Your video game hot take(s) thread

BrawlMan

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"The Gamers": "We don't understand why people keep calling us perverted manchildren."

Also "The Gamers": "Leave in our lesbian loli innuendo! It's the artist's intent!"
You pervs have Senran Kagura, what more do you want?!

You read the comments?!
They're so predictable, none of them are worth my time.
 
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Rimworld is only a "story generator" if you consider events spit out by a random number generator with no logic or continuity that ends with your colony being inevitably being overwhelmed by endlessly escalating raids a "story."
I think Rimworld used to have the sub-title "colony simulator" that was later changed to "story generator". Considering how much effort Tynan spent on making sure you couldn't make raids irrelevant with killboxes and mountains, the game really is a colony defense game.

I get the impression neither is quite a correct translation. I get the impression its one of those deals where the kid had a harmless crush and the MC is trying to console them, but neither panel translates it correctly. Literally watched an action movie last night where a little kid develops a crush on a lady, but its harmless and funny.
I have never played FE nor do I want to, but I wanted to know the full context. Last time it was that gay-erasure potion which turned out to be misleading.
Basically it's Valentine's Day and this Anna character is selling gifts. The MC wants to know how well they're selling, and Anna says they she sold them all, except for a special gift not for sale, just for her. MC misinterprets this a friendly gesture, to which Anna calls her insensitive. Anna reminds her what day it is, and now the MC understands.

This is where the screenshot comes in. Since Anna knows she is a just a kid, it's too early for her so instead offers it as a token a friendship. A dynamic translation would be that she knows she won't be taken seriously, she's doesn't know much about love, this type of love isn't normal, something like that. The MC agrees with that statement and gives her I guess the Amulet of Mara in exchange, but instead of being married they should be "partners".

The image makes it look like the MC is coming on to Anna and then offering an alternative until she grows up. Rather the MC is playing along with Anna to make her happy, and since Anna is a merchant, "parter" means 2 different things for them. In my worthless opinion it is as you say, an innocent one sided love. Nothing crazy either, I remember characters like this in FF6 and FF9.
 
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BrawlMan

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Confession time: I never finished Astral Chain, and I don't see myself coming back to it. Bayonetta 3 pretty much killed what little interest I had left. Astral Chain is not bad, but I don't like the mission structure, and it gets too repetitive for me. I heard the final boss is ass and has lots of one-hit kills. Not worth the frustration.

Another take: these action games should have co-op or separate co-op modes. Only some of them do. Ninja Gaiden II & 3 have them on last generation consoles. They were partner AI only and removed respectively on the Remastered Collection for Sigma 2 and 3RE respectively. Bayonetta 2 has Tag Climax Mode. Capcom retroactively added co-op in the Switch version of DMC3's Bloody Palace. Spyborgs, while not a good game, is a DMC/God of War game that allowed singe player or two player co-op throughout the entire campaign. Seriously, we need more of these fun modes. Even Evil West has co-op, though it is not perfect.
 

TheMysteriousGX

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Last Fire Emblem Engage hot take until/unless I pick up the game: I don't think those Japanese S rank supports are as romantic as some weeb fans think they are because the dialogue doesn't change depending on the MC's gender and I don't think Intelligent Systems and Nintendo suddenly went all in on queer rep. I've got a hard time buying that, cool as it would be if true.
 
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I do have some excitement for Wanted: Dead, but I have concerns. While it does look like a huge step up from the final product of what was Devil's Third, a lot of the trailers keep pushing the whole "from programmers and developers of Ninja Gaiden & Dead Or Alive!" My only other gripe is the skill tree system. Can we please just kill these from games forever now? What's wrong with just having a regular ass upgrade system seen in your spiritual predecessor or DMC. As much as I like Evil West, the skills system could be a hindrance at times, if you wanted a specific upgrade. A lot of upgrades you couldn't do out of order, like in past action games. I am glad AA and mid budget games are making a comeback, but please don't adapt the crappy and overdone gameplay systems from the AAA industry.
 
