Posts made by DarthAsthma

These Kaido flashbacks with King give me this weird retrospective minor pet peeve about Oda keeping King's face hidden for way too long or even was it that necessary to hide his face, the Lunarian reveal was during the fight as well and didn't super tie into his appearance? I guess you'd lose the imposing first impression. But I kinda just dig the vibes between King and Kaido and it really helps just seeing King's facial expressions. And in retrospect I think I would've enjoyed the King/Zoro fight more as well if I went in seeing his expression earlier vs starting him out as imposing cool man.

I wouldn't close the book on Kaido yet and make a final judgment. Kaido still feels incomplete as fuck to me as a character with the way he's been presented to us and I am still 100% convinced a flashback is still coming. There is too many gaps in between his behavior that the snippets we get from other characters don't really answer anything as well.

Like Oda even in the raid has made it a point to show his drunken moodswings and show us Kaido being much more jovial from King's memories. These things he's lost over time. While there is a lot I think I want a Kaido flashback to address I'm somewhat confident that we'll know clearly in the end what made him go from "I'm going to be joyboy to I'm going to seek a glorious death".

Feel free to rip me apart if this ends up wrong but people that think this arc is gonna last another 50+ chapters cause Oda gonna do the 5 act meme because people are kabuki experts after reading a wiki article when people more familiar with it have already stated 5 acts isn't some kind of kabuki law, are on some clown shit.
I'm pretty darn confident just based on general story telling structure that this arc been heading to its end ever since the first strawhat duel started. It's not gonna rebuild another showdown after this last power up which was the big climax. Again call me out if I'm wrong but I'm fairly confident in this because the story is already suffering from all the little meandering and nothing would be more destructive and outright terrible on a structural level than Oda deciding Wano needs to go on for another year + at this point. If Oda does any of the weird fanfic suggestions like "big mom pirates show up and we're heading to act 5" I'd be seriously concerned with him losing the thread. But so far he's never disappointed on such a fundamental level so I'll die on the hill that it won't happen.

I was on board with the kurozumi tama theories like some odd 40 chapters ago but whenever she had her big moment of helping to turn the tide I feel like that kinda finished any potential Tama plots bar celebrating along at the end. Like people still think there is somehow like 2 more years of Wano I feel with how many additional things people want to happen but I think it's kinda clear that Wano has been pushing to wrap up ever since Oda started all the strawhat matchups.

@tatermoog:

Serious question, is there even anything in Elden Ring that shouts GRRM instead of typical Miyazaki lore? Seemed extremely in line with all the other FromSoftware games to me.

All the elden lord names starting with G, R, R or M :ninja:

Yep it's not an awful reason. Square didn't see a good return on running their western studios vs the cost(like I saw some tweet digging through financial reports and crystal dynamics had like a below 1% return vs operating cost). That said I do think a big reason for that is that square just has no clue on how to run their western side. Not sure if these studios can bloom under Embracer Group since we have no clue how they're going to run things but I/O interactive is an example of an IP/studio faring much better outside square than inside square.

@Shiebs:

I find it funny no one thinks Momo is joining

I mean I assume it has to do with everyone assuming he'll become Shogun, but I find it hard to believe if he was an attractive girl that would be the same

It has to do with what the manga says. It's probably different people here but hard to not be confused how people can go momo won't become shogun and yams will stay as a guardian when both are exactly opposite of what is currently stated in the text.
Momo WANTS to fill his father's shoes, protect Wano and fulfill his duty as Shogun. He FEARS he is unworthy and imo he NEEDS to learn that he doesn't need to become his father but that he himself can protect Wano in his own way.
Now this is mostly in counter to criticizing people mostly sticking to the text for their conclusions because god knows this place is super bad at actually understanding the text and imo theories would be better for it if people understood that first before they make wilder assumptions. Basically I'm mostly saying this that there is nothing funny about going with the most obvious conclusion.

That said if we're strictly talking possibilities while I think it's unlikely right now but I don't think it's impossible that Momo learns that he needs to make the journey too, to actually protect Wano and leaves it to his retainers to deal with the immediate aftermath and mirroring his father.
It's not hard to picture that being a thing. That said to me when I look at his character story Momo isn't meant to mirror his father 1 for 1 and any action that will make him more similar to his father I think is done with consideration. When I look at Momo's story it's meant to contrast his father, meaning that readers should particularly be attentive to the differences between Momo and his father. Momo isn't meant to become Oden 2.0 in my opinion but become someone great in his very own regard that has no need to measure up to Oden.

