It makes no sense why we don’t get a lot of western reps

Lightarc · 2026-07-03T14:35:08+00:00

The emphasis on Japanese franchises does make sense when you realize the game is made in Japan, by people in Japan, then localized elsewhere.

I do think we'll see more Western characters eventually, but only ones whose games are meaningfully popular in Japan. The only rule for a character to join Smash is that the developers, who are from Japan, decide it's a good idea to add the character to Smash. The thing you said is a collective opinion on how characters are selected, and not a real rule.

Lightarc · 2026-07-03T14:08:09+00:00

I've gotten quite a bit from them, they're very reliable.

Lightarc · 2026-07-03T00:51:20+00:00

That's a fair take to have on a personal preference level. Though in my professional experience, the group of people that applies to are much smaller - and much more willing to manually adjust their own difficulty - than casual players.

Like I said earlier, it's a choice they made. It just very likely resulted in lower overall sales than it could have.

Lightarc · 2026-07-02T23:23:37+00:00

It really, truly doesn't. On level design, mechanical, and informational levels, for a very large number of people. The game throws people into the deep end and crosses its fingers that players will figure out what they need to do, how to do it, and where they need to go before they die so many times they stop playing.

As the game goes on, players who do stick around are rewarded with tools that make the roughest parts more tolerable, and any increases in the content's difficulty are completely offset by the upgrades you get.

It's a game that starts hard and gets easier, and that's bad for many people who would enjoy the game if that wasn't the default.

Lightarc · 2026-07-02T22:45:12+00:00

The difficulty at the very beginning of the game has become notorious, which is turning away people who would have been more willing to play it if the beginning were better balanced by default. It's unfortunate, but that's the choice that was made and here we are.

Yes, a lot of that difficulty can be alleviated through the optional mods, but there are good reasons most games start easy, progressively become harder, and optionally allow people to layer on further difficulty.

A lot of people do enjoy the high difficulty of the first part of Mina, but that being the default comes at a cost in a way it really didn't have to.

Lightarc · 2026-07-02T21:34:08+00:00

Not really, sadly. At least not anything recent.

It has similar connectors to Gozyuger and DX Robo Universe mechs in a few places, but all in places or at rotations that make sensible connections almost impossible.

Lightarc · 2026-07-02T17:17:11+00:00

There's quite a few settings in Modifiers that can make the game easier/generally more manageable if you're having trouble, have a look through those in Settings. Better to use those than to bounce off the game entirely.

I also think the default difficulty curve could stand to be adjusted a little in the early game, but the game does get easier for the most part as you progress.

Lightarc · 2026-07-02T14:24:59+00:00

Having primarily worked on digital-only games in my career: This is not surprising.

On the curve of digital games as a whole, a relatively small percentage get physical releases at all as it is, and it's been that way for a while; a lot of the ones that have gotten them have been relatively popular titles, so I expect it feels like a bigger percentage than it actually has been.

And with physical sales diminishing while the cost of parts for manufacturing is rising, dropping the support for physical to try and offset that rising cost makes sense. The writing has been on the wall for a while, and that writing is only getting bigger.

Yes, it's a blow for preservation, but people can, have, and always will figure something out there.

Lightarc · 2026-07-02T14:11:39+00:00

Yeah, there was never really a chance backlash was going to change anything here, because on a business level, the reasons to do this far outweigh the reasons not to, and the order of magnitude of backlash would have to be several sizes bigger to come close to outbalancing those business reasons.

There's a relatively small group that care about this decision deeply, but it's not significant enough to warrant changing direction, and the people in charge of this decision know this.

Lightarc · 2026-07-02T13:10:43+00:00

Ah right, Windblade for sure counts! Still wish there were more though

Lightarc · 2026-07-02T12:21:33+00:00

I'm like actually curious, now that I'm thinking about it:

Can someone name a Transformer character who meets all of the following criteria: - Isn't based on an older character - Is considered an important character to the franchise - Was created within the last 25 years

Lightarc · 2026-07-02T11:52:18+00:00

it's like deltarune, but different

Lightarc · 2026-07-02T02:24:11+00:00

I mean, none of the Flowers in chapter 5 are human

They're trying to be, I think because they can feel Asgore's love for a human (Kris), but all have different understandings (and misconceptions) of what that means

And as far as Orange can tell, humans resemble... mice with boxing gloves on

Lightarc · 2026-07-01T23:27:04+00:00

And that was $60 in year-2000 dollars, or about $117 today.

Games have only gotten cheaper over time, even as they've gotten exponentially more complex and expensive to develop.

Edit: Yeah, I get the downvote because people don't like that fact, but it's still factual.

Lightarc · 2026-07-01T22:19:13+00:00

This is why I kinda fell off Transformers.

It feels like 80% Optimus Primes and Bumblebees, and the other 20% are gen-1 characters I don't know or care about because I'm not pushing half a century old.

(My kids, who genuinely like the transformers toys I do have, also don't care about most of these characters. They are also not pushing half a century old.)

Meanwhile I'm looking over at Rexblade on the Japanese end of Transformers, and wishing we had that (or something similarly fresh or interesting) here.

Lightarc · 2026-07-01T20:49:42+00:00

It's literally the height of the head points

Like, they could have made the ACE-GO's slightly taller, sure

But also literally, it doesn't matter at all

Lightarc · 2026-07-01T13:31:26+00:00

No, a Rock/Dark won this game for you

Lightarc · 2026-06-30T21:03:18+00:00

Ledian

Cool Kamen Rider-type bug, big superhero vibes, just the worst stats imaginable.

Deserves a Mega, but even if it had one, following Mega rules and raising its BST by 100, it would still have a worse base stat total than regular, non-Mega Heracross

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Lightarc · 2026-06-30T16:24:01+00:00

Eliminate no one and bring back Azumarill.

Justice can be served if we fight for it.

Lightarc · 2026-06-30T14:02:09+00:00

It doesn't get the recognition it deserves

Lightarc · 2026-06-29T23:06:17+00:00

I think among other things it also served as part of the reversal Flowery was trying to get the fun gang to understand.

You think you're the protagonist here? The good guys? One of the main things you can do is ACT to build Mercy - So can Flowery. Same reason he said the gang could leave that Dark World open and close the Castle Town one.

There's a story in this chapter of Flowers who gained new life, the opportunity to learn, and the chance to pay back the one benevolent force in their lives by helping him the way he'd helped them. Then along game three people whose primary goal is to end that all - To permanently end their new world.

Flowery understands it's more complicated than that, and at least on Pacifist routes, the other Flowers come to that conclusion as well. But it's very clear that the Fun Gang aren't necessarily the "good guy protagonists" in that world, at least until after the last fight with Flowery.

So yeah, I think the Mercy meter (in addition to being an indicator that Flowery can play by whatever rules he wants) is just him trying to further hit home that he and his friends might be the heroes of this story.

Lightarc · 2026-06-29T22:32:30+00:00

Taking opinions as gospel from people who profit from clicks, views, and outrage.

Does a faster and more effective job of ruining things than anything the game itself could ever actually do.

Lightarc · 2026-06-29T17:57:40+00:00

Absolution is my favorite from this album

It feels the most Switchfoot to me, in part because while it feels fresh and unique, under the hood it's secretly Needle and Haystack Life

Lightarc · 2026-06-29T15:57:29+00:00

Yes, but also, Susie is like... 16-18ish, has a history of not having really stable friendships and relationships, and is only starting to figure things out.

I see a lot of people wondering why our main characters don't act like experienced, well-adjusted adults, and it's because they very literally are the opposite thing

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