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But at the bottom end, I now have moved Skyward Sword up over Twilight Princess. TP just didn't introduce anything. It was just a better looking OoT with a worse fishing minigame. People complained a lot about changes in Skyward Sword... but at least it evolved. Plus, I still maintain that a lot of the issues were people who didn't have their Wiimotes set up properly and blamed the hardware. Because I never seemed to have all the control issues everyone else complained about. Plus SS had the most interesting attempt to fit into an overall "timeline." Hints at a futuristic high tech past that suffered some kind of apocalypse. And the complaints about Fe... I found her only AS annoying as Navi, and OoT is still my favorite of the series. I can't fault the game for Fe and not judge OoT down with it as well. Plus, Fe had the more interesting connection to the story.
@Kyrian007, you're gonna love this... (the take is time stamped)

 
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Kyrian007

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@Kyrian007, you're gonna love this... (the take is time stamped)

Yeah, entertaining. And my opinion of their level of discourse after listening for a couple of seconds made it pretty gratifying to find out their opinions differ from mine after listening to the rest. Looking at the video before playing it I was wondering, who are these guys? After watching for a couple of minutes, I feel happy that the youtube algorithm apparently knows me well enough not to suggest videos from whoever these guys are. Skyward Sword, no... its not a 10 out of 10. But it came out in a pretty decent year for video game releases, and I don't think it is outside the realm of possibility that it deserves to be in the top 25 or so. Being bottom 2 of the main Zelda franchise, isn't really a huge burn considering a few of the titles are GOAT contenders on many lists.

And they complain about the framrate? Yeah, there's another level of discourse indicator red flag. Plus, they are just spamming throws and light attacks. Definitely not even as good as they are trying to pretend to be.
 

XsjadoBlaydette

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*sigh*

The whole controversy around Forspoken dialogue is proper weird, overblown, and am suspicious of it being manufactured now more than ever after playing the full game. Am not here to say it's good, it is not. But when you compare it to all other games by Squeenix, including and especially their beloved titles, it's not any worse. I tolerate it cause usually there's some interesting gameplay, the worlds are interesting and stories can be intriguing... however their dialogue has never sounded believable. It's always bouncing between treating the player like a baby, being devoid of any emotional/motivational nuance, localised with voice acting that makes me palm my face at every attempted emotional beat at the stilted yet hammy cadences, and a massive tendency to repeat very basic and obvious feelings in case anyone happened to be licking their paws the last 2 times those were loudly telegraphed. I've never gone into a Sqeenix game expecting, or even hoping, for Telltale/Disco Elysium/TLoU quality speaks, not anywhere close. I go in for some dumb, yet sincere and visually engaging videogamey action.

Yet this game comes out and ppl suddenly act like they lost all memory and this is the worst Squeenix has been, or maybe poor dialogue is only acceptable when it's done by anime dolls instead of models resembling actual humans.

Playing it now, the intro set in New York was perhaps the worst of the game, as it attempts to portray a "gritty" origin story, but only "gritty" in that Disney kind of way where there's no sharp edges and everything might as well be a Sunday morning cartoon. The dialogue there ain't defendable (just like all them other Squeenix games) as it tries to portray certain real life situations we've seen done a million times better. But once you reach isaki land, I actually think the vocal delivery is a step above most other squeenix games, even if the sentences themselves can be hit or miss. So am very weirded out how and why this controversy managed to propagate so much. Is kinda reminding me of the Spiderman PS4 "puddle downgrade" outrage before it was released and ppl saw how it was a nothingburger: I was the only person to call out that bullshit then and I guess I have to be that only asshole one more time for this bullshit too!