I mean the main thing with great base material is also One Pace actually improves the viewing experience. I know I tried One Pace cuts of some fishman island episodes and while it wasn't as stretched out you couldn't get around the fact that the base material was just awful.

@Robby:

It had good pacing for the first three years. It was good up until Alabasta, which is when they pretty much ate the first few years buffer and caught up. they'd hada few standalone filler episodes up till then, notable fleshing out Logue Town and having Ace spend soem tiem with the group (and Apis) but not a whole lot of filler overall.

It got iffy but still watchable during Skypeia, which is when they switched from two chapters per episode to 1.5, then outride bad during Water 7 when it went down to 1. And ewwww the filler they did during the Foxy arc. I stopped watching long before it got to Thriller Bark but I remember the complaints being pretty heavy for it at the time.

The pacign being good for the first 130 episodes and then bad to awful for the next 400 is not in any way "not that bad most of pre-timeskip."

It's fair to have issues with pre timeskip pacing but the main thing most of pre time skip wasn't 1 or less than 1 chapter adapted per episode that is just another dimension of bad too me. Personally I thought the anime was still very watchable up to thriller bark when 1 chapter per episode started to pop up more and more they also still did filler arcs back then which by design made things less bad than now.

Thing is pacing didn't use to be that bad for most of pre timeskip. It's not like they don't know what they're doing. I don't get the One Piece anime can't be better defense it's something I heard when I was complaining years ago about how bad marineford was visually and pacing wise before dropping it as a weekly watch and mostly returning it here and there. Zou was the first time I felt like the anime became enjoyable to watch again which it wasn't to me since right before pre timeskip.
Now we reached Wano and even if I put aside my distaste at how immensely over the top flashy it has become at times it's just plain fact that One Piece never ever has looked better in its TV anime form than in Wano. It's a testament that things can be better if the powers that be around it will it so. While I understand excuses like animators were overworked during the bad years of the TV anime because of other projects I don't see why I should care as a consumer because it actually just makes it worse that the people in charge overwork their workforce to the bone to put out such a lousy product and they should have been held responsible way sooner. Barking up consumers to feel for the animators just felt weirdly misplaced. When it should have been the animators aren't really at fault but blast away at the idiots steering the actual ship.

I platted it too two weeks ago. The thing is the elden ring plat is one of the easiest in the series if not the easiest to plat. Doesn't even require the common ng+ cycles(assuming save scumming for different endings which you can fulfill all requirements for in your first playthrough) from other games to get the other boss weapons in need for a duplicate boss soul. If you ignore the size of the game it's by far the least time consuming when it comes to what you actually need to do. You get the plat basically just for getting a specific selection of special spells, weapons, accessories which is different to previous games where you had to get them all other than that it's beat all the bosses which can be tricky if you get bugged out or locked out of a quest line but with some obsessive npc checking it's doable.

My feelings didn't really change love the game a lot(it's probably going to be my goty) but I'd take less size more depth in a sequel cause less size for elden ring would still be bigger than almost all other open world games. Like I'm going through Tsushima right now and that game is maybe the size of liurna/limgrave/caelid combined while also not being even nearly as dense or interestingly designed in regards to the world and how you explore it. It's quite visually beautiful though.

What a great turn around for the anime. Pacing issues is what keep me away from it weekly but the eye candy is so appreciated and I can still enjoy it in clips vs the absolute bottom of the quality that was the stretch of fishman island to dress rosa with powerpoint tier like padding and terrible art in filler stills.

@Robby:

I started a little late because I was waiting for one of my friends spring break to play it with them. I'm 110 hours in and at level 120, somewhere between 2/3 and 3/4 done, depending on how dense the last chunk is. (I know how big it is on the map but I don't know the density) Assuming the map doesn't do another crazy surprise expansion anyway and reveal another full continent in the sky or something. . I'm taking my time and enjoying myself.

My second file, as I mentioned, I'm doing a totally different build in, is about 7 hours in and has already gone through the first three main bosses and is ready to hit the Atlas Plains. Repeat plays where you're not doing EVERYTHING and know where to go to get stuff for the build you want, and feel more okay checking a guide, and what to not waste your time on, and when you've already hit your head against the wall learning layouts and boss patterns, are much breezier. Like Stormveil Castle and Lucaria Academy took me multiple days the first time because I was exploring every inch, and they took twenty minutes the second when I knew the paths and the drops and ust ran past and around everything.

