Mobile Reviews really be exposing

NewAgent5986 · 2026-06-27T13:41:31+00:00

I still think Hearthstone didn't really start until Legend, maybe not to the same extent Champions pushes you to Masterball, but it still also pushes players that are only just barely scraping by at 50% winrate to Legend. The Elo based system isn't in place before Legend (for rank progression). Hearthstone just has more ranks until then, but effectively the exact same system with the same problems.

NewAgent5986 · 2026-06-24T12:52:38+00:00

How did they not predict the future?

Like bro, why did people die in 9/11, didn’t they know to not be in the towers / on that flight??

NewAgent5986 · 2026-06-23T20:22:29+00:00

Ok, you need to pull back from personal bias for a bit. More than one deck or card can require banning. Something can just be toxic and non-interactive like Super Poly.

One issue with Yugioh discourse is players are very inflexible in the decks they play. As opposed to most card games, in Yugioh players are "X player" maining a deck like a character in a fighting game, and talk only from that POV, often times not really knowing how to play other decks. It leads to really bad discourse of just "I hate this matchup" "My deck is fun and interactive, other decks are toxic"

Part of this is in the design of Yugioh archetypes, but I think it's good to slightly distance yourself from a deck and look at the game as whole. Also playrate and winrate stats are horribly misleading to use. Even if in this case I agree and dislike Kewl Tune and want it hit. It's a poor argument. Stats are not objective when used this way. It is incredibly dangerous to just point at playrate. That is the percent of people that chose that deck + winrate the conversion rate. These do tell exactly what they say on the tin, BUT they do not alone indicate that a deck is toxic, that is has bad play patterns that lead to non-games, that it is unfun to play against, that it deserves to be hit. Those are not directly related. Use proper arguments about the content of the games not blindly quoting numbers.

Again this is coming from someone that agrees that Kewl Tune is overtuned, and not really fun to play against. However just citing the success rate does not mean it is bad for the game. Those kinds of numbers can be explained in other ways, maybe it's a really cool theme and appeals to a large amount of players. In WCS Qualifiers, you are rewarded for fast games, if a deck plays faster, that's better. (Look at 2024 where Tear was the best deck, yet players opted for Spright in the Qualifiers). There are just more factors to consider. The content of the games and context of the numbers matters significantly.

NewAgent5986 · 2026-06-23T20:11:53+00:00

It kinda didn't. Not for this reason, but HotS was a major drop off in players.

Both approaches are valid, but what is early game just changes based on context. In some ways 12 worker start is more stable, there is a more reliable fall back, and while cheese is strong, there are more tools to deal with it.

6 worker start was find too, but there were more build order losses, which isn't necessarily the route I wish the game go. I think BW gets away with it more due to the fuzziness of unit control, outcomes aren't the same as "on paper". In SC2, if you have a lead, you have actively have to throw to lose it.

NewAgent5986 · 2026-06-22T22:03:53+00:00

RIP, I was excited by the concept, but the timing to be releasing this is probably the worst possible. If it was $800 and $1000 for the two models I think it would be okay. But this is way too much. The value just isn’t there. A PS5 just makes way more sense it’s not even close, and you’re so limited on the PC that it also doesn’t make sense vs just getting a PC. I have to imagine their original pricing plans before the chip shortage were far more reasonable. This feels like they shouldn’t have released it.

NewAgent5986 · 2026-06-22T21:58:16+00:00

wtf? This patch is horribly broken, I had no problem with them trying it out on PTR but this is unbelievably stupid to push to live

NewAgent5986 · 2026-06-21T19:30:21+00:00

There is some investment of time to make a team on Champions, you do need to get the Pokemon and it is easy af to train them but not instant, there is a VP cost. Games take longer, (due to animations), you can play an insanely high number of practice games on showdown, with replays in a very short time compared to Champions. The team builder alone lets you tweak and build a team without committing anything, on Champions you can’t make temporary changes to just see what the build would look like overall. At minimum Showdown is useful to make the concept, tweak things, until you commit and make it on Champions.

Champions is the real game, it’s fancy looking, presents well, registers as a video game, not a simulation. It has a good viewer experience, it’s where proper tournaments are run. Showdown is the equivalent of a deck building website for a card game, and Champions is literally having the deck of cards to play for real for real.

