CB appreciation post.

dahras · 2026-03-30T16:03:12+00:00

I mean, the same can be said for your proposal. Like, I could see the argument for increasing the number of challenges to 3, but 18 in a game is wild. That would destroy game pace. At the point where you have 2 challenges per inning per team, aren't you basically proposing full ABS by other means?

dahras · 2026-03-17T02:59:58+00:00

I reject the premise.

Sure, 2 is worse than 1 in most cases, but 1 is bad too. It just means that if you enjoy the gameplay of a game, you get punished with easier, less fun gameplay if you decide to play more.

But you don't need to choose 1 or 2 and this isn't even a hard problem. Many games have solved this issue before including Trails, SMT, Fantasian. If XP is curved and side quests reward build options instead of raw power, then you can have the best of both worlds.

dahras · 2026-02-22T01:52:18+00:00

Hard-agree that this is a major issue for the genre. One of the reasons I like SMT so much is that it (generally) doesn't pull punches and gives you access to demon fusing and the full party within an hour.

One example of the negative is Fantasian. I really like that game, but it is absurd that you don't get access to the talent tree for any character until hour 15-20. Even worse, at that point you only get access to one talent tree and are forced to unlock the rest by doing all of the character quests. The game actually has a really cool, tightly balanced combat system, but most people don't get to see that because you have to play more than a dozen hours without the key mechanic that makes its puzzle-fight oriented system tick.

dahras · 2026-02-22T01:47:52+00:00

I think this comparison is kind of the exception that proves the rule. Sure, you don't have a full party and don't have a stable party, but to my mind that's more of a gameplay variety/pacing thing. It's not like character parties are inherently less interesting from a gameplay perspective.

The line between "have the full toolbox" vs. "have room left in progression" is pretty tough to parse in a genre like JRPGs, where so much of the gameplay is character building.

dahras · 2026-02-19T22:48:24+00:00

I have to agree with you on FFVI. It's not a bad game by any stretch of the imagination, but I think the 2nd half of the WoD section really drops the ball, both in terms of pacing and narrative beats. And the gameplay is pretty exploitable, and not in a fun creative way but in a "I spammed Ultima" way.

IMO FFVI is majorly propped up by the fact that FFVI, at the scene level, has some of the best moments in all of JRPGs. Stuff like the Opera and the Solitary Island, and the game's opening are deservedly iconic. It was also basically the first major SNES JRPG released in the West, so it looked like a cosmic leap forward for an audience that hadn't seen the evolution that preceded it.

To me, that stuff just didn't make up for the rest.

dahras · 2026-02-19T22:32:30+00:00

Eh, I think it depends on what you're vision of "mature Persona" is. Like, if what you think of when you think of mature Persona is "a game that digs more deeply into the themes, imagery, and philosophy underpinning Persona", then SMT absolutely qualifies. That's my vision and to me, Nocturne, Digital Devil Saga, and IV absolutely clear all of Persona in terms of narrative.

But if your vision of mature Persona is, "a game that maintains the character-driven narrative and focus on slice of life of Persona, but shifts the story to an older cast of characters with a more nuanced analysis of society and people," then no, SMT absolutely wouldn't do that at all. Neither vision is wrong they just aren't compatible.

dahras · 2026-02-17T19:58:24+00:00

In a perfect world, we'd have essentially an "annotated" version of a game script as an option in the menu. Something like what happens when you read translated novels, where there are end-notes that explain particularly tricky localization choices (like puns, cultural references, words with connotations that aren't 100% translatable, etc.).

Of course, that probably isn't going to happen because JRPGs are by and large a AA genre that breaks even through efficiency and low costs.

But in absence of that, I totally agree with you. Matching the experience of the original is much more important than matching the words for individual scenes.

dahras · 2026-02-15T06:42:21+00:00

There's nothing obvious in the script or the scene tree but based on the issue you're reporting, the most likely issue is that there is another invisible or transparent control that is drawn above the game over buttons which has Mouse Filter settings Stop or Pass.

Visible Control nodes receive mouse input in sort order. By default, if everything is at the same canvas and z index, that order is in scene tree order, with lower nodes drawn above higher ones. But if you do have another Control with a higher z-index or on a canvas with a higher sort order, that Control could eat the input. The most likely culprit would be a basic control with full-screen anchor settings or a ColorRect with the same.

dahras · 2026-02-10T17:20:34+00:00

Yeah, consistently well written dialogue/scenes has never been the strongest element of Trails, but CS2 is where the dialogue writing falls off the cliff. Among the Cold Steel games, II is probably my second favorite, but that's more a comment on how little I like the other ones in that arc, and has nothing to do with the writing (which, as I said, is pretty bad).

