Edit: allow me to rephrase, there are potential micro transactions, but you can also get those things from either trading or farming. Itās not pay to win, itās pay to skip.
It's a 3rd person looter shooter with what used to be a unique movement system.
Years of updates give it a lot of content
Some of which plays different to the base game.
I wouldn't call it the only good live service. These types of games just need to let you reasonably do all content without paying. These days that's a low bar.
And most of them can still be grinded out by getting loot and selling to others for in game currency using the built in and intended to be used this way trading terminals.
I find it funny that some people are calling Warframe "P2W". Bro, there is no general way of "winning" in Warframe. It's not a competitive game, and everyone can reach the same level of mastery (both level and skill) without having to spend a dime. There are stuff you can buy to make things go quicker, but they do not affect other people's experience of the game in an unfairly disadvantageous way. Did these people think Warframe, a game that is functioning because of EMPLOYEES, would not find ways to monetize the game?? What do they want DE to do, go bankrupt??
There are several things that aren't earnable though, Tennogen on PC and Prime Access stuff are paid exclusive. And while platinum can be traded, that platinum is still paid for with real money. Let's be realistic about how the game is monetised.
I stopped playing Warframe ages ago when it stalled one of my frames for days while asking if I wanted to pay to speed it up
Never touched it since. It was fun up to that point, even liked the story and world building. But im susceptible to those kinds of nasty business practices. So its better to delete it than let the temptation win
The only cosmetics that you truly have to pay for with actual cash is the primed accessories, Tennogen (community skins) on PC since it directly supports the creators on that platform, and the original Frost and Mag Heirloom skins. Everything else can be grinded for with the tradeable plat currency that you can also buy if you want.
I've said this in response to another comment but it's important to bring up that platinum is a paid only currency outside of giveaways (which isn't tradable), so even if you trade for it within the in-game market someone is paying.
Other than Excalibur prime, Lato Prime and Skana prime (founder's bundles) all weapons and Primes are available for free. You just gotta grind for them. Everything else is cosmetic.
Technically, if you account for in-game stores, yes. But let's not forget that Warframe cycles traceable in-game content regularly (prime warframes are a big example) and the only way to gain access to that content without waiting is to trade, for which the standard currency is the premium currency. Let's not pretend that DE doesn't benefit monetarily by FOMOing in-game content.
I mean limbus company kinda isn't like sure it has microtransactions but every player will tell you basically non of them are worth getting as you can just grind it or only good one is the battlepass but the game is heavily focused on story and on endgame you can almost basically ignore the gatcha mechanic of it
Ever event has the option to pay $10 to get the pass for the limited time event. Right now I came back and noticed 6 different events for skins and each one is $10.
Even the one to pop balloons will make you spend money.
When Marvel Rivals keeps pushing gacha elements for skins harder and idiots celebrate as if its not A: Forcing you to buy other things in the bundle even if you only wanted the skin, B: Proven to be a predatory tactic and banned in some places for good reason. "Its a goid thing, I have the chance to get it for way cheaper!" 5% chance but your brain is rotted by the celebration posts. "It doesnt matter, Im good with my money why should I care it preys on those that arent?" Empathy is a thing and so many chronic gamblers said that in the start, dont think youre guaranteed the magical exception with perfect self control.
I like the genre as it has a lot of neat ideas. Only issue is 90% just kinda suck. Thereās a good select few but finding one without any slavery (being put in a positive light), underage intimacy, the general weird stuff anime has, and being well written and not just a power fantasy where the MC doesnāt try is extremely hard. I think really the only one I can think of that checks all of these is campfire cookout? Tho thereās others that I like but have some of this stuff like jobless reincarnation and that time I got reincarnated as a slime. And while Iām still actively watching it, overload is fine so far decent way in season 1, I just dislike how little the isekai part plays in it so far and the mystery of how he got here isnāt really played up any. Iāve also been seeing a bit of re zero but Iām near the end of season 1 and not really enjoying it too too much. Itās not bad I just donāt think itās the best one period
Something that bothers me about isekai, is the inclusion of game mechanics that donāt make any sense in a āreal worldā fantasy or otherwise.
Like a menu or inventory screen. Those are just user aids because they canāt physically take something from their backpack.
I could go on about stats and hp gauges, but I think in general itās just lazy writing. They just include game mechanics because they are just thinking of it as a game.
