Mal

I think a Splatoon port is still a safe bet some time later.

Why you do this to me? I know I am allowed to now but... argh. So many juicy things in the trailer! AND THIS AS WELL I'm not looking at Ao/Azure at all. --- Actually, regarding one women in the CSIII trailer... Do you want to talk about what we see in the trailer?

I need to find time to binge watch it.

Refunded. It's kind of rough. M&KB is a mess in no small part due to incorrect button prompts. They're showing Xbox 360/Xbone prompts. I had issues navigating menus, mouse (de)acceleration and some unrebindable keys (T, G and V) that control your camera in strange ways. I also swear there are delays in input as well. There's also crashes to be had. Those problems made it hard to get into the game and it doesn't help that there's so much talking. 30 second tutorials split up by long cutscenes. 40 minutes plays and I swear I only played for like 5-10 minutes and that's with cutscene skipping and quickly reading texts. And this should free up my money for say Ni no Kuni 2.

I actually started NG+ last night. I debated about going in fresh with just unlimited Bonding events but I took my items so I can steam roll it to get to the extra NG+ stuff. I'll say that Divine Knight battles will be hard. I barely scraped by with the first Magic Knight encounter. Some enemies also hit for a decent clip so I do have to pay attention. I also using a guide now to just beeline for say recipes (might be moot since I did and got the master quartz rewards but I think Ferris gives you some item for a completed recipe book) and other items of note. As for the last dungeon, I'm certain now. Also regarding Cassius and other Sky stuff (in an older post), I think you are right. I would love to check wikis and stuff but they're minefields of spoilers. It is very difficult to build a timeline of events without being to check stuff. Even checking names is dangerous. It's how I got spoiled on who I would love a wiki that's like The Tower of the Hand where you can set what games you have played so it can limit/expand what you can read (in the Tower of the Hand case, for A Song of Ice and Fire/ Game of Thrones). I would but I haven't played Crossbell or Cold Steel III so... So yeah, take what I say about the lore with a grain of salt.

This is actually one of my favorite tracks from the entire series.

Okay, I finally truly beat it. As for the last boss... I was mildly challenged myself in CSI. It was a very nice balance. CSII though is the complete opposite. I wasn't challenged in the main story from Garrelia Fortress until pretty much by the final boss. I think I'm talking about 80 hours or so of just breezing through the game. This is problematic due to the frequent use of anime bullshit of where you easily win the fight but then you are tired or get trashed in the cutscene. I would've been fine if I was actually challenged. Edit: I think I should mention that I play on Hard on my first run on CSI and CSII. I spread out the joy of CP generation. Hell, I wasn't using Rean's maxed out master quartz until the very end. If I had it all on him, he would've wiped the floor with the last boss. Even more so if I had Alisa with me since she can be a CP factory. I poorly worded it. I should've said "The one and only lover boy from Liberl". Remember Anton? His situation is kind of looking up. I really wonder what is going to happen with him in CSIII and CSIV. Ugh, sorry for the diarrhea of words. I'm absolutely tired out after beating the game with what amounts to a completetionist run. I'll be working on some more structured thoughts and opinions later... or maybe I'll start a new game + on Nightmare. I seem to have heard about some new story items...

Oh man, I just manage to get A0 rank. There might be some more points from completing the last dungeon but it is REALLY tight this time if want the A0 item for the last dungeon. I only didn't manage to get S+ rank for the first two chapters due to 1) You having to run all the way back to town for an optional quest and 2) getting bosses HP down low enough. I have to say though, the last (?) optional quest is really cute. It's the one and only from Liberl. Now to setup my party. I'm going ham and benching my A-team and B-team. I want a challenge. Seriously, Cold Steel II is just way too easy/broken. You have to intentionally handicap yourself.

Ys VIII PC "set" for April release.

Took a bit to figure out but that's a Renault Wind. You don't see Renault here in the US or Canada. My only experience with them is in Gran Turismo.

Ah man. I love the lore and how this game expands on it. I need the Crossbell games to expand on it some more since we are missing a bunch of info and context. Speaking of Crossbell, I was the same but as far as I am concerned, we are finished with the first arc started in CSI. Anyhow, I dunno if you ever noticed... I want to speculate some more about but I should finish the game first, for real. It should clear up some stuff.

I KNOW RIGHT!? I lost my shit on Discord.

Had a Costco cashback for a decent sum (part me, part my parents) so I'm using part of my tax return to cover the difference. This make it so that I don't need to bring a DLSR to my brother's place in NY and he doesn't need to bring one over to us in CA. Also now I have a fun toy to play with. It'd be cool to see if I can get portraits and family photos to make people look right... and space photos. I want to get a good enough setup to nail down a decent Jupiter photo and such (e.g., solar eclipse 2024)

There is a new mobile card-based Trails game out now. There's a very likely spoilers for Crossbell and some of the backstory that IS NOT present in Cold Steel 2. I think it is a pretty big thing since said spoiler was in the Sora games as well. Avoid reading about it if you want to avoid as much spoilers as you can.

I jumped the gun by saying I beat it... the end of Finale is good though. The part after the Finale is interesting.

The Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel II Quite a bit easier than I expected but it was about what I have heard, I just kind of ignored it. As for the story and plot, I'll say I have been spoiled a bit beforehand but it wasn't the full story. I am blown away by some of the revelations towards the end. I'll post a detail feelings and impressions in the Falcom thread sometime later. But of course... I NEED COLD STEEL 3 AND THE CROSSBELL GAMES STAT!

I have no self control.

To my side, my noble Einherjar.

I'm kind of out of listening to Kamelot for the most part but since they were the one that got me into metal, I just have to listen every so often.

It's a short game but it is feature complete with no microtransactions. It's cute and all that to boot. One thing I like is that the controller does not get in the way of the gameplay.

Maybe? Very probable?

China's President Xi Jinping will probably remain for life. Last time someone did this in China, I recall some funny business of cult-of-personality that caused some fun times during my (great-)grandparents' generation... which led to them to leave China back in the 70's when they were able. One grandfather didn't leave. I wonder what will happen this time.

Edit: I had no idea this strange world existed.