It turns out that my ultimatum was off the mark and that I was looking in the wrong place. Besides, the whole purpose of the 1.34.4 beta was for the base game developers to streamline their version release process, not to mention 1.35.0 dropped within a week of my latest blog post, so I don’t envision any more of the latest versions to have mods anytime soon. (…Well, that’s what I thought earlier this month, but apparently 1.35.0 has Mapping Extensions now. I haven’t tried it myself, just pointing it out.)
Cutting to the chase, I did mention BeatSaver back then and, while I’ve known since nearly the beginning that the modding group has a wiki, it did not occur to me that I could just check the “PC Modding” page and find the link to BSManager. Not that digging through the Steam guides was in vain; rather, it gave me the insight to copy my CustomLevels (and CustomWIPLevels) folders from the Steam version of the Beat Saber_Data folder to a freshly downloaded counterpart of version 1.29.1,* as well as the UserData folder in the parent directory. Now, I am able to boot up Quest Link, bring up my PC’s primary monitor, and use BSManager to launch 1.29.1 in Oculus Mode. With a fixed rate of 10 Mbps through AirLink, I find that it’s playable enough…at least to keep on notice when I’m in the mood to play a map that requires extensions, upvote a map that I really like, or playtest whatever custom levels I have in the works. (Otherwise, the latest version on Steam performs significantly better, especially since tweaking the AirLink bitrate inspired me to lower the SteamVR refresh rate from 90 Hz to 72. Another thing to note about playing in Steam Link is that the A and X buttons can be used to pause the game while the usual pause button has delay as a result of prioritizing the Steam menu; I like it better this way now, but it took some conditioning to restrain my right thumb from accidentally pressing the A button.) “Fury of the Storm” by DragonForce is one map that requires extensions; I don’t know if this has been the case for previous versions, but unmodded 1.35.0 won’t load any of its notes or obstacles (as in the “Mr. Invisible” case I mentioned before). Also, I haven’t noticed much of a difference between having and lacking Noodle Extensions (please excuse my improper terminology before), so…well, they’re there if I want to try them out. (I gave it a test run with Centipede on max difficulty, but I scare too easily to get past the intro.) What’s annoying about switching Steam versions is having to re-accept the EULA and privacy policy every time, especially since the former requires waiting 5 seconds on 1.29.1. This brings me to a gripe that I have about Steam Link and AirLink alike: When the headset loses connection, the game does not pause; it just keeps on running, thoroughly disregarding the possibility of an ongoing level attempt. At least Steam Link has the decency to stay active while it’s disconnected, whereas AirLink just ejects the player to the main menu without a word. Worse, the one time the latter has happened to me, the game shifted the floor level up to my neck for whatever reason, in a way that I could not rectify without exiting the game and relaunching it.
*While 1.34.2 is the version when I got into using mods, I felt like taking up BSManager on its recommendation…and I couldn’t go back; I tried running 1.34.2 in Oculus Mode, and it came up with a non-VR window as opposed to the intended behavior of launching as a Quest Link app (like how I used to do SteamVR before Steam Link). Also note that BSManager requires ownership of the game on Steam or Meta, and I have not tried the latter.
Speaking of DragonForce, I did in fact pass the “Ring of Fire” cover before realizing the existence of BSManager, and earlier on the same day [as that pass] I managed to FC “Run Devil Run.”
Also, thanks to modded 1.29.1, I got screenshot proof of the passes I got on modded 1.34.2: Acid Rain, Forbidden Girl Plus A, Silvera, and Wheel of Time. I also passed “Megitsune” by BABYMETAL…sometime between the former two, if memory serves.
(Side note: I don’t know how I was unable to find “Dance with Silence” before; I recently searched again and found it easily.)
Another thing about Fury of the Storm: It took me only three attempts on modded 1.29.1 to pass, prior to which I had never reached the second verse. In my first two attempts, that one slew of trills just before the last minute of the song (not quite the end of the solo) was the big show-stopper, especially considering my arms would always get weary as early as the first chorus and reach zombie status before the big guitar solo. (“Zombie status” as in so worn out that I start questioning how I’m still moving my arms, which also happened halfway through my first pass of Flying Whales.) But…well, somehow I got it.
(Right after this pass, I did a victory lap of the Noukin OP and choked right before the final “Waho waho”.)
One week after the fact, I got another pass that I had been going for in tandem, following a run that died to a major lag spike.
It didn’t wanna break me down, so the Wi-Fi did instead. The deciding run was wild; I maintained my combo throughout the entire Magic Mamaliga sounding instrumentation near the middle (It’s mostly like RLR gallops like in Curtains), and then I did the Joetastic map of the Machine Doll ED for a victory lap, which in itself held a wild outcome: 304 combo, -3, SS rank.
In case it wasn’t obvious, I do custom maps on maximum difficulty. The only exceptions I’ve ever made were for Steam achievements and maps that I once found inconvenient to play, whether in terms of passing or extension requirements. Even as the spider ED and Valley of the Vale remain on the chopping block (no pun intended), they are far from the only two that I aim to pass one day.
“NIGHTMARE † CITY”, “Looking for the Edge of Ground (feat. Hatsune Miku)”, and “POLYBIUS GB SPEEDRUN” by Camellia – Quite an assortment from one artist, and who other than the one responsible for Spin Eternally and the only official freebie track pack? They are listed in what I find to be ascending order of difficulty, although I’m not sure about Polybius because I haven’t played it as much.
“Organ Farmer” by King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard – One of the only two currently mapped songs by this band, the other (“Big Fig Wasp”) being the easier one, albeit with some nasty doubles near the end. As for this one, the main source of difficulty is how fast the notes fly; otherwise, it’s like Unlimited Power but with slews of triplets and sixteenths. The farthest I’ve gotten is to the part in the preview.
“The Intense Voice of Hatsune Miku” by Storyteller – The sets of three bounces at the start of the triplet vocals are the first hurdle, and I still can’t quite keep up with the awkward mapping of the sixteenths.
“Ending Medley ~ Ultimate Exquisite Rampage” by cosMo@BousouP – As much as it peeves me that the Disappearance part has sixteenths even though everything fast about it (including the double bass drumming) is triplets, there is a part of me that can get behind this as a long-term goal.
“Save Me” by Avenged Sevenfold – A whopping 10-minute song, and it’s hard enough just to get to the second bridge, let alone as far as halfway through the guitar solo. Passing the whole thing…we’ll see. (Note that “Nightmare” off the same album is easier than this and (not off the same album) Afterlife.)
“Through the Fire and Flames” by DragonForce – A logical follow-up for Fury of the Storm, which first was for the Ring of Fire cover. Having fewer notes than Fury might make it seem easier, but just by having gotten past the first chorus, I have found that this map is not above bounces in its sixteenths. (And the drums-oriented mapping is fiercer.)
“RAISE MY SWORD” by Galneryus – I’ve gotten to the key change before the outro, but I didn’t have the stamina to maintain my rhythm. That was the one time I had reached the first chorus, whereas I more commonly can’t even get past the first verse. (Part of what I meant by “technical prowess” before is swing control, that is reining in rapid swings in parts that require it. That’s what gave me the idea of establishing Victims of Contingency as a previous milestone.)
“Panic Attack” by Dream Theater – It’s hard enough to get to the second verse, let alone the first “helpless hysteria” part. This map has some stinky doubles.
“Jordan” by Buckethead – This is not happening any time soon. At full speed, I cannot keep up with the part that’s called “Solo B” in GH2.
Difficulty aside, I would also like to vouch for the Molgera battle theme (from Zelda: Wind Waker) as one of my favorite maps and “Witch Doctor” by Cartoons as a fun FitBeat map. That’s all the go-backs I have regarding mods. As for the Quest-native copy that I’ve been keeping vanilla, I got a few more FCs since my last report…and I suspect that I forgot to add Lift Off and Heavy Weight to the Expert Faster counter (I know for sure I have the former; I got it in my latest Setlist Shuffle), which would make it 33 or 34.
This Ain’t a Scene, It’s an Arms Race – Easy scoop. FOB 3/8
Ghosts ‘n’ Stuff One-Saber – This took way more attempts than it had any right to. Just when I realized where I missed on my sightread was the fourth chain note in the second verse, the second bridge started screwing me over out of nowhere…but hey, at least I didn’t choke after that. Electronic One-Saber 2/2
Burning Sands (!) – My favorite song in the game, which I’ve long considered the “holy grail” in terms of FCs I had left. Strangely enough, much like in the case of Legend, I was going for The Sweet Escape when I decided, “I’m not in a very ‘hit note’ mood…or am I? I’ll let Bernie Sanders be the judge of that.” Moreover, I was previously never able to maintain a combo past the transition out of the first drop, let alone in either of the two previous sessions. Then it just freaking happened, first try of the day, prior to my Fury of the Storm pass. Non-DLC 26/50 (screenshot below)
Born to Be Wild – It was only a matter of time.
The Sweet Escape – Another way overdue one. That second verse was a real bother to the end.
I Was Made for Lovin’ You – All I had to do was learn beyond the second chorus. Rock 3/8
Don’t Cha – This came out of freaking nowhere. I started the session with Sugar and branched out to other DLC including Freestyler, The Rockafeller Skank, Party Rock Anthem, and Rollin’. Then, despite not having played this song much, I got it on my first try. Interscope 3/7; DLC 15
FOB One-Saber 2/2 in one fell swoop – I was merely going for SS on all the DLC songs, having managed Free Bird and DNA earlier in the week, and only just started taking care of the One-Saber side of things. I Don’t Care just happened to be one of the songs I only had a single S on (along with DNA and The Pretender), so I gave it an attempt and simply got it. (Granted, it was after a standard run where I missed in the third chorus due to a brain fart.) Then, My Songs Know… happened straight-up back-to-back. DLC One-Saber total: 5
I also managed to pass Ghost on Expert+ for 46/50. This makes me want to pass every X+ song, but when my arms get too sore as a result, I’ll instead go for 22 DLC FCs out of the 44 songs I have, perhaps alongside the One-Saber SSs I have left. (Based on my latest three FCs, it’s been working for me so far.)
Another thing I want to mention that there’s more to the Quest 3 than I said before. It has a softer rumble by default than the Quest 2 does, but not in Steam Link or Quest Link; thus, the more I play custom songs, the more disoriented I get when playing vanilla, particularly when cutting through chain notes. Given that the overhead strap support beam was what pushed me to transition from Quest 2 to Quest 3, another thing to note is that that of the new headset doesn’t look any more durable, but I’m hoping that the easier-to-adjust strap will help it last longer. Regardless, the Quest 3 certainly has moments of briefly flashing white before the system startup animation and producing sharp blip noises amid scene transitions in Beat Saber. (One might guess that the latter is related to the volume level, but that too is lower by default on Quest 3.) It also has a slight gap at the underside, but on the bright side, this facilitates using my phone to verify which songs to play during a Setlist Shuffle. Speaking of bright sides, non-grayscale Passthrough is a minor convenience in the event that I want to do a thing or two on my PC (e.g., (un)locking it or bringing up any pertinent applications such as Steam) while I still have my headset on.
Lastly, I suspect that I owe an explanation of why I haven’t gotten around to uploading any videos despite having hinted at the possibility. Here’s the thing:
If I want to make videos, they would have to be picture-in-picture.
I’ve been bouncing between rental homes at least twice a year for the past 5 years or so.
I’m not confident in my current body shape or skill level.
Given the above factors, I do not currently feel comfortable with the practice. It will take some time and possibly other things before I resolve enough to consider it for good.
…and yes, I am still very much at it. The last time I talked about this game in the usual amount of detail was nearly 1.5 years ago. Since then, I got 7 more Expert FCs, 6 more Faster, 3 more Super Fast, 12 more Expert+ FCs, 6 Faster, 2 more One-Saber FCs, 2 more 90° FCs, and 1 more 360° FC. These make my grand totals 45/50, 32/50, 5/50, 25/50, 6/50, 27/28, 18/19, and 18/19 in that order.
Did I say 50? Yes, I said 50. Volume 6 dropped recently with 5 songs including new Boom Kitty, new Camellia, and even DragonForce. The other two are negligible by comparison, although I will say that Heavy Weight reminds me partly of Octopath Traveler and partly of the “Castle / Boss Fortress (Super Mario World / SMB3)” remix in Super Smash Bros. Brawl. (Also, I felt good about FCing the song on X+ as quickly as I did.) In terms of Expert difficulty, Cathedral (the new Boom Kitty) was no slouch to FC, especially at the part with the bombs and the circling arcs, while the two big dogs were painstaking final songs to SS. Tempo-Katana (the new Camellia) in particular has me questioning the Beat Saber Minimum Points Per Rank Breakdown that I’ve had since my first report and have been updating regularly (now with Hard, Normal, and Easy difficulties); the formula has the SS cutoff as 1,165,203, but I previously scored 1.18 mil and still got a mere single S.
Before I get carried away with this, I should mention that “the Noir color profile with no visual effects” I brought up in my Topster post did not last long. I came up with a custom color profile that I consider the ultimate sweet spot between playability and ease on the eyes.
Left saber: 128 Red
Right saber: 128 Green
Obstacles: 128 Red, 128 Green (dark yellow)
Background 1: 128 Red, 64 Green (dark orange)
Background 2: 192 Red, 96 Green (not-so-dark orange)
Notice the lack of blue? I’ve heard that blue light is the kind that causes the most eye damage, hence the ubiquity of “night” modes on electronic devices that make their screens look orange. (Not to mention eyeglasses that filter out blue light, which I have been wearing for as long as I can remember.)
Speaking of orange, I chose it as the background color because it’s my favorite color, while my saber color choices are based on how “left” is “sinister” in Latin. Then, by process of elimination, I chose yellow for the obstacles. Unlike color profiles, environment overrides are reset between sessions, so the exact background colors are the best fit I could find for every single non-DLC environment. Also, if I want to put on the Ghost Notes modifier in order to max out one of my Expert scores, I have a variant of the color profile where the sabers are fully red and green instead of just half; it makes the incoming arrows easier to see.
That brings me to new Expert accomplishments. Prior to the Volume 6 songs, I got 215$-Step and Final-Boss-Chan, the latter of which gave me at least two more outro chokes since my last report about it. The farthest I had gotten in 215$-Step before the FC was at the tail end of the piano part, which had me thinking I focused too much on the duos of upward notes; all I did differently in the FC run was tell myself, “Don’t think,” during that part. After the Volume 6 songs came an FC of Spin Eternally that required some serious consistency refinement. If memory serves, I have had at least one run past the first part where I choked (which I realized within a few runs was because I overlooked the double before the final spins), but my nerves crumbled when the sixteenths rolled in. That leaves #45, the one that gave me too many chokes for its own good: EXiT This Earth’s Atomosphere.
