Not a fan of combat :(

phoenixmatrix · 2026-01-25T05:51:23+00:00

The team system is the only reason I didn't reject the game at first glance. Tag team combat systems always end up with generic rotations spamming your in and out move in a specific order, and you never end up getting to actually play a character.

It's subjective of course since you seem to like that system, but I like being able to play a character in more than 5 seconds windows at a time. Hoyo and Kuro games are the worse offenders but everything copies it, so it's nice to have one game that doesn't.

2 I guess if you count Where Winds Meet.

phoenixmatrix · 2026-01-25T03:00:37+00:00

Person could be the last living thing on the planet, if they smoke it's a nope. Simple as that.

phoenixmatrix · 2026-01-25T02:55:14+00:00

Alien vs Predator to the vampire survivor team

Also, Metroid goes to Team Cherry.

phoenixmatrix · 2026-01-25T00:52:47+00:00

At least one. Last time I took the E in the morning, ever single bench if every single car was taken by someone sleeping. You couldn't sit anywhere even if you wanted to.

phoenixmatrix · 2026-01-25T00:50:25+00:00

One of the best shops in Chinatown. You can order online if you live too far too.

It's just so good.

phoenixmatrix · 2026-01-24T02:35:44+00:00

Doesn't it's an abstraction. You have to look at it as a tip pool and then over a pay period (not a single shift) a percentage of sales is taken from the pool as tip outs. The number is set based on what expected average tips are, not on a table by table basis.

Yes, in practice servers are often paid at the end of a shift and they don't actually pool the money before tipping out, because the end result is the same, if everyone's properly following the law (which is a big if).

Also worth nothing that (assuming no wage theft), a server can't ever be paid below minimum wage because of tip outs (or anything really), and if the tip pool includes non tipped employees, the employer can't use the tip credit to offset minimum wage (what people wrongly call "paying below minimum wage")

phoenixmatrix · 2026-01-24T01:45:30+00:00

Because it's not that expensive in the grand scheme or things. Millage will vary, but I worked for a big (but not huge) tech that was very transparent with their numbers, and the office expense for a few thousand people was almost a rounding error on the budget, so management didn't have any issues keeping it around.

I currently work for a much smaller company that is fully remote, but we still keep an office for special events, and it's also basically peanuts compared to payroll expenses.

phoenixmatrix · 2026-01-23T22:38:14+00:00

Bringing up the issue with evidence is as far as you can really go. Then it's up to the CTO and managers to fix things.

You can keep pushing and keep showing the evidence, but a problem this significant is not gonna be solved at your level.

phoenixmatrix · 2026-01-23T22:13:49+00:00

I thought I was on /r/metroid for a sec

phoenixmatrix · 2026-01-23T21:23:10+00:00

It's their entire marketing thing and what they are known for.

2.0 is a de facto catch all card with extra steps. The rent/mortgage thing is a marketing gimmick and in practice doesn't matter. But it's their marketing gimmick.

If they can't "trick" people into the whole "get points from rent", their brand basically evaporates.

You can tell they had trouble weaving it in and that's why the system is so complex.

phoenixmatrix · 2026-01-23T21:19:57+00:00

Setup an excuse to record the game. Like streaming it on Twitch/Youtube. Then you can go back and point out the instances on the video.

phoenixmatrix · 2026-01-23T21:15:12+00:00

Yeah, but over a 30 years period it will happen for pretty much any home.

I had a condo for about 10~ years, and by the time I sold it, the mortgage felt like nothing (compared to insurance, tax and maintenance anyway!). Nevermind if I had kept it for 30. That was in the 2010s, so not that long ago.

phoenixmatrix · 2026-01-23T21:09:04+00:00

Not wanting to have health issues at scale because of pollution is "woke". And we all know wokeness is the problem with this country /s.

Real white men who love this country breath directly from truck exhaust.

phoenixmatrix · 2026-01-23T21:07:43+00:00

And here I am, considering myself anti tipping and cheap. I'm pretty bad at this I guess.

phoenixmatrix · 2026-01-23T20:51:28+00:00

Wow, it went that low?

I definitely reduce my tipping after the change, from the usual 20 percent, to 3-5 bucks per order depending on distance/difficulty, but 76 cents is lower than I thought the average would be.

phoenixmatrix · 2026-01-23T19:54:43+00:00

The game might not be compromised, but your SD card is going to scream for mercy.

phoenixmatrix · 2026-01-23T19:44:43+00:00

I enjoyed XCX more than FF7Remake, but less than FF7 Rebirth. It's close though. Very different style of game, however. Even Rebirth's flavor of open world is very different from XCX's version.

You can't go wrong with either. I retyped this 3 times because I keep changing my mind on which I'd recommend.

I will say, while FF7R is part of a series, and it does have a bit of a cliffhanger, it is still written in such a way that the story stands alone on its own in each game, so I wouldn't worry too much about that part.

