[BitPR²] OOCVI: We have a space base now!

[strawberryman]

You know the kind of crap Shinji is pulling right now? I'm setting him up for drama later. Which you will be perfectly capable of appreciating once this fight is over. Just think back to what he was like after the FIRST fight with Alpha-1.

That's not really an argument I accept, any more than Koutarou's nuke putting him out of commission for a while (which unless I'm misremembering, didn't, because he was out training with it in the dunes a while later). It's not really about the power level, I'm quickly discarding that. But I'll cover my point with the next snippet.

Katsuo is significantly LESS superfluous power-wise than you give him credit for. Versatility is nice, but so is being able to proto-Superman through stuff. Without using the tail, if it came down to a fight between the two of them, Shinji would be outmatched. His best shot would be Asura, which Katsuo would starve to death mid-fight with kindness. And then promptly smash through. Like he did once already. Same goes for his barriers, his blasts, and his sealings.

Also, who's setting Naito free right now? Is it Shinji? No, I thought not.

I won't say what would happen WITH the tail, because that's what I want to illustrate when the fight is OVER.

Katsuo also would never fight Shinji, so this is kind of irrelevant. The point I argue is that Asura more or less matches his corner of the group. The same with the barriers. So it was kind of offputting and annoying when, after Katsuo was trying and flailing, Shinji suddenly came out of nowhere with his shikigami power boost and did what he couldn't. Could he be weaker? Sure, fine. I'm not saying Katsuo should handle everything on his own. It just felt in that instance that Katsuo was being outmatched in his part of the plan, and his niche of the team, which is the bruiser. And that is kind of what he's limited to, unlike Shinji.

There's also the out-of-nowhere unstoppable hurricane that three of the oldest hollows in existence plus a knight whose entire shtick was wind control not being able to commandeer it or even slow it down because of reasons. You could say Von Geister's plans weren't screwed, but they pretty much were.

As far as Setsurou goes: I specifically set him up with those two conditions so that beating his illusions was not just a matter of saying "I disbelieve!" or "I flex my spiritual power to dispel". He is supposed to be an annoying opponent - EXACTLY because of the fact you can't really tell what's going on with him. And yet, raw-power wise, he's actually pretty weak for a Captain. And in any case, I also made it a point back then, if you'll recall, of telling the other player (if not everyone else) of what was going on once you mentioned it. It just so happens he hasn't fought anyone else since then so it hasn't come up.

I designed Momoka with the same idea in mind. I also made her illusions much more limited in area and scope. There's any number of abilities that people can use in this universe if they're efficient with them to pinpoint Setsurou through his shenanigans. Simple ground movements while he's invisible, pesquisa, the list goes on. In a manner of speaking, while you are obligated to not just have your character's powers ignored, other people's characters are also obligated to not have aspects of their character glossed over as not good enough.

And finally, there's Margrave. My pet peeve here is that it's his first fight and his basic schtick is making his opponent go "why won't he die?!". His Ransoutengai puppet is supposed to be lifelike enough to fool experts.

Now, Frozen's explanation is perfectly simple, but that leaves the question: if it's so simple to figure out, why did Margrave get the nickname in the first place. And more importantly, why bother with the trick at all, if it's going to be figured out this easily? So either we add an element to that logic, or one of the propositions themselves is proved wrong somehow.

(By the way, Frozen, just because it can move under its own power doesn't make an automaton any less of a construct.)

In any case, I do apologize if I've come across as bitc-hing. It's been a stressful few days and I should probably handle this better.

It shouldn't matter if it's his first or his fiftieth. If the character can figure it out, it's a moot point. Besides the fact that Niklaus is not your average quincy, it's another counterargument of 'my character is really good at this, so you shouldn't see through!'. It is just kind of how things work, and everyone has to live with it. It's no more fair to expect Niklaus not to get it.

I didn't want to seem offensive about this, but these points have been nagging at me for a while.