I like to call this song “Sam I Am” because of how I mishear the vocal sampling in the buildups. At first, the intro deterred me from even thinking about this one, but I’ve improved a whole lot since then. It just took a whole lot of trial and error, and for the outro in particular, I find that it helps to lean in the recessive direction (left in my case). In the end, the chokes included one reverse (at the transition into the outro), at least one within the last five notes, and one within the last three notes. Such a pain.
I don’t remember offhand what the Faster FCs were, but I do know that I scooped up Into the Dream and also got Full Charge, Unlimited Power, and Magic. I’ll say as many times as it takes that Full Charge is my least favorite song in the game, partly because its Expert map is chock full of parts that have no right to be as tense as they are. I have been going for It Takes Me for a while, considering that I tend to pair it with Into the Dream, but it’s been so stubborn that I’ve been heavily moderating my fervor in pursuing it.
As for Super Fast, I have added One Hope, Country Rounds, and Reason for Living to my collection. Why exactly I even bothered with the latter two, I’ll touch upon in due time.
Okay, Expert+ time. I got Legend out of freaking nowhere while trying to grind for Escape. Last I reported about Unlimited Power, “My best run so far got a choke in the first cycle of the second chorus. Now I’m somehow incapable of even getting past the intro.” Then came one fateful run when I got a combo past the intro by what felt like a total fluke, and I didn’t even miss anywhere after that. LUDICROUS+ was a rather quick one, primarily on account of how short it is, but to think I previously couldn’t even claim to pass it on command. (That outro is wild.) Firestarter was a real pain, especially after I choked at the uppermost of the freaking last three notes. I did get Escape at some point, but I don’t remember when exactly.
Origins was just a matter of learning the quad zig in the intro, and then getting accustomed to the rest of the song. The former front was a saga in its own right, which also involved my first pass of EXiT on X+. In terms of freebies, that intro and the transition into the outro of EXiT were two of three quad zigs I knew at the time, the other being in the second half of Spin Eternally. (These are in ascending order of speed. Note that the Origins zig consists entirely of sixteenths, despite the percussion triplets.) Naturally, the one in Origins was my go-to for ingraining the technique into my muscle memory. The technique in question: Focus on the bounces in the center, and make a circle with the arm on autopilot. The Origins zig has four bounces: from the bottom with the dominant hand, from the top with the recessive hand, from the top with the dominant hand, and from the bottom with the recessive hand. Prior to each bounce, the other arm is making a circle. That’s as well as I can explain it. The learning process for me was about 50-50 between concept and feel.
That aside, after Lift Off and Heavy Weight, and rather recently too, I freaking finally got Immortal after having reverse choked in the second drop at least once and having choked past the halfway point of the outro.
Before I move on to the Faster FCs, which surprisingly do not include Rum n’ Bass or Breezer, let me take a moment to talk about… How should I put it? A sibling concept of Setlist Shuffles. It’s called a Setlist Sweep, where I go through the entire set of free-to-play songs across two sessions (because the Quest 2 doesn’t have enough battery life for just one) and play each of them in the easiest format that I have not yet FC’d. (The standard flow at this point is Expert ==> Expert+ ==> Faster ==> Expert Super Fast ==> Expert max% [Super Fast + Ghost Notes] ==> Expert+ Super Fast, etc.) I haven’t actually done one of these since before Volume 6, when I found it best to start at Volume 1, go from top to bottom, and split between $1.78 and Curtains. (If $1.78 wasn’t such a horrible song to start off with, I would have easily said between Volumes 4 and 5 instead.) With Volume 6 added to the mix, I would split between Volumes 5 and 6 if I were to take up the practice anew.
What I’m getting at is that all of my X+ Faster FCs are wild ones that I would have never considered in the absence of Setlist Shuffles and Setlist Sweeps. First was Crab Rave, a matter of getting used to the drops after gaining firsthand proof that I could hit the second buildup. Then, $100 Bills in one of my earliest Setlist Sweeps. Yes, it was a Sweep. First song of the session. I thought the whole time, I will never hit the big dumb. (The “big dumb,” of course, lines up with the first “$100 Bills” in the drop.) Guess what? I hit the big dumb. On an FC run, no less. I was like, “What?” and fortunately didn’t choke afterwards. As if that in itself is not crazy enough, the exact same Setlist Sweep held the next Faster FC: Reason for Living. How I was even hitting those buildups at all, I don’t freaking know. Country Rounds is one that felt more within reach every time I played it, so it felt closer to a grind than the previous ones. Give a Little Love happened in a random Setlist Shuffle. Finally, the most recent one was Escape: a real slap in the face, having taken only two tries after normal speed took me practically two years. (The first try had a really dumb miss at the first note of the break, but somehow no other misses.)
It’s also worth mentioning that I only have 5 songs left to pass on Expert+, with Spin Eternally being the most recent one knocked off the list.
Final-Boss-Chan: I previously couldn’t even get past the first drop, but now I’ve gotten as far as the second buildup. I’ll explain later.
215$-Step: I’ve gotten past the piano part exactly once.
Ghost: The left-start sixteenths before the final leitmotiv are a real show-stopper.
Power of the Saber Blade (DragonForce): At best, I’ve only barely gotten past the intro.
Tempo-Katana: Same as above
In terms of One-Saber, I painstakingly got Into the Dream and randomly got Cycle Hit, so now Ghost is the only one I have left. As for the circular maps, Rum n’ Bass 90° and Origins as a whole were not too bad; only Pop/Stars remains.
With all that on the table, I have three confessions to make throughout this post. Number one: I went and purchased a few DLC track packs. The main impetus was feeling like the base game is worth far more than just $30 USD, and even with my recent car and phone upgrades, I still have plenty of savings. It started with the Electronic and Rock Mixtapes in late November 2023, followed by Queen in December, Interscope in January, and Fall Out Boy just this month. I was enticed by Darude Sandstorm; Free Bird; Queen in general; Party Rock Anthem; and Dance, Dance in respective order. I only play the songs on Expert+, even Free Bird. Let me give a quick rundown.
Alone: I remember hearing this in a 360chrism stream once. The verses sound like Jigglypuff’s lullaby. The parts before them are not sightread-friendly. This is one of my two FCs in the Electronic Mixtape.
Animals: I’ve heard this on the radio in the early 2010s, back when I carpooled to college with my siblings. It’s the kind of song that tries to be funny but isn’t. It jams, but it’s not as easy as I feel like it should be.
Freestyler: I like the beat, but not so much the vocals. My best combo is over 900; kind of a pain in some places.
Ghosts ‘n’ Stuff: Honestly the weakest song in the pack. It’s also the easiest, but my two-saber FC of it was more painstaking than it had any right to be, and my One-Saber sightread got screwed by a really dumb miss (I don’t remember exactly where), so dumb that it’s hard to believe I can’t just scoop it up with any subsequent attempts.
Icarus: Easy One-Saber SRFC, but the chains in the two-saber map are a real pain. My first experience with Madeon was when a MyAnimeList user recommended the song “Finale”, but ultimately I don’t find the artist particularly appealing.
Darude Sandstorm: This is either the Newgrounds BGM or the “Song name?” meme, depending on whom you ask. More than that, it’s the most difficult and fun song of the pack, so I want to get SS someday.
Stay the Night: My brother used to play this song from time to time, back in the college years when we played multiplayer games more often than sparingly. It’s a decent song, and I never would have guessed that it featured Hayley Williams (lead singer of Paramore), but those buildups are the absolute bane of any FC attempts on my part. (I did manage to hit all of them in one run, but it feels at this point like I merely got lucky.)
The Rockafeller Skank: In the same boat as Freestyler, but with tempo changes and one nasty outro.
Waiting All Night: Pretty much another “fun rhythm with unappealing vocals” kind of song. It’s quite a long one too.
Witchcraft: Arguably the hardest one to pass, on account of those buildups. The intro sounds like Boulevard of Broken Dreams.
Born to Be Wild: This sure is a song. I was 7 notes shy of an SRFC, but I can’t be bothered to grind this too extensively. It’s also one of the two One-Saber songs in the pack.
Eye of the Tiger: I didn’t expect this to take after FitBeat, but it makes sense because the song was written for Rocky III. I’m so close to FCing this.
Free Bird: Of all the songs on the list, this one is the true middle ground between Camellia songs and regular songs. Half of it is a snooze fest, but the other half is an endurance test.
I Was Made for Lovin‘ You: I never was a fan of KISS, and this particular song has no bearing on that stance. It’s the kind of song that I wouldn’t go out of my way to play.
Seven Nation Army: A rather easy FC because of how Warriors of Rock made me intimately familiar with the song. (It’s one of the few songs I managed to OMBFC [one-man band full combo], no less the only one in which I have an optimal score on drums.) However, I was just shy of an SRFC due to misremembering the second half of the guitar solo.
Smells Like Teen Spirit: One of the songs of all time. Expect some serious bounces.
Sweet Child o’ Mine: Anyone familiar with Guitar Hero 2 should know this song to some degree. In a way, it’s like Free Bird but small-scale.
The Pretender: Besides Free Bird, this one was the hardest in the pack for me to pass. Those inline fills are not sightread-friendly in the slightest. That said, in a Stockholm Syndrome sort of phenomenon, I kinda like the song. And hey, One-Saber is not so bad.
Another One Bites the Dust: Fun song.
Bohemian Rhapsody: Iconic. Another song from WoR. As expected, the guitar solo is where it starts heating up. One of the 4 FCs I have in this pack so far, but I don’t have a One-Saber FC yet.
Crazy Little Thing Called Love: I’ve only played this once.
Don’t Stop Me Now: Good song. Kinda trippy, though. It’s also the other One-Saber song.
I Want It All: Iconic, but I haven’t played it much.
Killer Queen: The most fun song in this pack that I have FC’d so far. The snare roll mapping is the highlight of it in terms of difficulty. This song is one of five I had as paid DLC back in the Warriors of Rock days, per recommendation alongside Somebody to Love and A Classic Case of Transference. (The other two were ones I knew I wanted: Living Dead Beat and World on Fire.)
One Vision: I’ve only played this once. The “one direction” part has some clever mapping.
Somebody to Love: Pretty good.
Stone Cold Crazy: The hardest song in this pack, the one with the most chaotic energy. It was also featured in Guitar Hero Metallica, specifically the one demo that I have played at a GameStop.
We Are the Champions: Another FC that I have, and I’ve almost gotten it Faster in a Setlist Shuffle. The chorus with the arcs and bombs is the trippiest part.
We Will Rock You: The intro is not sightread-friendly, but it is clever. This is the other FC I have in this pack.
Counting Stars: Surprisingly fun. The gallops are satisfying. Currently the only (two-saber) FC I have in this pack.
DNA.: I freaking hate playing this song. It’s even worse than Full Charge. I can at least tolerate Full Charge, but this song I straight up dislike. How annoying that it has to be one of the two One-Saber songs in this pack.
Don’t Cha: Iconic, but I haven’t played it much.
Party Rock Anthem: Peak. I want to FC this someday, but it has some tricky bits, especially the doubles about halfway through the outro. (I have managed a combo up to that exact point.) On a brighter note, the “I’m running through these hoOoOo like Drano” part never gets old, and this song also has a fair few gallops.
Rollin’ (Air Raid Vehicle): Loaded with censorship in the verses. NHL Hits nostalgia. Pretty fun, especially the final chorus. Deceitfully tough to FC, though.
Sugar: One of those “I know this melody” kinds of songs, and I never would have guessed that it was by Maroon 5. Second-weakest song in the pack, but hey, One-Saber SRFC.
The Sweet Escape: I freaking choked in the outro. It’s not a hard song, just a bit pesky at times. Going back to the subject of quad zigs, the second “refrigerator” part has an even slower one than Origins does.
Centuries: “I know the melody” again. Pretty meh; the chorus is the only remotely memorable part.
Dance, Dance: Considering Beat Saber is not far off from dancing, I expected more from this map. But hey, easy FC thanks to WoR experience. (The only thing that threw me off in my sightread was the transition into the second chorus, with upward cuts at the “love” and arcs indicating that the sabers should be moved back to the bottom. I did not get the hint.)
I Don’t Care: I love it The words “pants” and “pull” together in the second verse…mate, that’s one of my fetishes. That aside, this song is rather difficult for its pack and resembles Uprising by Muse. It’s also one of the One-Saber ones.
Immortals and Irresistible: I’ve only played these once each. So far, they’re the least memorable songs in this pack.
My Songs Know What You Did in the Dark (Light ’em Up): Clever mapping in the choruses. This was a decent FC to get. The intro is rather trippy. Also the other One-Saber song.
This Ain’t a Scene, It’s an Arms Race: I feel like I should have an FC of this by now, but the game begs to differ. The sixteenths in the instrumental break might seem daunting, but it’s actually before that that I tend to miss more often than not.
Thnks fr the Mmrs: I went from S-ranking on sightread to getting a -2. The first miss was dumb, so I’m glad it wasn’t a full-on reverse choke. The part in the chorus with the offbeat snare hits is fun to play, but it takes some getting used to.
(That’s a grand total of 10/44 two-saber FCs and 2/10 One-Saber.)
Overall, DLC has marginally improved my prowess at the game, namely in terms of flexibility in hitting rather unusually mapped notes. However, I wouldn’t recommend it to solo players, especially the pragmatic sort.
That brings me to confession number two: I have delved into the world of custom levels and game modifications. I’ve been considering this since Steam Link became a thing, but I ultimately never followed through until late December. It made me have to upgrade my networking setup, and while I thought a 50-foot Ethernet cable was adequate for any situation, I find that it’s only barely enough in my current home, no less with the wiring involving four Cable Armor Floor Channels. I chose the Steam version (and yes, bought the game again, even though it never goes on sale) primarily because I want to keep the headset-native copy of the game pristine, and also because it seems easier that way. Thanks to a Steam guide by JaffaCakes118, I have the Mod Assistant application on my PC and BeatSaver bookmarked; it’s as simple as that. Playing with mods on 1.34.2 was fun while it lasted, but now that the current version has been 1.34.6 for the past two weeks (I’ve read that mod creation is volunteer work, so I know that being patient is in my best interest), I can only play a particular subset of custom levels. I am aware that the community has guides on how to downgrade the game, but currently I can’t be bothered.
