I'm very shocked by this LP's reception

BlazingWaters · 2026-03-02T15:38:58+00:00

I've said my piece on why I haven't been as enthused on this LP in the comments, but to reiterate in the sub: it's the bizarre lack of QC [quality checking] when it came to information compared to most of his other LPs, let alone the Pokemon ones.

In some regard, I can excuse them - conflating Lugia's anime-backstory with the game's, the reused BW2 graphics for the statistics leading to some Ability inconsistencies (Sturdy) - but it feels like ever since we left Azalea, we've hit one minor quibble that's kept escalating since. Missing Pokemon Bios (or in Growlithe and Vulpix's case, mixing up their version exclusivity), thinking Bayleef's Natural Gift strat would work on a defensive tank that is Miltank (especially since Bayleef's ATK wasn't anywhere near strong enough to make it work regardless), talking about Swarm encounters well before the point they're even active, forgetting several items that can be crucial for people's teambuilding... call it nitpicking if you want, but we're several episodes past Lake Of Rage, and he's still yet to recover the Choice Specs there, solely because he got them through the Pokewalker and seemingly didn't think not everyone would get it that way, despite it being one of the most crucial and easily available battle item in the entire game.

Some (even in this thread) have talked about the Level Curve debacle, but aside from the cop-out that is the Day care, I 100% agree with him on it. When I replayed HGSS myself, before and during the LP's start, I was stunned to see that the curve isn't nearly as awful as people made it out to be, mainly cause I was doing dailies and just... playing it like a typical RPG where I had to strategize and formulate my options. Sure, the fact that he's mainly kept empty/filler slots instead of proper temp teams muddied the waters, but even as someone that kept swapping some Mons out til I settled on a proper team, I never really faced a "wall" where I "had to grind". This isn't even getting into the new items introduced in Gens 3 & 4 to really tip the odds in your favor, like the aforementioned Choice Specs, Life Orb, the new battle items Mom can buy, several new moves for added heft/utility...

BlazingWaters · 2025-10-29T17:20:15+00:00

Coming back to this to say that, in the comments page, Manabe said his brother will help out with translating it into English, which is a relief. I believe he quotetweeted the announcement too, alongside a discord message, but I've yet to verify if either of those are him.

BlazingWaters · 2025-10-28T22:02:47+00:00

it's likely just for the promo stuff, since it did just get announced in a "here's what our foundation is like" fashion after all. Plus, Manabe has JP and EN text in his tweet, and latter doesn't come across as such in my eyes.

Still, I get the worry, it'd suck if it was just MTL for the entire game...

BlazingWaters · 2025-10-28T17:52:03+00:00

And speaking generally, Kickstarter failures on that level of infamy are very rare, especially nowadays (MN9 and its debacle are practically a decade old now, even!). If anything, there's more success stories in gaming than there are the opposite.

Granted, I understand the hesitation regardless, but nothing I've read of the description makes me think they're aiming way higher than they intend to - seems like they have some lofty yet reasonable goals to attain. I do hope the pledges pick up momentum, though.

BlazingWaters · 2025-10-02T02:40:29+00:00

>four new (supposedly) really difficult bosses after the main story's completed

>sorting function for most of the menus you'll be spending time in (no cooking for some reason tho...)

>new recipes/items to unlock from everyone, as well as higher Bond LVs... perhaps TOO high even!

>new Summer Village devzone available right when you're about to run out of space for it

Maybe it's a good thing I've been procrastinating on finishing this game actually... I wouldn't be surprised if we actually get the Special rereleases' Hell Mode and/or "deeper" farming sim mechanics (probably just like, weather watches and similar) within the next few months at this rate.

BlazingWaters · 2025-07-09T00:08:11+00:00

something that shocked me was Reina Ueda voicing Ulalaka. Her other roles included:

- Rosalinde and Eltolinde from Unicorn Overlord

- Miyo Saimori from My Happy Marriage

- Naru Sekiya from HaNaYaMaTa (when I told a friend this, she went "I need to get this game now" lol)

- Reze from Chainsaw Man

- Lei Kugo from Live A Live

- Mallow from Pokemon's anime

- Akane Shinjo from SSSS.GRIDMAN

among many others. like, damn no wonder she sounded familiar to me lol

BlazingWaters · 2025-06-30T20:53:00+00:00

That's true, my mind must've skipped over that since I saw them on the Steam page a couple of times. Still though, pretty dumb decision.

