User blog:Tecku/Tecku Talks: Triassic Triumph

Hello again everyone. Well, another big update for Heroes has come out, so its .... .... .... ... sigh....

Alright, I won't lie here. I actually don't have a whole lot to talk about. Or rather, I don't have a lot of new material. Most of what I can say was said in the Colossal Fossils blog, except this time... it hits home ten times harder.

Look, I love this game. Love, love love it. I've spent copious amount of real world money (like, huge amounts) on this, and I don't regret it for a moment. This game was good to me. It was a game that I could have some fun with during my breaks amidst a twelve hour factory shift. It was a game that I could get one of my parents into, and have a match against them every now and then. It was a game that made me feel rewarded when I went after its multiplayer, and encouraged me to aim for the top without fearing that I might fail.

When people on the forums starting telling me that this game was dying, I was one of the people to take a stand and defend it. Maybe I was in denial, maybe I actually saw something in it, I don't know. Mostly, my reasoning was this- the game has indeed lost a lot of steam, but it still had a couple of good updates left in it and would at least last until PopCap made their next move. Maybe their next move would fall flat, but they still had some time to work, and with creative ideas like Meteor Z and Hollow Earth, they probably still had some good stories to tell with the PvZ World. PvZH might not make the sereies relevant, but it would give PopCap the chance they needed to push into new frontiers.

But... something's wrong. I can feel it. I'm trying to analyze why all these updates are coming in with no fanfare, and I just can't make sense of it. People say EA is ruining PvZ, that they're making the games all pay to win, and based on microtransactions, but that doesn't explain it. EA would at least have them go onto Facebook for three minutes and post about it. Maybe all their workers are busy with Battlez or some other project? Well, it's hard to believe they're that busy. Maybe the update got released early by accident? That would maybe explain why the season got reset... no, that's just wishful thinking.

Honestly, the best answer I can come up PopCap just stopped caring. Or at least, they're prioritizing new things. Which is a shame, because unlike Power Plants, these updates are big enough and of enough quality to kick some life into PvZ Heroes.

Okay, sorry for going off on a tangent there. This update itself is pretty par for the course. There are just a few points to make:
 * When it was revealed Half-Banana would have this buff, people whined and whined on the message board, calling it just sooo overpowered. It's not. Its only big use is in Captain Combustable's "Going Bananas" deck, and he sorely needed a new type of card synery. It's perfectly balanced.
 * Shieldcrusher Viking didn't really need another buff. He may not have been the best Legendary, but that was caused more by the fact that he's a late game card in a tribe that goes for face damage, and conjuring made it easier to stall against him. Adjusting his attack won't fix that.
 * I find it quite pleasant to see BC and HG get another offical deck each, but did anyone bother to check what cards were in the decks before designing their deck selection icon? Their Galactic decks are mostly made up of Colossal/Triassic cards, and vice versa. And who the heck chose Go-Nuts as the "Wombo Combo" mascot? He isn't even in it! (Not to mention Molekale being the picture boy for Faceblaster 9000...)
 * PopCap, guys, making Typical Beanstalk require a Leafy plant next door doesn't make Leafy tribe synergy tighter. It just makes Grass Knuckles' Leafy deck weaker, which makes Leafy cards feel weaker. As a rule of thumb, if a card's attack and/or health is less than its drop cost, it needs a darn good effect. That's why Cosmic cards tend to buff the cards they conjure. Being an Uncommon card is no excuse, we have lots of good Uncommon cards like Berry Blast, Arm Wrestler, and Spikeweed Sector in the game already.
 * You guys kept showboating Neptuna around with all the backstory and card descriptions. You made it clear that this would be an update revolving and her more than any other Hero. SO WHY DIDN'T YOU GET HER ANYTHING COOL!?! She easily got the least out of this update. Her latest deck is a Gravestone deck. Wow, you guys must have been up all night with that one. Oh, but this one focuses on Gargs and Graves. I did a deck just like this almost a year ago, but I stopped using it after I realized how bad its early game was. Plus, Gravestone decks haven't been the same since Cool Bean came in.

So, yeah. Well, that felt good to get off of my chest. See you guys next time!