u/Alternative_Try1933

I know this probably won't mean anything to anyone else, but as I go through the story, it feels like this one thing keeps beating me over the head, and it ultimately isn't a problem I had with CyberSleuth.

I'm gonna be honest: I love mon-tamers. I love getting to play as all these cool, diverse monsters when fighting opponents. Sometimes, I even make stories and give my mons personalities and whatnot. Time Stranger does, in fact, let me do this. ...but it shoves into my face the one thing I DON'T like about Digimon.

If I had to pick a least-favorite digimon, it would be a hundred-something way tie between every single digimon that's just a human in a costume or some BS. What I love about mon-tamers is the ability to NOT have to play as a human in battle. To play as these cool animals and monsters instead. I have an easy time connecting with animals and monster, and a big reason for that is that it acts as a way to escape from, well, the human race for a bit, especially the idea that life is garbage except for humans, which I see a LOT in people and media.

And this ends up being what keeps shattering my immersion in Time Stranger. The digimon themselves play a MUCH bigger role narrative-wise compared to CyberSleuth, and this could have been cool. ...except it does EXACTLY what I play mon-tamers to get away from.

First off, when I play CyberSleuth, I sometimes like to build up my favorite Digimon to be strong enough to face certain strong teams all by himself. This is something that is virtually impossible in Time Stranger, since 95% of the game, you are FORCED to have this little BEEP named Aegiomon on your team. He cannot be removed, nor can he be permanently knocked out until healing. Even if I have him knocked out in one fight, he always begins the battle with one HP, so doing what I liked doing in CyberSleuth ends up being more trouble than it's worth. The outer dungeons are the only places where he's abscent, but there are no dungeons that pit you up against more than one digimon at a time. Yes, this is a specific thing that really only I care about, but it is still something that made CyberSleuth extra fun for me.

-SPOILER WARNING!!!-

But my biggest issue is the whole Titan Wars. It seems like almost every important goodguy Digimon is either a human or turns into a human. Oh, Shellmon and her Gill Grunt friend Divemon? They eventually turn into random woman with a blindfold and some dude in a fat fish costume. But where this REALLY comes to a head is with the brothers. Eventually, GrapLeomon must kill his brother Callismon, who looks f@#$ing AWESOME btw, and at first it's like "okay, two cool anthro Digimon fighting to the death, I guess I'm ready for a heartripper here."

...And then GrapLeomon started to digivolve.

That sense of dread immediately kicked in. All I could think before the big reveal was "Please, for the love of god... don't turn into another f@#&ing human."

...But, of course he does. God@$%&it!!!

This instantly ripped me out of the situation with that massive "UGH!!!" feeling. Yet another situation where "OMG, good dimimon turn into humans, bad digimon don't!" and instead of feeling sad, all I felt was frustrated. Things like Bachusmon being a goodguy and the occasional human digimon Titan you get to fight end up being a breath of fresh air, but honestly, the aftermath of GrapLeomon/Marsmon VS Callismon might just be where I ultimately check out.

This was not an issue in Cybersleuth. I wasn't constantly bombarded by the whole "Good digimon can only be humans" feeling that kept popping up in Time Stranger, so I had a much more immersive experience with them. Yes, again, I know this is a personal thing, but it still strongly effected my enjoyment of Time Stranger, and I feel like going back to CyberSleuth even if I can't skip the long a$% cutscenes.

In some shorts and jokes, people often play clips of things they want to compare it to, such as comparing Pokemon to other games, usually showing the game they want to use to dunk on Pokemon with during September's dramatic build-up, then showing clips from Scarlet and Violet or something during the lyrics section, except the lyrics are replaced with a recorder. I'd say it's a "poorly played recorder," but has anyone ever heard a recorder played right?

So I have to ask...

Why did Aniimo use this when it didn't even make sense? I already don't like Earth Wind And Fire's September, I already don't like the meme, and for some reason, the people in charge of the ad made it sound even WORSE! And, once again, it feels like they don't understand the context of the meme. Nothing is being compared to. It's just a random showcase of monsters from Aniimo. -_-

Let me explain.

One of my favorite things about Digimon Story Cyber Sleuth: Hackers Memory was building up my favorite Digimon, taking them to certain fights against a strong group, and just letting my favorite Digimon be a badass boss character. Hackers Memory had no shortage of moments like this, especially since you didn't have Aegiomon forced onto your team at almost all times.

But in Time Stranger, those options are few and far between. You RARELY have any situations where you can do that. The outer dungeons don't let you do that because just about NONE of them pit you against multiple enemies at a time, and instead all the fights are against a single digimon at a time. The only case I can think of is the arena, which is unlocked VERY late in the game. Beyond that, there just aren't any good chances for that.

