Lurker > KanzarisKelshen

perfect initial response, thank you rocket

(zero sarcasm, I smiled reading it)

Kanzaris' argument:

If you haven't played a Donkey Kong game in a while, this might seem like a mismatch. Squall has beaten mechas, witches and robots. Surely Donkey Kong is no match for him, is he?

Hoo boy. We got a lot of ground to cover.

Let's start from the top. DK is the attacker here, so imagine for a second that he ventures into Balamb Garden. Squall, being a badass lone wolf, is waiting for him in the lobby. He draws his gunblade, challenges DK to a fight, charges in. DK, kicking it old school like his antecedent Cranky did, punches the ground or a structural support to turn a chunk of it into a projectile. It turns into gold, he throws it at Squall, who cuts it apart like a badass...and it explodes in his face. Because gold created by DK does that now. Whoops.

Let's rewind and try a different tack. Squall, being a military mastermind, decides to camp out in one of the Garden's upper floors and bombard anyone who comes in with magic barrages to soften them up. Solid plan, right? Indeed. Until DK turns himself into an elephant and starts climbing up the lift support structure like an elephantine King Kong...and when the fireballs or ice shards approach him, sucks them into his snout, dissipating them harmlessly. Then he closes in on Squall and he has to deal with vortex forces strong enough to rip buildings apart. Oh no!

OK, OK, another plan then. Squall buffs himself with a Haste spell and goes to debuff DK with a slow spell. Unfortunately for him, DK has canonical showings against status effects, and being hit by this kind of thing makes him mad. So he transforms into a half-ape half-snake creature that pogos around on its tail, glares at Squall...and suddenly gets much, MUCH faster. Like on the order of 3 or 4x faster. Except it's not that he's fast, it's that Squall and the entire world around him has been slowed down. And THEN he becomes a half-zebra hybrid and just charges WAY fast at Squall, while he's still super slowed.

...Yeah. DK kind of got a big glowup. Donkey Kong Bananza came out and he's just a whole nother animal (pun intended) now. I didn't even mention the Super Saiyan ape form that lets him blow concrete to bits with simple blows yet, and which he uses to send a version of King K. Rool that has just powered himself up with a mystical doohickey to cover an entire human metropolis in boiling rotten gold that sets everything that touches it on fire flying like he's Team Rocket, over the horizon. That's a thing he can just, do now. And he has effectively a 1up, as he heals to full when all his HP is drained automatically. And he has Pauline, meaning Squall won't go for wide area magical bombings because he's not the type of person to just murder a child (not knowing she's immune to damage). Really, the question isn't how DK wins, he has lots of options at his disposal. It's more, how does he lose? Because I don't know how it happens.

Boko's Argument:

Squall Leonhart is a skilled and strategic warrior known for his calm demeanor and unwavering determination. He excels in both precise swordsmanship and tactical magic use, seamlessly blending offense and support on the battlefield with excellent mobility. Equipped with powerful Limit Breaks and a versatile spell arsenal, Squall leads with quiet confidence, adapting to any combat scenario with agility and intelligence. Whether striking down foes with his iconic Limit Breaks or bolstering himself with protective spells while debilitating foes, Squall embodies the balance of strength, skill, and leadership.
He has access to these magic spells:

Meltdown Drops enemy Vitality to zero, amplifying physical damage.
Protect Boosts physical defense for survivability.
Shell Raises magic defense against spell attacks.
Haste Speeds up actions, accelerating Limit Break builds.
Cure Reliable healing spell for sustaining allies.
Full-Life Revives fallen party members quickly.
Pain Inflicts multiple debuffs (Poison, Silence, Blind).
Blind - Inflicts Darkness on the target, causing their physical attacks to miss more often
Silence Stops enemies from casting spells.
Double Allows casting two spells in one turn, enhancing buff/debuff potential.
Regen Gradual HP recovery over time.
Dispel Removes buffs/debuffs to maintain an edge.
Drain Converts enemy HP to healing for self-sustain.
Ultima - Inflicts extreme non-elemental damage on all units in the targeted party

Double allows Squall to cast two spells in a single turn, effectively doubling his utility and making him a versatile support and tactical powerhouse. With Double, Squall can simultaneously buff himself and allies alike with spells like Protect and Haste, enhancing their defense and speed to maintain battlefield control and doing so quickly.

