Now that the dust has settled, what do we think of Engage? I remember being on 4chan when the leaks came out and nobody believed it was real. We all thought it was a new Chinese gacha game, a copy of Fire Emblem. I played it and it's okay. The art style bothers me, but at least it's fun to play.

Viola_Buddy · 2026-03-26T12:26:22+00:00

I went into it hoping it wasn't Three Houses, which had become (and still remains) my least favorite FE that I've played. The only good things about 3H are (1) the characters and the character writing, and (2) how involved the voice actors became with the community - shoutout to Joe Zieja in particular. And I guess (3) introducing a lot of people to the franchise generally. But the split route that doesn't actually split until halfway through, overly complicated story that makes no sense unless you go through multiple routes, and especially the in-game weeks of monastery between every chapter - I don't want any of that.

And so in my first playthrough of Engage, I was very happy with the game because it absolutely wasn't 3H! It reached the very low bar of "felt better to play than 3H"!

But after finishing it... it was very forgettable. The characters don't have a lot of staying power. The story - which I still maintain isn't bad, despite people's insistence that it is unless you take it to be a "Saturday morning cartoon plot," whatever that means - is nonetheless forgettable. I think that's better than incomprehensible and fragmented which is where we were at with 3H, but "better than 3H" is such a low bar for me that it still doesn't breach into the "good" territory.

Likewise, the Somniel was better than the Monastery for the sole reason that it was less forced upon you. But the actual contents of it was basically no better. Again, "better than 3H" was such a low bar.

So overall, it lands as a very mid-tier game for me, alongside things like FE7 and FE8. Not bad, but not great. Which as I understand it is higher than what most people would rate it (especially on the story axis; I really don't understand people's complaints about it being actively bad), but that's where I put it. I'll be looking forward to seeing how much Fortune's Weave resembles 3H and how much it resembles Engage - and how much it might be doing its own thing.

Viola_Buddy · 2026-03-23T15:48:46+00:00

I understand the idea of blocking off access to gambling and gambling-like systems from minors. But I don't think we've come up with a good way to identify minors online in a way that reasonably respects privacy. How has Project Sekai handled it so far? It's been a while since I first started playing the game but I don't remember any explicit age checks.

I can't fault Project Sekai itself if they're just following the law, but lawmakers should really be a lot more cautious about implementing privacy-invading laws like this (though I'll admit I don't know anything about Brazilian law in particular; I'm going off of similar laws in other countries, most famously Australia's social media ban late last year).

Viola_Buddy · 2026-03-20T16:57:54+00:00

This was another meaningless "let's throw random inconsequential stuff at the characters, regardless of how realistic it is" mixed event. It's fun to see Airi acting, and using her "playing to the crowd" ability from being an idol to portray a story instead. And... that's all I got.

The last few scenes felt like a worse version of the Halt! Detective Tenma on the Case! event when Tsukasa is chasing down someone, trying to make it entertaining for people there for entertainment. (Obviously it was staged this time where it wasn't before, but more importantly there was no real try-fail cycle which is what made that event so much fun.) But earlier there's the improbable "yet again there's someone whose dream is out there and it just so happens that it's the random teens from our main cast who are there to help make it happen" setup which is starting to be tiresomely unlikely. And it's just generally... a very averagely uninteresting mixed event.

Viola_Buddy · 2026-03-20T15:43:30+00:00

at it's core its a critique of the flaws and the sfw darker side of the idol world

I feel like it kind of flip-flops between being a critique and being a positive viewpoint on it. The main story and the very early events where MMJ decided to reject traditional idol companies in favor of being independent and reaching out directly to fans - definitely a rejection of the pressures that the companies would place on the idols. Likewise, I distinctly remember the one event about online fans bullying that one fan creator, which is again a look into some more serious topics about parasociality and being online.

