CardGames.io

One day, I decided on a whim that I wanted to play Yahtzee for the first time in years. Being the millennial that I am, of course I started off looking for an online version. That’s how I stumbled upon CardGames.io. Not only is that in itself ironic, but I didn’t remember Yahtzee being a multiplayer game (I’ve always been a withdrawn individual), so nowadays it’s far from my go-to on the website/app. Instead, I prefer to choose from a select few of the exceptionally many forms of Solitaire available.

Golf and Tri Peaks are easily the quickest ones; one game in either format takes me about one minute. It’s typically what I do during restroom breaks at work, unless I feel the need to rest my eyes. Both are driven by the same concept: to select a card, pair it with a number adjacent to it (e.g., 2 or 4 to 3) whenever possible, and flip a card if not. The difference is that Golf involves seven stacks of five face-up cards, while Tri Peaks involves three adjacent three-card-tall triangular formations of face-down cards (hence the name) beneath a line of ten face-up cards. (Each face-down card reveals itself when there is no face-up card atop it.) If in doubt, one can view the rules by scrolling down on PC or selecting the menu option on mobile.

If I have more time to spare, such as when I’m eating or when the time is not much less than I would typically spend playing a video game, that’s when I branch out to some of the other forms. Plain ol’ Solitaire, certainly among them, needs no introduction. I have won exactly one game of Spider Solitaire and am always reluctant to go back because of how much one little flip can throw everything out of whack. Pyramid is a format that I used to really like because I thought it was fresh at the time, but now not so much; it’s just making pairs that add up to 13 (or instantly removing a King because it’s already 13) in order to clear a seven-card-tall triangular formation of face-up cards. Scorpion, Addiction, and Canfield are the main other three formats that I like to play, although it usually takes me tens of minutes to get a win in the former. Note that the website keeps track of world records, so I like to keep Undo button usage to a minimum, specifically because each use of the button costs one move.* Kings in the Corners is a key exception to this rule; I am not above using the Undo button when I experience an odds-defying outcome at a point where I know for a fact that I can revert it. Yukon and Crescent are formats that maybe I don’t play enough, although the latter takes roughly 10 minutes per game. I’ve also played Freecell, and while I at least prefer it over Spider, I’d call it a sort of middle ground between that and Crescent. Then there’s Clock Solitaire, an entirely RNG-driven format that really only serves as an exercise for telling analog time.

*As much of a stickler as I am in this practice, I rarely ever get world record nowadays, let alone without a tie. Among the few times I have and gotten a screenshot, only one remains at the time of writing: a 98-move game of Addiction Solitaire #2735 on May 14, 2022. (Hint: I did this without using any shuffles.)

[Nice comma splice, BTW.]

(The other two UWRs with screenshots: 130-move Solitaire #9320 on April 14, 2021 (WR is now 116); 112-move Crescent #19721 on May 24, 2021 (WR is now 110) I skipped the 113; I am a hecking legend)

Side note: When playing Canfield, sometimes I get tempted to put an Ace atop a King on the “Tableau” as it’s called. The one way I remember otherwise is by making a mnemonic of an OC name common to both versions of Cinq du Soleil: Aka, the resident “Don’t think, feel” character of each story. She is the protagonist most likely to do anything idiotic, and that makes me remember that putting an Ace atop a King on the Tableau is idiotic. (Also brings to mind the Japanese term “baka,” meaning “idiot.”)

In summary, here is my Solitaire tier list. (Soli-tier list, if you will.)
A: Solitaire, Canfield, Golf, Tri Peaks, Addiction
B: Scorpion, Yukon, Crescent, Kings in the Corners
C: Pyramid, Freecell, Spider, Clock

Given that Solitaire is obviously not the only kind of card game in existence, it goes without saying that CardGames.io has plenty of multiplayer varieties in store. The ones I’ve played IRL are Crazy Eights, Cribbage, and Go Fish. I may have tried Hearts on MS-DOS a few times, but I could never make sense of it. In addition to those four, the website has Euchre, Gin Rummy, Idiot, Lockup, Manni, Oh Hell!, Pinochle, standard Rummy, Spades, Spit, Switch, Thirteen, War, and Whist.

Going back to the irony of how CardGames.io is a place for more than just card games, Yahtzee is not alone on that front. Better yet, the website/app has a fair few single-player, non-card games. I recommend the twelve Mahjong formats (Turtle, Pyramid, Monster, Stairs, Castle, Daniel, Ellen, Spider, Citadel, Tunnels, Lost City, and Well) and the three-difficulty Minesweeper (10-mine 8×8 [15.625% mines], 40-mine 16×16 [also 15.625%], and 99-mine 31×16 [~20% mines]), where on the latter front my experience with Conceptis Fill-a-Pix has worked wonders in helping me complete at least one round of every difficulty just recently. The site also has randomly generated Sudoku with 28/81 squares filled, but obviously Conceptis is my number-one source of Sudoku. Other available non-card games include Backgammon, Checkers, Chess, Farkle, Reversi, Sea Battle (Battleships), and Triangles.

I don’t know how long the website has been around, but the time I started using it was…maybe late 2020? Prior to the debut of Crescent Solitaire (and, by extension, Canfield), that’s for sure. The iOS app has been around for at least two years, if the version history is to be believed. At any rate, considering how randomly I found out about the website compared to how much I’ve gotten out of it (and the iOS app) as of late, I’ve been feeling inclined for a while to put in a good word for it, so…here we are. Putting aside the app (which, I will say, is not as ad-ridden as one might expect), I usually do one of two things with the website: using my PC mouse with one hand and eating with the other, or if I’m watching TV in a place where PC access is inconvenient if not impossible, putting my Chromebook in tablet mode to use the touch screen. Either way, it’s my go-to form of multitasking nowadays, and I’m tempted to say it’s not unlike reading manga or a light novel as a way to help put my brain to sleep.

À la prochaine! (Until next time!)

Follow-Up, Engage!

(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.

Moving on from grievances, I feel like sharing how the army ended up before I took on the 26th chapter. It’s all in the following spreadsheet: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1ONhTVoZLrnnj8j4Ir3dgWH9X_9ykerTgAb2ibWDQiXo/edit?usp=sharing

(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.

À la prochaine! (Until next time!)

Life After Death (the TobyMac album)

(To be perfectly honest, I’ve been hardcore procrastinating at this over the past two months (which should be no surprise if you know me well enough), hence my needing a moment last month and being a bit late even now. But, well, here it is at last.)

