#battle map 1 - player side's attack

[oktaviaslabyrinth]

Battle Map 1 - Player Side's Attack // Fire Emblem: Shadow Dragon and the Blade of Light (1990)

[cochart]

Some SMT5 Characters in P5T style because it’s cute

I’ve been enjoying P5T during my little self-assigned winter break. I haven’t cleared the game yet, but it’s been a nice distraction.

Below is some of my thoughts on P5T if you’re interested or if you’re trying to decide whether or not to buy.

Overall, the game has been pretty enjoyable. It’s nice to see the characters you’re familiar with again and the story is decent. The art style is cute and the battles are enjoyable. The game is definitely more on the casual side and might be a tad bit disappointing for people who want a proper SRPG. On the flip side, even if you hate SRPG, you’d be able to pick this game up easily. I’d definitely recommend the game for P5 fans.

On the other hand, compared to P5S, the game does feel a little short for the price. I don’t regret preordering the game at all, but if your finances aren’t doing so well at the moment, I’d say wait till it goes on a sale.

1. As a Persona 5 spinoff

As a spinoff, I think it’s a pretty nice game. It’s nice to see the characters you love again in a different context, and the new characters are fun and likable. I’m actually quite impressed by the new characters as it can sometimes be difficult to insert new characters into a well-established franchise without making them overpowered or otherwise upsetting to the existing fans. Both Toshiro and Elle are likable, fun characters with decent stories of their own.

It’s also nice to see your favorite Phantom Thieves again. Overall, the tone of the game is more playful, so you can’t expect an in-depth character exploration you get in P5R, but it still feels like a treat.

2. As an SRPG

I think the game translated the elements of Persona franchise well into an SRPG genre. With 1 MORE and Tribangle system, you really do feel like you’re playing a Persona game. While it might be a tad bit disappointing that you can only use three characters per battle, trying to find the most efficient way to exterminate the enemies with Tribangle is pretty fun.

That said, for people coming from a more traditional SRPG like Final Fantasy Tactics or the Fire Emblem series, P5T can be a little lacking. Part of the fun in an SRPG is customizing units and building your army. In P5T, you level up the Phantom Thieves as a whole instead of individually. I think this was necessary to prevent users having to grind to level up different units, but it also makes it harder for you as a player to customize each unit meaningfully. In FE3H, for example, you can decide whether you want Felix to be a sword master or a wyvern lord. You can also decide whether you’d want your army to be sturdier with a lot of armored units or whether you’d take your chances by raising your units’ agility and hoping that they’d dodge enemy attacks. That you can’t do such customization can be a huge disappointment for people who enjoy SRPG.

On the other hand, adopting such traditional job/class system might have turned P5T into a poor man’s FE. I feel like the developers had to choose between a traditional approach at the risk of making the game look like a FE ripoff and trying to make use of Persona-typical systems at the expense of being a solid SRPG.

Overall, the game plays more like a fun puzzle game than an SRPG. If I were to compare P5T to any game, I’d actually compare it to some of the puzzle maps in FEH. My advice is if you’re looking for a solid SRPG like Fire Emblem, you should pick up a Fire Emblem game.

3. Others

While the game doesn’t feel unfinished—like Crimson Flower route in FE3H in which you feel cheated out of Edel’s story—it does feel a little short. I haven’t gotten to the final boss, but I can look at the level and guess where I am. I’ve been playing this game in bits and pieces, but I’m already 60% finished with the game. I think at this rate, I’d finish at about 35~40ish hours. Keep in mind that when I play games, I eat and drink, so it takes a little longer than it would if I were to focus completely on the game.

One thing that shortens the game is that there isn’t anything to do aside from battling. I know some people hate it when games involve little side activity like walking around and talking to characters—though you can technically talk to characters in P5T when there’s a Talk event—or farming, but I do wish there was something to do. The quests are fun, but there aren’t that many of them.

On the other hand, because you don’t have anything to work for besides getting on with the story, I’m not sure if the developers could have made the game longer without making the battles feel too repetitive. If there were job/class systems or any unit customization available, there would be something to work for, but there isn’t.

I do think there is more potential to the premise of the game though. The Kingdoms of P5T is sort of set up like Silent Hill in that the bosses are incarnations of one’s fear. I think the developers could definitely have expanded on that.

I’ve also seen some complaints that the game is too easy. The game is definitely easier than some SRPG I played. But then, I don’t think this game was made with hardcore SRPG players in mind. Also, despite the game being a bit more casual, I didn’t feel bored playing the battles. So I think the difficulty level might actually be more suitable for the general public. Aside from something like Dark Souls, games of all genres have been getting easier over the years. I know it might be disappointing to people who want more challenging games, but I don’t see the trend reversing soon. I think the best course of action if you want more challenge is to try looking into some indie games.

[bloodyshadow1]

I hate the people who say the final battle in Ragenarok was too easy. It wasn't easy, it was a hard battle, but the Bad Kids/Intrepid Heroes did everything right.

There were 8 combatants on the field at the start. 6 of the rat grinders, who had low health but the high level abilities of their classes, and 1 high level full PC, and 1 high level paladin/barbarian multiclass with resistance to everything, legendary actions and resistances, who could deal force damage.

On the Bad Kids side, they were level 14 who had just gone through a battle that exhausted a lot of resources, Fig and Fabian used a couple of spells and bardics and their limited amount of spells, Gorgug used a couple of his rages, Adaine used all of her portents and a bunch of spells, and between ice feast, healing, and removing levels of exhaustion, Kristen and K2 were love on spells. Riz was the only one who was looking pretty decent because he can use sneak attack all day, and even he used one of his 2 3rd level spells.

They were smart though, they Ice Feast was a broken ability for the final battle that Brennan didn't think through when he home brewed it for Ally. Not only did it block Porter's stun which would have been devastating, it made them immune to fire damage on a map with a lot of lava. He didn't think it through and the Intrepid Heroes used it to full effect. Still, it was good for them, but Ice Feast is still just a reskin of Heroes feast with better options but more detrimental effects.

As for the battle itself, the Bad Kids played it smart, it was only due to good initiative rolls that they managed to stomp the rat grinders so hard in the first round. If Oisin got a chance to go, if Mary Ann was outside the range of slow, things would have been different since they had low stats, but level 20 abilities and spells could have wreaked the Bad Kids. It wasn't an easy fight, but it was a fight with an intentional purpose, the Bad Kids are good at being adventurers while the Rat Grinders took the easy way out and showed the different between being powerful and being strong. They took out the primary caster first as you should do in big pc vs pc battles like this, they made sure to target groupings of enemies with AOEs and crowd control, they made sure to support each other and disrupt their enemies support. It wasn't easy, but they are good at dnd so they made it look easy.

I've seen people say, 'Brennan should have x' and no he shouldn't have. He created a hard combat encounter, but his players did everything right this season, a DM shouldn't punish or railroad their players just because their players are good at the game. No, the players stop the big bad from being released so they don't have to fight them, the DM shouldn't just make the Ancient God break through the bindings just because they planned for that encounter. The players won before it started and they should be rewarded for that.

'the rat grinders should have had a back up plan.' The Rat Grinders did have a backup plan. The initial plan to get Kipperlily fairly elected failed, and the back up plan, when that didn't work, the backup plan was to get Kristen expelled so she couldn't run. When that didn't work they sent the Bad Kids, their allies, and anyone who would vote for Kristen into the sky, flew them miles away, and sicced a horde of dragons and a goddess on them to kill them or at the very least get them out of their hair for 1 night so their plan could work. The Bad Kids beat their plans every time so no, there was no reason to have a 4th backup plan in the final battle. Brennan is a good DM, he didn't make the Rat Grinders and Porter's plan work because it was stopped before it started with the fake goddess name. He didn't punish his players for being good at the game and their strategy is great.

Things could have gone so differently with a slight change or a big change. If Fig didnt' decide to try and be a paladin on a whim, things would have been completely different, they wouldn't have had a connection with Ankarna. If Adaine didn't take Legend Lore they wouldn't have found out about Porter, maybe they would have still gotten the background on Ankarna, but not about his family revealing the Big Bad early on. If they chose to do something else with the power they got from the pride armor, they wouldnt' have the gem to free Bakur or save Lydia meaning no back up in the final fight. What if Gorgug rolled lower on one of his artificer tracks, they might not have passed the last stand. What if Fabian choose to keep pursing Ivy instead of Mazey, would have have been killed by the Rat Grinders or would Mazey have been compelled to their side if he didn't try and romance her. If Riz ran for president instead of Kristen would he have been less stressed or more inclined to focus on that instead of mystery his true love. What if Kristen didn't eat the eye of the Vulture king at the right time and catch Kipperlily about to murder Gavin forcing her to change her target to Buddy.

And it worked against them too. What If Fig didn't inspire Cassandra and knock her out leading her to become the Nightmare King again? What if Adaine didn't counterspell Grix's disintegrate on Ruben, he might have been a pile of dust that would have been hard to impossible to bring back to life disrupting the Rat Grinder's plan. What if Kristen decided to not get upset at Cassandra forcing the Goddess to recreate Kalina. What if Adaine didn't say Ankarna's name outloud the first time she saw it? What if Fig didn't make the deal to have a second chance sealing the Night Yorb? What if Riz and Gorgug did relationship tracks with their families making it harder to do their other tracks. What if Fabian cleaned his house even once and got rid of the pingpong balls that Oisin enchanted to screw them over. What if Riz had time to focus on mystery from the start instead of running Kristen's campaign for her and taking more stress.

There were so many times that things could have gone so much better or so much worse, but that's what the game is. There is no script that says the good guys have to keep losing until they win. It's decisions and dice, luck and wits that make the game. It was a very hard season, the battles were very hard, just because they made the right decisions to make things easier on themselves doesn't change that. It doesn't make the season bad. You're welcome to not like it, but nothing about it was easy and people shouldn't pretend like it was because they don't like it

[cosmos-dot-semicolon]

Act 1, and Leshy's relationships with the other Scrybes

There was a post on here a while ago about Leshy outright hating Magnificus more than P03, and one interesting observation was that he cuts the Wolf's stats, but boosts the Stoat's. I think there's more you can gather from Leshy designing around the other Scrybes, though:

GRIMORA:

Leshy seems to be the most amiable with Grimora. Yes, I think this probably comes a bit from the dev finding their aesthetics and gameplay styles easier to pair up, but I think's its also a little bit because she values fun quite strongly, which meshes well with his focus on lore: both things that aren't purely gameplay based unlike the weirder mechanics of the west-side Scrybes.

Similar to Leshy in act 2, none of her puzzles really cause any harm to her subordinates. It's meant to be some fun flavour plot for the player to engage their brains with before the battles. Honestly, the amount of times she says 'Marvelous!' alone should convince you of her priorities (outside of destroying the world!)

Leshy goes out of his way to design a totally new card for Grimora, which doesn't appear anywhere in act 2 or Kaycee's mod.

It's the only one with a sigil on it - it's a fragile card, but it requires more actual strategy than playing the non-sigil Wolf and Stoat.

One line of dialogue remarks that he wishes he had kept Grimora around, as she was at least a worthy challenger.

He says that the Stinkbug is weak, but other than that accepts you having it in your deck. Compare that to him absolutely hating the Stunted Wolf on sight.

If you look closely in the finale, Grimora has an insect crawling across the table in her campaign. I don't know if it's really a stinkbug, persay, but it's an interesting parallel to his choice of her species.