Squall Leonhart is a master swordsman renowned for his exceptional physical prowess and precision in combat. His signature weapon, the Gunblade, combines swift sword strikes with ranged attacks, allowing him to fluidly switch between melee and mid-range offense. Squalls physical capabilities are highlighted by his Limit Breaks: Renzokuken, a rapid multi-hit combo demanding perfect timing, and Lion Heart, a devastating finishing move that can obliterate even the toughest opponents. Agile and quick on his feet, Squalls mobility lets him close distances, dodge attacks, and maintain relentless pressure on foes. His strength, speed, and refined technique make him a formidable frontline fighter capable of dominating battles through skillful, calculated strikes.

https://makeagif.com/gif/squall-leonhart-final-fantasy-viii-movesets-dissidia-final-fantasy-nt-cEw6_P

Squalls Limit Breaks emphasize high burst damage, combo potential, and precision, making him a formidable offensive force who can quickly dismantle foes when utilized effectively

https://makeagif.com/gif/final-fantasy-8-remastered-all-of-squalls-limit-breaks-0F5Bv-

Squall can overcome Donkey Kong by leveraging his superior speed (particularly with Double Haste/Slow in effect to widen the gap even more), precision, and versatile combat toolkit. While Donkey Kong relies on raw brute strength and powerful melee attacks, Squalls agility allows him to evade these heavy hits and strike with rapid, well-timed sword combos and his limit breaks for burst damage. Squall can start the fight with a quick use of Double and will be able to cast 2x spells and bolster his defenses via haste, protect, regen. With these boosts, while this new version of DK has much more speed to close the gap, Squall will still get some haste time to utilize some debuffs prior to the fight getting into close range. Squalls ability to reduce Donkey Kongs vitality with Meltdown further erodes DKs durability, making each physical attack from Squall significantly more effective. Consider a hasted Squall that has melted down DK with some Pain that uses the Limit Break from the gif.

Donkey Kong has challenged Squall Leonhart to a fight! Location of the fight: Balamb Garden - The wide halls of Balamb, normally packed with students, are empty in preparation for the coming battle. The entire Garden is accessible for this fight (with the exception of NORG's room and the hidden basement it's a part of), so there's plenty of potential for games of cat and mouse. Attackers will start at the front entrance outside the Garden, while defenders will start at the Headmaster's Office. Which side will win?

Guidelines

-The fight will occur in real-time (like an FMV sequence). Gameplay mechanics are less important than how the characters would function in a real-time environment.
-The members of each team are ideal teammates capable of executing a prearranged battle plan.
-Unless stated otherwise, characters have access to their full arsenal of abilities and equipment. They may not always work at full power, however (e.g. a petrifying spell may have only a partial hindering effect not seen in gameplay or even fail outright against sufficiently powerful mercenaries). Use your own discretion.
-No mercenary can ever start in a location where they would die instantly, destroy the arena merely by existing in it, or end up ringed out of the terrain before abilities. If there's no room within a terrain to fit them, the terrain will stretch out until there's at least one yard of available, moving, safe space. Attacks may not damage the terrain enough to cause automatic deaths or ring-outs, save with a concerted effort.
-Mercenaries are considered 'downed' when defeated, unable to be roused except through a revival technique. A revival technique cannot affect a mercenary whose physical body has been completely destroyed and will not relocate them away from danger (ex. falling off of the terrain, being impaled, falling in lava), unless it would naturally do so in its own universe.
-There may be SPOILERS from all of the games the characters are from.

Rules for Voting

-Bold your votes.
-You do not need to justify for your vote, though the admins reserve the right to disqualify votes in the advent of obvious alt voting and other similar scenarios.
-Leaders cannot vote for their own teams, but they are free to argue their case.
-If you want to switch your votes simply bold the change; there's no need to delete your post, though you may if you wish.
-This match will end in 24 hours.

Donkey Kong is as he appears in Donkey Kong Bananza, fully upgraded. He has access to one charge of Apple Juice and five charges of Melon Juice. He is accompanied by Pauline, as she appears in Donkey Kong Bananza, who is unable to be harmed, but can be moved around by other mercs. The terrain is considered to have enough gold nuggets to refuel his bananergy with light destruction. He has access to his feats from the Donkey Kong series and his fully upgraded Coconut Gun from Donkey Kong 64.

~VS~

Squall Leonhart is as he appears in Final Fantasy 8. He has access to all of his attacks, limit breaks and spells featured within, save Zombie, Death, Aura, Apocalypse and Triple, as well as all his attacks and abilities featured in Dissidia NT (including Draw). He is considered to have his best equipment and an optimal junction setup for stat bonuses, but is receiving no other benefits from junctioning.

NFUN posted...

i'm willing to bet a machine made to fight in water probably chose a laser wavelength that water absorbs poorly

It was not made to fight in water, though. The Revengeance era MG Ray never fights into water, it dives into it to escape. It's capable of water mobility, not combat. Remember that Revengeance RAY shares little besides a shape and machineguns with MGS2 RAY. Its internal construction is different, it's controlled by an external AI and not an internal one, etc. etc. A plasma cannon is going to just cook its buddies alive because it will dissipate heat near the firing point first.

DeathChicken posted...

...how on earth is Ray nerfed in water. It's Ray

Weakened or unavailable laser cannon (it relies on heat. Water is great for heat dissipation), and it's fighting against friction to use its blade. The missiles also don't work well in water. I don't think any of these are controversial? It can munch people with its 'jaws', but that's not its primary method of attack. The machineguns also prolly don't work well in water either.

