I'm about to sleep, so no time right now. I'll plan to write something that maybe will help tomorrow

Neutral is complicated if you think about it too much. You definitely want to simplify simplify simplify. Narrow down your options if you want to actually think about what you're going to do, but better than that is to simply find the flow. When I'm playing my best, I'm not thinking, I'm simply doing. Unconscious mastery, inner game of tennis kinda vibes. Do your thinking when you do vod review, then leave that behind when you are "performing." Gotta get the brain out of the way of your body.

Monster hunter, either rise or world with the expansions. It's not as infinite as something like Rimworld, but it's hundreds of hours for sure..

I mean if we don't, then probably no one does. I think it's more useful to look at representative governance more as a spectrum rather than "is a democracy or is not." There's an ideal, the "more perfect union", and generally we have moved in that direction over the last 200 years. No one in 1792 would have imagined a black president, or 18 year old property-less women voting.

Yes, I'm aware voting or presidents do not make a democracy, but I guess I think that a democracy need not be the perfect expression of the peoples will for it to be called a democracy.

But the average game isn't good? Like if we took all the games that have ever been made and averaged their ign score, I don't think it would be 7. I think it might even be lower than 5 honestly

Rise is just so fun. Like say what you will about immersion or "hunting" or whatever, but they made a fun game (minus rampage which is meh). I love world to death, but I'm not sure I'm ever willing to replay it just because of all the unfun shit they make you do. Zorah, some annoying monsters like kushala, unskippable cut scenes and credits, weird MR requirements, Clutch claw, all the "investigating" (blue sparkle simulator), none of it is terrible on its own but it does add up to a bit more annoyance in the gaming experience.

Sunbreak is basically perfect in my eyes. I know some people didn't care for the anomalies, but they're very optional for the most part (just to try, I've defeated all the end game fights with unaugmented gear, so it's totally doable, I'd have no hope of that with fatalis), and I just love the combat.

I think it's a problem in both games, but I find it far more annoying in world just because the maps are way more convoluted ("immersive") and the movement options are less. Rathalos on ancient forest before you unlock all the camps is so annoying for that reason.

You'd have to take the risk in the first place.

I think it's important to define exactly what we're talking about before we continue this discussion, because we might be referencing different things. I'm talking about the huge hay makers that require an opponent to essentially walk into your hitbox, or utterly fail to react. Think the Ganondorf random f smash/ up smash at ledge, based on zero previous interactions, just thrown out. Or the random falcon kick from across stage. Pro players usually don't play like that if they're trying to win, largely because they can get similar or even better reward with taking less risk.

An example from my character (Pit) would be side B and to a lesser extent, his smash attacks. Zackray, far and away the best pit, almost never uses Side B at all except to recover. But it can be an okay hail mary option, thanks to its armor plus burst potential. It'll kill very early with dark pit at ledge. But Zackray never uses it. Why? The risk is too high. Why not simply backair at ledge, or go for grabs? Ultimate inherently has lots of ways to secure stocks without going for these very exploitable hay makers.

Now, top players might start throwing them out for fun if they're playing someone who has no hope of beating them. But at that point, they're not really playing the game only to win. Which since this is a competitive sub, isn't really relevant to the discussion.

I think we probably just agree though, and this is a semantic disagreement.

Worth noting that taxes have been lowered substantially already.

Ehh different strokes. I think they're both a lot of fun for different reasons. Slay the spire feels a lot more balanced to me, such that even when you get a really busted deck going, you'll still be on your toes. Monster train feels more like they want you to break the game. Love them both!

No worries! I do recommend the oled for sure if the money isn't a concern

Ah misunderstanding. I've had a deck for about a year, I got my oled as an upgrade 2 weeks ago

I upgraded like 2 weeks ago so take it with a grain of salt.

But I've loved it. Screen makes a huge difference on a mobile device. 90 frames is great when you can get it. I think it feels much lighter, even though it's not that much of a difference numerically

Celeste. Platformers are really not my jam. But Celeste was fantastic.

I watched Kenobi but I somehow don't remember this lol

Was probably high

🎵🎵theeeeere goes my herooooo🎵🎵 🎵🎵watch him as he swiiiings🎵🎵

When did this happen? Not trying to be antagonistic, I just want to check it out lol

Monster hunter Rise is built for a portable system, but the deck is leagues above the switch in power, fidelity, and ergonomics

We definitely do see what happens when a characters neutral is simply better than anothers. Check out any Sonix set where he successfully camps them out. That's neutral. Sonic charging spin dash at the edge of the stage to force options or approaches is an overpowering neutral. Samus does something similar with charge shot, or Steve with mining and block. But all of these characters also have bonkers advantage states, whether with true combos, strings that are difficult to break out of, or ledge trapping that is degenerate.

