Board 8 > SaveEstelle/LeonhartFour in Different Houses: Best Smile Edition [SELF]

(+) Yeah! (+)

today in Tales of Xillia I learned the secret of bazongas
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Teepo?
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but have you learned where to find FRESH MUTTON
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xp1337 posted...

but have you learned where to find FRESH MUTTON

Yeah, at the Inn
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xp1337 posted...

but have you learned where to find FRESH MUTTON

literally everywhere

I even had three people shouting it in rapid succession at one point
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So quite a bit has gone down in Tales of Xillia, so let me try to sum it up. We find Alvin and Elize in this abandoned laboratory, which is apparently where Elize was raised. Teepo is what is called a "booster," which increases mana flow for whoever the compatible vessel is. It seems that Elize and Teepo are the most compatible duo they've ever seen. Also, Teepo's personality has changed because of what they removed from him, so he's a lot stiffer and more like a robot. We meet Jiao a bunch during this section, and he tells us much of her backstory, including that the doctor we meet in town, named Isla, was the one who brought her here. Elize has a hard time accepting all this, so she goes into a funk for quite a while.

When we get back to town, we confront Isla, where she confesses that she's been blackmailed into working for Exodus to keep her past as a child trafficker quiet. During a sidequest, we meet Alvin's mother, who's suffering from dementia and can't remember her own son (whose real name is actually Alfred, it seems) standing right in front of her. When we leave, Isla is there, and she tells Alvin that she wants to go straight and doesn't want to look after his mother anymore. Alvin says that won't be happening because only Exodus can produce the medicine his mother needs, and only Isla is crooked enough to prescribe it. It's kind of interesting that Alvin's motive is trying to help his mother recover.

Yurgen tells us that we have to get permission from the king himself to use the wyverns, so we head to the capital to meet him. He seems to have a reputation among his people of being open-minded and benevolent, but we don't get that impression from him. We meet a couple of the bad guys we've met along the way working for him, too. He and Milla exchange a bunch of words about what it means to achieve happiness and peace, but then Alvin betrays us (shocker) by telling us that Ivar holds the key to using the Lance of Kresnik. Then we receive word that Rashugal has invaded and occupied Hamil, using the power of the Four to do so, which shocks Milla. It seems they may have garnered the ability to use the Lance of Kresnik after all.

The king demands we be taken captive, but we manage to escape after defeating the furry lady again, as well as a dude who uses a booster to power up and seems to know Rogen quite well. He blames him for Nachtigal's current state of mind as we flee. The furry lady laughs at us for trusting Alvin at all since he just wanders from group to group and holds no real loyalty to anyone.
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Every now and then, I check Crunchyroll to see if there's a manga that catches my eye. There have been a few that I've thought about reading but haven't, but today I decided to click on one I'd seen for the first time called "Holmes of Kyoto." I guess it's pretty new since it only has two chapters, but my love for Sherlock Holmes is what inclined me to click on it. It also doesn't have a description of what it's about yet, so I had to read it to find out.

It's about a dude who works at an appraiser's shop and has Sherlock-esque abilities to make deductions about antiques and art pieces he evaluates, as well as intuitive reasonings about the people who bring them to him to appraise. It's kind of interesting, so I'll probably keep following it for a little while.
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I feel like I read or heard something similar once about wine tasting
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Holmes of Kyoto has an anime that just started this season too. After two episodes I haven't really been liking it but the manga might be better I suppose.

Then again I didn't like Hyouka at all either and they both revolve around mundane mysteries. Maybe that style just isn't for me.
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Slice of life mysteries are pretty great.
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I think Alvin is trying to break Revolver Ocelot's record of most sides played at the same time.

"Would it kill you to trust me?"

