What are you playing?

[rabidtictac]

Honestly the reason one piss is so long is half the stories are just adventures for fun. They're enjoyable and funny but have no real payoff.

It's obvious Oda started one piss to have a fun time writing adventures without end and that's pretty much what he's done. In terms of dramatic arcs, I've only seen one so far in what I've read (Alabasta) and I only know about a couple more before the time skip. That's probably like 40-50 fucking volumes of mango to have so few things happen.

But I guess lots of little stories are better than a big shitty story a la narutard where nothing ever happens AND it's not entertaining or funny.

[VoiceOfReasonPast]

That's really how the whole manga is structured: With a few exceptions, they mainly sail from island to island and solve whatever problem pops up there. It's a bit formulaic at times, but the varied settings and crazy characters they run into keep it interesting.

(Though that's not to say little stories can't be crap. I'm looking at you, Fairy Tail with its huge amount of filler that doesn't even move anyone closer to their long-term goal.)

[rabidtictac]

You don't realize how superior JoJo and Hokuto no Ken are until you read other shit. I think to myself "why can't this funny, enjoyable one piss episode also be dramatic and have some story relevance?" Then I remember the mangos that I normally read which are like that. Hell, HnK arguably had no reason to exist after the Raoh arc, and if you were to cut down all the filler or get a properly-localized english mango (for faster reading than the anime offers), you could probably read every major story beat in the equivalent of 3 or so One Piece arcs. Or less.

I mean, what are the major plot beats?

-Bandits are being dicks to the town where Ken wakes up, so Ken kills them and adopts the shitkids
-Ken meets Rei and Mamiya
-Ken kills Shin (I think this happened before Rei and Mamiya, but who cares)
-Ken kills Jagi
-Ken kills fake Toki aka Amiba
-Ken arrives at Cassandra, kills everyone and finds Toki
-Toki and Raoh shit happens
-Ken gets rekt by Raoh
-Rei got rekt super hard by Raoh at some point and dies somewhere in here after killing Juda
-Souther arc starts up and continues for a while
-Ken eventually returns to Raoh and kicks his ass super hard

That's what I can remember off the top of my head. Pretty much that's the entire Hokuto no Ken story in bullet points. You couldn't even try to tell One Piece that way because you'd need a bullet point each just for the members of the crew, never mind all the extra shit like Impel Down or Skypeia.

[Poonoo]

Got KOF 2002 on Steam and I realise that KOF14 is a shitty version of that game gameplay wise. In 2002 you are limited to max mode to link specials together, while in KOF14 only EX versions of moves can link together for some characters. Granted in Max Mode you can do EX moves at will but those versions are often different and due to be limited to them you have less creativity to work with.

The more I play older KOF games, the more I realise KOF14 is trash. KOF13 was the logical step for the series and they took a huge step backwards while no one gives a shit. Just like Street Fighter with 4.

Played the Crash remake on PS4, the first game has a bunch of cheap bullshit in it but the big problem with the Crash games is that the controls are garbage for precision platforming, something the next two games blatantly avoided. With the Crash games there is no momentum when you move, you press the directional button and you will move at the same speed no matter what. This makes the level design limited since you can't add gaps that require the player to get a run up before hand and it's very hard to control you position in the air like in other games. If you try to make a tight jump in another platformer with better controls like Mario or a Meatboy you can move back in the opposite direction to slow yourself down to make the right landing, while in Crash if you do that you will just move in the opposite direction at the same speed.

With some jumps in harder levels you need to hold that directional button down until you land otherwise you won't make the distance. Also, later levels are designed for ultra precise and small landing zones in the first game so the game is much harder than the level designs actually are because of this. Another thing to bring up is that the camera in the Crash games, while fixed, is shit because you can't see shit in front of you. In Mario or Spyro it is at a higher angle so you can see what's in front of you better, but since in Crash it is more up close and essentially right behind him, it's easy to fuck up jumps because you don't know where the edge is.

The latter games focused on more fun levels that weren't ultra challenging, they added more hog riding style levels and boulder chase parts and cut down the precision shit because it didn't work for the controls.

[FuckSploony]

Got KOF 2002 on Steam and I realise that KOF14 is a shitty version of that game gameplay wise. In 2002 you are limited to max mode to link specials together, while in KOF14 only EX versions of moves can link together for some characters. Granted in Max Mode you can do EX moves at will but those versions are often different and due to be limited to them you have less creativity to work with.

The more I play older KOF games, the more I realise KOF14 is trash. KOF13 was the logical step for the series and they took a huge step backwards while no one gives a shit. Just like Street Fighter with 4.

Played the Crash remake on PS4, the first game has a bunch of cheap bullshit in it but the big problem with the Crash games is that the controls are garbage for precision platforming, something the next two games blatantly avoided. With the Crash games there is no momentum when you move, you press the directional button and you will move at the same speed no matter what. This makes the level design limited since you can't add gaps that require the player to get a run up before hand and it's very hard to control you position in the air like in other games. If you try to make a tight jump in another platformer with better controls like Mario or a Meatboy you can move back in the opposite direction to slow yourself down to make the right landing, while in Crash if you do that you will just move in the opposite direction at the same speed.

