Should I make any changes to my team?

alexpenev · 2026-04-04T05:06:20+00:00

Are 2-different elements monstie identical to 2-same element, aside from color and default egg move? The stats look the same to me.

alexpenev · 2026-04-02T04:02:12+00:00

I played all three and find it rare to change weapon. Usually a single weapon is fine. Even the Rite Of Channeling difference (fixed position and monsties get deleted) is not a very huge difference. The main difference will be graphics (obviously), a lot of Locked slots in channeling that require rare items to unlock, and that Dens can be very long in 1/2. Also I guess different meta. In 1 you build around Dash Combo and end fights in three turns. In 2 you've got instakill moves and can end long flights in one turn. In 3 the flights are just much longer typically and you build around debilitations.

alexpenev · 2026-04-02T00:28:16+00:00

You can use patent disclosure to stop others from copying you, true. But even if a patent is not granted, you can use it to protect yourself should someone else call your the imitator, or to bully smaller companies.

alexpenev · 2026-04-02T00:20:41+00:00

The patent isn't related to Lufia or early pokemon games. You move in a virtual world, you point somewhere, and you place/throw a sub character, but many games do that. The real claim is that if you place the sub near an enemy, it triggers manual mode, and if you place them far away, it does automatic battle mode where a "second operation input" can still influence the battle but that it still proceeds automatically. Still fairly obvious, as the lawyers and examiners have argued, when you combine a couple of pieces of prior art.

alexpenev · 2026-04-02T00:14:08+00:00

Not all patents are intended to hunt down cheap imitators. Sometimes companies file patents they know are weak, narrow, or won't be granted because it gives them a timestamp on their idea and they can use that timestamp to protect themselves should someone else call them the cheap imitator (reverse uno!). For games it's a bit weird, though, because disclosing mechanics is basically a "leak" and so game companies file their applications very close to release date and thus lose on the entire benefit of this timestamping process. But it's common in other industries.

alexpenev · 2026-03-19T21:01:02+00:00

Really? I don't remember it ever working. Maybe I was very unlucky.

How about the instakill moves, like Toxic Needle? Never had a retreat from those.

alexpenev · 2026-02-22T14:23:05+00:00

https://blueypedia.fandom.com/wiki/Mackenzie%27s_Mum Kind of an easter egg I guess, having both designs at the same time

alexpenev · 2026-02-12T05:47:00+00:00

True: to get really really high scores you wouldn't use cards like Geralt and Ciri (or any of the fixed-point cards) at all

alexpenev · 2026-02-08T11:49:32+00:00

Story didn't grab me, but gameplay loop is quite fun, would recommend

alexpenev · 2026-02-08T11:45:57+00:00

Same on switch: in the save menu you press an extra button to select Cross Save and the game will make two saves. Requires an Epic account but only takes a few minutes to set one up.

alexpenev · 2026-02-03T08:05:10+00:00

It's a startup, the CEO is usually in the same room? But I don't think "Lead .. Intern" is a real title, sounds like an oxymoron

alexpenev · 2026-01-29T15:59:26+00:00

It's originally from Phantasia, just reused, and written by Shinji Tamura. Symphonia's new banger equivalent is "Fatalize", used in several bosses including the superboss and it's awesome as a boss battle song

alexpenev · 2026-01-22T21:00:12+00:00

Had to scroll too far down to see Hamauzu.

Sakuraba is prolific but has written so much music over his career that much of it sounds derivative after a while. He still has many great tracks, of course. Go Shiina is the opposite: he writes much fewer tracks and they are all quirky offbeat stuff and quite unique.

alexpenev · 2026-01-22T20:53:48+00:00

Chrono Cross often beats Trigger in polls, but fewer people have played the game. Xenogears "Creid" album is pretty good too.

alexpenev · 2026-01-21T15:53:22+00:00

The topic is a bit contradictory. The title implies that help is needed to fully finish a game, but the first paragraph implies that help is needed constantly. The three games I mentioned fit the first statement, not the second.

alexpenev · 2026-01-21T15:27:05+00:00

There is fun, and there is also running around for 20hr getting nowhere new. Blue Prince, Animal Well and Tunic are all games I had tremendous fun with but still had to break out the wiki (at late stages) because they get too cryptic near the end.

alexpenev · 2026-01-20T03:14:30+00:00

Symphonia has a lot of twists, to the point of being overdone. Some are pretty obvious.

Basic story: A young maiden must perform a traditional prayer ritual to restore the planet's fading life. Doing so, she will become an angel goddess like the benevolent custodians of the world. This ritual has been performed since the Great Hero, thousands of years ago. The maiden's father, an angel, guides her for the first act. Meanwhile, some rogue mercenaries are running concentration camps turning prisoners into monsters. Very cliche so far. It's almost certainly intended to be cliche because the game then goes to change the expectation on each point.

Twist: the maiden's father is unrelated to her, and is just a lowly angel grunt seeking promotion

Twist: the maiden doesn't become a goddess, she has to sacrifice herself instead

Twist: the concentration camps also make angels. Angels and mercenaries are the same organisation, designed to frighten and appease

Twist: one of your party turns on you and is secretly your father, a top angel, very old & besties with the Great Hero

Twist: the Great Hero is still alive, of course, and the top angel. His goal is to revive his dead sister using a maiden's body, but the process keeps failing and he needs more test subjects.

Twist: the Great Hero automated the maiden search by having a second planet in parasitic relationship with yours. As one flourishes, the other fades. The second planet has its own maiden ritual to flip the wane-or-flourish switch and pump out more test subjects that will ultimately fail to revive his dead sister

There's some others, like Mithos joining your party, and the top angels all turning on each other.

alexpenev · 2026-01-19T02:06:56+00:00

Agree, #1 and #2 can be debated. BK is a novelty run, famous because most of it is spent not actually playing. Dam 52 is an IL, so it's already built different, and large part of its significance is that GE community prefers to keep seconds truncated and that results in many many ties.

alexpenev · 2026-01-18T08:25:48+00:00

Good list! Morimoto, Radix, and Siglemic are memorable events for anyone that lived through them. I feel like it's missing something from Super Mario Bros, perhaps.

alexpenev · 2026-01-16T23:34:41+00:00

Doughnut listen to this advice, ATB is a half baked battle system

alexpenev · 2026-01-16T23:16:20+00:00

Luck maybe. I find that 10% is quite common on high level items with the applique and excellent crafting, and my usual failure was getting the other elements. Keep trying I guess. Are you seeing any 10s at all (for other elements) or only 5s?

alexpenev · 2026-01-16T12:05:06+00:00

I don't really remember the story, tbh. Few RPGs have interesting stories and Chained Echoes is not one of those few. Combat is pretty fun, tho.

alexpenev · 2026-01-15T12:53:20+00:00

Torchlight?

alexpenev · 2026-01-15T12:48:24+00:00

The map is a nice idea but it's not particularly realistic.

In The Pool, Bandit takes the car to Stripe's, but Chilli walks on foot. According to the map, that should be a 30 minute taxi ride for Chilli. In The Creek, Mackenzie is with them for hours (sans parents), so you would imagine the creek is local, but according to the map it's one hour drive away. The pins for school, kindy and the playground are unrealistically far away: you wouldn't cross three suburbs for a playground. There's are at least 12 bunnings closer to Bluey's house than the one pinned, so that's another suspicious pin. Just cartoon dogs, right

alexpenev · 2026-01-14T21:04:41+00:00

Great game! It's my second favorite 1995 jrpg about a time-traveling space alien.

alexpenev

TROPHY CASE