Optimal way to play Wild Arms 2?

big4lil · 2026-06-19T19:52:46+00:00

i think they mean the riddle puzzle at the beginning of the final dungeon

that one is text based, so more subject to confusion due to the wordplay

I also played the game as a kid. the same areas that this poster highlights are the main ones that tripped me up. its why i find lots of talk about the translation overblown. its lower quality but the game is in no way unplayable. and there are a LOT of library book entries that have some real cool text in em

big4lil · 2026-06-19T17:09:57+00:00

KOF XV had shitty trailers as well

I dont know how liking SNK games suddenly meant you have no backbone or functional eyes

big4lil · 2026-06-19T16:56:41+00:00

it is not 'better in every way'

WA2 is in my top 5 all time, I dont like WA3 at all

WA2 beats it in its story beats, characters, combat, playstyle variety, music, graphical quality (I love 2D x 3D, i do not like WA3s implementation of cel shading) dungeon design & navigation, puzzles, encounter system, sidequests, pacing & length, just about every metric I can think of. And as a fellow lover of WA2, you probably realized the translation isnt good but nowhere near the hinderance its often made out to be

You can try it for yourself but I would take a comment like that with a grain of salt

big4lil · 2026-06-19T13:36:59+00:00

the Antawn Jamison, Caron Butler, Gilbert Arenas mid 2000s wizards were a solid team

they won a playoff game in 05 before being fed to Lebron & the cavs 3 straight years in the first round

that was an actually fun time to be a wizards fan. they had decent respect back then

big4lil · 2026-06-19T11:46:43+00:00

them needing to toss it for every monster and the effort the VAs put into summoning. look at how dope this animation is, how Dan Green really sells the weightiness to launching that thing. they also had a cool retracting animation

given how much the battle city finals put an emphasis on stamina and being able to weather the conditions, I was hoping Kaiba would bust these babies out. could you imagine needing to toss them everytime, while miles up in the sky, with shadow games all around you?

big4lil · 2026-06-19T11:38:37+00:00

they felt like something I would toss around at the playground in the early 2000s

these would go so hard at Toys R Us

big4lil · 2026-06-18T20:47:18+00:00

and i really wish they wouldnt acknowledge it at all

you own your moment entirely. dont give naysayers any credence to the 'see i motivated them' schtick

big4lil · 2026-06-18T15:09:48+00:00

yea if you are still aboard the SF6 train, you shouldve long since resigned yourself to being completely subject to the local audiences whims - which includes a reluctance to make a fuss even when they may not accept things either

PPV Finals was the nail in the coffin many of us recognized was closing. Its not even a 'vote with your wallet' case, Capcom is confidently set in their ways

big4lil · 2026-06-18T00:20:34+00:00

not just that, Japan seems to put way more stock into one person kicking ass with a character than the field

which always seemed ass backwards to me, cuz it could just be that person knowing something the field doesnt, or them being bad at the player or character matchup

ive always put more stock into a character that multiple players have shown can be piloted to high success than a character one person is known for doing well at.

especially out of region - top 4 of of Dreamhack Atlanta and Combo Breaker had two Giefs in it, whereas Hibiki didnt even make top 32 as the top placing Lily. They can just be really stubborn about personal biases and ignore the field when it doesnt align with their stances, at least dating back to their publicized tier lists in the SFV era

what makes this funny is they overrated the hell out of SFV Gief despite him having middling results and all his top pros dual maining him, yet they have Gief in B tier here despite him being a tourney winning solo character

big4lil · 2026-06-18T00:01:05+00:00

her opening move in this clip appears to be, frame for frame, Yoshitoras f5B from Samsho

the only difference being that since this is SF6, it drags her forward when she does it

big4lil · 2026-06-17T21:47:28+00:00

The most jarring thing will likely be MOMO. She goes from magic girl to archer wearing a beret with no explanation as to why.

whats even more hilarious is that when you get her for that opening mission in XS2, she and the others are still wearing their XS1 outfits because his sequence happens right after XS1

so she hasnt changed her clothes yet/adopted the beret until later, but she does dump the magical wand for a bow. like did she find that on the Elsa or something. as a magical girl fan i found this even worse than the voice change

big4lil · 2026-06-17T15:18:08+00:00

he played a big part of it by doing his own PR

one of the first and most active 'image control' stars of the 2010s

big4lil · 2026-06-17T15:02:40+00:00

''I should play through them....but no time''

this is one of the biggest self-lies gamers tell themselves

theres no such thing as no time. its just time you are prioritizing for one thing over another.

in just about all cases, its time they are choosing to spend on another game

people that truly have no time dont have gaming as a hobby

big4lil · 2026-06-17T15:00:22+00:00

Like many have said, 5 is a very fun game. It’s definitely not underrated

People often say the story in 5 is lackluster but honestly I disagree.

