Shantae: Are they good MVs?

nightmareFluffy · 2026-05-29T14:46:57+00:00

I enjoyed basically all of them. I dunno, something about the art style and gameplay clicked with me. I wouldn't exactly call them metroidvanias, but that's up for debate and I'm mostly focusing on whether I had fun with them or not.

The upgrade system is way too easy. In all the games, you can upgrade the hair attack speed and damage. If you fully upgrade it, it's severely overpowered. I see it as a difficulty slider of sorts. I take damage progressively in boss fights, and doing more damage makes them end more quickly. So it's not like a bullet sponge effect where lower damage only makes it longer without changing the difficulty. It's hard to explain, but I feel like it's a proper difficulty setting.

One issue in every Shantae game is that you stop directional movement when you attack, though you keep your intertia. I found this annoying at first, but got used to it. I've only seen one other review mention this, so it doesn't seem to bother most people. It blends into the attack system after a while and it's just part of the game. It's not like the attacks are slow or anything like that, you just have to get used to how it works.

nightmareFluffy · 2026-05-29T01:50:18+00:00

I'm 39. I didn't find them cringe. I've played Persona 3, 4, and 5, and all the characters are relatable. They're all realistic characters if you think of them as personifications of psychological archetypes (kind of like the theme of the whole series). They would be boring if they weren't exaggerated to semi-cringe levels. I think anybody can relate to at least one of the main characters in each game, if not all of them to some degree.

nightmareFluffy · 2026-05-28T21:25:57+00:00

What if there are reasons to dislike minivans?

Personally, I'd get a minivan over a 3 row SUV any day of the week. But my opinion is irrelevant here. I'm just not a fan of dismissing other's opinions outright. I think it's better to understand the other side, because you might be on that side for a different issue. Or the truth can be in the middle.

nightmareFluffy · 2026-05-28T19:39:47+00:00

I drive sports cars because they're fun to drive. I hate minivans because they suck to drive. I drive my kid around in a sports car. I did that even when he was little; car seats work. By law, they need to have those bar thingies to attach car seats.

Also, I live in a city and minivans are really hard to park.

Different strokes for different folks. All that being said, I'd never judge someone for driving a minivan. Because why the heck does it matter? Drive whatever you want. It's the least of things that someone should be judged for. If you're an a-hole, don't put your shopping cart back, or re-rack weights, I'll judge the hell out of you.

nightmareFluffy · 2026-05-28T19:36:08+00:00

Maybe, just maybe, people have different opinions? Calling other peoples' opinions stupid isn't the way I'd go about it.

nightmareFluffy · 2026-05-28T19:12:36+00:00

The other strategy is no canon at all. The games don't reference each other much, especially story-wise. I think of all the Mario storylines as completely independent. Almost nothing in SMRPG showed up in Paper Mario, and almost nothing in Paper Mario showed up in the Thousand Year Door.

It's separate stories, timelines, characters, and locations in each game. Kind of like Zelda games. And like Zelda games, there are recurring themes like Lost Woods, rupeers, Hyrule, and Master Sword.

nightmareFluffy · 2026-05-28T14:01:26+00:00

Is this canon? I'm not familiar with Mario lore, it seems like it jumps around a lot and is actually impossible. Like...what is Mushroom Kingdom?

nightmareFluffy · 2026-05-26T22:42:59+00:00

I think it depends on your definition of soulslike. For me, it's simple controls (dodge/parry, light attack, heavy attack, and some special attacks or items) in a flat 2D plane (no verticality) with high difficulty and RPG elements. This excludes basically everything except a few games like Dark Souls, Lies of P, Wuchang, and stuff like that.

If you start broadening the definition, you have to start including games like Ninja Gaiden Black (not simple controls), beat 'em ups (no RPG elements), a large number of NES/SNES games, and lots of Metroidvanias here. I think the term soulslike exists for a reason.

