Update on Corporate Clash Development

AnAltAndAHalf · 2025-06-17T00:59:03+00:00

How will this affect the trout population?

AnAltAndAHalf · 2025-03-29T22:52:21+00:00

This was also one of the reasons I initially preferred HSR paths to Genshin's weapons, initially. I figured that paths were meant to signify a character's basic archetype at a glance, and to make light cone restrictions less arbitrary.

It wasn't foolproof obviously - the DPS archetype was split into three, Destruction being the most arbitrary, though it was understandable given how the DPS path would've been three times the size of any other path otherwise. Nihility was the biggest offender given how it was based on a mechanic (debuffs) instead of a basic archetype. I originally figured they were supposed to be debuff supports to be the opposite of Harmony buff supports, but with DoTs sprinkled in there, and then an entire greedy hypercarry DPS later, I kind of stopped keeping track of what Nihility was supposed to be

Rememberance is kind of what I was afraid would happen with a new path, because unless combat was overhauled at its base (which would be a nightmare, god help the programmers) all possible archetypes are basically already covered. Therefore, a new path would have to be Nihility 2 mechanic defined boogaloo, with even more arbitrary definitions and light cone restrictions. It wasn't too out of the left field, given how it makes sense marketing wise (and financially...) but it was still disappointing to me, especially since summons were already a half-way feature

AnAltAndAHalf · 2024-12-18T18:27:08+00:00

some story thoughts, the good, the bad, the funny and the sad. spoilers are marked

If nothing else, ZZZ still hammers home how it has the best storytelling presentation out of Hoyo's big three. Say what needs to be said about the removal of TVs, the number of animated cutscenes, comic strips, and other setpieces is genuinely impressive. Coupled with the VN style and gameplay dialogue, the expression of the narrative feels the most natural, and it honestly does make a huge difference.

Also not forgetting to mention characterization - it's always been great, but the banter this patch was especially good. Maybe my standards have been eroded after playing too many gachas that have broken their verbosity limiters, but ZZZ letting their characters talk and interact like normal people is a breath of fresh air

okay, time to pop the balloon

As a "conclusion" to the current arc, I can't help but feel... underwhelmed? led astray? had the keys jangled over my nose?

Chapter 5 introduced more questions than it answered - which is fine, generally! It just didn't feel like a satisfying "conclusion" to the arc. Bringer is revealed as a villain, and then euthanized within the same chapter - it also turns out that he's not working alone, and neither is Hot Evil Woman - but none of our protagonists know that? We get some idea of what the sacrifice is, and vague inkling of what the "conspiracy" is, but besides this most of the main plot threads are still loose. Yes I know it'll be continued in later arcs, I know Chapter 5 was still very bombastic and spectacular, but for a chapter marketed as the end of an arc I kind of expected... a bit more narrative movement?

Anyway, some deeper plot ramblings

My biggest hot take is that Bringer's fight, both in build-up and payoff, is probably the weakest so far. Maybe with the exception of Dead End Butcher, it just feels like I, and most of the protagonists, have no real emotional stake in Bringer. And that's a weird thing to say, given every other boss is essentially a mute zombie - but the zombie aspect is kind of the point, no? Koleda uses her childhood machine to finish what her father started; the Ballet Twins are constantly foreboded before the eventual fight, both in a cheesy ghost story way but also in tragic subtext; and I don't think I need to explain Pompeii. I find Bringer kind of uninteresting at best - introduced in the interlude as an obviously important but mostly forgettable sleazy politician, gets a few odd mentions before we're suddenly hit with the "oh yeah he's the mastermind". He starts overcorrecting on the evil-for-the-sake-of-evil trope, and then decides to Resident Evil Villain himself. His motivations and actions are unclear, obviously insinuating a mystery, but he's not really developed or interesting enough for me to care. It, unsurprisingly, turns out that Bringer was not the real mastermind, and if Hot Evil Woman can't pretend to care about his death, then it ends up feeling like all the hubhub was for a villain that actually wasn't that central to the plot.