I'm probably going to be replaying this thing a lot over the next few years. But then I'm one of the weirdos that still loads up original Dark Souls and does a casual one or two sitting run of the game every now and again.

Yeah, the repeat bosses absolutely suck, but at the same time getting to a guy and going "I know how to fight you! Oh but there's two of you now!" adds a new spin to it. Maybe it gets really bad about that in the last chunk, but I've been enjoying it. Especially in the cases where I hit the scarier version first and then find the weak version later. Or, in some cases "I actually kind of one shot you the first time and tanked all the damage… this time I get to actually see what you do!" Or "oh I know what to do here, strike damage!"
On future plays where I'm not trying to explore every inch of the map or not bothering with certain drops and ONLY doing what I want it won't happen much at all.

It doesn't matter how much fun you're having with a game. ANY game you crank 100+ hours into in a month is going to wear you down. Unless you're on vacation or a school student and have loads of free time and no real job or responsibilities and thus have no real problems putting in 8 or 10 hours in one day..

I've done plenty of 100+ hour games in a month before, most recently Persona 5 and Hades. Was having a ton of fun in them, no problem, but was definitely worn down by the end. If I'd taken them just a little slower instead of gunning for that platinum I would have enjoyed the more.

Anyone that finished a game of this size in three weeks either skipped a ton of content or completely no lifed it. Finishing it even in 6 weeks is pretty nuts.

I don't really have an issue with the doubling of bosses(well it kinda depends on the boss though but even then it's less about the doubling and more about does it become mechanically more interesting). It's very much mostly reuse of certain setpiece bosses that feels like it cheapens the first time they appeared. It's like did we really need that just to fill the space. Also even regardless of the size of the world, fromsoft should have probably at least taken to heart a bit more that there doesn't always need to be a boss at the end too. It's a concept they almost do not utilize at all despite it working quite well if used smartly. But really all I'm saying is that conceptually for a sequel I'm much more of a fan of fromsoft going deeper rather than going wider design wise.

Again I just don't think this statement of a game wears you out in 200 hours is true and 200 hours over 6 weeks is like 4-5 hours a day not 8-10. But yeah I'm not really talking about how healthy it is to no life a game anyway just that not all game genre are created equal and will wear you out by doing that. Not every game experiences repetition in the way a Souls games does. Multiplayer games in general, MMOs, Mobas, Battle Royal are a lot more resilient by design to be played for many many more hours even over years. So no again I just don't think it's true that 200 hours in a game over like 6 weeks gonna wear everyone down by default. It might be true for you personally but I don't think this generalization works all that well given how extremely popular some of these games are and how much they're played.

I mean characterizing people "skipping" when they're doing a blind playthrough is kinda weird to me, especially for a game as huge and partially obscure about how to reach certain areas. They've all had complete experience when they hit the credits shrug. No one I knew did a parallel file though.

@Robby:

EVERY open world game is going to wear you out if you do EVERYTHING. From Okami to Skyrim to Horizon to Ghost of Tsushima to this one. They don't expect you to do ever last thing on the map, and certainly not in 6 weeks. Something like this intends for you to play through a couple different times and do diferent builds and find new stuff every time.

The game probably is just a bit too big, I hear a lot of people burning out on the repeat bosses and dungeons… but the game's only been out for 6 weeks. Pout 150-200 hours into any game in that time and you'll get tired.

Though on second runs just doing what you need to make your build and what you want will be 6-10 hour runs and those should be amazing. I started a second character with a completely different build, mules my weapons over via a friend, got them to level 40 within 2 hours and was off to the races, its great.

I dunno if you played but the scale isn't comparable to any other open world game. Horizon, Botw, AssCreed (pick whichever), etc all of them feel like pretty much like one game. Even the Witcher 3 to me felt like 1 big game. Elden Ring though is like 2+ dark souls games packed into one. It's nothing to do with it being open world and everything to do with fromsoft just being fucking nuts and masters of their craft. The amount of zones/landmass and how densely populated it is, imo is unprecedented. Also disagree with the hour statement it depends very much on the type of game/what the main motivation is for you to play something.

@kevo_koma:

I truly understand this is your personal opinion and it's ok but boy does it suck.

I truly and genuinely believe that the devs did not make this game with the intention for you to finish it in a couple of days

It's meant to be a months long if not years experience.

