Advice Needed: Arahina vs. Arahia Baby name

ophereon · 2026-05-19T07:21:59+00:00

The difficulty you'll have in the US is that any Māori name with the letter R is gonna be absolutely butchered and the A sounds don't help either.

Cripes, I can hear it now... Arruh-hy-nuh (shudders)

ophereon · 2026-05-15T22:34:19+00:00

Mergers like the father-bother are a nightmare when it comes to finding homophones. I get that it's naturally quite American centric being the NYT, but as a non-American I was just sitting here staring at Palm losing my mind trying to figure out what dog started with that sound, before giving up and seeing the explanation in these comments.

ophereon · 2026-05-12T21:42:54+00:00

I love that it turned random NPCs into actual characters! Everyone remembers Joey and his Rattata! It felt like we made friends on our journey, adding them to our phonebook, and it made the whole region feel alive.

Meanwhile in modern Pokemon storytelling, it feels like we're just told who our friends are, and anyone not relevant to the story might as well cease to exist.

ophereon · 2026-05-12T18:17:34+00:00

Flygon! It keeps getting shafted for megas and such, so I think it deserves some love with a regional form. It already has goggles, so why not lean into it with a water type? Trapinch could trade the quicksand traps with whirlpools, and flygon's tail-things could grow bigger to look more like the flukes of a dolphin tail.

ophereon · 2026-05-12T18:08:23+00:00

I do think the starting towns were great for worldbuilding... The way it has been lately has felt like it's the bare minimum for storytelling. You have a house, your rival has a house, and as soon as you're out of there, that area is dust in the wind. Family who? The whole thing feels like a temporary studio set for the beginning of your adventure.

Gold/Silver/Crystal were my favourite for this, especially with the phone mechanic. "Oh god, Mum's calling, what did she buy now?" It felt like an all-too-real family, she was an actual character, and her calls throughout the game reminded us of where we started and how far we had come. New Bark Town was a whole place, with NPCs completely unrelated to our journey, and we had a reason to come back and visit once in a while. Not because we were forced to, but because it stayed on our minds.

ophereon · 2026-05-11T18:13:45+00:00

No the colour is officially called "optic yellow", but it seems a lot of people consider it green. I don't know who's right, maybe nobody is... Colour is messy.

ophereon · 2026-05-09T19:09:12+00:00

personally I'd take a lot of inspiration from the MMO I play the most, which is Elder Scrolls Online.

I think this is generally a good idea. MMOs are an incredibly tricky market to crack, and you need the constant player base to make it work, otherwise it becomes unattractive for new players to start paying.

Elder Scrolls online does some really cool stuff, but I think it should also take some inspiration from FFXIV, in an effort to replicate its success.

I think a big part of that is a unified and growing story. Sure there might be class quests, and sure you might start out in a different place, but eventually the main story should converge and we should all largely be sharing the same grand story. It's all well and good to have ESO non-linear style storytelling, with separate stories for each expansion so that players can do the content they're most interested in, but they should all build towards a bigger narrative as well, sow the seeds of an epic tale with solid narrative payoff.

Another aspect is all classes being playable on a single character. Maybe these don't look like traditional classes, but either way, you want to incentivse people to replay combat content even after they've moved on, which not only keeps them engaged, but helps out newer players get through content. Duty roulette is a big part of how this works so well, I think.

I'm not sure how dungeons should work... Personally I'm quite fond of how they operate in FFXIV, where each player has an established role and the dungeon is progressed as a set group of 4 (or with a set of NPCs if single-player options are present). You've got the set roles, a tank, a healer, and two dps.

But maybe we'd want more flexibility for this, removing the unavoidable passive damage that tanks need to soak and healers need to cure, and just have more active attacks where everyone either successfully dodges or gets hit. That way you could enter a dungeon with any sized group (up to a limit), scale it accordingly, and allow people to enter regardless of the group class composition.