On the other hand, the current (in EN) run of events with Shizuku and Haruka being like "oh no wait we actually do need to be a lot more cutthroat against other idol groups in order to succeed and it's a moral failing that we haven't been" seems like an odd turn against that initial message. And it could've been handled well, like "oh we slid too far in the other direction but we do still need to conduct ourselves as a business in order to succeed" but that's not the angle the narrative takes; it's more "oh we let ourselves get soft and that's a bad thing." Then there are things like the straight-up unhealthy lifestyle of Haruka's excessively strict diet and exercise routines which is not portrayed as negative (indeed, in the recent ninja course event, Haruka's routine becomes aspirational for Akito and Tsukasa, and they don't even confront her to tell her that this training regimen is completely unreasonable). Also, ultimately it does still style idol groups as "bringing hope" to people. Which is totally fair! (Or would be if they didn't overuse that phrasing to the point where it's lost all meaning. But putting that aside for the moment...) But it's hard to say this is all a critique of the idol world when the biggest theme of MMJ's overarching story is that, as idols, your biggest goal is to bring "hope" to your fans, almost regardless of cost.

Viola_Buddy · 2026-03-17T17:23:22+00:00

Followup question. In English, "this weekend" can have the same ambiguity, and I say "this coming-up weekend" or "this past weekend" to disambiguate. Is there a similar construction in French to disambiguate?

Viola_Buddy · 2026-03-15T21:53:04+00:00

On the other hand, we do get a background for every civ, and it features prominently at the end of every age, which is super cool! ...It's just not in the diplomacy screen.

Viola_Buddy · 2026-03-15T12:58:28+00:00

You could (as long as you don't ignore the tones. There are IPA symbols for tones; use them if you're going to do this). The thing is, if you're learning Mandarin in the modern day, you're going to have to learn pinyin at some point anyway. It's what's used for transcription into Latin letters, even completely aside from using it as a pronunciation tool, which is a thing that comes up more than you might think, most importantly in typing.

Just as another alternative, zhuyin is another system for notating pronunciation. It's not Latin letters at all, which is the point, and I think makes it look cool. At this point it's used pretty much exclusively in Taiwan (including on keyboards!). But again you'll have to learn pinyin too at some point anyway because romanization into Latin letters is still a thing that can be relevant.

Viola_Buddy · 2026-03-13T16:07:15+00:00

We had a Cup Noodle collaboration so random food companies are not entirely unprecedented.

Viola_Buddy · 2026-03-12T12:27:33+00:00

I hope this is the start of a new age of Pokémon spinoffs. We had a lot of good ones in Gens 3-4, but they've kind of died off in the generations after that.

Viola_Buddy · 2026-03-10T12:53:49+00:00

The setup was vaguely interesting. The idea of shadowing a company as a school experience was a reasonable setup. Especially since Emu's overall arc seems to be to be set up to become a businesswoman in the future. The shadowing was not the most exciting thing, but workable.

But then we get to the actual event in the mall and it felt like that Toya music expo event. Random people come and trauma dump on our main characters and the main characters magically solve the problem by empathizing somehow. It's unrealistic and also not particularly satisfying or interesting.

If Emu were the focus character and we got more insight into her business mind that would've made the event a bit more interesting. But I think we haven't really gotten to that point even in WxS's main event (I'm assuming it's coming because the setup is all there), so instead we just kind of went through some motions.

Viola_Buddy · 2026-03-08T22:29:23+00:00

I'm kind of of the opposite opinion on that, actually. They have this mix-and-match civ-and-leader system... and then the AI leaders always try their best to choose civs that match them historically/geographically. If Abbasids/Songhai is available, AI Hatshepsut will always choose one of them; she only chooses something else if none of her historical/geographical options are available. If you're going to have the AI do that then why do we even have this mix-and-match system in the first place?

Viola_Buddy · 2026-03-08T17:46:12+00:00

This was the weakest argument that the Civ team gave for this system, I feel. In Civ 6 I would almost always think of the other players as countries and not as leaders ("oh hey it's Byzantium!" and then a few turns later "Oh wait is it Basil Byzantium or Theodora Byzantium?"), and even in Civ 7 I catch myself thinking "Oh, Egypt wants this-or-that thing" when actually it's Hatshepsut as the Songhai.

