Board 8 > Quinton and Leonhart in Different Houses: Happy New Ymir! [JZLF]

(+) Yeah! (+)

gameplay wise ftnw is as good or better than covenant. characters are hit or miss (mostly miss), but I actually like the overarching story, even if it takes a while to get going.
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Yeah, the characters being mostly miss is what kinda scared me off.

I mean Covenant's cast is kinda hit or miss too but it's more hit than miss, at least
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covenant is about 50/50 on cast

ftnw is like 30/70
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that being said, if you enjoy shadow hearts its definitely worth playing imo
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the one thing I will say in Covenant's favor is that the young girl in your party is actually good (although I think I'm in the minority on that)

which is extremely rare for a JRPG
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LeonhartFour posted...

I said it's a waste of time if you want to try to play it regularly, like I did one time. I stopped because I realized there was no reason for me to do so.

What does this even mean though? Couldn't you say it's a waste of time to play games at all? What's the reason to do so, besides having fun?
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the one thing I will say in Covenant's favor is that the young girl in your party is actually good (although I think I'm in the minority on that)

which is extremely rare for a JRPG

Im with you in this! Shes my favorite non-Yuri character in the game
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Mac Arrowny posted...

What does this even mean though? Couldn't you say it's a waste of time to play FFIX at all? What's the reason to do so, besides having fun?

...I don't think I've been unclear in what I've said but apparently I have

the game gives you zero reason to play Tetra Master (as in, absurdly great rewards like Triple Triad does) and most of the characters still carry the same crappy low level cards late into the game so there's not much reason to play it regularly even just as a collect-a-thon to get all the cards

like I rarely play mini-games just to play them; the game needs to give me a reason to want to play this instead of advancing the story

I'll even put up with something I don't necessarily enjoy if the payoff is worth it

once I realized Tetra Master wasn't worth my time I dropped it totally
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In Fate....stay night, Caster and her Master finally make themselves known to Shiro and company. She reveals her plan to them, and they all think the magus she's after is Illya, but nope! Saber gets duped by Caster disguised as Sakura and she uses her Noble Phantasm to negate her ability to use Excalibur. Then they invade her temple in an attempt to rescue Sakura, and it breaks off into three separate fights: Saber vs. Assassin (which is a really cool duel here, too, with how fast their swords move), Shiro vs. Kuzuki (Rin nails it with a nice parting shot as she leaves: "Trying to play the tough guy now? It doesn't suit you"), and Rin vs. Sakura possessed by Caster (and apparently being the vessel for the Grail requires a dominatrix outfit).

So it seems that Rin is aware that Sakura is her sister, but not the other way around. Rin says she is willing to kill Sakura to prevent her from becoming the Grail's vessel because, as she puts it, a magus's primary duty is to protect the purity of the soul, not the physical body, but she can't bring herself to go through with it, it seems.

Also, the next episode preview seems to indicate that Gilgamesh will finally make an appearance, so hype!
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Oh right, I guess I should add Peach to the female character rankings now that I'm done with Mario Odyssey, but she's so hard to rank since her characterization varies wildly depending on the medium. I actually like SMRPG and Paper Mario Peach a lot, and the SMB cartoon version is kinda cool, too, but she's not that great in the mainline games (although she had a few good moments in Odyssey) and oddly enough, in the M&L games, where she's just a damsel in distress and nothing more.

Let's see...

Nagato > Yakumo > Kurisu > Chizuru > Yukiko > Aqua > Makoto > Mitsuru > Yui > Yachiyo > Shiori > Eru > Wagatsuma > Ritsu > Akane > Pepper > Amy > Namine > Peach > Botan > Yurippe > Mikasa > Eureka > Art3mis > Valentine > Zelda > Vera > Elizabeth > Cora > Kotori

Yeah, I guess that'll do.
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LeonhartFour posted...

In Fate....stay night, Caster and her Master finally make themselves known to Shiro and company. She reveals her plan to them, and they all think the magus she's after is Illya, but nope! Saber gets duped by Caster disguised as Sakura and she uses her Noble Phantasm to negate her ability to use Excalibur. Then they invade her temple in an attempt to rescue Sakura, and it breaks off into three separate fights: Saber vs. Assassin (which is a really cool duel here, too, with how fast their swords move), Shiro vs. Kuzuki (Rin nails it with a nice parting shot as she leaves: "Trying to play the tough guy now? It doesn't suit you"), and Rin vs. Sakura possessed by Caster (and apparently being the vessel for the Grail requires a dominatrix outfit).

