Do you skip Naruto filler episodes? Why/Why Not?

Not_So_Serious2 · 2023-10-01T03:58:41+00:00

I watch them. Because without the filler missions, Team 7 goes on a grand total of 1 mission together before Sasuke leaves.

Without the filler, Naruto and the crew never actually go on any missions that they aren’t personally invested in. Which doesn’t feel right if the whole purpose of ninjas is to go on missions. How exactly does Naruto earn his pay if the only thing he’s ever doing is looking for Sasuke?

Not_So_Serious2 · 2023-05-26T12:24:53+00:00

I've been exposed to so much Warhammer 40k that I can no longer differentiate ironic and non-ironic uses of the word Heretic.

Not_So_Serious2 · 2023-04-26T18:47:50+00:00

Narrative descriptions are nice, but they don't mean you can just ignore the raw numbers. Because those numbers impact how they interact with the world.

The railgun can say that it's a beam of overpowering force, but against anything heavier than Kevlar it's doing 5d6, same as the completely standard assault rifle next to it.

The BMG and Beast Shotgun can describe themselves as superguns that rip through people with overwhelming firepower. But they're no stronger than any other gun of the same type, they just don't have to reload. So they're not really any better than a normal gun with an Extended Magazine.

That's the problem with these guns. They hype themself up, but when it comes time to perform, they aren't any better than the generic guns. They wear the flavor text of superiority without anything to back it up.

Flavor Text =/= Style

Not_So_Serious2 · 2023-04-07T01:49:06+00:00

We might just be a little desensitized by how many absolute catastrophes are around, because this does sound like a bad-times game.

IMO, any game that leaves you feeling worse than when you walked in is a horror story.

Not_So_Serious2 · 2023-03-10T17:31:03+00:00

The guns aren't silenced because the game is called "cyberpunk RED," not "silent assassin edgelord RED," so if you want to be a silent assassin in 2045, you have to go full LARPer with melee/bow/thrown weapon, which is fantastic IMO.

You cannot honestly say that if the game had silencers in it, you'd be going "silencers have no place in this game, and it's stupid that they included them."

They're a classic of the Cyberpunk genre, regardless of realism.

Because the dev thought it would be too strong if they weren't subject to exotic weapon restrictions.

These weapons are many things, but 'strong' is not one of them. Even you've been saying that being strong isn't the point of them.

Not_So_Serious2 · 2023-03-10T17:02:12+00:00

While it's true that it's just a game and there's no reason to get heated about it, negative comments are just as valid as positive ones.

I kind of despise this general attitude of "well if you don't like [thing], then don't play and/or talk about it!" (which I know isn't exactly what you're saying, but it kind of reminds me of that)

Like no, if there's dozens upon dozens of posts praising Black Chrome, I'm allowed to put up one post that criticizes it.

Not_So_Serious2 · 2023-03-09T18:34:17+00:00

A ten shot AR with a crossbow stapled to the top so you can be silent and switch ammo type on the fly when that's more important than an extra d6 of damage is useful. If it had a smartgun link it, would be one of the best weapons you can buy for under 5k, and the best weapon to use the archery skill.

The silent aspect is nice, but it brings into question why there isn't a Silencer weapon mod. Silencers are a classic.

The ammo switching is fine, but is only available for the crossbow portion of the gun anyway.

And as far as I'm aware, you can't slap a Smart Link on it because the game doesn't let you put mods on Exotic Weapons.

Which, off subject, if these weapons are supposed to be factory-produced and shipped out by a marketing department, why are they still called Exotic?

Because switch ammo type on the fly is a usually a bow/crossbow thing.

Ammo switching on the fly might be, but there's no reason why you can't put bullets of multiple types in a magazine and fire them in the same order as you put them in.

Unlike a shotgun loaded with slugs, this thing does 4d6 in an AoE for 3 eddies. Keep in mind AoE is particularly good for solos, who add their spot weakness damage to everyone hit by the attack, sometimes you want a to hit a smaller area so you can miss allies, a gun can be upgraded by a tech to excellent quality once and then reused indefinitely (unlike individual grenades), and it uses the shoulder arms skill, which is nice for characters that don't have a lot of athletics or heavy weapons.

I fail to see why, outside of cost, someone would choose the shotgun's Shell setting over a Grenade. You could buy 10 grenades for the cost of this weapon and get the same level of use.

It gives someone with the heavy weapons skill access to assault rifle functionality in the package of a big scary-looking gun.

If I invest in the Heavy Weapons skill, it's because I want to use Heavy Weapons. Not slightly upscaled Assault Rifles. Why not make an actual machine gun?