One thing I learned the hard way: The game is not actually modded until after the “Install or Update” button is clicked with all appropriate mods selected, and the green version numbers appear in the fourth (?) column. If the game is in this state, then it’s unable to load the “PLAY” button for certain songs such as Centipede by Knife Party. It used to be that way for many more songs, but now only the statistics (average NPS, total notes, and so on) are absent; in this state, pressing “PLAY” will softlock the game, leaving it in a pure black environment for the rest of its runtime. It’s always been that way with the SeHa Girls anime OP on an unmodded game, at least in my experience, but now it also applies to songs like the following:
One thing I shied away from when I modded 1.34.2, besides Chroma because I wanted to keep my eye-friendly colors, is Noodle Mods. Just having them installed, even playing songs that don’t require them, causes the game to lag more than usual, so I shudder to imagine how it would run a map that does require them. What I mean about “lag more than usual” is that my network setup is not perfect, meaning that the game lags from time to time, somehow more so on unmodded 1.34.6 than on modded 1.34.2 (without Noodle Mods). Speaking of lag, it’s worth noting that scrolling through the custom level list might come with a few stutters if the cover images in the folders have overall sizes greater than 1 MB. (The guideline is 512×512, but not every BeatSaver map is complicit with that. Heck, a map I found of “Run Devil Run” by Crowder has a freaking 5000×5000 cover picture that’s a whopping 2.54 MB big. That was the first one I noticed as a source of this kind of lag.) Another means by which I reduce lag is by setting the Mirror Quality to Off and reducing debris from the notes; however, the former setting tends to reset to Medium for no apparent reason, which is kind of a pain.
At any rate, having a new version of Beat Saber, I challenged myself to get all the non-Career achievements on this version, including the 15 FCs on both Hard and Expert. Ironically, the former took longer. I figured the best way to present proof of this is in a Google Doc, linked below.
Evidently, most of what I play is related to either video games or anime in some way (yeah, I’m a filthy weeb), although I would play more Christian maps if there were more good ones. The “Run Devil Run” map I mentioned is my second-favorite, with my absolute favorite being one of “Amen” by Matthew West. Somehow I had never heard the song before playing the map, but doggone is it a great song and a whole lot of fun to play. It’s the hardest one I’ve gone out of my way to FC, not that that takes much (not only because of the lag, but for a more important reason that I’ll explain shortly.)
Very rarely do I play a custom map any more than once after passing it. The sky’s the limit as far as community-made rhythm gaming maps are concerned, so singling any of them out is quite a commitment. (There, that’s the reason.) Some exceptions that I have yet to mention are listed below:
“The Phoenix” by Fall Out Boy – I love this song more than anything in the DLC pack, both musically and in terms of mapping. Granted, the second time I played it, it wasn’t as fun as I remembered.
“Livin’ La Vida Loca” by Ricky Martin – “She’ll push and pull you down!” Even apart from the appropriate mapping there, it jams and has some tough surf rock bits.
Caramelldansen – A vintage Internet meme with bits of mapping based on the dance associated with it.
“Gangnam Style” by PSY – Same as above, but not as vintage. The mapping not based on the dance is kind of awkward.
“Nevermore” from RWBY – The quintessential example of double bass pedals mapped as sixteenths, my favorite kind of mapping.
“99.9” from Mob Psycho 100 II – I didn’t feel so strongly about it at first, but I went back to it at some point and really liked the second half.
“Black † White” by Iori Nomizu – As a long-time fan of the Mondaiji series, I’m so glad this is mapped. (Too bad the ED is not.) It’s rather difficult, but I wouldn’t have it any other way. Also, the “1 2 3” mapping is clever, and “Rollin'” from the Interscope Mixtape has something similar.
“Question!” by System of a Down – It’s daunting at first, but I actually had fun when I passed the song. (Not unlike “The Pretender,” honestly.)
Currently, my favorite part of custom maps is how they push the limits of my technical prowess and arm endurance. I like to establish milestones as I go, that way I can improve step by step like the average shounen protagonist. Here’s a rough timeline of how I’ve progressed.
“Dance with Silence” by Camellia – In a similar vein to Super Spice Bros 2 (in the Google Doc), I’ve had this since Christmas 2023, but I can’t find it on BeatSaver. Its ID is 23ecd.
Below are screenshots for some of the above. Others were done in modded 1.34.2.
More recently, I passed “INTERNET YAMERO” after too freaking many attempts and having to practice the part with the slews of 3-4 side-to-side blocks per beat. It disappoints me that the current highest-rated map has no relation whatsoever to the dance that exposed me to this song in the first place, but it’s still a fun map overall. (Also worth noting that the Curtains on speed part takes some getting used to.)
(Side note about the cover art: That heart-shaped foreground light makes it look in the downscaled version like the girl’s panties are showing. Alas, it’s a case of Schrödinger’s panties.)
I also like doing FitBeat-type maps like Tubthumping by Chumbawumba (the “I get knocked down” song), “Let Me Hit It” by Sporty-O (the “When I’m bored” song), the Epic Sax Guy song, “Pump It” and “I Gotta Feeling” by The Black Eyed Peas (the latter is not evidently FitBeat except on a modded version of the game). Those feel more like workouts than just swinging my arms. Also worth noting that the BeatSaver search engine has a Fitness tag.
In terms of future milestones, here’s what I’m thinking:
“Valley of the Vale” by Twilight Force (not to be confused with “Valley of the Damned” by DragonForce) – I’ve passed it one difficulty below max, at least.
I’ve also been considering making my own custom maps, namely desiring to add more Christian music or something related to Bravely Default that doesn’t have a freaking 35.4% rating, but as much as I’ve played so far, I just can’t piece together what makes a good map. It’s like being a glutton who can’t cook. Maybe someday I’ll find the inspiration to at least try.
One thing to note about custom maps is that the notes tend to fly faster than in songs native to the game (especially in unmodded play, unless that’s just my imagination), like how it is in the Volume 4 songs compared to Volumes 1-3. The more I get accustomed to them, the better my hand-eye coordination and so forth, the easier it is to hit notes in Camellia X+ songs. That’s how I’ve gotten so much better at Final-Boss-Chan than I was before I started playing custom levels. On the flip side, if I go too hard on the custom songs, then it hinders my ability to FC some of the easier maps. Just as “you cannot serve both God and Mammon,” there is a time for accuracy and a time for feats of endurance; at most, I tend to start my sessions with the former and end them with the latter.
Confession number three (appropriately): I splurged on a Quest 3. The Quest 2 had a good 2.3-year run (give or take), but the overhead strap support beam snapped off recently, meaning that the best I could do to keep the headset suspended was take off the silicone covering, put on a baseball cap, and wrap the overhead strap of the headset around the Velcro strip at the back of the cap. The silicone covering made the headset slide down too much, whereas the final setup was too tight for me to keep up in the long term. So…the new headset is much more compact than the previous model, but not much else is different except some oddities in the controller detection (maybe it takes some getting used to) and that headset-native Beat Saber has more detailed obstacles. I will say that it helped me learn one unusual tidbit the hard way: If the headset has downloads queued up, then Steam Link lags like mad; on modded 1.34.2, it was too laggy for me to even play the Noukin OP.
Back in May, I got the SpongeBob bundle (BfBB Rehydrated + soundtrack and Cosmic Shake + costumes) for less than $40. I only started seriously working towards completing BfBBR last month and fully completed it early this month (all that I had to look up was the shipwreck sock in Dutchman’s Graveyard), so it took me until Christmas Day to start Cosmic Shake. I just finished Jelly Glove World last night, currently saving most of the extras for the endgame, and I have to say that both of them are solid cartoon-themed 3D platformers.
Early in the winter sale (before Christmas), I got the Etrian Odyssey Origins Collection (1-3 HD) for under $50. I considered getting Persona 5 Tactica but decided otherwise because of the review consensus that the game is too short for its price. Considering how much I liked Persona Q and Q2, it makes sense that I’ve been having fun with Etrian Odyssey HD. It’s a good Steam Deck game, and while it does have touchscreen controls, I prefer to use the right stick and buttons for cartography. As of today, I have progressed to B8F, which I’m guessing is not much. If nothing else, it’s certainly chill. For better or worse, its music and sounds are still very DS-like.
Late Christmas Day, my brother recommended Neon White. I have completed 5 of the missions so far with all Aces and miscellany. I prefer using my keyboard and mouse for this game, especially because the time I’ve put into Cosmic Shake with inverted camera axes makes it hard for me to play it on Steam Deck, what with the lack of X axis inversion. Still, it’s the most fun I’ve had with a game in a long time. It’s an intense, speed-oriented, first-person 3D platformer, yet there’s enough depth to it that puts the brain to the test.
(I am only moderately sorry for this title. More importantly, note that I have no DLC, and nothing except maybe Nel is going to convince me otherwise.)
Three months ago, the “-ish” I put in the title definitely holds up. I left off before Chapter 16/26 back then, which in itself might seem past halfway, but a final playtime of 260 hours (as opposed to just over 80) proves the opposite.
Still, my opinions from back then are largely unchanged (but how did I miss the opportunity to call Louis an abso-Louis-t unit?), except I don’t mind Hortensia as much now that I know she has the same English voice as Laphicet from Tales of Berseria. Speaking of voices, the only correct predictions I made last time are Lyn being voiced by Wendee Lee and Jade having the same voice as Kisara. I’ve also noticed since then that Merrin, Veyle, and Marni sound like Velvet Crowe (mostly pre-daemon), Marle from Puyo Puyo Tetris 2, and Uni from Neptunia (mostly when she whines) respectively.
In other news, I’ve caught wind that the voice of Chloé is the current voice of Minnie Mouse, and now I’ll never see her the same again. And now that I’ve looked up the voice actors, here are some other associations I find interesting:
Boucheron with Daruk and Yunobo from The Legend of Zelda. The former somewhat makes sense when I recall the line, “Daruk’s Protection is now ready to roll!”, and I could certainly hear the latter while playing through Tears of the Kingdom.
Fogado with Squares from PPT2. A surprise, to be sure.
Seadall with Dohalim from Tales of Arise. I’m kind of ashamed of myself for not getting this one, considering Dohalim is my favorite Arise character (not that that says much).
Yunaka is voiced by Laura Post. This is the most mind-blowing one of all, because she sounds little to nothing like any other Laura Post character I’ve heard: Arfoire from Neptunia, Primrose from Octopath Traveler, Catherine from Three Houses, Almeidrea from Tales of Arise…yeah, none of those. Granted, this might have something to do with how much I’ve denied the character.
Celica is voiced by Erica Lindbeck. Maybe because I never really paid as much attention to the Emblems as to the corporeal characters, this came as a surprise to me.
Roy with Artorius and Alphen from the Tales series. I would call this a duality, with one being dissimilar and the other being comparable.
Eirika is voiced by Kira Buckland. I would not have guessed this, but sometimes I get Rulue vibes when I listen closely.
Ike with Alfyn from Octopath Traveler. I get the similarities in the noises they make while swinging their weapons (Ike more so in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate), although I would have pegged Alfyn as the less mature one.
Micaiah with Ash Ketchum from the Pokémon anime and Manuela from Three Houses. By names alone, one might consider this more surprising than Laura Post as Yunaka, and the reason I think otherwise might just be because of my tastes. Still, it takes a close second, which I trust I need not explain.
While on the subject of characters, here’s what I think of the ones from Chapter 16 and later.
I suspected at first that Rosado was transgender based on his hair color and overall androgyny, but it turns out he’s a male whose gender is never questioned. Even though I would have preferred the alternative (for the sake of freshness), he’s still certainly among the better half of the characters.
Goldmary, on the other hand, is one of the worst. It’s one thing for her to be another cleavage character (which, in a similar vein to Yunaka, has me calling her “Boobsmary”), but she’s so conceited that it gets on my nerves. “Humble soldier of Elusia,” my eye. (That is one of her quotes when she enters the Somniel Arena. Incidentally, one of Hortensia’s is what I can only interpret as an impression of Kirby’s taunt in Super Smash Bros. Melee.)
All I have to say about Saphir is that she’s just like Flavia from Awakening, whereas Lindon is a better foil to her than Basilio was to Flavia (let alone Hanneman to Manuela in Three Houses). Lindon also has a sense of humor and an experimental brain going for him.
I’ve always considered Mauvier the type who didn’t deserve to wind up on the villains’ side, and surely enough, he became the first turncoat among the Four Hounds. That aside, he is the strong and silent type due to a cold upbringing, although I feel like his English voice is not very compatible with that personality. (By his appearance alone, I would have expected him to sound like Odion in Yu-Gi-Oh the Abridged Series.)
Veyle, much like Marle who has the same voice, has a mild-mannered side and a naughty side, both of which I find about equally appealing overall. (I’m convinced that her harmful actions are the fault of Sombron and Zeworstgirl—I mean Zephia.) Moreover, even though she looks and sounds questionably youthful, her outfit has some serious leg exposure and even a visible inner underneath. (Not her Somniel outfit, though; one can tell when she sits at the south-side campfire that the underside of her casual skirt is obscured.)
Now, I’ll admit that I didn’t talk much about the other characters last time, but I did make a tier list partly to compensate for that.
(I don’t know why “The worst” decided to have a bigger font, but part of me likes it that way.)
Most of the picks here go in descending order from left to right, with bits of uncertainty in various places, although I cannot compare the Emblems to the other characters, considering how different they are.
Mid-June edit: I just noticed that Jean is absent from this list. I would put him between Amber and Anna.
One more thing to note about the characters: While units other than the protagonist do not marry each other as in similar installments (at best, a character’s epilogue will merely mention “someone” as their spouse, as in the case of Fogado for example), it seems that the Pact Ring can be given to any of them. With that in mind, I considered doing so to a female unit (namely Etie, Merrin, or maybe Veyle) as the female protagonist, but I ultimately decided otherwise because the prospect of being a straight male and playing as a queer female character just doesn’t feel right, the more I think about it. Thus, my final choice was Zelkov, considering my real-life preferences and how much I favor the character. (Regarding their A-rank support conversation, I have to say that when the female protagonist imitates Zelkov’s emphasis, it sounds like she’s acting out the role of a cartoon ghost.)
With all that out in the open, it’s time I moved on to the obligatory anecdotal part of this post. Skirmishes still suck on Hard difficulty, and no amount of Advanced class leveling has improved any part of it. Even when the “Suggested” level reaches Advanced level 20, the power level of the enemy units does not stop rising until all their stats are capped. They always seem to be two steps ahead of my units in raw power, which I would say is at least one too many. Still, I managed to finish the game with all base classes leveled to 20, all advanced classes leveled to 20, and all special classes leveled to 40, plus 15 extra levels for Vander, 7 extra levels for Saber (which, as a reminder, is the name I gave the female protagonist), 6 extra levels for the royals (and accidentally Rosado), and 5 extra levels for everyone else. It was mostly a matter of picking and choosing which skirmishes and training to attempt; the Tempest Trials lost their luster as my units started gaining advanced levels, due to the lack of gold yield and overall being too overwhelming for what they’re worth. (In other words, it went from being perfectly possible to steamroll the opposition, to having slim-to-none odds that my deployed units would even survive the first round.) I don’t think I realized until I started scraping the bottom of the barrel, so to speak, that training gives extra experience and extra gold: +30 experience per unit and at least 2000 G. As a stickler for balance (with exceptions for certain notable characters), I say that it certainly beats Silver Corrupted, and although the best Gold Corrupted maps start off with a 2600 G yield (two drops of 1300 G), both yields rise to 3000 G (with the drops being 1500 G) after a certain late-game Chapter (which I don’t remember by number), giving training an undeserved edge over all forms of skirmishes. The one catch is that training is unique to three locations: Firene Castle, Brodia Castle, and Solm Palace. Brodia is by far the hardest one to manage; I can only remember clearing it once, no less with crucial help from Alcryst x Lyn and Seadall. Solm is daunting until I find it possible to take over the north side of the map, form walls with my bulkier units (which is especially effective at/near the “Suggested” level cap, when the enemies stop bringing spears and tomahawks), and chip away at their forces as necessary. As for Firene Castle, which I sometimes call “my beloved,” my approach is to head north first and clean up the rest as they filter in.
