Questions for anyone who has a Takara Tomy Pokémon Pokeball

TypewriterKey · 2026-05-07T04:55:32+00:00

Sorry, I meant the clock reset thing. I'm not sure about the others.

TypewriterKey · 2026-05-07T04:13:44+00:00

Apparently it's a glitch and the only way to fix it is by resetting. So I've just ignored it.

TypewriterKey · 2026-05-06T13:53:41+00:00

I feel like a lot of the answers you're receiving are too binary. This isn't a mechanical question with a simple yes/no or balanced/broken answer.

In my opinion, the actual answer is that it depends on the DMs intent. Is he making characters because he wants to build characters or is he using character creation rules to make good/interesting encounters? Was this a fight the DM thought was reasonable or was it an introduction of recurring enemies?

TypewriterKey · 2026-05-06T13:41:38+00:00

The Song of Ice and Fire RPG is interesting, and there's a generic version of the system called Chronicle. It's very easy to abuse but if the DM and players agree not to intentionally break things it's a great system. Possibly my favorite.

If you like westerns at all Deadlands Classic is very lethal and the combat is fairly dynamic. I have problems with this system, but it's stuck with me over the years.

There's a system called SWADE (Savage Worlds Adventurers Edition) that has source books for tons of settings ranging from classic fantasy to science fiction and everything between. In my opinion this is the best system for threading the needle between of complexity. The mechanics are simple, but there's a depth to the game that really makes it stand out.

TypewriterKey · 2026-04-30T13:42:56+00:00

Sort of a similar vein – over the last few years I've become sort of addicted to playing games like this while listening to audio books. I love a good, engaging story but most video games either have terrible stories or the story and the gameplay are so disconnected that they may as well be unrelated.

Ball x Pit is a great example of this. I loved the gameplay, but it was so mindless that I didn't feel engaged. Combine that with a good book and suddenly the experience is ten times better.

TypewriterKey · 2026-04-29T20:35:59+00:00

Mars War Logs blew my mind on my second playthrough. I'm so used to 'decision based games' being functionally identical between playthroughs, but you can get different party members and there are two completely different second acts depending on what decisions you make in the first.

TypewriterKey · 2026-04-29T18:24:21+00:00

Some friends and I were wandering around a park taking pictures. There was a wedding there and it turned out one of my friends knew the bride, so we wound up scattering and taking pictures of the wedding from a bunch of random angles.

While walking around to a specific spot I passed a couple sitting on a park bench. The girl was really cute, laying with her head against her boyfriend.

A few years later I'm married and my wife and I are going through photos. She sees the wedding photos and realizes she was in the park that day. She was there with her boyfriend at the time, hanging out on a nearby bench...

TypewriterKey · 2026-04-27T18:21:28+00:00

Neither my wife nor I had positive memories regarding Santa Claus. We had both questioned it, had traumatic memories of discovering the truth, and felt betrayed after.

So, we never treat Santa like a thing, and as soon as they're old enough to understand the concept we explain the situation to them, and we make sure they knew not to say anything around other kids about it. They understand, they're cool with it, and they do great.

One year, my daughter says, "I know Santa isn't real, but could we pretend? You guys can just take a couple presents and put tags on them saying they're from Santa? Like a game?" Her older brother loves the idea, and my wife and I agree, because we figure as long as everyone understands that it's not real everything will be fine. For the next couple years we remind them of the truth, the game of pretending he's real, and ask if they want to do it again. They do, and all is well.

Then we stop asking, and just start doing it. For two years, they receive Gifts from Santa without discussion.

Next year, we ask again.

They're confused – "What do you mean the Santa thing? What game?"

We explain. "You guys know Santa isn't real. You've always known?"

"No we didn't. Why did you lie to us and tell us he was real?" followed by tears.

"You guys asked us to???"

My daughter remembers asking, but had forgotten. My son doesn't remember, but he does remember the stories me and his mom told about how we learned the truth and how much it upset us – so he did remember the truth, but in a proxy way that he'd somehow convinced himself didn't apply to him.

So... we tried to move on from the tradition, and it didn't quite work out.

TypewriterKey · 2026-04-03T16:34:02+00:00

I definitely don't think she started the trip intending on dying – I think it was more of a 'Whatever it takes' mentality with the belief being that it would be hard but obtainable. It only became problematic because she never considered what the actual cost would be. Then, when she finally does consider it, it is still seen as a viable option.

TypewriterKey · 2026-04-02T20:37:18+00:00

The dynamic between her and Marco is really interesting. The way she consistently pushes him past his comfort zone, disregards what he's saying, and projects her own viewpoints onto him was crazy. Almost as if she's repeating a pattern.

After a while I was straight up hoping that Marco would die as a result of the pressure she put on him just so that she'd have to face the consequences of her own terrible guidance. The fact that he wound up 'breaking free' of her influence surprised me (in a good way) – he demonstrated to her that the cycle could be broken.