I mean yeah dude it literally might
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ALLLLLLLVIIIIIIIllNNNNN
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As a Spurs fan, I'm way sadder that we lost Danny Green than about trading Kawhi. I'm just glad the drama's over.
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The Kawhi drama was just so weird and uncomfortable. I suppose I'm glad it's over too, but man as an observer it just seemed so bizarre.
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User SaveEstelle just informed me that he got accepted into Duke for next fall. That's pretty exciting for him because I know he's wanted to go back and finish up college.
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Pass on my congratulations to him!
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Duke nice.

My cousin's a huge fan
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I love Duke basketball, too

user SaveEstelle couldn't care less about sports though and I doubt going to a good basketball school will change that
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user SaveEstelle sure is going the extra mile to avoid playing Symphonia
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he really is

I guess we won't be watching Attack on Titan season 3 together either
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Wow, what's he studying?
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He was studying archaeology before, so I'm assuming he's going to continue in that course of study.
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Wow, congrats to him!

They still suck though for rejecting me...!
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SMT IV: neutrality achieved!
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Tell my wife I said "Hello"
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finally made it back to Fennmont in Tales of Xillia but I am tired so we'll deal with that another day
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I guess I've hit the traditional point in a Tales game where everything you thought you knew about the game changes.
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LeonhartFour posted...

User SaveEstelle just informed me that he got accepted into Duke for next fall. That's pretty exciting for him because I know he's wanted to go back and finish up college.

Awesome!
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Okay, let me try to sum up everything that happened in Xillia. When we arrive in Fennmont, we find out there's been an explosion at the lab where the Lance of Kresnik was being held. Unfortunately, it's no longer there, but we find out that the crazy girl in red from the beginning of the game was responsible for the explosion. We find her in town, and Rowen recognizes her as a member of the Rashugal royal family, although she identifies herself as a member of Auj Oule's Chimeriad, named Agria (get the "S" out). She is neither Agrias nor Marle, despite her real name being Nadia. We beat her again, and then we head into the castle to confront Nachtigal.

His castle is pretty cool-looking, and when we reach his royal chamber, he waxes aloud about how being a king and ruling over the world is his birthright. It is his privilege to rule the world, or so he claims. After beating him, Rowen seems on the verge of being able to talk some sense into him...until he's assassinated by a bunch of ice arrows from nowhere. Then we learn there's about to be a battle between the two nations in the marshes to the north, and Rowen uses his position as the Conductor to get us some inside information about what's going on between the two armies. He also learns that boosters have potentially serious side effects. No, not memory loss, but they sap strength directly from the user, which has Rowen naturally worried about Elize, but he doesn't mention it to anyone.

Then we go through a cool series of battles where we move from one battle to the next with no breaks as we force our way through the battlefield fighting both sides to get to the Lance of Kresnik, culminating in a fight against the other three members of the Chimeriad. We learn Wingul's Booster is inside his head, so Rowen's idea to destroy it to help him is out the window. Waiting ahead is King Gaius, who wields a Sephiroth-esque sword and has a pretty cool Mystic Arte. We "win" the fight, but the ensuing cutscene makes it seem like Gaius is about to defeat us...until Ivar drops in from above with the key and inserts it into the Lance of Kresnik, just like Alvin planned.

Turns out the Lance wasn't what Milla thought it was. It seemingly blasts a hole through the sky itself, letting a fleet of airships through, and we learn that Nachtigal's right-hand man, Gilland, is actually an Exodus agent. On top of that, he has the power of a Great Spirit of his own, named Celsius, someone even Milla didn't know existed. Makes it clear that he was the one who killed Nachtigal, too. Gilland orders Maxwell to be taken alive, but since Milla won't consciously retreat, Gaius KOs her so the party will take her away. Unfortunately, Elize is taken by a couple of Exodus people, so while Rowen and Leia retreat with Milla, Jude and Alvin rush in to save Elize.

