Board 8 > SaveEstelle/LeonhartFour in Different Houses: Exposing Frauds Edition [SELF]

(+) Yeah! (+)

Oh and it even is still there, just in a different spot than I thought.

RIP me
---

I unfortunately made one switch a few days in (Cloud > Snake I think?), which might not even be right and which will probably keep me off of the leaderboard because I never have my bracket finalized early enough
---

I made a couple of changes just to avoid rematches as much as possible. I'll probably get all those matches wrong, so whatever!
---

mini CS update, just finished Chapter 5 freetime.

First of all: CALLED IT! Misty = Vita woohoo! And if the "those two" she mentioned aren't Emma and Celine, I'll eat my hat. (edit: i wrote that before we spoke to emma in the dorm whcih practically confirmed it I swear >_>)

Also, it's kinda strange to see Osborne presented so ominously. I mean, it makes sense from a player's perspective to do so, since he's been ominous in both Sky the 3rd and Ao, but I had expected him to be (at least initially) painted in a better light here.

Nice additional characterization for Elliot and Machias too btw. I had pegged Elliot as coming to Thors because he wasn't quite good enough to enter a music school, but this route is more interesting.

Finally, as cool as Crow and Millium are, dear god we do not need eleven party members falcom plz. The fact that Sara was in my party in the prologue and therefore constitutes the 12th doesn't make things better >_>
---

Trails series spoilers up to where dowolf is.

Osborne being presented so ominously in Cold Steel is very strange IMO. The player knows all sorts of bad stuff about him thanks to the previous games, but the characters in CS have basically no reason to believe that's the case. CS1 is still my favorite Trails game, but Osborne as the villain is presented extremely strangely.

Also the existence of CS still makes the ending of Ao really dumb. augh why is that a thing

For the party members thing, yes. But Falcom is really dumb about this for some reason. They handle the big party pretty well in CS1, but it gets way bigger in CS2, which is a bad thing. Then CS3 tones it down, and apparently CS4 has the biggest party of any Trails game. Wish they'd learn their lesson...
---

That's interesting that you guys say that, because one of my complaints about Cold Steel 1 is that I don't think it presents Osborne ominously enough.
---

Hmm, that's both fair and not. What I mean is this: the game acts like Osborne is obviously evil. Lots of people treat him as an evil guy. But he doesn't actually do much evil stuff, so it doesn't make any sense that everyone treats him that way. It would've made more sense for the game to have him do some more evil stuff, and have the characters think he was evil because of the stuff he did. Honestly, it's even worse in CS2.
---

huh I already feel terrible about my entire Second Chance bracket

darn you Pikachu
---

Yeah I guess even if Mega Man holds on here there's a pretty decent chance it's reversed in losers (of which I was pretty skeptical, but I kind of didn't think there would be that many close matches).
---

Trails of Cold Steel (up to where dowolf is): IDK, I felt like Cold Steel added a neat wrinkle in that while the player's view/everyone in-universe not in Erebonia is that Osborne is this ominous guy, that in CS you see that at least with respect to Erebonia's inner workings, he heads up the more sympathetic side. The Reformist Faction is the more sympathetic and agreeable side and the nobles are kinda jerks for the most part...

As for being presented as ominous from the player's point of view. I wouldn't say they have -no- reason to think so. Sara is their teacher who has an obvious beef with him given the whole Bracer thing. I mean, the Heimdallr trip has you staying in a guild HQ that was shuttered because of him (and is a cool callback to the Jester incident detailed in 3rd.) Jusis is an awkward spot with him by being one of the more important nobles. Laura too, to a lesser extent. Though it's mostly Sara, but she stands as a fill-in for the player's view for the most part and that spills over.

As for party size, lol yeah.
---

Is Mega Man expected to hold? 'cuz I just looked at it now and was like "uh oh i'm scared"

i would prefer mega man hold tho >_>
---

Well, Mega Man's about to enter the Euro zone where he's notoriously terrible. It's where Tifa caught up to MMX. Pikachu is no Tifa in Europe, but the lead's also half the size.

Pikachu has generally been extremely frontloaded this year though, so who knows.
---

I think I'd prefer to have Pikachu right now, but I don't think it's super obvious who's gonna win yet or anything either.
---

Oh wow, Netflix is going to have Evangelion (and some other anime but who cares about that when you have the king) starting in Spring.

It's been forever since Evangelion has been easily accessible. I've got the DVD set from way back but for anyone who didn't there was basically no good option for years.
---

I mean, a bigger party isn't the worst thing in the world. It worked in The 3rd, but that's because I already knew most of the playables, I knew the combat system like the back of my hand so I could immediately go "Well Josette's worthless," etc. Plus, the support slots there (and in Crossbell) meant it felt like I had more than 4. While the swaps kind of let me have 6 in Cold Steel, I've basically stopped using them, mostly because situational magic/crafts (the only real reason to do so) isn't something that comes up particularly often; I generally just find the best four for a boss and go with that.
---

Oh wow, looks like Pikachu built a lead and Mega Man came back. I guess I'd say I feel good about the Blue Bomber now.
---

Yeah, I think Mega Man is okay now, knock on wood.