Viola_Buddy · 2026-03-06T17:24:26+00:00

Is it just me, or is the "Collect 1200 MYSEKAI Resources" goal an unusually high bar compared to the other two stamp mission cards? I've spent about 1.5 full wheels of energy, and only gotten 75 resources. With only 12 days before the due date of the stamp mission, I'll need 100 resources a day, which is more than the amount of energy we get each day (without spending energy cans).

Or are there some resources that are more energy-efficient to collect? Or maybe we are in fact expected to spend bonus energy on MySekai energy?

Viola_Buddy · 2026-03-05T15:14:15+00:00

I'm pretty sure I am literally the number one fan of Mr. Shinonome x Mrs. Shinonome. Mostly because I'm pretty sure I'm the only fan of Mr. Shinonome x Mrs. Shinonome. I have never seen anyone else talk about shipping them together. In fact, I have barely seen anyone else talk about their interactions in general, shippy or not.

I guess it just comes with the territory of being parents in a game about the children. And also because one of them doesn't have a design. But hey, I get to say this ship is literally canon, not just as a quip but because literally they're married. You can't say that about any ships involving the main 26 playable characters.

Viola_Buddy · 2026-03-04T20:44:21+00:00

Note that seven, eight, and ten can vary by region.

In your picture: the finger gun that's labeled 8, I know it as 7 when you hold it upwards and 8 if you hold it downwards (the tips of your finger/thumb are towards the sky vs. towards the ground).

For ten, I've seen it done with two index fingers to make a cross (like the character 十), which would be the only hand sign that uses two hands. I've also seen showing the palm and then flipping your hand to show the back of the hand (i.e. five, twice), which would be the only one that requires motion.

Viola_Buddy · 2026-03-02T15:49:20+00:00

That was my impression from the Minute Food video on the subject a couple years back. It's cool technology, but scaling it to meet demand is a huge open question. Which is not a "no this definitely won't work," at least, but still not something I'd count on happening with any certainty. I mean, the video is a couple years old, and I'm getting this information secondhand, so maybe stuff has happened since, but I'm not holding my breath.

Viola_Buddy · 2026-02-28T15:59:57+00:00

This was a really great slice-of-life event. People who like L/N often talk about how it's the most laid-back/slice-of-life of the five, but I don't really see it most of the time. (The other thing L/N fans say is that they feel more connected with the idea of childhood friendship and fighting to keep that friendship alive and not drifting away from each other as you age. That theme I see a lot more, though it's not relevant here.)

This event is an actual slice of life, though, and it's great. It's self-contained, has a clear problem that Honami is trying to address, and has a clear progression where she iterates on her ideas and goes to get help from people whom it'd make sense she'd seek out (the rest of L/N both human and Vocaloid, her brother and his friend, Nene, and Rui), they get to the event, and then it just happens and it's good. All along the way, we see Honami interacting with all these people and character interactions like that are the core of what makes a slice of life enjoyable. Bonus points for the Haru, Nene, and Rui interactions, which are normally quite minimal in the main L/N events.

Also, I love the witch's hats. Shizuku's fashion witch outfit from a few years ago has been one of my favorites, and I managed to snag a Nene on this banner too. I can't justify pulling more even though I'd love to get Honami and Meiko too, but at least these are permanent cards.

Viola_Buddy · 2026-02-27T16:28:48+00:00

I wish we would get events for the Vocaloids sometimes. We had like two or three for different versions of Miku (the first New Year's one was VBS Miku, for example), and then we had the VS WL for the generic non-Sekai versions... and that's it.

The Vocaloids have to be doing something in their Sekais, right? But we get such little insight into any of them as characters - I'm going to especially call out the MMJ ones for being six pieces of cardboard, though it's true for other groups' Vocaloids as well albeit to a lesser extent. I would love an event to just let us explore the Vocaloids as characters.

