Well, Nep would still be a CPU no mater what, since Sega hasn't been in the console market in 20 years, so at least the name & face of the series would remain. Of course, it's also arguable that both Vert & Noire would remain CPUs, since their consoles are still current gen, just upgraded versions... until someone changes the name(s). Which Sony has already indicated they don't intend to do out to at least the PS10. So, only Blanc and the twins would end up getting pushed aside in favor of a sisterless switch rep. There's also the matter of the lack of a PC Gaming rep. Yeah, I know there's Chrome, but she's a former CPU by her own admission, not a current one. And yeah, Blanc has always been a bit abrasive.

Hmm, if they include the baddies, then they'd better give Rei Ryghts a spot on that roster. They can't leave out the strongest CPU in the series' history. They'd probably have to include the Gold Third, and all those other side characters that have popped up for one off games over the years. There's enough room in there for a roster of like 40-50 characters? Not too shabby. And of course, the levels have to be Nep themed.

I can't even remember what that song sounds like But TU was fun. Needs more of Pamela's Terror Bear Was cool to see Vio get an appearance outside of Japan back then, too. I only go for true ends, so I normally only see either the true end or the good/normal end. Sometimes the bad one if I eff up lol I don't go for the side ones, but I have heard that Conquest involves murdering all of the other CPUs. Trick was way more creepy than dark to me. Definitely a major creep. And unsettlingly disturbing. I'm surprised some of those scenes were allowed. I viewed Trick as a parody of loli culture, since that creeps me the hell out, too.

I never understood why Blanc is the one who goes ballistic throwing curses all over the place, when by all indications, that should be Leanbox's CPU doing that. Considering the games libraries of the two consoles, Blanc & Vert's personalities should be swapped. Granted, if they changed Vert's personality I'd be pissed. She is my fav after all. Heck, Noire should get hot under the collar more than Blanc. PS3 overheating issue anyone? lol Blanc's wise old sage mode is what I'd expect from her all the time, actually.

Yeah, it's typically both these days. KT has the worst DLC practices (and prices) of pretty much any company.

Haha, it's usually Generations that's called the spin-off since it was developed by a side team while the main team was working on World. I get where you're coming from, though. They didn't call it MH5 for a reason, since they wanted a reboot of the series. Though I would have liked them to do a few things differently I still enjoy the game's revamped combat a lot. The Gunlance in particular went from a practical joke weapon with the useless heat gauge handicap to a legitimate weapon that feels so much better to play. Each weapon apparently got even more new stuff in Iceborne too, so I'm very excited to try them all once the time comes!

Other than some quality of life mods like extra wedge beetles or light pillars to spot shinies easier I haven't dabbled much with other mods since I don't want to go too crazy. I did try a mod that turns a layered armor set into Lucina, though! The model looks really good and there's even a mod that adds her voice clips from FE Warriors. Here's a screenshot I took: [Link]

I also started playing Monster Hunter with Tri. I heard good things about it and was looking for an RPG to keep me busy but man I had no idea back then just how many hours I would end up putting into the series as a whole! I ended up completing my guild cards and crowns in both 3U/4U, played Freedom Unite on the PS Vita for a bit just to have experienced the old-school busted hitboxes etc. and then moved on to Generations/XX/Generations Ultimate.

World on PS4 definitely left me underwhelmed and annoyed because Capcom tiptoed around the XX localization as if they didn't want to hurt the marketing of their new, more western-centric game. Politics aside, the game itself had quite a few issues for me. The monster selection was pretty meh, but it's a brand-new title mechanically so it would be unreasonable to expect a number like Generations where they could easily include older monsters. What isn't excusable were the numerous lazy weapon designs (iron/bone template with a bunch of scales or fur on it), stupid redesign of the lootcycle (removing High-Rank gems from regular quest rewards to promote investigations with their silver/gold rewards) and most importantly the boring 'endgame' augment and decoration grind through Tempered monsters that didn't feel rewarding at all and forced you to repeatedly fight the same elder dragons. That's why I dropped the game right after getting my Platinum trophy.

To top it off, the whole game had a really washed out and grey-tone look to it on PS4. After trying the PC version, I found out that this was largely caused by a graphical setting that adds a lot of fog to the environments and the game actually does have a lot of nice color to it. PC also fixes the atrocious loading times that even the PS4 Pro has, which is another aspect that really annoyed me in World. With those things not being an issue on PC and Iceborne apparently being a big improvement overall, I can't wait to dig into it once January comes around!

Dogoo man was... really weird lol And yes, Vert's little sisters definitely need another appearance. I mean, technically she should have two sisters, but they'd both be older than her... Windows & DOS. I'd like to see further exploration of the older (pre-Nep/Noire/Vert/Blanc) times in the same dimension this time. Whatever happened in between Rei Ryght's reign & when the current CPUs came to power.