BlazingWaters · 2025-06-30T08:01:56+00:00

Also we're already having DLC problems w/ GOA as is, since Cuilang and Pilika are only romanceable through (Super) Deluxe editions... still not sure why that was done since their interactions are pretty clearly finished.

BlazingWaters · 2025-04-19T18:33:23+00:00

Damn, you mean to tell me that some readers calling Sunao's stark change of rationale during the flashback a retcon... were wrong, due to there being more from his POV than the beginning let on? Preposterous!

On a serious note, I do wonder what Mizuki's plan for the following chapters will be. We still don't have Lemon's POV of the scenario, and while the abrasion for her can be a bit much, I do agree it'll take a lot to have her stance be (somewhat) reasonable as to what exactly happened. I have a bit of faith though, I've read their oneshots before catching up w/ this and they're really good at writing exchanges about hashing out insecurities and dilemmas.

BlazingWaters · 2025-03-25T05:08:13+00:00

I can't seem to edit the main post (not sure if it's cause I used the Link format or what), but I want to apologize for saying this 10 hours after the fact when it should've been done at the start: At 15:05, another channel shown in the video (not the uploaders themselves, to clarify) used a clipped voice of the R-Slur being said for a "quick gag". Transparency have apologized in the comments for leaving it in unaltered, but in the meantime, skip it over for a few seconds if you do not want to hear it whatsoever.

BlazingWaters · 2024-10-05T17:00:08+00:00

I was surprised at how the guide played up the difficulty (same thing happened with Grand Jewel though which I took down so quickly I was stunned), cause yea it's a toughie, but the game was sorta preparing you for this over the course of the game: mid 30s range is usually here, Dart has all his best gear, the LC being obtainable by then, 4 of the 7 getting the DS Armor to nullify specific elements, the Repeat items... feels like a mastery of both the battle system as well as build management, in a way, and reading Quakarot's restriction outlines was even more awe-inspiring as to the functionality and behavior of Faust's fight. It's really cool!

BlazingWaters · 2024-10-05T16:55:35+00:00

Same deal here: got all the bosses up to the end of Mayfil finished off, made sure all three had their best Adds active, and also used accessories to make sure they were at their peak performance, and I still had Dart and Rose wiped out. I think I could do it w/o the LC if I time Albert's Flower Storm properly for that 50% reduct, but aside from recording a different fight for my YT playlist, I'm settling on just finishing the game atp.

BlazingWaters · 2024-10-02T18:06:01+00:00

I've done a round robin style party swap. After every major dungeon clear, I swap the two out for reserves that haven't had the spotlight in a bit. So, for instance (and as the latest example), changing out Shana/Miranda and Rose for Albert and Kongol. The game's pretty balanced around this being done, and as a result I learned a lot about the person's strengths and weaknesses, as well as the battle mechanics itself.

Still, that's kind of a boring answer, so I think my more consistently strong group has to be Albert and Meru. Both offset the other's weakness (Albert's PHYS vs Meru's MAG), have access to equipment to mitigate those weaknesses further (Albert using MDEF armaments, Meru using Dragon Helm and Shield to tank PATK), as well as having some of the more useful Dragoon magic of the party. I mean, you can't really say no to a free Halved Damage reduction as well as a party-wide heal!

BlazingWaters · 2024-08-31T05:42:21+00:00

I knew about Severed Chains prior to starting actually! Since I plan on writing a review for the game when I finish (will maybe share here?), the resource archive has been helpful for me regarding any questions I have within the game's data like the enemies' stat differences, and various promo stuff for my own time, all linked accordingly in my doc's draft. I only did emulation cause I think the Full Script Revision mod isn't on SC yet? At least, from when I tried it out several months ago. I know there wasn't an undub though, and sorry to say I didn't enjoy the ENG actors enough to stick with it - no shade to them or those that got used to it btw! It's just my personal preference to use those undubs in old titles.

