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Pahrak Model ZX

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Blog Entries posted by Pahrak Model ZX

  1. Pahrak Model ZX
    So, I bought Pokemon Sword.  Due to having some open time in my schedule and the game ultimately being a bit short, I’ve already beaten the main story and the postgame episode.  I actually had a lot of fun.  The game may be riddled with problems, not the least of which being the cut of National Dex, but what it gets right it gets so right—heck, some of what it gets wrong manages to feel right, which appeals to my shounen battle anime heart.  I’m not here to spoil, just want to say I’d recommend giving SwSh a try if you’re on the fence.  Also, while I may not have Switch Online or an SD card to transfer screen shots, I fell in love with League Card customization and desperately wanted to share mine in some capacity, so:


    Pupil of Gym Leader Bea and new Champion of the Galar Region, Liam! (You can’t see it but I’m wearing the Champion shirt, plus my hair looks much cooler in-game I dunno why it looks weird here.)
    Team:
    -Spike the Coalossal
    -Steg the Rillaboom
    -Murun the Runerigus
    -Beat the Corviknight
    -The Smogington Brothers the Galarian Weezing (character limit made it Smogingtons but)
    -Zacian (in the post-game…)
    Between this and my recent replays I think I want to revise my old region ranking.  Stay tuned for that!
  2. Pahrak Model ZX
    Alright, now that my most recent playthrough of X is done, I wanted to try to compile some of my thoughts about the game.  XY gets a lot of flak so I wanted to evaluate just how much of it felt earned.  Oddly enough, this is my fourth playthrough of X; adding Y that means I’ve gone through Kalos five times now, which might make me look like a hypocrite when I say I’m disappointed in it.  In short, XY is a fine pair of games—as I would argue most if not all Pokemon games really are—but in comparison to other entries in the series it falls flat.
    It’s been said before that all Pokemon games are essentially the same.  If you like the core gameplay loop, you’ll be able to enjoy yourself no matter which one you pick up.  XY nail that aspect.  I like Pokemon games, so I can have fun playing XY.  But when multiple options are placed in front of me, when I want to play Pokemon and have to pick which Pokemon game I want to actually sit down and play, what is it that might lead me to choose XY over any others?  This is a question to be asked of every Pokemon game, and I would argue the only time a game can objectively fail in this regard is if the answer is only down to wanting to use a specific Pokemon who appears in a specific place in this specific game.  I replayed X because I wanted to use another Aegislash and a Tyrantrum, which I could only really do in XY.  This was helped by realizing I could finally train a Toxicroak early on, you can get a Steelix through an in-game trade, and by jumping through a few hoops I could get Leafon along for the ride, plus knowing I’d get Crawdaunt with a little patience.  I wouldn’t even be considering it if my sister hadn’t happened to find her copy and given me a good deal.  For me at least, that’s really all it came down to: happenstance and Pokemon distribution.  Because really, what else does Kalos and only Kalos have to offer?  Mega Evolution is in ORAS, so…I’m hard-pressed to think of anything.
    I don’t mean to sound like I hate Kalos.  As I’ve said before, it has a lot of potential: it’s a sprawling, wide-open region structured to mitigate backtracking by looping back in on itself at key points, has a Dex that includes numerous favorites from all past regions and one of the nicest-looking batches of newcomers (while also introducing the interesting concept of Mega Evolution), and the locations you visit all feel very distinct from each other.  But playing XY feels like using a Pokemon you know Mega Evolves but can’t find the Mega Stone for: while it might have all that potential, not being able to tap into it just leaves you feeling underwhelmed and somewhat frustrated when you have to move on.
    No matter what anyone says about Pokemon only needing a barebones story, I feel like the root of this problem lies in the lack of effort put into XY’s narrative and characters.  Following Gen V was certainly an unenviable task, but XY took such a huge step backwards here that the experience ultimately feels hollow, like just another typical Pokemon journey with nothing truly special or unique about it.  Things just kind of happen, with no real sense of continuity or build-up as you drift from one place to another.  There are scant few characters you’re actually given reason to care about: Korrina and maybe Wulfric are the only Gym Leaders who feel like they had the slightest amount of effort put into them.  The Elite Four in any game tend to be somewhat unremarkable so I’ll give them a pass, but Champion Diantha also doesn’t feel particularly fleshed out, having only two brief appearances outside the League that frankly don’t amount to much.  I’m sure there’s nothing new I can say about Lysandre; Sycamore is fun enough that he’s maintained a following; the player’s friends…well, that’s a whole thing in and of itself.
    First off: friendly rivals are not bad.  XY seems to be where people started to really rage about this, but their amicability is not what makes them fail as rivals.  Honestly, I don’t even view Shauna, Trevor, or Tierno as rivals—you only fight them twice each, and they’re not tough because they don’t care about battling.  Which is fine!  I recall seeing a claim that XY was about how everyone enjoys Pokemon differently, and now that I’ve taken another look, it’s clear to me that the friend group was indeed designed with that in mind.  Trevor is the player who wants to fill the Dex, Shauna is the player who just wants to spend time with their Pokemon, Tierno is the player who thinks up unique and oddly specific goals/challenges/themes for their playthrough, and Calem/Serena is the player who only cares about the battles.  That’s genuinely interesting!  However, the game doesn’t quite explore this idea or these varying approaches, they’re all just sort of dumped in front of you sporadically.  Your friends could all use a bit of work, especially Calem/Serena who’s entire personality seems to be “I’m your neighbor and I like Pokemon battles.”  They’re present enough that they’re certainly a rival, but they’re the flattest we’ve had since Gen I.  I’d say if the other three were given a bit more time to shine, showing why they appreciate Pokemon in the way they do and emphasizing the strengths of those approaches, they’d all have been much better received.  For Calem/Serena, I think the most interesting approach would be to take it all the way and have them be a strict and serious competitive battler, doing lots of catching and breeding and EV training without thinking of their Pokemon as anything more than tools; this wouldn’t even necessarily lead to them being antagonistic, in fact the disconnect between them being nice and polite to people but heartless and mechanical towards their Pokemon could be quite fascinating.  But, at this point, I think we’ve ventured off into extremely unlikely territory…
    Ultimately, I think it’s that hollow feeling that lends XY so well to being replayed.  You can get through it by caring remarkably little about what’s going on around you, because, well, there isn’t much there to care about in the first place.  But there’s just enough to let you know that there could be so much more—and maybe chasing that is another factor of wanting to replay it.  While I absolutely adore Sun and Moon, Kalos undoubtedly got the short end of the stick: it needed an updated rerelease perhaps more than any preceding paired versions in series history, yet it was dropped unceremoniously so that SuMo would be released during the same year as the 20th anniversary (despite being much closer to the 21st…).  XY feels unpolished, and Game Freak chose to move on rather than try to give Kalos the polish it needed.  Unfortunately, that’s still the way I feel.
  3. Pahrak Model ZX
    I've been replaying Pokemon White 2 lately, wonderful game.  After beating it I lost a day or so at Pokestar Studios.  I’ve always loved this diversion, and now it’s easier to pick apart why: at the best of times, each movie tests you on/teaches you a specific combo of moves, items, or abilities that show off how deep Pokemon’s battle system can be, and success is rewarded with these charming shorts showing Pokemon in relatively unique settings and situations for the franchise.  It has a very unique appeal not replicated before or since, and honestly may provide a solid blueprint for helping more players bridge the gap from casual to competitive play.
    Unfortunately…it can also be frustrating at times.  While there’s a certain logic of act and react to the scripts, they’re not completely without randomness.  It took me four attempts to film the second time travel movie because my foe kept landing critical hits—it took six attempts to luck my way through the second Giant Woman movie.  If I choose the wrong move or dialogue option, that’s one thing, but when I make all the “correct” selections and still can’t earn the intended ending, it feels awful.  Imagine if you were playing Sudoku and there was a chance one number could suddenly change and make the puzzle unwinnable.  I also felt some of the scripts were a bit too vague to anticipate what I was meant to do, but it’s possible that’s also on me or a more expected level of trial and error; the randomness is the only design flaw I think is in serious need of being ironed out.
    You could maybe argue that the issue is lessened considering you can still screen a movie with a bad or “strange” ending, and doing the latter can even give you special benefits. (Not to mention these minigames are completely optional, save the very easy first Brycen Man movie.) However, if you want to access every movie available, you need to get the intended endings from following the script—if you want to get the most out of this system, you’re going to need to overcome the randomness where it intrudes.  Personally, I just find this a bit annoying.
    Some other miscellaneous thoughts:
    -I absolutely want this feature to return in some way, unlikely as it may be.  I really do think these sorts of missions could be scattered throughout a game (which would make them easier to do along the way, unlike forgetting about it until you’ve beaten the game like I’m prone to doing) to teach the player advanced mechanics.  And it’s just so much fun!
    -It’s odd that they bring in Sabrina and only use her for one trilogy, and that she and Brycen are the only characters from outside the studio who get to join in.  I’d like to see this expanded upon if the feature returns.
    -Should it return, I would love if they integrated it with trainer customization and let us keep costumes after completing a series.  I really want to be able to run around as the Sneasel Ninja.
    -Love and Battles 2 is loathsome.
    -The Ghost Eraser and Full Metal Cop series are tied for my favorite.  The former is very well connected and, though it falters a bit, actually encourages understanding over violence throughout in a way I didn’t expect (and involves a Ghost/Dark type with Wonder Guard before Fairy was a thing); the latter is hilarious, changes things up by giving you a villain role, and Mecha Cop gets some actual character development by the end of it.  Obviously none of these feature award-winning writing, but these series provide some neat ideas to work with.
    -I still need to do Brycen Man Strikes Back Harder, but it’s late so I wanted to wait.  Couldn’t stop myself from typing up this monstrosity, though…
  4. Pahrak Model ZX
    After taking a few months trying to focus on Red Joker, I’ve finally completed it!  There’s one more step in the Shooting Star Sonia project, but I’m putting that on hold for the time being, due in no small part to the fact that I really, really want to get Right of Law moving.  And on that note!
    Section XVI is live!  It’s a little short, mainly because it picks up a couple of loose ends and puts us in position for the next major event, but I’ll do my best to keep the ball rolling and get XVII out soon!  There are a couple projects I’ll be working on simultaneously, but Law is my top priority for the near future—the more I think about the things I want to do in this story, the more excited I get, and I want to put that energy to good use!
  5. Pahrak Model ZX

