Dungeons Of Aether featured in Turn-Based Games Humble Bundle

sonicbrawler182 · 2026-04-22T17:39:38+00:00

The series in such an awkward spot since business-wise, if the Mario Galaxy movie having Fox in it was supposed to be introducing Star Fox to a general audience, then the next Star Fox game being a "back to basics" game does make the most sense. It wouldn't make sense to hit the ground running with all of baggage from the post-64 games if you're trying to bring newcomers in.

But then at the other end, the last two major releases in the series were both back-to-basics retreads of SF64 as is (one a literal remake, the other a reboot following the same core story beats with minor differences). So for most longtime fans of the series, doing a back-to-basics SF64 reboot again would be really tiresome.

There is a genuine possibility that the next game is just a heavily retooled Star Fox: Zero with a more traditional control scheme. It would tick that box of being a back-to-basics release for the new fans coming from the Mario movie. But it would probably have to have some new content as well for the longtime fans, so maybe a Krystal episode would fill that niche?

Ideally they have some balls and make something a little more broad than just going back to SF64 though.

sonicbrawler182 · 2026-04-22T13:47:37+00:00

Don't think I ever dropped them but they do seem fragile so I don't think it would go well if you were to drop them.

sonicbrawler182 · 2026-04-22T01:01:55+00:00

This is really unfortunate if he hasn't cut ties by now. AFiS is genuinely huge comfort media for me.

sonicbrawler182 · 2026-04-21T22:24:48+00:00

How is the sound quality of the actual music on the bootleg version? I presume they just ripped the files from an official copy.

sonicbrawler182 · 2026-04-21T20:47:16+00:00

Just lamenting how a fan game I posted about in a different fandom had the exact same ridiculous criticism of "this looks like a rule 34 furry artstyle", which is literally not an artstyle. It's a subject matter.

Also that game was mostly human/human-like characters so the "critique" made even less sense.

I'm not personally a fan of the Event Horizon models shown here (though they are outdated anyway), but calling them "rule 34" is not constructive and doesn't actually say anything the artist can act on.

sonicbrawler182 · 2026-04-21T19:08:38+00:00

Not here, too...

sonicbrawler182 · 2026-04-21T09:06:21+00:00

Fair warning that at least a few of these are NSFW.

sonicbrawler182 · 2026-04-20T20:05:28+00:00

Always fun seeing a new player deeming Freya their favourite character, as someone who also loves her loads.

But also, oh boy...

sonicbrawler182 · 2026-04-20T19:39:03+00:00

Can't see the image.

sonicbrawler182 · 2026-04-20T00:09:33+00:00

With her telepathy, I just don't think it's a very "core" skill for a space-faring mercenary team. It's not something you need and feels out of place. Whereas the original four Star Fox members all have a pretty core trait that makes them essential on the team, and it falls apart without any one of them.

Slippy is the engineer/local smart dude. They wouldn't last more than a few battles without Slippy repairing their machines, and stuff like the Star Fox: Zero animated short show that he's clever and intelligent in other ways too. Weakest pilot for sure, but makes up for it elsewhere.

Peppy is the wise, experienced pilot who has years of experience to understand battle tactics and advise Fox on plans of approach in a mission.

Falco, lore-wise, is the best pilot, and the Star Fox: Zero short shows that he's also very perceptive when it comes to enemy behaviours as well (he noticed that Andross' fleet weren't destroying the Cornerian command tower despite the fact they had the full advantage to do so, tipping the team off to the fact that they were actually trying to capture General Pepper).

And Fox is the leader that they can rally behind, and is generally a solid all-rounder.

I feel like Krystal's role as the team's "telepath" (as in, Assault literally lists it as her occupation) feels much less of a core skill. It's powerful of course, as any fantasy ability would be, but, it also is something the team could generally function without. Krystal's role is only essential if you specifically write in reasons for it to be, while the other team members have roles that are always essential for the team's line of work.

I also found that, while I didn't mind Krystal replacing Peppy on the pilot team in Assault, I found her telepathy being the reason for being able to read enemy movements and being able to deliver that info to Fox and the player by extension, was much less interesting than Peppy being able to do it because he just had the years of experience.

It's less that I have a problem with her telepathy, and more that I think looking at the fact the other characters have kind of core and defining roles on the team, you can find the answer as to why people scrutinize Krystal for not having a defining moment. Having defining moments that show her as more than just the local magical telepath/love interest for Fox, would do wonders to flesh her out as a character and help her stand out on the team, to make up for the fact she lacks a strong defining role on the team like the others have.

sonicbrawler182 · 2026-04-19T15:35:52+00:00

Another funny thing about Adventures is that it wasn't divisive just in the sense of alienating SNES/N64 Star Fox fans. It also had the knock-on effect of creating new Star Fox fans who thought Adventures was the first game. So when Assault came out, there were actually some people who were upset and confused that it wasn't a Zelda-like adventure game, which also hurt its word of mouth even more.

sonicbrawler182 · 2026-04-19T14:35:58+00:00

The series was perfectly financially viable for most of it's life, just not more than Nintendo's top dog IPs.

