"Making a better environment for playing games, is identical to spreading peace." - Keita Takahashi
Games are more than products. They're more than just escapism. They're more than passive, or even interactive entertainment. They're more than the systems that form them, or the themes that contain them. Games are more than just art. They're the sum of all of these things, and at the same time they're the tiny, nuanced details that create that sum. They provide endless value in an unfathomable amount of ways. Every game is important here, and the goal of this channel is productive discussion and exploration of the medium. We as players are the lens that give games meaning. Welcome to LibraScope! (previously known as 2nd Opinion).
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They really should have just delayed the game by a year or so and shifted development from the PS1 to the PS2
That likely would've helped for sure! Although the issue there is with hardware adoption rates. For most games, only a small percentage of the people who own the console will pick it up. Which means for a new (at the time) console like the PS2, you're talking about a portion of an already small market of current PS2 owners. Considering Driver 1 had higher sales on PS1 than PS2s that had even been sold by the end of 2001 (almost double), they probably thought it was going to lose them more money to make it a PS2 game, which would've forcefully cut their projected sales by probably 70% or more.
I played and beat Driver 2 when GTA3 released and my parents never bought me a ps2 with gta3, so i had to deal with it for years until i could afford it. It was a fine but hard game.
Indeed!
I had no idea you could go and rest during the wutai bosses... I always assumed you were stuck in that building till it was done omg I've been making those fights significantly harder than I've needed too...
Hahaha, I think it took me a while to realize it as well :D
There's actually a fanmade PC port for Driver 2 called "RedDriver 2". It fixes EVERYTHING. No lag issues. It has increased draw distance and runs perfectly at 30fps without fail.
;)
@@LibraScope I hope you get the chance to download it. It's amazing. I play it from time to time. You can find a tutorial on how to install on KZread somewhere
@@HygorBH Hahaha, I replied with a wink initially because I talk about ReDriver for the last section of the video.
@@LibraScope Oops. Kinda gave away that I commented this BEFORE i finished the video, didn't I? LOL
@@HygorBH Lol, it's fine.
Can we just talk about how clean the transition was at 2:44:05
That's the second seamless transition someone has commented on in the last few weeks that was... umm... totally intentional? :D
Having to remember things??? I understand and I agree that GTA 3 was very clunky and an in-game map should have been included, but I also think some complaints are a bit exaggerated. Having to memorize the landscape and locations is not unreasonable, nor even figuring out what the gangcars are. Got to use your observational skills and some logic. In my opinion GTA V ruined the series with its checkpoints. The challenge of a difficult mission in the previous games was in completing a long, challenging task without dying. It took trial and error, sometimes creativity, yes memorization, and skill. There is no challenge at all when death/failure have no consequence. Mainly the things I agree with you on are the lack of in-game map being inconvenient when trying to learn the game. The M16's are broken in enemy hands as they do kill you in about 1 second which is unreasonable. That's not very balanced. The lock-on system is unreliable and combat in general is one of the game's weakest features. Really, I'd say combat in GTA didn't get decent until San Andreas. Before that... it was just accepted as one of the game's weaker features. The inability to move and shoot and properly take cover makes it more of a puzzle to solve, and very tedious.
It's kind of unfair that you assume I'm lazy, or dumb, and just want a game that hands me everything. I play plenty of games that don't have maps, or have other more demanding expectations of the player. My problem isn't with what GTA III does; it's with how GTA III specifically does what it does. It's unfair to conflate the two. Right now I'm playing the game Outward, which if you've never played it, it gives you a map, but doesn't show your location on it. There are no interior maps. You burn maximum health and stamina as they're depleted, and you have to sleep to gain them back. But if you don't guard while sleeping in an unsafe place, you'll get jumped. That will also pretty quickly deplete your hunger and thirst, while also rotting your food, so you'd better be prepared. Diseases are common, take time to recover even with using tea to help, and they can get worse if untreated. You have to take off your backpack for combat, or getting hit in the back will damage your goods. And with most bag types on, your dodge is significantly worse. But you also had better not forget it. There's no fast travel, and travel between regions requires resources, and also expends time. Heck, the game starts with you at risk of losing your home (so a safe bed, non-resetting storage, and a kitchen) if you don't come up with a hefty sum of money in a few days, in whatever ways you can. Losing in combat doesn't reset you. Instead it plays out a scenario that might lead to you ending up in a worse situation than before, like in a cell in a bandit camp full of enemies, with your backpack on the other side of the camp. Again, I'm no stranger to games that demand a lot out of you. Like, the devs for GTA III knew they had limited ability to make each individual building and street stand out, due to hardware and disc storage constraints. So why are so many of their important locations on random, nondescript side streets? Especially since it's not even like you can memorize street names like in real life? So why not put Ammunation or whatever somewhere more memorable and distinct? It's up to devs to meet us halfway, and design their game to work in tandem with choices like a lack of a map. Like, please tell me what 'logic' I'm supposed to use to find some of the gang cars? Some are pretty obvious, like the one with the blower and flames, or the mafia one, or even the yakuza car. But the rest just look like regular cars, especially for the early 2000's US. When the game barely tells me anything about any gang, there's not much 'logic' to go on. As for GTA V ruining things by adding checkpoints, I disagree. You don't have to use the checkpoints if you don't want to. You can load back to your last save, and there might even be a Restart Mission button upon death (I can't recall). But also, I used to think the same thing back in the early 2000's, when games like Halo came out with recharging shields and mid-mission checkpoints. I cut my teeth on things like Medal of Honor, or Perfect Dark (in terms of FPS games), which didn't give such luxuries. But what I realized as I played more games, is that concessions like those in Halo were