For starters, I’d say I’m no more than 50% musically inclined. I played the clarinet in elementary school, played Guitar Hero for 8-10 years, and have regularly listened to MP3 players while driving or being driven since high school. I’ve never taken any music theory classes or anything like that, so composing on my own is out of the question. (I have, however, dabbled into curricular poetry and been complimented on my singing.) Back in the day, albums did not matter to me; I only ever cared about singles and sometimes artists, and I think Guitar Hero has been the biggest influence on that mentality. Thus, the only albums I had purchased prior to Life After Death are OSTs of the video games Bravely Default, Phoenotopia: Awakening, and Beat Saber. (I’ve also had albums bundled with video games: the Persona 4 Arena soundtrack, the orchestra CD that came with The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword, and Telephantasm with Guitar Hero: Warriors of Rock; however, I don’t regularly listen to songs from any of them but the former.)

Changing gears, I’ve been at least somewhat fascinated by TobyMac since I started hearing “Made to Love” on the radio in the mid-2000s (about when I started entering my teens and becoming American), at which time it was the closest thing to Christian rap I had ever heard. (Not to say I’m all that into rap, just putting it out there.) For the record, I did not know that he had been part of DC Talk, despite having heard their songs “In the Light” and “What If I Stumble” (the former of which I naïvely thought was by FFH because of its similarity to “Open Up the Sky”). Between then and the release of Life After Death, I became particularly fond of “Beyond Me”, “Feel It”, and “Move (Keep Walkin’)” as anthems of humility, faith, and persistence respectively.

And now we arrive at the present. On K-Love Radio, I recently started hearing “Promised Land”, “Help Is On the Way (Maybe Midnight)”, “The Goodness”, and “Cornerstone”. Between liking what I was hearing (especially “The Goodness”) and the recommendation of DJs Skip & Amy to listen to all of Life After Death, it fell on my heart to make the investment. This album is heavily influenced by the untimely death of the artist’s 21-year-old son, so while it has its upbeat moments, it naturally takes some emotional turns. Also note that “21 Years”, “Help Is On the Way (Maybe Midnight)”, and “The Goodness” come with music video copies on Apple Music.

With all that in mind, I dedicate this blog post to a track-by-track breakdown followed by a final verdict.

“Help Is On the Way (Maybe Midnight)”

In the music video, TobyMac chases after a boy who, based on the “21 Years” music video, surely must be his late son, scrambling waywardly through an urban city at night. A trio of Diverse City members dressed like cultists are also involved. After the second chorus, TobyMac is seen performing with the Diverse City members in a tent where the boy winds up at the end.

The song itself bears somewhat of a resemblance to “Move (Keep Walkin’)” but is more upbeat and not as funky. (Between the two, I prefer the latter overall.) The imagery of “rolling up His sleeves again” serves as a reminder that God is at work in every moment, even if His craft is out of line with the expectations and desires of man.

“The Goodness” feat. Blessing Offor

“A saint is not someone who is good, but someone who recognizes the goodness of God.” I don’t know how direct this quote is, but it is the theme of this song. It might just be my favorite song of the album between its inexplicable catchiness and its uplifting message.

The co-artist is a legally blind Nigerian-American who once competed in The Voice and has produced soulful hits of his own: “Brighter Days” and “Believe”. True to his name, he is a blessing, no less from humble beginnings. Also, he evidently agrees with the “rolling up His sleeves” imagery, considering his part in the second verse.

In the music video, the two artists perform their duet around Blessing’s piano, while a gathered-around crowd pops in and out to worship with them during the first chorus and from the second chorus to coda. This scene is occasionally accompanied by brief cuts of an off-camera individual applying a liberal amount of paint in many colors to various unattended objects, including letters of the words “THE GOODNESS”.

“Deeper” feat. Tauren Wells

This is what I call a song with atmosphere. While the lyrics suggest that the title refers more to a relationship, the instrumentation gives off the vibe of being underwater as in the common alternative. As atmospheric as it is, it’s not as upbeat as the previous two tracks, outing itself as a shift from party time to real talk, not unlike a sermon following hymns. One way it can be interpreted is as the offer of a doting father to provide more for his prodigal son.

The co-artist, mentioned as “T. Wells” before the second verse, hosted last year’s K-Love Fan Awards with Matthew West and is “Known” (Get it?) for his fair share of hits including “Hills and Valleys”, “Until Grace (feat. Rascal Flatts)”, “Fake It (feat. Aaron Cole)”, and more recently “Joy in the Morning”. (He is also featured in the outro of “Feel It”, which is absent from the radio edit.)

“Show Up Choose Love” feat. Jon Reddick

“Whatcha got, Mr. Reddick?” Well, for starters, he has the Christian song of 2022, “God Turn It Around”, not to mention a newer song in “I Believe It (The Life of Jesus)”. His verse kicks off what can be considered a rallying cry (or perhaps a call to arms) for those wavering in finding their purpose. “Sometimes the next right thing is all you can do,” as conveyed in the outro, amid the duality of having “come a long way” and having “a long way to go.”

Following the second chorus is what I can only assume to be a Martin Luther King, Jr. quote: “You know we should leave everyone better than we found them!” That’s part of what it means to “choose love”, putting aside one’s own desires for the sake of others, that it may help them understand the God we believe in.

“Promised Land (Collab OG)” feat. Sheryl Crow

With my apologies, I don’t know the next three featured artists well enough to provide any details on them.

Life can feel like a grind, so much so that it gets hard to see the light at the end of the tunnel. One might even struggle with doubts that they’re on the right track in their daily life. In truth, this life is just the prelude, and greater wonders await in the future that we cannot see, as the Lord has promised.

“Everything About You” feat. Marlee

This, I opine, is when the album takes the emotional turn. While the closest friend I have lost was a house cat who lived for almost 17 years, this song makes me imagine how much worse circumstances could be. However, even though I prefer to avoid emotional music whenever possible, this is the second-most emotional song I can handle, behind “Blessings” by Laura Story. All in all, not my kind of song, but nice to know it exists.

“Life On It” feat. Sarah Reeves

“You can sit there moping all day, or you can pray to God for the vigor to get back up on your feet.” This isn’t really a quote, just the kind of pep talk that I imagine would inspire a song like this. The rapping in the first verse is the highlight of this song, whereas I’m not a fan of how heavily auto-tuned the chorus is. At least the instrumentation somewhat makes up for my gripe.