    BZPower: Spherusden

    By Pahrak Model ZX,

    Still getting used to this new layout and everything…ah, welcome back everyone!  I missed you.  Some of you, at least.  The rest of you know what you did.
    Kind of a lot happened over the timeskip: my sister got married, I had a sudden-ish move, and I’m between jobs at the moment.  I’ve also been working on my writing, primarily Shooting Star Sonia (3 is almost done!) and a TWEWY fic I’m doing for an event, plus some groundwork for NaNoWriMo and a bit of thought towards Right of Law.  And, I’m pleased to say I’ve made some progress on certain issues I’ve been dealing with, though I won’t go into great detail.
    Come to think of it, my 15th anniversary happened during the break.  Let’s see, over the past year I continued working on Shooting Star Sonia and Right of Law, wrote Detective Jaiya and the Baffling Barrier for the Fanfic Exchange, and I won my very first raffle!  That’s about it, though.  Hard to say what next year will bring, but I’m hoping to make progress on Law, and I’m certainly looking forward to the next Fanfic Exchange!  And it seems Mr. Faber could have something interesting in store…
    That’s, ah, basically all I have to say for now.  Oh, and the Steven Universe movie is pretty incredible.  Also we’re getting a Mega Man Zero/ZX Legacy Collection in January!  Rad stuff.
  6. Pahrak Model ZX
    Pokemon Sword and Shield will not let you transfer in Pokemon not found in the games themselves. There are no plans to patch the rest in at any point in the future.
     
