#God it could've been great

[rimeiii]

I return to WHB Tumblr to see how the game us doing and I see the fandom in shambles, damn. And after scrolling through the tag for a bit, I have...questions.

Yo how big is WHB now even? I stopped playing shortly after they introduced the paywalled Gabriel and that's one of the things I've seen several people complain about...

Like I understand the rest of the complaints - it's mostly the same complaints I've been having about the game prior to me quitting. Multiple decisions that seem to reinforce the idea that this game is heading down the P2W path, very anti-F2P practices in general, outrageous prices for the paid Nightmare Pass, no pity system on launch, the disaster that was the implementation of the Solomon's Seals gacha, the many bugs on launch especially, the small amount of farmable premium currency, and the list goes on...the pancake shop rework not only seems to be in line with the trajectory PB seems to be taking in terms of game decisions, but is also the straw that broke the camel's back for a lot of players.

But, uh, storage? Wasn't it like 2 GB tops on launch? That was reasonable I think, because Arknights was around that size on launch and back then, there was so little additional content. Only JP dubbing, no L2D E2 art or skins (the only L2D we had back then was Closure, the SHOPKEEP), 5 story chapters (which translated to 92 stages, in which around half have a Challenge Mode variant and with a large majority being unique maps), and no additional game modes.

For additional context, currently Arknights is ~6-7 GB on a fresh account with all language dubbing, and it gets bloated if you don't delete unused event data (it's ~9.7 GB for me and I have Arknights on my current phone ever since Near Light first hit Global, so just over 2 years now). Keep in mind Arknights is close to 4.5 years old in Global, and CN just celebrated their 5th anniversary a few months back.

Talking about storage, I don't think comparing WHB to older games and non-tower defense is fair either, since:

Older games in general are much easier on your device in terms of storage to content ratio and performance, mostly due to device limitations of the past requiring less sophisticated game mechanics and the devs sticking to these simpler mechanics even as time passes and technology gets more advanced. Gentle reminder that FGO is ~7 years old in NA, ~9 years old in JP, and ALSO doesn't download everything initially - afaik there's an option for that in the settings menu which bumps the total size up significantly (the wiki lists it as around 9-10 GB total).

Different genres and graphics mean different storage requirements. Anything 3D or open world will almost always have higher storage requirements compared to anything else. Path to Nowhere is around the same size as Arknights despite being younger due to the former using 3D models for their battle sprites, compared to the 2D chibis Arknights uses. Love and Deepspace, a ~5 months game, is huge because of how they do the cutscenes AND the stage-based action gameplay, but Wuthering Waves is closing the gap on size quickly despite being only ~1.5 months because it's an open world action RPG.

What I will say, though, is that WHB is not optimized well. Now I may be very unfair by comparing WHB to Punishing: Gray Raven, a game by the optimization gods known as Kurogames (people ran the PC PGR client on 2GB RAM laptops and my 4GB RAM laptop can run WuWa despite it using UE4 - an engine notorious for chugging on low end devices - albeit with lag spikes in the open world map), but when a 2D tower defense game fails to run as smoothly as a 3D action game with stylish and fast-paced combat, then we have a problem. For context, my 4GB RAM phone only has minor lag when I use a skill that has a lot of visual effects like Lee Hyperreal's Hypermatrix, but back when I played WHB I still experienced lag spikes when deploying units.

Again this all boils down to PB just not being used to the game format. Which is all well and good, Arknights was a huge departure from Girls Frontline too - a good portion of Arknights' devs worked on Girls Frontline before splitting off to work on Arknights. But what made Arknights succeed is how accessible and F2P friendly the game was, with smooth and solid gameplay as well as an engaging plot that discusses themes such as racism, discrimination, and the fragility of hope.

Of course you can argue that Arknights is a tower defense first, visual novel second. Unlike WHB, which is an otome game first, tower defense second. And I would agree, but only to a certain extent. Once you step into the realm of having Actual Combat Gameplay Elements then I believe it's your duty to make progression as reasonable as possible. Including a power gate is fine, but nothing too excessive - and certainly do not hold any significantly strong unit behind a paywall.

