u/Playmakersama1

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Yesterday I finally beat MA, so I wanted to give my thoughts on all of SJ since I spent so much time preparing for that fight and I have some thoughts. I will try to separate this into a number of categories relevant to discussion.

• Story

Overall I would say the story is fine, nothing groundbreaking. I think the main issue besides the fact that most of the plot revolves around what the dungeons represent, is that character interaction just isn't enough I feel. Does it say something that Jack's Squad feels more like padding out rather than an impactful event for the overall plot, even though they are the ones that basically start the descent into madness? It might not have helped knowing going in which rep will be which, but even then, while Jimenez and Zelenin do have moments where they bicker, I don't think it was enough to justify both of their sides. Jimenez makes complete sense to become a Chaos Rep since he is basically going insane, but Zelenin betraying as many humans as she can because she herself wants protection? That seems a bit more of a jump from her usual reliance on angels, maybe that was also the influence of the angels at that point.

I went with Neutral, so I got to see Gore go out like a champ and not a lame-o. I think the game could have picked up the alignment conflict way earlier than Grus, since before that point it isn't quite obvious yet, but at the same time SJ was made with being different in mind, so maybe this was a better choice.

• Mechanics

The battle system is very good and ramps up well from low level to high level, the skills evolve with the player in level and everything is fairly balanced. I do need to mention a sort of imbalance between elements, while Fire and Wind get great Single Target skills, Ice and Fire get better Random hit skills (Breath is not as good as Ragnarok by the end mind you, but it does come earlier), Wind, Ice and Elec get Aoe skills that inflict an ailment (Mute, KO and Charm respectively), Elec kind of loses out on its second unique skill, as it's.......a cheaper Maziodyne? With worse damage? Not sure what the idea was, but it kind of makes Elec a less respectable skill by the end game, even if Thor who comes with Innate Amp is good.

The alignment system is a bit hit or miss, I feel Law is done the dirtiest due to demon quality and also a lack of actual special fusions until endgame. The other two alignments have a better spread, but I will be honest, with the abundance of special races in Neutral that you need to go out of your way to get, Chaos might have the best roster, which doesn't help Neutral or Law routes since the MC is, well, not Chaos. At least MA encourages use of every alignment.

If you want to unlock everything (without passwords), you will need to play all 3 routes regardless, but I think Law might be best kept 3rd for me, just because Chaos unlocks slightly more demons in its route while Law only unlocks Mara by itself. For actual completion reasons, Chaos and Law as your first routes might be best in reality, due to the boss rush too.

• Dungeon Design

Post the Eridanus Map, I dare you.

The dungeons are all great in their own ways and have justification for why they are the size they are.

The game is great, I enjoyed every second of it and I am already planning my NG+ (might go for Chaos as I want Mastema and Seraph to show up in my fusion tab), I wish it went even further with its mechanics, but not in the way Redux did. 9/10 game, a must play for any SMT player.

Granblue and DBFZ have 400+

Under-Night and P4AU have 100+

\+R and Xrd have 60\~

CrossTag has 35

Dnf Duel has 6

Centralfiction right now has around 1200 people playing, going up from the previous 800 earlier this week. With all of the numbers stated, this means that all other Arcsys games COMBINED have similar numbers to JUST Central Fiction....

...Besides Strive, that has 1700 people on it now, 500 over Central Fiction.

Granblue and DBFZ have 400+

Under-Night and P4AU have 100+

+R and Xrd have 60~

CrossTag has 35

Dnf Duel has 6

Centralfiction right now has around 1200 people playing, going up from the previous 800 earlier this week. With all of the numbers stated, this means that all other Arcsys games COMBINED have similar numbers to JUST Central Fiction....

...Besides Strive, that has 1700 people on it now, 500 over Central Fiction.

Daimon and Baby? Adds Ragna to it casually

BBEEX? Ties itself to actual BB lore for once

Strive? Apparently some of the dlc shocked even the devs that they could get them

BBCF? New char in like 2 days now or whenever Evo is idk I havent checked well

2026 IS THE YEAR OF BLAZBLUE

I returned to the game after years of basically being dragged in by my middle school friends to play and sucking at it (trust me I got some awful scores). I was looking at the champs and lanes and said "hey why not I buy the starter pack? It has some nice champs and I don't wanna take the game that seriously anyways". I then look and find that there are actually 3 bundles with 20 champs each for purchase, I check the wiki and it has the wrong list seemingly, so I thought to document at least what I got:

Yuumi Sejuani Caitlyn Leona Brand Tristana Volibear Morde Fizz Yone Samira Seraphine Wukong J4 Illaoi Ekko Syndra Olaf Talon Senna - Fan Favorites Bundle (Riot Girl Tristana included)

Yi Sion Soraka Ashe Jax Yorick Twitch Vladimir Anivia Shaco Mundo Kassadin Swain Gangplank Jinx Pyke Blitzcrank Katarina Vex Sivir - Champion Bundle (Huntress Sivir included)

Warwick Sett Annie Cho'Gath Evelynn Kai'sa Teemo Veigar Janna Pantheon Morgana Xerath Fiddlesticks Rammus Amumu Alistar Nasus Malphite Nunu Xin Zhao -Digital Collector Bundle (Goth Annie included)

Price is roughly 2k-3k RP for any one of these deducted based on what you own already.

Overall these seem like pretty nice bundles even if they include pretty cheap and old champs, but I do wonder when they changed the contents and if it depends on the client, as I already owned some of these champs anyways. I am very sure Sett and Kai'sa weren't there from 2009 but I'd like to hear about why they are there suddenly.

P.S. The lane starter packs are funny due to the choices they make, at least one champ in them isn't easy for a beginner but the Top one has Teemo in it. #RANKEDTOPISNOTABUGITSAFEATURE