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1. Rasterman (rasterman@detroitriotcity.com)'s status on Friday, 28-Apr-2023 13:00:02 JST Rasterman
   I just finished playing through the Mega Man Zero/ZX Legacy Collection. This isn't a review; it's a PSA:
   
   It's shit. Avoid it. It's not even worth pirating.
   
   By the way, this is gonna be a lot of text and a lot of posts and it's not going to be good, so you might as well stop reading now and do something better like stare at a wall. You already saw the important part.
   
   Before Metroid, Mega Man was my favourite game series. I even played Mega Man Soccer voluntarily. So having enjoyed the original and X series (or part of it), I thought it was a no brainer: a game starring Zero has to be awesome!
   
   And then the game started.
   
   This is made by a company that would go on to make good games, Inti Creates; but this was certainly not one of them.
   
   You are Zero. As usual, Crapcom avoids explaining anything; instead opting for starting a new series. You're a broken robot and some girl and soldiers find you in a lab and a magic loli sacrifices herself to revive you by crashing into your face. It was a "cyber elf", a program that also has a consciousness and personality, but is also meant to die to grant you a variety of effects, and you have to "feed" it e-crystals, which are a drop from killing enemies.
   
   Anyway, your rescuers are terrorists being hunted down by the authorities of what seems to be the last city on Earth, Neo Arcadia. Their leader is X, i.e.: Mega Man. Somehow you're with the Mavericks; but Zero only wants to kill, so he doesn't care. X has four guardians and they in turn have minions and the game consists of carrying out acts of terrorism against the human city to destabilise it and convince them to leave you alone; but the guardians are hell-bent on protecting humanity.
   
   There's an energy crisis and reploids are being removed as a result to ensure humans continue to live well. Ciel, the leader of the resistance doesn't agree, because she's a woman and is prone to siding with the enemy out of empathy. The plot doesn't make sense unless you hate humanity. I bet this was a hit with jews.
   
   You defeat the minions, defeat the guardians and then... Japanese plot twist! The X ruling over Neo Arcadia is not actually X, but Copy X! A copy of X! And the real X is... a cyber elf! Which means he's an invincible glowing dot that flies around the world and gives Zero cryptic messages instead of helpful information, before disappearing again. X is "tired of war" so he's taking it easy, but supports your terrorism against humanity. So Zero fights Copy X and destroys him. Happy end.
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   • Rasterman (rasterman@detroitriotcity.com)'s status on Friday, 28-Apr-2023 13:03:36 JST Rasterman

     in reply to
     The entire series has only two things going for it: the controls are excellent, as one would expect from a Mega Man game, and the music is acceptable.
     
     Zero uses his trademark sword and a gay ass pistol instead of a buster arm, which is already less cool. Then he gets a Captain America shield, which is mostly trash and a spear, which has its moments. The more you fight with each weapon, the more it has a chance to level up. With each level, a weapon gains some new move or effect.
     
     Then there are the cyber elves. You find them in crates as you make your way through levels and they have a portrait and a description of what they do. Some times the description is abstract. Turns out you need to feed the elves to make them grow before you can use them. That means spending e-crystals. So, a good elf will require 2000 e-crystals to grow. How much do you earn on an average level? About 50. So that means you need to grind. Grinding on a linear action platformer. They took an unfun aspect of Mega Man X, which was to fill up your sub tanks, and expanded it. You want Zero to stop slipping on ice? There's an elf for that. Slide down walls more slowly? Elf. Get a bigger health bar? Elf. Everything that makes your character cooler now requires you to find and grow an elf, which involves grinding by visiting a level over and over and killing the same enemies over and over because e-crystal drop rates are not equal. This is why the Japs are bug people. They don't mind this mind-numbing task.
     
     So the cyber elves are shit.
     
     The art style makes everyone look extra cute, which sucks, since the original and X series weren't precisely grim dark to begin with. This looks like a caricature of the previous series by comparison. And that contrasts with the edgy plot that takes itself too seriously. Metal Gear Solid was more lighthearted than this travesty of a game.
     
     A massive problem with the game is the difficulty. This isn't on par with the Mega Man or X series. This has a difficulty where it doesn't feel as if you accomplished anything by succeeding. It's like a bad Mario Maker level that takes way too long to end. Maybe the GBA screen has something to do with it; but the amount of YOLO jumps you have to make is offensive, especially because many of those end in a bed of spikes. Enemy placement is the bad faith equivalent of debating race realism with Destiny. Enemies are loaded before you see them on screen, which means by the time you see them, you are already about to be hit by a projectile. I had to replay MMX to confirm this was not just always the case and I just memorised where every enemy was. And bosses, while being bullshit, at least they tend to be the most enjoyable part of a level.
     
     On top of it all, every stage you beat gives you a grade. I forget if that serves a purpose. On the next one it does. Here it seems everything you might want to do in a Mega Man game, or just an action platformer in general, takes away points from your final score. Took your time because you wanted to explore looking for secrets? Yeah, you get a penalty on your score. Took damage because the Mega Man series lets you make that mistake? Penalty. Used a cyber elf to get a cool effect that only lasts for one level and you can't replenish it again? Penalty. It's like they value being a soulless bugman that only speedruns the game over and over. But OK, it's not like they are hiding gameplay mechanics behind getting a good score... That will be Mega Man Zero 2.
     