    So the time I spent catching 800 of the little buggers really was just a complete waste, even in the eyes of the company that made the darn game. Swell.
     
    Currently accepting recommendations of other monster series.
  7. Pahrak Model ZX
    -Wild Area sounds awesome
    -Dreadnaw and Corviknight look rad
    -Wooloo looks cute, the grass types are good designs just not really my thing
    -The legendaries…like, they for sure look goofy, but that’s not necessarily bad. Neither is going to be my new favorite design. I’m leaning Sword right now.
    -I hate Dynamax. “Hey, we need an obligatory gimmick for this generation! Let’s just combine Mega Evolution and Z-Moves but make it as bland as possible!” I hate it. And they’re going to force me to use it in Gym Battles. Not jazzed about Raid Battles (and potentially Raid Battle-exclusive Pokemon) either.
    -I AM jazzed about Rotom Phone! And water bike!
    -The characters all make a good first impression. At first I thought it was weird that they’d reveal the Champion right away, but in a region where the Pokemon League is sports it only makes sense. Also he has brand logos on the back of his cape and that is hilarious to me. Kind of hate that his ace seems to be a Charizard as opposed to, you know…an actual new Pokemon…
    -I’m actually going to pre-order now, just need to find that gift card I misplaced.
  8. Pahrak Model ZX
    Listen, I love Typhlosion and the Sword and Shield reveal left me feeling underwhelmed, and though I’ll probably end up seeing Detective Pikachu eventually I’d rather not spend money on it because what the what, so…this was the best way to feel like I actually still like Pokemon.
     
    I wanted to see if I could beat Pokemon Gold Version (the 3DS Virtual Console version specifically) only using Typhlosion. I restarted the game, picked Cyndaquil, named him Blaze VI, and never used another Pokemon in battle. The only Pokemon I caught were ones I needed for HM usage, and even then there were a good amount of gift Pokemon who could use HMs so I didn’t need to do much of that.
     
    After 12 hours and 15 minutes of game time, Blaze VI is level 84 and has beaten Red. And it’s a rather satisfying achievement.
     
    Honestly, I think this was easier than using a full team. I didn’t have any particularly big problems, per se, but here are the hiccups/close calls:
    -The second rival fight, since his Feraligatr knew Water Gun and Blaze didn’t have an effective way of dealing with him at that point
    -The freaking Ice Path, my eternal nemesis
    -Bruno’s Machamp probably would have been a problem if its Rock Slide hadn’t missed
    -Karen’s Umbreon, which is tanky and knows Sand Attack AND Confuse Ray
    -Lance got off a Thunder Wave so Blaze had to tank a few Hyper Beams, but he did, like a champ
    -The first thing to put up an actual fight in Kanto was the dang Snorlax in front of Diglett’s Cave
    -Blue did get a lot of damage on Blaze, but aside from one Extreme Speed it was all Sandstorm damage
    -And obviously Red is no pushover
     
    By going everywhere I could before challenging each gym and fighting everyone I saw, I was able to get Blaze to a Typhlosion before even the fourth gym. At that point he can learn Thunder Punch and Fire Punch via TM, and those (plus Dig for coverage and Quick Attack for fodder) will carry you pretty dang far—you’ll outspeed and oneshot just about everything. Definitely get Return ASAP, plus the Pink Bow held item to boost it, and be sure to pick up Earthquake in Victory Road. Obviously replace Fire Punch with Flamethrower once you get it. I barely used any items at all, either.
     
    It was a fun side project for a week. I’d kind of like to do this sort of thing again, but I think Moon is too hard for me to do a solo run…
  9. Pahrak Model ZX
    Section XV has just been posted!
     
    Sorry this one took so long. I talked about this over on Twitter, but I decided that since I had three ongoing fanfics, it might be better to put all my focus on finishing one of them to give myself a little less to worry about. But now, I’ve completed my Mega Man ZX fic, so here’s a new chapter of Right of Law to prove that it’s not dead!
     
    …Unfortunately…that’s about all it is…
     
    Y’see, while my plans for where Law is headed aren’t entirely set in stone, there is a lot that I still want to do. On the other hand, Shooting Star Sonia 3 has a more concrete outline and I can actually roughly estimate how many more chapters it might need. So…now I’m going to put all my focus on finishing that one. Apologies if this bums anyone out, but I feel like this approach is better for all stories involved and this is the best way to go about it right now. I’m hoping it won’t take too long, although even after that, I do find myself kicking around the idea of attempting NaNoWriMo in November, so that only further complicates things for Law. Man, I really need to get better organized with these things in the future…
     
    I will finish Right of Law. It just won’t happen super quickly, and I am sorry for that. But for now, I hope you enjoy Section XV!
  10. Pahrak Model ZX

    Real Talk

    By Pahrak Model ZX,

    The Lego Movie 2 made me cry and reexamine my life and is easily on par with the original (and The Lego Batman Movie), but
     
    While I completely understand it wouldn’t be all that practical to put focus on a long-dead theme and the scale would be a huge issue, the fact that it's partially driven by a teenager making his Lego sets/stories as edgy as he possibly can
     
    And they didn't make a single joke about Bionicle??
     