often just a different way to balance encounters. It's not inherently better or worse. Just different. If you balance a mission around no checkpoints, (and in the case of Medal of Honor, no recharging health), you have to balance it around the weakest average players. The players who might make dumb decisions, or just not be very good. And as such, encounter design is often dumbed down to compensate in games like that, because they don't want people getting super upset, not finishing the game, and then refusing to pick up future games in the series. In contrast, if you make sure the player basically always has the resources they need to tackle a challenge, you can ratchet up the general difficulty of each encounter to compensate, because you know they'll never have an ammo, or health, or money deficit or whatever that they can't climb out of. Halo's individual encounters and difficulty options could get FAR HARDER than anything you'd find in MoH or similar games, because they didn't have to guess about what resources you might foolishly or accidentally waste. A game like GTA V isn't as hard as something like GTA III, but that's because of GTA III's jank. If you turn auto-aim off in V, I'd argue it's actually harder than both Vice City and San Andreas on average, in spite of the fact that the last 25% of your health recharges, and you have checkpoints. Because it's able to throw longer missions with harsher enemy configurations at you, and ensure that you will have the ability to push through. Challenge is not just found in the consolidation of all of a mission's encounters. It is also found in the individual encounters, and I think arguing checkpoints remove all challenge ignores that reality. It treats a mission purely as the sum of all of its parts. Again, it's not better or worse inherently; it's just a different design structure. But to clarify, my issue isn't with a lack of checkpoints in missions or anything in GTA III. I just brought stuff like that up because the actual jank of the game makes those systems feel clunky by proxy. You can see this in how much more I enjoyed Vice City in my video on that. The lack of checkpoints in San Andreas or Vice City is nearly always perfectly fine, because the games aren't (usually) near as jank as GTA III. When you pair such punishments with a lack of polish, they end up being more punishing than intended, and THAT was my complaint.
I thought you would use negative combos to make the keyblade attacks be... you know, not combos?
You probably could, but that wouldn't make for a very interesting video, so I didn't do it, lol :D
@@LibraScope Fair enough. I enjoyed watching this.
@@etonasama Glad that's the case :) I appreciate you taking the time to watch such a long video.
@@LibraScope I do like watching longer videos while doing things.
i did something similar to this but i allowed the use of items. since i didnt count those as command attacks. so my command deck was essentially my item deck.
Definitely not a bad idea, because that would also allow the use of icecreams, which could be fun with the added weight of being the only way to enter Command Styles.
REDriver 2 is such a breath of fresh air that I can never go back to my original PS1 copy or an emulation.
Totally fair!
What's wrong with rewinding to fix a mistake you've made?
I never said there was anything wrong with that... it shouldn't be used as a crutch to fix bad AI or anything like that, but there's nothing wrong with rewinding.
This game won Racing Game of the Year at The Game Awards. Think about that.
Yeah, it's pretty ridiculous. I don't think there weren't many great options, but still.
What did you say about the Switch?
I don't know. Which part?
@@LibraScope When you said the system itself is "dead" even though it's not.
@@RacerC45 There are multiple ways and reasons you can consider something dead.
What about for people who just want to play the game casually? Like just playing the game with a controller and don't care about tuning and tweaking or whatever. Also, the game isn't that bad. It does its job as a casual racer.
People can like the game all they want, for whatever reasons they want. And it has improved, even though they're still lying to people in their update material. But it still only just feels like it's in a state worthy of being launched, as far as I've seen.
So do you defend this game?
"Defend" is not the appropriate word, because I'm not in some sort of 'game quality' war with people who dislike it :P
XIII was noteworthy in how it single-handedly killed my interest in Squenix and FF series, after more than a decade of excited obsession with FF games. After a masterpiece like XII, I was honestly shocked how far they could fall, so fast. The music was good tho. It's the one and the only major thing XIII didn't f up completely, feels fair to mention it. Every single other thing tho, so bad it feels mockery of player stupid enough to purchase the game.
🙄🙄🙄Yeah, okay. Just go watch more Spoony.
@@LibraScope Who's that?
Got this game 2 weeks ago, already gave up on it and i really play on the police mode because i feel like its the only fun part of the game or if i just wanna get mad. Anything else just sucks, bought nfs heat and its waaayyy better. Or im probably just terrible at Hot Pursuit.
Well, I'm glad you're enjoying NFS Heat at least :D I enjoy it too.
I partly do not agree with what was said on the video, regarding the story. The problem with the direction of rebirth, ignoring whispers, and all timeline stuff. is that Cloud is seemingly in denial about Aerith's death. While we do not have part 3 out yet, and it's hard to know what really will happen, we can assume Cloud will realize at some point she really died, and we'll finally get a proper scene for her death and burial. Why is this a problem? Because first of all Aerith's death is central to Cloud's character development, and the party as well. them experiencing it together at the same time, is a big deal. Having cloud join the party later, can potentially be a problem. Leaving that minor detail aside, we already have Cloud being in denial of Zack's death, and it's going to take emotional impact away from that, because well it already happened before, so Zack wil have to take the backseat, in terms of tragic deaths this time. What made it possible for Cloud's mind to block out Zack's death and cloud's whole identity is a mix of multiple things, Trauma for sure plas a role, but we have to remember that Cloud was at his most vulnerable state, Zack was essentially keeping him alive, and suddenly he's gone. He's mako poinsoned, after years spent in a lab, just before seeing everyone he cared about mortally wounded. Zack is the ideal of what Cloud thinks a soldier should be, hero, so coming off seeing himself as a failure, he just stole hi identity and place in his memories, conveniently leaving out his death. None of this is happening with aerith, so it's a it out of place that is happening, and doesnt really make much sense, considering the zack\cloud relationship is one of the most confusing plot points of the OG to this day.
