Poll of the Day > Anime, Manga, VN, JRPG, Related Things Discussion Topic LXXXVI

(+) Yeah! (+)

Woo finally finished Ys VIII.

Got the True Ending and even beat the secret dungeon and secret super-boss.

The ending was, for lack of a better term... very JRPG-ish.

I mean, you start out the game stranded on a deserted island fighting dinosaurs, and end up fighting the very concept of Evolution itself, and killing the origin of all life

Oh and everything was just a dream lol. But that's okay, because the literal goddess of the earth remade everything. Also there's a goddess of the earth now. And your favorite party member, the one who you spent the entire game developing an attachment to? Yeah, her entire history is literally erased from existence and she exists only as a concept now. But that's okay because SHE is now the overseer of evolution, but only you and your party knows it..

This really is a problem I've noticed with jrpgs. They can't end things properly.

Despite the lackluster ending though, I had a great time playing it, and recommend anyone who likes action jrpgs to play it.
---

i'm thinking about rushing through another ff9 playthrough just to pick up the achievements i missed due to stupidity.

also excalibur 2.
---

@Bulbasaur

I don't want you to ruin this topic though, so keep your script out of this one. Don't you dare bring it here.

Yay, a troll.
---

I dunno what that troll trolled, but lol. Can't even remember the last time someone came in here to troll. Watched Saiki Kusuo kanketsu hen. Been clearing off some of the smaller things on my plan to watch list lately.
---

oh

he went into a bunch of topics i had previously posted in just to tag me

he's warned now
---

Bulbasaur posted...

oh

he went into a bunch of topics i had previously posted in just to tag me

he's warned now

Haha, some people.
---

Man, fuck Tiger! Tiger!
---

T0ffee posted...

This really is a problem I've noticed with jrpgs. They can't end things properly.

Been a problem since the beginning of the genre, alas. The journey is more important than the destination.

....

Except for Persona 5. That ending was legit.
---

T0ffee posted...

This really is a problem I've noticed with jrpgs. They can't end things properly.

It's the same for manga and anime as well. At least for me it has been.
---

Starting to get back into binging horror manga. Unfortunately, every place I've found Gakkou Kaidan doesn't seem to have everything.

dragon504 posted...

Bulbasaur posted...

oh

he went into a bunch of topics i had previously posted in just to tag me

he's warned now

Haha, some people.

I had a guy who, over the course of doing that to me, got something like 15 or 25 similarly-named accounts banned. He was also mentioning-deleting which, at the time, gave you a notification even if you couldn't see the post in the topic.
---

...blargh, Firefox crashed and all of the manga I had tabbed in my private window vanished as a result. Just using one laptop is a pain. I really need to get a second again.
---

AllstarSniper32 posted...

It's the same for manga and anime as well. At least for me it has been.

It really is a shame. Some anime I was super into were utterly ruined for me by the ending. Some like Yami to Boushi, madoka, and katanagatari went from "wow, this is one my all time favorites" to "wow, I wish I'd never heard of this show, fuck the author for being shit". I mean, I can't be TOO mad at nisio isin (katanagatari author) because he also made monogatari but...fuck that whole show from what the ending reveals. Literally none of it needed to happen.

At least most JRPG endings are just weak instead of downright ruinous. I will say for the praise I've been giving xenoblade 2 lately, it's ending is IMO horrendous and the awful parts of it really just didn't need to be there and served no purpose but to piss me off.

On the other hand, anime having so many shit endings does make stuff like code geass stand out (even though it too was marred by the cart scene).
---

I will say that I do think a lot of anime endings are "anime is over, now go support the mangaka by buying and reading the manga!" And I don't mind that. But I do mind it when whatever has the actual ending doesn't have a complete ending. To Love Ru Darkness ended and since then I haven't felt like reading manga. I am curious about UQ Holder though since I was in the middle of that. But UQ Holder is an example of the manga not ending completely. Since parts of UQ Holder talk about things that happened after Negima was over.