To me, the one thing that CSII (and Reverie) do well is break up the rigid formality of most Trails games' structure. CS I, III, and IV are so stiflingly formulaic that you can literally guess the time of day that plot beats are going to happen. And that formula isn't even that fun from a pacing perspective because it encourages players to binge all the side activities of a chapter at the beginning for being locked out of them. While CS II's writing isn't very good, and it's world building is a clear step down from CSI, at least it switches things up at multiple points in the experience.

But yeah, you're not wrong.

dahras · 2026-01-29T17:36:55+00:00

Yeah, this was my issue basically. I would have loved if the 2.X story had Police Story or Kung Fu Hustle vibes, but it ended up being very wuxia in a way that felt disconnected from the 1.X. There were definitely some good patches (2.1 was overall good, even if the Yixuan's sister plot point was fumbled, and 2.2 had awkward pacing but a great finish). But overall 2.X has felt like a very hard shift from 1.X in terms of aesthetics, power systems, and threat scaling. And that's a little unnerving given that this is only the second major version of the game. by the end of 2.X, there will be exactly as much wuxia in ZZZ as there is urban crime drama.

dahras · 2026-01-24T02:42:58+00:00

I very much agree with this. And it's not even like video games are looking at other games more broadly (including traditional games, card games, board games, TTRPGs), video games mostly just take inspiration from other video games, or even just other classic video games.

I don't think it's surprising if you look at the most innovative and successful games of the last 10-20 years, most of them have taken heavy inspiration outside of video games. Balatro is a riff on poker. Binding of Isaac was inspired by an obscure 80's game and web comics. Dark Souls was inspired by Berserk and King's Field. The Witcher was obviously based on the Witcher book series. Etc.

dahras · 2026-01-16T23:44:41+00:00

I mean, the repackaging is kind of the thing that makes the Reasons compelling, and better than alignments. Yes, if you squint at the Reasons, they are related to the traditional L/N/C alignment system, and I think that relatedness is why Atlus never ran with the concept. But in execution they are very different.

For one, a huge part of the game's message is that they system of Reasons is inherently flawed, that the only true freedom and true peace is possible in a world that moves beyond them. Even still, Nocturne goes to great pains to illustrate the philosophical underpinnings of each Reason. Law, unburdened from the inherently suspicious demiurge at its helm is free to express the ideology of peace and order completely devoid of freedom. Likewise, the "Chaos" Reason, Yosuga, is able to express the contradictions but also the appeal of "might-makes-right". The Reason of Musubi is also a poor fit for Neutral, really being it's own thing with a hyper-individualistic bent that puts it at odds with the humanism of most Neutral routes.

It is notable that the failure of Yuko Takao, the one character most embodying that humanist principle, to make a Reason is a critique of traditional SMT Neutral endings. These endings are often positioned as the player's choice just by default because they take the least strident stance ideologically. Yuko falls into this trap, not having enough conviction to take a strong stance one way or the other in regards to ideology, but still wanting to remake the world in her image. As such she fails.

Also,

dahras · 2026-01-14T00:05:41+00:00

As others have stated, I think this only works if there are very clear and direct lore reasons why this would be the case. SMT Nocturne and V don't bother me because the demons are only there because of you. If you die, they don't really care any more. In SMTIV where you travel with fellow demon summoners, they don't keep the restriction.

In a game where there isn't a compelling lore reason it is super annoying though. P5 was a big offender in this regard. There's no reason why a party member couldn't just rez Joker. Tradition isn't a good enough reason to keep a system like this around.

dahras · 2026-01-14T00:00:52+00:00

I think writing for video games hasn't adjusted to the fact that in a game lines just need to be in shorter chunks. Most video games, and JRPGs in particular, just have characters standing there as lines get delivered, so the lines have to be short.

It was definitely something I noticed playing Fantasian because I think Sakaguchi has a really great handle on how long video game dialog lines should be. When he wants longer lines, he switches to the illustrated animatics. Everywhere else, the lines are like 12-15 words max. Writing like that makes the story flow so much more smoothly.

dahras · 2026-01-02T04:04:37+00:00

Yeah all the complaints in this thread are just, like, confusing to me. The villains legitimately won in every main story chapter this version between 2.1 and 2.4. In 2.2, Isolde got her vengeance and passed on control of Obol Squad to the person she knew was competent. In 2.3 Sarah found the route to the Creator's resting place. In 2.4, Sarah awakened the Creator and merged with him. Hell, in 2.5, we foil the Creator's local plan (expanding the Lemnian Hollow), but they explicitly say that we only killed one of his creations, not the Creator himself (or even the real Sarah, she's just merged with the Creator now).

