#first time with rushdown

[nova-rosa]

Well, that killed my motivation of trying to play for the first time in a month...

[b1asho]

While it's on the mind, here's my wings of fire designs too. Not as much of a brainrot but still fun. Bad take or am I cooking with some of them? Let me know in the comments. Here's some (too many) notes:

I really liked the original designs when I first read these books, but I wanted to try my hand at uhh changing them a little. Mainly making them more distinct from each other (even if this irreversibly breaks canon XD)

-Sandwings live in a mixed savannah and desert habitat and have bodies adapted for resource scarcity, effective hunting, and heat dispersion. They have large ears to help cool off and listen for stuff. They can fly, but pretty weakly in comparison to some others, mainly using flight to navigate their large territories , get onto cliffs, and scan for prey. They typically climb up somewhere and then jump off. They are built like felines, and use a solo stalk and rushdown hunting approach coupled with a sting instakill. They live in family groups, with a ‘queen’ title going to the alpha female 💪 and everyone else hunting and living together. They are immune to their own venom, which acts very similarly to a scorpion’s but in a massive dose, causing numbness, breathing difficulties seizures, and eventually death. It takes time for them to make more once they’ve expended the dose, so they rarely use it outside of hunting or life/death situations (though the prospect of being stung is very scary to everyone else, and they will instinctively raise their tail when startled or threatened)

-Skywings live in high mountainous and forested areas, with some living in the lowlands. They are powerful flyers and very acrobatic due to their tail, though this comes at the expense of their agility on land and the strength of their non wing arms. They have long legs with powerful talons for grasping prey midair or snatching them from off the ground. They hunt and live alone unless they have a partner. Communities are made up of a loose group of related individuals who rarely collect in one place at once(queendom structure are a more recent and ‘unnatural’ thing for them, but very useful for organizing military efforts and empire building). They stay aloft for long periods of time and usually only land on their cliff homes. They need a sprint or a takeoff point to get flying, though. Unlike every other tribe, they have a noticeable difference between male and female (being a nose horn and red face for males.) males are prized for these features, and having a pretty husband is seen as an attractive trait for a queen.

-Seawings live along the coast. They normally only venture out of the water for trade and other resources, since they can get everything else they need underwater. Their large neck houses gills protected by thick pads that will close when on land, while their lungs are in their mid chest. Primarily adapted to swimming, they have very strong tails and webbed fingers and toes. They will also use their wings to steer and paddle, as well as manipulate things their other arms can’t reach. They will hunt in packs, corralling fish and other animals into a kill zone. They are very clumsy on land and in the air with their short limbs and weak wings. Their bioluminescent spots can be flashed for communication, and compared to the other tribes they have pretty poor vocal ability (due to the gills in their neck getting in the way) and will supplement with other spot/sign signals. Every individual has unique spots, though their glowing ones come in consistent numbers, sizes, patterns, and places on their body so they can use them for common language across their group. However, Different groups from different parts of the ocean have different numbers of spots in different areas, making cross communication via only spots difficult. Their whiskers help navigate in close or dark areas, and are seen as a status symbol.

-Mudwings live in warmer areas, specifically marshes and other wetlands (though sometimes in some forested areas too). Their thick armor helps protect them from other mudwings/competition, while also acting as an insulator that allows them to easily venture a wider range than other tribes from warm climates. Physically, they are the strongest and bulkiest. They typically use the element of surprise and their overwhelming size and strength to take down large prey. However, unlike other tribes they tend to eat more plants too due to their large size (all of them are technically omnivores, but meat makes up the dominant part of their diet because of their energy needs and their ancestors). They are also the poorest flyers out of the bunch, having sacrificed that for size and strength, though they can do short bursts similar to a chicken to get to hard to reach areas or to surprise attack prey faster than them, they’re similar to hippos and are adapted to living in the water too, using powerful webbed arms to propel themselves and dig through the mud, and their large lung capacity to stay submerged and hidden for long periods. Their nostrils, ears, and eyes are located near the top of their head, which also gives more room for Tusks. They use these to root around occasionally defend themselves. Tusk maintenance and appearance is very important to them. They live in large groups of families in the same area and have more communal social standards than other tribes.

-Rainwings live in tropical areas and have a very small habitat range. This has caused them to look and act very different than most tribes, leading to poor perception of them. They use their long claws, strong grasping fingers, and prehensile tail to climb around, and are pretty much arboreal. They have wings meant for quick takeoffs and flight in dense areas, and are pretty agile and swift. They and aren’t that great at sustained flight or dealing with high altitudes and winds though . Their frill is delicate and used for emoting (probably originally for mating purposes) Their skin is packed with chromatophores that they can use to match their surroundings, and they have loose ridges in their skin that they can raise to enhance the effect. Their skin is constantly changing color due to their brain activity, though they have set patterns/colors for emotions and communication. They can also choose to focus on organizing their skin patterns to get coordinated colors and patterns, since normally it’s pretty disorganized. They eat a lot more plants due to their environment and due to social standards, but arent herbivores. They have the ability to spit acid out of hollow retractable fangs, and use precise shots of this coupled with their camouflage ability to get prey. They can also spray it at higher velocities for defense and offense, though this expends their supply much quicker. They don’t recognize a queen in their communities and are fairly disorganized into different cooperative groups.

-Nightwings are the result of a group that split off onto an island, though the volcanic activity on their original island escalated to the point where they had to emigrate. They are great fliers, using their wings and tail extensions to travel great distances to track prey and ambush from above. When on land, they aren’t particularly fast or strong, and instead are built for persistence. Their hunting tactic involves getting an initial bite onto prey, then waiting for it to succumb to infection. Their spines, horns, muscles, and talons are mainly for defending their kill from other Nightwings rather than hunting it in the first place. As a result of this competition, they aren’t naturally very social like other tribes, They are mainly nocturnal.

-Icewings live in the colder tundras and snowy forest environments. They are pack hunters, using their speed and persistence to take down prey, similar to wolves. Their long overlapping scales help them trap heat and survive in the cold, and while the guy i drew here is pretty skinny they also store fat much more readily than other tribes. Their bowed wings are mainly used to swoop in in prey, and like falcons they often take steep dives to grapple it. Their antlers only grow in at a certain time in the year, but royalty will wear embellished artificial ones in the meantime.

[rimeiii]

What in Hell is Bad as fighting game archetypes

Backstory time: I recently bought Persona 4 Arena Ultimax and I've been having a ton of fun with it. But, just my luck, the character I want to main (Yosuke Hanamura) isn't particularly beginner-friendly, so I swapped to a more beginner-friendly character (Yu Narukami) to get my bearings first while learning Yosuke's basic combos. Seeing as this already happened to me in several other anime fighters (BlazBlue Continuum Shift Extend with Hazama -> Jin Kisaragi and Tsubaki Yayoi, Under Night In-Birth Exe:Late[cl-r] with Seth -> Gordeau, Granblue Fantasy Versus Rising with Belial -> Gran), I ended up trying to figure out which fighting game archetype suits me the most, and that...led to more WHB brainrot, lmao.

No, seriously, the only games where I stuck with my main ever since first trying them out are Dissidia Duodecim (Zidane Tribal, though I've branched out to Squall Leonhart and Sephiroth) and Super Smash Bros. Brawl (Ness, branching out to Lucas, Luigi, and Lucario).

So! Just a quick disclaimer, a lot of fighting game characters have elements of several archetypes at play. For example, BlazBlue's Tsubaki Yayoi leans easily into the rushdown playstyle but her defining trait is her install gauge. But going through all possible combinations would take a LONG time, so...

And archetypes (with video examples) will be explained below the tier list!