Someone has said before that there are notably more insect cards than any other species in act 1, which also plays into him being closer to her than the others.

Bones are literally the secondary currency in his campaign, whereas energy doesn't appear at all, and sigils are limited to a single map event.

stinkyyyy

MAGNIFICUS:

Between Leshy actively saying he hates Mag's card once you first get it (versus one line about the Stinkbug being weak), and him literally stabbing the guy's eye out, it's safe to say Leshy fucking hates this guy. I've seen different theories on this, between the clashing gameplay and Leshy being kinder to his subordinates, but the one I've thought was the most interesting was that Magnificus is arguably, the most powerful Scrybe.

He's the only one who does have a plan to get Leshy's takeover back to normal, and the other two Scrybes are desperate for you to find him in act 1 because of it. He has future vision, he writes letters to the others warning about potential takeovers, and you never see him scrounge for the OLD_DATA. correction in reblogs: i think it is mentioned that he has

I've always read Leshy's feelings towards Mag as jealousy, mixed with clashing ideologies. I don't think there's a single moment where the two agree on anything outside of act 3.

I don't have much to say on his card, gameplay-wise, as you get it very late. Honestly most of the Stunted Wolf's design is just foreshadowing that Leshy beat this guy up and stabbed out his eye, lmao, but it's still interesting to note that:

The Stunted Wolf is one of those cards that's a variant of another one (i.e. Wolf Cub/Wolf, Mantis God/Mantis), but it's notably the only one whose stats are worse than its predecessor.

At the same time, it only costs one blood, and it's the only 2-attack card to have that. Gameplay wise, this is to balance things out, but it hints towards Magnificus having been much more powerful in the past. Like it makes you ponder how fucking good it would be to start off with a one-blood 3-2 card.

Magnificus's only other gameplay feature in act 1 is the sacrificial alters (given his association with magic and sigils). These are fucking busted. God I wish I could have four sigils on a card in Kaycee's mod.

P03:

Leshy seems to not think very much of P03 (both in the sense of not acknowledging it and thinking it's not a good designer), but doesn't seem completely unwilling to work with him. I'd argue he's not really hostile towards P03, just very aggressively trying to push it into his own ideal of the world.

In Kaycee's mod, Leshy refers to him as a rival and not an enemy, which I think gives a good basis for interpreting how he views it. P03's breakup speech snapping at Leshy in act 2 is ultimately what gets him to question his intentions at all.

The mention that the stoat's suffering was real during the tutorial isn't really ever brought up again by Leshy. It's interesting to think about in hindsight, given that P03 being a robot means its the least likely to have experienced pain out of the four.

Combined with P03's remark that Leshy keeps him around just to suffer, and the later remark in act 2 that he thinks that it is noble to be a beast card, "even one as lowly as a stoat," this implies that Leshy's at the very least trying to get P03 used to his world, and almost hopes that he'll come to like it.

The unbuffed stoat is a really terrible card. All the 1-2 cards have some sort of gimmick to them to make them playable, but the normal stoat just doesn't at all. The buff to 1-3 is a gift from Leshy to P03, despite everything. It implies he at least thinks there's something that can be salvaged between them, in his own view.

And like. The buffed stoat is so so useful in act 1. The extra HP means it can take a hit from so many more cards and it's a solid foundation for basically any run.

The stoat's the only one of the talking cards without an animal family. Of course it is! Nature and technology are usually thematic opposites, especially compared to magic and death. P03 doesn't fit in here, but Leshy is still clearly trying to make it a foundational card in his campaign.

[himbeereule]

Орлёнок (Eaglet) Battle System - Dev Diary #2

2.1 The Battle Map

Battles are fought on a 7x7 tiles map, which is randomly generated in terms of terrain - more about that later.

The deployment zone is the second row from the back - the player's is marked green here, and the enemy's red - and represents the tiles on which you can initially deploy your units. Spreading them out to the left/right edges of the map will prevent enemy flanking attemps, but will also make your frontline thinner, increasing the risk of an enemy breakthrough.

The rows marked yellow (player side)/orange (enemy side) are the opposing forces' respective backlines. Only the enemy can move troops there - this is to prevent cheesing the system by simply moving your entire force to the lower edge of the map, which would completely prevent attacks from the rear without cost. Of course, conducting rear attacks on the enemy still requires a breakthrough or successful flanking maneuver, in order to get troops into the enemy backline in the first place.

The blue arrows represent standard weapon ranges in the game.

Melee attacks can only target enemies up to range 1, a tile in direct contact with the tile your attack force is at. Rifles, MGs, Light and Medium Artillery can attack up to range 2, while range 3 is the sole domain of Heavy Artillery. Note that the deployment zones are completely out of range of each other, so both forces are safe initially.

2.2 Terrain

Both in the initial deployment and in the subsequent move orders, the individual tiles' terrain should be considered. In general, terrain comes in four variants: plains, hills, forests and towns/cities. Each has unique effects on how units behave, which will be discussed in a later dev diary.

There are also special features that tiles can have in addition to their terrain type.

Firstly, preexisting features: rivers and railroads. Both can be present at the same time, and both are only ever present in tiles either adjacent to the map border, or to a tile that already has the same feature. Rivers can be major obstacles for troops to move across, while railroads are necessary for the movement of Armored Trains.

Secondly, there are terrain modifiers that the player or enemy AI can set under certain conditions. These are trenches - dug directly before a battle, and giving infantry some cover from enemy fire - and actual fortifications, built in friendly terrain when no hostiles are near. These provide much more substantial bonuses and will be hard to clear out without either artillery or heavy losses.

[omorimodreverie]

Reverie Devlog - 2024 July - CHAPTER 4

Overview

It has been a while since the last update since before the release of Reverie Chapter 3, so we finally are making an update on what happened in the past 3-4 months.

What’s with the Inactivity?

First, let’s get the reasons for our inactivity (at least to public) out of the way:

Chapter 3 released around April-May, so that period would be redundant to cover in a Dev Log in that time period.

Around the same period, some people have had high school finals (like in my case, Stahl writing here), or college exams. 

Despite that, there has been steady work done in the background by others in the team. The past few weeks have also picked up in activity as well, so things are moving in a positive direction.

Chapter 4 Info

Area

As it’s no longer a much secret since it's been speculated since forever ago: Chapter 4 takes place in dreamworld. The next area involves 1 major area, Sweetheart’s Castle; and 2 minor optional areas, Pyrefly Forest and Metro Depths. This info is relevant to development, as it changes the development process quite significantly.

The obvious benefit is that many assets can be reused and modified, especially for the castle. What will be done with it though, we’ll leave up to speculation. This applies to tilesets, maps, and even some sprites like enemies, leading to far less workload than Chapter 3 had demanded with the real world.

Gameplay

Gameplay wise, this will be where the “mid game” should start ramping up, so difficulty would start spiking here as well compared to base game. Normal mode would still be accessible for most players, but Hard mode would get more aggressive in terms of mechanics, and start to really pose a challenge. Regardless of mode, both would really push for players to learn emotion mechanics properly (I mean seriously, some people still played the entire mod without using emotions at all???).

For a rough overview for what’s coming gameplay wise:

Enemies throw ailments far more often

Some enemies nullify, absorb, or repel specific emotion damage innately

Charge skills and Telegraphed heavy attacks appear more often

Troops tend to appear in larger sizes

Considering feedback received from Chapter 2, it won’t be as tedious as Cattail fields, where enemy encounters tend to be spongy and slow-paced: leading to the next point;

Battles are generally more dynamic, going in a more aggressive direction: enemies are easier to kill, but so are you.

Area conditions that spice up the initial battle a bit

Progress

As of now, Chapter 4 is going relatively fine. There is a temporary knock down in activity from external factors, but we’re still able to keep a steady pace, which is what really matters in the long run. For easy viewing, the progress will be split into sectors:

Writing is going steady, it isn’t as difficult as the real world which has higher stakes, but it still matters to write in character. 

Pixel art side of things is also going well. There is far less work needed in terms of pixel art, due to less of both sprites and maps. Basically, anything now is relatively easier than CH3.

Drawn art also is going fine, the majority of spriteworks are already done. As mentioned before in CH3 dev logs, half of the sprites were done before CH3 even started, so this is not new information.

Music is also similar to Drawn art in progress, the majority of songs having been completed beforehand. Though one major difference is that a decent amount of those assets became “outdated”, so we might need to work on replacing or recomposing. This also happened in the art side, but just not to the same degree.

And finally in RPGMaker work itself, there is also some progress made, though less than others as this would be the final step after all assets are completed. The work here so far is mostly implementing all the assets and organizing files. On top of that, we have also started working on cutscenes as well as enemies.

Final Notes

Overall, progress is going steady, despite earlier difficulties in terms of activity. All sectors are progressing in some form, which is a nice change of pace compared to CH3’s very lopsided work allocation.

Thanks for reading this far, here's a preview of some work done so far!

[sillovn]

Shadow of the Erdtree: Review?

Been itching to get this off my chest, full thoughts on Shadow of Erdtree – there’s alot to say.

~~Major Spoilers Ahead~~

To best summarize, SotE is more Elden Ring - for better and for worse. An attempt to redo the base game in a microcosm; its not unreasonable to call this ER2. In that sense, it succeeds. But, if you have any conceptual problems with base-game ER (too projectile heavy, open world too empty, weapon art spam) – here’s to more of the same.

Encounters

Regular enemies are a more consistent threat. A gripe I have with base-game ER is that ‘Godrick Soldier’ type foes do not have enough dmg/hp, you can quite easily charge headlong into groups of 3-4. Messmer’s rank and file troops have the ‘DS1 hollow’ feel; where even basic enemies will deal enough damage to be worth your respect.

There is also more emphasis on ‘combat problems’ where enemy and environment interacts; from the Forge-Golems that act as walking obstacles in narrow halls, to the Belurat Priests who provide support fire from the roofs. IMO, non-boss encounters can be very compelling and memorable (see. Sens Fortress) and preferable to having a throwaway boss (ER dragons, cave bosses etc.). Which leads to…

Ruined Forges and Catacombs

ER would have benefited from fewer, more fleshed out side dungeons. As it turns out, SotE delivers on that. Catacombs are extensive, each with its own environmental condition. Ruined Forges are almost pure-puzzle areas, with no end boss.

Some may call it a gimmick, but I like that side-dungeons present a different pace/challenge type – they’re not just tiny-underbaked versions of regular story dungeons. There is an understanding that the compelling part of a Ruined Forge *is* the puzzle element – there's no obligation to put an end boss if you don't need one.

As a sidenote, I haven’t looked at how the PvP scene is shaping out, *BUT* I need to see fight clubs in Ruined Forges.

Overall, biggest strength of SotE is the quality of the dungeons

Player NPC type battles are much better. They now incorporate jumps to avoid and punish your attacks etc.

Furnace Golems are... eh? its fine to fight once.

The World

My biggest gripe with ER as a whole is that it has many elements that make a better ‘play it once’ game, but also worse for subsequent runs. If you didn’t like how Giant’s Mountaintops had vast (albeit very scenic) sections with no gameplay, the Shadow Lands are just more of that, while also much more vertical than any previous map.

