I Got All The New Spirits And... I Know This Is Old News And All But... I Can't Thank Sakurai Enough

I got all the new spirits and... I know this is old news and all but... I can't thank Sakurai enough for what he has done with this game and with the spirits. I understand the people who miss the trophies, they were really cool.

But the sheer amount of characters you can actually put into the game by using existing art and all the lovely references that the developers put into the spirit battles are so much cooler than what the trophy and the stickers were. Okay, trophies have nice descriptions which makes them more useful for people that are unfamiliar with the characters. But for people that are familiar with the characters, nothing beats KNOWING why the Aerith spirit battle is at the Fountain of Dreams and Cloud is trying to protect her. Nothing beats knowing why the Cait Sith spirit battle has 3 Mr. Game & Watch spamming Judge. Even if you got the plot of FFVII spoiled you won't get the reference. You need to play the actual game.

The part that really warms my heart is that Sakurai didn't need to try so hard to make bonus battles that are so perfect for the characters. He didn't need to constantly update the game with more spirits and he certainly didn't need to give us so many. Most people would have been 100% satisfied with just the playable characters from 7. But no, he gave us Shiva, who was sadly missing from the game despite being the most popular summon (or is Bahamut more popular?). He gave us the Turks. They have many fans, sure but not enough to get in Kingdom Hearts or Dissidia apperently, so nobody would have been surprised if they were skipped.

Elena (or Irina if you are japanese) is one of my favorite characters ever, and my first videogame crush. And she is now in the best game of all time. This really feels like a Chistmas gift from Sakurai. I am so happy. I was so happy when Shantae was a spirit at launch. I was so happy when Igor from Persona was added as a spirit, when Leon S. Kennedy from RE4 was added (and his Spirit Battle references that game perfectly too), when Sans got a costume, when music from the Metal Slug games got in with Terry.

I understand that Smash hype and discourse will always be about playable characters, but sometimes we all really need to take a minute to appreciate all that Smash Ultimate is OUTSIDE its massive roster. I am mostly a fan of minor characters who have no realistic chance of getting in the game at all, which is why I mostly give support to characters who wouldn't make me cry tears of joy, or would become my mains, but have a good chance of bringing with them spirits (or background characters if Sakurai pulls another Terry) that would make me so happy.

Ryu Hayabusa, a pretty boring ninja if you ask me, but one of the most important recurring characters in Ninja Gaiden is my beloved Ayane who would get in as a spirit, so come on Ryu supporters WE GOTTA MAKE HIM HAPPEN!

Someone from Soul Calibur? Sure, anything to get a Voldo spirit.

Someone from Tekken? I love Xiaoyu, King, Yoshimitsu, Nina, Anna and Paul so fricking much, and at least a couple of them are guaranteed if we get Jin or something.

Crash Bandicoot? YES! A Cortex spirit would be the best.

Sora? Only worth it for the Roxas spirit.

Byleth? Not my first choice, but I don't get all the people who are mad because they wanted the house leaders. I'm too busy smiling because the house leaders got wondeful spirit battles (and also Seteth for some reason).

When smash speculation and wishlists are involed, you guys seem to care about who gets in as a playable character, the bonus stuff you don't care about (unless it's missing, like FF music until now. Then you suddenly care). I care about the bonus content and who gets in as playable matters just a little bit to me. Which makes me weird. But to me the spirits are what makes Smash Ultimate the best smash game and I'm willing to die on this hill.

Imagine being a Mallow fan. Barely anyone discusses or even remembers him. Everyone goes nuts about that stupid puppet who is literally just as important as your Mallow but he gets to appear in cameos and stuff, while Mallow is left in the dust. Then Ultimate comes out and Mallow is a spirit. It's not a Geno & Mallow spirit, Geno doesn't get to intrude in anyway. It's just a simple spirit battle who references your favorite game. A little detail. But you have never felt so seen and cared for as a Mallow fan.

The devil is in the details, and the masterpiece is in the details too. If Smash Ultimate had exactly the same roster, with the same gameplay, but no care and love for details in the background, in the victory screens and its approach to single player content was more on the level of Smash 4...

It would still be an 8.5/10 game at minimum, but it would also be so much worse at what its trying to do.

I guess what I'm trying to say is that it's been two years and Smash Ultimate is still such a beautiful game that keeps being given attention and players keep going back to it not just because it's a really pretty games with good gameplay mechanics. But because every inch of it has been crafted with love, care and attention to details.