If training is not available, two of the easiest places to hunt for Gold Corrupted are the Sacred Tomb and the Crossroads of Fate. Always make sure before anything that there are two Gold Corrupted, because some Gold Corrupted skirmishes only have one; a bummer to say the least. I recommend bringing anti-fliers to the Sacred Tomb (because non-flying units are prone to bottleneck tactics) and Covert units to the Crossroads of Fate (to take advantage of the woods where the player units start off). I have also managed to prevail in the Plains of Swift Winds by dispatching 6-Mov units to the easternmost set of tiles and assembling everyone in the middle of the west side of the map, although this is not something I expect to do again in the foreseeable future. Tullah Desert is improbable but feasible, and while I can’t remember the last time I’ve conquered Bandits’ Hideout, it seems feasible with a less flexible spin on the Solm Palace strategy. Arena of the Gods seems promising due to its lower enemy unit count, but there’s also the matter of having the right allied units, which I feel like I never do. (Granted, I tend to deploy retainers, royals, Lindon and Saphir in pairs, as well as the triumvirate of Kagetsu and the thieves.) At any rate, the thing about training/skirmishes is that every 3 hours real-time, one of them disappears and is replaced. If there are 8 symbols on the map and at least 24 hours have passed, all of the symbols will be replaced. Good opportunity to do something else, eh?
Another thing to note is that I try to avoid poison whenever possible, whether by taking a unit with enough Defense to take 0 damage from daggers (usually Louis, sometimes Jade x Roy, sometimes a unit engaged with Ike,* sometimes certain units with stone pillars from Corrin’s Dragon Vein, and rarely dodge tanking with fog from the same source), by using arts to break the dagger users, or by using Engage Skills to avoid counterattacks.
*Note that a Dragon unit engaged with Ike takes 40% damage from attacks thanks to Laguz Friend, and when the base damage is 2, it rounds down to 0. This has come in clutch for Saber during Paralogue 15.
Speaking of unchanged things, training up Vander is still just as hard as it’s always been. The compact axe is his best bet for dealing “guaranteed” damage, but he would have to pick up the scraps for another unit, a telltale sign of unreliability. When he was a paladin, I gave him a tomahawk and a poleaxe for the off chance of dealing a “heavy” hit from afar or to an opposing cavalry unit. The latter eventually became a hurricane axe because of his surprisingly usable Magic stat, and the former became a hand axe when his Build grew to a satisfactory degree. When he reached level 20 as a paladin, I reclassed him to a griffin knight, which might have to do with how his Speed is not as shoddy as before. At the end of the day, though, he has been hard-carried by adjacent allies, chip damage, and/or enemy affinities.
Skirmishes and stuff aside, I should mention some of the maps that I found particularly annoying.
Leif’s paralogue has the ballisticians with insane damage outputs, the pesky staff users in their back pocket, and the infinite stream of cavalry reinforcements from the east. To deal with all that, I leveled up considerably and brought a special set of units: Saber x Sigurd, Seadall, Hortensia x Byleth, Louis, Jade, Clanne, Framme, Jean, Ivy, Chloé, and Amber. (I don’t know if there was, let alone could be, a twelfth; this is all I remember.) Dancing was crucial in dealing with the ballisticians, the twins added much-needed magic offense to the team, and the generals were effective at fending off the cavalry. (Side note: Leif has special dialogue for when Ivy enters combat against him, presumably because she had his ring as the boss of Chapter 8.)
Celica’s paralogue, doggone, nothing says “infinite stream of reinforcements” like those stinking high priests, and getting overwhelmed by even one of them is a recipe for getting screwed over by the Warp reinforcement high priests that mobilize the phantom wyrms to the front lines. To make matters worse, I have witnessed one of the Warp users attack with Elthunder and use Warp on a phantom wyrm on the same turn. No freaking joke. If not for that bit of Elthunder damage and the extra phantom wyrm attack, Saber would have survived, and I would not have had to resort to the already-level-20-at-the-time Sigurd accompanied by Hortensia x Byleth and whatever else I don’t remember. Seriously, that high priest had no special skills or anything; they straight-up cheated. As much as I’ve used the term out of spite towards being hit or crit with less than a 50% chance / missing with an 80-99% chance, this rubbish was genuine cheating.
Chapter 25, guess what? It’s another source of annoyance by reinforcements. The particularly pesky ones are the ones that tail the player units to the boss. My first idea was to have Lapis and Jade stay back to dispatch them, but Lapis couldn’t last despite her exceptional Avo. Then, my Time Crystal charge count was practically exhausted, and it came down to a wild assortment of shaky hit rates and lucking out against the AI. In fending off the reinforcements, ultimately, I simply must accredit Timerra x Corrin and the Stone Pillars.
Then there’s the final battle, which takes some getting used to. Be careful when to lift the barrier, because the same Player Phase when you do it is the only opportunity that you get to damage the boss before it creates a new barrier and summons enough reinforcements to occupy the whole militia. Healers must die, because they prioritize healing the boss if its HP is below maximum, and their healing is nothing to sneeze at. By the time I got used to this and just prioritized eliminating reinforcements instead of breaking the barrier, the reinforcements just wouldn’t stop coming in droves. Thus, after seeing the next stream of reinforcements, I just broke the barrier and went for a bum-rush that depleted two of the boss’s Revival Stones and about 2/3 HP, in no small part thanks to Goddess Dance. The entire battle took 4 freaking hours on a night that I should have instead spent clearing the Lightning Temple in Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom.
(Note: I considered using books from the well to give Alcryst and Diamant each another Inherited Skill (Alacrity++ and Hold Out+++ respectively), but I have yet to follow through, and perhaps my stingy nature is responsible for that.)
I chose the final classes based on the following criteria:
At least one of every class (notwithstanding different weapon types, e.g. axe and lance paladins)
Each character with an exclusive advanced/special class sticks with it
Each other character puts to use whichever proficiency is marked blue
Sword: Lapis, Kagetsu, Bunet
Lance: Chloé, Louis, Amber, Goldmary
Axe: Vander, Boucheron, Jade, Rosado, Saphir
Bow: Etie, Anna
Dagger: Yunaka, Zelkov, Merrin, Panette
Tome: Clanne, Citrinne
Staff: Pandreo, Lindon, Mauvier
Art: Framme, Jean
One of every general (I like armored units)
Another martial master (otherwise, not many Qi Adepts to go around)
In part, this involved having Kagetsu remain a swordmaster, Mauvier a royal knight, Boucheron a berserker, Saphir a warrior, Etie an axe-wielding bow knight (which I mistakenly reclassed to lance-wielding at one point; what a waste of 2500 G…), Louis and Jade generals, Merrin a sword-wielding wolf knight, Rosado a swordless wyvern knight, Citrinne a sage, Clanne a sword-wielding mage knight, Jean a martial master, Yunaka and Zelkov thieves. I couldn’t resist making Amber a hero because he keeps talking about being one, Goldmary had too much Defense as a hero to not be armored (and the position of lance-wielding general is already taken by Louis),* Chloé was the only lance specialist left over for the halberdier slot, Bunet is the only sword specialist who deserves armor, Framme is the only art specialist other than Jean (as much as her Strength sucks), Pandreo’s and Lindon’s class swap makes their specialties S-rank (as pointless as that is), and Anna is simply more of a sniper gal than a bow knight gal.
*…and now, as much as I am loath to admit it, she is second only to Louis in terms of physical bulk. She might even rival him if you take into account that significantly higher Speed stat. (Alfred with Gentility is also a strong contender.)
Now, an explanation of Emblem choices:
Saber x Corrin has access to any Dragon Vein effect and 1 extra range on Torrential Roar. (I’ve found more use for the former, wanting to keep Saber on the down-low since I gave her the Emblem.)
Alfred x Eirika gets a 50% damage increase on the Ephraim hit of Twin Strike. And, as mentioned, Gentility supplements his already considerable bulk, just as Golden Lotus does against physical attacks in particular.
Alcryst x Leif gets Avo+20 when Adaptable kicks in, as well as a chance to gain 1000 G when defeating an enemy with Quadruple Hit.
Diamant x Byleth grants Str+4 with Instruct and Goddess Dance. (In the final battle, the former actually came in clutch for Jean to ensure a kill on one of the wolf knights.) Also, Divine Pulse is deserved compensation for Diamant’s low accuracy.
Timerra x Lucina, when using All for One, gets chain attacks from all units within 3 spaces (instead of 2).
Hortensia x Celica can warp up to 15 spaces (instead of 10) when using Warp Ragnarok.
Zelkov x Lyn has a range of 20 (instead of 10) with Astra Storm.
Veyle x Marth is simply because she was the last one to hold the ring before her recruitment. She recovers HP with the attack performed via Divine Speed, and her Lodestar Rush consists of 9 attacks (instead of 7). Also, while engaged, she is surprisingly cute.
Jade x Roy gains an extra 5 max HP while Rise Above is active.
Chloé gets no added effects from Micaiah as a Backup unit; I just had her equip that Emblem when she was a lance flier instead of a griffin knight, so giving it back to her was just for old times’ sake.
Jean x Sigurd has a 20% chance to break each target when using Override. (Believe it or not, this has happened against the final boss.)
Rosado x Ike gains an extra Res+5 when using Great Aether. I figured that this effect was the most compatible with Rosado of all my Flying units, the one with the lowest raw Resistance. (Also, Reposition is a particularly useful skill, especially for a Flying unit.)
Louis has Mia S, which comes with the skill Shove, as the unit with the highest Build in the army. Very scarcely do I use it over Swap, although the last time I did was actually during the final battle.
Since the royals have Dex-dependent skills for their exclusive classes, the Emblem Rings of those remaining all boost Dexterity to some degree.
Etie has Sharena S for Fortify Def, which suits her as a glass cannon who tends to take up the rear.
Yunaka has Seliph S for Battlewise, seeing as critical hits are her bread and butter. (The same can be said of Panette, but Yunaka is overall better at getting kills.)
Anna has Anna S because it’s funny. Yes, that’s it.
Amber has Deirdre S for Renewal, which pairs well with Brave Assist (as I have seen firsthand while Goldmary had the ring during her time as a hero).
Kagetsu has Alfonse S for Spur Atk, which admittedly worked better when he was a better dodge tank (with Armorslayer+1 x Dawn), but still helps ranged attackers who may or may not benefit from his chain attacks. (Breaking an axe wielder or doing chip damage to a bow wielder would be best-case scenarios to create such an opportunity.)
Bunet has Fae S for a Luck boost, which makes “Seconds?” more likely to activate.
Lindon has Olwen S for Dire Thunder, which pairs well with Weapon Insight. A critical hit with Thunder, now that’s what I call thundercooked.
As for the weapon choices, most of them serve to accommodate the Build stats of their respective characters. I won’t bother explaining the engravings, because most of them are byproducts of “seemed like a good idea at the time” decisions. (Side note: Why is Mini Bow+5 the best way for an archer/sniper/Alcryst to hit an adjacent foe? It’s so sad.)
I would also like to add that the best part of warriors is that they are the one kind of Backup unit that can wield a longbow, allowing them to chain attack from 3 tiles away without the help of Backup x Lucina All for One. (Imagine if their level 5 skill had anything to do with chain attacking. I personally shudder to do so.)
Lastly, I have come up with some pet terms to describe phenomena within the game.
Chloé Crit: A critical hit with a single-digit percent chance, usually with 90-100% accuracy. Also commonly pulled off by Hortensia and Merrin.
Laura Crit: A low-accuracy hit and single-digit percent critical hit in one. In one of my Solm Palace training sessions, Jade pulled off two in a row with a Steel Greataxe (68% hit + 5% crit), which left me delirious. (Named after Laura from Radiant Dawn, with whom I once pulled off a 69% hit + 1% crit.)
Crit Machine: Amber with a Killer Lance + Fates engraving. This was more of a pre-advanced thing, as nowadays his hit rates are unusually iffy.
Crit Queen: Panette with a Killer Axe, especially when Blood Fury kicks in. The Blazing engraving (which I previously let Anna use when she was an Axe Fighter / Warrior) has helped to amp up the percentage, but circumstances have me doubting whether it has changed my luck.
X Slayer: An allied unit that can defeat a particular kind of enemy unit in one fell swoop. (e.g., Citrinne and Ivy are General Slayers because of their insane magical prowess, although the latter is reliant on Nova. Pandreo is the Great Knight Slayer because his combination of Magic and Speed is just right. Fogado and Clanne are Wyvern Slayers because of their high Speed and magical weapons: radiant bow and Excalibur (the latter boosted by Nino S). Etie used to be the Griffin Slayer with her silver bow, that is until she got powercrept.)
Afterword
Even though I have beaten the game, there is still much that I have yet to do: Tempest Trial level 50 for all 6 maps, max-level donations, max-level support, playing gacha (ugh) for the remaining Emblem Rings, improving a personal database that I dare not share just yet because of its incompleteness, and that’s just to name a few. At the same time, I also have a heaping backlog with little if any room for the extra content in this game, so all of the above is indefinitely on hold. It’s been fun, but also, cheerio.
Although this game came out last month, I didn’t bother getting it until at least two weeks after its release. My disinterest in it came primarily from thinking that I had dedicated enough time to Three Houses and that the new installment would be no better, but I caved to a few factors:
I felt like I was getting addicted to Pokémon Violet, hunting for shinies and spices, when I reached a point of feeling down on my luck. (In particular, I blame Flittle and Glimmet.)
I became acquainted with the popularity of Yunaka, yet her appearance and “Hiya papaya” shtick are thoroughly unappealing to me, so I wanted to find out for myself whether there was more to the phenomenon.
The female protagonist, despite stirring up controversy with her vivid color scheme, has a skirt and thighs that heavily contribute to her being the best modern protagonist in my opinion. (By contrast, I’m not nearly as fond of the male protagonist.)
Honestly, I owe it to representing Nowi so much as part of my internet persona.
