u/xyZora

I'm wondering about it because I usually go for a mage oriented build, but it felt quite boring in Skyrim for what little I played. And I keep finding people claiming all roads lead to stealth archer anyway. Is that true?

Oblivion has it, but the original Switch version of Skyrim doesn't and I stopped playing for this reason alone (it caused me to feel motion sickness everytime I wanted to sprint, regardless of the first or third person view).

I would be willing to try again if this option has been added, but I haven't found anything showing it's there.

I'm asking because most reviewers I've seen show only early game footage. But how does it run until the very end? My understanding is that on PS5 (which I also have) the framerate degrades with time.

Tbh at this point all versions run choppily, so the resolution itself doesn't bother me much and the NS2 version is portable and has mouse controls.

But as much as I've seen reviews from people that love it I've also seen reviews of people that despise it, so I trust more the opinion if players that have actually finished the game.

This would be my first TES game btw (I did play Skyrim a bit but the camera gave me motion sickness).

As a preface I must make it clear that I'm not saying Western conceptions of good and evil have not influenced the cosmology of Avatar, so people finding these parallelisms are not necessarily wrong, I just find that the loud voices making the claim are not making this argument with a firm understanding of Christian theology so I wanted to throw my two cents, especially with the potential return of Vaatu in ASH.

Everytime that I see this claim I sigh to myself a bit. It's usually said along the lines of "LoK ruined Avatar by making good and evil generic" or "they just couldn't help themselves to Westernize it".

But Vaatu is not even close to be Satan, at least not the Christian understanding of the devil. In the Hebrew Bible (Old Testament) Satan is a title that means accuser. It referred to a spirit under the command of God to serve as a some sort of prosecutor.

It was not until Greek philosophy influenced Jewish thought that a concept of the devil as an entity embodying evil came forth. Funnily, the Bible mentions Satan very little and most of what we understand as "the devil" comes from Dante's writings and medieval ideas.

To avoid giving a lecture on world religions, Satan in Christianity is a created being. It's finite and is not, and never was on equal footing to God.

Vaatu and Raava are cosmic forces that depend on
each other. They may or may not hate each other, but they do know both belong to a cosmic dance that is inevitable and their essence is intertwined. They are also equal with each other, so usually external factor determine who wins. This idea of twin cosmic forces is actually closer to Zoroastrianism than anything to do with Christianity (which funnily is an Eastern religion).

Besides the color palette and Unavaatu's goblin design, Vaatu never behaves like Satan, at all. He never tempts or goes out if his way to deceive for the sake of it, and seems uninterested at best in humanity and their ways. There are some shades, for sure. But I find it disingenous to treat him as a Satan clone.

My guess is that a portion of the fandom resents the Vaatu and Raava concept because it resembles cliche ideas from other works of fiction and that these "contaminate" the refreshing depiction of Buddhist philosophy of ATLA.

My personal take is that it works well within this universe and it's Avatar's own take on religion and cosmic forces. I'm not a huge fan of Vaatu as a character though, but I do believe there is narrative potential there, especially the story and reasoning behind his trespassing into the material world.

My first turn-based JRPG was Final Fantasy III DS. I tried to love it but I just couldn't and I could never get into another turn based game for a while.

Until Octopath was announced. I was not even interested in the game but the hype made me curious and I downloaded the demo. It's combar system just clicked with me immediately.

Bought the game, played for 130h and spent 3 hours with Galdera. Loved every minute of it.

Ever since then, I fell in love with the genre. I eventually played my old FFIII and loved it. I played FFIX and had one of my best gaming experiences. I'm now super excited for FF Resonance (I couldn't play Octopath II but I have it now ready to play, I'm excited to play O as well and I'm definitely planning
on playing BD Flying Fairy).

Octopath opened me to so many great games and Octopath itself had such a lovely world and music. It truly is something special.