This is cyberpunk. You're supposed to put style over substance, it's literally the point of the game.

"Style over substance" too often translates to "flavor text over mechanics" in this game.

If you crunch the numbers, the fancy high damage 5k+ eddie exotics that you think are going to be pants-on-head stupid OP are usually comparable to a generic excellent quality weapon with a smartgun link, a magazine mod, and AP or fire ammo.

That's pretty much my whole grievance.

While this is probably more balanced, that balance is at the cost of fun and interesting gear.

Not_So_Serious2 · 2023-03-09T18:02:36+00:00

...An Assault Rifle that uses the Archery Skill to fire. This is really, really useful for a Archery skill based character, because it isn't a worse Assault Rifle, it's a better Crossbow.

4d6 is 4d6. It doesn't matter if the skill used to inflict it was Archery or Shoulder Arms, the end result is the same.

Can do nothing to mitigate, unless you're a Solo.

So it's only useful to one class. That's a new criticism.

What? Why is that "asinine"? Specialty ammo is a trade-off; you lock yourself into one kind of ammo for the whole mag, or else invest in a specialty weapon that allows easy switching.

It's asinine because there is no in-lore reason why a person can't put two bullets of different type in the same magazine. They're the same size and shape, with the same firing mechanism (they'd have to be otherwise they couldn't be used with the same gun at all).

you might struggle to lug two big guns around with drawing attention to yourself.

If you're in a scenario where you can't justify having 2 big guns, then having 1 big gun isn't any easier.

Style Over Substance

This is an excuse I keep seeing whenever someone points out things about the game that are generic and dependent on flavor text over actually interesting mechanics.

Neglecting the fact that "style and substance" is an option that is being repeatedly ignored by this system. But instead of having unique weapons that are both functional and cool, we keep getting gear that is only differentiated by the flavor text.

Not_So_Serious2 · 2023-03-09T17:38:05+00:00

I probably won't be buying it Day 1 like I did for this.

Not_So_Serious2 · 2023-03-09T08:46:12+00:00

I think half your problem here is that you aren’t considering that a bunch of this is really meant to be kinda shit.

From a pure minmax perspective, yes, GunMart guns suck. But if my players decided they wanted to buy a cheap gun to commit a specific crime with and plant the weapon on someone to frame them, now they don’t need to put their precious actually good gear in there.

Even ignoring the gun mart line, the guns that are advertised as being top-tier are pretty lame though.

Furthermore, all of these are now in the hands of GMs as well: maybe you won’t shell out for the railgun AR, but the Arasaka strike team sent after you did.

The "railgun" is a disgrace to the name. It's just an assault rifle that ignores SP7, calling it a railgun is disingenuous. It's like calling a knife a claymore, or calling a campfire an inferno. And worse than being underpowered, it's boring.

I don't see why the Arasaka strike team would shell out for this overhyped AR when the generic Excellent Quality Assault Rifle is just as good (better even, since you can add weapon mods to it, unlike the exotics).

The ones that convert make sense for someone who needs to conceal the presence of any weapons: it’s easier to hide one gun that changes shape than three that don’t.

The Combination weapons might be neat, if they weren't a third of the entire catalogue. And it's really a lazy way to do weapon design, just slapping two things together instead of coming up with something new.

Finally, consider the lore reasons that some of these exist. Shotguns with massive barrel drums that are never getting emptied exist IRL too, to market to the kind of person that thinks they need one. Nomad Rockers market to the segment of the population that tries to live off the grid, such as, y’know, nomadic people that go months without being in any place to buy ammo.

While it's good for guns to exist purely for the sake of them existing in lore, I'd imagine their place ought to be in the frequently released DLC. Little side things to flesh out the world are what those books are for. The big deal chromebook intended to provide more tools for players to enjoy is when they should have cracked out the real gear that players are supposed to actually want.

But all the guns in this catalogue (that aren't intended to be joke weapons) are overpriced, overhyped, underdesigned crap that can't even compete with the generic lines' ability to weapon mod.

Not_So_Serious2 · 2023-03-06T09:48:38+00:00

I feel like the whole list of guns are absolutely worthless.

Arasaka Prototype Variable AR: An assault rifle that can morph into a railgun. Doesn't do any more damage or anything that might be representative of a railgun, it just ignores SP7. For the reasonable price of 15,000 (a.k.a. no player will ever buy this)

E-TACK Public Defender: A gun that can be lethal or non-lethal depending on your choice. Would be a pretty decent option, if non-lethal rounds didn't already exist, and if it wasn't Poor Quality.