     Right, Mega Man has always absorbed powers from his enemies, which was one of the great things about the series! Yeah, revived Zero doesn't believe in that. You get your new moves and three elements after defeating bosses: fire, ice and electricity. Out of 8 bosses, 6 will be vulnerable to the elements (2 to each) and 2 won't. So it all boils down to which element to attack enemies with where it's electricity->fire->ice->electricity. Exciting.
     
     And then you beat the game and you're presented with Hard mode, because you're not Oriental enough if you don't play Hard mode, where the bullshit increases and the reward remains the same.
     
     As I continue with the other games, I might not be able to describe things so well, since it all gets so bad, it started blending together in my mind; but if you don't continue reading, just remember this series is abominable and Crapcom should feel bad about making it. Maybe Konami was onto something with the pachinko turn. If you're gonna make trash like this, maybe just sell gacha games with Mega Man stickers for the Japs.
   • Rasterman (rasterman@detroitriotcity.com)'s status on Friday, 28-Apr-2023 13:03:36 JST Rasterman

     in reply to
     Now we're in Mega Man Zero 2 because I wanted to justify having bought this trash heap and hoped the sequel would be better.
     
     A year passed and you're a broken down Zero that spent the time between killing Copy X and now wandering the wastes like the Vault Dweller. For no reason at all, since he could've gone back to the base with Ciel. Zero is rescued by Harpuia, one of the guardians from the previous game. There's no explanation for why he decides to help the reploid who kept committing acts of terrorism against the city he protects, but Oriental magic is probably afoot, as is the case with the Japs.
     
     Now the resistance has a leader, Elpizo, which is a name so stupid it has to have come from a Japanese mind. This guy looks evil and is passive aggressive towards Zero. The game hasn't even started and you already know this is gonna be a boss.
     
     One cool detail was how during the intro stage, Zero looks half-broken and the pause menu looks broken as well before Zero is repaired and the pause menu looks completely different to accommodate the new options.
     
     Then I find the new resistance base. It's huge and is full of rooms that take a good couple of seconds to enter and exit from. And most rooms are empty. It's incredibly annoying to explore just to meet an NPC that might have one line of dialogue like this is a JRPG.
     
     You do missions for the resistance to "buy time" while Ciel researches a solution for the energy crisis so there's no longer a need to fight with Neo Arcadia. Elpizo sends you in missions of terrorism just like you did in the first game and you fight 8 bosses again. Again only three elements.
     
     The cyber elves are back and there's a mega-retarded plot about two "baby" cyber elves that look for their mother, the Dark Elf, that caused a lot of destruction some time in the past when the Mother Elf was used to destroy the Sigma virus. See, this is like introducing Rey in Star Wars. The moment this idiotic plot is tied to Mega Man X, now MMX is ruined as well because of the association with this horrible series. You chase the baby elves around the world. X, the magical cyber elf that likes to travel the world and speak in riddles tells you to find them.
     
     And now... Japanese plot twist! You thought X had no body and was reduced to being a cyber elf while Copy X ruled Neo Arcadia? No! Actually, X does have a body! He's permanently containing the Dark Elf in its vault and he can't move; but he's also a cyber elf. I can feel my eyelids narrowing and my independent thought disappearing as I play.
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   • Rasterman (rasterman@detroitriotcity.com)'s status on Friday, 28-Apr-2023 13:03:57 JST Rasterman

     in reply to
     What they see when you're a White baby in a jewish gathering.
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   • Rasterman (rasterman@detroitriotcity.com)'s status on Friday, 28-Apr-2023 13:05:32 JST Rasterman

     in reply to
     Then Elpizo finds the elves and takes them for himself, turns evil because of reasons and goes to where X's body is and destroys it. The reveal between X having a body and the body being destroyed occur so close to each other that there's no impact. Shit pacing and timing.
     
     Elpizo turns into a monster and you kill him. Then, the Dark Elf turns out not to be evil and turns Elpizo into a cyber elf before flying away. Nothing makes sense and the story sucks.
     
     But it doesn't suck as bad as the game hiding cool new powers Zero can get... only if you get an A ranking when beating a level. And you only get one chance per save. Remember how in Mega Man X, when you go into Armored Armadillo's stage you need to hurry and grab that heart before the drill bot destroys the ceiling or you can't grab it again until you restart? Well, that doesn't happen, you can just try again. Not here, though. Lifeless bugmen only. And the abilities are not even worth it. They are circumstantial at best.
     
     Ah, they refer to feeding the cyber elves as "breeding" the cyber elves now. And what in Mega Man Zero cost 2000 e-crystals to level up an elf, now costs 200. It's like somebody play-tested the game once, as opposed to the previous game which got released in pre-alpha state. This certainly was the best Mega Man Zero game of the four of them.
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   • Rasterman (rasterman@detroitriotcity.com)'s status on Friday, 28-Apr-2023 13:08:16 JST Rasterman

     in reply to
     Onto Mega Man Zero 3. Here's where the story gets so ridiculously stupid that the previous two games might have been made by Interplay by comparison.
     
     A giant machine falls from space. You're sent to investigate (this time Zero didn't leave for no reason after the end of the game). You track it down to a room where the three guardians (one blew up in MMZ1 and never came back) are fighting a giant robot with a sword. They leave and you fight it and win, but it's not over yet, so it leaves.
     