As for the archetype explanations...I'll put it under the cut because it's long.

Shoto: A solid, all-rounder character who wants to be able to control the space directly in front of them to land their combos. Oftentimes the main protagonist of their respective games, though that's not always the case. They typically have three defining characteristics - a projectile (aka fireball), an uppercut (aka dragon punch/dp or shoryuken), and a forward kick (aka tatsu). Some notable shotos are Ryu and Ken from Street Fighter, Mario from Smash Bros (yes, really), and Jin Kisaragi from BlazBlue.

Shotos are often the 'old reliable' type of characters, as they're typically well-rounded in both offense and defense. While the traditional shoto is often barehanded, a lot of other shotos aren't (Jin, Yu Narukami from Persona 4 Arena, and Hyde Kido from Under Night In-Birth being some notable examples). You really just need those three types of attacks and an all-rounder kit to be a shoto.

Grappler: A character who excels at close range, their gameplay often revolves around throws and command throws to chain into their combos. They tend to be huge while having low mobility, plus they usually suck at anything other than close range, but boast crazy damage in close range. Some notable grapplers include Kanji Tatsumi from Persona 4 Arena (a lot of people laud Kanji as being one of the best-designed grapplers in fighting game history), Waldstein from Under Night In-Birth, and Iron Tager from BlazBlue.

There is a subset of grapplers known as semi-grapplers. They have more movement options compared to traditional grapplers, but to offset this, their power may not be as explosive as traditional grapplers - an example of this being Cerebella from Skullgirls. This tier assumes both grapplers and semi-grapplers - I would imagine Marbas being more of a traditional grappler while Beleth is a semi-grappler, for example.

Zoner: A character whose main tool is zoning - the act of keeping your opponent away from you. A zoner's combos often work at long ranges - as a matter of fact, they're usually incentivized to keep pushing their opponents away for their combo strings to continue. Their close-range options tend to be limited, with focus on pushback. Some notable zoners include Hilda from Under Night In-Birth, Ferry from Granblue Fantasy Versus, and Dhalsim from Street Fighter.

To be clear, zoning isn't a zoner-specific part of a character's moveset. But to be considered a zoner, their kit has to rely on zoning. Sometimes, they're called 'keep-away' characters - because they want to keep you away from them since they suffer in close range. And in the case of Leraye and Paimon, if you're asking whether a character with a long-range gun can become a fighting game character...Eustace from Granblue Fantasy Versus is a mid-range zoner who wields a long-range gun, Flamek.

Rushdown: An archetype that wants to get close to an opponent before hitting them until they die. Unlike grapplers, however, they have high mobility and many tools to move around the opponent. Any character can be played as rushdown if you're brave enough (usually with mindless button mashing), but some examples of dedicated rushdowns include Yosuke Hanamura from Persona 4 Arena, Mika from Under Night In-Birth, and Lancelot from Granblue Fantasy Versus.

Rushdowns excel in applying pressure on opponents. They have a lot of tools to catch their opponents off guard, and have ways to make them get their hit confirms easily - which is usually the start of a combo string. Once a combo gets going, they reward playstyles that are aggressive and offense-oriented. Their combo strings may seem more of a 'death of a thousand cuts' deal like Yosuke and Lancelot (and this is the rushdown type of the Abaddon demons imo), or they may have less tools for hit confirms but have attacks output a lot of damage like Mika (I'd think this is the Gusion rushdown type).

also insert yosuke appreciation here because i do genuinely feel like he's a super stylish rushdown (who has the same seiyuu as asmodeus - no i will not shut up about this). maybe it's my bias speaking (i've been yume-ing with yosuke for a decade now) but he looks good and feels good to play once you understand how his combo strings work. has some of the best voicelines too imo, especially in the en dub - his "now i'm pissed!" awakening quote is my favorite awakening quote in the entire game.

Footsies: Technically a term used for space control with the use of pokes (attacks that aims to 'use space' and make opponents think twice about approaching), it's now sometimes used to describe characters who have a strong ground game but suffers in the air. This is due to a lot of people associating footsies with ground game. Some notable characters whose kit has heavy emphasis on footsies include Gordeau from Under Night In-Birth (has some of the best footsie tools in the game) and Little Mac from Smash Bros (he has no aerial recovery, but excels on the ground).

Technically, footsies is a skill most fighting game players feel is part of the fundamentals. You're provoking the enemy and trying to bait them to do something that leaves them open for a counterattack. Likewise the enemy is trying to find an opening in your pokes to go for a counterattack. A lot of blocking is involved too. Generally you kinda have to play patiently when engaging in footsies. It's equal parts honorable and being annoying, if that makes sense, and which side you lean into more while playing footsies wholly depends on how you engage with it.

Stance: A character that can change their battle style with the press of a button. Sometimes their combos require you to seamlessly switch between the two stances (with some of their attacks potentially making them switch stances upon use), and their movesets can vary immensely between them. Some notable stance characters include Cecil Harvey from Dissidia, Narmaya from Granblue Fantasy Versus, as well as both Pokémon Trainer and Pyra/Mythra in Smash Bros.

Essentially, a stance change simply means a style swap. Different characters swap in different ways, from changing the character entirely like the Trainer switching Pokémon (and is how I envision Beelzebub doing his stance change - switching over to one of his clones) or the character just changing fighting styles or weapons (everyone else).

Install: Install characters have a gauge that they can fill, and they can expend this gauge to gain an immense power boost for a limited time - hopefully, enough to make a reversal. Dissidia has an install system built in to all characters with their character-specific EX Modes, and Yosuke's Sukukaja special in Persona 4 Arena Ultimax can also be considered an install, but for examples of dedicated install characters in fighting games, we have Tsubaki Yayoi from BlazBlue and Sol Badguy from Guilty Gear.

This one is a little bit hard to justify because I feel like, for Naberius's case in particular, he could be an install in the style of Dissidia's Gabranth but toned down - where his full potential (channels his inner Cerberus form) is unlocked in EX Mode, but he isn't the most helpless outside of EX Mode. Same with Gamigin with his dragon form. Everyone else would be a more standard install, though.

Puppet: As the name implies, puppet characters have a controllable puppet on the field. A puppet character's strength relies on proper usage of their puppet, and they're oftentimes severely crippled if their puppet is out of commission. Some notable puppet characters include the Clovers (Carl Clover and Relius Clover) from BlazBlue, Shadow Labrys from Persona 4 Arena, and the Rosalina and Luma duo from Smash Bros.

Minhyeok is a unique case where I think he'd call on lump form Ppyong as his puppet, in a style similar to Rosalina calling on Luma. Everyone else, their puppets could be the spirits surrounding them, or Jjyu in Belial's case. Buer and Bimet I feel would play close to Shadow Labrys, whose Persona, Asterios, is huge and permanent on the field...though maybe not as mobile as the Clovers' puppets.

Setplay: Originally a term used to describe getting a guaranteed combo off a hard knockdown, sometimes it's used for characters with traps - as traps oftentimes give a guaranteed opening for a combo string. Their traps force your opponent to think carefully about their movements, as stumbling into a trap means you're opening yourself up to a combo. Some characters like Seth (nobody knows what to classify him into as he doesn't play like any other character in the game) and Merkava (typically considered a rushdown/grappler hybrid) from Under Night In-Birth have some variations of traps (Seth's projectile orbs and Merkava's worms), but dedicated trapper characters include Cagliostro from Granblue Fantasy Versus, The Emperor from Dissidia, and Darkrai from Pokkén Tournament.

