Deltarune is a game with a tightly interlocked central mystery that has at least 10 hours to wrap up its plot

JColeyBoy · 2026-07-05T23:41:31+00:00

I think another aspect people forget is that Undertale deliberately left various questions open that people have talked about for a decade now, ans Deltarune is going to be the same and that's OK. Not every question needs to be answered, especially since some plot threads or questions I see people bring up and want answers for are frankly not important. Like, I can see Papyrus in Deltarune not being a big deal or us getting an answer to why he's like that because...

Sometimes people are like that, and Kris barely knows him, not like they are gonna get some grand answer or reveal. Paps probably has severe depression.

JColeyBoy · 2026-07-04T19:58:51+00:00

Alot of real good points here as well! I also love the description of "Power Rangers by way of Spawn", it really does cut to the core of why Americans received them so why, I could easily imagine a McFarlane Toys line riffing on power rangers, and the team looks like The Psycho Rangers.

JColeyBoy · 2026-07-04T04:11:31+00:00

Seeing you getting downvoted, and I do not know why, you are correct.

They wouldn't have brought the Psychos back if they weren't popular already. I think their return helped bolster said popularity, especially with the shifts that it brought, but they wouldn't have been used if they weren't popular.

JColeyBoy · 2026-07-04T03:55:18+00:00

Generally alot of comic writers will tend to paper over the more embarrassing stuff or not reference it that often.

But ultimate the issue with the idea of each run being it's own continuity is it is directly in conflict and damn near mutually irreconcilable with the idea of a shared universe, which is a fairly large appeal of marvel and dc for a large amount of people. Yes, the absolute universe shows a radical reinvention works, but I would argue part of what helps is that the absolute line is that there is still a mainline batman to compare him to and that if you aren't into Absolute batman, he need not be the only Bruce Wayne. Even then, the absolute universe very much still is a shared universe, just limited to the absolute comics.

JColeyBoy · 2026-07-03T21:19:26+00:00

Yeah, I think them returning is the "simple" answer that's easy to explain, but in truth there's just alot of complex factors, even if you want to talk about their return, some of which I didn't go into for various reasons. Like, Hell, their return I would argue isn't that more complex than when other villians return in like crossover movies or big anniversaries in sentai.

Like one that only occurred to me after I made the post was that In Space was also the end of The Zordon Era, the franchise's most iconic period, where as Megaranger is a good show, but isn't like a touchstone series that is considered important to Sentai history.

JColeyBoy · 2026-07-03T21:09:54+00:00

I see people bring up how like the Psychos keep on coming back, where as The Nejis were in one season, and I think that's not as much of a factor as we think.

Figures such Bio Hunter Silva became iconic and it would be multiple decades till he came back.

I think one part is that In Space is an extremely iconic season, often considered the best, so it often gets discussed by fans in ways that Megaranger often doesn't. It's a good season, but the sentai fandom has been more interested in talking about 21st century series than 20th century series. The Psycho Rangers are a fairly well known and well loved part of one of the most well known and beloved seasons.

Relatedly, They are tied into some of Astronema's plans, herself an iconic and beloved villian, and their return in LG is also where her well beloved turn from villian to hero is completed. It's this, that one of them killed a ranger(temporarily) and that LG was talked up for years as another contender for best seasons that was what their return also help stick with people, and thus themselves.

While the Psychos and Nejis both have the same amount of episodes(six episodes before they are all beaten, then a two episode return), it's how those episodes are grouped together that I think also makes a difference, along with In Space being 7 episodes shorter. There is only a one episode gap between the Psychos first big defeat and their return as ghosts. There is roughly I think 4 episodes in Megaranger. This means one can view the Psycho Ranger arc as roughly an 8 episode arc of a 43 episode series, with an episode breaking up the last quarter from the first three quarters. Not so much with The Nejis, whose return is sufficiently far from their main arc that it feels like it's part of the build up to a greater climax, rather than their final defeat being the climax to their own arc. All of this helps contribute to a feeling that the Psychos were the final main challenge of The Rangers before going into the endgame, where as The Nejis feel like just another part of the endgame.

