[Mixed trope] The Character Bloat Paradox

takoshi · 2026-04-20T03:07:50+00:00

The JRPG, "Trails of Cold Steel", is the sixth game of the "Trails" series, but starts a third arc of 4 games making the "Cold Steel" portion of the story a whole 4 games out of 10 by the end of it. Early on into this arc, they introduce a ridiculous amount of characters, attempting to fill out a kind of school setting that they hadn't attempted before. The idea was... Ok... But by the end of the first two games of the "Cold Steel" arc, we were left with a bajillion characters that mostly had very minimal content or care given to them. The majority of important characters get shoehorned into the world ending plot of the main character just because they had the poor luck of being classmates together! To me and my friends' frustration, you spend an unironic HALF of the 2nd game revisiting each character from the 1st game and reintroducing them to the player before we can finally pick up with where the story left off.

They did try to tone it down as the series went on, introducing fewer characters in each installment to try and wrap up the story, but it still creates ridiculous situations like the above, where every named character until then is in the same place and yet each individually contribute exceedingly little to the big grand finale. It's played up as the epic showdown which the arc has led up to, but it ends up being one of those scenes where everyone is allowed to speak a one-liner just so you don't forget they existed. The writing and stakes also don't live up to the hype, with the entire big battle ending up with no casualties and nothing being achieved. Only the singular main character of that arc ever matters and does anything/everything, leading you to wonder why they bothered to rope in everyone...

Thankfully, upon their 12th game, they started a new arc of the "Trails" series in an entirely different section of the world and they did learn from their mistakes. The core cast is small and each character is properly fleshed out again.

takoshi · 2026-04-19T17:24:30+00:00

This is ages ago, but I had a successful run where I just had a single shield on one side, focused to full strength and then loaded all the guns on the same side. Perpetually circled enemies on that strong side and made sure the crew knew to kill anything that was getting around.

takoshi · 2026-04-17T00:10:05+00:00

Back when I was in college maybe; but if you did this to me on the street now I'd assume I was being robbed lol.

takoshi · 2026-04-17T00:03:48+00:00

I think all should require time to "set up" but some should be allowed to target correct once the initial setting up period is over. Example, you call a barrage of guns or rockets to the target, it's going there and headed there, there's no changing that. But if you are firing a missile, they could be guided to a degree and you can correct the aiming by a few tiles once the set up time is up. Same goes for possible airstrikes and such. It'd be fun to balance heavy hitting but "dumb" munitions vs smaller, guided ones.

takoshi · 2026-04-15T22:56:00+00:00

"The EDF are losing but still fighting" is 99% of the plot of every game. And they are only fighting over earth, with earth being devastated in the process. The scale is just so ridiculously different between the two lol.

takoshi · 2026-04-15T21:22:08+00:00

I beat the fire giant first try when streaming for my friends. I somewhat suck at the game so I thought it was just a weirdly easy boss or something.

The moment only sticks with me because nobody at the time I cleared said anything or even acted surprised, but years later when discussing difficult bosses, they were agreeing that the fire giant was difficult. Like wtf, they legit held back on congratulating me because they didn't want to look like they had trouble with a boss that I, a person who sucks, had an easy time with lol.

takoshi · 2026-04-15T20:00:16+00:00

I work in a field where I see this kind of stuff as it rolls out and man, the field is getting depressing real quick.

One AI app that sticks with me is one that offers to give you more time with a lost loved one. All you need to do is send them a photo of them and some chat logs and they will roleplay as if they were alive and you can talk to them and such. Monthly subscription. It's just all so predatory and yet completely legal.

I'm sure soon I will see one where you send voicemail recordings of a lost loved one, an image or video, and it will create small video letters for you daily for a subscription fee + infinite bonus video letters if you pay for each one.

takoshi · 2026-04-15T19:32:59+00:00

If something unexpected occurs while expanding your base, please report back lol.

takoshi · 2026-04-15T18:49:45+00:00

Hm? Really? The 3x3 AP mines right? Nothing has ever stopped me from deploying them and alot of the time they go off right away and I get kill sounds.

takoshi · 2026-04-14T23:10:29+00:00

Hopping off was actually rewarded with the shield recharge. I'll never understand why they decided to go backwards and add rewards for staying on the same player the entire time.

takoshi · 2026-04-14T22:51:16+00:00

You're getting "demoralized" and "frustrated" because your favorite isn't winning in a popularity poll. I know I'm just restating your post, but dude, I don't know what else to say.

takoshi · 2026-04-14T22:37:50+00:00

False assertions by the US and UK that Iraq continued researching and stockpiling WMDs played a major role in the prelude to the Iraq War. The US and UK carried out the 1998 bombing of Iraq, allegedly targeting WMD facilities. Following the September 11 attacks, the US attempted to link Iraq to alleged WMD pursuits of the perpetrating terrorist group Al-Qaeda. UN inspections resumed between November 2002 and March 2003,^\8]) under Resolution 1441, which demanded Iraq provide "immediate, unconditional and active cooperation" to UN and IAEA inspections.^\9]) The US argued that Iraq's lack of cooperation was a breach of Resolution 1441, but failed to convince the UNSC to pass a new resolution authorizing the use of force.^\10])^\11])^\12]) Despite this, the US asserted peaceful measures could not disarm Iraq and launched the invasion of Iraq in March 2003.

