Jump to content
Banner by ~ Ice Princess Silky

Here No Longer

User
 View Profile  See their content

  • Posts

    6,341

  • Joined

  • Last visited

 Content Type 

Blog Entries posted by Here No Longer

  1. Here No Longer
    Well after recently watching one of the best TV episodes in all of television, I really feel positive. I feel like expressing that positivity into what I see for 2019. The potential for maybe something good to happen to me for once. Maybe it will be the best year of my entire life. Although I'll be the first to admit, the opposite may once again be true, and if it were bad enough it could be my last year of life (You know what I'm implying here), I'm really looking forward to a year in and of itself for the first time, quite literally ever. I know this is about 3 weeks late, but I'll dive into it here. Why exactly do I feel cautiously optimistic about 2019? Well here are a couple of reasons.
     
     
    ~What's coming out in 2019?~
     
    There are some AMAZING things coming out this year. Among them being Toy Story 4, Borderlands 3, Hazbin Hotel, and Long Gone Gulch. Toy Story 4 seems, so far, to be on its way to being a phenomenal ending place for the series (Here's the summary that says so). I really feel the hype on this one. As for Borderlands 3, I'm REALLY excited. It's another Borderlands game, what do I have to say here? As for Hazbin Hotel, it's been shaping up to be among my favorite adult animated shows of all time (I DOUBT it will beat out Rick and Morty and the older seasons of the Simpsons, but I think it will be up there). But nonetheless, definitely loving the dark creativity. And for Long Gone Gulch, the character concepts and the blending of genres are both QUITE intriguing to me. I see it being perhaps among the best of all time with the potential shown by Rawhide's character. I'm sure there's more to be excited about, but these are the main things. Like yes, the Bowser's Inside STory remake is a thing, and yes so are things like Infinity Train. But these are the things that REALLY make me feel like there's hope.
     
     
    Maybe a Chance at Love? <3
     
    I think it's ACTUALLY possible I'll find him. You now, the one. I know it's been a struggle in that department with you know the fact I as of now have a whopping 3 ex-boyfriends at the age of 21, but I've began to become hopeful in recent times I might find the fourth and maybe they'll revise that saying to "the fourth is the charm." But I have hope for a three reasons. Firstly, I have made my own blog post citing what I want in that department, and I'll link it right here. Secondly, over those 3 failed relationships, I gained a better understanding of how to make them work, or at least I'm led to believe so. And last, but not least, the potential move may help out a LOT here. If I moved in with my brother I'd be moving into the second largest city in the state and the seventh largest city in the country (San Antonio, Texas). By my math (and admittedly a few assumptions), that leaves me in that city alone... Just about 10,000 possibilities. Yes, 10 THOUSAND (for a male looking for a relationship with another of the same sex, that's an awful lot of possibilities). At least 1 ought to be compatible? Of course this is all me trying to be positive. The realism of this is still... a bit shaky at the very best.
     
  2. Here No Longer
    Be warned, contains spoilers for Pokémon Black and White. To anyone who hasn't played it yet and plans to, you've been warned.
     
     
    There seems to be a sort of debate what N actually IS in the Gen V Pokémon games (well aside from his real name being really funny. Seriously look him up and you'll see that it's pretty bad if you have a sick mind). Some people say he's a villain because he's, on paper, the leader of Team Plasma, the evil team in Generation V. But here's the thing, technically HE ISN'T. You learn very late in the game (basically the end in fact) that Ghetsis was manipulating his "son" the entire time. Also, he seems to be awfully friendly towards the player for being the villain of the game But onto the actual subject of this blog post. What actually makes N a great anti-hero in my opinion? Well...
     