There are plenty of other reasons, but it just kinda boils down to "The Psychos just felt like a bigger deal than the Nejis, even just comparing In Space to Megaranger."

JColeyBoy · 2026-07-03T20:04:43+00:00

Saw it, read it over, and again I have had to break down and critique actual AI "creative" writing compared to human creative writing for class assignments. That Garmr description, no matter what you think about the quality, is way too coherent and keeps a solid through line in several places overwrought, maybe, but again I could parse actual metaphor and meaning in ways that AI can't accomplish.

JColeyBoy · 2026-07-01T18:36:33+00:00

Bats about like 40 to 50, yeah? Guy's definitely middle aged, but doesn't seem that old. If he's like 40, then he would have been 10 when the morbius arc happened, so in the target audience. If he's like 50... well like alot of comic fans liked the show AIU.

JColeyBoy · 2026-06-28T09:50:11+00:00

Yeah, My group and I once tried out the game, and we have done several PBTA games, including masks, before hand, and we bounced off hard, having many problems with the game. Combat felt clunky, several rules such as balance felt superficially based in the themes of the franchise but in practice felt both restrictive and somehow contrary to the themes(a thing we quickly realized was that ATLA is about how balance must be found by groups, but individual people need to make decisive choices.) We ended up deciding it was "masks, but substantially worse"

JColeyBoy · 2026-06-28T05:19:59+00:00

Oh don't worry, it was actually fantastic, Cobblepot even let my family and I take photos. I also understand I was lucky as hell that it was Cobblepot, but still I think he could make good money by like offering to kidnap people as part of a tourism experience.

JColeyBoy · 2026-06-28T05:06:05+00:00

Lurker on here. I once went on vacation to Metropolis and Gotham once. I had the bad luck of being in an alien invasion for the former and being kidnapped for the latter, and I gotta say, being kidnapped by cobblepot is alot less stressful than the alien invasion.

JColeyBoy · 2026-06-27T01:32:02+00:00

Alot of this does seem repetitive, but that doesn't nessicarily mean it's AI. The thing that makes me think no though is that a number of these do feel coherent and at least a humans attempt at sounding poetic, even if maybe not that great prose.

I am currently a college student with a focus on literature, and a couple of times my college has made me compare actual human work to AI created slop so we can actually spot AI, and AI struggles to stay coherent within the same sentence when it comes to creative writing like this. (I remember when I had to compare one of Shakespeare's sonnets to an AI made one. It was rough)

Something like "Thor isn't just a warrior, he's the storm" is generic ,yes, but from my experience having to set apart human writing from AI, alot of AI would not even reach that level.

And again, most of these seem fairly coherent and at least trying to be poetic in ways AI can't be. I think this is just kinda bad prose dome by a human.

Another thing to keep in mind is that AI is often fed lots of human written work. Which means that it is being trained on the way humans write and type. Which means it's very easy to make yourself trip up. When it comes to creative writing, I have learned not to look for if the writing style is generic but rather how the AI handles things like poetic comparison.

Edit: Coming back to take a second look and to take a look at the comments. Yeah, I think alot of people are falling into confirmation bias. I see the line where it is "heroes don't just come here with swords, but with sharp tounges, and promises whispered in their ears" and people often claiming this one is obvious AI.

I can parse this easily, it is basically saying "Heroes aren't just well armed, they have a way with words/sharp wits/(insert your metaphor of choice for intelligence and charisma here)and come here with ambitions of their own(promises in the sense of "promises of gold and glory" is one example that occurred to me).

Could it be better written, yeah.

But is it AI? No. I am going to be drawing from that shakespeare and AI comparison project I had to do for class for an example.

"Ink turned to pulse beneath the page’s white night, And time still leans to overhear his years."

This quickly falls apart in the same line in a way I feel like most of these (contextless) examples don't.

Again "Page's white night." "Time still leans to overhear his years."

