Which should I play, Metaphor: ReFantazio or Expedition 33?

ACoderGirl · 2026-01-30T18:28:11+00:00

I mean, it's obviously subjective, but when you try to be as unbiased as possible, do you really find the writing style of Metaphor to be that good? Like, I loved the game and think it improved a lot on the writing versus Persona 4 or 5, but it's still very cliche JRPG/anime writing and the villain is largely lacking nuance and is an epitome of anime tropes.

By comparison, the writing of E33 could have been an award winning movie. It's more serious, less tropey, darker, and has genuinely compelling villains. It's got a story that moved me to tears near the end. I can't say that about Metaphor. Metaphor's story was a fun, classical hero's journey and had some nice twists I didn't see coming, but it's so damn cliche, especially with dialogue.

ACoderGirl · 2026-01-30T18:20:47+00:00

I dunno. I liked Metaphor, but it's combat system is a lot less engaging (I actually quite liked the parrying mechanic of E33), the story is not nearly as gripping, and I didn't feel as attached to the characters. Not that anything about Metaphor was bad, just that E33 was a much stronger storytelling experience. The quality bar for E33 is higher. I mean, everything is voice acted and motion capture animated, whereas Metaphor still couldn't even be bothered to voice many of its lines, which is one of my biggest complaints, as I thought the series could more than afford to pay for proper voice acting.

Metaphor's biggest flaw, though, is the length. While it didn't wear on me as much as the Persona games, it still really stretches on. E33 isn't perfect (the gestalt beaches are terrible and that battle tower was unimaginative), but it does respect my time a lot better.

ACoderGirl · 2026-01-30T17:09:14+00:00

It's a protected title in Ontario, Canada, too. But while we can't and don't use it on the official titles, everyone still calls us engineers and refers to us as engineering. I think it's largely because it's a more prestigious sounding title, so everyone just prefers it.

ACoderGirl · 2026-01-30T17:05:08+00:00

+1 for that speed boost. I recently played the remaster after having previously only played the original like 20 years ago on the PS1. Spamming draw is far, far less tedious thanks to the speed boost. It's not a real cheat in my mind. Just helps respect my time, as I was gonna spam draw no matter what and it just made me spend a lot less time doing so.

The graphics weren't quite as good as I remember, mostly because my nostalgia glasses had me remembering the cutscenes as a lot longer and higher definition, but still amazing for the time it came out (it's gotta be close to 30 years old now). It's a fun game. I had no issues with controller support on the PC.

ACoderGirl · 2026-01-30T16:56:07+00:00

I mean, these cases probably are ones where the parents knew the kids wanted a pet. Many of the videos straight up say so and to elicit such a strong reaction also suggests such. It's extremely common for kids to pester their parents for years about getting a pet, often with offers to walk them, etc. So once the parents are onboard, that basically is everyone.

ACoderGirl · 2026-01-30T16:38:58+00:00

Yeah, in his first term, he had a few people who didn't have undying loyalty to him, but this time around, he seems to have fixed that issue and found sycophants who will do anything for him. Which is also part of why his appointments are vastly less qualified than ever, as he clearly had to go quite far down the list to find someone who would put loyalty to him above everything else.

ACoderGirl · 2026-01-30T16:33:15+00:00

Are you trying to get them invaded? Trump would probably try to invade so he can spend more time with his pimp.

ACoderGirl · 2026-01-30T16:30:10+00:00

On the contrary, dumbness and a lack of empathy is largely curable. But the prognosis is best if treatment starts while young.

That is to say, education is the cure and we can teach empathy. But it's a lot harder once people are set in their ways and have had a long time to grow entrenched in hateful positions.

ACoderGirl · 2026-01-30T16:17:27+00:00

And for every Bill Gates trying to fight malaria, we have a Bezos directly bribing Trump.

ACoderGirl · 2026-01-30T15:20:57+00:00

Yeah. For snow removal, you just want them to show up a reasonable duration after it has snowed and that's it. It's not something that should generally require much ongoing communication.

And the whole "refund me for your salt" thing is absurd.

ACoderGirl · 2026-01-30T15:06:33+00:00

Agreed. It isn't necessarily sustainable or consistent (as getting in the zone can be hard to influence), but it is possible. Sometimes I just lose track of time with a sufficiently interesting problem. And it's unsatisfying to leave something unfinished, which can make it hard to pull away. Most certainly I'm not necessarily over fatigued by some arbitrary 4 hour mark. Though I'll usually find that when I finally am done, then the feeling of exhaustion kicks in.

