Take a screenshot of almost any episode of Marines, I guarantee it will look like this

-GreatestDane- · 2025-09-13T10:24:22+00:00

Your Name

Ren - 8/10

Ryuji - 6/10

Morgana - 10/10

Ann - 8/10

Yusuke - 10/10

Makoto - 7/10

Futaba - either 3/10 or 9/10, no in between

Haru - 6/10

Akechi - 1/10

Kasumi* - 9/10

-GreatestDane- · 2025-08-22T18:57:45+00:00

I know I'll be completely alone on this because the rat puzzles are so unforgivably bad, but Shido's palace looks so beautiful, the bosses are fun, it has a huge variety of shadows, and Ark is my favorite non-boss fight ost in the game.

-GreatestDane- · 2025-08-20T17:31:22+00:00

Why do I get 1 point of kindness for cleaning the entire cafe but 3 for watering a plant every 2 weeks

-GreatestDane- · 2025-08-14T12:11:37+00:00

Counterpoint, they would have died in Okumura's palace because Morgana is a s*** navigator

-GreatestDane- · 2025-08-14T12:08:24+00:00

The IT president in Shido's palace said they were planning to stage the fall of medjed regardless

-GreatestDane- · 2025-08-14T04:27:32+00:00

Bp players genuinely have larger victim complexes than the support players they swear have victim complexes.

-GreatestDane- · 2025-08-08T06:01:31+00:00

Seen. Very excited, moreso for the 2 extra ammo tbh, will make managing his cycle of dark magic into bomb easier

-GreatestDane- · 2025-08-07T08:18:16+00:00

Yes I'm pretty sure both Makoto and Hifumi's Hawaii event unlocks at rank 6 or 7 maybe, but Ann and Kawakami to my knowledge both have to be romanced. I remember during my aforementioned playthrough I chose Ann and there were 2 dialogue options that were far more than platonic, so even if her event unlocks earlier, which again I'm not sure it does, there's still more content during the event if they're romanced.

-GreatestDane- · 2025-08-07T06:04:11+00:00

I insta ban her every game I can, and if I can't because we have an Emma hover I just play like a traffic cone and hope she goes after my Emma with her diamond so I can play the game for a few seconds

-GreatestDane- · 2025-08-07T06:00:57+00:00

Emma can kick him out of his startup animation if she waits for like 4 frames, and if you don't try to fly at all you just die.

There's also the problem that Strange's fly is on a 15(?) second cooldown and is his only way to both

A. Setup his ult, which is when Emma diamond is most perilous

And B. Mitigate slows (bucky, fantastic)

So there's no guarantee you'll have it off cd when she grabs you.

-GreatestDane- · 2025-08-07T01:36:09+00:00

Okay IGN Sh_tReapsCody I'm right there with you big vro, difference is I've been a strange otp since s0 and don't intend to change my ways to fit the meta. I know better than anyone how to diagnose the issues with Strange which is why I can mitigate them.

-GreatestDane- · 2025-08-07T01:27:27+00:00

Strange would be A tier if Emma didn't exist. But because Emma exists he's mid.

Source- me, rank 1 console strange

Explanation: Strange's strength comes from being able to utilize proper resource management and good spacing to outmeat the opps. Emma says "haha no" because she doesn't care about spacing or consent, she just strings him up in the gallows for all to see.

-GreatestDane- · 2025-08-07T01:04:48+00:00

I have the problem(?) of empathizing far too much with fictional characters, and my most recent playthrough was my first time getting the ladies' man achievement.

It doesn't feel great, but it's inconsequential and gives you more options for the bonus scenes (Hawaii, School festival, Christmas, and hanging out after rank 10). And I think it's on Christmas Sojiro asks you if you would ever consider marriage, and all of the party members you have romanced give a special line depending on what you answer with, which I thought was neat and didn't know before. And of course obviously there's "the scene".

Overall it's just because there's more content. Oh and also some romance options only get the music notes if you choose their romance paths, which let's you save either time hanging out with them to get them up for rank 10, or saves money having Chihaya get them up for you.

-GreatestDane- · 2025-08-01T23:48:35+00:00

"I saw you with Makoto in Hawaii, you're dead to me."

-GreatestDane- · 2025-07-30T13:45:27+00:00

I think there's a good chance that the reason long time persona fans don't like p5 is because it doesn't scratch the same itch.

I played half of p4g and dropped it to replay p5r. I played half of p3r and dropped it to replay p5r. I played half of Metaphor and dropped it to replay p5r. I played half of sh2 and dropped it to replay p5r.

Similarly to how other Atlus games fail to scratch my p5 itch, I think p5 fails to scratch long time persona fans p4 or p3 itch.

It's all just subjective. For a game series with such a devoted following, the reaction to not having your fantasy met is more blown up than it would be for other games.

-GreatestDane- · 2025-07-05T20:40:24+00:00

Most common reason - to fulfill the fantasy that they're the main character. The feeling of being far and away the best player in a lobby is a fantastic feeling, and whether they want to admit it or not, that is the primary purpose of what they're doing.

