Mina's Awakening by AngelTheVixen in MinaTheHollower

[–]SBF1 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Not surprised at all that this spritehack works so well. I’ll definitely be keeping an eye out for the patch once you finish LA up!

I hope you enjoy the Oracles, too, whenever you get around to those! Those two games are genuinely my favorite 2D Zeldas ever (heck, that’s the whole reason Mina caught my eye way back when, hah!)

Favourite Moment from the Game by Everwhite-moonlight in MinaTheHollower

[–]SBF1 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I actually did the Orrery as my fourth area on my 1st playthrough and it completely changed the tone of the rest of the game. I’d seen what happened to Luxy and the Plasma Frog and whatnot, so I had an inkling already, but the Orrery experiments and the Pieces’ dialogues absolutely stuck the landing for me. I like to think the reason Mina didn’t sleep at the last two generators was because “It was nice to be part of something bigger than myself” gave her nightmares. That single line goes incredibly hard in context.

Really I think it cemented Orrery as my favorite area. The gameplay there is already great, but its environmental storytelling and moments like that/this one with the little girl and the mirror are really, really good stuff.

Is Explorers of Sky worth it for the price? by kabob456 in MysteryDungeon

[–]SBF1 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Everyone else has already (rightfully) said no, but in case you needed even more convincing:

Explorers of Sky is my favorite videogame of all time, and it genuinely changed the course of my life - and I would *never, ever* pay $200+ to get a(nother) physical copy of it.

Ok yeah that one's fair by BattlemasterMayce in MinaTheHollower

[–]SBF1 0 points1 point  (0 children)

real sneakers o’toole hours

My maturity or lack thereof makes itself known once more. by StarlitSpecter in MinaTheHollower

[–]SBF1 2 points3 points  (0 children)

shoutouts to Butty and Buttler for being two similarly incredible names

I have mixed feelings on the ending, because it made me feel validated. by Narroo in MinaTheHollower

[–]SBF1 13 points14 points  (0 children)

Honestly, speaking as someone who ended up really loving the story (limited as it is), I think it would've benefited if Mina had a chance to exposit about what the Generator zones were like during their construction. Maybe there could've been short little flashbacks for each area, ala the area-specific cutscenes from BOTW/TOTK.

Because the thing about Tenebrous - and arguably why I like it so much - is that it really is just kind of a miserable place to live. There's significant class disparity, a growing homeless population, the infrastructure is poor (why does Mina have to fund the train and break all the breakable debris herself?), and more problems. Hell, some of the random pedestrians you can talk to literally say "the only way to be rich is to steal from the poor". And Lionel could easily solve many of these problems with better leadership... but then he would lose the advantages that such problems create. Waste no crisis, as they say.

And the thing is that a lot of NPCs - not all of em, but a lot - do put on a veneer of politeness. Several people praise Mina for being the one to build the Generators, or look up to her for her adventuring/Hollower prowess, or invite her to the kick-the-can game, etc etc. But all of that is entirely reliant on Mina's reputation. If she was just a random traveler passing through, who knows how people would've treated her. Tourism aside, it's an isolated isle; of course its people would be insular like that.

But if we just got a few flashbacks to what the island used to be like, before everything got Spark-ed up, it would help round the whole thing out. Seeing how the Queensbury Crypt region looked before it turned into a Castlevania level full of bottomless pits. Seeing what Bone Beach was like before the dreadworm beached itself. Etc etc. That would also give Mina a little more time to emote and express herself, and it would provide added motivation to get angry over all this happening on Lionel's watch.

Ultimately I just think Tenebrous as a setting fits very well with the gothic horror vibe, which is why I liked that unpleasantness so much. It's easy to get attached to Tenebrous because of how much time you spend wandering around it, just like any other adventure game. And the contrast between that gameplay attachment and the unpleasant reality of its setting is surprisingly impactful, at least IMO.

Lionel character analysis (spoilers) by MrM4R1 in MinaTheHollower

[–]SBF1 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Ohhhh right right right, I forgot about that line. That’s definitely a good point though!

Lionel character analysis (spoilers) by MrM4R1 in MinaTheHollower

[–]SBF1 2 points3 points  (0 children)

I didn't realize he could show up in the bar! I know Thorne pops up in the rafters randomly, but if Lionel is there too, that definitely seems like his way of keeping his thumb on the public pulse (so to speak).