Like you said. It's like 3 games in.

So just take your time. Enjoy it

There is ZERO absolutely ZERO need for you to rush though it.

We don't need a smaller elden ring

In fact it needs to be bigger.

Maybe next time make the small dungeons much more unique

But damn do I dislike your take for a smaller game

What are you talking about? I've been playing since release that's not a couple of days. Pretty much everyone I know has finished this game like 2-3 weeks ago. Like how am I rushing? Can't say I appreciate the tone of your message nor your weird accusations and assumptions about how I played this game while knowing jackshit about me.
And no Elden Ring does not need to be bigger that is an actually awful take. Like Fromsoft is striking a really razor thin balance on this game for sustaining the open world if they made it even bigger you'd be getting your 4th version of tree sentinel(renamed or repainted), your third reuse of Morgott and Co and hey why don't we duplicate Melania and some of the other fights that only appear once? As it stands the amount of bosses and enemies they have about barely cover it all to not feel awful and even while acceptable it's still noticeable. There is already multiple moments in this game that would have massively benefited from being absolutely unique instead of being refurbished for a round 2.
Size alone does not make a game and there is a point when you're just bloating the shit out of something that could be served as a more compact more varied more focused experience.
Like let's be fucking honest if the next elden ring is smaller by just a tad bit nobody would even notice. How do I know that? Because people whining about souls, sekiro, bloodborne being "too small" are exceedingly rare and pretty much laughed at for that opinion.
Of course if your dream game is x amount % more landmass and have the Melania Day Watch patrol the lands it's fine to each their own. I'm just cognizant of the fact that Fromsoft has made smart concessions about how to fill their world, meaning their solutions work and fill the gaps well enough between the big moments but it's also not like having mohg v2, godrick v2, astel v2, etc vs unique fights is ideal.

Close to finished with this game and my very flaming hot take is that this game was too much of a good thing somehow, which I don't think a game has ever made me feel. It's like even before heading into the final stretch it feels like I played 2 full dark souls games content wise. It's been a stellar experience but also somehow I wouldn't say no to a lil bit smaller elden ring 2 and trade of the size difference for less doubling on bosses and whatever else the freed up resources from not having to fill 30% more map allows.

I watched daniel greene talk about 1044 and he brought up an argument about why Luffy wasn't hunted that I found kinda plausible enough(I do want more than that still but I think it's kinda legit).
And it's the time argument. While we're experiencing the story over the span of years and years the way the Strawhats move around from place to place is quite fast and Luffy in general is kinda speedrunning his adventure, add to that the WG wasn't shown to be incredibly coherent as an organization with their structure being held up by ever increasing layers of being in on the secret… I can kinda buy that they weren't really equipped to conduct like a hunt that mobilizes their entire force effectively and actually track Luffy with the speed he's been traveling with. We do know for a fact that catching pirates at sea is not something that's easily done and a lot of legendary captures happened through on land conflicts. So with how short Luffy's been staying at places overall it would be quite difficult and then there are the adventures where he just disappears out of reach entirely like skypea.

@Gizmo:

crazy we didn’t see an Usopp reaction to Nika. Just an acknowledgement of an active haki awareness, or lack there of like Nami/Tama don’t have. But nope, got neither.

Am I on copium still hoping for usopp to get a good moment this arc?
First arc with the full crew in years… this can't be it right?
And before people say well usopp turned the tide of battles with Tama I'm aware just isn't enough for me + all that stuff really doesn't come off that great given the entire framing has always been non of it will matter if kaido doesn't get beaten which kinda makes stakes around the armies fighting just feel very removed from it all.

Was listening to the one piece podcast and regarding the whole chosen one thing and I kinda drifted towards that it's a point where we can try and trust and see what Oda does with it. As mentioned in the podcast Oda has generally a good grasp on themes of his stories/arcs and so I'm sure when we know freedom is a part of it he does know too. So it's also very overt in how much some of these recent things do violate/encroach on that freedom theme.
I think chances are relative good that Oda has something of a subversion planned or something else to make it fit altogether cause for all its shortcomings one piece has always been decent about its usage of themes. Like the discussion kind of convinced me that while yeah we're entering dubious territory and all but I don't think Oda would go down this entire route of the conclusion of it all just being yep Luffy had destiny just work out every time. He's displayed enough strong story telling up to this point despite whatever other shortcomings there are that it makes me feel similar to how I knew that Oden wasn't really back and ruin an entire chunk of built up in this arc. So in the same vein it would be such a weird route to go down when I look at the rest of the story.