Which is why I love things like Final Fantasy X-2. Yes, when I originally bought it I just wanted to see Yuna in those super hot short shorts. But playing through it I loved seeing what because of Spira since the end of FFX was good but not complete. And that is why X-2 is still my favorite FF game.
---

So i've been watching Maidens of the Savage Season and I feel so sorry for literally every single guy in this anime. These bitches be crazy. The main girl is especially obnoxious and honestly this whole story feels like the characters should be 2+ years younger. It's kind of hard for me to believe these are the feelings of people in high school. Still feel like the only semi realistic high school anime is scum's wish and obviously that exaggerated a bit as well.

Still, I do find myself compelled to click on the next episode when one ends. Idk, I just keep hoping the various girls will just calm down for like 2 seconds and think instead of somehow being in a constant state of freaking out 24/7. Like damn, just calm down, think things over, and talk to each other you freaking idiots. I don't think this story really needed this level of melodrama to be interesting.
---

YoukaiSlayer posted...

I remember really liking that one too. Granted it's been over a decade since I played it. I've always thought stories should have longer epilogues. Just a nice chapter of the results of the characters hard work would be a much better place to end things IMO.

I'd say the first 2 or 3 chapters of X-2 always felt like an epilogue to me. Or at least an epilogue mixed in with the main story, which the main story was just fine in X-2.
---

who was trolling?

Ok I caught up on savage maidens or whatever I wanna shorten it to. High expectations that this show is about to turn to complete shit which is unfortunate because if it doesn't it'll have some nice yuri.

I predict white hair and main girl fight over dumb fuck boy, white hair wins, yuri girl realizes she wants to bone white hair girl, all 3 of those girls end up hating each other over it, prez waits too damn long to do her nonsense and so the guy breaks up with her first, writer girl gets NTR'd by that female teacher that likes mushrooms. Assuming that happens, absolute trash show. I hope very much to be wrong but the positive route the show could take would have it ending in like 2 episodes whereas the negative route has it ending in roughly 5 and what do you know, theres 5 episodes left.
---

I didn't even realize Maidens had an anime; I've been reading the manga lately. I do feel bad for the guys; one keeps getting caught in unfortunate circumstances, one had an all but unrequited love, and one just got caught up in a terrible situation.

Things would be a lot easier if the girls would just stop and think things through or talk it out, but that's not really what adolescence is like.
---

So I caved and looked up the source to figure out that I was nearly perfectly correct (a small change in how the main girl's thing played out but the same ending). Disappointed but honestly expected. The writing was on the wall from like episode 4.

I just don't understand the purpose. The story was perfectly enjoyable in the first half without escalating the melodrama. If anything, lowering the melodrama would have improved it. Theres an easy way that each and every character get a happy ending and it would have fit better with the themes the show was tackling better than what they are actually doing (which is not anymore realistic, it just swings things in the opposite direction).

Idk, I should really stay away from any anime that is primarily a romance because it seems the only way any author can stretch a romance to 12 episodes is with massive amounts of miscommunication, love triangles, and NTR.
---

Almost started to reply to some stuff on page one before I realized it was page one >_> (Some of it I'm sure I responded to in the past.)

At any rate, still binging through some manga. Found a few half-decent horror anthologies (none as fun as Gakkou Kaidan) and re-read a few others (Mimi's Ghost Stories is great and, despite having read it before, I was surprised by how little I remembered about what actually happened -- partly because I was binging a lot of stuff at the time; I'll also admit that I sometimes forget what an absolute talent Junji Ito is).

Ofc, that also lead me into reading more conventional manga and... well, so much of that shit is depressing on a meta-level. It's a lot of wish fulfillment stuff that panders to a lonely youth audience.