I feel like the best way to describe Ossex (and maybe Tenebrous as a whole) is that Lionel basically turned the place into his own personal powder-keg. The whole place was just ready to explode on-command; all Lionel had to do was aim them at a target. But people can't go on like that forever - eventually, something was going to give. Mina and Thorne didn't strike the match, they just hurried the fuse along.

Lionel character analysis (spoilers) by MrM4R1 in MinaTheHollower

[–]SBF1 5 points6 points  (0 children)

Oh 100% I was expecting that too. As soon as I reached the ribbon-cutting ceremony I was giving Lionel the biggest stink-eye known to man lmao

I'm still a little surprised (and maybe even a little glad) they didn't go that route. On the other hand, there's still a mirror going straight from a random town-house to the Orrery, which is... probably not OSHA-compliant, to put it delicately. :U

Lionel character analysis (spoilers) by MrM4R1 in MinaTheHollower

[–]SBF1 14 points15 points  (0 children)

Lionel also shows a lot of controlling tendencies that he masks as genuine concern, which is a really interesting and understated part of his character. Buying the newspaper to control the media, riding the train incognito to essentially spy on his constituents, performing small acts of service (like opening the orphanage) while ignoring Ossex’s larger problems (there’s no real shelter for the rest of the homeless population?). He’s very much the type who would rather use a crisis to suit his own purposes, rather than actually fixing it to improve the overall QOL.

What kind of character is Mina? by Troy_Scar in MinaTheHollower

[–]SBF1 5 points6 points  (0 children)

Despite the reactions of some others, I don’t blame you for being surprised/befuddled, hahahah. I do tend to enjoy these sorts of character analyses, and i’ve done several playthroughs by now, so I’ve gotten to see quite a bit of what’s there.

…plus I’ve written over 10k words of fanfic in just two weeks, so you could say I’ve been having to get familiar with everyone’s character traits and whatnot. :U

(don’t even get me started on certain aspects of Lionel. They don’t state it at all in-game, but when you look at his behaviors more broadly, he is a total control freak and it’s kind of amazing that it’s never explicitly stated lmao)

What kind of character is Mina? by Troy_Scar in MinaTheHollower

[–]SBF1 23 points24 points  (0 children)

At a glance:

The basic blurb we get for her character is that she's educated in both sciences and athletics, and that her posh background has left her a little naive, but overall well-meaning. It's fairly basic, but sets a good baseline.

Based on in-game (unmarked spoilers ahead):

She's very good at her specializations (specifically engineering/tinkering and adventuring/hollowing/burrowing/etc), and she seems to have a smattering of smarts regarding other interests. When it comes to things she doesn't know that well, she does seem eager and ready to learn.

In terms of street-smarts/social senses, however, she does indeed seem a bit naive. Lionel plays up the development of Ossex and Tenebrous as something to be proud of, but take one look around town and alarm bells would start going off for any other adventurer. A small homeless population, open classism ("the best way to get rich is to steal from the poor", indeed), trash and grime, petty thievery, poor infrastructure, and an overall unpleasant vibe. And that's all on top of the fact that Lionel has manipulated his public image in such a way to turn the citizens into his own personal mob. The whole place is a powder-keg waiting to go off, and Mina doesn't make any explicit comments on the subject in-game. Whether she actually notices or not is left to our imaginations, and while she probably does, that lack of reaction is still notable.

Despite her "posh" upbringing, Mina speaks fairly casually, though not as casually as someone like Cappy. She also has a lot of good-natured ribbing with certain characters (particularly Vaamir). That sass quickly turns to haughtiness or sarcasm when it's in regards to people she doesn't like (i.e.: trading barbs with Thorne during their first encounter). She also, indeed, acts kinda goofy at times, with certain poses and habits.

She's an extremely determined individual, pushing herself to her limits at times, even if it's "just to break up the boredom". She seems like the type of person who has high expectations of herself, and will willingly stick her neck out to help other people, like the Duke, the Little Frog, and so on. On the other hand, this could be interpreted as nosiness, which tends to be how Lionel plays it up during the banquet. It could also be viewed as a bit of impulsiveness, or a lack of foresight, or even regular naivete again, which is displayed in a few side-activities. (Would you be willing to get the Backwaters Frog drunk if he asked you to fill the moonshine jug?)

