u/Ace-eclipsezero

I know the rules of soul links. However a friend told me that you're also supposed to generally play with no repeated primary typing(for example if I catch a primary water type, he can't have a primary water type) and that the gender has to be different on the pairs(if theres is a male mine has to be female) obv my nuzlocke my rules, im just wondering if thats how its "supposed to be done"

Also you're also supposed to lick the same starter in a row?(if they pick the middle I also pick the middle) in randomisers anyway.

That is all

When he secretly carries tattas bracelet couldn't they had just gone to the middle and redistributed points? Or did I read that rule wrong.

So I know im beating a dead horse with the whole "shadow slave wroting has fallen off" but something i don't see nearly enough people mention is how bad the power system is.

For starters its a system based power system whuch has already been overused, but that wasn't a problem in the beginning because for a system, it was fairly unique. Aspects are basic in concept, but were interesting in their use case. So on paper it shouldn't be that bad right? Yet somehow it is.

Inconsistency of aspects

This is the most obviously glaring issue but aspects are so widely inconsistent.

From the beginning we are taught that how well you do in your nightmare determines your aspect, and that aspects are divided into ranks from dormant to divine. But those aspects are nowhere near equal even of the same rank

A very good example of this is the good old divine trio debate. Sunny in comparison to the other two is so much more vastly superior, the only thing giving nephis an edge is her immunity to corruption, which is basically an i win button against any human. Other then that, sunny by far has the most going with his kit.

But this isn't a divine trio problem? It's a problem with everyone. Look at the cohorts aspects in comparison to everyone elses the power gap is lucricously large. Doesn't help that we are only given the ranks of the cohorts aspect and not anyone elses so either this is the most plot armor side cast out, or everyone else is just very unlucky. And that the difference is never really stated. I think the only difference atp is that Divine aspects have more cores but you can't tell me the quality of an aspect changes by rank when jet and Cassie exist. Those aspects are so close to the peak of aspect abliliys

Which leads to my next point...

If aspects are given to you at birth and are simply dormant inside you, then wouldn't that mean ur preformance doesn't matter? Atp getting a good aspect is just a matter of rng it makes for a large gap in inequality of strength within ranks.

Like ur tellong me nephis would have had her aspect regardless of her NM? You can exclude sunny since he wasn't supposed ot get shadow gods. But nephis mordret amd everyone else would have gotten their aspects if they naturally awakened? Natural awakening is a cool concept but it leaves alot of questions. To me aspects are no longer a matter of survival and skill its just a matter of luck(*cough* rain *cough*) and this is further proven with real mordret having naturally transcended

Which leads to another point

Flaws are the most inconsistent pick and choose concept in the story.

For something thats a core part of the theme of story thay beong how the world is flawed and nothing is perfect, and to accept those imperfections. Flaws do a HORRIBLE job at depicting. This. We are told they're absolute but they don't even feel like flaws. They only exist for character development and that only applies to sunny and nephis, Cassie and mordret. In most other cases,they merely serve as mild inconveniences.

kais is a great example. Amd i know i know, kais flaw was bad for him because he knew people were being fake and stuff. But now that we moved past that, its nothing but a net postive. Knowing when people are lying is just ANOTHER ABLILITY. Like sure it was bad at first. But ur telling me its still seen as a flaw now? When they have been using it to know when someone is lying(like when they initially questioned sunny when he was only the lord of shadows) you can't tell me thats still a valid flaw.

Morgan's is another example. Her flaw is that she cuts anything she touchs....not only is this just a mild inconvenience that can be solved with gloves? But that is literally a postive in battle.

The only few characters who's flaws remain flaws is jet, nephis, and rains. Cassies doesn't matter when she can still see by using her marks and can see into the future. And even nephis is irrelevant when "she's so determined she ignores it" her flaw is genuinely a bad flaw regardless but she rarely losses fights because she can't endure it. Its jist "Oh no she's expressionless again or theb20th conversation about trying to understand peoples passion and keeping her humanity. I love her. But its the same old same old. Hell EVEN sunnys is just a mild inconvenience now. It was a flaw for like 1000 chapters. Not even since he has weavers mask. But once he learned to trust people and learned not to lie it just stopped mattering anymore. Not being able to lie doesn't hold any weight when you don't have to lie about anything in the first place. Esp since ot really only went hand and hand with shadow bond. Not having to worry about that + growing as a person makes it irrelevant. And it feels bad when yoy realise that his flaw is the okly flaw that serves as character growth, besides maybe nephis but at least her flaw is still hurting her and affecting her to an extent. Honestly nephis flaw relates to the whole thing about unfairness. Her flaw is genuinely so bad. And anyone else would be dead. But because "shes nephis" she just endures it so it never feels like it holds weight till g3 brings up her lacking any emotion because of it. Hell rain and jest are perfect examples of inequality.

