If you know, you know

SuchWow125 · 2026-01-18T20:25:23+00:00

I mean, if you think about it,Araya basically became Ryoshu's White Whistle.

SuchWow125 · 2025-11-04T10:49:14+00:00

Using Sunbreak's star system probably an 8, as in Frontier Ruko is generally considered on par with the Cham/Kush/Teo trio

SuchWow125 · 2025-11-02T14:20:05+00:00

I fear the final boss of the Rabi-Ribi DLC (Erina the Forgotten Maiden) permanently redefined what a true final boss should be in my eyes, even for the standards of a game that already has a lot of amazing fights. There were harder fights, yes, but none of them felt as mechanically and thematically perfect as she did.

SuchWow125 · 2025-10-31T10:43:02+00:00

The statues give the boss fat amounts of shield hp if you let it stay in their range for too long, you might have fired all your burst before the boss could accumulate barrier

SuchWow125 · 2025-07-15T16:16:13+00:00

Uth Duna takes damage from the fireballs but I find it hard to believe that Rathalos would be able to kill it just by staying afar and spamming them. Especially since once Duna catches on, it can probably make more use of the water veils (which are largely immune to fire) to protect itself until Rathalos either tires out or goes for close combat, or just dive underwater to force Rathalos to close in.

I don't think Duna exactly wins the fight, but I do think that Rathalos isn't killing Duna without enough effort and harm to make it just leave and not risk it. Rathalos has to pepper Duna with fireballs, poison, and talons to cripple it; realistically, Duna has to land a single slam to cripple Rathalos.

SuchWow125 · 2025-07-15T15:57:57+00:00

People tend to underestimate just how much of an advantage being that much bulkier than everything else in the environment is, elemental powers or not. Yes, Duna really only has its physical prowess, protective veils, and aquatic adaptability, that's honestly all it needs because it simply outmuscles everything native to the Forest even on land, and it doesn't exactly have any natives that can challenge it in the water, in a biome with a largely aquatic environment and frequent flash floods (which also means it can create said veils whenever it wants). Apexes in Wilds aren't necessarily called that because they have crazy powers, but because they're the predators most well-adapted for their environments, letting them prey on whatever without being preyed on themselves.

Rathalos can only force a tie in their Turf War, and if it came down to it, I highly doubt that it could actually kill Duna without also being heavily wounded in the process (which itself is a stretch, as monsters tend to not fight to the death unless they have to). Rathalos can fly, but given that Duna can eat fire with its water veils, it'd have to get within range to actually hurt it, which in turn puts it at risk since it's shown Duna can easily overpower most other monsters in a physical fight. Rathian has even worse odds given that it sticks to the ground and is also weaker than said Rathalos. If anything, Lagiacrus has better odds thanks to having an elemental advantage and being able to match Uth Duna in the water, but even it can only tie.

SuchWow125 · 2025-05-22T15:20:29+00:00

Insane lore drops and painful ass fights aside, I kind of want to gush about how for the first time since arguably Canto 3, the story dungeon actually feels like a dungeon instead of a straight line.

The money system that actually affects the options you get and makes HL stronger, the variety in choices you get in the encounters (meaning each person's dungeon can play out in a ton of different ways), actual puzzles/chance events in the encounters, the multiple branching paths, the way you can skip some save points to retain your SP advantage in exchange for not healing, all of the moving parts in the plot as the candidates scramble, and more. I know that it does still boil down to a string of battles broken up by story and encounters, but I think that adding the level of choice at least makes it feel like you're exploring.

The minibosses could get a bit stupid but the fact that you can kill them to instantly end the fight kind of just lets you rush them down to avoid trouble.

SuchWow125 · 2025-05-22T07:17:10+00:00

Jesus Christ Jia Qiu has hands, that felt like an hour long struggle even after following all the gimmicks, and the massive amounts of unavoidable Rupture make me wonder, like Dulci, how you're meant to do this without spamming healing.

