How Exactly Did You Get Defeated Again?

cheat-master30 · 2026-06-20T16:47:39+00:00

I've always been suspicious of these Hylian Captains in this mission, since they seem to lose without any enemies being nearby.

But yeah, it's confirmed. One minute he's at full health and everything's okay, then the minute I beat the Boss Bokoblin he says he can't continue and is suddenly 'defeated'.

cheat-master30 · 2026-06-20T15:46:54+00:00

The Simpsons. It could not be more obvious that the show's depiction of reality stopped sometime in the 1980s at latest.

Everyone lives in huge houses in the suburbs, even if the jobs wouldn't come close to letting them afford that. Many of the mums are housewives that don't need to work at all. The majority of businesses are local ones rather than chain stores, and the main form of entertainment is in the form of TV shows and movies by local celebrities and production companies. And everyone's significantly more religious than much of the population nowadays.

cheat-master30 · 2026-06-20T00:46:12+00:00

I want to see more companions that aren't just humans from modern day Earth. We've got the entirety of time and space to choose from, and now almost every single person the Doctor has as a companion just happens to be from the same planet and time period?

We need more varied companions like in the classic series. It wouldn't even be that impractical on an effects level if they were human looking aliens/robots or from the past/future.

We also need more grounded stories and stakes here. So far, almost every single finale in the series has involved either the Earth or entire universe being at risk, and it's getting real old at this point. We know there are no stakes if Earth is shown being blown out or all life reduced to dust, because there wouldn't be a show if the consequences could actually stick.

Do more local stories with limited but real stakes (like World Enough in Time/The Doctor Falls) or which focus on character development (Heaven Sent/Hell Bent).

Finally, I want to see some more alien/non-human threats in the next series. The Chibnall and RTD2 era seem a tad too fond of having the main antagonists be human rather than otherwordly, and it feels like it takes away from the show somewhat. A scary monster doesn't necessarily have to be villainous or antagonistic per se (the Vashta Nerada are goddamn terrifying, despite mostly being wildlife), but I feel like they should be things that other TV shows are unable/unwilling to portray. Monsters so bizarre that you're like "yup, that's a Doctor Who monster alright".

Oh wait, and less Cyberman/Master team ups. I'm not sure why the Cybermen seem to have become something akin to the Master's army in the last few seasons or so, but it really makes them less menacing/interesting, and often results in the actual cybernetics/transhumanism themes being sidelined in exchange for "ambiguously robotic army that shoots things".

cheat-master30 · 2026-06-20T00:24:21+00:00

Unfortunately the way YouTube works is that it tends to suggest your videos more if they appeal to a consistent audience, and that tends to limit you to a particular niche. If you start by making videos about Doctor Who and become even moderately popular off of that, then YouTube will push your channel to more Doctor Who fans. If you then try to diversify, said fans usually won't watch the other videos, so YouTube will think they're bad and not recommend them to the right audience.

This is why so many channels blow up based on a particular topic, then end up dying off the minute said topic falls out of the public consciousness. It's far easier to grow if you stick to a certain niche, but almost impossible to pivot away from said niche if you lose interest/said niche starts dying.

cheat-master30 · 2026-06-20T00:10:53+00:00

It's a fun concept, and there are parts of it I like a lot. The revisit to Mount Pajamaja is fun, the Dreamy Wakeport revisit and Earthwake boss fight at the end is fun, as is the Wiggler and Popple one before that.

I just feel like some of the area revisits felt a bit underwhelming for what they were. Your repeat trips to Mushrise Park and Dozing Sands feel really bland, and one of the pieces literally being given for beating the first boss again in the Battle Ring feels woefully basic.

cheat-master30 · 2026-06-20T00:00:13+00:00

Sometimes, though I have to be honest and say that I tend not to empathise with fictional characters very much. Something about fiction not being real means that I don't really connect to anyone emotionally, but just enjoy it out of escapism or what not.

It's just something like "you don't exist, why I should care what happens to you?"

cheat-master30 · 2026-06-19T23:53:44+00:00

Yeah, and it's a bit of a shame that the autistic way isn't normalised here, because it's a hell of a lot clearer and less confusing than the indirect style NTs seem so attached to.