If not a puppet fighter, Vassago could also be a setplay character in my opinion. Zagan is a cut-and-dry case with his talismans based on his (very overpowered) L-rank Nightmare Pass card. And I know we see Leviathan mostly with powerful summons, but I'd like to reflect back to my Arknights Operator post and have him summon tentacles as part of his traps, potentially something like Merkava's worms. Otherwise, Leviathan could also be a puppet fighter.

unrelated note, i love seeing belial and avatar belial/avabeli getting bodied by other characters because they were so prominent in tournaments that i actively rooted AGAINST them during the days of base granblue fantasy versus tournaments despite belial being one of my favorite gbf characters and wanting to main belial one day. until i upgrade from the free version of rising, however, i shall remain a gran main - as the only character you can always play as in the free version is gran, everyone else is available on a rotation basis, and belial is a complex character to learn. plus, cagliostro is perfect for this matchup in-lore because she already bodied beelzebub in the main gacha, so belial/avabeli + lucilius feels like natural progression lol

Composite: Characters whose entire moveset pretty much borrows from other characters in the game. They're different from echo fighters, as echo fighters are fundamentally the same character with some moveset differences (think Mario and Luigi or Marth and Lucina from Smash Bros). Composite characters, by contrast, mix and match different moves from a variety of characters - as a result, they're often much harder to implement. Kirby from Smash Bros has some composite character features (he can copy the neutral special of another character with his own neutral special), but dedicated composite characters include Double from Skullgirls and Bartz from Dissidia.

It is precisely because their movesets borrow from others that they're hard to implement - it's hard to justify a character copying moves of other characters in-lore. Kirby's entire schtick in his main games is his copy abilities (which he gets from inhaling them - and that inhale is his neutral special), Bartz works because he's a mime, and Double is an Eldritch blob who serves a much higher being (one who essentially sows chaos) in the lore of Skullgirls. If the MC is a playable character, I'd put them here (because they were shown to be able to use the powers of the demon kings). As for the human forms of the lumps, I just think it'd be funny if they copied their region's demon king and demon lords. Lucifer could be a composite of the angels, but his position as their hyung would make his versions of their attacks stronger - perhaps with his lower mobility being a trade-off.

[loversghosts]

FINALLY got to witness this in rushdown. i didn’t pay attention the first time

[massacre-girlypop]

First Impression Best to Worst Boss Fights in Shadow of the Erdtree

DLC has been out for a minute and I’ve done my initial runthrough and taken as much as I could from it. Suffice to say, I did love it a lot and thought that it has a solid amount of staying power. This list covers the main bosses only (and a few notable side bosses) and as usual, unless you don’t care about SPOILERS, I recommend not reading past this point:

Midra, Lord of Frenzied Flame: Now, already, I feel like people are gonna disagree with me. Hear me out. When I first hit this fight, I was like “they integrated a PVP-centric status condition into a boss fight. How is that fair?”. And then I thought about it for a second. No fight style makes this fight easier. No weapon, no spell, no armor makes this fight easier. It is as you see it. This man’s attacks can cover almost an entire room, snipe you from a thousand miles away, his melee attacks hit like a train, and builds up your Frenzy, which can leave you vulnerable and chunk your health and FP. But, he also is easy to stagger, he doesn’t move very fast, and his attacks are telegraphed a year in advance. It’s perfect. He doesn’t have a ton of health, but he is absolutely savage. He’s what difficulty SHOULD be and the sigh of satisfaction when you beat him is REAL. You can’t really cheese or simplify this boss beyond KILL HIM and it’s so refreshing to find a boss that no matter your choice of loadout, Midra will keep you on your toes in the most horror game-like way. Also lore wise, the vibes in this entire area were unsettling and immaculate and the “Eyes of Sauron/Winter Lantern” enemies actually made me jump in that horror game fun way and I adored it.

Messmer, The Impaler/Base Serpent: Now, this was the fight I forced myself to learn through sheer force of will. I literally slammed my head against this man for a day because I knew that the only thing that was killing me was my own arrogance and IT PAID OFF. By the end when I finally beat him, I adored this fight. This man lets you fucking have it, but at no point did it ever seem unfair or bullshit or, hell, even free. This fight is a perfect mix of cinematic, difficult, and a riot to learn and improve at and I genuinely look forward to this fight each playthrough now.

Rellana, Twin Moon Knight: A scaled-up version of my favorite base game Dark Souls 3 boss and she didn’t disappoint. Incredible fight, solidly learnable, and definitely one of the highlights of my first runthrough.

Bayle the Dread: The quickest love-hate relationship I’ve ever had the pleasure to wade through. In my first ten tries, I could not help but think “this is the worst. What can I do against this man except die?”. But the more I fought him, the more I enjoyed it and the more fair I found it. He is overwhelming, yes, but his tells are obvious and when you recognize the areas his attacks affect, he becomes a lot less oppressive. He also has the greatest phase 2 transition of all time. I mean my love for Placie has grown over the past few months, but I think Bayle edges out for Second place in best Dragon fights in Elden Ring. Fortissax takes first.

Scadutree Avatar: This fucker seems easy at first, and then he starts driving around. I severely underestimated this boss at first due to how much damage he was taking compared to everything else. Then he hits second phase and until then, I’d never been jumpscared by a sunflower before. Still not the hardest boss by any means, but definitely checks you at the door.

Romina, Saint of the Bud: I mean, outside of the obvious, I don’t know why I enjoyed this fight. Her rushdown is legendary and she deals in Scarlet Rot, so you’d think I would hate this fight. But her tactics ended up being fairly straightforward, her Rot wasn’t as oppressive as I thought it would be, and she really is such an aesthetically pleasing fight.

Putrescent Knight: The goofiest looking creature on this list by far, but this dude kicked my ass several times. He definitely came with his fair share of surprises, but he never felt overly obnoxious or overstayed his welcome. Not the most fun fight, but definitely worthy of more praise than scorn.

Allies of Miquella: Debated putting this in here because it’s more of a PVP standoff than a boss fight, but I feel it’s worth a mention. Nothing particularly exciting, but it definitely is much more of a marathon than I was expecting and a very difficult one at that. Come prepared here. These people don’t pull punches.

Ghostflame Dragons: More a mention than anything. Nothing unique, but it did force me to rethink how to fight dragons a la Darkeater Midir which I enjoyed.

Metyr, Mother of Fingers: Well, we had to hit the lower half eventually. Metyr doesn’t have a ton of health which puts her up here, but I generally dislike bosses that remind me of The One Reborn where it feels like no matter where you hit the boss, you’re still being dealt damage just for walking up to it which, I’m sure, incentivizes spellcasters, but frustrating nonetheless.

Promised Consort Radahn: Malenia without all of the charm and enjoyment. Malenia, I still firmly believe takes the cake in terms of hardest (and best) boss in Elden Ring, but Radahn did not skimp on the difficulty round two. That being said, his move set is far less enjoyable to learn than Malenia’s and often, it just felt the impressive amount of health and the absolutely unhinged amount of capable range this man has is unjustifiable. Plus, Malenia invites aggression and allows for so many ways to contest her despite her making you work for it while Radahn just hurts. Pain for the sake of improvement is great. Pain for the sake of pain is a lot less fun.

Ancient Dragon Senessax: I did not think that the thing that would make me hate a fight like Lansseax or Fortissax would be just setting the damn thing in a pool of water, but here we are. The lightning AOE’s in this fight are ruthless and are a lot less avoidable for how much they stagger on a regular day. Definitely not the worst, but not a fun development.

Golden Hippopotamus: This thing definitely killed more innocent players than real hippos do every year in real life. This thing SUCKS to fight. Camera monsters in general are just a pain, but when half of your screen is covered in porcupine quills (yes, YOU HEARD ME), this thing becomes substantially more of a drag. That and this abomination punches above its weight class and I just generally found this fight as entertaining as a mosquito bite.