Because fun fact - in Arknights' entire runtime, there were only a handful of completely paywalled content:

Player icons from promotional packs for large events, particularly the Ambience Synesthesia concerts

Character skins from promotional packs, like the Exusiai and Guard Ch'en skins during the anime release

Purestream, a B4 Therapist Medic who was released as a WWF collab, where all sales from her $1 pack were donated to the WWF. Even then, she eventually became available for everyone, as she was later added to the Recruitment pool (use a resource obtained from Dailies for a chance to get units, some unique to the pool like Purestream). She was a decent healer, and her Module made her a good budget medic. Even then you're more likely using the Medics you've already built by then - for B4 budget options, Perfumer is usually better for multi-target healing and a party HP regen passive, while Sussurro is your go-to for strong single-target healing.

And guess what? None of these had any direct impact on gameplay during their paywalled period. Purestream wasn't even a B5 or B6 unit, yo. There are many better options for healers. I STILL USE THE B3 ANSEL AND HIBISCUS IN INTEGRATED STRATEGIES.

I'm just...PB's choices baffle me, and I do wish they can improve not just on the game performance standpoint, but in how they treat their playerbase in terms of in-game purchases. I hope I made that abundantly clear...

[dangerpronebuddie]

I really really want them to follow through on Eddie's Catholic guilt storyline. It could be such a beautiful thing to see, no matter how it concludes. If he divorces his religion, if he finds new comfort in it- it could go either way and be beautiful. Linda using her mother's religious encouragement and it sticking with Eddie in a way the "universe screaming" just didn't is a tiny detail but an important one to his character. He stopped going to church, but those beliefs are still ingrained in him, for better or worse. He carries so much guilt on his shoulders, only a tiny sliver of which he's looked at with Frank and the helicopter crash. His struggle with processing that guilt and deciding whether or not he wants to keep his beliefs (partially or completely) would be fascinating to see, not to mention a sizeable amount of people would identify with that struggle.

And while we're at it, I really wish we could've seen Eddie (with Buck) praying for Bobby. He might've been wrestling with religious trauma he thought would remain dormant, but he put that aside because he knows Bobby's religion offers him comfort. The compassion Eddie has for everyone around him never fails to make me emotional. It doesn't matter what Eddie felt about his own religion, or that his life was actively falling apart. Bobby needed a miracle, and Eddie was willing to plead to a God he probably hasn't spoken to in years to give him that.

[daily-sloop-john-b]

I know we all love to say "fuck mystra" this and/or Gale's Folly (subtitled: How Could You Be Such A Callous Idiot)—but really, Gale and Mystra are primarily REALLY BAD at communicating. The whole issue started when Mystra a) couldn't provide a satisfying answer to Gale's desire for more, b) Gale decided that instead of being vulnerable and working through it, he'd do a Secret Project(TM), c) Gale didn't bother telling Mystra what said project was, and/or she only vaguely warned him off it. And then Gale rolled a nat 1 on his arcana check, and then a second nat 1 for insight b/c the DM was attempting to take mercy on him and was staring at Gale and the book, worrying 4d6 under the table while not breaking eye contact and saying, very slowly, "...are you sure?"

[nono-uwu]

Siobhan with halovian wings bc she deserves it dammit

[finnickodaiir]

Like, yeahh Jack can be versatile (after all, he has produced OOTW, LWYMMD, Illicit Affairs, and Gold Rush, and these songs are quite different from each other sonically), but I don't think him and Taylor are really pushing each other anymore. After all, a good chunk of TTPD could've gone on Midnights (Fortnight, TTPD, ICDIWABH, MBOBHF, Down Bad) and Midnights itself sounds like a mix of 1989's and Rep's productions. And idk when his work with another artist (Sabrina's Please 3x) sounds like it could've gone on one of Taylor's latest releases (Midnights or the 1989 TV vault), it's a little concerning...

[wof-reworked]

FINALLY. FINALLY. people telling Qibli they love him and see the best in him does not make him a mary sue oh my god.

I've been hella personal this whole time but like to go a little deeper- that book genuinely brought me to sobbing tears the first time I read it at 16 because it was the first time I've seen a character with the same kind of hyperviligant anxiety and fawning be told they're loved and can be a good person/hero. It doesn't make him a mary sue for the book to focus on how he needs to learn how to get out of his own head and recognize that other people like him. I mean for gods sake the whole middle of the book is them getting mad at him for summoning a sandstorm I would hardly say you're supposed to view him as some untouchable hero when his strength has always been reading people and situations and not fighting/magic and the book about him puts an emphasis on those skills and where he also falls flat.

I don't think you all actually want found family if you think characters being accepted by their friends is like. bad writing. I don't know what you want but I don't think found family is it.

[oddeyes588]

So I just finished Super Robot Wars 30 (the only SRW I've played so far), and being the obsessed hyperfixator that I am, I immediately thought about how Symphogear would've mixed with the world.