    Missed opportunity
  11. Pahrak Model ZX
    . 
    My thoughts:
    -As someone who's still salty about how long it took to get anything more than names with Sun and Moon, I'm glad they showed actual footage, the starters, and the region
    -Graphics/areas look real good
    -The full direct mentions something about people and Pokemon working together to shape the industries of the region, and that sounds like it could be real interesting
    -Looking at the Galar region map...this is probably based on a real place, but at a glance it just feels artificially linear. I'm guessing you start at the south and just keep going north until you beat the game? Not a deal breaker, but I'm hoping there's more to the region that when they showed here.
    -The starters all look kinda the same. And bad.
    -I don't see Pokemon following the trainers...
     
    At this point, I'm not impressed. I really, really hope those starter designs aren't indicative of the overall design aesthetic of Gen 8 Pokemon. There seem to be a lot of returning Pokemon in the trailer, so I'm optimistic for a smaller amount of new Pokemon with a lot of returning favorites in the regional Dex, and that's how I like my Dexes. Ideally I would like more Mega Evolutions, but I won't riot if we don't. I might riot if we don't get new regional variants, though.
     
    Happy Pokemon Day, I guess?
  12. Pahrak Model ZX
    So for reasons I still don’t fully understand…I ended up buying an exercise game. And, honestly, it’s kind of great? It’s like DDR but with punching. So that’s cool.
     
    And like, it’s just a really great fit for the Switch. Rather than rearranging things and getting everything hooked up each day for just 20 minutes, I can use the Switch’s kickstand to do this wherever’s most convenient. And if I need to travel or something, I can just take my Switch with me and not have to miss a day or two. It’s so easy to integrate into a daily routine!
     
    I recommend checking it out–there’s a demo on the eShop if you’re interested. Never thought I’d be doing any sort of workout routine, but something about this really clicked for me!
     
    (One important note is that, despite the cover art, Wii Fit Trainer does not appear in this game. ): But maybe there'll be DLC?)
  13. Pahrak Model ZX
    I just finished unlocking every character, and I know it's not news but man what a roster.
     
    I really, really like World of Light. I get why so many people call it a grind, but as someone who has always only played Smash by himself trying to do most of anything in the games has always seemed a bit grindy, so the presentation of this one is more than enough for me. I opened the way to the true final boss and then went to clear out as much as I could--there are still a handful of tough Spirits left, but I think I'm going to go for the ending and come back for those later.
     
    Speaking of Spirits, while trophies might've been a bit more fun to look at, the fact that Spirits do something automatically makes them better as far as I'm concerned. More than that, each one being tied to a specific battle and so many appearing in World of Light makes them feel far less random, which has always been a complaint of mine. (I still don't have the Star Force Mega Man trophy in Smash 4.) I have a little over 700 Spirits right now, including all the Spirits from Mega Man spin-offs: they have at least one from each, 16 total across six series, and that makes me happier than it probably should. ZX is finally represented! Granted, the Model ZX Spirit isn't phenomenal, but it's pretty good for when you get it in WoL so that's something. It's crazy to think I'm not even halfway towards getting a complete collection!
     
    I've been pretty much exclusively playing Spirits mode thus far, but now that I've got everyone I want to try to take them all through Classic Mode next. Maybe I'll find a fighter who clicks somewhere along the way--I've been using Zero Suit Samus mostly, though the past few days I've been trying to get the hang of Greninja. I mean, I'm not especially good with either of them, but...eh.
     
    And I'm still really, really excited for Pirahna Plant. Really excited.
  14. Pahrak Model ZX
    As the end of the year approached I felt that dreadful question of "What have I accomplished in 2018?" hanging over my head. Not exactly unusual, but unexpectedly, when I thought a bit more about it I discovered that I've actually done a bit.
     
    When it comes to writing:
    -Right of Law was started in March and already has 59k words
    -Red Joker has surpassed the length of its predecessor to reach 118k, with only roughly a third of that being knocked out in late 2017
    -I took a Mega Man ZX fic from one chapter to 29k words
    -I scribbled down two DBZ oneshots of 1-2k
    -I even attempted to start a novel, even if I only got 3-4k into it
     
    And while I wish I had more significant milestones and complete products to look at, I did the math and it turns out I wrote about 169,819 words this year. You know, give or take. Looking at that number, it seems kind of incredible that I was able to do that much.
     
    There are other things to consider, too: I tried a few new things, even though they didn't all work out, and I feel like I've been able to make some personal progress over the course of the last year. Sure I wish it could be more, but it is some. I also bought a Switch and a bunch of great games for it, meaning I enjoyed myself a bit more and making that word count look even more impressive knowing how much distraction was available to me.
     
    I've been pessimistic about holidays for a few years now, and when it comes to New Year's that means pointing out that it's an entirely arbitrary "endpoint" and that just buying a new calendar isn't really worth celebrating. I still think there's no reason to despair about not getting a certain amount done during a year or what have you. But I guess when you don't think about it in terms of quotas, and just reflect on what you've done and what you've learned and take what accomplishments you see for what they are...yeah. It isn't so hard to find something worth celebrating.
     
    Happy New Year.
  16. Pahrak Model ZX
    The World Ends With You Final Remix released on Switch earlier this month, and the other day I just finished my trip through its brand-new scenario “A New Day”. Being the first real addition to TWEWY, it’s kind of a big deal, so I wanted to share my thoughts on it. Naturally this post is full of spoilers—you’ve been warned!
     
    For starters, the marketing was very misleading. Saying the new scenario “gets to the heart of the story” when it’s tangential at best is a flat-out lie, and focusing the teaser around a Hype-chan scene and Coco reviving Sho really give you the wrong idea about what to expect. Also, the latter is basically the last scene, and using that in the very first teaser is…odd. There was also that new art that showed basically every major character facing off, and it might’ve just been me, but that combined with the shot of Sho made me think all those characters were going to be in it—though to be honest, it might be for the best they didn’t go that way. A New Day isn’t quite what the marketing would have you believe it is.
     