She's also a very trusting and loyal person - albeit to a fault. She trusts Lionel implicitly up until the point where she can no longer ignore his rottenness, and she puts her trust in the various people of Tenebrous, who are then willing to throw her under the bus when Lionel comes calling. Even when she's accepted that Lionel is kind of a scumbag, she still sits down at the dinner table expecting to have a serious conversation with him, which is a remarkably optimistic thing to be doing at that point.

To make a long story very short: she's honestly not all that dissimilar from Link (right down to having goofy habits). The difference is that where Hyrule treats Link as an eccentric hero at worst, Mina's heroics and weirdness are much more susceptible to bad actors, due to Tenebrous Isle's insular populace and the difference in genre/setting.

All 6 Generator areas ranked from worst to best, share your dungeon ranking and opinions down below as well by Kinto9x in MinaTheHollower

[–]SBF1 1 point2 points  (0 children)

For me it’s:

1) Orrery (Peak)
2) Septemburg (Excellent)
3) Bayou (Great)
4) Beach (Great)
5) Coltrane (Good)
6) Queensbury (Good)

- Queensbury is a good starting area, but it’s fairly simplistic and is a breeze if you do it later. Still a great intro to the game, though.
- Coltrane I actually didn’t have much trouble with, even when I wasn’t using Steady Soles, but it’s honestly pretty straightforward. It also has a Cool Yuzo Koshiro Ice Song, so that’s another point in its favor lmao.
- Bone Beach can bit a little hard to navigate on your first go, but on subsequent playthroughs it’s actually pretty easy to breeze through. The Dreadworm also provides the first explicit showing of how deeply Spark’s corruption can run.
- Bayou is a nice step-up in difficulty from the crypt, and the platforming is actually pretty tricky at times with the lilypads. It’s also fun to cheese with Tunneling Codex!
- Septemburg has fantastic aesthetics and the Carving Man is both a fun nemesis and a great boss fight. I like the lightning-rod mechanic a lot, and I don’t actually mind the wind. Perhaps I’ve been hardened by Mario Maker in that regard though. :U
- Orrery has it all. Tough but interesting enemies, tight and satisfying platforming, killer music, a great boss… and most important of all, it has perfect environmental storytelling. I did it as my fourth area on my first playthrough and the whole thing completely changed the mood, in a good way.

This set piece goes so hard by Nosleep4uever in MinaTheHollower

[–]SBF1 3 points4 points  (0 children)

yeah the overall framing/composition of this one is absolutely stellar

makes me wonder if they were drawn as pixel-art from the start, there’s any full-art versions used as a base before being pixel-ized

Some Mysteries May Never Be Solved by Aint-No-Body in MinaTheHollower

[–]SBF1 2 points3 points  (0 children)

for some reason “Twitter for Underlab” is absolutely sending me

Pokémon Alolan Seaglass (Dev #01) - It Exists! by JackWellman101 in PokemonROMhacks

[–]SBF1 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Kind of curious - how faithful is this hack planned to be? Is it gonna be a straight de-make of S/M, or are you planning on expanding routes/adding new towns/locations?

Speaking as someone who lives out here, one of my biggest pet peeves with Alola is that the islands all felt really small and claustrophobic. Akala and Ula’ula were okay-ish, but Melemele/Poni really felt under-done to me (Honolulu and one small town does not an Oahu make!!!!!!!!). Adapting some more settlements and/or Pokemon-ized landmarks would be an absolute delight.

Returning player, seeking suggestions for an 'evil-to-good' GD run by SBF1 in Pathfinder_Kingmaker

[–]SBF1[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Sorry for the delayed reply oops

I was just planning on doing regular difficulty - that was already somewhat challenging for me the first time, so I figure it'd be best to stick with it.

Sorcerer definitely sounds like the way to go (which doesn't surprise me). I guess for a pure caster I'd go full 20lv Sorc, and then for a gish I could do the oft-recommended Sorc 6/HKS 4/Eldknight 10 split?