You have sunnys flaw who's used as character development and then stops mattering and then rains who's flaw is a net negative. Same with jest who CAN'T USE AN ENTIRE PART OF THE POWER SYSTEM????? This further shows the inconsistentys when you remember that flaws are supposed to be innate. They're tailored to you, rains flaw is thay she can't kill because she doesn't want to or felt like she couldn't kill people. Ok thays great. But why do we have such cruel flaws like rains that she can't ever grow past, and then flaws like kais that once you grow past becomes a net positive. The FUNNIEST part is that G3 treated flaws as a big weakness, something you should only tell your most trusted comrades. He made finding anvils and ki songs flaw a big thing(yet didn't make asters a big thing???).all of this for it to be some bs you can't make use of. Anvils flaw causing him to lose everything he cherishs is not a "flaw" its a CHARACTER flaw its a self fufuilling prophecy ki songs isn't even a flaw like anybody can be infertile hello? Jest is still the dumbest nonsensical flaw out. That shouldn't even be possible since you only have memories by having access to the spell, unless ur sunny.

Its just widely widely inconsistent and picks and chooses when to matter. Cassies only matters when she's a sleeper. Kais only matters till he character developments etc. And if you're gonna treat flaws as weaknesses make them genuine weaknesses.

Attributes and memorys

Now I actually don't have much to say about this. As you can gain and lose Attributes I just feel its very luck based to begin with, same with memorys. There really isn't much to say here i think Attributes are a lil underused. The only one's that really matter is fated, and divine lineages tho I wish we got more cool memorys.

One last thing I forgot to mention but aspects also have no limit. An aspect ablility can be ANYTHING as long as it can somehow be linked to your dormant aspect. There is no explicit limitation on what your aspect ablility can be which only contributes to the problem. Anyway thanks for reading and let me know what you think. Im truly curious if people agree or disagree with me on this one

EDIT: I Forgot about wills, but i think we can all agree wills SUCK and fit this more then anything else. So I hope I don't have to explain that

Basically i have been waiting for Aemeath to rerun. But she reran with lynae who i also needed.

I have about 200 pulls. And I was just gonna grab my guaranteed aemeath. However i liked quingxiao and was debating on pulling her.

Now however im in a bit of a dilemma. Denia is likely gonna be quingxiaos BIS and based on leaks denia and monrye will be running next patch. Thag means if I get aemath I need monrye anyway and if quingxiao needs monrye too as her third, then j need monrye regardless PLUS denia too(i was also debating sequences for one or the other so this puts a dent in that plan too.)

So basically its either

Pull aemeath, then pull monrye next patch.

Or

Pull quingxiao pray I get her early, pull denia, and use whats left for monrye

Do note I skipped yangyang and lynae is currently homeless

So for context I like grinds. But hate grinds that are just time wasters. Leveling up is one of the things that always ends up feeling like a slog and it(useally) feels like im just stuck doing the same thing over and over to level up at a certain point(ahem ark) So I like playing with a lil higher xp settings HOWEVER this game has the exact opposite problem.

Its a grind yes but its a grind in the total opposite way. Instead of the grind being bad because you are hardstuck. Its bad because you level up so fast that you're grinding to KEEP UP with your levels not to gain them.

I kidd you not, I am level 65 and I haven't even built a proper crude oil farm yet. I have ONE extracted thats not powered. And im supposed to be on coralum IM A LEVEL AWAY FROM THE NEXT TIER while being 3 TIERS below. Half the weapons I just skip ober because why use them when I can make the better ones?(I also like waiting for a tier 2 or 3 of said weapon or did anyway before now)

And I haven't been maxing pal catchs. The pace you level up on base settings is so lucricously fast that the grind isn't actually leveling up,its keeping up with your levels this is the first time EVER that a game has made me feel like I level up TOO quick. And ive played most survival/sandbox games.

Now I know i could just turn the xp down, but by time I realised this issue i was already in the 60s. So I don't see a point now, I'll just keep it in mind for next playthrough if I do one(prob will with a friend)

Its also kinda werid because I remember the grind being REALLY slow previously. To the point where if you wanted to level up you had to go out of your way too.

Also this is a side note that I might make another post for but will touch on briefly since its related. Chest and salavages are so broken they really need to be toned down.

The fact I am lvl 65 and the last time I crafted a sphere was 35 if not earlier is INSANE all of my spheres have been gathered by salvages and chest. Even one 1.0 it existed but ore 1.0 felt alot slower. And even then they were only legendary spheres so they weren't just an insta catch.

Now however you can get the best spheres in the game as low as level 14 even then you can at LEAST get legendary spheres before that if you were to go all the way to sakurarjima without a flyer. I know you wouldn't normally discover sunreach, but once you reach the third tower and decide to explore feybreak you'll be getting ultimate spheres and the portal to sun reach is right there i didn't even find it on purpose. And had sol spheres by level 50. And yea I could just...not loot them. But if I have to go out of my way to avoid systems a game has, then the system is flawed to begin with.

Anyway. If you read this far, thanks for listening to my rant. This is the only issue I have with the game really besides some build inconsistencies. Progression is so off tune atm

Basically i am torn between these do. I just pulled lynae because I needed her(tho i have mo team for her atm shes a great generalist support) as i feared she would siffer the 2 rerun curse and not come back. and have about 180 pulls left over.

