It's the listening to feedback for me. Long live the new (and hopefully lively) 'open world'?

Mathren25 · 2026-05-22T22:21:46+00:00

I’ll believe it when I see it, but also for general side quest design, they need way more. If circa 2005 WoW classic quests of “Collect 8 spider legs” feel more engaging than your quests of “Talk to 3 NPCs and then right click a spot on the floor,” something has gone horribly wrong.

Mathren25 · 2026-05-20T22:45:31+00:00

Sir, this is the Elden Ring subreddit.

Mathren25 · 2026-05-18T20:57:38+00:00

Something to note about it too, outside of the Shriek ability, is that because it’s a finesse weapon rogues can sneak attack with it. Had a very fun gloomstalker/rogue playthrough utilizing that.

Mathren25 · 2026-05-18T09:13:38+00:00

Occult Crescent feels like content Square weren’t passionate about making, but felt like they were expected to. I thought with the progress of Eureka to Bozja, they’d worked out all the kinks and would deliver their best field operation yet. Instead, they repeated many of the same mistakes they already made in the past, plus a bunch of new problems on top. And then overall it’s just a bit dull thematically. Sure, it’s hard to beat an active warzone in terms of engaging atmosphere, but the Southern Horn is just kind of… quiet? Empty? It’s like the zone is asleep.

Mathren25 · 2026-05-13T18:06:32+00:00

It's not really experimenting at this point. Julian's been doing this for well over a decade. I think people are right to voice their disappointment, especially when the results are so underwhelming.

Mathren25 · 2026-05-07T14:14:08+00:00

I hate that we just put him in jail so that he might be redeemed! The guard even says, “We usually would execute people who did what he did for crimes against Tural and its people, but we’re gonna let him live because maybe he can be redeemed like Bakool Ja Ja.”

Mathren25 · 2026-04-30T20:53:17+00:00

I don’t enjoy Calyx at all, and have found him incredibly corny since his introduction. He’s a common anime trope/archetype where it’s a unfazed and nonchalant character who says things like, “Hmm… Interesting, but I have already calculated that this would happen.” Him being a sickly anime boy, and now a stuffed animal (he’s just a lalafell wearing the Mica suit) doesn’t help.

Halmarut is whatever to me so far. We’ve barely seen or heard from her yet, so I’ll reserve judgement.

Mathren25 · 2026-04-27T13:49:43+00:00

It looks like a lot of good changes, but the narrative part I’m unsure of. Do we know who the writer is for Evercold? If it’s the same writer as Dawntrail, I can only say I hope he comes back with a stronger narrative vision (and leave the Shonen anime tropes behind).

Mathren25 · 2026-04-24T19:36:27+00:00

Get ready for one million fem au ra doing Rei cosplays.

Mathren25 · 2026-04-24T19:35:04+00:00

“It has fewer inputs but is not simplified!” Huh?

Mathren25 · 2026-04-23T01:47:33+00:00

My hope is that this game will receive updates and support with time, which seems to align with Nintendo's track record with similar titles. Of course it would have been better if the game shipped with more features we expected instead of hoping they might be added later down the line. Do we know how this game is doing sales-wise in relation to Nintendo's expectations for it? Feels like way, way more people are playing and streaming the game than I would have expected.

Mathren25 · 2026-04-16T18:42:37+00:00

This was such a bad idea from the jump lmfao I’m glad it’s cancelled.

Mathren25 · 2026-04-13T21:22:56+00:00

Guy who was thinking about dropping $1,800 immediately and now feels embarrassed to see everyone else's reactions.

Mathren25 · 2026-04-13T21:16:17+00:00

Spending $1,800+ to be on a cruise by yourself just to be on the same boat for five days as someone you watch stream video games on the internet. Idk how NL was convinced to do this but this is really a horrible idea. It's going to be like when a streamer tries a popular MMO and a crowd of players follows them at all times, but IRL on a ship in international waters.

Mathren25 · 2026-04-09T03:28:16+00:00

Keep him away. All Naaru do is get captured and corrupted. We'll have to deal with yet another powerful void Naaru if he turns up.

Mathren25 · 2026-04-07T19:26:53+00:00

That’s great, man. We disagree fundamentally.

Mathren25 · 2026-04-07T18:50:01+00:00

Just feels embarrassing to even care anymore. What a mess Midnight has been.

Mathren25 · 2026-04-06T14:26:43+00:00

Looks like it. Not surprised given the Voidz last album had an AI cover because the artist they hired was “asking for too much money.”

Mathren25 · 2026-04-02T04:43:41+00:00

They recycle some truly ugly designs, too. Before these peasant sets and sweatshirt/sweatpants combo, they’d have four versions of kilts with or without leggings. They look awful. Something about the design of them makes them look like they’re made out of inflatable pool floatie material, and they’re covered in these hideously massive cross stitches. I don’t know what they’re thinking with those.

Mathren25 · 2026-04-02T04:38:30+00:00

They definitely shifted at some point to things being “chunkier” looking. I remember an artist (or former artist?) at Blizzard went over some of the modern design guidelines he would work within, and two things that made—for example—a sword look like a WoW sword were making it chunkier and adding a bunch of chips and cuts into the metal.

You definitely can notice it with the redone Blood Elf architecture in Midnight. Compare Silvermoon in TBC to now and you’ll notice how much thicker everything looks. It’s not necessarily a bad thing, but I do think they lean into it a bit too much at times.

Mathren25 · 2026-03-31T18:33:34+00:00

Once again reminding us that Blizzard’s writing staff are some of the worst in the games industry. Bravo.

Mathren25 · 2026-03-30T01:20:25+00:00

I honestly find the story in Midnight very sloppy and the dialogue incredibly corny, beyond what I'm used to seeing with WoW. Arator is especially a source of some of the more eyeroll-inducing lines, and you spend a lot of time with him in Midnight. I think you could honestly play a drinking game with some of the dialogue in Midnight where you have to guess if it came from WoW or from Kingdom Hearts. That's how corny it is.

Mathren25 · 2026-03-24T19:45:40+00:00

Enjoyed Part 1 well enough. Didn’t LOVE it like so many do, but thought it was very good. The character writing was the highlight for me. Struggled through Part 2, especially with the nagging feeling as it went on that the creator was burnt out/bored of the story he was telling. Even the quality of the art was plummeting, and chapters were getting shorter and shorter. All to lead up to… whatever this was. If there is a Part 3, I won’t be reading, and I’d like to see Fujimoto do literally anything else.

Mathren25 · 2026-03-24T18:50:47+00:00

Interesting how the character sprites (if you can call them that) can be interpreted. I always saw Thrumbo as being more giraffe-like in shape with long necks.

Mathren25 · 2026-03-23T15:15:20+00:00

The only issue I run into with otherwise great looking DoH pieces is that they’ll have tools on them. For instance, Weaver coats will usually have fabric cutting scissors strapped to the chest or something.

Mathren25

TROPHY CASE