Commander Gaius: Fuck this man. I’ve never had a dude kill me so consistently or so consecutively in the first 5 seconds of the fight. It’s been a minute since a boss legitimately made me yell at my TV screen and I did not welcome the experience. Also, this man had absolutely no right or privilege to ride my ass this fucking hard unless he bought me dinner first. Will not enjoy revisiting this dude.

Divine Beast Dancing Lion: Brace yourself. This is gonna be a long one. I apologize in advance. *breathe in* *heavy sigh* I’ve never actively thought any boss in any Dark Souls game was purely unwarranted or worthy of true hatred. Despite all of the bosses I dislike fighting across all FromSoft games, I always attempted to find a bright side or something like lore or environment or something to justify its existence and I had succeeded. Until I met this fucking thing. This menace didn’t have the most kills on me (that goes to Malenia and Messmer) or did anything in particular that actively exploited my playstyle (like Maliketh, Mohg, or the Crucible Duo). This cockroach merely existed and it was enough. Its body is a giant blob. Its hitbox is horrific. It punishes aggression. It punishes passivity. This thing has ranged attacks, melee attacks, magical attacks, passive effects, movement patterns, retaliatory tactics, and even him just looking at me hits like a goddamn truck. He is so hard to read and does so much damage and does the most unhinged, wtf follow-ups that I’ve ever seen with the most hairpin trigger aggression I’ve ever experienced in my life. He does frost damage, lightning damage, physical damage, I’m pretty sure there is fire damage in there somewhere, emotional damage, and mood damage. And, to top it all off, THERE’S A FUCKING SECOND ONE OUT IN THE BOONIES THAT IS EVEN FUCKING WORSE. Basilisks have been in the Soulsborne conglomerate for as long as I can remember and I’ve tolerated their existence until FOUR OF THEM WANDER INTO THIS FUCKING FIGHT AT THE BEGINNING OF PHASE 2. THIS LION HAS A DEATH BLIGHT PHASE. You know, the one status effect in Elden Ring that INSTANTLY KILLS YOU. And the best part? If you don’t kill him fast enough, HE CAN DO IT AGAIN. It would not surprise me if the same sadist that came up with the Double Gargoyle fight came up with this one. And like I said, he doesn’t have the most health I’ve ever seen, but it doesn’t fucking matter. The only thing that matters is how fast you can remove his health because he WILL kill you if you give him any leeway. I fought this thing twice and I know about as much about how to fight this thing as I did the first time I walked into its arena. I succeeded twice by SHEER DUMB LUCK. I despise this thing and if I could actively avoid it, I would not hesitate.

[ouroborosorder]

Can you tell me more about the negators mapping to fighting game character archetypes? I don’t know much about fgc archetypes but I love UU and this sounds super interesting.

alright so groundwork. Totsuka is a massive fighting game fan. UU is fucking full of references to street fighter already, and he's said before that he wanted to make a manga about fighting games. Dude loves them, so I'm not saying this baselessly. It's to the point where my conspiracy theory is that this started as a hypothetical fighting game roster.

I'll just go through the first few in order and then some notables:

Andy - Shoto. A mixed fighter who specializes at having good tools for any distance. Usually featuring a long-range projectile (parts bullet), a wide reaching mid-screen poke (Crescent series), and an approach option (Fucking flying.) Also, many Shotos have an "install" form, where they unleash a dormant power and transform into a more dangerous, aggressive version of themselves. Come on, dude has a Victor install. Also, "cocky immortal" is a very common fighting game archetype narratively, and one of my personal favorites tbh.

Fuuko - Setplay debuff character. Usually relies on defensive play, mixups, and pokes. When you come to understand the target well enough, you can push your luck, find their pressure point, and land a single glancing hit that applies a debuff that allows you to steamroll the opponent. And like. Falling in love with the opponent and then using that love to understand them is exactly how Fuuko fights. Characters like Londrekia from Under Night are a good touchstone here.

Shen - Chinese stereotype martial artist. This is a common thing in fighting games. Also, they tend to focus really heavily on mixups, forcing the opponent into making bad calls by faking one move and going for another - finding the truth through untruth, as it were.

Void - Bigbody close-range brawler. The dude literally walks into the boxing ring dressed like Balrog from Street Fighter. I mean, come on.

Gina - This is where my theory gets Weird but bear with me. Gina is the bigbody grappler. Grapplers in fighters are slow-moving, highly defensive, and focus primarily on forcing pressure by existing. Grapplers are scary because they don't have to change their position at all to force you to have to play differently. Plus, Gina is associated with her big barrier around her at all times that limits her movement and would make her hitbox larger. Also, her giant Unchange hands are a phenomenal grappler tool. Also, when fighters try to be subversive and make a grappler that isn't a massive guy, they almost always do it by making it a small girl who plays identical to a big guy.

Top - Obligatory rushdown fighter. His new 101 interpretation feels basically tailor-made for rushdown play tbh. Give him a rekka series and we're fucking good.

Rip - Motherfucking CHARGE CHARACTER BABY. This one is entirely because Rip literally has Guile's flash kick and a sonic boom, he does them on screen.

Phil - Full screen zoner. Also the amount of fighting games that have just one extremely weird robot character is absurd, he's basically tailor made to be the obligatory One Robot.

Billy - Copycat fighter. These aren't common anymore, but used to be more common back when sprites were frequent and tracing over another character's sprites was way faster than making a new animation. A character whose entire premise is using other fighters' moves, copying their abilities into an entirely new kit. Mechanically, these characters tend to have weird, disparate kits with a lot of unique options that otherwise would never be on a kit together, allowing them to adapt their playstyle to be the exact perfect enemy to whoever they're facing. Also "bouncing gunslinger" is a very very common fighting game trope, since fighters tend to balance out guns' innate power with weird firing angles.

Juiz - Midrange bait and punish swordfighter. Prioritizes pokes from every angle, allowing you to react and punish everything your opponent can do. Usually calm-collected fencers personality-wise. Maps perfectly to Unjustice's idea - wait until you know what your opponent's intent is, then negate their Justice.

Julia - Protege character who takes after two other members of the cast - being Fuuko and Juiz. Their fighting style usually is a mix of the two, combining their best aspects, copying their moves exactly sometimes, with their own unique aspects in there to show her own persona growing alongside their influence.

Latla - Actively a reference to Rose from Street Fighter. So. Rose from Street Fighter.

Backs - Joke character. You lose to this in bracket, you're going to be posting some real scrubquotes shit.

I can do this for almost every single Negator in the entire manga. The only characters I can't find easy maps to are Chikara, Sean, Tella, Ichico, Lucy, and whatever Unchaste's name was. (this may change if Unchaste actually ever appears again.) But they're all not fighters anyway, they're all support characters or literal children dying of an incurable disease.

[tribow]

I've been playing Rivals of Aether 2 and noticed the Steam reviews have become mixed. Curious, I checked why that might be the case.

It mostly just seems to be a coincidence that it became mixed. A good amount of people left a negative review around the same time. Some of it is because the game deviated from Rivals 1 gameplay, but like....the first game isn't going anywhere. You can still buy it/play it without any issue. Do you know how many fighting games would love to have that luxury?

A good number of the RoA1 crowd think RoA2 plays like Melee/Smash4/Ultimate now, but....no. Melee's gameplay is way more precise with way less emphasis on defense, Smash4 plays way slower, lacks movement options, and punishes unsafe aggression, and Ultimate feels like fencing....so aggression without the approach (if that makes sense). RoA2, to me, is a game that heavily revolves around counterplay. I never felt like I was in a situation where there was absolutely nothing I could have done to prevent a loss, albeit, that's because I'm actually aware of the game mechanics.