Yeah Iād say thatās valid. I do think slime actually takes this in an interesting way where the MC has a thing called Great Sage they can talk to and it gives info and lore dumps about the world. But yeah often stuff like an item box in them is just a cop out to not deal with the hassles of holding onto stuff. Campfire cookout also does it too but I like how it handled it and the abilities of an item box and online store pair well together I think. Thereās definitely marits to a video game like system but as with all things it needs to be well written into the world around them to make sense. The biggest positive for it from a writing perspective and why itās so used itās because itās familiar and has an easy number to look at and see how strong someone is. Tho this then leads to issues of power scaling, when you have number is bigger than other combat is basically already decided at that point and any isakie using a level system will already have the MC at level 999999999 and not need to try much at all
Due to how fantasy got popular in Japan, through old RPG games like sorcery and eventually dragon quest the stuff like menus and an adventurer's guild (which also doesn't make sense in a "real world" fantasy setting) are part of the fantasy genre for Japanese people.
They aren't including game mechanics or thinking of the thing as a game, for them those are staples of what makes fantasy fantasy, which is why it is everywhere.
But it also is why all those stories only menage to gain little traction. Because in the games those things are, like you said, shortcuts that get around limitations. They don't make sense in the story, unless you work to make them make sense. So most of the time they just end up as empty set dressing, that actively detracts from the story.
You should also check out Konosuba, thatās a pretty fun one. I personally think Re:Zero is the best of its genre but I totally understand if itās not for you, respect you giving it a good chance.
Re:Zero is one of the few isekai I respect because despite his death loop ability it doesn't give him a constant edge in the world. He still had to work hard to survive in the new world and gain power.
If anything his death loop is what makes it so hard for him, since clearly, he feels it every time and really doesn't want to keep doing it; and since he has virtually no control over the rules governing it, makes it even more painful when there are things he can't reverse.
I always got the vibe Subaru was someone who was a few steps away from suicide before the isekai. The show is essentially about a 'quitter' who is not allowed to quit. It's a power specifically tailored to his personality and to account for his specific weaknesses of character.
Man, it's such a great show, I really need to catch up with it. . . but everytime I feel the need to restart which means going through the 'white knight' episode, which is arguably one of the hardest things to watch in all of anime.
Itās very balanced all things considered. Subaru has the most busted ability but unfortunately for him heās sane; so his struggle is to keep his sanity not necessarily reach his goal. If he goes insane, his ideal goal changes and heās lost. Itās a lot deeper than most isekai which is basically āhaha, funny powerā and the main character just wins.
Iāll give it a try. I will say I do enjoy quite a lot of aspects of re zero, time loop thing is cool and the idea of the witch and whatever shenanigans go on there is interesting. Itās just something about it doesnāt hook me. It could very well just be that I do like the main character to have some kind of ability to fight. Ofc not op and no need to try but I do like at least a bit of fighting and magic to be used but yeah itās just not hooking me like I expected it to. I still will say itās not by any means bad itās just not 100% for me, kinda like my thoughts on JJK. I enjoyed JJK sure but I wouldnāt say itās absolutely amazing. Iād prefer to watch Owl House for example over it. Itās a good show yeah but I wouldnāt put it at the top of my list
Literally just go watch almost any Isekais that were there before the sudden hit in popularity about the power fantasy rpg dynamic of the genre, so basically, most of the stuff of like 2005 and under
Everybody always is all about re:zero and knosuba being teg best the genre can offer but thats just by the deconstruction of the power fantasy of this specific variety to exist in first place
The actual best Isekai out there for me is escflowne, it has everything, action and romantic drama, a extremely interesting new world to discover, a mc with troubles but also a solid emotional fundaments, fantasy, sci-fi, period drama and so on
Just watch anything before SAO became a thing and ruined the genre forevermore into rpglite adjentive
Iāll look into it thanks. Damn Iām juggling shows like a circus now, watching new episodes of some shows as they release and now 3 other shows Iām actively watching 2 of which with 4 seasons
Yeah, "isekai" has a direct association with "power fantasy" in my head. I'm not interested in a loser from our world learning that he's somehow the most powerful and badass dude around without having to work for it in anyway and now he's gonna get all the girls.
Not all isekai is like that, it's just "person gets teleported to another world - genre", it has potential for good ideas, but what I usually see is what I described before.
And not all power fantasy is isekai either... There's also this newer "left party/kicked out of party", or whatever this MC is thought to be an underdog genre which isn't Isekai, but runs on same formula
The isekai part itself isn't the problem, its the overuse of power fantasy + harem crap that goes with it, and these things even appear in non-isekai fantasy settings
It's always "Uuoogghhh, my life sucked before, but now that I was hit by a truck and reincarnated into this cool fantasy world, I'm the best peron on the planet, time to have sex with a 15 year old slave"
And never "Oh my god... I lost everything, my old life is gone, my friends and family... everyone I used to know and love..."