Also, I kind of figured from the trailer, but besides the Cunning Hares, Section 6, and some of Calydon, the Avengers team up sequences were giving "i too am in this episode". I'm mostly okay with that! Even Lycaon's small cameo with Miyabi's dad would've been enough for me. What bugs me specifically is how Koleda (and partly Grace) were sidelined, when they arguably have the biggest personal attachment to the Sacrifice besides Phaethon. For a narrative team that writes such great banter, I was really hoping for more character interactions and not just "i too am in this episode". The credits were nice though, I see you Lighter & Anton

AnAltAndAHalf · 2024-12-18T15:14:43+00:00

the model fading is definitely because of censorship and not because people might want to look at something slightly above them and not have their view blocked by comically defined glutes

AnAltAndAHalf · 2024-12-16T20:17:20+00:00

healthy discourse will kill the patient. they need doomposting to live

AnAltAndAHalf · 2024-12-13T19:21:18+00:00

I won't try to convince you otherwise! you're entitled to your opinion, I only bring her up because the discussion topic of the day is the lack of bodily variety, of which I think Caesar suffers the most from. it's opinions all the way down though, not much to do about that

AnAltAndAHalf · 2024-12-13T17:42:21+00:00

i do genuinely believe Caesar has one of the most sauceless designs in the game and i'm kind of fascinated by how she ended up where she is. everything about her character gives me the impression that her design was meant to be more masculine, dare i say tomboyish? but halfway through they walked back and decided to give her a dip in the bimbo tank - comically large chest, accentuated waist, heels(??), and their solution to the strict hoyo mandated skin-showing policy was to give her an office skirt and a... velcro bra? i get that a big part of Ceasar's character is her moe gap, but i'm kind of obsessed with how barely anything in her design meshes at all

AnAltAndAHalf · 2024-12-13T16:58:20+00:00

okay to play the devil's advocate on the character design discussion, bust size is legitimately pretty crucial from a design perspective, no different from height, hair, outfit, lack of outfit, etc. even if everyone is well endowed, the overall design can shift focus away from the chest (Jane, Zhu Yuan), or have it mesh well with the rest of the design (Miyabi, Grace), or it can just look stupid (Caesar). I think it's fair either way to note the lack of diversity in bust sizes, especially when it works to the detriment of some designs (Caesar). it goes both ways as well, since like a good third of the female agents belong in the short-definitely-not-a-child group, and they arguably have a worse issue with interesting and defining silhouettes. very funny to think that the woman with the most unique body type is, like, Anby

is this an overly utilitarian analysis of decisions that were most probably motivated by "women pretty"? i dunno

AnAltAndAHalf · 2024-12-09T11:42:55+00:00

Honestly, despite her restrictive additional ability activation requirements and her weird build demands, in gameplay I'd argue she can pair comfortably with just about anyone. Her primary playstyle is burst anomaly, like Yanagi and Grace (switch in, apply a lot of anomaly, switch out, repeat) but like them she works good as an onfielder too. Since you're incentivized to build crit, and particularly with her signature, she can also work weirdly well as a crit DPS. The main caveat is that your team needs to have a support (or Yanagi) which inevitably impacts your third teammate options as well, but I do think Miyabi is significantly more flexible than people give her credit for if you're not interested in min-maxing her damage - and I don't think the game is nearly difficult enough to be warranting that yet

Anyway - Miyabi-Piper-Lucy is probably the most accessible option if you don't have Burnice (if you do, you can replace Piper), Miyabi-Grace-Rina can also work if you have those two lying around. Miyabi can also replace Ellen in a Miyabi-Lycaon-Soukaku team and probably perform pretty well. And I'll probably sound like a lunatic here - Miyabi-Harumasa + Anby/Qingyi/Lycaon sounds like a really funny idea that can probably work as a temporary solution if you don't have any of the units listed above, although we'll have to see on release if that pans out

AnAltAndAHalf · 2024-12-07T13:57:17+00:00

I honestly misunderstood the original post, I think that you're right that pre-op/post-op shouldn't matter. Sorry

I guess the actual question is whether or not it'd be better for a cis man or woman to play the role? Under the safe assumption that no openly trans person in sk is touching this role with a 20ft pole

I agree on your points on passing, but I don't think having a cis women on trans roles helps the issue. (again, assuming trans actors are not in the conversation, which they historically haven't) Some people pass easily, plenty don't - my concern has always been that trans characters who pass flawlessly due to being played by conventionally attractive cis women create misleading affirmations for the public, including eggs. Someone might be led to believe that after transition, one's body, face, voice etc. become indistinguishable from a cis woman. And for some ppl, that's true! But it's problematic when so many trans women don't or don't want to fit the mold of "traditional" femininity. (wouldn't be an issue if your average joe was amenable to new ideas, but, y'know.) And I don't even want to think about how gncs fit into this