You can have the best gameplay, and the nicest graphics but if you don't care to put all your passion into polishing your game as much as possible nobody will care (coughcoughMarvelVsCapcomInfinitecough)

This year's CYL will be especially spicy with all the new entries (mostly the Cindered Wolves and Gatekeeper) bursting in out of nowhere. But I've still got to give my first vote to an incredible, hardworking good girl with freckles. No, it's not Mozu this time.

It's Dorothy from Binding Blade! Seriously just look at her. A design that modern IS would never give us. With modern clothes she would look exactly like that girl who makes the fries at McDonald to pay for her education. You know the one, you never talk to her but she's been working hard for years now.

And her character and supports are pretty good too, a bit basic maybe because it's FE6 but you should definetely check them out. I especially love her dinamic with Saul and with Clarine. According to CYL 4 she is in the top 10 most wanted characters from FE6 and we must work hard to improve her position.

So I ask you all, if you have a vote to spare don't forget to help the original village girl, before we had Rebecca, Neph, Faye and the others, we had her. She deserves some recognition.

Or at least vote for someone from FE6, that game needs help.

A bit late, but here are my choices for the voting jubilee thingy!

Hanneman was an obvious pick for best teacher. He is full of knowledge but also patient with his students, even if they are a lost cause (see the Alois support).

After choosing him I realized that we weren't limited to actual teachers but also people who can teach us how to fight. If I went with that particular interpretation I would have picked Tanith. Sure Marcia calls her a DEMON INSTRUCTOR, but if she's strict it's because she cares obviously.

For the second pick, Dancing Neph is adorable but she really needs a partner.

I picked Heather because I'm a filthy shipper, but you are completely valid if you paired her with Brom or Meg, or even Calill.

Then the third choice was a really hard one. There are tons of simpatetic villains and enemy bosses in Fire Emblem, and even if a seriously considered picking my wife Aversa, in the end I had to go with the villain that made me really feel bad from my first FE. What an introduction to the big sad that is this franchise she was. Plus she is still not in Heroes for some stupid reason.

Remember, if you have a strong opinion or suggestion about the state of the game right now you can send feedback and let IS know. It's not like they didn't listen to the community in the past. Remember the AyraGate controversy? Remember that votes weren't combined in the old CYL events? Remember how well Relay defense was received?

The developes aren't above listening to players feedback. If enough people explain to IS in a civil and reasomable way exactly what's wrong with the pass, they can change it. For me the real problem was the QoL stuff being exclusive to paying players. But if you think that the problem with the pass is that it's too expensive, or something else LET THE DEVELOPERS KNOW.

But be aware that a generic "the pass sucks, scrap it" won't work because it was probably a decision made by Nintendo itself because they think their mobile games need monthly subscriptions.

The pass is here to stay, but if we make an effort as a community we can change it so that paying customers feel like their money was spent on something useful and the F2P people don't feel like they're missing out on stuff that should have been for everyone.

If enough of us give constructive criticism we can stop IS from making the situation even worse in the future with horsesh*t like better odds to pull a five star if you have the Feh pass or who knows what else.

This is an important matter that could change the game forever. We should all voice our opinion about it

Not-Nintendo related but check out this awesome analysis of the character Marie from the popular indie game Ib. And if you haven't played it, first play that amazing game and then read the analysis.

Ib Theory - Mary’s Character

Ah, Mary.  My precious problem child.  I’m not gonna front: I love Mary.  I think she’s the best character in this game.  I think, given the events of certain endings, people have a really bad perception of Mary, which is kind of a shame. Yes, she did a really bad thing, but there’s far more to her character than just that action, you know?  Mary is fascinating in her complexity, and I think that’s something that’s too often overlooked.  So with this, hopefully we can get people to understand and appreciate some of the more positive and intricate aspects of her personality.

Continua a leggere

I got incredibly lucky with the spring banner and with little over 200 orbs I went from having zero of the 1st year's bunnies, to having all of them. Which means in one clean swoop I completed both my Camilla and Lucina Collection (and Chrom collection, but there's no space for him).

I must say, having a goal in mind makes playing the game a lot more fun, so I'm really glad I decided to strive for a complete collection ever since Brave Camilla.

But now I need to find some other goal (unless Bride Camilla is coming, but you didn't hear it from me). I was thinking about completing all the CYL heroines which wouldn't be too hard. I already have all Celicas (including Duo Alm), all Lucinas, all Micaiahs and all Camillas. I'm missing only one Lyn (the Bride which I can try for in a month), one Veronica (the Mythic one which could be a little tricky depending on my luck) and I already have base Edelgard and Lysithea and considering I get one of them for free it means I basically need to hunt for 3 units.

Wish me luck, and let's hope the new banners don't distract me too much.