Misty Shadow

For me, it's The End in Friend. Seriously, who didn't forget about this one? "Rainbow Dash and Rarity are fighting! They make up! The end! " I know I've been saying, "unremarkable", a lot lately...but this episode is the definition of that word.

The best to me are Seasons 4 and 5, those seasons are peak Friendship is Magic to me, the part of the show that feels the most ambitious with how it develops the world and the characters. My least favorite season that precedes what many call the "downhill point" is Season 1, since it's the least remarkable season to me with how much has yet to be developed. Least favorite season after what many call the "downhill point" is Season 8. I've never found the Student 6 or the School of Friendship to be as bad as so many fans say...but I definitely understand why many feel this is where the show was taking a wrong turn. Even I felt this is where things were getting somewhat stale, development of the main characters felt the most stagnant in this season. I also realize now how dumb that was for Chrysalis to just do nothing for the rest of the season after her plan failed in the midseason finale.

Actually, there is word now. They "hit Reply too soon". Whether they're telling the truth or not, I'm glad they are taking this seriously by actually talking to us for a change. I'm more inclined to believe they're telling the truth, because...Cort Lane getting the final say on MYM's future? There's another explanation for TYT's voices in the international versions of the new episodes sounding off too, the switching from eOne to Hasbro Entertainment producing the show with lower-end studios.

Honestly, I feel that from the outset, the title should have said, "MYM Allegedly Canceled", as to not be touting something unconfirmed as factual information. Now, it definitely needs to say something like, "Likely Disconfirmed", in parentheses.

Looks like the comments of skepticism were right. We just can't stop jumping the gun with just believing what we read and touting it as fact, can we?

I've seen comments of skepticism about MYM ending just because of a disagreement between Cort Lane and Hasbro. Regardless, I am still disappointed to see that the allegations of Hasbro using AI for the international dubbing of TYT now have merit. I understand that they're in an absolutely awful financial state, but I want the non-American fans of G5 viewing TYT overseas to be receiving good-quality voice acting done by real people.

I don't think the comics are better than the shows, but I think the main series of the comics has been great and I am excited to read the last five issues of it in the near future. Set Your Sail and Maretime Mysteries look awesome too.

Recently finished the new MLP G5 game, you can now read my thoughts here and on DA. https://www.deviantart.com/mistybrightshadow/art/MLP-A-Zephyr-Heights-Mystery-Review-1056010668 The newest official MLP game, A Zephyr Heights Mystery, is in every way a worthy follow-up to its predecessor, A Maretime Bay Adventure. It’s an excellent example of how a sequel to a game should be done, making major improvements to the original. The biggest flaws with A Maretime Bay Adventure were its lack of exploration with great limitations in what you could do in just one small part of G5’s world, short length, and lack of content. A Zephyr Heights Mystery fixes all of these flaws by allowing you to explore both Maretime Bay and Zephyr Heights at liberty, being able to teleport wherever you want, providing you with far more quests to do, including sidequests that you can do all around the world, and giving you new things to do with each member of the main cast of G5, all of them being made playable now, with new things you can only unlock once you have access to them and the unique abilities that each one of them possesses. However, despite all these improvements, A Zephyr Heights Mystery does take some slight steps back in addition to the steps it takes forward. My biggest pet peeve with the game by far was awkward pacing in certain areas. Although the plot of the game (which will only be discussed in limited detail to keep this review as spoiler-free as possible) is good, the kind of thing I could honestly imagine being the plot of an episode of a G5 show, for the standards of an MLP game, something made for young kids, there are times when the way the gameplay and plot flow together feels bizarre and clunky. For example, you do not get Misty in your team until you’re far past the game’s halfway point despite seeing her pretty early on in the game. I enjoyed the irony of Misty trying to catch Sparky for a good cause, a clever nod to how she used to try and catch Sparky for a bad cause, but soon after you get the game’s biggest plot twist, you are abruptly warped back to Maretime Bay for a fetch quest. It’s after you do this that you reappear in Queen Haven’s palace to get the obvious objective of having to tell her about the big reveal. This is an extremely perplexing design decision, something that makes me feel like the game designers decided at the last minute that there was something in Maretime Bay players “shouldn’t be missing”. Every so often, you will also be made to play a minigame that’s meant to reflect something going on in the story. I liked all of the minigames, even as most of them are the same minigames from the first game. However, I found it silly having to play certain minigames repeatedly just to progress, like having to play Sunny’s Rollerblading Chase four times. Things like that just felt like a way to pad the game out. This game may still not be very long despite being more than twice as long as its predecessor, but if I wanted to get more out of the game, I’d do that by exploring the world and doing quests, not playing the same minigames over and over. Even though there’s a decent assortment of things in the game players can ignore their first time playing, I still stopped to collect everything I came across and always found myself entertained just doing my thing. The game, being made for young kids, is unsurprisingly easy, just like the first game. At least unlike the first game, there actually were a few times where I had to retry a challenge, but absolutely nothing came close to making me feel “brick-walled”. I also scored the highest tier on every minigame on the first try. Easy games can be fun and this is one of them. As I mentioned before though, I was not a fan of being made to replay certain minigames just to progress. Something I definitely feel could be improved with the minigames to make them feel less repetitive is to give each character a different thing they can do in each minigame. A thing I found repetitive in the main game I’d definitely change is Sunny’s unskippable magic anomaly fixing cutscene. Seriously, it makes no sense how you’re provided the option to skip the cutscenes in the story but no option to skip something you are being shown over and over again. My final gripe with the game ties in to one of my earlier complaints about the way Misty is incorporated into this game. Oddly enough, despite Misty being the most popular character of G5’s main cast, not only do you get to play as her the least, her special ability is…underwhelming compared to the abilities of all the other characters, only getting a tracking ability. Sunny, Pipp, and Zipp can all glide, Izzy can levitate and build things, Hitch, who has a tracking power of his own, can break objects with his strength, and all Misty gets is…the power of heart. I am not referencing the Nostalgia Critic joke despite the uncanny parallel, that’s what the game calls it, I am not kidding you. I’m sure a Bridlewood Forest game could rectify this goofiness, but still. My final verdict on the game is easy to deliver. Not a winner for anyone outside of its target demographic who isn’t a G5 fan, but a huge winner for those who wanted more out of the first game despite enjoying it and longed for a sequel that would feel much more like a full-fledged video game. A Zephyr Heights Mystery may have glaring problems, but it’s in every way perfect for its intended audience and MLP fans who do not have exigent demands. That being said, I still feel inclined to be transparent about my thoughts on the parts of this game that need polish, knowing that constructive criticism is important. If they choose to improve the issues this game has the same way they chose to improve the flaws of the last game, I have no doubt whatsoever that a follow-up to this game will easily be the best official MLP game yet.

So I was re-watching the Make Your Mark pilot tonight...and guess what? I realized that it's been explained right from the beginning why the Unity Crystals were separated. In the MYM pilot, Sunny says this when she witnesses the magic of the Unity Crystals becoming unstable and jeopardizing Equestria... "I wonder if this had anything to do with why the Crystals were separated all those years ago." Now, recall the fighting she mentions in the story she tells of how the tribes separated in The Traditional Unicorn Sleep-Over. It's apparent that the real reason the tribes were breaking up here wasn't just because of a little fight. It was very likely because they made the magic of the Unity Crystals unstable, and not knowing how to unite together again and live in harmony after all the damage Opaline had done, they and the Unity Crystals had to separate because they didn't want to put themselves and Equestria in jeopardy. Seriously...how did NONE OF US see this? It was there the whole time.