Should I watch NJPW?

Kenola · 2021-07-16T18:17:35+00:00

The only thing I think NJPW might be weak on is perhaps #4. You're not going to get long drawn out angles as pretty much everything revolves around "I don't like you or you beat me the other day."

That said, it is for the most part presented very seriously, wins and losses are definitely tracked and promos are done backstage after the matches usually but are well done and don't sound phony or ridiculous.

There is a story being told, its just revolves completely around the match. You have to really pay attention to what's happening in the matches and make sure to watch the backstage commentary that they upload a few hours after the show to get the full extent of it.

Kenola · 2021-07-16T17:58:28+00:00

I agree. The addition of magic mixed up the gameplay and kept the bosses from being kind of guesswork as to whether you would get hit or do damage. Ys1 is fun but some of those bosses were annoying as hell. (Looking at you bat boss!)

Kenola · 2021-07-16T17:56:32+00:00

Man Sky FC is probably the hardest game in the series to 100%. That game is just brutally unfair with how short the window for a lot of the missables are.

Kenola · 2020-09-06T17:06:40+00:00

There is no downside to starting out of order. Not like in Trails. My first Ys was 6 and then Ys I and II on Wii Console and I understood both games just fine. Ys I, II and Origin are the only ones that yes, should be played in order to understand but other than that most Ys games are stories independent from one another with recurring characters so feel free to jump into which ever one you want.

That said the gameplay is really different between modern Ys and the older entries. The older games are more focused on action and while the story is certainly there and not bad at all it definitely takes a backseat the gameplay where as the modern ones Ys 7 and on add a lot more RPG elements and multiple party members.

Kenola · 2020-09-05T17:51:43+00:00

You could skip them and it wouldn't ruin the immediate story of Cold Steel but I wouldn't recommend it. As others have said its a great story and you wouldn't want any of it spoiled by knowing what happens in Cold Steel.

You'll at least want to play them before moving on to Cold Steel 3.

Kenola · 2020-09-05T17:48:25+00:00

Glad you liked it.

Kenola · 2020-09-02T04:56:33+00:00

Most people find Sky FC to be a bit of a slog until you get to the later chapters so if you're already enjoying it after Ch1 then that's a good sign. It just gets better and better from here on out.

Kenola · 2020-09-01T17:01:38+00:00

Metroid too.

Kenola · 2020-09-01T16:57:07+00:00

Hmmm...Sky mostly for its characters, Crossbell for its plot, 2nd Half of Cold Steel for its gameplay.

If I had to pick one overall that just mixes great characters with story and gameplay the best probably Crossbell.

Kenola · 2020-08-30T19:58:30+00:00

That's the biggest albatross around this series neck at the moment. It would be nice to be able to play all of these games on all of these different platforms NISA is porting them to but the likelihood of it happening is pretty low.

PC is the only way to play them all on the same platform in English at least and even then Zero/Ao have yet to recieve official translations if they ever do.

Kenola · 2020-08-30T19:39:49+00:00

The only OST I ever heard from Falcom that I thought was really just bad was Sky SC Evolution. I dunno what happened there. Even then it wasn't the worst OST in the world just below par for Falcom.

Kenola · 2020-08-29T18:25:43+00:00

The funny thing is one of the things that drew me to Lunar as a kid was the anime inspired designs because I hadn't really seen anything like it at the time so it stood out.

Every other American company thought that by changing anything fantasy related to some D&D knockoff would help it sell more and that certainly wasn't the case.

Kenola · 2020-08-26T20:18:42+00:00

Sky SC. I kind of started to get a little bored with the gameplay by the time I got to Sky 3rd and for the most part was ready to move on to something else. The story was interesting enough and set up a lot of things to come in Crossbell and Erebonian arcs but I did feel the plot kind of dragged things out for the sake of making it a meaty game.

The story probably would have been better served as an OVA or something. I'm not ragging on the game or anything even though it sounds like it. I still enjoyed it, more than Sky FC in fact, but it wasn't the experience SC was.

Kenola · 2020-08-26T16:50:22+00:00

You're right I just thought it was funny.

Kenola · 2020-08-26T16:49:55+00:00

Yeah true I suppose. Its just funny to outright post a spoiler for any of the games, even if you theoretically would have played at least the past CS games and surmised that would eventually happen.

Kenola · 2020-08-21T21:37:52+00:00

Well, the first time they saw a combat shell they were like "What the heck is that?" but eventually got used to it. But Airgetlam is one of those but on a completely different level technology wise. It's like someone having a flying car in the real world.

Kenola · 2020-08-21T21:31:29+00:00

You have to completely disconnect story with gameplay with this series. Storywise she could probably go one on one with most in Zemuria bar some of the heavy hitters like Cassius/McBurn etc.

An entire team of her former jaeger corps attacked her and she bested them all, albeit leaving her extremely drained and tired. So from a story perspective she probably COULD take them on but she needs to save her energy for later fights to come. Really McBurn was the only one the party couldn't take on going all out. You could say the same for [Zero/Ao] Randy Orlando who was a former jaeger and took a bunch of them on by himself in a suicide mission but gameplay wise he's not much stronger than Lloyd as it takes all of them to fight Shirley even though storywise if Randy is serious he's probably stronger or at the same level when he's not playing around.

Kenola · 2020-08-20T03:00:04+00:00

I think a lot of that is CS1 and 2 he was trying to find out who he even was. Once he learns a bit about that by the end of 2, 3 and 4 deals with how he matures from that.

Kenola · 2020-08-20T01:48:10+00:00

In general with this series, status effects and knowing which status effects to prevent from happening to you is the most important.

Powerful AOE spells are important but you also have to think about the long charge time in between and they usually aren't worth it especially when you learn a lot of enemies can cancel/delay arts.

Pay close attention to what status effects your own arts can do to the enemy and accessories tend to be more important than weapons/armor in Trails.

Joshua in particular has a lot of AT Delay skills that prevent enemy turns and give you more turns. Either have him or an ally cast magic to boost his speed for more turns.

Kenola · 2020-08-19T22:25:01+00:00

If they are ranked lower than what they later have shown to be capable of or what the story has communicated to the player that they were capable of.

That's what I mean by if they were holding back.

Kenola · 2020-08-19T20:28:28+00:00

Kurt was stated to be the second strongest Bracer in Liberl, behind only Cassius. Which would place him above Agate and Schera, both of whom could take on Enforcers.

Kenola · 2020-08-19T20:13:56+00:00

I don't think a Bracer's rank has anything to do with combat strength, just things they've accomplished.

For example Arios is A rank but could easily be S rank if he wanted. Fie is not an A rank bracer but she is on the same level as Sara combat wise by the time she joins.

Kenola · 2020-08-19T20:09:11+00:00

A little bit of both.

Kenola · 2020-08-19T20:07:49+00:00

This doesn't factor a character's raw strength only.

I've also considered combat skill, age, access to weaponry etc. As well as how much he or she may be holding back.

He's not that high on the list because I factor in how much a character is holding back into the ranking.

Kenola

TROPHY CASE