[Meta Thread] Pokerole Mystery Dungeon: Primal Shadows

[Dragonstrike]

Ah yes, you're a fan of the franchise if I recall correctly. Never really could into it myself, since it's overall pace I've seen and heard doesn't really match well with my bouncing interests. Still, I do find it interesting from a world building and biologist's perspective, as I do love what they've made of a setting populated by such monsters (and the monsters themselves, for that matter). How's this installment shaping up in your estimation, compared to the previous ones you've played?

The UCC is still going strong? I suspected as such, but it's nice to hear it here on the forums. Even though I've lost much of my interest in Uranium competitively it does make me happy that others still carry torches for it. If you don't mind, would you give your own experiences with how things have developed since my departure from it all?

I've been enjoying Rise a lot.  It's a lot more focused on streamlining the combat than prior entries, and the lategame Master Rank quests have been kicking my butt lately (though brief stints into Low Rank and High Rank to play with friends who aren't there yet haven't been helping in that regard).  There's pros and cons to focusing more on the combat, though there are lore reasons for why everything is so aggressive by default.  World was much, much more focused on the environment and ecology of the monsters, and I'd say Iceborne was a lot more varied and better paced than Sunbreak.  Sunbreak isn't done yet though since it hasn't gotten its title updates yet (first one is next month, so I have some time to get up to speed on the endgame hunts), and I'm expecting some fun stuff from those since it's brought back a lot of interesting faces even without them.  Sunbreak has definitely delivered on the unspoken promise of having a substantial endgame and difficult challenges that the base game was sorely lacking.

As far as story goes (even though this isn't a franchise you typically would play for the story), it's actually fairly strong in that area too.  That's partially because the NPCs feel like actual characters instead of walking/sitting personalities this time around since a good chunk of them can actually join you on single player hunts.  Really helps sell the world building.

Speaking of the world building, it'll be interesting to see what they do with future entries in the series, because Sunbreak brought back one of the flagships from the craaaaaaazy online MMO Monster Hunter Frontier: Espinas.  A wyvern that for some reason is able to breathe fireballs that can inflict poison and paralysis on top of setting you on fire.  Makes me wonder what else they're going to pull from that now dead game now that the floodgates have been opened...

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We've got a core group of regular players in UCC that are helping to drive the development of it, and those are the community members that are helping to compile the data for and write the guides.  We're starting with the Gamma (OU) tier since that's very well established at this point, though it's a bit of a priority fest due to Quick Charge and Acceleration (which are functional on the Showdown sim, unlike the legacy sim.  Btw, did I mention one of the community members coded a custom showdown server for us over the course of two weeks a few months ago?), and the sheer number of other high powered threats like Yatagaryu and Shell Smash Escartress makes it a bit difficult to play bulkier playstyles.  Beta (UU) is a much slower and bulkier tier by comparison since most of the high power stuff is in Gamma.  And Alpha (RU) is currently the lowest tier, where Whimsicott is dominant and the metagame is still developing somewhat.

We also have a LC metagame now, where fun stuff like Jackdeary, Flager, and Xenomite get to play with each other.  The Showdown also supports Doubles, natdex formats, and Mix and Mega, though none of those are played particularly much atm.  And on the note of Xenomite, we recently unleashed a good chunk of Feral Nuclears into the regular tiers and figured out where their initial placements would be.  Some stuff still might need adjusting (it's unlikely Geiger Sense Nucleon is going to be staying in Beta, and stuff like Nuclear Barand might be too strong for Alpha), but it's something that's going to take time to do.

We've also been hosting semi-regular monthly tournaments (when a member of Staff is available to run them, that is), and we still have the big yearly draft league closer to the holiday season as well (definitely a hype event among the community because it's so different compared to standard battling).  We've been getting a fair few newcomers and returning lurkers joining in on the battles recently, and it makes me smile seeing the activity pick up.  Makes me want to get more of our resources filled out so they can have something to refer to if they need guidance.