#really it is an incredible boss both in gameplay and 4 spinning around in the mind. almost every single fic that features dismas (one of--

[beeapocalypse]

whos the collector they’re from dd right. i don’t know a lot about dd but i like seeing you post abt it. i like the beasts

^ my best freak friend forever !!!!

yea the collector is from dd ! its a wandering miniboss which has a chance to show up when your inventory is at least 80% full and its fight is based largely around it pulling out the gross heads of dead mercenaries and puppeting them around (u can see them in the first image on the left ! vestal on the far left, man-at-arms on the top, highwayman on the bottom) and upon defeat it has a chance to drop one of three head trinkets which are named after the default name for those mercenaries (junia, barristan, and dismas)

(^ here they are ! they are called "collected [class name]" and get spectral bodies when they attack i just did not want to find clean images of those lol)

i rlly love it bc its design is absolutely incredible (i do not have a gif of it but in its idle animation the skull will occasionally jolt around in the cage) but it also has some goofy elements. despite jumping YOU it has a chance to get surprised at the start of the fight (basically passes its turn) and one of its moves (left image) is called "show collection". its a pretty clear reference to the king in yellow (reoccurring character in a collection of short stories of the same name by robert chambers. the plot of the first four revolves around a play which drives readers into madness) like here is a cute little snippet from it

ive been getting into the Who of the collector recently like with the idea that its got little hideaways tucked away throughout the estate (the chest in hidden rooms will give u its unique loot drop- the puzzling trapezohedron- and Maybe a head trinket if unlocked with a skeleton key) and thinking abt the lines the ancestor has for it specifically. one encounter quote ("the sparkling eyes of youth- twisted and made merciless!") and one defeat quote ("a predator is often blind to its own peril") stand out in particular 2 me. easy answer is that the first line is that its meant 4 the mercenary heads but the idea that the ancestor has some sort of History with the person the collector used 2 be is SO good. another weird guy too into the Strange hanging around the hamlet

^ and here are some little extra images. the most low quality image of the collector minifig from the dd boardgame and a print which was shipped out to kickstarter backers !

[aion-rsa]

15 Best SNES RPGs Ever Made

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SNES games might not be much to look at now, but in many ways, they were a massive improvement over any console games that came before. SNES developers could create massive worlds with detailed sprites that actually looked like what they were intended to represent. New advances in technology also meant that games could take their first real steps toward becoming the kinds of cinematic experiences we arguably take for granted today. And while 4 MB wasn’t even a ton of storage even space back then, it was still more than enough to fit an impressive script for a 40-hour story.

In short, the SNES was almost perfectly set up to be the home for RPGs. While the console RPG scene was still finding its footing at the time of the Super Nintendo’s release, many developers were more than willing to dip their toes into the genre to see what kind of experiences they could craft. That combination of experimentation and all-time great creative voices eventually resulted in some of the most beloved role-playing games ever made.

As we celebrate the 30th anniversary of the SNES in North America, now feels like a great time to look back at 15 of the best RPGs on the SNES. 

15. Shadowrun

In the early 1990s, console RPGs were synonymous with turn-based combat and medieval settings full of knights, sorcerers, and dragons. So, no one really knew what to make of a cyberpunk game with real-time combat set in a dystopian Seattle. However, those who stuck with Shadowrun found one of the best and grittiest stories of the 16-bit era, as well as some surprisingly innovative conversation and hacking systems.

Shadowrun was truly ahead of its time in almost every way. While it didn’t get that much attention when it was released, games like Cyberpunk 2077 and The Ascent proudly carry on its legacy to this day. Even the Shadowrun franchise itself finally got its due with a trilogy of successful PC RPGs released over the last decade.

14. Soul Blazer

Even today, Soul Blazer is a title that not many gamers have heard of. Admittedly, it’s a little rough around the edges. Arriving early in the lifecycle of the SNES, the graphics and music aren’t quite up to par with the best games of its era, but the gameplay makes it a worthy addition to this list. Taking some inspiration from Actraiser, another beloved Quintet game, your goal in this action RPG is to clear out various lairs, rescue various souls (that could take the form of plants, animals, or other humans), and free the land from the evil Deathtoll.

Quintet would go on to hone Soul Blazer‘s best ideas in several other games (including Terranigma, another fantastic action RPG that sadly never made its way to North America). Unfortunately, Quintet shut down in the mid-2000s, and it’s unclear who exactly owns the rights to these games at this point. That sadly makes any official re-releases of these often-overlooked gems unlikely.

13. The 7th Saga

The 7th Saga is an excellent example of a game that had a lot of great ideas that never quite came together. Probably the best thing about the game is the playable characters. You have seven to choose from at the start (including a robot and an alien), and you eventually meet six other characters that you can either fight or recruit. It was also one of the first RPGs that didn’t include completely random combat. Enemies could actually be avoided through an innovative “radar” system.

Unfortunately, The 7th Saga is also unforgivingly difficult, with some enemies always surpassing your stats no matter how much you level up. So, while it may not have aged as gracefully as other games on this list, it’s an utterly fascinating project with incredible ideas that have since been incorporated into numerous genre classics.

12. Breath of Fire II

To be honest, Breath of Fire II doesn’t have a particularly memorable stand-out feature. Sure, there’s a town-building feature that lets you fill a town with various NPCs you meet throughout the game, but it’s easily ignored. Having a giant talking armadillo in your party is also pretty cool, but it’s obviously hard to recommend the game based on that alone. 

So why should you play Breath of Fire II? Well, it’s just a very solidly told fantasy story with a lengthy quest and strong turn-based combat. It’s nothing flashy, but it’s a strong overall entry into the Super Nintendo’s RPG library.

11. Lufia II: Rise of the Sinistrals

The release of Lufia II was overshadowed by the release of the next-gen systems and a SNES library already bursting with classic RPGs. It took a while for a lot of gamers to dig up this hidden gem, and some gamers simply never found it at all. To be fair, the story (which features a typical fantasy hero who has to save the world from the four evil Sinistrals) is a little mechanical, but Lufia II features some of the best graphics and music of any game on the console. Plus, there are tons of puzzles to solve and a 99-level randomized dungeon to eventually tackle. Honestly, Lufia II might feature more “gameplay” than any other Super Nintendo RPG.

While it’s billed as a sequel, Rise of the Sinistrals is actually a prequel to the first game, so you can feel free to dive right into it without playing through the first (though Lufia and the Fortress of Doom is well worth checking out as well). 

10. Harvest Moon

Arriving at the tail end of the SNES’ lifespan, Harvest Moon made a lot of gamers re-examine what an RPG could actually be. There’s no combat and no great quest to save the world. You’re just a simple farmer growing crops and raising livestock on the land you inherited from your grandfather. It sounds boring, but the gameplay loop is remarkably addictive. There’s a reason why the Harvest Moon series continues to this day and has inspired dozens of imitators, spin-offs, and sequels (most notably Stardew Valley).

Admittedly, some of the recent Harvest Moon games haven’t lived up to the series’ standards, but thanks to charming characters, witty writing, and its simple yet deep gameplay, there’s a very good argument that this first Harvest Moon game remains the best in the franchise.

9. Illusion of Gaia

The spiritual sequel to Soul Blazer exchanged the town-building mechanics of its predecessor for more involved combat, which honestly made it a better game overall. Illusion of Gaia also forgoes the traditional leveling of most RPGs for a roguelike system where protagonist Will can choose to increase his attack, defense, or health stats after clearing each room of enemies. As such, how you choose to proceed can make the final bosses of each dungeon significantly easier or much more difficult.

While it’s not technically set in the real world, Illusion of Gaia does incorporate several real-life locations, such as Egyptian pyramids, Incan ruins, and the Great Wall of China, leading to some of the most unique locales in any SNES RPG. It’s also a much better-looking game than Soul Blazer, fixing one of its predecessor’s biggest flaws.

8. Secret of Evermore

Square Enix (then Squaresoft) is primarily a Japanese developer, but after the massive success of multiple titles in the ‘90s, they decided to give an American studio a crack at the Square formula. While the basic gameplay of Secret of Evermore is obviously inspired by the superior Secret of Mana, Evermore mixes things up by restricting combat to just you and your trusty dog. There’s also a new alchemy mechanic that allows you to create potions when battling the game’s many tough bosses. 

For better or worse, Evermore is also graphically a much darker game than other Square titles of the era. It all mostly works here, but Square was ultimately not interested in pursuing Americanized versions of its games and Evermore is now more of a curiosity than anything else.

Read more

Games

25 Best SNES Games of All Time

By Chris Freiberg

Games

25 Best RPGs Ever Made

By Matthew Byrd

7. Ogre Battle: The March of the Black Queen

More of a military strategy sim than a typical RPG, The March of the Black Queen might be the most demanding game on the SNES. You will spend a lot of time managing units, some of which include ninjas, griffins, and witches. But when you pick just the right strategy, it’s oh so rewarding to watch them take back the continent of Zetegenia from the evil Empress Endora. It also features one of the denser stories of any 16-bit game. Many of the best plot beats may even remind you more of Game of Thrones than Lord of the Rings.

