u/emeraldwolf34
emeraldwolf34
emeraldwolf34
If a game doesn't have a quest log I'm just gonna use a guide for quests for the whole game, honestly.
emeraldwolf34
Story for me.
If you ask me what gameplay I prefer, it’s turn based, but few of my favorite games are turn based because gameplay is ultimately such a negligible factor on if I like a game or not.
Even whether or not I even have fun playing the game doesn’t necessarily matter. I’ll make myself spend 5 boring hours at the casino in DQV soft resetting until I get a broken weapon just because it makes breezing through the gameplay sections easier.
The main way I enjoy any piece of media is approaching it like I would a novel, as analyzing prose and the narratives communicated through it is one of my favorite things to do.
Technically this makes me have contempt for any non-novel medium I consume in my very conduct, which is why I don’t consider myself worthy of being called a “fan” of games or movies or the like. I’m just too addicted to rhetorical analysis.
emeraldwolf34
One of the funniest things about the ending of Black Clover was Charmy giving up on her one sided crush for Yuno and deciding “in romance, it’s better to be the pursued than the pursuer” and ended up marrying Rill, who was hopelessly in love with her. Then they had 7 kids in 2 years, so there was a lot of love in that relationship.
emeraldwolf34
I think it's a bit odd to take the stance of "look at Japan's history with Christianity" regarding the depictions in Black Clover, because the "Faith, Hope, and Love" stuff from Chapter 1 is taken directly from Paul's letters, so the series has been pretty mired in Christian imagery from the get-go.
Regardless, I think it's pretty easy to see it's mostly just aesthetic elements taken as a result of Black Clover trying to be a Western sort of fantasy setting, so I don't think it's making any sort of claim about Christianity as a whole or is sending any sort of moral message which is particularly against Christian teachings and thus not watching it due to your faith feels like an odd decision to me.
emeraldwolf34
Fate/strange Fake and Dandelion are my favorite I’ve seen lately
emeraldwolf34
I'm not even gonna lie, if you want a series that distances itself from video game systems and has its own world building... Dragon Quest: The Adventure of Dai actually does this quite well, despite being a Dragon Quest series that uses DQ monsters, it builds its own world and systems. For example fire and ice spells are actually considered the same family of spells, with one being temperature turned all the way up and the other has temperature turned all the way down. This leads to some worldbuilding unique to Dai which became so popular the games adopted it later (though not as well in many cases).
There is one maybe two usages of game mechanics in the series, one is a visual gag where a stat window shows a character taking damage when he is punched as a joke. The other is a character relying on his ability to "analyze" other characters to try and beat them, and being shown throughout the fight that the stat windows and databases this character sees have no actual bearing in real combat.
Also the author changed the mechanics of how revival spells specifically to avoid having it be this force in the series that took away all tension.
emeraldwolf34
It is quite cool that the Death and Strawberry in the final chapter are swapped from how they were at the start, where Rukia's daughter is the Strawberry while Ichigo's son is the Death.
I always knew Ichika's name roughly meant something related to strawberries, but this is the first time I've actually confirmed it.
emeraldwolf34
I don't even think Fate/Zero is god awful but the agenda must be maintained, Waver is the best part
emeraldwolf34
Dragon Quest: The Adventure of Dai is a good classic shonen, also is the author of Re: Zero’s all time favorite manga. He took a lot of things like Subaru’s character arc and Regulus’s abilities from there.
There’s no official confirmation, but there are a lot of moments which resemble Bleach quite closely too. Plus Hollow Purple’s explanation and concept were taken from Dai as well.
It’s pretty popular in Japan, hence its influence, so I think it’s a good thing to recommend for people to see where a lot of modern shonen writers got inspired from (Black Clover and D. Grayman have inspiration taken from it as well, confirmed in interviews).
emeraldwolf34
Silver Mountain
emeraldwolf34
Popp from Dragon Quest Dai is one of the all time greatest deuteragonists and is a mage, I’d call him quite well written.
emeraldwolf34
If you like Re: Zero, the author’s favorite manga of all time is Dai no Daibouken, which just got a full modern adaptation recently. If you watch it it’s pretty obvious where he got Subaru’s character arc, among other things, from.
emeraldwolf34
The content it covers is where the series took a major downturn for me, so I personally decided it’s best if I just don’t watch it.
emeraldwolf34
Dragon Quest: The Adventure of Dai is incredibly popular in Japan, to the point the series has influenced a generation of shonen manga and light novels after it, and also has had phrases from it incorporated as general internet turns of phrase.