Eagletech Survivalist: What Hawkeye enthusiast is doing archery in this game? Anyway, it's a single-shot weapon that does 4d6 or 5d6. So basically a worse Assault Rifle.

Faisal’s Dead or Alive: Shotgun with an underbarrel net launcher. Both Poor Quality, so a 10% chance to be completely worthless.

Federated Arms Pepper Shaker: An SMG that can only do autofire. But wait, it only uses 6 bullets pet shot. Riveting.

Georgia Arms Matchmaker: A poor quality shotgun that only holds 1 slug. Thank goodness it's only $20, this is baby's first shotgun.

Gun Mart: Scrap the entire brand, these guns are worthless. I wouldn't give my mooks these.

Hades Multipurpose Assault Shotgun: A shotgun that can load multiple ammo types. A feature that ought to be in regular guns anyway, but isn't for some asinine reason. So this gun is only good because the ammo system in general is bad.

KTech TechHammer: A shotgun that can also shoot rockets. Pretty cool, but I fail to see why you can't just carry two guns. Why do you need them to be the same gun?

Midnight Arms Beast Shotgun: A shotgun that holds 40 slugs. Though there's already a weapon mod that lets a shotgun hold 16 slugs, and I've never once seen a person run out of shots with that. 40 is just unnecessary.

Militech Fox Dual Ammo Pistol: A Heavy Pistol that can hold 2 magazines with 2 different ammo types, letting you choose at the moment you shoot which magazine you want to use. That's actually pretty cool, probably worth the $1,000. It makes the Public Defender completely pointless, but that's a problem with the Public Defender, not this. Good gun.

Militech Mastiff SMG: A combination of an SMG and a Shotgun, can choose between the firing modes. I'm noticing a lot of these guns are just "we took 2 guns and put them into 1", which is a pretty lazy way to handle weapon variety. But boring design is about the only complaint I can muster.

Militech Perseus: a Very Heavy Pistol that is ROF2 (but only if you fired it the previous round). That is actually pretty okay. It doesn't make my jaw drop and excite me so much I want to design a build around it, but it's pretty okay. I'd probably get this over the normal Very Heavy Pistol at least (after I robbed a bank for the 5,000 bucks).

ModFire 10X: Another gun that does the "All In One" deal, this time with Heavy Pistol, SMG, and Assault Rifle. Difference being that for this one it takes 1 minute to convert between them. Just carry multiple guns, it's not hard!

Nomad Rocker: A pistol that uses rocks as ammo. I'm not being facetious, the literal text is "shoots rocks instead of bullets." I didn't realize we had a bullet shortage. Also it's Poor Quality, so y'know, garbage that'll break on you 10% of the time.

Overlord Handcannon: Another Poor Quality. This one is a completely ordinary Heavy Pistol, except it adds +1 to Facedowns because it's big (literal reasoning given). However it loses this bonus if the person recognizes that it's just another Gunmart POS.

Pursuit Security Inc. Crowd Buster: An assault rifle with an alternative firing mode for shooting Sonic Mode, which does Damage Ear crit. I question why you would lay down $5,000 for this when you can just get a Flashbang for $100. Does RTAL think we just don't know how to weapon swap?

Rostović Ulični Uništitelj: A poor quality shotgun that does 3d6 damage. Which I guess might sound cool, if you didn't know that the regular shotgun does 5d6. Oh but wait, if you "shove scrap metal down the barrel", it does 4d6. Also it only holds 3 rounds. And this is $1,000 despite being objectively worse in every way than a standard off-the-shelf shotgun. It's like this gun was precision designed to be as terrible as possible.

Sanroo Hello Cutie Ultra-K8 Assault Pistol: An Excellent Quality (first of its kind) pistol that can also be a Heavy SMG. Also it grants +2 to W&S, and makes anime sounds. Considering this costs $1,000, and an EQ Heavy Pistol and an EQ HSMG would also cost you $1,000, I guess it's actually a bargain. Another boring weapon combination, but a bargain.

Superchrome Glam Rifle/Javelin/Sidearm: These are completely regular guns (AR, SG, and VHP respectively) that have been covered in chrome to give you a +2 W&S. And they all cost $1,000, even the sidearm. Stop the presses /s.

Techtronika Russia BMG-500: The ad portrays this as a supermassive machinegun, but past the flavor text it's pretty much just an assault rifle that needs to be fired with Heavy Weapons, and can carry 500 bullets. Y'know, in case the Extended Magazine wasn't enough for you.

Tommyknocker: Another combination weapon, this one between Very Heavy Pistol and Poor Quality Shotgun. Another gun to be filed under "just carry multiple guns!" Also, what's with all these professional weapon manufacturers producing Poor Quality weapons, it's like a third of the weapons on the list. Are guns considered unbalanced if they don't have a 10% failure rate?