     Ciel has finished her magical solution to the energy crisis and sends it to Neo Arcadia as a peace offering. But reasons happen and the game doesn't end right there during the intro, as it should. No, there's a NEW Copy X that rules over Neo Arcadia. One that speaks in stutters, as if it was malfunctioning. And its advisor is a robot-looking old man named Dr. Weil. Get it? Like Dr. Wily but different but still makes you think of Wily? EH? GET IT, FAGGOT? Anyway, Dr. Weil is clearly evil and the three guardians obey this obviously bad new Copy X because they are retarded.
     
     Dr. Weil created the giant robot from the intro, Omega. A robot that "warps reality just by existing in it" and that manifests itself as doors to the "cyber world" which is just a green version of the stage you're visiting where you get some extra bonuses and can't find secret disks which contain lore and more cyber elves. So basically, they introduce a new mechanic and immediately punish you if you dare use it. It also hurts your score at the end of a level. So forget I said anything about a cyber world.
     
     This Dr. Weil created Omega but also "cursed" the Mother Elf who created all cyber elves, turning her into the Dark Elf. Japanese plot twist, it wasn't two cyber elves, but one and the same all along. He was punished because of his crime by 8 judges who decided he'd be exiled from Neo Arcadia and sent to space along with his incredibly powerful giant robot because everyone is retarded. Weil came back and turned the 8 judges into monsters which are the 8 bosses in the game. Still with three elements.
     
     Every time they drop lore, it all gets stupider. The guardians are made from "X's DNA". Which DNA!? X is a reploid. It's like cargo cult mentality from the Japs who made the game. Just throw sciency words out there and people will think we're clever.
     
     Also, Dr. Weil had a plan all along called "project Elpizo" to take over Neo Arcadia, but Elpizo was just some guy at first and seemingly got corrupted by the Dark Elf he himself looked for. Weil is playing 8D underwater backgammon like Trump but for real. Or the Japs make it all up as they go.
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   • Rasterman (rasterman@detroitriotcity.com)'s status on Friday, 28-Apr-2023 13:09:03 JST Rasterman

     in reply to
     When you make an edgy post on social media.
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   • Rasterman (rasterman@detroitriotcity.com)'s status on Friday, 28-Apr-2023 13:09:36 JST Rasterman

     in reply to
     Ciel discovers Ted Kaczynski.
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   • Rasterman (rasterman@detroitriotcity.com)'s status on Friday, 28-Apr-2023 13:10:08 JST Rasterman

     in reply to
     When you're a teen African American virtuoso knocking on the wrong door to pick up your brothers.
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   • Rasterman (rasterman@detroitriotcity.com)'s status on Friday, 28-Apr-2023 13:12:27 JST Rasterman

     in reply to
     So you fight the judges, fight trash Copy X, the guardians are just kind of there, and then Dr. Weil reveals that he was behind the troubles the whole time! You knew it since the credits of Mega Man Zero 2 when he announces his return.
     
     Now, the game makes it ambiguous who's a reploid and who's a human all the time, so you see Dr. Weil as a robot-looking character with a head in a jar and it's unclear; but the Inti Creates Japs were jacking it to what they thought was a great reveal: Dr. Weil is actually human! Zero attacks him anyway. Again, there's no weight to the reveal. Zero is a psychopath the entire series. He doesn't care if he kills people.
     
     Dr. Weil gets his hands on the Dark Elf which fuses with Omega to grant him the power to control all reploids in the world! That means even the ones at your resistance base are now mind controlled by Weil! It's over! Zero is obviously exempt because his an older model or some shiet. But don't worry, here comes Oriental magic to the rescue: cyber elf X shows up and saves everyone temporarily to ensure Zero can teleport to where Dr. Weil is and defeat Omega. The final sequence happens and you fight Omega for two phases before falling underground in the same lab where they found you in Mega Man Zero.
     
     And here comes the most insulting and retarded Japanese plot twist of the entire series: Omega, the giant robot, was actually wearing a giant armour. The real robot is inside. It's Zero. Turns out Dr. Weil found Zero's body and used it to put Omega in there. And your character is just "some robot" (that happens to look exactly like Zero, despite Zero explanations as to why that is) that the resistance decided had to be Zero. So you're not even the original body, which ruins any meaning the first scene in the first game had, when they found you. And then... why, exactly, is Omega Zero? No reason. But Weil taunts you that you wouldn't dare destroy your original body. You destroy your original body. Again, no meaning or weight to anything that happens.
     
     You win and Weil retreats. You know there's gonna be a fourth entry! By the way, all the games in this collection came one year after the previous one. And it shows.
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   • Rasterman (rasterman@detroitriotcity.com)'s status on Friday, 28-Apr-2023 13:16:26 JST Rasterman

     in reply to
     Is anyone still reading this shit? If so, I'm judging you for not having something better to do. Mega Man Zero 4 starts and there's hope in the horizon: the nightmare is almost over.
     
     The resistance is still there, but you're now in a mobile base, following humans being attacked by evil robots. Dr. Weil rules over Neo Arcadia now, so some people think he's unfair and try to leave the only remaining city in the world, but Weil sends robots to capture them. You must help this small settlement who lives in the only green area left in the planet. Apparently, continuous wars left the planet dead, but there's one green place left: the place where Eurasia crashed (the space station from Mega Man X5). Does this mean anything? No. It's never explained. They just wanted to throw a reference there, like this was a Family Guy episode.
     