Well yeah, Iffy was never the one that stole the show. That was NISA's character, but she got dropped a long time ago. But yeah, there's a lot of now unused characters that they've got at their disposal for future titles. They should be worked into the main stories more, instead of just kind of being there as side shows. Nep as a warriors game would work really well. IF tried their hand at it twice already, but if they got KT to do it, it'd be a lot better, since they're the pros at that style of game.

The only things that come to mind are Guided Fate & La Pucelle. The latter being Disgaea's predecessor. Guided Fate's gameplay was horrid, though. The first Nep had some really wonky mechanics. Especially how healing was handled, but yeah, that was IF's breakout game. It also had those "lurker" enemies that Trinity Universe had, which would mop the floor with your party if you didn't get out of the dungeon fast enough. Actually, that game still retained a lot of the dark elements that previous IF games had. Thankfully they softened that a lot with mk-II & made the series a relative smash hit. They also made the games a lot easier, too XD The original release of the first game could waste a party at any time.

I wish they'd stop hiding the really cool costumes behind super low drop rate grinds for ingredients to make them.

I've only played Hyrule Warriors and FE Warriors but I definitely agree that Hyrule Warriors is ridiculously well made. Compared to FE Warriors, you really feel how the developers themselves are massive Zelda fans and left out no opportunity to cram in as many references and attention to detail as possible. Despite that, I also loved FE Warriors a ton since I'm a huge fan of the series and really wanted a Fire Emblem crossover to happen after playing Hyrule Warriors. Level Cap for FE Warriors is only 150, increased from 99 with the DLC packs that I all completed as well. I believe my Marth was about 115-120 before I started to grind and it didn't even take that long with an excellent method that gave 3-4? levels per mission.

I'd also say that MHGU is easier than MH3U/MH4U, though after thousands of hours of hunting in my case it's going to feel easier to me by default. Returning to a proper controller and big screen also helped a lot after MH4U! It'll be interesting to see how difficult Iceborne's Master Rank will be, given how laughably easy the base game was. The difficulty from old games is supposedly back, but I'll reserve judgment until I can finally play it on PC.

Haha, gunning is indeed dangerous as hell even with the extremely useful Adept style. You get OHKO'd by so many things if you're not extra careful. Even then, sometimes it'll just happen. The following clip that happened to me in MHXX sums it up the best. "Oh fuck..." [Link]

My method of resetting on monsters to check for crowns was definitely the most efficient and also least annoying option for me. It took time sure, but while doing the reset runs I was able to watch something else on YouTube etc. on the side so it's not like I was actively hunting that much. There should definitely be something to identify crowns with in the future, though. An armour skill or something else entirely. In World's case, you could unlock a special research level which displays a possible crown next to the monster on your map. I doubt they want to give players such a tool, though. Feels like it's designed to be as random and time-consuming as possible so only the most insane hunters will go for them all.

I didn't have most of your issues with FE Warriors, but I do agree that Hyrule Warriors has much more variety. Azura was one of my favorite characters to play in it with her fun water-based moveset! I also used Marth a ton and got to the level cap of 150 with him because he's my main in Smash and still my favorite Lord to represent the series.

I'm surprised the silver crowns are enough! I don't remember that being the case in MH3U or MH4U where I got all the awards as well. Seems very unlikely that my last crown was a monster where I didn't have the silver crown and essentially skipped straight to the gold one to pop the award. Good news for you though and you'll still have enough "fun" with the remaining small crowns I imagine.

Haha, Hellblade G5 is indeed absolutely terrible. The EX Hunt ended up being much easier in a way because it was only one of them with no pressure to hurry up before the next monster spawns in and messes everything up.

I also cleaned up my quest list by getting crowns but I definitely didn't treat it as a side task once the quests that could randomly yield a natural crown were dried up. It wasn't uncommon for me to reset the same quest for up to an hour or two while measuring the monster each time. Trying to bruteforce the crown like that is a bad idea because desire sensor obviously, but I figured it was the best approach simply because doing it in one shot allowed me to easier spot the small differences to snipe the crown and move on to the next monster. The goal was to obtain each crown with as few actual hunts as possible because there's nothing quite as devastating as doing a lengthy and annoying solo hunt only to find out the crown you were so sure about wasn't actually it... You're also no longer told what size it just was unless it's a new record, making the monsters where I already was one size away from the crown really tough since I had no clear point of reference!

Yeah, V-II was by far the most serious Nep title, but I also find it to be the best overall experience. Even with the seriously toned down jokes. Still, I agree, I would have preferred more jokes & the same level of plot dev. Have no fear, there's no shortage of 4th wall breaking in Nep RPG.