“Faithfully”

If you ever think you can’t get out of a depressed state, just look at this as a retrospective of being in the pits two songs ago and rising up over the course of the next song. Even if it feels like something is missing, the Lord is not. He sees His children in the midst of their struggles, and He looks on them with love, no matter the circumstances.

“Cornerstone” feat. Zach Williams

More upbeat than the previous track but still laced with troubles, this song serves as a reminder that there is no better way to live life than living out the truths that God plants on our hearts, however subtly. The album version differs from the radio version in that it opens up with studio talk instead of an introductory instance of the verse riff.

The co-artist is a former hardcore rock-and-roller who was “Redeemed” (by Big Daddy Weave) from alcohol addiction and called to put his talents to alternative use, namely in hits such as “Chainbreaker”, “Fear Is a Liar”, “There Was Jesus (feat. Dolly Parton)”, and “Heart of God”. However, to be blunt, I would say that his part in this song feels rather lacking in variety compared to his solo work. The last time he sings, “On Christ the solid rock I’m standing,” notably the “On” part of it, I feel like the kind of singing he does at that point is repeated a few too many times afterwards. (Perhaps the last chorus of “Heaven Help Me” has an influence on this opinion.)

Not to downplay the song at large; it’s a rather catchy tune with a combination of artists that I would never have pieced together in my head.

“Found” feat. Terrian & Wande

Terrian, at the time of writing actually misspelled “Terrain” in Apple Music, is notable for being a member of Diverse City, although I’m not familiar with her solo work, let alone that (or anything, really) of Wande.

This song can be considered an elaboration upon the line of “Amazing Grace”: “I once was lost, but now I’m found.” TobyMac and Wande contribute slow rap to it, while Terrian is the one with the melodies. It’s also not far off from “Faithfully,” although it’s more of an emotional tune with not as much action taken on the part of the first-person subject in the lyrics.

“Fire’s Burnin'” feat. Cory Asbury

Of all the songs I hadn’t heard before listening to this album, this one has to be my favorite. It uses a fresh type of imagery: a moth to flame, with God being the flame to which his disciples are helplessly drawn like moths. Also, my video game brain associates the instrumentation with the Eggman levels in Sonic Adventure 2.

The co-artist is the main one behind “Reckless Love”, “The Father’s House”, and “Egypt”. Another unexpected feature, not to mention one whose melody blends well, almost too well.

“Space” feat. Kevin Max, Michael Tait & DC Talk

Not only is this basically a modern DC Talk song, but it’s another song with atmosphere, carrying the vibe of outer space while the subject of the lyrics is the degree of difference between God and man. I remember once in Sunday school being taught that the cross is what bridges the gap, although that alone is not enough for us to return to God; part two of the teaching is an ABC method for one to Admit they are a sinner, Believe that Christ died for them, and Choose…something; that’s the part I don’t remember. The point is, all we can really do here on the earth (after the confession and belief) is stand in faith, overcome the trials of the enemy, and lead lives that help others experience the glory of God. Even if some things are not right, “Love keeps no record of wrongs,” as stated in the outro and 1 Corinthians 13:5.

“21 Years”

Based on how this is one of the three songs with a music video, no less the one that I have not yet heard on the radio, I imagine this is supposed to be the track that drives home the whole point of the album. It starts off like a Soundgarden song (“Black Hole Sun” in particular comes to mind) but is otherwise the sort of chill tune to be expected of the artist. In terms of emotional weight, it lies between “Found” and “Promised Land”.

In the music video, TobyMac paces around in the middle of a cold, wet, and rainy day while contemplating the difference between what could have been and what has come to pass. It makes the “Oh” shouts before the last chorus feel more poignant. Written on a tree stump is “JOHN 14:6”, which features one of the quintessential declarations of Jesus: “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.” The video ends with the quote, “…and while he was still a long way off, the father saw his son and ran to him.”

“I’m Sorry (a lament)”

In a similar vein to “You Love Me Anyway” by Sidewalk Prophets, this song holds humanity accountable for the uncountable ways it has deviated from godliness. TobyMac mentions the major ones in the verses, adds to the second and third choruses by praying to the Lord to “Wake us up”, and recites Matthew 5:3-11. While mostly mellow in tone, it basically explodes from the third chorus until the outro.

“Rest” feat. Terrian & GabeReal

Ironic how a song like this follows a song with such a boisterous third chorus, although the decision is somewhat justified by the opening line, “I woke up to this.” GabeReal, previously featured in “Eye of the Storm” by Ryan Stevenson, has his moment in the outro of the song (after the chorus that Terrian sings).

The importance of rest is explained in Genesis 2:2-3 and reiterated as the Fourth Commandment in Exodus 20:8, both listed below.

By the seventh day God had finished the work he had been doing; so on the seventh day he rested from all his work. Then God blessed the seventh day and made it holy, because on it he rested from all the work of creating that he had done.

“Remember the Sabbath day by keeping it holy.”

Thus, there is no shame in taking a moment to cool down, unwind, recharge, or whatever you want to call it.

Afterword

This album was definitely worth the purchase. There is nothing like Christian music for planting the truth of God in one’s heart, and this album delivers with an undeniable flow. As hard as it is to rank the songs, the ranking is naturally part of my final verdict.

Fire’s Burnin’ > The Goodness > Help Is On the Way > Show Up Choose Love > Life On It > I’m Sorry > Space > Deeper > Rest > Promised Land > 21 Years > Cornerstone > Faithfully > Found > Everything About You

À la prochaine! (Until next time!)

I need a moment

Whether I took too long to settle upon a topic or didn’t dedicate enough effort to writing about it, here I find myself at the tail end of the month, in a situation where even if I was close enough to finish by midnight, I’m just not in the mood.

For the past five years, I’ve had to move from one rental home to another every half-year or so, and where I moved in just today can frankly be described as the most cramped rental home so far. What’s more is that my PC runs louder, slower, and with more spontaneous freezing / BSoDs / shutdowns than usual, regarding which my first guess is that the thermal paste has worn out again, so I’m limited to portable devices until at least after I get more thermal paste to apply. (Best case scenario, this will happen tomorrow before lunch. I know that day is April 1, the one day to not believe everything you read on the Internet, but I’m not fooling. Anyway, I think the reason for the problem at hand is because the tower can’t stand lingering in my car for too long, even with the windows open on a cloudy and windy day.) Combined with tired limbs, a mildly sleep-deprived week, and having no shorter of a commute to work, it’s enough for me to throw down the towel for now.

