KoopaTV's October 2018 Review Newsletter

By LUDWIG VON KOOPA - The biggest site announcement in years. That, and more!

You all want to know winners and rewards and whatever, but I have far more important KoopaTV news to share. So without further self-promotion and filler, here's this header to chomp on:

KoopaTV Is Changing Our Publishing Format and Focus

We have been listening. Not just to you (though that's important), but to one another, and to the Internet as a whole. Demographics are changing. Trends are changing. Our own lives are changing. Sometimes too fast. KoopaTV has strayed quite a bit from its original intention, and I think it's finally time to change course again to get closer to both that intention, and to a product that people might expect from a gaming commentary story like KoopaTV.

Effective Monday November 12, KoopaTV will be changing our publishing schedule. Now it will be appointment reading:

• Monday — Kamek
• Tuesday — RawkHawk2010
• Wednesday — Wendy O. Koopa
• Thursday — Ludwig Von Koopa (me!)
• Friday — Witch Princess

We are also changing our focus in the content formats of our articles. You may have noticed lately that KoopaTV has been promoting streaming gameplay content more. Those aren't random acts on our part. We recognise the variety of ways that Internet people are consuming content — younger generations are afraid of reading words, for example — so our publishing philosophy is now this: if a staffer enjoys making content a certain way, go for it. Don't want to write a blog article but you'd rather stream instead? Go ahead. ...Just write something on KoopaTV to let people know to watch the stream, and put the videos on demand here so people who miss it can still enjoy it.

KoopaTV exists to spread truth & levity about the things we care about. We have a narrative, a story we want to tell, that permeates all site activities. That's not tied to just one particular format.

To make it clear what is what, we'll be introducing a new category to the site — Game Streams, and we'll be retroactively updating previous articles with this new category.

Here's another thing that's changing: If a staffer misses their day and nothing is published on KoopaTV that day... then oh well! It'll just be empty then. Of course, we'd like to have content every weekday, but you know, sometimes things happen. At least you'll know which staffer to track down and yell at.

Some weeks, the schedule might be broken if there is a particularly time-sensitive event, such as something we need a Reaction Log for.

It's a big change, but we want to showcase our other staffers’ diverse talents more. Please understand. ...And if you have any questions, ask away in the comments section. Now, then, onto the next header (which also includes more information about the change!):

Rawk's Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney: Trials and Tribulations Experience

By RAWKHAWK2010 - There may be fake news, but my experience was great and real.

Today, the Funimation Simuldub of Season 2 of the Ace Attorney anime begins. Since it covers Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney: Trials and Tribulations, now is the best time to showcase my Miiverse archive of that game!

Now is also the best time for you to vote for Miles Edgeworth over Luigi in Round 1 of the GameFAQs Character Battle X contest. He won't win, but you can make him look better than not!

(Spoilers for Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney: Trials and Tribulations follow. Obviously.)

I totally didn't plan (see date of the Miiverse post) that my first image would talk about Fake News,
which is in the beginning of the intro of the Season 2 anime.

There's a new Ace Attorney anime opening and "Fake News" is mentioned in the second line. pic.twitter.com/IByP3gTSzQ

— Rawk (@RawkHawk2010) October 7, 2018

Herman Cain Sold Out To Western Journal

By LUDWIG VON KOOPA - CainTV and KoopaTV started off at the same place. The destinations, though...

Once upon a time, in early 2012, businessman, Pokémon master, and failed Republican presidential candidate Herman Cain created a website called CainTV. CainTV featured weird family-friendly, Christian-friendly, and Republican-friendly videos that took too much production value to maintain, so CainTV was then relaunched in August 2012 as CainTV 2.0, a blog-based site with a rotating cast of columnists, the core of which are still around today. It fascinated all of us.

Once upon a time, in May of 2013, KoopaTV was born. Its introduction post format was pretty much copied from the CainTV 2.0 introduction post. The point of our site was to take CainTV and apply it to videogames, for fun. We tried to do that pretty closely. Eventually, Herman Cain took HermanCain.com and redirected CainTV.com to that. I bought LudwigVonKoopa.com a year ago (much later than CainTV became HermanCain.com) but we keep that redirecting to KoopaTV.org. I've done absolutely nothing with the domain and now they're asking me if I want to renew it. That's a discussion for the comments section.

