Five Game Series that DESERVE a Comeback

 You've read the title, so you know what this is. These are five game series that DESERVE a comeback.

The Eleven WORST Chrono Cross Party Members

With the recent release of Chrono Cross: Radical Dreamers on the Nintendo Switch, I figured it'd be a good idea to compile a short list of the eleven WORST allies you can recruit in the game. Of course, I will explain what makes them so garbage in the game, and we're going in descending order. Let's get to it...

11- Korcha

Korcha is a Blue Innate ally that you get if you agree to save Kid from dying from Hydra poisoning. Problem is that refusing to save Kid gets you Glenn, one of the BEST characters in the game. So the game is almost forcing you to pick between this punk, and the guy who can dual wield later in the game...

But besides that? Korcha is mediocre at his absolute best. His weapon is a fishing pole, so his hit rate is sub par. His Magic Attack stat is below average, and otherwise the kid's outclassed HARD by most other Blue Innates, most of whom also happen to AT LEAST be above average mages.

And you're telling me I have to give up one of the BEST characters in the game... for HIM? NEXT!

10- Turnip

Few characters in the game learn Double Techs, which was one of Chrono Trigger's more unique battle mechanics. That, and his decent Strength, are reasons to have Turnip in your party.

Reasons AGAINST having Turnip in your party? Low stats overall, being yet ANOTHER sword wielder (and he's not even the best Green Innate sword wielder), and honestly you can do better than this little green veggie. He can't even use Magic very well, due to a small Elements Table AND a low Magic Attack stat! No thanks!

9- Steena

This is an unfortunate case of an objectively good character getting screwed over by the game itself. Steena has three BIG problems going against her. First off, she's recruited SUPER late; in fact, she'll generally be among the last, if not THE last character recruited. For joining so late, Steena's stats are ridiculously low; she seems better suited for the middle-to-late game. Second, her Techs all have to be FOUND. Don't have a guide? Go to GameFaqs! And thirdly, she's a White Innate who does the exact same things Serge does, but does nothing he doesn't do better!

Why even bother?

8- Zappa

Zappa is a case where he's good at doing ONE thing, but you need your characters to be more fluid than that. Zappa is a GREAT physical attacker, yes. But in this game, pure physical attackers are not nearly as versatile as the guys who can both attack AND cast magics. There are other, BETTER Red Innates in the game, and most of them do what Zappa does; some even do it better.

7-NeoFio 

This little flower has ONE thing going for her, and that's the fact she can do a Double Tech with Turnip. That's it.

Her stats are otherwise too low to be of any real use. She's a mediocre at best Mage, her attacks aren't particularly strong, and she's otherwise a waste of a party slot that could be filled with a GOOD character. She doesn't even have a unique niche to fill! Next, please!

6- Van

Van's one of the few characters who can attack ALL enemies at once with his Attacks, plus his final skill can really HURT!

But he otherwise lacks the stats needed to justify bringing him along over any other character. If you need a good Green mage, you've got better options. If you need a Green Innate attacker, you have better options. Van's only "good" for when you recruit him, and even THAT is because your pickings are low, low, LOW!

5- Skelly

Skelly isn't a BAD character per se, as you certainly could do WORSE. He's got decent stats, can use Magic well enough, is fast enough, and for the early-mid game, he's pretty good.

But recruiting him is a BITCH! Seriously, try recruiting this guy without a guide handy! What's that, you can't find all the pieces to bring him back together? Welp, too bad! No Skelly for you!

And after that odyssey to recruit him, what do you get? An average character! One who WILL be outclassed all too soon! So, RIP.

4- Funguy

Like Zappa, Funguy is a case of a character being good at ONE thing, when you want your characters to be good at more than one thing. He's got good Strength and good HP, but that's about it. That's not enough.

But what sets him below Zappa is the fact that his last Tech skill is earned so very late in the game; almost at the end! By that time, Funguy is SO BEYOND outclassed, using him is more of a joke than anything!

3- Unevolved Pip

Pip is unique in that, depending on how many Elements he uses, he'll evolve into a new form. Using a set number of White, Blue, or Green Elements gives him an Angel form, while Black, Red, or Yellow elements gives him a Devil form. But if you fail to evolve him by the time you get 35 stars, Pip will stay stuck in his base form, who'll end up being one of, if not THE, weakest member of your team!

You don't want that, trust me.

2- Mojo

Mojo has THREE things going for him, and that's it. First off, he's a very early recruit, and in fact he can even be the second character you recruit in the game if you know what you're doing. Second, he's pretty much your first Black Innate character, again if you know what you're doing. Thirdly, he's got GREAT evasion.

And that's absolutely it. Inarguably, Mojo is a bottom tier Black Innate character. Arguably, he's the absolute bottom of the barrel in terms of Black Innates. Once you get someone like Skelly, Mojo will find himself PERMANENTLY benched!

1- Pierre without the Hero Equipment

For Pierre to be useful, he has to equip the Hero's Sword, Hero's Shield, and Hero's Medal. When he has all three, he's pretty good; otherwise he sucks.