Also, strongly leaning Tusk and Alucard smash here. Open to arguments, but my thinking is this:

A) Tusk is straight up the best man on either team in these conditions. I know most people don't know him, but he's Super Conan. He's to Conan what Master Chief is to a USMC marine, if that gives you any idea. Why did I pick this example? Because much like Chief, Tusk tanks a fall from thousands of meters above the ground and lives. Except, y'know, without a power armour lmao

He also has a blade made of Super Stuff that cuts unobtainium like it doesn't exist in his home world. He can TK control it, meaning water is not going to impede him. Couple this with shredding armour and it's like, what are Shep and Garrus going to do here? He just commands it to cut them and they die cause they can't dodge.

B) Alucard is here and is profoundly tanky and has attacks that can deal with Tidus even if you think Tusk cannot hit him for some reason. Soul Steal doesn't miss and refreshes his HP, and while Tidus has drain attack, he has to actually get close to do something with it, which is a TERRIBLE idea.

C) If Aigis lives (this is an if, I don't buy it, but I am discussing it for the sake of completeness), she has binding effects from Persona Q, IIRC. These make it so enemies cannot move. This neuters Tidus' mobility advantage. I think she gets blown up by Garrus instantly but it ends up not being relevant.

So yeah. I don't think Tidus can carry this and he's basically all alone because RAY is very nerfed in water and Garrus and Shep cannot escape the telekinetic onslaughts coming their way, while Tusk is monster tanky and will just beat him over time. That's all.

Lopen posted...

The ray probably takes up half the Luca sphere pool. Bigger body of water I could see this being a problem

Alucard needs his heaven rocket swords from Harmony of Despair that would seal it

What? I swear I didn't read this why is this of all things in his write up

Alucard with Richter advice wins

They're in SotN, believe it or not! And they're there since he pretty much uses those attacks in the anime too so like, why not, may as well

DC's Argument:

My argument: Okay so I think my team would win a fair fight pretty solidly here, I have the only two swimmers in Tidus and RAY. I have the only source of buffs with Tidus. The advice thing to Shepard is kind of meaningless. "The sword guy can't hurt your shields." Cool, Shep took Infiltrator (the cloaking sniper class, same as Garrus), why would she want the sword guy near her at all?

Also she's a Ruthless Renegade Shep, you tell her Tusk is a weakling and she's probably going to open up by blowing his head off. I trust her and Garrus can shoot just fine underwater, their guns are explicitly powered by Sci Fi Bullshit mass accelerators, those bullets are moving in spite of water resistance.

The armor bypassing thing is nasty, or it would be except the other team is mostly melee and stuck in a fishbowl (except Aigis, who is definitely sinking right to the bottom. She's heavy). And otherwise Aigis gets murdered pretty hardcore by Garrus, who has Overload and can short out her electronics, Alucard is okay at underwater mobility but also starting the fight getting punched in the face and sucking in water. Poor Richter is famous for his Super Drowning Skills, dude's also going right to the bottom and staying there, even if the water won't technically kill him. Tusk, provided Shep doesn't immediately murder him because of the advice, is tasked with swimming around and also carrying a giant broadsword as his only weapon. Yeah. Lot of dudes sinking here.

RAY meanwhile is fully aquatic and the most mobile thing on the field besides Tidus, armed with a water cannon that can punch through solid steel. Also the biggest target on the field, so I imagine everyone will be focusing on RAY first by default, letting Tidus get off a Haste and Garrus/Shepard to snipe.

So my team would probably win a fair fight. This isn't a fair fight as Garrus also has a minute at the start to swim over, poop out a bunch of mines at the enemy team's spawn point and swim back. Uh, gg

JC's Argument:

So Im not entirely sure what Garrus does with his minute inside the waterball Ill leave that to DC to argue.

In any case, this match seems like its much more advantageous to my team than other terrains. Essentially it puts Tusk within striking distance of the enemy team in short order which is devastating for them given Vampire Killer gives every member of my team the ability to pierce armor, resistances, etc. So even the tankiest bois are going to have issues. Ill admit that Richter is somewhat hindered here his ice magic is mostly limited to close-range and probably freezes him in place more than anything. Not a huge deal because hell swim around a bit while Shepard focuses him at the start of the match.

RAY is an effective swimmer but Tusk is just going to completely shred through him and then focus on the others. Any of Shepard and Garrus guns that rely on explosive firepower are going to be useless here its my understanding that Shepard has a mass acceleration (effectively a railgun) style weapon but focusing on Richter is going to create openings for the rest of my team.

Aigis and Alucard arent necessarily hindered by being in the water here. Alucard is still going to be able to move faster than the average human because of his super-strength and his swords arent going to be impacted here. Tusk is going to focus on RAY initially because of his sheer size and disruption capabilities, but that fight isnt going to last terribly long because of his penetration being increased by Vampire Killer.

