I'm going to try my best to make this story concise. But I'm looking for an unbiased opinion on my relationship/breakup since I have no one else to vent to. My friend group is generally the type of guys who would disregard any sort of feeling ("just get over it, dude") and I don't even want to bring my family into it. So here goes:
About 8 months ago I began a relationship with a girl I met online. We hit it off immediately on our first date, it was a feeling/spark I've never had before. We quickly went on dozens of unique dates - a baseball game, farmers markets, arcades, nice dinners, movie nights at my house, gym dates. Everything was going amazing - our personalities blended perfectly, we had zero fights, arguments, or disagreements. Intimacy and passion were there. It felt too good to be true. After a few months she was saying things like how lucky she was to have met me and how much of a gentleman/kind person I was. She told me about her past experiences with exes that mistreated her, cheated on her, etc and the baggage that came along with it. So naturally I went above & beyond to make her feel loved, validated, worthy. Shortly into the new year, she texts me out of the blue that my sometimes-slow text responses (I travel for work & she obviously knew that) triggered her & she needs to take time away. We met in person, she broke it off & told me she needs time to heal from her insecurities. I was devasted but understanding. I told her I loved her and will be open to her again when she is ready. In the meantime she blocked me & fully deleted her Instagram, even though I respected her space.
In March she reached out again. We quickly picked up where we left off and she told me about all the healing & personal improvement she'd done in the time apart. After a few friendly but intimate meet-ups I spilled my heart out to her & told her my intent of trying a relationship again but this time, stronger. I would do my absolute best to communicate with her frequently and help ease any fears/insecurities she had. She seemed thrilled with my newfound openness, we had talks about fate/God bringing us together again & she said "absolutely yes, but all I ask is that we take things slow so I don't get triggered again." The past 7-8 weeks were amazing, our relationship seemed stronger than before. We were texting frequently, FaceTiming almost daily, and seeing each other 2-3 times per week when our schedules aligned. We were talking about the future again (our family goals, etc.) & all of the dates we had lined up. She had me sign up at her local gym so we could be consistent workout partners. We went out with her best friend so she could introduce us. We planned double dates with our coworkers. A few Fridays ago, we both took off work & spent the entire day together, from 7am to midnight. I gifted her baseball attire as a callback to the first baseball game I took her to, and she was so excited. It was amazing - I saw my future in front of me and I had zero concerns. It felt like one of the greatest days of my life.
The next day, she was "out with friends" but would text me as soon as she was home so we could FaceTime. Instead, I got several calls from a random number. When I finally answered, it was another man telling me that he was her boyfriend. I hung up & broke down. I called her number that night and the morning after and got nothing. She finally called me at night and told me what I can only assume are lies about their relationship. That they were never in a relationship and she never cheated on me when we were together, but they were seeing each other intermittently. She also said she feels that I deserve someone better than her. Somehow I kept my composure but I was so disgusted at how someone could spend the entire day prior with you, tell you how much they love you, and be a liar the whole time without remorse.
The next day I wrote a letter telling her how hurtful it was, but that in spite of everything I loved her & forgive her and hoped we could reconnect after things settled down, and dropped it off at her work. A week later, she texted me that it was "inappropriate to visit her work during what was implied to be no-contact and make her feel vulnerable. She's trying with her "ex" & doesn't want to involve me any more than she has." She immediately blocked me afterwards (despite me not saying anything to her) & I have no way of contacting her again now that her social media is gone. It's been weeks and I'm still just as confused and devastated. I'm blaming myself for things out of my control and left wondering what I could have done differently. My heart wants her back but at the same time my brain knows there's nothing I can do, nor should do to prove myself further. All I'm left with are amazing memories, an abrupt end, and a membership to her gym that I pretty much can't use anymore.
If you made it this far, thank you for listening. It really did help just to get things off my chest.

Kena: Bridge of Spirits is such a good game despite being so… well… basic.
It’s simple — almost overly so — yet it is beloved by so many seasoned and experienced gamers.
What I got curious about after playing the game myself and reading a number of pseudo-reviews online was how exactly it achieved this.
How did a package so entry-level-looking garner such respect by 201 and 301 students?
--
The ‘Fields’ region is a great example of Kena’s dichotomy.
It’s gorgeous and inviting, with sea-foamed vistas, lush landscape and rushing waterways. There’s a even a big, lovable pet bull towering over the myriad of cute little Rot dudes scampering through the foliage. The whole place is just friendly.
Why then, does it end up being one of the game’s longest, deepest and most complex sections? Consider its many scattered puzzles, which ask you to combine platforming, archery, environmental awareness and combat proficiency. There’s even a handful of red herring platforms that you can’t properly interact with until later in your puzzle solving endeavor.
The ‘Fields’ are a microcosm of the game as a whole. A childish, Pixar-esque shell which, when uncovered, reveals a complex, involved gameplay experience underneath.
Kena: Bridge of Spirits invites you to be a kid, but treats you like an adult. This is something very few games manage — or even attempt — and it’s what makes Kena so unique, memorable and special.
--
Kena crushes its tone and aesthetic on all fronts to create something that’s desirable and attainable to a group outside of hardcore gamers.
Kena’s visuals are youthful and welcoming by using cartoonish and fairytale-esque art design. The game’s companions do the same — the Rot are your constant brigade of adorable little plush-like, Pikimin-esque comrades who hop as you walk, munch on berries, clumsily trip over each other, and squeak in pitches that can only described as ‘cute.’ You can even give them little hats to wear. They’re pets and it’s all so mired in youthful innocence that I cringe even typing it.
From a distance, Kena appears childish and immature based on its outward appearance. That is, until you peel back its outer layer.
--
The game looks like something your five-year-old might enjoying toying with on your iPad, “you-got-games-on-yo-phone?” style. But there are four elements in its building blocks that make it a game not optimized for your five-year-old on their own;

1. Narrative
2. Puzzles
3. Platforming
4. Combat

Narrative
As far as the game’s story is concerned, it may begin bright and innocent enough, but it deals not-abstractly with death and loss.
Consider that all three boys you meet in the early game — Taro, Benni and Saiya are actually dead, I-see-dead-people style. Consider also that Kena’s entire journey revolves around the loss of her own father and her desire to reconnect with him.
Additionally, it is Toshi’s selfishness and his desire to be the hero that actually ends up bringing death and destruction to his village when he jumps the gun and kills and the mountain spirit in cold blood.
Merciless affronts on nature and an up-front dealing with death and grief are not exactly for the young of age, despite their youthful packaging.
Puzzles
It would be a waste of word count to explain in detail the steps necessary to complete certain puzzles in Kena just as a set of examples to prove the point.
If you’ve played or watched gameplay, you know the puzzles are surprisingly involved, consisting often of multiple steps to complete that build on each other and require the use of all of your abilities in tandem.
One of the bigger “ah-hah” moments I recall was when I realized I could order my Rot minions to move objects while Kena stood on top of said object in order to give me a leg up to jump to a previously unreachable ledge.
Platforming
Speaking of ledges, jumping to and from them is tight and precise in Kena.
Platforming challenges are often timed (your aura-bomb weapon only activates platforms for specifically-timed bursts). Combining their scheduled nature with the need to rotate them via precise archery, mid-air grappling segments and more makes for a movement experience that is involved enough to demand the player’s full attention for every tick of the clock.
Kena and her world’s gravity also have a decided, predictable weight to them that’s not exactly forgiving, meaning the act of jumping to and fro is exact while also requiring exactness.
Combat
Fighting the enemies of Kena is similarly involved.
The cadence with which the game throws opponents your way combined with the complexities of dealing meaningful damage to said opponents creates a combat scenario which demands the player fluidly wield and swap between both melee and ranged options while carefully managing space on the battlefield.
Kamikaze-style enemies often rush Kena in carefully-spaced and well-timed waves, while enemies with shields and shells hide their weak points from visibility. Enemies like this require certain sequences to beat — be it a well-placed bomb and arrow combo, a parry, or a maneuvering to an enemy’s backside.
Boss encounters lean into these mechanics but also present new wrinkles — The Hunter fight asks the player to rethink their tactics and find a way to deal with an airborne opponent who is apt at dodging bombs and arrows, for example.
The final few bosses ask you to take everything you’ve learned throughout your journey and apply it all at once, and if you don’t… it’s defeat for Kena.
--
The above sounds like I’m describing a souls-like with platforming elements as the ‘fresh take’ in addition to the enrapturing combat.
Games that provide this much of a challenging, involved experience are typically darker in tone — be it music, environment, or what-have-you. I don’t think too many people would call Kena ‘hard,’ but these are the same people who died 10+ times to The Hunter or Corrupted Toshi.
If this game had a darker, moodier skin, would more people describe it as hard or not for the faint of heart?
In this way, Kena: Bridge of Spirits is a wolf in sheep’s clothing.
It is accessible to new players and younger gamers due to its pleasing and friendly atmosphere. But by its conclusion, it is likely to season them into better gamers. If a newbie gamer picks up Kena, they’re in for a surprise and (hopefully) delight when they find something deeper than that which they first expected.
On the other hand, Kena is a worthwhile experience for veteran gamers if they drop their toxic masculinity and play a goofy kids game with a female protagonist. This is a game that will undoubtedly earn their respect by requiring their attention, precision and commitment throughout its experience. Like the newbie gamers, gaming veterans are in for a surprise and (certainly) delight when they find something deeper than that which they first expected.
--
Kena: Bridge of Spirits is a good experience for everyone. By balancing being adorable with being difficult, it earns the respect and appreciation of everyone who plays it. Its accessibility makes it easy to recommend to anyone and the game thus earns itself a bigger audience as a result.
Its narrative and gameplay might not separate themselves in terms of newness from a saturated market, but the surprise and delight the game provides delivers an experience to its players that isn’t typical of the space.
By striking the balance between wolf and sheep, Kena elevates its quality to something beyond just the content within.
--
…and yet…
I can’t help but think, as I summarize this article, that if a game is for everyone, doesn’t that, on some level, mean it is also for no one?
I mean, when you look at the game’s narrative or gameplay, it’s not exactly reinventing the wheel here. In fact, Kena does just about nothing new. It spits out the same exact version of a game we’ve been playing for decades in the form of Tomb Raider or Uncharted or The Legend of Zelda or God of War.
Critically speaking, both the gameplay and narrative are pretty damn milquetoast.
You’re in a world infected by some arbitrary Darkness and since you’re Special and The Chosen One™ it’s your job to go around cleansing the world of evil using a combination of environmental platforming, lever and pressure plate puzzle-solving and lock-on-based, sword-swinging driven combat.
It wouldn’t be difficult to make the argument that Kena is bland.
But the discourse around the game just isn’t about that.
The game’s scored an 81 on Metacritic and has a 92% positive review rating on Steam at time of writing. It recouped its development costs in just one month, meaning every sale since then is hitting the bottom line.
People like this game.

Quick aside from me here on something that made me smile — when double-checking the score on Steam for the above info, I found these as the first two reviews at the very top of the queue: “yo wtf. bought this game to chill, why does it feels like im playing souls-like difficulty ass game HAHAHAH.” “Don’t be fooled by the graphics. This game can be a challenge at times, but it is worth the experience.”

So maybe being an experience for everyone really was the kicker?
Or, maybe, it was something else.
In fact, yeah, I can confidently say it was. It’s a game reviewer’s buzzword, but it’s oh-so apt here: polish.
--
The entire experience of playing Kena is smooth. There are no framerate drops, no bugs, no broken quests or puzzles, no desynced dialogue and facial animations. Not a single hiccup to speak of.
The game features exacting archery, precise platforming, telegraphed and accurate hitboxes, as well as an unimpeding camera, responsive and weighty combat and legible visual design that accurately communicates with the player.
You can move through Kena virtually unobstructed (until you come across a puzzle you can’t solve, but that’s your problem, not the game’s). Everything is built carefully and gels together in a cohesion that works so fluidly that playing Kena is simply frictionless.
The game’s developers — Ember Lab — nailed the fundamentals, paid attention to detail and play-tested perfectly. Their effort to go above and beyond saved this game from sinking into the obscurity of being completely and utterly Mid.
--
It’s frictionlessness that elevates Kena beyond itself. It makes the game greater than the sum of its parts. It makes Kena a complete, finished and polished experience.
Kena presents itself like it’s Disney Pixar’s latest goofy-ass, lame-ass, sub-par video game, but lying underneath the childish aesthetic is a challenging and engaging experience that’s not only a boon for all audiences of gamers, but a worthwhile one thanks to its extreme polish and dedication.
You should play it.

Kena: Bridge of Spirits is such a good game despite being so… well… basic.
It’s simple — almost overly so — yet it is beloved by so many seasoned and experienced gamers.
What I got curious about after playing the game myself and reading a number of pseudo-reviews online was how exactly it achieved this.
How did a package so entry-level-looking garner such respect by 201 and 301 students?
--
The ‘Fields’ region is a great example of Kena’s dichotomy.
It’s gorgeous and inviting, with sea-foamed vistas, lush landscape and rushing waterways. There’s a even a big, lovable pet bull towering over the myriad of cute little Rot dudes scampering through the foliage. The whole place is just friendly.
Why then, does it end up being one of the game’s longest, deepest and most complex sections? Consider its many scattered puzzles, which ask you to combine platforming, archery, environmental awareness and combat proficiency. There’s even a handful of red herring platforms that you can’t properly interact with until later in your puzzle solving endeavor.
The ‘Fields’ are a microcosm of the game as a whole. A childish, Pixar-esque shell which, when uncovered, reveals a complex, involved gameplay experience underneath.
Kena: Bridge of Spirits invites you to be a kid, but treats you like an adult. This is something very few games manage — or even attempt — and it’s what makes Kena so unique, memorable and special.
--
Kena crushes its tone and aesthetic on all fronts to create something that’s desirable and attainable to a group outside of hardcore gamers.
Kena’s visuals are youthful and welcoming by using cartoonish and fairytale-esque art design. The game’s companions do the same — the Rot are your constant brigade of adorable little plush-like, Pikimin-esque comrades who hop as you walk, munch on berries, clumsily trip over each other, and squeak in pitches that can only described as ‘cute.’ You can even give them little hats to wear. They’re pets and it’s all so mired in youthful innocence that I cringe even typing it.
From a distance, Kena appears childish and immature based on its outward appearance. That is, until you peel back its outer layer.
--
The game looks like something your five-year-old might enjoying toying with on your iPad, “you-got-games-on-yo-phone?” style. But there are four elements in its building blocks that make it a game not optimized for your five-year-old on their own;

