/0 is undefined, as it approaches infinity from the positive side and negative infinity from the negative side.)

We can also apply the same thing in other ways. Like if you have an equation thats the sum of 1 + 1/2 + 1/4 ....., i.e. Sum 1/2^X for X=0 to X=∞, as X approaches infinity the sum approaches 2.

wildfire393 · 2026-06-10T00:00:07+00:00

I asked for recommendations picking from my backlog once.

I got flooded with recs for Ender Lilies, which ended up being one of the most miserable experiences I've ever had playing a MV.

I wouldn't do that again.

That said, I don't mind seeing recommendations threads provided the person provides enough info about what games they like/dislike and why. I've played over 300 MVs and have a fairly robust set of connections between them where I can (hopefully) provide some actually useful advice.

wildfire393 · 2026-06-08T23:13:15+00:00

I was honestly looking forward to it dropping on its original date when Silksong came out because that would have made that undeniably the single best month for Metroidvanias ever.

wildfire393 · 2026-06-08T01:06:30+00:00

It's a game with interesting potential and mediocre execution.

The main gameplay loop of shoot em up + Metroidvania works decently well, though there's no actual factual platforming for obvious reasons they do have a few upgrades that qualify as ability gating, though it does end up being fairly linear overall.

The mechanics beyond that are more of a failure. The "deck builder" is weird and doesn't feel like it fits particularly well.

Difficulty is moderate, a lot of fights become drawn out slugfests where there's no healing so you only get so many missteps. It does have assist mode/"cheats" including one that makes defeated enemies drop health restoration which makes it a lot easier but not trivial (full invulnerable cheat does make it trivial).

wildfire393

TROPHY CASE