A large amount of review also complained about how the game feels to beginners and this is a criticism I couldn't counter if I tried. As of right now, the game severely lacks tutorials and singleplayer modes to help you get better. This is being addressed, but it's gonna be a while. Right now there's some very basic tutorials and an arcade mode, but nothin too helpful. This wouldn't feel as bad if there were casual multiplayer things to do...but there isn't. People rarely play free-for-alls and that's the closest thing to a casual multiplayer mode the game has. Unless you have friends who have the game, you're outta luck.

There also seems to be server issues. I haven't had problems myself, but depending on where you live, you might have problems. RoA2 uses server-based rollback with no peer-to-peer options as of now, so if you're super far from the servers they have, you might experience the lag problems I've seen other reviews complain about. It's something the devs are aware of and will likely address, but solving networking issues is a slow process and it might not be as important as finishing new characters on schedule.

Speaking of that schedule, RoA2 is a live service game, probably one of the best. There's no slimey predatory practices here. No FOMO, no P2W, no money-hungry nonsense. All future characters will be free, the singleplayer modes will be free, and stages will be free. Which is great, but it also reveals that this game isn't necessarily "Feature Complete". Like I said earlier, there's barely any singleplayer modes/tutorials. However, RoA1 released in a very similar fashion. I'd argue it was even more scuffed than RoA2, so I'm not surprised. Yet, some reviews are very surprised.

I'd blame communication for this one. I think some people expected the game to be completely done, but the team has a ton of work to do. It's work that they need money to get done while financially supporting their effort. It's why there's a live service model to begin with. Without support from the community this game's fate could end up like Rushdown Revolt (cool game btw).

This is what baffles me about many of the reviews. They need the community's support. They can't address a lot of issues without that support. Why not encourage people to give it a try anyway? Their support would go towards improving the game anyway. Most of the negative reviews aren't complaining about the game heading in a bad direction. It's just not currently in a state that they would call very good, but they believe it will be very good as long as the devs keep working on it.

???

Isn't that positive? I don't get it.

Look, if you believe in the game, give it support. If you like how the game plays and just need more features, give it support. If you never played the game and are new to the genre, I'd buy the first game unless you don't mind playing a game that's in active development.

Give it support.

[bomb-bomb-chocolat]

I think my hangups with this current season's balance (and thus, the reason why I kind of fell off Strive for a while) can be summarised as:

Simplifying the game during a time where it wasn't needed

Balancing Sol like a rushdown and not like a bruiser, shoto, or pixie grappler

As a synthesis of the first two points: Alot of personality was lost in gameplay.

Changes were so drastic and polarizing that all the issues were worsened by alot of people just going "Oh I don't like this" and leaving.

It's probably Literally Not That Bad and it's been months so I've been gradually getting back in. But I do think this rebalance Wasn't Good.

[sunshinehunter]

I'm so glad they did something different for Guardian Games this year. Rushdown is INCREDIBLY fun. And there is a time limit so it'll never just drag on like the flying islands sometimes felt like

I hope they do different things for the other events this year because this is the first time in years I've really wanted to compete and work at Guardian Games beyond just getting the weapon i wanted.

[the-lazarator]

I warned you the rambles would come.

I have a very love/hate relationship with Monster Hunter Stories 2. I think it’s a good game but as a sequel to the first game it kind of fails to improve upon most of the original game’s faults and even backtracks on one of its coolest and most useful features. This is all stuff I may go into another time; but right now I just want to talk about what the hell were they on when deciding what attack preference some of these Monsties were going to be.

For those unaware of how MHS2 combat works, essentially it boils down to a rock paper scissors with Power, Technical and Speed attacks. There are elements, weapon types, and other stuff; but the most important loop and most crucial part of team building is this Power>Technical>Speed dynamic.

So why on earth is the balance of these 3 so all over the place and why do some monsties have an attack preference that makes way less sense than other preferences???

First of all there is an insane imbalance in speed monsties the entire game. With the system the way it is, there shouldn’t be an entire 3rd of the triangle that is a rare find, and yet for the early stages of the game most speed monsties are hard to come by or locked behind chapter ending boss fights before they can be obtained. Sure, your very first monstie is a speed monstie; but after that you cannot get another until Nargacuga. Yes, Nargacuga is strong, it’s popular and it’s a guaranteed egg; but if you didn’t accidentally stumble upon this nest before you’re intended to it’s placed pretty late into the second chapter of the game, just to get your second speed monstie. After that most speed monsties are just…bad. Like most of them are weak raptors and the rest are again either hidden away or very late game if not postgame monsties with few exceptions. In their place are a biggilion technical and power monsties of which a large portion could have been speed monsties.

But anyways, let’s talk specifics

-Great Jaggi is a technical monstie; but Great Baggi is speed??? I get they both use packs but you’d think the one with an actual status and a status based on strategy would make more sense as technical; and making Jaggi speed would give an actual option for a speed monstie between Velocidrome and Nargacuga.

-Yian Garuga is a technical Monstie??? The psychopathic, uses itself as a weapon, will rush down its foes with reckless abandon Yian Garuga is a technical monstie?!?!?!? And given at a point where you’re still short on power monsties and begging for speed!

-Rathian is a speed monstie?? You can’t get it until after completing the second chapter of the game, later than Nargacuga, and they finally give you a third speed option and it’s Rathian?? I get that she charges but she has never been fast, she’s always been slower than Rathalos. I don’t even know what would make more sense than speed if they wanted to make her different from Rathalos but considering some of the things that aren’t speed this one just feels wrong.

-Monoblos is power. Again considering the dearth of speed either the Diablos or Monoblos pair really should’ve been speed to separate the two groups from each other more, and seeing as both are known for rapid rushdowns its crazy the only one among any of them that got to be speed was Bloodbath Diablos.

-GYPCEROS is POWER?!? It’s whole thing is tricks and being tricky why the FUCK isn’t it technical!!?!

-Barroth is Speed…but Jade Barroth isn’t?? I get that they sometimes make the subspecies have different preferences to set them apart but you’re still killing for speed monsties by this point in the game (and I wanted to use Jade Barroth at that point, too D: )

-NONE of the fated four are speed, except soulseer but those are their deviant forms. Gammoth and Glavenus I get, but surely Mizutsune OR Astalos could’ve been speed instead of technical? The psychopath dragonfly wyvern who darts around and crashes into things or the bubbly, slippery kitsune leviathan?

-Uragaan, a Monster who rolls around to evade and attack and which lays traps with its powder stones is a power monstie. This one isn’t as egregious, Uragaan is massive and powerful; but I feel technical could’ve worked well too

-SEREGIOS. A MONSTER KNOWN FOR ITS INSANELY ACROBATIC FLYING AND AGILITY, WHOSE FIGHTING STYLE IS MOSTLY F A S T, AGRESSIVE ATTACKS, LITERALLY THE FASTEST MOVING AERIAL MONSTER IN THE SERIES THAT ISN’T AN ELDER DRAGON IS FUCKING TECHNICAL. ARE YOU FUCKING SHITTING ME.