1. Narrative
2. Puzzles
3. Platforming
4. Combat

Narrative
As far as the game’s story is concerned, it may begin bright and innocent enough, but it deals not-abstractly with death and loss.
Consider that all three boys you meet in the early game — Taro, Benni and Saiya are actually dead, I-see-dead-people style. Consider also that Kena’s entire journey revolves around the loss of her own father and her desire to reconnect with him.
Additionally, it is Toshi’s selfishness and his desire to be the hero that actually ends up bringing death and destruction to his village when he jumps the gun and kills and the mountain spirit in cold blood.
Merciless affronts on nature and an up-front dealing with death and grief are not exactly for the young of age, despite their youthful packaging.
Puzzles
It would be a waste of word count to explain in detail the steps necessary to complete certain puzzles in Kena just as a set of examples to prove the point.
If you’ve played or watched gameplay, you know the puzzles are surprisingly involved, consisting often of multiple steps to complete that build on each other and require the use of all of your abilities in tandem.
One of the bigger “ah-hah” moments I recall was when I realized I could order my Rot minions to move objects while Kena stood on top of said object in order to give me a leg up to jump to a previously unreachable ledge.
Platforming
Speaking of ledges, jumping to and from them is tight and precise in Kena.
Platforming challenges are often timed (your aura-bomb weapon only activates platforms for specifically-timed bursts). Combining their scheduled nature with the need to rotate them via precise archery, mid-air grappling segments and more makes for a movement experience that is involved enough to demand the player’s full attention for every tick of the clock.
Kena and her world’s gravity also have a decided, predictable weight to them that’s not exactly forgiving, meaning the act of jumping to and fro is exact while also requiring exactness.
Combat
Fighting the enemies of Kena is similarly involved.
The cadence with which the game throws opponents your way combined with the complexities of dealing meaningful damage to said opponents creates a combat scenario which demands the player fluidly wield and swap between both melee and ranged options while carefully managing space on the battlefield.
Kamikaze-style enemies often rush Kena in carefully-spaced and well-timed waves, while enemies with shields and shells hide their weak points from visibility. Enemies like this require certain sequences to beat — be it a well-placed bomb and arrow combo, a parry, or a maneuvering to an enemy’s backside.
Boss encounters lean into these mechanics but also present new wrinkles — The Hunter fight asks the player to rethink their tactics and find a way to deal with an airborne opponent who is apt at dodging bombs and arrows, for example.
The final few bosses ask you to take everything you’ve learned throughout your journey and apply it all at once, and if you don’t… it’s defeat for Kena.
--
The above sounds like I’m describing a souls-like with platforming elements as the ‘fresh take’ in addition to the enrapturing combat.
Games that provide this much of a challenging, involved experience are typically darker in tone — be it music, environment, or what-have-you. I don’t think too many people would call Kena ‘hard,’ but these are the same people who died 10+ times to The Hunter or Corrupted Toshi.
If this game had a darker, moodier skin, would more people describe it as hard or not for the faint of heart?
In this way, Kena: Bridge of Spirits is a wolf in sheep’s clothing.
It is accessible to new players and younger gamers due to its pleasing and friendly atmosphere. But by its conclusion, it is likely to season them into better gamers. If a newbie gamer picks up Kena, they’re in for a surprise and (hopefully) delight when they find something deeper than that which they first expected.
On the other hand, Kena is a worthwhile experience for veteran gamers if they drop their toxic masculinity and play a goofy kids game with a female protagonist. This is a game that will undoubtedly earn their respect by requiring their attention, precision and commitment throughout its experience. Like the newbie gamers, gaming veterans are in for a surprise and (certainly) delight when they find something deeper than that which they first expected.
--
Kena: Bridge of Spirits is a good experience for everyone. By balancing being adorable with being difficult, it earns the respect and appreciation of everyone who plays it. Its accessibility makes it easy to recommend to anyone and the game thus earns itself a bigger audience as a result.
Its narrative and gameplay might not separate themselves in terms of newness from a saturated market, but the surprise and delight the game provides delivers an experience to its players that isn’t typical of the space.
By striking the balance between wolf and sheep, Kena elevates its quality to something beyond just the content within.
--
…and yet…
I can’t help but think, as I summarize this article, that if a game is for everyone, doesn’t that, on some level, mean it is also for no one?
I mean, when you look at the game’s narrative or gameplay, it’s not exactly reinventing the wheel here. In fact, Kena does just about nothing new. It spits out the same exact version of a game we’ve been playing for decades in the form of Tomb Raider or Uncharted or The Legend of Zelda or God of War.
Critically speaking, both the gameplay and narrative are pretty damn milquetoast.
You’re in a world infected by some arbitrary Darkness and since you’re Special and The Chosen One™ it’s your job to go around cleansing the world of evil using a combination of environmental platforming, lever and pressure plate puzzle-solving and lock-on-based, sword-swinging driven combat.
It wouldn’t be difficult to make the argument that Kena is bland.
But the discourse around the game just isn’t about that.
The game’s scored an 81 on Metacritic and has a 92% positive review rating on Steam at time of writing. It recouped its development costs in just one month, meaning every sale since then is hitting the bottom line.
People like this game.

Quick aside from me here on something that made me smile — when double-checking the score on Steam for the above info, I found these as the first two reviews at the very top of the queue: “yo wtf. bought this game to chill, why does it feels like im playing souls-like difficulty ass game HAHAHAH.” “Don’t be fooled by the graphics. This game can be a challenge at times, but it is worth the experience.”

So maybe being an experience for everyone really was the kicker?
Or, maybe, it was something else.
In fact, yeah, I can confidently say it was. It’s a game reviewer’s buzzword, but it’s oh-so apt here: polish.
--
The entire experience of playing Kena is smooth. There are no framerate drops, no bugs, no broken quests or puzzles, no desynced dialogue and facial animations. Not a single hiccup to speak of.
The game features exacting archery, precise platforming, telegraphed and accurate hitboxes, as well as an unimpeding camera, responsive and weighty combat and legible visual design that accurately communicates with the player.
You can move through Kena virtually unobstructed (until you come across a puzzle you can’t solve, but that’s your problem, not the game’s). Everything is built carefully and gels together in a cohesion that works so fluidly that playing Kena is simply frictionless.
The game’s developers — Ember Lab — nailed the fundamentals, paid attention to detail and play-tested perfectly. Their effort to go above and beyond saved this game from sinking into the obscurity of being completely and utterly Mid.
--
It’s frictionlessness that elevates Kena beyond itself. It makes the game greater than the sum of its parts. It makes Kena a complete, finished and polished experience.
Kena presents itself like it’s Disney Pixar’s latest goofy-ass, lame-ass, sub-par video game, but lying underneath the childish aesthetic is a challenging and engaging experience that’s not only a boon for all audiences of gamers, but a worthwhile one thanks to its extreme polish and dedication.
You should play it.

Hi, the past few days I had to think about about the Guardian, some of the issues the class has as it is right now, and how I would go about fixing them. I had a lot of (What I think to be) cool ideas and now want to share them across a few posts on this sub. This post is one of those. I will first write down the ideas I had as rules, and then later add some comments explaining my thoughts and reasoning behind those ideas.
Disclaimer: This is not me saying that this is what the Guardian SHOULD BE. I also don't claim that these changes would even necessarily be for the better. My goals with these posts is not to dictate how to make the Guardian properly. My goals with these posts is discussing potential issues with the Class (many of which have already been pointed out, some of which I haven't seen discussed much), talking about potential ways of fixing them and discussing game design in general, but primarily, my goal with this is just to share and discuss some cool ideas I had because I love homebrewing :). And how knows, maybe a Paizo designer stumbles across one of these and takes some inspiration, but that would already be far more than I would hope to accomplish.
Here is a list of all parts:
Reworking The Guardian Part 1: The Taunt Mechanic
Reworking The Guardian Part 3: Class Mechanics & Subclasses
This will probably the longest post. Here I go into the primary class options my homebrew Guardians would be able to choose from. At the end I discuss some feat ideas I had, some of which should replace feats I turned into class features. _______________________________________________________________________________________

Keyword Intercept:

Some abilities refer to this. These are the rules for intercepting

Intercept You attempt to redirect an effect away from an ally to yourself. Generally, only targeted effects can be intercepted. Attempt a check using your Class DC - 10 + your armors item bonus against the enemies relevant DC or 10 + the enemies relevant modifier. -Critical Success: As success, but you gain a +2 circumstance bonus to the relevant defense. -Success: You are in time. The effect targets you instead of your ally. You can still choose to split the damage like with the failure condition. -Failure: You are barley too late. If the effect causes damage, your ally takes half and you can take the other half. You an your ally only apply half your usual resistances against that damage. -Critical Failure: You fail to Intercept

Defensive Strategy

While all Guardians are specialists of protecting their allies, the way they go about doing so differs from Guardian to Guardian. Choose 2 of the following abilities. You Subclass will grant you a third one.

Tackle Ally ⟳ Trigger: An willing ally you are adjacent is about to be subject to a hostile effect. Effect: Before the effect resolves, you push the ally 5 feet away from you and enter their space yourself. This is forced movement. If their is not enough space for either, this ability fails. If the triggering effect was targeted, you also try to Intercept it. If the triggering effect was an area effect and the ally is now outside the area, they aren't affected.
Command Attention ◆ or ◆◆ (mental) Duration: Until the end of your next turn. Area: 15-foot or 30-foot emanation. Effect: All enemies in the area are taunted 1. The area depends on the actions spend.
Danger Sense Whenever you are in the presence of a hidden threat (Such as a potential ambush, traps, hidden weapons ect.) the GM secretly rolls a Perception check against a relevant DC (Usually the Stealth DC of the creature/object). On a success you spot the danger, on a critical success you or an ally of yours gains a +1 circumstance bonus on the relevant defensive stat for the purpose of the first check made to resist the spotted threat.
Hampering Sweeps ◆ Like the feat, but enemies can attempt a Reflex save against your class DC. -Success: They get away -Failure: They can't get away -Critical Failure: They can't get away and can't take move actions for the rest of their turn.
Taunting Strike ◆ (flourish) You Strike an enemy. If you hit they are taunted 1 (Taunted 2 on a critical).
Challenge ◆ (mental) Range: 60 feet Duration: 1 round. Effect: The enemy has to attempt a Will save against your Class DC. -Critical Success: They are unaffected. -Success: They are taunted 1. -Failure: They are up to taunted 2 (Your choice). -Critical Failure: They are up to taunted 2 for up to 2 rounds (Your choice).
Blanket Defense ◆◆ Like the feat.
Body Block ◆◆ Area: 5-foot emanation. Duration: Sustained up to 3 rounds. Effect: Whenever the line-of-effect of a ranged, targeted strike/ability/spell intersect the area, you can attempt to Intercept it. If the effect is a burst, line or cone and you are between an affected ally and the areas origin, you can attempt the same check as the one when you would Intercept, but it has the following effects: -Critical Success: As success but you get a +1 circumstance bonus to the relevant defense instead. -Success: Only you are affected and you take a -1 circumstance penalty to the relevant defense. -Failure: Both you and the ally are affected as normal.
Covering Statue You always provide Standard Cover instead of Lesser Cover to allies and allies can Take Cover behind you to upgrade this to Greater Cover.
Guard Ally ◆ Targets: An ally adjacent to you. Duration: Until the end of your next turn. Effect: As long as you are still adjacent to the target, you can Intercept all targeted effects the ally is subject to. If the ally moves, you can Stride up to your speed as a reaction, but you have to Stride towards the allies current position.
Guardian Lore You gain "Guardian Lore". You can use "Guardian Lore" to Recall Knowledge about offensive statistics and abilities and about ways of mitigating them. Your proficiency in Guardian Lore increases to expert at 3rd level, to master at 7th level and to legendary at 15th level.

Feat Ideas

Taunting Strength --- Feat 2 When you succeed at an Athletics check against an enemy, they have to make a Will save against your class DC. On a failure they are taunted 1 for 1 round (Taunted 2 on a critical failure). If you Athletics check was a critical success, they decrease their degree of success by one step.
Slowing Strike ◆ (flourish) --- Feat 6 Make a Strike against an enemy. If you hit, they need to make a Fortitude save against your Class DC. If your hit was a critical hit, they decrease their degree of success by 1 step. -Critical Success: They are unaffected. -Success: They take a -5 foot status penalty to their speed for 1 round. -Failure: They take a -15 foot status penalty to their speed for 1 round. -Critical Failure: They are Immobilized for 1 round.
Ground Stomp ◆◆ --- Feat 8 You stomp the ground so hard that it becomes uneven and difficult to walk through. The ground in a 10 foot emanation becomes difficult terrain. All creatures in the area must attempt a Reflex save against your Class DC. On a failure they loose 10 feet of their next Stride action. On a critical failure they also fall prone.
Don't Run! --- Feat 10 When an enemy is taunted by you, moving away from you is difficult terrain.

_______________________________________________________________________________________

Comments

I want to start by saying, that while there was a lot of though behind some of these, other more just proof of concepts, and I realize that these options are probably not balanced yet.
There are a few things I tried to accomplish with these changes

1. I think that the Guardian is thematically closer to an Archetype than a Class. Its about protection in two very specific and niche ways. I think, that while for archetypes to have a very specific/limited scope/theme, classes need to be more open ended, or if they are specific in theme (Like the Thaumaturge) they need to have a very strong theme. And even those very specific classes (Thaumaturge, Psychic, Gunslinger) usually have a lot of choices and different ways of being played/build. I think this is something the Guardian still lacks. I come back to this in my post about Class Mechanics & Subclasses, but I tried to expand the theme from "Very specific video game-esk semi-tank" to being about "Protection in various different ways".
2. I wanted to provide players with interesting choices and make it so that different Guardians can actually be very different.
3. I tried to balance some broken options.
4. I turned some Feats that I think are very fitting for the class into general class options that you can take at level 1.
5. I wanted these abilities to fulfill the "tank" fantasy better. Gameplay of tanks generally centers around positioning and space-control. So I added some abilities that allow you to engage with that aspect of strategy.

Now lets discuss specific options

• Intercept
  • I find it weird how, in the original guardian, this has very impactful ability and "absolute" ability had no check associated with it, while the ability that is just a debuff has. I feel like it should be the other way around. So I added a check. In return, I made it for more applicable. Now you can not only use it to block damage, but you can even use it to "tank" debuffing effects for your allies, widening the scope of what you can protect your allies from.
• Tackle Ally
  • This is basically the "replacement" for the original "Intercept" class feature, so what I wrote for "Intercept" also applies here. Additionally, I think the ability to control your allies positioning and, for example, push them outside of the range of an attack to protect them from follow-ups or out of a spells area opens a new dimension of strategy.
• Command Attention
  • I feel like a Tank class needs an option that allows it to take aggro from multiple smaller creatures around it at once. This ability also plays a lot with your positioning. I also think that it makes sense for this to be automatic. This avoids a lot of weirdness in regards to who you want to fail and who don't you want to fail and makes the ability both more consistently useful and simple.
• Danger Sense / Guardian Lore
  • I want to start by saying that I got the idea for these options from the Rules Lawyer Playtest stream, where they discussed the Guardian at the end. One of his players said how he wants the Guardian to also have protection themed exploration abilities, and I couldn't agree more. I think a "Protection" class should also have options for indirect protection. Both in reality and in fantasy, "protecting" not only includes physically putting yourself between the attacker and your protectee (Usually you needing to do that means that something went wrong), proper protection primarily means seeing potential dangers coming and knowing how to avoid or deal with them. These two options play into that aspect of protection.
• Hampering Sweeps/Blanket Defense
  • I think these feats are just so thematic, cool and fitting for the class that they should be primary class features. Hampering Sweeps also needs a small nerf of course because, no, I don't think a lv 1 Guardian should be able to literally bind a god if that god had no teleportation spells prepared xd. In regard to Blanket Defense, spending a whole turn on this, I think, feels bad, and I think that the ability is also balanced if it only causes two actions.
• Body Block
  • This is meant to be the classic Reinhard/Braum shield esk ability, where you can literally use a shield, or in this case your body, to intercept range attacks against your allies. This also makes positioning really important.
• Taunting Strike
  • This is supposed to be a cool option if you want to mix some offense into your Guardian.
• Covering Statue
  • Together with Taunting Strike this allows you to have an extremely action efficient Guardian, if you wanted to. You could then use those actions for something more action-intensive. This could open up a lot of cool build ideas.
• Slowing Strike
  • This is meant to provide the Guardian with another option to control the battlefield and indirectly protect their allies. This also particularly adds some cool ranged Guardian support I'd imagine.
• Ground Stomp
  • I am honestly not sure right now since it has been some time since I read through every single feat, but I feel like the Guardian currently lacks some sort of soft Aoe CC. This should provide this.
• Don't Run!
  • I feel like this is just a typical tank-space control ability that synergizes well with other class options. I think this opens up a lot of tactical possibilities for the class.

