Messages

1

General Chat / Re: What games are you playing 2023: WGAYP, Engage!

« on: October 07, 2023, 03:26:42 PM »

The amount of careful thought put into every single design choice in the so2 remake has me super pumped for it. Less than a month till release.

2

General Chat / Re: What games are you playing 2023: WGAYP, Engage!

« on: September 15, 2023, 11:30:01 PM »

SO2 demo is glorious and I can’t wait for the full game to drop in November.

3

Tournaments / Re: Proving Grounds: Turtle & Tyrant Overlords vs. High Middle

« on: May 10, 2023, 12:06:55 PM »

Hughette vs Meliadoul: Even allowing weapon break, Meliadoul has zero follow up after that. I don’t normally consider kiting strats but it’s applicable in both games systems and is a real disadvantage for Meliadoul in game/a big advantage for Hughette in game. Even if by some miracle Meliadoul closes in every so often, she is likely going to be blinded and have terrible accuracy.

4

General Chat / Re: What games are you playing 2023: WGAYP, Engage!

« on: March 23, 2023, 05:00:08 PM »

Mario Rabbids Tower of Doom DLC. It's a lot of fun; the DLC is basically a randomizer mode that dispenses with the story and exploration and focuses entirely on gameplay.

You start with three to four PC's depending on the challenge level; the heal bot is disabled as well. You start with one spark for each PC. You go through a set of nine branching levels where you pick one of two to three missions to do for various rewards. Mission 5 is always a survival mission against the giant red cat boss; mission 10 is always a boss fight against one of the five giant enemies from the optional missions. I saw four of the five giant foes; it appears to be entirely random which you get. You gain a level for each mission and you end the game at level 10. After each stage you have 30 seconds to collect coins, which you can use to buy items.


You have much less of everything to work with in this mode. You never get a full roster of PC's and the ones you get are randomly generated. You have a very limited selection of sparks, which means you have to experiment and try ones you may not have used during the main game. Much less stat points means you have to be pickier with what you spend them on. I generally found to be running straight for the personal skills for the ones who have good ones, HP regeneration if I didn't have Rabbid Peach, and weapon skills on my main attackers. Dash skills largely felt less good and left out in the cold- this hurt Edge, Bowser and Mario in particular as they get very limited use out of some of those skills.

My character ratings focus on who I got the most use out of at higher challenge levels. I had to use everyone at some point. In spite of having the defensive PC's as the top ones, you wouldn't want to especially use a team made of Peach/Rabbid Peach/Rabbid Roslina- you need someone to hit things after all. But damage is more easily replicated. Things like reaching the goal missions are trivial as well in this mode; things like survival missions and killing a lot of certain enemy types at once are the hardest missions you get. My character ratings reflect this.

PC's in order:

Always want:

1. Rabbid Peach: Heal bot is disabled and you have very limited means of healing otherwise. Unsurprisingly she's great. I never bothered with her dash skills- she always was being used for healing and support. Offense isn't great but who cares? You're using her for healing.


Good:

2. Rabbid Rosalia: Also unsurprisingly good. Ennui is good for controlling large packs of enemies. IE: Some of the missions on challenge level 7/8 involve things like having to kill six to eight magikoopas on a map with almost no cover or range to move around in. Ennui dash is why I think she's better than Peach- it's a way to stop from taking damage every turn from a foe, which is important when enemies so do much damage in this mode. IE: You have battles where you have to kill a bunch of the high HP Claw type enemies and even a full turn of offense won't finish them off. Offense isn't good but like with Rabbid Peach, you have other characters to do damage.

3. Peach: Barrier's great, but generally I find it less flexible than Ennui in this mode. Less offense and durability means you need to get as much milage as possible out of turn skips.

4. Luigi: Tons of damage and range. This is just less good than in the main game because you're relying more on healing and support skills from characters here.

These three are fairly close together. I'm generally happy to have any of these four on my team.

5. Mario: Overwatch is as powerful as ever and Mario's got good offense. But he's hurt by his dash and movement tricks being worse. He's also a bit of a slow starter as well, you really need to get a few points so you can get rid of Overwatch's cooldown.