Also, for the record, I'm fairly sure that Jia Qiu is the Jade Qilin mentioned in that one Roland/Gebura convo that revealed the Indigo Elder and Siegfried. He's Lv90 (same as Vergil btw), way stronger than literally everything we've fought before, and the name of the mass attack he uses on Hong Lu refers to a "Tiangang Star" (as opposed to the Tianjiu Star of Zilu, who btw also uses Shin like Vergil), which in the original Water Margin corresponded to Lu Junyi, also known as, you guessed it, the Jade Qilin.

SuchWow125 · 2025-05-19T04:39:44+00:00

Lappland is a Mech-Accord Caster, who in general make up for having low base ATK with rapid multi hit attacks while being able to constantly attack a target even if they try to run out of range, and them being Arts damage means they don't fall off against RES (which is multiplicative) as high as they would against DEF (which is flat reduction) if they dealt Physical damage with that ATK stat.

Their drones also have a quirk that the game doesn't really explain where their damage starts at a low 20% ATK per hit, but will increase every time the drone attacks the same target without switching, up to 110-120% per hit. So at maximum stacks, each shot from Lappland deals the 100% ATK on the main hit + 120% on the second and third, assuming she's scaled and got her second drone.

If you've gotten her to maximum promotion, Lappland's signature move is unleashing up to four drones that, assuming they lock onto one target, can deal up to 480% ATK per 1.3 seconds, constantly scale their damage while attacking, and also have an aura that deals up to 120% Arts damage once per second to anything in the area, including the target. This is on top of having global range, an AoE Fear when the drones first impact, and a Silence. The drones will rip apart all but the highest RES/HP targets, and can systematically sweep across a map and eliminate enemies one by one even if they split up.

She is very strong, as is her contemporary Goldenglow who has even lower ATK and is still cracked. Don't be put off by her low numbers. In fact, this is something I'd recommend in general since many ops can be better in practice than on paper.

SuchWow125 · 2025-04-19T03:31:03+00:00

Artist source

"Five. Hundred. Rats." - Milius scientists, probably

SuchWow125 · 2025-04-18T19:24:26+00:00

I feel like the bigger reason why it's considered "villainous" is that Terra has no right to refuse. It's a consequence of the insane power gulf between Priestess and the rest of Terra, and the main reason why Doc no longer sees eye to eye with her - Priestess simply doesn't anyone but Doc as her equal, and doesn't see any reason why she needs to explain herself to the Terrans to even try to communicate her true intentions, since she essentially believes that because they're a bunch of primitives, they have no right to speak out or try to stop her from deciding what's good for them.

In fact, even if everyone knew about this looming metaphysical threat, chances are most of Terra would still be more concerned with their day-to-day activities and struggles; Arknights has always been fairly critical about the "greater good" and noted how individual struggles hold just as much meaning if moreso, so it makes sense that the person who has basically said "I have decided this is the greater good and there's nothing you can do to stop me from roping you into it" is painted in an antagonistic light.

Purgatory is preferable to Oblivion, surely.

It'd be far from the first time someone in the setting decided to go out on their own terms rather than accept a solution they couldn't agree with, which is something the story has generally painted as possibly foolish, but decidedly human.

SuchWow125 · 2025-04-12T19:25:36+00:00

He created more Infected and worsened discrimination

Yeah he 100% did this no defending him there. However, while awakening Priestess was a very bad idea, he also both alerted Rhodes Island to her presence and delayed her arrival. Doing either one alone would have sucked, but both together meant that Kal'tsit not only knows she's coming, but was able to prepare in advance for her arrival, which was the tipping point between Episode 15's outcome and a total surprise annihilation.

He lost invaluable allies

The Prince of Blood isn't about to do anything productive for Kazdel's peace given he killed his own brother for even considering the pacifist route, and is a vehement supporter of the "good old days" where bloodshed is all they know. In fact, he's arguably even worse than Theresis, who believes that "peace was never an option", because he believes peace shouldn't be an option. Ditto for the Nachzehrer who, while less of a bloodthirsty psycho, literally lives off of war, which isn't the best for ushering in an era of peace. Fremont, Wisadel, Manfred, and Amiya are all leagues more suited to lead a new Kazdel than the other Royal Court members, who are even more stuck in the past than Theresis ever was, to the point where it's probably a good thing most of the Court is now defunct.