Aigis in particular is actually quite effective shes been shown to be able to have no issues with water (she stands in hot springs with no issues) and even if her finger guns are potentially impacted, her Persona isnt going to have any difficulties. Shes going to know exactly where Garrus is so even if he tries to get a sneak attack in, hes going to get completely decked through his armor by a quick Gods Hand or Akasha Arts which deals heavy Strike damage to all enemies. Once Garrus is dispatched, Akasha Arts is particularly devastating here because it hits multiple enemies and can hit the rest of the team if they werent starting near where Garrus started.

RAY is actually going to be somewhat of a hindrance to his own team here until Tusk takes him out, hes simply going to get in the way of Shepards line of fire. Shepard wont be able to shoot effectively without hitting RAY initially. This will allow Aigis to clean up Garrus and Tusk to clean up RAY before Tidus and Shepard are killed in the final pass. Shepard is going to ignore Tusk until RAY is cleaved which means Tusk is going to have an easier time closing the distance.

As a final note, it really doesnt take much to kill Garrus and Shepard here because theyre not really super durable under their armor and shields thats usually their defense but Vampire Killer just completely neutralizes it.

Richter Belmont, Alucard, Aigis and Tusk have challenged Metal Gear Ray, Tidus, Garrus Vakarian and Commander Shepard to a fight! Location of the fight: Luca Sphere Pool - The sphere pool blitzball tournaments take place in. Combatants do not have access to any other part of the stadium. All mercenaries will magically be able to breathe an infinite amount of time, though how well they can fight underwater is up to interpretation. Attackers and defenders will each start on one side of the field, as if the battle were a normal Blitzball match. Which side will win?

Guidelines
-The fight will occur in real-time (like an FMV sequence). Gameplay mechanics are less important than how the characters would function in a real-time environment.
-The members of each team are ideal teammates capable of executing a prearranged battle plan.
-Unless stated otherwise, characters have access to their full arsenal of abilities and equipment. They may not always work at full power, however (e.g. a petrifying spell may have only a partial hindering effect not seen in gameplay or even fail outright against sufficiently powerful mercenaries). Use your own discretion.
-No mercenary can ever start in a location where they would die instantly, destroy the arena merely by existing in it, or end up ringed out of the terrain before abilities. If there's no room within a terrain to fit them, the terrain will stretch out until there's at least one yard of available, moving, safe space. Attacks may not damage the terrain enough to cause automatic deaths or ring-outs, save with a concerted effort.
-Mercenaries are considered 'downed' when defeated, unable to be roused except through a revival technique. A revival technique cannot affect a mercenary whose physical body has been completely destroyed and will not relocate them away from danger (ex. falling off of the terrain, being impaled, falling in lava), unless it would naturally do so in its own universe.
-There may be SPOILERS from all of the games the characters are from.

Rules for Voting
-Bold your votes.
-You do not need to justify for your vote, though the admins reserve the right to disqualify votes in the advent of obvious alt voting and other similar scenarios.
-Leaders cannot vote for their own teams, but they are free to argue their case.
-If you want to switch your votes simply bold the change; there's no need to delete your post, though you may if you wish.
-This match will end in 24 hours.

Richter Belmont is as he appears in the Castlevania series, wielding his trademark Vampire Killer whip. He has access to 99 hearts and may use all of his sub-weapons, but the Stopwatch will only freeze projectiles and will not affect enemies directly. He may use item crash attacks, so long as he can pay their heart costs. Feats from the Castlevania anime are considered valid. He has instructed his fellow hunters of the occult and unlocked their true potential. Alucard, Tusk and Aigis' attacks and spells will bypass all immunities, resistances and armour.

Alucard is as he appears in the Castlevania series. He has access to his full set of Alucard equipment, Crissaegrim, Mablung, Masamune, Shield Rod, Fist of Tulkas, Skull, Dark and Iron shields, two Heaven Swords, Holy Glasses, Twilight Cloak and all relics, spells and subweapons. He may summon any familiars he likes, though Fairy will not come with healing items to heal him with. Feats from the Castlevania anime are considered valid. He may not use the Alucard Shield's effect when combined with the Mablung or Shield Rod.

Aigis is as she appears in Persona 4 Arena Ultimax with all of her moves available. Pallas Athena also has all of her skills and properties from Persona 3 and Persona Q2 available. She must actively focus to apply the effects of Aegis Shielding, but it will always trigger if she does so. She is tracking Garrus, and will be constantly aware of his position throughout the fight.

Tusk is as he appears in Killer Instinct (2013). He has access to his feats and abilities shown in the Killer Instinct novellas and Killer Instinct 2, with the exception of his second Ultimate Combo. He does not have access to combo breakers, counter breakers, or any other gameplay mechanic-related techniques, Deflect Windows and Instinct Mode aside, though he has to build Instinct Modes meter up.