Could be encouraged by tricks of psychology our brains tend to fall in to also: a whiles ago Derren Brown did this small test on a love audience to portray how suggestion can change our sensory perception, by passing around a tiny vial of liquid, asking people what they think they can smell. One said it was mint, and a few others after that said they smelt mint too. But in reality it was odourless, and people's minds just filled in the blanks with what little information they were extracting from their environment. This is like if there was a constant smell of mint all the time, but no-one noticed it until someone accused the nearest chubby person of smuggling polo sweets into the room.
 
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BrawlMan

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Skyward Sword, no... its not a 10 out of 10. But it came out in a pretty decent year for video game releases, and I don't think it is outside the realm of possibility that it deserves to be in the top 25 or so. Being bottom 2 of the main Zelda franchise, isn't really a huge burn considering a few of the titles are GOAT contenders on many lists.

And they complain about the framrate? Yeah, there's another level of discourse indicator red flag
Simmons (the white guy with the dark brunette hair), has made it known for a decade that he really doesn't like Skyward Sword. The other guys are between indifferent and don't care.

EDIT: He's not big on the Hyrule Warriors games either, but at least understands why people enjoy them.

Plus, they are just spamming throws and light attacks. Definitely not even as good as they are trying to pretend to be
If you are referring to Max (he's off screen in this part of the video in a different part of his room; he's the one playing Kimberly), he knows what he's doing, and is not to be underestimated. Steve (black guy with the short afro) is of decent skill, but he has his moments of spamming. Kenny is the one with the dreadlocks. They're the YoVideoGames crew (Simmons runs the YouTube channel, but it's from Max's Twitch stream), but each guy has their own channel. Plus, this is the most recent beta from a few weeks ago. They can't constantly practice the game whenever they want until it comes out this summer. Plus, there are known high skilled players that spam stuff in fighting game tournaments and cups. Par for the course.

Spiderman PS4 "puddle downgrade" outrage before it was released and ppl saw how it was a nothingburger: I was the only person to call out that bullshit then and I guess I have to be that only asshole one more time for this bullshit too!
Actually, a lot of people mock the idiots around puddle gate. You weren't the only one. Most people knew it was a nothing thing, it was just that others thought they weren't worth bringing up nor giving attention.
 
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Casual Shinji

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*sigh*

The whole controversy around Forspoken dialogue is proper weird, overblown, and am suspicious of it being manufactured now more than ever after playing the full game. Am not here to say it's good, it is not. But when you compare it to all other games by Squeenix, including and especially their beloved titles, it's not any worse. I tolerate it cause usually there's some interesting gameplay, the worlds are interesting and stories can be intriguing... however their dialogue has never sounded believable. It's always bouncing between treating the player like a baby, being devoid of any emotional/motivational nuance, localised with voice acting that makes me palm my face at every attempted emotional beat at the stilted yet hammy cadences, and a massive tendency to repeat very basic and obvious feelings in case anyone happened to be licking their paws the last 2 times those were loudly telegraphed. I've never gone into a Sqeenix game expecting, or even hoping, for Telltale/Disco Elysium/TLoU quality speaks, not anywhere close. I go in for some dumb, yet sincere and visually engaging videogamey action.

Yet this game comes out and ppl suddenly act like they lost all memory and this is the worst Squeenix has been, or maybe poor dialogue is only acceptable when it's done by anime dolls instead of models resembling actual humans.

Playing it now, the intro set in New York was perhaps the worst of the game, as it attempts to portray a "gritty" origin story, but only "gritty" in that Disney kind of way where there's no sharp edges and everything might as well be a Sunday morning cartoon. The dialogue there ain't defendable (just like all them other Squeenix games) as it tries to portray certain real life situations we've seen done a million times better. But once you reach isaki land, I actually think the vocal delivery is a step above most other squeenix games, even if the sentences themselves can be hit or miss. So am very weirded out how and why this controversy managed to propagate so much. Is kinda reminding me of the Spiderman PS4 "puddle downgrade" outrage before it was released and ppl saw how it was a nothingburger: I was the only person to call out that bullshit then and I guess I have to be that only asshole one more time for this bullshit too!