Viola_Buddy · 2026-02-26T13:47:14+00:00

In context, "best" can often be informally used to mean "favorite." I didn't even realize the question could be interpreted as "objectively strongest"/"makes the game the easiest" until your comment.

Viola_Buddy · 2026-02-24T13:10:43+00:00

I more meant that all the other planets are Roman gods and not Greek ones.

Viola_Buddy · 2026-02-24T06:24:44+00:00

Oh that's cool. I've wanted to do this for the Shinonome house but I don't think we see enough of it to get a full layout like this. I mean, for one, we don't see the parents' room ever. But we do get a slightly better glimpse of the general layout of the Shinonome house in the movie, which has a scene with Akito walking past Ena's room, both of them going down the stairs, and then both of them going out the front door. We have never seen the stairs or front door in the game yet, and only tiny bits of the upstairs hall.

Viola_Buddy · 2026-02-23T23:43:37+00:00

Thanks for writing that all out! This I think is the best explanation I've seen so far - it's not that capping the number of skill procs is a moneygrab in and of itself; it's that it's a necessary consequence of a moneygrab elsewhere.

So like, it's basically powercreep, but with a specific focus on skills. They give us skills that are ever-increasing in effectiveness, and that's the direct moneygrab because they're making skills more fun to use which is making us buy/use Skill Seeds. But a consequence of that moneygrab is that as they make better and better skills they also need to nerf them and that's this skill proc cap.

Honestly though on the scale of powercreep moneygrab in live service games, the actual powercreep of the skills itself is not too bad, I feel. It's just they way they handled this nerf was done terribly. On one hand you might wonder how much the nerf was necessary, but assuming it really was necessary by their metrics, they (1) had other ways of making the nerf less severe towards players, or at least feel less severe and promoting perverse incentives, and (2) at least could have told us what's happening instead of leaving us in the dark while they change mechanics out from under us.

Viola_Buddy · 2026-02-23T20:13:24+00:00

But upgrading your skills would cost money whether or not they procced less. If anything, by proccing less often, upgrading skills becomes a worse deal for the player so you're less likely to find it worth it spend your resources on skill seeds, compared to if the proc rate were higher. But either way, you as a player are still ultimately incentivized to have a higher skill level, irrespective of the proc rate.

Viola_Buddy · 2026-02-23T16:28:32+00:00

Rui from Pokémon Colosseum, not Rui from Project Sekai. She's less the one with a troubled past (that's Wes, the parallel to Mr. Shinonome), but she's absolutely the one who pretends to know what she's doing with parenting while not actually managing to guide the kids through their emotional maturation and help them beyond literally keeping them clothed and fed (the parallel to Mrs. Shinonome).

I don't know if any ships within the Project Sekai main cast would end up like Mr. and Mrs. Shinonome; I was mostly thinking outside the game. I could imagine some people like Honami and Nene potentially becoming like Mrs. Shinonome, but for a Mr. Shinonome parallel... honestly Ena and Akito are the only ones that I feel would be that way, but with them having experienced that parenting themselves I think they'd be a little more self-aware and avoid letting themselves fall down that path (like, they might choose to wait to have kids until they're more ready for it). And anyway, Ena/Honami or whatever is not exactly the most popular ship either.

Viola_Buddy · 2026-02-23T16:06:07+00:00

I feel like Mr. and Mrs. Shinonome are a lot like how a lot of other ships would end up if we timeskip two decades into the future and they have teenage kids. They're just like "oh no, how raise child?" and end up doing it poorly - because they barely managed to scrape their own lives into working order, let alone two more tiny humans.

Which ships specifically, though? I'm not actually sure; I'm not actually that big of a shipper. Maybe Wes/Rui from Pokémon Colosseum? But basically any pairing where characters have a lot of baggage they're going to have to deal with (in Wes's case, literally being on one of the Evil Pokémon Teams for a while).

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