~VS~

Tidus is as he appears in Final Fantasy X. He has maxed out his section of the Sphere Grid, as well as Wakka's. He has access to all of his Overdrives, and may charge them with the Warrior and Comrade modes. He is equipped with his Caladbolg and armor with the SOS-Haste, Slowproof, Water Eater and HP +30% abilities. He has full use of his Dissidia NT moveset as well.

Metal Gear RAY is as it appears in Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance, with full access to all of its attacks and in top condition.

Garrus Vakarian is as he appears in Mass Effect 3, with his Black Widow sniper rifle and M-7 Lancer Assault Rifle and all powers seen therein. He will have a full minute before the match begins to act as he pleases to prepare for the battle.

Commander Monika Shepard is as she appears in Mass Effect 3: Extended Cut, at the peak of her powers. She is an Earthborn with the Ruthless psychological profile. She is an Infiltrator with access to all of the class' valid weapons, appropriate optimal equipment, and all related powers and trainings the class would have access to. So long as it does not contradict the games, supplementary material is considered valid.

FIGHT!

PS: We're now on Discord! If you want to join us, here's a link: https://discord.gg/hDfh5ESj

pyresword posted...

How does that work? Can you easily get multiple dice with 1 set of follow-ups even with how the toughness bars work?

I already got 12 stars but I definitely did the strategy of just picking the broken dps characters and calling it a day.

The dice have pitiful amounts of HP so just about every valid offensive action against a vulnerable dice will generate extra actions. So what happens is your first die will get a pointless spin, but after that hitting one die will cause another die to explode too from Herta spins, if not more. Using the 'gain action advance on break' blessing, Herta can take turns very fast and thus rapidly build up ult, which allows you to break Aventurine before he can take his third action of the fight (one at the start before he sets up the gimmick, one more during it). The end result is you end up racking up a billion points super efficiently from just about every attack made and taking surprisingly little damage.

For anyone who's struggling with this AS: Main Carry/Herta/Buffer/Buffer is a cheatcode. You may have to reset a couple times to get a decent RNG damage spread but I banged out 3.8k on my first try and the same happened on the next attempt to verify it was replicable. It's very, very dumb.

Definitely needs more crit%. Yunli doesn't need so much crit dmg, her ult overloads her with it. She wants like 80%+ crit% to make the most of said buffs. Rest looks solid though.

Saw that live. Was grinning fucking ear to ear. Could not possibly have happened to a more deserving character. If GG has to collab with anything, it needs to collab with pure class. And a dame like Lucy is nothing but precisely that.

MrSmartGuy posted...

I actually think that's all it's gonna be tbqh. I can't imagine the mental gymnastics they're gonna go through to try and justify in-universe Fate characters. They're just gonna be little costumes you can buy for existing characters for $5 apiece or something.

Costumes aren't announced a year in advance. That's the pipeline for character development. It's gonna be playable chars, exactly like what happened in Honkai Impact 3rd with Asuka Langley.

It really is an iconic location. There's some super interesting stories to tell with other locales (in particular, south america can tell some tales about post apocalyptic cyberpunk that are unique, and iirc a couple european locales have a very cool 'active resistance' bent) but if you want a classic cyberpunk story, it's very hard to beat NC.

BK_Sheikah00 posted...

Yunli Jade mayhaps?

Hilariously, Yunli isn't a good partner for Jade. Jiaoqiu is. He has immensely fast ult uptime via Solitary Healing so he's constantly hitting 5 targets with it, he buffs Jade's damage, and his E is a blast so he can spend SP that Jade generates -- plus he appreciates going faster too, and Yunli truly doesn't care. He's irritatingly built but better than people give him credit for.

Time to party like it's 2023 baybeeeee

Raw with no blessings? Yes, it's impossible to facetank these modes. With proper damage mitigation blessings like Construct Firmness? Nahhhh.

swordz9 posted...

Forgot if I asked already, but who all wants the Kalpagni planars? Im just grinding the hell out of the stage for the Duran set, but cant hurt to see who uses the other one in it

Most supports. It gives SPD so the BE is a cute bonus. Gallagher in particular makes amazing use of it, tho, but like, just give them to supports so they take more actions unless they very much need broken keels for whatever reason.

I can't balk cause Robin got exactly the same kinda push just last patch (if not even stronger! The mix shares were sick af) and I was eating it all up. Let 'em cook for this patch, it's aite. They'll push someone else in 2.4

100% agree. Johnny mellowing down while V becomes more and more of a legend is just so good. It would have been so easy for the dude in our heads to be so bad, but they totally nailed the dynamic.