And so here I recount my notable experiences with the first fifteen chapters of the game. I named the protagonist Saber because her red and blue color scheme brought Beat Saber to the most creative recesses of my mind. This partly ties into why I stuck with the female protagonist despite being male in real life: I would have named the male protagonist Beat, but I’ve already given that name to the Grafaiai that I used in Pokémon Violet. (…for a different reason, granted, but that’s beside the point.) In that vein, I named Saber’s pet Beck after Jaroslav Beck, the primary composer of Beat Saber. (It can also be interpreted as being at the beck and call of the protagonist.) As for the difficulty, I chose Hard “Classic,” using the latter term loosely because of my tendency to abuse the “Retry” menu option and the ability to reset the game, specifically to keep my units alive. (All I can say to justify it at this point is that it hits different.)
From what I can tell, Engage is essentially a cross between Fates and Three Houses, finding the middle ground between both games (for better and worse), laced with bits and pieces from all throughout the series at large. Now that I’ve gotten my “in a nutshell” statement out of the way, it’s time for me to do the same with what I consider the most annoying aspect so far. Based on how difficult it is to train Vander (the Frederick/Gunter equivalent of the game), I figured it would be best to level each base-class unit up to 20 before using a Master Seal (and save any Second Seals for when a unit reaches Advanced level 20 or Special level 40), but then there’s such a stark contrast between base units and advanced units that it takes 3-5 of the former just to deal with one of the latter, on average. This dilemma is especially evident in the power creep after Chapter 11, where hindsight holds that it pays to grind in abundance before Chapter 10, particularly with Kagetsu starting off at Advanced level 1. It also helps to not go through Chapters 12 and 13 too hastily, as they consist of silly gimmicks and more oddly high-leveled retainers (Pandreo, Bunet, Merrin, and Panette). Instead, now that I’ve unwittingly dug myself this hole, still about half my units are stuck at base level 17 (at the time of writing), and I’ve had no choice since they were “stuck” at base level 15 but to resort to Tempest Trial level 20, a three-map time sink that gets less fruitful the more the “Suggested” level of the average skirmish/training rises. (Chapter 16 is the point of the game that I call the “Advanced-pocalypse,” where literally nothing on the World Map has a “Suggested” level any less than Advanced level 1. Granted, Lyn’s paralogue claims to be Base level 19, but the last time I checked the map, I saw one base level 20 unit accompanied by a crowd of advanced levels 2 and 4 units, so I’m not buying that.) This and the routinely Somniel activities are the primary contributors to my 80+ hours of game time, I suspect. (Another insufferable aspect is being strapped for gold, which has once urged me to sell prizes from Wyvern Rides, and not having enough Master Seals to go around.)
(Note: The royalty + retainer pair recruit trios and the Somniel activities are the aspects I find the most comparable to Fates and Three Houses respectively.)
With all that ranting out of the way, I feel inclined to share two particularly stressful happenings that I have experienced in the main story.
Chapter 11: This is the (first?) chapter where the Draconic Time Crystal (Divine Pulse equivalent) is stolen from the protagonist’s possession, so “Every decision counts” indeed. A cavalier at the home stretch wound up with the Leif Emblem, fixing to jeopardize the rear guard and having a nonzero chance to crit Chloé and Saber, the only two units who could work towards averting the crisis. (The crit chances were single digits, but from my experience with the Fire Emblem series as a whole, I dare not put anything past any opposing units.)
Chapter 13: I bum-rushed the bosses too hard, not realizing that I was out of Time Crystal charges, and wound up having to make some risky plays. Jade landed a Tomahawk hit with ~47% accuracy, Clanne had to get at least one Chain Attack from Saber or Panette, and most of all, Amber had to get up-close and personal with the Brave Axe user. He had an 80-ish hit rate and a ~27% crit rate with his Killer Lance, while the opponent had a ~57% hit rate and easily 2HKOed. Amber needed a crit and got one, but he also got hit, meaning that he had to dodge twice during the Enemy Phase to survive. Miraculously, he did.
Now, since I’ve already touched upon Yunaka and the protagonist, it’s time to get more detailed about the notable characters of the game. Starting with Yunaka, the best way I can describe her personality is like Akira Kogomi from Lucky Star. Between that and her ostentatious appearance (which makes me tend to call her Boobaka), I’ve made it a point to deny the character, but what I can’t deny is her prowess on Avo +30 tiles. (Terrain Avo bonuses are doubled for Covert units like thieves, and her exclusive skill boosts her crit rate on such tiles.) Honestly, though, the crit bonus is the only aspect of her I prefer over Zelkov, the cooler thief character with a penchant for *emphasis* and an easier time avoiding attacks during Enemy Phases. (It’s also worth noting that thieves like those two are good for opening doors and chests.)
(Boucheron is what I would call the polar opposite of Yunaka: likable as a character (specifically the resident himbo), but his prowess as a unit leaves a lot to be desired.)
Speaking of mature-looking characters who are totally not my type, Ivy is like the second coming of Camilla, being strikingly similar but thankfully more low-key. The only other thing I have to say about her is that her line, “Have a nice flight,” sounds similar to Iris Heart from the Neptunia series.
That brings me to voice resemblance suspicions. I’m 99% sure that Clanne sounds like Pit from Kid Icarus and that Lyn is voiced by Wendee Lee (because she sounds just like non-HDD Blanc), but everything below is guesswork from a guy who refuses to look up the voice actors until after finishing the game.
Etie sounds like Mythra from Xenoblade 2. Also, I consider her an A-tier character for her orange hair and her uniqueness as a female. (Speaking of uniqueness, Seadall also breaks the mold as a male dancer, or so I find on account of Olivia (Awakening) and Azura (Fates).)
Citrinne’s line, “I claim this victory,” reminds me of Erica Mendez.
I have a sneaking suspicion that Céline sounds like Flayn from Three Houses.
Jade sounds like Kisara from Tales of Arise, although she’s more comparable to Samus Aran as a character. (Long blonde ponytail, tall and slender, wears armor in battle)
Lapis, my favorite character and possibly the actual cutest character in the whole series, has some Erica Lindbeck vibes, particularly in her victory lines.
The wildest guess of all, since Louis (honestly one of the absolute units in the game) resembles Azama (Fates) in Kellam’s (Awakening) armor, could he be voiced by Matt Mercer?
Back to the topic of sex appeal, Chloé is certainly not lacking on that front, but somehow I like her style enough to not mind as much as in the case of Yunaka and Ivy. (Part of it might be a resemblance to Therese Alexandrite from Rising of the Shield Hero, and perhaps also the oddity of the foods that she likes.) Hortensia, on the other hand, ain’t it. (She and Alfred are whom I would call two of the most annoying characters in the game. And speaking of annoying, Zephia is like Aversa (Awakening) but somehow worse.)
I think that’s about it for now. It’s been a long and grindy road, even what I imagine is not very far into the game, but somehow I’m engaged enough (not sorry) to consider it a worthwhile time sink.
Pokémon Scarlet and Violet are video games released for the Nintendo Switch, presented by GameFreak, and all that jazz. I highly doubt that this ninth generation is the terminus of the series, even though the National Pokédex count has exceeded 1000 (but the exact numbering past 905 is currently unknown), primarily because not all type combinations are represented yet. They at least covered seven of the remaining sixteen: Bug/Dark (Lokix), Electric/Fighting (Pawmot), Fairy/Fighting (Iron Valiant),* Fighting/Ground (Great Tusk), Fire/Grass (Scovillain), Normal/Poison (Grafaiai), and Poison/Steel (Revavroom). This happens to equal the number from last generation (before Isle of Armor), and add-on trends show that the remainder (Bug/Dragon, Bug/Normal, Fairy/Fire, Fairy/Ground, Ghost/Rock, Ice/Normal, Ice/Poison, Normal/Rock, and Normal/Steel) will likely be addressed by the tenth generation. *Finally, a Fairy-type with super-effective STAB against Steel.
Just some ramblings related to my previous Pokémon post. Now, I was just as eager to get this new installment as the next rabid fan of the series (and they nailed my pre-order, unlike in the case of Shining Pearl), but uh… While I’ve never played a Pokémon game I didn’t like, some aspects of this generation have me wondering, “What the goodness were they thinking?” I mean, it’s one thing for the game to be lacking in polish at the caliber of Sonic ’06, but all I know about that (and more) has already been told in ghost stories around the net. But the big thing (besides removing the classic Shift/Set Battle Style option) is, ever since the devs unleashed the terrors of the intrinsic Choice Band (Gorilla Tactics) and the 255 BP with Strong Jaw (Fishious Rend), they just haven’t stopped spiraling out of control with their new additions.
Primarily: Who decided it was a good idea to make Last Respects a drawback-free physical Ghost-type move that could cap at 300 BP? 50 + 50 + 50 ad nauseam? Even in 3v3 Singles, that’s 150 BP, the caliber of Giga Impact. If it were me, I would have suggested 40 BP plus 20 per fallen ally, capping at 140 à la Retaliate. (How fitting, because both moves gain power when an ally falls.)
Rage Fist is in the same boat, but at least it’s not as effortless to boost, considering its two users lack recovery beyond Rest and are also a Fighting/Ghost with 110/80/90 bulk and a pure Fighting-type with 65/60/70 bulk and Eviolite compatibility. Still, Taunt and Bulk Up (which they can easily run concurrently, seeing how Fighting/Ghost coverage is) can inhibit foes from “statusing their way around” (for lack of better terminology) and then soften blows from physically oriented opponents while augmenting their own, so it would have made more sense for this move to also gain 20 BP per hit taken by the user (but start at 50 BP as it already does).
Another move with exorbitant BP is Population Bomb, which has 20 BP and hits up to 10 times, not to mention its signature user has Technician to make it another 300 BP move. It does, however, have three drawbacks that make it more reasonable: (1) It’s Normal-type, therefore never super-effective; (2) Its signature user also has base 75 Attack; and (3) It makes contact (and is also a “slicing move” for some reason), forcing the user to either hold Protective Pads or be at the mercy of Rough Skin / Rocky Helmet users.
And going back to how Last Respects gets stronger when allies go down, so does Supreme Overlord, and it becomes an intrinsic Choice Band and Choice Specs at its strongest. Not only that, but unlike Gorilla Tactics, it does not lock the user into a single move per switch-in. Its only user is Dark/Steel with 135/60/50 offenses and 100/120/85 bulk, and while the former looks entirely beneath the 140/95 physical offense of Galarian Darmanitan at first glance, that awful Speed can be circumvented via Sucker Punch. Had the boost per fainted ally been 5% instead of 10%, then Supreme Overlord could have been more akin to Neuroforce.
All this, and I haven’t even mentioned any of the legendary Pokémon, namely the Paradoxes, Treasures of Ruin, and Box Legends. Paradoxes are virtually the second coming of Ultra Beasts, with a particular field effect or held item giving each of them a drawback-free Choice Scarf, one-offense Life Orb, or one-defense neo-Eviolite. (Well, instead of the prime number gimmick behind the Ultra Beast stats, Scarlet exclusives have odd-numbered base stats and Violet even.) They are a quirky bunch, but some of the more min-maxed ones (e.g., Flutter Mane and Iron Bundle) can be quite a handful. Moving on, I’m especially not big on the Treasures of Ruin, particularly the ones that function as improved versions of Weavile and Houndoom. (I mean, the latter is not so significant, but the former was already high-tier to begin with.) They just go, “You’re statn’t,” in the weirdest way possible, one that irks me like no other. As for the Box Legends, I’m not so sure, but they seem devastating and are notably the only currently available Drought and Electric Surge (variant) users besides Torkoal and Pincurchin respectively.
…Okay, enough ranting about the competitive scene, even though I haven’t competed in any video game in years. It’s time to commence the obligatory anecdote. Regarding my version choice, I can’t be the only one who picked Violet just for Ceruledge. They essentially recreated Gallade, one of my favorite Pokémon, and gave it a cooler typing. As for my starter, I would have chosen Fuecoco if I had not intended to use Ceruledge, and I strayed away from the ever popular “wEeD cAt” Sprigatito (calling it that is morally wrong) in favor of Quaxly. It has been a tradition for me since Pokémon Y to play every Pokémon game in French, and Legends Arceus remains the only exception even now (yes, despite the fact that the Paldea region is inspired by Spain…or rather, because of that), so I gave my Quaxly the nickname Louis: like Louie from DuckTales, but technically repping Dewey’s color. From there, I selected the remaining team members based on the following criteria:
No doubling up on types
No Pokémon used in Gen 6-8 playthroughs
The majority of them are new species
Maximizing the team’s immunity count
Using one of the first Pokémon of their typings, as listed at the beginning of this post
Having as many coverage types as possible (like I did in Legends Arceus because of the research objectives)
While exploring the first half of the Paldea region, I tended to swap in and out party members in preparation for a Gym Leader, Titan, or Team Star boss. It helps that Legends Arceus ingrained a sort of “catch ’em all” mentality, which I don’t recall ever having while playing any other main series game or remake, because I wound up having multiple Pokémon for each and every occasion. (This was particularly vital against Team Star, as the game would encourage the player to bring their best three Pokémon for dispatching the grunts in the way of the boss.) That said, I only ever nicknamed the ones that I intended to use (or considered using) later on, so I’ll name those off to build suspense for the full team reveal. (…Well, right after a little pretext, specifically the order in which I completed the 18 story tasks: Rock-type Titan, Grass-type Gym Leader, Fire-type Team Star boss, Electric-type Gym Leader, Steel-type Titan, Poison-type Team Star boss, Bug-type Gym, Flying-type Titan, Ground-type Titan, Dark-type Team Star boss, Water-type Gym Leader, Normal-type Gym Leader, Ice-type Gym Leader, Ghost-type Gym Leader, Fairy-type Team Star boss, Dragon-type Titan, Fighting-type Team Star boss, Psychic-type Gym Leader)
Rebecca the Level 9 female Fletchling – Dog Days character who becomes a flying hero for normal-looking citizens
Hana the Level 10 female Hoppip – Couldn’t think of anything but “flower” (and the name of one of the prettiest characters in Fire Emblem Fates)
François the Level 10 male Lechonk – Francis Bacon (I don’t know the guy, just that he exists)
E. Gadd the Level 7 male Shroodle – Just look at that tuft of hair, those googly eyes, that big nose, and those buck teeth. Tell me it doesn’t look like E. Gadd.