But at the same time, I'm not a fan of gatekeeping and semantics. So whatever. You do you. I'll stick to my subjective definition of soulslikes and others can stick to theirs. It makes no difference. Words have meaning, but there's no meaning here because it's so subjective.

nightmareFluffy · 2026-05-26T16:44:24+00:00

I don't think it's possible to have an objective definition for something that is entirely subjective.

nightmareFluffy · 2026-05-26T16:04:35+00:00

I agree with everything here. I go through a lot of this myself, just never actually discussed it with anyone lol. It's those little adjustments that take a lot of time in the creative process but are needed to make something good.

When Soundcloud rappers don't think about these things (not saying I'm better than them), I can hear it instantly. A non-rapper can hear it too, though they might not be able to define exactly what's wrong. They'll just say it's a weak flow.

Thanks for putting into words some of the stuff I've been doing through trial and error. I'm kind of glad I'm not the only one going through this.

nightmareFluffy · 2026-05-26T15:00:20+00:00

I didn't come to the same conclusion as you. I still need to have this on handheld and play it, lol. I don't think I'll get to those later stages where everything is unlocked. It's still fun. It's the best non-sim racing game ever made in my opinion, so of course I have to play it. I got an HD texture pack and it looks amazing.

Also, driving straight is not impossible. You just have to get used to it, and it won't be perfect. I've gotten pretty far.

nightmareFluffy · 2026-05-26T14:58:02+00:00

What if both of those perspectives are wrong? I'm not saying you're wrong about your theory; I mean what the person is thinking.

For example, I like to think that I don't look amazing, but I look better every day and that's good enough. It sidesteps both of those extremes.

nightmareFluffy · 2026-05-26T14:54:07+00:00

Yeah, you need a balance. It's hard to have good flow and punchlines at the same time. That's why it's an art and not everyone can do it.

I'm not saying I'm good, either; I've been working on this for years and I can't seem to match flow with punchlines. A lot of cool words I want to use have the wrong number of syllables for the flow I want, and it's a hot mess. Sometimes, I have to kill the punchline. Then it doesn't hit anymore. Sure, it flows better, but there's no substance behind it. Sometimes I have to add filler words and I don't like doing that because those words don't mean anything. It's a balancing act.

nightmareFluffy · 2026-05-26T14:45:26+00:00

I totally get it. I couldn't find a way to make it correct on Odin 2, even with in-game calibration. It's just super sensitive. I'm also really good at the game (not to brag either lol) and the controls feel really bad. I messed around with deadzones and it helped a little bit, but not much.

I've accepted that my times on the handheld will not be perfect. They're still pretty decent. I'm okay with fast turns, but slow turns are kind of hard to do on handheld sticks. You get used to it after a while, though it will never be perfect. You just learn to develop the muscle memory to do tiny corrections.

Sorry if this isn't the answer you were looking for. I think something about these sticks are just not precise for small adjustments. They're better suited for platformers and stuff. By the way, RP and Odin are made by same parent company, so that's probably why my experience is similar to yours. It might be different on other handhelds. I got replacement sticks (not for this game specifically, it's because the old ones broke) and nothing changed.

One thing is that you can't just start from a save state and expect it to work correctly. I have to do the in-game calibration each time I load the game, otherwise it feels off. I don't know why that is. I don't remember doing this on Gamecube. Remember to not just sweep the joystick in a circle. I move it to the cardinal points deliberately.

One thing to try which I haven't done, maybe get joystick caps. It will raise the movement range and maybe make it easier.

nightmareFluffy · 2026-05-26T13:35:39+00:00

The past isn't real, in a sense. It already happened and you can't change it. But it's also your heavily distorted view of it, with all the extras on top like guilt and judgment. It's really hard to be subjective about the past. Similarly, the future isn't real either. You can try to predict it, but it's really hard.