    So what is it, then? Well, it’s sequel bait. And…pretty much only that. While the fact that it’s been added onto TWEWY as a bonus scenario makes it seem to be some kind of epilogue, playing through it, it feels more like a rather bloated prologue to a new story. Very little actually happens over the course of A New Day, and while I think that would have been alright if it had stayed a self-contained bonus chapter, the ending gives the impression that you did all that largely pointless stuff just to get to this exact point…which just so happens to be a cliffhanger. If you want to tease a new game, you make a secret movie! Don’t have us slog through a long bonus chapter where we don’t learn anything or see anyone change just to throw that at us! Now it feels like this whole event was meant to be an important plot development, and in that light it just doesn’t hold up. The only scene that made me genuinely feel glad to be watching it was at the end when Neku gets a call from Shiki (seeing him be so casual about the fact that he’s got friends now is beautiful) and then Beat immediately calls Rhyme to make sure she’s okay (he’s a good brother). Other than that…well, I enjoyed seeing Coco freak out when Hanekoma blew her cover, but I wouldn’t say that endeared her to me or anything. Even Another Day gives us more insight by revealing that the reason Neku is the way he is at the start of the game was because he previously had a friend who died and he blamed himself. I don’t think anything in A New Day is comparable to that.
     
    Anyway, if they’re hyping up a sequel then that’s good news, right? Well…yes and no. True, I’ve always wanted more from this IP and a sequel would certainly give me that. But there are two big causes of concern for me, the first being that this is not the first time a sequel has been teased. The whole reason we call Hype-chan that is because when she appeared for a split-second we were all sure it meant a sequel was coming. That was in 2012. Heck, in Another Day Hanekoma mentions a Noise visible from the RG which I’m fairly certain is whatever messed up Shinjuku, and that was as far back as the original DS version in 07/08! Following this trend, they’ll announce a sequel out of nowhere in five years if we’re lucky. Point being, it’s hard to get super excited about supposed new developments in this IP when previous such teases have gone nowhere fast. Secondly, on a more personal level…I’m officially sick of Kingdom Hearts’ garbage. As a result of this I’ve come to realize that Nomura was nowhere near as involved in TWEWY as I once thought, and can’t help but think that that’s why it’s actually a good game, but the thing is…we don’t know what the team for a sequel would look like. And A New Day is more or less an empty rehash, brings a character from a mobile game into official cannon, and revives fan-favorite Minamimoto for no apparent reason. All of which is Kingdom Hearts garbage. I’m worried that Nomura is going to take the reigns on a sequel and screw TWEWY up, and I really, really don’t want to see that happen.
     
    A lot of this is harsh, but I don’t actually hate A New Day. Even if it’s not stellar, it is new TWEWY content—for the very first time! A lot of the new pins are really sweet, and while the tweaks on the gameplay can get frustrating (screw the Raven Ball) they can also be fun in short bursts, and serve as innovation on the basic game that really does keep things fresh for even us longsuffering players. I’m glad Final Remix was made and I’m glad I bought it. Plus, maybe we’ll get news on a sequel soon, and maybe it’ll be good! Those outcomes are still possible. I’m definitely going to be cautious as we wait to hear more from Square, but I haven’t given up all hope entirely or anything like that. The chances of getting a good TWEWY sequel are stronger now than they’ve been in years at least, maybe the strongest ever. And I definitely appreciate that.
     
    (Side theory: Coco is either the Composer or Conductor of the Shinjuku UG, and her initial plan was to “feed” Neku and Beat to the Dissonance Tapir to drastically increase its power and fight whatever messed up her city. Now that the Tapir’s gone, she’s pulling Neku and Minamimoto into her Reaper’s Game to fight on her behalf. It would explain how she’s so powerful; plus, Hanekoma has some knowledge of this type of Noise and implies someone else may have taught Coco about it, which could mean that Shinjuku’s Producer is the one who taught her. Hype-chan isn’t a part of her plan (yet), she’s just someone like Neku with a unique Soul composition, and perhaps the visions Neku received were the result of some special Pact he and she made unconsciously—Pacts protect Players from Noise, and that might be why she’s the only one left in Shinjuku. Also, the CD for the track that plays when you fight the Dissonance Tapir implies time travel might be involved somehow? (More Kingdom Hearts garbage!) Hopefully not…)
  20. Pahrak Model ZX
    Now that the English dub of Dragon Ball Super is getting into the Tournament of Power arc I can’t help but feel it’s only a matter of time before people renew their complaints about new characters Caulifla and Kale. These two are new Saiyans introduced to serve as opponents in said tournament, and are the first female Super Saiyans shown in the series main canon. (Prior there were a handful of games that offered female Saiyan player avatars who could achieve the form, but that’s it.) They quickly became somewhat divisive additions, and of course, many of those who despise them go around calling them Mary Sues. This is something that annoys me.
     
    Dragon Ball has never and will never be a literary masterpiece—there’s plenty of bad writing and I won’t try to tell you otherwise. And though I like these characters, I can see (and in some cases maybe even agree with) some of the issues people have with them. Criticism is healthy. But calling a character a Mary Sue isn’t criticism, it’s just dismissive, and always inconsistent. What one person considers a Mary Sue is different from what the next person considers a Mary Sue, and more than that, the same person can point out a “Mary Sue trait” in one character and totally ignore its presence in another. People rattling off reasons why Caulifla’s a Sue don’t seem to realize she actually has a lot in common with the main character, Goku, and saying that Kale is only ever written poorly when she has one of the most realistic character arcs in the franchise (unlike her predecessor Broly, who is now infamous for his stupidly petty motivations) just isn’t true. But okay, if we’re going to use reasons x, y, and z to define a character as a Mary Sue, do you know what Dragon Ball character fits the ever-changing mold surprisingly well?
     