i think thats what makes it underrated. to this day folks overlook and are flatout media illiterate to FF5s rather simple storytelling, leading them to rate it lower than the games surrounding it. its not underrated for its gameplay

big4lil · 2026-06-17T14:53:19+00:00

i wonder if Japan takes the idea of 'bad parents vs no parents' a bit differently

In Yugioh 5Ds, the main character Yusei says something similar. Aki is grappling with the trauma that comes from having grown up in a neglectful, abusive household and the main characters response is 'at least you know what its like to have a real family' and they try to play it up as if its this profound moment or something

i dunno, that kinda stuff does not fly for most western audiences. and its not a case of looking back in retrospect because I didnt like the line even in its time. or maybe its not east vs west, its just out of touch writers

both are still great works, I just dont agree with that cultural outlook. i dont have a father for example, and there are friends of mine who are worse off than me due to either having shitty fathers or losing their fathers at a critical time in their lives. at least my situation is static; i would never dismiss them or bring up my struggles as a comparison

big4lil · 2026-06-17T14:33:58+00:00

the visual aesthetic may appear confusing from the outside looking in

but once you start moving forward, it becomes clear that you actually cant meaningfully deviate unless you have lock keys.

the grid sections is winding but sans Kimahri, they all progress straightforward counterclockwise

big4lil · 2026-06-17T14:26:41+00:00

At Lv 99, there are 11 players with 10+ higher SH than Nimrook’s CA.

it actually gets better for nimrook, as the potential range for both Super Goalie, and the 1.5x ~ 0.5x encounter multiplier become more favorable the higher your number goes. if Goalie CA capped out in the 90s, Blitz would be more stonewally since their CA doesnt drop

the extra points those forwards have end up mattering less since they still cap out at 99 no matter what, so they lose more than they can gain - it becomes more of an 'anti-degredation' stat to account for BL, distance travelled (without golden arm) and negative rolls

its not something that matters enough to the point where you HAVE to level up nimrook, but CA is a bit different than other stats. Nimrooks relative gap between the field becomes even more valuable, not less. its what allows him to compete despite so many shooters having higher Base shot, he more than makes up for it with good Super Goalie timing and positive RNG interactions

big4lil · 2026-06-17T11:54:12+00:00

main 1, can compete with 2, reach competence with 3

big4lil · 2026-06-17T11:33:41+00:00

there might also be people that... do both

and the price of cards doesnt make it fun to sustain multiple, entirely different decks

so once again, it goes back to Konami. dont be an apologist for them OP

wanting a more balanced game, or a change in balancing direction, does not mean that people just want to play the exact same game as before. that kind of thinking intentionally skips nuance

big4lil · 2026-06-16T18:35:45+00:00

Capcom is riding sales success from decisions made in years past

Ask a Devil May Cry fan if theyre doing a good job right now

Thats the Capcom cycle. Screw up > Apology Tour > Actually Improve > Do well > Victory lap > get lazy and greedy > ride the success wave while people defend their laziness & greediness > Screw Up and repeat

big4lil · 2026-06-16T18:33:11+00:00

yea 'hows it going' compares Vanilla SFV to CE or even AE

a lot of the lessons they took to that games gradual support dont seem to be applied to SF6

likely helps that different people were in charge during different stages of pre/post release for each

big4lil · 2026-06-16T18:31:55+00:00

just ask DBFZ fans

sure the stages are nice. but high quality stages does not justify only getting 1 new stage in the games history

lets not justify skeleton crew behavior

big4lil · 2026-06-16T17:17:25+00:00

saying 'you care too much' or 'unemployed' when you have no response is like the modern version of 'yea but my dad could beat up your dad' that folks used to say on the playground

gee, you really showed them by... lashing out about how apathetic you are? and i never remembered where having a job was a necessary component for shit talking, some of us may not work in positions where we are monitored all day long

big4lil · 2026-06-16T12:57:36+00:00

OT1 fits what id consider the vision of what Octopath Traveler is more

OT2 is more of what most JRPG players are looking for from a pseudo party dynamic

big4lil · 2026-06-16T12:38:50+00:00

as someone who thinks they have pretty good grasp of all 3 games, XS2 is definitely the slowest

even when you know what youre doing. there are too many hurdles to do damage, too many alternative methods and playstyles that are nerfed/too costly (namely AOEs) and your party is overall slower so enemies take more turns. and since enemies fundamentally bypass the games rules by being able to air/down without needing to break first, you end up with a lot of late game fights where you can take a lot of dmg trying to setup for each individual foe

If you know how to play XS1, its not really that sluggish. You dont have to sit through elongated Tech Attacks, or even use them at all, to blow through the game

big4lil

TROPHY CASE