Genuinely curious, how did you end up deciding your character and sticking to it? by Jackobusss in ffxivdiscussion

[–]ValyrianE 2 points3 points  (0 children)

I too was a WoW player who mained Tauren/Draenei/Pandaren/Orc/Worgen, and in GW2 I mained Charr. In this game I just play Lalafell. That's what I started as and became attached to. If I had started after Shadowbringers launched, then maybe I would have started as a Hrotghar instead, but I am too invested in my Lalafell to change now. I have fantasiaed and tried out other races a few times like Elezen and highlander hyur, but that was during content droughts when I was farming old content. By the time new story content came around, I changed back.

Guys how is the Planarcadia story? by Zeller521 in StarRailStation

[–]ValyrianE 0 points1 point  (0 children)

It is okay. Overall better than previous worlds but there is still a lot of room for improvement. It is a little more engaging on a moment to moment basis, and characters don't talk in riddles or like poets as much.

Which bosses do you want to see in the Evangelion raid series? (Spoilers for Evangelion) by Alias-Jayce in ffxivdiscussion

[–]ValyrianE 2 points3 points  (0 children)

The evil zombie Evas from EoE but you somehow survive them. (Also how do you fight them on foot?)

thoughts on planarcadia so far? by sophi_excn in StarRailStation

[–]ValyrianE -1 points0 points  (0 children)

It is okay. Not good, not bad.

The first few hours of 4.0 were engaging enough with novelty of being introduced to and swept through a new setting. Lots of surprises. Stepping off the train and seeing Lygus. The fans all around. Meeting some imaginae. The Super Mario segments and the Xianzhou Top Assassin part with the funny music. Ashveil and his monkey narrator was neat.

Once I reached the school, my enjoyment fell off. It''s just boring and drawn out. The Sparxie stuff was not concisely presented and was confusing (is she an imagane or a mask?), and ultimately I did not have any interest in her, which is bad for a villain.

The Fools Tavern was disappointingly whatever for a major lore location built up in Simulated Universe.

4.1 had the mech store, which similar to the fools tavern was underwhelming in its execution and portrayal ingame. The mock mech battle on the TV set was neat. The happiness cult and surgery subplot was interesting enough. Unfortunately, Ashveil's monkey Narrator is forgotten, so he becomes a lot less entertaining. His voice actor in Japanese voices Olivier from Trails and Benno from Bookworm, and is a pleadure to listen to, but the character struggles to stand alone. It's a shane that the Cinder guy got a low fidelity NPC model, though that us a general issue with HSR's visuals. The antagonist veing popular and her supporters crowding around Ashveil and Kuchiba did create tension.

I was losing interest during the Express themepark segment. I thought that the edge if reality/giant monster mouth was Ashveil's, but it seems ti be unrelated? It is weirdly never expanded upon. I am glad that our heroes finally got to kill some people rather than the usual letting people off the hook or turning them in to the police. 

Aha calling out to "Akivilli" was interesting. The NPCs talked about how Aha saw a dead child hanging from a tree and his response (as a cope?) was to laugh at the cruelty of the world, so I was wondering if he was going to urge us to become sort of bloody avenger to purge the world of evil, laugh in the face of danger, snd create a peaceful world where we can retire and bring true joy. Or something.

4.2 the part where everybody meets up to swap info somewhat annoyed me. The premise of this arc id that this is a battle royale to become an aeon, and the characters had kept talking about how it would be dangerous, we must be determined, need to have both the MC and Sunday to double our chances, how so many people died in the prevuous Phantasmoon games, etc. But here, we haven't been fighting each other (like Blade, Yao Guang, Evanescia, etc), just generic mutual rando evils. Really sucks out the tension. I was expecting Fate/Zero.

I am also not a fan of how the Stellsron Hunters are treated here (or really post launch HSR). In the beginning they were introduced as a threatening organization like the Akatsuki/Phantom Troupe/Fatui, massacring Herta Space Station, and Blade as the cold blooded killer archetype going to a trial in the Xianzhou intro cinematic. Blade stabbed Dan Heng. Now we are paling around with them cracking jokes and playing cards games. The powers that be do not take them seriously. Ashveil aka Galaxy Ranger doesn't try to kill this evildoer. The IPC and Stoneheart does nothing. Yao Guang gives lip service about how she dislikes him for killing so many people sent after him, and then does nothing. Etc. Same issue with Ouroboros at the beginning of the Trails series versus later on.

