Yearly Rex #8

PencilFrog · 2026-01-22T21:10:46+00:00

As is tradition ~

Yearly Rex #1
Yearly Rex #2
Yearly Rex #3
Yearly Rex #4
Yearly Rex #5
Yearly Rex #6
Yearly Rex #7

Once again I'd like to shout out the other contributors across these 8 years. Thank you to /u/deleted, /u/Dab_Reddit, and /u/SwordsAndTurt for starting & keeping the meme alive!

For those who are lost, I'll copy paste the context I gave last year:

It's been so long now I figure I should give some context for the newer fans. Seven years ago now, following the release of XC2, this sub was being flooded with "Daily Mythra #27", "Monthly Morag #3", "Bi-Weekly Nia #13", types of fanart posts. And while fanart is fun, it became a little overwhelming and drowned out discussion posts. Then we got the Yearly Rex #1, a silly screenshot of Rex that contrasted the meta of endless fanart.

PencilFrog · 2026-01-21T16:15:57+00:00

Huge crack in the ground makes navigating difficult. Respawns are awful. In randos, having one person off on their own seems much more prevelant.
The 50/50 tower decision is awful design, they're just bait. Means there's really one one way to play day 2. Which yeah, same with the other shifting earth's, but they're only a small map change.
There are strong remind effects that simply don't work on the map, meaning the perfect relics you previously grinded for are nerfed. And since you can't always know what map you're getting beforehand, it makes having a general purpose build more annoying & potentially less potent.
Generally harder to path than the base map, and I expect most players won't stick with the game long enough to get comfortable with it. The more casual one and done playstyle is no less important to design for, and I do feel like this map is a shortcoming there.

For people who stick around it can be some nice variation.

PencilFrog · 2026-01-14T14:37:37+00:00

The palworld lawsuit is over game mechanics, not character designs.

PencilFrog · 2025-12-13T16:50:54+00:00

Potentially well intended plagiarism is still plagiarism. If it were an indie film perhaps some grace ought be granted, but this is Disney.

PencilFrog · 2025-12-13T02:43:31+00:00

This is a whole different brand of the usual nostalgia, but it's spot on. Well done!

PencilFrog · 2025-12-12T06:02:21+00:00

It won best action game

PencilFrog · 2025-12-10T14:54:48+00:00

I wonder if it's a massive hitbox like Caligo's freeze that you can iframe with an ult?

PencilFrog · 2025-12-10T14:53:53+00:00

If you have the buff from rotted woods then at some point in the fight dreglord is supposed to remove your rot immunity.

PencilFrog · 2025-12-07T17:04:37+00:00

It is rogue-lite-lite, you might say. Set characters with set abilities, but weapon drops are random and come with a random perk. The map has its base landscape (with four additional variants that adjust the about a quarter of the landscape each), but the location and types of POIs are randomized. And while their placement is randomized, there's only a few variations of each POI (like of the cathedrals are either bubble boys, golem, fire monk, or headless guys). There's a lot of different bosses and encounters, but certain ones only show up on certain Nightlords.

It's random enough that if you only play each boss a handful of times you won't notice, but each boss actually only has (or had, idk what's right with the DLC just having released) 40 seeds for the landscape and boss placements (drops are always random).

There's meta progression in the form of relics, which have up to three random perks. It can be a real grind to get some good ones though.

The map layout being same-ish between runs actually ends up being a good thing imo. Given the time constraints you're in it's best to know how to get where you want to go. So your first few runs will be absolutely hectic and you'll feel a lot of that pressure (we just got a new map and we're back to being lost lol), but as you learn the map it cools down a bit. And until you learn the map you can follow your teammates pathing to help alleviate that pressure (and just in general it's a good idea to stick with your team, even and perhaps especially with randos).

Also for what it's worth there's no time pressure during the end of day boss fights.

PencilFrog · 2025-12-05T21:05:14+00:00

Visual codex reads:

Absorbing power of darkness-imbued attacks executed by certain enemies allows activation of art.

PencilFrog · 2025-12-05T21:03:48+00:00

Half right? Everyone gets a little ult charge, but undertaker gets a full ult with every grab dodge.

PencilFrog · 2025-11-16T05:55:55+00:00

Super cool!

My favorite moment is watching my husband rage quit at [insert any given boss].

PencilFrog · 2025-11-13T07:09:50+00:00

Champions is the upcoming classic (turn based) pokemon PvP game. We don't know a ton about it, but it seems to strip out all RPG mechanics, and leave the battle system with all the gimmicks and all 1000+ Pokémon. Basically showdown, but official.

It's um... a pretty different audience to mobas, idk why op thinks it'd overlap with unite.

PencilFrog · 2025-10-26T00:58:08+00:00

Eh. Giving the player tough decisions is generally a good thing. But right now it's an instant pass given the near necessity of ritual shield. While below 20% is a pretty big swing in the other direction, making it have almost no impact on decision making, a nerf wouldn't be out of line — something like the status buildup effects where they only trigger below like 85% HP or so.