    N has a warped, but very interesting train of thought about Pokémon and their trainers. He thinks (or thought, before his mind was changed towards the end of the game's story) that Pokémon should be released from their trainers because they long to be free. Sure these ideas were brought on by Ghetsis basically brainwashing N for his own gain, but the ideas themselves are rather interesting. I mean think about it. We keep making them fight until they faint for our own enjoyment, we keep making them wear silly (but classy and cute) outfits to compete in contests for our own enjoyment, and we take them from their natural habitats and stuff them inside a little ball. But the problem with this train of thought lies in the assumption that N makes that all Pokémon are suffering and none of them are actually happy to do this for their trainers. Also, he doesn't think about how this will affect the trainers of the Pokémon. But this train of thought feels natural for him to have because the story reveals he was actually raised... by Pokémon and he shows his intelligence by how he argues his point of view, though occasionally he gets a little bit immature about it, but for reasons that actually make perfect sense considering his actual backstory. They aren't random outbursts, they are actually rooted to his lack of real contact with people.  
    N is a part of the evil team, yes, but he actually has a heart. He throughout the game shows that he has legitimate concern for all Pokémon, and even to a degree the player. He occasionally will heal your team, show you the benefit of the doubt even when you disagree with his ideas, and even release his Pokémon after he loses battles to you (he is the only recurring rival or villain to never keep his team. The only Pokémon he DOESN'T release during the game's events is Reshiram or Zekrom (Depending if you play White or Black respectively), and even then he seems to avoid putting him in an actual ball unlike you who keeps theirs in the ball, whether it be your Master Ball, an Ultra Ball, or whatever ball you catch him with. He actually shows more concern for his Pokémon than you or anyone else does with theirs. Not to mention, he actually only serves Ghetsis because his adoptive father convinced him and everyone else that Plasma's mission is to free all Pokémon from their trainers. If he knew the real reason for Ghetsis' agenda against all of the people (including non-trainers even) in Unova, he would have immediately had scorn for Ghetsis and would never have went along with Plasma's takeover of Unova, especially being the king representing such a takeover.  
    N's battles are generally difficult enough to put up a challenge for people who don't have a good understanding of Pokémon, especially the last battle you have with him in Black and White. His Pokémon are made deliberately two or three levels higher than your own, and without a proper amount of strategy it is potentially challenging especially for being a battle in a Pokémon game against a character that technically isn't the Champion or an Elite Four member. He has a variety of types in his teams and his trainer AI isn't going to make battling him too easy, but also not too hard for the tykes the game was initially designed for. I mean none of the trainers in Pokémon games are particularly challenging with a few notable and frustrating exceptions (WHITNEY AND HER FREAKING MILTANK ), but they aren't supposed to be. I think N's AI does this really well and I applaud whoever designed his AI specifically.  
     
    Well, I'm bad with conclusions, but those are my reasons. N is a kind person with somewhat twisted ideas that provides an adequate challenge for the player. Also, he looks kind of cute. DAMMIT JAPANESE ARTISTS ARE SO GOOD AT MAKING PEOPLE LOOK CUTE Anyways, N in my mind, fits every criteria for a good anti-hero in a video game and he does it well in his own way, making him an interesting character to say the least and I think probably even one of the best characters in the entire video game franchise. Not the anime version of him though, because the cleverness of the character was taken out of the anime. But I say in Black and White, he was a cleverly written anti-hero that checked all of my boxes. Yeah I repeated myself multiple times here, but that is it.
  3. Here No Longer
    This is a post a LONG time coming. Paladins vs Overwatch. Considering that I have perspective on both games (I've played over 600 hours of Paladins, and my brother last I heard climbed to Diamond in Overwatch and I've been watching Overwatch pretty closely), I think it's more than appropriate for me to make the comparisons here. Paladins and Overwatch both have their own sort of appeal behind them to me, and honestly I would love to play Overwatch. But I don't think it's nearly as good as Paladins. Why? I have my reasons.
     