Tho I saw the link posted here because of the Aasimar reveal I thought we might discuss the two articles from game informer about "one DnD":
https://gameinformer.mydigitalpublication.com/publication/?i=821673
tldr of the article posted by u/Juls7243 over at /onednd

TLDR (pages 11-17)
Intro:

• DnD developers are preparing a revision that is "fully compatible" with 5e.

Changing Times:

• Tumultous period - licensing issues, challenges to get enough print copies, departure of division president Cynthia William.
• These were juxtaposed against the success of Baldur's Gate 3, success of the 2023 movie release, and an evergrowing landscape of podcasts
• New books are "far more than a window dressing" and do represent the team addressing all the lessons they've learned and heard from fan's over the last 10 years

New Approaches

• First time that the lead designers of the new edition, were the lead designers of the previous one.
  • This enables the designers to flesh things out in a way that has never been done before
  • Designers know the detailed nuances of what they did/why a decade ago; they know what to preserve and what to change
• Value Proposition: Better Organized, New Content, reworks of classes/backgrounds, addition of bastions, weapon masteries, and more

A Picture's Worth

• A new intent to "help players contextualize and understand the content they're reading..."
• The PHB includes 12 pictures (1 of each class) and 48 pictures of each subclass hoping to inspire players to pick one that inspires them

For the Players

• Unlike previous edition that jumped right into character creation, the opening chapter is about playing the game and is filled with footnotes
• The new version contains a RULES GLOSSARY (YES!!)
• Bulk of book focuses on character creation
  • 75 feats (including origin creation ones)
  • 16 backgrounds (Hermit, Merchant, Noble... etc)
  • Species now replaces Race - (design team had to explain many time that race was not referring to human races, thus changed term for clarity). Aasimar, Goliath, and Orcs are present.
• Equipment now contains weapons with weapon mastieries (Vex, Nick, etc).
• Expanded tool list, and more details on crafting things like potions and scrolls
• Spell list comes from 2014 PHB AND spells from other books.
  • Tasha's Bubbling Caldron will be in the PHB
• Book is not written around the pretense of being in the Forgotten Realms, and is more realm agnostic and embraces Planescape, Spelljammer, Greyhawk etc.

Behind The Screen

• Goal for DMG - make it an "indispensable resource in and out of play". The new DMG will "show not tell"
  • Will contain half page first draft adventure design for DMs to springboard off of
• Book is a "tool box for ideas" and not only has magic items in it, but sample maps, and guidelines on encounter design
• Bastion System will be an optional set of rules in the DMG - it has the goal of "give the players something at home they care about"
• Full LORE GLOSSARY explaining key players across DnDs history
• Details the world of Greyhawk (OG gameworld by Garry Gygax) as a template world for DMs to utilize

Monstrous Option

• Biggest ever - 500 monsters - 75 brand new ones
• Every single stat block has been changed
• Monsters have the same CR as 5e - for backwards compatibility
• Monster have "expanded families" to help the building out of ecosystems
• Added a high CR vampire called "the Nightbringer" so that vampires can be used in higher level campaigns allowing for "clearer narratives"
• Addition of "epic titan level" monsters that are on-par with the tarrasque
  • New monster: "Blob of annihilation" - a gelatinous cube that can eat an entire town (SO cool)
• Large addition of NPCs of given themes - Bandits, Pirates, Mage etc that can be dropped in with no prep-work and a large spread of power levels.

The Monster Manual looks especially juicy. 500 Monsters compared to the 300 in 5th edition is amazing. The new ones look fun especially the giant Gelatinous cube. Wonder what all the 75 are going to be. I guess they will throw a lot of the monsters from previous publications in there like for example the gem dragons?
The other Article posted by Game Informer was about the Art of "One DnD"
https://www.gameinformer.com/2024/05/14/the-art-of-the-new-dungeons-dragons
Somethin thats also very exciting to me personally is again the talk about the new Monster Manual.
The 10 original Chromatic and Metallic Dragons were redesigned to better portray their biome and character. The designs for the Red and imo especially the Bronze Dragon look phenomenal in my opinion.

The art in the new core books has a chief goal of helping to further an understanding of the game. Spells are often shown being cast. Art for character backgrounds shows a possible place your hero could have come from. It even extends to the visuals of creatures in the Monster Manual. “There's a lot of mindfulness about the mixture; to pick the monster design accurately to the stat block,” says art director Emi Tanji. “If it's a creature that does slashing damage or something like you want to make sure we see claws. And you want to make sure if the art has shows something that's like a stinger, but there's nothing in the stat block – that would be weird, right?”

I wonder if that means that they made new art for all 500 monsters.
What are your thoughts. I actually think most of this stuff sounds quite exciting for a change tbh.

Ps5 owner and recently got the game.
Been playing for a week with my friends and we're already at 50+ hours (rookie numbers i know) and with that we can collectively all say that the PVP (Pirate vs Pirate) in this game sucks.
We all love the Ship to Ship battles and if my crew or the crew we go against maintains that, we can safely say that me and my friends are decent with it. We mostly captain a 3 man brig.
However, the moment it turns into boarding and PVP starts, we all collectively lose braincells.
My god the hit scans for the guns and weapons do not register properly. You fire at them, you see a hit marker but it didn't do damage apparently, but when they fire at you, all pellets hit and you get one shot.
Same goes for swordplay. You block against them but somehow, the enemy player can still hit all three swings at you even if you position yourself right in front of them.
Also, boarders are just all around damn annoying. B-hopping everywhere jesus.
It's probably just a "skill issue" with me and my friends and inb4 "git gud" spam but really hope PVP gets a bit more work if possible at least the hit scans and net code. As based on what we have experienced the net code is a lot worse when registering hits like for say, Elden Ring PVP, Rust or Hunt Showdown.

