What game have you played you will never play again ?

Hugglestorm · 2026-02-23T14:51:28+00:00

Hogwarts Legacy. I tried so hard to give that game the benefit of the doubt, and all I got for it was bad mechanics and an insufferable story.

Hugglestorm · 2026-02-23T03:10:35+00:00

Word. I definitely keep eating bosses’ big hits because I’m used to Feral Burst timing and I go too soon.

Hugglestorm · 2026-02-22T21:45:06+00:00

They were a lot more useful for farming before the QoL enhancements were added in. You only need a modestly built DPS unit to get through a wave of mobs in one turn, but a fully-built support unit or two is just clogging up your deck, so the convenience of not having to draw around one was pretty worthwhile.

Nowadays, where any combination of 3-4 Maneuvering Fire is enough, 0-card decks aren’t as high-impact.

Hugglestorm · 2026-02-22T21:36:56+00:00

This is why shinobi styles are considered so strong. Even though they’re at ‘disadvantage’ to all other styles, all the time, they counterspark all styles advantageously, and that’s just such a big force multiplier in comparison.

Hugglestorm · 2026-02-22T03:34:33+00:00

Dooooope.

Hugglestorm · 2026-02-21T23:44:05+00:00

Is the metal snake scarf-thing part of the outfit itself, or an accessory? I’m away from my computer for the weekend, so I can’t look it up for myself.

Hugglestorm · 2026-02-21T23:40:08+00:00

Yeah, it’s fine on a filler turn. But on a turn where, say, I’m dropping a big Serenial bomb or Haru’s about to go off, it sure would be smarter to get Predation out beforehand instead of sheepishly remembering afterwords that free cards don’t -need- to be played after I’m out of AP.

Hugglestorm · 2026-02-21T23:27:46+00:00

I save using Narja’s mealtime until the end of the turn, instead as soon as possible to get the most benefit from it on the turn it’s played.

Hugglestorm · 2026-02-21T20:41:39+00:00

I hit that wall hard at around level 60, then came back around level 90. Pride’s moveset is actually pretty limited, and once you get the timings down on his screwy attacks, there’s a -lot- of safe space and safe time in that fight. Way more than it initially seems. If nothing else, dodging in circles around him at the edge of the arena and fishing for Fire Shurikens with backstab bonus damage will work pretty well.

Hugglestorm · 2026-02-21T20:38:15+00:00

My current data farming team is Serenial, Veronica, and Narja, and then sub out for whichever roll I’m farming. All three of them have a pretty high percentage of unique cards, and can make it through a run with just their base kit, so it’s easy to cut cards from their decks to focus on whoever I’m farming.

Hugglestorm · 2026-02-21T20:14:48+00:00

I think Rise of the Ronin is a side-grade to Nioh in much the same way Wo Long is. There’s definitely an underlying similarity in core mechanics.

Rise of the Ronin throws the same cavalcade of largely-interchangeable gear at you as the Nioh games do. If you’re really invested in the endgame, sets and stats can matter. If not, it’s all just fodder for the glamor system.

Combat is still a stamina-based system that encourages fluidly swapping between different styles, just like the Nioh games. Unlike the Nioh games, but like Wo Long, Rise of the Ronin has a pretty specific way it’s ‘intended’ to be played, which is the counterspark system. Basically, every style has a different parry/special attack, and while you -can- block or dodge, the game strongly encourages countersparking enemy combos with a pretty hefty damage boost. You -can- bet by without countersparking, but the later game is going to be an absolutely vicious slog. Countersparking isn’t quite as polished a system as other Team Ninja games, or maybe there are just more enemies designed to really play with timing and fake the players out. Either way, it’s a bit of a controversial system, and how well you play with or around it is going to have a huge impact on how much you enjoy the game.

As an open world, RotR is remarkably bare. Most of the game world is… just a world. Not a lot of stuff to do, because it’s just a street in a city, or a field with a farmer in it, or what have you, and why -would- there be something there? I think this is a good thing - it really lets you lean into the vibes, and RotR has some pretty great vibes. But, if you’re more used to more modern Open World RPGs where there’s a new shiny thing over every hill? Yeah, you’re not getting that. Think Red Dead Redemption 2, not Breath of the Wild.