Limited use:

6. Rabbid Mario: He's great for killing reinforcement portals and doing damage at close range. BUT. He's useless on maps where there is a lot of ground to cover and his support skill is total garbage. Generally I don't have the points to put much into his dash skills either. That said I got more use out of Rabbid Mario in this mode, just because on some maps you really have to do damages in a hurry to a lot of targets and he's the best in the game at that. There's very little in between for RM- he's either great or a liability.

7. Edge: Whoof. The dash skills are very good on high challenge levels on the last few maps where you have the points to give her four dash. She does decent damage to bosses too. Everything else is just bad though. Stormblade is trash and she is the worst PC at the start of the game.

Pain:

8t. Rabbid Luigi: Terrible offense, pretty bad support ability. Weaken is so much worse than other defensive support abilities. I've gotten less use out of RL than I have Bowser, but Weaken on paper has more potential due to the damage boost.

8t. Bowser: Really bad offense, movement skills are useless in this mode and his mecha koopas are bad unless he's hitting a fire weakness. At least useful for destroying cover in early maps. YUCK.

5

Tournaments / Re: Futurama type tournament 2023

« on: March 11, 2023, 01:10:13 PM »

Godlike:

Altima (FFT) vsRabbid Luigi (Mario Rabbids 1)- Altima is never winning with damage. She has to hit Grand Cross and can only do that every other turn due to super barrier. Lesse..Petrify and Frog are instant winners; sleep and berserk are problems if landed at the right spot. Confuse... from what I remember FFT AI loves to spam status curing in response to that so RL would probably  use super barrier after that which wouldn't help Altima a ton with follow ups. Slow is annoying but not super helpful. Slow/poison/darkness don't help. I was orignially going to vote for Altima because she can drag the fight out by teleporting out of the way of RL's draining, but I then remembered she is vunerable to don't move in game and thus I'm not inclined to give that argument any respect for that reason. All those are a lot of words to say I don't have a ton of respect for Altima and she's playing for a lucky status. I'm not inclined to give that to her though I'll listen to arguments.



Yunalesca (FFX) vs Elc (AtL2)- I have no idea but this seemed fun. Pyro?
Rudo (Brig) vs Amon (Lufia 3)- Weird fight. Amon 3 tends to eat PCs for breakfast between the speed, gross overkill damage and 100% confuse. But!  Amon eats a horrible OHKO to Clean Military Rule; Lufia 3 sinstrials are not tanky by any means. So Amon has to blitz, which he's good at! But Rudo is immune to the status and I think he's just durable enough to survive a Galactic Lance. So yeah he can't stop Rudo from getting a turn, which means bad things are going to happen.


Heavy:

Rubino (Brig) vs Saki (SH2)- Kneejerk of Rubino's damage and durability being enough. Seal is out since Rubino's a ruler.
Fujin (FF8) vs Kain (TAY)- Pain really gives Kain grief. I don't think he can deal with that or blitz Fujin down in time.
Hendrik (DQ11) vs Rei (BoF3)- No idea. Waiting for arguments.

Middle:

Cyrus (OT) vs Leo (Lunar:EBC)- Also unsure. Leo somehow doesn't 2HKO Cyrus but I think he goes first. Cyrus might be able to blitz here.
Poco (AtL2) vs Karsh (CC)- Also unsure. Karsh can put a lot of pressure on Poco's bad pdur, but Poco does have those buffs.

Light:

Talia (Brig) vs Cecil (FF4)-Think Cecil runs Talia out of MP. Talia's damage is being resisted some by Cecil and she can't poison him. Even with counters that's a lot of durability for her to go through.


Can't vote on the rest of light. Hay tide!

6

Tournaments / Futurama type tournament 2023

« on: March 11, 2023, 12:51:43 PM »

Godlike:

Altima (FFT) vs Rabbid Luigi (Mario Rabbids 1)
Yunalesca (FFX) vs Elc (AtL2)
Rhea (FE:TH) vs Sephiroth (FF7)
Rudo (Brig) vs Amon (Lufia 3)


Heavy:


Claude (TH) vs Margulis (XS2)
Rubino (Brig) vs Saki (SH2)
Fujin (FF8) vs Kain (TAY)
Hendrik (DQ11) vs Rei (BoF3)

Middle:

Cyrus (OT) vs Leo (Lunar:EBC)
Poco (AtL2) vs Karsh (CC)
Oengus (CoL) vs Amarant (FF9)
Dorothea (FETH) vs Tiamat (FF1)