On a general level I think there is still a lot of room to put things into a context that wouldn't make readers go well Luffy was just the chosen one Zzzzzzz.
We could explore the general idea of what if some of the things that we see as special in Luffy actually didn't matter. Or things could be wrapped up in the context of what if everyone is actually special in a way but only Luffy had the will to grasp it.
And last but not least showing us the failures of past attempts(including joyboy himself) can also put things into a different context.

Can people kill the number theory now and understand that storytelling isn't going to be chained by arbitrary patterns like it? I'm not saying that if Oda notices stuff like that and he has ideas to lean into it he'd do it for kicks and giggles but it's pretty silly to assume that he'll bend over whatever plans he has just to make something fit some obscure number pattern.

I was watching Merphy and started feeling less anxious about the current stuff :ninja: (to clarify I'm anxious cause it's very easy for Oda to misstep from here on, I'm not part of the group that already were heavily disliking it after the recent chapter, still kinda wait and see if it comes together).

Again why wouldn't time limits not apply to Yamato? Who is saying that. You bet if Oda decides to not follow up on anything he did with the character and they get ignored on our way to the next island of course the argument becomes the same for having Yams disqualified. Like what argument are we making here? A character that had 200 chapters of time to have anything given to them to do but didn't receive much of anything is just simply not the same as a character that has existed for like 60-70 chapters and gotten like consistent coverage in those.

Flatout if Oda doesn't follow up on the numerous declarations etc right after Wano I'm not going to copium about them joining until Laugh Tale. Like I think it's probably fair to assume Oda is never pulling another Jinbe again about joining. The timeframe left wouldn't align with another delayed joining. If you're not doing it post Wano you're just out.

watch brook's real dream to be revealed that he wants to learn the song of liberation which somehow coincides with Luffy's goal. Like how Jinbe's vague one does. :ninja:

Also Yamato lacks like 200 chapters of not being a focus at all with 0 development before it actually puts him on equal footing to carrot and if that happens then I'd agree with the comparison.

Personally never been bothered by manga spoilers. Also same as others even if it's just lurking and going through comments it's during the spoiler period when people share their most raw thoughts.

The closer we get to the end of the arc I'm actually getting most curious about our other already quasi crewmate Law. Is Oda going to pull him away for the penultimate arc or is he there for the ride to the end. We know at the very least he'll likely be along to Laugh Tale

So I've seen a few videos now that kind of made me go maybe it is resin but I didn't really fact check any of the info and am somewhat too lazy. Hence I'm going to throw it out what everyone else thinks on Luffy just controlling his gum gum powers to a degree where he can manipulate it as rubber resin or something like that.

I think the thing with Yamato's backstory making it lack impact is partly the structure is so messed up. When you think to the other Strawhats you have the suffering/hardship leading into that moment of resolve(not resolution) and it builds to that. Luffy resolves to become stronger after Sabo's death, Zoro as a child resolves to carry on Kuina's dream, Nami resolves to carry on and save up to free her home, Sanji resolves to honor Jeff's sacrifice for him with not allowing people to go hungry, etc etc. I feel the equivalent moment is Yamato witnessing the hour of legend. But his moment we didn't actually see him react nor did we know he existed. We're shown parts of the suffering but already post their moment of resolving themselves. Anyone having issues with the emotional build up around Yamato I'm with yall(doesn't really change anything about 1016 for me though).
Definitely also in camp of waiting for that Kaido flashback and see what it might do.

I dropped elden ring for a bit to play triangle strategy not cause elden ring is bad or anything but I've been feeling to tired to play it after work. Triangle Strategy is way less stress and pretty fun. Very story heavy. Doesn't have the depth of the FF tactics job system though. Most of the depth comes from the interplay of character specific abilities and you recruit more characters along the way where a new character = new battle tool/toy. All the outside battle systems are mostly straightforward upgrade progression system(weapon and promotion) so very low on actual meaningful customization(the only thing is some characters have weapon upgrades that you can toggle between 2 different effects). I don't wanna hype the story too much to not set false expectations but if you're down for like a very wordy game where battles take the backseat to the story, the story is pretty solid imo. Very politically focused with characters just trying to operate in midst of the agendas of differing nations.