Hopefully next month I won’t need a moment and will instead have a complete post in store.

Halfway-ish through Fire Emblem: Engage

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.

À la prochaine! (Until next time!)

Gen 9 Aleatory Alliance #1: Black Ice and Rodent Love (Uber)

With the ninth generation of Pokémon in full swing, I figured now would be a good time for a fresh start in the Aleatory Alliance series. I have selected seventeen competitive formats this time: 1v1, Almost Any Ability, Anything Goes, Balanced Hackmons, Create-a-Pokémon, Doubles, Godly Gift, Little Cup, Mix and Mega, Monotype, Not Fully Evolved, National Pokédex, Overused, Rarely Used, STABmons, Uber, and Underused. So, what’s it going to be? Drumroll, please…

Uber! Same start as last gen; what a coincidence. The tier currently consists of nine Pokémon, one whose form changes in battle, and 49 lower-tier Pokémon with strategies. That adds up to 58, which brings me to the next set of random numbers.

I’ve decided to introduce the team members like this from now on, because obviously I have to find them out before I decide upon their roles. First, there’s the obvious: Froslass is a lead, Maushold is a hazard remover, Alomomola is a wall/cleric, and Kingambit is a late-game cleaner. That just left the less one-sided Roaring Moon and Chien-Pao. I decided to make them both Choice Band attackers because the only other thing they do in the Uber tier (at least from what I can tell) is physical setup, which is better off left entirely to Kingambit and its signature Ability. (Figures that this had to be an Uber team with no actual Ubers.)

What do they do?

Roaring Moon @ Choice Band
Ability: Protosynthesis
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
Tera Type: Dark
– Crunch
– U-turn
– Earthquake
– Dragon Claw

This one has a Speed equivalent to Nature-boosted base 104, enough to exceed Palafin and Garchomp. With its considerable base 139 Attack, it will mostly either Crunch holes into the opposing team or use U-turn to keep itself scarce. Earthquake is strong and reliable coverage that hits every Fairy-type for neutral or more damage, thanks to the current absence of Fairy/Flying, Fairy/Grass, and Fairy/Bug. Dragon Claw is about on the same level of power as Crunch, falling a bit short due to its lack of a secondary effect, primarily useful for being super-effective against Koraidon, Miraidon, and opposing Roaring Moon.

Chien-Pao @ Choice Band
Ability: Sword of Ruin
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
Tera Type: Ice
– Ice Spinner
– Crunch
– Ice Shard
– Sacred Sword

More of a speed demon, able to keep up with Flutter Mane, Koraidon, and Miraidon without needing any boosting or priority. Make no mistake, though; Sword of Ruin makes its Attack roughly equivalent to base 177. Ice Spinner is the reliable physical Ice-type attack that has been needed all along, and it has the added benefit of almost literally pulling out the rug from underneath the Violet paradoxes and their Quark Drive. (Aside: Strangely enough, there is no move, let alone one as reliable as Ice Spinner, that clears the weather.) Crunch is to Ice Spinner as Roaring Moon’s Crunch is to its Dragon Claw, putting aside the terrain removal utility, and it does neutral or more damage to most of the Pokémon that resist Ice. (Notable exceptions include Chi-Yu, Azumarill, and Kingambit, two of which are weak to Sacred Sword.) In case of even faster foes, like Dragapult and certain Speed boosters, Ice Shard is a possible clutch factor with its boosted priority. I chose Ice-type Tera by the logic that Dark would be redundant with Roaring Moon.

Kingambit @ Leftovers
Ability: Supreme Overlord
EVs: 112 HP / 252 Atk / 144 Spe
Adamant Nature
Tera Type: Ghost
– Swords Dance
– Iron Head
– Kowtow Cleave
– Sucker Punch

What Kingambit does best is switching in when its five allies have fainted, making Supreme Overlord boost its Attack to an equivalent of base 226, and cleaning up shop. Its EV spread looks to be a Speed creep past Scizor doing a Speed creep past Corviknight, on the grounds that Scizor now has Close Combat for coverage. (Also, the HP EVs give a value of 369, the lowest odd number that allows Leftovers to restore 23 HP per turn.) Swords Dance boosts Kingambit’s already nutty Attack to astronomical levels, although it requires mind games with Terastallization and Sucker Punch to pull off. The former is a quick way to become immune to its quad weakness to Fighting and neutral to its other weaknesses, while the latter is a decent form of priority against many possible foes faster than uninvested base 67. Others, or those who get outwitted, are at the mercy of its two most powerful moves: Iron Head and Kowtow Cleave. (Ironic in the latter case, as kowtowing is a gesture to beg for mercy.) Leftovers help keep Kingambit around for slightly longer, especially the more frequently prediction wars beget stalemates.

Alomomola @ Leftovers
Ability: Regenerator
EVs: 164 HP / 252 Def / 92 SpD
Relaxed Nature
Tera Type: Fairy
– Play Rough
– Wish
– Protect
– Whirlpool

This one will obviously take more hits than any of its teammates. Its HP EVs give it 512 HP, enough for a 256-HP Wish (at least 69% of every teammate’s HP, nice) and 32 HP per turn of Leftovers recovery. Fairy-type Tera gives it a whole different set of resistances and adds pseudo-Adaptability STAB to Play Rough, a tool strongest against foes like Annihilape, Koraidon, and Miraidon. Protect is used primarily for Alomomola to gain HP from its own Wishes, while Whirlpool serves to limit the number of switches on the opposing side and deal chip damage in the process.

Maushold @ Wide Lens
Ability: Technician
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
Tera Type: Normal
– Tidy Up
– Population Bomb
– Bite
– Encore

Funny multi-hit mouse family. Tidy Up removes opposing hazards even in the presence of Gholdengo, and it also provides a Dragon Dance boost. (With one Speed boost, it outspeeds the whole unboosted metagame, as well as Houndstone with Sand Rush active.) Wide Lens is essential in boosting the accuracy of Population Bomb to 99%, increasing tenfold the chance of each 30 BP (as boosted by Technician) hit to land.* Bite is 90 BP coverage against Ghost-types, and its 30% flinch chance is not to be overlooked. Encore is also not to be overlooked, as it can shut down a setup-reliant foe, which would offer a free switch or the opportunity for a Tidy Up boost.

