finally got around to finishing my second 100% run on a different cartridge to unlock hard mode. will probably start hard mode in the coming weeks, but, for now, i'm taking a breather.
i do feel like a lot of this game gets slept on with people oversimplifying it to "lol gater!" because yeah, gater does break the game, but a. it's entirely optional to use b. the vast majority of players are going to even find out about it without using some type of guide or reference material c. half if not moreso of the fun of MMBN games is finding out what combos you can use to break the game. i've always felt people overlook fullcustom in this game when talking about the most broken chips in the series. sure, folderback gives you back your entire folder + itself and starts your turn immediately, but you can put 5 fullcustoms in your folder and it has a very low memory requirement to register. in many ways, i've always considered this to be what breaks the game in half and then subsequently into fourths because most of my lategame gameplay is just shuffling out hands with fullcustoms until i get either the chip or PA i was looking for. so, in that way, i'm kind of looking forward to seeing how hard mode will challenge me, knowing that my dominant strategies will likely have to be reworked.
in general, this game always comes extremely close to being my favorite in the series because of what a joy it is to play. the internet areas are a giant step up from 1 and feel characterized and vibrant, scenarios are paced better and it feels like there's a lot more downtime between them, and the styles themselves add such a needed degree of depth to gameplay. that said, it'd be an improvement if a style's element could be influenced at all (i ended up with the joy of having a file seed where aqua was the last element in rotation), and overall the system could do with a smidge more transparency both wrt what style you're going to acquire soon + how many battles until either a style upgrade or a new one.
still, this game is absolute bliss to play and even in it's drudgery like the freezeman scenario is still entertaining. the base gameplay formula of deckbuilding meeting simplistic grid-based combat works extremely well and capcom knew exactly how to build on it. there's a reason you could browse r/battlenetwork on any given week and find someone say "hey guys here's my alpha build of my indie game that's going to be using the mmbn grid combat!". appeal to popularity or whatever, sure, but it has staying power. this is really where the series begins imo, and that's not necessarily to throw shade at MMBN1, but more to acknowledge that this is where the formula finally clicks into place and becomes addictive. 40 hours to 100% this game again and i'm already thinking about how i'm going to go about my next playthrough. the staying power of MMBN is not to be underestimated or taken lightly. these games will always have a grip on the neurons in my brain that release dopamine.
i do feel like a lot of this game gets slept on with people oversimplifying it to "lol gater!" because yeah, gater does break the game, but a. it's entirely optional to use b. the vast majority of players are going to even find out about it without using some type of guide or reference material c. half if not moreso of the fun of MMBN games is finding out what combos you can use to break the game. i've always felt people overlook fullcustom in this game when talking about the most broken chips in the series. sure, folderback gives you back your entire folder + itself and starts your turn immediately, but you can put 5 fullcustoms in your folder and it has a very low memory requirement to register. in many ways, i've always considered this to be what breaks the game in half and then subsequently into fourths because most of my lategame gameplay is just shuffling out hands with fullcustoms until i get either the chip or PA i was looking for. so, in that way, i'm kind of looking forward to seeing how hard mode will challenge me, knowing that my dominant strategies will likely have to be reworked.
in general, this game always comes extremely close to being my favorite in the series because of what a joy it is to play. the internet areas are a giant step up from 1 and feel characterized and vibrant, scenarios are paced better and it feels like there's a lot more downtime between them, and the styles themselves add such a needed degree of depth to gameplay. that said, it'd be an improvement if a style's element could be influenced at all (i ended up with the joy of having a file seed where aqua was the last element in rotation), and overall the system could do with a smidge more transparency both wrt what style you're going to acquire soon + how many battles until either a style upgrade or a new one.
still, this game is absolute bliss to play and even in it's drudgery like the freezeman scenario is still entertaining. the base gameplay formula of deckbuilding meeting simplistic grid-based combat works extremely well and capcom knew exactly how to build on it. there's a reason you could browse r/battlenetwork on any given week and find someone say "hey guys here's my alpha build of my indie game that's going to be using the mmbn grid combat!". appeal to popularity or whatever, sure, but it has staying power. this is really where the series begins imo, and that's not necessarily to throw shade at MMBN1, but more to acknowledge that this is where the formula finally clicks into place and becomes addictive. 40 hours to 100% this game again and i'm already thinking about how i'm going to go about my next playthrough. the staying power of MMBN is not to be underestimated or taken lightly. these games will always have a grip on the neurons in my brain that release dopamine.