     Now Weil has a new minion: Craft, who rules over 8 minions of his own. There was one cool scene I wanted to see since the first Mega Man, which was a moment where they reveal the 8 bosses all at once in the same room and one suggests killing Zero right there. Obviously Craft is like "no, he's too weak, leave him, it doesn't matter he won 3 games already". But that was expected. I'm glad I got to see that scene. That and "what if the boss room is just a bed of spikes with slippery walls" are my two expectations of what a clever enemy would do and one of them finally happened. And that will conclude the good things I had to say about the game.
     
     Cyber elves come back. I hate cyber elves. They are shit. But at least they left the Mother Elf alone after it was consumed by Omega who turned out to be Zero but maybe not. Also, since Omega is no more, there's no cyber world any more. Nothing of value was lost. This is, in fact, the first game that doesn't hide abilities behind being an autistic Japanese shut-in. But there's a new garbage way to do things:
     
     The resistance reveals they have a machine in space that can alter the weather. Yes, in Red Alert 2 they were called "super weapons", but here it's used to change the weather of the stage you're about to go to. You get a report of what the level is like and you can request the weather to change (it's one of two possible states). Changing the weather, for example, can make so that a solar-powered station is easier to infiltrate if you make it cloudy when you attack. That sounded cool and made me feel smart for one stage before realising two things:
     1 - Changing the weather equals playing on easy. It's in the report after you beat the stage. And playing on easy means you don't get the special ability.
     2 - There was never any need to read the description to figure out which weather was best. The icon of the stage on the map was red if it was on normal and it was grey if it was on easy.
     So another feature that means nothing and punishes you if you use it. And, on top of that, the resistance having a weather control machine is not mentioned for anything else in the plot. It's literally there just so you can do the stupid gimmick that lowers the difficulty somewhat and costs you the special ability.
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   • Rasterman (rasterman@detroitriotcity.com)'s status on Friday, 28-Apr-2023 13:16:39 JST Rasterman

     in reply to
     Ciel was close to self-awareness, but alas, she was of the female species.
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   • Rasterman (rasterman@detroitriotcity.com)'s status on Friday, 28-Apr-2023 13:16:51 JST Rasterman

     in reply to
     When the chosen find a White country.
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   • Rasterman (rasterman@detroitriotcity.com)'s status on Friday, 28-Apr-2023 13:18:51 JST Rasterman

     in reply to
     You beat the bosses and face Craft, who's in love with a human woman (that looks like a boy because everyone does in this trash art style). The woman lives in the green base but Weil wants to destroy it with a space weapon (no, not the weather control machine, that doesn't do plot things). You attack the space weapon to defeat Craft who then stops himself from destorying the green base because his girlfriend lives there. So he instead commits the biggest genocide in the series, by pointing the weapon at Neo Arcadia, the last remaining human city, and obliterating it from space. This is some Studio Ghibli levels of anti-human. Craft dies.
     
     Some people escape the city before it blows up, but at least Dr. Weil died with the innocent humans.
     
     Well, no. Here comes another Japanese plot twist: Dr. Weil looked like a robot but he blew your mind by revealing he was a human; but now he'll blow your mind again by revealing that, while he is a human, he is in a robotic body! Yes, the humans who judged him, in an act of cruelty, made him an indestructible body and put his mind in it. So now he's immortal. Because everyone is retarded.
     
     You fight Dr. Weil and kill him anyway, but he'll be back...
     
     ...maybe. Because this is the last game in the abominable Mega Man Zero series.
     
     The last you see of Zero is him fighting Dr. Weil in the space station that comes crashing down to Earth and he's presumed dead. Ciel gets and ending song with actual lyrics on the GBA. I was aghast that they went there when the series was so horrendous. I didn't even listen to the song. Trash series. Should have never existed. I'm glad they didn't make another one.
     
     This was like if Shadow the Edgehog was a game series.
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   • Rasterman (rasterman@detroitriotcity.com)'s status on Friday, 28-Apr-2023 13:21:07 JST Rasterman

     in reply to
     Now Crapcom decided they had written themselves into a corner, so, since there was no fixing the ghastly Mega Man Zero series, they did what they do: they moved forward in time. Behold Mega Man ZX, where things get better, but also stay bad.
     
     Suddenly metroidvania.
     
     This is when Crapcom thought they could do like Iga or Sakamoto. Anyone can make a metroidvania, right? Well, maybe if the people involved weren't the worst people, they could. But alas, Inti Creates wasn't done putting out garbage in exchange for money.
     
     You're a guy or girl (you get to choose, so I went with girl since my character was going to look feminine regardless) and you accompany Giro, a guy that looks like Zero who's your boss in a delivery company. And you're carrying a "biometal", something so important, it's already baffling they let a small delivery company handle it.
     
     Long story short: the biometal is like a tiny machine with X's personality (the same X that used to be a cyber elf but ran out of energy and died in a previous game) and Giro has another biometal that's Zero. They are model X and model Z and allow you to have an anime transformation sequence to go from human to something that acts like Mega Man. It's stupid, but whatever, it can't be worse than the last series.
     
     You save a girl that looks a bit like Ciel, even though they imply this is a long time after the previous series. She speaks of a "Sis" but never says who it is, so you think it's Ciel. She's with the Guardians, but not the guardians from the previous game. It's all meant to make you think it's one thing while being another. That's a good game right there. These Guardians fight mavericks and travel in an airship.
     
