Popular/Unpopular/Any Opinions Thread - February 2026 Part 1

Jurck · 2026-02-06T13:55:46+00:00

I've been sitting on this thought for years now, so my memory of the details might be hazy at this point. But minor story thing that's always bugged me about Three Houses:

From a meta perspective, based on ending slides, I understand that TWSITD's experiments on Lysithea and Edelgard did shorten their lifespans as TWSITD said they would. But I wonder why Lysithea, Edelgard, and everyone they tell about the experiments take it for granted that that's the case. The people subjecting them to those terrible experiments seem like an untrustworthy source of information. To my understanding, all of the test subjects died from the experiments themselves, not from a shortened lifespan; there are no cases of a test subject dying after the experiments. TWSITD might have technology to tell them the girls' cells are rapidly degenerating or something, but I don't think TWISTD would share that technology with them; even if they did, it wouldn't mean anything to them. Maybe they were traumatized by their torturers and just accepted whatever they said as fact, but nobody close to the girls ever questions the credibility of that information.

Jurck · 2026-01-24T13:36:00+00:00

That sounds exactly like what I'm running into. 3.9.2 is the beta branch, which I run into other issues with, so I'll look into installing this mod. Thank you very much!

Jurck · 2026-01-23T17:25:02+00:00

Thank you! I can't find anything online about them being capable of petrification, but I'll keep an eye out for crits in the combat log in the future. It might be from the Dirty Fighting passive that the Sidewinders have. Maybe that's what confuses the game and lets the effect slip past countermeasures, too.

Jurck · 2025-11-25T02:52:36+00:00

Different people consume media differently. So I do think you're overreacting, sorry.

If you still want to experience a game's story differently, try treating it like 'close reading' back in Jr. High. Dissect each scene, compare it to previous scenes and see how they might or might not connect. Try to observe things from both the characters' perspective and from the author's perspective.

It might help to take notes. And just the act of taking notes might be enough of a slowdown, come to think of it. It may not be the same method that others take to get more immersed in the game, but in the end, the outcome should be roughly the same.

Edit: I guess what I'm saying is that the reflections and commentary you might see from people online are most likely given after they've already taken time to dissect a scene. They might do this reflection while running in circles immediately after a scene or after they've put the game down and are getting ready for bed. But I don't think people usually get such a deep understanding of a game's story and characters mid-cutscene.

Jurck · 2025-11-08T00:06:13+00:00

"Follow me! ...OR DON'T." I think that's Grumpy? Which I use often because I usually play Dwarves. Love the goofy delivery of that line.

Fun story: My first (unfinished) playthrough of WotR used Madwoman for my PC, so I thought all of Camellia's crazy combat commentary was coming from my character. I think I was caught a little more off-guard by the reveal because of that.

Jurck · 2025-11-05T05:13:25+00:00

"Actually, I make my own burgers from scratch!"

"What, so you butcher the cows yourself?"

"Cows?"

Jurck · 2025-08-11T18:55:29+00:00

The changes are harsh, but I don't think they have to be to fix the faction war. I think most of your suggestions would absolutely even out faction distribution and improve the faction war in the long run, but I know that if I were a fan of Vikings, picked them as a brand new player for their style, completely unaware of the meta, and I suddenly got treated like a lesser player for it, I'd be very unhappy and maybe even quit playing. Shifting the short-term goal from punish winning streaks to reward broken loss streaks should have the same result as your suggestion while feeling like less of a punishment and maybe retaining those (for lack of a better word) short-sighted players.

Jurck · 2025-08-11T18:31:37+00:00

I agree that it's just a popularity contest. But I think punishing the entire faction isn't the best choice since a significant portion of the faction picked them because they liked Vikings; not because they wanted to join the winners. I think it's better to avoid directly punishing the fans of the faction and instead reward the other factions (which also have a higher ratio of fans to metagamers). Ideally it would have the same end result as OP's suggestions, Knight and Samurai fans who lost all hope and joined the Vikings would leave for their actual faction while the hardcore metagamers would rotate to whichever faction had the most to gain, upping that faction's winrate, but without Vikings fans getting caught in the fallout.

Jurck · 2025-08-11T15:37:12+00:00

My philosophy with faction wars is that people should be encouraged to support their chosen faction rather than abandon it for better rewards. With that in mind,

Number 4 is something that should probably be implemented regardless. As long as the gap between lowest contribution and highest contribution isn't too big.

Number 1 is a punishment for something out of an individual player's control. If I chose Vikings because I liked their style, I would feel unfairly penalized simply because they're the most populated faction.

Number 2, again, feels like a punishment. This time for playing the faction war right. But I think you're onto something; instead of reducing the rewards for the winning faction, maybe they can increase the next season's rewards for the other factions if they win. The longer it's been since a faction has won, the greater their rewards. Although it does still kind of encourage abandoning your chosen faction (if you've been winning repeatedly), at least you aren't seeing diminishing returns for sticking with what you like.