This is actually considered the fifth episode of the Ogre Battle saga, and while several sequels were produced over the years, the first four games that would have presumably featured the rise of Endora were never made. Sadly, though, Square Enix now owns the property, it doesn’t look like the Ogre Battle saga will ever be completed either. 

6. Final Fantasy IV

Plenty of RPGs were released before Final Fantasy IV (also known as Final Fantasy II in North America at the time of its release), but this was the true turning point for the JRPG genre. Of course, the graphics and sound were better with the move to more powerful hardware, but what really set it apart was the distinction of being one of the first RPGs to actually feature a fully fleshed-out plot complete with a complicated love triangle and a sympathetic villain in Golbez. It was also the first Square game to include the Active Time Battle system, which showed that JRPGs didn’t have to just be plodding turn-based affairs.

Honestly, the only downside of playing Final Fantasy IV on the SNES is that the original English translation is a little iffy. That’s been fixed in later ports and remakes, so while it might not be worth checking out on the SNES anymore over other options, it’s still worth playing in some form.

5. Super Mario RPG

Both Nintendo and Square were arguably at the height of their abilities in the mid-90s, so it shouldn’t come as a surprise that when they finally teamed up, the result was an absolute masterpiece. Super Mario RPG expertly combined the beloved Mushroom Kingdom setting and Mario platforming with Square’s top-tier storytelling abilities and advanced RPG combat systems for a truly epic game. 

Those who have played through Super Mario RPG still yearn for a true sequel developed by Square or, at the very least, the addition of Geno to Super Smash Bros. Given how beloved the game is, it’s surprising that Square and Nintendo still haven’t teamed up for another RPG. The Paper Mario and Mario and Luigi games are good, but none have surpassed this classic.

4. Secret of Mana

Closer to The Legend of Zelda than Final Fantasy in gameplay, Secret of Mana was perhaps the most innovative RPG of the ‘90s. It introduced many gamers to faster, varied combat, three-player multiplayer, and an absolutely massive game world. Even better, it’s all wrapped up with some of the best music and graphics of the generation. While still confined to the 2D limitations of the SNES, Secret of Mana’s systems are closer to what we see today in modern RPGs and action games than anything that came before.

While this game has been ported and remade perhaps more than any other game on this list, none of those versions quite match the first release. The original version of Secret of Mana still looks and feels timeless. 

3. Earthbound

RPGs were generally considered more niche games in the ‘90s. They rarely sold well, but at least did well critically. Earthbound is even more unusual because the initial reviews were rather tepid, yet it’s now considered one of the greatest games of all time. Most gamers just weren’t ready for an RPG set in the modern world that alternated between the cheery enthusiasm of childhood and the ominous alienation of growing up. In that way, Earthbound could be considered a PG-rated South Park that debuted two years before South Park even premiered.

Surreal, satirical, and sometimes just plain weird, Earthbound remains one of the more unique and innovative RPGs ever made. It’s a triumph of the genre that dozens of other games have attempted to emulate, but none have yet surpassed. Now, if Nintendo would just get around to finally putting out an official English localization of the sequel…

2. Final Fantasy VI

Two decades and nine sequels later, there are still some RPG fans who consider Final Fantasy VI to be the pinnacle of the series. That’s debatable, but it’s easily the best of the 2D entries as well as a kind of swan song to the gameplay that introduced many gamers to RPGs for the first time, with its pitch-perfect ATB battles, a huge, varied world to explore, and an epic, apocalyptic story. 

But it’s the cinematic aspects that make Final Fantasy VI stand out. The rousing soundtrack pushes the SNES to its absolute limits, making moments like the famous opera scene and the final battle against Kefka feel especially epic. Square arguably came to rely on CG movies a little too much in later games, but Final Fantasy VI is proof that the developers were master storytellers long before that.

1. Chrono Trigger

Is there really anything to dislike about Chrono Trigger? The time-traveling story that sees our heroes journey across millennia to save the world is simply outstanding. The characters, from Frog to Magus, are among the most memorable in any RPG. While the combat system might be a little simpler than some of the games on this list, letting party members team up to use their “Tech” abilities in different ways is endlessly customizable and entertaining. Of course, all of that occurs before you even dig into the new game plus and dozen different endings.

It’s difficult to label any video game as truly perfect, but Chrono Trigger may be the closest thing to perfection that gaming has ever seen. More than two decades on, it remains a high point in the RPG genre that all gamers need to experience at least once, and it’s easily the very best RPG on the SNES.

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[pixelgrotto]

Remake of Mana

Roughly a year ago, I highlighted the official English localization of Seiken Densetsu 3, AKA Trials of Mana, AKA a game that meant a lot to me growing up as an introduction to the incredible efforts of the fan translation, ROM hacking, and import JRPG communities. It took us 24 years to finally get a sanctioned translation, but now, within the relatively short span of 2019 to 2020, we not only have a localized original at our disposal but a fully-fledged remake with three dimensional environments, voices, a revised combat system and several extra goodies to satiate Seiken faithful. 

Playing this game during the coronavirus lockdown, and furthermore during a nice two week vacation period where I was between jobs, was very much a reminder of the period of my life where I had a lot of time to play video games and was most touched by Japanese roleplaying experiences. I’m talking about that middle/early high school teenage era of 12 to 16, where I plowed through oodles of these colorful stories about teenagers leveling up to inevitably save the world (or kill god) via the power of friendship. The Trials of Mana remake is very much comfort food that brings back all memories of that period. The gang that you remember - Duran, Kevin, Hawkeye, Angela, Riesz and Charlotte - are all back and instantly recognizable, and aside from the inclusion of some post-game content revolving around a character from Dawn of Mana for the PS2 (a game that got shite reviews when it came out, but I sorta wanna play now), all the scenes in Trials of Mana 2020 play out the same way that they did in the original, just fancier and with more dimensions. Riesz still unfurls her hairband and stands dramatically on a bridge as she pledges to take down the assassins who killed her father. Charlotte still escapes from Wendel via jumping atop a bouncy little monster called a Springstepper. Booskaboo the giant turtle (sorry, I mean Vuscav, since they insist on using the name established in Heroes of Mana) still shows up randomly to save the squad from an exploding volcano, looking cuddly and ridiculous as ever with his goggles and lil’ shell flag. 

While the plot might be the same, this remake nicely updates much in the gameplay department. The combat is arguably a lot more engaging than in Seiken Densetsu 3, with the ability to jump adding verticality, and there are many solid boss battles that reminded me of an MMORPG at times, with colorful, telegraphed moves and stuff dropping around the battlefield that you need to destroy in order to weaken the boss’ ultimate attack. (DPS checks, in other words - I image that some of the devs are players of Final Fantasy XIV.) Kevin’s damage output, which produced insane numbers in the original game due to a bug, have been fixed, and you no longer have to grind endlessly for the required items to transition to class 3. (I only found myself grinding for about twenty minutes in one section, which is pretty good considering the two hours I had to grind when I recently replayed the original last year.) Speaking of classes, there’s a new class 4 that turns almost all of the party members into strippers, and Lil Cactus from Legend of Mana shows up to bestow bonuses on players who search every inch of the world’s sizable new maps. 

My only real issue with Trials of Mana 2020, then, is that the game does feel like a budget production at times. The voice acting is reminiscent of an inconsistent anime dub and has generated a noticeable amount of criticism online, with most people targeting Charlotte’s UwU speech as grating on their nerves like nails on chalkboard. Personally, I like Charlotte’s Brooklyn accent, and consider her performance to be one of the most consistent. (Lumina the light elemental, who talks in a fabulous gay voice, is another such inspired choice.) Regarding graphics, the game’s outward style, based on the work of new series artist HACCAN, definitely grew on me over the course of 30-some hours...but there’s a fair amount of model clipping on display and half of the environments have these really low texture mountains in the background that stand out the more you look at them. When you compare these looks to the original Seiken Densetsu 3 - one of the most advanced, gorgeous Super Famicom projects ever, with sprites rivaling similar RPGs for the Playstation and Saturn - the low budget that Trials of Mana got becomes evident, especially compared to all of the money that Square dumped into the Final Fantasy VII remake, which came out the same month.

But at the end of the day, this is a loving and especially faithful revision of an old game, and I think players have noticed and appreciate that. Conversely, the Final Fantasy VII Remake (which I haven’t played yet as I’m awaiting the PC version) has gotten noticeable flak for an unfamiliar ending that spins things into left field. Both approaches towards remaking a classic are probably valid at the end of the day, but Trials of Mana 2020 is, once again, a comforting, unpretentious new wrapper around a classic 16-bit RPG, and for a series that often flies under the radar, fans couldn’t ask for much better than that. 