-IT’S OKAY THOUGH, BECAUSE B A Z E L G E U S E IS A SPEED MONSTIE. WHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAT. THE SLOWEST OF THE THREE ELDER-TIER INVADER MONSTERS IS S P E E D!?! Why not technical??!? It’s whole thing is laying traps with its explosive scales and ambushing from above! I get why they didn’t go power because the other 2 members of the invader elder-tier trio are already power monsties, but fucking speed? Oh yeah, this monster really needed to be speed because this thing only available at the literal end of the main story really solved the drought of speed monsties in the rest of the game, fucking brilliant. Hell, why not make each member of this trio a different attack type? Deviljho can stay power, Bazelgeuse becomes technical and Rajang can easily be speed because yeah, Rajang is strong; but it’s also lightning fast. It’s similar to Tigrex in the regard, known for its power but still makes sense as a speed monstie (which regular Tigrex is). Now, does this all really matter? YES, finding good speed monsties in the story is a pain in the ass and some of these choices legit make no sense. That, and both Speed AND Technical are heavily outnumbered. There are only 24 speed monsties in the game (29 if you count each extra version of the palamute), 27 technical monsties and 38 POWER. And while it’s less noticeable with technical due to the wide variety of monster types and power levels that have technical preference, pretty much all of the speed monsties in the game are weak, lower tier monsters or insanely strong post-game only creatures (or again, hidden away). Sure this problem therefore goes away once you’ve grinded your postgame; but god was it a frustrating story playthrough for me and I’d bet a good number of you too.

Depending on how this does I may go over my many other gripes with Stories 2 in the future but that’s enough for now.

[brightresearchers]

Barry's Pokémon - Main team

#392 - Infernape ♂ Name: Simon Type: Fire/Fighting Ability: Iron Fist

Original Trainer: Professor Rowan Met on Route 201 at level 5.

Hasty nature. Highly curious. Likes sweet food. Dislikes sour food.

Held item: King’s Rock

Preferred moves: Fire Punch - The target is attacked with a fiery punch. This may also leave the target with a burn.  Aura Sphere - The user lets loose a pulse of aura power from deep within its body at the target. This attack never misses.  Acrobatics - The user nimbly strikes the target. This attack does massive damage if the user isn't holding an item.  Fake Out - This attack hits first and makes the target flinch. It works only on the first turn each time the user enters battle. 

Barry’s first Pokémon, given to him by Professor Rowan when they first met. Much like his trainer, he’s very impulsive and likely to take action quickly and decisively, which among the other Pokémon raised by the professor makes him act as a sort of leader figure even though his decisions usually get questioned. He’s very physically affectionate and as a Chimchar had a habit of climbing into people’s shoulders if he trusted them enough, but now that he evolved into a big fire hazard that habit is no longer advisable. Simon’s also surprisingly well-versed in geography and likes to show off his knowledge.

He’s a classic representative of Barry’s preference for all-out offense and hit-and-run tactics, overwhelming his opponents with his superior agility and then unleashing devastating fire-based attacks to end the fight as soon as possible. If he does have to worry about opposing attacks in a battle, what he lacks in defense he makes up for in sheer nimbleness, so instead of taking hits head-on he’s much more adept at dodging with acrobatic maneuvers that only add more momentum to his hyper-aggressive fighting style. The flame at the top of his head also makes for an excellent makeshift campfire.

His name’s derived from a certain video game character from an investigation series that Barry really likes. He didn’t realize it at the time, but the reason why he thought the name was so fitting was because it sounds like simian.

#398 - Staraptor ♂ Name: Falco Type: Normal/Flying Ability: Intimidate

Original Trainer: Barry Met on Lake Verity at level 2.

Serious nature. Quick tempered. No food preferences.

Held item: Shell Bell

Preferred moves: Fly - The user soars and then strikes its target on the next turn. This can also be used to fly to any familiar town.  Close Combat - The user fights the target up close, inflicting damage without guarding itself. This also lowers the user's Defense and Sp. Def stats.  U-Turn - After making its attack, the user rushes back to switch places with a party Pokémon in waiting.  Uproar - The user attacks in an uproar for three turns. During that time, no Pokémon can fall asleep. 

At the very beginning of Barry’s journey, when he was searching for rare Pokémon at Lake Verity, he ended up getting attacked by an extremely territorial Starly, which he caught right there after seeing the potential for greatness in such a reckless Pokémon. Compared to most of the other Pokémon on the team he’s not much of a talker and usually keeps to his own devices, but when he does talk he shows a surprisingly mean personality with a strong preference for edgy humor. Barry, of course, thinks that his Pokémon being an emo kid is absolutely hilarious.

In battle, he’s well-known for preferring rushdown tactics without much regard for his own defense, usually dodging attacks by flying really high up as a way to give himself longevity in a fight instead of trying to parry or resist any attacks thrown his way. He’s great at punching holes against enemy teams, causing as much damage as possible in close quarters and going down relatively quickly, but if for some reason he doesn’t get to close the distance in a fight he instead tends to rely on sound moves to blast his opponents from afar. He has one hell of a shrill cry, so being on the receiving end of his sound blasts is quite painful.

His name’s a reference to a famous singer with a very popular old-timey song that Barry’s mom regularly listens to. The fact that it sounds like the word falcon is coincidental.

#419 - Floatzel ♂ Name: Miles Type: Water Ability: Swift Swim

Original Trainer: Barry Met on Route 205 at level 11.

Relaxed nature. Mischievous. Likes sour food. Dislikes sweet food.

Held item: Punching Glove

Preferred moves: Liquidation - The user slams into the target using a full-force blast of water. This may also lower the target's Defense stat.  Ice Punch - The target is punched with an icy fist. This may also leave the target with frostbite.  Dig - The user burrows into the ground, then attacks on the next turn. It can also be used to exit dungeons.  Swift - Star-shaped rays are shot at opposing Pokémon. This attack never misses. 

Miles was caught shortly after the incident on Valley Windworks, as one of the Pokémon that got disturbed by Team Galactic’s actions and ended up lashing out against humans that crossed his territory. After Barry managed to calm him down, he actually turned out to be surprisingly well-behaved, acting as a voice of reason in this otherwise extremely chaotic team. With that being said, he also has a mean streak and likes to sneak around and misplace objects just to mess with his trainer and teammates, as they’re overall pretty easy to rile up. He’s a big fan of contests.

Being an agile Pokémon in land and water, Miles has the usual fighting style in Barry’s team of overwhelming enemies with speed and then laying the smackdown on them, but something unique to him is that he has a preference for jabs and parries, fighting at close range not unlike a boxer without relying on constant dodging maneuvers. His tails essentially function as extra limbs when he’s up close, and when they’re spinning to act as propellers they have a surprising amount of cutting power. Miles’ fighting style is heavily influenced by Barry’s wrestling lessons with Crasher Wake, and he also looks up to the gym leader as a mentor.

His name is derived from a certain video game character with similar colors that also has two tails that can spin. Barry’s actually really into video games.

#421 - Cherrim ♂ Name: Cheri Berry Type: Grass Ability: Flower Gift

Original Trainer: Dawn Met on Eterna City at level 14.

Bold nature. Somewhat stubborn. Likes sour food. Dislikes spicy food.

Held item: Heat Rock

Preferred moves: Petal Blizzard - The user stirs up a violent petal blizzard and damages everything around it.  Weather Ball - This move's type and power change depending on the weather at the time the move is used.  Endure - The user endures any attack with at least 1 HP. This move's chance of failing rises if used in succession.   Rollout - The user rolls into the target to deal damage, then becomes fixated on using this move. 

Cheri was originally caught by Dawn during her visit to Floaroma and later on traded with Barry so that they could help each other as trainers and add more variety to their teams. He’s a bit of a temperamental Pokémon, being very energetic when the weather’s nice and he can get his fill of sunlight but getting far more reserved and even a little impatient if he has to spend a lot of time in the dark. His mood shifts seem to align very well with his trainer’s own temperamental attitude, so if one of them is feeling happy the other will probably be in a good mood as well, and the same is true when one of them is down in the dumps.