The 2020 remake anime gave it some eyes outside Japan, but for the most part people don’t know what it is in the west. Though I do hear a lot of Latin American countries also knew Dai pretty well.
emeraldwolf34
Jade Curtiss (Tales of the Abyss), as a very experienced professional soldier, joins your party at an extremely high level and makes light work of any enemies.
However, he is soon hit by a Fon Slot Seal, which seals all of his fon slots and heavily reduces his ability to cast magic. Being a mage character, this is the explanation for why he is now the same level as the rest of your party in the early game.
Even cooler, when you make it back to Jade's original level, you get a scene where he talks about how the Fon Slot Seal has finally worn off and he's back to his previous full fighting capabilities.
emeraldwolf34
A lot of people are saying Iskandar, but I disagree. Chariot is all about the internal self and controlling oneself in pursuit of a goal. It explicitly says it’s about that and not external domination, which I’m fairly certain does not fit the King of Conquerers even if he is very internally devoted.
Something like Musashi and her internal pursuit of Zero would fit more, but she definitely has her fair share of distractions.
So, in lieu of that, I guess I’ll nominate Kojiro? As the honing of Swallow Reversal fits pretty well.
emeraldwolf34
90++ so tailor-made for Takasugi who already has a banner that they brought the other AOE quick DPS from Gudaguda who’s effective on Sabers and added an Archer for good measure.
emeraldwolf34
From Fate/strange Fake:
From El-Melloi:
"—!"
Arlette's body stiffened.
The metallic case had landed at the feet of a certain person.
That person picked up the metallic case. Wearing a friendly smile, he reached his hand out to hand the case over to Arlette.
"Here, mom."
"No—!"
Flat's hand had froze in mid air.
The response was so unwarranted, that even I found myself walking towards them.
"—Mrs.... Arlette?"
"No no no no NO NO DON'T COME CLOSER! DON'T ACT LIKE YOU'RE MY SON! DON'T COME CLOSER DON'T BREATHE NEAR ME JUST GO AND DIE RIGHT THERE!"
Arlette screamed desperately, a voice that I hadn't heard from her before. In both the Casa and in the fight with Ziz, she had always given the impression of a resolute, amazonian woman, but none of that remained here. Rolled up into a fetal position with her hands on her head, she looked more like an insect hiding behind a tombstone.
"W...hy?"
"Sedatives."
Next to me, I could hear Sir's voice. His tone was full of pain.
"Sir, do you mean, that-"
"I'm saying that that's what's inside that case. It's not like she was trying to hide it. Mrs. Escardos told us from the very beginning."
I remembered her words.
——"Whenever I hear that name, my nerves get all fried up, you know? I don't function well without my medication."
So that hadn't been a joke?
"Mrs. Arlette's lost her sanity a long time ago. Before Flat had come to the Clock Tower, and even before Van Fem started hiding him, having to employ assassins to kill her son over and over again was something that her mind couldn't take. I mean, it's obvious, isn't it? Family has a heavy meaning for any mage. To feel forced to carry that sentence by your own hand, it must have come with an unbelievable amount of pain."
"But then...why go that far?"
"She told us this also. —That when she noticed that she had a weapon of mass destruction with a lethal defect capable of destroying her home country, she knew she had to take the appropriate means to dispose of it."
"......"
Perhaps, she was also right.
And if that decision came with the collapse of her own sanity, then maybe that made her even more correct in her decision.
As a mage.
And as a mother.
And perhaps, as the woman protecting Monaco.
Flat slowly lowered the hand holding the metallic case.
"I'm sorry, mom. I'll leave it here, okay?"