Unfortunately the answer is "not great" because in 30 there are multiple elements at play in the creation of humanity and trying to add in Symphogear with it's lore regarding the Anunnaki is... difficult (if only because the Wulgaru from Majestic Prince has taken that space).

WITH THAT SAID... if w were to ignore that part of the lore and they WERE in this universe, could anybody else see Section Two/S.O.N.G. being closely tied to GGG? They serve VERY similar purposes, and you cannot tell me that Genjuro wouldn't respect the hell out of the philosophies that GGG runs on. Because 30 follows Gaogaigar VS. Betterman and takes place 10 years after Final, any Symphogear plots would've had to happen AFTER Final, so chances are none of the wielders (barring potentially Tsubasa) would've had much of a connection to the original GGG members, but that just means they'd be working with the newer GGG instead, which means that they would be friends with Mamoru and Kaido instead, and probably work alongside them at times as well.

Putting a focus on Hibiki just for the sake of simplicity, she probably gets along great with Mamoru and has heard plenty of heroic stories about the original Braves... and when the original Braves DO come back, boy would she ever look up to Guy. And like, who wouldn't, right? But ESPECIALLY Hibiki. She's got bravery in spades, after all.

There are a LOT of other elements to consider, of course.... but full disclosure, I can't say I have a full comprehensive understanding of the timeline concerning the Last 10 Years that 30 takes place after. But it just feels to me that they fit in especially well with the Gaogaigar characters, much in the same way J-Decker did.

Anyways, ramble over, but one last thing... it's worth noting that they'd also work well with the Gridman characters too, especially since well... Hibiki is canonically someone he could merge with in order to fight.

(God I love the XDU collabs)

[peachypizzicato]

listen, side order is. a fantastic dlc! a fantastic gameplay experience! its great! i love getting more little pieces of world building and character building n shit!!

but i gotta be honest. the writing (both in the dlc itself and in media that has come after) has really started to ruin pearl and marina as characters for me and that makes me awfully sad

[gurlsagainstgod]

brendan hunt saying we are "conditioned" to see a male and female lead and want them to end up together about ted and rebecca was kind of funny in a dumb way. my brother in christ, the majority of the fans of your show are part of the alphabet, be serious for a second

[lakemichigans]

fellow travelers is losing me for real WHERE ARE THE WOMENNNNN even queer as folk had main cast lesbians and straight women who existed as more than just plot development for the gay men

[reginrokkr]

𝐂𝐗𝐈𝐋. Given Dain's high standing in the military of Khaenri'ah, I am still debating whether he knew or not about its dark side (which is huge and lasted for millennia if we take as a solid point of timeframe when Phanes threw the sapphire nails to mend the land from the Apocalypse, one of which landed in Dragonspine and the author of one of the stone tablets already talked about a nation without gods being built somewhere) and in case he didn't and by then he was already destined for greatness —be it by being tied to Irminsul already or something else, thus already gauging a greater picture outside Khaenri'ah, but of the world—, if he was forced to make a decision to not do everything in his power to do something for Khaenri'ah or do something else to think about the future and not so much about the shorter term (if the darkness that spread from Khaenri'ah to the rest of the world were to be left unchecked, the whole world could've gone to poop easily) and come empty-handed because what could he possibly do against the gods?

Whatever the case is, what I want to address is that chances are that in the heat of the moment, he did hate the gods when Khaenri'ah's fall happened but not even that would blind him to see things from perspective (I will touch on this a tad later). Assuming that he came to witness that even Khaenri'ahns themselves could summon the rifthounds, not so much that perhaps it was the only choice the gods had to keep all that consuming darkness at bay from the potential danger of spreading to the rest of the world (as it ended up happening anyway) because sooner or later, that would've spilled on the rest of Khaenri'ah's civilization and would be cause of serious danger to the citizens— but because people who had nothing to do with the festering obsessions for thousands of years were also brought into the equation, full blooded Khaenri'ahns or not. And what's worse: not only the gods had to destroy their home but they had to cast that bloody curse that, regardless of the purity of people's blood, was horrible in many ways.