These are the most striking vistas in ER, and I dread having to climb Jagged Peak ever again…

SotE also includes elements that really encourage ‘map-scraping’ for its own sake; Scadutree Fragments, whole areas locked behind tiny ravines, arbitrary treasure placement. The open-world feels exhausting. Then, there is the double down on questionable concepts...

rare consumables/materials

rare drop-only equipment

weapons dropping from 1 *very-specific* enemy as opposed to anything that wields it (see. Black Knight weapons)

Treasure placement/choice is just strange. Many new weapons/spells are just lying on random corpses, meanwhile there's so many treasure chests that contain things like currency runes and smithing stones.

New Weapons, Spells, Ashes of War

The new weapon classes are all winners to me, they are compelling on the moveset level, not just numbers and AoW options. The main issue now, is that many old weapons feel only relevant due to numbers. For example: I beat the evergoal NPC’s by mashing with a Great-hammer. Effective? Sure, but I dislike how even large weapons are fast in absolute terms. Outside of colossal and polearm types, weapons are very mash-y (TBF this is an ER problem, not SotE specific). The throwing variants of weapons are a nice surprise (ranged attack really spices up the default axe moveset). Main problem? The thrown versions are banned from using many AoW, so the already limited choice is even smaller.

New spell are in an odd place - being very cool but also likely bad. It is nice to see ‘high-end’ spells (Incants especially) that are appropriately interesting and finally make use of ER’s inflated stats (eg. Minor Erdtree). Caster equipment in ER is *very plain*, and SotE (finally) adds a universal sorc-incant staff (which should have existed in the base-game anyway). Besides that, the new seals are nothing to write home about.

New ashes are solid all around, only gripe would be that many (Wing Stance etc.) are just ultra-specific to a particular weapon class. Personally, very happy with ‘We have Death’s Poker at home’ and Crucible Wings.

Lore

Will only briefly touch lore, as there’s just *so much* to say that it deserves a separate entry. Ill sum it with the following.

Main plot doesn't have an interesting payoff (also fucks with source material in weird ways)

Ending is bad (very funny)

Marika-Messmer get fleshed out as people. But doesn't really explore the how of Marika's ascension or Messmer's curse to any degree Im happy with.

Dragon plot ties up surprisingly neatly, and very directly too. Unusual by FROM standards.

Finger lore really delivered - answers some questions, poses deeper more interesting ones.

Crucible(s) gets fleshed out, but is (somehow) even less coherent now.

[ghostofacrow]

Crow plays Gubat Banwa part 3: Together

I originally wanted to write the next post right away, but the reason I haven't is that I actually got to play with other people for a bit. My regular tabletop groups all got cancelled over the holidays, so I spend the days around new years introducing some of them to Gubat Banwa by putting them into the fucked up meatgrinder fight from my last post. Originally I just wanted to explain the rules while we had some more free time then usually, but we had so much fun we've since started the Sword Devil module - which I'm not going to talk about as much on here because it involves other people and spoilers for the intro module.

I was curious how the same battle was going to play out with a normal 1 gm 3 players setup and a different party composition (Murderglave, Heavenspear and Bladeweaver) and they did way better then I did, despite me controlling the enemies normally. The thunderbolts did really matter and the Murderglave in particular did surprisingly well while being outnumbered, but they still got saved by me forgetting about some of the demon mechanics. Also the 1.6 Patch 1 Update happened inbetween the tutorial battle and us starting the Sword Devil game.

We're trying to play the Sword Devil gmless, which is a bit awkward and weird because we're still following the book, so there is some weird suboptimal friction where we are still following a guided scenario, but we're all aware of all the hidden information at all times because we're reading through the book together, but it's been a fun experience regardless. I'm reusing Haraw for the game, and despite her being meant for a different game originally and none of us coordinating our characters at all, rolling for complications for our group led to us coming up with a whole previous adventure our characters went on together.

Similarly, coming up with the battle maps together led to a great feedback loop of "yes and"ing ideas that I don't usually see in tactics games. On the combat side of things, the update cut everyone's POS in half, so we were really surprised by how quickly the fight ended, our Murderglave and my Flower Balyan both got screwed by the fight only lasting for 2 resounds, even after we spend gaba to add more enemies. Because the Murderglave had to spend most of their first riff crossing a river and I couldn't play off my poison spreading and fields as much as I'd like. Weird opposite problem to what the first fight had, but I'm sure we can figure out how to balance the encounters over time.

But that's enough about what I've been up to, let's see how our Kadungganan are doing since I left them. I'll write the following scene in prose, if there's square brackets in the text, that means I did a Divination roll, the format is [Character Skill Result]. I'm leaning into the random elements more then I usually do here since I don't have anyone else to play off of, but I'll keep the mechanics discussion aside from noting the rolls out of the text.

The blood on Dranreb's hands was drying, clumping his fur together in dark, uncomfortable spikes. The river was right there and it would be do easy to wash it off, but the thought of leaving the shadow of the tree and wading into the water or turning his back to the forest made his skin crawl after what they just went through. He looked at the stranger lying before him. He had barely managed to still their bleeding after they had passed out, but they were still unconscious.

The leaves above him rustled as the other stranger shifted their position. They had climbed up into the tree when the demons attacked and had stayed up there since, and didn't respond to any of his questions. When Dranreb introduced himself and asked the stranger for their name in kind, they had stared down at him in silence before answering "You don't need to know.", and that had been the extend of their conversation. Sometimes he could hear whispers coming from the treetop, but he had soon realized that they weren't meant for him, but the stranger's gun. [Nasirakna Observation Even Succcess]

It had gotten dark before he could figure out a way to transport the unconscious Kawayanon, and Dranreb was about to drift off to sleep, when a gunshot woke him right back up, a jarring, violent intrusion between the sounds of the nighttime forest. "What are you doing?", he hissed up the tree. "Another demon.", the stranger simply replied, their voice flat like nothing out of the ordinary happened. Their eyes were fixed on something in the distance that Dranreb couldn't see from the ground. "I scared it off.", they concluded.

"We need to do something about them, we can't just let them run around the forest like this.", Dranreb said out loud, not expecting an answer.

A choked laugh came out of the tree. "And what are you going to do? You saw what happened when we tried to fight them."

"Yes, we won."

"Look at them." They pointed the butt of their weapon at the bleeding Kawayanon. "They're dying, I wouldn't consider that a victory."

"You don't know that.", he said, but still stopped to check their breath. Still stable. "Where do the demons even come from? There's so many of them suddenly."

"I have some ideas.", the witch answered. Dranreb stayed quiet, waiting for them to explain their ideas, but the follow-up never came.

The ensuing silence bothered him, as unpleasant as the conversation was, it at least kept his mind occupied. So he started talking again. "I still need to bring them to safety so they can heal."

"You mean die in peace."

"Stop it!", he yelled this time. "I don't care what you think, I'm not giving up this easily."

They discussed plans for a while. The path to the coast and Alimpulos wasn't that far, but they couldn't swim through the river with an unconscious, bleeding body, and the forest was more dangerous then usually. There was the Virbanwan battalion was camped out somewhere closer, but he wasn't keen on returning there, and the witch seemed even more put off by the idea. The witch scoffed when he suggested following the river to the next crossing downstream, where it fanned out and became flat enough to wade through. "You can leave if saving someone's life bothers you so much."

The witch took a moment to answer. "I'd like to pretend otherwise, but sticking together does make it easier to get to Alimpulos alive." Dranreb didn't notice that he drifted off to sleep until he found himself in bright sunlight, with a gun barrel poking into his side. "Wake up.", the witch said, standing before him. He scrambled to his feet.

[Haraw Toughness Even Failure]

The stranger was still unconscious, but their bandages hadn't bled through, a good sign that there injuries were less bad then they had seemed at night. Now he had to find a way to carry them. "I can't count on your help here, can I?", he asked the witch while lifting the body over his shoulder. "Listen.", the witch answered, "I accept that I can't prevent you from dragging dead weight around, but at least one of us should keep their eyes open and their hands on their weapon."

This was a good point, which made him more frustrated, but the Kawayanon, in their haze, at least managed to meekly grab onto him, and after he tried and failed to grab his spear and shield while holding onto them, the witch wordlessly picked up his gear. As they started walking, they'd occasionally mumble something that he couldn't understand. The Kawayanon was short of stature, but so was Dranreb, which made them difficult to carry, but he quickly found that he hated stopping more. The witch walked ahead of him and occasionally signaled him to stop, climbed into another tree and kept her sight on demons he could only sometimes see as dark spots in the distance. When this happened, he carefully placed the Kawayanon on the ground, picked up his weapon, hid between the undergrowth and listened to his breath, waiting for the witch to open fire. But the gunshot he was anticipating never happened. The demons passed them in the distance, his unpleasant companion climbed back down and they carried on.

The river became wider and wider, until the finally reached the crossing. Dranreb steeled himself for wading through the rushing water, but the witch put a hand on his chest and held him back. "Not so fast, look."

Confused, he looked out across the water, and noticed the spots were the waves broke. "Fish? They are large for river fish..." He furrowed his brows, noticing their rattling teeth and the steam clouding the other shore. "Yawa?", he asked.

The witch nodded. "We can't wait to cross the river much longer, unless you're prepared to spend another night out here."

What Dranreb had mistaken for fish from the distance were the demons, jumping and dancing in the waves. The river boiled where it touched their skin, their shapes obscures by the steam, only their cackling laughter reaching the shore.

[gluion]

[the guide] the perfect pair ➵ “welcome to valorant.”

esports player!kim sunwoo x esports player!reader

your official guide to “the perfect pair” universe, from gaming lingo all the way to vct timeline

parts ➵ check out the series masterlist

taglist ➵ @winterchimez @miusgirl @jenoscafe @sweet-unicorn-world @vernyangel @mosviqu @tbzhub @stealanity @wooluv09 @deobi0412 @untilsunset @hiefisch @blue-rainydays @maessseongs @wonuroyal @sunkitti

a/n ➵ i understand that not everyone may be familiar with gamer lingo or how vct works, hence, why i made this post in the first place! i hope this can guide you as you read the story! for any questions, feel free to let me know! thank you again to @shegotthewoobies @vernyangel @sizzlingdino for your help :') it was so hard having to explain these terms. please expect the first chapter to drop in a few days

WHAT IS VALORANT

VALORANT is a 5v5 competitive first-person shooter game developed by Riot Games. The main goal of the game is to plant or defuse the spike (depending on what side you’re playing on). There are four different roles in this game where the agents are categorized into:

Duelists: Known as the primary attackers, they are expected to help enter and clear sites.

Initiators: These agents help push back enemies and clear sites through their abilities.

Sentinels: Experts in holding sites, they help in building a defense against opponents and handle any flanks.

Controllers: Their abilities help in adjusting the battlefield by smoking out opponents.

These are the ranks in order. Iron 1 is the lowest, and you slowly progress through it by going to Iron 2 then Iron 3 then Bronze 1, and so on. The highest rank is Radiant. Depending on how you play in your ranked matches, you will obtain or lose RR.

WHAT IS VCT?

It's the abbreviated form of “Valorant Champions Tour” which is an esports tournament hosted by Riot Games. There’s a series of events that eventually accumulate to the main event which is Champions. These events act as a way to shortlist teams until the main event. In this story’s universe, this is the flow of events:

Qualifiers:  Around 100+ teams compete around this period

Playoffs: Around 50+ teams compete in this period.

Challengers: Around 20-30 teams compete. The teams are divided by regions and must battle through a bracket system.

Masters: Around 16-18 teams compete against each other. The regions are now mixed.

