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yuna49
Joined: 27 Aug 2008
Posts: 3804
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Posted: Fri Jan 24, 2020 11:01 am
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I had a similar reaction. The action sequences are pretty stunning, and even more so when put in the context of a generally run-of-the-mill show.
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BSW
Joined: 22 Jun 2012
Posts: 116
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Posted: Fri Jan 24, 2020 1:09 pm
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Karafactory wrote: | OK guys, you talked a lot about game logic, story-telling and it's okay, but what about technic and art !? The action scenes of this TV series are insanes ! It's dynamic, detailled, and for example, the final boss combat of episode 3 is clearly 90% hand made animation ! For a "simple cute TV series", it's just "wow "! |
It fails as an action series, merely because there's too little stakes and action in it altogether.
And it fails as a cute series, because it is not really that cute at all, and they care more about action scenes than consistently drawing and animating well.
In fact, it's a failure in every aspect, and there's no interesting plot or fanservice to save it from being a series that tries to pander to everyone, but fails to commit to anything, and the mechanics are a joke, and yes, the "patching" was even worse than anything up to that point.
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Karafactory
Joined: 18 Mar 2007
Posts: 3
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Posted: Sat Jan 25, 2020 4:13 am
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YUNA49 = Exactly !
BSW = Well, it's your opinion. i think exactly the opposite
It's not a matter about quantity, but about quality. I love action, but I prefer short action sequences rather than long mediocre action scenes. Okay, the plot is very basic, but it's consistent. The atmosphere scenes are really good too.
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Animegomaniac
Joined: 16 Feb 2012
Posts: 4134
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Posted: Sat Jan 25, 2020 8:55 am
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The more I see of Sally, the less I like the show.
The title was supposed to be "I don't want to get hurt so I'll max out my defense.", not "I don't want to get hurt so I won't."
Sally was supposed to be a swashbuckler right? Acrobatic rogue fighter with a high evade, seems simple enough to get right. So where did the magic come from? I let it slide in episode 2 but after what happened in 3, I've had enough. How is it that we saw how Maple got all her skills, how she uses them and how they got nerfed in a patch but with Sally, I'm guessing she's a fighter mage with all the dexterity bonuses of a rogue? So what's the trade off?
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BSW
Joined: 22 Jun 2012
Posts: 116
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Posted: Sat Jan 25, 2020 4:44 pm
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The trade off is that the writer is incompetent beyond thinking up a premise to ride the trend.
We don't need more to that than them being special snowflakes.
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DuskyPredator
Joined: 10 Mar 2009
Posts: 15545
Location: Brisbane, Australia
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Posted: Thu Feb 06, 2020 1:11 am
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Episode 5
Maple continuing to be able to abuse her skills, defeating another ultra powerful boss, a giant squid called the Sea King, by polluting the entire ocean of the battlefield, she's a monster. The mods seem to have practically given up in not wanting to hear what crazy thing she has done. Also, apparently she could have got some skill that would have increased her VIT by 1.5, and did not take it, although the mods did say they were trying to pre-emptively stop her from breaking the game by combining skills in any weird way. Her choice was to take her turtle that can now go giant, and be able to make it fly in the air as a mount. The best part was the imagery that the end comments gave of someone seeing her now in action, with her friends riding on a giant turtle through the air and raining acid rain hellfire down.
Actually kind of wondering if her being able to fly is breaking the game since being able to get high was a particular challenge in the episode, and not sure if I have seen much archery, at least over magic at least.
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Harleyquin
Joined: 29 May 2014
Posts: 2937
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Posted: Thu Feb 06, 2020 2:52 am
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With Kasumi as a friend instead of a foe, the OP animation where what appears to be Maple's party gathering under a huge tree house begins to edge closer to reality. The series never fails to provide for laughs, but the combination of Maple's gaming luck and her ability to use skills in the most unusual ways never fail to give the game administrators more headaches.
The pair work well together because Sally does the donkey work when it comes to offence. On her own, her ridiculous speed, mirages and fast attacks with some basic magic work well enough to overwhelm mundane foes in short order. She's not putting any points in HP, so if she does get hit she's effectively finished. Because the game engine rewards players for quick reaction speeds, she's difficult to beat since no one can really hit her. The game has only been patched once so far, so if the administrators really wanted to screw Sally over they'll have to wait until the next update, though I doubt it since Payne (#1 ranked player in first event) plays on his own and apparently is a godly PvP player in his own right so Sally playing the way she is won't be penalised as "cheap".
The last shot of Maple on the oversized floating turtle casting Acid Rain on a small group of hapless monsters gets the plaudits for most comical moment this week.