Fingers crossed that Square remakes Legend of Mana next - now that's an underrated masterpiece that deserves a new audience in this day and age. 

[thecheapsteaks]

VIDEO GAMES... 2018

2018 was a thing.  It felt like it lasted 2 or 3 years.  It is honestly a bit difficult to track which media I consumed during the year. I'll start pondering a game that I feel like I played last year only for it to dawn on me that, oh, it happened this year.  It makes keeping track of this stuff a bit tricky, honestly.  Anyway, I am still going to try to do that, to get my thoughts in order and let everyone see what I had in mind. I will go over all of the important things needed to survive:  video games, music, anime, and other things.

VIDEO GAMES

Again, it's a bit tricky to remember what even came the hell out this year game wise. I am not going to rank things, because I suck at ranking things and also comparing a lot of the things I played this year is like comparing apples and termites.  I'm just going to make a good effort to go over some nice highlights of the year.

Bayonetta 1 and 2

Bayonetta is a game series I have been interesting in playing forever, but just haven't gotten around to due to circumstances despite it being released on multiple systems I owned.  I passed it on the PS3, couldn't afford to buy it when it was out on the WiiU, so when it came out on the Switch I had to give it a shot, and it was worth it. Admittedly, I sort of sucked at it (I take a ton of damage playing games, which isn't the best for getting high ranks) but I still enjoyed it and am glad that I played both of them (except for that one part in the first game in the angel territory where you fight those thunder and fire claw dudes who are immune to witch time, they can eat my ass).  The characters are fun, the over the top action and enemies are neat, and Bayonetta is just too damn cool.  I'm definitely interested in the third one and looking forward to seeing where the sequel goes. 

(I had forgotten this game had came out this year, it was in February, goddamn how long was this year)

Kirby Star Allies

I will admit, I am heavily biased towards Kirby to a fault.  If a Kirby game makes a reference to a past Kirby game I will gleefully clap as I notice it like a trained seal, and Kirby Star Allies, serving as a Kirby anniversary title, plays into that nostalgia hard.  Compared to the other modern 3D Kirby games (Return to Dreamland and past) I feel that the single player experience is on the weaker end, admittedly. The main campaign, while satisfying, blazes by quick, and the game does re-use boss styles a lot, which is a shame since the past few Kirby games had some very satisfying bosses.  Fortunately the extra content, including the post game modes and extra DLC support, was a marvelous way to keep the game running way after its release.  The nods and references to past games worked wonderfully for me, and it was admittedly great to see long dormant characters such as the animal buddies, Gooey, and Adeline/Ribbon return as playable characters.  The game's single player campaigns, both the initial story mode and the DLC conclusion “Heroes in Another Dimension” have very satisfying conclusions, and the challenge offered by the obligatory Arena mode is wild.  Really, I just love Kirby, and this game is a nice love letter to Kirby.  I have no idea where the game will even go after the plot line from this, but I am ready for the ride.

Octo-Expansion

Being able to play as an Octoling was definitely a long anticipated update for this game, and the way they were integrated into the game was amazing.  The initial Octo-Expansion trailer oozed almost rude amounts of style, and getting a whole new bonus single player campaign made purchasing an expansion worth it.  The additional stages were absolutely geared for challenge, and I don't think I will go back to finish the ones I didn't finish any time soon, but they had so many cool new implementations and spins on the Splatoon formula.  Splatoon on its own would make a decent game if it were just the single player campaign or multiplayer, so having both just makes for a nice, complete experience.  The whole climactic sequence, from finally completing the challenge of the subway to escaping to freedom, has that absurd escalation I just love in video games too. Also I love my stylish Octoling.

Kemono Friends Picross

Somehow I made it so long without ever playing Picross, but this finally brought me into it.  I have no idea how this combination came to be, but it finally got me into a fun puzzle system and I enjoy it. Somehow I have put in nearly as many hours on this game as I have Star Allies.  A lot of it does come from having the game paused as I idly go through puzzles while working on other projects, but having a game that does not demand a ton is pretty nice and fits with my gaming and lifestyle.  I'm looking for friends.

WarioWare Gold

WarioWare is one of my favorite video game franchises and a bit of an underdog, I feel.  The original Mega Microgames was my favorite experience on the GBA, with its unique game play mixed with a silly style.  The games that followed in the series for the DS and Wii were fun, but Made in Wario on the WiiU changed from the Microgame based high score hunting style to a collection of modes and games based on the WiiU game pad.  There were some bright ideas in there that might have done better as their own eShop titles, and the shift towards multiplayer games didn't quite fit as well with my style of gaming.  After that there was silence from the Wario Ware camp until the announcement and release of WarioWare Gold, which like Star Allies is a celebration of the series's past.  It was fun to have another Microgame experience that blended all of the weirdness and frantic gameplay that made me love the series, with a solid selection of classics built in.  It even has fully voiced cutscenes (an expansion on Smooth Moves's narration for each different style) that are oddly charming in a Saturday morning way.  It was good to have this series back, and I hope to see more unique takes on Microgames in the future.

Katamari Damacy Reroll

The original Katamari was a quirky game I bought on a whim back in the PS2 days that was sold to me on its weird look, style, and nice price point.  I enjoyed the first so much, and We <3 Katamari is one of my favorite games of all time.  Having a nicely touched up port on the Switch was welcome.  Somehow, despite having not played the original or its sequel in decades, I took to it like I had just played it yesterday, rolling up incredible Katamaris like a pro.  The original does have some warts in its gameplay that the sequels ironed out marvelously, and the dual stick controls do bother my thumbs at times, but it's still so satisfying to play and it's great that this game has a new chance.  Please go by this one, it's so enjoyable, but also because I want them to port We <3 Katamari so badly so you can all play that and see Katamari perfection.

Super Smash Brothers Ultimate

Smash Bros games seem to live on hype.  I will admit I never expected to see a Smash Bros game so early in the Switch.  It doesn't even feel that long since Smash 4 came out!  So having a trailer in the beginning of the year and a release in the same year was a bit astounding.  There was lots of drama and intrigue with leaks, character additions, and whatnot, and even if I am sad for some that didn't make it (pour one out for Ashley and Shadow, please) having every character available, along with some fun new additions, is definitely nice.  The spirits mode is a nice twist on the event mode, and the rebuffs to classic are nice.  Really, the best part is just being able to play Smash again with my pals, try out all of the characters, and just enjoy it with everyone.  I look forward to the DLC, and that we get Banjo and Crash to create some sort of bizarre realization of every ones mid-2000s dream game.  It was a fun ride leading up to it, and I look forward to playing it more with pals in the new year.

STUFF I STILL NEED TO FINISH

There are some games I got really recently that I still need to finish as gifts from the Steam Sale and whatnot.  I have right near the end of December received Celeste, Donut Country, and I finally got Cuphead thanks to the kindness of friends.  These will be some nice games to get me started on the new year even if one of them is from last year. At some point I may go back to Hollow Knight and Dark Souls, although admittedly the requirements for the true ending of the former are a bit of a turn off and I am having a bit of difficulty getting into the game play, controls, and progression style of the latter, but who knows!  I am also intrigued and interested in Yokai Watch 3, Yoshi's Crafted World, in the near future, and hope to see some nice news on Animal Crossing. Lastly, may Platinum Games heed my calls and give the world a Wario World sequel where Wario wrestles God or something in the pursuit of money.  Amen.

Also I still need to finish Persona 5.  Really at this point I’m just doing it for Futaba. She’s the best.

Next up, I will write about my favorite music from the year, as well as cartoons and film, which admittedly I have not gotten as much into this year!

