Lurker > Kamekguy

Honk (Pre-Battle 0 AP) - Goose may steal a weapon or item mentioned in the battle write-up or customization of a target enemy mercenary, removing it from their write-up. Goose will start the battle with the stolen item in its beak. Goose will not give this item to any ally until it dies; Goose is a jerk like that. This ability only resolves if both Goose and his target are rostered.

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Doin' Game Design Vids: https://www.youtube.com/c/DesigningFor

Breath of the Wild always struck me as an amazing blueprint for what could be done with a Zelda game in its engine. It relies entirely on the moment-to-moment of discovery, and that's really strong, but I feel it loses out to individualized challenges due to that. The Great Plateau and Cast Away: The Shrine definitely feel like the high points, as they're individualized challenges with multiple solutions that the player is required to overcome, but the required set pieces done in a more traditional style feel more obligatory than anything. Hyrule Castle is also way too short in some routes through it; I appreciate the moxie but think it coulda used at least a "you need two out of five keys to unlock the door to Ganon" or something.

It's a game where I feel the floor is high with pits when it tries to be traditional Zelda. Really excited for the sequel to patch those up; it'd be hard to screw it up, they already have all the pieces there.

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Doin' Game Design Vids: https://www.youtube.com/c/DesigningFor

+10 Crash Team Racing: Nitro Fueled
+9 Fire Emblem: Three Houses
+8 Yooka Laylee and the Impossible Lair
+7 Devil May Cry V
+6 The Outer Wilds
+5 Control
+4 The Outer Worlds
+3 Untitled Goose Game
+2 Resident Evil 2
+1 Judgement

Damn year was more stacked than I thought when I'm realizing "wow I can't stuff Sekiro, Disco, Luigi's Mansion, SamSho, or Baba in here".

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Doin' Game Design Vids: https://www.youtube.com/c/DesigningFor

I love Banjo-Kazooie for a pure tutorial, Spiral Mountain's one of the most joyous, fun introductions into 3D space out there.

For first actual level, Tanker and Virtuous Mission from MGS2 and MGS3 are both REALLY strong, but I'll say Dinner of Flames from Rondo of Blood. Fighting through the ruins of Castlevania II because THEY KNEW was so good.

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Doin' Game Design Vids: https://www.youtube.com/c/DesigningFor

Santa Claus literally appears as a major character what more evidence do you need.

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Doin' Game Design Vids: https://www.youtube.com/c/DesigningFor

Funky Kong do you kiss your Mom with that mouth?!
Santa puts kids on the Naughty List for cursing, and frankly you've got a mouth like a Sailor!
Naughty List for you.

Uncool, Santa-dude.

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Doin' Game Design Vids: https://www.youtube.com/c/DesigningFor

Zigzagoon posted...

Indivisible

Completely awful writing and the main character is insufferable

This but I'm okay with the character writing, but the gameplay loop is so repetitive it makes combat a non-factor and platforming is painfully linear with no strong sense of reward for completing it or mastery, just "hey look we can be clever with our mechanics". Leaves no incentive for combat, interacting with enemies, or to look forward to level design. Woefully undercooked in every single department other than the audio and art style, and even then animation bugs a plenty.

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Doin' Game Design Vids: https://www.youtube.com/c/DesigningFor

King > Specter > Shovel > Plague

King of Cards. It has absolutely zero character work that matters, but man does it flow well without making every level a total joke. It's an expansion on the Wario Land base that far exceeds its inspiration as an action platformer. And I'm a sucker for cards.

Specter of Torment has the best movement, but Specter Knight's just too damn powerful. Absolutely benefits from challenge stages. But he's a good boy.

Shovel of Hope's all-around solid, but I never found it particularly exceptional outside of a few auto-scroller setpieces and Propeller Knight's stage. It's very, very good, excellent soundtrack, but it's more a game of consistency than it is a game of highs. Plus it has the least forward momentum of any campaign and burst momentum options are just so good.

Plague of Shadows is really fun and experimental, but the way PK interacts with stages feels a lot more flexible due to the arcana variations. Level design feels a LOT less important due to that, and just potion spamming feels like a viable option way too often. Absolutely adorable story though, probably my favorite boy.

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Doin' Game Design Vids: https://www.youtube.com/c/DesigningFor

Mario is so good at his job he can build tiny toy versions of himself that perform those jobs effectively.

Mario can build Barbie.