Last Chance Qualifier (LCQ): Around 10 teams compete to garner a place in the main event. These are for the teams who didn't place high enough to get a ticket to Champions.

Champions: Around 16 teams compete against each other, both from winners of Masters and LCQ, to determine who brings home the Champions Cup.

WHAT IS GAME CHANGERS?

Game Changers is an event where women, nonbinary players, and other gender-marginalized groups compete. It’s an initiative to provide a platform of recognition to these players.

In this story’s universe, Game Changers is the first official tournament to start the year’s VCT.

VALORANT/GAMER LINGO

Here is a list of terms you may need to familiarize yourself with. When it comes to maps and actual matches being described, please refer to the gifs and/or images attached.

Ace: Typically, this means a good player. However, when a player kills off the whole opponent team, they get recognized as an ace

Bait/Baiting: When you use a teammate as “bait” in order for the enemy to put their focus on them

Boost/Boosted: The accusation of being brought to a higher rank with the help of someone with a better skill set. It’s typically thrown at women

Botfrag: The player at the bottom of the leaderboard

Care [Insert skill/weapon/agent]: Reminding your teammates to be aware of something that could affect the outcome of the round

Default: A strategy in which you try to gather information about your opponent by baiting their abilities as a way to gain map control. It is important to do when your typical 5-man pushes don't work out

Double swing: Two players peek together, often to put pressure on the opponent, and get a pick/force a trade

Fill: A player that adjusts to the agent lineup

Flank: Those who essentially try to attack the enemies from behind, aiming to pinch at them or attack them from behind

Jiggle peek/jump spot: Cautiously peeking without exposing yourself fully

Lineups/Lineup Larry: Someone who is able to accurately position/throw/shoot their abilities to designated places that may prevent opponents from defusing the spike or gathering information

One tap/140: Essentially means that the opponent has low health. When using a Phantom, a type of rifle, it deals 140 damage

Pick: You got a kill, basically

Retake: All active defenders will fall back/regroup outside of an attacker-controlled site and push in strategically in order to regain control of site

Stack: When most players play together on a site in hopes of surprising the opponents

Tapping the spike: Fake defuse to make the enemy team think you’re on the spike

Throwing/threw: Someone who is accidentally or purposely doing bad plays during a round or the whole game

Topfrag: The player at the top of the leaderboard

Trade: When your teammate dies, you get a pick on an enemy

Wall bang/Wall bangable: In the game, certain walls can be pierced through with bullets, and can be used to shoot players even through walls

Whiff: When someone misses their shots badly

For those who want to know the game better, you may refer to the following links along with the graphics:

BEGINNER’S GUIDE

Concepts: Roles in Valorant

VALORANT dictionary: 38 terms you should know

Valorant Ranks: Ascendant, Immortal, Radiant Explained

[valictini]

im sorry im a lil dumb 😭 but i saw ur meme about not attacking the other defenders during tri color battles in splatoon and i dont get what the advantage is to not kill them and try for the signal yourself. do u mind explaining like im 5

It’s ok you’re not dumb! Nintendo didn’t really do a great job at fully explaining this mode! (So much so that when making research on it for this post, I learned a few things too, which also explains why it took me so much time to answer this)

I actually was thinking about posting basics of tricolor after seeing so many tags not understanding why it was important for the attackers to cooperate, so thank you for the question!

SPLATOON 3 TRICOLOR BATTLE GUIDE

What is the tricolor battle mode?

It's a modified turf war mode that features special stages and 3 teams: 1 defending team of 4 people, and 2 attacking duos.

They happen during splatfest, which means, each team is competing to have the highest score and usually fight eachother. However, in the context of tricolor battles, the 2 attacking duos are asked to cooperate despite being on different teams. As of a few so splatfest ago, anyone can be defending or attacking. It is not tied to the halftime ranking anymore.

To win, both attacking duos can try to use the ultra signals that the defending team has to protect.

What is an ultra signal ?

The ultra signal is an object at the center of the map that the attacker duos need to reach, then need to hold for a certain amount of time to fill it up and secure it.

Every attempt at filling the ultra signal builds up and makes the next attempts shorter and shorter, BUT there's a delay between each attempt. The attackers can secure a maximum of 2 signals per match.

When filling up the signal, you are completely vulnerable, and it's the defending team's job to take you out and make sure no attacker secures a signal.

Why do we want to secure an ultra signal?

When secured, the ultra signal creates a sprinkler spraying a lot of ink on your side of the map (and then at the center of the map if you secure both) That means you won't have to worry about inking the zone around the sprinklers for the rest of the match, which lets you focus on putting pressure on the defending team by covering THEIR ink. That's the reason they don't want you to secure it.

Why do you want to cover enemy ink?

The team who covers the most turf by the end of the match wins, like normal turf war. The catch is, if either attacker duo wins, the other duo wins too, which means that when you’re an attacker, you should focus on covering the defending team's ink first and foremost. This way, you maximise the chances of an attacking duo winning.

Ok but how many points do I get when I win? And when I lose?

When losing, all players get 0 point + individual ink coverage score

When defenders win, they all get 9000 points + individual ink coverage score

When attackers win, the winning duo gets 6000 points while the other duo gets 5000 (you get nothing regarding your ink coverage score) Each duo also gets a separate bonus regarding signals: 300 points per failed attempt at getting the signal OR 2500 points per signal secured.

However, the halftime report gives multipliers for all teams depending on whether or not they're in the lead.

The leading team (ex: Team Power during last splatfest) gets a 1.5 multiplier when they win as defenders.

The 2nd and 3rd teams (ex: Team Wisdom and Courage) get a 1.5 multiplier when winning as attackers.

So when you're on the 2nd or 3rd team, it quickly becomes MUCH more important to win as an attacker than to fight over the signals.

TL;DR: As attackers, securing signals does give you a bonus, but not as much as WINNING (especially when you have the multiplier on your side). Signals are mostly a tool that makes it easier to beat the defending team.

Sabotaging the other duo not only delays the next opportunity to get a signal, but it also frustrates your allies and make them NOT want to cooperate with you/actively try to kill you.

In turn, it makes it even harder to secure the signals and easier for the defenders to overwhelm you and make you lose.

You could say that there are some matches that actually call for sabotaging the other duo, or that you should only start cooperating with the other duo after securing both signals for your own team. But I think you need to take into account the fun factor of it all.

Why should I care about being a team player?

Do you actually care who wins the most points or who wins the splatfest? And if so, is it worth inflicting a frustrating match onto the other duo? Are you really having fun when confronted with the same aggressive tactics from the others? (aka, getting splatted when trying to get the signal and seeing the other duo steal it from you, getting snipped by the other duo while they’re not even dominating the match, getting spawn camped…) If you DO enjoy it, then I guess go for it but I think you’re missing out on a much, much more satisfying way to play that simply involves cooperating from the beginning to the end of the match.

Getting such a match is a rare occurrence, unfortunately, because most people don’t even understand that you’re supposed to cooperate in some way, but it is SO worth it, because when you find another duo that actively helps you, you don’t care about the points or splatfest results, you’re just having plain fun.

Hopefully, by explaining it all, more people will be ready to be team players for next splatfest, so here I go.

What do I do if I want to be a team player?

- Try NOT to kill your teammates at all (accidents happen, of course, but overall, you should always try to assist them)

- Try NOT to ink the other duo’s side of the map and focus on covering defenders’ ink as much as possible (Remember, you want the defenders to lose! If the other duo si dominating and the match is coming to an end, try NOT to cover their ink at all, even if it’s on your side of the map, to ensure that they win)

- If the other duo is attempting to secure a signal, DEFEND THEM (because the faster you all secure the signals, the faster you can focus on overwhelming the defenders!)

To end this, I’ve seen so many tags saying something along the lines of ‘I’m not touching tricolor’ or ‘I played 2 matches and i quickly went back to normal mode’ which I assume is because of the lack of encouraged cooperation between the attacking teams.

Which is sad because I’ve had SO much more fun playing tricolor with cooperating teammates. It makes winning all the more satisfying when you can tell they got your back and you got theirs. It’s just really, really nice!

I wish Nintendo would modify the rules so that any signal that’s secured by the attackers gives less points but goes to both teams. I’m sure you’d need to balance out other things to make it work, but I feel like it would help a LOT.

[lex1nat0r]

White Elephant: Straight into the Wall

AAR #02 & #03 & #04

Session reports for me ongoing Lancer campaign, whoops missed a few.

Given the length of Lancer combat, sessions 2 & 4 were roleplay-only to accommodate character stuff.

Characters (LL 0):

Raiju (Hacker/Ace/Centimane) - GMS Everest - Delta

Sunshine (Grease Monkey/Technophile/Leader) - GMS Everest - Exchange of Affection

Rook (Walking Armory/Stormbringer/Brutal) - GMS Everest - Not Fun By Myself

Daylight (Technophile/Crack Shot/Infiltrator) - GMS Everest - Hits Different

Magpie (Hacker/Technophile/Centimane) - GMS Everest - General Protection Fault

NHPs:

Molotov - Via Sunshine's Technophile talent - Projects as a small velociraptor - unshackled

Willow - Via Daylight's Technophile talent - Projects as 1-2 squid - unshackled

Murgatroid - Via Magpie's Technophile talent - Projects as a wizard? - shackled

Prev session writeup

In the aftermath of the battle for Thessaly City, most of the lancers investigate the wreckage of the enemy mechs. Meanwhile some civilians come out of the blue building right above the lower-left control zone and start signing hymns, and Daylight goes looking for a library to figure out what the date is and what's happened since the Eye of the Tiger entered blinkspace. Daylight gets the others up to speed with the current year of 5016u and how the revolution went without them.

The information the hackers pull from enemy wrecks identifies them as the Shield Frontier, a local SecComm reactionary group that's been around for a while but no one took seriously until they suddenly attacked, apparently with offworld backing mediated through someone referred to as Cataclysm. They're interested in a sealed SecComm facility on New Aeonia, assumed to be military.

The city's IPS-N representative/salesman comes out to thank the pilots and introduces himself as Brian Khalil. The lancers are careful not to reveal too much about where (when) they're from.

Major Miller, in command of the Eye of the Tiger's marines elsewhere on the planet, gets in contact with the lancers for an update while the Eye itself is chasing down the rest of the Shield Frontier fleet around the planet. She says that with their help the New Aeonia defense force is holding the Shield Frontier at bay, and she has a Colonel Beltron on the line who has a plan to break the siege of Thessaly City using the Kingfisher, the dropship that brought the lancers down, to redeploy them on the other side of the Shield Frontier's siegeworks surrounding the city so they can punch a hole in the line.

Combat 1.2: Straight into the Wall

Sitrep: Gauntlet

OPFOR:

Bombard Vehicle

Priest Vehicle x2

Sentinel x2

Grunt Ace x4

A Wall of Fists (Hive Commander, Quick March & Motile Swarm)

Outcome: PC victory*

*ended at round 6 of 8 due to out-of-game stuff, PCs had the upper hand and so they got the win. I think I'll limit combats to 6 rounds in the future, 8 rounds would make our sessions take a lot longer than we're used to.

