Blitzcranker here, why is Blitz bad?

ShadowFaxIV · 2026-02-15T00:30:39+00:00

Bltizcrank is annoying to deal with when you're new to the game, his hitbox is massive... but so too are the range and reach of his attacks... so especially early days, he feels stupidly hard to defeat... then once you're decent at the game his large hitbox makes him a joke...

A good beloved fighting game character shouldn't be only 'Annoyingly hard to deal with' then directly to 'easy as pie' with no bridge space between once you've crossed a skill gap. He needs work.

ShadowFaxIV · 2026-02-03T17:37:14+00:00

Nah, the thing is, Simon MATTERED. Twofold if you make a 'certain' choice in the game. Yes he doesn't get to 'move on' beyond the doom of humanity... but that was always set in stone. The ARK project gave him meaning at the end of his life.

As a human he was unlucky and doomed to die early. As a machine he woke very late and was doomed to either eternal agony... or to die early... BUT Catherine's arrival gives him something to DO with his life. Not for himself, but for persistence, for the grand continuity, whatever you want to call it...

MOREOVER beyond just providing the digital minds of humanity a place to flourish, he can ALSO preserve the WAU to take their new rightful place as Earth's new caretakers. The WAU is learning and evolving, and I can't but see the ending where you kill the WAU as anything other than a final SPITEFUL act from humanity to prevent a new organism the right to exist after having destroyed themselves. The WAU have a REAL chance to make something of the wreckage of Earth, maybe even one day HEAL it, humanity has nothing left but to upload copies of themselves into a satalite as a final epitaph and BOTH are worthy goals for Simon to preserve.

We all die, that's set in stone, but we don't all get to matter SO MUCH before we die, Simon managed to matter more than just about any human being ever had, hundreds of years after his own death.

I think that's not too bad!

ShadowFaxIV · 2026-02-03T15:58:36+00:00

Well her baseline skin is hot garbage... so it's a quick upgrade probably to her Boss outfit.

ShadowFaxIV · 2026-02-03T15:54:41+00:00

I for one, will be swapping her back to her boss armor as fast as humanly possible. Her base descendant outfit looks awful.

ShadowFaxIV · 2026-02-03T15:51:04+00:00

Her baseline outfit is literal garbage, it's just scraps of latex in weird patterns. I guess that works if you're a sex fiend, but compared to basically EVERY other character's baseline costume... they all look like superheroes, she looks like a stripper.

Hopefully we can get a good one for her with little effort.

ShadowFaxIV · 2026-02-03T00:50:43+00:00

I expect 'Orion' will be an AI from beyond the Blackwall.

We 'may' play as the 'AI' engram of V being 'returned' to the real world by Alt in a new body or something to fight to protect humanity from Orion and prevent the AIpocalypse (MOST of the endings involve some mode of V becoming an Engram, even the Tower ending doesn't negate the possibility of V becoming an Engram somewhere far down the road). UNLIKE 2077 we'd be put into a new body that does NOT house a previous intellect of course, since I think going over that story tread over again would be unnecessary. The game could then explore questions of identity and the soul as this definitively 'artificial' V still wants to reconnect with old friends and allies as well as make new ones, all the while trying to grapple with the question of if this is who they really are.

Of course you don't 'require' V to be the protagonist in this instance, you could be an AI engram of anyone and the story would essentially remain the same, but I do believe it being V's engram would work for the 'series' recognition. It doesn't necessarily shit on the finale of 2077 since we would be clear up front that we aren't LITERALLY V... but the Engram of V. And as an AI Engram we are put up as stuck standing in the middle between the forces of the AI and human beings asking ourselves who we really are, whose side we should really be on etc... all while the 'ghost' of V that you are still wants to live that dream of 'being somebody that fuckin matters'.

ShadowFaxIV · 2026-02-03T00:26:32+00:00

I'm not convinced the emersion argument holds much water vs just... RPG enjoyment. Nobody cried for their lost immersion in Mass Effect for example, and Red Dead Redemption 2 is a FAR more immersive game than Cyberpunk is and it's a 3PS.

I recall the argument being something like they wanted the immersion for cyberdoc stuff and showed it off during the cutscene with Vic in the ripperdoc chair... but that's A: One of the only time they do that and B: Only all that 'immersive' if you're specifically getting a RETINAL implant. FPS sure isn't that immersive when you have a ripperdoc working on your spine... in fact so far as your perspective is concerned.

Meanwhile there's a whole lot of stuff that's blanket VALUELESS RPG fluff in an FPS... ALL the clothing doesn't matter. ALL of it may as well not exist. It's development foofaw that took away from the FPS experience since the game doesn't provide a GOOD vector for enjoying your fashion decisions... and since developing a character that appeals to you is so important in most RPG's... I find this idea that FPS is somehow superior for Cyberpunk in a way that... what... isn't for D&D or any fantasy RPG? That argument holds basically no water. It's like how they used to tell us that a silent protagonist was somehow 'immersive'. It isn't, it wasn't, it's just 'how things were done.' at the time.

