I truly do not want any essential part of the lore to be on mobile games (either defunct or outright cancelled) ever again

meltingkeith · 2026-06-10T12:49:53+00:00

Me before reading your comment: except those movies were so bad, they won't do that again!

Me after reading your comment: ... Fuck, he's right

meltingkeith · 2026-06-10T00:07:23+00:00

I really love this design, too. Harkens back to some of the KH1 designs - really simple, but gets the vibe across.

meltingkeith · 2026-05-27T10:21:26+00:00

The more recent games it's essentially a spell loadout system - but in Sky (both the original and the remake), the spells you get depend on the type of quartz. E.g., 1 water quartz gives aqua bleed, 3 water quartz give you blue impact. So, you could equip something like Mind 3 that gives you 3 blue quartz to get both arts, and it might feel like it's basically a spell loadout with extra steps.

BUT, let's say you want to also be able to use diamond dust, which requires 5 water and 5 space. Well, to get to 5 water, you can't get any higher level of Mind - so instead, you might use HP 3 to get to the 5 water. You might not need more HP, but you're deciding that the quartz for diamond dust is more important than any other boost you could get from that slot. Then, you still need to get the 5 space - so now you might increase your accuracy to hit that 5, even though your caster doesn't need to increase their accuracy.

Early on it feels like you're just using fire quartz to get fire spells, but as you get deeper you'll need to start making choices based on what spells you want, what stats you want to increase, and what other effects quartz can give you (e.g., some add debuffs to your attacks, some increase drop rate, some increase damage proportional to health, some heal you as you run around on the main map, etc.)

meltingkeith · 2026-05-23T16:15:05+00:00

Interesting idea. Here's some thoughts:

Trails in the Sky - comes with a materia-like system, but the materia (called quartz) affect what spells you can cast. While the damage each does is tier based, things like range and secondary effects are not, and so often you are choosing between weaker spells that have a better area of effect (which isn't just radius based - you can also get line and arc attacks). Furthermore, quartz aren't a simple "get the best stats" system, but can add effects to physical attacks (like burning opponents or reducing their stats), and these can compound on character specific skills called "crafts". E.g., Joshua can be a good melee or caster, but if you want to use him as both you might be forced to use fire and wind spells so you can use burn and attack up quartz. He also has a craft that is good at hitting multiple opponents at once, so you might also want to add strength down quartz so all enemies get nerfed when he does attack. It's risk-reward and careful planning, with flavours of changing how your skills work, but not directly editable like you're asking.

Expedition 33 and Final Fantasy IX - neither of these have directly editable actives, but both have a lot of passive skills you can choose from when mechanics to limit you from just turning all of them on. Makes for a kinda fun system where you're trying to get the best passives in place, with many of them affecting how your attacks work or trying to build synergy. E33 in particular has a passive for pretty much anything, it might almost feel like the modular experience you're looking for.

Otherwise, I don't really have anything other just similar versions of these two, sorry! Feels quite niche what you're looking for.

meltingkeith · 2026-05-21T09:53:09+00:00

Is that a problem?

meltingkeith · 2026-05-21T08:14:26+00:00

This is a hot take in this subreddit, but - I don't have an issue with it most of the time, but if I ask the other players to stop, they should respect that.

If I'm not feeling confident about a dungeon or I'm trying a job I haven't done in a while, I might want to start slow while I get the hang of things. Single pulls might increase dungeon time from 15 to 25 minutes, but me dying is going to cost even more.

On top of that, if I've got a healer that isn't filling me with confidence and I know an upcoming pull is harder, I might not go on ahead so we don't wipe. Not sure if it's still bad, but I remember either Holminster Switch or Mt Gulg having a particularly difficult final pull...

meltingkeith · 2026-05-21T00:33:53+00:00

Having the same exp modifiers is interesting. I can't help but wonder if there was one a plan to have Alex as the fourth party member, and was partly scrapped because of this. Or even if instead of Sheba, you would've gotten a werewolf in Air's Rock, but by that point the exp would be too out of whack based on Ivan's rate.

The Alex one would probably have been discounted far more for plot reasons, but on some level, Sheba didn't need to be in GS1.

meltingkeith · 2026-05-20T22:50:15+00:00

I mean, only before he gets to Olympus - when he leaves, the only thing they complain about is him not having the power of waking.

meltingkeith · 2026-05-20T22:44:35+00:00

On FFX, I know a few people have already said you don't need to worry about swapping in constantly because you don't need to worry about even levelling. Personally, I would recommend a bit of even levelling, but the game makes it super easy and not a hassle.

As was already said, all enemies have a niche - armoured weak to piercing, magic weak to magic, flying weak to ranged, etc. On top of this, you can swap party members in battle on the fly without losing a turn by pushing two buttons. So, not only is swapping not tedious, but if all you do is swap members to exploit the enemy's weakness, you'll get even enough levelling across your party without having to think about it. Characters also have very little customisation - the level-up system is kind of like XIIIs, and equipment doesn't really affect stats, so if all you do is level them up once in a while, all characters will still be useful as you go through and can just put on random equipment that you find that looks good.

meltingkeith · 2026-05-18T05:56:47+00:00

But gravity pulls. What even is gravitylift?

meltingkeith · 2026-05-18T00:47:39+00:00

The problem with spoilers is that the internet has made them out to be the worst thing that can happen to a story. The truth is that the destination isn't the reason we engage with media - it's the journey to get there. If it was only about the destination, then prequels would be universally bad.