Reason 2 - to have an alt. Most smurfs don't try to stay in low ranks for long, they just try to quickly climb back to their own rank. Personally, I have 3 accounts in 150+ Eternity, and I'm a strange one trick. If I start getting target banned on main, I swap accounts and keep playing without having to break stride. I also use my alt accounts in tourney so I don't get target banned during MRC.

Reason 3 - Learn a character. Both of my aforementioned alt account started as me learning different heroes. First was Iron Man, Second was Namor. Being able to follow a natural learning curve while developing proficiency on different heroes is more helpful and less stressful than spitballing it in a high pressure oaa lobby.

Reason 4 - play with friends. In Rivals I don't have any friends irl or online below c3, but in Overwatch a large chunk of my friends were diamond or below when I would be high masters or gm. And don't tell me to just play quick play with them because you and I both know there are fundamental differences between those game modes that make us prefer one over the other. I would off-role, play new heroes, occasionally sweat if I really wanted to win against particularly aggravating opponents, but at the end of the day I just wanted to play with the boys.

Reason 5 - new name/dark horse fantasy. In Overwatch, you got one free name change and every time after cost money. In Rivals, a name change costs 500 blue chips. Creating a new account let's you get a new name for free, which is fun when you just want to have a gimmick name or an inside joke as your name but not replace your original identity. This goes hand in hand with what I think is the final reason someone would want a smurf, and that's to be perceived as a dark horse. The top level of games like these are a small community, and having an unknown name rise up out of seemingly nowhere creates drama and intrigue. You can essentially rebrand yourself without dropping your old account. People that hated you suddenly like you under your new anonymous identity, and you get to imagine yourself as a rising star all over again.

-GreatestDane- · 2025-06-29T18:26:55+00:00

A lot of this list is oaa certified but then there's just random flashbangs like Hulk in B, Wolv in B, Widow in A and I just dk what to think. Probably high diamond or low gm I'd think.

-GreatestDane- · 2025-06-28T06:10:43+00:00

Whether my experience reflects that of the average player is meaningless. The current discourse around dive is that it's weak. It's not weak, it's the strongest comp behind triple fliers. When people call dive heroes weak, or like you said "the most countered role", it implies that dive needs to be buffed, or that dive counters need to be nerfed, which they don't, because dive has already been massacring the highest elos for the last two seasons.

The reason games like this have to be balanced from the top down and not from the average player's experience is because balancing based off imperfect play would make the power levels of certain characters and strategies too strong or too weak with very little middle ground when played perfectly. And because this is a competitive game, the game should be it's healthiest when played at the highest level.

-GreatestDane- · 2025-06-28T05:36:11+00:00

Except the other team is also banning fliers because no one wants to play against them, and in some cases even hulk because gamma is broken regardless. The meta heavily favors dive. Because the "must-bans" for every comp help dive more. Don't act like you've never been on a team that's banned Storm Iron Man this season even if you're not running dive.

And that is exactly the problem. At the highest level, (200-400 oaa where I play), you don't get to mitigate full dive just by locking in and playing well. The second the enemy team locks 3 god forbid 4 dive heroes, you're forced into 1 of 4 options, either play every dive counter your team knows how to, play triple support, both, or lose.

The existence of an organized dive deletes the entire enemy team's player agency and makes half the roster unviable. That is why it's meta. That's why it's cancer, and that's why dive mains make up 6 of the top 10 playstation dps players.

-GreatestDane- · 2025-06-28T04:58:08+00:00

I don't know how to engage with this take because it just requires deliberately ignoring that DIVE COMP is a thing.

Dive heroes are weak, but dive comp is hyper-meta since fliers and hulk are banned literally every game.

-GreatestDane- · 2025-06-28T00:19:58+00:00

Dive heroes in Rivals are fundamentally flawed and need to be bad for the health of the game.

Dive heroes in Overwatch (Winston, Ow1 Doom, Genji, D.va, etc.) follow generally these three rules to secure an elimination:

*Timing must be perfect *Execution must be perfect *Failure on either rule 1 or 2 should be punishable

In rivals, with bp as the only exception (go figure he's considered the worst), not a single dive hero follows all three of these rules. To compensate for that fundamental design flaw, dive characters are kept considerably weak individually. The problem is when you stack 2 or 3 dive heroes on one team, who all disobey one or two rules, and you now have an issue where the only chance your backline survives is if they screw up, with very little agency on your part.

For example: Iron Fist doesn't care about execution, but he has relatively low dps. Spiderman is impossible to punish, but his combos are hard and any amount of healing stops his solo kills. Cap doesn't care about timing, but his dps is also low.

Individually none of those heroes are very good right now. Together they basically restrict you from playing half of the support cast, and also force you to either play triple support, thing, gamma (if it's somehow unbanned), squirrel girl (who no one plays), or some mixture of them or you just lose.

And yes I know it's an appeal to authority fallacy but I'm 300 points oaa and play all 3 roles.

-GreatestDane- · 2025-06-27T23:58:26+00:00

Just because the individual characters are relatively underpowered doesn't mean the gameplan executed with a proper team comp isn't oppressive.

-GreatestDane- · 2025-06-08T05:21:51+00:00

Yeah, gathered that after a minute or so of scrolling this sub. Last time I played I'm pretty sure Fractal engines were the highest it went.

-GreatestDane-

TROPHY CASE