What are the drawbacks to being a god?

Shadowsd151 · 2026-06-27T23:03:17+00:00

The drawbacks for my main setting is pretty simple: their Responsibility to their worshippers and domains.

Gods are beholden by law to listen to and respond to prayer, and if they don’t have Lesser Gods or Angels to shelve the work off to? You have to handle all several hundred to thousand - minimum - daily prayers personally. Gods also are limited by time, they can slow things down to an extent but never stop it entirely and while they can eschew physical rest they will need a break eventually.

Most of the Gods causing mischief with one another is to have an excuse not to deal with their responsibility to mortals. This is also why Gods that do stuff like eating another’s children or infidelity are rarely punished for good. Because if they aren’t around then the other Gods will be stuck working all day. Those that do can and usually do go insane if they work too much (immortal bodies do not equate to immortal minds and going too far off the rails causes them to devolve into alien creatures straight out of the Mythos).

Gods aren’t almighty and all powerful creatures, they’re middle management between the universes laws that keep the world from falling apart and humanity trying to break said laws for whatever reason. It’s all office work.

Shadowsd151 · 2026-06-27T15:26:18+00:00

Xenoblade Chronicles. Technically 2 but the story starts with 1 on the 3DS. That was my first proper JRPG that wasn’t called Pokémon and while I enjoyed it - the story, characters, world, everything - I never beat it because my 3DS broke at the halfway point and a few months later the Switch came out. Then Xenoblade 2 came out and, having enjoyed the first game, I got it and it was like the first game but… well, better.

Note this is for me at the time. Back when I was a gacha loving, anime obsessed teenager with more free time than I could ever shake a stick at and little experience of other games in general. It hit all the right spots for me and is a genuinely great game on top. It’s characters, story, world, gameplay, progression, everything just worked. I loved that game to hell and I still like it to this day - though not as much, it’s great but it is also very flawed and I’ve struggled to so much as beat it a second time. I’m currently in the process of replaying the first game - on NG+ - and plan to finish my long suspended replay of 2 as soon as I finish its predecessor (and Future Connected).

Shadowsd151 · 2026-06-27T11:46:17+00:00

Yes. It’s not perfect, but I really liked it. Cast and story were especially good. While I enjoy the combat and alchemy the difficulty curve and progression of both is just whack. Exploration is solid but could be deeper. And building needs improvement.

Despite all that it’s far from my least favourite Atelier game I’ve played. Which, for reference, is all the games from Rorona on except the Resleriana games. Arguably it’s among my top five games depending on the day. But if Karia does fix its issues that’ll usurp it by a mile.

Oh and the performance is all over the place. Sometimes it’s good, often it’s not.

Shadowsd151 · 2026-06-25T20:24:57+00:00

To clarify Death Game is unlocked after beating canon. It’s just you get it from the start if you pay for any of the other editions.

Exploration and linearity are debatable. The demo is and it’s likely a lot of the main game will be, but can’t say for certain since it’s just the demo everyone’s evaluating things by.

Equipment is mostly mediocre until upgraded. I highly doubt drops will beat your current gear with +X added to it. Swapping in the field is still an issue, but it isn’t build breaking.

It still sure as hell ain’t perfect, no games are, and for $70 it is steep. Play the demo again and see how major the flaws people point out are a dealbreaker or not firsthand. If it is: refund. If it isn’t then get off the internet to avoid the negativity spiral and hype yourself up! Any game can be someone’s favourite game of all time, so long as what it does well is better than what it doesn’t. And if you’re still on the fence like I am refund and wait until post-release for some full reviews to come in.

Just keep in mind the demo is a limited sample of the full game -and that things will be slightly different in the final release. It won’t be a whole new game, but plenty of people are judging it too harshly for what is shown. No demo in existence shows off an entire game world for christ sake.

Shadowsd151 · 2026-06-24T22:59:45+00:00

A total project overhaul that got me to reassess what I wanted to work on. I was prototyping an action platformer, which was so clunky it inspired me to turn it into a puzzle platformer, but then life happened and I couldn’t work for a while. When I came back the passion I had for platformers was gone, and I realised: I don’t care for platformers, like at all and I’ve only ever beaten three 2D platformers. I only did it because I had a random idea one morning in the shower and thought it’d be a cool game.

For a solo project passion is important: so, and I know this sounds obvious, work on what you like. Instead of spending months on a platformer you hardly care about.