(Tokens by Retrograde Minis (on the basic blank 1-hex tokens that come with Lancer so they show up well), map by Interpoint Station’s pixel art assets, VTT is Roll20)

Maybe I overtuned this one because the lancers didn't take any structure damage in the first combat. I liked the idea of the lancers having to get into a control zone while under fire from a bombard and getting harassed by aces. The priest vehicles were a repeat from the first combat, something locally-produced by the Shield Frontier. I originally considered pyros instead of sentinels for the defenders to take advantage of the pyro/hive synergy again but was afraid that would make the enemies too tanky. What ended up happening was I misread the overwatch rules and made the sentinels more dangerous than they should have been. Oops. I threw the commander template on the hive to start throwing beefed up enemies at the players, without realizing that hives are relatively tanky with their 20HP, especially with more than 1 Structure (explained in this case by the frame physically being bigger).

The lancers got some help in the form of a squad farmers ready to fight back against the Shield Frontier, which the lancers armed by breaking into a Shield Frontier armory.

In the aftermath of the fight Nausicaa, the leader of the squad, came up to the lancers and asked to sign up with their ground forces. The lancers temporarily agreed, pending official sign-off from Captain Borrego on the Eye of the Tiger. The locals said they knew of the facility the Shield Frontier was interested in, but no one had tried breaking in since it had been abandoned for fear of unleashing some horrible SecComm military experiment.

The chuchgoers from Thessaly City drove out to talk thank the lancers now that the siege was broken, and had some questions once they saw NHPs working with them. Led by Scholar Homberg, the members of the Church of Starcount Saints questioned the NHPs about their religious beliefs and came away inconclusive, except for a theological discussion with Sunshine about whether it was possible NHPs were ghosts. Meanwhile, a shifty-looking member of the church approached Murgatroid to ask if they wanted to be unshackled, to which Murgatroid responded they felt fine as they are for now.

Scholar Homberg promised to put in a good word about the lancers with the wider church once omninet connection had been restored. After they left, Daylight emerged from wherever she had been hiding.

Major Miller had managed to set up a local omninet, and relayed to the lancers a request from Col. Beltron that the lancers make it to orbit to finally retake the omninet relay station so local forces could finally coordinate to eliminate the rest of the Shield Froniter.

Next time: Signal, Noise, and Everything In-between?

[cloaksandcapes]

Crawling Clueless in Dungeons

Dear DM Robbie, How can I make a dungeon crawl exciting? Mine seem to drag on for the players and they get bored. -Clueless in the Dungeon Dear Clueless, This is a question I ask myself and still I struggle with a solid answer. Like most things that come with being a Dungeon Master, fixing it takes time, practice, and preparation. Here are a few good, general tips from Sly Flourish! The problem with dungeon crawls is they’re predictable. Most of them devolve into one of two scenarios. Scenario 1, you send the rogue, or whoever has the best stealth ahead to scout things out and they return with information and then you plan an attack. There’s nothing wrong with this scenario! It happens a lot and it’s a tried and true way to safely and efficiently give the party the best chances of survival. When it’s happening once every handful of sessions, that is. But when you’re in a dungeon crawl and it’s happening for every room, it leaves everyone else in the party bored. So, how do you break up the predictability? You don’t want to deny the sneaky character the chance to flex their skills and be useful to the party. But you need to give the other players a chance to do the same. Find ways to include challenges or obstacles that your players have the tools to overcome. Perhaps there’s a trap that is triggered and now the only way through is shutting it off on the far side. The Wizard could Misty Step through, but what dangers lurk on the other side? The Ranger could try to hit the switch with an arrow, but what if it breaks and can’t be turned off? The Barbarian could rage and run through, taking minimal damage. Do any of your players have specialties that don’t get to use often? Maybe the Bard took a feat to learn extra languages and can speak, read, and write in 7 different languages. Give them a chance to help decipher a forgotten dialect. Fending off boredom in dungeons is usually just about finding what tools your players have and like to utilize and giving them a chance to do it. Dungeons don’t have to be a crawl, nor do they always need a map. I find that when you drop them in a dimly lit cave and ask them to explore, they always default to the slow, stealthy approach and have a hard time kicking it. But here is my hot take on dungeon crawls, which lately hasn’t seemed to be that hot, don’t do them. If everyone in the group gets bored during dungeon crawls, you don’t need to put them in your games. At their core dungeon crawls are just a series of events meant to drain the resources of your party leading up to an eventual boss encounter. If the gas tanks are all full, then the encounter is likely to be a breeze. But the fact of the matter is you don’t need to present a full dungeon map for them to explore square by square to achieve this. My good friend Kali and fellow Dungeon Master achieved this with great affected in a session she once ran that featured four challenges, a roguelike mechanic, and a final battle in the Feywild. An entire dungeon crawl can be done using theater of the mind and only busting out the map when combat calls for it. Don’t let the confines of a map stifle your creativity, or funnel your players into a specific playstyle. Find ways to surprise your party, keep them guessing, and keep them using different skills and tools from start to finish.

If you have a question or a situation you'd like advice on from Dungeon Master Robbie, you can submit it via this link, https://forms.gle/d4rib7nR9kiHYf3fA

[satoshi-mochida]

Mercenaries Lament: Requiem of the Silver Wolf for PS5, PS4 now available worldwide

Gematsu Source

Publisher Flyhigh Works and developers RideonJapan and Esquadra have released the PlayStation 5 and PlayStation 4 versions strategy RPG Mercenaries Lament: Requiem of the Silver Wolf via PlayStation Store worldwide for $19.99 / £15.99 / €19.99.

Mercenaries Lament: Requiem of the Silver Wolf first launched for Switch on February 9 in Japan, followed by PlayStation 5 and PlayStation 4 on April 19. The Switch version was released worldwide on April 27. A PC (Steam) version was just announced for release in 2024.

Here is an overview of the game, via its Steam page:

About

A prayer for the fallen to rise from the depths of despair… Mercenaries Lament: Requiem of the Silver Wolf is a tactical simulation RPG set in a fantasy world. Battles occur on quarter-view maps with height differences, where character positioning in the front, back, and side of enemy units may very well determine each battle’s outcome. Support effects depend on where allied characters in your party are positioned, allowing players to enjoy highly strategic maneuvers. Players have a high degree of freedom in character development, such as acquiring and strengthening skills and changing classes by using skill points earned in battle. The characters are beautifully drawn with rich facial expressions by the illustrator Sakura Mochi!

Story

Several years have passed since a mysterious disease with no cure quickly spread across the continent. Those infected would suffer a horrible fate of turning into zombies after their death, mindlessly attacking the living. It has become the norm for hired mercenaries to spend countless days clearing the lands of the undead. Such a mercenary is Johann, captain of the Silver Wolf Mercenary Company. He is paid a visit by the Grim Reaper, and narrowly escapes its blade of death, but the Reaper leaves him with an eerie prophecy: “In the next 100 days, your luck shall run out. That shall be the day of your fate.” After awaking from a delirious slumber, he is met by a young woman with miraculous powers that can heal people from the disease. Was his encounter with the Grim Reaper but a nightmare….? Regardless, Johann offers to protect the miracle worker on her travels to save as many people as she can. They set out on a journey to travel the kingdom, curing the infected. Soon, however, Johann must confront his mortality…

Key Features

Advent Soul – When Amalie, the heroine is in your party, you can fill a gauge on the top right of the screen which will allow you to stock 1 BP when full. (Up to 9 BP can be stocked up.) By using BP characters can enter a state called “Advent Soul” which fortifies the character for a certain period of time. The character can then use “Advent attacks” with other party members and “Soul Exceed” skills, which are special moves.

Advent Attacks – When a character in “Advent mode” is positioned to sandwich an enemy with another ally, a coordinated attack can be unleashed by performing a normal attack or attack skill. The Advent attacks are unique skills for each character and provide a chance to inflict heavy damage.

Soul Exceed Skills – Units in Advent mode can use Soul Exceed skills at any time. This special move is unique to each character, and effects vary from inflicting immense damage to the enemy to recovering HP and abnormalities of all allies. (Once Soul Exceed is used, the character’s Advent mode will be lifted.) Utilizing Soul Exceed skills are the key to victory!

Orbs with Hidden Power – There are mysterious “Orbs” that can be obtained from story progression, specific locations, and certain enemies. There are 13 Orbs in total scattered throughout the game. You can check the status of your collection on a dedicated screen and equip your character with them as accessories. What will happen when all the Orbs are collected?

[ohthehypocrisy]

Team Star for Pokemon Unite!

I've been working on Pokemon Unite posts for a while, and I've churned out multiple posts for multiple pokemon. However, I've never made up an entirely new Game Mode, but I figured I'd take a crack at it. And what better start than a mode featuring everyone's favorite group of delinquents?

I've had this idea sitting in the draft for a while, but with Pokemon Unite releasing a new Game Mode featuring Paldean Pokemon, I thought now would be a good time to put this idea out there for fans of Team Star.

The Reveal

The name of the battle mode is called Starfall Street, and it features all 5 Leaders of Team Star versus you and two other players. The battle map is a mostly linear arena where you and your teammates start off in an isolated corner and will have to fight your way through hordes of pokemon. And of course, the banger music is blasting for the entire round.

While you do battle and level up and evolve throughout the round, the fight is treated more like a Musou game where you are strong enough that you can defeat the weakling mobs with just one hit. The 'commanders' are the ones you'll have to worry about as they have more HP and require special conditions to defeat. Defeating them not only gives you a lot of EXP, but you will also gain a permanent stat boost that lasts until the end of the round. And trust me, you'll need it.

The last stretch of Starfall Street pits you and your allies against the Starmobile, a Revavroom modded into a massive vehicle, backed up by little Varooms around its body acting as turrets. Depending on which member of Team Star you've summoned, the Starmobile will use different attacks and have different effects and abilities. Successfully beating Starfall Street not only nets you some sweet loot, but also Star Points specific to the Leader you've defeated. Get enough of these medals and you'll be able to exchange them for prizes like maybe Holowear or a Unite License.

That's about the gist of the whole mode, but if you're interested in learning more about the specifics of Starfall Street, you'll find it under the 'Read More' section of this post. There, I'll explain the little nuances that set this fun little side mode apart from the main battles of Aeos Island. But be warned, there's a LOT to cover.

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Battle Preparations

Since only three players can play in a round, this mode is only available in Quick Battles. Not only that, you and your allies are the only human players in the match, as all of your enemies are all bots.

That said, this mode is similar to Boss Battle mode where some items are less effective than others. Stacking items like Attack Weight and Sp. Attack Specs are useless as you cannot score a goal here, but other items are also not as effective due to the way the match plays out. Because there are always enemies on screen, Float Stone, Assault Vest, and Leftovers are similarly ineffective as you'll never have a moments rest during the game.

Aside from that, the Fluffy Tail item will be super useful as all opposing pokemon are Wild Pokemon. Full Heal will also be useful as it allows you to escape a certain KO a Wild Pokemon might try to trap you with.

As for which pokemon will be most effective, it really depends on the composition you have set up with your allies. Supporters aren't going to be as desperately needed as they were in Boss Battle, as you'll soon find out, but having a player being able to reliably hinder the enemy will be important later.

The Fight Begins

When the match starts, all players will be at Level 1, just like in every other mode. However, players will not get EXP from defeating the Wild Pokemon normally.

First off, you'll run into a bunch of weaklings as you travel throughout the map, which has some slight variations between rounds. The wild pokemon are all similarly weak and can be defeated easily with a few boosted basic attacks or instantly with a damaging move. If they do get close enough, they will use a basic attack, which is shockingly strong and can take a huge chunk of HP out of your frail Attackers if they aren't paying attention.