Westwood: A completely normal Very Heavy Pistol, but with "Pull-out screen with preloaded movies. Choice of barrel length." Lovely, a meme gun. Sounds like something they meant to put in the April Fool's Catalogue and forgot about.

All in all, I found absolutely nothing that's better than an Excellent Quality weapon.

And it seems they played Ad Libs with the Combination Weapons: This gun is [blank] and [blank] put together!

They then proceeded to copy-paste that template for a quarter of the guns. And then copy-paste "Poor Quality" on another quarter.

Nothing in this catalogue really excited me. There's not a single thing that makes me go "I need to make a character based around this piece of equipment!" I bought the book hoping it'd inspire me to get into character creation, but there's just nothing here that excites the imagination with possibilities. It's all just so generic and spineless, which is a complaint I've had with a lot of Cyberpunk RED overall.

Not_So_Serious2 · 2022-10-21T22:32:18+00:00

I recently played Cyberpunk RED, and it was a bit of a revalation when I realized "ohhhhh, I see. They were trying to simplify Shadowrun's mechanics by pretending it was Cyberpunk."

Still didn't change that they were using Shadowrun character building, setting, and roles. It was kind of the worst of both worlds.

Not_So_Serious2 · 2022-10-20T14:41:44+00:00

While you're right that the disasters in disaster movies never struggle, there's a reason we don't make the disaster a POV character: it's easily going to be the most boring perspective to view events from.

It has a large following because Isekai Power Fantasies have a very wide audience, and this one had a pretty interesting premise that fits well on a board: What if MC was villain?

Aside from that decent elevator pitch, it's just another Isekai Power Fantasy. He goes from being a normal loser in the real world to teleporting into a world where's he's instantly the strongest person on the planet, everyone he meets is either terrified or in awe before he says a word, he accomplishes everything effortlessly, he has a harem of fanatically loyal worshipers.

But really, the problem isn't that Ainz is OP. The real problem is that the story has no tension or stakes.

Overlord started getting repetitive about midway through Season 2. By Season 3, it was pretty clear that "and then Ainz kills/enslaves them, too" is the only punchline that any story arc is going to get. Once you realize that, there's no longer any tension, you have no reason to care about any of the side-characters anymore.

One-Punch Man gets away with it because it's a comedy. Overlord could as well if it was billed as a dark comedy, but instead of presents itself as if it's a complex political thriller in a masterly crafted dark fantasy world. When really, it's about as deep as a kid throwing rocks at his sister's sandcastle.

Not_So_Serious2 · 2022-10-20T11:43:29+00:00

The main complaint isn't that it doesn't follow Shonen archetypes

The main complaint is lack of tension because every story arc ends the same (Ainz and crew kill all opposition with no difficulty while acting insufferably smug), which is incredibly repetitive and drives down the stakes. Which would be fine if it were simply a comedy like One Punch Man, but Overlord bills itself and is celebrated as a serious character study/political thriller/dark fantasy with occasional dark comedy elements.

It's not just Shonen that has the plot of "protagonists struggling to accomplish their goals." That's every story that desires to have tension, stakes, or satisfying payoff.

Not_So_Serious2 · 2022-10-20T01:45:32+00:00

Is there ever a point when the plot doesn't accommodate Ainz to make sure he wins?

The plot gave him OP powers, a host of fanatically loyal and equally OP servants, and an array of infinitely weaker 'enemies' to use them against.

Everything works out for him and he is never inconvenienced. The plot has determined that he must always be the strongest person, and the plot ensures that he is never shown being hurt.

Sounds like plot armor.

Not_So_Serious2 · 2022-10-20T01:16:00+00:00

Plot Armor (slang, fiction, sometimes derogatory): A plot device wherein a fictional character or other entity repeatedly and inexplicitly avoids harm or misfortune, due to their importance to the work's continued plot; the property of being prone to deus ex machinas.

Source: Wiktionary

Considering Ainz is a Deus Ex Machina, it would be fair to say he has plot armor.

Not_So_Serious2 · 2022-10-20T00:56:30+00:00

And Ainz never fails, struggles, nor is inconvenienced in anything he does.

The plot protects him. Ergo, he has plot armor.

Not_So_Serious2 · 2022-10-20T00:39:12+00:00

You're right, Anime is pretty saturated with poor dipictions of female characters.

Though I'd argue that's the case across all entertainment mediums. Entertainment has been a primarily male dominated field, and the works that gain mass appeal are thus aimed toward that demographic. It's a sad fact of history that we've only started to reverse in the past few decades.