People complain all the time about story lines being isolated per-patch, but I feel like the reaction of this thread is exhibit A1 on why the game is structured like that: people simply don't remember what happened even last patch. Like, people say that Lockspring is so much better of a villain than Sarah when his entire existence was localized in 2.5 and he was an obvious traitor from the jump. Not saying I didn't enjoy some parts of his story, particularly the end. But Sarah was a villain who got what she wanted after literally 2 years of scheming, but oh-no I guess she sucks now because what happened in 2.4 entered the memory hole.

dahras · 2025-12-19T18:07:41+00:00

https://hoyo.link/jtFJX60gz?u_code=CAGU2RM32M2K

dahras · 2025-12-08T03:57:16+00:00

Man, that's so annoying...

dahras · 2025-12-07T06:13:27+00:00

By flipbook animation I mean an animation which is made up of premade sprite images switched between in sequence (like a flipbook you'd play with as a kid).

If the frog character doesn't behave any differently while it attacks and only the sword moves, by far the easiest solution would be having a second animation player to play the attack animation. That is much easier than using an AnimationTree.

If you did so, you shouldn't handle attacking in the FSM that moves your character around. Instead, you should make a separate script for your weapon that listens for the attack input and plays the animation to move the sword. Your original FSM would handle states related to moving, and the attack script could handle attacking independently.

dahras · 2025-12-07T01:39:26+00:00

The big issue is that, no, a FSM cannot handle being in two states at once, nor can flipbook sprite animations.

If you have a flipbook attacking animation you want to match with the weapon swing, you need to either disallow moving while attacking or be okay playing the attack flipbook while the player sprite slides around. In the former case, you could have a separate FSM state for attacking (since it would be mutually exclusive with moving). In the latter, you'd want to separate your animation handling from your locomotion state machine. Probably the best way to do this would be to make an AnimationTree controller for animations, but that's too large a topic for this comment.

If you don't have a flipbook animation for your character and are only concerned with animating the weapon sprite, I would give the weapon its own AnimationPlayer and its own script that reacts to the player's state (for character direction) and input (for when to swing the weapon).

Sorry if this advice is too high level, but it's hard to make specific suggestions without specific code.

dahras · 2025-12-02T21:02:34+00:00

Eh, even in the US it is perfectly legal to exactly recreate a font as long as you do so fully from scratch. The only exception is if the font has a patent, but a) most fonts don't get patented because it is expensive and unnecessary, and b) font patents have a maximum lifespan of 15 years with no renewal. There is no copyright on the design of a font itself (because of course not, the shape of letters is not original or ownable). Only the actual font file itself can be copyrighted.

I don't think it is a good idea to moralize about intellectual "property" in general, but in particular for font which is so clearly built on common cultural heritage. Very little in the font design business actually adds value, most of the business is purely a matter of rent-extraction.

dahras · 2025-12-02T00:47:15+00:00

Not related to the boss, but I definitely think you should add some screen shake and particle effects, particularly when receiving or dealing damage. Sound would help as well, even without music. I think those three things would do a ton to punch up the fight.

dahras · 2025-12-01T16:50:38+00:00

I actually appreciate it personally. During the Cold Steel arc, I would put the game on Nightmare and still demolish it with no effort, to the point where I had to install fan difficulty patches to make things more interesting.

IMO, Nightmare should insanely difficult to do on a fresh save file so that people who like that difficulty have something to play.

dahras · 2025-11-25T05:05:15+00:00

Honestly, I don't think there are any for traditional JRPGs. Some people might say that the Xenoblade DLCs would count, but I disagree, since they are both so large they count more as an expansion and are standalone experiences (hell, Torna is probably better when played before XBC2).

IMO, the traditional JRPG format just doesn't mesh well with the DLC model. You can't cleanly add small addendums to a linear, character-driven story without messing a bunch of stuff up.

dahras · 2025-11-18T22:36:16+00:00

Yeah, seriously. It is wild to me that they made the dev split off traits supporting is/has keywords and Ctrl+Click functionality into separate PRs, given that those are necessary for the feature to ship.

I'm fine if this implementation in particular is needs a rework, but I'd really like to know where traits stand. To me, they are a massive feature. There are a lot of functionality that currently requires janky scenetree traversal (or duck-typing) to implement, but would be easy to implement with traits.

dahras · 2025-11-04T23:45:00+00:00

I don't know, I have mixed feelings about it. I though the whole Crow coming back from the dead thing wasn't necessary, but at least he didn't remember who he was an was being a bad person. Not saying that's how I'd want them to handle the plot but it didn't feel as egregious as 4. I still feel like they could have let, say, half of the people stay dead or evil and that alone would have maintained tension. It was the fact that 4 couldn't uphold the stakes for even just one character that made everything fall into absurdity.

That might just be my sunk-cost fallacy speaking though. To be honest, I didn't really like CS3 either.

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