*Wide Lens is more significant for Maushold alone than it ever has been since its debut. Here is some mathematical proof.

The “Miss” row consists entirely of fixed values, the one-to-nine-hit percentage formula is the cell above multiplied by 0.9 with Wide Lens and 0.99 without, the ten-hit percentage formula is 1 minus the percentages above it, BP is the percentage multiplied by what it would normally be with that many hits (e.g., 90 BP for three hits), and the Expected BP is the sum of all BPs above it.

Yep, just the one tenth makes that much of a difference. That is why Maushold always holds Wide Lens, instead of Heavy-Duty Boots to facilitate switching into entry hazards or Protective Pads as a measure against Rough Skin and Rocky Helmet users.

Froslass @ Focus Sash
Ability: Cursed Body
EVs: 248 HP / 8 SpA / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
Tera Type: Steel
– Spikes
– Taunt
– Icy Wind
– Destiny Bond

One of the Spikes setters of all time. Focus Sash is a lifeline required of her flimsy 70/70/70 bulk and defensively unfavorable typing. The latter is what Steel-type Tera is for, but I would advise to use it sparingly. Taunt is a means to sabotage slower status move users, Icy Wind makes opponents slower if they are not already, and Destiny Bond uses her frailty to her advantage via the possibility of taking an opposing Pokémon down with her.

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Importable: https://pokepast.es/5420851014cb437f

What went wrong?

Three Dark-types. (Again.) Two Ice-types. Not enough special attacks. Non-boosting Scarlet paradox (thanks in part to Kingambit) with no Koraidon. One flimsy Spikes user, and no Stealth Rock or Gholdengo. Not enough allies that benefit from Wish. No Aromatherapy or Heal Bell for the many allies that would prefer it. No shiny new offense-enabling tools like Shed Tail or Revival Blessing. No resistances to Fairy or Ground. Aside from Froslass, the only resistance to U-turn is when Alomomola or Kingambit Terastallizes. With the thorough lack of Flying, Dugtrio can trap and KO just about anything.

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Iron Bundle can run Taunt to prevent Froslass from setting up Spikes or taking it out with Destiny Bond. It is faster than the entire team, and its decent physical bulk enables it to take a Sucker Punch from Kingambit without a Swords Dance boost. Being quad resistant to Ice Shard also helps its cause. The best case scenario would be for Maushold to get a Tidy Up boost and hit it with a Population Bomb; even then, in the likely event that the opposing team has a Miraidon to activate Quark Drive, one boost is not enough.

Speaking of Miraidon, that in itself is a force to be reckoned with. The way it sets Electric Terrain to make foes like Iron Valiant and Speed-oriented Iron Treads harder to deal with, one can only hope to safely bring in Chien-Pao and remove the terrain, which is most likely a matter of switching it in after a fainted ally and hoping that it either can win the Speed tie or is dealing with a slower Miraidon.

Due to the offensive nature of this team, Shed Tail from Cyclizar can be quite a pain to deal with, especially when Maushold cannot use Population Bomb or Tidy Up to remove the Substitute. With Population Bomb being the only multi-hit move on the team, not to mention the lack of sound-based moves and Infiltrator, even slower threats can prove difficult to eliminate when given a free Substitute.

Pawmot is not weak to anything from the team, apart from Alomomola’s Play Rough and Roaring Moon’s Earthquake. Not to mention, its Mach Punch is dangerous against Roaring Moon, Chien-Pao, non-Tera Kingambit, and Maushold. If this little “Pika-clone” is left unanswered, it can use Revival Blessing to bring back two threats (or one threat twice) that should have been eliminated.

Corviknight can take advantage of the team’s lack of Fire- and Electric-type moves, and if Froslass sets up her Spikes too hastily, you can bet that it has free rein to remove them with Defog. Also, if it’s the physically defensive variant, it will be even harder to break with the dearth of special attacks.

Afterword

♪ “Don’t even need no shade, when your sun don’t shine, shine…” ♫

“Weavile, eat your heart out.”

“Most of you are mere pawns. Alomomola is my queen.”

“Dude, your Egg Group is Human-like, while I’m in Water 1 and Water 2. Besides, our genders aren’t even determined until the battle starts.”

“I can be like 10 pawns at once! En passant, mother-lovers!”

“I can put three pawns on the board, but…is that even legal?”

Story Update: New Sapling Preview

Happy holidays from Vouiv-review! I’m happy to announce that Cinq du Soleil: Nouveau has progressed up to Chapter 1 in 2022, just as I had hoped!

For one thing, it has an 11-page Prologue instead of going straight into Chapter 1, a vital part of my plan to make the story more explanation-based than its come-up-with-everything-as-I-go predecessor. This might beg the question, “Why not publicize the Prologue sooner so that the public wouldn’t have to wait 20-ish months for a follow-up to the March 2021 Monthly Musing?” Well, for starters, I didn’t expect for Chapter 1 to take so much effort, let alone wind up a whopping 162 pages long. (That’s about half my current progress on the original Cinq du Soleil.*) Second of all, when I got to Interlude 1-7, I noticed that I had at first failed to realize that Roissy Airport was not outside of Paris, so I’m glad in retrospect that I didn’t embarrass myself by putting it out too hastily. (Admittedly, the cultural aspect of French class is the only thing I ever really struggled with. Long live Wikipedia, eh?)
*henceforth CdS:A, with the ‘A’ standing for “Ancien” (antonym of “Nouveau”)

Moving on, based on the light novels that I’ve read, I felt inclined to start splitting my Chapters into Parts, starting with one to give a feel for the curriculum, one for each member of Cinq du Soleil, and one dedicated to the advent of the troupe. I mean, CdS:A Chapter 13 is split into parts (one for each heroine), but I’m talking about normalizing the structure rather than making it occasional. Besides, Chapters in CdS:A typically range from 10-20 pages and peak at about 35 (in LibreOffice Writer), and considering Parts 1-3 of CdS:N Chapter 1 all fell within the typical range, I figured that the subsequent parts would too. This did not come to pass in the end; instead, Parts 4-7 all fall within the 20-30 page range, with a zenith of 30 and a nadir of 24, hence my earlier remark about the grand total Chapter length. Just goes to show that I’m not fond of constraining Chapters or Parts to particular lengths, primarily because all the wordsmithing I dedicate to minimizing the repetitiveness of my writing is already enough of a challenge as it is. (To give an idea, Part 7 felt like a breeze to write compared to Parts 3-6, perhaps also partly because it was easier to plan ahead for Part 7.) But, in reality, all this rambling about Chapter/Part length stems from my questioning the page length discrepancies, which perhaps in this case can be addressed with a bit of analysis. (Not yet, though, because I don’t want to spoil too much before I link the document.)