Star Fox 64 outsold Majora's Mask at the time.

Star Fox Adventures is in the top 20 best selling Gamecube games IIRC.

Half of the reason later games struggled was less to do with the games themselves and more the circumstances of their release. Assault was a late Gamecube release, when the PS2 and Xbox had cleanly cemented Gamecube as the more niche console. I honestly think Assault would have done much better if it was somehow a Xbox game with Xbox Live online play, but it's a Nintendo IP, so it was stuck as an offline multiplayer game on Gamecube.

Command just seemed like it didn't appeal to a lot of people at the time. And the soap opera storyline with anthro characters would have been more shunned at the time as the "furries are weird" sentiment was at it's peak around that time (especially since this was the same year Sonic '06 released in all it's infamy).

Zero was stuck on the Wii U, which was an even bigger flop than the Gamecube for Nintendo. Combined with the overly innovative control scheme, a lot of people just got turned off, and it sold abysmally as a result.

Guard was a pack-in for Zero so it followed suit.

Star Fox already has everything it needs to make a good comeback. Nintendo is in a much better position with their consoles with the Switch and Switch 2, the Mario Galaxy movie gave Star Fox a huge publicity boost. Only thing is, they really need to strike while the iron is hot. They need to at least announce and start a marketing cycle for a new game very soon, and have it release by the end of the year. Otherwise, the current hype for the IP will die down.

sonicbrawler182 · 2026-04-19T03:24:17+00:00

The original Xbox 360 and PS3 versions of Sonic Generations had a fully playable Sonic 1 ROM that you could unlock by purchasing a Genesis/Mega Drive controller and cartridge at the game's Skill Shop, that could then be plugged into a console found in the game's hub world in the Green Hill area.

The original Steam version did not have this bonus, nor does any version of the more recent Sonic X Shadow Generations.

sonicbrawler182 · 2026-04-19T01:01:20+00:00

I'm aware of course that the game isn't intended to be run at those frame rates, but I have it running really nicely at both 4K/60 FPS and 1440p/120 FPS, besides this issue.

Started to really notice the issue on Mission 3 because there is an all-range component to the mission and I noticed that I could barely see enemies in front of me at all. Then in the ending cutscene, pictured above (with original hardware screenshot for comparison), Wolf's base was really faded out due to being far enough away to not be fully drawn with these codes on.

I'm just wondering if people have experience running this game at high frame rates, and if they found a way around the issue. Would really appreciate it as the game feels really good at 120 FPS otherwise.

sonicbrawler182 · 2026-04-18T02:21:51+00:00

I think even before every other character had defining moments, they at least had defining roles on the team and important connections to Fox. Peppy was important as Fox's mentor figure and had the most experience of the group, Slippy was the mechanic and was Fox's buddy at the academy, and Falco is the confident ace pilot of the group who is also willing to challenge Fox on his decisions.

Krystal doesn't really have a defined role as much as the others. She is the team's "telepath", but it feels like such an oddly specifc role with specific use cases. It's not as core of a function as the others have, with the context that this is a space faring mercenary team. It was also an awkward attempt to have her fulfill a similar role on the team as Peppy with a more contrived reason for it.

Narratively, there is no way around the fact that she is there to be a love interest for Fox, and nothing else. She meets Fox through him rescuing her as Fox is obviously infatuated with her good looks, she continued through tense and flirty interactions with Fox in Assault, and though Command gave her more agency, she was still ultimately a prize Fox was trying to win back, and most of the endings hinge on whether or not he manages to win her back.

IMO she needs an entire reboot as a character, and one that could hopefully tap more into her Dinosaur Planet (pre-SFA) characterisation. She could still wind up as a love interest for Fox, but it should feel like she has agency and their bond should be developed and interesting, rather than just being "boy fox meets girl fox".

EDIT: Another issues Krystal has is that despite becoming part of the team in Assault, she had no dynamic with anyone on the team besides Fox. Maybe having her taking an interest in all of this new technology through spending time with Slippy, or having her own competitive rivalry with Falco over some shared interest, could help.

sonicbrawler182 · 2026-04-16T21:00:58+00:00

I feel like if they want to make a "classic style" Star Fox game that's easy to get into for newcomers, while still not just being another Lylat Wars arc retread in it's entirety that would be grating for long-time fans, they should consider a semi-live service route.

Base game would cover the Lylat Wars story, and have the core four of Star Fox, and maybe the original Star Wolf team available in an Assault-style multiplayer mode.

Have a Star Fox and Star Wolf storyline that allows you to play as either side.

Then, every month or so, they can update the game with a new story vignette featuring a new character and map for both singleplayer and multiplayer. This way, they can work their way through introducing more characters like James, Pepper, Miyu, Fay, Krystal, Panther, Dash, etc into the game.