[alligaytorrr-official]

Aaaand that's Metal Gear. Thoughts: First on MGS4: -Gameplay bad. At least in 5 things felt set up enough so that you could go in guns blazing if you wanted but there were enough options not to. This game felt a lot of the time like it wasn't even worth the effort to use stealth. Plus most of the acts end with an entirely different gameplay style, which were fun, but less so when the main gameplay was lacking already. -Story good. Like real good. Took the first two acts to really pick up but by the time you meet EVA it really took off. I'm always a sucker for a good finale and boy did it deliver. Series as a whole: -No individual game stood out to be one of my favorite games ever, but the series overall is for sure among the top few. Up there with Metroid and Half-Life which, if you know me, you know is a big compliment. -Hard to pick a favorite specific entry. MGS3 and MGS1 (Twin Snakes at least) are really well-rounded, it's obvious why they're classics. MGSV has easily the best gameplay by far but the story could've been better, on the other hand MGS4 is probably my favorite story because again, I'm a sucker for a good finale, but the gameplay is iffy. MGS2 had boring environments which did a number on the gameplay and the story took a long time to pick up for me even though when it did it was amazing, and Peace Walker was pretty overall good, just not especially so - so those two rank lower than the others. Portable Ops was entertaining but bland and the MSX games were entertaining but dated, so those are lowest. Maybe I'll narrow down my favorite in the future. -I played in chronological order against the advice I was given and up to 4 I felt like I'd made the wrong decision but aaactually I changed my mind now that I'm done. There are definitely benefits I can see to release order (+4 last), but I personally am really pleased with my experience. Chronological order framed it as the story of the Boss's legacy and Big Boss and Zero's attempts to carry it out (and even had great bookends with both 3 and 4 ending beside her grave), while release order doesn't even completely introduce or dive into that plot point until the fifth game. In release order it's the story of Solid Snake and Liquid Snake living in their father's shadow I guess? And I can see why people would prefer that; I just don't. If someone asked me what order to play in I don't think I'd recommend one or the other. There were some other upsides, like Portable Ops foreshadows a lot to come that's otherwise already obvious, V's big twist would've been easier to see coming if I already knew MG1's big twist, it was a lot more fun to find out Huey got cucked after I learned to hate him than the other way around, etc. -Some standout moments: Final boss of 3 as well as 4, REX vs. RAY, Ocelot's gun spinning obviously, the Sorrow, end of Peace Walker's main story, the "English is oppressive and Skull Face was right" car ride, Act 4 of 4, the Devil's House in V as well as the mission where you enter the quarantine facility, D-Dog, everything from entering the Arsenal Gear on in 2, all the sniper fights besides Crying Wolf, Quiet's playing in the rain scene but ONLY if she has clothes equipped, all the after credits surprises but especially 3, PO's, and 1's, 4's big twist in the last cutscene -Drebin's monkey is my favorite character and I'm glad he got a smoke -I'm still fucking upset that Big Boss and Ocelot never got to share another smoke -Otacon is my actual favorite character, god what a beautiful soul. Solid Snake, Ocelot, and Kaz are up there -Quiet still deserved better -For someone who doesn't know how to respect women, Kojima made an incredibly fascinating and memorable character with the Boss -I'm sad the series is dead/might as well be because I don't care what Konami does with it, but I think it felt very complete, other than V being actually not complete. 4 certainly was the ending it deserved. -I'm excited to treat myself to Revengeance cause I like Raiden a lot -It's still fucking unbelievable that people played this series and thought 'wow cool, I wanna join the military' and it's even more unbelievable considering EVA literally says in 4 that stupid kids are playing war video games and thinking it's cool to join the military and that that's messed up -I might have more thoughts that aren't coming to mind right now -10/10

[borderlands-2-guide]

Zer0 gear

I’ve never really talked about this before but I wanted to try my hand at showing the best gear/skills for certain characters.

Full disclaimer, I only play Zer0 and Maya so it will be a while before I can make this for other characters.

Best early skills for Zer0

HeadSh0t, Fast Hands, Precisi0n, and B0re.

HeadSh0t gives a 4% boost to critical hits with each level put into it. Most Zer0 builds have this skill due to its nature. It synergizes well with weapons with high base damage and will usually out damage weapons with high crit boosts.  

Fast Hands

Fast Hands gives you a 5% boost to reload speed and a 10% boost to swap speed for each level. This skill is really good to put points into when you advance into UVHM and even before that. The extra swap speed is good for slagging enemies then swapping to your main damage dealer and the reload speed is always good.

Precisi0n

Precisi0n gives 5% for each level. While this skill is located in the sniper tree and most snipers are already incredibly accurate, a lot of other guns can use the boost. Examples include shotguns and ARs.

B0re

B0re is fairly infamous for being able to one-shot a couple of bosses with a bit of set up (one such boss happens to be a story boss, at this point you will have enough skill points for B0re). The exact effect of this skill (named a game changer skill for making an obvious change to gameplay) is that it makes all your projectiles (shots that don’t have a projectile i.e. rocket launchers don’t get this effect) pierce, doubling the damage with each penetration. While it is fun to one-shot bosses, a few other effects are far more valuable than one-shotting a few bosses. For starters it highlights crit points in Decepti0n, making it easier to aim for them. It also negates bullet deflection (but not damage negation) making a few bosses easier and removes the annoyance a quite a few enemies. While there are a few weapons that can use B0re effectively outside of boss fights, they are much further into the game than when you get the skill.

Best weapon companies for Zer0

This section is fairly short as it only includes Vladof, Jakobs, and Maliwan. They all tend to have great weapons that Zer0 can make use of. Vladof has high fire rate weapons which synergize with Critical Ascension and Rising Shot, both skills which work well with weapons that have a high rate of fire.

Jakobs weapons have high base damages which synergize really well with Zer0’s crit bonuses and Jakobs shotguns have low magazine sizes and combined with Zer0’s quick reloads, can make frequent use of his 0ne Sh0t 0ne Kill (gives a bonus to first shot in a magazine).

Maliwan Sniders (Maliwan barreled sniper rifles made by Maliwan) are just really powerful sniper rifles that most classes can make use of with ease. Their elemental bonuses are also really useful. Fun fact, splash damage from any weapon applies a portion of damage that is shown on the card, meaning they are dealing more damage than advertised.

Top tier guns for Zer0.

Real quick, before I continue, bullet spread is affected by time in the air, not distance. This means some bullet patterns can be screwed by having a few points in Vel0city, especially weapons that synergize well with B0re.

Pimpernel

https://borderlands.fandom.com/wiki/Pimpernel

This Maliwan sniper is from the Captain Scarlett DLC. Its gimmick is to spawn 5 extra pellets above the point of impact. This, along with its splash damage means it can deal enormous amounts of damage if you can get all 5 pellets to land inside the enemy. These pellets are affected by B0re.

Twister

https://borderlands.fandom.com/wiki/Twister

This Jakobs shotgun is an incredibly rare but powerful drop from the Hammerlock DLC. It only drops from a unique enemy called Omnd-Omnd-Ohk that appears when a savage is leveled up enough times. It only comes in shock element and its firing pattern is quite unique. It takes the form of a tornado that is slow-moving, spins, but can pass through enemies multiple times, meaning that it can proc B0re on the same target. It is best with a lot of points into One Shot One Kill due to its small magazine size.

Lyuda

https://borderlands.fandom.com/wiki/Lyudmila

This legendary Vladof Sniper is Zer0’s best option for raiding 9 times out of 10. It has an innate crit bonus and high rate of fire. Its bullets also split into 3 after a distance. It has amazing synergy with Critical Ascension. It has the capability to kill a raid boss in less than a minute in the right hands.

Droog

https://borderlands.fandom.com/wiki/Droog

This Vladof Sniper is essentially the poor man’s Lyuda. It does not have an innate crit bonus and its bullets don’t split after a while. A low-level Droog is often used to stack up on Critical Ascension before a fight, although it is harder to do on some bosses than others because of CA’s strict rules.

Rapier

https://borderlands.fandom.com/wiki/Rapier

While this Vladof rifle from the Scarlett DLC is less than optimal as a gun, it is amazing as a melee weapon. It boasts a 200% boost to melee damage while it’s in your hands, but at the cost of receiving extra melee damage. This is one of the few weapons that are strong regardless of level.

Rubi/Grog Nozzle

https://borderlands.fandom.com/wiki/Grog_Nozzle

https://borderlands.fandom.com/wiki/Rubi

They both serve the same purpose as they both are mainly used in Melee Zer0 builds due to their % healing from all damage that Zer0 deals. Grog Nozzle is preferred but unfortunately, it is only available during a mission and will not always have the bladed prefix. The Rubi has less healing and is not always in slag but you can have it permanently once you get it.

Bekah/Hammer Buster

https://borderlands.fandom.com/wiki/Bekah https://borderlands.fandom.com/wiki/Hammer_Buster

Both are incredibly powerful Jakobs ARs with a key difference between the two of them. The Bekah is much harder to farm for than the Hammer Buster. The Bekah only drops from Tubby enemies (loot enemies that have an incredibly rare spawn) and only if you have the UVHM 2 DLC and are above level 61.  The Bekah also has a unique firing pattern. When you fire a shot with the Bekah, more bullets are spawned after a distance. Hitting all bullets on a crit means massive amounts of damage. The Hammer Buster however just has inflated stats instead of any special effects.

Maggie

https://borderlands.fandom.com/wiki/Maggie

The Maggie is an homage to the masher pistols in BL1. Instead of the normal shots of other Jakobs pistols, it has a shotgun like spread and pellets. The extra bullets, when they land on a crit, deal large damage. This is one of Pistolero Zer0’s favorite weapons.

Quad

https://borderlands.fandom.com/wiki/Quad

The Quad is a Torgue barreled Jakobs shotgun. This is mostly used on Shotgun Zer0 builds where the Twister cannot be obtained. It does have the added bonus of having a faster bullet velocity than the Twister, and putting points into Vel0city does not affect the damage negatively.