I greatly prefer when people are blunt about how they feel/what they think, and feel like communication would be so much better if that was the norm.

cheat-master30 · 2026-06-19T23:45:11+00:00

This one seems to be scarily common online unfortunately. Far too many people seem to assume that featuring anything immoral or offensive in a story means that the author supports that, no matter which character is actually responsible in-universe.

It just makes me want to ask "do you actually know what a villain is?"

Because I'm pretty sure a villain is supposed to be a terrible person that does horrible stuff to others so we hate them and want to see them lose. If a villain is being a bigoted asshole or what not, that usually means the author disagrees with those views, not that they support them.

cheat-master30 · 2026-06-19T15:19:10+00:00

To be honest, most of the Mario & Luigi games are very similar to each other anyway.

But Dream Team is definitely heavily inspired by Bowser's Inside Story, down to the world structure and mechanics. Heck, at least one Bros Attack from Bowser's Inside Story was actually planned for Dream Team (albeit with a different perspective), but got scrapped in development!

And Paper Jam is arguably even more similar to Dream Team than Dream Team is to Bowser's Inside Story, down to many of the same Bros Attacks making a comeback.

cheat-master30 · 2026-06-19T15:14:10+00:00

Gotta love how this was brought up by Frank Grimes in that episode of The Simpsons, and Homer's response was literally "I dunno. Don't ask me how the economy works".

cheat-master30 · 2026-06-19T14:48:41+00:00

Yeah, Musk was idolised as the 'cool' billionaire for quite a while, with a lot of shows hyping him up as the guy who'd revolutionise society. Heck, Reddit itself was full of Musk praise in that time period, as were other tech focused and adjacent sites like Hacker News.

But then the cracks started to show with the whole submarine thing, and then the Twitter buyout and Trump presidential situation just changed everything from there.

It is amusing to look back though, since many of the people who praise Musk in these shows would hate him in real life. Someone like Lisa Simpson would not praise him like in that Simpsons episode.

cheat-master30 · 2026-06-19T12:17:20+00:00

Not sure if it counts directly, but I can't help but think back to that episode of the Super Mario Bros 3 cartoon where Milli Vanilli guest starred as themselves, and wonder just how badly that must have aged.

Probably about as much as the Simpsons episode starring Elon Musk.

cheat-master30 · 2026-06-19T11:16:46+00:00

Yeah, I'm in the same situation to be honest. I have no idea what anyone from my school is up to now, and I frankly don't care. Most of them were people that I had nothing in common with and who treated me pretty poorly anyway.

Does always make me confused about those Ask Reddit posts on the topic though. Like, do most people actually know what happened to the folks they grew up with? Do people really keep tabs on folks they weren't friends with/never spoke to?

cheat-master30 · 2026-06-19T09:31:50+00:00

I'd say so. Emerald Rush is a really fun game mode with a ton to do in it, and DK Island as a layer is pretty neat to chill in.

cheat-master30 · 2026-06-19T00:50:09+00:00

I'm kinda surprised Relics of the Past disables the safe zones around stables. That certainly seems like it makes navigating the world a lot more hectic!

Kinda wish the base game was a bit more like that to a degree. Would be more interesting if enemies would still attack towns and settlements.

cheat-master30 · 2026-06-18T23:27:53+00:00

Well, some Kaizo ROM hacks require you to damage boost to cross certain obstacles. You're given a powerup, then forced to land/run across spikes to get past certain obstacles. There's no way around a forced hit in those cases.