One last tidbit for the road: my first suicide run (the name of which is Don't Fear the Reaper, 10/10 no notes) ended up similarly. V and Panam broke up, it was super bittersweet, and the last shot of V gritting his teeth going into the casino felt like bitter resignation, clinging to life cuz there was nothing left. The second time, after PL, I chose different answers, based on what the game's themes had taught me. I owned the fact I was being selfish, that it was pushing my luck, that Pan was the most important person in my V's life...but I had to do one last mission, to see if I could find a light at the end of the tunnel. And you know what the crazy thing was?

She actually believed me. She just smiled, nodded understandingly, kissed V goodbye and promised to keep the engine on so we could leave as soon as V returned. The rest of the ending played out the same, and yet, it was still completely different. The hopeful trust in V and Pan's conversation coloured the entire ending with hope. That bitter look became a grimace of utter defiance, a promise to come back, come hell or high water, no matter what. It might honestly be my favorite example of reactivity in games ever, one final way in which V learned from Johnny and managed to do better than his old choom did. Perfect ending.

Ps: speaking of perfect...the exchange between V and Johnny when you pick Don't Fear the Reaper? Real all-timer. No lines encapsulates all the best parts of V and Johnny like these.

"Just so happens you got this one choom who's already dead...and he'd be honored to join you on a wild suicide run."
"Hah...If I gotta die, rather fall into my grave gun in hand and on fire. And not drag anyone down with me."

That's it. That's it right there. It's everything. The signal to blaze historic, way down the rebel path.

FFDragon posted...

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/forum/d/d0d02ab1.jpg

what Pandora's box have I opened now

Incredibly based choice tbqh

Mike Pondsmith wrote a very interesting game. They actually made a mission that features Lucy, too! I need to give it a look eventually.

And her name was originally 'A loser' lol

World's most necessary rename to Arycelle

Law is the good route tbh

Chaos is a child's route and Neutral is a coward's path. You can see Denam actively grow to be a better man in Law than he ever is in Chaos. He starts lower and ends higher.

Very fun game, the gameplay is super dynamic. Remember to use items! They're craaaaazy strong in TOR

Very good planar tbqh, that shit will cook. Nice!

Himeko, Sushang, arguably Guinaifen, Xueyi (though she might want Quantum set)...lots of options.

Every breaker, yes. BiS on boothill, Luka, etc

Agreed on all counts. The Tower really hammers home how living is more than survival. is it worth sacrificing all that makes you you just to live a little longer? '77 firmly says no. It's a valid ending, but not a happy ending.

Fun fact about the Descent: you can get blueprints for two items there, the Militech Canto cyberdeck and the Erebus SMG. Both are tailored to characters with a hacking specialty. The Erebus is a gun with an AI trapped inside that inflicts hacks with its bullets. The Canto likewise hosts a Blackwall AI within and has access to an unique hack it and the Erebus share: Blackwall Gateway. Instakill on absolutely anything it's used on. Reasonable, isn't it? Sending poor sods' souls straight to hell as they die screaming in absolute agony will do that. They're perfect thematic counterpoints to the good-on-everyone Quantum Tuner, and a grim reminder of the consequences of your decisions.

It really is like that. Did you know Arasaka is an always available ending? Everything else, you have to work for. You have to go out, do sidequests, meet people, make human connections. You have to actually try. Being a mindless cog in the machine is easy. Being a human being is harder.

Before you pull the trigger on the ending I mentioned -- try trusting Johnny, going with Rogue, and letting him have V's body. This game has no poorly written endings, and actually choosing that, even though it felt so wrong because I knew neither V nor Johnny really wanted it in the end, gave me so much respect for the man. You'll get to truly see how much being V has changed him, just as much as being Johnny changed V.

swordz9 posted...

Oh so its pretty short this time? The last one felt pretty long. Also I hate the boss and cant even beat the Echoes or whatever version of it on the highest level. I try to break as much as I can and two characters die before I can try to get them back up. It was hard for the story too

Do you have no Gallagher? He kind of borderline solos the boss if left to do his thing. Immense fire TGH damage is an easy win against those jokers.

swordz9 posted...

The max score they want you to get in the second mode of that Hanu thing is a nightmare all for a laughable amount of jades and I heard theres an achievement of doing them all perfectly as if anyone would want to waste their time doing that torture

I did it! It was really mostly quite chill actually. Really reminded me of playing Crash games when I was little. The racing one was harder imo. Less tricks and strats you could use.

They're 100% going to buff JQ in spite of him already being very good, calling it right now

He's Nihil!Robin with the option to eventually upscale into a full Harmony's worth of buffing and by far the best DoT unit in the game and they're still gonna have to add sauce to him cause the playerbase will not stop doomposting about his badness and it's gonna be unbelievably funny, can't wait to see it

March is a fascinating unit. Immense multipliers on her kit but I think her secret sauce might still be pairing her to a sustain. You can get away with some immensely dumb stuff using her and Gallagher as a tandem for example. Gonna have to think about her best combinations a little but I suspect she can reasonably replace Ratio on team IPC for those without dolphin investments into topaz and avent and she should be a hellacious Robin carrier. Looks very strong and, just as importantly, both unbelievably cute and profoundly true to the genre fiction she's inspired by. Really good work by Hoyo imo.