Light:

Talia (Brig) vs Cecil (FF4)
Malak (FFT) vs Hubert (FE:TH)
Umaro (FF6) vs Flayn (FE:TH)
Menardi (GS) vs Emma (ACF)

7

Tournaments / Re: King of RPGDL: Winners bracket 1

« on: March 11, 2023, 12:06:01 PM »

Heavyweight:

Team SMASH: Geno / Alexia / Zerase vs Team Surprisingly Deadly Thieves: Eric (DQ11), Therion (8PT), Morgana (P5)- Eric eats ID, Therion is not especially threatening here. Morgana would have to be a Godlike to cover the rest of that ground which I really doubt based on the comments.

Team Fliers: Nina (Breath of Fire 4), Sumia (FE Awakening), Rose (Legend of Dragoon) vs Team Sexy Beasts: Rei (BoF3), Nikki (MK), Kevin (SD3)- One round Nina, clean up from there. Rose having no starting SP makes her pretty near useless.

Lightweight:

Team Servants: Gremio (S1), Brey/Borya (DQ4), Jakob (FE Fates) vs Team Palmer: Olivier (WA3) / Linny (FM3) / Palmer- Two of the three members of Team Palmer are utterly hopeless so surely this.

8

General Chat / Re: What games are you playing 2023: WGAYP, Engage!

« on: March 11, 2023, 11:07:07 AM »

Playing the Mario Rabbids Tower of Doom DLC. It's basically a randomizer for Rabbids. I just cleared challenge level 5. You get a random set of sparks and characters for each run. A run consists of 10 levels then a boss fight against a giant foe. You can choose between various levels which different rewards, like new PC's, golden prisms, extra sparks, etc. The healbot is disabled for this mode and there are no side quests.


It's neat, but PC balance is worse than the main game. You get much less stat prisms in this mode; I've been tending to skip out on the movement skills and prioritize things like support skills. Also found the golden prisms total trash due to lack of points to sink into it. This really hurts characters like Edge and Rabbid Mario, who have really bad support skills. Rabbid Peach is by far the MVP of this mode because there's so little healing otherwise. Peach, Luigi and Mario are also great here because they have fantastic supporting skills. Bowser, Edge, Rabbid Luigi are just not very good here because of bad support skills. Because you only get up to five characters each run (And start with three to four) you really can struggle if you get a bad starting set of PC's.

Just started run six on challenge mode and got Edge, Rabbid Mario and Peach. Hopefully I get Rabbid Peach really soon or I'm in for some pain.

9

Discussion / Re: 2022 games in review

« on: January 01, 2023, 01:15:57 PM »

For Triangle: Even for the faction that ends up as complete monsters, their path at least shows *why* taking that route makes sense and why it would lead to stability for a majority of the world. Literally the only real drawbacks I can say for the game is that the golden path is a bit FAQ baity and some of the PC's are kind of obnoxious to get. It really hit gameplay and story out of the park; it even managed to make all the optional training fights fun and did a fantastic job balancing NG+.


Rabbids and Triangle were both brilliant SRPGs with entirely different feels and approaches. I seriously can't complain in a year when I get two really kickass SRPGs to play.

10

General Chat / Re: What games are you playing 2022: No to stat bloat since the turn of Millenia

« on: December 11, 2022, 01:06:58 PM »

Finished Mario Rabbids. I’d rate it as the same 8-9ish as the first game. It’s definitely an easier game but a lot of the hardest missions in rabbids one were from protect toad missions. I don’t miss those. Sparks and items are an improvement over the system in one; game also does a better job with character balance and availability.

Luigi is the mvp; no one else has his damage and range. Steely stare is stupid strong too and is the best way to deal with ninja reinforcements. Rabbid peach is right on his heels. Healing plus crazy dash offense is nice. Mario/Rabbid Rosalina/Peach all had maps where they were useful. Rabbid Mario was okay; really bad support skill holds him back. Edge/Rabbid Luigi/Bowser I’d definitely call bottom tier; just not any reason to really use them. That’s still a balance improvement over the first where you basically always want to use Rabbid Luigi and one of Rabbid Peach/Luigi.