Ugh, I tried to reply to this and KZread broke. Lemme try again. So it's fair that you feel like there's something missing if Cloud doesn't grieve and experience Aerith's death at the same time as everyone else. But you didn't exactly give a reason. In the original, she dies, and then almost immediately he's so caught up in chasing down Sephiroth (which worries everyone else in response), that he arguably doesn't properly grieve then either. And then an hour and a half later he falls into the Lifestream, and we don't get a single coherent moment with him again until after Tifa and him fall in once more and she helps sort his mind out. What part of that section is integral to his character growth and necessitates he grieves with everyone else, and is therefore incompatible with him grieving separately? As for the Zack stuff, just because FFVII utilizes science fantasy elements like Mako, Sephiroth's influence, and Jenova's Cells to bolster Cloud's mental struggles, doesn't mean these things don't occur in real life. People who go through serious traumas - including the death of loved ones - can compartmentalize them to such a degree that they forget that it happens. And trauma can also cause people to dissociate and develop alternate personalities just like Cloud does, as a way to cope. These issues can also be recurring, if the traumas are recurring. You mention that Cloud is at his most vulnerable when Zack dies. But how is he not equally vulnerable here when Aerith dies. He still has yet to face any of his previous traumas, and he's got a fresh new one to deal with. Sure, he's not currently dealing with severe Mako poisoning. But on top of the trauma of Aerith's death he's now got Jenova's Cells/the Reunion, and Sephiroth's influence pushing him and keeping him emotionally raw and vulnerable. If anything, since Cloud has yet to really face ANY of his previous trauma, I'd argue it's pretty safe to assume that he'd react very similarly to Aerith's death. He's yet to do ANY healing. I also personally think there's a bit of inherent beauty in it being Aerith AND Zack (since they were a couple) that Cloud needs to realize are no longer alive, and start to grieve over... rather than just Zack, who in the original we barely know anything about even AFTER the secret scene with him. That feels intentional.
Thinking about it, maybe not a gambit system, but maybe be able to set the party in various "stances". "Safe" would be blocking all the time or except for when an enemy is staggered. "Aggressive" would use normal attacks to build atb at all costs and "Balanced" that's somewhere in-between.
That's definitely not a bad idea at face value! I'd worry that in order to keep the party dynamics element in play, they'd have to be kind of reckless to some degree, otherwise you run into the same issue of allowing players to get away with simply 'maining' a single character. But, it's certainly a solution that's simple enough that it could probably be balanced around!
This is a great video the opening section provided a great perspective that avoided the pitfalls of pure history or story recap. This game moved up my try again list!
Hahaha, I'm personally bored to tears of historical/story recaps, unless they're for a game I've never heard someone discuss. And I find them very boring to make :D I'm glad you enjoyed the video!
Its funny how Im only ever seeing FF7 remake/rebirth defenders being the ones who throw adhomenem attacks and name calling at critics. Someone doesn't like your video game and you call them toxic grass defficient and seething critics? You need some help dude.
Yeah, okay. You do you, bruh. Thanks for the engagement.
@@LibraScope you are welcome.
Theres nothing better in writing than making a villain lose every single time he fights the main character. That is definitely the best way to make a meaningful, imposing, and scary villain.
...That's the same in the original though... whether it looks like Sephiroth or not, it's ALL Jenova in both versions, and Jenova loses every single time in both versions. Also, it's made abundantly clear through his teasing of Cloud that this is Sephiroth (through Jenova) just toying with Cloud. The context matters, and you don't get to arbitrarily remove it just to make your point :P
@@LibraScope oh yeah. I forgot, every game always ends with you fake beating the bad guy lol. There is a difference between fighting Jenova which was not the ultimate bad guy in the original, and fighting Uber multiverse sephiroth who is the ultimate bad guy in the remake trilogy. This "game" is 3 parts. Each part being an entire full length game. I guess it's peak intellect to have the final boss of each full length game to just be a fake out. That's terrible design. Which is why rebirth sold terribly compared to remake. The original game designers took inspiration from Jaws the movie when designing Sephiroth. Less is more. Yet they added him like crazy in this new series. Why? Because they said "everyone already knows who he is". I don't know what's worse. That doing that was because they were lazy or because it was a blatant cash grab.
@@ericmcmanus5179 You're not fighting 'uber multiverse Sephiroth' dude. You're just making stuff up and ignoring context to make your weak points seem valid, because you NEED to have something to complain about. Go do it somewhere else.
@@LibraScope so the sephiroth you fight at the end of remake and rebirth is not the sephiroth between worlds? I think you may need to replay those games if you didn't know that lol.
@@LibraScope what context am I ignoring?
Thank you for this fun challenge!! Just finished it ☺️
Nice! Glad you enjoyed it!
With the terranort fight at the graveyard, Terra's best Shotlock for that fight is actually sonic shadow because of the quick lock on and the short lock on count, and the I-frames. you can get a maxed out shotlock easier and even hit him out after the invincible period of casting meteor.