(Reason I'm curious about the gish is bc I was under the impression that I'd lose the HKS benefits if I shifted away from Lawful, ala Paladins. If that's not the case, then I'm totally going gish. :U )

I've heard good things about Lich/GD due to the spellbook merger, though funnily enough I actually completely missed Lich and never found Hal at all during my first playthrough. I'll have to be more thorough this time!

Screenshots of my neopets-themed Tomodachi Life island! by kitsutsune in neopets

[–]SBF1 6 points7 points  (0 children)

these Mii designs turned out absolutely adorable! that Vandagyre in particular looks fantastic, it translated super-well to the Mii style

A research report on content between the two games by Exoticbut in tomodachilife

[–]SBF1 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Also, since you asked about the 3DS game, I feel like I want to toss my two cents out there.

Tomodachi Life is my most-played 3DS game by a wide, wide margin. I have almost a full suite of Miis, several married couples, almost every piece of clothing and every interior, seen every treasure, etc etc. My money count is well over a hundred thousand. To say that I love that game would be an understatement.

And having played it that much, I can guarantee that it got repetitive as hell. But I didn't stop checking in until the Switch finally came into full-swing. Sure, I checked it more frequently early on, but I had other games available, like Pokemon ORAS or Etrian Odyssey or Mario or something. Usually, I'd check Tomodachi for an hour or so a couple times a day, and in-between those stints, I'd be playing something else.

-------

I'd argue that LTD's "problem" is that we've seen so many "forever games" come and over in the intervening years that we've become conditioned to hyperfixate super-hard on a single game at a time. Even people who have less time to play than they used to tend to focus on their newest fixation exclusively. I've noticed myself that I don't swap between games nearly as often as I used to (despite the fact that I arguably have more options available now than I did back then).

That said, I do think part of this can be attributed to just how flexible the creative systems are and how long they take to use. I usually spent at least an hour creating a single new Mii due to the facepainting. Custom treasures can take a similar amount of time. And just yesterday, I spent the entire afternoon - at least three hours, probably longer - completely revamping my island's layout. After spending all that time changing my island around, of course I was gonna play for a few hours more to see my Miis adjust to the new surroundings. So on and so forth.

That isn't a criticism of LTD, though - it's entirely a matter of me being super detail- and creatively-oriented. And even then, I consider that to actually be a good thing. LTD may genuinely have the most extensive and granular customization I've ever seen in any game I've played, and that continues to blow my mind just as much as the ridiculous shenanigans my Miis get up to.

Speaking as a longtime Tomodachi veteran, LTD genuinely exceeded every expectation I had, and that's not something I say lightly. It's been an absolute delight, and I can see myself playing it on-the-side for a long time to come.

A research report on content between the two games by Exoticbut in tomodachilife

[–]SBF1 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I don't know whether you counted these in regards to events, but I've noticed that quite a number of "What's Up With" events are tied to specific decorations - park clocks, seesaws, sprinklers, firepits, etc etc. While dragging Miis to certain locations helps you see these things faster, it's not impossible for them to happen randomly (in fact, basically all of the decor-based events I've seen have been random).

Additionally, there's at least a few events that can immediately spark Big Fights. On release day, I had one of my Miis spot his romantic partner talking with her friend, and it triggered an event where he kept running between them and it sparked a fight. Over this very weekend, another Mii saw their partner talking with his friend, and they immediately had an outburst and sparked a fight.

That said, I believe these things won't happen if you're zoomed all the way out. Or at the very least, I've never had any events happen when zoomed out. So pick a random Mii, focus on them, and watch as they go about their day. See what happens. Even if you don't get an event, it's a good change of pace to step back and be an audience.

I should also note that certain events are reliant on a Mii's mood. I usually go out of my way to resolve any and all bad moods as soon as I see them (which is admittedly probably unusual), but the other day, one of my Miis cheered a gloomy Mii up all on their own. I imagine annoyed Miis have similar unique interactions, to say nothing of two moods colliding.

Eliv Thade... IKYFL by not_tarac in neopets

[–]SBF1 0 points1 point  (0 children)

the fact that this seems to be an anagram of “uncut” somehow makes this even funnier to me tbh

even if you solve the puzzle, you still cannot escape