11

General Chat / Re: What games are you playing 2022: No to stat bloat since the turn of Millenia

« on: December 06, 2022, 12:01:18 PM »

Mario Rabbids 2- Finished world 4.  It's really excellent in spite of laggy menus and a not great interface. Glad it got patched and fixed the glitch that prevented you from getting 100% on the final world.

My core team has been Rabbid Peach, Luigi and a rotating third. Been using Mario and Peach a lot. Peach is great on survival missions due to barrier; Mario is just a good all arounder and overwatch is always good. Rabbid Peach/Luigi feel like slam dunk for using all the time. RP not only is the only one with healing, but she has really damn good offense with triple dashing. Luigi has stupid range and offense.  Steely Stare and the range is useful on every single map.

Rabbid Luigi is hilariously bad.  His draining is gone,  his damage isn't especially great and his secondary skill is useless. Whoof.

12

Tournaments / Re: RPGVO 2022 Round 6:Winners Semi/Losers 3 - LORD FIGHT LORD FIGHT LORD FIGHT

« on: September 26, 2022, 05:35:32 PM »

GODLIKE

Winners:
Belial (WA4)vs. Shania (SH3)
Yuna (FFX) vs Fou Lu (BoF4)

Losers:
Ryu (BoF3) vs. Lamington (Disgaea)
Simeon (Octopath) vs. Sephiroth (FF7)


HEAVY

Winners:
Worker 8 (FFT) vs. Lyon (S5)

Losers:
Raze (MK2) vs. Millenia (G2)-unsure, abstain for now.
X (MMX:CM) vs. Margulis (XS2)- unless X had more multi target damage than I remember.


LIGHT

Winners:
Geela (TriStrat) vs. Locke (FF6)
Ryudo (G2) vs. Guile (CC)

Losers:
Sten (BoF2) vs. Natan (SH3)
Aika (SoA) vs. Zell Dincht (FF8

13

General Chat / Re: What games are you playing 2022: No to stat bloat since the turn of Millenia

« on: September 22, 2022, 10:48:49 AM »

Been playing Brigandine LOR on the PC. Creative mode is fun- just wish it would be ported to the switch, as it's easier for me to play on that rather than on a PC.

14

Tournaments / Re: RPGVO 2022 Round 5: Losers' Pools 2 - Dog and Frog, Chameleon and Penguin

« on: September 19, 2022, 02:02:13 PM »

GODLIKE

Ryu (BoF3) vs. Orlandu (FFT)- Ryu3 had some way to block MP damage, but I don't see it in the stat topic outside of dragon forms and the fight hinges entirely on that. Could be I'm missing a piece of gear- will change vote if so.
Lamington (Disgaea) vs. Riou (S2)- Riou needs a OHKO or near OHKO here and I don't think he gets it. Riou just has trouble doing any damage after Forgiver Sign.
Mewtwo (PKMN) vs. Simeon (Octopath)- As little as I respect Octopath bosses, silence being on dark elemental damage is too much. Mewtwo is not a godlike in FRLG.
Sephiroth (FF7) vs. Rudo (Brig:LoR)- Fly. Rudo is a Godlike entirely on the strength of being too obnoxious to take down in Heavy; he is rarely competitive in the division.


HEAVY

Naoto Shirogane (P4) vs Raze (MK2)- Naoto is pretty hopeless against any kind of ID blocker.
Margulis (XS2) vs. Golbez (FF4:TAY)- Should have the offense to handle Margulis.


MIDDLE

Squall Leonhart (FF8) vs Lich (FF1)- Hold.



LIGHT

Natan (SH3) vs. Kain Highwind (FF4)- Has magic and doesn't care about the elemental defense. The first person to hype the blood spear here gets fired into the sun.
Genis Sage (ToS) vs. Aika (SoA)
Zell Dincht (FF8) vs. Palmer (FF7)- My respect for Palmer's ability to avoid a limit is zero.

15

Tournaments / Re: RPGVO 2022 Round 4: Winners' Quarterfinals - Bart Whips a Penguin

« on: September 12, 2022, 02:36:01 PM »

GODLIKE

Rudo (Brig:LoR) vs. Belial (WA4)- About as bad a matchup as it gets for Rudo. He can't deal with the distortion at all, even setting aside 4-D pocket.
Simeon (Octopath) vs. Shania (SH3)- I have pretty low respect for Octopath bosses. Unless Simeon has some crazy OHKO level offense turn one, he is going to get splattered.
Yuna (FFX) vs. Riou (Suiko2)- Also ugly.
Fou Lu (BoF4) vs. Orlandu (FFT)- Fou Lu defense is not Orlandu's friend.