I think you misunderstand Aegis as a character. Mythra has a great neutral, it's hard to deal with, especially if you're slow, but she's broken because of her advantage state. You can see it sometimes with Sparg0 or Shuton, the juggling because of her frame data and speed is nuts. Top 2 advantage in the game next to GmW imo. In neutral, she's much more read based. She's not a character that can mash on you, most of her aerials and tilts aren't safe on shield

I do think Joker can reach that level of neutral smothering the opponent, but it's very difficult. It requires fundamentals on par or better than the likes of Leo or Zackray, as well as full mastery of the gun as a neutral tool. That's a lot of work compared to a flow chart for ledge trapping or juggling.

I'm glad you mentioned Light, because he absolutely weaponizes the speed of Fox to oppress the opponent in neutral. Fox can whiff punish a lot of characters on reaction in neutral in the same way Aegis or Joker can, but his advantage state is much simpler and much deadlier, assuming Joker doesn't have Arsene. Hence, my point. Advantage state is king in ultimate.

Edit: I think your Tweek quotes about Mythra illustrate my point well. Dash attack/dash grab, frame 2 jab mixups, landing mixups, these are all fundamentally mixups. You have a lot of opportunities to make the right read and win neutral. But that's much less guaranteed than a GnW juggle string, or a Kazuya ZtD.

I just disagree I guess. I've watched Muteace, Sparg0, and Shadic review vods looking at every single interaction interrogating every possible option they could take. I think the best are pushing it as much as they can, especially if they have to push neutral more than advantage to win. But the issue is there's not much to push. Neutral is fundamentally a complex equation that requires an opponent to solve. If you want to practice neutral, besides the aforementioned vod review, you just need to play and watch the game focusing on neutral game. I'm not sure what exactly you think top players aren't doing that (I presume?) you are.

Can't it just be that Toriguri is extremely skilled at the game, and utilized his tools effectively to win? Why can't we just credit the player that won rather than always criticizing the player that lost?

That's how I prefer to think about it anyway. Much more exciting that way.

If Shinymark could attend events, we would all say pika is top 5, and it wouldn't be debated. Unfortunately most characters have at most only one or two players that can show their true potential. Sonic wasn't thought of like this until Sonix was consistently getting top 2 at majors. Steve was floated anywhere from mid tier to top tier before we saw major results from Onin and Acola. ROB has universally been considered amazing, but aside from Zombas insane run at Genesis, there haven't been much to point to.

All this is to say, results can only help you so much in determining a tier list. The player base isn't large or skilled enough to truly sus out the best characters. I think you need to take results as a factor, especially if you know there's amazing players playing the character (ie, we know Leo is amazing, he's been the best player in the world before, so we can look at his Aegis results with clear eye), but it can't be the only factor. Otherwise we have to accept that Byleth was apparently top tier for a while, even when we know the character was never very good.

Pika has some of the best combo game in the business, top 3 edge guarding in the entire game, his neutral isn't the best, but t jolt carries him in most matchups. His hurt box is randomly the best in the game, meaning you will often BS your opponent with zero intention on your part. He has never been nerfed. But the thing that really makes him top 5 in my eyes is the camping. Shinymark when he starts ledge stalling with a lead is some of the most toxic smash I've ever seen. It's literally unbeatable by like half the cast. The only real weakness I see in Pikachu is he doesn't have a random stray hit aerial to kill with. But he does have a killing up throw and dash attack, so it's not even that much of a weakness.

The only real things I object to in your top ten is Cloud, Kaz, and to a lesser extent, Aegis. They all have glaring weaknesses that are obvious and relatively easy to play to. Cloud has been massively carried by the talent of a single top player, and has almost zero results outside of that. He is a solid high tier, but can literally die to an edge guard at almost any percent, even to a non edge guarding character like Incin or Fox. Aegis is very similar, except Mythra is one of the most broken characters ever put in a smash game. Unfortunately she can also die at zero. That kind of glass canon design is too inconsistent in a large bracket. And we can point to every single Aegis player that does well having secondaries to rely on when she's not working. If the likes of Sparg0, Shuton, and Mk freaking Leo cannot get this character to work as a solo main like Acola, Sonix, or Light do for their characters, then she simply isn't in the same class as Steve, Sonic, or Fox.

I would say Leo, Tweek, Dabuz, Sonix, Zackray, Shuton, Gluto, and Yoshidora all have fantastic neutral in their own ways. Zackray with Pit is basically my platonic ideal of neutral game. It's some of my favorite parts of the game to watch because it takes advantage of the unique movement options of a platform fighter as compared to a standard fighting game.

I think people are pushing their neutral a lot, but it's just not as effective as having an airtight advantage. It really just comes down to chance. All it takes is one misstep for Kazuya to land his EWGF or Luigi to land a grab, or Rob a nair etc etc etc. Human error is a thing, and eventually even the best players will make a mistake in neutral. Sometimes that means you lose the entire game. It is what it is

There's a comment with more up votes asking for the mod name. So clearly a divisive art style lol

I guess I was thinking changing from a single member district system to a proportional representation system, which would actually help our democracy. I don't really think ranked choice would do much at all, though it would be better than what we currently have.

In order for ranked choice to have a meaningful effect, we would also need serious campaign finance reform, and probably abolish the electoral college as well.