This video really made me stop and reconsider my feelings on how the Aerith thing was handled. I think you're going to end up being right with how they handle it + Cloud's grief in game three, and I can see the merit in the way they did it now. I always find fascinating things to think about in your videos, and this one really helped me to see Rebirth in a different light! I love original 7 (which I only played for the first time THIS MARCH) and I've looooved Remake since it released, so my expectations were incredibly high coming into this game, which I think ended up making me a little unfair towards it with my complaints and made it difficult to see the merits of some decisions that were made. But you're right - this team seems passionate and purposeful, and I trust them! Also nested materia would be so nice....
Hehehe, thanks a lot for the compliments and kind words! And for taking the time to watch such a long video! I have a friend who's in a similar position, having only just recently gone through the original game, and then Remake/Rebirth. He too was kind of upset about how the Aerith stuff was handled. And as I said in the video, I was taken aback as well. It's certainly a shock to the system. My thoughts and similar ideas from other people could absolutely be wrong, but for me personally, these developers have shown me that they deserve faith. Faith that they have some sort of vision, even if it ultimately doesn't end up being the one I would've had in the end. And as long as that vision is realized... I think that's enough for me. And yeah, I really hope they recognize the tedium of the Materia menu for the next game. Or preferably, in an update that maybe releases for free alongside any DLC chapter they might make for Rebirth. I think just including nested Materia and the Weapon/Arm Materia moving system from the original would be absolutely transformative to the ease of use for that menu.
An enjoyable video! It was nice listening to your takes on the game’s different aspects. Thank you so much again for the shoutout :,) such kind words. I appreciate you giving kudos to the creatives multiple times. It’s so clear that they care and want this to work. EVERYONE’S a critic, but what’s not so easy is the dreaming, planning, and confidence mustering (is that a word? Lol) to actually MAKE something. I was also amused by such a polite roast during your intro as well as your rants afterwards. Had me talking at the TV agreeing with you at certain points lol
Thanks for taking the time to watch the video! As well as thanks again for all of the feedback and help with the channel art stuff!!! I really do think DOING something for a bit can help balance a perspective SO MUCH. Once you've done a bit of work related to the things you're criticizing, you not only start to understand the amount of work and expertise it takes, but also tend to find that you want to learn more about how things like this are put together. And understanding is a quick path to respecting. Hahaha, the original version of this script was a lot more hot-headed. I still wanted to draw a clear line, and stand my ground in relation to things that are genuinely toxic or just plain bad faith. But I'm glad I ultimately kept it more on track than it was originally going to be.
@@LibraScope of course! always happy to help :) And YESSSS agreed. And that’s definitely a more healthy way to be passionate about something as opposed to being a killjoy lol And is that so? Haha now it’s time for the UNCUT VERSIONNN (jk)
@@jazzy_okami Lololol, I DO still have that 'uncut' version of the script 🤣
If the creators don’t want people to think about multiverse nonsense, they should stop putting scenes in the game to lead the audience to think those things. They literally have Seph come out and expose it at the player. It seems like the ending is designed to be a season finale cliffhanger to generate discussion and hype and that’s exactly what’s happening
Developers don't control anyone's thoughts. Plenty of people didn't have the same thoughts the most spitefully negative crowd did. So the problem clearly isn't the developers or the scenes. The problem is the part of the fandom who refuses to think for themselves. And after so many of the supposedly indisputable fan theories were proven wrong, you'd think these people would take a step back and reassess their biases. But instead they succumb to the sunk cost and just dig their heels in deeper. They FORCE the game to contort to exactly what they demand to see..
Fantastic video, mirrors my thoughts on so many levels. There is so much subtly in both the remake games so far and I just roll my eyes when people miss aspects of the original's themes while simultaneously being so sure that THEIR vision of the remake or even scenes is the correct way of doing things. I love how all the critics are so adamant that they are right then completely ignore the fact that just to their left another critic has a completely different way of looking at how the game should be, it's like these people never matured their teens and early 20s and realized their way is not THE way. People also have a really hard time letting go of their vision of FFVII be it the story, themes, characters, world, anything since it's been over 25 years since the original but that is on you the player to set those expectations in check and be ready and capable to judge what is finally put in front of you. You're also totally right that a lot of these types of reactions are downstream of the theory types on youtube that at the end of the day are just people's interpretations as well and not some kind of gospel. Love how you accurately said that so many theories about rebirth prior to its release were just wrong as well, like at some point people you just need to chill and play what's in front of you and not be so attached to theory crafting. Everybody's a critic nowadays and man most of these people don't have the chops for it.
Agreed. If it didn't come with such hostility and hubris, it wouldn't be a problem. It's healthy and smart to sometimes just say you don't know, or you're just guessing, and to keep the possibility that you're wrong open. If you go into a piece of art with a bad mindset, it's going to affect how you see every aspect of it. That's not to say we all have to go in completely devoid of any concerns, or cynicism, or with a completely chipper attitude. Being over-hyped can be just as problematic in the same ways. I guess the best way to put it is sometimes when you have an immediate reaction to something, it's good to step back for a second and as "Why is that the reaction I had?". Think about how much of it was the content, and how much of it was related to you and outside aspects that are independent from the content.
@@LibraScope❤
@@marcusolsen96 :D
@@LibraScope Was a very good and well thought out video and I especially like and agree with this comment about just… “Taking a moment to consider things” instead of just throwing out whatever the first thing might be that comes to mind whenever you feel upset or ‘triggered’ by something… if only more people could learn to do so 😌
@@marcusolsen96 I agree. And it would certainly make discussing media more enjoyable at the very least.
