Lurker > SydnieStarlight

go ahead

make it a law

and be ready to put cuffs on me next saturday beCAUSE I AINT QUITTIN

Neither a person nor a place but it still blows me away that narwhals are real. I was so sure for years that they were mythical creatures, just unicorns but for the ocean!

Garioshi posted...

Is the Devil's Arms (or Fell Arms or whatever) quest missable?

Funny enough, it's, like, the one major sidequest in the entire game that *isn't* missable (disregarding those that only become available after you reach the area right before the final boss).

But you're a *looong* way off from having to worry about it~

I'd mostly wonder why, but, like. I wouldn't *really* wonder. I mean, c'mon. We all know how things are right now. The bigger shock would be to find out someone here *isn't* on a watch list.

They're basically Sheena's mystic artes, for whatever that's worth. Like, they're kinda cool and give her something to do with her overlimit, but I've never felt like a summon swung a fight in my favor or anything.

Okay, yep, you're on the hard route, lmao. That's some of that non-linearity you were talking about~

You'll eventually start unlocking LV3 techs, so your default combo is attack->attack->attack->LV1 tech->LV2 tech->LV3 tech. There are also EX skills (both basic and compound) that can fiddle with things giving you additional attacks. And there's a character you get later who *allegedly* can infinitely combo, although I've never been able to figure out how.

The unicorn horn is part of a fairly lengthy "side" quest chain that you won't be able to make proper progress on for awhile.

And, yeah, you aren't a third of the way through yet, but that's all I'll say~

I think I most recently encountered it a few weeks ago in the latest (English) story chapter of FGO. I dunno the last time I heard it spoken, though.

...based on your last two posts, I get the feeling you accidentally did the hard route. Have you been to Palmacosta yet?

(While I'm thinking about it, here's a tip! When you first get to Palmacosta, you should encounter an event where you need to buy a Palma Potion. Get two and hang on to the second one. This'll save you some headache down the line~)

...this sounds like a story I wanna hear! Context?

I play a game called Palia that I think is kinda like this idea. It's a cozy village life sim where you get a plot of land to build a home on near a village. You can do a little bit of everything, farming, fishing, foraging, hunting, mining, etc. Outside of your plot, you can run across other players out looking for resources or doing quests and such.

I never did replay DotNW, despite actually liking it quite a bit. Maybe I should set aside some time for that soon~

(And actually engage with the monster-catching mechanic this time. I only ever used the human party members, which made the game *rough* as it went on.)

EDIT: I think techs with blue names are just ones you haven't learned yet. They may also be specifically ones from the other style that you *could* learn right now, but only if you switch.

No more than, like, a week or so. If I put a game down for a long time, it's probably because I don't plan to pick it up again, and if I *do* go back to it, I *will* just start over. I'll occasionally miss a few days if, like, we take a trip to visit family and I'm not able to play whatever I'm in the middle of, but that's about it.

It's been so long since I've seen a movie in theaters *at all*. I didn't typically go back to see the same movie again, though. The most likely example was probably the last Harry Potter movie (y'know, back before the series was poisoned). I know I went to see it with my cousins the day it released, and I *probably* went again with my mom sometime after that.

I can think of a couple perfectly valid reasons someone might choose to pay for a service like this, but it honestly just seems like a weird thing to care about in general. If someone's willing to pay for it and someone else is willing to sell it, why is it anyone else's business (heh)?

Why would I feel guilty for something someone else did? A mind-controlled "me", whose actions I had no say in or memory of and which are completely at odds with my principles to begin with, may as well be a completely different person. I am my soul, my body is just a vessel. If someone stole the vessel to do evil things, then what makes those things my responsibility?

If anything, I'd be *pissed* at this "Kiros Zabac" and take all viable steps to make him pay for stealing seven whole years from me and destroying my reputation. EDIT: Well, on top of the atrocities, I mean. Those are a pretty good reason to beat him up too~

UnfairRepresent posted...

After it ended yeah

The *last* thing?

Yeah, looking back, it's crazy how long it takes the game to give you a proper healer. I mean, Kratos *can* heal, but then you lose him.

Don't worry, you don't have to wait much longer~

*Oh you better believe I'm tracking this topic.*

I think Symphonia is...*mostly* better than Abyss when it comes to sidequests, though there are still a few that you'll have to follow a guide to get. You straight-up can't complete everything in one playthrough, though. (There's a certain lategame event involving choosing a party member, which locks you to to certain events depending on your choice. Notably, three options provide their own unique items you can't get anywhere else, so you need at least three playthroughs for 100% item completion. There's also some titles gated by the same event; I think that brings it up to a minimum of five different playthroughs for all the titles, and that's assuming you choose the correct party members *and don't accidentally miss the cutoff for one of those events like I did on my first playthrough of the Steam version dang it*.)