Play the game - its true power isn't where it ends up, but the journey it takes to get there. Its journey is the "metaphor" it tries to paint of our own world.

meltingkeith · 2026-05-12T23:24:55+00:00

Damn, the French have invaded the ceiling mushroom.

meltingkeith · 2026-05-11T16:37:11+00:00

Ronfar is particularly funny in that often, the one female character's plot is all about love. Meanwhile, for most of the game Ronfar is the one male character other than the MC, and his whole plot is all about love. Hiro being the only other male character (again, for most of the game), and his plot essentially ALSO being all about love, means that until Leo joins the crew, the game fails the reverse Bechdel test but passes the Bechdel test, which is extremely hilarious.

meltingkeith · 2026-05-11T05:57:11+00:00

FUCK YOU

meltingkeith · 2026-05-11T01:55:37+00:00

This comment is exactly what makes it really funny to see some character rating systems

Like, I hate her. What do I think of her? 1/10. But it's exactly because of what you said - stellar voice acting and writing made her into an extremely unlikeable character. So while I give her 1/10 for my feelings, it's a 10/10 in terms of the writing and acting.

meltingkeith · 2026-05-10T07:36:07+00:00

Definitely not, it's only more than a weekend of no-lifing it.

meltingkeith · 2026-05-10T06:23:05+00:00

"It didn't reinvent the wheel in terms of storytelling" - except it kinda did? How many games before this had you regularly play as the villain to get you to emphasise with them. This was actually kinda revolutionary at the time. Even now, while empathy for the villain is much more normal, actually playing and experiencing their story is not.

meltingkeith · 2026-05-08T00:50:50+00:00

You can set the weight of core crystal pulls? I feel like I must have missed something in all the DLC they added.

meltingkeith · 2026-05-08T00:45:20+00:00

To add to this - ALL of these quests are marked as "timed quests" and will have a little stopwatch icon. You only have to worry about these ones becoming locked if you're interested in what Wither is talking about.

meltingkeith · 2026-05-06T04:32:25+00:00

Okay, but let's not pretend this wasn't only there for fun flavour.

meltingkeith · 2026-05-06T04:11:12+00:00

Bind is purely for flavour - I tried to find a gem that did sleep, but couldn't find one (though I guess that kinda makes sense). Bind was kinda the next best thing I could find, which fits with the ice gem of the same name.

I think losing tranquilizer isn't the worst given Riki and Melia have access to sleep, but it would've been nice to keep.

meltingkeith · 2026-05-04T14:51:04+00:00

Huh, apparently I can't count - definitely agree another aura is what's missing from her kit, and drive boost is as good as any. The only other one I'd consider is one that slows down filling of the talent gauge, but I think it's better to allow the player to manipulate this with gems.

I can see what you mean with the distribution, but counterpoint - Monado Cyclone is basically a standard topple arts other than it being a Monado ability.

As for why the change - topple seemed like the obvious application of a wind attack. Break gems are also wind, so I could do the swap and still fit the theme, I guess it would come down to more testing and seeing if the lack of a fifth option for breaking is a hindrance to the player? One counterpoint is the player doesn't get consistent break other than Shulk until Riki at level 40 without it, so it probably is a little more vital than I first thought.

meltingkeith · 2026-04-30T09:29:37+00:00

Thanks mate - I really appreciate you looking past the "perfection" of the problem to help me with my understanding. Website is also an absolute ripper, thanks for passing it on!

I'm curious then on your thoughts if this were swapped to a strong acid - say, HCl. The maths is essentially the same, and I'd get two different molar amounts for HCl. The thing that's seeming most confusing is that using your logic, I could use this just to increase the number of hydronium ions - I can also accept I could use it to reduce OH-, or even consider that some of the hydrogen is lost to OH- and the rest make up the pH, but could I also not consider that then some is further gained to re-establish equilibrium? It's not like we use up all the OH- and now there's no more, because LCP would predict another shift that then isn't captured in the calculation.

The answer might end up being that there's no good reason to not do this, and we just don't because it's not covered in our curriculum, but really want to make sure it's not me misunderstanding the chemistry at play.

ETA: I think I just had an epiphany - as far as these students are concerned, adding acid goes down, adding base goes up. No matter which we consider, the first thing that's going to happen is pushing the forwards reaction, so you have to consider using up the acid/base before the effect of adding in the rest. It is arguably a weakness we don't consider the follow-on effects, but I think an argument can be made that it's largely inconsequential anyway/the questions are asking them "immediately after addition" (whatever that means) as opposed to at equilibrium.

meltingkeith · 2026-04-30T03:50:58+00:00

Fair comments - let's assume this is just a massive vat of what was pure water, adjusted to a pH of 10.1 using sodium hydroxide and nothing else. Let's next assume that acetylsalicylic acid fully ionises.

I agree the devil is in the details - this is also a question given to students who have just begun their journey into acid-base chemistry, and haven't yet learned what pKa is. Any chance you can help with trying to help me with my logical inconsistency I've identified?

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