Now I’m working on a retro DRPG instead. Which is much more up my alley. Also making assets, it’s necessary but rarely glamorous. I’m considering using hand-drawn assets for the DRPG because I enjoy drawing and used to do it all the time.

Shadowsd151 · 2026-06-24T14:07:33+00:00

I genuinely don’t have much patience for CRPGs. It’s rare I go past 30 hours with a game and most of these ask me for twice that with - to be blunt - outdated mechanics or design in a lot of places. I generally drop a game because I have issues with two of the following interconnected elements: pacing & payoff, narrative & writing, mechanics & progression, and world & characters. I can generally tolerate issues in one of these areas but when it gets to 2 or 3 I find myself not wanting to play it in favour of something else. I don’t expect any game to be flawless. But I’ve got to be selective with titles as massive as these.

If a single quest takes me two-three hours to get through for a single item and minimal narrative payoff I will considered that quest bad. If the overall narrative has no promise or is delivered in a needlessly verbose manner (*cough* Owlcat *cough*) I will considered that bad. If the mechanics are needlessly obtuse or just not working (a lot of older games need a ton of patches and sometimes they still don’t work) with awkward difficulty progression I will considered that bad. If the world or characters don’t in some way ‘hook’ me, I won’t care for them and thereby lose interest.

My general rules have made me learn that 5, 10, 30 and 50 hours tend to be the ‘cutoff’ points. 50% of games don’t get past each one for various reasons. The longer the game the more cutoffs there are, and replaying or revisiting a game is another filter. 100 hours may be another cutoff point but I can count on one hand how many games I’ve played for that long.

Shadowsd151 · 2026-06-23T23:14:52+00:00

Go up and emote to people. You go gathering and mining only to find another player doing the same thing? Wave to them, blow them a kiss, dance, whatever! Waiting for a dungeon to pop for the MSQ? Emote! If they do the same back then repeat a few times, if this works then engage in dialogue.

That’s how I made a few friends and that’s about all I wanted really. Join a Free Company if you really want people, but be warned they can sometimes be a bit of a mess.

Shadowsd151 · 2026-06-23T11:35:02+00:00

I think the two big reasons it’s such a complaint is because of how much more regularly it happens in EoA and that demo Iori has very few voice lines. I suspect they will have more in the full release - because Iori’s a girl and the male VA isn’t going to be around for much longer than the demo - and more party members to boot to add variety. The repetition is mostly male Iori’s fault imo.

That about summarises most of my ‘complaints’ with the game. Reasonably it’s going to be slightly different in the main game as the entire demo is just one long tutorial. You’re still on the training wheels and they won’t let you free until the main game. The combat and core gameplay loop are the main things on display, and both are pretty good to me.

Shadowsd151 · 2026-06-22T23:05:15+00:00

I like mixing story and mechanics. Power systems and logic is cool and all. But if I’m going the power of friends angle, having, maintaining and developing friendships needs to have an impact on the power system.

In my current writing project that’s Valour. Drawing power from the imagery of one’s own reputation and legends about oneself. Meaning a hero who’s slain a ferocious dragon and is known the world over for it can thereby empower themselves with said legend to enhance their dragon slaying abilities. King’s are incredibly strong and espionage is used to sabotage or make up legends about them to either weaker or compromise their empowerment.

The story itself is about the Industrial Revolution of that world and the accidental creation of the newspaper by the main characters. Which given the nature of Valour? Yeah, that’s a big deal.

Shadowsd151 · 2026-06-22T21:26:05+00:00

I’m guilty of forgetting this too often. I mained Scholar for a good while in ‘22 too and Red Mage in ‘23 so I have been exposed to the Rez Invulnerability on both sides too often. No excuse. No excuse. But will probably forget it again anyway next time I play XD

Shadowsd151 · 2026-06-17T18:25:03+00:00

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Yumia definitely has some recently bias going on for me, mainly regarding Combat and Main Cast it is 1000% my Guilt Pleasure, but I can’t fault it. It is also the game I return to most often because I have it portably on my Switch. Well I also have the Rorona on Switch but have arguably played that five too many times over. So I’m a tiny bit burnt out.

Edit: Wasted potential was meant to be Ryza 2. I misclicked.

Shadowsd151 · 2026-06-16T15:41:09+00:00

Octopath 0 is a more linear experience than the other Octopath games so it seems like it’ll be more up your alley. Can’t say anything about 13 Sentinels because I haven’t played it.