Like any Cherrim, Cheri draws power from sunlight to activate his fully-bloomed form, becoming faster and stronger while also being capable of sharing that energy with his allies. Unlike most members of his species, however, he’s able to transform at will without necessarily requiring strong sunlight or even exposure to daylight due to extensive training, but apparently that ability can be rather exhausting if he overdoes it. When his petals are folded he can save up energy, but since that form is actually pretty resilient and can take hits well he can also switch back to it in order to protect himself.

He’s very obviously named after the berry, but his name is also a reference to a song that Barry’s dad really likes. Also, it has a nice rhyme to it.

#214 - Heracross ♂ Name: Samson Type: Bug/Fighting Ability: Guts

Original Trainer: Barry Met on Route 210 at level 15.

Jolly nature. Very finicky. Likes sweet food. Dislikes dry food.

Held item: Honey

Preferred moves: Megahorn - Using its tough and impressive horn, the user rams into the target to inflict damage.  Revenge - This attack move's power is doubled if the user has been hurt by the opponent in the same turn.  Spikes - The user lays a trap of spikes at the feet of the opposing team. The spikes will damage opposing Pokémon that switch into battle.  Thief - The user attacks and steals the target's held item simultaneously. The user can't steal anything if it already holds an item. 

Samson was caught after Barry lured him with honey on Route 210, but before that he was known to harass the workers at a café in that area so that he could steal their food. He’s an avid foodie with a strong preference for sweets, and as such he can be very easily bribed with honey, but if left unchecked he’s also known to have an incredibly malicious streak and complete willingness to bully and coerce others into getting what he wants. Thankfully, Barry seems to have this situation under control, as he can somewhat relate to his Pokémon’s questionable moral compass.

His strongest trait in combat is his lifting strength, so he’s well-known to toss his opponents around with his horn even when they’re much heavier than he is, but even beyond that he can lift objects like boulders and tree logs to use as blunt weapons, so he’s a surprisingly brutal fighter. If an opponent assumes that getting out of grappling range will keep them safe, however, they’ll be in for a nasty surprise as his horn can also be used as a piercing weapon and he’s much faster than one would expect, being able to close the distance in a matter of seconds when he’s in the air.

His name is, of course, taken from the mythological figure. Barry took suggestions from Dawn, and she thought that Hercules would be a bit too obvious.

#143 - Snorlax ♂ Name: Elmo Type: Normal Ability: Thick Fat

Original Trainer: Barry Met on Route 221 at level 5.

Docile nature. Proud of its power. No food preferences.

Held item: Leftovers

Preferred moves: Rest - The user goes to sleep for two turns. This fully restores the user's HP and cures any status conditions.  Covet - The user endearingly approaches the target, then steals the target's held item.  Heat Crash - The user slams into the target with its flame-covered body. The more the user outweighs the target, the greater the move's power.  Darkest Lariat - The user swings both arms and hits the target. The target's stat changes don't affect the damage inflicted by this move. 

Elmo was caught near the end of Barry’s journey in Sinnoh, after a long search all over the region for the elusive Munchlax that led him to a strange seaside route surprisingly close to his hometown. He’s a very sleepy Pokémon, usually not having many words to say, but there’s a certain confidence to him that shows he’s extremely powerful and aware of it. Very cooperative as long as he’s being bribed with food, Elmo will eat just about anything with no distinctions, but if he’s on an empty stomach he’ll sulk and complain about it, so he constantly needs to be pampered.

Unlike most of Barry’s Pokémon, who rely on speed because they can’t take hits very well, Elmo is an absolute juggernaut, charging forward slowly but surely and smashing anything on his path. He’s so hard to break through that sometimes he’s known to take naps during battles to restore energy and wake up completely unfazed, but his trainer doesn’t really like that kind of strategy because it takes up too much time. He’s had some wrestling lessons from Wake as well, so he’s known to throw some mean punches, and his favorite strategy is to overwhelm his enemies with his sheer size and pin them down until they have to tap out.

He’s named after a kids’ show character because Barry saw a certain resemblance when he was still unevolved. The reference’s not as obvious now that he’s fully grown.

[mira0000000-blog]

what about... Sonic Fighting game...

Sonic can be played by begginers but to get reall good with him you need to learn some more advanced shit like micro-dashing. He is mostly a rushdown type of character that it constantly on top of you looking for a way to get in without letting the opponent breath. He has a very good grab but it has a very small range so to make it more usable you need to learn micro-dashing to mix it with other attacks. He can go super and it makes all of his attacks better, but after a while it goes off and he is vulnerable. Plus it depletes all of his special bar

Shadow is a bit harder cos he is a charge character, instead of being constantly on you he is mostly on the defense and looking for a moment of which he can exploit, once he gets in he can unleash the nastiest combos known to man and make the opponent want to cry. He also can go super like Sonic.

Silver has many batshit moves but they cost concentration bar and to refill it he needs to stay still for a while while holding a combination of buttons and this leaves him vulnerable. He can go Super too... also all of his special moves are in italian. Because.

Belle is a puppet character, cos of course she would be one... the second controlling character with her could be motobug?

Big is a joke character until you meet a very dedicated Big player that kills you within 10 seconds.

Tangle is an aerial trickster, she can get almost anywhere in the screen with her tail and give you some nasty aerial attacks, but if she isnt careful she might get blown up by anti-airs. She also has an infamous long range attack using her tail that cover a good part of the screen and there is a load of memes about it.

Whisper is an all rounder, however to use her long-range attacks with her wispon she needs to set it up first, which takes a bit of time and leaves her vulnerable so you need to be sure you want to use it. But her long range attacks are very good so its worth it

Amy is a menace that most people dont know how to deal with and it takes a while to learn how to. She has both hammer attacks and card attacks, she can go to the air using her hammer bounce from sa1, many of her attacks are plus on block. Also she has an overhead. Her card attacks have long range. She has many combos that involve ramming you up over and over against the wall. She can counter too. What many people dont notice at first when playing against her is that her nastier attacks have a long startup and can be interrupted easily.

[talenlee]

Sonic Rushdown

Gotta go fast!

Sega as a company has what seems to be a pretty prosaic attitude towards fangames. You can use their art and sprites and characters in fan media, even fan media that makes a videogame, and as long as you’re not asking anyone to pay money for it, they seem to be fine with it. It’s not a “Don’t ask, don’t tell” policy as much as it is a “Won’t ask, don’t sell” policy, and it’s a policy I might be stretching to its theoretical limits with this.

I made a Sonic the Hedgehog card game.

They exist already. Sonic the Hedgehog has a host of card games already. They’re almost universally terrible, games that rate somewhere around Snap. Now, the fact that Sonic the Hedgehog has shown up in a bunch of terrible games is unremarkable – both in that tie-in board games are often terrible, and statistically, Sonic the Hedgehog games are just as often terrible.  It’s rolling some loaded dice, is what I’m saying.

Wanna see what I came up with?

Gameplay Loop

Players are going to run through levels represented by flipping cards off the top of the deck. These cards are going to show you one of either a Crystal Shard, a Hazard or a Ring. Hazard cards end your run, if you can’t deal with them.  Ring cards can protect you from (a) hazard, then get discarded. Crystal Shards are the thing you’re trying to collect, to reconstruct the Chaos Emeralds.

Play starts with the player whose character is the fastest, represented on their player card in the top right corner. The character in position 1 (Sonic) goes first, then any character in position 2, and 3 and so on.

On the first turn, you just start your Run. First, flip cards off the top of the deck equal to your Momentum. Faster characters have a lower momentum, they hit their top speed faster. These cards are safe – you can avoid hazards revealed this way, and if you reveal two matching cards in this start of your run, they don’t end your turn.  Then, after that, you can flip cards off the top of your deck  and resolve what happens.

