Journal of Other Forum Analysis

[Snoopy]

Nah. DA has a big fanbase. They accepted the shitty sequel. They accepted Inquisition. They’ll lap this up.

[Uncle]

Top surgery scars in a world filled with magic 

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-05-02/dungeons-and-dragons-disability-in-tabletop-gaming/100068926

Spoiler:  (click to show)(click to hide)

the real problem with this item was that they were so afraid to offend anyone by implying that there was a downside to being disabled, that there is no logical reason why any player WOULDN'T want this thing, even if they're able bodied, it's dirt cheap and has a million advantages, if it existed as written then the consequence would be that everyone in the D&D world would have one

Let’s see him get to the top of a castle.

https://www.reddit.com/r/DnD/comments/zn3lxx/i_read_the_combat_wheelchair_pdf_what_the_heck_is/

All this time I thought the DnD combat wheelchair was just "It's a wheelchair that lets you do anything an able-bodied character can do. Don't think about it beyond that" and that was fine.

What it actually is is a 12-page description of a single magic item and all of its features. Here's a list:

- You don't need to attune to it

- It can move telepathically

- It counts as a mount

- Any spell that affects you also affects it (including lycanthropy), as well as any attunable magic item

- It takes 3 critical hits to break or 3 80-foot falls in a day (time can be spent repairing it in a long rest)

- It can hover

- Your movement speed becomes 30 when on it

- Going downhill, your movement speed becomes 60. There is no penalty for moving uphill.

- You have advantage on saving throws against being knocked prone.

- You can use it as a weapon and can reposition enemies with it.

- It costs 200g

And that's just what the chair can do before you add the upgrades. The upgrades are similarly OP and are really cheap for what they do. Just one example, for 550g you can add armor to the wheelchair and gain +2 AC. So as soon as a fighter in this wheelchair has 3050g, they can get a total of 22 AC with full plate, a shield, and this wheelchair upgrade.

Hilariously, the PDF starts with "The Combat Wheelchair does not give a disabled character any kind of 'advantage' over an able-bodied character" when it clearly does. It's by far the most useful item you can possibly buy for its cost. It's effectively unbreakable, it gives you automatic melee combat advantage against small and tiny creatures, Dwarves and Gnomes get +5 to their movement speed when on it, it can hover up jagged inclines, you get a free pushing attack, it gives you advantage against literally anything that would knock you prone, and you can get way more OP effects for 50-700g each.

This is either a cruel joke or the most tryhard homebrew item I've ever read. If anyone brought this to my table, I'd laugh them out of the room.

Does this thing have any drawbacks? If not, there doesn't seem to be any reason why able-bodied characters wouldn't ride around in them. Which seems kinda offensive tbh. If it's designed to increase inclusivity and allow disabled players to play as disabled characters on a level playing field with able-bodied characters, surely it should mostly just be a flavour item? (I.e. it allows them to do all of the things their disability prevents)

Also if a player creates a new lvl 1 disabled character, would they start with this powerful magic item? Or would they just start with an ordinary wheelchair and have to buy/find the magic one? There's a lot about this that I don't understand.

I read through the whole thing and found no drawbacks whatsoever.

And yes, a player can start off the campaign with the chair. The PDF says you can have it in your backstory if your character is disabled without explaining how a brand new level 1 character could afford 200g.

[DavidCroquet]

My big brain theory is that DA barely has a cohesive fanbase. I mean look at the existing games...they all have a vibe like they are made by unrelated teams and targeted to different audiences.

Veilguard carried this proud heritage on its sleeve. I think its as likely to bomb as it is to succeed. Either way it won’t be because of “woke”, but because each entry is like another round of throwing shit at the wall. Very strange series.

[Besticus Maximus]

Dragon Age is being made for a tiny proportion of internet freaks and doing everything it possibly can to alienate everyone else. It’s barely even a dragon age. They absolutely thoroughly deserve the failure that’s coming their way.  The influencers can pretend it looks great as much as they want but I have eyes and I can see that it looks like pure dogshit and is barely an rpg.

[Snoopy]

I noticed a whole bunch of shills posting DA videos and praising the game yesterday. I was surprised because I watched the same people calling it shit when it was first revealed.

[Daffy Duck]

I noticed a whole bunch of shills posting DA videos and praising the game yesterday. I was surprised because I watched the same people calling it shit when it was first revealed.