Skip to September 2018. HermanCain.com now redirects to WesternJournal.com/HermanCain, and displays the notice,

“Same HermanCain.com, new home. We've partnered with The Western Journal to move HermanCain.com to WesternJournal.com. Same content, same attitude, same Herman Cain. ”

Western Journal is this right-wing clickbait site that Herman has been working with since September 2015, when he had his million-strong Facebook page suddenly start sharing Western Journal and Conservative Tribune articles, with headlines like, “Cop Orders Coffee From Dunkin' Donuts. After Leaving He Notices What's Written On The Cup...” He also recently made a fake Political Action Committee, America Fighting Back PAC, which is just a front for Western Journal. Throughout all of this, CainTV articles continue to be nice.

Here's what Herman Cain's site's articles now are like:

How Does The Clout-Based Splatfest System Change Anything?

By LUDWIG VON KOOPA - Or, why was the Splatfest scoring system changed at all?

We have now had two Splatfests in a post-Splatoon 2 version 4.0.0 world, where there was a new Splatfest scoring system introduced. There was the Retro vs. Modern Splatfest, and last weekend was the Trick vs. Treat Splatfest.

There are two ways to play in the new system: Splatfest Battle Normal (you can play with yourself or up to three friends, with randoms filling the rest of the slots) and Splatfest Battle Pro (you play by yourself with three randoms). On top of the personal ranking system to go from Fanboy/Fangirl to King/Queen, and on top of “Splatfest Power” that exists for a bragging-rights competition that is only accessible via Splatfest Battle Pro, there is a Clout system. Clout is what is used to determine actual wins for the greater Splatfest teams, which are a best-of-three consisting of Popularity, Normal Clout, and Pro Clout.

In Splatfest Battle Pro, the amount of Clout you get depends on if you beat the opposing team or not, and you get more if the team has a higher team Splatfest Power than yours. You get zero Clout for losing. 

As for Splatfest Battle Normal, you get a Clout bonus based on if you win or not (1,000 Clout), plus the amount of turf you inked, plus a synergy bonus multiplier if you're cohesively fashionable with the other members of your team. (So people playing with their friends that coordinate this ahead of time have a Clout advantage.) That means Splatfest Battle Normal players get Clout even if they lose. 

If you're in a ditto match (same Splatfest team choice among the two teams Turf Warring) then there is no Clout gain by anyone for either Pro or Normal.

As you might suspect, the average number of Clout for Splatfest Battle Normal will be higher than Splatfest Battle Pro (higher ceiling and higher floor), so with that in mind, here are the final results for the Trick vs. Treat Splatfest, courtesy of Splatnet 2.0 (mobile-exclusive information as opposed to in-game):

Meltan Evolves Into Melmetal and Takes A Selfie

By LUDWIG VON KOOPA - Melmetal takes a selfie while playing Pokémon GO.

A lot has been discovered about the Mythical Pokémon Meltan since my article about it one month ago. It turns out that real Meltan do exist in the present era, and they aren't just trickster Ditto.

We have also now learned that Meltan can evolve into the behemoth Melmetal. While you could compare Meltan to a Ditto, Melmetal is best compared to a metallic Regigigas, which turns out to be different than a Registeel. Replace Braille with hex nuts. Melmetal isn't that interesting — aside from being big and creating metal, it has a special move called Double Iron Bash, which is just the Klink evolutionary family's Gear Grind (physical Steel attack that hits twice), but with a chance to flinch.

The way one gets to possess Melmetal is more interesting than the Pokémon itself, which is disappointing, counterproductive, and convoluted.

One can get a Meltan by having the Mystery Box item in Pokémon GO, which you can get by sending a Pokémon from Pokémon GO to Pokémon: Let's Go, Pikachu! or Pokémon: Let's Go, Eevee! Once you you open the Mystery Box, Meltan will appear on the field map. Then you can catch it, and the Mystery Box closes. You can re-open it after waiting some period of time and sending another Pokémon to a Let's Go game, and then you can presumably get more Meltan.