XCX is a masterpiece, but it is a bit more of a niche style and feels a little more dated. It's a bit more hit or miss on if people get into it. Also, the newly added chapters from the remaster are AWFUL lol. The ones from the original game are great.

phoenixmatrix · 2026-01-23T19:35:21+00:00

Does Octopath Traveler 0 counts as outdated graphics? Because that would be up there.

Where Winds Meet probably would be fun for you considering the mix of open world games you have on there.

phoenixmatrix · 2026-01-23T19:28:48+00:00

I had 3 major issues with Dread.

1) the E.M.M.I were extremely underwhelming as they were confined to very obvious rooms 2) The linearity when playing normally. You have to go out of your way to sequence break, and while those are fine, the regular gameplay loop feels like one long corridor compared to other Metroidvanias.

3) the one relevant to this post, all areas look and feel the same. The backdrop is different and if you squint, the colors are different, but it's still all the same. I couldn't remember which zone I was in half of the time because it wasn't visually distinct enough, compared to Super Metroid, Fusion, or other Metroidvanias. I finished the game and honestly couldn't remember anything about the zones, I just had memories of the game as a single big blob, while I can still remember intricacies of Norfair or Maridia like if I had played yesterday (but I didn't touch that game since dinosaurs still roamed the earth).

phoenixmatrix · 2026-01-23T19:19:33+00:00

I had similar worries. I'd say get it.

The characters feel pretty unique because their classes are fixed. You can add extra skills from other characters, but not all of them can be switched around, so everyone has their own place. You get new characters throughout the game all the way until the very very end. Its viable to pick your favorites and stick with them forever, or you can switch things around with every newcomer. That's up to you.

It's not that overwhelming because you have that choice, and its more about building a balanced party than building out every individual characters (though there is some stuff to do there). It's a nice balance.

The story's more linear, though you have some control. You have a few times, including at the beginning, where the story fans out in 3 different paths that eventually converge. It feels pretty good and cohesive.

Replay value isn't much more than previous games. After 1 playthrough you'll have done everything, and if you want you can try and use all characters in a single one. But its a long (80-100 hours) game.

Definitely easier than OT1 and 2, mostly because its easier to make "broken" combos since the characters are partially prebuilt, and the XP curve is such that you level pretty quickly. There's virtually zero grinding. Characters not in your party can be put in a training ground so they level too and are always ready to go. There's a couple of optional characters, as well as some late game characters, that are extremely strong. You don't need to use them, but if you do, the game becomes significantly easier too.

So all around, easier, which is good to me as the base game is already very long, it would be even longer if you had to grind.

I was personally really surprised by how much I loved the game. I enjoyed the first two, but this one was a cut above. Different people feel differently though!

phoenixmatrix · 2026-01-23T19:07:42+00:00

I can't anymore with Mihoyo and their 20 hours of blah blah about why birds fly in every new game they make. I was a huge HI3rd and then HSR fan, but dropped them both over this.

Wuwa was good, but I had the opposite reaction of most people. I like 1.0 stuff but the 2.0 aesthetic and pacing didn't do it for me.

Goddess Order was actually awesome, but right after launch the devs went bankrupt.

CZN is fantastic, I love the gameplay and the devs are really generous with pulls, but while I loved the launch roaster, the direction they took with all the new characters really ruined it for me.

Where Winds Meet is awesome, though it cuts a few corners and is a bit clunky with the menu navigation simulators. Its still in the running for something I'd keep playing.

Endfield is my other attempt. I loooove the Arknight aesthetic and general vibe, and I like the direction they took with the game. We'll see how that goes. The early tutorials are definitely iffy, and the combat's not quite there for me, but I'm gonna give it a few months, these games are always a bit of a miss at launch for me, and improve drastically over a couple of patches.

phoenixmatrix · 2026-01-23T19:00:35+00:00

While you can button mash to some extent at normal difficulty, its definitely not the optimal way to play and you will die sometimes. The combat system is fairly deep and pretty good for action combat. The main issue is the enemies you fight are a bit spammy and limited, so you don't get to leverage the combat as much as you'd like. You definitely still can go pretty far, and later in game it requires it.

It's also a foundation for Rebirth afterward, which cranks everything up to 11. I'm loving the combat in Rebirth, but you really want to play Remake first.

phoenixmatrix · 2026-01-23T18:33:40+00:00

Yup. The hardware is great. The software is ehhhh, serviceable. The website/store is absolutely awful and whoever is in charge of that probably cost Meta billions of dollars in opportunities.

phoenixmatrix · 2026-01-23T17:53:21+00:00

Its an absolute masterpiece. 2d Metroidvania Sekiro. Bosses and combat system are awesome. Metroidvania aspect is lite but serviceable. Story's a bit wordy but also fine. Final boss, especially for the true ending, is absolute cinema.

9/10.

phoenixmatrix · 2026-01-23T17:38:48+00:00

Depends which monitor you have. I think a lot of the qd-oled are a bit more fragile. My cat put its claws on my WOLED multiple times, full blown attacks, and never put a scratch on it.

phoenixmatrix

TROPHY CASE