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Animegomaniac
Joined: 16 Feb 2012
Posts: 4134
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Posted: Thu Feb 06, 2020 8:42 am
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Flying would be patched out if Syrup was flying but
1 Maple made Syrup giant so she could ride her
2 Maple uses her own telekinesis ability to raise Syrup up in the air.
It's impressive, the best way I can describe it is that she's abusing a "go to" loop. She can't use telekinesis on herself to float but she can use it on her pet. The fact she's on her pet while moving it around shouldn't be possible but as long as she's meeting its conditions, it works.
The real problem is Maple can use other abilities while telekinesis is active... I wonder if it was intended to be a pet recall ability that if the system loses it, you can use that ability to place it wherever because adding an ability like that in an unrestricted way seems like a poorly thought out fix to something.
I also liked Maple's reaction to a puzzle boss fight; If you don't know which part to hit for damage, poison the whole gamefield somehow.
My only disappoint in episode 5 was the how giant flying turtle Syrup WASN'T spinning. It's Japan and there's a giant flying turtle, some things are just expected.
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Harleyquin
Joined: 29 May 2014
Posts: 2937
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Posted: Wed Feb 12, 2020 9:50 am
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#6
The flying turtle grabs the headlines, but it's turned out to be surprisingly useful since the old method of Sally carrying Maple on her shoulders and running around in the virtual world only works if it's just the two of them. Now that they have a guild, Syrup is the guild transporter who can bring everyone from point A to point B in a safe and reasonable comfortable manner. If the developers are worried about Maple abusing the potential tactical advantages of a flying giant turtle, they could simply disable it during competitions and boss dungeons. Maple doesn't seem to use it for much else than ferrying her guild members around for now.
The start of the episode is a comedic reminder that at the bottom of it all Kaede is a school-going girl who's only gotten into serious gaming very recently. Risa warned her about conflating the virtual and real worlds today, but it's testament to Maple's core that she can easily give up the game for 72 hours and go back as if nothing had ever happened to her. Game addiction clearly doesn't afflict her at all.
So the guild and its members featured in the OP is brought to fruition this week. No surprise the guild name is "Maple Tree". The newest members are like Maple, only oriented towards Attack. Unsurprisingly, they're not very skilled and don't have much to show for it which is the standard reaction most neutrals looking at this game would elicit (at least anyone who isn't Maple and her tendency to pick up really strong skills without really meaning it). Now that they're in Maple's guild, that ridiculous investment in attack is going to pay dividends since they're now part of a team and give an option which was probably not available to the guild prior to their entry (Sally and Kanade are the main attackers, but they can't do everything on their own. A pair of siblings whose headbutts can disintegrate wooden tables will speed up mundane boss fights considerably with the right levels, equipment and deployment).
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Harleyquin
Joined: 29 May 2014
Posts: 2937
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Posted: Wed Feb 19, 2020 10:12 am
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#7
Another unintended consequence of Maple's whim to fly around on her oversized pet turtle: she breaks standard NPC escort quests and NPC scripted dialogue doesn't work as it should because there's no danger to speak of aboard the flying turtle shuttle. The payoff for another one of her accidental finds is probably the ultimate party skill there is; she even commissioned a new outfit to match.
Not to say her other guild members have been idle. Everyone except Sally, Kasumi and Kaede picked up something during this interlude episode. The two all-attack beginners now have ridiculously dangerous offence thanks to Maple's lateral thinking when it comes to quick grinding for her guild members, Iz has a spell silo that can preemptively store any spell he wants in the game before a major event and Krom now has his unique set of equipment just like Maple and Sally (he's a conventional player with lots of experience, but the gear he has now puts him closer to an even footing with his wildly unbalanced teammates).
They didn't translate Krom's gear, but what he has is as follows:
All of his unique gear is indestructible.
Skill: Soul Eater
Skill: Dead or Alive.
Skill: Life Eater
Skill: Consume Spirit.
No description on the skills, but it looks like he has life steal, mana steal and a skill which temporarily cheats death. Perfect for the "standard" Great Shielder character stereotype. The equipment stat boosts are no slouch either.
Syrup picked up a laser skill when he's enlarged and has a defensive vine skill as well.
Payne's guild is still looking down on Maple's guild, but Payne is right to be cautious. If they think the guild is all about Maple's poison, they're in for a rude awakening.