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Doin' Game Design Vids: https://www.youtube.com/c/DesigningFor

Select scenes I like, but the Yu/Yosuke/Chie/Yukiko core got out of it really badly.

Most of the stuff directly pertaining to Labrys was great, though. Love her.
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Doin' Game Design Vids: https://www.youtube.com/c/DesigningFor

I feel Persona is less "awful" and more "tonally blind". There are moments like in Persona 4 Arena where Naoto's able to talk about her sex and glass ceilings in relation to Labrys's struggle and how perception doesn't matter because she is satisfied with who she is and it's such a powerful statement. And then she has sexy DLC because it costs money and Ann is forced to pose nude after overcoming sexual predation and harassment because THAT'S FUNNY. But then Lala Escargot exists and is mature and a figure to learn from in the same game. Feels like too many cooks trying to appeal with Japanese shorthands for comedy and quick buys... and honestly that usually makes sense as Persona games are super uneven across the board.

Still, the one bit I love about Kanji is that he's, like, the only character to really mature post-game. He encounters his shadow again in Arena, and rather than turning into a sniveling mess like the rest, he hits himself and goes "dang, I thought I was over this shit. Dude I've moved on, so I'm gonna beat the crap out of you 'till YOU accept ME". I think it's just the perfect capstone to his arc and all the crap Yosuke gives him through the game.
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Doin' Game Design Vids: https://www.youtube.com/c/DesigningFor

Since we're taking into account the emotional aspect of things, I'll leave some cents on Shadow Kanji here, with my own experience.

As the biggest Kanji/Naoto shipper around here I dare you to find someone who would come close I will teach them the meaning of romance, I do have strong feelings toward Kanji's sexuality on a base level. Namely that P4 does a really bad job empowering non-heterosexuality, but a really fantastic job portraying what it means to be a teenager struggling with those. I struggled really hard coming to grips with my sexuality as a teen, and the one line "It doesn't matter guys or chicks, I'm just scared shitless about being rejected" resonated with me like nothing else. It made me feel it's okay to be somewhere in between, that being me was enough, just like it was for Kanji, and I can figure it out on the way without a definitive answer. And that made watching his character transformation through the game all the more special, because it inspired me to change or find resolution in myself, too. And that's, y'know. Kinda cool. I guess.

Admittedly I think Shadow Kanji himself is a kind of "Whitney's Miltank" situation where it's more there to check DO YOU KNOW WHAT BUFFS AND DEBUFFS ARE and is hard for requiring knowledge of how the game expects you to play it rather than taking the all-out offensive approach, making it more memorable as a result, so the encounter doesn't stand out to me quite as much. It was my hardest boss on my first playthrough, but I've seen many a playthrough where he ranges from "impossible" to "yeah okay whatever".

And,uh... yeah. Tagging, obviously.
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Doin' Game Design Vids: https://www.youtube.com/c/DesigningFor

Tag, some of these should be great. Plenty where there is one boss that should obviously be the one, and then others where it could be such a wide variety of bosses that different aspects could be valued more than others. Looking forward to it!
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Doin' Game Design Vids: https://www.youtube.com/c/DesigningFor

I liked the part where Donkey Kong went on an upset run. He's a good boy, should do that more.

Honestly the starting rounds were pretty exciting with some interesting trends - Yakuza up, Persona down, Mario down, Ace Attorney up, all of that - before kind of just evening out by the end. Not much ado about that, but I always enjoyed tuning in.
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Doin' Game Design Vids: https://www.youtube.com/c/DesigningFor

Phoenix
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Doin' Game Design Vids: https://www.youtube.com/c/DesigningFor

Kirby
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Doin' Game Design Vids: https://www.youtube.com/c/DesigningFor

Phoenix Wright
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Doin' Game Design Vids: https://www.youtube.com/c/DesigningFor

Kirby
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Doin' Game Design Vids: https://www.youtube.com/c/DesigningFor

Edgeworth
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Doin' Game Design Vids: https://www.youtube.com/c/DesigningFor

Lil Slugger comes up and beats you with a baseball bat as you fall to your inner demons in order to get you to achieve enlightenment and personal growth or something.

