Bon-Bon: Not… really. How are you supposed to hold this thing? Lyra: Like this!
Bon-Bon: Oh, okay.
Lyra: Alright, so these two are your attack buttons.
Bon-Bon: What’s the difference?
Lyra: This is for your basic attacks and this is for your specials. You press this one a bunch to do your basic combo, but you can press this one in the middle of a combo to do a special move. You can also just press it whenever, usually to activate some character-specific gimmick. Oh! But sometimes you have to press it a bunch too. Both by itself and in the middle of a combo. And other times you’ll press it once, and then mash the basic one. Then you press this button to dodge, but hold it to dodge and then go into a sprint. Then you have this button that activates your super special move, if you have a full meter. I usually use it to counter an enemy if- Bon-Bon: W-which meter?
Lyra: This one! But each notch represents a separate charge for use. Then you just have your secondary weapons, your spirit focus, your lock-on, and your block button, and that’s-… Where you goin’? Bon-Bon! It’s a simple button-masher, I swear! [Pause] Ugh. Alright, Liza.
Tootsie: You know my conditions.
Lyra: Bu… but I want to play as Sheik for once!
Tootsie: You can be Toon Link.
Lyra: Blugh!
2017 AskLyra Game Awards!
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While this is coming in ahead of my (evidently?) annual end-of-the-year video game post, I’ll spoil part of it here. It’s Nier: Automata.
Automata didn’t have the best gameplay or variety. The sound design had some truly high highs, but some lows that drug it down. I’ve certainly seen better stories with more surprising twists (but Deadly Premonition alone set a possibly insurmountable bar). The characters and their progression were good, but not great. The difficulty was fair overall, but there were some hurdles placed a little too high if you accidentally broke sequence. It had a new game-ish mechanic, but there was nothing for a max level character to do (maybe the DLC changed that). The post-game was welcome, but that 95% bestiary objective was needlessly frustrating. And while it had some exceptional spectacle, this last decade or so there has been a ton of games that live off of spectacle.
But (and while there will never be a perfect game), if someone were to try and make a perfect game, more so than any other I have ever played, Nier: Automata would be the model to follow. It may have done very little truly great, but it hit a solid B+ minimum in every applicable category.
Perhaps the most noteworthy accolade this game carries, is that as long as you have a passing skill-level in space shooters like Asteroids or Galaga, you can beat this game using easy mode and auto-mods. And I don’t mean just coasting through the main story; you can do everything. And while I have some reservations about allowing a player to get all the achievements I spent twenty extra hours on by just accepting them from a menu inside of two minutes (completely separate mechanic), there’s really no downside to making your game more accessible. And without compromising gameplay.
Now, all that said I haven’t played Horizon: Zero Dawn. It may be the superior game- I don’t know. But based on what I did play (and I played Breath of the Wild and Mario Odyssey), yes. Nier: Automata game of the year. Nothing else even came close.
My ID is 0385 9358 496 if you want to friend me on Pocket Camp!
Game-wise is a little difficult as you kinda have most of the games I’d recommend. At least as far as Steam goes. So if you can [ahem] find some way to acquire them…
Ogre Battle: MotBQ and Ogre Battle: PoLC - Jam-packed with content. We’re talking customizable armies, equipment, classes, unlockable characters, alignment system with consequences (actually makes the game harder if you’re a good guy), multiple endings. A little thick; you’ll probably want to read a little about the game’s mechanics before you start. Both available on VC!
Front Mission 3 - 1, 2, and 4 are alright (I never played 5), but 3 is the most streamlined without limiting your customization tremendously. Plus it has 2 completely different storylines, each a full game’s length. That’s a lot of value!
Dynasty Warriors 3 or 7 - On the surface, a button-masher. At higher difficulties, a very tense action game where you must constantly balance which of your allies to help and when. 8 is very flashy, if you only intend to play it a little bit. But the longer you go, the more you realize how infantile the enemy AI became. 7′s generals could be hard as nails.
Robot Alchemic Drive - Absolutely bananas game. Giant robots. Intentionally bad acting. Unique controls. Here’s a video (Warning: Blood. Kinda). This was the precursor to the EDF series. It’s also one of the only games I beat more than once (I beat this game 3 times!).
As for a show, how about Growing Up Creepie? That was a cool little cartoon about a human girl that was raised by bugs in a mansion and her interaction with ordinary humans while going to school.
I’m embarrassed to say, but I’ve never heard the entire Excalibur album by Grave Digger. Still, I’ve managed to collect 6 tracks from it over the years. Emerald Eyes alone is worth listening to as a slow, metal love song. And Excalibur still has my favorite solo, period.
1) It was definitely something from the party; I don’t know what. But don’t worry about it. Something was probably just too rich for me. I suck like that.
2) If I could manage to throw up I would have, just to get it out of my system. But thanks.
I never got to play all the different factions in Endless Legend, and haven’t even tried the expansions (even though I own one of them). I beat Dark Souls 2twice and own the season pass, but I never tried the expansions there either. When I last played XCOM I had unlocked the stat and ability randomizers and I wanted to do a run (possibly with the Long War mod) where my soldiers were all tumblr followers, but there just never seems to be any time.
As always, if I can find a small Minecraft community I’d love to hop back on that.
Admittedly, I haven’t been paying that much attention. But…
Final Fantasy 7 Remake) Eh. Mirror’s Edge: Catalyst) Real game to go with your cool mechanics this time? Fallout 4/Dark Souls 3) Natch. Deus Ex: Mankind Divided) Cool, but same protagonist? Why? Kingdom Hearts 3) Nice 👌. X-COM 2) Fantastic news! Shenmue 3) Woah-mai-gawd! For real?! Woah-mai-ga~wd!
I’m sure I’ve missed a few big ones, though.
Lyra here! Saw that filly Applebloom with one of these and thought it was pretty rad. I probably won't get the kind of following she has, but whatevs.
I've been asked if I'm a wizard and that somepony I don't know loves me. That's kinda cool, I guess.
Here's all the Drawings I've done so far (not that they're very good)!