Striker

https://borderlands.fandom.com/wiki/Striker

This shotgun is a supplementary to Shotgun Zer0 builds that utilize the Quad. This is a good mid-range shotgun with good accuracy for a Jakobs shotty. It is out-damaged by the Quad and the Twister.

Top Tier Shields for Zer0

Antagonist/Blockade

https://borderlands.fandom.com/wiki/Antagonist https://borderlands.fandom.com/wiki/Blockade

Both are strong shields is all. They are best used on Gun/Sniper Zer0 builds with the Antagonist outshining the Blockade. The Antagonist is a Maliwan shield that deflects bullets at enemies and shoots slag orbs at them. The slag orbs can be detonated by your bullets and can block them. They can also slag you if they detonate near you. The Blockade gives damage resistance at full shielding and decreased resistance at every other point. They both come from the Tiny Tina DLC.

Hide of Terramorphous

https://borderlands.fandom.com/wiki/Hide_of_Terramorphous

This is arguably the best melee shield for Melee Zer0. It has novas, spikes, and roid boosts. Its roid boost is extremely high. It is only rivaled by the Love Thumper with its nova on each melee strike and extremely long recharge delay. It is however dropped by a raid boss at the end of the game.

The Bee

https://borderlands.fandom.com/wiki/The_Bee

The Bee is hands down, the best offensive shield in the game. It is an Amp shield with no drain on any shots and has increased amp damage. It does have a downside, however, as it has a large recharge delay.

Turtle Shields

https://borderlands.fandom.com/wiki/Turtle_Shield

These shields have high capacity but, unfortunately, a penalty to health. Zer0’s sniper coms deplete max shield capacity, but that is not why I’m mentioning this shield. At high OP levels, characters health does not scale, but the penalty to health from Turtle Shields increase with OP levels. There is a mechanic called “health-gating” that prevents your character from being one-shot when they are above 50% health. Zer0 has a class mod called the survivor class mod. Often times Turtle shields at higher OP levels bring you health down to negative, but with Zer0’s Survivor Coms, his health is brought back above positive and the regen from an on level Survivor Com at this point will be larger than your health bar. This allows Zer0 to abuse health-gate. The only things that are liable to kill you at this point are elemental damage or damage that gets you just under health-gate. Builds that abuse this is called Glass Tank Zer0 and are used for boss fights where you can’t safely use The Bee or for general tankiness.

Top Tier Grenades for Zer0

Pro-tip, don’t rely on rubberized or homing grenades. They are usually bad all around. The rubberized ones are unreliable and the rewards of them are not worth it. Sometimes it takes too long for homing grenades to reach their target.

Transfusion Grenades

https://borderlands.fandom.com/wiki/Transfusion_Grenade_(Borderlands_2)

These are Gun/Sniper Zer0’s main form of Healing. This grenade mod is even more important on Sniper Zer0 considering that Critical Ascension goes away when you switch to a non-sniper and the only Moxxi Sniper in the game is incredibly mediocre.

Chain Lightning

https://borderlands.fandom.com/wiki/Chain_Lightning

This Grenade mod from Tiny Tina’s DLC is best for stripping shields on Melee Zer0. Shield stripping is an essential part of Melee Zer0’s playstyle and the Chain Lighting can do than AND heal Zer0 if you are holding a Rubi/Grog. It is also instantaneous always so you won’t have to worry about a fuse timer. It slowly regenerates grenades.

Storm Front

https://borderlands.fandom.com/wiki/Storm_Front

This can also be used as a Shield Stripping grenade for Zer0. It deploys multiple Teslas around it dealing shock damage in a wide area. Its continuous shock damage makes it better for raid bosses as its shock damage will continue to heal you while you lay into the raid boss with your melee weapon.

Singularity Grenades

https://borderlands.fandom.com/wiki/Singularity_Grenade

The main use of these grenades is for grouping enemies together. It can be used to great effect with either the Pimpernel or the Twister in conjunction with B0re. These can also move most strong enemies. With proper use of these grenades, you can one-shot a raid boss (disclaimer only works on one particular raid boss results may vary).

Magic Missile

https://borderlands.fandom.com/wiki/Magic_Missile

This grenade is also an amazing slagging tool but there are better options for mobbing and raid bosses. Like the Chain Lightning, it also regenerates grenades over time.

Crossfire

https://borderlands.fandom.com/wiki/Crossfire

This grenade is used for raid bosses which shed slag quickly as a slag Crossfire can slag very quickly. An example is Terramorphous as it can get rid of slag quickly.

Top Tier Class Mods for Zer0

Let’s get the Legendary ones out of the way first.

Legendary Sniper, Killer, Ninja Class Mods

https://borderlands.fandom.com/wiki/Legendary_Ninja https://borderlands.fandom.com/wiki/Legendary_Sniper https://borderlands.fandom.com/wiki/Legendary_Killer

They are the best of the best for their respective Zer0 Builds with Sniper being inched out the Chaotic Neutral and Evil Class mods for raids.

The Sniper provides boosts to many skills that are in the Sniper tree. It also provides a large boost to sniper damage and crits.

The Killer provides a large crit bonus to you and your team and boosts to skills that are good for Gun Zer0 builds.

The Ninja provides the most boosts to the various skills in the Melee tree and a large melee bonus. The skills it boosts are great for Zer0 as it boosts Backstab, Ambush, and Follow Through.

Chaotic Neutral/Evil Rogue

https://borderlands.fandom.com/wiki/Rogue_(class_mod)

These are usually the best raiding coms for Zer0. The Chaotic Neutral boosts Fire Rate and Magazine Size while Chaotic Evil boosts Fire Rate and Crit. I think the Neutral com is better for longer boss fights where you get a chance to stack more Critical Ascension stacks or pre-stacking. The Evil is better for speed kills on Raid Bosses.

Disturbed Survivor

The Prefix Disturbed is usually best for glass tank builds as it provides a +6 boost to Rising Shot if the com in question is blue rarity. The health boost it provides as well as the regeneration that is required for Glass Tank Zer0

Top Tier Relics for Zer0

Bone of the Ancients

https://borderlands.fandom.com/wiki/Bone_of_the_Ancients

Best on Sniper Zer0 as usually all your snipers are elemental and this relic boosts cooldown and elemental damage. You’ll also need more Deception uptime as you can use Deception to apply kunai and set up a one-shot kill.

Proficiency Relic

https://borderlands.fandom.com/wiki/Proficiency_Relic

Can be used on Melee Zer0 as you’re relying on melee damage and Deception rather than elemental damage. The Bone is better in general, however.

Stockpile Relic

https://borderlands.fandom.com/wiki/Stockpile_Relic

Best for raids as the max sniper ammo is quite small. Best used with the Chaotic Neutral Rogue coms. It is also good for pre-stacking CA before a raid boss.

If you do prestack drop your main gear for the raid on the ground as going into your inventory resets stacks.

[entergamingxp]

Minecraft Dungeons Review — A Strong and Simple Beat

May 22, 2020 11:01 AM EST

Diablo for all ages.

If you’ve been remotely interested in video games in the past 10 years, you know of Minecraft. Its immense popularity has spawned games with interesting gameplay takes outside its traditional style. The newest spin, Minecraft Dungeons, is a fun interpretation of the dungeon crawling genre within Mojang’s blocky world and it is definitely worth your time.

To put it simply, Minecraft Dungeons is essentially Diablo for kids. It’s an isometric dungeon crawler where you explore various environments, beat up some bad guys, and earn loot all set within Minecraft‘s unique world. This familiar formula has been proven to be fun for years, but Mojang’s design choices make it more approachable than any dungeon crawler I have ever played.

This is mostly due in part to the game’s simplicity. To attack, you only press one face button. Artifacts, which are obtained as loot and act as special abilities, are assigned to the rest of the face buttons. All movement is done with the left stick with a dodge roll set on the other. The right trigger lets you use your ranged weapon, and the left bumper is your health potion. The controls are very intuitive and allowed me to jump right in without needing an in-depth tutorial explaining the intricacies of combat.

“To put it simply, Minecraft Dungeons is essentially Diablo for kids.”

Usually, dungeon crawlers in the same vein as Diablo have a stat sheet giving you specifics on your damage, armor, and other traits for your character. Sticking with this theme of simplicity, Minecraft Dungeons streamlines this by only having four types of gear to worry about: melee weapon, ranged weapon, armor, and artifacts. There are a total of six slots with three of them dedicated to your artifacts. Each item does have stats as well as a gear score. This gear score determines your character’s power.

While it seems like this might have the complexity of other dungeon crawlers, which it does to some extent, you really are just trying to increase your power level. This means the number you’re mostly looking at is an item’s gear score. A green arrow is shown if that gear score is higher than what you have equipped; more often than not, you’ll replace that piece of gear with the one with the higher score.