I dunno if he's capable of speaking and thus declaring which peg to strike. But I also don't know if Mike would finally be able to escape his purgatory of watching cheesy movies and thus forfeit the game upon dealing with his inner struggles.
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Doin' Game Design Vids: https://www.youtube.com/c/DesigningFor

Garrus
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Doin' Game Design Vids: https://www.youtube.com/c/DesigningFor

Missile

As much as I love Phoenix and am fine with him winning... this is a dog.
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Doin' Game Design Vids: https://www.youtube.com/c/DesigningFor

Maya "Moeblob I Guess" Fey
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Doin' Game Design Vids: https://www.youtube.com/c/DesigningFor

I mean, at least two of these companies will continue to exist despite their bad blood. BioWare's already a skeleton being forced to dance by corporate. You don't get more 'in decline' than 'would not be surprising to see it liquidated'. Blizzard has strings to hold it down as well, but they have WoW to stay reliable on.

Fallout 76 is the funniest disaster, though. Seeing new headlines fills me with joy at how this can continue to go on. It's a conga line of embarrassment and failure and I adore it.
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Doin' Game Design Vids: https://www.youtube.com/c/DesigningFor

Kirby
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Doin' Game Design Vids: https://www.youtube.com/c/DesigningFor

GLaDOS
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Doin' Game Design Vids: https://www.youtube.com/c/DesigningFor

Welp down to one fav left. All aboard the Kirby train I suppose.
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Doin' Game Design Vids: https://www.youtube.com/c/DesigningFor

The Boss
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Doin' Game Design Vids: https://www.youtube.com/c/DesigningFor

Kiryu
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Doin' Game Design Vids: https://www.youtube.com/c/DesigningFor

Gumshoe

Very nice match though.
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Doin' Game Design Vids: https://www.youtube.com/c/DesigningFor

Missile
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Doin' Game Design Vids: https://www.youtube.com/c/DesigningFor

Donkey Kong
Kefka
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Doin' Game Design Vids: https://www.youtube.com/c/DesigningFor

Sonic
Maya
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Doin' Game Design Vids: https://www.youtube.com/c/DesigningFor

Kirby
sans
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Doin' Game Design Vids: https://www.youtube.com/c/DesigningFor

Kefka
Monika
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Doin' Game Design Vids: https://www.youtube.com/c/DesigningFor

Vivi
The Boss
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Dante
Kazuma Kiryu
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Dick Gumshoe
Garrus Vakarian
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Doin' Game Design Vids: https://www.youtube.com/c/DesigningFor

-
Missile
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Doin' Game Design Vids: https://www.youtube.com/c/DesigningFor

Wrighto
DK
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Doin' Game Design Vids: https://www.youtube.com/c/DesigningFor

(59) Meta Knight
(38) Sonic the Hedgehog
(11) Maya Fey
(22) Futaba Sakura
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Doin' Game Design Vids: https://www.youtube.com/c/DesigningFor

(3) Kirby
(30) Makoto Niijima
(14) Leon Kennedy
(19) Sans
(95) Tali'Zorah nar Rayya
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Doin' Game Design Vids: https://www.youtube.com/c/DesigningFor

(7) Kanji Tatsumi
(26) Kefka
(74) Monika
(87) Goro Majima
(28) Dante
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Doin' Game Design Vids: https://www.youtube.com/c/DesigningFor

You're already special heavy, so Champ out of those. As much as I love Exeggutor, his grass coverage ain't great.
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Doin' Game Design Vids: https://www.youtube.com/c/DesigningFor

(2) Miles Edgeworth
(96) Tali'Zorah nar Rayya
(15) Big Boss
(18) The Boss
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Doin' Game Design Vids: https://www.youtube.com/c/DesigningFor

(5) Bowser
(28) Dante
(117) Spyro the Dragon
(108) Kazuma Kiryu
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Doin' Game Design Vids: https://www.youtube.com/c/DesigningFor

(4) Solid Snake
(29) Luigi
(13) Garrus Vakarian
(45) Kyle Hyde
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Doin' Game Design Vids: https://www.youtube.com/c/DesigningFor

(57) 9S
(25) Ren "Joker" Amamiya
(73) Pokmon Trainer Blue
(88) Missile
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Doin' Game Design Vids: https://www.youtube.com/c/DesigningFor

(1) Phoenix Wright
(33) 2B
(80) Donkey Kong
(17) Rise Kujikawa
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Doin' Game Design Vids: https://www.youtube.com/c/DesigningFor

(118) Travis Touchdown
(75) Lloyd Irving
(22) Futaba Sakura
(43) Sephiroth
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Doin' Game Design Vids: https://www.youtube.com/c/DesigningFor