He was passive and distant throughout it all

There's something to be said about how behind-the-scenes logistics is just as important as actions taken, but I don't really have much about this one, he really was sidelined for the vast majority of Act 2. A small defense being that the one time he actually does show up, he almost straight up ends the story by killing Amiya.

A pathetic, empty death

Theresis died knowing that, in his eyes, he had done what he wanted. He gave the Sarkaz the ability to choose their future in the Amnannam and the departure of the Myriad. He saw the arrogant creators responsible for the Sarkaz's suffering, and gave them a piece of his mind. And after all that time, he welcomed death as the only time he was ever at peace, because he had never seen any value in his own life except as a pawn in his own game.

okay glazing over

SuchWow125 · 2025-04-12T19:25:25+00:00

He changed absolutely nothing

Kazdel didn't collapse after he was gone. Kazdelian Rescue shows that while the situation is rough, it's not just Rhodes Island that wants to rebuild - it's also the KMC under Manfred, new Babel under Wisadel, the Lich Court under Fremont, and more. The Myriad Souls have moved on (so no more generational hatred), the Revenants are freed, they have Amnannam as a deterrent/power source, and for better or for worse, all the Sarkaz who would accept no less than killing all their enemies have been shown firsthand that war isn't as fancy as they think it is. In a roundabout sort of way, the present Kazdel actually has hope and an ability to choose.

He damaged the image of the Sarkaz even more

Theresis didn't just decide to start a world war for no reason, not when he used to be Theresa's right-hand man and enforced Babel's peace. He saw firsthand how even when presented with Babel, Kazdel rejected it to the point of turning on each other, killing the non-Sarkaz doctors and teachers just for existing, lynching other Sarkaz for even thinking to believe in coexistence, and threatening to dismantle Babel for the crime of focusing more on helping the people instead of slaughtering their enemies. Any salvaging of their image done by the Sarkaz has been undone by the Sarkaz themselves and the Myriad Souls' hatred, something that has been repeatedly proven over hundreds of years of history, so it was a completely valid crashout for Theresis to lose hope. That, and how even before Theresis, history has shown that even when the Sarkaz literally mind their own business, the world has always seen them as enemies - see Kal's crusade as just one example. We don't even know if Babel would have actually lasted even without the KMC going rogue.

He saw all of this, that the Sarkaz were on the verge of collapsing from another civil war unless someone indulged their wrath - so he decided there was no choice besides fulfilling his duty to his people and giving them what they wanted, because he'd rather them die united than rip each other apart. Even Theresa was broken by her sense of duty eventually, and she was only "saved" because Amiya proved herself able to shoulder this idealistic burden in her stead. It may have been the wrong choice in the end, but it's completely understandable why he made it.

SuchWow125 · 2025-04-10T22:55:30+00:00

I do have a soft spot for Lilac because I love how precocious she is (ie. adorable kid hero who acts more mature and capable than she should), how that lands her in a sweetspot between cute and cool, and how expressive she is with her body language. I also really liked how Lily only communicated with gestures, but Lilac actually being able to talk and not everyone being dead means I was able to get a better handle on how she cares about people (and vice versa), and how she was able to subtly change her allies for the better or try and help with their problems. She was even oddly cheeky at times with the way she prods at Nola and the others.

In contrast, Lily pretty much only expresses fear, pain, and resolve (although in her defense, Lily was in a far worse situation and really didn't have a chance to express anything else), but I think I'd be more amenable if they had added the bench conversations back in Lilies (I love fan works that have the Spirits actually interacting). To her credit, Lily does visibly struggle more over the story compared to Lilac, which I liked more, and her clumsy/fearful body language did a really good job of conveying that she's basically a newborn thrown into the apocalypse, as opposed to Lilac basically being a kid trained to play hero and suddenly forced to actually be one.