Man, I wish, but I just don't have that kind of money on me.

...what do you mean, the money is *for me*? Aren't these supposed to have some kind of downside?

I spent years feeling bad about being such a bad son, completely unaware that I was at an inherent disadvantage. *Of course* I was gonna be bad at being a son when I wasn't a son at all~

...not that I corrected course to become a good daughter, mind you.

I don't think he needs to announce it. He's already spent the last five months very publicly using it as toilet paper. Pretty much everyone everywhere is aware that it no longer applies.

I've always had the sense from hearing others talk about it that it isn't something you'll ever really be able to let go of. That all you can really do is try to live in a way that it doesn't define or control you.

I'll spare you the pity, I know how hollow "I'm sorry that happened to you" can sound. Instead, I'll say that I hope you can find a way to live above and beyond it, such that, when you think of it in the future, you can see it as something you survived and overcame.

There really isn't any option here to which the answer isn't "I'm f'kin *cooked*", but...

Ares

I'M F'KIN COOKED.

*Tales of Symphonia* is my answer at first blush for the question "What is your favorite game of all time?"

*Genshin Impact* is my answer for what game has provided the largest quantity of content that I've genuinely enjoyed.

*Pokemon Sapphire* is my answer for what game evokes the most powerful feeling of nostalgic happiness.

EDIT: I could honestly go on all day about games I would rate among my favorites for different reasons. (Sonic 3 & Knuckles, TERA, Persona 5 Royal, Fire Emblem Path of Radiance, Ragnarok Online, Tales of the Abyss, Xenoblade Chronicles, Honkai Star Rail...)

I wonder if that's just the natural state long-running TCGs gravitate toward. Yu-Gi-Oh! is the same way. Duels in modern YGO are almost always decided literally within the first two or three cards played on the first turn. Depending on opening hands, the outcome could be clear to one player even before any card is played.

Heck, there are decks - genuinely good, meta-worthy decks - that lose the moment your opponent wins the coin flip and chooses whether to go first or second. (Most decks' game plans revolve around going first and setting up a bunch of monsters with built-in disruption effects to shut out your opponent's entire turn. There are also decks specifically built to go second, dismantle those boards, and OTK. The latter doesn't often have a way to set up a good first turn board, so if the opponent chooses to let you go first, you basically lose on the spot. But since most opponents are going to be playing those turn 1 ultra boards, the turn 2 board break is still viable, *despite its biggest counter being the coin flip*.)

Italian! I have a close Italian friend, so it'd be nice to be able to talk in his native language sometimes~

I suddenly found myself reincarnated in another world and, being intimately familiar with this premise due to years of manga indulgence, decided to invoke various tropes in order to give myself an advantage, but discovered to my dismay that the world doesn't operate on game logic, nor is there even magic, which means it's just a mundane setting modeled after medieval Europe, and my knowledge of modern technology is so rudimentary that I can't even make anything useful, so I'm struggling just to survive with nothing but my wits and the items I happened to be carrying at the time of my death, which include a useless smartphone, some pocket change, and a used pair of my little sister's panties.

I think I've been playing multiple games at once for most of my life. For sure since I first played an MMORPG. I'd play a bit of those every day in addition to whatever single-player game I was working on at the time. Then I traded MMOs for gachas while maintaining the same basic approach.

I'm currently juggling five different games with full intention of starting a sixth *eventually*~

I remember once, when I was in kindergarten and had to go to this, like, after school daycare, the "teacher" sat us in a circle and went around asking each of us what we wanted to be when we grew up. When I said I wanted to be a police officer, she said something like "You just wanna eat all the donuts!" and then laughed. (I was always chubby, so she was absolutely making fun of me.) It broke my heart, and I definitely didn't wanna be a police officer anymore after that.

Aside from that, I think I knew before I even entered middle school that I wanted to be a writer. Writing fiction just *clicks* for me. (It's too bad that's the only part of the process that does!) I was also so sure I wanted to make games until I went to college for it and realized, wait, the game-making process actually *sucks butt*.

Ah, I see, so the "C" stands for "Cranium".

...wasn't he already involved in a big sex scandal over that picture where he was licking/kissing a minor's feet? Or was that proven to not be a minor?

I think my response would technically break ToS. Let's just say, if "easy mode" already feels unfair and unpleasant to the point I'm only pushing through because I've come this far already, I'm certainly not playing "hard mode" at all~

The sad thing is, there's an argument to be made that they *are* all distractions...*from one another*. By flooding us with *so many things* that all warrant strong resistance, they make it hard to even tell which battles most deserve our energy on any given day. "Anyone with a Spanish-sounding name getting shipped to a prison in El Salvador" and "the military being used to violently suppress criticism of the regime" both have legitimate claims to being the most urgent problem, but we can't all pour all our effort into both of them at once. Then you multiply that across a new scandal every few days and there's just *too much*.