Watch Wendy Stream NieR Automata (Take 2B)

By LUDWIG VON KOOPA - (Why am I the one writing this?)

Continuing yesterday's timely Alucard advertisement, Wendy O. Koopa is currently streaming NieR Automata to support 2B in the GameFAQs Character Contest X. Not that she needs the help against whatever a Cayde-6 is:

These are the results 5 minutes in. They could be wildly different later!

 
The stream has ended, and here is the video on demand!

Watch I forgot how to play Nier so I'm playing it again. :D from Capt_Murasa on www.twitch.tv

If you want to see 2B's infamous booty, you better watch the stream. (It's in there.) Personally, I've never watched gameplay of NieR Automata before and I already voted for 2B. So this is an educational experience! Hoping I don't regret my vote.

Post-stream, I can confirm I made the right decision.


It's Take 2B because Wendy had trouble getting the stream to actually work. Oh well.


Wendy's streams are great. Here's her first stream advertised on KoopaTV, with A Hat in Time.
Rawk foreshadowed Wendy streaming NieR Automata in this article about why he enjoys KoopaTV streams over other ones.

It's Called Lost Painting Because The Music Is Missing

By LUDWIG VON KOOPA - Masahiro Sakurai, Alucard, and THE PLAN.

As of 8 PM Eastern today, the second half of Division 3 of Round 1 of the GameFAQs Character Battle X contest has started. As of 9 PM Eastern today, the official Super Smash Bros. Ultimate Super Smash Blog has updated with the music update of the week.

The blog:

“You can now listen to "Lost Painting" from Castlevania: Symphony of the Night. Doesn't it resurrect memories of obtaining the Crissaegrim in the game? This version is an arrangement by Tetsuya Shibata from Unique Note. Give it a listen using headphones, too!” 

However, as of writing this, there is no new content on the Music Page.

This article was published about twenty minutes after the timestamp in the picture,
if you're wondering how long it took me to write this. Still no music there, despite the “You can now” writing.

Which character is currently battling in a very contested battle for his contest tournament life in the second half of Division 3 during Round 1? Alucard, the star of Castlevania: Symphony of the Night. The very same game that the Lost Painting music is from. The very same Lost Painting music that is... lost, and unavailable for listening right now.

All we have is the most-viewed version of the original Lost Painting song from Castlevania: Symphony of the Night on YouTube. When was this one uploaded? ...Exactly 11 years ago, on October 23, 2007.

Coincidence? I don't believe so. Masahiro Sakurai would prefer for Princess Peach to beat Alucard in the match (Princess Peach is a playable character, while Alucard is a mere Assist Trophy), so he's withholding the music right now to not give Alucard a boost. However, the fans want Alucard and they want Lost Painting. That's why Alucard is blowing past prediction estimates and is destroying Princess Peach, and there is nothing that Masahiro Sakurai can do about it.

I voted for Alucard. Shouldn't you?
(Also, vote for Godot.)

Therefore, I make a plea to Masahiro Sakurai: Please make the Lost Painting music available. It's been nearly an hour as of writing, and Princess Peach isn't going to catch up. Besides, it's a really neat song in the original game, and I want to hear what the musicians who volunteered to put a lot of Castlevania music into the game have done with it!

Update after 11 PM: Lost Painting is finally available. Took a while.

Ludwig was going to write about something else today, but this was way too good to pass up as an article. KoopaTV will take full responsibility for when Lost Painting is made available after this article publishes.

Cheating Ōkami's Blockhead Grande With Nintendo Switch Video Capture

By LUDWIG VON KOOPA - Pity difficulty plus video capture equals possible to win!

I am thoroughly enjoying my time playing Ōkami HD on my Nintendo Switch. You know, enough to spell Ōkami correctly, as opposed to the incorrect “Okami” that people probably search for. (So if I didn't spell it wrong, then no one would be able to find this article.)

I am getting to the end of the game (at least, I think it's the end) with the Kamui area. (Not to be confused with anything from Fire Emblem.) There is a reoccurring clan of overconfident talking barrier wall characters named Blockhead. They appear in dungeons to prevent Amaterasu (the protagonist) from passing from either side. Amaterasu needs to tackle Blockhead's front side. Once that happens, flashes will appear — in a randomly-generated order — on Blockhead's body indicating where Amaterasu needs to draw dots using the Celestial Brush. Blockhead doesn't even know he has this weakness, and then it's too late and the wall crumbles.