Even in terms of Minecraft Dungeons’ more “complex” systems, it is all pretty easy to understand. As you level your character, you earn an enchant point which is used to apply enchantments to your gear. Melee weapons, ranged weapons, and armor has a set of random enchantments you can choose to allocate points to. This can range from boosting your melee weapon’s damage to increasing the chance of loot or consumables dropping. There is quite a bit of variety of enchantments to choose from, but since it’s all random, some pieces don’t synergize as well as others.

If that is the case, you don’t have to worry if you find a better piece of gear than your already fully-enchanted gear. Salvaging your enchanted gear will give you all of your enchant points back, and can then be used on your new gear.

This simplicity in gameplay design mostly benefits Minecraft Dungeons. It’s incredibly easy to pick up a controller and just start playing. You don’t have to worry about matching gear sets, stat sheets, and getting the most out of your character. It’s very approachable and is a solid gateway into the world of dungeon crawlers.

However, sometimes its simplicity is a detriment. The most satisfying gameplay from dungeon crawlers is when all of your gear and stats start to synergize in a way that makes you feel unstoppable. Every piece of armor, weapon, and ability chosen works in a way to get the absolute most out of your character’s class. I never really felt that satisfaction in Minecraft Dungeons.

For example, I had armor that had the Thorns enchantment; this would do damage to anyone who dealt damage to me. I then had a weapon that had the Leeching enchantment which would give me health after each mob I killed. I figured this would be a good way for me to go in quick, get some fast kills, and then get healed after each mob increasing my survivability. However, this was not the case. The amount of damage Thorns did wasn’t much unless the damage was coming from weaker enemies, and the health I was receiving after each mob was negligible.

The approachable nature of the game does sometimes get in the way of customization. It would be nice to have a character creator of sorts rather than a set of skins. Luckily, there is a lot of variety of skins to choose from. But in a franchise like Minecraft which typically promotes creativity, there aren’t a lot of ways to customize your character.

“Its low skill barrier should not be confused with a lack of quality. Minecraft Dungeons does a tremendous job translating the world of Minecraft into a dungeon crawler…”

This extends to the gear you garner. Sometimes, I would find a piece of gear that had the enchantments I preferred. It would be great if I could then upgrade it in some way to match my level. Unfortunately, that isn’t an option. It wouldn’t really be an issue if you could lock enchantments, however, since the only way to increase your power level is obtaining gear, and that gear’s enchantments are random, you are stuck with what you get.

Its low skill barrier should not be confused with lack of quality. Minecraft Dungeons does a tremendous job translating the world of Minecraft into a dungeon crawler despite its lack of customization. Most of the enemies you fight, from the zombies to the Endermen, are all from the original game. If you’ve played Minecraft, you will already have a basic understanding of your enemies’ attacks. Enemies like creepers and spiders you’ll immediately know how to take out.

For some of the lesser-known enemies, its only a mystery of how to deal with that encounter initially. After that first bout, it’s very apparent what any given enemy’s strengths and weaknesses are, which makes future encounters with them a breeze.

There are a few enemies and bosses, like the Enderman and Redstone Golems, that are a bit more difficult to deal with. You can tell when you have these tougher opponents if a health bar appears on top of the screen. This is where strategy, as simple as it is, gets thrown out the window. I never felt there was a good way to take out these stronger enemies other than keeping far away and using my ranged weapons. I did have artifacts that made me tankier and increased my attack speed, which helped, but it always felt like a race to see whose health bar would deplete first.

Although these enemies do present a challenge, there were times I was able to cheese some battles. For example, there is a boss fight that closes a gate behind you, and you’re stuck fighting this giant Redstone Golem. Not knowing anything about the encounter, I died pretty quickly. However, I respawned on the other side of the closed gate and the giant Golem could not attack me while I was able to chip away at its health with my ranged weapon. It was pretty bizarre.

The levels themselves present a variety of different environments that look fantastic. From the lush forests to the dry deserts, they are all impressive in the same way a well-built creation in normal Minecraft is impressive. Seeing some of these structures bring me back to when my friend and I used to create these giant castles on top of towering hills, except they looked significantly better. It’s as gorgeous as a Minecraft world can get.

However, its beauty does sometimes get in the way of gameplay. Sometimes trees, hills, or other large structures would block your view, replacing your character and enemies with a shadow. While that is an issue with most isometric action games, it felt way more prevalent in Minecraft Dungeons.

“Minecraft Dungeons is a great game for all ages.”

While a full playthrough may only take you around 4 or 5 hours to complete, there is a lot of replayability. In fact, the game promotes it. After you complete Minecraft Dungeons on the default difficulty, you unlock Adventure difficulty, which increases the strength of enemies but gives you better rewards. After you complete it on Adventure difficulty, there is a third and final one called Apocalypse which further increases the survivability of foes but increases the quality of your rewards.

Additionally, each level has its own difficulty, ranging from 1 to 6, which will automatically scale to your current power. If you’re up to it, you can increase the difficulty of a stage to earn better rewards. You can also lower the difficulty if you’re having trouble getting through a certain level but it will yield less powerful loot. The various options let you really choose how difficult you want to make your experience, which is great, as Minecraft Dungeons can cater to both dungeon crawling veterans and newcomers.

Minecraft Dungeons is a great game for all ages. While its simplicity hinders it from truly being an excellent dungeon crawler, it is one that you can enjoy with just about anyone. Its intuitive gameplay, replayability, and familiar environments and enemies make it a great starting point for anyone wanting to get into this beloved genre.

May 22, 2020 11:01 AM EST

from EnterGamingXP https://entergamingxp.com/2020/05/minecraft-dungeons-review-a-strong-and-simple-beat/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=minecraft-dungeons-review-a-strong-and-simple-beat

[crijoh]