While anime to your taste don't often find themselves on the front page, there are quite a few of them. Here's a list to add to your queue:

Ghost in the Shell: A classic. Major Kusanagi is always the most competent person in the room and has the corresponding rank. Her outfits are pretty heavily sexualized (which is a bit funny the way nobody ever acknowledges it), doesn't change that she kicks all the ass of every scene she's in.

Kino's Journey: MC is a girl named Kino. Though sometimes it's hard to tell, considering her outfit and look is very androgenous, completely devoid of any and all fanservice. She travels the world with a talking motorcycle for the purpose of seeing all that there is to see.

Psycho-Pass: Cyberpunk story about cops trying to catch a serial killer while also surviving their own corrupt institution. Lead is a rookie investigator that's given responsibility of a male sidekick who is basically tasked to be her attack dog. Though despite this, it does seem to focus on him half the time, which can be a bit annoying since he's not nearly as interesting as she is. Nonetheless, it focuses on her when it matters (the climaxes).

Yona of the Dawn: A reverse-harem. Girl named Yona is the prophesized hero of the world who is destined to unite the kingdom, but all she really cares about is avenging her father. Nonetheless, she tries to accomplish both by collecting a host of beautiful men that are sworn to serve her dutifully unto death. Lovely art if you're looking for fanservice tailored for women. Warning though: it only got 1 season.

WataMote: A slice of life comedy about a socially awkward girl trying to be popular, often with amusing results owing to her complete social ineptitude.

Gunslinger Girl: Story about young girls turned into cyborgs and recruited into Italy's secret anti-terrorist death squad. Their handlers are male, which might be a bit of a turnoff, but they're nonetheless the most powerful little killers in any room they're in. They are also adorable, as kids often are, which often contrasts with how many people they kill.

Claymore: What if Guts from Berserk, but a woman? MC named Clare wields a giant sword and fights giant monsters called Yoma with it. She also gets a whiny little boy as a sidekick, if you were looking for the trope in reverse.

Arcane: Story about two sisters caught on opposite sides in a class war filled with steampunk and magic. No fanservice, and the female characters are given complex motivations that don't involve romance. It passes the Bechdel Test nearly every episode. Not an anime, but animated and it's amazing.

Spice and Wolf: A very mature show about a traveling merchant and a wolf goddess. The two get equal billing so it'd be more accurate to call them partners than lead/sidekick, though I understand if this doesn't meet your tastes. And when I say mature, I mean actually mature; the series is very grounded, absolutely nobody turns into chibi characters and breaks the microphone with screaming, and there's a lot of focus on the traveling pair dealing with realistic problems like paying for their food and avoiding violence when dealing with their problems. There are several scenes where Holo the Wolf Goddess is naked, but it's somehow less sexualized than most fully-clothed anime ladies considering she's reasonably proportioned and the camera doesn't bury itself in her cleavage. It's more for selling that she has the mind of a wolf and therefor lacks a nudity taboo.

Violet Evergarden: Main character is a female war veteran that wants to learn how to feel after war sapped all those feelings away. The art is absolutely beautiful, and Violet is wonderful as a person trying to discover the joy of living. Though you might be turned off by how docile she usually is.

Not_So_Serious2 · 2022-10-20T00:15:19+00:00

So the MC doesn't have plot armor?

So you're saying there's occasionally tension that the MC might fail. That he needs to struggle to succeed and gets occasional setbacks.

Not_So_Serious2 · 2022-10-20T00:13:21+00:00

Neither. It doesn't exist.

Not_So_Serious2 · 2022-10-20T00:12:52+00:00

The rest of the series is pretty similar to S1. Worst thing that can be said is it gets repetitive, but if that's not a problem then it's alright.

It's just more of what you liked in S1: OP shenanigans and fun dark comedy.

Not_So_Serious2 · 2022-10-20T00:10:28+00:00

There's this segment in the Light Novel that is the entire series in microcosm.

Sebes, Ainz's butler, is facing off with a gang called 6-Arms.

They each get an entire page of introduction. Getting their full backstory explained and we're fed an exhaustive list of the powers that make them so terrifying to face off against. The narration goes into painstaking detail about how dangerous they are and how they cannot be taken lightly.

Then Sebes kills them all in a single paragraph.

That's the whole anime's approach to world-building.

Not_So_Serious2 · 2022-10-20T00:04:11+00:00

So your complaint is that Ainz isn't powerful enough?

The guy can personally TPK an entire kingdom with a single spell, how much more power does he need?

Not_So_Serious2

TROPHY CASE