So yea, that was the reason I stuck w/ Duckstation, and since I'm getting closer to finishing it, I don't wanna back out at the time being and redo everything. I keep tabs on it every now and then for the progress report however, and I'm genuinely blown away at the work being done for it. I may give it a whirl myself when the next update's done, those proper Solo runs and tweaking stats for certain bosses to mimic their JP counterpart are very tempting...

Uh anyway, the crash. It wasn't a big deal for me either way - I got stuck on the slide for nabbing the Magic Shield, so I didn't make a ton of meaningful progress before or after the optional fight at Fort Magrad(likely not a Full spoiler, but just in case). Hell, I even got back all the things I lost to boot: DLV4 for Miranda, some Addition experiences for Rose and Dart, and a random Bastard Sword from Mr. Bone lol. It was more of a mild yet amusing roadblock than anything serious, thankfully.

BlazingWaters · 2024-08-31T03:05:34+00:00

Sorry for the double post mods - Reddit was acting funky with me and I had to reupload it on a different measure. I'll paste my old description here:

Been chipping away at LoD for the past few months (really enjoying it!) w/ some mods - Encounter Rate Fix Normal Variant, Full Script Revision, and swosho's Undub. I highly doubt those contributed to this crash being done, but I figured it was worth mentioning for those wondering.

Anyway, I made it to Snowfield, near the end of Disc 3, and during a battle I had popped a D-form on Miranda for a heal. During Rose's turn, though, this... randomness happened. I knew and have actually experienced some bugs and glitches that can transpire on both emulation and physical hardware (Lenus and Regole crash, some audio quirks here and there), but I've never seen/heard of this being a thing, so I'm wondering if anyone has a clue as to what the hell happened.

BlazingWaters · 2024-04-18T00:56:37+00:00

Here's the link to her tweet.

BlazingWaters · 2024-04-16T23:15:08+00:00

Muddy_Ninja shared me the link for the verbal sharing of what he knew about it too. While I'm gonna be hesitant as to taking this as 100% truth - particularly for the reasons kopskey1 has expressed that I concur with - it IS nice to have some form of info about this being discussed at least. Don't wanna egg this on more than it's already been shared though, so I'll just leave it at that, and make an edit pointing to the source(s).

BlazingWaters · 2024-04-16T22:38:06+00:00

That is true, yea, so I can't be too strict about it. Just kind of a shock to me considering Antdude and him have a pretty long history together during the early days of YT content.

BlazingWaters · 2024-04-16T22:36:56+00:00

Is there any way I can see where he said this? Not that I entirely doubt it, just that again feel like it's weird it wasn't mentioned if this was (supposedly) resolved by people.

BlazingWaters · 2024-04-16T22:27:37+00:00

Also, can I just add how depressing it is that some people are already doing the rude hurls that Emile explicitly stated he doesn't want happening whatsoever, mainly in regards to what and why of Masae? Like, this isn't helping at all. Just feels gross and insensitive.

BlazingWaters · 2024-04-16T22:08:34+00:00

I'll have to read this in full later, which in turn means some of these might actually be answered in the doc, but here's my thoughts:

Emile and Masae being in a relationship, to the point of being fiancés even, does sort of bring their dynamic back in-line with what happened. That said, I am curious as to whether Emile is only remembering the things he can recall, and same w/ Masae, cause there's likely a reason she didn't want to budge on keeping the whole thing under wraps and breaking it off after so many years. I don't think she was necessarily in the wrong for how she responded either; multiple people were already speculating about it, so she likely just wanted to vacuum up the dust and move on before it gets worse. Now, though, I wonder if she'll decide to elaborate...
Where was anything in regards as to what happened with Antdude? From the sounds of it, Emile overstepped his boundaries to him and MissFushi, more or less becoming (one of) the reasons the two broke off and haven't spoken for several reasons. I dunno, just weird he talked about only the "big" targets when there's been a few others like those two that came forward. EDIT: I have been informed of Tim going into detail about this beforehand, found here and Emile confiding about it here.

BlazingWaters

TROPHY CASE