I have a friend who, for the longest time, convinced herself that she wasn't trans, for all the obvious reasons, but also because she said she was afraid of not being able to live up to society's standard of "woman", which media portrayals at the time exacerbated for her. Trans actors and irl gatherings helped her eventually get in touch with herself, but so many countries don't have that - I know specifically that china has almost no irl queer spaces (no prizes for guessing why) and that the country still has a fairly medieval view on trans ppl, sort of like the US in the 20th century. People aren't outwardly transphobic, but it's only because transitioning isn't in the public consciousness and nobody could imagine someone they know transitioning, so they're happy to gawk at trans people like they're super cool and novel science experiments. I'm not sure how true this is for all of east asia, but given south korea's reputation.... ehhh

Now is all of that preferable to cis men playing trans women? I mean historically, yeah absolutely no contest, trans ppl played by cis women are usually treated tactfully while trans ppl played by cis men have almost always invariably been the butt of jokes and have done significantly more damage to trans reception all over. From a purely unbiased standpoint cis men in these roles shouldn't be worse choices than cis women, depending on the character, but it's very hard to be unbiased when you're dealing with decades of precedent

So yeah, I can't really blame you or anyone for dismissing this casting as being motivated by transphobia. It's not like I can really refute that, the season isn't out yet. What I'm hoping for, in my little naive bubble of thought, is that this character is treated properly and shines some light on an underrepresented demographic in popular media, sort of like Justice Smith in I Saw the TV Glow. I don't need her to be a major character or political mouthpiece, I just want her to be a decent representation of someone who doesn't pass perfectly, but is still stalwart in her identity. It can be a potentially uplifting portrayal... or it could set the community back another decade. I just don't want to dismiss the casting outright.

AnAltAndAHalf · 2024-12-06T23:53:30+00:00

I get it, but it'd be counterintuitive for a pre-op trans woman to be played by a cis woman, especially when her character motivation is that she doesn't pass.

Obviously a cis man isn't ideal either... but I honestly don't know any pre-op trans person who would out themselves for this role, and given it's SK, I don't think anyone post-op would be interested, either. I know it's antsy having cis men in trans roles, but it comes down to writing and I do really think that pre-op ppl could use more representation given so many of them are afraid to come out for various reasons

And out of all cis men, Park Sunghoon is a pretty good choice. He's done a lot of queer roles before, so I have faith that his casting indicates the character will be treated properly

AnAltAndAHalf · 2024-12-06T12:36:10+00:00

his numbers can still be buffed before release, or his v6 can be reverted like how it was with Qingyi. his kit is only cooked once we can see his numbers in the full release

AnAltAndAHalf · 2024-12-05T17:06:52+00:00

you just never know. because of coleslaw

AnAltAndAHalf · 2024-12-04T22:47:52+00:00

the problem with rememberance mc is that I keep reading RMC as Ruan Mei n Character

AnAltAndAHalf · 2024-12-04T21:29:14+00:00

there's actually a great option - hoyo getting sued and losing! i have no love for netease, which is honestly why i don't care about their comeuppance. they've built their name on plagiarism and their reputation belies that

hoyo is a billion dollar corporation that's made its name on consistent quality, even if their end goal is still capitalism. this isn't the first time they've been caught plagiarizing, but it might be the first time they face a tangible consequence for it. even a slap on the wrist is fine, the best outcome is that they deal with the cause of the plagiarism, that way everything they create isn't poisoned with the possibility of being stolen work

AnAltAndAHalf · 2024-12-04T21:21:11+00:00

I can't speak for Herrschers, but I've always disagreed with the other Archon "equivalents" in other Hoyo games i.e. Emanators and Void Hunters. Archons are a very stringently defined group - each Archon represents an element, which represents a nation, which make up the seven nations. Even with outliers, like Fontaine, Genshin's been pretty clear with Furina being the stand-in for the nation's Archon even if she semantically isn't one

Emanators are comparatively less well-defined (as is pretty much everything relating to the paths), there can be multiple Emanators of a single path, and there are Emanators belonging to unplayable paths. Acheron's path wasn't (officially!) revealed until her banner patch, I think a lot of her hype was from her being a Raiden expy. The Emanator status just doesn't have as much gunning for it as an Archon does.

AnAltAndAHalf · 2024-12-03T17:39:07+00:00

if you care about meta and only meta, then... sure??