Could be encouraged by tricks of psychology our brains tend to fall in to also: a whiles ago Derren Brown did this small test on a love audience to portray how suggestion can change our sensory perception, by passing around a tiny vial of liquid, asking people what they think they can smell. One said it was mint, and a few others after that said they smelt mint too. But in reality it was odourless, and people's minds just filled in the blanks with what little information they were extracting from their environment. This is like if there was a constant smell of mint all the time, but no-one noticed it until someone accused the nearest chubby person of smuggling polo sweets into the room.
The dialoge just hits that nerve for many people, I think. Whether this has to do with the writing or the delivery or both, I can't say, but it just produces a nails-on-chalkboard result. Other Square games are arguably written just as badly, but there's a dopey quality to the writing and the performances that can be endearing. Same with classic Resident Evil games. Forspoken isn't the first game to hit this very off note; Life is Strange was also pretty lambasted for its dialoge when it released. I think the difference between something like Forspoken and, say, Kingdom Hearts is that Forspoken seems to go for this very witty, snappy dialoge, but really isn't succeeding at it, making the dialoge not only bad but embarrassing each time it attempts to be witty and hip. Final Fantasy is like seeing a really bad drama, Forspoken is like seeing a really bad stand-up comedian; both are bad, but one can hit a lot more sour.
 

Gordon_4

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I don't know if this is so much a hot take, however.....

The Pokemon Company, for all I appreciate their worldly ways - seriously Galar was one of my favourite regions in game - really need to learn some of the more subtle ways things are done in the actual places they base regions on. For example, Scarlet and Violet are (supposedly) based on Spain. Now, I confess I have not been to Spain but I feel very, very confident that even at its most prestigious of universities, it will never force any student, let alone mature age ones, to wear this:



This is an affront to God and Christendom. Stop it.
 

BrawlMan

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The dialoge just hits that nerve for many people, I think. Whether this has to do with the writing or the delivery or both, I can't say, but it just produces a nails-on-chalkboard result. Other Square games are arguably written just as badly, but there's a dopey quality to the writing and the performances that can be endearing. Same with classic Resident Evil games. Forspoken isn't the first game to hit this very off note; Life is Strange was also pretty lambasted for its dialoge when it released. I think the difference between something like Forspoken and, say, Kingdom Hearts is that Forspoken seems to go for this very witty, snappy dialoge, but really isn't succeeding at it, making the dialoge not only bad but embarrassing each time it attempts to be witty and hip. Final Fantasy is like seeing a really bad drama, Forspoken is like seeing a really bad stand-up comedian; both are bad, but one can hit a lot more sour.
It's like I said before in the Forspoken thread, but I noticed that a lot of AAA games are just either poorly imitating Dante, Nathan Drake, Deadpool, or MCU dialogue. They think that as long as the character is constantly talking and witty, then they have great a comedy gold but it has to be good or interesting. And the characters usually have to be endearing in some type of way or sympathetic.

I find it crazy that a stripper freak zombie and vampire hunting game has whittier and better dialogue than this. It probably helps that it was written by people who care and knows what type of schlocky game they're making. The voice actors knew how to ham it up to. Especially Amanda Miller as Kagura. Z2 Chaos came out in 2014 and 2015 in Japan and then everywhere else respectively. Shadows of the Damned has better dialogue and a duo with sarcasm and wit, better than this. And that game is full of dick jokes.
 
