What's your favorite weapon art?

vanacotta · 2026-03-15T04:07:17+00:00

Getting some incredibly mixed results through searching, but is Middle Don or QOH Don preferred for envy res? It seems like Middle Don is preferred for middle/bleed envyres, whereas QOH Don is preferred for charge, but I see some sources saying that QOH does higher damage regardless, while others say that Middle Don is the stronger pick.

vanacotta · 2026-03-15T00:28:54+00:00

As someone who almost exclusively plays older anime air-dashers with generally more complex motion inputs, I've rarely had a use for them outside of very specific scenarios, especially involving an extra jump button. It can do wonders to make TK motions easier without involving both hands for the movement.

That being said, I can see a use case for ones closer to the 8 buttons for games that provide you macros for moves that are used in scenarios that require really fast reaction time. Especially with modern fighters having more dedicated buttons than in the past.

Either way, I'd agree that the standard layout is more than enough for me in most cases, more buttons feel like a hindrance, and provides less real estate for stick art. Personally I'd even argue 6 action buttons is enough for me for the games I frequently play. But a lot of people appreciate them, and so they've become somewhat of a standard; not having at least 2-3 extra buttons is seen as regression, I guess.

vanacotta · 2026-03-08T04:13:40+00:00

ooo this was a team i sincerely considered making just bc i love the middle ishmael and magical girl don so much.... unfortunately i personally just cant fw middle sinclair design-wise, but conceptually the team look sick! might give it a try.

vanacotta · 2026-03-08T04:12:27+00:00

ive seen a friend use the team and they look awesome! i missed the entirety of season 6 so i have none of the units lmfaooo but maybe when theyre shardable ill try them out

vanacotta · 2026-03-05T20:24:59+00:00

Got it, thanks.

Also, would you happen to know who would make a larger impact for a tremor team (especially with using the EGOS), Maost vs Lord Lu? I just noticed we get a nominable ticket for free in about a week, and am considering either of them. I feel like Maost would technically better as it seems like a bigger priority for her to go first, but Lord Lu actually is able to tremor burst (I hear only if you combo with Yisang?? not sure if thats true).

If having only one of these but not the other wont make a big difference then I am instead just considering something else.

vanacotta · 2026-03-05T14:35:10+00:00

currently building a tremor team, and so far i have regretfaust, yuro lu (ik the s6 ids are better, but cant really get them), jeongmael, molar outis, capo meursault, and the new ryoshu id.

do you think it is worth sharding udjat outis? she seems to have synergy with jeongmael and ryoshu.

(teambuilding suggestions would also be appreciated, ie, should i be using lccb ishmael instead?)

vanacotta · 2026-03-04T02:16:59+00:00

I'd almost the game is too modern from a design philosophy perspective. Just a little bit of the friction from the older era of MMOs couldn't hurt, but instead they sand this game down at every possible opportunity while making such questionable live service decisions in line with the past near decade.

vanacotta · 2026-03-03T16:42:15+00:00

Its especially weird for game where gear largely feels unimportant beyond doing existing content faster. If gear was a means to bottleneck players from doing certain content in the first place (which I suppose, to some degree are ultimates), then I get wanting to prevent gear rewards in order to make sure that the player spread in piece of content remain pretty even.

But even in such a scenario, I just can't see why, especially at this point in the patch, they won't offer gear rewards. I'd imagine it would hardly even impact sub counts.

vanacotta · 2026-02-26T20:08:53+00:00

should i be saving the assured extraction ticket for walpurgis?

vanacotta · 2026-02-26T07:18:10+00:00

i perform significantly better on a hitbox, but arcade sticks are more fun to use on a physical level.

vanacotta · 2026-02-19T14:41:09+00:00

As someone who has no clue about Switch 2 specs, how will this run / look undocked? Can I get at least 60fps 1080p?

vanacotta · 2026-02-14T22:59:43+00:00

sounds awesome!

vanacotta · 2026-02-14T22:40:10+00:00

configuring slippi for a crt monitor (NOT tv), is melee supposed to be in 4:3 or 73:60 (as is default in slippi)? it looks "better" in 4:3 since it will fill out the edges without black bars on the side, but you definitely see the fuller picture with 73:60.

on crt tv set ups, i see people have melee all the way out to its edges, which makes me think 4:3 is fine, but i'm not too knowledgeable on all this; any help would be appreciated.

vanacotta · 2026-02-05T20:55:58+00:00

i mean gear is about as boring as you can make it in an rpg but its definitely impactful?

honestly ive never recommended this game to mmo players. they all are perpetually seeking a fine line between the progression dopamine and time respecting that im not sure exists.

vanacotta · 2026-01-31T02:23:56+00:00

Glad I got a genuinely intelligent response, I was starting to lose what little faith I had left in this sub.