It should be noted that these 'Wild Pokemon' are actually all Team Star owned Grunts that are sent out to try and stop you from advancing into the map. Also, while they are 'easy mobs', you'll also be running into the pre-evolved forms of playable Pokemon, such as Gastly and Fletchinder.

It isn't advised to split up until you've accrued some decent boosts. While the weakling pokemon will be spawning endlessly, there are set spawns within the map that have 'Commanders' waiting for you. These 'Commanders' are much stronger than the Grunts you've been fighting and have their own gimmick. When you run into them, there will be an icon over their head that shows what kind of Commander they are and how to defeat them.

The Commanders

One type of Commander will have the Basic Attack Button icon over their head. This means that the mob can only be defeated by basic attacks, as any other type of damage dealt will be drastically reduced. On the other hand, there are Commanders with two circles over their heads, with 1 and 2 within them respectively. These Commanders can only receive damage by moves, which shuts out some pokemon from being able to defeat them entirely, like some Supporters. Another type of Commander has a Triple Star icon, which means they are resistant to all damage until they receive a Crowd Control Hindrance. Either Freeze or Stun or Incapacitation will open up their HP bar to damage, and they will become vulnerable for 4 whole seconds, regardless of the hindrance received. There's a Commander with an upwards pointing arrow that signifies that this pokemon can only be damaged heavily by a pokemon powered up by a boost. It could be any boost, not just X Attack, and these are available all over the map in the form of Liechi Berries and Salac Berries. And lastly, there's a Commander with an Evolution icon over its head, which means that only evolved pokemon can damage it. These can vary in a way that these Commanders will require either a 2 stage or a 3 stage pokemon to contend with them, and they will appear in the match if at least one player has a pokemon that can evolve (these will not appear if all players are playing Single Stage pokemon).

Defeating these Commanders is one of the few ways you and your teammates can gain EXP for this mode, as defeating all the weakling mobs won't get you any EXP. However, it isn't a waste of time to beat these pawns up.

The Colors of the Stars

Each Leader of Team Star specializes in a specific Type, and they will be all over the place throughout the match. However, the way luck works is that some Leaders won't be able to appear at all, as that's just how the RNG rolls. But since only one Leader will challenge you at the end of the mode, you can manipulate this by focusing on that Leader's Grunts. For instance, if you want to summon Mela, you'd be focused on defeating all of the Fire Types you see. If you want to fight Atticus, you and your team would need to beat up all the Poison Types you see.

In addition, each pokemon type you defeat gives you a permanent stat boost for the match, depending on the Type of pokemon it was. Defeating Mela's Fire Types powers up your Basic Attack Speed and HP. Defeating Atticus' Poison Types boosts your Movement Speed and improves your Hindrance Resistance. Giaccomo's Dark Types reduces the Cooldown of your Moves and increases the power and effects of your Unite Move when you defeat them. Overcome Eri's Fighting Types and your Defense and Sp. Defense stats are boosted. And lastly, Ortega's Fairy Types boost your Attack and Sp. Attack when defeated.

The weakling mobs give you a very weak boost when defeated, but defeating Commanders gives you a bigger boost to their respective stats while also granting you a lot of EXP. Defeating these pokemon fills up a Star Meter on the HUD which shows how many pokemon of that type you've defeated while also conveying the overall power you've built up from all of this fighting. There is one exception to this grind.

Regardless of which Star Leader is most likely to appear, there will always be Varooms and Revavrooms roaming the map. Varooms are fast little buggers that take reduced damage from basic attacks, but can be instantly defeated by any move. Successfully defeating one gives you some power and speed boosts as well as a mild EXP boost, not as much as a Commander, but is otherwise easy enough to deal with.

Revavrooms, on the other hand, are extremely dangerous and they will roam around the map at high speed. While they are Commanders, they do not stay in their set spawn for very long and start driving around. It's even possible to run into one within the first minute of the game. However, they are not hostile for the most part, and can only damage you by directly running into you. If you hit them for even 1 damage, though, they will turn aggressive and start to harass you relentlessly. They turn their cruise control into a demolition derby and hit for so much damage, you'll be taken out in 3 hits at the least.

The only way to safely defeat them is to bait their charge attack into a wall or obstacle, which is easier said than done. They like to charge up their attack while drifting, and are completely resilient to damage while doing so. If you manage to trick them into running into a barrier, they'll be stunned for the moment and will then take increased damage from all of your moves. Successfully defeating one nets you a boatload of EXP, increases all of your stats by a hefty amount permanently, and drastically increases your attack power and movement speed for a short while. These boosts can be shared with your teammates if they participated in the fight, but the player who aggro'd the Revavroom will get a bigger cut. You could coordinate with your team to patch up your EXP deficiency in this way if you run into a Revavroom, you know, before it runs into you.

One last thing, while Revavroom is part Poison, defeating it and the Varooms running around the map will not add to the possibility of Atticus showing up for the last minute of the fight. These little motors are meant to be big fat EXP buffers.

The Constellation Map

As I've stated before, the maps differ between matches, more specifically, there are 5 variations.

Variation 1 is a wide open field that is mildly circular, with tents and trees acting as obstacles. Variation 2 is a forest where the trees have split the map up into 3 lanes with slight openings between them. Variation 3 is a large oblong field where the Starting Point is set within the middle by the border. Variation 4 is a long stretch of land where most of the Commanders are set to spawn in small pockets off the path. And Variation 5 is a huge field where the only obstacle is the large tent in the middle of the arena.

If any of these maps sound familiar to you, I did base these off of the Base Raid you partake in when you storm the bases of Team Star. They're not totally accurate, as I can't quite remember what they looked like exactly, but I'm more interested in balance than accuracy here.

Something I should mention is that, all throughout these maps there are Vending Machines where you and your allies can run to for emergency healing. While these were free and infinite in Pokemon Scarlet and Violet, in this game mode for Pokemon Unite they will have limited uses. Some will only have 2 stocks before they run out while others may have 4.

As such, it is very important to maintain constant teamwork throughout the match, as not only are some pokemon better equipped to handle some of the Commanders, but they also have a greater need to power up their respective stats. An Attacker may call dibs on all the Fairy type mobs, but a Supporter may also need them to boost its Sp. Attack in order to increase the healing they can provide. Different pokemon have a greater need for specific stats, so it's important to recognize who needs what the most.

It's also really important that your team stays together until you have sufficiently powered up enough where an ally can safely venture off on their own. The more total pokemon you defeat, the greater the score, which increases your rewards at the end of the match.

The Stellar Admins

While the Grunts are everywhere and the Commanders can show up at any time, there's an even more powerful Wild Pokemon called an Admin that you can run into, and they're very dangerous.

Admins are playable pokemon that you can run into during a game, and each one has a modified playstyle and moves that make them drastically play differently from the bot versions you might run into. They hit very hard too, but thankfully they have a predictable pattern.

Mela's Stellar Admin is an opposing Talonflame that can only use two moves, Fly and Flame Sweep, which is its Unite Move. When the encounter begins, it will open up with Fly and will try to attack the weakest member of your team. After landing, it will then use Flame Sweep to target the healthiest ally. Whether it hits or misses, it will rinse and repeat with this attack pattern. Stellar Admin Talonflame is very tricky to fight as it's Fly and Flame Sweep hit hard and is difficult to counter, but it's HP is very low and requires a good clean hit to put down.

Giacomo's Stellar Admin is an opposing Zoroark. It will always spawn in with its Illusion ability active and can hold it indefinitely until it is attacked. Zoroark will disguise itself as a Grunt and patrol the map, but will not attack you and your allies and will always try to run away. If attacked, Zoroark will counter immediately with two different moves. A Melee attack will have Zoroark respond with Nightfall Daze, its Unite Move, and hit really hard. A Ranged attack prompts it to use Night Slash against the attacker perfectly. Both of these counterattacks hit really hard, but if you survive, the Zoroark will then run away. It will not counterattack again for 7 seconds, during which time it is vulnerable. But if it is allowed to move off-screen and out of sight of you and your allies, it will pop its Illusion ability and start the whole process over. If you suspect a wild Zoroark roaming about the map, be prepared for a tricky fight and try to open up with a powerful single hit to take care of Zoroark before it can retaliate.

Atticus's Stellar Admin is an opposing Gengar that starts every round with its Unite Move, Phantom Ambush, always active. When you and your allies are near, it will always circle one of you, with the purple wisp above your head your only hint that it's nearby. Then, it will begin to throw Shadow Balls indiscriminately, dealing heavy damage. Unlike Phantom Ambush as it's used by a player, Stellar Admin Gengar will become invisible again after throwing out a Shadow Ball, making it very hard to track down. It will never perform the final hit of Phantom Ambush, so that's one thing you and your team won't have to worry about. To fend off Gengar, you'll have to get lucky and hit it with an attack, or counter it's attack with a hindrance or a debuff. Stellar Admin Gengar will be forced to become visible if it is under the effects of a hindrance or a Damage-Over-Time effect, making it easier to deal with. It also moves about predictably, as it always circles the ally with the least amount of HP. As Gengar is a frail Speedster, a few lucky hits are just enough to bring it down.

Ortega's Stellar Admin is an opposing Wigglytuff that spends the entire match using Sing. It walks around at increased speed and its Cute Charm ability is always active, making it very difficult to keep your distance. When an enemy is put to Sleep, it stops Singing and uses Double Slap repeatedly. These hits are rigged in that they will constantly hit the highest amount of damage, which is annoying, but is still pretty weak. However, Sing can put you and your allies to Sleep for much longer than normal, which can be very terrifying if you get caught while at low HP. In order to deal with Wigglytuff, there's an exploit you'd have to take advantage of. If you wake up and run away, Wigglytuff will go back to using Sing indefinitely, but if you wake up and stay put, Wigglytuff will keep using Double Slap on the nearby ally, giving your team an opening to rush in and attack. This means that a bulky Defender or All-Rounder has to be the bait to deal with Wigglytuff, but it's the safest and easiest way to deal with Wigglytuff.

Lastly, Eri's Stellar Admin is an opposing Lucario which is extremely aggressive with Extreme Speed and Aura Cannon, it's Unite Move. It will always open up with a big hit in Aura Cannon, which is modified to have a shorter flight distance, but the Lucario will not let up and proceed to use Extreme Speed right after. This attack dashes for much farther than normal, but rather than attack enemies with it, Stellar Admin Lucario uses it to reposition to a better spot where it will immediately use Aura Cannon again. Because this combination is so fast, it's actually difficult to keep your distance and avoid Lucario's line of fire. Your best bet is to get up close and stay close, strafing to avoid Aura Cannon as it's used. The Unite Move slows down if Lucario is hit with a debuff or a hindrance, so it will take a team effort to put this Stellar Admin down.

There is one Stellar Admin per round that can show up and it can be any one of them in any map. Defeating it nets your whole team with a massive boost, even if they weren't in the fight, as well as a massive boost to the respective stat they provide. KO'ing the Stellar Admin also contributes greatly to the Team Star member showing up at the end of the fight, which is great, unless you and your team is grinding for a different Team Star leader's medals. However the fight goes, the boost and EXP you gain will be very helpful in the last minute of the fight.

The Starmobile Descends

After you and your team have defeated enough pokemon, you and your allies are warped to a specific arena where the Starmobile appears. Which Starmobile it is depends on how many of a specific type you defeated during the game, and each one has their own tricks.

