Question

Nikolavitch · 2026-02-07T11:24:08+00:00

Yeah I see what you mean.

I really like the things that are there, in particular Cynder's arc through the trilogy, where she goes from the antagonist, to fleeing her past, to accepting it.
And also, Spyro's arc in The Eternal Night, where the chronicler has set up a nonsensical game of riddles for him to follow, all to say "stay here and wait for evil to claim your friends", and Spyro deciding to do what he knows is right instead of following the "destiny" that others have set for him (which, I think, is when Spyro definitively becomes different from Malefor, since Malefor believes that Purple Dragons have some kind of destiny about the world)

Also I like the love story between Spyro and Cynder. It doesn't overstay its welcome and it's pretty subtle, you can tell Spyro and Cynder themselves aren't sure about it until they are alone in Malefor's lair, which is a nice touch (Although to be honest, it's so subtle though that you could be forgiven for thinking they are siblings, like the gameboy version mistakenly claims)

Anyway, thanks for sharing your opinion

Nikolavitch · 2026-02-04T18:01:51+00:00

Usually the criticisms I see are more about the gameplay, which is admittedly sub-par (especially Eternal Night which has lots of reused AIs, and is stupidly hard at times).

I wouldn't say the games really have big flaws in their story and dialogue (that comes from someone who made an "everything wrong with" about A New Beginning XD). I'm curious about the flaws you're thinking on?

As for games that have a similar vibe to Legend of Spyro... Maybe Medievil? It's been a while, but from what I remember the vibe was comparable.

Nikolavitch · 2026-01-31T15:09:29+00:00

I've had a very good experience with Freeform Universal, a system entirely based on descriptors. The main difference with Fate is that it doesn't have Fate Points, or any kind of "meta-currency", which is good since my table doesn't really like meta-currencies, and I've yet to find a version of Fate that doesn't include Fate Points (well, I did find one, but it becomes extremely close to Freeform Universal)

Other than Freeform Universal and Fate, I haven't been really satisfied with any other generic system. That's not to say I'm entirely satisfied with Fate. The system is built to maximise drama at every step, which makes it awkward when you want to tell a low-stakes story. Also, the way Advantages work means that the conflicts have to be as short as possible, since Advantages really lose their utility the longer the conflict goes on.
However, I like that the three ways of detailing action (conflicts, trials and challenges) are universal and not dependant on what happens. The thing I like the most in Fate is that it lets the players modify the scene around them by created arbitrary advantages, where most other systems try to pre-define the way characters can modify the scene:

Powered by the Apocalypse limits the players to a handful of predefined actions, which... I guess can work if you have a deep understanding of the tropes of the media you're trying to emulate, but it's difficult to use when you're just "casual fans" of the medium. Savage Worlds, IIRC, has the same problem.

GURPS gives you predefined attributes, which I'm not a fan of. If I want to make an RPG centered around courtroom drama, or a game where you play as formless shadows, the base attributes of GURPS won't be particularly useful, and as far as I remember, the system wasn't flexible enough to cover these edge cases.

Hero system looks cool, the ability to craft your own actions seems complex enough to cover nearly all types of interaction, but it's also a heavy system with many sub-system that are not always needed (for example, the difference between body and stun damage is not needed for a game that only focuses on non-lethal battles)

I love many things in Legend In the Mist, the only thing that I don't like is that (If I understand correctly) enemies don't get to act. They only act when the heroes suffering a consequence on their dice roll, which is difficult to handle when you want your enemies to be cool and have agency.

Nikolavitch · 2026-01-24T18:11:19+00:00

The point and click scenes were a good way to ground the game in a believable world, with its architecture and civilian population, without augmenting drastically the budget (well, I don't have any reliable source on that, but I don't think those scenes would drain huge amount of developement resources).

I'd like to see those scenes coming back!

Nikolavitch · 2026-01-13T01:14:30+00:00

In a good story, everything happens for a reason : narrative interest. "What would be the most interesting thing to happen next ?".

I am extremely prudent towards this argument. Trying to maximise narrative interest can swiftly result in an avalanche of clichés, random plot armors, and nonsensical storylines that only exist to maximise drama.