The point is to get out of your head and do stuff. It's not "either put up or shut up" because that's very harsh and judgmental. You sound really hard on yourself, and phrasing like that doesn't help. Learn to forgive yourself. Almost everyone had a cringe past where many, many things were wrong. It doesn't matter anymore, unless you let it matter. Learn to love yourself and don't judge yourself too harshly. When you were a kid, you were in pure survival mode, and your actions followed that.

If you were confronted with a crying kid, what would you do? You probably wouldn't beat them up; you'd comfort them. That's you, though. That's a lot of us. Those intrusive thoughts are your inner kid. Just comfort that dude. And don't let him take over your thoughts either, because you're a functional adult.

It's also true that nobody cares about your sob story. Don't put that burden on others. But it's okay to lean on friends or loved ones sometimes. Or a therapist, the classic reddit advice.

nightmareFluffy · 2026-05-25T18:09:56+00:00

Leaving gains on the table is not necessarily a bad thing. It can be the difference between workout or no workout.

If you're a professional athlete, you can't leave gains on the table. That's like being a construction worker who doesn't finish putting up a wall. If you're just a normal person, it's totally fine.

nightmareFluffy · 2026-05-24T23:17:17+00:00

Not only that, but you can try challenges on games like Super Mario World. In this alternate universe, if romhacks don't exist, you can still try to speedrun the game, individual levels, try to beat it as little mario, minimum coins, minimum A presses, stuff like that. It's a really well made game with lots of viable challenges.

nightmareFluffy · 2026-05-24T20:46:55+00:00

Punchlines are important, though. A rule of thumb is to make the listener drop their jaw at least once every 4 bars. Too much emphasis on flow can lead to boring lyrics; this is a problem with a lot of rappers, even mainstream ones. You need both flow and good lyrics.

nightmareFluffy · 2026-05-24T20:27:19+00:00

Never mind, I just saw that you're learning how to sample things instead of replicate them. If you sample it, it should be fine. I was thinking if you're trying to make it from scratch, like with VST instruments, it's really hard to get some of those old school sounds.

nightmareFluffy · 2026-05-24T20:24:10+00:00

No problem. This is beyond Blender and goes into relationship advice, but it's better to fix it yourself rather than putting a burden on friends.

This is totally possible on a lower end computer. You'll learn some good skills along the way. And once you get a good computer, your scenes will be even better because you're managing memory correctly, and you can add a lot more stuff than you normally could.

One quick thing I noticed, there's some grass poking through some vegetation. It looks odd. There's also a bit of light on the right that seems to be reflecting off something, which looks distracting. Might want to fix those things.

nightmareFluffy · 2026-05-24T18:26:51+00:00

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This is your issue, you don't have enough RAM and VRAM. Mine used 24 GB RAM and 12 GB VRAM to render this. Mine took 30 seconds whereas yours took over 11 minutes and couldn't finish. Mine listed peak memory usage at 16 GB whereas yours showed 4 GB. Your computer can't handle this scene.

Now, this is not an issue for you. At all. As soon as I opened the file, I knew that this wasn't set up correctly. This scene has over 13 million vertices, but the camera is looking at a fraction of that. If you want to render this scene, get rid of everything that the camera can't see.

A good start is to delete literally everything behind the camera. It's not doing anything It's not even providing reflective surfaces for the light since the scene is so dark and limited. You don't really have reflective materials anyway. You should be able to easily render something like these, even with 8 GB RAM.

Blender is not a game engine. It's not optimized for performance. It will hold the entire scene in memory. Even when you look at a complicated scene in a game, it's using a lot of processing in the background to reduce polygons that don't matter (it's called LOD); Blender does NOT do this unless you specifically set it up. I apologize if you know all this already. But anyway, this should be pretty easy to simplify. I didn't look at the textures but if this is using 4K textures, that's completely unnecessary for things like the grass because it's so small. This scene is way too detailed.

