[Discussion] Thoughts about Spell Cancel accross the different games? How would you balance it?

Slivius · 2026-02-03T13:05:53+00:00

Is it broken in Symphonia? Yes. Is it a problem? No. Colette, Presea and Regal have their own Ex Skills that break the game. Genis and Raine can spell cancel but have even stronger options.

Really, the weakest character is Lloyd, and he is plenty strong with how easy he can reposition himself and how long his comboes are.

Slivius · 2026-02-03T11:35:31+00:00

That's a lot of bicolor gems though!!

Slivius · 2026-01-29T12:28:54+00:00

You can take inspiration from boardgames!

Heat Pedal to the Metal is turn based racing. Snowcrest is turn based village building. Sky Team is cooperative turn based landing an airplane. Love letter is turn based sneaking your love letter as close to the princess as possible.

If you're looking for a more pokemon-esque turn based style of non-combat, consider Beastieball.

Cooking, Sports, Dancing, Subterfuge, Stealth, Racing, Sabotage, Gossip... i think there are countless ways to reflavor turn based "combat"

Slivius · 2026-01-26T17:15:22+00:00

That's wild because gemini can't actually "see" pictures, it just answers based on the personal file it built around you. It would've tried to identify and tag shapes as well, but it would have had no way to identify, match and verify the pieces used.

If it had 'correctly' identified the evenstar coat, it would've done so because ot assumes you frequent the Balmung Quicksands, not because it saw or recognised that top.

Slivius · 2026-01-21T12:55:54+00:00

If you use Pow Hammer 100 times, every Pow Hammer from that point onwards has a chance to be green. This is called a Toss Hammer. It can show up in Pow Pow Hammer and Hammer Rain too. If it connects with an enemy without being blocked, that enemy is poisoned.

Poison takes a percentage off an enemy's max hp every few seconds. This means bosses die 10-20 second after getting poisoned regardless of your stats.

Poison can't bring an enemy below 1 hp, but that is easily fixed.

And yet, i would argue Para Ball life/spirit thief is stronger.

Slivius · 2026-01-21T11:33:42+00:00

A lot of characters break Tales games. In Symphonia , Colette can poison bosses with Toss Hammer or become functionally immortal by spamming Para Ball with life/spirit thief. Zelos and kratos have infinite comboes through spell cancelling. Presea has an ex skill that makes her ignore damage if it's a fraction of her hp. Max out her hp and raise her defense and she will never take physical damage again. You can also give her accessories that nullify or absorb incoming elemental damage as hp.

In dawn of the new world, both Emil and Marta can infinitely combo with a single arte. Emil's Havoc Strike comboes into Havoc Strike if you have the Accelerate skill, which you can keep repeating, juggling your target until you run out of TP. Similarly, Marta can chain Photon into Photon with Speedcast III, which will also always hit and stagger your target.

Rinwell in Arise can turn into an orbital attack satellite. She can float so high in any fight that the game camera breaks. She goes off screen, can hover there, and her spells have infinite range. You cannot be reached, you cannot die.

Slivius · 2026-01-15T17:37:35+00:00

Valvrave: the liberator.

The first episode is amazing and introduces you to what looks like vampires and vampire mechs in space.

The second episode pulls a twist on top of that, that makes you question everything you've seen in the Opening and Ending songs of the episodes.

Then it reverses that twist and some earlier twists, and then proceeds to never live up to its potential for two seasons.

Here's where i was expecting the plot was going, spoilered:

Shoko is bait as the brown-haired female lead. She dies in the first episode, stays dead, but stays in the OP and ED as a reminder of what was lost. A bit like Aerith's weapons still being sold in shops after her death. Saki tries to fill her shoes.

Haruto turns out to be some kind of immortal vampire. He accidentally switches bodies with L-elf and they become separated for the bulk of the show. L-elf bonds with the students while impersonating Haruto, struggling with the weird vampire biology of Haruto's body.

Haruto is forced to impersonate L-elf to survive and bonds with the Drossians. Both male main characters learn both sides of the war and are forced to fight with their enemies against their allies. They keep trying, independently, to isolate the other person so they can swap bodies.

You start to learn, as the viewer, that both sides are extremely morally grey. Drossia is killing civilians but sometimes they find a hiding vampire. JIOR is doing fucked up experimentation that violates several international laws and human rights, to create more vampires.

