toxicitizen

Alright, cool. It's on Netflix and that Brotherhood anime is on Crunchyroll, so I might as well watch both this week-end anyway. Game's pre-loading right now. As much as I know to keep my expectations low (especially based on the demo and, you know, it being a modern S-E game), I can't help but be excited to finally play it. At the very least, it couldn't possibly be worse than FFXIII. And I actually like FFXIII.

So, I tried the demo and yeah, it ran a little better than the benchmark. I was even able to turn some things higher than standard settings without too much of a performance hit. Also, a question for those that played the game. The demo is basically Chapter 1 of the game and at some point there's a cutscene about the shit going down in Insomnia (right before they find out about its fall and decide to turn back) that seems so fucking rushed and incomprehensible. I'm assuming that I need to watch the Kingsglaive movie to understand what that was about? I remember reading that a lot of stuff from trailers ended up just not being in the game but some of those shots seemed way too intricate to be intended solely for this rushed montage that barely means anything.

I thought the same thing!!! Even if we're way off, I really fucking love how this series constantly makes you connect these kinds of dots. There's also been an off-hand mention of (small spoiler from the 3rd) Also, and this isn't a spoiler but I'll tag it just in case. Did you make the connection of who Toval is?

Yeah, some boss fights have special conditions for bonus AP. Falcom really need to cut that shit out because it's super obnoxious how some stuff is basically impossible to find without a guide. I refuse to use one for fear of spoilers, so I'm just not worrying about that stuff on this run. So if there's a hidden quest that requires me to talk to a certain NPC at a very specific time to trigger it then that quest can go fuck itself. I mean, I'll talk to people within reason but I'm not going to hunt down every single little asshole hiding in every building. Ain't nobody got time for that. Thank god for turbo mode because otherwise I don't think I'd have the heart to bother with NG+ and achievement hunting. I still find it funny that I was able to clear NG+ Nightmare in ~10h for CSI lol.

So, I finished Act 1 this afternoon and did the intermission tonight. I'm at the beginning of Act 2 now and, while Act 1 was basically as formulaic as CSI, it's already obvious that Act 2 drastically changes up the usual Trails formula. Almost feels like Act 1 was the actual prologue and the real CSII is starting now, which really makes me wonder how long it'll be because Act 1 felt way too short to be half the game. Based on my in-game playtime, I'd say I'm no more than a third of the way through going by the usual length of these games. Then again, this is my first playthrough so I'm not following any kind of guide. I'm trying to complete all the quests but it's pretty obvious I'm gonna miss some unless I talk to literally everyone constantly and yeah, I'm not doing that lol. I love me some Falcom NPCs but that shit gets real tedious after 20+ hours.

I discovered a few really good channels over the last year, so I figured a few were worth sharing here. Binging with Babish: A friend of mine got me into cooking channels and this is the most fun one. He mainly recreates dishes from TV shows and movies but also recently started a series about cooking basics, which has been pretty interesting so far. Mother's Basement: This is mainly an anime channel with his bread and butter being analyzing OPs and shitting on Sword Art Online. He does the occasional gaming video, though. I initially discovered him because of one he did on Trails in the Sky, which I'm pretty sure I posted before but fuck it, here it is again. Internet Comment Etiquette with Erik: This is pretty much just a comedy channel about trolling comment sections but it's honestly way more entertaining than it sounds. It's probably my favorite out of all the channels I've started following recently. He mostly does YouTube comments but occasionally he'll venture out to PornHub or Yahoo Answers and the results are always amazing. And finally, L.A. Beast: I didn't think to post this one last time because I don't really follow it myself so much as a friend of mine links me his videos whenever they come out. He mostly does eating challenges (and got some genuine Guinness records recently) but the real fun happens when he does incredibly stupid shit. Like drinking a 20 year old bottle of Crystal Pepsi, drinking a 24 year old Ecto Cooler juice box or doing highly questionable "science experiments".

I really should revisit Bastion someday. I remember enjoying it but not really seeing what it was that made everyone cream themselves so hard over it. Transistor is my favorite of theirs by far, I played it at launch and thoroughly enjoyed it. I started Pyre a couple weeks back but it didn't really grab me. I should get back to it but right now I'm not interested in anything that's not called Trails. Their soundtracks are always amazing, though. At this point, if I was to pre-order their next game I'd just blindly get the edition that comes with the soundtrack.

Ah ok, that makes more sense. But still, swimsuit Alisa is almost the last fucking thing I'd want for a Trails figurine lol, and I say this as someone that actually likes Alisa as a character. Gimme someone awesome like Olivert, Sara or Sharon.

Why does it look like an untextured 3D model? Is that some kind of preview render or is that the actual figurine? Because if it's the latter, yikes...

There is one shadow setting that's more demanding than the others, that's the first thing I'd turn off if you're getting drops. Just had a peek at the launcher and I think it's PCSS for shadow filtering. Durante also pushed out the first patch today, which addressed a crashing issue related to accessories. As for me, I just made it to the exact part where I had stopped playing on Vita. So the real fun starts now!

I think that's a good price for Tokyo Xanadu. I've written my early/mid-game thoughts of it on page 6 of this thread and my overall thoughts in the games you beat thread, if you're interested. It's not as good as Trails but it's probably the best way to kill time while you wait for Cold Steel III and Ys VIII.