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Old_Hunter_77

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*sigh*

The whole controversy around Forspoken dialogue is proper weird, overblown, and am suspicious of it being manufactured now more than ever after playing the full game. Am not here to say it's good, it is not. But when you compare it to all other games by Squeenix, including and especially their beloved titles, it's not any worse. I tolerate it cause usually there's some interesting gameplay, the worlds are interesting and stories can be intriguing... however their dialogue has never sounded believable. It's always bouncing between treating the player like a baby, being devoid of any emotional/motivational nuance, localised with voice acting that makes me palm my face at every attempted emotional beat at the stilted yet hammy cadences, and a massive tendency to repeat very basic and obvious feelings in case anyone happened to be licking their paws the last 2 times those were loudly telegraphed. I've never gone into a Sqeenix game expecting, or even hoping, for Telltale/Disco Elysium/TLoU quality speaks, not anywhere close. I go in for some dumb, yet sincere and visually engaging videogamey action.

Yet this game comes out and ppl suddenly act like they lost all memory and this is the worst Squeenix has been, or maybe poor dialogue is only acceptable when it's done by anime dolls instead of models resembling actual humans.

Playing it now, the intro set in New York was perhaps the worst of the game, as it attempts to portray a "gritty" origin story, but only "gritty" in that Disney kind of way where there's no sharp edges and everything might as well be a Sunday morning cartoon. The dialogue there ain't defendable (just like all them other Squeenix games) as it tries to portray certain real life situations we've seen done a million times better. But once you reach isaki land, I actually think the vocal delivery is a step above most other squeenix games, even if the sentences themselves can be hit or miss. So am very weirded out how and why this controversy managed to propagate so much. Is kinda reminding me of the Spiderman PS4 "puddle downgrade" outrage before it was released and ppl saw how it was a nothingburger: I was the only person to call out that bullshit then and I guess I have to be that only asshole one more time for this bullshit too!

Could be encouraged by tricks of psychology our brains tend to fall in to also: a whiles ago Derren Brown did this small test on a love audience to portray how suggestion can change our sensory perception, by passing around a tiny vial of liquid, asking people what they think they can smell. One said it was mint, and a few others after that said they smelt mint too. But in reality it was odourless, and people's minds just filled in the blanks with what little information they were extracting from their environment. This is like if there was a constant smell of mint all the time, but no-one noticed it until someone accused the nearest chubby person of smuggling polo sweets into the room.
It'll be interesting to see what happens when Final Fantasy 16 comes out.
16 ffs!
That is a beloved franchise that is chock full of stilted horrible anime dialogue horribleness. I can guaranteed it will be as bad or worse than Forspoken. But if the game is halfway decent it will be beloved.
 

Kyrian007

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If you are referring to Max (he's off screen in this part of the video in a different part of his room; he's the one playing Kimberly), he knows what he's doing, and is not to be underestimated. Steve (black guy with the short afro) is of decent skill, but he has his moments of spamming. Kenny is the one with the dreadlocks. They're the YoVideoGames crew (Simmons runs the YouTube channel, but it's from Max's Twitch stream), but each guy has their own channel. Plus, this is the most recent beta from a few weeks ago. They can't constantly practice the game whenever they want until it comes out this summer. Plus, there are known high skilled players that spam stuff is fighting game tournaments and cups. Par for the course.
Yeah, it's a beta. There is a learning curve, that was a cheap shot (cheap, like spamming throw.) Still, I value the opinions of the journalists at the outlets they mentioned in regards to Skyward Sword more than I do some rando Twitch streamers and YouTube "influencers." Probably because I'm old.
 

BrawlMan

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It'll be interesting to see what happens when Final Fantasy 16 comes out.
16 ffs!
That is a beloved franchise that is chock full of stilted horrible anime dialogue horribleness. I can guaranteed it will be as bad or worse than Forspoken. But if the game is halfway decent it will be beloved.
The dialogue will probably just be regular fine, and nothing special. It's just your typical dark medieval fantasy that's aping from Berserk. I am getting the game for MAD COMBOS.

