iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Yeah, and the temple blessings carry over too.

I don't think I have the strength to do all 4 routes lol. I hear you can just kind of go into Part 2 with just 1-2 part 1s done, though. We shall see. I have done Theodora and half of Diedricth.

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Chris @timeachris.bsky.social · 9h

Like, at this point, if you really aren't going to change permadeath as a thing, why not just make a character death a mission fail state? If the alternative is basically handicapping your run permanently?

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Chris @timeachris.bsky.social · 9h

This could be solved by just giving me NPC filler units, so when my level 12 dude dies I can just recruit a backup NPC at level 10 that isn't as good but is still a body. That way I could actually interact with the permadeath mechanic instead of just reloading.

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Chris @timeachris.bsky.social · 9h

If you *do* try to roll with character death (which is intended? I guess?) you are completely kneecapping yourself into insane difficulty because a) you don't have enough units to send anymore and b) recruiting new units to backfill in this series has gotten more and more complicated.

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Chris @timeachris.bsky.social · 9h

Like, I get it's "tradition" for this series. But it doesn't feel like they've modernized it at all. You lose a guy off your roster of 6 total dudes, the fights require 5 total dudes, you don't have any wiggle room to adapt to that, you just have to reload and try again.

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Chris @timeachris.bsky.social · 9h

Permadeath in modern Fire Emblem is so silly. If there were an actual way to "refill" dead party members via recruiting (a la FFT or Tactics Ogre or Star Wars ZC, or any of the other million games) it would be a welcome mechanic. As it stands it's just a uncommunicated fail state.

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Reposted by Chris

Chris @timeachris.bsky.social · 27/06/2025

One of my favorite things about TotK is that even if you do the Addison signs terribly but they still stand, the game will not correct them but leave them in the exact same working configuration you had. And Addison thinks it’s perfect, anyway, which sums up the design philosophy of the entire game.

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Chris @timeachris.bsky.social · 10h

Oh, this? That’s my main gauche.

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Chris @timeachris.bsky.social · 05/10/2026

This Digger astroturfing is incredible, man lmao. When was the last time you saw so many shills for a $150+ million stinker? For me it was Justice League.

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Chris @timeachris.bsky.social · 05/10/2026

What if it's a prequel. Sicario: Origins

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Chris @timeachris.bsky.social · 05/10/2026

Yeah. I enjoyed it the first time, but replaying that part is a slog (just like Twilight Princess, actually lol).

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Chris @timeachris.bsky.social · 05/10/2026

Skyward Sword is underrated

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Chris @timeachris.bsky.social · 13/11/2025

Game dev pro tip: if someone questions why you are using a constant or magic number, just start calling it a “coefficient” — it sounds cooler and makes it seem like you know what you are doing.

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Chris @timeachris.bsky.social · 05/10/2026

My five year tradition of watching The Empty Man every Halloween season continues. This movie fucks.

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Chris @timeachris.bsky.social · 03/10/2026

Ohh good picks. Is there a site for making this?

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Chris @timeachris.bsky.social · 03/10/2026

Finished Theodora’s path. Now on to Dietrich.

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Chris @timeachris.bsky.social · 03/10/2026

Every other week I see things like, “GigaSteve is my favorite content creator, too bad he turned out to be a pedophile. I will still watch his videos but it will be difficult for me now.”

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Chris @timeachris.bsky.social · 03/10/2026

Every day I wake up and thank god that I don’t give a shit about YouTube.

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Chris @timeachris.bsky.social · 02/10/2026

who is an amazing musician in his own right...stormcock is a great album

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Chris @timeachris.bsky.social · 02/10/2026

fun fact david gilmour could not play this to his satisfaction so they brought some classical guitarist in to do it.

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Chris @timeachris.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

No, it's like Persona "you have X days/hour until the next quest thing, try to get all your chores done first!"

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Chris @timeachris.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

I just don’t think this system has ever been very fun, and I’m not sure why it still exists.

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Chris @timeachris.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

That’s it. No more time management systems in JRPGs. After 2026 they are done. Thank you

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Chris @timeachris.bsky.social · 27/09/2026

The only battles that give me trouble are the ones with special objectives. And that mostly comes from me not understanding the special objectives lol

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Chris @timeachris.bsky.social · 27/09/2026

Haha same! I’m only on ep 3 but I really like it so far. I hope s2 doesn’t do the severance thing lol

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Chris @timeachris.bsky.social · 27/09/2026

No one told me how Alan Wake coded Widow’s Bay was.

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Chris @timeachris.bsky.social · 27/09/2026

I have no idea where anything is I just use fast travel constantly.

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Chris @timeachris.bsky.social · 23/09/2026

Oh that's smart...🤔 Yeah, I had a similar experience with 3H. I finished it but by the end I was exhausted.

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Chris @timeachris.bsky.social · 23/09/2026

If you liked 3 Houses, you will love this one. If you didn't, your mileage may vary lol.

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Chris @timeachris.bsky.social · 23/09/2026

Now, there is nothing *wrong* with a game series evolving what it is, but this series in particular seems to have a huge identity problem. Engage vs 3H are two completely different games it feels like, for example. FW, when asked the question if it is more like Engage or 3H answers with "Yes".

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Chris @timeachris.bsky.social · 23/09/2026

Even if we go back to Awakening (the Fire Emblem Renaissance) that was a huge step, but it kept the core loop pretty intact (roam around the world map and battle). It seems to me this fanbase is now looking for everything from this series at once and they don't know which parts to focus on.

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Chris @timeachris.bsky.social · 23/09/2026

I'm not really knocking the "extra stuff" portion of games here if that's your bag, it's just odd to me that the focus has become all the other stuff. An RPG can't just be an RPG, it has to also be a lifesim, a relationship sim, an mmo, a townbuilder, and roguelike.

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Chris @timeachris.bsky.social · 23/09/2026

That is to say, you do all this extra stuff so your dudes are strong in the battles. And the battles work like every Fire Emblem, which has not drastically changed since...2012?

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Chris @timeachris.bsky.social · 23/09/2026

It strikes me that we have become used to RPGs being the "everything game", where there are a thousand systems, each more confusing than the last, that all feed into a single, foundational feature, that hasn't changed for 30 years and ends up being the least innovative or creative part of the game.

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Chris @timeachris.bsky.social · 23/09/2026

I think the best thing I can say about this game is that it's a lot of game. I don't know if it's a lot of *good* game, necessarily, but it's a lot. I like the character progression and battle aspects, not so much the mechanics for how you go about doing said progression, tho.

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Chris @timeachris.bsky.social · 23/09/2026

Alright, I'm 15 hours in. It's an addictive game, I'll say that, but has got that "mmo one more thing" design to all its non-battle stuff, which is about 75% of the game lol. I wish Tactics games had the balls to actually...you know have that be the primary game. Also, these menus are atrocious.

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Chris @timeachris.bsky.social · 23/09/2026

I prefer the sequel, Mrs. War

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Chris @timeachris.bsky.social · 22/09/2026

No they at least don’t do that, it’s mostly just a couple lines here and there.

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Chris @timeachris.bsky.social · 22/09/2026

“The demon god has risen once again and…” *45 mins later* 3 mins battle.

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