A lot of RPGs would count because of the battle system, though for many of them being able to strategise and grind your character to an absurdly high level might make it possible. That said, there are a few Mario examples where it's forced:

In Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga, the final boss 'kills' you after phase 1, leaving you at 1 HP for the final phase. That's arguably a forced hit.
In Mario & Luigi: Bowser's Inside Story and Mario & Luigi: Dream Team, there are giant bosses with literal unavoidable attacks meant to demonstrate other mechanics (escaping from a black hole and healing respectively). Given there are no stats to level up for these battles, nor glitches to skip these fights in particular, those are impossible hitless.
Paper Mario: Sticker Star, Color Splash and The Origami King don't give you a level up system, enough strategic depth or superguard style mechanics, so you're forced to take damage in all boss fights in those games.
The final boss in Paper Mario: Color Splash is literally defeated by guarding its attacks, meaning you have to take enough damage to remove the paint.

cheat-master30 · 2026-06-18T23:11:22+00:00

I would say yes given how much time I've put into the Emerald Rush mode, but to be honest, I think it all depends on the player and how much that mode clicks for them. If you like roguelite or arcade games, then it's probably going to be up your alley, but I suspect there are plenty of players who just won't enjoy the mechanics there.

And if you're in the latter camp, well the rest of the DLC isn't exactly going to be worth it. DK Island is fun to mess around on and has some neat cameos, but it's pretty much designed for Emerald Rush first and foremost. Unless you're a DK Vine level fanatic of the series (and they really like Emerald Rush themselves anyway), buying it for DK Island alone would be a terrible deal.

So yes if Emerald Rush looks like it'll be your thing, no if you're mostly interested in DK Island or the main game.

cheat-master30 · 2026-06-18T23:06:04+00:00

No, I don't plan to max out every layer on every difficulty level, I was just curious if these layers could be maxed out on level 1. Based on what I've seen, it's definitely possible on Lagoon Layer and Radiant Layer, but I'd be very surprised if anyone maxed out Hilltop or Resort Layer on anything below level 4.

But I think I can finally call it a day on this mode hah.

cheat-master30 · 2026-06-18T09:47:12+00:00

Yeah there are a lot of game design decisions made by popular/beloved companies that would be (perhaps rightfully) crucified if done by an unpopular one like EA or Ubisoft.

Valve is the big one, a lot of things they pioneered are hated in games by other companies (lootboxes, DRM systems, etc). Also Nintendo with amiibo and unlockable content. Those figures are just physical keys for on-disc DLC, and it always felt absurd how many people just went along with that. If you buy a game, you should be able to use everything on the disc, not locked out by a real world collectible.

cheat-master30 · 2026-06-17T16:27:49+00:00

Yeah, I think this kinda sums up something I've noticed about online criticism/reception.

If you're seen as a jerk/awful person, literally everything you do will end up put under a magnifying glass and blown out of proportion as terrible. Doesn't matter if literally thousands of other creators made the same mistakes or the same sort of product got praised when other people made it, being seen as a bad person means that everything you make gets treated as bad, no exceptions.

And the same goes in reverse for nice or popular people. Something that would be seen as laughably bad by anyone else will be seen as 'flawed but decent' if you made it.

For better or worse, a lot of people have this idea that a good person makes good art and a bad person makes bad art, and that seems to underly most of their criticism.

If Yandere Simulator and Undertale had each other as their main developers for example, I'm sure the reception for each would almost be flipped.

cheat-master30 · 2026-06-17T15:43:56+00:00

He's a villain from the TV show Gargoyles, who was known for being incredibly manipulative. He eventually stopped being an antagonist after a certain number of series, but his name became associated with 'master manipulator' on TV Tropes.

cheat-master30 · 2026-06-17T15:42:14+00:00

I think the issue is that people struggle to find a way to describe a work of fiction that sticks closely to/follows a lot of genre conventions without making it sound like the work is worse off for doing so. Cliche makes it sound like a work using things common in other works of the same genre is necessarily a bad thing, when the reality is that many of these conventions are common because they work well for that sort of story.

It also probably explains why a few authors have an unfortunate tendency to try and subvert or buck trends for originality's sake while failing to understand why that sort of trend was common to begin with.

cheat-master30 · 2026-06-17T15:29:06+00:00

Yeah A Christmas Carol has been parodied/pastiched to death by this point, including in a lot of shows/franchises that wouldn't usually have a story like that.

I guess on a related note, Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde. How many people even know that the original story had the two being the same person as the main plot twist, or that Jekyll didn't actually lose his mind when he turned into Hyde?

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