I checked and it doesn't say tree in Japanese.
ゴムゴムの実か。。。
"悪魔の実"だろう

As it stands right now I would actually agree that Yamato would be a very underwhelming join. The scattered flashbacks aren't enough for me personally. Doesn't change though that there is more groundwork as of now for him to set sail rather than not. For the joining to turn out satisfying we'd probably need a bit more backstory but most of all Oda should let him shine in a similar vein to how he let Brook shine in the team up battle. While holding off Kaido I think was a decent bit of cool fan service it's like not a great replacement for character dynamics or a compelling backstory. I'd be kinda sad if this far in Oda goes back to Usopp/Zoro tier back stories.
I think a lot would ride on the Kaido flashback but I feel like there is a lot that could/should be answered in it, makes worry/wonder how much of it will be answered in the end.
–-------
Some random musings on just the general story of Yamato and Momo, the following will have a bunch of loose assumptions just based on patterns I've seen in other stories:
So I think on one side we have the story of Momo who desperately tries to fill the shoes of his father who everyone admires and he tries to do so as an 8 year old and we've seen him really struggle to match up for obvious reasons. Momo for all intents and purposes has many a times shared his misgivings about not feeling up to the task and not feeling like he can step up to be his father. The thing is this kind of setup generally resolves in the character stepping up but also learning it's okay to no be the person that is held on a pedestal. It's okay to be yourself and that it's enough to do what you can.
On the other side we have Yamato someone that idolizes the person that Momo tries to match up to/to be. And Yamato idolizes a version of Oden that is basically based on a retelling of his experiences only having witnessed the hour of legend as his most close up interaction.
Now I don't think right now there is a whole lot to really support this and hence the disclaimer in the beginning. But I think usually a story setup like that would resolve in the character evolving the picture of their idol and maybe have a more real grasp on what type of person they've been idolizing.
After all Yamato is witnessing a literal 8 year old doing his darn best to match up to someone that in the story for us readers for all his goodness was very much portrayed as not perfect and rather selfish, while I'd characterize a good chunk of Momos actions are born out of duty/love to his country/people and a want for revenge for his father. In a way it might be fair to say that while Momo does not have the same power as his father that he's a far more responsible character. Especially the last chapter with Momo doubting and Yamato finally I think fully recognizing that this kid has struggled under the weight of his father. Where does that lead us? Well we'll see soon.

@electricmastro:

The Gomu fruit is said to come from a certain tree. Maybe it's so unique that it's only the fruit to come from a tree, for one reason or another, while the rest of the devil fruits don't.

https://i.imgur.com/2jOeDQw.png

What chapter is that?

Light typing. I'm sure just on a what types there could be level there is probably a couple that would make sense. But generally hear on a balance level it's not needed and that it would be better if they just adjust bug/ice typing instead.

So what is Luffy going to pull out of his upgrade hat? Yelling this is my final gear 4 and not stopping until he's run out of gas at the end of this chapter kind of sets it up to be not enough and he'll need something else to complete the climax.
With all the signs regarding the elders it seems like we're headed into his awakening mostly because the situation makes it seem like Luffy is going to be out of Haki so he'll need an upgrade that is Haki independent.
I will say though I'm very weirded out by how many things Luffy has gained in this confrontation, it feels like we're running out of escalation upgrades in the eternal power creep cycles of battle shonens. Depending on what is going to beat Kaido what is there going to be left?
Of course it might just be another gear 4 technique at the end of the day.

I'll be very surprised if the flow after this is going to be immediate Kaido flashback and then learning this hydra has defeated Kaido. It doesn't feel like a clean good climax that way. The flow screams one more to me right now.

@electricmastro:

If Yamato is comparable to Kinemon and the others, then I'm sure she'll get to leave Wano, if even for just Momo's sake and understanding knowledge that could benefit Wano in the process.

https://i.imgur.com/m8a74CK.png

Ah so people think he is going to become a scabbard?

2 versions is honestly a scam. Trading is already encouraged through rare pokemon and can be encouraged in a lot of other ways that don't include making certain people shell out twice the price for minor changes and with holding content.
Legends only having 1 version created a lot of subconscious goodwill from me.

Like people got upset about on disc paid dlc all the way back but if you take just a single moment to actually think about what two versions really is, it's quite a bit worse than paid on disc dlc.

It does really seem like it's going to be the gum gum fruit but for me it's still slightly too early to call it.