However, and as I say, not even this blinds him to the greater scheme of the world at large if we come to think that, assuming that the first nation of Teyvat he resurfaced on was Sumeru, in helping Zurvan alongside the one-armed sage to purify that area and dispel the Sign of Apaosha he cooperated indirectly with no less than three goddesses: Rhukkadevata, Egeria and Nabu Malikata. Considering how early on after leaving Khaenri'ah that was and his still very fresh inner turmoil, there is a great strength in pulling himself together to do something like that and rise as a hero in that area, even if it was so those who continued to come to the surface would have somewhere safe where to stay or so no other innocent people would have to suffer some major consequences— let alone brought by the same people he pledged loyalty to.

In view of this and coming to a more present time where he must have an even bigger view of the great picture than he must've had in the beginning of the Cataclysm, I will say that Dain doesn't hate gods or at least, he doesn't hate them in general and is capable of directing that hatred to the actual puppeteers in a play where the Archons are the marionettes. Of course, that doesn't mean he won't be critical of them as we've seen with Venti, Zhongli and Ei so far, with Zhongli the most out of the three— but just as he criticizes them he also stays on his lane when he doesn't have anything bad to say about some of them such as Nahida and Focalors.

[nnugatoryextravagance]

*Stumbles out of my birthday expectations while limping and covered in blood* hey guys whats shakin'

[aeide-thea]

very much an off-the-cuff post so there may well be bugs, i'm still workshopping my thinking here, but—

i seem to see posts fairly regularly in which a member of some marginalized group A is objecting to attempts by less marginalized group B to make connections between discrimination against A and harm experienced by B (the main thing i have in mind here is when people attempt to align themselves with visibly-trans people by pointing out the ways that transphobic legislation also impacts gnc cis people, theatrical crossdressing, &c, but there are definitely also examples along other axes)—

and like. the main objection i've seen from A is 'why do they have to connect my experience to their experience in order to care about it? why can't they just agree that i shouldn't be discriminated against as a matter of, like, compassion for fellow humanity?'

and this reaction does honestly always just seem a little, idk, naive to me?? like, i don't know, it's gotten very popular ime to complain about normies' clumsy attempts to Understand Instead of Just Accepting [this feels potentially linked to like. the way many of us now prefer silently clicking 'like' to producing our own original, maybe clumsy, responses? but don't @ me on that point], probably because a lot of the time they aren't genuinely seeking to Understand but just to point out all the ways our queerness &c doesn't fit their received (unexaminedly conservative) understanding of the world, which feels to us (very reasonably!) like renewed pressure from the establishment to make ourselves fit that established framework, and so we resist… but at the same time, idk, maybe i'm just outing myself as lesser-than-thou here, but for every sort of person i was raised to distrust and have since arrived at genuine loving acceptance/appreciation of, it's involved first coming to understand their frame of reference at least a little? not to say that there isn't a place for shutting up and listening while you're still working to understand, because there definitely is! but i do kind of think this idea that's become popular in certain liberal circles of like, 'you don't have to understand my experience, you just have to respect it,' is fine and true for keeping peace with strangers, but really isn't a recipe for winning friends or influencing people—it's a recipe for keeping people at arm's length where they can't hit you. and then people turn around and want to apply that rule to coalition-building, and get all shocked-pikachu-face when others seek to identify more active points of connection.

...

another ~Radical Objection to Liberal Approaches~ i've seen, though often not specifically in this context (of discussing the way attempts to oppress A have knock-on effects for B), is like—'there's no point in deconstructing their logic because it's fundamentally illogical! insert that sartre quote abt anti-semites!' and like. no, there's absolutely no point in debating their logic with them. but fundamentally when people assert a logical resistance to bigoted positions they are not doing it to Own The Bigots, imo, or at any rate shouldn't be; they're (we're) doing it to reaffirm the basis of their/our own camp's position, namely, we see your knee-jerk fears and reject them; we substitute instead a patient allegiance to logic, that reasons its way into compassion.

that said, obviously there's a conversation to be had here about, like, platforming bad positions, and to what extent deconstructing them is implicitly platforming them! but. i do think that complaining that logic won't win over bigots is missing the very fundamental point that the logic isn't for the bigots: it's for us. we're talking to ourselves; we're affirming ourselves. and yeah, we need to understand that this sort of intra-party discussion doesn't, on its own, constitute sufficient activism! messages need to be communicated beyond the bounds of the party! but i do think i disagree that there's no place for it.

[shoyoist]

hopping back and forth between the second and seventh circle of hell right now because my girlfriend is going to a con without me and she's showing me her ace cosplay and godddd whyyyy when i can't be thereee FUCK !!!!!!

[mustlovesteve]

i've had this stuck in my brain while writing the robin&steve part of this chapter LOL

[piedoesnotequalpi]

.