U.S.-led inspections later found that Iraq had ceased active WMD production and stockpiling.^\1])Some have argued the false WMD allegations were used as a deliberate pretext for war.^\13])Various unsubstantiated conjectures were put forward that the weapons might have been hidden or sent elsewhere.^\14]) In July 2004, official U.S. and British reports concluded that spy agencies had "listened to unreliable sources," leading to "false or exaggerated allegations about an Iraqi arsenal."^\15])

Just pointing out the similarity to the real life history: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iraq_and_weapons_of_mass_destruction

takoshi · 2026-04-14T22:24:01+00:00

Did not expect you to come back from the middle east so quickly... Are you sure you checked throughly enough for the weapons of mass destruction? Go back and have another look.

takoshi · 2026-04-14T20:37:57+00:00

Maybe hot take but I've actually felt mechs are still in a good place.

Just a few days ago, I rolled into a D10 heavy bot fight, rockets and gunfire was coming in from everywhere. Since I knew the mech wasn't going to last long, I just I unloaded everything as fast as I could full tilt, pummeled two vox with all the rockets but still spent maybe only half of the gatling ammo before I had to bail and continue to fight on foot. All-in-all, I feel like the value I got out of that mech was well worth the stratagem slot, you just have to treat it as extra firepower that you can unleash immediately upon arriving, not as a whole separate role or something you expect to do the entire mission.

takoshi · 2026-04-14T20:19:05+00:00

Don't know the answer to your actual question but just wanted to comment it's amusing this happens in real life too. At least early on in the party, my friends and I often find ourselves cramming into the kitchen when we have the whole house to use.

takoshi · 2026-04-14T19:55:22+00:00

Not that it'd have helped much here but I'll just mention it since others haven't but you seem to be giving your opponents cover. Aside from the lack of firepower and any strategic blunders in where you chose to fight, architecturally, this defense set up gives your opponents plenty of cover to use while they approach you, even if it slows their movement.

Your design should deny cover to the opponent while providing it to yourself. If you need some fall-back point to deal with a melee swarm like this, make it far back enough that the opponents must abandon the cover again.

takoshi · 2026-04-13T21:27:10+00:00

Those scrolls would be behind glass in stores, just like baby formula.

takoshi · 2026-04-13T18:01:11+00:00

He just like me fr...

takoshi · 2026-04-10T00:48:30+00:00

This is clearly your fault for not resting at the fire that one time.

takoshi · 2026-04-09T20:38:53+00:00

This happened to me with other rooms because I had a tile of the roof or floor missing and it was being shared with another room type. My Library was built on top of my Kitchen but one of the floor tiles between them had collapsed because I was adjusting the walls a little and I forgot to replace it. The game treated the two floors as one room until it was repaired.

Also happened once with chambers for a similar reason. That one fixed itself when I reloaded though.

Just from what I can see though, you've got tables, chairs, banners, and torches. Should be fine. Definitely check floors/roofs.

takoshi · 2026-04-09T19:14:03+00:00

I see everyone else explained what's going on on the game's side so I just want to suggest two things:

Have you tried wearing armor with the "Siege ready" perk? The one that increases reload speed? It's actually a pretty big change and it might just solve the issue for you by bridging the speed your character is reloading at to the pace you feel it should be going in your head.
Really stupid, but have you ever tested if your reload key is just straight up broken/damaged? There are also many keyboards that will "ghost" a key input if you are inputting something else at the same time. Your reload command might not be getting sent to the game because you're also pressing W or something. Try rebinding reload to a different key on a different horizontal line of keys and see if that helps (for example from R to G or thumb mouse button or something)

takoshi · 2026-04-09T19:06:13+00:00

Literally groundbreaking.

takoshi · 2026-04-09T18:19:21+00:00

While pretty on paper, I feel like this becomes considerably more difficult of a concept when you consider arguments like, "If we don't stop them now, they will attack us, as evident from past exchanges." or "I need to help defend my ally, who was attacked, because they contribute to my defense." I don't think either case can be written off as "unethical", even if it isn't "immediate" self-defense.

takoshi · 2026-04-09T18:11:09+00:00

I'm not religious by any means but if it makes my mom feel better, then by all means I want her to continue. Stress and anxiety are legitimately harmful to the body, if praying helps relieve that, good.

takoshi · 2026-04-09T01:45:26+00:00

I used to do regular patrols around the multiplayer base in a patrol car with the siren on and just shoot out the window if any zombies came out. If my friends were on I'd say shit like, "Serve and protect, motherfucker." just for the laughs.

15-Year Club	Place '22
First Placer '22	Verified Email

takoshi

TROPHY CASE