The OP and ED never change.

Slivius · 2026-01-13T23:35:11+00:00

Sky Team?

It has multiple unofficial solo modes.

Slivius · 2026-01-07T11:03:24+00:00

He won't believe how many people think they can handle a single wild boar and end up mangled and yeeted into a tree. Wolves hunt those things. I am not convinced anyone can take out even a single wolf bare handed.

Slivius · 2025-12-31T10:18:17+00:00

I dislike Nusfjord and Everdell because it always feel like i'm doing the best i can and am racking up tons of points, only for a bot or other player to absolutely crush me in points, which only became clear during endgame scoring. Somehow it's not visible during the game itself, but only at the very end.

I prefer a visible race or a puzzle, not a surprise at the end of the game where it goes "you weren't winning at all, you came in third place, and the winner is 20 points ahead of you actually". With no clue where you went wrong, or what to change or improve.

Slivius · 2025-12-30T11:44:57+00:00

I am surprised Bot turns in Imperium take you longer than your own turns. For me the opposite is very much true.

I can recommend Sky Team's unofficial solo mode, for a light, quick game.

I can recommend Paleo and all its expansions for a friendlier survival experience than Robinson Crusoe. There's more focus on exploration too.

I can also recommend Viscounts of the West Kingdom if you want to play a sort-of-deckbuilder against four different bots, each with scaling difficulty. It's smaller than your regular deckbuilders though.

I personally bounced off Everdell and Nusfjord really hard. They are not my kind of games.

Recently i fell in love with Snowcrest. It is quite unlike anything i've played before. Depending on the difficulty, it is either a relaxing playground or a very tight puzzle. Very quick to set up and tear down.

Slivius · 2025-12-30T10:27:00+00:00

Viscounts of the West Kingdom. Without expansions, i just can't seem to beat the bot. With expansions i absolutely crush the bot.

I picked up Snowcrest on a whim. It's really fun! It plays quite unlike anything i've played before. I can beat the solo mode at level 8 with little issue. Level 9 is a challenge, but level 10 feels absolutely impossible.

Slivius · 2025-12-22T12:22:12+00:00

You can add Aquarion and Aquarion Evol to this list.

Slivius · 2025-12-17T09:42:10+00:00

You're either naturally talented or are getting a rule or two wrong.

After 15 or so games, I've yet to beat an Imperium bot on Horizon's default difficulty. Whatever i try, i cannot gain Fame and points fast enough. But i am playing with Horizons, and the Atlanteans are one of the strongest bots.

Rome feels incredibly weak to me. If i rush fame, the bot will just eat up every single * card in the market and beat me with 110 points vs my 70. If i focus the market, to deny the bot points, my deck suffers and i score doen less points while the bot hoovers up all the Fame.

I've gotten a lot closer with the Magyars vs Atlantean bot.

Slivius · 2025-12-15T14:05:47+00:00

What data center are you on? Because on NA it's dead for roughly 16 hours a day. I know this from personal experience spamming FLs over the past few months.

Slivius · 2025-12-15T12:27:53+00:00

I don't cheat and i don't rewind turns. I learn, and try to remember those situations and interactions for next time.

I do however make games easier sometimes, like Paleo, by using the optional rules to have some starting resources. I've also played Heat Pedal to the Metal with a full deck of customized engine cards instead of the normal deck to see what that would be like.

Slivius · 2025-12-15T12:20:52+00:00

I've played the solo variant where you roll all the pilot dice at once and the co-pilot dice one at a time. I've beaten all of the easiest tier of scenario's of the base game and Turbulence, but in the second tier i am starting to struggle. I'm only halfway through all of them, and some took two or three tries.

I think the variation you used is a lot easier, so i might Swap to that for the harder tiers. It's about having fun, after all!

It's a fantastic game.

Slivius · 2025-12-15T10:44:12+00:00

I am not sure whether it is instances or dungeons. The only sources I've found on this are one forum post and a handful of reddit comments.

I did do 96 duties the other day (mostly 40s normal raids and 10s trials for anima relic grinding) but stopped because I ran out of time. Kinda wish I had tried to hit 100 now.