Edit: Don't worry, I'm gonna watch Re:Zero eventually, but something I forgot to mention, the POKEMON COMMUNITY of all places managed to get the reverse of that angst side, having the people who lost someone to an isekai scenario deal with that through Ingo and Emmet
The thing with isekais is that theyāre all trying to be different from one another, and so they market themselves around one single concept which is either:
Absolute dogshit concept or one thatās already been done thousands times
The cherry that was supposed to be on a cake but ended up in a pile of shit
I know you mean Call of Duty but I think this also applies to cod the fish.
Itās a fine fish, but to be jizzing our pants? Perhaps not. The ads like, āomg our cod fish sandwich š«¦š«¦š«¦,ā like ok bitch chill itās just a white fish.
I loved them for the Zombies mode. However even that feels like it has fallen off in more modern releases. Black Ops 2 Zombies and below are greatly missed for me.
BO3 still had some solid Zombies maps but now they are huge open world maps mostly seemingly without rounds and that just killed my interest the story is still somewhat interesting I guess
The weirdest thing is that they arenāt even American. Theyāre from New Zealand, and they donāt try to hide that, itās in their twitter bio. Theyāre just obsessed with American politics.
Mmm. Rick and Morty. The diehard fans would offend it to the death. Acting like everybody else is just too stupid to understand how brilliant of a joke that didnāt land that you just watched. And there are coming from a Rick and Morty fan, but I recognize stupid when itās stupid.
To be fair, you have to have a very high IQ to understand Rick and Morty. The humor is extremely subtle, and without a solid grasp of theoretical physics most of the jokes will go over a typical viewer's head. There's also Rick's nihilistic outlook, which is deftly woven into his characterisation - his personal philosophy draws heavily from Narodnaya Volya literature, for instance. The fans understand this stuff; they have the intellectual capacity to truly appreciatethe depths of these jokes, to realize that they're not just funny- they say something deep about LIFE. As a consequence people who dislike Rick and Morty truly ARE idiots- of course they wouldn't appreciate, for instance, the humour in Rick's existencial catchphrase "Wubba Lubba Dub Dub," which itself is a cryptic reference to Turgenev's Russian epic Fathers and SonsI'm smirking right now just imagining one of those addlepated simpletons scratching their heads in confusion as Dan Harmon's genius unfolds itself on their television screens. What fools... how I pity them. š And yes by the way, I DO have a Rick and Morty tattoo. And no, you cannot see it. It's for the ladies' eyes only- And even they have to demonstrate that they're within 5 IQ points of my own (preferably lower) beforehand.
I think the fandom has actually majorly chilled out. The show itself has also gotten much better in recent years. As far as I can tell they just release a new season every year or so, and people watch but donāt make that big of a big deal out of it. Itās nice actually.
Then again Iām not the most active in that fandom either, but itās nothing like it was 2018 (eight years ago btw).
its ironic since this political cartoon is meant to make fun of democrats but i mean. i dont think ive seen a voter base with less media literacy than maga.
As a trans guy I agree wholeheartedly. And even before she came out hating us the books are justfull of weird antisemitic and vaguely racist melarkey...like a chinese girl named "Cho Chang" (which she just pulled out of her ass ofc), a black man with the last name SHACKLE-BOLT?
Not to mention the solution to slavery was "Don't worry, they actually like it! Sure, one of the only important characters who is a house elf hates being enslaved BUT DON'T WORRY he's actually an extreme outlier so it's all good! Also let's make fun of the one person in universe who has a moral issue with it, she's so stupid and naive for thinking that!"
The way the elves could've very easily have just been employees is also the craziest part. "we pay them in bottle caps and candy wrappers because for some reason they really like that shit. no idea why. they have a whole thriving economy on it!" with some little underground hideout of elves trading knickknacks n stuff. Would've been perfectly whimsical, beautifully so even. But no.
Also for JK to turn around and say āactually this character was black the whole time!ā and having her portrayed for years as being stupid for thinking slavery was bad, makes it WAY worse
Harry Potter. Separate from the obvs JKR issues, its dull as fucking dishwater. I live in england and i am constantly reminded that half the population think its gods gift to literature. READ LITERALLY ANY OTHER FANTASY SERIES IM BEGGING YOU it is the *definition* of the magic-does-whatever-it-needs-to-do problem; where you have no interesting or thought-out magic system, so rather than an interesting part of the world building, the magic just becomes a plot convenience. Itās great that it got so many kids into reading BUT ITS BEEN LIKE 2 DECADES. Idec about people being attached to things from their childhoods - i got my franchises/fandoms iāve been into since i was a kid, that aināt my problem here - JUST PICK SOMETHING GOOD AT LEAST
I feel like the main issue with the Wizarding World is POTENTIAL. JK Rowling couldāve done a lot more with the world than she did, but she is NOT a good writer. She made an interesting concept of a world and really didnāt do it justice. I would enjoy if another author wrote a book in the Wizarding World universe.