With some jumps in harder levels you need to hold that directional button down until you land otherwise you won't make the distance. Also, later levels are designed for ultra precise and small landing zones in the first game so the game is much harder than the level designs actually are because of this. Another thing to bring up is that the camera in the Crash games, while fixed, is shit because you can't see shit in front of you. In Mario or Spyro it is at a higher angle so you can see what's in front of you better, but since in Crash it is more up close and essentially right behind him, it's easy to fuck up jumps because you don't know where the edge is.

The latter games focused on more fun levels that weren't ultra challenging, they added more hog riding style levels and boulder chase parts and cut down the precision shit because it didn't work for the controls.

One thing to notice about the Crash remake is that the hitboxes changed, in the original games the hitbox was squareish and you could get away with many jumps landing just on the border of the floor, so it was very forgiving, in the remake the hitboxes became rounder so it requires more precision and many levels feel like bullshit because they weren't made for this kind of hitbox.

[rabidtictac]

Of course KoF 14 is just a shitty version of old KoF. 2002 UM, 98 UM, KoF XI and KoF XIII are the best ones. XIII was a big deal to me when it came out because it felt like they were finally evolving the formula for modern consoles in a way that gave them a unique identity compared to other fightan games. KoF 14 looks and feels so cheap by comparison.

And even SFIV eventually had Ultra to fix a lot of its problems and improve overall game balance. KoF 14 and SFV are a better comparison now tbh. Looks like shit, plays like shit.

But I'll be fair to them and admit they probably went with the new ugly graphics because they realized KoF is a niche series and they couldn't afford to put out another game with the kind of visuals XIII had. Even though SNK shit always sells in south and central america.

[Poonoo]

Got KOF 2002 on Steam and I realise that KOF14 is a shitty version of that game gameplay wise. In 2002 you are limited to max mode to link specials together, while in KOF14 only EX versions of moves can link together for some characters. Granted in Max Mode you can do EX moves at will but those versions are often different and due to be limited to them you have less creativity to work with.

The more I play older KOF games, the more I realise KOF14 is trash. KOF13 was the logical step for the series and they took a huge step backwards while no one gives a shit. Just like Street Fighter with 4.

Played the Crash remake on PS4, the first game has a bunch of cheap bullshit in it but the big problem with the Crash games is that the controls are garbage for precision platforming, something the next two games blatantly avoided. With the Crash games there is no momentum when you move, you press the directional button and you will move at the same speed no matter what. This makes the level design limited since you can't add gaps that require the player to get a run up before hand and it's very hard to control you position in the air like in other games. If you try to make a tight jump in another platformer with better controls like Mario or a Meatboy you can move back in the opposite direction to slow yourself down to make the right landing, while in Crash if you do that you will just move in the opposite direction at the same speed.

With some jumps in harder levels you need to hold that directional button down until you land otherwise you won't make the distance. Also, later levels are designed for ultra precise and small landing zones in the first game so the game is much harder than the level designs actually are because of this. Another thing to bring up is that the camera in the Crash games, while fixed, is shit because you can't see shit in front of you. In Mario or Spyro it is at a higher angle so you can see what's in front of you better, but since in Crash it is more up close and essentially right behind him, it's easy to fuck up jumps because you don't know where the edge is.

The latter games focused on more fun levels that weren't ultra challenging, they added more hog riding style levels and boulder chase parts and cut down the precision shit because it didn't work for the controls.

One thing to notice about the Crash remake is that the hitboxes changed, in the original games the hitbox was squareish and you could get away with many jumps landing just on the border of the floor, so it was very forgiving, in the remake the hitboxes became rounder so it requires more precision and many levels feel like bullshit because they weren't made for this kind of hitbox.

That will be interesting when I try out 2 and 3 since I have the originals to compare to.

[Rapeculture]

And even SFIV eventually had Ultra to fix a lot of its problems and improve overall game balance. KoF 14 and SFV are a better comparison now tbh. Looks like shit, plays like shit.

So, you're saying that Ultra SFIV is better than SFV? I've not played SFV yet.

[Poonoo]

And even SFIV eventually had Ultra to fix a lot of its problems and improve overall game balance. KoF 14 and SFV are a better comparison now tbh. Looks like shit, plays like shit.

So, you're saying that Ultra SFIV is better than SFV? I've not played SFV yet.

You shouldn't, it's trash and it is only getting out of early access early soon with SFV Arcade edition despite being "released" for two years.

[rabidtictac]

And even SFIV eventually had Ultra to fix a lot of its problems and improve overall game balance. KoF 14 and SFV are a better comparison now tbh. Looks like shit, plays like shit.

So, you're saying that Ultra SFIV is better than SFV? I've not played SFV yet.

Much better. Ultra Double should have always been in the game, the cast is huge and includes a good number of fun characters and the balance is pretty alright for the size of the cast. Not to mention Omega mode was a very fun extra.

I hated vanilla SF4, hated Super, but finally came around with Ultra. I enjoy Ultra more than 3rd Strike even though I'm well aware 3rd Strike is a better game. But I like Alpha 3 better than all other street fighter games.