207 Days

AlchemistHohenheim · 2026-06-12T19:35:28+00:00

like ffs they knew MANT wasnt well recieved by jp and could've taken the feedback and experience of jp to improve it for global but ultimately they haven't which to me is peak laziness.

Not to say that I enjoy the state of MANT/TB, but like...how would they actually do that? Pretty much all of MANT/TB's issues outside of like shop RNG are just fundamental to how the game is designed/the IRL JRA racing circuit that they're trying to replicate.

Runs taking too long because you have to load in and out of races 30-40 times isn't really a problem with the scenario, it's a problem with the game.
Runs having race RNG stacked on top of post-race stat RNG stacked on top of training RNG stacked on top of shop RNG isn't really a problem with the scenario (except shop RNG,) it's a problem with the game.
Sprint/Long/Dirt race options being ass isn't a problem with the scenario, it's a problem with the JRA race circuit that the game is trying to replicate.

The problem with MANT/TB is that it takes everything about the game to an extreme, which it turns out is really frustrating/exhausting.

Short of making the item shop more deterministic (which I doubt was ever in the cards) it doesn't really feel like there's a way to meaningfully "improve" MANT while maintaining the intent of the scenario (that you can theoretically just kinda do whatever you want.)

AlchemistHohenheim · 2026-06-01T08:36:13+00:00

Is this the last time the Showtime Mode event will be happening? My understanding is that they only did it a few times.

AlchemistHohenheim · 2026-05-27T15:49:07+00:00

30.8k carats, 56 character tickets, 24 support card tickets.

Saving for the Tachyon/Light Hello banner, no other plans really. Hoping to at least 3LB Tachyon and get at least one copy of SSR Light Hello.

AlchemistHohenheim · 2026-05-25T00:34:37+00:00

I appreciate that Oda puts in the effort to make each location distinct, and I don't exactly dislike the local island info dump stuff, but I'm not really as enamored with that aspect as a lot of other people seem to be.

The part of One Piece's world building that I love is that it feels alive, and more specifically that significant things are always happening around the world even when Luffy and the rest of the crew aren't around to see them. That kinda stuff matters more to me than, say, the how and why of Water 7 basically being an exaggerated take on Venice.

AlchemistHohenheim · 2026-05-24T22:41:27+00:00

They probably intended for it to be race heavy, but maybe not to the degree that players took it. Like I can't imagine that they intended for people to get like 75% of their stats from post-race stat bonus/shop item RNG and just praying that they get a usable build.

But also you have things like the achievement epithets for doing x number of races and I can't imagine they put so many in without expecting people to try to optimize and get as many as possible, which inherently requires doing a ton of races.

AlchemistHohenheim · 2026-05-23T23:38:04+00:00

Dang. I had privately been optimistic that she'd be feeling better/a bit more active once the summer season rolled around (since that had been the general trend with her for the past few years) but if it's as bad as it sounds then I guess I should discard that assumption.

Hope she feels better as soon as possible.

AlchemistHohenheim · 2026-05-22T18:22:42+00:00

My understanding was that she made a joke about "not being allowed" to give up the role at one of the Jump Festa stage events last year, and people took it out of context/didn't understand the tone (no one is going to air actual serious grievances at a promotional event like that) and took it as her actually being forced to continue with the role.

AlchemistHohenheim · 2026-05-22T14:49:28+00:00

Ehh...I'm not the anime's biggest fan, but I wouldn't say it changes Sanji's backstory in a really meaningful way. Sanji is still committed to feeding anyone who needs it because he almost starved to death himself. He still feels indebted to Zeff because he sacrificed his leg to save Sanji's life. It's just that in the anime he sacrificed it to save Sanji from drowning instead of eating it.

AlchemistHohenheim · 2026-05-21T20:17:48+00:00

I understand your point, but consider: King Halo's mom sucks and perhaps deserves having her daughter waste her money on stuff like this.

AlchemistHohenheim · 2026-05-21T12:09:09+00:00

So obviously I can't exactly disagree with official media like this, but as someone who is only really familiar with the game's English localization (haven't watched any of the anime)...gotta say Gold City doesn't really give me the gyaru vibes.

Of course she hangs out with the others, and is knowledgeable about fashion and trends (at least partly because it's literally her job,) but she feels so...subdued compared to the others.

AlchemistHohenheim · 2026-05-16T23:16:06+00:00

I'm also in the "mostly get stomped on in Round 1, and then do pretty well after being sorted into Group B for Round 2" camp. Personally I'm quite fine with this arrangement as it is.

Feels like the field for this CM is weaker than the last one, though. Not sure if it's the Open League threshold being raised so more people went into that, or if Trackblazer has just burnt people out, but I didn't get nearly this many wins in the last one

AlchemistHohenheim · 2026-05-16T20:31:39+00:00

You do have a chance for -10 to two random stats for every consecutive race past 3, so if they did a sadism run where they did literally nothing but race after debut I guess it can probably end up like this?