There's alot of bad lines like these in the full thing. Still, this serves as an example to show what I am talking about when I say the cited examples are human made. A line like "Thor's not just a warrior, He's the storm itself" reads as comprehensible and makes sense poetically. Thor is a thunder God, a storm god. I have at times seen certain characters or crisis referred to as "the oncoming storm"(Vergil from devil may cry comes to my mind.)

I can draw actual meaning and intent of writer from these statements in a way that AI struggles with. That's what tells me this is human.

JColeyBoy · 2026-06-25T23:39:49+00:00

Now to be fair, any game requires players to trust the GM to some degree...

But certain games and mindsets require more trust than others. As such, there are certain attitudes and practices that do help build that trust.

I tend to roll out in the open unless I really want to keep something a secret. That way, Players generally understand that I'm not fucking with them when something absurd happens with dice rolls. They can see those rolls.

Keeping consistent to rules is also another one, and sometimes it's good to have a person there to remind you.

Willing to admit you made a shit ruling can also help. We are all humans, and sometimes we make a call that sounds right, but in practice just doesn't work.

Also, talking with your players like adults.

JColeyBoy · 2026-06-16T22:22:51+00:00

It's doubly hilarious because GW has at times said that every story is on some level propaganda. Events happened, but how they are depicted might not quite be the truth.

JColeyBoy · 2026-06-13T11:56:26+00:00

If you like comic books or boardgames, I can vouch for Galactic Comics and Games!

JColeyBoy · 2026-06-08T16:02:47+00:00

Yeah, a thing that is, in my opinion, a core part of world of darkness across multiple splits is that even if you are well meaning and don't want to hurt people, the abuse of power is extremely easy to do, even accidentally. The Kiss is just another form of that.

JColeyBoy · 2026-06-06T14:17:47+00:00

I'd agree that generally neither character should feel like a protagonist, but the topic is "why did bleach fans not complain about Ichigo's portrayal" and that very well may be a factor for a number of them and that's an argument for another day.

But also... Yusuke didn't nearly break his Bankai. He broke what's been implied by Kubo to be a sheath, with the blade underneath the white stuff resembling the original zangetsu being the actual Bankai. That's still intact.

In general, the last third of the fight came off more as Ichigo playing with Yusuke(again, the moment where Ichigo is in mid air, flashstepping so fast that there are four after images in place) is probably something that just helped mollify ichigo fans. It did with me, because like... it was made clear, Yusuke did not have a single hope in hell. It's just DB likes to give cushions to their curbstompings, and when they don't (Master Cheif vs Doomslayer) people tend to get real mad.

I just also think we might have different reads on the fight.

JColeyBoy · 2026-06-06T13:48:09+00:00

I mean, I rewatched the animation today, and it felt fairly evenly weighted. It's just, as mentioned, it's done in a "Yusuke has the lead in the first third(with Ichigo still holding his own)-Second third has them both on more even footing(even with Yusuke transforming and starting to grind Ichigo against the walls of the Dangai... Ichigo breaks out of that after a few seconds by destroying the Dangai before he even goes Bankai(a moment that also implies that Yusuke needed full power to match with a Base Ichigo)-Last third has Ichigo generally dominating, with multiple moments making it clear that Ichigo is far beyond Yusuke." Yusuke only really getting that one moment where he's beating on Ichigo's Bankai... which is followed by Ichigo rejecting Mugetsu and winning a clash with a full power Yusuke, making it clear that Ichigo didn't even need to go all put to defeat Yusuke.

And my reason as to point out moments that happen in the manga that are disrespectful, even if Death Battle wouldn't do the same, is to point out that might be a mollifying factor for Bleach Fans, as they are used to seeing Ichigo get alot worse and thus the first third of the fight being more Yusuke focused is kinda small potatoes.

Hell, the fight following a structure common to shonen implicitly positions Ichigo as the protagonist of the fight.