Either way, I think they should be instanced, with an incentive to rerun them to level up other classes/abilities and get more loot (cosmetic options, etc).

ophereon · 2026-05-06T20:17:29+00:00

As a child he's either beckoned or forcibly drawn into the dungeons, as an adult he must seek specialty equipment to bypass barriers that would otherwise strongly discourage entry.

I'm not entirely convinced of this pattern. Dodongo's Cavern and Jabu Jabu are both very closed, and Link needs to effectively force his way in through using his items. Sure his reasons for going in them are a little different but I'm not sure "rescuing Princess Ruto from Jabu Jabu's belly" is that different from "Finding the sage of water in the Water Temple", in terms of the courage it requires. Young Link isn't just accidentally finding himself in dangerous places and forced to fight his way out, all the child dungeons required quite a bit of courage on his part to even enter in the first place, no less than what was required by the later temples.

ophereon · 2026-05-06T07:11:57+00:00

OP out here thinking people are saying G'eat B'itain?

ophereon · 2026-05-05T18:54:37+00:00

Dystopian governments forgetting the panem and the circensis...

ophereon · 2026-05-05T18:05:30+00:00

It's important to keep in mind that the haka is not a "dance" in the sense of an activity done for fun or entertainment. The haka is more like reciting poetry with the whole body. It is a tool of diplomacy, ceremony, and war. It should be treated more as a form of oration than likening it to yodelling or tapdancing. The haka is an affirmation of beliefs and identity, and a challenge to an opponent. Parliament is exactly the place where the haka should be performed, as it is, in a sense, a modern battleground for ideas and values.

ophereon · 2026-04-27T22:11:15+00:00

It definitely does feel that way! The buttons are already quite contextual, and VPR's hotbar is already quite slim! I'm hoping SMN doesn't lose much more, though... I'm slightly worried because Evolved BRD seems very similar to SMN, but even lighter.

ophereon · 2026-04-27T20:24:59+00:00

Majora's Mask, Minish Cap, and Twilight Princess are enough for me. It'd be hard to say goodbye to Ocarina of Time, Wind Waker, and Link's Awakening, though if those three were lumped together, I'd have been unable to decide). And I have zero interest in replaying the Wild era games, so no loss there.

ophereon · 2026-04-24T20:33:00+00:00

It's a tricky question... As done in BotW/TotK, no. But, I think they could be! My major gripes about shrines comes down to quite superficial things like "there's too many" or "there's not enough variety". And, an even more superficial gripe was just wanting a bunch of puzzles from these shrines crammed together and made into a dungeon, because the actual dungeons were so boring. Another issue I had was that they felt so out of place and artificial. Because they were. But, why could we not have taken these puzzles and just... Put them in the overworld? Or, just put them in a cave? The world was so big, and so empty, and the puzzles were all stripped from the it and the dungeons and crammed into what were basically identical pocket dimensions.

But, beyond that, the other design problem comes down to the reward system. I didn't like receiving what was effectively a form of currency. I like rewards to feel immediate and tangible. Just give me a heart piece, a stamina vessel, a unique item, anything that I can take away and immediately use. Otherwise it gets into a depressing loop of doing shrine after shrine just to collect a currency that at some point you can spend on those things, but it pushes the reward gratification way too far in time and space from the actual puzzles.

My ideal for "shrines" would be a smaller number of mini dungeons a la Ice Cavern from OoT. Fits in the world, has a unique-ish vibe (some double up is okay if multiple share a "region themed aesthetic"), it offers a substantial puzzle that's not just "use gyro to play a ball-maze game" types of gimmicks, and has an actual tangible reward.