The Star is beautiful. It was my second choice too. It's V learning from So Mi and escaping the wheel in their own way.

The first? Go back to the moment you decide what to do, FFD, and wait there. You said you were sad there was no V + Johnny ending. Turns out, there is a path to transcendence that will take you out of the wheel in a different way. A way to save almost everyone. You still will have to make the final choice but beforehand...it's time to blaze historic down the rebel path.

Wait

You guys didn't know????

Yeah there's messages for literally every character. Lucy made sure Night City would have something to remember her crew by, even if she's never coming back to the pit. Truly a dynamite woman.

The main game's ending doesn't top this...but I think it matches it, shot for shot.

OK. Let's get talkin'. Here goes. Fundamentally, Cyberpunk '77 is a Buddhist game. This is a weird thought, I know, but here's the thing. Night City? Night City is a fucking pit. It's an endless loop of misery and pain. It's a horrorshow. People do unto others as others have done onto them, and that teaches the next generation of poor bastards that it's kill or be killed out there, and so they keep hurting each other. Without cure. Without cease. A broken world creates broken people, and using they've been taught, they break the world further.

"The wheel has to be broken." This kind of encapsulates it. Night City isn't just Night City. Night City is an embodiment of the Wheel of Samsara. It's an eternal recurrence of lives dominated by the fears and pains that besiege mankind from womb to tomb. And nobody, nobody, can ever overcome them.

...Or maybe...maybe they can.

You met the Zen Master. Remember how you could give him eddies, and yet he was nowhere to be found after every lesson? Something Buddhism teaches is that the Buddha, having attained enlightenment, escaped the cycle of reincarnation and pain and achieved total spiritual liberation -- the state known as Nirvana. But rather than immediately end his life, the Buddha chose to stay in this world and 'descend' to the level of ordinary people, and teach to everyone who would listen as much as he could before passing on to the end of his journey. The Zen Master isn't just a random monk. He is, allegorically, THE original monk, come down to teach a random sinner how to reconnect with the world and stop repeating the same mistakes over and over again.

Which leads us to Dogtown. You find another sinner who isn't just kind of like you but is you (you obviously noticed it, but Songbird deliberately looks a lot like default Fem!V), who is as dangerous as you are, as driven as you are, and as desperate as you are and fighting tooth and nail to escape their fate just like you do, and you get a choice. Do you see someone else hurting and decide that for once it's not about you and choose to care, even though there's nothing to gain? Or do you decide you cannot trust her cause she reminds you too much of you, and that's too scary?

Phantom Liberty is divided into two back halves. In one half, you decide to keep the cycle of Samsara going. As a consequence, everything goes to fucking hell. I know you love horror, and because of this, I'm just gonna tell you this: you owe it to yourself to check out the other half of Firestarter when you got a minute. CDPR cooked amazingly hard and delivered a bonafide horror experience in the cyberpunk ultrabadass simulator that you cannot miss. That route has no canon name (neither route does), but I call it the Descent. It takes you down, down, down, deeper and deeper, all the way to rock bottom. Because that's what you choose. You decide it's better to drag everyone else down into the hell you've gotten used to than let anyone else out before you...and it costs you. It costs everyone.

And then there's the route you chose. Night City International and Translunar is the tallest vertical climb the game has to offer for a reason. It's an act of purification. I remember the moment So Mi comes over the railing and you talk to each other, and while I can only speak for how Gavin Drea played that scene, I felt like V had never trusted anyone as much as he had in that moment. My boy was in it not for the money or for safety, but because this was right, because everything was clicking into place, and because it was a chance to make a difference. He was quiet. Calm. Focused. At peace. The Ascent is a purification. You choose to save someone else even though there's nothing in it for you, and in the process, you save yourself as well. You do what David Martinez couldn't, what Johnny Silverhand couldn't. You save the girl, and finally, finally, you break the cycle.

This game led me to a big personal realization. Salvation isn't something you earn. Salvation is something to give, because in this world, nobody is worth saving until we choose to say they are worthy and get involved with them. It says more about us that we choose to care than it says about them and the merits they made.

And now, you get to do one more good deed and see how things play out. First, if you managed to get the datapad in NCX, go back to the entryway. There's a lady there you can give it to. It's just the tiniest, littlest thing...but man, it makes a difference.

Second...go to where you found So Mi and the van. She left a message there.