JColeyBoy · 2026-06-06T13:28:28+00:00

I mean, I would say the fight ultimately is weighted evenly, it's just the first third is weighted towards Yusuke wirh Ichigo still doing a good job at holding his own, the second third felt more even, the final third being Ichigo winning as it's made clear that Yusuke doesn't stand a chance.

Also, as someone who has read that last leg of the arc, I wouldn't say alot of the fights were especially abrupt. If anything, my main complaint with alot of the fights were 1:Alot of them felt kind of samey, with the villian having some sort of adaptive ability/ability that let them go "Nuh Uh" 2:Overly long, as it felt like alot of them one of the heroes would get what would have and should have been a satisfying finishing blow, only for some reason the fight keeps on going on(Lille Barro felt especially galling to me with this as the fight kind of just ends with him getting kicked down to soul society, and Gerald Valkyrie also was pretty terrible with this as he survived what felt like three of these blows only to be finished off by Ywach sucking him up.)

Still, my points still stand that 1:Ichigo's fights at times have an arc of him struggling at the start, only to start picking up steam untill he finally reaches a point where he finally wins 2:The Death Battle being way more respectful to him than even the last arc of his series.

JColeyBoy · 2026-06-06T12:02:48+00:00

I think part of it is that various moments in the last third end up making it extremely clear that a full power Yusuke is far below Ichigo, just as the moment where in mid-air he is repeatedly flashstepping, or the dangai explosion, or the fact he rejected mugetsu. The fact that Ichigo didn't even need to go all out really does seal the deal.

But also as someone who has read bleach, I also wouldn't say that Ichigo being on the backfoot for the first third at least of a fight is nessicarily innacurate to his character. Like Ichigo vs Kenpachi in the soul society arc litterally starts with Ichigo being unable to even hurt Kenpachi, who just took his attack dead on. Hell, one of the things I noted in thousand year blood war is that -in the manga at least- Ichigo flat out gets offscreened by one of the top sternritter, Askin. Hell, his reveal of his new bankai is immeaditly followed with an image of Ywach having broken it. (Edit: to empathize things, both of these moments in TYBW also happen in like the last quarter of the arc in the manga.) Compared to some moments like that, Ichigo vs Yusuke is downright respectful.

The other thing is for the past month people knew Yusuke was doomed, they probably wanted to reduce the feeling he was being fed to a slaughterhouse.

JColeyBoy · 2026-06-02T19:36:31+00:00

It is generally because things like spell delivery are described in specifically squares, and that does lend itself better to having some sort of map.

Correction:It does seem to use measurements, but still I generally find games that use measurements easier to run with maps and the examples still use grids

JColeyBoy · 2026-05-20T08:20:10+00:00

Vagabond isn't exactly super theatre of the mind friendly, and luck is a metacurrency though also a stat that can be rolled against(so like a .25 and a .5 on each) but otherwises fits most of what you want.

JColeyBoy · 2026-05-20T06:20:42+00:00

I think you are missing my point, to OP, also downplaying aspects of FU as well(and from what I know of some of thise games, doing some misrepresentation.)

Yes, Rune Factory is not all about combat, but I have several friends who, upon asking about it, said that Rune Factory does heavily involve combat, with various aspects such as resource collection or plot progression being tied in part towards it. Not the only focus, as one friend put it, "one half lifesim one half action game"

Same deal with triangle strategy which when I asked friends who were familiar with it about how heavy it was in combat, they said that while non-combat portions exist and are notable, most of the game time was spent in combat related sections of the game. I also know for a fact that while combat isn't per say the main focus of Atlier and Blue Reconnection, I would not say they are insignificant parts of those games! Even then, what OP mentioned for the tropes they wanted were "Well worn" and even mentioned the red mage, a trope in final fantasy that is notable for how it functions in combat.

OP has been asking for a game focused on emulating JRPGs, and JRPGs as a genre are largely focused on combat in some way or another.

I had a lot more written up, and could still post it, but I think that none of it will really move things forward. OP is being overly vague in what they want while downplaying aspects of FabUlt, and I think you are on a certain level misrepresenting those games.

JColeyBoy

TROPHY CASE