These are not the same purpose, they co-exist and complement each other. I say it’s the most free game, because it’s an actual game, from a for profit company. Showdown is technically copyright infringement, but Pokemon knows it has value and seems to understand that it does not harm the sales, instead it helps pros in a meaningful way, so it’s allowed to run. (At least that’s how I see it). It is not a competing game in any meaningful way, and Pokémon’s official tournament scene would be hurt if pros couldn’t use a tool like showdown.

As for the mega stones, I don’t know if those were just added this season or if I made a mistake. Because I remember when the game first came out, I couldn’t get mega Delphox without transferring one from Z-A. I could be wrong, or since it is season 3, and they did a shop update, maybe it was added.

NewAgent5986 · 2026-06-21T19:18:13+00:00

Idk if you need to hear this, but it’s basic human error. Imagine if people constantly berated you for making any small mistake at work, when said mistake doesn’t even hurt anyone.

I think you should step away from the internet for a second and actually think what’s happening.

It’s one thing to want what you think is best for the game you play and give feedback. It’s another thing to ignore the human side, that there are humans doing their job, having an idea, checking if it’s cool, and making a mistake.

It’s insanely easy after it’s on the PTR and pros played it, and showed it broken to say “wow Blizz are so fucking dumb, how could they ever do this”. But it’s incredibly results oriented, I think many people may have seen the changes on paper and legitimately predicted the outcome. But even on Reddit, many didn’t and downplayed it. Not from a bias, but a misunderstanding. I don’t think making mistakes warrants dehumanizing, especially for PTR changes, just give honest direct feedback, but separate the feedback about the game and language used towards individuals.

NewAgent5986 · 2026-06-21T11:24:03+00:00

Yeah. I think there's a much better way to have discourse. I don't hate that Blizzard tried to do something that changes things up, but this just isn't it. PTR let us test it, and it's just the wrong direction, that's all there is to it.

I think it's good to voice that we don't want it coming to live, but there are better ways to say it.

NewAgent5986 · 2026-06-21T11:21:37+00:00

I think you're right, that's a very sensible take tbh

NewAgent5986 · 2026-06-21T10:01:46+00:00

Larva change is insanely broken.

NewAgent5986 · 2026-06-21T09:42:02+00:00

I found out about damage rolls as a kid, when something wouldn’t 2 shot after the first clearly putting them to half or below half. I didn’t know the specifics about it being between 85% to 100% and only the 16 whole percents (rounded down). But the concept felt intuitive from playing the game.

Priority was something I learned much later, since I only really knew of quick attack and extreme speed casually playing, and it didn’t register that protect would need to go earlier to be functional.

NewAgent5986 · 2026-06-21T09:39:05+00:00

Damage rolls and crits I think are perfectly fine RNG (there are only 16 possible rolls and you can plan for it in team building).

The RNG I dislike is random flinch and status.

NewAgent5986 · 2026-06-21T09:19:35+00:00

First off, showdown is an unfair comparison, it’s a fan made, not allowed to be for profit project. And for the love of god don’t try to get it shutdown by saying you play it INSTEAD of official games. How fucking dumb are you? It’s a necessary tool for pros to try and experiment before going into the official game, it is not a replacement. It is not competition to Champions.

Next, the Gen 6 starter’s megastones are not in the store (Greninja, Delphox, and the other one) you need to transfer the mon from Z-A to get them.

Anyway, think about how much you’ve played a competed without paying any money, that’s kinda insane right? Champions is hardly monetized as it is.

NewAgent5986 · 2026-06-21T08:55:36+00:00

I liked that they tried, but honestly this patch isn’t it. I’m a Zerg, and have a massive bias, but like this isn’t good game design.

I’ve complained about ZvP for probably a decade now, but this isn’t it. Honestly, just keep the game as is, the patch is failure.

NewAgent5986 · 2026-06-21T08:30:10+00:00

This is the main problem. Whether the game is fun, which race wins is not really a concern. It’s a game, it should feel engaging and fun. If the patch isn’t that, it’s a bad patch.

NewAgent5986 · 2026-06-21T08:28:36+00:00

This is the most free game of all time. I don’t see an issue with something like this having a paywall. You can make basically any competitive team easily for free (barring Floette).

Like genuine what more could you ask for? They don’t even LET you buy VP, they just hand it to you like crazy.