 

BrawlMan

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Yeah, it's a beta. There is a learning curve, that was a cheap shot (cheap, like spamming throw.) Still, I value the opinions of the journalists at the outlets they mentioned in regards to Skyward Sword more than I do some rando Twitch streamers and YouTube "influencers." Probably because I'm old.
I'm not a Zelda fan, other than the Hyrule Warriors games, so I can't give you my opinion on the quality of each game. I've only played and beaten the original Zelda on GBA and that's it. Don't let their opinions fool you on Skyward Sword, they for the most part know their stuff. Though I'd be wary of Steve. He's a known contrarian, and he'll try to push his argument even with factual evidence right in front of his face, knowing he's wrong. My only problem with the crew when they go overboard on anime and tend to troll or sometimes make fun of the people in their chat for liking (modern) anime they don't (with Simmons and Steve being the worst about it). Whenever they start that conversation, I pretty much have to tune them out. I like plenty of anime from the 80s and 90s, but there was a lot of crap back in those decades as well. It isn't just a modern anime problem.

Gaming wise, most of them know what they're usually talking about, but you're always going to have disagreements. Simmons I tend to disagree with the most and it's why I usually don't bother with his solo streams. His podcast are usually better, cuz he's with somebody (his buddy Andrew) and they go into more detail. Max and Simmons usually do have some insider information and have gotten close with plenty of developers. Max especially when it came to the development of Killer instinct 2013 (he did the editing and camera work for the trailers). He's also gotten close with some Capcom of America employees as well. Then again, even Capcom of Japan loves Max because of his dedicated and hardcore support of all things fighting games and Capcom. You won't believe how many fighting game developers either ask about him, need his opinion on something, or they just want to say hi or thank you.
 
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Gordon_4

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*sigh*

The whole controversy around Forspoken dialogue is proper weird, overblown, and am suspicious of it being manufactured now more than ever after playing the full game. Am not here to say it's good, it is not. But when you compare it to all other games by Squeenix, including and especially their beloved titles, it's not any worse. I tolerate it cause usually there's some interesting gameplay, the worlds are interesting and stories can be intriguing... however their dialogue has never sounded believable. It's always bouncing between treating the player like a baby, being devoid of any emotional/motivational nuance, localised with voice acting that makes me palm my face at every attempted emotional beat at the stilted yet hammy cadences, and a massive tendency to repeat very basic and obvious feelings in case anyone happened to be licking their paws the last 2 times those were loudly telegraphed. I've never gone into a Sqeenix game expecting, or even hoping, for Telltale/Disco Elysium/TLoU quality speaks, not anywhere close. I go in for some dumb, yet sincere and visually engaging videogamey action.

Yet this game comes out and ppl suddenly act like they lost all memory and this is the worst Squeenix has been, or maybe poor dialogue is only acceptable when it's done by anime dolls instead of models resembling actual humans.

Playing it now, the intro set in New York was perhaps the worst of the game, as it attempts to portray a "gritty" origin story, but only "gritty" in that Disney kind of way where there's no sharp edges and everything might as well be a Sunday morning cartoon. The dialogue there ain't defendable (just like all them other Squeenix games) as it tries to portray certain real life situations we've seen done a million times better. But once you reach isaki land, I actually think the vocal delivery is a step above most other squeenix games, even if the sentences themselves can be hit or miss. So am very weirded out how and why this controversy managed to propagate so much. Is kinda reminding me of the Spiderman PS4 "puddle downgrade" outrage before it was released and ppl saw how it was a nothingburger: I was the only person to call out that bullshit then and I guess I have to be that only asshole one more time for this bullshit too!

Could be encouraged by tricks of psychology our brains tend to fall in to also: a whiles ago Derren Brown did this small test on a love audience to portray how suggestion can change our sensory perception, by passing around a tiny vial of liquid, asking people what they think they can smell. One said it was mint, and a few others after that said they smelt mint too. But in reality it was odourless, and people's minds just filled in the blanks with what little information they were extracting from their environment. This is like if there was a constant smell of mint all the time, but no-one noticed it until someone accused the nearest chubby person of smuggling polo sweets into the room.
I just played the demo on PC to completion, took about an hour and a half. I'm kind of with you on all of this.