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Regarding Bioshock 2's lukewarm reception and lack of presence in modern discourse: The widest and most far-spread criticism of Bioshock 2 at time of it's release was it's "failure to distinguish itself from it's predecessor", a statement I disagree with but one which shows up extraordinarily often throughout reviews of that era, with Zero Punctuation's review of it (back when people took Yahtzee any kind of seriously outside of Extra Punctuation) calling it a "knock-off piece of shit". If my memory isn't failing me (something it does worryingly often) There was a prevailing idea in the Late 2000's-Early 2010's in gaming culture that sequels ought to be completely distinct from their predecessors, likely as a backlash to the growing trend of annualized franchises. Innovative, was the buzzword of that era, and Bioshock 2, for as much as I love it (I think it's the best Bioshock game by a wide margin, gameplay and story wise.), doesn't really fit that word. This kind of attitude is why Bioshock Infinite was so positively received on release, as the switch in setting and other gameplay changes were perceived as innovative and distinguishing. With the benefit of hindsight, I do find that a lot of opinions on Bioshock 2 have softened, and Infinite is now regarded a lot more harshly, especially in certain circles.

Damn, I missed the Birthright discussion, it seems. My opinion is that Mozu is the probably the worst unit in Birthright, as she loses almost of the niches and advantages she has on the Conquest route -In CQ, there is no grinding, which makes Apitude a better skill since it can actually be a skill to assure good growths rather than just save time. In BR, well, it really is just a timesaver and nothing more at that point. -In CQ, her only competition for Bow users is Niles, Nina, and (potentially but unlikely) Corrin. Niles and Nina usually don't end up as the greatest of combat units, more focused on support, so she wins out in this regard. In BR, she has to compete with Takumi (Prf Bow), Reina (Pre-Promote with good personal skill), and Setsuna, in a class you'd want maybe 2 at most of on your team. You can argue Setsuna is bad and I'd agree with you, but I'd also bring up the point that Setsuna is still arguably easier to train and doesn't require a Heart Seal. -In CQ, there are lots of high avoid enemies and fliers, which gives Mozu, with her high skill growth, class skills from Archer, and access to bows, a very useful niche throughout the entire campaign, especially once she starts gaining levels and truly comes online. In BR, most units have good hit-rates, most enemies are slower than you, and there's far less fliers. -Conquest has much more player-phase focused design with strong enemies and differing objectives. Birthright is...Birthrout. Bows are less useful in general on BR due to their lack of enemy phase and the focus on rout maps. -I've mostly skipped over talking about keeping her in the villager class because not only does keeping Mozu melee make her harder to train, but it also still fails to really fill in any purpose that an easier to train unit like Hana, Hinata, or Hisame couldn't fill in the Master of Arms class. -Really, the biggest thing she brings in Birthright is natural access to the Merchant class, which nobody but Midori has otherwise. But Merchant is not really...the best class in general, and is hampered by Mozu's poor base luck. I think Mozu is actually one of the better units in Conquest due to all of what I described above, but Birthright really works to take away pretty much all of her all of her advantages and make her just like Donnel, except without infinite leveling.

I can't even remember if this strat requires Nagi specifically or Tiki can do it too, but I always found it funny that the best way to beat H5 Med was to just suicide onto him and then do it again.

Civil war, succession crisis, etc have all been brought up, so the one I'd like to throw in the hat would be a slave rebellion. There's quite a few examples throughout history to draw from, the most famous of which are the Roman Servile Wars and the Haitian Revolution, but you've also got the Zanj Rebellion and Mamluk Sultanate, so quite a few time periods and countries take influence from.

I think players should be able to choose between True Hit on or off (choosing between 2RN and 1RN essentially). This one is mostly a personal thing since I played a lot of old strategy games and tabletop growing up and grew used to the true statistics of dice and probability over time. I grew used to managing and mitigating RNG as a skill over time and so True Hit kinda fucks with me. A 25% chance in Thracia is a 1/4 chance of hitting. The chances of it missing are obviously higher than hitting, but that's still not a terrible chance, and with some precautions and as long as you don't hinge your strategy on it, it can be worth it to throw that attack. A 25% chance in Blazing Sword is actually 12.75%, which is 51/400. You might as well not bother with that attack then, and the lower you go the worse it gets. It also fucks me with me when the hit rates are high too. I'll end up playing more cautiously than I should with an 80% in newer games unless I consciously remember that 80% is actually 92%, and so a 1/5 chance of missing is actually 2/25. Obviously, I don't want to just yeet True Hit entirely since for most players it reduces frustrations and people like me are outliers, but I still would want a toggle or option for it. Of course I understand that Fates and SoV use a hybrid system, which I like for what it does for low hit rates but I still don't like what it does for high hit rates and would still want the option.