     
    Mechanical Design
    Overwatch, mechanically, is a game flawed on a very fundamental level... Overwatch does have things like stuns and slows, along with shields and armor, but they lack so much. They don't have things like Healing Reduction, Damage Reduction, CC Reduction, Damage Types, or anything remotely like Androxus' Reversal (well, there are similarities to Genji's Deflect, but Zhin's Counter is much closer to it in functionality). This makes the game seem very basic in that regard. Not even to mention that the aforementioned shield and armor mechanics sort of feel redundant, as they accomplish the exact same thing in a way that doesn't really feel that different.. I'll also bring up another couple of things here: switching and the structure of Overwatch's premier game mode. Character switching is BAD for a variety of reasons. First off, it removes the entire strategy of picking a character that does well on the map or the real impact of counter-picking the enemy team (as they can just switch after they die!). Secondly, It actually encourages trolling, because it allows people to pick a full damage comp with almost zero consequence (as they can change it to a 3-0-3 or whatever is meta in OW right now). And lastly, they also FORCE it on you! That really p***es me off. I've literally heard no real arguments why this is a good thing. I've heard "because one-tricks" but they AREN'T A PROBLEM ANYWHERE ELSE! In Paladins, no problem. In League of Legends, it's done by a LOT of people including streamers, and it's been zero issue. As for the structure of the game-mode, that's an absurdly obvious one. The problem is that Attack and Defense are NOT the same! In Paladins Siege, both teams compete for an objective and whoever captures it then pushes a payload. Here, you either push a payload or defend! That creates a lot of issues, because it polarizes characters like Torbjorn (even new Torb is to a degree) that are good  at doing one thing (In Torb's case, defense) but not as good at the other. And these issues are furthered by character switching.
     
    Character Customization
    I don't mean the skins here. I mean how much you can actually tweak your character (hero, or champion in Paladins) and their stats to best suit a certain playstyle. I'll take Barik and Torbjorn for example. Torbjorn is stuck in an offensive playstyle centered around shredding tanks and taking advantage of chokes, while Barik can literally do ALL KINDS OF THINGS. By picking from Talents and building decks of Cards, you can make Barik either the king of area denial, a flanker, a mid-range DPS, or heck you could even make him a defensive tank if you wanted to (although it's not a not even remotely viable option). He can do any of those things if you build him a certain way. Also, not to mention, there are items in the game that allow you to gain stats that could be vital and game-changing, such as Healing Reduction on weapon shots or you could opt for Cooldown Reduction (which is also not in Overwatch!), or you could make your ultimate charge faster, or you can even increase the healing you get from your healers. Those aren't the only options, but a few examples. 
     
    Character Designs
    I say this more from a creative standpoint considering that I'm developing my own game (it's a tabletop game, but nonetheless) with it's own characters, Overwatch's characters are a little less creative than Paladins' in design. A good example of this can be made with a comparison between McCree and Androxus. McCree may be a well designed character, but he's really not that creative. He's just a modern-day version of the likes of Wild Bill. Androxus' design was a lot more inspired. He's supposed to be a lawman, that became corrupted with an evil curse that requires him to kill to sate it. I don't even think I've heard of that concept before. Also, not even to mention that the designs of Paladins characters actually make it feel like there are (however much I hate to critique games like this) actual stakes in the real universe. With Overwatch, there doesn't actually seem to be that much of a stake in the actual lore. Maybe a few more places could look like Australia. Not as much as Paladins, where it actually feels like the fate of the Realm rests in your hands.
     
    Balancing
    The balancing in Overwatch at the moment is downright terrible. Literally every tank and support is in the meta right now (after Roadhog got buffed), but only half of the DPSes are (not McCree, not Soldier: 76, not Tracer, not Symmetra...) Doesn't that just seem like bad balancing to you or am I alone on that? Sure, Paladins has had it's issues, but not everyone of a single class is meta. Terminus is pretty weak right now and Ruckus is also on the tank side. On the support end, Jenos has been pretty mediocre lately (Even though I think that will change next patch), Furia's been struggling to compete, and Grohk hasn't been meta since Patch OB48 (in other words1 and a half YEARS). As for Damage champions, Vivian has always been garbage (except on release when she was absurdly overpowered), Tyra's pretty freaking terrible, Kinessa's going to get badly outclassed after nerfs, and now Willo is going to be absolutely miserable since her nerf last patch. And Flanks... Well, I can't argue that most of them (aside from Androxus, Talus, and Evie) are downright unviable in the current competitive metagame. Although Lex may be added to that list next patch because of a slight meta-shift that I see happening in the next patch along with buffs to his sustained output at range.
     