HEAVY

Golbez (FF4:TAY) vs. Worker 8 (FFT)- Golbez is not winning this with physicals.
Raze (MK2) vs. Nel Zelpher (SO3)- Suspect so. Raze is good but he has resource issues in long fights.


LIGHT

Palmer (FF7) vs. Geela (TriStrat)- Geela to the semis makes for a dark day.
Aika (SoA) vs. Locke (FF6)- Wing Edge; Aika can do nothing about the ID even if her confuse works on Locke.
Ryudo (G2) vs. Kain Highwind (FF4)- Ryudo has way too much offense for Blood Spear to matter.
Guile (CC) vs. Sten (BoF2)- I think Guile 2HKOs and isn't 2HKOed back; he has good HP for a mage and Sten's durability is subpar.

16

Tournaments / Re: RPGVO 2022 Round 3: Losers' Pools 1, Double Dragon Godlike

« on: September 05, 2022, 12:30:52 AM »

GODLIKE

Chaz Ashley (PSIV) vs. Lamington (Disgaea)- Suspect Chaz can’t avoid a heal lock.
Mewtwo (PKMN) vs. Yuri Volte Hyuga (SHs)- Kneejerk of Gen3 Mewtwo not being very good.
Ryu (BoF2) vs. Sephiroth (FF7)-status.


HEAVY

Naoto Shirogane (P4) vs. Edge (FF4)- Naoto needs the ID to be turn one to win here; odds are Edge can status or outslug otherwise.
Meliadoul Tingel (FFT) vs. X (MMX:CM)-Weapon break seems to wreck X.
Vayne (MK) vs. Margulis (XS2)- Vayne runs out of SP.


MIDDLE

Ashley Winchester (WA2) vs. Squall Leonhart (FF8)-abstain.

LIGHT

Natan (SH3) vs. Pikachu (PKMN)- surely. Natan can block the status.

17

Tournaments / Re: RPGVO 2022 Round 2: PLAN YOUR BACKSTABS CAREFULLY, RICHARD

« on: August 29, 2022, 05:59:57 PM »

GODLIKE

Mewtwo (PKMN) vs. Yuna (FFX)- Ugly.
Riou (Suiko2) vs. Yuri Volte Hyuga (SHs)- Yuri 1 clearly wins, Yuri2 clearly loses.
Fou Lu (BoF4) vs. Ryu (BoF2)- Also ugly.
Orlandu (FFT) vs. Sephiroth (FF7)- If Seph can't one round he's toast here I think. I don't think I would see Fly helping against Cid either.


HEAVY

Reclaimer Dragon (WA4) vs. Meliadoul Tingel (FFT)- Pass.
X (MMX:CM) vs. Millenia (G2)- Letting Millenia get turns is a bad idea.
Raze (MK2) vs. Vayne (MK)- Suspect Vayne runs out of gas here but open to arguments.
Nel Zelpher (SO3) vs. Margulis (XS2)- Nel's damage I would consider ST and I don't remember Margulis's physical damage being that bad. I don't think she can heal her way out of trouble here.


MIDDLE

Lich (FF1) vs. Chrom (FE:A)- Hold is bad news here.


LIGHT

Genis Sage (ToS) vs. Ryudo (G2)- Feel confident enough to vote against Genis here.
Kain Highwind (FF4) vs. Maria Balthasar (Xenogears)- Maria be puny.
Jogurt (ShF1) vs. Guile (CC)- Speaking of puny.
Zell Dincht (FF8) vs. Sten (BoF2)- Yeah I would bet Sten can chip past a limit. Zell's basic physical scares no one.

18

Tournaments / Re: RPGVO 2022 Round 1: Blood in the Pools, and Thieves in Light

« on: August 24, 2022, 11:05:40 AM »

Re Aika vs Natan: even if he blocks confuse, not sure how he wins. Aika can just play defensively until he runs out of SP. Natan offense is pretty wretched.