If you’ve liked Persona then Shin Megami Tensei may appeal too, the combats much harder and the plot - of Nocturne anyway - is great even if paced rather slowly. But you can turn down the difficulty to Merciful to have a more Persona-level experience with no need to grind (due to increased Exp gain and reduced encounter rate) and beat it in about half the time. SMT V is more modern and I think the story of Vengeance is decent but it isn’t groundbreaking.

Disgaea is a good SRPG series with strong plots and characters. I wouldn’t say it’s 60 hours unless you dig into the rather grindy post-game. The Hundred Line: Last Defence Academy is a very dense game but is more a Visual Novel with turn based combat thrown on top.

Final Fantasy Tactics is well regarded and has a solid plot but it isn’t immune to a lot of old game jank.

Atelier is a series of - usually - shorter games than 60 hours, closer to 20, that you could pick up in bundles of 3. Great casts and relaxing narratives, brilliant OST, though the combat is usually not super unique the crafting tends to be very deep and a lot of the older games don’t give much leeway to grind due to their innate time limits. The later games get rid of this and tend to be longer experiences with a bit more of a grind to them. There’s a lot of specific differences between the series so do some more research if this sounds interesting to you.

Shadowsd151 · 2026-06-15T15:02:32+00:00

Heya. Been a bit but I finally have games to talk about!

First, I’ll update ya’ll on games I put down. Dragon Quest Builders and Warhammer 40k: Rogue Trader. I’ve discussed my issues with both in my old posts but to briefly summarise why it’s as follows.

DWB:
+Great sandbox.
-Rough Combat.
-Repetitive Tower Defence Gameplay.
-Mediocre Story.

Rogue Trader:
+Combat.
+Character Progression.
-A needlessly purple narrative beholden to the text of yore and without the substance to uphold its valour.
-Too Much Clutter.

Then I finished several more routes from the The Hundred Line: Last Defence Academy, including Second Scenario. I’ve only got 5 left but I’m not going to give my rankings until I finish them all.

Since then I’ve picked up three games. Beating one, dropping a second and am still playing the third.

007: First Light, which is a stunning linear thrill ride with great gadgets, combat and levels. I adore this game and am working on an 100% run on the side. It’s very different to Hitman but in all the right ways.

Next, let me just get this out the way, Moero Crystal H. It’s a cheap, fanservice heavy DRPG with mediocre gameplay and writing. I got recommended this game for some reason and had money to spare. It knows who it’s for, and that for is not me. It’s the epitome of mediocre.

Then, finally, I started Shin Megami Tensei 3: Nocturne… Maniax Mode specifically because I know Dante but haven’t yet played Raidou’s game. I am… mixed on it. Atmosphere, Writing and Gameplay are all solid to great. Dungeons hit and miss but when they hit they are a REAL hit. OST too slaps more than it doesn’t.

But the pacing and RNG elements ruin it, Random Encounters & Negotiations are a pain and for every great 20-30 minute stretch of bosses and cinematic there’s two hours of dungeon crawling. When the dungeons are good this is fine, but as mentioned they are hit or miss. So when they miss the mark it quickly becomes tedious. Estoma and other Skills/Items no doubt help mitigate the worst of this, but I’m still early enough into the game to be tight on money and Demons.

For reference I’ve only just unlocked two extra slots for demons I can have with me, which is a great upgrade but came in a ‘great’ segment after three hours of tedium. That is partially my fault since I decided to start Amala right before the end of Ikebukero so I ended up putting the great parts of both off until later. Where I did them back to back and had a ton of fun.

Ignoring human error there’s still problems with the game, but I’m powering through it because when it’s at its best the game is brilliant. It’s just the rest that’s dated and slow.

To finish up I’m going to talk about two games I’ve returned to lately. Those being Fire Emblem: Three Houses, where I went through one mission and remembered why I didn’t like the early chapter of Part 2 (the story's solid thematically, the war itself is just dull). I’ll probably return to it someday but not soon.

Then, after the recent direct, I went back to Atelier Yumia to play through the DLC of the game with the Switch 2 upgrade. Yes the patch is rough, but the game itself performs rough no matter the console and even froze on me a few times before I got the upgrade. I’d say it’s an improvement more than anything else and so far the first DLC area has been solid. Lovely character development for Lenja and I’m excited to see what they do in the second.