Then I started reading this really awful MMO manga (its listed name is just RPG, but I'm sure it has a less generic name) that, honestly, looks like it could be a crappy webcomic (especially since the reading order seems to be left-to-right instead of right-to-left; in fact, if not for the terrible dialogue that looks like it's the victim of bad scanlating and the kanji in the actual title, I would have just assumed it was American). Everybody in it is making such a big deal about the game and assigning it crazy importance when there's a whole fucking world out there... and that's probably the biggest bringdown of all: I realize that I'm reading a manga about people playing a video game >_> The fuck am I doing with my time? And you know the worst part? Deep down, I know I'm probably going to read the whole fucking thing.

YoukaiSlayer posted...

Idk, I should really stay away from any anime that is primarily a romance because it seems the only way any author can stretch a romance to 12 episodes is with massive amounts of miscommunication, love triangles, and NTR.

Kek.
---

Broken_Zeus posted...

Ofc, that also lead me into reading more conventional manga and... well, so much of that shit is depressing on a meta-level. It's a lot of wish fulfillment stuff that panders to a lonely youth audience.

Then I started reading this really awful MMO manga (its listed name is just RPG, but I'm sure it has a less generic name) that, honestly, looks like it could be a crappy webcomic (especially since the reading order seems to be left-to-right instead of right-to-left; in fact, if not for the terrible dialogue that looks like it's the victim of bad scanlating and the kanji in the actual title, I would have just assumed it was American). Everybody in it is making such a big deal about the game and assigning it crazy importance when there's a whole fucking world out there... and that's probably the biggest bringdown of all: I realize that I'm reading a manga about people playing a video game >_> The fuck am I doing with my time? And you know the worst part? Deep down, I know I'm probably going to read the whole fucking thing.

The plight of us all. I'm still disappointed in myself for continuing with the arifureta anime. That show took a nose dive btw which is saying something because at it's peak it was poorly written isekai trash. I'm still probably gonna watch the whole thing. It really feels like some edgy teen fanfiction instead of a story written by someone with talent. Supposedly the anime is butchering the source which already wasn't great to start with.

At this point I don't even mind blatant wish fulfillment but at least write it well. If you're gonna make isekai at least make use of that by making the world interesting. If you're gonna give me cardboard copies of all the other harem girls at least give them some personality. It's just like, it seems SO easy to do it better than most of them are doing it. Like it'd take so little effort to improve.
---

Broken_Zeus posted...

Then I started reading this really awful MMO manga (its listed name is just RPG, but I'm sure it has a less generic name) that, honestly, looks like it could be a crappy webcomic (especially since the reading order seems to be left-to-right instead of right-to-left; in fact, if not for the terrible dialogue that looks like it's the victim of bad scanlating and the kanji in the actual title, I would have just assumed it was American). Everybody in it is making such a big deal about the game and assigning it crazy importance when there's a whole fucking world out there... and that's probably the biggest bringdown of all: I realize that I'm reading a manga about people playing a video game >_> The fuck am I doing with my time? And you know the worst part? Deep down, I know I'm probably going to read the whole fucking thing.

that would be a webcomic. likely korean.
---

Oh, apparently it is.

https://koreanwebtoons.fandom.com/wiki/RPG_Comic

I suppose that explains some things. Thanks.
---

So I've been playing some more 3 houses and watching some space dandy.

I've gotta hand it to the voice actors in 3 houses, the part 2 dialogue is just heartbreaking for me. Dorothea especially, just every time she says anything it sounds so tragic and pained. Claude is similar. It's really making my marriage decision tough. I feel like I've gotta somehow give comfort to Dorothea but Claude is such an interesting character. Props to the writers and VAs.

It's mostly the battle quotes. Claude sounds so disheartened when he says "you got yourself killed". They've handled it excellently although it DOES make it a little harder to play in bursts because the game is just kinda depressing now. It's also a bit jarring because everyone is all worried but during the combat all my units are glorious 1 man army, gods of battle that can mow down a horde of bosses and monsters single handedly. Hilde and her worry is especially hilarious because she is so freaking tanky that it just seems silly for her worry to about dying with her 66 hp and 37 defense (and like 21 res).

Just finished taking the bigass bridge, myrridin or something.. I'm really not sure how much there is left of the game but part 2 feels like it might wrap up a little too quickly at the current rate.