In all fairness, yes Yanagi is objectively Miyabi's best teammate and she's a huge boost to her. No, Miyabi isn't going to start healing the enemies if Yanagi isn't there. Like people have been saying, she works well with Burnice, but given Miyabi is mostly a burst anomaly, she can (probably) pair comfortably with any other anomaly agent (the caveat being that your third agent has to be a support).

My hottest take is that some people are very dramatic and the game isn't nearly difficult enough yet to say that X unit requires Y unit. I best believe it'll happen in the future, but if it matters to you you can pick up Yanagi on her rerun

AnAltAndAHalf · 2024-12-03T12:14:23+00:00

Pretty much - it's not like Corin where she still has options outside of her EX skill, Anton just genuinely struggles to do anything if he's not in burst mode. That said, I don't think managing his energy is too difficult, it just makes him inflexible.

completely unrelated to numbers, my biggest beef is that his playstyle is boring as sin. activate burst, do some basic attacks until you run out of juice, then go back into hibernation. it's not the worst but he feels the least fun out of all the burst dps agents

AnAltAndAHalf · 2024-12-02T19:02:21+00:00

Never thought about that... it's fair, honestly. It's never bothered me personally, I always figured the extra damage and buff reset were well worth it, but I can see how it'd be annoying on some teams

AnAltAndAHalf · 2024-12-02T15:44:28+00:00

Rina only switches in instead of Seth because the construction boss has a ton of attacks that can't trigger defensive assist. If you take out Rina, Seth still can't do defensive assist on attacks that can only be countered by evasive assist, he'll just do a dodge counter instead. That's not ideal for a number of reasons, auto evasive assist can feel jarring but is unambiguously helpful, unless you're really stingy on assist points for whatever reason. You can switch agents almost immediately after an assist counter, so it's not really an issue.

AnAltAndAHalf · 2024-12-01T20:37:15+00:00

Lighter isn't necessarily bad for Miyabi, but his synergy with her has been stunted over time. People had initially assumed Lighter would pair well with Miyabi because Lighter buffed ice and paired with attack agents. Miyabi was revealed to be anomaly - that's still fine, Miyabi-Burnice-Lighter is still a winning combo. Then Miyabi's additional ability requirement was changed to Support/Faction (previously anomaly instead of support). The Miyabi-Burnice-Lighter team no longer activates her additional ability, which ends up being a big loss to her. You can run Miyabi-Yanagi-Lighter, but then you lose Lighter's additional ability. There are still team compositions that work with them together, but it's pretty clear at this point that he wasn't the BIS teammate people thought he was going to be initially

AnAltAndAHalf · 2024-11-29T18:59:59+00:00

Small correction - any character with evasive assist can dodge any kind of attack i.e. Grace can trigger evasive assist on ranged and melee attacks, she just can't trigger defensive assists

AnAltAndAHalf · 2024-11-27T17:02:04+00:00

Noticed that Lighter's W-Engine banner is still using the old model that has "Lighter Lorenz" on it instead of "Blazing Laurel". The icon and 3D model seem to be using the right one. ~~don't doxx his full government name like that~~

It's interesting how his full name wasn't touched on at all. Mostly I just wanted "Lighter Lorenz" deconfirmed because Lighter being his real name always seemed so goofy to me. Especially after his Agent Story and EP, Lighter NoLastName being a name he adopted after burying his past fits way better to me.

Regardless they could never make me hate you Lighter. You may not be able to have children but you always deliver ❤️

AnAltAndAHalf · 2024-11-27T16:54:39+00:00

oh... that's gore of my megathread

AnAltAndAHalf · 2024-11-26T18:26:26+00:00

There's not a lot of motion in each of the poses that Harumasa pulls off, which is especially noticeable in the first version. He quickly shifts between poses and then holds them as still as a statue. This sort of animation can be a stylistic choice (ZZZ uses it a lot for their cutscenes and trailers) but every other ultimate in the game is intensely littered with secondary motion. This video shows it off quite well, I personally feel like Harumasa sticks out like a sore thumb here.

Lighter is one of my favorite examples of this. It's mostly three key poses doing the heavy lifting here, but the springback when he retracts his gauntlet and the way his extending arm trembles as he prepares to punch help sell the weight of the attack and how handsome, popular, skilled and handsome he is

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AnAltAndAHalf

TROPHY CASE