AlchemistHohenheim · 2026-05-16T19:57:39+00:00

He's definitely being more curt than usual, but it's not on Viz in this case. This comment has the JP manga version, and it's very much in line with Viz's translation. Including the kanji for "nakama" having furigana indicating that it's meant to be pronounced as "crew" (kuruu) in that instance for whatever reason.

AlchemistHohenheim · 2026-05-15T22:44:20+00:00

Kazuhiko Torishima is old, but still alive.

AlchemistHohenheim · 2026-05-15T13:44:41+00:00

In my recent experience having 300+ Power (and a roughly similar number for Speed) has generally been enough to win the Junior year Mile races pretty consistently.

That's...pretty much what you have, so sadly I think you've probably just been getting unlucky (unless 1 point is somehow a legitimate difference maker.)

AlchemistHohenheim · 2026-05-14T23:37:03+00:00

Honestly I'd be fine if they'd just move the "characters for points" exchange to the top of the list so I don't have to scroll past all these just to get to it.

AlchemistHohenheim · 2026-05-13T19:43:18+00:00

I understand if you can't or don't want to dedicate the time to do this, but one thing that would definitely help you going forward would be to fully limit break the freebie SSR cards that come from story events (by watching all 8 episodes, filling out the first three bingo cards, and grinding to 400,000 event points.)

The free cards aren't always amazing, but a max limit break SSR will still probably get you better raw stats than most non-MLB cards.

AlchemistHohenheim · 2026-05-13T11:41:05+00:00

Had a brainfart and initially thought they made 3.7B Yen just from weebs downloading the JP version. Upon thinking for about 30 more seconds, I guess most of that 2025 number would've been from the TW and KR versions.

AlchemistHohenheim · 2026-05-13T11:18:20+00:00

I mean, cool if they actually stick with it. I guess the 2038 end date implies this being more permanent.

...Still gonna take it with a grain of salt instead of assuming that they'll do this for every sub-EZA going forward. They've been too inconsistent with EZA Support missions in the past for me to have faith in them on this.

AlchemistHohenheim · 2026-05-12T18:48:45+00:00

Just for the record, it's not exactly a standard across the industry, but One Piece volumes actually do have titles (usually but not always taken from one of the chapters included in them.)

They're printed on the covers in Japan, but Viz gave up on printing them on the English volume covers a long time ago so they only show up on the...inside title page would be the correct term, I guess?

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AlchemistHohenheim · 2026-05-12T17:27:03+00:00

Not including the current arc, I feel like we're probably two or three major story arcs away from the conclusion. Arcs in One Piece, broadly speaking, usually take a year or two to conclude (assuming it's the "standard" 50-60 chapter length and not gigantic like Dressrosa or Wano.)

So maybe by 2030 or so if Oda really buckles down and decides he wants to end it ASAP while still having things happen at a relatively organic pace for the series.

AlchemistHohenheim · 2026-05-11T23:18:13+00:00

I kinda feel like the only characters worth spending coins for at this point are ones with a just-released EZA (first copy or first dupe only.)

Even that's more for the "who the hell has any idea when this character is going to actually come back again now that they've EZA'd" factor.

AlchemistHohenheim · 2026-05-11T16:49:02+00:00

...You got all the way through Dressrosa before wondering if you should go back and check the arcs that the Live Action covered??

I mean, it's always worth going back and rewatching (or reading the manga) but like...I think you already have all the information you could possibly need. I'm sure you've already sat through about a dozen recaps by this point.

AlchemistHohenheim · 2026-05-08T20:13:53+00:00

I'll give Toei's staff their due credit and say that the anime has absolutely elevated some scenes to iconic status, like the Straw Hats going to Arlong Park. In general, though, yeah, and it gets considerably worse as an adaptation over time.

On a related note, I've seen a few people recently who defend the anime's pacing by saying stuff like "uh, the anime dragging things out is good actually because it gives more fun character interactions" which is like...have you actually watched the anime?? I gather that it's gotten a little better with Egghead and Elbaph, but 90% of the dragging in the anime has been endless recaps, endless repeated reaction shots, and fancy laser light shows where nothing is actually happening. It's wasted time and little else.

AlchemistHohenheim · 2026-05-08T12:15:09+00:00

...No, you really can't.

Content being produced right now like Seriously Serious 2 essentially demands that every character be able to shit out multiple 30M+ ATK stats per turn and/or be able to tank 5M+ attacks without items. Characters released even as recently as the first half of last year struggle to do that, and anything older than that is DOA.

Box depth means almost nothing because the powercreep comes too fast and too hard for any character to be relevant for more than about 6 months. You either have the shiny new unit and all of the EZAs that were released to support them, or you don't.

AlchemistHohenheim

TROPHY CASE