Retsuko the Level 13 female Pawmi – I’m not interested in Aggretsuko, just couldn’t associate this thing with anything else
Shelob the Level 17 female Spidops – I thought at first that this was going to be Lokix (as I had taken measures to minimize prior knowledge gained from curiosity the week before), so I named it after the Lord of the Rings spider monster
Haruna the Level 23 female Deerling – It’s the spring form, so I gave it a name containing “haru,” which means “spring”
Troy the Level 36 male Mudsdale – Trojan horse, rather uninspired, but catching this Pokémon as a Level 34 Mudbray taught me the hard way that Badges are more important than they have ever been
Shrek the Level 23 male Clodsire – The ogre of all time is very much also a Poison/Ground kind of guy
Midori the Level 22 female Steenee – I’ve gotten so deep into writing Cinq du Soleil, I just can’t go one playthrough without naming a female Grass-type Midori (meaning “green”)
IF the Level 25 female Cyclizar – Neptunia character known for riding motorcycles
Angéline the Level 21 female Nacli – I remember low-key seeing a trailer of the 2010 movie Salt starring Angelina Jolie
Don the Level 28 male Flamigo – Don Flamenco from Punch Out
Tony the Level 23 Rotom – From “tonnerre” (lightning)
M. Zéro the Level 38 male Sandygast – One Piece character (Mr. 0), also known as Crocodile, heavily associated with sand
Shinobu the Level 39 female Lokix – Demon Slayer and Choyoyu each have a character by that name: an insect specialist and a super sleuth respectively
Storm the Level 39 male Kilowattrel – Sonic Riders character
Shinobu II the Level 29 female Lokix – I was seriously debating using Lokix, and this lower-level one had a Fighting-type Tera going for it
Antony the Level 35 male Sawsbuck – From “antler”
Mlle. Zéro the Level 24 female Sandile – Same as the Sandygast
Modèle T the Level 42 female Revavroom – A grandmother-like character from the Pixar movie Cars
Nino the Level 31 female Gardevoir – I recently read the whole Quintessential Quintuplets manga, and seeing this Pokémon as a Kirlia with Fire-type Tera brought this character to mind (the most ardent of the five heroines)
Yangnay the Level 49 male Farigiraf – It took some time to think of a palindrome nickname for the palindrome Pokémon itself (not so much now in Japanese, going from キリンリキ (kirinriki) to リキキリン (rikikirin), but oh well), and in the end, what better fit than the choice between yin and yang associated with males? (Also, the “nay” part can be associated with horses, which vaguely resemble giraffes)
Side note: I named myself Voyeur because I had named myself Voyageur (Traveler) in Pokémon Sword, because at this point I can’t be bothered to call myself anything special or quirky, although the term “Voyeur” also relates to how my sense of sight is the one responsible for more of my stimulating thoughts than the other senses are.
Side note 2: Doubling back from east to west (towards the Bug-type Gym) was about when I finalized my in-game team.
Speaking of which, without further ado, here’s the full team in English: https://pokepast.es/5fbf564622f70876 …so I can provide a French counterpart here. (Don’t bother asking me why they are ordered differently.)
Louis le Palmaval mâle @ Eau Mystique Talent: Torrent Brave de Nature Type Téracristal: Eau – Danse Aquatique – Balayette – Cryo-Pirouette – Close Combat
Shinra le Malvalame mâle Talent: Torche Mauvais de Nature Type Téracristal: Feu – Lame en Peine – Griffe Ombre – Coupe Psycho – Feu Follet
Beat le Tag-Tag mâle Talent: Toxitouche Mauvais de Nature Type Téracristal: Insecte – Direct Toxik – Façade – Plaie Croix – Sabotage
Becky le Lestombaile femelle Talent: Porte-Roche Jovial de Nature Type Téracristal: Ténèbres – Acrobatie – Sabotage – Boule Roc – Dernier Mot
Aimée le Forgelina femelle Talent: Brise Moule Discret de Nature Type Téracristal: Acier – Câlinerie – Luminocanon – Piétisol – Marteau Mastoc
Gaïa le Terracruel femelle Talent: Force Fongique Assuré de Nature Type Téracristal: Spectre – Giga-Sangsue – Telluriforce – Châtiment – Spore
Obligatory nickname explanations:
The nickname Shinra made more sense when my Ceruledge was a Charcadet (Charbambin), at which point I thought of the Fire Force protagonist, not the megacorporation from Final Fantasy VII. In retrospect, though, the latter somewhat fits Ceruledge. (Aside: The Sinistea Fragments required for the Malicious Armor were a pain to get, what with all the pacing between the far west tip and the midwest mound of East Province Area Three, looking for spawns.)
Beat is the mascot character of Jet Set Radio, a series where vandalism is one of the most prominent themes.
Becky is the nickname of Rebecca from Dog Days, who also happens to gain a Demon Stone during her time in Flonyard and specializes in firing ammunition from above. Furthermore, this nickname starts with “bec,” which means “beak” in French.
Tinkaton is a small and pink hammer wielder, so I named her after Amy Rose from the Sonic series.
Gaïa, spelled with an accent as it ought to be in French (otherwise it would be pronounced “gay-a”), is my go-to nickname for female earth-like Pokémon, primarily because of Mega Man Battle Network 3 and its Gaia Blade battle chip.
Pretty solid team overall. Every member is a new Pokémon, no two have any types in common, every type with at least one immunity (Normal, Flying, Ground, Ghost, Steel, Dark, and Fairy) is represented, Grafaiai is the first Poison/Normal, and the only two types absent from the team’s whole offensive coverage are Electric and Dragon. (I considered Dragon Claw on Shinra but ultimately decided that Psychic was more valuable.) In terms of notable moves, Gigaton Hammer is a fun “nuke,” Bulldoze saw next to no use on Aimée (I just figured it was some kind of anti-Fire coverage and would pair well with Mold Breaker),* Parting Shot is a darn good reason to regularly have Becky out in the front, Knock Off on Beat is just for anti-Ghost coverage, Façade saw minimal use because Beat never really had to deal with burn or paralysis, Louis runs dual Fighting STAB for safety vs. power, and having a triumvirate of statuses to inflict (burn, sleep, poison) is indispensable for catching Pokémon.
*12/8 update: I replaced Bulldoze with Thunder Wave, as part of my plan to catch Wo Chien. (It’s immune to Spore, and I didn’t want to poison or burn it.)
Afterword
Long story short, Generation 9 really is one of the generations of all time. I have gripes about it, but that doesn’t mean I didn’t have fun with it; rather, it was a merry little distraction for the week of Thanksgiving, especially since I had limited access to my room and car at the beginning of it.
Another thing: For some reason, Violet is the only Pokémon game I have played that even remotely gave me the urge to get the other version. I think “just because of the endgame” is the only way to explain it. (But make no mistake; the chances that I give in to the urge are slim to none.)
It hasn’t quite been a year since I first got into Beat Saber, but I have other plans for the rest of the year, so consider this an early anniversary update. Since May, just a fair bit has changed, as it’s common for rhythm gaming skill to only increase logarithmically (loga-rhythmically, if you will), as I can attest to in my experience with Guitar Hero and this game. (Speaking of Guitar Hero, Legends of Rock (the third installment) is now fifteen years old. How time flies, eh?)
In terms of Beat Saber at large, the game now has two new Extras in honor of their fourth anniversary: $100 Bills (Camellia’s “215$-Step” Remix) and Escape Remix. (And now that the grand total is 8 instead of 6, each of my Setlist Shuffles consists of two Extras instead of just one.) It also has newer One-Saber maps for Into the Dream, LUDICROUS+, Firestarter, Magic, Ghost, and Cycle Hit (all with Normal, Expert, and Expert+ difficulties), giving Volumes 4-5 and the Camellia pack their first taste of One-Saber representation. To give a rough idea of how these maps are in terms of difficulty, here is where I stand.
215$-Step: Recent SS on Expert, not passed on Expert+
Escape Remix: FCs on Expert (Faster) and Expert+
One-Saber maps
Into the Dream: SS on Expert+
LUDICROUS+: FC on Expert+
Firestarter: FC on Expert+ (before the above)
Magic: FC on Expert+
Ghost: Passed on Expert, not Expert+
Cycle Hit: SS on Expert+
(Also worth noting about 215$-Step in particular is that it’s the one reason I’ve ever felt inclined to disable the background visual effects; even with “No Flickering” (the Expert default), it has some flashbang moments that my eyes find unprecedentedly hard to deal with.)
Speaking of SS, I now have that rank on every Expert map except Ghost, with Crystallized and 215$-Step being my latest. I have also passed almost every Expert+ map, with the only exceptions being Camellia songs: Spin Eternally, Final-Boss-Chan, 215$-Step, EXiT, Ghost, and Light it up. ($1.78 was a real doozy, somehow easier to FC on Expert than to pass on Expert+.) Additionally, three of the One-Saber maps listed above (Into the Dream, Ghost, and Cycle Hit) are now the only ones that I have not FC’d at max difficulty (making for a grand total of 25/28), with my latest FCs on that front being One Hope, Angel Voices, I Need You, and Rum n’ Bass. (I scooped up Origins before Firestarter.)
On that note, after having gained more personal room space, I’ve started to take the circular maps more seriously. Now I have FCs of all of them at max difficulty except for Rum n’ Bass 90° (since I only recently got 360° in my latest Setlist Shuffle), Origins, and Pop/Stars. (In other words, that’s 16/19 for 90° and 17/19 for 360°.) Origins is totally within my grasp and contains a clever bit of mapping: When the vocalists say, “Feel it all around,” a slew of obstacles encourages the player to do a quarter (in 90°) or half (in 360°) turn. (Oddly, though, the Expert+ map has fewer notes than the Expert map (which is basically a replica of the regular Expert map), and 360° has one more note than 90°.) As for the other two, I find Pop/Stars harder than Rum n’ Bass despite the latter having more notes, although that might just be because I prefer Rum n’ Bass as a song. (Preference might also be a contributing factor to why I’ve not yet FC’d the One-Saber map of Into the Dream.)
Back on the subject of Expert maps, I managed to FC WHAT THE CAT!? like I’ve been going for, but I surprisingly got Cycle Hit first.
I say “surprisingly” because I think its five-minute duration daunted me at first, but ultimately its few hard parts are not as troubling as those of WHAT THE CAT!? or Spin Eternally, the original two I had in mind. (On the latter front, I have grown rusty and can hardly get a combo through the first half of the song, not to mention I’m incredibly inconsistent at the multitasking part.)
Regarding WHAT THE CAT!? in particular, the second drop remained a real scoundrel to the end, but I learned a little trick to hitting the trapezoids in the second half: to focus on my dominant (right) hand and leave my recessive (left) hand on autopilot. (Yes, it works whether there are three blues or three reds.) That was after I figured out the transition out of the trapezoids, so the run on which I tried it was the deciding run, no outro chokes or anything. Now my Expert grand total is 38/45.
On Expert+, I finally got Give a Little Love, but nothing else I mentioned last time. (My closest Legend run held a Chorus 3 choke, but now just getting past the first verse is a pain.) Didn’t stop me, however, from increasing my count with songs that I realized were easier than my other previous goals: Magic, I Wanna Be a Machine, Escape Remix, and (just yesterday) I Need You in that order. Now my grand total is 13/45.
That brings me to my current goals besides those already mentioned.
Final-Boss-Chan, Expert. I have had two outro chokes so far: one due to a total brain fart after the first guitar-to-synth tradeoff (my left arm just failed to move when it had to), and the other due to tunnel vision at the end of the last guitar fill. Long story short, I totally have this in me; it’s just a matter of not beefing it.
Expert+ maps
Turn Me On. I freaking choked the outro. This was after figuring out the funny sixteenths, specifically by loosely treating them as doubles, although doing so has affected my prowess in other alternation-prolific songs such as Legend and Commercial Pumping. At this point, I can’t pin down the multitasking part, but I’m sure it’ll be smooth sailing from when I do.
Escape. It’s not hard. It’s just…awkward. Awkward enough, in fact, for me to leave it on the back burner in favor of the others. Note that I have gotten to the second chorus at least twice, however.
Commercial Pumping. One day, I played out of my mind and got -1 on the last freaking sideways cut. I’m ill convinced that I will ever replicate that run, let alone break 700k again, at least until I’ve jumped some of the other hurdles.
Full Charge. I have two -1s: one at the hard part in the middle, and one dumb one in the second drop. Part of me wants to get this one over with, because the less I feel obligated to play the only song in the game I dislike, the better.
Immortal. Twice in a row, I have had max combos of 525 notes from the start of the song, and go figure that my first run of that nature got me a PB of 666k. I want to break this cursed PB someday, but somehow I’ve lost the mojo that I had at the time.
Unlimited Power. My best run so far got a choke in the first cycle of the second chorus. Now I’m somehow incapable of even getting past the intro.
Balearic Pumping. I have broken 500k with a -5, but it would be in my best interest to FC Escape first.
Higher-speed maps with outro chokes: Angel Voices, Into the Dream (Faster), One Hope (Super Fast)
Speaking of higher-speed maps, I believe they are what remains of the FC totals to provide.
So that about covers it for Beat Saber, but the post at large is not over. (Let’s face it: As much as I enjoy the game, it’s not all there is to VR.)
Megadimension Neptunia VIIR
My appreciation for the Neptunia series is uh…fairlyevident, to besure, so of course this remaster would be another of my go-tos when talking about VR games. I was originally going to save this kind of talk for my next Neptunia post, but since that won’t be happening until next year at best (partly because I don’t have the Senran Kagura “crossover”), I figured I would at least give an overview based on my playthrough ranging from April to May. (It is also worth noting that this game came out before Shooter and RPG.)
In terms of gameplay, I expected to be able to explore dungeons and fight battles from the perspective of the characters, or at least for some of the cutscenes to be adapted into VR events, but the reality is more primitive than any of that. Everything genuinely VR-related, save for an introductory cutscene, occurs in the Player Room: an environment separate from the main game, which is simply a refresher of VII with different mechanics and Noire’s English voice redone by Erica Mendez (as opposed to Erin Fitzgerald, who voiced the character before 4GO). Not to mention, interactions in VR are limited to head movements.
Below is the step-by-step procedure that I would use for a Quest 2 stationary setup.
Initiate Quest Link and SteamVR. (Unfortunately, Quest Link does not support hand tracking, so the controllers are required.)
In the SteamVR Home, use the right menu button to make sure the background stays in SteamVR while the Quest Link menu is open. If not, restart SteamVR; if so, launch VIIR.
While VIIR is “Up Next,” open the Quest Link menu and minimize all windows.
View Desktop Monitor 1, or whichever monitor contains the application.
Push the monitor view at least three meters away to reduce headache. (A distance in meters briefly shows up near the controller when the view is grabbed with the lower trigger.)
When a VR event occurs, make it a point to reset the app view (using the three dots at the right edge of the Quest Link menu) before pressing A to start. Use the SteamVR background and/or Player Room music as a cue to bring the Quest Link menu back up.
To bring it all down, I would return to the title screen from in-game, exit SteamVR, quit the application, and then disable Quest Link. If in doubt, I also have a few troubleshooting steps.
If the headset view freezes, that means Quest Link wet the bed. Use the right menu button to quit Quest Link; if this option is not available, restart the headset instead.
In the event of a “disconnection” while hard-wired (which I’ve experienced a bothersome number of times), just re-enable Quest Link and wait for everything to load. Then, repeat Steps 3-5 (and 6 as needed).
I once had an issue where the Quest Link “Enable” prompt refused to pop up when expected, and I suspect it was because I had a Windows update queued up, because restarting to install the update resolved it.