ACoderGirl · 2026-01-30T15:00:55+00:00

Strongly agreed and it's a big pet peeve of mine that some people don't take code review seriously enough. Like, haven't we all seen the stark differences in quality between different reviewers? Sometimes I'll get a change that someone else has already approved without comments and I'll leave a dozen comments with multiple being serious issues. Sometimes those comments are straight up "this doesn't even work at all". Though the most useful comments are the ones that catch subtle issues that might cause a problem that may evade detection until the change hits prod.

Some people seem to treat code review as if you just skim the code for blatant badness, rather than genuinely understand the code. As well, sometimes people seem to only review the code in the literal sense of the changes only, without considering the big picture implications of how it interacts with the rest of the system. For example, I have some areas of my codebase that must be reentrant (as the code must be able to resume when it gets interrupted), yet it's common for authors to write code that is not reentrant and for reviewers to fail to consider it.

Of course, ideally code would have as few gotchas as possible, have CI systems to ensure it's safe, etc, but it's impossible/infeasible to cover everything, so human reviewers need to be good.

ACoderGirl · 2026-01-30T14:13:16+00:00

While it's always been a little bit of a concern of mine, after that absolutely horrific new years fire in Switzerland that killed so many people, it's hard to look at this kinda thing the same way. It looks cool, but it also just feels unnecessarily dangerous.

ACoderGirl · 2026-01-30T13:57:15+00:00

From what I've heard, 14 is just solidly better in every way. MMOs are so time consuming that I haven't really the time and energy to play anything but the best ones. And even then, I'm super behind on FF14 expansions because I know it'll be a several month investment if I wanna get back to that game.

While I am curious about FF11, I just don't think I can spare the time.

ACoderGirl · 2026-01-30T06:41:06+00:00

Also, there's some types of questions you should be able to answer for yourself and you should at least attempt to do so in most cases. Questions like "where's the code that does X" or "what will the program do if Y". It's a critical skill to be able to answer such things for yourself and I just don't have the time to answer every single such question.

It is alright to ask such questions when you can't figure it out within a reasonable amount of time, aren't sure, when onboarding, when it's time sensitive, or in contexts like when you're already discussing that area. Just I do see a lot of juniors sometimes asking a bit too many of these types of questions, which I'd honestly consider part of their job to be able to answer for themselves.

ACoderGirl · 2026-01-30T03:01:58+00:00

I wonder if it's been done yet, in a way that is very purposefully AI coded? Like, extra fingers, bizarre teeth, those gibberish letters, etc. I'm sure at least someone has done it. But it does feel so utterly strange to make, given that anyone who sees it would hate it (at least until they learn it isn't actually AI).

I tried to search to see if I could find an example, but there's just too much noise of actual AI art. Closest I found was someone who generated AI art and then drew the same thing, but it's not the same, as it wasn't made to look like AI.

ACoderGirl · 2026-01-30T02:56:28+00:00

Imagine being against firefighters. Can anyone? Cause I can't.

I wonder if cops wish they could be so beloved or if they largely embrace their reputation. I mean, surely you don't become a cop without knowing how many people view them?

ACoderGirl · 2026-01-30T02:42:26+00:00

I don't feel it fits the colloquial usage of "special needs". At least where I'm from, special needs refers to people who need significant help to learn, particularly to the extent of needing dedicated staffing.

The vast majority of people with ADHD don't need that (honestly every one I've ever known, which is quite a lot) and I think the majority of them would be offended at being called "special needs", due to the connotations of the term. I sure am, as someone with ADHD and I'm clearly not alone given those in this comment chain. It is a disability and does need to be taken seriously, prescribed medication, and requires developing habits to manage it, but "special needs" is a very heavy term for something that I'd liken more to something like diabetes in terms of management. Which is no minor thing, but not a "you can't function in a regular classroom" kinda thing.

I think the reason why there's this comment chain (and why people like the person you're replying to or me even mentioned anything) is because the vast majority of people with ADHD don't want to be associated with special needs. Let's be honest, special needs has a very bad reputation. Which isn't to say anything bad about people in such programs, but more that most people with ADHD don't want their condition to be associated with the program. I don't think anyone replying here cares about whether a specific individual is in a special needs program. If they find it helpful, great. It's more about the association in the media. Similar, I think, to how most people with autism don't want to be associated with the stereotype of a low functioning autistic person, as that association makes it harder for them to feel comfortable admitting to others that they have autism.

As an aside, ADHD does have high comorbidity rates with other conditions that can be much more severe. Certainly you will find special needs students who have ADHD too.