Skills are the most important thing in the game (especially elemental attacks to hit weaknesses), since you'll need to rely on them to avoid getting floored. I don't have the ultimate weaps packs (the free equips packs become obsolete in the second region), so I don't know if you get any skills from those that would be of use, but the sky high raw stats should help you blow through the game for a while. As for the characters, you'll never have a full party through the first three regions of the game w/o the DLC characters. There's even a few parts that are Nep solos, so having some buddies around to soak up damage & diversify your attacks will certainly help in that regard. The biggest plus, is that you'll gain access to two (or is it three?) new formations & the bonuses they grant, right away. Having the item enhancing formation available can be a life saver, instead of having Nep go it alone. Note, that anyone not in the active formation does not earn skill points, but they will level up.

You'll end up replacing all of the DLC chars with the CPUs when they join, but to get an edge early on, they will definitely help out. Especially Artisan (raw stats & magic skills to compliment Nep) & Compa (item boosting formation). Iffy isn't really all that useful imo. Or at least I haven't found a use for her, except for soaking up some of the enemy's attacks. That said, if you've got the ultimate weaps & they have ridiculous stats on them, the enemy might not last long enough to make any of this strat stuff matter lol

The game definitely has you covered with a lighter plot. Heck, it borders on absurd at times lol

Yeah... I waited about 8 or 9 years before caving and playing the game in JP with the fan translation guide. And then they announced the Definitive Edition within a year... and don't get me started on the ridiculous voice acting. But at least a bunch of people who were never gonna import the JP game can finally play it. That's the silver lining.

I spent an unhealthy amount of my time in MHXX just making armor to transmog. Even worked through a couple EX Deviants just so I could 'mog those. It's definitely something that I would like to see become a permanent part of the franchise so that we don't have to look like clowns to be strong. I think that my friends coming from World generally agree that the armor and weapons look better in GU than in World, but flying around on the IG is sorely missed to the point of people dropping the weapon, haha. We just broke into G-Rank yesterday, and I had forgotten how hard things hit in GU. I was sitting around that same 400-500 range in some middling Blademaster armor, and High-Rank Hypers could one-shot me. I even failed the Diablos Urgent because I kept getting one-shot in my Gunner armor.

To be honest, I'm not sure if Silver Crowns are enough for the award. I could definitely be wrong, but I was always under the impression that it had to be Gold Crowns. If it's only Silver, then it sounds much more feasible! And I'm sure we can work out a time when it comes down to it. My schedule is pretty crazy, to say the least.

Yep, doing all those things in Hyrule Warriors is gonna be pretty crazy. It'll end up being the most hours I've spent on a non-Monster Hunter to date but at least it's all actual content. In Fire Emblem Warriors, I spent dozens of hours (40-50 I think) purely grinding supports in the same map with the same strategy over and over for maximum efficiency and it still took this long. That's not a thing here, so I'm much more motivated this time around.

I'm not sure if the silver large crowns are enough for the award. Maybe they are, but since it's usually the small crowns that are hard to get I would have gone for the large gold crowns either way. Let me know if it worked!

Some EX Deviants are alright, but certain ones are simply nasty and not even worth attempting with randoms. Fighting monsters that are this stupidly overtuned is just not worth the time and effort. If they hit insanely hard they should have reasonable amounts of HP instead of being dangerous AND tanky. Pick one. IIRC, they aren't required for the Deviant awards either and just purely for bragging rights including the ability to transmog the respective gear.

Doing something without a guaranteed reward is exactly what makes crowns such a problem for me as well.Sure you can often times struggle getting a certain rare drop but it's a very different feeling despite both things being up to luck!

Hiya fellow Nep fan! Overall it's a decent game so far, though it does have a lot of flaws. Specifically; lots of lag in menus, frame drops in dungeons, wonky menuing and battle mechanics, lots of skill point grinding & no beastiary. The quests don't really make the grinding feel less like grinding the way they did in the past games, so it sticks out more every time you get new equips to use. But at least there's a way to drastically speed the fights up. (I've kind of been ignoring the skill/money grinding ever since I got out of the first area, so now the third area enemies are royally owning me, because I lack a full spectrum of elemental attacks.)

On the plus side, the visuals are gorgeous, the story is the usual sorts of crazy, tons of 4th wall jokes, the goddesses are actually getting along for once, the music is nothing like anything that's ever been in a Nep game before, it's pretty much true to what we expect for a Nep game.

I do recommend picking up the DLC characters right away if you want them, because they will quickly fall behind in usefulness, since they won't have a decent skillset.