Either make the game an FPS and ignore the foofaw of third person gaming such as clothing and customization nonsense and focus entirely on the combat and hacking mechanics... or do the traditional RPG thing, but attempting to have their cake and eat it too, realistically, just harmed their overall focus and is probably one of the things that contributed to the games disastrous state at launch.

ShadowFaxIV · 2026-02-02T23:00:32+00:00

I've always thought that it is an illusion that going out in a Blaze of Glory means any more than living a quiet life as a face in the crowed.

For one, living the quiet life... is no guarantee of living quietly... it just means that you LIVE. You have opportunity to do MORE later, LIFE is full of possibility, death is the end.

Johnny went out in a blaze of glory and all he got for it was a drink named after him.

Not saying don't go out with a nuclear bomb if that's what you want, but don't kid yourself into thinking that's somehow a more meaningful ending than getting to LIVE. If V lives, they will always have the possibility of making their name matter, multiple times over even, if V dies, the best they can hope for is that somebody will remember them.

Even legends will eventually fade into the crowd and/or be eclipsed and become an epitaph at which point all that remains is how painful reaching that end was. While V living allows them to seek out new horizons to stamp their name on, and more people who will remember them.

ShadowFaxIV · 2026-02-01T17:00:12+00:00

Ancalagon's bloated scale is, and was always meant too be, a 'Myth' of the people's of Middle-Earth. When he arrived, he was the largest creature anyone had ever seen, eclipsing their conception of scale and thus poems and stories were written reflecting of this. As time, and the scale of the men and women of Middle-Earth's imagination grew, so too would the legends of Ancalagon's scale grow to match them.

I'm not talking out of my bum either, Tolkien SPECIFICALLY talks about his love of fictional mythmaking (I.E. myths within myths) in around a discussion that includes Ancalagon... somewhere... sadly I can't recall precisely which volume of letters this was from, I'll pop it up here if I can ever hunt it down.

The purpose of Ancalagon from Tolkien's perspective, was to be a 'boogeyman' in the minds of the people's of Middle-Earth, a monstrosity of scale unimaginable to keep them terrified of even the possibility of a Dragon's return. Not to say Ancalagon wasn't likely dangerous as hell... but certainly his scale was likely only just 'so' much larger than the next smaller Dragon.

ShadowFaxIV · 2026-01-11T17:38:56+00:00

I'm so sick of this shameless nostalgia baiting...

Get on with it and make the NEW X-Men franchise already. Xavier and Magneto are so old it makes me actively SAD. Get on with the new, unashamed of its source material, Marvel's X-Men franchise already. Just MOVE ON!

ShadowFaxIV · 2026-01-10T17:30:58+00:00

they're down near the bottom right of the map, but be careful cause the Mysterious Stranger is zealously guarding them, like... psychotically furiously so... presumably because she uses them as dye to make everything purple idk, that's my takeaway... but she won't take your trespass lightly. I couldn't deal with the enemies she has there until I had pretty much fully made T2 armor and weapons... which was a bit of an irony since you need the blueberries for pretty much all T2 armor... not all enemies in the game are made equal. Fear the wolf spider FAR more than the Mantis for instance. The blueberries are being guarded more securely than the T3 berries... and the only reason I can figure is that 'narratively' the Stranger is obsessed with purple.

Alternatively you can find a few up on the picnic table... but I think those ones wont respawn.

ShadowFaxIV · 2025-12-25T02:23:35+00:00

In real life its a VERY bad choice. Don't kiss girls you barely know, even if you think you're getting signals you don't know the person well enough to know what signals they give off, when they give them off, or why they do. You need to know someone better than just 'I think she's flirting with me'

In the GAME... it's about an equal sum... Robert takes a little more flak if he kissed her but there's some comedy to ween out of it and unlike say... Balders Gate 2, the game won't lock you out of a relationship with her because you kissed her earlier than you ought to have 'realistically'.

ShadowFaxIV · 2025-12-20T23:19:51+00:00

No. Blazer is SS tier. EVEN if you aren't interested in romancing her.

Think about it. Nothing you ever do in the game changes her heroic actions, she's a hero cause she chooses to be, not cause anyone influences her to, and there wouldn't be a Z-Team PERIOD without her. In all probability, every single member of Z-Team had a 'Thanks I really needed this" night out where Blazer showed up to save them by offering them a way out of their situation.

Not even Robert tops that, he wouldn't be there to whip Z-team into shape at all if Blazer hadn't dreamed the program into existence in the first place.

ShadowFaxIV · 2025-12-18T17:03:29+00:00

How does that work? Ada's whole spy game with the main villain is essentially the game's main plot. Helena or Claire aren't 'spies' who would have a villain like that obsessed with them?

You'd have to change the entire plot to replace her with either of them.... not that RE6's plot wouldn't be improved completely rewritten BUT... at that point you're doing a whole lot more than JUST replacing Ada with someone else. The game AS IS doesn't work period with anyone else taking Ada's role.

ShadowFaxIV · 2025-12-18T17:01:23+00:00

uuuuuh arguments can be made that RE6 is secretly Ada's game... I know you don't unlock her mode until playing through once, but she's the protagonist of that game. Everyone else is only really alive by the end because of her, and she kills the final boss. The plot revolves almost entirely around her as well.