Freshly back and awake after a twelve day stint for my first time there. I knew that I wanted to go in general, and while I didn't have a firm itinerary planned out, there was one main goal that I had in terms of sites within the country. The main video game that I play is Beatmania IIDX, and it has internal trophies which are represented as badges. Your profile allows you to assign up to five of them as visible when you start a new round, and there are badges to earn for playing at least one round in every prefecture in Japan, as well as every subregion. Getting the Kanto badge meant that I needed to play at least one round in Tokyo, Kanagawa, Saitama, Gunma, Tochigi, Ibaraki, and Chiba. After five days, I had that complete, and now I have a permanent record of this trip within the game itself. There was also a time-limited event to earn points in IIDX in order to exchange them for goods, such as a hat, or a towel, or a new account card and a poster, and I managed to get that taken care of in somewhat dramatic fashion. I did some other things too.
Primary general points
· Getting Suica set on the phone and using it was generally painless. There were only two times where I needed to summon the help of a resident JR employee to clear up an issue with the gate not reading the card for some reason.
· Most vocal interaction which I had was the opposite of painless, because I continuously kept trying to speak Japanese and failing, and most people would realize that I was completely failing at it and responded with English (some with full on sentences, others with just a few words). There were a few rare times that I was able to express my intent in Japanese, receive a response, understand the response, and reply as necessary, but that was rare. Once English was invoked, I would stay with it, because that's what they were expecting. I've been self-studying the language for more than twenty years in varying degrees of intensity, and while my reading comprehesion seemed sufficient enough for this trip, and while I didn't expect my speaking to be as good because I don't have any opportunity to practice speaking, I came away bitterly disappointed in my vocal and speaking comprehension in terms of my interaction with people there. Even within the trip I could at least overhear common chitchat better, but any time I needed to converse with someone for some reason, I usually needed to have things repeated several times and broken down before I finally realized what was being said.
· You are going to be asked about separately buying a bag with every non-food purchase. Accept or immediately present one that you are carrying to indicate how your purchase shall be bagged.
· I never once had my passport requested for presentation.
· Only once did a person volutnarily reach out to address me, and it was just to ask me where I was from in English. Otherwise, everyone left me alone the entire time.
· Weather through the period was ideal. Mid to upper 70F/25C range and only a few days where it was rainy, and even then it wasn't a downpour. A while ago I personally resolved to only wear suits in public and I purchased a new pair of Mephisto shoes after hearing reports of the extensive walking causing problems for traveller's feet and shoes. My attire help up well; there were only a few times that I needed to avoid sunlight to not get too hot, and I have no issues to report from the shoes.
· I only got X'd out of a restaurant one time, and I think it's only because I wandered into it before it was ready for service. Otherwise, I never once waited in line for food, I never once went to restaurant more than once, and all food was acceptably priced for the portion and excellent for the quality.
For these per-day recounts, I wrote them contemporaneously at the end of each day, so you'll need to forgive me for some writing being in present tense and other writing being in past tense.
Day 1 - Travel, Sugamo, Ikebukuro
Non stop flight from Chicago OHare to Haneda. 12 hours. Good thing I usually don't watch movies, because that just means that all I needed to do was binge a few to make the trip go by.
Pre-trip research led me to choose APA Sugamo as my home base for the visit, and I think that it was a very fortuitious choice. I'll have more to say about it later.
Some awkward encounters happened right away upon checking in here. I was at the nearby Family Mart to buy some things and I didn’t catch that he was making sure I wanted a bag until he repeated it five times. Yes, I’ll take it. Before getting there I was coming down to ground level after checking into my room, and when that person saw that I would have been the only other person going down to the ground, they ducked right back out. I was warned on both of these kinds of things happening, so I guess it’s good to have that immediately out of the way. It would turn out that people deliberately avoiding me was rare throughout the trip.
Despite not sleeping on the trip, I had freshly arrived and had no sense of being tired, so once I had my stuff down, I went off to Ikebukuro right away. No picture or video truly conveys how crowded these areas can get. It can only be experienced in person to be understood.
I soon found Round One Ikebukruo and went right in. So dense and loud. It’s entirely alien to me to see no less than ten IIDX machines in operation and all of them in use. I dumped the money into random tickets, as I foresaw doing, but now I have to wonder if that was the right thing to do, or if it’s tied to that location. I guess I’ll find out.
The forecast is for rain so I need to be in a hurry to figure out where I’m going to go. There might be only one day left for me to get my time limited toys.
Day 2 - Kawasaki, Kanagawa - Utsunomiya, Tochigi - Oomiya, Saitama
My body decided that it only needed four hours of sleep this morning. Without doing more research, I somehow decided to assume that more of the Round One locations were close to 24 hours of operation much like Ikebukuro. Answer: no. I hopped on the train early and went to Shibuya first, but it was very quiet, so I decided to get some of the travels out of the way today and headed south to Kawasaki. I still needed to dawdle for a while until Silk Hat opened at 900AM, and when I finally was able to get inside, I was only able to verify that their store had several allotments of the campaign goods and all allotments were out. Played one round on a monitor that was surprisingly blurry, and I don’t know why that would be the case with a lightning model, but it was, so that was enough.
After doing all of that, I resolved to try to go to Chiba and Ibaraki afterwards. I figured that with Kanagawa and Tokyo likely all out, going to the outskirts would make more sense. However, there was an injury on one of the rails that threw everything off normal, and the train I found myself riding was bound for Utsunomiya instead. Seeing as how I was going to go there eventually, I rolled with it.
It doesn’t take too long to move away from Tokyo metropolitan area before you encounter more forest like areas and rice paddy fields. Halfway through the trip I noticed that two older women suddenly hopped off while the train was waiting to go to the next stop, and I followed them when I realized they found the express line. Utsunomiya has a substantial size to its area and buildings but it was very quiet on the streets there in midday. Walked a mile to Sega GIGO, found that they didn’t even have the goods tracker up. All out. Interesting buliding for it having several neon signs, all vintage and authentic at that. Getting to there from the south meant cutting through Saitama, so I knew I had enough time to make one last attempt there. Research shown two stores being near Oomiya station, so that’s where I ended up. Taito Station was immediately visible upon exit, and they have two IIDX machines specifically with 20 gram springs, which is closer to my home setup and that much lighter than standard 50 gram springs. The final hour drew near and I made one last visit to that city’s Round One. Unlike nearly every other place I went to so far, it only had one IIDX machine. However, and maybe because of that, their goods listing didn’t show everything as out. One painful language exchange later, I was able to discern that what I wanted was available. When you spend more than 3000 yen in a single credit, the game wants to verify if you really want to proceed. It does it again at 6000 and 9000. Yes, I really do. But, having made that money dump I was able to get my hands on the e-amuse card and poster with fifteen minutes left before the deadline. Mission complete. By this point in the day it was exceedingly difficult to even look at the screen so I was ready to come home, but not before getting some goods at the Oomiya Book Off and redeeming what I could for points at Round One Ikebukuro. By the end of the day the only thing that I could tolerate doing was to buy some chicken and nigiri from the nearby train station. Good enough. At that point in the day my body felt like it wants to rock back and forth after all the train riding done today. But, it ended up being worthwhile after all.
One nostalgic feeling I had the most strongly in the day was at the Utsunomiya location where the smell of it triggered past buried memories of yesteryear. I think I want to attribute it to the stronger second hand cigarette smell but I’m not sure - all the same I felt its presence strongly there. Also, I don’t see Oomiya (or really Saitama itself) mentioned as a fun place to go, but it might serve as an acceptable alternative to Ikebukuro, only not as massive in scale of human quantity. Depending on how the trip goes in total I may end up back there for IIDX playing, at least if I don’t find any other place that has 20G springs.
Day 3 - Akihabara
With the travels out of the way, it was time to keep things more regionalized and stick to one area, and there is shopping that needs to be done, so it was off to Akihabara and to see how much of other posted tales hold true. The answer is that it is a lot of it. Kotobukiya can stand to open sooner than noon. Super Potato is indeed priced for a market which wants to snap up anything cheap - I at least found Xi for under 500 and felt that it would have been a bit silly to buy only that, but it didn’t make spending 2000 on one single issue of Arcadia any better. I had no idea that Hey Arcade was right next to both of them; while it was assuredly nice to be there and see the row of Cave shooters among everything else, something got messed up with my registration of my new eamuse card with everything else, so that quickly added to my stress. Having to carry around a few hundred dollars worth of crap with every step didn’t help matters. At least I was able to help a person recover their lost phone by applying a bit of logic to the situation and deducing it to belong to the only person there who looked French, as it was on the Lock Screen. They were relieved, yes. Then, rain came, and it was more than I was anticipating, and I left the umbrella at the room, particularly since I knew I’d be shopping this day. It also turns out to have not mattered much, because I went to visit Bic Camera so that I could get myself a hair trimmer while here, and that turned into me finding a bunch of Kit Kats available, so that meant a second bag. The wind kicked out the rain and my umbrella. In trying to get as many gifts secured as possible, I found some gachapon, but it needed 100Y coins, and I didn’t need paper money in the trip yet. After fighting with maps, I found an ATM to get cash, and got the gachapon. I came home late with feeling rather crushed about the day in that I couldn’t take pictures very well with having to juggle weather and bagging considerations. There were some nice parts of the experience to be sure but between that and more gawking at Super Potato pricing ($135 for PS3 Caladrius? $6000 for Pulstar?) and seeing similar markups on other goods, I don’t think it’s unfair to say that there is a reputation that this area carries and the pricing is there to go with it.
Day 4 - Laundry Day. Shibuya, Harajuku, Shinjuku
I was so drained at the end of Day 3 that I fell asleep on the bed immediately after ending the night call, which meant that I woke up at 0200AM to a room that was fully lit. This meant that I needed to look up how to resolve my eamuse problem or else I wouldn’t be able to get back to sleep. I did both. Awake at 0800AM meant that I had time to do laundry while I figured out what to do with the rest of the day. This meant that I was able to get more of Sugamo in pictures, and it was nice to be able to walk among the actual residences, and do other things like come across a school as it was actually in session. With them being close by and all in succession, I figured to get Shibuya, Harajuku, and Shinjuku visited. It turns out to have been a good day for it, as the temperature was perfectly cool and no rain came, and the sun came out only for a little bit. Shibuya somehow doesn’t seem quite as large in scope in person but the crowds were definitely there, and it is much more hilly than I anticipated as well. After wandering around and not seeing any arcade for a bit, I came across a series of coffee and cookie shops and remained strong to not indulge. It was there while looking at a Disney store (which gets tourists to take pictures of it for some reason) that the song Alone Again came on through the nearby public speakers. What timing. It drove me to finally get a treat for myself, and the frozen latte (black sesame and houji) and croissant (dark chocolate filing) were certainly good, it ended up costing more than the dinner I’d have later this day. I found a seclusion with a garbage can to eat the food and not carry the trash around, then an arcade soon after, and it was time to determine if I could fix the problem. Just like an easy click, it was. New to trash. Old to new. Done. Why did it have to be this way. Harajuku came next, and the environment there was distinct. This one in particular felt like it was an extended carnival atmosphere with the single tight knit market street and emphasis on fashion. A conversation with a freelance artist in the subway actually went well enough that I didn’t feel dumb. The same sensation carried to Shinjuku as well, only it was more spread out. Kabuki street was interesting to see in person, and I didn’t get any unseemly vibes from the place. Maybe it’s different later at night. A return home at a reasonable time allowed me to go down Sugamo’s market street a bit; most of it was closed, but it was interesting to come across the few remaining stores that were open by 0800PM, and more so the one that wasn’t. Coming back to the hotel I found a 24 hour ramen shop with nobody inside. The chef didn’t want to speak and only pointed to the ordering kiosk when I addressed her. The food came through a slot in the obscured window. At least her thank you as I left was a bit more warm, and the food was certainly delicious. To match with the matcha dessert that I bought from Sugamo station, I swung by a 7Eleven to get a drink, and found a milk tea for cheaper than a vending machine. The overhead music in the store was an instrumental version of Alone Again.
Day 5. Ibaraki - Mount Tsukuba, Miraidaira. Kashiwa, Chiba. Akihabara 2.
Awake at 0500AM on my own and knowing the current forecast meant that my envisioned plan for the day was quickly realized. Reaching the Tsukuba Express starting point from Akihabara needs you to get very far down into the ground before getting out into sunlight. I was on the ride early enough to see schoolchildren going about their commute, some of them being no older than ten and going about it unaccompanied. The people of Tsukuba seemed to be particularly helpful and cheerful that day, even despite my Suica issues at the gate. I didn’t ask his name at the counter but the man at the service desk was eager to speak with me about my career and what I was doing there. One asked where I was from on the way up to the summit and another caught my cable car ticket on the way down. There had to have been a few of them who saw my doing this climb in my business attire and thinking me to be a complete idiot if not outright mocking them for doing it that way while they employed the use of dual walking sticks and the like. I know I read some reports of the home stretch being difficult, but it did get pretty close to being an actual rock climb instead of a trail hike for that part of it. A quick stop to Miraidaira on the way back to get the Ibaraki play. The way the town center greets you upon leaving the rail gate struck me as incredible, as well as for how quiet it was. It was like walking onto a movie set. I did find the sweet shop after the play, and that was another painful interaction yet again. Oh well. Two quick stops down Tsukuba Express and one across from Tobu Urban Park line was enough to have a toe in Chiba, and I didn’t even need to leave the physical building of the train station to get to the basement level to find a machine for a play. Thank you, Kashiwa, you were great. Gunma is all that’s left. The descent from Tsukuba did take some earnest exertion, and after doing that the two stops, that put me back in Akihabara about when I anticipated; what I failed to anticipate is how much that place seems to drain on me. I think I just need to eat at an actual dinner time. Once I got back to Sugamo and had food it was a bit better, but while in Akihabara and being around that environment, and not finding things on a shopping list, I found myself just standing still and watching life pass me by. I hemmed and hawed a while for a maid girl’s hour of service for chitchat, but eventually I talked myself out of it because I just didn’t want potential trouble, just like her name. Komaru. I thought about doing this once just to say that I did, but I ultimately decided against it. You cannot go to this place with the expectation that you will find anything unless it is advertised and new. If you are looking for anything used, don’t count on it being there. You also cannot go there without having a strong resolve to not engage with the touts, because it becomes disheartening to see them do their job and blankly stare at the world when they're forced to stand out there and do nothing. Back to Sugamo to find a place that advertised Wagyu but the price they wanted was more than I wanted to spend. The ramen and seaweed & rice servings were fine, but they advertised endless drink and I didn’t receive that. All for $20? No, son. I did better than that elsewhere, I’ll know better now. Long day.
Day 6 - Tokyo Flea Market, Nakano Broadway, Ueno.
The weather couldn’t have been better for this weekend. I’ve read reports that the flea market held near the horse race track will be arbitrarily cancelled regardless of what is reported on the website, but my gut instinct told me that it would occur today, and it did. Turns out that a flea market is a flea market which is a flea market, no matter where it happens. Same allotment of clothes and stuff that few people really want to buy, although I was able to find myself some neckties at least. I probably overpaid based on what I saw later in the route, but that’s fine. They look nice. I settled on some shot glasses for a gift as well, but I’m surprised that I can’t ind something ornate that isn’t part of a sake set. Seated in the shade with a chocolate churro while rap music played in the background - it’s like I never left home. A woman came to sit across from me for the sake of sitting down; she was from Holland and today’s her last day in the country. Her husband came with food eventually. She had three weeks here and went to several places (allegedly, she didn’t list them out) and I asked her about Nakano Broadway. She didn’t make it there. It’s a good thing that I did - this is probably the kind of environment and market that people expect of Akihabara now, and maybe that’s how Aki was years ago, but it’s different from this. What’s more interesting is that Mandarake has a larger presence here than in Akihabara (so it seems to me), and their stores had floor after floor of any and every kind of pop culture product that’s been made in the past sixty years at least. Buttress that with extensive watch and jewelry stores and a slender arcade in the basement, and it’s a very well centralized microcosm of the country’s economy on the whole. I actually made a point to have dinner earlier than usual this time and found a place to serve some deep fried pork cuts served with rice and soup on the side. It was enough, and very well made. The day had not ended and my bag was heavy with several books purchased there, so I reported back to base briefly and decided to try visiting somewhere else, and settled on Ueno. Just as I arrived, a festival was underway where local teams of people made an elaborate show of carrying a home made shrine to a temple. Streets were officially blocked by police to allow the procession. In following the line I came up against makeshift food and amusement stands with the traditional toy gun shooting and goldfish catching. It appears that this is an official “start of summer” festival and I was able to watch it all happen in front of me. That was the good part of the day.
Day 7 - Tachikawa / Kunitachi. Shinjuku 2.
One of the games that I've never played is Beatmania III The Final. I've played some BM3 7th Mix years ago, but not The Final. I found a location that has one - World Game Circus in Tachikawa. In looking around that area before the trip, I saw that there was a nearby shinkansen museum, and not much else, so I figured that going to both places would make that walk worthwhile. Turns out that it wasn’t a museum in the proper sense of a dedicated building. Rather, it was a bullet train engine car on the side of a building that was unrelated, and that was it. A cute interaction happened here - when I approached the car, I heard some children running around inside, so I approached cautiously without knowing if I was encroaching upon someone else's alloted time or something. Once the children saw me, they gave a hearty irrashaimase as I entered, and the boy stamped a paper and presented it to me. Perfect. Despite it not being a typical musem, the card did have some interesting content, and it's good to see some kind of commemoration for their achievements and progression in that industry regardless. They have a lot to be proud about there. Off to WGC. Maps wasn’t lying about the walk taking twenty minutes. It's a good thing that I looked it up on streetview beforehand, because I otherwise would have walked right past it without knowing it was there. Then there it was, and there I confronted a past that I couldn’t visit again. Sure, I got to play BM3 The Final at last, but my timing was off, my hands were off, there wasn’t much I could do. Along with that I can say that I’ve played on a Beatmania II cabinet, and that was better than 5th Style at least. But that was it, that was all I could stand to do. It was right there and I couldn’t bear to put up with it more than a few rounds at best. Dream big, because only disappointment follows if your smaller dreams ever are fulfilled. I don’t know why finding IKEA back in Shinjuku was so difficult, but it took a while. I bought a bag, and then I bought a bag because the other bag was at the end of the register, which makes sense. I did feed myself before getting back to the Taito station to play some songs, but it still wasn’t good enough. All thumbs. Ended the day with laundry since the timing worked. Speaking of making dreams big, it’s time to cross another one off the list tomorrow. I can’t wait.
Day 8 - Takasaki, Gunma. Oomiya, Saitama 2.
It’s a good thing that I only needed to get to Ikebukuro to transfer over to the next stop, because that’s where that particular run ended for some reason. I wonder what was up. Speaking of things getting messed up on trains, I managed to find my way on a train that needed a separate ticket, which I didn't have. The conductor found me right away and had me disembark at Uraja for me to wait for the proper transfer. The weather forecast said there’d be rain, and the travel forecast said it would take two hours to get there, and neither lied. I feel like I had more people staring at me in Gunma than other places. I will say that I found the Takasaki station area to be rather charming, with the stores that it had inside and the emphasis on the music culture there. It’s one thing to offer a piano to the public to play, but it’s another to have a public willing to use it. This location had both. Having what was essentially a Bic Camera built into the facility was a nice touch too. The Leisure Land arcade was sandwiched between other floors that had its own offering of gaming stuff, so that was an unexpected bit of a fun thing to look through. The area was clean and sparsely populated, and it wasn’t picked clean of all matter of things that would normally get snapped up, so that was interesting. Finally, I made it over to the machine. They had separate fans for each location. I got the songs and then the medals came, and that’s that. Kantou Seiou. I would have stayed a bit longer but I wanted to have the medals show up right away, and my internet wasn’t cooperating, so that’s all I could do. I think there was an Internet cafe that I could have used in the facility, but I didn’t want to deal with an awkward conversation. I did get some Lawson on the way out, as well as some trinkets from the local Gunma-chan store as well as some mini croissants and some macademia cookie things. More vocal awkwardness. Omiya was one of the stops on the way back, and I found a place to serve omrice, so that’s another one off the list. No shoes allowed inside. The value wasn’t there but the service was good enough, as was the flavor. The machines with the 20G springs are indeed legit. Back home in time for some McDonalds, and that’s another food-checklist item marked off. Takoyaki mayo dipping sauce - somehow it’s both salty and sweet. While returning to the hotel, I did happen to encounter an argument amongst two teenaged locals where the guy ended up half-heartedly kicking the girl and getting her to cry. I wonder what their argument was about. I didn’t play hero, but someone else did so enough to prevent an escalation and called the police over.
Day 9 - Sugamo, Tokyo Sky Tree, Akihabara 3, Kanda
Up early enough to decide that I should at least visit the Sky Tree while I'm there just to say that I did, and that I should visit the Sugamo street market upon its open since it was right there in front of me. I'm glad to have done so. With everything open, this felt more like what one would think to expect from a flea market environment that's operated and supported by the local populace. Small stores were open both sides of the street that go on for many blocks, and some tents and tables were set up to sell second hand goods as well. I was able to find someone selling a US Morgan dollar and he wanted only 2000Y for it, so that was an easy buy. If I would have known better to anticipate this area, I wouldn't have felt compelled to buy kitchy tourist crap that is expected as gifts elsewhere. If you are looking for a place to idly shop around that doesn't get extremely crowded and has an authentic local feel to it, consider making a point to come here. Off to Sky Tree. Getting the combo ticket for the second deck was worth it just for the lack of crowds on the upper area. If you're going to come here, consider getting a phone selfie stick or something of the kind so that you can take pictures against the windows without the structure scaffolding obstructing your view. On the subject of shopping again, this might be another area to consider visiting just for the sake of the specialty stores to be found here, such as those for chopsticks or hairpins. To close out the day, my wife reminded me to look for something from the Square Enix cafe, so that meant swinging by Akihabara yet again. Since it is within a walkway, it was a bit of a pain to find this place even with using maps, but I eventually found it and got what she wanted to find. Played some IIDX at Game Panic, which was surprisingly small and the one machine that was avaialble to play had some 2P turntable issues, so that didn't last all that long. Dinner was at a nearby place that specalized in tofu, so that was a good ramen serving with that infused. For the evening, I wandered south to Kanda to get night pictures, and found it to feel pretty similar to Ueno.
Day 10 - Ginza, Tokyo, Kanda & Akihabara 4
Launrdry in the morning. I also wanted to say that I went to Ginza in my time here, and I didn't research anywhere to go to keep it a surprise. It was a bit warmer and sunnier than usual that day, and I stuck to the main road for most of the walk, so I can't say that I found too many points of the interest along the path that I walked starting from Yurakucho station and heading out that way. High class store for high class people, and that's too rich for my peasant blood. Similarly for Tokyo proper itself, I suppose I'd have to needed to wander far away from the Yamanote vicinity to find points of interest there, as I didn't encounter anything that was remarkably distinctive here in comparison to other areas that I have previously seen. Continuing north across Nihonbashi brought me to Kanda and eventually to Akihabara yet again, as if it was a magnet that pulled me inside every time. For the sake of trying a different place I chose to play some IIDX at the Leisure Land arcade there, and I'm glad to have done that, as those machines were probably in the best coniditon that I encountered within that area. Dinner was at Tenkaippin, which I didn't realize until after I placed the order was cash only. The clerk didn't request it beforehand but I voluntarily left my passport there to show that I would return, and promptly went to the same ATM that I had found days prior in order to get the cash to pay for the bill.
Day 11 - Haneda T3, Nishi Nippori, Nippori, Uguisuidani, Otsuka, Shibuya, Shinjuku, Ikebukruo, home.
The end. I resolved to take the subway over to Haneda today to get the one luggage over there and stored, and it’s a good thing that I did - there’s no easy solution for getting over there without encountering a crowd. If anything I wonder if Yamanote is actually better. Regardless, I got that much done. With the day left to go, I ventured to Nishi Nippori and I needed to summon the map several times to make sure I found the location, as it was as obscure as it could get. Just a sign on the ground for the third floor, a stairway that led to the back, an elevator that had no decoration, a single room that housed everything. Arcade PCB kits on shelves, joystick panels in exposed boxes, nicotine odor from years past - it was like I was transported to 1995 upon entry, beyond the fact that the games weren’t as old. Most of them, they did have a lot going for SF3 3rd yet. I was able to take care of some game business in a hurry since I was the only one there. It was a very pleasant respite for play in comparison to most of the other sessions. The region itself felt much the same as this arcade - old and well worn, as in well lived. Venturing south to Nippori led me to stumble upon a shrine and cemetery just by following some stairs. Usuigudani was cleaner but mostly had hotels as points of interest. Back home to buy some mochi while mochi was for sale in midday. Then to Otsuka, thinking that I would wander to Ikebukuro, but I ended up wandering back to Sugamo instead. Whoops. Meal at Sugamo, then back out to return to Shibuya and Shinjuku at night to catch evening shots, when I hadn’t done so before at these places. Good thing I did that to get Golden Gai area shots at night. With the night winding down, I decided to have one last IIDX play at Round 1 in Ikebukuro to symbolically end where I started.
Ending arcade comments
· Although the upkeep is generally better and more consistent than the US, some machines will have hardware issues here too. I was surprised by the blurriness with some of the LM IIDX machines.
· Densha De Go on the propert large cabinet is nice but quickly becomes very expensive.
· Bombergirl is OK enough and having the dedicated detonator button that pops up for hitting the base is a cute touch.
· Chase Chase Jokers feels rather clunky and I'm not sure what the game is trying to do. Interesting side screen concept at least.
· Nostalgia is delightful and would probably find a small fanbase worldwide if it had more exposure.
· Favorite IIDX locations are Taito Station in Oomiya for the light keys and Leisure Land Akihabara for the high quality of the LMs there. Honorable mention goes to the Game Versus loctation in Nishi Nihonbashi, but that might not be worth it for a dedicated trip unless you go there first thing in the morning.
Ending overall comments
This was a life altering trip for me, as would be expected. While I'm glad to have made the journey, as to be expected, I will only want to return after making an extensive redoubled effort into speaking and hearing comprehension, because I know that I came across like a blubbering idiot so many times, and it's truly aggravating because I generally know what I want to say and most of the words that are used to say it, but it just doesn't come out of my mouth properly when it needs to be done.
I welcome any questions you may have, as that will help for me to recall the memories and have me write them down.