Extra special thanks!I got so much feedback and love for my two previous Hyrule Warriors topics.For the ones who aren't sure what Hyrule Warriors isandFor the ones who want to know if buying a second/third time is worth itAs someone who's always dreamt of, tried to, and failed at being a writer, it means the world to me to see people not only enjoy my little articles, but find them useful. It's thrilling to get comments saying that they plan on buying the game now thanks to me, and even the ones who read my article and decided the game isn't for them. I love you guys. Thank you so much.So what's this topic about?This time, it's just pure gameplay tips and strategies to make you a Hyrule Warriors master. While the core gameplay is very simple, a lot of incredibly useful information is not readily available. Some of this information is going to be for specific versions of the game, but I'll try to keep the information as general as possible.Did you know that you can manually break into a sprint at any time?Everyone probably knows that when you begin running, it usually takes a few seconds before your character will break into a sprint. Some of the bulkier characters can take a long ass time before they reach their full speed and it can make some characters much more tedious than others to play. Luckily, there's a sprint button hidden right on your controller/3DS.If you dodge, and then hold the dodge button while holding a direction, you'll immediately begin a full sprint in that direction. No more waiting for your character to reach full speed. I'm ashamed to admit I didn't figure this out until the 3DS version came out.Giant bosses can be defeated without even using the item they are weak to.I hated the giant bosses in the Wii U version. Sitting, and waiting for them to perform the attack that exposes their weak point is so painfully boring. It really screws up the satisfying quick pace of the game. Luckily, you have an attack that can knock them flat on their ass immediately. Again, I didn't find this out until the 3DS version.After filling up your magic meter (the green vertical bar) you enter what's called Focus Spirit mode. From here, by performing a special attack (the one with the fancy cutscene) you'll perform a devastating attack that will immediately expose the boss's weak point gauge. This saves an incredible amount of time.3DS and Switch players will get an even bigger bonus. If they gather two of their commandable warriors at a boss, both warriors will immediately fill their magic bars to full.Don't neglect capturing outposts.As you probably know, capturing keeps will do two things for you. One, it will periodically spawn troops and raid captains who will go out and harass your enemies. Secondly, they'll often times be required for certain objectives. Raid captains are a pain in the ass, and are usually the main reason that you'll be losing your keeps, and sometimes even lose control of the whole battle in fights that drag on too long.What you might not know, is that raid captains have to stop at every enemy outpost they meet along the way to their target keep. Outpost captains are in the game to stop raid captains. Capturing an outpost takes you less than five seconds, and can stall raid captains for a long time.Don't neglect Gold SkulltullasSure, everyone loves collectables in games, but a lot of folks I've talked to largely ignored the Gold Skulltullas because they didn't really care about filling out the illustrations. They're just for the image gallery... right...? Well...Killing Gold Skulltullas does two things for you;One, you'll unlock new apothecary bonuses for each one you kill. This is hugely important for getting better weapon and material drops. Perhaps the most interesting, is that in order to get "perfect" weapons, you'll NEED these special potions. If nothing else, make sure you kill at least 50 Gold Skulltullas in your travels.The second reason is that the first time you complete any illustration, you'll unlock an adventure mode map called the "Rewards Map". You'll get a new tile for every illustration you complete. This map will have special stages based on the illustration you finished, plus special rewards.So how do you make a Gold Skulltula appear? It's different for each one. Each Legends mode Skulltula is unique, and you'll need to look up a guide for that. As for Adventure mode, they typically appear after 1,000 KOs, or if you complete the first objective and get 1,200 KOs before taking 4 hearts of damage. Be sure to check a guide if you aren't sure.My Fairy mode makes getting A ranks very, very easy.This is only for the 3DS and Switch folks, as My Fairy isn't in the Wii U version.One thing that everyone should understand about the enemies in the game is that there are thousands and thousands of them. More than the game can render at once. If too many gather in one area, they have to "wait their turn" to spawn in. There might be 1,000 monsters in one small area, but you can only see a small portion of them. This is the reason that you can be slaying enemies non-stop and they seem to just keep spawning in.The answer to this is My Fairy. The fairies have a special magic blast that they unlock once they're a high enough level. This attack not only kills all of the monsters in an area around you, but also kills all the monsters that are waiting their turn to spawn in the area. This can easily net you hundreds, or even over a thousand kills in a single attack depending on where you use it. Use your map to find the area with the highest concentration of enemy captains. Usually that is where the majority of the enemy army is waiting to spawn. Swoop in with a full magic meter and pop off your fairy barrier blast, and enjoy your free few hundred kills.This will help you get the 1,200 KO requirement for a lot of A rank missions very easily.I highly suggest checking out a more detailed guide on My Fairy. Some of the special abilities they can give you are straight up unreal, but it takes a lot of effort to create your perfect fairy.Most of the "bad" characters aren't bad at all, and just have deeper mechanics.I notice a lot of people seem to try a character out, find them lacking, and pass them off as just being a "bad" character. Some of the most powerful characters are ones that just tend to have confusing mechanics, such as Zant, Agitha, and King Daphnes.Lets look closer at Zant: People will immediately notice that all of his combos end in him stunning himself. If you stunned yourself as Zant, you pushed his combo too hard. Zant has a sort of "rage" mechanic. When you perform a combo, you can keep hitting the heavy attack button to really lay into enemies. As you do, his rage meter builds up. If it reaches maximum and you continue to push the attack, he will over exert himself and get stunned. The idea is to stop hitting the button the moment it reaches maximum. At that point, you can cool him off by simply performing his heavy attack to unleash a flurry of spinning blades or projectiles. This mechanic isn't explained well in the game, so a lot of people are left wondering how the heck to play as him. He's actually one of the most powerful, and fun characters to play once you get the hang of him.I highly recomend checking out Gamesbrained's character guides on Youtube for every character. Really, watch them all. Did you know that you can have Young Link put on his Keaton mask and roar? Or have Linkle put her hood up? You learn cool shit like that in his videos.Some characters are vastly better than others, but there's really only one or two that are plan "Bad", and Agitha isn't one of them.Not much else to say, but again, I'm going to recommend watching Gamesbrained's character guides.Elements matter. They actually have three different uses.Believe it or not, your weapon element does a lot for you.First of all, you'll get a significant attack bonus for using a weapon of that element in that stage. That's why it's very useful to have "main" characters of each element. Luckily, on the 3DS and Switch versions of the game, you can get weapons that have dual elements. The recommended element is the element that will trigger for any given stage. On top of that, depending on what badges you buy for your skill trees, you can give yourself hefty defense bonuses for stages with certain element types.Don't go in thinking that you can "counter" a fire-element stage with a water element weapon. It doesn't work like that. You'll want to take a fire weapon to a fire stage.Each element also applies a special status effect on enemies:Fire causes airborne enemies to explode when they hit the ground, dealing splash damage.Water wraps a bubble around an enemy's head, slowly causing damage.Lightning causes increasing bonus damage for each hit that an enemy takes before they hit the ground.Light causes bonus damage to groups of enemies that are hit consecutively.Darkness causes bonus damage to single enemies that are hit consecutively.Interestingly enough, a lot of weapons have a moveset that compliments their specific element. For example, Ghirahim is the best one on one duelest in the game, and his darkness effect compliments that very well.It should be noted that not every attack will apply a weapon's element to an enemy. For example, Shiek's harp can apply all sorts of elemental effects, but still only gains the damage bonus from "Lighting recommended" stages.On top of that, every enemy, giant boss, monster captain, and even playable hero has an elemental weakness:Fire: King Dodongo, Gibdo, Moblin, Stalmaster, Icy Big Poe, Agitha, TingleWater: Manhandla, Helmaroc King, Fiery Aeralfos, ReDead Knight, Lizalfos, Big Poe, Stone Blin, Goron Captain, Darunia, VolgaLightning: Argorok, Aeralfos, Darknut, Dinolfos, Shield Moblin, Big Blin, Lana, Ruto, MarinLight: The Imprisoned (large and small), Ganon, Phantom Ganon, Ganondorf, Midna, Zant, Ghirahim, Cia, Wizzro, Twili Midna, Skull Kid, Ravio, YugaDarkness: Gohma, Hylian Captain, Link, Impa, Sheik, Zelda, Fi, Young Link, Linkle, Toon Link, Tetra, King Daphnes, Medli, Toon ZeldaThis can be a tad hard to predict, so it's best to simply use a weapon that grants you the "element recommended" bonus.Unlocking the true Master SwordYou may have noticed that Link's Master Sword has two locked abilities on it. These abilities don't become unlocked until you've unlocked every other weapon in the game. After that, you'll need to grind out a whopping number of monster kills before the abilities reveal themselves, but they are incredibly powerful. They will make the Master Sword in to by far the most powerful weapon in the game, even moreso than "Perfect" weapons. It seriously turns the Master Sword into a "win" button, but it's effectively one of the hardest things to unlock in the game.Getting a "perfect" weapon.A perfect weapon is the best weapon that you can get with any specific character. In the 3DS and Switch versions, this means a dual element, level 4+ weapon, with 8 slots, 5 stars, and 750 base damage.It's actually not terribly complicated to get one. In order to find that weapon, you need to be holding the weapon type you're looking for. For example, if you want a perfect Ocarina for Skull Kid, you need to be attempting this with an Ocarina weapon. You'll need to use the blacksmith to equip the Stars+ and Slots+ skills to the weapon. Then, before each match you need to get the Apothecary mixture "Weapon Rank III". This is going to require that you kill 50 Gold Skulltulas.It remains to be seen what the best maps will be for grinding this out on Switch, but on 3DS, a good one is B-16 in Lorule. Finish the mission, and look over your rewards. If you don't like what you see, simply reset your system before leaving the weapons screen and saving. You'll save your pricey Apothecary mixture.It's a beautiful thing.Also make sure you're appraising those hidden weapon skills. Some of the hidden ones are absolutely insane. Much more exciting than Darkness+.None of the above information is mandatory for you to have an amazing time with this game.I've gone over a few somewhat intricate mechanics of the game. Really, none of them are mandatory for you to have a blast playing the game. You don't need the ultimate My Fairy skills, or the perfect weapons in order to have a fantastic time. Though... really you should learn how to sprint.Got any tips you'd like to throw in? If you teach me something new about the game, I'll include it here with credit!Thank you all so much!Edits:/u/Henryuuk pointed out that Focus Special Attacks force ALL enemies to reveal their weak point, not just giant bosses. Go upvote his comment here. via /r/NintendoSwitch

[crijoh]