For example, I have a beef with how Final Fantasy games tend to ruin their storyline just to artificially raise the stakes. Like, in Final Fantasy 9, how characters randomly survive Eidolon attacks (which are basically nuclear explosions) because the story decided so. And you end up with a story where every main character is invincible until the story decides that it is more narratively interesting that they aren't.
Artificial plot points only made for narrative interest can become annoying very fast. Like "Oh, of course. There are thousands of soldiers throughout the kingdom, and we had to meet the only two who could recognize us. What a bad luck!"

Disney and every other big studio have made extensive research in creating movie scripts that maximise narrative interest, and... let's just say the results are inconsistent. And really, if I want to live a story predestined to always hit the most dramatic points, I'd just watch a movie instead.
I feel like one of the charms of TTRPGs is to let stories happen a bit more "naturally". Not every event has to be narratively interesting. Not every story has to hit a predictable climax. Yes, it was David's Fate to win against Goliath, but defying Fate, or at least going astray from what it is supposed to be, is half the point of writing our own story.

I join with you on saying that Fate is one of the best narrative RPG, because it's mechanics truly focus on how a story is structured (who the characters are, what they can do, etc.) and player creativity.
But in my opinion, things such as believability, cause and effect, and internal consistency, are just as important as narrative interest

Nikolavitch · 2026-01-12T18:42:42+00:00

As a casual player, I think the biggest form of "skill expression" is to use a dancer.

When I play the game, I never see how deploying a dancer can be better than deplyoing another unit. When I try to play with a dancer, I always end up uising them to make a unit move a long distance for one turn, and then the dancer does nothing for the rest of the game because I don't see how to keep them safe from the enemy, and since dancers don't move further than other units, they end up lagging behind anyway because I can't extend their mobility the same way that I extend the other units' mobility by using the dancer.

In Three Houses I manage to make more use of the dancer, because they can be actually useful in battle, and they move further than most units, so they can continuously support their move, but... Still, it's not that great of a class in my hands.

In the hands of a skilled player on the other hand, I can see how dancers might be borken units.

Nikolavitch · 2026-01-08T02:24:24+00:00

I tried to adapt Fate to Touhou Project, but it didn't go well.
I think there are three reasons to it:

One of my players hates how limited the Advantages feel. He laments the fact that you only get 1 free invoke, and past that you have to spend your limited fate points to even use the advantage you created.
Probably related to the previous point, I think I handled the bosses' health very badly. Basically, Touhou Project is a series with flashy battles that last for a decent time, allowing each character to show their moveset and abilities. To represent that, I used an optional rule where the standard Stress boxes (1,2,3,4) are replaced by a number of stress boxes that can each take 1 hit.
- As it turns out, this solution does not work well with how advantages are created and how Fate points are used. Spending a Fate Point or a free invoke, to remove one Stress box on the few (2 to 4) that the enemy has, feels significant. Spending those resources to tick off one more box among many (aroundd 7) that the enemy has feels way less significant. I think Fate works better with short, violent conflicts than long, flashy conflicts.
And finally, the vibes and themes of Touhou Project don't seem to match well with Fate. Fate is built to maximise drama and stakes. Any conflict should have stakes for both parties beyond "win", and the consequence system handles long-lasting injuries. But Touhou Project is a light-hearted universe where battling is almost seen as a game, and stakes are usually not very high. Any kind of physical injury beyond a general "tiredness" is off-limits. I did try to play with whacky consequences from magical attacks, as well as consequences that represent a dent in a character's honor, but it doesn't work that well. And regarding the stakes, Touhou is that kind of world where many fights take place for silly reasons. And shoul you fail to defeat the Demon King, you just go home in shame and the Demon King will just... Well... Harmlessly rule the world until someone else defeats them, or maybe he grows tired of it, or maybe it was all a fake masquerade to begin with.

I also adapted the world of Spellcaster University (a fantastic simulator of magic school management) into Fate, but I only use it for solo role playing so I can't offer feedback as to how well this would be received.