     There's humans again. But it's basically the same plot from MMZ4: a businessman named Serpent owns a company that controls the only city with humans. Serpent is totally not the final boss.
     
     You do missions for the Guardians fighting mavericks that get spotted around the city while destroying "pseudodroids" which are made using biometals from other characters. The four guardians that sort of disappeared from the previous series are now back in the form of biometals you can transform with. So it's already cooler than anything in Mega Man Zero since now you also get big gameplay changes with each transformation.
     
     By the way, pretty much everyone in the "good guys" team in Mega Man Zero and Mega Man ZX series has a French name. Biggest indicator that they are actually the enemy.
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   • Rasterman (rasterman@detroitriotcity.com)'s status on Friday, 28-Apr-2023 13:21:19 JST Rasterman

     in reply to
     Sexual harassment at Guardian HQ.
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   • Rasterman (rasterman@detroitriotcity.com)'s status on Friday, 28-Apr-2023 13:23:09 JST Rasterman

     in reply to
     I'm doing a mission and see something that sends chills down my spine. I even took a screenshot before the one I posted because I knew what it was: cyber elves. They're back. The worst thing to come out of something with the "Mega Man" brand. Luckily, they are a background asset now. Cyber elves produce energy and they are being generated in a certain plant. This should be a massive reveal, but is instead treated like a self-contained anecdote. What comes next is ten times worse: you find humans in a chamber claiming they were being "scared" to turn them into cyber elves because fear makes them better elves.
     
     After I woke up from the idiocy-induced coma, I went back to the game and tried to continue knowing no one was gonna address the reveal that humans can turn into cyber elves with a machine. I was right. There was a kid with a kart that looked like Rush, though. Eh? Nostalgia? No explanation as to why that kid has a kart that looks like Mega Man's dog but hey, it's there.
     
     They certainly can't make you like the game just by using cheap nostal-- LOOK, AN E-TANK FROM CLASSIC MEGA MAN!
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   • Rasterman (rasterman@detroitriotcity.com)'s status on Friday, 28-Apr-2023 13:23:14 JST Rasterman

     in reply to
     tfw you don't pass
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   • Rasterman (rasterman@detroitriotcity.com)'s status on Friday, 28-Apr-2023 13:23:29 JST Rasterman

     in reply to
     Serpent reveals he belongs to God's people.
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   • Rasterman (rasterman@detroitriotcity.com)'s status on Friday, 28-Apr-2023 13:23:44 JST Rasterman

     in reply to
     When you got out of jail, but re-offended and the cops took care of it, but you're OK with it 'cause your IQ is too low for self-preservation.
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   • Rasterman (rasterman@detroitriotcity.com)'s status on Friday, 28-Apr-2023 13:23:50 JST Rasterman

     in reply to
     When you realise you're White.
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   • Rasterman (rasterman@detroitriotcity.com)'s status on Friday, 28-Apr-2023 13:26:08 JST Rasterman

     in reply to
     Anyway, as you find biometals and fight mavericks, it turns out there's two evil kids named Prometheus and Pandora who talk about "His game", a game of destiny and some shit... and you're in it and they are like mid-bosses who also appear later on. It's not entirely clear what they are, except incredibly cringe. Shadow levels of edgy and cringe.
     
     Well, you find out there's another biometal: model W. GET IT? 'CAUSE DR. WEIL? OR WILY? IT COULD BE EITHER OF THEM! And that biometal is the most powerful one that needs all other biometals to awaken. And it takes sacrifices... and there's an afterlife, and faith, and a lot of things that don't fit in a futuristic robot game. I mean, A Robot Named Fight pulled it off well; but that was made by a Westerner. This is Oriental people who live in green mist and don't understand story-telling or world-building.
     
     So, Pandora and Prometheus want to awaken model W and Serpent is a pawn in their game, but Serpent thinks he's the boss; but then it turns out Serpent was a Guardian before he got corrupted by model W, who sleeps but also doesn't. Like Cthulhu. After you win, the big building in the middle of the city explodes taking with it a big chunk of the city. Again, humans die with no explanation or context. And it's not even portrayed as a bad collateral of what happened.
     
     Point is... you can't have a metroidvania where you can die in one hit to a bottomless pit or a wall of spikes. Or where you have a single bar of health. Like having Alucard fight Dracula on 99 HP. It just doesn't work with the way the game is designed. Plus the travel is tiresome. You do so much walking around it's crazy. Most of the time you're going from one place to another and there's not even a hint of where the areas with mavericks are. You just have to wander around until you stumble upon them.
     
     At least enemy placement improved massively from the Mega Man Zero series where it was outright hostile. And enemies attack after appearing on screen, as if this was a video game or something.
     
     You fight model W and win and it's over, but hold on... there's one more game.
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   • Rasterman (rasterman@detroitriotcity.com)'s status on Friday, 28-Apr-2023 13:27:51 JST Rasterman

     in reply to
     It's Mega Man ZX Advent.
     
     You again get to pick between boy or girl but this time it also carries differences in gameplay. There's voice acting throughout the game now. And the voice acting is horrible. Not quite Mega Man 8-tier; but different and horrendous anyway.
     
     You play as a completely different character from the previous game. The main girl has a "model a" biometal with the worst voice and dialogue imaginable, to the point where you just want it to shut up.
     