So it seems that Rin is aware that Sakura is her sister, but not the other way around. Rin says she is willing to kill Sakura to prevent her from becoming the Grail's vessel because, as she puts it, a magus's primary duty is to protect the purity of the soul, not the physical body, but she can't bring herself to go through with it, it seems.

Also, the next episode preview seems to indicate that Gilgamesh will finally make an appearance, so hype!

...uhhhh. huh.

At least now I sort of know why VN fans hate this adaptation so much, though I guess it also depends whether or not this is executed well I guess. (This is not how the actual Fate route plays out at all in this part)
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well I'm not entirely sure which part you're referring to there but it's possible I'm mistaken about whether or not Rin actually killed Sakura. There was blood dripping at the end, but not an excessive amount, and she chides herself for going easy on Sakura when she said she wouldn't, so I assumed she didn't kill her, but that's where the episode ended, so I could be wrong about what she meant!
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LeonhartFour posted...

well I'm not entirely sure which part you're referring to there but it's possible I'm mistaken about whether or not Rin actually killed Sakura. There was blood dripping at the end, but not an excessive amount, and she chides herself for going easy on Sakura when she said she wouldn't, so I assumed she didn't kill her, but that's where the episode ended, so I could be wrong about what she meant!

No I'm not saying details I mean like almost literally none of this happens at all, and in particular (spoilers for Heaven's Feel that are also revealed in Fate/Zero anyways) anything involving Sakura is basically only Heaven's Feel, with her/Rin being siblings as one of the major spoilers of that route, so it's sort of weird that they'd reveal that here. Of course they're trying to incorporate stuff from all 3 routes I think, but this seems like a weird way to do it this late in the game.

Of course if it's executed well than it's probably fine as I said. I don't think diverging from source material is an inherently bad thing. Based on reputation I'm not betting money on that being the case though.
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Well, it being different from the source material won't be a problem for me regardless.
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Peach 12 spots too high imo
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I'm still at the part when they are getting the plane in SH1

I can't get over how bad the battle music is

Probably never going to beat SH1
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Yeah I know. I was mainly just surprised because I was calmly following along with your updates and got to this one and I was just like "wait what did he just say?"
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SaveEstelle posted...

Peach 12 spots too high imo

gotta play more Mario RPGs man

or watch the Super Mario Bros. Super Show

GranzonEx posted...

I can't get over how bad the battle music is

Huh, I like SH1's battle music.

also its OST has the greatest set of song titles ever (and not just for video games)
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I watched an episode of the Count of Monte Cristo anime, and it keeps making me laugh at the art style and the changes from the book, but it's in a good way. In the book, Edmond has a servant girl from Eastern Europe, but here, she's an elf girl from eastern space. Also, he doesn't show up in pictures and his voice doesn't come through on recordings.

One minor annoyance is that they're inconsistent with the pronunciation of names. Sometimes they use the French one and sometimes they pronounce it like plain English. The most unfortunate one is Valentine, which as a proper name sounds really pretty in French, but it doesn't sound as good with the English pronunciation. It's just a small quibble though.
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LeonhartFour posted...

also its OST has the greatest set of song titles ever (and not just for video games)

that can't be right. Hiroyuki Sawano wasn't involved.
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http://shadowhearts.wikia.com/wiki/Shadow_Hearts_OST
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I feel like the FtNW soundtrack has the best titles of the Shadow Hearts games.
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So Xenoblade 2.

imagine a world where there are 8 elements

then imagine that you have a rng based method of obtaining blades which each belong to one of those elements

imagine then that you pull something like 75 of them

imagine then that you somehow never get one of those elements

Xenoblade Chronicles 2: My Light Element Can't Be This Rare!

winter 2017

(Still enjoying this game though, but that was just absurd. I don't believe the RNG is weighed evenly, but still.)
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I really dislike the prevalence of gacha elements in that game. Gacha sucks. I'll still play it and I'll probably still enjoy it but ugh.
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Do common light blades even exist?
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I still need to play XB1 at some point. Maybe whenever I finish Skies of Arcadia so I can get some use out of my Dolphin.

I might start on the FFXV DLC episodes tonight.
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http://media.bigshinyrobot.com/uploads/2011/05/seaquest-darwin.jpg
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not that Dolphin

not Ecco the Dolphin either
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I dont think I ever saw a light element common blade in xb2

also xb2 sucks
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Can you get duplicate Blades?
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No

(Well, no duplicate rares and commons are randomly generated; no idea if you can technically get duplicates of those or if it checks collisions)
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Not rare ones, those are one and done.

