Fun fact, author of this series (Suzushiro) has been drawing skating maids for years. They know what they like and they pursued it with passion - to the point that about half of their pixiv profile consists of this specific theme. It's great.
The Villainess Flips the Script!
I've been writing down my thoughts long after coming up with them/reading specific chapters so I'm going with bullet points just to organise my thoughts. They're still a mess but a readable one at least.
I really dislike when stories describe someone as mediocre/plain/bad looking and when you see that person they're super cute - this series does it pretty much right away. If you're going to include such characters then commit at least a little bit.
Not a fan of characters pretending to be someone else as I've read enough stuff to know this is going to blow up in their faces in the future. And it did... only for the situation to be saved by an ass pull which kept on giving long after the scene in question. I don't even mind the plot point itself (the ass pull, I mean) but I didn't really care for it here, that's pretty much what it boils down to.
I don't like Ruediger. He's like a teenager with no self-control and a control freak compulsion. While I understand why he is that way (to some extent) his scenes with Judith don't feel romantic, they put warning sirens on full blast screaming "creep alert". Dude often acts behind her back without really thinking about what she'd want, let alone consulting her, and always chooses the most extreme (often the most stupid) option causing a lot of issues along the way. My opinion of him did start to improve around chapter 100 but it's still nowhere close to where it should be for a romance target.
Speaking of possessiveness and control, it really feels like most of the male characters in this series have this issue. It made me less interested in a romance plot and rooting for a proper emancipation arc instead. These guys are mental (and nobles in an old-timey world but the results are the same).
Other than that it's a pretty fun story so far, even if a bit too convenient a lot of the time. Judith is great, as are the royal ladies and I already mentioned my perspective on the guys. Luca's twist was pretty obvious, which isn't a bad thing necessarily, but I was surprised by how the story approached Judith's isekai aspect.
I love Judith's reaction faces, they're great. Art style overall is really pretty as well.
This came out a bit more negative than I really feel (as is tradition, since I tend to be more critical of the things I enjoy) but it was a pretty fun ride. There were some great and touching moments, some lame ones and a few completely infuriating events (looking at you Ruediger during Judith's banquet) - all of which managed to combine into a solid story in the end.
I feel like some of my issues could be smoothed out if the series was a bit longer and slower though that's just copium on my part. While some things could be resolved this way, others are clearly deliberate decisions by the writer and that's not something more chapters would help with.
I think the new versions of atmospheric tracks are pretty decent alternatives. Better? I can't say I compared them this way but I'd say... a bit different and fitting with the new visuals for the most part. Dunno about the licensed stuff as my only experience with classic releases was playing the first game a few years ago.
I did find a few spots over all the games I played so far where I felt like the music was lacking a bit but I'm not sure if that's just a normal experience or something exclusive to MCC/updated versions of the games. It wasn't something that affected my enjoyment too much so I just moved on and focused on the good.
I still have 2.5 games ahead of me so I probably won't be doing a full playthrough of H1 but I might take a look. It does sound promising and a bit more involved than I expected to be honest. Thanks again for letting me know!
EVO tech-preview for engineering is suppose to start this week but that's about it for the tech side of things at the moment. I did read that it requires engine improvements present in the version with Vulkan changes so that might still be in the cards. Dunno if Vulkan preview channel is still live or not.
I heard about the dynamic lighting situation but completely forgot about it until now, thanks for the reminder!
I didn't dive into Halo modding yet so I wasn't aware of rebalance patches, makes sense. This is my first playthrough of the series (sans 1 and Spartan Assault) so I wanted to play them vanilla anyway but I'll keep that in mind if I ever decide to play them again.
Halo 2: Anniversary
The further into the series I get, the less enjoyable my Heroic playthrough becomes. I'm currently doing the first halo mission as the Arbiter and the amount of shotgun-totting floodlings who can one-shot me while running and jumping around like they're on speed is... tiring, to say the least. I actually ended up taking a break for a few days for the first time since I started playing MCC due to this very level. Hopefully I'll be able to start fresh once I'm back.
Other than that I still like the game - not as much as Reach but it's fun for the most part. Gameplay has a nice mix of on-foot and vehicle combat, levels are pretty varied (both visually and in terms of design). New weapons are alright, can't say I like them more than anything I used in other games.
I'm still not sure how I feel about the story, will have to wait until I'm done before I decide on that.
I mentioned it before but boy do I appreciate the presentation when using remastered graphics. All the colour, details and updated art style make the locations look appropriately sci-fi, otherworldly (when needed) and just overall beautiful and pleasant to look at. It's a fantastic upgrade, one that hits even harder if you play like me - constantly switching between the two versions.