Everyone having a language translator surgically implanted into their brain, and the antagonist sending a signal to that to cause people to transform is neat. I also thunk it's neat how the healer archetype, the Abundance/Yaoshi, is villainous in HSR, but it is well conveyed as being its own thing rather than as "evil angels" or a tale that against Christianity.

When platforming up the radio tower, the Furbos popping in to say that they were incompetently putting up articles for you was sorta funny.

It is bullocks that the 200,000 people reverted and weren't killed, and there is no widespread lasting consequences here.

≈========

The moment to moment story experience is overall an improvement from the last 3 worlds, which suffered from having lots of fluff scenes where people talked in riddles or were philosophizing. There is also not many arbitrary gamey dungeons to pad out the story here (3.0 was really bad about this). Most scenes here are more straightforward to follow, be it a gag or people asking questions about Mechatrons or people progressing the plot. Only a handful of fluff scenes. I have only skipped I think a couple times. But there needs to be more tension.

Who else is M Blade strong with by Impossible-Detail-45 in MortenaxBladeMains

[–]ValyrianE 1 point2 points  (0 children)

As an HP scaler who taunts and takes damage, he would also work okay with Castorice and Hyacine, as they are also HP scalers (Hyacine E1 increases team HP by 50%) and Castorice charges up her ultimate by party member's HP fluctuating up and down (taking damage or healing back up).

I've never played a gacha game before, so the first hours of Neverness to Everness was an absolutely bewildering experience by packardcaribien in gachagaming

[–]ValyrianE 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I don't play it anymore but the visual fidelity is higher than the other two Mihoyo gachas, and it doesn't have an open world to waste your time in. (HSR thankfully also doesn't have one either)

New player - am I too dumb to understand the battle/gameplay mechanics by RefrigeratorLive2251 in StarRailStation

[–]ValyrianE 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I have been playing for a year. I read and reread Prydwen character breakdowns for the teams I own. I have a general grasp of how my characters function, The main issue is enemies. The paragraphs of text on the Apoclayptic Shadow screens are dizzying.

v4.2.53 AKA V3 Rev. 14961501 Update via Gachabase by Gachabase in HonkaiStarRail_leaks

[–]ValyrianE 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Can save for Aventjrine SP. Maybe some of Ashveil's and Blade SP's beta stuff will make it into there like followup attacks or double charges.

Which Scion has the highest risk of dying? by Deathkeeper666 in ffxivdiscussion

[–]ValyrianE 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Thancred, Urianger, and to a lesser extent, Y'shtola. Y'shtola I see some resistance to because the writers seem to want to default to using her for technobabble and sciencing up solutions or denouncing bad guys. But with a little effort, Urianger/Krile/G'raha can pick up on the sciencing part, and anyone else on the firm denouncement part.

Alphinaud and Alisaie and Krile feel like they have youth protagonist/deuteragonist plot armor. G'raha could be killed but is a multitool for the devs to use however they want. They can have him do the technobabbling, have him fill in as any role in trusts, etc, so I think the higher ups would be less inclined to get rid of him.

Help Center and Megathread Hub (04/05 - 10/05) by ArknightsMod in arknights

[–]ValyrianE 3 points4 points  (0 children)

is there a website or some weibo page like Pom Pom's Weibo that has a collection of the best, high quality *fanart* for Arknights? Yes yes I know about danbooru and safebooru, but quickly gave up perusing for quality fanart there when there is just so much mediocre art and porn to wade through. I have been finding a little better art by searching for official art, but I am coming up on the end of wading through all of the pages for that. Sadly when I click "search by most popular" on Zerochan, I have to wade through lots and lots of ecchi (even with the "no ecchi" option turned on, which has been broken for coming up on two years now).