I absolutely loved Rebirth, got the platinum and everything, but I don't get what everyone is complaining about with the minigames. Compared to the cavalcade of weak minigames in something like KH2, or the frozen nightmare that is Ice Cream Beat, or (to mention since I just bought the new ps5 release) the actual progress blocking minigames in the original Sly Cooper, these ones are both far more forgiving and polished. Honestly, my biggest complaint in Rebirth is that I wish they had more varied optional combat objectives, as I felt they used the pressure, stagger, and time combo too much. It all just feels so weird. You see people complaining for years about cut corners, lack of ambition, no risk taking, etc... ect... (most of which is just people being needlessly miserable, honestly) and then when you have a game like Rebirth, which seems like, for better or worse, it was able to achieve everything it wanted to do, people have to find some way to be negative. Well forget that. If those people want to be miserable, then go ahead, but leave the rest of us alone to enjoy the simpler things... like using the ATB ward Yuffie strat to literally annoy Sephiroth to death! (Yes I used that strategy, and no I'm not sorry. It was absolutely hilarious!)
Pretty much summed it up, lol. And yeah, the optional objectives for the area hunt enemies certainly could've been more varied; maybe more heavily tailored to the specific type of of enemy you're fighting.
1:57:38 All very interesting points! ☺️👊
Thanks! I really appreciate you taking the time to watch the whole thing!
1:34:30 Screw really hard mandatory minigames!!!
Agreed! :D
1:29:35 🤯 oh god if I were to pick the wrong retry option I would probably cry
Hahaha, yeah it definitely sucked, especially right at the end of the game :D
1:29:35 Agreed this is an excellent quality of life and replayability feature! 😀
27:28 This is a very deep analysis! I don't think I've ever given writing and stories in games much thought, well done! 👊
Thanks :D
Can I ask why no chapters mate? 😊
Ahhhhh, sorry! I knew I forgot to add something! This video was such an editing nightmare, that finally putting it all together was a bit of a nightmare. I'll get on that right now! Thank you for reminding me!
5:43 😂 it's not me but that group sound scary
Yeah, big creators especially have big targets on their back from these people, purely for not spreading specific narratives, which is just so unacceptable.
I just wish it had the traditional victory fanfare! That would've made all the difference in 13's vibe!
Hahaha, totally fair :D
Prey was such a good game, I didn't mind the loading screens just like skyrim
I've been reading your replies and yeah it's a weird glitch. After beating the Secret Episode, my Terra save got Radiant Garden at 10, Ven has it at 9 with Neverland at 10 and Aqua was unchanged. Very weird glitch
Yeah. I'd really hoped the release of the PC version would allow dataminers to figure it out more fully, but I personally haven't found anything online that suggests that's the case.
Hey man thanks for the video. I recently started re-playing FF7 on xbox after all these years and I didn't know it had this feauture! It's quite hidden on controller since you have to press both thumb sticks at the same time. Im already half way trough but great idea for a replay later on. As a kid I struggled quite hard with the game since I didn't understand everything but playing it now, it's indeed a very easy game.
My first play though I had to restart the whole game at the death wall thing at temple of the ancients because my only save was right before it and I couldn’t beat it. I don’t know how this is possible.
I had a similar experience with my first playthrough, except I got stuck at the boss in Mount Nibel, then the wall in the Temple, and then finally at the boss before you take the submarine :D
Matching up the "damage" meter for the transition at 8:03 was smooth.
Hahaha I never noti- err... I mean, yeah. That was totally intentional... 😎👀😎
I miss playing games like this
It certainly is satisfyingly simple and straightforward :)
@@LibraScope Yep, I used to play driver 2 for fun because of the police
I never really understood this argument. The Gaming PC has been objectively optimal for decades. Nintendo survives off of library alone. They don't need to run PC games. They can control their own scope. A brick is a better hammer than a screwdriver, but I could just use an actual hammer. Why do I need a brick?
I'm not sure what you mean... Like... it's a moot point because people shouldn't be going to the Switch for anything but Nintendo games?
@@LibraScope more like… if a game could be played on PC why play on anything else? If I were making a console, I wouldn’t be trying to compete with PC specs. I’d be carving out a niche like Nintendo has done.
@@AJGsTV I mean, I guess that's fair. But Nintendo's niche is still undeniably both misleading in some ways, and also hostile to developers. Nintendo's niche is more of an Apple style walled garden of insular choices that often come at the expense of customers and developers. But also, I'm not sure I ultimately agree, because there is still a wild gulf in ease of use between PC and a high spec console, and port consistency. And that's before we even get into the massive difference cost required to buy into PC in the first place. You're not playing the latest games at console equivalent settings for the price of a console. That has never been a thing, outside of the very end of a generation, or a really savvy consumer who knows exactly what they're doing. Either way, my point wasn't that Nintendo bad because console poopy or anything like that. Nintendo bad for dozens of other reasons. My point was specifically that the Switch itself is dead, because the new tools being used for making games fundamentally cannot work on the system. Whether one is okay with that or not is up to them.
@@LibraScope Seems like a minor disagreement... if any at all. My PC was cheaper in the long run. I'll never need another high end console again. I got this thing before the PS4 released and it runs Elden Ring today. So long as console exclusives are a thing, Nintendo is wise to focus on cheap and stylish ones. Even so... While I don't really care for infinite growth; I cannot deny I am pumped for the next Nintendo console.
@@AJGsTV I'm certainly interested in what they'll do. In particular, I'm interested in how they'll handle the tougher problems ahead in terms of hardware balance, as well as how they'll approach the fact that the handheld 'console on the go' market is now super saturated with solid options.
No
Why not?
@@LibraScope cause
@@Summer-us5ql I'd have to see it to believe it.