DQXI was delivered earlier today, so it'll be there waiting for me when I get back.
---

Leonhart4 posted...

Yeah, I think Mega Man is okay now, knock on wood.

=(
---

so uh

this is looking like a Mega Man/Charizard finish...?
---

I dont think Pikachu drops this
---

Yeah. I know it's a little silly to say that when we have MM/Charizard as a counter-example, but Pokemon losing a close match at the end? Never gonna feel good about that.
---

Well, Pikachu is a different beast from Charizard, as we're seeing.
---

this contest man

also DQXI get!

I dunno if I'll start it tonight, but is there anything I need to know before I start?
---

not really, just be prepared for a very long (but great) game
---

Well, I figured it would probably be long because that's a staple of the series, from what I can tell.
---

yes

Are you still playing TWEWY Final Mix? I ask because I want to know if you got around to the new content and if so what you thought of it.

and when i can lobby for your next handheld game >_>

(No clue on DQXI, sorry.)
---

Don't play the post-game content. That's my only advice for DQ11.
---

I haven't touched TWEWY in a while. The new controls kind of bummed me out, and then I got distracted by other stuff I'd rather do instead.

I'll get back to it eventually though.
---

dont listen to Mac, thats my advice!!
---

well Mac and I generally agree on very little I've noticed
---

Haha, from what I've seen players are about 50/50 with whether the post-game content hurts the game or not.
---

How was Pikachu the second chance favorite??

Nothing to know about DQXI before you start. I guess I can recommend which things to put skill points into if you want, but I don't think the game's hard enough for it to really matter and respecing is cheap.

Also the DQ games are only really long from VII onward...!
---

I think Im content with this Crono performance. Its not beating Cloud good, but its a comfortable enough win that at least has him looking the best hes looked since 2008.

Tough to say exactly where Bowsers at this year though, there were some funky results in his division.
---

LordoftheMorons posted...

How was Pikachu the second chance favorite??

Mega Man hasn't had a relevant game in years, while Pikachu is the face of one of the biggest series of all time.
---

55% on Bowser is pretty good, I'd say (although I doubt he finishes above that number). Mario characters in general have looked really good this year.
---

Oh right, I need to watch the newest AA anime episode.

Eh, I'll save it for tomorrow.
---

So assuming Cloud at 60% and Crono at 55% today, just to make the math a bit cleaner, Bowser would need to get around 56% on Alucard for Crono to have a shot at Cloud next round.

...I could see it !
---

Well, for the first time since 2002, Crono's chances of beating Cloud are not zero, so that's something...!
---

Well I guess we'll see. Bowser/Alucard happens before Cloud/Crono, so we'll have all the information before the match.
---

Oh man, we'll finally get the perfect xstats test.
---

well there's always a chance we could get some weird Cloud/Crono SFF to throw off the math (although I kinda doubt it)
---

I was looking at the updater today for the first time all contest and didnt realize how few votes we actually get during the second half of these matches. Everything is way more frontloaded now, which I guess explains why aside from a few exceptions you dont really see the percentages change a ton after the first few hours.
---

Yeah, since I've been doing the trend charts this year, I've definitely picked up on that, too. The first 4-5 hours of the match are basically the ASV now because of how many votes we get at the beginning, which is why we haven't really seen any huge day vote swings this year.
---

Major Ao no Kiseki spoilers, medium CS spoilers ahoy! Do not read if you haven't played Ao no Kiseki!

I just caught up to the very beginning of the prologue, and the first thing that popped into my mind was "Wait, Millium and Crow were *not* here then." And given the nature of the prologue scene in Zero vs. the final dungeon in Zero, I can't chalk that up as authorial laziness or anything like that. The prologue must have been from a different timeline than the one I'm currently playing. So the railway guns were fired as the screen turned to black, and then Kea changed things? Specifically, changed things so that Millium and Crow joined our party? But why would that make such a difference?

...I should probably finish playing this section to maybe find out, but I wanted to put that into text for the ~2 of you who can read this spoiler >_>
---

I read the spoiler because I correctly guessed what you were referring to and had already been spoiled on that myself some time ago. Also unlike most instances of this I actually don't think this was my fault, which is also irritating because I think it's the biggest thing I've been spoiled on in the series. You would think that when you see a reddit thread titled something like "(spoiler) So about the beginning of CS1" that the spoilers would be for Cold Steel and not the biggest plot reveal in Ao (maybe? idk I haven't actually played the game). Clearly I was mistaken.

Anyways I won't comment yet but I'll probably say something a bit later on if I remember
---

dowolf, I think that's pretty meaningless with regard to Kea. It's definitely authorial laziness.
---

my trails spoiler power is great enough to know what you're talking about but not strong enough to really answer

Also, lmao Zelda. Even I thought this upset was going a bit too far! >_>
---

Lol me for having Snake go to the finals I guess!
---

looks like Cloud and Crono are the only other Noble Niners besides Link worth a crap anymore

I guess I'm okay with that
---

I had Snake losing to Mario so this could be worse for me but it's not like I was in a position to matter.

A world where Link, Crono, and Cloud are the only Noble Niners worth anything is fine with me!
---