     Now we have more than one human city (allegedly) and the hub is controlled by "Legion", three men who run the city (or the world, depending on who you ask): Master Thomas, Master Mikhail and Master Albert. Had I caught on earlier, I would've seen how it was gonna play out, but they are named after Dr. Light, Dr. Cossack and Dr. Wily, respectively.
     
     You work for bounty hunters and some new edgy dudes stole the biometals from the previous protagonist and are now playing the "game of destiny" from the two cringy kids Prometheus and Pandora because the fear of humans gives power to model W, which is not only still intact, but there are actually hundreds of model Ws around the world! Japanese plot twist!
     
     You visit Legion and Master Albert reveals he's evil, as tiny model Ws start floating around him and the other two men are like "huh? wha? eh?" like two drooling fools. The tiny model Ws look like tiny Dr. Weils from the previous game, but that's never addressed.
     Ene likes this.
   • Rasterman (rasterman@detroitriotcity.com)'s status on Friday, 28-Apr-2023 13:28:07 JST Rasterman

     in reply to
     WHOA! It's that beetle thing from Flame Stag's stage in Mega Man X2!
     
     And the mine cart from Armored Armadillos' stage in Mega Man X!
     
     And the underwater dragon thing from Launch Octopus' level!
     
     And an energy balancer from classic Mega Man!
     
     And the ridiculous cover from Mega Man 1... OK, that was a good one.
     Ene likes this.
   • Rasterman (rasterman@detroitriotcity.com)'s status on Friday, 28-Apr-2023 13:28:37 JST Rasterman

     in reply to
     When you read literally any post by blitz.
     Ene likes this.
   • Rasterman (rasterman@detroitriotcity.com)'s status on Friday, 28-Apr-2023 13:28:49 JST Rasterman

     in reply to
     When the troon hangs himself.
     Ene likes this.
   • Rasterman (rasterman@detroitriotcity.com)'s status on Friday, 28-Apr-2023 13:30:17 JST Rasterman

     in reply to
     Master Albert was behind model W and the game of destiny and the two edgy kids kill him in front of you because of reasons.
     
     You fight the two kids.
     
     Then, a new Master Albert appears and kills them. Japanese plot twist! The Master Albert you and the Legion guys knew was actually just a decoy all along! The real Master Albert looks completely different and had this all planned from the beginning. I swear, the Japs think the only key to a good plot twist is that something unexpected happens, regardless of whether it makes sense or not.
     
     You kill Albert and it's over. It's a more streamlined metroidvania where you don't spend 85% of the time walking from place to place. The gameplay is more interesting because you transform into every enemy you defeat, which I wanted to see since Mega Man 1; but their abilities tend to be circumstantial so you can't just choose who to play as for the most part. However, the crazy amount of transformations makes up for it.
     
     Side quests were a little less unbearable than in the previous game, too. Maybe if there was a third entry, it'd be a proper good game, but still, deadly spikes and pits in a metroidvania just don't work.
     
     There was a ton more to say, but it's not even worth it. Best game in the series, but that's hardly an accomplishment when the series was moist garbage.
     Ene likes this.
   • Rasterman (rasterman@detroitriotcity.com)'s status on Friday, 28-Apr-2023 13:30:27 JST Rasterman

     in reply to
     If I don't wake up tomorrow, let it be known that I hated every minute of the Mega Man Zero series and most of Mega Man ZX.
     Ene likes this.
   • Ene (ene@varishangout.net)'s status on Friday, 28-Apr-2023 13:31:40 JST Ene

     in reply to
     @Rasterman good thread
   • Christi Junior (christijunior@detroitriotcity.com)'s status on Saturday, 29-Apr-2023 03:09:31 JST Christi Junior

     in reply to
     @Rasterman Wow, imagine that there was a time when video game NPCs would actually have unique dialogue in response to the sex of your character, rather than everyone referring to you as "they" no matter what you chose....
   • Rasterman (rasterman@detroitriotcity.com)'s status on Saturday, 29-Apr-2023 03:09:31 JST Rasterman

     in reply to

     • Christi Junior
     @ChristiJunior That was a good aspect of the game, regardless of everything else I had to say.
     
     There are lots of moments where the characters have unique dialogue because the character is female that, I have to assume, would be completely different.
     
     Also, lots of bosses mock you for being female.
     Ardainian Hebrew Israelite likes this.
   • Christi Junior (christijunior@detroitriotcity.com)'s status on Saturday, 29-Apr-2023 03:10:50 JST Christi Junior

     in reply to
     @Rasterman >This has a difficulty where it doesn't feel as if you accomplished anything by succeeding. It's like a bad Mario Maker level that takes way too long to end. Maybe the GBA screen has something to do with it; but the amount of YOLO jumps you have to make is offensive, especially because many of those end in a bed of spikes. Enemy placement is the bad faith equivalent of debating race realism with Destiny.
     