Another notable development since March ’21 is that I changed the name of the Métal, originally Magnus, because I wanted to avoid any resemblance to the Kid Icarus character. It first changed to Mark when I started Part 6, but I promptly found it too generic and figured it would be more fun to name him Tobias so that he could be nicknamed Toby on a case-by-case basis, namely close friends (including his sister) and immutably stubborn acquaintances. Part of the reasoning behind this nomenclature, both previous and current, is that I wanted the protagonists’ names to sound mostly different from each other; this took my mind in a Latin direction at first, but then I shifted to biblical for no particular reason. Also in part, the protagonists’ first initials originally spelled out GAMES (Guy, Aka, Magnus/Mark, Ella, Sumire) or MAGES, but now they spell out GATES or STAGE. (Just a bit of trivia that sometimes surfaces in my mind.)

I think that about covers it for the information I can give while keeping spoilers to a minimum. So, without further ado, here is what I would like to call my Christmas present to the public!
(I typically don’t post to this blog until the end of the month, but the document has been finished for about four days, so I figured, “Why not make this a special occasion for the holidays?”)

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1CBa8EmsxV6zyRSvpqMiJPcGEI5IanQLy/view?usp=sharing

Now, it’s best to not read beyond this point of the blog post until after reading the Prologue and Chapter 1, linked above. Let no one say I didn’t warn them.

---

On the subject of analyzing CdS:N Part lengths, it stands to reason that Guy Dupont has the most pages dedicated to him (33 = 18 + 15, the collective total of Parts 1 and 2, the latter having fewer pages because of the reduced worldbuilding and other lore), because of all the details in the single-element curriculum that were omitted in Parts 3-6 for the sake of brevity. Second to that obvious factor is the clique size of each protagonist. Aka Mitsurugi, the protagonist corresponding to the merely 19-page Part 3, was one of only three. Tobias Armstrong, one of four like Guy, wound up with a 24-page Part 6. Sumire Ohzora and five other Eaux starred in a 29-page Part 5, placing third among the protagonists. Ella Armstrong, the runner-up of the 30-page Part 4, technically started out in a clique of only three, but a rivalry between her and a particular other Terre (upon whom I will elaborate later) escalated to involve the entire class of inaugural Terres (but, obviously, only a handful are mentioned in particular) and become what I see as the most eventful sub-story in Chapter 1. As for Part 7, it came between Tobias and Sumire with 25 pages, because even though it lasted less than a day, it involved a vast multitude of characters and has the second-longest interlude so far. (Yes, interludes are included in the page lengths.)
(I won’t bother giving CdS:A Chapters the same treatment, at least not for this post.)

Now to clarify the “other Terre.” Aka, Ao, and Midori are part of a series of color-based characters influenced by the clan Cinqueleur from Final Fantasy Tactics A2. (In the French translation, its members are named after Japanese colors: Aka, Ao, Midori, Shiro, and Kuro.) Beyond the inspired five are the Chroma Rangers, among whom only Ki Kotegawa (formerly Kagayama) has been featured in any of Chapters 1-13 of CdS:A. The other four—Murasaki Sakimori, Daidai Shinryuu, Kasshoku Takai, and Tankoshoku Shiba (formerly Aragi)—I planned to introduce in Chapter 15, but that chapter is the biggest uphill climb in CdS:A history, not to mention one of the main reasons for my transition to CdS:N. (Shiro and Kuro also have different last names, Kuzehashi and Shibushi (as opposed to Konoe and Shoga), which are notable in each starting with the same syllable as their partner’s first name.) However, when I came up with the plot for CdS:N, I figured that the ten color-based characters would make the perfect foundation for the new Solluna, hence their way earlier introduction in the Prologue. (Side note: I made sure to clarify their sizes early on, and Aka is a gremlin instead of an average-sized woman.) Since Taiyoh is where Chapter 1 takes place, the five unfortunately left in the dark (so to speak) were Tankoshoku, Midori, Daidai, Ao, and Kuro. As for the other five, with Aka obviously being a protagonist, Murasaki turned out to be a tertiary ally, Ki a deuteragonist, Kasshoku (the “other Terre”) an archrival, and Shiro the same as Murasaki.

I also figured that the Asahina sisters and mother from CdS:A could use a CdS:N counterpart with a Tsuki counterpart, hence the Tailors Taylor and the Jordan Army. The parents, Taylor Taylor and Jordan Jordan, have names that I’ve seen as first and last alike (e.g., Taylor Swift, Chuck Taylor, Jordan Feliz, Michael Jordan), but with both positions filled by the same name. This gimmick stems from my vague memory of a Fairly Oddparents character named Britney Britney, and I originally had a Jordan Jordan as one of the thirty-two filler names in the 64-entrant tournament planned for CdS:A (the basis of Chapters 15-20), but I intend for the Tailors Taylor and the Jordan Army to be much more prominent. (It’s a shame that the latter group name does not work as well as the former.) As for the children, they are like the Chief Elementals in being named for some aspect of their affinity: Bert sounds like “burn,” James sounds like “Thames,” Laura sounds like “laurel” (a bit of a stretch), Pete is derived Peter meaning “rock,” Julia is from “jewel,” Edith sounds like “eat it” (as made evident by a certain chapter of Captain Underpants), Rudy has a sound like “root” in it, (I’m not sure about the next three) Lyra sounds like “wire,” Chelsea sounds like “shall see,” and Lester has a “less” sound in it. Just as in the case of the color-based characters, Taylor Taylor and the Jordan children have yet to be introduced, but they have been mentioned particularly in Part 3 and Interlude 1-5 respectively.
(Aside: My personal favorite name in the story so far is Lucas Rakan, a pair of names that both sound vaguely like the French word “requin” meaning “shark.”)