I hate alatreon because of his flying
I agree. I appreciate that he seems to have a very limited amount of time he can spend flying in each phase. And if you can pull it off, flinch shotting him while he's flying is super useful. But it still feels kind of bad in a fight with phase timing like this. Especially in the Dragon phase, because it more or less means most weapon types can't really hit his head to contribute to breaking the horns.
@@LibraScope For me it's not because it's harder to break the horns it's because of the time wasted, I don't like standing there and either trying to get a hit or two or trying to smoke bomb but sometimes it doesn't work
@@duarteribeiro1520 That's absolutely fair!
It’s basically magic only ? And reactions
Apologies, I don't normally comment on videos I disagree with, but there's a number of points I'd like to challenge. For the record, I'm not trying to call your video "bad" or whatever, I just see things differently. I'll concede the fight's mechanics aren't explicitly outlined for beginners, and heavily punishes a lack of knowledge. Personally that doesn't really bother me and I would also argue that no hunt is ever really explained beforehand. While Ala demands more than most fights, expecting Alatreon to break this trend is a bit unreasonable, though there could have also been better hints mid-fight. IMO it's fine that Alatreon is a jump in difficulty, it is in line with his lore and previous appearances, but I do find it problematic that lots of beginners feel compelled to beat him on as soon as they reach the relatively low Master Rank requirements. The fight is clearly designed to be an end/postgame encounter, so having the requirements be a bit more gated might help newer people recognize that. Anyway the biggest thing I want to emphasize in this comment is that the the fight indeed does demand a lot from the player, but not from the equipment end of things. Getting better gear will certainly assist you in clearing Alatreon, but I think this video majorly overstates what kind of gear/grind is actually required for you to do it. The game gives you plenty of options in terms of capable weapons/armor for dealing with Ala before you unlock his fight. Safi, Kulve, Frostfang, Silver, and even Velk, are all more then capable of meeting the elemental topple without needing to go crazy with elemental skills/builds. It's even possible just to take the Judgement faints and run a purely raw build, the day after beating him for the first time, I just cleared it with my usual Brachy set. That being said, I have been playing MH for far too long, so I am not expecting most beginners to do that with ease, though insurance also can extend things quite a bit on that end. I guess my point is provided you have the right item loadout/pre-hunt prep, and have a solid understanding of blights, hitzones, elemental damge, and your weapon's moveset, you don't actually need good gear to slay Ala. Naturally elemental builds will have it far easier, as that's what the fight encourages you to do, but stating it's mandatory isn't true. Dragonblight isn't really a problem if you learn to space/frame the dragon attacks, if you get hit, just do your best to learn and use your seeds/cooldowns wisely. Your elemental damage output is just contingent upon learning where you can squeeze in the extra hits for the element to reach the threshold for the topple, a bigger number/higher skills are helpful but again not required. Heck the slower hitting weapons have a lower threshold they need to meet to perform the topple. One of the issues I have with the narratives I've seen some newer players adopt, is that builds in Monster Hunter are what matter to clear hunts. Sure, you'll need some stats to clear things within that hunt's respective timer, but what's far more important is learning spacing, timing, attacks, mechanics, and just general monster matchup knowledge. When I look at difficult fight I don't go in thinking about what can I grind for to be optimal or counter/ignore what this monster is doing. Instead I get excited and want to grow as a hunter, despite getting constantly bodied.
I think you've kinda missed the point of this video. I really do appreciate the comprehensive and kind comment. But my argument was never 'you have to grind better gear'. It's not about better gear. It's about different gear. It's that you almost certainly don't have the type of gear that the game wants you to be using; at least not to a degree that it would create a whole build for you. So you end up needing to spend time grinding hunts to get that gear. And since the gear is new, it's probably a good idea to do some basic Augmentations and Upgrades to that gear, which depending on your circumstances might take more grinding. If you want to go in with a specific charm you don't have upgraded, you'll have to grind for that. It's not about needing to go in with the best of the best or something like that. But rather, something that's suited for endgame, and more specifically, this fight in particular. It's NOT that you're grinding like you would in an RPG, where you're trying to get HIGHER stats than normal for the fight, that trivialize it. It's that if you don't have access to things needed to make a build for it, you have to go out of your way to gather all the pieces of that build. Normally in Monster Hunter, that's fine, because that's an elective choice. I wanna try being a team healer? I gotta get healer stuff. I wanna try using a Paralyze weapon build? I gotta reinforce that concept. But it basically NEVER asks so demandingly, that you to spec into a specific type of build for a single monster, because its specific challenges are SO punishing. The closest I got to that before Alatreon, was feeling like preventing Blastblight was necessary for me, to do Raging Brachydios. It's important to recognize that I said in the video that you do indeed have options, and then as an example I listed the many ways you can deal with Dragon damage and Dragonblight. It's not that you don't have various routes you can take. Instead, it's simply very unlikely that a player is going to have everything they need, based on the strategy they want to go with, and the skillset they might be best at. No other hunt so universally stops the average player and says "Change your build, or else the only way you're getting through this is by absolutely mastering every hitbox and every timing window, etc." And skillset diversity is important to think about when assessing a fight like this. We can talk about how you can technically beat the fight this unintended way, or with that unintended setup, or if you just master these hitboxes and such all we want. But not everyone is going to have that skill, or even an interest in playing MH that way. And up until Alatreon, that's okay, because you can usually play to your specific strengths as a hunter while still having a buffer of forgiveness when you make mistakes or your skillset has weaknesses. Alatreon removes that buffer. The less rounded your build is for his specific pain points, the more punishing he becomes the SECOND you make any mistake. It's the variety and severity of his punishment types COMBINE, that make him so deadly without a well rounded build. Again, my point was not about 'good gear'. It was about most players who aren't complete masters needing THE RIGHT gear, which they're unlikely to have unless they grind for it. This fight is several notches MORE SPECIFIC in what it wants from your average player, when compared to the rest of the game. Lastly, I'd like to note that it's kind of strange to argue that Alatreon's mechanics aren't outlined well for beginners, and that makes him uniquely punishing... but that you don't think it's reasonable that Alatreon breaks the trend of most monsters giving players little guidance. Is it not already breaking a trend that he's got such specific, narrow mechanical expectations? The reason other hunts don't need heavier guidance than the minimal amount they have, is because they don't make a habit of doing things like hiding unavoidable instant-kill party wipes and progress-negating phase transition gimmicks from you. The intended mechanics of other monsters are generally not NEARLY as rigid and specific as this, and as such, the player can more effectively learn through experimentation and failure. It only stands to reason that if Alatreon is going to break the trend of rather relaxed build demands for your average player, they should also break the trend of relaxed communication about their mechanical demands, and give us some more direct information, right?