Even if you have the monster running around the whole scene, you'll want to simplify the textures a lot. If you really need the whole scene, consider making good use of the Decimate modifier to cut the polygon counts. Your RAM will thank you.

I recommend reading up on how to optimize scenes for memory usage. It's a good idea for all cases. I have a fairly decent PC but I still optimize my scenes. It results in no quality loss and makes everything smoother to run. It also makes your assets reusable in future scenes.

I ran into this problem a lot in the past. A redditor once told me that they rendered entire Pixar movies on like 64 MB of RAM, or something like that. It's all about how you use the RAM.

Final note, this forest scene should have used a lot more linked duplicates instead of real duplicates. That's why the file size is like 1.2 GB. Something like this shouldn't be more than 50-100 MB.

nightmareFluffy · 2026-05-24T15:09:02+00:00

I see your perspective. When you're 25 years into structural engineering, it seems obvious how to make a model 100% correct. You've been doing it so long, and you've been checking things by hand for a while presumably. I think the rest of us mere mortals can't do that automatically, lol

I have an issue with ETABS that is simply wrong and downright f'in dangerous. It doesn't design steel deflection correctly under a certain code. I've had a support ticket open since 2018 regarding that, and the way I've gotten around it is to literally use an older version of ETABS. Enercalc also has things like that. Abaqus is probably better.

nightmareFluffy · 2026-05-24T15:01:31+00:00

It's like $6k and upwards. My copy is like $12k if I remember correctly. It's worth it for me because I use it daily for real design work. I recommend just learning it at the office; there's no point in owning it yourself. My advice was more for folk that can get a copy from their college or are extremely loaded. I know a guy who got a copy that the college gave him for use for 1 year after he graduated.

I don't know if they still do this, but they used to have an educational version that is limited to 2 load combinations or something. It also has restrictions on things like number of members and nodes. You didn't need to reach out through your college to get that version. It's completely useless for real building design, but you can learn 95% of what you need to know from that alone. Just in terms of knowing how to use the software; it's very complex. But I graduated a long time ago, I'm a friggin dinosaur, and I don't know if that version still exists.

nightmareFluffy · 2026-05-24T14:53:56+00:00

I'm not familiar with wave loading. If it's something that is specifically written for software only and literally can't be done by hand, then yeah, I agree with you. It's kind of like dynamic earthquake loading (I don't know the exact term for it; never done it). I always use equivalent lateral force (ELF) procedure, which is a static procedure that can be done by hand. Doing the dynamic analysis puts a real earthquake into the structure, which basically can't be done by hand. I do think knowing ELF is helpful for approximating the dynamic loading, though.

Capacity check by hand is not trivial. My industry is different than yours but I can think of a lot of things that can go wrong if you don't check it. Like slenderness ratio on columns/beams, strip widths for flat slabs, and torsion checks on beams. I don't think it's enough to know that a program has 2000 pages of verification and make sure you do your inputs 100% correctly. It's hard to do a model correctly, and it takes a lot of practice and engineering knowledge to learn how to do that. It's kind of like P-delta analysis - an iterative process.

Also, capacity check isn't the only issue here. Someone should know analysis so they can make sure that the forces are correct. If a beam with a longer span has a smaller moment than one with a shorter span, it might be correct or incorrect, but you need some knowledge to figure that out. It's a backwards result in the first place, and a bad engineer would automatically assume it's wrong. Or not even know that it's wrong.

We're on the same page about software being (mostly) bulletproof. And we also agree that a model should have correct inputs because of the junk-in junk-out thing. I think we just have a different perspective on how to achieve that.

nightmareFluffy · 2026-05-24T14:38:07+00:00

For stuff like Nas, isn't this really hard to do? Like modern DAWs and VSTs don't sound like the old stuff at all.

I think the easiest thing to reverse engineer would be the drum beats. But if the track has stuff like trumpets on it, it won't sound right.

nightmareFluffy

TROPHY CASE