As another consequence of the focus of Chapter 1 on Taiyoh, the Lunar Brigade has not yet been introduced. I expect Chapter 2 to wind up the same way (but potentially be shorter) and for Chapter 3 to be when the protagonists advance to the Great Wall of Solluna (formerly Solluna Valley), so instead of transitioning directly from Chapter 2 to Chapter 3, I intend to branch out to another side series that will give Tsuki the same treatment given to Taiyoh in Chapters 1 and 2. Lest I reveal too much too soon, all I have left to say regarding future follow-ups is that the plot that I have in mind for Chapter 2 is influenced by Tales of Zestiria.

Speaking of influences, I like talking about them, so how about a few more?

• In the vein of Tobias’s name changes, I also considered changing Ella’s name, specifically because a part of my mind misconstrued it as a fusion of the names Ellis and Edna, which notably belong to characters from Seirei Tsukai no Blade Dance and Tales of Zestiria respectively. (best Tales character, by the way) However, as part of the rivalry between Ella and Kasshoku, I had the latter call the former “Devil,” and I can’t think of a more fitting base name for a nickname like that. Just some context for the actual “influence” in this bullet point: This rivalry, while I had originally intended for it to resemble the one between Yozora and Sena from Haganai, turned out closer to the dynamic between Velvet and Eleanor from Tales of Berseria, the more I wrote it out. (best Tales game, by the way) Not to call it a lesser outcome; just putting it out there.
• More of a “reverse influence” if that makes sense, but the number one Eau was originally named Anya Tran, that is until the animated adaptation of SPY x FAMILY popularized the name Anya in a way that I could never have imagined. (Don’t get me wrong; I enjoy the anime in question.) From there, she became part of a gimmick that I had come up with, namely female names besides Aka that start and end with ‘a’ (in a similar vein to the CdS:A Asahina family members, whose names all end with “-ri” and are not Kaori*); thus, I changed her first name to Alma.
  *This nomenclature stemmed from Mari, whom I named on a whim. Kaori is one of the CdS:A heroines.
• The tendency of Aka to dress frugally and wear red-striped panties (ever since CdS:A) is inspired by Mea Kurosaki from To LOVE-ru Darkness. (Her dialect, not so much; just a random quirk.) I’ve been reading through the manga on a whim, so I wonder if some other aspects of the influence could rub off; for instance, the playfulness came naturally, but the unusual obsession with being licked has not.

Phew, that’s all I have to babble about for now. I look forward to seeing this story through until I fall into a slump, which hopefully won’t happen in the foreseeable future.

À la prochaine! (Until next time!)

One of the Generations of All Time

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)

New species: Lechonk, Shroodle, Pawmi, Spidops, Clodsire, Cyclizar, Nacli, Flamigo, Lokix, Kilowattrel, Revavroom, Farigiraf
Noms français: Gourmelet, Gribouraigne, Pohm, Filentrappe, Terraiste, Motorizard, Selutin, Flamenroule, Gambex, Fulgulairo, Vrombotor, Farigiraf

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.)

À la prochaine! (Until next time!)

More on Virtual Reality

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.

• Expert, Faster: Crab Rave, Curtains, Escape Remix, LUDICROUS+, Spooky Beat (Grand total: 26/45)
• Expert, Super Fast: Breezer (Grand total: 2/45)

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…fairly evident, to be sure, 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.

1. Initiate Quest Link and SteamVR. (Unfortunately, Quest Link does not support hand tracking, so the controllers are required.)
2. 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.
3. While VIIR is “Up Next,” open the Quest Link menu and minimize all windows.
4. View Desktop Monitor 1, or whichever monitor contains the application.
5. 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.)
6. 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:

1. 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
2. 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.

À la prochaine! (Until next time!)

Aleatory Alliance #3: Wired to Weather (VGC22 Series 13)

I checked the competitive formats anew, and somehow I wound up with fewer to choose from than last time. Not only that…

…but this one is VGC22 Series 13, and I know nothing about VGC, so everything below is just a sample set. (Important disclaimer there.) This format is Doubles-based, Level 50, and limited only with Item Clause, Species Clause, and each Pokémon being either Galar-born or Battle Ready. In other words, Ubers and even Zacian from the realm of AG are naturally prominent. One more thing: Each player can only select four out of six Pokémon at a time, meaning that hazards like Stealth Rock and Spikes are trivial.

So here are the lucky six drafted by none other than random.org:

Kyogre @ Mystic Water
Ability: Drizzle
Level: 50
EVs: 4 HP / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
– Water Spout
– Origin Pulse
– Thunder
– Ice Beam

Stats: 176/94/110/202/160/156

I’m not gonna sugarcoat it: Water Spout at high HP, Origin Pulse at low HP. (The cutoff value for when Water Spout gets weaker is 73%, or 129 HP.) It also has Thunder for opposing Water-types (and a perfect-accuracy one at that, thanks to its own weather) and Ice Beam to round off its coverage for Water-absorbing Ground-types like Gastrodon. It holds Mystic Water for a boost to its Water-type moves that does not lock it into them.

Melmetal @ Weakness Policy
Ability: Iron Fist
Level: 50
Gigantamax: Yes
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 SpD
Adamant Nature
– Double Iron Bash
– High Horsepower
– Thunder Punch
– Protect

Stats: 211/214/163/90/117/54

Double Iron Bash? More like Dumb Iron Bash. An effective 144 BP with perfect accuracy and a too darn high chance to flinch, not to mention base 143 Attack, make this nutty beefcake a force to be reckoned with. Moreover, High Horsepower and 90 BP Thunder Punch round off its coverage perfectly excluding Electric- and Ground-immune Abilities. (High Horsepower is preferred over Earthquake in Doubles because it does not target the user’s ally, and it also benefits from not being hindered by Grassy Surge.) This gives it room for Protect, an omnipresent move that makes targeting opponents a guessing game. That said, Melmetal can take a hit even without it, in order for Weakness Policy to act as a makeshift Swords Dance and bolster its already outstanding physical prowess.

Calyrex-Ice @ White Herb
Ability: As One (Glastrier)
Level: 50
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 4 Def
Adamant Nature
– Glacial Lance
– High Horsepower
– Trick Room
– Protect

Stats: 207/238/171/94/150/70

Ice Rider Calyrex is Melmetal’s best friend, having Trick Room to compensate for both their low Speed stats and Glacial Lance to cover what Melmetal cannot. Speaking of Glacial Lance, it is the best physical Ice-type move in the game, being even stronger than five hits of Icicle Spear and, like Kyogre’s Water STAB, capable of hitting both foes at once. It holds White Herb to counteract one instance of Intimidate such as from Incineroar.