     Stuff like this is why Raster is my favorite video game reviewer - or he would have been, if not for his anti-Xenoblade war crimes.
     Ardainian Hebrew Israelite likes this.
   • Ardainian Hebrew Israelite (ardainianright@detroitriotcity.com)'s status on Saturday, 29-Apr-2023 03:11:44 JST Ardainian Hebrew Israelite

     in reply to

     • Christi Junior
     @ChristiJunior @Rasterman Speaking of which, do you have any thoughts on Future Redeemed?
   • Christi Junior (christijunior@detroitriotcity.com)'s status on Saturday, 29-Apr-2023 03:21:19 JST Christi Junior

     in reply to

     • Ardainian Hebrew Israelite
     @ArdainianRight @Rasterman My initial impressions were these:
     
     https://detroitriotcity.com/notice/AV7PqOJGQcuNsODdcO
     
     And if anything I'm even more impressed now. While Torna was exceptional in terms of character development, doing wonders for so many characters (including someone as crucial as Mythra), Future Redeemed really exposes Torna's origins as a cut part part of the main game that they later decided to stretch out; the kind of obvious padding and recycling of areas that Torna resorted to isn't really a thing here, and unless the game hits me with a late surprise, there won't be any Forced Sidequest bullshit either. Also, unlike Torna, it actually boasts an amazing new overworld theme, not just an amazing new battle theme.
     
     What it DOES have in common with Torna is further refining, polishing and reinventing the main game mechanics way more than it ever needed to, and making you see a whole lot of characters in a different light. Also, while I'm not sure if it will manage to tie up various loose ends in a satisfying or even coherent way, in terms of the story beats that it touches upon, this is pretty much the approach I *hoped* Xenoblade 3 as a whole would take.
     Ardainian Hebrew Israelite likes this.
   • Ardainian Hebrew Israelite (ardainianright@detroitriotcity.com)'s status on Saturday, 29-Apr-2023 03:26:37 JST Ardainian Hebrew Israelite

     in reply to

     • Christi Junior
     @ChristiJunior @Rasterman Yeah, there's no forced sidequesting, but basically all the worthwhile character powerups come via various expansion kits and Affinity Points, so it's very worthwhile to explore and quest. This might be an actual fun Xenoblade game to speedrun, which most entries have not been well designed for that for various reasons.
   • Christi Junior (christijunior@detroitriotcity.com)'s status on Saturday, 29-Apr-2023 03:32:18 JST Christi Junior

     in reply to

     • Ardainian Hebrew Israelite
     @ArdainianRight @Rasterman Honestly, the constantly rewarding exploration and constantly getting new opportunities to upgrade your character build is something that I felt Xenoblade 1 did exceptionally well, and later entries for some reason partially shied away from (possibly because 1 spammed generic quests to achieve this effect, and that was somehow considered to detract from the overall game).
     
     With Future Redeemed, they've finally found a way to fully recreate that experience and gameplay loop without sacrificing the average quest quality.
     Ardainian Hebrew Israelite likes this.
   • Ardainian Hebrew Israelite (ardainianright@detroitriotcity.com)'s status on Saturday, 29-Apr-2023 03:32:53 JST Ardainian Hebrew Israelite

     in reply to

     • Christi Junior
     @ChristiJunior @Rasterman Yeah, it's rewarding without being grindy.
   • Rehn (rehnsturm256@shota.house)'s status on Saturday, 29-Apr-2023 03:54:49 JST Rehn

     in reply to

     • Christi Junior
     • EdBoatConnoisseur

     @Rasterman @ChristiJunior @EdBoatConnoisseur even in a few games with a gay on your team, jrpgs show them to be more realistic than any Western game. In Fire Emblem Echoes, there’s a gay archer that is obnoxiously flaming, self-absorbed, bitter toward - and practically hateful of - the women around him for their natural beauty that he cannot achieve, and a sexpest following around a man who has recently lost his entire family to pirates, hoping to take their place like a degenerate immoral monster.

     I haven’t seen such an accurate representation before :02laugh:

     Ardainian Hebrew Israelite likes this.
     Ardainian Hebrew Israelite repeated this.
   • Rasterman (rasterman@detroitriotcity.com)'s status on Saturday, 29-Apr-2023 03:54:50 JST Rasterman

     in reply to

     • EdBoatConnoisseur
     @EdBoatConnoisseur I hope the autistic Koreans that played this game enough that they could reach the requirements to get the EX skills enjoyed them. I think I only saw an EX skill in MMZ3. The bosses are bullshit, but so are they in normal Mega Man, so I wasn't expecting fairness.
     
     Though there was this homosexual Pegasus in MMZ3 that was unfathomably annoying. There's a gay boss per game, it seems. They even turned Launch Octopus into a fairy in MMX for the PSP. Letting the characters speak was a mistake. Technology has brought misery. Ted was right.
   • Christi Junior (christijunior@detroitriotcity.com)'s status on Saturday, 29-Apr-2023 03:54:50 JST Christi Junior

     in reply to

     • EdBoatConnoisseur
     @Rasterman @EdBoatConnoisseur >There's a gay boss per game, it seems.
     
     I'm fine with LGBTP Representation if the faggots are portrayed as villains.
   • Rasterman (rasterman@detroitriotcity.com)'s status on Saturday, 29-Apr-2023 03:54:50 JST Rasterman

     in reply to

     • Christi Junior
     • EdBoatConnoisseur
     @ChristiJunior @EdBoatConnoisseur That seems to be a theme with some Japanese games. Here, all the effeminate enemies seem obsessed with some banality or are self-absorbed. It's good gay representation, I think.
   • EdBoatConnoisseur (edboatconnoisseur@poa.st)'s status on Saturday, 29-Apr-2023 03:54:51 JST EdBoatConnoisseur

     in reply to

     @Rasterman The EX skills are good, some bosses have a little more difficulty but some of the forms like the power, x and uhh don’t remember but the one that turns you orange are vital, the shield form is okay but you shouldn’t be taking hits to rely on the shield form and shield ex skill to turn bullets into energy.