At this point, I've unlocked and played with all of the non-hidden aspects. I'm not sure if there are any hidden aspects in the game yet. This post exists to help me organize my thoughts on the various weapons as well as to get other peoples opinions. Please feel free to share your own thoughts or comment on mine.

1. Descura (staff) : The "basic" weapon of the game with a simple fast combo attack, useful ranged attacks, and generally good frame data. It can outrange most enemy attacks and is much faster than most enemy attacks making It generally effective at all ranges and generally safe. It makes perfect sense that this is the introductory weapon.
   1. Aspect of Melinoe : The already safe weapon becomes marginally safer by accelerating omega moves. I generally think this aspect could use a buff. Honestly, all of the "omega effects are faster" have struck me as really underpowered and barely noticeable. This is exacerbated by "the sorceress" arcana which makes pretty much all casts reasonably safe already. Maybe making the numbers bigger would make it feel better? Maxing out at 50% instead of (I believe) 30%. IDK, The buff just doesn't do enough to be interesting. I think a total redesign is needed since, at the moment, this aspect seems mostly overshadowed by...
   2. Aspect of Circe : Staff now gains a very powerful arcana recovery after 21 hits. This recovery ALSO makes your omega moves 15% faster. The arcana recovery is extremely potent which kind of eliminates the need for a gain boon and/or "the unseen" arcana, though obviously more recovery is better. I suspect the staff would feel better if upgrading it reduced the number of hits needed to activate serenity instead of increasing the length of serenity. But in general, I think this is an interesting aspect that changes how you evaluate a lot of boons
   3. Aspect of Momus : Staff now deals a lot more base special damage and can heal you using Omega special when you are low health, and this healing works outside combat meaning you can essentially always heal up to 50% after a battle (assuming you have arcana). This aspect is totally cracked. Your special goes from being a fast ranged poke for 10 to a poke for 40, and again that is base damage so you can toss a boon on top to get to 60-80 damage per hit. If this aspect only healed you or only buffed the special it would be a reasonable design. The fact that it does both and does both very well is absurd.
   4. Final Thoughts: Aspect of Momus seems way over tuned. Aspect of Melinoe and Aspect of Circe seem to be really stepping on eachothers toes in terms of design space since they both give you the same buff in slightly different ways. If I was a designer, I'd take the special damage buff from Momus and give it to Melinoe, replacing the omega speed buff. I'd then make the Momus heal effect work when dealing Omega attack damage instead of when hitting yourself with the Omega special. This would mean that there would be a special focused aspect, an attack focused aspect, and an Omega focussed aspect with no stepping on any toes.
2. Lim and Oros (daggers) : These remind me a lot of twin fists from the first game. They are fast, short range weapons but can extend out to medium range using an omega attack or special. They feel really good to use.
   1. Aspect of Melinoe : Now buffed to deal more backstab damage which plays well (albeit a bit inconsistently) with the omega attack. I wish the numbers were a bit higher. As is, the buff doesn't feel super relevant and doesn't much change how I approach combats. I don't find myself working that hard to get backstrikes, but I happily benefit when they happen
   2. Aspect of Artemis : Faster omega attack + a "riposte" ability that can block damage and buff your own that will work once every 15 seconds. Again, I find the "faster omega" buff to be not super noticeable, and that is all you get for upgrading. I don't have a ton of experience with this aspect. I don't enjoy the waiting required to let an enemy attack me to activate riposte to get the actual crit buff and then the further waiting for riposte to be active again. The latter "wait" could be removed by, for example, putting riposte on a 25 hit cooldown which could be reduced via upgrade. I think this would make the aspect feel a lot better
   3. Aspect of Pan: The omega special focused daggers that now take longer to charge and hit more times. This is trying to be reminiscent of the Bow aspect of Chiron but it doesn't really work. That weapon worked because you could smoothly transition from long range attack to a medium range special (thanks to the seeking effect) which would then wear off allowing you to transition into short range specials or dash out to reengage at long range. This led to really dynamic combat with interesting decisions. Aspect of pan is trying to do the same thing where your knives seek out enemies in your cast letting you increase the effective range of your omega special, but your cast is a short range effect already, at best medium range if you get a throw cast, and if you are already at short range, you can just dump an omega special into an enemy without the seeking effect at all. All in all, I think this would be a better design if the seeking effect just wasn't there and all it did was increase number of knives thrown, making the omega special a more effective medium range AOE and more damaging close range tool
   4. Final thoughts: All in all, I really like these designs. I think they could all use some tweaks but all the aspects feel different and potentially interesting after some relatively minor tweaks
3. Ygnium (torches) : These feel atrocious to use. Slow moving attacks, special attacks that you can't meaningfully target with, an extremely slow omega attack that requires slowly spamming the attack that also makes you move slow. You can occasionally dash to reposition while using your attack, but it still feels bad. The omega special attack just deals some more passive damage, with no hit stun, on enemies who come close. In terms of numbers, this weapon really isn't that bad, it deals good damage, it just feels miserable and spammy. I have almost no control over what enemies I'm attacking, I'm just kind of throwing out hit boxes and trying to maintain good spacing to keep the hit boxes relevant.
   1. Aspect of Melinoe : The omega special I hate now lasts a bit longer.
   2. Aspect of Moros : The spammy imprecise attack now has a secondary hitbox if you also spam your special.
   3. Aspect of Eos : The spammy imprecise attack now has a different secondary hitbox but it triggers on dash instead of special
   4. Final thoughts: Honestly, I just don't think this weapon is fun and if it was completely cut from the game with no replacement, I think the game would be better.
4. Zorephet (greate axe) : The heavy hitting melee weapon. Giant hit boxes and giant damage. The special is weird. I don't intuit why a giant battle axe would have a "shield" for a special. The specials hit box is deceptively small, and the block effect is finicky and unreliable. The omega special is epic though.
   1. Aspect of Melinoe : Your giant axe is now a bit faster. It is a pretty subtle effect though.
   2. Aspect of Charon : Your cast + omega special combo now works even better. Bonus points for helping to teach players the cast + omega special combo. Again, the numbers seem tweaked such that the actual buff (damage buff for cast) is pretty small. It is definitely noticeable at higher rank, but doesn't feel great. It is also awkward that this ALSO makes your omega cast last longer despite not being detonated by your omega special. Making your omega cast last longer is usually a bad thing so this feels like a strange nerf
   3. Aspect of Thanatos : Big numbers are even bigger thanks to the pretty substantial crit buff this aspect offers. At low ranks, this buff is pretty negligible, at high ranks this buff becomes very significant.
   4. Final thoughts: This is another great batch of designs. I think the omega cast for Aspect of Charon needs to be fixed. I think some numbers need tweaking, but the designs make a ton of sense and after some minor tweaks, I think they will all feel really good.
5. Revaal (skulls) : I think this is the most interesting weapon Hades 2. Its a heavy hitting medium range attack with an ammo feature. These are kind of reminiscent from the cast from Hades 1, but play much better since the skulls always drop immediately. It really sucks when your skulls wind up off the map though. It just grinds the game to a halt. The special attack is a weird dash that is pretty boring and weak. The omega special is a massive AOE and seems to give a 40% damage buff for a few seconds after its used though.
   1. Aspect of Melinoe : Your attack deals more damage, and deals even more damage if you can optimize your range. No notes. Aspect is great.
   2. Aspect of Medea : Basically, you are now your attack hit box. Your attack now sticks to you, deal damage on a time delay, and deal a bit more damage. Your omega attack stays a ranged attack if you need a ranged attack. I like the idea here but its stepping on the toes of Aspect of Melinoe a bit.
   3. Aspect of Persephone: This is the omega special focused aspect. The first effect is simple, increase omega special damage. The second is pretty complicated. When you deal damage, you charge up a little "chaos", after you charge enough, potentially over many encounters, you can use your omega special, except after your initial dash you will be put into a invincible sprint and keep shooting out beams with the amount of time you sprint dependent on how much chaos you banked up. Basically, your omega special acts kind of like a call boon from Hades 1. I think its a cool idea but it charges extremely slowly. If I were the designer, I'd have it charge much more quickly when you get in hits but then lose charge over time. This would the super omega special a cool reward for playing aggressively that players could feasibly use more like once or twice per encounter instead of once or twice per floor. Maybe make the max invulnerability time shorter to compensate.
   4. Final thoughts: Again, this is another batch of interesting designs. I don't like that two of the aspects basically boil down to being attack buffs, but at least the attacks themselves are radically different. I also think aspect of Persephone needs some pretty substantial tweaks.

All in all, I'd say that the weapons and aspects are in a pretty good spot. With the exception of Ygnium, which I don't think can be meaningfully saved, all the other weapons are powerful and fun with reasonably diverse aspects, allowing for some number tweaks to emphasize their unique characterestics. Only one aspect (Momus) seems wildly more powerful than it should be. One aspect (Descura- Melinoe) seems like it needs a major redesign. A few aspects (persephone, pan, charon, and circe) would benefit from relatively minor design tweaks.
What do you all think? What do you think of my proposed changes? Are there any huge things I overlooked or got wrong? Do you think Ygnium is fun?

[---Buffs---]
HANK!

1. Charging time : 3s-2.5s
   
2. Added tank trait
   
3. Its GONNA Blow (Sp ) : 10%-15% efficiency
   
4. Hp value 10800-11600
   

( Despite this SHRIMP got huge BUFFS yet still staying on the bottom of the tiers ,is really unideal For that being. This should make him put more pressure and be a little defensive on close range scenario's . Also his sp where he gets his speed buff should be increased as it is only a 10% increaseal )
BARLEY

1. HP value: 4800-5000
   
2. Reload speed increased by 5%
   

( I tried not to give everyone a DMG change since DMG inflation is continuously rising over time.... Soo tried some alternative options tbh. )
TARA

1. Both of her spawnables hp from SP increased by 800 ---( 2400-3200)---( 3000-3800)---

( Nobody's Talkin about how she fell off in the last few months.
BTY tried a different buff for her. What I've seen is what her spawnables hp from both of her SP is still the same even aftrr the universal stat buff. No wondy why her spawnables are soo fragile RN. )
JANET

1. Attk range: 8.33-9 blocks/tiles

( Hot take but the only thing that i suffer when playing janet is how low her range is.... As a marksman, she just..... Doesn't seem too have enough range, AKA underwhelming ..... Havin that low of attk distance also makes her more fragile, TBH i think this single buff is enough to give her a substantial improvement. )
DARRL
1.Steel hoops SP : Effect duration 2s-3s

1. Projectile amount : 5-4 DMG Distribution ==> 480--600 per projectile
   
2. Rolling reload: now also grants CC immunity for 1s
   

( Darrls viability is slowly descending due to better picks and HCS ( OFC ) but instead giving a basic Hp Buff, i thought what about buffing his steel hoops, as now he can be more aggro with his playstyle as he will be alot tankier . Also with the second change, he can do more consistent chip DMG even at max/mid range)
DOUG

1. Base healing: 1200-1600
   
2. Teammates after reviving by his super will get 25% Shield for 3s
   

ASH

1. FULL Rage gained from receiving DMG : ==>125%- 100% of his base hp
   
2. Rage bar now decays 15% slower
   

( He is also powercrept due to not having a HC as tanks get the most benefit from it and get the most sufferings without it...BUT, recently i am seeing that, as more characters are getting HCs, tanks HCs are also getting powercrept. Those HCS are still Strong tho ...... But i dont think a single HC will make him alot better. This change should let him be more AGGRO tbh )
[--MISCELLANEOUS BUFFS--]
HIEST SAFE: Base HP increased by 25% Upto ==>(80000-100000 hp)

 2. Now has a Damage cap of 5000 per second 

( Do i need to say somtin?.... HIEST recently has been INSANELY powercrept due to more high DMG dealing characters as well as balance changelogs, this sure is a necessary change RN)
[---DeBuffs---]
ANGELO

1. movement speed reduced to fast when charging attks ( from very fast)
   
2. SCR : 2-2.5 shots
   
3. Main attk DMG : 4400-4000
   

( Absolute insane marksman RN... The HIGH DMG combined with his insane speed is ridiculous )
MELODIE

1. Dash range reduced by 25%
   
2. Base SCR : 4-5
   
3. SCR from notes cut in HALF.
   

Misc: 1. After hitting a main shot, notes will no longer Dmg target's on the middle of the attacker ( Nerf )
( INSANELY high mobility and Very fast SCR... Considering how easy to hit shots TBH.... Also nobody's giving a Fuck about it... But for some reason, when applying her basic attk, the notes appear literally from her a-- inside..... , Dealing 2760 per attks... Even if all 3 of your notes are charged, u still do insane Dmg with that goffy ahh gimmick. [ 920 from basic attks+ 1840 from the notes ] this substantially increases her Burst DMG value... also once she gets her super... its pretty easy to cycle it with her notes as the notes charge rate is the same as the base SCR, aka 4 hits......Allowing her to do absurd teamwipes . Also the inability to charge notes from special targets will make her an insane Victim of spawners like Nita and Jessie )
PIPER

1. DMG value: ==>3400-3200
   
2. Autoaimer (gadget) : knockback removed, and increased slowness by 300% ( 0.5-2.0s slow ) and DMG increased to 800 from 160
   