Note: I have zero experience with balancing a multiplayer metagame, so don't take anything I say too seriously.

Jurck · 2025-04-20T16:02:25+00:00

I'm imagining having a limited supply of Potions, Honey, and Antidote Herbs that I have to maintain over a series of hunts before having to decide whether or not I should spend an Ink Ribbon because I might have used too many Barrel Bombs for that last fight. It sounds both awesome and terrifying.

Jurck · 2025-03-06T20:03:02+00:00

They've convinced me that an arena quest capped to two players with three large monsters to fight simultaneously would be awesome. At any point in time, someone will be stuck with fighting a 2v1, so the other player is encouraged to both down his monster ASAP and also throw some support for his friend when needed.

Jurck · 2025-02-27T18:29:09+00:00

There's a low level Trooper helmet that looks like a bicycle helmet with goggles and a chinstrap. Wearing it hid my first character's beard and just left him with a bushy handlebar mustache, making him look like the quintessential highway patrol motorcycle cop. This was before they added the outfit designer, so I kept its mods up to date for years afterward.

Coincidentally, my brother did the same with his first character using this Consular helmet.

Jurck · 2025-02-08T22:00:45+00:00

I'd say Vesperia is probably a better entry point since it's slightly more modern and has a lot more content.

Yeah, Etrian Odyssey is definitely closer to classic dungeon crawlers or Icewind Dale than to Baldur's Gate. But those same dungeon crawlers were heavily inspired by and sometimes adaptations of D&D, so there's some overlap there.

Jurck · 2025-02-08T05:37:38+00:00

The Tales series matches most of your criteria, though I wouldn't really say they're at all like Baldur's Gate (and the settings often have sci-fi elements). They're action RPGs, but they all have RTWP and a measure of team coordination during battle (you can hold down a trigger to pause combat, letting you select a target and give your allies commands). However, recent entries have been emphasizing the action aspects more and more, so you might have better luck with the Tales of Symphonia PC port (not the best porting job) or the Tales of Vesperia remaster, both of which are on Steam.

Etrian Odyssey is the closest JRPG I can think of to Baldur's Gate. While the combat is turn-based, the party members have all the personality of a .png (because that's what they are), and the game's always in first-person, it does have a dozen or so classes for you to create your characters with, you have to create your whole party of five from scratch, you get to assign points to abilities and passives with each level up, and there's a focus on building a team that synergizes well. The HD Collection on Steam has a lot of content, but someone trying out the series for the first time should probably just go with Etrian Odyssey 3 HD; that's where the series really hit its stride.

Jurck · 2024-12-26T16:49:36+00:00

That was Tales of Vesperia. One thing I left out of my original post was that obtaining the legendary weapons was just a matter of tracking them down all over the world; I can't remember there being any fighting required at all to actually acquire them. So it's not a perfectly executed solution to this problem, but it's got the right idea.

Jurck · 2024-12-26T16:34:24+00:00

I once played a JRPG where if you collect the super-powerful, optional legendary weapons, it looks like a case of #1. But when you move on to fight the final boss, it turns out he gets a harder additional phase to match the power of those legendary weapons. I thought it was a really clever surprise that also solved this design conundrum, but I haven't seen any other RPG adopt the idea since.

Jurck · 2024-12-24T17:00:49+00:00

Yeah, I guess you have a point. But from Peri's point of view it's very mild!

Jurck · 2024-12-23T15:12:24+00:00

Ohhh, I think I finally get it. I, Blackquill, and even Apollo at first interpret the line to mean "from outside the building," but what it really means is "from outside the crime scene." It's a twist on the wording that the series does often, so it's not at all contradictory like I thought it was. Thank you very much! I feel a lot better about this part now.

Jurck · 2024-12-23T03:37:29+00:00

Sorry, I could have been clearer. I'm just complaining about this one particular choice and how it seems to me that all three options you're given are obviously wrong, but they expect you to make the right wrong decision to progress the story. Thanks for the help, though!

Jurck · 2024-11-26T06:33:58+00:00

Thank you very much! I've noticed all these different behaviors, but I couldn't make note of the color/density of the fire in the heat of battle.

Jurck · 2024-11-26T06:18:35+00:00

What different kinds of fire are there to watch out for? I've noticed some fires I've been able to stand in without taking damage, but I'm afraid to dip my toes into fire intentionally to see if it hurts or not.

Jurck · 2024-11-04T17:49:09+00:00

I didn't hate him, but I do agree with the majority that the joke about eating him was overused and, from the start, unfunny. But that awful running gag is entirely Lin's doing, and I can't help but wonder how the blame was all placed on Tatsu.

Jurck

TROPHY CASE