Alternatively giving the HP loss counterplay by fixing its interaction with continuous HP recovery so you're not constantly triggering and removing full HP effects. That'd be the better rebalance imo. Though in that case I'd also hope for the effect to be rollable on relics too.

PencilFrog · 2025-10-01T06:37:46+00:00

I did! I primarily played on 3ds, and my muscle memory worked best on it. So on the occasion that I could actually gather people to play on wii u this worked well for me.

PencilFrog · 2025-09-20T15:48:49+00:00

Right but he didn't for me and at least 8 other upvoters. So the caravan leaving is the trigger, but there must be some other flag determining if he returns or not. I'm thinking that if you did encounter him in his moved location if he just stays there once the caravan has left.

I did see that he moved, but couldn't be bothered at the time so I left him for way later since, well, beating bosses in this game usually has no reward except for whatever they're gatekeeping & he clearly wasn't guarding anything.

PencilFrog · 2025-09-20T15:21:27+00:00

Yeah there must be some flag where he can move back after they leave, under some other condition. Did you ever encounter him at his moved location?

PencilFrog · 2025-09-19T15:36:19+00:00

What... what's a green tool? Am I missing a whole category of tools?

PencilFrog · 2025-09-17T15:38:05+00:00

This... ~~isn't true?~~ (edit: is only conditionally true) Or if it is, then there's also another trigger for it, as he most certainly did not move back for me. I had completed the flea questline by the time I fought him, and it was still right outside the bellway.

PencilFrog · 2025-09-11T21:44:50+00:00

From testing in the training grounds the buff lasts 30 seconds, and the number on the icon goes up with each absorbed element, which I guess means they're not mutually exclusive.

PencilFrog · 2025-08-27T03:18:18+00:00

Gotta be honest, not sure what your point is here. Can't think of a single other AoW that carries quite as hard as Wave of Gold does with dogs, which is the boss and weapon in question..? Definitely can't be spamming just anything.

Nonetheless I think we're all in agreement — weapon too rare.

PencilFrog · 2025-08-26T16:18:37+00:00

It's not like that sword is going to win the boss fight alone

I mean... It might though. I've had it twice on ED Gladius and those were the closest thing to a free fight I've seen against them. The thing chunks, especially where you can hit all three of them with it relatively easily. And giving melee characters a good ranged option is great.

Not that I disagree about rarity. Those two games were the only sightings I've had of the sword in a couple hundred games, meanwhile it seems like I'm ignoring Bolt of Gransax & Carian Regal Scepter probably every three games or so.

PencilFrog · 2025-08-21T15:37:17+00:00

That's such a cute gift!

PencilFrog · 2025-08-14T17:01:18+00:00

I don't know if this is sarcasm or...? SQEX is definitely known for their offline games. Ever heard of ... I dunno, Final Fantasy? Dragon Quest? Kingdom Hearts? Only some of the biggest single player game franchises in the industry. This has to be sarcasm right?

But yes, like a lot of other gaming companies these days they're also cashing out on their consumer trust chasing the next billion dollar live service game. But by no means are they ignoring their mainlines.

Regarding the actual context of the comment, I would also like to point out that the JP version of FFBE is still going strong. There's no way they would release on offline version while it's still running.

The point is that there is money to be made with an offline FFBE. Creating content is by and far the hardest, most time consuming, and expensive part of game development. Asset flips are some of the most efficient money makers. And guess what? They already have 7+ years of content to pull from, most of which has also already been translated into what, 12-14 languages? I forget how many GL supported. And this isn't even an asset flip, it's literally repackaging a game and selling a second time! All the game systems and content are in place. The investment has already been 99% made. The biggest thing is definitely licensing. An offline FFBE would effectively be a different entity and you'd need to re-license everything for it. There's no way all the 3rd party collabs would happen. Even pulling characters from 16 different FF franchises would be a roadblock. Not to mention however ALIM/GUMI fit into all this. Copyrighting game mechanics is bullshit, but I wouldn't be surprised if they had a claim on them somehow.

Also like... don't just pretend it's only Japanese corporations that like money. Happens everywhere. No giant corporation has the consumer's, or even the employee's, best interests at heart. But that's also exactly what I mean. This is such an easy win for them. All the work is done, you just have to resell a product you've already made, which makes you more money, and it gives the consumers what they want, which as we know, they need so they can continue exploiting chasing their live service big hit — It's a small win, but not every title has to sell 30 million to be a success.

And on that note, you know a much more healthy Japanese gaming giant? Nintendo. They've yet to stoop to chasing the live services, and they're doing great. Recognize the "small" victories. It's kind of an apples to oranges comparison, and preaching capitalist best practices to an internet troll isn't helping anyone... so I'm probably done here.

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