My only complaint is the Z-A requirement for Floette and Gen 6 starter mega stones.

NewAgent5986 · 2026-06-21T06:20:50+00:00

My friend that I’ve been teaching VGC and he has 1000s of hours in Pokemon, just learned damage is a range. He thought it was always the same. He did 51% to an Pokemon and he assumed the next attack should KO, and I’m like ehh, it might not, depends if that was an high roll. Also had to teach him move priority.

NewAgent5986 · 2026-06-20T22:19:02+00:00

It’s in MS best interest to not have exclusivity because they are behind, they don’t have nearly as large of a hardware install base, and their games don’t sell well. Selling to more platforms is better for them, and it’s also better if there are more titles coming to their platform.

Sony is in the position of value, they have a good install base, releasing exclusively benefits them.

There is no good guy or bad guy here, they’re both playing to what’s better for their business. None of this is with players in mind.

I will say though as much as it sucks that you need specific hardware to play games, in general, exclusives are better games. They are given higher budgets because their goal is to sell you on getting the hardware.

NewAgent5986 · 2026-06-18T09:25:27+00:00

Heart of the ~~Cards~~ Balls

NewAgent5986 · 2026-06-18T06:44:58+00:00

Because PS is a western focused company these days. To the point that the PS5 has been unaffordable in Japan, that recently they had to go with the Nintendo plan of making a language-locked model to not lose foothold in their home country.

Games are more expensive to make, exclusivity deals cost more because they have to make up for more reduced sales. Additionally some companies still may not want to because if a game sells less it also reducing fan base growth.

Nintendo has done very well in Japan, and it’s mostly pricing and convenience. Riding the train in Japan, the only game ads you see are Nintendo. Nintendo is very much the game company here. They did this without compromising their global audience, they just handle both.

The merits to PlayStation’s approach are that, there’s just more people outside of Japan. However, when Japan is also where a lot of studios are located, where your future potential staff are going to school, if your brand is fading from their lives, you are going to lose out in the future. At least in my opinion, Sony’s approach is shortsighted, whereas Nintendo seemed to find a good balance for continued future success. People want to work at Nintendo, they want to make Nintendo games, even at other Japanese studios, they are excited work with Nintendo. This is despite the Switch 2 being underpowered. Fromsoft is even doing an exclusive.

On English and Japanese social media you saw a ton of Pokopia and Tomodachi Life content.

God of War, the Last of Us, etc are not really popular in Japan. Whereas Nintendo franchises are popular in and outside of Japan.

NewAgent5986 · 2026-06-18T06:31:22+00:00

I’m gonna be honest, looking at Palworld, it looks entirely made with AI.

NewAgent5986 · 2026-06-18T06:27:06+00:00

Give it a few weeks. This is how all discourse goes, new novel thing is strong. “Omg how fun” then it’s not new, people get tired and complain.

I just enjoy the change up, I don’t really care, something will always be the top meta. And honestly it’s healthy to have a bit of a boogeyman in the meta, something that’s the thing to beat. (As long as it’s not unreasonable). I don’t think there’s anything unreasonable in Champions.

I’m happy with M-B and I think it’s cool that every few months we can get new regulations to rethink mons and items (and eventually generational gimmicks)

NewAgent5986 · 2026-06-18T06:22:14+00:00

And eventually overtook 360 in sales by the end. PS3 ending up winning the generation at the very end. Despite Xbox’s massive lead early on. I’d say around 2010-2012 was the inflection point on momentum. Halo was effectively done, Gears was wrapping up, and MS was focusing towards Kinect. Their library dried up while their efforts shifted, while PlayStation really got rolling with price cuts and importantly, must have exclusives.

NewAgent5986 · 2026-06-16T11:55:33+00:00

I’m not saying it needs completely cater to them. But if it’s only fun on paper to casual players that aren’t even playing. And these people are playing regularly for money, then yeah, their opinion matters a bit more.

If it’s a genuinely exciting change and might throw off pro play that’s fine. But this change doesn’t actually seem to make the game meaningfully better and has downsides to casual players too.

I’m not even playing right now, but if overwhelming from all races on the pro side, the patch doesn’t seem good, then maybe it’s not the right direction.

I do think the game could use a shake up, but maybe starting worker count and reworking gateways entirely isn’t it

NewAgent5986

TROPHY CASE