( Having two jail free cards as a marksman are already insane, soo one of them should be tuned down, this gadget change will let her intruder's aproch slower but will not cancel their attks . Mainly the intention is , there should be a way to counter her Greatly in close scenarios.
And talk about her DMG, IMO way overtuned, way too much rewarding when shot hits , needs a balance between like what happened to Nani. )
SANDY

1. HCR : 60%-40% ( 1.66-2.5 supers )

( His HC is incredibly strong AF, As if it wasn't enough..... )
JESSIE

1. HCR : 60%-50% ( 1.66-2 Supers )

( got overtuned TBH, getting that much 10k hp turrets are just too overwhelming )
BELLE
--HYPERCHARGE TWEAKS--

1. DMG boost: 25%-20%
   
2. Speed boost: 26%-18%
   

( BELLEs high DMG boost from her HC makes her soo much deadly, so does the speed which also does insane job )
BYRON

1. Base healing/DMG: 760-720

( Ok i am sorry, but IMO his Dmg/heal got way overtuned.... I already Kinda doubted that after this change he might need a small Nerf... But at the same time... I think he will still be really Good )
CHARLIE

1. Spiders hp decay increased ( 10%-20%) Upto 10-5s spiders endurance .
   
2. Victims can now heal and reload when they are in her cocoon with 30% less efficiency.
   
3. Attk unload delay: 500ms-750ms
   

( IDK how to balance her super TBH. She has to be one of the most unserious character supers I've seen. A fast paced multiplayer game where u always have to be active, Havin a character who literally makes u being idle for a decent period of time.... Like even if the super was 3s, she still will be good... Bcuz of how her super works. her Allie's including herself, gets a huge advantage in many scenarios, because 5s is still enough to do the impossible in ongoin matches, atleast in competitive. Soo increasing the decay again will let her and her allies do less amount of crazy plays and other shit. But if u have any ideas, just let me know how to balance her super properly
but what can i see for now which needs a deserved change is that the spooders gadget Imo is still pretty braindead and strong at the same time.... 10s of endurance if doesn't get damaged helps her soo much for control , this especially helps with single non pierce attkers . This should do the damn job .
*BUFFS , DEBUFFS and CHANGES *
MANDY
--CHANGES--

1. first star power is now baseline. it is replaced with THE new SP ( In my sight's)..... Which increases the upper and lower view point by 15% in focused mode...

( IMO her 1st SP is a must for her kit..... So i tried making her 1st sp baseline as I think, she is quiet unviable without it....)
CHESTER
--buffs--

1. Main Attk DMG: ==( 1280-1400)
   
2. SCR : 7-- 6 bells
   
3. Poprocks super now have a throwing range similar to other spawners like Nita.
   

--REWORKS--

1. 2 nd sp now reveals enemy's ammo bar and charge rate ( CHARGE RATE bar amplifies like lous freeze bar)
   
2. 1 st SP now removes one cap bell attack and cycles between 2-3 bells
   

(Although OUR Mighty JESTER dosent have any good competitive purposes, he still feels awfull in Ladder as well.... bumping the DMG will make his long range shots more rewarding and reworking his 1st SP will reduce his Burst DMG buuuut, this SP will indeed increase his Consistency over DMG even more...)
KIT ( SIZABLE REWORK )
--Buffs--

1. after leeching out from an allie, he will gain 33% of his super back
   
2. Super duration when leeched on allies 10s-12s
   

--DEBUFFS--

1. MAIN attk DMG : 2000-1600 ( revert)

--changes ( Reworks )--
1.Power hungry ( SP) : renamed to " Enter context ". When leeched to an allie, his allie will passively Charge its super similar to kit himself, but it will be 20% less effective.

1. Cardboard box ( gadget) : renamed to "Enter context" will increase leached allies movement speed by 25% for 5s
   
2. Overly attached ( SP) : renamed to " Enter context" . Will get 40% DMG when super is applied to opponents and targeted victim will receive 20% more DMG from all source's. The Dmg buff also Includes kits super DMG.
   
3. Cheeseburger ( Gadget) : will now heal kit even if he isn't leeched to any allies. But it will be 30% of his max HP. And now has a maximum healing cap of 4000 . ( small Nerf) so no more Kit + Big tank combo.
   
4. After leeching out of an Allie, he will gain 25% DMG reduction for 5s
   

( Tried to make him actually decently supportive rather assassin type. Hot take but kits whole system is just messed up. From gadgets being not supportive enough to SPs being very situational. One thing i also noticed that, supportive characters who has shorter range generally suffers more than the other supports. And not to mention, his super is not that consistent. After leeching out of an Allie, he literally losts his whole damn super and considering he has no other way to fastly charge his super except attacking others opponents, which he suffers again cuz he has short range , low burst and low Hp. So He has to passively charge it most of the time. Which takes a while where 20s to be exact. So i tried to make his super just a little more cyclable and tried making his whole gadget, SP reworked . To make him supportively better. Soo lastly, WDYT? Did i overdo it, or like overbuffed him? Let me know tho. For any improvements)
CHUCK
--Debuffs--

1. Cant place polls in a HIEST safe ( in a radious of 4 tiles )

--Buffs--

1. Reload speed 2000ms-1800ms
   
2. projectile speed 1750-1860
   

--CHANGES ( small reworks) --
1 .autoaiming outside the polls will no longer place one , instead all poles now need to be placed manually.

1. Reroute gadget will pick up the nearest pole instead of last placed pole. The gadget Will Still pick up poles even if the super is Charged

( Outside heist and few hotzone maps.... He recently started to become outshined by other controllers. His kit is really weird as it only works decently on specific modes and maps. Soo kinda tried to rework some of his base stats .
And this change to his super will let him do more good pole placements soo he can do more controlling attribution for his team.. although WDYT?.
SAM ( SIZABLE REWORK)
--Changes--

1. 1st SP is now baseline. it is replaced with ( insert name ) which upon deploying his super, he will be immune to all CC for 1.5s
   
2. 2nd SP is now reworked, after launching his super, after 10s, he will instantly charge his super. (Doesn't passively charge bty )
   
3. 2nd gadget is now reworked as well to ( insert name ) . It is like sprouts one, when knuckle Busters are on the ground , using this gadget will automatically home in to himself and will deal 1800 DMG
   

( He is completely dependent on his 1st SP ... IMO making it baseline is important, second of all... Both of his 2nd gadget and SP is Dogshit.... It really need some love... Soo tried this Rework to remove some of Sam's weaknesses. Also. Is the first SP rework good or just made it too strong ?, let me know)
OR, ( Quickfix)

1. knuckle Busters pickup timing reduced by half .
   
2. Hp Value: 10800-11200
   

FANG
--debuffs--

1. SRR : 45hits
   
2. Super DMG: 2400-2200
   

--buffs--

1. Main attk DMG : 2720-2800
   
2. Super dash speed: 4000-4500
   

HYPERCHARGE Tweaks

1. HCR : 20%-30% -- ( 5-3.33 supers)

(fresh kicks SP has been always a must pick for his kit, and now because of his buffed SCR , this SP just straight makes him to be able to destroy low-mid ladder player matchmakings . Although he is counterable in competitive matches. But knowing the fact that 70% of the whole player base are casuals, i think he actually needs a super Debuff, cuz NOBODY likes to get teamwiped in a matter of seconds. He was already pretty solid IF U PLAYED HIM well enough which most of the people weren't. After his SRR buff, he already became STUPIDITY braindead as it is pretty EZ TO cycle supers.
Now i just wanna make him skill based as how he was before sep 2023. The main thing that i noticed was his SRR change is what made him less skill
Tried to revert it. But also giving him some buffs to balance thing's out.
GUS ( Rework to supportive gimmicks )
--Buffs--

1. spirit heal: 1600-2000

--CHANGES--

1. Hitting a Spirit Charged attk on a wall will now spawn a Ghost as well
   
2. Kooky popper( gadget) : added knockback but DMG is cut in 1/4th . 2000-500
   
3. 2nd gadget: removed HP sacrificial ( 5%-0% ) And next attk upon Activation will spawn 2 spirits
   

( Really hoping this will make him shine again, tried to make him supportively viable by making the spirits actually useful for healing his Allie's. Keep in mind that the sprits healing buff is an indirect buff to his 1st SP as well. Allowing his allie to heal upto 4000 which is pretty substantial. And adding some kind of CC to him soo he can atleast retreat with THIS but added additional nerf to it for a compensation. )
LOU
DEBUFFS:

1. Hypothermia SP : Max DMG reduction. 50%-35%

BUFFS:

1. Hp value: 6400-7000
   
2. SCR : 8-7 shots ( without SCR gear )
   

HYPERCHARGE tweaks (DEBUFF)

1. Hypercharged super insta freeze -70% of the freeze bar will be filled

( Same is COLGATE, not any big problems on his main kit, except his HYPERCHARGE.... Buuut supercell really likes to kill a character whos main issue isn't his base kit. also his hypothermia SP is kinda getting slept on as how secretly STRONG AF it is. You can still almost insta freeze any enemy with HCed super combined with Cyro Shyrup )

​The draft is coming up and even though this is a perceived weak class there are some scenarios of players we can get that I'm very excited about and I'm curious what you guys think.
Tier 1A: Reed Sheppard
I'm heads over heels in love with the idea of Sheppard in Charlotte. I think our two biggest needs as a team right now first and foremost a point-of-attack/off-ball guard defender and not close behind that in second a guard that has some explosive ability on offense to both play next to and takes on ball handling duties without LaMelo. I feel that Reed was borderline made in a lab to address those needs.
Let's start on offense. Sheppard is a marksman. The guy shot above 50% from three for the duration of the season on 4 attempts a game. He also has a smooth quick release that will allow him to be able to get his shot off against NBA-level defense in my opinion.
He also showed the ability to play both on and off the ball and thrive with a number of different guards with different skill sets at Kentucky.
He also showed extremely highly basketball character in accepting an extremely underserved bench role without ever complaining at Kentucky when frankly he was the best player on the team. He shows some juice as a playmaker he averaged 4.5 assists per game in just 29 minutes off the bench with a lot of those minutes being spent off the ball.
Multiple guard lineups are all the rage these days but it's a lot more complicated than just sticking two guys together and saying you can never have enough playmaking See Garland and Mitchell in Cleveland and Young and Murray in Atlanta.
Reed I feel fits seamlessly in the best-case scenario of LaMelo being a healthy ball-dominant All-Star and also provides nice insurance for the scenario where LaMelo remains unhealthy.
Now for defense, this is an interesting discussion.
From appearances alone, Sheppard looks like a nightmare on defense. He is only 6'3" with a 6'3" wingspan. He is not a very explosive athlete laterally (we will get to his vertical later). But simply writing off Reed based on that is a mistake.
The guy is maybe the best hustle defensive stat player I have ever seen. He averaged 2.5 steals per game off the bench at his size and even more absurdly averaged nearly one block per game at .7.
That's where that 42-inch vertical comes into play. He had 2 fewer blocks on the season than Kentucky's starting center. Sheppard hustles like hell off of the ball and reads passing lanes exceptionally.
He can be exposed in 1 on 1 situations by size and speed to such an extent that he will never make an all-defense team but he's far from a liability in total on defense and is any many ways an asset. He brings an effort and intensity to that side that we really lack.
While he does lack the elite physical traits of a plus defender, he certainly punches above his weight and is an upgrade to anything that we have had at the position in quite some time.
As far as making a comparison, I think Fred VanVellet on the Raptors is a similar mold to what I think Reed can be here.
FVV started off as a UDFA who slowly made his way up the Raptors rotation.
FVV is even smaller than Sheppard at 6'0". But, he also is a player that punches above his weight defensively.
While he was their backup point guard behind their All-Star in Kyle Lowry, FVV also became an excellent off-the-ball player there, especially during their title run.
Sadly, I think there is a good chance Sheppard is off of the board by the time we get to pick 6.
There is some downside of him being a tweener who is neither a truly explosive player at the point guard position and too small to be a high impact at the 2. In that scenario, I think his career could follow somewhat of a Luke Kennard, Grayson Allen arc.
But I absolutely love this pick and am rushing it in if I am Jeff Peterson and he's on the board at 6.
Tier 1: Stephon Castle
Not gonna lie, I came into this wanting to hate Castle. I looked at him as a non-shooter, who was riding the hype of a UConn team that won the title and thought that his desire of being a more ball dominant player was unfounded.
But as I've looked into him I've gotten really comfortable with him being the guy at 6.
Starting with the positives, as I said earlier, the Hornets' biggest need to me is a point-of-attack defender at the guard position and Stephon Castle is that guy.
He showed amazing defensive chops at UConn and was trusted with some of the toughest assignments in major games. He's 6'6" got good size for his age at 19 in 210 pounds and a 6'9" wingspan.
To have the defensive presence and acumen he did for a team more focused on winning the title than it was at developing NBA talent at his age was highly impressive.
I think he can guard both guards and wings at his size and do both at a higher level than Sheppard approaching that all-defense ceiling.
The offense is where his age did show he very much looked like a freshman at times with just inconsistencies throughout his game.
His jump shooting was sporadic at best and more often than not just poor. He only shot 26.7% from 3.
He did get hot at times and is a decent free throw shooter at 75% so while hope is not lost on that end. Banking on him being a good shooter in the next 2-3 years is far from a guarantee.
Castle is adamant that he has more juice with the ball in his hands than he showed at UConn and wants more opportunities to play the 1 in the NBA.
While his offensive profile would concern me greatly if I were a team building around him as my lead guard. I do think that playing with LaMelo and Brandon will give him the space to add a little more juice to his game while not having too much creation responsibility.
This comparison is a lot more friendly than it sounds but I think a possible deluxe version of Nickeil Alexander-Walker for the Timberwolves could be the mold for Castle. Great defender that has more guard skills on offense than you typically get from someone who can defend 1-3 but not enough guard skill to really be happy if he was ever your lead guard.
If LaMelo can stay healthy, I do really like the idea of him coming along slowly as the defensive connective tissue and connector on offense in between LaMelo and Bradon.
Tier 2: Donavan Clingan, Nikola Topic
I am decidedly less excited about both of these options than the first two but there are some things to like.
Clingan could come in immediately and I feel replicate the role that Brook Lopez and Kristaps Porzingis played as drop coverage rim protectors for Charles Lee in Milwaukee and Boston.
He also shows some nice traits as a passer which could carry over from the things Boston's does with KP and Al Horford.
I think Clingan could be worth it even if we have confidence that Mark Williams' back injury will be fine in the long term. Look at Dallas with Gafford and Livley; their ability to have that caliber of center play at all times is a huge asset.
Downside for Clingan is he's a very poor free throw shooter and will be a hack-a-shaq target more than likely/
His upside on offense really isn't there, it's really a what you see is what you get proposition.
Topic, if we take him it's really getting into a best player available proposition because I really do not love the fit here.
He's a very high IQ player, and shows some really nice crafty traits and tricks of the trade. He's played at a high level professionally as a teen all of which are great.
However, I think he really does lack zip and explosiveness with the ball in his hands, he's a pretty stiff and rigid mover that kinda plays like he's stuck in one gear on offense. He struggled to shoot the ball only making 26 threes in 22 games.
That lack of explosiveness shows on defense as well where I found him be pretty poor.
He is a good free throw shooter so there is possibly some upside to the jump shot. He's a very smart player who I do think takes good angles and does crafty things to get to the rim and get downhill and playmaker for others so I do see how he can at least develop that out to the mid-range area.
He reminds me a lot of Josh Giddey, who is currently a bad fit with SGA and Jalen Williams, two players that I view as a very good blueprint of how I would like to see the team be built around LaMelo and Brandon.
On the high side of outcomes for Topic, I could see Goran Dragic on the Heat and possibly even a little bit of Franz Wagner, and I do think he is the best choice if the first three choices are off the board.