Space dandy is ok I guess. It feels a little too over the top, especially with the action.
---

Dorothea won me over very quickly, but I agree: Depending on your actions, a lot of what she says is hard to take, especially if you do what I did and recruit her to your house. "You killed Ferdie. We killed Ferdie, who was our friend!"
---

I just finished final season of JoJo's Bizarre Adventure

How come Polnareff never contacted Jotaro? Fugo was useless the whole series. They should have made Trish awaken her abilities sooner so she could have had a more active role. The series has become less violent as it went on and the characters looked more feminine. I was also hoping for the return of the statue people. They never explained Josuke time traveling to help himself in the snow storm. The final protagonist wasn't a Joestar. The arrows were never explained either.

8/10

Not extraordinary in any way but does accomplish what it is meant to do which is lots of interesting fights. Exactly what I look for in a shonen.
---

The more I read manga, the more I kinda wish that western schools were a bit more like Japanese ones. Love confessions are a lot more dramatic than the more ambiguous way relationships start in western nations, especially since it gives relationships a more clearly-defined starting point. Growing up, I was always never sure at what point I was technically dating and therefore supposed to be monogamous, which caused some problems.

Plus the whole club system kinda looks fun. I had always been kinda opposed to the idea of forcing people into clubs up until I watched Genshiken which basically starts with somebody who joined a club just because it was required.
---

Anyone seen Mo Dao Zu Shi aka Grandmaster of Demonic Cultivation?

Its a Chinese made anime with pretty good animation and is pretty highly rated on MAL.

Heres the synopsis:
"As the grandmaster who founded the Demonic Sect, Wei Wuxian roamed the world in his wanton ways, hated by millions for the chaos he created. In the end, he was backstabbed by his dearest shidi and killed by powerful clans that combined to overpower him. He incarnates into the body of a lunatic who was abandoned by his clan and is later, unwillingly, taken away by a famous cultivator among the clansLan Wangji, his archenemy. This marks the start of a thrilling yet hilarious journey of attacking monsters, solving mysteries, and raising children. From the mutual flirtation along the way, Wei Wuxian slowly realizes that Lan Wangji, a seemingly haughty and indifferent poker-face, holds more feelings for Wei Wuxian than he is letting on."

https://myanimelist.net/anime/37208/Mo_Dao_Zu_Shi

Broken_Zeus posted...

The more I read manga, the more I kinda wish that western schools were a bit more like Japanese ones. Love confessions are a lot more dramatic than the more ambiguous way relationships start in western nations, especially since it gives relationships a more clearly-defined starting point. Growing up, I was always never sure at what point I was technically dating and therefore supposed to be monogamous, which caused some problems.

Plus the whole club system kinda looks fun. I had always been kinda opposed to the idea of forcing people into clubs up until I watched Genshiken which basically starts with somebody who joined a club just because it was required.

There are definitely clubs in schools, just not as many. You've got various sports(football, baseball, basketball, soccer, wrestling, and volleyball) and drama/theater as the most common. Then you've got some rarer ones like math, debate, and chess.

edit: totally forgot about band, cheerleading, and rotc
---

There are clubs in western schools, but unless they're sports, music or theater they're probably not very active or prolific. Japanese schools tend to be more involved with the students in general, with things like cleaning duty and rules about working or their behavior outside of school.

I'm kind of torn on how they handle dating. A lot of time the "confession" comes off as redundant because the two have already been hanging out or even dating for some time before it. That or they plan a whole perfect day where by the time they actually say it anybody could see where it was heading. They also kind of play fast and loose with the word "love" in general.
---

I_Abibde posted...

Dorothea won me over very quickly, but I agree: Depending on your actions, a lot of what she says is hard to take, especially if you do what I did and recruit her to your house. "You killed Ferdie. We killed Ferdie, who was our friend!"