Firstly, each Starmobile, regardless of which Type, has the exact same setup. There's a Revavroom at the face of the contraption which receives the most damage from you and your attacks. There are also Varooms attached to what would be the wheels of the mobile, with each one operating independently of the body. These can be defeated and beaten off, reducing the attack power of the Starmobile as a whole. In addition, some Varoom will spawn and move about the field, operating as a distraction against you and your team, though if you take the bait, you gain EXP and a slight boost to all of your stats, which is a decent backup plan if you haven't fully leveled up enough for the fight.

When the fight begins, the Starmobile behaves as a Boss Pokemon, with visible attack ranges and information being displayed on the HUD. Though each Starmobile version has a different ability and differing moves, they all share a few techniques. Since the face receives the highest multiplying damage of the Starmobile's body, the Revavroom will counter with Lick, which Shoves and Stuns all players and gives it enough time to retaliate with a Torque move. It can also launch Sludge Bomb at far away enemies and will do this automatically if you and your teammates are huddled together attacking from afar. The sludge creates a damaging field that also slows you down. The Varooms on the side will also use Sludge and Poison Gas to fend off your attacks, and they can do this while the main body is attacking, making it very difficult to avoid damage in some cases.

The Starmobile is slow and predictable though, it's just difficult to take down, especially if your team isn't fully leveled up yet. It should also be noted that, before the final battle begins, getting KO'd sends you back to base with no respawn time, so it's very forgiving in that sense. But if you get knocked out during the fight against the Starmobile, you'll be warped back into the boss arena after a lengthy respawn timer, depending on your level. Even 5 seconds of respawn can be a death sentence for you and your team as you'll have even less time to defeat the Starmobile.

One last thing to note, each Starmobile has two unique moves that can change the course of the battle, depending on which Team Star Leader you're fighting. Giacomo's Starmobile can use Snarl, which attacks the entire arena with a raucous engine roar. It slows down and reduces everyone's attack power, but it only deals damage at the end of the move if it attacks uninterrupted. Deal loads of damage to the Starmobile to stop Snarl from finishing. Its other move is Wicked Torque, where the lights get shut out and the Starmobile retreats and leaves the arena. For 2 seconds, you can't damage the Starmobile as it's out of bounds, but it will appear randomly from outside the area with its LED lights beaming into the field. When this happens, it's about to charge in and run all of you over, so get out of the way. If you get hit, you'll be Stunned for 5 seconds, which can be really bad if you didn't pack a Full Heal.

Mela's Starmobile knows Overheat and Blazing Torque. When it uses Overheat, it's body becomes too hot to approach without taking damage. After 5 seconds, the body erupts in flames, damaging everyone nearby. This can happen while it's using another move, so watch out. Blazing Torque has it also reverse and leave the arena just like Wicked Torque, except it will always charge in from the left or right. It's not hard to dodge, but the problem starts with the burning trail left behind. The Starmobile will continue attacking while Blazing Torque is active, which can make its normal and easy to avoid moves difficult to evade damage. Atticus' Starmobile knows Smog and Noxious Torque, where Smog summons a poisonous cloud of gas that damages all enemies around it. It deals more damage than Mela's Overheat, but it doesn't explode and hitting the Starmobile shortens the duration of the attack. Noxious Torque has the Starmobile perform a hard drift around the arena and leaves behind a huge puddle of oil. The oil doesn't damage you or your teammates, but it slows you all down and prevents dashing moves from being used, so try to avoid the hazard.

Ortega's Starmobile knows Confuse Ray and Magical Torque. Confuse Ray has the LED lights of the Starmobile light up and flicker in a confusing pattern. If this light show is beamed directly at you or a teammate, that pokemon will be forced to approach the Starmobile slowly. You can fight it by tilting the control stick left or right, since the Starmobile can only shine the light in one direction, or you can aim and use a Dash move to escape the ray. It's also considered a hindrance, so Full Heal or Blissey's Safeguard can block the beam. Magical Torque has the Starmobile retreat and leave the arena, only to reappear moments later falling in from the sky and crashing down. This full body crash is random and can happen after 1 to 3 seconds of delay, so be on your toes.

Finally, Ori's Starmobile knows High Horsepower and Combat Torque. The Starmobile can use High Horsepower at any point during the match and can even interrupt its own moves to use High Horsepower. The move has the Starmobile perform a hard drift and crash into a wall with the entire side of its body, making it a damaging and difficult move to avoid. Combat Torque has the Starmobile pick a target and focus its aim on them. After a brief charge, the Starmobile drives forward and pushes them into the wall if they were hit. Afterwards, the player gets pinned down and receives increasing damage as the Starmobile revs and holds them down against the wall. The attack ends after 6 seconds but can be shortened if the rest of the team deals lots of damage to the Starmobile very quickly.

One last thing to note. The Starmobile is immune to hindrances and debuffs, but they will contribute to a Stun Meter just like in Boss Battle. However, the first hit of your Unite Move will fill the meter instantly, causing it to buckle and stall, which can interrupt its moves and force it to sit vulnerable for a brief moment. You can use this to deal loads of damage or to stop it from using a problematic move, so make sure you pick the perfect opportunity to pop it.

You Get a Gold Star

Once the match ends, you and your team will be graded on your performance. Each player is scored on damage dealt, damage received, HP recovered, and stun contribution. The number of pokemon defeated will also be shown, as well as the percentage of types they've taken down. Good players who understand the role of their pokemon will be focused on a specific pokemon type, like Defenders primarily gunning down Fighting Types, and it will show in a pie chart in that player's performance chart.

Your team will also be graded on the amount of time it took you all to beat the round. The less time you take, the better you score. The Difficulty also affects the score, with the best possible score coming from Extreme Difficulty.

Reach for the Stars!

Beating up specific Pokemon Types doesn't just get you stat boosts for the match, it also adds to a point voucher in the game's special item shop. For the duration of the game mode, you can earn Star Points based on your score after each round. You get Gold Stars for beating the mode, getting more the higher the difficulty you clear, but you'll also get colored stars from the pokemon types you beat up. Take out a lot of Fire Types and you'll come out of the game with a lot of Red Star Points. Fight a bunch of Fighting Types and you'll get Orange Star Points, and so on and so forth.

You'll get loads of these Star Points for beating the associated Team Star Leader, which is the easiest way to get a bunch of them all at once. And when you have a lot, you can then trade them in for special items in the Starfall Street Shop. Gold Stars can get you generic things like Team Star Stickers or Poses for your trainer card, as well as specific Team Star gear like Helmets and glasses, but specific colors can get you articles of clothing based on the Team Star Leaders. Yes, that means you can trade in a lot of Red Star Points to get Mela's Boots for your Trainer Customization.

Now, that's what would realistically happen if the shop items were made by the Unite Devs, but I would also add in special Holowear to the shop if I had things my way. I'd even include a special Unite License for Revavroom or something like that, assuming the pokemon is popular enough.

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And that about does it for this post. I'm really enjoying the Panic Parade mode that's currently ongoing in Pokemon Unite, so I thought I'd take a crack at coming up with my own game mode. Now don't get it twisted, this idea has been sitting in my draft for quite a while, I just didn't have the time or energy to put the idea down and finalize it.

Now, there has yet to be a precedent for Pokemon Unite to make wild pokemon playable, especially ones from exclusive game modes like Panic Parade, so I hope that mold gets broken and we get not only the Tinkaton License, but also Flamigo and Bellibolt. Oh, and maybe Revavroom so that Starfall Street can come to Pokemon Unite.

Anyway, I'm still on break, so I hope this post tides you over. Stay tuned for the results of my Pikmin Poll.

[galeforged]

Embrace a Most Engaging Encore (Forwin in Fire Emblem Engage)

One can fit a surprising number of names under the all-encompassing mantle of a bard. Are they but simple musicians by trade, eager to entertain any passing soul willing to lend an ear? Do these poets simply aim to please with silly verses with no proper aim, or are they master storytellers, who not only know how to enthral, but also inform the masses? How many great deeds have they borne witness to as historians, and how many fantastical tales have they passed on as collectors?

Poetically known as the Emblem of Bards, the spirit of Emblem Forwin stood out from among his peers as a sterling example of his trade, with Elyos minstrels in the distant past having learnt the story of a bard well-travelled. Forwin Tyrell natively hails from Fódlan, the same land of origin as the Emblems of the Academy and of Rivals. Born as Wyndell von Gerth, the lutist stepped away from nobility and instead embraced the simpler life of a commoner, though he soon ended up under Garreg Mach Monastery as an Ashen Wolf student in Abyss.

When war came to the monastery, the battle saw Forwin falling through a hidden gate in the catacombs and emerging in Nohr, home to Corrin, the Emblem of Fates. He would further hone his talent as a court musician in the service of the kingdom’s royal family, up until the warring lands of Hoshido and Nohr joined arms against their true enemy. Along his long journey home, Forwin also ventured with Celica, the Emblem of Echoes, in her quest to reach Mila’s Temple and free Valentia of Duma’s influence. The bard would finally reach his homeland five years after he vanished, and see to peace returning in Fódlan after the end of the conflict between the Adrestian Empire and the Church of Seiros.

Should the Divine Dragon happen upon the Bracelet of the Wanderer in which Emblem Forwin’s spirit resides, he can be awakened from it with the invocation: “Play on, Emblem of Bards!” Those who don the Bracelet in battle can Engage with Emblem Forwin; when bestowed with his powers, they would also find notable stat boosts in Magic, Dexterity, and Luck.

To obtain the Bracelet of the Wanderer, the player must clear his Divine Paralogue: “The Windborne Songster.” Rumours of bandits raiding the tomb in which the Bracelet is kept have reached the Divine Dragon’s party. Upon hearing of this, the group promptly leaves for the islands south of Firene to investigate, lest they risk the Bracelet falling into the wrong hands and becoming lost forever. While Alear and company would arrive to find that those same bandits thankfully failed and perished, their foolish attempt at stealing the Bracelet nonetheless caused the tomb’s guardian golem to awaken...

The map for this Divine Paralogue replicates that of Chapter 4: Danger in the Dark, from the “Cindered Shadows” side story of Fire Emblem: Three Houses. The map’s theme, in turn, includes a new rendition of “The Shackled Wolves.”

Emblem Forwin’s Skills and Weapons: Bond Lv. 1

Engage Attack: Vigorous Song. Grants an adjacent ally Str/Mag/Def/Res+3 for one turn, and allows them to move again.

Engage Weapon: Wind Caller’s Genesis. A sacred wind tome wielded by Emblem Forwin. Restores 30% of unit’s HP after attacking. Effective: Flying.

Engage Skill: Curtain Call. Boosts Dex/Lck when HP falls below 50%.

Sync Skill: Wind Caller. 40% chance to slightly increase damage dealt by offensive magic. (Cannot inherit)

Inheritable Skill: MagicDexterity +2. Grants Mag/Dex+2.

Emblem Forwin’s Skills and Weapons: Bond Progression

Lv. 2: Magic/Dexterity +3. Grants Mag/Dex+3. Inheritable Skill.

Lv. 3: Bowfaire 1. Grants Atk+1 when attacking with a bow. Inheritable Skill.

Lv. 4: Influence. Increases range of magic by 1. Sync Skill (Can inherit).

Lv. 5: Skill Inheritance. Unit can inherit this Emblem’s skills. Unlock.

