To Celebrate the Imminent Release of Super Robot Wars Y

Should we change the term "flash fiction" to "alert fiction?" That's a little SRW humor for you. I'm waiting for DLC and sales, but that's no reason not to participate in the launch-window goodwill.

Thoughts on SD Gundam G Generation Eternal

By the time you finish reading the title, your AP will be full again. Truly Eternal/10.

We Need Dramatic Fantasy

I don't know what that means, but I don't know what it meant when Super Robot Wars was advertised as a Dramatic Simulation either. I think it's that characters talk during the stage sometimes.

Some Reflections on Fire Emblem: Engage

Spoilers naturally


Hard isn't kidding around early on, though it is kidding around later. It's a satisfying tactical experience without being crazy hard. There is however some cheapness in some stages regarding boss movement and when they trigger.
The combat styles are a good attempt to reduce mounted dominance. Fliers feel like one option rather than the best one. Cavalry, however, seems too weak now. Perhaps it should have built-in Momentum, because as it is, increased movement alone is a poor bonus with how small the difference is and the additional terrain-ignoring fliers get.
It's a great idea to divide skills between the characters (personal and class skills) and the emblems (crazy nonsense). The game can be more complex while still being easy to understand because of the compartmentalization. That said, I would have preferred if the balance hadn't been tilted so far toward the emblem side. Even inherited skills come from emblems only and not from classes or something else.
SP gain is slow. Any kind of experimentation is pretty much locked to Normal, where skirmishes ought to be safe to do.
The story itself is decent, but the presentation of it is terrible. The cutscene direction is a big problem. I'm sure the writers imagined most of the lines between the good guys and the bad guys being delivered across a battlefield, not for everyone to walk up and stand in a cirle together and walk away when it's time for war and tactics. The blocking is boring even in good-guy-only conversations. There's no cinematic flair whatsoever. Another problem is that they use the lord's dumbfounded expression far too often.
The translators should be ashamed of themselves, but they most certainly are not.
The voice director should get some of that shame too.
The cast is decent. Pretty normal Fire Emblem stuff, which doesn't seem exceptional but is still better than most games.
The music is standard for Fire Emblem as well, which is to say completely forgettable. It isn't essential to have super-special special weapons, but it can be fun. Unfortunately, most of the special effects go into emblem weapons. Outside of that theere's the lord's sword then nothing till the very late stages when you can get legendary weapons. The legend of a silver weapon but slightly better.
The biggest disapppointment of the game is Wyvern Ride. Only the little mascot could have fun with that one. Maybe I'm just mad he's better at it than I am.
Colors! How I missed them. Most importantly, the enemy range and threat colors and terrain distinctions, which in Three Houses were often hard to make out.
Rating: Good/Game.

The Lonely Cry of the Last Man

Everybody's getting engaged except me! Where's my eighteenth entry depending on how you count in the classic tactical RPG series Fire Emblem?

32 Years Later

As we prepare for the release of Fire Emblem: Engage, let's take a moment to reflect that Fire Emblem is a weak title. They should have called it something tough, like Langrisser or Black/Matrix. But now it's too late.

Title Rework Corner

Fire Emblem: The Sacred Stones? Not in this day and age. Fire Emblem: Double Trouble! is what we'll call the remake. And while we're at it, let's change Fire Emblem to A Song of Horses and Wyverns. It's more marketable and more honest, a rare combination.

Big Fire Emblem News

Is it true the next Fire Emblem game will take place in space and have jetpacks, space lances, and survivors of supersoldier experiments with high HP?

I know that isn't what the alleged leaks say, but I thought it would be more fun to make up my own. It's not as if knowing about the next game changes it. The matter does not wait upon our approval or fear our condemnation.

Thoughts on Triangle Strategy

It's pretty good.
I like that each character had a different ability set. However, that makes the low number of deploy slots even more irritating, as does the fact that some of the mock battles had higher limits than the story battles.
The characters look as if somebody ran Eureka Seven through a Final Fantasy Tactics-izer, a strange device invented for a niche market.
The battles managed to change things up from one to the next without becoming a real pain with gimmicks and triggers players have to negotiate in a restricted way. Most importanty, the gimmicks and terrain features sometimes work in the player's favor, which games sometimes neglect to do and give all the fun to the enemies instead, who are incapable of appreciating it. This post was written before the AI revolution, if any future readers are confused. The TP system is fine, but I think the more expensive abilities are impractical beyond what the developers must have hoped.
The story doesn't really support the weight placed on it, and also isn't good. My perception of the situation, the resources available to each faction, the implications of various approaches, and so on always differed from that of the characters, which created a sense of alienation. Sometimes none of the available decisions made sense to me based on what I understood of things as they stood. Beyond that, it's overall a mess with elements, especially regarding Hyzante, that seem to intrude from other games. Possibly better games. It swings between basing everything on personal motives and being a struggle of ideological frameworks in a strange way, as if the writers never agreed which style they would pursue. The long, long sections between battles, which at first I accepted as setup for later events and decisions, ended up being mostly too much talking about stuff that didn't really matter later.
Grinding mock battles is unnecessary to succeed, but seems necessary to enjoy some characters. Only late in the game could I afford offensive items.
The hidden items in the exploration areas makes them a slog instead of a break between battles which give a deeper feeling to the world.
The point of New Game+ in a game like this is so that I can replay it faster to see different paths. Increasing enemy difficulty is fine for a mode, but leave one for easy replays. Sure, the game isn't hard, but I'm talking really fast, as in not paying attention at all.
The endless trips between the merchant and the forge are irksome and unnecessary. The smith should sell the upgrade items.
Before playing it, I thought Triangle Strategy was a bad name. Nothing has changed.

Notes on Dragon Quest Tact

Hey, this isn't a comedy of manners at all! It's a mobile gacha tactical RPG! I give it my Toriyamaest rating of 5 Gokus/5.
I did this gag before, but now it's retro.

And People Thought Pangloss Was Dumb

Super Robot Wars 30 is available for preorder on Steam. Who's the dummy now?

The Thanksgiving of Steel Approaches

Super Robot Wars announcements are coming in soon, so make your wishlists. It wouldn't do not to be disappointed when Dagwon doesn't make it in again.

Dragon Quest Lack of Tact

"Yeah, well, Dragon Quest suuuuuuucks."

Biggest Disappointment of 2021

Dragon Quest Tact is not, in fact, an etiquette RPG.