     
    However, I will note a couple of important things Overwatch has over Paladins. I'm trying to be as objective as I can with this, after all. 
     
    Lore
    I just have to say that the current Paladins lore kind of SUCKS. Most of the lore feels generic, and some of it doesn't even make sense. Mostly it's just about a fight between the Magistrate and the Resistance, which feels like something I recognize from... EVERYWHERE... Overwatch is a far different story. I find Overwatch's lore really interesting to say the least. The whole war between humans and omnics is quite interesting, and I am especially intrigued by the story of Reaper. Considering he used to be the equivalent of an undercover agent working for Overwatch (as the leader of "Blackwatch", and then something slowly snaps in him that Talon (who if you didn't know are terrorist faction that the Overwatch is trying to stop) is better than Overwatch. Sure I left out a lot of details, but even without them. That makes a far more interesting lore story than "This guy knew this guy and they were both cops and then suddenly one of them went raving mad" (that's Androxus' lore in a nutshell...) The old lore of Paladins was better than it is now, as it had a lot of worldbuilding, but it still wasn't good because there were so few strands actually connecting the characters...
     
     
    Bugs!
    As anyone who's actually played Paladins knows, the game has had a HUGE issue with bugs. Terminus has had some game-breaking bugs (at least on PC) for a long time now that haven't been fixed. Pip has bugs that literally affect his VIABILITY in the meta (getting rid of them would buff him a LOT), and Evie has had issues with bugs for the longest time. Not to mention Grover had a bug for MONTHS that could CRASH THE GAME! In Overwatch, on the other hand, I don't notice these when I watch other people play nearly as much. In Paladins, on a bad patch, you may even get a game where you see a game-breaking bug in action once every 10 matches or so...  But I'm pretty sure I haven't once heard something like an Overwatch hero having a bug so bad, let alone so prolifically bad from YouTubers like Stylosa, Tyrodin, or Your Overwatch (although I've heard a lot of pointless bickering over dumbness that doesn't even matter...). Sure, I know the game has bugs, but it's nothing like Paladins where I've seen Terminus's shattered body moving around the map, or Barik spontaneously get spaghettified on death, or a movement ability crashing the game...
     
