AstralCodex
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As usual for recent inn releases, I think the DF team really knocked the visuals and music on this release out of the park. The Adjudicator's fluid motion and its changing arena really make for a nice visual spectacle (albeit a laggy one). I don't really "get" Juniper's design, but the Adjudicator more than makes up for it in my opinion.
I also really appreciated the release of the first non-cosmetic Inn reward in 6 months (the 10 all Ourobouros Root Belt). (The last one was Unending Empire's Grimoire of the Lich back in July of 2021.)
As for the mechanics, I'm a bit mixed on all three bosses. As TFS said above, Junipurr's Grasp Mechanic hits the sweet spot of both having multiple points of interaction (you can dodge the Grasp debuff, purge it, block the draining moves, or even inflict +health res), while also being powerful enough that you have to respond to it (3 1.4k heals every 5 turns is way more than all but the most offensive classes can output). However, I dislike the use of massive hidden bonus on its scaling nuke - I feel like hidden bonus on nukes is one of the least intuitive mechanics for players, and feels most like a gotcha. Hidden bonus on nukes both mean that you can't really figure out how much +Bonus it has without a ton of trial and error, and also greatly limit the range of interaction with the nuke for many classes. In this case, because the nuke scales up so quickly, it also forces you to kill Junipurr first in the duo, which limits strategic flexibility.
I think the Adjudicator's scales mechanic is really dang cool, but am a bit torn as to its implementation. I do really like the fact that this is a very interactive mechanic. The player can always reduce their own crit with items such as Magi Sentinel Helm or the new Snow Repose IX if the scales need to be tilted toward Decay, or use shields/trinket skills to tilt the scales toward Corruption. However, I think the implementation could be a lot cleaner. For example, why does it update after each hit? Why do only some of the good/evil hits count toward his corrupting scales? It felt quite confusing when we were trying to reverse engineer the boss on Discord yesterday. I also share TFS's frustration as to the inclusion of damage immunity on this boss. Of the 8 bosses released since last September, 6 of them have some variant of damage immunity (mainly from how phase changes are implemented). The mechanic feels saturated or even overused, and I'm personally quite tired of seeing 0s over bosses.
I didn't enjoy Goose Ex much. It shares the Uaanta problem of feeling straightforward when RNG goes your way (read: you don't roll many of the +All, Damage Immunity/Heal, or "cut your health in 8" items), while owning most classes if it rolls many of the Damage Immunity+Heal/Cut your health in 8 items. The 5 stun cap further reduces counterplay. It also has the *other* Uaanta problem of being quite straightforward for Calendars/some DC classes/DoomKnight, while being a lot more annoying for other, nonpaid classes. For example, I beat it first try with DoomKnight without knowing mechanics, got owned twice in a row to repeated bad RNG, then beat it two times after. In none of the times I won did I feel like I deserved my win via tight play and careful maneuvering, in the none of times I lost I felt like I lost through my own fault. My victories over it with other classes such as Technomancer or Epochs felt similar.
That being said, I enjoyed this release overall, mainly due to 1) the nice graphics and music on the Weight of Life fights, 2) the challenge posed by the Weight of Life duo fight, and 3) the release of new BiS items in the year after a half-a-year drought.
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