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Harleyquin
Joined: 29 May 2014
Posts: 2937
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Posted: Wed Feb 26, 2020 9:44 am
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#8
The show never fails to make me laugh. Maple has gamer's luck, anything she runs into has the potential to be hugely rewarding down the line. Following her guild's party and a fall off the cliff eventually leads to a secret boss battle which grants her three hidden skills that feel like a tribute to the Godzilla franchise. It's been a while since we've seen "Hungry Maple" at work, but she didn't have any other choice because she has no conventional offence and her HP is so high she isn't instantly digested.
Her skills probably make up for her guild not making the top 10 and only doing enough to get a guild strength bonus trophy. On the flip side, organization with numbers gives the Flame Emperors a regimented and efficient method of farming huge quantities of cows in a single go.
Even in Area 3, a combination of Maple's gamer luck, a random pickup from the first half and her flying turtle somehow combine to present the show's tribute to the Mecha genre of action anime.
For those who missed it, the customary end-episode chat thread mentioned Maple's duel with the 2nd generation Machine God accidentally killing several players caught up in the huge beam explosion. Maple's good luck seems to lead to incredibly awful luck for those caught up around her travails.
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DuskyPredator
Joined: 10 Mar 2009
Posts: 15545
Location: Brisbane, Australia
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Posted: Thu Feb 27, 2020 7:17 am
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She just keeps becoming more of a monster.
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Harleyquin
Joined: 29 May 2014
Posts: 2937
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Posted: Wed Mar 04, 2020 11:07 am
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#9
This is it, the main event where Maple's guild of unique gear oddballs takes on the conventional power-gaming guilds for the first time.
I thought Maple was taking it easy for the mecha introduction, I think she remembered the reaction during her last Godzilla exhibition, and with the competition coming out revealing a trump card too early would have ruined the surprise.
Sally's duel with Frederica is surprising. I thought Frederica called it quits while she was still on top, turns out Sally still had enough left in the tank to feed false info to the Holy Swords. Unfortunately, Cascade was pulled out twice against the guild members, so they'll have figured out that's the genuine skill which should be watched out for.
To the competition itself, a lot of players completely underestimate Sally because Maple attracts too much attention. Her "scouting" incited an intra-guild skirmish and she made off with at least three orbs ON HER OWN. The Holy Swords can do that, but everyone knows who they are so they have zero element of surprise. Sally does, and by the time players are aware of her it's too late.
Seeing the entire Maple Tree guild take on intruders was always going to be a foregone conclusion, nothing short of the Flame Emperors and Holy Swords would actually succeed in stealing their orb. That angel skill really is as powerful as it was described a few weeks ago, not to mention Maple doesn't even need to draw out her new toys yet.
Speaking of the Flame Emperor, the gap between the public facade and the private self is a huge one in the leader's case. I don't envy her lot, but she's putting a brave face to it.
Series is coming to an end, will we see a showdown between Maple and the top dogs of the power-gaming guilds?
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Animegomaniac
Joined: 16 Feb 2012
Posts: 4134
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Posted: Thu Mar 05, 2020 11:02 am
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The series is doing it again, Maple is taking a passive role while everyone else does normal stuff, it's not good.
It makes sense to have Maple on defense but it's not right. It's a five day event and I don't think they're doing this the way Maple Tree should be doing this.
If someone takes your orb, you and only you know where it is.
You have three hours to get that orb and if you get it back in that time, you don't lose any points.
Once someone takes your orb, no one else can take it but you.
You can only take the orb for points from each guild once per day.
I see a definite plan and it's not a "guard our base" one, it's a "increase chaos by stealing multiple orbs at once while yours is safely tucked away in another guild so that multiple guilds are fighting one another just getting to your door" sort of thing.
Release the Maple!
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Harleyquin
Joined: 29 May 2014
Posts: 2937
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Posted: Fri Mar 06, 2020 10:10 pm
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And you don't score any points if the orb (your own or others) isn't in your base. And the Maple Tree guild wants to place as high as possible so they have to score points. Just turtling inside your base with your own orb as a small guild won't cut it.
No, thinking about causing chaos just to kill time is not on their minds. They want to win, and to do so they need points in the bank. Sally is doing what she can to keep guilds away from her own HQ, but at the end of it all they need points to bank in before they can stop others from earning theirs. Sally picked up three or four orbs in this one episode, so Maple Tree will guard those until they're banked in.
No one bothers watching the next episode trailers on youtube, so here's a hint. This guild of unique gear oddballs isn't going to turtle up and wait for people to come knocking. For a small guild, going on offence is indeed possible but they need to wait for enough time to pass before they strike out. Like Maple, the others cannot use their skills until there's so much time remaining they can go all out and not worry about the consequences because of the event ending.
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