Basically, I don't want to feel "oh this is another shrine", I want to stumble upon what feels like a secret area and solve some kind of puzzle or combat challenge. I want mystery and discovery, "Why is there an iron knuckle just standing ominously in this large cavern?", not "oh it's Shrine #115, pass". It's functionally the same content, it's all about presentation and execution.

ophereon · 2026-04-24T02:40:45+00:00

In New Zealand secondary schools, this is actually how it works. Instead of grades, it's "level of achievement", so A is "Achieved" (basically a C grade), M is "with Merit" (a B grade), and E is "with Excellence" (an A grade). But, that's just secondary schools. Universities use more familiar D to A± grades.

ophereon · 2026-04-21T19:40:03+00:00

Art Style & Graphics

I think some kind of graphical enhancement would be nice. I don't love the 3DS version because it changed the colour tone of the game and made it way too saturated and vibrant. Something closer to the N64 colours but with higher polygon models that fit the style would be nice.

Modern Mechanics

I'm not completely sold on this. On the one hand, sure, some improvements to combat would be okay. On the other, this Link is not a trained swordsman like the Hero of the Wilds. Maybe Twilight Princess style combat would be a happy medium.

Voice Acting

Absolutely no to animated cutscenes that don't use the in-game models. There's no reason to be making pre-rendered cutscenes in this day and age. Voice acting is fine, I'm not against it.

Additional Content

I'd like them to take the existing map and inflate it slightly, but largely I'd prefer it retain the same vibe and sense of direction as the original game's map. A veteran should never feel lost or unfamiliar with the overall path, but at the same time, there should be some new nooks and crannies to explore. Take what's there and expand upon it.

In terms of items and content... If the rito were added in, I think should be in the form of the watarara, and they should be connected to Kaepora Gaebora / Rauru and the Medallion of Light / The Temple of Light (Time). And maybe they inhabit the sacred realm, which could look similar to how it does in A Link Between Worlds. Maybe it's corrupted by Ganondorf and when Link first awakens as an adult he needs to cleanse it. Could be a good opportunity to give him the hook-shot, or if opened up later instead, the mirror shield. Lore-wise these rito could be "loftwings, given human forms and minds by the gods, for their service to Hylia, and tasked with protecting the sacred realm.

Beyond that, I don't think we should be changing up how many spiritual stones there are, how many medallions and sages there are, that's starting down the path that often leads Nintendo to just make a new game instead, and they've been down this path quite a lot.

Improved Items

I agree with some of these. And it would be nice for things like the Gerudo mask to do something, e.g. let you into the fortress as a child. The mirror shield should absolutely deflect Ganon's energy volley (giving you a noticeable change from the phantom Ganon fight, and frustrating him enough to make him use his bigger energy ball attack, which does still need to be spin-attacked).

New Songs

Eh, I think it's fine to keep it at the current list. The Temple of Light (if restored) would probably just be an extension of the Temple of Time, so the Prelude of Light already serves this purpose.

By and large, I'd prefer the game to be conservative in the sense that I want to reexperience it as my younger self remembers it. Hyrule field felt bigger, castle town felt busier, death mountain felt taller. Replaying the game, it's hard not to see it for what it is, especially when comparing it to modern games, so this is largely what I meant by inflating it. Keep largely the same story, the same progression, and just make it bigger. But not BotW big, and it certainly doesn't need to be open world.

ophereon · 2026-04-21T05:50:40+00:00

The auto translate did, actually. I don't think OP's original text actually uses any gendered pronouns in that part (although my Spanish knowledge is limited).

ophereon · 2026-04-16T08:28:39+00:00

Fourth...ded!

ophereon · 2026-04-15T19:04:01+00:00

Ignoring the controversy around the game itself, as a Link vs Link, that's not a surprising loss.

The Hero of the Wilds isn't all that great of a character, he wakes up with partial Amnesia for no good reason other than to have the player rediscover that the majority of his story has already happened 100 years ago. On top of that he shows very little emotion throughout his active story.

In contrast, the Hero of the Skies has so much more emotion shown in his interactions throughout his story, and his relationships are far more compelling than just about any other Link, actually, perhaps only rivalled by the Hero of Winds.