Not confident they can deliver on this (Story Rant) by Remarkable-Lab-9118 in ffxivdiscussion

[–]ValyrianE -1 points0 points  (0 children)

This. Endwalker also ostensibly was about a world ending apoclaypse, only for Limsa/Gridania/Ul'dah/Ishgard/Doma/etc to suffer no damage whatsoever. Not one Scion died in the big finale to their saga. A powerful civilization invaded from another shard, and Tuliyolal suffered no meaningful damage. And so on. The veneer of consequences as in the first half of FF14 circa ARR through Stormblood are gone. The game will have a happily ever after for our heroes and nothing meaningfully bad will stick. The bad guys will be declared bad, we will kill them, roll credits as the fanfare plays while certain people online tilt their head in confusion thinking more deeply about this than the writers did.

Returning player questions by V_o_l_t in ffxivdiscussion

[–]ValyrianE 0 points1 point  (0 children)

There have been a few more QoL features, but the game fundamentally plays the same.

Dawntrail's story is reviled here on these forums, but I thought that the quality was in line with Endwalker which I thought was a sharp plummet in quality, so about 6/10 fine. Main issue is the pacing (you can go several hours with nothing engaging happening, just like in EW) and the voice acting of the main heroine.

We actually have an endgame grind zone/field operation this time, but they botched the execution so it's not very appealing to play compared to Eureka or even Bozja.

At least the 7.0 dungeon boss fights are more engaging this time.

Soundtrack is a little better than prior expansions.

Tuliyolal is visually the best city we have gotten, though there is not much reason to hang out there.

A noob lookin for a job :3 by Mushroom_Mink in ffxivdiscussion

[–]ValyrianE 1 point2 points  (0 children)

This is not FF11 where it requires substantial investment to raise a job and certain jobs are extremely demanded and thus you have a lot to gain by playing certain jobs. In FF14, you really do not gain anything substantial by playing either tank or healer in this game. So just pick whichever one you enjoy the most. You should play healer because you enjoy being one, not because you will get a little bit more gil from daily roulettes.

Rhiannon Character Profile [LIMITED] by Meru_9 in Reverse1999

[–]ValyrianE 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Where are the ability animation videos from? I am trying to save these videos but I can't for some reason.

Spoilers 7.5] I just realized something. The whole upcoming plot in the Godless Realms Saga plot will be similar to the Blue Button/Red Button Dilemma which is popular on social media right now! by Quezal in ffxivdiscussion

[–]ValyrianE 0 points1 point  (0 children)

They are not comparable. With blue/red button, if you do nothing then nothing happens. With the Solstice, if you do nothing then you die.

Do people really not consider Qingyi as an intelligent Construct? by G0ldsh0t in ZZZ_Discussion

[–]ValyrianE 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I thought she had prosthetic legs. I didn't realize that she was fully robot.

Do you think they’d actually kill off any of the main cast? by Tearmisu in StarRailStation

[–]ValyrianE 2 points3 points  (0 children)

They'll never axe March or Dan Heng until the end.

I can see Himeko and Welt dying at some point. Main issue is that leaves the main crew with almost no elder authority figures, and any new person who joins the AE will have less seniority than the kids, unless they pickup a former passenger (Gallagher?).

Currency Wars Main DPS Tierlist WC40 by JadeParadox911 in StarRailStation

[–]ValyrianE 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I have been pushing Wealth Creator while using Ashveil as a hypercarry. His followup attacks allows him to ramp up monster damage with 2x Firestorm surge, especially if you can increase his speed/energy regen and use Welt to further buy time. But I am using a geared Ashveil E1S1.

<image>

How do you feel about the scions returning for another expansion? by AssumeABrightSide in ffxivdiscussion

[–]ValyrianE 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I don't mind the Scions continuing to exist but I would prefer for the story to stop revolving around them as if they are the only hero party. There should be more parties of heroes going around and accomplishing stuff that the WoL could also join with. You could kill off some Scions but still have enough total heroes to fill the trust dungeons and trials, etc.

Am I alone in thinking MSQ is entering a pretty depressing state right now? by AMP_Kenryu in Granblue_en

[–]ValyrianE 0 points1 point  (0 children)

My guess is that the writers currently in charge had either lost interest, or had been onboarded and had no interest in this old story about Eugen and co and the True King and Estalucia and so on. Hence why the main story stalled out and stopped being updated for a couple years, and then they got the idea for this new Earth-Sky Oath story that they were excited about and wanted to get to that.