They all got flown out to the studio to look at it (as did Shillnobi too) so it’s no wonder he’s making the thread on Era and also shilling it on Twitter

[Straight Edge]

Kalentan, you should write a book about who is to blame for this. You could call it ‘My Struggle’.

Why is there only an option to lop off two tits in Dragon Age? 

Why can't I play a female character that survived breast cancer and had to have one of their tits removed?

This isn’t about supporting women, dummy.

[HaughtyFrank]

Dragon Age is being made for a tiny proportion of internet freaks and doing everything it possibly can to alienate everyone else. It’s barely even a dragon age. They absolutely thoroughly deserve the failure that’s coming their way.  The influencers can pretend it looks great as much as they want but I have eyes and I can see that it looks like pure dogshit and is barely an rpg.

They're kind of going the Mass Effect route where all the RPG is getting streamlined out of the game. Maybe it'll work like it did for Mass Effect but they'll probably lose a bunch of the original fan base. That the story and characters so far just seem very run of the mill doesn't help

[Polident]

Dragon Age 1 was good and novel as a classic RPG in its time. Since then I think there have been a number of games of its style, on various scales. You could argue people who were into Baldur’s Gate 3 want to jump into something else. You can even argue they’re aiming for that. Baldur’s Gate 3, by all accounts, is a good game that happened to have a vitiligo slider. Dragons Age 4 looks to be a vitiligo slider that may or may not have a passable game attached to it.

[Steven Snell]

Ban this filth, off site boys club rhetoric 

To quote one of the craziest minds of our time:

"There's a universe between being a pervert and a sex pest.


I'm a pervert.
Don't be a creep and don't violate clear boundaries.

Shits not hard."

[jooseloose]

I've got 10 pages to catch up on, but the complete 180 on Era on the PS5 Pro price when the 30th anniversary edition was revealed   Bunch of fucking hypocrite fanboy babies.

[BananaBlast]

https://www.resetera.com/threads/final-fantasys-sales-crisis-is-also-an-identity-crisis-opinion.986814/

Yes. I think this is absolutely the series' biggest problem. Square has been bragging for years about how "Final Fantasy can be whatever the director wants it to be", but as we've seen over the past decade with the sales progressively decaying from entry to entry, the lack of a consistent series identity means that EVERY NEW GAME is basically starting from 0 and only supported by the franchise's most ardent fans.

And as we get older, there are less and less of us every year. We're aging, having kids, getting sick of video games, getting sick of RPGs, and some of us are even dying. There is no refreshing the brand because every new game throws the last game in the garbage and has to sell an entirely new group of people on an entirely new game design.

The series needs to find something that it can excel at and focus on it instead of reinventing itself over and over again.

Not everyone is a 40 year old pile of rotten pessimism, Pricksmasher. Besides, you don't have kids and you spend all your time with video games, so it's not like you're too busy to play games anyway. I can't even pull myself to agree with him, even if I do think the Final Fantasy series struggles due to its lack of clear identity. The guy's not looking to be satisfied, he's just looking to complain about something.

Tifa's tits sent him into a meltdown, therefore he could just be still salty over that.

Not even 2 posts later:

square's business reality is not my problem as a player

Speaking bluntly: it absolutely is your problem if you want to keep getting Final Fantasy games.

Asshole couldn't help but to get mad at someone for not sharing their doom and gloom.

Also complaining on Ree until you become physically unable to isn't going to solve anything on Square Enix's part.

[DavidCroquet]

Damn, Final Fantasy dead after 16 entries. Gone too soon.

[BananaBlast]

Ban this filth, off site boys club rhetoric 

No, it's not boys club rhetoric because it has a man in it. He's thristing over a man, therefore it's queer and therefore acceptable.

[Uncle]

https://www.resetera.com/threads/final-fantasys-sales-crisis-is-also-an-identity-crisis-opinion.986814/

Yes. I think this is absolutely the series' biggest problem. Square has been bragging for years about how "Final Fantasy can be whatever the director wants it to be", but as we've seen over the past decade with the sales progressively decaying from entry to entry, the lack of a consistent series identity means that EVERY NEW GAME is basically starting from 0 and only supported by the franchise's most ardent fans.

And as we get older, there are less and less of us every year. We're aging, having kids, getting sick of video games, getting sick of RPGs, and some of us are even dying. There is no refreshing the brand because every new game throws the last game in the garbage and has to sell an entirely new group of people on an entirely new game design.