It is not the series fault, frustratingly so. The new trailer released just a while ago. I don't particularly adore the new style, but the concept of a post-apocalypse story in this world is fascinating.

And yet I felt nothing and I think it's because I have no hope Bryke will be allowed to fully explore this new concept completely to its full potential.

They will release the 26 episodes in their entirety by October. Why? The Aang movie was defaced by the studio and will release to no fanfare. And now the entire new series is coming out with no hype or care for its release.

I want to enjoy what we get because Bryke and their team are pouring their love and passion. But it is increasingly hard to become emotionally invested on a world that is not receiving the proper respect from the studio.

When the game came out it was treated more like a Metroidvania, but I returned to finish it a while ago (I left the game incomplete for several years) and I'm amazed as to how much it feels like a Souls game.

Cryptic and fascinating lore/story, crunchy roll mechanics, heavy emphasis on combat dungeons and a semi open world to explore. It has no RPG elements though.

It doesn't have a stamina system per se, instead you have a gun that recharges on your kinectic energy when you attack enemies with your sword, creating this really nice flow of combat: attack, attack, evade, shoot.

And enemies are no joke. The game can be really challenging and in fact that's the reason I dropped it as I was not used to Souls combat back then.

Game is also gorgeous. Worth every cent.

I've played the older FFs (III, IX) but is there something I should know for this one?

It was so heartwarming when Peppy put on his hat and Falco was so friendly and just happy to have him back. Such a short and yet powerful little scene. I love this game.

Never change Slippy, never change.

The game is now ready for pre-orders on the Switch and it's not even on the featured tab. I only found out because I've been checking the eShop religiously for weeks now.

I hope this changes when the game is closer to launch, but come one! (unintelligible goblin screeches)

PSA

Sadly no demo, but the screenshots do look lovely.

We do know Lost Izalith is rushed by Miyazaki himself, but I believe this was extrapolated to the entire second half.

When I played for the first time without knowing this, I genuinely only disliked and found boring that area. New Londo is also not much of my liking but that is less for the level feeling unfinished and more because I found the atmosphere oppressive.

But both TotG and DA felt very complete and enjoyable to play through. To an extent I do think this whole rushed or incomplete assertion has become fandom "common knowledge" without much true substance.

I think this is really important. At this rate I would not want FS to work with Sony ever again. Nintendo is by no means a good guy, but they are the only console manufacturer that has a semblance of a decent future for the next five years.

With NS2 garnering a lot of third party support, I do see the possibility this will be the best console for FS to focus their development efforts (and PC).

It's weird, and I know a lot of people in this community hate Nintendo, but this could potentially be the best option for FS.

Because am not willing to spend $1000 for a next gen console in two years.

So with Sony announcing they will kill physical games, Nintendo is the last bastion for physical ownership but I fear this will just pause this new trend.

Physical ownership matters, so I believe fighting for that is good, but digital ownership is more important IMO.

Full digital will eventually become the new standard, and I think it makes sense for different reasons (including environmental), but the issue is the lack of ownership.

That's why GOG and Steam users are less worried because they own the software for the most part.

I do believe physical should alway be an option, but game preservation and ownership is the true issue here and owning the software would be the key. But I don't see Nintendo doing this anytime soon, either.

What a frustrating situation.

I finished my first campaign yesterday and now I'm doing a second campaign and earning so medals. I adore this game. I played it as a kid but was always terrible at it. The 3DS remake was cool, but I felt didn't add enough (but the 3D effect is still cool).

But this? The world feels so alive and it's gorgeous. And despite all the added stuff to make the game more cinematic the core gameplay is the same and it feels like a 2026 game.

I'm so surprised how well this game has aged and I'm having so much fun. StarFox is finally back 🥹

I have tested both the Lance and the Gunlance and the appeal to me right now is the counter and aggressiveness. But I want to know which one would be best to focus in the long run? Seem Gunlance is more aggresive, but does it outclass Lance?