By the end of this patch I should have enough for at least S2 maybe s3 plus weapon

So, im debating on either pulling aemeath for her(then monrye when she comes back or saving for quingxiao as I want at least one copy but also know sequences are very strong. So im torn

No one cares but im riding that just finished high right now so i just gotta give my thoughts. If the spoiler tag wasn't enough, heavy spoilers for the entirety of the novel

First of klein as an MC is a 10/10 and the only one who comes close is Kim dokja from ORV everything from his origin stroy to his presumed ending(haven't read coi) was perfection and he really is one of the best representations of a kind hearted MC out. The themes and parallels are so good I can't even put it into words honestly and I truly never thought I'd see the day someone takes Kim dokja and sunnys(ss) crown. Truly one of the best mcs ive ever been blessed reading and I hope lumen lives up to his name.

World building and lore drops were genuinely insane. And from a writing standpoint were really good. I would have mever expected any of the twist. Especially the earth and Adam reveal. Volume 6 onwards had me kn the edge of my seat the entire time. Tho I do feel like lore drops post vol 6 just kept getting dropped one after another without any breather in between. Which made it difficult to comprehend and keep up. Thats a solid 9.8 for that reason. But thats prob a me thing.

Fights were pretty good consistently, towards the end they got difficult to imagine and visualize because they became conceptual. But thats just the reality of having fights between gods alot of villians were kinda meh and theirs a few character i wish had more done to them. Apart from Adam and Amon villains were very hit or miss. Trissy was cool tho.

SIDE CHARACTERS!! I honestly have no problems here. Ive seen a few people complain abt side character development. But I think they got JUST enough to make most of them perfect(apart from poor xio) . And I assume they get a little more screen time in COI

That said my top three favorite side characters OVERALL

Is

1.Sharron(audrey is better written obviously)

2.audrey

3.Fors

HM: Azik and Bernadette. My biggest side character complaint is that after evernight showed up and gave azik those 3 choices, he disappeared up until the very end. Felt like it was done purely to write him out of the story and atp he was one of my favorites. And how Bernadette was tied to cattleya wish we saw more of her

Now ranking the tarot club members its

1. The world

2. Audrey

3. Fors

4. Alger

5. Derrick

6. Emlyln white

7. Leonard

8. Xio

9. Cattleya

I really wanted to like both xio and cattleya their the only ones I felt didn't get enough. Xio was tied to fors and shoukd have joined no more then 50 ch AFTER fors joined imo. She was literally the one to recite his honnorific!! Idk why she joined so late in such a nonchalant way. Then her story was kinda just...done, whatever

Where as cattleya started off strong. Rivalry with alger threatening his position, questioning the fool. And then just becomes a messenger for Bernadette to the point every interaction with her felt like an interaction with Bernadette. She really fell of the deep end.

Other them those two I do not feel the need to explain the placements, Leonard and Emlyln are about equal so they can be swapped.

Now over all the storys like a 9.9 I want to call it a master piece but the things I mentioned could have been done slightly better. That said Volume ranking time!!!

In order from favorites to least

Vol 6 10/10

Vol 4 9.8/10

Vol 5 9.7/10

Vol 7 9.7/10

Vol 2 9.4/10

Vol 8 9.4/10

Vol 3. 9.4/10

Vol 1 8.5/10

I KNOW someones gonna lynch me for putting vol 2 so high but I enjoyed vol 2 alot. I think it was actually a really good volume back before things got super intense. It was chill. Vol 1 almost made me drop the series, that start was a slow burn and vol 2 is only over 3 cuz i enjoyed Sherlock alot amd was sad he never really came back.

Thats all!! I do my pathway tier list seperately cuz im lazy

I just came to this realization when I was comparing webnovels I read. But tbate and shadow slave literally share the exact same problems. To the point where you'd have me thinking its the same author at times. Like look at this

Both have a sibling that weilds a bow

Both have a sibling thats a nepo baby

Both have sibling pov shifts that majority of fans hate(hot take i like rain chs and would have enjoyed ellie chs more if they didn't happen at the worst moments)

Both have pov shifting IN GENERAL at the worst times.

Both poorly handle their main villians

Both "fall off" after vol 7(even if I myself disagree)

Hell even the storys have alot of similarities .

The only difference is that tbate chs are longer and can't be excused as much + chose the worse love interest imo. But the problems are almost 1:1

The more I think about it, the more similarities appear. I just hope shadow slave has a good ending in comparison and doesn't follow that trend as well

Im sure ive missed something but when Sharron and maric fight but what is the door she opens up here? For context this is the part where Sharron klein and maric fight the people from rose school of thought. Around 347 where they fight wraith Steve.

Do note I am currently only on volume 3(ch 557 to ve exact.) I just went back to this fight and I don't know what the door she opens up is.

P.S I really hope Sharron comes back. She's one of my favorite side character so far