Yes, I know that is oddly specific, but it has effected my enjoyment of Time Strangers. I'm glad they added skippable cutscenes, but I still miss not having Aegiomon forced on my team or all the instances I could just make my favorite digimon play like a boss.

I've been concerned about hhis health, lately. Our puppy liked to chew on corn stalks, and I told the vet about it, and she seems to think I shouldn't let him do that anymore. Especially since, lately, he's been having inconsistent stools, usually wet, sometimes runny, and oftentimes when he does have dry poop, he struggles to get it out. ...at least once last night. He has had healthy poops in between all this, but it's still concerning.

There's other factors in play, like stress from having to go to a trainer, plus the treats she gave him that he might not be used to. What's strange is that he's not pooping blood, he doesn't seem in pain, and his behavior overall seems normal. He still sleeps a lot, but when he does want to play, he's full of energy. Nothing about his behavior seems off, but I am still worried.

It's a PC game. Not too old. Been playing it a lot recently.

It might actually be one of the worst games ever.

*With backstory.

I've been thinking about this for a few days after watching some videos on Crash Bash. He's never really been a character I paid much mind to. At the same time, I do think he was done dirty.

On the topic of Crash Bash, Naughty-Dog had released four straight bangers in a row, and would soon call the Crash series quits and pass the torch to other studios, and before hopping into the next generation, the first studio to take a crack at Crash would be Eurocom, a mid tier company with both hits and misses (much like Travelers Tales, who'd be next).

We get a generic story of Good VS Evil, but Aku Aku brings up that the goodguys are outnumbered, so Uka Uka gives Team Good Tiny and Dingodile, which... doesn't make sense. Dingodile WOULD eventually become a goodguy in Crash 4: It's About Time (which is a game we'll talk about later), but it makes no sense for him and Tiny to be good here. They're just randomly slapped onto the good team while Cortex, N. Brio, Koala Kong, and some new character would be on the team of evil.

And, frankly, Tiny and Dingo should not be on Team Good. N. Brio should. Why? Because his last game had him on the goodguy's team. ...sort of. In Crash 2, N. Brio is the one who uses the gems to power a laser that destroys the Cortex Vortex. His previous partner had supposedly betrayed him, and so N. Brio would naturally betray Cortex back.

...And EVERY SINGLE GAME AFTER CRASH 2 would forget this.

Afterwards, he would be featured as a boss alongside N. Tropy in Twinsanity, as well as a villain in Mind Over Mutant, neither of which even acknowledge him betraying Cortex. He's just... back on the villain's side.

Not even Crash 4: It's About Time would remain consistent with Crash 2, as once again, N. Brio would be back on the villain's side after he deliberately fought against Cortex in Crash 2. No mention of what happened in that game, either.

It begs the question, though. Regardless of how you feel about N. Brio as a character, what if they DID keep that consistent? What if they did maintain a possible rivalry between Cortex and N. Brio, possibly having Brio continue to work with the bandicoots to foil Cortex's plans? ...I dunno. Like I said, I never put much thought into it before, I just think it's a bit of a missed opportunity to see him constantly get wasted like this.

Honestly, the idea of a big, fat, red monster with springing boxing gloves just seems too hilarious and badass for me to not want to use her. And looking at ther stats, she's got some pretty high attack, and some WTF-HOW ARE YOU SO FICKEN FAST maxed speed that defies logic, which kinda reverses Blissey. Regular Blissey is a special wall with maxed HP, while Redux Blissey is a physical sweeper with maxed speed.

BUT...

Redux Blissey not only has paper thin physical defense like regular Blissey, but paper thin special defense. In addition, for most of the game, Redux Blissey has no priority moves in a game where priority is more common than ever, meaning Redux Blissey will spend most of the day dying to a coughing baby everytime it uses a priority move. It's not until the 60s where it finally learns its only counter to priority moves: Upper Hand, except Upper Hand ONLY works on other priority moves, so you have to guess if your opponent will use one. Sure, there are instances where it's garunteed (Mega Typhlosion), but if you guess wrong, you lose a turn, even if you're usually likely not gonna.

And that has me worried, but at the same time, it gives me solace as this Pokemon kinda disproves the "speed is everything" mentality a lot of Pokemon fans seem to have.

Unless you picked Magnemite as your steel starter, you only have six unique steel Pokemon to work with. I'm trying to avoid duplicates, but I almost worry I might have to as I cannot figure out how to beat the twins before Rustburo, and honestly, the second bug trainer in the forest was already a mother-hubbard.

I normally lead with my trap setters Ferroseed and Aron, but I feel like that's pointless because traps usually aren't that good against grass types.