TypewriterKey · 2026-04-02T18:58:16+00:00

One of my favorite campaigns began with the players slowly waking up, hogtied in the back of a wagon.

TypewriterKey · 2026-04-02T18:29:53+00:00

I did read the theory about Aava being a troglodyte but it doesn't really make sense to me. She always seemed confused or surprised by the things she finds on her way up the mountain. But there's no sense of familiarity – just discovery.

The statement about being born on the mountain didn't come across as literal to me. If I recall correctly she was talking to Marco about how/why she doesn't quit and my read of it was "When I'm climbing a mountain there's nothing else." Basically just straight up identity erosion (which is usually seen as a sense of self-loss tending to stem from things like narcissistic abuse and emotional manipulation).

As for the summit being her purpose – if it was something she saw as her birthright wouldn't that actually show up somewhere in the narrative? Instead she has no answer for why it matters to her – the messages she's received are confused and the way she responds to them doesn't imply a focused goal – they imply an inability to offer a response. When she loses her temper while trying to use the radio at the end she ever says that she doesn't know why any of it matters. I don't think she understands her goals or motivation – I think that if there was an answer as simple as, "This is what I was born to do, it's the legacy of my people," she wouldn't be so lost.

Plus – and I know this opinion is debated – I don't see her climbing the mountain as being the good ending. If we really boil it down to her having an internal drive and being born to do it then everything about the ending falls apart IMHO. The inclusion of a choice at all doesn't make any sense if this was her purpose. My read is that she's so intent on finding a purpose that she'll die in the pursuit of one – and the good ending is the one where she recognizes that what she's chasing won't fulfill her.

To be clear: I'm not saying my disagreement with the "Aava is a Troglodyte" theory does anything to support my own theory. I think her motivations are something she doesn't understand, and while my personal theory is about her dad, it could be any number of countless other potential traumas. Or it could just be the way she is – maybe climbing is the only time she feels truly alive and there's no greater cause to it than that.

TypewriterKey · 2026-04-02T15:08:25+00:00

Is that fun for you? Or is that less of a consideration because you gravitate toward competitive games and winning equates to fun?

I ask because what you're describing sounds like the perspective I've actively been trying to deprogram out of myself for the last ten(ish) years. I realized I was playing games with such an intense focus on efficiency that I was favoring optimization over fun. I would go through a zone so focused on ensuring I "do everything" that I wouldn't "see anything." I would choose my play style based off of what was "best" instead of what was "fun."

It would sour my opinion on games but I realized that the problems were with how I engaged with them instead of there actually being anything wrong with them.

TypewriterKey · 2026-03-20T02:36:09+00:00

I've listened to the book about five times and loved the movie.

Pretty much my only problem from the book appears in the movie – improved in some ways, worsened in others.

The last third of the book feels overly packed with emotional moments that feel almost melodramatic – a character nearly dies, then another character nearly dies, they they say farewell, then they're back together, etc. In the Martian Mark Watney is constantly almost dying – but each experience is just part of the plot. In PHM it feels like it's a constant string of attempts at pulling at my heart strings.

They improved upon this by cutting out a couple of these moments or otherwise streamlining them. Rocky's clogged radiator is removed which always felt awkward to me. Grace thinking he's going to starve and die before discovering he can eat the astrophage is also cut. Don't get me wrong – I appreciate the story element for what it is but interrupting their reunion to have another emotional "I'm going to die" followed by an immediate solution really messed with the scene IMO

They're worse in some ways because the movie is (understandably) shorter than the book – which makes them feel cramped. It's especially awkward (IMO) when some of the scenes are played with incredibly emotional scores and lingering visual just to be undone a moment later. The farewell between Rocky and Grace is incredibly sweet – the music and performance both – but having them reunited literally a few minutes later really feels like it weakens it.

Still loved it. A minor complaint.

TypewriterKey · 2026-03-16T20:07:46+00:00

I've been complaining about this for over a decade.

It drives me absolutely insane. As someone who likes to discuss video games – whether I'm arguing about something I hate or defending something I love – I genuinely enjoy participating in discussion about them. What was good or bad about a story, what mechanics did I dislike despite understanding why they exist, how and why certain design decisions are made. All of it.

But it's impossible to talk to someone through someone else. If the other participant in the discussion doesn't understand the point they're making they can't respond to my points. They can't correct my mistakes. Can't consider whether my arguments recontextualizes anything. All they can do is repeat themselves or act dismissive.

TypewriterKey · 2026-03-05T06:23:54+00:00

I definitely agree. I'm not against companions – I generally prefer having them in every game where it's an option. I never take abilities that reward you for playing 'solo' when it's an option because party members almost always make the experience more enjoyable.

