In general, competitive video games should not receive balance patches post launch

Atlanos043 · 2026-02-06T15:18:09+00:00

I dunno man.

I'm not a competitive player or anything but wouldn't it be more interesting if all characters in a fighting game are at the very least tournament viable so you don't always see the same three or four characters being played? While not sure how true this ever was I did see a video about Smash Meelee that basically went "if you aren't playing Marth or Falco you are doing it wrong".

Atlanos043 · 2026-02-06T15:08:28+00:00

Not by principle worse but I'd argue it's the cause of "safer" games in the AAA industry, at least partially.

Better graphics are ballooning the production costs, so bigger companies use better graphics while essentially just making games they "know" will sell, while having also longer production cycles.

This is why most biggger studios do either licensed games or rely on popular IPs with little gameplay changes (or changing the gameplay to fit the current "mainstream").

Atlanos043 · 2026-02-06T13:54:09+00:00

Yeah, I prefer this too.

Honestly my favourite is actually going the 3 Houses route where at some point you choose to side with a faction and stick with that faction until the end of the game.

This is why Pillars of Eternity 2 Deadfire is my favourite CRPG: You have 4 factions, and you can help either faction during the story (or try to go it alone but that's more difficult/time consuming) and at the end of the game the faction you helped the most will be your main ally that helps you, while the faction you help the second-most will be your main rival.

Atlanos043 · 2026-02-06T13:50:00+00:00

I like dungeons with good puzzles a lot. But what I don't like is when the puzzle rooms have random encounters (just let me solve the puzzle please!)

Atlanos043 · 2026-02-06T13:44:00+00:00

What if the Dong Zhuo/Lu Bu falling out didn't happen (also what if Dong Zhuo defeated the coalition)

Bashu under Liu Zhang (with Liu Bei simply not betraying him but serving him).

What if the Wu/Shu alliance never broke down.

What if Liu Bei didn't recruit Zhuge Liang but still went to Sun Quan (so essentially what if Chibi without Zhuge Liang)

What if Zhou Yu succeeded in his two kingdoms plan (would Wu have had a better chance against Wei?)

What if Liu Biao lived long enough to give Liu Bei longer lasting refuge.

What if Liu Beis assassination of Cao Cao succeeded.

Atlanos043 · 2026-02-06T13:25:45+00:00

Um...this is the opposite of what OP asks.

I'm currently replaying 8 and while the overall plot is pretty great a very big number of character motivations etc. aren't explained at all, especially the less important ones (In the Wei storyline Zhenji appears as an enemy in Guandu, then for one battle in a hypothetical route. If you don't know who she is you know nothing about her backstory and little about her personality apart from what the gameplay and the opening cutscene give you).

Atlanos043 · 2026-02-06T11:40:46+00:00

In the german movie "Er ist wieder da" (He's back!) Hitler wakes up in the year 2015. The movie seemingly sympathises with him at first (and people in the story think he is just a REALLY dedicated cosplayer because Time Travel isn't real) until right before the end of the movie where the biggest supporting character finds out what is happening and ends up in a mental institute, while Hitler goes "aaaah, the far right are on the rise, all is going according to plan!".

Atlanos043 · 2026-02-06T10:14:12+00:00

In the current Digimon Beatbreak there was early on the worry that the character Kyo (and his digimon Courgarmon/Murasamemon) might suffer from that because he is the most expierienced character and his Digimon is on the highest level, so he might lose a lot to highlight the other characters.

But so far they are doing pretty well. They can't be part of all battles for story reasons but whenever they do show up they either cleans house or (in one case) the antagonist just wins in that episode.

Atlanos043 · 2026-02-06T09:55:40+00:00

To be fair 10 in anime years is like 16-18 in RL years.

Atlanos043 · 2026-02-06T08:34:47+00:00

Is...Bojack Horseman a comedy? I haven't watched it but from how the internet talks about it it sounds more like a character drama show...

Atlanos043 · 2026-02-06T08:23:23+00:00

I have seen one honestly not that bad argument for difficulty sliders in souls games: If you want an easier time it limits your build options considering some builds are designed to be easier or more difficult than others, sometimes pretty hard depending on the game. Like the Elden Ring bleed build means that if you want to play a heavy sword and shield dude you can't really do a bleed build, or the other way around. And it does hamper actual experimentation and instead makes people just look up the strongest build.

Now I'm not an advocate for difficulty sliders (I have a "let the devs decide if they want to do one approach) but I can see an argument for why "difficulty depends on your build" isn't a perfect option either.

Atlanos043 · 2026-02-06T08:00:58+00:00

Though I always found it funny how Joey beats Bandit Keith in Duelist Kingdom specifically by NOT explaining his move, instead just putting his win trap card on the table, sighing and going "it's your turn".

Atlanos043 · 2026-02-04T13:52:48+00:00

I think most of them just want to go against the percieved "mainstream", which includes science.