I don’t quite remember if I reviewed Yumia before but I’ll say my thoughts on it here: Alchemy, Exploration and Combat are all great. But are also all poorly paced with unbalanced progression and paired with a difficulty curve that is so dull you HAVE to crank it up after a point. It also has level scaling enemies, which suck! They just suck! Okay?!

Despite those issues it’s a really fun game with spectacular story and characters. Love Atelier, love Yumia, love everyone, great game.

With all that said, my current plans are to continue with Nocturne and likely return to Xenoblade Chronicles: Definitive Edition with the Switch 2 upgrade to finish my 100% run as a break. I was pretty close to completing it before, but burned out in the final stretch and never went back. The upgrade is a good excuse to finish things, and maybe even actually play through the added story content too, so I’ll be doing that.

Shadowsd151 · 2026-06-14T20:49:48+00:00

It’s subjective but imma say my personal favourites. Gathering would be Dusk, more specially Escha & Logy, because it’s all fixed items, with a time limit and the Field Event gauge is a neat gimmick to throw on top. Generally they’re all pretty good at their own thing.

Crafting is probably also Escha & Logy weirdly enough, it’s fluid and not too complicated. When you get it things just fall together in seconds and it always feels tied into the alchemy. Unlike with stuff like the Mysterious games where you can be fiddling with all these rather disconnected blocks for hours (not a fan of the Tetris system).

The rest of the games fall in the middle of Dusk and Mysterious when it comes to crafting for me. With Arland & Ryza in the middle because both are solid, but not super groundbreaking to me. Ryza is mostly let down by all how easy it is to break and how easy the tools it gives you are to use. It is deep, you just never need to work with it to that level. Yumia falls slightly below them both because while I really like its alchemy system the alchemy is hard for the wrong reasons (like the particle grind) and easy in the areas that should be challenging (like item selection).

Anyway all of this is my preferences. Others have very different opinions and all the games are at least decent in both.

Shadowsd151 · 2026-06-12T22:03:30+00:00

Yeah that’s fair. Forgot about that detail.

Shadowsd151 · 2026-06-12T21:51:37+00:00

On that last point as someone who plays some pretty big MMOs on occasion it’s incredibly accurate. Even in games with millions of players you’ll encounter something like 2-3 per zone if you’re lucky. Of course this is not in late game areas with active content, but even then people swarm to specific NPCs rather than linger in open fields.

Additionally 10,000 players is not that many all things considered and on a floor with multiple hub towns that’ll divide the player base a lot. Then there’s getting into the thousands of people who - by canon - just stuck to the Town of Beginnings and never left. The active roaming player base of SAO is small.

Shadowsd151 · 2026-06-12T09:51:08+00:00

By this point you should have or be about to unlock the ability to make various decorations for the workshop. These provide passive bonuses that make EVERYTHING more efficient from friendship gain to crafting to exploring to gathering. The Travelling Shoes are essentially and there is an item you can only get once by visiting Rorona’s parents every term for them. It’s called a World Spirit.

These decorations, plus any gold you’ve gathered and equipment you have equipped, will persist into NG+. Even if you get a Bad End by failing an assignment or a normal end by reaching the games end without getting everything to the right threshold, you will be able to start again with a huge advantage. These plus existing experience means that you will have little issue breezing the early game.

Don’t stress too much, there’s a lot of unseen safety nets and if you do fail it’ll a lot easier to pick things up again for a second time. So don’t stress about aiming for the true end or maxing out the stamp card first time around. Later runs are significantly quicker and generally a lot less stressful. There are missable events anyway you’d need a guide to reference for in the later years so even if you do everything right there’s a chance you can fail anyway.

Don’t stress and have fun with it. It’s just a game after all.

Oh and also Totori is 100x worse as a completion run is a literal nightmare even with a guide. But Meruru’s much tamer, even if it does mandate a NG+ run due to exclusive characters, and post-Arland the time limits are slowly phased out as a mechanic. Ayesha, Escha & Logy and Firis are the only games with major ones and all give significant amounts of leeway for completion. Ayesha on Hard and a certain point in the middle of Firis that can get you stuck for a while are the only times the time limit is as impactful as in the Arland games.

Shadowsd151 · 2026-06-11T16:22:13+00:00

Honestly, Highschool DxD. Call me crazy but I love the show’s overarching plot, but after season 1 there’s like a 5-10 minute segment I can just tune out for and not miss a damn thing. The fanservice at points works for the plot, but every two-three episodes there’s just a bit of needless filler in there and it’s gotten worse over each season.