Grimmsnarl (M) @ Light Clay
Ability: Prankster
Level: 50
EVs: 252 HP / 132 Def / 124 SpD
Impish Nature
– Light Screen
– Reflect
– Scary Face
– Spirit Break

Stats: 202/140/112/103/111/80

Returning from the first Aleatory Alliance, this hairy gremlin is just as ready as before to set up screens. This time, it packs Scary Face as a form of Speed control to which Ground- and Electric-types (particularly Regieleki) are not immune. It also runs Spirit Break to mitigate special attackers and because Yveltal does not typically run as much bulk investment as in Ubers.

Groudon @ Assault Vest
Ability: Drought
Level: 50
EVs: 252 HP / 156 Atk / 100 SpD
Adamant Nature
– Precipice Blades
– Heat Crash
– Rock Tomb
– Shadow Claw

Stats: 207/209/160/108/123/110 (184 Special Defense with Assault Vest)

The antithesis of Kyogre, but not nearly as threatening without the Red Orb that ORAS spoiled it with. Still, Precipice Blades hits more targets than High Horsepower and fewer than Earthquake, but with more base power despite rather low accuracy. Heat Crash is boosted by the sun and has the following BP values against the following weight values.

• 190 kg or less: 120
• Between 190 kg and 237.5 kg: 100 (notably Ho-Oh and Yveltal)
• Between 237.5 kg and 316.7 kg: 80 (nothing notable here)
• Between 316.7 kg and 475 kg: 60 (notably Zekrom, Kyogre, Crowned Zacian, and Dusk Mane Necrozma)
• More than 475 kg: 40 (notably Melmetal, Ice Rider Calyrex, and opposing Groudon)

Rock Tomb is a Speed control tool that Yveltal cannot block, as well as a means of hitting Ho-Oh for significant damage while counteracting its likely Max Airstream. Shadow Claw most notably hits Shadow Rider Calyrex, which otherwise tramples this team with its stupidly powerful special attacks, especially Astral Barrage. Assault Vest compensates for Groudon’s rather low Special Defense, improving its effectiveness as a tank.

Zekrom @ Life Orb
Ability: Teravolt
Level: 50
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpA / 252 Spe
Lonely Nature
– Bolt Strike
– Draco Meteor
– Earth Power
– Dual Wingbeat

Stats: 175/222/126/141/120/142

The one mixed attacker in the entire team. Bolt Strike is its number one power move, and physically defensive investment against it leaves its foes open to Draco Meteor and Earth Power. (Draco Meteor is chosen because the team is lacking in special attacks, while Earth Power is notable for being super-effective against Steel-types such as opposing Melmetal, Dusk Mane Necrozma, and Crowned Zacian.) Dual Wingbeat is its best physical coverage and covers Grass-types such as Amoonguss. It’s also worth noting that Zekrom is the most likely Dynamax candidate, capable of boosting its Speed with Max Airstream (from Dual Wingbeat) and its Electric STAB with Max Lightning (from Bolt Strike) while resistant to Behemoth Blade. Obviously, Max Airstream is best paired with Kyogre, the ally that benefits most from Speed boosts.* (On a lesser note, Max Lightning boosts Melmetal’s Thunder Punch. And speaking of Melmetal, it is the second most likely to Dynamax, or rather Gigantamax, with G-Max Meltdown to limit the opponent’s possible shenanigans.)

*Kyogre at +1 Speed is faster than Shadow Rider Calyrex.

---

Importable: https://pokepast.es/91a28bed9cdfa8bc

What went wrong?

Not enough checks for the absolute biggest threats of the metagame: Crowned Zacian and Shadow Rider Calyrex. At best, Grimmsnarl can soften blows from them using its screens and hope for Ice Rider Calyrex to set up Trick Room, or hope that Scary Face and Groudon’s Rock Tomb can provide enough Speed control for Kyogre or Zekrom to finish the job. Speaking of which, where’s the priority? (Aside from Prankster, of course.) Yveltal with Sucker Punch styles all over half the team, especially Ice Rider Calyrex, and there’s not a darn thing the other half can do about it. Also, despite rocking dual weather setters (which is honestly another thing that went wrong), there aren’t any real abusers aside from the setters themselves (and like…Kyogre mitigating the Fire weakness of Melmetal and Ice Rider Calyrex); I mean, wouldn’t it be better with a Chlorophyll user like Venusaur or an allied Fire-type like Ho-Oh?

Top 5 Watchlist

Crowned Zacian, this generation’s representative of AG (Intrepid Sword was a mistake), is a veritable threat against a team with no Intimidate or any Fire-types whatsoever. While the team has Trick Room, Scary Face, and Rock Tomb for Speed control, it will have to take a hit from this souped-up Koromaru before or upon executing whichever move. Whatever the case, nothing on the team resists any two of Behemoth Blade, Sacred Sword, and Play Rough apart from Melmetal’s resistance to the outer two.

A similar threat on the special side, watch Ghost Rider Calyrex come in with gamer glasses and dump its Astral Barrage all over the team. It would take a Light Screen or a Spirit Break for anyone but Grimmsnarl to withstand any more than two; even then, the other foe is not to be counted out.

With all the physical attackers on the team, it shouldn’t be all that surprising for every Doubles player’s favorite Intimidate user, Incineroar, to have its place on this list. The only thing that really daunts it is Kyogre, which is uncomfortable around Fake Out due to its special inclination.

Again, Yveltal has Dark Aura + Sucker Punch going for it, which is particularly baneful to Ice Rider Calyrex regardless of Trick Room. Foul Play is also concerning, as everything has a high Attack stat except Kyogre and, to a lesser extent, Grimmsnarl. Also worth noting that the former has Snarl to fear, so it falls primarily on the latter to check this threat.

With no Grass-types, Overcoat users, or sleep-immune Abilities, amogus Amoonguss can put anything to sleep with its Spore and redirect any single-target attack with its Rage Powder (particularly Grimmsnarl’s Spirit Break and all of the team’s Electric-type attacks), not to mention it can run Pollen Puff to keep its allies up and kicking.

Afterword

“Chocolate rain! Some stay dry while others feel the pain.”

“You can’t kill the Metal. The Metal will live on.”

(“Where do you work out?”) “Yes.”

“Don’t call it a comeback. I’ve been here for years!”

“I got a pocket, got a pocket full of sunshine!”

“Thunder! Feel the thunder! Lightning and the thunder!”