Somehow OW teammates beat LoL teammates in terms of pure awfulness.
It happens almost every single game, if it's not someone going AFK, it's someone throwing, win trading, completely awful at the game, or just straight up trolling.
The thing that happened to me during my last match was were I said "that's f*cking it, I'm done with this game." There is this character that I forgot his name that can pull allies towards him, it's mostly used for trolling from what I see, this last game I played, enemy D.Va used her ult and I was safe inside a building, but this "teammate" pulled me out and made me die with him, we were winning and from that point everything went to hell and we lost.
And this is a common occurrence with characters that can create walls, obstacle or pull teammates, they are often used to block the way for your teammates or be a hindrance to them.
I just have never seen such teammates before in any game, and I am wondering, why? Is this game really plagued with trolls, afks, throwers, bad players?

Here's every argument against 1x1x1 block I have heard and why I think they're wrong
1: "It adds too much complexity" You will use them only when necessary If you only use it for large structures you're stupid and not the fault of the 1x1x1 Usually the alternatives (using different sizes of blocks, pistons, pipes with shields) also waste more complexity than a simple 1x1x1
2: Just use ... (subpoints) 2.1: Just use pistons that retract Pistons add 5 complexity and way more weight than 1x1x1 blocks would They also use up more space as they can't be retracted in builder
2.2: Just use 1x1x1 pipe (with shields) The pipes often look worse If you add shields to make it look good it will take up more valuable space There are also no 1x1 shields so the shields might be too long for what you need
2.3: Just use different blocks People often suggest to use different blocks to make shapes This may be reasonable (5 block long using 3 long and 2 long, etc) but sometimes this would add mroe complexity which is painful when building larger builds
3: We don't need them Something I've heard many people say What do we need tiny cannons for these days? They used to be for high firerate stuff but that has been ruined with their new ammo limits There are so many useless, pointless, worthless blocks yet they exist There are so few times when we really need the 1x1x1 but when we do it's either the 1x1x1 or workarounds that force me to waste an hour of fixing everything that broke from what I just did Especially with the fucky physics and insanely inconsistent mechanics (I once fixed a piston glitch not working by deleting a shield on the complete other side of the build and once adding another copy of the same structure fixed the blocks refusing to merge)
4: It reduces creativity (The devs' argument) It absolutely doesn't. How would adding more variety in blocks reduce creativity? Yes encouraging creative solutions is good but sometimes those solutions increase complexity a big amount and I doubt just using a piston is creative Other games about creating (Scrap Mechanic and Stormworks for example) have only 1x1x1 and those games have insanely creative communities which make some really fucking cool, complex and good looking things I don't think giving us more options will reduce creativity
Finally Overall I see no reason to not add it It should be relatively easy to add since it's just a smaller block
I will try to address any arguments that are posted in the comments Thank you for reading I hope the devs see this and understand

This post contains spoilers from CS1-Reverie, including Reverie’s post-game content.
Disclaimer: The analysis portion of the Background section contains discussion of mental illness. I am not an expert in mental health, or any health field for that matter. I’m just a guy applying his own perception, lived experiences, and surface-level knowledge to interpreting Rean’s arc. I probably don’t even need to be making this disclaimer, but I felt like it.
Last year, I made this post asking how the members of this sub felt about Cold Steel’s protagonist: the one and only Rean Schwarzer. I was pleasantly surprised by the amount of engagement it got, as well as the diversity of opinion expressed in the comments. There were those who loved him, those who were neutral on him, and a few who just couldn’t stand him. At the time, I had just finished CS2, so there was a ton about Rean I wasn’t privy to. However, now that I’ve played Reverie and am fully caught up with the first half of the series, I have a much fuller picture of him. Since so many of you were kind enough to offer up your takes on Rean back then, I figured I’d express my own thoughts on him in the form of a proper analysis. Without further ado, let’s begin!

Background

Rean Schwarzer (born Rean Osborne) is the main protagonist of Trails of Cold Steel I, II, III, and IV, as well as one of the three main protagonists of Trails into Reverie. He was born in S.1187 to Erebonian commoners Brigadier General Giliath and Kasia Osborne. Rean’s father was a brilliant leader and strategist, but his commoner status made him an enemy of the military’s nobles. This led to Giliath’s home being attacked by jaegers when Rean was five, resulting in Kasia’s death and Rean’s heart being punctured by shrapnel. In a desperate bid to save his son’s life, Giliath made a deal with Ishmelga, the Ebon Knight, to become its Awakener and used its power to transplant his own heart into Rean’s body. Due to his deal with Ishmelga, Giliath was forced to give up custody of Rean, entrusting him to the care of Baron Teo Schwarzer. As a result, “Rean Osborne,” the son of a commoner military officer, became “Rean Schwarzer,” the adopted son of a minor noble family.
Although Rean’s new family was loving and supportive, his new life was not without struggle. The boy’s sudden, mysterious appearance in the Schwarzer household made the family - particularly Teo - the subject of gossip and controversy among other nobles. Some believed Rean was Teo’s illegitimate child, while others openly lambasted Teo for his willingness to potentially allow a commoner into the nobility’s ranks. Teo essentially became an outcast among his noble peers, his family’s name tarnished by rumor. Rean, for his part, came to believe he was at fault for this situation, and the subsequent guilt would plague him for many years.
Rean’s self-worth was further challenged by another, more personal problem that arose during his childhood. At age nine, Rean watched an unknown monster attack his younger sister, Elise, and the stress caused an innate “ogre power” within him to manifest. Rean fell into a blind rage, savagely killing the monster. When he returned to his senses, Rean was traumatized by the scene he had left behind, and by the discovery of this new, violent side of him he could not control.
Two years later, Rean became an apprentice of the legendary swordsman Yun Ka-fai, founder of the Eight Leaves One Blade school, hoping to learn how to control his ogre powers. Despite showing great promise as a swordsman, Rean was unable to develop control over his ogre power, and Yun was eventually forced to cut short Rean’s training for unrelated reasons. Although the beginner-rank Rean continued to train on his own, the damage to his psyche was too deep-seated for him to fix alone. He believed he was nothing but a burden and a monster, undeserving of love or happiness. This guilt and self-loathing spurred him to always put others’ needs and well-being above his own, believing himself less important than anyone else. This self-sacrificial behavior became a recurring problem for Rean over the course of his adolescence and early adulthood.
In S.1204, at age 17, Rean enrolled at the prestigious Thors Military Academy in eastern Erebonia. He, along with eight others, became part of Class VII, Thors’s first socially integrated graduating class. Although he still struggled with low self-worth, Rean thrived in this new environment, quickly befriending his classmates and discovering his natural-born ability as a leader. By this time, Rean’s real father, Giliath Osborne, had become Chancellor of Erebonia and was being targeted for death by the Imperial Liberation Front - an anti-Osborne terrorist group. The ILF was a recurring presence in Class VII’s lives during their first school year, and the two groups clashed frequently. At the end of the year, Rean’s life took a dramatic turn when he unexpectedly became the Awakener for the Divine Knight Valimar before watching the ILF - led by his friend Crow Armbrust - seemingly assassinate Osborne and spark a nationwide civil war. Thors came under siege by Crow shortly thereafter, and in the chaos, Rean was forcibly separated from his classmates.
One month later, Rean awoke in the Eisengard Mountain Range outside his adopted hometown, Ymir. Now armed with Valimar’s power, Rean rendezvoused with his family and set out to reunite Class VII. Although he succeeded, Rean was later captured by the Noble Alliance and was held captive alongside Erebonian princess Alfin Reise Arnor. With Alfin’s encouragement, Rean freed the two of them using his ogre powers and rejoined Class VII onboard the imperial family’s airship Courageous. Thanks to Alfin and his bond with his classmates, Rean learned to stop fearing his ogre powers and started opening up more to those closest to him. Using the Courageous, Class VII successfully led a mission to retake Thors before ultimately confronting the Noble Alliance’s leader, Duke Cayenne, and stopping his plan to use the Infernal Castle to win the war. At the same time, new drama entered Rean’s life: Shortly after stopping Duke Cayenne’s plan, Crow unexpectedly died and Osborne was revealed to still be alive - and Rean’s real father. Rean, for his part, was formally recognized by the imperial government for his role in ending the war and became a national hero. This was, however, merely a ploy to pressure Rean into obeying Osborne’s wishes, and it succeeded, as Rean subsequently became an operative in Erebonia’s conquest of Crossbell. It was during this time that he became acquainted with Crossbell Special Support Section leader Lloyd Bannings.After Crossbell’s annexation, Rean fought in the Northern War, which resulted in Erebonia annexing North Ambria. He partook in the siege of Haliask, where he fought archaisms using Valimar. During this stretch of the war, Rean lost control of his ogre powers and was rendered unconscious for three days. As a result, he once again lost faith in his ability to control himself, and swore off the use of his ogre power.
In April S.1206, roughly 1.5 years after the civil war’s end, Rean started a job as instructor of a “new Class VII” at Thors’s new branch campus in western Erebonia. At the branch campus, Rean bonded with his students and fellow faculty while also taking on assignments from the imperial government. It was also during this time that Osborne’s plan to trigger the Great Twilight started unfolding, causing Rean, his students, and his comrades to regularly butt heads with jaegers, Ouroboros, and powerful cryptids. Ultimately, however, Osborne outmaneuvered all attempts by Rean, Olivert, and others to stop him; the Courageous was destroyed by a bomb with Olivert still onboard, Rean’s forces were spread thin through various battles, and Rean himself was forced to watch as Millium Orion was killed and turned into a Sword of the End. Finally at his wit’s end, Rean suffered a mental breakdown and was consumed by his ogre powers, causing him to violently trigger the Great Twilight himself before being taken captive by Osborne and Ishmelga.
After a short period of captivity, Rean was freed by Class VII and their allies. He, along with the SSS and the Liberl Bracer Guild, declined to become part of Musse Egret’s Operation Mille Mirage, instead choosing to oppose Osborne their own way. Rean, as Valimar’s Awakener, decided to partake in the Rivalries to reform the Great One, in hopes of defeating Ishmelga’s curse. He gradually defeated and absorbed power from the other Awakeners until, finally, during Operation Jormungandr, he defeated Osborne and Ishmelga, becoming the pilot of a corrupted Great One. It is at this time when two different futures unfolded: In one, Rean flew the Great One beyond Zemuria’s atmosphere to remove Ishmelga from the continent. In the other, Rean used the power of the Holy Beast of Earth to give Ishmelga’s curse a corporeal form, allowing him and his friends to destroy it. It was this latter future that became Zemuria’s reality, while the former remained hypothetical and unrealized.
Many months after Ishmelga’s defeat, in S.1207, Rean became involved in the incident involving Crossbell and Elysium. While combating enemy forces in the Nord Highlands, Rean started undergoing assimilation with Ishmelga-Rean, an alternate version of himself created by Elysium based on the unrealized timeline from when Ishmelga was first beaten. Later, during the final confrontation with Ishmelga-Rean, the real Rean saw visions of his other self’s sacrifice and finally grasped the devastating effects his past martyr-like behavior had on those he loved. He vowed to make a change before eliminating Ishmelga-Rean, stopping the assimilation.
Sometime after the clash with Elysium, Rean visited Longlai in eastern Calvard with his family, secretly hoping to track down Yun while there. Instead, he encountered members of the Ikaruga jaeger corps, who informed him that Yun was not in Longlai before departing. Rean has since contented himself with his current life as a Thors instructor, sensing that the next incident to befall Zemuria will involve not him, but an entirely different group of heroes.
Analysis: From even a cursory glance at Rean’s story, it is clear he endured much distress and trauma at a young age, and in my view, the result was deep-seated mental illness - namely depression. I am not a psychologist, but I would wager that the violent manner in which his five year-old self lost his home, his mother, and, almost, his own life, was horrific enough for his mind to block all memory of that period as a defense mechanism. This would help explain how Rean did not remember his real parentage until his encounter with Osborne in CS2 jogged his memory. Further stressing Rean were the controversies surrounding his adoption, which were not at all his fault but still interpreted as such by him, and the sudden, gory manner in which he learned of his ogre power. With such a potent combination of stressors burdening his young mind, it is no surprise to me that it took Rean such a long time to overcome his feelings of guilt and worthlessness. He was saddled with depression during the most formative period of his life, and like any mental illness, depression cannot be overcome with just one or two instances of positive reinforcement. It is often something people have to live with for many years, with periods of relative difficulty and relative ease. Looking at it this way, it makes sense for Rean’s arc to have taken as long as it did.
Side note: Obviously, Rean’s story is not the most realistic depiction of depression in fiction, but the manner in which it unfolds and is presented is still enough for me to take it seriously as a journey of struggling with mental health. When Rean receives support or encouragement from his friends and family, it helps in the short-term, but does little to erode the larger problem because that simply isn’t enough. Further, Rean’s progress is not linear, but is marked with occasional setbacks: In CS2, he finally learns to stop fearing his ogre power, but in CS3, we see that he is still vulnerable to losing control of it, and he does so during the Northern War and in the finale of that game. He receives a pendant (“meds?”) and training (“therapy?”) to control said power in CS3, but he still struggles with it. In CS4’s “bad” ending, even after everything he has gone through, Rean falls back into his old habits of self-sacrifice, because that’s how “baked-in” his problems are; he doesn’t even see the issue because he’s lived that way for so long. It is CS3’s finale that is the most striking part of Rean’s journey to me: In my eyes, it is the same as Rean having a mental breakdown, too overcome by his own emotional turmoil to control himself. He becomes consumed by his own demons, literally and figuratively, and it takes the collective effort of his loved ones in CS4 to bring him back to stability.
It is also fitting that Rean’s big turning point - the moment in Reverie where he sees the pain his martyr-esque behavior causes others - is as dramatic as the instances that facilitated Rean’s internal struggle to begin with. What I particularly appreciate about this chunk of Rean’s arc is that it is presented as Rean finally realizing the change he needs to make, rather than him being instantly cured of his ailments. It is simply him resolving to change his outlook on himself and his relationships, and that feels more grounded to me than any alternative route the writers could have taken.