Durante blog for Cold Steel 2. Shorter and not as detailed but only because he's not repeating the stuff he already covered for CS1. Hopefully this isn't the last Durante port we'll get to play because, while I know not to expect this kind of quality from most ports, it is really fucking nice (especially for Trails). Going into Cold Steel 2, I can't help but notice how much nicer the characters looked in Tokyo Xanadu and, while that port was pretty serviceable, having some of Durante's improvements would've be pretty damn nice for it. And let's not even talk about Ys VIII... Gotta believe he'll be back for Cold Steel 3 and 4!

Today is Trails day, therefore today is best day. Last year, Trails day occurred bi-annually. Let us hope it happens again this year!

What can I say? I finished the other two and I needed more. Don't know what I'll do after this one, though. There's two more books available on Amazon but they're both short story compilations, which I find less interesting. I'll definitely get them eventually but they're likely to include some of the stories the anime is adapting, so I'll probably wait until it's over to avoid "spoiling" it.

Is the story essentially over at that point or is it retarded like Arkham Knight where you need to do all the tedious post-game shit to get the real ending?

Yep, now we wait until E3 to see if XSEED announce it. Some of their Steam anouncements looked neat. People on ERA seemed hyped for that Coven game, so it might be worth a look. Kinda surprised at no Disgaea PC announcement, though. We know D5 was rated for PC a while back, so I wonder what the hold up is. Would be annoying if they stopped at 2...

Going by these descriptions, seems like Ys VIII should be my new favorite. You know, if NISA ever manage to fucking release the PC version. As if I needed another reason to be mad at them lol. Speaking of NISA, their press event stream starts in about 3 hours. If they don't announce Cold Steel III, then the next week will be one of celebration for Trails fans. Cold Steel II launches on PC and hope lives on. This is such a weird situation for me, though. I will be absolutely crushed if they announce Cold Steel III but literally any other Steam-related announcement from them will have me pretty excited. It's been a year since Disgaea 2 hit Steam, so we're likely due for the next one soon. The only question is whether they'll go with 3 or skip to 5. Man, I hope they skip to 5. I love D3 but it's the weakest one and I don't feel like replaying it for a third time.

Have you seen Event Horizon? Because that one legitimately feels like a Warhammer 40K origin story. It's also horror, which seems more appropriate for anything related to 40K/the Warp. But yeah, Cloverfield Paradox is super silly but that's why I loved it so much lol.

So, it's 5AM and I just finished reading Uzumaki. That sure was an ending. I really enjoyed it but I expected a bit more of a narrative. It picks up in the last volume but the first two kinda feel like a collection of short stories. They all take place in the same town, are told from the POV of the same character and use the spiral as a central theme but most of them could work as standalone shorts like the ones adapted in the anime. Going by what little info there is on his wikipedia page, it seems like Ito's work is mostly just short stories collections. It's kinda weird to think Uzumaki might be his longest story at just 3 volumes long. I'm so used to these never-ending shonens. I kinda hope Gyo is more of a traditional narrative, though. I'm tempted to start it right now but I should probably go to bed before I pass out at my desk. Oh and yeah, this stuff totally works better in manga form. The lack of sound and motion forces you to really take in his insane art in its full glory. Even in its most ridiculous moments, it never made me laugh like the anime does. Those fucking snails, man... I should watch the live-action movie soon, if only to see how monumentally they most likely fucked it up.

Yeah but in SotN you literally get exp and get that little "level up!" text pop up and you can farm for gear/weapon drops. I even want to say you sometimes need to grind a little because you can be low level compared to enemies but it's been a while, so I could be misremembering on that one. Symphony of the night almost feels like it's an RPG disguised as a Metroidvania. That's why I said "as heavy as". Skill trees like in Ori have become so ubiquitous these days that they barely register as "RPG elements" for me anymore.

I'm not sure if I've even played another Metroidvania that has RPG elements as heavy as SotN. So I wouldn't say they're required, no. I assume all the Igavania games have them but stuff like Ori, Guacamelee and Hollow Knight don't have any leveling up or loot drops. IIRC, I brought up that same point after playing one of them (probably Axiom Verge?) a few years ago. It was so identical to Metroid that it got me wondering what Castlevania brought to the table other than being structured like Metroid.

The Cloverfield Paradox I loved the first two Cloverfield movies so I've been anticipating God Particle ever since I first heard of it. It's kind of insane that they officially revealed it AND just dropped it on Netflix today. I kinda hope this starts happening more because being able to watch the movie right away, when my excitement for it is at its highest sure as hell beats paying 20 bucks to sit with a bunch of obnoxious, loud assholes in a crowded movie theater. Anyway, I think it might actually be my favorite of the three. I just love this kind of sci-fi thriller way more than what the first two movies were. I won't say any more than that because I feel like this one really benefits from going in as blind as possible. My advice would be to not watch the trailer and don't even read the Netflix summary page (it spoils something huge that I really wish I had only found out during the movie), just click through as quickly as you can. I didn't watch the trailer until after the movie and I'm really glad I didn't because it would've ruined even more. Really makes you wonder wtf they were thinking with that trailer because they were dropping the movie out of nowhere anyway. They had the perfect opportunity to keep this super mysterious.

So basically their implementation of nVidia tech is dogshit and is hurting performance? Lol, can't say I'm surprised, this is Square Enix after all. This is good news for me, though, because I never expected my GPU to be able to handle those effects. I always turn them off and it sounds like I should get a nice performance boost in this case.