Or perhaps it was because I had a Visual Studio Code window open. I learned from getting into Vacation Simulator more recently that Quest Link has something against VS Code, but I can’t imagine what.
If the Oculus app doesn’t go down with the X or Alt+F4, pull up the Task Manager (Ctrl+Shift+Esc) and bring down anything Oculus-related that does not have a black icon beside it. Then, “bring down” OVRServer_x64.exe to restore the Oculus app. (I haven’t had this problem in months, but who knows?)
(I would prefer to just play the non-VR parts of the game on my PC monitor, but two key factors inhibit me: the inability to play audio from the computer (as opposed to the headset), and the headset’s sleep mode. I could just launch the game in non-VR mode, but only if I’m confident that no VR cutscenes will occur.)
Even aside from the above issues, I have had the game crash at least twice and even softlock in one of Noire’s VR cutscenes. (Of course it had to be Noire.) She said a line and just…stayed silent in her idle animation. I had no choice but to restart the game.
In terms of different mechanics, the overworld QoL improvements are appreciated: autosave, no map encounters whatsoever, being able to break literally any obstacle from the get-go, sprinting in dungeons, after-battle healing (which actually I have mixed feelings about because it ruins the survivalist vibe of the Zero Dimension), unconditional experience for all party members (which VII is one of the few series entries to limit to begin with), and the party leader being followed throughout the dungeon by other members (e.g. Neptune being followed by Uzume and Nepgear in the Zero Dimension). The combat system seems to be a cross between those of VII and Superdimension, therefore actually not half bad.
However, having to pay Credits instead of just leveling up to acquire new skills is the one thing that peeves me above all else, given how stingy I am as a result of my upbringing. I decided therefore to actively avoid the trifle for my first playthrough, and even though it made encounters difficult to solo with Neptune, it was a reasonable boycott in my book. Second on the list is the quest that requires a Neptune trading card, which generally involves playing gacha with the CPU Chips. (Ugh, I never thought I’d have to use that term in the context of Neptunia, let alone at all, but here we are now.) “Don’t you dare buy them just for the cards!” But what else am I supposed to do to complete this quest?
As for the refresher aspect, it feels like I have a better understanding of the story, particularly from noticing all the foreshadowing that I had previously overlooked. Also, the VR cutscenes taught me to not focus so much on the subtitles, improving my immersion in non-VR cutscenes.
Ultimately, VIIR is not worth getting a VR headset for, as reiterated by critics and fans alike, but it is worthwhile for a fan of the series who already has a VR headset, especially if they have not yet experienced VII at all. (That is to say that it would be ideal to play VIIR first in that case.)
Vanishing Realms
This is the only VR game I have that specifically requires a minimum play area space: 2 meters by 1.5 meters. So, I figured this month while I knew I had the room space that I had to at least give it a try. It was daunting at first, as in I almost chickened out in the axe-filled corridor, but resolving myself with the reminder, “I came here to play,” turned out to be one of the best decisions I’ve made in quite a while. Beneath its foreboding surface lies what I would best describe as a bare-bones (literally in a sense, given pretty much all of the enemies are skeletons) rendition of what The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword was meant to be when it was first released. (To think that was more than ten years ago…)
Squaring off against the undead in close combat with swords and/or shields is one thing, but my two favorite activities are:
Climbing along ropes and chains by grabbing at one point, moving the controller away from the direction of intended displacement, and repeating as many times as needed
Dueling ranged attackers by taking cover, popping out to attack with the bow, and so on
I haven’t quite completed the game yet, but it seems short enough (2.7 hours for more than half progress) that I would rather just savor what remains for now.
Other picks
The Lab: SteamVR freeware by Valve featuring basic VR mini-games for those learning the ropes.
Moss: A 3D platformer where you play as the reader and driving force of the story (specifically as if interacting with a pop-up book) while leading a mouse named Quill on a grand adventure. It took me 2.7 hours to beat this game, albeit with 22/38 achievements.
Golf It!: One way to play mini-golf in VR. Not the best form of putting practice for genuine tee time, but it’s fun to play with family and friends. I have played on every course, but I only have 7/41 achievements with 5.3 hours of play time. Also, Walkabout is a possible alternative that I have yet to experience for myself.
Vacation Simulator: 30% fun, 50% relaxing, 20% puzzling. The one goal is to “make memories” in three locations: the beach, the forest, and the mountains. Keep in mind that the elements are merely audio, visual, and somewhat tactile. I have put 6.4 hours into the game for about 50% completion (not even including the “Back to Job” expansion) and 7/26 achievements.
Skyrim VR: If I could just overcome my motion sickness, then this would probably be the most satisfying VR game to play. It is the one game that I have bothered to modify, specifically using Kithara’s Steam Guide as recommended by my elder brother, although I still have yet to clear the tutorial.
That’s all I have for the time being, but I doubt it will be the last time I talk about VR.
…Well, I won’t finish that statement from the outset, but I have settled upon this subject with three days left of a month loaded with Xenoblade Chronicles 3. (At the time of writing, my in-game time is over 50 hours.)
As a preface, my favorite Kirby game has always been Kirby 64: The Crystal Shards, and for one reason above all: the ability to mix and match Copy Abilities. When an enemy gives you Fire and you spew it at another enemy that gives you Fire, you get the notorious Double Fire, which has a larger area of effect and a longer duration at the cost of more cooldown. Combine Spark and Cutter in the same way, and you get a double-edged lightsaber that blew my mind when my age was a single-digit number. The seven individual Copy Abilities give way to 28 combinations, a good chunk of which are required to obtain the…well, Crystal Shards and unlock the true ending. I’ve never managed to do this myself, given how young I was and for how little time I have owned the game (in fact, I don’t think I’ve even beaten Miracle Matter), but the game as a whole remains an inspiration to this day.
Somewhere down the line, I figured that the combination concept that I so adulate would mesh well with many of the concepts behind Cinq du Soleil (my flagship work of fiction), particularly the ten elements that already combine through spell stacking and alchemy. This is the basis behind my idea of an “indie game,” and now I have provided enough context to finish up the title of this post: “I would aspire for it to be to Kirby 64 as Bug Fables: The Everlasting Sapling is to the original Paper Mario.” Another part of my thought process is that I have been advised for the first indie game I develop to be a 2D platformer with a gimmick. (Had this not been the case, I might have considered a turn-based RPG instead.)
Like the Kirby series, an indie game of this sort is best centered around one titular character with similar traits. My first idea was VampBot, a Kirby-like creature with vampire fangs and robot arms. Then, I came up with something not as Kirby-like: a four-legged, spider-like creature with a brown body and hollow heterochromatic eyes: a white right eye and a black left eye. This creature I named Ogen (like the supporting character in Octopath Traveler, whose name is pronounced with a hard ‘g’), not for any particular reason but associating the “gen” part with “generation” (hey, “GIF” is pronounced “jif” despite standing for Graphics Interchange Format and resembling the word “gift”), but I’m sticking with it partly because I like how the big O symbolizes the shape of the creature’s body and the cyclic arrangement of elemental bases (in Cinq du Soleil) in accordance with the Soleil and Lune spectra.
Ogen has the ability to leech onto an elemental with its abdomen, which absorbs elemental essence that changes the color of one of its eyes: the right eye if it’s a Soleil element, or the left eye if it’s a Lune element. (If the elemental has control over multiple elements, then Ogen will obtain a random essence or one corresponding to the latest element used.) The eye in question empowers Ogen’s limbs and breath, allowing it to jab enemies in front or fire projectiles from afar using the element in question. (Ogen can also jab without having absorbed any elemental essence, but it is weaker and has less range than otherwise.) Another thing that Ogen can do with one of its eyes is draw out the elemental essence within, in the form of an aura tackle or laser vision. If this connects with an elemental, it bounces back towards Ogen after its elemental essence fuses with that of the elemental, allowing Ogen to acquire the essence of two elements at once, whether instantly through its aura tackle or upon intercepting its projectile after it bounces back. (If it misses, Ogen is left with no elemental essence.) If Ogen acquires essence from two elements of the same spectrum, then along with the color change of its other eye, its body becomes orange to represent Le Soleil or purple to represent La Lune. Ogen can use both of its eyes for an aura tackle or laser vision, doubling its power but guaranteeing that it will disappear whether it connects or not.
Also in a similar vein to the Kirby series, I intend for the game to have a simple plot. Ogen is the creation of the Shoku in the basement of their Cathedral, namely lead engineer Curtis Dumas under the supervision of head honcho Ned Grey. At the end of the creation process, Ogen is free to escape the basement once it learns the ropes and gets past Sora Kuroi, the public relations practitioner of the Shoku. (These Shoku are not in the current Cinq du Soleil, but they will play an active role in the Prologue of Nouveau.) Outside the basement, on the ground floor of the Cathedral, a floating cube-like creature named Mass Cube (Not every name needs a multilayered thought process, okay?) proves capable of warping Ogen to any of the ten elemental bases: the Volcano of Fire, the Basin of Water, the Islet of Wind, the Desert of Earth, the Mountain of Metal, the Savannah of Fauna, the Meadow of Flora, the Pillar of Energy, the Pool of Spirit, and the Wasteland of Nether. These bases are not entirely single-element despite their names; each contains stragglers of all elements, as well as equivalents to the Crystal Shards of Kirby 64. Once Ogen has defeated every Chief Elemental in Taiyoh, it gains access to Taiyoh Tower, wherein up to three bosses lie in wait. Same goes for Tsuki and its Vault (which was originally also a Tower, but I felt inclined to change that while planning out Nouveau). Once those two are cleared, Ogen gains access to Solluna Valley, wherein up to three final bosses lie in wait. Simply put, Ogen wreaks havoc to give the Shoku some clout.
To elaborate upon the Crystal Shard equivalents, they are Eclipse Relics, so called because they require cross-spectrum alchemy to obtain. Following in the footsteps of their forefathers, they are optional collectibles, and to beat the game per se simply requires familiarity with element colors and classifications.
Soleil element
Color
Color pair
Classification
Classification pair
Fire
Red
Fauna
Ballistic
Spirit
Water
Blue
Spirit
Pinpoint
Nether
Wind
Yellow
Energy
Nimble
Energy
Earth
Green
Flora
Hefty
Fauna
Metal
Gray
Nether
Lightweight
Flora
(To explain the classifications, ballistic elements have stronger projectiles (breath and laser vision) with less range, pinpoint elements have weaker projectiles with more range, hefty elements have stronger enchantments (jabs and aura tackles) with less range, lightweight elements have weaker enchantments with more range, and nimble elements increase Ogen’s speed while having weaker projectiles and enchantments alike.)
Each elemental base contains five Eclipse Relics, which equates to 25 per side of Solluna and a grand total of 50. This is actually a smaller quantity than that of the Crystal Shards (74), but each Eclipse Relic requires a particular alchemy combination to allow the aggregate to encompass every enchantment and projectile of all 25 cross-spectrum alchemy combinations. To connect this to what I said about the unlockable warp locations having “up to three” bosses, the first bosses of Taiyoh Tower and Tsuki Vault are available from the get-go, while the second boss requires 13 Eclipse Relics and the third boss requires all 25. As for Solluna Valley, the number of bosses is equal to the average (rounded down) number of bosses fought per previous unlockable location.
Still, other element combinations are not to be written off. Spell stacks, which involve one element paired with itself, provide a slight power boost for those who are in a hurry. (Speaking of hurrying, doubling up on Wind or Energy provides the greatest speed boost besides the combination of both (Bluster Dash/Blast).) Single-spectrum alchemy, in no small part due to the boosted range of Soleil spells and power of Lune spells, has more superlatives than cross-spectrum alchemy but also more generic names. For instance, Fire and Spirit produce the most powerful cross-spectrum projectile, Soulful Burn, which is on par with the single-spectrum Familiar Breath (Fauna + Spirit) and Incense Breath (Flora + Spirit). This and the others are laid out in the table below.
It’s a lot to take in, certainly exceeding the game mechanic depth of Kirby 64 if nothing else, and that’s without mentioning elemental effectiveness in the vein of Pokémon. I’ll make sure to convey it as best I can in the menus of the game, which I plan to design as if they give the player a tour of Ogen’s brain.
Speaking of the brain, that’s about all the brainstorming I have to unload so far. It’s crazy to think, considering that video games are so heavily involved in my spare time (and even influenced my career), that I so seldom entertain making my own. It is an uphill climb for sure, but I hope to gradually find the inspiration to bring this concept into fruition.
(Side note: CdSN is still in the works, and there is a non-zero possibility that I will have completed Chapter 1 by the end of the year.)
It has been six months since my first steps into Beat Saber. I cleared Campaign mode within three months of getting the game, including all the extra levels. The three main obstacles, in ascending order of difficulty, I rank as follows.
20B: Legend, One-Saber, 1 Life. Even slowed down, the double underhand in “I’ll be going ape like Congo” is a real pain in the neck.
29: Rum n’ Bass, Expert, upper limit of misses. As much as I love this song for its atmosphere and punny name (in fact, I’d even go as far as to say that it’s my favorite Campaign song), this level is a veritable proving ground for aspiring Expert players. At the alternation bit in the second buildup, I found as an amateur that it helped to count the number of red swings out loud: one, two, three, four, five.
28B: Angel Voices, Expert, Arm movement lower limit. All told, the hard part is passing the song, and the lower limit of points is virtually (no pun intended) nonexistent. In particular, the five-minute mark is the one and only part of the entire Campaign that I’ve ever had to take into Practice. (RD, LD RU, LU RD, LD, RU LU, RD LD, RU, LU RD, LD RU, LU, RD LD, RU LU, and so on while shifting left or right every five swings) Because of its relative difficulty and six-minute total duration, I like to compare Angel Voices to Through the Fire and Flames in Guitar Hero 3 (as I do $100 Bills and Slow Ride because of how early they’re listed despite not being the easiest songs in their respective games (although the former case is due to alphabetical order)).
Then came the rest of the achievements, starting with the 15 full combos (FCs) on each of Hard and Expert. Conveniently, 15 is exactly the combined total of Volume 1 songs and Volume 2 songs. Some of the other packs also have easy songs, including Reason for Living in Volume 3, Magic in Volume 5, and One Hope in Extras. (One Hope on Expert is similar to Breezer, but with off beats and polyrhythms.) I say this as cautionary advice in case Elixia is too boring to grind out. (Trust me; I’ve been there.)
Hard FCs: Crab Rave, $100 Bills, Rum n’ Bass, Be There For You, Unlimited Power, Balearic Pumping, Breezer, Legend, Escape, Lvl Insane, Beat Saber, Angel Voices, Country Rounds, Commercial Pumping, Turn Me On, Elixia, Origins (17 total)
First 15 Expert FCs: Breezer, Rum n’ Bass, Balearic Pumping, Legend, Lvl Insane, Escape, Beat Saber, $100 Bills, Commercial Pumping, Country Rounds, Turn Me On, I Need You, Unlimited Power, Be There For You, Elixia
(I was pleasantly surprised to find Crab Rave in this game, as it’s the only song I recognize from outside the game. Admittedly, though, I hadn’t ever listened to the whole thing before playing the game.)