Personality

Rean is a kind, courageous, selfless individual who greatly cares about those around him. Despite his own low self-esteem, he is a gifted speaker and possesses the spirit of a natural-born leader. It is this charisma that quickly made him the de facto leader of Class VII, as he often served as an intermediary for the interpersonal clashes between his other classmates (see: Machias/Jusis and Fie/Laura). He often goes out of his way to help his peers solve problems or make their lives easier. This behavior is propelled by his own feelings of worthlessness, which causes his generosity to often escalate to self-sacrificial activity. On the occasions when Rean is unable to help someone, he often feels guilty, even if the problem at hand was not his fault or was out of his control (examples include his inability to stop Vulcan and Crow from dying in CS2).
Rean is also extraordinarily perceptive thanks to his Unclouded Eye technique, which he learned from Yun Ka-fai. This allows him to set aside any preconceived notions or prejudices he may have and accurately discern a person’s true nature. His training also allows him to notice things others may not, such as objects moving at high speed or unseen people/creatures in his vicinity. At the same time, there are things he struggles to pick up on, namely when it comes to others’ feelings regarding him. Rean often fumbles when it comes to romantic/intimate interactions with the girls in his life, either unintentionally flustering them or failing to understand how deep their feelings run. Rean also fails to understand how his martyr behavior hurts those he cares about, despite numerous incidents ending with people refusing to abandon him and calling him out for perceived recklessness.
Analysis: One thing I’ve always appreciated about Rean is that, despite his serious personal problems, he never comes off as whiny, annoying, cringe, etc. He knows how to compartmentalize and portray an air of confidence and amicability; I would attribute this to his noble upbringing, as we see similar behavior in other noble characters like Laura and Jusis. His natural ability as a speaker and leader are reminiscent of Osborne’s, as is his penchant for self-sacrificial behavior; Osborne was, after all, willing to bond with Ishmelga, literally give his heart to his son, and turn himself into a villain for the sake of his people.
There are considerable differences between Rean and the three protagonists who preceded him. He is almost the antithesis of Estelle: She is lively, spontaneous, and unafraid to open up to others emotionally, Rean is more reserved and measured, and is initially guarded, though he does learn to express himself over time. While he does share similar backstory details to Kevin, their outward personalities are starkly different, with Kevin being suave and laid-back and Rean being more serious and passive. As for Lloyd, while Rean does share his kindness, perception, and leadership ability, the two do have their differences as well. Lloyd’s arc is about starting from nothing and overcoming barriers, gaining strength along the way. He is driven by a commitment to justice and a zealous patriotic spirit. Rean, on the other hand, starts out with great power at a young age but struggles to control it, making his journey more internal and personal than Lloyd’s. Additionally, his fighting spirit comes not from burning passion, but from steely nerve and trust in his companions. And, of course, he is not morally gray like his successor, Van.

Relationships

Due to the sheer number of people Rean becomes involved with, I will only address his more notable relationships. Many will be in clusters, with only a select few individuals receiving their own entries.

• Old Class VII: Old Class VII is Rean’s core friend group through the entire Cold Steel arc. They are the ones who fight by his side during the arc’s major events, including the Erebonian civil war, the Great Twilight, and more. Although Emma Millstein was class president during their student years, Rean gradually becomes Old Class VII’s’ de facto leader in the field due to his good rapport with all its members and his role in helping them bond with each other. By the end of CS1, he is very much the proverbial glue that holds Old Class VII together, and Rean executes this role flawlessly in CS2 by bringing their scattered members back together again. Despite his love for his classmates, Rean largely hesitates to seek them out for emotional support due to his low self-worth, and it isn’t until he sees their heartbroken reactions to his “death” in Reverie when he realizes how much he means to them.
• New Class VII: Rean is New Class VII’s teacher at Thors’s branch campus starting in CS3. Over the course of the game and its sequels, he forms a unique bond with each of his five students: A father-like figure for Altina, a tough-love mentor for Ash, a source of confidence for Kurt, a role model for Juna and… uh… maybe I shouldn’t discuss Musse. Anyway, the wisdom Rean imparts on New Class VII helps them all mature into capable young adults, particularly Juna, who essentially fills Rean’s shoes in CS4 Chapter 1 and leads the charge to rescue him from Osborne.
• Schwarzer family: Rean’s adopted parents and sister. Rean cares deeply about the Schwarzers, to the point where seeing them being physically threatened causes his ogre powers to manifest uncontrollably in CS1-2. At the same time, despite having the Schwarzer’s unconditional love and support, Rean feels like a significant burden to them for much of his young life, particularly to Teo. This matter is eventually settled by the end of CS2. There is also the matter of Elise, his younger sister, who develops feelings for him as they age (writing that did not sit well with me at all, but the show must go on…). Rean, for his part, is exceptionally protective of Elise until she finally rebuffs this part of him in Reverie, arguing that she is strong enough to take care of herself.
• Crow Armbrust: If any one member of Class VII, new or old, deserves an individual mention, it is unquestionably Crow. Crow and Rean share a unique, dynamic relationship that evolves considerably over the four Cold Steel games. In the beginning, Crow is Rean’s rival and superior in many ways. He is older, more cunning, and a stronger Awakener than Rean (at least when piloting Ordine). But over time, Rean gains strength and confidence, which allows him to beat Crow in CS2, and then defeat him again in CS4, at which point he essentially becomes Crow's lord and retainer by sparing his life.
  • The two are very much foils for one another, with similarities and differences: Both are young men who are descended from political leaders (who were themselves bitter enemies). Both are Awakeners guided by witches - Crow by the mighty Vita and Rean by the fledgling Emma and Celine. At the same time they are almost total opposites as people, with Crow being cocky, deceptive, and rebellious, while Rean is modest, honest, and upstanding. Even their hair colors contrast! In that sense, Crow also serves as a benchmark for Rean's growth, as their relationship roles essentially switch in CS4, with Rean gaining dominance over Crow.
• Yun Ka-fai: Because there is still much mystery surrounding Yun Ka-fai, it is difficult to dissect him in the context of this write-up. However, we do know that Rean was Yun's last discipline - the last of four. Rean also receives correspondence from Yun at various points in the story, largely to give life updates and confer higher ranks onto Rean (Is this the Trails equivalent of Zoom classes? No, wait, they have actual tech for that…). From the content of his letters, Yun seems to think highly of Rean as both a person and a swordsman. Despite not being present for Rean's final few years of training, Yun understands Rean's journey intimately, to the point where he feels comfortable making Rean a Divine Blade through a proxy in CS4. This begs questions: How does Yun know so much? Does he possess some form of the Unclouded Eye that lets him detect such things in his students? Is he basically Yoda? Or is someone watching Rean on Yun's behalf? Furthermore, in his letter to Rean in CS3, he says he will impart his final teachings onto Rean “when” they meet again. This might be reading too much into it, but Yun seems quite confident he will see Rean again. My guess is that Yun has something planned, if not for Rean, then for all of his disciples. And I suspect that that plan was part of why Yun chose to promote Rean to Divine Blade when he did. The timing, right before the final battle at the Duatha de Danann, is too convenient for me to ignore. Either Yun wanted to help Rean reach peak form in time, or he had some other motive. Or both.
• Giliath Osborne: Osborne is Rean's biological father. Despite coming off as callous at first, it becomes clear in CS4 and Reverie that Osborne truly loved his son and was willing to sacrifice everything for him, including his heart (literally) and his humanity. Rean inherited a number of traits from Osborne, including his charisma, leadership ability, flawed selflessness, and strength of spirit. The two share an innate need to put others’ happiness over their own, albeit for different reasons, and both suffered in silence for years because of it. This is part of why, despite having the same goal, Rean and Osborne both fought each other with all they had during the final Rivalry: Neither wanted to see the other inherit the curse's full power, Osborne because he didn't want to see Rean suffer any longer and Rean because he essentially accepted that he was the curse's Sacrifice. After CS4, Rean learns more about Osborne's inner thoughts and motives, developing a deep admiration for his father and a desire to make his sacrifice worthwhile.
• Lloyd Bannings: Lloyd and Rean are quite comparable. They are the main protagonists of their respective arcs, both are leaders in their own right, both embody aspects of the “dense male protagonist” trope, and both are overall kind, perceptive (outside of romance), overall heroic young men. But like Crow, Lloyd is a foil for Rean, and this is apparent from their very first meeting, in CS2's Divertissement. Lloyd and Rean's circumstances were polar opposites: Lloyd was a vigilante, relegated to the shadows, with only a skeleton crew for support, while Rean was an Erebonian national hero with a Divine Knight and the full power of his country behind him. At the same time, Rean had no agency during this time, as he had been manipulated by Osborne into accepting such status and becoming part of a reprehensible operation. Lloyd, on the other hand, was a free agent, uncompromising in his ideals and fighting tirelessly for true justice. In short, Lloyd was powerless but free, while Rean was powerful but trapped. In that moment, it is obvious that Rean respected Lloyd's convictions and may have even envied him. Fortunately for the two, they find themselves on the same side in CS4 and a proper friendship between the two forms.
• Patrick Hyarms: Patrick and Rean’s relationship had an uneasy start. Although Patrick initially tried to ingratiate himself with Rean, he was rebuffed due to his elitist attitude towards commoners and other non-nobles. Patrick was quick to change his disposition towards Rean, treating him with disgust due to his unknown origins and lack of noble blood. After being humiliated by Rean and the other non-noble men of Class VII, Patrick starts to reassess his mindset and eventually becomes more accepting of non-nobles. This, in turn, leads to Rean and Patrick becoming friends, and in CS3, the two are shown to be trusted partners in certain areas. The friendship is somewhat complicated by Patrick’s romantic interest in Elise, of whom Rean is especially protective.

Future

As a main series protagonist, Rean is basically guaranteed to return in a future game. Whether or not he will be playable or have a significant role in said game is difficult to ascertain, but given his lengthy period of stardom in the Cold Steel games and Trails’s treatment of other past protagonists, my guess is that he will take more of a side role. Since Rean was looking for Yun Ka-fai after Reverie, and Yun is set to appear in Kai no Kiseki, I wouldn’t be surprised to see Rean in that game at all - at least in flashback form. Failing that, Rean will surely appear in or close to the series finale. Of this I am certain.

Misc. Notes/Commentary

• Funnily enough, Rean’s final struggle with his powers in CS3-4 reminds me somewhat of the finale of Steven Universe Future, which similarly ends with the protagonist losing control of his powers and turning into a raging monster. It is only through the love and reassurance of Steven’s friends and family that he is able to return to normal, and like Rean, he is not necessarily “cured” of anything; he simply has a newfound resolve to get better.
• For those curious: I did not include discussion of Rean’s “harem” in this analysis because I do not see it as a core part of his character. The dating sim aspect of the Cold Steel games is just a silly fanservice gimmick and has no bearing on Rean’s growth or development. While it might have indirectly limited the interpersonal relationships the female characters of CS could form with other males, it did not have a similar effect on Rean.
  • Ftr, I romanced Alisa in CS2 and Sara in CS4.
• Rean’s two big “power of friendship” moments in the series - unlocking Spirit Unification in CS2’s Intermission and snapping out of his ogre rage in CS4’s Fragments chapter - both involve him being faced with a golden crystal which symbolizes his many loving relationships. This is a minor detail, but I do appreciate the parallels at work here.

So this happened just recently, and I'm still restless because I don't like delving into drama. But something to note about me is that I struggle to control anger, so if anyone tests my patience or I get annoyed to an extent then I do act passive-agressively.

Storytime:

This is on one of my farming sessions where I was on a high streak (around 50) and I usually just observe other players comment on other artists' drawings. Often they are harsh, and I even witnessed one artist leave because someone bullied them with "that's a great drawing, you shouldn't draw it again!" (rough translation). For those sudden instances where players interact just to slander someone, drama will definitely form. This is why initially I try to stay silent.
However, there's this one person (let's codename them as Troll) who noticed my high streak and got answers for asking me. One time they were surprised that I managed to answer a rough drawing through hints alone (because I played too much).
Frankly I don't care about streaks, but apparently this person does. When they got their turn as the artist, they drew an obvious panda under the phone prompt. Of course everyone's streaks were destroyed at that, and a lot reacted negatively. The troll's response? "It was a phone case!"
I try to build up my streak again, then once it's their turn again on the canvas, they drew absolutely nothing related to "stars", and insisted that they drew stars for us. People are starting to notice that this person sabotages streaks for no reason. For the third time they took the artist role again, they did NOT abide with the prompt, and this another player who struggles with english words is getting annoyed with this troll. A lot had told the Troll to stop because what they're doing is not funny.
When it was my turn on the canvas however, I did not abide with the prompt, and instead I wrote: "I do not like your low-tier halo. I'm sorry but you've pissed me off."
On hindsight I should've told them politely on chat to stop, but the winners and guessers chat are separated and I'm not rushing time just to get my message across. I even destroyed the Troll's streak (some people cheered because I was in a cosplay. They're just so done, I even saw their dry board have ">:(" behind the troll 💀).
One person (codename them Parasol Person) who just got into the server got caught up with the mess. They were in at the Troll's 3rd attempt of breaking streaks, so they also witnessed me retaliating back at this troll. I was harassed by them 🤩.
"Says the person with two halos" or like "Says the person who wears low value items"
My bro I'M IN A COSPLAY.
I defended myself because the server's getting heated up, I was panicking because I never wanted any drama in the first place. I responded "Look, I do not care about ego. I care about attitude. I don't care about streaks, I care that THIS PERSON (troll) is not following the prompt multiple times." I forgot if I even apologized mid-way for being too angry because I don't screenshot these experiences.
Then once THIS TROLL became the artist, they did not draw the prompt and instead wrote "cutie pie :)" on the board. The Parasol Person who once defended this Troll now got annoyed (lol). People in the server are demanding this Troll to draw the prompt on the board but to no avail.
The player earlier who struggled with english demands that they should report the player, and the Parasol Person agreed. "Let's report for abuse (or bullying)" I think.
I'm just tired from all of what's happening in the server 😭, all I could chat was rows of "sigh". The last time I reprimanded the troll though was chatting: "Just stop wasting people's time. How hard is that."
But I think the troll panicked and left the server. The player who demanded the reports thought the troll was banned, but I told him that the troll simply could've left the game.
I was just thinking if I can get reported for this lol, I didn't clear my canvas when I sent my message through them. I didn't report the troll either, just a block. To be honest I should've just left the server as soon as I was annoyed 💀.

Hi guys,
behind the black block it still has the original screen I had it on..
I have been busy with pc lately since it has being bugging out from time to time. See the pictures:
It has been going on for a while and I got some things checked out: GPU stress tested, by manufacturer and they say there were no problems. I Personally really though it would have been my GPU.
I memtested my RAMS, except I think I may have tested them both in the same slot(no problems). I dont think it is the ram since it is able to run like most games on high resolutions etc. But still maybe retest for both slots and both sticks?
What could be the issue with my pc? Please help guys.. The PC i built myself and after a year it started acting faulty.
https://preview.redd.it/5yympcrj881d1.jpg?width=2048&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=457fa2c7f1c5f13c8dde237f9636a8a75952fdc7
This is another problem that came, when I started my pc for the first time in the morning, it goes away when i restart.
Also when I am watching netflix, it tends to give a black screen for two seconds every 5 minutes.
And When i do Netflix and I call trough via whatsapp video call, it gives me a blue screen after 5 minutes, which is the following:
https://preview.redd.it/i4fzlz6x881d1.jpg?width=1536&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=15db4c4959d027aa3487c5c7ed27ac524e8247e7
It says:
There is a problem with ur device and iit needs to be restarted. Error messages are beingg gathered. After this it will be restarted.
Error message/ stop code: DRIVER_IRQL_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL what went wrong: nvlddmkm.sys
And as last I have been noticing that sometimes when i go fullscreen and out of it it takes longer then usual, like unnecessary longer. It feels like it becomes slower and slower sometimes. or lags. Which is weird..
Specs: GPU: Geforce RTX 3080 CPU: i5-13600KF, 3500 MHz, 14 core
Motherboard: Z690 GAMING X DDR4
RAM: Corsair dominator, 3600 mhz 32 GB, 2 sticks(16 * 2). SSD: samsung 1 TB

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