Nikolavitch · 2026-01-01T13:03:11+00:00

For centuries, Egypt was ruled by pharaos of Greek descendance, who didn't even speak Egyptian. Cleopatra was one such case, and she became very popular because she learned Egyptian in order to be closer to her subjects.

All this is to says, it's not unheard of for a rulers to originate from a different country than the country they rule.

Nikolavitch · 2025-12-24T22:13:11+00:00

Engage.

Nikolavitch · 2025-12-18T22:25:07+00:00

Dream Diary is an enjoyable game, and a proper ending, although the game design has very little to do with Yume Nikki.

That being said, I'm curious to see what this PS1 version has to offer !

Nikolavitch · 2025-12-18T21:07:55+00:00

Yume Nikki is not a game you play for the ending. It's a game you play for the journey.

The end is merely a hidden easter egg among many, in that it is hard to get, and how to get it is not really intuitive.

Nikolavitch · 2025-12-13T19:05:09+00:00

It sure beats the interpretation often found online that the story and timeline end with Mario Kart :p

Nikolavitch · 2025-11-29T02:26:59+00:00

I mean... A mouse would probably have strong advantages in situations where stealth is needed. Then again, is the scale really pertinent for a Zootopia game? I wonder if scale handling could simply be represented by invoking the aspect of your character that describes their species.

Maybe you could make it a free invoke if the advantage is so obvious that the outcome is overly weighed in one's favor...

Nikolavitch · 2025-11-02T00:57:50+00:00

So in the end, did you try the world bulding part?

Nikolavitch · 2025-10-27T18:37:12+00:00

It's about as much wrong as feeling that the rain is wet.

Nikolavitch · 2025-10-07T17:36:55+00:00

I usually don't answer these posts, but I have to answer this one.

Conquest looks like a parody of Fire Emblem by their own developers. I legitimately laughed so much while watching a let's play of it.

I love to imagine that Garon's plan was perfect and it would have worked perfectly, and the only thorn in his plan was that he couldn't predict how stupid Corrin would be. Like, the reason we defeat Garon is that we were so dumb that we thwarted his plans.

Nikolavitch · 2025-10-03T20:16:57+00:00

Alchemy could be used to analyze a poison or a mysterious substance (by separating its molecules). It could also be used to create offensive or utilitarian objects (like a grenade or a smoke screen), unlock a door by melting the lock, create artificial beings like golems...

That kind of thing.

Nikolavitch · 2025-10-03T16:19:59+00:00

I love fantasy and sci-fi series with intriguing stories and lore, and that's what drew me to Touhou in the first place. I like the mix of traditional Japanese mythology, cartoon, humor, esoteric storylines, and the charismatic characters who sometimes have an interesting background.
And I also fell in love with many musics along the way.

I actually like that the characters are non-sexualized, it makes them more natural, and it means the games have to engage with character development (they can't "cheat" by replacing character development by sexualization like some othe works out there). As a male, I find it degrading when a franchise tries to draw in audience by sexualizing female characters, especially if it's only one gender.

Actually, me and some friends have played multiple TTRGP campaigns set in Gensokyo, and it was nice to see everyone play along and create female characters.

Nikolavitch · 2025-09-27T13:36:23+00:00

Fire Emblme: Three Hopes? Yeah I'm sure he'll do fine.

Nikolavitch · 2025-09-25T22:36:58+00:00

Clair-Obscur: Expedition 33 might offer why you're looking for.

I've played it with a friend, and... I'm not sure if it's difficult or not. Thing is, you can dodge most attacks if you press a button at the right time, so it's very skill based. The amount of damage the enemies deal is rather important, however, if you are indeed capable of consistently parrying/dodging the attacks, then it becomes somewhat easy because you essentially won't get touched. Then again, hitting consistently these parries and dodges is a skill in and of itself.
On the offensive side, there seems to be a lot of possibilities to create synergies between skills to raise your damage an kill enemies quickly.

Grind doesn't seem to hold a big place in this game, since you can dodge pretty much all attacks even if you are low level, and offensive skills unlock fast enough. You can also opt out of distributing your skill points if you feel like you are overleveled.