If you flip a Rings card, take it out of the Run and hold onto it. You can have any number of these, but any time you get hit by a Hazard, you lose all of them, so there’s no point fretting about stockpiling them.

If you flip a hazard, it hits you, and ends your Run. Discard all the cards in your Run and pass the deck to the next player.

If you have any Rings, you can discard all your Rings instead, and keep Running. You can’t stockpile or pick up any of those Rings – the hazard knocked them out of you.

If you flip a Crystal Shard, check to see if it matches any of your other Crystal Shards. If it does match your other Crystal Shards, your Run ends, but you don’t discard any cards in it.

After every flip you can choose to keep flipping more cards, or you can choose to end your Run. If you end your Run, you can pick one of the Crystal Shards in your run, and activate its Harmony. If you do this, it steals all the cards in other players’ Runs that match it.

Once your Run is ended, don’t put it away – it’s there so other players can steal from it!

At the start of each turn, if it’s not the first turn, you’ll have some cards in front of you face-up from your last turn’s Run. Set them aside. They’re your saved cards, you reached a checkpoint. If you have any ring cards in that, discard all but one of them. Then start your Run as before.

Your turn can end before you want it to, of course, if the deck runs out of cards. That’s okay, you get to keep what you had in your Run. Shuffle up the cards in the discard, and people work out their score for that level.

Goals

You want to recover the Chaos Emeralds. When the deck runs out of cards, and you score the level, players  want to check the cards they have Saved and the cards in their current Run. For each Chaos Emerald, the player who has the most of each type collected that Emerald. Each Chaos emerald lists how many cards of its type there are in the deck, so it’s easy to work out how many there should be. If two players are tied for the number of cards, the faster character wins ties.

Mechanical Space

There’s more to the game than this loop. Particularly each character has special abilities, but I need the basic systems of the game in place to enable them. The simple starter characters, Sonic, Knuckles, Tails and Amy, all relate to hazards differently. But also because there’s a theft mechanic, Rouge can take advantage of the stealing. Silver and Sticks can also take advantage of that kind of thing. What’s more there’s also room for complications: A boss monster that chases the ‘winner’ of each round, and a complication like Big the Cat.

Origin

In the context of this game, though, what I wanted to emulate was a few feelings from the Sonic the Hedgehog games I remembered. Here’s my list of principles:

The game needed to reward some vision of speed

I needed ways for people to steal from one another or pick up things that other people dropped

It needed to be an interesting game with its own interesting set of choices

It needed to reflect the characters of Sonic the Hedgehog in a way that expressed an understanding of the characters’ differences

Needs

Uh… I mean at this point I need to playtest it. Art assets are available from Sonic’s own compendia of material. I can’t sell it, but I may need some way to print a copy to give to a streamer to show it off? I dunno. It’s kinda hard to say with a game of this type!

Check it out on PRESS.exe to see it with images and links!

[massacre-girlypop]

Tips For Malenia Part 2

Wait for her to attack before responding. She may have low poise, but it’s not that low and she can still power through your attacks and she deals A LOT of damage even without Waterfowl. Wait for openings where she is mid-animation or finishing an attack string to punish.

STAMINA MANAGEMENT. Big in every fight, but even more so here. Malenia can do what a lot of other bosses do where they can go unlimited stamina and just rush you down with every attack they can possibly fit into a combo string and it can wear out your stamina FAST especially if you’re trying to get attack strings in for yourself. Always be prepared to dip out if you can.

Malenia usually uses her first Waterfowl Dance at 75% of her health left. Baiting it out and prepping for it makes it easier to dodge and then you can start really chunking her health after that.

She really doesn’t have that many attacks. Sounds odd because she kicks our asses frequently enough, but her variety is lacking and learning how to dodge her attacks are easier than you think to learn (Waterfowl and Phantom Spirits not withstanding)

Can’t stress enough how telegraphed a lot of her movesets are and how long afterwards she’s vulnerable to attack. Knowing the tells on what she’s doing are pretty obvious and differentiating what punishment you’re gonna be dodging is fairly straightforward once you see them a few times.

Use and manage the space. Malenia is one of the few bosses in all Dark Souls games that you don’t want to be right on her ass. Keeping a healthy distance is ideal because her rushdown is disgusting, but it will allow you more time to prepare for her strings.

Look for the Scarlet Aeonia tells on 2nd phase. Scarlet Aeonia is one of the easiest moves in her skillset to dodge if you recognize and know how to do it. Not only that, but it gives you a solid 20 seconds afterwards to heal up and prepare for the next assault as long as you survive it.

Malenia is a master class in Risk vs Reward. Greed, while being a staple reason why most people die in Souls games, is a truly fatal flaw in Malenia because she can punish like the mommy dom she is and she doesn’t pull punches. Weigh each attempt at damage carefully.

Listen for hyperarmor sound cues. Some of her moves give her stagger resistance where she can power through and immediately respond. Also, attempting to stagger her out of Waterfowl Dance is nigh impossible. It’s better to just run and avoid rather than attempt to punish. Getting hit by a full Waterfowl is death no matter how well speced out you feel.

Poise is important. You don’t need a full investment, but having at least a 65 maybe more without fat rolling helps manage her aggression and tank a few hits without staggering, buying you much needed time.

[lostpuntinentofalantis]

I think this is an artifact of deckbuilding RPGs being (spiritual?) descendants of dominion, where you start out with a deck with 10 shitty cards and over the next 15 minutes you build up to a really good deck. 

In that context it makes sense:

1. Since it’s a multiplayer game, with turn order, in general you want to decrease first turn advantage, and first turn advantage tends to compound when you start off with baseline better decks. The entire nature of deckbuilding RPGs is that you, the player is asymmetric so this makes less sense. 2. It becomes easier to teach and pick up, because the base deck will be filled with pretty easy to understand cards and interactions. This is great where you have a game night where someone might be playing this for the first time, but not so much for an RPG you are going to spend many multiple hours on.

3. The games are often built around removing cards from the deck as a vector of deck improvement, and removing that vector would mean that cards either need to be more complicated or the game itself would be too flat. Obviously when implementing a video game card complexity can go up since it’s a program, not a person executing it. 

4. Having deck removal be a thing means that you can potentially have games where deck removal is NOT a thing, so you can have both games where the player builds up very quickly to very powerful decks, or games where the pacing slows down and you have to consider optimizing your deck in other ways. On the other hand, single player deck builders, the game experience that feels most directly awesome is of course when your deck is awesome.

I don’t know which specific RPG you’re talking about, but I have a lot of Slay the Spire playtime so I’ll just talk about that. And there, I think the bad starter deck is exactly what leads to very varied play experiences.

High ascension play with everyone but the watcher involves lots of thinking on how to trade off short term gain vs longer term success since they start out “behind” the power curve, which means you end up playing completely different decks on different runs. For watcher, the strength of the starter deck means you can hold out until you get exactly the deck you want and the game ends up just being the waiting room for “make a rushdown infinite”. Even if that turns out NOT to be optimal play, the period of time where you play just the starter deck can be significantly longer as you don’t need to pick up any card NOW in order to survive the next three fights, which means 20 different runs of act 1 can start to blend together more. 

I think the need to survive while ALSO building the deck is where most of the interesting strategic decisions are and what separates deckbuilding games from preconstructed CCGs.

thinking about how I hate deckbuilding rpgs, but not because of anything inherent to the genre. I could love it and I see the path to loving it. I hate a single card that nearly every single one of them has

the "this should have just been an attack button" low damage clutter card. bane of my existence. nail in my shoe.

[landoftheway]

Theme of spamming throws just to keep laughing at your opponent and make them rage quit.