Jiao helps us save her, although he's seriously wounded in the process. He confesses to Elize that he was the bandit who killed her parents, and then he stays behind while he uses all his mana to wipe out the troops in the area. Afterward, one of the airships fires upon Jude and company, and he gets KO'd. He falls into the marsh and swept away to some snowy place, where he meets a spirit that he's able to link with and use in battle now. I guess now we're off to find where everyone else went, but that was a pretty great series of events.
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Yeah, that's definitely one of the best parts of Xillia. I especially like the Marsh sequence. As you may have guessed Gaius is one of those fights where you're allowed to lose and the story goes on.
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Yeah, I figured you could based on what followed, but I feel like I'm overleveled at this point because none of these fights have been that hard. His Mystic Arte was able to one-shot, but it's only single-target so it wasn't that hard to deal with.
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Maybe? I won that fight too and had a similar experience so I'm probably not much help. I'd say raise the difficulty if it bothers you but I don't think it does and you're just commenting on how things have been, right?
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Yeah, it's not a problem. I generally don't find Tales games to be that difficult in the first place on the default setting anyway.
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FMP IV beaten. Hopefully they don't make us wait another 13 years for season 5.
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I guess next season will just be FMP V: Victory
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Started Birth by Sleep

Went with Terra first and finished the Sleeping Beauty world. Way to suck, Terra!

Guess they ran out of modern Disney movies and decided to use the old stuff
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It's not that. They're using the worlds of the Princesses of Heart from KH1.
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Yeah, but presumably the reason they didnt use those worlds in KH1 was that they thought the new stuff would be more popular

Just took out Xigbars eye

Master Xehanort seems totally on the level...!
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They didn't use a lot of new stuff in KH1 either though, depending on your definition of "new."
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Just a heads up: I'm going to be out of town all next week (well, from Monday to Friday). I'll try to drop in once a day to bump the topic, but keep an eye out for it in case I don't get the chance.
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LeonhartFour posted...

They didn't use a lot of new stuff in KH1 either though, depending on your definition of "new."

Most of it were based on new movies at the time. Tarzan was the newest one I think? And the rest were mostly within the decade. Only Wonderland and Peter Pan were old. Little Mermaid was just over a decade too I guess.
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Monstro is from Pinocchio, too. Winnie the Pooh is also old. Most of the worlds are from '90s Disney, which I guess weren't that "old" in 2002, although Aladdin was a decade old and Nightmare Before Christmas nearly was.
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Persona 5 anime episode 16 complete. Looks like we're not quite done with the Futaba arc yet, but it probably won't take the whole next episode to finish it.
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Got my first death in FFX. Seymour Flux at Mt. Gagazet. This fight was no joke. Got him fourth try just by sticking with Tidus/Wakka/Yuna. Everyone else was too slow or too weak. Maybe I'm underleveled because Cross Cleave always wiped the party unless I chose Defend.
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Yeah, that one gets a lot of people, so don't feel too bad about that one.
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I thought Tales of Xillia already got real but it just got realer
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BBS/Terra down

I guess that starts to explain all of the crazy shit that I didnt understand in DDD

Also chi-blade is SO DUMB, especially since chi isnt even pronounced key
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it SOMETIMES is ok
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In FFX, I beat Yunalesca first try. But I do have a question. I survived the first Mega Death because I had Bahamut out when she transitioned from the second to the third phase. Then she did another Mega Death when I was close to killing her, and only Tidus survived. He was the only one zombified. Now I wonder, does being in Zombie status protect you from Mega Death or was I just extremely lucky that Tidus had equipment with Death Ward?
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BK_Sheikah00 posted...

Now I wonder, does being in Zombie status protect you from Mega Death?

Yes this is how it works. This fight is super gimmicky if you're not aware how it works because you have to keep one character with zombie status (and somehow keep them alive) so your party isn't wiped by Mega Death. Also even aside from that gimmick it's still one of the more challenging fights even after you know how it works. Probably not as bad as Seymour Flux but this one gives a lot of people trouble also.

Death Ward might also work regardless. I'm not sure about that, but I do know for sure that Zombie status blocks Mega Death.
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