    Future Trunks.
     
    Easily one of the most popular characters in the franchise, yes, but let’s review:
    -Showed up literally out of nowhere after the Frieza Saga
    -Immediately and effortlessly transforms into a Super Saiyan, mere chapters after the form had been introduced, and that was after immense build-up, thinking there could only be one (and that it was main character Goku), and seeing Goku go through a lot of anguish to achieve it
    -Kills Frieza, the biggest, baddest villain in the series at that point, who main character Goku took forever to beat, by either one-shotting him (in the manga) or toying with him in a curb-stomp battle (in the anime)
    -Then proceeds to effortlessly kill Frieza’s father, who was stated to be somewhere near Frieza’s level
    -Gets to spar with main character Goku for a bit
    -Reveals he is the son of Vegeta, another exceptionally popular character, and Bulma, a long-time staple who at this point has little interaction with and no visible interest in Vegeta
    -He came from the future, because only time travel makes that parentage work
    -In the future he was trained by the son of main character Goku
    -Said future is basically an apocalyptic wasteland
    -Later on he gets a unique transformation that makes him exceptionally more powerful (even if it does turn out to be functionally useless)
    -Gets temporarily killed in the final battle with Cell to spark very sudden character development in popular character Vegeta, and then is immediately revived
    -Gets an entire episode at the end of the Cell Saga dedicated to going back to the future and effortlessly defeating his timeline’s incarnation of the saga’s three major villains
    -Also he carries a sword he rarely uses in a series that typically doesn’t use weapons (swords are cool)
     
    Now if you were reading a fanfic and saw a character like that, what would you think? And that’s all just in Z: Trunks is made a main character in GT and Future Trunks is brought back in Super solely because of this character’s popularity, and that’s not even scratching the surface of how central he is to dedicated fanservice games like Xenoverse and Heroes. He’s so popular he can be shoehorned into anything and people rarely complain. He ticks so many boxes common on Mary Sue trait lists, and…nobody notices? How weird is that?
     
    And just to be a complete hypocrite: I also like Future Trunks. It’s almost like even a character with tons of “Mary Sue traits” can still be entertaining depending on how they’re handled, and that calling a character a Mary Sue means nothing other than “I don’t like this character and choose to blame the writer and insult anyone who thinks differently.” Imagine that.
     
    I still can’t really figure out why people are perfectly fine with Future Trunks but have such huge problems with Caulifla and Kale. Huh, though now that I think about, out of those three Trunks is the only one that’s a guy…nah, that couldn’t possibly be it, right?
  21. Pahrak Model ZX

    14 Years

    By Pahrak Model ZX,

    Man, fourteen whole years on BZPower. As is now tradition, a look back at what I did in the most recent of these years:
     
    -I almost forgot about Slizer Mafia: The Final Refrain. Uh, I think it was alright? Maybe? Not sure it was my best run as a Mafia host, but at least it finally gave real closure to Slizer Mafia’s story.
     
    -While it, ah, hasn’t actually gotten off the ground yet, I did do a bit of work on the concept of the world of Olkir. The Principles of Flame and The Twins of Justice are, eh…okay. Olkir Tournament was fun. Kinda wish I had gone on to actually do a full story set in this world, but unfortunately it’s warming a shelf right now as I focus on other projects. Hopefully someday I’ll get back to it.
     
    -I also wrote Out of Bounds, posting all five parts back during last October. I’d been wanting to do another Vhisola-centric story for quite some time, and I’m actually quite pleased with the results! It could definitely use improvements of course, but I’m kind of proud of how deep I was able to dig into Vhisola, a one-off character we haven’t seen since around when I joined this site. I never expected her to become one of my favorite characters, but here we are.
     
    -Finally truly got started on Shooting Star Sonia 3: Red Joker, which is already longer than the first story in the series and still has quite a ways to go. Honestly it feels a bit daunting to think of how much work remains, but y’know, it also feels like I’m really getting a good handle on this story, how to pace it, how to handle the characters, and that it’s coming together better than the first two did. Like it’s a more complete story somehow? I dunno, it’s a good feeling, I’m going to keep at it.
     
    -I participated in the Fanfic Exchange and wrote The Gargoyle Knight, which led to me starting Right of Law, my biggest Bionicle undertaking thus far and the first time since the FFFC that one of my stories has been featured on the home page! I had way more fun than I expected just thinking about what could happen in the Melding Universe, and it’s been great fleshing many of those ideas out! It’s taken a while to really get into the thick of things, but hopefully the wait has been worth it—big things are on the way, and I’ll continue to strive to make this story as entertaining as I possibly can!
     
    So I guess it’s mostly been a select few rather large projects. I’m okay with that. Rounding out 2018 and heading into 2019, I will of course be continuing Red Joker and Right of Law, but other than that I don’t really have any plans. I’m already putting a lot of work into those stories, as well one or two off-site projects (if I can motivate myself I could actually maybe write something original), and with the way Right of Law is, I’m kind of focusing any and all Bionicle-related thoughts I have into it in the hopes of working out all the details and polish I need to really make it shine. But who knows, I always have liked indulging in random ideas that pop up with little warning. Those such stories from this past year have mostly been absent from BZP since many haven’t been Bionicle-related, but…who knows, if I come up with something I really like I might see how it fares in OTC. Stay tuned!
  22. Pahrak Model ZX
    Right of Law, Section IX, is live in the Epics Forum!
     
    This Section introduces several things, some of them big, some of them subtle, some of them things that were alluded to previously but are now begin somewhat expanded on. I want to shift focus for the next few Sections: the characters have won a moment to really sit down and process everything, though even now they're still working to prepare for what comes next, and I want to take advantage of that. The site of the next major conflict is picked out, but that's off in the distance still--more pressing is a much smaller antagonistic force currently on its way.
     