Not sure about commons, I dont think I ever saw two with the same name, but its very possible that I got two identical ones with different names. Its impossible to keep track of them all.
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Oh huh, didn't realize that they were randomly generated. Are there 3/4 Star Blades or just 1/2/5?
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Common ones can be 3/4* eventually and will have more filled-out affinity charts.
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on second thought maybe I won't play Xenoblade
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the first game is one of the best games of all time though!
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Ah, I see. Good to know.

The Mana Sword posted...

the first game is one of the best games of all time though!

And X is even better!
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LeonhartFour posted...

on second thought maybe I won't play Xenoblade

I can only personally comment on the first game, but I think you'll like (but not love) it. Well worth playing though. The cast chemistry is helped by those heart-to-hearts. The music is mostly outstanding except when it's like rock music but then most people love those tracks especially so. The battle system is... alright. I like it OK. Most people like it a lot though. The story is way too slow for half the game but makes up for it in the back half for sure.
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Xenoblade is one of those games I've resisted playing because people like GMUN were annoying about it.

and also because it was cost prohibitive
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I bought it for $100 used and was kinda annoyed when it got another print run (though that was my last free summer so I guess it still made sense to buy it then).
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I looked into buying the next Layton game, and apparently the cheapest I can find on Amazon is nearly 40 bucks.

so I guess I'll be waiting for a bit for the price to hopefully come down
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I still have a sealed Wii copy of XB1 lol

Layton 4 is pretty good. Not as good as 3, but probably second best of the first 4 games. I havent played any beyond that.
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LeonhartFour posted...

http://shadowhearts.wikia.com/wiki/Shadow_Hearts_OST

http://attackontitan.wikia.com/wiki/%22Attack_on_Titan%22_Original_Soundtrack


that is the actual name of a song.

GOOD DAY SIR.
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(also: never have I been so glad that Gamefaqs finally added Unicode support)
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Layton 5 is the second best imo (4 might be the third best though).
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Layton Gundam is the lamest
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Mobile Suit Layton: Iron Blooded Phoenix was legit though
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The Crown Season 1 beated.

On a purely technical level the show is a masterwork; the acting, the directing, the editing, the cinematography, the soundtrack, it's all genius.

Only certain characters resonate with me very much. And narratively, I'm not particularly interested in a bunch of haves fretting over whether they have everything or merely almost everything.

I feel like I can't give the show lower than an 8.5 because it drives me to tears sometimes how well-made it is. I'm moved to gaping roughly once an episode and sobbing every two. But when I'm done sobbing, how much do I really care about Margaret and Townsend? I'm not hot on conventional privileged romance stories, so... none. I care about their actors, the emotion on screen, and that makes me care about their characters. In the moment. How could I not when it's all so beautifully shot, so perfectly acted? But when the moment's passed, it's all rather boring, really.

And that's how many aspects of the show's story feel to me. Why should I care how Philip fares on his trip? The man's a tool, an idiot and a playboy. He doesn't appeal to me in the slightest. He is a weight around his wife's neck, full stop.

Oh, but what a wife she is. Elizabeth does appeal to me. She wrestles this impossible task of queendom and she has wit and style and swerve. I love Claire Foy here more than I love Elizabeth, maybe, but still, I do like Elizabeth a lot, and that's enough. She is breathtaking nearly every scene she's in.

As is Lithgow as Churchill, whose presence shall be missed greatly going forward. Anthony Eden is no Winston. Massive shoutout to Game of Thrones' Stephen Dillane as the painter Sutherland in 1x09; his scenes with Churchill where these two men talk truths and self-deceptions are absolutely unforgettable.

I cannot give this show lower than an 8.5, so I won't. I cannot say I love this show, either, but my, oh my, is it a powerful television production. I'm looking forward to beginning Season 2 shortly.
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dowolf posted...

LeonhartFour posted...

http://shadowhearts.wikia.com/wiki/Shadow_Hearts_OST

http://attackontitan.wikia.com/wiki/%22Attack_on_Titan%22_Original_Soundtrack


that is the actual name of a song.

GOOD DAY SIR.

sorry using symbols is lazy

SH1 wins
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I have obtained the Psycho-Pass VN. I'll probably start it once I finish up with Unwound Future. Apparently, both the PS4 and Vita versions are free, so I guess I should get the PS4 version for Jeff Zero's sake in case it's good and he wants to play it.
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