I do not believe that the story issues that arise from a game designed around permadeath are unsolvable. At the very least, I don't think it's a big enough issue to warrant removing permadeath or to stop designing around the mechanic, because I think the permadeath mechanic, in combination with the many RNG elements of the series, makes for a lot of unique choices even without playing Ironman or similar challenges. Fire Emblem stories have never been particulary impressive anyways, and even the recent games which discard designing around the mechanic haven't had stories that I think are worthy of sacrificing the mechanic. Particularly Fates, which, in routes besides Revelations, is not very iron-man friendly, is regarded as having one of the worst stories told in video games period, let alone FE.

Conquest Chapter 18 (the one where Zola captures and threatens to execute all of the Hoshidan Royals) is not actually that poorly written. The only actual stupid part of it is the fact that Zola's men don't back down at all from, you know, the entire Nohrian Royal Family and their accompanying army telling them to stop. The actual politics of the matter are generally sound: Letting Zola go through with executing the Hoshidan Royals would leave a massive power vacuum in Hoshido. The end result is that while the war itself may end quicker than normal (highly debateable), there's still going to bloodshed for years, arguably for longer than if Nohr wins the war conventionally, as civil strife would engulf the country with the remaining Hoshidan nobles vying for the throne. Even if none of the above happened, Hoshido wouldn't forgive Nohr ever, all but ensuring that a follow-up conflict between the two countries is in the future. Stopping Zola's plan but then capturing the Hoshidan Royals anyways is still not very smart, as Garon would want their heads anyways, and trying to hide them is highly improbable, because of all the witnesses to the act, the fact that some of those witnesses (Izumo) are liable to be very pissed that Nohr broke a signed treaty and violated their sovereignty to capture them, and the fact that Hoshido is going to notice the fact that their royal family went missing in Izumo. Either of the above two plans (which I find that fans often suggest as the "right" courses of actions) will piss off Izumo, and likely many other neutral states, ruin Nohr's reputation on the world stage, making rebuilding after overthrowing Garon even harder than it's going to be, especially since neither of the plans were actually on the orders of Garon (Zola was acting on his own, IIRC). It would also make actually winning the war and getting Garon's fat ass onto the throne much harder, since a lot of those states would be liable to just up and declare war on Nohr, especially any that were already on the edge. All of the above is also why Ryoma has no reason to be grateful to Corrin and co. since none of what happened in Chapter 18 should've happened in the first place, and the fact that it did only serves to further prove how far Nohr has fallen to the Hoshidan Royals. Saving the Hoshidan Royals and letting them go was not only morally right, it was literally the only sensible option. The fact that Hoshido forgives it happening in the first place is a miracle. None of this is to imply that Conquest is well written as a whole (quite the opposite) but I've seen a lot of people on reddit, YT, and I also remember on here a few years ago, imply that Zola is some kind of unsung hero who would've ended the war without bloodshed if only stupid Corrin and co. didn't stop him, when the exact opposite is true and it's apparent if you spend more than 30 seconds thinking about it.

Unsure of how unpopular this is, but I think Master Knight or a Master Knight-like class should return in some capacity, specifically for characters like Donnel, Mozu, or the Sacred Stones trainees. I often feel like most villager units in the series fail to pay back the investment because they don't really offer anything unique in return for all the EXP you sunk into them. They just kinda end up as another strong unit, and I think instead of that they should offer a unique class or skill instead.

White House says it will not cooperate with the Impeachment Inquiry This is now a full-on Constitutional Crisis; One branch outright refusing to acknowledge the authority of the other.

David Koch dead at 79 I've been thinking of something else to say to go along with that but I'm not supposed to speak ill of the dead so I'll just leave it at that.

I believe Epstein was being held alone. As well, the prison has had no suicides for 2 decades until now. The NY Times now reports that 2 of the guards set to check on him every 30 minutes both slept through them and falsified records

There was an attempted shooting at a mosque in Norway. The shooter was stopped by a 65 year old man. Only 1 was injured the attack, although the shooter did murder his little sister before he left home

Credit to @HaychelDA on twitter. Obstagoon's design is okay but it's a bit weirdly proportioned. I think making it just a bit chubbier like in the picture makes it look better

>Obstagoon has Guts >Linoone learns Extreme Speed and Belly Drum okay gamefreak

http://boards.4channel.org/vp/thread/39620804