Yeah, I'm golden deer and she was my first recruit after sylvain that I accidentally recruited. I tried really hard to avoid that spoilers part. I killed everyone else in the whole map, stole the master seal, got his hp super low, tried to talk to him with everyone I could think of. After like 15 turns of tanking his javelin I just gave up and ended it. Especially rough since that was the second person in that situation I encountered but you don't have to kill the other one (Ashe). I recruited most of the other characters so I'm not sure what other tragic fates I'm avoiding. For me it gets me when she kills someone in battle and says "nothing but thorns left on this rose". She sounds so sad about it.

I'm wondering what max level is. Byleth is nearly 50 and several other members are high 40s. It's weird to me seeing the online statistics. My best unit outside of byleth is for sure leonie and no one seems to use her. I made her a falcon knight and I can just send her into anything and she will one round everyone and take no damage.
---

Maximum level for Three Houses is apparently Level 99, from what You Tube is telling me, and the characters have special lines if they reach it. I only see this happening after multiple NG+ playthroughs, though.

Speaking of New Game +, I beat Blue Lions yesterday, so ... on to Black Eagles. Playing as female Byleth to get those Edelgard Supports, but it also gives me the chance to recruit Sylvain from the start.
---

I just finished (annihilated?) the final battle and completed the golden deer route. Only unit on the entire field that was anything against my army was the final boss himself and he couldn't best byleth 1v1.

I have to say, I'm sorta disappointed in the story. I think part 1 was too long and part 2 was too short. It also gets very tedious going through the last few months. Part of it was my mistake for playing on normal. Normal is too easy by a lot. Recommended level for the final battle was 44 or something but I had several mid 50s units and even my back up units I wasn't using were around 45+. I handicapped myself a bit by never using relics even once but steel weapons were enough for pretty much the whole playthrough.

I'm gonna do a bit of research before starting a NG+ (probably going edelgarde route). I specifically wanna see who else gets long range black magic. I know dorothea gets meteor around rank B but I don't know anyone that gets bolting. I hope it's not crest researcher guy. I got a lot of the black mages to A or better and no one else had anything longer than 2 range (dorothea also has thoron with 3 range). My strat for a lot of the later levels was just use warp on byleth and then meteor on the boss, the finish it with byleth. Most maps lasted 2-3 turns. I want more sniping potential for hard.

Never managed to get any skill to S+. Had several S skills most of which are pretty great. I did max out my professor rank at least and finished off one statue and got most of the others 5k away. Ended up marrying claude but I'm kinda bummed both in how that turned out and that marriage is like a post game thing. Was really hoping it'd actually effect story, especially marrying lords. I was happy to see that allies can end up together and that for me Dorothea did get a pretty happy ending.

I think the biggest bummer is how short the war was. It's like, win 2 battles on offense then you are already at the enemy capital. Very few enemy officers. Very little going on behind the scenes with them. Just felt empty after all the buildup that is the first part of the game. Then we have the true bad guys whose plan is full of plot holes and frankly just doesn't make sense and then you defeat them in 1 battle then randomly old evil goon attacks with zombies and you beat that in 1 battle as well. I was also kinda bummed by how not evil rhea was. I mean, I guess bravo for averting my expectations but the sinister evil she did was ultimately what saved the world and wasn't even actually very evil at all.

I'm also bummed about how few maps there were. Theres what like 10? Maybe 15? Most of the maps they do have are very basic as well. Considering how much effort was put into voicing literally everything and writing tons of lines and variations in story paths and character paths it just seems like an odd spot to half ass things. Making maps isn't very hard or time consuming compared to a lot of that.

That IS a lot of complaining but I don't want to give the wrong idea. It was still very fun and I do intend to play through at least one more time if not several although I'll probably take a few days break first.
---

YoukaiSlayer posted...

That IS a lot of complaining but I don't want to give the wrong idea. It was still very fun and I do intend to play through at least one more time if not several although I'll probably take a few days break first.

The story does change significantly from route to route, I will say that.

I played on Casual / Normal, but I used training weapons for pretty much the entire run (because of high durability). Did not switch to Relics until the endgame, for the most part.
---

I_Abibde posted...