@@LibraScope It's possible that I'm misinterpreting things, both in the video and in this comment, so sorry if I get things wrong. Let me start with the grind you've brought up in the first three paragraphs. Yeah, there are a lot of skills that will make the fight substantially easier in different regards. The biggest is Health Boost, followed by more Elemental damage, then having generic damage skills, and lastly some utility/resistance options. While the vast majority of the game up to Alatreon can be cleared with sets that aren't optimized in that manner relatively easily, I don't find it a fault with the fight that it pushes the player to either learn the fight or compensate by enhancing their build(s). However I do find it problematic that Alatreon is unlocked as early as it is, because if you start the encounter close to the rank it's unlocked, you won't have encountered most of the hunts that are similar in difficulty. If Ala, and Fatalis by extention, were locked behind something like MR 100, it would give players the chance to both refine their skills and potentially sets. If there's one thing we both can agree on, I think, it's that the fight is demanding and punishing. That being said, I don't think Ala is as big of an outlier for it's spot in the game. When Alatreon was released in the second to last title update, most of the community (at the time) had already overcome MR Kulve, Safi, and if you go further back, Behemoth, who all had similarly punishing mechanics/damage thresholds. None of those fights are spelled out for you mechanically speaking and all of them have mechanics that can lead to immediate failure when not dealt with appropriately. Most players at the time Ala was released would have beaten Lunastra, along with the majority of arch tempered elders like Nami and Kirin (at their respective ranks), and would generally recognized that yeah you'll want to have skill tailored to dealing with them to make your life easier. You mentioned Raging Brachy, but there are other monsters with similar attack speeds and mechanics to Ala. It's fight is designed to be fairly challenging for players that have intimate understanding of everything that came before him, and have built up a catalogue of skills and sets from most of those things they've encountered. Basically I don't expect beginners to run in with whatever build they're comfortable with and clear it without issue. If they did, Alatreon wouldn't be a proper endgame encounter. Despite that I think with enough familiarity with the fight, you could genuinely run a lot of things and you don't actually need much (in terms of armor skills) to clear the fight. I don't see players that recognize monster attacks and find safe positions to be "masters" of the fight, it really doesn't necessitate dodging every attack. I had two friends new to Iceborne, with no insight into it's mechanics, clear Ala as a duo, with Nami armor, a wide range talisman, and Velk weapons. They just failed it for a while and eventually caught on, by breaking the head in a run, and learning when/where it was safe to attack. Yeah the fight has two specific things you'd likely want to do to clear it, being get the topple and break the head. I don't see that being all too different from luring Behemoth away from meteors, hiding behind them, and doing enough damage to avoid getting nuked without them, nor do I the judgement as being all that different from needing to do enough damage to MR Kulve's weaker hitzones to avoid immediately failing the timer before she flees, if anything it's less punishing then that. With a strong enough grasp of things you can still do neither of the previously mentioned mechanics, (at least when playing solo/duo) and still kill Ala. It doesn't require a "well rounded" build, just one that is geared towards doing enough damage. Also in your last paragraph, I'm pretty sure you misunderstood what I was saying. Yes, it would be nicer at least mid-hunt for the NPC dialogue to be a bit more specific. The tutorial text box that pops up beforehand does outline things a bit better, but they do set you up for a rough first couple of hunts. Honestly I think that's fine that it doesn't, but I also come from an era of Monster Hunter where failing quests repeatedly was the norm and wasn't a problem. There wasn't any information on your first couple Crimson/White Fatalis hunts letting you know that you'll need to deal with armor mode, nor any advanced warning that Yama might one-shot your entire team with the his suction with no way for you increase the number of carts you have. Ala back in Tri never really gave you much indication that he'd be weaker to some elements over others, but we learned as a community to overcome it. Players in that era would just accept the challenge, slowly adapt, and there's no real major punishment for failure, just a use of time to learn the fight. Not every fight needs to teach the player in the same way, and having fights like Ala that initially favor the monster are some of my favorite in the series. Again, a lot of this is just subjective, but I just don't see the demands of Ala's fight being outrageous. It could just be me, and the group of new players I played with, but I'm not particularly bothered by the way the fight is presented and handled. It certainly could be better, but I personally found it a fun time to learn and watch others do the same. Anyway it sounds like you felt things were insurmountable/impractical without upgrading/grinding, and were bothered by it which is fair. I don't have the same outlook on the fight. If you do end up tackling Fatalis, I wish ya luck and I'll be interested to see what impressions you walk away with.