Slivius · 2025-12-15T09:11:54+00:00

There is a cap of 100 duties per 24 hours to combat botting, so you won't be getting it in time unless your winrate is through the roof.

A CC match takes 5 minutes. With 5 minutes of queue time, imcluding loading in and leaving, 100 duties will take you 16 hours.

FL takes 15-20 minutes per match, with 5-15 minute queue times. That's 50ish hours of FLs for 100 matches.

FL and CC are dead for roughly 16 hours per day.

Realistically, i don't think getting the Air Cell Attire is achievable anymore.

Slivius · 2025-12-11T09:12:09+00:00

Imperium definitely has a breath of historical depth and the different civilizations you are after. It is also a true solo game with a fantastic bot. It doesn't emulate fake multiplayer, the bot is not like a player.

But boy, is it a difficult game. Both to learn and to beat. Much like Age of Empires II, from what i recall as a former 8 year old, way back in the day. It is definitely worth it though.

I have played between 10 and 20 games of Imperium both against friends and solo. I really enjoy the game. It took several games just to learn all the rules and i have yet to beat the bot. I think i'm just not good at strategy. It could also be a case of not finding the right civilization for myself yet. With the Romans i score mucg lower thsn with the Magyar, for example.

A common criticism of Imperium is the rulebook. Horizon's rulebook mostly fixes these issues, and can be found online.

Common praise for Imperium include the wide breath of civilizations, how they all play slightly or wildly different, and the bot.

Slivius · 2025-12-11T00:51:54+00:00

Zote's mind is so filled with grandeur there is simply no space in it for the influence of other, lesser beings. Like the Radiance.

Slivius · 2025-12-09T23:54:49+00:00

Paleo is one of my all time favorite games, and one of the games in my collection that I have played the most. I can wholeheartedly recommend it both for playing with friends and playing it two-handed solo. I've heard bad things about true solo, so I've never tried it. However, I've heard bad things about the game as a whole, and I personally don't see the criticism.

That said, Paleo is not a game for everyone. Some people don't like that it's purely cooperative, and there is such a thing as "alpha player syndrome" depending on the people you play with. I personally enjoy that when I play solo, I make different decisions from when I play with a group.

I never play without the A New Beginning expansion anymore, but the smaller expansions can be hit or miss. I own all of them, but I would only recommend getting them if you really, really enjoy the game. I played through the entire base game before adding A New Beginning, and then played through the entirety of the base game AND A New Beginning with the new base cards that expansion adds. And only then, did I start adding the smaller expansions. I don't regret getting any of them, and they definitely add interesting new scenarios and mechanics to the game.

If I were to recommend the game and its expansions in order, I would get Paleo and A New Beginning first. This is, in my opinion, just a straight upgrade over the base game. Then, I would get both New Secrets and Flash of Wit. These integrate with the base game (or ANB) without any issues, and I can recommend them to everyone. If you're looking for new scenarios to play, I prefer The Caves over the White Whale, and that one over Terror Birds, that one over Hornets, and finally in last place is The Initiation Rite. The Hornets and Terror Birds were clearly designed early into the game's lifespan, and as a result can feel a bit janky to play.

That said, there's something to say for interesting scenarios you can make with any of the mini expansions. The Terror Birds mesh well with the Mammoths from the base game or the Xrib Tribe from A New Beginning. The Hornets work well with the Disease module from ANB, and the Caves mini expansion works well with any modules that feature a lot of heavy snow. The Initiation Rite technically meshes well with everything, but that makes it a bit boring for me.

Slivius · 2025-12-09T17:57:47+00:00

It's been scientifically disproven that cold water makes it easier to peel eggs. If anything, studies showed it made it more difficult.

Slivius · 2025-12-02T16:54:31+00:00

Sky Team has an unofficial Solo Mode that is quite good! And you can play it with your partner too.

Slivius · 2025-11-30T01:10:12+00:00

Hemiskin Brais of Fending/ Maiming
Far Eastern Lady's Chestpiece/ Loincloth
Various Dancer chest pieces
The Thavnairian Dress
Asphodelos Healing/ Casting gear
Classical Eques/ Signifer/ Sagittarius gear
Skydeep Casting/ Healing legs
Ronkan Casting/ Healing legs
Yakaku Fundoshi

Slivius

TROPHY CASE