"DON'T CALL ME YOUR MOTHER!" Arlette screamed.
"YOU'RE NOT MY SON! YOU'RE SOME BROKEN DOLL THAT WAS FORCED UPON US! A MONSTER THAT WE HAVE TO DESTROY, EVEN IF WE HAVE TO RISK EVERYTHING TO ACHIEVE IT!"
"Yeah, you're probably right."
Placing the metallic case at her feet, Flat turned on his heel. Facing us, his lips turned upwards in a smile.
"Sorry, professor! It's a shame you had to see all of that complicated stuff. Aah, well, when you're under that legendary tree, there's a good chance that something awful is going to happen to you, right? Rather than calling it a glittering memorial, this is probably more fitting for a a bomb disposal group, right? Though maybe in the future, it'll be more popular to straight up bury bombs under legendary trees!"
"Good job."
Sir spoke up with a couple words.
Not understanding the meaning of them, Flat tilted his head to the side.
"What did I do?"
"You didn't use magecraft to force your expression."
I watched as Flat pulled on his cheeks multiple times.
He had a strange expression on his face.
Perhaps, in the long time since we first met, this had been the first time I was able to see Flat's real self.
emeraldwolf34
Arlette Escardos (Fate/strange Fake and Adventures of El-Melloi II)
Throughout Fate/strange Fake and the El-Melloi series, Flat Escardos having an awful family that hates him is made very clear. The opening of Fate/strange Fake Volume 4, the entire preface is an endless rant from his mother to her husband about coping with Flat’s mere existence and how dangerous and haunting him being alive and being what he is is to her.
This is taken further in the Fem’s Casa arc of El-Melloi Adventures, where she is seen as a smug woman leading her entire mage family and talking down Waver for keeping Flat alive, but taking mood-regulating pills whenever Flat’s name is mentioned. At the end of the arc when she loses Fem’s game, she shambles down a hallway, and is met by Flat. Failing to get to her pills, she falls to the floor and begins screaming and ranting about his existence being a mistake and a danger to the world as she hides her head out of genuine, vulnerable fear of her son. Flat picks up her pill case and places it as her feet as she curls into a ball on the floor, and says he’ll leave it there for whenever she’s ready, and he walks away.
emeraldwolf34
Hadlar (Dragon Quest: Dai no Daibouken)
Despite being the previous demon lord who was defeated and got revived, Hadlar grows through his own merit and hard work, fights for his honor, and gets assistance and cheers own his friends and teammates he amasses as he continually clashes with Dai and the other Disciples of Avan.
emeraldwolf34
Dragon Quest The Adventure of Dai, Gintama, and Eyeshield 21 for completed manga.
For ongoing, probably Class-2B
emeraldwolf34
Sounds a lot like Waver actually
emeraldwolf34
Masaru Saiga I quite enjoy
emeraldwolf34
SF feels like a successor of sorts since a big part of its message involves delivering "Fake" versions of other well established Fate characters (A fake Arthur who uses Excalibur, a fake Waver who is actually superbly talented at magecraft, etc), hence why it also makes reference to wider Nasuverse stuff often to also establish itself as a sort-of culmination of it all. It's of course not a super direct building off of FSN, outside of maybe "nobody says a fake can't surpass the original," but it certainly does build on the ideas established in FSN, FZ, and HA in its own Ryohgo Narita way.
Now, would I consider it one of Fate's best written works? Well, yes. Yes I would. Though only partially because of the aforementioned context.
It's less about immersion and more about feeling like I'll miss a pretty important side quest when it comes to the story the game is trying to tell.
Years ago I played Tales of Vesperia and didn't even know it had side quests until about 60% of the way through the game because of how poorly it is communicated. By then, I had missed out on the trigger for most important side quests in the game, as they are missable. Because of that, my first experience was forever deprived of any added story those quests provided, and thus my standard opinion of the game for years to come was worse off. I'd just prefer for that to never happen again so I get the most out of a game as it can offer, so I almost always use a guide when I play a game to make sure I don't miss stuff like that again, unless it has a quest log.