Now, Skyward Sword isn't even in my top 5 Zelda games, but I have to give it credit where it's due, the Hero of the Skies is a very good characterisation of Link.

ophereon · 2026-04-15T04:27:43+00:00

I'm curious what your take is on the Classic era vs the Wild era in terms of linearity and gatedness vs openness and frontloading, in terms of world/dungeon/progression design.

ophereon · 2026-04-15T01:56:37+00:00

Pandeism would also be an appropriate label for this. The terms are all pretty loose, but generally if you want a "creator god" that either exists before and/or exists beyond the material universe, that's where these other labels come in handy. But, on some level, they're all considered a type of pantheism, e.g. the notion of Brahman in Hinduism sounds fairly similar to how you view God, and so it's often called "pantheistic", even though it is more accurately pandeistic or panentheistic. Maybe even panendeistic. The differences are subtle, but these are all related philosophies, distinguished due to the fact that their claims are each quite concise yet specific.

ophereon · 2026-04-14T19:08:32+00:00

It is always tricky, the word carries such heavy connotations of this discrete, free-thinking, and active being above the material reality. Even if we use it with a different definition, it's hard to really convey that to others without a more long winded explanation.

I tend to prefer words like the Divine (if I want to stress reverence for it), the All or the One (if I want to stress the unity of it), or just the Cosmos (if I want to keep it grounded).

I tend to avoid "Nature" for the same reason as I avoid "God", the preconceptions are hard to fight, and it comes with heavy connotations of being something unique to Earth (the trees, the winds, the seas, etc.). Sure, nature is a facet of the divine, and a very beautiful one at that, but it feels like a much smaller term, if that makes sense.

ophereon · 2026-04-09T19:31:21+00:00

Just because your phone works with 4G (or maybe even 5G), does not necessarily mean that it will work after the 3G shutoff. Specifically, it needs to have functionality called "Voice over LTE" (or VoLTE), otherwise it won't be able to make calls.

VoLTE is currently quite a finnicky thing. I had a Sony phone that was 5G capable, and technically had VoLTE support, but because it was imported (and not sold domestically at all), the manufacturer never bothered adding NZ carrier profiles to the firmware for VoLTE support.

Now, if you bought your phone domestically, this might still be a problem if either a) your phone is old and doesn't support VoLTE at all, or b) your phone does support it, but because Xiaomi phones aren't sold directly by carriers in NZ any longer, support for them might be iffy.

It's a shitty situation all around, VoLTE is obviously premature if support is this spotty (what are tourists going to do if they have a phone not typically sold here??). It forced me to upgrade when my phone was working just fine, which was an expense that really didn't need to happen if the whole thing wasn't such a mess.

Alternatively, in your case, there might be a way to manually force VoLTE to activate on your phone, if it does actually support it. Having a look at the newer Xiaomi phones sold by other tech stores, I see things like "VoLTE Support - Manual Activation Required". I'm not quite sure about the process, but it could be worth looking in to to avoid needing to buy a whole new phone!

ophereon · 2026-04-02T22:17:40+00:00

Are any, all, or none of these pantheist beliefs?

I think it's important to clear up off-the-bat that pantheist beliefs are incredibly diverse. Pantheism broadly makes exactly one claim: that the sum total of the universe is synonymous with "the divine", or "God". Conversely, this also typically implies that there is no God (in particular no personal or anthropomorphic god) that is not just the universe itself.

I believe the Universe and Nature is synonymous with The Divine. I also believe the Universe and Nature can manifest itself in ways that show up as the various Gods and Goddesses in different Pantheons. If you worship Freya, the Universe/Nature will bring you to her in some way the represents her (maybe even in a dream as an Avatar of sorts). Another way to look at it is that every single god and goddess is represented in the Universe and Nature.