The series needs to find something that it can excel at and focus on it instead of reinventing itself over and over again.

Not everyone is a 40 year old pile of rotten pessimism, Pricksmasher. Besides, you don't have kids and you spend all your time with video games, so it's not like you're too busy to play games anyway. I can't even pull myself to agree with him, even if I do think the Final Fantasy series struggles due to its lack of clear identity. The guy's not looking to be satisfied, he's just looking to complain about something.

Tifa's tits sent him into a meltdown, therefore he could just be still salty over that.

Not even 2 posts later:

square's business reality is not my problem as a player

Speaking bluntly: it absolutely is your problem if you want to keep getting Final Fantasy games.

Asshole couldn't help but to get mad at someone for not sharing their doom and gloom.

Also complaining on Ree until you become physically unable to isn't going to solve anything on Square Enix's part.

smashman:

Yes. I think this is absolutely the series' biggest problem. Square has been bragging for years about how "Final Fantasy can be whatever the director wants it to be", but as we've seen over the past decade with the sales progressively decaying from entry to entry, the lack of a consistent series identity means that EVERY NEW GAME is basically starting from 0 and only supported by the franchise's most ardent fans.

but then:

Speaking bluntly: it absolutely is your problem if you want to keep getting Final Fantasy games.

why the fuck do I want "final fantasy games" when by your own admission that doesn't mean anything? maybe the next one will be a college football simulator, who knows, I'm not buying it just because it has the name attached

[HaughtyFrank]

Pro Hamas videogame is part of the "game devs of color expo" on Steam



Will the same people who cried about the Saber CEO's comment talk about this as well? Somehow I doubt it

[D3RANG3D]

Spoiler:  (click to show)(click to hide)

[malfoyking]

Final Fantasy just needed to make another Final Fantasy like 9, 10 and 15 but actually complete. 

- Good-looking characters (16 had this)
- Nice artsytle (not whatever nonsense 16 had. Ugly ass game) 
- A non-depressing world and setting (once again, wtf was 16)
- A goddamn party (Your buddies in 15 were amazing and thats the point of final fantasy. Going on a fucking journey with your. friends and comrades. 16 had none of this. That cutscene at the end of 15 with your friends around the fire is still one of the best square has ever done. You could feel Noctis pain in that scene because of the goddamn journey regardless of how incomplete it was. It was earned)
- Amazing music (legitimately dont remember any tracks from 16, yet i still sometimes randomly hum Somnus)
- Great battle System(I think they should start iterating from Rebirth and not action-packed 16)
- Release on PC or Switch 2(If its successful) Day 1!

It's not that hard. They are the ones that choose to keep doing dumb shit.

Persona 6 is 100% gonna outsell both Rebirth and 16 when it releases.

[Uncle]

Final Fantasy just needed to make another Final Fantasy like 9, 10 and 15 but actually complete. 

- Good-looking characters (16 had this)
- Nice artsytle (not whatever nonsense 16 had. Ugly ass game) 
- A non-depressing world and setting (once again, wtf was 16)
- A goddamn party (Your buddies in 15 were amazing and thats the point of final fantasy. Going on a fucking journey with your. friends and comrades. 16 had none of this. That cutscene at the end of 15 with your friends around the fire is still one of the best square has ever done. You could feel Noctis pain in that scene because of the goddamn journey regardless of how incomplete it was. It was earned)
- Amazing music (legitimately dont remember any tracks from 16, yet i still sometimes randomly hum Somnus)
- Great battle System(I think they should start iterating from Rebirth and not action-packed 16)
- Release on PC or Switch 2(If its successful) Day 1!

It's not that hard. They are the ones that choose to keep doing dumb shit.

Persona 6 is 100% gonna outsell both Rebirth and 16 when it releases.

they keep making final fantasy games under other names

bravely default
octopath traveler
triangle strategy (final fantasy tactics)

these games would probably sell a lot better anyway if they just bit the bullet and said they were FFs

[DavidCroquet]

Real FF-heads like every Final Fantasy.

I'm more puzzled how the series picked up so many fans that are like "man, they need to go back to the good ol' days". This series has never had a shared storyline/universe, and hasn't had a consistent gameplay format for 30 years...how'd ya'll even get in here? 

Spoiler:  (click to show)(click to hide)

also I won't stand FF16 music slander.