The third and last thing, you can't rush. After some time has passed, you'll get a message. You'll know what it means when you see it. Both the Ascent and the Descent offer amazing rewards for completing them fully. I hope you enjoy yours. Receiving that final reward (both parts of it) marks the point, IMO, where V fully completes their journey of growth and becomes something more than just a hired gun. It sets them up to do the last thing no other runner could ever pull off. It's time to become a legend.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XiHw7MrTx30

Jade doesn't want it, it's dog trash on her because all her damage is on the chaser and not ult (and the ult chaser attack does NOT count as ult damage iirc). She gets entirely too much off other sets. It's a set for Yunli or Feixiao, one of the two. Probably Yunli?

You made the right choice FFD. I'll wait for your thoughts but I can finally make that post I've been threatening for such a long time. Good shit.

Also Sushang, Luka and Misha are all good with HMC if you need an alternative team. Xueyi too is excellent of course, gaing mondo steroids off hmc.

UshiromiyaEva posted...

Firefly makes her own Super Break Damage now in the current beta, which doesn't seem to stack. You still get great Break buffs, but she's not as important in a Firefly team as she once when the 2.3 beta first started.

It stacks and if you use ff without hmc she is the worst dps in the game. Like absolutely tragic

I'll share the most important bit later once FFD's committed to a path then. It really has to be seen at least once. 'Instant regret' doesn't even cover it.

Definitely don't click this FFD:

Yep, I'm of the very firm opinion that Star and Don't Fear The Reaper (the solo assault on Arasaka tower) are both the best endings you can get. The one where you get Rogue to help you is interesting too, and Devil is a must-play just because you find out that Yorinobu truly was working to destroy the corporation from within (which I love -- in the tabletop he was a rebel who opposed Arasaka so him coming back to the fold in '77 is a huge shocker, the fact that he was doing it to destroy his father's legacy is just perfection), but Star and Don't Fear The Reaper just...make sense as the only true ways forward. Either you realize there is no happy ending in Night City and make the sane choice and leave, or you take all the sacrifices made by every single punk before you (Johnny, David, every single Edgerunner who ever went up against Arasaka and lost) and validate them by proving it is, in fact, possible for a single man to make a difference. One of them is growing wise enough to escape a rigged game. The other one is deciding to break the game in spite of it being rigged by using all it has taught you. As a movie once put it: "A man who has lost everything is capable of anything." Truly sums up V's situation IMO.

EDIT: Also, Johnny's ending is so utterly beautiful in how much he grows up from being with you and being you. Incredibly sad, but if someone told me that was their canon ending I would totally get it. Did you ever do the 'betray So Mi' path, KP? The ending you get for selling her out fucked my shit up in ways I had never even thought were possible. One particular line had me actually shouting at my screen in despair.

'No business going as hard as it did, but fantastic no notes' really is PL.txt, tbqh. Whole DLC is like that

DLC still has a big ol chunk left to go (and HOO BOY it's gonna get wilder still yet). Main game is indeed just before the point of no return. My suggestion is to leave some sidequests pending just because you'll want to kill some time after you finish the DLC and mainline it (relatedly -- when it's obvious a big choice is coming up, make a save. The branching paths are completely distinct and both are deeply worth playing to see the totally different angles they go off in), but it's your call. There are no bad choices here, save if you make ones you come to regret.

And we still have a lot to go through in 2.3, too. Off the top of my head...

-We haven't sealed the Stellaron yet. How do we reach the True Golden Hour? And is it actually the corpse of Tayzzyronth, as SU lore concerning its fall and Hydra's account suggest?
-Sparkle's buttons haven't been pressed yet. What kinds of spectacular fireworks will go off when they do (her name in japanese and IIRC chinese translates to 'Firework')? Will they actually be used to destroy the dream for good as speculated?
-Death of a Crow strongly implies Sunday getting an invitation from Elio. Is he actually going to join the Stellaron Hunters? If so, how and why?
-What about Firefly? She's predicted to have a final death still to come, and deaths in the dream now stick for real. Is she going to lose her body and become a memetic entity? Will she lose her memory (a 'death of the mind')? Or is she actually going bye-bye fully and permanently?
-And of course, we have the cliffhangers with Aventurine's arc of being a monumental fuckup who keeps winning in spite of himself, and Boothill's quest for revenge against the IPC. How are they getting resolved?

There's an absolute hell of a lot to cover still. I'm crossing my fingers that the theory that we're still missing one more 'true final boss' pays off here because if so 2.3 will be a truly wild finale.

Excellent. In that case you're all clear to keep going. Really looking forward to seeing how you play out the end of the DLC and the game itself! :)

FFDragon posted...

That was the last one I did before I went to sleep so I should have an autosave to go make a manual one. I saved right before getting Rogue for the date.

Did you make these choices?

"Nah, fucked that up too."
"What do you want from me?"
"Ok. But as second chances go, this is your last."

If you did, you're good to go.

Perfect way to use Guts, honestly. I support this course of action.

Relatedly -- when you reach the quest Chippin' In, make a save. There's some stuff you want to do there that you get one shot at and I think you'll want to nail.