@Coookie:

There's also the Guardian Deity argument

What argument is that again? The one because of the fruit?
Seems really flimsy people already said that it would be real weird as a character conclusion for yams to lean into what Kaido wants and add to that Luffy too got called a guardian deity directly and he ain't going to stay on Wano after.

@DarthAsthma:

People still bring up the Yamato knows too much argument? It's still dumb. My guys Robin lived with Luffy's supposedly dead brother during the timeskip and didn't tell him when they reunited. How is that for being a spoiler? Secondly why do people assume what kind of knowledge is in the diary? Like why do people think it will spoil the journey??? It makes 0 sense as a writer to introduce it like that. Like just think for a moment, this diary with how it's been teased is going to be a source if info dump at the end of the arc for the readers is the most common pattern. Meaning there will be a whole lot more people knowing what was written in it at the end of Wano. Which means no it won't spoil the story. Like come one people. How often do authors fuck themselves over like that introducing an in story spoiler device? That is just beyond stupid vs just assuming it's the another in universe info vehicle.
Like even the actual in story spoilers with Rayleigh and Oda didn't make him barf out everything the moment he met Luffy 500 chapters ago because it's all in his control in the end.

I dunno I often feel like people should try to take the author POV. This whole spoiler nonsense feels like people only looking at it in universe making the first assumption that jumps into their head forgetting that there is a person behind the entire story deliberately making decisions about what goes on in the story.

Well well well. I would like to say I knew this because I'm a genius but that wasn't the reason. People should read more stories because this was just painfully obvious.

Maybe people will give it more earnest consideration when I say that it makes no sense from a general author pov to make a character repeatedly declare something not introduce a single lick of an underlying substory to that declaration and then go this will surely lead to a totally different result than the declaration(I'm kinda skipping some more specification in this statement in assumption that everyone understands that it's in the context of what we've seen so far of Yamato).
This does not mean that those things can't come later but for now it just is the most reasonable assumption that he will sail with Luffy at the end of this all. You can make for sure reasonable actual arguments in what capacity(companion, crewmate, caribou 2:ninja:) but just with everything you learn about stories and what good writing is, wasting space ain't part of it, so it's incredibly weird to assume that as a basis for any theory that Oda did those declaration just cause.

Similarly I already made the joke in the spoiler thread but to anyone doubting this, how come people aren't doubting Caribou boarding at the end of Wano. Exact same situation of Oda making the scene of him trading help for a spot to leave Wano and we got that scene less times than Yamato declarations.
Yet somehow I don't read consistent clamoring for why Caribou actually has a different substory out of nowhere that will end with him not boarding the ship.
Also let it be clear that part of this all is also the 1000+ chapters of One Piece we got already in which I would say it's a fair characterization of Oda that he does not really do these type of misleads. If Oda wants uncertainty around something he is more prone to just introduce things in a more vague manner vs plain deception. The rare cases where he actually deceives the deception is generally solved really fast (Oden alive, Violet betrayal, etc).

I would have been fine if Oda just rolled with the setup of the rooftop itself. At this point in time I just don't think it was worth it because of the resets after. If we'd actually got that huge team fight to the bitter end of 5 v 2 I think I'd think about it all differently but it felt really cheap how everything rolled back.

This game slaps. I've been missing the souls experience since ds3 people always come up with all kind of suggestions to scratch the souls itch like Nioh or any game with the concept of losing currency and bonfire equivalent but honestly those games generally don't hit on the souls itch, Nioh and the like a very good games I love for entirely different reasons. Cause to me the core of the souls experience is exploration and the friction that comes with it, it's not the difficulty which is overstated anyway for souls, it's not just the superficial mechanics, it's feeling the desire to push forward in the world because of its intrigue and mystery. I'm not very far in but the opening hours definitely nailed that familiar feel for me.
I'm playing very slowly though since it's a game that does take mental energy to play and a lot of times I just want to chill and zone out in the evening but my weekends are probably going to be all Elden Ring for a while.

Just wanted to shout this guy out. I believe he's the guy that called Kanjuro is the traitor far in advance, but the thing I really appreciate is the thinking process behind his theories. The video I posted above is pretty reasonable safe to assume to be quite wrong on most fronts at this point in the story but to me I feel like I can still appreciate it regardless because of how the guy structured his conclusions something I feel a lot of people in the op fandom could learn from.
Mainly I think what is admirable is there is always a clear through line on what he assumes as a possibility and then why backed up by the actual manga.