The story does change significantly from route to route, I will say that.

I've heard the golden deer has the most complete story. I was gonna play a little today to check out NG+ features but now my throat hurts like hell and I have a fever. It hurts so bad to swallow and if this doesn't go away I'll have to reschedule my CT scan further delaying this whole process. It's just one thing after another over and over and over again. I'm so tired of this shit.

I did look up magic and hilarious hilda gets bolting at A rank. Manuela also gets it and crest guy and dorothea get meteor.
---

Oof, fever got up to 104.5 and I forgot who I was for a while. Hopefully I can get to NG+ tomorrow.
---

Stay hydrated and rest well.
---

I am as much as I can (was in bed for 28 hours straight). I think I probably have strep or something similar.

Anyway, apparently tower of god is getting an anime adaptation? That's crazy and I'm pretty hyped although it's gonna take years to catch up to where I read to. Considering the action could be hard to follow in the manwha I think an anime adaptation would actually be super nice.
---

Up to s5 of my sg-1 rewatch, but gonna take a break from it to watch Irozuku Sekai no Ashita kara.
---

Dammit, a client cancelled their photobooth reservation. I was counting on that payday so I could buy Astral Chain and Dragon Quest XI.

Plus, my boss is in the middle of moving to another state, so bookings are on hold until near the end of September.

Ah well.

In other news, I'm still in the middle of my Xenoblade 2 playthrough. Just reached chapter 5. Kinda rushing things a bit until I get all party members then I'll start grinding out stuff I skipped.
---

YoukaiSlayer posted...

Oof, fever got up to 104.5 and I forgot who I was for a while. Hopefully I can get to NG+ tomorrow.

Heal up!

Already at Chapter 4 in my Black Eagles playthrough. The NG+ bonuses are making this run go a lot faster than my first one.
---

I love the character designs in Astral Chain. Masakazu Katsura does God tier women; just thicc enough and often with Zettai Ryouiki.
---

keyblader1985 posted...

I love the character designs in Astral Chain. Masakazu Katsura does God tier women; just thicc enough and often with Zettai Ryouiki.

... ! I'd forgotten he was on that! Sheesh. I used to be on top of this kind of stuff.
---

I hadn't heard of the game until the other day, but I recognized his art on the cover right away.

On a related note, I was randomly browsing about his work just now and found out that I''s got a live action drama. So now I'm on a search for that.
---

I_Abibde posted...

Heal up!

Already at Chapter 4 in my Black Eagles playthrough. The NG+ bonuses are making this run go a lot faster than my first one.

I'm feeling much better thankfully. Throat is still quite sore but I'm not a deranged invalid today. Good thing too cause I have a cardiology appointment today and this shit has to be booked like a month in advanced so canceling that would be awful.

I've spoiled myself a bit on some of the 3 houses stuff and I'm honestly disappointed. 2 of the 4 routes are almost completely identical and then BL route is still mostly the same. The other more unique route is borderline unfinished and has way less chapters than the other routes.

The more time that passes the more down I am on the game. Also I've seen that hard is not actually remotely hard. Perhaps I'll rush one of the routes and save the other 2 for when the new difficulties release. Not totally sure.

Oh right, I've got a vinland saga episode to watch. Feels better to watch weekly than Dr. Stone IMO because Dr. Stone has typical shonen pacing so very little actually happens per episode.
---

Demon slayer is probably the best animation I've ever seen.
---

HAH!

Through prodigious abusing of the cloud save feature from a free trial Nintendo Online subscription, I managed to get ALL random Rare Blades, without having to grind for a single Legendary Crystal.

Now all I need is to use all future Legendary Crystals to get 4 star blades for Overdrive farming.
---

By the way, is manhwa off-topic? Because I remembered that Korean comics are called something besides manga (and I guess the ones I've been reading might even be considered webtoons?)

And is there any reason why the scanlations for manhwa aren't as good as manga? Is it just because it's not as big?
---