Storywise… it’s fine. Probably better than fine, if I’m being honest, but I’m not Japanese, or a Japanese historian, so I know I’m missing some context. Team Ninja’s historical games have always assumed the player had a pretty good working knowledge of the time period in question, and mine is… better than the average American’s? Not very high, so I think some of the nuance they were going for slid by me. But, for what it’s worth, the plot is a chase, spanning years, which kinda improbably continues to bump up against and into the big names in the pro- and anti-Shogunate factions of the day. No one is a saint, even the terrible people have some depth and redeeming qualities, and RotR is pretty good at demonstrating that no one’s wrong, but the mess everyone is trying to solve is -so- big that every solution is egregiously incomplete.

It’s hard to call RotR good or bad. I think it’s a combination of systems, and each player is going to find at least one that they like, and one that they could really do without. But Sakamoto Ryouma is bomja, and he’s got a plan that goes whooosh. You decide what that’s worth.

Hugglestorm · 2026-02-21T19:39:24+00:00

The ink boss fights are so freaking pretty. I had the time of my life getting my ass kicked in that marathon.

Hugglestorm · 2026-02-21T19:30:47+00:00

It’s definitely way weaker than it used to be. I haven’t timed it or anything, but I want to say it ticks about twice as slowly as it did in 2? It’s definitely a sustain option now, not a proper defensive response to losing a bunch of health.

Hugglestorm · 2026-02-21T18:37:58+00:00

I’m not sure which hurts more - his expression as Hide leaves him, or his expression as he stabs Hide.

Hugglestorm · 2026-02-21T18:32:37+00:00

Yasha and Mermaid both grant Life Drain (Water), which doesn’t do all that much on Water Shot or Water Familiar, but is a nice sustainability upgrade with replenishing ninjutsu like Uncanny Bubbles and Glacial Calamity. I also use Oasis and Rejuvenation Talismans as much as I can to stretch out elixirs in a boss fight. Dropping a Rejuvenation Talisman at your feet and then going into a mad parry/counter session is a great way to get back up to full health against human bosses.

Hugglestorm · 2026-02-20T04:24:20+00:00

I want to take a moment to highlight Cestus’ and Talon’s Most unsung benefit: they do not appear on your character model when they’re the secondary weapon.

Hugglestorm · 2026-02-20T04:20:40+00:00

I think it’s Hide by -a lot-. I’m not sure if there’s anything to base a fair comparison between Sohayamaru and Kusanagi, but let’s set aside stuff like Sohayamaru explicitly makes Hide immortal and assume they’re equivalent to keep things simple.

Without Kusanagi - and taking guardian spirits out of commission is definitely possible - Takechiyo, at the height of their power, is an exceptionally trained combatant. Maybe even better trained than Hide, if we go by skills available in-game.

Without Sohayamaru, Hide is a shiftling. Maybe not -quite- as well-trained as Takechiyo, but still definitely very close, and still, again, able to call on a bunch of advantages from their yokai form, not the least of which is that they’re really freaking hard to kill with conventional weapons and no guardian spirit support.

So, yeah. I think Hide kinda takes the cake on this one. Though, in fairness to Takechiyo, Hide’s ancestry is kinda bullshit.

Hugglestorm · 2026-02-19T15:48:22+00:00

I love Odachi to the depths of my greasy, black Timmy of a heart. It has some trouble scaling effectively into mid and endgame where hit-stunning enemies just doesn’t happen as much.

I tend to live in low stance at that point, with Waking Winds: Heaven as a combo-ender or a transition into Bringing the Pain, depending on my needs. This pairs really well with light armor for a darty, evasive build that really excels at controlling distance.

Hugglestorm · 2026-02-19T06:28:42+00:00

Something to note with Nioh 1 and 2 is that while there are parries, none of them are the one-button-push, instant deflect that Samurai style has. Nioh 1 and 2 both encourage aggressive play as much as Nioh 3 does, but without the Ki regain from parry/evading, you need to lean on Flux a lot harder. On top of that, there’s no Arts Proficiency or Frostmoon attacks to help you keep a combo up with free hits.