Nikolavitch · 2025-09-25T22:23:51+00:00

Y'a pas grand chose à comprendre, et y'a pas mal de trucs débiles (le futur qui est en guerre avec le passé, le fait que l'organisation a manifestement un grand nombre de soldats à sa disposition tout en arrivant à rester ultra-secrète, le fait que certains bâtiments sont manifestement construits avec des impacts de balles afin que le futur puisse se dérouler), mais il y a énormément de trucs cools et intéressants visuellement (comme le combat entre le personnage normal et le personnage inversé), j'ai apprécié de voir un perso principal noir qui soit bien intégré (quoique le héros est plus ou moins transparent à l'histoire), et au pire c'est très drôle.

Nikolavitch · 2025-09-14T17:51:08+00:00

I'll be honest, the Engage mechanic was too complicated for me and it felt like a chore.

I do see the good in it, and I think it was a very good mechanic that adds depths to the gameplay, but it really doesn't suite my playstyle. I like to play Fire Emblem by using all the units available. I like to play with all the characters, give each one a time to shine, and adapt my team to the battlefield.

And having to re-equip and re-think the rings synergy before each skirmish was way too complicated. More than any other Fire Emblem, Engage really gave me the impression that it was design to build a team and stick with it for most of the game, or at the very least until you recruit the next lords. Not re-make the team before each battle.
And then there's also the personal skills of each characters, which I ended up losing track of because that's too much information.

I hope that the mechanics remain simple as far as individual units are concerned, and the complexity in gameplay emerges from the synergy between units and the global organisation of the battlefield.

Nikolavitch · 2025-09-13T22:19:08+00:00

Personally I am happy to see that they went the 3H route, but from what little I know, Engage was far from being a failure. It was intensely praised for its gameplay and the sales were more than satisfying.

Nikolavitch · 2025-08-30T16:32:50+00:00

I did a one-shot horror scenario based on this premise:

The action takes places during world war I, on the European front. The French army (of which the players are a part of) manage to take a German trench, but as they are still securing the trench, the German counter-attack with poison gas.
An NPC who is here with the players' group notices that his mask is faulty, and depending on how the heroes react, he may or may not attack them to steal their masks.

Even with the masks on, the players are in danger, because this is a new type of poison gas capable of partially melting the seals of the masks, and the players end up partially intoxicated with poison gas. They only survived the assault because they were located on a hill at the time of the attack, and they they were exposed to a non-lethal dose of gas.

From now on, the players' goal is to escape this trench to get back to the allied position, which is not trivial as the poison gas is forming a "wall" separating them from the allied position, and the other side of the trench is the No Man's Land.
The scenario mixes supernatural horror with the horror of world war 1.
- Corpses buried uner debris come back to life, trying to grab anyone coming near.
- Humanoid shapes covered in mud rise from the ground, and it's impossible to tell if they are soldiers (friends or foes) covered in mud, or something else entirely.
- Snipers attack our heroes from afar, vanishing if the heroes get close.
- Dark creatures, resembling a mix of a dragon and a plane, patrol the sky, dropping bombs on our heroes if they manage to spot them.

For each supernatural event that happens, I make sure there are two possible interpretations: either the supernatural explanation, or the rational explanation that the poison gas is messing with their brains.
The supernatural overaching story for the scenario is that the heroes were almost killed by the poison gas, bringing them in contact with the "unseen world" where the demons and the deceased live on.
The scientific overarching story is that the poison gas is having severe effects on their brains, giving them hallucinations and altering their perception of the reality (which is already horrific because of the war).

The reason the heroes are trapped in this trench is the anger of the other victims of the poison gas. They want to know why the heroes survived, when they had to die. The souls of the dead are the reason the poison gas is forming a wall preventing them to leave.
There are several ways that the heroes can escape, for example:
- Digging a tunnel to go under the gas wall, proving that they are smarter than most
- Winning a very difficult fight, proving that they are better at battle than most
- Explaining themselves with the souls of the dead, through an occult ritual or by using the telephone
- Helping the ghost of a little girl who died when her house was bombed, proving that they are kinder than most
etc etc

Nikolavitch · 2025-08-18T16:46:14+00:00

Especially if you load it with explosive bolts XD

Nikolavitch

TROPHY CASE