19

Tournaments / Re: RPGVO 2022 Round 1: Blood in the Pools, and Thieves in Light

« on: August 23, 2022, 01:45:19 AM »

GODLIKE


Belial (WA4) vs. Ryu (BoF3)
Shania (SH3) vs. Lamington (Disgaea)

HEAVY

Naoto Shirogane (P4) vs. Golbez (FF4:TAY)
Edge (FF4) vs. Worker 8 (FFT)
Ike (FEs) vs. Lyon (Suiko5)

MIDDLE

Ashley Winchester (WA2) vs. Bartholomew Fatima (XG)
Bowser (SMRPG) vs. Kent (FE7)
Kazan (Legaia 2) vs. Koromaru (P3)

LIGHT

Natan (SH3) vs. Aika (SoA)
Pikachu (PKMN) vs. Locke (FF6)

20

Tournaments / Re: RPGVO 2022 Nomination Thread

« on: August 14, 2022, 12:25:53 PM »

Godlike:

Reicher (MK1)
Orlandu (FFT)
Rudo (BrigLoR)
Lamington (Disgaea)
Claude (SO2)
Profound Darkness (PS4)

Heavy:

Tosh (AtL2)
Justin (G1)
Edge (FF4)
Strago (FF6)
Fujin (FF8)
Cristo (DQ4)


Middle:

Nergal (FE7)
Dart (LoD)
Lexis (Lufia 2)
Lich (FF1)
Crono (CT)
Rauny (OB)

Light:

Cecil (FF4)
Thief M (FFT)
Geela (Triangle)
Aguro (Lufia)
Black Wizard (FF1)
Meru (LoD)

21

Tournaments / Re: Futurama type tournament- finals.

« on: June 08, 2022, 11:45:56 AM »

Champs: Orlandu, Lassic, Hendrik, Dorothea.


Biggest surprise this season was Thief's reign of terror. I am saddened by how much of light has problems with steal weapon+charm.

22

Tournaments / Re: Futurama type tournament- finals.

« on: May 31, 2022, 05:35:14 PM »

Talia is immune to charm so thief is very, very unhappy there. That entire pool takes turns beating thief viciously, which is a good thing. E: and brigandines can't be stolen.

23

Tournaments / Re: Futurama type tournament- finals.

« on: May 28, 2022, 12:07:08 PM »

Thanks snowfire, missed those edits!

24

Tournaments / Re: Futurama type tournament- finals.

« on: May 27, 2022, 05:19:19 PM »

Yuna (FFX) vs Orlandu (FFT)- Bad matchup for Yuna. Cid goes first and OHKOs.

Heavy:
Lassic (PS4) vs Frejyadour (S5)- Tenatively assuming that Sun doesn't hit a weakness. Freyjadour may still have an argument with dark blockers, so abstain for now.


Edelgard, Genevieve, Esmeralda, Profound Darkness, Lassic, Frejyadour- PD sweeps. I think Frejyadour stays down for me. Lassic might go up; it depends on how Edelgard does.


Erik, Eliza, Felix, Alicia, Hendrik, Setsuna- I can't vote on two of the people here. Erik/Eliza/Hendrik/Alicia are the ones I can vote on. Eliza down I think.  No idea how Setsuna would do.

Therion, Talia, Lysithea, Sylvando, Thief, Dorothea- Therion>Talia>Sylvando>Thief. Thief is staying down regardless I think; his tricks are doing nothing of value here. Possible Sylvando has something that can annoy Talia but I suspect her healing and status immunity is enough to carry here. Doro might go up, can't say for sure.

25

Tournaments / Futurama type tournament- finals.

« on: May 27, 2022, 05:17:32 PM »

Yuna (FFX) vs Orlandu (FFT)

Heavy:
Lassic (PS4) vs Frejyadour (S5)

Middle:
Hendrik (DQ11) vs Setsuna (Setsuna)

Light:
Thief(male)(FFT) vs Dorothea (FETH)


For my own reference, what the upgrade and downgrade pools would be:


Edelgard, Genevieve, Esmeralda, Profound Darkness, Lassic, Frejyadour

Erik, Eliza, Felix, Alicia, Hendrik, Setsuna

Therion, Talia, Lysithea, Sylvando, Thief, Dorothea