    What you won't see in this Section is Krika, whose exploits in Civitas Magna demanded a bit of extra time to contemplate. I think that time is already paying off. So for now, enjoy Section IX! And then, look forward to Section X!
  23. Pahrak Model ZX
    I’ve logged roughly 72 hours on this game, beaten the eight main stories, found all twelve jobs, explored every dungeon, and cleared all sidequests with the exception of two that have unusually tough bosses and one that is the Absolutely Final Test of True Power and Strategy. So I can say with confidence: Octopath Traveler isn’t exactly what I thought it would be, but I’d still say it’s a very good game. (Vague spoilers ahead.)
     
    Leading into this game, what I was expecting was that as the game went on, the eight characters would gradually come together over the course of the story, joining forces as their goals naturally aligned and eventually it would all culminate in one final battle. This sounded like a very interesting narrative, so I got pretty set on wanting to see it. But, that’s not the kind of game that Octopath is. While you can (and are encouraged to) gather together all eight travelers to form your battle party, each chapter of a given character’s story plays out as if the other seven are absent, with the exception of a few optional banter scenes depending on who is in your active party of four. At first, I was a bit disappointed—while some of the banter scenes do reveal bits of information or show enjoyable interactions between the characters, it still didn’t feel like enough, and the gameplay story segregation really puzzled me. Why have everyone traveling and fighting together if the cutscenes portray these events all happening in parallel?
     
    But, having read many comments from the creators of the game, and now having much more experience with the full product, those feelings have shifted. The creators wanted to give the player complete and total freedom to watch these stories play out in any order they chose. So, you can go and do all eight Chapter 1s in any order you feel like, then do a couple of the Chapter 2s, maybe try out a Chapter 3, or heck, just try to clear one character’s story using only that character. Prioritizing player freedom is a design choice that I can respect, and I can easily see why that precluded letting the characters’ affect each other’s stories. What if I do Cyrus’s Chapter 2 with Primrose there, how does she affect that story? What if I replaced her with Olberic, what would be different? What if they’re both there? How would those changes affect Cyrus’s Chapter 3, and if I decide to go off and have everyone help Tressa do her Chapter 2 in between, what changes will that bring to each of these different Cyrus Chapter 3s? The many, many different possible ways you could go through these stories would necessitate writing hundreds of potential scenarios for every possible sequence of events the player selected, only getting more and more complicated as things progress. Thinking about it that way, it’s an easy decision to tell eight specific stories broken into a few acts that can be strung together in any order. And honestly, once I really got into the game, I cared less and less about the divide between the gameplay and the story.
     
    The point is, Octopath Traveler is less about telling one grand story, and more about telling several individual stories within the same connected world. There could perhaps be more obvious points of connection between the tales, but there are quite a few subtle ones that make the continent of Orsterra feel rather alive. This is illustrated especially well with how NPCs and sidequests are handled: though there are a few faces you can’t interact with at all (mostly in large cities), any NPC you can talk to can also be interacted with through the characters’ various Path Actions. Every one of them has a bit of backstory you can learn using Cyrus or Alphyn, most have a couple items that Tressa can buy or Therion can steal, and many have battle data so that you can challenge them to a duel with Olberic or H’aanit, or bring them along to aid you if you have Ophilia or Primrose. The backstories especially help flesh out these otherwise generic entities, since some of them refer to other characters’ and their backstories, allowing you to slowly piece together a general idea of how a certain family or town functions as a whole if you want to invest the time. NPCs have more personality and leave more of an impression than we’ve typically come to expect from them in a game like this. And when one of them gives you a sidequest, it always feels somehow meaningful, especially if you’ve taken a look at their backstory or sparred with them and have developed some history with this person. More than that, they’re not always very specific on how to solve them—you’re usually just presented a problem, and then you need to figure out how you might go about fixing it. Virtually every sidequest involves some sort of Path Action, but since two characters can achieve the same end using their similar Actions, you have some freedom in how to accomplish the solution when you discover it, and even better, some sidequests have multiple possible resolutions depending on what Path Action you use! For example: in Sunshade, you speak to a dancer who is ready to quit, but wants to put on one last show. The most straight-forward way to go about it is to find another, more accomplished dancer in town, buy/steal her favorite dress, and deliver it to the quest-giver so she can give one last memorable performance and call it quits. But! In the same town is a sickly girl who mentions how much she loved seeing the quest-giver perform. If you use Primrose or Ophilia’s Path Action to lead the quest-giver to her, a touching scene plays out where the quest-giver realizes her performances do still have an impact on people, and she uses this chance to inspire the girl to follow her dreams and not give up just because she’s having a difficult time right now, before going on to continue her career. I only discovered the first solution after reading about it online, but I adamantly believe it an unacceptable method because the second one is such a better resolution, and dang it, this game has made me legitimately care about NPCs who don’t even have actual names and wanting to see their stories play out in the best possible way. How often does that happen?
     