I've got another small but annoying problem to mention this week: why does my flashlight turns off randomly? Sometimes it's after a few seconds, other times when moving between the rooms. Either way, it's making it pretty much useless. Why? What possible reason could you have for that? It's not like I'm running out of battery or anything, just let me use it when I want to.
Now you're making me curious if there are series like this where full-on sex scenes have actually important info/growth/plot relevance without feeling like cheap filler. Overall though I think scenes like that can still serve a purpose when done correctly, like show off a different side of the characters. I feel this series is a good example of that - compare "normal" and "tea time" Pell (to use manhwa's terminology here).
Also, I'm not gonna lie, well drawn smut can be a great read from a purely technical point of view. I love analysing how people draw stuff, especially bodies as nature is something I have HUGE problems with myself, so even without plot relevance I tend to get something out of things like that. I know people often joke how they check these things for art but that's actually kind of where I'm at most of the time.
No worries, I'm not a prude who'd feel offended by this stuff nor is it an R-18 series to hide from any potential passers-by. I was just surprised after multiple titles where stuff like this was pretty much kept at a "kids friendly" level.
I'm not sure about dropping huge walls of text outright so I'll be sticking with putting stuff in spoilers when talking about multiple series. We'll see how this works.
One thing I've noticed while playing the Master Chief Collection is that each game I play sounds quieter than the last. Reach > CE > 2 > ODST - every change of game required me to pump up the volume to get thing were I want them to be. Not a huge issue but certainly a weird one.
Also, and this might sound like a hot take, so far Halo 1, 2 and ODST all had certain segments that felt way too long for what they had to offer. As fun as these games are, these segments did little to help keep me engaged and slowly strengthen the feeling of exhaustion whenever they happen. I'm still planning to go through the rest of the MCC but I hope they'll won't become too common going forward.
I dunno - is this because I'm playing on Heroic? Does it extend combat encounters or cause any similar changes to the levels? Am I "reaping the fruit of my hubris" or are the games just like that?
This probably sounds more negative than I'm feeling about it so don't take this criticism too seriously. It's annoying, sure, but not in an experience ruining way so far.
I guess that's true. I haven't really died in bunkers in a long time so I honestly forget some people struggle with them (or are just victims of bugs).
I'm really not sure how much more available ship beds could become - we already have multiple medical ships, anything more would probably be something like making ALL ship beds into medical beds which would be completely mental. I really wish they would still post design docs like they used to do in the past, it would make understanding their intentions much easier and cut down on a lot of anger within the community left to guess what's what.
I pretty much moved on to learning how to dogfight again at this point. Haven't seen a med beacon in months so I might as well do other stuff in the meantime. Hopefully there will be something to return to eventually.
I love this game. It's janky, mechanically simple and could really use a polish pass or two to take care of plethora of technical issues it has but, despite all this, it manages to tell an engaging story with nothing but environments and background detail. It's absolutely worth a try for anyone willing to engage with concepts rather than needing the newest and shiniest in everything they play.
I'm in the camp of "interesting but flawed" > "polished and boring" and this title fits perfectly in the first category. It was definitely a nice surprise.
Yup, there are already rooms prepped for that in LIVE right now (without beds) and I've seen PTU screenshots with T1 beds implemented and working. I think there are also some in the smaller shelter POIs though that makes sense at least.
I'm really not sure what their plan for medical gameplay is at this point. On one hand they post a long article detailing what they want to do, on the other they constantly make decisions undermining the need for this loop. Best we can do is wait and see, I guess.
My migration experience is going a bit better thankfully - only a few series I tried aren't updated anywhere so far. I did purge a few as well but that had more to do with losing interest and reading through inertia rather than anything else. Guess that's my reward for limiting the number of ongoing series I read.
I have an illogical and personal dislike for discord as a platform as well as extremely case of shyness so joining existing communities is almost an impossible task at this point. I appreciate the offer though.
I feel for your medical buddy. I've been waiting for some progress on that front as well but with bunkers getting medical beds in the next patch I'm less and less sure we'll get to see any significant gameplay for that any time soon. Maybe once NPC rescue missions become a thing or something...
Essence_of_Meh @ Essence_of_Meh @lemmy.world Posts 1,030Comments 1,116Joined 2 yr. ago 
Fun fact, author of this series (Suzushiro) has been drawing skating maids for years. They know what they like and they pursued it with passion - to the point that about half of their pixiv profile consists of this specific theme. It's great.