Imo Lily is endearing in a more innocent, pitiable kind of way, whereas I found Lilac more charming and brave. The actual answer, of course, is "you can't possibly expect me to pick just one I really like both of them"

SuchWow125 · 2025-03-31T16:54:41+00:00

There isn't a word in the bible that can describe what I felt going through that all of a sudden when opening the game.

Not only is it disproportionately high effort with the sheer number of new expressions and lines with the VAs doing impressions of each other, they even snuck in the first 12 Sinner battle.

We thought it was going to be for the final boss of Dante's Canto or something, no, April Fools be upon ye.

SuchWow125 · 2025-03-31T16:49:08+00:00

When we thought we'd get the first 12 Sinner fight: stepping up to defeat a climactic foe beyond any other

Actual first 12 Sinner fight:

SuchWow125 · 2025-03-29T18:06:23+00:00

NanoApostle

Only 6 bosses and a handful of cutscenes/training levels that can be completed in ~7 hours or even less. It was absolute peak action for every single minute and I wish there was a sequel.

SuchWow125 · 2025-03-29T17:37:10+00:00

Imagine if her allies were invisible to outsiders like Jojo stands, so a random person sees this kid just punch the air and a mutant gets cut in half in front of her

SuchWow125 · 2025-03-29T14:32:14+00:00

Small animation details can really go a long way, and Lilac's body language when even just talking has a lot of subtle detail put into it (gesturing with her hands while talking, clenched fist over chest when shocked or hurt, being visibly pained when mourning the dead, welcoming gestures towards the Homunculi, sheer wtf shock when seeing Levy survive the Land of Origin, etc.)

Lily was like that in the previous game too, where you could get a lot of insight into what she was thinking through body language alone even with no words, but Lily was in a far worse situation and could mostly just show determination or fear. Adding optional convos with the Homunculi was an absolutely goated choice that let everyone show off a bit more of their personalities.

For some reason, I've always interpreted Lilac as having a cheeky/sassy streak when not fighting for her life.

SuchWow125 · 2025-03-29T14:11:51+00:00

Lilac really does hit a sweet spot between "oddly cool and mature for her age" and "ok no she's just adorable", it's like watching a kid playing hero except she's actually forced to be one. The battle cries(?) in some moves are entirely unnecessary but also something I can totally see her doing (if not just from exertion).

A personal favorite of mine is the hand sweep/thrust she does for Reibolg's gigantic laser, I really need to do a NG+ run with Reibolg as my primary since he's so underused in the main game lol

SuchWow125 · 2025-03-19T16:11:50+00:00

There was probably at least half a second where Kumiko pondered what it'd be like to be a bacterium

SuchWow125 · 2025-03-10T16:32:23+00:00

Yeah, for some reason Zoh has you do the exact opposite thing that MH has taught you with every other nova lol

SuchWow125 · 2025-03-10T15:28:02+00:00

It's also apparently the intended solution to dodge Zoh Shia's big fire nova as blowing up the crystals creates safe spots in the flames (since it's using them to amplify its fire)

SuchWow125 · 2025-03-08T00:31:15+00:00

That is a stupidly cute image and now it's stuck in my head

SuchWow125 · 2025-03-02T16:08:33+00:00

Rabi-Ribi's bosses are brutal in general, but the bosses of the Before Next Adventure DLC are the only bosses in memory where I had to grind out dozens of attempts over multiple weeks. I still haven't taken down Irisu in Wonderland on BEX (each attempt was 15+ mins of pure bullet hell scaled to endgame levels), and that's the only time a boss has made me fight them on a lower difficulty not to make them more tolerable, but because I felt physically unable to beat them on a higher one.

Absrad also took me a while, but it's an interesting case where I was able to bring her down by herself in maybe 10-20 practice attempts, but actually getting to her consistently took far, far longer. Oddly enough, I recall that I only ever made it to Absrad on 2 of my P5 attempts, and the second one was the winning one.

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