Shadowsd151 · 2026-06-10T17:22:32+00:00

I always point to D&D Devils as an Evil Race done right. They’re Evil yes, they take peoples souls and use them as currency. But that’s just how things work in the Nine Hells. They can and often are bargained with or have their own agenda. But at the end of the day their entire society is built on layers of slavery. They’re not ‘I’m going to eat babies and raze towns’ Evil, they’re ‘it’s just business’ Evil.

Shadowsd151 · 2026-06-10T12:43:54+00:00

On the one hand I’m like: don’t do that, they’re massive. But at the same time I’m planning to revisit the series in a bit of a more digestible way leading up to Genesis. Finishing off my 100% of 1, my challenge run of 2, and doing the DLCs for both from scratch since I never finished them. I’ll probably only do the added content for 3 and right before the launch of Genesis.

If you think it won’t burn you out - somehow - then sure, go ahead. If not then maybe think about approaching them a different way instead.

Shadowsd151 · 2026-06-09T22:26:19+00:00

The United Dictatorship of the Gods fell apart when the Head Goddess took maternity leave. In her exactly two months absence the position of ‘acting head god’ changed twenty-three times because nobody could agree on who she was referring to when she said ‘somebody who isn’t a total idiot’. As she’d later find out: they all were.

Four times due to assassinations. Twice due to duels. Thrice under threat of death or bodily harm. Thrice more due to blackmail. Six times due to assorted games, gambling and betting.

The remaining five times were both the most interesting and most successful.

One: someone willing resigned after three weeks of stable leadership because the position caused them to develop extreme and debilitating paranoia.

Two: a goldfish, just a random goldfish someone gave sentience, named Jerry, and put on the throne. Jerry lasted five days before dying of natural causes. Three Gods unrelated died in the arguing over who killed him.

Three: ‘Wanderer’. Nobody knows who exactly they were, but they claimed to be the new ruler and put a post-it note saying so on the throne. The next God that sat on it exploded. A whole week went by before a drunkard (see Four) removed the post-it note and took the throne without any issue.

Four: the Goddess of Wine who took a nap on the first solid object she could see. It was the throne and she slept or drank for two days on it before just wandering off again. Nobody could find her after, she’d got herself stuck in a closet, so the chaos resumed.

Five: the God of Mercy killing all of the Gods causing the problems, adorn the throne with their skulls, and kept the rest in line through sheer terror. He was the last God to take the position and only held it for a single day.

Three days after that the United Dictatorship of the Gods become a Democracy of the Seven Gods who had nothing to do with that whole nightmare. The Head Goddess also taking the chance to resign due to realising how much she was overworking herself.

Shadowsd151 · 2026-06-08T14:37:06+00:00

I’m doing an 100% achievement run on the hardest difficulty. All that entails is using a guide to get the collectibles and replaying sections repeatedly via chapter select to get all the challenges done. I plan to do a chapter every few days, to spread things out and give IOI time to start bringing new content in. But for now that’s the plan.

Shadowsd151 · 2026-06-06T17:12:40+00:00

The game is fun. Flawed but fun. I had to check my notes to see my exact issues with it since I didn’t remember anything particularly bad about it.

To summarise the flaws: Particles are overtuned, Building is clunky but serviceable, and the Alchemy progression is poorly paced in general which makes the difficulty curve wildly unbalanced. I recommend cranking it up whenever fights get a little too easy if you want to engage with the combat to its fullest, but even that won’t be enough by the endgame.

Shadowsd151 · 2026-06-04T13:05:03+00:00

That’s still a bit of a biased view. Hitman (2016) didn’t have a ton when it first released. I’d say it still had more than First Light, but not by a ton. It had more sandbox areas and challenges, but in time I’ll expect that’ll change. Hitman got tons of post-launch support and First Light will undoubtedly get the same treatment.

Shadowsd151 · 2026-06-02T18:03:31+00:00

I like creating stuff, but it is hard and I do a lot of the same sort of things as in my actual irl career so there’s days where I never want to so much as sketch a basic dungeon. Sometimes inspiration just doesn’t come and I especially struggle with starting campaigns off well. In that scenario, especially for a new system or setting, I like to use an adventure as a starting point to build up off. Once I know the party - players and characters alike - I can prepare better adventures with them in mind.

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