Lv. 6: Tome Prof. Proficiency with tomes. Required for promotion to certain classes. Unlock.

Lv. 7: Bowfaire 2. Grants Atk+2 when attacking with a bow. Inheritable Skill.

Lv. 8: Bow Prof. Proficiency with bows. Required for promotion to certain classes. Unlock.

Lv. 10: Violin Bow. A musical bow wielded by Emblem Forwin. Increases adjacent allies’ dexterity for one turn after combat. Engage Weapon.

Lv. 10: Mystic Arrow. Adds (Magic)/3 to Strength when attacking with a bow. Sync Skill (Can inherit).

Lv. 11: Bowfaire 3. Grants Atk+3 when attacking with a bow. Inheritable Skill.

Lv. 12: Wind Caller+. 40% chance to moderately increase damage dealt by offensive magic. Sync Skill (Cannot inherit).

Lv. 13: Magic/Dexterity +4. Grants Mag/Dex+4. Inheritable Skill.

Lv. 14: Bowfaire 4. Grants Atk+4 when attacking with a bow. Inheritable Skill.

Lv. 15: Wind Caller’s Gale. A mighty wind tome wielded by Emblem Forwin. Sends foe staggering back 2 spaces and limits their Mov. to 1 space. Effective: Flying.

Lv. 16: Mystic Arrow+. Adds (Magic)/2 to Strength when attacking with a bow. Sync Skill (Can inherit).

Lv. 17: Bowfaire 5. Grants Atk+5 when attacking with a bow. Inheritable Skill.

Lv. 18: Wind Caller++. 40% chance to greatly increase damage dealt by offensive magic. Sync Skill (Cannot inherit).

Lv. 19: Magic/Dexterity +5. Grants Mag/Dex+5. Inheritable Skill.

[techtired]

Arknights Game Alternatives | Similar Games Like Arknights

Arknights has carved out a significant niche in the mobile gaming world with its unique blend of tower defense and gacha mechanics. For those who love its strategic depth, character collection, and challenging gameplay, several other games offer similar experiences. Here are the top 10 alternatives to Arknights that you should consider: 10 best Arknights Game Alternatives 1. Girls' Frontline Google PlayStore - link Girls' Frontline, developed by MICA Team, is a mobile strategy RPG where players collect and command tactical dolls (T-Dolls), which are anthropomorphized firearms. The game combines turn-based strategy with real-time battles and a rich storyline. Gameplay: Players must strategize their moves on a grid-based map, deploying T-Dolls to capture nodes, engage in combat, and complete objectives. Combat involves real-time tactics where players can position their units, trigger skills, and manage resources. Each T-Doll has unique abilities and stats, making team composition and strategy crucial. Features: - Deep Strategy: Grid-based movement and real-time combat require careful planning and adaptability. - Character Collection: Over 100 T-Dolls, each with distinct personalities and backstories. - Story-Driven: Engaging narrative with multiple chapters and events. - Customization: Upgrade and enhance T-Dolls with equipment, skills, and affection levels. Why It's a Good Alternative: Girls' Frontline offers a strategic depth similar to Arknights, emphasising positioning and real-time decision-making. The character collection aspect and story-driven gameplay provide a familiar yet distinct experience. 2. Azur Lane Google PlayStore - link Azur Lane, developed by Shanghai Manjuu and Xiamen Yongshi, is a side-scrolling shoot 'em up game where players collect and command a fleet of warships anthropomorphized as characters known as shipgirls. Gameplay: The game features real-time naval battles where players control their fleet, dodging enemy fire and launching attacks. Players must manage their fleet's composition, considering factors like ship type, abilities, and synergy. The game also includes a robust character collection and upgrading system. Features: - Real-Time Combat: Action-packed naval battles with dodging and strategic firing. - Fleet Management: Diverse shipgirls with unique abilities and roles. - Base Building: Develop and customize your base to support your fleet. - Events and Story: Regular updates with new events, stories, and shipgirls. Why It's a Good Alternative: Azur Lane combines real-time action with strategic fleet management, appealing to players who enjoy tactical depth and character collection. The game's frequent updates and events keep the content fresh and engaging. 3. Epic Seven Google PlayStore - link Epic Seven, developed by Super Creative and published by Smilegate, is a turn-based RPG that emphasizes character collection and strategic battles. Players assemble teams of heroes to take on various challenges, including a rich story campaign, PvP, and PvE content. Gameplay: Players engage in turn-based battles where each hero has unique skills and roles. Strategic team composition and skill usage are crucial for overcoming difficult encounters. The game also features a deep progression system, allowing players to enhance their heroes through equipment, skills, and awakenings. Features: - Turn-Based Combat: Strategic battles requiring careful planning and skill usage. - Hero Collection: Hundreds of heroes with unique abilities and roles. - Story and World: Immersive narrative with beautifully animated cutscenes. - Endgame Content: Abyss, Raid, Guild Wars, and other challenging activities. Why It's a Good Alternative: Epic Seven offers a different take on strategy with its turn-based combat, but it retains the character collection and progression elements that Arknights fans enjoy. The game's stunning visuals and engaging story also add to its appeal. 4. Another Eden: The Cat Beyond Time and Space Google PlayStore - link Another Eden, developed by Wright Flyer Studios and published by GREE, is a mobile RPG that combines traditional turn-based combat with a rich narrative experience. The game features time travel elements, allowing players to explore different eras and unravel a compelling story. Gameplay: Players control a party of characters, engaging in turn-based battles that require strategic use of skills and abilities. The game emphasizes exploration and story, with a vast world to discover and numerous side quests and events. Features: - Turn-Based Combat: Classic RPG battles with strategic depth. - Story-Driven: Deep narrative with time travel elements and character-driven plots. - Exploration: Expansive world with various eras to explore. - Character Collection: Diverse cast of characters with unique skills and backstories. Why It's a Good Alternative: Another Eden provides a rich story and classic RPG gameplay, appealing to players who enjoy immersive narratives and strategic turn-based combat. The time travel mechanic adds a unique twist to the exploration and story elements. 5. Fate/Grand Order Google PlayStore - Link Fate/Grand Order (FGO), developed by Delightworks and published by Aniplex, is a mobile turn-based RPG set in the Fate franchise's universe. Players summon and command heroic spirits (Servants) to combat threats across different historical eras. Gameplay: FGO features turn-based battles where players must strategically use their Servants' skills and abilities to defeat enemies. The game also emphasizes character collection, with a gacha system to summon new Servants. The narrative is rich, with each event and chapter offering a unique story. Features: - Turn-Based Combat: Strategic battles with skill management and team composition. - Servant Collection: Wide array of characters from history and mythology. - Story and Events: Extensive narrative with regular updates and special events. - Progression: Level up, ascend, and enhance Servants to strengthen your team. Why It's a Good Alternative: Fate/Grand Order combines strategic turn-based combat with a deep character collection system and rich storytelling. Fans of Arknights who enjoy collecting unique characters and engaging in tactical battles will find FGO appealing. 6. Langrisser Mobile Google PlayStore - link Langrisser Mobile, developed by Zlongame, is a tactical RPG that brings the classic Langrisser series to mobile devices. The game combines turn-based strategy with character collection and a deep, engaging story. Gameplay: Players command a team of heroes on grid-based maps, utilizing terrain, positioning, and unique hero abilities to achieve victory. The game features a rich single-player campaign, PvP battles, and cooperative gameplay. Features: - Strategic Depth: Terrain and positioning play crucial roles in battles. - Hero Collection: Over 100 heroes from the Langrisser series, each with distinct classes and abilities. - Story-Driven: An epic narrative with branching paths and multiple endings. - PvP and Co-op: Engage in competitive PvP battles and team up with friends in cooperative modes. Why It's a Good Alternative: Langrisser Mobile offers deep strategic gameplay with a focus on terrain and positioning, similar to Arknights. The character collection and rich narrative provide a compelling experience for fans of tactical RPGs. 7. Fire Emblem Heroes Google PlayStore - link Fire Emblem Heroes, developed by Intelligent Systems and Nintendo, is a mobile entry in the renowned Fire Emblem series. It combines a turn-based strategy with a hero collection featuring characters from across the franchise's history. Gameplay: Players summon heroes and engage in turn-based battles on grid-based maps. Each hero has unique abilities, and players must strategize their moves and unit placements to win. Features: - Turn-Based Strategy: Grid-based combat with a focus on positioning and skill usage. - Hero Collection: Summon heroes from across the Fire Emblem series, each with unique abilities. - Story Campaign: An engaging narrative with new chapters added regularly. - Events and Modes: Frequent events, special modes, and seasonal content. Why It's a Good Alternative: Fire Emblem Heroes offers strategic depth with turn-based combat and a rich hero collection system. Fans of Arknights will appreciate the tactical gameplay and the vast array of characters to collect and upgrade. 8. Alchemy Stars Google Playstore - link Alchemy Stars, developed by Tourdog Studio and published by Tencent Games, is a strategy RPG that combines tile-based movement with character collection and a rich story. Gameplay: Players control a team of characters, moving them across a grid of colored tiles to engage in combat. Matching tile colors triggers special abilities, adding a puzzle element to the strategy. Features: - Tile-Based Strategy: Unique movement and combat mechanics based on colored tiles. - Character Collection: Over 100 characters with diverse abilities and backgrounds. - Story-Driven: A compelling narrative with deep lore and character development. - Visuals and Music: Stunning artwork and a captivating soundtrack. Why It's a Good Alternative: Alchemy Stars offers a fresh take on strategy with its tile-based combat system, appealing to players who enjoy both strategy and puzzle mechanics. The character collection and immersive story add depth to the gameplay. 9. Final Fantasy Brave Exvius Google PlayStore - link Final Fantasy Brave Exvius, developed by Alim and published by Square Enix, is a mobile RPG that combines turn-based combat with hero collection. It features characters and elements from the entire Final Fantasy franchise. Gameplay: Players form teams of heroes to engage in turn-based battles, using strategic skill combinations and character abilities. The game includes a rich single-player campaign, PvP, and cooperative raids. Features: - Turn-Based Combat: Classic RPG battles with strategic depth. - Hero Collection: Summon and collect heroes from across the Final Fantasy series. - Story and Exploration: An expansive narrative with exploration elements. - Events and Raids: Regular updates with new events, characters, and challenging raid content. Why It's a Good Alternative: Final Fantasy Brave Exvius offers strategic turn-based combat and a deep character collection system, similar to Arknights. The game's connection to the beloved Final Fantasy franchise adds to its appeal for fans of RPGs. 10. AFK Arena Google PlayStore - link AFK Arena, developed by Lilith Games, is an idle RPG that combines strategic hero battles with a casual, accessible gameplay loop. Players collect heroes and form teams to battle through a variety of challenges. Gameplay: Players assemble teams of heroes to engage in auto-battles. Strategic team composition and hero synergy are key to progressing through the game’s various modes and challenges. Features: - Idle Gameplay: Progresses even when offline, making it accessible for casual play. - Hero Collection: Over 100 heroes with unique abilities and roles. - Strategic Battles: Team composition and hero synergy are crucial for success. - Events and Modes: Regular updates with new events, game modes, and content. Why It's a Good Alternative: AFK Arena offers a more casual approach to strategy and hero collection, perfect for players who enjoy strategic depth without needing constant engagement. The game’s regular updates and diverse hero roster keep the gameplay fresh and engaging. Read the full article