[Polident]

Pro Hamas videogame is part of the "game devs of color expo" on Steam



Will the same people who cried about the Saber CEO's comment talk about this as well? Somehow I doubt it

Let's be fair. Looking at the Steam page, the "game devs of color expo" put East Asian developers into the honorary White category so they're out. They need all they can get to pad the game list.

Wait, I spotted an anime game. Maybe they



yeah nevermind

[BananaBlast]

I like FF7 remake, FF7 rebirth, and FF16 the most. Yeah yeah, I know filthy casual, and all.

I like this current pattern a lot actually, but I understand they have only one more piece in the FF7 remake trilogy to go, and I understand that some of the older veteran fans are exactly not pleased. And hate to agree with PrickSmasher, but they are growing older, having less time to play games, and slowly getting less excited for new installments.

[Uncle]

Real FF-heads like every Final Fantasy.

I'm more puzzled how the series picked up so many fans that are like "man, they need to go back to the good ol' days". This series has never had a shared storyline/universe, and hasn't had a consistent gameplay format for 30 years...how'd ya'll even get in here? 

there's a difference between ff9 having bars that fill up vs. ff10 having a manipulatable turn order, both still clearly party-based RPGs where you level up and your numbers get bigger, compared to one game being an RPG and the next being god of war

the franchise had a consistent gameplay format for at least 10 entries, but I would argue even 13 had more to do with the gameplay vibe of prior games than whatever the fuck they're doing now

and let's not pretend like years mean anything with the amount of time it takes them to make these things now

kid icarus is a franchise "spanning 20 years" and "without a consistent gameplay format"...because there was a 20 year gap before its latest entry and the new game was totally different from the others, it's not unjustified if someone pines for the good old days and wants a game more similar to the series' roots

[Besticus Maximus]

Final Fantasy power rankings

FF7
FF9
FF7 Rebirth
FF7 Remake
FF16
FF6
FF13-2 (underrated as fuck)

...
...

...

...

FFXV at the bottom, dogshit

I actually think FF16 was one of the best games of last year, it got ignored for the usual petty bullshit on hitlerera

[Jansen]

I was seven when final fantasy released. After 37 years, 16 mainline entries, and innumerable spin-offs I'm totally good if it dies

[Alpacx]

Final Fantasy IV was the shit.

[HaughtyFrank]

FF7 rebirth selling below expectations really bummed me out because to me it felt like the absolute best that game could be. Had a total blast with it

[Daffy Duck]

Played OG7 when it came out and spent 98 hours in it back then, hated every FF afterwards lol.

Played Remake and was lukewarm on it, Rebirth I’ve played enough to open it up and get to the chocobo ranch and done nothing else with it, not got the time for it atm though I did like what they’ve got in there

[DavidCroquet]

If we're getting into turn-based vs. non, then that's a stronger argument. But those games were still way different: people were shouting "we have to go back!" as far back as FF8.

I do think years mean something too: mostly in terms of if it's worthwhile or realistic to debate what FF "is". FF is more defined by difference than similarity, and has been for a really long time. Ask 5 people what they'd like the series to go back to, and you'll get 5 different answers. It's a request that is impossible to satisfy.

I think too much hay is being made of the underperformance of the remakes and 16. Their series peak is FF15, which was famously mismanaged, spent years in dev hell, and released all kinds of fucked up. That was one mainline entry ago.

For a series like this, some iterations will hit (7, 15) and some will miss (9, 16)...it's an inbuilt risk of the format. But it also avoids the worst outcome, which is appealing to a diminishing audience by offering the same thing over and over. People on the internet say that is what is happening, but I just doubt that's the case. It's way more likely that 15 and 16 just appeal to different, partially overlapping groups that are not equal in size.

For 7R in particular, that one is easily explained by bad luck and systemic issues traditional sequel falloff. I dunno what SE was smoking to think Rebirth would sell more than Remake...it's definitely a better, more polished game IMO, but those games are extremely tightly linked--they were only ever going to get fewer players for Rebirth. And I expect the same again for the 3rd, completely irrespective of how good it is in a vacuum.

Spoiler:  (click to show)(click to hide)

FF13 is my series fave (yes, really) since we're listing personal bests.

[HardcoreRetro]

Where is my representation? Give my character a toggle for depression. When I go and take a shit the character should try and take his life during the idle animations.

Add some spice to the game.