Mal

Umm... I am not looking forwards to the tax bill that Trump is going to sign. Happy holidays!

What a great OST. Especially (DO NOT OPEN IF YOU HAVEN'T PLAYED THE ENTIRE GAME)...

Nier Automata Ending E and God damn. What an interesting game. As I said in the other thread, this game is like an onion. It's multi-layered and keep you on your toes. Gameplay is at the very least decent. The gameplay is like the game itself, ever evolving. Of course there are lots of bug bears and other things (e.g., the ultimately simplistic gameplay) that I have but my experience as a whole was great. However I cannot call it my GOTY because of the problems. Mighty fine game though. Highly recommended if you can push through the bugs.

Ending A and B done for now. Looks like C and D is where the real Nier Automata begins. I don't think any games I have played before gotten this much "Huh!?" and "What the fuck?", in a good way, out of me. And Adam, that is a fair assessment.

I just hope the balance don't go to shit. Other than the gameplay in the late-game in Zwei II, I freaking love it. So YES for more wacky adventure in Zwei-land. Falcom, seriously, we could use a proper Zwei 3. Edit: Sound like they had a bear of a time to get this game going. With that, the port will be a bit subpar. But here's the thing, they explained it.

I did say I want to try this out on seafood didn't I?

I'm very interested to see how seafood cook with this.

I'll house you all!

Favorite genre? Thanks FLCL, more specifically The Pillows. I guess Asian Kung Fu Generation got to be mentioned as well.

Britt finished CS3. Thank the lord for the fan translations of Ao and Zero. I'm still debating if I should wait for Zero to drop to start CS2 since there is a major spoiler after I believe the first boss battle in CS2. Or was it spoilers to Ao?

I finally wrapped back around to Nier Automata. I was going to start a new game but I died during the intro portion at the boss. I've forgotten that painful prologue. So screw it, back onto my old save. I have some idea where I was at and in a bit was back to my old self. On to the road to Ending E or whatever... I doubt I can be in time for Xenoblade Chronicles 2 and Tokyo Xanadu.

Hellblade: Senua's Sacrifice I wouldn't call this a fun game or even challenging. It's more of an experience and it almost would be better off without the combat. Combat boils down to knowing how to deal with each enemy and trying to not be surrounded because movement is limited during combat. What you are essentially doing is hacking and dodging in the biggest of brawls. Some blocking and kicking in the smaller fights. The portions without combat are the "fun" bits while combat is a chore. Since I mentioned movement, outside of combat it is fine but at times it can really be cumbersome. As an experience, it is rather cool but it is exhausting. It's very audio and visually demanding on your mind. I wholeheartedly recommend it at some point. Of course, be prepared for some frustrations since it is a flawed game. Edit: And no, I didn't get the true ending or whatever gets unlocked by getting all the collectables. Some are rather hidden, in plain sight even since the objects can blend into with everything else.

Tokyo Xanadu's translation had the or a translator took some liberties on some lines and phrases. I'm not sure if this is all (these are not mines). I have no idea how close the lines are the original Japanese or they're even remotely close of localization equivalents words/phrases. I just think that the above comes off as almost amateurish even if I get the intent like *nom* *nom*. Some of the stuff though reminds me of bad fan subs and others are just bizarre. Here's some Trails for comparison: Anyhow... I was coming onto here to do a bit of comparison between Sky/Crossbell to Cold Steel jump and from Valkyria Chronicles 1 to 2 jump. Mainly about the move from grounded games to a bit fantastical and quite high school-y setting. I do find them to be a bit similar. I think I'll do it another time. Gonna leave with this. An old image but hey, it got history and it never fail to get a chuckle out of me.

Kindle Paperwhite for myself. Amazon has a five-month payment plan with no interest or whatever so that's nice.

There's a chalk drawing in the grad student office of BoJack that survived 3+ years. Never been touched or messed with. It even got a border drawn around it as an exclusion zone. Let's say the grad students through multiple generations, including me, love that show.

Tokyo Xanadu got re-translated a bit as well from what I read. Also to be honest, I only finally got a look at the gameplay at the Steam page. It does not inspire confidence. It's basically turn the non-battle portions of Cold Steel into an ARPG. I find the walking portions of Cold Steel to be rather lackluster and a bit stiff. Maybe Tokyo Xanadu will solve it. I'll get paid in two weeks and we'll find out then.

@danielpholt

Everything's alright...

There's actually a lot to like about Gurumin. For example... First off, like in my first playthrough, there is the adorable Parin. Parin is easily one of the most adorable MC. A lot of idle animations and stuff to collect for her to wear. Second is actually the combat. While it is hampered by being on the PSP, the basis of a really great combat system is there. Movement is generally pretty good (save for some platforming sections...) and the move sets are interesting. It best shows itself in the optional boss. It just could use some QoL improvements (quick change of parts and hats) and perhaps some enemy tweaks like elemental based enemies. It's be interesting if Falcom ever decide to revisit this combat system. Doubt it though since you really don't see any mention of this game in say Cold Steel or any other Falcom games (while Zwei II and Xanadu Next does). As for the okay to bad... well there is the game structure, the story and other characters which I think are quite the common complaints. Also the lack of a good camera movement is frustrating (again, shows itself "best" in the optional boss). The okay to bad just overpowers the game. I think I might stop my second playthrough and focus on other games since I did what I set out to do: explore the rest of the map and see what I've missed on the first playthrough. Main thing is the optional boss and some mini games. There are some collectables to cute up Parin but I don't want to deal with getting them.

I cannot comment on China but I feel that over here in the US, it is easier to call bullshit on such obtuse shit like that. Besides this concerns gambling and children with the whole "think of the children" and all. It's far too easy of a political point to ignore (for everyone except for perhaps one person...). Edit: I can see the ESRB trying to chime in but they are already in favor of lootboxes. Since the ESRB is part of the industry, I can see the government calling bullshit.