Extra special thanks!I got so much feedback and love for my two previous Hyrule Warriors topics.For the ones who aren't sure what Hyrule Warriors isandFor the ones who want to know if buying a second/third time is worth itAs someone who's always dreamt of, tried to, and failed at being a writer, it means the world to me to see people not only enjoy my little articles, but find them useful. It's thrilling to get comments saying that they plan on buying the game now thanks to me, and even the ones who read my article and decided the game isn't for them. I love you guys. Thank you so much.So what's this topic about?This time, it's just pure gameplay tips and strategies to make you a Hyrule Warriors master. While the core gameplay is very simple, a lot of incredibly useful information is not readily available. Some of this information is going to be for specific versions of the game, but I'll try to keep the information as general as possible.Did you know that you can manually break into a sprint at any time?Everyone probably knows that when you begin running, it usually takes a few seconds before your character will break into a sprint. Some of the bulkier characters can take a long ass time before they reach their full speed and it can make some characters much more tedious than others to play. Luckily, there's a sprint button hidden right on your controller/3DS.If you dodge, and then hold the dodge button while holding a direction, you'll immediately begin a full sprint in that direction. No more waiting for your character to reach full speed. I'm ashamed to admit I didn't figure this out until the 3DS version came out.Giant bosses can be defeated without even using the item they are weak to.I hated the giant bosses in the Wii U version. Sitting, and waiting for them to perform the attack that exposes their weak point is so painfully boring. It really screws up the satisfying quick pace of the game. Luckily, you have an attack that can knock them flat on their ass immediately. Again, I didn't find this out until the 3DS version.After filling up your magic meter (the green vertical bar) you enter what's called Focus Spirit mode. From here, by performing a special attack (the one with the fancy cutscene) you'll perform a devastating attack that will immediately expose the boss's weak point gauge. This saves an incredible amount of time.3DS and Switch players will get an even bigger bonus. If they gather two of their commandable warriors at a boss, both warriors will immediately fill their magic bars to full.Don't neglect capturing outposts.As you probably know, capturing keeps will do two things for you. One, it will periodically spawn troops and raid captains who will go out and harass your enemies. Secondly, they'll often times be required for certain objectives. Raid captains are a pain in the ass, and are usually the main reason that you'll be losing your keeps, and sometimes even lose control of the whole battle in fights that drag on too long.What you might not know, is that raid captains have to stop at every enemy outpost they meet along the way to their target keep. Outpost captains are in the game to stop raid captains. Capturing an outpost takes you less than five seconds, and can stall raid captains for a long time.Don't neglect Gold SkulltullasSure, everyone loves collectables in games, but a lot of folks I've talked to largely ignored the Gold Skulltullas because they didn't really care about filling out the illustrations. They're just for the image gallery... right...? Well...Killing Gold Skulltullas does two things for you;One, you'll unlock new apothecary bonuses for each one you kill. This is hugely important for getting better weapon and material drops. Perhaps the most interesting, is that in order to get "perfect" weapons, you'll NEED these special potions. If nothing else, make sure you kill at least 50 Gold Skulltullas in your travels.The second reason is that the first time you complete any illustration, you'll unlock an adventure mode map called the "Rewards Map". You'll get a new tile for every illustration you complete. This map will have special stages based on the illustration you finished, plus special rewards.So how do you make a Gold Skulltula appear? It's different for each one. Each Legends mode Skulltula is unique, and you'll need to look up a guide for that. As for Adventure mode, they typically appear after 1,000 KOs, or if you complete the first objective and get 1,200 KOs before taking 4 hearts of damage. Be sure to check a guide if you aren't sure.My Fairy mode makes getting A ranks very, very easy.This is only for the 3DS and Switch folks, as My Fairy isn't in the Wii U version.One thing that everyone should understand about the enemies in the game is that there are thousands and thousands of them. More than the game can render at once. If too many gather in one area, they have to "wait their turn" to spawn in. There might be 1,000 monsters in one small area, but you can only see a small portion of them. This is the reason that you can be slaying enemies non-stop and they seem to just keep spawning in.The answer to this is My Fairy. The fairies have a special magic blast that they unlock once they're a high enough level. This attack not only kills all of the monsters in an area around you, but also kills all the monsters that are waiting their turn to spawn in the area. This can easily net you hundreds, or even over a thousand kills in a single attack depending on where you use it. Use your map to find the area with the highest concentration of enemy captains. Usually that is where the majority of the enemy army is waiting to spawn. Swoop in with a full magic meter and pop off your fairy barrier blast, and enjoy your free few hundred kills.This will help you get the 1,200 KO requirement for a lot of A rank missions very easily.I highly suggest checking out a more detailed guide on My Fairy. Some of the special abilities they can give you are straight up unreal, but it takes a lot of effort to create your perfect fairy.Most of the "bad" characters aren't bad at all, and just have deeper mechanics.I notice a lot of people seem to try a character out, find them lacking, and pass them off as just being a "bad" character. Some of the most powerful characters are ones that just tend to have confusing mechanics, such as Zant, Agitha, and King Daphnes.Lets look closer at Zant: People will immediately notice that all of his combos end in him stunning himself. If you stunned yourself as Zant, you pushed his combo too hard. Zant has a sort of "rage" mechanic. When you perform a combo, you can keep hitting the heavy attack button to really lay into enemies. As you do, his rage meter builds up. If it reaches maximum and you continue to push the attack, he will over exert himself and get stunned. The idea is to stop hitting the button the moment it reaches maximum. At that point, you can cool him off by simply performing his heavy attack to unleash a flurry of spinning blades or projectiles. This mechanic isn't explained well in the game, so a lot of people are left wondering how the heck to play as him. He's actually one of the most powerful, and fun characters to play once you get the hang of him.I highly recomend checking out Gamesbrained's character guides on Youtube for every character. Really, watch them all. Did you know that you can have Young Link put on his Keaton mask and roar? Or have Linkle put her hood up? You learn cool shit like that in his videos.Some characters are vastly better than others, but there's really only one or two that are plan "Bad", and Agitha isn't one of them.Not much else to say, but again, I'm going to recommend watching Gamesbrained's character guides.Elements matter. They actually have three different uses.Believe it or not, your weapon element does a lot for you.First of all, you'll get a significant attack bonus for using a weapon of that element in that stage. That's why it's very useful to have "main" characters of each element. Luckily, on the 3DS and Switch versions of the game, you can get weapons that have dual elements. The recommended element is the element that will trigger for any given stage. On top of that, depending on what badges you buy for your skill trees, you can give yourself hefty defense bonuses for stages with certain element types.Don't go in thinking that you can "counter" a fire-element stage with a water element weapon. It doesn't work like that. You'll want to take a fire weapon to a fire stage.Each element also applies a special status effect on enemies:Fire causes airborne enemies to explode when they hit the ground, dealing splash damage.Water wraps a bubble around an enemy's head, slowly causing damage.Lightning causes increasing bonus damage for each hit that an enemy takes before they hit the ground.Light causes bonus damage to groups of enemies that are hit consecutively.Darkness causes bonus damage to single enemies that are hit consecutively.Interestingly enough, a lot of weapons have a moveset that compliments their specific element. For example, Ghirahim is the best one on one duelest in the game, and his darkness effect compliments that very well.It should be noted that not every attack will apply a weapon's element to an enemy. For example, Shiek's harp can apply all sorts of elemental effects, but still only gains the damage bonus from "Lighting recommended" stages.On top of that, every enemy, giant boss, monster captain, and even playable hero has an elemental weakness:Fire: King Dodongo, Gibdo, Moblin, Stalmaster, Icy Big Poe, Agitha, TingleWater: Manhandla, Helmaroc King, Fiery Aeralfos, ReDead Knight, Lizalfos, Big Poe, Stone Blin, Goron Captain, Darunia, VolgaLightning: Argorok, Aeralfos, Darknut, Dinolfos, Shield Moblin, Big Blin, Lana, Ruto, MarinLight: The Imprisoned (large and small), Ganon, Phantom Ganon, Ganondorf, Midna, Zant, Ghirahim, Cia, Wizzro, Twili Midna, Skull Kid, Ravio, YugaDarkness: Gohma, Hylian Captain, Link, Impa, Sheik, Zelda, Fi, Young Link, Linkle, Toon Link, Tetra, King Daphnes, Medli, Toon ZeldaThis can be a tad hard to predict, so it's best to simply use a weapon that grants you the "element recommended" bonus.Unlocking the true Master SwordYou may have noticed that Link's Master Sword has two locked abilities on it. These abilities don't become unlocked until you've unlocked every other weapon in the game. After that, you'll need to grind out a whopping number of monster kills before the abilities reveal themselves, but they are incredibly powerful. They will make the Master Sword in to by far the most powerful weapon in the game, even moreso than "Perfect" weapons. It seriously turns the Master Sword into a "win" button, but it's effectively one of the hardest things to unlock in the game.Getting a "perfect" weapon.A perfect weapon is the best weapon that you can get with any specific character. In the 3DS and Switch versions, this means a dual element, level 4+ weapon, with 8 slots, 5 stars, and 750 base damage.It's actually not terribly complicated to get one. In order to find that weapon, you need to be holding the weapon type you're looking for. For example, if you want a perfect Ocarina for Skull Kid, you need to be attempting this with an Ocarina weapon. You'll need to use the blacksmith to equip the Stars+ and Slots+ skills to the weapon. Then, before each match you need to get the Apothecary mixture "Weapon Rank III". This is going to require that you kill 50 Gold Skulltulas.It remains to be seen what the best maps will be for grinding this out on Switch, but on 3DS, a good one is B-16 in Lorule. Finish the mission, and look over your rewards. If you don't like what you see, simply reset your system before leaving the weapons screen and saving. You'll save your pricey Apothecary mixture.It's a beautiful thing.Also make sure you're appraising those hidden weapon skills. Some of the hidden ones are absolutely insane. Much more exciting than Darkness+.None of the above information is mandatory for you to have an amazing time with this game.I've gone over a few somewhat intricate mechanics of the game. Really, none of them are mandatory for you to have a blast playing the game. You don't need the ultimate My Fairy skills, or the perfect weapons in order to have a fantastic time. Though... really you should learn how to sprint.Got any tips you'd like to throw in? If you teach me something new about the game, I'll include it here with credit!Thank you all so much!Edits:/u/Henryuuk pointed out that Focus Special Attacks force ALL enemies to reveal their weak point, not just giant bosses. Go upvote his comment here. via /r/NintendoSwitch