    Speaking of Path Actions, they’re…good. The thing is, you can use them on NPCs whenever you want, and this is great, but there are also some instances in every character’s story where you need to use their Path Action to progress. Unfortunately, the story-relevant uses almost always just feel like busy-work. Oh, you need to get this person to stop bothering that other person? Use Provoke on them, then we’ll continue the scene. Oh, you need to access this chapter’s dungeon? This NPC will get you in, but you need to do three fetch quests, one at a time, Stealing items with a 100% success rate and running back and forth all over town. Oh, that merchant will only trade this treasure map for a legendary shield rumored to be in town? Run over and Purchase it from this other merchant just to run back and make the swap. Starting to see what I mean? And yet, when there are chapters that don’t require you to use your Path Action at all, it still manages to seem like a missed opportunity. Mostly because there are a few shining instances where your Path Actions do carry actual weight, and I love how they’re done. Cyrus’s investigations come close (falling short because they’re more about reading comprehension than actual deduction), but I can think of only three really great examples off the top of my head: one instance where Therion can steal any of four items to advance his story, but the one closest to where you are has an abysmal success rate while the ones a bit of a walk away are decent and the one way back in town has 100%; when Olberic finally finds the person from his past he’s looking for, you’re sent straight into a Challenge sequence rather than a standard boss battle; and in Ophilia’s ending, you are tasked with Guiding someone to a specific place. (Therion’s final chapter tries to replicate the first instance in his final chapter, but both options had 100% success so I’m not counting it. And you could probably argue that the one in Ophilia’s ending is quite easy, but I still loved that the game let me take that character where they needed to go rather than doing it in a cutscene—Ophilia, and by extension the player, was asked to take an active part in the very last action of this particular story.) Should any sort of sequel or successor come about, I really hope the developers are able to find a way to make the Path Actions a more engaging element of the stories.
     
    The endings, similarly, are a bit of a mixed bag. I don’t think I’d call any of them bad, some are just more satisfying than others. Tressa’s in particular has both really good elements and really bad elements, and I think it might be my least favorite of the bunch. Ophilia’s is probably my favorite simply because it has the best presentation of all eight: in addition to having one of the best uses of Path Actions mentioned earlier, there are several instances throughout her final boss where she steps forward and the two of them have fully-voiced dialogue, arguing their points of view and what they hope to accomplish from their victory as we’re all fighting for our lives, and it really pulls you into the moment and underscores the weight this confrontation has. Therion’s final boss also has dialogue like this, but it isn’t voiced for some reason, plus I was hoping it would let me actually Steal the treasure I went in search of and was disappointed when it didn’t. Primrose’s is…interesting. It left me feeling a bit uncertain, but I think this was done intentionally to put us closer to what Prim herself is feeling. Anyway, I’m not going to go through ‘em all, this is already way too long.
     
    Now, there is technically a point where the stories come together in the post-game. Remember that absolutely final test thing I mentioned earlier? (Bigger spoilers in this paragraph.) After clearing all eight stories and a few specific sidequests, you unlock a true final dungeon, and though I’m definitely not ready to take a stab at it myself I did go ahead and watch someone else conquer it to see what information it held. I won’t go in-depth here, but basically you fight a series of boss rematches Mega Man style, and after each one you get a little snippet of thoughts from an important character in this world. Through these, you find out that the conflicts or inciting incidents of all eight stories were the results of a certain person’s previous attempt to achieve their own evil goal, and after this you face off with them as they make a new attempt. This is…interesting. (The one relating to H’aanit’s story is horrifying, even though I kind of saw it coming.) I mean, it definitely helps the world feel connected, and the scenes finally show all eight travelers at once (which is really satisfying to see), even asking you to split them into two parties for the final encounter so that they can all contribute, and I definitely like that. But, I dunno, maybe it just hasn’t fully sunk in yet. None of the travelers speak in this dungeon so there’s still no truly “canon” interactions between them, just the banter scenes and what you get in gameplay. I think I need more time to piece together the overall narrative of Orsterra and judge how it works.
     
    The creators set out to make Octopath Traveler a unique and personal experience for each player, giving them vast amounts of freedom to explore and interact and learn however they please. I think this is illustrated best by the credits, which only play after you beat the final chapter of whichever character you chose to start the game as and who will be in your party permanently (until beating their final chapter). As the names go by, you see in the background a sort of highlight reel of your adventures, showing brief snippets of every single chapter of story you’ve completed in the exact order that you completed them. It even shows very short clips of each and every boss, showing exactly what you did to finish them off. (Two funny instances in mine: one where I defeated the boss but his summon unit was still on the field, so the clip showed me killing the summon; and one where the boss died to poison damage, so the clip shows us all just standing there when the boss suddenly pops into smoke.) I had no idea the game was gathering these clips as I went along, until it surprised me with this scrapbook of memories at the conclusion of my chosen character’s journey, and it was enough to make me wish I had saved that particular boss for last so that I could’ve relived the memories of finishing off the other six bosses I’d yet to face. It was like the game telling me it cherished the time we spent together, that my experience was a unique one that deserved to be documented and remembered. I forged my own path and the game was validating the decisions I’d made. Such a simple, easy little trick, but boy did it leave a heck of an impression.
     
    Octopath Traveler is not a perfect game, not that such a thing exists. But I think the creators achieved their goal of creating a fun, free, and very personal experience for whoever chooses to pick it up. If you’ve got a Nintendo Switch and are looking to lose yourself in your travels for a few dozen hours, I highly recommend getting your hands on a copy of Octopath.
  24. Pahrak Model ZX
    Right of Law, Section VIII, is now live in the Epics Forum!
     
    Sorry this one took so long. (Octopath Traveler is good.)
     
    Velika’s assault on Bitil’s outpost continues, and his new method of attack proves quite devastating. Zaekura is hard at work on her plan, but even if she can pull it off, there’s still the question of if the others can hold out until it’s ready.
     
    Hopefully Section IX won’t take as long…
  25. Pahrak Model ZX
    Nearly four years ago I joined Twitter so I could enter a giveaway for the 2015 Toa sets. (I didn’t win.) Now I’m thinking maybe I should actually use that account and see if I can better promote my writing or something.
     
    So if you’d like, you can find me @ExoPahrak. I’ll be posting about what I’m writing, when you might be able to expect to read it, and whatever’s distracting me from doing it in a speedy manner.
     
    And on that topic, probably don’t expect much in the near near future because Octopath Traveler releases Friday and I don’t see myself escaping that for a while.
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