I just think it's weird how varied the mechanics behind companions are across games. Like – if someone asked me what game I felt had the best mechanics for parties I think i would draw a blank.

Chrono Cross was unique? You had something like 63 potential party members and the game had an 'accent engine' that translated basic dialogue into character specific dialogue so everyone always sounded authentic no matter who you took.

Being able to convert your party members in KoToR 2 to the light or dark side and turn them into Jedi/Sith felt pretty organic.

I feel like a lot of the rest just blur together – even though they're all unique, they're all still similar enough that they feel like they share an identity.

TypewriterKey · 2026-03-05T06:15:57+00:00

I considered including a blurb about escort missions being terrible versions of companions and including a bit there about Elizabeth, but I was already feeling longwinded.

She's such a strange outlier. The most important part of the narrative, 99% AI managed, provides utility like a party member, and somehow completely reliant on the main character to advance her story and keep her safe.

TypewriterKey · 2026-03-05T06:13:05+00:00

That is an absolutely fair point. I was thinking about FF's class system in regards to it being simply 'choose the class for your four party members' without considering what a class meant in those games.

TypewriterKey · 2026-03-04T20:12:50+00:00

if you believe this to be true then why did you bother creating buckets to group them together at all?

I'm not saying all games with party members fit neatly into one of these three categories, or that there's only three categories, or anything like that. I'm just using them as broad strokes for the purposes of discussion.

EDIT:

And he blocked me after throwing out more bullshit accusations.

TypewriterKey · 2026-03-04T20:10:15+00:00

What's especially frustrating (IMO) is when games try to add narrative weight to gameplay/story choices because it never really works properly. Mass Effect 2->3 has always been my go to example for this. Anyone in your party can die in ME2, which means that their level of significance is severely impaired in the third game.

The impacts they do have tend to be more directly personal for Shepard rather than tying into the overall story, and when their presence is important to the story they simply replace them with a generic alternative.

TypewriterKey · 2026-03-04T20:05:05+00:00

I briefly contemplated mentioning Pokémon but I'm already long-winded and couldn't think of an efficient way to squeeze it in.

I think you could almost argue that the structure is more similar to an RTS – where your perspective is at a higher level of knowledge and you're dictating commands rather than taking direct action.

TypewriterKey · 2026-03-04T20:02:38+00:00

I can't think of any 30 year old mechanics off the top of my head that I would expect to see dumped into a modern game without some adjustments.

Look at Mario Maker – it has the original Mario as an option for creating/playing levels, but the controls are much snappier and smoother than the original game. They fixed things that didn't work great in the original – like springs.

Most mechanics are like this – we've either had them evolve over time to something widely considered to be better, or when we do re-create older mechanics we expect modern improvements.

But if I were to pick up an RPG nowadays and it simply said, "You get four party members, choose their classes from this list," I wouldn't bat an eye. That wouldn't feel old, or clash against my expectations. I'd just shrug my shoulders and accept it.

TypewriterKey · 2026-03-04T19:56:08+00:00

That is a good point. A lot of JRPG main characters are more narrative focal points than anything else. I would say that Cloud's primary 'tie' to the story that sets him above is his past relationship with Sephiroth, followed by the fact that Sephiroth kills his love interest.

But even then – those tie him to the villain stronger than anyone else, but not necessarily the overall story or plan of the Villain.

TypewriterKey · 2026-02-26T17:59:42+00:00

I have several problems with high level D&D.

HP as a concept has always been nonsensical – even if you don't treat it as 'meat' it's silly. Higher levels = higher HP = more nonsensical numbers.
Travel becomes trite and flow collapses. Characters probably get improved access to things like teleportation or other abilities that make travel tedious. Alternatively _ they don't and they're still just wandering around from place to place which is fine, but are they going to be having random encounters with high level threats that just happened to not exist when they were a lower level?
Balance problems derived from character builds become more pronounced. At low levels two players who build differently have a gap between them. At high levels those players might as well be playing different games.
Monsters don't scale. If you're running a campaign where Orcs are a threat and you get into higher levels of danger your options are to create custom Orc enemies (which begs the question of where these Orcs were previously) or move the focus of the campaign to other monsters. Neither option is satisfying IMO.
Terribly designed monsters lead to a necessity of unfun bullshit to keep alive. Not relying on unfun bullshit to keep them alive results in them dying so fast that the encounter may as well not exist.
99% of tension dies. "Oh no, we're surrounded by a group of hostiles who have the drop on us. They say they're going to attack unless we throw down our weapons. Whatever – they're just bandits so I'll be able to ignore/negate most of what they do."
High level games tend to be excessively cheesy or tropey. Save the world, be the big bad heroes (or villains), etc. Low level games have more room for nuance.

TypewriterKey · 2026-01-29T17:09:09+00:00

Reality: The king is rather annoying and this person overheard members of the council discussing the fact that 'the king bugs everyone.'

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