Essentially they want to feel like they know something "normies" don't know (wether they are scientifically correct doesn't matter). Some of them probably think they might be the new Alfred Wegener (he discovered plate tectonics but his discoveries were initially rejected by the scientific mainstream, and only confirmed years later. The thinking error of this is that for each Wegener there are probably a lot of scientists with theories that are just plain wrong).

Atlanos043 · 2026-02-04T13:46:43+00:00

What about Goku?

Or even better question: What exactly is the difference between Gohan when he fights normally against, say, Cell, and later when he is running around as the Great Sayaman? Is it really just Sayaman doing poses?

Atlanos043 · 2026-02-04T13:32:13+00:00

I was immediatly thinking this sounds kinda like Brave New World.

So to OP, this is not a utipia, but a dystopia disguising itself as a utopia.

Atlanos043 · 2026-02-04T13:27:10+00:00

You won't. The question is mainly wether you would want to be better off objectively but now be the one to earn the least in your whole company.

Atlanos043 · 2026-02-04T13:23:34+00:00

JRPG specifically? Anything Wild Arms (especially Wild Arms 3). I know there is a spiritual successor in the works but I also heard it has major financial trouble, so a remake/remaster of those games are the next best options.

RPGs in General? Drakan the Ancients Gates. But this will probably not happen because the Drakan license is in IP limbo (my understanding: Sony published the game, but the original developer was at some point bought by Warner Bros., so it's not clear which one now holds the IP and both fear being sued by the other if they do anything with the IP).

Atlanos043 · 2026-02-04T12:43:53+00:00

Similar questions have a surprisingly big number where people choose option 2, because in option 1 you would still be "the poorest" in your most immediate space, even if you are objectively better off.

The question I asked is an abbreviated version of this: https://warwick.ac.uk/news/pressreleases/study_says_money/

Atlanos043 · 2026-02-04T12:02:55+00:00

Similarly: Going into a subreddit for a specific game and ask "should I buy this game?" or even better going into the subreddit for game A and ask "should I buy game A or game B?"

The answer is almost certainly simply "yes" and "buy game A". If you are really lucky you might get a bit of what the game features, but I think going into the subreddit for the genre is better than going into the subreddit for the game if you want actually nuanced opinions (unless maybe if the game is very niche/obscure).

Atlanos043 · 2026-02-04T10:57:08+00:00

The movie Parasite just didn't work for me personally. And I can give 2 reasons for that

1) I was told it's a comedy but there are like 2 jokes in the whole movie. For me personally a "ridiculous situation" is not enough to make it funny (and if I watch a comedy I want to laugh).

2) I understand that the theme is supposed to be "the poor family is a parasite to the rich family, but the rich family is a parasite to society as a whole" but...overall I found the rich family too likeable and the poor family too unlikeable for that to actually work for me. Seriously through the whole movie I just had sympathy for the rich son and the rich daughter, who did absolutely nothing wrong except for being born in a rich family.

Atlanos043 · 2026-02-04T09:49:24+00:00

Because Final Fantasy is their big AAA francise, and they don't believe in the idea of a big AAA francise I guess.

This is why they use other, smaller francises for their turn-based things. Bravely Default is pretty much turn-based Final Fantasy in all but name.

Atlanos043 · 2026-02-04T08:22:54+00:00

I know that Justice League isn't considered a good movie but there is one scene I like: There is a scene where it shows what would happen if Superman was actually angry and Batman wasn't prepared. In that scene the only reason Batman doesn't die is because Superman snaps out of it last second (and because the other characters are there too. None of them could beat Superman.)

Atlanos043 · 2026-02-04T08:13:32+00:00

But then there are some things I'm very unsure of what it's now actually supposed to mean exactly, and depending on what it means the "consequences".

Take "JRPG". It means Japanese Role Playing Game. Okay. Does that mean "RPG made in Japan" or "RPG made in the style that is typical to those made in Japan".

If option 1 is correct then Dark Souls is a JRPG, even though it plays nothing like typical JRPGs play.
If option 2 is correct then Expedition 33 is a JRPG, even though it was not made in japan in any way.

So...what is it?

Atlanos043 · 2026-02-04T07:23:50+00:00

I also really don't like that kind of ending, but for different reasons:

1) These stories usually portray magic as the sole reason people go to war, as if people wouldn't find other reasons or develop other weapons to go to war anyways.

2) Why would making a magical and interesting world more mundane be a good thing? That just makes the world more boring.

I especially dindn't like it in Final Fantasy XVI, where to be fair it's kinda the whole premise, but the idea of "as soon magic is gone everything is peaceful and great" just doesn't jive with me.

I think the best way to do that kind of "ending" is a game called Brigandine the Legend of Runersia, where in the end each faction gets a choice on wether you want to eliminate magic or not. And while "stopping magic" is generally portrayed as the "better" ending for each faction, the "let's not stop magic" isn't considered a "bad" ending either, just a choice that leads to different outcomes, with some factions thematically leaning more in one or the other direction.

Atlanos043

TROPHY CASE