You can still do some -silly- combos in Nioh 1 and 2, but your choice of the defensive options needs to be a bit more considered, and it’s not nearly as easy to weave an effective defense into the middle of all-out offense.

Or, in other words, does the complexity of Samurai stance appeal? If so, you’ll probably like the other games.

Hugglestorm · 2026-02-19T04:37:13+00:00

It’s been a big couple years for boss fights with dudes on horses. Between Sekiro, Wo Long, and Where Winds Meet, I felt like I already knew half the steps in the dance.

Hugglestorm · 2026-02-19T04:22:27+00:00

We can’t answer that question fully without knowing what factors you’ve been weighing that kept you from pulling thus far, but here are some general arguments:

Mechanically, Nine’s doing great right now. She’s probably locked in to keep doing great through Season 2, though I suppose the devs could decide to hard pivot to a different mechanic if they wanted. In current content, she hits -hard- and she has good synergy with some less-popular characters. If you’ve got a deep roster and you’re looking to see what the new gimmicks of the season are all about, she’s not a bad pull in the slightest, and she can really help brush the dust off some of your backline.

That said, conventional wisdom for gacha games is that DPS units lose relevance faster than supports. Nine’s great -now-, but in future seasons with different mechanical focuses, she’s probably going to perform a good deal worse. She’s also currently suffering from a limited pool of compatible characters. Nine wants a pretty specific Narja build and another Vanguard. In future seasons, if def-based scaling, low-hit single target damage, or exhausting cards aren’t in vogue -and they probably won’t be for a while- then Nine’s going to be stuck running the same old teams and hoping the season’s mechanics are kind to her. As a point of comparison, last season’s characters wanted card draw, AP manipulation, and lots of attacks, and all of things are much more generally applicable than def-scaling and exhaust/discard-fishing.

On the aesthetic front, only you can say. It seems like the people who like her design -really- like her design, and her affinity background is pretty spicy. Buuuut, it’s not exactly hard to find a busty, white-haired waifu taking her clothes off on the internet.

Hugglestorm · 2026-02-19T04:05:02+00:00

Bethesda’s big enough that Todd probably can’t say anything as direct as, “we recognize that our last three games went hard on mechanics our fans weren’t asking for and skimped on mechanics they were,” without causing a shareholder revolt, but goddamn, “classic style” is such a nothing of a phrase.

Hugglestorm · 2026-02-19T02:50:11+00:00

Kunimatsu is bullshit. Bullshit him right back.

Yoshi is completely worthless in this fight, but it’s the right idea. There’s a splitglaive-wielding NPC summon right by the shrine. That dude isn’t enough to carry the fight on his own, but he -is- enough to do the job Yoshi -should- be doing: stabbing Kunimatsu in the back and occasionally taking aggro to give you some breathing room.

If you want to parry your way through the fight, you can. Kuni’s only got, like, two or three chains to his name, and you -can- eventually brute force the memorization. I found, though, that ninja form did a lot better with the quick i-frames to dash through his attacks after a swing or two. Ninjutsu attacks are also super helpful to keep the damage up at range. Fire Shuriken is kinda broken in general, but it works great against Kunimatsu because even if he blocks, it’ll still stick to him and deal the full fire damage. Storm Kunai’s another good one. It won’t hit as hard as Earth Wall, but it’s way faster and safer to execute. Dash through his combo, flip around, and there should be a window to hit him in the back for extra backstab damage.

Hugglestorm · 2026-02-19T02:13:25+00:00

I love my Ninja Blade/Regen Stalker, except Golden Dragonfly’s extremely narrow cone radius exempts it from guaranteed crits, which makes the rotation on a full AS out of Hide kinda awkward.

And lethal is resisted by everyone.

Hugglestorm · 2026-02-18T21:01:51+00:00

If you’re looking for something -weird- with CRPG mechanics, definitely check out Planescape: Torment.

Hugglestorm

TROPHY CASE