And that's *probably* by design, specifically to paralyze the left with this internal debate about what the *real* problem is and what's just a distraction. They don't have to worry so much about opposition if we're too busy arguing amongst ourselves about which horrendous human rights violation is the higher priority right now.

My first thought on hearing the new Paimon was total dismay. She just sounded so *wrong*. (I know this is an unpopular opinion, but I actually really liked Paimon's original voice.) But after going through the story stuff, I think I've already gotten used to the change. There were even times I had to stop and say "Wait, that line sounded like the old VA!", so the new one does maybe a better job than I thought capturing the old one~

Anyway, now I'm on the fence about pulling Skirk. I wasn't ever looking forward to her at all, but after the test run, I actually found her pretty fun to play, and I love the aesthetic. I think I have enough resources to guarantee her, and I *do* still need a genuine cryo DPS (although I would've preferred something more generic rather than freeze-specific). Decisions, decisions...

...definitely misread that title the first time.

I've done a few different Nuzlocke variants in Pokemon games. Raw Nuzlockes are never fun, but it gets a little spicier if I incorporate ways to save/revive lost Pokemon.

But I accidentally discovered how fun monotype runs could be in a mono-Flying run of FR. No other special rules, just, everything in the team has to share a specific type. It ended up being just the right balance of difficulty for me~

Honestly? After this weekend, I feel really confident for the first time in five months that we *will* get through this. Between the No Kings protests and the limp birthday parade, it's pretty clear the people are *not* down for this, and the military doesn't seem eager to be Trump's personal resistance suppression force either.

I can't say what form the regime's failure will take or what the aftermath will look like, but at the very least, I have renewed hope that America still stands by its "no tyrants, period" philosophy.

There was (at least) one, but I think it purged.

I like to interpret it as meaning CE is so innately queer that it won't really get much mileage out of a topic specifically for Pride~

Presently, in no particular order...

-I'm still on my Genshin Impact, Honkai Star Rail, and Fate/Grand Order nonsense, and not likely to drop any of them anytime soon~

-I recently finished Baldur's Gate 3 which finally, mercifully opened up some hard drive space which I promptly used to reinstall Palia. Been building myself a tower all weekend~

-I also took the opportunity to dip back into Yu-Gi-Oh! Master Duel to pick up limited-time freebies, but I'm breaking from that again already, at least until the Evil Twin alts come back~

-I'm in the middle of my annual replay of any Hoenn game, with a twist! (I'm not going to talk about the twist for security reasons.)

-I've also installed Octopath Traveler 2, but I haven't started it yet. I hope it doesn't lock (heh) certain chests behind fielding a specific party member like the first one did...

Unironically CE. I've seen enough of this place to feel confident that, if it's something worth hearing about, *someone* will post a topic, and that's *usually* in the form of articles from one or more sources. I try not to treat it as gospel because who derives their entire understanding of the world from a private board on a dying video game website? But it's handy for getting the headlines when I'm already browsing anyway~

I remember how the pieces move and...might need a little help with where they start on the board. But I know there are some obscure rules about, like, special circumstances where pieces can move or capture in ways they ordinarily couldn't, and I don't know any of those.

I wonder how many people are like me. I used to say that and then playing as a girl is what finally ended up cracking my egg~

A magic 8-ball can't straight-up feed you incorrect information. It can give you incorrect answers depending on the question you ask, but AI can do that too. And at least you don't have to worry about the 8-ball fabricating data outright.

Man, coming into this topic right after one about the parade, just.

Trump is gonna have a *legendary* melty tonight. There's more energy at any one of these protests than at his big birthday parade. You love to see it~

I think I'm probably underestimating how hard it would be to adapt to being bound to a wheelchair. But I've specifically had the thought that if I ever go blind, I'm ending myself. Literally all of the things I do that bring me joy depend on vision, I'd never survive a world without it.

thronedfire2 posted...

EOs aren't laws either

Tell that to Trump and all the people who just go along with them as if they were.

I wanted to vote Tales, but since you specifically mentioned playing only Sonic 1 and 2, I'm obligated to vote Sonic instead. Sonic 3 & Knuckles is my ultimate nostalgia game, and it holds up *so well*. At least do yourself the favor of playing that~

Do I die if just any one of my characters dies, or do I have to get a full-on game over? Because I lose a character in Genshin every now and then, but I can't remember if I've *ever* flat-out lost my whole party.