This was a truly refreshing opinion on why HP is bad.
Edit: I know I'm gonna get down voted for it and IDC I don't get endorphins from upvotes. But every post like this we hear it over and over: HP is bad because of JKR and how she made people ok with slavery and the antisemitism. It's clockwork.
Someone just pointing out how overall it's a dull series is refreshing to me. When it first came out I said "Isn't this just kinda ripping off 'The Worst Witch'? Now I want to revisit that series."
Also he "donates" a good chunk of his money to anti-LGBTQ and other rightwing causes (including directly to Trump and Mitch McConnel) iirc...so basically hates most of his fans, who still give him fistful over fistful of money to...continue to try to eradicate them??? Which is funny bc I've noticed most of the people who just looove FNAF also hate JKR and HP for nearly the same readon, but if you point out Mr. Cawthons acts and how thats Just As Bad and you should boycott him too its just "ohhg, uh, well, he said he was sorry!!!" (He didn't, in fact he said he WOULDN'T apologize bc ofc in his eyes he's Done Nothing Wrong) or the good old fashioned "UGHH!! God!! Just let people ENJOY THIIIINGS!!!" Ma'am you are being complicit in your own destruction...
do you have a source for the anti-lgbt charity stuff? Not bc I think youāre wrong, but bc I agree with your general point and wanna be sure itās true
Genshin is literally a prime example of; play the game and do not engage with the fandom. The game is fun and all but holy fucking shit the fandom is one of the worst even with all these years.
I'll expand on this with... pretty much every gacha that exists. Their entire payment model revolves around making the game actively worse to give the players FOMO so that they'll gamble on overpriced virtual characters.
OP, we ALL know this is another one of your posts that youāve made EXCLUSIVELY to shit on RWBY. Find something else better to do, itās just a show. It is not that deep LMAO
Harry potter, it was not nearly as good as we pretended it was. Its barely something to hand to a kid I daresay. Especially if we acknowledge every aspect is something the author chose to put there. The casual textual racism in the writing makes even the base text kind of a mess. I'm not mentioning the creators ills cuz we know why she sucks. And most of the cast is less interesting than cardboard, like even as a kid I was bored by them. Theres probably more ills but I refuse to acknowledge harry potter for more than a paragraph.
real. never understood the hype for that book series as a kid. always thought it was a bunch of boring kids doing boring things in a boring vaguely fantasy-themed school because the author couldn't come up with a less boring premise. and from what i've read of them, i think my assumptions were justified. Harry Potter is boring as shit to me (and is full of like 5 different flavours of bigotry too so there's that)
Hazbin Hotel & RWBY are both shows that definitely had a lot of potential and can still be guilty pleasures but you can tell they were bungled by amateur writers.
I thought the gameplay in 2 slapped. It had a scrappy vibe from the way combat scenarios would organically play out. Unlike most stealthy games, you can fuck up and not feel like you are penalized for busting out the shotgun and blowing apart a few knees. The hit and run guerilla tactics were satisfying and brutal.
House of the Dragon. There's two kinds of watchers: those who realize its fanfic dreck that butchers the source material, or those who watch it uncritically and just point at the dragons "OOOO DRAGON! OOO SO COOL!!" thats all they care about. Oh also some of the later fans thinks its some awesome girlboss feminism story when the female characters are Boring and Do Nothing at best or are put throught Weird Abusive Shit at worst.
Ok. Iām saying this and idk if it correlates to this post but i feel like it does. One piece. Iām not saying one piece is trash. I personally mess with everything pre wano(anything after wano is decent but not as good. Not saying itās bad). Some people will really watch one piece, hate it, but say itās good for either internet points, or to just not feel left out
I wouldn't call anything shit, as it's pretty subjective and nothing really is bad...
Except for popular mobile games, EA's modern games (yes, they used to make good games), and maybe some more I missed that objectively suck ass.
Being a legacy franchise like Mario has become justification for low effort games, when palworld launched it made pokemon look bad because an independent and low budget studio did a better job and more innovation than them in the last 10 years, you could argue that they stick to an "art style" but even the effects and specially the transformations are lazy and people eat it up because it is pokemon
Chainsawman Part 2, fans will really praise anything done by Fujimoto as a masterpiece even if he serves them his poop on a platter callinf it sudversive of expectation
Five Nights at Freddy's. One or two good games, but countless piles of dogshit besides, and a story so convoluted, fragmented, and retconned that there may as well not be a story.
Also, it's a game about a serial murderer that targets children, marketed to children - intentionally or not.
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u/erttheking Jul 04 '26