But is he GREAT? Nope! He's "above average" at best, getting himself outclassed HARD by Glenn, Fargo, Viper, and so on. At best, he might be considered the second best Blue Innate physical fighter, but again that's only if you have the WHOLE Hero Set. Forgot to find the Hero's Sword? AYYY LMAO, you ain't getting it again outside a New Game+!

Without the Hero Set, Pierre is far and away the absolute WORST Blue Innate character, and in fact he may well be the WORST character you can have if you've recruited him. You can do WAY better.

Kingdom Hearts 4: Want, Don't Want

 With the recent announcement of Kingdom Hearts 4, I think this is as good a time as any to make a short list of what I want in the game, and what I DON'T want. I'll keep this simple and clean, and I am NOT sorry for the reference!

Is Dragon Quest 1 still good today?

 A few weeks ago I managed to buy Dragon Quest 1 for myself on the Switch shop. It was cheap, and I was curious about it, so I gave it a go. I believe it is always good to go back to the classics, to study them and see how the building blocks of gaming were created and developed. But is Dragon Quest 1 still good?

The Top Ten BEST Games EVER

 Utilizing a complex mathematical formula, I have compiled a list of the ten greatest video games of all time. This isn't an opinion piece; this is just straight up FACTS. Onto the list...

Goodbye, Lovestruck

 Lovestruck was a Visual Novel app that you could have downloaded for free on the Google Play store. There were several stories to play, with most (if not all) of the stories starring a female character. The app was notable in that each and every story had at least one Gay Route to play on, with several of the newer stories having an equal number of male and female love interests. There were even some routes that starred non-binary love interests! But by March's end, the app will be no more.

The reason the app is closing down is, of course, due to money issues. The app depended on users buying Tickets and Hearts so they could continue playing the games and seeing the special cutscenes; otherwise, you had to wait two hours for ONE ticket (capping at 2) and earn Hearts doing special missions. A bit annoying, but par the course for these apps.

The tragedy of this loss is that Lovestruck was one of the few visual novel apps that was 100% LGBT+ friendly. You had Queer characters in EVERY STORY you played! Gay men, bi men, lesbian women, bi women, pansexuals, non-binaries, genderfluids, you name it! The app had them all!

So to see the app close down, with no indicator that the games themselves are being saved elsewhere, means the loss of one of the few franchises that was LGBT+ Friendly visual novel franchises. The stories themselves were (mostly) VERY well written, too, starring a myriad of amazing and unforgettable characters. Many of these stories defied stereotypes for the kind of genres they explored. 

One example that sticks out to me is Love and Legends, which was the very first visual novel that was original to the Lovestruck app. The story is about a young Chicago nerd girl who gets transported to this typical fantasy world (meaning Medieval Europe with elves and magic) and she meets a wide cast of characters that the player can romance. Your options are: The handsome and serious knight, the boyishly good looking and coy Elf archer, the aloof and broody demon (who looks like a guy with heterochromia), the cute Magician girl, and the mature King.

Normally in tales like these, you have a few expectations: The knight is the one doing the chasing, the magician girl is cold and focused on her studies, the elf is borderline racist, and so on. NOT SO with Love and Legends! In THIS VN, the Knight does NOT like the main heroine AT ALL at first, and he takes some time to warm up to her! In contrast, the Magician girl is flirty right from the word GO. The brooding loner has a GOOD REASON to be brooding and a loner. List goes on and on!

Another FANTASTIC visual novel that I GREATLY enjoyed was called Havenfall is for Lovers, which again played with stereotypes regarding supernatural lovers. Take for example the werewolf lover. In normal werewolf stories, the werewolf is someone poor, or a vagrant, and someone predisposed to violence. In Havenfall, the werewolf love interest is the town sheriff who has EXCELLENT social standing and is economically comfortable, and she's actually very sweet to the main heroine right from the word go and NEVER acts possessive towards her. Also she's female, and RIPPED! Seriously, Mackenzie Hunt (the werewolf) is one of the few female body builder love interests I've seen in ANY visual novel!

Lovestruck was an app that carried visual novels with wide appeal. There were fantasy stories, science fiction, gangster stories, globe trotting thief stories, you name it. Now, those stories may well soon be forgotten because they were ONLY found on the app. As a writer, I find that to be heartbreaking.

And that's only the finished stories; there were still plenty of other stories that were still receiving updates just DAYS before Voltage (the company that made Lovestruck) announced the app's permanent closure. Particularly, their then-newest visual novel My Siren Crush had only been on the app for a scant few months! It only had three routes, and NONE of them were finished yet! And now they never will be...

Really nothing else I can say. Like a good show that ended well before its time, Lovestruck is an app that closed down while it was still good. Goodbye, Lovestruck.

The day I quit SMITE

 One of the hardest lessons you learn in life is that you gotta do what you gotta do to protect your mental health, but sometimes that means quitting something before it destroys you. This is the story of why I quit SMITE, as well as playing PVP online.