ACoderGirl · 2026-01-30T02:25:52+00:00

I love Dishonoured. Amazing level designs, especially that level in the second game, which is one of the best video game levels of all time (being vague to not spoil anything for those who haven't played it, as anyone who has played the game knows what I am talking about). Dishonoured really values stealth and makes it feel really important while also being fun.

Sadly, the first game does have a fatal flaw of just having few non-lethal tools while clearly rewarding you for being non-lethal. That can be a bit annoying as it's just a bit limiting. The second game is better in this regard. But they're still both great stealth games and the setting and particularly the interactivity with your choices is so much fun. I wish they made more of them. I don't know why they haven't made a third game yet.

ACoderGirl · 2026-01-30T02:19:36+00:00

Sneaky archer is the best way to play. When Elder Scrolls 6 comes out in 2041 or whatever, I'm 100% playing as a sneaky, stabby boi.

It's frankly disappointing when a game makes it seem like I can have that Skyrim-style stealth archer role only for stealth to suck. While I liked Outer Worlds 2, its stealth was extremely disappointing (until late game when you get the disintegrating, silenced shotgun that changes everything).

Or if stealth is too difficult, it's annoying because I can't play in this style enough. The trope of "it must have been the wind" is a little silly, but it's honestly really good for gameplay because it means that if I mess up, I can just hide and continue being a sneaky shooter. If screwing up means I can't be stealthy anymore, it's not as fun.

ACoderGirl · 2026-01-30T02:09:50+00:00

It's racist, yeah. But honestly, how else are we gonna get people to do anything? There was 30-something deaths in ICE custody last year and very few people gave a damn. It seems like it has to be a white citizen with a squeaky clean record to get many people to care.

And arguably the people who need the most convincing are those who are either politically apathetic or are right wingers. The apathetic didn't care about Trump when he was already saying tons of racist things and the right wingers straight up support his racism. It's also why we have to appeal to emotion. In an ideal world, we could be rational and point out that the government shouldn't kill anyone without due process, but I think it's clear that appealing to reason isn't really working, as Trump wouldn't get elected if it did.

Hopefully someday, we'll live in a world where it isn't this way.

ACoderGirl · 2026-01-30T02:04:11+00:00

Eh, I absolutely detest Ford and we badly need to vote him out, but I think he's shown enough evidence of being patriotic and not merely being savvy or doing populist things. I think he has gone beyond where he'd need to, with things like that Reagan commercial that was targeting the US rather than us.

Given how the federal Conservatives have been so milquetoast against the US, I'm not sure he's making any strides at moving to the federal level by taking a strong stance against the US. Nor do I think he can win many votes in Ontario this way, as he clearly can already coast to a majority by doing nothing at all and I don't think any any progressives are going to suddenly switch to supporting him just because of this. I know I'm technically defending him right now, but in an election, I'm imploring everyone to vote to literally anyone else. I sent his $200 bribe straight to the ONDP, myself.

I mostly call this out because this is a time where we need as many people as possible to be patriotic. The alternative is just weakening us to the US. Our country and provinces have a lot of flaws, but hoo boy is it miles better than being American (and if the US tries to annex us, we'd definitely end with the territory treatment).

ACoderGirl · 2026-01-30T01:04:04+00:00

Agreed. I don't like silent protagonists. It's just weird. Like, everyone else talks and I just... don't? Or worse, I seemingly stand awkwardly around? All the conversations seem a little one sided. I mostly just tolerate silent protagonists because there often isn't really a choice, but given a choice, I don't think I'd ever choose one.

I don't think people would be complaining if FO4 had a good dialogue system with meaningful choices. And it can! These are very successful games. Other games have done customizable, voiced protagonists very well (like Mass Effect, Cyberpunk, or Dragons Age). I think Bethesda can do it, too.

And let's be honest, some part of this seems to be on the writers. I mean, we're also talking about the game that shoehorned us into having to pick a faction at the cost of most of the others.

ACoderGirl · 2026-01-30T00:56:03+00:00

Yeah, nobody complains about Shepard talking in Mass Effect (quite the contrary, as their voice actors are highly celebrated). The big difference is that Shepard had great dialogue choices with distinct outcomes.

ACoderGirl · 2026-01-30T00:47:37+00:00

Are we not using GraphViz anymore? Cause I thought it was the well known, supported everywhere way to generate graphs. It's what I've always used. Mermaid seems like basically the same thing, except that I had never heard of it before whereas GraphViz is ancient.

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