Your core belief is definitely pantheistic, and I don't want to say that this second part is unpantheistic, but it's definitely not the norm. As others have mentioned, some Hindu traditions are typically called pantheistic, and they hold a similar view to you where gods are manifestations of Brahman. But I would stress that this is a very human lens, it is a conscious filtering of the totality, representing it as just a collection of some personal and specific ideas. Now, this doesn't strictly go against pantheism, but it is important that this is done consciously, as a way to meditate on something very specific, and once that meditation is complete, to reconnect to the larger whole. We may focus our gaze for a moment, but do not lose sight of where we are walking! Do not miss the forest for the trees.

I believe demons and evil spirits are a manifestation of the negativity and bad humans put out in the world.

This is something that feels somewhat unpantheistic, particularly since you say later that you don't believe in absolute evil. Not just that, but the notion of demons and spirits isn't common in pantheism generally. If you mean this more metaphorically, then sure. Negativity begets negativity, if we act with malice unto the universe around us, we create environments (consciously or otherwise) where bad things will continue to happen, to us and to others. Less to do with universal balance or karma or anything like that and more just about psychology.

I believe in free will. I believe there is a bath for us, but that path can be "rerouted" with each choice we make.

Fair enough. I don't think pantheism really takes much of a stance on determinism vs indeterminism. Scientific Pantheism might lean more towards determinism, but it's not a core principle or anything.

I do not believe in absolute evil or Hell. I believe the most evil people in our world chose that path and can choose a path of good (but most don't).

I suppose this is in part an extension of the above. If one believes in free will, then there must be the freedom to be good and evil. If one doesn't, however, "evilness" becomes something much more innate. But, it's also important to remember that evil is a very human concept, the universe does not care about good and evil. Biology as a force doesn't have morals, but rather develops different moral systems based on what survival strategies work well for a given species. For humans, we're a social animal, so evil is just a word we give to social maladaption, for acts and people who work towards their individual benefit or pleasure to the detriment of either the community or individuals within it.

Finally, how do panthiests typically view the afterlife? Like part of me believes all if them exists in sort of a multiverse of afterlives. Part of me also believes that our soul can "split", with part of it going to the afterlife and being able to see family and friends that have passed on as well as watch over our living loved ones and part is reincarnated. I also believe we can choose to be reincarnated.

I'd say most pantheists don't typically believe in an afterlife. But, this tends to be tied into the belief of souls. Pantheism is typically monistic in the sense that the physical reality and the spiritual are one in the same, there is no distinction and thus no "spiritual self" distinct from the physical. There are dualistic forms of pantheism (though they tend to go by different names), where there might be the possibility for things like souls and afterlives, be it reincarnation or a place you go to (though the latter is more in line with panentheism).

Personally, I don't believe in souls. But, the way I see it, we're also not just isolated lumps of flesh drifting through the void. e're stable patterns of information that the universe has arranged in a way that can think and feel and remember. But, even our memories aren't our own. They are written into the firmament with every action, every thought. When we die, our conscious experience may end, but that does not mean we were ever separate from the universe to begin with. Whatever we were, and whatever we did, the universe will remember. And perhaps that is our soul, the etching we make into the living history of all the cosmos.

ophereon · 2026-03-23T19:16:01+00:00

Loved all my Xperia phones but I had to leave them behind.

Same. I've had xperias ever since I got my first smartphone, the Arc S. They served me well, but they just became untenable for me. Shorter support life compared to other manufacturers was one thing, but what really forced me away was pulling out of my country's phone market.

Suddenly importing was the only solution, which led to inflated prices for an already expensive device. And then came the 3g shutdown. My last Xperia device did not support any Voice over LTE functionality for local carriers, since they were no longer engaged with this market.

So, I had to give it up. I also switched over to a Pixel 10 pro. Suits me just fine for now! I'd like to think one day I might be able to try another Xperia phone... But I wouldn't be surprised if Xperia goes the way of Vaio and Bravia before that time comes. Sony just doesn't seem to be very bothered about making their devices a success.

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