    So there it is. Overwatch is worse than Paladins. Overwatch may be a game with a lot less bugs and lore that's actually interesting, but Paladins isn't mechanically flawed on a fundamental level, it has actual character customization in the sense of adjusting mechanical functionality, the character designs are more interesting, and the meta doesn't literally discourage people from playing an entire role that encompasses HALF OF THE ROSTER... (Competitive meta from what I've seen is 3 tanks and 3 supports, with the occasional DPS before teamfighting starts...). I really have been toying with the idea of buying Overwatch whenever I get a computer of my own (because I haven't had one for a YEAR now) and internet (that's hopefully good enough to play on, because I had a hard time playing Paladins on my old internet with a f***ing 1Mbps download and upload...) nonetheless. It may be worth it.
  4. Here No Longer
    Since the top 20 list wasn't, well... very well-explained, I plan to make a new list soon. But, for now I'll talk about one specific show and what it does so well. That show being? Steven Universe.     In my opinion, Steven Universe is just one of the shows I could count on one hand that ascends above everything else that has EVER come on TV. No matter how much I hate the fandom (it's NOT okay to tell people to kill themselves over a piece of fanart or to attack a kid DYING OF CANCER over the fact he got to watch episodes early before he DIED *cough cough* AwestruckVox *cough cough), no matter how much BS there is around about the show having a "liberal agenda" (it doesn't, if you really watched the show without trying to get offended by it, you'd understand it applies to everyone and works for everyone regardless of political stance), and no matter if it messed up a few episodes (I can admit that), I can't stop LOVING this show. Yes, I do think that the first season was downright ATROCIOUS, but after that point, it recovered quite well from it's mistakes and really turned itself around.  It went from a show I couldn't stand to a masterpiece of a show that even at it's most disappointing, is far from a bad show. Here's just a couple of reasons why this show is just so amazing.         THE CHARACTERS   When I watched Season 1, I hated EVERYONE in the show. They were all annoying, one-dimensional wrecks (particularly Steven and Garnet... Ugh). But now, I don't even find RONALDO irritating, and he's a character that's always considered annoying by the animation community as a whole. I can't blame them, but he's even improved to the point I don't cringe when he/s on screen anymore... As for everyone else... Well, I'll give you the three best examples.   Steven went from being immature and downright annoying to being mature almost beyond his father's years. He's really shown that he has a heart of, well, solid diamond of a sizeable carat. Gold is FAR from appropriate. Steven has an ability to just humanize ANYONE. To be able to really get to literally anyone on a deep emotional level. Heck, one great scene of his involves him destroying a weapon Bismuth MADE for him because he wasn't out to destroy gems, but instead to speak out to them, to teach them of tolerance and of kindness. I really can't believe it. They really went out of the park with him. From, I swear, giving me ANEURYSMS to being the absolute nicest, sweetest kid in... well, anything ever.  Pearl went from a b**** with a serious nagging issue, to a character with more depth than I could possibly have imagined. She apparently was in love with Rose Quartz, was hiding a secret of hers for over 5000 years (one with DIRE consequences mind you), and has shown a level of concern and care for Steven that wouldn't even be expected out of the best of mothers. She also has been struggling with plenty of her own demons for the longest time. When Steven got into her mind, you really got to see what she has on her mind all the time. On the exterior is the organized clean freak we know her to be, but underneath lies a hidden depression, comprised of thousands of years of sorrow. I could go on, but Pearl's insanely deep even for a Steven Universe character, and that says something because they all have an amount of depth I've never seen anywhere else. Garnet went from being a complete f***ing buzzkill to being literally the best LGBT representation in ALL of media, period, and among the absolute best cartoon characters EVER devised. Garnet really shows the beauty of love, regardless of who it's between. Ruby and Sapphire (the two gems that fuse to create Garnet) are absolutely the most adorable couple I've ever seen. The two, well, women also offer up their own characters to the mix, really creating an interesting sort of split personality within Garnet that occasionally manifests itself. A part of her is insightful and mature, while another part of her is energetic and almost childlike in a very charming way. They literally fused out of love, and they've stayed fused for most of almost 6000 years! That's true love, if I've ever known it. True dedication to each other and to their fusion. She, well, they are just such a great way to represent the community as a whole. I could never ask for such. It's also a huge plus that they're "marriage" was the most adorable thing I've ever witnessed in all of animation... Garnet is really a show of how strong the bond of love can be, and an impressive one at that.    
     
     
    THE MESSAGE
     
    I also love the message of the series as a whole, which I would say is that we should let everyone be who they are, regardless of any standards we may place on them. That we should accept people's expressions of themselves. If you hate the show for having a message like that, well you're offended and you more than deserve to be... Seriously, this show is beyond insightful and if you decide not to see that because you don't like it, you have a problem not the show. There is so MUCH to get out of this masterpiece of a show. There is a lot about individuality, a lot about abusing power, and a lot about the importance of the connections we have with others, among a lot about other things as well. Seriously, there's just so many good things this show could teach EVERYONE that listing them would take far too long. All I'm saying is, this show is deep and thought-provoking with messages that can apply to literally anyone, regardless of who they happen to be.          This show is a show for everyone, young or old, conservative or progressive, male or female, white or black, regardless of sexual orientation or gender identity... I can't recommend it enough. Though I also can't recommend skipping the first season enough either. There are a few key episodes that should be seen to start with, but this is more about how good the show is and not anything else. This show is a phenomenal show. It's even more than just a show... It's an experience, and it's one heck of an experience. It's one that I think every single fan of animation should give a try, and a real try not just make some pointless 30-45 minute videos trying to criticize it's animation style that don't really go anywhere and prove more or less you're trying to hate the show as hard as you possibly can (I've seen more than one of those ...). All I ask to people who do that s*** is to really give the show a shot before they start bashing it. Maybe you can see the same thing I do in it.
×
×
  • Create New...