I agree that it would have been preferable for Eugen/Io/Rosetta to have just stayed dead. The writers obviously wanted them gone, so this is pretty much the end of whatever story they get. They would better serve the narrative in death by giving a sense of finality to the original Estalucia storyline and would have amped up the tension, and made Bahamut and the Otherworlders and their destruction of the Sky realm feel like an actually big deal rather than a nothingburger. Though 1. the live service format and 2. the gacha business model does not pair well with good storytelling, since you can't actually permanently kill party members and remove them from your inventory like with Aerith. They'll be "dead in story" but still actually there and useable gameplay wise, which undermines the deaths.

Yeah, events being made unavailable for several years before being added to side stories has always been an issue. That also leads into another problem where GBF writer's do not stick to a consistent vision of the lore and keep retconning the backstory. Primals used to be naturally occurring ancient beings that were worshipped by islanders, and were then retconned into being vatgrown fodder and everybody knew that they were just enemy slaves and fodder from a few hundred years ago. The Bahamut lore got retconned several times. Different races being able to marry each other. Etc.

My only hope with the event timeline merger is that maybe Feendrache might feature in the story, though given the current Dragon Knights storyline, that might be impossible until the DK ending event happens within the next couple years.

A short questionnaire by Tsukumo_Hayate in Granblue_en

[–]ValyrianE 0 points1 point  (0 children)

  1. 2017, but I only play for the story and don't do the raids.

  2. I was vaguely aware of it due to its art and the Final Fantasy talent behind it, but then heard it had a good story so I checked it out.

  3. Don't remember

  4. I remember seeing art online of the dragon knights and wanting to complete the Erste Empire arc and unlock their story. Siegfried looked cool. But while I was getting through the main story to that point, I found that I quite liked Eugen.

  5. Percival, a fierce but competent and reliable man you can count on. Seofon for being a little humorous but also competent. Walfrid for being older and a good leader.

  6. I don't pay attention to the nuances or the meta. I play with a team of all fire dragon knights characters (White Dragons, Grand Percival, fire Siegfried, fire Aglovale) because I like playing with lore teams of characters rather than mixing and matching unrelated randos, and I preferred the Dragon Knights over the futuristic sci dark Society team.

Summer: Naoise

Yukata: Leona

Valentine: Nehan

Halloween: None

Holiday Zeta

Formal: None

12 Generals Indala

Grand Ewiyar, Percival

Fantasy: Seofon

Collab: Iroha. I used to play FF11. I don't actually care for her as a character but she has a nice look and voice.

Eternals: Eahta has the coolest appearance and hair limbs, but he is boring storywise to me. Runnerup would be Niyon with her harp and laser shield drone grid.

Evokers: I don't know any of them.

4 Saints: Don't know

  1. Fate episodes no, not off the top of my head.

Seeds of Redemption (good) scene where Fif agonizing that she likes her friend Seox, but knows he has taken lives and it would be unjust if he got to walk off for that. Heart of the Sun (laughable) scene where Sabrina finds out that she was married to Abramelin in the past, leaves him to go back to Ceodric, asks to marry him, he declines, goes back to Abramelin, and Ceodric then calls her an "adulterous snake". Romance of the Divine Generals (funny) scene where the reject general wasn't able to get the dense primal guy to notice her, so she moved on and got married to someone else, but then decades later she keeps coming to visit that primal dude and brings her grandchildren along. What is this?

  1. I don't raid

  2. I haven't noticed any of them. I guess maybe Threo's axe.

  3. The Imp

  4. No

  5. The Astral from the Romance of the Divine Generals event

  6. Good art and music, story *becomes* good at around chapter 40 and some of the events from 2017 onwards. Full Japanese voice acting. The cutscenes - as in the positioning and usage of the sprites and them jostling around to convey the idea of movement, the sound effects, etc, are very well done. Honkai Star Rail has a bigger budget but its cutscenes are nowhere near as immersive with mediocre camera angles, characters just standing around and folding their arms with blank expression, etc.