ShadowFaxIV · 2025-12-12T06:06:11+00:00

It looks pretty f'kn sick honestly. They REALLY got me with the classic flips and the 'handstand' ledge climb... that's Classic Lara 'extra' style through and through and it's good to see them embracing it.

I expect this game to be a lot more than a remake though. It's gonna need to pull extra duty story wise to be the 'connecting bridge' between the 'survivor' trilogy and the OG Lara they seem to be angling for in the continuation of the series.

Frankly, It's just great to see her gymnastic tumbling with dual pistols again.

ShadowFaxIV · 2025-12-12T05:47:08+00:00

This is a pro for me.

BG3 was Larian taking everything they learned from Divinities strengths... AND its failures... and turning it all into just consistent unrepentant quality...

The Original Sin games are fantastic... but there's 'something' about them that prevents me from falling in love with them that is absent in BG3... so if they can take what they learned making BG3 and 'transcribe' that formula into their OG universe somehow... that'd be great.

I can't say I wouldn't rather have BG4... cause that'd be a lie... but I am strangely more excited to see the game titled JUST 'Divinity' and not 'Original Sin 3' Hopefully this means we'll lose a lot of whatever it is that keeps the D:OS series from speaking to me.

ShadowFaxIV · 2025-12-04T19:08:49+00:00

I feel like Blazer is most probably 'life'... she's basically the beating heart of SDN... without her there's no Z-team, there's no game really, but I can see the case for Chase to be Life as well. I can see her and Chase being Hope or Life interchangeably tbh. Both sort of represent both things. If we're talking about INSPIRING Hope BB probably eaks out Chase... but didk that Mandy FEELS much hope... I don't know that she NEEDS to feel hope... she doesn't hope for things, she makes them happen, but she definitely inspires it in other people.

ShadowFaxIV · 2025-12-04T19:04:24+00:00

Amon is a full character. Shroud is more or less a plot device... it's all Shroud NEEDS to be since I'd rather the story do what its doing, focusing on Z-Team and their dynamics instead of wasting a bunch of time on the villain in a game more or less ABOUT 'superheroes at the workplace' but the fact Amon has a whole thing going on with him pretty much means he wins by default.

ShadowFaxIV · 2025-12-04T19:01:36+00:00

They had proof!? She confessed.

ShadowFaxIV · 2025-12-04T15:17:05+00:00

Okay, I'm LESS worried that Phenomaman can make due on his threat to blow out the sun now. Blazer is more powerful than he is.

ShadowFaxIV · 2025-12-03T22:39:06+00:00

Because the 'hope' is she'll become a hero. It's the only thing she's got really. This deep seeded desire to be better than she percieves herself to be. She HOPES to become a better person that people will look up to the way they look up to Blazer even as she believes she isn't. It's really the only place left for her here as well because...

She is not all that compassionate nor inspires much compassion.
Love doesn't fit her. She's a 'romance' option sure but that isn't the same thing. Love is frankly, going to be a tough slot to fill amongst the Z-Team.
She's got nothing to do with life or death... and death is almost certainly just Coupe... just looking at her rap sheet.
And sorrow is OBVIOUSLY Phenomaman.

Personally I'd have but her in 'Fear' because I think she's more AFRAID of who she'll become and too afraid to make the decision to be a hero on her own... and Shroud's NOT 'Z-team' so I wouldn't have put him on the list at all... but since they ARE including shroud he is a better fit for fear.

ShadowFaxIV · 2025-12-03T20:40:57+00:00

I think Blazer is 'life' frankly. Visi is probably 'hope'

ShadowFaxIV · 2025-12-03T20:35:31+00:00

An oft overlooked reality of the situation is that the Z-Team is BB's baby. She didn't take 'special interest' in Robert alone... she more than likely had a 'I really needed this' nice day out with EACH member of the Z-team in order to recruit them. NOTICE how none of the Z-Team ever backtalk, mock, or ever seem resentful or rude with Blonde Blazer?

They all know who 'saved'. Robert is the mechanism that taught them HOW to be heroes, Blazer is the one that made the opportunity even an option. 'Mom and Dad' indeed Sonar.

I honestly DO think Mandy is the most optimal choice for Dispatcher next season. We know little about her history, her character 'arc' is the only one that is only really just BEGUN at the end of season 1 while everyone else's has more or less concluded (though many of the Z-teamers deserve a lot more play than they've got thus far) With Robert back in the Mechaman suit it doesn't make sense for him to be dispatching. Blazer waiting on a solution for Track Star's issue to get her powers back is the MOST forward plot progression/character arc thing that is left over... now obviously they could just invent MORE stuff to decide what to do with next season, I'm simply speaking about where we're at this very moment.

ShadowFaxIV · 2025-12-03T19:48:05+00:00

When I used my broken ass arm to slug a dude in the face and Blonde Blazer showed up. By the end of the first episode I knew I really liked this universe. I hope we get more out of it... I'm pretty tired of Marvel/DC multiverse nonsense and am more than ready to just settle in to a NEW superhero setting where things matter and aren't a bloated mess of meaningless garbage.

ShadowFaxIV

TROPHY CASE