@@mh-united I think we're reaching something closer to an understanding. I think 'impractical' is a good way to describe how it felt to just run headfirst into Alatreon. I think the length of time MH fights often take also has something to do with it. I play a lot of very difficult games. So I'm used to high challenge, and used to having to figure things out on my own. But usually, a boss or whatever in other games might take 5 minutes. Keeping up such a high level of play for 2-3x as long, or longer in MH is already fairly taxing. Doing it against an enemy that can crush a player as quickly as Alatreon, or Fatalis is definitely a lot. Also, for me, Alatreon is different from Safi'Jiiva, or Behemoth, etc., because it's 'required' insofar as that other fights are locked behind it. I forgot to mention in my previous reply that I do absolutely agree that putting the fight behind MR 100 or something would've made a lot more sense, though it also makes sense for very, very experienced hunters to be able to get to him as soon as they'd be capable of defeating him, especially for repeat playthroughs. I think it would be a good idea for MH to maybe introduce a second, "Recommended" HR/MR rating for superboss style hunts like that. So people have a general idea of how experienced they might want to be, even if you unlock a hunt at a lower rank. Similar to you but on the opposite side of the spectrum from your friends, anecdotally my friend and I were already nearing MR80 by the time we really tried Alatreon again, and it didn't feel like it made any meaningful difference, because our problem wasn't a lack of experience hunting; it was the things I've illustrated already. A good compromise might be to give players an option for some sort of... more advanced investigation for fights with gimmicks like this, that way if you feel you need it, you can fill out special pages of the hunter's journal that give you more direct knowledge about the monster. That would fit well with the whole ecology layer of the series. And specifically with Alatreon and some of the other monsters, it fits well with the "Oh my gosh, there's a big mystery as to why this monster is here/acting this way/so dangerous." story elements, because you'd be more actively finding that information out through means other than simply fighting and cutscenes, more often. But if you don't want to do that extra work as the player, you could just skip straight into the fight so it doesn't hold up those veteran players. If you beat the monster, all that info will fill out in the journal automatically. Monster Hunter is a difficult one to tackle, because there are several layers to skill and mastery that all have WILDLY different timeframes. Like... after nearly 500 hours of ANY game series, it's hard to argue someone like myself is a beginner. But at the same time, I also wouldn't quite call myself an expert, despite the fact that if you compare MH to something like Souls, you could 100% every Souls game, and Bloodborne/Sekiro in less than 500 hours and be a master in spite of the challenge of the series. Despite not being unfairly grindy the vast, vast majority of the time, and despite MH's slower pacing not being an issue, Monster Hunter progression is kind of protracted in a way. And so you can gain heaps of experience... spend 200 hours in Low and High Rank, and still feel kinda noob-ish against what Master Rank throws at you in terms of skill. Ultimately, I think it's important to recognize how many people have a problem with this fight. I don't disagree with you that the fight itself is fine, as I said in the video. The fight itself is fair, and strategic, and really solidly balanced. But when so many people have made videos on this topic, and so many commentors on those videos express frustrations, even after these players might've spent hundreds and hundreds of hours playing, there's gotta be SOMETHING the fight is doing that's rubbing people the wrong way, that could be improved. And for me, I didn't want to argue that it was just that the fight sucked; it doesn't. I just think it needs a bit better conveyance, and that it's not particularly well suited to MH's usual gameplay loop and pacing.
Idk man, I feel it’s kinda lame that it’s the fight *demands* you change your whole build specifically for *it.* Have I done that before for especially annoying monsters like Kirin? Sure. …but I could still complete those fights without that setup; I could still play *my way.* It’s that lack of freedom to approach it however you want that really sucks the fun out; for me anyway.
Right, that's kind of ultimately what I was getting at. It's a very rigidly demanding fight. Which once you have a build that works, the fight works well. But that doesn't gel well with Monster Hunter's 'figure out how monsters work on your own' approach to strategy, Monster Hunter's core conceit of allowing tons of different types of builds to be viable and engaging for most other fights, and the central grinding balance the game has designed entirely around that wide variety of builds. That one change in strategic demands to this one fight, completely upends the rest of the game's central design; they're incongruous :)
@@LibraScope Now that I think about it, there are far worse fights in MHWI… I mean, it’s not Ancient Leshen. Thank Dog, *that* fight wasn’t required in order to fight Fatalis.
@@Deoxys_Used_Mimic Hahaha. I'm actually unsure if I ever did Ancient Leshen. I know I did the normal one, but I don't remember much about it other than playing as Geralt.
@@Deoxys_Used_Mimic Just thought it would be funny to mention that I finally did Ancient Leshen... yeah that fight sucked hard, lololol.
This game with thirty-two colours on screen would look amazing.
What am I doing wrong? I have EXP chance turned on, mega flares, and victory pose, my HP is less than 25% (I have the near death sirens going) but I'm not even getting the experience that he says I should be getting. Going from level 48-49 took close to a half hour.
So each world has a battle level shown on the world map. The higher it is, the tougher the enemies, but the more EXP they'll provide. There is a glitch that once you've beaten every chapter of the game, has a chance of applying a very high battle level to Radiant Garden for some characters, at random. As of the last time I checked, there's still no consensus on exactly how the glitch is triggered, or how to make it apply to each character. Some claim you can just repeat the Final and Secret episodes to eventually activate it. Some say that never worked for them. Because of that, while this method is still one of the fastest, HOW fast it is will depend on who's world glitched to be max battle level. I would try to research and activate the glitch if you can.