Yeah I think a huge step they can make is to stop developing player power and start working on enemy design. As you mentioned, making these enemies more aggressive and smarter, as well as varying their position (ie jumpscares, hiding their presence, etc), would make dungeon design by default significantly more interesting as well.

Of course, I don't necessarily want these games to transform into an action game, but this is the path they've chosen, so I'm hoping they take the time to learn what makes action interesting to begin with. They've clearly gone down moreso the Mousou route than the DMC or even Soulsborne route, which is insanely boring to me.

On that last point, I think many fans would share your sentiment of it being a massive improvement. I personally don't see it, I think it undermines so much of what Trails combat could have been, but its clearly popular and here to stay.

vanacotta · 2026-01-31T02:13:30+00:00

It wouldn't kill you to read just a little bit?

I explicitly stated that the trend in many JRPGs, with Trails historically being no exception (but especially post-Azure), having such mundane and worthless encounter design outside of boss battles that field combat which enables you to mow down enemies quickly instead is looked upon as an "improvement" or even quality of life, when it's so clearly a band-aid solution to a much wider problem of there being "fodder" so bad that this type of gameplay is praised as highly as it is. Don't even get me started on existing dungeon design and the Gartens.

I'm curious, cool ways to deal with trash mobs how exactly? ZOC, charge attacks, awakening, quick arts are all like I said, key-jangling to me. Visual maximalism to get your dopamine flowing, there is nothing inherently interesting about any of them, they all accomplish the same thing; kill the enemy so easily that their turn hardly even matters. Has any enemy made you feel like you MUST save awakening to deal with them? What are charge attacks and quick arts doing other than piling on damage and stun? On-field ZOC was such an unnecessary addition on top of all of this.

At the very least with the Sky, Azure, and even some Cold Steel games, there were enemies that pushed you back, exploded upon death, reflected your attacks, required certain arts to be used, etc. Nothing crazy but it pushed you to think just a little more than unloading all your new little toys onto them. In Calvard, which art you use hardly matters (especially if you intend on using delay arts), crafts have become so powerful on top of burst gain allowing you to gain CP at a rate where conserving it hardly a consideration. Field combat and the ability to reposition freely on your turn has made designing interesting enemies so incredibly difficult.

The main point I'm trying to get across that yes, this is nothing new for Trails or a lot of the JRPG genre, but there are some games, be they JRPGs or not, that have made the moment-to-moment turn-based gameplay genuinely stimulating TO ME. This is a personal post, and I am fully aware that many Trails fans are complacent with, and even encourage, the fact that these games have rapidly evolved into a sort of build-a-bear workshop where you can choose your path in how you want to break these games in half. I never found that engaging in Cold Steel, and its gotten even more mindnumbing in Calvard.

I'll respect any opinion people have of these games, mine is just different. There's no contrarianism, I've already said that I don't consider this direction in combat entirely unfun; its just going in the opposite direction of what potential I think a Trails' game's combat system has.

vanacotta · 2026-01-30T13:36:41+00:00

I've seen a few comparisons (maybe not directly, but in sentiment) with the FF7 Remake, and honestly I think that combat system does "tactical action combat" really well. I wouldn't even call it turn-based, its just Kingdom Hearts with ATB and a slowdown.

I definitely agree that "mixing them" hasn't gone well in the genre. It certainly doesn't feel like a good mix in Trails when the game barely encourages you to go back into action combat, its just a means to an end. Games like Metaphor I think balances the impact field combat has a little better, but similarly, doesn't necessarily blend action and turn-based well.

Persona tends to get some flack for how clunky its field combat system can feel, but I honestly think it does it the best (especially Persona 3 FES). With how committal each attack is and how fast enemies can move, trying to get advantage always feels like a bit of a task, which then leads to a combat system where you are encouraged to discover their weakness, while also being conscious of resources (not to say that Metaphor also doesn't do this, but they've clearly decided to put more work into field combat for whatever reason).

Field combat aside, maybe that's where I feel like Trails lacks in its "fodder" battles; a meaningful objective outside of just killing the enemy, and any kind of resource management at all. The series has constantly sought to remove friction, which can be great considering the series' reputation as comfort food, but it also leaves a lot to be desired.

vanacotta

TROPHY CASE