Don't really have much on the details but I think it's pretty obvious that the point of warlords losing their status is to drive home that when we get our update post Wano that the world is completely changed. Every single power structure up to that point that has kept the world stagnant is being dissolved by Oda.

I really hope gamefreak builds on arceus but honestly next title probably won't already being too far in production.
But man Arceus is literally the easiest title to just improve upon because of how many areas are so lackluster. Literally if they leave everything as is and just bring back the traditional combat while keeping some of the streamlining that alone would already be a massive improvement.
It's sad how little faith I have in gamefreak to even only do that though. Guess I'll ride out the fun wave of Arceus and come back in 3-5 years to the title that is hopefully the improvement I want.

I'm close to finishing my team all shinys so far: Garchomp, Umbreon, Ursaluna and Zoroark. Not sure what to fill the two last spots with also mostly chose shinies cause I liked their color for those but there is def mons out there that I prefer normal. Garchomp I might replace but it feels strong.

I still dislike that Oda did a Jack defeat twice. 1 time against the double dukes then repeated against Inu. The feeling that story beats have been doubled on in quick succession is one of my least favorite part in Wano.
Same for the Orochi fake death, Kanjuro fake death, same for Kinemon being critically injured, same for Zoro getting critically injured, even the Luffy loses which is a staple to us all doesn't feel as good in midst of all the repeats.
I feel like there's been an unusual amount of repeated beats and I really really dislike that part of it.

Got the 5th mount finally. Also bug shinies(got 3 of them now) seems to love me while the shinies I want(just give me a shiny eevee) are nowhere to be found.

@Robby:

I've been saying for ages THE time to do that would be after all the other battles were out of the way, so that a lengthy pause is ONLY adding context to the Kaidou final clash, and not interupting anything else. With Big Mom down that leaves just a handful of odds and ends, so the time is probably soon.

Same. I have faith. It was more the feeling that the rest took this long but we should get it soon. But also def a tiny bit worried Oda maybe thinking he can skip it and just roll parts of it into a rocks flashback or something, I dunno.
I just know right now as it stands I think Kaido still needs that extra characterization for me to be really invested. Truth to be told being a horrible piece of shit hasn't really drawn me in since the celestial dragons cause they're literally already the worst. So no villain after that could surpass it and match their hateability on being scumbags for me.
That means for me it's always been post timeskip the flashbacks that did the work of making those villains really good for me. Takeout the Doffy, BM flashbacks and it doesn't work as well for me anymore. Hody is a bit of a special case in the sense that he works off the Tiger flashback as well with his own lil scenes but it follows the same idea in my mind as having a flashback flesh him out even if indirectly. It's that extra glimpse on seeing how these villains tick and not really their bad deeds that have been consistently what got me engaged into wanting them being beaten post timeskip.

Watch us all being full on copium "Oda is saving Usopp for Elbaf" and then Elbaf just being another Zou like mini arc and we jumping straight into the final war sweat

I don't want to overstep as I've not lived in Japan but I think it depends more where you look. Cause I for sure have read some 5ch stuff calling out patterns for games in quite the savage ways.
Also just on a conceptual level while trope isn't maybe as commonly ingrained Japan still seems to have a myriad of stock character terms, tsundere probably the most well known overseas?
So it's not like Japan doesn't categorize patterns in stories in their own way maybe just the reception at large to those patterns is different.
But again mostly speaking what I've seen on the net in very specific places which is just an extremely narrow peek at people and the internet is generally not a good indicator of what people know/views in real life anyway.
Really mostly wanted to mention that at least it some places it's not like there aren't terms for character patterns.

I think an important thing too is it wouldn't matter if it felt like the main cast wasn't suffering for it. But as it stands how many readers would trade all the panels that went into the hyogoro plot for strawhat time panels? There is many of these kind of things where it feels like we're getting bloat of stuff that doesn't feel particularly meaningful in the long run nor is making the current going more exciting. I still absolutely dread how inconsequential the ice oni thing was and I really don't think it was a great way to highlight chopper as a doctor. It's going to be even weirder imo if the chopper finds miracle solution repeats for the smile fruit as many have predicted. It's the type of wasteful doubling of a moment that becomes less effective if repeated the second time around which has been going on a lot this arc.

When all is said and done I have a hard time imagining not feeling like Wano had too many characters that didn't need to exist and first on my personal chopping block would have been the Hyogoro and the Yakuza. Could have easily just taken a scabbard spot instead and fulfilled essentially the same role.