All FCs were S-rank, despite one little oddity: My first Expert FC of Rum n’ Bass was actually A-rank, so even though I had previously done an S-rank non-FC run, the game prioritized the latest run towards the achievement, meaning that I needed to S-rank the song again. Fortunately, I did just that without a hitch, getting another FC in the process. (Also worth noting that One-Saber does not count towards the FC achievement, as I learned the hard way with a pathetic A-rank FC of Beat Saber (the song).)
While going for my first SS on Expert, I narrowed it down to three candidates: Breezer, Beat Saber, and Turn Me On. (I also got 89.5% on Lvl Insane by a total fluke.) Ultimately, through all the pain of grinding, Breezer won out. As part of this ordeal, I learned all about the ranking system through a Google search leading to a Reddit post containing a spreadsheet, although I had to adjust it because apparently the maximum score per note changed from 100 to 115 at some point in time. The adjusted version—including Expert+, One-Saber, and circular (360° and 90°) statistics—is linked below.
Speaking of circular, I haven’t dabbled much into those maps, largely due to the limited space in my room, but I can say for sure that Crab Rave has the most clever mapping. At the start of each drop, the downward diagonal cuts and arrangement of obstacles give off the impression of dancing like the flagship crab in the music video (in a similar vein to how Pop/Stars is mapped, except I hadn’t ever watched that music video until early this year).
That just left the 24-hour playtime and 100 million points, which just came naturally over the course of my uphill climb to improve at the game. I started by pursuing more Expert FCs including Crab Rave, One Hope, Origins, Give a Little Love, Angel Voices, Reason for Living, Bernie Sanders Burning Sands, Pop/Stars, and Immortal. (I also dabbled a bit more into One-Saber, which noticeably helped with my coordination.) Consequently, Burning Sands became my favorite song in the game: atmospheric like Rum n’ Bass, and such a blast to play. (I pursued that before Pop/Stars because I wasn’t all too interested in the latter song, and I found the halfway point of its chorus disorienting while I was accustomed to the refrain of Burning Sands.) On a more vexing note, my first FC of One Hope was a SS, such a slap in the face considering how long it took me to get the Breezer SS.
Then I started branching out to Expert+, intending to pass as many songs as I could while also working towards Volume 4 and the Camellia pack, along with Spooky Beat and FitBeat, on Expert. I also scooped up Full Charge, the one song in the game that I absolutely dislike (because it was a pain to pass on Expert, and I’m just not a fan of the melody, in no small part due to the audio samples), with another slap-in-the-face SS. And speaking of passes, I have passed every freely available song as of Version 1.20 (as I have no interest in DLC or mods), and what a coincidence that Volume 5 dropped the day after I passed Ghost, the last remaining song after Light it up, Crystallized, EXiT This Earth’s Atomosphere [sic], WHAT THE CAT!?, Spin Eternally, and Cycle Hit in reverse chronological order. As for Volume 5 itself, I actually found $1.78 harder to pass than Final-Boss-Chan; even though the former is significantly shorter, it’s utter cacophony mapped as note vomit, whereas the latter has easily taken the place of Spin Eternally as the best Camellia song in the game.
Among the songs that I had FC’d on Expert, the real dastards to pass on Expert+ were Beat Saber, Lvl Insane, and Angel Voices. The former two do not belong in Volume 1 whatsoever, and the latter intensifies in 4.5 minutes instead of 5 (and boy does it intensify). (Also, guess what? Full Charge was a breeze.) Unlimited Power and Burning Sands are notable runners-up, although the latter is just as fun for its difficulty as the Expert map.* (Balearic Pumping was also a doozy, but nowadays I consider it a lesser version of Angel Voices.) *That said, I’m disappointed that the triplets in the refrain are mapped as mere sixteenths.
My efforts produced seven Expert+ FCs:
Rum n’ Bass. I just did a run one day and somehow FC’d everything but the intro, ending up with a -3 and a note streak greater than 800. Even more surprisingly, it was the first time I had ever gotten a SS without FCing. That’s when I knew that this song had to be my first Expert+ FC…although, in reality, the grind was more painful than I could have imagined. The intro is still the hardest part, but that didn’t stop me from missing after it, especially in the drop. Even after the drop, specifically the outward horizontal double at the end of it, I had an FC up to there and the red note just whizzed by. That’s gotta be one of the most painful chokes I’ve ever experienced.
One Hope. I knew I had it in me before long; it was just a matter of putting the pieces together. (Goes to show, as I like to say, a tech FC is not an FC.) I fortunately didn’t have any chokes in the outro, just the second chorus.
Crab Rave. Second try of the day, and my first time ever past the second buildup. Admittedly, my method for the second buildup is one that would slice off my right arm if the game allowed it: keeping my right hand out with the wrist moving down and up, while making clockwise circles with my left arm.
Be There For You. Practically a micro-grind, mostly on account of the second drop.
Breezer. The run before the FC was a reverse choke, where I straight-up missed in the intro, although I can’t remember where exactly. Thankfully, the runback was a cinch.
Elixia. Also second try, whereas the first try involved an annoyingly usual whiff of the first red in the second set of sixteenths. (Strangely enough, the day before that, I had a run where I thought I needed to practice some part of the outro, but it turns out I didn’t have to practice a thing.)
Country Rounds. I got -4 SS twice in a row and a third time the day after, followed by a -1 later on and eventually the FC. It’s a straightforward map, but with a few weird bits.
(As far as passes go, I only have Volume 4, every Camellia song, Curtains, Firestarter, and $1.78 left.)
The cases of Country Rounds and Rum n’ Bass, as well as a few Expert SS runs, are proof that my first SS grind has irrevocably affected the way I cut blocks, allowing my SS runs to easily precede FCs instead of being an extra mile that I can’t be bothered to go. Thus, as part of the improvement process, I redid a whole bunch of Expert songs to ensure that all of my FCs were SS-rank, for the sake of consistency to deprive Full Charge of its undeserved entitlement.
Unfortunately, I have since fallen into a slump. For the longest time, I could swear that Give a Little Love on Expert+ was within my grasp the moment I started getting consistent at the build-ups, but of course I just kept missing in the second drop, not least at the last freaking note of the final alternation bit. Reason for Living was in a similar boat, with the second chorus being the big choke point. I’ve also been considering Spin Eternally on Expert, especially after getting a 1k note streak and hitting the two hardest parts—the horizontal swipes after the break, and the little burst of sixteenths at the tail end of the multitasking part—on a first try one day. (More recently, I got a streak up to the slew of double hits after the “ファイト! (Fight-o!)” and lost it in the transition into the final spinning part.)
Cutting to the chase, I once decided on a whim to shuffle a playlist containing all five volumes of the official soundtrack (which, for the record, I did purchase through the iTunes Store) on a 20-30 minute drive back home from work, and then play them in-game on difficulties and in modes beyond what I have FC’d so far. (As for the Extras and the Camellia pack, I use random.org and append the results to the setlist.) The catch is to not reset apart from failure or some extenuating circumstance like an early controller clack. In the former case, I go down a level unless I’m on Expert (such as when I painstakingly often fail in the intro of EXiT), in which case I just move on. This has challenged me to use the Faster Notes modifier for some songs on Expert (and to do more One-Saber), namely those that I’ve either already FC’d or haven’t passed on Expert+ (e.g. Rum n’ Bass, It Takes Me), and I enjoyed the practice so much that it inspired me to do the Setlist Shuffle (as I like to call it) regularly. Bottom line: Grinding sucks; the best way to deal with a slump is to break out of one’s comfort zone, and speed-ups work wonders on that front. (As a side note, I have never used any modifiers in Solo play besides the speed-ups and Ghost Notes, nor tweaked any settings apart from the few occasions I have gone lefty for One-Saber (even then to no avail).)
Along with the few candidates mentioned above, I’ve since picked up a few others.
Pop/Stars, Expert+. Just recently, I got a reverse choke in the rap verse (missed about halfway through, yet hit “I’m the realest in the game, uh,” the one part I normally miss more often than the others), followed by chokes in the first half of Chorus 2 and at the halfway point of Chorus 3. Not as overdue as Give a Little Love, but pretty close.
Legend, Expert+. In my most recent Setlist Shuffle, I managed to hit just about everything except the bottom-right note in the fifth set of sixteenths into doubles in both of the verses, which I took into Practice mode and handled just fine. I haven’t ground this song too much, but perhaps now is the time to start cracking down on it.
WHAT THE CAT!?, Expert. The big stinker is the tail end (no pun intended) of the second drop, and I recently managed to hit it in a real run. In an earlier run, I FC’d up to the second buildup. In a more recent run, I can only blame tunnel vision (the perfect term for a rhythm game like this) for whatever the goodness I missed in the second drop. (All I know is that it was on the right side, a few notes after the last set of sixteenths.)
Lastly, here’s a list of FCs that I haven’t mentioned.
Expert: Into the Dream, Spooky Beat, LUDICROUS+, FitBeat, It Takes Me, Magic, Firestarter, I Wanna Be a Machine, Curtains (Grand total: 34/43)
Expert+: $100 Bills (Grand total: 8/43)
Expert, Faster: Breezer, One Hope, Beat Saber, Legend, Elixia, Escape, Reason for Living, Rum n’ Bass, I Need You, $100 Bills, Turn Me On, Lvl Insane, Commercial Pumping, Balearic Pumping, Origins [miraculously first try], Immortal, Country Rounds, Give a Little Love, Be There For You, FitBeat, Pop/Stars (Grand total: 21/43)
Expert, Super Fast: Elixia (Grand total: 1/43)
One-Saber: Beat Saber, Breezer, Commercial Pumping, $100 Bills, Legend, Balearic Pumping, Crab Rave, Be There For You, FitBeat, Country Rounds, Escape, Turn Me On, Elixia, Pop/Stars, Lvl Insane, Reason for Living [Expert+] (Grand total: 16/22)
(I would love to put Rum n’ Bass on the One-Saber list, but somehow the stupid freaking last possible bomb broke my combo right before I could hit the last note. Like…how? I also choked Origins X+ by missing the last upward cut.)
Afterword
Beat Saber filled—no, overflowed the void left by my inability to play Guitar Hero. It’s such a unique, fun, and challenging rhythm game, even the bare minimum setlist of 43 songs is perfectly adequate for at least a year’s worth of satisfaction. In other words, it’s my new favorite rhythm game and one of my new favorite games of all time. I might even revive the currently dormant YouTube channel that I had previously dedicated to Guitar Hero, as a means to genuinely prove my prowess.
I reserved a 512 GB Steam Deck within a few minutes of the scheduled reservation opening time (July 16, 2021), only slightly delayed because I was at work and saw fit to reserve from a mobile device with no browser data, and received the product this month on the 16th.
Ever since it was announced, I have been excited at the prospect of having Steam games on the go, by which token I considered purchasing a gaming laptop but ultimately never followed through. My basis for splurging on the highest-end model was a quick look at the total size of my installed Steam games: way more than 64 GB, and close to 256 GB.
That said, not every Steam game is supported at the time of writing. I’ve had the most success with the following games:
Baba Is You
Botanicula
Cyberdimension Neptunia: 4 Goddesses Online
Goat Simulator
Limbo
One Step from Eden (despite its supposed “small text”)
Puyo Puyo Tetris 2
Super Neptunia RPG
Tales of Arise (I have had this fail to sync cloud data at first, but that was before the initial game download finished, and no further issues have arisen (no pun intended) since then)
Torchlight (granted it’s not all that controller-friendly)
Some games default to keyboard controls, requiring the use of the touch screen to rectify.
Hyperdimension Neptunia Re;Birth 3
Superdimension Neptune vs. Sega Hard Girls (also, to use the Peeping Tom feature, a custom controller configuration is required)
Tales of Zestiria
Others require configuration to take up the whole screen (1200×800) instead of an inadequate 800×600 space, but otherwise have minimal problems.
Acceleration of SUGURI 2
Okami HD (This one is finicky due to having no explicit resolution wider than 1024, and unfortunately the default controls don’t support the touch screen as a means of using the Celestial Brush)
Phoenotopia: Awakening is the opposite in terms of resolution, being stretched too far unless its resolution is manually configured to 1280×720. More importantly, its default controls are wack: X to confirm/talk/attack, B to cancel/back/tool (???), A to jump, and Y to alt-tool. It’s also worth noting that the game uses system-local save data as opposed to the standard cloud-based kind (which can also be said of Botanicula).
Neptunia Shooter is labeled as not being supported by the Steam Deck’s native resolution. When I first saw this, I thought, “What could possibly go wrong?” But it turns out only the upper-left third of the game feed shows up on-screen, and as minimalistic as the game is, it has no means to configure the resolution. …Yeah, that’s what I call unplayable.
And then there are even less fortunate games that I would like to have on the Steam Deck but are not yet supported.
Hyperdevotion Noire: Goddess Black Heart
Hyperdimension Neptunia U
Megadimension Neptunia VII
MegaTagmension: Blanc + Neptune vs. Zombies
Tales of Berseria
While portability is the main draw of the Steam Deck, that’s not the only reason why I use it. It’s also nice to be able to grind out the more tedious objectives of some of the games I play (mainly from the Neptunia and Tales series) while watching a Twitch stream or some such, without having to do any special setup like muting a game and moving it to a different monitor. I also like how a recent software update added a lock screen feature with a customizable PIN, featuring button shortcuts for digits.
Still, as I reiterate throughout this blog, every moon has its dark side. First off, even with a mere 30 games, it takes at least a day and a whole lot of bandwidth to set up for portable play. Second, as close as the Steam Deck is to a gaming laptop despite being handheld, it’s not what I would call whisper-quiet, considering the startup/unlock jingle that cannot be muted and the inevitable noise of high-end processors in general. It’s also quite a lofty handheld, enough so to cause discomfort if not held correctly, particularly when it comes to input-intensive games like Puyo Puyo Tetris 2. (Well, actually, the bigger hindrance to that game in particular is the D-pad compared to the Left JoyCon buttons of the Nintendo Switch, on which I played the first Puyo Puyo Tetris. Granted no other official controller has an equivalent to the Left JoyCon buttons, but if one did, I’d be all over it.) Lastly, although this is more of a Nintendo thing, the inversion of the A and B buttons as well as X and Y is disorienting to someone like me whose other console is a Switch and whose preferred PC controller is a wired Switch controller.
All told, the Steam Deck is totally worth the price I paid and the three seasons I have waited for it. (This includes the two-month delay that occurred “due to [unforeseen] material shortages.”)
Vouiv-review 
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