The very last Blockhead is Blockhead Grande. Grande is an optional foe — he is literally in a secret hole in the Kamui ground that Amaterasu needs to dig up with a secret hole-digging skill. He guards some rare treasure, but unlike the Blockhead before him with three or four dots, Blockhead Grande has eight. That's more than I can comprehend. To counteract this a little bit, Ōkami HD has pity difficulty for non-combat puzzle sequences like this. (For all I know, it has the same for combat, but I've never gotten anywhere close to a game over.) The game makes timed sequences slower, for example.

But it's still really hard, or impossible. So using the Nintendo Switch's unique Video Capture and Screenshot abilities, here's my step-by-step guide for what I did:

Round 1 Picks: GameFAQs Character Battle X!

By LUDWIG VON KOOPA - It begins.

Round 1 of the GameFAQs Character Battle X has begun! Read all about the contest at this page, which will also serve as an index for all coverage of the contest from KoopaTV.

The contest actually started a day earlier than I thought it did (8 PM Eastern on Thursday as opposed to Friday) so my bad. The first four matches in Division 1 are already done as of publishing (the second four are going on now!). For your information, Round 1 has four matches per day, so we'll see Round 2 in about two weeks from now.

Vote here at the top of the page: https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/

I will be telling you exactly who I'm voting for and why for every match in the contest, and Round 1 has the most matches. Take a look at which characters I like... and which I really do not:

Elevators are Funny, or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Stream

By RAWKHAWK2010 - A happy article?!

Over the past year I guess you could say Rawk's article energy has been somewhat downcast. It's true! Almost everything I've written in 2018 has been about something bad. One particular dark moment was symbolized by the Sea of Thieves article in which I told Sea of Thieves "see ya" and formally renounced my (modern) Rare Ltd. fan status. I don't even want to talk about it really, but I must, for it contains significant past experience with the topic matter at hand: streams. See, Rare was banking on annoying cult-of-personality streamers to market the game. That was their goal. The streamers would do what Rare hadn't managed to do in ten or so years and make a Rare game seem exciting to the public at large. It turned out that hinging the game's success on easily-excitable streamers didn't work since even they got bored, but even if it had worked, it wouldn't work for me because I don't get the same camaraderie buzz as everyone else does from this culture. Watching someone do a Fake News screech as they get eaten by a shark, and then comment-screeching alongside a thousand other comment-screechers in response...it's all just too fraudulent. It's counterfeit energy! And too impersonal to boot.

Let's rewind a bit. Kamek's long-ago streaming of Yooka-Laylee -- in which he fortunately had an audience of 2 or 3 at most -- was when I decided his soft-spoken radio voice was made for commentary. Seriously, his voice could reawaken the Beanstar. Anyway, the experience was good (if it wasn't, then his "beautiful chair" for E3 2017 wouldn't have been his streaming center), but its nature as something relatively fleeting meant it didn't play hugely into my view on "streams" or what they might ever mean to KoopaTV. There's also simply the fact that this is Yooka-Laylee we're talking about, developed by a company I was in an abusive relationship with for years where my backing was repaid with all kinds of stupid decisions. (Hence why I was insulting them in the article I just linked.)

Now skip all the way to last week and KoopaTV is treated to a stream of Yooka-Laylee's similarly-Kickstarted rival, A Hat in Time (specifically the "Seal the Deal" DLC for it that came out a month ago), this time by Wendy. (That's right, Wendy! The real-life non-imaginary Wendy that Ludwig didn't fabricate to fill a staff position!) A game I knew little about but had always kinda wanted, I found watching A Hat in Time to be a breath of fresh air on its own merits. More importantly though, Wendy was a magnet for trouble in it, and Wendy made things happen (or rather, things happened to Wendy) that I was adamant about insisting didn't get lost.

Here's Wendy falling through an elevator.

Watch Welp, I fell through the elevator. :( from Capt_Murasa on www.twitch.tv