   • Ardainian Hebrew Israelite (ardainianright@detroitriotcity.com)'s status on Saturday, 29-Apr-2023 03:56:41 JST Ardainian Hebrew Israelite

     in reply to

     • Christi Junior
     • Rehn
     • EdBoatConnoisseur
     @RehnSturm256 @ChristiJunior @Rasterman @EdBoatConnoisseur Sheba spends all her time hitting on girls and tries recruiting obvious children into her harem. She's also self-absorbed and prone to fits of rage.
   • Christi Junior (christijunior@detroitriotcity.com)'s status on Saturday, 29-Apr-2023 03:58:54 JST Christi Junior

     in reply to

     • Rehn
     • EdBoatConnoisseur
     @RehnSturm256 @Rasterman @EdBoatConnoisseur Japan is being compromised, but people should recognize that the cancer is still in a far earlier stage than it is in the West. Even AI: The Somnium Files, which is the single worst Japanese games I've played in terms of SJW bullshit, that content is still essentially superfluous to the main story, rather than truly feeling "baked into the cake".
     Ardainian Hebrew Israelite likes this.
   • Ardainian Hebrew Israelite (ardainianright@detroitriotcity.com)'s status on Saturday, 29-Apr-2023 03:59:45 JST Ardainian Hebrew Israelite

     in reply to

     • Christi Junior
     • Rehn
     • EdBoatConnoisseur
     @ChristiJunior @RehnSturm256 @EdBoatConnoisseur @Rasterman Still never getting another SEGA game after their Mermaids shilling.
   • Christi Junior (christijunior@detroitriotcity.com)'s status on Saturday, 29-Apr-2023 04:02:46 JST Christi Junior

     in reply to

     • Ardainian Hebrew Israelite
     • Rehn
     • EdBoatConnoisseur
     @ArdainianRight @EdBoatConnoisseur @Rasterman @RehnSturm256 It makes sense when you remember Sega's origins as a Jewish/American company, and the Sony PlayStation quarters being localized in Commiefornia.
     Ardainian Hebrew Israelite likes this.
   • Ardainian Hebrew Israelite (ardainianright@detroitriotcity.com)'s status on Saturday, 29-Apr-2023 04:04:23 JST Ardainian Hebrew Israelite

     in reply to

     • Christi Junior
     • Rehn
     • EdBoatConnoisseur
     @ChristiJunior @EdBoatConnoisseur @Rasterman @RehnSturm256 At least we still have Tears Of the Kingdom. Also I can go back to Xenoblade 3 and Future Redeemed when that's all done.
   • Ardainian Hebrew Israelite (ardainianright@detroitriotcity.com)'s status on Saturday, 29-Apr-2023 04:08:24 JST Ardainian Hebrew Israelite

     in reply to

     • Christi Junior
     • Rehn
     • EdBoatConnoisseur
     @RehnSturm256 @ChristiJunior @Rasterman @EdBoatConnoisseur Xenoblade 2. I do respect Sheba's racism towards Nopon, though she was still a retard for getting Jewed(or is it Nopped?) by them in the first place. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZXa5pbEaqvg
   • Rehn (rehnsturm256@shota.house)'s status on Saturday, 29-Apr-2023 04:08:25 JST Rehn

     in reply to

     • Christi Junior
     • Ardainian Hebrew Israelite
     • EdBoatConnoisseur

     @ArdainianRight @ChristiJunior @Rasterman @EdBoatConnoisseur which game? I don’t know the character, sorry. :02think: but yeah sounds like the hints of degeneracy :02laugh:

     Interestingly, lesbianism and their negatives is depicted in a different - almost supportive - way in anime and games. It’s done for titillation or laughs. “Haha she’s a shotacon” or “she’s manipulating other girls”. It’s still nowhere near the depravity and “always in the right” B.S. the West has going. Jrpgs and anime at least tend to show the degenerate lesbos as older women nearing the end of their prime. It’s a weird cultural thing to look into. :Thinkeyes:

   • Christi Junior (christijunior@detroitriotcity.com)'s status on Saturday, 29-Apr-2023 04:12:29 JST Christi Junior

     in reply to

     • Ardainian Hebrew Israelite
     • Rehn
     • EdBoatConnoisseur
     @ArdainianRight @RehnSturm256 @EdBoatConnoisseur @Rasterman Literally Mermaid-themed btw :thinkin:
     Ardainian Hebrew Israelite likes this.
   • Rasterman (rasterman@detroitriotcity.com)'s status on Saturday, 29-Apr-2023 08:43:09 JST Rasterman

     in reply to

     • Ene
     @Ene Thanks, buddy! :0010:
     
     ...
     
     *looks at profile picture*
     
     AH, DUDE, NO! NOT COOL. TOO SOON. :drake_dislike.png:
     Ene likes this.
   • ignika98 (ignika98@fedi.treeoflifecomic.com)'s status on Saturday, 29-Apr-2023 08:49:38 JST ignika98

     in reply to

     • Christi Junior
     • Rehn
     • EdBoatConnoisseur
     Reminder that Leeron from Gurren Lagann is one of the only good examples of gay representation because he's a weird looking, autistic freak who scares children and gets off on it.
     Ene likes this.