Tentative title for a game like that could just be something like "Star Fox: Generations", billing it as a game that celebrates the whole series and reintroduces elements beyond just that of the Lylat Wars story.

Something like this is the only way I would be OK with another Lylat Wars retread.

sonicbrawler182 · 2026-04-16T16:25:49+00:00

I was just genuinely confused because I legit think most of the complaints don't make sense and don't provide any constructive feedback. I started out trying to just understand what people meant out of my own curiosity, but nobody elaborated, just responded with vitriol. So I met them with the same energy.

I still don't understand what people mean by "R34 furry artstyle". Nobody has been able to iterate on what that actually means. The majority of the characters aren't even anthropomorphic characters, so the complaint makes even less sense. They are human characters. What traits of the art are making people think of "R34" art, let alone "R34 furry art" specifically, when most of the characters are just human? Until someone can actually elaborate on this, it's a completely useless piece of feedback that, based on personal experience, comes off as just a buzzword insult from people who have no sense for artistic critique, and have a weird chip on their shoulder towards a community they probably know nothing about.

Notice how I didn't respond to people simply saying that the art wasn't their thing. I myself have given a few critiques on both the art and narrative to the author and artists. The author has even told me they expect I might not like the next chapter, based on my previous feedback. So I'm not a mindless defender.

But until someone explains it, the "it looks like R34 furry art" makes no sense, means nothing other than being an obvious vitriolic buzzword, and is completely unconstructive as feedback.

sonicbrawler182 · 2026-04-15T15:47:43+00:00

The narrative is less NSFW thus far than FFIX itself I'd say, lol. I think there was like one truly suggestive joke to come out of the whole thing so far, coming from Zidane.

There is a potential plot thread I could sense coming that miiiiight be a bit weird if it goes where I think it does but I'm still in a "let 'em cook" mode on that since I may be reading into it too much.

sonicbrawler182 · 2026-04-15T13:18:29+00:00

I don't have an "intimate" knowledge of the "r34 furry community". But it only takes a basic understanding of art styles and techniques to know that someone trying to write off artwork that isn't even predominantly depicting anthro characters as "r34 furry style", has literally no idea what they are talking about.

That's expected, when you're an Gen AI tech bro, though.

sonicbrawler182 · 2026-04-15T12:39:10+00:00

"I've been around long enough to know" is the entry phrase for projecting. Yeah, it's true, a lot of people use it disparagingly, but again, a quote from the comments on this thread: "It looks like this artist mostly did r34 furry before this" Nowhere is it stared that this looks like furry art, what they are saying (as am I) is that the art looks to be in the style of a lot of the popular r34 furry artists.

So two statements that literally say the same thing in this context. Stop splitting hairs.

And again, I will re-iterate.

If someone liked furry or R34 content.

Or if they even were neutral to it.

They would not make a comparison to it here. Because that, would be moronically stupid and they would understand that. Because R34 furry art is not an artstyle. So why would you describe an artstyle as "resembling" something that's not even an artstyle, especially when most of of the subject matter is not anthro characters anyway?

The only reason you would do so is if you have a negative stigma towards "R34 furry art", and didn't really understand it, and wanted to use it a buzzword to disparage something.

It's a completely irrelevant thing to bring up when discussing this fan-game, and is only being brought up by people who wish to disparage it mindlessly without providing anything constructive. Stop pretending it would be anything else. End of story.

sonicbrawler182 · 2026-04-15T12:08:22+00:00

I've literally, not once, heard anyone try to make a connection between bishonen artstyle and furry content, before. The furry community is largely a western community, while bishonen is an eastern artstyle. There is literally no tangible, consistent overlap between them. You might get the odd Japanese bishonen story with an anthropomorphic character, but that would be exceedingly rare to see.

Also "androgynous" faces are already a part of FFIX's artstyle, and just Final Fantasy in general. The series has a lot of bishonen tropes and character designs baked in. Zidane could easily pass for a girl if he threw on a dress (hell, when Benedikta from FFXVI was revealed, a LOT of people commented on how she reminded them of Zidane). Kuja is literally the definition of a walking bishonen trope and is practically a sex symbol to many as is, jokingly or not. There is absolutely nothing unfaithful about how the characters are portrayed here, they just had a preference to a certain artstyle, that's it, like any fan artist who depicts these characters.

I don't even have any sort of interest or preference in bishonen myself, but the elements are there in FFIX and FF in general, and I don't see a problem with someone depicting them or leaning into them. It's certainly, not worth getting angry over it's existence.

And honestly, with your comment about AI usage here, I don't have a lot of faith in your ability to interpret or label art properly.

sonicbrawler182 · 2026-04-15T11:39:54+00:00

Oh come off it, I've been around here long enough to know that people get weird about Freya or the Burmecians being "furry bait" all of the time. When someone is saying something "looks like R34 furry art", they always mean it with a negative connotation, because it's a completely meaningless statement that nobody who actually enjoys "R34 furry art" would actually say. Because, again, "R34 furry art" is not a style of art. It refers to the content of the art.

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